> Fallout Equestria: Fall of Hope
>  by Stormcaller
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 01: Beginning of the End
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         Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...

...when balefire consumed the world, many of those who survived did so within great underground Stables, built by Stable-Tec to protect those few chosen from the ravages of madness and death that had gripped the land.  When many of them opened, the descendants of the original inhabitants set out across the ruins of the old world in an attempt to rebuild their society.  New villages were established.  New territories were formed.

It was to the west that many of these survivors would travel, to the city of San Ponsisco.  Before the war it had been a rich port city, its shipyards renowned for the strength of their steel hulls and powerful engines of the ships built there.  It would be within this city that these survivors would find a reminder of a time before war; before the Wasteland.  By some miracle, or perhaps through simple dumb luck, most of the bombs destined to obliterate the city had fallen short, leaving a massive radioactive crater some miles from the city itself.  Only a single warhead found its way within the city, and even it had fallen near its outskirts.  While the blast was enough to level much of the city, a single sixty story building still stood within the cities heart, despite the ruin around it.  The tower of glass and steel would become a beacon and symbol of hope.

So it would be here that they would try and rebuild.  It would be here they would try once again to make Equestria what it had been so long ago. Hundreds would make the journey to the city. Most would die in the attempt. Starvation, raiders, or mutant beasts would claim many of their lives.  But still they would come, for a chance at what they had lost so long ago.  When those few brave souls at last reached the city, they found themselves entering a place unlike any other within the Wasteland.

One such pony would bring with her the foundation of a new government, for her Stable had been given a royal gift.  Princess Celestia, in her wisdom, had foreseen the need to preserve the past, lest the ponies of the future make the same mistakes again.  A vast library with the collected works of all of ponydom was built within Stable 52; stored within its network of computers.  Containing art, science, history and law, it was a great treasure of knowledge, nearly all of which had been lost above ground as the great cities burned to the ground.  It was the most intact library in all Equestria, downloaded upon twenty storage disks and carried within the saddlebags of a most ordinary pony.

As the years passed, what had once been a collection of different Stable ponies living within the ruins of the city united beneath the flag of the Confederate Stables of Equestria (the C.S.E.), dedicated to old-world values of law, order, peace and friendship.  Its newly elected president, Starsong, the pony from Stable 52, set to work rebuilding the city.  It would become her fledgling government’s capital.  From here, she sent out messengers across the Wasteland, spreading the word of hope and peace.  A fresh start to those willing to join her.  But as her Confederacy grew, it attracted the attention of others who saw only a mighty prize worth taking.

Far to the east, across the Povoni Desert and within the ruins of the great cities, another society had arisen, united under a very different flag.  A crude and wicked regime was being formed based upon the belief of strength, cruelty, and slavery.  From this new society, a vast army of slaves, raiders, mutants, and griffin mercenaries calling themselves simply the Legion marched across the Wasteland.  Wherever they went, death followed.  They pillaged small settlements, killing and raping as they went.

Their leaders had learned of the Confederacy and its wealth, of the ancient factories still able to create technology of the past, of its farmlands, and of the hundreds of ponies and other creatures who now called it home.  One, however knew of something forgotten by all, and would stop at nothing to claim it for her own...

War was coming once again to Equestria, and war... war never changes...


Prologue:


You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain...



The thick black smoke rose slowly around me as I lay upon the cold, ruined steel floor.  My body aching, I shifted slightly, wincing as I felt the hard points of bullets grinding against bone and muscle within my flanks and hind legs.  Around me, a spreading pool of blood flowed freely around the empty bullet casings, staining the brass shells red.  My blood.  Slowly, I tried to open my eyes, the lids gummed with soot and ash.  My cheeks were wet with tears from both smoke and grief.  I had failed.  Sweet goddesses above... I had failed.  I lowered my head and felt the urge to sleep rise within me.

No.

Weakly, I struggled to rise to my hooves in one last attempt to stand.  If this was to be my final minutes of life, I would face them on my own four feet.  My power armour whined in protest, the armour-piercing rounds having shredded many of the magical wards and power sources of the ancient suit.  It would not last much longer.  With a snort, I reminded myself that neither would I.  My fallen helmet rolled away from me, as my struggling hooves stumbled into it.  The red lenses of the eyes reflected my image and I stared back at the battered pony before me.  I looked as bad as I felt in those cracked glass lenses, the magic that allowed it to repair itself long since spent.

With a great deal of effort, I managed to fight my way upright, the loss of blood at once making me dizzy.  My one good eye slowly focused once more, and I could see another body lying not far from where I had been.  My labored breath caught in my throat as I saw the blood pooling under her limp, shattered form.  Tattered, feathered  wings were held at unnatural angles from her sides and her green armored barding was torn and ripped across her slender frame.  Beside her, a broken sniper rifle lay where it had fallen, its wooden stock shattered, the barrel warped and smoking.  Her saddlebags were torn open, personal effects scattered across the metal plating, photos fluttering in the wind, keepsakes soaking up her spilled blood.

Slowly, and with a great deal of effort, I made my way (or rather stumbled) closer to the prone form of my marefriend.  One hoof in front of the other, although the sagging floor groaned with every step as I placed my weight upon it.  Somewhere behind me, I could hear the sound of twisting metal as something gave way, accompanied by the loud crash as that same something dropped over the side to fall to the streets far far below.  It would not be long now, not long before it would finally be over.  Everything for which we had fought.  Everything we had tried to do.  Over.  Failed.

Drawing closer, I saw she was not alone.  The fallen yellow-coated pegasus lay beside another.  My tired eye closed and my legs at last gave out from blood loss and the ache within my heart.  Sinking to my armored knees, I lay my head against the railing to support myself.  My helmet which had been rolling along with me as I'd stumbled forward bounced once and dropped over the edge of the roof.  It disappeared within the thick black smoke rising from the abyss, the railing guarding me from falling into.

I looked away from the drop, from the city far below that I had failed, and instead looked back to the two still forms laying beside one another.  My single eye at once went to the slender yellow mare, but after a moment it drifted to the the dark green unicorn beside her.  His twin revolvers lay beside him where he had dropped them, their ivory grips carved with the images of the long-dead pony goddesses, Celestia and Luna.  His flanks were covered in gashes, and his hind legs were gone, leaving a trail of blood across the roof from where he had crawled towards the mare.

I sat there, staring at the bodies of my two friends.  It seemed somehow fitting it should end like this: together.  A soft groan snapped me back to the present, as I noticed the rise and fall of the unicorn’s sides.  Almost missed. Yet somehow, he still clung to life.  An empty health potion bottle rested against his front hoof.

My eye wandered to the yellow pegasus, a slight bit of hope rising within my chest, which swelled into a flood of emotions as I noticed she too still drew breath.  But not for long; neither of them would last much longer without care.

With a groan, I pushed myself against the railing.  I had to get them out of here.  If I could just make it to the elevator, I could get them down to the streets (if it still worked) and then... what?  Our only means to escape the burning tower was gone, scattered across the city streets far below, along with the only pony trained in medicine who could have saved my wounded friends.  Images of the burning sky chariot flashed into my mind: of my friends clinging tightly as it spiraled down from the sky; of the orange pegasus who had pulled it, her limp torn body; of the trail of smoke dipping below the shattered row of buildings; of the ball of fire that followed soon after.

There would be no ride home this time.  No last minute rescue.  We had failed...

“No...” I hissed, shaking my head.  “...dammit to the fires of hell.  NO!”  I would not give up.  I had never given up.  I would find a way. I always found a way.  They depended on me finding a way.  My battered body, however, did not agree, and screamed at me as I fought to turn around.  If I had to carry one across my back and drag the other with my teeth, I would.  I would make that damned elevator take us down to the streets.  I would find a doctor in the war zone the city had become.  My legs shook as I tried to turn myself around, but the voice behind me drew me to a stop.

“I'll give you this... your friends fought well.  But was there ever... any doubt how this would play out?  I told you... how it would end, didn't I?  When we... first met. Was it really worth... saving this city?  Worth the lives of your friends?  Worth your life?”  The voice was harsh, raspy, female, and familiar.  The words were followed soon after by the sound of hooves upon the loose gravel that covered the floor drawing closer to me.  I did not turn around; I had no need to.  I knew who it was behind me.  I knew what she had come for, and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop her.  My weapon was empty, and I did not need my helmet's E.F.S. to tell me that.  Or to tell me the battered thing would never fire again. The multiple barrels of the gatling gun were twisted from the intense heat of constant firing.  Looking up, I saw the row of antennas and dishes atop the building.  Still very much intact.  Still very much working.

My body finally gave out on me, and with a clang of metal armour, my weak, battered form dropped heavily to its knees once again.  With a grunt, I pitched over onto my side.  My head came to rest upon the yellow flank of the only pony I had ever loved, beyond my family.  I could feel her shallow breathing passing through her body. Oddly, over the sounds of straining steel and fire burning unchecked within the building below us, I could even make out the faint sound of her heart beating.  How many times in the past two months had I fallen asleep to that same sound?  Despite it all, a slight smile formed across my soot-covered face.  My single eye focused upon the twin revolvers laying between my love and the dark green unicorn.  One still loaded, and oh so close.

The sound of hoofsteps once more drawing closer to me made my ears perk.  I had been offered a slim chance.  Once more the Wasteland was seeking to taunt me.  It had never learned.  Pushing myself forward with my front legs, I leaned over the yellow flank and reached out with my right front leg, my armored hoof rubbing up against the barrel, causing it to spin around slowly.  It stopped, with the ivory image of Celestia shining towards me.  The sun goddess beckoned me with her open wings, and graceful smile.  So close.

A sudden fit of coughing struck me, and I closed my eyes from the pain running through my body.  I could taste blood.  It was becoming harder to breathe, and the world around me was growing darker and out of focus.  Sounds became less clear to me than they had been moments before.  So this was what dying is like?  I didn't much care for it, but I was so sleepy.  So tired. With my strength flowing out of me, I forced my eye open.  Most likely for the last time.  The smiling image of Celestia lay before me, the pistol so close, yet so far.  My hoof rubbed against the edge of the grip.  My body was nearly spent, and I realized I could no longer feel the pain that before had been wracking my body.  Not long now.

As the hoof steps drew closer to me, and my right hoof became weaker, I looked into the still faces of my friends.  Almost three months ago, I hadn't even known them.  Now, it seemed fitting it should end like this.  We had tried.  I looked into the peaceful face of my love; she could just be sleeping, she looked so serene.  With my left hoof, I slowly pushed back a lock of her purple mane from her closed eyes.

As that moment, I remembered something she had said to me not long after we had first met.  I'd almost forgotten it until that moment for some reason. Perhaps it was sparked by the scent of her so close, somehow covering up the odor of smoke, blood and death.  Perhaps it was sparked by my brain as it began shutting down from loss of blood.  Whatever the reason, I turned and raised my face to the sky above.  The gray clouds rolled past, as uncaring and unchanged since the day I had set hoof outside my home.  Thick black smoke rose up into that joyless sky, mixing with the clouds that forever blanketed the land in near twilight.

Behind me, the sound of walking drew to a halt, and I could hear heavy breathing, wet and sickly.  Not long now for any of us, it seemed.  That smile that had begun to form across my muzzle spread more.  Never missed a shot when it mattered, I thought to myself, stroking a yellow cheek.

“So... this is how you wanted it... your friends dead and you about to die, my empire I built for so long in flames... your city about to be razed to the ground... and I’ll still win,” the cruel, tired voice managed to spit out, before coughing wetly, wracked with pain.  After a moment, she snorted, and the unmistakable click of a pistol being cocked echoed across the rooftop.  “You and your little band of trouble makers have cost me... a great deal.  At least I get the satisfaction of killing you...” I felt the cold barrel of a gun press against the back of my head.  “Any last words...?” the voice hissed from behind me.

I could feel the grip of the revolver against my hoof; it was closer now. I could almost pull it towards me. Then I froze, my eye still cast heavenward, catching sight of something forming in the bleak clouds above. A small opening.

The oppressive gray blanket parted just enough for me to make out the dark blue sky, sparkling with the twinkle of white lights. Stars. The break widened, revealing the horizon beyond. The dark blue sky was giving way to brighter blues. The gray clouds turned almost golden as a yellow disc rose above the twisted landscape.

The sun.

As the warmth of the sun brushed across my face for the first time and last time in my life, I felt fresh tears forming in my single eye. She'd been right... sweet goddesses above. She'd been right. The sunrise was beautiful. My left leg wrapped around the neck of my love, as my right pulled the revolver towards me.  Tears running down my face, I closed my eyes and lowered my head.

“You asked if it had been worth it... the answer is yes... it's been worth it...” I heard another snort, followed by the click of a trigger being pulled.

And then, I heard nothing at all...


Fallout Equestria


Fall of Hope







Chapter 1: Beginning of the End


Normal ponies in a Stable ran from danger.  Security ponies ran towards it. It was our job.



The throbbing of my head at last forced my tired eyes to open, and I rolled over in bed. The buzzing continued beside me, and my sleep-addled brain was at first unsure what was causing it. After a few moments of staring bleary-eyed at something buzzing sitting upon my nightstand, I slowly came up with two options on how to make this most annoying sound stop:  Option one, go find my shotgun and shoot it until it stopped making that damnable noise.  Option two, find out was was making said damnable nose and see if there was another way to silence it.

Since option one required far too much work, I instead blinked my eyes and attempted to clear the sleep from them.  Three large red numbers stared back at me from the nightstand beside my head; 6:00 a.m. was flashing over and over.  Ah, it was my alarm clock. Sweet Celestia, whoever had decided to make these things so damn loud were sadists. Bad ponies. Bad!

Flicking my ears back against my skull and still blinking away the sleep that covered my tired eyes, I lifted up a hoof and slapped at the small buzzing box.  Missing it completely.  Bah!  Another swat and another miss.  What the? Swat.  Miss.  Swat.  Miss.  Why didn't the infernal thing sit still!?!

Finally, using both my front hooves so it did not dodge me again, I managed to hit the annoying buzzing box of loud noise that woke me up from a very nice dream about twin unicorns.  The sound at last stopped, and I rolled back onto my stomach and grumbled.  I should have gotten the shotgun.

I was just about to drift back to sleep when suddenly the sound of music began blaring from my overhead speakers.  LOUD music.  With a snarl, I grabbed my pillow with my front hooves and buried my head under it.  Oh... she was going to pay.

After a moment of listening to the old time jazz, I pushed myself out of bed and landed face-first on the floor.  I simply remained where I was for a time, hind legs wrapped in the sheets and blankets of my bed, face planted firmly into the metal floor plating, tail sticking up in the air above me.

Oh yes... she would soooo pay.

“Note to self... rum is not to be served at any more retirement parties,” I said once the room stopped spinning, though adding,“Unless it's mine.”

Pushing myself once more upright, I managed to untangle my hind legs from the death grip my bed had upon them.  I know, old friend, I had no desire to part from your warm embrace either.  Stumbling towards the bathroom, I glanced around my room and the mess it had become.  The blue and yellow jumpsuit from the night before was half way between my bed and the door out into the hall.  My security barding was just a bit closer to the door, along with my nightstick, badge, and belt.  Well, at least I had made it home this time, and hadn't fallen asleep in the hallway.

As I entered the bathroom, the automatic lighting kicked in, the sudden brightness blinding me, and I all but stumbled into the counter.  Another slew of curses ripped from my dry throat, as the large black spots began to clear from my vision.  Blinking a few times, I found myself staring into the mirror with my reflection staring back at me with gold bloodshot eyes.  Lifting a hoof up, I ran it through my long white mane.  Wild strands stuck straight up from my normally flat cut.  No matter what, I always seemed to get a bad case of bed mane.  My coat was hardly in any better shape, with tufts of black fur sticking up all across my body.  Turning my head away from the mirror, I glanced to my flank, and the cutie mark there: the one thing on my body that did not look disheveled, at least.  A single green sprout with two leaves and a red bud on the end sat prettily on my flank.  It looked the same now as it had when I'd received it in school.  Oh, that had been fun. Hey look, everypony, little Shadow's got a flower on his butt!  Oh yeah, that hadn't caused me ANY trouble in class.  Still, I had been proud to earn it.

Stepping towards the shower, I turned on the hot water and waited for it to build up before climbing inside.  I pushed the memories of my younger years away as I got myself ready for work.



*     *     *     *     *



As I finished drying my mane and tail, I stepped back into my room and glanced across the mess I'd left scattered across the floor from the night before, and snorted softly.  Bending over, I began to pick each item up, starting near my bed and making my way towards the door.  As I stepped into what amounted to the living/dinning room of my quarters, I became aware that I was no longer alone.

“Hello, Ebony, make yourself at home.... don't bother to knock.” I muttered around my barding as I turned to look into the kitchen and at the smiling pony standing at my small table, setting out two bowls.

To somepony else, it might suddenly appear as if I had once more stepped in front of a mirror.  If not for the fact she was a she, we'd be completely identical.  First, we both shared the same midnight black coats and long straight white manes.  They were nearly to the same length, though you'd have to really look to see mine was shorter.  Next, our eyes were both a deep golden yellow and shared the same warmth and spark.  Though she was built more slenderly than myself, my near twin sister had two other distinguishing marks that made it easy to tell us apart to a passerby.  Jutting out from her white locks was a black horn.  She'd gotten father's side of the family genes, and I our mothers.  Yeah, identical twins. The second was her cutie mark; where mine was of a green plant, hers was a silver scale, obviously indicating her ability to balance the needs of her ponies.

“Why, my loving little brother! Can't your big sister make you breakfast?” she grinned over to me, batting her lashes playfully.

Rolling my eyes, I picked up the belt that was still littering the floor and dropped it, along with the rest of the items I'd been carrying, into a chair near the door. Digging out my barding I began to tug it on as my sister moved around the kitchen.  The smell of oatmeal drifted over to me.  Only my sister could make oatmeal smell that good, a secret she had learned from mother.

“I had figured, quite correctly I might add, that my little brother would over do it last night, oversleep, and skip out on breakfast like he always does.  But our family does so love a good party.”

“Hard to oversleep when somepony who shall remain nameless but who looks a lot like me sets the overhead speakers to blare music.” I snorted back between the belt in my mouth, as I tightened it around my midsection. A soft giggle echoed from the kitchen as my sister settled down at the table.

“Now, now, little brother. There's no need to be pointing hooves, I'm sure Shade had nothing to do with turning on your room's com speakers.”

Rolling my eyes once again, I tucked the baton into its holster and grabbed my badge.  Oh sweet heavens no!  Not poor Innocent Shade?!  Why, it’d take somepony with a working knowledge of a Stable’s systems to do that, and she’d also have to be able to override the security protocols as well. Why, it’d take someone like the Overmare. Shocking? I know.  Turning back around, I trotted into the kitchen, ignoring the grinning face of my sister, and began to fill a pitcher with water.

For her part, my sister simply sat and watched me as her horn flared to life with a soft white glow.  Lifting the spoon down into her bowl, she scooped up a bite of fresh oatmeal and began to eat as her golden eyes tracked my movements through my quarters.

Pitcher in mouth, I made my way across the floor to the cold gray outer wall of my room.  Tilting the pitcher back, I began to pour water slowly into a battered pot, soaking the soil within it and the small green sprout just beginning to rise up from the center.  Moving my head, I stopped the flow of water, and stepped aside to begin with the next.  On both sides of me, metal tables stood upon repaired legs, holding my little garden.  Green plants rose up from the patched-together (and in some places improvised) pots.  The overhead lighting had been angled down towards the tables, and though they were hardly the sun lamps we had down in the garden, they worked well enough.  Some ponies found it a bit odd I had such a greenhoof when it came to plants.  Some thought it was just odd that the head of their Stable’s security had such a simple hobby.  In truth, it was very relaxing.

Once my task was finished and the pitcher empty, I finally moved over to the table and started the breakfast my sister had fixed for me.  As I munched on my first bite of oatmeal, my sister at last spoke again, her golden eyes still fixed on me.

“You know, little brother, I still say you’re in the wrong line of work. I think you'd be happier down in the Stable's garden than running Security like father use to.  If you’d like, I can ask for another pony to step in and take over for you.”

I munched on my breakfast and swallowed before answering her; this was an old argument, one we had almost every morning over breakfast.

“Maybe, but the tests showed I'd be of more use in security.”  The test was something every Stable pony had to take once they'd earned their cutie mark.  While I had earned mine during a trip my class had taken down to the garden, the test begged to differ.  It showed I'd be better at protecting ponies and leading them instead of growing vegetables and flowers.  But the test was never wrong and so, out of a sense of duty, I had signed up for security the next day.

Taking another bite from my meal, I glanced over at my sister, who merely shrugged, used to that response from me.  It wasn't as if I hadn't been given a choice in the matter.  Dad and mom had both told me I could decide what I wanted to do and I could take my time to decide.  I think father thought I'd grow out of it, or come to realize it wasn't for me.  Then, three years after I had joined, father had been seriously injured when he'd pulled two ponies out of a burning workroom after faulty wiring shorted out.  All three had survived, but he'd lost his front hooves to third degree burns and so could no longer lead security.  After that, I decided to take up responsibility for the safety of the Stable for him. He died of his injuries a year later.

“Did you hear Three Horn this morning?” my sister asked, breaking the silence that had overtaken our meal.  I looked up at my twin and gave her a glare.  “Right, too hung over... how silly of me.”  She smirked and floated her empty bowl over to the sink, flicking her long, straight tail as she moved.

“Seems those ponies she calls raiders are moving deeper into the Povoni Desert again, hitting some town called Wastefall Gorge.” she continued, as I finished my breakfast.  I muttered something between mouthfuls and mulled over the news.

Three Horn was a rather loud, mouthy pony who lived in or around the ruins of San Ponsisco.  We'd been listening to her on the radio ever since the antenna atop the Stable had been repaired. It was the only signal we could get this far away from any major city; cities that were likely little more than piles of rubble after all this time. Still, there were signs of life; far away from our little hole away from home perhaps, but there.

“I think we need to try and contact her.”

“Sis, you know the council decided against that, at least until we have more information about what's going on outside our door,” I reminded her, pushing away my empty bowl, only to have her float it away to join hers. My sister snorted softly and shook her horned head, her white mane bouncing with the movement.

“We're hardly going to find anything else out by listening in and wandering around a few miles away from the Stable. We need to get out there, see what's going on, help with the rebuilding.  San Ponsisco sounds like the best chance any of us have; the start of a stable government and ponies organized.”  Her gold eyes nearly blazed as she spoke, always so passionate about rejoining the rest of Equestria and rebuilding it.  It was why the Stables had been built, so that we could rebuild.  But many did not see it like that.  We were safe here; happy.  Granted, it wasn't perfect, but it was better to some than the unknown.  Of course, this was more than just a personal desire; she had another reason for wanting this.  She wanted something more for her daughter. More than a life of cold, steel walls and recycled air.

“Well, regardless of what the council wants, in a few years we'll have no choice BUT to do something,” I said, sitting up.  “The Stable won't last forever.  Everypony on the council knows it, and most of the ponies in the Stable know it. They are just putting it off until they have no choice or until it’s somepony else’s problem.  When they do however, I’m sure they’ll agree that traveling to San Ponsisco is the best choice we have.”

“I know,” my sister muttered and stood up, washing the bowls and pan in the sink while I stood up and checked over a few things.  My big sister, always taking care of me. I couldn't help but smile.  As twins, technically neither of us was older; however, since she had come out first, Ebony liked to say she was my big sister.  I went along with it for the most part, even if sometimes it annoyed me.

“Don't worry, sis, Tiny's happy here.” at the mention of her daughter, my sister smiled and glanced over to me.

“You know, she's been asking when her Uncle Shadow is going to come play with her.”

I chuckled and finished cleaning up my quarters as my sister walked to the door.  My little niece Sugar Pie, or Tiny as I called the little pink filly, was a blessing to my sister, and to me, looking up to me like a father.  My sister's husband had died before she'd given birth to their daughter, killed in another Stable accident.  There had been a lot of them; the Stable was literally falling apart around us.  The event had so emotionally wounded my sister, she'd nearly lost her daughter, going into labor two months before she was due.  The little pink foal had been so small, few thought she'd last the night.  Doctor Kindheart, however, did not give up, and spent the next two weeks personally seeing to the newest member of Stable 45's health.

“Tell her I'll stop by tomorrow; I have a few days off I can spend.”  I'd been so busy with replacing retired ponies and updating the duty roster, I'd not had time to pay my niece a visit.  I looked forward to them as much as she did.  Perhaps more so.

“Oh, no.  That just won't do.  She's been wanting to stay with you for awhile now, and I think you owe her a sleepover.”  My sister opened the door to my quarters and looked over as I trotted up towards her.

“You don't mind?” I asked, stepping out into the narrow hallway with her, my door closing and locking behind us as we trotted along towards Security.  The thought of having the little scamp over for the night sounded nice. It’d been a few years since I’d been able to read her a bedtime story.  I always added sound effects and different voices for the characters when I did, a fact that delighted the little filly to no ends.  Ebony simply laughed and shook her head.

“No, I don't mind. In fact, it's been decided, by Sugar.  She's put her hoof down and that was final.”  The last portion was said in a passing impression of the tiny filly’s high pitched voice. I smirked and shook my head.

We walked on, encountering only a few ponies on our way.  Most were from the night shift, making their ways back to their rooms.  A few appeared to still be shrugging off the effects of the party and looked as if they'd never made it home to sleep.  I vaguely remembered Brightblade reporting in about finding a couple in one of the storage rooms in a somewhat awkward position and asleep. That had been just before I'd managed to stumble back to my own room.

The two of us were talking about the sleepover and a dinner party she was holding for two of her friends who were planning on getting married soon as we trotted through the Stable.  Tassles and her husband-to-be Silverglow. Luckily for me, we reached the intersection where we'd be forced to part ways before she could get on the subject of me getting a nice mare and settling down.  Mother would be proud; she'd carried on the long tradition of nagging me about it.

With a sisterly nuzzle, she turned and hurriedly made her way down the hallway towards the living quarters and the Atrium, where her office was located on the second floor.  I imagined she'd already have a few ponies waiting to speak to her about some problem or another.  I did not envy my sister's job.

Turning away from the sight of my sister, I stepped to the side passage and trotted on down it towards Security.  The door at the end of the hall looked like any other from the outside.  However, as it slowly slid open, it was half again as thick as any other door within the Stable.  The more important areas had extra plates around their rooms and stronger doors.  Most had their own life support systems separate from the rest of the Stable. The black sign above the open door read simply 'Security Office' in bold white letters.

Once inside, and with the door rolling to a close behind me, I found myself nearly alone in the single large lobby room.  Only Bluebelle, my com operator, sat at her station, a fresh cup of coffee steaming beside her at the desk.  As I entered, the light blue unicorn looked up from her terminal, the green screen casting a soft glow across her smiling face and making her already emerald green eyes seem to shine.  Her large headset was resting between her ears, matting down her short-cut yellow mane, with the mic lowered near her mouth.  Like me, she was dressed in the blue and yellow stable jumpsuit we all wore, though she did not have on the security barding since her role was mostly to operate the radio system.  Although she was a few years older than I, we'd both joined Security around the same time, along with Brightblade.  The soft blue glow of her horn lit up as she lifted a clipboard up from her desk and floated it over to me.  I took it in one hoof and looked it over as she turned away from me and began speaking into her headset.

“Don't worry, sir. I've already dispatched a Security officer to your location; he should be there in a few minutes.  A technician and medical pony should arrive soon after.  Just remain calm and stay on the line until they arrive.”  She had a very soft voice, calm and professional; the perfect voice to relay orders and requests between the security officers (though it often distracted some of them as well).

Listening in on her conversion, I arched a brow and looked down to the clipboard in my hoof.  Hmm, seems only a single pony had called in this morning.  Grinning slowly, I could imagine why that had been and decided to cut the kid a break.  After all, I'd nearly been ready to shoot my alarm clock an hour earlier.  Behind me, Bluebelle seemed to be finishing her call.

“Yes, sir. I can imagine how it must feel, just remain calm... ah, they are there? Good. I'll let them get to work then.  No, sir, it's quite alright.  You have a nice day,” the soft glow of her horn returned, and a switch upon her console flipped up quickly with that same glow.  Lifting a hoof, she pushed the mic up away from her mouth and took a sip from her floating coffee cup.

“What was that all about?” I asked, setting the clipboard down upon Brightblade's desk and walking towards a table in the corner of the room.  A very old and ill-running coffee maker sat upon it, along with a stack of coffee mugs.

“You know Tinker?” she asked after taking a sip from her own cup.  “The Pipbuck repair pony?”  Her mug lowered back down to her desk as she turned to face me full, a smile on her lips.  Oh, this had to be good if it had the mare smiling like that.  Blue was known as something of a joker around the stable.

I nodded quickly and she pressed on.

“Yeah, well seems last night at the party he had a little too much to drink,” she began and I snorted, rolling my eyes.

“Who the hell didn't?  I'm lucky I didn't wake up in somepony else's room last night.”  Stepping up to the table, I leaned against it, gently taking the cup in both hooves, filled my favorite mug with the dark brew.  That old ill-running coffee maker always made the best brew in the entire Stable, strong enough to wake the dead, or a hungover security pony.  Blowing on the steaming cup, I carefully took a sip and felt the warm liquid burn all the way down.

“Well, at least you didn't get your sorry plot stuck in a toilet...” she said with a giggle.

I began choking on my second sip of coffee and nearly sprayed the office wall with the stuff.  Coughing several times, I snorted and shook my head quickly.  Setting the mug back down, I turned quickly back to Blue, who was ready to fall out of her chair from laughing at me so hard.

“Stuck in a toilet?” I repeated and wiped my mouth with the back of my hoof.

“Yes, well... he's skinnier than me! Some pony must have forgotten to put the seat down and well... he sat down and in he went!!”  Tears began to form at the edge of her bright green eyes, “He must have passed out or fallen asleep, ‘cuz he woke up this morning with his ass wet from the toilet water and unable to pull himself out. He had to call for help with his Pipbuck.”

I stood there, stunned, my mouth opening and closing and eyes wide with shock.  The image of a stallion half my size and all the strength of a small filly, his back side stuck in a toilet, popped into my head.  He had the most annoying voice, and I could only imagine how much more so it would have been made.

And that's how he found us, the head of Stable security with his mouth hung open, staring vacantly ahead like a moron.  Chief Radio Operator Bluebelle, doubled over, laughing so hard tears were running down her cheeks, her terminal flashing for her attention but getting none.  I could only imagine his reaction to the sight, but knowing my friend, I’m sure it was good.

“Well... I hope somepony's going to share the joke with the rest of the class,” the deep voice of my friend said from the open door.

Shaking off my dazed expression, I looked over towards the door at the very large red unicorn who had entered, quite unnoticed by Bluebelle or myself. It was, of course, one of my oldest friends, Brightblade.  His green eyes passed from Blue to me as he watched us with a grin on his face, then shook his head as he trotted over towards the coffee maker.  The stallion’s cutie mark was of a rolled-up scroll and quill; he was quite the writer but had instead joined security with me.  When I asked him why he felt the need to follow me, he told me I'd likely blow my own hoof off the first time they gave me a gun if he wasn't there to show me which end to point where.  Perhaps I would have, but he'd proven himself just as capable doing this as he was at writing.  He was second in command of Security.

“Well, it seems somepony got their ass stuck in the toilet last night,” I began to explain, while Blue finally got herself under control enough to start checking the board for the incoming messages (though I heard her snicker several times).

“Oh hell... tell me whoever you sent got a picture of that?” the large red stallion said as he turned away from the coffee maker to look at Blue.

“I asked Mav to try and get one discreetly, but knowing her she likely shoved her camera right in his face and yelled cheese before snapping a shot,” Blue said with a wild grin and pulled on her headset once more.

Floating a cup of coffee up off the table, Bright turned back to us and grinned, “I can imagine. Mav is not subtle when it comes to anything.”  Taking a sip, he walked over to his desk and looked over the clipboard I had left sitting atop it.  Setting his cup down beside the report, he glanced back up at me and snorted softly, “I take it the Overmare gave you one of her wake-up calls this morning?”

“That's the third time this month... you'd think I'd get use to it and stop falling out of bed.”  I finished my own cup and walked over to his desk, “I've a few ideas on how to get her back, though.”  I added with a grin of my own. My friend was just about to ask the details when Blue spoke up.  Something about her voice made me stop in my tracks.

“Sir... I'm getting a report from the Entrance.  Something’s going on.” 

Both Bright and myself turned towards the mare.  Her voice no longer carried the joking, happy mood of a moment ago, but had a note of worry and uncertainty in it instead.  She floated her headset off and flipped a switch on her console, and at once another mare's voice rose from the speaker built into the com station.

“...I say again, the Stable door is opening. We can not override it. Techies said it's not them. I don't suppose this is a test of the door's mechanisms anypony forgotten to mention?”  She sounded nervous.

I stepped quickly to the console and placed a hoof over a button before speaking.  “Wendy, this is Shadow.  There are no tests scheduled for the door until next month.”  I lifted my hoof off the send button and looked to Blue, “How many are down there?”  The mare began to quickly check the roster for the morning as we all waited for a response from Wendy.  She was a good mare, came in with last year's replacements.  Blue was just about to answer when the screaming and gunfire started.

“Holy shit! Get down!”

“What are they?!”

“They just killed Tanner! Oh goddesses they killed him...”

“Get the fuck down! Nova, get those Techies out of here!!”

I slammed my hoof into the send button,“Wendy! Report! What's going on in there!” only more gunfire answered me and screams of pain.  Blue sat in her seat beside me, the soft glow of her horn fading, allowing the duty roster to fall to the floor.  The mare's face blank with shock at the sounds coming from the radio.

“Sir! We need help!! We're being overrun!” Wendy yelled into her headset mic.  I heard the sound of her shotgun firing wildly before she screamed in pain and something that sounded like a body hitting the floor a second later.  Just before her mic went dead I thought I heard the sound of laughter over the gunshots, and then it all went silent.

None of us dared to say a word for several seconds.  Behind us I heard the door to security open once more and the sound of hooves trotting in as ponies began to arrive for their shift.  A voice called out to us; I think she was asking us what was wrong, but all Blue could manage was to sob softly.  Turning, I pushed my way between the three newcomers and walked as quickly as I could towards two sets of doors.  One would lead to my office, the other the armory.  I had to type my password in twice before it took the code to unlock the door, but it finally opened as Bright began to explain to the others something was happening at the entrance.



*     *     *     *     *



Our hooves thundered over the worn steel plating as we sped through the narrow hallways towards the Stable's entrance.  My mind raced with what we would find there when we arrived.  The last report we had from within the room had chilled my blood.

Luckily, it was still early in the morning, and most of the ponies were still in their rooms just waking and preparing themselves for the day ahead.  What kind of day would it be for them, a normal day?  Or would it be something else?

Skidding around a corner, I half slammed, half bounced off the opposite wall.  My hooves left skid marks on the already-scuffed flooring.  Shrugging it off quickly, I raced ahead, hearing the others following close behind me.  I was leading, of course; it never seemed right to not lead by example, a lesson I had learned from my father.  Behind me came four other security ponies, the only ones I could round up so quickly.  Not all would have been my first choice for the vast unknown we found ourselves racing towards. Two I could rely on fully, but the other two...  

Hot on my hooves came Brightblade, the red unicorn stallion floating his pump action shotgun beside him as he followed me.  Black security barding was strapped across his large frame and over his blue and yellow Stable jumpsuit, both barely fitting him (we'd had to fix up a special suit just for him because he was so large).  Strapped onto his armour he wore his usual baton, tucked into the equipment webbing along with a few spare rounds of ammo and a sidearm. He never wore a helmet, although we'd never managed to get one to fit him well enough, to be honest.  As such, his long blond mane whipped about in the air as he pounded down the hallway behind me.  I was thankful he was here to back me up.

Beside him, easily keeping pace with the larger pony, came Cinnamon Twist.  With no magical field to float her weapon along with her, she was forced to hold her weapon the way the rest of us earth ponies did: in her mouth.  The dark brown mare's helmet kept her red and pink mane out of her face and her deep green eyes.  She'd been in security for as long as I could remember; hell, as long as some older ponies could remember.  She had even worked with my father when he held the position as head of Stable Security.  She was the Stable's most talented weapons pony.  There was not a weapon we had in the armory she could not use.  Once, she had even managed to take apart and resemble a shotgun blindfolded with only her hooves and mouth, a talent more commonly found among the unicorns.  She'd taught me a few things about weapons and how to keep them working.  Even though she'd long since reached the age to be allowed to step down, she had politely refused... scratch that, she told us to stop fucking asking her to retire.

Trying his best to keep pace with the older security ponies was Whisper. He was  a soft-spoken, shy colt, barely old enough to drink, let alone carry a shotgun.  His security barding had been hurriedly strapped on this morning, though it rarely ever fit his light brown frame.  We'd never gotten around to getting him his own specially made armor like Bright.  For good reason, as he'd only just joined Stable security this month and none of us expected him to stick with it. He'd only joined because of his grandmother, who had raised him since his parents had died in a fire some years ago.  His helmet rattled around his head, his small horn doing little to hold it in place.  It and the armor were the smallest size we had, made for a mare.  He was too damned young.

Finally, bringing up the rear was Flash.  Sweet Celestia and Luna, what was I going to do with that one?  The young colt was damned cocky, and a bit full of himself.  He was very willing to please, running errands for the older security ponies and taking extra duties when they wanted the night off.  I quickly put a stop to it.  Still, it had not curbed his need to prove himself to them.  The young blue earth pony seemed to worship the ground I walked on, but I had no idea why.  He even went so far as to cut his mane and tail like mine, and I caught him trying to copy the way I spoke and acted a few times.  Unlike Whisper, his security barding fit perfectly and he'd likely make a good security pony... if we could smooth off his rough edges.

“Any idea what's going on, boss?” Cinnamon Twist asked as we turned another corner in the hall, nearly running over two ponies coming towards us. Upon seeing the four heavily armed and armored ponies charging towards them, they hugged the wall and allowed us to rush past.  Normal ponies in a Stable ran from danger, but security ponies ran towards it.  It was our job.

“Not a clue, Twist,” I answered, eyes fixed ahead of us.  I trusted Twist and Bright to be able to handle the news, but did not want to spook the two rookies any more than they already were.  “All we know is that the door's open and some ponies may have gotten inside.  Wendy's transmission went dead soon after that.  Likely just another glitch from our overworked systems.”  I skipped the part about the screaming and cries of pain we'd heard, the sounds of gunshots, and the fact Wendy's transmission died just after them.

Dammit, who'd opened the door??  A snort behind me made me turn my head to look over my shoulder at the large red pony following closely behind.

“Likely just more of those damn radroaches we keep getting in the lower levels.”  Brightblade piped up behind me.  “Nasty little buggers probably managed to get in somewhere around the door and shorted it out.”  He glanced towards me; he'd heard the transmission same as I.  Wendy was no rookie.  She'd not waste that many shotgun shells on radroaches.

“Maybe, but I want every pony ready.  Safeties off, helmets on, visors down, and eyes open,” I ordered, turning to look back ahead of me.  I did not need to see if they'd followed my orders.  We had trained heavily for all types of possibilities, much to the complaints of many of the Stables inhabitants.  But ever since we'd first set hooves back on the surface some sixty years ago and seen what it was like, we knew that sooner or later we'd need to be ready.  My father had started the training, and I continued it.  The Stable would not last forever as my sister had said.

At last we spotted the door leading into the large open room that was the entrance to Stable 45.  Few ponies went there, save for techs and security, and perhaps a few kids who liked to make out away from the prying eyes of their parents.  It was one of the least used rooms in all the Stable, perhaps an oddity seeing as how space was at a premium and there were over two hundred ponies living within the stone and steel walls of this underground complex.  The door before me was one of two entrances into the room, this one leading to a platform above the actual room and off into the control room.  The second door was at ground level with the rest of the entrance room, and lead off deeper into the Stable. It was rarely used, and had been sealed for many years.  It was also on the other side of the Stable from Security and as such would have taken us longer to reach.

The Stable door itself was used only once every five years, to send out search teams who would look for any signs of life within the blasted wasteland above us.  It was also one of the most vital doors, being our only link to said blasted wasteland above us.  If anything was to ever happen to the Stable, it would be our only means of escape.  And given how much trouble we'd been having lately, we might one day need it.

Trotting to a halt, I stared at the door for a moment.  It was still closed tight.  The console built into the wall beside it still showed red for locked.  Breathing heavily, I glanced back at the others and snorted softly to myself.  Whisper seemed to be having some trouble with his visor.  The soft glow of his horn surrounded it, but it seemed to refuse to slide down into place.  Looking up to me, his pale blue eyes went wide, then blinked and dropped to the floor.

“S...s...sorry, sir...”  He'd spoken so softly I'd barely heard him.  At last the visor went down over his eyes, but only after Twist had stepped up beside him. A simple touch of a brown hoof to unsnap the lock from the helmet's side was all it took.

“Thanks, grandma...” he said as he looked back up to the mare, who simply shook her head and tightened the buckles on his barding and checked his weapon for him.

Turning away from them, I looked to the sealed door once more.  The room beyond it was silent (though given the thickness of the walls that meant very little).  Reaching down to my chest, I clicked the safety off on my own shotgun.  Unlike the others, which were all pump action style, mine was one of only five combat shotguns the Stable had been given, an Ingrum ‘Defender’ model 12 gauge shotgun.  Security Chiefs have always been issued with these, along with high ranking security officers. This one had been used by my father, and had some sentimental value to me, even though it wasn't technically my gun.  The drum hanging underneath gave the weapon a great deal more weight, but also far more ammo than one with a pump action.  It was also capable of firing full auto, a plus for an earth pony who had to use a hoof to work the pump of a normal shotgun.  I adjusted my helmet one final time, then reached up with a hoof and touched the side just below my ear, pressing the button there.

“Blue... anything?” I whispered.  For a moment, I heard only static, before the mare's voice responded.  She had obviously managed to collect herself after sharing the last transmission from Wendy with Brightblade and myself.  I knew Wendy was a friend of hers; hell, there really wasn't a pony in all the Stable who wasn't friends with nearly everypony else.

“Nothing. Link is still down, mic's dead.”

“How far off is backup?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Ten minutes, max.  Blaze just left with most of the morning shift.  June's rounding up the night shift from the living quarters and loading them up with their personal sidearms.  They should reach the east door in just under fifteen.  I notified the Overmare about what's going on, like you asked.  She's getting everypony away from the entrance until you know what's going on... but that's going to take time.”

Ten minutes.  I could either wait ten minutes and have nearly a dozen armed ponies backing me up, leaving the ponies trapped within the room to their fate. Seven ponies.  Ponies I'd swore to protect.  I could wait, or I could move in now in the slim hope any of them were still alive and able to be saved. Sevens lives versus over two hundred. Was it even really a question?  Perhaps for some... but not for me.  Everypony was important.  They each deserved to live.  Another lesson from my parents, this one from my mother.

Taking a deep breath, I narrowed my eyes and nodded towards Bright and Twist.  The two moved forwards to take up positions near the door, awaiting my next order.  Turning, I waved Whisper and Flash to hug the wall beside me, and to follow me in.  The two young colts nodded, Flash looking excited.  Whisper swallowed and muttered softly to himself, looking like he was about to be sick.  I reached up and lightly tapped a code into the console, the light turning from red to green.

Looking back around, my eyes locked with Bright's and nodded.  The red unicorn's horn glowed brighter as he turned the manual lock on the door and spun it quickly to unlock it.  Unlike most doors in the Stable, the two doors leading into the entrance were built more like large hatches, allowing them to be more firmly sealed should the Stable door ever be breached by radiation or anything else that might have been used during the war.  You had to unlock both the manual and the electrical lock to open them.  Beside it, Twist stood with a flashbang grenade ready in her front hooves, her shotgun hanging around her neck by its strap.  Her eyes were fixed upon the spinning wheel.

This was it.  There would be no turning back now.

With a soft click, it opened an inch, light spilling out from inside, along with a smell few ponies would know.  I knew it, as did Twist and Bright, as would most of the medical staff.  It was the stench of death.  Despite how safe the Stable was, accidents happened.  Ponies lost hope and would choose to end it.  Trips to the surface rarely went smoothly and some pony would often get hurt or killed.  Shortly after the click from the door, another sound echoed about the narrow hallway: the sound of laughter, laughter unlike any you would hear during one of the Stable's picnics in the orchards.  This was a cruel sound, almost insane.  It was soon followed by a cry of pain.

Twist looked away from the hatch to me, her normally stoic expression replaced with one of anger.  Rarely did the earth pony get angry, but when she did it was best to not be the target of her rage.

I nodded my head to her and there came a soft click as the pin was pulled on a grenade.

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!” Twist yelled out, tossing the round canister into the room beyond the door.  I heard it bounce and roll around the concrete floor, followed by the shouts of alarm from unknown throats.

BANG!!

Reflexively, we had all turned our heads away from the open door at the mare's shout, and while we heard the near-deafening bang, we missed the blindingly bright flash that followed it.  But judging by the sounds from inside, it was clear those strange voices had not missed it.

With a yank of his magic, Brightblade pulled the door open fully with enough force to slam it heavily against the wall.  The thick steel door had barely settled when I charged into the open doorway, shotgun held tightly in my teeth, sweeping it from side to side looking for any targets.

As I stepped forward to allow the others to follow me in, I felt my front hooves strike something laying in the floor beside the door and sink into something soft.  I stumbled forwards, barely managing to keep from tripping and planting myself face first into the floor.

As I recovered I saw what... or rather, who it had been I'd nearly fallen over. Staring up at me with sightless eyes and wearing a look of shock and pain was the face of a young mare.  She'd been a tech engineer; I could still make out the silver cog symbol on her blue and yellow jumpsuit, despite it being covered in her blood and ripped open with numerous bullet holes.  Laying beside her in a pool of blood was her tool box, turned over onto its side spilling her tools all across the floor around her.  She had died near the door, leaning up against the wall, likely having tried to escape.

I did not need to look far to see what she had been trying to escape.  My E.F.S. was merrily glowing with red dots for threats.  They were standing around the entrance room below us, stumbling into one another as the effects of the grenade wore off.

No two were dressed the same; those few who wore clothing were dressed in dirty rags covered in blood and gore, over which they wore armor.  Or rather, strips of leather and plates with spikes and hooks attached in several places.  All appeared ill cared for, much like their weapons; though despite the rust and grime that covered nearly all of them, they were no doubt deadly, as the seven bodies spread out before me could attest.  Like their gear, the ponies (for despite the fact they looked more monster than pony, they were in fact ponies) themselves were a riot of colors, much as those I had known my whole life.  Yet, unlike my fellow Stable dwellers, these ponies’ coats were a mass of scars, disease and vermin.  So, these were the Raiders Three Horn spoke of so often on the radio.

Still swearing, a few began firing towards us, their shots missing wildly, which was lucky.  Whisper and Flash had followed me in like we’d trained, but then they’d frozen at the sight of the dead bodies and the strange ponies before them.  They stood still, eyes wide and mouths hanging open.  Luckily, they had slipped their weapons over their heads by the straps so that they were simply left hanging uselessly from them, instead of uselessly on the floor.

"Cover!" I snarled, and ducked behind the hatch’s control panel in the room as another round of bullets flashed past.  It seemed their aim was improving.  I was thankful to see both rookies dive for cover themselves behind the metal railing near the hatch.  Whisper lay on the ground, busy throwing up the contents of his breakfast.  Beside him, Flash stared in shock at the body of the mare beside the door not five feet from his hooves.  Bullets bounced off the thin cover they lay behind.

From the doorway, Twist and Bright began snapping off shots towards the raiders.  Luckily we held the high ground, and their hurried shots downed several, and forced the rest to seek cover as they recovered their wits.

Bringing my own weapon back up to bear, I poked my head up over the console and tried to take stock of our situation.  The raised platform we had exited out onto was only a few paces above the main room.  To my right was the control room, it's door blown off its hinges with a dead body laying inside behind the controls.  The windows were shattered by bullets and smoke drifted from the consoles.  Directly below me, the entrance room was filled with those bizarre ponies, at least three dozen or more.  The platform seemed free of them, Twist and Bright's shooting having downed the few who had been standing up here. The stairs leading up to our platform was also free of any standing ponies, just a body.  I froze at once and blinked.  Oh, goddesses above...

“Hel... help me... p-please.....” the mare lying just a few feet away from me begged.  It was Wendy.  The once lovely young purple mare lay across the stairs with what appeared a spear shoved into her hind quarters, pinning her to them.  Her shotgun lay just out of reach at the top surrounded by spent shells.  Beside her was a dead raider, a hole in his chest still smoking from where Twist had shot him.  However, another group of three seemed intent on dragging the wounded mare back down the platform.  One tugged on her rear hooves, causing her to cry out in pain as they pulled against the chunk of wood impaling her lower body.

Taking aim, I snapped off three rounds into the raiders around her, dropping one with a lucky shot and wounding the other two, who stumbled back down the steps. Diving back down behind the console, I was rewarded with several rounds slamming into my cover. One high-powered round ripped straight through the metal casing and cables to nearly take my head off.  Moving, I looked over to the doorway at Twist.  The look on her face told me she'd spotted the wounded security pony as well.

Between us, Flash and Whisper continued to stay down, nearly huddling up against one another as the shots pinged off their own cover.  If they did not start firing, we'd be overrun despite our advantage.

“Flash!  Get off your fucking ass and return fire!” I snarled.  The young colt blinked and looked over at me, eyes wide in fear.  I couldn't blame him.  In the past few minutes, they'd seen more blood and death than any average pony in Stable 45 had in nearly a hundred years.

Rising back up, I activated my Pipbuck's S.A.T.S. (Stable-Tech's Arcane Targeting Spell), and time seemed to slow as I locked onto the nearest threat, a pony trying to climb the steps and slam what appeared to be a sledgehammer into Wendy's head.  Eyes narrowing, I targeted his chest with three rounds, since his crude armor would likely stop one or two at this range.  Time began to slowly speed back up as I pulled the trigger, feeling the weapon buck in my mouth.  Once.  Twice.  Three times as another shell ejected, spinning past my face with smoke trailing along behind it.  The first round slammed into his chest, the solid shot shattering the crude armor plating he had been wearing and likely a rib or two.  His body jerked back from the impact, face twisted with pain as shards of metal flew out from the point of impact.  The second shattered the armor completely, burying several chunks of jagged metal into the flesh below it.  The third found little to stop it.  The solid round burst into his chest with a blast of blood and bone, the force of it sending him spinning to the ground.  His body landed heavily upon the stairs beside Wendy, the red dot on my E.F.S. winking out.

Suddenly, my head snapped back and I fell back onto the floor with a cry of pain. My shotgun dropped beside me as my mouth opened.  I heard somepony calling my name, but they sounded far away.  My vision was all blurry for some reason.  Red warnings appeared in before my eyes as my E.F.S. updated with information on a wound and damage to my armor.  I hardly noticed, so dazed by the sudden hit.

It took me a few seconds to crawl back against the console, rounds striking near my hooves as I fumbled for my weapon.  A large red form was sitting beside me from seemingly out of nowhere.  Turning, I watched as Bright's face hovered into view.  His horn glowed and I felt my helmet’s strap come loose and lift off my head.  At first I was confused why everything became so much clearer, then I blinked as the helmet spun around and I saw a massive dent in the front, right above my eye.  The visor had shattered from the impact.  Looking closer, I could see a bit of blood where my forehead would have been, and I felt something wet run down my face.

“We need to rescue Wendy!” I shouted, as the sound of gunfire had increased in the last few seconds.  Looking past Bright, I saw both Flash and Whisper at last returning fire.  Although poorly aimed, it was enough to keep heads down.  Looking back to Bright, I saw the look of worry in his eyes.

“Shadow, you’re bleeding.  You could have a concussion, or worse,” the large unicorn said, tossing the worthless helmet aside as his weapon floated up closer to him.  Another wave of fire bounced off the console; it wouldn't last much longer.  Already I could look through several holes to see our attackers readying themselves to come charging up at us.  Seems Stable-Tec did not intend for these to stop bullets.  Odd, since they tended to over-engineer some things.

Ignoring my friend’s concern, I leaned up and worked out several more rounds to help keep their heads down a bit longer.  My S.A.T.S. was still recharging, so I was forced to fire blind.  Dropping back on my plot, I reached over and slid the selector on the side of my weapon to full auto; we'd need the extra firepower to keep their heads down for what I was planning on next.  I slapped the eject switch for the ammo drum and reached back to my side to begin reloading it from the small ammo pouch I wore.  I glanced up from my weapon and looked towards the open doorway with Twist standing in it.  The mare had dropped back into cover and taken advantage of Whisper and Flash's wild fire to reload her own weapon.  Spent shells rolled around her hooves.

“Twist!” I yelled, causing the mare to look up from her freshly reloaded shotgun.  “Get another grenade ready!”  She nodded and began pulling it out from her web gear. 

“Whisper, Flash, provide covering fire on my command!”  The two rookies dropped back down and looked my way, Flash nodding.  It was hard to tell with his visor down, but Whisper’s cheeks looked wet from tears.  I couldn't blame the kid.

Looking back to Bright, I jerked my head back towards where Wendy lay on the stairs, still struggling to rise, her front hoof weakly trying to get her weapon to her.  She needed medical attention, and soon.  It could already be too late; there was a lot of blood around her.

“I'll need your help to get that spear out of her and lift her up.”

“Fine, just don't tell your sister I let you do this,” he said with a snort.  His own shotgun reloaded and floated up beside his face.

“Lips are sealed,”  I answered and looked back to Twist, who nodded her head, the second of her grenades already in her hooves, ready to toss.  I waited until I heard the firing slow,  Either they were reloading or getting ready to charge us.  Whatever their plan, they'd get to do neither.

“NOW!”

Biting down hard on the pin of the grenade, Twist jerked her head and pulled it out.  Stepping out into the open, she tossed the canister out into the room over the rookies’ heads.  Watching it sail through the air I saw it strike against the head of one of our attackers who had stood up.  He comically blinked in surprise and looked down to at what had just struck him.  I ducked back down and covered my ears as best I could.  The others followed suit, though we all still heard and felt the loud crump of the explosion as it filled the room.  The light from the burst down below was followed by swearing and yelling.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

Almost at once, Flash and Whisper rose up and began firing down at our stunned attackers.  Behind them, Twist began pumping out shots as well, nearly all of hers managing to strike their targets or close enough.  With the covering fire, Bright and myself stood and rolled across the ruins of the console.  A shot from somewhere below struck where my head had been a moment before sending out sparks from the abused control panel as a chunk of metal was ripped away.

Slipping in the bloody mess on the floor, I dropped heavily beside Wendy, landing beside her on the stairs.  Bright managed to keep his footing and moved past us, snapping off a shot into the face of a stumbling pony below him.

“Wendy, stay still.  Bright's going to try and get that thing out of you, then we're getting you back inside!”  I yelled over the sounds of shotguns and screaming.  The wounded mare simply nodded her head, eyes closed tightly from the pain.  She was a mess.  Three bullet holes in her back, luckily stopped by her barding, another four in her hips just where the armor ended.  She had several deep gashes on her lower body.  Shit, it looked like they had started to randomly carve her up.  The spear itself had been driven right into her cutie mark, destroying the musical notes that had once adorned her flank.

The shaft of wood sticking out of her flank began to glow as the unicorn standing beside her attempted to remove it.  Slowly, it began to lift up, causing Wendy to groan in pain, fresh tears running down her cheeks to mix with the blood below her head.  After a moment, he thought better of it and released the spear.  Focusing his magic upon the spot where the spear entered the mare’s body, the unicorn snapped the wood as neatly as he could.  Once finished, the glow of his horn began to surround the wounded pony and gently began lifting her up off the ground and the tip of the spear.

A round struck beside my front hoof and I focused once more on the fight.  Stepping past Wendy, I trotted further down the stairs and leveled my shotgun down towards our attackers, who were beginning to recover their wits.  I saved S.A.T.S for the time being and simply held down the trigger, sending out a spray of shells, knocking one down and sending the others to seek whatever cover they could.

Wendy yelled out in pain, causing me to turn back to see what had happened.  The mare lay across Brightblade’s back, the spear tip still embedded within the stairs where she had lain. It’s barbed tip was stained red with her blood.

“We're done here, let's go!” 

“Go!  I'll cover you!” I shouted back.  Gripping the shotgun once more in my mouth, I fired below me and began backing up the stairs.  I heard the clatter of hooves behind me as Bright carried his charge towards the open doorway. Bullets whizzed past my face and hooves as I backed up the stairs slowly.  If I happened to trip now, I’d be dead in a matter of seconds. After making it halfway up without falling on my flank, I decided to turn and run up the stairs.  I had just lowered my weapon and started to turn when something caught my eye.

The east door stood open, and several dozen raiders were rushing down the hallway that would lead them directly into the Stable's Living Quarters and the Atrium. For a moment I just stood, stunned.  How had they gotten the door open?  It was locked at all times.  Then it hit me: those raiders were flooding into the heart of the Stable.  Into ponies’ rooms and small rec rooms.  Oh sweet Celestia...

“Shadow! Move your plot!” Bright's voice yelled from behind me, snapping me from my stupor before a charging earth pony with a sledgehammer could smash my skull in and end all my problems then and there.

Ducking nearly too late, I felt the blast of air flow through my mane from the near hit of a very heavy looking hammer. With a grunt, I leveled my shotgun up into my opponent's face and fired.  There was no need to use S.A.T.S.; being this close I couldn't miss.  The barrel of my gun exploded in a blast of fire and smoke as the slug flew out and into my attacker’s near-unprotected body.  He was sent off his hooves by the impact and went flying back into the room below.  However, it did not seem to deter the other two ponies rushing up towards me.

A flurry of shots sent them diving for cover, as Flash and Whisper rose up and began firing down at them, giving me the time I needed to turn and charge up the remaining steps.  I yelled for the rookies to fall back.  Already bullets were striking all around them, a few close enough to make Whisper flinch.  Ducking back down, they started to run back towards the door.

The three of us managed to stumble into the hallway beyond the door just as the raiders stormed up the stairs behind us.  Whisper dropped down in front of me with a grunt of pain.  Unable to stop in time, I tripped over his fallen form and landed in a heap against the far wall.  Twist stepped in between us and fired off four rounds into the oncoming mob just as the large steel door began to glow and slammed shut with a deafening boom.  I’m unsure if she hit them all, but I was sure she’d at least injured a couple of them.  Brightblade stepped up near us, the glow from his horn fading.  Wendy still lay draped across his broad back, her wounds bleeding freely.

Reaching up to my helmet with a hoof, I was about to order Blue to lock the Stable down when I noticed I had no helmet.  Swearing, I looked up to my friend.  “Bright, get on the radio, tell Blue to lock the Stable down.  Lock every fucking door there is.  Have her reroute Blaze’s team to link up with June’s; she’s going to need help containing that many raiders.  Then contact Ebony.  We need to get everypony some place...”

“Whisper?” Twist’s voice cut me off.  Both Bright and myself turned to the brown earth pony as she stood near her grandson.  The blue unicorn had managed to stand and now leaned against the wall behind me, his breathing labored and his small form shaking. As his grandmother drew closer, the young unicorn slid down the wall and lay upon the floor.  Looking more closely, I could see spreading red spots staining his blue and yellow Stable jumpsuit.

The old mare dropped her shotgun to the floor, the weapon rattling against the steel plating as she dropped to her knees beside the young buck.  Gently taking her grandson’s head in a foreleg, she lifted his head off the floor and pushed off his helmet.

Shit.

Beside me, Brightblade began relaying my orders back to Bluebelle.  Across his back, Wendy lay softly whimpering, her blood staining the large unicorn’s jumpsuit and barding.  I knew we’d have to act fast to save them both, but I knew we’d need nearly every able-bodied pony to fight off these raiders if we were going to survive the next few hours.

Rising to my hooves, I walked over towards Twist and Whisper.  The young colt’s breathing was shallow and his eyes remained closed.  Laying a hoof upon the mare’s shoulder, I spoke up.  “Twist, I need you to get Whisper and Wendy to medical.  Take Flash with you; he can carry Wendy.  Bright and I will head down to the Atrium and try to link up with the rest of security.”

The old mare nodded her head and carefully rose up onto all fours.  Helping her lift the wounded colt up off the floor, I laid him across her back as gently as I could.  With a soft glow, Wendy floated over to lie across Flash’s back.  Glancing over to the rookie, I was thankful to see he had managed to come to terms with what had happened and seemed to be dealing with it well enough.

Hell of a way to be forced to grow up.  But then, after today, everypony in the Stable would be forced to grow up.  It wasn't all smiles and laughter anymore.  We’d been attacked.  I shook my head and hurriedly secured Whisper to Twist’s back so he wouldn't fall off, as Bright did the same for Wendy.

Wasting no more time, the pair quickly set off back down the hallway we had moments ago raced up.  Turning my head back to the door, I wondered if they’d manage to get it open too.  Bright seemed to know what I was thinking.

“Not much more we can do with it, beside lock it and pray they don’t get it open.”  He stepped forwards and tightened the manual lock, before pressing the controls on the console.

I snorted and shook my head. How was this even happening?  Looking back to my friend, I started down the hallway, with him stepping in beside me.

“I know.  Let’s get back down to Security and see what we can do to stop them from pushing any further into the Stable.  Goddesses help us if they make it that far in...”



*     *     *     *     *



As we entered security, it was clear things were not going well.  Bluebelle sat at her console giving out hurried orders and updates to the security ponies around the stable, while two other security ponies stood arming themselves near the armory, as well as tossing shotguns and pistols into a duffel bag beside them.  All stopped and looked up as Brightblade and myself stepped inside.  They looked grim.

“Bluebelle, I could use some good news about now...” I said, trotting over to the armory myself and restocking my supply of shotgun shells.  For a moment I glanced to the thicker riot armor we had hanging near the back, but I doubted I had the time to change.  The mare’s words confirmed as much.

“June’s team was nearly wiped out.  They just didn't have the firepower needed to hold the store rooms from our attackers.  If it wasn't for Blaze and his ponies arriving when they did, the raider’s would already be in the living quarters.  They’re holding them at Level B junction 4 near the Rec Room.” 

As she spoke, I quickly glanced up to the map of the Stable on the wall, eyes tracking the twists and turns of the corridors until I spotted the area she’d mentioned.  It wasn’t far from the stairs that lead straight to the living quarters on the next level.  Bright swore darkly to himself as he followed my eyes, as Bluebelle continued with the news.

“The Overmare’s managed to get most of the ponies out of their rooms and into the Atrium so by now most of those living quarters are empty, but if the raiders breakthrough Blaze and June’s position, they have a straight shot to the Atrium.  I’ve also gotten reports of raider’s cutting their way into the access shafts and popping up in other areas of the Stable.  I’ve got multiple distress calls from ponies trapped all over the place and not enough security to send to their aid...” 

The news seemed to get grimmer the more she told.  My ears pressed down against my head as I growled angrily.  How the hell had this happened?  Behind me, the two security ponies, Lucky Stars and Crosswires, were trotting for the doors; I watched them as they left.

“Blaze ordered weapons brought up to them, while the hallways are still clear.  He’s got a few unarmed security ponies using dropped weapons to help hold the tide but it seems they can only use them so long before they stop working.  In his words, ‘they are pieces of goddess-damned shit’.”

I was still looking out after the two when the doors began to close.  Movement from within the hallway caught my eye and at first I thought perhaps raiders had made it past Blaze and June and into here.  But then I saw frightened looking ponies running towards us: Hope and her three young foals, along with their grandmother, Happyseed.  I stepped forwards and held the door with a hoof as they approached.

“Please...we’re cut off from the atrium...” Hope began, tears in her eyes as her three young foals held tightly to their mother and grandmother. 

“Of course, come on in,” I said, helping the elderly mare inside and looking back the way they’d come, still half expecting to see raiders rushing after them.  Luckily there was nothing.  At least not yet.  Helping the family in, I lead them towards my office and helped Happy into my chair.

“You’ll be safe here.  Just sit down and try and stay calm.”  Stepping back out, I walked hurriedly over to Blue and waved a hoof at Bright to join me.  I lowered my voice as I spoke next.

“Blue, I want you to call my sister and tell her to start moving everypony into the generator rooms, the doors are thicker and I doubt the raider’s have anything that could breach them.  After that, I want you to put out a call to any ponies left on this level to head to security, keep the door open as long as you can but seal it up at the first sign of trouble.”  The blue unicorns eyes widened as I spoke, “Get them into the armory and seal yourselves inside.”  She nodded her head as I turned to Bright.

“We’re going to make our way down to Blaze’s and help him try and hold that hallway.  If we can, then maybe we can contain the few who managed to slip deeper inside the stable.”  It was a chance; a small one, but still a chance.  My friend nodded his head and started for the door.

“Good luck, sir,” Blue said as I followed my friend.  She’d opened up a drawer next to her radio set and pulled out a basic 9mm pistol.  It wasn’t much but it would have to do for the moment.  “Celestia watch over you.”

“Hopefully she’s watching out for all of us.”  I replied before starting down the hall and the stairs leading up to the next level.  Already I could hear the sounds of fierce fighting taking place just above us.



*     *     *     *     *



A storm of lead struck the wall beside me, sending up a shower of debris as the fast-moving rounds blew out bits of concrete.  Ducking back down, I gripped my shotgun tightly in my mouth and growled.  To say it was not going well would be a massive understatement.  To say we were seriously screwed was not.  My E.F.S. was flashing updates as quickly as it could; the swarm of red dots at the end of the hall were pushing forwards once again, seemingly uncaring about the number of their own dead that littered the floor between us and them.  Prone bodies lay in pools of blood surrounded by spent shell casings and dropped weapons.  It was something straight out of a nightmare.  The number of green dots around me was pitifully few, and growing fewer by the second.  We couldn’t stay here.  They just kept coming, as if they had dozens of lives to throw away at taking this single point.  Where were they all coming from?!  As bad as it was here, it was worse down the hall, where six green dots lay pinned in open doorways; Blaze and June, along with what remained of  their teams.

Rolling back out of cover I aimed down the hallway and pulled the trigger, sending a hail of slugs towards the raiders.  Every shot hit something.  A leg here, face there, a neck or a chest.  It was impossible to miss, there were so many rushing up the passage towards us, ready to spill our blood.  Across the hall, Blade and Lucky fired as well.  Crosswires lay on the ground between us, shot through the head as we’d tried to reach Blaze and the others.  I barely gave the dead pony a second look; there would be a time to mourn later... if anypony was still alive to mourn. 

“We can’t stay here much longer!” Blade yelled, ducking back as a raider unloaded an automatic rifle towards the large red unicorn.  7.6mm rounds struck the door frame where he had been moments ago and punched several small holes through it and into the wall. 

I knew it, and so did the raiders, but every second we stayed gave the others a chance to fall back towards us.  They’d already managed to duck down another two doors towards us while we covered them.  Through the smoke, I could see my security ponies hunkering down for another push by the raiders.  Quickly, I checked my pouches and found a single grenade left hanging from my web gear.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a warning pop up from my E.F.S. about being low on ammo and of a number of minor wounds.  I ignored it and glanced back towards the raiders.

Biting down hard on the pin, I yanked it free with a twist of my neck and rose up to toss it down the hall.  I put everything I had into that one swing, knowing the lives of my ponies depending on it.  The grenade flew through the air from my outstretched hoof, landing on the ground not far from where the raiders took cover.  One of the raiders had the smarts to reach for the explosive to toss it back, but a shot from my trapped security team dropped him back onto the floor with several holes in his crude rusty armor.  I ducked back down as the blast lit up the hallway, sending shrapnel flying in every direction. Screams of pain echoed down the hall from the wounded raiders.

With a yell, Blaze ordered his ponies up, and the remaining security team charged down the hallway towards us. Nearly all were wounded, two having to be helped by their teammates.  Blaze was carrying a wounded mare over his back as he ran, and I saw a young stallion dragging a swearing June along by the scruff of her neck.  The light green unicorn gripped her shotgun in her hooves, firing off towards the raiders like a pony possessed.  For a moment it looked like they might make it, but as quickly as it had stopped, the raiders once more began to open fire.  Their shots were less organized, but still very lethal. 

One went down directly in front of me, shot through the back of his left hind leg.  He yelled out and scrambled back up, only to be hit again along his flank, but adrenaline kept his legs moving and he stumbled beside me onto the floor.  Reaching out with my hooves I wrapped them around his neck and pulled him back behind cover as Blade and Lucky’s shotguns roared out.

A second later Blaze dropped down beside me and tossed the wounded pony against the wall before standing back up and snapping out a few more rounds.  Another stumbled up near Blade and dropped in a heap, gasping for breath.  I looked back down the hall, and my heart sank.  The pony dragging June had stumbled over the body of a raider and was trying to rise back up.  Rounds struck all around him, yet he wouldn’t let his squad leader down and stubbornly went back for her, despite her yells for him to leave her.  Chomping down onto the collar of her jumpsuit once more, he began scrambling towards us, eyes closed as he strained with the mare in armor.

“Celestia damnit, covering fire!” I roared and turned by shotgun back towards the raiders, but I knew it was too late.  I knew what was about to happen, but I had to try and stop it.  Had to try.  As I watched helplessly, a round struck the young pony in the head and he dropped to the ground, his helmet rolling off to the side of the hallway, blood coating the inside of it.  June dropped fully to the floor, swearing and rolling on her back and into the cover of a doorway.  Down the hall, I could see the raiders starting to charge forwards.  We couldn’t hold them back, not with so few ponies and so little ammo.

June looked back up the hallway towards me, pink eyes locking with my gold ones, I could see the tears in those large round orbs.  She knew it too.  She nodded her head to me with a grim smile, and I nodded back, tears in my own eyes.  Her right hoof toying with a grenade on her barding. We had to leave.  With a grin she winked at me and yelled back towards us.

“Get yer asses outta here, boys!  I got your back... these fucker’s aren’t so tough.  A single mare can handle these bucks with one leg knocked out from under her!”

Blade looked over at me, knowing what I was about to say. His horn glowed as he picked up the wounded pony beside him.  Like me, he knew what was about to happen, how this was going to end.

“Fall back to the Atrium,” I ordered, looking back to the wounded mare, who’d managed to reload her shotgun and prop it up on the edge of a air vent at the base of the wall. Beside me, Blaze hefted the wounded pony he’d carried back onto his shoulders and looked back to June with tears in his eyes, but he turned away quickly and started running down the hallway.  Back the way we had came.

Giving a last few shots, I rose up and started following the others.  Behind me I heard the sound of a lone shotgun spitting out death, and the voice of the Stable’s bravest pony yelling out to her attackers as they swarmed towards her.

“Come on, you ball-less bastards!  None of you are bucks enough to take on this mare!!”

I’d just reached the stairs and began to descend them when the sounds of the lone shotgun firing stopped suddenly.  I heard the roar of triumph from our attackers seconds before an explosion drowned out all noise.



*     *     *     *     *




June’s sacrifice had bought us a few more minutes, but even if we had an hour I don’t believe we could have prepared for the final onslaught as the raiders pushed their way into the Atrium.  We’d barely gotten a couple tables turned over near the adjoining hall when they burst in on us, killing two ponies with their wild fire.  Neither had been Security, but just normal ponies attempting to help us herd the others to safety.  At least they had died quickly.  However, as we ushered the survivors into the hallway, panic began to take over and it was becoming as much a death trap as the Atrium had been.  The overhead lighting had given out, replacing the soft white glow with the the harsh orange glow of emergency lighting.  The small enclosed space echoed with cries of fear and pain, and the stamping of hooves upon metal.  Some cried for themselves, others for loved ones that had been separated from them.  The names of children, husbands, and wives were mixed with the sobs.  Over it all, the distant sounds of fighting drifted back up the hallway towards us: the angry bark of gunfire from our shotguns and the raiders’ mix of automatic weapons and single shot rifles, the shouts of the crazed raiders ripping into the Atrium and of the defenders attempting to stem the tide of madness into the heart of the Stable.  It was utter chaos, but I had to maintain control, or it would become far worse.

“Keep moving! You'll be safe ahead, just keep moving!” I had to shout to be heard over the sounds of panic.  Standing to the edge of the hallway, I urged the ponies around me to keep moving. I was a single black-coated stallion amongst a sea of bright colors.

Behind me the sounds of gunfire increased; the ponies I had left behind to hold off our attackers would not be able to hold out much longer.  Already the raiders had gotten into the maintenance areas.  Several ponies had been cut off in the medical section, including Twist and Flash and nearly a dozen wounded ponies.  Had I saved Wendy only for her to die in a hospital bed?  As of an hour ago Twist and the medical ponies were still holding their own, having sealed the doors behind them when we'd been cut off. Most of my security teams were either holding the Atrium, cut off in small losing battles across the Stable, or dead.  Sweet Celestia, how had it come to this?

When I glanced across the chaotic hallway to those remaining security ponies I had, the frightened faces looking back to me told me they would be of little help.  Like Flash and Whisper, the two young mares with me were rookies, barely three months into their training and barely eighteen years into their lives, replacing older ponies who had retired the night before.  The ponies I had shared drinks with, laughed with last night.  Those same ponies who were either dead or dying somewhere within the Stable.

Already one green mare's black barding was smeared with the blood of her now dead partner.  Her wide violet eyes darted back towards the end of the hallway with every cry of pain or roar of victory.  The young unicorn’s legs shook and her levitated pistol rattled about in her unsteady magical grip.  She’d been one of the ponies my sister had suggested I try asking out once; I’m sure it was a joke... 

The thought of my sister brought with it fresh fears.  She'd dragged several wounded ponies into her office in the Atrium when the raiders had swarmed in from the two opposite hallways.  She'd sealed the door behind them, but if those beasts got inside...

“Keep them moving!” I shouted to the green mare.  She nodded her head, the helmet rattling around her horn as the straps hung loosely beside her cheeks, “Get everypony down into the generator room!  Get the young ones into the most secure place you can find, and you hold it!”  I reached down and checked my shotgun; the weapon was coated with gore, but fully loaded. Goddesses, how had it come to this?

Turning away, I began trotting back up the hallway.  The orange lighting began to flicker, giving everything a nightmarish tint which I found rather fitting, given the day's events.  With a flick of my head, my shotgun bounced up from it's strap across my chest and into my snout.  Teeth clamped down upon the bit to aim and fire it, and I increased my pace.  The sounds of fighting ahead of me had reached a fevered pitch.  As I reached the doorway leading into the larger open Atrium, I walked into yet another nightmare.

The once peaceful gathering spot for the ponies of Stable 45 had been turned into a smoke-filled, body-strewn war zone.  Tables had been overturned all across the large open space, making crude cover for both sides of the battle.  Jagged scars in the walls and flooring were a testament to the heavy fighting and explosives being used by both sides.  Thick acrid smoke rose from nearly everywhere.  The broken bodies of ponies lay scattered about the Atrium, draped across tables or each other.  Some twitched as they tried to draw in just one more breath, others remained deathly still.  All bore looks of surprise and pain.

Near where I had entered, the security ponies had erected a barricade over the doorway, tables and chairs piled up along with the mangled bodies of the crazed raiders.  Many of the security ponies were already wounded, and two lay propped up against the wall, their battle at an end.  Most were scared, and who could blame them?  How could they not be afraid?  This was not something you could prepare for.  It was not something we could have truly expected.

Among the pitifully few ponies I had left, I saw Brightblade among them, the large red unicorn easy enough to spot.  A white bandage had been wrapped around his right front shoulder, already stained with fresh blood from the wound beneath.  He glanced back towards me, a grim look on his face.  We both knew if things did not change, and change soon, we'd never be able to hold this position.

Beside him sat Blaze, the orange stallion reloading his shotgun as best he could with his right front hoof wrapped in bandages.  His body was marked by a dozen smaller wounds, much like everypony else.  His black mane was matted with dried blood from the wounded pony he’d carried back and his eyes were lined red from tears for June, his dead marefriend.

Lucky Stars slipped a fresh clip into his pistol, his shotgun having run out of ammo back in the hallway.  The white unicorn with the light blue mane looked up as he felt eyes on him and gave me a weak smile.  His light purple eyes were red from fresh tears; Crosswire had been a friend of his, much like Blade was to me.  He looked away and went back to checking his weapon, for Celestia knows how many times.

Beyond the barricade came our attackers, moving with reckless abandon.  Their mismatched armor and collection of rusty weapons were smeared with fresh blood.  As I watched from behind an overturned table, one stopped over the dead form of a pony and began to slash it with a knife, laughing madly to himself.  Truly it seemed as if hell had spat its most twisted citizens out upon Stable 45.

“We're gonna die...” a pony next to me whimpered.  Turning away from the smoking ruins of the Atrium, I glanced to him.  He was holding his shotgun close to his body, security barding dented and scarred from the heavy fighting.  Blood dripping down his face from a nasty gash just above his right eye.  Beside him, a blue limb moved to try and bandage his head.  Looking closer, I saw the mare wearing a medical saddlebag, equally as banged up as the pony she was attempting to treat.

“Shhh...we'll be okay, Charger,” the mare sought to calm her friend as she treated him.  Beside her, another pony sat, tears in his eyes as he reloaded his shotgun.

At this rate, we'd not need the raiders to charge us; our own fear was going to finish us off for them.  All they'd need to do was stroll across the open, climb over our barricades and put a gun to our heads.

“The hell if I'm going to let it end like this!”  Narrowing my eyes and snorting, I picked up my shotgun and looked over to Bright, the unicorn arching a brow at me before his eyes opened wide.

“Shadow....” he began, but never got a chance to finish as I reared back and jumped across the overturned table, landing with a clatter of hooves on the other side, bullets striking nearby.  At once I entered S.A.T.S and locked onto the nearest pony,  the one who'd been so gleefully hacking up the fallen corpse of one of my security ponies.  He was so close, I could see the rotting brown teeth within his twisted mouth as he grinned, the sharp rusted edges to his armor, the sick bloody trophies hanging off his barding.  Red and yellow eyes rose up from his twisted work and fixed upon me.  He began floating his assault rifle up to gun me down but would never get the chance.  As time speed back up, the slug from my shotgun flew out like a bolt of lightning and knocked him back onto his hind quarters and sent two of his companions tripping as they rushed forward.

Through gritted teeth I shouted out to the ponies behind me as I charged forwards into hell.

“For the love of the goddesses, fight!  Fight for your families, fight for your loved ones!  For Stable Forty Five!!  FOR EQUESTRIA!!!” I snarled out around the grip of my shotgun, not bothering to look and see if they responded.  I slammed into one of the raiders who was still picking herself up after falling across my first target’s bleeding body.  My front hooves slammed into her chest, sending her back down onto the blood soaked floor gasping for breath.  Twisting my head, I emptied another round into the side of her companion, and watched as he crumbling to the ground with a gaping hole in his side.

The smoke was beginning to fill the room from the gunfire and fires the raiders had started, the ventilation system having likely failed from all the damage the Stable had been taking.

With a grunt of pain, I was reminded I hardly had time to worry about it, as the fallen mare slashed at me with her dead partner’s bloody carving knife.  It left a long jagged and bleeding scar across my unarmored flank. Luckily she'd not been close enough to slice deeply.  Snarling around the bit of my shotgun I shoved the barrel into her face and fired, splattering myself with bits of bone and brain.  But in death, she may have managed to kill me: the spent casing from my shot jammed in my gun.

Bullets whizzed past me, as I slammed my hoof into the jammed shell, looking up I saw five more of our attackers rushing towards me, firing wildly as they charged, screaming for my blood.  Again my hoof slammed into the jammed weapon, again it refused to eject.  Their wild fire struck the floor and bodies laying before me, a couple grazed my flanks, and one struck my shoulder guard and bounced off.

Suddenly, bright puffs of blood jetted from the body of the lead pony, sending her skidding across the floor as the others jumped over her fallen form.  Another was sent sprawling as a round slammed into his chest. 


	Jerking my head around, I saw the remaining security ponies of Stable 45 charging forward.  Brightblade was in the lead, floating the assault rifle of a fallen raider before him spraying bullets into the remaining group charging me.  Beside him came the no longer shaking young colt, his head wrapped in bandages and yelling with enough fury to put the raiders to shame.

I turned back to the fight in time to barely dodge another crazed attacker, the only survivor of the group who'd charged towards me.   As his fire ax sailed over my head, he slammed into me and sent us both stumbling into a pillar, knocking the wind out of me. He tried to bring the ax back up, but we were too close.   He did not seem to register this fact, even as my front hooves broke his jaw, and forced him to drop the sharp deadly weapon.  Yellowed crazed eyes locked onto mine as he did not even seem to register pain and simply headbutted me to the floor.  My shotgun lay beside me on the floor, dropped when I'd been tackled.  As he reared up over me to bring his hooves down on my head, I did the only thing I could think off.  Kicking out with my hind legs, I slammed my own hooves into a spot right between his legs.  He registered that, by the goddess.  He went down on all fours and gasped for breath, as I pulled my shotgun over to me.

I just managed to clear the jam from the weapon when a hail of bullets ripped into the whimpering pony, ending his pain for all time and nearly me as well.  I just barely  managed to scramble back behind the pillar as rounds slammed into both it and the spot I'd been in a moment before.  Seems I was drawing their fire.  Oh good, they’re paying attention to me.

I ducked down further into my shelter as another storm of bullets chewed away at the concrete pillar.  Another pony slammed down hard into cover beside me.  I twisted my head around, ready to blow his head off.  Then I noticed who it was.

“Hey, Shadow.  Nice speech, I see you've been taking lessons from your sister on how to motivate your ponies,”  Bright said with a grin.  Turning away from me, he floated his newly acquired assault rifle up and snapped off a quick burst into a raider who'd either gotten brave or stupid, but all she really got was dead.  The mare crumpled to the floor, bleeding from several new holes.

“I suppose I've been keeping notes at those breakfasts we've been having”  With a snort, I turned back and fired off a few rounds myself as S.A.T.S recharged.  My response was enough to get a laugh from my old friend.  Around us, the other security ponies had dived into new cover and attempted to hold the new line we'd forcibly formed.

“Well, does your sister know you’re thinking of becoming the next Overmare?  I think you'll have to do something about your equipment though, seeing how it’s a position for a mare and not a...” his words were thankfully drowned out as something loud roared to life from the hallway beyond us. Bullets ripped across the Atrium, shredding tables and ponies alike. Brightblade yanked his horned head down and tried to press himself as flat to the floor as he could, and I followed suit.

Holy bucking Celestia!

The pillar we sheltered behind was being torn away in large chunks by the sheer amount of firepower focused on us.  Puffs of powdered concrete rained down on us as the bullets screamed across the room in a deadly flood.  As suddenly as it came, the roaring stopped, ears ringing I peeked around the edge of the pillar.  I caught sight of four ponies working on what looked like a heavy assault cannon of some type; it appeared to have jammed.  The weapon was tripod mounted, it's barrel smoking and hundreds of spent casings littering the ground around it. Like all their other weapons, it was poorly maintained, and this had saved our lives.  Turning back to Blade, I nudged his side.

“They've got some heavy machine gun set up in the doorway.”

“No bucking shit!”  He floated his assault rifle back up and ejected the clip, checking the rounds left and slapping it back in

Stable security wasn't meant for this sort of thing.  We had nothing to fight back with but shotguns, batons, flash grenades, and few frag grenades.  Our light barding was next to useless against something that would chew through concrete or steel walls (I doubted even our heavier riot armor would stand up to that).  If they got that thing back up and running we'd be as good as dead.

“If we don't put that thing out of action, we're as good as dead!” Bright shouted back to me, stating the obvious and my own thoughts.

I scanned the floor around us and spotted two ponies I'd shot earlier. Their blood had pooled under them, eyes staring up at the ceiling with their dropped weapons scattered around.  However, I had spotted something else hanging off their crude armor and belts.  Grenades.  Frag Grenades.  Most of the ones we had had already been used up, or lay on the bodies of our dead. Both of the raider’s bodies lay out in the open, which is what had killed them.  Looking around the pillar, I saw several other raiders starting forward, trying to reach the defenders while their heads were down.  This would be close.

“Bright, I need you to give me some covering fire.  I've got an idea on how to take that damned thing out.”  Beside me, the red unicorn blinked and looked at me confused, until he followed my eyes to the bodies.  Slowly, he shook his head and snorted.

“Hopefully this goes better than your other plans,” my friend the smartass said.

“Now!” I shouted and rose up to my hooves.  I don't know who was more surprised, the attackers or myself.

Bright rolled back around the pillar and began sweeping the area around the nearest doorway with automatic fire.  Either by pure dumb luck, surprise, or both, I managed to cross the distance without being shot at.  My hooves slipped in the blood and I landed heavily on my wounded side with a growl of pain.  A bullet struck one of the bodies I'd landed beside, filling the air before me with red mist. Without a second thought, I grabbed the round grenades off them.  Another round struck the floor near my hooves.  Behind me, Bright ducked back into cover and tossed away the useless assault rifle as he’d emptied the clip, floating his shotgun back up to him.

Taking a deep breath (and wishing I hadn't due to the stench coming off these dead ponies), I closed my eyes and clamped my teeth over the pins of the grenades.  No, this was not a good idea.  With a jerk of my head I yanked the pins free and tossed the grenades into a pouch on my barding.  Jumping to my hooves I thundered towards the doorway and the tripod mounted weapon.

As I closed the distance between myself and the doorway, one of the ponies working to clear the jammed weapon looked up, his eyes widening in shock as he saw me racing towards them.  The crew had laid their weapons down as they worked, counting on their fellow raiders to cover them.  That was a mistake.  As the one reached for his weapon, a old model shotgun, I snagged the pouch holding the grenades and ripped it free from my harness. 

Growling around the pouch I tossed it towards the gun crew and their weapon.  It seemed despite this being a really bad idea, the end results were good.  As the pouch struck the top of the assault cannon it popped open, spilling the grenades out.  They bounced and rolled over the weapon and one dropped into the ammo box mounted beside the weapon.  Oh shit...

I’d already started turning as the pouch left my mouth, my hooves skidding across the flooring as I began to run back to cover.  I had just enough time to take a half dozen steps and leap across a nearby fallen table when the grenades went off and a massive explosion ripped through the weapon and the ponies around it.  Shards of metal, twisted and smoking, flew across my vision, along with bits of the raiders who had been beside it.  As I hit the floor, I felt something slam into my hind quarters and push me down onto the floor with a grunt of pain.

Opening my eyes, the first thing I noticed was one of the still-smoking barrels of the cannon speared through the table I had ducked behind. Leaning up slightly to look over the side of the table, I saw the carnage I had caused.  The grenade had cooked off all the rounds of ammo in the weapon and stored nearby, causing a chain reaction.   The gun crew no longer existed, save as bits of smoking flesh and ash, and large parts of the doorway no longer existed either.  Chunks of the ceiling had given way from the blast and crushed the twisted remains of the assault cannon.  Blinking in shock I pushed away from the table, intending to stand up, but fell over with a grunt of pain instead.  My legs didn't seem to be working.

Turning around, I saw another one of the cannon barrels sticking through my hind leg, and into the floor under it.  Oddly, I remember the first thing I thought was I hoped Bright didn't see that.  He'd likely make some joke about me liking it up the rear.  The next thing I did was laugh.  I laughed.  Dropping back down onto my side, I felt tears roll down my cheeks as I laughed.  It was the last thing I remember before passing out from shock.




Shadow (lvl 1 Stable Dweller)





S: 5


P: 6


E: 6


C: 7


I:  5


A: 6


L: 5



Tagged Skills: 



Small Guns:  As a Stable Security Pony you’ve trained with shotguns and pistols nearly your whole life.  As such, you know how best to use these small but lethal weapons to maximum effect and how best to care for them when they wear down. You gain a bonus whenever using one of these weapons.



Locking Picking:  You’ve managed to pick up a less than honorable skill while working in Security.  While most ponies frown on such activities, you’ve found it a useful ability to know in a jam.  With the proper tools, your chance to pick a lock is increased. 



Speech:  As head of Stable 45 Security, you’ve learned how best to motivate the ponies around you (plus you picked up a few things from your sister, just don’t let her know you’ll never hear the end of it).  Your ability to convince others to follow you is impressive and you’ll never have much trouble getting your way if you truly want something.  However, be careful, as even the best liar will get caught, and it’s hardly heroic. 




Welcome to Lvl 2!!





       Perk Added: 



Gun Nut: Having been raised around weapons your entire life, you’ve picked up a thing or two from your father and his friends. +5 Small Guns +5 Repair

	
	
	
	
> Chapter 02: Setting Out
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2: Setting Out


It’s a dangerous business going out your door. You step out onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.



Pain.  That was the first thing I felt as I opened my eyes slowly from the darkness.  At first my vision was blurry and filled with so much white.  After a few minutes, I began to focus upon the square tiles of the ceiling above me and noticed the over head lighting had been dimmed, but even though it was a soft white glow, not the harsh orange, it still nearly blinded me.  For the next few moments, I tried to remember what had happened, and to figure out where I was.  The Stable's medbay.  The only place inside the entire complex that the cold gray walls were painted white and would be this spotless.

As I shifted slightly on the bed, I could see IV bags hanging from a metal stand beside my bed, a clear plastic tube running from them to me.  I heard the soft beep of machines around me, and the whispers of somepony nearby.  I doubted our attackers would have been kind enough to bring me here, or care about speaking lowly so not to bother me.  So...maybe we'd won?  The light over head was blocked out for a moment, somepony was leaning over me.

“Doctor, he's waking up.” the voice was familiar, a mare's, though at the moment my mind was still too clouded to think who it belonged too.

“Good, the drugs should be wearing off more quickly now,” I heard another voice, but could not see the pony to whom it belonged.  Finally, I placed a name with that voice, Doctor Kindheart, the Stable's Chief medical pony.  So, he was still alive.  I tried to rise up, but felt a wave of dizziness wash over me as I did so and nearly fell out of the bed.  A soft glow of magic surrounded me, and I was gently held in place, before being pushed back down into bed.

“Not so fast, you've lost a lot of blood, and your leg is still healing.” the voice above me spoke up, the glow fading from me as well as from her forehead. I grunted and lay back down, the room finally stopped spinning. A light green unicorn came into focus, her yellow mane tucked back into a pony tail, traces of silver running through it, Nurse Spearmint.  Her name finally came to me as I saw her smile softly, kind purple eyes scanning from me to a machine nearby.  I offered her a weak smile in return.

“Sure thing.” I managed, my voice cracked and my throat felt raw from a lack of water.  Ever observant, the soft glow of her horn lit up, and a cup of water floated up to my lips.  As I drank, a white stallion leaned over to check the IV and turned to look at me. His close cut gray mane was disheveled, and his tired brown eyes had dark circles under them from lack of sleep.

“Your lucky that barrel did not go any deeper, we had a devil of a time getting it out of you without damaging the nerves in your leg.”  Dr Kindheart said, as he floated a needle up to the IV, shooting something inside.  “This should help you shake off the effects of the drugs, and have you back up on your hooves in a few days.”

“What happened, Doc? How long was I out...have we driven the raiders out?” I asked after swallowing the last of the cool water.  I'd never tasted anything sweeter.

“Indeed we did, thanks largely to that rather crazy stunt of yours, or so I hear.  Seems they lost heart after you blew up their toys, and Brightblade managed to push them back up the Stable to the door.  The tech's managed to reseal it, and after that it was a simple matter of clean up.  Or so I hear, my staff and I have been busy the past few days patching everypony up.”

“Days?”

“Yes, it's been nearly four since you were injured.”

I blinked and laid back in bed, days.  Four days?  But, we'd managed to hold out, despite it all, we had managed to save the Stable.  At what cost though?  I knew June and Crosswire was dead, the six ponies in the entrance room had been killed. Had Wendy made it? Whisper? Slowly, the world around me once more began to darken, and I drifted back into unconsciousness.



*     *     *     *     *



It was bad.

I'd known the second my friend entered the recovery room of the Stable's medical section something was seriously wrong.  He'd not come alone, having brought two others with him.  I knew them all well enough.  Brightblade looked over to me as the other two flanked him, my friend at least looked whole, the wounds he had suffered during the fight seeming to have healed up.

Beside my friend stood the middle aged pony in charge of the Stable's generators and all things mechanical, Gearbox.  His dark blue coat was almost always covered in oil and grime from working so often in the bowels of the Stable and today was no different.  He'd long since cut his black mane and tail short, to lessen the chance of getting it caught in any number of moving parts.  If not for him, the entire system would have failed long ago.  His cutie mark was of two gears.  Like me, he was an earth pony.  And like me, he had taken over the job from his father.

To Brightblade’s left was the Stable's head of supply, though you'd be hard pressed to imagine this pony being in charge of much.  The young unicorn mare looked between those she'd entered with, then to me, before quickly looking away hiding her face behind her low sky blue mane.  The shy and beautiful Silverhoof.  Despite her lack of social skills, there was no pony better in the Stable at keeping track of things. The silver gray mare knew exactly where the Stable's limited supplies were at any given time. She was in charge of food, fuel, water, and any number of other resources. Her cutie mark was of a calculator and it suited her well.

When the three entered my room, Nurse Spearmint was helping me into my blue and yellow Stable jumpsuit, her horn glowing as she tugged the snug fitting suit up over my front legs and midway down my back. Looking up, I watched them enter my room, Brightblade's normally cheerful face looked grim. This was the first time I'd seem him since the attack.  Odd, seeing how we'd nearly always been around one another.  It was also odd I'd not yet seen my sister...or that she wasn't here with what amounted the heads of the Stable.

Looking closely at the red unicorn's face however told me something had happened. And it was bad. I'd known despite having sealed the door, fought off the raiders, and saved most of the Stable, we'd be in for more trouble.

Just then, the door opened once more, and a third pony entered, Dr Kindheart, the Stable's head of medical.  The pure white unicorn looked tired, his light gray mane and tail ragged as his white jacket.  With a soft sigh, he glanced around the room, soft brown eyes settling on Nurse Spearmint.

“Thank you Nurse, that will be all.”

The green mare looked up and nodded her head to the good doctor, before offering me a smile and trotting out the open door, which slid shut behind her.  As she left, I looked back around to the others in the room. Together we represented the Stable's council, working under the authority of the Overmare herself.  We were responsible for the well being and safety of the Stable and the ponies inside it.

It was Gearbox who spoke first, the pony was known for not beating around the bush, being direct and to the point.  The others listened, but it seemed they'd already heard whatever he was about to say, because I was the only one to react.

“This Stable has a month of life left to it. Maybe less.”

“What?!” I sat in shock, shaking my head slowly,“A month? Our generators showed another ten years of life left last inspection.  An inspection you carried out and reported to the Overmare on not a month ago, Gearbox. The raiders never made it to the generator levels of the Stable...” at least not so far as I knew. We'd fallen back to that level, but from what I had heard, we'd pushed them back shortly after my little stunt in the Atrium.

“Yes, the generators are fine, Shadow.  The...raiders, as you call them never reached the generator level.  They did, however, reach the ventilation system on level 2. The technicians on duty there fought bravely, but all they had to fight with was hammers and wrenches, not much use against shotguns and rifles.  They destroyed the air filtration system and the generators that runs it,” Gearbox said, eyes fixed on mine as he spoke.

“They can't be repaired?” I asked, not believing that after over one hundred and seventy years we couldn't fix something like this.  We'd had fires before, lost systems only to manage to fix them or reroute them elsewhere.  It was for that reason the Stable itself would not last much longer, it was patched together with duct tape and wonder glue in places.  Ten years we had figured, until we would have been forced to decide where to go.

“We could likely get one or two of them back up and running in the time remaining, however that is not the real problem.” at his words, the shy soft spoken Silverhoof stepped forward, eyes fixed on the floor.

“The problem is the filters themselves.  The raiders burned them.  All of them, along with a good number of other supplies we can not replace in the store room near the ventilation generator room,” she said so softly I had to strain to hear her over the near silence of the room.

“While the air outside is breathable, the dust and dirt kicked up by the wind on the surface has high levels of radiation in it still.  Enough to clog many of the machines that are already running poorly, machines that relied on the filters to clean the air that cools them,” Gearbox said, as Silverhoof stepped back and let the large earth pony speak.

Dust storms, a common enough thing in this part of Equestria.  Being so close to the Povoni Desert to the east, and the near flat lands to the west meant a lot of wind.  Add in the fact there had been several cities to our west meant a lot of balefire bombs going off.  Which in turn meant a lot of radiation to be blown around.

“There's also the water talisman,” Gearbox added, looking up to him I arched a brow and he continued,“Beside burning several supple rooms on the upper levels, they also stole the water talisman. We've maybe a week’s supply of water left in the pipes and holding tanks.  More if we ration more than we already are.”

“How did this happen...?”  I asked, Brightblade looked up, at my question.

“After looking over the records, Bluebelle found somepony had entered the correct access code on the console outside the Stable door.  It's how they got inside, and once inside, they managed to override nearly all the locked doors between them and us,” the red unicorn sighed and his shoulders slumped,“We lost over thirty ponies to their attack, another twenty are missing...”

I could only stare.  How in the name of Celestia and Luna had these strange ponies managed to get inside the Stable, bypass so many locked doors and so completely fuck us.  Running a hoof through my mane I looked up to the grim faces around me.  The lack of one face still worried me. Finally I asked the question that had been on my mind since they arrived, and part of me was worried about the answer I'd get.

“Where's my sister? Surely she knows about all this?”

The news they had told me was dire, I had readied myself for some of it. After all, it wasn't all lollipops and smiles in the world anymore.  What they told me next, however, I was not prepared to hear, nothing can ever prepare you for it.

“Shadow...she's among those missing.  They managed to force their way into her office and took her and the ponies she was sheltering before you lead the charge to retake the Atrium.  We think they also took the other missing ponies.  We've searched all the rooms and halls of the Stable, hell I even had a few of the smaller ponies crawl into the vents and small crawl spaces around the entire Stable to make sure they hadn't tried hiding in them.”

I barely heard the rest of what he had said past my sister was missing. I don't really know how long I sat there on the bed, staring at nothing.  I was aware the others had stopped talking, and were all looking at me.  Even the timid Silverhoof had looked up to watch me.

With a grunt, I dropped off the bed, wincing as a stab of pain raced up my flank and back.  How had this all happened?  So many were dead. So many were missing...my sister...oh goddesses her daughter. How could I tell her?

“Shadow....I am sorry.  We all know how much your sister meant to you, hell we all thought the world of her and I can’t imagine what your going through at the moment but we need you to focus. We have decisions to make and we have to make them quickly.  The lives of all the ponies in this Stable rest on what we do next.”  Bright said, stepping up to me and laying a hoof gently on my shoulder.

I simply stood looking at him dumbly, until it hit me.  In the event of the Overmare being unavailable the head of Security was to take over until such time as another could replace her.  I looked around the room at the four ponies all looking back at me.  Looking to me for answers.

Closing my eyes, I took several deep breaths and tried to calm myself. My sister was gone.  The Stable was dieing around us.  The surface was clearly dangerous after what had come down here looking for us.  We’d lost so many ponies, so many friends and family members.  My sister was gone.  My sister.  I took another breath, before speaking, I had to be strong.

“We have to leave the Stable,” opening my eyes I looked to the others,“We've always known we'd be forced someday to abandon our home, make our way outside.  The morning of the attack, Ebony...” I nearly choked on the name, “...and I spoke of where we might go.  San Ponsico is the most likely choice.”

“But, it was destroyed in the war...according to what records we have, San Ponsico was a major war time port.  It had to have been destroyed.” Gearbox snorted, shaking his head,“We're better off trying to reach Kanter City to the east.  Or even Las Heygas.  It may still be standing at least.  I doubt the Zebras would waste their time with a city full of casinos and strip clubs.”

“We've been getting radio signals that say otherwise.” I grunted and shook off the remaining effects of dizziness as I looked up to the earth pony in front of me, he tilted his head to me.  Ever since we'd first taken a peek at the surface some fifty years ago, we'd been receiving radio signals coming from the west, it had been our only sign of life beyond our little hole.

“You mean that DJ?  The one calling herself Three Horns?  You can't be seriously thinking of trusting her?”

“We've all been listening in to her broadcasts since the day we repaired the radio antenna on the hill above the Stable.”  I answered shaking my head,“I don't believe it's a recording, everyday it's new.  I don't think she's lying about San Ponsico either, or the new Confederacy that's formed there.  Unless somepony had fifty years to record made up news and weather,” I added with a look to the dark blue pony.

“You don't think she's lying?” the engineer snorted and shook his head ears laying back.  I was ready for that, over the past few months my sister and I had been speaking more and more about how we’d make the trip, and each time it was mentioned, Gear had been saying the samething.

“Look, San Ponsico is the closest city to us, the ground is flat, and there are small towns we could shelter at along the way, perhaps towns still housing ponies.  If we go east to Kanter City, we'd need to cross the Povoni Desert. The surface is hardly the place to take foals and the elderly, let alone drag them across a desert.”

“When we sent search teams to the surface to look for our missing ponies we found the raider's tracks.  They were heading east.  Towards the desert, and since the only major city we know of was Kanter City, we have to assume that's where they are going,” Brightblade spoke up, the large red unicorn having remained silent for most of the conversation.  Now he turned to the others, standing beside me.

I glanced up to my taller friend and nodded my head in thanks, happy to know he trusted my decisions still.  The pony who spoke up next surprised me, given his role in the Stable and his responsibility to the well fair of the ponies within it. The surface was still a risky place, despite the lack of high levels of radiation. We’d seen evidence of mutant animals and plants.

“Our medical supplies are nearly gone. We were already low before this attack, and after treating so many wounded...” Dr Kindheart spoke up, the tired pony rubbing one eye with a hoof,“I hate the thought of any of my patents being dragged through the goddess forsaken wasteland above us and I insist we given them a few days to recover before we do anything.  But...I agree with Shadow, we can't survive the desert.”

The others all turned to the white stallion as he spoke, Gearbox and Silverhoof were both clearly surprised to hear him say such things, had he been hiding the sorry state of my medical supplies from Silver? If so, that was a feat in and of itself, to say nothing of making such things stretch as long as it seems he had.  Brightblade glanced my way and nodded his head slightly before speaking up again.

“We have to do something, and I believe what Shadow is suggesting is the best chance we have.”

“How do we know those towns are still there, or if the ponies in them are friendly?” Silverhoof spoke up finally, looking between us all.  She seemed ready to agree with me, but Gearbox was proving as stubborn as always.  With what he's had to deal with since taking his job, it was a gift.  Keeping the Stable's failing systems running for the past thirty years required a pony to be stubborn.

“We don't.  Look, either we stay here and wait for the Stable to fall apart around us, or we try our luck up on the surface.”  I snorted, narrowing my eyes  and flicking my ears to the side in annoyance at Gearbox and Silverhoof, “We're as good as dead here, either by lack of air, water, medical supplies, or those raiders coming back to finish us off.  They got inside once, they can likely do it again.”

I stood up and made my way towards the door, my hind leg bothering me still where that metal rod had sliced its way through.  Feeling like it was ready to buckle at any second, yet it managed to carry my weight.  Letting the door slide open I looked back at the others, my eyes narrowing on their faces.

“We're leaving Stable 45.  We'll meet tomorrow to discuss how exactly we'll be doing that, for the moment however...I have someone I need to see.”

As I walked out the door, I started moving down the hallway and towards the exit from the medbay.  Very nearly stumbling over my own hooves as I went, I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself as my heart began to race. I had to keep it together just a bit longer...but no, she was gone. Opening my eyes, I glanced around quickly and saw another open door to my right and quickly stepped inside.

Silently the door slid shut behind me and I leaned against the wall beside it, fighting off the surge of tears that threatened to spill out.  I couldn't break down yet, not yet. My eyes burned, and my heart was beating quickly, I couldn’t lose control just yet. Not yet...

The door opened again, and in trotted Nurse Spearmint, floating several bottles of medicine in front of her as she moved to the cabinets near the back wall.  Almost at once, she stopped and turned to look over at me beside the door.  For a moment we simply stood there staring at one another, before she turned and laid the bottles down upon a counter beside the metal cabinets.  Stepping up beside me she tilted her head slightly and gave a soft sigh, leaning forward to gently nuzzle my cheek.  Finally, I lost it.  I fell to my haunches and pressed my face against her neck.  I cried.  A hoof came up to gently stroke my mane and hold me close as I sobbed. 

Of all the ponies in the Stable, it would be with her I broke down.  She'd always been there for us, since the day my sister and I had been born.  She'd helped the doctor deliver us, gave us sweets when we had to get our shots. Mended my broken leg when I’d tried showing off for my friends in class.  Brought my niece into the world, and stayed by my sisters side when she very nearly lost her.  She was the grandmother we never knew.  She was always there, even after mom and dad had passed away.

“Shhh...it'll be alright, Shadow,” her soft voice whispered to me, just like she had when I was a little colt who'd gotten himself hurt playing with his friends, “It'll be alright.” as she pressed her face against my cheek, I felt the warmth of her own tears as she grieved with me.  For her, we were the children she never had, and she had lost one of us.

After several minutes, I managed to get myself under control, and pulled my head back, wiping my eyes and nose with the back of my foreleg. A tissue floated up before me, and I took it with a soft thank you.

“Do you want me to go with you?” the green unicorn asked softly, eyes watching me with concern. Her cheeks stained with tears, she would if I asked, but this was something I had to do myself.

“No, I should be the one to tell her.” I said, drying my eyes as best I could and wiping my nose.  Looking up I offered her a weak smile, “Thank you.”

She returned the smile, and nodded her head simply before stepping past me and back into the hallway beyond.  After a few minutes, I followed and walked towards the entrance to the medbay.  As I passed them, several offered me quiet words, thanking me for my efforts or sorrow for my loss.  The walk to the school seemed to take longer than it should, and my hooves felt wrapped in stone as I walked across the floor tiles.

As I entered, I was greeted by the sound of happy carefree children laughing and playing with one another in the large open room of the Stable's school.  The desks for the older fillies and colts had been pushed to the edges of the room, there would be no lessons today.  Today the children had been allowed to play.  But not all of them would, off to one side of the room sat seven small huddled forms.  Their teachers sitting beside them, one holding a small sleeping foal in her forelegs.  With a start I realized I knew that baby...it was Wendy's new foal, she'd been showing everypony in security his photo.  She’d been so proud of her new son, her first foal.  Curled up beside her teachers flanks was another small pony, barely three years old, June’s son lay still, he appeared asleep thankfully.  The little pony always ran up to me to ask me when his mother was getting off work, I don't think I could tell him she'd never be coming home, but then by the looks of his cheeks, somepony else had already done that.

Seven young ponies turned to look up hopefully, seven sets of bright tear stained eyes turning to see who had entered. but seeing me the hope died in all of them and they looked back down to the mats they were laying upon. One began to cry softly as she realized her mother or father was not coming in to tell them it had all been a mistake.  I looked away from the sight, how many more would soon join them in that corner?  Doctor Kindheart had side he was low on supplies. How many would die tonight due to that fact?  How many more orphans would we have when we crossed the Wasteland?

My niece was not among the group, and I quietly scanned the room for any sign of the little pink filly.  Despite it all, the rest of the children went about the room happily playing games with one another or by themselves, their parents still among the living, or they had yet to understand what had happened to them. Oblivious to the horrors that had befallen so many around them.  A few watched the same cartoon I had when I was young.  Others played with the same toys I had, sharing them among themselves.  So many small bright colors running, laughing and playing, it could almost help one forget what had happened. But then, all you had to do was look over your shoulder at the corner, and you would remember.

Finally, I spotted her having tea time at the back of the school, near the teacher's desk.  She was sitting beside a small table, toy cups and a tea pot laid out atop it.  Sitting in a chair across from her was her favorite doll, Ms Sparkles, a very old stuffed purple unicorn that had belonged to my sister.  Her buttons eyes had been replaced a dozon times over the years, and were mismatched in color, size and shape.  Her mane was spotty in places and her originally deep purple color had faded to a lighter shade from too many washes.  As I neared, I heard her speaking to the doll.

“More tea Ms Sparkles?” she was asking, picking up the tea pot and 'pouring' more tea into the doll's cup with a tiny hoof.  Looking up as I approached, her smile brightened the room.

“Look Ms Sparkles, it's Uncle Shadow!  It's Uncle Shadow!” with a happy little laugh she jumped up and attempted to tackle me, only managing to wrap herself around my right foreleg and squeeze as tight as she could.

“Hey, Tiny.” I smiled down to her, my voice catching in my throat as I looked into those wide happy yellow eyes.  Her tiny horn rubbed against me Pipbuck as she finally let me go.

“Mommy said she was going to ask you about letting me sleep over, but I haven’t seen mommy or you in days!!!  Auntie Mintie has been letting me stay with her, she said mommy and you was realllly busy!”

I kept the smile on my face as I sat down beside my niece, oh Celestia how was I going to explain this to her?  Looking down into her bright smiling face and those happy yellow eyes, how could I tell her, her mother was never coming back?  I did not want to believe it myself.

“Yes, we have been very busy, Tiny.  But I’m afraid I have some bad news to give you.” at those words, the filly’s bright smile began to fade and she moved closer to me her weak grip tightening around my leg.

“Is mommy sick?  The teacher’s told us some of the nice ponies got sick...so that’s why they are looking after some of us.  Kicker’s parents are both sick I think...he...he’s been crying a lot today...”

“Your...mommy’s very sick, Tiny.  She had to...go away to try and get better,” lying to her made my stomach knot, but she was far to young to understand about death or what it meant.  I used the same excuse Ebony had when Sugar had asked about her father and why he never visited them.

“Mommy went to the same place as daddy?”

“Yes, Tiny she did...its very far away and it might be a long time before she can return to us.”

“Daddy never came back...I...I don’t want mommy to never come back...” tears began to form in those wide golden eyes, small legs wrapping once more around mine.

“I know, Tiny.  I want her to come back too.”  Gently I lowered myself down to the floor and nuzzled my niece, closing my eyes as I fought back fresh tears. I had to be strong for her. Her small pink form crawling in between my fore legs to press her head against my chest.

“In a few days, we’re going to be leaving the Stable; we’re going on a little trip.  It will be a long trip, but at the end of it we’ll find a new place to live and build us a new home.  There will be new ponies to meet as well...I’ll bet you’ll make lots of new friends there.”

“But...if we leave now...how will mommy and daddy find us?” the words were spoken so softly I nearly missed them.  Wiping away the tears from my eyes I opened them and looked back to my niece. She had turned her head to look up at me, her small nose lightly touching mine and large gold eyes staring intently into my own.

“I’ll leave a note in your home...when they come back they’ll find it and know where to look for us...”

“But...what if they can’t find it?  What if mommy and daddy can’t find the Stable...or if the monster under my bed steals the note...” her tiny face was filled with worry,“I know...you can go find them...and take them to meet us at our new home?”

“I...don’t know...”

“You can find them, Uncle...your the bravest bestest pony in the Stable...” she tried her best to squeeze my leg with her smaller ones,“You can find mommy and daddy and bring them back...and then we can all live happy again in our new home as a family.”

For the moment I simply sat there and held my niece.  Was there a chance Ebony was still alive?  Why would they take them out to just kill them somewhere else?  Did they want them for something?  If they did...then perhaps she was still alive.   But if I left, who would take care of Tiny and would it be right to abandon her?  Leave her with no family left for the small chance to save my sister and her mother?

Could I really live with myself if I didn’t try?



*     *     *     *     *



I stood silently in my sisters office, eyes scanning the room where I knew my twin had last been.  Behind me lay the ruins of her door, blasted off it’s hinges by a crude explosive, pieces of the metal door were scattered around the room.  Looking up from the floor, I glanced across her desk.  Bullet holes ran across the old wood finish where they had shot into the office.  Spent shell casing crunching beneath my hooves as I walked towards the desk.  Here or there on the floor were small pools of blood, from who I had no idea, but the idea of some of it belonging to my sister made me look away.

Looking atop the desk, I saw a mess of papers laying scattered about and picture frames overturned.  Stepping around behind it, I began looking over the papers and saw the normal reports that would come to my sisters desk every day.  Files on repairs and injured ponies lay here and there as well.  

Turning, I looked over the wall behind the desk, several filing cabinets lined the wall, but above them were two boards hanging from the wall with a few notes stuck to them.  However, both were largely covered with drawings by a small foal.  Nearly all had vast amounts of pink and black used.  I smiled and looked at the hoof drawn images of a small pink pony and two large black ponies surrounding by smiling ponies in a gray box. 

One by one I began taking them down from the board, deciding to take them with me when we left.  I looked back around the small room, and all the little personal touches my sister had put into the place.  There in the corner was the plant I had given her for her seventeenth birthday, blooming every spring with small pink flowers.  And there was the tiny metal pony figure dancing on its hooves that mother had given her when she was a foal.  Back when she wanted to be a ballerina.  I gently picked up the figurine and laid in atop the desk with the drawings. Sugar should have it...

As I turned back to the desk my eye was drawn to the over turned picture frames and I reached a hoof out to right them.

The first image I remembered quiet well.  Four happy faces looked back at me from the photo, taken about sixteen years ago on the Stable’s annual picnic.  Our father and mother sat beside one of the apple trees on a checkered blanket smiling to the two young black ponies sitting before them, showing off their new cutie marks with pride. 

The second photo was more recent, and was of Sugar’s first birthday, the tiny foal happily munching on a cupcake nearly as large as her. Frosting covering her face and small hooves but doing little to hide that bright smile of hers.  Beside her, her uncle sat covered in much the same way in frosting as he ate his own cupcake, and her mother stood laughing behind the two, floating presents up for the foal to open.  The glass was cracked however, and would need replaced.

Reaching up a hoof I wiped away the tears before they could spill out fully and looked around the office.  Was there really no hope in saving her? Should I really just give up and go west with everypony else?

Sitting back in the chair my sister had sat in, I laid my head atop the desk and shut my eyes.  We’d be leaving the Stable soon.  Heading for a new home in San Ponsico with new ponies and new hopes.

Opening my eyes I looked back up to the photos on the desk, eyes drawn to the one of my niece's birthday.  The cracked glass divided the photo now, separating Ebony from myself and Sugar Pie.  I reached a hoof up and worked the latch on the back of the frame and pulled the photo out slowly, the shards of glass falling atop the desk.  With my other hoof I wiped away the dust from the photo and looked to my sister, once more beside her family.

No...

Standing up, I placed the photos atop the pile and carefully packed them away inside a bag and picked it up with my teeth, eyes narrowed and ears pinned back.

No...so long as there was still a chance...I would  get my sister back.



	*     *     *     *     *



My niece lay beside me in my bed, her stuffed unicorn toy held tightly in her small legs as she slept softly against me.  It had been two days since our talk in the school and the question she had asked me.  Could I go find her mommy and daddy?  Her father was long since dead and buried on the surface, but her mother...

I had decided a day before when I’d been cleaning out my sister’s office and home I had to at least try and find her, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.

With that in mind, I had things I needed to see to before I could set out. My niece for one, but that proved the easiest to solve.  Spearmint would take care of the filly on the trip.  She was already like part of our family so I felt safe leaving her with the older mare.  I also knew Brightblade and Twist would look after her.

The problem of who to leave in charge while I was gone was answered as well.  Brightblade had already taken over my duties as head of Security, with Twist picking up for him.  He was a smart pony, far smarter then I.  I trusted him to do what was right for the Stable and keep the ponies safe.

That however still left me with a problem...how to tell him I was leaving...

Careful not to disturb my sleeping niece, I climbed out of bed and walked towards the door, glancing back to make sure she was still asleep before stepping out into the hall



	*     *     *     *     *



Entering the Security Office, I noticed how busy it seemed.  Nearly all the surviving security ponies were present, even a few I'm sure Dr Kindheart would rather weren't.  Brightblade had been busy organizing the ponies we had left into groups for our trip (their trip I silently reminded myself, as I would not be going with them).  We all knew first hoof of the threats the surface had to offer.  The raiders had left their mark on us, and no pony wanted to go through it again.

Brightblade stood in the center of a small group, looking down at a pre-war map unrolled across a table in the center of the room.  Twist, Bluebelle and Blaze were all gathered around the large red unicorn as he floated a pen across the path they'd be taking.  We'd both gone over it two days before, and had decided to follow the highway as much as we could.  It would be easier on those ponies pulling the heavy carts Gearbox had been busy building to carry the supplies and wounded.

As I approached them, Bright looked up,offered me a smile, and motioned me over to them.  Stepping up to the table, I looked down at the old map, it was much the same as it had been two nights ago.

Bright had split security into five bands of four ponies each. Two out of the four would be given the few suits of riot armour our Stable had been assigned.  The thicker padding and more closed in helmet would stop most small arms fire.  Even the spray from a grenade could be survived so long as it did not explode too close.  Each would be given a shotgun, pistol, baton and ammo.  These weapons would be further augmented by recovered guns from the dead raiders.  While most were good for little more then spare parts, enough remained to be spread out between the groups.  The added fire power of a machine gun or rifle might make the difference in a battle.  They would roam a little out from the rest of the ponies, forming a screen around them.

It was a solid plan, a plan he had come up with on his own.  I looked up from the map to the faces of the ponies around me, they all listened closely to his orders, asking a question ever so often when they were unclear on something.  However, they had been over this plan the past two days, and would likely go over it again before we left tomorrow.  They had all been trained well, and I was proud of each and every one of them.

Once they were finished, Bright moved over to me and offered me a friendly smile,“Checking up on me, Shadow?”

I smiled to him and shook my head,“No, my friend. But we do need to talk...somewhere private.” I nodded my head towards my former office.  He cocked his head slightly, but nodded back to me before speaking over his shoulder.

“Alright...Twist, go check the weapons one last time, and take Flash with you.”

Looking over I saw the two ponies nod their heads and trot off to the armoury door.  Flash seemed to have grown up over the past few days, he would have had to.  After what he saw in the entrance room, he wouldn’t be the same cocky brash pony he had been.  I was thankful, those traits would get him killed on the surface.  I heard he had fought bravely beside Twist when the raiders had nearly broken into medical.  His right foreleg was still wrapped in bandages from getting sliced up when a grenade exploded near him.  Twist, however, still did not seem her usual self.  I had heard Whisper would make a full recovery, but nearly losing her grandson and last surviving family member, had given the old mare pause.  She didn’t speak much lately, and seemed a bit withdrawn.  Bright had been worried about the sudden change, but I told him all he could really do was be there for her and let her get back to work.  Letting her take time off would be a mistake in her case.

Stepping into my office, I looked over the nearly empty room.  Two days of packing and salvaging had left the Stable a shell of it’s former self.  The only thing still familiar to me within the room was my father’s desk.  Made of actual wood and matching the one in my sisters office, it had been here since the day the Stable had first been sealed, it seemed fitting it would still be here long after the day it was abandoned.  I remembered so many days sitting atop it while my father worked; drawing pictures and pretending I was my father running security.  Ebony use to play with me on most days, we’d even hid under it the day I tried cleaning mom’s good dress with bleach.  Ebony had run off with me that day, even though she was not in trouble.  She was always looking out for me...

“Shadow? Whats going on?” Bright’s voice brought me back from my pleasant memories to the harsh realities of the present.  Turning, I looked back at my old friend as he shut the door behind him.

“Bright, I won’t be joining you on the trip to San Ponsico.  I’m going to try and find my sister.”

“What?!” well, that was the expected response.  The unicorn stood frozen in the middle of the office, green eyes locked on me.  After a moment he shook his head and stepped up beside me.

“Shadow...I know your still upset but you can’t do this.  You don’t even know where they took her...or if she’s even still alive.”

“She’s still alive, why else would they take her and the others?  What’s the point in dragging them off somewhere only to kill them there?” I reasoned, shaking my head,“No, they had some reason for it.  I have to find out what happened to her, Bright.”

“I doubt there is any real reason to those crazed raiders, Shadow.  You saw them...hacking at wounded and dead ponies like rabid animals in the middle of a fight,” came his own response.  The unicorn looked worried now. He knew he was not going to talk me out of this.

“I know, Bright.  But, I have to at least try.” looking back over to him, I pressed on,“I need you to look after everypony while I’m gone.  I already spoke with Spearmint, she’ll be taking care of Sugar.”

“Dammit, Shadow...you’re going to get yourself killed.  And then what? Sugar will be left with no family to raise her.”  I smiled slightly to his words, knowing there was more to it then that.

“Sugar has all of you, she’s been raised by more then just Ebony or myself.”  Which was indeed true, ever since her birth, nearly everypony in the Stable had taken some interest in the tiny pink filly.  She was always being given a treat or small toy by the ponies around her.  Her sudden birth combined with the death of her father had touched a lot of hearts.  Not to mention the effect the tiny little filly had on ponies, her smile alone had made even gruff Gearbox laugh.

“And what am I suppose to do, eh?  Just watch you run off?  My closest friend?”  We had been through a lot over the years.  ‘As close as brothers’ my mother had said of us. But, as the years went by and we grew up, Bright began to have other feelings for me, feelings I could not return to him.  He liked stallions and me...well, I had no idea really. I never had much luck with romance. To me, he was my big brother, despite me being a few months older then him.  Our friendship was something I had always valued, and always would.

“Bright, if there was any other way, I’d take it...but I don’t think I could be happy never knowing.”

His ears dropped and he sighed softly in defeat.  He knew he couldn't talk me out of it.  Looking over to me, he nodded his head once and sat down at the desk heavily, minutes passed and we said nothing else.

“I know...I don’t think I could either.”  With a grunt he stood up and turned to face me,“Well...if you’re set on doing this, you’re not going off on your own empty hoofed.  No friend of mine is going off half-assed into a post apocalyptic wasteland in naught but his cutie mark.”

For the next hour we sat about figuring what I would need, and what I could carry on my own.  He knew me well enough by now to know what I was capable of, so the list he drew up of ammo and supplies I largely agreed upon;  although I did need to change a few of the numbers and I knew they’d need the food purifiers we still had running more then I so I refused to take one.

In the end, I would be setting out with my combat shotgun, one hundred rounds of ammo, a set of the riot armour, enough food and water for a week, and some medical supplies.  More supplies then I liked taking away from the Stable, but any less then that and I might as well just admit my little trip was a suicide mission.

After leaving security, I went to inspect how the rest of the Stable was fairing.  Everywhere I went, ponies were busy.  A team of techies trotted past carrying boxes of spare parts with them.  Gearbox, though still opposed to the idea of leaving, did his job.  And he did it as stubbornly as always.  Somehow, he'd managed to get the Stable’s overworked systems to continue pumping fresh clean water for the past two days.  Every available container had been filled with the most important resource we had.  He then began stripping the systems that had already failed due to the clogged vents and broken them down into spare parts.  His teams of tech engineers wandered the Stable's access crawl spaces and maintenance rooms for anything of use to us. Several shed tears as they tore apart machines they had fought so hard to maintain for so long.

My path took me past medical, where the good Dr. Kindheart and his staff worked to insure our wounded would manage.  Looking inside, I saw most of the wounded sitting up, or moving about by themselves.  Several still lay on the beds, but were at least alert.  Whisper was along them, as was Wendy.  The mare had survived her wounds, and was even now sleeping with her foal wrapped up in her forelegs.  Only fourteen of the wounded would need to be carried or helped along, and many of them would soon be able to manage on their own. Volunteers from the Stable had agreed to pull the medical wagons Gearbox had been building for the wounded and large equipment that would be taken, freeing the nurses and doctors for other duties.  Having spent the last hour listening in on Bright’s final plans for the move, I knew that what few medical supplies were left would be spread between the medical staff so that, should the need arise, any one of them could help a wounded pony.  Stepping aside, I let several ponies pass, carrying makeshift saddle bags and other containers into medical. With the help of Nurse Spearmint they began to box up the few medical supplies left in the storage rooms.

Turning away I headed back up to the Atrium and my quarters, where Tiny was likely awake by now, and I would need to spend the last few hours with her.

As I walked into the entrance room, I saw ponies working silently among the piles of supplies and gear scattered around the room.  Anything and everything that could be of use to us was being removed from the Stable.  From tools to the sheets off the beds, whatever could be carried, we took.  In the center of the room, directing the organized chaos, was Silverhoof.  The mare had proven herself more then able for the task at hoof.  From sorting the supplies to assigning ponies to carry them, she'd thrown herself into the task.  Within the past two days, she had effectively stripped the entire Stable of anything usable, neatly boxing and sorting the gathered spoils.  When we left the Stable tomorrow, we would leave behind a largely empty metal shell.

I approached the soft spoken mare and she turned to look at me, a clip board floating beside her.  Almost at once, she looked down and seemed to shrink.  Bluebelle had told me once that security ponies intimidated her (but then, she seemed intimidated by a great many things, like loud sounds, the darkness, the light, quiet sounds...).

“Everything going alright, Silver?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as friendly as I could and the mare simply nodded her horned head to me and lightly kicked at something upon the floor.

Around us, ponies continued to work, loading their created supplies onto the small carts and wagons Gearbox's ponies had made for the trip.  That stubborn old bastard had hammered them together from bed frames, hatch covers and wonder glue.  They looked rough, but I had no doubt they would do the job and see them to were they where going.

“Do you need any more help?” and once again, she responded by moving her head, shaking it ‘no’ and seemed less likely to say much more then that.

“Alright....so....I guess I’ll let you get back to work then...” smiling I backed away from the shy mare and turned away.  As I trotted away I glanced once more about the Atrium before allowing myself to look up to the Overmare’s office.  The few items I had taken from inside along with those from her room I would give to Spearmint, she would see to them while I was away.  I just hoped someday I’d be able to reclaim them, along with my sister.




*     *     *     *     *



 When the day to leave had finally arrived, it was meet with mixed emotions by the ponies of Stable 45.  Chief among these emotions was fear and uncertainty.  They found themselves upon the surface of what could very well have been an alien world.  Records from the Stable had painted the surface as a rich green farm land, with vast tracks of wild prairie grass and small towns and cities before the war.  Now, however, there was little more then patches of brown scrub brush and dark rocks covering the landscape for as far as the eye could see. Over the past one hundred and seventy eight years little had changed upon the surface except, perhaps, for the radiation levels.

Many a pony was uneasy at the sense of openness around them, having lived their entire lives in a enclosed environment where all one had to do was walk far enough and a wall would separate you from the unknown.  They huddled together with one another and looked up at the sky. It was a fact most of those who had been going to the surface had become use to and so most of the security ponies was more quick to adapt to the sudden change.

Behind them, the hillside the Stable had been built back into rose up to a rocky point.  The site had been chosen to protect the Stable from a direct hit from a balefire bomb.  I doubted however the Zebras would have wasted their time or limited resources on destroying one of over a hundred or more armoured shelters protecting not even a quarter of the population of Equestria.  Stable 45 originally housed Rock Farmers and a small number of local Army solders lucky enough to be stationed nearby when the bombs fell.

Turning my gaze away from the hillside, I looked out towards the west and the flat plains before me.  The odd rocky hill or clumps of twisted black things which we had discovered were long dead trees, stood out against the desolate landscape.  A humid breeze rustled the hairs of my mane and tail, kicking up a cloud of dust as it blew across the assembled ponies.  It smelled...odd outside.

“Well...this sucks...” Brightblade said beside me, looking over the twisted scene before him, his eyes taking in the thick cloud covered sky above us.  He turned back to look over the survivors of our Stable behind us. They were checking their saddle bags and tightening belts and straps.  Those selected to pull the carts began to strap themselves in, while the medical ponies finished helping the wounded into the carts marked out for them.  Armoured ponies moved around the others, ensuring everything was happening as planned. Once they had checked their assigned groups, they moved into their respective positions at the edge of the herd.

I felt Brightblade’s eyes pass back over to me again, and I knew he was about to try once last time to talk me out of what I had already decided to do.

"Are you sure about this Shadow?  Those tracks we found could end suddenly if this wind picks up enough.  Or if they started following a road or the ground becomes to rocky for tracks.  Its been nearly six days, there's a very good chance she's dead...and your niece..."  My friend refused to let the argument go.

My niece.  The one pony that had made me question my decision on leaving to find Ebony but then, she had been the one to suggest it in the first place and perhaps the only pony to think I had a chance of actually returning, myself included.  Once again, those questions popped into my head. Would I be better off going west with her? Would she be better off not losing the only other member of her family left?  She was among the other young children, safely sitting upon a cart with Nurse Spearmint walking beside it. The old mare had been tasked with helping the teachers look after the young ones on the trip.  I had already said my goodbyes to my niece that morning...

Tiny finished packing her small saddle bags with what toys she would bring with us, she had picked only her purple stuffed unicorn and a few books. The rest she had left behind in favor of taking photos of her mother, father and myself as well as a few personal effects of my sister she wanted to carry with her.

As I finished my own packing I trotted up to the door and glanced back over my room. It, like the rest of the Stable, was largely empty of any personal effects. Even my small garden had been packed away for the trip. The seeds and radiation free soil would be of use when they reached their new home.

Turning back to the doorway I saw my niece standing there waiting on me, and I had to smile. She looked so much like my sister, even the way she tilted her head. She smiled back and rushed up to hug my leg once again.

“You promise to come back, right Uncle Shadow?” the small filly asked, and I nodded my head to her.

“I promise.”

“Pinkie Promise?” she asked with large gold eyes and I chuckled softly.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I went through the motions of the swear, it had been taught to my sister and I by our parents. They had in turn, been taught by their parents and so on. It seemed to do the trick and she jumped up and down happily before she began tugging on my leg.

“Come on then...we don’t want to be late!”

With a sigh the memory faded away and I turned away from staring at the horizon to look to my friend.

“I'm sure, Blade.  I can't just leave my sister to those raiders...even if there's the smallest chance she's still alive.”  I pointed a hoof at the ground before us, the signs of several ponies and wagons clearly evident in the dry soil, “It'll be easy enough to follow them.  And if their tracks dry up, I'll think of something.  I always have before,” I added, though the look on his face was clear.  He did not like my choice.

Behind my friend, another pony stood silently watching us. The yellow earth pony looking worriedly to the larger red unicorn, I offered him a smile and a nod, which he returned weakly, though I knew what he was worried about. Blade giving voice to his worst fears and causing him to step forward towards us.

“Dammit, Shadow.  I can't let you just go wandering off on your own!” stomping his hoof in anger,“You get lost easily and you'll never stop and ask for directions.”

“Oh, no my friend.  Somepony has to lead the Stable to safety, as the new head of security that'd be your job now.”  I nodded my head towards the yellow earth pony behind him,“Besides, Goldmane would kill you and me if you ran off and left him out here by himself.”  Goldmane, the pony my dearest friend had taken up with once he knew I’d never be with him.  It seemed the yellow earth pony was forever living in my shadow, a fact that had caused us some trouble for a time when they had first started going out.  But, we had managed to work things out in the end.  For Brightblade’s sake if nothing else.

Glancing back to Gold, he lowered his head and said softly,“I know...it's just we've never had to say good bye before...not like this.”

“Nonsense, I'll be back before you know it.” I said with as warm a smile as I could muster.  Neither Blade or Gold seemed able to see through it.  I honestly held little hope I'd ever find them again, it was a big wasteland after all, and after the short taste we had; it was a deadly place to be alone.  Reaching over, I laid a hoof on his shoulder and hugged him. After several minutes we pulled apart and he turned away.

Quietly he walked away, Goldmane stepping up to gently nuzzle his cheek.  Turning from the pair, I scanned the horizon for any signs of the distant cities.  According to the old maps we had, Kanter City was several weeks journey to the east by hoof and San Ponsico nearly as far to the west. The maps were over one hundred and fifty years old. Still, I doubted anypony had added roads or cities since that time.  The raiders seemed to be heading due east, and since there was little else between here and the mountain range that separated west Equestria from east it seemed the likely place to go. It had most likely been hit by a balefire bomb, as had ever other major city across the country.

The sound of movement from behind me snapped me out of my thoughts, and I turned to watch as they started moving westward, Brightblade in the lead with Gold beside him.  Even if the raiders were not heading to Kanter City, San Ponsico was the best choice to find help or at least shelter.  The few wagons rolled past me, followed by several dozen ponies on hoof.  The security teams started to spread out around the rest, to give a better warning should they be attacked.  As the last wagon rolled past, I looked up to see Wendy laying on her side, shotgun held in her front legs.  She might never fully regain the use of her hind legs, but she was not about to stop being a security pony.

Upon seeing me look at her, she nodded her head and waved towards me, a wave which I returned.  At the head of the caravan Blade turned to watch the groups trudging along the dry earth and looked back to me.  We stared at one another for a moment before he turned and disappeared over the hill.  I stood there watching as the others followed him across the hill, disappearing from my sight one by one. Knowing nearly ever name of the ponies I watched.  Some co workers.  Many friends.  Only three family. As the last wagon crested the hill, and dropped below, I felt suddenly so very alone.

 I doubted I'd ever see any of them again, and I prayed to Celestia and Luna to guide them and keep them safe on their journey.

I looked up the side of the hill to the sealed door, and the large 45 painted in fading white numbers across it.  Our home was empty now, silent.  The gray halls and rooms would never again ring with the laughter of ponies, protect us from the harsh realities of the outside world.  Our home.  With a soft sigh, I turned away from the sight of the  Stable door and turned towards the east. I had a long walk ahead of me.



*     *     *     *     *



 The wasteland stretched out for what seemed like forever.  With every step of my hooves, dust rose from the dry cracked earth.  It was humid, the air thick and foul smelling.  Below my jumpsuit and barding I was beginning to sweat.  There was little to see around me, rocks, brown grass, the odd pile of unidentifiable bones.  After stopping to check the seventh pile for fear one might have been my sister, I soon realized they had been laying here forgotten for sometime.  They were turned yellow and brittle with age, bits of rusted metal poking out from here or there among them. After looking closer I soon discovered they were bullets.  I stopped looking at them after that.  I felt the ground begin to slope downwards after another thirty minutes of travel, my path seemed to be taking me down into the far flatter lands below the Stable.  Far off in the distance, the hazy sight of mountains rose up into the gray over cast sky.

Ahead of me the hoof prints of the raiders remained on a near straight path east.  They made no effort to hide their tracks, after all who'd be crazy enough to come after them?  The odd bit of debris was the only other sign I had of their passing.  Empty food cans, spent shell casings and the like lay scattered across the ground between the hoof prints.  Idly, I wondered which set belonged to my sister and the other ponies taken from the Stable.  There were little differences in the tracks, some smaller other larger, but that was about all I could make out.  I'd come across no sign of their bodies thus far, though it appeared they hadn't stopped to rest anywhere near here.  At least not yet.

My E.F.S. (Eye's Forward Sparkle) remained clear as I checked it once more.  There was nothing out there, hostile or otherwise.  Beyond a few small scorpions and the odd bird circling over head I'd found no other signs of life. Every so often, my Pipbuck would click, letting me know there were still traces of radiation in the area, none lethal unless I decided to roll around in the stuff for a few hours.

Not for the first time, my eyes wandered to the sky overhead or rather the thick gray clouds that covered it.  For as long as we'd been coming to the surface, the sky remained hidden behind that gray curtain.  Not once had any pony reported seeing the sun or the moon.  An odd fact, surely after more then fifty years the weather would have changed.  According to the history books and tapes, the pegasi controlled the weather in Equestria, able to move clouds about with their own hooves like an earth pony could a rock or book.  Had the war killed them all?  Like us, had they been hidden away in Stables somewhere and had yet to come out?  Or had the radiation done something to the sky as it had to the land?  Twisted it somehow?

What about the other Stables?  There had been nearly a hundred of them scattered across the surface before the war, perhaps more.  From what little I'd heard over the years from Three Horns, it sounded as if most around San Ponsico had opened a few years ago.  Was that the case else where?  Had they all left and begun rebuilding on the surface?  But what about the raiders?  Who where they?  Ponies left above while the rest was below?

With a soft snort, I shook my head and looked once more ahead of me, my thoughts having distracted me enough that I hadn't noticed it was starting to get dark...or darker.  I could barely see the hoof prints ahead of me, let alone the now hidden mountains off in the distance.  I reached to switch on my Pipbuck light but stopped.  If I turned it on out here, I might as well wear a sign that said, ‘Aim here please.  Dumb ass Stable pony looking to get killed.’ Lowering my left hoof away from the Pipbuck I frowned and started forwards again, careful where I placed my hooves.

A soft beep from my Pipbuck started me and I quickly looked down to the gray device wrapped around my right foreleg, the soft green glow of the screen flashing something.  Stopping, I lifted it up to my face to see a map had appeared on it. The green grid showed my location with a arrow pointing east. Behind me was the tag for Stable 45, but my eyes were drawn to a new point ahead of me. The name Lonesome Hoof stared back at me from the screen.  How did it know what was ahead of me?  Lonesome Hoof?  What the hell was that?

Looking up, I stared off into the darkness around me, eyes wandering away from the path and off to the right.  There.  Dark shapes loomed up ahead of me, square and blocky.  Buildings?  Had I found a town out in the middle of nowhere?  A better question: had the raider's stopped here the night after the attack or were they still here?

Turning away from the dark shapes I switched to my E.F.S once more and scanned the surrounding area for any signs of life.  Once again there was nothing.  Neither green nor red dots appeared in my vision or the screen itself; just the glowing name of the town, and my current location.

I frowned and looked back to the path ahead of me, the gathering darkness making it harder to see the prints in the dry ground. I could press on and stumble about blindly, or I could seek shelter now and press on at first light. The raiders had nearly a weeks head start on me, and they likely knew the land. I did not.  I'd do my sister no good if I stumbled down a cliff and broke my legs or neck.  With reluctance I turned away from the prints and started towards the row of buildings.

Approaching the town from the west, I could make out several dark buildings along what appeared to have been a roadway.  The darkened shapes become more noticeable the closer I trotted, and soon enough I could make out more details.  Most stood no taller then two stories, and nearly all had there windows and doorways boarded up.  It had not stopped them from being broken into however, several showed signs of forced entry, the boards having been ripped off doors or windows and tossed into the street.  As my hooves touched the cracked pavement of the road, I saw further damage to the small collection of buildings.  Beyond the broken boards there were fallen walls and several caved in roofs.  One building had collapsed entirely in on itself scattering rubble across the roadway in front of me.  I scanned the buildings once more with my E.F.S. Nothing.

Carefully, I walked towards what had at one time been a store of some kind.  The sign above the door creaked softly as a breeze blew down the street causing me to shiver a bit.  Glancing up at it I could barely read,'Ma and Pa's General Store,' the lettering was faded and it looked like somepony had used it for target practice.  Looking closer, I could see the sign itself was shaped like two pony heads side by side with happy smiles and what looked like glasses perched upon the tips of their snouts. It’d been a nice thing to see, if not for the fact somepony had shot several holes into the sign.

Frowning, I lowered my eyes and looked into the darkness of the doorway, the door itself lay just beyond I saw.  It looked like it had been kicked down by hoof.  Stepping over it, I quickly scanned the dark room, rows of empty shelves stared back at me, a few in the back were turned over, scattering boxes of cleaning supplies and empty boxes across the floor.  Going further inside, my right hoof kicked over a tin can that had been sitting near the doorway and sent it rattling around, rolling to a halt beside the over turned cash register.  Switching my light on, I passed it left and right, seeing little of interest.  This place had likely been picked clean a hundred and seventy years ago, anything of use would have long since been taken away.  My narrow shaft of light passed over piles of refuse, empty beer bottles and animal dung.  The place smelled as good as it looked.  I was just about to turn and walk out when my beam of light reflected off something metal in the corner.  Turning the light back quickly I caught sight of a box sitting off to itself.

Seeing how I had little to lose, I moved towards it, my hooves crunching loudly upon shards of glass and other bits littering the floor.  In the enclosed space, it seemed as loud as a gun shot and I almost winced, until I reminded myself this place had long since been abandoned.  Nearing the box, I saw the padlock attached to the top, and clear signs somepony had been trying to get inside.  The lid was heavily scared and dented, and the lock itself was blacked and chipped, but it had refused to budge.

After scanning the room once again, I sat down before the box and twisted my head around to rummage in my saddlebags.  Within a moment I had what I wanted and pulled out a screw driver and pin.  Working in security had taught me a bit, and having had marefriends who liked odd kinks had taught me even more: like how to unlock hoof cuffs and run like hell while she was distracted.  Needless to say, I never dated again after that.  Come to think of it, maybe I should have given Bright a chance, I never did have much luck with the mares...

Carefully, I pushed the pin into the lock with my mouth and slid the screwdriver in with my hoof.  Working slowly, I twisted and turned the pin inside the lock, ears perked as I listened for the clicks of the tumblers.  Luckily, whoever had tried to break in had not damaged the lock.  Within seconds I heard a soft click and the padlock snapped open.  Putting my tools away I turned back to the box and slide the padlock off  and dropped it onto the floor.  Pushing the lid open with a hoof, I leaned over to look inside.  I had mixed results: A box of shotgun shells which I could make use of (though I was slightly unsure of how reliable they'd be after one hundred and seventy years in a box), a few lose rifle bullets rolled around the bottom (these would not be as useful-Still, I wasn't about to just leave them behind), pre-war coins with Celestia and Luna on them would be nearly useless, as I doubted I'd run across any banks while wandering the wasteland, lastly a pile of papers, ladies and gentlecolts we have the most useless item inside the box.

Tucking the ammo and coins away, I shuffled through the papers and found little of interest, just invoices and receipts. Tossing them back inside the box, I quietly closed the lid and stood back up.  A quick trot around the room turned up nothing else of worth.  Checking the back doors and hallways of the building reveled half of the roof had recently collapsed and buried whatever had been in those back rooms.  Turning away from the rubble-blocked doorways, I turned and moved back out onto the street.

Scanning the other nearby buildings, I decided to check one or two more before finding some place to bed down for the night.  As I moved down the row of buildings I came across what appeared to have been somepony’s home. Yet, there was something off about this single building.  It stood no taller then the rest, two stories.  It also seemed more intact than most, no signs of any real damage to the walls...then it hit me: the windows and door were still boarded up. Clearly no pony had gotten inside yet.

Moving around the building carefully, I scanned the first and second floors for any signs of a way inside and found none.  As I walked through a trash strew alley way between it and another building, I came across the back door of the home.  Like the front door it was boarded up, however there were far fewer boards here.  Looking around the ground, I found a rusted metal pole. Digging it out, I pulled it up to the doorway and shoved one end behind a board.

Prying the boards off the back door proved more difficult then I expected, the nails had been in the wall for so long it seemed they had rusted to it.  With a grunt, I worked the piece of metal with my hooves and mouth into the space between the boards and worked it back and forth. With a creak the wood began to give way, and with another twist of the pole, the board broke in half, landing heavily between my hooves.  Letting out a grunt, I set to work on the remaining boards until finally I had cleared most of them out of my way.

Reaching a hoof up to the door I started to push it open when I stopped. In the back of my mind I suddenly thought, this had been somepony’s home, and here I was breaking into it.  Never mind whoever had lived here had died over a hundred and seventy years ago.

Still, I had no wish to stay outside, so with a twist of the knob, I opened the door.  Its rusted hinges barely letting it swing half way open before it stopped.  With a grunt I pushed at the stuck door and it refused to budge.  Looking at the opening I walked up and poked my head around the corner of the doorway and lifted my Pipbuck's light up to see inside.

It was dark, and dust floated around the room from the sudden burst of air I had created, and it smelled musty.  It was, however, intact.  I was looking into the kitchen of the home, the stove sat nearby with several pans atop it. Cabinets lined the wall leading off towards a large open entrance in the wall to the rest of the home.  Craning my neck and hoof around the doorway, I saw stairs leading up and a dark dining room.

The space the door had opened up was just wide enough for a pony to slip inside, a pony not wearing saddle bags or armour. Reaching back I unbuckled my bags and dropped them to the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust that settled within moments.  The armour would stay on for now.  Tossing the bags inside, I managed to worm into the open space scraping the wooden door frame with my riot armour and nearly strangling myself when the strap from my shotgun got caught on the doorknob itself.

Once I'd extracted myself from the door and re-donned my bags I looked around the kitchen, poking my nose into the closed cabinets and found little of use.  Most had cooking pans and pots, several of the top ones held plates, bowls and glasses.  Across the counter were several appliances from can openers to a mixer.  Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.  In the last cabinet I found a box of cereal, ‘Apple Bombs’ after checking the contents I was surprised to find them still good if a little stale.

Walking to the fridge I opened it and had a look inside.  There were several bottles of water which I took, along with something called Cram and some kind of little snack cakes.  I tossed them all in with the box of cereal and closed the door.  I'd sort through it later.

The remainder of the first floor provided me with little else of use.  I found scuff marks across the living room floor, leading towards the couch and chairs pushed against the front door.  Somepony had been trying to keep something out it seems, looters perhaps?  As I turned to check the other rooms, I noticed a table near the fireplace, with a picture frame sitting on it.  Curiosity caused me to step closer and pick the frame up in a hoof, shining my light on it.  

It was a photo of the family who had once called this home.  The background was bright and green, and blue water seemed to fade off in the distance.  It took me a moment to realize it was the ocean.  There were four of them: an earth pony stallion stood in a flowered shirt and wearing a straw hat, beside him was an unicorn mare wearing an outfit close to her husband’s, head laying on his shoulder.  In front of them were two young ponies, a filly who could not have been much older then Tiny, and a colt who looked in his early teens.  All wore happy smiles and held one another.  Gently I sat the frame back down upon the table where I had found it and turned away.

Under the stairs to the second floor there was a small bathroom, empty but for the normal things you'd find.  I had no need for toilet paper or a plunger. Glancing to the tub and the faucet I wondered if perhaps I might not get water from one of them.  But when I tried the faucet all that came out was thick black sludge that caused my Pipbuck to click loudly.  With disgust I shut it off and turned to return to the living room.  All that left was the second floor.

Climbing the creaking stairs from the kitchen, I looked down the narrow hallway I found myself in, and trotted carefully down it to the first door I saw.  It was open, and inside I found a small bed and dust covered toys.  Posters and pictures drawn by a small hoof made it clear who had once lived in here.  The light from my Pipbuck landed upon the smiling face of a pony doll, the once bright pink coat and long yellow mane faded and covered with dust.  I backed out slowly, the thought of rummaging for supplies in a child’s room did not seem right to me.

The second doorway must have belonged to the older child, inside was the bed and a bookshelf with several trophies sitting proudly atop it along with a baseball bat and ball. A few dust covered books sat upon the bed and the floor was littered with clothing.  Still, I doubted I'd find anything of use in here and so stepped out.

Turning I continued down the hallway, I passed another bathroom to reach the room at the far end of the house.  The door was closed, but unlocked and I nudged it open with a hoof.  The smell should have told me to turn back, but I didn't.  Shining the light around what must have been the master bed room I found my first bodies.

There were four of them, laying upon the large bed against the wall.  The dry air and lack of animals meant the remains were undisturbed since...since when?  One hundred and seventy eight years ago?  I cast the light upon them and found myself looking at an earth pony stallion no longer wearing his straw hat and a unicorn mare holding him.  Between them, the small huddled forms of the filly and colt lay still.  As I moved, my light passed across something sitting on the nightstand.  Walking around the bed, I found a empty bottle  of water or juice and a smaller bottle of something beside it.  Although I could not be sure, judging by the label on the smaller bottle,  it looked as if they had poisoned themselves with sleeping pills and waited for the end to come.

Looking away I noticed the soft glow of green coming off something in the room.  Sitting on a desk near the door to the bathroom was a terminal, I'd missed it before, focused on the bed and the bodies laying atop it. Walking over, I clicked on a key and found it unlocked, a list of logs opening up across the screen.  Not supring all were well before the war, though a few looked like they took place the day of the bombings and some the day after the Stables had been recorded as being sealed.  I highlighted one and clicked. The writing appeared across the screen and I began to read.

‘We arrived back home from our trip today.  The kids are still excited about having swum in the ocean and ready to tell all their friends about everything they did.  Although she won't admit it, May's looking forward to telling her co workers about our trip.  The mares at the hospital had been telling her a local cop like me would never be able to afford a trip out to San Ponsisco.’

I glanced to the bed and the family laying silently in it, before clicking on another log, this one a few months after the first.

‘The Sheriff said there might be trouble soon, seems the local buffalo tribe have gotten it into their thick skulls the end of the world is coming.  One of their Spirit Seer's saw green fire and wind on a vision quest recently.  This damn war has got everypony spooked.  Jumping at shadows and pointing hooves at supposed Zebra collaborates.  I decided to start bringing my side arm home with me.  May isn't crazy about the idea, but I convinced her it would be for the best.  I’ve always been glad my brother bought this for me when I left home to live out west.’

With a feeling of dread I clicked on the remaining logs one after the other, reading them as I went.  Part of me didn’t want to know anymore, but another part told me I’d come this far, there was no since in turning back now.

‘I was at the station today when it happened. Fig, Hotfoot and myself had all just started our shift when we saw a bright flash off to the east, towards Kanter City.  The sirens began after that, it sounded like the wail of the dead.  We'd just gotten outside when we saw another flash to the west, and then another and another.  Each towards a major city. Green balls of fire rose up high in the night sky.  It's all over.  Everything.  Equestria. The war.  Ponies.  Zebras.  It's all over. Shit...I have to be strong for May and the kids...I have to figure something out.’

I clicked the next log and continued reading.

‘It was three days after the bombs fell that the first few refuges from Kanter City arrived looking for help, poor bastards, they looked like ghosts with their bodies coated in ash.  Some of them were so badly burned, how in the goddesses names had they managed to cross the desert looking like that?! They were carrying whatever they had managed to save from their homes before fleeing.  Most died within hours of reaching us.  May said it was the radiation, and although she tried her best to save as many as she could, the last survivor died a few minutes ago. The Sheriff has suggested we start boarding up our homes and shops, in case of looting or attack from Zebras.  A few of the towns folk went to try that Stable built up in the hills, but couldn't get inside.  Seems it had already been sealed two days ago.  Why they'd build one for a bunch of rock farmers I'll never know.

Only two logs remained, and I brought them up one after the other to quickly reach the end of this father’s struggle, though I somehow had a feeling how it ended...

‘It's been raining ash for the past four days, May said we need to stay inside as much as we can since it's likely full of radiation.  The Sheriff visited us before dinner, I've never seen him look so pale and skinny.  May says its likely the early stages of radiation poisoning, he won't stay home with his wife, says he has to check up on all of us.  He's a braver pony then I.  He told us to keep an eye out, the Clovers down the street were attacked by something, killed most of them but the youngest boy.  He just said it was zombie ponies.  Can this world become any more fucked up?’

‘As far as I know, we're the only family to have survived this long. I can't get an answer from anypony else and the phone lines have finally gone dead.  The streets are empty save for those shriveled things staking the town.  The kid had been right, as fucked up as it sounds, there's zombie ponies outside our home.  They almost got in the front door but we managed to shove all the furniture against it.  Still they know there's somepony inside this home now.  We're nearly out of fresh water and food, May said the town’s water is unsafe for us to drink.  I only have five rounds left to my side arm.  I can't think of anyway to escape our home, or where we'd even go if we could.  It's all gone.  Already we're getting sick, the home wasn't meant to be a fucking bomb shelter.  Radiation is getting in, slowly but enough.  The kids wouldn't last  much longer, and in May's condition..the baby...

I won't let my family suffer.  I won't...Celestia forgive me for what I must do...’

I sat staring at the screen for several minutes, not noticing the fresh tears that had run unchecked down my face while I had been reading.  Could I have done that?  I don't suppose I could really answer that, unless I was in the same situation as he had found himself in.  With a click I turned the terminal off and sat in the darkness, we'd often wondered what it had been like on the surface when the end had come. Those of us in the Stable. Had everypony died at once in the bombing? No pain? No time to be afraid?

I glanced back to the bed and had those answers now.  No, it had not been painless or quick.  In some cases it had been slow, like those poor survivors from Kanter City who had thought themselves the lucky ones to only die days later as their mane and coats fell out in clumps.  We'd all been taught the effects of radiation poisoning in school. It was a fact of life on the surface.  I looked away from the bodies and sighed.  There had been fear, like the family who lay still on the bed, taking their last breaths together as their father put them out of their misery.

I was just about to leave them when I noticed a metal case under the desk.  Arching a brow, I reached down and pulled it out. It looked like a gun case, we had them in the Stable for those security ponies who kept their side arms at home.  It looked smiler to one my father had used and passed on to me.  After a few minutes of work, I managed to pick the lock and pop it open.  Pushing the lid back my eyes widened.  Inside was a beautifully preserved revolver.  The gun was far larger then any pistol we had back in the Stable.  Colt and Wesson 500 Raging Buck was written on the inside lid of the case.  Not a speck of dust or grime marred its silver finish.  Clearly he had taken good care of this, a present from his brother. Reaching for the weapon I recalled the father's words.  He had brought his personal side arm home to protect his family.  With a flick I opened the chamber and sure enough five rounds stared back at me.  Looking up to the bed I began to return the weapon back to its case but stopped.  I'd only taken my shotgun with me, and a baton. If I ran out of ammo for the shotgun I'd be helpless. 

Walking back down the stairs I noticed it was late and I had no time to finish exploring the town tonight.  Pushing the back door closed, I trotted back into the living room.  It seemed the safest place to stay the night if I wanted to get some rest and be ready to press on tomorrow.  The air had become quiet chilly as night had fallen, looking around for anything to cover myself up with I saw the pile of broken wooden furniture beside the door.  Moving over to the pile I began to sort through it. Carefully I tossed the larger pieces into the fireplace and found a box of matches, after trying nearly all of them I managed to get one to spark and get a small fire going.  The dancing flames casting the dusty room in a soft warm glow. I wasn’t afraid of the light being seen outside, as the windows of the room had been boarded up well enough to keep most of the light from escaping. Also, it did not seem like anypony else was in town.

Settling down in the living room, I pulled off my saddle bags and checked my supplies to pass the time.  With the water I'd found in the kitchen and what I had taken with me I had enough for a week, perhaps two if I stretched it.  Food was a different matter, and I had only enough for a week.  There was five red healing potions Doc had insisted I take, along with five Med-X and five Rad-Away.  I had over a hundred rounds of ammo for my shotgun, a few rifle rounds, my baton and one revolver with five rounds.

After returning everything to my bags, I dragged a cushion off the couch and laid my head down upon it, the flickering light from the fireplace catching off the glass of the family photo beside it.  The smiling happy family looking back at the stranger in their home.  I closed my eyes, and began to drift off to sleep under the smiling stares of a family one hundred and fifty years dead.  My last thoughts before sleep took me was if they'd be upset at a stranger in their home. Or perhaps happy their home was once again sheltering somepony or simply happy there were still ponies in the world.



*     *     *     *     *



It was a little past sunrise when I began to depart the home, or at least as close to sunrise as I could figure, thanks to the twilight in which the world seemed locked.  Having gathered my things I made sure the fire was out and trotted past the empty table beside the fireplace.  As I passed through the kitchen I turned and walked back up the stairs and down the silent hallway to the room at the end. The door was still open, and I walked inside quietly.

“It's not much, but it's all I can do for you.” I whispered softly, as I gently pulled the blanket up and over the four huddled bodies.  Bowing my head I whispered  a short prayer to Celestia and Luna that they were together somewhere brighter and happier than here.  Before I turned to go I retrieved the family photo I had found downstairs from my saddle bags and gently sat it upon the nightstand.  With a heavy heart I walked back down the hallway, shutting the bedroom door behind me and made my way down the stairs.

The town had changed little in the dim light of day, though it looked far less creepy then it had the evening before.  Thoughts of zombie ponies entered my head, but I pushed them aside, it had been one hundred seventy years ago.  As I walked through town I passed several buildings that looked promising for supplies but I had no time to waste if I wanted to catch up with the band of raiders.  My path took me towards the edge of town and near where I'd been following their tracks.  With luck I could make up some lost time, given a group of that size likely took time to get ready to travel.  They had hardly seemed the most organized at times.

As I neared the last set of buildings outside of town I noticed red dots had begun to appear on my E.F.S and slowed to a halt.  They were coming from the west side of town, almost following my path exactly it seemed.  Glancing around quickly I didn't see anyplace I could hide, the last building I had passed was little more then a pile of rubble some half busted pipes sticking up from the ground and a few standing walls.  Beyond it was the flat expanse of the plains.

With no other choice, I ran towards the rubble pile and dropped down behind a section of wall that was just barely large enough to hide me.  The red dots drew closer to my position and I clicked the safety off my shotgun.  Had the raiders circled back?  Or was this another group?  Leaning slowly around the corner, I tried to spot whoever was following me.  Several seconds passed and I saw nothing moving beyond a slight cloud of dust whenever the wind picked up.  I should be able to see them by now.  Then I caught movement in one of the alley ways and looked closer.

A lean looking canine moved out from the shadows of the buildings, sniffing at the ground below it.  Another soon followed it, and another.  Mangy fur and their scruffy appearance meant these were noponies’ pets.  After a few moments I counted eight of the creatures, all so lean I could see their ribs under their tan fur.  Growling and snorting they began to approach me, following my scent.  I loosened the baton at my side, knowing this was likely going to get ugly.  I was sorely out numbered, but then I had two cards in my favor.  Surprise and a combat shotgun.

I held my fire until they got well within range of my shotgun, but not until they could notice me.  With a grunt I stood up ears laying back as I slipped into S.A.T.S and locked onto the nearest target.  A name appeared beside the green targeting reticul, coyote. I  aimed for the body of the first, and then sweep to a second and third target before released it.  At once time returned to normal and my weapon bucked in my mouth.

The first round rocketed from the barrel of my weapon, slamming home and sending the canine spinning across the roadway, it's red dot winking out from my view instantly as the empty shell clattered to the ground between my front hooves.  The second shot missed its target completely as the coyote jumped back in surprise as the body of my first target rolled past it.  The round took a chunk out of the pavement where it had been standing.  The third slug slammed into the hind quarters of the last target, blowing much of the limb away.  Another red light went dark. Six to one...better odds then eight to one at least.

With a snarl one of the wild dogs lunged towards me, forcing me to step back to avoid it's fangs. I swung my shotgun at it's head, missing and instead impacted with it's side, knocking the wind from it's lungs and sending it rolling across the pavement.  Another snapped at my front hooves and I lashed out missing it's head by inches.  If it hadn't been for the protection of the riot armor I was wearing a third attacker who had lunged in from my blind side would have sunk it's fangs into my right shoulder.  Its teeth slipped off the smooth plates of my armor instead, and I kicked out with a hoof knocking it aside with a yelp of pain.

I turned and snapped off another quick series of shots into the pack, causing them to back off a bit and managing to wound two of their number, much to my satisfaction.  With a snort I backed up again, trying to give myself some room to aim.  But they were not having any of it, and started advancing towards me once again.

“Pony's not on the menu you mangy bastards.” I snarled around the firing bit for my shotgun, I had six shots left in the weapon and needed to make them count.  The pack of canines growled and snarled, beginning to spread out around me as they approached.  Pawing at the ground I readied myself for their attack keeping my eye on the bar for S.A.T.S. it was nearly recharged and then something completely unexpected happen.

Almost as a whole, the canines began to back away.  Their tails tucking between their legs as they edged away more quickly, whimpering to themselves.  I grinned and nodded my head.  Well then, took them long enough to realize they'd bitten off more then...they could...chew...wait...what was that skittering sound?

The large red dot approaching from behind me deflated my sudden sense of superiority over the canines.  Looking over my shoulder at what was approaching me nearly made my bladder deflate.

“Holy bucking shit!”

I barely had time to dodge as a pincer the size of my head snapped inches away from my hind quarters followed by a second.  As they closed on empty air that made a rather alarming snick sound.  Dancing back on my hooves, I placed some distance between myself and whatever the hell this was.  A wounded coyote was not so luck however, and the snapping pincers sliced the creature into two parts as easily as a knife passed through butter.  With shock, I saw the animal was still somehow alive as it bleed out, its front paws working as it tried to stand up, but within seconds it was dead, from the loss of blood.  As the large creature fell upon the dead canine I had time to better see just what I was up against and I was happier not knowing.

It looked like nothing more then the biggest meanest scorpion I'd ever seen, and granted I had been on the surface for only a day, this was not saying much.  It was all black armored chitin and snapping claws.  A sharp stinger was posed over its body on a long tail that boobed and weaved about. It moved quickly for being such a bulky creature.  The head was tipped by a sharp set of fangs and beady red eyes that boiled with pure hate.  In fact, the whole thing oozed rage.  It was not so much eating the dead coyote as simply mangling the body for the sake of it.

A quick glance to my left told me the other canines had no intention of staying to fight this thing, and had fled back into town.  At least I didn't need to worry about being attacked from behind.  Racking my shotgun I slipped into S.A.T.S and targeted the things head, the name my Pipbuck gave to it seemed fitting, Rad Scorpion.  I dumped every bit of power I had into three shots and once again released it.  The first shell I fired seemed to do little damage, scorching the hard chitin protecting it's head. The second impacted the chitin itself and simply bounced away harmlessly.  The third round struck the face and pulped one of it's hate filled eyes in a mess of gore.  With a screech it started towards me snapping its claws. Great, I pissed it off.

Once again I was forced to dodge aside as it's pincher came very close to slicing through my body, somehow I doubted my riot armor would protect me if that thing got it's claws on me.  One pincher glanced off my front leg armor and left a deep scratch down the plate. Yeah, not going to save my ass.  I was so worried about the claws I barely noticed the stinger lashing down at me.  I only caught it out of the corner of my eye, the barbed tip rushing down towards me.  With a cry of alarm, I jumped backwards as it struck the ground where I'd been a moment before.

I wasn't going to last fighting this thing up close, I needed space to work. With a grunt I lunged backwards again, spinning around to run and attempted to put some distance between me and the Scorpion. Running across the cracked roadway I moved back into town, leaping across a fallen street lamp  and dodging around over turned trash cans. My hooves slamming hard into the pavement as I searched for someplace to either lose this thing or gain some advantage over it. I glanced back, and to my dismay it was keeping pace easily. I couldn’t outrun it in town, and I doubted I’d make it to the open plains. Most of the buildings around me were sealed up, only one option left.

Turning, I leveled my gun and fired off another three rounds into the mass of the Rad Scorpion, I couldn't miss.  But even though every shot struck, they did little damage to it.  One stray round seemed to injure it's unarmored legs enough to cause it to stumble giving me a few seconds more.  As the third round left the barrel, the weapon clicked empty. I was out, and I doubted it was going to give me a chance to reload.

The bulky creature went on the attack once more, ignoring it's wounds in favor of killing me. I barely dodged it's stinger and batted away one of its claws with the bulk of my shotgun, the force of the blow nearly ripping the weapon from my lips and I was afraid it had been damaged. I hadn’t time to worry about it long, when the other claw blind sided me across the head and sent me tumbling into the ground. A few warnings appeared in my vision from my E.F.S. as I struck the ground.  Don’t need you telling me I’m fucked thank you very much.  I dropped the empty shotgun and rolled over onto my side as it's stinger slammed into the spot my head had just been.  Lashing out with my hind hooves I felt my steel shoes skid across the smooth plates of chitin.  Dammit this thing was a fucking tank.  I kicked out again with my hooves striking it's wounded eye.  Oh, it didn't like that.

Blindly it lashed out at me with the back of a claw that knocked me out from under it's bulk and sent me rolling across the hard ground.  I felt something snap in my chest, and I the world had become blurry.  A dozen more warnings popped up at the corner of my eyes, snapped ribs? Great.  I could hear it's scurrying legs closing in on me.  Was this how it was going to end?  A day out of the Stable and about to die at the claws of some over grown angry ass bug?

I started to reach for the baton when I saw the glint of steel off my recovered revolver.  Five rounds was all it had.  It would have to be enough. Closing my teeth around the grip, I yanked it free and entered S.A.T.S once again.  As time began to slow, the Scorpion's stinger was raised for the killing blow, and I knew I'd never be able to avoid it.  With narrowed eyes, I locked three of my shots onto the stinger and with the last I targeted the creature’s head in defiance, if it was going to kill me, I planned on giving it a headache at least.

As time began to speed back up I watched the stinger slowly falling towards my chest, I could almost see the poison oozing from it's sharp barbed tip. Gritting my teeth around the pistol I fired and felt as if I'd been kicked in the face by the force of the recoil.  As the first bullet left the barrel of the gun, it sounded as if I'd fired my shotgun.  I'd never heard a pistol so loud.  Time once more seemed to slow, as the first bullet spun towards its target.  It struck the stinger itself, snapping the barbed tip off neatly and with a spray of green fluids that splashed across the ground.  As the second round screamed towards the tail the scorpion was still swinging towards me, and the bullet easily ripped into the chitin plating. Blood, gore and meat blew out the other side of the tail, and at last the creature realized it was in trouble.  Tears running down my cheeks from the force of the kick, the third shot bombed out from the barrel in smoke and flames, the tip of the bullet striking farther down the tail, and with enough force to rip the bleeding limb from it's body.

Rearing back in pain, the scorpion screeched loudly like hooves on blackboards and nearly toppled over, dust kicking up from it’s wildly lashing legs and claws, and then the finally round flew out of the pistol, the last shot struck dead center in the creatures already wounded eye.  The bullet bursting the red orb like a piece of fruit in a spray of iccor.  The creatures screeching only increased as it stumbled about blindly.  Surprisingly, the beast turned and stumbled away from me, crashing into a stack of rusting barrels beside a build before disappearing down a side street dragging its tail behind it.  The large red dot glowing once before finally fading from sight as it either got out of range or died from its wounds. 

“Well...that was not fun at all...” I muttered to myself as I lay on the ground.  With a grunt, I began to roll over onto my side and bit back a cry of pain as I felt something twist inside me.  Pressing my face into the dirt I grunted as the pain raced along my body.  Glancing down to my Pipbuck I saw a host of injuries appear across the screen.  My body was listed as crippled.  Oh, that was nice, still you outta see the other guy.  I must have broken a rib or two from being knocked around.  I was lucky it hadn't been my neck or spine.  Taking a few minutes to gather my breath I turned my head towards my saddle bag and grunted as the pain flared up.  Gritting my teeth I fumbled around inside the bag before finding one of my healing potions.  Wrapping my mouth around the narrow opening I brought the bottle of red liquid up to my hooves and yanked off the cork with my teeth before swallowing the red potion and laid my head back down in the dirt.  Somewhere in the town, I thought I heard growling, seems the coyotes had decided to come see who had won.  With a snort that blow dust around me, I laid there and let the potion do its thing, if they did return to find me, I doubted I could do much to them at the moment.

Luckily it did not take the potion long to repair the damage I'd taken, although I was left with several bruises and a few cuts and scrapes, I could at least stand and move now.  I didn't dare use another, I had no way of knowing when I'd find replacements and I would likely become injured again soon, given the fact the surface seemed out to kill me. Rolling back onto my hooves I glanced to the stinking trial of blood and chitin the Rad Scorpion and left and wrinkled my nose.  Moving around it, I trotted back to my fallen shotgun and picked it back up.  Reloading it quickly I scanned the empty streets of town before turning and hurriedly trotting back out the way I came.  Behind me I heard the howls of the coyotes as they found a easier meal then me to set upon.



*     *     *     *     *



As the day was drawing to a close, I had managed to put some distance between myself and Lonesome Hoof.  Despite my injuries, I had made good time across the flat landscape and encountered no other trouble.  Glancing up towards the horizon I looked over the still distance mountain range.  According to the maps I had looked at, Kanter City was suppose to be somewhere near them.  It had been built along a rail line that crossed the mountains through a tunnel that connected to another city on the other side.

After another hour of walking in silence, I reached over to turn on my radio and was rewarded with little more then static.  As I scanned the screen of my Pipbuck I noticed only one station listed and smiled. Luna’s News Radio. I turned to it and at once the sound of jazz began to play filling the emptiness of the wasteland around me with music.  Within a few seconds of the new song, a young stallions voice began to sing a slow somewhat melancholy tune:

“Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
Into each heart some tears must fall
But some day the sun will shine.
Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts
But when I think of you another shower starts
Into each life some rain must fall
But to much is falling in mine”

The stallion’s voice faded away and the music began to increase in tempo as a new voice began, the soft gentle voice of a mare:

“Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
Into each heart some tears must fall
But some day that sun will shine.
Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts
But when I think of you another shower starts
Into each life some rain must fall
But to much is falling into mine”

As the mare’s voice faded away, a deep deep voice picked up the words as the mare hummed away in the background in time with the music.

“Into each and every life some rain has got to fall
But too much of that stuff is falling into mine
And into each heart some tears got to fall
And I know that someday that sun is bound to shine.”

As the deep stallions voice finished, the two younger singers began to sing together, the music building to the finish:

“Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts
But when I think of you another shower starts
Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine.”

Hmm, a rather fitting song really, I glanced to the cloud covered sky over head and smiled. Perhaps someday the sun would shine, just had to get past the rain. Rain. Wow, that’d feel good about now. I was covered in sweat and dirt from my journey. The seconds of silence from my Pipbuck made me wonder if perhaps I had lost the radio’s signal, but just as I was about to check another voice began speaking over it. A very loud and cheerful voice and one I’d been listening to for awhile.

“Goooooooooooooooooooooooood mornin’ Wasteland!!!!! How's everypony doin'?  It's your ol’ pal DJ Three Horns here on the big LNR, and that was Sapphire Shores lettin’ you all know its gotta rain sometimes before the sun will shine."

“It's time for a bit of news fillies and gentlecolts, so let's dive on in before we come to our senses.  Lets see, I’ve gotten reports of increased Raider activity around Girder Shade.  Seems everyponies’ favorite band of crazies have taken over the settlement and are using it as a base to launch attacks against nearby Graymane and Steeldome.  If you’re in the area, I’d tell you to stay clear, but you’re likely already dead."

“In other news, President Starsong’s personal aids said today the mare was still in deep talks with the leader of the local Steel Rangers, Thunderhoof, ya know the old ass buck who’s likely older then me.  As everypony knows, the Rangers are insisting they be allowed into our fair cities power plants to insure the ponies in charge are taking proper care of the machines.  Last time I heard, the machines were doing just fine without a Union or pay raises.  As everypony also knows, the last time we let those armored goons into our fair city they nearly ran off with anything mechanical that wasn’t bolted down and a few things that were, such as things attached to ponies legs, like our Pipbucks."

"Hey, Prez, why don’t you tell those metal heads where they can go shove their beliefs?”

This was followed by a toilet flushing and a rather rude sound over the speaker and I couldn’t help but chuckle.  After a moment, I heard paper being shuffled and the mare’s voice continued:

“Now, onto the weather.  We have cloudy skies today, with cloudy skies tomorrow.  The five day forecast is, yep, more damned clouds.  Oh, there’s also a 90% chance of painful dismemberment and death right about over in this area...and a 85% chance of burning and death in this general area...and right over here, in this small ass spot there’s about a 0% chance of nothing and death.” 

As the mare spoke you could hear the sounds of someone tapping a table as if pointing out spots on a map.  Silence for several seconds then:

“Oh yeah, sorry this ain’t got video does it?  Well, just try and stay put and don’t move and maybe nothing will come and eat you for a few minutes.  Well, after such cheerful news, I think it’s time for a drink. But I leave you in good hooves, my little ponies.  Up next we have Sweetie Belle and one of her classics.”

As the music began playing again I looked back to the tracks in front of me and at once began to notice a change in them.  For the past few miles, they had been easy enough to see, hoof prints and deep ruts left by the wheels of carts cut deep into the dry soil.  But now, those tracks were fading away almost as I watched.  The wind rose up once more, and the dust and sand that I had been ignoring for the most part began to fill in the prints and cart tracks as if they had never been.

“Shit...”

Kicking my hooves up, I raced ahead down the fading tracks, trying desperately to figure something out.  But it was no use, the wind only picked up and blew more dry soil across the path and into my eyes.  Shaking my head I finally stopped and watched with a sinking heart as the prints faded away to nothing.

I’d lost the trail...and my sister....


Welcome to Lvl 3!!

Perk Added: 

Swift Learner:
You’ve never been a slow pony, just not a very smart one.
+10% XP whenever XP is earned.



> Chapter 03: All's Well, That Ends Well
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3: All’s Well, That Ends Well.


Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.


 The tracks were all but gone now, and any hope I had of finding my sister with them.  I quickened my pass across the flat ground, hooves kicking up dust as I went.  For the next hour, I tried my best to pick up the trail, but to no avail.  The harsh dry air had buried them, covering them completely.  The most I could do now was travel east and pray I would come across some other sign of their passing. 

Ahead of me, the landscape changed very little, near featureless terrain broken up by the odd rock or low hill.  Brown tufts of grass grew in the cracks between rocks, along with thorny brush.  Overhead, the thick gray cloud cover blocked out the sun, but not the heat.  My riot armour felt as if it was made of stone, and was covered in dirt and my sweat.  Below it, my blue and yellow jumpsuit looked no better, sweat staining it’s front and collar.  For the past mile, my tongue felt as thick as my hoof, but I dared not take a drink.  I knew if I did, I’d likely be unable to stop.

I was entering my fifth hour of running, when I was at last forced to halt.  I had stopped sweating, and my entire body ached.  Not a good sign, my hooves slowed from a full gallop to a trot as I scanned the area around me for someplace safe to take a break.  Nothing but flat, empty wasteland stared back at me.  Finally I spotted a gathering of rocks off to my right, and moved over towards them.  After a quick check for anything likely to leap out and try and kill me, I settled down beside the rocks and pulled out my half empty water canteen.  I had three others tucked into my saddle bag, along with the bottled water from Lonesome Hoof.  Fishing around inside, I pulled out some dried carrots and a few slices of apples.

As I began to eat, I turned on my radio once more and listened to the music, no singing this time, just a very up beat merry little song. Sadly it did little to cheer me up.  Chewing on my carrot, I glanced around the plains once more.  The wind continued to whip up ever so often, the warm breeze offering me slight comfort from the heat.  Once I was finished with my food, I carefully took a drink from the canteen.  All too quickly, I lowered the canteen away from my lips before I could guzzle the whole thing down in one go.  I had to save it.  LonesomeHoof had shown me most of the water sources had been tainted by radiation long ago, and I doubted they’d cleared up since then.

I was just about to stand back up and press on, when a tone from my Pipbuck alerted me.  Looking down to my right foreleg, I pressed a dial on the side of the device with my nose and watched the green screen flash up an alert.  I’d come into range of another radio source.  Below the station listed as “Luna News Radio, Three Horn’s station,” was another listed as a “Emergency Signal.”  I quickly turned to it and listened as a mare’s voice began speaking hurriedly. 

“Rose, this is your sister, we’re being chased by the Shattered Hoof, they already killed Redtail, and Appleseed’s wounded real bad.  We’re trying to make it to Crossroads along the old highway, but I don’t know if we’ll make it.  If you can hear this, send help please, I don’t know how much longer we can keep running.”

The message cut off quickly, but I thought I heard the sound of gun fire in the back ground, and standing up swiftly I looked out across the plains.  The mare had mentioned a highway.  The only one I had seen thus far had been back at Lonesome Hoof, and turning around I glanced back the way I had came.  Nothing but empty plains.  Crossroads, what was that? Another town? Was it further down the road from Lonesome Hoof? 

I was still thinking of what to do when I heard the faint echo of gun fire again.  My ears twitched and I stood still, trying to figure out from which direction it had come.  The warm breeze rustling my mane and tail as I listened, ears perked.  Another shot, but it sounded as if it had come from all around me. 

Turning again, I looked back east, and spotted something that had not been there a  few moments before.  A cloud of dust was rising up in the distance.  It was too far away to make out any detail, but it had to be something moving quickly across the dry ground.  Somepony running from trouble.  By the looks of it, several someponies. 

Quickly sealing my saddle bags, I shook off a layer of dust from myself and took off towards the dust cloud, my hooves kicking up a smaller cloud behind me.  It wasn’t far away, perhaps a mile or two at most. As I drew nearer, I could more easily pick out the sounds of gunfire, followed by the whoops and yells of somepony.

Cresting the low hill, I came across the source of the dust cloud and the distress call.  A stagecoach was flying across the dry packed earth pulled by a single large earth pony, although it was clearly meant for two as was evident by the empty harness swaying madly beside him.  He wore a old style cowpony hat and some type of barding across his large frame.  A rifle could be seen slung across his side.  The coach was made of wood and some steel.  It looked much like the ones I had seen in the history books and the one western movie we had in the Stable.  Just a lot older.  Atop it were several crates and pieces of luggage tied down to the frame.  The dust cloud billowed behind the spinning wheels as it crossed the plains quickly, a short time later I could see why. 

Following closely behind came a group of around seven ponies. They were mostly earth ponies but two unicorns could be seen by the glow of their weapons floating along with them, aimed at the coach and the pony pulling it.  They were dressed similarly to the earth pony pulling the coach; hats, barding and a mix of vests and weapons.  One was wearing a rig across his back, with a large rifle built into it.  As I watched, he bit down upon something near his mouth and the rifle fired.  A sharp crack echoed across the flat terrain.  The bullet tore through a wheel of the coach and nearly shattered it completely, splinters of wood flying out in all directions.  Other rounds struck the coach with little damage beside clipping off  wood from the frame, although a few struck close to the hooves of the driver.  Then somepony got lucky, and a bullet struck the driver in his hindquarters.  The sudden pain sent the earth pony into the dirt and the stage coach to a grinding halt nearly rolling over his body.  The last I could see of them was the earth pony staggering to his hooves and reaching for his rifle.   Then the cloud of dust flowed over the scene and hid all from view.

Below me the seven ponies who had been chasing began to close in, jeering at the earth pony and whoever else was on the coach.  A unicorn with a rifle began floating his weapon up to take aim at the driver, a grin on his face.  As they drew closer I could more easily see them, across their backs near their saddle bags they had chains and collars hanging about, likely for the ponies in that coach. My E.F.S. made it very clear who they were.

Seven red dots.  Three green ones.  Hardly fair odds.

Narrowing my eyes, I shook off my weariness and gripped the bit of my shotgun in my mouth before charging down the hill towards the attacking ponies; although not dressed like the raiders who had attacked my home, it was clear they were little better.  I imagined whatever they had planned for the ponies inside that coach was anything pleasant.

The nearest one was alerted to my presence by the sound of the loose rocks rolling down the hillside from my movements.   He had just enough time to widen his eyes and open his mouth before my first shot silenced his warning.  The smoking body had barely had time to strike the ground before I fired again (this time targeting the unicorn with the rifle) only winging the target’s hind quarters, still it was enough to force him to shout in pain and miss his target.  The other five turned to see where this new threat was coming from, and began to fire at me.

Dodging to the right, I galloped as fast as I could towards the trailing cloud of dust as bullets flew around me.  If I could duck into it, they’d have a harder time of hitting me but I also had another reason for moving.  The pony with the large rifle turned, trying to keep me in his sights long enough to fire.  Shit, that thing looked like it could punch a hole through a steel door.  If it hit me, I’d be luck to have anything left.  As I ran I kept the heavily armed pony in my sights, bringing my shotgun up to try and take a shot.

Suddenly, the pony’s head exploded and the body toppled to the ground in a heap.  Behind him, the earth pony driver lay against the front wheels of the coach, slapping the bolt of his rifle back and ejecting the spent shell.  Offering me a quick nod he turned and lined up another shot at the unicorn I had wounded and sent a round through his side, hitting either a lung or the heart.  The unicorn was dead either way.  He’d barely even aimed before firing, he was as good a shot as Twist.

Quickly turning on the spot, I entered S.A.T.S and targeted the nearest red dot half hidden by the thick cloud of dust that flowed around the battle.  It was the second unicorn, she was carrying a assault rifle and had turned her weapon on the coach itself, likely intending to unload a clip into whoever was inside.  Locking onto her armored chest (the best chance to hit her despite the armor) I released S.A.T.S and let the slugs fly.  What armor the unicorn had been wearing luckily did nothing to stop the lead slug from entering her body and rearranging her organs.  The third round silenced her screams and pain at least.

A round bounced off my shoulder guard, another struck my left front leg and punched clean through the lighter armor.  Biting back a cry of pain, I stumbled to my right and dropped down into the dirt, just as another round flew over my head.  Rolling over, I had just enough time to lock onto the shooter with the remaining charge from S.A.T.S, and removed most of his face from the world...doing the world a major favor I might add.  But that still left three ponies, one of which was charging me with murder in his dark brown eyes, an old model shotgun held in his mouth and pointed at my back as I lay in the dirt facing the wrong direction.  I’d never get rolled over in time and S.A.T.S was recharging.

Again somepony stepped in to save my hide, as a large pistol floated up into the window of the stage coach and fired rapidly.  Two shots struck the charging pony in the side, and another three struck the ground around his hooves, but it was enough to cause him to stumble to his knees not far from me and his aim to lower as he pulled the trigger. A cloud of dirt and rocks was blown up near my hind quarters and scattered across my flanks. 

Rolling over onto my back, I propped my combat shotgun up by my front hooves and spread my rear legs out as I fired nearly point blank into my attackers face.  Without a sound, the pony dropped heavily to the ground beside me, blood spreading out across the dry soil as his shotgun clattered across the ground from his nerveless lips.

The sound of hooves jerked my head back towards the remaining two ponies, who had clearly had enough.  They fled as quickly as they could back the way they’d come, not bothering to look behind them. With a grunt, I lay back on the hot ground and stared up at the cloudy sky. This was becoming a habit it seems.

Climbing to my hooves, I shook myself again to knock off the new layer of dust I had acquired from rolling across the ground.  This was quickly followed by a sneeze and several deep coughs as my throat and nose tried to clear themselves of the dust.  I wasn’t a prissy pony by any means, but the dirt and dust had worked itself into ever part of my body it could. Under my barding and jumpsuit and in places I didn’t even know I had.  I suddenly missed my shower back home.  Shaking my head, I wiped my nose with the back of my hoof and limped off towards the coach to check on the others.

The driver was just standing up when I drew near, he lowered his rifle as he moved around the slowly spinning wheel to walk towards me and look me over with pale green eyes.  Up close, he was as big as Brightblade, if a bit bulkier in muscle were my friend was more lean.  Below the layer of brown dust and soil, his coat was a light gray in color.  His mane and tail matched the color of the dust over his body, a light brown (at least I think it was, it could have just been covered in dust).  Upon his head, the old well worn cowpony hat still sat somehow, a bit tattered around the edges and having seen better days, the dark brown hat was removed as he wiped his forehead of dust and sweat.  His armor was a mix of colors; greens, browns and blacks.  It looked pieced together from several different sets and types, however it all managed to come together somehow.  Glancing to his wounded flank, I saw his cutie mark was a pick axe and shovel.

“How’dy stranger.  Much obliged by th’ help just then.  Them blasted slaver’s an’t known for givin’ up none to easily,” the earth pony said as he stopped beside the stage coaches door, holding up a hoof towards me.

Lifting my own I gave the strange sounding pony a hoof shake and a friendly smile, he seemed alright and I was thankful to see there was normal ponies up here after all.

“Name’s Stonehoof, pleasure to make yer acquaintance.”

“Shadow, and it’s nice to meet you as well, Stonehoof,” I answered before I arched a brow and added, “Slavers?”  I had heard Three Horn’s speak about them as well as the Raiders, but not as often.  It was hard to imagine any pony enslaving another pony for work.  But then, it was also hard to imagine another pony attacking a Stable and killing just for the hell of it.  As I thought about it, that must have been what the chains and collars were for, taking Stone and the pony inside the coach for slaves.  

The driver tilted his head at me and looked more closely at my armor, it bore my name across the right side in white lettering just below the Stable-Tec logo on the chest plate and ‘Stable 45’ written below that.  His eyes lit up as he spotted the word Stable and he smiled more openly.

“Ah see, yer one of them Stable ponies an’t yah? That explains how ya don’t know much bout slavers.”  Grinning he lightly slapped me on my shoulder and started towards the coach,“Count yer blessin’ then.  Slaver’s are a right nasty bunch.”

The door to the coach opened, and a white coated unicorn poked her slender head out into the dim light.  Her pale clear blue eyes moved from the driver to me, smiling warmly at us both.  To say she looked beautiful was a understatement.  As I stood their dumbly, Stonehoof reached up and offered the mare help down out of the coach, she took his large hoof in her smaller one and carefully climbed out.  I was further surprised to notice she was pregnant. 

“Thank you, Stonehoof...please see to my brother,” she said softly and looked back inside the coach to somepony else.  Once she had climbed out, she moved slowly and with a bit of difficulty around the coach to sit as Stonehoof climbed up inside.  With a soft sigh she pushed back her long yellow mane from her face and looked back towards me standing nearby. With a gentle smile, she nodded her head and spoke up.

“My name is Lilly, and your arrival was most fortunate, Mr Shadow.  As good as Stonehoof is, I doubt even he could have fought off all seven of those slavers with an injured leg and my brother and I to worry about.”

I was about to reply when a snort issued forth from the coach, and the gray earth pony poked his head back out to look at the mare, hat tilted back from his eyes.

“Horseapples if Ah couldn’t, Miss Lilly,” the large gray pony dropped back out, carrying another across his shoulders.  It was another unicorn, though far younger then either of them, wearing armor similar to Stone’s.  He had a very light green coat, almost a blue green in color and a far darker green for his mane and tail.  I could not see his cutie mark, as his hind quarters were wrapped in bandages and soaked with blood.

“How is he doing, Stone?”  Lilly asked, looking worriedly over to the young pony, her brother she’d said.

“He’s in a right bad way, ma’am.  Lost a lot of blood when those slaver’s ambushed us a couple miles back.  Ah dunno if he’ll make it th’ Crossroads.”

At his words, Lilly closed her eyes and gently brushed the young ponies  dark green mane out from his own tightly closed eyes. I could see tears forming under Lilly’s as the mare though of losing her brother. I was reminded of my own last sibling. My ‘little sister’ lost somewhere out here.

Stepping towards the three, I saw the young pony had taken a load of buck shot across his flanks (likely shot in the back).  Dozens of small wounds bled under the bandages, and there were other wounds across his body, bruises and cuts but none as bad.  Stone was right, it didn’t look like he’d make it much further then he had. He’d bleed out.

Reaching back into my saddle bags I withdrew the second of my health potions I had, leaving me with only three now. But I couldn’t just stand by and watch this happen. Not when I could do something about it. Turning back around I dropped the bottle down beside Lilly and motioned towards the wounded unicorn.

“Here, this should repair most of the damage and stop the bleeding.”

The unicorn mare blinked in surprise her ears perking towards me and looked to the red potion sitting beside her. Her horn glowed brightly as she lifted it up to her face and looked at the red contents.  With a pop, the cork came free.  “I...I don’t know what to say, Mr Shadow...but...thank you, this will save my little brother’s life,” gently as she could, she held the green unicorn’s head up with one of her hooves and placed the bottle to his lips for him to drink. He managed to swallow all of the drink before she laid his head back down.

“Mighty nice thing ya doin’ there, Shadow,” the large grey pony said beside us, looking from the wounded unicorn back up to me.  A large hoof rose up to point at my leg, “Here, let me help ya with bindin’ that there wound.”

Looking back down to my leg, I was surprised I had forgotten about the wound, it hardly even hurt at all, but sure enough it was still there.  Lifting the wounded limb up to look more closely, I saw the bullet had passed clean through both the armor and the flesh below.  It seemed to have missed my leg bone by inches. I’d gotten off lucky. 

Once my wound and Stonehoof’s own was bandaged, I helped him right the stagecoach back onto all four wheels, it having come to rest in a rut in the road had been stuck leaning on its side.  They had indeed been traveling across an old highway, the pavement covered in dust from the wind was kicked up as we worked to right the large wooden coach.  The large earth pony then set about repairing the damaged wheel the slavers had shot out, having retrieved a bag of tools off the top of the coach, he made use of whatever he could to brace up the wheel. While he worked, Lilly tended to her brother, who had drifted off to sleep.  During the mad flight, the unicorn had managed to dig most of the buck shot out of her brother’s flank with her magic.  The potion then did the rest, stopping the wounds from bleeding and healed them far more quickly then they would have on their own.

Sitting down beside the two, I reloaded my shotgun and looked up ever so often to watch as Stone repaired the wheel.  He looked as capable as Gearbox, though a lot more like able.  A frowned, I’d been thinking a lot more about home and the ponies somewhere off in the wasteland behind me.  I wondered if they’d reached the first towns we had seen on the map.  Had they found help? Or were they like Lonesome Hoof, empty expect for ghosts from the past.  After several minutes of silence I looked back to Lilly.  She had folded her legs up under her as she rested, laying her brother’s head against her back as he slept. I noticed her cutie mark matched her name, a single yellow flower. I smiled at the sight of the two, Ebony use to do that for me after I’d drank to much...

“Lilly, have you or anypony else seen a large band of raiders pass through the area over the past week?” I asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the scene. The mare looked up from her brother and looked confused for a moment.

“Raiders? No, I haven’t seen any in sometime...I heard a large band was moving into the areas up north.  But, I haven’t seen any myself in almost seven months, and it was only a small band that time”  The mare checked on her brother again, before she looked over to me fully, “Why are you looking for raiders?  Most ponies try to stay away from them.”

“A group attacked my Stable, killed several ponies and took several more captive.  I’d been trailing them the past two days when the wind erased their tracks.”  Lilly’s eyes widened and she held up a hoof to her mouth as I explained, “One of them taken was my sister and I am trying to find out where they might have taken her and the others. Save them if I can.”

“Oh goddess...I’m so sorry, Shadow.”  The mare’s blue eyes looked to me sadly,“Raider’s aren’t know for taking captives though,” she added softly.

“So I heard over the radio...still, I have to find them.”

“You should come with us to Crossroads, perhaps somepony there has heard or seen of them.  It’s the only settlement before the Povoni Desert this far east.”  I blinked and looked from the stagecoach back to the mare and her brother.

“Where are you coming from then?” I asked, if it was as dangerous as they said, surely they did not live out here alone or had made a trip to someplace with so few to protect themselves.

“From my homestead; my husband and I owned a small plot of land up near the mountains, use to be a rich gold and silver mine there, been in his family for generations.  When the bombs first fell, his family stayed in the mines for a time, until they ran out of supplies. When they emerged everything was gone, but being earth ponies they just went about picking up the pieces. They managed to avoid the fate of most surface survivors being so far away from anypony else.”  I looked from Lilly to the large Stonehoof, as he worked to repair the wheel, she must have figured out what I was thinking because she smiled and shook her head.

“Stonehoof is not my husband, his name was Jasper...he was killed by raiders seven months ago.  Jasper and Stone were brothers.  He helped work the mine with my husband.  He’s been looking after my little brother and me ever since then. He’s as much a brother to us now as anything else.”

“I’m sorry to hear it...” I said, but she waved it away with another smile, before holding a hoof to her stomach.

“I still have my Jasper’s foal, and the memories we shared...so he’s not really gone in a sense,” her smile remained before she winced in pain, “Hmmm...speaking of...I believe its getting nearly time for somepony to arrive.”

“Wheels all patched up, Miss Lilly, Ah reckon we’re ready ta get soon as we strip those there slavers of useful bits,” the earth pony said, trotting up to us, noticing the pained look on the mare’s face he flicked his ears in alarm and his pale green eyes widened, “Whats a matter? Foal’s not comin’ yet is it?” he asked.

Lilly smiled softly and slowly climbed to her hooves with the aid of Stone keeping one of her forehooves against her large belly.

“The pony can fight off a hoard of slavers, pull out bullets from his own limbs with a rusty knife or fight hoof to hoof with a feral ghoul, but he gets scared of a pregnant mare about to give birth....colts...” with a roll of her eyes she looked playfully to Stone,“You’ve enough time to check those bodies for anything useful, Stone, just make it quick, we don’t have time for you to go through the lint in their pockets for gold dust.” 

Reaching over, I managed to work Lilly’s brother onto my back and carry him towards the coach, as Stone helped get her inside.  As I approached the door, I was about to ask Stone to help me get the young wounded pony inside when a soft white glow from Lilly’s horn flashed from within the coach and she helped get her brother inside and onto a seat beside her. The mare lay back in the cushioned seats and winced, she’d over did it with that spell.

Shutting the door, Stone dropped back down and looked over to me.

“Ah hate ta be askin’ ta take ya away from yer own problems...but Ah could use th' help ta get Miss Lilly ta Crossroads.  Ah’d be willin’ ta share th' loot from them slavers seein’ how ya helped take’em out is only fair.”

Glancing from the earth pony to the twin harnesses at the front of the coach I felt myself groan inwardly.  My legs still felt like rubber after the run, but a groan of pain from within the coach made me sigh. I couldn’t just walk away after all this, and Lilly had mentioned I might find somepony in Crossroads that knew more about the raiders. I nod my head once and look back to Stonehoof.

“I’m afraid I don’t know much about pulling coach's....but I’ll try and give you a hoof in getting back to town.”

“It’s alright, cause Ah know nothin’ bout birthin’ foals and with yer help Ah’ll manage ta keep it that way,” he replied with a grin, then nodded his head towards the bodies,“Bein’ new from a Stable, ya need ta learn how ta survive up here.  Nothin’ goes ta waste. Take anythin’ useful off them.” with that, he turned and trotted over to the first of the dead slavers and began to rummage in the body’s saddle bag.

Turning away, I looked over to the slaver who had nearly killed me and stepped up beside the body.  Looking down at the pony I found myself wondering what drove this pony to sell other ponies for money. Was it the only work he could find in this wasteland?  He did not look like the raiders, his body was mutilated or wearing bits and pieces from other ponies. I looked away from the hole in his head from my shotgun. He’d been a light brown stallion, with a black long mane and tail. He could have been just another pony from my Stable honestly.  His clothing and the saddle bags he wore were tattered and had clearly seen better day, as had his piece meal armored barding. A glance to his flank made me stop. His cutie mark was of a ball and chain wrapped around the outline of a pony.

No...not just any pony from my Stable.

Frowning, I shook my head, regardless of what had driven him to this, he was dead and I was alive.  Reaching over with a hoof I opened his saddle bags and started digging around inside. I found a few things of use, a few more shotgun shells, some smaller caliber rounds, likely for a pistol (though not for my revolver, a quick check showed them to be far far to small), some odd dried up strips of something.  It smelled spicy.  Food perhaps?  A quick check of his armored barding reviled a blunt looking knife and a few bandages. I tossed it all into my own bag and looked then for his fallen weapon. 

The shotgun was badly damaged, the stock had cracked and it appeared that whatever damage it had suffered before, the fall to the ground had finished it completely.  The slide would not pull back and eject the shell, nor would the trigger work.  With a snort, I tossed it away, not wanting to be weighted down by something useless.

It took the two of us little time to strip the dead slavers of anything of use, in the end I found some assault rifles, a nearly broken rifle, two dull knives, and a single grenade (luckily the pony carrying it hadn’t been given a chance to use it, he was the first one I shot when I ran into help Stonehoof and Lilly).  Much to my surprise, Stonehoof picked up the broken shotgun I had tossed aside and placed it in his saddle bag, noticing me looking at him he grinned and tipped his hat up out of his face and once more wiped his face with his foreleg.

“True enough it’s busted up good, but it could be right useful for spare parts.” 

Hmmm, why the hell hadn’t I thought of that? Likely because I was worn out and ready to drop.  Looking over I noticed the weapon rig still across the back of the dead slaver, again Stone noticed where I was looking and once more spoke up.

“Ah hate leavin’ a nice battle saddle like that, but we’ve wasted enough time here, we’ll try comin’ back for it, if nopony else finds it afor us.  Ah stripped it of ammo at least.”

Turning away, he walked towards the front of the stagecoach and began hooking himself in.



*     *     *     *     *



Crossroads was the first settlement I had come across with ponies still living within it.  To be fair, it was only the second settlement I had come across since coming to the surface two days ago so perhaps my opinion might be a bit one sided.  The trip to the town had not taken us long, the two of us had made good time, at least according to Stonehoof we had. 

Hooked into the harness beside the larger earth pony, I had a clear view of town as we crested a hill over looking it.  Despite the fading rays of light that filtered through the over head cloud cover, I could still make out a good deal about the town. It was a surprising sight after miles of empty plains and ruined buildings.

The first thing that caught my eye about the town, was not the town itself but rather the very large wall surrounding it on all sides.  Whoever had built it, had taken what appeared to have been random junk and whatever was at hoof to build it. Large sheets of rusting metal off buildings and carts, rocks from the surrounding country side, large chunks of pavement, even an old train car or two stacked in place. Much like Stone’s armor, it was a mix of colors from dark browns and grays to black and silver. Anything metal was a rusted shade of brown and green. The wall was little more then six feet in height, but it seemed enough to keep out all but the most determined visitors. 

The second thing I noticed was further back in the collection of buildings. Railroad tracks ran through the town, traveling west to east out across the plains.  I noticed wall was built over the tracks themselves, although it appeared gates had been made across them from sheets of metal and salvaged railroad ties.  Was it possible trains still used the tracks?  At least it explained where the rusting hulks of the train cars along the wall had come from. The gates did look like they’d be big enough for those cars as well. I looked towards where the road we were following encounters the wall and saw another gate there, much smaller then the railroad side gates. They looked large enough for the stagecoach to easily pass under, but not much else.

Lastly, was the town itself. Crossroads was far larger then Lonesome Hoof, with nearly twice the buildings, thought they rose no higher then the ghost towns. From where I trotted it was hard to make out much about the buildings, expect they all seemed intact and in use. Smoke drifted lazily from several chimneys about town, and the smell of cooking reached my nose. I could barely make out signs hanging above the roofs of several of the buildings, shops of some kind? Just before we dropped below the line of the wall, I saw the cracked pavement of the road crossed the railroad tracks in the center of town and seemed to continued on northward to what looked like another gate.  Suddenly the name of the town made much more since.

It took us only a few minutes to cross the open plains leading up to the town.  As we pulled the coach closer to the wall, I looked up and spotted a dark brown unicorn looking back down at me from a walkway built atop the wall, he had a rifle floating beside him.  I noticed a few other ponies walking along the top of the wall here and there, keeping watch across the wasteland. After the past few days, I could understand why they would.  One turned and yelled something back down into town, but I was to far away to hear what he said.  I looked back to Stonehoof, but my fellow driver said nothing, so it must have been normal.  The sound of movement from ahead drew my attention back ahead of us and the highway side gate that was slowly opening outwards by two ponies pushing hard against it. As we grew closer, I saw the gate was actually mounted upon small wheels that helped it open across the cracked asphalt.

“Goodthing Lilly knows th' mayor of th' town, otherwise we’d be waitin’ out here all day while they checked us out,” Stonehoof said beside me as we passed through the gates.  The two earth ponies who had opened them for us watched us closely as we passed.  Knowing the mayor or not, these ponies did not seem to trust strangers.

Trotting past them, and into the town itself I could see it more clearly now without the wall in the way. There were several streets that ran along the row of buildings, and old street lights along them all. Rusting green signs hung from the light poles, with old street names written in nearly faded white letters. Several wagons were parked about the streets, but all this I quickly ignored as my eyes locked upon the sight of so many living ponies moving about the sidewalks and into buildings.  Like Stable 45 I saw a number of unicorns and earth ponies moving about their lives.  A wide range of colors and all very much alive. I must have been staring as a few chuckled and pointed my way, I heard one mention something about Stable ponies but not enough. Well, whatever it had been, I’m sure it was true enough. I don’t think any of us had expected to really see so many strangers. After all, you spent your whole life only knowing a small number, and it never changed.

Stonehoof turned quickly down a side street, and I was jerked back to the task at hoof by the sudden change in direction, the wound in my leg screaming in protest as I hurriedly twisted it to keep up.  I quickly focused on the path ahead of us and regained my pacing with the larger earth pony.  After a few minutes, we at last came to a halt beside a large two story wooden building that had been painted a bright red sometime ago, but was starting to fade to a almost light pink.  Loud music and the sound of laughter came from inside.  Glancing up to the sign above the door, in large black lettering was written ‘The Bit and Saddle Saloon.’

Beside me, Stonehoof unhitched himself from the harness before moving around to the side of the coach.  I quickly followed suit and walked up to the door as he opened it and helped Lilly out.  I placed my front hooves on the running boards of the coach and climbed inside to help her now conscious brother down. The light green unicorn glanced to me, but it seems his sister had told him enough about me that he allowed me to wrap a hoof around his upper body and help him step down.  The pregnant mare winced as she took a few steps and nearly fell, she hurriedly leaned against the large Stonehoof for support and let out a breath.

“Not long now...best hurry and fetch Doc McCoy, Stone,” the white unicorn said softly, one hoof holding her large belly.  Her brother turned to look to her with some worry, with a quiet thank you, he managed to get his own hooves under him and moved up to help his sister stand.

“Right ya are, don’ ya fret at all, Lilly. Ah’ll be back lickity split.”  Without another word, Stonehoof turned and galloped further down the street, nearly knocking over two ponies who had just walked out from a store at the corner of the street. With a yell they shook their hooves to the earth ponies retreating backside.

A soft groan beside me reminded me I had my own job to do. With the help of her brother, we managed to guide Lilly up the three steps onto the porch of the saloon and push our way past the swinging doors to enter the building.

Inside, the sounds were even louder, not to mention the smells. The saloon was full of ponies.  A haze hung above the room, from a number of sources.  Pipes, cigars, and cigarettes glowed about the dark room.  Nearly every table in the center of the large open room was taken by groups of ponies.  Ponies drinking.  Ponies gambling.  Or ponies talking.  Walking swiftly between the tables were several well dressed mares, mostly unicorns floating trays with mugs of beer and plates of food.  Black and dark red poofy dresses covered their shapely frames Their faces covered in make up, ears and necks weighted down with cheap looking jewelry.

Behind it all, was a stage.  A red velvet curtain hung on either side, hiding it from view when not in use, but it was very much in use as a line of six mares danced upon the stage in black dresses.  They kicked their legs up and danced in time with the quick paced music, which came from a piano sitting beside the stage and played by a very old looking earth pony.  To one side of the room, was the bar, running the length of the saloon.  Behind it two door ways led back into what must have been the kitchen judging by the sounds of pots and pans rattling loud enough to be heard over the talking and laughing ponies around me.  Two bartenders worked along the length of the bar’s dark wood surface, setting down fresh drinks or talking with a customer or two. 

Along the opposite wall was a stairway leading up to the second floor, where a balcony hung over the stage.  A few ponies stood along the railing, drinks in hoof, looking down at the tables.  Although I could not see it clearly, I imagined there were several rooms tucked away on the second floor, as I saw a very happy looking stallion heading upstairs with two mares walking beside him giggling and whispering in his ears.

Looking away from the colorful sights of the room, I glanced to Lilly, the mare offered me a smile, but she was clearly in a lot of pain.  I was just about to ask her if there was someplace we could take her to rest when a pair of waitress mares quickly approached us, concern written on their painted faces.  The first one to speak was a slender short yellow-coated unicorn with a long thick green and white striped mane and tail.  She was wearing a black dress with stockings on her hind legs like many of the other mares working in the saloon.

“Miss Lilly?  Landsakes, honey you look ready to drop!” she said quickly, stepping up in front of us, her soft blue eyes scanning Lilly’s face before looking to Appleseed,“What happened, Apple?”

For his part, the young colt blushed and hurriedly answered the unicorns question,“We were attacked by slavers on our way here...Lilly wasn’t hurt, but it’s hardly helped her condition.  She sent Stonehoof to fetch the Doc.”

Shaking her head, the unicorn nodded to the second waitress, a black coated red maned mare who stepped up towards the stairs quickly, and climbed them swiftly. 

“Lace will go clear us out a room, won’t take her a minute, let’s get her up the stairs quickly then,” turning, the small mare wasted no time in clearing us a path up the stairs.  It took us several minutes to help Lilly up the stairs, as sudden pains seemed to cripple her ability to walk, as her grip on my side with her front leg did to my entire body. Sweet Celestia she had a grip.  Luckily, Appleseed and the mare managed to combine their magic enough to help Lilly climb the steps and I was spared death by strangulation.  I wished Brightblade was here, he seemed far more capable at telekinesis then any other unicorn I had known in Stable 45, and it seemed more than any unicorn presently here. Looking to the white unicorn, sweat on her face and neck, breathing heavy, I frowned. I knew nothing about childbirth, but I could figure enough out to know she was going to have the foal and soon.

“How far away is this doctor?” I asked, when Lace opened a door at the top of the stairs and waved us inside.  The mare in front of us stepped aside and allowed Appleseed and myself to half carry half drag Lilly inside. It was about what I expected, a single room with a large soft looking bed along the far wall, windows to my right looked out to the street below and a few pieces of furniture lined the rest of the walls. The walls themselves were covered in red and black wall paper, with little hearts and hooves covering it, trimmed with gold boarders along the edges of the wall. It was a bit...gaudy really.

“Not far, unless he’s away visiting a patent in town,” the mare said, as she and Lace piled up several soft looking pillows at the top of the bed.  With the three unicorns magic and my own muscle we managed to get Lilly up off the floor and laying on her back, the mare groaned softly as she lay back.

Lace floated a bowl of water and a towel up beside the bed and began to wipe off Lilly’s forehead gently, cooling her face and cleaning away some of the sweat from the mare’s white coat.  The other unicorn, who I still had no idea what her name was, turned back to Appleseed and myself and shooed us towards the door with a hoof.

“Thank you for getting her up here, but this isn’t a place for a couple of bucks. You really should head on back downstairs, we’ll see to Miss Lilly until Doc arrives.”  Appleseed seemed ready to argue, it was his sister after all who was here but the young pony followed me out into the hallway. 

As the door shut behind us, the light green unicorn looked around, unsure what to do with himself now.  Although the healing potion had repaired most of the damage to his flank and sides, he still looked tired. I had no idea how long he, his sister and Stone had been running, Apple looked ready to drop. So was I, the mad dash to reach them followed by pulling the stagecoach with Stonehoof to town had left me a bit winded.  I liked to think I was in fairly good shape, but we’d not exactly had to pull a lot of heavy loads in a Stable across vast distances. Again I wondered how my old friends were fairing out there. Shaking my head, I looked to the young pony and nodded my head towards the stairs and set off. After a moment, he followed me down.

It sounded as if not much had changed downstairs while we’d been busy, loud voices and laughter still carried its way up the stairs to greet us as we walked down. Glancing over the railing, I watched the ponies around the tables, while they seemed happy enough, something about the ponies made gave me an odd feeling. I couldn’t place it until we had to move aside for a drunk buck and mare stumbling up the stairs. Looking at the pair I noticed what I’d missed seeing. Both were armed. The stallion had twin handguns hoisted on his flanks, and the mare was carrying a rifle across her back. Looking back to the crowd below, I saw all of them armed. Back in the Stable, only security ponies carried weapons, and only rarely. Most just carried a baton and sidearm. But, I reminded myself, it was a dangerous world now. We had just reached the bottom of the stairs when Stonehoof and two other ponies entered the saloon in a hurry, leading the group was a mare who asked one of the waitress’ something and was pointed up towards us. Upon seeing the mare, Appleseed trotted quickly past me and over to her.

“Rose!”

At the mention of her name, the mare looked away from the others and a smile broke out across her face.  She was another unicorn, a light red with pink mane and tail.  She was wearing a dress similar to the waitresses but far more elaborate and with much better jewelry.  Her eyes were a striking dark green and like most of the other mares working here, her cutie mark was covered by the edge of her dress. I could see the resemblance to Lilly almost at once, both mare’s were beautiful.

“Apple, oh thank the stars your alright!” the mare wrapped the young colt into a hug and nuzzled the side of his neck, before she stepped back and looked at his still bandaged sides. Her eyes widened and she tsked softly checking the wrap and looking more closely at the young unicorn.  After several more seconds of fussing, now blushing buck managed to calm the red unicorn.  As the two parted, she looked my way and tilted her head.

“So, your the pony who’s responsible for saving my little brother and sister? Stonehoof said your name was Shadow? Well, I’m Rose and we don’t get many strangers willing to lend a hoof to others around these parts anymore.”  As she spoke, the other pony with Stonehoof walked up to Appleseed, the poor fellow looked ready to yell as once more his bandages were poked and prodded by hooves.

“You alright, Apple?”  He was an older pony, his brown coat having hints of gray along the edges of it, and though his mane and tail had once been black, there was now more gray mixing in.  He wore a simple green vest and had a black bag hanging over his neck.  His cutie mark was of a needle and scalpel.  Behind a pair of battered glasses, kind hazel eyes scanned the young colt.

“I’ll be fine, Doc, but my sister is in a lot of pain...” he motioned back up the stairs where we had left Lilly in the care of the two mares.

“We’d best hurry then...” the doctor (McCoy was his name?) said as he hurriedly made his way up the steps, nodding politely to me as he passed.

Rose started to follow him up, then paused and looked back to her brother,“Apple, you look ready to collapse, why don’t you go to your old room and get some rest.”  She nuzzled her brother again and nudged him on his way towards the stairs, the young pony gave a glance to the second floor room before he finally went on his way.  Rose then turned to me.

“I must see to my little sister, but I’d like to offer the services of the saloon to you for your help, Shadow.  At the end of the hall upstairs is an empty room, make yourself at home please.  If you need anything to eat or drink let one of the bartender’s know,” and with that, she hurriedly climbed the stairs after the doctor and slipped into Lilly’s room. The door clicking softly as she closed it behind her.

Stonehoof stepped up beside me, then looked from were Rose had gone before turning back to me.  “Well, best get ya bedded down for th' night, it’ll likely be a few hours yet fore my nephew shows himself. Ah’ll show ya where before Ah see ta th' coach.” 

“Do you need any help?” I asked, before walking up the stairs.  Both my legs and hooves protested.  Oh goddesses why did there have to be so many stairs and why did I have to climb them again?? Beside me, Stonehoof simply chuckled.

“Shoot, Ah can pull th' thing without much fuss.” 

Passing Lilly’s room, we trotted down the hallway past a couple of ponies sipping their drinks, Stonehoof tipping his hat to the few mares we walked past and earned some winks and giggles from them.  Passing a few more rooms, we reached the end of the hall, which branched off to the left and continued on with more doors, Rose had a big place.  Stonehoof reached up and opened the door, pushing it aside to allow us to enter.

Inside, the room was about the same in size as mine back at the Stable.  The thought made me feel a pang of loneliness, but I quickly pushed it away.  Like Lilly’s room, there was a rather large bed with a mix of blankets and pillows.  A few chairs and a dresser lay around the room.  Two windows looked out from the corner of the room, down into the now darkened street below. 

“Make yourself at home, Ah’ll see ya in th' mornin’,” the large gray earth pony said, before turning and trotting back down the hallway.

Shutting the door behind me, I walked over to the bed and pulled off my saddle bags, dropping them onto the floor with a cloud of dust.  Setting my worn plot down on the edge of the bed I began losing the straps of my barding and armor.  With a grunt I found one of the straps stuck and had to roll over onto my side to better reach it.  Oh man...this bed was soft...now...if I could just...get...that.....



*     *     *     *     *



I awoke the next morning feeling well rested, despite the fact it seems I had fallen asleep in my armor.  As I rolled out of bed and got my hooves back under me, I glanced to the bed and winced. I’d left a mess on the soft red sheets and blankets from the dirt I’d been covered in, and even now was still covered in. Still, not much I could do about that now. 

With a tired yawn I stepped towards the windows and the light of day shinning beyond them.  Looking out, I saw the streets far busier then they had been the night before, with ponies going this way and that. As I watched three wagons began pulling away from the building across the street, pulled by two ponies each and with two other ponies sitting in them beside crates and barrels. They all looked heavily armed, though one caught my eye. She wasn’t a pony, least not like any pony I’d ever seen before. A bit larger in build and with a much thicker amber colored coat. Suddenly I remembered where I’d seen someone like her before, back in school when we’d talked about the Buffalo. She was much larger then an of the ponies sitting around her though she was armed like them. A large rifle was swung across her back and fitted to her like the stallion slaver’s rig. 

Wither or not she knew somepony was watching, she tilted her head up and looked straight at me ears perking forwards. I smiled and offered her a wave, which I was surprised to see she returned.  With a jolt, the wagon she was in began moving and she lowered her head back down to the street. As I watched, they moved out of sight around a building. 

Turning away from the window I made my way back to the bed and my dropped saddle bags.  Picking them up with my mouth I snorted as a pile of dirt formed under them on the floor. Room service was going to just looove me. Tossing them back across my back, I tightened the straps and made my way for the door.

Once out into the hall, I trotted down the steps (sooo many stairs...) and into the saloon.  It seemed largely empty, save for a familiar large gray earth pony sitting alone at a table near the door.  He appeared to be waiting on me, His hate laying on the table before him beside a glass of some dark liquid and a half empty bottle to match. He was leaning back relaxing when I arrived. When he saw me trotting down the steps he stood up at once and walked over towards me.

“Mornin’ Shadow, sleep well?”

“Yes I did, thank you.”  Looking around the quiet saloon, I then looked back to Stonehoof, “How’s Lilly doing?” 

“Well, if th' swearin’ and yellin’ was anythin ta go on, she an’t had th' kid yet.”  A slight grin formed on his face as he looked up the stairs to the room Lilly was staying in,“Can’t say Ah’m sorry ta be missin’ it.  At any rate, Rose asked me ta show ya around town while she’s with Lilly and Ah believe ya have somethings ya might want ta be partin’ with,” he pointed a gray hoof at my saddle bag.

“I wouldn’t be agaisnt lighting my load a bit.” I answered and he nodded his head with a grin. Turning, he started towards the doors and I followed.  Stepping out into the warm morning air, I looked around for any signs of the wagon train or the strange Buffalo I’d seen riding in it.  All around us, the ponies of Crossroads were moving about the streets and doing whatever they normally did. Few bothered to look our way as we stepped of the saloon’s poarch and into the street.

As we walked, I looked around at the shops and buildings we passed, most appeared in good shape, if a bit worn by age. Chipped paint, cracked glass and a sagging roof seemed to be the most common problem for a lot of them.  Like Lonesome Hoof, I doubted this town had ever been hit by a Balefire bomb, or even smaller bombs.  I imagined it held little importance during the war.  I began idly wondering if the ponies here were the great great great however many more greats grand children of those who had been living here at that time. I decided to ask Stone about it. I meant to ask about the strange Buffalo I had seen as well, but the story he told me quickly made me forget about her.

“As Ah understand it, there was quiet a few ponies livin’ here at th' time of th' war. True enough no bombs was dropped here, but didn’t need a bomb ta kill ponies. Radiation did that right enough.” the gray pony said as we walked along the sidewalk to avoid another row of wagons coming down the street, “Tha fallout did a number on’em here, but some managed ta survive long enough in nearby mines like my family. Ah believe th' original settlers of Crossroads are from a train that got stuck in th' tunnel from Kanter City to Appleloosa. Th' bombs sealed th' entrances and they were trapped inside for a spell. Time they got themselves out it was all over. Kanter City was no place for ponies so they went past on another track. Th' train they were all riddin finally gave out here, or so th' story goes. They found this place nearly abandoned. About th' same time, a group of survivors followin’ th' road from up north came upon th' town. Th' two groups joined up here.” 

“I see, it must have been difficult, but somehow they managed.” looking to the right I spotted the tracks of the railroad between two buildings and wondered what it had been like to ride through the aftermath of the end of the world, so much death around them.

I was beginning to wonder where he was talking me, as it seemed we’d nearly reached the cities walls. Most of the shops we passed were open, but a few still had closed signs hanging in the windows.  The shop we approached however, was very much open.  The building was a rather unimpressive single story structure, built out of bricks and wood like the other buildings in town.  Few of the building’s windows were boarded up, but  they were however covered by thick bars of iron or some other dark metal.  A sign above the door depicted a cartoonish earth pony wielding a rather impressive assault rifle spewing a even more impressive spray of bullets into what must have been a raider.  I say must have been, because there was little  left but bits of hooves and a surprised head of the earth pony’s target.  Below this was written,‘If it needs to be dead, it needs to be a Jacobs.’

“Colorful...” I muttered.  Beside me Stonehoof grinned and walked up onto the porch and into the shop.  After a moment, I followed him inside and figured out why the shop owner had bars across his windows.  The place was an armory. I stopped and stared at the array of death around me.

Old worn cabinets along one wall held a impressive array of weapons from shotguns to rifles and even a rocket launcher (had somepony painted a smiling face on the missile sticking out of it?).  Suits of armor lay spread across a table to my left, a few ponikins standing on the floor wore some of what was displayed. Thick armor plates that put my Riot armor to shame, along with a lighter looking suit made of animal hides? Bah. Looking back around to Stonehoof, I saw him standing before a counter with scattered boxes of ammo and bits and pieces of guns all across it.  I also spotted a few magazines for guns laying about, and was that a playcolts under one?

Lifting a hoof up to the counter the gray pony rang a bell sitting atop it twice and looked to a door leading off into the back.  Only a ratty, dirty piece of what had once been a white (and was now a very ridged looking brown) cloth blocked off the view.   As I neared Stone, I heard a voice speaking up from behind the cloth and somepony moving about in the back.

“I am coming! I am coming! Keep bridle on!”  The sound of heavy hoof steps followed the shout, and the cloth was pushed aside.  Standing in the doorway and looking between us was a rather large earth pony, though unlike Stone, this ponies size was in his gut.  He had a rusty brown coat and black mane and tail that stuck out at odd angles and seemed as if it hadn’t been combed in long time, upon the end of his snout he wore a large thick mustache that twitched when he spoke.  His cutie mark was half hidden below a bright red shirt that looked more fitting on a circus announcer. But I could just make out what looked like caps and half a rifle.  As his red eyes landed on Stone, the pony grinned wide and nearly roared.

“Is Stonehoof!  Best paying customer!  I hear you have run in with slavers!  Hear you give nasty ponies a beating!”  With a laugh that shook his belly, the pony stepped around the counter and slapped a hoof against Stone’s shoulder.

“Yer always right well informed, Jacob,” Stone said with a smirk, tilting his hat towards me,“But Ah couldn’ done it alone, not this time.  They nearly had me if it wasn’ for this pony right here.  Jacob, this here’s Shadow...a Stable pony from forty five.”

“Ah! Stable pony!! Always so easy to make caps from Stable pony! But...since friend of Stone, Jacob won’t swindle too much!” the pony said with a wild grin, and a slap to my shoulder that nearly sent me face first into the counter top.  Holy shit, he had some strength to him.  I simply grinned sheepishly and nodded my head as I rubbed my shoulder with a hoof.

“Uh...thanks...”  I turned away from Jacobs and began rooting around inside my saddle bags.  After a bit of thought, I decided to hang onto one of the assault rifles, it would give me some range over the shotgun.  The hunting rifle would have been a better choice, but it was too badly damaged to make it worth more then spare parts (I think it had taken a bullet or two during our fight).  Swinging the assault rifle across my neck and back, I pulled out the remaining weapons.  All told, I had two small assault rifles and a hunting rifle, the small caliber pistol ammo and two combat knives to lay before the earth pony who looked the items over carefully.

“Hmmm...slavers are better at keeping weapons.  Raiders are too stupid to clean weapons.  Still, not good shape are the weapons here.”  He lifted the hunting rifle and attempted to pull back the bolt, only to have it pop out in his mouth.  With a snort, he spat it out onto the floor and began muttering darkly in another language.  After a few minutes, he reached to the cash register atop the counter and pressed down on a key.  With a ding the tray slide out and he rummaged around before withdrawing something from inside.

“I am thinking...one hundred caps for junk is fair. Can always use for spares.”  And down before me he sat a pile of caps, a few rolling around atop the counter.  Bottle caps.  Caps from the tops of soda bottles.  I blinked and tilted my head confused.  I’d heard Three Horn’s mention caps over the radio before, but we had just assumed it was some slang word for money.  Not actual caps. Jacobs must have figured out what I was thinking by the confused look on my face because the pony began to laugh.

“I am forgetting, are Stable pony.  Yes.  Caps are money.  Can not buy anything unless have caps!”  He grinned, and pushed the caps towards me once more,“Best take, Stable pony need caps if plan on staying alive. Staying alive is good.”

Reaching up with a hoof, I swept the caps up and towards me, dropping them into my saddle bag.  At once, my PipBuck updated itself with a list of my inventory.  As it did, I glanced around the room slowly for any signs of ammo, the Raging Buck was down to one round, and after it’s performance with the armored Rad Scorpion I had decided to restock it.

“Is Stable pony looking for anything?”

“Yeah, two things actually, I’m looking for some ammo for this.” I said, reaching down to pull the Raging Buck out of its holster across my chest.  The large revolver made a heavy thunk as I laid it down upon the counter.  Both Jacobs and Stonehoof whistled at the sight of the large revolver. 

“Is very rare.” he said, as he dropped down behind the counter and began rummaging in boxes below.  I heard the sound of bullets striking the floor and rolling around as he dug about, until finally he reemerged with a box in his mouth.  As he laid it atop the counter, I saw nine brass rounds sticking up in the box. All a perfect match for the one still in the chamber.  Not much, but it would give me two complete reloads with the single round I still had.  It was better then nothing.  I looked up to Jacobs and asked.

“How much?”

“Revolver is rare, ammo is rare. Afraid is all I have...and is not cheap. Ten caps...” oh, well, that didn’t sound to bad “...a round.” Okay...never mind.  What was that about taking it easy on the new guy?  Stonehoof seemed to agree and said as much turning to Jacob’s.

“Shit, Jacob...that’s not fair t’all.” 

“Jacob is sorry, but ammo is rare.  In ten years, is all ever found.  And not just here, Jacob have stores in other towns across Povoni Desert. Not find many in them either.”  He motioned to the bullets upon the counter.

It would take all the caps I had just made to buy nine rounds of ammo, well it would leave me with ten caps left.  After a moment though, I began to wonder.  Rose had said I was welcome to stay at her saloon, so a place to stay was not an issue, as was food.  But, how long was I really planning on staying?  Not very. And I did have a fair amount for my shotgun, and ammo for it seemed easy enough to find at the moment.

“I’ll buy them all for seventy five caps.” I spoke up, I had to at least try and get them cheaper if I could.  Oh, now you haggle a voice inside my head said, but honestly, the guns had been in poor shape and the blades wouldn’t cut water let alone anything tyring to kill you.

Jacob turned to me and arched a brow, for a moment he stared at me, before grinning slowly.  Then he began to laugh and reached across the counter to slap me on the shoulder.  Shit, much more of that and I would need to use another health potion.

“You are good pony, Stable pony. You saving friend, so...Jacob could let you have for say...eighty caps.”

“Deal.”  I reached back into my saddlebag and pulled out the requested amount and dumped them atop the counter.  Waving me to take them, I scooped up the box of bullets and my revolver.  With a flick of a hoof, I snapped the chamber open and began slotting the rounds in with my teeth.  Once I was finished, I returned the revolver to its place and pushed the spare rounds back into the box and dropped it into my saddle bag.

“Is good! Another satisfied customer!” Jacob said with his trademark grin,“Now, what else is Jacobs helping Stable pony with?”

“I’m looking to get to Kanter City, don’t suppose you know the way?” at this question the friendly smile upon the weapons dealer dropped away completely and he eyed me more closely then before. 

“Hmmm....Stable pony does not look crazy...perhaps problem in head? Is not raider either, no body parts on armor.”  After a moment of me not answering him, he pressed on, “Kanter City is no place for Stable pony.  Is no place for anypony. Unless raider. Of have death wish.  Bad place.”  He shook his head and leaned across the counter to look at me, red eyes locking on my face.

“Its where I have to go.” I said simply, returning his look. 

“Why? Why is so important to go to city of raiders? Stable pony have death wish, da?”

“Raiders attacked my home and kidnapped my sister along with several others.  I left to try and find them if they are still alive...or at least find out their fate if they are not...I just have to know either way.”  My words seemed to surprise the old pony, and reaching into the pocket of his shirt, he withdrew a long brown cigar and lighter.  Once he had the thing going, he tossed the lighter back atop the counter and took a pull.

“Is good reason.” he finally said, a thoughtful look on his face as he smoked, looking from me to Stonehoof.  “Da, is good reason.  Kanter City is west, if follow railroad tracks find it easy enough.  Finding not hard part, getting in hard part.”  He flicked his cigar lightly with a hoof before continuing, the ashes falling atop the counter and were ignored.  “City is controlled by raiders.  Not like normal raiders...well, rape, kill and eat you still, but smart raiders.  Have leader, da.  Big boss banding all raiders under steel hoof.  Coming across from mountains.  Very organized for raiders.  Not seen likes in twenty years.”  Jacob shook his head and presses on, “City is like fortress.  Walled like San Ponisico.  Patrolled by ponies and griffins.  No pony goes in comes out.”

“There’s one pony claimin’ ta have escaped,” Stonehoof spoke up, drawing my attention at once, although Jacob merely snorted and shook a hoof at him.

“Nyet, is just crazy old mare,” the shop owner said, taking another long puff off his cigar.

“Crazy or no, Ah believe her story.  Jasper and Ah found her near dead in th' desert not three years ago.”

“All know is, Kanter City is bad news...if sister and friends taken inside...not sure how Stable pony get inside,” Jacob said sadly, “Wish luck, but best advice is, go home.  Maybe live longer.” 

Nodding my head in thanks, I turned and trotted back out into the streets while Stonehoof began bartering for his own salvage.  It seemed I was going to need more then just a shotgun and pistol to get into the city. Looking up, I noticed the streets of town had become far busier than before.  The ponies around me seemed happy enough, if a bit grim.  But then, it was hardly a pretty world they lived in...or rather we lived in.  I was up here with them now too. 

I couldn’t fault Jacobs advice, it seemed a daunting task, a city controlled by all accounts by an army of raiders and it’s borders watched over and walled in.  No, I couldn’t give up now, but it was clear I was going to need help if I was going to find my sister.  Behind me, Stonehoof walked out of the shop, his own business finished with Jacob.  Silently, we started back along the street towards the saloon.  After a few minutes of walking, I turned to look at my fellow earth pony.

“Who’s this mare you mentioned. The one who might know of a way inside?”

“Ah’m not rightly for sure of her real name, folks round her just call’er Wildfire cause of her mane and most think she’s crazy,” he said, glancing to me,“She don’t live in town, rather up top one of those bluffs outside town, see.”  He motioned his head towards the walled edge of town, and the towering stone pillars rising up into the gray sky. The mesa’s dominated the scenery for miles around them, only the far distant mountains to the west seemed taller, but they were obscured by the haze.

“How well do you know her?”  He shook his head, and looked back from the bluffs to me.

“Not very, she don’t come ta town often. Just every now and again for supplies.  Most ponies round her don’t like her sort.”  That caused me to arch a brow.  “She’s a pegasus.  An outcast by th' looks of it.  Ponies don’t much like our winged friends ‘cause of th' clouds.”

“So the pegasus survived the war?” I asked, as we stopped to allow a row of carts pass, looking closely I noticed what was pulling them. I’d heard of cows before...but I can’t remember them having two heads.

“Yeah, they sure enough did, but they sealed up th' sky after tha bombs fell ta save themselves.”  He snorted and shook his head his hat tilting back a bit,“Mighty hard ta grow food without th' sun.”  As the last cart passed, he started walking again and I hurried to keep up.

“Do you think she’d be willing to help?”

“Dunno...is worth findin’ out Ah suppose. If yer willin’ Ah can take ya ta see her after lunch,” he said, looking over to me. 

“Sounds like a plan,”  I said, nodding my head.  It was the best lead I had thus far.



*     *     *     *     *



When we arrived back at the saloon, it was still largely empty save for a few ponies who had arrived before us and were eating lunch. Four tired looking earth ponies sat at the bar sipping their drinks.  The stage was closed, the curtain pulled across it and only a few of the mares moved between the tables.  We were just finishing our meal when Rose and the doctor came downstairs talking quietly to one another as they climbed the stairs. Both looked tired, but happy at the same time.  After seeing him to the door, Rose turned and spotted Stone and myself nearby. With a smile she approached our table just as one of the waitresses began picking up our empty plates.

“Remind me never to have children, Stone,” she said with a grin, sitting down beside me at the table.  She then turned to me and the grin turned into a smile.  “So, Shadow, how are you finding our small town? I imagine it’s not quit what you was expecting from the surface?” she asked.

“Very nice, Ma`am.  After seeing the surface for the first time, I was unsure what I’d find out here in the wasteland beyond what I’d heard Three Horn say.”  the mare chuckled softly and nodded her head.

“Well, it isn’t easy, between raiders, slavers, food and water shortages it’s a wonder we’re still here.  But this was an earth pony town before the war, and earth ponies tend to be a tenacious lot as I’m sure your well aware of.  Perhaps why I like them so much.  Been living here ever since my daddy first brought us all here.  We worked hard to make a life for ourselves here.  Maybe that's why they decided to elect me mayor.  Also, stop calling me ma`am, makes me feel like an old mare.  Call me Rose.”  She smirked and leaned against the table.

“How’s Lilly doin’?” Stonehoof asked after finishing his drink.

“Both she and our new nephew are doing well.” 

“A colt...” the grin on the earth ponies face grew at the news, “whats she gonna name’em?”

“Jasper Jr...” she said, looking over to Stone to judge his reaction.  The earth pony lowered his head and nodded.  Reaching across the table, Rose lightly touched his hoof with hers and smiled, “He looks just like your brother, Stone. You should go see him.”

The gray pony looked up and offered Rose a smile.  “Ah will, but first Ah promised Shadow Ah’d take him ta see Wildfire.”  At the mention of the mare, Rose’s eyes grew wide and she turned at once to me.

“Why on earth do you want to go see her?”

“Stone said she may know a way into Kanter City, perhaps the only pony who would know a way inside,” I answered, finished with my own meal.  I drained the glass of water, not letting a drop of the stuff go to waste.

“Kanter City?  It’s hardly a place for a lone pony to go...” she trailed off, before something seemed to occurred to her,“Is this because of your missing sister?  Lilly told me a little about it last night.”

“Its the most likely place they’d take her.  I have no idea why else they would bother to take her or anypony else from the Stable if not to take them somewhere for some reason.”

“Honey, that place has been the death of many a pony over the past few years.  Those raiders have been kidnapping ponies from all across the Povoni Desert settlements lately, mostly unicorns,” she said with a frown.  “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Why doesn’t anypony do something about them then?  You have over a hundred if not more able ponies here...and if what I heard from Jacob today is any indication, there’s other settlements like this scattered all across the wasteland.  Surely if you all banded tougher...”  But Rose simply shook her head and looked up at me.  I could see a hint of anger flash in her green eyes.

“A good number of the ponies I have in this town are either to young or to old.  The rest are afraid, for their families and for themselves.  Nopony wants to be captured by the raiders.  Do you have any idea what raiders do to ponies they capture?”  With a tired sigh, she calmed herself, “The C.S.E. tries to help, but they have their own problems with the Steel Rangers and bands of Super Mutants around San Ponsisco.”

I paled when she said that, oh goddesses I sent my friends and family to San Ponsisco.  We’d heard Three Horns talk about trouble, but it’d been sometime since she’d last mentioned it...we’d thought it was safe.

“Is the city under attack?” I asked hurriedly.

“No...from what I heard the mutants are up north of the city...and the Ranger’s have a base further along the coast, an old naval base I think. Why? Your a long way from the city.” she looked confused as she spoke.

“We had to evacuate my Stable, the raider’s sabotaged our systems. I sent them towards San Ponsisco, we didn’t know of any other safe place out here.”  I relaxed, well...they were armed, perhaps neither the mutants or Rangers would bother a group that size. Besides, I doubted Crossroads could house that many ponies all at once, as big as the settlement was, I figured there was no more then roughly the same number of ponies within its walls.

“Oh...I’m sorry, Lilly did not tell me that...but I wouldn’t worry.  The C.S.E. have ponies patrolling the wasteland around the city and for several miles around.  If Crossroads was several miles closer, we’d be protected by those same patrols.”

“We should likely be goin’ Shadow, if ya wanna be back afore night fall,” Stone said as he stood up and replaced his hat back atop his head.  The earth pony nodded to Rose and trotted for the doors, watching him walk off, the mare turned to look at me once again.  She seemed to have something else on her mind, and after a moment’s hesitation she decided to continue.

“Since it seems your set on doing this, might I ask you a favor?” she asked, standing up as I got ready to go.  Turning to look to her, I motioned for her to continue and wondered what it was she needed,“There are three wells the town draws on for it’s water, natural springs hidden in abandoned mines that run deep underground.  So deep in fact, little radiation managed to work it’s way in.  When the originally survivors settled here, they built the wall around the city and sealed off the wells.  Later, small outposts were built around the mine entrances, not very large but big enough for a few ponies to stand watch. In recent years, all three have begun to dry up, but it’s our only source of water.”

I nodded my head once and waited for her to get to the point, it was not that I was uninterested, it was I was on the clock. She seemed to notice, and explained quickly.

“Last week, well number two was attacked, while it’s not unusual for a band of raiders or local wild life to try and get in, we can normally handle it. This time however...we lost five of the six ponies watching the well.  The last is still bed-ridden in Doc McCoy’s home.  She said a pack of gecko’s attacked them, managing to burn through the walls of the outpost and killed the others.”

Stonehoof who had been near the door arched a brow and stepped back towards the table and us.

“Gecko’s? Sure enough they are a right pest, but never heard of’em killin’ five armed ponies afore.”

“Nor have I, Stone. Or of them being able to ‘burn’ through metal walls.  But it seems this pack did.”  With a sigh she looked back to me,“I know I can’t expect you to risk your life for ponies you hardly know, and you’ve already done so much for me just by saving my family.  But, we need that well, unlike the other two it seems likely to last a bit longer.  I’ll pay you a hundred caps to at least check on the well.  If you can safely clear it, I’ll add in another two hundred.”

I had already lost a week or more since my sisters capture holed up in the medbays bed then with preparations to evacuate the Stable.  Goddesses alone knew what was happening to her and the other ponies taken from Stable 45.  The trip here had been well worth the time, as I now knew the raiders had taken her to Kanter City.  I had learned the city was a fortress and was preparing to go speak with a pony who might know a way inside.  But now...

Looking up to Rose I saw the hope in her eyes, she oddly reminded me of Ebony right then...she had the weight of over two hundred or more ponies on her shoulders.  How would they survive without water?  Would they be forced to abandon their home we had been forced to abandon Stable 45?  Make a trip across the wasteland to San Ponsico?

As much as I wanted to race off and find my sister, I knew I couldn’t just leave her and these ponies with a problem  with which I might be able to help.  After all, both Stone and myself were already heading out of town, and as Jacobs had said, I needed the caps to survive.

“Alright, I’ll take a look into it on our way back into town,” I said finally a look of relief spreading across Rose’s face, and heard my Pipbuck beep as a new marker appeared on the map display.  Outpost 2 was flashing north east of Crossroads.  It was not far from town, but it was a bit off the path to see this Wildfire.  Unknown to me, the map had placed a marker for the strange mare as well.  How it managed to do any of this I had no idea...I was no Pipbuck repair pony after all.

“Ya mean ‘we’ll’ check it out,” Stonehoof said beside me, the large gray earth pony smirking as I looked over to him.  “Ah’ve as much a stake in seein’ these varmints run off as anypony.”

“Be careful, while I doubt you’ll run into any raiders or slavers this close to town...the recent attack on my sister has proven they are getting bolder,” Rose said, looking between us.  Standing on the tips of her hooves, she wrapped her front legs around Stone’s chest and hugged the large pony.  Releasing him, she turned to me and smiled once more, leaning forward to place a kiss on my cheek which swiftly warmed up as a blush covered my face.  All I can say is thank the goddesses for a dark colored coat, still my ears betrayed me as they flicked to the side in embarrassment. 

“Didn’t think it’d be that easy to make you blush, perhaps I’ll try and do it again when you return.”  She winked to me. Oh boy...

“Well, um...we better get going, Stone...,” I said turning to retreat out of the saloon as quickly as my hooves could carry me.  Behind me, Stone snorted and trotted to catch up.

Several ponies passed me as I exited the saloon and I waited for Stone to step out beside me, a knowing smile on his muzzle.  Ugh.  Shaking my head I waved a hoof towards him.

“Well, lead on.”

Nodding his head, the gray stallion walked down the steps and began trotting down the street, working his way between the other ponies as he went.  Following, I scanned the buildings as we passed.  Most seemed to be homes and small stores; a clothing shop, a blacksmith, a few shops selling mining supplies.  The buildings suddenly ended as we reached the center of town and the rail road tracks that crossed through it.   A single large structure stood here, what had once been a train station was now town hall it seemed.  The building was the largest building in town at four stories tall, and at it’s top a clock tower stood, which still appeared to be running surprisingly enough Like everything else in town, it had clearly seen better days, but it also looked in better shape. Perhaps extra care had been given to maintaining the building.  Behind it, the tracks split apart, allowing for other trains to park and not block the main tracks, the split track came up to the building and a walkway that would allow ponies onto and off the trains.  There was no train parked there, however, and I again wondered if it was still used.  I asked Stone as we passed the station.

“Sure nough,” the pony said, glancing over to me as we walked across the tracks. They were rusted, but still seemed in good shape. The wooden ties had began to rot, but still held the two lengths of steel together. My hooves slid in the lose rocks that lined the track as I stopped over the rails and back onto the dry dirt, “Th' tracks survived th' bombin for th' most part.  It’s a straight shot ta Kanter City from here...if ya have a train that is.”  He chuckled softly.

“So there’s no trains still running?” I asked.  Looking forward I spotted our destination, the northern gate out of town.  It was open at this time of day, and a few ponies were coming in from outside.  All were stopped and searched by the guards.  Like Stone, they wore mismatched armor and carried a mix of weaponry.  Was Stonehoof a member of the town’s guards then? No, not likely, Lilly said he’d been taking care of her and her brother for the past seven months now.

“Oh, no, there’s only two Ah know of.  Just none here.  From what Ah hear, there’s one in Kanter City, suppose to take captured ponies across th' mountain range ta  Apploosa.  The other is in the hooves of th' C.S.E. in San Ponsisco.”

The raiders had a train? And they used it to haul away prisoners? Was that what they had planned for my sister? Shit...I really didn’t have a lot of time to spend, but I had promised Rose to help if I could.  Stone spoke up, relaxing me somewhat.

“Ah wouldn’t worry none. Last year some ponies blew up th' tunnel th' raiders used to go under th' mountain.  An’t been a train out of th' city in sometime or so Ah hear. Th' over mountain bridges and trails all been destroyed.”

I expected the guards to stop us, but a unicorn mare simply waved us on past as she checked a dirt covered earth pony’s saddle bags.   Seemed they only checked those coming in, not out.

As we stepped out into the plains, I glanced to the distant mesas that were our goal, perhaps two hours there and back, we’d arrive back in Crossroads just as night was falling.  That was if we did not encounter any trouble on the road, or had any issues with the well.



*     *     *     *     *



The trip across the plains was uneventful, and we made good time reaching the mesas that over looked Crossroads.  I had wondered how we’d manage to climb them, as from a distance they looked completely smooth sided with no sigh of paths leading up.  But upon reaching them, I saw they were in fact quite rough sided, years of dry desert air and summer rains had eroded the rock formations over time.  At their bases were massive piles of stone, likely the source of the buildings back in town.  In the shadows of the massive towers of stone, more shrub brush grew, along with cactus and other plant life.  We saw little animal life beyond bugs and small rodents; upon glancing at one I noticed it seemed to have six legs. 

Stonehoof seemed to know his way around well enough, and we soon stopped before the one he said atop which Wildfire lived.  It appeared to reach all the way to the clouds, and I could just make out the top-although from this angle I couldn’t tell if there was anypony living atop it. Still, I trusted Stonehoof, as strange as it sounded having only meet the pony last night, but he seemed a good pony.

Lowering my head back down, I spotted him making his way up across the debris pile around the base of the natural stone tower and work his way along a rough worn path along it’s edge.

The path (and I use that term loosely) was barely wide enough for one pony at a time, and in several places it disappeared entirely and we were forced to climb and jump our way up the stone pillar.  Several times I almost lost my hoofing and slid down, only to grasp a hole in the rocks or a ledge.  It took us a little over an hour to reach the summit, luckily we both managed to arrive without breaking any limbs or twisting our ankles, though my hooves ached from clinging tightly to the rock wall.

“Some how, I imagine she doesn't get too many visitors,” I said, as we sat down atop the flat surface of the mesa.  I drank a little more from my water canteen then I normally would have allowed, seeing how there was a fresh water source nearby.  Before me, the Povoni Desert spread out as far as the eye could see.  Large stone mesas like the one we sat atop dotted the landscape for several miles before giving way to a flat sandy expanse.  I had to admit, from up here the view was breathtaking, despite the utter emptiness of the landscape.  What little light reached the surface turned the deep browns and tans of the mesas a bright red and orange.  They almost seemed to glow (no, it wasn’t radiation, I checked for that).

“Ah reckon she likes her solitude,” Stonehoof said, sitting beside me and glancing out across the plains below us, the gray earth pony reaching up to push his hat off his head and wipe away the sweat that had pooled under it.  Taking a drink from his own canteen before he turned his attention to the shack sitting in the center of the rise. 

It looked to be made up from several different things, much as the wall around Crossroads had been.  Large sheets of metal and wood formed the outline of the shack.  A door made from a single large piece of wood lay closed, and shutters barred the windows.  The whole thing was badly rusted and leaning at an angle.  It looked barely large enough for a single pony to move about inside.

Standing up, I made my way towards the shack and lightly tapped my hoof against the door causing it to shake and rattle in it’s frame.  As I tried again, I noticed it was more then just the door that shook.  Not a place to be in a strong wind...

“Hello? Wildfire?”  I glanced back to Stonehoof who was still sitting on the ground watching me, and turning back to the door I tried knocking again.  “We’re here looking for information, we don’t mean you any trouble,” I called out.  Was she even here?  I wondered how long ago it was anypony had seen the pegasus in town.

“If I thought you meant me trouble kid, you’d never have made it to the top of the summit,” a voice called out from above.  I jerked my head towards the source, but saw nothing.

“Wildfire?” I asked, stepping back from the shack and looking to the sky; she was a pegasus after all and the voice did sound as if it came from above me more so then anywhere else.

“No, I’m fucking Princess Celestia,” the voice called out again, followed by a snort.  Something orange darted down from the clouds above, moving around a bank of clouds before landing in a cloud of dust with a flutter of her feathered wings. 

I soon realized why the ponies of Crossroads had named her Wildfire.  The pegasus’s coat was a bright orange, her long wild mane and tail were both a equally bright red.  You could not miss her for anything, yet somehow she had been hiding just above me in the clouds.  Across her back and just under her wings, she wore a battle saddle, similar to the one the slaver had been wearing, though this one bore two long rifles, with belt feeds leading up into a pack settled across her hunches.  I then noticed her cutie mark, or rather a lack of a normal one.  It appeared to have been burned off her flank, and a brand burned into it’s place.  A cloud with a rainbow lighting bolt coming from it.  Odd, I seemed to remember seeing that mark before somewhere.  The pegasus mare smirked as she looked at me, bright blue eyes locking with mine.

“I’m a bit old for you, darling,” she said with a wild grin, and a toss of her mane before she looked over to Stonehoof.  Tilting her head a bit, she pointed a hoof at the earth pony, “Stone, what do you want?”

For his part, the gray earth pony finished taking a drink from his water before he answered her, “It’s nice to see ya too, Wild.  This here’s Shadow, a Stable pony, he’s here lookin’ for some help.”

Wildfire looked back over to me and snorted softly, her tail flicking aside, “A Stable pony, eh? Well fucking good for him.”  She turned away from us and moved back to her shack, kicking the door open roughly before entering.  I glanced back to Stone, who simply shrugged his shoulders, and stood up.

“She was never a right friendly gal.”

“I got that...” I turned away and walked towards the door and lightly knocked on the frame.  I heard her moving around inside the dark room and dared to poke my head inside.  It looked on the inside like it did on the outside.  A few personal effects lay scattered about the shack: Old worn photos, a torn piece of a uniform, a helmet far to large for the mare who was busy beside a dented refrigerator.  A open bottle of beer in her mouth.  Sitting it back atop the fridge, she turned back to me and arched a brow.

“Still here, eh?  Well, shit...what do you want?” she asked, before pushing past me and back outside.  Turning, I watched her move to the edge of the mesa, her back to Stone and myself.  I arched a brow and spoke up figuring I had better say what I needed before she decided to blow us off completely.

“I heard you might know more about Kanter City, like a way past the guards.”  I waited for a moment, wondering if she heard me, but then she turned her head back towards me, blue eyes narrowing on my face and she frowned.  I decided to continue.

“I need to find a way inside the city, and soon.  I don’t expect you to show me the way, but if you could give me an idea of...” 

“You one of those salvagers looking to score big?  Make a lot of caps?  Heard a lot of stories about the riches in a city supposedly untouched by others?” she grunted and stamped a hoof hard atop the ground, eyes fixed on mine.  I started to open my mouth and explain, “There’s nothing worth your time in Kanter City.  You heard wrong, I don’t know anything about that place,” she said cutting me off, and started to turn away from me.  I wasn’t willing to let it go that easily and stepped up closer to her, she hurriedly turned back to me, as if expecting me to attack her.  I held up a hoof and spoke up.

“This isn’t about caps, this is about my sister.  Raiders attacked my home, and kidnapped my sister...I don’t have a clue why, I just know they took her, and as near as I can figure they took her to Kanter City.  I have to find her...save her if I can.”

“Save her? Fuck kid, ponies that go into Kanter City never come out...least not like they were before going in.”  The mare stopped once again, and stared ahead across the wasteland.  Her wings rustled as she shifted before she turned back to face me, eyes narrowing, when she spoke, she sounded bitter, “Your sister’s already dead, kid, everypony in Kanter City is already dead.”

“I don’t believe that.  I can’t believe that.  Please, help me,” I asked her, reaching a hoof up to touch her shoulder, nearly begging the mare to help me.  She looked back to me, her eyes hard and she jerked her shoulder away from my hoof and stepped back with a snarl.

“The world doesn't give a fuck what you believe, kid.  I want nothing to do with that fucking hellhole ever again.  I can’t help you.”  With those words, she lunged forward off the cliff edge and dropped quickly toward the ground below.  With a snap of her wings, she shot skywards and flew off towards the north.  I watched until she was little more then a speak on the horizon. 

Stonehoof stepped up beside me and stared off towards the distant pegasus.  With a sigh he glanced to me.

“Ah’m sorry, Shadow...Ah fingered she’d be a might stubborn but thought she’d at least give ya some information but Ah think somethin’ bad musta happened to her in that place.  She never spoke about her past afore.”

I shook my head and turned away from the cliff edge and started towards the path leading back down to the ground.

“It’s alright, Stone, I knew it was a long shot...we’d better hurry if we’re going to check out that well before it gets too dark.”

“We’ve a bit of time, best ta recover before trying th' path down.” he said, walking back to where his hat sat on the ground. I followed him over and joined him. 

My best chance at finding a way into Kanter City had just flown away...litterly. 

“Stone, you said you and your brother found her in the desert?” I asked, taking another drink from my canteen, my hooves felt better for the rest, but I did not look forward to the climb down.

“Sure enough we did, she was near dead when we found’er wandering th' plains south of Crossroads.  No clue where she’d come from, she wasn’t wearin no armor or weapons just a collar round her throat.” 

Collar?  Had she been a slave in the city?  I sipped my water now, before placing the lid back atop it, despite the fact there was a fresh supply nearby I still had better save it for when we reached the ground.  I looked back to Stone.

“So...she was a slave then?” I asked. 

“Ah rightly an’t for sure.  Ah don’t think so, she’s far to mean spirited to be a slave.  But she’d clearly been abused...if ya know what I mean.”  I winced and nodded my head, I could imagine. “Jasper and Ah took’er ta Crossroads and got’er fixed up.  She never told us her name, or where she’d come from.  Soon as she was well enough, she upped and left.  Towns folk started callin’ her Wildfire cause of her colors and her temper.”

I glanced back to where the pegasus had flown off, no wonder she hadn’t wanted to talk about the place.  I sighed and shook my head before standing up.

“Well, we’d better get started...”



*     *     *     *     *



As it turned out, getting down the stone pillar was far easier then going up it.  This was mostly due to us falling a few times and nearly breaking our necks.  Still, we managed it, and reached the ground just before sunset.  Not once did we spot Wildfire, I imagined we wouldn’t see her again.  We started back towards Crossroads along a different path then the one we’d taken to get here.  The Well was a bit east of town. 

As we neared Well Number Two, the sun was setting somewhere behind the wall of gray clouds above us, casting the already dim landscape into growing darkness.  We’d followed a worn path in the ground up to the mine’s entrance, marked ever so often by steel poles driven into the dry earth.  The only sound made by the crunch of gravel under hoof or the soft groan of the night wind.

Ahead of us, the rocky outcropping that formed the basis for the outpost could be seen against the darkening skies.  Smooth unnatural shapes could also be made out, from where they had built atop the natural stone of the mine entrance.  As we drew closer, I could see a crudely built tower rising above the rocks, giving anypony inside a good view of the surrounding area.  Below this, a building had been cobbled together from whatever was at hoof, looking similar to Wildfire’s shack.  A small doorway could be seen were the path meet up with the wall.  Above the door, a sign had been hung, ‘Outpost #2.’

As we rounded a bend in the path I spotted something that at once set me on alert.  The outpost’s metal walls looked to have stood up to many things over the years, from the blasting desert winds to the guns of raiders.  They did not stand up, however, to whatever had burned a pony sized hole in the side of it, just to the right of the doorway along the gentle slop it was built atop.  I ducked down beside a small pile of rocks,  grabbed my shotgun clicking the safety off the weapon and waited for Stonehoof to move up beside me.

I pointed out the hole to Stonehoof, and the pony moved carefully closer to the wall to get a better look as I covered him.   He reached down to his side, pulling up his rifle and clicking the safety off.  Once he reached the hole, he carefully looked through it at the inside of the outpost.  When nothing seemed to alert him, he moved a bit closer to the hole and slowly poked his head inside to look around further.  Something near the hole itself seemed to catch his attention.  After a few seconds he pulled his head back out and turned to wave a hoof down to me, and I quickly moved up beside him.

As I neared the hole, I spotted the body laying inside the outpost, beside it.  It had been a pony at sometime, but it was now little more then a mutilated pile of flesh and bones.  Looking closer I saw he had bite marks in his flanks and legs and his face appeared to have been melted off somehow, a half melted shotgun lay a few feet away from him.  I felt something rise in my throat, but quickly swallowed it back down, tasting the vomit that had nearly spilled out. 

I looked away from the body and instead scanned the inside of the outpost, making note of the small space beyond the wall.  Across from us, a natural rock pile jutted up from the earth, in its center a hole had been dug down into the ground; the mine entrance.  To the right of the tunnel, I noticed a pile of boxes and barrels stacked up neatly, supplies and water for the outpost, no doubt.  Looking to the left, I saw where the rock face met the pony made wall, built along the natural rock facing.  They had built added stairs atop the stone that rose up to where the tower I had seen outside stood.  I also spotted a few stalls, likely for those two headed cows they used to haul large heavy carts in town.  They were empty. 

Stonehoof quietly stepped through the hole and into the outpost, looking around quickly before he made his way towards the cave entrance. His hooves making little sound as he crossed the open space, head darting left and right looking for any threats.

Waiting a few seconds, I slipped in behind him and followed him across the open space.  Glancing up, I noticed a roof had been built across the top of the outpost, to completely enclose the mine and the natural spring within.  But it was damaged, either from the recent attack or from something else.  A large hole had been ripped in the roof, exposing twisted metal sheets and beams across it.  The grey sky above could be seen easily through the hole.  I looked away and scanned the surrounding space, half expecting something to attack us, but for the moment there were no red dots on my E.F.S.

I reached the entrance to the mine within seconds of Stonehoof, taking up positions on the other side of the opening.  Dim light flickered from inside and peeking around the corner, I noticed lamps hanging from hooks in the ceiling, still lighting the tunnels after almost a week.  Looking over to me, Stone whispered softly across the space between us.

“We should check th' bunks first Ah reckon, it’s th' first passageway off th' main one we’ll come ta,” he said, and I nodded. 

Made sense, after all, we did not want anything coming up from behind us.  I idly wondered how far in we should go, we were only suppose to scout it out for Rose.  Shaking my head, I looked back to Stone and motioned him to lead the way.  He knew this place better than I, and he quickly moved ahead of me once more.  I followed behind him as we entered I felt a oddly at home in the enclosed space. Oh, the rough stone walls of the mine tunnel was a far cry from the smooth metals walls of the Stable, but they both had a similar feel.  I noticed the walls still bore the marks of picks and shovels from when it had first been carved out...Celestia knew how long ago.  Two hundred years?  Maybe more?  As we went deeper, I noticed the wooden support beams had begun to show signs of rot and many had begun to crack, but they had held up this long and I doubted they would give any time soon.

As Stonehoof said, the tunnel ahead of us forked off in two directions.  To the right was what I assumed was the main tunnel, to the left the tunnel was smaller and more smooth in appearance.  Newer perhaps then the main tunnel, yet somehow I doubted it had been dug anytime recently.  In the fork of the tunnel, a single large wooden beam had been erected to help bare the weight of the slightly larger open space.  Upon this beam, somepony had nailed a metal sign.  Two arrows pointed off down the two tunnels.  Written in white paint above the right arrow was ‘Swimming Pool’ and above the left arrow was ‘The Open Grave Hotel.’

Stone motioned to the left tunnel, and I fell in behind him, the tight space leaving us little room to do much more then turn around.  The tunnel continued like this for some time before it at last began to open up, and we entered into a large open space.

The living quarters for the outpost’s guards was a single large room.  Four lamps swung slowly from their hooks over head, casting a soft yellow glow on everything below them.  I counted eight beds along one wall of the room, with trunks and dented lockers beside each.  Against the far wall a ledge was carved into the rock, used to store boxes of food stuffs and ammo.  Across from the beds was a small side chamber, the ceiling lower then the main chamber, but still high enough for a pony to walk.  In this room I saw two overturned tables with their contents scattered across the floor.  Chairs lay broken around the tables.

Raising his rifle up, Stonehoof edged into the room, and I followed, spreading out to the right as he went left.  Carefully we stepped across the broken plates and shattered cups and remains of what must have been dinner.  Drawing closer, we could see the tables had been clawed at, and one had even been burned nearly completely through. 

I was the first to spot the body behind the table.  A mare, though I wasn’t sure if she had been a unicorn or earth pony as her head was missing.  Like the body upstairs, her body had been ripped into, her assault rifle laying nearby, broken in two.  Spent shell casing littering the floor around her in a pool of her own blood.

Stonehoof moved around the table and taking in the sight of carnage lowered his weapon.  Surprisingly, he stepped closer to the body and leaned his rifle against the table before he began to unbuckle her saddle bags.  I was about to ask what he was doing when he gave them a tug revealing her light purple flanks and a cutie mark.  A bucket of what looked like water.  The large earth pony gave a sigh and covered the mare’s flank back up.

“A friend?” I asked him quietly.  He nodded once before picking his rifle back up and standing.  For a moment I didn’t think he was going to answer me, and I wasn’t about to press the issue.

“Yeah...Raincatcher...we were...close once.”  He left it at that, turning back to enter the main chamber. 

I glanced to the dead mare before turning away and following him back out into the living quarters.  Looking back towards the tunnel, I saw a few more crates but little else.  A quick check of the room turned up no signs of the geckos that had attacked the outpost.  We did come across a wealth of ammo and food, but I held back from taking it.  I noticed Stone had not attempted to take anything from the room, so i decided to follow his example.  After all, this was all owned by Crossroads, and I hardly wanted to piss off the first friendly ponies I had found thus far.

With little else to be found here, we quickly made our way back up the tunnel and to the main shaft. I glanced down it, it was the only place left to check.  If we found nothing here, then the geckos had likely moved on to somewhere else.  Somehow, I doubted it would be that easy.

I moved to the right side of the wall, Stone took the left and we slowly began to descend deeper into the mine.  As we went, we noticed the lamps had gone dark in spots, running out of oil, or in a few places laying shattered across the floor.  In several places there was evidence of fire along the floor, where the oil had spilled out, and even a few charred support beams.

We also saw more signs of a fight.  Spent shell casings in the corners of the tunnel, chunks of wall blown out from bullet impacts and signs of dried blood.  I glanced down at my Pipbuck and noticed the auto-mapping feature was no longer updating itself.  I stopped for a second and checked, everything else was working perfectly fine, but the map screen was run through with static. 

Stone looked to me as I stopped and arched a brow, I waved him to wait as I fiddled with the controls on my Pipbuck, but still nothing.  Then I noticed the radio was also blacked out, it had to be something in the walls that was blocking the signal.  And if it was blocking the radio it may also be causing havoc with the map...and perhaps my E.F.S.  Fuck...we’d been wandering around blindly.

I hurriedly looked back to Stone and waved a hoof to my right leg, and whispered,“It’s not working...I can’t tell if there’s anything in front of us.”  The gray earth pony shook his head.

“Never had one of'em fancy things afore, and Ah’ve done right enough.  Just use your own eyes and ears, it’s what yer mother gave’em to ya for.” 

With a grunt, I nodded my head and lowered my right leg back down, well, he had a point.  Gripping my shotgun once more in my mouth, I started forwards.  As we went, I felt the floor sloping slowly deeper and began turning to the right. Not longer after we came across two more bodies, bring the count to four.  According to Rose there had been six ponies guarding the well, and one had managed to stumble her way back to Crossroads.  That left one pony unaccounted for.

The two ponies laying across the floor of the tunnel had attempted to hold off their attackers there.  A crude barricade had been hurriedly erected from over turned crates and empty metal barrels. It hadn’t stopped whatever had come for them.  Both showed signs of having been half eaten after they had been killed.  At least, I hoped they had died before whatever had attacked them began eating.  Like Raincatcher, spent bullet casings lay around them, along with their dropped weapons.  However, they had not died alone but had managed to take some of their killers with them to the here after.

As we climbed around the barricade, I spotted several other bodies near the ponies.  There had to be at least a half dozen.  They were covered in green scales and in place of hooves had clawed webbed feet and hands.  Most were easily the height of a young colt or filly, though far more muscled.  All of them had a short stubby tail and a reptilian head with frills.  Many were also riddled with bullet holes and had leaked dark red blood across the floor.  My Pipbuck began clicking when I approached the green scaled bodies, and I quickly stepped back.

Looking to it, I saw the radiation meter had begun to climb into the higher green zone.  Arching a brow, I looked back to the geckos (for that's what they had to be) and stepped closer to one of them.  Again my Pipbuck began to click and the needle of the radiation meter began to rise towards the yellow.

Shit, these things were radioactive. 

I stepped back away from the body and glanced over to Stone, who was looking further down the tunnel, and I noticed he seemed focused on something ahead of us.  Carefully, I edged closer to the tunnel wall, and slowly moved forward until I could see at what he was looking.  When at last I had moved far enough around the bend of the tunnel, my hindquarters landed in the gravel and I sat shocked.

Ahead of us, gathered around a metal wall that blocked off the tunnel, were at least a dozen or more green scaled bodies with their backs to us.  They appeared to be waiting for something, what I had no idea.  Looking at the wall itself, I noticed it had a door in the center with a control panel beside it. Slumped next to the panel was the remains of the finally guard. She’d literally been ripped limb from limb and lay scattered across the floor, but it seemed she’d managed one finally act of defiance.  A red glow from the control panel indicated it had been locked, and while the wall appeared made up of piece’s of metal as the one above us, it seemed to be far thicker.

One of the geckos moved forwards and began making a choking noise.  Glancing to Stone, I saw the other earth pony shake his head and look back.  As we watched, the gecko opened it’s mouth wide and spat a large glob of saliva over the door.  As gross as it was, the next thing we saw surprised us.  The saliva began to hiss and run along the wall, or rather into it.  Melting it.  This day just kept getting better and better...large lizard creatures with a taste for pony flesh that were radioactive and spat acid.  Fucking perfect.

Stonehoof narrowed his eyes and began to quietly step back from the tunnel, motioning me to follow.  He had the right idea, if the corpses behind us was any indication, these things had either some thick natural armor or were fast as hell and between just two of us we’d never manage to take down that many before they overran us.  The well was safe for now, and if we hurried, we could return to Crossroads and come back with a larger number before they could get inside and taint the water. I didn’t doubt they wanted the water just to drink, but with as much radiation as was coming off them, they’d soon make it undrinkable for anything else to use.

As I turned to follow Stone back up the tunnel, my right front hoof dislodged a large stone near the edge of the wall and sent it rolling back down the tunnel.  I froze at once, as did Stone ahead of me.  Perhaps they hadn’t heard that...

A loud hiss, followed by several more proved me wrong. The sound of clawed feet scampering up behind us sent us to running back up the tunnel.

Glancing back over my shoulder as I followed Stone up the tunnel made me swear rather colorful things about what Celestia did with her horn.  A swarm of clawed scaled creatures were flooding the tunnel behind us.  Reptilian eyes glowing in the dark with unnatural light.

Shit...if they started shooting lasers I was quiting...

As we raced through the tunnels with a dozen radioactive geckos hot on our hooves, I turned and leveled my shotgun back down the way we had come and snapped off a shot. As tightly packed as the space was, I could not miss, and the slug slammed into the lead gecko, sending the scaly body tumbling into those behind it.  I didn’t waste anymore time, I knew it would not take them long to untangle themselves and charge up after us.

Ahead of me, Stonehoof had turned and began aiming down the path behind me, covering my retreat.  As I drew closer, I saw him pull the trigger on the rifle and the bight flash from it’s muzzle.  I heard rather then saw the bullet zip past my ear and the sound of brass impacting flesh.  As quickly as he fired, he was up and running again, our hooves skidding on the lose stones of the path.  Behind us, the hiss of the geckos dropped back a bit, we’d bought a bit of time, but not much.

“We’re almost there...we need ta reach th' hole and hold it, can’t get more then one of’em through at a time and we can easily pick’em off one by one.” the large gray earth pony said beside me, after working the lever back on his rifle.

“Right, and if things get ugly we can fall back down the path a ways and pop them as they try and get out.” I replayed, the mine entrance looming before us.  If we attempted to run back to Crossroads, those geckos could overtake us and swarm us in the open plains.

As we left the mine, we raced towards the hole we had entered through and our salvation.  Glancing back again, I saw the geckos had yet to exit the mine, this was our chance.  Looking back ahead of me I let out a shout of alarm as the hole was blocked out by a large scaly shape. We dug our hooves into the soil and skidded to a halt coming dangerously close to a very large and angry looking gecko.  My Pipbuck began screaming in alarm as the large gecko pushed its way inside, glowing drool dripping from it’s jaws and hissing as it struck the ground.

“Oh fuck me...” I managed before the thing swung it’s large claws at Stone’s head. He reacted at once rolling to the side and under the swing, but before he could climb to his hooves the large gecko back handed him with it’s other hand, and sent the earth pony flying across the open space to land in a heap near the far wall.

I attempted to back up, and bring my shotgun to bear on the back of the large gecko, I was just about to activate S.A.T.S when something scaly from behind sent me spiraling into the dirt, and with a grunt I impacted face down and plot up.  With a groan I rolled over onto my side and shook my head to clear it.  Still groggy from the sudden fall, I turned to see what had hit me, and came face to face with one of the geckos we had been running from.  The creature was climbing back onto it’s clawed feet and began hissing at me, while behind it more of its kind came scurrying up the mine entrance.  Desperately I lashed out with my hind legs to unbalance the creature, but it simply dodged aside.

Turning to get my hooves under me I saw my shotgun laying on the ground not a few feet away, the strap having been pushed over my head when I’d landed in the dirt.  I lunged for my fallen weapon, and saw out of the corner of my eye the gecko lunge towards my head with out stretched claws and a gaping maw full of sharp teeth.

I wasn’t going to make it...



Welcome to Level 4!

Perk Added: Rapid Reload: With your life on the line and every second counting, you’ve learned ways to speed up once time consuming tasks. Allows you to reload all your weapons 20% faster than normal. This also has the effects of allowing you to switch ammunition types faster.





> Chapter 04: Grouping Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4: Grouping Up


A friend is known when needed.


I wasn’t going to make it...

...as I lunged for the fallen weapon, I saw the flashing yellow teeth in it’s overly large mouth and the dirt and gore that covered its sharp claws.  As suddenly as it moved, it was gone in explosion of blood, bone, and green scales. My Pipbuck yelled a radiation alarm as the fluids struck my armored frame and the ground all around me.  A split second later I heard the unmistakable report of a high powered rifle echoing within the walls of the outpost.

Time began to speed back up and with a grunt and cloud of dust, I landed beside my shotgun and wrapped my hooves around it.  Biting down on the bit, I rolled over in the dirt and brought the weapon back up as a second gecko charged towards me.  I squeezed the trigger and the solid slug ripped into the running green scaled body, knocking it over backwards several times.

I risked a glance over towards Stone, expecting to see the pony on his hooves with his rifle tracking a new target; only the gray earth pony still lay where he’d fallen, in a heap against the stone stairs leading up.  Blinking in surprise, I turned back in time to see another of the geckos disappear in a mist of blood. 

That had come from above.  Following the angle of the shot, I craned my head towards the roof and the gaping hole I had spotted upon entering.  Standing at the edge of the jagged tear was the outline of a pony, the winged form outlined against the gray overcast sky.  It had to be her, a split second later she fired her rifles again, the muzzle flashes off the barrels lighting her face up in the darkness, and it was indeed the orange pegasus Wildfire.  For the moment, I wasn’t going to question from where she’d come.

For the moment the area around me was clear of hostiles; my E.F.S. still showed red dots, but none close enough to attack me.  I doubted it would stay that way for very long.  Standing up hurriedly, I ran towards the fallen Stonehoof, who was finally beginning to groggily rise to his knees.  His hat lay beside him in the dirt, alongside his rifle.  I wasted little time with words and instead hooked my left hoof under his foreleg and began pulling him back to his hooves.  As I got him standing, I heard the heavy crack of Wildfire’s rifles followed by the impact of bullet on flesh. The red dots were beginning to close in.

“What happened?” the stunned earth pony asked, shaking his head and blinking his eyes to try and clear his vision.  He must have hit his head pretty hard...  A rapidly closing red dot forced me to release Stone and spin around on my hooves and snap off two rapid shots one after the other.  I barely caught the lunging gecko with the first round, clipping it on the side of its hind leg, the second shot struck it in the gut and knocked it from the air to land with a hissing snarl not far away.  I brought the shotgun up, and snapped off another round into its skull, the red light going out on my E.F.S. I grunted and leaned over to grab Stones fallen hat with my teeth, slapping it back atop his head.  I snagged his rifle just as quickly.

“You got hit by a bus,” I answered swiftly.  The red lights were once more closing on us and I had no idea where the big bastard had gone,   “Wildfire’s covering us, but we need to move.”  I glanced behind us, the remaining geckos had stopped charging at us and were busy hissing and snarling up at the pegasus, a few lobbing wads of acid laced saliva up at her, though they fell very short.  But I figured they’d soon lose interest in the mare and turn to the more reachable ponies on the ground.  Luckily I spotted the large bastard, unluckily he was blocking the quickest exit out from this place.  It seemed interested in the pegasus upon the roof and snarled towards her, luckily ignoring us for a few more seconds.  I looked to the actual door, but I didn’t like our odds on reaching it and getting it unlocked and open before they overtook us.

“Th’ tower...” Stone said, nodding his head towards the entrance to the tower not a few feet away up the stairs he’d been tossed into, I followed his gaze and grunted deeply. We’d be trapped inside with only one way to go, up.  But the narrow doorway of the tower would be easier to defend, as would the stairs.

Turning the still dazed Stonehoof towards the top of the stairs I nudged him upwards and began climbing beside him. We’d not gone two steps when I saw this was not going to work. Stone could barely keep his balance, let alone climb several dozen stairs that grew more narrow towards the top. Laying my ears back, I hooked my right front leg around his left and helped him along, but the pace was still painfully slow. Moving as quickly as we could, we’d made it over half a dozen steps when a loud screech erupted from behind us. Glancing over mine and his shoulder I saw four of the geckos breaking off from their firing line and rush towards the base of the stairs.

Shit...

 We tried to hurry, but Stone only managed to stumble a few more feet before falling heavily to his knees.  Looking back, I saw the geckos scrambling easily over the steps below us, and more were beginning to follow them. I had to buy us time.

“Keep climbing, I’ll cover you!” turning away from the gray pony, I brought my shotgun to bare on the rapidly approaching geckos, their clawed legs digging into the steps as they bounded up them. Narrowing my eyes I entered S.A.T.S. and locked onto the nearest of the first group, focusing on each of their torsos as I had the best chance of hitting. Bracing my hooves under me, I allowed time to once more speed back to normal and squeezed the trigger rapidly three times.

BOOM! The shotgun roared and the closest geckos chest disappeared in a spray of blood that painted the rock wall and steps a sickly shade of red, before the next shot, I saw smoke rising up from the rock, likely from the acid they spit out.

BOOM! The solid slug slammed with full force into the second geckos torso just below its head. Somehow, the creatures scales prevented the round from entering its body, however the force of the blow was more then enough to break ribs and pulp organs. Howling in pain, the beast dropped to the stairs and began rolling around lashing out madly in pain. The following two geckos easily leapt across it’s fallen friend...

BOOM! The last shot flew out and took my last target in the head, its sudden movements offset my original target. The shell blew the scaly orb in half sending bits of brain flying off in all directions. Its body stumbling to the ground and laying still, smoking rising from its headless corpse. Oddly, I noticed a orange orb (one of its eyes) rolling down the stairs.

As the shells rolled around my hooves, the last gecko of the group charged towards me, acid drool dripping between its sharp fangs; clawed hands reaching out to tear into my flesh.  Calmly, I let go of the shotgun and allowed it to drop to my chest. Turning, I gripped the baton strapped to my side and with the speed born of practice I reared up on my hind legs and whipped the stiff metal rod out and up into the face of the gecko. 

CRACK! The sound echoed around me as loudly as the roar of gunfire as cold hard metal met warm scale covered flesh.  The gecko’s head snapped back at an odd angle and the lanky beast rolled to a halt between my front hooves, its neck broken.  Surprisingly, the creature still attempted to rise, its body not believing its brain when it said it was dead.  Well, we’ll just have to fix that.  Raising my head, I brought the baton down hard on it’s skull, shattering it and ending the beast’s struggles. 

A quick look back down the blood slicked stairs, showed me another six geckos starting up them, though these seemed content to sit back a ways and spit acid laced spit wads in my direction. Hell, they weren’t as dumb as they looked.  Dodging, I began backpedaling and snapping off a round or two whenever I managed to get a clear enough shot. However, the ammo counter on my E.F.S was getting low, and I would need time to reload. Time those geckos would not likely give me. I still had my assault rifle. 

Leaping back from a near hit, I glanced back to see Stone nearly to the doorway, the wounded gray pony stumbling up the stairs as he went. It was taking him too long, he’d never reach it before we were overrun or I ran out of ammo. Above, Wildfire had been forced to take cover as the larger gecko moved into the outpost and began spitting up towards her. He seemed to have far better aim and range then his smaller cousins and was striking the edge of the hole with green glowing spit. Metal was beginning to melt from the edges, and already more support beams were starting to sag under the sudden weakening of the structure around them.  Thus far, the large beast had focused on the pegasus, likely due to the number of wounds she had inflicted over it’s scaly body. But even Wildfire’s rifles seemed to do little real harm to it.

Another splatter of glowing spit and the warning from my Pipbuck reminded me I had other problems to worry about at the moment. I looked back down to the geckos at the bottom of the stairs, and saw they’d started to carefully climb them towards us.

Turning away from the geckos I charged up the stone and metal steps until I reached the groggy Stonehoof.  The pony was covered in sweat and dirt, and his eyes remained unfocused.  Without a word, I shoved my head under his stomach and pushed him up over my neck and onto my back.  With his added weight, I struggled as quickly as I could to my hooves and started up the stairs.  Behind me, the hiss of the geckos urged me forwards. 

Eyes fixed on the doorway before us, I moved up the steps, soon reaching a point where stone gave way completely to metal.  The stairs groaned from the sudden weight and shook alarmingly.  Ignoring the sounds, I fought my way up them, hooves slamming onto the stairs with ever step.  Acid splashed to either side of me, striking the wall nearby or the stairs just below me, but I was moving more slowly now, and some began hitting me. A glob landed on my armor and began hissing as it started to eat through the thick plates, a few striking my unarmored flanks causing me to yell in pain. Feeling acid eating through my coat and flesh was not something I’d ever wanted to feel again.  Behind me, a gecko yelped suddenly as a rifle cracked sharply over head.  Wildfire was still covering us, just a few more steps.

Just a few...more...steps...with a snarl I at last reached the landing at the top and through the doorway. I half ran half stumbled into the lower room of the tower. Dropping Stone on the ground, I turned to the door...only to find there was no door.

“OH COME ON!!”

The first gecko that appeared in the doorway had it’s face blown off.  Its body fell back atop the stairs, causing the whole set to shake and rattle.  The ammo counter from my E.F.S. flashed, I was down to only two shots left for the shotgun.  Desperate times...

Stepping forwards, I saw another five geckos racing up the stairs; their glowing orange eyes fixed on me, drool falling from their gaping maws.  Planting my hooves on the edge of the door frame, I entered S.A.T.S. and targeted the support beams holding the stairs up.  It was amazing the thing was still standing: the bolts somepony had driven into the stone walls were rusted and lose, one had broken free completely.

Eyes locked on my targets, I fired off the final rounds in my weapon. Both rounds flew through the air towards the metal supports, and both struck hard and right on target (to be fair it was easy to hit something stationary).  As I watched, the metal ripped free from the crumbling stone walls: bolts snapping and poles twisting as the entire stairway rocked. Either they were too dumb to notice or did not care, the geckos bound their way up towards me, causing the metal stairs to groan and sag even more.  Finally, it had enough, and with a screech of metal the entire thing plunged towards the ground below.  It was hardly far, but the fact they landed within the twisted scrap that had once been the stairs made up for it.

I hardly had time to enjoy my handy work, as the large gecko turned it’s attention towards me and hissed loud enough to rattle the walls of the tower.  Ducking back inside, I narrowly avoided a spray of acid, which began to chew through the wall I had been standing beside.  I lay on the ground a few feet away and watched as the metal bubbled and hissed as it turned into a liquid and slowly ran down the wall to pool on the floor and drip out the open doorway.

“I think I pissed off the downstairs neighbors, we better move.”  I said to no one really and turning away from the doorway, I moved over beside Stone and began reloading my shotgun quickly, all those years of training were paying off.

Stone lay in the corner of the tower beside stairs leading up higher into the structure.  The earth pony appeared unconscious. Damn, he must have a concussion from the force of the blow he took.  And I was sure I’d did him no favors by tossing him about like a sack of potatoes.  Looking back to the doorway, I saw no signs of danger, at least not yet.  We should have a few minutes before our lives were once more in immediate mortal peril.  Reaching into my saddle bag, I pulled out one of my health potions and yanked out the cork.  Turning back to Stone, I tilted his head up with a hoof and opened his mouth before pouring in the red liquid.  He was still awake enough to swallow by reflex, and I got most of the potion down his throat before laying his head back down.

I stood back up and turned towards the doorway.  I was about to go check outside when a sound from the floor above caused me to whirl around and bring my weapon up towards the stairs.  I was meet with the orange face of Wildfire as she peered from the floor above us.  With a frown, she dropped down beside me with a flutter of wings and looked over to Stone.

“He dead?” I shook my head, and edged closer to the door, careful to avoid the goo that made my Pipbuck click, outside I couldn’t see much.  The debris from the stairs lay just below me, green bodies twisted between the metal.  I’d killed a few at least, a quick scan showed no signs of the large gecko anywhere.  Fuck where was he?

“Any ideas where they got off to?” I asked, turning back to Wildfire as I stepped away from the doorway.  The pegasus stood beside Stone, looking down to the fallen pony before turning to look at me.

“No clue, before I flew up to the top of the tower, I spotted at least four of the smaller bastards running up to the big one,” she pawed the floor and narrowed her eyes, “Fucker’s tough, took several direct hits from my guns and didn’t seem to phase it.  I’ve killed griffins before in full combat armor and had better results with these rifles then that thing.” 

Griffins didn’t spit radioactive acid that melted metal either...wait, they didn’t did they??

“Well, we can’t stay here, sooner or later they’re going to come in after us, and while I think we can take the smaller ones no problem, that big one...” I trailed off and looked from where she’d came from if we couldn’t go back down, “...there’s a way out on top?”

“Yes, though I don’t think you two would like it, the sudden stop at the bottom would be hazardous for your health,” she answered with a half smirk; a smirk that soon disappeared as we both heard a roar below us.  I looked back towards the door wondering if perhaps but I never got to finish that though as the tower suddenly shook as if it’d been struck by a cannon and the entire rusting hulk shifted to the left alarmingly.

“I think we found them...,” I grunted, as the tower shook again.  Shit, they must be tearing out the supports under the tower!  Looking from the prone Stone to Wildfire my mind raced, “Can you carry Stone and fly?” I asked, moving over to pick the gray earth pony back up off the cold metal floor.  He simply groaned as I did so, still out.

“Yeah, for a short time, but I wouldn’t be able to carry you both...” she braced her hooves and flared out her wings as the tower shook again.   Something below us groaned and snapped.  As the shaking stopped she flapped her wings quickly and took to the air, somehow she managed to flip herself around and rise towards the opening above us.

Nodding, I began to climb the stairs to the second floor, managing to keep my balance somehow as the tower rocked once more.  Whatever those geckos were doing, it was getting worse.  Wildfire darted between me and the ceiling as she flew into the second floor.  Over the next several minutes, I climbed higher, the tower hadn’t looked to tall from outside, but I was beginning to wonder when I’d reach the top.  I’d done a lot of running today, and it was starting to show.  Looking up, I spotted the open sky above me, and climbed the last few steps up onto the roof.

The cool night air felt wonderful over my sweat covered body.  Stone was hardly a light pony, not to mention his gear and weapons.  With a grunt I scanned the night sky, seeing little beyond the clouds and distant lights of Crossroads to the south.

Allowing Stone to slide to the roof, I stumbled to the edge and looked down immediately wished I hadn’t.  Bucking Hell.  Stepping away from the lip of the roof I turned and looked back as Wildfire soared into the open sky above me, the orange pegasus circled the tower quickly before landing back beside me.

“I can’t see any geckos around the outpost’s walls...I could take Stone down and come back-” whatever else she was about to say was cut off as we both gasped in alarm.  The tower groaned and began to sag further and further to the left.  Only it didn’t seem likely to stop anytime soon.  Somewhere below us, I heard metal snap and tear followed by loud bangs as something gave way, the metal plates under my hooves beginning shaking violently and several buckled as the tower tipped over.  My hooves skidded across the roof top, sending out sparks over the dented rusted metal but not stopping my slide towards the edge.  I yelled out, scrambling to find someway to keep myself from falling off the side of the tower, fighting against gravity, I spotted Stone’s limp body sliding freely towards the edge.

“Wildfire!! Get Stone!!” I shouted, jabbing a forehoof towards the still unconscious pony, his hind legs dangled over the edge, as his rifle strap snagged on a sharp piece of metal that protruded from the roof.  It had halted his long drop to a broken neck. 

At my shout, the pegasus lunged towards the gray pony, wrapping her orange hooves around his upper body and biting down on the strap of his weapon, fighting to get it untangled as the tower continued to lean over.  Was this a bad time to mention I didn’t like heights?

Everything was shaking at this point, as gravity fought to bring the tower crashing down around us.  Looking over the edge, I saw the roof of the outpost below me; the tower leaning over it at an almost 90 degree angle.  The tower had been bent in the middle like a piece of warm taffy, and rocked from the slightest movement.

“Almost...” Wildfire muttered around the strap that seemed to refuse to come loose no matter which way she turned her head.  Flapping her wings rapidly, she began to pull against the strap, eyes narrowing in anger. With her front hooves under Stone’s, she lifted him up off the tower’s roof as she began to pull harder, I felt the tower begin to shake...Oh Hell...

“Wild-” was all I managed to say before with a snap the weapon’s strap came free from the corner and earth and pegasus pony were tossed back into the air, Wildfire flapping madly to try and right themselves before they slammed into the ground.  With a groan, the tower’s fight with gravity ended, at least for the upper half anyway.  Tearing, twisting metal echoed all around me as both it and myself began the drop to the roof of the outpost below.

With a cry, I lunged back, grabbing wildly for any hoofholds on the tower’s roof as it dropped.  I just managed to grab a hold of the hatch leading back inside the tower as it struck the outpost’s roof.  It sounded as if someone had thrown a pile of scrap metal down a cliff and the force of the impact rattled me violently, causing me to slam my face into the rusting steel roof several times.  I heard and felt the outposts roof give way below me, and felt the tower drop once again, although this time it was a short distance before coming to a halt at last and once again causing me to bash in my face.

Somehow, throughout the entire ordeal I had managed to hang onto the open hatch, my front hooves digging into the lip of the opening enough to cause me some pain, but better that then breaking my back or legs on the fall below.  I hung against the now vertical roof.  My face felt as if I’d been punched, which it sorta had.  I could taste blood in my mouth from where I’d bit down on my tongue and more was running down my muzzle from my busted nose. 

Looking down at the floor of the outpost I saw I had a very large problem.  I wasn’t very high up from the ground, the tower having caved in the roof of the outpost around it and falling further inside.  I was sure I’d be alright if I just dropped down, at worst I might sprain an ankle and best I’d gain a few more bruises and scratches.  No, the problem I saw was the waiting geckos below me.  If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the bastards were smiling up at me and licking their fangs.  My eyes widened as I spotted the larger creature stomping it’s way towards me, clawed fingers flexing.  It was tall enough to reach me if it got under me, which it seemed to be doing.

Kicking my hind legs out below me, I struggled to pull myself back up into the hatch and out of reach of the large gecko, a hiss from below was soon followed by splashes of acid as they began to spit their toxic goo at me.  My Pipbuck’s radiation alarm ringing madly from the glowing ooze.  A glob struck near my left hind leg and the splash back from the strike landed on my flesh and began to burn.  I winced from the sudden pain, but it only served to drive me harder to climb inside.  With a final growl, I pulled myself up and into the hatch, falling at once to the floor...or rather wall of the tower’s top most level.

Painting for breath, I heard the gecko’s outside hissing angrily and their toxic spit striking the metal roof of the tower.  A few small holes began to open up in places, but it seemed I had managed to buy myself some time.  Wiping away the blood from my lip and nose I looked back towards the stairs in front of me and noticed light coming from back down the tower, likely where it had snapped in half.  

I snapped my head back towards the hatch as I heard something loud slam into the roof.  My ears dropped and my jaw hung open as I saw the clawed hands of the large gecko clinging to the edges of the opening. With a hiss, the creature pulled itself up into view and locked it’s hate filled orange eyes onto me.

“Oh for fucks sake...”

Reaching for my shotgun, I scrambled to my hooves and began firing towards the open hatch, not bothering to aim, at this point I was battered and worn out.  My rounds struck the thing in the face and neck, but did little damage.  Its dark green scales seemed to be thicker than the smaller ones, and I suddenly remembered Wildfire’s high powered rifles had done little more than scratch the thing.  I also noticed it seemed to have no signs of those scratches and was I watched, the few holes I had managed to poke into it’s hide began to seal slowly.  Now, that’s just not fair...

With a groan, the tower began to sag again, and I lost my hoofing, sliding towards the hatch and the waiting claws of the gecko.  Ducking, I narrowly avoided losing my head to its clawed fingers as it swiped at me, gritting my teeth I swung the shotgun back up towards the thing’s face and fired.  This close, the round seemed to actually do damage and the gecko roared in pain.  Lashing out wildly, it’s claws caught me a glancing blow and knocked me back onto my side, the force of the blow causing me to drop my weapon.  Three cuts ran across my armor where it had struck, they had also cut the strap holding my combat shotgun around my neck, and the weapon lay in the corner of the room.

Before I could even begin to climb back upright, the gecko’s powerful muscles began widening the opening in the roof allowing it to climb into the room, with a speed I found shocking the beast lunged towards me, its mouth opening wide enough to close around half of my body.  With a cry, I planted my hind legs against the gaping hole and held the jaws open.

“Damn...your breath alone could kill me...,” I muttered, front hooves scrambling for my pistol.  As I yanked the weapon free, the gecko jerked it’s head back, its jaws snapping shut around my tail and pulling me back down.  I could do nothing to halt my fall, my face impacting with the rim of the hatch before I slammed heavily into the ground in a cloud of dust. Lights danced in my vision as I lay in a heap and injury warnings flashed everywhere.

Lifting my head (and tasting more blood in my mouth) I found myself face to face with one of the smaller geckos, the creature snarling as it snapped its fang filled jaws towards my muzzle.  With a yelp, I jerked backwards, feeling sharp pains running through my body as I did.  Ignoring it, I scrambled for my last weapon, the assault rifle I’d picked up off the slavers.  My pistol lay just behind the gecko, where it had fallen when I hit the ground.  I heard more movement around me and checked to see five red dots were closing in on me from two sides.

Activating S.A.T.S., I brought the rifle up.  The assault rifle had two settings, three round burst and full auto.  I had it set to the first, as I only had maybe two magazines for it.  I aimed a single shot at my closest target, then turned and saw the remaining gecko’s off to my right.  I locked the remaining two shots into each of them, and with a prayer to Celestia I felt time speeding back up.

As I squeezed the trigger, I saw the gecko before he leapt off the ground towards me.  The muzzle flash from the rifle lighting up the green scales of its body making them almost shine, the three rounds ripped through those same scales and out the other side with ease.  Jerking backwards, the gecko landed in a heap at my hooves, leaking fluids out the new holes I had opened.  Turning to the right, I was already pulling the trigger on my second target.  The rounds buried themselves in the lizard’s chest, knocking it over from the force of the impact.  Another flash, and another three rounds left the barrel of the gun, slamming into the third gecko as it turned to dodge its fallen friend.  A single round tore through it’s hind quarters, sending it to the ground.  The second round struck it’s chest, jerking it backwards as the third slammed into its head from the side.  The gecko went down, twitching before going still.

Two red dots left.

The last remaining gecko began backing away, perhaps deciding I was more trouble then I was worth, however, the larger one pushed the smaller gecko aside and started towards me.  Seems he and I had some unfinished business.  I began stepping back towards my fallen pistol, it was likely the only thing I had that could put a dent in this thing’s natural armor.

Again, the large gecko’s speed surprised me, and the beast lunged towards me with an outstretched, clawed hand.  With a grunt, I managed to avoid the worst of the sharp claws, but it still struck me a glancing blow across my neck and sent me rolling across the ground in a heap once again.  I felt new pains shoot up my body as I rolled to a stop.  I’m running out of healing potions.  Reaching a hoof back to my saddle back I pawed around for something round and found it, but what I pulled out was something else and blinked.

A single round grenade sat in my hoof.  No...it was crazy...it’d never work...would it?  A roar brought my head up, and I saw the beast once more getting ready to charge at me.  My entire body ached, I could barely stand and my Pipbuck was flashing warnings in several different colors.  I had to finish this fight or it was going to finish me.

Sinking my teeth into the metal ring atop the grenade, I pulled the pin, and waited.  I’d have to do this without S.A.T.S as it was still recharging.  I had to finish this now, or I’d never get another chance.  Rising to my hooves, I faced the hissing mass of scales and muscles...before with a roar it began to leap.  Roaring myself, I flung the grenade as hard as I could toward the beast’s head.  Luckily, my aim was true, and the metal orb struck the beasts open mouth and got caught in its throat.  The large gecko’s eyes widened as it began to choke, and it stumbled from the sudden feeling.  It jerked it’s head back and forth trying to dislodge the grenade.  Grinning, I had just enough time to drop back to the ground and cover my head with my fore hooves before the grenade went off.

It sounded like the over ripe watermelons my father had us use for target practice back in the Stable when the grenade went off.  Something wet and sticky struck my body a second later and I lowered my front hooves to look and see what had happened.  I half expected the thing to shrug it off and rip my head off, but it seems it had finally bit off more then it can chew (I groaned inwardly, but I say I earned it).

The body of the large gecko lay in the dirt not far away from me, it’s head completely obliterated.  Its neck and upper body looked as if it had been shoved into a blender that was set to explosion.  Steam rose slowly from the corpse and I could smell the sick scent of cooked meat, as I stood, I felt bits and pieces of the gecko slide wetly off my body to land with a thunk on the ground around me.  There are not enough showers in the world...

Of the remaining gecko I saw no trace, and my E.F.S. was clear of red dots for once.  Tiredly, I picked up my fallen assault rifle and slipped the strap back over my head and at once winced, oh Celestia everything hurt, even my tail hurt.  Turning painfully, I spotted my pistol still laying nearby, and on wobbly legs I walked over and picked it up in my mouth before holstering it.  The sound of flapping wings beside me announced Wildfire’s return, the pegasus carrying a now awake Stonehoof.  Dropping the earth pony from her hooves, the pegasus landed beside him, and the pair looked at me oddly.

“What? I have some more of that thing on my face?” I asked, sitting down tiredly and reaching up a sore hoof to rub at my even sorer face.  I looked myself over and saw a number of bits that did not belong to me sticking to my armor and coat.  I had a number of wounds and scars and a nasty burn mark on my flank from the acid.  Wildfire was the first to speak up.

“That was either the bravest or the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen; and trust me, I’ve done some dumbass things in my time,” the pegasus grinned at me and shook her wild red mane.

“Ah’ve seen some mighty amazin’ things in my time, but never have Ah seen somethin’ like that,” Stone said.  The earth pony still looked badly beaten up, but at least he was awake and talking.

“Well...it seemed like a good idea at the time...and really, my only other option was to end up as dinner,” I said, then looked up to the tower several dozen feet off the ground and frowned.  How was I supposed to get my shotgun back?  “Either of you two see the last gecko?” I asked. Stone snorted softly, and Wildfire grinned.

“I wouldn’t worry about him, while I was trying to find someplace safe to drop off this lump of a pony, I spotted it running off towards the north as quickly as it’s clawed feet could carry it.”  Following my gaze, the pegasus’ wings flared out and she launched herself into the air.  As easily as you please, the mare slipped inside the fallen tower and back out within a few seconds.  As she landed once more, I saw the torn strap for my shotgun in her mouth, the weapon looked none the worse for it’s treatment.

“Thanks.”  I picked the weapon from her mouth and looked it over, I’d hate to lose it, after all it was a piece of home.  A piece of home that was helping to keep me alive.  It was a bit banged up, but still seemed to be in good shape.  I’d need to do some repairs on it when we got back to Crossroads.

“No problem, but we’d better get you two back to town.”  As if reading my mind, she bent over to help Stone stand again, the earth pony swaying slightly on his own.

“Good idea...” I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay on my hooves, I added silently, before limping towards the hole in the side of the wall.  Oh, it was going to be a long walk back to town...



*     *     *     *     *



Stepping out of Stone’s room, I quietly shut the door behind me, letting my friend get some well deserved rest.  Doctor McCoy had left just moments ago after checking up on the large gray earth pony.  Luckily for the both of us, the earth pony doctor had been checking up on Lilly and her new foal when we’d made our way into town with Wildfire’s help.  He’d been getting ready to leave the saloon and had been near the doors speaking with Rose when we stumbled our way through them and dropped to the floor.  None of us had looked very good by that point. 

I looked over my body now, I had managed time to clean up and most of the dirt and blood from my trip had been left behind in the bathtub. My hind quarters were wrapped in white cloth to help heal the burn marks from the gecko’s acid (luckily it had stopped before it burned down to the muscle.  Though my body was still sore, Doc told me after some rest I’d be alright, just to try and not strain myself for a few days.  I knew I’d be unable to do that though, as tomorrow I planned to head out. 

Stepping away from the closed door, I turned and began moving back towards the stairs at the end of the hallway.  My hoof steps lightly clattered along the wooden floor as I walked.  Ahead of me  a door opened near the stairs and I spotted Rose stepping out.  She’d been checking in on her sister and look up as I moved closer.  The mare’s dark green eyes looked past me to Stone’s door, before settling back upon my face.

“This is twice I find myself thanking you for saving my family from harm, Shadow.  You seem to be making a habit of it.  Not to mention saving the town of thirst.”  I blinked and tilted my head slightly, she smiled and explained, “He’s taken good care of my sister after her husband died.  He’s looked after Appleseed and taught him how to handle a gun and survive the wasteland, and even helped me a time or two.  He’s a good pony, and those are very rare in this world.”  The red unicorn’s horn began to glow softly and a bag floated up before my face from the folds of her dress.  By the sounds coming from inside, I imaged it was the caps she said she’d pay me.

“Here, you’ve more than earned these.”  She floated the bag up before me and waited.  I held up my right  hoof and allowed the bag to drop onto it.  It was a lot of caps, more then most ponies would earn in a week.  Ponies like Raincatcher and the others who had died trying to defend their town’s well.  Ponies with families.  I stared at the bag for a time, thinking about the dead ponies I’d seen in the well.  Thinking about the family huddled together back in Lonesome Hoof.

“Give this to the families of the ponies who lost their lives at the well. They earned it more then me.”  Lightly I tossing the bag back to her.  Her horn lit up with magic as she caught it easily, her green eyes settling upon me with a questioning look.  I simply nodded my head and smiled softly, “Besides, doesn't seem right to be paid to do the right thing, I’m a security pony, protecting others is my job.”  With that I trotted past her and started down the steps.

“It seems...there’s more good ponies in this world then I thought...” I heard her say to no one after I was halfway down the stairs and into the saloon.  It was as crowded tonight as it had been the night before.  This time, as I made my way through the tables and towards the doors, several of the ponies sitting around looked up and nodded my way.  Several gave out cheers and more than a few of the mares offered me a wink or two.  I  simply smiled to all and nodded back, but I was intent on finding where Wildfire had hidden herself.  I’d not seen her since we’d arrived in town, and she’d helped us to Rose’s saloon.

Stepping out through the swaying door, I looked around the streets and sidewalks of the dark town.  The street lights no longer seemed to be working, well, not all of them I noticed.  Only a few shown dim light across the streets.  There were few ponies out on the street at this hour of the night, most were asleep inside their homes with family and friends or behind me in the saloon.  Moving away from the door, I noticed most of those ponies passing by wore the mismatched armor of the town’s guards.  A few nodded my way, or tilted their hats back in respect.  Hmm, seems I earned some respect from them for what I did...

Walking off the saloons porch, I began to make my way through town, looking for the pegasus.  It didn’t seem likely to be that hard to find the only mare with a set of wings in a town of earth ponies and unicorns, especially as Stone said she wasn’t the most liked of ponies, but after half an hour of searching, I was no closer to finding her and my already tired hooves began reminding me I owed them some rest. 

My path had taken me to Marcus’ weapon shop, and I stopped surprised to see the door open and lights inside still on.  Stepping up to the doorway, I looked inside and spotted the overweight earth pony sorting through several boxes around his counter and muttering to himself in whatever language that was. 

“Marcus is busy at moment, friend.  Please, coming back later when...,” the brown earth pony turned and stopped, at once that wide grin appeared on his mustached face and he stepped towards me.  I flinched and awaited the assault I knew was sure to come.  At this point, I’m pretty sure I would have snapped in half.

“Is Stable pony!  Marcus hearing Stable pony big hero now!  Ha! Knowing Stable pony do good things!”  With a laugh the pony wrapped me up in his fore hooves and proceeded to ruin all of Doc’s fine work on patching me up.  Falling out of the tower had barely hurt worse.

“Than-thanks Marcus...please...put me down?” I asked between breaths as my hooves left the ground.  Finally with a grunt, the shop owner dropped me and released me from his crushing hug.

“Stable pony should be resting, dah? Looks ready to fall over!”  Arching a bushy eyebrow the earth pony poked a hoof at my battered armor, “Stable pony’s shiny armor is looking in poor shape.”  Frowning, he shoved me back onto my backside and proceeded to unbuckle my security armor with his teeth and hooves.

“Uh...Marcus what are you doing?” I asked, as he tossed the pieces of my armor into a corner.

“Can’t let big time town hero walk around wasteland in dented armor. What kind of message that send?  Eh?”  With a grin, he tossed the last few pieces of my armor atop the rest,“Come back tomorrow, Marcus have Stable pony’s armor all fixed and ready.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of caps on me...,” I began, but a look from Marcus silenced me. 

“Nyet, Stable pony not owe Marcus any caps.  Is on house, dah.  For saving town’s well.”  With a nod, he turned and began shoving my armor loudly towards the back of the shop, if it wasn’t already damaged, the treatment it was getting now definitely had it banged up.  Before he disappeared behind the curtain, I rose up and stepped towards the counter.

“Do you normally keep your shop open so late?” I asked as he finished half shoving half kicking my armor into the back room.

“Marcus is getting ready for new guard ponies being sent out to well.  Rose asking me to equip twice number of ponies we normally have there.  Think run in with geckos make mayor mare worry more,” he answered, stepping back out to stand across the counter from me.  As the curtain closed, I noticed the back room seemed as cluttered up as the front.

“So I take it no pony has ever seen such a large gecko before?”

“Nyet, never.  Never see geckos that spit acid before either!  Is good guards seal well before killed, or water ruined.”  He narrowed his eyes and shook his head slowly, “Is bad. Wasteland getting worse all time.”

“Really? I figured it’d be getting better if the radiation was fading.” I said, tilting my head to the weapons pony.  I mean, that’d been the point of Stables.  Send some ponies underground to wait for the radiation levels to drop down, and then start over again.  Granted the environment was fucked up, and there was a lot of crazy ponies...but surely it wasn’t like this everywhere...was it?

“Is not all radiation's fault, nyet.  Is no more radiation’s fault then is bullets fault when hitting pony in head.  Is ponies fault who pull trigger.  Guns are not killing ponies.  Ponies are killing ponies.  Ponies are causing problems we having.  Ponies like raiders.  Ponies like slavers.  Bad ponies.”  He let out a sigh and leaned more heavily against the counter, “Radiation as say, can fade.  Bad ponies, they just make more bad ponies.  And those bad ponies make more...is never ending cycle.”

“Not if they stop...,”  he rose a hoof up to silence me and pointed out to me.

“Is point, Stable pony.  Nopony is wanting to stop.” 

I lowered my head and thought about it.  Was madness and killing all any pony really knew anymore?  Had we fallen so far from where we’d been that the Stables had been built for nothing?  I frowned and glanced around the store; looking over all the ways you could kill a pony.  A heavy rifle sat upon a counter, with a long range scope added atop it, you could kill a pony from almost a mile away with that weapon, and he’d never see it coming.  Below it was a collection of pistols, forcing you to get up close and look your opponent in the eye when you pulled the trigger and took his life.  Hanging beside the shelf was a few assault rifles, spitting out vast amounts of lead in a short amount of time.  So many ways to kill a pony.

I sighed and looked back up to the weapons dealer, his happy mood gone for the moment .

“Marcus, have you seen Wildfire at all?” I asked.

“Hmmm....nyet, not seen crazy pegasus since earlier.  Come in looking for ammo for her big guns.  Buy what have and took off.”

Nodding my head, I thanked him and turned and left the earth pony with his thoughts.  Stepping  outside and back onto the street, I pushed away the dark thoughts for the time being, I had to find Wildfire.  I began to wonder if she’d left for her home.  After all, she had no real reason to stay, but then she hadn’t any reason to save Stone and I either.

Looking up, I spotted two mares in the same armor as the town’s guards.  Hmm, perhaps some of the guards had seen Wildfire.  Walking up to them, I nodded my head in greeting. 

The first was a light blue gray earth pony, with blue eyes and a dark green mane and tail striped through with white and cut short.  She was slightly larger then most ponies, though nowhere near as big as Brightblade or Stonehoof.  She was also very well built, likely from a lifetime of hard work.  She carried a shotgun similar to mine by her side, the strap over her head and resting against her armored torso.  Her cutie mark was covered by her saddle bags.

Her partner was a cream colored unicorn, whose armor seemed far to large for her small frame.  Her dull red mane had been fixed into a Mohawk and her tail braided up tightly.  Her cutie mark was visible and appeared to be of a windmill.  I noticed her right rear leg looked metallic from the knee down, a leather strap tying it to the stump of her limb.  She had a very startling set of orange eyes, that nearly seemed to glow in the dark, but a very friendly smile which she graced me with when they noticed me.

“Excuse me, ladies, but have either of you seen Wildfire?  She’s a pegasus, and came into town with me early tonight.”  The pair halted and looked me over, before the earth pony grinned.

“Your th’ Stable pony, th’ one who drove off them varmints at Well Two?”  I nodded and she continued, “Mighty nice work ya be doin’ there, friend!  Now...about your friend, I think I seen’er up on th’ walls over yonder.”  She tilted her head towards the north wall and I looked off towards it.  I was too far away to be sure if any of them were Wildfire, but there were several ponies atop the wall.  Turning back to the pair I smiled and shook my head.

“Well, I didn’t do it alone, in fact if it wasn’t for Wildfire I doubt either Stone or myself would have made it out in one piece.”  The cream colored mare smiled and shifted her body a bit, her metallic limb creaking a bit as she did.

“Modest too, my, are all you Stable boys so well mannered and polite?” she asked with a wink.

“Um, I wouldn’t know, miss.  If you’ll both excuse me, I need to speak to Wildfire.”  With a nod and smile I made my way past the two and trotted towards the northern gate.  What was with all these mares?  In the Stable I had been largely ignored by most of them, now it seemed I was the only stallion on the face of the planet.

Approaching the north gate, I scanned along the wall for any signs of a orange pegasus.  I spotted several of the town’s guards walking on patrols across the top, but a single sitting form drew my attention.   I spotted the pegasus outlined against the gray cloud covered sky.  She seemed to be looking off towards the east, her wings half open.  The guards on duty around the gate house paid me little attention beyond a smile and wave as I stepped up near them.  Now, how was I supposed to get up there?

As I lowered my gaze, spotting a rusting ladder to the side of the gate, it had been sitting there for sometime, likely the past one hundred or so years.  Frowning, I looked questioningly at the thing, after all, I’d had my fill of falling off things today.  Placing a hoof atop a rung I gave it a light tug: the ladder rattled and shook, but remained in place.  Carefully, I placed the weight of my body upon it, and after a few seconds of it not falling over, I began climbed to the top of the wall.  Once I had all four legs under me again, I moved towards the sitting form of Wildfire. 

Not once did the mare look up as I approached her, nor did she acknowledge me when I settled down beside her.  I followed her gaze out across the wasteland, at this time of night, there was little to see.  Everything was dark, only the shapes of hills and tall rocks stood out against the gray sky.  I could make out the rocky towers we’d climbed to find her the day before.  Turning my gaze to the east, I could just make out the far distant mountains.  After a few minutes I finally broke the silence.

“Thanks for saving us.”  As I spoke, Wildfire glanced over at me slightly, before turning her blue eyes away and back out across the wasteland.

“What else was I going to do?  Leave you two dumbasses to die?” she asked finally, and I turned to look at her, offering a friendly smile to the oddly quiet pegasus.  She’d been so outspoken earlier that evening when we’d first met, and even while we fought for our life, she’d been brash.

“Well, if you had, I would have been mighty upset with you.”  I noticed as I spoke a slight smile form on her lips before fading away quickly.  I turned back to look out across the horizon.

“Not many ponies would risk their lives for strangers,” she began.  When I did not stop her, she pressed on, “Why’d you do it?  I heard from a few of the guards the mayor offered to pay you, but you turned it down.”  She turned her head to look at me.

“It just didn’t feel right to take money away from them, not for doing the right thing.”  At that, the mare snorted softly and I arched a brow to her.

“No pony ever does the right thing...at least not for free,” she said, eyes remaining fixed upon my face.  She tilted her head slightly, “I use to hear ponies back home who said we were doing the right thing by sealing up the sky.  By protecting our own.”

“Ever since I was a little foal, I was taught the difference between right and wrong.  My mother told my sister and I stories of what life was like before the war.  About ponies helping ponies.  About friendship and loyalty.  I was raised in a Stable my whole life, so I never had to deal with what everypony else has,” I said, turning away from her bright blue eyes to narrow my own eyes at the darkness before me.  The wasteland seemed to be little more then a sea of darkness, surrounding a few sparks of light. Like Crossroads.  “Maybe if I had been raised up here, I’d be different, but I wasn’t and I’m not.”

“You’re different than any other pony I’ve met,” Wildfire spoke up.  As I turned to look back at her she continued, “I think you actually mean it when you say you did it because it was right.”

I smiled to that, taking it as a compliment.  A slight pain worked its way up my back and I winced.  I shifted my weight on my hind quarters, the acid burns still bothering me despite the salve and bandages I was wearing and looked back to the pegasus.  Perhaps it was time to change the subject and learn a bit more about her.

“By the sounds of it, I guess the pegasus don’t care about the ponies on the surface to much?” I asked, having caught her mention of her home.  She snorted and glanced towards the sky above us, blue eyes narrowing.

“Not one shit, no.  The Enclave rules the skies, and controls everything.  From the news to the entertainment.  Even what foals are taught in school.  It’s their version of history, which is close enough to the truth to be easy to believe.”  She grunted and looked away, “Hell, I believed it for most of my life, until I started coming to the surface more.”

“So most haven’t been to the surface?”

“Not many, no, only those authorized for special assignments are allowed below the clouds, and then only for so long.  More than half the population have no clue what its like down here, most don’t give two shits.  No, only time we’re sent to the surface is if they want something or there’s a threat to one of our cities.  Believe it or not, there’s not exactly a lot of raw materials for making weapons and armor in the clouds,” she answered with a ghost of a smile.

“You use to come down here a lot then?”

“I use to be in the Enclave myself, so yeah I was ordered down here a time or two.”  Used to, was that why she was down here?  Was she kicked out or something?  I pressed on, wanting to find out more about this Enclave, the more she mentioned it, the more I found myself disliking it.  It sounded like a military.

“What is the Enclave exactly?  The government?” 

“Yes, and it’s our military as well.  It was formed shortly after the bombs started falling across Equestria.  Everypony was scared what was happening below might happen to them.  The zebras had already destroyed Cloudsdale, and the threat was very real at the time.  Nopony really questioned them taking over, most were too afraid, those that did, well...they either shut up or they were deemed a threat.  Most figured it was temporary, and once the danger had passed things might return to normal.” 

“I guess that didn’t happen?” 

“Look around, kid...what part of this festering hell hole looks normal to you?”  Her ears flicked back and she shook her head, “No, there was always some other threat to us that seemed to appear.  Raiders with anti-flier weapons.  The griffins looking for supplies for themselves.  Random dragon attacks.  After a while, most just began to accept the Enclave, and allowed them to completely take over.”

“Dragon attacks?” I glanced to the sky, I’d heard stories and seen photos of dragons before.  Big strong nasty looking creatures with a love of fire and hoarding.  Had they survived the bombs?

“There’s not many left, most died from the radiation a couple years after.  Those that survived did so deep underground or in places like here that didn’t suffer as many hits as they did back east.  Lucky us, eh?” this said with a smirk and flick of her wings. 

Oh, yes.  Lucky us indeed.  Nodding my head, I looked from her face to her flank, noting the branding she wore in place of a cutie mark.  Looking more closely, I could see scarring around the mark, I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like.  A pony’s cutie mark was special, to have it burned away like that.  I doubted it had been done willingly, what pony would allow it?

“So, how’d you end up stuck down here?”  I looked back up to her face as I asked the question, the mark was likely personal, and I did not want to anger her if I could help it.  She had saved Stone and myself’s life.

“Its...a long story, and not one I really want to get into.  The short version of it, is I disobeyed orders and got myself and two others banished.”

“There’s two other pegasi with you?”  The house (or pile of junk) she’d been staying in had been a bit small, I doubted there was room inside for anypony else.

“Not anymore there isn’t.”  And like that, she closed back up.  It seemed I’d asked the wrong question after all.  I sat for awhile, waiting to see if she might start talking again, I even tried asking her a few questions about other subjects like where she got her rifles, or how she met Stone, but she only answered with a yes or no.  Sometimes not even that.  After an hour, I was ready to fall asleep right there and so decided it was time to head back to the saloon.

“Well, I should really get myself some rest, I’ve a long day tomorrow.”  I stood slowly, hearing a few joints popping and groaning, oh I don’t think it’s suppose to sound like that.  Turning away, I trotted towards the ladder, placing a hoof on the top rung I was about to swing down when Wildfire spoke up.

“I should return home as well...I’ll...think about ways you can get inside Kanter City and write them down for you,” she said, I smiled and turned to thank her.  The pegasus was gone, however, having dived off the edge of the wall, soaring away to the north, it was so dark, I had no chance in spotting her as she flew away.

Climbing back down the ladder, I started back towards the saloon and a nice warm bed.



*     *     *     *     *



I awoke the next morning, feeling far better then I had when I’d went to sleep.  Yawning, I lifted my head up from the pillows and looked around the room sleepily.  The light from outside filled the room, and it was clear I’d slept through most of the morning.  Even now, I had to fight my way to roll over and climb out of bed.  As my hooves touched the floor and I finished stretching out I noticed something sitting on a chair near the door.  Stepping closer, I saw it was my armor laying on the seat, a note taped to it.  Sitting down beside the chair, I pulled the note away and looked to see what it said.

‘Thanks for the help. Stop by my shop anytime your in town.’

I lowered the note and smiled, Marcus was a pony of his word, and my armor had never looked so clean or ready for action.  Every dent and hole had been patched, even the straps that held it all together looked new, as did the buckles themselves. I reached over and picked up the neck guards where the large gecko had clawed me, not a trace of the claw marks remained.  Not just a good sales pony, it seems the plump earth pony knew how to repair armor, and I imagine he’d handle a weapon just as well. 

Turning away from my armor, I moved over to a full length mirror in the corner of the room and began removing most of the bandages from  round my hind quarters, I needed to get ready to leave...



*     *     *     *     *



Stepping out of my room, I readjusted my saddle bags and tightened my armor.  Today was the day I’d be leaving Crossroads to continue on eastward.  I wasn’t sure how I’d get past the patrols around and inside Kanter City, but I was very sure I wasn’t ready to give up just yet.  And Wildfire had promised to come back and give me some idea of how I just might do that.  I suppose the mare could just blow me off again, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t.  I had a feeling it was going to be a good day.

Yawning once more, I made my way towards the stairs, intending to at least get something to eat from the kitchen and save the food I was packing for later.  I needed to make everything last as long as I could, the trip to Kanter City would not be an easy one, despite just needing to follow the tracks east.  As my hooves touched down on the saloon’s floor, I noticed the large main room was once more nearly empty at this time of morning.  Well, almost empty.  Stopping, I watched the gathered group sitting at a table near the bar eating breakfast and smiled to myself. 

Sitting side by side, Rose and Lilly busied themselves playing with the new born foal, the young pony’s coat was a soft green in color and he lacked the horn of his mother, taking after his father no doubt.  The baby coo’ed softly and smiled brightly up at his mother as she nuzzled him gently.  At this time of day, it seemed Rose and taken after her younger sister and left the fancy dresses back in her room.  The mare wore only a plain looking soft purple vest and I could see her cutie mark.  Like her sisters, it matched her name, a half dozen pink roses graced her flank.

Beside the two mares sat the child’s uncle, Stonehoof, who looked far better than he had the night before, he still had a few bandages around his body, but most had been removed.  He wore his mismatched armor and vest below it, his cowpony hat sitting on the table before him, besides a bottle and half empty glass.  He was sitting with a smile on his muzzle as he looked to his nephew.  The gray earth pony’s eyes lit up as the young colt turned to wave a hoof about towards him making baby gibberish and smiling about it. 

Sitting beside his older sisters, Appleseed chuckled at Stone’s reaction and floated a bottle up to the newest member to his family.  The green unicorn’s horn glowing softly as he placed the bottle within the grip of the young colt.  Like Stone, the now second youngest member of the family looked far better than he had, the bandages on his hind quarters had been removed and barely a trace of the shotgun blast remained.  The unicorns cutie mark was a spade and hammer, taking after his older brother it seemed.

As I watched the family, I was reminded of the day Sugar Pie had been born, when friends of Ebony and myself had gathered in the Stables medical bay to greet the newest member of our little community.   Brightblade, Spearmint, Bluebelle, Wendy, and so many others had been there.  Sugar Pie, for her part, had simply laid in her mothers arms with wide gold eyes and stared at everypony around her.  As we watched, she slowly began to smile and it was at that moment I knew I’d never seen a more happy sight.  I closed my eyes and smiled, remembering them all. With any luck, they were halfway to San Ponsico by now, and safe.

Rose looked up and noticed me standing there, smiling she waved me to join them at their table, after a moment I shook off the feeling of loneliness and made my way towards them, nodding to each.

“Well, I see somepony’s none the worse for his hurried trip across the old highway,” I said with a nod to the young colt, who was busy sucking on his bottle, bright brown eyes staring at me intently as he went about his breakfast perhaps wondering who this stranger was.

“So it seems, but then the stallions of his family have always been a rough and tumble lot,” Lilly said with a proud smile, nuzzling her son’s tiny cheek gently once more.  Stone’s turned away from his nephew to look to me and tilting his head to the side.

“So, Ah reckon yer plannin’ on leavin’ this mornin’?”

“Yes, I should really be on my way, if what I seen of the maps is any indication, I have at least another week’s worth of travel ahead of me, best to get started right away,” I answered, sitting down beside them.  Stone pushed a glass over towards me with a hoof and I took a drink, beside me Rose sighed softly.

“Are you sure we can’t convince you to stay, Shadow?  We could really use a pony like you around here, you could do a lot of good.”  I shook my head and locked my eyes with the red mare’s.

“Maybe, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about staying, this is a nice town you all have for yourselves here...but it’s not my home.”   It was true enough, I had thought about staying, it was clear enough Rose wanted me to stay for her own reasons, and I was not so clueless as to not know what those reasons were. 

“Perhaps not...but you could make it your home, Shadow.  Over the years we’ve taken in any number of wandering ponies, and they’ve all found a place for themselves here.  Gone on to raise a family, make a life for themselves.”  Rose said, eyes locking on mine.  Looking away from her eyes I glanced to the windows of the saloon and smiled slowly.  Start a family here?  Ever since Sugar Pie had been born, I’d thought about having my own kids.  Shaking my head slowly, I knew though that I’d never allow myself to do it, not while Ebony was lost out there.  Not while Sugar Pie had a chance to get her mother back.

“When Ebony and I were kids, we often spoke about making a home for ourselves on the surface, I always wanted to start a farm and raise a family.  Grow some vegetables, maybe some tomatoes and have a few fruit trees.  Years later, I promised myself if we ever did leave our Stable, I’d find myself a nice plot of land somewhere and do just that.  Ebony always use to tease me about it when we were kids, she wanted to go out and see the world.”  I smiled at the happy memory, and the silly dream, at the time it hadn’t seemed so silly but now with the harsh realities of the wasteland, “But could you really sit here happy not knowing what happened to Lilly or Appleseed?”  The unicorn lowered her head, and I pressed on, “I have to try and find my sister.”

“I understand.  I don’t think I could be happy not knowing either, and I’d likely be doing the same thing if I was in your shoes.  It’s just, Kanter City is such a horrible place.  Ever since the bombs fell, that place has been home to so much death and misery for everypony this side of the mountains.  And its only gotten worse in the past few years.”  Rose glanced from her sister and brother to me as she spoke.

“I know.”  It had been the raiders from that city that had attacked my home, so I knew there was likely little good that could come from such a place.  With a soft snort I shook my head and smiled to the ponies sitting with me.

“My mother and sister would knock me upside the head for ending such a fine party with so much doom and gloom...please, let’s just have something to eat and not ruin Jasper’s morning,” I said, looking to the young colt; with his bottle empty he was busy chewing on the and tip looking at the adults around him.

“Well, be a right shame ta leave on a empty stomach, and Ah do travel better after Ah’ve had my coffee,” Stone said, taking a sip from a dented coffee cup sitting at the table.  I arched a brow and looked over to the gray pony.

“Excuse me?”

“Ya don’t think Ah’m lettin’ ya wander off across th’ wasteland on your own, do ya?” the earth pony said with a smile, “Ah owe ya twice for savin’ my hide.  For what ya did for Appleseed and th’ whole town.  Don’t seem right ta just let ya wander around on yer own.”

“Stone...I’m grateful your willing to help me...but, I can’t let you do this.  You have a home here, and a responsibility to Lilly and Rose.” 

“With that there well back up and runnin’ and patrols incressin’ for any more of them geckos, the ladies are safe enough in town.  Not once has anypony we never wanted gotten into th’ Crossroads.  Ah don’t see that changin’ anytime soon.”  He glanced to Lilly and Rose before pressing on, “We don’t feel right ‘bout ya riskin’ yer hide to help us, and just pattin’ ya on th’ back and sendin’ ya on yer way.”

“You’ve done so much for us, and truth be told, Stone’s been getting restless from having to baby sit me so much,” Lilly continued with a smile, her son cooing happily as his mother floated a stuffed toy over to him with her magic.  “With Appleseed and myself safely behind the town’s walls, he’d likely just wander off and get himself into trouble.  At least with you, we know he’d have somepony to watch his back.”

“Hey, now...Ah never get myself inta trouble.  Ah dunno what ya two mares are talkin’ about.”  Stonehoof rolled his eyes and waved a hoof at the two, causing them both to giggle softly and shake their heads.  Appleseed chuckled and got a hoof in the shoulder from the older earth pony.

For a moment, I was speechless, this pony I’d only known for a few days was planning on going with me?  Into a raider infested city with Celestia knew what else?  Shaking my head, I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off as a voice called out from behind me.

“Well, shit, if he’s going with you, I might as well go...goddesses above knows he’ll get your sorry plot lost.” 

Turning around in my seat, I saw Wildfire standing in the doorway to the saloon, a smirk on her lips and her wings spread open.  The pegasus mare was dressed far differently than she had been the night before.  Her upper body was now covered in a type of glossy black armor plates, much like my riot armor but far thicker.  Both her front legs were covered in it from hoof to shoulder.  Her hind quarters were only covered from just below her knee to her hoof.  Across her chest, she wore a  belt and holster for a sidearm, much as I did, though hers appeared to be a smaller pistol.  Over her back she still wore the battle saddle she’d appeared in the night atop her home.  The barrels had retracted somehow back down out of her way.  Just behind her wings, she wore a set of worn saddle bags.  Slipping past the swaying doors, the pegasus trotted over to our table her smirk turning to a grin as she nodded to the others before looking to me.

“Besides, without me you’ll never find your way inside the city without attracting the attention of every raider and griffin patrol in the area.”

“Ah though ya didn’t want anythin’ ta do with th’ city, Wild,” Stone said, sitting his empty cup back down upon the table.  The mare looked over to him and folded her wings down across her back neatly, she flicked her ears once before answering.

“I don’t...but I need to settle some things in the city myself and I don’t think I could do so on my own.”  Her normally brash voice lowered slightly.  Stone grunted, but did not question her further, it seemed enough for him. 

Looking between the two of them, a feeling of warmth spread through my chest and I smiled.  It was a feeling I had whenever Brightblade or one of my old friends from the Stable stopped by after the death of my parents.  Knowing there was somepony else there who wanted to help you in your time of need.  Nodding my head slowly I cleared my throat to speak.

“Thank you, both of you for this. I don’t know how I can ever possibly repay you.”

“Shoot, an’t nothin’ ta worry ‘bout, Shadow.”

After thanking them both again, Rose excused herself and went to wake the cooks to get us a breakfast started.  As I sat there looking between my new friends, I couldn’t help but feel more optimistic about the task ahead.  With Wildfire’s knowledge I stood a very real chance of getting past the walls, and finding my way through the ruins of the city.  Stone was both a deadly shot with his rifle, and strong.  If it came down to a fight, I’m sure the odds would be doubled in our favor with just him.

Once breakfast was served, we spoke very little, and instead focused on our meal.  Despite the fact there was little of it and it looked a bit odd from what I was use to, the food was surprisingly good.  Pale green beans mixed with some equally pale carrots.  There was a few small berries and something that tasted like apple cider, though it seemed mixed with alcohol to take away some of the bitter taste.  After our meal, Lilly excused herself, and took her son back up to their room.  Both mother and foal looked tired, and I remembered well the many sleepless night’s Ebony had after Sugar had been born.

As one of the serving mare’s cleaned away the dishes and refilled our mugs and cups, Wildfire spread a map out across the table where our meal had been.  It was a pre-war map, much like the ones we had in the Stable, however this one had been updated.  Glancing over the details, I saw where somepony had written in new towns and names for older ones.  New landmarks appeared as well.  I spotted where we were presently, Crossroads.  My eyes were drawn to a few places marked out on the map.  Las Pegas had been scribbled out, and replaced by New Pegas.  Kanter City was listed simply as Hell (charming name), San Ponsico remained the same, as did  Los Haygas, New Reno, Lonesome Hoof and a few other cities.  I also noticed new places listed; Steeldome, Tunnel Town, Girder Shade, and Graymane among others.  Looking further east, I saw the range of mountains that separated east from west and notices few places where you could cross.  Tunnel Town was one, it was far south of us, across from Kanter City was a tunnel with no real name assigned to it.  Far further north was another pass, but it also stood with no name.  Across the row of mountains stood such cities as Manehatten, Fillidelphia, Hoofington and Canterlot.  I wondered how things were there, worse?

An orange hoof pressing itself into Crossroads drew my attention back to Wildfire as the mare began to trace a line across the map following the railroad that lead straight to Kanter City.  Looking closer, I noticed several other sets of tracks leading away from the city, going towards many of the other town’s and cities listed on the map.  From what little I could remember, Kanter City had been a hub for the railroad, and where many of the trains were built and sent for repairs.

“If we follow the rail, it’ll take us straight to the city, but it will take us over a week to get there.  Time your sister does not likely have,” the pegasus said, eyes fixing on mine, and I nodded, “I could make the trip in a day or two flying.”

“Sure enough, Wild, but in case ya haven’t noticed, neither Shadow or Ah have them pretty wings of yer’s,” Stone spoke up, pointing a hoof to the feathered limbs tucked against the mare’s sides.  Wildfire arched a brow and smirked to the earth pony, a twinkle in her blue eyes.

“I haven’t noticed, I can see why we’re bring you along,” she said before pointing a hoof at Steeldome, “Luckily, you two won’t need to fly.  I know some ponies up here that owe me a favor, and I left something with them they should have gotten fixed by now.”  As she spoke, she tapped her hoof against the town called Steeldome.  It was north of Crossroads, off to itself.  It was one of the new additions to the map, and I wondered when it had been built.

“And that bein’?”

“A sky chariot, military grade.”

I blinked, and Stone whistled.  Back in school, I’d read about sky chariots: the pegasus used them much like an earth pony used a wagon on the ground.  Special magical components worked into them allowed a single pegasus to pull one through the sky as if it weighed nothing.  Larger versions were built as a means of transport for ponies living in large cities and even for delivering goods.  During the war, specially made sky chariots allowed pegasus to deploy earth pony and unicorns rapidly across the battlefield, and even behind enemy lines.  They could air lift out the wounded or save stranded soldiers.  Earth ponies began mounting weapons to the chariots as the war went on, and soon ground forces had heavy, close air support.  If Wildfire had one of these variants...

“How’d ya get yer hooves on one of’em?” Stone asked, lowering his empty cup back down to the table, the pony was looking over at the pegasus with interest, his pale green eyes fixed on her with interest.

“It’s not important, just know with that, we’ll be able to cross the Povoni Desert in less time then it’d take by hoof.  It will also allow us to take Shadow’s sister and anypony else from his Stable we find out of there quickly...and trust me, we will need to move quickly.”

Stone nodded his head, but still seemed to want to question where she’d come by this chariot.  I imagine such things were rare in the wasteland, since the ability to make them had been lost when the balefire bombs struck the major cities.  The factories and all but been destroyed and the skilled workers who had made them turned to little more then ash. But she had mentioned she’d been in the military, and I figured it was very likely the Enclave still had a number of these things in use.  Had she stolen it when she’d left?  Still, she was right about one thing, it wasn’t important at the moment, not if it meant getting us to the city quickly and my sister out safely.

“So, we make our way to Steeldome, make contact with these ponies you know and fly out to Kanter City...how are we getting in?” I asked her, looking up from the map.  Wildfire lowered her hoof again to the city, or rather just to the south of Kanter City along a highway, Route 70 and a place marked Sticks (odd name).

“Before everything went to shit, they were building a small town here, it was going to house workers for the cities train yards, but they never finished it.  It’s mostly a collection of single story homes and rotting wood frames.  They did however finish a subway station and the tunnel that would have taken the ponies from their homes straight to work.”  As she spoke, she drew her hoof along the map back to Kanter City.  “They used it to ship workers back and forth to build the homes.”

“So that’s how you escaped?” Rose asked, stepping back up to the table after helping the saloons bartenders finish setting up for the evening rush.  I’d been so intent on the map that I hadn’t noticed her leave the table.  The red unicorn stood beside me, looking from the pegasus to the map.

“Yes, but I should warn you, there’s ghouls in the tunnels, along with the other usual pests you find underground.”  At the name, Rose wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

“Ghouls?” I asked, looking from Wildfire to Rose, but it was Stone who answered.

“They were ponies once, same as ya or Ah, but somethin’ happened to’em.  The balefire that killed so many changed’em.  They are stuck between livin’ and dead.  Their bodies rottin’ and decayin’...right nasty sight.”  The earth pony grunted and shook his head, “Some’em are still ponies in mind, if not in bodies, but most have gone feral.  Kill and eat ya sooner then look at ya.”

“I think when everything started going to hell in a hoofbasket, a lot of ponies fled to the subway tunnels thinking they’d protect them from the bombs, they did...but not from the radiation.  It must have seeped into every dark hole in the city and killed the lucky ones,” Wildfire said, eyes narrowed on the black dot on the map.

Zombie ponies are wandering the streets.  That’s what the father of the dead family I found back in Lonesome Hoof had said.  Had they been survivors from Kanter City?  Hell...there were worse things than death it seemed.  Shaking my head I looked back to Wildfire and asked.

“And this way is better?”

“Ghouls are hardly organized, the feral ones are little better then animals.  I managed to make it out by avoiding them for the most part, and the raiders rarely go down into the tunnels for fear of the ghouls, over the years the subway tunnels and sewer tunnels have collapsed into one another.  It’s a maze down there, but I can get you inside the city,” she answered, leaning back from the table to look at me, “You wanted a way inside the city, this is it.”

A quick look to Stone made it clear he had no better ideas, and Rose, well Rose would just tell me not to go again.  The red unicorn looked to me with concern, but she didn’t say anything.  It seemed to be my call, but then again it was my sister we were trying to save.

“Alright, then that’s the plan.  Once we get inside, can you guide us to the most likely places they’d have my sister?” I asked as Wildfire began rolling up the map with her hooves.  She stopped for a moment, before finishing and tossing the map into her saddle bag.

“It’s a big city, kid.  Fuck, it could take us a few days to just check half of it...and once we’re on the surface again, all bets are off.  We’ll have to be damned careful not to get caught by the patrols.”

“We just need to get close,” I said, holding up my right fore hoof with my Pipbuck attached to it, “So long as she still has her Pipbuck on her, or any of the other ponies from the Stable do, I can track them.  We just have to be close enough for it to work.”

“Well, we can try the places I remember first and go from there and that’s assuming they don’t have a way of getting those things off...or they just didn’t cut their hooves off,” she said, shrugging her wings.  “Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“Maybe,” I replied and picked up my cup, emptying the remaining apple cider from within it.  A lot rested on things working out, I’d been lucky thus far, could I really trust my luck to hold out long enough?  We first had to get the sky chariot, then sneak inside the city, then hope to Celestia and Luna that they hadn’t removed the only means I had to track them with...I looked down to my empty cup and suddenly wished I had more cider.

“At any rate, we should be leavin’ soon.  It’s a good day and a half walk ta Steeldome from here,” Stone said as he stood up and began buckling on his saddle bags, which had been laying beside him on the floor unnoticed by me when I first came downstairs.

“Agreed, though I could make that trip in half the time if I wasn’t waiting for you dirt ponies,” the pegasus said with a grin and wink to both us ‘dirt ponies’ as she rose up from her seat.  Checking the buckles of her armor, she trotted towards the saloon’s doors.

“Ah’ll show’er dirt ponies...,” Stone muttered as he followed after the mare, flicking his tail in annoyance.  I smirked and started to follow when a hoof stopped me.  Rose stood beside me, her horn glowing a soft pink, looking further back, I saw her drop a package into my saddle bags.

“When the town found out what you did with your reward money, they took up a collection and got you a few things.”  When I opened my mouth to protest she held up her hoof to my lips to silence me, “It’s not a payment, but a thank you for what you did.”

“They really didn’t have to do that...but, thank them for me.”  They had already given me shelter and food for two days, fixed my armor, refilled my canteens with water and patched up my wounds.  Still, if I was going to get through this trip in one piece, I was going to need all the help I could get.

As I turned to leave, Rose leaned up and placed her lips on mine and kissed me, I wasn’t for sure but I think my E.F.S was beeping a warning to me about a sudden risk of a heart attack.  After a moment, she pulled away and smiled, and I began breathing again.

“Good luck, hero.” 

Outside the saloon, Stone and Wildfire stood waiting for me talking between themselves about something or another, I was still a bit stunned from the kiss.  They both stopped and looked over to me as I trotted down the steps of the porch to join them.  Almost at once, Wildfire began grinning as if she knew something. Stone caught on as well and arched a brow, reaching up to tilt his hat back and get a better look at me.  Ignoring any comments from my friends, I started towards the northern gate and they fell in behind me silently for the moment.

Well...maybe I could escape this time without...

“Ya know, with a coat that dark, it’s amazing we can see you blushing,” Wildfire called out from behind me.  I sighed and flicked my ears in annoyance.

It was going to be a long walk...



*     *     *     *     *



As the gates closed behind us, we made our way along the dust covered pavement, our hooves clopping loudly upon the cracked concrete.  Casting my gaze northwards, I looked to the far distant mountain range hidden behind the thick haze of the morning heat.  Somewhere between us and those distant mountain peaks sat the ruins of Kanter City, and the end of my journey. 

Beside me, my two friends trotted side by side, their attention focused on an argument that had started before we’d reached the town’s gate.  It seemed to be about which rifle was more accurate at a distance: hers or his.  I smiled, and shook my head looking over to the bright orange pegasus mare and the gray earth pony stallion as they spoke.

“Size hardly matters, Ah’ve shot bloatsprites out between their wings before as pretty as ya please,” Stone was saying, to which Wildfire began cackling and snorting causing the earth pony to poke her in the side with a hoof, “And what's so funny?”

“Nothing...just keep telling yourself that,” the mare managed between chuckles.

As the breeze began to pick up, loose dirt and dust swirled around us as we walked, I turned my head to avoid getting anymore sand in my eyes then I already had.  As I glanced back over my shoulder towards Crossroads, I made out three ponies standing atop the wall watching as we left.  I could still easily make out Rose and her younger sister Lilly standing side by side.  The younger mare holding her son against her chest in a foal harness.  Beside them stood their little brother, Appleseed.  Lifting a hoof up, Rose waved towards us, the others following suit.

With a smile, I waved to the family and turned away to look at the path ahead of us.  Wildfire and Stone stood waiting on me.  Looking between the two, I stepped up beside them and grinned as I realised, I was no longer alone.

“Alright, let’s move out.”


Welcome to Level 5!

Perk Added: Hunter: Everything in the wasteland is out for your blood. Trial and error has taught you where to aim to take down your wild foes more quickly.
In combat, you do +75% Critical Damage against animals and mutated animals.


> Chapter 05: Road Trip
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5: Road Trip


An alliance with a powerful person is never safe.


We’d made good time, easily covering close to twenty miles along the old highway.  Behind us, Crossroads had long ago faded behind the tall mesas and hills of the terrain.  Ahead of us, the highway stretched out across the Wasteland for as far as I could see, its surface cracked and pitted by age and the environment.  Large chunks of the asphalt had shattered over time, and lay in piles all about the road; forming large potholes in many places.  Larger sections of it were simply buried below the sand, the only way we knew we still followed it was by the road signs and old billboards we passed that rose up out of the piles of sand and dirt.  According to both my new companions the road would take us past Steeldome, but we’d need to follow a side road to find the settlement.   Looking up at the two, I found them a very odd pair.  The down to earth Stonehoof and the brash, hot tempered Wildfire.  The two had been talking for the past several hours about a good deal of subjects, and I listened in as they talked between themselves on yet another topic.

It seemed at the moment that the subject of conversation was on the pros and cons of their respective weapons.  Which one had the better range and accuracy, which one was better for what type of targets and which one would be more likely to remove the ears from a raider at so many feet.  I snorted softly and shook my head, letting them carry on, looking around the countryside as we trotted past. 

After a while, they finally stopped arguing over who’s was best and had started upon a new topic: namely food and I quickly wished they’d returned to the former once they got on the subject.  While I knew fresh food would be an issue on the surface, most of the stores back in Crossroads had been selling one hundred and fifty year old canned food and bags of chips.  I figured they had to have other sources of food and had heard talk of farms growing some fruits and vegetables with limited success.  The meal I’d shared with Rose had been proof of that, but there was something else I hadn’t expected: I didn’t expect to hear them talking about the proper way to cook a radroach.  I listened in for the first few minutes and immediately decided to never let either of them cook my meals.  Ever.  Balking at the talk of how to tell if a thorax was properly cooked, I busied myself looking to the faded billboards to take my mind of the conversation happening just ahead of me. 

Most were far beyond hope of ever making out what they had been of, and more than a few had been used for target practice at some point in the past hundred and seventy years (I wondered who’d waste bullets to put holes in signs anyway? Did somepony just have the rounds to spare?).  A few however offered me a glimpse of the past, and what life had been like in Equestria before the bombs.  Before Stables and the Wasteland.

The first real noticeable one we passed, that I could actually make out, had been of some drink.  The sign depicted a very nice looking pink earth pony mare with a poofy mane and tail and very nice flanks.  She had three balloons for a cutie mark.  She was lounging back at what appeared to be a beach; a colorful umbrella propped up beside her (at least it had been colorful, a century and more had faded the hues to little more then grays).  Her smile, despite the aged look of the rest of the sign, was still as bright and happy as ever.  In her raised hoof, she was holding a glass bottle of something called Sparkle Soda.  A caption below the picture read, ‘One sip and you’ll be hooked...FOREVER!’

I chuckled and looked away, though not after eyeing the cute mare up a bit more.  Idly I thought of Rose back in Crossroads, she had been cute as well.  Again I thought of the red mare and smiled, before shaking my head and looking back across the dry landscape around me.  No, best not think about that just yet, once my sister was safe then I could think about settling down.  It was several minutes before we reached another sign that had survived the years intact.

It appeared as we rounded a bend in the road, sitting atop a rocky hill we followed the highway around.  Like the billboard before it, this one was badly faded from age and weather.  This sign had a gray earth pony stallion with a brown mane holding up one of his forehooves.  Behind him was a green glowing mushroom cloud rising up from a city; despite the grimness of the scene, the buck was grinning.  He wore what looked like a very early model Pipbuck,  but instead of the normal green glow and outline of a pony on its screen, it showed a very large clock.  This one too had a caption below it, and said simply, ‘Timex Geiger Counter: Takes a licking and keeps on ticking’.

I rolled my eyes, oh you have got to be kidding me.  I shook my head and looked back ahead of me, my two friends had gotten several paces in front, and I hurried to catch up.  As I neared them, I heard the subject of the conversation had changed once again, thankfully.  I doubted my stomach could handle talk about what spices went best with roach meat.  My ears perked up as I caught a snippet of what Stone was saying:

“Ah’m tellin’ ya, it was a secret government research facility for th’ war.”  Looking sideways to the pegasus beside him, the earth pony’s green eyes narrowing slightly as the mare simply snorted and looked over to him with a grin.

“Fuck. You dirt ponies, don’t even know your own history.”

“Kinda hard to know one’s histories when all th’ schools burned to th’ ground and took all them books with’em...,” Stone muttered, shaking his head and flicking his ears back a bit in irritation.

“What are you two arguing about now?” I asked, trotting up to them quickly and placing myself between them.  Stone looked up as I stepped up, and started to answer before Wildfire cut him off and spoke with a chuckle.

“Stone over here was just telling me what the ponies around Crossroads think Steeldome was before the end.  A fucking secret laboratory for creating alicorns...”  She began chuckling as Stone gave her a sour look and looked away muttering.

For my part, I glanced over to Stone and arched a brow.  Was that even possible?  No, of course not, that was just crazy.  I mean there had been few alicorns in the world to begin with, and they had been goddesses able to move the sun and moon with the power of their magic, that wasn’t something you made in a lab.  My fellow earth pony grunted and shook his head once more making his hat slide back, reaching a hoof up he pulled it back in place before explaining to us.

“That’s what Ah always been told anyway...”  Looking past me to the mare, Stone narrowed his eyes and asked, “So, tell me, oh high and mighty pegasus, what was it?” 

I followed his gaze back to Wildfire and the mare shut her mouth,  looking hurriedly away from us and back to the road ahead.  She had no idea it seems, and Stone picked up on her sudden change as well.  With a grin slowly coming across his face he cocked his head to her and asked.

“Well, shot. Ya got no real idea, do ya’s?” 

“Yes...I’m just not one hundred present it’s accurate...and unlike SOME ponies, I don’t go around spreading rumors,” she shot back, ears folded against her head and her nose turned up a bit.  Stone simply chuckled and shook his head once more before looking forwards. 

“Well, granted what you’ve been told may not be correct, I’d still like to hear what it was.”  I was curious now about this place to which we were traveling.  All I really knew was it was called Steeldome and some ponies living inside it owed Wildfire a favor.  It hadn’t appeared on any of the maps we had back in the Stable, so it must have been new.  Or it had indeed been a secret of the government before the war.  Eyeing us both up, the mare sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Hell.  Fine.  This was back when I was still a member of the Enclave, working as one of their wing commanders.  But according to the information I had been given and what little the locals told me the first time I was there, Steeldome had been built by Stable-Tec.  It was suppose to be a sealed experiment to see if it was viable to grow food in space.” 

“And ya tell me Ah’m nuts for believin’ what it is,” Stone snorted when she finished speaking, earning a glare from the pegasus.

“Really?” I asked hurriedly before they could start arguing again.  I swear they argue like an old married couple.  So, the same ponies who had built the Stables had also built this place.  Interesting, had it been the test bed for the actual Stable design or had they built it afterwards?  I was starting to look forward to seeing this place.

“Yes...well, at least that’s what I had been told,” Wildfire explained, looking away from Stone’s grinning face to mine, “After the moon landing, there was talk about actually colonizing it or in building some sort of Stable in orbit.  Fuck if I know all the details, but it was rumored to be run by the Ministry of Technology and Peace.  It was likely just a waste of money, like so many other things the Ministries did during the war.” 

“Sooo, what is it now?” I asked.  I didn’t imagine anypony from the Ministries were still around to run the place, and I also doubted anypony was thinking of going into space anytime in the near future.  Although given the state of the world, it might not be a bad place to go. 

As we talked, the highway began to rise up along a low rocky hill: a few cactus stubbornly grew alongside it in spots, but its sides mostly lose slate and rock.  Luckily, it was easy going due to the flat pavement we followed, our hooves making a steady clopping sound with every step.  It was Stone who answered my question.

“A settlement, like most other places across th’ wasteland.  From what Ah heard, it’s run by th’ descendants of th’ ponies who first ran th’ place.”  As he spoke, the earth pony kept his eyes focused towards the top of the hill, “As ya no doubt noticed, not a lota bombs fell around these here parts.  Not much worth blowin’ to hell and back.”

“No argument there,” Wildfire said, glancing around us, beyond a few rocks and the odd rusting highway sign, there was little else around us, but I knew they meant this part of Equestria.  Not like it was back east; you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a major city or large town.  The west had always been sparsely populated by ponies, it had been the dominion of the Buffalo tribes that roamed the flat country and a few small dens of Diamond Dogs further to the south.  That’s not to say ponies hadn’t settled in places.  Kanter City, San Ponsico and Las Pagasus were all cities built and filled with ponies.  At least they had been.

“There was still radiation, mostly from th’ fallout of th’ cities that did get blasted ta rubble,” Stone continued, “Only ponies who survived did so in th’ Stables, in underground tunnels and mines, or in large sealed buildings...like Steeldome.”




As our hooves took us to the top of the hill, we were greeted by more flat country before us.  Yet, off in the distance to the west, I could easily make out another large stone hill rising up from the plains; it was off the road however, and the only real noticeable feature for some miles.  Further beyond it, I could just make out a long winding line across the flat ground.  A glint from its surface in the dying light of day pointed at it most likely being a river.  Everything was a mix of browns and reds, from the plains, further on back along the distant horizon the colors changed to a mix of gray clouds and low, dark mountains.

Looking away from the horizon, I watched the highway below me wander its way across the plains and disappear off towards the far distant hills and mesas to the east; back towards San Ponsico and Las Pegasus.  Despite it all, there was some beauty to the view before me, but I had little time to really take it in: beside me, my friends began walking once more, trotting down the hill we had just climbed up.  Reaching the bottom, Wildfire added to Stone’s explanation of Steeldome as a breeze blew up and ruffled her long red mane and feathered wings.

“Steeldome is just what it sounds like, kid, a fucking big ass steel dome.  Large enough to hold a city block or more and built into the side of a hill.  Must have taken them sometime to do it, but they managed to hollow out most of the hill and down into the ground below it, fuck if you earth ponies aren’t a tenacious lot.”  She grinned over her shoulder to Stone and myself, “Then they built within, under and atop it,” she said, trotting beside me.  Stone meanwhile, had made himself busy looking ahead of us for something along the road, “and sealed the place up tighter then one of the princesses’ p...” 

“Ah, reckon he gets th’ idea, Wild.” Stone cut in quickly before Wild could finish another of her colorful adjectives.  She never seemed to run out of them and Stone simply snorted and went back to looking as the pegasus grinned happily.  I rolled my eyes and chuckled despite it all.  After a few more minutes of silence Wildfire pressed on.

“Anyway...when the shit hit the fan, the sealed environment inside Steeldome allowed the ponies who had been inside to survive.  Surprisingly, most of them were smart enough to stay inside.”  She tilted her head to the side as we stopped walking, Stone waving us to wait where we were while he checked on something ahead of us.  I checked my E.F.S. and saw no threat within range so I relaxed and looked back to Wild as she added with a grin, “Which is sort of odd, given it was a government run place and it was never said ponies who worked for the government were the lightest clouds in the sky.” 

“How did you end up meeting the ponies who live there?” I asked her, and the grin faded somewhat from her face and she quickly looked away from me and over to Stone.  The earth pony was just now returning from his search alongside the road.

“That’s a long story and not one I wish to get into at the moment, kid.”  I wondered if it had something to do with Kanter City.  She quickly changed the subject however before I could dwell on it any longer, “It seems Stone may have found us a place to rest for the night.”

“Ah reckon Ah found us th’ perfect spot,” he pointed a hoof back across his shoulder to a slight hill that rose up from the edge of the highway where I could just make out a large set of ruins near the edge of the hill half buried in dirt and fallen rocks.  We followed him as he turned to head back. 

As we approached the spot, I saw he’d found the ruins of what had been some type of restaurant.  It was little more then the remains of a wooden frame and bits of metal scrap half buried in sand and rocks that had rolled off the side of the hill.  It was  overgrown by sickly looking brown weeds.  There were a few other details about the pile of rubble that pointed to its past: a ruined bar ran along the length of the ruins, rusted and buckled in several places, broken bar stools lay in the rubble or stood half buried in sand and dirt.  Behind it all were several ruined stoves and other cooking appliances.  There was even a rusted metal box; what must have been a refrigerator sat lopsided in the dirt.  Off to one side of the ruins was a half broken toilet and tub.

Wildfire trotted through the rubble and back to what had once been a kitchen. The mare grinned and looked over the rusting fridge, placing her hoof against the half broken handle she began to pull, with some effort she managed to yank the door open with a groan from its rusted metal hinges. She shoved her head into the empty box and grunted unhappily.  Inside were the broken remains of shelves and a few broken pieces of dishes.   Thrusting her leg inside she pulled out a intact coffee mug and smirked at it. 

“Awww...and here I was hoping to find something to drink.”  Sniffing it, she tossed it away, sending it bouncing loudly across the ground until it rolled to a stop beside my hoof.  I glanced down and lightly pushed it away.

Looking away from the mug and the pegasus, I looked over to Stone as he began removing his saddle bags and dropping them to the ground in the center of the ruins.  Stepped away, he began inspecting the wooden frame of the ruined restaurant.  There was little to see really beyond the few things I had already spotted, just a few beams sticking up out of the dirt in places.  As I watched, he produced a knife from a sheath on his right foreleg and began cutting away chunks of wood.

I trusted the older earth pony’s judgement; after all, he and Wildfire had been surviving on the surface for a lot longer then I had.  I moved over near Stone’s dropped packs and began unbuckling mine.  I hadn’t realised how heavy they had been until I slipped them off.  Sitting down next to them I glanced over as Stone began tossing pieces of wood back towards us.  Once he was satisfied he had enough, he began pushing stones together in the center of camp. After he had a rough circle formed around the pile of wood scraps he looked over to me.

“So, why don’t ya tell us a bit about yerself, Shadow?” Stone asked, as he began working on his pile of wood scraps he had collected.  He had produced a flint from his pouch and was even now attempting to strike up a fire.  Sitting across from the earth pony, Wildfire glanced from his work to me and tilted her head.

“I can’t imagine there’s much to tell,” she said as she unbuckled her saddle bags letting them slump off her back to land in a small cloud of dust.  Flapping her wings a bit, she blew the cloud away from herself and into Stone.  The earth pony snorting and waving a hoof at the dust settled around him.  Grinning, she loosened her battle saddle and more carefully laid it across her packs.

“There’s really not...,” I began, not sure where to begin really, they already knew why I was here “...I was born and raised inside Stable 45.  Worked in security with my father, and took over when he was forced to retire.” 

“Really? With that cutie mark I figured you were the Stable’s gardener,” Wildfire said with a grin and a point of an orange hoof at my flank.  She looked back to where Stone was having little luck with the fire.  The mare stood up, and walked over towards the small pile of wood scraps and the gray earth pony flexing her wings as she walked. 

“Hmm...ya should know, a pony’s cutie mark don’t define him or her,” the earth pony said, narrowing his eyes on the stack of wood scraps and the lack of a fire.  Behind him, Wildfire leaned over his shoulder and looked over his progress, which only caused Stone to mutter to himself.  The mare grinned to Stone and pulled away.

Without a word, she removed something out of a pouch built into her armor, a pack of cigarettes. Holding the pack up to her mouth, she withdrew one and slipped the pack back where she’d gotten it.  From the same pouch, she pulled out a pack of matches, breaking off a single match she proceeded to strike it across Stone’s backside.  All the earth pony could do was blink in surprise at the sudden feeling along his flank, but most surprisingly it actually lit and she calmly placed the flame to her cigarette. 

Turning to glare at the pegasus, Stone reached back and rubbed a hoof over his hind quarters as she took a few puffs of her cigarette and smiled down to him.  He was just about to speak when Wildfire winked to him and tossed the still lit match into the scraps of wood, setting the dry pile alight almost at once in a burst of flames.

Whatever he was about to say was lost as he yelped and fell backwards away from the sudden jet of flames that rose up near his face.  He was not quite fast enough,  the edge of his cowpony’s hat catching on fire.  With a muffled yell, he tossed it off his head and began to stomp on it with his hooves trying to put it out.

“Whoops...,” the pegasus said with a grin and settled herself back down beside her packs and looking back to me, “Well, it’s just according to the few Stable ponies I’ve talked with or ever heard of, I thought your cutie mark determined your roll in your Stable.”

“I suppose that was true for the first few years of the Stable, but after the third Overmare took over we were allowed to make up our minds on what we wanted to do,” I answered, looking over as Stone seemed to have put out the small fire on his hat (which as far as I could tell looked much the same).

“What's it like livin’ in a Stable?” Stone asked, as he picked up his battered hat and carried it over to his bags.  Tossing it atop them, he sat down and began digging into his packs for something.

“Well...it was a very close knit group of ponies, I suppose like any real small community.  There wasn’t many secrets between us, after all everypony knew everypony else and in many cases were related in some form or another.  With just over two hundred and fifty ponies calling it home, it was a bit cramped at times.  Everypony had their duties in the Stable, from security and medical to maintenance and cooking.  You worked hard to do your part to help maintain the Stable; it was common knowledge that your fellow Stable ponies depended on you in some form or another.  The Stables were built to last, well I think they meant them to last.  I doubted they expected things to clear out within a few months.  I don’t know about the other Stables, but after a hundred and seventy so years, ours was not doing so good.”

“What do ya mean?”  Stone finally pulled his head out from his saddle bag with something in his mouth and began to chew on it.  Wildfire continued to smoke, laid back on her own packs and saying nothing, though her blue eyes remained fixed on my face as I spoke about my home.

“Well, our systems had been crashing left and right for a few years, a few causing some deaths.”  At Stones questioning look I explained, “Nearly everything inside a Stable is run from computers; from the air we breath to the water we drink, it’s all controlled by a central system.  If it goes down, the entire Stable dies along with everypony inside it.”  He stopped chewing his food for a moment to think that over.

“I can’t imagine spending my entire life in one of those things,” Wild said, shivering slightly at the very thought.  I couldn’t imagine pegasi being very fond of being underground or in any cramped space.  They were born to fly, used to the open spaces of the sky.

“It was fairly common knowledge we’d someday be forced to abandon it.  Most figured we had a few years left, that it wouldn’t happen in their lifetime.  I think a few thought we’d never leave the Stable.  If not for the attack by those raiders and the damage they did to it, I think we’d still be sealed up down there.”

“Ya mentioned sendin’ the others off to San Ponsico?” Stone asked between bites, “How’d ya all know where to go?”

“We’d been sending teams up to the surface for awhile, ever since the radiation levels had dropped enough to safely allow it.  On one trip, my father was leading, they managed to repair the old radio tower atop the hill Stable 45 was built under.  It had been meant to keep the Stable updated on events across the planet, in the event somepony survived the attacks.  I guess it had been damaged by a storm sometime over the past hundred and fifty years.” 

“Likely enough, sand storms and rain storms can get a might bit nasty round these parts.” 

“Well, regardless, they got it fixed.  There was only a single signal we could pick up, Luna’s News Radio, so we began listening to Three Horns.  After a couple years, we learned a bit about the surface and decided San Ponsico sounded like the best choice if we were ever forced out.”

“Three Horns?  That crazy old bitch on LNR?” Wildfire piped up, grinning, her earlier discomfort forgotten, “I swear she must be like a hundred years old by now.”

I blinked in surprise, looking over to her as she said that.  Granted we’d been listening to her radio messages for the past forty years but still.  A hundred years old?  Nopony before the war lived that long, and I highly doubted anypony now lived long enough to get old and gray. 

“Ask anypony around the fucking Povoni Desert and you’ll hear the same thing, Three Horns has been broadcasting across the wasteland for the past one hundred years...perhaps more.  But then, there’s another radio pony back east doing the same thing...Pon 4 or something,” she answered with a smirk and a puff of her smoke. 

“Really?” I asked, looking to Stone, the earth pony swallowed the last bite of his food before he spoke up.

“Rightly far as we know, yeah, that’s about th’ jest of it.  And Ah think it’s DJ Pon 3 out east, Wild.” 

“Whatever.”  She waved her hoof dismissively at the response before continuing, “I say it’s a robot...hell or maybe one of them damned ghouls that still have all their marbles,” the mare said, tossing her spent cigarette away.  The burning tip left a red trail as it arched through the air to land amid the fire.

Wait, wasn’t she the one who said she didn’t like spreading rumors? I grinned and then thought on what she’d said.  Interesting...if what she was saying was true, was I right in sending Sugar Pie and the rest of Stable 45 to San Ponsico?  No.  Rose and Lily had said the city was controlled by ponies, and largely a safe place to be.  And, regardless of what or who Three Horns was, she sounded as if she generally wished to help.

“So, you sent your entire Stable to head out west to the safety of San Ponsico and you come east looking for your sister?” Wildfire asked and I nodded my head, causing her to grin back at me, “Well, that’s either the bravest thing I’ve ever heard, or the dumbest.”

“Well...Ah heard a bit of it from Lily and Rose...Ah think it’s a mighty brave thing ya doin’ Shadow,” Stone spoke up, earning a snort and a roll of blue eyes from Wild as she settled back against her pack.

“Like I told Rose, I’d never be happy not knowing, and if there’s even a chance...” shaking my head, I’d been over this before.  Three or four times now it almost seemed.  I looked back up to the two ponies beside me, “Well...that’s a bit about myself, so how about you two?”

“Well, Lily told ya most of my story.  Ah worked with mah brother in his mine for a few years, before that Ah was a caravan guard and went all over th’ wasteland.  Even made a trip or two across th’ mountains and into places like Manehatten and New Appleloosa.  Always stayed clear of the Hoof though, heard a few bad stories about that place,” Stone spoke while digging around inside his pack once more, this time he quickly found what he was looking for and pulled out a small black box.  Popping the latches, he opened it, and I saw what amounted to a cleaning kit for a gun.  Cloths and oils and a few tools sat snugly in the foam lined case.

“The Hoof?”

“Hoofington, it’s back east, between Kanter City and Manehatten, lota swampish ground and ruined highways around that place.  I flew over it once to reach Manehatten.  Fucking place is worse than anywhere else in this goddesses forsaken wasteland,” Wildfire said, eyes narrowing as she mentioned the place.  If it was bad enough to make the brash pegasus uneasy, it was clearly a place I planned on staying far, far away from.

“Right enough, if yer smart, ya stay clear of th’ place,” Stone added as he began cleaning his rifle carefully, then looked up to the orange mare, “And what about ya, Wild?”

Wildfire sat there for a bit, head propped up on her saddle bag and eyes fixed on a some faraway place.  For a moment, I didn’t think she was going to answer Stone’s question, she’d told me a bit about her past back in Crossroads, but never more than was necessary.  I got the feeling something from her past was troubling her, more so than her bold manner showed. 

Stone shrugged and looked away, going back to his weapon.  He blew softly into the bolt of his rifle and flicked it back easily.  I was about to ask something to break the silence when she finally opened her mouth and began to speak.

“Born and raised in the Enclave up in Stormport.”  She tossed a hoof back west before pressing on, “Followed in my father and brother’s hoofsteps and joined the army when I was old enough.  Was a family thing.  I was good at what I did, and it got me command of my own wing for a time, father was always so proud of me for that...least till things became... complicated.”  I had to wonder what happened to cause her to be banished.  She said last night she’d screwed up somehow, but never what.  From what I gathered from our conversation, she’d begun to question the Enclave, perhaps that was the answer. 

“After that, I got booted out of Stormport and the whole fucking Enclave, and started wandering the wasteland on my own.  As I’m sure Stone could tell you, life isn’t easy for a mare on her own.  So I joined up with a griffin merc group for a while back east calling themselves the Black Talons, then I got bored with taking orders from birds and took off on my own.”  She mentioned to me last night two others she’d been banished with.  A slip perhaps?  She left them out this time, and I decided not to press the issue.  If she didn’t want others to know, then fine, but I did wonder what had become of them. 

“Griffin’s? Nasty bunch of cap mongers them birds,” said Stone as he finished cleaning his rifle he laid it gently atop his bags, within easy reach, and added, “Seen a few fly into Crossroads a time or two in th’ past few months.  Bossy and loud.  Never rightly cared for’em.”  Them mentioning griffins got me thinking about something Wild had said back in Crossroads.

“Didn’t you say there were griffins working with the raiders in Kanter City?” I asked, looking from Stone to Wildfire.

“Yeah, they’ll take any job really, so long as it pays,” glancing away from the sky to look my way as she answered.

I frowned and leaned back against my pack.  All I knew of griffins was from school and history tapes.  They, along with dragons had worked with the Zebras during the later parts of the war, countering the ponies near dominance of the sky with pegasii.  One would think a several ton scaled creature that breathed fire would make the fight more sided with them, however pegasii were very agile flyers and had given the dragons a run for their money.  I recalled a group named the Shadow Bolts taking down a fair number of the large things, lead by somepony named Rainbow Dash, I think she’d been a well known pony in the government back then.  One of the Ministry Mares if I wasn’t thinking of somepony else.

“Well, we’ve still a long walk ahead of us tomorrow, might wanna grab some sleep while ya can.  Ah’ll take first watch.”  Stone rose from the ground and dusted himself off.  Leaning over he picked his rifle back up and swung the strap back around his neck.  With a flick of a hoof, he tossed his hat up and let it land perfectly atop his head.

“Alright, I’ll take second watch, the kid can go last.”  Wildfire yawned and stretched out, wings spreading open wide before she tucked them back against her body tightly and rolled over onto her side to get some sleep.  After a few minutes, I heard the sound of her soft breathing as she drifted off.

Yawning myself, I was about to settle in for some sleep when I suddenly remembered the package Rose had slipped into my packs that morning.  Turning over, I reached over to my packs and opened up the flaps to look inside.  It was easy enough to spot, a white cloth package wrapped with a thin black cord, picking it up with my teeth, I sat the package down beside me.  Easily, I snapped the cord holding it closed with a hoof and began unfolding the cloth from around the bundle.

Inside I found three healing potions sitting snugly against one another along with a package of something called Buck and a few packs of dried food.  As I lifted the potions up, I noticed there was something else below them.  Sitting the glass bottle down beside me and unpacking the food, I unfolded the remaining white scrap of cloth and found at least three dozen brass bullets staring back up at me.  7.62mm rounds, meant for my assault rifle I had sat beside my shotgun.  Beside these I found two grenades and a note.  Picking it up, I read over the carefully written text by a skilled hoof...or rather horn as I was fairly sure it had been written by Rose: ‘In case you come across anything too big for your shotgun again.’

“That’s some thank you...” I thought back to Rose’s words about the package and smiled.  Sorting through them quickly, I began putting the items away in my packs.  Once I was happy everything was tucked away, I lay my head down and tried to get some sleep.

I was just about to drift off when I heard the mournful howl of a wolf or wild dog off in the distance and my eyes snapped open.

This open space was going to take some getting use to...




*     *     *     *     *



The night passed quickly, and it seemed nothing was interested in approaching our camp in the darkness, or more likely there was nothing in the area to worry about. 

As we broke camp, I glanced up into the sky and noticed off in the distance a darkening patch of clouds.  I pointed it out to Stone, who was nearby strapping his saddle bags across his back.  The gray earth pony looked up to where I pointed and narrowed his eyes on the dark patch.

“Looks like we have ourselves a storm brewin’.”  With a flick of his tail he stepped over to the embers of our camp fire and began kicking dirt atop the still glowing coals with a hoof.

“For once the dirt pony is right,” Wildfire called out, landing in a cloud of dust beside us, “That’s a natural storm building up there, since the war we don’t exactly do much with the weather anymore expect to maintain the cloud cover.”  The pegasus had taken a short flight around the area, to look for any signs of trouble; part of me was thinking she just needed to fly. She moved over to her own packs and began to slip them on over her battle saddle.  As I watched, she flicked a switch on the firing bit of her weapons, and with a soft hum of motors the barrels of the rifles slid back on themselves.  Once back, she more easily got the packs on and tied. Hmm, that was useful.

“Ah reckon we should reach Steeldome before it hits,” Stone added, picking up his rifle and swinging the strap across his head and hat, the gray pony turning to eye the road before us.

“Well, we’d better get moving then.”  Having finished securing my own packs I began checking the rest of my gear.  My shotgun was fine, a bit of dust had gotten into it last night, a quick puff of air blew it out from the trigger and stock before I slipped the strap across my head, letting it drop around my neck and rest against my chest.  The assault rifle already rested against my back out of my way for the time being, I trusted my shotgun more.  The grenades Rose had sent with me now hung from my chest armor in places I could easily reach them.  Lastly Raging Buck was secured in its holster and strapped to my left leg, a bit easier to reach in a hurry, then just under my head.

With everypony ready we started back down the highway, leaving the ruined building behind us.  A rumble of thunder from over head drew my attention back to the darkening sky and I noticed a distant flash of lightning far off.  The scent of rain reached my nose a second later as a breeze began to blow from the north.  I looked back down to the road and quickened my steps.



*     *     *     *     *




It took us barely two hours after breaking camp to reach the point where we’d be leaving the highway behind.  At the edge of the road, another branched off and ran off through the flat dry plains, curving off towards that large rocky hill I’d seen the day before.  Beside the new road stood a small single story building, it was in far better shape than the one we had stayed in the night before.  Made of bricks, it had few windows and only a single door facing the highway.  The roof looked to have caved in some time ago, perhaps from a storm or just the passage of time, the few windows I could see were missing their glass, like so many other ruins I’d seen.  The door was also wide open, and looking inside I could see mounds of dirt and trash heaped up around the small room.  Behind the building was a tall chain link fence, easily eight feet in height.  It would have been far more impressive, if not for the fact most of it had gone missing, or a large portion of it was twisted and half buried in the sand.  Across the roadway, a gate had once stood, blocking off passage past the building, it too had fallen over sometime long ago, and sat rusting in the ground.

 Stepping up to the new roadway, I noticed off to the side a half hidden sign blocked by the sickly brown scrub grass that grew in patches all across the area.  As we walked past, I noticed it bore the royal seal of the Princesses and below it a notice was posted; ‘This is a restricted area.’  Please have your IDs ready.  Needless to say, we ignored the warning and trotted past the building.  Through a broken window, I saw another of the rooms, a desk half buried under the piles of trash and dirt, along with rusting out filing cabinets, chairs, and tables.  I suppose it had been cleaned out long ago, and decided to not even bother with checking it out.  Besides, the storm was quickly approaching and we were near our goal.

“Steeldome; ya remember Wildfire said it was built inside a hill?” Stone asked, as he trotted ahead of me.  I nodded and he motioned his head towards the hill, “Well, that’d be th’ one.” 

“It won’t take us an hour to reach it, but before we do, we should probably tell him about the rules,” Wildfire added, as she walked beside me, the mare had said little since we’d broken camp, and I wondered if it was due to where we were going, or if it was something else.  I turned my eyes away from the hill and back to Stone as he nodded his head once again.

“Sure enough,” he answered, dropping back to walk beside us, the rumble of thunder rolled overhead, causing me to look to the sky above.  Those dark clouds had been steadily moving towards us, and now they had finally reached us.

“Rules are simple and common enough, but this an’t like Crossroads.  Th’ ponies here don’t rightly welcome outsiders, and aren’t rightly known for their hospitality.”  As I recalled, the ponies who welcomed us at the gate had eyed us up as we passed, and most of the others had simply ignored us.  Later they had warmed up to me, but that might have been due to me helping to save their water supply from radioactive-pony-eating geckos that spat acid (wow that just sounded crazy).

“Alright, so any I might need to worry about?”  There was no sense in pissing anypony off if I could avoid it.

“Only one rule ya gotta know for sure.  They don’t allow anypony to carry weapons inside their town.  No exceptions to th’ rule.”  I frowned at that, ears flicking back as I glanced down to my weapons.  Well, I can’t really say I blamed them for that, after all it was their home they were letting ponies into.  I’d likely had done the same thing back at the Stable if we had allowed strangers inside.  Still, I had become somewhat attached to my weapons over the past few days, my combat shotgun was a piece of home and the revolver had saved my plot from that radscorpion.  Well, so long as I get them back when we leave...

“Beyond that rule, it’s all simple stuff really.  No fightin’, no stealin’, no makin’ passes at any of th’ settlers...”  I blinked at that last and stumbled across a stone in the road, he almost seemed to slip it in hoping we wouldn’t notice.  I glanced over to the earth pony beside me with a arched brow and perked ears.  Was that really a rule?  Beside me, Wildfire took notice as well and spoke up. 

“Excuse me?” the pegasus asked as she walked in front of me to trot beside Stone, the orange mare narrowing her eyes on his face as she continued on, “I don’t recall that rule being on their little list of things not to do in their town, though honestly I can see why I might have missed it.  Not a one of the stallions in the place I meet last time got even so much as a twitch from my wings,” she snorted softly.
 
Twitch from her what now?

“Well...ya see, last time Ah was here was with a trade caravan. Despite what Ah said, they still have a need for things they can’t rightly make themselves, things from around th’ wasteland.  Ah was a might young back then and had just been paid a fair amount of caps...and...maybe Ah did have a bit too much to drink with my friends...and well, it had been a while...ya know...,” Stone began to explain uncomfortably, the earth ponies ears flicked to the side from embarrassment at what he was saying.  I grinned, and here I thought this pony was a rock.

“Oh, you sly stallion you.” I couldn’t help it, the look I got from Stone only made me chuckle more.

“Oh sweet Luna’s horn...” the pegasus began to laugh beside him, “...so...was it any good?” she asked, nudging his side with a wing and wearing that trademark grin of hers, blue eyes sparkling with mirth.  The question only serving to brighten the gray ponies cheeks as he looked away from Wildfire and back towards the road ahead of us.

“Wasn’t bad...mighta pushed my luck a bit with her sister though Ah reckon...,” he added with a grin of his own, Wildfire let loose a roar of laughter and slapped a hoof on his back.  With a chuckle, I followed them up the road towards Steeldome.  It felt good to laugh again, hadn’t been much reason to for the past week or so.

Luckily, Stonehoof managed to recover from his embarrassment as we grew closer to the large hill ahead of us.  It looked natural enough, a mound of dirt and rock that rose up from the plains.  While not as tall as Wildfire’s mesa, it was nearly eight times as wide.  The roadway we followed drew closer to the hillside, and began curving around it, and as we trotted closer I began to notice something else about the hill.  Bits of metal appeared to be sticking out at random all across its surface.  So, this was Steeldome. 

I began to turn towards my friends and ask if they had buried the dome back under the rocks when something about the metal caught my eye.  I looked back and saw that the metal was not so much under the rocks and dirt, as a part of it.  It looked almost fused to the stone around it, like it had been melted to it.  Arching a brow, I stepped closer to the side of the hill to get a better idea of what was going on, but a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to quickly turn my head.  I watched as a piece of metal began to flicker and fade before my very eyes, and then completely disappear.  It was replaced by the same dark brown stone that covered the hillside, and much to the plains. 

“What the hell was that?”  I’d never seen anything like that before, pointing a hoof to the spot.  Stone and Wild stopped and looked back to where I was pointing. 

“According to what I was told before, when this place had been built, they had a good number of unicorns cast some powerful spells across the dome to camouflage it with the natural stone and coloring of the ground around it.  It’s why it was never targeted by Zebra bombs; they never knew it was here,” Wild answered, trotting past me and up to the hillside, raising a hoof, she lightly tapped against the stone, and I heard the unmistakable sound of a hollow metal wall.  I’d heard that sound often enough growing up in a Stable. 

I gave the hill another look, and wondered just how much of it was real stone and how much of it was pony made.  I suppose it made sense to enchant the place, it would be very difficult to hide such a large structure out in the open.  Even if it was in the middle of nowhere, with few ponies living nearby, it was bound to be seen.  Still it seemed a lot of trouble to hide a place that was suppose to be finding ways to grow food in space.  Why didn’t they use this to hide the military bases...or whole cities from the bombs? 

“The spells to mask the Dome’s true appearance have been passed down for generations and they recast the spell on areas where it has begun to degrade.  Something’s causing an issue with maintaining them, and it’s been fading more quickly, least that’s what Fuse told me the last time I was here.”  She gave the hillside another look, before turning away and returning to the road.

“Fuse?” I asked as I dropped into step beside her.

“Yeah...or rather Director Shortfuse, she’s the unicorn in charge of the Dome, sorta like a mayor or Overmare I suppose.  Just be warned, once you meet her, she’s going to try and tell you all about how she’s descended from the original Director of the project here,” Wild rolled her eyes and snorted at the last bit.

After several more minutes of walking, we at last reached what appeared to be the entrance into the hill, a dark cave in the side of it.  As we trotted closer, I could see that further back into the cave the walls had been reinforced by metal beams to hold back the weight of the stone over head.  I could also see along the edges of the cave, signs that something had exploded here recently, within the past few years at least given that the blacked stone had yet to be worn away either by rain, wind or age.  There’d likely been a door here, masking the entrance, but it had been blown away by something powerful.

I took a few steps towards the tunnel, when a sudden sound caught my ears and I halted.

“What the...,” I began to step away from the cave entrance and looked back to Stone and Wild as I heard the whirl of motors around me, followed by the sound of metal scraping against metal and the whoosh of air escaping a suddenly opened door.  Turning to look to my right, I saw a hatch had opened half way along the ground near the tunnel.  As the steel doors slide open fully, a round dome about the size of a wagon wheel began rising up, below it was a four barreled chain gun, which was pointing towards me.  Beside it, was mounted a large box with a red lens and a targeted for the weapon.  A beam of red light shot out from the marker and struck me right between the eyes.  Oh shit...

My E.F.S. started flashing red dots on either side of me, alerting me to the presence of enemies.  Little late thank you...wait...two??  A quick glance to my left confirmed my fears, as the turrets twin finished its rise from below ground and turned to point its frightening arsenal towards me.

“Well...I guess this saves us from having to ring the front bell.” I began to wonder if there was any chance in hell of destroying these things before they reduced me or my two friends to little more than chunks of pony littering the ground.  Still, they had yet to fire, and that was a good thing, a moment later a voice rattled from the right turret. 

“What is your business here?”  The voice was that of a mare’s and sounded a bit annoyed at our presence.  I somehow doubted she’d have much trouble telling the turrets to open fire simply for bothering her.  Looking back to my right, I spotted the camera mounted just beside the targeter, and watched as the lens rotate slowly to zoom in on me.  I was about to answer the question, when Wildfire took matters into her own hooves.

She calmly trotted up beside me, and into the line of fire from both turrets and turned her gaze towards the camera.  A smile slowly spread across her snout, and she waved a orange hoof towards whoever was sitting on the other side of the screen before she spoke up.

“I’m here for that favor you guys owe me, Rivets, so open the damn doors and put away your toys.”  She turned her blue eyes from the right turret to the left and cocked her head slightly, “Or have you forgotten about that?” she asked.  After a few tense seconds, the turrets lowered their weapons and the red target lights went dark. 

“No, I haven’t forgotten about what we owe you, Commander Sunsparkles, though we were beginning to think you had.  Or had either moved on, perhaps killed,” the voice behind the camera said.  Wildfire continued to stare down the turrets beside me, before with an annoyed sigh, the clank of gears and the hum of motors, the turrets finally began lowering back into the ground.

“Very well, the door’s opening, I’ll meet you at the base of the Tower in a few minutes.  The guards at the entrance will see to your weapons, and do try and behave Commander...last time you were here it ended up causing us a bit of trouble.”  With those words, Wildfire looked away from the turrets and frowned before she started towards the tunnel ahead of her. 

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and started following her when I noticed Stone was not following.  Stopping I looked back to the gray stallion and arched a brow, he was sitting down beside the road looking oddly at Wildfire. 

“Something wrong, Stone?” in front of me, Wildfire turned back to see what was going on, and noticed Stone looking at her.  She blinked and turned a bit to face him.  Slowly, he began to smile and tilted his head towards the orange pegasus.

“Sunsparkles?” he asked, I wondered what the hell he was talking about when I remembered that was what Rivets had called Wildfire.  I blinked.  Oh Celestia.  I looked back over to her, and found the pegasus’ ears pinned back against her skull and glaring razors at the earth pony.

“My father named me after his mother, we had the same coloring.” her wings ruffled up and opened slightly, “Got a problem with it, dirt pony?” 

Stone chuckled and stood up from the ground, lightly dusting himself off a bit with a hoof before he started towards the tunnel, walking past me and Wildfire as he did.  He glanced to the mare as he passed her and added lightly.

“Oh, nothin’...just found it sorta pretty and fittin’ is all.”  I half snickered to that and awaited the pegasus hot tempered response.  To my surprise, she said nothing but stood there as Stone stepped past her and into the tunnel beyond.  I noticed a bit darker coloring to her cheeks, as she stood there, was that a blush?  She ducked inside and past Stone before I could be sure, the earth pony glanced back to me and waved a hoof with a grin.

“Well, come on Shadow, don’t wanna keep’em waitin’.”

We followed the still flustered pegasus only a few steps into the cave before we were greeted by a familiar sight, at least for me it was familiar.  A Stable door stood before us within a dark gray metal wall, slowly began to sink back into the frame, with the soft groan of metal.  Unlike my former home, there was no number on the large gear shaped door, only a name; Steeldome.  After a few seconds, steam escaped from narrow cracks in the door as it began to roll slowly to the right and behind the wall.  I suddenly could believe this place had been built by Stable-Tec. 

As I stepped across the thick frame of the door, and entered into the room beyond, it was like stepping into home again.  Clean gray walls and floors outlined the room in a perfect square, in several spots along the floor plating were grates leading to wires and ducts below the floor.  Along the walls were the usual vents and various bits of electronics and metal pipes that ran the length of a Stable.  Over head, the lighting came from the soft glow of panels built into the ceiling itself, humming softly as they ran.  It was a very familiar sound, one I had not noticed I’d missed.  There were two doors that granted access into the room, not including the door behind us, and both were closed.  The back of the room was taken up by a large booth, inside behind a window I could see two unicorns standing working the controls in the room, and a doorway behind them.  It must have been the control room, a shame we hadn’t had something like that for Stable 45, things may have been different.  The glow of the consoles reflected off the faces of the ponies within the control room, and one appeared to be speaking into a mic on the side of his head.  As he did so, the doors on either side of us clicked softly, and began to swing outwards, allowing seven well armed and armored ponies to swiftly file out and surround us. 

My attention was torn away from the room and over towards the seven ponies that stood around us. I noticed that all seven were unicorns, and all seven had their automatic weapons floating beside them and pointed at us.  They appeared to be far better cared for versions of the one I had across my back; the one I had taken off a slaver.  Though, where mine had a wood stock, theirs had a folding metal stock.  All wore barding similar to my own Stable security barding, complete with the annoying helmets and visors which were pulled down across their faces.

One of the guards floated a plastic container over towards us, and sat it down upon the floor.  I glanced towards it, then over to Stone and Wild.  I had an idea what it was for, and a second later I was proven right.  Stone began pulling the strap for his rifle up and over his head with his right hoof, at the movement, half of the weapons pointing at us turned on him.  He calmly looked down the barrels of the rifles and gently placed the rifle into the container, he next removed his knife and let it lightly drop inside.  They turned away from him, and I felt rather then saw, seven pairs of hidden eyes turn on me. 

Okay, my turn it seems.

I followed Stone’s example, and began by pulling off my shotgun, with my right hoof.  I made sure the safety was still on, since the last thing we needed was for it going off as I sat it in the container beside Stone’s rifle.  The old assault rifle soon joined it, before I moved to pull the revolver free from its holster along my left leg.  As I pulled it slowly out with my teeth, I was more reluctant to let it go.  After all, I had taken it from the home of a fellow law enforcement pony.  With a sigh, I dropped it carefully into the container and allowed it to join the other weapons.  The grenades came last, each placed inside the open box with a careful grip.

As I stood unarmed, they then looked to the pegasus who stood between Stone and I, Wildfire having watched as we disarmed stepped towards the container and grinned.  She looked over the seven unicorns then over to us, her earlier embarrassment about her real name seemingly forgotten for the time being.

“My oh, my...nine big strong bucks waiting on me to undress in front of them...its a dream come true.”  With a flick of her tail against Stone’s face and a wink to me, she began unbuckling her battle saddle from around her waist.  She went about it quickly, knowing just how to get the straps out and off with little fuss.  As the last buckle was released, a soft glow surrounded the large rig and it was simply lifted up and off her back to lay atop the rest of our weapons.  With a nod to the guard who helped, she reached down to draw her sidearm, the pistol sliding free from its holster against her chest.  It was an odd little weapon, I couldn’t see any slide or clip for it, nor did it look to have anything else a normal pistol would have on it.  It was dropped in with the rest and I winced as I heard it strike something inside the box...like a grenade.  Still, nothing exploded.

Still, it seemed it was not good enough, and two of the guards lowered their weapons and moved up towards us, their horns glowing brighter as they did.  A third guard, floated away the box with our weapons inside it, sitting it beside himself as his two friends began to wave their horns over her packs and armor slowly, I arched a brow and looked over to Stone and Wild, but both my friends remained still and allowed them to work.  Looking back to the green glowing horn near my chest, I remained still and let the pony finish his work.  It was likely a spell to detect hidden weapons, I’d been friends with a number of unicorns, so I’d picked up a little bit on how magic worked, and Brightblade had mentioned reading about a spell that allowed a unicorn to do just that.

Satisfied we were carrying no hidden weapons, the two finished and stepped back beside the others, who, after a nod from one, lowered their weapons and relaxed somewhat.  The one who had nodded, reached a hoof up and slid the visor up from his face, a pair of bright purple eyes appeared from behind it framed by a turquoise coat.  He looked us each over, before settling on me, though his armor was much the same as the others, I noted a mark on his shoulder indicating rank.  Was this my counter part?  Chief of Security for Steeldome? 

Finally, he smiled and loosened his helmet, near white gray strands of his mane fell loose from under it as he pulled it off his head, the helmet glowing as he levitated it over to hang off the side of his barding. 

“Sorry about the welcome, but given the recent attacks by raiders we can’t be too careful anymore.  My name’s Swiftwind, and I’m head of Security for Steeldome, I assume you all know the rules?” he asked.  Beside him the remaining security ponies split up, two trotting towards the door to our left as it opened.  Between them, they floated our weapons with them and stepped inside.

“Right enough, we both know th’ rules been here before and we explained’em to Shadow here.”  Stone nodded his head towards me with that same friendly smile he always wore when speaking to other ponies, “Ah don’t reckon we’ll be stayin’ long, we’re just here to pick somethin’ up.” he added with a look to Wildfire. 

“Ah, right, I see.  Well, Director Rivets said to escort you to her once you were cleared. So if you’ll please follow me, I’ll show you the way.”  Turning, the unicorn nodded to the ponies behind the glass, who worked the controls with their horns and hooves.  A moment later, my ears twitched as I heard the right hatch click and begin to swing open, while behind us the large stable door began to grind its way closed.  I glanced back and watched as the massive door slowly rolled back into position over the open hole in the wall and began to slide back into place in the frame.  The sound of hoof steps caused me to turn away as the door sealed itself and I looked back over to the others.

Swiftwing had turned away from us and was trotting towards the now fully open hatch on our right, the remaining security ponies following closely behind him, their weapons now lowered and floating alongside them.  Stone stood up and began following them, I was about to do the same when I noticed Wildfire hanging back a bit, a confused look on her face.  Stepping over towards her, I looked closely to the pegasus and asked.

“Is everything alright?”  She looked away from the others and over to me, a frown forming on her normally grinning snout.

“Fuse is the Director of Steeldome, not Rivets.”  Blue eyes looking off towards Swiftwind as she answered me who had turned to see were we’d gotten ourselves.  Stone glanced back as well, head cocked slightly as he noticed Wildfire’s look.

“Maybe she stepped down?” I offered as we started walking towards the others, the mare shook her head, “Well...it has been awhile since you’ve been here, things could have changed,” I pointed out.  She looked back to me.

“Maybe...” by the tone of her voice, I could tell she didn’t believe it, but went silent as we approached Swiftwind and the others, Stone seemed about to ask something, when the Security Chief beat him to it.

“Everything okay?”

I looked over to Wildfire, who did not seem likely to answer the question, so I turned back to smile to the unicorn and nod my head quickly.

“Everything’s fine, I was just reminded of home seeing yours.”  It was true enough, and it seemed a good enough answer for him, smiling back he turned and started walking again.

We’d entered into a short hallway, leading off from the entrance room, much like the one back home.  The hallway was narrow, and lined with the same lighting panels as before, at the end was another doorway beside which a card reader sat, a single red light glowing on its silver gray casing.  Swiftwind stopped before the door, and floated a card out from his barding. With a swipe of the ID card, there was a soft beep and the light turned from red to green on the reader.  Another click, and the door was unlocked, with the soft blue glow from his horn, he pushed the door open and stepped through, the rest of us followed him inside and I stopped.

While Stone and Wild had both been telling me a little about Steeldome, they had not managed to do it justice.  What lay beyond the doorway, was no less then a small town hidden below a massive metal dome and surrounded by a large orchard of trees.  The green leafy orchard appeared to cover much of the space within the dome.  We’d had only a small number of trees in Stable 45’s orchard level, and none as tall as these.  The ground below the trees was covered in a pale green grass, growing between the roots.  Most appeared to be fruit trees, though a few seemed to bare no fruit at all, perhaps the wrong time of the year?  Or had they already harvested the fruit?  A better question was, what did they do with all that fruit?  If we’d had that amount back home we could have feed the whole Stable three times over, but then this was a far larger place than it had been, likely with more ponies.  Still, that was a lot of food for one small town, and while Stone had said they didn’t trade often with others, I imagined this was the source for much of the Crossroad’s food supply.  At least that food which wasn’t one hundred and seventy eight years old. 

I looked away from the trees and off towards the town itself. It was half the size of Lonesome Hoof, though it had fared far better then that dead little down.  Much like Crossroads, the buildings were made of native stone; the walls the same deep browns and reds of the rocks outside, and most were two stories in height.  They looked in far better shape then Crossroads, likely due to the protection from the elements the dome offered.  Another difference was in metal piping that ran along many of the buildings walls and roofs, before disappearing down into the streets below.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Swiftwind asked as I stepped up beside my friends.  Impressive didn’t begin to cover it.  I simply nodded my head. He began to trot down a street, and we fell in behind him, I was still looking around in amazement when suddenly I realized it was actually very bright inside the dome, brighter than it had been outside.

Looking up, I saw the dome itself had been long ago painted a light blue, to match the skies outside, or at least how they had been.  Despite the lack of weathering, the paint had been fading over, and was now a pale blue.  I spotted the source of the lighting easily enough, hanging along the curve of the dome’s interior were light panels, much like the ones back in the entrance room, but far larger and much brighter.  I noticed a few were dark, blown out sometime in the past, but enough still worked to cast the entire dome in bright warm light, it was likely why the trees had grown so much taller then back home.  I also saw something else, the top of a pillar that ran from the ceiling all the way to the floor of the dome.  Following it back down, I saw it hidden away behind a cluster of buildings, likely the tower I had heard Rivets mention outside.

The road we followed appeared to lead us directly towards the tower, which I noticed seemed to be in the center of the buildings.  Trotting across the cobblestone roads, we began to move towards it, Swiftwind leading us, my friends and I following closely behind.  The security guards had remained behind near the hallway we’d passed, likely their posts.  As we neared the buildings, I was not surprised to see a number of ponies moving about, going about their lives as we passed them, I was however wondering about something else.  For a settlement this large, there seemed to be very few ponies around.  Perhaps there were more inside, or off somewhere working in the orchards. 

Back to the ponies themselves, there were the usual mix of unicorns and earth ponies, though there appeared to be far more unicorns.  They all looked clean and healthy, a notable difference from the dirt covered ponies I’d seen in Crossroads, but then they had far better uses for their water then a bath.  Steeldome likely had a working water talisman somewhere producing clean fresh water for them. No wonder the Raider’s wanted in this place, it was a treasure trove of food and water.  Another difference about these ponies from those in Crossroads was simply how much more quiet they seemed.  They looked at us as we passed, a few offering smiles or a nod, but little beyond that. 

“You look like a stable pony,” Swift said, breaking the silence that had fallen over us, and offering a light smile towards me.  I nodded my head in response and he looked back ahead of us, “Then this must all seem a bit familiar to you.”

“A bit,” I admitted, “But we had nothing this large inside Stable 45, our orchard level was not even a quarter of this size.”  I was beginning to think you could fit the entire Stable inside this place and still have room for another two.  I found myself wondering if this had been where Stable-Tec had first tested their designs for the Stables they built across the country.  Had they used what they learned here to help make the Stables better?  If this hadn’t been built for the Stables, then why?  Was it really a test to see if they could grow large amounts of food inside a sealed environment for a moon base like Wildfire had been told?  I couldn’t quite believe it, but I also couldn’t see any other reasons why they’d build something like this.  Out in the middle of nowhere.  Looking around, I decided there at least didn’t appear to be any secret labs for making alicorns.  I smirked, looking back ahead of us as the buildings began to thin out.

We neared the base of the pillar, and I could see just how big the thing was, it appeared to be as big around as Rose’s saloon, and must have a good number of rooms and floors within it.  Looking upwards, I noticed several windows along the surface of the metal tower, the walls themselves were cluttered with pipes, vents, and small and any number of other things sticking out from its metal skin.  Looking back once more to the base, I noticed two ponies standing atop a set of stairs that lead to the entrance to the pillar, or tower as they called it. 

One was a unicorn, her coat a deep slate gray, almost matching the walls of the tower behind her.  Her short cut mane and tail were a deep black, nearly the color of my own coat.  She wore a small necklace around her throat, with a odd gold cog pendent on the end.  Her cutie mark was of a bolt and ratchet, as we drew closer to the base of the stairs I saw her dark brown eyes narrow a bit and a frown on her snout, before it was quickly replaced with a fake smile.  I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise up and was at once on alert.  If this was Rivets, I could see why Wildfire had been displeased to learn she was in charge of Steeldome.

Beside her, stood a earth pony stallion, wearing a slightly soiled work vest and saddlebags, his rust red copper coat was equally covered in dirt, looking like he’d just come in from the field.  His silvery white mane and tail were tied back by red bands to keep the loose strands of his mane from his purple eyes.  His flank bore a shovel and spade cutie mark, he was likely the pony in charge of the orchards.  Unlike the mare beside him, his smile seemed genuine and warm, he nodded his head to each of us.

“Hello, Rivets...I see you're moving up in the world,” Wildfire said, trotting to the front of our little group to look up at the gray unicorn, “Where’s Fuse at?” she asked.  Rivets simply smirked and arched a brow to the pegasus standing before her.  Both Swiftwind and the earth pony shared a look at the mention of Fuse’s name: worry filled the earth ponies purple eyes, as did Swifts.

“And it seems you’re moving down, Commander Sunsparkles, I see your as blunt and to the point as always.”  The venom in her tone caused me to narrow my eyes slightly, and even Stone frowned to the words, for her part Wildfire snorted and awaited an answer to her question, “I’m sorry to say that our dear Shortfuse has fallen gravely ill, and is resting in her home at the moment.”

“Ill? How?” the pegasus asked, and I shared a glance with Stone beside me.  It was the earth pony who answered, cutting off whatever Rivets had been about to say.

“She was out inspecting the front doors after a recent raider attack had damaged the outer wall in a few places.  It seems we had suffered more damage then we at first thought as the sensors that warn us when something is near the Dome were off line...”  At that, his purple eyes glance over to the gray mare beside him before he continues, “It also seems the noise of the raiders attack had attracted the attention of a pair of radscorpions.  In the fight, she was stung by one of them before the guards could kill them.  She’s been in a coma ever since.”  His tone made me feel there was something more going on here then we knew, and it was bucking me in the face trying to get my attention. 

I glanced to Wildfire, the pegasus’ only response to the news was to frown up at the unicorn, but she said nothing more.  Ignoring the looks she was getting, Rivets turned to Swiftwind and waved a hoof towards the entrance.

“Thank you, Chief Wind, you may return to your duties.” 

The turquoise unicorn nodded his head, before turning and trotting back the way we had come, disappearing around a building as I turned back towards the others.

“Oh, please excuse me, allow me to introduce Harvest, he’s in charge of our orchards and gardens here in Steeldome.”  She smiled to the earth pony beside her, but again it seemed to lack any real warmth.

“Its my pleasure, I believe I already know two of you from past visits.”  Harvest smiled to Stone and Wildfire before looking to me.  Unlike Rivets, he did not seem insincere when he spoke, and I nodded to the pony, he reminded me of Greenbean, a earth pony who helped me learn about my special talent of growing plants.  Most had just called the small earth pony Bean, which suited her just fine.

“Name’s Shadow, from Stable 45.”  At the mention of a Stable, Rivets looked over me more closely. 

“A stable pony?  Hmm...I was unaware there was any unopened stables left in this area of the country.”  She lightly tapped a hoof against her lip as she spoke, a thoughtful expression on her face, the only time I’d seen her look anywhere near normal thus far.

“Well, I hope you're managing in the Wasteland, I can’t imagine how much of a shock it must have been for you and the others from your Stable to come out and find how much Equestria has changed in the past one hundred and seventy years.” Harvest said, a look of excitement in his eyes.

“I’m...managing.” I answered simply enough, not ready to go into my whole story yet again, while Harvest seemed a likeable enough pony, I was still unsure on trusting Rivets. 

“Well, I should really be returning to the fields over at the east corner of the wall, Spade was having some issues with the water pipes and I promised him I’d take a look.”  Nodding to each of us, the earth pony took his leave and trotted off back down the road.  That left us with the dark gray unicorn, who looked from me back to Wildfire and brought the subject back to the matter at hoof.

“Now then, you said you were here for that favor we owed you?”  Turning, she began to trot towards the tower’s doors behind her, as she neared them they opened smoothly for her to pass.

“Yes, Fuse said she’d see to getting my sky chariot back up and running, we’re in need of it, so I’m here to collect,” Wildfire said as she started up the stairs behind Rivets.  Stone and myself following behind the orange pegasus and through the double doors into the tower.

“Well, as I said earlier, we didn’t really expect to see you again, but work was done on your damaged chariot as Fuse promised.”  As the doors shut behind us, I found myself in a large open room that seemed to take up the entire first two floors of the tower. The reason why was in the center of the room, where a large statue of Princess Celestia stood as a fountain, her majestic wings spread wide in greeting and smile across her beautiful face.  From the tip of her long horn, water flowed down to the pool around her hooves.  Looking away from the goddess of the sun, I looked to the walls and the pillars that had been built along it, between them were several benches and short tables with books laying atop them.  I noticed a few vending machines in one corner of the room, along with a desk across from them.  The entire room looked like some sort of waiting room for visitors to the Dome.  Despite the more noticeable difference, I was reminded of the Atrium from home, the walls were still the same cold gray, and lighting was from the same light panels overhead.  I glanced to the fountain and the statue in the center of it...almost like home.

We followed Rivets around the statue of Celestia, and towards the back of the circular room, where stairs spiraled around the wall to disappear into the floors above.

“The last report I seen on your little...project was that work on it had nearly been completed when a more pressing problem came up for her, and she was forced to reassign the ponies she’d had to it.”

“So, it’s not finished?”  I asked, earning a look from Rivets as we climbed the stairs behind her, she reminded me of my school teacher a bit, if she had been a creepy ass bitch.  Hmm...I think Wild’s rubbing off on me a bit.  It’d been four or five years since Wildfire had first been here by her account, I found it hard to believe they hadn’t finished whatever it was.  It seemed more likely they hadn’t even bothered with it, Rivets had said herself, they didn’t expect Wild to return.

“No, it’s not.  I’m afraid the best pony we have to finish it is currently unavailable to complete the repairs as well.”  We climbed to the fourth floor, and stepped out into another hallway passing several closed doors as we trotted through the narrow passage.  We neared the end of the hall, and a closed door, as we approached the doors slowly opened and allowed Rivets into a small elevator.  As Stone and myself stepped inside, I turned around to see Wild seemed less then thrilled about getting in the small space.  With a grunt, she squeezed in beside me, her feathered wings felt odd pressing against my sides.  With a soft white glow from her horn, Rivets pressed the sixth floor key on the control panel.  I noticed there was a total of fifteen floors listed as we began moving up.

The trip lasted barely a minute before the we slowed and halted, the doors opening up and allowing us to step out.  Wildfire was the first one out, muttering softly to herself as she flexed her wings; it was the closest I’d seen to fear on the pegasus since meeting her.  Rivets only smirked and trotted past her, walking along another hallway towards a door at the end.  Stone stepped up to the orange mare and patted her shoulder, before we hurried to catch up with the unicorn. 

She’d entered a room beyond the door, and as we stepped inside I saw we were in a office of sorts, likely hers.  A metal desk took up the center of the room, appearing to have been made as part of the floor itself.  Along its surface was a console and several well worn books, along with a number of parts and bits of machines.  The only other pieces of furniture within the room were a few metal cabinets along the wall to our right, and a few soft looking couches and chairs surrounding a wooden table.  Along the plain metal walls of the room, I saw a row of pictures in wooden frames.  Each was of a different pony, though each had three things in common.  All were of unicorns, all were wearing the same golden pendant that Rivets was wearing, and all stood somewhere within the office as they had been painted.  Past Directors maybe?  Behind the desk, a large window looked out over a section of the dome I hadn’t seen from where we entered.  Stepping closer, I looked out to see the trees had given way to flat gardens.  Though I couldn’t make out much, I guessed it was where they grew their vegetables.
 
“Alright, Rivets...what is it you want?”  Wildfire narrowed her eyes as Rivets walked around the desk sitting down behind it, turning the console on as she looked up to Wildfire, a smile on her lips. 

“Well...I suppose if you're willing to help us, I could see about getting a few ponies reassigned to work on your little chariot,” the mare answered with that same cold smile, “Although in truth, you helping me helps you.”

“Oh?  And how’s that exactly?” Stone asked from beside me, the earth pony had mostly been quiet since entering the Dome, and had been looking out across the field below the tower.  At Rivet’s comment, he turned and looked back to the unicorn.

“As I’m sure you noticed, and well remember, the spells hiding the Dome from view have been failing faster then we can ever hope to replace them, and while a few know of this place’s existence, not every slaver or raider does.  Once the cloaking spells fails, that will change.”  Lightly, she typed a few buttons on her console and the lights in the room dimmed, suddenly a glowing green projection appeared in the center of the room, depicting the Dome and the surrounding landscape.  I’d never seen anything like it before, nothing we had in the Stable could project such a image and in such detail.  I slowly walked around the image and looked at over it, seeing the entrance way we had come in, and the road leading back to the highway. 

“Despite the show of force at the front door, most of our defences stopped working about five years ago...I’m sure you can figure our why, Commander.”  Rivets voice was hardly friendly, but once more it dropped as she looked to Wildfire and her smile turned far colder.  The pegasus said nothing, but looked away from the unicorn, I arched a brow and wondered what was being left unsaid between the two.  On the projection, several green dots (which I took for turrets or other weapon systems) winked out and went dark, leaving a very large gap for attackers to exploit.

“While Swfitwind and his security team are well trained, I doubt he can fend off a determined attack, I know his predecessor couldn’t even handle a few well armed and armored soldiers.”  Again it seemed she directed her comments directly towards the pegasus.

“Get to the point,” Wildfire growled out, wings ruffled and ears laid back; seems Rivets had struck a nerve.

“My point is, we need another means of maintaining the cloak around the dome, at least until we manage to repair the defences that have been destroyed.  To do that requires power, more power then we can currently generate.  A couple of months ago, Shortfuse discovered records in our systems computers pointing to a possible answer to our power issues.  It was a invoice from the Ministries of Technology indicating a power station not far from here was due to receive a new power talisman meant to replace a blown generator.  According to these records it was to be delivered the morning of the attack.”  Her horn glowed once more and the projection changed, moving away from the Dome and towards a collection of buildings across the plains, it looked to only be a couple miles away in fact, near the river I’d seen coming here.  Beside it, power lines ran off towards the direction of Kanter City and a up the river to a very large dam.

“Shortfuse was injured before she could do anything with the information, and I only discovered it after taking over her role.  I sent a team out to discover if it was still there, they radioed back that they had found the station and it looked to be undisturbed.  They were going to check out the buildings the following day, but after we received a message saying they were entering the building, we lost all contact with them.  It was decided it would be too risky to send another team out, we have so few ponies left who know how to maintain the systems here and with the risk of being discovered by the roving bands of raiders.”  As she finished, I began putting the pieces together quickly enough and felt my ears perk slightly.

“So, you want us to go find out what happened to your team and bring the talisman back to you?” I asked, looking from the display to the unicorn behind the desk. 

“Yes, you see the ponies that were sent are the ones most qualified to repair your chariot,” she quickly added before the projection faded out and the lights in the room returned to normal.  I had seen that coming, honestly.

I looked once more to Stone and Wild, neither said anything, though I could see the distrust on Wild’s face.  It was painfully clear Rivets and her had a history, and it had something to do with the reason the Dome’s defences were destroyed.  That, however, would need to wait for another time, right now I had something else to think on.

“Its yer call, Shadow,” Stone said, looking from Wild to me and I grunted.  Well of course it was, they were both here trying to help me, if not for that reason, they’d both be back doing whatever it was they were doing before I came along.  I looked away from them to Rivets. 

Something about the mare made me uneasy, but I still couldn’t put my hoof on it.  I knew we were being forced into this, but I couldn’t see any other choice we had.  We had few options at the moment; we could always try and walk to Kanter City, but it would take too long.  The longer my sister and anyone else from home were held, the more likely chance something would happen to them, if it hadn’t already.  We could always try and convince Rivets to get somepony else to fix the chariot, but somehow I doubted it would work.  Besides, she could be telling the truth, and there was really nopony else able to fix it.

Dammit... 

“Alright, fine, we’ll do it.” Rivets cool smile remained on her snout as she nodded to my answer.  Once more my Pipbuck updated itself with the location of the power station she’d mentioned with a soft beep.  Looking down to the softly glowing green screen, I saw it really wasn’t very far away, we could be there before nightfall if we left now.

“Good, here I’ll download a photo of the talisman and what little information we have on the buildings.”  As she spoke, a cord floated up from her console and lightly connected with a port on the side of my Pipbuck.  With a little ping, the screen flashed the word, downloading and a little bar below it, slowly filling.  After another second the screen flashed download complete before a list of names appeared, along with a photo of the talisman.  As the cord was retracted, I looked over the item we were after, it looked little like the water talisman back in the Stable.  This was a orb, about as large as my head, it appeared to be made of metal of some kind and had copper rings around its surface. I also noticed a few wires coming out from small ports in the side of the orb, and a few magical runes etched into the metal.  I looked back up to the still smiling face of the mare behind the desk and stood up.

“Just so we’re clear, once we return the talisman to you, you’ll see to Wildfire’s chariot, correct?” I asked, making sure she understood. 

“Of course.”  Her horn glowed and the console before her shut off with a soft click, followed by the sound of the doors behind us opening.  I looked over my shoulder as two ponies stepped inside the office, both wore security barding and their weapons remained holstered at their sides but the meaning was clear.  I turned back to find Rivets’ brown eyes fixed on my face, a smile still on her face.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m sure you’ll want to get started right away and these two will help you find your way back to the door.”



*     *     *     *     *



As we left the office, the guards trotted beside us as we headed back down the hallway towards the elevator.  Her fear of the small space seemed pushed to the back of her mind as Wildfire stepped inside beside Stone.  As we began to descend back to the third floor, I wondered what was going on in this place.  Stone had said they didn’t care for visitors, but it seemed we were getting a somewhat mixed message.  Rivets was cold, and clearly didn’t want us here, but Swiftwind and Harvest had seemed like decent enough ponies.  I glanced to the nearest security pony, like all the others she was a unicorn, her coat almost the color of Wild’s, and her tail was a golden yellow.  She had her visor up, and was staring straight ahead at the doors.

The ride came to a halt, and once more we followed them down the hallway towards the stairs.  I glanced to Wildfire once more: something was troubling her, hell something was troubling me about all this.  We reached the stairs, and began walking down to the first floor, the pegasus beside me with Stone leading the way flanked by the two guard ponies.  I turned to Wildfire and spoke quietly.

“I take it this wasn’t what you were expecting?” I asked Wild as the statue of Celestia came into sight once more.  Beside me, Wild glanced over and answered.

“No, but I should have expected something like this,” she growled, looking towards the security ponies in front of us, “I’ll never claim I was friends with anypony here, but at least I had the feeling from Fuse she was a pony of her word.  Rivets...I don’t trust that bitch any further then I could throw her skinny ass.”

I wanted to ask her what had happened the last time she was here, hell I should have asked that before we arrived, but I wanted to find my sister and Wildfire’s idea of reaching Kanter City in two days seemed worth it.  I stopped, however, before I could ask her, the last time I had pushed her for more information about her past she’d closed up and changed the subject.  I decided not to press, given her already foul mood, and not wanting to have the guards over hear us.

By the sounds of it, whatever she had done had been with others, a team of soldiers, and had damaged the Dome’s defensive systems and left the ponies here open to attacks.  Was it while she’d been with the Enclave?  She’d mentioned some of her information had come from them, had it been a mission they’d given her and the pegasus she’d spoken of back in Crossroads?  And if so, why did Shortfuse owe her a favor...it didn’t make much sense at the moment, but I was forced to push it aside again as we reached the base of the stairs and started walking towards the doors leading out of the tower.

Once outside, we followed the same route we had upon entering, and trotted between the rows of buildings heading towards the entrance to the Dome.  As we walked, I noticed a few more ponies than when we’d first arrived, but still so few given the size of the place and the amount of food they could produce.  Most seemed to be returning from the orchard and gardens, and I noticed most of them were earth ponies.  I looked over them, then back to the unicorns, many of whom I had seen walking in and arched a brow.  Were earth ponies the ones growing the food, and the unicorns the ones in charge?  I still noticed there seemed to be far more unicorns then earth ponies and wondered about it, also something else bothered me, namely something missing, but I just couldn’t figure out what.

 I didn’t have much time to dwell on it, as ahead I spotted Swiftwind and Harvest exiting one of the buildings along the road; by the looks of it a restaurant of some kind.  Swift looked over towards us and stepped towards the orange unicorn mare walking us back out of the Dome.

“We’ll take it from here, Edge, thank you.  I’m sure you two have other duties to see to,” he said to the mare, a friendly smile on his snout.  The orange unicorn arched a brow and looked from Swift to Harvest then to her partner beside her.  Looking back, she nodded her head and stepped back a few paces from us.

“Sure thing, Chief, we’ll...just head back up and finish our rounds then.”  As we watched, the unicorn turned away from Swift and motioned for her partner to follow.  As the pair trotted past us back towards the tower, I blinked and looked to Stone and Wild.  Something was going on around here and I was wondering just what we’d gotten ourselves into.

Swiftwind smiled to each of us before he turned back and began trotting towards the Dome’s entrance.  Harvest fell into step beside me as we followed him.  He looked to each of us before locking his eyes with me.

“I take it you’ll be leaving now for the power station?”  It was hardly a question, and by the tone of his voice it sounded like he already knew the answer I’d give.  I simply nodded my head towards the rust red farmer pony and decided to ask a simple enough question to see his reaction.

“Yeah, seems you’re in need of a talisman...is that a problem?”

“No, I’m sure whatever you were told is true enough, we do need the talisman; without it the Dome’s cloak will fail.  It’s just odd she’d ask you to go, she’s never been very trusting of outsiders, not like my mo...Fuse,” he corrected, but I still managed to work it out.  After all, father had taught me well enough to read others.  I decided to press on, and see where this was going.

“I get the feeling there’s something we’re missing,” I said, looking away from the road ahead to the pony beside me.  He smiled and turned his head towards me.

“You’re sharp...a few of us just find it odd how the sensor net seemed to crash at the exact time a pair of radscorpions seemed to zero in on the section of the Dome which Fuse and her team were working on.  Or why it took so long for the distress signal to reach the medical building in the Dome.”  He looked away with a frown and shook his head. “It’s also odd how only those ponies who worked closely with Fuse were sent out on the mission to find that talisman.”

Odd indeed.  I looked over to my friends; Stone looked back to me with a unhappy look.  He was clearly thinking the same as me, but it was Wildfire who pointed it out with a growl, looking over to Harvest.

“Are you saying somepony in the Dome tried to get Fuse killed?” 

“We don’t have any proof of that,” Swift spoke up from ahead of us, turning his head back to look from Harvest to Wild, “At least nothing concrete we can show to the others.”  Harvest snorted and looked back ahead of us, eyes narrowed.

“I think Rivets tried to kill her, yes.  She’s never liked the changes Fuse has been pushing for and the attack a few years ago only strengthened Rivets’ arguments.  More ponies started listening to her.”

“And what were the changes she wanted?” I asked.  We were quickly approaching the hatch that would lead us back to the entrance chamber and then from there back out to the surface.  I wasn’t sure how long they would keep talking, unsure who they thought they could trust in the Dome.

“Changes to the laws that have been in place since the Dome first sealed its door, and suggestions we start inviting outsiders into our little community.”  The answer was simple enough, but lacked any real detail about what was going on between the two.  I frowned and looked over as Swift produced his key card from his armor once more and swiped it across the reader.  The doors opened, and once more we found ourselves standing in the cold gray walls of the hallway leading back to the entrance room.  Stone stepped in behind us and the doors slide quietly to a close.  Harvest stopped in the middle of the hall and looked over to Swift; it seemed they were trying to decide on something, and after a minute it seemed they had made up their minds.

“I can’t ask you to get involved in our problems, you’ve likely got your own otherwise you’d not be here asking for a sky chariot.  But I would ask you for a favor if I can, Shortfuse...my mother is very sick.  The doctors do not expect her to last much longer without a proper antidote, but to make one they require a sample of the poison itself.”  Harvest turned and stood facing me, head lowered and a look of worry in his purple eyes, “I have tried to ask Rivets to allow somepony to go out and collect a sample, but she says it’s too dangerous.  You’re already going out across the plains to the Power Station...if you happen upon any radscorpions, please try and bring a sample of their poison back.”

He was worried for his mother, and with good reason.  I looked over and saw Stone and Wild looking at me, wondering what I was going to say. I looked away from Harvest and closed my eyes.  I could understand how he felt, but I had barely survived an encounter with one of those things.  I opened them again and looked back to the pegasus and earth pony who had taken it upon themselves to help me this far, and were following me into the unknown for a talisman. 

“Alright, Harvest, if we come across any, we’ll do what we can.”

With a sigh, the earth pony smiled and nodded his head quickly.  Behind him Swift swiped his card beside the second door, and it slid open a moment later.

“Thank you...while you’re away, I’ll see about getting someponies working on that chariot of Wild’s, so when you return it might be ready to go and you won’t need to wait long,” Harvest said as we stepped into the entrance room.  The two ponies inside the booth looked up as we entered.  I looked over to Harvest and cocked my head.

“Rivets made it sound as if you’d lost the ponies best able to repair it.”  The look of hope he had a moment before faded as quickly as it had appeared and he looked away from us.  I blinked and wondered what was wrong when Swift walked up beside him.  The unicorn lightly laid a hoof on the rust red earth pony’s shoulder before looking back over to me.

“We did, one of the ponies sent to retrieve the talisman was Harvest’s sister.”



*     *     *     *     *



As we made our way through the short tunnel leading back outside, the stable door slowly rolled into place and began sinking back into its grooves in the steel wall, groaning as it slid fully shut and sealed out the rest of the world.  I glanced across my shoulder at the massive door and grunted, looking over to my two friends as they followed me to the entrance of the tunnel.  Ahead of me, I heard the patter of rain striking the ground, and the rumble of thunder from the sky above.  It had started to rain when we’d entered Steeldome, and it seemed as if it had continued on with no signs of stopping anytime soon.  As my hooves carried me to the exit, I watched the steady downpour just outside and frowned.  The already grim looking wasteland looked no better under the rain.

“Well, went about as well as Ah expected,” Stone said from beside me, looking skyward as the rain poured outside.  He snorted and glanced back to the sealed door.

“I get the feeling we’re getting involved in something that could turn very ugly, very quickly,” I said, checking my weapons for a second time since getting them back.  All seemed in order, and I felt much better with the familiar weight of my shotgun around my neck.  According to the updated map on my Pipbuck, we’d find the Power Station and the missing ponies somewhere off towards the northeast.  Looking back outside, I saw the once dry cracked ground of the plains had been turned into a quagmire of mud and pools of water.  My Pipbuck clicked ever so often as it detected radiation in the rainfall.

Perfect.

I shut my eyes and sighed, I was already in a foul enough mood after our talks with Rivets and Harvest.  Both seemed to be hiding things from us, but I trusted Harvest more than Rivets.  The unicorn just made my skin crawl with that cold smile of hers.  Opening my eyes again, I looked back to my Pipbuck, ah, a bit of good news at least, it seemed another roadway wound its way across the plains towards the Station, it might be in better shape than the ground at least.

“Well, we’re not going to figure anything out standing around here all day.  Let’s get a move on and find this power station of hers.”  As I stepped out into the pouring rain, my hooves sank into the thick warm mud beneath them and the heavy rain ran down my black coat and mane, soaking me within minutes.  With a grunt, I began walking towards the direction of the road, then we’d head towards the Power Station.

Stone and Wild fell into step beside me, the heavy downpour running down the old cowpony hat perched atop Stone’s head, keeping his face mostly dry.  His heavy saddle bags were soon soaked through, and his coat soon after.  His hooves sunk into the thick mud the same as mine, but Wild seemed fairly lighter on her hooves and managed to keep from sinking so far into the mud.  Her mane, tail and feathered wings were still soaked in water and a steady stream poured off her battle saddle, but the mare kept pace with us easily.



*     *     *     *



Despite the heavy rain, the trip to the power station had been uneventful.  Luckily the road we found had withstood the test of time, and made the trip far quicker then it would have been if we’d attempted to cross the plains through the mud.  We reached the station just before nightfall.  Though the rain had slowed to a drizzle the last hour we’d been walking, it continued to fall around us as we sat atop a hill overlooking our goal.  From within his soaked packs, Stone pulled a set of binoculars and began to peruse the area.  Beside me, Wildfire shook the water from her wings and narrowed her eyes upon the structures below us.

“I don’t get it, if it was this easy to reach, why didn’t the bitch just send some more of her goons out here,” the pegasus said with a growl.  It was the first thing she’d said since we’d left Steeldome and her tone was about normal for the mare.  She was right, I half expected us to be attacked on the journey here, but nothing had shown up on my E.F.S.  Perhaps it was just the rain keeping the creatures at by.

“Ah don’t rightly know, but it seems peaceful enough from th’ outside,” Stone said, lowering the binoculars in his hooves and tossing them to me. 

Catching them easily, I lifted them up to my eyes with a hoof and looked towards the power station.  A large, half toppled sign was the first thing I saw upon looking through the lens, a large green and white slab of metal stating to any who cared the name of the collection of buildings beyond.  ‘Sub Station B Midwest Power.’

Sub Station B of Midwest Power was a collection of three rotting buildings surrounded by a ruined fence.  Warning signs hung rusting against the poles and were mostly unreadable.  Like the gate on the road to Steeldome, the power stations gate had long since lost its fight with time and lay in a heap beside the road, half buried in mud and debris. 

Turning my attention to the buildings themselves, I noticed all were four stories tall and in places still intact.  Made of gray concrete, they seemed normal enough and sported a few windows and doors.  I also noticed the building nearest the road had been gutted by fire sometime ago, its roof having collapsed and taken the floors inside with it, turning it into little more than a shell.  Still, it left us with three largely intact buildings to check, and being as large as they were, it’d take us the better part of a day to search through them all.  There had to be some way of narrowing it down.  I scanned the lower floors of the three buildings and muttered to myself. 

I was just about to give up when something near one caught my eyes and I zoomed in as best I could.  There.  I’d almost missed it due to the rain and the location of the door, but I had noticed something off about the ground near it.  The door to that building appeared to have been blown out, and recently too.  The scorch marks around the door frame and wall were still blackened and not washed away with age or the rain, and the door itself had fallen back into the mud.

“I think I see the most likely place to check first,” I said, passing the binoculars to Wildfire.  With a flick of her hoof she tossed back strands of her red wet mane behind her ears and brought the binoculars up to her face.  With a soft grunt she looked towards where my hoof pointed before smiling slowly and nodded her head.

“I agree, it seems the most likely place to start.”  She tossed the binoculars back to Stone and flexed her wings again, shaking the water from her orange feathers and flicking a bit onto Stone beside her, “I’ll check the place out right quick, don’t you boys get into trouble.”  With that, the pegasus leapt skyward and flew off towards the station.

Deciding not to risk working our way down a muddy hill, Stone and I backtracked to the road, and made our way down towards the power station on hoof as Wildfire flew overhead.  She passed low across the rooftops before diving back down to earth beside us.

“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary around the buildings or atop the roofs, so it should be safe enough,” she said, as her hooves touched down. 

Up close, the buildings showed their age: the smooth walls were pitted, cracked, and in places crumbling away to lay in piles of rubble in the mud.  The windows had all long ago been broken out, either by looters or the elements, and the darkened interiors of the buildings gave off a slight menacing feel as we walked between them.  I glanced up to the dark holes and narrowed my eyes slightly, good place for a sniper to sit.  Shaking my head, I looked away and back to the buildings themselves.  Odd faded posters clung to the walls in spots, one still bore color and showed a earth, pegasus, and unicorn pony all standing around one another with hard hats on their heads.  The slogan had been ripped away sometime ago, and I idly wondered what it had said.  The rusting signs along the ruined fence warned of high voltage and no trespassing.  Most either remained bolted to posts and the walls of the buildings or lay half buried in the mud beside the road.  Bits and pieces of other debris littered the ground around us: empty soda bottles, chunks of broken metal, even a few hard hats lay sunken into the ground, forming little islands in pools of water.

Reaching the building with the blown-off door, I found my old security instincts kicking in and pressed myself up against the pitted wall, inching closer towards the dark open portal.  Behind me, Stone followed suit, sliding his rifle up and into position to cover me, the safety clicking off as he took aim.  Wildfire flicked her ears back and nudged the bit of her weapon harness, which gave a soft click as the barrels pushed themselves out from below her wings and she took aim.

Edging closer, I poked my head slowly around the doorway and peered inside.  The lights on my E.F.S. remained clear of any threats, only the two green dots for friendly behind me appeared in my vision.  There seemed to be no threat from the room.  However, not far away from me was the body of a mare laying face down on the floor, just past the doorway: she wore the same armor and clothing as the ponies from Steeldome, beside her still body lay one of their rifles, like us, she wore saddle bags across her back and appeared to be carrying a few extra bits of gear.  Across from her was another body, in much the same position and wearing the same thing.  I did not see any blood under either of them, but I also didn’t see any sign they were breathing nor did they appear as yellow dots on my E.F.S.  Not far from the two bodies lay a third form, this one was larger than either of the two ponies, more boxy in build and shape.  By the looks of it, I imagined it was some type of robot.  Pulling back, I glanced behind me at my friends.

“Well, seems we picked the right door,” I whispered back before stepping inside.  The rain continued to fall outside, and water had begun to pool around the open door.  I still swept the room with my shotgun; despite the lack of red dots, old habits die hard.  As I did, I had a chance to look over the room: it was plain enough in look and design, having been built for function rather than form.  The same gray walls outside looked much the same inside, cracked and pitted, a few rotting posters hanging from them in spots.  Directly across from the bodies was a large wooden desk, overturned chairs sat behind it and scattered atop the desk was two busted terminals and empty food cans.  Papers and other trash littered the floor all around the room, and covering it all was a thick layer of dust and spider webs.  Behind the desk was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor and off to either side of us were two doors in each wall.  A few ruined benches lay around the room, looking like they’d been used for cover during the fight.  I stepped forward trailing mud and water in after me, as I allowed the others to enter, eyeing the many open doorways around me.

Stonehoof stepped inside and swept the room with his rifle before edging into cover behind an overturned bench and scanned the two doorways to my right.  He gave a quick glance to the two bodies and pile of scrap that had been a robot before looking back to the doors, water pooling under his body as he waited.

Wildfire entered next; for all her brashness, the pegasus was no slacker.  She entered as quickly as any trained security pony and took up position to cover both the doorways on our left and the stairs behind the desk, ignoring the bodies for the time being.  She flicked water off her wings and narrowed her eyes on the darkened room.

Lowering my shotgun I looked back to the fallen bodies and stepped closer.  Reaching out my front hoof I rolled the mare onto her side and discovered the reason why there was no blood.  She had several burn marks across her chest and neck.  It looked like her barding had done little to protect her from the strength of the shots, in fact it appeared to have simply melted into her coat.  The wounds looked as if they had cauterized almost instantly, and the flesh around them was black and charred.  From the looks of it, one or two of the shots had struck an organ, or she’d just died from the trauma. I looked to her face, and saw fear etched across it, eyes wide at whatever had killed her.  As gently as I could, I reached up and shut her eyes with my wet hoof. 

Stone moved over to the robot behind me, pressing the barrel of his rifle against its oddly shaped metal head.  Looking closer I saw it had been meant to look like a pony, four large round legs, a neck and tail.  Its head was roughly pony shaped, but lacked any sort of mouth or nose.  A single red lens ran across its face where its eyes should have been.  Oddly, it even had a mane of stylized metal.  Sticking out from one side was a long sleek looking rifle-from the other, large metal tubes.  The rifle appeared to be damaged: wires and bits of metal blown out from run fire, and looking closer, I saw the tubes were in fact meant for rockets.  It was empty however.  All across its metal body, it bore dozens of bullet holes and dents.  It had taken a lot of punishment before going down, and still it had taken two ponies with it.  Satisfied it was dead, Stone looked back to me.

“Which way?” he asked, motioning to the doors around us.

I scanned our options and quickly ruled out two of the lower doors.  Signs beside them marked them as the bathrooms, and I doubted we’d find the generator controls inside there.  Though, we were also looking for any survivors from the original team sent in.  I added mentally.  With a grunt, I jerked my head towards the two doors.  Best to get them out of the way quickly and focus on the remaining doors.

“We’ll check these rooms for the other three members of the team, then we’ll check the remaining rooms on this floor before moving upstairs,” I said.  I wanted to clear as much of the lower level as we could, not wanting to leave anything to come up behind us.  Moving towards the door on my left, it was marked for colts.  Behind me, Stone  rose up from where he’d been sitting beside the robot and started towards the one marked fillies when Wildfire stopped him.

“Now now, can’t have you going in there,” the pegasus said with a grin.  Reaching down to the holster on her chest, she withdrew her side arm.  It was a sleek compact pistol, solid black and unlike any I’d ever seen, though it did look similar to the rifle on the robot.  Winking to the gray stallion, she trotted into the fillies room. 

Well, at least she seemed to be getting back to her old self...though I honestly wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.  Stone shrugged his shoulders to me and dropped down to take up watch over the remaining doors in the room.

Smirking, I stepped into the colts room and swept my shotgun around for any signs of trouble.  It was pretty much what you’d expect in a bathroom.  Small, with several stalls along one wall with sinks along the other under a nearly room length cracked mirror.  All but one of the stall doors were open, as I walked towards the closed stall, I checked inside the others; the toilets had clearly seen better days.  Dark brown stains lined the once white seats and I passed by each quickly.  With the barrel of my gun, I opened the last door along the row and grunted as a skeleton greeted me.

Had the poor bastard died on the pot?  The yellow bones lay in a heap across the toilet seat, the skull grinning back at me, resting on the back with a sizable hole in its side.  Looking to the forehooves, I spotted a old dusty pistol lying on the titles of the floor and a single brass casing beside it.  No, not died on the pot...well...at least not like I’d thought.  Reaching a hoof out, I pulled the pistol up and looked it over before tossing it in my saddle bag.  It looked in good shape, and you could never have enough guns out here it seemed.

Turning away from the body, I looked to the row of sinks and the cracked mirror and saw little of use or signs of the others who had come before us.  Turning to leave, I spotted a small yellow box with pink butterflies across it.  It was a medical kit, strapped to the wall beside the door.  Arching a brow, I trotted up and opened it, inside I found some bandages and a bottle of water.  By the looks of it, it was no longer pure, but it would still be drinkable.  Adding them to my bags, I walked out to find Wildfire already standing near Stone.

“What took you so long?  We thought you might have fell in,” the mare said with a grin.  Stone shook his head and stood up from the robot; he’d been removing parts from it by the looks of the open access panels along its torso and the pile of burnt wiring and metal scrap beside it.  He picked up his rifle and nodded, ready to move onto the next room.

Walking past the pair, I approached the door beside the colts room and saw we’d walked into a narrow hallway leading further back into the building.  Not far down was another open doorway and I carefully worked my way towards it.  As I walked over the trash that had piled up in the hall, I noticed in several spots above me the ceiling was sagging, and panels had fallen into the floor from above.  Water slowly dropped from the buckled areas; the roof had likely collapsed somewhere above it, and water was pouring inside.  I looked back ahead, at the doorway and stepped inside. 

We’d entered what looked like a break room: scattered around the room were several round tables and overturned chairs, a few of the tables still bore empty bottles and trays on them, all covered in dust.  Windows lined the far wall, their glass panes broken and allowed the rain from outside to lightly splatter across the floor; running around shards of broken glass and bits of trash.  Walking further inside, I noticed in the far corner a stove and sink, likely for the employees to prepare food, both were rusted and covered in dust.  What caught my eye, however, were the vending machines along the wall leading back out to the hallway.  Their lights flickered off and on, and every so often one began to make noise as if attempting to power up.  Either something was still powering them, or they were built to last through the end of the world.

Turning away from the machines for the time being, I saw there was only one other door in the room, and Wildfire had already moved towards it.  She had retracted her rifles back under her wings and carried her pistol in her mouth; in the tight spaces, her battle saddle would be of little use.  With a hoof, she carefully opened the door and found herself looking into a broom closet.  She snorted and lowered her pistol, lightly pushing a mop back into the small space. I was about to start back when I noticed Stone over by the now opened vending machines.  He had four bottles of something sitting on the ground beside him and a few bags of chips.  I also noticed the stove’s door was open, and glanced to the earth pony.  Was he going to strip every room we went into?

“We’ll save these for later,” he said as he tucked the items into his saddle bags with a grin. 

Stepping back into the hallway, we followed it down a few more feet before we came across were one of the floors had collapsed in some time ago.  A steady stream of water ran down the fallen slabs of concrete and rebar, forming a large pool along the shattered rubble.  With no going forwards, we returned to the entrance room and looked to the other two doors we had yet to check.

Crossing the room, I carefully edged around the corner of the doorway and was amazed to see a few of the overhead lights glowing dimly and casting a pale light along the otherwise dark hallway.  I spotted at least three other doors along the hall, all open to the rooms that lay beyond and judging by the light coming from them and the sounds of water, likely open to the outside as well.

Edging around the corner, I carefully trotted down the hallway, avoiding the deeper piles of trash that littered the floor below my hooves.  Stone and Wild following a few paces behind me, focused on the area ahead of us.  My E.F.S. remained clear, and I allowed myself to relax somewhat.  Had there been only one robot in the place?  And why was there a robot here anyway?

Approaching the first door, I looked around the edge and saw a small office room with a single small desk and chair.  Behind it was a row of battered filing cabinets and a large shattered window to the outside.  Papers lay strewn about the floor, along with empty bottles of beer and water from the steady rain outside falling lightly near the window.  I turned my head towards the next open door and thought for a moment before I stepped aside and looked to Stone.

“Check out this room, Wild and I will check out the next two rooms, it’ll be faster.”  He nodded and moved past me and into the small office room, starting to search it for any clues about the talisman or the other ponies.  Wild stepped up beside me, and we pressed on down the hall.  The only sound was the steady drum of the rain outside striking the roof and the crunch of our hooves on the trash covered floor.

The next room was much like the first, a small office, only this one appeared to have been shot up.  Bullets holes lined the far walls of the room, the desk  itself was riddled with bullets, but more telling was the fact it had broken in half under the hail of shots.  Behind it, the filing cabinets lay broken about the floor; one across the desk and rusting in the water that seemed to soak everything in the room. 

“Well...this looks like a place I’d hang out in,” Wild said, eyeing up the broken beer bottles and spent bullet casings littering the floor.  Stepping past me to check the room over, I could only shake my head and turn around to walk past and come to the third and final doorway in the hall.

Like the first two, it was an office, but unlike the other two, it seemed to have survived in slightly better shape: the door had only recently been opened, judging by the clean space on the floor.  Behind the intact desk the window had managed to retain all it’s glass, and the rain from outside ran along the panels instead of dripping inside.

Stepping inside, I approached the desk and trotted around it.  I suppose I shouldn’t have been that surprised to notice somepony had gotten to the rooms contents before me.  Many of the desks drawers were open and their contents spilled out across the floor as somepony had searched in a hurry.  Looking around atop the desk, I noticed a spread of papers and files that had likely come from the cabinets behind me.  A single piece of paper seemed to stand out from the rest, and I pushed aside a file to look it over.  It was dated nearly a hundred and seventy years ago.  I began to read over it.

‘Well, it seems you were right, whoever was running this place before me had been cutting a lot of corners with the safety of this power station.  When I arrived I found most of the fire systems hadn’t been properly checked for at least four years and not a single fire extinguisher had enough pressure to put out a bag of dog shit let alone a real fire. 

‘Don’t even get me started on the generators themselves.  I think they were actually using extension cords to run power from one generator to the next.  Not even the good kind, we’re talking about the shit you’d buy down at Mare Mart for a couple of bits.  I can see why this place was known for so many injuries over the past few years. Its amazing to me nopony died in this death trap.

‘The good news is I’ve managed to increase worker safety by almost 90%.  The risk of a serious injury should be minimal now, and we shouldn’t have to worry about losing any more workers.

‘The bad news is, the generators themselves are going to take far longer to fix.  While we were testing one today, it caught fire, and nearly exploded, thankfully my focus on safety prevented a disaster, but we’re now down to just two generators.  I’ve had to reroute the controls to the third floor control room while we wait on the replacement parts.  Once the parts arrive, I’ll have them shipped up there until I can figure out who knows not to stick their tongues into a power outlet.  I’m keeping the door locked and a spare key in my desk.

‘Oh, and if you want my advice on my predecessor?  Ship’em off to the front lines to fight the damned Zebras, Celestia knows he’s managed to mame enough ponies with his greed.

‘Your friend,
Snowleaf’

Hmmm, third floor control room.  Well, at least we had a lead on it and judging by the state of the desk, whoever had been sent before us likely had the key.  A noise from the door made me jerk my head up quickly, only to spot Wild and Stone standing there.  Wildfire had managed to find a unopened bottle of beer from somewhere and was blowing the dust off it, grinning happily.

“Any luck?” The stallion asked, glancing with alarm at the mare beside him.  I smirked as I walked around the desk, somehow I doubted Wildfire was much different drunk then she was sober.

“A bit, what we’re looking for is on the third floor but whoever got here before us has the key.”  We started back down the hall quickly and towards the main room, stepping back out around the corpses and the busted robot.  We’d checked all the doors down here, time to move up.

“Let's head for the power control room first, if there are any survivors to find we have a better chance of finding them there,” I reasoned.  I didn’t want to waste a lot of time on searching the whole building if it wasn’t necessary. 

As I placed my hooves on the stairs they groaned from the sudden weight placed upon them, but held.  Climbing the stairs, I carefully avoided large bits of junk that had settled atop them and reached the second floor landing overlooking the entrance room.  A quick scan revealed only more junk littering the floor and little else.  The doorway I had spotted from downstairs was before me and I stepped into it, looking around at the new room. 

It looked like the break room had: tables and chairs scattered about, a few signs of fighting in the form of bullet holes in the walls and broken overturned tables.  But it all looked old, dust covered most of the room, and that gave me a sudden idea.  Looking down to the floor, I saw where someponies had recently walked across the room towards another door and grinned.

Behind me, Stone and Wild stepped inside, and I glanced back to my two friends, pointing a hoof to the dust trail.  Turning around, I followed the trail up to the open door and peaked around outside.  Yet another hallway greeted me, and more doors, like below a few of the overhead lights still flickered off and on and with it.  As the hall was lit up, I saw the trail across, still in luck.

For the next half hour we worked our way through the building, following the trail in the dust, we’d found little else from the team before us, but Stone had managed to find plenty to fill his, Wilds and my packs.  I think I even saw him digging in a trash can in one room.  Still, Marcus’ words came back to me, I’d need caps to survive, and if I wasn’t going to take them for helping ponies, I’d need to get them elsewhere.

At one point, the tracks separated, one set continued off towards a set of stairs, while the other two followed the hallway further back into the building.  For a moment, I was unsure which direction to go, but remembered the control room was on the third floor, if we did not find any sign of them there, we could always back track and follow the second set of tracks.  Waving my friends on, we turned and followed the single set of prints. 

We’d climbed the set of stairs to reach the third floor, these had been far more degraded and a few had given way below us, luckily we’d managed to scramble up to the third floor.  Wildfire had the easiest time, simply flapping her wings to land gracefully beside Stone and myself’s panting forms.  So not fair.  Picking ourselves up, we found the tracks once more, and pressed on along the third floor.

Not long after, we’d come to the power control room, which, as I expected, was wide open.  A quick look to the floor confirmed the trail we had been following disappeared inside, however a new trail appeared as well.  Odd marks came from further down the hallway from where we found ourselves,  a sign along the wall indicated the hallway lead towards the Generator Room.  The odd tracks turned the corner and went into the control room.  They were not hoof prints, rather they looked oddly like treadmarks.  As I pressed myself up against the wall, Stone stepped up behind me and Wildfire took up position across the door from me.  I checked my E.F.S. yet again, and still there was nothing coming from inside the room, although I was detecting something with my nose.  A smell I’d come across before around my father after he was injured, and again downstairs with the dead ponies.

Poking my nose around the corner, I quickly scanned the room beyond the door.  It looked like one would expect for a control room.  Lots and lots of controls.  The wall opposite the door was covered in screens nearly to the ceiling.  Most were dark, but a few still displayed pictures on them.  Video cameras from around the facility I realized.  Below them, a large console sat against the wall, a chair pushed up to it.  To either side was more displays and controls, most dark but a few still flashing reds and greens.  Two other chairs sat around the room, and like everything else it was covered in dust. 

Nodding once to Wild, I moved around the doorway and into the room beyond, shotgun held tightly and sweeping the room as I went left while behind me the pegasus stepped inside and went right, and Stone dropped down between us.  We needn't have bothered, as I already knew; the room was empty with one notable exception.

The smell was coming from the chair turned with its back to the door.  I carefully approached it, and placed a hoof on its back to turn it around.  I had seen the hole burned through the back of the chair from outside, so I knew what I was about to find.  With a squeak of aged parts, the chair spun around slowly and sitting slumped in the seat was a unicorn stallion, a hole burned neatly through his head. His assault rifle lay in his lap, like the ponies downstairs, he wore the barding from Steeldome.  I sighed and lowered my hoof.

“Poor bastard...,” Stone muttered looking at the body, before looking over the room around us.  Poor bastard indeed.

“I don’t see the talisman in here,” Wild said, as she turned away from her scan of the room and back towards me.

I blinked and quickly looked around myself, the room was actually rather small, much smaller than my old room back at the Stable, and much of the space was taken up with consoles and computers.  I saw no evidence of a crate or anything that looked like the talisman.  With a snort I looked back towards Stone.

“I guess we’ll have to backtrack to the second set of prints and hope they lead us to...,” only Stone wasn’t paying attention to me, instead the ponies green eyes were fixed upon something behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the screens along the wall behind me, as I had noticed when entering most showed pictures of areas around the building, however a flash from one caught my eye.  Turning around I looked up, and saw a large open room from high up along the wall, and three massive generators quietly rusting on the floor below, water running from above from holes in the ceiling.  Moving between them were three large robots, rolling along on tracks.  The machines moved towards the far generator and fired off twin beams of red light.  Sparks flew up from where they struck, and something ducked back down behind a row of controls.  As the shape popped back up, I could just make out a pony wearing barding and firing off a assault rifle, missing the robots as they slowly rolled towards her.

“Looks like we found the rest of the original team...,” Wildfire said, trotting closer to the screen as she noticed were Stone and I were looking.  I frowned and turned towards the door.

“If we don’t hurry up, there won’t be anypony left.”   Behind me, I heard Stone and Wildfire rush to keep up as I raced down the hallway leading to the Generator Room.



Welcome to Level 6!

Perk Added: Shotgun Surgeon: With this perk, your precision with a scattergun is something to behold. When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you ignore an additional 10 points of the targets Damage Threshold. 

> Chapter 06: Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6: Power


Power is always dangerous.  Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.



My hooves pounded across the floor tiles of the hallway, the walls passing by in a blur as I galloped towards the generator room.  The steady impact of my combat shotgun against my chest armor barely registered as I focused on finding the pony I’d seen on the video feed.  He or she did not have long before those robots reached them, and I’d seen how well that had ended for the others.  Ahead, the hallway suddenly turned sharply to the left.  Snorting, I skidded around the corner before digging my front hooves into the cracked tiles and pushing myself down the hall.  Behind me, I heard my two friends giving chase; I had a head start on both of them, but they were catching up quickly.

“Shadow! We need a plan!” Stone shouted as he rounded the corner with a loud thud, impacting with the wall and grinding to a halt.  The larger earth pony was not nearly as agile as Wild or myself, it seemed, though he was far stronger.  Within seconds I heard him falling in behind us once more.

As I focused on the passageway ahead, I saw a set of double doors with a sign declaring the room beyond was the one I’d been trying to reach.  The broken sign laying across the floor, the chains it had been hanging by still dangled from the ceiling, swaying gently in a breeze that had found its way inside.  Narrowing my eyes upon the generator doors, I glanced back to my friends.  Wildfire was inches from my tail, her wings poised to snap open at a moments notice.  Behind her, storming down the hallway like a gray stone wall, came Stonehoof; the pony’s hooves kicking up a cloud of dust from the floors.

“Focus on one of the robots until it goes down, I’ll distract them as best I can and buy you two time to take them out!”  They had the longer ranged weapons so it was the best plan I could come up.  While I could no doubt hang back with the assault rifle and allow Wildfire to move between them, I doubted the rounds would do much damage to the robots.  After all, the bodies of the search team Rivets had sent here had been carrying the same weapons, and they had only managed to destroy one at the cost of three lives; and by the looks of the spent shell casings, a lot of ammo.

Turning back around, the double doors drew closer and with a low growl I lowered my head and grabbed for the bit of my weapon.  Closing my teeth around it, I charged towards the closed doors, locks be damned.  A pony was in trouble and I wasn’t about to stand by while they died.

Impacting the doors at a dead run, I slammed them open with enough force to shatter their already cracked windows, sending shards of glass onto the floor.  I’d exited the hall on a catwalk above the generator room, two floors down. Maybe charging in hadn’t been the best idea.  A rusting railing ahead of me was hardly going to halt my forward momentum, and the catwalk itself shuttered as my weight slammed onto it suddenly, but as luck would have it just past the railing I saw one of the generators just below, and it was tall enough to break my fall.  With a thrust of my hind legs I launched myself into the air, tucking my front legs up tightly as I cleared the railing and went flying out across the open space.  I lowered my hooves as the generator began to rise up to greet me.  As soon as my hooves slammed down atop the long silent power plant, I began to slow myself down, the drop having bled off a bit of speed.  Within a second of stopping, I caught sight of an orange blur as somepony launched herself into the air and over my head. Wildfire’s wings flapping rapidly as she gained height above me.

The harsh red glow and sharp crack of laser weapons fire drew my attention towards the right of the generator on which I stood.  Between it and the next generator lay an open walkway at the ground level, where the three robots steadily rolled forward.  They looked far larger than they had in the video feed, and far more deadly.  The tracked machines had closed the distance between themselves and the far end of the room, where I could see a very frightened young filly trying in vain to fire a weapon that was far too large for her, the soft white glow around the weapon indicating she was a unicorn.  She ducked back down quickly, as another sharp crack echoed around the large room. A beam of red energy shot towards where she had been, impacting the wooden box she had taken shelter behind and blowing a sizable hole in its side.

She was just a kid, what the hell was a kid doing here?

Both of the remaining robots opened fire and scorched the crates and floor around the filly, causing her to yelp in fear.

Oh...it...was...on...

Neither the robots, nor the pony I had come to save had noticed us yet.  Moving quickly across the generator, I reached the sloping edges and slid down the side, my armor leaving scratches in the paint.  As my hooves touched the ground, I found myself behind the three robots, two of which began to turn towards me, no doubt alerted to my presence by the sound of my hooves striking the hard concrete.  Gritting the bit of the shotgun tightly, I narrowed my eyes at the three large battle bots ahead of me and realized this was going to get very ugly.

Each stood twice as tall as a pony, and unlike the robot at the entrance, they bore little resemblance to a pony: their bodies were fat blocky things covered in armor plating to protect the vital inner workings.  Where the one at the entrance had legs, each of these machines had a thick metal cylinder ending with tracks like a tank.  Most alarming of all was their heads: they almost looked like fish bowls turned upside down atop the metal bodies; fish bowls with what looked like brains floating in some blue liquid.  Rubber tubing ran along the insides of the bowl, and down into the torso.  Though scratched, and in one’s case cracked, the bowls all looked to be in fine shape, reinforced glass perhaps?  As the two turned towards me, I could have swore I saw one of the brains twitch.

Sweet Celestia...were those pony brains inside them?! 

Aiming my weapon, I looked to theirs.  These were also far more heavily armed then the robot we’d seen before, twin rifles attached to their sides by wires and metal braces, on their opposite side each bore a different weapon giving each a role.  One had what looked like a short barreled cannon, with a ammo feed working its way inside the machine wielding it, the weapon looked capable of punching a hole through a tank, but luckily the ammo belt was empty.  The second was equipped with a claw like arm that opened and closed as it moved forward, I had no doubt it could easily crush a ponies skull between its pincers; as if that was not bad enough, an arch of electricity shot from between the grasping claws.  The last one bore a short stubby looking gun with a large barrel and a drum feed under it.  I’d seen the weapon listed in the stables data base, a grenade launcher, deadly at short range.  It was a good thing we were not tightly bunched, or a lucky hit from it would end us all. 

As the two finished turning towards me, the ends of their rifles began to glow a deep red as they powered up.  My armor might stop a glancing blow from their laser weapons, but if I was hit directly...I was as good as dead.  I had only one option open to me, and so I took it.

I charged forwards closing the gap between them and me, eyes fixed on the nearest threat, as both opened fire. Red bolts of energy slashed past my body within inches, impacting the metal casing of the generator behind me.  The sudden move had saved my life, the robots seemed unable to cope with the change.  I could feel the heat from the near misses, and remembered the burned wounds of the dead ponies.  Squeezing the trigger, I opened fire on the robot to my left, the one with the cannon.  My rounds seemed to be doing little real damage to the things armor, at most it appeared I’d dented its casing and damaged the cannon which was of no threat.  Yay me.  But I wasn’t trying to destroy them.

 With a powerful flap of feathery wings, Wildfire shot into the fight. The pegasus arrival harlied a fury of shots as she sank her teeth into the battle saddles firing bit.  Twin rifles roaring to life below her wings as rounds screamed from the barrels.  Chunks of concrete blowing out around the tracks of the power claw wielding machine to my right as it tracked me with it’s rifles.  As she adjusted her aim, rounds began slamming into its heavily armored torso and several penetrated into the torso, sending out sparks and smoke as she damaged it. 

I had no time to check on Stone, as I dodged another pair of shots aimed at my head from the machine I was fighting, but there were still four green dots around me. There must have been another survivor with the filly.  Dodging quickly to the side, I fired off another round into my target, causing it to turn to try and attempt to line up another shot.  A round struck its glass fish bowl head, causing a spider web of cracks to form.  The shot came from just behind me, fired by a hunting rifle.  Seemed Stone was fine and had managed to find the best weakness these things had.

“Aim for the heads!!!” I shouted around the bit in my mouth, hooves scrambling to bring myself out of Stone’s line of fire.  The deep roar of Wildfire’s rifles filled the room, rattling the remaining glass in the buildings shattered windows.  Her target was knocked nearly off its tracks by the force of the bullets impacting all across its armored casing.  One of its weapons, the nasty looking claw arm, was ripped completely free as a round tore through the joint were arm met the body.  The jagged hole that remained in its armored side began to leak with oil rapidly.  Its movements became more slow as it attempted to track the fast moving pegasus with its remaining weapon, but I wasn’t about to give it time.

Skidding to a halt before the crippled robot I leveled my shotgun and opened up with the use of S.A.T.S.  I had to make sure each shot counted for the small target I was attempting to hit.  Three rounds was all it took before the machine crumpled over into a heap of smoking sparks and twisted metal.  Each shot pounded into the gaping hole Wild had opened up in its side, getting to the vulnerable innards. 

One down...

Twin beams of energy struck the downed robot before me and ignited its power source.  The resulting explosion ripped the machine into burning pieces of scrap and sent me tumbling wildly across the floor, landing in a heap nearly back where I’d started. I groaned.

...two to go.

I rolled back to my hooves once the world had stopped spinning and shook my head attempting to clear it.  I could feel bits of  hot metal and oil coating my armor and body, smoke rising from much of it and from me.  Blinking the after image of the explosion away from my eyes, I noticed the warnings of minor injuries from my E.F.S.  Quickly I looked for the remaining two robots, and much to my surprise neither seemed to be paying much attention to me.  Both had rolled off away from me and seemed far more intent on the orange pegasus flying over head and her high powered rifles.  It seemed they’d identified her as the highest threat, as her rifles made a mockery of their thick armor plating once she had a clear line of fire.  I felt slightly insulted, time to get noticed and draw the heat from the mare.

“Stone, covering fire for Wild!” I yelled out, picking myself up off the ground and firing off a round towards the nearest machine to get its focus off Wild, she was running out of room to dodge in the tight space.  Behind me, the report of Stone’s rifle reached my laid back ears as he fired off round after round into the large robots.  Their thick armor was proving just as difficult for his weapon to penetrate as mine.  Even their glass bowl heads seemed able to shrug off most of the rounds striking them.  Stone was not a dumb pony, and he quickly adjusted his aim to exposed bits, joints in the weapon arms, and anything he could do to slow or throw off the machines aim.  It was buying Wild time, and the hot tempered pegasus seized an opening in the incoming fire to dart down.

Wild flipped gracefully in the air and angled herself down towards the robot directly below her, snapping hard on the firing bit and throwing out a lethal hail of rounds.  The rifles thundered at her sides, sending spent casings raining down to the ground below as she plowed ahead.  Her shots struck hard, pounding the machine back on its treads and even shattering one of its tracks, blowing it’s laser rifles off its side as she closed the distance.

 The mare’s victory was short lived however, as the second robot I’d been firing at lined up a shot on her and opened fire. She dodged the red glowing line quickly, but not quickly enough and the bolts of energy struck her right wing.  With a cry of pain, the pegasus wing crumpled and she plummeted towards the floor impacting the ground hard and lay still. Orange smoking feathers drifted slowly down from the air to land around her.

“Wild!!”  With its back still to me, I ran towards the machine as it slowly began to turn looking for a new target.  I waited until I was nearly point blank, before with a roar, my shotgun opened up, spraying out solid slugs. The rounds rang loudly off the robots metal skin, and at first, I though all I had managed to do was dent the damned thing.  But as the third and fourth round hit, I saw they had punched clean through the armor somehow and struck something vital inside. 

With a jolt, the robot stopped its forward movement completely, smoke rising from the holes I had made.  Whatever I had hit didn’t halt its torso from turning to face me, nor shut the thing down, its energy weapon tracking me as it prepared to fire.  Ducking the shot, I felt the beam slice over my mane and flanks, burning my coat and leaving a nasty burn down my back where it passed. 

“Fucking die!”  Snarling from the pain, I moved in close and shoved the barrel of my shotgun up to the glass bowl the thing had for a head and squeezed the trigger as quickly as I could.  With a burst of sparks, the head blew free of the machine and landed with a clatter of broken glass and metal a few feet away. My E.F.S. flashing a warning to reload.

That left us with the robot Wild had damaged, the machine was already turning towards me.  Smoke rose from the holes punched through its armor by Wild’s rifles, and the ruined barrels of its primary weapon sparked once as it hung uselessly from several wires.  Its second arm leveled its grenade launcher towards me and I heard a loud ‘thoom’ and saw a puff of smoke.  I’d ducked behind the metal body of the machine I had just beheaded when the round struck ahead of me. 

BOOM!!

The grenade exploded in a blast of hundreds of razor sharp chunks of metal.  I heard and felt the body of the robot I had ducked behind peppered with smoking bits of shrapnel and watched deep grooves scraped in the floor beside me.  I had to move, this robot wasn’t going to take much more punishment like that before something important inside it exploded; already my nose was filled with the scent of burning wiring and oil.  I’d been lucky when the other had exploded, but then I’d hardly been humping the damn thing to keep from being sliced apart.  I could hear the grenade launcher slide home another round, preparing to fire, and began to hurriedly reload my own weapon, the dram sliding to the side to allow me to slot fresh slugs into the empty spaces.  I easily reloaded the weapon, and slapped the ammo drum shut with a flick of my hoof.

Taking several breaths I narrowed my eyes and quickly scanned around me, trying to find a safe place to seek shelter.  I was largely out in the open with no real cover to speak of, beyond my robotic friend here.  On either side stood the massive generators, behind me was the open floor that allowed access to them.  Only one way left to go; forwards. It had confused them once before, hopefully the trick would work a second time.  I just had to wait for the next round, and while it was reloading cross the distance to it.  As I readied myself to move, my ears twitched once more straining to listen for the next shot, it was with some shock I heard the steady hum of a engine running nearby.  Was something else coming to attack us?  But there was only a single red dot remaining.  Could one of these generators actually still be running?

THOOM! 

My cover rocked as the grenade exploded barely a few hooves away from it, a sharp slashing pain running through me as a piece of metal slashed across my flank.  Close.  The robot shielding me began to burn, as something caught fire.

Time to go!

Gripping my weapon, I pushed myself away from the burning machine and charged around it out into the open.  Fixing my eyes upon the crippled robot ahead of me, I ran as quickly as my hooves would carry me across the cracked and pitted floor.  The robots only working weapon attempting to track me as I closed with it.

THOOM! 

A white puff of smoke flashed from the barrel of the launcher as it fired off another round.  The grenade sped towards me at a angle and I prayed to Celestia and Luna I had timed this right.  Despite knowing it was pointless, I still found myself ducking my head and hunkering down as I ran.  The shot whistled harmlessly over my head, to explode somewhere behind me.  By the sound of shattering metal and falling parts it had struck one of the generators. 

With a grin, I nearly barreled into the robot, skidding to a halt before it and entered S.A.T.S. wasting little time, I locked onto the targets head and released the spell.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! 

Three spent shell casing flew past my cheek as the combat shotgun roared angrily. The solid metal slugs slammed into the glass casing of my target’s head, shattering it with the first round and splattering the blue water across the floor along with shards of glass.  The second and third were pointless really, but I still fired them anyway simply because I was pissed.  Waste of ammo, but it made me feel better to watch as the second round pulped the pinkish orb of flesh the bowl had protected.  The third round completely obliterated the remaining wiring, metal cradle and hoses that had led to the brain.  With sparks shooting out, the robot simply toppled over onto its back, oil running from the rips in its armor. 

My hooves splashed through the brackish water from the shattered bowl and thick black oil that spilled from the torsos of the destroyed robots.  The smoke from the barrel of my shotgun mingling with that rising from the sparking metal bodies as I worked my way towards the crumpled form of my fallen friend.

“Wild?” I called out.  Reaching the mare my nose wrinkled as the scent of burnt flesh reached it.  She was still alive, as I kneeled beside her I could easily see the rise and fall of her sides as she drew breath.  I sighed, and reached for my saddle bag and the healing potions inside.  As my head turned, I saw Stone climbing down from the catwalk, the stairs having collapsed sometime ago to the floor and forcing him to carefully work his way down along the generators.

Turning back, I uncorked the red bottle and opened Wild’s lips to pour it slowly into her mouth, she swallowed and groaned as the magic of the potion to effect.  Stone galloped up beside me and looked to the mare’s burnt wing, it looked far worse then it was, the shot having simply grazed the limb.  If it had been any lower, it could have sliced it off completely.  The gray stallion reached back to his own pack and pulled out a worn yellow satchel with pale pink butterflies on its surface.  A medical bag, and once he had it open he began pulling out salvaged bandages to wrap the wounded wing.

A slight noise from my right drew my gaze from my friends towards the stack of crates and barrels.  Smoke still rising from the scorch marks left by the robots laser weapon impacts.  A small horned head poked up from behind one of the smoking barrels, the soft white glow surrounding a assault rifle as it rose into sight.  The weapon shook as it floated beside her, her eyes wide with fear. 

I smiled to the filly and made sure to turn slowly towards her keeping my mouth away from the shotgun around my neck, she was scared to death, and understandable so after what she’d been through.  Since she didn’t fire at me, I assumed it was safe to approach and began to slowly move towards her.  As I drew near, I saw that the rifle she held had jammed when a round had stuck in the ejection port while she’d fired it. 

Stepping up beside her cover, I saw spent shell casings and empty magazines around her hooves, along with empty health potion bottles and stained bandages.  She was not alone, beside her lay a young stallion.  A unicorn like her, his armor matched that of the bodies downstairs, however his appeared to have been fused to his flesh, and I swore softly at the sight.  He’d survived several near misses from lasers, only to have the heat from the beams melt the armor to his coat.  He was still alive at least, his chest rising and falling slowly. 

“Anypony else alive?” Stone called out from behind me, as he tended to Wild’s injuries.

“More or less...” 


*     *     *     *     *



It was well past midnight by the time Stone finished tending to our wounded.  The earth pony was no Doctor Kindheart, but years of wandering the Wasteland had taught him a thing or two about first aid.  We decided to remain in the generator room for the night rather than blindly stumble through the facility with two wounded ponies and a filly.  The others sat before a fire Stone had built from the remains of the wooden crates the survivors of the search team had taken cover behind.  The warm fire crackled merrily within the space the earth pony had cleared out on the floor, lighting the room with a soft orange glow.  I paced at the edge of the light, looking to the darkness beyond its reach. 

We’d swept the room, and checked the remaining entrances into it before setting up camp for the night: there did not seem to be any other robots on this floor or within range of my E.F.S.  There were three entrances into the room, the catwalk entrance we had come in and two ground floor doors.  Of the two, one had been buried years ago when the floor above collapsed and the other was barred from the inside by myself.  Still, I wasn’t taking any chances after everything that had happened. 

My wandering eyes paused upon the gaping hole in the side of one of the generators, caused by the grenade round that had passed harmlessly over my head.  As I walked between the now silent cylinders, a few sparks came from the hole.  Had it really been active?  I’d hardly had the time during the fight to give it much thought, but it had sounded to me to be running.  A groan from the camp caught my ears and I looked back towards the circle of bodies.

Wildfire sat before the fire, nursing her bandaged wing.  Luckily the shot had only glanced off the limb and burned away mostly feathers doing little real damage to the wing itself.  The healing potion we’d given her had managed to repair most of the damage and even speed up the regrowth of a couple of those missing feathers.  Stone sat beside the wounded mare, offering her his canteen, she pushed the offered drink away.  Shrugging, the gray earth pony took a drink and looked back over to the fire.

Beside them sat the survivors from Steeldome.  The young filly lay beside the badly burned stallion, his flanks and sides bearing multiple burn marks across his tan coat.  Stone had pulled out a health potion from his own bag and helped the unicorn to drink it, he’d then wrapped the remaining wounds as best he could.  He’d been lucky as well, he’d only been grazed by the robots’ laser weapons.  At the moment, he lay sleeping with the young unicorn sitting beside him.  Beyond a few cuts and scrapes, she appeared to have made it through the ordeal in one piece.  She looked up, her jade green eyes locking with mine.  Smiling shyly she looked away and back to her friend.  I glanced once more to the shadows around the camp and took a few steps forwards, only to wince.

We’d all been lucky tonight.  The glancing shot I had taken itched like hell, as the fur along my coat had started to grow back from the health potion I had drank earlier after helping Stone with the others.  Still, it was better then what could have been, my armor melted to my flank or a hole burned through it.  With a sigh I shook my head, there was little point in dwelling on the maybes.  It would simply drive me mad if I let it, and it seemed there was far more than enough in the wasteland to drive a pony mad.  That thought drew my eyes to the fallen robots as my route through the room took me within sight of them.

All three machines lay where they had fallen, pools of dark oil pooled around their frames along with shards of twisted blackened metal.  Stepping closer, I glanced to their ruined heads, the glass bowls had all been shattered in the fight, and whatever had been inside them littered the ground.  Again I wondered, had those really been brains in them?  They had looked like it, what pony in their right mind would let...No.  Don’t think about it.

Turning away from the twisted remains of the robots, I began trotting back towards my friends.  Outside, I could hear the steady rhythm of the rain as it fell upon the roof and the few windows in the room.  It had not stopped yet, and showed little signs of ending anytime soon.  A few leaks allowed water to pool across the floor of the large room, but we’d found a dry spot to make our camp.

At the sound of my hoofsteps, Stone looked up from the fire quickly, his hoof going towards the rifle that lay within easy reach but stopping as he saw me.  Entering the circle of light, I grabbed a few pieces of wood and tossed them atop the fire before sitting down beside my friends.  Pulling my shotgun over my head, I set the weapon against my packs; the assault rifle already there.  I sat there for a time, listening to the steady sound of the rain and the crack of the fire.  You might even call it peaceful.

“How’s your patient, doc?” I asked Stone, as I looked over my weapon in the light.  It had taken a beating, both on the trip here and in the fight.  Numerous nicks and dings covered much of the weapon, water had gotten in from the rain and a piece of metal was lodged in the stock from a near miss by a grenade.  Any higher and it would have sliced through my throat and not the weapon.  Shit, that had been close one.

“Bein’ bitchy as always,” the earth pony answered with a grin directed towards the pegasus beside him.  Stone chuckled playfully as he placed the cap back atop his canteen and snapped it back in place upon his packs.  The sour looking Wild snorted to the grin, and rolled her eyes as she sat on her stomach, her wounded wing tucked against her body.  She’d given us both quite the scare when she’d hit the ground at the angle she did, it was a miracle she hadn’t snapped her neck. 

“It’ll take a lot more than a rusted bucket of bolts built by some long dead asshole to knock me down for good,” she said looking between us, before turning to focus a smirk towards Stone.  The orange mare spoke slyly, “By the way, I was hit in the wing and not my ass.  So do tell, why did you feel the need to put your hooves all over my fun stuff, hmmmm?” 

I fumbled with my shotgun as it nearly slipped from my hooves  listening to Wild speak and had to fight the urge to roll over and laugh my sorry plot off.

“Ah wasn’t - Ah was removin’ yer saddle bags...” Stone muttered, a blush coming to his cheeks, “...we had ta make sure ya hadn’t gone and broke anythin’ when ya fell.”  He tried to explain and I chuckled aloud.  Yeah, she was going to be fine.  Stone on the other hoof might not survive the night if anymore blood rushed to his face.

“Oh really? Hmmm...so does that mean I get to grope your ‘short rifle’ if you get shot in the hoof?” she asked sweetly, batting her lashes at the earth pony.  Oh look, I can’t seem to hold my shotgun today, it just keeps slipping out of my hooves.  I snorted loudly as Wild began laughing at the sight of poor Stone, the gray stallion just staring at the mare in shock with his mouth hanging open.

 I snickered and quickly looked away from my friends and found myself looking to the filly and the stallion we had saved.  It seemed my companions’ banter had woken the wounded unicorn and he was looking over at the two beside me, a smile on his face.  After all that had happened to him and the filly, I was surprised he could still smile.  Noticing I was watching them, the filly reached up and nudged her older friend towards me and I smiled to the pair, nodding my head.

“They always fight like this?” he asked me as he attempted to roll over from where he was laying.  I saw him wince as he managed to get his legs under him and tucked below his body.  He opened his pale orange eyes once the pain had passed and looked back towards me.  Like the others members of his team we had come across, he was a unicorn.  His tan coat was criss crossed with black scorch marks and wrapped in bandages, his black mane was mess and hung wildly about his face and neck. We’d managed to remove most of his ruined armor, all but the few pieces that had been fused to his flesh.  They would need to be removed surgically once we got him back to Steeldome.  His cutie mark was oddly enough a rose, but then mine was a plant so I suppose it wasn’t that odd.

“Normally,” I replied to the wounded pony, before looking to the filly sitting beside and behind him.  She was looking over his back at the three of us, jade green eyes moving from me to the pegasus and her wounded wing, staring in awe at the feathered limb.  While she was hardly a mare, she still bore her cutie mark; a set of silver gears with tiny red hearts in the center of each.  She was also unicorn (I was detecting a theme here), her small horn hidden beneath a mass of wild red curls that reminded me of Sugar’s mane.  Her coat was white, though it was difficult to tell with it covered in grime and soot from the recent fight.  She wore barding as well, similar to that worn by the maintenance ponies back home.  It was a bit large for her.  The filly looked back over to me, before ducking her head down a bit behind the tan stallion.

“Thank y-you for saving us.  I don’t think I could have keep those robots at bay for much longer.”  Tears began to form at the edges of her jade eyes as she spoke and her ears drooped to the side.

“You did good, if you hadn’t done what you had, your friend wouldn’t have made it,” I answered with a soft smile.  Somehow, she had managed to drag the larger pony behind the crates when he’d been wounded, and fired off nearly all the rounds of ammo he had remaining before the weapon had finally jammed.  She’d managed to prop it up on the edge of a crate to help aim it, and though it had done little damage to the machines, she had bought them time.

“I’m just sorry we didn’t get here sooner,” I added, thinking on the three dead ponies left scattered around the facility where they had died, “My name’s Shadow by the way, and my friends are Stonehoof and Wildfire.”
 
“Gearhearts...,” the filly said softly.

“Ash, I take it you’re our rescue team?” he asked as he looked from the others to me, I nodded my answer to him and he sighed softly.  Running a hoof through his wild mane he added, “I didn’t think she’d send anypony else...”

I was about to say she hadn’t, she’d seemed more worried with us finding this power talisman then the search team she had sent.  But I kept that to myself to the time being, the two had been through a lot over the last few hours.  I looked between them before focusing on the stallion and asked.

“What can you tell us about what happened here?”  Gearhearts looked up at the question, but it was Ash who answered.

“When we arrived, we couldn’t believe how much of the place had survived.  We’d heard traders tell stories about how little remained of most buildings outside major cities as nature or rather whatever twisted version of nature we have now, takes over places like this.  I suppose it should have been a warning sign, how little looting the place appeared to have suffered over the years.”

“We entered by the front door, nopony was expecting the defense systems to still be activated after so long.”  As he spoke, I noticed the bickering of my friends had stopped beside me, the two listening to the unicorn, “Captain Saber went in first, always the type of mare to lead by example.  She went down almost the second her hooves crossed the doorway and was dead long before she hit the floor.  Hatch was right behind her, and was trying to drag her into cover when he was struck.  He managed to stumble a few steps in before being hit three or four more times.  Jolt and I grabbed him and managed to drag him into cover before we started returning fire, most of our bullets seemed to bounce off the armored body.”

“Hatch told us to flank it, try and get behind it, he’d draw its fire for us.  We didn’t see when he got hit the second time, not until after we managed to disable the robot.  He was dead by the time we returned to him.”  He shut his eyes and looked down at the floor under him, I gave him the time he needed.  I knew what it was like to lose friends in a fight.  All too well.  I glanced to my new friends beside me, and looked back to Ash.  Beside him, Gearhearts nuzzled his cheek sadly, a tear running down her cheek leaving a white trail in her coat through the grime.

“We all knew how important it was to find the power talisman, so we decided to press on, try and find it.  No sense in letting them die in vain, right?” he asked, looking up to me for the answer.  I nodded my head, and it seemed enough for him, “We searched the offices near the entrance room and discovered a letter written by the manager of this place.  In it, he mentioned were the talisman was suppose to be taken once it was delivered.”  He looked to Gearhearts then and smiled slightly, “That is...until Gear hacked her way into a terminal and found a few notes about the delivery being made earlier then expected and a memo about the talisman being taken straight to the generator room.” 

Gearhearts blushed and ducked back down behind Ash, looking over at us with a shy smile.  I had wondered why she had been sent along with the others?  She couldn’t have been much older than fourteen, far too young to be dealing with murdering robots. 

“Jolt decided we should split up, we’d head down to the generator room and search for the talisman while he’d head up to the control room and see about shutting down any other defences in the facility.  If either of us got into trouble we’d radio for help and try and fall back to the front door.  We didn’t make it halfway down the hall before another robot found us.  A combat model no less, meant for front line fighting, all for a simple power station.”  He sighed and shook his head, “We tried to radio Jolt for help, but he didn’t answer and we were cut off by another one of those damned machine behind us.  I have no clue where Jolt might be, he’s a smart fellow I’m hoping he made it out alright.”

I looked to Stone and Wild, we all knew the answer to that question, after all he’d been through I wondered if I shouldn’t wait to tell him until later.  But, I saw no sense in lying to him.  He had a right to know what had become of his friend.

“We found the body of a unicorn in the control room - he’d been shot in the back of the head by one of those energy weapons.  There were tracks outside the highway, one of them must have found him and gotten the drop on him.”  Ash looked up to me as I spoke, and he nodded his head slowly.

“He was a good pony.”  Looking off towards the fire, he finished his tale quickly, “We spent the rest of the day playing cat and mouse with the robots through the facility, but anytime we tried to reach the first floor they stopped us.  When we finally managed to get to the generator room we thought we’d be able to climb out a window or find a door out, but those things had led us into a trap.  I’m afraid I don’t remember much after getting hit.” 

“It’s alright, I think it was soon after that when we arrived in the building.  Luckily we found the same letter you had in the office, and we made our way up to the control room.  Most of the displays still worked and we saw you on the cameras pinned down.”  The stallion nodded his head and smiled back towards me.

“I’m still surprised the old witch bothered sending anypony else out here.”  Seemed he was a member of the We Hate Rivets fan club.  How many more disliked the mare?  Enough to divide the ponies inside the Dome? 

“Truthfully, I think she’s more worried about the talisman then anything else.”  I looked from him to the room, beyond the light of our fire it was nearly impossible to see anything, “Did you ever find out what happened to it?”

“No, but I think its still here somewhere.  We found evidence of others attempting to loot the place but they all seemed to run into the same problem we had.  While we were running through the halls and rooms, we came across the loading docks near the back of the building,” he motioned off behind him where I’d barred the only door leading in from the first floor, “There was still a transport chariot parked near the doors and packing materials scattered about.  I think the chariot was the one due to deliver the talisman.”

“Alright, then first thing in the morning we’ll search this room, and if we have to, we’ll backtrack to the loading docks.  With luck we’ll find it boxed up nice and pretty somewhere between here and there.  If we haven’t found it by the end of the afternoon, we’ll have to start back to Steeldome.”  I could already see the looks from Ash and Gearhearts and held up a hoof quickly to stall any arguments, “You need more medical treatment then we can give you here, Ash.  We can always come back later with others to speed up the search.”  That seemed to stop the protests and the unicorn nodded his head.

“After all that's happened tonight, Ah reckon we could all use a bit of relaxin’.”  Stone’s voice was muffled as he spoke, the earth pony’s head buried in his saddle bag.  When he reemerged he had one of the soda bottles he’d found downstairs in his mouth, offering it to Wild first, the mare shook her head and went to look through her own pack.  With a snort, he turned and tossed it my way.  Catching it in my hooves, I  turned the glass around to look at the label.  ‘Sparkle-Cola,’ seemed simple enough, though I did wonder why a soda had been made by a company called Hippocratic Research.  As I looked over the bottle, Stone had withdrawn the remaining drinks and tossed one to Ash and Gearhearts, keeping one for himself.

My ears twitched from the sudden sound of popped bottles and the fizzing liquid within bubbling from around me.  Glancing up, I saw the others looking my way and waiting.  With a shrug I opened the bottle with a hoof and was about to toss the cap away into the dark when I paused.  Wait a tic.  Looking closely, I noticed it had a similar design on its top like those sitting in my pack.  Snorting, I tossed it in with the others, and was now one cap richer.  Hooray me. 

“Ta new friends, and fallen comrades,” Stone said, lifting his bottle up before us, something we could all toast.  Ash nodded his head to the words and the glow from his horn surrounded the bottle to float it up near Stone’s.  Gearhearts’ bottle soon joined it, the filly’s eyes free of tears for the first time that evening.

“And to the wasteland failing to kill me another day,” Wildfire lifted her bottle with that grin of hers, “It’s really going to have to start trying harder, the lazy fucker.”  I chuckled to that and saw the filly smile up to the orange pegasus.  Stone simply rolled his eyes to the toast.

“And to new friends, and a hope for a better tomorrow,” I added, our glasses lightly ringing off each other as we pressed the together.  The others lowered their bottles and began to drink, I paused before I took a sip.  Sniffing the open top, I was surprised to smell a strong scent of carrots and sugar.  The drink was still fizzing inside the glass, surprising after sitting out for over a century and a half.  I also heard the soft click of my Pipbuck’s as it detected low levels of radiation.  Looking back to my friends, I noticed they hardly seemed worried about it, and sighed.  Well, I always had some Rad Away if I needed it, and I brought the bottle to my lips and took a sip.  I blinked in surprise at the bubbly carrot flavor that assaulted my tongue.  Before I knew it, I had finished the entire bottle in two gulps and was licking my lips at the taste.

Why didn’t we have these in the stable, damn.

“Well, now that's settled, should get some shut eye, we got a busy day tomorrow,” Stone spoke up as he tossed his empty bottle into his pack and stood up, “Ah’ll take th’ first watch.”

Wildfire yawned and tossed her empty bottle away into the darkness behind her, I heard the glass shatter and the mare simply looked over to me and grinned. Laying her head down upon her saddle bag, she shut her eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

Ash and Gearhearts had already settled in for the night across from me, the filly laying beside the stallion.  Who was he to her?  Brother? Father?  She didn’t seem to get to far away from the older pony, and he always kept a watchful eye on her. 

I yawned myself, it had been a rather eventful day, and I could use the rest.  Rolling over onto my side, I watched as Stone walked past the fire and went to check the doors around the room.  The steady drone of the rain and the warmth of the crackling fire helped put my mind at ease, though a few questions remained, and I found myself staying awake for another hour before sleep finally claimed me.



*     *     *     *     *



The night passed uneventfully, either we had managed to destroy all of the robots in the building, or they had simply not bothered with looking for us.  Either way, I had no plans on sticking around very long to find out which was true.  As soon as we found the talisman, we would head back to Steeldome, I wanted to get Ash to a doctor before his wounds became infected.  The room was near silent, the only sounds reaching my ears was from the light snores of the ponies resting beside the dying fire, and the steady drip of water as it worked its way down from cracks in the roof.  The rain had finally stopped sometime in the middle of the night during Stone’s shift.  We’d not bothered to wake Ash or Wild for turns, as both needed the rest if they were to make it back. 

As I walked through the room, my hoofsteps echoed from the large open space above me and I found myself standing once more before the ruined bodies of the combat robots.  Stone had already done his work on the three while on his watch, taking anything we could trade for ammo, food or other supplies back at the Dome.  The earth pony had managed to nearly disassemble one of the robots almost completely.  Given enough time, I’m sure he would have dismantled the ruined generators for anything useful.  Smirking, I carefully stepped around the pools of oil, unwanted parts and looked at at the twisted cannon one had been armed with.

Why was a power station guarded by three combat robots?

That had been troubling me the whole night, and in truth it had caused me to lose a bit of sleep until my body told my mind where to go buck itself.  Lightly I pressed a hoof against the metal torso of the nearest machine and felt it shift slightly on its broken tracks.  The slight movement unsettling one of its laser rifles and causing the weapon to rattle against its mount before dropping off completely.  It was a bit lopsided, since Stone had stripped it of its other weapon.  He’d managed to get the grenade launcher off its mount and discovered it could be manually operated still.  He’d also found the drum a little under half full, with three remaining 40mm grenades sitting inside.  Like my pistol, I imagined finding ammo for it would prove difficult if not impossible, but it could prove useful.  My thoughts went back to the matter at hoof however.

The security robot had made sense, from what little I could remember, a lot of companies had invested in robots while so many ponies were away fighting the Zebras.  From cheap labor to butlers and cooks.  Even police departments in several cities had been forced to replace drafted ponies with security robots.  But the only time I ever read of the heavier combat models was in the war, guarding government facilities and bases.  I believe there was even a few sent to Canterlot to help guard the Princesses.  So...why were there three here?  For that matter, why had something as powerful as a power talisman designed to generator energy been sent here?  They were rare and powerful devices, very hard to make and harder to maintain.  While I did not understand all the magic or science that went into making them, I knew enough.  One could run a city like Kanter City or Fillydelphia for a year on its own.  So, why here? A power plant in the middle of nowhere with no nearby city?  True, there could have been power lines running all the way to Kanter City but wouldn’t it have made more sense to build it closer?  Was this where Crossroads and Lonesome Hoof got their power from before the war?  But if that was so, why a power talisman for two small towns?  No, there was some large dam up river that provided power to all the towns in the area, along with Las Pegasus further north.

As I thought, my eyes wandered over to the three massive generators in the room and I cocked my head slightly to one.  Or rather the large gaping hole a stray grenade had ripped into its side, smoke still rising from the jagged edges.  It had been the one that had been running, or at least I think it had been.  I approached it quickly and stood up on my hind legs to look inside the tear.  The light from my Pipbuck shining inside, lighting up broken wiring and gears. After so long, had it really still been running when we arrived?  Last night I hadn’t believed it possible, but now - now I wasn’t so sure.

Moving around the massive engine I walked along the open space between them and reached their ends, looking between the three long rusting hulks.  All looked in poor shape, but the other two had a number of holes in their metal sides.  There were also signs that the two others had caught fire in the past, scorch marks around vents and access hatches.  I imagined over the years after the war they had continued to run, but with nopony to maintain them, they had failed over time.  My eyes went back to the one I stood before, all of them had failed - but this one. 

Shaking my head I frowned, this was not getting us any closer to finding the talisman, I started to turn away when the beam from my light passed over the end of the generator and something caught my eye. Stopping, I turned back and lifted my right hoof up to shine the light back on that area and stopped.  It couldn’t be.  I pulled up the memory from my mind and smirked. 

“Well...I’ll be.”  The beam of pale white light from my Pipbuck lay upon the power talisman, the large brass looking orb sitting upon a dolly that had been pushed beside the end of the generator.  Cables and wiring ran from the talisman to an open access panel on the side of the generator.  A few tools lay scattered about nearby, somepony must have just finished with the job when the first bombs started falling outside. 

I turned and began trotting back to camp, it looked like things were finally going our way.  Once somepony figured out how to unhook the talisman, we could be on our way.  As I came around from the generators, I saw Stone had already gotten up and seemed busy fixing a pot of coffee atop the dieing fire.  With a nod to my fellow earth pony, I walked between the sleeping forms and nudged them awake gently with my hoof.  I was turning away from Wild to tell Stone the good news when the mare’s front legs wrapped around one of mine and she tackled me to the ground.  I grunted in surprise and the agile pegasus rolled over and started to lash out at my face with a hoof.  Stopping just an inch from my nose, she blinked a few times before standing up.

“Sorry...not use to somepony waking me up...,” I nodded and decided to simply yell at her to wake up next time, it would be less risky.

“You alright?” I asked her, rolling over onto my hooves, as Stone began passing out dented metal cups of coffee to Ash and Gearhearts.  Before sitting out two cups for us.  Beside me, the mare snorted softly and snatched up one of the cups before nodding her head to me.  I reached over for my own and took a drink. 

Holy shit that was strong.

“Ah don’t reckon we should split up if we can avoid it,” Stone said as we all settled down to finish our coffee, “If there’s more of those there machines roaming around, Ah don’t much like our chances of tanglin’ with’em on our own.”

“I found the talisman.”  The statement was met with surprised looks from all around me, and I pointed a hoof off towards the middle generator, “It’s hooked up over there.  I think its been powering that thing since the day the place was abandoned.” 

“I thought I was just hearing things when we stumbled in here yesterday.  If that's true, and it has been running all this time...does it still have enough power to help Steeldome?” Ash asked turning to Gearhearts, the cup of coffee floating beside him down to the floor.  Seem he wasn’t a coffee pony, or at least not that strong of coffee.

“It should.  They built them to run for a very long time, and I think the only thing it has been powering has been these buildings.”  The filly waved a hoof to the room around us, “I doubt very much if there’s enough things left here still running to drain it.”  Gearhearts pushed the cup of coffee away from her with a hoof.  A shame, since it was nearly as good as the old battered coffee maker we had back in security.  Seeing my look, the filly smiled and floated it over to me. 

“What makes you say that?” Wild asked, looking recovered from her waking assault on myself, “There was an entire control room still running, not to mention the lighting and other two buildings nearby.”  She sat beside Stone and worked her bandaged wing carefully, getting the blood flowing back into the limb after having slept with it held to her side most of the night.  Stone collected her empty cup and began putting it away after rinsing a bit of water in it.

“Well, most of the power lines connecting this station to any of the nearby towns have been destroyed either by the weather or time, so I doubt the power would have been used by them.  As for the control room, you’d be surprised how little power it takes to keep them going when talking about a power talisman.  It can run a city for a year, a couple of consoles and lighting isn’t going to affect it,” the filly responded digging into her packs for something.  Finally, a set of tools floated out and she started towards the generator.  I looked back to Stone as something Gearhearts said struck me suddenly.

“What about Crossroads?  They had power.”  Most of the buildings I had seen had lighting of some kind, and even a few of the street lamps had still worked.  I had wondered how before, but been to busy to dwell on it.  Stone turned and nodded his head, and running a hoof through his mane as he answered.

“Right enough, but we’re gettin’ that power from th’ dam up river.  Couple years ago, Rose sent out a team ta see if power could be restored.  They managed ta fix most of th’ lines, given us a bit of power for th’ town.  Like th’ filly said, there’s not’a lot left workin’ in Crossroads so we don’t use a lota power.” 

For a moment I was worried we might be depriving someone of power if we took the talisman, but what Gearhearts said made sense.  With so much damage to the power lines, it didn’t seem likely anypony was using the generator and it had just been running the station.  At any rate there was no time to worry about that right now, we had to get it back to Steeldome.  Finishing the second cup of coffee I pushed it over to Stone before standing up and flicking my tail a bit to get the dirt from it.

“Alright, I want to get going as soon as Gearhearts finishes removing the talisman.”  The filly had already trotted off towards the generator while I spoke, several tools floating out from her saddle bags as she walked, “I’ll keep an eye on her while the rest of you break camp

As I began to follow the white filly, I noticed Ash from the corner of my eye, the pony was holding his side a look of pain screwing up his face.  Looking over, I saw Gearhearts had already set to work, so I turned to the tan stallion and walked up to him.  Behind me, Stone was helping Wild get her packs on, the mare telling him she could do it herself, but letting him help her anyway. 

Noticing me approaching him, the unicorn dropped his hoof and looked up at me with a smile, however the look in my eyes must have been enough for him to know I wasn’t buying it.  With a sigh, the pony looked towards where Gearhearts was working then back to me, pain and worry in his eyes.

“It’s getting infected-I can feel the flesh around the wounds burning up. Please, don’t say anything to Gear, she’ll worry and she has enough to worry about at the moment beside her brothers friend.” he looked to me, orange eyes pleading with me and I simply nodded my head.  There wasn’t anything we could do about it anyway, but get him back to Steeldome before it became any worse than it already was.  That however ruled out Harvest’s request of us searching for any radscorpions in the area.  It could take hours to find one, and the longer we waited to head back the more of a risk Ash had of his wounds becoming infected.  Healing potions could do a lot, but we’d need more then we had now to do him any good. 

“Just take it easy until we’re ready to leave,” I told him helping him to sit back down, the pony nodding his horned head and tried to finish the cup of coffee he had.  I glanced to my two friends and smiled a bit.  Wildfire was standing with narrowed eyes as Stone tightened the straps of her saddle bags with a hoof.  She caught me looking and stomped a hoof, before wincing suddenly.  Turning her head, she snapped her teeth at Stone’s flank and growled.

“Sweet Celestia’s wings, not so fucking tight!  I’m not into bondage ya know!”

Leaving the two to kill one another, I walked over towards Gearhearts as she worked on the talisman.  A half dozen tools floated around the young filly's head as she worked on disconnecting the talisman from the generator.  Already she had removed many of the wires connecting it, and was running a device over the orb.  It looked almost like my Pipbuck but a bit larger with a number of dials and buttons across it.  As she looked over the screen, she frowned and tilted her head slightly, looking back up to the talisman then over to me as she heard me approach. 

“Problem?”

“Um, yeah. More than half its power has been drained...as if its been powering something big for the past hundred years,” she answered, tapping one of the buttons on her device with a hoof, ears flicking in annoyance at whatever was displayed on the screen.  Muttering she shook the device in her magic field before looking back up to the talisman in annoyance, as if the device was keeping its secrets from her. 

“Hmmm, I thought there wasn’t anything left for it to power?”  Stepping up beside her, I glanced down to the screen on her scanner and tried to make sense of what I was seeing.  Like my Pipbuck’s screen, it was all green in color, with numbers and information scrolling across it.  After awhile, I shook my head and looked away.

 It was meant for smart ponies, of which I was not one.

“There shouldn’t be anything left for it to power.  To be this drained it would have had to be powering something larger then this power station, like a small town or something.”

“I’m not overly familiar with the area, Crossroads isn’t getting any of its power, and Lonesome Hoof was a ghost town.  Are there any other towns nearby?”  She shook her head to my question and I glanced back up to the ruined generator again.  Then again, maybe I should be asking Stone or Wild that, I doubted anypony from Steeldome knew much beyond the walls of their home.  Something caught my eye above the generator and I pointed it out to the filly beside me, “Where’s the power lines running to the towers outside?” I asked.

“What?” Gearhearts looked up from her scanner, and looked to where I was pointing. Sure enough, were the other two had thick cords of power lines running from the tops of their casings to the roof, the third one did not.  I’d missed the towers outside the station when we’d arrived due to the dark and heavy rains.  Now, in the dim light of day and through the busted windows of the generator room I could make out the bent and sagging towers outside the fence.  They had once carried the power of this station to the towns that needed it, now they were little more than rusting pillars of metal and wires.

“That doesn't make any sense. Where’d all the power go then?” she asked, standing up and floating her tools away to her bag.

Walking around the generator once more, I traced my steps early back around it, looking over the rusted metal casing and jagged hole in its side as I moved.  Reaching the other end, I turned and was about to walk between it and the wall when I saw the power line.  It was running from the top of the generator alright, however it turned sharply and angled down into the floor.

“Over here.” I stepped back around just as Gearhearts was trotting over looking for me.  At my call, the filly increased her pace and joined me near the power line.  A confused look on her face as she lightly tapped her hoof against the cable and looked to wear it disappeared into the floor.

“I wonder where it goes...” she trailed off, looking back up to the generator beside us.

“Well, we’ll probably never know, and we don’t have time to try and figure it out,” I said, though part of me was as curious to try and find out as her, this place was one large mystery, “How much longer do you need to finish unhooking the talisman?”

“Just two more cables to unhook.” she said, before turning away from the mysteries power line and trotting back towards the front.  I looked back to the cable and wondered what secrets this place had.  A entire generator for what?  And when it had been damaged they had been sent a power talisman to replace it rather then wait to repair it or have another sent in.  Had they also been sent the robots to guard it?  I glanced back to where Gearhearts disappeared around the end of the generator as she went to finish unhooking the talisman.  Had it been for Steeldome?  It was the only other thing out here, and it had been a government run facility. 

Turning away from the dark corner, I began trotting back towards the front.  It all made sense with one glaring fact.  If this generator had been running and sending power to Steeldome, why did they need the talisman to keep the place running?  Maybe the cable had been damaged sometime ago, but it appeared to be running underground.  Earthquake maybe?  The voice of the filly snapped me out of my thoughts and I stepped around the end to look for her.
  
“All done,” she said proudly, rearing up on her hind legs and wrapping her front ones around the orb.  Shutting her eyes, the filly tried her best to pull the talisman down, but could hardly move it.  It was nearly as large as her head, and far heavier than the filly, yet she seemed intent on carrying it with her.  I smiled and stepped up to gently nudge her away, she dropped back on all fours and looked at me questioningly.

“You’ll wear yourself out trying to carry that thing all the way back home, why don’t you let me take it so you can help Ash.”  She frowned for a moment before nodding her head and sighing softly, muttering about being a big pony and began floating her tools away.  I smiled; she reminded me of Sugar.  Reaching over, I pulled the orb off the edge and onto the floor with a slight bang.  Well, it had survived the end of the world, I doubted a short drop would damage it much.  It was heavy, but not enough to trouble a earth pony.  Gripping the edge of one of the rings in my teeth I turned and walked back towards camp.

Returning to the others, we found they had finished breaking camp, and put out the fire, sending a cloud of smoke into the air.  I glanced to the roof and quietly thanked Celestia that the fire sprinklers seemed to have rusted shut long ago.  Looking back to the ponies around me I dropped the talisman between my hooves, gently this time.

“Alright, we should be able to make it back to Steeldome by noon if we stick to the road and the rain doesn’t start up again.”  I looked over the four faces around me, “Stone, you know the country better than anypony else, take the lead and keep an eye out for any threats.”  With two wounded ponies and a young filly I didn’t want to take the risk of stumbling into anything.

“Sure enough, Shadow,” the earth pony said with a nod, his hat pushed back to better see me.  He reached over and picked up his rifle that lay against a crate and slipped the strap back around his neck.  I turned to Wild and was about to ask her to watch out behind us when Gearhearts stepped up to me and pressed a small white hoof into my side, frowning up at me.

“Wait...before we go back we have to find a cure for my mother.” the unicorn filly said looking between the adults around her, “Didn’t Rivets ask you guys to try and find the radscorpions?  Harvest said we needed one of their venom sacks to find a antidote for the poison.” 

“It was mentioned,” I said, but not by Rivets. I looked over to the others then back down to Gearhearts, “We need to get this power talisman back to Steeldome as soon as possible.”  I tapped a hoof against the brass orb between my front legs, “Ash really needs to have those wounds of his looked over by a doctor, and it could take us hours to find a radscorpion -”

“I know where we can find them,” she said cutting me off, looking up at me with bright green eyes full of determination, “There’s a nest of them not far from this building, in fact, in the rocks around the river.”

I blinked, a nest of the things? I didn’t fancy our chances against more then one of the them, and she was asking us to go up against a whole nest?  And how could she know that?  I asked and she answered quickly.

“We stumbled upon it while trying to find our way here.  We got a bit lost and traveled to far north, Captain Sabber said we should just follow the river down since the power station had been built near it.  We came across the nest while they were busy.”  She got a sick look on her face when she said that last part, “We counted four of the larger ones and a few small ones.  Luckily none of them spotted us, I wanted to get the cure then, but Captain Saber said we’d come back for them after we had the talisman,” she explained and looked up at me. 

“I doubt we could handle one of those things, let alone four.  We need to get Ash and the talisman back, after that we can maybe come back.  With a few more ponies we could maybe overpower them.” 

“But mom might not have that much time...,” she began, tears beginning to form in her wide green eyes as she sat herself down in front of me, bottom lip quivering, ears dropping, “...please, won’t you at least try?”

Oh hell...



*     *     *     *     *



How the hell did I get talked into this? I was laying on my stomach, the warming mud of the hillside coating my lower half in thick wet earth.  I shifted slightly, as a sharp rock dug into my stomach, while trying to keep from rustling the brown scrub brush and surprisingly sharp blades of grass that grew among the rocks.  Beside me, Stone lay in a similar position, the earth pony looking down at the scene below us and looking about as happy as me.  Long dead trees clung to the hillside below us, their roots clawing into the soil between large stones and brush.  Further down the hill lay the river bank, the source of our displeasure, and my E.F.S.’ bunch of glowing red dots.

Even if it wasn’t alive with the warning of hostile targets nearby, I’d know there were a large number of the things below us just by the sound alone.  The one I’d fought in Lonesome Hoof had made a unsettling skittering sound as its legs carried it across the pavement.  Its body had a similar sound, as its armored plates rubbed against themselves, and the snapping of its claws.  Now, multiply those sounds by four or more and it was nerve wracking.

I glanced back down the hill and narrowed my eyes as I watched three fully grown radscorpions move about the river bank, their legs moving them easily across the rocky and muddy ground.  Each was about the same size as the one I’d killed, a fourth was slightly smaller, perhaps not yet fully grown. All bore the same thick looking plates across the majority of their bodies and the same jet black color.  Between them moved around a dozen or so smaller ones, between the size of the coyotes and my head.  These ranged in colors from dull brown to a light tan with bits of black showing in spots.  The smaller ones moved about more quickly than the larger ones, darting in and out of a small set of caves near the hillside, likely the nests, or dens, maybe lairs...whatever it was they called them!  The entire area they moved within was covered in bits of shed carapace and piles of broken bones, a few looked familiar.  There were also rusting bits of armor and weapons scattered about.  A helmet still had half a pony skull inside it. Yeah...familiar indeed.

“That’s a lot of bugs,” I said as I scooted back away from the edge of the hill to sit up and wipe mud off my armor and legs, looking from the hillside to the pony beside me.

“There’s enough of ’em.”  Looking from his weapon over to me and motioning with his head to my new weapon I had carried with us here, “Sure ya can handle that thing?” Stone asked eyebrow raised.

I glanced back across my shoulder to my saddle bags and the weapon that lay between them and over my flanks. My eyes lingered on the grenade launcher as I pondered his words.  True, I’d never fired one before, thought it did not appear much different from a shotgun in principle.  Just a lot larger, and it fired shells that exploded.  I just needed to take into account the arc of the round, and in truth it did not seem to be a very precise weapon.  So long as your round hit near the target, it would be covered in sharp bits of burning steel, sharp enough to pierce the radscorpions thick natural armor I hoped. 

I looked back up to Stone and nodded my head, after all I had been trained by one of the best shots I had ever known, and I vowed not to let Twist down.  Also, I had the aid of S.A.T.S. to help me with the first two shots, the size and power of the weapon making anymore impossible with the targeting spell, so I would need to use my own skill to land the third round.  I was fairly sure I could do this.  Fairly.

“Yeah, I think so.  Do you think just three rounds will take them down?”  My shotgun had barely scratched the one I had fought in Lonesome Hoof, only by hitting small areas had my shells done any real harm.  One had been hard to hit, four, well that was pushing it. If it hadn’t been for my revolver I would have been killed then and there.  And even it had taken four rounds to drive the thing off.  I reached back, and closed my teeth around the mouth grip of the weapon, pulling it back around to sit it near me on the ground. Beside me, the gray earth pony wiped some mud off the lever of his weapon and looked back to me, then down the hillside.  Pale green eyes scanning the thick armor plates on the enemies below us.

“Ah reckon it should, so long as we get’em while they’re all bunched up.”

Bunched up.  It all depended on that, and my eyes looked over to what we were counting on to do that.  We’d rolled the empty barrel all the way from the power station to the hillside, after emptying it of trash and muddy rain water.  It was now sitting on its side, filled with a number of dented tin cans we’d salvaged from the trash inside the building, these in turn were filled with a number of small stones spent shell casings and screws.  Anything that would make a sound when the cans were kicked or thrown. This part of the insane plan had been Stone’s idea, we’d push the barrel down towards the nest, the cans and junk inside rattling loudly as it rolled. Alerted by the noise and sudden movement, the scorpions would go into a frenzy and rush out to attack whatever was approaching their nest, regardless of size or whether it was alive or a barrel.  Seems the bugs have a anger management issue or something, good for them.  Anyway, once the larger ones had gathered around the barrel, I’d fire off all three rounds into the mass of claws and armored plates and finish off whatever was left with my shotgun and Stone’s rifle.  Easy Peasy.

“This seems like a really bad idea,” I said with a frown before sighing softly, it was also the only idea we had.  I knew this was also the only real chance Shortfuse had of living, and Harvest and Gearhearts had nearly pleaded with me to try and save their mother.  I also knew she was the only pony likely to live up to the deal I’d made.  I was under no illusion that Rivets would back out of her part of the deal if it suited her.  It was really starting to look like she had set the entire series of events up, so why would she honor a deal with a couple of outsiders?  A Steeldome without Rivets in charge seemed to be the only place we might actually get that chariot of Wild’s fixed and the only way I’d get to Kanter City to save my sister.

“Ah reckon that’s cause it is,” Stone said from beside me, lifting his hat off his head and wiping the sweat from his brown mane and forehead with a grunt, “But, Ah also reckon yer not th’ type of pony ta say no if somepony asks ya for help.”  He smiled over at me as he replaced his hat back atop his head.

“I suppose not, Blaze always said I was a sucker for a sob story and it would get me killed one of these days,” I grunted.  Hopefully not today.  I felt beads of sweat rolling down my neck and under my armor.  My jumpsuit was soaked once more from a mix of sweat, mud and water.  Since it had stopped raining, the temperature had begun to rise quickly, despite the clouds it felt like I was roasting in the mud.

Working my way to the edge of the hillside, I brought the grenade launcher up to bear on the nest below.  Resting the large weapon upon a pair of rocks, I flipped the metal targeting sight up, despite the rust of time, the weapon was in fair shape.  Looking through the metal bars, I gazed down at the scorpions beside the river bank, the snipping of their claws reaching my ears as I adjusted the sight a bit.  Well, it was now or never.

“Send it down.” I whispered to Stone, a moment later I heard him move over behind the barrel. My eyes remained fixed on my targets as I waited for all hell to break lose. 

With a crack of hooves on metal, the barrel was shoved out over the edge of the hill and began rolling madly down the muddy embankment.  The second it started moving, it sounded as if a hundred ponies were all beating on metal with their bare hooves as the rocks and tin cans rattled around inside the hollow barrel.  The effect on the scorpions below was nearly instant.

Within seconds of the first noise, the nest became a fury of activity as the fully grown creatures turned their bodies towards the source of the sound and began scurrying to intercept the intruder.  I had to admit, the sight of four large armored scorpions charging up the hill was a intimidating sight to witness.  I was unsure whether it was the radioactive soda I had drank the night before or the sight below me that gave me a sudden urge to pee. 

The smaller ones remained largely near the caves, seeming unsure what to do, a few followed the larger ones up the hillside, their smaller legs forcing them to trail behind.  The largest of the adults reached the barrel as it began to slow, its metal surface coated with mud and causing it to stick to the ground more.  With a snap of razor sharp claws, the scorpion latched onto the barrel with its pincers and began ripping into it, spilling tin cans out across the ground.  Its tail lashed out to strike the threat with its sharp tip, punching holes through the barrel as if it was made of paper.  Behind it, the remaining scorpions caught up and attempted to get a piece of the first one’s prey.

I closed one eye and squinted down the sights of the grenade launcher and hit S.A.T.S. as soon as the last target gathered near the barrel.  My heart nearly sank as I saw the chance to hit was so low, but reminded myself even a near hit would cause damage.  I locked onto the largest target I could, and sweep to the right towards the second largest depleting the targeting spell with those two shots.  I targeted their legs, reasoning that the blast should come back up and strike their underbellies, were hopefully, they would have thinner armor plating.  I released the targeting spell and squeezed the trigger.

THOOM! 

The first grenade sailed out from the end of the barrel, arching slightly over the hillside before dropping down towards the mass of armor plating and snapping claws.  As the smoke from the barrel was blown away in the wind I thought I saw the tip of the round impact the earth before a second later exploding in a flash of fire and metal shards.  The target of my first shot reared up in pain as it’s softer under belly was peppered with shrapnel, ripping its way up inside its body and doing massive amounts of damage, no doubt.  The remaining shards struck the nearest creatures, damaging legs, claws and eyes.  The few smaller scorpions that had managed to reach the barrel simply disappeared in bits of carapace and blood.  Bucking hell...

THOOM!! 

The second round launched from the weapon, drawing my eyes away from the sight below to watch as it flew through the air to land slightly off target, striking a piece of the barrel that had been ripped off and lay in the mud between the scorpions. With another loud blast, the round sent out shards of metal in every direction.  With a cry of surprise and pain, the nearest scorpion went down as pieces of metal sliced neatly through its segmented legs, cutting them off as if they were made of cloth. Another lashed out blindly as its face was reduced to a mass of metal shards and gore, tail striking its fellow creatures and causing them to lash out in a frenzy.

I blinked and stared in shock, at the carnage just two rounds had done, yet more shocking was the fact the scorpions all remained alive.  Despite massive damage to their bodies, three of the four adult radscorpions remained moving in some form or another and only one of them still had all its limbs.  It wouldn’t take them long to figure out where the shots had come from, either by spotting us, smelling us, or hearing us.  Either way, they'll not get the chance.

Lining up my last shot, I aimed for the still standing scorpion as it snapped its claws and circled around looking for something to rip into.  Luckily, it was in the middle of the others, which is what had likely saved it the fury of the first two rounds. Now it was simply making my job much easier.  Gritting my teeth around the handle of the weapon I squeezed the trigger and fired.

THOOM!

 The round pushed its way free and slammed hard into the ground beside my target, a little bit further right then I would have liked, and exploded. A shower of mud and metal rained around the milling creature and its wounded nest mates, silencing one with sharp slashes across its side.  With a cry, the final scorpion dropped to the ground, leaking its life blood or ooze or whatever it had out across the ground.

Rising up slowly, I picked up the launcher in my teeth and sat in back across my saddle packs and turned back to look down at the twitching bodies below me and was silently thankful I had managed to avoid getting hit by it.   The angry red glow on my E.F.S. lessened but a number of dots remained.  Surely three grenades had killed them? Stone stood up, and stepped up beside me, his rifle hanging around his neck as he tipped his hat back and whistled.

“Shit...Ah’ve never seen th’ like.”  I had to agree with my friend, he began slowly and carefully stepping down the hillside towards the bodies, bringing his rifle up to bear as he moved.  Carefully approaching one of the smoking bodies, his hooves sinking down into the soft mud or slipping in bits of carapace and blood. Finally reaching it, he leveled his weapon at its head and fired off a single round. A slight twitch, but it remained laying in the mud.  Dead.  One of the red dots winked out from my vision, and I realized only two of the things still had life in them, the rest were dead. 

Turning my head, I switched the grenade launcher out for my shotgun and followed Stone down the hill, following the other earth ponies example.  Better safe than sorry and once we had made sure each of the larger ones had been killed we started looking for what we’d come to get.  After a few minutes, Stone called me over to the larger of the dead bugs and I carefully made my way over towards him.  The hillside was quite steep, and I didn’t want to stumble and break a leg or something. 

“This one looks th’ best,” the gray pony was saying as he dropped his rifle and reached up with a hoof to tap it against the side of the scorpions tail.  It was largely undamaged from the blasts, and remained sticking up in the air despite its owner being dead.  Turning his head, Stone unsheathed his hunting knife and pulled it free with his teeth. 

Moving up beside him, I helped pull the limb down to the ground, placing a hoof in the middle to keep it there.  This close up, the thing gave off a nasty smell and I groaned as it assaulted my nose. Stone pushed his one right hoof just under the stinger to keep it still as he began to prod the armor plating on the tail. Finding a spot where a small shard of metal had passed through, he began to peel away the plating to reach the flesh under. I frowned and looked away, it was enough to have to hear it, I hardly wanted to see it. 

Luckily, Gearhearts and Stone had some idea where the scorpion's venom sack would be located.  It seems the poison was a highly prized item for some ponies across the mountains and Stone had gone with others once or twice to collect them.   How the young foal knew I had no idea and I didn’t ask.  She’d instructed us on how to remove the carapace over the tail, and where to cut into the limb and exactly what it was we’d be looking for.  Since Stone had seen it done before, we agreed he’d be the best one for the task, and so he was busy rooting around inside the dead rad scorpion’s tail. 

Well, this was how I expected to be spending my time on the surface, hunting giant ass bugs for their venom sacks.

I scanned the nest below us, at the half dozen scorpions remaining. Most milled around the small caves as if confused on what was happening, two stood at the base of the hill snapping their claws up at us. I kept my eyes on them, lest they catch us by surprise, Gearhearts had made it clear that even the young scorpions sting could be fatal if stung enough times.

With a grunt, and a sickeningly squish of moist flesh, Stonehoof yanked something out from within the tail with his free hoof and tossed it upon the ground between us.  It was what I expected really, a fleshy sack swollen with something inside; likely the venom we had come to collect.  I glanced up to the pony and blinked.  His snout and cheek was coated it gore, blood dripping down the blade of his knife.  He looked more like a raider then I cared to think about.

“Not pretty work, Ah reckon, but needed doin’,” he said, snorting and shaking his head side to side trying to get most of the stuff off his face.  With a sigh, he gave up and began cleaning his blade off on the carapace of the scorpion before standing back, releasing its tail.  I stepped back and glanced back to the still milling scorpion young below us, wondering if we shouldn’t do the wasteland a favor and kill them as well.  I was focusing on the smaller scorpions I ignored the body between us, it was a mistake.

Stone’s cutting must have severed nerves or struck a muscle in the things tail, because the second all pressure was released from the limb it flicked upwards in a flash.  Stone stumbled backwards dropping his knife into the mud as he yelled out a warning to me, the earth pony falling on his backside with a grunt as he lost his balance.  I saw all of this seconds before my vision was filled with a black armored limb rising up from the ground.  I barely knew what had hit me as I felt the hard snap of the tails armored surface striking my nose and cried out in pain as I felt something break.  Stumbling backwards rising a hoof to my face, my remaining hooves slipped out from under me and I tumbled back down the hillside. As the world spun around me, sharp stones dug into my sides as I went.  Ground, sky, ground, sky and finally the ground as I rolled across it and came at last to a halt upon the warm stones of the river bank.

I lay still, despite the rest of the world still spinning around me, aches and pains coursing through my limbs as I tried to figure out what hurt and what didn’t, the list of not hurting was short.  Alerts popped up within my still spinning vision, as my Pipbuck took stock of my condition.  All minor wounds, with the exception of wounds in my left hind leg and my face. Something had pierced the flesh of my flank, and I could feel it moving as I rolled onto my stomach.  Great, I got stabbed by a piece of junk on the way down. 

As the world began to refocus I felt a steady stream of something flowing from my nostrils and sniffed, and immediately regretted it as a sharp pain sliced through my face. Oh yeah, my nose was broken.  I'd felt it snap the second the armored limb of the radscorpion had struck me.  It hurt like hell, but I'd broken it before and it could have easily been far worse, I had managed to come out of this without breaking any limbs. 

With a groan, I began to rise to my hooves shakily and tried to get my bearings.  It was then I noticed I had company. Like the barrel before me, my rolling down the hillside had attracted the attention of the smaller scorpions.  I’m sure it hadn’t helped I’d been directly above them, and the blood running down my snout seemed to be driving them into a frenzy of snapping claws.

With a yelp, I fell back barely avoiding the snapping pincers of one of them, while I doubted they were anywhere near as strong as the larger ones, I imagined they could still do a fair amount of damage and it had been aimed at my face.  Lashing out with a hoof, I kicked the attacking creature away and bent down to retrieve my weapon. Luckily the shotgun had only slipped over my head and had not rolled away when I'd tumbled down.  Biting down on the bit, I yanked the gun away just as another one of the young scorpions struck out with its tail. Without thinking, I squeezed the trigger and felt the weapon buck as the scorpion blew apart in front of me, seems their armor was not as tough as the adults.  With a stomp of my hoof, I killed another by simply breaking its body with my weight when it got too close, pushing the small body into the mud.

Backing up to give myself room, my left rear leg suddenly buckled under me and I crashed to the hard rocky ground. I pushed the pain and surprise aside and fired again, blasting the body of another scorpion away as it rushed towards me.  From the corner of my eye I saw another scurrying across the smooth stones and began to spin my neck around to line up a shot. A loud crack echoed across the hillside as a round struck the final threat, falling to the ground legs twitching and jerking as it died.

 Looking upward I spotted Stone standing half way up the hill with his rifle smoking in his mouth.  With a grin, the gray earth pony lowered his weapon and started down towards me.  I smiled back and attempted to stand once again but for some reason my hind quarters refused to work and the flesh around the wound in my leg was itching like mad.  The alerts in my vision began to grow more urgent and I glanced back across my shoulder to see what was sticking in my side.

"Oh for crying out loud..." there sticking out of my left flank just below my cutie mark was the twisted remains of a scorpion tail.  Its stinger impeded in the flesh of my thigh, and a trail of green ooze dripping down my flank and the limb.  Worse still, I counted no less then three other puncture marks in my hide.  I must have rolled over a few of the smaller ones when I’d tumbled down the hillside, and in so doing they’d stung the hell out of me for it.

 I turned my head back towards Stone as he moved towards me, his smile faltering as he noticed me still sitting.  I shook my head and forced myself to stand, my legs felt like rubber under me and I swayed for a moment.

“Shadow? Are ya okay?” the gray pony asked, as he approached his eyes scanned me for wounds and stopped on my hind quarters, light green eyes going wide.

“Good thing we came for something to make anti-venom, eh?” I asked, trying my best to smile as I took a few steps.  Pain flashed up my back from the wound in my flank, the sharp point of the stinger digging into muscle and flesh as I moved the limb.  Oh, that was going to have to come out, glancing back to the scorpion tail jutting from my flank I asked Stone, “Can you remove it?”

“Ah reckon Ah can, but we might wanna get back ta th’ station first.” he walked around to my flank, giving a slight grunt and looking back to me, “It’s in there deep, can’t just yank it out, nither, them stingers are barbed, and can do a might more damage comin’ out. Only way ta get it out safely is ta cut round th’ wound a might.” he nudged the handle of his knife as he spoke and I swallowed and nodded my head.  This couldn’t wait until we got back to the station, for all I knew the stinger was still pumping its poison into my body.  No, this had to happen now.

“Do it.”

“Ah’ll try and be careful, but this is gonna hurt.  We an’t got anythin’ ta knock ya out, nor would it be a good idea this far out.  Be ready with a potion ta seal th’ wound and stop th’ bleedin’.  Here, ya might also want this.” he said reaching to a fallen tree branch beside the river and yanking off a limb.  He held it out to me and I took it as the earth pony turned and gripped the hilt of his knife in his teeth.  As he pulled it free, I saw he had managed to wipe most of the scorpion blood from the silvery metal, with a flick of a hoof, he pushed his cowpony hat back up from his face so he could see better.  Reaching back to my saddle bag, I withdrew one of the last potions I had, and sat it down before my fore hooves as Stone’s blade neared my flank.  I hurriedly picked up the piece of wood he had given me and closed my mouth around it.  Looking away from Stone and the knife, I focused on the rolling waters of the river and tried to put the thought from my mind of what was happening.  I focused on my mission, I had to get this thing out of me if I was going to reach Steeldome, had to get this poison gland back if I was going to this out of my system.  Had to get Shortfuse to repair the chariot so I could save my sister.  Had to...

 I felt the sharp tip slide along the stinger in my side, and a second later I felt that same tip begin to cut the flesh of my flank, I could even hear the blade cutting through my body. My teeth clamped down on the piece of wood in my mouth as I screamed...



*     *     *     *     *



It was just before noon when we finally reached the collection of buildings that made up the power station, it had taken us longer to return due to my wounded leg.  As we came down the roadway towards the gates, Wildfire was there to greet us, the pegasus’ blue eyes narrowing as she watched me limping towards the ruined gates of the compound, and started towards us. 

My flank had begun to swell a bit around the puncture wounds, the healing potion had managed to repair the damage from my fall, and from Stone’s field surgery, my nose had also healed, though I still had blood covering much of my snout.  It had not been able to affect the poison in my system (which we expected, why else would they need a sample of the poison if it could be healed simply), or the holes the stingers had punched into my side.  We’d managed to wrap the wounds in the bandages I’d found in the bathroom the night before and it stopped the bleeding at least, the white cloth standing out against my black coat. 

Behind the pegasus stood the two survivors from Steeldome’s search team, Ash was sitting on the ground near the gate while Gearhearts fused over his wounds.  Hearing our hooves upon the drying pavement, the two unicorns looked over towards us. 

“What happened?” Wild asked as she scanned my bandaged flank, her own wounded wing still wrapped up.  She’d fussed with us about going along, but we’d managed to convince her to stay with the others, mostly for their protection and also for her own.  Neither Stone or myself wanted to push the injured mare any further then we had to, and there was still the trip back.

“My luck ran out for a bit,” I answered quickly, the pain in my hind leg was starting to bother me again, and I placed my weight upon my remaining three so I could lift the wounded one off the ground.  The poison must have been working its way through my body, how long did I have before I was as bad as Shortfuse and unable to move?  But then she had been attacked by a adult, perhaps I’d have longer.  It was best if we got moving soon, I’d rather not wait and see.  A second later Stone voiced my thoughts to the others.

“Ah reckon we need ta hurry a might, Wild.”  Stone glanced from me to the pegasus as he spoke, ears flicked in worry, “Shadow here got stung by one of th’ youngins’ and an’t doin’ so hot at th’ moment.  He insisted on walking and not bein’ carried.” 

As that, both Ash and Gearhearts looked towards me, the filly’s eyes wide with shock and concern and even Ash looked a bit worried.  I nodded to them both, and put on a brave face, this was hardly the time to panic.

“We got the poison gland from one of the scorpions, your doctors should be able to make an antidote for this right?”  The young filly nodded her head slowly and I looked over to my friends and shifted my weight a bit, “Then if we’re ready, we need to get moving before I collapse.” 

Stone moved past me and helped get Ash to his hooves, while Gearhearts checked her saddle bag and the power talisman inside.  She’d insisted keeping it with her while we went bug hunting, and I was thankful for that fact down.  The added weight would have been murder on my leg. She looked set to carry it with her all the way to Steeldome, and I didn’t argue.  It was heavy, but she wasn’t carrying much beyond some food and water along with her tools.  If there was a fight on the way back, better she have it then one of the fighters. 

Within moments everypony was ready to move, and with a nod to me, Stone trotted out before us to keep an eye on the road ahead.  I  followed behind him a second later, moving as quickly as I could.




*     *     *     *     *



My flank was on fire, and it felt as if somepony had turned up the heat of the wasteland around me.  We’d been forced off the road to reach Steeldome, and I had my eyes set on the muddy ground ahead of me.  The prints we’d left the day before had all but been washed away by the heavy downpour.  I grunted as my hooves sunk into the still damp ground and trudged onwards.  Raising my head slowly, I could just make out the distant hill Steeldome lay below.  At our current pace we should reach it in just under three hours, it was taking us only a bit longer to return as it had to reach the power station thanks to our injuries but no more so then the rain had slowed us the night before.  Still, we’d be inside before nightfall, and perhaps the following morning we could finally be on our way. 

Behind me, Ash and Gearhearts walked side by side, the young filly helping the stallion along as best she could, she’d not complained once since we set out.  Her legs and body were as mud covered as the rest of us, but she focused on her friend and the talisman she carried.  The flesh around Ash’s wounds had darkened and dark red lines began to spider web out from them.  Blood poisoning from the fused bits of metal perhaps?  I was no doctor, but I doubted they were good signs.

Behind them walked Wildfire, the pegasus acting as a rear guard for our little group.  Her wounded wing was tucked against her side and the bandages were soaked in sweat and mud from our trip.  The orange mare kept a careful eye behind us as we went, reminding me despite our easy trip the night before, this was a hazardous area.  There was no heavy rain to mask our presence, and little to no cover on the flat plains.  Her battle saddle sat snug across her flanks, and the twin rifles sat exposed, ready to fire.

Turning back around I looked towards the hillside rising from the ground ahead of us, just had to hang on a bit longer.  Then we’d be back inside the Dome and I could collapse into a heap.  My gold eyes lowered back to the ground before me and narrowed, the thick mud was forcing me to pull harder on my limbs, as my hooves got sucked into the thick mud.  It was causing me no small amount of pain.  I was really starting to hate mud.

“Shadow?”  The sudden voice caused me to jerk my head up and blink, Stone trotted beside me, looking a bit worried.  I didn’t doubt I looked bad.

“Trouble ahead?” I asked, my voice sounding a bit hoarse and I tried to clear it, I’d already drained two of my canteens thanks to the fever, I needed to hold onto the last one just in case.  I looked back up to the pony beside me, I’d never even heard him approach, was I that far gone?

“No, path ahead’s clear ta Steeldome Ah think.”  He turned his face towards our goal, then back to me, “Ya sure yer gonna make it?” 

“I should...” I said between breaths, my body felt soaked in sweat and my limbs ached.  “...not gonna lie, this hurts like hell,” I added with a smile to my friend, which was returned.  He looked far from convinced however and instead of dropping back to check on the others or heading back out he remained beside him.  As we walked side by side, I noticed the ground was getting more firm, the mud drying quickly in the hot air. 

“Ah’ve been thinkin’, if Wild’s half as fast pullin’ that chariot with us in it as she is on her own, we should make it ta Kanter City in a couple of hours,” Stone said, perhaps trying to get my mind off the pain.

I focused on his words, I had no doubt Wild could cross the vast distance from Steeldome to Kanter City quickly, once we got ourselves patched up we could make the crossing and start the search for my sister.  Just had-had to keep walking.  If we were lucky it wouldn’t take us long to find her.  Ugh, my stomach was rolling.  Just a few hours more-just a bit longer-so dizzy.  I shook my head once more and stumbled a bit.

“Shadow?” 

Why was the ground coming up to meet me all of a sudden?  I barely felt my face impacting with the soggy ground, or of someponies hooves grabbing a hold of me, was somepony shouting?  They really needed to shut up.  My eyes burned and all I wanted to do was shut them.  No, couldn’t rest now, needed to get up-gotta get up.  I struggled to rise to my hooves, but only stumbled and dropped back to the ground with a soft groan.  So dizzy-had to keep moving.

I only slightly felt a hoof shaking me, a voice calling out my name. Wild?  Stone?  Ugh-so hot, my mouth felt so dry.  Sight and sound had left me, and feeling was following them...at least it was taking the pain with it...

I don’t know how long I lay there on the ground unconscious, but I snapped back to reality as I felt myself being lifted up and gently laid across something.  I groaned and felt my hooves hanging down as my stomach lay across somepony’s back.  I was being carried.  I once more tried to open my eyes, but they refused to move.  Again I heard somepony speaking, but despite how hard I tried, I couldn’t make out what was said-the darkness once more began to surround me and I fought to stay awake.  Had to...stay...awake...

A sudden jolt brought me back and I groaned, it felt as if I was burning up from the inside and my joints ached so much.  Sweet Celestia everything hurt.  My eyes weakly opened once and I could just barely make out the ground passing by below me quickly.  The up and down movements of my body told me I was still being carried, the gray coat under my face pointed to who it was and I tried to smile.

Had to hang on...

                             ...save my sister...

                                                           ...have to keep my promise..

As the darkness began to close in on me, I thought for a moment I felt somepony touch my back, a gently hoof pressing lightly against my shoulder before once more I slipped away into unconsciousness. 



*     *     *     *     *



 My eyes opened and I realized I was still among the living as the light from the overhead panels flooded in like a knife in my brain.  I groaned softly to myself as life continued to return to my aching body.  My ears twitched as I heard the soft steady hum of electricity running throughout the room.  It was so familiar sounding, calming me as I began to focus on the ceiling above me.  I was laying on my back in a bed, the warm sheets rubbing against my coat as I shifted a bit to try and look around.  Antiseptic and other scents filled my nose and I began to figure out I was in a hospital.  Or was I in the medical bay?  Had something happened to me?  I groaned and raised a hoof slowly up to the side of my head.  My head felt as if somepony had bucked it hard.  Last thing I remember was the party for the retired security ponies we’d thrown, I’d had way too much to drink and Ebony had turned on the coms inside my room, pipping in her damnable music and then...

Ebony.

I tried to look around, had the past three or four days all been a bad dream?  Going to the surface, fighting giant bugs, raiders attacking the Stable?  Oh please, let it have just been a dream.  My eyes squinted as I peered around the room and the cold gray walls around me, my eyesight still a bit blurry.  I saw shapes and areas of color.  Was I still home?

 Reality soon struck me, as my eyesight finally returned fully and I looked across the room from me.  There upon the wall beside a doorway was simple white lettering, using the same script that had been used in the stable. 

‘Steeldome Medical/3rd Floor/Section B’

I lay my head back down upon the pillow and closed my eyes, a single tear made its way untouched down my cheek as I simply gathered my thoughts.  No, I suppose something that horrible couldn’t have been a dream.  With a soft sigh, I opened my eyes once more and began to scan the rest of the room I was in, as I was looking off to my right I noticed a unicorn mare sitting nearby in a wheelchair.  After looking more closely at her, I had an idea who she was.

Her coat was a light orange in color, far lighter than Wildfire’s own, looked unnaturally pale which likely explained the wheelchair.  The mare’s hind legs looked weak laying under her, shriveled and lifeless.  Seems the cure may not have gotten to her in time to save all of her.  Looking back to her face, her orange horn rose between the banes of her long black mane.  Dark blue straps tied it back along her neck to keep it in check.  Those same bangs that parted for her horn, framed her thin face and deep purple eyes.  Despite the weakness of her body, I recognized the strength in her soul.  After several minutes of sizing one another up, she slowly smiled and unlike the pony who was taking her place, it was a genuine smile.

“You saved my daughter, my home and my own life.  Not something I would have expected from a stranger, but from what Little Gear told me of you, you are hardly a normal pony.”  Her voice was soft, almost quiet but filled with the same strength that lit her eyes.  Shortfuse tilted her head as she looked to me, horn glowing as she magically moved the wheels of her chair closer to my bedside, “Harvest told me about what you did to obtain the venom sack from the radscorpions.”

“Well...since neither of us are dead I can safely assume they found a cure for the poison?” I asked as I shifted once more on the bed, rising up to better look at the mare across from me.  Her smile remained and she nodded her head before answering. 

“Yes, they did and from what I am told, just in time.  Much longer and I would never have awoken.  You would not have been far behind, after being stung no less than a half dozen times.”  Half a dozen?  It had seemed less.  I glanced to her weakened legs and her smile turned sad,  “The damage was done, the scorpion that attacked me stung me in my lower back hitting my spine.  The poison destroyed much of my lower spine...still, I am alive and that is all that matters.”

I nodded but said nothing.  Alive and never able to move, I don’t know if I’d be so calm in her place, or willing to just accept it.  I could barely stand to be sick and bedridden for a few days, let alone my entire life.  We’d had a few paralyzed ponies in the Stable over the years, most had learned to accept their disability as Shortfuse had, but a few had ended up taking their own lives rather than be a burden on their friends and family.  Suddenly I remembered I was not the only other pony wounded on the mission out to the station.

“How’s Wildfire doing?  And Ash?”  Now it was her turn to go silent for a moment, a frown replacing the smile that had been upon her lips, I felt a chill of dread run down my back.  Had we arrived too late then?

“Ash is resting, the doctors said the pieces of his armor that fused to his flesh had begun to poison the surrounding tissue.  A single piece had become lodged deep enough to damage one of his lungs, the doctors say the next few days would tell us whether he’s going to make it or not.”  I sighed softly and looked away.  To survive all that he did, only to have the very thing you wore to protect you kill you.

“Wildfire as you call her is fine, she’s been resting in the room across the hall from you, the doctors managed to repair the damage to her wing.  She’ll be flying again in a few hours.”  A bit of good news then, I’d doubted the wound had been very bad, but I was no expert on damage to wings. 

“The stallion who carried you here has been sitting outside for the past few hours, I believe he’s sleeping now.  Seems he refused to leave until he knew you’d be alright.”   She smiled and tilted her head once more to me, “Seems Wildfire has chosen her friends well.”

I smiled to that and nodded my head.  I’d only know them both for less then two days, but had oddly found myself thinking of them as I did Brightblade or Twist.  I laid my head back down upon the pillow behind me, the pain in my head fading quickly as I relaxed when the door to my room opened.

Speak of the devil. Trotting into my room was the bright orange pegasus herself, her wounded wing flexing a few times as she walked into my room. The orange feathered limb was no longer wrapped in bandages, and the nasty scorch marks that had marred it were gone, all thanks to the medical staff.  A wide cocky smile spread across her muzzle as her bright blue eyes went from looking to the chair bound unicorn to me.

“Well, well, look who finally decided to rejoin the land of the living.  I can tell you’re going to make a habit of nearly getting yourself killed,” the fiery pegasus quipped as she stepped beside my bed.  The door behind her filled with the large gray frame of Stonehoof as the earth pony followed her in, his hat tilted back away from his face as he looked me over and grinned.

“Ya had us a might worried for a spell, Shadow.” 

“I can honestly say I was a bit worried myself,” I answered back with a smile to each, glad to see both of them up and about, “How’s the wing?”

“Much better, like I said before, it’ll take a lot more then a rusting bucket of bolts to put me down for good.  Fuck if I an’t going down for anything less then a Raptor or entire wing of griffins.”  Her grin remained and I wondered what the hell a Raptor was, perhaps it was better if I never found out.

“Good to see you back to your old self Sunsparkles.”  At the mention of her name, the pegasus winced and Stone grinned, “You’ll be happy to know I’ve gotten the repair ponies reassigned to working on your sky chariot again, along with my daughter, they should have it finished in a hour or so.”

“Good, then we can get this trip out of the way,” Wild said as she sat down beside my bed, yawning a bit, as I got a closer look, it appeared as if she’d just woken from a nap.  Her already wildy unkempt mane was even more so.  At the mention of a trip, Fuse looked up from the pair over to me.

“Trip?” 

“Shadow here’s needin’ ta get ta Kanter City in a right hurry,” Stone answered the unicorn, as he walked around my room.  Seemed his rest in a chair had given the large stallion a bit of a backache.

“I see...why on earth would anypony want to go to that horrible place?” with a grunt, I proceeded to tell Fuse about the attack on my home, of my kidnapped sister and my belief of where she had been taken and our need of the sky chariot.  She simply listened and asked a few questions here or there, but let me tell my story largely uninterrupted.  She gave me the same look Rose had, but had clearly seen how determined I was about this.

“A few weeks ago, before I was injured, the leader of a trade caravan that passes through here once every few months told me about settlements further up north being attacked by raiders. In almost every case those few who survived the attacks spoke of raiders dragging off only unicorns.  One settlement he spoke of had been slaughtered completely, but only the bodies of earth ponies remained.” 

Why did raiders need unicorns?  And why so many?  I’d seen unicorns with the raiders that had attacked my home, was this how they recruited?  It now seemed clear that Ebony and the others had been taken for some reason, I just prayed whatever the reason was it required them to be alive and unharmed.

“I’ve no doubt that’s why raiders have begun testing our defenses more frequently of late.  There are far more unicorns here then anywhere else in the Wasteland,” Fuse said, and making another question arise.

“Why?” I asked, looking over to the unicorn mare, “I noticed when we first entered there were a lot more unicorns then earth ponies, and that they seemed to hold positions of importance more then anypony else.”  The mare smiled sadly to that, but nodded her head and began to explain.

“It's a rather long story I’m afraid.  The day the bombs fell, there was only a hoof full of researchers, scientists and doctors working within the Dome.  There was also a small number of ponies working on finishing the buildings and putting a few final touches on the tower itself.  After cities began to be bombed, they managed to take in a few stragglers from the surrounding area before sealing the Dome.  Most of them were unicorns, very few were earth ponies.”

Okay, made since I suppose, if there was more unicorns to start with, then it followed that a larger number of young would be born unicorns.  Still, the gene for all three specie of pony was known to exist within each of us.  After a few hundred centuries or so of intermarriage between the three, there was always the possibility of getting a earth pony born to unicorns or so forth.  Even pegasi could be born to earth pony parents though it seemed to happen more rarely.

“So after a hundred or so years of fucking you end up with more unicorns...hmm who knew,” Wild added to the conversation with a smirk, the mare giving a wink to Stone and I.  Fuse simply chuckled, likely used to the pegasus and nodded her head.

“Doctors apparently.” she answered, before pressing on, “At the time the dome was sealed, it was simply a matter of who was best for what jobs.  The then director of the facility was placed in charge like a mayor.  The unicorns began working on ensuring the walls of the Dome would keep out the radiation that was steadily rising outside.  The earth ponies began to finish the buildings so everypony could have a place to stay.  They also started caring for the gardens and orchards, a task, as I’m sure you're well aware, earth ponies are far more skilled at that then any other.” 

True, after all I had a plant on my ass to remind me what my real special talent was.  Though I was beginning to wonder if it shouldn’t have been a shotgun.  Still, she was right, earth ponies had always had a knack for all things that grow.  Unicorns had horns, pegasi had wings, we had green hooves.  Yay us.

“As the years passed, it just became the way things were, once it was clear no pony would be leaving the dome for a very long time, the heads of the departments decided to draft a sort of rule set.  It was voted upon and put into place by the director.”

“Nopony questioned it?” I asked, rolling back onto my stomach so I could more easily see each of them as they sat around me. 

“A few, but what could anypony do really?  There was no leaving the dome, to do so would be paramount to committing suicide.  After fifty years it just became accepted as the way it would be,” Fuse answered with a sigh, “I don’t doubt it sounds horrible to you, but try and understand, despite how it may sound, it did help us to survive those early days.”

“And now?” I asked, looking into the unicorns soft purple eyes, I had heard a but in the tone of her voice, and a second later she spoke it aloud.

“But, now it seems many of those rules made to protect us are also dooming us.”  With another sigh, the unicorn looked between us, “When the doors were sealed, there were barely over a hundred ponies inside Steeldome, as I said, this was never meant to be a Stable and they never planned on it housing ponies for longer than twenty years.  It takes a certain number of the right ponies to produce a stable and healthy community.  That’s why Stable-Tec had such a lengthy screening for those ponies going into the Stables.  They went to great lengths to ensure few of the same families were placed within the same Stable.” 

Ah, I slowly began to get the picture, and nodded my head to Fuse.

“Since nopony knew how long we’d be in a Stable, they didn’t want us getting frisky with a cousin twice removed?” Fuse smirked and nodded her head, damn, I've been hanging around Wild too long.  The pegasus in question grinned over at me.

“Couldn’t have put it better myself.” she said with a wink, beside her Stone rolled his eyes and added.

“Ah reckon it would’a been a lot more colorful.”

Like the kick from my shotgun, the missing piece snapped into place.  The first day I had entered the dome I had noticed something missing.  Children.  Fuse must have noticed the look, because she smiled and nodded her head.

“Slowly over time, doctors began to notice fewer and fewer healthy foals were being born.  More began being born with life threatening birth defects, and after awhile many simply stopped trying to have children.  It was becoming too painful.”

“Ah take it, th’ separation of unicorn and earth pony went more then just by th’ job?” Stone added with a frown, it was clear the earth pony did not much care for separating ponies by species, nor did I.  I grew up in a Stable of mixed ponies, it just didn’t seem right. 

“I’m afraid so, at the time most of them were busy with trying to stay alive to really understand what they had done.  By the time the doctors did realize their mistake, it was already too late and the damage had been done.  Some steps were taken to try and reduce the damage, but never enough. Recently, I have begun to make changes to the rules of the past, even going so far as to marry my foal hood friend, Golden Harvest.  A very skilled earth pony farmer.”  She smiled to that, and I doubted it had less to do with setting a good example as it had more to do with love, “It made some uneasy, but most accepted it and we moved on.  A few though, voiced their concerns over the plans I had for the future of the Dome.”

“Taking in outsiders,” Wildfire spoke up, wings tucked against her sides once more as she looked over to the orange unicorn, “I take it I didn’t help matters then...” she trailed off and Fuse simply nodded, the pegasus seemed to slump where she sat, ears dropping.  It was odd to see the brash flier looking so distraught. 

“No, you didn’t, but as I said then, and I repeat now I do not blame you.  You were following orders and did not know what you were doing at the time.”  Reaching a hoof out, she gently laid it upon the pegasus’ shoulder and smiled, “You more than made up for it, don’t blame yourself Sparkles.” 

I looked to Wild, saw her trying to decide whether or not to tell us the dark secret of her past.  Though I had managed to work out enough of it myself, I wasn’t about to push her and we needed to stay on the subject at hoof for the moment, so I brought us back to it.

“I’m guessing Rivets was one of those speaking out?”  Fuse nodded her head once more, looking sadly to me.

“A very vocal one, yes.  She thought I was pushing things too quickly, that we needed more time to prepare to face the world outside our door.  She was also set in her ways, never one to change the rules for anypony.   She puts too much faith in our technology and magic and not enough in actual ponies.  She never accepted my husband or my family, and our friendship began to break because of it.  I tried telling her and the others there was little time left to wait.”  She sighed and looked away towards the wall behind my bed, “My children were some of the last born in Steeldome, and they are not likely to have any of their own if they stay here.  The last thing we needed was to wait, we needed to act before there was nopony left.”

“So you wanted to take in ponies from the surrounding wasteland to intermix into the dome, fresh blood,” I added, taking a chance.  From what Wild had said, and what Fuse was telling me, it made the most sense.  But then again, so little about the Wasteland was making sense to me.

“Yes, I knew the only way to insure future generations growing up within the Dome was if we invited ponies to join us.  It would be only a matter of time before the populations began to mix and the weakness of our genes would be repaired.  As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the Dome could support a far larger number of ponies, but we had another problem.”

“The spells hiding the Dome.”

“It has been slowly degrading over time, every generation since the first have noticed the spell failing far more quickly than it had.  Perhaps it is a problem with the ponies casting the spell, weaker magic has been noticed in many of our children.  Maybe its just due to the same spell being cast upon the same piece of metal for over a century and a half.  Whatever the cause, the spell matrix is failing more quickly with each passing year, and within a few more years we will be unable to maintain it for longer than a few hours.  Without our defence systems running, the cloaking spell is all that is standing between us and the wasteland.”  She looked up to me and added, “And from what you said, I think I can expect a very determined attempt to enter the dome once it is discovered.”

“What does the power talisman have to do with maintaining the spell?” I asked, I was after all not a smart pony when it came to spells or machinery.

“Rivets believed if we could somehow connect the talisman up to the Dome’s systems, we could run a low charge through the surface of the dome, giving the spell a power source to draw from.  At the same time it could augment our own failing generators.  We started with four, over the many years two of them have failed completely and the remaining two are about to die.”  She shook her head and frowned, “Still, we have no way of knowing if the talisman can even do what we need it to.  I told her it was too risky and we needed to make sure it would work before we tried anything.”

“Did you know about the combat robots guarding it?” Wild asked beside Stone, the pegasus having finished working the kinks from her wing, folded it back beside her and turned her blue eyes upon the unicorn.

“I had some idea there might have been one or more security robots still guarding it, but I had never imagined there being three combat models watching over the place.  In truth, I had only learned about the talisman a few days ago, Rivets and I were looking into why it had been sent to the power station and trying to find a way it could help us.” 

“You never planned on sending a team out to recover it, then?” I asked her as she turned the chair to face me, a thoughtful look on her face.

“I was planning on sending a team, but only after researching the information we had in our data banks.  There were several reports filed on the station before the end, but those were so old I had doubts if it would be worth the trouble.  I would never risk any of my ponies on a long shot like that, I wasn’t even sure if the talisman would have still be there after almost two centuries,” she answered, leaning back in her seat a bit, “I was surprised when Little Gear told me you had found it there, and running a generator no less.”

“From what I remember in school, those things were not easy or cheap to make. Why would the government send a talisman out here anyway?  Unless it was for some secret project?”  I glanced to my friends beside me, before fixing my golden eyes upon Fuse.  For a moment she just blinked, before her smile grew wider and she laughed softly.

“I see you have heard some of the rumors about this place, well let me point out which one of them is the truth.  I suppose you’ve heard it was a secret lab to create alicorns, or super soldiers, or even a secret weapons testing facility?” I nodded my head, Stone fidgeted a bit as that came up, and beside him Wild grinned evilly, “What about a lab to try growing food in space?”  Again I nodded and she smiled, “That one is actually true, somewhat.”  The smug look the winged mare gave to Stone was priceless.

“Steeldome was built long before any of the Stables had been constricted, it was in fact built a few years before the war.  Princess Luna wanted ponies to explore beyond our home, travel to the distant stars.  Mostly nonsense about colonizing the moon and boldly going where no pony had gone before or some such rubbish,” Fuse chuckled softly, “While they worked on a space center in Hoofington, Princess Luna had others working on the problem of supporting ponies living off world.”

“So, that's where Steeldome comes in?” I asked, receiving a nod from the orange unicorn beside me.

“Yes, up until the beginning of the war, Steeldome was researching ways to grow food in a controlled environment with little to no sunlight and limited water.  Although after the invention of the water talisman, that made things easier.  Once the war broke out however, and it became clear that the zebras had the means to destroy entire cities with a single bomb things changed.  When Stable-Tec began designing their Stables, Princess Luna allowed them to make use of the research that had come from here, even allowing them to send their own scientist to help with the testing.”

“Well, it seems their research ended up saving a lot of ponies, I can’t imagine Stable 45 without an orchard.”

“I like to think so, but listen to me, rambling on about the past and my troubles, I’m sure you and your friends would like to catch up on things.”  Her horn glowing softly, her wheelchair began to turn away from me and roll towards the door, “I’ll go make sure my Little Gear and her team are finishing up on your chariot, Wild.” 

As the doors closed behind her, I turned to my friends and focused on Stone.

“So, I hear I have you to thank for getting me back here so quickly.” 

“Ya woulda done th’ same for either of us, Shadow, besides, Ah owe ya for savin’ me already.” my large gray friend said, as he rubbed the back of his neck with a fore hoof, beside him Wild smirked.

“Should I leave you two alone?” 

I snorted softly to that, and began climbing out of bed.  A worried look went across both faces as I wobbled a bit once I had my hooves under me, but I managed to stand on my own.  With a grunt, I flexed my hind leg, feeling the sore muscles where the wounds had been jabbed into my side.  Looking back, I saw scarring across my flank that the health potions or whatever else the doctors had given me had failed to fix.  Still, scarring was better then paralysis. 

“Don’t ya think ya should take it a bit easy, Shadow?” Stone asked, as he watched me move carefully around the room.

“I’ll be fine, had worse than this before.”  Had a gun barrel shoved through my flank before, that counted right? “Besides, as soon as Wild’s wing is healed up, I want to be ready to go.”

“I’m ready as soon as they finish the chariot’s repairs.” was the pegasus’ response, making Stone shift his worried gaze from me to the mare.

“Now hold on a cotton pickin’ minute here, an’t neither one of ya up for a trip like this.”

“Doctor said I was good to go...”

“...ta leave th’ hospital, not ta go crusin’ across th’ wasteland pullin’ a sky chariot ta a raider infested city.  Either of ya.” 

“Stone, I can’t wait, every second I do, could mean life or death for Ebony, I’m fine.”  I hid the sudden flare of pain that shot up my flank as I placed my weight upon my wounded leg.  I had to do this, for my sister.

“Stop worrying you old hen,” Wild said, bumping a wing into the earth ponies side as she stepped past him, trotting around to me, “I’ll be good to go soon as they get the chariot ready.”

“Good, because by tonight, we’re going to be in Kanter City.”




*     *     *     *     *



After securing my release from the Dome’s Medical Floor, which involved a pretty young unicorn mare telling Wild and myself we were crazy for being out of bed. Wild’s remark to that was...colorful to say the least.  After leaving the tower, Harvest arrived to show us where we could wait until the repairs had been finished up. 

I expected to spend a bit of time getting my equipment repaired and the salvage we’d brought back from the power station sold, but Stone had seen to that.  Which was perhaps just as well, while I had always found it easy to talk to others, bartering seemed to be beyond me.  Stone had increased our caps by a sizable amount, even after repairs and resupplying us for the coming trip.  I doubted we’d have much use for caps within Kanter City, but they would come in handy when we reached San Ponsico.

Could it really be my new home?  Would it ever feel like home?  I’d never really thought about it, I’d been so focused on finding my sister and just staying alive that I’d not had the time.  But now that I did, I wondered how the city would compare to places like Crossroads and Steeldome.  Would the city be rebuilt?  Had much of the city been spared the blasts of balefire?  As I lay upon the couch in a guest quarter I wondered what I’d do there.  I doubted they needed security ponies, but did I really want anything else to do with that?  I’d only joined the Stable’s security force to take my father’s place.  It had seemed the right choice at the time, and still did, but there had been some truth to what my sister always bugged me about.  I would have been far happier in a garden.

I glanced to my friends, somehow, they had managed to go the past two hours without arguing or trying to kill one another.  That was a good sign, that or when they were playing blackjack they were too focused on winning to snip at one another.  Judging by the lack of armor and weapons on Stone, I figured Wild was winning.  Smirking, I looked away, what was the point of strip poker anyway?  Ponies went around without clothes most of the time. I went back to finishing the work on patching a hole in my armor, a few too many close calls with those bots back in the power station had left me with a few gaps. 

A knock on the door brought my head up from the repair work I was doing, the door opened a second later and Harvest entered.  I rose to my hooves to greet him, behind me Stone was trying to get his things back from Wild who seemed unwilling to part with her hard won haul and was ideally stroking the earth ponies beloved rifle.

“Well, it seems you're all doing well.” Harvest said with a bit of a  grin towards the pleased looking pegasus.

“The kids are always hyper before a big trip.” I answered with a chuckle before getting hit in the back of the head by a bottle. Ow. Glancing back, I saw Wild looking at me with a grin, before she pointed a accusing hoof to Stone.

“Mother asked me to make sure you were all doing well, and to let you know the repairs on the chariot are nearly finished. My sister has thrown herself into the task with her usual gusto.” Harvest smiled and added, “Mother also asked if you’d like to see your Chariot, Wildfire?” 

I looked back to where my friends sat, the ‘spoils of war’ being returned to their owner by a grinning Wild. Hearing those words she looked up to the copper coated earth pony and nodded her red maned head.

“Of course, I’m rather interested in seeing how well this kid did with something like a sky chariot.” rising to her hooves, she flexed her wings before trotting over beside us, “Last time I saw it, it was in a few pieces.” 

I blinked at that and glanced to my winged friend, she’d neglected to mention that part when talking about this plan.

“Good, then if you’re ready, we’ll head on over to the workshop and take a look. Mom said she’d likely meet us there, said she had something to talk to you about, Shadow.” Harvest turned and started for the door, leaving me with a confused look. What did she want to talk to me about?

Stone joined us a moment later, having gotten his armor back on, along with his knife, rifle, and a few personal effects. Muttering about cheatin’ mares he followed us out and after Harvest.

Trotting through the near empty streets, the earth pony was leading us towards the Tower. Our hoof steps clopping along across the cobblestone streets, passing a few ponies sitting out on the benches beside the road and even what appeared to be a playground of some type, made from the spare parts of machines. A swing set and slide along with a merry go round sat seemingly unused in a small green field between a row of homes.  It oddly brought little joy, as the lack of children playing upon the swings and slides only forced to remind me this was a dying settlement.  I grunted and looked away.

As we approached the Tower, I saw two security ponies standing watch outside the entrance atop the stairs. They nodded their heads in greeting to us as we passed, but said not a word. The Tower was not our destination however, and we passed by in favor of circling around it towards a building built up against it. The building appeared to be a garage, tools and half disassembled pieces of machinery lay near two large open doors. I a small number of ponies working inside, more ponies I’d seen since entering the Dome that were not security. However, it was not the ponies my eyes were drawn to, but the reason we had come all this way, and risked so much.  Beside me Stone whistled softly and Wild grinned happily.  Sitting upon a metal lift was the Sky Chariot.

Firstly, the name chariot may bring to mind those old pony pulled carts you see in photos and movies of the past, while it was true those types of carts were still widely used, this looked little like them.  Where most carts were made of wood, this was made of black steel, about thirty hoof lengths long, with enough room inside to seat a half dozen ponies or more.  The front was curved, likely to help it pass through the air, along its surface were three viewports with blast shielding lowered.  A single sliding door sat on either side of the hull, just near the middle of the chariot, and stood open allowing me to see inside.

The interior of the chariot was as military as the outside, I could make out six padded seats for ponies to sit in, along with over head compartments for storing gear and weapons.  There was even small lighting domes along the roof.  Turning my attention back to the front of the machine, I saw the harness for the pegasus pilot sat upon the ground empty for the time being, the bracing of the harness was made from solid steel and a kevlar saddle hung between the two bars which protruded further up beside the pilot, offering some protection in the form of small metal plates. Resting upon the end of one such bar was a helmet, wiring and cables running from it to the saddle, likely giving the pilot some connection with the chariot behind them.

Climbing out from the armored compartment came Gearhearts, the filly floating several tools with her as she exited the chariot, returning them to her saddlebag.  Looking up she smiled toward us and quickly trotted over.

“Just about finished, do you like it?” she asked, looking hopeful to the three of us.

“I doubt its been in this good a shape for a very long time, kid.  You did good,” Wild answered with a grin, reaching a hoof up to ruffle the filly’s mane before stepping past her to inspect the pilot's harness.  Beaming happily, Gear trotted after Wild to show her the repairs she had made, leaving Stone and myself to look back to the rest of the chariot.

“Well, Ah’ll say this was worth th’ detour,” he said as he walked up to the door, poking his head inside the compartment and stepping inside.  I followed him to the door and lightly tapped a hoof against the thick armor and was forced to agree with my large gray coated friend, this would make getting my sister and the others out of Kanter City a lot easier.

“My daughter does good work, I’m glad you're pleased.” a mare’s voice called out from behind me and I turned to see Shortfuse rolling up the path to stop just outside the garage. 

“She does indeed.” I answered, before dropping back out of the chariot to walk towards the unicorn, “Your son mentioned something about wanting to speak to me?” in answer, a folder floated up from her lap surrounded in the soft glow of her magic. I arched a brow and looked from it back to her.

“I did a little digging after we had our talk in the medical wing and I spoke with both my son and my head of security.” as she spoke, Swiftwind and four of his security ponies trotted up behind the wheelchair, offering me a nod, Harvest who had been keeping to himself trotted over to stand beside Swift.

“I take it you found something that displeases you?” Wild said having left inspecting her Chariot to join us. Stone dropped down from within the chariot and was trotting over to join us.

“You could say that...logs of what Rivets has been up to for the past six months.” Fuse grunted, narrowing her eyes. Given what I’d suspected, I imagined she’d found something about her own little accident in those logs.

“What are ya gonna do bout it?” Stone asked from beside Wild.

“I’m going to kick her out of my fucking office.” a slight smile formed on Fuse’s muzzle as she looked up at me, “I thought you may wish to join us, seeing how she nearly got you all killed.”

“I believe we have nothing planned this afternoon.” I smiled back, Rivets had come off as a bit of a crooked pony when we’d first met, and everything I’d been figuring out about her since the Power Station had only driven that home. A pony like that should not be in charge of other’s lives. A pony like her shouldn’t have that sort of power. Stepping up beside Fuse I motioned towards the tower above us, “Shall we?”



*     *     *     *     *



As the elevator doors parted, my friends and I trotted out beside Harvest and his mother. Swiftwind and his security detail had gone up first and secured the hallway, not that I expected Rivets to put up much of a fight, she didn’t seem the type to. She seemed more the type to sit back and let others fight for her.

Trotting down the hallway towards the Director’s Office, I found myself checking my shotgun anyway, after all it seemed nothing was ever easy and I wasn’t about to get caught off guard again.  Swiftwind and his security team fell into pace with us, the head of security trotting beside the wheelchair bound unicorn.

“Despite everything she’s done, I don’t want her harmed, she likely won’t put up much of a fight,” Fuse said to Swift and the armored unicorn nodded his head.  Beside me, Wild snorted and rolled her eyes and Stone as always kept silent unless he had something to add.

The doors to her office came into sight, and with a burst of magic, Shortfuse slammed them open loudly, rolling inside a moment later flanked by the security team and her son.  We followed them in a moment later, and found Rivets sitting at the terminal mounted atop the desk.  At the sudden noise, the gray unicorn blinked in surprise and hurriedly shut the machine down.

“Why...Fuse...its so good to see you up and about again...,” the unicorn began but was cut off almost at once.

”Yes, no thanks to you, Rivets,” Fuse said with a hiss of anger, the security ponies moving around us and stood to either side of the gray unicorn standing behind the desk.  The mare looking around worriedly to the two then to Swiftwind.

“Fuse, what is the meaning of this?  What are you doing?  Why are these guards here and why are these outsiders armed?”  She took a few steps back before she eeped softly and found Swift behind her (suppose that’s why he was called Swift, I hadn’t even seen him move from beside Harvest) and held up a hoof to stop her.

“Tell me Rivets, why were the external sensors shut down the day I was attacked after detecting two hostile life forms near my team?”  The two unicorns stared at one another, neither blinking, “Why did the com relays suddenly go into standby when the call went out for medical?” with each word, the orange unicorn’s ears flattened to her skull and her nostrils flared.

“I...”

“Why was my own daughter picked to go and retrieve the talisman when I had been admitted about sending a full security team to sweep the power station for any threats first!”  It had started off as a question, but by the end the mare was nearly shouting her words to the gray unicorn across the desk from her.

“I don’t know who’s told you all this...but they are lying...Fuse, please...,” whatever she was about to say was cut off as the folder Fuse had been carrying flew across the room to slam atop the desk, the angry red glow fading from it as it skidded to a halt before Rivets, papers sliding out of it.

“Don’t you dare call my daughter a liar, Rivets.  She found your access codes buried in the logs for both the sensors and the com system, where somepony had attempted to hide their tampering from anypony else.  She just didn’t have the correct access codes to decrypt them.  Access codes only you or I have.  Your override code had been entered for both the day I was attacked...we lost four ponies because of those scorpions, Rivets.  Three to the attack, and another because they did not get treated in time.  FOUR!”  Worriedly, Harvest placed a hoof upon his mother's shoulder, but the mare shrugged it away, purple eyes blazing with anger.

I looked from the fiery unicorn to the gray pony across from her, just the day before the smug mare had happily sent us off on a fool's quest to find her talisman, she no doubt expected us to fail and die like the others.  For a moment I thought this was going to be the end of it, Swift would cuff the pony and march her off to the detention cells (if they even had them) and we’d go on our merry little way.

As I watched, the mood of the gray unicorn seemed to change before my eyes, gone was the worried expression and fearful glances to the security ponies behind her.  Gone was the twitch of her hooves as she sought an escape from whatever fate Fuse had planned for her.  Slowly, her face twisted into a sneer and she shoved the desk away from herself with a sudden flash of her horn, the legs of the desk digging into the metal flooring from the force of the push the room echoing with the sound of grinding metal.

“You MADE me do this, Fuse.  YOU MADE ME!” the gray unicorn snarled and before I knew what was happening her horn pulsed again and the three security ponies behind her flew backwards to slam hard into the wall length window behind the desk.  Their armored barding cracking the thick reinforced glass with a network of lines before slumping to the ground.

Oh fuck, that was not good.

“You actually wanted to allow outsiders into our home. OUTSIDERS!” at the yell the terminal on the desk flew off and shattered across the floor, sending out a shower of sparks, “Filthy muck ponies who have been exposed to goddesses know what!  And you expect us to welcome them, take them into our homes...our beds!!”

Beside me, Stone slowly moved his hoof up to the safety of his rifle as Wildfire blocked him from Rivets’ view.  I doubted the unicorn would have even noticed the careful movement, as she ranted and raved at Fuse.  The orange unicorn sat unsure of herself in the face of the crazed Rivets, even Harvest seemed at a loss as to what was happening.

“You soiled yourself with that mongrel of a earth pony, and ever since then your mind has been poisoned with his lies!  I tried to warn you - I tried to stop you, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”  Her eyes narrowed upon Harvest, and the earth pony began to gasp.

I swore loudly as I saw the earth pony's hooves rise up from the floor before me, thrashing wildly as a white glow surrounded his neck.  This had to end, before she broke his neck.  A quick glance from the corner of my eye told me Stone was ready to fire, and Wild had managed to edge closer to Fuse, ready to take the wounded pony out of the line of fire.

“Stone, now!” I shouted and reached down for the bit of my shotgun, the safety clicking off as my right hoof slapped the side of the weapon.  At the same instant, Wildfire lunged between us and pushed Fuse away from the line of fire, sending both mares to the ground as the wheelchair topped over and skidded across the floor.  As I was bringing my shotgun up to bare, Stone brought his rifle quickly up and fired off a quick shot, the bullet flew straight towards the still raging unicorn and stopped, mushrooming as it struck a glimmering force field the mare had erected around herself.  The earth ponies eyes went wide in shock as he was half way through ejecting the spent casing.

Definitely not good...

“This is YOUR fault...our plan would have worked if it wasn’t for you and those meddling friends of yours!!”  With another flash of her horn, Rivet’s magic gripped Stone’s rifle and ripped it from his mouth.  The glowing weapon then slammed with a crack across the his snout sending him to the floor as the rifle turned its barrel towards me.

Fuck...

I squeezed the trigger of my shotgun and dodged into cover behind a nearby table just as a bullet whizzed past my flank and struck the floor with a metal ping.  Swiftwind chose that moment to make his move and lashed out at the unicorn with his hooves.  The unicorn’s iron shoes sent sparks flying as they impacted the shield surrounding Rivets.  It was enough to cause her to drop the rifle she’d taken and send a flicker through the entire field, turning her now glowing gaze upon the head of security she smirked up at him. 

“You want your bed toy so much...have him!”  Harvest whipped around and slammed into Swift, knocking both stallions to the floor in a tangled heap of limbs. This had to stop, before somepony got killed.

Lunging across the table I emptied my shotgun as I charged across the office.  The shells harmlessly impacting against the shield, but it caused the unicorn within to flinch.  With a cry, I crossed the last few paces by jumping up onto the desk and into Rivets.  For a moment I was held in midair, eyes fixed on the glowing orbs of the crazed former Director.  But only for a moment, as the barrage of rounds I’d fired had overwhelmed the unicorn’s control and with a pop the shield faded.  I crashed into Rivets and slammed my empty shotgun against her face, causing her to cry out in pain and shock.

“You think you’ve won!?” the crazed pony yelled into my face, and I snarled around the bit of my shotgun as she shoved her hooves against the barrel, “You're NOTHING compared to what's coming!!  You and your little band of would-be heroes...ohh the voice has told me soo much about what you think your going to do.”  Lashing out with a hoof she snapped my head back and I spotted Fuse crawling for her wheelchair and Stone laying prone on the floor...there was no sign of Wild. 

“Yeah, yeah, tell it to somepony who gives a damn!” I turned back and brought my own hoof back to slam it into Rivets face, hearing bone break, but she hardly seemed to notice.

“You who bring a murderess along with you on your fool's quest!”  I raised my hoof for another strike but paused at that, murderess?  Who was she - “Oh yes, your dear little friend...she never told you what she did to us did she?” Rivets grinned, blood running down her nose turning her teeth red. 

“Rivets! Stop this madness!!” Fuse yelled out, looking as shocked as the rest of us.

“Madness?” the unicorn under me hissed, and started to giggle, oh that wasn’t creepy as shit at all, her horn glowed bright once again and I was pushed away from her, to slam into a wall near the doors.  As I dropped to the floor, I groaned and picked myself up again, head spinning.

“You have NO idea what's out there, dear Fuse...NO IDEA!”

“And you do?  You’ve never set hoof outside this Dome your entire life Rivets!!” Fuse shot back, climbing up shakingly atop her wheelchair, eyes fixed on the gray unicorn.

“He’s told me all I need to know.” 

“Who?” Fuse asked, looking confused, that was the second time Rivets had mentioned somepony else.  Were Swift and Harvest correct? Was there more than just a single mad unicorn at work within the Dome?

“He speaks to me in here.”  She tapped a hoof against her head and her eyes rolled around slowly, “But...now that’s enough talk, it’s time to finish this and claim what was once mine.” 

I grunted and tried to reach for my revolver, it was all I had left on me, my saddlebags and assault rifle I’d left back at our quarters.  Rivets began to float slowly towards Shortfuse, hooves never touching the floor.  The disabled unicorn shook her head in disbelief and tried to rise to her hooves, only to crash back atop her wheelchair.  I looked around, everypony else was only just now coming to, or beginning to pick themselves up, they’d never be able to stop Rivets in time, and neither would I. 

Luckily, somepony else would.

With a flash of orange and a flutter of feathered wings, Wildfire tackled Rivets from behind and the two mares went spinning across the office towards the wall.  Wrapping her forehooves around Rivet’s neck, the pegasus made sure she took the full force of the blow as the pair slammed into the metal wall.

Picking herself up, my winged friend shook her red mane and shook her head slowly, behind her, Rivets was beginning to stand, horn glowing as she hissed.

“You winged whore...” Rivets hissed but Wild cut her off, rearing up on her front hooves.

“Bitch, please.” her hind legs lashed out and caught the unicorn in the chin, bucking her hard enough into the wall that she actually bounced off and landed in front of the pegasus.

“I don’t think she’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.”  Wild stepped past the finally unconscious Rivets, giving the unicorn another kick to the head for good measure.  She looked back to me, and it was clear she’d caught what Rivets had said to me.  Her blue eyes looked away quickly before she trotted past me to help Fuse back into her wheelchair. 

Fuse for her part looked none the worse for the fall she’d taken, the orange unicorn having managed to avoid most of Rivets’ wraith.  She did look worriedly over towards her son.

“Harvest?”

“I’m fine *cough* mom, just a sore throat is all,” her son replied, offering a smile to his worried mother.  He lay on the ground where he had been dropped, rubbing his throat with a hoof as he got his wits back.  Beside him, Swift had climbed back to his hooves and looked as worried as Fuse.

Of the three security ponies, two had picked themselves up already and were checking on their still downed friend.  They’d hit the window with a lot of force, and I was surprised to see that they’d come out of it was little more then dented armor.  

Swift scanned the room before spotting the still form of Rivets laying in the corner, narrowing his eyes, the unicorn stallion trotted over towards the mare, two pairs of hoof cuffs floating from his armor as well as a smaller lock.

Well, that could have gone so much worse.

“How is Rivets?” Fuse asked, as her horn glowing as she brought her wheelchair over towards Swift.  I carefully made my way over to them as well, my head still spinning from that toss.

Swift glanced back down to the mare in question and lightly prodded her with a hoof, she groaned but remained out for the time being.  He had already gotten the cuffs around her legs and was slipping the smaller one over her horn.  Ah, a magic suppressor, to keep unicorn suspects from using their magic to escape.

“She’s out for the moment, but we should probably do something with her before she wakes up.”  I’d never seen a unicorn with that much raw power before, not even Brightblade had been able to do such things, and he had always seemed a power magic user.

“Should kill the bitch,” Wild growled, blue eyes narrowed on the gray mare lying between Swift and I, “After all she’s done it’s what she deserves.”

I couldn’t fault the logic in that, after all she had killed a half dozen ponies in her crazed attempt to seize power of the Dome from Fuse.  How many more lives would she have taken if she’d been allowed to remain in control?  And all because she was afraid of the outside and following the orders of the voices in her head.  I grunted and shook my head.

That was something I could understand; the being afraid of the surface, not the voices.  Everypony in Stable 45 had been afraid of what lay on the surface, even me.  And what I had learned since coming up here had only made me more afraid.  But I had learned to deal with it, just like everypony else in the Stable had, not just hide from it as Rivets had intended.

“No - no I can’t do that...Swift?”  At his name, the security chief looked up from his work at securing Rivets.

“Yes, Director?”

“Take her down to the cells please, and see to it a doctor looks at her.  Have yourself and your ponies looked over as well,” Fuse ordered, looking down at the prone Rivets and rubbing her head slowly.

Turning back to his security team, the three stepped over and began lifting the slumped gray unicorn off the floor in their combined magical fields and started towards the door.  As the doors shut behind them, Fuse wheeled herself over to the desk and looked to the smoking ruin of the computer terminal.

“I had no idea she was such a powerful unicorn,” I said, stepping back to rejoin Wild and Stone.  Harvest was helping the third security pony to the door, by the way she was limping I guessed she had broken a leg in the fall. 

“She shouldn’t have been,” Fuse spoke up after lightly floating the parts of the terminal up onto the desk, “She could barely lift a thing with her horn for the past few years, she was quite old.”

“Maybe in her crazed state she was able to wield more power?” Wild suggested, it sounded as good an answer as any at the moment, “I still say you should have killed her, Fuse, you can’t keep her locked up forever, the old bat might live to be a hundred.”

“Maybe, but I doubt you’d be able to order the death of your own mother so easily,” the orange pony said as she sat in her wheelchair.

Wild blinked and took a few steps back in shock as it seemed she’d put all four hooves into her mouth with her earlier suggestion.  Even I was surprised by this, and shared a look with my friends before turning back to Fuse.

“That’s your - your mother?” Wild asked, her voice losing much of its strength in the face of this news.

“Yes.”  With a tired sigh, Shortfuse rolled herself around behind the desk and her horn glowed softly as she pressed a control upon the desk top, “Have a maintenance team sent to my office as soon as possible for cleanup and repair.”  The link went dead and she looked sadly over to me.

“Thank you once again, all of you. Harvest, see to it they seen to by medical, and yourself as well, son.”

Harvest nodded and asked us to follow him, as he supported the limping mare, Stone stepped up to help.  Wild glanced back once to Fuse before she followed the others to the door.  I was about to do the same when Fuse called out for me to stay.  I turned away from my friends as they followed the stallion out the doors and looked back to the orange unicorn behind her desk.

“How bad is it beyond these walls?” she asked suddenly and I blinked, “I’ve barely been a mile from the Dome, my daughter and Ash are the only ponies from Steeldome that have been so far away, and not all of them returned.  I need to know how bad it really is out there, I’ve listened to the radio, heard the news about raiders and mutants.  We’ve seen it first hoof when they attacked us but they never managed to make it past our defences.”

“I’m not sure how much you could rely on my information, I’ve only been on the surface for three or four days, surely it would be better to talk to Wildfire or Stonehoof.  Or the traders that pass through?” I asked her, sitting down beside the desk.

“I’ve asked, and I’ve learned much about the outside from them, but they have been dealing with the real world for their whole lives.  Ponies like us, we have lived sheltered lives, away from threats like radscorpions and raiders.”  Sighing, she lays her head upon the desk and looks up at me, “I want to hear it from a point of view I could relate to.”

Nodding my head, I walked back towards the desk and sat down across from her.

“Where to begin...”



Welcome to Level 7!

Perk Added: Entomologist: Creepy crawlies have troubled you long enough! With this perk, you do an additional +50% damage every time you attack a mutated insect, like the radroach, bloatsprite,  giant ant, or radscorpion.  And the best part is, you won’t need a grenade launcher to do it with!!

> Chapter 07: To Tartarus And Back
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7: To Tartarus And Back


The way is shut


it was made by those who are dead


and the dead keep it.


The way is shut...



Despite my desire to leave once the repairs to the sky chariot had been finished, I agreed to wait a few hours more before we left the safety of Steeldome for the long road ahead of us.  The rest would do both Wildfire and myself some good, as we were still recovering from our injuries incurred from the trip out to the Power Station, and the fight with Rivets in the Tower.  It also gave Stonehoof the chance to finish any trading he wished to do with the locals.  After our recent efforts in helping the ponies of the Dome, much of the distrust they had felt towards outsiders had vanished.  All it took was nearly dying by radscorpion venom, yeah, not going that route again anytime soon.  The large gray earth pony was out doing just that, stocking up on as much ammo and supplies as he could for our upcoming trip.  He’d mentioned hearing of somepony selling rare types of ammo before he left and had gone to check up on that as well.  It’d be nice to have a few more rounds for my revolver than what I had currently.  This left Wild and myself to lay about inside our temporary quarters in the Dome, something neither one of us was good at, it seems.  The mare sat across from me on a old worn yellow couch checking her battle saddle’s rifles.  She’d hardly said two words since the fight with Rivets, the crazed mares words having struck the pegasus hard.

I looked away from my friend and sighed softly to myself.  It was clear her past mistake troubled her greatly, but until she decided to talk about it, there was little I could do and I wasn’t about to force her to talk about it and reopen a wound that ran deeply.  Laying my head down upon the arms of the couch I was resting on, my mind began to wander to the tasks that still lay ahead.  For all that I had done, I was somewhat further away from Ebony than when I started.  Wild had said the trip would take us only a few hours by air, and we should reach Kanter City by nightfall.  It seemed the best time to approach the city at least, with guards patrolling the walls and griffon mercenaries circling from the air.  We’d land in the small half-built town of Sticks under the cover of darkness and use the subway tunnels Wild had used to escape the city before to sneak inside.  Once we got past the hazards and ghouls that she said lived in the tunnels, it would only be a matter of finding my sister with my Pipbuck.  It was a long shot, but it was also the only shot I had at finding Ebony.

“How can you trust me?” Wild’s question snapped me back from my thoughts and broke the silence that had built between us over the past few hours.  I glanced across the room to the orange-winged mare, a partially rebuilt rifle laying between her hooves, its twin propped up beside the couch where the saddle lay.  Though she had her eyes fixed upon the parts, it was clear she wasn’t really seeing the parts.

“You’ve given me no reason not to trust you, Wild...should I not?” I asked her.  She looked away and frowned, rubbing one of her forehooves into the couch and nudging the barrel of her rifle with her nose before looking back to me.  While I haven’t known her more than two or three days, this did not seem typical for the pegasus.  I decided to press on, “You saved Stone and myself at the well, and you’ve gone out of your way since then to help me now.  Despite what you might say, I think you really want to help.”  Just then the front door opened to our temporary home and Stonehoof trotted inside.  The gray stallion stopping as he noticed the uncharacteristic look on Wild’s face and perked his ears towards me.

“I thought after what Rivets said -” she began, but I quickly cut her off, sitting up on my couch to turn and face her better.

“I don’t trust what Rivets said, Wild.  The mare was out of her mind, talking about voices in her head.”  I held up a hoof to the side of my head and made a circle in the air (the universal sign for a crazy pony). “It was also pretty clear she was twisting the words to suit her point of view, and one thing I’ve learned from working in security is that there are always two sides to every story.”

“It's true,” she said, looking down to her hooves on the couch, her long red mane falling across her face hiding her green eyes from me. 

Stone quietly shut the door behind him with a light kick and shrugged his heavy packs off his flanks to lay them in the floor; judging by the sounds coming from inside, he had good luck with his trading.

“I know and I’m fairly sure Stone has managed to figure enough of it out himself.” The gray pony nodded his head slowly as he looked over to Wild with a patent smile.  She jerked her head up to look towards us both, a surprised look in her green eyes.

 “Do you want to tell us about it?” I wasn’t sure if I should have asked it, given how she’d reacted before when I’d pressed, but she had brought it up this time.  For his part, Stone remained silent, sitting down beside his packs.

“You deserve to know who you’re traveling with,” she began, hooves working on her rifle as she spoke. “When I mentioned to you yesterday morning that I’d been given files on Steeldome, I hadn’t said why.  The Enclave had known about Steeldome for some time, but only recently had they decided to take it for themselves.  I was given the plans, because I was the one who was supposed to plan the entire attack.  But I never was one to just sit idly by.  Rivets was right when she told you I led the attack on the town, along with twelve other pegasi and the fire support of the sky chariot.”  She looked up to me, green eyes fixed upon my face as she continued, “You know I was a soldier of the Enclave, a Wing Commander.  I won’t bother saying I was just following orders, as that excuse has always sounded weak to my ears.  I knew what I was doing and could have said no.  We’d been told that Steeldome was under the control of the Steel Rangers and that it held secrets that would help us feed our people.”

“How’s that?” Stone asked from the door. I’d managed to figure it out after the talk we’d had at Crossroads a few nights back but let her explain it to Stone. 

“Like I told Shadow at Crossroads, raw materials for weapons and armor are hard to come by in the clouds.  But so is food, and there’s barely enough to feed each city in the Enclave and rarely is there any to spare.  What food we grow ourselves is dependent upon the pegasus towers that were built near the end of the war by Rainbow Dash and scattered across Equestria. I have no real idea how it works, so don’t ask; to be honest, I don’t think many know how it really works, but so far as I’ve been able to tell, it doesn’t work very good.  There have been strict laws in place to control the population of each city, so same sex relationships are encouraged by the government, earning a pony special food.  Families are allowed one foal, unless they have family in the military.  That earns a family extra rations and the right to have another foal.  But even then, it can still be very tight, and some accidents happen.”  At the word “accident,” she closed her eyes and rubbed a hoof against her cheek before continuing.

Stone and I shared a knowing look. I’d already been forming a low opinion of the Enclave, but it was dropping with every passing second.  Neither of us interrupted the tale, although Stone moved over towards Wild and sat down beside her, the pegasus opening her eyes and looking up as she heard him approach. A slight smile formed on her lips before it faded and she continued her tale.

“Fuck, anyway, I’m sure you're wondering what any of this has to do with Steeldome. Well, about eight years ago, a dragon attacked the city of Windfall, north of Stormport.  I’d just been promoted to wing commander and was one of three Wings sent to try and help our neighboring city.  By the time our sky chariots arrived, it was far too late.  The dragon had left and what remained of Windfall was falling to the ground.”  I idly wondered how that could be, since from what little I knew of pegasi cities was they were made of clouds, but decided to ask another time.

“We could have saved the city in a few days, since it would take weeks for it to crash into the wasteland.  But it seemed the damned dragon wasn’t finished with the city, and was intent on its total destruction.  Or maybe it was just coming back to kill us, who the hell knows.  Whatever its reasoning, we didn’t have anything heavy enough to take it out.  No Raptor was within a hundred miles of Windfall, and I doubt the Enclave would have risked one.  Our commander ordered us to save as many of the wounded as we could and retreat.  We lost half the population to the attack, and the rest were horribly wounded.”

 “When we arrived back in Stormport, we contacted the Enclave to report what had happened and request help with the refuges.  There was barely enough food for us, let alone over two hundred survivors.” I could see where this was going. “They regretfully informed us that there was no food to spare and told us to do the best we could.  They’d send help as soon as they could...basically, they told us to fuck off.”

“So, when somepony found information about what Steeldome had been in our pre war records, a recon team was sent down to check it out.” With a loud snap, the barrel of her rifle slid home into the body of the weapon. “The report I saw showed a number of Steel Rangers in control of the facility, with a few of their acolytes in salvaged security barding, as well as the facility’s automated systems.  There’s no love lost between The Rangers and the Enclave; they’d happily take any chance to kill one another.”

"So ya’ll attacked,” Stone said simply, and the mare nodded her head, working the remaining parts of her rifle into place with practiced ease as she spoke.

“So we attacked.  We dropped in at night, using the dark to cover our approach to the Dome. The automated defenses took down two of my fliers on the approach, but we managed to destroy most of them.  Once we had hooves on the ground, we blasted our way inside through a side access hatch the recon team had spotted.  Didn’t take much; I suppose the builders never intended this place to fend off an attack.  Inside we started taking fire from what I thought was Steel Rangers acolytes.  We...killed several of them as we pushed our way into the Dome.” She let the rifle rest beside the other as she reached over and picked up the saddle with her mouth, setting it between her hooves she reached for a screwdriver to work on it. Stone sat beside her, watching the pegasus work, ears perked to listen to her story. 

“We started taking casualties: four killed, with three more wounded, but able to fight, so we pressed on.  We all knew what was at stake, and how much Stormport needed the food.  It wasn’t until we started into the center of town that I began to sense something wasn’t right.”  Her hoof worked the screwdriver to tighten up anything loose on the metal harnesses for the rifles of the saddle, “I started getting reports of civvies running for cover. The Steel Rangers were never known for keeping anypony around who wasn’t able to fight or wasn’t useful to them in someway, so this was unexpected.  Despite them being dirt ponies, we would never stoop to killing innocent ponies.” 

“I ordered everypony to hold their position while I tried to figure out what was going on. Bluesky was running back to cover when he took a shot to his wing and went down. I went out to drag him back into cover...,” the screwdriver she held began to shake as her words spilled out more quickly, “...I never saw the filly, just the security guard...he - he must have been trying to protect her, fuck I dunno.  I thought he was getting ready to fire on Blue or me...I snapped off a quick shot...just to force him into cover.  The filly stumbled in front of the security guard...”

I closed my eyes and lowered my head; beside the door Stone reached a hoof up to remove his worn hat from his head, the gray earth pony reaching a hoof up to lay it against her shoulder.  I had some idea of what to expect, but not that.  Across from us, Wild let the screwdriver drop from her hoof and Stone easily caught it before it could roll under the couch.

“After that...I pulled my team back to the wall and returned to Stormport.”

“Wild, it weren’t yer fault.  Ya rightly didn’t know...,” Stone started to say, but the mare wasn’t finished, and cut him off.

“When we returned to base, I was told I had been mistaken, that I hadn’t seen a filly, but an enemy combatant getting ready to kill Bluesky.  They wanted me to change my report, to keep quiet about the whole thing.  Fuck them, they tried to give me a Celestia damned medal saying I’d saved the life of a wounded soldier.”  Grief was giving way to anger now.  “I told them where they could stick their fucking medal and was relieved of duty and dragged off to a holding cell.  They told my family I had been infected by some surface disease and needed to be quarantined.”

“They told me I could either change my story or become a Dashite.  Either way, they’d be sending another team down to finish what I’d started.  Fuck me, we’d become little better than the damned raiders.”  Her stormy blue eyes narrowed.  With a half sob she glanced back to her flank and the odd mark she bore upon it.

“I told’em where to go fuck themselves, so they branded me a Dashite.  Took four of them to hold me down while a fifth burned away my cutie mark and branded me a traitor.  After that, they tossed me into a cell until they could be troubled with letting me go to the surface or killing me.  Luckily for me, Bluesky and most of my wing had heard what had happened, I was only in the cell for a few hours before they came for me.”  She looked from Stone to me, “With their help and the help of a few pegasi who seemed to know what was going on, we took our equipment and the sky chariot back to the surface. I wasn’t going to just let those bastards get away with murder.” 

“So, you fought the second team?” I asked, head tilted to the side. That was quite the risk.

“You bet your plot we fought those bastards.”  The mare narrowed her eyes and growled. Beside her Stone snorted softly, smiling at the fierce temper of the pegasus. “They’d just started attacking the Dome when we caught up with them.  Pinned between the surviving security ponies and my wing they fought to the end.”  With a stomp of her hoof, she looked away.

“After the fight, Shortfuse thanked me for what we’d done...I didn’t understand it; she knew I was the one who lead the first attack, but she was thanking me.”

“Everypony makes mistakes, Wild.  It would have been easier for you to just walk away from what was happening, or to simply go along with what the Enclave wanted you to do.  But you didn’t,” I said, looking squarely into those stormy blue eyes, seeing a hint of tears ready to fall but held back, “You fought to fix your mistake and I think Fuse respects you for that.”

“Shadow’s right, Wild.  Ya did what ya thought was right for those dependin’ on ya.  But when th’ truth became clear, ya did th’ right thing. If ya hadn’t, a lot more innocent pony’s would’a died.” Stone reached a hoof up once more and turned Wild’s face back towards us, or rather himself, “Rivet’s was just tellin’ it twisted-like; she didn’t know th’ whole story.  Ah reckon both Shadow and ah have no trouble with trustin’ ya.”

“Like I already said, you saved both Stone and myself when you didn’t have to.  I wouldn’t leave the fate of my sister in the hooves of a pony I didn’t trust,” I added to Stone’s words, smiling over to the pegasus as she looked between us.

With her story told, the winged mare looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her back, and within an hour was mostly back to her old self.  With the help of Stonehoof, the two managed to finish reassembling her battle saddle and were now replacing the rifles into their metal holsters.  She’d told us a good deal of her past in just that one go; still, I wondered what had become of her fellow pegasi that had defected with her.  And how had she ended up in Kanter City?  At the moment, I let those questions go. She had told us as much as she was willing to, and I’d trust her to tell us the rest when she was ready.  The three of us looked up as a hoof knocked upon our door.

I rose from my place on the couch, leaving them to finish tightening the screws on her weapons. Walking towards the door, I opened it to find two ponies standing outside our temporary home.  Both I knew fairly well given the short amount of time I’d been in the city. 

Shortfuse still sat in her chair, something likely never to change for the middle aged orange unicorn. She looked rested given the events earlier in the day, with fresh bandages wrapped around her right shoulder and hoof.

Beside the mare stood her daughter, Gearhearts.  The young filly was looking up to me with a grin full of youthful energy and joy.  Her white coat was once again covered in grease and other dark stains.  She still wore her saddlebags, with tools and bits of machinery tucked into the worn packs.  Her mother was about to speak, but Gearhearts managed to speak up first.

“It’s finished!”

Smiling back to the young filly, I heard my friends walk up behind me.

“Then it’s high time we got to going.”



	*     *     *     *     *



Stone and I stood before the now fully repaired and flight-ready sky chariot. Its sleek black armored hull reflected the overhead lighting, giving the machine a rather deadly look.  Both doors to the passenger compartment stood open, and I could see ponies standing on the other side of the chariot.  All around us, the ponies of Steeldome had began to arrive to see us off, and though I knew only a hooffull of them, they all seemed to know me.

“I wish we could do more,” Fuse said from beside me. Turning, I looked to the mare and she smiled up at me, “You and your friends have done far more for Steeldome than anypony else in a long time.”  She offered her unwounded hoof to me, and I took it gently, shaking it.

“I’d like to say we did it for the right reasons, but -” 

“You did it to save your sister, something I can relate to.” Harvest said as he stepped up beside his mother, nodding his head to me he continued, “You didn’t have to try and stop Rivets, or push my sister out of the path of that bullet.”

“I suppose not, but my parents didn’t raise me to look the other way,” I responded, releasing Fuse’s hoof and smiling to both ponies before focusing on Fuse, “What will you do now?” I asked her.  Behind me, I heard Stone walk over to help Wild into the pilot yoke of the chariot, as well as the energetic voice of Gearhearts as she tried to help the two.

“I don’t know; without my mother’s help, I am unsure if we can ever get the power talisman hooked up correctly to the generators.  I think - I think it’s about time we stopped hiding behind our walls and maybe get out there and start helping.”  My smile widened upon hearing those words and I nodded my head.

“I think the ponies of Crossroads would welcome your help.” 

“Thank you, Shadow. Now...go save your sister.” Fuse said, with a nod of her head towards the chariot.  I bowed my own head to both, and turned away.

As I approached the front of the chariot, Wild had just finished being strapped into the harness and was working a few of the controls built into the sides of the piloting yoke.  She stopped, looking up to me as I drew closer, and grinned.

“Well then, kid.  You ready to travel in style?” Beside her, Stone smirked and finished his work on the harnesses before walking around beside me.  Gearhearts unplugged her hoofheld terminal from the side of the yoke and trotted back to her mother’s side. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered with a grin of my own.  Wild seemed far more at ease around us now, “You sure you're up for this?”

“Pfft, just try and stop me.”  Her wings flared out fully, the orange feathers glowing softly in the overhead lighting and giving a mighty snap downwards, blowing up dirt and leaves.

“Ah reckon we might wanna climb aboard ‘fore she takes off without us,” Stone said with a chuckle, a hoof raised to hold his hat in place from the sudden blast of air.

“Put on the headsets beside the seats, so we can remain in contact more easily with one another,” Wild called out as we turned away from her and walked towards the open doors.

With a cheer or two from the crowd of ponies, we climbed aboard. I expected our hooves to ring loudly once we entered the passenger compartment, but found them muffed by the sheet of rubber thrown across the floor.  It was as black inside as it was out, the overhead lighting casting a dim glow upon the empty seats and our saddlebags laying in the floor. 

We both found the headsets, and slipped them on over our heads. At first I heard nothing but static in my ear; then Wild’s voice came through.

“You colts ready back there?” 

“Take us up, Wild,” I said into the mic. A moment later, the entire chariot rocked and I braced my hooves against the floor.  We heard and felt a steady hum run through the length of the compartment below us.  I carefully made my way to the edge of the doorway and looked out, as more dirt and debris began to blow away from below us as we rose into the air.  Outside, ponies were waving to us as we rose higher, Shortfuse and her family among them. 

As Wild began to turn us slowly away from the ponies below and point us towards the Dome’s outer wall, I was beginning to wonder how exactly we were going to get out (odd, I know, but I was a bit too excited to be finally leaving to notice that until now).  A second later my unasked question was answered, as a portal began to open up atop the wall.  Two doors slid back into releases within the wall itself, forming a perfect square.  Well, it stood to reason that they had to have had a way to get the building materials into the dome somehow, and the front door was far too narrow.

Leaning out a bit from the doorway, I spotted Wild in front of us, flapping her wings steadily as she began pulling us forwards.  As I watched, we passed through the widening gap and soared out into the evening skies of the wasteland.  Looking back, the doors slowly began to close behind us, but I quickly lost sight of them as Wild once again changed our heading and we doubled back, skimming atop the surface of the hilltop and beginning to speed east. 

Hang on Ebony, I’m on my way...





	*     *     *     *     *



I closed my eyes as the warm air blew across my mane and face. Taking a deep breath, I smiled; up here the scent of ash and death seemed so far away, and I could almost imagine the world as it had been so long ago.  Almost.  Opening my eyes wide to look across the vast open expanse of the Povoni Desert, I could see for miles in every direction; at least, as much as the narrow open doorway would allow.  Casting my eyes downwards to the rapidly passing ground below us, I watched the railroad tracks zip past; we were traveling so quickly, they were little more than a blur.  Following them would take us directly to Kanter City, and with there being so few other landmarks in the desert, it made sense to follow them.  Looking up, I scanned the landscape once more, but beyond cactus, rocks, sand and more sand there was little else to see.  The odd building passed by below us, the ruins of a long abandoned train stop or maintenance shed.  I wondered if the survivors who settled Crossroads had stopped at them, or if they had passed them on by as we had.

Looking further forward on the chariot, I craned my neck to try and spot the pilot of our new ride.  The orange pegasus wore the kevlar yoke of the chariot, resting between her shoulders and in front of her wings; the feathered limbs rose and fell rapidly as she pulled us through the darkening sky.  Upon her head was a black armored helmet. It looked oddly familiar, and I recalled her having another like it in her shack back near Crossroads.  A piece of Enclave armor?  She’d mentioned that the pegasi used a type of power armor.  My thoughts were derailed a moment later as her voice came through the headset I wore atop my ears.  

“Checking out my flank again, kid?” she said, turning her visored head back towards me, a grin dancing across her lips.  I smirked back and shook my head at the mare.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Wild,” I answered back into my own mic. “How are you holding up?”  We’d been flying for several hours now; the sky overhead was darkening as night fell. Before much longer it would be nearly pitch black.  My first night at Lonesome Hoof came back to me, but I doubted Wild would need to worry about falling into a ditch or stumbling across a nest of scorpions while in the sky.

“Good; I’m not so out of shape that I can’t pull a skinny-ass Stable pony and one overweight earth pony a couple miles.”  I could hear the grin in her voice and chuckled, glad that she seemed in good spirits.  Behind me, Stone, who had been doing a little maintenance on his rifle, spoke up.

“Ah’m not overweight...just big boned is all.”  The earth pony’s hat sat beside him, tucked under his saddlebags to keep the strong winds blowing inside the compartment from ripping it out.  As I thought of said wind blowing into the chariot, I glanced back to the two air vents positioned at the top of the rear wall.  The air was being pushed out through them, keeping the drag to a minimum, or so Wild had said.  This was completely beyond me. It was enough that it worked or else I’d imagine we’d be slowed down by the drag.

“Oh?  I thought you had a small d -,” the mare began, but I quickly cut her off before she could finish that comment; as it was, Stone muttered to himself and went back to working on his rifle.

“How much longer until we reach the city?”

“We’re nearly there now, its just over the next rise actually, if you want a look, ya might wanna move to the other door.  I’m not taking us very close.”  I nodded, then stopped, realising she wouldn’t be able to see me.  I snorted and moved away from the doorway, stepping across the rubber covered floor (which I soon learned was to give the ponies inside traction to walk as the chariot moved about) to the other side of the compartment.  Stone had already climbed to his hooves and was standing there, peering out into the darkening landscape.

“Never seen it?”  I asked the earth pony as I settled in beside him in the doorframe, following his green eyes to the horizon ahead of us.

“No, can’t say ah rightly have. Ain’t a place a pony goes to for sight seein’,” was his response. Ahead of us, the ground began to rise sharply.  We skimmed the desert floor as the ground climbed towards our transport, before sailing out across the edge of a cliff as the ground dropped suddenly away from us.  We soared out across the vast open plains once more and at once I spotted it, a dark twisted thing jutting up from the wasteland. My eyes widened at the sight.

Before us lay the ruined metropolis of Kanter City, by all accounts the source of all the surrounding wasteland’s troubles, as well as my own.  It was likely the prison to which my sister and the others stolen from my Stable had been taken.  It was also the home of an army of raiders and their griffon allies, where ponies unlucky enough to be captured were brought for reasons still unknown.  I narrowed my eyes and felt my ears swivel back at the foreboding mass of steel and stone we were circling. 

Like everything else in the wasteland, time had not been kind to the once lively city.  The outskirts of the city were a mass of small buildings and roadways, all dark and left to be reclaimed by the wasteland.  Tall shattered towers rose up from the heart of the city, jagged rips and tears opening them to the night sky.  Not a single one stood unbroken in some way, and all had had their tops sheared away long ago by the blasts that had killed the once-mighty city.  For a moment, I was reminded of the Stable’s graveyard we’d built upon the surface.  These twisted remains of the once mighty skyscrapers reminded me of the weathered tombstones.  Oddly fitting given that for over a century and a half, this city had become a mass grave for the thousands of ponies that had died here, and, by all accounts, that were still dying within its borders.

The only signs of life from this far away were tall, dark pillars of smoke rising from between the towers.  The red glow of fire burned within the city’s heart, hidden behind a massive defensive wall that had been built sometime after the bombs had fallen.  It did not encircle the entire city, but only a small section of it, along with what appeared to be the train yards. 

With a dip of Wild’s right wing, we began to descend from the sky and circle around the ruined city.  As she took us southeast, we passed across one of the old highways that entered the city. Tearing my gaze away from the ruins, I looked below us.  Ruined chariots lay everywhere upon the highway, some overturned, others simply abandoned.  Many appeared to have been burned.  They ranged in size from a small family wagon to larger buses and emergency vehicles of every type.  I wondered how many of the ponies trying to escape their homes had died on the road below us when the Zebras unleashed their weapons on Kanter City.

My eyes rose and once more fixed upon the city as we passed by it.  It was impossible to make out much more from this distance and in the darkness, but I knew one thing...it was huge.  Even taking into account the fact that we’d only need to search the areas behind those walls, that still left us several dozen city blocks to search along with the buildings.  A glance to the train yard made me wonder if they hadn’t already been moved somewhere else.  I could make out a long black shape sitting within the yard, likely the train Stone had said the raiders used.  Was the tunnel clear?

I sat down hard on my backside and watched the city pass by, before Wild turned us south, where we’d land and try and make our way into the city by the subway tunnels.  I closed my eyes and felt my heart tighten in my chest as a single thought ran through my mind. 

How the hell was I supposed to find my sister in all that?  



	*     *     *     *     *



Stone had returned to his weapon as we flew south, Kanter City growing distant behind us as we followed the dust covered roadway below.  It would lead us to the subway station and our way inside the city.  My mind wandered from the daunting task ahead of us and I watched the faded yellow lines of the road whip past, a rusted hulk of a chariot appearing and disappearing as we flew across the desert swiftly.  Wild had taken us lower to the ground, attempting to avoid being spotted by any griffin patrols that may happen our way.  Luckily our chariot blended in with the darkness of the wasteland, and any patrol would have to have keen eyes to spot us.  There seemed to be little risk of discovery, and the further south we traveled the slower our speed became.  A beep from my Pipbuck told me we were nearing our destination and a moment later Wild confirmed it.

“We’re here. I’ll need your help to find a good hiding place for the chariot.”

Sticks.  As the town’s name suggested it was little more than a collection of half built wooden frame homes constructed in the dry arid desert for the rail yard workers of Kanter City.  Its real name, I noticed, was to be ‘Steelhaven,’ as shown on a half-collapsed billboard.  The little suburb had only begun being built when the bombs destroyed most of Equestria, and judging by the looks of it, a blast wave had toppled several of the homes here. 

Dozens of unfinished wooden homes lay across the desert floor, several being little more than wooden beams sticking up from piles of sand.  It really did look like somepony had simply tossed a pile of sticks down across the ground and left them where they had fallen.  There were a few that had been finished however, but even these had weathered the ages poorly and the blast wave even less.  Like everywhere else I had been, trash littered the ground between the ruins and the odd glint of metal hinted at something buried beneath the sand.  I was just about to suggest we try and find another place to stash the chariot when I heard Stone call out through the headset.

“Ta yer left, near th’ edge of town.  Th’ roof’s caved in on th’ home but ah reckon that’s a garage o’ some sort next ta th’ home.” I abandoned my door and trotted over to Stone’s, poking my head out to look at where the stallion pointed a hoof.  Sure enough, there it was, and just as he said there was a sealed chariot garage beside the house. 

Wildfire turned us slowly until she was facing the home, and began to fly towards it. Within seconds we were hovering barely a half dozen hooves above the home.  From this angle, I could easily see inside the home, the roof having fallen in years ago. By the looks of the wooden beams, it had been due to rot.  The home was a shell, only half finished rooms with no furnishings.  The garage connected to the building, however, was in far better shape. As we neared the ground, I saw it was large enough for us to park the chariot inside, likely with room to spare.  Wild began to lower us closer to the ground, and dust kicked up by her wings and whatever powered the chariot flew up into the compartment, causing me to snort.  With a slight bump, the landing wheels of the chariot touched down and we were once more on the ground, the cloud of dust beginning to drift away on the warm breeze.

As soon as the humming below me began to die down, I quickly hopped out of the chariot and moved around to the front beside Wild.  The mare looked tired, though she’d never admit it; her orange coat was covered in dirt and sweat.  I stepped up to the garage door in front of her and looked around for how it opened.  A latch near the ground seemed to be the most likely answer, so I placed my hoof upon it and pressed down. Nothing happened.  I snorted and looked closer. Seeing it had rusted over, I applied more pressure until my ears perked to the sound of a soft click.  I stepped back and the door began to roll up into the ceiling, revealing a dark room beyond.  Turning on my Pipbuck’s light, I quickly shined the small beam inside and panned it from right to left. 

The room was empty: not so much as a single piece of trash littered the cracked stone floor.  The walls were rotting, as was the roof, but it seemed safe enough.  I waved Wild forwards and stepped aside as she pulled the chariot into the garage.  Despite her lithe form and small size, I could see muscles rippling below her orange coat as the harness dug into her sides.  With a final groan from the chariot, its tail end slide inside the doorway.  Stone stepped out and trotted back towards the door to pull it closed, plunging us into near total darkness. 

I turned and focused my light upon Stone as I heard a couple of soft clicks coming from his direction.  Suddenly, light appeared from my earth pony friend; he’d dug an old battered lamp from his saddlebags (I swear, that pony carried a lot of shit in those things), and had lit it with a lighter.  Holding the handle in his mouth, he lowered it to the floor between us, casting the room in a dim glow.  I turned my Pipbuck’s light off and glanced to the worn pegasus working herself free of the harness.  I started to go help when Stone walked over and began to ease the straps off her body. 

“Well, that was right easier then I thought,” he said as he took the kevlar yoke from her back. The orange coated mare nodded her head in thanks and began working her wings slowly as she turned to face us both.

“Getting here was the easy part. Getting inside, past the patrols, finding his sister, and getting out again is the hard part,” she reminded us, and I had to agree with her.

After seeing Kanter City for myself, I could easily understand why Rose had tried to talk me out of this, and why Wild had said I was insane for even trying.  Yet here we all were.  I looked back to my two friends as they settled down beside the lamp; Stone had retrieved our saddlebags from the chariot and Wild was once more using hers for a pillow.  Had I brought them along on a suicide mission? 

“I just need a bit to rest, then we can make our way to the subway tunnel here in Sticks. From there it’ll be a few hours more to work our way back to Kanter City,” she said, as she lay her head back on her pack.

“It’ll be mornin’ by then; ain’t that a might risky?” Stone asked from beside her, digging around inside his own packs for a food and water.  He offered the latter to the mare who took it from him.

“Day or night, doesn't make a difference in Kanter City. The place is crawling with raiders at all hours of the day.  Regardless, they are more focused on keeping their captives inside then worrying about outsiders.  They won’t be expecting anypony to try and sneak inside, especially through the subway tunnels,” she answered after taking a long drink from his canteen and pulling a cigarette from the pouch on her armor.  Stone eyed the mare carefully as she started to light it, but she used the rough floor to strike the match and not his flank, “Wake me in a hour.” she said once she had finished her smoke, and laid down to get some sleep.

I settled down across from them to wait. As Stone began to eat, I decided to follow his example and turned to my saddlebags laying on the floor beside me.  Once we entered the subway, I had no doubt we’d have to move quickly to avoid detection of whatever called them home, and once inside the city, well...best to keep my energy up.

Unbuckling the pack with my nose and hoof, I flipped it open and looked inside.  I was far better equipped than when I’d left Stable 45 a few days ago.  Several packs of food and water greeted me as I rummaged around inside.  I decided to use up my older supplies first, since they had the best chance of going bad out here, so I withdrew the last of my food and water from home and began to unwrap them.  The last of my fresh carrots and apples (fresh as of four days ago at least) were set down between my front hooves.  Popping a carrot into my mouth, I began to chew as I looked for my last bottle of water; I still had my canteens and wanted to make room inside the pack for other items.  As my mouth closed around the top of the water bottle I caught sight of something tucked into the side of my pack, and, setting the water down beside my carrots and apples, I returned to my pack and withdrew a small collection of pages carefully wrapped in a ribbon.

Hmmm, I don’t remember packing this...?

As I chewed on another carrot, I unwrapped the package and unfolded the papers. I found myself looking at a photo of Ebony, Sugar Pie, and myself.  It had been taken during one of the Stable’s family picnic parties. We were on the orchard level, a large open area near the bottom of the Stable with large sun lamps built into the ceiling, similar to Steeldome’s own larger ones.  I was sitting beside one of the apple trees, as Sugar happily attempted to climb my back and reach one of the apples growing above my head.  Ebony sat smiling at the foal and was floating food from a picnic basket sitting beside her.  In the distance I could see other families from the Stable with their own children.

Moving the photo with a hoof, I looked more closely at the smiling family frozen there. Then I noticed something else under it.  Sliding the photo aside, I saw two sheets of paper.  The first was a hoof-drawn picture by a young foal made with watercolors; two black blobs and one smaller pink one.  A gray half circle around them.  I remembered the day when Sugar had drawn this for me, it had been a birthday present; a picture of her happy home and her family.  I smiled to the memory and gently pushed it aside.  Below the well worn sheet of paper was another. This one had been drawn more recently, and with crayons.  It was a map...more or less. On it was brown mountains, green hills and blue rivers.  A gray dot marked “old hom” was in the center.  Off to the left was a pink dot marked “nw hom.”  To the right of old home was another dot, out among a sea of browns and reds, the last mark on the paper was in blue.  ‘Mommy and Daddy.’

My eyes remained locked on that final marker, hoof rubbing the word ‘Mommy’ that had been written so carefully.  I’d come so far, only to think of turning back now, the near impossibility of my task thrown into my face by the sight of Kanter City?

No.

No, I couldn’t give up now, not when I was finally so close.  Not when there was even a small chance of this working.  I had a promise to keep. 

Across from me, Stonehoof finished his own meal and gently poked the pegasus’ side with a hoof, with a snort she woke and rolled over onto her hooves.  Had it already been an hour?  I looked back to the pictures between my hooves as I swallowed my last bite of apple. 

“Alright, lets get going,” Wild said as she extended her wings out fully before tucking them back to her sides and looked from Stone to me. “The sooner we get started, the sooner we can get this over with.” 

I couldn’t agree more.  Picking the pictures up carefully, I returned them to my saddlebags and tossed the empty bottle into the corner of the garage along with the empty papers in which my food had been wrapped.   Stone reached over for the lamp and blew the light out, casting us back into total darkness.  After letting our eyes adjust to the darkness, I stood up and trotted towards the garage door to push it open with a hoof.  The dim light of the wasteland night made its way into the dark room as the door rolled back up into the ceiling with a clank of metal.  Dust blew past the open doorway and the wind began to pick up outside.

Stepping past me, Wild walked out into the open and scanned the ruined homes around us as Stone stepped up beside her, adjusting his rifle across his neck as he waited for me to join them.  Following my friends, I pulled the garage door back down until I heard the latch click softly into place and releasing it, I turned back and walked up beside them.

“How far is th’ station?” Stone asked, placing a hoof atop his hat to keep it from blowing away in the strong wind.  I looked to the cloud- covered sky for any signs of a storm.  Beyond the normal gray cloud cover, there was no sign of rain, so at least we’d be dry this time.

“It’s in the center of town. Shouldn’t take us more then twenty minutes to reach it from here,” the mare replied, and started walking towards the north, following what had once been a road between the homes. Now it was merely a derelict maze of twisted timbers, sand, and metal.

As we worked our way towards where Wild said the station was located, I scanned the ruins we passed and began to notice something odd about them after a few minutes of walking.  Stopping, I lifted my right front leg up and pointed the beam of pale white light upon the wall of a nearly finished house.  Dozens of bullet holes stared back at me from the wall, along with a rust colored stain near the bottom and upon the pile of trash below the holes.  Scanning left, I saw more holes in the wall, some larger than others.  Stepping closer, I peered at the ground around the wall and my light passed across something white.  Blinking, I turned back and froze.

A pony’s skull smiled back at me from amongst a pile of fallen wood frames and boards, its empty eye sockets seemingly fixed on me.  I’d already seen my share of dead bodies thus far, so that was nothing new.  What was new was the size of the skull: it was huge, easily three times the size of my own, a crude metal helmet sitting atop it.  The other thing that shocked me was the teeth: pony teeth are flat, perfect for chewing our common foods such as grains and vegetables; these teeth were sharp, like a predator’s.  Looking closer, I could see more of the body sticking out from the rubble, long leg bones and a massive rib cage.  Bits of armor still clung to the remains in places. 

“Shadow?  What's wrong?” Stone asked. The earth pony had noticed I was no longer following them, and had begun walking back toward me.  A bit further ahead, Wild had stopped and was looking back to us.  As he drew closer, he caught sight of the skull and stopped, snorting softly, “Super Mutant.”  He spat on the ground beside the skull and checked his rifle by reflex.

“Super Mutant?  That’s a Super Mutant?” I asked.  Three Horns had mentioned them bothering settlements north of San Ponsisco before, and Rose had mentioned them as well.  Still, I hadn’t expected them to be so...large.  And this was simply the remains of one! What had it looked like when it’d been alive?

“Ah heard a detachment of them Steel Ranger’s tried ta take th’ town for a base,” he answered, stepping closer to the skull.  With his left hoof he poked at it lightly, causing the pile to groan a bit, “Been a right few years back when ah heard it.  Supposedly th’ town was a Super Mutant town or lair. Th’ two sides fought and destroyed half th’ town that weren’t already destroyed.”  He turned away from the skull and started back towards the waiting pegasus.  After glancing once more at the skull, I followed behind.

Working our way down the half blocked road, I began to see other signs of the town’s recent past: spent shell casings littered the roadway in places, empty clips and magazines dropped where they had been tossed aside in the frenzy of combat.  My hoof shattered a bottle that had been left in the open; perhaps a health potion?  There were other bodies too, including more large skeletons wearing makeshift armor plating and helmets and wielding massive clubs and guns.  Of the Steel Rangers’ dead, I saw only a single sign: a dented helmet sitting atop a metal pole shoved into the ground beside a mound of dirt; a makeshift grave marker for whoever was buried there.  I’d seen images of the Steel Ranger’s power armor before in history books and new videos.  This one’s eye lens had been cracked by the force of the blow that had caved in a side of the armor.  I could only imagine what the pony’s head inside that helmet had looked like. 

“Who won?” I asked as we passed the grave.  It had been made behind a large empty lot; a sign beside the road said it was to be the town’s school.

“From what ah remember, ah don’t think either side won.”  I looked back to my friend with a raised eyebrow and he explained, “The Ranger’s had th’ firepower and fancy armor, an’ the Super Mutants had numbers and brute strength.  At th’ end of th’ fight, there was only a small number of Rangers left.  Even though they had killed all th’ Mutants, there just weren’t enough of’ em to hold th’ town.”

All that fighting for nothing.  I stared back to the helmet before it was lost to the darkness. Turning back to the others, I quickened my pace.  Making our way further into town, I began to notice the buildings thinning out more and giving way to a large open area ahead of us.  Judging by the light posts spaced along the smooth surface, it was some sort of parking lot.  Still more signs of the fighting that had rampaged through the town were here: blast craters in the lot marked where grenades and other explosives had gone off.  There were also more spent casings everywhere; it seemed the fighting had focused here.  As I followed my two friends around a fallen wall, I spotted our destination and the center of the fighting. 

A mass of ruined brick and steel lay within the center of the lot. It had once been a three story building, but was now little more than a pile of rubble.  A ruined sign lay atop the rubble pile, reading ‘Tartarus Station’.  Everything was littered with holes, and piles of broken Super Mutant armor were all around the ruins.  Had the Rangers made a final stand here?  More importantly, how are we supposed to get inside the tunnels through that?  I frowned and was about to ask Wild just that when I noticed something in front of the station.  A set of stairs descending downwards covered by a half ruined roof. 

“The building was a office for the subway company that owned the town,” Wild pointed out ahead of me, “I dug around the rubble when I was here last looking for anything I could use. Found a lot of coffee mugs and filing cabinets.”  She made her way across the open lot with Stone and I following close behind.

Placing my hooves at the top of the stairs, I looked into the dark pit before me. The wind which had been rising since we’d arrived blew across us and, despite the heat, a sudden shiver came over me.  I don’t know why, but there was something about this place that set me on edge. 

“Watch your step down here! While it’s stood for the past one hundred and fifty-plus years, I’d rather not take any chances.  There’s debris and rubble everywhere and some of it hides pitfalls into an underground cavern.”  A flicker of light from below caused me to blink and take a few steps closer to the stairs’ edge.

“Cavern?” I heard Stone ask from beside me, but my focus was on the sudden light that had flared up from below.  It reminded me of the Power Stations hallways. Was there still power getting to this place?

“According to what somepony told me, there's a huge network of tunnels and caves under this entire area.  Fuck if I know.  All I know is that what he told me helped me escape this place.”  With the soft clop of hooves, the mare began to descend the stairs.

As Stone and I followed her, I once more saw the slight flash of light from below, and, judging by the pause in his steps, so did Stone.  As our hooves carried us down the trash-strewn steps, the darkness was broken by the weak glow from the emergency lighting.  The bulbs that remained unbroken hummed softly as they attempted to light the area beneath them.  I was amazed to see that, after over a century and a half, the emergency lighting still worked, but was further surprised to see a few of the light panels still glowing faintly as we drew nearer to the bottom.  Let it never be said that ponies did not build things to last.  I glanced to the stone pillars that flanked the large open doorway of the subway entrance. Dozens of cracks ran the length of the pitted supports, and, as I followed them, I saw they spread out from around the tops to cover areas of the ceiling. 

As we reached the bottom of the steps, I noticed several areas where the roof had simply caved in completely, crushing anything that had been below.  A light panel still hung by its wires at the edge of one such collapse, glowing faintly.  I frowned and looked back ahead of me. They had held up this long, they shouldn’t fall over anytime soon - I hope.   The shattered pillars and sections of the roof were likely not the result of age, as most appeared to be quite old judging by the century or more of trash that covered some areas.  No, it likely happened when Kanter City was hit, the force of the blasts having caused small earthquakes. 

Looking away from the broken sections of the tunnel, I turned ahead. Wildfire picked her way between the debris, her lighter frame giving her a bit of an advantage over Stone and myself (us earth ponies are not exactly known for our grace).  A string of muttered swearing beside me proved that point, as Stone stumbled and nearly went sprawling across the floor as his hooves got caught in the piles of broken concrete.  Helping steady my friend, we pressed on.

Moving a bit deeper into the tunnel, the lighting remained sporadic at best, and I found myself leaving my Pipbuck’s light lit.  As we worked our way through the entrance halls, I looked to the walls which still bore old half-rotting posters and signs: pictures of smiling ponies with their families boarding subway trains for bright, sunny places, and another one for a new line of designer socks.  I smiled a bit at the picture of a dark red mare wearing knee high black socks; she looked a bit hot. really.  Moving further, we passed vending machines that had long ago been emptied (though it didn’t stop Stone from checking).  More posters appeared with wartime slogans like, ‘Everypony must do her/his part for the war!’ with the three types of ponies sitting on the cover all wearing hard hats and smiling.  ‘Better wiped then striped!’ was of four Steel Rangers standing in the middle of red-eyed zebras.  This one had been shot up, holes in both the Rangers’ and Zebras’ heads.

The tunnel forked as it began to descend into the earth once more. The new tunnel went off towards the west and was blocked by a large cave in, chunks of the roof and wall having fallen.  As we trotted past, I glanced back and thought I saw a shoe sticking out from the rubble.  Perhaps it had just been the lighting.

As the tunnel began to open up, dividers sectioned off the tunnel, metal posts jutting out to block out path.  Looking closer, I could see a slot atop the dividers for coins and a cracked screen showing ‘Error’ scrolling across in large red letters.  This must have been where ponies paid to get into the subway, but Wildfire simply flapped her wings and sailed across the rusted posts.  With a kick of our hooves, Stone and myself easily leapt across them and onto the other side, landing with a clatter of hooves on stone.  My ears twitched at the loud sound as it echoed throughout the station, but after a minute, it seemed there was nopony to hear it. 

After a few more minutes of working our way between cave-ins and piles of trash, we finally reached the subway station itself, and ‘Sticks Station’ flashed up on my Pipbuck.  The roof rose sharply as we entered the station, giving an open feel to the room.  I looked away from the ceiling and to the room itself.  The loading platform in the center of the room was dotted with fallen sections of the ceiling, along with benches and trash cans for the ponies who would have sat waiting on their trains so long ago.  Two tracks ran between the passenger platforms and disappeared into the tunnels going off in both directions: North to Kanter City and South to...who knows.  A raised walkway crossed the tracks, allowing ponies to move between both sides of the station safely, lined with bent and rusted railing that would have kept ponies safe from a fall onto the tracks below.  Near where we stood, I saw several sets of windows along the wall.  Above them was a sign stating ‘Tickets’.  I could see rooms behind the cracked glass, but it was too dark to make out much. 

We followed Wildfire as she trotted across the room, her hoofsteps echoing far quieter than ours within the large room.  As the three of us neared the tracks, Wild looked off towards the northern tunnels.  One had collapsed long ago, while the other remained clear.  I also noticed a section of the second floor walkway had collapsed onto the tracks, forming a makeshift bridge across to the other platform.  More trash had gathered upon the tracks, washed or blown there over the years.

I glanced to the southbound tunnels and saw both had been blocked by collapsed ceilings.  Only one direction to go.  Wild walked out across the broken section of the walkway and dropped down onto the tracks themselves.  The pegasus looked back to us over her wing and shoulder.

“From here on out, we run the risk of encountering ghouls, so try not to make any noise if you can help it.  I’d rather not have to deal with the fuckers.”  Stone dropped in beside her and adjusted his rifle strap, flicking the safety off.

“Ah reckon ah could go anotha’ couple months without dealin’ with ‘em myself.”  Following their lead, I nosed the safety off on my shotgun and decided to remain on the side of the tracks for the time being, walking slightly above them.  I checked my E.F.S. once more, and saw it remained clear.  Unless the tunnels affected my Pipbuck like the mine had, I should be able to spot anything long before it could surprise us.

As we set off down the tunnel, I looked back into the station as we passed several rows of seats, a few overturned and broken.  My steps faltered as a single feature stood out to me: a foal carriage sat beside a bench.  Somehow this single item had resisted the wear of time largely intact; its light pink frame and body were free of dirt, and while the cover had a few holes in the white cloth, it was mostly in place.  Laying on the floor beside its rusted white wheels was a stuffed pony and plastic bottle.  For a moment, I almost wanted to go look inside, with a sort of morbid curiosity about what I’d find.  With a snort and shake of my head, I turned away and trotted after my friends.  The walls of the tunnel soon obscured it and the station from sight.

The next two hours were spent simply following the subway tunnel north.  With Wild’s warning in mind, we kept the conversation to a minimum and little of note happened.  It seemed we had trotted miles along this single tunnel.  At one point we discovered signs that somepony had once called this place home.  Built upon the ledge I walked along had been a door: it had been forcibly removed and lay within the doorway on its side.  Inside we found what had once been a maintenance room of sorts for the subway workers to repair the tunnels and tracks.  Work benches and rusting tool boxes had been pushed into a corner to make room for two dirty mattresses in the opposite corner.  Around the makeshift beds lay empty bottles of beer and health potions along with a few wrappers for food.  Stone poked around for a few minutes as Wild and I kept watch on the tunnel.  Before we set off, the gray earth pony had found a few caps and 9mm bullets tucked under one of the mattresses, along with a magazine of questionable content.  He stuffed it into his bag, saying it was just something to read... yeah, right.

The further we traveled, the fewer overhead panels worked. Most had simply broken, littering the tracks below them with shards of glass, while others had fallen in and now lay across the rails.  Only the emergency lighting remained glowing dimly.  Beyond the sound of our own hoofsteps, every so often my Pipbuck would begin to click, warning me of nearby radiation, but just as quickly it would go silent once again.  Not long after discovering the first doorway on the side of the tunnel, we came across another, this time on the wall between this tunnel and the next one over.  The door was shut and locked; however, my skills with lock picking would be useless here, as the door had one of those electric locks, the kind you needed to enter a code in before the door would open.  I could have tried breaking that code, if the control pad hadn’t been broken.  It looked as if somepony had taken a sledgehammer to the thing.  The keys lay across the floor and the wiring had all but been ripped out.  We did not even stop to waste our time.

We were just entering our third hour of walking when the tunnel ahead became blocked by a large cave-in that covered the entire width of the tunnel.  I groaned and shined my light upon the pile of rubble.  There was no way we could get around this; we’d have to try and back-track.  However, something about this collapse caught my eye as my light passed over the center of the tunnel.  The end of a subway car was poking out from the debris, still sitting on the tracks.  A reflective sticker flashed from the rear doorway that hung loosely by a single hinge, the faded white words, ‘Emergency Exit’ written across the yellow lines.  As I pointed my light towards the opening, I could see further up the car and into the next: it looked as if the entire train had somehow survived the collapse and ran the length of the tunnel, perhaps even past the cave-in.  As my light shifted from side to side, I could also make out shapes within the car itself, likely the seats for the passengers.  Was that something sitting in them...with a start I realized what it was: several dozen bodies still lay in their seats after all this time.  Wild stepped up beside the door and looked inside, and after a moment turned back towards us.  Neither Stone nor I had moved any closer to the train.

“Okay, this is the only way through the collapsed section of the tunnel.  The train goes back over a dozen cars, but we’ve only got to make it through seven of them before we can exit the train and continue up the side of the tunnel.  Once on the other side it’ll be another hour or two’s walk until we reach the Kanter City Subway Station.” 

Lovely.

Reaching up to her chest, Wild pressed something on her armor and with a click, a light appeared, casting its dim glow into the pitch black train car; it was similar to my own Pipbuck’s in color and brightness.  Why hadn’t she been using that all this time?  With a light flap of her wings, the pegasus landed lightly upon the doorframe of the mostly buried car, kicking up a layer of rust and dirt.  Without a second look back, she plunged into the darkness.

Stone carefully approached the open door of the train and shone his lantern into the darkness beyond.  We could both make out a pony skull sitting on the floor not a few hoof steps away from the door.  He muttered softly to himself and shook his head, before sitting the lantern down atop the step.  Neither of us wanted to enter what amounted to a large tomb.  But we both had our own reasons for doing so, and with a grunt the earth pony placed his front hooves upon the edge of the opening and pulled himself up into the doorway.

“Ah’ll never hear th’ end of it, if ah let that pegasus go where an earth pony won’t.”  Leaning over to grip his lantern in his teeth, he stepped inside and was swallowed up by the darkness of the car.

Taking a deep breath from the dry stale air of the tunnel, I walked up to the back of the train car and hauled myself up, just as Stone had moments ago.  The light from my Pipbuck danced about wildly as I moved.  As I got my hooves back under me, I steadied the light and shined the narrow beam into the compartment beyond.  As I had expected, there were two seats to a row and nearly a dozen rows to the car.  Not all were taken, I saw; there were a number of empty ones within this car alone.  But there were just as many with bodies sitting in them.  Not far ahead, I could see the backside of Stone as he gingerly made his way down the alley between the seats. He was stepping carefully, trying not to stomp on any bones laying in his path, of which there were quite a few.

Steadily, I began to follow my friends through the car, carefully watching where I placed my hooves lest I step on somepony’s remains accidentaly.  There was a fair number of personal items laying across the alley between the seats: broken reading glasses, newspapers, a bottle of half empty water (the contents having turned dirty over the years being open), and the odd hat, beyond those few items, there was none of the trash I’d seen out in the tunnels.  I didn’t imagine ponies often came this way, nor was there enough wind or water to push the waste into the car’s only entrance.  As I worked my way further into the car, I meant to just look ahead, focus on making it through this without looking to the seats beside me, but I stumbled over a suitcase sticking out from the row next to me and went down on my front knees with a grunt.  As I rose, my eyes glanced to the right where the case had tripped me.

The owner of the suitcase still sat in his seat, and judging by the large skull I guessed he had been a stallion.  The tattered remains of a suit on his upper body could just be seen in the light of my Pipbuck.  A dirty gold hoofwatch on his right foreleg flashed in the light.  His skull rested at an odd angle, empty sockets staring out through the shattered window of the car. 

Getting back up quickly, I walked towards the exit, glancing to the next row of seats I passed.  There was a collection of bones across the two seats: two smaller skulls beside a larger one lay near the bottom of the row.  Had they been taking shelter there when the tunnel collapsed?  A family?  The edge of my light was just enough I could see rusting toys on the floor between the leg bones.  Had they been escaping the city or going towards it?  I suppose in the end it really didn’t matter for them at the time.  I moved on through the car.

I reached the next car a few seconds behind Stone and Wild, who were already waiting near the doorway to the third.  The mare didn’t seem to pay much attention to the dead she walked beside. But then, this was her second time through here, I reminded myself.  As I crossed into the second car I noticed a shower of dust come from the ceiling.  I looked up following the trail and blinked.  The roof of the train had been beaten to hell and back by the falling tunnel; it was a  minor miracle the entire train hadn’t been flattened by the vast weight of the stone slabs resting atop it.

As I looked back down, I saw Stone had made it further ahead of me in the car, the stallions eyes fixed on Fire just a few hoofs away from him.  Shaking my head, I started to follow him through the car when my left hoof brushed against something soft.  Looking down, I saw a blue stuffed bear laying face down on the ground, white sequins glittering like gems in the light of my Pipbuck.  I also saw a rotting limb not far away from the toy and stepped back in surprise. 

Pointing my beam of light to the body, I saw it was a young foal, no older than Sugar.  The body lay on the floor beside a pile of bones; oddly, he looked as if he had simply laid his head down atop the skull of another pony and died, but judging by the look of his body he’d only died recently.  His coat had nearly completely fallen out, with only tufts of white fur remaining in patchs.  His mane and tail were in a similar state, with strands of light blue hair falling across his thin body.  Leaning down, I picked up the stuffed toy and laid it beside his outstretched hoof before turning away to catch up with the others.  I had taken only a few steps when I noticed a red dot appear on my E.F.S. and stopped.  Where the hell had it come from? It was right...

“M-mOmMy...is ThAt yOu?”

I froze, eyes wide as the low gravelly voice of a young child reached my ears, one hoof halfway raised to take another step slowly lowered.  Oh sweet Celestia no...  Slowly, I turned my head to look over my shoulder at the faint green glowing eyes of the dead foal as he stood up, looking towards me.  He took a few stumbling steps forward, one hoof wrapped around the bear as it pressed against his dry cracked chest.  My eyes were drawn to where that blue plush animal rested, where a large open wound in the young colt’s chest allowed me to see inside his body and the small ribs beyond, the rotting organs working within his body.  Stonehoof’s words back at Crossroads came back to me then.

“They were ponies once, same as you or ah, but somethin’ happened to ’em.  The balefire that killed so many changed ’em.  They’re stuck between livin’ and dead.  Their bodies rottin’ and decayin’...right nasty sight.” 

Ghouls...this was a ghoul.  There really was a fate worse than death.  The ghoul foal spoke again, almost sounding tired. 

“YoUr Not mY MoMmy...”

“No...I’m not...” I said, trying to keep my voice steady as I turned around to face the undead pony as he took another step closer, “Where’d you come from?”  I glanced back to see where the others had gotten to, and was relieved to see Stone making his way back towards me from the third car.  The answer from the foal made me turn back to face him.

“We WeRe RiDiNg ThE tRaIn... MoMmY sAiD oUr HoMe WaS gOnE aNd We HaD tO gO sOuTh To FiNd A nEw OnE...” was it just my imagination or did I see tears in his eyes?  My E.F.S. warned me this foal was hostile, but I couldn't bring myself to raise my shotgun to the pitiful sight.  He could barely stand, his rotting legs shook so much, “... I tRiEd To WaIt On MoMmY... bUt ShE wOn’T gEt Up... I wEnT tO fInD fOoD witH tHe OtHeRs... bUt ThEre’s NoNe lEft.  Can yOu hElp Me?”

I had no idea how I could help him. I was about to reach into my pack and withdraw some of the dried food I’d gotten in Crossroads when something the foal said hit me.

“Wait... others?” I asked, looking back. The foal had dropped his stuffed bear on the floor and it had rolled over beside my hoof. His head was pointed down towards the floor and his entire body was shaking. 

“Foooood...” the word came out in a low growl from the small body. Suddenly my Pipbuck began to click like mad as it detected higher levels of radiation.  I took a step back in shock as the foal’s head rose slowly, eyes glowing a baleful green and a wicked smile on its shockingly sharp looking teeth.  

Oh fuck...

I grabbed for the firing bit of my shotgun as the tiny ghoul lunged towards me, front hooves out stretched for my face and mouth wide.  I had just closed my teeth around the bit and started to raise the shotgun when a beam of red light lashed out from behind me and struck the ghoul in mid leap right in its ripped chest.  With a dry crackling sound, its body turned to ash before my eyes and drifted to the ground between my hooves to pile up around the toy bear, bits flying across my face.  Shaking my head to get the ghoul ash off me, I bumped into Stone who had been running towards me, rifle in mouth.  Seeing the threat had been removed, the pony dropped the weapon back to his chest and steadied me with a hoof.

“Ya okay, Shadow?” he asked as I wiped off my face with my left hoof, and oh goddesses I could TASTE it.  Behind him stood Wildfire, her laser pistol gripped firmly between her teeth.

“Told you, we have to be careful of ghouls... you could have gotten your dumb ass killed,” she growled around the weapon’s grip.  I snorted a final time and was about to respond to the angry mare when my E.F.S. came alive.  Red dots.  Red dots everywhere.

“Give ’im a break, Wild, he ain’t rightly seen a ghoul before,” Stone said beside me, the gray stallion turning to face the mare who was walking towards us.  I raised a hoof for them, but Wild narrowed her eyes on Stone before rolling them.

“Well, fuck it, he has now...so if you two are done playing...”  As the two went about their usual arguing, the ponies who had been moments ago sitting dead in their seats began to rise up.  Bones of the truly dead rolled off rotting hides and into the floor with a rattle, cracked hooves dragged others from below the seats.  All had their glowing eyes fixed upon the three ponies standing in their midst.  The sounds of shuffling hooves came from the car behind me, and my ears twitched in alarm.  My two friends took notice of the sudden sounds around them and looked up in shock.  As one, the mare and stallion whirled around and brought their weapons to bear upon either side of the car we stood within. I gripped my shotgun and turned to face the way we’d came.  Half a dozen or more glowing green eyes glared back at me.

“Uh...guys...”

Wild followed my gaze to the rear car and swore colorfully, causing even Stone to blush.  My E.F.S. was flashing red dots all around us, but the vast majority of them seemed focused on the rear and second car.  The way ahead largely remained clear of hostiles, at least for the moment, although a few red dots could be seen coming towards us.

For a moment nopony moved nor made a sound.  We all stood staring at one another, three ponies and dozens of glowing eyes locked on one each other.  Rotting exposed teeth flashed in our lights.  The decomposing bodies somehow managed to carry their owners onwards, despite being little more than stick figures with exposed wounds and bones.  As the numbers rose, the click of my Pipbuck rose steadily higher.

The silence was shattered a moment later by a flurry of movement, as a single ghoul broke free from the others and lunged across the seats towards Wildfire.  The mare twisted around and fired off two shots into the torso of the ghoul, sending it back into the seats, its flesh and bones sizzling as it disappeared into ash.  Like a dam bursting, the rest surged towards us, their combined howling rattling the windows of the train car.  Wild burst into motion and charged down the alley towards the next car up, the bright flash of her laser pistol lighting up the darkness around her in a red glow as two ghouls went down fading away to ashes.  The loud crack of Stone’s rifle echoed within the narrow space as the round struck a stumbling ghoul in the chest, sending it to the floor.  The remaining ghoul snarled and lunged towards the earth pony, only to be met by the barrel of his rifle being shoved into its open mouth before he fired and removed the orifice along with the rotting head it was part of.

The muzzle flash from my shotgun cast the face of a ghoul lunging for my throat in light.  Its twisted, hateful features burned into my mind in that brief second: jaws spread unnaturally wide as it closed with me; flesh rotting off the skull, leaving muscles and tendons exposed.  Its right cheek had either been ripped away or fallen off and was largely gone, giving me sight of its jaws and twisted black tongue.  A broken horn sat upon its forehead between strands of its half-removed mane.  Whatever color it had once been was now concealed by filth and decay.  Time began to speed back up as the slug flew from the barrel of my weapon and into the face of my attacker.  The shotgun slug flew between the thing’s teeth, knocking them out of its muzzle as the round punched into the back of its throat.  With a sound like a melon, its head exploded in a blast of gore and bone. 

The spent casing had hardly struck the floor when a second ghoul pushed the body of the first aside, glowing green eyes locking on me as it slashed out with a forelimb.  Its hoof was broken and jagged,  and sharp enough to slice through unarmored flesh.  It passed so close I saw locks of my white mane cut free before my eyes.  With a muffled growl, I brought my shotgun up to its face and squeezed the trigger, earning a similar display as the first.  I couldn’t keep this up forever, however; more and more of the undead ponies were flooding into the back of the train from Celestia knew where.

 As quickly as I could I continued to backpedal down the hallway of the train car, firing off another four shots just to keep the press of undead flesh off me.  My ears perked as the sharp zap of Wild’s laser pistol and the crack of Stone’s rifle told me my friends had their own problems to deal with behind me.  My E.F.S. showed three green dots about to drown in a sea of red.  My right foreleg clicked angrily as the radiation levels in the car began to rise even higher, and warnings began to pop up in my vision.  We might die from radiation poisoning if we weren’t ripped to pieces first.    

“How we doing?!” I yelled out to my friends around the firing bit of my shotgun.  As I backed up towards them I stumbled over the body of a ghoul with a bullet hole between its eyes.  As I dropped to my knees with a grunt, another ghoul pushed its way forward and, seeing an opening to strike, leapt towards me in an effort to reach me sooner.  I tracked its movements with my weapon, and fired at the apex of its jump.  The round ripped open its exposed stomach and sent it crashing to the floor of the car, where two of its fellow ghouls fell upon it in a rapid feeding frenzy.  Hooves lashed out at the withered form, sending bits of flesh in every direction.  Sweet fucking hell...  Climbing back to my hooves, I glanced back to Wild and Stone and my eyes widened …Celestia save us!  The train car was alive with glowing green eyes, holes in the roof allowing the flesh-hungry creatures inside.  Had they been atop the train the entire time?!?

“We’re SOOOOOOOoooooooooooo fucking fucked!!!” the pegasus yelled, words muffled by the grip of her pistol. Twisting her head wildly, the orange mare snapped off shot after shot into the ghouls closing in around her and Stone.  If the shots didn’t turn them to ash, they knocked the ghouls back, buying us time.  Beside her, Stone was rapidly emptying his weapon, his hunting rifle not doing as much damage as Wild’s laser or my shotgun.  The small wounds it left hardly slowed the ghouls down unless he went for the head.  To his credit, most of his shots were headshots, but it was hard to aim when more and more grasping hooves were constantly reaching for your flesh.  We were moving through the fourth car now. How many more had she said?  Six?  Seven?  Then what?  A narrow walkway between the tunnel wall and train?  We’d be just as easily washed away in the tide of undead as we had in the confines of the car...

“Ah’m out!!” Stone yelled, he tried to reload his weapon, but the press of ghouls didn’t give him enough time to even reach for his rounds, let alone the small clip below the trigger.  The earth pony began using his weapon as a club, the butt of the weapon cracking skulls quite well.  Wild swore and fired rapidly as I looked to my ammo count in the corner of my eye; I was half out.

“Just run!” I yelled, firing off two more rounds as the ghouls behind us flooded around the feeding pair on the floor, trampling them in their rush to get to us.  One round tore a limb off a ghoul, dropping it to be trampled to death in turn.  The other missed as a ghoul struck me from the side. With a shout, I stumbled forward, nearly being pulled into the mass of teeth and glowing eyes.  Then I felt a tug on my tail and glanced back to see Stone’s teeth holding tight.  Whipping back around, I emptied my weapon into the press of bodies, scrambling with my hooves to back up and right myself.  Turning, I pushed Stone foward, Wild leading the charge as we galloped through the train car into the next. 

I released my empty shotgun, the weapon slapping against my chest armor as we ran.  I couldn’t stop to reload it; the ghouls would be on me before I could even open the drum.  Reaching down, I yanked free my revolver and gripped the pistol tightly in my mouth for a moment.  I thought about using a grenade, but it would just as likely bring down the rest of the ceiling atop us.  Running beside me, Stone yanked out his knife and glanced over his shoulder.  The thundering of our hooves was nearly overpowered by the hungry howls of our pursuers. 

“Exit’s just ahead! Just one more car!” Wild yelled, egging us on. 

Bursting through the final doorway, I spotted our escape route a second later. A side door of the car had been forced open, letting in the dim lighting from the tunnel beyond.  With a surge of energy we rushed towards our salvation.  Wild lept across the last of the seats between her and the exit, diving through the open doorway.  Stone’s hooves skidded for a heart stopping second upon the metal floor of the car before they once more gained traction and he forced his way through the door, rocking the entire car as he did so.  I followed him through a second later, my lighter frame giving me less trouble with the floor.

With a grunt, I lunged from the top of the car to the ground below, my speed sending me into the wall of the tunnel and ramming my face into a red and yellow pipe.  Shaking my head, I started to run again as the snarling voices of the ghouls grew louder behind me.  Wild and Stone were a few paces ahead, the earth pony trying to quickly reload his rifle as the pegasus snapped a fresh pack into her pistol.  My hooves had barely taken me past the next car when a muffled roar ripped from within the train.  My ears jerked up in shock as I looked back and stopped.  The ghouls behind me had stopped as well, and were milling around the exit to their train as if confused by something. 

Holstering my pistol, I quickly grabbed for my saddlebag and the spare rounds for my shotgun when a loud boom echoed through the tunnel.  It sounded as if something large had struck metal, I was reaching for the bit to my shotgun when another boom thundered out beside me. I turned and watched in shock, heart pounding in my chest, as something within the train struck the sealed door and caused it to bulge outwards.  With a muttered swear, I realized it looked as if a pony had actually bucked the sides of the wall out.  Thick metal walls.  Once more, the muffled roar came from within the car and with the shriek of metal the battered section of wall ripped free and sliced inches above my head to slam into the tunnel wall with enough force to embed it deeply. Looking back to the now open car, my jaw dropped open.

A truly frightening sight greeted me.  Standing within the newly formed hole in the side of the subway car was a massive ghoul pony.  In life he must have been a impressive sight, but in death, he was even more so.  The undead earth pony stood a hoof or more taller than Stone and he simply towered over Wild and myself.  Like the other ghouls aboard the train, his rotting body had not withstood the passage of time.  Strips of his pale green hide hung from his body by patches of flesh, and raw muscles and bones could be seen across his sides and down his legs.  Somepony had come across this monster before and had jammed a sword into its skull; I doubted it had ended well for the pony in question, as a rotting hoof was still attached to the saber like handle of the weapon.  As it stood glaring down at me, I saw white specks moving across his flesh; with a twist of my stomach, I realized they were maggots.  The clicking of my Pipbuck increased as the radiation levels began to shoot past yellow and into the red. We’d be dead within seconds, and somehow I doubted we had the firepower to down this thing before the other ghouls recovered enough to swarm us.

“Fuck... this... shit...” I snarled and grabbed at one of the grenades I’d hung across my chest as I started running towards Wild and Stone.  The baleful glow of the large ghouls eyes locked onto me as I spoke and roared.  Yanking the pin free, I tossed it back towards the milling ghouls, the small, round explosive bouncing between their hooves and towards the train.  I closed the distance between myself and my friends who had stood staring. “RUN!!!” I yelled over the snarling ghouls, who had begun to give chase. The shout was enough to break the spell of fear that had gripped both of them, and they turned and began galloping madly down the tunnel.  Closing my teeth around the second grenade I tossed it behind me, hearing it rolling across the ground to come to rest near the wall.  It’d do more damage to the wall then the ghouls, but maybe it would buy us time to get a lead on them.  As my head turned back towards the front, my eyes passed over that red and yellow pipe I had struck coming out the side of the train. The first grenade exploded and filled the tunnel with light and sound as sharp pieces of metal sliced through the thin limbs of the ghouls. Enough light for me to see the faded white letters running down the pipe. 

Warning: Gas Line.

The second grenade went off a few seconds after the first.  Pounding down the tunnel, we barely made it a half dozen steps before the entire tunnel seemed filled with fire and noise.  The force of the blast picked me up from the ground and tossed me into the air, to land in a heap against the side of the train with a cry of pain. Wild rolled past, coming to a rest against the wall as pieces of stone began to fall around us.  

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid...

I weakly rose to my hooves and glanced back the way we came.  Flames danced across the floor, casting a hellish light upon the scene.  Bits of ghouls lay scattered about the ground, most on fire, while a few whole bodies lay in twisted shapes that somehow still moved.  The train itself had been reduced to a blacked mass of twisted metal strewn with chunks of stone from the blown-out wall.  Movement just behind me drew my attention to the ground, and I saw Stone slowly rising up, bits of burning metal and ghoul sticking to his armor and coat; somehow the earth pony had managed to keep a hold of his hat, and I smiled a bit. We’d survi...

A chunk of rock crashed down inches from Stone’s body, shattering the floor and sending shards of rock to cut into the stallions side.  I quickly stood and started towards him when another rock struck the top of the train I was standing beside, caving in the top with a crunch of metal.  I tilted my head back and looked to the ceiling above us. The cracks that I had saw all along the tunnel were beginning to widen, and as I watched, a sky chariot sized piece dropped from above and slammed into the ground behind the train. 

“We have to reach the crossover junction!” Wild yelled from behind me as another section of ceiling dropped free and slammed into the burning wreckage, “If we don’t we’ll be buried alive!!” 

Reaching Stone, I yanked him fully to his hooves and pushed him towards Wild.  He needed little prompting to start running as the tunnel groaned under its own weight.  As I was turning to go, I spotted something moving within the flames further down the tunnel...had something survived?  A second later, the burning hulk of the monstrous ghoul pony stumbled from the wreckage, the sword still jutting from its skull.  

Without looking any closer, I turned and followed Stone up the tunnel, leaving the ghoul to die on its own.  Hooves pounding into the worn passage, Wild raced ahead of us, the light hooved pegasus dancing easily between the falling debris, wings tucked closely to her sides as she ran.  I was running beside Stone, who I was beginning to overtake.  The larger earth pony ran along the metal train, trusting it to keep some of the debris from falling fully atop him.  Just ahead I could see the tunnel beginning to curve to the left slowly, and as it did so, a doorway took shape from the gloom; a flicking beam of emergency lighting shone down upon our salvation like a gift from Celestia herself.

The sight energized us all, and we redoubled our efforts to reach the narrow doorway.  Gritting my teeth, I ran faster as pieces of the roof dropped all around us, sending up shards of stone in every direction.  It would take only a single piece to slow us enough that we’d be doomed.  Suddenly, my tail began to twitch like mad as something in my brain told me I needed to move aside quickly.  Why, I have no idea, but I found myself heeding the sudden urge and stepped closer to Stone.  Only a few seconds later, a massive metal support beam slammed into the spot I would have been in if I’d continued running straight.  As my hooves clattered across the stone I once more felt the odd twitch from my tail and lunged forwards as another beam slammed down behind me. 
 
Somehow I managed to stay one step ahead of the debris and was the first to reach the doorway.  Without thinking, I closed my teeth around the handle and twisted the knob, only to feel it stop half way.  Fuck!  It was locked!!  Spinning about, I brought my rear hooves to bear on the simple door and bucked hard.  My shoes left dents in the metal door and I snarled.  One.  More.  Buck!  With a cry I struck out again and felt my body shudder from the impact; still the door refused to open.

“You Celestia-damned piece of shit! OPEN!!!” I cried out as I lashed out once more.  I stumbled back into the dark room as my hooves shattered the lock and slammed the door wide open.  I looked back out into the tunnel for my friends.  Where were they?!  A cry drew my attention to the tracks. 

Wildfire was pinned to the metal tracks just in front of the end of the subway train.  A piece of rubble had fallen close enough to the pegasus to pin her long tail, trapping her in place. She kicked madly at the stone with her hooves and tugged on her trapped limb.  I could see tears in her wide green eyes; she must have been ripping the strands of hair out by the roots as she bucked to free herself, steel and stone raining down all around her. I started forward when a gray mass of muscle slammed into the trapped pegasus.

Like something from one of those action movies Bright had liked watching so much, Stone slashed through the red tips of the mare’s tail with his knife, the sharp blade cutting it easily, and, without missing a beat, the earth pony shoved his head under her hind quarters and pushed her up onto his back.  With a flare of his nostrils the earth pony spotted me and began charging towards the safety of the doorway.  I yelled and waved them onwards.

“Come on!! You’re almost here!!!” All around my friends, stones dropped down like rain, sending up clouds of dust.  It would only take one to bring them both down, and I’d never reach them in time.  As I yelled, my tail began to twitch, only far more wildly this time.  Tearing my gaze away from my friends, I looked to the ceiling of the tunnel.  The cracks had finished spreading and had come together.  As I watched dumbfounded, the entire ceiling began to sag and dirt started to fall in through the cracks.   I looked back to Stone and saw the look of fear in the earth ponies eyes as he lunged towards me. 

I felt as if I’d been hit by a train as the two slammed fully into me, sending all three of us tumbling into the room as the tunnel completely collapsed in a deafening roar of stone, metal, and dirt.  We were at once cast into near total darkness.

With a groan, I picked myself up from the floor and looked around the room for my friends.  The only light came from my Pipbuck and Wild’s chest light.  Luckily, it seemed nothing had been broken, and I lifted my right hoof up to sweep it around the small room we found ourselves in.  Stone lay on the ground nearby, covered in dirt and a dust; beside him, Wild was picking herself up from the floor.  The mare’s normally bright red mane was a pale gray in color from the concrete dust, her coat was a similar color and she sneezed twice.  Shaking her head she limped towards me and placed a hoof on my shoulder.

"You okay, Shadow?" she asked as I picked myself up and nodded my head quickly to her question.  As I looked her over, I saw blood running down her flank from her tail and winced. 

"I'm fine, how are you?" she blinked and glanced back to her tail, seeming surprised at the sight of blood.  There were a number of other wounds across her small frame: cuts from shards of rocks, plus a few bite marks from the ghouls that had gotten past her laser pistol. 

Stone groaned and slowly rose to a sitting position, rubbing a hoof over the back of his neck as two beams of light turned on him.  Like Wild, he had a number of cuts and gashes across his body.  With a snort, the large stallion looked around for his hat, which must have fallen off during his desperate dive for safety. 

"I'm fine, nothing serious really...could have been a lot worse," Wild said as she cast another look over to Stone.  For his part, the earth pony was still searching for his beloved hat, having fished out his lantern from his pack (or a different lantern; it was hard to tell with that pony what all he had in those saddlebags).  With a few sparks from his lighter, he had the room cast into a warm glow.  With a grin, he spotted the battered head gear near the collapsed remains of the door.  Rising up, he trotted towards where it had fallen.

“I’m afraid I nearly got us killed. There was this gas pipe running through the tunnel, and I didn’t see it before I tossed a few grenades at those ghouls...” I began meekly, but a orange hoof rose up and Wild looked back to me.

“I should have warned you about that, but I didn’t expect there to be any gas left in those old lines after so long.  I suppose the collapse that had sealed the train in place had also sealed pockets of gas inside as well...” 

“If ya hadn’t tossed them grenades, ah reckon we’d of been a meal for them ghouls about now.  We’d never have made it this far with them on our tails,” Stone said as he neared the doorway. 

I nodded my head and started to reach for a health potion to share between us.  It should be enough to stop the shallow cuts from bleeding, and slow the deeper ones so we could use simple bandages.  I froze as the clicking from my Pipbuck began to rise again, a sudden surge of radiation was detected nearby...but why only now?

Stone stood with his back to the fresh rubble pile and was leaning over to pick up his hat with his teeth when a pair of rotting hooves shoved their way through the mound of soil and stone.  Wild cried out a warning a second too late as the sharp edges of the hooves slashed down across Stones flank, parting the flesh easily and cutting deeply. The earth pony dropped to the ground with a thud as the head of a ghoul pony pushed its way from the soil like some zombie from a horror movie.

Wild rushed to Stones aid, clamping her teeth upon his armor and trying to drag the larger pony away from the glowing fiend as it pulled more of its twisted body free.  Somehow, against all the odds, the large ghoul had survived not only the explosion, but also the collapse of the tunnel.  The sword that had been shoved into its head had broken off, and only the tip of the blade remained.  Much of its coat had been burned away, as had the flesh below; charred muscle and bones made up most of the thing.  How it was still moving was beyond me.  But move it did, open jaws snapping for the warm flesh of either of my two friends.  At least it did until my right hoof collided with its jaw and with a loud snap the bone snapped free.

“Stay dead!” I snarled and slammed my hoof into the things head again and again as my Pipbuck clicked madly. The distraction gave Wild the time she needed to haul the heavy earth pony away from the thing’s reach and press a piece of cloth to the bleeding wound in his side. I rose up onto my hind legs to bring both my front hooves down atop the things skull when it pushed its way free fully and tackled me.

We stumbled back into the room in a clatter of armor and bones.  As we fell back, we landed atop a table that had been sitting in the middle of the room, and the thing’s weight broke it in two, sending us both crashing to the floor amid the remains.  It snarled through its broken jaw and tried in vain to close its teeth around my exposed throat.  I snarled and pushed back with my front hooves, trying to lift it off me as its own hooves slammed into my armored chest. My lungs ached as its weight crushed me into the floor, and the overpowering stench of cooked meat wasn’t really helping.

Wild appeared over its shoulder and slammed Stones knife into the back of the ghouls neck.  Black, foul blood spurted from the fresh wound and splattered across my face as the mare began to saw through the burned flesh.  I heaved the beast upwards, muscles aching, its flailing hooves striking the ground near my face and leaving a deep groove in the solid concrete.  With a snort the ghoul shoved its head back and struck Wild across the muzzle with its skull, the broken sword tip barely missing her face. 

I reached for the revolver I had strapped to my left front leg, trying to avoid this thing’s own hooves as I did so.  Closing my teeth around the handle I yanked it free and slammed the barrel into the ghouls glowing eye, bursting the orb with the metal rod.  I snarled around the trigger and squeezed it, sending a round straight through its skull and into its rotting brain.  Not surprisingly, it didn’t stop moving, but it did pause.  I pulled the trigger twice more, pulping whatever was left in between its ears and putting the damned thing down for good.  



	*     *     *     *     *



I groaned softly as I lay upon the floor. Why the hell did this shit keep happening to me?  Opening my eyes, I stared at the cracked and shadowy ceiling above me. None of the lights worked in here, it seemed, and the only source of light came from Stone’s lantern that Wild had set nearby.  My body protested any attempts at movement, and I remained lying where I was for the time being.  At least I was still alive.  Turning my head slowly I looked towards the fallen body covered by a tarp in the corner of the room (where Wild had found it, I had no idea, and was far too tired to question it).  The ghoul lay still, its body no longer glowing with unnatural light or giving off high levels of radiation.  I suppose it had to be alive to do that.  Stone had called it a Reaver after he’d woke up the first time an hour ago.  It was a pony unlucky enough to soak up vast amounts of radiation as he or she died, either having stumbled upon a area covered in the stuff or been close enough to ground zero for it to flash fry them in the stuff.  Far worse fates than death...

“You're going to have to stop doing this.”  The pegasus’ voice caused me to turn away from looking at the corner of the room and over towards my left.  Wild sat near the lantern and the recovering Stonehoof.  Both of my friends were covered in small nicks and cuts, all that remained of their injuries thanks to the health potions they’d used.  Stone’s hindquarters was covered still in bandages from the thick slash he had received, but he was thankfully no longer so pale looking.  I smirked to Wild and turned back to staring at the ceiling.

“Tell that to the Wasteland, it’s the one trying to kill me,” I replied as I tossed the second empty Rad Away pouch to the side, the bag striking the empty health potion bottle that I’d sat there a hour ago.  We had to be going soon, even though our mad flight through the subway car fighting off the horde of undead ponies had nearly killed us.  Oh, and that whole cave-in hadn’t done any of us any favors.  Still, I didn’t want to wait too long; somepony had to have seen that explosion or the sudden sinkhole we’d made on the surface.  At least we had spent the time we had resting and patching ourselves up, and I was fairly sure we could go up against a radroach and be sure of victory...maybe.

We spent the next twenty minutes gathering our gear and picking ourselves up.  With the way behind us sealed off, all that was left was forwards. With a final glance to the room that had hours ago saved our lives, I stepped towards the shut door and carefully took hold of the handle in my mouth; needless to say it tasted like it looked and I hurriedly yanked it open, its long-rusted hinges groaning in protest at suddenly being asked to work once more after so long.  Flecks of orange rust rained down from the edges of the door as it scraped against its frame to open.  But open it did, and we exited out into a dark tunnel.

Plunging out into that darkness, I swept my shotgun around slowly and scanned the cracked and pitted walls, my hoof steps sounding painfully loud to my ears.  Whether it was due to the lack of working emergency lighting or the events of the past several hours, this new subway tunnel seemed far more sinister than the last.  I eyed my E.F.S. carefully, but saw no evidence there was anypony else down here with us; not that it had helped much on the train.  Lowering my weapon slightly, I glanced behind me at the half finished passage behind me as it disappeared into the shadows.  The change in features was startling and I could easily see where the workers had halted construction.  Smooth ponymade walls gave way to a more rough cave like appearance.  I raised my right foreleg and swept it across the walls nearest me, seeing shovels and pickaxes lying where they had been dropped.  The wooden shafts were half rotted and the metal heads rusted to ruin.  I saw other tools further down the tunnel, including a large earth moving machine with a clawed arm for scooping out loose rock and soil, and carts for hauling said debris away along the half finished rails for the trains. 

Stone stepped up beside me, his gray coat blending in well with the darkness; he was lowering his rifle as he looked the way I did, taking a few steps closer to the wall and the ruined tools.  As he passed, I noticed his bandaged flank, and was reminded of another pony: Appleseed and his sisters.  I wondered how they were all doing.  Hopefully it was better than us.  Once more, the sound of Wildfire’s voice brought me out of my thoughts and I glanced over my shoulder to the mare.

“It stands to reason this tunnel follows the same route as the other, so it should lead us straight to the subway station under Kanter City, and from there up into the walled-off section.”  The pegasus had holstered her pistol for the time being, making it easier for her to speak without having the grip of the weapon lodged between her teeth. 

“Ah take it then, this here tunnel might lead us back th’ way we came once we have Shadow’s sister?” Stone asked beside the wall, pointing his rifle into the darkness beyond, “Ah recall seein’ this one blocked back at th’ station,” he added and I arched a brow.  Shit, he was right, the other tunnel had been blocked. 

“It is, but there’s another cross over further back down, we passed it a hour before we reached the train, remember?” the mare stepped between us and nodded her head towards the darkness.

“Well why in tarnation didn’ we take that one?” Stone snorted lightly with a swish of his tail.

“Because the last time I was through here, there wasn’t a small army of ghouls guarding the train and I knew the path already,” Wild replied with a poke of her hoof to the stallions chest, “And the door was locked and the keypad to open it destroyed.” she added.

“Ah’m all for pressin’ on, but don’t ya think we should make sure we gotta way outta this place?” Stone asked me, looking over the red locks of the pegasus mare standing between us.

“You're right, we should head back and check that out before pressing forward.” I said looking back the way we’d come from Tarturs station.  I’d hate to save Ebony, only to find our way blocked as we tried to escape through this tunnel.  Somehow, I doubted the raiders would let us leave via the front door.

So, once more we delayed our journey into Kanter City to ensure we had a way back out again.  It still bothered me, and I grew silent as we walked along the half finished tunnel.  While Ebony and the others had been captive for well over a week and a half now, the chances she was still alive grew slimmer with every passing hour.  My mind screamed at me to turn around and charge towards the Kanter City Subway Station, but another voice stopped me. 

The voice of reason. 

We pressed on, covering the distance more slowly than we had coming up the tunnels, but then, this one was more cave then tunnel.  Water dripped from the ceiling constantly, and I wondered how this place had yet to flood.  Pools of water were nearly everywhere, and several times we’d find ourselves splashing through a hidden pool in the darkness.  We found more evidence of tools laying around as we went further in.  Shining my light around, I saw rusting metal beams connected to the walls, likely the prelude to concrete being added to form the smooth walls. Ahead of me, Stone stopped suddenly and held up a hoof, causing Wild and myself to stop beside him.  The stallion’s ears had perked up and he was listening to something.  I was about to ask him what when my own ears twitched. 

I turned my head slowly towards the source of the sound; it sounded familiar, like something I’d heard recently.  My ears twitched and I tried to place that noise.  It sounded like a low roar, but nothing I’d fought thus far had sounded so loud.  Wild took a few steps forward and listened, the fiery mare having heard the same as us.

“Sounds like a river.” she said finally, turning back to look at us. Stone was nodding his head.

“Ah was wonderin’ if it wasn’t just me,” the stallion said, and stepped forward as well, holding his lantern a bit higher, “Ya said there were caverns round here.  It could be a underground river, ah reckon.”

“The construction crews could have discovered it while digging, it would explain why they never finished this tunnel.” she took a few more steps when suddenly she dropped from sight.

“Wild!!” Stone was the first to react and rushed to where the mare had just been standing, skidding to a halt with a muffled cry as he held tightly to his lantern.  He looked to be about ready to fall, and without waiting I lunged forward and wrapped my forehooves around his chest and hauled him back.  With a grunt, we went down and for the second time that day I was nearly crushed to death by another pony.

“Well...I had no idea your barn door swung that way, Shadow.”  The cocky voice of my winged friend said from above, and as Stone got to his hooves I saw the orange pegasus hovering just a few inches above my head with a smirk.

“Wild, thank Celestia, ah though ya fell inta’ a pit and broke yer neck or somethin’,” the earth pony said as she landed beside him, “Ah mean...its good ya wasn’t hurt.”

If I wasn’t in so much pain right now, I might have made a comment on those two...but yeah, the pain.  Groaning, I rolled over onto my side and blinked a few times to clear the stars from them before I looked to Wild.

“What happened?” I asked as she turned away from the blushing Stone and trotted over to help me to my hooves.  With a smirk she answered.

“The big dirt pony was right for once...I fell down a hole...just a very big one.”  She stepped aside and pointed towards where she had been walking. Laying on the ground was Stone’s lantern; he must have dropped it when we’d fell.  Carefully I approached the flickering light and stopped. 

The tunnel floor dropped from sight into a jagged tear in the surface of the earth.  The soft glow from Stone’s lantern cast the rough walls into a hundred shadows, but didn’t go even a dozen paces into the pit.  As I shifted to raise up my Pipbuck, a stone dislodged from the floor and plummeted into the depths.  I heard it clatter off the walls before that too stopped.  Not even the beam from my Pipbuck seemed able to reach the bottom and I swallowed.  That was some damn hole...

As I stood on the edge of the pit, I could hear more clearly the sounds of rushing water below me.  An underground river must have been flowing below this tunnel for hundreds of years or more, the work crews likely having weakened the floor, allowed it to cave into the cavern below. 

Raising my right hoof up, the light from my Pipbuck passed across the distant edge of the pit. It was far too wide to jump, and though Wild could easily fly across it, I doubted she could carry Stone. It looked like we would have to find another way out of Kanter City.  I scanned my light slowly across the tunnel and stopped as the light struck something.  I turned and trotted along the edge of the hole and came to where the subway tracks had been laid.  To my surprise, they crossed the pit completely on a natural bridge of stone. 

“I found a way across.” I called back to my two companions, and they quickly gathered around me to eye the bridge.

“Think I’ll just fly across,” Wild said after doing a quick check of the safety of our only means to cross the pit.  The mare leaned over and poked a hoof at the rusting rails and the stone below them.  It seemed time had eroded most of the rock below the rails, and there was only a thin layer between them and the sudden drop.

“Ah reckon it’s still a might bit safer than tryin’ ta make our way back ta Sticks on th’ surface,” Stone added, taking a few hoof steps across the rails, and I reminded myself that the pony had worked in a mine for years with his brother.  If anypony knew if it was alright to cross, it’d be him.

“Alright, well I spotted the crossover room just on the other side of this death trap of a bridge,” the pegasus hovered just above our heads, wings flapping steadily. Just as I started to place a hoof upon the rails, she added “Try not to fall though, its been a long trip and I’m a bit worn out.”  She smirked as I narrowed my eyes on her.



	*     *     *     *     *



We managed to cross the bridge with no trouble beyond me looking over the side and wishing I hadn’t.  It looked to be a very long drop into the waters below.  I had no doubts that if anypony had fallen, they would be as good as dead.

Shaking off the unease, I looked back to the door we stood in front of and put away my screw driver and pins.  The door had been locked, but I’d taken care of that.  As I prepared to open it, I looked to the deep scars across the surface of the metal door; it looked like something or somepony had been desperate to get inside, and I made sure my shotgun was ready to fire.  Gripping the handle in my mouth, I twisted it, and with a click the door opened and swung slowly into the room.  It was similar in shape and design to the one we’d just managed to enter before the tunnel collapsed behind us.  This one however was partly lit by emergency lighting, and by the looks of it had not been touched in over a hundred fifty years.  Stone would likely have a field day looting the place of anything valuable.  I was just about to enter when the smell hit my nose.  Snorting, I shut my eyes, and images of a family huddled tightly together in Lonesome Hoof came back to me.  That was never a good smell.

With a sense of dread, I entered into the room and shone my light across its contents.  Metal tool boxes and rotting wooden crates were neatly stacked near the right of the room upon metal shelves.  A few pipes ran along the same wall and out through a hole into the tunnel we’d originally passed through.  I stepped in further to allow the others inside and turned to look to my left.

As he entered, Stone’s hoof brushed across something on the floor and sent the item rolling around between my hooves and off into the left corner.  Looking behind me, I saw a yellow medical box upon the wall, its lid having been ripped open and laying in the floor dented.  The three pink butterflies upon it had rusted and nearly faded completely away.  Beside the lid were ruined medical supplies, dusty bandages and a broken bottle that may have been a health potion.  I noticed a faded red stain on the floor (what a shock); however, this looked more like a hoof print.  As I looked up, I saw another, and another leading off to the far left corner of the room, and spotted the item Stone had struck.  A empty bottle resting beside a dried hoof.

Snapping my teeth around the bit for my shotgun, I yanked the weapon up and pointed it towards the bodies laying against the wall.  Stone turned around from where he had been checking over the shelves to point his rifle at the same spot as I.  Wild arched her brow and rolled her eyes.

“Really, not everypony in the wasteland is going to be a fucking flesh hungry ghoul.”  Calmly she trotted over to the two forms and kicked the side of one.  After several seconds of them not rising up howling for our blood I released a breath and lowered my weapon, “Hmm, interesting, this fellow use to be a pegasus,” Wild said, kneeling down beside the body she had kicked.

Nearing Wild and the two bodies, I saw they had both been dressed in the uniforms of the Equestrian Army: gray camo patterns over the flak armor they had.  One was a mare, and judging by her build and the fact she had a horn rising up from a hole in her helmet, she had been a unicorn. She had a large dark stain on her chest, brown bandages wrapped around what had likely been the wound that killed her.  She still had her sidearm strapped to her webgear, a 9mm automatic by the looks of it.  Her head was resting on the stallions shoulder, the remains of her orange mane falling across the other ponies chest.

The stallion was indeed a pegasus, as Wild had pointed out; the remains of a feathered wing had been wrapped around the unicorns small body, holding her close as the end claimed them both.  He seemed free of any injuries however.  His helmet was sitting on the floor where he’d dropped it getting to the corner, a forehoof wrapped around the neck of the mare, the other resting near a fallen assault rifle.  His mane was a short cut brown mass, that had fallen into his face and hid his eyes from sight.  Both had name patches on their armored chests and not surprisingly both had the same name there.

Cake.

Lowering my gaze, I spotted a recording sitting upon the stallion’s chest beside his name and carefully reached out to take it from him.  Its batteries had long since died, but perhaps if there was a message left I could still listen to it.  Setting the recorder down beside my Pipbuck I opened a panel on the side of the device and took a cord out.  It seemed to be a perfect match for the port on the side of the recorder, and within seconds I had downloaded the message the pair had left behind.  I’d save it for later when I had time to listen.  I stood up and looked back to the reason why we’d come here in the first place.  The second door into the room.  Stone stood beside it and was shaking his head.

“Door’s locked, afraid Ah an’t very good with that sort’a thing.” His green eyes fell upon the dead ponies again and sighed, “Never a right sight ta see dead ponies left ta rot.” 

Standing up, I placed a hoof upon my large friend's shoulder and nodded my head slowly.

“No, it isn’t. But there’s only so much we can do for the dead of the past...I know I tried doing what I could for some I found.  For the moment, we need to focus on the living.”  I jerked my head back to the pair, “Mind seeing if they have anything we can use while I look at the door?” 

Nodding his head to me, the gray pony walked past me to kneel beside the bodies and begin his search.  He removed his hat before he started, and Wild stepped up beside him and offered him a hoof.  I trotted over towards the other door and reached for my lockpicking tools before coming to a halt.  It was one of those electric locks and required a password to open.  With a grunt I sat myself down and looked over the keypad.  Well at least it was a number instead of a word, and judging by the small screen, it couldn’t be any more than four or five numbers long.  Still, I was a little worried about just randomly tapping away numbers in the hopes of getting it correct.  Some locks disabled themselves after a certain number of incorrect tries had been entered.  If this was one of those, then we’d be trapped inside here forever.  I frowned and started to press a key when I thought of the dead soldiers in the corner.  They had gotten in; had they known the code?  Or had they simply come in the same way as us? 

“Stone, you find any piece of paper with numbers on it on either of them?” I asked, looking from the lock to my friends in the corner.  He’d retrieved a bit from the pair already, several spare clips for the 9mm pistol and a few bandages.  The assault rifle lay propped up beside the wall now, the dust shaken off it and the clip removed.  Despite the length of time it’d been down here, it looked in far better shape than my own.

“No, nothin’ thus far.  How ‘bout this recorder?” he asked, reaching over to pick up the device in his mouth. 

Well, it was worth a shot.  I reached down to my Pipbuck and turned it to the message screen.  A large number of recordings appeared in the display, but only three seemed recoverable enough to play.  I pressed one of the buttons with my nose and the screen sorted the files once more.  This time only those three appeared; two short files with a far longer one placed in between them.  Well, might as well start at the beginning. Choosing the first file, I hit play and the voice of a young mare came over the speaker.

“Log Entry Number Two Hundred and Twenty Three.  Not a damned thing has changed yet, we’re still sitting around waiting on orders from HQ.  I swear, I’m going to die of old age before those prissy ponies decide where to ship us off to.  A bit of good news though, my brother’s due in tomorrow morning with the rest of his squadron.  Seems the 105th Equestrian Calvary is going to be backed up with a entire wing of pegasi air support.  Honestly, I’m just looking forward to seeing my brother again; its been far too long since we were last together.  Been even longer since we’ve seen mom and dad,” the voice sighed softly.  “They never approved of us joining the army; they expected we’d take over the family business.  But if somepony doesn’t stop these Zebras, there won’t be anypony left to sell to.  Hopefully when we go back for Winter's Veil this year we can patch things up with them.”

The track finished and I grunted softly to myself.  Not what I was expecting, but then, what should I have been hoping for?  Hi, we’re screwed and here’s the number to the door.  Thanks, good luck?  Well, maybe the next two would have something we could use.  I hit play on my Pipbuck.  The sound of laughter and voices filled the room as the mare from before began to speak again.

“Log Entry Number Two Hundred and...stop, it Sweeps!  Shit, girl, go nuzzle Brightwing’s cheek, the mare’s a filly fooler after all...Log Entry...ah, fuck it.  Last night before we ship out, and once again my darling brother has dragged his squad and mine out for an all-nighter.  Captain Honeywell’s gonna be ticked if we come back again late tonight, but eh, screw the ol’ maid.”  As the mare spoke, I could hear giggling from around her, and the *tink!* of glasses as ponies toasted one another.  “Speaking of my brother, he’s not changed a bit.  Besides the hard drinking, he’s still a hard fighter; he challenged Sergeant Drillbit from second squad to a wrestling match.  They’re suppose to start in a few minutes.  How he got the owner to let them fight inside is beyond me.  I guess I can’t complain too much though.  Drill’s got a cute ass, and most of my squad seems to think so...” I heard a few more drunk giggles from the other mares with her before a chilling sound filled the speaker of my Pipbuck.  Within a moment a second joined in, and another and all conversation stopped.

A chair skidded across the floor as the sounds of running hooves echoed from the speaker, murmured voices in the background.  Behind it all was the mournful wail of the sirens.  The voices began to raise as panic started to grip some of their owners.  Suddenly, the voices began to yell and cry out as a distant rumble shook the speaker of my Pipbuck.  After a moment, the mare spoke again, though not to her recorder, she likely forgot it was still running.

“Holy Celestia...this isn’t a fucking drill...” other voices around her began talking rapidly.

“What was that flash?”

“Did that come from base??”

“Carrot what's going on?”  a young sounding stallions voice came from the speaker, sounding close to the mare and her recorder.  He had to shout to be heard over the growing noise of panic.

“Brother...fuck...I - I think Cloverfield is gone...”  For a moment all we could hear was the sirens and the panicked voices around the pair, “We’ve got to get out of here...they’ll target the city next, so if another missile isn’t on its way, it will be.  We’ve got to get these ponies somewhere.”

“Red, get the rest of the squad and round up the ground pounders from my sister’s squad.  Get these civvies ready to move and have them grab as much food and water as they can.”  There was several minutes of rushed conversions and movements as the recording continued to play as the soldiers began to round up those few ponies in the bar with them.  Outside, the sirens blared out their warning.

“Fillydelphia’s gone...so’s Manehattan!!” 

“You're fucking kidding me...”

“I wish to Celestia I was, brother...I heard it over my radio just before it went dead.  I think the army base was hit too...we’re next!”

 I noticed Wild’s blue eyes fixed upon the speaker of my Pipbuck, Stone sat beside the two bodies with his head lowered, ears perked to the sounds as we listened to what amounted to the end of the world.

“Where are we going to go?” the young stallion asked, as the minutes ticked by. 

“The new subway station isn’t far from here,” a new older voice said to the siblings.

“They have it up and running already?” the brother asked in surprise.

“Not completely, no, but they have one of the tunnels finished and have trains running to take workers out to that housing project out in the desert.  If we’re lucky, the train’s there now and we get these ponies out of here.”

“Sounds like our best chance of making it out of this alive, let’s...” the mare’s voice was cut off as another pony spoke up from the background.

“Sarge!  Some of the ponies want to return home...should we try and stop them?”  It was a young mare’s, far younger sounding then the sister.

“No, if they want to die in their homes, let them.  Get those willing to leave with us out here, we have to get moving now!” the mare answered.  She was clearly respected by the others (her squad no doubt) and even her brother seemed ready to follow her orders.

As we listened, the small group of ponies began running through the streets towards the subway station, the siren blaring out the entire time.  It was complete chaos as ponies tried to escape.  Panicked screaming at times nearly drowned out the siren.  Some ponies had simply broken down and were crying in the streets.  Yet more ponies began to join the soldiers as they made their way through the streets and alleys. 

“The highways a lost cause; there’s overturned chariots and carts on all the roads out, and ponies are fleeing into the desert,” a new voice was saying as the sister neared him. 

“They can’t outrun what's coming.” her brother answered over the sound of running hooves, “Why don’t you come with us, officer?”

“Sorry, son, I’ve been called back to the station, the Chief’s trying to get a organized evacuation going”

“In this madness?” the sister yelled.

“I know its a doomed attempt, but my wife works in dispatch.  I can’t leave her.” 

“Good luck, officer,” the brother said, before he began moving beside his sister and the recorder.

“You as well.”  The officer's voice faded as the group went past him. The older voice from the bar yelled out from a distance. 

“There’s the station!  Come on everypony, just a bit further.”  The sound of hooves began to change in pitch as they raced down steps and into a tunnel, fading away.  The pony with the recorder must have still been up top.

“Pound!” a voice yelled out; it was that older pony who had mentioned the station. “We’ve got a problem...”

“Only one?” the brother, Pound, said with a slight snort.

“The train’s already left the station.  Seems somepony else had the same idea as us.  I found one of the subway workers getting ready to run down the tunnel; he said it’ll take at least thirty minutes to reach Tartarus Station.”

“Fuck...we don’t have time for that, get them going down the tunnel as quickly as you can, we have to-”  The brother’s voice was cut off, as was the sound of everything else, as something massive exploded. 

The speaker of my Pipbuck actually rocked by the volume of the sound coming from it.  For several minutes all we could hear was the roar of the blast and a powerful wind roaring through the speakers.  I thought I could make out the sound of somepony crying out, but I couldn’t be sure over the noise.  After a few more seconds the sound was cut off and the recording stopped, casting us once more into silence.

I sat there dumbly looking at my Pipbuck, my two friends in a similar state of shock.  With a shaking hoof, I reached out and pressed the next recording.  The voice of the brother could be heard, breathing heavily.  Another sound echoed from the speaker, that of hooves beating against metal.

“We did what we could... made it farther than anypony else. But I think our luck’s finally run out.  The last of our food and water is gone, Brill was carrying the extra when they got him,” the stallions voice broke for a moment, “Fuck...as if the radiation being washed down here wasn’t bad enough, there’s the damned undead.”  A wet cough came from the speaker as the pony stopped once more.  When the voice picked back up, he sounded far older, “They got Brightwing...the damned featherbrain gave me enough time to get Carrot to safety.  It’s just us now...few more hours it’ll just be me.”  A soft sob came from the speaker, “Those damned things ripped her open...just...shattered her chest armor and ripped out her lung. I’ve tried everything I can think of to stop the bleeding, but we ran out of health potions yesterday.  I gave her the last of the Med X to ease the pain...but all I can do now is watch her die.” 

“I hope that train reached the station, because it looks like they're the only ponies to make it out of Kanter City alive.”  I sighed softly and lowered my head; his hope had been crushed as surely as the train had.  “If anypony finds this, please let our parents know we loved them and we’re sorry...if by some chance you’ve made your way here from Kanter City, the lock for the door’s 1212 if you really want to try and risk the tunnels.”  A snort followed those words, “Who the fuck cares...there’s likely nopony left alive to even hear this...”  The recording ended suddenly and I glanced back to the ponies in the corner. 

Rising slowly, I entered the numbers into the locking pad and heard a soft click come from the panel.  The metal door slowly swung open easily then, revealing a undamaged section of the subway tunnel beyond.  We had our way out.

Standing, I stepped out into the tunnel and looked back the way we had come and saw it was as clear as it had been.  Looking the other way, I could just make out where the cave in had halted, smoke still rising from the pile of stone and metal.  There did not appear to be anypony else around, so either they hadn’t come looking or they hadn’t gotten this far.

Stepping back into the room, I closed the door and locked it.  No sense in letting anypony sneak up behind us, and just in case there were any ghouls left wandering the tunnel, I didn’t want them to find a way inside here.  As much as the recording had shaken us, we had no time to waste and I started moving for the still open door, Wild rising up to follow me.  Stone leaned over the two bodies and pulled something from around their necks.  Small metal tags.  Placing his hat back atop his head and securing the items he had removed from the siblings, he rose to follow us back into the hallway and the begin long walk back down to where we started.



	*     *     *     *     *



Mindful of Pound’s final message on the recording, we kept a watchful eye on our surroundings, while I continued scanning my E.F.S.  The dying pegasus had mentioned his fellow survivors trying to kill them after being exposed to high levels of radiation, and the only way those ghouls had of escaping the tunnel was back towards Kanter City.  While I had hoped we’d killed most of them in the explosion and following cave-in, I wasn’t about to just go strolling through the dark, dank subway tunnel with my tail hiked.  

As another hour slowly drew to a close, we at last reached the Kanter City subway station.  The tunnel had begun to smooth out and become far more uniform in shape and size, as well as become far more intact.  The walls and ceiling still bore signs of wear, with cracks and breaks in the concrete, but no signs of a collapse.  Ahead of me, Wild raised a hoof and waved for us to come to a halt.  The mare worked her way back towards Stone and myself, her hooves making barely a sound as they seemed to glide across the steel rails.

“Alright, up ahead is the station, which, if nothing's changed since I escaped its layout, is similar to Tartarus Station, only a bit larger in scale.  There’s four tracks instead of the two and three levels to the station,” the pegasus began to explain. “Access to the other floors is via the stairwells located to the sides.  I only know the right-side stairwell is usable and goes all the way to the streets.”

“Are the raiders known for using the station?  Or should we expect them to be guarding it since you escaped by going this way?” I asked.  Looking over Wild’s shoulder to the darkened tunnel, I could see it open out into the station itself not far ahead.  Dim light glowed from the opening, suggesting some of the station’s overhead lighting still worked, but I could see little beyond the tracks and the loading platform from where I stood.

“They weren’t guarding it when I escaped... fuck, it was the only way I could have made it,” she admitted honestly. “I was in no shape to fight anypony when I reached the station.”  She glanced back to where I was and frowned.  This must have been hard on her, coming back to the place she’d likely been abused for...how long?  She never really said, but I doubted it would take long given the kind of things I’d heard the raiders did. 

Hang on, Ebony...

“Alright, we’ll scope out the station.  If it looks clear, we’ll head for the stairs you came down and make our way to the surface.  Once there, I’ll start searching for Ebony’s Pipbuck marker.  If she’s in the city, I think it should locate her, but it may have a limited range,” I said, looking between them both before adding, “One last time, neither of you have to go any further.  If you want to wait in the tunnel or head back to the crossover room...”

“Ah think ya know my answer, Shadow,” Stone said quickly, standing up from the tracks.

“I’ve come this far; fuck, I was nearly crushed by falling stone, eaten by zombies and turned into a glow rod by a monster pony.  Might as well take the entire tour and get attacked by raiders.”  Wild smirked as she flexed her wings, earning a snort from Stone; but also a smile.

“Well then, lead the way,” I said, waving my right hoof towards the tunnel and stood up to follow her.  I turned the light of my Pipbuck off.  No sense giving away our position this close to the enemy.  Wild’s chest light had already been turned off, and Stone was storing his lantern back into his packs.

Wild carefully trotted down the tracks, hooves never seeming to make as much noise as the two earth ponies following her.  She’d drawn her laser pistol and had it pointed out into the station as we reached the edge of the tunnel.  I stepped up behind her.  Glancing to my E.F.S., I saw a bit of static before it popped back up and displayed several red bars directly in front of us.  I froze and blinked. Shit, we’re screwed. 

I was about to draw Wild back into cover when she trotted out into the open and made her way swiftly to the edge of the loading platform, with a flap of her wings she rose up onto the raised platform and took cover behind an overturned bench before waving us up.  Blinking, I looked back to my Pipbuck and the display there.  Seven red bars stared back at me, one was even atop me.

It was then that I discovered another of the Pipbuck’s E.F.S.’ drawbacks: it didn’t have any way to display on what floors the threats were located.  I groaned and shook my head before moving out after Wild.  The trash covered tracks nearly tripped me twice before I reached the edge of the platform and quietly pulled myself up onto it.  Scanning around, I trotted over to kneel beside Wild and whispered near her.

“I’m reading seven threats in the station, likely on the second floor.”  The mare nodded as Stone quickly joined us.  The earth pony propped his rifle up on the back of the bench. 

“I ran into a few radroaches when I was here last, so it could just be them.  Still, let’s try and be careful,” Wild whispered to us both before she motioned towards the far wall of the station.

Following her hoof, I looked across the open station and the four sets of tracks we had to cross largely in the open to the far wall.  There I spotted the double doors leading out into a hallway.  Beside the doors was a rusted sign depicting stairs going up.  I frowned and looked over the station once more; like Tartarus Station, the overhead panels still worked, sending down narrow beams of light from the ceiling.  Specks of dust drifted slowly through those beams to cover everything in a layer of dirt and decay.  Overturned trash cans and benches were everywhere within the station, and there were far more personal affects scattered about: suitcases, makeshift personal wagons, and foal carriages.  There were also a number of skeletons lying about the platform.  I suppose others had sought to escape the burning city by taking shelter within the subway tunnels, only to die from the high levels of radiation they had been exposed to.  At least not all had been transformed into ghouls, but of those who had...had they fallen upon their dying friends after the change?

After a quick scan of the station, Wild was up again, running across the platform.  Opening her wings, she leapt into the air and sailed across the four sets of tracks to reach the far wall in one go.  Landing lightly, she edged towards the doorway and looked through.  Once more, she turned and waved us over.

“Show off...” Stone said with a grin, rising to his hooves.  The large gray stallion made his way more slowly across the platform than our pegasus friend.  Rather than dive off into the tracks four times, the earth pony sought out the overhead walkway and climbed the stairs leading to it.

With a quick look around, I followed behind him, climbing up the stairs while being careful to keep from dislodging any number of broken bottles and cans that littered them.  Reaching the top, I looked around and found more bones scattered about.  Bits of armor and a few guns poked out from the yellowing, broken pieces.  I imagined they had once belonged to raiders who either had no idea what was down here or were too stupid to care.  The ghouls had made short work of them, despite their advantage of armor and weapons.

We made our way across the platform, hooves kicking up puffs of dust that had gathered here for some time; though they had been stupid, it seemed the raiders had learned their lesson.  Stone eyed the gear as we passed, but managed to keep moving and forgo his normal salvaging nature.  Skirting a weak section of the platform, we reached the stairs and quickly trotted down them to rejoin Wild.

The doorway to the surface stood before me.  Kanter City.  Ebony, and the end of my search.  A orange hoof reached up and pushed the right-side door open slowly, allowing us to look into the room.  A single large set of stairs led upward, the room completely dark save for a beam of light making its way down between the steps.  I blinked; the light was not coming from any panel, but from outside.  I gave each of my friends a look.  Each nodded to me; they were ready.  This was it.

Gripping the firing bit of my shotgun, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  The stench of decay and death filling my nose and I snorted.  Rising to my hooves I opened my eyes and pushed my way through the doors. Rushed towards the stairs, hooves rattling off the stone steps.

Finally, the moment had arrived... 

My eyes snapped to the floor above as I raced, a broken beer bottle catching the light from above and turning it a deep amber.  Behind me, I heard the light hoof steps of Wildfire as she followed me closely.

...This was it...!

Rounding the second floor, I gripped my weapon tighter and climbed higher, my heart hammering in my chest.

...The moment I find my sister...

As I climbed the third set of stairs, the grey overcast sky loomed above me, dim rays of sunlight filtering through small holes in the layer of clouds.  I squinted in the light, the hours spent in the near darkness of the tunnel making even this little bit of light bright enough to blind.  Setting my hoof onto the surface, I stepped out into the city that had taken my family from me.




Welcome to Level 8!


Bonus Perk Added: Pinkie Sense: You dunno how, why or what, but sometimes you get little tingling feelings in your body and they each mean a different thing.  They might save you from a falling rock or frog,  keep you from getting a muddy coat, or warn you of a falling princess.  There’s no instruction guide, however, so good luck figuring out what each feeling means before it’s too late!  Oh, they also don’t happen all the time, either, so you can’t depend on them to save your life every time.  Yeah, this perk is sooooo random.  Have another Perk to make up for this one!

Perk Added: Super Slam: All unarmed and melee weapon attacks have a chance of knocking down your opponent (or any nasty doors that get in your way).  This does not affect ‘automatic’ melee weapons such as the Ripper or the chainsaw.  The chance of knocking an opponent down is 20% while using an unarmed weapon or one-hoofed melee weapon.  It also looks awesome to the mares while doing it. 


> Chapter 08: Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 8: Family


The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for them.


Kanter City, a city of the dead and the damned.  Its streets and buildings were as silent as a tomb as we stood gazing up at them; a fact I found rather fitting, since the once mighty city had ended up becoming a grave for its original inhabitants.  Their ashes had long ago mixed with that of their city’s, blown across the parking lots and sidewalks, and into high rises and shopping malls.  My friends and I stood beside the stairs leading up from the subway, and simply stared at the twisted towers above us as they rose up into the thick, cloud-covered sky.  

The black pits of hundreds of windows stared down upon us like the eyes of a radscorpion, while rusted metal support beams sat exposed from the sides of the buildings, the walls pitted and cracked.  One thing nearly all the buildings had in common was the lack of their upper floors, the blast wave from the balefire bombs having ripped them free and tossed them to the streets below, killing anypony unlucky enough to be out in them.  I imagine a great many had died in the streets, given the panic I had heard on the audio tapes from the twins’ recorder.

Those same streets that had run between the large buildings were now a hellish maze of decaying structures and debris; chariots of every size and shape littered the roadways, along with chunks of fallen buildings, rusted metal scrap and the charred bones of the dead.  Half-melted, broken lampposts ran along the sidewalks.  Bent signs and broken stoplights rose from the rubble in spots, like tombstone markers.  Like much of the wasteland I’d seen thus far, tufts of dark down grass pushed up between the cracks of the pavement, waving in the humid breeze blowing in over the walls, and providing the only color other than gray and black.

Trotting slowly away from the subway entrance, I craned my neck back and stared up at the remaining floors of the buildings before us.  Movement from one of those many dark windows caught my eye and I quickly turned my head to look.  A yellowed curtain fluttered in the wind, flapping lazily from where it had hung for who knows how long.  I stood there watching as yellowed papers darted out from the window and slowly floated down to the streets, disappearing behind the ruins of another shattered structure.  I lowered my gaze and stared at the streets before us and the shattered chariots lining the sidewalk.  Most were blackened and overturned from the blast; some, however, retained their original colors, though only on the sides facing away from the heat wave.  Behind me, my two friends began following me through the maze of twisted rusting hulks. 

A large number of them were simply personal carts, likely driven here before the final moments by ponies desperate to escape the city, but there were also several emergency vehicles.  As we walked between them, hooves making soft clattering noise upon the pavement, I looked a few of them over.  I saw police carts, with faded black and white paint on their rusting surfaces; along the end of one I could still make out “To Protect and Serve.”  I saw several large fire engines: masses of orange and brown rust, rubber hoses long since rotted away.  We carefully walked around an overturned ambulance, its back doors having been ripped off, either by the blast or by surviving looters and raiders.  Like the others we had passed, the insides of the carts had been salvaged; broken radios, busted electronics and the brittle bones of the dead lay in heaps.  The carts had formed a protective barrier around the smaller personal carts.  Despite it all, they had still tried to protect those ponies they had sworn to look after.  Even from a balefire bomb.

It’s what security does, protect ponies...I had told Rose.  I glanced to the Riot Armor I wore, my name written across my chest along with the number of my Stable.  

“We should get moving before a patrol stumbles upon us. I’m rather surprised we’ve not seen any sign of them yet,” Wildfire said from beside a charred police cart, blue eyes scanning the cloud covered sky for any sign of flyers.  I looked up from where I stood and scanned the upper floors of the towers myself, looking for any signs of life.

Stonehoof, meanwhile, was picking his way through a nearby cart; a taxi, judging by the remaining faded yellow paint and lettering across one door.  He had found an old briefcase and had opened it in the hopes of finding something usable, or at least something that we could sell when we returned to friendly territory.  The large gray earth pony looked back across the street to the subway tunnel, then slowly around the buildings we stood between.

As I watched my friend shove a few bits of scrap metal into his saddlebag, I noticed a bent street sign behind him.  It was the remains of a crosswalk sign.  Despite the rust, the broken glass screens, and signs of melting, it still seemed to be working.  A faded green glow came from behind the remains of dirt-encrusted glass, half of a trotting pony showing it was safe to cross the street.

“Ah reckon yer right, Wild, but do either of ya rightly know which way we should be goin’?” Stone asked, as he worked his way between the rusting carts towards where I was standing.  Wild glanced back to him before answering.

“I’ve been giving that some thought while we were on our way here.  Well, at least while we weren’t running for our lives from an army of ghouls.”  Good times, I thought, as she continued. “The most likely place we should check first is where I was being kept a couple years ago.  It seemed to be the raiders’ central prison for ponies they captured within the wasteland, and it held a large number when I was there.  As luck would have it, it isn’t far from here.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan,” I said as I lifted my right hoof up, working the controls on the side of my Pipbuck.  I switched the screens and settings to start searching for my sister’s tag, or for any pony from Stable 45.  Chances are if I found one, I might find the others, or at least learn where to find them.  My friends watched silently from beside me, both ponies keeping a careful eye out around us as my Pipbuck updated its tracking information.  For a moment, I held onto a small hope that a message would flash in my E.F.S. with a marker, but it was not to be; instead, a number of red dots flashed into being within my vision, only a short distance away down the street we stood upon. “It didn’t find my sister, but it did find trouble coming our way,” I said to them, pointing a hoof towards the end of the street, “Wild, lead the way to that prison.”

“Alright, just remember: watch your step and keep the noise down.  As bad as the wasteland is, this place can be far worse,” the mare said, her stormy blue eyes passing from Stone to me before she turned her head away and started trotting forward.  I glanced to the rusting carts and the bones of the dead.

We followed her across the street to the other sidewalk and between two towering, ruined highrises.  The alleyway she led us into was dark and as trash- and rubble-filled as the street, perhaps more so.  As we entered, Stone cast a quick glance down to the end of the road towards where our company was coming from.  We could all hear the sound of rough voices and crude laughter.  The gray stallion’s hooves were making far more noise than either Wild or mine, but I doubted they could have heard him over the noise they were making.  We had slipped fully into the alley long before the first raider would have come into sight, so I was sure we’d gotten away clean.

With a final glance behind me, I turned my attention fully on the narrow space we were walking into, which reminded me of the subway tunnels.  It was narrow and felt enclosed, and, looking up, I saw the reason for that.  The sky above was indeed blocked out; one of the building's upper floors had been ripped away in the blast and had fallen in between itself and its neighbor.  A large section remained intact, wedged between the two structures, with bits of debris from the building along with items from inside it lying scattered across the alleyway.  Broken office chairs, battered filing cabinets and desks, blown-out terminals, and lamps were just some of the items sticking out from piles of a hundred year trash heap.  There were personal effects as well: picture frames with their photos rotted away by time, coffee mugs with faded lettering across them, and broken reading glasses.  Small reminders that this city had once been home to ponies.

It took us longer to reach the end of the alley then I expected, thanks largely in part to the rubble.  At one point, it had piled up to the third floors of either building, which somepony long ago had dug a hole under.  While neither Wild nor I had any issues, Stone’s larger frame got stuck twice while wiggling through.  While I expected Wild’s crude humor to kick in, it remained distant and after a bit of pushing, we managed to push/pull our friend free.  As we started back towards the end of the alley, I began to hear a loud buzzing, and glanced worriedly towards the sky.  What now?  A radwasp?  Or radfly?  Since nothing darted in to kill us, and my two friends seemed unworried, I gave up looking for flying killers.  Finally, we reached the end of the alley, and the dim light of the cloud-covered sun seemed welcoming- at least, it would have if it wasn’t lighting up a gruesome sight within the street.

Bodies hung from the street lights, swaying in the wind, causing the poles to groan as the weight shifted.  I stared up at the rotting bodies of ponies and felt my stomach roll, but I kept its contents where they belonged and simply scanned the dead.  Mares, stallions, colts, and fillies all hung in different ways along the street.  All bore some signs of abuse upon their broken bodies, and all had been mutilated after they had died; at least, I prayed they had died before somepony had begun carving them up.  The annoying sound I had heard was from hundreds of fat, black-bodied flies buzzing around and crawling over the battered forms.  Once again, I felt the concern for my sister rise, but also anger.  Anger that anypony could do this to another.  Anger that somepony hadn’t put a stop to this.  What kind of sick fuck do you have to be to gut a small filly? 

A hoof gently laid across my shoulder and I looked back to Wild, the pegasus standing beside me, “There’s nothing you or anypony else can do for them,” she said softly, an odd note in her voice.  Nodding her head towards the end of the street and the ruins of what appeared to be a hotel, she added, “We have to go through that building to reach the next street.”  Dropping her hoof, she stepped past me and out onto the street.  Not once did the orange mare raise her head towards the bodies as she trotted across the street and into the cover of an overturned wagon, turning to wait on us. 

I gazed once more to the thin, wasted forms of ponies hanging around me and sighed softly.  With so much horror in this new world, was there anything on the surface for us anymore?  Was there any hope?  Stone stepped up beside me and stared at the bodies above us, the large earth pony grunting softly as he looked to two young foals; an ash grey hoof came down upon a piece of trash, crushing it in his anger.

“Raiders aren’t ponies no more, Shadow.  Best keep that in mind; makes killin’ ‘em easier and what they do easier ta understand,” Stone said softly, before he too trotted past and off towards the wagon Wild stood beside. 

As he walked away I mulled over his words; I’d yet to face raiders again since my Stable, and I had no trouble killing them then.  Would I now?  Looking up at the bodies and seeing a young colt no older than Sugar spinning slowly by his neck, I somehow doubted I would.  Lowering my eyes back to the street, I set off after my friends.

The hotel must have been impressive in its day; the entrance into the building had been tucked under large support columns that held up the front of the hotel.  The space formed a place where carriages and carts could be brought and their passengers unloaded in any sort of weather.  The doors themselves sat within the center of the covered area, large double doors that looked large enough to allow a dragon to walk inside.  Gold trim and frosted glass formed large windows along the wall on either side of the doors, giving a impressive view of red carpeted floors, crystal chandeliers, and a large oak sign-in desk flanked by twin spiral staircases leading up.  Rich looking chairs and couches had allowed guests a place to relax while waiting on their rides or just to watch the ponies coming and going from the hotel.  At least, that’s what I imagined it must have been like.

Now, the columns were pot marked and pitted from countless bullet holes, and stained with what I had come to know was dried blood.  Spent shell casings lay among the years of refuse that sat piled up against the crumbling columns.  Shards of glass littered the ground before the rusted and twisted window frames, spots of gold paint still visible below the orange oxide covering.  The doors had long ago been ripped free from their hinges and lay propped up inside the vestibule.  Stepping over the glass shards, we entered the weathered room and I looked over the filth.  The oak desk was still in place, but had massive gashes carved into it, along with the always present holes from gunfire.  It also looked as if somepony had attempted to set it on fire.  Of the chairs and couches, they had been set ablaze more easily than the desk, and their charred remains lay piled through the room upon the stained moldy carpet.  The stairs still remained, and lead up to the upper floors of the hotel, though judging by the gaping holes in the ceiling, I expected much of the upper floors had long since rotted away.  The entire room smelled of rot and smoke.  Wild turned back to tell us something when red dots began appearing in my E.F.S.  Either they had just moved into range, or I had.  As she started to open her mouth, the sound of laughter reached our ears, coming from a hallway just behind the stairs. 

In a flash, my friends dove into cover: Wild stepped out into the hallway, ducking into a small room whose door had been hacked apart, the orange mare disappearing into the darkness.  Stone, for his large size, ducked down between the stairs and the desk, rifle held in his mouth and pointed towards the hallway.  I lagged a few seconds behind my more world-savvy friends, and ducked down behind the desk, pressing my armored back into the chipped wood.  Splitters dug into my exposed coat and I gripped my shotgun’s bit tightly in my teeth, ears perked towards the sound of laughter and voices.  It was hard to say how many there were, as the red dots seemed clustered closely among themselves, and the voices rose and fell as ponies tried to talk over others. 

When nopony appeared, I checked my E.F.S. and saw that none of the red blips had moved much from where I had first noticed them, but they had spread out a bit.  Enough for me to be able to count; there appeared to be around...shit, fifteen.  I then noticed a single yellow marker in the middle of the red.  Wild’s head appeared from the doorway of her hiding place, and she scanned the hallway beyond, laser pistol held in her mouth.  She leaned back and nodded her head towards us, causing Stone to stand and, as quietly as he could walk, around the stairs and aim his rifle towards the voices. 

I rose a second later and moved between them, aiming my shotgun towards the dark hallway. Like the rest of the hotel, the hallway was a mess; the walls had been covered in crude words, mostly profanity and lude comments about mares.  I ignored it and whispered softly to my friends, “I suppose that’s the way we have to go?” 

“Of course.  Fuck...it’s never easy,” Wild said with a hiss, eyes narrowed on the hallway, her pistol lowered as she looked to myself and Stone, “How many?”  When I told her, the pegasus’ wings stood up and she swore, “Fucking hell...there’s no way we can take that many without somepony hearing or one of them escaping.” 

“Should we find another way?” Stone asked, rifle still aimed down the hallway.  The stallion’s green eyes watched for any signs of movement; I just hoped he’d warn us rather than fire.  Wild was right; if we started a fight now, we’d likely be swarmed by raiders in a matter of minutes.

“Only other way is several blocks down, and it’s in a more populated area of the city,” Wild answered, as she lowered her frazzled wings. “We could try and find another way, but it will take time, and give the patrols more chances of spotting us.”

“Is there anyway past these raiders?” I whispered to the mare; I wasn’t about to give up yet, and wandering around lost in this hellhole was a surefire way of getting captured or killed, or both. 

“...It depends on where they are in the room ahead.  We just need to go past the door into the kitchen and down the hallway into the storage room.  There’s a fire escape door there; it’s rusted shut, but it can be opened if you know the trick,” she finally answered. after several minutes of thinking over the problem.  How she knew so much about this place was a mystery; somehow I doubted the raiders let their captives just wander around freely.  Pushing that to the side for the time being, I looked back towards the dark hallway and the sound of voices.

“Alright, either way we go, we run a greater risk of being found out, but this way seems to offer the best reward for getting to where we need to go.”

Nodding her head in agreement, Wild stepped out from the closet she had hidden in, and began slowly moving forward with us close behind.  We moved far slower this time, careful of where we placed our hooves on the floor, for trash (like everywhere in the wasteland) was everywhere.  While I doubted these raiders would hear much over the noise they are making, it was better to not take that chance if we could help it.  After several minutes of walking along the hallway, we at last reached an open doorway along our left side, light spilling out from within and the sound of voices growing louder.  A quick look around revealed that if a pony came out of that door, we’d be spotted.  There was no place to hide, no other door that wasn’t closed or blocked, and no pillars or large enough heaps of random junk.

“I swear, that cunt is seein’ things, Rampage.  She said the desert floor actually sunk into the ground.  I slapped her for even botherin’ me with stupid shit,” a loud voice from inside the room was saying.  The others seemed to be laughing at what was said, or talking among themselves.  I could hear the rattle of bottles, as someponies drank, and I also smelled something burnt; it smelled familiar, but not.  

Wild inched closer to the door, while Stone and I stood back; she was the least likely to be heard, and most knowledgeable about this place.  The mare stopped, as the sound of hooves came from the doorway, but after a moment they quietened down and she moved just a bit closer, until she could glance inside.

“Yeah, one of my patrols said they heard some explosion down in the subway... fucking ass ghouls probably just blew themselves up.  Good riddance,” a second voice, far deeper and rough, answered the first.  With a start, I realized they were talking about the cave in.  So it had been seen and heard in the city, but it seemed nopony thought much of it.  We’d either been lucky or someone up above was keeping an eye out for us. 

Wild was now standing at the edge of the door, kneeling down close to the floor to reduce her visibility to anypony inside just glancing over and spotting her.  Whatever she saw caused her to tense up, her wings fluttering and tail bristling out, but she remained still.  Stone and I shared a look, before looking back to our winged friend as the raiders carried on with their conversation and drinking.

“I shoulda had the cunt blow me,” the first voice responded with a crude laugh, followed by several others, “Hey...maybe that one fucker was there and finally died.  Bastard shoulda been dead a long time ago.”

“Maybe... you wanna go down into the tunnels and find out?” the deeper voice asked, and the room quieted down a bit to that.  I wondered what they were talking about; somepony was inside the city maybe?  In the tunnels?  It wasn’t one of the ponies from my home; by the sounds of it, whoever it was had been causing them some trouble for awhile.  Still, it could have just as easily been a crazed member of their own group doing it for shits and giggles.

Wild slipped away from the doorframe and walked carefully back to us, glancing behind her as she did so.  “They’re all gathered in the middle of the room.  Most have their backs to the door, and it appears they’ve all been drinking for some time.  We should be able to move past them if we move quickly and quietly.  I’ll go first, Shadow second, and Stones last.”  It made sense; we were both light enough on our hooves that we could likely sneak past without being heard.  Stone on the other hoof...well, he was his name sake.  If things went south, at least we’d all be in one place instead of split if the raiders came charging out.

Wild lightly stepped back to the door and waited for her opening to dash across to the other side.  Each of us would be exposed for only seconds, but it would be enough if just one of the raiders in the room turned to look.  But factor in them being drunk and we might just be able to dance across.  Stone followed closely behind me as I hugged the wall, inching up behind the pegasus whose ears were perked towards the doorway, wings twitching as she waited for her chance.  The sound of laughter once more filled the room beyond the door, and echoed out into the dark hallway. 

I almost missed it, blinking just as Wild took off across the opening, hooves making barely more noise then when she had walked. The orange mare drew herself to a halt and turned to face us, eyes fixed on the doorway.  We each held our breath, as we waited to see if she’d been spotted, but after a minute or two, it seemed she had judged the moment correctly.  The raiders beyond seemed unaware that we were just outside their room.

Working my way closer to the doorway, I edged my face around the corner and peered into the room and stopped breathing.  What few horrors I had seen thus far had done nothing to prepare me for what I saw in that room.  Raiders sat around a large room that was nearly equal in size to that of the dining hall back home.  It was the hotel's kitchen, or it had been.  Stoves and refrigerators each took up a wall, with countertops of rusted steel and half broken tables and chairs making up the majority of the room.  Like all the other places I had been, it was a mess of trash and debris, but also blood.  The source of the blood was hanging from the walls, ceiling and across the counters: bloody bits of meat.  I nearly vomited, and swallowed the acidic bile back down my throat.  The smell was horrible, but what made it all the worse was the type of meat.  A flank hanging from the ceiling had a cutie mark upon it. Sweet Celestia...they are killing and eating ponies in a fucking kitchen. Charred flesh was the unknown scent I had caught earlier; it was just that it had been cooked with spices or something added which had thrown me off track.

A hoof poked me from behind and drew my attention away from the horrors as I looked back to Stone.  The earth pony had a grim look on his normal pleasant face and we locked eyes for a moment.  Neither of us spoke, but I managed to gather my wits enough to calm myself.  I’d remembered Jacobs saying a raider was likely to either kill, rape, or eat you... I had thought he was joking, but what I’d seen in that room was no joke.  Was that why my Stable had been attacked?  For food?

Ebony.

I turned back to peer around the doorway, focusing on the raiders instead of the room and what hung all around it.  They looked similar to the ones who had attacked Stable 45; crude armor covered parts of their bodies, a mix of steel and cloth and all covered in rust, gore, and dirt.  Spikes and blades covered parts of the armor, and all carried several weapons, from pistols to assault rifles and swords to axes.  The majority were earth ponies, but I saw a small number of unicorns in the mix.  All were male.  Two, however, stood out from the crowd. 

The closest to the door was a sizeable unicorn, sitting with his front hooves atop the table he slammed an empty beer bottle atop, rattling its neighbors and sending them clattering across the table top. The pony was easily larger than Stone, muscles seeming to almost burst from his body and straining at his dark red coat.  He wore battered security barding across his massive frame, dented and scored from use and lack of repair.  All across his armor he wore belts holding a mix of bladed weapons, from small daggers and knives to large meat cleavers.  Over his hooves, he was wearing metal claws that looked sharp enough to carve open a radscorpion’s carapace.  Upon a cracked shoulder pad, somepony had painted a crude sword embedded in a pony skull, a symbol repeated on several ponies sitting near him.  A gang marking? 

The other raider of note was a equally as large, a tan earth pony sitting at the other end of the table from the unicorn.  He wore what appeared to be the remains of a suit of power armor, as badly dented and mutilated as the other raiders’ armor.  An equally large collection of bottles sat around him, and he tossed one away into the face of a raider sitting beside him, showering the stallions face with shards of broken glass and causing him to fall away yelling.  Laughing, the earth pony turned away and regarded the unicorn.  This pony’s face was a mass of scars, and one eye was nothing more than a black pit.  He wore a battle saddle across his ruined power armor, fitted with heavy machine guns on both sides, the ammo feed running into saddlebags across his flanks.  Like the unicorn, he too bore a mark upon his shoulder guard, only his was of a line of bullets.

Their attention seemed to turn from the table to something happening off in the corner of the room, and as all eyes turned towards the section of the kitchen, I rose up and made a mad dash for the other side of the door. It was an odd feeling, running across a doorway, almost like some childish game you’d play as a young colt, only this game was deadly real, your life and that of your friends depended on you not being seen.  It took only seconds to cross the distance, yet those few seconds left me exposed for any passing eye to see.

Making more noise then my winged friend had, I rolled to a stop beside her, flanks pressing against one another as we waited to see if I’d been spotted.  The seconds ticked by as I stared across the doorway to where Stone waited his turn; the earth pony held his rifle in his mouth, ready to fire it at the first sign of trouble.  But it would seem the raiders neither heard nor worried about the hallway past their room, far too intent on whatever was taking place within the room.  One of the raiders turned away from whatever the others watched and began looking for a still full bottle from among the many empty ones scattered atop the table.  Both Stone and myself leaned back into the hallway and out of his sight. 

As I stood beside the doorway waiting for the one stallion to look away, I looked back over to the two ponies I’d noticed earlier, likely the leaders of gangs or bands of raiders.  The large muscle bound unicorn smirked and leaned back away from the table as he eyed movement off in the corner of the kitchen.  He licked his lips and called out to somepony just outside my view, “Come on, Brute, stop playing around with your food! Don’t ya know that one’s up for the chopping block in a couple of days?” The unicorn chuckled and lifted a bottle of beer up from the table, out of the grasping hooves of the earth pony who had been busy searching for it.  As the two argued over ownership of the bottle, I leaned a bit further out to see what was happening, and nearly fell out into the doorway. 

Off in the corner, upon a stained battered table, was a young mare, chained to the wall and being raped by one of the unicorn’s bucks, judging by the tattoo on his shoulder.  I quickly looked away from the sight, but I couldn’t escape the sounds.  The laughing raiders had covered up the noise until then, when they all decided to watch the poor thing.  How could I just sit here and let this happen?

Jerking my head back, I grabbed for my shotgun around my neck in my forehooves.  The fuck was wrong with them?  The fuck was wrong with the whole damn world?  The raiders in the kitchen began to laugh once more, almost drowning out the sounds.  I couldn’t just let this happen. I started to reach for the bit to my weapon when a orange hoof slid across the weapon and Wild’s blue eyes filled my vision as she leaned in close.  

“There’s nothing we can do for her, Shadow. Luna above, I want to go in there and kill every single one of those fuckers...but if we do, we’ll be signing our own death warrants, and that of your sister’s.”  She looked from my face to the doorway, hatred burning in her eyes as she stared at the two large stallions sitting at the table, laughing at the poor mare, “If we get into a fight now there’s no way we’ll be able to remain unnoticed.  Even if we killed every asshole in there, the chance somepony nearby will find them or hear the gunshots is very good...and right now, the only thing we have going for us is the fact they don’t know we’re here.”

Damnit to hell...but she was right. She removed her hoof from my weapon, knowing I wouldn’t risk it, despite every urge to the contrary to just start firing. She was right.  I let the shotgun fall back against my chest and calmed my breathing.  This wasn’t the time or place to just kill them all. Movement from across the doorway alerted me to Stone getting ready to cross to us, then we could be away from this place.

Stonehoof inched forward as quietly as he could, his head poked around the corner of the doorway, watching the raiders as he waited for his chance. Most had gone back to watching the ‘show’ and ignored the doorway to their backs. As he placed a single hoof into the open space and began to trot across the opening, the sharp scraping of wood echoed from within the room as a pony stood up from the table and started towards the door. 

Stone jerked his head back as well as his hooves, biting his bottom lip to keep from swearing as he did so.  He pulled his rifle back up to his lips and edged back against the wall, Wild and I did likewise, but there wasn’t anywhere to which we could quickly and quietly run.  The sound of hoof steps drawing closer caused my ears to flick, Stone pressed himself up against the wall as best he could and we waited to be discovered.

A twisted stallion stumbled into the hall, snorting to himself as he stopped in the doorway.  His brown coat was filthy, and splattered with dry blood.  Crude spiked armor plates were strapped to his forelegs, chest and neck, the metal rusted and in poor shape.  A old shotgun hung across his side, the barrel sawed off and filed down.  The smell coming off the pony was as bad as the odor of the kitchen; a mix of vomit, blood and unwashed flesh. 

For the moment he simply stood there, swaying on his hooves, clearly drunk out of his mind.  His scarred head turned first to the left, red blurry eyes landing directly on Wild and myself.  I stood still, knowing he’d spotted us, but oddly hesitant to move.  Blinking, he looked away and then across to Stone, where raider and earth pony stood staring at one another.  Had he not seen us?  Was he really that shit-faced drunk?

Scratching his chest with a fore hoof, the raider finally stumbled over to the wall across from the doorway, and proceeded to take a leak.  Right there.  I blinked, unsure if this was really happening as he emptied his bladder across the floor.  It seemed so unlikely...but as the stream ended, he lowered his leg and stumbled back into the kitchen, sparing none of us a second look. In the kitchen, the crude laughed continued on, along with the noises from the corner.

“How did he...,” Wild whispered, one of her ears twitching as she attempted to understand how we’d not been spotted.  Glass shattering echoed from within the kitchen as the raiders started tossing their bottles about.  The sudden noise caused Wild to jump a bit and look uneasily towards the door.

“Don’t question it too much, let's just hurry and get the hell outa this place.” I answered softly, before waving Stone on across as I saw the raiders all turned to watch a fight break out between two of their friends.  The ash gray earth pony wasted no time, and hurriedly crossed the opening. His hooves rattled more than mine, but luckily, the brawling raiders made more than enough noise to hide them.

Without looking back, we made our way further down the hallway until we reached another door, this one closed.  By the look on Wild’s face I knew this was not something she’d expected and we came to a halt.  The door had been padlocked; crudely but effectively sealing us inside the building. 

“Shit...they must have added this since I escaped,” the mare muttered, placing a hoof against the old lock. Somepony must have either found it laying around the city, or simply removed it from another place.  The screws used to hold it on the door and frame were far too large, and had damaged the metal plate.  The padlock itself was a bit too small for the rest, and while it could easily be broken, it would make a lot of noise.  Luckily, we had another option.

“I’ve got this,” I whispered, and moved up beside the door. reaching into my saddlebags, I withdrew my screwdriver and pins, before setting to work on the lock.  It was hardly the most difficult of locks, but the fact it was so badly rusted over made it hard to turn the tumblers inside.  I broke more then one of my pins attempting to get it open, but at last the lock snapped lose and I quickly removed it.

“Nice work.” Wild nodded her head before pulling the door open; the room beyond was filled with cardboard boxes stuffed with cans of food and bottles of water and beer.  The raiders had started using the room for its original purpose.  At least there wasn’t any meat stored here.

“Where to now?” Stone asked, taking a moment to add some of the food to our bags; every little bit helps, and I had no issue with stealing from raiders.  I noticed Stone only took the canned food and left the bags; less chance of tampering, I suppose.

Wild stepped carefully around the boxes of supplies and over to a second door, this one unlocked, and she opened it with only a small groan of old hinges.  Inside, it looked like a maintenance closet; moldy mops and brooms hung from the walls, buckets and bottles sat across the floor.  But it was to the back of the small room that the pegasus went, to a metal round cover set into the floor.

“This leads directly into the sewers.  Once we’re inside, the risk of running into raiders is low; they tend to stay clear of them.”  As she spoke, Stone had found a crowbar from somewhere within the room (or his saddlebags; it was hard to tell with that pony) and pried the edge up under the cover.  With a grunt, he popped the ponyhole cover up and onto it’s side, filling the room with the scent of rot and decay.  Still, it was better then the kitchen’s smell.

Wild was the first one down.  As I stepped closer, I saw a series of metal rungs leading down into the dark hole. While rusted and in places bent, they still seemed able to support a pony’s weight.  The mare’s red maned head disappeared into the darkness; I was up next.

Swinging my hindquarters around, I worked my flanks down into the hole and began climbing down the rungs, keeping my eyes on where I placed my hooves.  I doubted I’d like falling into anything that lay waiting on the bottom of this shaft.  As my hooves touched the ground, I at once sunk up to my ankles in foul smelling sludge.  I stepped aside from the ladder, gingerly moving through the thick stream of muck, and looked around.  A single emergency lighting unit was placed just beside the ladder, so we had a small amount of light.  The walls of the tunnel were made of brick and mortar, all old-fashioned stuff; clearly the sewers were older than most of the city above.  I glanced back up to the ladder as I heard heavy hoofsteps upon them.

The hollow clang of the metal ponyhole cover sliding back into place echoed throughout the narrow tunnel, the cracked brick walls and ceiling showering us with dust from the heavy sound.  Looking up the ladder, Stone twisted his hooves slowly to finish sealing the cover into place, cutting off the dim lighting and stale air of the storage room for the flickering glow of emergency lighting and the heavy odor of decay. 

My friend carefully climbed down the twisted rungs of the ladder, being as watchful of where he placed his hoof as I had been.  He attempted to be as quiet as he could but with his bulk, every time a hoof touched a metal rung it sounded as if a box of nails had been tossed down a elevator shaft.  With a frustrated sigh, he simply gave up any attempt at stealth and quickly dropped down the last three steps into the sewage that filled the bottom of the tunnel, causing a splash.  I winced and shook myself off as the foul water splashed onto my side.  Stone grinned sheepishly to me before looking over our new environment. 

The faint click of my Pipbuck’s light switch sounded as loud as a gunshot in the sudden silence that followed the ringing echoes, the narrow beam of light passing across the filth covered tunnel floor to the orange hooves of Wildfire, who stood several steps ahead of me.  The mare shifted and turned to face me as I brought the light up to her face.  With a flick of her hoof, the light on her chest armor flared into being and struck the gray coat of Stone.  The earth pony had his head buried in his saddlebag, and within seconds had pulled out his lantern, already lit and surrounding us in its soft pale light. 

We’d found ourselves in one of the hundreds of sewer tunnels that ran all across the city (or any modern city built in Equestria before the war).  The walls were made of brick and mortar, with iron or steel reinforcement beams helping to support the weight of the roads and buildings above.  Pipes ran along the length of the tunnel in various conditions: these had been bolted to the wall and likely had taken water, waste and power all across the city.  Beside a collection of piping, further down the tunnel I spotted a battered emergency lighting system upon the wall, its lights shattered and cover broken.  A quick glance either direction down the tunnel indicated that the rest of the lighting systems down here had met a similar fate.  Shifting my hooves around, I felt, heard, and smelled the sludge I was standing in shift.  Looking down, I saw I was hoof deep in the muck, a slow-moving layer of slime and other bits of trash washed down here by the rain.  Judging by the steady clicking of my Pipbuck, it was also radioactive.  I watched as a dead rat floated past and shivered in disgust.  There weren’t enough hot showers in the world left to make me feel clean after this was over.

“We have to follow this tunnel for the next hour or so.  With luck there will have been no collapses and we will come to a junction.  From there we go right for another hour until we reach the water treatment plant, which is a block away from the hospital,” Wild said, stepping down the tunnel a bit to get a better look at the path ahead of us.  The mare seemed unworried about the sludge and filth, but then again, she had used this to escape the city before. 

“Can we take the sewers straight to the hospital?” I asked once I finished inspecting our surroundings.  Wild moved further down the passage and panned her light across the walls and floor.  Piles of garbage lay where they had been washed, the sludge flowing around them; one looked like it may have a body hidden below it.

“Not directly, no, that section of the sewers collapsed when the bombs struck the city.  An entire block fell into the subway and sewer tunnels from the shock of the explosions, and the hole was filled in by the destroyed buildings; we’d never manage,” she answered, blue eyes seeming to glow in the light coming from my Pipbuck. “We’ll have to head back to the surface and cross the street. Then we’ll have to find a way back into the sewers.  I know of one in that section of the city, but it’s been so long ago that I’ll have to get a look around first.”

Meanwhile, Stone had balanced his lantern upon his broad back and was checking over his rifle.  He was wiping away a bit of the sludge from the weapon’s stock with a hoof when a loud splash from behind him caused the pony’s ears to stand upright quickly. Glancing over his shoulder into the darkness beyond, he shifted uneasily and gripped his rifle in his mouth. 

A single red blip glowed from my E.F.S,. and I wondered if one of the raider’s hadn’t heard or seen us.  If they had, then we’d be plot deep in mad ponies.  The seconds ticked by and the ponyhole cover above us remained sealed.  However, another splash echoed within the confines of the tunnel.  I lifted my right foreleg up to cast some light on whatever it was and sighed in relief at what I saw in my Pipbuck’s dim glow. 

It was just one of the most common pests in all of the wasteland, the radroach.  The foal-sized brown bug skittered from the darkness of the tunnel and waved its antennas at Stone, wings buzzing as it sized up the pony.  Its slick shiny carapace clicked as it moved this way and that on its hairy legs.  I wrinkled my nose at the sight of the thing and lowered my shotgun that I had been holding tightly.

Swinging his hoof at the thing, Stone attempted to shoo it away, but it seemed intent on attacking us.  The brown bug snapped at my friend’s leg and missed, buzzing its wings, it started to move in closer when it found out why radroaches are not a concern of most wastelanders.  Rearing back on his hind legs, Stone slammed his front hooves down atop the roaches back, his weight pressing it down into the sludge, cracking its carapace easily and pulping the soft bits inside.

‘Ah reckon we best get goin’ then.  While one or three ain’t nothin’, places like this are known for th’ swarms large enough to kill a pony.”  Stepping back, Stone snorted and wiped his hooves off on the wall, leaving a wet smear across the bricks, and glancing back to us as he spoke.  The dead bug was soon washed away with the rest of the trash, lost in the flow of garbage.

“I’d also like to put some distance between ourselves and the hotel, in case at least one of those raiders gets drunk enough to think coming down here’s a good idea,” Wild added.  Some had already reached the point of being drunk blind.

“I suppose there’s worse here than radroaches then?” I asked as we turned to leave, Wild taking point since she was most familiar with this place.  Stone walked in between us, his lantern casting more light then our smaller ones, and I walked behind him.  I already had a good idea of the answer to my question.  While nowhere in the wasteland seemed safe, a bit of conversation would help us forget the kitchen. 

“Oh yes, two headed flesh-eating giant rats, flocks of bloodwings roosting down here while the suns up, and feral ghouls,”  Oh my.  Wild spoke as she navigated the twisting tunnels and side passages of the sewers.  If not for her, we would have been hopelessly lost down in this maze. 

“Ah’ve had my fill of ghouls for today, thank ya very much, Wild.” Stone muttered, glancing back the way we had come, before looking ahead and to the mare in front of him, falling silent.

I had to agree: the subway train had been more then enough for me, but I also remembered what Wild had said about the sewers of Kanter City.  A number of ponies had sought to escape their fate down here, only to seal it.  The radioactivity had washed down here with them by storms a few days following the bombs, killing hundreds and turning some into the walking undead. 

As we walked, I thought about the pony we’d left back in the hotel, and what her fate was to be.  A part of me was shocked I hadn’t argued more with Wild, but she was right.  If we had gone back in, guns blazing, we would have found ourselves outnumbered by Celestia knows how many more raiders from the surrounding ruins.  And if by some chance we managed to make good our escape, then they would know somepony was loose in their city, and any chance of saving my sister would be tossed out the door.

Shaking my head, I looked back up to my two friends as I walked along behind them, hooves sucking into the thick sludge as we went, and tried to get my mind off the mare.  We walked for over an hour in silence before coming to the split in the tunnel as Wild had said.  The tunnel opened up into a small chamber, with four passages leading off from it, including the one we had just traveled.  Ahead, the middle tunnel was blocked by a collapse made up of garbage and broken bricks. Both the left and right passage remained clear and it was the right that Wild trotted towards. We pressed on for another thirty minutes in silence before Stone asked.

“How do ya know some much bout this place anyway?” 

“I became familiar with the sewers the last time I was here; it was how I escaped,” she answered, hooves stepping lightly in the muck, unlike Stone and myself who seemed to sink deeper into the filth.  I was thinking very hard about burning my armor after all this was done, for I doubted I’d ever get the smell out of it from all I’ve been through.  From radscorpion blood and venom to gecko bits.

“But how?  Ah don’t reckon th’ raiders let their captives just wander about on their own,” Stone pressed.  I had to admit, I had been curious about that as well; I could well imagine spending a few weeks just wandering around aimlessly in this place before finding any way out.  But this place had likely already dug up enough painful memories for the pegasus so I had not asked.  Wild looked up, as if she was about to answer Stone’s question when a sudden yellow dot appeared upon my E.F.S.  

I swear, this thing is useless...

“Because I showed her,” a deep raspy voice said from my right.  Blinking in surprise, I jerked my head around and came nose to nose with a ghoul.  Glowing orange eyes locked upon mine as we looked one another over. 

He was my height, and my build, though a bit lighter due to the loss of so much fur, hair and skin.  His torn exposed flesh was dry, cracked and blackened, clinging to his bones tightly giving him a very skeletal appearance.  While some of the ghouls in the train had been wearing clothing, he was dressed in full combat armor that appeared to be well maintained, worn markings on his shoulder guards and chest plate seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place them.  A 9mm pistol was holstered to his left fore leg similar to my own revolver, he also carried a combat knife across his chest and a assault rifle floated within the glow of his horn, barrel pointed at my face.  The chipped spiral horn had been half hidden beneath a dented combat helmet and the tangled mess that was the remains of his dark blue mane.

“So, care to explain why you three are in my sewers making enough noise to wake the dead?  Cause I was having a fucking wonderful dream involving twins, a real bed and a bottle of Wild Pegasus,” the ghoul pony growled out in his raspy hoarse voice, cracked lips pulling back into a smile, revealing rotting yellow teeth.

“Looking for a group of ponies taken from a Stable,” Wild answered calmly, as if she knew the pony.  She pushed her way past Stone to stand before the ghoul, blue eyes fixed upon his glowing orbs. “And hello Carrion, I see you're still as ugly as ever.”  A smirk formed across her lips as she added that last part.

“Ahh...it is you.”  Lowering his weapon, the ghoul regarded the pegasus and flicked his ears upright.  Both were as burnt as the rest of him and one had a hole ripped clean through.  His glowing eyes passed from me to Stone before settling on Wild, “So, who's the radroach bait and the old fat pony?”

Stone snorted and stomped a hoof at that comment, the ‘old fat pony’ adjusting his hat as he stepped up closer to Wild and the ghoul she was speaking to, ears laid back as he eyed the undead pony carefully.  For my part I just kept silent and where I was; I mean, maybe radscorpion bait, but I could handle radroaches.  Wild smirked and flicked her tail a bit at the names, eyes settling on Stone as he stood nearby before she turned them back to the ghoul and answered.

“The two muck ponies are Stonehoof and Shadow...and they are my friends.”  The word ‘friend’ was stressed as she eyed Carrion, perhaps making it clear with the ghoul we weren’t to be disregarded. “And as much as I love this little reunion, the last time I was in the sewers I was nearly eaten by a swarm of giant mutant two headed rats...perhaps we can go elsewhere and talk?”

With a snort, the ghoul simply shook his head.  I wondered if perhaps he wouldn’t still shoot us, or just leave us to our own devices, but after a moment of looking us over, he seemed to reach a decision.

“I’ll probably regret this...fucking smooth coats...,” he muttered.  With a flick of his tattered ears, Carrion turned away from us and disappeared back into the hole in which he had been standing, half hidden behind a set of collapsed pipes and a rotting dark brown tarp that must have been washed down here years ago.  The coloring of the tarp so matched that of the walls that the hole was nearly impossible to see unless you knew where to look.  Even with our lights, the shadows seemed to blot it from sight. 

“Charming fellow,” I said, lifting the edge of the tarp with a hoof.  It went all the way down into the slowly flowing sludge, which had a layer of green mold or algae atop it; helping keep it held down was a long-since rusted metal rod.  Somepony had gone through some effort to hide the tunnel, and I had a good idea who that was.

Beside me, Stone snorted, clearly not liking the ghoul.  I looked from him to Wild as she stepped into the tunnel under the tarp.  The pegasus paused to look back to us.

“He might be able to help us, so I’d suggest we follow him.”  Without bothering to see if we agreed, she turned to followed the new tunnel and the rotting flanks of the ghoul several steps ahead. 



*     *     *     *     * 



Forget maze, the system of subway tunnels, sewers, and maintenance passages below Kanter City was a labyrinth, and not one I wished to try on my own.  I’d quickly given up on trying to remember the twists and turns we had taken since leaving the hidden passage, but it felt as if we’d covered several miles underground.  Luckily, my Pipbuck was managing to log the path we had been taking, along with retrieving an old map of the city from Celestia knew where and adding names to places I’d never heard of.  The one thing I knew for certain was if we walked much more, we’d end up back in Crossroads. 

When I’d asked Carrion how he knew which way he was going, he simply grunted and pointed a hoof to odd markings painted or carved into the stonework of the tunnels: marks that made sense only to the ghoul, and left us completely at his mercy.  But Wildfire seemed to trust him, and from what I gathered it had been this ghoul who had helped her escape.  I also remember Stone saying that not all ghouls were rabid blood thirsty monsters out for flesh, that some were still ponies under their rotting flesh.  Was he really just like the ponies I had known all my life despite the fact his appearance made my coat crawl?  Still, I’d always been taught not to judge a pony on looks alone.  Should I be so quick to judge him?

After two hours of wandering through the dank tunnels, we at last reached the end of the latest passage we had been trekking down.  It was remarkably dry, and a rusted metal door barred our path further.  I was about to step towards the door when I noticed Carrion, who had been leading the way the entire time, had halted.  I glanced to my friends, both of whom had stopped a few paces behind the ghoul, and took a step back myself, looking from them to Carrion with a raised brow.  At last I held up a hoof and swept it towards the hall.

“After you.” 

“Well... you're not as dumb as you look.”  Flashing his yellowed teeth in that unsettling smile, the ghoul stepped forwards and made a show of stepping over something in the hallway.  Looking closer, I could just barely see a thin wire running across the floor.  Following it back towards the wall, I lost sight of it behind a pile of boxes and bits of trash that looked like every other pile of boxes and trash we’d passed.  Wild and Stone carefully followed Carrion’s example, and when it came my turn, I saw what was sitting behind that pile.  Three double barreled shotguns sat on the other end of that wire, each at slightly different heights.  If a pony walked through that, they’d be so filled with buckshot you’d need a broom to get rid of the remains.

“Don’t step on the news papers,” our guide grunted out as he worked his way the final few steps to the door, his hooves never landing upon a number of rotting yellowed papers laying across the floor.  I could just make out a circular shape below them, and a small nub at their center.  Land mines.  Seeing my look, the ghoul snorted, “Keeps away the salesponies.”  And anything else.  I suppose he had to be careful given his upstairs neighbors and the local wildlife.

The hinges of the door creaked as he pushed it open with a hoof; it didn’t seem to be locked.  Why would you bother locking it when your welcome mat was lined with mines?  As the door swung open, I saw half faded lettering across it, reading ‘Maintenance’.  A dark room lay beyond, as dank and filthy looking as the rest of the tunnels we had passed through, but also as dry as the hallway, as were the crumbling bricks and metal pipes across the ceiling and walls.  Like anything else down here, they were rusted, and many had holes in them with sludge leaking out that made my Pipbuck click steadily, but at least it stayed well within the green.  Stone took a few steps into the room and grunted as he nearly tripped across a broken section of piping that lay upon the floor.  Looking down, I saw more trash and rubble all across the ground and carefully picked my way further into the room after my large friend. 

“Sorry for the mess, I don’t entertain guests often,” the ghoul’s rasping voice came from behind us.  He had allowed us to enter before stepping inside and shutting the door.  Shrugging off his patched saddlebags, he left them to thump heavily upon the floor.  His assault rifle floated off his neck to settle upon one of a number of tables that sat around the room.

Most were half-rotted wooden tables shoved up against the wall beside the door, tools and weapons sitting atop most of them.  As Carrion trotted between us into his home, I looked over to my right and saw another metal work bench, grenades and other explosives sitting atop it, along with more land mines and lunchboxes.  It looked like a homemade bomb factory, which I suppose made sense if he was fighting a one pony war against the raiders. 

Hanging along the walls between the pipes were a number of guns: from assault rifles to shotguns and everything in between.  Most were in various states of repair and all had likely been taken from the dead hooves of raiders.  There was enough armament here to equip two or three dozen ponies easily, as well as armor.  Crude spiked armor lay in rusting heaps in one corner, while parts of combat armor sat atop creates nearby.  It looked as if he was using the raider armor to repair the rest.

“So, you’re the first pony in a very long time to escape this hell hole, and what do you do?  You trot back for a visit and bring friends!  You’re either fucking nuts or fucking brave... either way, you’re just going to end up fucked.”  I turned at the sound of the ghoul’s voice and saw he had walked over towards a rather odd item to be found in the middle of the sewers. 

A recliner was sitting off by itself in room, nearby metal drums sitting along a wall with another door.  The rusted drums bore the worn and half burned off universal symbol for radiation on their sides.  A pile of empty glass bottles lay just beside the chair: some broken, some whole.  Beer, whiskey, and Sparkle Cola bottles made up the majority of the pile.  Lowering his deathly thin body into the stained cushions of the chair, he fixed his glowing orange orbs upon Wild once more, seeming to ignore Stone and myself.  As he spoke, I noticed a hole in the side of his cheek, through which I could see his tongue moving.  Oh, shit.  I tried not to stare, but come on... after a moment, his armor caught my eye again.  Something about it seemed familiar, but I just couldn’t place it.  Like Stonehoof’s, much of Carrion’s armor had been repaired and replaced with other pieces from other suits over the years; only, I had a feeling he’d been replacing his suit for a lot longer then my friend.

“Wouldn’t be the first time, Carrion,” Wild answered, her fiery blue eyes locking with those of the ghoul’s.  The mare smirked and tilted her head, wings rustling slightly as she did. “Why the fuck do you care?”

“Fuck if I know, I swore off giving two shits for ponies awhile ago. Just not often I find some trying to get into this hell hole; most of them are treasure hunters who think they're some sort of real-life Daring Do.” With a glow from his chipped horn, Carrion levitated a bottle of beer up from within the waste barrels that sat beside him.  The bottle glowed a rather unhealthy green color, and my Pipbuck began clicking more loudly, “Most end up bleeding out all over my tunnels crying for their mothers.  The dead can’t sleep with that noise.”  Popping the cap of the drink, he tossed it aside and tilted it back and up to his lips.

Two things struck me at once at seeing this. The first, he was throwing away money.  A large pile of caps sat beside his chair, and judging by the greedy look that was coming across Stone’s face, my fellow earth pony had seen them too.  The second was the fact that most of what he was swallowing seemed to be running out of several holes in his body.  Most spilled out the hole in his cheek, but also from smaller holes in his throat.  The glowing liquid staining his already filthy armor and clothing. 

“You three don’t strike me as the truly stupid type to try and search this place for loot.  And since two out of the three of you likely aren’t into rape and cannibalism, I doubt you’re here to join the raiders,” the ghoul said, as he lowered the half empty bottle to the floor, glowing orange eyes looking us over. “But then, I’ve seen a few bitches with the raiders who could sodomize a buck with the best of ’em.  So... why the fuck are you here?”

“As Wild said, we’re here to try and find a hoof-full of ponies taken from my Stable by raiders, my sister among them.  Wild agreed to show me a way into the city, and I was hoping my Pipbuck would pick up my sister’s once we’d gotten close enough.  We could then rescue her and the others,” I answered, stepping closer as I spoke. The click of my Pipbuck warning me of the radiation coming off those barrels but for the moment I ignored it.  If he’d really been wandering around the city for years, then he might know a better way into that hospital, as Wild had said.  His eyes landed upon me as he took another drink from his bottle, and I did not back down.   In those baleful glowing orbs I could almost see the centuries pass by; how much had he seen here?

“Hope...,” Carrion snorted, and with a pulse from his magic he tossed the empty bottle across the room to shatter upon impact with the wall.  Shards of glass raining down upon the floor in a shower of glittering pieces.  His glowing eyes left mine at last and traveled across to Wild and lifted a filthy hoof up from the chair, “...I thought you of all ponies would know better.  There’s no hope left in this fucking world.”

“Maybe not,” the pegasus said softly, stepping up to stand beside me on my left, blue eyes fixed upon the ghouls face, ears flicked back, “But he’s determined to do this, and has been given a number of chances to turn back.  He will save his sister, come hellfire or hurricanes.”  She glanced my way, a hint of a smile forming across her orange muzzle.  “Not many ponies like that left in this world, Carrion.  Besides, the kid wouldn’t have gotten out of Crossroads if I hadn’t helped him, and maybe I’m going soft.”

“She’s right,” Stone piped up, and stepped up beside Wild, tilting his hat back with a hoof.  That same smile he had worn the day we met was on his muzzle as he turned his gaze from us to Carrion.  “Ah been all across th’ wasteland, and ah can’t recall a pony quite so focused on somethin’ that ain’t about caps.  Ah reckon any other pony woulda’ turned tail and ran just at th’ sight a’ this place but he’s as determined as ever.”

I smiled to my two friends, and bowed my head.  I had been ready to throw in the towel upon seeing what we faced here, but a little reminder from my niece, as well as the strength I got from the two ponies standing beside me, helped me to settle those fears.  If not for them, I would never have made it this far so quickly.  A loud snort drew my focus back to the ghoul.

“Oh fucking hell, if any of you break into song, I am blowing us all the fuck up.  None of you would have made it this far into the city if more than half of the raiders in this shit hole hadn’t left on some pillaging and rampaging,” Carrion grunted in response, and hopped off his seat.  The ghoul trotted between us and over towards one of his work tables, orange eyes looking for something among the piles of random junk and half finished explosives.

“Look, ya don’t have ta risk yer neck for us, just tell us how ta get to th’ hospital and we’ll be outta yer mane... err... so ta speak.”  As Stone spoke, I had been wondering about the lack of ponies in the city; by all accounts, the place should have been a hornets nest of crazed equines.  I’m sure whatever was left was still more than three ponies could handle on their own without dying horribly. 

“I don’t stick my rotting neck out for anypony, not anymore,” Carrion said without looking back at Stone, his hooves pushing aside half finished bombs and broken weapons, horn glowing as tools lifted up from the table and returned to their spots along the wall.  “I learned long ago it doesn't do any good.”  A hammer paused as it floated before him.  “They just end up dying anyway.”  He muttered the last bit to himself, but we all still caught the words. I glanced to Wild, who simply shrugged her shoulders.  The old ghoul turned his skull like face towards us, eyes fixing mine once more in that deathly stare, “The pegasus was just a weak moment.  Go back, smooth coats; there’s nothing for you here but a painful death.”  The hammer dropped back to the table with a clatter of metal and he started to push past us back to his seat a fresh bottle of glowing beer floating up from the barrels.

“Fuck you, you rotten bastard,” I grunted, eyes narrowed on his back as he paused near his chair.  “I haven’t crossed this damned wasteland just to be told to turn back by a crazed loony ass rotting corpse.  I’m sure you know what these raiders do to their captives, having sat down here and watched Celestia and Luna knows what horrors for the past hundred fifty years.”  I stepped closer to him as I spoke, ears flat against my head.  “I’m going to save my sister and the others from my Stable, so either point us in the right direction and shut the fuck up, or help us.”  I slammed my right hoof down hard on the floor, cracking a rusting metal pipe that had laid there for goddesses know how long.

Silence filled the room as I stood looking at the ghoul’s back, eyes narrowed.  Both Stone and Wild shared a look and kept silent, waiting for Carrion’s response.  Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest move I’d made, insulting a ghoul in his own home, in his own city surrounded by raiders, but dammit if I hadn’t had enough.  Slowly, Carrion turned his cracked horned head back towards us, orange glowing eyes fixing upon my face and narrowing to slits.  Had I pushed too far?  Maybe.  But dammit, I wasn’t about to back down now.  I stepped closer and stared the old ghoul down, not giving an inch of ground.  I could hear my two friends shifting uneasily behind me, before the silent deadlock was broken by an unexpected sound: Carrion began to laugh. 
 
It started off as a deep, wet chuckle, his decaying body twitching as he sat down on his rump.  It began to turn into a full fledged laugh as the minutes ticked by, which sounded far more unsettling, like hooves drawn across a blackboard.  His entire body rocked as his laughter echoed across the crumbling brick walls of the room, the edges of his eyes moist as tears began to form.

I blinked and took several steps back, tilting my head slightly at the odd sight of the ghoul falling down laughing before me.  Of all the reactions, this was not one I had expected.  Over the snorting cackles, I heard my friends trot up from behind me and into the edge of my vision.  They both looked as confused as I; Wild sitting down as she watched Carrion all but rolling across the floor.

“So...should we show ourselves out then?” Stone asked as he looked from Carrion to us, a confused look on his face, likely mirroring my own.  On the floor, the ghoul seemed to be getting his laughter in check and rolled over onto his hooves.

“You’ve got some balls on you, roach bait, I’ll give you that.” Carrion’s voice, while raspy and gruff, did sound a bit more friendly.  “It seems Wild chooses her friends well,” he added as he started to pick himself back up from the floor, a fresh layer of dirt and grime coating his armor and coat from his rolling about. 

Carefully, I neared the ghoul and offered him a hoof up.  Looking up at me, he took it and I hauled him upright.  As decayed and thin as his body looked, he still weighed a fair amount.  He wiped a hoof across his eyes as I asked, “So, will you help us then?”  While Wild had guided us this far, it was clear he knew this place far better then my pegasus friend, and might know where my sister was being held.

The smirk he wore slowly faded as he looked me over once more, as if he needed to re-appraise me from his earlier opinion.  Standing this close, and not being surprised by his sudden appearance, I could see more of his armor, and realized why it looked so familiar.  It was the same armor that the Cake twins had be wearing: Equestrian Army issue combat armor.  Under all that dirt and dried gore that clung to his armor and uniform, I could make out threadbare badges, rank, and even a name.  The largest of the patches was a shield-shaped mark bearing a scroll with the words “105th Equestrian Cavalry” across a green field.  A metal chariot sat proudly in the center of the shield just above the scroll, a turret atop its armored body.  A single faded yellow stripe ran across one shoulder guard, matching a dirt covered bar upon his collar; the rank of Lieutenant. Finally, across his chest was the name Heartfire.  

“Just try and keep up, Roach Bait.  I don’t wait for anypony,” was his only response to my question.  He turned away and trotted towards his dropped packs and weapon. 

I suppose that’s a yes. 

Stone stepped around beside Wild, his back to the ghoul as he whispered softly to the orange mare, “How much do ya trust ’im?  He seems a might... nuts.”  The pegasus shrugged her wings and looked from Carrion to the earth pony standing beside her.

“He saved me when he could have easily left me to be feral ghoul chow, showed me the way out.  He’s crazier than fuck, but I trust him.”  She turned away from Stone to look to me, “He’s a better choice to lead us through this hell hole than me, so if he’s willing...”

“You’ve done a fine job thus far, Wild; don’t sell yourself short.”  I looked from the mare to Stone.  “Yes, he’s crazy as hell, but from what I’ve seen of the this place so far...I doubt anypony who stays here long can be called sane.”  I glanced back to the ghoul as he floated his saddlebags back across his flanks. “Just keep your eyes open, but I think we can trust him.  Why would he take us to his home then agree to help us into the sewers to find my sister, only to kill us?”  Granted, that might just be what a crazy half dead pony in a city of insane raiders would do, but still.

“Since ya both done made up yer minds ‘bout this, ah reckon there’s not much ah can say to convince ya not ter.  He makes me uneasy, and it ain’t bein’ a ghoul.  Been ‘round plenty of ’em in my time,” Stone whispered, eyeing each of us as we turned back to follow Carrion.  It seemed we’d be leaving via the door I’d spotted near his chair, and not the one we’d entered by.  We’d not made it two steps out the door before Wild slipped up near the gray stallion.

“So, tell us, grandpa, what was it like when dirt was invented?  I guess you tried eating it?”  A orange hoof lightly poked him in the stomach as she walked alongside him.

“Damnit ta hell, ah’m just big boned is all,” Stone muttered and pulled his hat down across his face.  “An’ ah ain’t much older then ya’ll.”  Despite it all, I chuckled as the two continued to argue, even as we followed the ghoul back out into the sewers and whatever awaited us. 



*     *     *     *     *



Once more, we found ourselves within the cramped confines of the sewers.  The crumbling brick walls in this section of the tunnels were covered in a slimy black mold in spots, while in others they had collapsed completely and left holes into adjacent tunnels or even natural caves.  I quickly lost count of the number of side passages and rooms we passed as we followed Carrion through the warren of tunnels.  How anypony could build something so confusing and have it actually work for as long as Kanter City had been around boggled the mind.  The ponies that had maintained this place must have done so for long enough that, like Carrion, they had become familiar with every corner of the tunnels.  Or was it them that had left the odd markings Carrion used to navigate the twisting passages?

Without Carrion’s knowledge of the tunnels, or what those strange symbols meant, we would have become hopelessly lost within the first few minutes.  I had no idea how Wild had managed to remember the small sections she had been in before.  As we traveled further away from the heart of the city, the damage to the tunnels became more from age and neglect rather than from the bombs.  We must have been passing through a section of the city that had escaped a direct hit from a balefire bomb, or else this part of the sewers had been far better built.  A moment later, Carrion answered my unasked question.

“This part of the city was built only two years before the bombs were dropped on Equestria.  A lot more care went into the layout of the underground sections of the city.  They were also built to much higher standards.”  Glancing to the walls, I saw the bricks had given way to molded concrete and reinforced steel rods.  There was also less runoff from the streets above; the stagnant water and trash that had been so common before seemed largely absent.

“I can see why the citizens of the city fled down here; they must have thought they’d be safe,” I began, looking to the arched sections of the tunnel giving the roof and walls added strength.  We must have been nearing someplace important for so much care to have gone into these areas.  “This place looks strong enough to survive an earthquake.”

“That was the general idea; I used to live in Kanter City before the war started.  As for seeking safety down here, they were just desperate ponies trying to stave off death for a few more hours,” Carrion said at the head of the line, the ghoul looking to what little trash that did litter the floor of this tunnel: a rotting suitcase, shreds of clothing piled inside, along with a dead radroach, “After all, I was there when it happened.” 

Wild had mentioned ponies had died from the radiation leaking down from the streets above, while many others turned into ghouls, like those ponies back on the subway train.  I glanced over the dimly lit tunnel and wondered how many more of those feral ghouls still lurked throughout the maze under the city: a large number, if it was to be believed that the raiders feared coming down here.  I also imagined our own ghoul had something to do with that fear as well.  With the amount of raider gear he had in his hideout, it was clear he hunted them down.  Once more I wondered why he stayed in this place.  Was it because he still felt this was his home?  Did he have some reason to want raiders dead (honestly, who wouldn’t?)?  Or was there simply some other reason to stay?  Maybe he was just crazy.

Of course, like so many of my questions, those would likely remain unanswered.  The only sound that reached my ears was our own hoofsteps, the splashes of water as we walked into the odd shallow pools of slimy water, our voices, and the odd groan of the aged ceiling.

“Shouldn’t we have taken that last left, Carrion?” Wild asked, looking back behind her.  “That’s the tunnel leading up to the surface.”

“It’s not safe to be on the surface in this neighborhood anymore, not since the raiders set up a more permanent base in the hospital.  It's one of only three buildings that survived the blast wave mostly intact.  Here lately the place has been crawling with those bastards, unlike when you were here last, Wild.  Back then they just used it as a place to keep their fuck toys and workers.  We’ll stick with the tunnels under the area.” 

At the name he used for the slaves, Wild’s ears laid back and she narrowed her eyes upon the ghoul.  If it was possible for a pony to explode from just a look, Carrion would have done so, twice.  A gray hoof rose up and touched the pegasus’ side, causing her to turn in surprise.  She blinked as she saw Stone beside her and lowered the hoof she’d been about to plant in somepony’s face.  The earth pony trotted along beside the mare and looked to Carrion.

“Then how are we gettin’ in?  Ah thought a city block caved in th’ whole thing.”

“Yes, it did.  Just before the bombs struck, the city was attempting to repair aged sections of the sewer and tunnel systems below the streets. They had just finished with this and the section under the hospital when the end came.  Most of the older sections managed to hold up across the city, except for this one city block.  They’d been removing some of the older supports to replace them as they had with other sections they’d worked on,” he explained as we walked.  Besides a few cracks in the concrete, this section of the tunnels looked almost brand new, though the century old piles of garbage also sorta ruined it.  “When the bombs were dropped on the city, the impact shattered those few supports left to hold up the buildings and down it all came.  Recently, while exploring this section of the tunnels, I discovered a way through the collapse and into the surviving tunnel system on the other side.  It’s tight in places and still risky, but far less than trotting out on the streets above with our tails hiked up.”

He wasn’t wrong about that, in the past twenty minutes alone a unsettling large number of red dots had appeared upon my E.F.S. warning me of enemies nearby.  However, after a group passed across us, I remembered the fact it did not take into account different floors and realized those raiders had been on the streets above.  After awhile I almost began to ignore the red flashing dots as they winked in and out of range, there were so many. But why so many?  Were they looking for us now, or was this just the norm?  I had a hard time believing the raiders could be this organized after what little I’ve seen of them.  Wasn’t there somepony in charge?

“Carrion, what do you know of this shadowy pony in charge of the raiders?  I’ve heard a few ponies mention him or her before,” I asked, breaking the silence that had settled between us all.

“I don’t know much; bitch stays on the top floors of the buildings the raiders control, but what I’ve seen is fucking unsettling,” the ghoul answered, not bothering to look back. We turned a corner in the tunnel and found ourselves walking across steel grating in the floor.  Looking down, I could see a fast moving current in the waste flowing past, “She showed up only recently, ten years or so.  Came in with a batch of raiders from out east someplace, Hoofington perhaps.  Within a year she had the locals listening to her every word and was put in charge.  That in and of itself is unusual.  In case you hadn’t noticed, the raiders tend to not respect a mare beyond what she can do for them in bed or wherever else they decide to use them.” I heard a note of disgust in the ghouls rough voice.

“So what’s her goals then?  Just rule over all the raiders in the city?” I asked, changing the subject away from what raiders did with mares, both for Wild’s sake and my own.

“Oh, I forgot to ask the crazy bitch when we were having tea and biscuits last saturday at the Kanter City social,” the ghoul snarked.

“You're such an asshole,” I shot back and rolled my eyes, our hoof steps ringing hollowly from the metal grating.

“It’s part of my charm...but if you really want to know, the bitch has some fucking plans,” Carrion stopped before a T junction, “Most of the raiders I capture tend to just yell obscenities in my face until I blow theirs off.  Dumb assholes.  A couple months back, one I caught was a bit more talkative.  While what he said didn’t make a lot of sense to me, it was still a more original plan then just rape, kill, and eat everything in their path.”

“And what was this plan?” I asked, following the ghoul as he turned left down the junction.

“He told me ‘Madeyes’ was getting them ready to launch a crusade across the wasteland, and that all ponies would unite under her banner.”  He grunted and looked to the ceiling, “They’ve already wiped out the smaller settlements near the city, and I’ve heard they are ranging further out now.”

“Th’ only thing that’s stopped th’ raiders from killin’ everypony in th’ wastes is th’ fact they are so disorganized and fight among themselves more then they fight us,” Stone joined the conversation, the earth pony looking a bit worried, “If’n this Madeyes character has really got ’em united, then that’s a big problem and somepony needs ta stop it.”

“The Enclave never believed anypony on the surface would manage to unite the scattered groups into anything more then small roving bands.  Places like San Ponsico and Friendship City are oddities they said.  I wonder how they’ll respond to an army of raiders,” Wild added, the pegasus glancing from Carrion to the tunnel ahead.

“From what ya told us, I doubt they’ll worry unless th’ raiders pose a threat to ’em.”  Stone was likely right; I doubted the pegasi would bother with raiders slaughtering those ponies on the surface.  Wasn’t their problem. “Ah reckon the C.S.E. might be interested in this bit of news.”

“Maybe...but we need to finish what we came here for before we start worrying about anything else,” I said, and the others went silent, focusing back on the task at hoof.  First Ebony, then we could worry about whatever else.

Another hour passed as we made our way to this collapsed section of the tunnels.  Nopony spoke as we walked, each left to their own thoughts.  Mine of course lay with my sister and my niece.  I prayed Sugar and the others from home had made it to San Ponsisco by now, or were somewhere safe from the horrors of the wasteland.  It’d likely take us a few days to sort things out once we’d rescued Ebony and the others, a couple trips back and forth to Crossroads to get everypony back.  Would the Sticks stay safe for that amount of time?  Would there still be enough Stable ponies left to even warrant the trips?  Ugh...I hated times like these, with thoughts of what those bastard raiders did or were doing to my sister wandering around inside my head.

It seemed as if we’d been walking forever, I began to pass my time counting the number of groups of raiders we had passed under.  We’d just passed group number eleven when the tunnels began to change back to the brick and mortar, before ending completely in a wall of rubble.  Both the ceiling and the floor had broken away beneath a ton of debris, odd personal effects sticking out from the pile.  Picture frames, lamps, plates, foals toys, rotting books, bits of furniture and clothing; all the items you’d expect to find in somepony’s home, laying in the middle of the sewers, scattered about when their homes collapsed around them.  How many had died in their beds? 

Looking over the blocked passage, I couldn’t see how we were suppose to cross through this.  Carrion began slowly walking along the blocked tunnel, as if searching for something, when he stopped suddenly beside the battered form of a large old refrigerator half hidden by the piles of stone and trash that had collected here.  The white paint had flaked away over the years, and sizeable dents were pressed into its metal sides, but it looked otherwise intact.  The ghoul pony reached out with a hoof, and with a couple of good tugs, managed to pull the door open.  I glanced to my friends wondering what this was all about when dim light came from within the fridge. Did the thing actually still have power? The three of us watched as Carrion actually walked into the refrigerator and disappeared from sight. 

“What in blue blazes...” Stone muttered before walking up to the still open metal box.  Wild and myself quickly followed the earth pony forward and found a passage leading under the rubble. The back of the fridge had been removed, either cut out or broken during its fall, and a dimly lit room stared back at us from within, “Okay...that’s a might freaky.” 

“We’d better hurry, Carrion’s likely halfway through by now.” Wild gently pushed Stone aside and plunged into the tight confined space. Like the ghoul, our pegasus friend was far more slender than either of us, and with barely a wiggle of her flanks, she worked her way into the dark hallway beyond.  

I looked to Stone and he held up a grey hoof towards the opening, nodding.  I lowered my head and entered.  My saddlebags and bulky armor caught several times on bits of twisted metal that had punctured the metal hide of the fridge, but still I managed to make it through with little trouble. Once I had, I found myself within a dark room; the ceiling above had caved in halfway, this being what had fallen upon the fridge.  Rotting carpets covered the floor, and bits of furniture were jumbled about everywhere.  Turning back to the narrow opening, I shone my Pipbuck light through and spotted my friend’s gray face as he looked back.  

“Ah reckon it’s gonna be a mighty tight fit...” he said, as he slipped his rifle up off his neck and tossed it to me.  I caught it easily and sat it next to the wall against a wooden chair.  He hoofed me his saddlebags next, before he even attempted to slip into the confined space.  His own armor proved a challenge, but after a bit of twisting and me grabbing ahold of his mane to tug him through, he was soon standing beside me strapping his packs back down.

This gave me a moment to catch my breath and look around the room a bit more, only to find little of interest; either it had been picked clean by Carrion the first time he discovered it, or anything of value or use had been destroyed.  Turning towards the far wall, I spotted both Carrion and Wild standing out in a hallway just past a doorway. Leaving Stone to sort out his packs, I stepped over towards the pair and looked out into the semi dark passage.  It seemed we had found our way into the ruins of an apartment building, judging by the number of doors along the hallway, each numbered.  Somehow, when the building fell, this floor had remained mostly intact, if slightly tilted to one side.  Like the sewers, the emergency lighting still worked faithfully, if not a bit misleadingly, as the exits from this floor were blocked by tons of rubble.  Carrion walked away from us as Stone approached, the ghoul checking the floor as he went.

“Watch where you step, the floor is weak in places,” he called out, as he made his way down the hallway, the floor below his hooves creaking ominously.  

Had anypony been inside this place since the fall?  Had the ponies who lived in these rooms survived and escaped the same way we had entered?  Neither Wild nor Stone said a word, both looking around them cautiously.  As the soft glow of Stone lantern reached the walls of the hallway, I saw hastily scrawled words in the peeling flowered wallpaper.

“The air burns. Water burns. Equestria is hell.”

The two ‘l’s trailed down the wall to a pile of bones, along the wall, his or her hooves pressing into the flaking wallpaper and lay at the end of the marks.  Had they written that in their own blood?  Fuck, I hated the wasteland.  Carrion turned and trotted back to us, the ghoul’s horn lit and his weapon held within its magic.

“Alright, this place was very active with feral ghouls the last time I was through here.”  Feral ghouls? He mentions them now?  We all three looked at one another before Carrion cut off any protests we could have raised. “We still have a better chance of surviving them than an army of raiders.  You saw the number up on the street with that fancy bracelet of yours, so buck up.”  Point.  Ghouls were nasty and fast, but at least they didn’t shoot back at you.  “Only half the floor survived the collapse.  Ahead there is what would have been the center of the floor, with four hallways branching off from the hub. There’s only one we can take, and it ends after a dozen steps.  We enter into the room at the end, where holes have been punched into the next room over, which seems to have survived the collapse.  We cross through two more rooms and climb out onto what was the fire escape.  It held up enough to form an exit from this ruin and lets us back into the sewers.”

“How many ghouls?” Wild asked.  Both kept their voices low, and I looked to the closed doors and the number of red dots appearing in my vision.  Were they really just raiders above or were they ghouls around us?  The skull of the dead pony just grinned back at me, as if to say ‘You’ll find out soon enough!’  

Hate.  Wasteland.

“At least a dozen, no more.  This side of the building is hard to get into, unless you know where to look.  The fire escape side is open to the sewers directly so more could have wandered in there,” he answered as Stone gripped the bit for his rifle.

More carefully than we had in the tunnels, we began making our way through the hallway, each hoof step causing the floor to creak and groan as we placed our weight upon it.  Overhead, small showers of dust rained down upon our heads, reminding us the ceiling was holding back Celestia alone knows how much rubble.  I had already seen signs of the roof sagging in places, where water had no doubt began to pool and weaken the already-weak structure. Carrion and Wild lead the way, while Stone walked in front of me, because the wide area of light his lantern gave us was far better there than at the end of the line.  Not that there was much to see, beyond sagging ceilings, dust covered hallways, and broken bits of furniture. 

I was surprised we didn’t see more bodies; the wasteland so loved to leave bodies where a pony could trip over them.  But, beyond the one near the entrance, we came across no other signs.  No bones, no blood, nothing.  It was almost a bit unsettling really.  If there had been survivors perhaps they had escaped...

Just ahead, I could see the junction Carrion had spoken of.  As he had said, two of the four hallways were blocked by mounds of debris where the floors above had pancaked into this one.  Only the hallway we were in and the one leading off to the right remained.  Thus far, the red dots had left us alone.  While there was a chance they were on the streets above, they had yet to move, like they were just standing in place.  Somehow, I doubted raiders had the patience to just stand still for very long.  I glanced behind us, seeing only our hoof steps in the dust and nothing else.  I sighed softly and was turning around when my hoof sank into the floor with a snap of something breaking beneath it.

Yelping, I yanked my hoof back out and took a step back, ears perking as I heard whatever had fallen below me land far below... the ground under us was hollow?  Creeping closer, I peered into the dark hole my hoof had made, feeling a slight breeze on my fur, as well as the reek of the sewers.  The falling buildings must have broken through into a deeper section of the sewers, but how far down... wait.  Leaning closer, I thought I could hear something moving down there.

“Shadow?” I looked up as Stone said my name.  The stallion stood in the middle of the hallway, half turned back to look at me. Just ahead, Carrion and Wild had reached the junction, and were turning to find out what the holdup was. 

I shook my head and stood up from the small round hole and nodded to my friend, “It’s alright, just stumbled a bit....”  My words trailed off as I heard another creak and groan from the floor, followed by something snapping.  My eyes dropped from Stone to his hooves, which seemed sunken into the floor as if it was mud.  The earth pony blinked in alarm as he looked as well.  He started to step back, but stopped as the ground groaned loudly.

“Ain’t no more fat jokes...” he muttered as he once again attempted to shift his weight and move from the sinking floor.  He had barely raised a hoof when his other three burst through, the floorboards snapping like twigs as the heavy pony dropped from sight, only having time for a startled cry.

As Carrion stood and watched, Wild pushed past the ghoul and rushed towards the spot where Stone had been, the pegasus flapping her wings as she rose into the air, ready to dive down after the gray pony.  The ghoul followed more slowly, likely expecting the worst for our friend, as I suppose I did as well.  We both walked carefully towards the hole, not wanting to end up falling ourselves.  I had just reached the edge of the tear when the floor began to vibrate. 

Oh hell.

Leaping back, my hooves thumped heavily upon the floorboards as the spot where I had just been seconds before snapped and dropped from sight into the darkness under the building, but in doing so, it allowed me to spot a pair of gray hooves gripping the edge of the hole.

“Stone!” both Wild and I yelled in unison, relieved to see our large friend had managed to avoid plunging into the unknown.  The orange mare circled overhead, green eyes filled with relief at seeing the earth pony’s face.  She dropped down near the edge of the hole and frowned, before lightly placing a hoof upon the floor.  She quickly rose back into the air when we all heard the groan coming from it.

“Ah reckon ah could use a hoof here...” 

“There’s not enough space for me to drop in beside you, and I don’t think the floor with support me if I land and try and pull you up.” she called out to the pony below her.

“Don’t suppose anypony but me remembered to pack some rope?” he asked hopefully.  It hadn’t exactly been on my list of items to bring with me from the Stable, and what little we had had been used to secure packs and make harnesses for the carts.  Suddenly, a coil of rope landed beside me on the floor, surrounded in a soft pale blue glow.  I looked over to Carrion as he picked his assault rifle back up and grinned, showing off those rotting teeth of his.

“Never know when your going to plummet to your death and need to get out.”

We wasted no time, and got to work securing one end of the rope to me, while Wild made loops to slip around both of Stone’s hooves.  I took a few steps back, as she once more took to the air and flew over the pit and the grey pony dangling from its lip.  Lowering herself down, she carefully slide the looped rope around Stone’s hooves, both grasping for it a couple of times as Stone attempted to keep from plunging further into the darkness.  As the rope began to pull taught, I moved forwards to give them a bit of slack.  Finally, he had both hooves wrapped securely and Wild landed beside me once more.  The pegasus wrapped the lose ends of the rope around her battle saddle and was about to start pulling when Stone yelled out from the hole.

“There’s somethin’ movin’ around in th’ light below me.” 

As if on cue, the red dots that had been with us for most of the trip through the sewers, that I had all but ignored for the past hours, that had been content to simply stand still began moving towards us.  From all sides.  I shared a look with Wild as we both heard the rasping hiss of feral ghouls beyond the dim light that surrounded us.

Hate.

Wasteland.

“I think we’ve pissed off the neighbors...”  The words had just left my mouth when one of the doors across from Wild and I shattered into splinters.  The rotting corpse of a ghoul flew from the spray of wood, and landed heavily across from us, near Carrion.  The undead pony shook itself of the remains of the door and hissed at the armored pony.  With a snort, Carrion leveled his assault rifle at its face and squeezed the trigger.  Flashes from the muzzle light up the feral’s face as hot lead ripped it to shreds. 

As the echos of the gun died down, I heard the sound of hooves slamming into the door next to Wild and me, and grit my teeth, “Lets get ’im up!”  I dug my hooves into the floor and began pulling, while behind me Wild did likewise.  Stone slowly began to rise from the edge.  The ash-gray pony scrambled to help, trying to get his front hooves onto solid ground, but there seemed to be none for him to find.  Every time he tried, he simply broke the flooring under him, and Wild and I grunted as all his weight was placed upon the rope.

“This isn’t working!” the mare yelled, as another ghoul stumbled in behind Carrion.  The former Equestrian Army Officer turned and snapped off another round of fire.  The walking corpse was riddled with holes, but that only caused it to stumble back, as three more stepped out from doorways nearby, their rotting heads lowered to the ground, eyes glowing red as they prepared to attack. 

Noise from behind us caught my ear and I quickly looked back across Wild’s back.  The doors we had passed had been pushed open, and a number of shambling forms were walking out into the hallway, red glowing eyes fixed hungrily upon us.  It was quickly becoming the subway tunnel all over again, without the Rever. I really hoped there wasn't a Rever.

Spotting the threats behind us, Wild growled and reached back to unwrap herself from the rope.  A ghoul lunged towards the mare’s hind quarters but she reared up and bucked it square in the jaw, shattering its face and sending it stumbling back.

“Get him out of that pit as quickly as you can! I’ll try and cover you!” With a final desperate tug, the rope was loose from around her saddle and she gripped her laser pistol in between her teeth and whirled around as the ghoul she’d kicked away rose to its hooves. Without even bothering to aim, she shot it through the remains of its face, the single bolt of energy burning away a glowing eye to fry whatever passed for a brain inside its rotting body.  The corpse dropped to the floor after taking a few steps and realizing it was dead.

“Stone, hang on!” I yelled out (if I hadn’t been so worried, I would have facehoofed at that), the strain of the earth pony causing me to skid across the floor.  With a grunt, I managed to halt the slide and take a few shaking steps back. The rope straining against my saddle bags where it’d been tied, and over the hiss of ghouls and report of weapons fire I heard the sound of canvas tearing.  Shit!  I snagged the rope quickly in my mouth and pulled with my neck, taking some of the strain from the packs.

Around me, Carrion and Wild fought off the packs of feral ghouls as they emerged from their hiding spots in the hall.  Carrion’s assault rifle fired off in controlled bursts of fire, rounds tearing holes in the already gaunt frames of the undead.  Wild’s laser pistol meanwhile cooked the flesh of whatever it struck, or simply reduced her target to a pile of ashes.

My neck strained at the weight placed on it, my hooves digging into the unsteady floor as I slowly pulled on the rope, drawing Stone back up.  Slowly but surely, I began to pick up speed, and already I could see my friend’s worn cowpony hat poking up from the edge. How he’d managed to keep that on was beyond me.  Soon his face followed and I saw him straining to help pull himself free, but as before, the rotting floorboards seemed unable to hold his weight. It seemed hopeless, until finally he managed to get a hoof under himself and start dragging himself up.

With some of the weight taken off me as Stone got some leverage on the ground, it became far easier to pull the pony up.  The sounds of hissing ghouls around us were beginning to die down as both Wild and Carrion’s steady aim reduced their numbers.  I had just taken a step back when I felt my rear end bump into somepony behind me. Thinking perhaps Wild had returned to help, I turned and instead saw a row of rotting sharp teeth bared at my face.

“Fucking hell!” I yelped out.  The rope slipping across my tongue, leaving it burning as it slide out, I turned and was suddenly slammed into the floor by the weight of the ghoul atop me.  Her teeth snapped inches from my nose as she waved her broken horn over my face.  Behind me, I heard Stone cry and the unmistakable sound of crumbling wood. I had no time to see what had become of my friend, however, as my attacker’s teeth clamped down onto the neck guard of my armor.  I could feel the ghoul’s jaws squeezing as she sought to rip my throat out.  I struggled to get my hooves up under her and push her away.

A orange blur shot across me overhead, and I prayed to the princesses that Wild had caught Stone before he’d dropped. Finally, I managed to worm my hooves under the ghouls chest and pushed it back away from my face, it's dripping jaws snapping at my throat, teeth grinding against the armor plating.  When I had enough room, I lashed out with my right fore hoof and caught the thing in the snout, breaking its nose and jaw.  It reared back in surprise at the sudden attack and I bucked it off me with my hind legs.

As quickly as I could, I rolled over onto my hooves and reached for my shotgun, just as my attacker lunged for my face once more. I snapped off two rapid shots, sending slugs into the thing’s chest and front leg.  Its momentum, however, carried it into me and we both went tumbled back to the floor, skidding near the hole. With a flick of a hoof, I pushed it off me before it recovered its wits and sent the thing plummeting down into the darkness.  A quick glance down confirmed my earlier concerns: ghouls. Lots and lots of ghouls moved at the bottom of that drop.  The ghoul I’d kicked down was quickly set upon by its fellows, ripped to pieces in a frenzy of hooves and teeth. 

The sounding of flapping wings drew my attention back above me, where Wild hovered, straining to hold the large bulk of Stone aloft and keep him from meeting a similar fate as the ghoul.  I saw the end of the rope, just at the edge of the hole and reached out to grab it in my teeth. With more strength then I thought I had, I stumbled back from the opening, snagging the rope in my teeth and scrambling to my hooves to start pulling Stone back up.

“Wild, I got the rope!  Grab Stone and pull!” I yelled around the end in my mouth and dug my hooves into the floor. Wild released the rope and swooped in to hook her forehooves under Stone’s, the newly broken floorboards giving her the room she’d lacked earlier to reach him.  With me pulling, she managed to rise into the air and began flapping for the other side of the hole.  Behind me, I heard a ghoul hiss and I lashed out blindly with a hoof, relieved to hear it impact with flesh.

I watched, as Wild managed to pull Stone to safety and drop the pony back onto semi solid ground.  The earth pony dropped to his knees and let out a sigh of relief as behind him Carrion reloaded his weapon. 

“You can relax when you're dead, there’s more ghouls coming up from down below, we need to fucking move!”  He turned as a door opened and two ghouls tumbled through, the assault rifle spewing rounds into the two forms sending them to the floor in a twitching heap as the shell casings clattered to the floor between his hooves.

Luckily, only the center of the hallway had fallen in, and the edges near the walls still looked strong enough to support my weight.  Dropping the rope, I quickly ran towards the left side of the hall and hugged it.  Carefully placing one hoof in front of the other, I managed to cross the narrow gap quickly, the hissing of ghouls acting as a good motivator. 

Finally reaching my friends, I saw Carrion had left and looked over to Wild.  The mare was busy coiling the rope back up quickly and tossing it across her back. A second later, I heard Carrion’s assault rifle fire further down the hall and Stone answered my unasked question.

“Carrion went ahead to make sure the path ahead was clear.”  Rising, the earth pony brought his rifle up quickly and fired.  I turned to see that the ghoul I had kicked had followed me across the narrow walk way.  Its head exploded and the truly lifeless body tumbled into the darkness below.

“Well, lets not keep our guide waiting then,” I said, reloading my shotgun as Wild started down the second hallway, Stone following behind.  As Carrion had said, the hallway ended suddenly where the ceiling and upper floors had caved in, blocking the passage completely.  A door to our left stood open however, and we quickly entered, closing it behind us to slow any following ghouls.

I didn’t stop to look around the apartment; I was only looking for the hole Carrion had said was in one of the room’s walls.  Sure enough, it stood directly across from us, leading into the neighboring apartment.  We passed through and into another two before we finally caught up with our ghoul. 

Wild had dropped back to fuss a bit over Stone.  The earth pony had gotten cut up pretty good by the drop through the floor and his attempts at pulling himself up.  The rope had also cut into his coat and flesh when he’d been pulled back and forth.  

I was the first to enter the room where Carrion had finally stopped.  He was standing beside three bodies, feral ghouls judging by the looks of them, dark blood ran from a number of fresh holes from a assault rifle.  Carrion had fresh wounds across his body as well, cuts and bite marks across his exposed flesh, and new dents in his armor.  He ignored us, which wasn’t anything new, but he seemed focused on one of the bodies laying before him.  As I stood watching, he leaned over one of the dead ghouls and pulled something off from around its throat.

“Rest, Berry.  You've earned it.”  The words had been whispered so softly I wondered if I’d even heard them at all.  I was about to step closer when Stone and Wild trotted into the room behind me, their combined hoof steps drawing the ghouls attention away from the bodies and to us.  He snapped out of his daze and looked back to us.

“Bout damn time you jokers get your asses in here. We need to hurry; soon as they realize we’re gone they’ll quiet down and go back to sleep.”  He pointed a hoof towards the only window in the room, its glass long since broken and lost under a thick layer of dust.  Beyond it, I could see the familiar tunnel walls of the sewer.



*     *     *     *     *



With the bodies of the dead ghouls behind us, the remainder of our journey into the sewers was largely uneventful save for a encounter with a couple of radroaches which we quickly dispatched with a couple of kicks and stomps of our hooves.  By now, we were all becoming use to the dank foul smelling air of the sewer and slippery paths of the tunnels.  If not for Carrion’s knowledge, we would likely still be wandering the multitude of tunnels, or making a mad dash across open ground on the surface.  How he kept the sheer number of turns and passages memorized I’d never know, but then, he had been here for a very long time.  The ghoul pony trotted a bit ahead of the rest of us, checking the path for traps and pitfalls we might not notice.  I tilted my head to the now quiet ghoul.

After the fight with the feral ghouls, Carrion once more withdrew into himself, and spoke little with any of us.  He’d called one of them by name, and I’d seen him remove the tags from around the dead ghoul’s neck.  It had been wearing the same armor as Carrion, so was likely one of the soldiers caught in Kanter City when the bombs had fell, and, like Carrion, changed into a ghoul by the radiation and dark magics of the balefire bombs.  I wondered how many others had changed with him, and if they’d all been like him originally.  From what little I had been told, over time some ghouls simply go mad, and turn feral.  Had that happened to all of Carrion’s friends?

I felt a bit of pity for the ghoul ahead of me, but somehow I doubt he’d welcome it.  As I then focused on the tunnel ahead, I noticed it had become brighter than those we had been walking through.  Looking up, I saw emergency lighting still working along the walls, and far more of them then I’d seen before.  Once more the walls were made of solid concrete and reinforced with support pillars in places.  I also began to see less trash and sludge along the floor; looking back, I saw we had been climbing a slow slope.  That’s not to say the place was spotless: chunks of ceiling and wall still littered the ground in spots, as did the ever present rust colored stains of dried blood, but compared to the rest of the sewers, you could almost eat off the floor.

“We’re nearly to the hospital’s foundation.  This tunnel rises up to the sub basement where the morgue, storage, and bomb shelter were located.  Before the raiders arrived, the emergency exit door leading out into the tunnels had been sealed for over a hundred years.  They opened them up so they could toss bodies out into the sewers, or send out parties to try and clear out the ghouls,” Carrion said, breaking his long silence.  Looking just ahead of the ghoul, I could just make out another junction in the tunnel.

“Won’t it be guarded?” Stone asked as he trudged along beside Wild and me. 

“Yes, and it can’t be opened from the outside, which is why we won’t be going in that way,” Wild said, the orange pegasus glancing from Stone to me.  She shrugged a wing towards the split in the tunnel ahead.  “Those two side tunnels go around the hospitals sub basement and back around to the rest of the sewers and tunnel system.  We’ll be taking the right side tunnel around to a small alcove in the passage, where there’s a crack in the hospital’s foundation that runs up into the morgue.”

“Is that how you escaped?” I asked, ahead the tunnel leveled off and forked.  We turned and took the right passage, I noticed that unlike the one we had been following, this one was not as well built.  The toxic sludge had returned around our hooves in places and in others black mold creeped up the side of the wall.  There were also a number of metal barrels and decaying cardboard boxes scattered about.

“Yes, I managed to - distract one of the guards long enough to get his weapons and made a break for freedom.  When I was forced back down the stairs, I managed to lose them in the basement.  I wandered around trying to find a way out and was forced to hide in the morgue.”  I grimaced at that. What a bad place to be forced to hide.  “When the guards left the room, I discovered the hole in the wall and worked my way out into the sewers.”

We walked along the crumbling passage for only a dozen or so steps before coming to the alcove Wild had mentioned, no more than a enlargement of the tunnel for a hoof-full of paces before it narrowed again.  However, in this place, a pallet of empty barrels and tools had been left, likely from the planned repairs to the tunnel system of which Carrion had spoken.

Wild stepped away from Stone and moved towards the pallet, which was not completely against the wall as I had first suspected.  The orange pegasus pressed up against the wall and popped her head behind the barrels.  After a moment she pulled back and looked to Stone and I.

“Seems they still haven’t found the hole.  Not surprising, really.  Raiders are hardly the type to keep things clean.”

After pushing aside the pallet of barrels and crates, I saw the hole Wild had used to escape through.  A sizable crack ran down the wall from the ceiling, likely from the original blast that had devastated so much of the city above.  Over time, the crack had begun to widen as rain water from above ran down through the ground and began forming a pool at the base of the wall.  Radroaches and other pests had worked their way through the hole, adding to the damage, leaving a hole just large enough for a pony to crawl through open near the floor.  There had been just enough room between the wall and the pallet for a single pony to work their way free.

“Should we really have moved all that?  What if the raiders find this?” I asked, shinning my Pipbuck light at the hole, the edges were uneven and in spots I could see bits of metal sticking out from the concrete. 

“Since they started losing so many ponies down here, the raiders tend to stay away from the tunnels, unless there's a large number of them,” Carrion answered, the ghoul looking from the hole to my friends and I, “It’s the only reason Wild managed to escape.  As you saw earlier, there’s more than just a single ghoul down here killing anypony foolish enough to enter the sewers.  I’m just the only one who uses weapons instead of his teeth.”

“Ah rightly don’t think ah’ll fit,” Stone said, kneeling down to look into the cramped space, and bringing us back to the matter at hoof.  He was already the largest of us, but with armor and saddlebags on he was even larger and his track record thus far with small holes was not great.

“It will be a tight fit, but I’m sure you’ll manage,” Wild responded, pushing him aside as she lowered herself down into the hole, tail wiping back to strike Stone in the nose.  The mare easily wormed her way into the space; even with her armor and battle saddle on she somehow managed to fit through as if it was a normal sized space.

Twitching his nose, Stone watched as Wild slithered through the tight space, a blush coming over his cheeks as all any of us could see of the pegasus was her backside as it wiggled about.  Despite it all I chuckled softly and Stone quickly looked away, muttering to himself.  Carrion watched it all silently, the ghoul looking back the way we’d came as if expecting us to be attacked at any moment, which, given the state of the sewer and the number of creatures inside it, was a fair concern.  After a few moments, Wild called out she’d made it and to come on through.  I turned back to Stone and nodded at him to go.

“Go on, Stone.  This way if you do get stuck, there’s somepony on both sides to help.”  I smiled, hoping to reassure him, but he only looked doubtfully at the hole.

With a sigh, the earth pony dropped down onto his knees and worked his way into the space.  Sure enough, it was a far tighter fit for the stallion than it had been for Wild, and almost at once he became stuck.

“Ah just knew it... and before any of y'all c’n say a word, I know.  I need ta lose th’ weight,” he called out, voice muffled by the narrow space.  His hooves pushed at the slippery floor to try and work himself free, but as much as he pushed, he remained stuck.

“Hang on, Stone.”  With Carrion watching our back, I bent down and attempted to see where my large gray friend was stuck.  It took climbing further in and pushing my head up near his flanks before I spotted the problem: one of the buckles on his saddlebags had become trapped within a jagged crack.  “I see the problem, back up a bit, Stone.” Almost at once I realized my mistake, but it was far too late.  With a grunt, the larger stallion pushed himself back towards me and squashed my face up towards the rough surface of the passage.  I tried to speak, but all I could manage was something that sounded more like somepony having a stroke.  I slapped my hooves at the wall and Stone, but either he failed to notice or didn’t understand.

“Hey, watch where ya place yer hooves, Shadow.  That’s gettin’ a mite personal.” 

The lack of air was “gettin’ a mite personal” for me, and I tried to pull myself back, only to release I was trapped against Stone’s rather large backside.  Oh, what a way to go.  I’d survived radscorpion venom, crazed robots, and acid-spitting giant radioactive geckos (yeah, that still wasn’t getting old).  Yet here I was, being crushed by my friend’s backside.

Finally, I managed to work the buckle free by wiggling my nose around in the space I had to work with. Luckily he must have felt himself come free because he began crawling through the passage once again, releasing me from being pinned.  With a grunt, I dropped back to the ground. Luckily for both of us, Stone did not become stuck again, and after a bit of muttered swearing, the earth pony disappeared from sight and into the room beyond with Wild. 

Well, since I was already here, might as well get this over with.

I worked my own way into the narrow space, feeling the jagged edges of the rough walls and ceiling dig into my sides and limbs. It was also quite wet with all the stagnant water still pooling into the holes and low points in the passage, and I quickly became soaked in the liquid.  Ugh.  My hooves scraped at the stone under hoof and finally, after several seconds of wiggling, crawling and pulling, I slid free of the space and into a large dark room.  A gray hoof came into view, as Stone offered to help me up.

Picking myself up with Stone’s help, I turned and helped Carrion the rest of the way through.  The ghoul stepped from the crawlspace easily and climbed to his hooves.  The room we were in was nothing special, just a large square space with a single doorway and a mound of trash and garbage and a very foul smell... wait...

“Did we just crawl into a bathroom?” I asked, wrinkling my nose at the scent.  Unlike the age old scents of the sewer, this was far fresher and, as I looked around, I could see just how fresh.  In fact, I was standing in it, “Oh shit...”

“Yes, it is,” Wild said.  It was hard to tell if she was answering my question or being a smartass... knowing her, likely both.  Upon further inspection, I saw drains in the floor leading to the sewers below. There were also metal gurneys piled up near the wall we’d just crawled through, helping to hide the hole from casual glances.  Only somepony really looking would find it.  It did indeed look like we were standing in one of the hospitals morgues; there were large vents in the ceiling, likely for refrigerating the entire room.  Now it was the raiders’ shit hole.  

As I wiped off my hoof on a pile of papers, Wild and Carrion had approached the single door and were listening for sounds beyond.  A quick glance of my E.F.S. revealed a startling number of red dots all across my vision, but fortunately, none appeared to be close to us.  Given the Pipbuck’s inability to show the difference in height, I wasn’t even sure if they were on the same floor as us.  However, five new symbols appeared and I forgot about the filth covering my hoof and those red dots.

Five Pipbuck tags flashed before my eyes: Stable 45.  Only five, but one of them was Ebony.  Her tag was flashing there, away from the other four, and all just at the outer edge of my range.

“Shadow?” Stone’s concerned voice snapped me out of my daze and I looked to my friend, a smile spreading across my face.

“Ebony’s nearby, Stone... she’s here, in this place.”  Before he could reply, we both turned at the sound of the door creaking open on rusted hinges.  Wild leaned her head around the door, looking left and right along the hallway just outside.  Beside her, Carrion held the door open with a hoof, while he floated his assault rifle beside him, ready to fire.  After several seconds, the mare turned back to us and nodded her head.

“Alright, it's clear of raiders for the moment.  I doubt they’d have any reason to guard their bathroom, so the only place we’re going to run into trouble is the bomb shelter and the exit door.  The prisoners were being held at the south side of this floor when I was here last.  It was the hospital’s bomb shelter, and as such has only a single large door, easy for the raiders to guard.”

“I’m picking up my sister’s Pipbuck tag in that direction, so they’re likely still using the room or another nearby it.”  Only five tags; were the others dead?  No, even if they were dead the Pipbuck’s would still show up.  It was a feature for search and rescue, and I doubted they were damaged.  Nothing short of a megaspell could damage a Pipbuck.  At least, that’s what I’ve always been told.

“Alright, if things have remained the same, there should only be a small number of guards on this floor, and they will all be in the direction we need to go.  There are normally between three to four guards near the emergency exit, but since it’s rarely used, they may have pulled them.  The rest will be with the prisoners.”  Wild held up a hoof as I approached the door, stopping me from stepping out into the hall.  Her blue eyes settled on my face as she spoke softly, “Shadow, I know you’re eager to rush out there and save your sister and your friends, but we can’t go out there guns blazing.  We’ll have the raiders upstairs down on us in a matter of minutes.” 

“As I recall, there’s only one way down into the sub basement, a stairwell near the north side of the floor,” Carrion said, looking back from the hallway to Wild. “If the door’s still there, and if it could be barricaded, it would slow them down once the others noticed something was going on down here.  Sooner or later, they will figure out something’s going on; it's better to start planning now rather than later.”

“Ah reckon we could use them there gurneys to help block the doors.  Given th’ amount of trash coverin’ most of the wasteland, Ah reckon there’s more we could use down th’ hall.”

“There used to be a store room by the stairs that they used for old furniture and broken items in need of repair,” Carrion offered, and Wild poked a hoof at the ghoul.

“How do you know so much about the layout of this place?  I thought you said the raiders had this place locked up tighter than a father had his daughter locked up on her sixteenth birthday.”  Colorful as always, Wild.

“I haven’t been in here since the bombs fell,” the ghoul responded.  When Wild only arched a brow, he sighed, “Fine... when my unit was stationed here, I got to know one of the nurses working here rather well, and we spent a bit of time in the storage room.”

“Way to go, Carrion,” Wild smirked, and looked back to Stone and I.  “Well, this is your rescue mission, Shadow,  What's the plan?”

“If we split up, we should be able to take the guards and seal the doors more quickly.  Stone, go with Carrion and help him get that stairwell blocked tightly.  It doesn’t have to hold them forever, just long enough.  Wild and I will try and eliminate the guards as quietly as possible.  We should probably take the ones out guarding the door to the sewers first, which will give you two time to rejoin us.”  It was risky splitting us up into groups, but if we attempted to kill the raiders guarding the prisoners, one might raise the alarm.  Likewise, if we attempted to seal up the stairs, the noise may attracted the raiders in the basement, or one might stumble upon us.

“Ah reckon that’s as fine as a plan as we’ll come up with, so let’s get it done.  Sooner we save yer sister, th’ sooner we can get outta this city,” Stone approved, stepping over to the gurneys piled behind us.  The earth pony started to sort which ones would be worth removing from the jumble. Within a matter of minutes, and with our help, the stallion had four wheeled gurneys sitting out in the hallway, each tied together with a length of rope he’d pulled from his saddlebags.  We’d also managed to find a collection of old tanks used to hold medical gases and some metal boxes within a pile of junk just outside the door.  All would go a long way to helping block the stairwell door. 

“As soon as you’ve got that door blocked, join us quickly.  We’ll need to make a hasty escape once the raiders upstairs realize what's going on,” I said, helping Carrion hitch the rope to Stone’s saddlebags. “I’m sure Wild and I can take a couple of raiders, but there could be more then she remembers.”  The earth pony nodded his head as the ghoul unicorn’s magic finished tying the rope in place.

“Ah reckon yer both gonna be doin’ just fine. Carrion and Ah will hurry, though, just in case either of ya are feelin’ generous and leavin’ some raiders for us ta take out some anger on,” Stone answered with a grin, before placing a hoof on my shoulder, “Now, go get yer sister.”

I smiled back to my friend, and nodded my head once, as both he and Carrion started off down the hallway, the wheels of the gurneys he pulled squeaking rather loudly.  Well, no reason to worry about that now.  Turning to Wild, I jerked my head behind us.

“Let’s go.”


*     *     *     *     *


The raiders guarding the door out into the sewers were either bored, dumb, or just not expecting anything or anypony to come down the hallway towards them.  Perhaps a mix of all three.  Both sat with their backs to the hallway, staring at the door, a couple bottles of beer sitting between them. I could tell just by watching them from the corner of the hallway that both were completely drunk.  Both were unicorn stallions.  It was hard to tell what color their coats were under the heavy spiked armor and soiled clothing they wore across their bodies, but bits of pale green and tan coats poked out through holes.  Both their manes and tails were solid black; perhaps they were brothers?  The few words I could make out were badly slurred, and their movements were erratic, as if they didn’t know how to move their limbs.  Their weapons sat on the ground beside them, being a badly battered pump action shotgun and a pair of handguns.  I also saw a couple of knives on the green unicorn’s armor. 

I looked back to Wild, who stood beside me near the edge of the hallway.  The pegasus’s blue eyes fixed upon the two ponies at the end of the hallway, hatred burning in them.  After a moment of staring, she looked away and back to me, making a slashing motion across her throat with a hoof, then pointing it back down to the pair. 

I swallowed and nodded my head. I’d killed ponies before, like the raiders that had been attacking the Stable, but that had been in defense of my home and family.  These ponies were unarmed, and for some reason that seemed to trouble me.  Perhaps it was my security training trying to tell me to give them a chance to surrender.  Even when it seemed highly likely that these two had attacked Stable 45.  Beside me, Wild seemed to notice my hesitation and frowned.  She leaned up and whispered into my ear.

“Think of Ebony, of your friends.”

Just the mention of my sister’s name made me glance to the five tags flashing behind us, back down the hallway we’d came.  Five tags.  Out of over twenty ponies that had been taken. Friends, co-workers, ponies I had known all my life, or known their parents or children, likely dead by these raiders’ hooves.  I narrowed my eyes at the pair sitting before us, seeing the blood stains on their armor.  One had a metal loop of ears on his flank, tied to a belt. I looked back to Wild and nodded my head before standing up.  I could do this, for them.

Together we worked our way as quietly as we could down the hall.  Wild was far better at it than I; the pegasus’s naturally light frame seemed to make little noise at all when she wanted, unlike my heavier body.  Still, neither raider seemed to notice their approaching doom, likely far too drunk to notice anything that wasn’t actively trying to get their attention.  Even then, I doubted anypony would manage.  Between the two, there was a pile of over twenty bottles.  We both approached our targets slowly, waiting until we could both strike, not giving either anymore of a warning then we could.  While neither of us carried a knife like Stone, we both had found ways to silently kill both guards.

Wild had produced a length of thin metal wire from her saddlebags, which she then wrapped around her hooves as she sat behind her target.  There was just enough length left to wrap around a pony’s throat, and with enough strength, or skill, she could effectively strangle a pony.  Add to that the fact that the thin wire could easily slice into the soft flesh around one’s neck, making the wire harder to get free, and it made it far deadlier.  Nasty.  I wondered if she carried that solely for this reason.

I would use my baton, which had seen little use over the past week I’d been on the surface.  The thick metal shaft was commonly used to knock a pony out, or break a hoof or leg if need be.  It could just as easily break a pony’s skull, a task I was going to attempt today, as I gripped the handle tightly in my teeth. Thankfully, neither guard was wearing a helmet.  The greasy messes they called manes were jutting out in several angles from their heads.  This close, I could smell the fact neither had bathed in... forever.  I suppose I smelled little better, having been in the sewers for the past several hours.

A quick glance to my right showed Wild posed to strike, the wire held between her forehooves as she stood behind her guard. With her ears laid back she mouthed, Three.  I raised my head, club ready to slam down on the raider’s skull, Two.  I pushed aside my unease, these were no longer ponies, but monsters as Stone had said, One.

At almost the same moment, we struck. Wild rose up onto her hind legs and brought the wire whipping around the throat of the raider, the thin piece of steel digging into the flesh as she yanked back hard.  I quickly lost sight of the rest as I brought my club down hard on the raider sitting before me with a resounding *thwak!* of steel meeting bone. The baton actually vibrated in my mouth, rattling my teeth and blurring my vision for a second.  I had expected that when my eyesight cleared, I’d find a pony slumped over the floor, with a cracked skull leaking blood.  However, I was to be disappointed. 

The spike-armored raider climbed unsteadily to his hooves and turned to look at me, blood running down his forehead where I had struck him with enough force to crack his skull just behind his horn.  How he was still alive and moving I wasn’t even sure, at least until I saw his eyes.  Tiny pinpricks in a sea of sickly yellow, foam running from his open mouth.  He was drunk and higher than hell... oh fuck.

With a single movement, the raider struck me across the jaw with his front right hoof, knocking the bloody baton from my teeth and likely taking a few of them with it. I grunted, and stumbled back as he approached me jerkily. 

A quick glance towards Wild was all I could spare before the brute of a pony was in my face once more.  My winged friend was having her own problems. While blood was running freely from her raider’s throat where the wire had sliced into the flesh, rather than having the good grace to die, the raider was bucking wildly, throwing Wild about as she clung to his back stubbornly.  And that was all I could see, as the bleeding raider lunged once more at my face.

Ducking the clumsy blow, I returned the favor and struck back, earring a sharp crack as my hoof impacted his lower jaw and snapped his head back, splattering the wall behind him with blood from his cracked skull. But he simply laughed and jerked his head back towards me.

“Fucking hell...”

Another hoof lashed out from the raider, this one his left, plus it was surrounded by a spiked leg guard.  I’d lose more than a tooth if that connected.  I stepped away from the blow, and was forced back by another swing.  At least they weren’t fast, and while they didn’t seem to feel pain, I was sure that when whatever they were on wore off, they’d likely die. They’d lost enough blood already.  Just had to keep moving.

The unicorn raider lowered his head and charged towards me, meaning to gore me on his chipped ivory horn.  I easily sidestepped the attack, and turned to watch him skid to a halt down the hallway, the crazed raider snorting and looking around confusedly.  That gave me time to grab my baton and check on Wild again. 

The pegasus held tightly to the wire wrapped around the raider’s throat, even as he slammed her into the wall. Teeth bared, the mare seemed unlikely to release her foe, no matter how many times he crushed her between him and the wall.  Luckily, the battering was blunting most of his spikes, and Wild was quick enough to avoid getting impaled on them.

The sound of running hooves drew me back to my own fight, as the raider realized where I was finally.  Blood was running into his eyes as it flowed from his head wound, while already his movements were becoming more sluggish and he looked paler than he had.  However, the fight was taking far longer than we wanted, and making a lot of noise.  If the raiders guarding the prisoners heard this, there could be help on the way.

Once more, the unicorn lowered his horned head, intent on spearing me through the chest as he galloped towards me.  But this time, I had my baton ready.  Once more, I easily sidestepped the crazed pony, but while also swinging my neck and head out, bringing the baton down hard across the unicorn’s neck. 

The blow must have struck a weak point in the armor plating that covered his neck, either due to the poor condition of raider armor or just luck on my part.  Either way, it did little to stop the baton from shattering bone on impact, and, like a puppet with its strings cut, he dropped to the floor.  Not surprisingly, he seemed to be trying to get up, but his body did not respond to his commands.  A confused look came over his face before his eyes glazed over and he stopped moving completely.

With a snort, I looked up in time to see the second raider rear back on his hind legs one final time before collapsing to the floor in a rattle of armor plates.  Tiredly, Wild dug the wire out from the dead unicorn’s flesh and slid it up and over his face.  Looking closer, I saw a large gaping wound in the pony’s throat, and shook my head.  Shit, whatever they were on made them nearly impossible to kill.

“Fucking Stampede... makes these assholes nearly unstoppable.”  Her orange coat was marred by dark red stains, blood coating her forehooves where she had held the wire and along her neck and face, although none of it seemed to belong to her.  “At least they weren’t on Dash,” she grunted, unwrapping the wire from around her hooves.

“I guess that’s a common enough drug in the wasteland?” I asked, wiping my baton off on the dead raider’s soiled clothing.  It would have to do.  I glanced to the two bodies as Wild looked disgustedly at the wire she held before tossing it away.  It was stretched thin, and looked ready to break in half at any moment.

“Yes, raiders are known to take a lot of shit before going into battle. It’s a little disheartening to the defenders when you blow a hoof-sized hole in your opponent's chest and he still manages to beat you to death with your own gun.”  I nodded, well remembering the raiders that had attacked my home.  They seemed unafraid of dying, throwing themselves into our lines of fire.  They overpowered us by sheer weight of numbers.

“We’d better get moving, then.  I’m sure their friends down the hall heard most of that,” I said as I slid the baton back into its place on my belt.  Looking back down the hallway, I saw no sign of trouble just yet, but given how this entire trip was going I was sure it wouldn’t be long.

“We need to make sure we can get out first. It’d be a bit awkward if we retreated this way only to discover these fuckers didn’t have the key.”  She made a good point, and I didn’t like our chances of trying to get five ponies to crawl through the hole we had while under fire from raiders.  If any were even in any state to crawl.

So we spent the next several minutes searching our two dead raiders.  Between us, we found three doses of Stampede (three red tablets with a black X across them), the pair’s weapons, including a badly rusted shotgun which looked to have been largely used as a club and two 9mm pistols with half a clip in each, a dozen or so spare rounds for both weapons, one health potion, and, lastly, a single key.  Stepping away from the bodies, I approached the large metal door that stood between us and the sewers.  As luck would have it, a single lock held the door sealed. 

Gripping the key in between my teeth, I slid it inside the lock and turned, hearing an audible click as the bolt slid free.  Looking the door up and down, I tucked the key away into my pack and pulled lightly on the handle with a hoof. At first the door seemed unwilling to move, but slowly it began to inch outward.  I quickly stopped, however, as my ears caught the sounds of grinding.  The door had been sealed for a long time, and the hinges had rusted over.  It’d likely make a hellish sound when it opened, but it would open.  With a slight shove, I closed the door back fully and locked it. 

“I’ve been trying to think of a way to slip past the guards at the cell, but there’s just nowhere for us to pass by unseen, just a narrow hallway with no doors along it.  We might get lucky if the guards there are as fucked up as these two... but we still run a risk of getting shot to pieces,” my winged friend said as she rose up from looting the corpses and turned towards me near the door.  “If they heard all this noise, they could be looking for trouble to come to them.”

“We just need someway of getting close to them,” I grunted, looking from Wild’s face to the bodies lying between us.  “Their armor is crap, enough so that if I was close enough, my shotgun would cut through it like it was made of paper...” I blinked and tilted my head, looking more closely to the armor the guards wore. Despite the layer of fresh blood, they looked undamaged.  I smiled slowly.

“Wild...I think I might have a crazy idea...”



*     *     *     *     *



“This is the most retardest plan I’ve ever heard of,” Wild said beside me, as she looked me up and down, ears laid back and a frown on her muzzle.  Finally, she just shook her head.  “Remind me again why I can’t be dressed up as a crazed rapist?” 

“There was no time to cut holes in their armor for your wings, and while it would have fit over them, you may need to use them,” I answered for the third time, as we trotted back down the hallway towards the ‘T’ junction.  After that it would simply be a short walk towards our final goal.  For the fifth time I adjusted the crude armor plating covering my body, my riot armor tucked away in one of my saddlebags.  The raider armor was itchy, and smelled like dead raiders (which oddly was the same smell as a live raider).  I was fairly sure the one I’d stripped had fleas, as I could feel something crawling across my black coat, and I shivered.  Beside my saddlebags, I still wore my shotgun around my neck, with my revolver and baton within easy reach.  While all my weapons were in good shape, the most damning thing was the Pipbuck.  I couldn’t remove it myself, and nothing short of cutting my leg off would free it from my body.  Wild had said that she’d seen raiders wearing Pipbucks before, so it at least could be overlooked. 

As for my winged friend, she was dressed up to look like a slave, the cause of her constant questions and fluttering wings.  I had a bit of trouble talking her into this because of the role she would need to play.  It bore unpleasant reminders for her, and I promised we’d get it over with quickly.  Still, even I had trouble wrapping rope around her neck in a makeshift collar, gripping the end in my mouth.  Over her armored upper torso, wings, and battle saddle, she wore a ratty tablecloth we’d found in a closet.  The moth-eaten, stained cloth hid much from sight, though the bulges of her twin rifles and packs could be seen if you looked close enough.  Because of that, she would stand behind me as we approached the guards. 

We’d both helped one another smear the blood we already wore across our exposed fur.  That, along with the pests in the armor, was making this walk a very long one.  The red dots shifted slightly as we went, although most appeared to be on the floors above, since we just passed through a dozen markers.  The tags of my fellow stable ponies drew closer, along with six green and five red dots.  More prisoners?  Ahead, the hallway turned suddenly to the right.  Just beyond that turn I could hear the sound of voices. 

“Here’s hoping this works,” Wild muttered beside me, and, nodding my head, I silently prayed it would as well, before taking a deep breath.  Gripping the rope in my mouth I started around the corner, making it look like I was pulling a weak, beaten mare along behind me, growling out threats to the huddled mass of orange fur.  As my eyes went from Wild to the narrow passage ahead, I got my first good look at where my sister had been kept, or at least the door. 

A large double door, much like the sewer exit, was chained shut by a simple padlock.  Beside it, in a small room were five raiders, all male; one unicorn and four earth ponies.  Only a single earth pony stood watch on the hallway, a rusted patched-together assault rifle sitting beside his hooves as he leaned against the wall.  The rest sat at a table, playing a game of some sort.  Empty bottles and cans of food sat across the table, along with a number of caps.  For the moment, none of the ponies seemed to pay Wild of myself much attention.

Only when the earth pony on watch picked up his weapon did I make myself more noticeable, “Come on ya lazy bitch... keep moving,” I growled, and tugged on the rope in my mouth.  Wild, for her part, simply stumbled and cried out as she walked behind and beside me.  Two of the ponies at the table glanced up.

“What's this then?” the watchful guard asked, stepping towards us, assault rifle held loosely in his mouth.  I wondered if the thing would even manage to fire; it looked to be held together by Wonder Glue and duct tape. 

“Caught this one outside the wall... was told to toss her in with the rest of the trash,” I answered, slowing my pace as we neared.  A couple more steps and we’d be good.  Wild could hose down the sitting guards with her laser pistol, and I’d tackle the standing guard to the floor. With any luck, we’d manage to take them before they could fire a single shot. While her laser weapon was hardly silent, it still made less noise then my shotgun or her battle saddle.

The unicorn smirked as he tossed his cards back upon the table, earning groans from the ponies around him.  He stood up and stepped around towards us.  He was an honor to his kind, wearing rusty, blood-soaked armor with spikes and hooks (there must have been a raider store where they bought this stuff).  His lime green coat was a maze of scars and old wounds, and one of his eyes was missing, leaving a nasty looking black pit.  The other was a yellowish red, and he was wearing a rather unsettling smirk with teeth worse then Carrions.

“My, my... a fresh piece of ass for us to make use of.”  His voice reminded me of a leaky steam valve back in the stable.  With a glow from his horn, he lifted Wild’s face up where she had been hiding it behind her long red hair and looked closely at her, “Oh, there’s still a bit of fire in this one, boys.  Been awhile since we had anypony actually squirm.”

The earth ponies chuckled as they turned towards us, giving lusty looks at Wild’s covered body, thus far the bulges around her midsection had gone unnoticed as most eyes were fixed on her flanks. From the corner of my eye I could see the mare’s teeth grind slowly as she fought back the urge to lash out.  We needed to be a bit closer for her laser to kill in one shot.

“I was told she wasn’t to be touched until the boss got a ride on her.” I winced, both at the ride comment and the word boss.  What the hell was this?  A old gangster movie?

“Which boss?” one eye asked, slowly stalking around to the side of us, eyeing Wild more closely now... had he noticed the bags?  Think quickly, Shadow... think, think, think...

“Bloodpiss.”  At once the entire group just stopped and turned towards me.  Even Wild had her head turned, an eyebrow arched as she looked at me oddly. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. What the hell sorta name is Bloodpiss?!

“I thought Bloodpiss fucked stallions only?” the raider who’d first spotted us asked and I looked towards him in surprise, “And ain’t he dead?  Tried mountin’ one of them Super Mutants, only they turned the tables on ’im.”  Six pairs of eyes all stared at me, waiting for some sort of answer.

“Well... this is awkward,” I muttered, earning a facehoof from Wild and confused looks from the raiders, which were not going to last long, judging by the narrowed eyes of the unicorn.  He was likely the pony in charge, “Wild... change in plans,” I said, dropping the rope in my mouth.  At the same time I bent my right foreleg up, the movement sending the shogun that lay across my chest upwards where my teeth could close around the firing bit. 

By now, the raiders started going for their weapons, as they realized what was happening.  Beside me, Wild’s feathered limbs spread out, knocking the cloth off from her body and exposing her battle saddle.  The firing bit for the weapon jerked forward into range of her mouth and she reached for the trigger.

My teeth closed around the metal bit of my shotgun, and lifting my head, I slipped into S.A.T.S. to better aim at my target.  With time slowing down, I saw the unicorn standing beside Wild, his horn glowing as he had pulled a hatchet from his belt.  The chipped blade was coated in gore and rust, but despite that looked sharp enough to cleave through a limb, such as, say, my friend’s outstretched wing.  I couldn’t imagine a worse fate for a pegasus then to be grounded.  I targeted the unicorn, intent on saving my friend.  However, she stood between me and a clear shot. Only his head was visible above her back, and S.A.T.S. showed only a small chance I’d hit my target.  I growled around the firing bit in my mouth and locked onto another target instead with everything S.A.T.S. had; I would not let Wild down.

The glowing hatchet rose up slowly as I released S.A.T.S.  Its downward swing would slam hard into my friend’s feathered limb, and if it did not cut it clean off, it would break the bone.  Wild still had no idea of the danger, for her focus had settled on the rising earth ponies near the card table, her teeth gripping her firing bit for the battle saddle she wore, the barrels extending out from below her wings as they prepared to unload a torrent of death.  From the corner of my eye, I saw the first raider notice us, bringing his assault rifle up to bear upon me, but there wasn’t any time to worry about him.

Fire and smoke exploded from the barrel of my combat shotgun as I squeezed the trigger of my first shot.  The empty shell casing flew over my head as the solid round spun from the muzzle and flew towards its target.  The round passed within inches of Wild’s back and slammed into the lowering hatchet, the weapon exploding in a shower of sparks and metal as the shell knocked the blade away and onto the floor.  The unicorn raider blinked in surprise, as the force of the blow caused him to lose the grip on the weapon. He turned to look at me, just in time for my second shot to leave my weapon and paint the wall behind him with his brains.

The roar of Wild’s rifles echoed within the narrow room of the sub basement, eliminating any hope of going undetected, as well as the table and the earth ponies.  High caliber rounds shredded the already abused wooden table, sending out two inch long splinters in every direction, slicing into the exposed flesh of the raiders.  However, they wouldn’t suffer long, as those same rounds continued on through their pitiful armor and out their bodies to blow chunks out of the wall behind them.

I turned my head just in time to see the barrel of a assault rifle pointing at my face, and at that range, it would definitely be fatal.  With a savage grin, the raider started to pull the trigger, only for his head to jerk back suddenly in a spray of blood.  The trigger was jerked and the assault rifle fired harmlessly over my head, the rounds burring harmlessly into the ceiling as the body of the raider toppled onto the floor in a heap.  Turning my head behind me, I saw Stonehoof standing at the end of the hallway, his smoking rifle lowering.

“Ah reckon Ah can’t take ya’ll anywhere without ya gettin’ into trouble,” my large gray friend said with a smirk, before letting his rifle drop back down to his chest by its shoulder strap.  “Ah also reckon we’ll be havin’ a mite few guests to this here party afore too long.”

As Stone started walking down the hallway towards us, Carrion turned the corner and arched a rotting brow at the bodies laying nearby.  The ghoul pony said nothing, however, and simply followed Stonehoof into the room. 

Wild, meanwhile, had begun searching the body of the unicorn stallion who lay propped up against the wall, bits of his skull clinging to it from where I had shot him.  It seemed he was the pony in charge here, and would likely be the one with the key.  I glanced away from my pegasus friend and to the door, five tags and six green dots winking in my E.F.S.

“The door’s secure then?” I asked, as Stone moved up beside me, Carrion hanging back a bit.

“As well as it’ll ever be, Ah reckon.  It won’t hold long...” 

“It won’t have to,” Wild said, interrupting Stone.  The pegasus stood up, a key held in her mouth.  Trotting past us, she pushed it into the lock, and with an almost inaudible click, the padlock popped open.  Pushing it off the chain with a hoof, she began to unwrap the chains from around the handles of the door.

With a grunt and the groan of aged hinges, the doors opened.  I stepped inside and found myself standing within a room a little smaller than the Atrium had been back home.  Overhead, a hoof-full of surviving light panels seemed to still be working, but only just, casting the room into a flickering glow.  The ceiling was low to the floor, with just enough space for a pony to walk without being forced to hunch. Fortunately, the panels were built inside the ceiling, so at least you wouldn’t have to worry about smacking your head into them.  The space was cramped, with support pillars dotting the room, faded and chipped reflective paint surrounding their bases and arrows pointing to the exit and to long-salvaged medkits.  Refuse and bits of broken concrete lay scattered across the floor, along with makeshift beds of soiled clothing and old, rotting bed sheets.  There were a large number of beds within the room, but only a small number of ponies.  All told, there were sixteen filthy and deathly-thin pony shapes within the dark corners of the room, the dim light reflecting in their frightened eyes.  The only noise within the room was the hoof steps my friends made as they followed me in, and the rough breathing of the prisoners.

“Sweet Celestia’s Grace...” Stone muttered as he eyed the pitiful shapes of the ponies around us.  The stoic earth pony reached up to remove his hat as he scanned the room. 

They seemed confused as to who had entered their small world, hanging back, afraid of what we might do; those that could, at least.  A few lay still on their beds, and I was sure they were dead: I could see more bones against their coats then Carrion’s.  At least, I thought them dead, until one opened his eyes, milky and unfocused.

Wild said nothing, but I could see her wings quivering as she stood watching.  Movement from the corner of our eyes drew our attention to the left, where a single pony moved behind the pillars, using them to hide and stay largely unseen as he or she inched closer to us.  I turned my head to watch as the shadowy form stepped closer.  As I did, a brief flicker of light from an overhead panel lit up the form.  She was a mare, young, though the scars and marks across her body could have belonged to a pony three times her age.  A tattered blue and yellow jumpsuit clung to her skinny frame, with the number 45 on the torn collar, and a scorched and battered Pipbuck hanging around her left foreleg, barely staying up over her hoof.  What’s more, I realized I knew this pony, or at least I had.

“Tassles?” I called out softly, taking a few steps towards the broken pony.  As I did, she backed away hurriedly, whimpering.  However, she froze when she heard me call out her name again, ears shooting upright.  Wide, fearful, plum-colored eyes fixed upon my face, and I could see her trying to remember me.  “Tassles - it’s me, Shadow.”  At the name, the frightened pony inched closer into the light, and I felt tears at the corners of my eyes. Her face was bruised from being beaten, dried blood around her nose.

“Sh - shadow?” the battered mare’s voice was raspy and shaky, but she drew closer, as did several other forms from the shadows, two more wearing Stable jumpsuits as ripped and loose-fitting as the mare before me.  Other ponies came into view, or rather were carried upon the shoulders of their friends or family; even the blind pony laying on the ground rolled over and inched closer.

Tassles moved right up beside me, eyes wide and still so very afraid, but of me?  I didn’t understand, at least not until she lifted a shaking hoof and lightly touched my lower leg, pressing into my coat.  I looked back into the mare’s eyes and nodded my head.

“It’s me, Tassles... I’m really here... I’m real.”  She blinked, lip quivering, before she wrapped her forelegs around my neck and broke down completely, crying out loudly as she held tightly.  All I could do was stand there and wrap a hoof around her back, holding her tightly and laying my head on her shoulder, “It’s okay... I’m here...”  Stone and Wild stood where I had left them, the pegasus looking into the worn faces around her. 

Carrion had hung back near the door, but a shadowy form stumbled out from the darkness and wrapped around the ghoul unicorn tightly, hugging him as he cried into the worn combat armor.  Carrion sat back hard on his backside as the pony shakingly clung to him, wailing about his son, who hadn’t woke up this morning.  The raiders took his body away.  The ghoul looked uneasily to me; with one hundred and fifty years on his own, he’d likely never had much contact with other ponies, and definitely nothing like this.  Or maybe he had... a long time ago.  He patted the shivering pony, speaking softly to him.

“Stone... get... get the supplies we have and... start passing them out. Use whatever health potions we have for the worst ones...” my voice broke as I spoke.  I was still holding Tassles’ crying form, her face buried into my mane as she wept, oh sweet Celestia.  Another jumpsuit-wearing pony hobbled from the darkness.  His left hind leg missing, his forest green coat was covered in cuts, and the tip of his horn was broken off, but a hoof-cuff cutie mark was still visible, as was the Security badge, so badly dented and stained, that hung around his neck by a thin wire.  It was Turf, one of my missing security ponies.  With the last of his energy, he smiled to me, missing a number of his teeth, before he saluted me.

“Knew you’d come for us... boss...” he managed, as he dropped to the ground before the pillar.  “We told them... you’d find us.”  I was afraid he’d died, but I could still see his chest rising and falling, unsteadily, but it seemed enough.  And still Tassles clung to me, her entire body shaking until I was afraid it’d break the thin bones in her body.

Stone began pulling out packs of food from his saddlebags, hoofing them out to the ponies around him, as Wild helped those too weak to move to drink water and what few health potions we had left.  My heart nearly broke as I watched Stone lift the pony who’d been crawling towards us from the ground with one hoof and get him back atop a bed.  The other pony who had been laying beside him remained still; she’d never rise again. 

Why? Why is this happening? Celestia... Luna... what have they done to deserve this? What has anypony done to deserve this?

As the minutes ticked by, Tassles sobs became softer and more shallow, until finally she went silent.  Gently, I pushed her away with my hooves, holding them to her shoulders to keep her upright as I looked into her red rimmed eyes.  The fur of her face was matted around her eyes and her red-tinted nose.  Still, her hooves held to mine, unready to let me go.

“Tassles... where's my sister?” I asked.  The mare simply sat there, ears folded to the sides; she looked so pitiful.  I reached up and wiped away the mess from her face, “Tassles, where's Ebony?” 

“Ebony?” she asked, still not looking at me as she sat there.  I felt my heart beating faster as I nodded, despite the fact she wouldn’t see it.

“Yes, where is she...? She was taken with you and the others.”  I tried to keep my voice calm, despite everything I had seen.  The tag off to itself flashed in my vision, somewhere in this room.  A shaking hoof rose up from the mare and pointed towards the far wall of the storm shelter. 

“She’s in there... in there... they chained her to... to the wall...” Wild stepped in, and gently helped me free of the unicorns grip, nodding me away as she helped Tassles to sit down and offered her a canteen of water.  I stepped back and watched for a moment before turning away and trotting towards the wall.  I saw that there was a doorway there, the door long since missing.  By the smell coming from the room, it was clear it was the bathroom for the prisoners.  My sister was left in there? 

I stood before the dark doorway and looked inside, the few panels that still worked inside casting more shadows than light, so that I couldn’t see anything or anypony within.  But the tag continued to flash in my vision.  She was inside, so... why didn’t I go in?  I glanced back at the room, at the sight of three ponies I’d known all my life, broken into shadows of their former selves.  Tassles had always been such a strong-willed mare, my sister’s best friend.  The pony she was going to see about the final plans for the wedding.  I looked away from the huddled form of the unicorn; her husband-to-be had been taken as well, but he wasn’t among the others.  I couldn’t even imagine what they had gone through in the two weeks since they’d been taken from our home... what my sister had gone through.  Turf was one of Bright’s friends; the two used to hoof wrestle all the time, or have races through the Stable hallways.  I looked to his missing hind leg.  He’d likely not race any more.  Of the third pony, she sat numbly off to herself, huddling a battered body to her chest, a bloody Stable jumpsuit clinging to its form.  Pip and Nip, twins like my sister and I, born almost the same year as us.  They had a habit of finishing one another's sentences, and had worked in medical as nurses.  Now, it looked as if Pip would need to finish her own sentences.

 How they knew, I’m not sure, but both Wild and Stone made their way towards me, heads lowered, tears at the corner of their eyes (despite Wild’s insistent it was just the smell).  I smiled weakly to my friends, before turning back to face the doorway.  Movement from the back corner of the bathroom caught my eyes and I stepped forward.

“Ebony?”

Walking into the room, I should have known at once something was horribly wrong, but I’d failed to see those signs, signs my friends had already seen as they followed me into the dark dank hole.  The only sound was of water dripping from the broken ceiling, landing into stagnant pools of foul smelling liquids.  I ignored the smell of unwashed flesh, feces, decay, and rotting flesh.  I ignored the single flickering emergency light that attempted to brighten the darkness of the room, and ignored the yellowed bones of dead ponies under piles of waste and trash.  All this and more I ignored as I approached the lone figure within the room.

She’d been chained to the wall, as Tassles had said, two links of rusted metal running from posts driven into the stone wall.  Water dripped from the orange-tinted iron chains, those same links disappearing into the shadows of the room where my sister lay, her Pipbuck tag flashing. That single bulb of light made it so I could only just make out the edges of my sister's body, laying among the garbage and waste of the prisoners, head propped up on a old jacket that had sat for the goddesses know how long in the filth. The lengths of chain ran from the wall to metal bands around her throat and left hind leg, both areas devoid of fur from how tight they had been around her body.  She lay on her side, facing the wall, her arched back a mass of scar marks from whips and hoof alike.  Her long white mane and tail was covered in filth and knotted.  Stepping closer, the scent of rot and death hung heavily around the thin form, weeping white sores covering her hind quarters and midsection.  Looking closer, I saw they seemed to cover large areas of my sister's body, the fur around them having fallen out, leaving bare pale skin below, dark red and blue veins visible just below it.  Everywhere I looked she was bruised, and despite not wanting to, my eyes traveled to her hips and the dark marks around her tail.  My heart broke as I saw what those bastards had done to her...

“Ebony?”  My voice was barely above a whisper, yet it sounded loud within the near silent room, my hooves brushing aside piles of filth as I neared my sisters still form.  The shallow rise and fall of her sides told me she was still alive.  How long had she been left to rot here?  Hours?  Days?  My anger grew as I thought of what had been done to her, but it quickly cooled as I saw movement.

At the sound of my voice, the figure shifted slightly, her head weakly rising from the floor to look back across her broken shoulder.  Tears ran freely down my cheeks as her face came into the dim light, strands of her white mane clinging to her once-beautiful face, now a mass of bruises and cuts.  Dried blood matted the coat around her mouth and nose, but worst of all was her horn.  Or the twisted nub that was left jutting up from her forehead.  Somepony had sawed it off while she’d been awake.  The clicking from my Pipbuck told me I was near radiation, but I ignored it as she opened her eyes weakly, golden orbs blinking as she attempted to focus on whoever was in the room with her.  She didn’t seem to know me, and that was more then I could take.  I stumbled towards her, dropping to my knees in the pile of garbage she’d been forced to use as a bed.

“Goddesses, Ebony, it’s me... sister...”  I leaned forward and wrapped my hooves around her neck, pressing my face into hers.  The confused look melted from her eyes as my twin sister slowly smiled up at me.  The steady clicking was the only sound in the room, nearly covering up the voice that asked a simple question.

“Little...brother...?”  Her voice was raw; she could barely say a word without being forced to swallow.  I turned my head away for a moment and closed my mouth around my canteen, and, unscrewing the lid with my teeth, I held it up with shaking hooves to Ebony’s lips.  Wild and Stone remained near the entrance to the bathroom, silent.  Watching.

“I’m here, sis... I’m here.”  I slipped my right hoof under her head, and held it up so she could more easily drink.  More water ran down her swollen lips then into her mouth, leaving lines of clean fur in her black coat, “You’re going to be okay, Ebony.. .I’m here to save you... I’ll get you out of this place.”  As I stuttered over my words, the steady clicking of my Pipbuck grew louder as the needle rose slowly from the green and into the yellow. I sniffed and fought back the flood of tears that wanted to break free... I had to be strong for her.

Hoofsteps approached me slowly and stopped just behind me, a gray hoof gently laying across my shoulder, and I turned back.  Stone’s kind green eyes stared back at me, a sad look in their depths with knowledge I refused to accept.  He lightly squeezed my shoulder, as Wild trotted up beside him, her cheeks wet with tears.  Both my friends already knew just by looking... already knew what I didn’t want to know... but I did know.  I did.  And I cried.  The tears flowed freely down my cheeks as the last of my reserves shattered.. 

“Sweetie...?” my sister's voice asked of me, and I turned to look back into her face, my canteen falling from my hooves, the water spilling out from within to pool around us.

“She’s safe, with the rest of the Stable.  I sent them east... to San Ponsisco... just like we always talked about,” I answered, locking my eyes with hers.  She smiled slowly, and took another breath.  Behind me somepony was crying, but I couldn’t tell who, nor did I really care.  A gasp of pain made me reach out to grip my sisters tortured body. Even if we used every health potion we had...every Med X there was... there was no way to repair the damage.  No hope.

After a few moments of silence between us, Ebony opened her eyes once more, her smile a sad one.  A shaking forehoof came up to push away strands of my mane that had fallen across my face, something that so reminded me of our mother.

“I wanted to see you... one... last time, little brother...”  A flash of pain washed across her face again, as if that simple sentence had cost her so much, and she moaned weakly, “Hu...urts so much... ple... please stop... stop the pain, little br...rother...” she said between bouts of agony.  She had soaked up so much radiation... her body was falling apart.

“I can’t... I....” couldn’t.  There wasn’t enough supplies to dull the pain... and then our eyes locked once more and my heart stopped.  No... oh sweet Celestia and Luna... NO...

“Pl... ease... a... already.. .dead...,” I stared into her eyes and saw the pain she had gone through, was still going through... she was my sister... I... I couldn’t let her be in so much pain.

My eyes never left her face as I raised my left forehoof up, and lowered my muzzle to the gun holstered there, wrapping my teeth around the bit I unbuckled the weapon with my right hoof and slide it easily from its home.  I lifted my head back up, and as the long barrel of the revolver came into sight, my sister sighed in relief and nodded her head as best she could. 

Shakingly, I lowered the weapon to her head, pressing the cold metal barrel to her skull, or at least I tried; I was shaking so badly it wobbled around.  Until a slender black hoof rose up from outside my field of vision and steadied the gun.  My sister’s hoof.  Our breathing slowed, and I could feel the unsteady beat of her heart against her chest as my own seemed to match its rhythm.  I tightened my grip upon the pistol in my mouth, feeling the trigger and pulling back, the hammer slowly rising up as the chamber rotated. 

“Lo... ove you... li.. little bro.. other...”

“I love you too... big sister...”  My voice broke, as tears dripped into the pool of water under me left by the canteen. My sister smiled and held my gaze as I squeezed the trigger...





Welcome to Level 9!

Perk Added: Quick Draw: You can draw and holster your weapons 50% faster now.
	

> Chapter 09: A Pony Falls...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 9: A Pony Falls...


And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.



“Shadow!”

My ears twitched as I heard a familiar voice, distant and muffled, call out my name.  I didn’t respond to it; I just wanted to stay where I was, where it was warm, soft, and peaceful.  Oh so soft.  Hmmm... 

“Shaddddowwww!!”

I frowned.  It seemed the owner of that high-pitched voice was determined to find me, as determined as I was to remain hidden.  I rolled over on the soft surface I lay upon, holding tightly to whatever cover I had over my head with my forehooves.  I could ignore that voice, as I had often enough over the few years its owner had hounded me.  Now... to go back to sleep.  My ears detected the sound of light hoofsteps coming towards me... oh crud, I’d been discovered.  They stopped just outside my shelter and a moment later I heard a light huff.

“Shadow, get your sorry flank outta bed this instant!”

I muttered something in response to the owner of that voice through the fluffy pillow I had firmly atop my head; to be honest, I wasn’t even sure what I said.  All I knew for sure was that I wanted to lay here forever and go back to sleep.  Whatever she wanted could wait.  It was a Saturday, for crying out loud, and we didn’t have class on the weekend.  I folded my hooves over my head and attempted to once more go back to sleep.  At least, I would have, if somepony hadn’t yanked the covers off my bed and proceeded to dump my flank into the floor with a solid thump.  

I opened my eyes reluctantly and blinked, seeing four hooves standing on the ceiling before me.  And why were the light panels on the floor?  Wait a sec...

Giggling filled my ears, light and foalish.  A second later, a face appeared in my vision, one I knew very well, having seen it every day of my life.

“Silly, I told you I’d get you outta bed,” Ebony said with that bright and warm smile of hers, golden eyes flashing with mirth at what she had yet again done to me.  My sister, the terror that she is, then stood back up and placed a black hoof against my belly.  With a soft push, she sent me flopping onto my back with a slight grunt.

“Now come on, little brother, today is our very special day!”

“Yeah, yeah... not like I’m gonna be able to go back to sleep with you around,” I muttered and rolled over onto my belly, shaking my head to clear out the clinging effects of sleep and head trauma.  This made the sixth time this week my sister had seen fit to toss me out of bed.  Okay, so maybe I did oversleep a bit.

“Course not, Mama’s got everything planned, and Daddy’s got the day off to spend with us.”  My sister smiled happily down at me, practically bouncing in place on her hooves.  I couldn’t help it and smiled back; you couldn’t be in a bad mood long around Ebony.  The filly knew just how to make anypony smile and laugh.

“Alright, alright, sis, I’m up.  Sheesh... it’s not like mom’s gonna throw the party without the guests of honor,” I responded with a smirk and rose to my hooves, shaking myself off before running a hoof through my messy mane.  She watched me and smirked, reaching over to help smooth my unruly tuft of hair out before speaking again.

“That’d just be silly, Silly,” was my sister’s usual come back, followed by a hoof pressing against my nose and her honking.  I chuckled and wiggled my nose a bit, “Now, did ya think of a good birthday wish?” she asked, grinning, “It’s sure to come true this year, since we’ll have sooooo many candles to blow out.  A whole five!”  The filly bounced around happily once more.

I grinned back to my sister and nodded my head, reaching down to grip the sheets and blankets of my bed in my mouth and tossing them back up where they belonged.  Oh, how I wished I could join them.

“Yeah, I think I did. I wished for...” I oofed as a white glowing pillow slammed into my muzzle and silenced me.  I reached up with a hoof and pulled it down away from my eyes, arching a brow to my sister’s glowing horn and scowl.

“Don’t you know how birthday wishes work, little brother?!  If you tell ANYPONY they won’t ever come true!” she huffed, and sat down before me, tossing the pillow up on the bed behind me as she gave me her best serious face..

“Ow... alright, alright... sheesh... I know that, silly!!”  I rubbed my nose with a hoof before continuing; after all, I had a good reason for telling her my wish.  “But, since we’re twins and all, I figured it didn’t really matter.  We already know what each other’s thinking most of the time anyway.  See?  It was a good reason, so hmph!”

A thoughtful look came over my sister's face as she thought of this, which involved her right front hoof rubbing under her chin as she stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth.  It was her normal thinking face, so I knew to be silent whenever she wore it.  Otherwise she might give me another hit to the head, and Bright said if I got too many of those I’d go cross-eyed or something.

“Yeah, that makes sense, little brother.”  She grinned and placed both forehooves onto the carpeted floor, leaning in close to my face, ears perked towards me.  “So... what’d ya wish for?  Huh?  Huh? I bet it was a kiss from Wendy... I seen you looking at her at lunch yesterday.”  She smiled and I blushed.

“NO! I... I wasn’t staring... I was just.... um... I wasn’t staring!” I yelled out, stomping my hoof.  I could feel my cheeks warm as I tried to explain why I’d been looking at the little filly in our class who sat across from us.  I hadn’t been staring.  Nope.  My sister only giggled and clapped her hooves together happily.

“Aww... your secret’s safe with me, little brother!” she giggled, and stood up, starting for the door to our room.  “Soooo?” I blinked and she grinned, “About the wish!”  Oh... I blushed again and sorta dragged my hooves as we walked before finally answering her question.

“I kinda wished for us to always be together.”  It seemed odd, but she was my sister, despite all the headaches she gave me.  She looked over at me, her smile growing. I could have sworn I saw some tears in her eyes.  I smiled and looked over to her.  “And stop calling me little, I’m as big and old as you, sis.”

“Hehe... you’ll always be my little brother, Shadow.”  She gave me a playful nuzzle on the cheek before skipping out the door.



	*     *     *     *     *



I opened my eyes slowly, the darkness of the room making it seem as if I’d never shut them.  A moment later, one of the broken overhead light panels flickered on, casting a pale white light across the room within which I lay.  I looked to my side at the form huddled against me, and slid my right hoof out to cradle my sister’s head next to my own.  She looked so peaceful, almost like she was sleeping.  I gently lowered her head back down to the ground, and brushed a wet lock of her white mane from her face, wet with my tears.  I reached up and rubbed my burning eyes, before looking back at my twin. 

Quietly, as if afraid I’d wake her, I gathered my hooves under myself and rolled to my stoma, then stopped.  I longed to not move again, to just curl up beside her once more and not have to worry about anything ever again.  Not raiders.  Not my friends.  Not my home.  Just to stay with my sister.  Once more my burning eyes fell upon the still form of Ebony and I sniffed.  

I’d failed her.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you...  Oh, Celestia... Luna... I wish it’d been me that’d been taken.  Why didn’t I go to you when they attacked... I should have been there.  I should have protected you...”  Tears ran down the already matted fur of my cheeks as I stared at her face. “They need you, Ebony.  They need their Overmare... your laughter and kindness.  I - I can’t do this on my own, sis... I - I need you.  Your daughter needs her mother...”

I promised... I promised to bring her mother back.  Her mother would never see her earn her cutie mark, never see her grow up.  I’d failed them both.

My head dropped back down to my sister’s body, laying across her neck, and I sniffed, tears running unchecked down my face as the memory of my niece and the promise I’d made to her rose into my head.

“You promise to come back, right Uncle Shadow?” the small filly asked, and I nodded my head to her.

“I promise.”

“Pinkie Promise?” she asked with large gold eyes, and I chuckled softly.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”  I went through the motions of the swear which had been taught to my sister and I by our parents.

I lifted my head.  I promised to come home... I’m the only family she has left.  Looking back down to my sister’s peaceful face, I gently reached out a hoof to softly stroke her cheek.  It was so cold.  The overhead lighting sparked back into place for a moment and I cocked my head, noticing the smile she wore on her lips, and lightly tracing it with my hoof.  She always knew how to make a pony smile. 

“Shadow?” a voice called to me from the doorway.  When I didn’t respond, I heard hooves coming towards me over the trash of the room. “Shadow... we need to get moving.  Carrion said the raiders will be on their way soon.  We need to get these ponies out of here.”

“Just... give me a minute, Wild... just a minute.”  My voice was hoarse from crying and the words broken.  An orange hoof reached up and rested gently on my shoulder, before Wild leaned up and nuzzled my cheek gently.

“Alright... I’ll help Stone get them ready to go...”  As quietly as she had come, the winged mare departed, leaving me alone once more with my sister.

“I need to go now, sis,” I whispered softly, rising unsteadily back to my hooves.  Closing my eyes, I softly kissed her cold nose and stood up straight.  “I need to take care of Sugar for you... I promised.”

Turning away from my sister, I started towards the door, head low to the ground, when something gently rustled my mane.  Was there a breeze in here?  I stopped and turned back to the dark room and the still sour air within and saw nothing move.  My eyes went once again to the still form and lingered for a moment.

“Good bye, Big Sister.”  The lighting once more flickered and went dark as I turned and walked from the room, not bothering to look back again.  I had to get moving.  I had a lot of ground to cover.  

I had a promise to keep...



	*     *     *     *     * 



Stepping from the darkness of the ruined bathroom and into the main room, I found the dim flickering lights oddly bright on my burning eyes, and squinted against their glare.  I was unsure how much time had passed since my sister had... had.... well, since then.  To me, it felt as if hours had passed, but somehow I doubted we would have been given that much respite and, as for myself, time to grieve.  The prisoners around me sat quietly, holding near-dead loved ones in their hooves, helping them to eat and drink the supplies my friends had given out.  Carefully, I stepped between them, looking for any sign of Stone and Wild.  I spotted them upon reaching the center of the room.  They stood near the entrance, speaking quietly to one another, both looking oddly calm in the heart of raider territory.  They stopped talking when they saw me approach.

My friends looked worriedly at me, but neither spoke.  What was there to say?  There was nothing either of them could say that would make this any easier on me.  It still seemed like some sort of bad dream to me.  A nightmare.  One I wished with all my heart I would awaken from.  But one I knew I’d never wake from.  This was my world now.  A world without Ebony.  A world without hope.

Wild started to say something as I glanced between them, but quickly shut her mouth and looked away.  Stone simply nodded his head. The earth pony had lost his brother to raiders; he likely knew what I was going through.  For the moment, we stood beside each other, and despite it all, I drew comfort and strength from my friends.  After several moments of silence, I looked up to them to ask the question.

“How long do we have?”

“Not long, Ah reckon.  Carrion went ta check th’ door we blocked.  He’s supposed ta give us a warnin’ when they’re tryin’ ta get inside,” Stone answered, the earth pony looking from me to the huddled ponies in the room.  “Shadow, Ah know this has been hard on ya, but - we need ta get movin’ as soon as possible.  Some o’ these ponies can hardly walk on their own, and we got miles of sewers and tunnels ta go through to reach anythin’ even remotely safe.”

“How many...?” I asked as I looked back into the dimly lit room.  I remembered counting them as we entered, but now I couldn’t seem to recall.  Nor could I really focus on my E.F.S. and the cluster of green dots it displayed: there was too much red.

“Ten, three survivors from yer Stable and the rest from all across th’ Wasteland,”  the stallion said, looking sadly to the pitiful shells of ponies around us.

“I don’t know how many of them will survive the trip; some are on their last legs,” Wild spoke up.  The winged mare looked from the survivors to me, and for a moment I saw hesitation in her blue eyes as she glanced to Stone.  Finally, she made up her mind and said whatever was troubling her.  “There’s no way we can carry them all and still escape, Shadow.  I know both Stone and you want to try and save them, but if we get into a fight with ghouls along the way or if the raiders catch us, they will be a liability, one I’m afraid will get more ponies killed...”  As she spoke, I saw Stone tense and grit his teeth.  This was likely something the two had been arguing over for a while now.

"Wild, we can’t just leave ’em here for them raiders ta find again!” Stone stomped a forehoof onto the floor loudly, causing a few of the nearby prisoners to flinch away in fear.  “It’d be as good as killin’ them ourselves...” he trailed off and glanced to me, mouth open.  “...Ah’m sorry, Shadow... Ah...” his ears dropped as he stuttered, looking upset about what had slipped.  Despite their disagreement, Wild layed a hoof on the large stallions shoulder.

“Its alright, Stone... I know what you meant.” I looked to the frightened ponies sitting on the floor.  Ten lives in my hooves.  How do I make a choice like this?  Leave some behind to save the others?  And who would go and who would stay?  As head of security I had been expected to make calls like this before, and my father had been forced to make them himself.  The rapid degeneration of the stable meant that accidents had become far more common in the past few years, and sometimes we couldn’t save everypony.

“Shadow?” I looked up as somepony approached from the room.  He was limping, having only three legs left to use, with the other ending in a ragged stump wrapped in dirty bandages and strips of soiled cloth.  I turned and watched as Turf walked closer and stopped to stand before me as best he could.  The unicorn nodding to the others around me before fixing me with a sad smile.  “I’m sorry about your sister, Shadow.  She was a good mare.  She kept our hopes up despite all they did to us and her... if it wasn’t for her, I doubt any of us would still be alive.” 

I lowered my head and nodded.  Ebony would have done everything in her power to help her ponies.  It had always been her way, our mother’s way.  It was why she had been such a natural leader, and a great mother.  Why both of them had been some of the best Overmares the stable had ever had.  Turf went silent to give me a moment before he pressed on with the issue at hoof.  One I was currently struggling with and one he seemed to already have an answer too.

“Look, I know you four can’t help us all escape this hell.  How you even managed to get in here in the first place must have taken more luck than any pony has any right to have.”  He looked back to his fellow captives.  “Most of us are nearly beyond saving and will simply slow you down.”  The stub of his missing leg twitched and I looked back to his face to say otherwise, only for him to cut me off before I could say so much as a word.  “Don’t go lying to me either, Shadow.  Your folks raised you better than that and your mother would likely swat you upside the head for doing so.”

I shut my mouth and nodded; he was right of course, but how could I ask them to stay?  Turf seemed able to read what was on my mind, or simply guessed correctly what was bothering me.  I knew the fate of anypony staying behind once the raiders discovered the others had escaped.  It would not be pretty, nor swift.  I’d seen the kitchen back at the a raider’s base.

“You don’t have to ask for anypony, Shadow... a few of the bucks and I already talked it over.  We want you to take the mares and the young ones with you.  We’ll be staying behind to cover you.”

“Turf...”

“We’ve done made up our minds, Shadow.  Besides, you know how stubborn I can be.”  He smiled, and I could almost see the old unicorn buck I had trained with under all those bruises and missing teeth.  Along with so many other faces.  Wendy.  Bluebelle.  June.  Lucky.  Ebony.  Most were dead, some across the Wasteland.

Wild and Stone stood beside me, silently waiting to see what I would say.  I already knew both their opinions on the matter.  Wild was a former soldier, and likely had sent her share of ponies to their deaths so others could survive, or been ordered to herself.  Stone, while he had survived in the Wasteland all his life and had seen so much, still seemed unwilling to give up on anypony.  I knew he wanted to try and convince Turf and the others to come with us, and that he’d damn well carry three of them on his back if he had too.  And if I asked him to, he would damn well try.  I looked into Turf’s eyes, the eyes a pony I had grown up with, and saw the look in them.  We both knew what my answer would be.  He’d already resigned himself to this and I to letting him do it.  I nodded my head slowly and lightly touched his shoulder with a hoof.

“Alright, gather those willing to stay and we’ll give them what weapons and ammo as we can spare.  I’ll see what we can do for healing supplies...”  Turf smiled sadly at that and I sighed softly, “...alright...just the weapons and ammo.”

Beside me, Stone looked ready to argue, but the looks in Turf’s and my eyes silenced those arguments.  Wild lightly touched the stallion’s shoulder with a slender orange hoof and the rubbed his gray coat gently.  

“They will need it,” a harsh voice said from behind us, causing the four of us to jump in surprise.  I quickly turned towards the owner of that voice and saw Carrion standing calmly in the doorway to the bombshelter, his eyes glowing brightly in the dim light, “They’re coming.”



*     *     *     *     *



As quickly as we could, Stone and I passed out the weapons to those few ponies who had volunteered to stay behind and cover our escape. Neither of us could say much to them, these battered ponies who would give us and their loved ones time to reach the sewers.  At most, we wished each one luck and asked if there was anything we could do for them.  I also found myself asking them their names and where they were from; perhaps after this was over, I could go to their former homes and let anypony left behind by the raiders know what had become of them.

Of the ponies who would be going with us, there were only six, Tassles and Pip among them.  Beside my fellow Stable ponies stood four other mares of varying ages, one still missing her cutie mark, as well as one of her ears from a raider’s knife.  All had been abused and beaten by the raiders, and far worse.  What was worse, I learned within that span of time we would be leaving more behind than just the frail and crippled stallions.  At least another seven ponies from 45 had been taken that morning to work on clearing the tunnel through the mountains, along with thirty or so other captives.  Those we had found were the weakest, and had been left to either die by the raiders left to guard them, or for their food.

Seven ponies I knew from home I would be leaving behind to this hellhole.  But there was nothing else we could do; as Wild and Carrion pointed out, the raiders knew something was wrong down here.  They would be coming in force, and anypony not leaving was as good as dead.

I looked over to Turf as he reloaded a badly worn assault rifle: during the rush to equip them with weapons, somepony had fitted my fellow security pony with a broken broom handle, held to the stump of his rear leg with tape and cord.  It was a crude replacement for his missing limb, but then, he wasn’t exactly going to be needing it for long.  A grim thought in these grim times.

He looked up from his work, the remains of his horn glowing dimly at best as he somehow held the weapon aloft.  Seeing my eyes on him, he offered me a brave smile, and I returned it.  Had I failed him as I’d failed Ebony?

The thirty minutes went by painfully quick in my mind, but slowly for others: wives and daughters said farewell to their husbands and fathers, friends hugged friends and a few last words were spoken before the first of the traps Carrion had left behind exploded.

The ghoul had rigged the hallway with any number of lethal trip wires and landmines he had brought with him from his lair.  He said the raiders would pay for every inch of hallway they rushed down, and thus far it sounded as if he was a pony of his word.

Turf followed us down the hallway towards the sewer exit.  Behind us, another loud explosion shook the narrow walls of the passage, raining dust down atop our heads from the ceiling.  We had gone only a few steps more when the first sounds of gun fire roared out.  The ponies left to hold the hallway had spotted the first raiders to survive the passage.

“We’ll hold them off as long as we can, boss, just get these gals as far from this place as you can!” Turf yelled out over the clatter of automatic weapons fire and the steady boom of shotguns.  Ahead, Stone carried the battered filly upon his back, while helping a mare stumble through the open doorway.  The other mares helped one another through, one stumbling a bit as she went.  Wild and Carrion were somewhere ahead, making sure the path was clear. 

Across my own back I carried Pip: the mare had been unresponsive since the death of her sister, refusing food and water and not speaking since we’d arrived.  She seemed to weigh just a bit more then my niece; I could feel her ribs pressing against my flanks as I trotted beside Turf.

“I’ll do my best, Turf...”  I stopped beside the door and looked back to my friend, who smiled up to me as he gripped the handle of the door in his fading magic.  The key was safely tucked away inside my bag, once the door was shut, there would be no opening it again.  Wild had said only a small number of raiders had copies of the key, and had suggested we lock the door behind us, in a effort to slow them down.  It also meant we’d be sealing in those we left behind, but then, they had already known how this would end.  I hesitated, thinking perhaps to convince Turf to come with us, to call them all back and hope the door would be enough to slow the raiders down.  My friend simply smiled and tilted his head.

“It’s the only way, Shadow.”

“I know... I just wish...”  But what was there to say?  Both of us knew there was nothing the other could do.  “Celestia and Luna watch over you, my friend,” was all I could say.

“Good luck, Shadow.”  With a flickering glow from his horn, the large metal door slowly closed shut behind me, clicking loudly as it locked into place.




*     *     *     *     *



The return trip through the sewers was far less eventful.  Either we had dealt with the closest threats already, or else the fact there were so many of us kept the creatures at bay, beyond a small group of radroaches attempting to drag down one of the more wounded mares who had fallen behind us.  They were quickly driven off as Stone and myself charged down towards them.  Most of the sewers’ inhabits stayed within the shadows.  A good thing, too, because those radroaches had nearly killed the rescued prisoners.  We’d already used up a good portion of our health potions and food supplies.  Stone had been worried about making it back with what we had, but Wild had pointed out we’d be flying over most of the dangers the wasteland had to offer.  That is, if we made it out of here.

Nopony spoke, beyond asking if somepony needed help, or warnings about weak sections of the tunnel.  A cough or groan rose up every so often from among the ponies we escorted, along with the echoing sound of hoofsteps within the tightly packed tunnels.  The near nonexistent weight of Pip bouncing along my flanks as I walked reminded me to be careful where I placed a hoof.  The mare had said nothing since leaving the hospital’s sub basement; if not for the steady if shallow breathing coming from her, I would have thought her dead. 

I have to admit, my mind wandered for most of the trip through the tunnels under Kanter City.  Thoughts of my sister filled my head as we tiredly cantered along the stone floor, the echoing hoofsteps making me think of times spent in the lower sections of the Stable with my sister, playing hide and seek among the maintenance tunnels.  Happier times.  Simpler times.

We’d become aware of the raiders trailing us shortly after the fight with the roaches: the echoing voices and the odd gunshot from a nervous raider echoed along the ruined brick walls up to us.  A few times I had looked back over the prone form of Pip, expecting to see our pursuers turning the corner of the tunnel we had just entered.  For the moment, thoughts of my sister faded from my mind as I checked my shotgun’s safety switch.  Around the prisoners I had turned it off, since we had been helping them up from the floor whenever they’d fallen, and we didn’t need one getting shot accidentally.  

I had dropped back to cover them, while Stone and Wild helped the prisoners and Carrion forged ahead.  Looking away from the dark tunnels we’d just passed through, I found myself walking beside Tassles.  Unlike Pip, the mare seemed to be doing better since drinking a health potion and half a canteen of water.  The further we got from the hospital, the better she looked.  She still stumbled, however, and her gaunt frame would need more healing than we could offer before she’d be back to her old self.  If not for a limp due to the wounds she had suffered along her flank and under, she’d be keeping pace well enough with us.  For the longest time she did not look over at me, instead focusing on the floor ahead and placing one hoof in front of the other.  Eventually she began glancing my way, as if trying to work up the courage to ask something she had been worrying over.  I knew that feeling; there was something I’d been wanting to ask but had not.

“What happened to the Stable after we were taken, Shadow?  I’ve been wondering if everypony had been taken or if they’d been killed.  The raiders told us they’d killed everypony else before dragging us off.”  Her words were nearly swallowed up among the steady clop of hooves in the tunnel, she had spoken them so softly.  I turned and regarded the mare beside me before I answered.

“We fought the raiders until they were driven out.  I’m not sure on what all took place, since I got injured when we retook the Atrium from them.”  Our hoof steps changed in pitch as we once more began trotting through hoof-deep stagnant water and slime.  The stench of decay and algae once more reached my nose as we splashed through the water.   “They managed to destroy or steal most of the things we needed to maintain the Stable, however, and within a few days we were forced to abandon it.”  Her ears perked up at that and she turned to ask another question that had been on her mind.

“My parents...?”

“...Are fine.”  She relaxed at that, and turned to looking ahead of us once again.  Pip’s breathing remained steady upon my back, the mare never moving.  “I sent them to San Ponsisco, along with everypony else from our home... it seemed the safest place at the time.”

“I heard some of those... things (she couldn’t bring herself to call them ponies, but nor could I: they weren’t) mention it.  Talking about wanting to burn it to the ground.”  She went silent for a moment before adding, “It's why she’s gathering them.  There’s something inside the city she wants.”

“She?” 

“Whoever their leader is, it’s a mare, the only mare they seem to have any respect for.  I heard them as they guarded us around the mine... or after they...” she trailed off and went silent.  I did not press, but she started once more, “Turf said... he said they feared her.”  The mention of that name caused us both to go silent, and I prayed that my fellow security pony had died quickly.

We traveled in silence again for another hour before I finally asked the question to which I both wanted and did not want the answer.  It had taken me awhile to work up the courage to ask it, but I knew I had to know.

“Tassles, what happened to my sister?”  Once more, silence descended upon us as we walked, and she again avoided looking at me.  But finally, she began to talk.

“The beatings started almost the second we were dragged to the surface from our homes.  None of us were prepared for the brutality of these creatures... I don’t think anypony could have known what awaited us.  We were chained together in a line and left to a couple guards as the rest went into the Stable.  Some of us thought they’d never be able to take it, but when some came back, they told us everypony inside had been slaughtered.  Cooked alive in fires.  We’d all seen the smoke... some of us believed...” she lowered her head, tears in her eyes before she pressed on, “But not Ebony.  She said there was no way they’d take the Stable, no way they’d get past security or you.”  She looked up at me, a slight smile on her face, “She knew you’d not let them harm her ponies.”

I looked away at that.  As much as she thought that I’d have been happier in the Stables garden, my sister often commented on how proud father would be of how I ran security.  How confident she was in our safety.  Tassles continued.

“Over the next several days, they drove us across the plains east.  We didn’t know where, and they wouldn’t tell us.  On the trip, several of us were raped and beaten- I...”  she shook her mane and clenched her jaw.

“You don’t have to go on...” I started, but she shook her head once more and swallowed before proceeding.

“When we reached the city, they dragged us into a large open building that I heard one of them call a stadium, and herded us together in the center.  Everywhere we looked, they stood watch over us.  A couple fired over our heads or into the ground near our hooves.  There were several other captives there as well, all looking as battered as us.  We huddled together and waited for whatever they had in store for us.  What happened next... I’ll never forget until the day I die.”  Her voice shook as she continued and I looked worriedly over to her.

“The frightened whispered words of dozens of ponies went silent as a group made its way towards us from the opposite end of the stadium, they had a spotlight shining on them from overhead.  There were only five of them; however, most of us focused upon the larger four figures.  They looked the most deadly... but how wrong we were.  They were armored from nose to tail in thick armor, like the Steel Rangers we learned about in school, you remember them?” she asked me and I nodded, “These were no heroic warriors.  Their armor was painted as black as pitch with red markings all across it; I think it was from blood.  They had spikes and blades worked into their armor and wore large weapons across their back.  They were completely silent, so much so that I thought maybe they were robots until one got close and I could hear him breathing.”  She shivered and went on.

“Then whatever they were escorting came to my attention.  At first I thought it was just some pony wearing a cloak.  A mare, no larger than Ebony or myself, she was standing beside me, attempting to soothe the ponies around her.  The dark figure moved slowly around the clustered ponies, almost all of which were unicorns.  Most shyed away from her, shaking with fear.  A few nodded their heads and were quickly taken away by nearby raiders.  The first I knew of her presence near us was when she seemed to just appear between your sister and I.  I couldn’t see much of her, even that close.  The long dark robe she had over her body covered nearly everything about her.  As she shifted to look at Ebony, I saw a purple and white curly tail poking out from below the cloak, but nothing more.  She was focused on your sister, who didn’t look away... she just returned the stare.”  

I smiled at that; my sister was not one to let a bully bother her, and more often than not, I would be on the losing side of any stare down. 

“She never spoke to your sister, never asked her what she’d asked everypony else.  She just stared at her, before finally turning away to look at me.  My heart stopped.  Oh sweet Celestia... her eyes... they were black.  Empty pits.  I- I couldn’t look into them, and dropped to my knees.”  She shook and attempted to collect herself.

“What was it she was asking the others?” Madeyes had been the name Carrion had given for the leader of the raiders.  Was it this mare Tassles had met?    

“She never asked me, simply smirked and patted me on the head like a foal and walked off to another group... Pip told me she’d asked for ponies to join her cause in restoring Equestria to it’s former glory, under its one true ruler.”  

I arched a brow to this.  One true ruler?  Princess Celestia perhaps?  She’d ruled Equestria for more than a thousand years before her sister returned to her side, and only a few years after she had stepped down from the throne and allowed Princess Luna to take control.  

“A few ponies from the other groups joined them, but not a one from the Stable would,” she said proudly, and I nodded my head.  We’d always been a close community within the Stable, each depending on the other for their continued survival.  Even outside the Stable, it seemed that same sentiment had held strong, “After that, we were taken to the hospital and started work on repairing the building as well as the others they used throughout the city.  A few of us were singled out, your sister included, for extra work, taken by train to a collapsed tunnel.  We worked for hours with no food or water.  If we wanted it... we had to do favors for the guards.”  Her shoulders slumped a bit.  “It’s not like we had any choice; most of us who’d been taken had already been raped several times...”

I once more felt my anger rise, gritting my teeth tightly as we walked, the stench of the tunnel forgotten.

“The tunnel itself was highly radioactive in places, and your sister and a few others they deemed as trouble makers were forced to work in those areas by hoof...”  Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she spoke. “She joked with us, tried to keep us focused on taking care of ourselves, while all the time getting sicker and sicker.  She used to say it was all a plan to make herself undesirable for any of the twisted bucks who watched us...”

My ears folded back and I shut my eyes.  Sweet Celestia...

Tassles could finally say no more, and once more the group fell into silence as we made our way through the tunnel.  After another hour of wandering, we finally came to the end of the maintenance tunnel we’d been following and spotted the rust covered subway tracks disappearing down the new tunnel we would be taking.  It seemed we were at last coming close to the station and freedom, but there was one problem.

The maintenance tunnel we’d been walking through had been set higher up along the wall than the subway tunnel.  A ladder had once allowed access to both tunnels along the wall, but the metal rungs had either been ripped away or simply fallen off over time.  And while the height was not that great, the weaker ponies would likely sprain an ankle or break a leg if they attempted to drop down.  It meant we’d need to help them down one at a time, and this cost us time.  

It was during this that those tracking us finally caught up, and seized upon our vulnerable state.  I was just lowering myself down from the ledge of the maintenance tunnel when all hell broke loose around me.

The panicked cries of our rescued ponies filled the subway tunnels as bullets of every shape and size started zipping past our manes and tails, impacting the ground in front of our hooves with small puffs of pulverized stone.  As my hooves touched the ground, I turned and began running up the tunnel, along with the others. 

The harsh laughter of the raiders chased us as we raced down the tunnels towards the subway station where we had entered the city just hours before.  The raiders were not far behind, and it was looking more doubtful by the second that we’d make it out of this place with our lives.

“Keep moving, everypony!” I yelled over the chaos; it was quickly turning into the Atrium all over again.  Frightened ponies ran as quickly as their battered bodies would allow, eyes wide with thoughts of being taken by the raiders again.  Pip still rode upon my back; despite all the noise, she hadn’t said a word.  She was still alive, as I felt her forehooves grip my neck as tightly as they could to keep her from falling off.  At least she still wanted to live.  

Stone galloped beside me, his head lowered as he gripped a filly by the scraps of clothing she still wore, with a wounded mare across his back.  My friend’s flanks bore a number of flesh wounds from grazing shots.  Thus far nopony had been hit badly; the raider’s poor aim and frenzied nature a blessing.  But it would only take a single round to the leg to bring any one of us to our knees, and then it would be all over.

Dim flickering emergency lighting flashed past as we took a curve in the tunnel, passing a badly dented subway car laying upon its side.  Bullets struck its rusted metal undercarriage and sent up a flash of sparks.  I barely paid it, nor the skeletons scattered around it, any heed as the tunnel began to straighten out once more.

A lone figure stood out within the tunnels: Carrion frantically waving his forehoof to the left side of the tunnel, his assault rifle floating beside him as he did so.  Was he waving us back?  Was he planning on standing there and unloading into the raiders?  Then I spotted them, a small row of disks laying upon and around the rail lines, hastily covered with bits of nearby trash.  

Landmines.

Seeing them himself, and being on the outside, Stone began angling towards the left-most section of the tunnel, so that the ponies between us had no choice but to turn with him as he herded them away from the traps and into a narrow space.  Carrion slipped into step beside us, the ghoul hardly looked winded, a slight grin on his face as he called out to me.

“Fuckers get a surprise in a moment!  Might buy us a few seconds.”

All I could offer the ghoul was a nod of my head as we pressed onward, my heart hammering in my chest as we ran.  Just ahead I spotted the opening that would lead us out into the station.  From there it would be a mad dash across the shattered remains of the loading platforms and into the unfinished tunnel.

Our hooves had just crossed into the station when the first explosions roared from back down the tunnel followed by yelps and cries of pain.  It seemed the raiders’ lack of concern for their own safety continued, as the next few seconds were followed by more sounds of hooves striking pressure plates and shrapnel ripping into chests and stomachs.  Not a good way to die, but then, these were raiders. 

The first rescued pony had just gotten her hooves up on the passenger loading platform when the first raiders swarmed in behind us.  A bullet zipped within inches of my face and struck her in the flank in a mist of red, sending her crumpling to the dirt-covered floor with a cry.  One of the other mares hesitated and began to slow, until rounds bounced off a nearby dust-encrusted trash can and she took off running once again.  

For a moment, I thought about running past; if we slowed, we’d be overtaken by raiders in seconds.  She lay there, struggling to rise, rounds impacting across the station as more raiders rushed in behind us.  She turned towards me, fear on her face, and for a moment I saw Ebony laying on a mound of trash, asking me to put her out of her misery; worked to death, her body broken, abused, and battered by the raiders that chased us.

Without missing a beat, I turned towards the platform she lay upon and charged across the open.  Stone and Carrion lead the others on, the unicorn turning to spray a hail of 7.5mm rounds into the mob behind us.  The thunk of bullets impacting flesh and the grunts spoke of hits, while the clatter of stumbling hooves told me he’d bought me a few more seconds.

The last few yards I took in leaping bounds as I jumped onto the platform the mare lay bleeding upon, still attempting to crawl to safety.  At the sound of my hooves striking the ground behind her, she cried out and turned, expecting perhaps to see a raider.  Her eyes widened as she saw me running towards her.

“Quick, climb on!” I yelled over the din of weapons fire and screaming, dropping down beside the wounded mare on my knees and leaning against her for a moment.  She hesitated, and I yelled, “Hurry!”  As she began to slide towards me, I felt Pip shift and saw her hoof from the corner of my eye, reaching to wrap around the mare’s neck.  Pip pulled her up beside herself, releasing my neck to hold onto the injured pony.

A warning from Carrion was all I had before I heard the clop of hooves behind me.  I yelled out, “Hang on!” and bucked with all my might.  My rear hooves impacted the face of a charging raider and caved in his skull with a jarring crunch of bones.  The body toppled back over the platform and rolled onto the tracks as I once more took off running.  I darted between the support pillars of the station, old rotting posters turning to dust as bullets struck.  As I weaved around one already-broken pillar, it exploded into chunks of concrete, showering myself and the mares across my back with sharp fragments.  It seemed somepony had a high powered rifle and knew how to fire it.  

Good for them.

I lunged off the side of the platform and back onto the tracks to avoid making myself such a clear target.  My hooves pounded into the rusted rails and rotting beams of the tracks as I neared the twin tunnels leading away from Kanter City.  Stone and Carrion had just plunged into the darkness of the left tunnel, the unfinished one.  Thoughts of crossing the narrow bridge under fire with half-starved, wounded mares rose in my mind, but I pushed it aside.  We had to reach it first.

Looking back, I saw dozens of raiders behind us, the lighting of the room reflecting in their maddened foaming faces and wide yellowed eyes.  In their eagerness to reach us, they trampled over the prone bodies of their fallen comrades; some dead, some wounded.  How could anypony hope to stand against this?  I saw the flash of muzzle fire as several fired wildly at me.  Rifles, assault rifles, even a few battle saddles roared out, all with poor aim.  This was going to be close...

“COME AND GET IT, YOU BASTARDS!!!”  The yell shocked me enough that I stumbled across one of the wooden beams, nearly falling on my face.  I quickly recovered, as the mares across my back cling to one another and me tightly.  Jerking my attention back towards the tunnel, I saw Wild stepping out from the darkness, blue eyes narrowed and her mouth clamped around the firing bit of her battle saddle. The twin barrels of her weapons snapped forward and roared to life.  The bright, strobing muzzle flashes lit up the mare as she poured sheer firepower over our heads at our pursuers.  For a moment, the raiders were not the most frightening thing in the tunnel.

Behind us, I heard the rounds impacting bodies and those bodies bursting from the high powered punch of the pegasus’ rifles.  Teeth all but biting through the metal bit, she swept the station behind us in a deadly barrage of fire.  Brass casings smoked as they were flung from the ejection ports on either side of her, landing all around her hooves.  Even the crazed raiders were thrown back in disarray for a few seconds at this sudden hellish assault, giving me enough time to reach the tunnel.

“Stone took the others ahead with Carrion.  The ol’ rotten bastard planted a few more surprises for our friends back there, so stay on the tracks and don’t set hoof off them!” the pegasus yelled around her firing bit, starting to back up into the tunnel.  As I rushed past her, I heard her stop firing and turn to follow me, our hooves echoing along the tunnel’s walls as silence descended upon us.  

The respite did not last long, as we had hardly gone two dozen steps when we heard the sound of pursuit behind us.  Beside me, I heard Wild mutter under her breath.

“Determined fuckers...”

I had to agree with her.  They seemed intent on following us until we either died, they caught us, or we killed them all.  Only two of those outcomes seemed likely, and neither were good for us.  

The unfinished tunnel soon proved itself to be a blessing to us, as the raiders’ numbers began to funnel them into narrow sections of the passage.  We could hear swearing as raiders tripped one another up in the tight confines, or over the unfinished tunnel floor.  Or running afoul of one of Carrion’s landmines (how many did he have in those bags? Hopefully enough.).

We managed to gain a bit of a lead on our pursuers once more thanks to that; plus, we had now passed the last of the mines and could once more run unworried of blowing ourselves up.  This helped as well, since we could avoid the sections of the tracks that been been damaged by cave ins and earthquakes.  At last, I spotted our friends ahead, Carrion leading a wounded mare across the narrow bridge to the other side.  I skidded to a stop and nearly collapsed, my body coated in sweat and dirt.

“Ya’ll got any grenades left on ya, Shadow?” Stone asked as he trotted over to me, his gray coat damp with sweat.  His cowpony hat was dark with perspiration and tilted back a bit, showing his mane plastered to his forehead.  

I could only nod my head in response as I reached for my water canteen.  It was nearly empty, having given most of it to the prisoners.  My legs shook as I managed to fight the urge to sit down and spill the two mares off my back and onto the floor.  Sensing my condition, Wild stepped up beside me and helped Pip and the wounded mare to slide off my aching back.  Somehow, Pip had gotten the wound on the flank of the other mare wrapped in bandages she’d gotten from my saddlebags.  The shy surviving twin smiled weakly up at me, before Wild began ushering them towards the bridge.

The bridge.  It would was our most hazardous obstacle, but it would also prove to be our salvation.  If we blew it up, the raiders would either have to find some other way to cross, or attempt to build a bridge themselves.  Given the maintenance of their armor and weapons, I put little faith in anything they built.

“Good, ‘cuz Carrion’s fresh outta explosives... never seen a pony pull so much stuff from his packs.”  At any other time, I might have cracked a joke at my friend for that comment, but given the past few hours’ events...

The sound of pounding hoofsteps reached our ears and caused mine to twitch; it would seem our rest was coming to an end.  Across from us, Wild helped the wounded mare over the bridge, hovering just beside her as she stumbled across. Pip was slowly making her way on her own, careful of the edges.  Carrion stood in front of the mares on the other side, reloading his rifle as he waited for Wild to bring the pony she was helping to him.  

“We’re gonna be crossin’ that under fire...ain’t lookin forward ta that prospect, Ah don’t mind tellin’ ya,”  My tired friend said, wiping his forehead with the back of one of his hooves as we approached the natural rock bridge.  Nor was I.

Stone was just about to set hoof upon the bridge when a machine gun opened up on us, rounds dancing across the ledge and over the bridge.  I was dropped as a single round struck my shoulder guard, lodging into the armor and impacting my flesh like a hammer.  Celestia that stung like hell.  Stone took cover to the right behind a heap of stones piled up while the tunnel had been dug.  On the bridge, Pip and the wounded mare dropped to the ground, and Wild was forced to drop down below the edge of the cliff to keep from getting blown out of the sky.  Across the rip in the earth, Carrion scurried for cover as the captives fled further back into the tunnel.

Shit. I have to get up, I’m a sitting duck laying here like this.  

With a grunt, I rolled back towards the tunnel and away from the bridge, my flank bumping into something metal.  As quickly as I could, I pressed my back up against a rusted, overturned mining cart, rocks still inside where the workers had left them.  No sooner then I moved, then a fury of shots struck my metal cover, pinging off the orange colored undercarriage.  Gripping my shotgun, I checked my E.F.S. and saw a number of red dots coming from behind us. 

Stone rose from his pile of rocks, rifle held firmly between his teeth, as one hoof held the end, steadying the shot. He fired, a red dot disappearing from my sight; the round had barely left the gun when he fired again, and again.  The earth pony got off another three rounds before he was forced back into cover.  

From across the bridge, I heard the clatter of a assault rifle firing.  Looking back, I saw the weapon floating just above where Carrion was taking cover, the ghoul risking his life by peeking over the edge of a pile of rotting wooden timbers.  Beside him, one of the wounded mares snapped off shots from one of the dead prison guard’s rifles; she wasn’t hitting much, but it was distracting them.  

Two red dots made it further then any of the others, and both appeared to be heading straight for Stone, I rolled over to my left and aimed my shotgun, just as two raiders broke into view.  I hit S.A.T.S. and at once time slowed.  For a moment I was distracted by the number of lines in the air, until I released those were bullets.  Fuck... that’s a lot of bullets.  I locked onto my targets; seems my ability to kill had gotten better, since my ability to hit them had risen from 75 and 80% to 95% now.  I targeted their bodies with two rounds apiece and released the spell.

The frozen lines once more moved too fast for the eye to see, and I added four of my own to the storm of shots.  My shotgun roaring as four solid slugs ripped into pony flesh.  The flimsy armor scraps the two wore did nothing to stop the blows; ribs broke, organs burst, and blood flowed.  The two raiders crumpled to the ground, hooves lashing out at the air and ground as they died.  I hurriedly rolled back into cover as somepony turned their attention back on me.

Stone snapped off a few quick shots before being forced back down, and as he did I rose up and fired off another four rounds into the approaching horde of raiders. I downed two, and made a third stumble as his knee blew apart under him.  Dropping back behind the cart, I narrowly missing having my head removed by that machine gun.  I’d spotted him further up the tunnel as I’d fired: an earth pony stallion wearing a battle saddle, bullets raining down from his back as he held the trigger with a death grip and a mad gleam in his eyes.

Ears twitching from the gunfire and bullet impacts on metal, I snapped open the drum and started reloading the weapon.  There were already a number of holes in the sides and bottom of the cart; while it had once been rugged enough to haul heavy loads up and down the rails, the years had not been kind to it.  It rocked as another round struck its side, leaving a dent.  I had just snapped the drum shut and readied the weapon to fire when I glanced towards the bridge.

Wild was dragging the wounded mare over to their side of the bridge, leaving a trail of red on the ground from a fresh wounds.  Pip lay still in the center, hooves placed over her head and a number of fresh holes in her hind quarters.  She tried to remain still, as any movement drew the crazed attention of the raiders.  

“Go! Ah’ll cover ya!” Stone yelled over the noise, waving a hoof back towards the bridge and the wounded mare.

‘What about you?!” I yelled back, not ready to leave another pony behind.  Carrion and Wild moved to either side of the far end of the bridge and began firing at the raiders.  Wild’s battle saddle ripped into stone and pony alike as the mare moved around to avoid being hit.

“Get ’er across and cover my flank when Ah make a run of it!!”

Looking back to the bridge, I saw a number of rounds tear into the ground just behind Pip’s hooves.  The mare shook in fear and shock as her wounds bled.  She needed a health potion or she’d be dead soon.  I looked back to Stone and nodded my head.

“Don’t make me come back for you!” I called out.  As he rose up to fire, I scrambled to my hooves and made a mad rush for the bridge.  Behind me, I heard the steady report of Stone’s rifle and the thunk of flesh being hit, or the yell of a wounded raider. 

Bullets sprayed dirt all around me as I charged out across the bridge, hooves sliding in the loose stones that covered it.  Luckily I managed to avoid falling into the black depths, and skidded to a halt beside Pip. The pony looked up in surprise.

As I reached out a hoof to pick her up, I heard an odd sound coming from the direction of the raiders, like a loud whoosh.  Looking back, I saw something hurtling towards me and yelled out, “Sweet Celestia!” I instinctively dropped down atop Pip, causing her to grunt in pain, and felt the rocket streak overhead.  The explosive impacted the ceiling with a orange ball of fire and smoke, showering us with rocks and chunks of burning metal.

Following the smoke contrail back to its source, I saw one of the raiders from the hotel's kitchen, wearing the broken remains of Steel Ranger power armor.  A smoking rocket launcher sat upon his flank from a working battlesaddle, the second tube pointing straight at me.   

Fuck...

Scooping Pip up into my hooves, I tossed her onto my back and took off running towards a yelling Carrion, the ghoul waving a hoof frantically for me to hurry. Wild was turning to bring her guns to bear on the armored pony, and had just begun reaching for the firing bit when I heard the thump of a rocket being fired.  My hooves dug into the rock bridge as I scrambled to reach the other side, but I knew it was already too late.  I couldn’t outrun a rocket.  From the corner of my vision, I saw it corkscrewing through the air.  But as it came screaming in, it began to dip lower.  Maybe...  It suddenly dropped from sight below me and impacted the bridge.  

The explosion beneath my hooves flew up to meet me as it vaporized the stone bridge.  Bits of shrapnel and rock pelted my chest and stomach, and I could feel them striking my riot armor and my unprotected bits.  Oddly, I hadn’t noticed I’d been flung backwards by the blast, or that Pip had been tossed from my back.  I saw my combat shotgun spinning past my face, broken in half, the neck strap ripped free from my neck.  The ceiling spun past my eyes as I flipped around, seeing Stone’s shocked face back across the chasm.  The chasm I was now falling into. I heard somepony yell my name. 

Sorry, Tiny... guess I won’t be able to keep that promise... was the last though going through my head as the darkness rose up to envelope me. 



*     *     *     *     *



Darkness.  I found myself floating, suspended within a void of pure darkness.  I was unsure if my eyes were even open, it was so dark.  After blinking them a few times, I at last accepted what I was seeing.  Nothing.  Was I dead?  Was this what happened to a pony when they died?  Nothing?  At last, I could take no more of staring into the abyss and shut my eyes. 

As I stood, or floated, or... whatever I was doing there, I tried to recall how I’d come to be here.  My memory was a bit hazy after the rush through the tunnels.  I could recall bits and pieces of what had happened.  I remembered the explosion beneath me, of being tossed into the air by the shock wave.  I remembered falling into a deep bottomless pit.  Had that been what killed me?  Had I broken my neck when I struck the bottom?  

I remember...

“Ebony...”

The sound of my own voice surprised me, and it had been a very eventful few minutes.  I could hear myself talk.  Could the dead talk?  As I mulled that question over in my head, I realized I was no longer floating or standing.  I had settled upon something solid.  I could smell something familiar upon the faint breeze I felt rustling my mane, a sweet smell that made me think of home.  The scent triggered a memory deep within my mind, from what seemed so long ago, another life.  Of a holiday spent with my parents and sister, baking sweets...

I began to notice other things happening around me; after the void, it seemed my senses were under assault.  My ears twitched as I heard the music, so faint I could just barely hear the gentle notes of a song.  But, try as I might, I could not seem to name the gentle tune, nor hear it any more clearly despite how hard I strained.  Was being dead supposed to drive one mad with half-recalled memories?  Was I even dead?

Finally, I could take no more, and carefully opened my eyes.  The darkness that had surrounded me at once fled from a soft light coming from just above my head.  Blurry shapes and images loomed out from the light all around me, but I could not yet focus enough upon them to tell what or who they might be.  The soft glow held steady with a low hum of energy.  I knew that sound.  Blinking my eyes to clear them, the details of the world began to resolve into more detailed shapes and I turned my head to take them all in. 

The walls were a lifeless gray, made of thick sturdy metal that would forever keep us safe from the horrors beyond them.  At least they had.  Old, well-worn furniture sat neatly around the room, soft green cushions with their yellow flower patterns covering most of the chairs and couch sitting across the floor, as old as the walls themselves and passed down from generation to generation.  Photos hung upon the wall; these, at least, were more recent than anything else within the room, and most of familiar faces and events.  One, however, drew my attention, sitting proudly in the center of the living room wall.  A mare and stallion sitting in front of twin children, a happily smiling family of four.  The stallion’s coat was a deep red color, his dark brown mane cut short, keeping it from his warm green eyes.  As he did so often in my memories of him, he wore his old security uniform, the same his father had worn.  The faded 45 just barely visible upon the collar.  I would not get a chance to continue that little tradition, since it was too badly damaged in the fire that would later claim the life of my father.  

The mare leaning against him had a soft purple coat, her pink and white striped mane tied back into a loose bun just behind her ears, golden eyes as bright as the smile she wore upon her muzzle.  She was always ready with a kind word if one of us had a hard day at school, or if we skinned our knees.  Nurse Mint would later take on that role, and while she did a fine job, she could never replace the mare in the photo.  She gazed down at the two small forms before her.  

Between them sat a young colt and filly, both black as midnight with white manes and gold eyes.  As thick as thieves we had been, even at such a young age.  My sister had a habit of always getting her way; however, she also had a habit of sharing whatever she had with others.  And of getting me into trouble.  I’m sure it was her idea to forego the use of fork and spoon and use our hooves and mouths.  I went along with it as always.  Both their muzzles were covered in birthday cake that sat upon a table before them, two candles with smoke lazily drifting out of sight. 

A sad smile formed across my face as I gazed up at the old photo, before rising to my hooves unsteadily.  Was this the afterlife?  My parents’ quarters?  Perhaps one of the few places I had always felt safe and happy, with my family.  If this was death, then I could perhaps think of no better place to be sent.  

Looking more closely at the room, I noticed something odd about it.  It appeared to be decorated for a party.  Black and purple streamers hung from the ceiling, while balloons of the same colors and more drifted above tables and lamps.  Bowls of candy and treats sat scattered about, along with a bowl of fruit punch and sandwiches.  One item above all seemed to be dominant: a single reptilian eye.  From balloons to placemats, it seemed to be everywhere.  As I looked over the room, filled with so many memories, my ears twitched from the sound of laughter.  I turned towards the far right doorway, where the kitchen would be.  

I took a few hoofsteps closer to that doorway, wary of whatever I may find beyond it.  I froze as the laughter was replaced by somepony humming a soft gentle tune, one sung often to my sister and I when we had trouble sleeping.  Sung by our mother.  It had been the song I’d heard as I lay on the floor.  I stood and simply listened to the calming song, unwilling to interrupt the singer, yet wanting nothing more than to rush inside and hug my mother tightly.  Was dad here too?  Ebony?  I took several more steps towards the kitchen, ready to see my mom once again.  But a voice from just behind me stopped me in my tracks.

“Hello again, little brother.”

Turning quickly on the spot, I saw my sister sitting before me in the living room, looking as healthy and happy as the last morning we saw one another in the Stable.  Her stable jumpsuit hugged her upper body, clean and as blue and yellow as always, her pipbuck looked newly cleaned, screen and buttons shining in the light, and a smile sat upon her face as her golden eyes fixed upon me.  So the fall had killed me, and this had to be real...

“You're not dead, little brother.  It’s not your time yet.  You still have much to do,” Ebony said, as if reading my mind.  But then, we had a habit of doing that sometimes.  She smiled up at me as I drew near, but the smile did not quite reach her eyes, and something within them told me she had a lot she wanted to tell me, but could not.  She looked away from my stare and I blinked.  She had never looked away before; it was normally me who flinched.  Her gaze wandered the room around us and her tone changed a bit.

“We always did love Nightmare Night.  Do you remember, little brother, how mom would spend hours in the kitchen making cupcakes and candies for all the children all around the Stable?  We’d always make our costumes match a theme, like the one year I talked you into being Princess Luna so I could be Nightmare Moon.”  The smile on her face warmed as she recalled that year.  “You made a rather pretty princess.”

I blushed a bit at that; the other colts had called me a filly for weeks after that one.  I think that’s when Brightblade started seeing me a bit differently as well.  I always seemed to let my sister talk me into those sorts of things.  Looking back up to my sister, I tilted my head and asked the only question I could think of to ask.  I was loathe to end this moment of peace, just being here with her in our parents home, but I had to know.

“If I’m not dead, then... what happens now, sis?”

Ebony turned back to me, her smile turning sad once again and her ears dropping as she stared into my eyes, tears forming in hers.  “You go back, little brother.. .it’s time to wake up...”  She leaned forward and kissed me lightly upon the cheek.  

Ebony, my parents’ quarters, and the peace that all those things brought me faded into the darkness, leaving me alone once more within a void of nothing.   

As I felt myself slipping away further, I noted that not all had left me, that the soft tune remained...



*     *     *     *     *



The lonesome notes of that song continued to play as life slowly returned to my battered and bruised body.  The tone had changed from the familiar sound of my mother’s gentle humming to that of a flute, and I could feel my ears twitch to every change in the notes.  Other sounds also began to make themselves known to me: the crack and snap of a fire burning nearby, the rustle of the wind upon cloth and the groan of a building settling around me.  The distant howl of some far away animal out within the wasteland rose above the music for a moment.  Perhaps it was just the events of the past few hours clouding my judgement, but it sounded pitiful and lonesome alongside the music.

A soft groan escaped my lips as I carefully opened my eyes, unsure of what I would see this time.  My parents’ home?  The faces of my friends?  The face of my sister?  Once more, my eyes were unfocused and I found myself staring blearily about the room in which I was. I was not lying outside, but within a building; of that much I was sure.  Slowly, as the music continued, the darkness was banished by the flickering light of the nearby fire.  The scent of burning wood filled my nostrils as I lay upon the floor, covered by something soft and warm.  An attempt to rise so I could better see my surroundings was met with a jolt of pain through my sore body and I lowered myself back to the floor. 

Allowing my eyes the time they needed to adjust, I focused upon the rise and fall of the ceiling, the wind rustling the canvas like material of whatever somepony had used to patch a hole in their roof.  As my eyes slowly began to adjust, I could see the wooden support beams running across the ceiling above me, the fire light sending the shadows between them dancing in my vision.

My eyes trailed down from the shifting scenes above me to the crackling flames of the fire as they rose and fell.  I tracked them down to the base of the flames, and the burning logs they consumed steadily, turning the bark as black as my coat.  The fire was within a stone fireplace along the wall and appeared to have been used for some time, judging by black soot covering many of the stones and the much floor.  Feeling more strength returning to my limbs, I turned my head to see what I was laying upon.  A thread-worn, but very soft blanket with similar odd designs woven into it by skilled hooves.  It was made of a soft brown cloth, with red, yellow, and black zig-zag lines running across the top and bottom.   Ponies and strange, large, horned creatures were depicted upon the blanket: harvesting apples together, working fields of green grass and gold wheat under blue skies.  It almost looked like photos of how Equestria had looked before the war.  Almost too beautiful to lay upon.

Buffalo.  My tired mind at last placed the odd creature beside the pony.  Movement from the other side of the fire drew my attention away from the blanket and to a large shape I had missed before.  As I sat watching, I saw they were the source of the music that had so eased my mind.  Eventually, the final notes of the song trailed out across the still, warm air and the figure lowered the flute from their lips.  For a moment, I got a glimpse of a thick brown coat and short black horns in the flickering fire light.  The flute was lowered to the floor beside them, and they moved a bit more into the light; or rather, she did.

She was larger than I in both height and weight, and I imagined larger than Stone.  Her coat was far thicker than a pony’s, a rich amber color; despite its seemingly unruly curly thickness, I could see the muscles just beneath.  She was likely stronger than either myself or Stone.  Around her neck, she wore a odd necklace of green jade stones and colorful beads.  It looked old to me, like the sort of thing one would have passed down to their children.  Well-worn cloth armor covered sections of her body.  Strapped to the armor was a pair of chipped and scratched yellow painted shoulder pads.  They looked like pieces that you’d see on a suit of Steel Ranger power armor.

At last she seemed to take notice of me looking at her and turned grey blue eyes towards me.  Her face was calm, and bore a neutral expression upon it.  Short black horns rose up beside her perked ears, and she had a headband wrapped around just below them, bearing the same designs as the blanket I lay upon.  Black-tipped white feathers were sticking out from just behind it, and the band pushed her mane out from her face.  Like her coat, it was a deep brown in color.

“I feared perhaps you would not wake when you slipped away into a deep sleep.  My name is Spirit Walker,”  she said, bowing her head in greeting.  Despite her size, her voice was both light and gentle.  “Do you require water?” she asked.

My attempt to answer her question was a harsh garble of words that came from my sore and dry throat.  All I could do was nod my head meekly and offer a small smile.  She returned the smile as she rose and approached a pile of equipment along a wall of the room, consisting mostly of my gear.  My armor and saddlebags lay beside one another, along with my still-holstered revolver and rarely-used assault rifle.  Of my trusty shotgun, I saw no sign, and wondered what had become of it.  However it was not my packs she began to rummage, but another pair beside my own.

 They were far more fancy looking than my saddlebags, with beadwork upon the outside in the image of a large bird of some sort, using black stones.  A more recent addition to the packs was one with three pink butterflies sewn onto the sides.  There was also a battle saddle beside the packs, fitted with a single rifle on one side, with a ammo box on the other.  Unlike Wild’s, it did not appear to retract and appeared to be of a smaller caliber than the pegasus’.  Beside this was what appeared to be an axe of some sort, feathers and beads draped loosely across the metal head.  It appeared as sharp as Stone’s knife...

I shut my eyes when I thought of my friends.  Everything reminded me of them, and I wondered what had become of them.  My memory was still cloudy as to the last few minutes I had spent with them.  I remembered the mad rush through the sewers of Kanter City, and the fight with the raiders in the subway station through which we’d entered the city.  

As I heard her approach, I opened my eyes and spotted the canteen she was holding up to my lips.  I thankfully swallowed a mouthful, feeling the dryness of my throat relieved.  She pulled it back and screwed the lid back into place.  Finally, as she was putting the canteen back, I managed to ask, “Where am I?”

“My people use to call this the Gorge of Lost Souls, but now most simply call it Wastefall Gorge, a former pony settlement.”  She must have caught my confused look as I attempted to place either name with a location on any of the maps I’d seen of the area, she added, “About twenty miles south of Kanter City?” 

Twenty miles?  South of Kanter City?  That’d put us only a few miles from Sticks than, the place we’d landed to hide the sky chariot.  Had I walked all the way from there to here?  I lay my head back down atop the blanket and groaned.  Staring up at the ceiling I sighed and attempted to recall all that had happened, searching for some clue.  Thankfully my savior managed to fill in a few details for me.

“I am not surprised you do not remember all the details of your injuries and harrowing trip down the river.”  I blinked.  River?  She continued and the missing pieces began to fall into place.  “It was late evening when I discovered you and another washed up along the banks of the Tartarus River.  I did not know either of you, so I assumed you must have been escaped slaves from Kanter City.  It was and still is the only major city still used by ponies.  Also, since the river flows through a network of underground caverns there before finally emptying out here, it seemed the most likely answer to where you had come from.  You were near dead from drowning and wounds you had suffered from a fall into the waters, as well as several blows to the head from rocks.  Luckily both our ancestors were smiling upon us as I had enough potions with yours to repair the damage you’d suffered.”

With her every word, a memory slid slowly into place.  The river.  The bridge across the chasm.  We were fighting the raiders at the chasm in the unfinished subway tunnel.  Pip went down in the center of the bridge, pinned down by the fire.  Had she been hit?  I didn’t know.  I had to get her to safety.  Stone told me to go get her, that he’d be right behind me.  I reached the mare, and was attempting to get her up onto my back when one of the raiders fired a rocket at us.  It missed and hit the bridge - it must have destroyed it and tossed me into the chasm where the river waited - wait, she said she’d found two of us.  I scanned the room and saw no sign of anypony else.  Looking back to the face of Spirit Walker, I found my answer in the saddening look of her grey blue eyes, and hung my head.

“I’m sorry, she did not survive whatever happened to cause you both to end up in the river.  Her face and neck were ripped through with shrapnel, from a grenade or other explosive device.  I believe she was dead before she hit the water.”  The buffalo turned and replaced the canteen back atop her saddlebags and began slipping the large packs across her back.  Outside, the wind began picking up, causing a window just below our equipment to rattle.

Not Pip too?  How many more ponies have I lost today?  Turf and the hoof-full of stallions who had stayed behind to cover us were surely all slaughtered.  Wild, Carrion and the rescued prisoners were on the safe side of the collapsed bridge, so there was no way the raiders could have reached them, unless they managed to shoot them.  But Stonehoof, he would have been trapped on the side with the raiders, with no way for him to cross.  Maybe Wild had managed to fly him out, or enough of the bridge had survived for him to make it across.  Something told me I was just grasping at straws, but I quickly told it to shut the buck up.  I rose uneasily to my hooves, feeling my body protesting at the every movement I made, but make them I did.  I had to find them.

“What are you doing?” the buffalo asked, turning away from buckling on her battlesaddle.  She moved across the creaking floor as I attempted to stand and laid a hoof gently to my shoulder.

“I have to get back to Kanter City... find my friends...” I grunted between my teeth as a host of pops issued forth from my sore body.  Well, at least all my limbs seemed to return to their proper places.  Despite all the potions she had used and bandages wrapped around those smaller wounds, I still felt as if I’d been run over by a chariot.  Not far off, given what a trip down an underground river must have been like.

“It is night, the coyotes and radscorpions will be out fully, looking for easy prey.” While she did not say it, I still heard the ‘of which you are’ she left off.  She looked from me back to the window.  “You will do your friends no good if you stumble into a gully and break your neck.”  With a grunt, I finally stopped trying to rise and she lifted her hoof from my shoulder.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke, and we simply sat before one another as the wind rattled the cracked window and the fire behind me snapped loudly as a log broke apart.  Finally, she broke the silence.

“If you are so ready to return to search for your friends, than wait until the morning when your wounds will have mostly finished healing and there will be light.” she hesitated for a moment before going on, “I also have business within that evil place.” 

“What business do you have in Kanter City?” I asked, arching a brow as I looked up from the floor to Spirit.  She looked away from me and to the window.

“The raiders took something of mine that I wish returned.”  She rose to her hooves, towering over me.  She started towards the door to the room, which I hadn’t noticed since it had been behind me when I’d woke up and opened it, “I must go out and finish my search of the settlement for supplies, please, stay inside the saloon as some of the local wildlife have started coming within the walls of the settlement to search for food.” She left the door open and disappeared down what I assumed was a hallway to the outside.

Curious, I rose to my hooves once more and approached the window.  It was near complete darkness outside.  But there seemed to be a storm gathering far off to the east, among the mountain peaks that I’d seen the first day I set hoof on the surface.  The flash of lightning was bright enough to light the landscape around me, and in those brief flashes I saw the settlement of Wastefall Gorge.  Former settlement.

A small cluster of buildings stood below me (it appeared I was on the second floor of the saloon), similar to those I’d seen in Crossroads.  These appeared to be made of stone, with wooden support beams and frames.  I could see a number of homes and a few stores.  Nearly all of the buildings bore some sign of fire damage, likely where the raiders had attempted to set them ablaze.  In the next flash of lightning, I could see empty buckets and pots lying scattered about, where the owners of those homes had attempted to put out the fire.  Broken barricades erected by those same ponies stood in roadways and alleys.  They had fought to save their families and stave off the horrors of the wasteland.  They had failed in the end, it seemed.

A light from below me drew my attention away from the broken homes and to a lone figure setting out into the street.  Spirit Walker moved away from the building I was in, and began to walk down the empty street towards a group of larger buildings near the center of town.  Had this been her home?  I looked from the buffalo to the ruined room around me.  What little furniture had been in the room was broken, splinters and bits of paper and personal items lying scattered across the floor.  One item stood out, and I moved away from the window to get a closer look.  There, just under the end of the ruined bed, was a small hoofmade doll.  Reaching under the broken bedsprings, I pulled it out with a hoof and held it up in the light.

Mismatched button eyes stared back at me from the hoof-stitched doll of a small smiling buffalo.  Her mane was dirty from dust, but a yellow ribbon was still tied within it.  I gently set it back atop the bed, brushing the dust from its mane, and looked back to the window.  Perhaps in many ways, she and I were a lot alike.

I looked then to my equipment laying upon the floor beside my hooves and reached for the armor to begin repairing it.  I doubted I’d get much more sleep tonight.



*     *     *     *     *



The next two hours passed slowly, so I did what I could to pass that time.  After looking over my battered armor, I began to repair what I could on it.  There were several deep cuts and dents all across it; most shocking of all was my Stable Security badge, which had melted somehow.  With a sigh, I began to work on the riot armor and look over my surviving weapons.  It seemed Spirit had dried them all out and seen to their care.  I found a piece of the shoulder strap for my shotgun still clinging to my armor.  The loss of the weapon was a heavy blow: it had been with me ever since I’d joined Stable Security and had meant a lot to me.  It had saved my life already a number of times on this trip.  More practically, it also meant I had ammo for a weapon I no longer had.

Standing up, I approached the window once more and watched the distant light show as the storm raged within the peaks of the distant mountains.  My eyes wandered back down to the empty streets below, wondering how long it was going to be before Spirit returned.  I doubted she had abandoned me here; she had gone through a lot of trouble to help me.  Another hour passed, and still no sign of my rescuer.  By now I was growing tired of sitting around waiting for something to happen.  

Rising to my hooves from where I had been sitting beside the warming fire, I made my way to the door and out into the hallway.  The building looked similar to that of Rose’s saloon, but smaller in scale and perhaps not as well-maintained.  To my right was a row of five wooden doors, all broken open in the frenzied attack of the raiders.  To my left was two sets of stairs at the end of the hallway, one leading down to the first floor and the other to a third.  The building had likely already been searched both by the raiders and Spirit, so I decided to head downstairs.

The steady clop of my hooves as I descended the stairs seemed to echo loudly within the remains of the first floor bar.  Most of the windows had been broken out, with only shards of glass still remaining in many of the frames, reflecting the light from my Pipbuck as I passed it across the walls.  The double doors that once had kept out the wind and rain lay shattered across the middle of the floor, riddled with bullet holes and stomped by ironshod hooves.  Muddy and bloody hoofprints crisscrossed the wooden floorboards, moving around broken tables and barstools.  There were a number of scuff marks alongside those hooves, where ponies had been dragged out into the street.  Scattered all about the barroom were broken, empty bottles of beer and whiskey, and whatever supplies of food the settlers had stored in the building.  It seemed the raiders had thrown quite the party after taking this place.

I carefully made my way across the floor, hooves lightly stepping across large pieces of glass and wood, only to crush smaller, unseen bits as I lowered them back down.  Bullet casings went rolling away from my steps, to come to a halt in large piles of debris or into long-since dried stains of blood.  It looked as if the ponies who had called this town home had made their final stand within the saloon.  

Once more I thought of how similar this place was to Crossroads.  It made me wonder how the little town was doing.  Was it still safe from the raiders?  Were its walls and guard ponies still protecting it?  It also made me think of my friends, friends I had met within that town.  Would I have to return there by hoof, to tell Rose and Lillie that Stone wasn’t coming home, that I’d gotten him and Wildfire killed?

With my attention on my friends’ fate, I did not see the broken chair in my path until I stumbled across it and landed in a heap against the bar, my head ramming into the sturdy wooden counter with a solid thud.  At once, pain shot through me from the impact and I felt a rush of anger follow it.

“Fuckit!!!” I lashed out at the bar with a hoof and struck it hard, cracking the top and breaking a piece off the edge.  Not content with that, I stomped the hell out of the chair that had tripped me, my hooves rising and falling violently onto the twisted remains, “Fucking piece of shit, Celestia damn you!”  It was no longer a chair, but a raider, a raider that had taken my sister from me.  Turning away from the splintered ruin of a chair, I slammed my hooves atop the bar and swept off broken bits of glass and wood onto the floor.  Breathing hard, I looked up and was surprised to see the figure staring back at me from a broken mirror behind the bar.  I froze and my eyes widened. 

Bandages were wrapped around my head, a small red stain just behind my right ear.  My black coat was a mass of cuts and bandages, and what bits of fur that were visible was scruffy and frazzled.  My mane and tail were in little better shape, uneven from close calls and high doses of radiation.  It was a dirty grey color instead of the white it had once been.  My eyes were more red then yellow, now, with a crazed look in them.  I had scars along my cheek and muzzle.  

Fucking hell... I look like a damned raider... I look like Ebony after the raiders had... had...

In the mirror, the red tinted eyes began to tear up, and with a twisted snarl, I reached for the first thing at hoof and tossed it at the remains of the mirror with a cry.  It shattered loudly into a dozen pieces that showered the floor behind the bar in sparkling bits of glass.  Leaping across it, I stumbled into the broken bits and cut up my legs, but I ignored the pain, instead stomping the glass into the floor as a hundred reflections of myself stared hatefully back.

“Fucking hell, it should have been me!  Why’d it have to be Ebony?!  Why?!” I vented my frustrations to the room in a loud string of curses, each more colorful than the last, before finally stumbling to the floor with a sob.  Everything that had happened within the past few days finally caught up with me: leaving home, sending my friends and family away to a city that may as well be on the other side of the world from me, losing Ebony, Stone, and Wild; all the deaths, all the killing, all the horrors.  A pony can only take so much; only so much before they break.

I dropped onto my side in the middle of the broken pieces of glass and cried.



*     *     *     *     *




According to my Pipbuck, only thirty minutes had passed since I dropped to the floor, my sorrow spent for the time being.  I neither felt better nor worse after my breakdown, just... there.  Lowering my gaze from the green glowing screen I sniffed and rubbed my nose with a hoof before standing slowly up on scratched and bloody legs.  As I did, my Pipbuck pressed against the side of the bar and struck a button, switching the radio on to the last station I’d had it at.  Loud music at once began filling the silent saloon as it likely had before the attack.  I didn’t really catch the song, both because my attention was elsewhere and because it was ending; however, I did catch the voice that came across next.  It was hard not to.

“How’s everypony doin’ out in post-apocalyptica tonight!!!  It’s your pal Three Horns here, signin’ in from sunny San Ponsisco...oh wait, that’s not the sun, just the glow of the radiation I see out there.

“Alright, so what’s ol’ Three Horns got for you tonight, my little ponies?  Well, it’s a bit of news.  I know, I know, you're ready to turn the station to somepony else right now, but for once, the news ain’t bad!

“I’ve gotten some reports all the way out from Crossroads of a lone gunpony out doin’ a bit of good.  Seems the good ponies of Crossroads were having a bit of a lizard problem, a rather LARGE lizard problem if what I’ve been told is true.  Well, what's this lone gunpony do?  No, he don’t run the other way!  He goes out and deals with the problem with a couple rounds of lead and a whole lotta balls. And what's he do when he comes back and is offered a reward for his trouble?  Gives it away to the needy ponies of Crossroads, that’s what.”

I blinked as I realized she was talking about me and the geckos.  Had Rose somehow gotten ahold of this Three Horns?  Drying my nose, I sat up and listened as once more the pony on the radio began to speak.

“Now, lets be honest, kids, how many of you woulda’ just turned down a reward for riskin’ your hide for strangers? Hmmhmm, not many, and ol’ Three Horns ain’t about to say she’d not have to think about it a bit before turnin’ over a rattlin’ bag of caps.

“If you’re listen’n, lone gunpony, good job.  You saved a whole lotta ponies with that.  Now, onto some more music...”

Another upbeat jazz song began to play, but I reached over and clicked the radio back off, a bit stunned.  I’d not really thought about the ponies I’d helped back in Crossroads.  Oh, I thought of those little green bastards, but not of the ponies.  I looked down to the floor, and to a single piece of glass that had survived my angered frenzy earlier.  In that shard, I saw once more a golden-eyed, white maned pony setting out to save his sister.  It had been his only reason for leaving his friends and remaining family behind.  Not out of a desire to do good.  But that same pony still stopped to help those ponies he encountered along the way, regardless of the risks.  Had I really managed to do some good out here?

I was about to stand up fully and trot back around the bar when I spotted something sitting just below the bar top.  Curious, I pushed my hoof down to see what it was.  I could feel something, a raised section of a shelf just under the countertop.  As I pressed up on it, a soft click caused my ears to twitch, followed by the sound of wood rubbing against wood.  I blinked and jerked my head to the ceiling just a few steps away to my left as a door slid open.  A hidden compartment?

Rising up, I slowly approached the opening, gazing up into a dark room beyond.  I looked down to my Pipbuck and reached my left hoof over to click on the light when another noise echoed from above, followed by more scraping sounds.  Looking up, I had just enough time to realize something was sliding down directly at my face and to open my mouth to swear when it struck me.

THWAK!

“SON OF A BITCH!” I roared and stumbled backwards into the bar, my left hoof holding my nose where a ladder had slid down into it.  I sniffed, smelling and feeling a bit of blood running down my nose and lip, and grunted.  I looked back up to the ladder once I was sure my nose had not been broken (again!), and to the dark room above.  Dropping my hoof away from my face, I placed it atop the ladder and began to pull myself up into the room without hesitation.  

As my head rose above the ceiling of the bar and into the opening, I lifted my right hoof up and pressed the button on my Pipbuck with a bloody nose.  It cast a dim, pale light across the floor and walls of the room.  It was hardly a large space, barely bigger than my bathroom in the Stable.  Dust covered everything within the room, and there were no signs of any recent activity.  It would seem both the raiders and the owners of the saloon had no idea what was just above the bar, and it made me wonder who had built this place originally.

Climbing up the final few steps, my light shone around the room and I could see more than just dust and cobwebs.  I saw an old, worn, battered desk sitting off to itself, a still glowing terminal upon it, along with a metal cabinet and trunk and photos along the wall.   The floor below me groaned at my sudden weight as I took a few steps towards the furnished end of the room.  Mindful that nopony had been up here in some time, I carefully worked my way across to the desk.  

It was typical desk, made of a dark black wood and finished with silver metal handles.  Atop it was a lamp, a number of dust-covered pencils, long-dried pens, paper, and the odd book.  There were also four drawers and a small compartment just above where a pony would sit, likely for the keyboard to the terminal.  Reaching out, I opened the drawer and sure enough, one slid out on a tray with squeaky wheels.  Tapping a single key with a hoof, I looked up to the softly glowing screen and saw an odd symbol appear before me: a six pointed star with the more familiar sun and moon emblems within it.  The star reminded me of a sheriff's badge from one of the old western movies we had in the archives of the Stable, surrounded by a circle.  I looked away from the symbol to a waiting entry box that was flashing before me; it appeared to be waiting for the password to be entered.  I frowned.  I was never very good with this sort of thing, but still, it was either this or go back downstairs and wait some more.

I’d seen Ebony hack into mom’s terminal enough as a child whenever she wanted to try and find out about our birthday presents. Basically, enter a few letters and see what stuck.  Only try it a couple times, because if you entered the wrong password enough, it would lock up the entire system.  Back out completely and the tries would reset.  My first few attempts were dismal failures.  But then, all I could really do was type in random words and names.  I hurriedly backed out before I could mess it up, as I continued to try, I glanced up to the photos along the wall looking for some clue.

They were not all what I was expecting, as a few appeared to have been taken after the bombs had fallen and Equestria had been nearly destroyed.  There were two such photos and my eyes were drawn to them.

The first showed a brown and white spotted earth pony stallion standing before a saloon; by the looks of the windows and door, it was this very building.  Around him were a number of other ponies; unicorns, earth ponies and even a few pegasi.  They all looked haggard but happy to be alive.  The stallion in the center of the photo, however, caught my eye.  He was dressed in armor similar to my own battered riot gear.  But where mine had my Stable number and security badge, his had that six-pointed star.  While I couldn’t see it very well, I imagined it had the sun and moon emblems etched on it.  He held a combat shotgun in one hoof, and once more I keenly felt the loss of my own weapon.  A brown cowpony hat sat atop his head at an angle.

The second photo was of that same stallion, but this time there was a mare with him, a unicorn.  They were both smiling to one another and it looked like some sort of party was going on behind them.  Ponies laughed and held up bottles of beer or water to the pair, and I realized it was a wedding photo.  The remains of a cake could be seen just at the edge of the photo, and there seemed to be a number of new ponies that I had not seen in the first.

Turning my head to the left, I looked over the other photos. It seemed that these had been taken during the war.

There was stallion again, in armor and clothing similar to the first photo, but appearing a bit younger.  There were others dressed like him nearby, all wearing that six pointed star badge and carrying a number of weapons.  This was not just a photo; it appeared to be a faded newspaper clipping, the date a few months before the bombs would fall.  It was hard to make out the words below the picture, for they had faded with time, but it seemed the pony and some group he lead had discovered a Zebra plot to do something in Hoofington.  I glanced to the pony standing before the others and blinked.  He was shown standing before none other than Princess Luna herself, ruler of Equestria, and Princess of the Moon.  She seemed to be pinning a medal to the pony’s armor. 

Another was earlier than the newspaper clipping: it was of the spotted stallion signing up to the army.  He stood inside a army recruitment office alongside a number of other ponies.  There was a large red stallion with a blond mane off to one side; I’d seen him before in history books, but his name escaped me. One pony I did recognize was Princess Luna, again, seen in the photo standing near the younger looking stallion.  Both were smiling broadly and, oddly, he seemed to be offering her a bag of candy, which seemed to be the source of the laughter.   

The last photo I could see from where I was sitting and that the light from my Pipbuck reached was much older than the rest.  It was of a dark forest, taken at night, where several foals stood in front of a stone statue of Nightmare Moon.  They were all dressed in costumes that reminded me of that happy holiday.  Behind the children stood three adults: a purple unicorn mare wearing a odd outfit with a pointed hat with bells and a long grey beard (must have been some kind of country music star or some crazy old pony, I guess), a yellow mare standing beside the unicorn, dressed up as a Scarecrow, and, a bit surprisingly, a Zebra dressed up as a witch.  They all stood smiling at whomever was taking the photo, the children grinning.  Hmm, was that a large pink child in a chicken outfit in the back?   

One of the young ponies caught my eye, however, both due to where he was in the photo and because I’d seen him in all the other photos thus far.  A young brown and white spotted colt stood atop the statue with a large grin and a bag full of candy.  He was dressed as a pirate, a rubber sword tucked into a belt at his waist.  Just behind him was a much more happy looking Princess Luna, wearing fake fangs in her mouth and floating a piece of candy up beside her.  At the edge of the photo, written in a childish scrawl and in thick black marker, was ‘Favorite Princess ever!’.

I turned back to the screen, and the blinking cursor waiting for me to input the correct password, I had one try left unless I backed out.  Of course, I could be at this for Celestia knew how long typing in random things.  Twenty six letters, with seventeen spaces for a possible word or name or series of words.  With a glance to the photos, I scanned them slowly, noting something about nearly all of them.  My eyes fixing upon the oldest of the bunch, before I turned back to the keyboard and typed out my last attempt.  Without a second thought I hit ‘enter’.

The terminal began powering up as information started loading up on the screen, a number of folders and messages waiting to be opened.  I leaned back from the desk and smiled slowly.  The password had been, ‘Favorite Princess.’

After a few more items popped up, a notice appeared in large, important looking letters.  Normally when this had happened back home, I’d call for someone to fix my terminal...

‘Connection Error: Cannot connect to Canterlot Server for updates: Searching for alternative...

‘Connection Error: Cannot connect to Equestrian Marshalls Server for updates.  Searching for alternative...

‘Connection Found: Ministry of Hope, San Ponsisco, connecting...no updates found for last 58462 days... please contact administration for updates... your virus software may be out of date.  Click here for more options.

I arched a brow at that, and wondered what the Ministry of Hope was, or had been.  I’d never heard of it before; all I’d ever heard of were the six Ministries that had help run the country before the war, headed by six powerful mares.  The other thing that caught my eye was the name, San Ponsisco.  Was this where this unfamiliar Ministry was based?  Finally, the error messages winked out and I pushed aside my questions on as I scanned the screen for anything useful among the files and logs on the terminal.  

It seemed whoever had owned this terminal (the spotted stallion being the most logical one) had been a security pony of some sort.   Police perhaps?  Most of the files I opened seemed to be on criminal activity in and outside of Equestria.  There were names of ponies, griffins, zebras, diamond dogs, and a number of other species listed with all with their criminal history.  Another file seemed to be a list of addresses for known zebra terrorist cells within Equestria and dates to raid them.  After several minutes of reading, I turned to the logs and opened them.

There were a large number of logs saved on the terminal, from simple messages from other ponies, to personal entries and unfinished reports.  So many that it would take hours to go through each one.  Instead, I skimmed across them for anything that would stand out to me.  After a few minutes, I simply skipped to the bottom of the list and saw a couple with dates after the bombs.  I decided to look in on the personal logs and opened the first one I saw.

‘Log Entry #1

It’s been over a week since everything's gone to hell.  Equestria’s still burning; great clouds of black smoke can been seen for miles around in every direction.  All the major and minor cities were hit within a couple of hours, or at least, that’s what I can piece together from the survivors I encountered.  

Everypony I’ve ever known...gone.’

The log ended suddenly, and I well knew what he had been going through.  I looked up from the glowing terminal to the dark empty room around me.  So many messages from the dead, from ponies that, against all odds, survived the end of the world aboveground, only to have to face the horrors of their new world.  It almost made one unwilling to check terminals and read letters left in ruined buildings.  Almost.  With a sigh, I looked back and clicked the next entry.

‘Log Entry #2

Been a month since I last wrote something down on paper or a terminal.  I’d become so used to writing reports over the years it’s felt odd not to continue somehow. 

We’ve all settled in here at this abandoned mining town.  We’re lucky we found this place, since I doubt we’d have survived out there for very long.  Out there... some have taken to calling it the Equestrian Wasteland, and I suppose that’s as good a name as any for it.  It sure as hell isn’t home anymore.

There were around thirty of us, originally.  Four days ago, a family stumbled onto the road down here and we took them in.  They’d escaped the death and desertion by hiding in an old mine shaft near their home.  This part of Equestria has always been thick with them, which was one reason criminals always fled out here to hide from us.  Odd, I’m the one hiding in them now.

Goldenapple said our supplies are beginning to run low and suggested we send out some search teams to look for food.  Midnightglow said it was still too dangerous to send ponies out into the radiation, but we’re running out of food.

I’ll be going out tomorrow with a small group to search for supplies.’

‘Log Entry #3

Madness.  Pure, madness.  That’s all that seems to exist outside this little bastion of peace and harmony.  All that seems to be left of the Equestria we all knew.  

My little group set out north, towards Kanter City and the small towns between us and it.  None of us expected the city to be spared the wrath of the zebras, and Midnightglow warned us not to go anywhere near it.  That mare can be so bossy at times...

We came across the wreckage of a sky chariot knocked out of the sky; by the looks of the bodies, it had happened weeks ago.  Still, it seemed to be a supply shipment for one of the local military bases, and we found a large number of weapons and ammo.  A good thing too, since I was beginning to run low for Luna’s Ruse here.  Fortunately I don’t need to worry about the gauge of the shell, as she’ll hold any size.  It was also luck we found the weapons, as not an hour later we were attacked by a band of ponies wearing cobbled-together armor and weapons.  They were covered in blisters and sores from radiation poisoning and I can only guess their minds had been affected as they threw themselves recklessly at us.  I had to yell at the others to fire; they’d never killed a pony before... I suppose I was lucky to be somewhat knowledgeable in that field.  Yeah.  Lucky.

We came across a hill where we could see across the plains to Kanter City.  It was as I feared; the city must have taken several direct hits by balefire bombs.  Weeks after the war ended and it’s still burning.  Luna have mercy on anypony left in that hell.  

When we ran across signs of another larger group of crazed ponies, we turned back and headed for home, making sure to cover our own tracks as we went.  

Tomorrow I’ll have to see about getting some sort of defences set up in case they stumble upon us.’

‘Log Entry #4

Had that dream again last night.  I was beginning to think it was just some stress over what happened three months ago.  The bombs.  I try not to think about it much.  Dreaming of my old bosses like this; they keep asking me to do something, but it’s like I can’t hear what they’re saying...

Forget it, I’m going to patrol the town.’

Thus far, there hasn't been much of use; interesting, perhaps, but nothing I could use.  Nothing that could really help me out of the mess I found myself in.  I looked over and saw only a single entry left on the terminal.  Might as well...

‘Log Entry #5

‘It’s been a year since Equestria and everypony I knew burned, but life in this small section of the Equestrian Wasteland is good.  We have fresh water coming from somewhere up north; how it’s not been radiated is beyond me, but I thank Luna every night for it.  We managed to set up a small wellhouse for the water to gather in.  Goldenapple has finally managed to work more vegetables from our small garden with the help of Harvestmoon.  It looks like our food troubles will finally be over and we’ll maybe have some extra to store for later.  That mare has been a lifesaver since she entered town with her family not long after we arrived.  I know Golden is happy about her being around, though I’ll have to ask them not to get caught messing around in the garden at night again.  Not everypony likes the idea of extra flavor to their carrots.

Axel, Lucky Break, and myself went out a few days ago looking for any signs of other survivors in the surrounding hills, or any of those Stables that Scoot and the girls built.  We found neither.  There’s nothing out there for us to find, I’m afraid.  We’re it.  At least those insane ponies seemed to have all died off.

Luna’s Ruse is locked up safely once more, out of reach of little hooves.  I think I’ll leave the rest of my things in the cabinet as well.  There isn’t really any reason to wear them anymore and no pony knows of this private little space of mine.  Well, perhaps one does. 

Well, I’d best log off, I can hear Midnightglow calling me to dinner.  I don’t think I’ll bother coming back up here after today, unless there’s something important I have to do.’

Finishing the log entry, I looked up from the terminal and across the desk at the dust-covered cabinet.  It hadn’t been disturbed for a very long time, like everything else in this room.  Had the last pony up here been the author of that log entry?  Perhaps there’d be something useful up here after all.  Only one way to find out, I suppose.

Rising up, I moved around the desk and towards the cabinet, the floorboards creaking below me as I went.  Upon closer inspection, I saw that the key had been left in the lock, and arched a brow.  That was rather odd; had he forgotten to take it with him when he’d left?  I reached for the handle and pulled the doors open with only a small groan of old hinges.  While I had some idea what lay inside, the sight of it still caused me to sit down on my rump with enough force to kick up a cloud of dust and send me into a coughing fit, waving a hoof in front of my still sore nose.  Once the air had cleared, I shone my light into the cabinet and stared in wonder.

Inside the gun cabinet, sitting upright in a slot, was an early model and very well-cared-for combat shotgun.  However, this was far more than just a simple weapon, it was a work of art.  Unlike my old weapon, it was a bit larger in shape and the stock was made of a dark, almost black, wood.  The stock plate, barrel and drum was made of a dark metal that seemed to swallow the light from my Pipbuck.  Around the barrel and near the drum, silver scrollwork had been added to give the weapon a flash.  A silver plaque on the wood stock proudly displayed the name, ‘Luna’s Ruse.’  It appeared freshly oiled and maintained, as if somepony had done maintenance work on it the night before.  Again, I wondered why the key had been left in the lock.. .this wasn’t something you got issued from the military or police.  Or something you could have just walked into a gun store and bought... at least, I don’t think you could have.

With shaky hooves, I reached into the cabinet and withdrew the weapon.  It was surprisingly light, far lighter than my original, even though this one was larger.  The black cloth shoulder strap slid down across my foreleg as I held the weapon up near my face, looking it over.  I turned it, this way and that, looking at every bolt, every seam.  With a flick of a hoof, I clicked open the drum.  It moved smoothly open, despite having not been cared for in a hundred or more years.  Inside I saw odd bluish-purple runes carved into the metal near the slot for the shells and the end of the barrel.  Unicorn magic perhaps?  

Remembering what I had read in the log entry about the survivors finding ammo and it fitting inside despite the size, I reached into my saddlebags and withdrew a number of rounds for my old weapon.  As I expected, they were too small for the slots.  

Still.  

I slipped one into the opening of the drum and found that it somehow fit perfectly, even though nothing appeared to have changed about the weapon and the remaining slots still looked too large to fit the shell.  I slid a second, a third, and a fourth into the weapon and found that they all fit.  Confound this gun, it drives me to drink.  I finished loading the drum and flicked it closed, the drum giving a satisfying click as it closed home.  I looked up from the weapon and saw four other items sitting within the cabinet.  

First was a box of shotgun shells, 10 gauge buckshot, sitting on the bottom shelf inside the cabinet.  Far more powerful than the 12 gauge I had used all my life.  These went into my saddlebags, where the autosorter on my Pipbuck did its duty and displayed that I now had twenty 10 gauge rounds ready for use.  The next two items I had somehow expected to find.  One was a worn old cowpony hat, dark brown in color.  It was similar to Stone’s expect for the yellow braid around the base of the hat, and the gold crossed rifles pin sitting in the center.  It was the same hat I’d seen the stallion wearing in the photos beside the desk.  Near it was a spotless, silver, six-pointed star.  A ring around the points of the star had the words proudly displayed, ‘To Protect and Serve Equestria.  In Harmony and Friendship we Trust.’  Across the star itself was two further words, ‘Equestria Marshalls’.

The final item in the cabinet was a simple note, hastily written and placed where whomever removed the shotgun would see it.  It was yellow with age, but still legible after all this time.  

‘Even after all these years, I find it hard to deny an order from my old, long-dead superiors.  Even if they are just in a dream.  Besides, one of them can be very convincing when she’s not being herself.  On the off chance they were telling the truth, I hope you find these items useful.  But remember this:

Friendship and Harmony.  Defend those weaker than us, and serve those who defend the weak.  Trust in your friends; in this new world we live in, friendship is more powerful than any gun.  Treat them well and together nothing can stop you.   

Uphold the ideals ponies once stood for and may the grace and wisdom of Princess Luna and Celestia be with you, my friend.  Whoever you are.’

Pipsqueak, Equestrian High Marshall
in service to her Royal Majesty, Princess Luna

The note fluttered slowly to the ground from my hoof.  I blinked, unsure how to react to what had been written upon it, and looked back to the shotgun in my other hoof and the items left inside the cabinet.  Had these really been left for me?  It seemed... impossible to think so.  How had he even known?  

Finally, I simply snorted and scooped the note back up, pushing it into the cabinet beside the star, and started to close the door.  It couldn’t have been meant for me; perhaps it had been meant for somepony else he’d known, but they simply never came for it.  Or maybe he was just crazy.

As the door began to shut, the light from my Pipbuck caught on the star and reflected the light back in a silver flash.  I hesitated for a moment.

It’d be a shame to just leave them though...



*     *     *     *     *



Sitting quietly within the saloon’s main room, I looked over the reassembled weapon that lay before me on the table.  While it had not needed any work, I still felt the need to give the finely crafted weapon some basic maintenance.  Also, it helped take my mind off things, and familiarized myself with the new gun.  Beyond a few new screws here and there, as well as it being a bit larger, it was almost the same as my old shotgun.  The magic ruins were an added touch, however.  I discovered that beside the drum changing size to fit the ammo I loaded, the barrel would also shift in shape.  Somepony had spent a good deal of time making this weapon.

I glanced over to my right hoof as I laid the screwdriver down atop the table; it was well past midnight, according to my Pipbuck.  I looked back up to the doorway, and to the silent darkness beyond.  Spirit had yet to return, and I was beginning to wonder where she’d gone.  My eyes wandered from the door to the rest of the saloon.  I’d spent a bit of time cleaning the place up, sweeping the broken glass and bullet casings into the corner.  I looked to the bar, and to the ceiling behind it.  With the ladder once more retracted and the door slid shut, it was hard to even find that hidden compartment again.  I suppose that even if I’d lived here all my life I’d never really notice it, and even the switch to open it was barely larger than a cap.  If I hadn’t been eye level with the shelf...

The flash of lightning from outside once more lit up the room, the dim light from my Pipbuck and a salvaged lantern I’d found drowned out in the brief flash.  I blinked my eyes and shook my head slowly to clear the afterimages of the flash from them.  Thus far it had yet to rain, but the storm seemed to be growing closer.

Picking up the shotgun, I slipped it around my neck and stepped towards the porch of the saloon to glance out into the dark empty street.  Broken barricades and overturned carts littered the area around me.  Taking a few steps outside, I heard the rattle of spent shell casings rolling across the wooden boards beneath my hooves.  Approaching the steps that lead down to the street, I scanned the road in both directions, seeing nothing but dark homes and broken dreams of peace.  Then I caught sight of a small flame up on a distant hill, flickering in the mild breeze blowing the scent of rain down from the mountains.

Setting my hooves upon the gravel roadway, I began to walk towards that lone hill, and the dim light coming from atop it.  The walk was not a long one, for the town was not very large.  But it took me past many of the homes of the ponies who had once lived here; broken homes, now. Some were half-burnt, while some entirely torched if the fires had not been doused in time.  Everywhere were signs of the fighting that had taken place in so small an area.  Of the deaths of ponies.  It was like walking through Stable 45 after I’d woken, seeing the shattered doors, and burnt rooms.  The scent of death.  I turned away from the sights, and focused upon that little hill.

The path climbed steadily up, and I had a better view of the town around me as I went.  I could clearly see the wall that had been erected around the town. It was nowhere near as large as the one around Crossroads.  Looking back, I could see the remains of the gate that had once stood near the entrance to the little gorge.  It was shattered on its side, blasted by rockets or some other explosives.  

Finally, I crested the hill and found myself within a small, orderly row of stone markers.  Or at least, they had been orderly, before the raiders had taken sledge hammers to most of them.  Holding my right hoof up, I shone the light onto the first stone I saw laying in thick brown grass, and saw a name had been engraved upon it, along with a picture of the pony’s cutie mark.  This was a graveyard and this was somepony’s headstone, defaced.

Goldenapple.  Two large apples stood beside one another, thought there was no color to the stone, I could well imagine them being a golden yellow.

I lowered the light and looked back up to the source of the flickering glow I’d seen down from the saloons door.  There, I found Spirit Walker, holding a candle in one hoof as she sat before a newly marked grave with a simple wooden marker.  Carefully, I made my way over towards the buffalo, mindful of where I stepped.  As I went, I looked over the names laying on the ground; some faded by the weather, others destroyed by raiders.

She did not bother to look up as I approached, her head bowed before the marker and the freshly-turned soil before her.  My Pipbuck clicked mildly, but I ignored the low radiation warning as I read the name upon the marker.

Doctor Brightheart.  His cutie mark had been carved just below the name, a heart with lines radiating out from it with a small medical cross in the center. 

Off in the distance, thunder rumbled among the peaks of the mountain, the cool breeze coming from that storm rustling my mane and tail as it blew across us.  Neither of us spoke for a time, until finally her voice broke the silence.

“I never knew my parents; when I was a young calf, I was left upon the edge of Wastefall.  A kind young stallion found me, and took me into his home that night without a word.  Nopony could ever find any trace of my true parents.  He raised me as if I was his own daughter, and I loved him as my father.”  She smiled sadly at the marker.  “The stallion who found me had known buffalo before from his travels across the wasteland, not being from Wastefall originally.  He managed to teach me much of my people’s ways.  He also taught me of medicine, being a skilled doctor himself.  When I was old enough, I left to try and find my parents, promising to come home when I learned of their fate.  The information I gained was that the last known buffalo tribe to roam the wasteland had been either killed by the raiders coming from the east, or taken as slaves to work in their factories.  I was devastated, but at least I knew I could return here.  Return to my father.”

Slowly, she rose up, after placing the candle down upon the soil, and turned to look out across the destroyed town, the broken ruins of homes and shattered gates.  Broken dreams.

“I returned a few days ago to find that raiders from Kanter City had attacked and killed anypony that opposed them and took the rest as slaves.”  She looked down, “They killed my father as he defended the wounded in his home.”

Slowly, I approached the grieving buffalo and lightly placed a hoof upon her metal-armored shoulder.  Her grey blue eyes lifted from the ground, tears in them.

“You seem to understand.  I had begun to think there were no longer any ponies left in this part of the wasteland that could show kindness.”

“I’m not actually from around this part of the wasteland.  I’m from across the desert to the west...”  And so, once more I told my story, all of it.  I had no reason to distrust this buffalo; we had more in common than I could imagine.  I told her of the attack on my home, of those taken away to Kanter City.  Of meeting Stonehoof and Wildfire in Crossroads, of the geckos at the well.  The journey into Kanter City and of my sister’s fate.  Of the ambush at the bridge, and my plunge into darkness.  I left out the odd dream of my sister, unsure just what it had been and not wanting to seem crazy.

“So, you wish to return there looking for your friends?” she asked as I finished my tale, and I nodded my head.  She looked back to the marker in the flickering light of the candle and was silent for a moment.  

I looked up from the gravestones to the distant glow of the storm, then slowly turned my head northward, to the distant Kanter City.  I couldn’t see it from here, but I knew it was there, like a dark, rotting wound in the landscape, drawing any life away from around it.  

“Then I will come with you.”  I turned back from looking off northward to the buffalo beside me.  “There is nothing left for me here, and if any of the kind ponies who once lived here are still alive, I owe it to them to try and find them.”  She looked back to the marker, adding “It’s what my father would have wanted me to do.”

I nodded my head slowly, thankful for the help, although I wondered if there would really be anypony left for us to save.  I can’t imagine they looked too kindly upon my friends for their part in saving those prisoners and killing the raiders guarding them.  I started to turn away when I caught sight of a stone marker laying beside my hoof.  Looking closer, I saw a familiar name, and although his cutie mark had long since faded away, another mark above his name was still there.

Pipsqueak.  Above his name was a six pointed star.

Beside it was another marker, in a bit better shape if not for the massive crack that ran across it where it’d been struck by a hammer.

Midnightglow.  Her cutie mark appeared to have been a moon half-hidden behind clouds.

I brushed the dirt from both stones and stood for a moment, looking down at them, before carefully lifting them from the dirt to set them upright.

“Thanks,” I whispered to Pipsqueak’s stone, before trotting off beside Spirit to the saloon.



*     *     *     *     *



The next couple hours before dawn were spent quietly within the saloon as we each attempted to get what rest we could for the journey ahead.  Either in sleep or in the privacy of our own thoughts, we rested beside the warm flames of the upstairs fireplace.  For me, this would be the second such trip I would undertake to the dark ruins of Kanter City.  I glanced up from the dancing flames to the dark window beside the ruins of the bed.  Darkness lay beyond it, the storm having died out an hour before, leaving the ground dry but the air cold.  

Near the corner of the room, Spirit sat before a single glowing candle, eyes closed.  She appeared to be meditating, and had not said a word in the past two hours.  Finally, sleep began to creep up on me as I laid my head down on the blanket and stared up at the shadows dancing once more across the rafters in the ceiling.  As my eyes began to close, I silently vowed to myself and anypony listening that come tomorrow, I would save my friends, or die in the attempt.



*     *     *     *     *



The following morning’s dim light brought with it a light, damp fog that clung to the low streets of the ruined town.  During the night, the heavy, moist mountain air had rolled form from above to settle within the gorge.  It gave the already-depressing, quiet town a haunting appearance I would not soon forget.  

Standing upon the hill overlooking the ruined collection of buildings, it appeared as if the graveyard and I were adrift in a sea of clouds.  My head turned slowly from observing the town to the lone grave I had just finished covering in soil.  I stood finally and looked to the simple wooden marker placed at the head of the grave.  

Pip.  Her cutiemark was a single butterfly within a heart.

She had looked so peaceful in death, just as relaxed as Ebony had been when I sat with her.  But then, Pip was going to once more be able to see her twin sister, her mother, and her father in the hereafter.  The horrors of the wasteland could no longer harm her.  

I had copied the files she’d had on her Pipbuck onto mine, to give to her friends back home whenever and if ever I returned.

Home.

Looking away from the small grave, I glanced over the hillside to my new traveling companion, and I saw her place something small at the base of a wooden marker.  The small, hoofmade doll I’d found the night before sat beside the marker of her father's grave.  She bowed her head and whispered something softly into the wind, before rising slowly to her hooves and turning back to me.

“We should get going.  It will take us several hours to reach Sticks... are you sure they will be there?” she asked as she approached me, her hooves lightly trampling into the dry soil.  Grey-blue eyes settled on me as she looked into my face, any trace of the tears she had shed the night before gone, in their place a steely determination, one I was well familiar with.  I offered her a small smile and nod before answering.

“Wild will have likely gotten any survivors with her to safety before doing anything else, and the safest place we all three knew of was the garage in Sticks.”  At least, I hoped she would.  There was no doubting that the pegasus was brash, brave, and stubborn.  But she was also a former commander in the Enclave, a soldier.  She knew how to look after ponies she commanded and I truly believed she’d get the survivors back through the subway tunnel to Sticks before trying to rescue Stone.  That is, if she hadn’t managed to drag his large flank across the crevasse under fire.  Spirit considered this before finally bowing her head to me before speaking.

“Very well, let us go then.  We have done all we can here.”  She turned away and began heading towards the ruined gates, not giving my appearance a second look.  But then, she’d not known me for very long.

I glanced back across the lonesome graveyard, left to fend for itself now that there was no pony to look after it.  My newly-acquired hat rustled in the morning breeze that blew down from the peaks above town.  I reached a hoof up and adjusted it upon my head, still not used to wearing it.  But it did keep my mane from my eyes, along with any rain.  

From the ruined tombstones, I glanced down to my repaired armor.  Many of the dents and scratches had been fixed or mended enough to last until I could have somepony look at it.  However, it was to the six-pointed star sitting just above my heart that I looked to.  It had replaced the old, battered, and half-melted Stable Badge I had worn for so long.  In truth, it had broken while I’d been attempting to repair it.  It seemed... fitting to replace it with this.

Checking the shoulder strap for Luna’s Ruse, I started after the buffalo; trotting towards the gate and the journey northward.



*     *     *     *     *



After climbing up the road out of the gorge, we turned north and began a steady gallop.  My sore legs at first protested the ground-eating pace we set, but after awhile it seems the aches had been worked from all four and I was focusing more on our surroundings as we passed them.

This far south, there seemed to be little sign of pony habitation, either before or after the war, just miles of flat, dry plains.  Small rocks rose up every now and then to break the bleak landscape, but little else.  No ruined towns.  No destroyed carts.  There didn’t even appear to be a road, past the gorge.  I suppose it was how the survivors had managed to stay hidden so long within that small depression in the ground.  

With little else to occupy it, my mind began to drift to the note I’d found in the saloon, hidden in a place nopony had likely been in since shortly after the war had ended.  Had it really been meant for me?  Or was it simply an odd random occurrence?

I frowned, feeling the familiar thump of a shotgun against my chest armor as it bounces with every step and the unfamiliar feeling of the hat perched upon my head.  Why had I decided to wear it and the badge?  Neither offered much protection from bullets or crazed wildlife.  While the hat was slightly useful, I had managed just fine without one.  So why did I feel like I should take them?  Was it the note?  

Whoever Pipsqueak had been, he seemed the type of pony I could be friends with; his sense of duty to his fellow ponies was something I could well understand.  While there had been little information on the Marshalls in the Stable’s history records, what little there was made them out to be heroes of the west.  

They had been formed by Princess Luna in response to the rising attacks on western towns and settlements: towns and settlements responsible for minor war production, be it food, medical supplies, or weapons.  Everything was vital to the cause.  Wandering the flat countryside between towns, the Marshalls offered help to anyone who needed it, not just ponies.  They protected the towns from the increasingly bold and dangerous outlaws that had begun to plague western Equestria.  

But they had become most well-known in this part of the country for their part in stopping a plot to instigate the buffalo to rise up and attack the pony cities and towns.  The plotters meant to kill several dozen buffalo children and place the blame upon the Equestrian army.  The Marshalls had also been instrumental in halting a plan to destroy Hoofington, if the photo in the saloon had been anything to go by.

So why was I wearing their badge and a hat that once belonged to one of their leaders?  I glanced down to the star attached to my chest armor.  Despite the lack of bright light, it still seemed to shine, and I smiled.

Why?  Because it felt right.  And goddesses above, nothing in this wasteland had felt right to me since coming to the surface.

Within several hours, the ruined towers of Kanter City began to rise up from the distant horizon, shrouded in the haze of dust and heat.  My dark blue and yellow jumpsuit under my riot armor was soaked with sweat, forming dark rings around my shoulders and back.  My mane was plastered to my face and neck, but we did not stop.  My traveling companion seemed to not even be phased by the heat, or the long trip.  If I remembered correctly, buffalo were some of the most able cross-country runners in Equestria.  Most of their life was spent stampeding from one feeding ground to the next.  They had few villages, living the lives of nomads.

It was late afternoon when Sticks began to appear, and within the next hour we had come across the cracked and half-buried pavement of a highway.  Faded and wind-chipped yellow and white lines ran across the black roadway, passing by below me as we ran.  The semi-smooth roadway managed to increase our pace, as we had better traction and fewer hidden pitfalls to worry about.  It was the sound of distant gunfire, however, that spurred me on faster.

The harsh crack of a rifle echoed across the flat landscape, sounding like it had come from just ahead, within Sticks.  The sound was followed by the bark of assault rifles and I could see smoke rising up from somewhere within the collection of half-finished wooden frames and ruined homes.  Spirit turned to look at me, her eyes locking with mine as if to ask what I wanted to do.  My answer, as always, was a simple one.  There were ponies in need of help, likely my friends.  They were being attacked by the scum of the wasteland.  Raiders.  They were not ponies.  They were just animals that needed to be put down.

With a snort of hot air through my nostrils, I tossed my head and increased my pace, hooves thundering across the pavement as I charged forward into the outskirts of Sticks.  With by now practiced ease, I lowered my muzzle to the shotgun and flicked the safety off, before snapping my teeth around the firing bit.  Spirit, close on my tail, began reaching for the firing bit of her battlesaddle, the buffalo starting to lag behind within the close confines of the ruined town.  My smaller size allowed me to take corners far more quickly and easily.

Either by memory or luck, I managed to navigate the maze of ruined buildings.  I weaved my way around toppled homes and piles of forgotten building materials until I spotted the building where the sky chariot had been hidden when Stone, Wild, and I attempted to find a way into Kanter City.  It was still there, parked within the small, dark garage.  Now, however,  the door was open and the dark metal hull of the chariot was being struck by a number of rounds.  Taking cover behind the metal hull of the chariot were a small number of ponies, with a dozen or so raiders firing into them while they laughed cruelly.

Behind me, I heard Spirit slow, as she no doubt sought a place to fire on them.  It was the smart thing to do.  Draw the raiders’ attention on us, and give those inside the garage time to recover.  It’s what I should have done.  I didn’t.

Instead, I spotted a group of raiders with a familiar tattoo on their armor.  The pony skull shaped grenade.  There were four of them, clustered around a fallen roof, and my eyes narrowed in upon the closest.  His twisted, spiked armor had a number of trophies hanging from it, from ears to bones, but it was the new one hanging from a chain on his side that caught my attention.  Turf’s head.

The world turned red and, with a snarling roar, I threw myself towards him and the other three raiders, pulling the trigger of Luna’s Ruse as fast as I could...



Welcome to Level 10!

Perk Added: Bloody Mess: With the Bloody Mess perk, characters and creatures you kill will often explode into a red, gut-ridden, eyeball-strewn paste.  FUN!  Oh, and it might also do 5% more damage with all weapons, but who cares about that?  It’s time to kick flank and chew bubblegum, and the wasteland’s all outta bubblegum.

> Chapter 10: ...A Hero Rises
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 10: ...A Hero Rises.


Hard times don't create heroes. It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed.




….pulling the trigger of Luna’s Ruse as quickly as I could, I charged across the open roadway towards the cluster of three raiders with the sole intention of killing every last fucking one of them.  As I ran, the sound of my hooves pounding across the pavement caught the nearest raider’s attention and he turned his head towards me.  I could see his yellowed eyes widen with surprise as he spotted a pony running towards them with a manic grin.  He’d just opened his mouth to shout a warning to the two others with him when the first of my shotgun rounds struck him in his face.

The 12-gauge round burst through his head just below his right eye and exploded it from within.  A spray of blood, bone, and brains splattered messily across the nearby raiders, causing them to shout in alarm.  Seconds later, the second round struck the already dead body that was still standing upright.  The slug punched through the crude rusted raider armor as if it was paper.  Hunks of metal blew out from the broken plate, followed by blood.  The force of the hit sent the body ragdolling into the surviving two raiders, throwing them further into confusion and buying me more time to close the distance.

The unicorn stallion with Turf’s head swore loudly and stumbled away from the headless body and me as he tried to wipe his eyes clean of the gore with which I’d just painted him.  His assault rifle floated lower to the ground beside him as he attempted to figure out what had just happened and where he needed to point it, eyes blinking in confusion.  Another gunshot pierced the air of the ruined town as a round grazed his flank, though it had not come from me.  The round had come from the garage.  So there were still ponies alive in there, perhaps even Stonehoof with his rifle.  I pushed that thought aside and focused back on the raiders.  After being struck, he hurriedly ran towards the nearest cover, an overturned wall that was across from where he had been.

 His companion, one of the few mare raiders I had seen thus far, was quicker to recover.  The pale olive raider turned and spotted me as she brushed the gore from her muzzle and eyes.  She immediately ducked behind a section of ruined wall as I fired again.  Both shots sent up a spray of splinters and sawdust, but missed her entirely.  She fumbled with a pistol that had dropped from her mouth as she dove into cover, managing to pull it back up to her and quickly aimed it towards me.  Her yellowed eyes narrowed as she began squeezing the trigger as quickly as she could.  With the first round screaming from the weapon’s barrel and coming straight towards me, I did the only thing I could think of to avoid a face full of small caliber rounds and close the distance between us.  

Dropping to the pavement on my side, my forward momentum carried me, rolling, across the open space towards the panicked mare and under her fire.  She barely had enough time to realize that not a single round had struck her target before I slid to a halt on the other side of the broken-down wall she was hiding behind, my hooves bringing me to a stop.  I aimed my shotgun up where her chest should be and fired through the wall.  The round ripped through broken, rotting boards and sheets (which offered little to no protection at this range) and struck the raider in her chest.  Like her companion’s armor before, it did nothing to stop the round from blowing out bits of meat and blood as it punched her off her hooves and onto her back.  Gurgling, she brought a hoof up to the hole blown into her body to try and stem the flow of blood that was staining the already splattered floor.

Picking myself up from the ground, I checked myself for any injuries.  Beyond a fresh coat of filth covering my repaired and once-clean riot armor, I seemed to be in one piece, unlike the wounded mare.  She looked up at me with a wide, sickly, yellow-eyed stare, attempting to crawl towards her dropped weapon.  I watched her calmly as her bloody lips fumbled with the firing bit of the 9mm pistol.  With a snort, I walked over where she lay and placed a black hoof atop the weapon, and she finally gave up her attempt.  Her breathing was becoming labored and she attempted to say something to me, but I couldn’t make out what it was.  I doubt I would have heard a word she tried to say.  When I looked down at the pony below me, all I could see was Turf’s head, swinging from a chain with a hook through his eyes.  Pip flung through the air by a rocket, ripped to pieces by metal shards.  Ebony.  Raped.  Beaten.  Starved.  Left for dead.  

The wounded raider gurgled and I pressed the barrel of my shotgun against her face, narrowing my eyes as I pulled the trigger.  Luna’s Ruse bucked in my mouth once and a single slug struck the mare in the face at point blank, blowing it off along with most of her skull.  I stared down at the dead body for a moment, the spent shell casing rolling around between my fore hooves finally coming to a halt in a pool of the mare’s blood.  Another one down, Celestia alone knew how many more. 

As I lifted my gaze from the dead mare to the raider across the open ground, I saw him leveling his assault rifle at me with a predatory grin on his muzzle.

The battered but still deadly assault rifle’s muzzle lit up like a strobe light, pulsing with every round fired.  The unicorn held the trigger down with the glow of his magic and hosed the ruined home I stood in with automatic fire.  High speed rounds struck the ruined walls all around me, sending up clouds of dirt and wood in every direction.  A few rounds fell short, impacting the ground between us, but just as many hit me.  Every one felt as if a small hoof had struck me in the chest, leg, or side.  My armor soaked up a world of hurt, stopping nearly every round from penetrating into my flesh.  I dropped into cover within a second of hearing the gun firing.  A shot grazed my unprotected flank and I grunted in pain.  A minor injury warning flashed in my E.F.S., but I ignored it and the pain.  I’d survive it, so long as I remained focused.  Gritting my teeth, I rose just enough to lay the barrel of my shotgun on the edge of the ruined wall and snapped off two rapid shots towards the raider, causing him to back off a bit and ease up on the incoming fire as he took shelter.  

Taking the opening the decrease of fire gave me, I rose to my hooves and began running towards a more intact section of the wall in the ruined building.  The raider’s aim followed me as I went, bullets whizzing past my flanks and head as he tried to hit me, but thankfully, like most raiders, he couldn’t hit a moving target.  Bullets followed me the entire way, a few whizzing past my flanks and shoulders as I disappeared from his sight behind a still mostly intact section of walls.  I could hear the raider firing wildly where I’d been and all across the walls of the ruins, wasting ammo for nothing.  However, he was no longer my problem.

The two raiders coming towards me from across the street were.  No doubt alerted by the assault rifle-wielding raider, they must have come to flank me.  I narrowed my eyes on them, seeing the same symbol on their armor as the two raiders I had already killed.  The grenade shaped like a pony skull, painted in red.  The larger of the two was a massive earth pony, his crude armor made nearly worthless by the simple fact that it didn’t fit him.  He was easily larger than Bright or Stone.  Muscled and covered in a riot of scars, he carried a rusted but still sharp-looking fire axe in his yellowed teeth.  Beside him trotted a unicorn, a shovel floating along with him.  Unlike his large companion, he wore armor that fitted, plates of metal covered in dents and nicks, held together by cords and chains.  Spikes and hooks swung from the crudely-made barding.  Both were heading straight towards me, while behind me, the raider that had survived my rush had begun to toss grenades randomly into the ruins, showering areas in deadly shrapnel.  Staying put was no longer an option.

Snorting, and with only one option open to me, I charged them, snapping off three rapid shots as my hooves brought me closer to the pair.  The first shot caught the unicorn in the shoulder, shooting off sparks from the armor as well as bits of metal and blood.  The other two rounds ripped chunks of flesh from the earth pony along his own shoulder and chest.  Both ignored their wounds and simply gave me mad grins. It was then that I saw their yellowed eyes, and the pinpricks of their pupils.  They were loaded on drugs.  Like the guards Wild and I had fought in the hospital basement, it would take a lot to kill these two.  

Despite this fact, I ran onwards into them, snapping off another quick round that staggered the unicorn back a bit, giving me room to work.  My hooves slammed into the pavement as I neared the two.  The earth pony swung his axe at my head, the sharp edge slicing through the air as it descended towards me.  I rolled under the swing and into the path of the smaller unicorn who had managed to recover from the second shot, blood running from the new wound on his chest.

I was almost caught off guard when he swung his makeshift weapon at my face, the rusty shovel striking Luna’s Ruse as I lifted it up to block the attack.  Unlike the drugged raiders I’d fought before, these seemed able to move more naturally.  The battered shovel head bounced off the black metal of the shotgun with a solid metallic clang that echoed off the nearby ruin walls and sent a shiver down my jaws and neck.  Before he could pull the weapon away I dropped the shotgun from my lips and clamped my teeth around the worn wooden haft of the shovel and yanked hard.  

He’d not expected that, and it broke free of his magical grip.  I could hear the heavy hoof falls of the earth pony turning behind me, bringing that ax to bear on my unprotected flanks.  Teeth gripping the shovel, I prepared to make my next move.

Spinning around on my front hooves, I jerked my head up. and with it the shovel.  While it wasn’t in the best shape, somepony had sharpened the edges of the metal head.  At the same time I brought the shovel up, I lifted my hind legs out towards the unicorn and stood on my front hooves.  Time almost stood still as I spun about wildly.

With a crack, my rear hooves connected with the head of the unicorn behind me, shattering his jaw with the force and sending him stumbling backwards onto his flank as blood flew from his mouth, along with several teeth.  Almost at the same instant as my hooves struck, the shovel slashed across the earth pony’s exposed throat as he was raising the axe up high to bring it crashing down atop my head.  Blood at once spurted from the fresh wound and the force of the blow threw off his aim.  The axe slammed down into the ruined pavement of the street to my left.  Shards of blacktop flew into the air from the force of the strike. 

With my momentum, I pressed the attack, not giving either of the drug powered raiders time to recover.  The swing from the shovel swept back around in a wide arc and I followed through with it, trailing the blood of the earth pony as it sliced through the air and, with a thunk, struck the unicorn in the head just below the horn.  The sharpened edge cut deeply into his forehead, jerking his head sideways from the blow.  His glowing horn flickered as he was struck and I felt the slide of a knife along my flank.  The earth pony behind me yanked the axe out from the pavement and once more started towards me.  My tail twitched suddenly, warning me that something was about to fall.  I grinned around the shovel wooden shaft as I locked eyes with the unicorn.

Releasing the shovel, I rolled away to the right of the unicorn as the axe came smashing down where I’d been, and where the hapless unicorn raider stumbled as he attempted to yank the shovel free.  With a far more meaty slap, the axe head buried itself in the brain of the unicorn.  He was dead before the force of the blow slammed him into the pavement.  My victory was short lived, as bullets began to strike my exposed flanks and hind legs.  

Crying out in pain, I nearly crumpled to the ground from the shock.  My adrenalin, however, was thundering through my veins, and I managed to half run, half stumble into the cover of a ruined wall as the raider with the assault rifle poured fire towards me and over the massive earth pony raider.  I could see him moving towards me slowly, the red glow from my E.F.S. marking his progress along the ruined roadway.  I looked ahead, to the fallen unicorn, the axe still embedded in his head.  Of the earth pony, there was no sign.  No time to worry about him; he’d likely bleed to death soon enough.  I reached for my shotgun and limped away from the wall, making sure to keep it between the raider and myself as I attempted to move behind him through another ruined home.

I’d barely gone a dozen steps when another red dot appeared.  Shit.  Raising my head barely over the edge of the wall, I saw another raider mare walking along the roadway, a battlesaddle strapped across her scarred back and her eyes scanning the ruins for something, most likely me.  The saddle had twin rifles and judging by the size of the barrels, it’d likely rip through my armor if it struck.  She spotted me and opened fire.  Sure enough, the high powered rounds ripped through the wall, blowing splinters into my face and neck.  Now I knew how it felt to be under fire from Wild’s guns.  

Swearing, I ducked back down and moved away several steps as more rounds tore into the spot I’d been.  Rubbing my eyes with a hoof, I tried to clear them of dust and debris.  A moment later, I heard something strike the ground beside me from over the wall.  Looking over, I spotted the round orb of a grenade rolling to a stop inches from my flank.

Fucking hell...

Scrambling to my hooves, I dashed towards the nearest piece of cover I could find, one of the ruined home’s inner walls, or rather, a still-standing piece of one.  I’d barely turned the corner and dove for safety when the grenade exploded behind me, sending shards of razor sharp metal flying everywhere.  I heard a number of pieces impact the weakened wall and saw it start to wobble, but I was far too slow to pick myself up.  All I could do was roll over onto my back and lift my forehooves up to try and soften the blow.  Despite the fact it was half rotted away and filled with holes, it was still surprisingly heavy and I growled out in pain as it struck my wounded flanks, pressing the bullet tips deeper into my flesh.  I could already hear somepony moving through the rubble towards me, hoof steps treading heavily over the fallen walls.  

I couldn’t reach my shotgun, as Luna’s Ruse was pinned between me and the wall.  Working my forelegs up, I began to desperately push the wall up off me, and it rose quickly, at least until a hoof slammed down atop it, followed by another.  I winced as I attempted to hold up the wall with my own forehooves, as the battlesaddle-armed mare climbed atop it and me.  A wicked grin on her lips as she stared down at me with one orange eye and a dark pit where the other should be.

“Well, well well...look at what we got ourselves here...a wanna be hero about to get himself killed,” she chuckled, and lowered her head down to look more closely at me. Her grin grew wider and, with alarm, I noticed her teeth had been filed to a sharp point, “Well, since I caught you, maybe Big Daddy will let me keep ya for myself.”  Not to mention her breath smelled like she’d eaten raw garbage left out in the heat.

The wall dropped an inch back atop me as she moved about, inspecting her prize.  My eyes dropped to my shotgun, wedged between my armored chest and the wooden wall.  She’d kill me before I could yank it out.  My forelegs burned as I held them up, causing my Pipbuck and holstered revolver to rattle against the bottom of the boards under the mare.  I looked back up at the crazed feral mare; was she licking her lips hungrily or suggestively?  Which was worse?  Or was there even a difference for raiders?  Rising back upright, she reached back for something attached to her armor and I heard the distinct sound of metal sliding against metal.  As she turned back to face me, I saw she’d pulled out a wickedly serrated blade.

“Now... this will only hurt a tiny bit if you hold still... so... don’t hold still.  I like it when ya fucks scream loudly, gets me all excited,” she said around the knife, lowering it towards my face.  I grinned back, eyes narrowed on her.

“This, however... is only going to hurt for a moment.”  She blinked, confused at what I’d said.  I seized upon that moment and closed my mouth around the firing bit for the Raging Buck.  As I did, I yanked my left hoof up under the wall, scraping away splinters and faded paint, the weight of the fallen wall pressed once more down upon me, but I ignored it.  Within seconds the holstered weapon was positioned under her head and I pulled the trigger once.

The high powered pistol roared to life, the round bursting through the holster like it wasn’t even there.  The spinning brass round passed through the ruined wall as if it was paper, blowing away large chunks of wood in a shower of splinters.  The round finally caught the surprised mare in the middle of her neck, encountering little resistance from the thin rusted armor plating she had strapped there.  Finally, the round exited the raider just behind her ears, sending out a spray of blood.  The force jerked her backwards off her hooves and she toppled to the ground just at the base of the wall.

Kicking my hind legs under me, I managed to scramble to push myself out from under the wall and up onto my hooves.  I allowed the wall to drop down fully to the ground, the dead raider draped across the bottom of it, blood running from the wound in her head to pool into the holes and scars of the wooden planks.  I reached for my saddlebags, intent on getting one of the two health potions I had left.  I’d just closed my teeth around the top of the red glass potion when I saw movement from the other end of the ruined home I was in and a red dot lit up on my E.F.S.

The raider turned the corner seconds later, spraying the room with buckshot from his pump action shotgun that glowed a soft green in his magic.  The small balls of lead buried themselves in the ruined walls and fallen sections of the ceiling; thudding into the dead flesh of the mare as she sat up against a section of collapsed wall.  He lowered the weapon when he saw nopony else in the room other than his dead companion, peppered with his own gunfire.  Giving the room another uneasy look, he took a step inside and approached the dead mare.  

He was halfway across the room before I rose up from behind the body, shotgun held between my teeth, and narrowed my eyes on the surprised buck as I fired.  Unlike his, my shotgun was loaded with solid shot, perfect for ripping through flimsy armor and flesh.  The large metal round slammed into his chest, staggering him back.  The next struck him in the neck where he had no armor to halt the round.  With a gurgled cry of pain, he dropped to the floor, hooves kicking uselessly at the cracked wooden flooring.

I lowered my forelegs that had been holding the dead mare upright, the body slumping to the floor.  Stepping around from behind it, I looked to the wounded raider as he struggled along the floor, bleeding out quickly, his eyes filled with panic.  For a moment, I felt some sympathy for the pony the raider had been, until I reminded myself of just what he and others of his type had done across the wasteland to ponies just like my sister.

Once more, I reached for my saddlebag. I was down to two rounds in my shotgun and four in my revolver.  I needed to reload and heal before I faced the remaining raiders, of which I could see seven more moving around nearby.  Unfortunately for me, somepony had other ideas.  I’d just opened my pack when two of those red dots appeared moving towards me, one quite rapidly.   I had only seconds to look up before the large earth pony I’d slashed across the throat and left with his unicorn friend charged into the room with a roar.  I reached for the firing bit of my shotgun, but had just closed my mouth around it when he struck.

My hooves left the ground as his rock hard skull impacted my armored toros and knocked the air from my lungs, the shotgun dropping from my lips.  The crazed raider’s momentum carried us into another room of the ruined home, via way of the wall.  I grunted as my back slammed into the wall and through it, my ears ringing with the sound of cracking lumber.  Bits of drywall and splinters of wood struck my unprotected flanks and face, drawing blood wherever they struck my coat.  I heard and felt something snap away as we burst into the next room, and felt my saddlebags slip from my flanks to drop to the floor.

I slammed my right front hoof into the side of his face, hoping to daze him, but it had little effect, his drug crazed eyes wide with battle lust.  He skidded to a halt along the wooden flooring and dropped me in a heap before him.  I winced as my injured body struck the ground heavily, and rolled slowly onto my side with a groan.  Warnings of injuries filled my vision as my E.F.S. updated itself, the red dots around me beginning to swarm in from all sides.  I turned and looked up at the massive pony above me, rearing back on his hind legs with a snort of triumph.  My eyes widened as I saw his hooves coming down towards my head, which would be turned to into paste by the force of the impact.   

I rolled onto my right side and under him just as his hooves struck the ground with a splintering crack.  I scrambled out from under the raider when I heard more cracking from under me, my hooves sinking into the flooring and with it my hopes of escape.  The cracking was soon followed by the groan of something holding up a weight it could not hope to.  I’d barely gotten a inch out from under the raider when the floor simply gave up any attempt to stay up and dropped out from under us.  Once more, I found myself falling, before my face struck the hard concrete of the basement floor.  I heard the raider drop down nearby before I felt part of him land atop me.  Again the air was pushed from my lungs, and I was left dazed.

I groaned and pulled myself out from under the raider, while he too began to recover from the fall.  Shaking my spinning head to clear it of stars, I looked behind me as the raider stood up and blinked in shock.  The large, battered earth pony had been impaled through the chest by the remains of a shattered two by four, blood dripping down along the shaft of wood to drop to the floor under him.  There was a number of other wooden chucks sticking into his body, all ignored as he turned his yellowed eyes to me.  The wounded raider began moving towards me, a act made difficult by a piece of wood jutting out from his left foreleg.  Blood trickled from his chin and nose and he flashed his red stained teeth at me.

Fucking hell... what's it going to take?!

Pushing aside the pain that raced through my body, I climbed unsteadily to my hooves and reached back for my saddlebag, intent on reloading my shotgun, although I doubted two rounds would finish this brute off.  However, I was soon reminded of the fact my packs had been ripped off me when my teeth clamped on empty air.  Well, fuck.  I turned back just as the raider reached me and slammed his front hoof into the side of my face.  Luckily for me, I’d already been turning, and the blow glanced off my cheek instead of caving in my skull as had been the intent.  I rolled with the punch and gained a few paces to work with, but already the lumbering giant was making his way towards me, and I dodged another swing.  I grabbed for my shotgun and brought the weapon up, only to have the raider slam his hoof down on the barrel.  The firing bit jerked upwards in my mouth and I felt a tooth snap free.  My head followed the barrel down to the floor as the neck strap tightened around my throat, and I gasped for breath.

The fight nearly ended right there, as he brought his other hoof down towards my skull, with me struggling to break his grip.  Suddenly, the strap around my neck broke in two and I managed to jerk my head out from under his right hoof just as it slammed into the concrete, cracking it.   I reached for my revolver, but another back hoof to my face sent the pistol skidding across the floor into a dark corner.  I had no time to try and grab my baton, as the earth pony simply grabbed me up in his forelegs and began to squeeze me.  My joints popped and my lungs quickly deflated as he began crushing me.  I had my own forelegs free and began beating at his face, trying to get him to release me.  But as before, he simply ignored the blows and squeezed all the more, sending a jolt of pain up my back.  

My hind legs left the ground once more as he reared up on his own, intent on slamming me into the ground.  If he did, I’d be as good as dead.  He shifted his legs around my neck, and as he did so, the chunk of wood impaling his left leg sliced into my cheek.  My vision was darkening and I was gasping for breath.  I  placed both hooves over the jagged end of the splinter of wood in his limb and shoved it with all my might.  It didn’t budge.  I screamed in pain as I felt a rib snap, eyes screwed shut as the pressure threatened to break the rest.  With a last desperate bid to survive and pulling on the reserves of my strength I slammed both hooves on the end of the piece of wood.  With the sickening sound of tearing flesh, the sliver of wood slide free of the limb and struck the raider in the eye, burying itself several inches into his brain.  His body stiffened.

“Felt... that... didn’t ya...” I gasped as his legs loosened and I slipped free, landing heavily upon the floor with a groan of pain.  The raider dropped back onto his side with a clatter of hooves and metal armor.  He gave one last whimper and went still, blood pooling under his brown matted fur.  

My vision was still cloudy, and I couldn’t focus on E.F.S. as it attempted to update my list of injuries and the raiders gathering nearby.  Off to the side of the room, I saw my shotgun laying on the floor, and began dragging myself towards it.  The raiders would be on me in moments, so I had to arm myself quickly.  Reaching out with my hooves, I dragged Luna’s Ruse over towards me.  As I closed my lips around the firing bit, a hail of assault rifle rounds struck all around me.  With my failing strength, I half stumbled, half rolled into the cover of the remaining ceiling.  I could hear a frustrated snarl as the shooter lost sight of me and I attempted to figure out just where he was and how I was going to kill him before he killed me.  The floor above me groaned and showered dust down upon my head as somepony walked around over me.  

I had only two shots, if I spent them blindly shooting at my unseen attacker I’d need a stroke of luck to hit the raider.  My eyes dropped to the room I was in, dimly lit by light filtering in through small holes in the flooring overhead.  There, just a few steps from me was a badly rotted support beam holding up the floor.  I leveled the shotgun at the support and fired off both shots.  The first shot struck the edge of the beam, blowing off chunks of wood but it remained standing.  The second struck dead center and blew apart the middle of the beam.  The basement was soon filled with the sounds of groaning twisted wood as the section of the ceiling gave way and dropped into the dark room.  

Coughing, I dropped the shotgun and reached for my batton, intent on cracking the raiders skull as he picked himself out from the debris.  As the dust cleared, it became clear I wouldn’t need to do this, as the body of a raider hung inches off the floor, impaled through the blown-apart support beam.  His hooves dangled lifelessly beside him, blood running down the grooves and cracks of the beam.  Turf’s head lay on the floor beside the beam on its side, having fallen free from the raider’s belt in the fall.  

As I lay on the cold concrete floor, the air clearing of dust and filled with the scent of death, I heard the sound of gunfire slowly peter off above me as one side or the other took control of the ruins.  Not much I could do about it, every part of my body screamed in pain from the frenzied close combat I’d been in.  Not to mention all the walls and floors I’d burst through.   The red dots that had begun to surround me were quickly replaced by green, and a familiar red-maned head poked over the ruined edges of the ceiling.

“Never in all my life have I seen a pony more damned lucky than you, Shadow.”  Wild’s voice broke the silence of the room and I could not help but smile.  Beside her, other heads began appearing, but my vision was still a bit foggy, “I’m going to have to come down there and get you, aren’t I?” she asked after several seconds more of silence.

I could only lay my head back on the ground and close my eyes before I answered.

“Take your time... I’m not going anywhere...”



*     *     *     *     *



Wild had managed to lift me out from the basement, after a bit of struggling.  The mare spent the whole time swearing at me for letting her think I’d died when I’d fallen down that hole, and at muck ponies for being so damned heavy.  Once back on the surface, and with the help of Tassles and Spirit, the three females had gotten me back to the garage in one piece, passing by the bodies of dead raiders as we went.  Spirit sat me down beside the black armored hull of the chariot, and began removing bandages and potions.  

A full hour later, I groaned as Spirit finished wrapping the last of her bandages to my injuries, those that the three empty health potion bottles laying nearby had failed to seal completely.  A small group of ponies watched from beside the sky chariot, Tassles standing with them.  At least one pony from my Stable had survived all this.  I sighed softly and lowered my right hoof as Spirit finished wrapping a deep cut I’d earned when I’d fallen.  Wild, meanwhile, was sitting next to me.  The bright orange pegasus looked rough, but then, after what we’d all been through, I suppose we all looked like hell.  She’d finally stop swearing at me, and had instead turned a bit motherly, fussing with the bandages the buffalo worked so hard to fix upon my right leg, muttering about how I’d end up dead without her.  I smiled a bit at that, thankful to have found one of my missing friends.  That, however, reminded me I was still missing one.  I asked the fiery mare what had happened after we’d been forced to part ways, and she began filling in the blanks of what she knew.

“Chaos.  The survivors were crying and screaming, the tunnels echoed with the sounds of gunfire.  It reminded me of my first mission as a soldier with the Enclave, fighting griffins in their lairs.  After the bridge was destroyed and you disappeared, Stone yelled for us to get the hell out of there.  But, I couldn’t just leave him to the raiders...”  She paused for a moment, no doubt knowing what had awaited Stone if he had been captured.  I had some idea what had happened to the winged mare during her stay in the city the first time, despite her never talking about it.  She reached up to her chest and withdrew the pack of cigarettes she kept there.  After pulling one out and lighting it, she continued her tale.

 “Carrion tried covering me as I flew over to lift Stone out, but I couldn’t lift him and dodge the fire.  He told me to get away.  I told him where to go shove his suggestion and began laying down fire with him.  We were running low on ammo, and Carrion had taken the others back down the tunnel to safety.  The raiders just kept coming; there didn’t seem to be any end to them.

  “Damn that muck pony, he picked me up and tossed me over the edge of the cliff before the raiders reached us.  I managed to open my wings and slow my descent.  By the time I got back to the surface, the raiders and Stone were gone.”  She sighed and shook her head, the pegasus’ wings drooping.  “I went after Carrion and the others, trying to figure out what to do next.”

As I sat and listened, Spirit had finally finished with me and turned her focus on the gathered prisoners.  Most looked exhausted and afraid...  but also, hopeful.  Already they were eating the last of our food, but they needed it far more than we did.  I could see ribs and hip bones through their mangy coats.  For some, it was the first time in several years they were outside the confines of Kanter City and not being abused by the raiders.  Still, the cost to save them had been high.  Pip, Turf and those other brave souls who had stayed behind, and now Stone.  A pony who should be back home in Crossroads with his newborn nephew.  A pony who had risked everything to help a stranger.

For a time we sat in silence as Spirit worked.  The buffalo at first was received with some unease from the ponies, but the young filly Stone had carried out approached her and threw her hooves around Spirit, declaring she was ‘soft’.  Spirit had simply smiled and given the filly a piece of candy from her saddlebag which she at once went over to show her mom.  The ponies relaxed and began accepting the buffalo’s aid.  It was then I noticed somepony missing from the group, and turned back to Wild to ask.

“Where’s Carrion?”

“After we killed the last of the raiders, he went off to keep watch for other groups patrolling the area.  In the past few hours there’s been a large number of them out searching the desert for us.  I guess the train from the tunnel returned last night.  He’s at the subway station,”  Wild answered, nodding her head towards the north and the same path the three of us had taken over twenty four hours earlier.  “He’s been rather quiet since we reached the surface.”

“You think he wants to go back?” I asked, looking off to where the station would be.  I couldn’t see it, for the fallen and broken remains of homes lay between us and it.  Outside the garage, darkness was setting in as the hidden sun dropped down behind the horizon to the west.

“I don’t know... for the past hundred and fifty years, it’s all he’s known.”  The winded mare reached a hoof up to her chest and opened the pouch with her smokes in it.  After lighting it, she took a long pull from the cigarette and blew the smoke out through her nose, “What are we going to do now, Shadow?  About Stone.”

I glanced from the darkening sky to the mare beside me and sighed softly, “I honestly don’t know... the bridge is a lost cause, I take it?” she nodded her head, and I looked back out to the ruined town of Sticks.  “There’s no way we can sneak past the front gates, I suppose we could try flying over the walls.”  She snorted and drew my attention back to her.

“The griffin mercs would be crawling up our asses before I could set it down.  While I can move quickly on my own, hauling a ton or two of armored chariot with ponies inside it slows me down.  While the entire city is not encased inside the wall, and we could very easily find a sewer entrance in another part of the ruins, we’d still have to find a way across the plains to enter the city.  Under the watchful eye of griffons, whose eyesight is far better than a pony’s,” Wild finished, looking from me back to the cloud covered sky outside.  She sighed and took another puff of her cigarette, the smoke rising up to hang just above her head like storm clouds.

“We’re also nearly out of supplies.”  Spirit added as she approached us, the buffalo shutting her saddlebags as she sat across from us.  “I just checked, and with what little we have left we can feed ourselves only two or three more days before we are out of food. However, we will be out of water in less.  Also, two of the mares are in need of more medical care than I can give with what I currently have.”

“Then we need to return to friendly territory, drop off the injured ponies, and resupply.”  Wild spoke up again, lifting her head up, “We can try and make it to Crossroads; should be quicker than reaching Steeldome.  Then we can return for Stone.”

Could I really be thinking of returning to Kanter City so soon?  After having just barely escaped it alive the first time?  Yes.  I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t try and find out my large grey friend's fate.  Come hell or high water, Wild was going after the pony regardless, and Spirit had her own reasons for wanting to get inside.  I imagined she held out hope that some of her friends from Wastefall were being held captive.  

For the next hour we simply sat in silence and ate what food we had.  Spirit left once to check on one of the wounded mares and only returned once she had given the broken unicorn some water.  Finally, after another hour of just sitting there on the hard, warm floor, I stood up.  My legs were aching from sitting for so long and from the injuries I had suffered, and I needed to move them and get the blood flowing again (now that it wasn’t flowing OUT of me).  I started towards the garage door when Wild stopped me.

“Where are you going?”

“Just out to stretch my legs.  Figured I’d also check up on Carrion,”  I replied to my friend.

“Well... if you fall down another damn hole, don’t expect me to haul your ass out again.”  She calmly pulled the cigarette from her lips and flicked it to me.  The spent smoke struck my armor and dropped to the floor. 

I chuckled despite it all; same old Wildfire, even if she seemed a bit off.  While she’d always had an odd sense of humor, she seemed far more grim, and her eyes seemed duller.  I pushed that away for the time; there would be plenty of time to figure out what was wrong with her later.  I began walking through the ruined, tumbled-down homes of Sticks.  

The ruined collection of half finished homes and piles of rotting lumber had not changed since I’d last seen it a day before.  At least now I had some idea of where I was going and it did not take me long to trot to the demolished subway station.  The wide, flat parking lot surrounded the pile of rubble, making it easy to see among the numerous other ruined buildings.  As my hooves began carrying me across that flat, open space, I spotted the stairs leading down into the subway.  Had it really just been yesterday?  It seemed like it’d be far longer.  

Looking away from the stairs, I scanned the ruins and noticed something my early glance had missed.  Originally the look of the ruins had given me the impression that the entire building had been destroyed in the fighting between the Steel Rangers and the Super Mutants, but actually a section had managed to survive.  

Turning away from the steps, I trotted along to the left of the ruins and around the pile of bricks, rusting steel beams, and bits of wood to a corner that still stood.  Standing where I was, I could see inside the rooms of the building.  Desks and chairs lay scattered about along with the always-present filing cabinets.  Somepony had made a killing off of those; the wasteland seemed littered with them.  I also spotted the remains of the building’s stairway.  Parts of it had been destroyed by the collapsing roof and walls, but much of it still remained.  Enough so for a pony to climb to the top.  And it was there that I spotted a single figure sitting with his back to the town, staring off to the north.

Climbing carefully along the still-unstable pile of debris, I made my way into the standing section of the station and into the stairwell.  The steps looked unhealthy, and as I placed my weight upon them, they groaned and sank down a bit, but held.  Climbing quickly, I emerged back out onto what had been the fifth floor of the building, not the roof, just another floor.  The roof was mixed in with the rest of the floors on the ground below me.  Once I was sure I wasn’t going to plunge through the sagging floor to my death or at least more broken bones, I worked my way across the floor towards Carrion.

The ghoul said nothing; he’d likely seen me approaching long before I’d seen him.  The pony had his back to Sticks and was staring out across the flat landscape of the Povoni Desert.  His orange glowing eyes fixed upon the twisted towers of Kanter City, which I could just barely see from here.

I stepped up beside him and looked out across the wasteland, the late evening breeze ruffling my mane.  The worn Marshall’s hat kept most of it in place, however.  For as far as I could see was flat, dry ground.  The odd rock rose up here or there, along with hardy pale-green cacti.  Above it all, the low-hanging grey clouds covered the sky.  Judging by the darkening of those clouds, the sun was nearly down, and the moon would likely be rising soon.  

I looked up into the sky, scanning the thick bank of cloud cover for any sign of those two heavenly bodies beyond the darkening clouds, the symbol of our beloved goddess, Celestia and Luna.  After several moments, I lowered my head from the sky to the pony beside me.

“Do you miss it?” I asked, seeking to break the silence between us.  The ghoul did not answer right away, his eyes remaining locked on those distant towers.

“I suppose in some sick ass way I do.”  He sighed, which sounded rather odd seeing as how air went through his nose and a hole in his throat. He looked away from the horizon and over to me.  “It was my home since the day I was born, and when the bombs began falling I thought it would be where I died too.”

“So, why’d you stay?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and perking my ears towards the ghoul, “You must have had a number of chances to leave since then.”

“I could have left.  I started to on a number of occasions.  But every time I found myself returning, until finally the day the raiders showed up and began setting up shop.  I wasn’t about to let some sick fucks like that take over my home.”  He frowned and looked away from the horizon and over to me.  There was something else as well he wasn’t telling me, so I decided to press a bit.

“There’s more to it then just a desire to defend your home though, some other reason you stayed.” I thought back to the feral ghoul he’d killed in the sewers, of him removing something from the body, “Was it to look for your friends?  Family?”  

His glowing orange orbs blinked at that and he hurriedly turned away.  After several more seconds of silence, he turned his head back to the saddlebags he wore and opened the right pack up.  After a moment, his horn began to glow and a pile of rusted dirty tags floated out from inside the bag.  They drifted around to hover in front of his face, before they lay down before my hooves.

Reaching down, I lifted the ball of metal tags and thin chains up with a hoof and eyed them.  

Roseheart.  Private First Class.  105th Equestrian Calvary.  Serial Number 2389761. 

Junebug.  Sergeant.  105th Equestrian Calvary.  Serial Number 2367890.

Blueflower.  Corporal.  105th Equestrian Calvary.  Serial Number 2387012

As the little ball of tags slowly swung around in my hoof, I could see other names, some clear as the day they’d been made, others covered with rust or dirt.  All from the 105th.  His unit.  I looked from the collection of dog tags from the dead to the ghoul beside me.

“I couldn’t leave my ponies behind.” he said softly, and looked back out to the distant ruined city, “I found nearly all of them ‘cept for two.  Twins.  Youngest ponies in my unit; I think they lied to get into the army.”

I arched a brow and remembered the two ponies we’d found forgotten in the subway crossover room.  Holding one another close, and the recording of their final moments alive.  I turned away from the ghoul and to my saddlebags, opening the flap gently and searching around inside.  Moving over the spare rounds for my weapons, and a small bundle of papers, I found what I was looking for.  I pulled out two lone tags from within and turned to gently attach them to their comrades.  

Watching me, Carrion arched a brow wondering what I was doing, when I offered it back, his horn once more began glowing and he brought the collection of tags back to him.  The ghoul looked closely at two new tags sitting upon the rest.

Pound Cake.  Flight Sergeant.   59th Air Wing.  Serial Number 239100

Pumpkin Cake.  Sergeant.  105th Equestrian Calvary.  Serial Number 239101 

For a moment, in the dim light of the evening, I could have swore I saw tears in the ghouls glowing orange eyes, but he quickly turned his head away to place the tags back inside his pack.  Again, we sat in silence and watched as the shadows grow deeper across the flat plains and around the ruins of the few buildings near us.  Finally, he asked.

“You're going back for him aren’t you?  Even after everything that's happened to you, to your sister, you're still going back in there.”  His thick raspy voice broke the silence. and I nodded my head.  He turned his orange gaze away from the north to look me over.

“After everything Stone’s done for me, I can’t just leave him in there knowing what they’ll do to him.  What kind of friend would I be?” 

“You remind me of how ponies used to talk, before the bombs, before the war.  How we use to be.”  He looked away again and his shoulders slumped a bit.  The loud-mouthed, rude ghoul seeming to shrivel up before my eyes.  In his place was a pony.  A very tired pony.  Tired of war.  Of death.  Of being forced to stay alive when he should have died so long ago.  Just.  Tired.  “You still sound so damned hopeful.”

“I lost hope.”  I thought back to waking up alone after being separated from everypony else.  Of the dreams I’d had, and the memory of my sister.  I closed my eyes as tears formed once more.  “I lost it for awhile, but somepony helped me find it,” I said, and despite the tears I smiled.  After all that had happened to me, after all the horror, I’d managed to save the lives of ponies I’d just met, and would likely never see again.  I’d done the very thing my sister had wanted to do for so long.  To leave our safe warm hole in the ground, rejoin our fellow ponies.  Help them rebuild their lives.  It's why the Stables had been built.  Why we’d been hidden away from the horrors of the end of the world.

“Hope will not get you a way into the city.  The only way inside was destroyed when we escaped.  The gates in are heavily guarded, even while the train is gone.  I suppose you could try sneaking in while the trains leaving or arriving but it’d be risky.”  He frowned.  “I’m not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing you arrived when you did.  A few days earlier and there’d been a lot more ponies in that cell.”

As he mentioned the train, I remembered Tassles saying most of the others had been taken to work on the collapsed tunnel.  Dozens of other ponies we’d been unable to help due to them being taken daily out to work on the tunnel... outside the walls... by train...

I sat up suddenly and felt something click inside my head.  THE TRAIN!  

“Carrion, you said the train was due back tonight...?”

“Yeah, it arrived a few hours before you showed back up in a hail of lead, which by the way was a nice entrance.” 

“When’s it due to leave again?” I asked, already getting an idea of how this would work.

“In the morning, I guess, they’ve been working almost nonstop to clear that tunnel those ponies blew up a couple years back.”  I saw a confused look on the ghouls face as he watched me.

“Would they take every prisoner they have with them?  Even recently captured ones?”

“Yeah, sure.  They burn through them in a matter of days at the rate their working them to death.  It’s one reason they began taking more prisoners than normal.  I imagine that’s to be your friend’s fate.  They’ll put him on the next train out.  Have him work hauling carts of rocks out of the tunnel...”  He blinked and jerked his head back, ears standing straight up.  “Son of a bitch...!”  He’d finally realized what he was saying and what it could mean for Stone.

“Saddle up, partner, it’s time for a good old-fashioned train robbery!” I exclaimed as I leaped to my feet, grinning like a mad pony.  Before Carrion could even think of saying anything, I trotted back across the floor to the stairs, this time not bothering to worry about how much it sagged or groaned at my weight.  Now I had a very real chance of saving my friend.



*     *     *     *     *



As we returned to the garage and the others, I began asking Carrion about the rail line the train would take from Kanter City.  For this to work, we would need to catch it either as it was slowing down or just starting.  Since it would be leaving from within the walled section of the city, we’d have to find a spot where it was slowest.  A sharp turn, a hill.  Something.  However, Carrion told me it was pretty much a straight shot from Kanter City to the mountains to the east and finally to Appleloosa, a recently settled (well, 150 years ago recent) town, with only a single bridge crossing a small river that would possibly cause the train to slow.  

I frowned at the news, and wondered how we’d catch it.  Going at full speed, the train could easily outpace a pony on hoof.  True, I was basing most of my judgements on half-remembered history lessons and old movies, but it was all I had.  Carrion wasn’t sure how fast the train would be going, since the ghoul’s memory wasn’t what it once was, as he claimed.  The only time the train would be slow would be when it was just getting underway or coming to a stop.  It’d take us far too long to reach the tunnel by hoof, and from what Carrion could tell me, it was defended by a host of raiders.  Seemed they weren’t taking any chances in somepony blowing up all their prisoners’ hard work.

That left it leaving Kanter City.  It would have to pass through gates built over the tracks, before it could build up speed.  According to Carrion, there was a low hill overlooking the east gate and the tracks.  It would be risky, getting that close to the city.  Still, this was Stone’s only hope. While it would be possible for us to catch it with the chariot, I had other plans for it and its pilot.  Plans the fiery mare would not like, but ones she would have to do none the less. 

Soon, the garage came into sight.  Spirit stood beside the door, keeping watch out into the ruined town.  The buffalo perked up as she saw us approaching, though she seemed a bit uneasy at Carrion’s appearance about as much as the ghoul looked to the buffalo.  Problems?  I shook my head and would figure it out later, along with everything else I was saving for later to figure out.

“Where’s Wild?” I asked Spirit as we neared her, she motioned a hoof over towards the chariot where the pegasus was curled up asleep near the flight harness.  The prisoners were similarly tucked up inside the chariots passenger compartment, pressed tightly together.  It had been an hour since I’d left, and it’d been a hell of a past few days so I decided to let the orange mare sleep. 

I told Spirit to get some sleep as well, and took over her post.  I doubt I’d be able to get much sleep until this was finally over.



*     *     *     *     *



The following morning began much as I had expected, with a large amount of swearing.  The prisoners we’d rescued had just sat down to eat a small meal as the swearing picked up.  Tassles arched a brow towards the potty-mouthed pegasus as she flapped her wings and stomped her hooves before me.  Spirit Walker sat calmly nearby, looking from the winged pony to me as we spoke.  She’d not said much, but I think she understand my reasonings.  Both the one I had said openly, and the one I had kept to myself.

“You musta hit your head hard when you fell down that fucking hole, Shadow, if you think I’m going to just sit on my ass while you go and risk yours,” Wild said, as well-mannered and tactful as always.  The pegasus fixed her stormy blue eyes on me as she paced.  I sighed and shook my head.  In truth, Wild was being a bit more stubborn than I had originally thought.  Carrion had said as much to me the night before.

“Wild, for the last time, this is how it has to be.  If we keep arguing about it, the small chance we have of getting Stone back will be gone.”  I narrowed my eyes on the mare and grunted; we should have left a few minutes ago already.

“Shadow, you're talking about climbing aboard a speeding train, full of raiders, headed towards a raider outpost.  Just the two of you.”

Carrion looked up from where he’d been standing.  The ghoul had slept little, if at all, the night before (did they even need sleep?).  I was still surprised he’d agreed to come with me on this mission, given his earlier statements about risking his hide for no pony.  Still, I was thankful he was.  It allowed me to ask Wildfire and Spirit Walker to take the prisoners back to Crossroads, removing the two females from being taken captive by sex-crazed cannibal raiders.

“I know, but how else are we going to get these ponies back to Crossroads and the medical attention Spirit said they need?  They can barely walk on their own, let alone cross the desert to town, and let’s not mention the radscorpions and patrolling groups of raiders they could stumble upon.  They can’t stay here, either; it could be hours before we got back, and Carrion said he’d seen a number of patrols crossing the plains.  The best way to get them to safety is over most of the hazards, and that means the chariot.  Which also means it has to have a pegasi to fly it,”  I explained for the fifth time that morning. Hopefully Wild would get the idea that saving those ponies lives was more important than risking her own.  It was also the truth.  The prisoners needed more medical care then Spirit could give, and the buffalo had made it clear that we’d be out of water in a day or less.  We couldn’t stay here.  Nor could I leave here without Stone.

“Alright, fuck it... but why is Spirit coming with us?”

“She has to go for the simple fact that you can’t care for them while you're flying them across the wasteland, and Doc McCoy is going to need some help with them.”  Of the two, I believe Spirit knew I had other reasons for sending them both away, but the buffalo remained quiet as we spoke, instead focusing on the young filly we’d rescued.

I could see that she wanted to argue with me, her blue eyes shifting to side to side as she tried to come up with some flaw in my plan.  Some reason to stay.  Finally, I saw her wings slump and she nodded her head slowly.

“Alright...but as soon as I get them back to Crossroads, I’m coming back for you three, so make sure you’re all in one piece.”

“I believe I can manage that,” I said with a nod from my head.  I offered the winged pony a smile which in turn earned me a scowl and snort.

“Fuck if you can’t find your own way out of a tunnel system, kid.  But you better damn well find your way back from this.”  She turned and walked away to the front of the chariot, checking over the harness and the attached instruments.  

I watched her for a moment as she went over the lines connecting her to the chariot, perhaps some preflight check or something.  I had a feeling it was more to take her mind off things.  I looked away from the mare and over to Carrion, who had stood up and was strapping on his armor.

The ghoul looked odd without the armor and uniform.  Below it, he almost looked like a normal pony, save for how skinny he appeared.  I suppose the cover had protected his body when the radiation leaked into the sewers.  But then, I wasn’t really sure if that’s how the unicorn had been turned.  Beyond a few odd hints, he’d not said much about it, and I did not press.  It was likely a sore subject, what with dying and coming back as the undead.  I caught sight of Tassles slowly approaching me from the other prisoners.

Her coat and mane were still a mess of dirt and filth, but she was looking far better than she had when I’d first seen her.  The mare had fresh bandages across much of her hind quarters and neck.  I was glad to see none were yet stained red, so her wounds were likely healing well.  It was the internal and mental wounds that worried me the most.  It appeared she wished to ask me something, but was unsure how.  

“You're really going after your friend?” she asked softly.  Luckily, the garage was already silent or else I might have missed the question.  I nodded my head slowly and she pressed on.  “If- if you happen to find Silverglow...” she trailed off, as tears formed in her wide eyes.  She sniffed and looked away.

I stood up from where I’d been sitting and walked over to the distraught mare.  She’d managed to hold up well while we’d been chased.  And from what Wild had told me, she’d even taken charge of the others while Carrion and the winged mare led them to safety.  I laid a hoof gently upon her shoulder and she turned her face back towards me, sniffing a little.  “If I find him, Tas, I’ll bring him back to you.  I promise.”  She nodded and wrapped her forelegs around my neck and brought me into a hug.

“Thank you, Shadow... Celestia and Luna bless you.”  After several more seconds, she released me and went back to rejoin the others.  Spirit walked over to me and watched Tassles for a moment, then looked over to me.

“It would seem your friends think very highly of you,” the buffalo said in her normal soft tone.

“No more than normal,” I responded, and turned to regard the buffalo as she stepped up beside me.  She watched as Tassles settled in with the other prisoners.  “I’m surprised you didn’t say much.”

“I believe the winged mare said more than enough for both of us.  I do not approve of being sent away from a chance of saving those from my former home, but I also know you spoke mostly the truth.” she looked away from the others and down to me, “I know there was another reason why you did not wish us to come.” 

“I can’t ask either of you to take that sort of risk.  Wild’s already been through it once, I can’t let her go through it a second time.” I glanced to the pegasus as she began strapping herself into the flight harness.

“I believe she knows that's part of the reason you do not wish her to come,” Spirit said as she stood up.  “She also knows what you said was true, that we need to see these ponies somewhere safe.”  She nodded her horned head towards the mares as they tiredly climbed to their hooves and began boarding the chariot.  As she trotted away, Spirit turned back to me and offered me a slight smile.  “I would also like it if you returned from this venture.  You are a most unusual pony.”  She bowed her head and went to see to her charges.

I smiled and shook my head.  Me?  Unusual?  Maybe.  Or maybe I still held out some hope that ponies could learn once more what was right and wrong.

Since the flight could prove bumpy if Wild needed to evade any griffons or any other threat, it was decided that most of the sick mares would be buckled into the seats inside the chariot to keep them from falling down and injuring themselves anymore.  Spirit and Tassles would remain free, to help the others if the need arose.  It took us only a few minutes to see to them, and I hurriedly climbed out and onto the warm pavement of the roadway.  We’d pulled the chariot out of the garage only a few minutes before.

Walking around to the front, I found Wild slipping the helmet over her mane and strapping it into place.  Adjusting the mic, she glanced over to me, her eyes hidden behind the visor that she’d pulled down to block out any glare (from what I had no idea).

“Remember, I’ll be back tomorrow, with or without help.  Don’t get yourselves killed.”  She pawed at the ground, wings flexing.  “And find Stone.”

“I will, Wild, trust me.”  

“I do trust you, Shadow.  Odd as it sounds... I think I trust you more then I have any other pony in years.”  I had no time to respond, as she flared out her feathered wings and began to flap them up and down quickly.  She began kicking up small amounts of dust as she rose into the air.

For the second time this week, I watched as friends departed and headed out west, to safety.  While I’d be going in another direction, towards danger.  Despite getting no sleep the night before, I couldn’t remember feeling so... alive.  I inhaled the warm morning air, and at once regretted it as the scent of decay, rot, and dust entered my nose.  At least I managed to keep from sneezing my head off.

Beside me, Carrion stood watching as the sky chariot began to shrink to a smaller black dot on the lightning horizon.  The ghoul had not said much since I’d found him atop the subway station, except to tell me he was going to come with me.  He’d kept largely to himself while I spoke to the others, and had sat outside while Spirit and I saw to the mares.  

“You’re sure you really want to go through with this, Shadow?” he asked, breaking his silence at last.  

“Yes, I am.”  I answered, looking away from the sky to the ghoul.   “Are you?  I mean, you owe neither Stone nor myself anything.  You don’t have to risk your neck for us.”  As I spoke, I stood up and readied myself for the long trip northward.  

“Actually, I do.”  Carrion rose as well, checking his saddlebags and his assault rifle, which he wore around his neck as I did my shotgun.  We began to walk slowly, working our way through the ruins of Sticks.

“Oh?”

“Before you arrived I was simply going through the motions.  After I ‘died’ in the bombing, something more then my body changed,” he said in his raspy low voice, keeping his orange eyes fixed upon the path ahead as he spoke.  “After a couple of decades, I just stopped caring about everything.  All I was living for was to find the tags of my missing soldiers.   Nothing else mattered to me.  It seemed nothing much else mattered to anypony else in this fucked-up world.”

I listened as we trotted through the spot where I had fought the raiders the night before; their bodies still lay where they’d fallen.  There’d been no time to dispose of them, nor had anypony had the energy to deal with them.  Flies and other insects buzzed about the bloated corpses as we went past, and the smell was... well, I’d gotten use to it.

“You reminded me of what I’d lost.”  I looked at the pony confusedly, and he smirked a bit, his yellowed teeth exposed both by rotting lips and the hole in his cheek (yeah, I still stared).  “I joined the army to do more than kill zebras and defend Equestria.  I joined it to protect the ponies that could not do so for themselves.  I suppose in a few ways, we’re a bit alike.”

“I suppose so,” I said with a nod, looking away from Carrion to the Steel Ranger helmet still marking the spot of a fallen pony.  He’d been buried there by ponies who must have cared enough about him to do so.

“So, now, I need to make up for lost time.”  He smirked a bit.  “Plus, it helps that we’re going to kill some fucking raiders, too.”

I chuckled and nodded my head once more, as the subway station came into sight.  Instead of going through the parking lot, however, we stuck to the roadway and went around it completely.  On the other side, I could more easily see the surviving section of the building; the torn and tattered edges, toppled walls and broken windows.  It was covered in bullet holes and the edges were blackened from a long-ago fire.

Turning away from the building, I stared off to the north, and to the distant towers of Kanter City.  We’d travel for a few miles towards those twisted landmarks before turning eastward and make our way up into the low hills overlooking the east side of the city.  After that, we’d wait until the train departed for the tunnel, and see just how much luck I had.



*     *     *     *     *



Our thundering hooves charged across the open plains, kicking up a rising cloud of dust behind us as Carrion and I followed the railroad tracks leading out of Kanter City.  My heart raced in my chest as I ran, nostrils flaring to take in the humid air, strands of my long white mane flowing behind me from beneath the Marshall’s hat.  Nothing would stop me.  Nothing.  Dry soil was soon replaced by loose gravel as we ran across the tracks.  Just ahead, the speeding train drew nearer as we galloped after it.  Wouldn’t fail.  Not this time.  My hooves kicked up loose rocks as I flew down the tracks, nearing the battered red caboose and the steps leading onto the train.  

When I was at last close enough, I did not hesitate; to do so would have meant death under those rapidly spinning metal wheels.  With one smooth motion I leapt upon the swaying steps, my metal shoes ringing out as they struck solidly.  I  wasted no time, and moved up onto the platform with Carrion close behind, his assault rifle floating up beside him as I brought Luna’s Ruse up.  My eyes narrowed on the doorway as a loud cry from beyond caught my ears attention.  A cry of fear.  

Never.  Again.

Rearing back on my hind legs, I brought my front slamming down onto the closed wooden door.  Over a dozen frightened faces jerked up as that door burst open and I stepped inside the car.  Shackles bound their feet and hooves, and collars around their necks held them chained to the walls or their seats.  All beaten.  All resigned to their fates.  

Two raiders also looked up in surprise at my entrance, their weapons lowered, spiked armor and soiled clothing half on and half on the floor.  Both bucks seemed intent on a young zebra mare that lay on the floor between them, one holding her head down with a hoof between her laid back ears.

Neither raiders nor prisoners were given time to recover their wits as I activated S.A.T.S.  Four shots, two raiders that needed to die.  I narrowed my eyes and without a second thought lined up each shot with a target and released the spell.  Luna’s Ruse roared to life and from her muzzle four solid shells flew to their targets.  The raider closest to me stumbled back as his head and neck blew apart in a mist of red, his legs flailing as he dropped.  His friend who stood over the zebra mare barely had time to realize his fellow raider was dead when he was struck too.  One round struck him in the side of the neck, narrowly missing his spine and windpipe, while the second was aimed lower, much lower.  The 10-gauge shot removed the smaller of his two heads, sending the stallion dropping to the floor beside the zebra, screaming in agony as he clutched at his wounds with his hooves.

The spent shell casings clattering to the floor, and nopony moved for several seconds after, eyes all fixed upon me in fear.  Still standing beside me, Carrion looked over the dropped raiders, lowering his assault rifle and instead moving over to the bodies.  

“Show off,” he said in his harsh voice.

From among the prisoners, a large gray earth pony stallion rose up.  He’d looked better: his mane was disheveled and filthy, his lip had been split and was bloody, one green eye was swollen shut, and the other was blackened.  But still he somehow managed to flash me a big smile and started to approach, only to be stopped by the shackles around his hooves, jerking him to a halt.  

“Nice hat,” Stonehoof said, pointing a hoof up to my new headgear.  “Liked mine so much ya decided ta get yerself one, eh?” 

I trotted over towards him, pulling out a healing potion as I did, and offered it to him.  Carrion had retrieved the keys to the shackles from one of the dead raiders and was unlocking Stone’s hooves as the other prisoners watched us silently.

“Pony up, Stone, we’re taking the train.”  He swallowed the red drink before looking over the occupants of the train car as it continued to rocket down the tracks.  The rest of the raiders were as yet unaware of what had just happened, but it would not take them long to realize something was indeed wrong.

“We’re takin’ everypony with us?” he asked, rising to his hooves, rubbing them a bit as the shackles dropped away onto the floor.  From among the car, Carrion produced Stone’s worn old cowpony hat, which the stallion happily returned to its place atop his head. 

“No,” I said as I took the keys from Carrion’s magical grip and looked over the hushed prisoners, then to the white and black striped equine.  The zebra had clearly been heavily abused, and her wide blue eyes stared up at me in fear for what I might do to her.  As I approached, she gave a fearful sound and closed her sapphire blue eyes tightly.  Kneeling beside her, I pushed the key into her lock and twisted it.  Her ears perked up at the click and from the heavy iron weight around her throat dropping to the floor.  I stood back up and looked over the gathered ponies, zebras, a diamond dog, and a griffon stuffed inside the train car.  Then I looked back to Stone and Carrion, tossing the keys to the ghoul.  I smiled and said, “We’re taking everybody with us.  No one gets left behind this time.”

I turned towards the still-closed door at the front of the car, and as I did I saw tears running down the bruised cheeks of the zebra as she realized she was being freed.  I did not bother to see if anypony was following me as I gripped the bit of my shotgun tightly.  The way I felt right now, I could take on every raider in this train.  And then some.  I passed by the frightened yet hopeful faces as I neared the door, and with my forehooves, I forced my way into the next car.  Nothing was going to stop me now.

A raider stumbled back as the door slammed into his face; he’d likely been coming to see what the noise had been about.  Behind him, four others lay about the car, either eating or sleeping.  Another five prisoners stood chained to the right wall, all stallions.  The nearest, a green unicorn, looked up in surprise as I entered.  He looked as battered as the others, but I could see he’d yet to be broken as his red eyes locked with mine.

My tail twitched, and I snapped back to the fight at hoof.  I jerked forward into the car and away from the raider who slammed into the floor behind me, with crackling metal hooves.  He must have been sleeping on a bunk beside the door when I’d entered.  His yellowed eyes widened in shock as his intended victim seemed to know he was there.  His shocked look turned to one of pain as I reared back and slammed my hooves into his face.  The crack of bone signaled a busted nose and cheek and he stumbled back into the doorway, giving me some room.

My ears twitched, followed by a sudden pain in my right fore leg.  Somehow, I knew to duck and a rifle round flew through my trailing white mane to impact the raider behind me.  The already wounded stallion dropped to the floor, as his fellow raider began working the bolt of Stone’s rifle.  He never got the chance to reload, as the green unicorn prisoner wrapped his chained forehooves around his neck and yanked the raider towards himself with the length of metal.  The raider dropped the rifle to the floor as he struggled to loosen the choking grip the unicorn had on him.

Another raider, a red earth pony, was just picking himself up off the floor.  He was surrounded by drug inhalers and I could see that his pupils had shrunk.  He had just begun reaching for a knife at his waist when I shoved the barrel of my shotgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.  Even a drugged-up raider had to feel their head being blown off and painting the walls of the car red.  The body slumped to the floor and I stepped forward into the next raider who was fumbling with a pistol.  I slammed the stock of the shotgun into his face; he yelped and went down in front of the other chained ponies who looked down upon their tormentor with rising anger.  His end was slow and painful as they only had their bare hooves, chains, and months or years of anger.  There was still one raider left, and, gripping my shotgun back in my mouth, I turned to dispatch him. 

With a crack of bone, the green unicorn finished him off, letting the limp body roll to the floor before his hooves and unwrapped his chain from around the dead body’s neck.  The injured stallion panted as he looked up from the dead body and opened his mouth to say something to me, when the door to the next car slammed open.

I jerked my head towards the sound, and saw the dim light of the wasteland flooding through the doorway.  The next car appeared to have no roof over it and was crawling with raiders, at least a dozen or more.  One of them stepped into the car, a machine gun battle saddle strapped across his scarred, armored back with belts of ammo running into either side of his saddlebags. 

“By the pit, what the hell’s going on in here?! Fleshripper, if you’re fucking the bucks again I’ll have your heads on a...”  His snarling voice was silenced as a single gunshot echoed throughout the narrow train car.  The large stallion dropped dead to the floor, a single bullet through his chest and into his heart.  As he did, one of the prisoners kicked the door shut in his face.  

I blinked in surprise and looked behind me, a smile breaking out across my face as I watched Stonehoof lower the still-smoking barrel of his rifle.  He stood in the doorway over the powerhoof armed raider and worked the bolt of his weapon, sending the spent shell casing tumbling to the floor.  He tilted his hat back with a hoof and looked over towards me with a smile on his lips.

“Takin’ th’ whole train, are ya?”  I nodded and he grinned more.  “Ya don’t think small, do ya?”

My smile grew into a big grin and I started to respond when the raiders still outside the car began firing blindly.  Assault rifle, hunting rifle, pistols rounds all ripped into the wooden walls and roof of the passenger car with ease.  I dropped to the floor, as did everypony else within.  One pony near the door was not so lucky, and he took several rounds in the chest and neck, letting out a cry of pain as he fell onto his side, bleeding badly.

NO! I wouldn’t let another pony die because I couldn’t help them!  Gripping Luna’s Ruse tightly in my teeth I began to rise and rush the door.  I had to stop those bastards from firing into the car!  I had to save these ponies!  A grey hoof grabbed me and kept me down.

“Ya’lls gonna get yerself killed, Shadow!” Stone yelled into my ear.  I struggled to rise, but his grip was firm and I couldn’t free myself. 

“Dammit, they’ll kill everypony in here if I don’t stop them!” I yelled back, looking away from my friend to the door as it all but disappeared in the hail of bullets.  Carrion snapped off a few shots behind us in the doorway, but was forced back as more rounds ripped through the wooden train car.  

The doorway to our car was slammed open, turning it into little more then splinters as another raider stood ready to gun us all down where we lay.  His assault rifle held in his teeth, yellow eyes narrowing on the prone forms before him.  I could see him pulling the tigger as he prepared to kill us all.  He never got the chance.

A raider behind him pointed skyward and let out a yell, but it was too late.  High caliber rounds ripped into the roof of the passenger car above the doorway and into the body of the raider.  He was shredding before our eyes, and what was left dropped lifeless to the floor.  A second later, a dark shadow passed over the raiders standing outside, and assault rifle rounds danced over them.  They stumbled for cover they couldn’t find, for their attacker was above them, and within the armored crew compartment of a sky chariot.  I craned my neck up to better see through the doorway.

Wildfire soared above the train cars, dipping her right wing towards the speeding cars.  Trailing behind her, the black-armored transport leaned over slightly as well, allowing the gunners standing in the open side door better firing angles on the raiders below.  Spirit Walker and Tassles raked them with fire, Spirit’s rifle knocking bucks to their knees as she hit them in their unarmored flanks or necks.  Or simply in their chests, where their armor stopped the round, but not the force.  Meanwhile, the battered assault rifle held tightly in Tassles’ jaws found few real targets, for she’d never fired a weapon in her life, but she kept them pinned down and easy prey for the buffalo standing beside her.

Carrion came back around from the doorway he’d taken shelter in and fired off a clip into the confused raiders, every round sending puffs of blood up into the air as they dropped to the floor.  The ghoul snarled and began walking towards us, rounds flying past his battered combat helmet to scatter across the floor.  

Beside me, Stone rose up and kneeled to fire off a round, striking a raider in the head and sending him down atop the dead.  After several seconds, there was nopony left alive in the roofless passenger car; the bodies of the dead raiders filled with holes of all shapes and sizes. 

Carrion began seeing to the captive prisoners with the young zebra mare who held the keys to their locks.  The green buck rubbed his legs as the shackles dropped off and glanced my way, a grin on his face.

“That... was fucking awesome.”

Overhead, Wild lowered herself and the chariot down near the windows of the car we were in and slowly drifted back towards where we stood.  The windows had long since been blown out by the raiders’ wild firing.  The orange pegasus grinned at me from beyond the window, giving me a wave with a hoof as she yelled in.

“Figured you two muck ponies would need some help from me; I suppose this is gonna become a habit of mine, saving your asses!”  Stone rose up fully and dusted himself off, looking out to the flying mare and smirking.  She winked to the earth pony before looking back to me.  “Now, what’d ya say we kill the rest of these fucking bastards and go home?”

I  looked over to my friends and grinned.  I stood up and reloaded my shotgun, as Carrion slid a fresh clip into his and Stone adjusted his hat.  Something my father used to say came back to me then.  I dunno why, but it just seemed like the right thing to say.

“I’d say, it’s party time.” I snapped the drum feed of Luna’s Ruse shut and started towards the blood-soaked car.  Carrion and Stone followed. 

For the next hour, we fought.  Car by car, inch by inch we pushed our way forward towards the engine, determined to bring the train to a halt.  If it reached its destination, we’d been overrun by the raiders stationed at this tunnel base.  We had a little over two hours to make this happen.  I’d never been more proud of my new friends or myself than at that moment.  Not a single pony wavered, as we faced off against the wasteland’s worst.

Stonehoof worked the bolt action of his rifle with skilled hooves, every shot striking a raider someplace vital.  Not a round was wasted.  Heads jerked back as new holes were punched through them.  Lungs or hearts turned to bits of meat as pointed bullets found them.  When they got close, the sharp edge of his hunting knife sliced throats and limbs just as skillfully.  Living within the wasteland his whole life had taught the earth pony the skill of killing.

Carrion fought like professional.  He had years of military training alongside some of Equestria’s finest soldiers, practicing the art of war, the art of killing his homeland’s foes.  He moved swiftly from cover to cover, setting down withering fire to keep the raiders’ heads down as the rest of us moved up.  He could almost read the minds of our foes, knowing when they were going to push forward, and when we should.  If not for the zebras having balefire bombs, I found it hard to believe we would have lost the war.

The green unicorn buck, Balefire, followed us, and he found this all a ‘fucking blast.’  The young buck had gotten his hooves on a pair of beautiful revolvers from somewhere.  The ivory grips were carved into reliefs of the Princesses Celestia and Luna.  I couldn’t see them too clearly, as he whipped both around quickly to fire at targets near him.  While he was not as skilled as Carrion or Stone with his aim, he more than made up for it with guts, taking risks that my two friends would not.  His brash nature almost cost him his life a couple times, but he seemed to have a bit of luck, and always found some way out, either by covering fire from one of us, or just brute force.  

Overhead, Wildfire kept pace with the speeding train easily.  The pegasus’s red mane and tail flowing behind her like a trail of fire.  Her wings pumped furiously as she propelled both herself and the chariot forward.  She moved over the train from left to right, and then back again,  strafing the cars where there was no threat of injuring a prisoner with her deadly rifles.  The large rounds ripping holes in the roofs of the cars as they annihilated the raiders within.

Behind the winged mare, Spirit Walker and Tassles fought as one,  laying down fire to keep the raiders pinned as we moved up.  As it turned out, the rifle Spirit wore was not just for show or defense.  The buffalo was actually a skilled shot.  It also helped that these raiders were likely the same ones who had taken her family, plus it was very likely that in this new Equestria, you either learned to use a weapon or died by one.

Tassles was also driven by anger at the twisted ponies below her.  The mare had never once fired a gun in the Stable.  She’d actually rather been afraid of them, as I recalled.  Ebony and I had decided it might be a good idea to train more of the Stable on how to use the weapons should the need ever arise.  The mare had dropped her shotgun more than once after firing it in training.  Now, however, she worked to load a fresh clip into the assault rifle with the skill born of necessity; the necessity of continuing to fire a hail of bullets upon the raiders that had for a week tormented her and her friends.  

I fought on beside them all, losing count of the number of times I reloaded my new shotgun, spent shells littering the passenger cars beside the dead raiders’ bodies.  Unlike my old Stable-issued combat shotgun, Luna’s Ruse seemed to pack a bit more punch and range.  It’s lightness allowing me to fire it more easily, but it still left an imprint on the raiders who got too close.  The wooden butt of the weapon broke more than a few teeth, horns, and noses as I battled my way forward.  Still, I would always miss my old one, which had belonged to my father. 

Cowering prisoners looked up in awe as their captors fell before their wide eyes.  Some dragged injured raiders down so we could quickly move up to dispatch them.  Others stayed far away from the fighting, shielding foals or loved ones from the firefight.  All seemed shocked at what was happening.  Some were confused.  Were they really being rescued?  More than a few looked on with tears in their eyes.

For them, the zebra mare I’d saved brought their freedom.  The keys we’d found in the caboose seemed to work for all the shackles on the train.  The injured striped equine helped her fellow prisoners back towards the rear of the car, risking her life more than once to reach those trapped in the battle, bullets zipping past her slender frame.  But she moved swiftly between cover, always seeming a step ahead of the bullets meant for her.  

Thankfully for her, all the prisoners seemed to welcome her help, despite the fact she had been Equestria’s most hated foe.  I suppose it really didn’t matter to these ponies; she was a prisoner just like them and it had been so long ago.

Rocky hills and flat dry desert landscape flew past us as we fought, flashing by in the broken windows of the cars.  Distant mountains began rising up as we sped down the tracks towards the east.  I only caught glimpses of these sights as we fought: cacti and dead trees, ruined, long-deserted settlements, and long forgotten graveyards of the war.  

Covered in sweat, wounds, and blood, we at last reached the final passenger car and the last of the raiders aboard the train: over a dozen near-frenzied, twisted ponies fighting to hold us off, or kill us all.  They’d set up a crude defense across the car, using overturned seats and tables to take cover behind.  They made sure to stay out of sight of the windows, lest Wild or her gunners target them.  But the pegasus and those in her chariot had to hold their fire. 

Just behind the raiders cowered foals of the captive ponies we’d saved, holding one another tightly as they watched the carnage from the other end of the car with wide, frightened eyes.  A single raider mare stood guard over them, ears twitching wildly about as she watched her fellows fight to hold us off.  The raiders had separated most of them to better keep their parents in line.  Now, they held them as hostages so that Wild and her gunners would be unable to fire blindly into the car.

 Beyond them, a row of flatbed cars loaded down with wooden support beams and digging tools lay, giving us a straight shot to the engine and stopping this ride.  I could just see the top of the engine’s smoke stack, billowing out black clouds of smoke into the air from the open doorway.  Like everything else the raiders had, the once-smooth metal tube was covered in rusty spikes and bits of bone.  I thought I saw a skull or two, but it was still too far away and covered in smoke.   

“Damn them, somepony in there’s actually got half a mind,” Carrion hissed as he reloaded his assault rifle.  Ammo was beginning to run low.  One of the freed prisoners, a young unicorn mare by the name of Red Velvet, had gone back to collect what ammo she could from the dead raiders we’d left behind.  For once, not even Stone had stopped to loot the bodies as we’d pushed our way along the train.

“Ah reckon we’re in a might bit of a pickle here,” my gray friend said, nursing a fresh wound along his foreleg.  The pony had stayed up too long to line up a shot and had taken a round through the limb.  Unfortunately for his target, he didn’t let it stop him from firing, and a raider went down with a hole through his throat. 

“We can’t stay here all day!  We’ll be at the dig site in another hour or so.  I say we just charge ’em, bastards won’t know what hit ’em!” Balefire said with a gleam in his red eyes.  He’d been quite reckless in the fight, but I didn’t doubt his bravery.  Just his sense.

“And that’s why you're not in charge,” Carrion responded to the youth’s ‘plan,’ and glanced over to me.  “Kid’s got a point, though; we can’t stay here.”

“Suggestions?” I asked, reloading Luna’s Ruse for the... goddesses alone knew how many times now.  Rounds thudded loudly into my crude cover, an overturned table.  The grizzly meal that had been set out upon it lay on the floor.

“Ah reckon we outta’ get ‘round them somehow.”  Stone said beside me, as the zebra mare finished patching him up.  The striped equine had followed us since the beginning.  “Wild had ta drop back a while ago due ta a wound, otherwise Ah’d suggest havin’ th’ firey mare drop down behind ’em”

Wild had taken more risks than was smart for a pony pulling a few tons of metal behind her through the air.  A raider had managed to catch her as she turned, grazing her right wing with several rounds and almost causing her to crash into the ground.  Luckily, she’d pulled up and away before he could fire again.  Stone had made sure he’d never get another chance and had placed two rapid shots square in the raider’s brains.  He’d worried a bit over Wild afterwards, but I told him Spirit would see to our winged friend.  Still, he had a good idea...

“What if somepony went along the roof and dropped down behind them?  I doubt they'd notice one of us slipping out and if we moved quietly, I imagine they’d not even notice somepony above them,” I said, looking from Stone to Carrion.  

“And who’s going to be stupid enough to risk their neck on a rickety rooftop while traveling down the tracks at asinine speeds?” Balefire chimed in with a grin, clearly thinking himself for the job.

Sometimes, even I hated my ideas.



*     *     *     *     *



To say the going was difficult was like saying that radioactive geckos were ugly as sin (yes, I am still going on about those).  The poorly maintained tracks caused the entire train to shake and shudder, making moving across a slightly slanted surface all but impossible.  The wind howled over top of me, wiping my mane and tail almost painfully about.  My hat was nearly being yanked off my head by the force, but remained in place. Twice I almost slid completely off the roof to go plummeting to my death on the speeding desert floor.  But against all odds, I not only managed to cross the length of the passenger car, but to do so quickly.  

I dropped down from the roof and onto the edge of the first flatbed as quietly as I could, my hooves striking the piled lumber and thankfully dulling the sound.  I jerked my head back towards the open door to the passenger car behind me (as it turns out the door was not open, just simply gone, ripped free some time ago).  

There was no sign the raiders had heard me, or expected anything.  Not surprising from the sound of fighting come from beyond the door.  I doubted the raiders would have heard me if I’d set off a balefire bomb.  The raiders yelled and cursed out my friends as they fired wildly towards them from within the train car.  The only thing I really noticed that seemed odd was a shimmering in the air near the doorway.  But then, I’d seen that often enough across the dry landscape as heat distorted the air and quickly pushed it from my mind.

Climbing down the wooden beams, I once more scanned the flatbed car for any signs of danger.  My E.F.S. was filled with red and green dots, most concentrated together in the passenger car ahead.  But there were also two red dots behind me, towards the engine.   I started forwards when the swaying car below my hooves suddenly jerked violently and nearly sent me sprawling on my face.  Quickly, I righted myself and glanced back towards the front of the train.  

We were taking a sharp curve in the tracks and beginning to rise up a hill.  Not far off, I could just see the badly-rusted iron bridge that crossed one of the few rivers on this side of Equestria: the Coltorado River.  Beyond that bridge, it was only a few more miles to the tunnel, and the raiders’ base they had set up nearby.  

Turning back to the passenger car, and despite the rattling of the car below my hooves, I hurriedly made my way towards the door, trusting on them being too busy with my friends to see me coming up from behind them.  The raiders poured rounds into my friends as they took cover behind whatever they could find.  I began lining up my first few shots to drop four of the most heavily armed targets in the car.  With them down, there’d be less risk for Carrion and Stone to charge forward and take the others.  With luck, they’d even be distracted enough to lessen their fire.

I reached down for the firing bit of my shotgun, something I had done countless times throughout my journey across the wasteland.  It saved my life.  A shotgun blast grazed me just between my shoulders and along my neck, most of the buckshot flying harmlessly over my head to pepper the door frame and wall of the passenger car.  The force was still enough to send me stumping to the ground with a grunt, not to mention the pain of small lead balls digging into my flesh where they found weak spots in my armor.  Still, it could have been worse.  I could have had my head blown off.

 “Lucky son of a bitch...” I heard a voice growl out from behind me, and without thinking I lashed out with my hooves at the source.  I heard somepony jump back from the attack and quickly managed to pick myself up and face my attacker... or rather, empty air.  No, not quite empty... that shimmering distortion was there before me where it hadn’t been moments before.  It was pony-shaped...

I leapt to the side as another shot ripped from the distortion, sending buck shot flying past me.  Once more, I was only just lucky enough to keep from dying, but not enough to keep the pellets from striking my unarmored flanks.  Harsh, cruel laughter filled the air around me as blood ran down my flanks and hindquarters.  The laughter was odd, creepy, and gut-wrenchingly familiar.

From the shimmering field, a pony appeared before my eyes.  He appeared much like any other raider I’d seen, dressed in crude spiked armor plating and adorned with trophies from the unfortunate ponies he’d gotten his hooves on.  He was a unicorn, with dirty brown mane and dark purple coat, and a half-hidden pony outline as a cutie mark.  However, the two things that marked him out as different from the other wack jobs I’d seen was the odd horseshoes he wore.  The metal came up and over his hooves, almost like armor, but each was lined with wickedly sharp claws.  Getting hit by them would likely rip a pony to shreds.  The other thing was the blue and yellow patches crudely sewn into a saddlebag across his flanks.  Each patch bore a number upon it and one was far cleaner than the rest: a small tattered piece of cloth with the number 45 in yellow numbers.  Stable jumpsuits.

He laughed again as he saw me realize what he possessed. It was laughter I now knew I’d heard the morning we'd been attacked.  Laughter as somepony had begun carving up Wendy’s body with blades.  

“I see you’ve noticed my trophies!  Like them?  I’ve earned quite a few since I started working for that old bitch Mad Eyes.  Seems she’s got something against you Stable ponies.  Wants you all dead.”  As he spoke, his glowing red horn floated up a sawed-off, double barrel shotgun.  The trigger looked rather odd, not meant for an earth pony, but for use with hooves.  With a click, the weapon snapped open and two shells floated out from his saddlebags, “Tell me, how’s your sister?”

I froze at that.  He chuckled and slipped the shells into the weapon.

“She had a very nice ass... well, least until after the fifth stallion got a turn...”  He never had a chance to finish, as my hoof connected with his mouth.  Blood flew into the air along with several of his teeth as I struck him, sending him staggering from the sudden attack.  I followed up the strike by slamming my Pipbuck into the side of his head.  The magic grip that held his shotgun in the air faltered, and the weapon clattered to the rusted steel between our hooves.

I didn’t give him a chance to recover.  As the unicorn raider began to turn back towards me, I slammed the stock of Luna’s Ruse into the side of his face, once, twice.  I yelled madly as I did so.  He grunted and attempted to bring his forelegs up to block my frenzied attacks.  I only brought the weapon down on them instead.  He stumbled into the stacked timber and managed to get ahold of something with his horn.

An iron bar slammed into the side of my face, nearly causing me to black out.  I dropped my weapon on the ground and shook my head, attempting to see clearly once more.  When at last I could, I saw his hooves coming towards my face, wicked steel claws gleaming in the dim afternoon light.  Metal claws dug into the unprotected flesh and ripped muscle.  I bit back a cry of pain and turned my head with the blow as the claws came free, trailing my blood with them.  His remaining forehoof struck me in the chest, leaving deep scars down the armor and knocking the breath from me.  I stumbled back a step and he moved in with a savage, red-stained grin.  

I growled and grabbed hold of his grinning face with both hooves, slamming my head into his.  Perhaps not a smart move what with the horn and all, but it only grazed my scalp and sent my hat flying from my head.  It stunned the unicorn, however, and I went back on the offensive, striking him twice in the face and pushing him back from me, giving me room to move.  I twisted around and sent my hindquarters out to buck him hard in the face or chest, but he saw the move and dodged it.  

His clawed hooves once more struck me, cutting deeply into my flanks and lower hindquarters.  Gritting my teeth, I attempted to turn, only to have him lunge up and onto my back, sending us both crashing to the floor of the flatbed.  I grunted as the heavy weight of the raider pinned me to the ground, and felt him trying to rip away my neck armor so he could slide his hoof claws over my throat.

With a yell, I managed to push both myself and him up off the ground.  Legs burning, I gave a mighty buck and sent the surprised unicorn over my head and onto his back.  He’d managed to slice a red line through my black coat, but luckily it just missed my throat.  Picking myself up fully, I looked up just in time to see him already coming back towards me.  I was worn down from the constant fighting, the heat, and earlier injuries.  He was fresh, and a professional killer.  This was never going to end well.

I managed to strike him again in the face, but the blow lacked any real force behind it.  His, however, packed quite a bit.  He slammed his hoof into my throat, nearly crushing my windpipe despite the protection of my armor (which was meant more for bullets then hooves and bladed weapons).  He followed this up by returning the favor.  Spinning around on his forelegs, he bucked me hard in the chest with his hind legs, sending me sprawling to the floor and gasping for air.  

“Ready to die, kid?”  His blood-stained teeth flashed once more (well, most of them) as he trotted over to me.  He laid a hoof on my throat and pressed down.  I attempted to speak, but all that came out was a gurgle.  He laughed and leaned down close.  “Stable ponies... can’t even talk right.”  He eased up on the pressure to my throat and perked his ears to hear what I had to say.

“What was that?”

“I said... I got your gun.”  Double barrels pressed into his jaw, and his eyes widened in shock as he realized what was about to happen.  I pulled back with my right hoof on both triggers as my left held the weapon steady.  He attempted to jerk his head back, but he was too late.  With a roar that nearly matched Luna’s Ruse for fury, the front of his face disappeared, or rather, splattered across my own.  Somehow, with most of the front of his muzzle missing, he still managed to scream in pain.  Rearing away from me, the near-faceless unicorn stumbled back towards the edge of the car and dropped out of sight over the edge.  Seconds later, the bridge I’d seen earlier was suddenly there, and beams of rusted steel flew past me as we sped across it.  

I tossed the spent weapon aside, smoke still rising from the blood-soaked barrels, and slowly rolled over onto my hooves.  There beside me lay my hat, caught on the corner of one of the wooden beams.  The wind attempted to rip it free as it whipped across the open flatbed.  I picked the hat up and placed it back atop my head calmly.  Then I collected Luna’s Ruse where it had fallen against the pile of timber and slipped the strap back around my neck.  

I glanced back towards the sounds of fighting coming from the passenger car.  There were still more raiders that needed killing.



*     *     *      *      *



As it turned out, my friends had managed to kill most of the raiders barring their path with lucky shots or the raiders’ own stupidity.  The bodies of the dead littered the once-carpeted floor of the passenger car, among spent shell casings, broken health potion bottles, and pools of blood.  Only four remained alive, fighting among the dead.  Their backs were turned to the doorway behind them, their tiny black eyes fixed upon the four ponies beyond their cover.  Assault rifles rattled off a steady stream of bullets; it didn’t seem like they were even aiming.  The noise and their carelessness allowed me to move half way into the car before I opened fire.

Of the four remaining, two went down within seconds of my first shots.  New holes opening in their flanks and sides as shotgun shells struck them.  The wounded pair dropped their weapons in shock and pain, taking them out of the fight completely.  The remaining pair jerked their heads back towards the door and me.  The unicorn of the pair jerked up and started to turn to fire on me when a round from Stone’s rifle shattered his concentration by blowing out his head from a new hole.  The body toppled to the floor upon one of the wounded.

The earth pony snarled and grabbed for a clutch of grenades he had sitting beside him, but whatever he planned was soon ended as I fired off another round and sent the buck tumbling back over the barricade they’d erected.  The raider had hardly gotten his hooves back under him when a hail of bullets struck him from behind and dropped him once more.  

Carrion stood among the bullet-filled tables and chairs of the passenger car, the barrel of his assault rifle smoking as he lowered it and looked across to me.

“Took ya damn long enough,” the ghoul hissed.

I snorted and glanced over the dead raiders, then back up to Stone and Carrion as the pair made their way across the open space between the ends of the car.  

“Sorry, had to help a pony who missed his stop.”  A single yellow dot remained in my E.F.S. It belonged to a fifth surviving raider; the mare left guarding the prisoners’ children.

The shaking red-brown earth pony stood near the foals, a pistol held between her lips and pointed shakily towards me.  Her wide purple eyes lay fixed upon me, red with tears but oddly normal looking.  Something had stopped me from simply placing a round through her head as I had to dozens of raiders on the train.  Her eyes were not the same sickly yellow that the others’ had been, and while she wore the rusty, gore-soaked armor of the raiders, she did not have any body parts hanging from it.  In fact, the closer I looked, the more she appeared to be just a frightened young mare.  In the wrong place, at the wrong time.  

As I stood checking the frightened pony over, my companions finally forced their way over the twisted remains of the raiders and their cover to stand beside me, giving the mare a careful look.  Carrion seemed ready to empty a clip into her, Stone looked unsure, and Balefire, well, I hadn’t known the rash unicorn long to really know what he was thinking.  The zebra mare had once more followed them, and she simply looked to the raider with pity.

I slowly approached the frightened pony and lowered my shotgun from my lips, keeping my movements smooth and simple.  Her bar color in my vision remained yellow (for neutral).  The foals behind her huddled close to one another and simply watched.

“Just lower the weapon, and nopony will hurt you.  We’re just here to free the children and return them to their parents.”  And to stop the train, which we realllly needed to be doing right about now.  And resting.  Goddesses above, I think everything hurt.  All at once.

The uneasy mare jerked her head between the armed ponies behind me.  Eyes wide with fear, she stomped her forehoof once and swiveled her ears.  She looked ready to run or start shooting.  While I doubted the small caliber of her pistol would penetrate my armor and I also found it unlikely she’d manage to hit my face with her aim being so shaky, I was really tired of being shot today.

“Please, we just need to get them home.”  As if she’d been shot, the mare opened her mouth in a wail and the pistol dropped to the floor with a clatter of metal parts.  I half expected it to go off, but upon looking more closely at it, I saw it was nothing more than a piece of rust.  I doubted it’d been fired in over a hundred years.  The mare dropped to her knees and began sobbing.

“Please- please don’t kill me... don’t kill me.  They made me come after they killed my dad.  Please don’t kill me!!” the poor thing wailed and cried openly, the sight beginning to upset the foals behind her that had managed to remain silent for most of the fight.  The flood gates opened, and soon over half the children were crying for their parents.

Thankfully, we’d not need to worry long.  Some of the freed ponies had followed close behind our rampage up the train, hoping to find their captive foals.  As the fighting died down, and the sound of gunfire was replaced with the cry of foals, the parents rushed in.  Beside them came the zebra mare, gently wrapping the former earth pony raider into a warm embrace.

“Ah reckon we might wanna see ta th’ engine now, Shadow, less yer wantin’ more raiders ta join us in this right touchin’ scene,” Stone spoke beside me, the earth pony looking from the gathering prisoners to me.

“Right... let’s finish this.”  I gripped my shotgun and tiredly turned back to the doorway, leaving the prisoners to see to themselves.

The final two raiders gave us little trouble once we reached the front of the train.  Both were unarmed, but still attempted to put up a fight with their shovels used for tossing coal into the fire.  The fight was over before they’d taken a step, each knocked back by the quick firing of Balefire.  The cocky buck grinning as he floated his twin revolvers beside him.

I was at a loss as to how to stop the train.  There were simply so many levers to pull or push within the engine that I didn’t know where to start.  I’d heard that these old steam engines could be prone to exploding if it was not run correctly.  That’d be a bit of irony for you, I survive everything else, but die in a explosion for pressing the wrong button. 

Luckily the problem was taken out of my hoof as Stone simply reached up his own hoof and pulled back on a lever that read ‘throttle.’  The roar of the engine began to noticeably lessen, and our speed decreased slowly.  Then he reached for a larger one near the boiler and pulled hard on it.  With a jerk that nearly sent me head first into the metal controls of the train, we began to grind to a halt, the engine’s spinning wheels screeching loudly over the rusted tracks.  Finally, after fighting our way aboard, rescuing my friend and the other prisoners, slugging our way up from the rear of the train to the head, and killing dozens of crazed raiders, we at last slowed to a complete stop.  Thick clouds of steam hissed out of either side of the engine, rising up into the humid desert air.  Black smoke lazily rose from the stack in the front of the cab, trailing over top of us as we sat upon the tracks.  

We did it.  We actually did it. 

I sank to my flanks and let out a sigh of relief, while beside me Stone and Carrion did likewise.  Balefire placed his forehooves upon the windowsill of the engine and rose up to look outside.  He wore a wide grin on his muzzle as he turned back to us.  

“Woooooowhee, that was something else!” the unicorn yelled, dropping back down to all four hooves as he turned to look my friends and I over with his bright red eyes.  “I was starting to think my number was finally up, but you sure did show those raiders a thing or two.  What’re your names?  Are you guys members of the C.S.E. Rangers?”

I arched a brow to that, and glanced from the green buck to Stone; he knew more about the surface then I.  The earth pony shook his head and answered for me.

“Ah don’t rightly think we are.  While Ah’m occasionally a guard at Crossroads, Ah never joined up with th’ C.S.E.”  He reached up a hoof and removed his hat, the edges dark from his sweat and his mane matted across his forehead and neck.  “What makes ya think we’re Rangers?”

“Not many have a pegasus and sky chariot as backup, ‘cept the Rangers and a few special units of the Confederate Army.”  He motioned his black-maned head towards the window.  “I saw her land and thought she was...”

“Land? Wild’s alright?” Stone at once stood up and slipped his hat back atop his head, the grey pony turning and trotting back out of the engine and onto the coal car. 

I turned my head and looked across his shoulder to the train stretched out behind us along a bend in the tracks.  I spotted the black armored hull of the sky chariot sitting on the ground beside the passenger cars with ponies milling around it.  Stone was already making his way back along the flatbed cars as I picked myself up, Carrion and Balefire following me.

As we went, I saw only the dead raiders and half-destroyed train cars; the prisoners, it seemed, had all gotten off the train near Wild and the others.  We worked our way back several cars until we reached one that still had a few ponies sitting inside it:  a couple with their young foals beside them.  They looked up as we entered, perhaps still afraid raiders might destroy their happiness.  They seemed to relax, however, when they saw me.

Stone climbed out of the car via an open door that had been chained shut earlier.  The earth pony’s tail disappeared out into the dim light of the wasteland day and I followed it.  

As I set hoof outside the train, I was thankful for the steady and very still ground beneath it.  I stepped away from the doorway, allowing the others to follow, and looked over the gathered ponies before me.  There were dozens of them, sitting outside around the train and chariot.  Moving between them, I easily saw the large form of Spirit as she tended to the wounded and sick with whatever medical supplies she had left.  Beside her was the striped zebra, helping the buffalo silently.  

I was truly shocked by just how many ponies there were out here.  Over four dozen, from mares and stallions to young and old.  A rainbow of colors and types.  I saw that most were unicorns and earth ponies, but a few pegasi sat among the others.  There also sat the two griffons I’d seen in the caboose, along with a canine diamond dog and four more zebras.  I heard Carrion mutter something to himself at the sight of the striped equines, Equestria’s former enemies.  I suppose it would be hard for him, since he was actually one of the few ponies to still remember the war as if it was yesterday.

I took a few steps away from the train and over towards Stone as he searched for an orange mare among the colorful ponies.  Standing beside my friend, I began spotting familiar faces among those ponies.  Ponies wearing torn and stained blue-and-yellow jumpsuits, Pipbucks around their lower forehooves, the faded number 45 on their collars and shoulders.  I smiled as I counted eleven in total.  Among them was a sight that brought fresh tears to my eyes.  

Tassles was holding tightly onto a skinny and filthy silver unicorn with both her hooves.  It was her husband-to-be, Silverglow.  Like every other prisoner we’d saved, he was a mass of bruises and scars, but his bright blue eyes shone with tears and happiness at holding his mare once more.  He was alive and I smiled for the couple's joy.  At least one pony from home had a happy ending.

I took a few steps further away from the train and towards the crowd when the griffons noticed me.  The half-feline, half-bird hybrids had been sitting off to themselves mostly, the diamond dog and one or two rough-looking ponies beside them.  The pair locked me with their predatory golden eyes and seemed to be taking stock of me, sizing me up for some reason.  I paused and arched a brow to the two.  After a moment, their harsh glare eased and I noticed a look of respect coming from the natural warriors.  It surprised me; however, what happened next surprised me even more.  

One of the ponies sitting between the griffons and myself seemed to be looking at something on the ground between her fore hooves.  As she turned and glanced back towards me over the crowd, her ears perked up at once.  She slowly, tiredly rose to her hooves and back onto her flanks, and began clapping her forehooves.  Behind her, the griffons joined in, clapping their clawed hands together.  Soon, even the diamond dog was doing the same, and like a wave on the ocean, others began joining in.  

I gingerly took a few steps back towards the train in surprise.  I hadn’t expected this; I’d just done what anypony would have done, hadn’t I?  Spirit and the zebra mare who had been treating the ponies stopped to watch, and the buffalo slowly began smiling as she looked over the ponies around her.

Soon they were cheering or yelling their thanks to me.  When that didn’t seem to do, they began rising up to surround me.  Hooves reached out to shake my own, many of their owners with tears of joy in their colorful eyes.  Thanking me for their lives, for saving their wives or fillies.  The stallions gave way to the mares who hugged me, whispering thanks and prayers to the goddesses for my arrival.  Colts and fillies seemed fascinated by my borrowed Marshall's badge and hat.  The griffons simply gave me a salute, which I managed to return after being hugged by two young fillies.

Behind me, I heard Carrion and Balefire walk up to stand beside me, both looking over the gathered prisoners.  The ghoul said nothing, and simply watched with his glowing orange eyes.  A few ponies slapped him on the back and a brave mare hugged and kissed the ghoul on the cheek.  It was hard to say, but I think he actually blushed.  Balefire simply grinned and stepped aside, letting the prisoners gather near me.

I looked around helplessly.  I had no idea what to do; I’d just followed Stone out to check on Wild and the others.  I wasn’t expecting to be hailed as some sort of hero.  Speaking of my large grey friend, he’d looked away from his search for Wild as the sound of clapping grew louder.  He stood and watched the ponies gather around me and whistled softly.  He reached up to tilt his hat back from his face, and smiled over towards me.

“Well, Ah’ll be...” anything else he was about to say was drowned out as they began to cheer once more.  I felt my cheeks flush as I looked over the faces of everyone we’d saved.  I hadn’t done it alone, after all.  But it seemed that didn’t matter to them.  

 A black and white striped mare slipped through the crowds around me, walking quickly up to me.  Blushing, she stood up on the edges of her hooves and kissed me on the cheek, before hurriedly trotting over to Spirit and a wounded buck.  A light laugh caused my ears to swivel towards the source and a second later my eyes followed them

Wildfire landed beside us in a flutter of feathery wings, dust flowing out from around her orange hooves.  Folding her wings against her side, she gave me a wicked grin and winked.  She had a fresh bandage on her shoulder where the raider had managed a lucky strike, and I also saw a few of her feathers stained with dried blood from the round.  Still, she was in one piece.  

“What’s a matter, Shadow.. .don’t wanna go count her stripes with your tongue?”

I doubt a balefire bomb could match the shade of red my face turned at that.  Beside me, Stone laughed loudly at my darkening cheeks, and even Carrion snorted to himself before he hurriedly looking away.

With my friends around me, and the cheers of the rescued prisoners ringing in my ears, I smiled.  It had been a pretty good day.


Welcome to Level 11!

Perk Added: Ferocious Loyalty: The power of your personality inspires die-hard loyalty from your friends and followers.  When you drop below 50% health, your companions temporarily gain a much greater resistance to damage. 

> Chapter 11: 3:10 To Tombstone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 11: 3:10 to Tombstone


"A gun is a tool, no better or no worse than any other tool: an ax, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the pony using it. Remember that."





“So, what's our next move?”

Wild’s voice broke the silence that had fallen across the group.  I tore my eyes away from the distant lightning on the western horizon and thoughts of my niece to look over at the orange pegasus sitting nearby.  Her feathered wing had easily healed from the grazing shot by the raider sniper (if raiders could be said to snipe; their skill with firearms had thus far proven poor at best, such that their only saving grace was sure weight of numbers), and despite looking as worn as everypony else, she seemed ready to move.  But then, the pegasus always seemed itching to move.  I wonder if all pegasi are like that, always on the move?  

Beside her, Stone looked decidedly less prepared to make the return trip.  The sturdy earth pony’s many wounds had been wrapped in pale white bandages, the stubborn stallion having refused that any more healing potions be used on him.  My friend had told Spirit to give them to ponies more in need of their healing, and, reluctantly, the buffalo had agreed and had instead used the bandages.

Over the course of the past hour, Spirit and her new assistant Kanzi, the zebra mare we’d saved from the raiders in the caboose, had seen to the wounded prisoners.  At first it had looked rather grim, for the buffalo had already used many of our medical supplies on the original survivors at Sticks, and on me back at Wastefall Gorge.  It's not as if we had an overabundance of them in the first place.  

Thankfully, the raiders had had a small collection of health potions and bandages scattered throughout the train, which Kanzi had gone around and collected for us.  The silent striped mare had dropped the saddlebag stuffed with medical supplies before Spirit’s delighted hooves.  With them, Spirit and her new assistant managed to patch up many of the worst cases we’d recovered.  But that still left us with a large number of mending, slow-moving prisoners, half-starved and with any number of ailments.  It would be near impossible to get them all to safety across the desert with raiders and the local wildlife out to kill anything they’d run across.

I looked from Wild’s storm blue eyes to the survivors sitting in the shadow of the train.  Families huddled together for the first time in months without fear of a raider’s lashing whip or brutal hoof.  Mothers held foals to their chests, unwilling to let them go for fear of them being taken away once more.  Husbands laid beside their wives, comforting them after the horrors they had endured at the raiders’ sick ways.  Friends spoke softly with friends as they ate what little rations of food we’d deemed safe from the raiders’ supplies.

Oddly, it reminded me of family gatherings back in Stable 45, when the Overmare would just give everypony the day off and we’d all make our way to the orchard for a picnic.  Ponies would spend the day with loved ones or friends, holding one another close.  Of course, there was less food here, and the temperature was high enough to make one sweat just by standing, and we also hadn’t needed to worry about radioactive monsters out for our blood.  Hmm, come to think of it, maybe this shouldn’t remind me of those picnics.  Despite all the hardships everypony had experienced, there was still a buzz of relief and some joy to be felt from the gathered ponies.

 The final count was forty eight, forty eight lives my friends and I had saved from whatever horrific fate awaited them within the walls of Kanter City or the darkness of the train tunnels ahead.  Forty eight souls that now looked to me as a hero, a savior.   It was not a role I wanted; I was no hero.  I was just a pony.  A lost pony from a Stable who’d gone out to save his friends and family.  I’d saved ponies before, in the Stable, mostly from fires and the odd accident.  It was my job. after all, as it had been my father's, and his father’s before him, and so forth.  Security is there to defend the ponies we have sworn to protect.  

I looked over the gathered faces of the prisoners laying nearby, with  their battered bodies and near-broken spirits.  Who had looked after them?  While we had been safe inside our steel-walled home, what security had defended them?  The Confederacy?  Rose had made it clear that the Confederacy was too far away from Crossroads to offer them help.  Whether it was simply a matter of not having enough pony power to patrol the vast distances, or whether there were simply far too many small settlements like Crossroads, I wasn’t sure.  

My wandering eyes stopped upon a family of four near the edge of the tracks, a mother holding her young son and daughter closely to her chest as their father lay beside them, his midsection wrapped in blood-stained bandages.  While not twins by any means, the two foals reminded me very much of Ebony and I at that age.  Despite the horrors they had witnessed, both children happily hugged their mother while speaking with their recovering father.  I could only hope he would fully recover.

I turned away, far too many memories threatening to surface within my already troubled mind.  Instead, I looked back to my closest friends.  Both Wild and Stone wore worried expressions, but neither said a word, perhaps not wishing to bring up any more painful memories.  They’d seen where my gaze had gone, and likely knew where my thoughts had wandered.  My sister.  Again, the question popped back into my head,

Who had been there to protect my sister?  

I sighed softly, my eyes lifting to the heavens above, to the west.  To Sugar Pie.  Who was looking out for any of us?  Celestia?  Luna?  I had always been taught that they were looking out for us from above.  Yet it seemed the only thing looking down on us from the sky were the thick, grey clouds, blotting out any hope of seeing the sun or moon, along with hope of the immortal goddesses seeing anypony beyond that shroud of grey.  

I picked myself up from the ground, and shook off the dust and dirt that had settled across my armored form and black coat.  The breeze flowed across my mane and tail, relieving some of the heat from my still very sore body.  Who was looking out for us?  Perhaps we should be looking out for one another.  After another few moments of silence, I turned and answered Wild’s earlier question as the solution finally came to me.

“We’re going to find these ponies someplace safe, away from the raiders, away from the horrors they’ve endured.”

Wild tilted her head ever so slightly at my statement and arched an orange-furred brow over her blue eyes.  Beside her, Stone simply took a drink from his water canteen with help from the pegasus’s hoof.  Neither seemed overly surprised by my answer to her question.  I suppose they had half expected me to say something along those lines.  After all, Wild had once told me I was unlike any other pony she’d ever meet; perhaps it was rubbing off on her and my large grey friend.  Carrion, however, was less used to such things and stepped towards me from the shadows of the train, one of his own rotting brows arched above a glowing orange eye.

“No place in the wasteland is safe from raiders, Shadow.  They roam at will, burning and killing anypony who stands up to them.  The only places safe from their reach are those heavily armed enough to withstand them.  The only place that might be safe from them is half way across the wasteland...”

“...San Ponsisco.”  I finished for him, turning to look at the ghoul we’d taken from the tunnels and sewers of Kanter City.  I smiled to the former Equestrian Army pony and nodded my head.  “You're right, it's the only place I’ve ever heard of this side of the Coltorado River that sounds even remotely safe from raiders.  We’re just going to have to get them there.”

“That's hundreds of miles across hostile territory.  There’s no way we can get them all safely across the desert without running into at least one raider patrol... and there will be patrols.  As soon as the train’s overdue, they’ll start looking for it.  I’ll give that bitch her dues, she runs a tight-ass ship,”  Carrion responded with a snort.  “It's not like we can hide the damn thing either.”   He waved a rotting hoof up at the machine behind him and looked over the tired ponies nearby, his shoulders slumping a bit as he sighed (an odd sound with air coming from multiple holes in his throat and cheeks), “I’m sorry Shadow.  I know you mean well, but sometimes there’s just no way to save everypony.”

“Perhaps the train is the answer,” Spirit spoke up as she approached us. The buffalo looked tired; understandable, considering  she’d been working almost non stop to patch everyone up since we’d brought the train to a halt and had not stopped to rest once herself.  “Tombstone has a train station, and from what I have heard, the tracks still run straight to San Ponsisco through the Saddlera Mountains.” 

“Tombstone?  Rather ominous name for a town,” I said, looking from Carrion to Spirit.  The tired buffalo nodded her horned head and went on to explain.

“It was a small town built near the Caledonia border with Equestria many years before the war.”  Caledonia.  If I remembered my history correctly, that was a somewhat large state that had either gone independent of Equestria or been released from the kingdom, but still fell under the rule of the goddesses.  “It’s one of the towns where I went to search for information on my people.  I had heard rumors they may have fled into Caledonia within the past few years.  The country had not been as badly hit as Equestria.  At least, that’s what I have heard, though somehow I doubt that anywhere in the world is like it once was.”

“Right ya are, Spirit. Ah see where yer goin’ with this,” Stone spoke up.  The stallion, who had been laying on his side for much of the past hour, now rolled over onto his stomach and got his hooves under him.

“Well, I’m afraid I don’t know this area very well, beyond the inside of Kanter City and the mountains to the north,” Wild said as she began withdrawing a cigarette from her armour and lighting it.  Stone watched and frowned at her.  He started to swat the smoke away with a hoof, but the pegasus was far quicker and placed it between her lips with a wicked grin and playful wink to the pony.

“Tracks run straight west ta San Ponsisco, and east ta th’ tunnels up yonder.  Splits a couple miles back with one line ta Kanter City and th’ other ta Tombstone,” Stone answered the orange mare’s question with a scowl. 

Wild blinked and opened her mouth to say something, her smoke nearly falling from her lips as she did so before she hurriedly shut it.  Her wide blue eyes traveled from the earth pony sitting beside her to the train behind me.  Eyes widening further as she realized what he was getting at.

“So... you're saying we can ride this thing all the way to Tombstone...”

“...and on to San Ponsisco,” I finished for her, smiling.  This could just work.  “Stone, do you think you can drive this thing?” I asked the stallion.  He had seemed to know a bit about the controls, far more so than I (or at least how to read a sign hanging directly in front of my snout).

“Ah reckon Ah can rightly figure it out, Shadow.  Can’t be much harder ta run then my pa’s mining carts back home.  Just a bit bigger.”  I was turning to Spirit as Wild leaned over to ask Stone just how much bigger the train was from his ‘ol’ cart’.  The stallion snorted and rolled his eyes, then turned and whispered something into the pegasus’ ears, and for once I saw her clamp her mouth shut and blush brightly.  Score one for Stone, it seemed.

“Spirit, when can we move the wounded?” I asked the buffalo.  She looked back at her striped helper before turning back to me and giving me an answer.

“Give us a bit to finish up with the last of the bad cases, and we’ll be ready to go in an hour.”  She turned away from us and went back to tending to the wounded around her, speaking to Kanzi as they worked their way to the worst cases.

I watched her work before turning back to my two friends and saw that Carrion wore a slightly more hopeful expression than his normal scowl.  I also saw that the green unicorn we’d rescued, Balefire, had broken away from the other prisoners and had trotted up to stand near Stone and Wild.  He’d fought beside us while we took the train, fighting just as hard and skilled as my companions (if not a little bit more brash, even more so than Wildfire).  He seemed a skilled gunfighter, and had mentioned having been from San Ponsisco.

“Sounds like you're the pony with a plan,” he said, red eyes drifting from my sitting friends to me.  “If you can get us to San Ponsisco, I can get you inside.”

“Ah reckon we can find our own way inside th’ city,” Stone said with a snort and shake of his head.  A green hoof was pushed near his face and he arched a brow up to it’s owner.

“How long’s it been since you last visited San Ponsisco, old timer?  Things have changed in the past couple years; they don’t let just anypony inside the walls.  Specially not a group of heavily armed ponies like yourselves with a train last known to be in the possession of raiders.”  His stare traveled from my friend to me, and he continued.  “I’m already along for the ride... all I’m saying is let me help.  I’m not the type to be useless... well, not completely.”

“And how exactly are you planning on getting us inside?” Wild asked as she flexed her bandaged wing, “You a personal friend of the President?”  It was said jokingly and with a grin, so imagine her surprise at his response.

“Actually... yes I am.  She raised me after my town was burned to the ground.”

Wild once more today snapped her jaw shut.  Balefire simply shook his black-maned head and looked once more to me.

“Alright, I never turn away a pony willing to help,” I answered.  I could use all the help I could get, and had thus far turned down nopony.  Well, except maybe Rose’s offer to help.  I looked from Balefire to the two other ponies stepping towards me and smiled.  Tassles and Silverflash had finally come up for air long enough to stand nearby, willing and able to help, it seemed as they simply nodded their heads to me.  My smile widened as I looked over the gathered ponies, buffalo, and zebra near me.

“Alright, while Spirit and Kanzi are seeing to the wounded, we’ll start by cleaning out the train cars of the bodies, as well as anything useful.  I doubt we’ll have the time to fix them all up, so we’ll focus on the two nearest the front of the train,” I announced, outlining my plan.  “When we’re finished with that, Stone will take Silverflash to the engine and figure out how to drive this thing.  Wild, once we’re underway I want you scouting ahead of the train to look for that switch in the tracks.  We don’t want to miss it and end up back in Kanter City Station.”  Everypony stood up that had not already been standing and trotted towards the open doors to the train car behind me.  I was about to turn and follow them inside when I saw the two griffons walking towards me.

“Can ya use a bit more help there stranger?” the male asked me.  Both he and his female companion were covered in brown feathers, fading to white near the edges.  Their feline hindquarters had the same color of fur, and their tails ended in tufts of almost pure white fur.  

“As I said, I never turn away help.  My name’s Shadow.  How about you two?”  I turned away from the train to face the two griffons and looked them over.  Like buffalo and zebras, I’d only seen their kind in books and old videos of the war found in the Stable’s school room.

Both wore faded, torn and filthy uniforms of some sort, dull olive green in color with pale yellow stripes running down the sides and sleeves.  I saw places where armor pieces had been fixed with buckles and straps to the suits.  They still wore empty weapon harnesses on belts and straps across their large forms.  The more slender female griffons uniform seemed to have a few more markings on one sleeve; perhaps she outranked him?

“Call me Griff, and the fowl-tempered ball of musty feathers next to me is called Razor,” Griff spoke up, answering for them both. Razor narrowed her yellow predatory eyes upon Griff at his choice of words before huffing and shaking her head.  I arched a brow and Griff smiled a bit sadly.  “Razor doesn’t say much anymore, not since the raiders cut out her tongue for talking back to them.”

“I’m sorry.”  Somehow I wondered if not all the world's problems could be solved by killing every last raider on the planet.  A task I’d be more than happy to help on.  I shook my head from the dark thoughts before looking back to Griff,  “You two mercenaries?” I asked, noting their similar uniforms and remembering Wild saying that most if not all griffons in the wasteland belonged to some sort of mercenary group.  She also said they tended to be a bit ruthless and Stone had called them cap-mongers.  Well, you know what they say about the pot calling the kettle black; I’d seen that pony loot trashcans for stuff to sell.

“We were,” Griff said with a slight frown, and beside him Razor hissed and elbowed him in the ribs, an action I felt was commonplace among the pair.  Narrowing her golden eyes on her companion, she tapped her hind paw and glared at him until Griff cleared his throat and hurriedly added, “We are.  Or at least, we’re all that’s left of our unit.”  He waved a clawed hand back to two ponies walking up behind them, the same I’d seen sitting with them earlier.  

One was a pale blue unicorn mare with a dark purple mane and tail, and beside her stood a tan earth pony mare, who’s black mane and tail were tied back in bands and who seemed to stand closer to the unicorn as my eyes passed over them.  Both ponies wore the same olive drab clothing of the griffons.  The unicorn’s cutie mark was of an orange flame, and the earth pony’s was a spark battery with two wires crossed.  Both had salvaged weapons from the train, though it seemed they’d been repaired by a pony who knew a thing or two about weapons.

“This here’s Sparks, and the small mare beside her’s Jury Rig.”  Both nodded their heads in greeting as their names were mentioned.  Griff grinned and leaned in close to me.  The odd griffon held up a clawed hand beside his beak as if to hide his next words from the pair standing right beside him.

 “Don’t go hitting on either one.  They like the tongue, if you catch my drift.” I heard a tiny squeak come from Jury and she blushed brightly.  Griff snickered before a sizeable stone struck him on the side of his head and he looked over to the still-glowing horn of Sparks.  The unicorn narrowed her sharp green eyes on the griffon before turning to look over at me.

“Ignore him.  He acts like such a foal sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Griff joked, earning a slap from Razor.  Luckily, her claws didn’t seem to cut his flesh.  “Ow... the abuse I get from all you ladies.  Of all the groups I could have been stuck with in this wasteland, it’d have to be my own aunt and a couple of lesbo mares who won’t even let me watch!”  The griffon dropped back onto the ground and groaned, earning several laughs from the ponies around us and glares from his three female companions.

I chuckled as well as I watched Griff scramble back to his feet under the swift kicks of both mares.  It reminded me very much of the trip to Kanter City with Stone and Wild, and the things the two had done to one another along the way.  Despite what they had said about griffons, I found myself warming up to the odd group of mercenaries and, more than likely, friends.  After all, it seemed unlikely that anyone could band together out here in hell and not make friends with those watching your back.

“Well, if you're up to helping us remove the bodies from the train, I suppose we should get started.  It’d give Stone and Silver more time in the engine.”



*     *     *     *     *



The next hour and a half became a very bloody, very dirty job.  We hauled the foul smelling bodies of the dead raiders from the row of train cars and tossed them in a pile.  We neither had the time nor the desire to bury them all.  They may have looked like ponies, but they were no different from the radscorpions or geckos I’d encountered across the wasteland.  Most had bled out across the floors of the train cars, but a few still left red smears where they were dragged out.  The griffins had a much easier time of it, with their strong clawed hands to help them easily carry the bloated bodies out.  Balefire had his magic to lift one end up and drag them out.  I had to alternate using my hooves and mouth.

Meanwhile, Spark, Jury, and Wild searched through the raiders’ armor and saddlebags from the bodies we’d dropped outside for anything useful.  Mostly they recovered spare clips, magazines, and lose rounds for the weapons we’d taken off the dead.  There were a few close combat weapons as well, but they were just some rusty knives and daggers.  Only a small number of healing items were uncovered from the packs of the raiders; only bandages and a couple of health potions.  Kanzi had done a very thorough job of searching for supplies for Spirit and the wounded.  We did, however, find a large number of drugs shoved into nearly every pocket or pouch they had.

At last we finished with the grim task, and under the suggestion of Griff, hauled packs full of sand onto the train and tossed it over the spilled dark blood, soaking much of it up.  After that, we used scraps of wood or metal to scrape up the gelled blood and tossed it onto the side of the tracks.  As I had expected, it took us awhile to remove the dead and clean up only two train cars.  The rest had been badly damaged in our fight and would take far longer to clean up before we could allow anyone to lay inside them.  Spirit had been adamant about getting one car as clean as possible for the wounded ponies, decreasing the already high risk they had of suffering an infection.

With Stone, Silver, and Tassles busy in the engine, Wild strapped herself into the flight harness of the sky chariot and lifted off from the dry, cracked desert soil.  The recovering mare easily floated the black armored chariot over the tracks and parked train.  She positioned herself above the roofless train car and slowly lowered herself and the former military transport down from the darkening sky and onto the empty car.  We’d tossed most of the broken chairs, tables, and litter from the car onto the sides of the tracks to make room, gutting the car even more so than the raiders had. 

At first I’d thought we’d just simply unload the lumber from one of the flatbeds, giving us a much larger, safer area to park the chariot (Wild was not about to leave the vehicle behind, nor was I; it have gotten us this far and it seemed wrong to just abandon it).  Stone, however, had pointed out that good ponies (along with zebras, diamond dogs, and griffons) had all given their lives for those pieces of wood.  It would be a waste to just leave them rotting alongside the tracks with the dead bodies, or to let the other raiders reclaim them.  Crossroads had built their wall from scrap metal and salvaged bits of junk.  What could somepony do with actual building materials, well... it was worth holding onto. 

As night began to descend upon us, we finished with the last of our tasks and prepared to get underway.  At least, we meant to do so.  While we had been hard at work preparing the train for its departure, tragedy once more struck the former prisoners of Kanter City.  Three of the injured ponies we’d fought so hard to save died of their wounds, despite everything Spirit and Kanzi did to heal them.  The trio had fought their own battles against the inevitable, but at last the grim pony of death claimed them all.



*     *     *     *     *



The bodies of two stallions and an elderly mare lay upon the rough ground beside the tracks, covered by an old battered tarp somepony had found aboard the train.  It was a pitiful sight that greeted me as I approached the three still forms.  Spirit stood over them as Kanzi saw to the wounded, the large buffalo’s grey-blue eyes staring mournfully down at the dead before her hooves and at the light tan earth pony colt that sat nearby.  His short black mane hiding his face, but judging by the shaking of his small form, I imagined that his face was streaked with tears.  

I’d seen the young pony with an older stallion hours before as Spirit tended to the older pony’s wounds.  Had it been his father?  An older brother?  Or just somepony who’d given a damn about a young colt on his own in the wasteland?  I sighed and stepped softly up to my friend as she glanced over to me.

“All three were from my home,” she said softly, pointing a large black hoof to the covered body the colt sat beside.  “He use to run the general store with his son.  He’d known my father since he moved to Wastefall, and used to give me candy his sister made when I was young.”

“Did anypony else from your home survive?” I asked after several minutes of silence.  She nodded her horned head and looked away from the bodies and me to the ponies standing respectfully nearby.  There were twenty, over half the ponies we’d saved.

“Yes, just under half of the population of my home managed to survive long enough to be rescued.  Many were killed defending Wastefall.  It’s a small miracle that you arrived when you did, Shadow, for I doubt they would have lasted much longer.  From what I have heard them say, the tunnel was nearly complete and they would have no further need for them.”

As she said those words my ears twitched and I looked once more to the small gathering of ponies nearby.  A miracle?  Me?  That was the second time I’d been called that today, and others had used the word hero, but I’d really only just done what any pony should have done.  Shaking my head, I looked back to the bodies.  No, I was neither a hero nor a miracle.  If I had been, I would have gotten there a lot sooner and saved a lot more lives.  I looked to the colt, who had laid his head down upon the plastic tarp covering his dead father.  I would have prevented a young colt from having to grow up without his father.  I would have saved my sister.

“We’ll make sure they get a proper burial before we leave,” I spoke softly to my large friend, laying a hoof on her shoulder.

Spirit nodded her head and offered me a kind smile before standing up and walking lightly towards the bodies and the morning colt.  The young pony looked up from his father's body to the buffalo standing over him, his large green eyes red from crying.  Gently, she reached out and pulled him close to her.  The colt wrapped his hooves around her body and sobbed. 



*     *     *     *     *



We carefully choose the spot to bury those we had lost not far from the track, for time was an still an issue to the living.  The longer we remained in once place, the higher the chance we’d be discovered by the raiders searching for the train, or simply by one of the many other horrors that plagued the world.  Still, none of us could simply leave these three ponies to the fate we’d chosen for the bodies of the raiders.  They would not be left to rot in the hot arid desert for coyotes and other scavengers to tear into.  No, we would make sure they were properly cared for, the way ponies should always treat their lost loved ones.

The three still bodies lay carefully wrapped in whatever we had found aboard the train, mostly old blankets and tarps, having been gently lowered into graves dug out by the same tools they had used to clear the tunnel for their former masters.  Four wooden markers stood watch above them, driven into the hard, cracked soil of the wasteland by hammer and hoof.  Three of them bore a single name and a crude image of their respective cutie marks.  The fourth was placed over an empty hole for the lives lost within the sewers and ruins of Kanter City.

Everyone was there.  Whether friends, family, or just their fellow prisoners, all had gathered to pay their last respects.  The young colt sat beside his father's grave, having not moved since we’d lowered his body into the hole.  He’d only allowed Spirit near him since his father had died, and had not spoken.  Whenever somepony approached him, even those from his former home town, he simply hid behind Spirits large frame and looked to the ground.  

As Stone and Silver finished their work on the engine, the pair, along with Tassles, trotted out to join us for the short ceremony.  Spirit rose to her hooves as the last ponies settled in and moved to stand beside the graves, turning to face the crowd.  Silence settled over us all and the dry desert air rustled through the brightly colored manes and tails of the assembled ponies, the brown feathers of the griffons, and striped manes of the zebras.

“I am afraid that I am not much of a speaker, as those who knew me as a young calf can atest to.  My father had always been much better at this sort of thing than I.  But my father is among the dead and buried, and after all he has taught me, it seems unfitting to just leave without saying something.”  She glanced to the four graves and the three shrouded bodies laying inside.  “It's never an easy thing, saying farewell to loved ones and friends.  Especially when it seems that we shall never see them again.  While that is true, that we will never see them again in this world... we will see them again in the next.”  She looked up from the graves to the assembled ponies, zebras, griffons, and the single diamond dog who stood at the back.

“Father always taught me that when a pony or buffalo dies, they go into a better place.  A place where all who have gone before them await their arrival with smiles and warm wishes.  They go to a place where the spirits of our ancestors take them in and wash away the horrors of the life they had known, of the pain and suffering they had endured.  In this place, the sun still shines down on foals playing in green fields of brightly colored flowers.  The moon blankets the night, standing watch over those same sleeping foals.”  Tears ran down her cheeks as she spoke, and several of the ponies gathered around us shared similar looks.  To my surprise, even Wild appeared to be near tears.  Beside her, Stone wrapped a foreleg around her shoulder and pulled her close.

“Father always believed this place exists, far from the evilness of this world, in a place of harmony and love.  So I will tell you this.  Morn for the loss of your friends, family, and loved ones this day.  But tomorrow, rejoice, for they have gone ahead to make a place for us in that land of peace.  One day, we will all be together again.” 

When she had finished speaking, six ponies moved away from the crowd and towards the graves.  Lifting shovels in mouth or magic, they began filling in the holes of the graves.  A number of the gathered crowd began making their way back towards the train, the griffons and zebras among them.  As the shovelfuls of dirt fell atop the bodies, those who had remained behind began to make their way past the graves before following the others back to the train.  

The route back took them around a low rocky hill that hid the grave sites from any prying eyes, a spot picked to allow the dead to rest peacefully.  Even the griffons remained silent as they spread their wings and took to the sky, lazily drifting back over the hill.  Wild, Stone and Carrion stood beside me as we watched them all go and the six ponies finish their grim task.  Spirit and the colt stood watching off to themselves, the buffalo speaking softly to the young pony.

“So you really think this will work, taking them to San Ponsisco?” Wild asked softly as we watched the ponies toss the final few shovelfuls of soil atop the bodies.  Behind us, the last of the ponies trotted around behind the hill and out of view. 

“Yes, I do.  It's our only chance of getting them someplace safe and I’m not about to just abandon them in the middle of nowhere.  Not after all we did to save them from the raiders.”  I doubted any of my friends would even have suggested it, but I wanted to crush that thought right now should it even be there.  Both Wild and Carrion were practical ponies, military ponies.  They both had been trained to accept the loss as part of their jobs, and to a lesser extent so had I.  But I was not ready to give up just yet.  “I’d thought about trying to take them to Crossroads, but given the trouble they’re having with their water supply, I doubt they could take in so many new ponies.  Plus there is the simple problem of getting them there around Kanter City.” I glanced between my friends and then to the western horizon.  “Also, it’s where Sugar Pie and the others from my Stable will be.  I promised her I’d return.”

“If there’s one thin’ Ah’ve learned from travelin’ with ya, it’s th’t ya always keep yer promises, Shadow,” Stone spoke up kindly with a smile, the grey earth pony standing up from his seat near Wild.  Looking from me to the others, he started back towards the train.  “We’d best get goin’, then.  It's a long haul ta Tombstone.”

Wild looked from the stallion to me and rose to her hooves.  “At least I can sit most of this trip out,” she shrugged.  Flapping her wings, she rose gracefully into the dark sky, catching up with Stone to fly along beside him just above the ground.  

Carrion stood up and glanced off towards the west and Kanter City.  Releasing a soft grunt, the ghoul closed his glowing eyes before following the others back towards the tracks.

Giving the four graves one more look, I stood up and trotted over towards the fourth marker in the row, the one with the names of all those we’d lost.  I placed my right hoof upon the simple wooden plank and gave it a gentle pat.  I doubted anything short of somepony yanking them out on purpose would remove it.  After insuring the others were driven in as well, I turned and followed after the hoof prints of my friends.  

Behind me, the wind blew across the fresh piles of upturned soil and sand, blowing a bit of dust over the markers and into the carefully etched names of the ponies that lay there.  The fourth marker's list of names was indeed long, but the one name right at the top stood out, with its size and its careful, loving detail.

Ebony.



*     *     *     *     *



As quietly as I could, I made my way through the narrow walkway between the huddled forms of the sleeping ponies around me, and towards the rear of the car.  Outside, the desert landscape rolled peacefully past the shattered windows under the cover of darkness.  The train moved much slower in reverse with the engine at the wrong end of the row of cars, the clatter of the wheels over the steel tracks almost calming as we moved and rocked across the rails.  

Watching over the boiler and the engine were Stonehoof and Silverflash (the pony was a skilled engineer and had been one of Gearbox’s top repair ponies).  Tassles was likely also with them, the mare unwilling to let her fiance out of her sight since we’d rescued him from the raiders.  I couldn’t blame her for that, nor could many of the resting forms around me as ponies snuggled close to one another.

The only light within the tightly packed passenger car came from my Pipbuck as I shone it before me.  I’d woken up a short while ago, and found myself unable to drift back to sleep, my dreams troubled with images of my sister, both from happier times in our former home and of how I found her.  I’d woken up covered in sweat and tears and so I’d decided to check on how every other pony who was still awake was doing.  It was turning out to be a very short list, as most were sound asleep.  

I’d been unable to find Wild, and one of the few awake in my car had mentioned seeing the winged mare moving back towards the rear car with her sky chariot aboard.  Since Stone was likely asleep, Carrion had taken up residence in the caboose, and Tassles and Silver would be enjoying some quiet time between one another, I decided to check in on Wild.

Reaching the door to the car, I lifted a hoof up and ever so quietly pulled it open.  Despite being nearly kicked from its frame, and the countless abuse from the raiders’ own years of mistreatment, the door opened smoothly and I managed to slip out without waking anypony.  Dry desert air blew between the train cars as they gently rocked over the tracks, the breeze rustling through my mane and tail, tugging at my new hat.

For a moment I looked off to the right and simply watched the wasteland pass by.  While we were not going much faster than we could have galloped, many of the ponies we had aboard couldn’t even walk more than a few minutes before being forced to drop to their knees.  It may be no faster or even slower than on hoof, but it would get us all there in one piece.

After several minutes of just watching the distant rocky mountains and shadowy shapes pass by, I turned away and reached out for the door to the next car.  I however found it already opening to the sight of the striped zebra mare who’d been helping Spirit since we’d saved her.  Kanzi’s bright blue eyes widened in surprise and she took a few steps back from me before hurriedly looking away.

“I’m sorry to startle you, Kanzi,” I began with a gentle smile.  The mare had been treating me oddly since I’d saved her.  “I was just coming to check on Wild and see how Spirit and yourself are doing.”

“We’re doing well, sir.” I was a bit surprised to hear her speak to me; the shy zebra had only spoken to her fellow zebra and Spirit.  “The injured are well, and Spirit Walker is resting now.  She left me in charge.”  She sounded a bit worried about this and I smiled, laying a hoof lightly on her shoulder. She flinched from the sudden touch but did not pull away.

“You’re doing a fine job, Kanzi.  And please, just call me Shadow.  Save the sir for those old and grey.”  I lowered my hoof and waited for her to step aside.  When she stood there, looking at the floor, I arched a brow, “Is something wrong?”

“No, just...” she seemed about to say something when she shut her mouth and hurriedly stepped out of the doorway.  “It’s nothing.  Forgive me for blocking your path, sir.” 

“Nothing to worry about.”  I walked around her, and trotted as quietly as I could on my hooves through the car with sleeping injured ponies.  I spotted Spirit laying on the floor near the corner of the room sound asleep, her head resting on her saddlebags as a makeshift pillow.

There were eight ponies laying asleep within the car, those judged too injured to be far from medical help should it be needed.  As I walked past them, I glanced over the resting faces of the ponies along the car.  Most had internal injuries from being struck by the raiders’ hooves and whatever other blunt instrument was nearby.  One had his hind legs broken in a number of places; what purpose he could serve in working to clear the tunnel was beyond me.  

I heard the door click silently behind me as Kanzi shut it, and I made my way up to the far door beside the sleeping buffalo.  As I neared, I saw my friend was not alone.  Sleeping curled up against her large frame was the young colt, resting if not soundly, at least warmly.  A smile broke out across my muzzle as I watched the pair resting, one leg wrapped around the young colt holding him close.  Both orphans of Wastefall, both bound by loss.  

Looking back to the door, I reached a hoof out for the handle and turned it slowly.  As I pulled the door open, a soft groan seemed to echo throughout the train car.  The hinges gave off a soft squeak, and I was afraid it would disturb some of the wounded.  I winced and laid my ears back as I glanced back to the row of sleeping ponies.  It seemed, however, that it was not loud enough to disturb even Spirit and the young colt that lay nearby.  As I began turning back to the door, I spotted Kanzi looking towards me with a slight blush on her white cheeks.

I hurriedly stepped out into the dry desert air, closed the door, and shut my eyes.  Sweet Celestia, not another mare who seemed interested in me.  At least none had been as forward as Rose.  Ebony would have teased me relentlessly for all of this if she’d been here, then likely worked to set me up with one, if not all, of them.  That mare was so naughty.  I began to turn away from the door when I realized that I had just thought of my sister as still being around.  A slight tinge of pain ran through my heart and I sighed.

Having gone through something like this twice before, I knew the pain would eventually fade with time and help.  But then, both times before I’d had Ebony there to help me through it.  We’d both grieved the death of our parents deeply when we lost them, our father first to his injuries and mother a few years after from a mix of old age and sorrow.  If not for one another, I doubt we’d have managed so easily to carry on.  We’d always had a special bond, being twins and all.  

Mom had always delighted in telling anypony who’d listen how cute we had been as foals.  How we’d seem to be thinking and saying things almost at the same time.  In fact, our first words had been said within seconds of one another; oddly enough, it had been ‘cupcakes.’  But then, mom had always spoiled us with treats.  It was like we were really just one pony, but still different enough to each be unique.  Now, however, I was on my own, forever.  That thought alone frightened me more than I cared to admit.  I’d always thought that Ebony would be with me for as long as we both lived.  It didn’t seem possible for one twin to go on without the other.  

A sudden jolt from the train nearly caused me to stumble onto my face.  Opening my eyes, I found myself standing within one of the ruined train cars that we’d simply not had the time to clean; it had been far too damaged in the fight.  Broken bits of chairs and tables lay scattered in piles along the edges of the room, along with shards of glass and spent shell casings.  Thankfully, we had at least swept most of the debris to the sides.  The floor rocked again and I heard the entire car groan as we passed over a bad section of track or some other issue occurred.  Within moments we were once more traveling along steadily and it seemed that whatever the problem had been, it had passed. 

Shaking my head of thoughts of my sister, I pushed on through the car and towards the next doorway, with the roofless passenger car just beyond it.  Pushing the door open, I found the bulk of the sky chariot filling nearly the entire car ahead and crushing anything we’d been unable to remove.  Closing the door behind me, I carefully climbed over the flight harness that jutted out from the front of the chariot and made my way around to the side.

I scanned the area and saw no sign of Wild.  Perhaps she’d slipped inside the chariot or had gone back to the caboose to talk with Carrion.  The two had known one another for a bit longer than anyone else.  Perhaps she had gone to knock some sense into the brooding ghoul.  The door to the chariot was halfway shut, only being left open a hoofs breath wide, I could see the dim lighting of the inside and the opposite door sealed completely.  Hmm, likely the caboose, then, as there didn’t seem to be anypony inside.  

I was just passing by the doorway when a sound from within the chariot caught my ear, followed by the chariot swaying just a bit on its landing struts.  Odd, but I placed another hoof towards the rear of the car, as I figured the large armored machine was likely just settling as the train moved.  But once again I found myself stopping as once more a soft grunt from within the chariot caused my ears to swivel towards the open door.  Okay, now I was curious.  What the hay was going on here?  Was somepony messing around inside the chariot?  Wild would flip her bit if there was.

Turning back to the armored sky chariot, I quietly approached the slightly ajar door and placed a hoof up to gently slide the door open a bit more so I could fit my head through and better see inside.  Luckily, Gearhearts had done a truly amazing job of repairing the chariot and the door did not rattle once as it rolled back along its track.  Poking my head in, I looked from right to left and froze as I spotted somepony inside.

Wild was inside alright... unless there was another orange feathered pegasus aboard the train.  She wasn’t alone as I’d expected, however.  Stone was with her, and the two were in the back of the chariot doing something between the seats.  I couldn’t quite see past the chairs and blinked as I saw orange hooves grasping over the edge of the seat in front of them.  Stone was behind her really close to the mare.  Suddenly they rolled out into the alley and into view, the first thought in my mind was, Wow, Wild’s sorta flexible... wait...

Oh.  

My.  

Goddess.

If I could see my face, I’m sure it had turned every shade of red in the spectrum known to ponydom and my eyes were as wide as saucers.  I jerked my head back out of the chariot and hurriedly shut the door, not bothering to be silent about it since they’d started making a LOT more noise now.  Ears laid back in shock I stepped away from the slightly rocking chariot and back towards the passenger car I’d just left moments ago.  Just back away slowly... they are busy, very busy... 

“Hey Shadow...”

“AGH!!!” I jumped and flailed my hooves around madly before stumbling back over the flight harness I’d forgotten lay in my path.  I  landed in a tangle of hooves and wires, looking at a very confused buffalo upside down with stars spinning around her head.  No, wait, those were circling my head.  Spirit tilted her non-star-encircled head slightly and arched a brow over her grey blue eyes down at me.

“Um... I did not mean to startle you, Shadow,” she said gently, reaching a hoof down to help me up from the floor.  I took the offered help, and managed to untangle myself from the flight harness as I rose, kicking out a hind leg that had been wrapped about with a cord.

“Oh, sorry... I just wasn’t expecting anyone to come up behind me.”  I winced a bit at my choice of words.  Sweet Celestia’s shiny flanks this was worse than walking in on my parents... wait... no it wasn’t, but it was damned close!  That had been a very awkward conversation.  Also, how did Stone run with that... no no no no no get outta my head dammit!!

“Oh, alright.  Well, I was actually looking for Stone.  He isn’t in the engine with the others, and Tassles said Wild had stopped by earlier and had wanted to show him something back around the chariot for a few hours.”  Oh yes, she was showing him quite a lot.  There was MUCH showing going on right now in the chariot behind me.  “Have you seen him?”  More than I wanted.  Ever.

“No!  Haven’t seen Wild on Stone... I mean around.  Haven’t seen them.  Nope!” I smiled widely at Spirit, sweat running down my brow as I stood with my back to the slightly rocking sky chariot.  Did it ALWAYS have such squeaky landing gear?!  

“I see.  Well, I just wanted to check him over and make sure his bandages did not need changing,” the buffalo said, eyes going from me to the chariot behind me as the squeaking grew a bit louder.  I laughed, loudly, perhaps too loudly by the odd expression she was suddenly giving me.

“I’m sure he’s fine.” I’m also sure Wild is checking him over very very closely right now.  “Say, why don’t we go back inside with the others.  I think I hear your laundry calling!”  I lifted a hoof up and gently turned her away from the chariot and pointed her towards the door, giving her a gentle shove away from the chariot.

“Um... but I don’t even wear clothes... ”



*     *     *     *     *



As luck would have it, once we reached the temporary medical car, Spirit had two new patients to take her mind off of my sudden odd behavior.  A good thing too, as she’d been asking me if I was running a fever or been seeing things while we walked back through the empty cars.  Well, I’d seen some things alright, but nothing I wanted to share with the medical buffalo, though given her trade I guess it wasn’t anything she hadn’t already seen before.

Entering the passenger car, I saw many of the injured ponies were still deep asleep.  Their worn bodies were forcing them to get some much needed rest.  Griff turned his head towards us as he heard the sound of the door opening; I still found that sharp stare somewhat disturbing from the griffon.  Beside him, his aunt Razor was helping Kanzi with one of the injured ponies, lifting him from his bed and onto his flanks so the zebra could give him some water.  

The pair had forgone any treatment while the train had been just sitting along the tracks, probably because neither seemed to want to sit in one place for very long and risk capture again.  They had instead focused on helping us get back underway, much to Spirits’ disapproval.  While Griff seemed relatively unharmed, Razor’s throat injury looked as bad as it had sounded when they’d told us.  

As we’d been hauling the dead raiders from the cars, I’d gotten a good look at the griffon’s injured neck.  Whoever had done it had used a serrated knife to slice through the flesh and left a nasty scar that could not have healed very quickly.  It was amazing she hadn’t bleed to death, and it had only been due to a health potion that one of their gang had managed to sneak in with them that the griffon had survived.  

Kanzi and Razor finished assisting the injured buck and the zebra was helping him rise from his makeshift bed.  It was the same pony whose legs had been broken and he had to rely on others to get anywhere, likely the bathroom at the moment.  Or in our case, the side of the train.  It seemed odd they hadn’t included bathrooms on board something hauling ponies across the country.

As the door clicked shut, Razor approached the buffalo and pointed a talon at her own throat, and her nephew stepped up beside the mute griffon and explained, “She’s been having some issues with swallowing over the past couple hours; she may have popped something while lifting the bodies out of the train.”  

Spirit arched a brow and looked to where the talon pointed, leaning in closer to better see.  She snorted and tossed her horned head a bit.

“You should have told me immediately when this started.”  With another snort she rose up and stepped towards her saddlebags and the medical supplies she kept inside.  “Come on over here near the window where there’s a bit more light and I’ll have a look.”

Griff looked to his aunt who simply waved him off and followed after Spirit.  I noticed something cross Griff’s face as he watched her walk off to have her injuries looked at.  And while I know I hadn’t known either of them long, and the beak was at times harder to read than a muzzle, I believe a look of concern crossed his face.  

He looked about the car at the sleeping ponies and then over to me.  Seeing me watch him he hurriedly dropped the concerned look and instead adopted his grin and waved to me with a clawed hand.  Turning, he walked over towards me and sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall of the train car.  This close up, I saw he’d not escaped captivity without a few signs of the raiders abuse.  He spoke first, looking from his injured aunt to me.

“So I hear tell you're one of those Stable dwellers?” he asked, looking away from his aunt to me.

“Yeah, from Stable 45.  Just on the other side of the Povoni Desert, near Crossroads,” I answered with a nod of my head.

“Ran across a couple Stable ponies in my time wandering across the wasteland.  Used those fancy Pipbucks to do some amazing things,” he said, pointing a talon at the one around my hoof.  “Even had a member of my crew who owned one, said it belonged to his great grandfather who came outta one of those Stables.”  The griffon added, “Sometimes I think he was just lying his sorry ass off about that and he stole the thing; he had sticky hooves.  But he seemed to know how to use it and I somehow doubt there’s a ten step program you guys can attend on how to use the thing.”

“It's always been a very useful thing for me to have.  In a Stable they are passed down through generation to generation.  At least in mine that's how it happened. This one belonged to my grandfather,” I said, looking down at the grey band forever wrapped around my right foreleg, the green screen glowing faintly in the dim lighting of the train car.  “It's become a real lifesaver since I came to the surface.  Keeping me alerted to threats I have yet to see, keeping me updated on my supplies and ammo in my weapons.” 

“A handy thing to have around.”

Indeed it was.  I also found it interesting to hear of other Stables across Equestria.  We’d all been raised with the knowledge that we were just one of, well, at least forty-four other Stables, but we always knew there were a lot more than just that.  There had to be to hold thousands of ponies safely underground from the effects of radiation, all of them waiting for the day to release us back into Equestria to begin rebuilding pony society from the ashes of war.  Yeah.  That went about as well as could be expected I suppose.  To be fair, it's a work in progress...

“Well, I suppose I owe that grey wristband of yours as well.”  At my confused look he went on to explain, “You're the first bit of luck we’ve had in a really long, shitty few weeks.  Never did thank you for saving our collective asses. Though I’m sure the girls are out making sure those asses are fine... ” he grinned wickedly and wiggled his eyebrows at me.  Well, I knew Stone was checking Wild’s.

“Its alright, I’m just sorry I hadn’t gotten there sooner.  I take it you’ve been held captive for awhile then?” I asked, attempting to make some small talk to help pass the time, and help get my mind off the chariot.  I swear, I’d never be able to sit inside it again. 

“Actually just a couple of days really, a week at most, but our string of bad luck has been with us for longer.”  He snorted and ran a clawed hand through the feathers of his head; oddly, they looked a bit like a pony’s mane, with his just slightly spiked, running along his head down his neck, the brown feathers tipped with darker browns and blacks.  “All started with the last caravan job we took out of Dise.”

“Dise?” I arched a brow at the name.  Who the hell names their town Dise?  I’d never heard of it, nor saw it on my map.  But that was hardly new.  While my Pipbuck had been happily naming the places I’d found, I seemed to have to at least have traveled there, or been within a certain range of them.

“Paradise is what it used to be called, lovely city down in what used to be Caledonia.  Hear it was a true wonder to behold it its heyday, still a colorful place today.  Not much you can’t find in Dise, no matter what you’re into.”  He chuckled and seemed to focus on that for a moment as a goofy grin spread across his beak.  “I’ll have to get back that way sometime, I suppose.  Most fun I’ve had in awhile.”

“So you guys protect caravans then?” I asked, attempting to steer the conversation back to the original topic we’d started on.

“Yep, along with town guards, pest removal which includes both raiders and wildlife, item recovery, food finders, soldiers, bounty hunters... you name it, we’ve likely done it.”  He began naming off their jobs while counting them on his claws,  “So long as they’ve got the caps, we’ll get it done,” he said proudly.

Hmm, well, that didn’t sound too bad, I suppose.  All of those things seemed at least honest enough work.  As honest as one can get in a world filled with raiders, slavers, and giant radscorpions anyway.  We both turned our heads as Kanzi reappeared with the stallion in tow, helping the buck back into his bed once his business had been completed.  

The striped pony looked up from her work at us staring at her and blinked.  When she saw me looking her way, she blushed and turned back to go help Spirit with Razor.  Griff looked back over to me and grinned, leaning over to poke me in the side with an elbow before he went on.

“As I was saying, we’d just picked up a job in Dise for this pretty young mare.  She was part of some love and tolerance group for healing the wasteland or some shit.  Wanted to come up to Equestria and help the ponies here with medicines and the like.  Caps were good and seemed easy enough.  Razor left half the group back in Dise to find some small easy jobs for them while we went north.”

“First couple days should have been a warning for what was coming.  We came under raider attack almost as soon as our feet and hooves crossed the gate of Dise.  It was nothing major, just a couple of drugged-up nut jobs needing to be put down.  I suppose it was easy enough for us to just chock it up to the dregs of Dise out to make some quick caps for more shit to inject themselves with.  After that, it was one thing after another.  Not long after the first attack, one of the wagons broke a wheel and we had to replace it.  Then we somehow stumbled upon a nest of radscorpions, lost ol’ One Eye to those clattering bastards.”  The griffon shook his head sadly, the memories of Dise turning sour as he recalled the loss of one of his group.

“Once we entered Equestria, we were under almost constant attack by raiders.  After several days and only moving a couple of miles, Razor decided to have us hole up in an abandoned farm house a couple miles southeast of Tombstone, try and regroup a bit and patch ourselves up.

“In hindsight, it was a mistake.  Even Razor admits it, but it's always easier to see mistakes when you're remembering things.  Anyway, that night they surrounded the farm and began just unloading with everything they had.  We were outnumbered but we made them pay for everyone of us they dropped... ” he trailed off and looked away to his aunt as Spirit rubbed something gently on her throat with a hoof.  “...Well, you get the idea.  After that, they picked us up and hauled our sorry asses off to a really piss poor hotel with shitty room service.”

I nodded my head and looked over to the others as well, mulling over what he told me.  I’d already expected to find out that the raiders were a very widespread problem.  I’d always heard Three Horns talking about them attacking settlements from San Ponsisco all the way across the Rocky Mountains and into eastern Equestrian.  But they were in another country as well?  A thought suddenly crossed my mind and I turned back to the griffon.

“Griff, was the caravan you escorted made up of unicorns?”  By the odd look he was giving me, I’d already had my answer.

“Actually, now that you mention it there did seem to be a large number of them, yeah.  A couple of you earth ponies, of course, but most of the medical team going with the mare were unicorns, including her.  How’d you know?”

“They attacked my home and took as many unicorns as they could get, and I’ve heard they’ve been attacking settlements out in the wasteland and doing the same, killing the rest.”  I just couldn’t figure out why anypony or anyone would want to kidnap unicorns if all they were having them do was dig out a tunnel.  No, Tassles had said the leader had personally gone around asking for unicorns to join her.

“Well, that might explain why they dragged the girls off when we were captured for a couple of hours.  Razor and I was afraid they’d just rape and kill them, but they were both dumped back into our cell after only a few hours.  Sparks said she’d been approached by some shadowy mare in a cloak and hood asking for ponies to join her in saving Equestria.  Sparks told her where she could go fuck herself.  Not the best choice of words around a couple raider stallions.”  His face darkened and I heard his claws scrape across the flooring of the train.  I knew that feeling well, and went to change the subject.

“Did you ever see their leader? I heard her called Mad Eyes a couple times by different ponies.”

“Mad Eyes? Fitting name for that bitch.  Yeah, we saw her once.  That mare’s got a couple griffon merc companies working for her.  They have shadier work ethics than even us, and that's saying something.  Anyway, they're all run by a single leader, griffon by the name of Big Show.  More like Ass Hole... anyway, he had us rounded up from the other prisoners and brought to their headquarters in the city, some big fancy hotel in the center of the walled-in section.  They dragged us up a couple flight of stairs then shoved us into a working elevator.  Took us to the top floors, or what were left of them.”

I nodded and listened to his story, recalling the shorn-off upper stories to the skyscrapers in the city.  None, it seemed, had escaped the blast of the balefire bomb.

“Lead us through a couple of hallways and into what must have been a pretty sweet apartment, ‘least until the blast ripped off a section of the outer wall.  Big Show was there, and asked us to join his crew.  We’d be given a share of the spoils, along with food and medical attention, if we did.  There were a couple of ponies there was well, large black-armored stallions standing near the doorway and a half ruined desk near the ripped away wall.  Like Steel Ranger armor, but all raidered out.”

Tassles had mentioned them, the silent guards of the raiders leader.  Were they indeed Steel Rangers, or just salvaged suits?  From what I’d learned in the history books, the Rangers had been heroes of the country, fighting zebras and dragons at times one on one.  But from what I’d heard on the radio and what my own friends had said, the Steel Rangers sounded as bad as the raiders at times. 

“The one other pony in the room was a creepy bitch sitting at the table.  She was all dressed up in black robes and a hood.  Didn’t say much, just sat there doing something with her hooves and a piece of paper and scissors.  Anyway, Ass Hole was expecting a responce, and after what they’d done to our surviving teammates... well, Razor took a page from Sparks’ book and flipped them the bird.”  He grinned and I arched a brow.  Flipped them the what now?  Before I could ask the grin slowly faded and he glanced to his aunt.  “Wasn’t a smart thing with the mares and wasn’t a smart thing for us.  Still, I’d like to have done the same thing, if not just to show ’em what a real pair looks like.”

Hmm, if all griffons were like this, I could see how Wildfire had run with them as she did.  They both seemed to speak the same language of four letter words and vulgar comments.  So did I, come to think about it.

“The bitch, Mad Eyes, just laughed suddenly and shut her minion right up.  I’ve seen and heard some crazy fucked-up shit in my time, Shadow, but I’ve never heard anything quite like that laugh.  I think it got everyone's hackles up. Then she lifted her hooded face up to stare at us and I could have sworn I’d seen a pair of glowing red swirling eyes in the darkness before she held up a paper cut out of griffons.  The fucked-out mare was doing arts and crafts.  She held up the scissors in one hoof and said “Off with her head!” and started cutting the heads off her line of paper griffons.  The black armored creep squad just grabbed a hold of us.  It's like they just appeared beside us, and they were strong fuckers too.  Held us down as Ass Hole advanced with a dagger, and, well... ”

Yep, there certainly didn’t need to be much else said after that.  I looked over to his aunt as she stood and nodded her thanks to Spirit before starting back towards Griff and I.  The griffon arched a brow to us as we both stared at her, then rolled her eyes and pointed a talon towards Griff, then back to Spirit.

“Well, looks like it's time for my check up.  I’m sure we’ll talk more later, Shadow.”  Pushing away from the wall, the griffon walked off towards Spirit’s slightly more lightened work space.

The more I learned of this odd mare Mad Eyes, the more I wondered just who she was and what she was doing.  It seemed she had some plan for the wasteland, and had gathered an army of raiders to help see it through.  What she wanted with unicorns or what her ultimate goal was, I had no idea.  Was it the reason she’d attacked my Stable?  And had that disappearing pony been the one who opened our door and let his friends in?  Then again, he was dead, rotting alongside the tracks like the refuse he was.  As for the plots of an insane mare leading a band of crazy-ass ponies, well, it could be somepony else's problem.  

For now, I was focused on simply reaching San Ponsisco and my niece.



*     *     *     *     *



Slipping away before Spirit could turn her attention back to my odd behavior, I stepped out from the medical car and out into the dry wasteland night air.  The steady breeze blew in between the cars, rustling my mane and hat as I shut the door behind me.  I found, however, that I was not alone out here.  A group of ponies stood between the cars, watching the darkness move past them as the train clanked down the tracks.

Somepony had a radio turned to L.N.R. and soft jazz  filled the narrow space with a calm relaxing sound.  With a start, I realized that most of the ponies out here were from my Stable.  As I stepped out from the car, they turned and saw who I was and at once began thanking me for their rescue.  A mare, one who’d never so much as given me the time of day back home, nuzzled my cheek and kissed me.  I blushed and simply nodded, or said that I’d just been doing my job.  I was far more intent to just return to the passenger car and try to go back to sleep.  I was just about to open the door when the music stopped playing from a Pipbuck and the loud, cheery voice of Three Horns filled the quiet night.

“GOOOOOOOOOD evenin’ Wasteland!!! How are my little ponies doin’ out there in Hell On Equestria?  Well, its everypony’s favorite time again!  No, not happy hour down at Rainbows Bar! It’s... news time!

“Let’s see, where to start?  The bad news, the worse news, the shitty news, or the oh fuck news... oh, wait.  What's this?  Why, this ain’t bad news; at least, not completely bad news.  Its actually an update.

“As some of you may remember, or at least those who haven’t died yet might remember, yesterday I mentioned reports of a large group of ponies moving west.  Now, some of you might be saying that’s a bit vague, Three Horns, and to them I say, go find your own damned slaves ya lazy ass slavers.  I ain’t about to give away a group of what seem to be peaceful ponies just looking for a home.

“Well, I’ve gotten a few new sightings of this band of wastelanders and it seems they are indeed making a beeline straight for little ol’ San Ponsisco and, as it turns out, they aren’t your average run of the mill wastelanders.  They’re Stable ponies.”

Whatever small amounts of conversation had been going on at that moment stopped at once as several pairs of ears swiveled towards the radio.  She had to be talking of Blaze, Sugar Pie and the others... I’d half hoped they’d reached safety by now...

“That's right kiddies, it seems one of those big ol’ underground hotels opened up and the inhabitants are making a run for safety.  The numbers vary depending on who you ask and how drunk they were but it seems to be a group of ponies about a hundred and sixty to two hundred.

“From what I’m hearing, though, they’ve run into a bit of trouble so if any of you Stable ponies out there are listening, Ol’ Three Horns is telling you not to give up.  Keep putting one hoof in front of the other and before you know it you’ll be at the gates to the fair city of San Ponsisco and I’ll be buying you all first round of drinks!”

As she began telling of other news, raider attacks on settlements across the wasteland, something odd reports of alicorn sightings across the Rocky Mountains, I stopped really listening.  Blaze was still leading our Stable to safety.  While I’d rather have heard of them being in the city, at least I’d heard something of them.



*     *     *     *     *



The remainder of the trip to Tombstone was thankfully uneventful and sadly lacking in word on my friends from home.  As the sun, hidden behind thick gray clouds, lifted across the wasteland on our first day aboard the train, we rapidly approached the switcher and the split in the track.  Wildfire (who’d seemed very chipper and all smiles that morning), along with our new griffon friends, flew ahead to find the split and had already thrown the switch by the time we caught up with them.  Wild later told me it had taken all three to force the lever to move, it had been so badly rusted and filled with sand from disuse.  A good sign I suppose.

The train shook a bit and the wheels ground heavily over layers of sand and rock that had piled up around the tracks as we started down the new path towards the south west.  Not many trains had passed this way in the past one hundred and fifty years, and so the worn metal rails were in poor shape and clogged in spots with debris.  Only the line to and from Kanter City had been used enough to keep the majority of debris from building up along the tracks.  The risk of bad or blocked tracks slowed us down, as did the fact we were driving the train in reverse.  Still, it was better time then going on hoof, and far safer.  

After the first hour on the new track, the twisted ruins of Kanter City slowly came into view over the low rolling hills.  The shattered tops of towers jutting up into the cloud covered northern horizon.  Several prisoners stood and watched as the site of the former torment passed by them.  Nopony spoke, and we simply stared at the ruins of one of old Equestria’s major cities.  I stood beside Wild and Stone as it was finally lost behind rocky hills after another hour's travel.  It was a horrible chapter of my life I hoped I’d never have to revisit anytime soon, though the scars from that place would likely be with me for the rest of my days.

The tracks began to descend behind those hills we’d been passing for the past few hours, and into the lower country of southwestern Equestria.  Those hills soon turned into rocky low mountains and cliffs as we went further down the tracks.  Twice we passed groups of radscorpions that had gathered along the tracks; the creatures had made their homes in the dozens of caves of the rocky terrain.  While not as large as the ones we’d fought at the Power Station, they were still large enough to cause trouble for any battered prisoners, and there were a number of bleached bones lying along the tracks.  Most were buried deeply in sand, but one looked to have something grey wrapped around a leg bone.  Oddly, it looked like it had been a Pipbuck. 

During the trip, those aboard the train found whatever they could to pass the time.  Most simply stayed within the two passenger cars we had cleared out, resting or sleeping for long hours.  Balefire spent most of his time playing poker with some of the prisoners or attempting to sweet talk Kanzi, who seemed to ignore the young pony for the most part.  

The loud smart-mouthed green unicorn was quick to speak and slow to think.  He seemed a bit shifty and underhoof at times, but he’d more than proven his worth in a fight.  He also seemed to genuinely care about the prisoners aboard the train, and I’d seen him more than once joking or cutting up with a couple.  His black mane and tail seemed naturally spiky and unruly, and somehow I doubted he’d ever tried to tame it with a comb.  His cutie mark, now that I had the time to see it, was a broken padlock, so he likely had some skill with lock picking and the sort.  I’d hesitate to jump to conclusions and call him a thief but he did seem to have the personality for one.  Or maybe it was just my security training kicking in.  He claimed to be a member of the Confederate Army and from San Ponsisco, and while he had a slightly unsavory feeling, he seemed harmless enough.

Spirit and Kanzi spent much of their time looking after everyone on the train, from ponies to griffons to the aloof zebras.  Only Kanzi seemed interested with interacting with the others aboard.  The striped mare helped look after the worst cases we had, thankfully it seemed we’d lose no more to their injuries.  When they did have some downtime, Spirit looked after the young colt from her former home.  The pony had not gotten far from her side during the entire trip, except when he drifted off to sleep and she’d tuck him in near her saddlebags.  The buffalo also spent time training Kanzi on first aid.  For her part, the zebra seemed happy to learn and help, and spent nearly all her waking hours in the medical car learning.  Well, when she wasn’t being bothered by Balefire.

Stone spent much of his time in the engine, keeping the train running smoothly alongside Tassles and Silverflash.  Although I did catch sight of the gray stallion and orange winged mare slip off late in the evening to ‘check on some things’.  I suppose Spirit wouldn’t need to worry about the stallion’s injuries, since he clearly had enough stamina to keep Wild happy.  The thought once more made me smile (now that I’d finally gotten the mental image out of my brain), as two of the closest friends I’d made on this journey drew closer together themselves, despite their bickering.  It seemed a match made in a radioactive wasteland.

Carrion, I did not see much of during the trip.  The ghoul spent most of his time in the caboose on lookout duty.  He, along with the griffons and Wild, were scanning the tracks ahead for any sign of damage that may derail the train.  The former Equestrian Army officer had grown silent the further we traveled from his home.  I knew what he was going through and simply checked on him from time to time.  While he was still at times a bit of an ass, he seemed more willing to listen to me.

Griff and Razor spent nearly all their time in the air, flying along the tracks both ahead and behind the train on scouting duty, and I was very grateful to have them.  Otherwise we’d be driving blind, running the risk of either striking a bad section of track or being ambushed.  Maybe I was being a bit paranoid, but paranoia in the wasteland was turning out to be a bit of a good thing.  The pair didn’t seem to mind much, actually looking as if they enjoyed themselves every time they took off from the flatbeds.  A fact I believe Wild shared with them, so it must have been a wing thing I suppose.

Off and on throughout the day, I listened intently for any word on Blaze and the others, but all there ever seemed to be was talk of new attacks and the growing threat of the Super Mutants to the north of San Ponsisco.  It seemed likely we’d all be rushing from one problem only to stumble into another.

The third day started out much the same as the second, in silence as the ponies aboard the train ate their rations of food and water.  The heat within the train had been rising steadily, with the hot humid desert air blowing through the broken windows offered little relief.  Many moved out onto the flatbeds, where the flow of the air moved much more freely.

However, when about mid afternoon Griff returned early from his patrol of the tracks ahead, we all thought we’d finally run into trouble.  But as he landed beside the stacked lumber of the flatbed, the griffons beak was split into a wide grin.  With a clawed finger he pointed towards the west and the distant sight of a walled city, smoke lazily drifting up from cooking fires. 

Tombstone.

I stepped towards the edge of the car and got my first look at the town with the rather unsettling name.  Though still some distance away, I could easily see the wall surrounding the rows of buildings.  The wall reminded me very much of that friendly little town some miles away from here, patchworked and hastily assembled from whatever they had at hoof at the time.  It was clear, however, that this town was much larger than Crossroads, with perhaps twice the number of buildings and far larger, a few even standing well over the wall by a couple of stories. 

We’d be there by nightfall.



*     *     *     *     *



The train slowly made its way across the plains towards the walled town.  We’d left the narrow cliffs and hills behind as we drew closer to Tombstone, the landscape once more turning flat.  As we neared the pair of gates that blocked entrance to the town via the tracks, we drew to a halt and the engine let loose a cloud of steam and smoke at what was the rear of the train.  Spirit had suggested we walk the remaining distance on foot, to give the guards on the wall time to see we were not raiders.  Hopefully they’d ask questions first and shoot us later.  For once during this trip, I was thankful the engine was facing the other direction and at the other end of the train.  We’d not been able to remove the remains of some unfortunate pony chained to the smokestack, and it had been grizzly, to say the least.

With steam clouds still rising up from the front of the train and the overworked engine, Stone, Wild, Spirit, and myself dismounted from the caboose and set hooves on the dry cracked ground for the first time in three days.  Like everywhere else in this goddess-forsaken wasteland, it was ridiculously hot, and we were already covered in sweat from being aboard the train.  I imagine we’d likely also begun to smell a bit, but after the first couple of days I’d not even really noticed.  Our gear and clothing was filthy and, in spots, covered in long dried blood.  To be honest, I’d likely have shot us.  I glanced to our guide and she nodded her horned head towards the gates and took off walking.  We set off after her, towards the still distant wall and the hope of a place to rest.

The similarity to Crossroads was uncanny, from the materials the hastily erected defensive line was made to the gates that allowed access to the town within.  I could almost imagine the buildings being made of the same color stone and built in similar fashion.  I suppose that really shouldn’t be such a shock.  Both towns would have likely been built around the same time and by the same builders.  And unless they shipped in stone from elsewhere within the country, they would be using the same local materials.  As for the wall, well, there were only so many ways to make a pile of junk slapped together look different from your neighbors wall of junk. 

Although, they did seem to have a larger number of railroad boxcars making up the majority of the wall here, giving it a bit more height than the one at Crossroads.  Even at this distance I could see a number of ponies standing atop the wall, far more than had been patrolling Crossroads.  Did they have more guards or was it just not everyday that a train pulled up towards the town?  Stone had said before that to his knowledge there were only two trains still running in this part of the country, and we had just stolen one of them.  The other was in position of the Confederate Stables of Equestria.

Within twenty minutes we had crossed the open space between where we’d left the train and the wall of the town, and nopony had shot at us yet.  So far so good.  Dozens of ponies had gathered above us, looking from the distant parked line of train cars back down to us in wonder and some fear.  A number of those ponies pointed assault and normal rifles down at us, ready to shoot should we turn out to be raiders.  Though it was hard to make out much from where we stood, it looked like they wore armor similar to Stones own set, though theirs seemed to be a dark red color.

“Ah reckon that’s far enough strangers!” a mare’s voice shouted from above.  I scanned the crowd above me for the owner and soon spotted a dusty yellow mare wearing a hat similar to Stone’s standing in the middle of the armed ponies.  Dark green eyes flicked from me to the others.  “Which one of ya’ll are in charge?” she asked, to which I stepped forward.  I think you could have heard the sound of a dozen weapons clicking, ready to fire, as I moved, most of them pointed at my head as I reached up a hoof to tilt back my own hat.  The mare tilted her head a bit and waved a hoof at me.  “So, what brings ya’ll ta Tombstone, stranger?  Ya don’t look like our normal neighbors, though Ah reckon that train of yers does.  Care ta explain where ya got that there steam engine from?”

“My name’s Shadow, and these are my friends.” I waved a hoof over the ponies and buffalo behind me, before looking back up to the mare.  “We’re simply passing through on our way to San Ponsisco, and we’re looking to either buy or trade for food, water, and whatever medical supplies you may have.”

“And th’ train?  Last time Ah checked that belonged ta th’ bastards up in Kanter City.  Don’t suppose they just let ya borrow it?” she smiled down at me, a brow arched over one green eye.  She had no reason to trust me, and if I was in her shoes I likely would be wary of letting anypony into my home I did not know.

“Actually, yes they did.  We asked them very nicely.”  I returned her smile with a slight smirk, one hoof lightly tapping the shotgun strapped across my chest.  “Turns out they didn’t need it anymore after we asked, and we dropped them off in the desert to help feed the local wildlife.”  I glanced beside me to my friends before pressing on, “Look, we’re not raiders, just ponies looking for a place to rest and recover.  The train behind has a number of wounded aboard, and we could really use your help.”  Spirit stepped up beside me and lifted her voice to the mare who I’d been speaking with.

“Sweetshot, you know me.  I helped your brother’s wife give birth to their first foal, and you know I have no love of raiders.  This pony speaks the truth, I was there when he rescued the raiders’ former prisoners and killed at least a half dozen on his own.”

The mare’s green eyes widened as Spirit spoke up.  The ponies around her lowered their guns as their owners turned to look at one another in surprise and whispered hurriedly between themselves.  After a moment of hurried conversation between the mare and the nearby guards, she disappeared from sight and I heard her calling down to somepony behind the wall.

“Open it up!”

Stone and Wild both glanced over to me as the heavy scrap heap of a door began to slowly open.  Dirt, dust, and rust showered down across the tracks it guarded as it ground to a halt.  Rust covered hinges creaking loudly from lack of use.  Spirit lowered her horned head from the wall and glanced to me with a smile.

“Well, at least they seem to remember you.  How well do you know the ponies here?” I asked as I watched ponies stepping away from the gate to allow us access to the town beyond.

“Not very well actually.  I have had dealings only with a small number of the ponies who call this home.  I have only been here twice in my life.  Once to look for work and information about my people, and once more when I was returning home to Wastefall.  It was then when I helped Sweetshot’s brother.  My father spoke highly of the town, however, whenever he spoke of his travels across the wasteland.”  The buffalo glanced from the wall to me.  “I believe they will help us or at least allow us to pass through town without issue.”

I nodded my head and gave a sigh.  Good enough, I suppose.  I stepped forward towards the opening, with my friends trotting along beside me in a row.  Setting hoof past the wall, I found myself in a town very similar in layout and design to Crossroads, though, as I’d seen from a distance, much larger in scale.  

Rows of pre-war buildings lined the streets in both directions from the gate, with the center of town taken up by a large four story train station and several tracks for the trains that once ran through town.  Like Crossroads, most of the buildings looked intact since the Zebras would have had no reason to waste a balefire bomb on such a small target.  Within my view I saw a number of storefronts, as well as two or three saloons.  The rest appeared to be homes for the ponies that lived here.

There were a large number of ponies moving throughout the town,  most going about their daily lives, shopping, talking, and laughing among themselves.  Once more the majority of the ponies trotting along the sidewalks and streets of town were armed with rifles, shotguns, and, more commonly, pistols of every shape and size.  Rugged clothing and hats covered most of the colorful earth and unicorn ponies I saw.  A number of carts and wagons lumbered through town, taking deliveries to a few of the shops.  I could see some making their way towards the far gate, for destinations unknown.

Trotting further into town, I saw a half dozen armed ponies walking down the ramp along the wall to greet us.  They wore armor similar to Stones patched together combat armor, though it appeared they had been painted a light green in color.  Most had assault rifles, but one carried a hunting rifle with a scope.  Among them was the yellow mare I’d seen on the wall.  Sweetshot, Spirit had called her.

Without having to crane my head up, or have the wall hiding much of her body from sight, I got a better look at the mare as her hooves touched the ground.  Her worn cowpony hat sat perched atop her head, where an unruly crop of her bright green mane lay spilling out across her neck and forehead.  Bright green eyes sized the four of us up as she approached us.  Like the other guards around her, she wore the same style and color combat armor, although her’s had something similar to my own: a star fixed to the chest.  Unlike mine, hers was a five-pointed gold star and bore the title ‘Sheriff’ across it.  The ponies following her bore similar stars of silver, with Deputies over them.  All looked old, and had likely been passed down through the years from pony to pony.

The Sheriff stepped away from her Deputies and motioned for us to stop.

“So, stranger, is it true what Spirit Walker here said ya done?” she asked, green eyes fixed on my face, looking for any sign I was lying to her.  I got the feeling by that intense stare that she was rather good at detecting a lie.  I also doubted anypony lied to her much, judging by the twin revolvers holstered across her chest.

“Yes, it is,” I answered, shaking my head a bit as I quickly added, “I was just doing what anypony would have done, however, and I had help.”  I waved a hoof to the ponies and buffalo behind me.

“Ah don’t likely reckon ya was.  Any other pony’d  just turn tail and leave, or ask for payment afore riskin’ ther neck for strangers.”  She arched a brow as she stared at me, before sitting down on her flank.  “Well then, since Spirit Walker vouches for ya, Ah reckon so long as ya behave and obey our laws yer welcome to stay.  Now, Ah don’t suppose we should be leavin’ yer train parked outside th’ walls.  Bad neighborhood and all.”  She grinned and turned to one of her deputies.  “Let th’ mayor know we’re havin’ some unusual guests, and make sure Ol’ Doc Brown knows he’s bout to have his first customer in... well, ever.”

The stallion nodded his head and turned to gallop off towards the distant train station, working his way between the ponies walking about the street.  The mare turned back to us and stepped towards me, offering a hoof in greeting.

“Ya likely already overheard Spirit use my name, but Ma raised me with some manors.  Name’s Sweetshot, Sheriff of this quaint little piece o’ heaven.”  I smiled and took the offered hoof to shake.

“My name is Shadow, the large pony behind me is Stonehoof, and standing beside him is Wildfire.  I believe you already know Spirit Walker.” 

“Shadow?  Just Shadow?” the sheriff asked as I released her hoof.  She reached over and lightly tapped the star on my chest.  “Sure it ain’t Marshall Shadow?” 

“No, just Shadow,” I smiled at the question. “I found it along with my shotgun and the hat back in Wastefall.  Seemed wrong to just leave them behind.”

“Shame.  Wasteland could use a good Marshall to clean it up.”  She looked over my shoulder to my friends and smiled warmly to each.  “Well then, Ah reckon we should see ta that train of yers.”  With that, Sheriff Sweetshot trotted past us and towards the open gate, two of her deputies following close behind as we brought up the rear.



*     *     *     *     *



It took us only ten minutes to bring the train slowly in through the open gateway, despite the fact that they had built it over the tracks.  Nopony had really expected a train to actually arrive in town.  Sheriff Sweetshot said the most they ever saw were small hoof-pushed carts the railroad company used to use for inspecting the tracks.  It seems a couple of inventive ponies had managed to convert them for use as supply carts.  This of course lead to me asking about the tracks ahead.

“As far as Ah know, th’ route’s clear all th’ way ta San Ponsisco, but keep in mind Ah never traveled it myself.  Just hear say from th’ few travelers we used ta get from th’ mountains,” the yellow law mare said, pointing a hoof past the western wall and towards the distant peaks of the distant mountain range.  Near the peaks, I swore I saw caps of white.  Snow?  No, it almost seemed to be... glowing?

“Used to get?” I asked, as the train below me slowly backed through the gate.  Stone, along with a number of citizens, had managed to take apart the upper sections of the gateway to allow the train to pass under.  Still, I heard the screech of metal as something scrapped along the roof of the caboose.  Sweetshot narrowed her eyes and flicked her ears back as the sound continued until after we at last passed through.  It seemed the caboose was a bit taller than the other cars.

“Not many folks travelin’ the roads or rails of late.  Far too many raiders and creatures prowling th’ wasteland.  Last trade caravan we had actually ended up stayin’ on with us.  They talked of small towns bein’ destroyed and all th’ ponies slaughtered or taken as slaves.”  The mare shook her head, and looked away from the tracks ahead to stare off towards the north.

“It was much the same story in Crossroads.  At first I found it hard to believe how bad it was on the surface, but after this past week... well, I’ve had enough of the wasteland to last me a dozen lifetimes.”  From the blank look she was giving me, I lightly tapped the collar of my stained blue jumpsuit and the number 45 upon it.

“Yer one of them Stable ponies, eh?”  I nodded and she smirked a bit.  “Well, Ah’m guessin’ yer regrettin’ pokin’ yer nose outta that hole in th’ ground of yers right bout now.”

“You have no idea...”  The conversation died down for the moment.  As the train neared the station in the center of town, I noticed we’d gotten quite a crowd gathered around to watch.  I glanced over the faces of the ponies standing on the boarding platform, and those standing out in the street.  A few held foals on their backs so they could see better, and most of the children wore smiles as bright as the missing sunlight, never having seen anything like this before.  But then, I guess neither had their parents.

With a low steady screech of metal on metal, the train slowly came to a halt before the platform, which, while it was large for a dozen or more ponies to stand side by side, was not large enough to draw even with the entire length of the train.  We instead focused on pulling up to the passenger cars currently in use.

“Ah’m ‘friad there’s not gonna be enough rooms for all yer ponies ta be stayin’ at, even if we use all th’ saloons in town.  Most of ’em are likely already bein’ used already for their usual activities, if ya catch my drift.”  The Sheriff frowned and glanced over past the train station to the rows of buildings near it, “And Ah also don’t reckon th’ saloon owners be lettin’ anypony stay for free.  Not many generous ponies in th’ world anymore.  Still, Ah seen some wounded among yer lot, an’ I reckon Doc Mitchell will take ’em inta’ his clinic.”

“We’ve some items for trade, like spare weapons and armor we have no need for.  Perhaps we can make enough caps to cover those not staying in the clinic.  I imagine they’ll be fine with sharing a room.  After what they’ve been through, I imagine it’s better than anything they’ve had in awhile.”

“Still, ain’t fittin’ ta let ponies lay on th’ floor after bein’ held by raiders.  Ah’ll ask around town and see if Ah can’t at least get ya’ll some spare blankets.”

“Thanks, anything will help.”

Sheriff Sweetshot nodded and we dropped down from the caboose and onto the gravel beside the tracks.  Further down the train, the doors to the passenger cars slid open and our rescued ponies slowly emerged onto the platform to stare in wonder at the town around them.  I spotted Spirit and Kanzi helping the injured to disembark from the train.  A number of townsponies gave the striped mare a rather unfriendly look.

“Ya might wanna keep an eye on th’ stripes,” the law mare said as we walked towards the platform’s stairs.  I glanced to her and started to say something when she cut me off.  “Don’t go given me that stuff about ’em being just like us.  Ah get it, Ah ain’t got nothin’ against them myself.  But Ah can’t speak for all th’ ponies of Tombstone.  Some have long memories and like ta blame th’ stripes for th’ war and our current livin’ conditions.”

“I’ll let Spirit know,” was all I said as we trotted up to the train and the ponies stepping off it.  I’d hoped after over a hundred years that ponies would not be so quick to judge the zebras for the past.  From what I’d seen of our history, Equestria was just as much to blame for the wasteland as the zebras.  

I shook my head and looked from Kanzi to the others around her.  I spotted Balefire grinning and shaking hooves with a number of stallions near the door.  The green unicorn was laughing at some joke or another and seemed in good spirits.  Carrion stayed back, and most of the townsfolk seemed happy to stay clear of the ghoul.  I suppose I could see why he might be more inclined to stay in his dead home city, if most ponies he came across avoided him like this.  I’d not exactly reacted all that well to him when I first meet him, but still, he’d proven to be a good pony, if only after nudging him a bit.

The griffons seemed to be welcomed, as both Griff and Razor were surrounded by townsfolk talking with the pair.  It seemed they were at least known to the citizens of Tombstone.  Of Jury and Sparks I saw no sign, but there were so many ponies around I could have overlooked them.

“Good ta see those two,” Sweetshot said, watching the griffons as they spoke (or at least Griff did) with the ponies asking them questions about news from beyond Tombstones walls.

“You know them?” I asked, looking away to search for Wild and Stone.

“Th’ Razors have protected a number of caravans passin’ through the wasteland around Tombstone over th’ years.  From west ta San Ponsisco all th’ way out to Dise down south. They seem an honest group, for griffons at any rate.  They’ve a reputation for not lettin’ anythin’ bad happen ta merchants under their protection.”  She glanced from the pair to me, and smirked a bit.  “Don’t go thinkin’ they’re all soft hearted, though.  They expect ta get paid for their work.  If ya ain’t got the caps, ya don’t get protection.”

Well, Griff had said as much to me while we’d spoken in the medical car that first night.  I shook my head and looked away from the griffons and spotted Wildfire hovering above the crowd.  She was speaking to somepony below her that I couldn’t see.  Well, not entirely.  I did spy the cowpony hat he always wore bobbing this way and that as he worked his way through the ponies around him.  As the ponies around the moving hat began to thin out I saw Stone as well as Silverflash and Tassles walking side by side behind my friends.  Wild looked up, and spotted me, grinning the mare waved a hoof towards me then called out to Stonehoof below.

“Come on ya ol’ dirtpony, move that fat ass.”

I chuckled and looked away to Spirit and Kanzi as they approached me.  I noticed a few more of the ponies around us giving the young zebra an evil look, muttering about those damned striped bastards, or, it’s all their fault we’re forced to live in this hellhole.  The striped equine’s ears twitched as she caught every harsh whisper, but she said nothing and simply stayed closer to Spirit.  The buffalo I could see was wearing a frown as she eyed the ponies nearest her, a small blue colt riding upon her back, looking around himself with wide eyes at so many ponies.

“Spirit, I think it’d be best if Kanzi and the other zebra stay with you and the injured ponies for tonight.”  Both zebra and buffalo turned to look at me.  “The Sheriff said there’s a clinic that will take in the wounded for the night.  I don’t think most of the townsfolk are as open-minded as us, and I’d rather not cause any problems in the first safe haven we’ve found in awhile.”  I offered both an apologetic smile.  Kanzi nodded her head and backed up near Spirit.

“It is alright, we are used to this sort of reaction from ponies,” the striped mare said softly, eyes going to her fellow zebras standing near the train and well away from the other survivors and towns folk.

“I had hoped their openness towards me would also be directed towards Kanzi and her family.” Spirit snorted softly and stomped a forehoof, causing the colt to duck down in the buffalos mane.  “We should not move the injured, at any rate.”

“Ah’ll have Doc Mitchell come on over ta th’ train then and bring his medical supplies with him,” Sweetshot said, reaching a hoof up to her hat to remove it, the mare’s tangled green mane spilling out freely along with the point of her horn.  The Sheriff, it would seem, was a unicorn.  “Ah’m rightly sorry for this, but some ponies just wanna blame their problems on others.”

“Its alright, Sweetshot, I know it is not your fault.  And thank you.  I look forward to meeting Doctor Mitchell.  Father spoke highly of his medical skills,” Spirit responded with a smile and nod of her horned head.  Behind her, a number of ponies seemed to elect to stay behind with their injured family members or friends.  The rest moved off into town to mingle with the townsfolk, among them Balefire.

“It shouldn’t be long, just until morning and we’ll be out of your mane, Sheriff,” I said, looking from Spirit to Sweetshot.  The yellow unicorn turned back to me and was about to say something when Wild dropped down beside us in a small cloud of dust.

“Heya Shadow, might wanna hear what Stone has to say first before booking us for just the night,” the orange pegasus smirked and glanced back behind her as Stone made his way between the crowd of ponies.  “If he’d ever get his ass up here that is.”

“Ah’m comin,’ Ah’m comin’.  Sweet Celestia’s plot, girl, not all of us have wings ya know.”  I arched a brow at the swearing.  Clearly, Wild had been rubbing off on him- OH GODDESS!  

My forehooves went to my head as my eyes shot open wide.  I shook my head, trying to get that mental image out of my mind.  Get out!  I opened my eyes and found everyone around me looking at me funny.  I blinked, smiling sheepishly, and lowered my hooves away from my face.

“Sooooo... anywaaaay.  Make it snappy, I wanna check out the saloons here.  I hear they actually have Wild Pegasus.”  The winged pony grinned and flapped her wings a couple times before settling down as Stone stepped up beside her, the stallion giving her a tired look and simply snorting and shifting his gaze to me.

“Th’ engine’s near finished, Shadow.  Weren’t meant ta be ran in reverse for so long coupled with it not bein’ in th’ best o shape ta begin with.  I swear, Ah think them raiders use everythin’ for target practice or just beat it with hammers till it works.”  He shook his head and frowned.  “It’s a miracle it got us this far without explodin’ or breakin’ down completely.”

“Can it be fixed?” I asked, although I doubted that very much.  Stone was no engineer, and while Silverflash had been one of Gearbox’s best in the Stable, I doubted the pony knew much about prewar steam engines, let alone find the parts needed to fix it.

“Ah don’t rightly know.  It’s a bit outa my league, ta be honest.”

“Ah might know somepony who can help you folks., the law mare spoke up beside me.  “Th’ pony who maintains th’ railyard, Doc Brown’s his name, has been tinkerin’ with the wrecks of trains for his whole life, or at least most seem ta think so, th’ way he fixes things round these parts.  Ah reckon if there’s a pony alive today that knows more about them, it’d be that stallion.  Just be warned, he’s a might... odd.”  The yellow mare grinned and nodded her head across the tracks to large round building just off from the main section of tracks.

“After the week I’ve had... odd is starting to become normal for me.”  I sighed and looked over to my two friends, and couldn’t help but smirk a bit.  Wild kept eyeing the town's main street and the saloons there like a filly on Heart’s Warming Eve morning.  Loud music and laughter drifted down the row of buildings towards us, and several of the rescued ponies were making their way towards them.

“Stone, why don’t you take Wild into town and try and find out any information about the path ahead to San Ponsisco.  See if anypony knows how the tracks are, if there’s any hazards we need to know about.”  The stallion blinked and looked over to me as if I’d just sent him to his death.  Wild, however, grinned and wasted no time in chomping on to Stone’s brown tail and pulling him away.  The gray earth pony groaned and resigned himself to his fate.

“Come on, ya ol’ dirtpony,” the pegasus said between strands of his tail, her grin widening as she went on.  “I need a drink after all that shit we went through, plus a warm meal and a smoke... then we’re getting a room for the night and aren’t coming out till morning.  Or maybe noon if ya can’t walk well afterwards.”  She gave a playful shake of her hips at the earth pony and winked. 

Stone’s eyes followed the shaking orange plot and his ears perked up quickly.  The stallion lept to his hooves and started pushing Wild towards the saloons in the distance, while she giggled.  I don’t think I’d ever seen that pony move so quickly.  I chuckled and shook my head at the display.  

Turning away from the town, I found Spirit and Kanzi watching the two.  The buffalo wore a pleased smile with the pair’s happiness and Kanzi looked a little confused, as if she was missing something.  I had to admit, she did look sort of cute standing there looking a bit dazed, her ears flicked back and her lips forming a bit of a pout.  Behind them, I saw the battered armor and rotting form of Carrion as he stepped towards us.  The ghoul had been silent for the most part, watching the comings and goings of the ponies around us.

“I’ll look after the train,” his rough voice spoke up over the sound of ponies talking all around us.  “I doubt the smoothcoats here are used to ghouls all that much.”

“Ain’t gonna lie ta ya, friend, the townsfolk aren’t very welcomin’ to anyone different from themselves, beyond griffons and our horned friend here.  They’re good ponies, it’s just that th’ wasteland’s worn ’em down.” Sweetshot said, a note of sorrow in her voice.  “We’ve had a few ghouls pass through town o’er th’ years.  Most seemed like decent enough ponies, but not many stayed on for long.  Ol’ Hank over at th’ Drunken Mare’ll likely not have a problem with any o’ ya’ll.  He’s a bit more open-minded than most in town.  Gets him into trouble now and then, but he’s been a blessin’ ta this town, so most put up with ’im.  Not from Tombstone originally... used ta wander th’ wasteland a bit, Ah think.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind, ma’am.”  The ghoul’s glowing orange eyes scanned the crowd of ponies around him.  Most were staring at the train parked behind us, but a few were now looking at the undead pony standing in front of it.  It had been a huge relief to finally reach this place, but now it seemed most of my friends would not be welcome in it.  I could only hope San Ponsisco was more open.  Wait, ma’am?  Really?  I was Roachbait when we first meet, but then, I wasn’t a pretty mare, either. 

“Well, all this jawin’ ain’t gonna get yer train fixed, Ah reckon.  Come on, Ah’ll show ya ta Doc Brown’s place,” Sweetshot spoke up, snapping me back to the here and now.  The yellow mare started off towards the end of the platform at a slow trot, working her way between the ponies around the train.  I started to follow but hesitated; after all, I was leaving half of my friends behind on the train while the rest of us got to walk freely through town.

“This shouldn’t take long, you guys...” I started but Spirit held up a large hoof to stop me.

“We’ll be fine, Shadow.  We should check on the injured anyway.”  She started to head back into the train when she stopped and added, “Just make sure Wild does not break anything of Stone’s.”  The slightest hint of a smile formed over her muzzle before she hurriedly turned and stepped back aboard the train.  Carrion arched a brow, clueless as to what was going on between the pegasus and the earth pony, and simply stepped back inside the passenger car.

By the time I managed to catch up with Sweetshot, the law mare was waiting for me on the ground beside the tracks.  As I dropped down on the hard packed earth beside her, she nodded once and turned to trot off towards the sheds across the open ground.  Or at least mostly open.  There were in fact another two sets of tracks running beside the one we’d entered the town on.  Looking back towards the gate, I saw they split off from the main line and then rejoined near the western gate.

I suppose Tombstone had been a bit busier in traffic than Crossroads had back before the end.  It’d make sense to be able to park other trains to unload or load them and not block the main line.  It also explained why there were three sets of tracks leading off towards the large round metal building near the edge of down.  The odd looking building had likely been for maintenance and storage for the trains that stayed longer than a day or so in town.

“So yer two friends are an item, Ah take it?” Sweet asked as we walked, trying to start a bit of small talk as our hooves kicked up the loose rock that covered the tracks.

“It seems so.  When I first meet them, they couldn’t stand one another and bickered like cats and dogs,” I answered with a grin.  “I suppose after what we’ve gone through over the past couple days, even two ponies as different as them could form a bond closer than friendship.”

“Ah reckon so; in fact, Ah know so.  My husband and Ah, we’re not exactly a matchin’ pair, if ya catch my drift,” she said with a grin towards me.  “He’s a bit of an egghead, Ah suppose.  Used ta teach th’ local foals at th’ schoolhouse afore he got himself elected mayor of Tombstone.  Thinkin’ ain’t always been my strong point, ya see, and we didn’t rightly see eye ta eye.”  I smiled as I listened and she went on.  

“If’n anypony woulda told me Ah’d end up with him, Ah’d have laughed in their faces.” She turned back to look ahead, still wearing that bright, happy smile on her face.  “But he’s lot braver than Ah thought.  Anyway, listen ta me ramblin’ on like an old mare.  My point, if Ah even have one, is if’n both ponies are th’ same, Ah think it’d be a right boring relationship.”

Hmm, there was something to that.  I nodded my head and stepped over the last set of tracks before the roundhouse.  I saw that the three sets of tracks all lead up to three loading doors, large enough to allow a locomotive to enter the building, and judging by the size of the building, it likely could have held three engines inside at once.  It appeared to be about two stories in height, judging by the buildings nearby.  

As we drew nearer, I could see how badly weathered the roundhouse had become over the years.  Orange rust and layers of dirt coated much of the metal surface.  But despite it, those walls were as whole as the day they’d been erected.  Beyond lay the three rolling doors that allowed trains to be pulled inside and worked on under the cover of the roof.  The only other entrance was a normal, pony-sized door just between two of the larger ones.  Beside the doors, there were a number of large windows along the top of the building and nearly all had intact glass panels. They were covered in soot and dirt, but still, the fact they had not been blown or shot out was amazing.

Large metal chains hung loosely from the rusted walls of the roundhouse, thick steel links intended to haul heavy loads, such as stranded railway cars or engines back into town.  It appeared they’d not been used in a very long time, not surprising seeing as how there were only two working locomotives around.  The ground around the building was free of clutter and trash; it was clear somepony had taken the time to pull up any weeds that threatened to crack the already worn concrete foundation.

“Well, here we are.  This here’s Doc Brown's place.  He’s lived here ever since he arrived in town couple years back from out in th’ wasteland.  As Ah said, th’ pony’s an odd one, but he ain’t been nothin’ but kind ta th’ locals since he set up shop.  Also ain’t a better pony at fixin’ old world stuff like that there engine o’ yers,” Sweetshot said as we neared the building.  The ground had once been paved over but over the years much of it had been covered in a layer of dirt.  I glanced to the building and then back to the law mare.

“He another wanderer?” I asked.  Spirit’s father had wandered the wasteland, and so had a few other ponies I’d heard of or met thus far, like Stonehoof.

“Near as any of us can figure.  He don’t rightly say much bout his past, though he does have a young pegasus that helps ’im out around th’ shop.  Most found it rather odd, since we don’t see many of his and yer friend’s kind down here.”  She lifted a yellow hoof to the pony-sized door and was just about to open it when a thunderous blast rocked the round metal building from within.  

I swore as a shower of glass shards rained down from above us, glass panes blown out from the force of the blast.  Thick black smoke immediately rose up from the newly broken windows, drifting quickly away into the grey sky above.  Sweetshot yanked hard on the sealed door and more smoke blew out around us.  The smoke quickly dissipated and left us choking and waving our forehooves in front of our muzzles.  It also made it nearly impossible for us to see what had become of the inside of the shed for several seconds.

It appeared the interior of the roundhouse had not suffered much damage as I’d been expecting, and thankfully it was not engulfed in flames, although it was still a mess of tools, parts, and workstations all scattered about haphazardly.  The source of the blast appeared to have come from the far back of the building, where a large black locomotive sat parked upon the tracks.  Well, it looked like it had been one, anyway, but there was all sorts of odd bits and pieces sticking off it, as well as a small silver cart parked next to the engine.  Both had smoke coming from their engines.  

I’d never seen anything quite like it, but then, my view was blocked as a brown unicorn stallion stumbled into my field of vision from the room, coughing smoke from his mouth.  He was as tall as me, with the same color mane and tail, though both were covered in soot from the explosion and his mane appeared frazzled (I somehow got the impression that was normal for the stallion).  A pair of cracked goggles sat over his eyes, obscuring them from view.  He stumbled about in front of us a bit before he opened his mouth to blow out another small puff of smoke.  As he came to a halt before us, he slapped himself in the forehead with a hoof, barely missing his horn and went still.

“Great SCOTT... I think I overdid the formula again!” after a moment of standing still, he finally seemed to notice he wasn’t alone and jerked his head back in surprise at somepony being so close.  His hoof went down to his face and he yanked off the goggles.  The fur under the goggles was soot free, and formed a clean brown ring around his blue grey eyes as he look us both over.  They finally settled on Sweetshot, who was still coughing and waving a hoof in front of her nose.  The odd stallion blinked and reached out a hoof to steady the mare.  “I’m sorry about the noise Sheriff, but I believe I can explain that...”

“It's alright, Doc, that's not why Ah’m here, though ya know ya need ta at least try and keep th’ explosions down a bit.  Ya know how th’ townsfolk feel bout that.”  The Sheriff cleared her throat and eyed the soot stained pony before her with a slightly narrowed eye.  She smiled and shook her head after a moment and waved his offered hoof off.

“Right you are, Sheriff.  Now what was it I could help you with?” Brown asked, standing up straight and looking between us.  Sweetshot waved a hoof towards me and began.

“Actually, it’s this here pony with me, Doc.  This here’s Shadow, a Stable pony.  He just brought in a whole load of former prisoners aboard a ol’ train that’s bout to quit on’em,” she explained, as she spoke, Brown turned and regarded me with a raised white eyebrow.

“You see, we’ve been running in reverse for the past two or three days, since there’s been nowhere safe to stop until we reached Tombstone,” I began. “My friend tells me the engine’s about to stop on us, and we need it to reach San Ponsisco through the mountains ahead.”

“Normally locomotives can be run forward or reverse with no ill effects, however these are not normal times we live in.  Poor maintenance or no maintenance has taken its toll on the technology of the past.  Why I can barely get that thing to start without it blowing a gasket or pipe somewhere.”  He waved a soot stained hoof towards the parked engine in the back of his workshop.  “I’ll take a look at yours and see what I can do once Marty gets back from the blacksmith's shop with those bolts I asked for.” 

“Thank you, we’d like to be on our way as soon as possible.  We’re not looking to cause any issue with the local townsfolk.”  At that, Brown arched his white brow once more and tilted his head to the side, so I explained about Kanzi and Carrion, to which he snorted.

“Yes, I’ve noticed a few of the ponies of this time seem to have an issue with zebras.”  Time? he must have noticed the look for he smiled and waved a hoof at me, “I meant this town.  Tombstone, of course.” he cleared his throat and turned both Sweetshot and myself around and ushered us away from the door, still wearing that smile.  “Not to worry,  I have a few spare parts laying around the shop that I might be able to use to repair the damage.  I should also be able to get you facing the correct direction so this won’t happen again.  That is, if these switch rails will work.” 

He’d lead us back around to the front of the roundhouse and the place where the three tracks leading into each other.  The switch rail he was speaking of lay upon the ground with a metal pole sticking up from the side.  A rusted round metal sign sitting at the top, it had once been red, but the years had not been kind to it.  The rails themselves were also rusted over in places, not having been used in ages.

“The zebras we brought with us may still be aboard the train when you go to take a look at it.  I’ll stop by and let them know to expect you,” I said to the odd stallion, he simply nodded before explaining.

“That’s alright, I’m just going to be bringing the engine itself over, not the entire train.  They should be fine where they’re at.”

When it seemed the conversation had well and truly ended, I thanked Brown for his time and headed off with Sweetshot back towards the station.  By this time, most of the townsfolk had gone on home to dinner, or lost interest in the appearance of a working train in their town.  Most of the ponies we’d arrived with had also left for the night, to head off to one of the saloons or to simply take a walk through town.

Sweetshot bid me farewell as we reached the boarding platform, as she had other duties around town to see to. She left me with directions to the Drunken Mare, the saloon Wild and Stone had left to earlier.  I could only hope by the time I caught up with the pair they hadn’t already taken up residence in a room upstairs.

As I trotted along the empty platform, I noticed it was not just the station that was empty, but also the train itself.  Sticking my head into one of the passenger cars we’d been using, I saw nopony inside.  I called out for Spirit or Kanzi, and heard only the sound of the train cars settling on the track.  I was about to back out when I spotted a set of orange eyes glowing in the darkness of the car.

“Carrion?”

“How many other ponies ya know with fucking glowing orange eyes?” he hissed out in his rough voice.  The rotting face of the ghoul soon’ appeared from the shadows and into the dim glow of the train stations few working lights.

“Where is everyone?” I asked, stepping back as he trotted out onto the platform beside me.

“The local doctor arrived just as you left, and seemed rather dismayed at the state of the passenger car we had the wounded in.  He said no injured pony would lay on a filthy floor while in his town.”  The ghoul glanced over the deserted streets and buildings near the train station as he spoke.  “Griff and his crew helped carry them off to the clinic, and even let the stripes go with them.”  When he said ‘stripes’ I noticed a dark look come over the undead ponies face; well, what was left of it.  

“Carrion, they’re as much survivors of this hellish wasteland as anypony else, and have suffered mistreatment at the hooves of those raiders.”

“Look, it was zebras that bombed my home, killed tens of thousands of innocent ponies, and caused this hellish wasteland in the first place.”  Carrion narrowed his orange orbs on my face as he spoke, teeth clenched tightly.  “It may have been a long time ago to you, but to me it could have happened just yesterday, so don’t try and give me any of your bullshit, alright?”

My ears laid back as he yelled in my face, and my tail twitched nervously.  I’d known this would likely come up sooner or later for the stallion; he’d spent the last years of his life fighting zebras.  I couldn’t really expect him to tolerate them over a couple days, could I?  For that matter, what kind of welcome would they get when we reached San Ponsisco?  Home to a new government trying to raise Equestria from the ashes of the apocalypse?

“Alright.  I think I can understand how you feel somewhat.”  I held up a hoof to the ghoul, trying to calm him down.

“Just leave me the hell alone for right now, Shadow.”  He turned away with a snort, hooves clattering noisily across the platform.  

Going after him would only likely cause more problems, so I simply watched him walk off towards the gate we’d entered the town by.  Would the guards on watch let him out or shoot him in the dark?  He’d been alive for a very long time, and somehow I didn’t think he’d let himself get killed.  He was a tough pony.

And a very lonely one.



*     *     *     *     *



The walk through Tombstone was rather relaxing.  After the past few days of near-constant fighting, the threat of discovery, and the problems I've encountered since arriving here, it was rather nice to be able to once more walk near other ponies who were not out for my blood, even if a few of them had caused me at least one of those problems.  Everywhere I looked I saw ponies walking along the sidewalks, carrying items they had recently bought from shops along the street.  Mothers with young foals followed closely behind them, while many stallions stood in groups talking about this or that.  The most common topic seemed to be about some local problem with a local gang.  

Most of these ponies simply passed me by without a second look, though a few offered greetings, having been near the train station or gate when we’d arrived.  I caught sight of Sheriff Sweetshot’s deputies from time to time, walking among the ponies, keeping an eye out for any problem.  There seemed to be none to speak of.  At last I reached the saloon where I was to meet Stone and Wild.  It was rather easy to see, thanks to the large sign hanging off the wall with a picture of a mare laying on her back surrounded by bottles and mugs.  Though the paint was faded, she appeared to be a purple earth pony with grapes as a cutie mark and a rather cute blush on her smiling face.

I was briefly reminded of Rose’s place back in Crossroads, The Bit and Saddle Saloon, as I caught sight of the Drunken Mare.  While both saloons were built from wood and had been standing in their respective towns since before the war, the Drunken Mare was far larger in size.  The four story wooden building dominated the end of the street, sitting right at the corner.  The front porch wrapped around the saloon along both streets, the swinging double doors allowing entrance to the building sitting at the corner of those same streets.  Loud music and voices drifted out from the door and open windows that lined the first floor.

A small number of locals stood out on the saloons porch, talking and drinking with friends and family.  A couple of pretty mares in slinky outfits hung near single stallions, serving them drinks or just playfully nuzzling their necks and cheeks.  Parked beside the porch were a number of cars, the owners likely some of those stallions getting led off to private places.

I trotted on up to the steps and quickly entered the saloon, the noise was even louder inside, as was the smell.  Having been around Wildfire for the past week I’d become used to cigarette smoke, but this, however, was like being slapped in the snout with a whole burning wagon full of cigarettes and cigars.  Not many ponies in the Stable had smoked, seeing how the air was recycled throughout the entire series of rooms, a few however did pick up the bad habit from family and friends.

The other scent that lingered throughout the room was that of food, freshly cooked in the kitchens which I imagined would be behind the bar.  It seemed the most likely spot, also, the layout reminded me of Rose’s saloon.  Large near wall length bar, rows of shelves with bottles and glasses sitting behind it.  Tables of every size and shape covering the majority of the open floor space, along with chairs that matched as well as the ponies sitting in them.  Unlike Rose’s saloon, there was no large stage for mares to dance on.  There was, however, a near complete band playing everything from pianos to fiddles and guitars.  Moving throughout it all was the same pretty-faced, nicely dressed mares that I’d seen outside, balancing trays on their backs and floating them in their magic.  They went to and fro severing the ponies at the tables.  For a moment I wondered how long it’d take me to find my friends among all this.

“HA! Told ya boys to quit while you're ahead!  I keep this up, I’m gonna have me a couple spare bucks for when I wear Stone out!” a loud and familiar voice shouted over the sounds of the saloon.  

Right.  What WAS I thinking?  I turned my head and spotted a fiery, red-maned mare among the sea of hats and dark colored clothing.  As ponies moved away, I could see her sitting at one of the card tables near the back of the saloon.  Stone was sitting beside the pegasus, his hat setting on the table beside him.  It seemed the mare was once more winning at cards, although this time she was winning from a couple other ponies too.  None seemed very happy about the fact either as they tossed their hands down atop the table and watched the orange mare scoop the pile of caps up.

I trotted over towards them through the busy saloon and stepped up near the table, looking over the stack of money my friend had made.  Stone’s pile was much smaller, and I imagined he’d lost most of it to her.  I chuckled and shook my head at the sight.

“I see you're making yourself at home, Wild?” I said as I found myself a chair at the table.  Most of the other ponies had walked off in disgust, looking to keep what little caps they had on them to themselves.  Only a single pony remained behind, a old white earth pony stallion whose mane and tail were as grey as Stone’s coat.  He had a mass of wrinkles and age marks over his frame and it looked like he had one hind leg replaced with a wooden stump.  It was hard to really see due to where he was sitting and the poor lighting in the saloon, and I wasn’t about to poke my head under the table for a better look.

 “Don’t mind them, they’re just sore losers.”  Wild flashed me her trademark grin and winked before lifting up a bottle of alcohol that sat half empty beside her.  The label had a pegasus on it, along with the words ‘Wild Pegasus Whiskey’.  The mare turned the bottle over and began to refill four empty glasses that’d been left on the table.  She missed once or twice, but hurriedly fixed her mistake before she spilled too much of her bottle.

“Wild... how much of this have you had?” I asked as she lifted the fourth glass to me, or at least to my right.  She blinked, and her blue eyes looked a bit out of focus as she grinned and sat back in her seat.

“Not nearly enough yet, it seems.”  I chuckled and she waved a hoof to the pony sitting at the table.  “This here's Pete.  He overheard Stone and I talking about going to San Ponsisco via rail and he told us all about what lay ahead.”  I turned my turned my attention to the old pony sitting at the table.  He, at least, seemed more sober than my friends.

“You must be the young lady's friend she’s told everypony so much about... and rather loudly, I might add.”  I thought I heard Stone mutter about her doing everything loudly, but I pretended not to hear, for my sanity if nothing else.  “Pleasure to meet a pony who’s not afraid to stand up to those bastards in Kanter City.”  Pete held up a hoof and I shook it lightly.

“Oh, he more then just stood up to ’em, he bucked those assholes in the balls and sent ’em straight to hell where they belong,” Wild added, slamming her empty glass back atop the table and reaching for the bottle once more.  Pete simply chuckled, clearly used to being around hard drinking ponies.

“I was just telling them the tracks ahead were in good shape a couple months ago when my partner and I made a run to San Ponsisco for some medical supplies.  You should have a clear enough shot to the city when you’re ready to go.  Just be mindful of the snow; at higher points along the tracks, avalanches have been known to block the tracks in the past, and even before the war it was a risk for trains taking the old route to the west.  Only happened once that I can remember recently, blocked off the tracks for nearly a year before it either melted or slid on down the mountain side. Too risky sending ponies up to clear it, all sort of nasty critters making their home in the peaks.”

“It's safe for a train though?” I asked, idly toying with the glass in my hooves, sloshing the liquid about.

“Not much up there large enough to bother a couple-ton locomotive, and even when we used hoof carts to work our way along the tracks, we were far faster than the creatures up there.  No, the only risk is attempting it on hoof.”

“That’s very welcome news.  I have a train-load of sick ponies who can barely walk across the train car, let alone scale a mountain.  I’d not like to chance taking them into a place so dangerous without some means of transporting them.”  I started to bring the glass to my lips when I spotted Wild licking up the spilled whiskey from the table.  The mare stopped as she realized she was being watched.

“What?  It’s really good,” she smirked and dropped back down into her seat, or rather her new seat which seemed to be Stone’s.  The mare pressed herself up against the stallion before turning back to me.  “So, Shadow, what are you going to do once we reach San Ponsisco?”

“I dunno... I’ve been so focused on finding my missing ponies and getting them to safety I really haven’t thought much of it.”  It was true; despite everything that happened and all I’d done I had no idea what I was going to do when I actually reached the city, “I suppose I’ll take up farming like I always talked about with Ebony, raise my niece, and just settle in.”

“Farming?  You?”  Wild looked genuinely surprised, her red mane falling into her face as she tilted her head to the side to look at me with her stormy blue eyes.  “You don’t really seem the type to farm... I mean, I know it's your special talent and all, it’s just... well, I thought that plant on your flank meant something else really.” 

“What else could it mean?” I asked, shaking my head and thinking she was just being typical Wildfire.  “After everything I’ve seen and done, I have no desire to set hoof back out in the wasteland.  Once we reach the safety of the city, all I want is to hang up my security barding and guns and just enjoy some peace and quiet.”

Wild seemed about to say something else when Stone shushed her and quickly nuzzled her neck before she could turn her focus on him for telling her to be quiet.  I didn’t imagine that would have ended well.  Still, the nuzzle worked and she grinned slyly over at the stallion, before turning back to me.

“So, settling down... hope that means you're going to find yourself a pretty little mare and...” a glass of whiskey was pushed into her mouth by a grey hoof before she could finish that and Pete snorted softly beside me.

“I suppose, if I find myself one,” I answered, the same answer I had always given to my mother, and to my sister.  Wild arched her brows and swallowed her drink quickly before pointing a hoof at me.

“Find one?  Sweet Celestia and Luna’s plotholes, there’s been more ass shoved in your path this entire trip then I’d ever seen a single stallion get.  Why, Rose all but told you to mount her, and I think half the guard mares at Crossroads had wet dreams about you after that whole well stunt you pulled!  Shit, pony, I think they’d wait turns outside your room!”  As she went on, her voice rose and soon the ponies at the tables around us turned and started staring.  I slumped in my seat as a few of the mares looked at me closely.  “Hell, I think even Fuse was checking out your flanks.  Sweet goddesses above, you likely coulda made her walk again!”  She slapped a hoof to her forehead and appeared stunned by the sudden realization. 

Where was a pack of quick, radioactive, acid-spitting geckos when you needed them?

“And don’t even get me started on Kanzi, that poor thing’s got the hots for you, Shadow.  You should just go find that mare and buck her so hard her stripes fall off!”  At last she finally stopped and blinked.  

Over half the saloon was staring at both her and myself, mostly mares at me.  Wait, were they giggling and pointing? Oh goddesses above not again!  After several moments Wild looked from the room to me, leaning in close, a confused and disgusted look on her face as she eyed me up and down, “You're not a unic... are ya?”

“Goddesses damnit ya crazy mare, Ah told ya he ain’t no damn unic.”  Oh, thank you, Stone.  “When Ah was carrin’ him on my back ta Steeldome Ah told ya more than his shotgun was pokin’ me.” I’m doomed. Doomed!  I face planted into the table and waited for my face to explode from all the blood rushing to it.  Finally I looked back up and over to Pete.

“How much have they had?” I asked, pointing a hoof at my two friends who had started arguing over whether or not it was just my revolver that had done the poking or if I instead liked riding stallions. 

Before the old pony could answer, a mare approached our table with a bottle of sitting upon a tray balanced across her back.  She trotted over with a smile on her pretty face and with a skilled roll of her shoulders, let the tray and bottle slide down upon our table.

“That’ll make the fourth bottle they’ve ordered,” the dark pink waitress said with twinkle in her blue eyes, scooping up a small number of caps for the new bottle, shoving them into a money pouch she wore on her toned flanks.  Turning, she trotted off the way she’d came with a sway of her hips.  I admit, I watched that pink flank sway off for a bit.

Shit... Wild is getting to me.  I needed a drink.

Without thinking, I took the glass Wild had poured me earlier and downed it in one gulp.  I nearly fell from my seat as I immediately started gasping for breath.  It felt I’d just drank liquid fire covered in spikes.  Pete just smirked and tilted his head a bit.

“Ya okay there, kid?”

I opened my mouth to answer but could only hack and sputter a response.  The old stallion chuckled and lifted his own glass to his muzzle and took a slow sip of the amber colored alcohol inside.

“First time drinking Wild Pegasus, I take it?” Pete asked with a grin, reaching over to lightly tap me on the back with a hoof.  Across the table Wild giggled at my display and turned to point it out to Stone.  The stallion, however, was sound asleep in his seat.  Pouting, Wild slumped back against him.

“Ye - yeah, you co - could say that.  Its very... smooth,” I rasped back before finally being able to breathe without feeling like I had fire in my throat.

“Its a bit rough on a first timer.   Hmm... judging by that stained jumpsuit of yours you're from one of them Stables.  I suppose they didn’t think to stock them with the world's finest whiskey.”

“Can’t imagine why...” I muttered before climbing back into my seat.  To my dismay, Pete righted my empty glass and filled it once more from the nearly empty bottle.

“If you're not going to let yourself relax in one way, you need to in another,” the old stallion said, pointing a hoof off towards the pink waitress mare, a smirk on his near toothless muzzle.  “I used to look at the pretty mares the same way when I was your age, ‘cept I used to do a lot more than look.  Your friend was right, if a bit loud about it.  You're holding yourself back for some reason.”  It was a statement, not a question.

I pulled the glass over near me and this time carefully sipped the whiskey inside.  It still had one hell of a kick going down, but this time it was far more pleasant, warming my belly as it settled in.

“I don’t have time for that sort of thing right now.”

“Why?” Pete asked, sipping his own glass and watching me closely.  I arched a brow to the old pony.

“I’ve got to reach San Ponsisco as soon as possible.  My niece is there, along with the rest of my Stable.  I have to tell them what became of the Overmare, my sister.  I have to get these ponies back to their families.  Once everypony’s safe, I suppose I’ll have time for that.”  At that Pete snorted.

“Kid, there ain’t anyplace a pony can be completely safe in this world.  It's an admirable thing your doing, looking out for your friends and family, saving strangers from raiders.  But if you don’t find someway to relax, you’re going to burn yourself out.”

“I’ll find time once I’m settled in San Ponsisco,” I responded, hoping he’d drop the subject.  I took another drink from my glass, a bit longer this time.

“Well, I already found time, and it's now,” Wild said, looking Pete and myself over before turning her head back to Stone behind her.  The pegasus pushed her muzzle right against Stones and laid her ears back, blue eyes fixed on the stallions green.  “Right.  Now.”

I’m not really sure what happened next.  One minute Wild and Stone were sitting on a chair in front of me, with an unopened bottle of Wild Pegasus sitting before them and a large pile of caps.  The next thing I know, Wild was across Stone’s back like a pair of saddlebags with the bottle of whiskey in her mouth, the caps in her hooves and the stallions hat over her flank.

“If’n ya’ll will excuse us, Ah have somethin’ ta see ta.”  With that, the earth pony turned and trotted for the stairs, Wild giggling and wiggling her hind hooves like a foal the entire time.

“More whiskey?” Pete asked.

“Yes please....”



*     *     *     *     *



I awoke to what was becoming an all too familiar sound: gunfire.  Part of me wanted to believe it was nothing more than a few ponies firing off their weapons in the air for the hell of it.  I’d seen a few doing that last night while getting shit faced drunk, although luckily I’d managed to refrain from wasting ammo as they had.  Unluckily I’d gotten just as drunk as they had.  Ugh... I’d been punched in my head by a couple different ponies and it still felt better than this!  I rolled back over in the soft warm bed and attempted to go back to sleep, but then I caught the sound of ponies yelling outside my room’s door.  Panicked, frightened yelling.  Still, this town had a Sheriff.  Let them handle it.  Another yell, this one sounding directly below my window was followed by guns firing. 

Was it too much to ask for more than a few days rest before everything went to shit? 

Dragging myself out of bed, I hurriedly reached for my armor and weapons that were laying beside me on a chair.  I’d gotten rather quick at buckling the heavy riot armor plating back in place across my battered body, and strapping the revolver to my left foreleg.  I gripped the neck strap of my shotgun from the back of the chair with my teeth.  The comforting weight of Luna’s Ruse slid over my head and rested against my chest.  My saddlebags were swiftly slipped over my back and tightened so as not to slip off.  I’d just opened my door, ready to go see what the hell was going on, when a panicked mare came flying towards me in the hallway, screaming her head off. 

Time to punch in for work, it seems...

I grabbed a hold of the frightened pony and yanked her into my room, just as a bullet struck the doorframe where my head had been moments before.  Splinters of wood spun off into the near empty hallway as the mare dropped to the floor of my room.  The source of her distress was soon clear, as a grimy looking stallion with a smoking pistol came galloping down the hallway after her.

He skidded to a halt across the saloon’s wooden floor and looked a little surprised to see me.  His wide brown eyes went to the metal star pinned to my chest armor and his surprise turned to panic.  He jerked his head back and muttered around the pistol grip in his mouth.

“A lawpony?  Ain’t supposed ta be any of ya in town not at th’ Sheriff’s Office!”

My E.F.S. painted him as red and I clicked the safety of Luna’s Ruse with a hoof as I eyed the pony standing several steps away from my bedroom door.  Oddly, he did not look like a raider.  His eyes were normal, with no trace of the sickly yellowed eyes: just normal white, his iris a deep brown color.  He had no excessive scarring across his light yellow coat, just the normal everyday sort of cuts and bruises a pony might get from working around a small town.  There was no spiked armor with body parts and blood over his small frame.  In fact, he wore no armor at all, just normal looking work clothing.  In fact, he looked like one of the residents of Tombstone, if a bit more dirty and unsavory looking.

“Why don’t you put the gun down and we can talk about this like reasonable ponies,” I said, trying to be civil to the stranger and hoping he’d see reason.  I’d rather not have to kill him if I didn’t have too; after all, I still had no idea what was going on beyond my room.  

He grinned and I saw his jaw closing around the handle of the gun, so I quickly ducked back into the room and slammed the door shut with a hind hoof just as he opened fire.  Bullets ripped through the thin wooden planks of the old door and impacted the far wall.  Luckily I’d ducked as well and lay over the mare as the stallion emptied his weapon just over our heads.

Or we can just solve this problem the wasteland way...

Whispering for the mare to crawl over behind the bed, I rose swiftly and bucked the door open with a hard kick of my hind legs.  The luckless pony had trotted up to it to check and see if his wild firing had managed to kill me.  I heard the door impact his face as it burst from its frame into the hallway and him swearing colorfully about my mother’s reproductive organs as both he and the door toppled to the worn floor of the saloon.  My golden eyes narrowed on the rattling door and the stallion attempting to push it off himself.

Definitely solving this the wasteland way...

My ears laid back as Luna’s Ruse roared to life, solid slugs ripping through the flimsy wooden door and into the unarmored pony under it.  He got off a single scream of pain before the second round found his heart and turned it to paste.  Blood pooled around the wooden debris and I trotted over it into the hallway, ignoring the meaty sounds coming from under it.  I could hear the sound of more fighting downstairs and in the streets outside.  Turning, I looked to the mare and pointed a bloody hoof at her.

“Stay here.”  I then jumped from the stallion’s makeshift coffin lid and raced towards the stairs at the end of the hall, yelling out for my friends who slept in one of the dozen or so rooms I passed.  “Wild!  Stone!  Trouble!  Get your flanks outta bed and grab your guns!”  I didn’t stop to see if they heard me, instead charging down the steps and into the saloon.

The last gunshot echoed up from the saloon just as I reached the bottom steps.  A quick scan of the room seemed to point to a lack of enemies within it, at least living ones.  Three ponies lay in a heap near the swinging doors of the saloons entrance, or what used to be.  The doors themselves had been ripped from their hinges and lay near the dead bodies, along with their dropped weapons.  A noise from my right drew my attention and I quickly brought my shotgun to bare on a green unicorn sheltering three mares behind an overturned table.  It was Balefire, and he was pointing his twin revolvers up towards me.  Seeing me, his red eyes widened and he relaxed at once.

“Shit, am I glad to see a friendly fucking face.”

“Balefire, what the hell is going on?” I asked, lowering my own weapon and trotting over to the buck and the three mares who were beginning to stand up beside him.

“Fuck if I know, we’d just come down from my room upstairs when those assholes barged in and started shooting the place up.  Luckily I never go anywhere without the Princesses,” he said, twirling his revolvers in his magical grip and holstering them at his sides.  “They’re not raiders.  Could be slavers though,” the stallion continued as he helped a bright orange earth pony to her hooves with a smile.  She giggled softly and nuzzled his neck before stepping aside.

I eyed the four and arched a brow.  Wait.  He had three mares in his room last night?  How was this pony walking?!  I shook my head and pushed it aside for the time being.  There were more important things to worry about at the moment.

“Now, you three head back to my room and lock the door, I’m gonna go with Shadow here and see what all the fuss is about.”

“Aww, don’t go, can’t ya stay here with us?” a purple unicorn asked with a pout to Balefire, swaying her hips a bit.

“I’ll be back soon, and we can finish our little game then.”  He gave each mare a kiss on the cheek before turning back to me, grinning.

“Right... well, let’s go.”  I turned and trotted quickly to the open doors of the saloon and the sounds of gunfire going on out in the streets.  Stepping out onto the porch I saw there were three sources for the noise, all of them in the center of town, and all near the saloons.

The first was the Sheriff's Office, which I hadn’t seen last night since I’d come from a different direction to reach the Drunken Mare.  It was a three story brick and wood buildings sitting between two stores on Main Street.  A old worn sign hung above the doorway with a faded yellow star across it and the words Sheriff.  Most of the windows had been shot out it seems, and there were two bodies lying near the steps; whether they were deputies or attackers, I couldn’t tell.  Beyond the building, a cart had been turned over to allow the attackers some cover from the hail of lead raining down from the second floor of the defenders.

The second source of fighting was some ways down the street, and I could just barely make anything out from where I stood.  However, I could see the large yellow sign above the door with three pink butterflies on it.  It was likely the Clinic where Spirit, Kanzi, and her family were staying.  A couple ponies stood outside, shooting into the windows, but somepony inside was returning fire.  As I watched, two brown forms darted from the roof and raked the attackers with gunfire.  Griff and Razor, it seemed, had stayed with the wounded.  The sudden attack caught the attackers by surprise and they were forced away from their cover and took several rounds by whoever was inside.

The final fight was happening much closer to me, a large mostly brick building that appeared to be quite old.  It also stood out from the other buildings nearby by its design.  Stone pillars lined the front of the building, giving it a old world feel, with large, once-fancy glass windows sitting between them.  Princess Celestia and Luna appeared above the door in a carved image of the two heavenly goddesses.  A well maintained sign hanging above them read ‘Tombstone Bank.’

Here, it seemed, the attackers were inside, and a lone defender lay outside in the street, taking shelter beside a wagon wheel as he attempted to reload his pistol.  I could see a silver star pinned to the unicorn's blood-stained vest, as well as a pair of bandits flanking the pony from around the wagon.  

While I’d normally rush off towards the aid of my friends, it seemed Griff and Razor had things taken care of for the moment.  That wounded pony however looked to need some help, and I thought I’d heard somepony inside the bank yelling for help.  Had the attackers taken some of the locals hostage?  For that matter, who the hell was attacking?!

“Come on!” I called back to Balefire, and jumped from the saloon’s porch and onto the dirt road.  I galloped hard down the street towards the wounded lawpony and the Bank, and behind me I heard Balefire’s hooves pounding after me.  It didn’t take long, and within minutes we found ourselves taking fire from the windows of the stone building.  Bullets whizzed past us as we slid into the cover of the wagon.

At that same moment, the two bandits rounded the other side of the wagon and were drawing a bead on the wounded law pony.  One spotted us and only had time to blink in surprise before I fired Luna’s Ruse into his chest.  The unarmored pony jerked back and dropped his pistol on the ground beside the rear wagon wheel.  The second shot struck him in the side of the face and ended his part in the fight and the world completely.

Balefire slid along the street with his twin revolvers blazing, rounds striking the second bandit all across his frame as well as the wagon and ground beneath his hooves.  As the hammers dropped on empty chambers, the pony dropped over dead from a number of gunshots to his body.   

“What in tarnation?!” the tan colored stallion blinked in surprise as we dropped down beside him, rounds impacting the wooden wagon, sending out chunks of wood in every direction that sent him scrunching further down behind the wheel and knocking his hat off his dirty blonde mane.

“We’re here to help,” I said hurriedly, before he could bring his pistol to bear on us.  The glowing weapon slowly lowered and the stallion’s light green eyes dropped to the star on my chest.

“Yer that pony on th’ train last night?”  I nodded my head and he let out a breath before wincing in pain.  “Thank th’ sisters, Ah thought ya was a couple of th’ Blackhoofs.” 

“Blackhoofs?” I asked as I reached back to my saddlebags.  I’d heard some of the townsfolk talk about them last night in the saloon; they sounded like some sort of gang.  As I nosed through the supplies I had in the pack, I found what I was looking for, a glass bottle with a red liquid inside it. 

“A local gang, mostly drunkards and braggarts.  Just a minor annoyance at most, and we never had much trouble from ’em before,” the law pony said as he reloaded his weapon.  Beside him, Balefire rose up and snapped off a couple of quick shots towards the bank.

“The Sheriff allows them in town?”  I wrapped my lips around the top of the bottle and withdrew it from the bag.  Setting it down beside the law pony, I gripped the cork in my teeth and yanked it free with a pop.  The bottle began to glow blue as the wounded stallion lifted it from the ground and to his mouth.  He drank it quickly and lay back against the wheel.

“Nah, th’ Sheriff’s a smart mare, she don’t let ’em in willingly.  They musta snuck in last night while we was all payin’ attention ta yer arrival.  After all, not everyday a train pulls up ta th’ gate,” he said after a moment of silence.  Balefire reloaded his revolvers from his saddlebags and looked over the edge of the wagon, keeping an eye on the bank.  My opinion of the loud-mouthed unicorn was going up.

“What are they after and where’s Sheriff Sweetshot?”  I reached for Luna’s Ruse, which had fallen back against my chest and topped it off for the coming fight.

“We got a message this mornin’ that one of th’ outlayin’ families were under attack from raiders.  Th’ Sheriff and most of th’ other deputies rode outa town ta their aid.  Ah’m thinkin’ it was a setup ta get most of us outta th’ way.”

A couple shots from behind us drew our attention, and we looked back to see another of the attackers laying dead in the street near the Sheriff’s office, his head missing from a high caliber round.  The law pony beside us chuckled.

“Thatta girl, Blaze, show them bastards how a real pony shoots.”  He coughed and groaned a bit before answering the rest of my question.  “As for what their after, Ah’m thinkin’ its in th’ building behind us.”

“Wait... this is all over money?” I asked in shock, and the unicorn nodded back.  I couldn’t believe it.  Of all the things...

“Ain’t just money we keep in th’ bank.  We also use it ta store th’ town’s ammo and weapons, as well as th’ spare food we put back for hard times.  It’s all kept in th’ vault at th’ back of th’ building.  We’ve had some idea they mighta been thinkin’ of robbin’ th’ bank for awhile, which is one reason th’ Sheriff won’t let ’em in town, or, if she does, they’re only allowed in a couple at a time.”

The world wasn’t fucked up enough, that ponies were stealing from others?  I gritted my teeth and shook my head.  Raiders, monsters, a hellish wasteland, and now gangs out to rob a town of its supplies and money? Hell, it likely wasn’t even money but damned caps.

The hell if I was gonna let this happen.

“Balefire, you ready to stop some bank robbers?”

The green unicorn arched a brow towards me as he reloaded his revolvers.  He glanced over the edge of the wagon and hurriedly ducked back down behind cover as a rain of lead struck the top of the wooden backboard.  Red eyes turned to me and he flashed me a wide  wild grin that Wildfire would have likely been proud of.

“After last night, I think I’ll be able to take these assholes on with one hoof tied behind the other.  Just let me know when ya want those bastards dead.”

“Ah’ll give ya two cover.  Just try and watch what ya shot in there, since th’ bank’s owner and his secretary are likely trapped inside,” the wounded pony said, his pistol floating back up beside him and ready to fire.  “Also, give ’em a couple for me, would ya?”

Nodding, I reached for the firing bit to Luna’s Ruse and edged closer to the front of the wagon, a few stray rounds impacting the ground near my hooves as they tried hitting us under the bottom of the wagon.  Luckily, they seemed no better shots than the raiders had been.  I waited until it seemed the majority of the bandits were reloading before I yelled out.

“NOW!”

I rushed out from behind the wagon, snapping off two rapid shots towards the banks broken windows and saw a couple bandits ducking back behind the stone wall.  Behind me, Balefire rounded the rear of the wagon and began firing off rounds towards the second floor, his revolvers spitting smoke, fire, and lead as he rushed towards the bank. Not to be outdone by two strangers, the law pony rose up and fired off a couple shots towards the window just above the door, one of the rounds striking an earth pony who had just popped up and was preparing to fire down upon the unsuspecting Balefire.  The buck’s eyes went wide as he held his chest before toppling through the glassless window and down into the street below.

We rushed towards the double doors, hooves kicking up a small cloud of dust from the dry street.  As we drew closer, I saw the door glow a dull blue before it was yanked forcibly open once.  A unicorn stepped into the doorway and leveled a old worn combat shotgun towards me in that same glow, a grin on his muzzle.  That grin died within seconds, as I’d already pulled the trigger on Lunas Ruse and sent a single round punching into his chest.  His shotgun went off, sending a round into the ground before his hooves and kicking up a spray of dust and dirt.  The unicorn toppled to the steps of the bank, very much dead.

Balefire was right behind me as I took the steps of the bank two at a time and charged inside, my hooves clattered across the stone flooring.  The room I found myself in took up much of the first floor, a large wide very open space.  At the back was a line of windows with bars across them, where tellers would have given out money back in the bank’s hayday.  Along the walls were old photos and signs from the war, along with a number of more fresh-looking bullet holes.  A couple of small tables and chairs lay across the floor where they’d been tossed and I could just see the vault door behind the teller’s wall, open, with ponies moving in and out of it hurriedly.

My E.F.S. came alive with red dots.  No doubt some were above us, but just as many lay in the room with us, armed and all looking towards Balefire and myself.  I have no idea why I said it; maybe I was just caught up in the moment, maybe it was the whole idea of what was happening, or maybe it was just the Wild Pegasus Wildfire had slipped me last night.

“Drop the guns and nopony has to get hurt!  You're all under arrest!”

For a moment there was silence as the robbers stared at us in surprise, and one even dropped his guns.  Balefire glanced to me out of the corner of his eyes, his revolvers pointed towards a couple ponies to my left.

“What’re ya lazy bastards doin’?!  Shoot that fucker!!!” a large black stallion shouted from behind the teller's window, pointing a hoof right at me.  The odd silence was broken as a dozen or more weapons clicked and began to fire.  Luckily, three of them were our own.

Balefire dodged to the left as three rounds tore into the space he’d been standing in a moment before.  His own guns fired, returning the favor to two stallions standing nearby as they attempted to work the lever of their rifles.  One dropped with a hole in his side and the other staggered against the wall as his leg was grazed.  

I took off running to the right, snapping off rounds at any target I could see.  I felt several rounds whiz past my flanks and neck as the robbers attempted to track me, but few seemed able to adjust for my sudden movement, and fewer still seemed to know to duck when being shot at.  Two ponies dropped to the stone floor of the bank, solid slugs ending their days in the wasteland forever.  As I ran, I could see ponies in the back carrying boxes towards a hallway leading further back into the bank.  One problem at a time.

My hooves skidded hard across the well-polished floor tiles and I nearly dropped my weapon as I crashed into the wall with a dull thud.  A round blew chunks of plaster across my face as it narrowly missed hitting my head.  I slipped into S.A.T.S. to give myself a moment to see where all the enemies were located and just how many we’d come upon.  

I counted no less than two dozen red dots surrounding Balefire and myself.  Of those, I could only see eight, and one was laying on the floor bleeding out from a wound to his chest.  A single yellow dot indicated that the pony who’d thrown down his weapons when I’d yelled out had not rejoined the fight.  Not the smartest move, but it seems one pony had listened.  There were also a group of three green dots, one to my left, indicating Balefire’s position.  The other two seemed to be at the back of the bank, along with a number of the red dots I could not see.  All in all, not too terribly bad odds for us.  Now if only Wild and Stone were here I’d feel a bit better.

As for the vault, from where I stood frozen on the floor, I could just make out the open door and toppled crates and boxes inside.  I could also see the large black stallion who’d yelled out earlier.  He stood just a bit taller than myself, wearing an old and very beat up looking cowpony hat.  He wore a large, heavy-looking trench coat over his front, and from the bulges it appeared he actually had on some armor under that.  A large hunting rifle was swung across his back, putting both Stone’s and Wild’s rifles to shame.  His mane and tail were a rust-colored orange, and I couldn’t see his cutie mark due to the wall between us.  His focus was on the vault now, not us, so for the time being he wasn’t my problem.  At least not yet. 

I hurriedly locked onto the nearest threat, a reddish brown earth pony holding a slightly-better-than-raider level rifle by the mouth grip.  It looked as if he was lining up a shot on Balefire.  I doubted the unicorn even knew he was being targeted, as he was in the middle of a very flashy looking leap across a table, revolvers blazing away at a pair of ponies trying to draw a bead on the crazy buck.

Releasing the targeting spell, time returned to normal, and Luna’s Ruse bucked as a single round flew from the barrel towards my target.  It was then I released just how powerful my new shotgun was, and why solid shot was perhaps not the best load out for unarmored targets.  The solid round slammed full force into the stallions chest and took him completely off his hooves as it passed through flesh, muscle, bone and out again.  A spray of blood splattered the wall near where he’d been standing as the round exited and blew a hole in the wall.

The bandit toppled over, spilling blood from the hole the round had left in his body, but missing anything vital.  Still, I doubted he’d be much of a threat for the time being.  Now his friends, however...

I ducked into the cover of a old worn couch sitting near the wall and heard several rounds strike the floor and wall where I’d been, as well as a few pass completely through the cushions of the couch.  Not the best cover.  After another few rounds struck near my hooves, I rolled back out into the open and onto my hooves.  Two ponies were rushing the couch with pistols blazing away.  I returned fire as I brought my shotgun to bear on the bandit to my right, who was closer. 

My skill with the shotgun had improved since leaving Stable 45, and I did not even bother to activate S.A.T.S. this time, instead firing with my own skill and desire to live.  Luna’s Ruse once more roared to life and two shells exploded from her muzzle, leaving trails of distorted air as they traveled the short distance to their targets.

Both rounds picked the pony up off his hooves and sent him crashing to the floor before impacting the teller’s wall at the rear of the bank and shattering the glass windows in a shower of glittering pieces.  The earth pony did not rise, as I’d aimed for his upper chest and the vital organs within.  One of the rounds had found their mark, and he lay dead on the stone floor.

The second charging bandit went wide eyed at the death of his fellow and lost his nerve, turning to take cover behind a broken wooden table.  Mistake.  I twisted my head and fired off two more rounds towards where the pony had dropped.  The first blew off a chunk of the already abused table and left a hole in the floor tiles just beyond.  The second struck the stallion in the side and knocked him back several inches from the table. 
 
Behind me, I heard Balefire’s revolvers firing rapidly as he unloaded them, and I quickly glanced over to see how he was faring.  The unicorns revolvers spat fire and lead as he danced around the bandits, the ponies’ bodies jerking like puppets as hot rounds struck them, sending out buffs of bloody mist.  The fact that he’d need to hit something vital to kill with a single shot with the small caliber rounds he was using seemed not to worry the green stallion.  He made up for it by simply hitting a target enough to cause them to bleed to death.

We’d already dropped the immediate threats to fifty percent and it seemed the remaining were losing their nerve for the fight.  I looked back towards the rear of the bank and no longer spotted any ponies moving behind the windows of the tellers wall, nor the large stallion who seemed to be in charge.  Not good.

“Balefire, I’m going after the rest, you be okay?” I yelled over to my companion, who was busy reloading both revolvers at once, an act that required a skilled horn.  In response, the stallion snapped the guns back up and fired point blank into a shotgun wielding earth pony who’d been sneaking up on his left.

“Go!  These guys aren’t even trying to kill me!” he laughed as he kicked the fallen earth pony in the face, knocking his shotgun away along with several of his teeth.

With a snort, I turned and galloped towards the rear of the bank and the teller's window.  There was a door just to the right that would lead me into the back, which was closed and likely locked.  Not to worry.  I had the key, after all.  

The door shook as a solid round ripped into the space the doorknob and lock had been.  Wood splintered as I slammed into the door soon after and sent it flying open on its abused hinges.  A quick scan with both my eyes and E.F.S. told me what I’d already expected: the space was empty of threats, but there were also two unarmed ponies cowering under the counter of the teller’s booths; a mare and a stallion, likely the owners of the bank.  I didn’t bother getting a good look at them, as I was in a bit of a hurry.

“Stay down until this is over!” I yelled back to them as I started towards another door in the room, this one leading out into a hallway and further back into the bank.  I could hear loud voices ahead, along the sound of gunfire, so there were either more ponies inside fighting or there was another way out of the bank.  I raced down the hallway, red dots appearing on my E.F.S. as I passed offices and other rooms within the bank.  Turning the corner, I found a still-open steel door and a loading dock at the rear of the building.  

Stepping outside, I scanned for the threats I’d seen and discovered them moving rapidly away from me.  I also heard the sound of thundering hooves and a creaking wood.  Looking around rapidly, I spotted the source of the noise and the retreating threats.  A stagecoach was racing away from the bank, a number of ponies clinging to the sides and a team of four pulling it down the street towards the distant southern gate.

Jumping from the loading dock, I took off at once after the bandits, intent on not letting them escape with the town’s supplies and money.  As I did, I spotted townsfolk poking their heads out to see what was going on, and if it was over.  I also spotted my two missing friends at the rear of the Drunken Mare fighting a couple of stragglers attempting to escape the town.  Stone stood atop a balcony firing down on the bandits with his rifle, his deadly aim making it a extremely one sided fight.  Wild was flipping through the air, strafing targets below her, red mane and tail waving in the warm morning air and eyes narrowed.  She looked pissed.  Even over the noise of the stagecoach, the gunfire and, shouting I could hear my friend.

“Do you assholes know you're interrupting me getting more Celestia-damned action than I’ve had in the last couple years?!  Do you?!”  Hell has no fury like a mare kept from release. 

I turned away from the display as a row of tall buildings blocked the saloon and my friends from sight and focused on the speeding stagecoach ahead of me.  We’d covered the distance from the bank to the gate in startling short order.  I saw a two of the bandits turning away from the wide open gates and start running away from the town, so it seemed they’d either gotten in here or had taken control of it to start with.  These guys seemed to have thought this through rather well.

The stagecoach roared through the wide open passage, leaving a trail of dust behind them for me to choke on.  I snorted and did not let up, hooves kicking up my own cloud of dust as I passed through and into the open wasteland beyond Tombstone.  It seemed the bandits had taken notice of somepony following them, as one yelled out and pointed a hoof towards me.  I narrowed my eyes and willed my legs to move faster.

The stagecoach turned sharply and sped along a old highway, half covered in dirt and sand.  Old rusted road signs zipping past as I ran behind it, slowly gaining on it and the bandits.  

As the cloud of dust slacked from the stagecoaches wake, my eyes widened at the sight of a massive rifle pointing straight at me.  The black trenchcoat-wearing stallion I’d seen in the bank had me dead to rights in his sights, a cold grin on his lips.  The barrel of the weapon burst into flames and smoke as it fired and I hurriedly threw myself to the left in a effort to dodge the shot.

Two things saved my life, both a direct result of the landscape and the effects it has on the ponymade objects within it.  First, the highway, like every other road I’d traveled across since beginning my journey, was a mass of cracks, potholes, and even burst pavement from the heat.  The stagecoaches speeding wheels struck one of these or all and jerked the rifle in the stallions grip, off setting his aim just as he fired what would have been a killing shot.

The second was the rusted and worn road signs that lined the highways of Equestria.  Ironically enough, it had been a speed sign, but it had been bent over by something large rolling across it, or just by the force of the wind.  Either way, it lay directly in my path and I’d completely missed it.  As I moved to dodge aside, my front legs struck the metal post, which sent me spiraling into the pavement in a mess of flailing hooves, tail, and weapons, face-first into a sizeable piece of shattered pavement and into unconsciousness. 


Welcome to Level 12!


Perk Added: Leadbelly: With this perk, you take 50% less radiation every time you drink from an irradiated water source or eat irradiated food.  Lets be honest, those snack cakes you found in the cupboard of that 200 year old house weren’t just stale, they were also glowing!  Oh, and you can handle strong alcohols like Wild Pegasus a bit better now.  

Lightweight...

> Chapter 12: Trouble In Tombstone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 12: Trouble In Tombstone


“It's a hell of a thing, killin' a pony.  You take away both all he's got and all he's ever gonna have.”



Not for the first time during this trip, (and somehow, I thought, not for the last time) the world once more came back into focus around me.  I wasn’t sure just how long I’d been out this time, but it seemed to have been long enough to allow somepony to drag my sorry ass out of the desert and into a bed.  Ugh, my head was still ringing from that hunk of concrete I’d hit.  This was getting to be a bad habit of mine, it seemed, waking up in a strange bed after being struck in the face or head by something.  At this rate I was going to end up with brain damage or something (if I hadn’t already, judging by my actions this past week).  Once I’d stopped thinking about what had happened, I began to detect the sound of hushed whispers around me.  It would seem I wasn’t alone in the room.

The room, as it turned out, must have been within the Tombstone Clinic.  While I’d never been inside the building at the end of the street, I’d seen it during the gunfight.  It seemed similar enough to other places I’d awoke in; the medical wings of Steeldome’s tower, and my own Stable’s medbay.  Like those other places, the walls were painted a clean pure white.  Surprisingly, there were no signs of decay, rot, or damage along the walls, unlike my room in the Drunken Mare.  Orderly shelves and cabinets lined the wall near my bed, housing a multitude of bottles and containers.  Simple glass doors kept the medical supplies from sticky hooves, but I doubted they would stop a determined pony from shattering them.

The hushed whispering grew a bit and returned my attention to the task at hoof.  I shifted a bit on the soft warm bed to better see around the rest of the room.  I found myself looking across a rather large space, filled with beds just like mine, complete with ponies lying within them with a number of bandages or healed wounds.  Most of those ponies were asleep, with only a small hoof full sitting up in their beds, speaking softly with others (friends and family most likely judging by their clothing), and it was from these few that the sound of whispering had come.  As my eyes moved across the brightly colored bodies, I saw that the most common injury suffered was from a gunshot to the leg or flank.  The bandits had not exactly been the best of shots and had simply sprayed rounds at whatever appeared to be the most threatening.  Luckily, none of the wounds seemed to be life threatening.  Sadly, I realized I’d seen enough gunshot wounds to know them just by looking for the signs on the body.

My gaze shifted from the wounded ponies to the rest of the room.  Like the beds and the walls, the room was surprisingly clean for being out in the middle of the Wasteland.  It was likely the only place in the Wasteland that had such clean beds.  Even the windows along the bed-lined wall were clean and free of grime and dirt, although it appeared several had been broken during the fighting.  Those were boarded up, but the rest allowed the dim morning light to filter through and into the room.  Between the windows were a number of old faded posters; the only reminder of the wasteland beyond the walls.  

All had been issued from the same place, The Ministry of Peace, and all bore the same pony upon the front.  The pony shyly looking out from behind her long pink mane was a butter yellow pegasus with a cutie mark of three pink butterflies, the same symbol that adorned the medical kits and supplies that had once filled Stable 45’s Medbay, the same sign that marked the location of first aid stations throughout the ruins of pony towns and cities, that sat proudly on the covers of first aid kits.  The posters spoke of forgiveness and doing better, of peace and harmony.

I grunted and looked back to the wounded ponies in the room.  It would seem nopony had listened then or now to those posters.

“Well, it’s about damn time you woke up.  Your friends have been driving me crazy the past hour or so asking if you were awake yet,” a tired and cranky sounding voice said nearby.  I turned my gaze from the room to the owner of the voice, who’d managed to approach my bed while I’d been distracted.

It was a middle-aged, graying stallion that greeted my eyes, with a too-large white lab coat, pockets filled with a number of objects, covering his upper torso.  A stethoscope (which was also his cutie mark) hung loosely around his neck.  The pony’s coat was a dull blue color with a dark green mane and tail (both of which had streaks of grey running throughout them).  The most noticeable thing about the pony, however, was the pair of feathered wings along his sides, both tucked closely to his body.  So, it seemed my winged friend was not the only pegasus running around the wasteland.  He still had his cutie mark, however; from what Wild told me, that was something the Enclave made a show of burning away before tossing their unwanted citizens out of heaven and into hell.

“Yes, I am indeed a pegasus.  So it seems your eyes are working properly at least.”  This must have been Doctor Mitchell, the pony who’d taken in the wounded from the train, along with the family of zebras.  He narrowed his yellow eyes on my head and reached a hoof up to rub between my ears and forehead, checking for something.  “Well, it looks and feels like there’s no permanent damage, although I hear from your friends you seem to get hit in the head a lot.”  His hoof then whacked me good.  In the bucking head.  Hard.  I of course reacted as well as one could expect.

“Motherfuckingsonofabitch!!!” I yelled out and wrapped my sore, aching head in my forehooves quickly, narrowing my own golden eyes upon the demented bastard of a doctor.  “What the hell was that for!?” I shouted into the old pegasus’ face and would have received another smack atop my head if I hadn’t seen it coming and dodged away.

“Reaction time’s good and you can still speak,” he said, before poking me hard in the chest with his hoof.  “Keep it down.  I do have other patients in the medical ward beside you.  Now, if you please, out of bed.  I have other patients in need of it more than you do at the moment.”  A door behind him opened quickly and a purple-coated unicorn mare stepped through, looking about the room with concern in her teal colored eyes.

Like the doctor, she too wore a large white lab coat, and it covered much of her front half.  Her dark blue mane was done up in a tight bun to keep any strands out of her face.  Her horn glowing a soft purple as she floated a clip board alongside her.  She looked from the doctor to me, and slowly smiled a knowing smile.  It seemed she’d found the source of the sudden noise.  As the nurse stepped aside to give the doctor the clipboard, another pony followed her in, and this one I was far more thankful to see. 
 
“That’s twice Ah’ve had ta haul yer lazy flank outta th’ wasteland and back ta civilization.  One of these days Ah reckon’ yer gonna need ta be brought back in a bag.”  I smiled sheepishly to Stonehoof and shrugged my shoulders.

“Sorry about that, Stone.  Suppose I should have watched where I put my hooves,” I answered with a bit of a chuckle.  The doctor turned back to regard both my friend and I before rolling his eyes and muttering about foolish Stable ponies.  He said something else to the nurse before trotting off to check on one of the other patients in the Clinic.  As Stone stepped towards me, the nurse’s horn lit up once more and a trunk at the foot of my bed opened up and out floated my gear.

“Do you need any help getting dressed?” she asked.  Was it just my imagination or did she look a little too hopeful that I’d need assistance with that?  Or maybe it was just Wild’s drunken outburst the night before creeping into my head.  Bad pegasus.  Bad.

“No thanks, I can manage on my own,” I said with a kind smile to the mare, who nodded and trotted off to the bed next to mine and the pony beginning to wake up.

“Ah’m thinkin’ Wild’s right bout ya, Shadow,” my friend said from beside my bed, his green eyes going from the purple mare then back to me.  I slid out of bed and reached for the bundle of gear that had been neatly wrapped up in thin paper.  It appeared most had been repaired and washed for me, though my armor still bore a number of deep gouges and chips.  I pulled my old worn and tattered Stable jumpsuit from the bundle and began pulling it on as Stone continued, “Ya really shouldn’t be pushin’ so many away if they wanna get ta know ya.  Goddesses above know ya could use some time ta relax.”

“Maybe.  Or maybe you two should try locking the chariot door next time.”  I zipped the suit closed with a hoof and looked over to Stone as I spoke.  The stallion’s face flushed and his ears flicked back in embarrassment.  He even went so far as to fall back onto his tail as I turned away and chuckled.  “I’m happy you two are at least getting along and no longer trying to kill one another.”

“Well, she’s a right maddenin’ mare most of th’ time.”  I gave my friend a deadpan look and he snorted and stomped a hoof.  “All right, nearly all th’ time, but then, so are most mares.”   He looked away from me and over to the row of beds filled with wounded townsfolk.  “After everythin’ that happened over th’ past few days...”  He shook his head and looked back to me.  “Well, Ah suppose it’s like my Pa use ta tell my brother and Ah: ‘each day we’re alive is a gift, and not a goddess given right, so make each and every day out ta be yer last and ye’ll never have regrets when yer time comes’.”

I looked up from my battered riot armor to my large grey friend as he spoke.  That was actually very insightful.  I looked over to the nurse helping the pony in his bed.  Perhaps it was advice I should heed, and do like Wild had said (well, not all that she said; I didn’t think it was possible to buck a zebra hard enough to make their stripes fall off), and settle down.  Allow myself to find somepony to start a family with.  Well... perhaps when we reached San Ponsisco.  Stone went on to explain. 

“Never did think much of it at th’ time he said it.  I was like any young buck out ta prove himself.  Ah reckon Ah came closer ta dyin’ in Kanter City then Ah ever have before, and, well... makes a pony think about things.  About What-Could-Be’s and What-Should’ve-Been’s.  Beyond a few short flings back home, Ah ain’t never really thought much of findin’ myself a mare.” 

“I understand, Stone.”  I slipped the chest plate over my head and through my forehooves.  I was indeed happy for the pair, as odd as they were.  Perhaps Sheriff Sweetshot had been right.  Odd couples make things more interesting, though I hoped if Stone was getting serious with Wild she in turn was looking for the same thing.  The former Enclave Wing Commander did not strike me as the settling-down type... but then, neither did Stone.  Strapping the black armored plating to my chest, I reached back with my mouth to tighten the straps on the back plate.  At any rate, it was time to stop thinking about my friends’ love lives and start thinking about what had happened after I ran headlong into a metal road sign.

 “I suppose that's something we can talk about later.  For right now, what have I missed?”

“Well, ain’t missed a lot, ya was only out for a couple hours.  It’s bout noon, Ah think.  Th’ ponies that attacked th’ town just up and started runnin’ away.  Ah reckon it was some sorta signal or agreed time, they’d gotten what they wanted from th’ bank.  When Wild and Ah finally found out where ya’d taken off ta, we hoofed it over ta th’ bank where we found Balefire guardin’ a couple prisoners.  He told us ya went runnin’ off like a damned fool so we went off ta save yer damn fool ass.”  I winced a bit.  Yeah, yeah, I should have waited for help, “We left Balefire ta tell the locals what happened.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t come back and finish me off,” I said as I slipped my foreleg armor plates on over my knees.  While most of my foreleg armor was made up of a mesh knitting, there were a few harder plates on key areas to stop bullets.  The mesh also allowed for easier movement and less weight. 

“Ah reckon they was in a mighty big hurry ta be puttin’ some distance ‘atween themselves and th’ town before th’ locals discovered what’d happened and rose up ta hunt ’em down.  When we found ya, Wild told me ta get ya back ta th’ Clinic and she’d go lookin’ for them bandits herself.”  The earth pony had remained sitting the whole time and now stood up to move a bit (pacing perhaps?).  “Ah swear, that mare’s always riskin’ herself on foolish things.”  I turned away to hide my smile as my friend worried over Wild.  I reached for the still holstered revolver and slid it across my left foreleg.  Speaking of...

I looked over the room for any sign of the ponies we’d arrived with the night before.  The doctor had taken them in before I’d gone to meet up with Stone and Wild at the saloon.  I also searched for any signs of Spirit, Kanzi, or the other zebras.  When I saw no sign of any of them, I looked back to Stone and asked where they were.

“Spirit and Kanzi are helpin’ the Doc with th’ wounded.  Not enough beds in here for ’em all, so they’re seein’ to a few over at th’ Drunkin’ Mare.  Th’ owners lettin’ Kanzi’s family stay for free since she’s helpin’ out th’ town.”  Well, that was news.  The Sheriff had mentioned he was a more reasonable pony with strangers, and it seemed she’d been correct about him.  “As fer th’ wounded we came in with, they’re scattered between th’ different saloons.  Th’ mayor ‘talked’ th’ owners into lettin’ the Doc use the extra rooms for th’ least severely wounded.”

“Well, its good to know that the ponies in charge around here are not as concerned whether a pony has stripes or not as some of the townsfolk last night at the station.  What about Balefire and Carrion?”  Stone’d already mentioned leaving the wild green unicorn in town while they’d gone after me.  As for Carrion, he’d been a bit angry last night; I imagine the bandits had gotten more than they’d bargained for if they’d crossed paths with the ghoul.

“Balefire’s over at th’ Sheriff’s Office last time Ah seen ’im, and Carrion’s checking th’ town’s defenses in case th’ bandits come back.”

Not likely, they’d gotten whatever they’d been after and I’d guess had no need to come back.  It’d be too risky, since the townsfolk would be expecting it.  Speaking of the Sheriff...

“What about the Sheriff?  Did she and the others return from the farmstead?” I asked, but as Stone opened his mouth to answer, another pony beat him to it.  The voice’s owner was the pony now sitting up in the bed across from mine, and was also familiar to me.

“She ain’t come back yet.  Ah reckon they set a trap for her ta keep her and th’ deputies that went with ’er busy.”  The pony speaking was the same wounded lawpony who Balefire and I had gone to help outside the bank.  He now sported several white bandages wrapped around his flanks and torso where the bullet wounds had been that morning.  The deputy unicorn looked in far better shape than he had beside that wagon. 

“Has anypony gone to check on them?” I asked either stallion, tossing my saddlebags across my back and reaching for the loose hanging straps.

“Th’ griffon mercs ya rode into town with left shortly after they heard she might be in trouble, said they owed her for th’ hospitality,” the deputy once more answered.  Griff and Razor?  Had they taken the two mares with them as well?  Unarmed in the wasteland?  Stone cleared his throat and raised a hoof up to get my attention.

“Before ya ask or start worryin’, Ah let ’em gear up with some of th’ raiders’ weapons and armor we took.  Ah figured it’d be somethin’ ya’d offer ta do.  They took what they needed and flew off.”

“You guessed right, Stone.  How long ago did they leave?”  I tightened the straps for the packs across my stomach and fixed them in pace.

“About hour and a half ago, Ah reckon,” my friend answered, looking over to the deputy who nodded his head.

Well, it seemed the Sheriff and however many ponies she had with her would be of little help to Tombstone or retrieving the stolen goods the bandits had taken.  And just what had they taken and where?  Luna’s Ruse was all that remained upon the bed, beside my borrowed cowpony hat.  The crossed rifle pin sitting in the center caught a bit of the light coming through the windows.

“So, assuming it was the Blackhoof gang like you thought, any ideas on where they’d be going or what they actually got away with?” I asked, as the deputy lay back in his bed with a slight grunt of pain.  I arched a brow towards the stallion but he waved the concerned look away and continued.

“From what Ah heard th’ other deputies talkin’ bout, they got away with about half th’ ammo we had stored in th’ bank vault, most of th’ spare guns and all but a couple boxes of canned and dried food,” he said as he stared at the ceiling.  “Most of it we’re gonna be needin’ come this winter.”

Winter?  In the middle of a desert?  Stone must have noticed my confused look and began to explain.  He knew I’d spent my whole life in a Stable, and, while we’d seen evidence of weather while patrolling the few miles around the Stable entrance, we’d never seen any snow or ice like the books spoke of.

“Likely not what yer thinkin’ of winter, Shadow.  We don’t get a lotta snow down this far south... heck, not many places do in Equestria no more, ‘cept in places like Wintertrot.  What we do get is storms, big storms blowin’ down from up north.  Large number of ’em are sandstorms, blown up by strong winds.  Coupla’ years ago we had one large enough ta blot out the already covered sky for a couple weeks’ time.  Buried a few smaller towns and killed a number of ponies.”  Great, something else killing ponies beside the wildlife and raiders.  Could the world get any more fucked up?  Stone went on to explain about other ways ponies could die by the weather.  Good times...

“Some normal storms, as well.  At least, as normal as a storm can be in th’ wasteland, seein’ as how they’re normally laced with radiation an’ acid rain.”  I stared at the pony standing across from me.  Acid rain?  Of course there’d be acid rain.  “Some fancy speakin’ unicorn from out east was tryin’ ta explain it ta us in Crossroads.  He said it was from all th’ ruined cities up north of us, still soaked in radiation after all these years.  Th’ wind kicked up all that mess and whips it up into th’ clouds.  It then spread across th’ country.”  Made sense, I suppose, and I could see where this was going.  It was the deputy that put it into words, however.

“It's already difficult enough, tryin’ ta grow enough food for a settlement’s population without th’ sun’s light and little water.  Settlements like ours have ta grow food year round ta just make sure everypony’s got enough ta not completely starve.  Round these parts, we have ta save up some for th’ winter months when we can’t grow, or scavenge for supplies in ruins of large cities or abandoned small towns.  And th’ only city close enough for that is Kanter City, and it an’t an option.  Couple years ago a group tried, but we never heard from ’em again.  With trade all but stopped, well, we need them supplies.”

It was a wonder to me still that anypony had managed to survive longer than a couple weeks on the surface, but here they were.  Ponies trying to eke out an existence in a world so determined to kill what few remained.  They’d been doing it since the bombs fell, as I’d seen in Wastefall and Crossroads, and they’d been doing it since a couple of the Stables had opened up, like in San Ponsisco. 

“As for where they took th’ supplies or where their hideout is... well, like Ah said this mornin’, they’ve got some place out in th’ wasteland they all stay in.  An ol’ ruined farmhouse or somethin’.  Th’ wasteland is full of places a group of ponies can hide, and there’s a fair number of ’em in the surroundin’ hills and plains.  However, Ah might know somepony who might give ya some directions and perhaps narrow down yer search, if yer really set on goin’ after ’em,” the stallion said, rubbing his chin with a hoof.  “When they was draggin’ me off ta th’ Clinic, Ah saw yer friend come outta th’ bank with a couple of them bandits.  Said ya told ’em to surrender and one did, an’ after ya ran off a couple more gave up as well.  Ah reckon they’re enjoyin’ a stay over at th’ Sheriff's Office in one of th’ cells.”

Hmm, perhaps some good would come from that little bout of insanity.  At any rate it would be someplace to start looking and would spare us needlessly wandering around the wasteland looking for a band of ponies.  Still, it seemed there were a lot more ponies than a normal gang should have.  Well, then again, I didn’t exactly know what a ‘normal gang’ would be.  I said as much, and the deputy agreed.

“Yer right, th’ Blackhoofs never had this sorta pony power before.  At most they was a small group of ‘bout twenty or so trouble makers from around th’ wasteland.  Ah rightly don’t know where they got so many ta help ’em out.”  Another question left unanswered for the moment.  Perhaps one of the prisoners could shed some light on that as well.  The nurse walked back up to the deputy and looked over to Stone and myself.

“Please, he needs to get some rest.”

“Of course, we’ll just be leaving.”  Taking the hint, I nodded my head and nudged Stone’s shoulder with a hoof.  The two of us stepped quietly from the room and out into a small hallway.  At either end of the narrow passage was a doorway, one opening into a small room such as a office or examination room.  The other appeared to lead out into the waiting room.  Stone lead me towards this end of the hallway, and as we neared, I saw several ponies sitting in chairs or on the floor with a number of injuries, from cuts and bruises to minor gunshot wounds.  All appeared to be waiting their turn to see the doctor.  Stone led me through the waiting ponies and towards an old worn wooden door that would open out onto the streets of Tombstone.

As we emerged from the Clinic and out onto the humid, dirt-covered streets of the town, I saw that most of the damage from the earlier fight had been cleaned up.  The ruined wagon out front of the bank and Sheriff's Office had been hauled away, and I saw several store owners working on repairing the numerous bullet holes in their stores walls and doors.  A number of ponies walked past us in a hurry to be somewhere.  The friendly neutral look we’d gotten the night before was largely gone from their eyes.  Most watched us with some suspicion, likely wondering if we’d not had something to do with the bandits or the attack.  Few still nodded their heads in greeting.

“Ah reckon we’ll be goin’ after them bandits then?” Stone asked me as ponies trotted past.  The large grey earth pony ignored the ponies looking over at us, I guess since they’d likely been giving him the evil eye most of the morning.

“Possibly.  I want to find out a little more about these bandits and where they’re holed up before we run off into the wasteland looking for them, as well as find out how everyone else is doing,” I said with a smile to my friend.  We started walking across the open street for the row of buildings on the other side.  Beyond a few ponies moving about, there was little traffic to worry about at this time of day.  It seemed most ponies were either staying indoors or along the walls.

The walls... how exactly had the bandits gotten past them?  When we’d arrived last night there’d been a large number of ponies along the walls, although I doubt that was normal.  Most had likely just been citizens attempting to get a look at the train pulling up to their home.  Still, thus far every town I’d been to had some sort of local law enforcement and guards, I’d seen a large number of deputies and a few ponies dressed in combat armor, so the surrounding countryside was likely watched from those walls.  Yet the bandits had managed to slip past the wall and gain entrance to the town.  Had they really just snuck in the night before like the deputy had said?  That many?  My thoughts were interrupted as Stone spoke again.

“Ah’d like ta wait for Wild ta return as well.  She may have found somethin’ out herself.”  He likely would worry about the mare if we left without her.  I couldn’t really blame him for that; she’d become a close friend to me as well (although perhaps not as close as they’d become) and I’d worry about the fire maned pegasus just as much.  As it turned out, neither of us would have to worry much longer.

“Awww, you do care,” a female voice called out from above.  Stopping in the middle of the street, Stone and I looked skyward just as a orange coated mare floated gracefully down from the rooftops to land in a flourish of wings and mane.  

“Ah reckon Ah sorta do...”

“Well, don’t worry, I’m a big filly and can look after myself,” the pegasus smirked and trotted around Stone, flicking her tail up into his face playfully as she easily slipped in between us.  Wild turned and looked to me then, growing serious for a time, “I’m afraid I wasn’t able to find much.  Their tracks disappeared with the morning wind a couple miles south of town and on rocky terrain, but I did spot several abandoned ranches and farm houses nearby that are large enough to hide them.” 

“How far out?”  I asked, as Stone twitched his nose from the tail flick.

“I’d say we’re about ten miles from the nearest of the buildings, further for most of the others.  I did see evidence that a couple had been repaired recently.”  Wild looked over the town, then kicked a hoof full of dirt up from the dry packed street we stood upon watching as the wind blew the dust away, “I dunno why anypony would bother though, I can’t imagine much growing out there beyond scrub brush and rocks.” 

“Not much will,” Stone spoke up as we began walking once more and stepped up onto the wooden sidewalk.  “Just potatoes, mushrooms, or scrub grass at most.”  Wait, ponies eat that brown stuff I’d seen all across the wasteland?  If it tasted like it looked....  “From what little Ah heard about Tombstone, th’ town’s farms are ta th’ west.”  The stallion pointed a large grey hoof towards said direction.  “Th’ terrain ain’t as rocky and dry out yonder.  There’s a couple natural springs comin’ down from th’ mountains ta help feed th’ crops as well.”

“Hmm, so how’d ya get so big on mushrooms and potatoes?” Wild asked with a playful wink and poke of an orange hoof into Stone’s side before turning back to the subject at hoof.  “I saw a number of buildings off to the west near the ridgeline the tracks followed.  I didn’t fly over to check them out though, as they were a fair distance away.” 

“It’s where th’ Sheriff went off ta,” Stone added.  I doubt they’d have gone to the same place where they’d set up an ambush for the town’s Sheriff.  They had to know they’d never be able to hold the town for long, and sooner or later ponies would come looking for their lead law pony.  I just hoped Griff and Razor had found her and her deputies alive.

“I doubt they’d have their hideout so close to town.  Or near the farms where they might be spotted by ponies loyal to the town.  It’d likely be one of the sites further out and to the south, likely near the border with Caledonia.”

“Well, we’re a good ways from th’ border Ah reckon.  Though Ah dunno why they’d bother crossing the border into another country after stealin’ from Tombstone.  Th’ wastelands th’ wasteland, whether it’s Equestrian or Caledonian,” Stone said, as we trotted along the wooden planks past opening stores.  Beside him, Wild half smirked and looked back to me to add, “Maybe they're planning on jumping the border to get away from the Marshall and his posse of brave and awesome ponies.”

I simply rolled my eyes and snorted at that.  Up until last night they likely didn’t even know I was here, nor would they have had any reason to fear me.  I may have taken down a couple of raiders, but I was hardly the talk of the local towns’ watering holes.  I was no local legend such as High Marshall Pipsqueak had been.  Hell, I wasn’t even a real Marshall.  It seemed deciding to take the hat and star with me had been a mistake, yet I couldn’t bring myself to remove them.  I turned to Wild as we stopped to allow a couple of elderly mares past us.

“Where else are they going to go?  Kanter City’s to the northeast, the mountains are to the west, and there’s nothing but desert and raiders to the east.  Even if the followed the tracks west, they’d end up in C.S.E. territory and I somehow doubt they’d welcome bandits and thieves.  They’re either planning on selling what they’ve stolen, keeping it for themselves, or using it to take the town.”

“Can’t be after th’ town.  They coulda already taken it while they was here.  Don’t make no sense ta just rob th’ bank and leave with the goods only ta try and come back later to take over,” Stone reasoned as we started back down the sidewalk.  As we took a few more steps, we rounded the street corner and the Sheriff's Office came into view.  The Drunken Mare was just at the end of the street and beside it sat the Bank.  There were a number of curious ponies standing out front, along with two of the town's remaining deputies keeping them out.

“Agreed.  It also doesn’t make sense to just sit on whatever they stole.  They have to know the Sheriff will eventually find them, considering how important the items taken are to the town.  They’d comb the countryside until they found them.”  We followed the wooden walkway down the street towards the Sheriff’s Office.  “I think they’re going to try and sell it or use it to get themselves somewhere else in the wasteland, likely far from here.”  At last we reached the building with the hole-filled wooden sign, the gold painted star remarkably free of holes.  The bandits had been really bad shots.

“Well, I’m so glad we’ve got this all figured out, so why exactly are we going to the Sheriff’s Office?” Wild asked as Stone opened the simple wooden door.  Like the sign hanging above it, the door had a number of holes in and through it.  It seemed the fury of the attack had been largely focused on the town's lawponies.

“To narrow down our search.  Somepony they captured this morning may tell us which of those farmhouses you saw is their hide-out, and perhaps what they're planning to do next,” I said in answer to the pegasus’ question.  Wild shrugged her wings and stepped inside, followed by Stone and myself shortly after.

The inside of the Sheriff’s Office looked like something you’d expect from one of the old western movies we’d watched back in the Stable.  The floorboards were wooden, well worn from use and age, with a number of large cracks and holes hastily repaired by ponies who likely had no clue how too.  The faded rust red brick walls were chipped and pot marked with a number of bullet holes; some of which looked as if they’d been there for years.  Like the Clinic, the walls of the building had a number of old war posters hanging up, with slogans such as ‘Do Your Part, join the Equestrian Guard Today!’ and ‘Beware, anypony could be a Zebra spy!’.  

Sitting on either side of the large room were two desks that, like the walls and floors, were chipped and worn from age and use.  A number of metal filing cabinets stood behind each, dented and one missing a drawer entirely.  I saw two gun cabinets similar to the one I’d found in the saloons hidden upstairs room at Wastefall, however these were not covered with dust and appeared locked.  There were also two ponies sitting in the room along with several empty chairs and a couple of tables.  Both ponies looked up from whatever they’d been doing before we’d entered.  

The nearest was a dark brown earth pony stallion with a dull red and black striped mane; he appeared to be working on a shotgun that rested atop the desk he sat at.  The stallion’s dark green eyes lifted from a number of tools and a small bottle of oil sitting on the desk to my friends and I.  A tattered cowpony hat sat beside him at the desk along with the silver badge of a deputy.  I could not see his cutie mark, since he was sitting behind the desk.

The other pony in the room was sitting in one of the office’s chairs (it looked to have been made up of parts of different pieces of furniture judging by the mismatched legs and backing).  Her seat was near a metal door leading into the back of the building, a small window with bars over it in the center.  Unlike the stallion, the green coated unicorn mare was wearing combat armor with a silver badge pinned to the chest, and wore her hat atop her teal colored mane.  A pair of revolvers hung around her waist, the belt stuffed full of spare rounds for the weapons.  A worn pair of brown saddlebags sat beside her on the floor.  It was the stallion at the desk who spoke first.

“Can we help ya strangers?”  He arched a brow as he looked us over.  He’d likely been one of the many deputies who’d been at the track gates the night before when we’d arrived, but it’d been getting dark and perhaps he didn’t know who we were.  The mare tilted her head as she sized us up, but after a moment she seemed to recall who we were and even smiled a bit.

“I hope you can, officer.  I wanted to ask one of your prisoners a couple questions about the bank robbery this morning,” I answered, putting on my best smile.  None of the townsponies had any reason to trust me, and despite the warm open welcome we’d received from the Sheriff, she’d pointed out the locals could be a bit cold to strangers.  Even more so after the recent attack. 

“And why’d Ah be allowin’ a group of strangers ta be doin’ somethin’ like that?  For that matter, why do ya even wanna talk with ’im?” he asked, putting down the stained cloth he’d been using to clean the shotgun.  His eyes narrowed a bit at me as he looked more closely to my armor and weapons.  Then his eyes widened as he spotted the old worn star I wore on my chest.  “Wait, yer that pony that arrived in town last night with all them rescued prisoners.” The mare stood up from her seat, causing us all to look her direction as the wooden legs scraped against the floor loudly.

“Th’ Sheriff said ta treat ’em like one of us, Roy,” the mare spoke up, looking to her counterpart at the desk then back to us.  “Mac said he helped ’im out with th’ bandits at th’ bank.  If it weren’t for this pony, we’d likely not have half the ponies we got locked up and a might more wounded townsfolk.”

“Sheriff ain’t here, Lucy, an’ ya know we don’t just let anypony walk into th’ jail just cause they wanna have a chat with one of th’ prisoners. They’re strangers from outta town; for all we know they’re in with th’ bandits.”  To this the mare snorted and shook her head.

“Well, Ah don’t rightly think they are.  Don’t make a lick of sense ta help jail yer partners.  Anyway, ain’t your decision ta make.  Th’ Sheriff left me in charge of the jail, so Ah’m lettin’ ‘em in.”  As she spoke, the mare reached down to a belt wrapped around her armored chest with her mouth and gripped the set of keys hanging there between her teeth.  

She turned and began flipping through the large number of old iron keys with a hoof until she found the right one and pushed it into the lock of the metal door.  As she turned the key, a soft click reached my ears and the door opened slowly as the lock was released.  She pulled the key free from the door and hung it back on her side.  Pushing a hoof into the open space between door and frame, she pulled the door open on rusty hinges.

“Whatever, ya ol’ bat, just make sure ya don’t let ’em set th’ prisoners free.  Ah ain’t gonna help ya round’em back up,” the stallion responded and went back to cleaning his weapon, muttering under his breath.

Stone, Wild, and I quickly followed the green mare as she trotted past the now wide-open door and into the dark room that lay beyond.  The scent of the room hit me as soon as I crossed the doorway.  Despite the fact they’d only been in here a few hours, the heat and the small space had conspired to make the smell of unwashed pony flesh very strong.  The fact the cells each had only a single toilet hadn’t helped much either.  Might seem odd I’d notice that right off the bat, but it was easy seeing how a pony was squatting over one of the damned things when we went in.  Still, the smell quickly went away after a few moments; after all, I’d just trekked through an abandoned sewer and through the filth of raiders just days ago.  After that, anything was bearable.  I began to focus more on the room itself, and the source of the smell.

The room was much darker than the front of the Sheriff’s Office for the simple fact that there were far fewer windows in the jail and they were built so far up the wall and so very small.  The iron bars running across them further blocked out light, resulting in narrow shafts of dim sunlight reaching the cold stone flooring.  A hallway ran the length of the room, with cells on either side.  There were about four cells on each side; a total of eight.  Each had two bunks and a toilet (more like a hole in the floor since I’d gotten to see one in action).  At the front of the room, an old battered desk sat beside the door with another patchwork chair sitting behind it.  Despite the rusty door hinges and battered furniture, the rest of the cells appeared in fair shape.  The iron bars that lined the cells were largely rust free and well maintained.  I doubted they saw much use beyond a pony needing to sleep off a night of heavy drinking; that is, until today.

We followed the deputy as she began walking between the cells, her eyes focused on the barred room near the end of the hall.  The sound of our hoofsteps clopped loudly over the concrete floor of the room.  Seems the builders had decided to make escape by digging under wooden floor boards an impossibility.  As we went, I scanned the filthy worn faces behind the bars.  

Like any other group of ponies I’d seen throughout the wasteland and even back home, there was a mix of unicorns and earth ponies (but no more pegasi beyond the town’s doctor).  Most ignored us as we trotted past, though a couple watched us with looks of hatred or worry.  Their tattered vests and barding hung loosely to their frames.  A number of them were so thin I could actually see their ribs through their hide.  Most had wounds freshly bandaged and a large number still had on old worn hats.  One pony lay across the floor with his wide brimmed hat over his face, snoring loudly from under it.  Our guide stopped at the end of the row of jail cells and turned her attention towards the cell on the right.  

It held five ponies currently, in a space meant for two or three.  Like many of the others, they mostly ignored us as we approached the bars to their cell, all but one.  He was a rather pitiful looking sight, and one I’d seen before.  The stallion was laying upon the floor in the back of the cell, beside the two cots which were holding two other ponies.  The stallion’s head lay between his forehooves with his ears drooped down on either side of his head.  The sound of so many hoofsteps coming towards the bars caught his attention and, with twitching ears, he lifted his head from the cold stone floor to look up.  I’d recognized him at once as the pony who’d tossed his weapon down in the bank as Balefire and I fought to stop the bandits from stealing the towns supplies.  I briefly wondered where the dark green unicorn was at; Stone had said he was supposed to be here, but I’d seen neither hide nor hair of him.

“This here’s the bandit ya helped capture at th’ bank.  Th’ rest either surrendered throughout th’ town or yer fast talkin’ green friend made ’em give up,” Lucy said, pointing a hoof towards the pony laying on the floor.  The deputy eyed the remaining prisoners before stepping aside to make room for my friends and I to approach the bars more closely.

I stepped up near the bars and quickly looked over the other ponies inside.  The bandits were dirty, worn,  thin and, in some cases, a bit sickly looking, with threadbare clothing and crude hoofmade armor.  They looked like any other pony I’d seen in the wasteland, the ones in towns not of the raider type. They were a hard looking bunch, covered in scrapes and bruises from the fighting.  I focused my gaze upon the stallion from the bank and nodded my head towards him. 

“I wanted to ask you a couple questions about your friends,” I began.  He rose to his hooves from the floor and slowly trotted towards the bars of his cell.  As he moved past them, the ponies in his cell looked up from the floor or whatever they’d been doing to glance over towards my friends and I.  Behind me, I could feel other pairs of eyes settling upon my back.  Good, I had their attention and they were listening to me.  Perhaps one of them would answer my questions, if not this one.  Still, he’d given up without a fight, and something was telling me there were more to these ponies than just would-be bank robbers.

“Ain’t no friends of mine,” he said, spitting on the floor of his cell, light blue eyes narrowing on my face as he looked back up.  “I ain’t no bandit either, least not really...”  His eyes softened a bit and a look of regret or shame crossed his features for a moment.  I looked a bit more closely at this pony than I had at the bank or the quick look I’d given him as we approached the cell.  Like many of his fellow cellmates, his ribcage showed through his mangy, dull orange coat, and I could see dark circles under his blue eyes.  It was hard to tell what his mane color had been, it was so covered in dirt from the wasteland, but a few strands of pale yellow poked out from below the dust.  He was wearing a simple brown and yellow vest with a number of pockets, along with an empty pistol holster on his side.  His cutie mark was odd for a would-be bandit: a row of green sprouts and a hoe.  Perhaps he had been a farmer in his youth?  No, he was just a few years older than me, but he looked tired, worn out.  Not the sort of tired from lack of sleep, but tired of life.  Of the wasteland.  Of the horrors of it all.  For some reason, I felt I could trust this pony.  Some instinct in my soul told me he wasn’t a bad pony, just a pony in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Oh?  You just run around the wasteland raiding towns with complete strangers then?” Wild asked, tilting her head a bit to eye the pony over.  “You don’t look like a mercenary to me, and I know a thing or two about them, seeing how I use to run with a group of ’em.  In fact, none of you fit the bill for a hardass merc,” she added, tapping a hoof against the bars of his cell and looking over the stallions he shared the room with.  The mare glanced over the worn earth pony again before looking over to Stone and myself, “I’ve seen my share of wasteland scum, and these don’t really look the type real.  Real mercs would eat these ponies for breakfast... literally, depending on the griffon.”

“And since when did you become such a good judge a’ character?” Stone jabbed,  to which Wild simply grinned and jerked a hoof my way.

“Since I started running around with that one.”  Was that a compliment?  “He has a nasty habit of making ponies do good deeds and being all heroic and shit.”  Stone merely chuckled at that and I arched a brow, still unsure if that was an insult or compliment.  Knowing Wild it was likely both.  Stone cleared his throat and spoke once he’d gotten my attention.

“She ain’t far wrong, though.  Ah’ve seen mah share of bandits and mercs too, an’ he looks too much like th’ folks of Tombstone ta be a thief.  Fact of th’ matter is, they all look like hardworkin’ ponies just in a spot of trouble.”  The gray stallion glanced over the ponies in the eight cells, most avoiding his stare.  “Wasteland’s full of ponies in desperate ways just like these.  Most stay outta trouble, but... seems these ponies didn’t.”

“Well, lets start at the beginning then,” I said calmly as my friends seemed to agree with my unspoken assessment of the ponies in the cells.  They had far more experience in the wasteland than I, but it seems I was quickly learning.  Was that a good thing?  I suppose so, if I wanted to stay alive long enough to reach San Ponsisco and my niece.  I held up a hoof to my chest as I continued speaking to the prisoner,  “My name’s Shadow, and these are my friends.”  I waved my hoof to each pony in turn.  “Stonehoof, and Wildfire, and the deputy’s name is Lucy.”  My friends smirked but said nothing.  The prisoner arched a brow and looked at me as if I was nuts.  After all, who introduces themselves to prisoners and ponies who’d just tried to kill you.  “What's your name?”

“Runner,” he said simply, and seemed unlikely to say much else.  By now all the ponies in his cell lifted their eyes towards me.  Each shared a similar look with the stallion I was focusing on:  Who the hell was this buck and what was he drinking?  

“Well, Runner.  Care to tell us your side of the story?”

“Why do ya care?  Ah think th’ ponies in charge have already made up their minds ‘bout me, an’ tellin’ my side of th’ story ain’t gonna do me no good,” Runner said with a resigned sigh.  Before I could respond, Wild moved up beside me and leaned back on her hind legs so she could wrapped one of her foreleg around my neck.  With surprising strength she pulled me close and squeezed my neck as she spoke.

“Caring.  Caring about everypony everywhere!” she dramatically intoned, holding out her free forehoof before us, stormy blue eyes wide.  “It’s what he does.”  After a moment of silence in which everypony was staring at the mare as if she’d finally snapped, she released me and dropped back to all four hooves before sitting down and reaching for her pack of smokes.  One of the prisoners coughed lightly and Lucy shifted on her hooves uneasily as Wild lit her smoke and calmly stuck it between her lips.

Ooookay...

“Well, Ah reckon Ah ain’t got nothin’ ta lose,” Runner finally sighed after several seconds of silence from Wild’s outburst.  She hadn’t even been drunk this time!  “Ah reckon Ah may as well start at th’ beginnin’ ta explain what’s goin’ on.  Ah’m originally from th’ small farmin’ settlement of Southfield-” Lucy cut him off quickly.

“Southfield?  Its been abandoned for months now!”  When I arched a brow to the mare, she explained quickly, remembering I wasn’t from around here.  She waved a hoof vaguely towards the south, where I’d never have guessed a town called Southfield would be.  “It used ta be one of Tombstone’s outlyin’ communities.  They had one of th’ few plots of land south of town that’ll actually grow food.  In th’ winter we take ’em in durin’ the storms.  Like most of th’ small communities round these parts, they ain’t exactly citizens of th’ town and they mostly fend for themselves.”  She looked back to Runner.  “But a couple months ago when they hadn’t contacted us, th’ Sheriff went out with a couple deputies ta check up on ’em.  After all, we need each other ta survive.  Ah was one of th’ ponies that went with th’ Sheriff and all we found was burned-out homes.  All the ponies just vanished without a trace.”

At that, a pony in the cell behind us struck the metal bars with his hooves and snorted loudly, causing us all to turn in surprise at the sudden outburst.  Like the ponies around him, he was covered in dust and a mix of bruises and cuts.  He bore a white bandage around his midsection that wrapped around his right front foreleg.  He was far larger than Runner, though he looked almost as starved.  It seemed his spirit was not as crushed as the other earth pony, judging by the tone of his voice and narrowed brown eyes on the deputy.

“Without a trace?  Ya’ll stopped sendin’ anythin’ ta us, ya crazy bitch!  And when we learned of an attack on our homes we sent messengers askin’ fer yer help.  Ya’ll didn’t send any, and th’ messengers never returned ta their families!” the stallion growled out between yellowed teeth, pushing his muzzle through the bar and jabbing a hoof at Lucy.  “Needin’ one another ta survive, my flank.  We lost a lotta good folks cuz ya’ll stopped carin’ ‘bout us!”  I heard muttering agreement from several of the other prisoners in the jail cells, a few standing up to eye the deputy angrily.

I quickly stepped between them before things got out of hoof.  Seems there was a lot more going on here than a simple bank robbery after all.  Lucky me.  Looking from Lucy to the unnamed pony yelling, I attempted to get the conversation back on track before we had a riot on our hooves.

“I take it some of you survived?”  I directed this question to anypony in the cells.

“Yeah, couple ponies known around th’ area as th’ Blackhoof Gang showed up and fought th’ raiders off.  Drove ’em back down south of town.  When they came back, the Blackhoof Brothers spoke with th’ settlement leader, Ol’ Halfear, about movin’ us somewhere safer.  Told ’im Tombstone had abandoned us like they had them,” the large angry stallion said.  I saw other prisoners nodding, all but Runner.  Well, at least we were getting somewhere and nopony was brandishing shanks. 

Lucy held her tongue, though I saw she clearly wanted to say something about that.  The law pony only grunted and stepped away from the bars with a flick of her tail, hooves stomping heavily on the floor.

“I’ve heard talk around town about the Blackhoof Gang.  These Brothers are the leaders?” I asked, looking between the prisoners and the deputy, waiting for either to answer the question.  It was the same pony who’d spoken up before who finally answered.

“Right ya are on that.  They rode into town and saved us from th’ raiders, helped put out th’ fires they started.  Took us in when nopony else would.”  That was directed towards Lucy, who stomped a hoof in response.  “ They protected us from th’ raiders till they could get us ta their hideout.”  My ears perked at that; so they did know where the Blackhoofs made their camp.

“At least, at first...” Runner added, earning a few dark looks from his fellow prisoners and my sudden attention.

“At first?” I asked.  Both my companions looked over to the thin pony, the orange mare smoking her cigarette lazily as Stone stood beside her, keeping a close eye on the ponies around us.  Being as careful as always, at least when there wasn’t something to loot.

“Not many question ponies that save yer life.  We all wanted ta think they was th’ real deal.  Ponies out ta do th’ right thing,” Runner said, dropping down from the bars and onto his flanks.  He snorted and looked away from us.  “Ain’t anypony like that, though.  We shoulda known better.  Ah shoulda known better.”

Stone and Wild both looked over at me.  By now I’d been forced to realize that ponies did not do the right thing when given the option.  It was far easier to simply ignore it and get on with their own lives.  I suppose if I’d been born on the surface and not in a stable I’d be the same way.  I frowned and looked over the beaten, tired ponies behind the bars.  Runner either did not see the look or didn’t pay it any attention as he went on.

 “After a couple weeks they started talkin’ bout takin’ what was rightfully ours.  That Tombstone had no right ta keep our food we worked so hard for and treatin’ us little better than th’ slaves some ponies keep.  There’s always been grumblin’ over it; Ah reckon that’s just th’ way things are in th’ world.  Just, nopony ever really said it quite like them, Ah reckon.  Got ponies worked up like never before.  It helped that we’d just lost several ta raiders and our homes,” he said, before Lucy finally spoke up again, though this time her voice was more level.

“Th’ food’s for the whole town and th’ surrondin’ settlements, Runner.  If yer really from Southfield, ya should know that we use th’ food durin’ the storms ta feed everypony we take in.  And we don’t treat ya any worse than any other pony in town.  Ya lot always valued yer freedom more than being part of a larger community.  Th’ mayor’s always respected that with th’ small settlements round town.  As for raiders, if we’d known ya was under attack, th’ Sheriff woulda come ta yer aid.  But none of yer messengers ever reached town, as far as Ah know.”  The mare shook her head and sat down on the floor near the cell door.  “And besides, we ain’t seen raiders round these parts for months, not since they started attackin’ caravans and smaller towns up north.  Ain’t been no raiders south of Tombstone in awhile, so we ain’t had no reason ta worry or think they was anywhere closer than up th’ tracks northeast of here.”

“Says th’ pony livin’ behind th’ walls of a defended town.  We ain’t got that sorta thing to hide behind in Southfields or a lotta ponies armed with fancy weapons and well-kept armor.  As far as them raiders go, they came up from down south lookin’ for easy pickin’s,” the large loud stallion said with narrowed eyes on Lucy.  “Ah suppose Ah’m just makin’ up the deaths of ponies Ah’ve known my whole life?”

“If raiders are coming up out of Caledonia, then it’s possible your patrols may not have seen them,” I said before anypony else could argue about it.  “Do you send them anywhere near the border?” I asked the deputy.  She shook her head and I pressed on.  “Well, there’s a small possibility a small group of them could have gotten past.”  This was mostly said to appease the prisoners so they’d hopefully keep talking.  I agreed with the law mare; you knew if raiders were in the area.  Raiders did not seem to rely on stealth and secrecy.  They WANTED you to know they were around.  Even a week above the surface made that very clear, painfully so.

“Ah reckon yer right on that, Marshall.”  Inwardly I groaned as she called me that, but said nothing.  “As for th’ Blackhoof’s, well, they ain’t exactly known for their kindness.  Th’ few times they was allowed into town, they ended up causin’ all sorts of problems for th’ townsfolk.  Startin’ fights, tryin’ ta force the saloon mares upstairs or into back allies.  Th’ Mayor got fed up with ’em and banned ’em from comin’ back.”  A couple of the prisoners appeared ready to defend their saviors but Runner spoke up first.  Instead of arguing as one would expect, Runner grunted and nodded his head in agreement. 

“Yer right, ma’am.  We’d all heard th’ stories bout ’em, but most like myself just thought they was blown outta proportion.”  The stallion shook his head sadly.  “Ya gotta remember, they saved our lives, so that gave ’em a bit of say with us.  Anyway, as Ah was sayin,’ nopony really questioned them at first.  But after awhile Ah began ta notice some odd behavior around th’ town.”  Town?  The bandits had a town as a hideout?  Well, that narrowed the list a bit.  I’d have to talk with one of the deputies about any nearby abandoned towns.  “Members of th’ gang would leave suddenly and return lookin’ like they’d just got inta one helluva fight, covered in soot and with a number of wounds.  Another group would then head out ta finish off any survivors from th’ raiders and return with a family or group of ponies who’d been attacked by those surviving raiders afore th’ could be found.”  I arched a brow to that. 

“They said they’d just run into th’ band of raiders that attacked Southfield, an’ there was a lotta them., one of Runners cell mates said, though he hardly sound convinced of that fact.

“Every time they left town?  Well, its possible, Ah reckon.  But there was more than just that.  Most of th’ time when th’ gang left th’ hideout with empty saddlebags and returned all banged up... well, their saddlebags weren’t empty no more.  They was full of food and supplies.”  I was beginning to see a pattern here, but Runner pressed on, “Then a couple ponies up and disappeared.”  The Blackhoofs loudest defender spoke up at that.

“Ain’t nothin’ odd ‘bout that, Runner.  Not all th’ ponies were happy there, ya’ said so yerself.  Th’ brothers said they just left ta go elsewhere, is all.”  Runner looked past me to the large prisoner behind me in his cell; both stallions seemed to be from the town of Southfield, by the sounds of it.

“Ah reckon so, Jack, but Ah personally knew a few of ’em that ‘left’.  Only a couple ever said they thought of leavin’ and Ah know none of ’em woulda up and left their families behind.”  The stallion stomped a hoof lightly.  “Dammit Jack, ya know Goldy wouldn’t leave his wife while she’s pregnant.” Jack said nothing, and simply looked away from Runner as the orange pony went on.

“Then a few weeks ago, they started askin’ for ponies that wanted ta get what was theirs back.  About half of th’ able-bodied stallions signed up for it; we was told our families would have more ta eat if we helped with gatherin’ food.”  As we’d been speaking, I’d slowly began noticing an odd feeling creeping into my body, a cold dread.  Especially when he’d mentioned families and foals.  Now that feeling was building and I was finding it a bit hard to breathe as something sunk into place.  “‘Course, most would.  Ah’ve gotta wife and two foals ta think of, despite my thoughts on th’ gang.” 

“Most of us here do,” Runner’s cellmate said again, looking sadly from the floor to the barred window above him.

“They told us their plan, that there was nowhere safe in Equestria for us no more, that we’d head down south ta Caledonian and find ourselves a nice bit of land and settle down.  Said the ponies down there had a real workin’ gov’ment that cared for its citizens, unlike th’ distant Confederacy.  Then they told us how we’d be gettin’ there.  By robbin’ Tombstone’s bank and takin’ the supplies from th’ safe.  Said we’d need ’em ta feed everypony, said it was no more than what th’ town deserved after leavin’ us ta die...”

“So... the ponies who attacked the town this morning weren’t all members of the gang?” Wild asked, ears perked towards the stallion.

“No, ma’am, we weren’t... only ‘bout five or six members of th’ gang actually came into town with us, and they stuck next ta their leader at th’ bank.  They was in charge of th’ stagecoach that hauled th’ loot outta town.  Th’ rest of us were supposed ta keep the remainin’ law ponies busy while they worked...”

Runner continued to speak, but I’d stopped listening to him.  Stone had been right.  They were nothing more than a group of desperate ponies out to try and feed their family.  They had families, foals to look after, elderly.  A town of desperate ponies who went to the only place they knew of for food.  Talked into it by a group of outlaws who were likely taking advantage of them.  Starving ponies that I had killed, leaving their foals fatherless in this hellish world of ours.  Oh goddesses above, what had I done??

An orange hoof gently wrapped itself once more around my neck and I heard Wild saying something to the others before she began tugging me away from the cells.  She pulled me through the still-open metal door and past the deputy cleaning his gun.  He may have said something to us as we passed, but I didn’t really pay that much attention.  My mind was fixed on what I’d learned just then.  I’d killed ponies just looking for food.  No.  Nononononooo...

“Shadow?” 

I should have know.  I should have seen they weren’t bandits; they were certainly no raiders, yet I’d killed them as if they’d been.  It could have been just as easily us doing that.  If the Stable had broken down sooner, damaged the orchard somehow where we couldn’t grow food.  We’d have been forced out into the wasteland to try and find somewhere to get food.  What if Crossroads wouldn’t take in so many hungry mouths?  Over two hundred hungry ponies, over a quarter of that number young foals.  What would we have done?  What would Ebony had done to make sure Sugar had food?

“Shadow...” the note of concern from my friend’s voice brought my attention back to the world around me.  I blinked, tears at the corner of my eyes, and looked around, a bit lost, at my new surroundings.  We were no longer inside the Sheriff's Office or even on the sidewalk outside.  I shook my head and looked towards the narrow band of grey sky above me, the roofs of buildings on either side.  Wild had pulled me into the alley between buildings, the mare looking at me with knowing blue eyes as I lowered my gaze back to my friend.

“Shadow, it was either you or them,” she said simply, an orange hoof on my shoulder.  “If you hadn’t killed them, they would have killed you.  I’ve seen the lengths a desperate pony will go to to stay alive.  More times than I care to remember.  Even done so myself at the order of my superiors.  Desperate ponies will do things most can’t even think of, at least, not until they’re in their shoes.  That's why there’re so many raiders in the wasteland.”

“I should have tried harder to get them to surrender.  One did... maybe more would have if I’d tried...”

“...and then you’d be dead, Balefire would be dead, or any number of other ponies in this town would be dead and they would have still taken the food.  When a pony’s that desperate, there’s little anypony can say to them to stop them.  They’ve made up their minds that it’s the only way.”  Her orange hoof lowered and settled back upon the dirt-covered ground of the alleyway.  “And when that happens, innocent lives are lost on both sides.”  I suddenly realized how similar this was to her own past.  

She was right, of course.  If I’d tried getting those ponies to surrender, we could have been killed and they would have still gotten away with the town’s supplies, and even more ponies would die.  Desperate ponies are capable of doing anything if they believe it's their only hope.  Rivets had believed she’d been doing the right thing for her home when she’d all but stabbed her own daughter and granddaughter in the back to take control of Steeldome.  

Wild’s own past was a mirror image of Tombstone’s current situation.  Two sides desperate for what little food there was to find in the wasteland.  I looked up at my winged friend who watched me closely, head tilted to the side.

“You’re right, Wild... I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for caring enough about your fellow ponies to shed tears for them, Shadow.  If more ponies did, then maybe the world wouldn’t be such a shitty place.  You’ve done more good in the past week than most ponies will ever do in their entire short lives.  That's something to be proud off, but this was bound to happen sooner or later.”  Her blue eyes slide from my face to the grey overcast sky above, “Now, it's up to you to decide what happens next.  Do you give up, or do you do something about it?”

Give up?  Wait on the odd pony to fix the train and leave Tombstone to fix their own problems?  Just follow the tracks to San Ponsisco and never look back?  No.  That wasn’t something I think I could do; it wasn’t me.  It wasn’t how mom and dad raised us.  How could I look my niece in the eyes and tell her about her mother and how her uncle had left foals just like her to starve to death in the coming winter?  Ebony would not want me to just give up... she’d likely yank the covers off my bed and me along with them, and administer some tough love.  A noise from the end of the alleyway caught both our attentions and we turned to see somepony standing in the opening.

It was Stonehoof along with Deputy Lucy.  The pair had left the Sheriff’s Office and had no doubt come looking for us.  My friend looked worriedly towards me; no doubt he’d caught on to why Wild was dragging me away.  The pegasus looked from me to her lover and stood to move over towards him, giving the earth pony a gentle nuzzle to the cheek before sitting down beside him.  It seemed enough to relax my stoic friend as he smiled slightly to his mare before looking back over to me.  For her part, Lucy simply stood behind the pair, hat perched atop her green mane and trying to appear as if she wasn’t intruding on our problems. 

“Th’ Deputy’s gonna go talk with th’ mayor ‘bout what she’s learned.  She thinks he might know where th’ gang’s hidin’ at,” Stone said after a few more seconds of silence from everypony present.  I stood up and walked out of the alleyway and back into the slightly brighter streets of Tombstone.  Ponies had at last left the safety of their homes to begin their day of running errands or repairing the damage to their town.  A bright pink mare led a group of young foals through the street and off towards the edge of town, where an old, red, three-story building with white trim stood.

What do I do now?

“Alright, we’ll need to know as much as we can on this town they’re holed up in, if we’re going to get Tombstone’s supplies back for them.”  Wild smiled from beside Stone and nodded her head.  My large friend smirked and lightly slapped my shoulder with one of his hooves (which for him was not so light).

“Somehow, Ah figured that’s what ya’d say.”

I turned and looked to the Deputy who was also smiling and shaking her head slowly.

“Ah c’n see th’ Sheriff was right about ya, Marshall... now, let’s go get ya what ya need ta help us out.”  Without another word or look, she stood up and set off across the now busy street towards the bank.  By this time, most of the ponies who’d been milling around out front of the stone building had either gone on home to their families or off to whatever business they’d been originally out for.  

Stone and Wild set off beside after me as we trotted between a few wagons hauling broken furniture and doors to somewhere else in town, perhaps to be fixed or reused.  Despite my brave words and show, my mind was still troubled by what had happened this morning.

With the raiders there’d been no doubt to their crimes.  Rape, murder, kidnapping, and cannibalism were just the start of what they’d done to their fellow ponies and anyone else unlucky enough to come within reach.  I somehow doubted that those mad ponies would give a shit about their own kin.  Hell, for all I know they ate their young.  I’d been doing the world a favor by removing them from it.  But these bandits...

Well, they had made their choices and so had I, and now we each had to live with the results (a small part of my mind pointed out that I’d be the one doing most of the living, but it was quickly hushed and tossed back where it belonged).  Wild was right; it was bound to happen sooner or later out here in this new world I found myself in.  One might say, better now than later in the heat of battle.  But, would that really help?  Would it ever get easier?  Celestia and Luna above... I hope not.

Approaching the bank, I saw it was still in much the same state as it had been when I’d last seen it that morning.  The bullet-riddled wagon was still parked out front, laying on half broken wheels. I doubted very much anypony would be pulling that away to be repaired or recycled.  Looking past it to the bank, I saw the stone columns and broken windows still looked the same, along with the front doors that lay open, hoof prints clearly visible upon them.

Walking around the wagon, I spotted pieces of broken glass littering the wooden sidewalk beside the building from the number of broken windows above.  There were also several dark crimson stains under the  shards of glass, where ponies had laid and likely died that morning.  Nearing the wide open doors of the bank, my thoughts darkened once more.  Lucy spoke to the two deputies standing watch outside.  Wild gave me a reassuring nudge with her flank as we waited for the law ponies to discuss allowing us entrance to the bank.   The pair guarding the door looked my friends and I over before finally stepping aside to allow us entrance to the building.  

Walking up the stone steps and through the door, I got a better look at the entranceway to the old building.  The broken furniture and glass still littered the floor, along with spent shell casings and blood stains.  The teller's window at the back was all but ruined, with only a single pane of glass remaining near one end, which, oddly, was etched with the symbol of money surrounded by leaves.  Now that I had the time to look, I saw the walls were in fact covered with a light yellow wallpaper, with small white flowers running along it.  The odd photo or landscape picture hung over the yellow walls, often times at odd angles due to the fighting, a few cracked from rounds striking them or hitting the wall nearby.  There were ponies inside as well, five in total but only two I recalled from that morning.

The first was the stallion who I’d last seen in the back of the bank that morning.  Without the threat of a bullet striking me or bandits escaping, I sized the pony up.  He was obviously the owner of the bank, judging by the fine clothing he wore and how well groomed he appeared.  In fact he reminded me very much of photos I’d seen in school and old books of Canterlot.  He was an earth pony with a tan colored coat and black greyish mane and tail, wearing a black jacket with a white collar and tie.  His cutie mark was the same symbol I’d seen in the glass pane, a money sign.  As we entered, he looked up from his talk with another pony, blue green eyes sizing me up before he seemed to just as quickly ignore me.

Standing beside the stallion was the other pony I’d seen during the fight, the mare.  Her pure white coat stood out brightly against the drab colored ponies around her, and her short cut purple mane and tail were as well groomed as the bank owner’s beside her.  She was a unicorn, the slender ivory spiral horn rising up between her purple bangs being clear enough to see.  Like her male counterpart, she wore a smaller black jacket that just drew the eye to her white coat.  A gold necklace hung around her narrow neck, a gold pendant laying against her chest.  Her cutie mark was of a quill and scroll.  Lavender eyes shifted from the others to my friends and I as we entered, but unlike the stallion I saw a look of recognition in her eyes as they stopped on me.  A small smile formed across her lips and she mouthed the words ‘thank you’ before being forced back to the conversation by the buck.

The remaining ponies inside the bank I did not know, two of them were deputies, evident by the silver stars on their worn vests as well as the armor and weapons they wore.  They gave us a quick look as we entered the building, but upon seeing Lucy, they calmed and went back to searching the room.  For what, I’m not sure, perhaps collecting evidence or looking for clues.  It was the third pony however, who caught my attention.  He’d been speaking with the bank owner and his assistant when we’d entered; now, however, as our hoof steps echoed in the quiet room, he turned to look over his shoulder at us.

The stallion stood no taller than I, with an average build.  He was an earth pony with a darker brown coat and a white mane and tail.  He had a rugged face with a few old marks and scars upon his cheek and jaw; whether from battle or just hard living was unclear.  Like the banker, he too wore a black jacket.  His, however, had a much more lived-in appearance, with worn patches repairing old rips and tears.  Most unusual of all was the black top hat the pony wore atop his short white mane.  Like the jacket, it had clearly seen far better days, but somehow it managed to still retain its shape and stately appearance.  A narrow red band circled the stovepipe-like hat.  Grey green eyes quickly approached me and my friends before a warm, kind smile broke across his face.

“If you folks can just wait for a few minutes, I’ll be more than happy to speak with you once I’ve finished here with Mr. Rich and Miss Cloudbank.”  He had a voice that reminded me of my dear old uncle who had passed away a few months after I turned seven.  So, this was Tombstone’s mayor?  Deputy Lucy stepped past my friends and I to catch the stallion’s attention.

“Mr Mayor, Ah’m afraid this here’s a might important.”  The mayor turned his gaze to the deputy, then back to us, before he finally nodded to Lucy and waved a hoof for her to join them.  As she trotted over, Stone and Wild simply sat down to wait our turn to speak with the pony in charge.

As Lucy spoke with the mayor, and my friends spoke among themselves, I quietly wandered over towards the open vault door and the room beyond it.  The large steel door reminded me quite a bit of a stable door: large, thick, and gear shaped.  Unlike the doorway to my former home, this one did not slide inwards and roll out of the way inside the wall itself.  It swung open on massive hinges, and appeared locked and opened by a simple lever and control pad for the combination.  There were also no white numbers stretched across the front.  For a moment, I wondered how my old home was doing.

Stepping over the threshold of the door, I moved inside the vault itself and was once more reminded of home.  Cold, grey steel walls loomed all around me up to the ceiling, which was also encased in steel.  Like my home, there were rows of light panels running across the ceiling, casting a warm, white glow over the room. On either side of me were safe deposit boxes and cabinets for ponies’ personal possessions to be stored.  Most had been forced open, their doors hanging loosely from broken hinges and their contents spilled out across the floor.  

Most of what was left behind appeared to be largely junk, or at least to anypony but the owner.  Odd bits of metal, old toys and the occasional photo album made up much of the litter.  There was even a statue of a purple unicorn mare laying on the floor.  I arched a brow thoughtfully at the familiar looking miniature pony, thinking I had seen her somewhere before.  Mostly she seemed lonely.  It was odd to think of a small statue as being lonely, but looking at her... well, something told me she belonged with somepony else and with her friends.  

Stepping over the litter and bits of personal affects, I lifted the tiny unicorn mare up off the floor and sat her up.  For a moment I thought about taking her, but she was not mine to take, and so reluctantly I turned away to look over the rest of the scattered items.  Some of them looked as old as the town, and likely had been left behind by the original inhabitants of the town.  Or were these the descendants of those ponies?  I’d never really gotten the history of the town, but I suppose that would be a bit pointless, really.  Anything the bandits could use had likely been taken along with the town’s supplies.

The supplies that were left were pitifully few.  A few wooden crates mixed with old pre-war canned food and, judging by the wrappers, military rations.  Enough food for several dozen ponies to live off of for a few months, maybe a year if stretched.  There were over three times that number living in Tombstone, perhaps more.  And by the sounds of it, they could expect a fair number more to arrive during the beginning of winter.  Whether they’d intended to do so or not, the bandits had killed the ponies of Tombstone as sure as if they’d pulled the trigger of a gun.  I was quite sure the Blackhoof Brothers knew what they’d done, just as I was sure they’d likely not be helping out the ponies they’d taken in.

As I was about to turn around and rejoin the others out in the bank, another steel door caught my eye, this one tucked away in the side of the room, between rows of deposit boxes stacked nearly to the ceiling.  It was smaller than the vault’s door, but no less impressive, with a number of locks and number pads.  It also looked somehow newer than the vault around it.  Odd.

A quick look told me the mayor was still speaking with Lucy, and that Stone and Wild had also become involved with the conversion.  The bank owner and his assistant looked over their business and spoke to one another.  I decided I had a bit more time to check out this door within the vault.  Turning, I trotted over towards it, hooves stepping carefully over the personal effects of the townsfolk or their ancestors.  As I drew closer, I saw the door was slightly ajar and reached a hoof up to pull it open.

It sung slowly on its hinges, as it slowed to a halt, it appeared large enough for two ponies to walk through side by side and almost as tall as the ceiling.  Beyond it, was a rather plain simple looking room, almost a closet really.  Like the vault, it was lit by overhead light panels that ran the length of the small room and hummed softly.  But that was it.  There was nothing else inside the room.  No safe deposit boxes, no spilled litter or stacked crates of food.  There was just... nothing.  Four walls, a ceiling, and floor.  I placed a single hoof inside the room, as I leaned in to look more closely.  

As I placed a second hoof inside, something quite unexpected happened.  A deep, unsettling laugh seemed to come from the very air itself.  I hurriedly stepped back from the room, ears laying flat against my skull as I looked for the source of that almost demonic laugh.  My entire body shook, and I felt a chill run down my spine.  

Just you wait, my little pony... we’re going to have such fun, you and I...

What the fuck was THAT?  The room was once more silent, save for the beating of my heart.  I looked inside the room and for a moment thought I saw an oddly-shaped face staring back at me with twisted horns and mad eyes.  I blinked and the face vanished, leaving me to wonder if I’d even really seen it.  Hoofsteps behind me caused me to hurriedly turn around, perhaps expecting whatever had made that laugh to be there, but it was only Stone.

“Everythin’ alright Shadow?” my friend asked, concern clear in his voice and face as I turned back to look over my shoulder at him.

“You didn’t hear that?” I asked.  I looked back towards the small room, but heard only the sound of hoof steps approaching us.  Stone stepped up beside me and stared into the small room, ears perked up in the holes of his hat, but after several moments he shook his head and looked over to me.

“Can’t say Ah did... did ya hear somethin’?” my friend asked me, a note of concern in his voice.  Perhaps he was thinking the wasteland and everything that had happened over the past week was finally getting to me.  Was he right?  I began to ask myself the same question.  What had I heard?  Or did I even really hear it?  Was it possible Ebony’s death and all the horrors I’d seen had finally caused something inside me to snap?  Or by asking myself if I was crazy, did that mean I wasn’t?

I opened my mouth to try and explain what I’d heard when a pair of voices cut me off.  I turned my head to look back over my shoulder as the mayor and the bank owner walked into the vault side by side.  Behind them I saw Lucy, Wild, and the banker’s assistant standing around speaking to one another.

“... they left most of your books and charts, Mr. Mayor,” the bank owner was saying.  The tan colored stallion turned and noticed the vault was not as empty as he’d expected it.  I supposed no one but Stone had noticed me slip away.  The pony stopped and was about to say something (judging by the looks we were getting it would be nothing nice) when his eyes passed from us to the open door behind us.  His blue eyes widened in surprise and he took several steps forward past the mayor.  “How’d you get that open?!”  He nearly knocked us over as he rushed past us to gaze longingly at the open door and the empty room beyond it. 

His sudden shout had drawn the attention of the mares outside the vault, and they hurriedly stepped in to see what was going on.  Wild looked from the door to the two of us, a brow arched over her blue eyes.  Stone could merely shrug his shoulders and motion with his head towards me; all I could do was grin foolishly.  Well, don’t look at me!  I turned back to look at the bank owner, who had now been joined by his assistant, both staring in wonder at the room I’d seemingly discovered.  

I found the creepy-ass voice room.  Huzzah for me.

“Excuse me?”  I looked between everypony present and then to the odd little room with its very open door.  “I didn’t open it... it was already open when I stepped inside the Vault.  I just walked over to see what was inside,” I hurriedly explained as I took a few steps back, giving the banker his room.  Even the mayor seemed interested in the open door and stepped over to look across everypony else's shoulder.

“Impossible... this room hasn’t been opened in over a hundred and fifty years, according to what records we have that survived... possibly more!” the banker said, tearing his eyes away from the empty room to look over at me.  Judging by the look I was getting, he clearly thought I was lying to him about this (or maybe it was just how he looked at everypony or just how he always looked; the guy didn’t seem overly friendly).  “Nopony who’s ever tried has managed to open the door,” he said, tapping a hoof against the door as if to make a point.  “Not even my family, who have run this bank ever since Tombstone was resettled a hundred years ago, have managed to find any way to open it.”

“Perhaps th’ bandits did somethin’ ta it then,” Stone suggested.  The banker ignored him and stepped over towards me, eyes narrowed a bit as he drew himself up.  If he was attempting to intimidate me, he was going to have to do a better job of it. 

“Did you find anything inside?” the odd pony’s mood changed so rapidly I looked over to Stone and the mayor.  He sounded so worked up over it, as if it was his life's goal to discover what was inside.  Hell, perhaps it was... everypony needed a hobby.  The mayor laid a hoof upon the tan stallion’s shoulder and smiled when he looked back to him.

“I didn’t find anything.  The room was empty.”  Well, save for a creepy laugh.  Luckily Stone kept silent about me claiming to hear something from the room.

“Nothing?  I find it hard to believe anypony would go to such lengths to keep a door shut just to leave the room behind it empty.”  He turned away from the mayor to once more lock his blue eyes on me, narrowing them as he fixed me with a withering stare.  

I snorted and returned his stare, stomping my front right hoof into the concrete floor of the vault as I held my ground  Why, that little uptight asshole... I risked my life to save him and his assistant from the bandits and he’s accusing me of stealing something?  I was already in a foul enough mood after learning who the bandits really were and here this little prick was worried about some secret chamber?  I was about to tell him where he could go buck himself when the mayor hurriedly stepped between us, a smile on his face as he turned to the banker.

“Now, Very, we all know you’ve been trying for years to open that door, but it's always been a possibility there’d be nothing inside,” he said, placing a hoof on the banker’s shoulder and turning him away from me and back towards the room itself.  I perked my ears a bit and wondered what he was trying to do.  “Of course, your father, Celestia rest his soul, always suspected there could be a hidden safe or something within the room.  Mr. Rich and I shared many a meal talking about what was behind that door, and he was convinced if it was empty, there’d be something hidden behind the walls.”

Once more the odd little pony’s (whose name seemed to be Very Rich, but I was hardly one to talk: my parents had named my sister and I after our coats colors) demeanor changed and he perked right up.  Looking with sudden renewed interest at the four walls and ceiling of the room, he quickly whistled for his assistant to go fetch him something from his desk in the back.  The slender unicorn mare hurriedly rushed off to fetch whatever her boss had requested and it seemed the perfect time to escape.

The mayor took several steps back from the obsessive pony as he began talking to himself about what the government would hide in a hidden wall safe.  With Very distracted, the mayor scooped up a couple rolled pieces of paper from the floor near an open deposit box and waved a hoof for us to follow.  Together we beat a hasty retreat from the bank's vault.  We worked our way back around the tellers booths and desks back out into the entrance room of the bank.  The mayor trotted over through the damaged furniture of the morning's fight to a largely intact table that was still up right.

“I must apologize for Very’s reaction to the open door.  You see, for as long as his family has run the bank here in Tombstone, they have searched for a way to open that vault door.  It was something of an obsession for the town's founders, especially when it was learned it was once used by the government to hold some secret artifact or another,” the mayor said with a smile towards my friends and I.  The stallion sat the rolled up papers down atop the table and began unrolling them one at a time.  Wild arched a brow and looked back to the open Vault door as he worked.

“So, do you really think there’s a hidden safe in the room?” she asked, to which the mayor immediately began chuckling and brought the mare’s focus back around to him with a tilted head.

“Oh Celestia no, I just wanted to keep him busy so we could speak.”  Unrolling another paper, the mayor's eyes widened and he smiled happily.  “Ah, here we are.”  Placing his forehooves upon the roll, he pushed them back and a map of western Equestria began to come into view.  It was similar to the one we had back in the Stable, however this one had been updated with more recent changes to the countryside.  He waved us forward, and we crowded around the table and the map he had on display.

It was quite old and showed the pre-war names of dozens of cities, small towns and settlements.  San Ponsisco, Las Pegasus, Las Haygas, Salt Lick City, and even Kanter City were marked out in small black stars with a number of black, red, and blue lines running to each: rail Lines, highways and old country roads. The border to Caledonia appeared as a long thin green line running from west to east across the lower half of the map, and the country itself was colored in by a slightly darker shade of green.  I noticed the line was quite close to the small dot of Tombstone.  There were other markers on the map, of rivers, forests, and mountains ranges, that seemed to surround most of the area in a ring of obstacles.  I doubted much of the forests remained, judging by what I’d seen of trees.  The rivers were likely little more then dried up channels of sludge.  Thoughts of that old map back in the stable, and long nights spent pouring over details with my sister returned. 

Before my thoughts could wander to my lost sibling, the mayor’s brown hoof tapped the paper map near the green line and several miles away from Tombstone in an area largely devoid of roads or signs of equine habitation.  As he lifted his hoof, I saw a small black dot in the spot he had tapped, marking a small town called Oddwick, near the base of a small mountain range that ran into Caledonia.  

 “This would be the most likely spot where the Blackhoof Gang are holed up, judging from what Lucy told me the bandits in our jail said, and taking into account the fact it’s far enough away our patrols do not go near there.”

“Why’s that, Mr Mayor?” I asked, looking at the small dot on the map.  The mayor turned to me and smiled.

“Just call me Ab, son.  I hear Mr. Mayor enough from the ponies around town,” he chuckled softly before looking back to the map.  “About ten years ago, a group of ponies from Tombstone was looking to expand our farming and mining resources into the mountains there.  We’d been trading iron and other minerals we’d found in the old mines with San Ponsisco for a while, and according to the town’s records, Oddwick was a pre-war mining town.  Well, back then we had a lot more raider activity this far south than we do now.  Raiders wandered the countryside, randomly attacking towns wherever they found them.  After they were attacked for the sixth time, the survivors returned to Tombstone reluctantly, but we simply did not have the power to protect so much ground.”

“So, it’d be a good place to hide out if you were attempting to keep clear of the local Sheriff,” Wild said, looking over the distance between Tombstone and Oddwick.  It’d take ponies on hoof or by wagon a day or two to cross the open plains to just reach the mountains.  The mayor nodded his head and went on to explain.

“In the short time they lived there, the settlers had repaired many of the town's old buildings, enough so ponies could live comfortably.  They’d not need to worry much about fixing it up, since most of the work would have been done for them, and the Blackhoof’s aren’t about to do any more work then they have too.”

“And nopony’s ever gone out there lookin’ fer th’ gang?” Stone asked, looking up from the map to the mayor.

“No, mostly because we’ve not had any reason too.  After we banned them from coming back into town, the gang simply vanished.  We’d thought perhaps they’ve moved on to San Ponsisco or maybe across the border.  They were a minor annoyance, one we thought had been dealt with.”  He sighed and shook his head.  “I never would have expected them to raise a small army and attack Tombstone directly.”

“It's hard to know what desperate ponies will do, Ab,” I said, looking over to Wild, and offering my winged friend a smile.  “Somepony smarter than me said it's best not to think on what could be, but what we can do.”

“Hmm, you have a wise friend.  So, you and your friends are really going to try and bring back the town’s stolen supplies?” he asked.  “No asking for caps, or taking some of the supplies for yourselves?”  

“I don’t see the point in asking to be paid to do what's right, Mr. Mayor,” I said, looking from the map to the mayor.  “My focus is on getting to my niece in San Ponsisco and taking care of her, not becoming a mercenary or something.  Still, I can’t just turn my back on so many ponies in need of assistance.  What sort of pony would I be if I did that?”

“You’d be like any other pony alive in the wasteland today, son,” the mayor said, dropping down from the table.  He looked me over closely and smiled.  “I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised.  My Sweet is a rather good judge of character and she was right about you, Shadow.  You really are a good pony.”  He held up a hoof to me, and I took it, shaking it.

“Just trying to help where I can.”

“Well, least we can do is return the favor.  I’ll speak with the local store owners and anything you need for your trip to Oddwick is on the house.  I’ll also ask Ol’ Hank over at the Drunken Mare to send me the bill for your rooms.”

“Sir, I can’t ask you to...” I started to say before Wild stepped up beside me and bumped me a bit.

“What he means to say is, do you think you can ask him for a couple bottles of Wild Pegasus for the trip to San Ponsisco?” she asked with wide, hopeful eyes.  Stone snorted and shook his head, but the mayor simply chuckled.

“I’ll see what I can do, ma’am.” 

With the promise of more boozes for my winged friend and many a sleepless night for Stone on the trip west, we planned our more immediate trip down south, to the bandit town of Oddwick.  Wild pointed out we’d be there just before nightfall if we traveled by air and left within the next hour.  With the mayor’s knowledge of his town's shops and the supplies they offered, we quickly got a list together of the things we’d need.  Lucy volunteered to send one of the deputies off to fill it, while we gathered up our friends.  With little else to say, we turned and started for the door, the map on my Pipbuck updating itself with the locations of several places shown on the mayor's map, along with our destination, making getting there a good deal easier. 



*     *     *     *     *



Stepping out from the bank, I took several steps away from the large stone building and took a deep breath of the humid wasteland air.  It felt oddly good to get out of the building.  Even while we’d been planning the journey south, the odd voice I’d heard had continued to trouble me.  Turning back, I looked over the shattered windows and bullet riddled columns of the building.  Had it all been in my head?  Or did I really hear something inside that vault?  My mind snapped back to the present as Wild’s voice broke the sudden silence that had fallen over us.

“So, we’re really going to do this, eh?” Wild asked, sitting down and scanning the surrounding ponies as they walked past us.  Deputy Lucy and one of the other lawponies stepped out of the bank a few seconds after us.  The mare headed back across the street towards the Sheriff’s Office as the other deputy made his way towards the row of shops and saloons down the street.

“Yes I am,” I said, looking over each of my two friends before continuing.  “Doesn’t mean you guys have to follow me, though.”  Wild rolled her eyes and Stone simply chuckled.

“We ain’t got nothin’ else planned for th’ day, actually.”

“I suppose he’s right.  I mean, I need to let him get a little bit more rest before I drag him back to bed.  After all, you bucks need some time to recharge your...” a grey hoof was quickly shoved into her mouth before she could go on.

“Ah think he gets th’ idea, Wild,” Stone said, eyeing the mare with slightly narrowed green eyes.  “Likely more than he wants, Ah reckon.”  He lowered his hoof back to the ground and the pegasus stood up, rustling her feathers.

“Oh, you're no fun...” she flapped her wings and slowly began rising into the air a few inches above the hard packed dirt road.  “I’ll go check on the chariot and get it ready to go as soon as you're ready, Shadow.”  With a wink to Stone, Wild gave a quick flap of her wings and shot off towards the train station.

“I’ll go check in on Spirit and the others.  Why don’t you see if you can find Carrion.  We’ll likely need all the help we can get with this if we’re going up against twenty armed ponies and possibly a group of raiders,” I said as I turned to Stone.  The stallion looked away from Wild’s retreating backside to me and nodded.

“Alright, Ah reckon Ah can rustle ’em up.  Think he’s still out helpin’ the locals with their defences.  Wall should be a good place ta start.” Without another word, he set off down the road that lead back into the center of town leaving me alone with my thoughts once more.  

Again I glanced back to the building we’d all left and stood up to face it.  After several moments of nothing happening, I shrugged it off and hurriedly went down the street a ways towards the Drunken Mare.  Stepping up onto the porch, it appeared the saloon was not as busy as it had been the night before.  Not surprising, really; ponies worked or slept during the day and drank themselves into a stupor at night.  The main room was largely empty, save for a few locals drinking their troubles and the morning fight away at the bar.  A radio I’d missed the night before was blaring loudly near the end of the bar with a familiar sounding voice.

“... and while we can’t be completely sure what's become of the settlement of New Hope I doubt it was anything good.  So, if anypony’s got the balls or the guns and you're in the neighborhood, why don’t ya pop on in and see what's going on with those folks and let ol’ Three Horns know if she’s still got listeners up north.”

More shity news, but it seemed that was all there was in the wasteland;  bad news and worse news.  I frowned and looked away from the bar to the stairs and the buffalo stepping down them, a couple bowls balanced on her back.  Once more I was amazed at how little noise she made despite her large size, and that she managed to keep so much from being jostled about by the climb down the rickety old stairs of the saloon.  Most of the patrons ignored her as she moved past their table or down the bar towards me.

“Shadow, it is good to see you are up and about.  That was quite the bump to the head you took,” the kind medically-trained buffalo said, smiling over at me as she walked towards the end of the bar and a middle aged stallion standing behind it.  He’d likely just stepped out from the closing door behind the bar just seconds ago.  I offered him a nod before I turned back to Spirit.

“Thanks, Spirit.  When you have a moment I need to speak to you about something.  Shouldn’t take long.”  She likely had her hooves full taking care of those we’d saved and the wounded townsfolk.  I supposed that could also explain the town doctor’s poor bedside manner... or, more likely, he was just an ass, maybe on his mother's side?

“Need fresh water, doc?” the pony behind the bar asked.  He did not look familiar, but then,I hadn’t gotten to know many of the townsfolk well before the morning's gunfight.  He had a brownish red coat over which he wore a black vest and cowpony hat.  A red bandana was tied about his neck, his mane was a dark steel grey color and cut short.  Green eyes traveled from Spirit to me as I followed the buffalo to the bar, “Well, is this th’ hero of th’ hour then?  Th’ Marshall himself?”  Ugh, not this again.  Before I knew it, the pony had moved around the bar and stepped towards me.  He was a bit taller then me, but not by much.  He wiped a hoof on his vest before reaching out to take one of mine and shake it firmly. 

“Name’s Hank; most call me Ol’ Hank on account Ah’m old, Ah reckon.  Pleasure ta make yer acquaintance, sir.  Big fan of yer work.” 

“My work?” I asked as I managed to free my hoof from the stallions strong grip and smiled politely to the bar owner.  A fan?  I was at a bit of a loss how to react to that.

“Why, Ah’ve been hearin’ tell of yer adventures in and around Kanter City from th’ ponies ya saved.  Nothin’ but nice things they’ve got ta say about ya,” Hank said loudly enough that most of the other townsfolk at the bar and the surrounding tables started looking over at us with a bit of interest.  “And Spirit here was tellin’ me a little about where yer tryin’ ta get ta.  San Ponsisco.”

“Yes, well, just doing what anypony would do.”  Spirit meanwhile had moved past the bar and through the kitchen doorway to retrieve fresh water and left me alone with Hank.  “I was speaking with a pony here last night about the tracks ahead; he said they should be clear enough for us to make it.  He’d traveled that way with a partner before the raiders started making the trip more risky for a couple of ponies on a hoof cart.  We’ll be heading out that way as soon as our business in town is finished.  That is if, Doc Brown can get the engine back up and running.”  The crazed stallion had seemed a bit odd, and I ideally worried he’d end up blowing the train up rather then fix it.

“Ya spoke ta Pete then?  Good feller, knows those tracks like th’ back of his own hoof.  And Ah wouldn’t worry ta much about th’ good Doctor, he’s been fixin’ things up around town for awhile now, ain’t nopony better at it.”

“So I hear...” I looked around the bar room once more for any sign of Kanzi or her family.  “Is everyone doing alright then?” I asked.  Hank’s ears twitched as he caught my meaning and smiled.

“They're all doin’ good upstairs with Spirit.  Ah must admit, her assistant is a looker.  Used ta run with a couple mares with th’ same coat style when Ah was travelin’ th’ wasteland in my youth,” the bar owner chuckled and sat down beside his bar.  “Them were th’ days, let me tell ya.  I envy ya a bit in that.” 

Envy?  Traveling the wasteland?  First it was the odd stallion living in the train depot’s repair shop... then there was the mad doctor and the fanatical banker... and now a pony who seems to think traveling around the wasteland is fun.  Was everypony in this town crazy?!

“Thanks for letting them stay.  The Sheriff had told us they may have trouble finding a place to take them in around here,” I said.  Despite my personal opinion on the pony’s sanity, he had helped out the ponies and zebras I had rescued.

“Sadly, she ain’t far wrong in that.  Ah lost a couple customers when they showed up this mornin’, but ain’t no hide off my snout.”  Just then, Spirit pushed open the kitchen door and stepped back out without the bowls balancing across her back.  The buffalo moved over towards Hank and myself, and the bar owner smiled once more to her and tipped his hat back.  “Everythin’ okay Doc?”

“The cook's assistant said she would retrieve fresh water from the well for me.  The ponies in your employment are quiet polite and skilled, Mr. Hank,” she said, bowing her head respectively to the pony before turning her gaze to me.  “And you had something you wished to speak to me about, Shadow?”

“Yes, we believe we’ve discovered where the bandits who attacked this morning are hiding.  Stone, Wild, possibly Carrion, and myself will be leaving shortly to fly out there and check it out.  We’re hoping to catch them there before they slip away across the border into Caledonia,” I answered, sitting down near the bar and removing my hat.  It was surprisingly warm in the saloon, and I ran a hoof through my damp mane.

“Shouldn’t ya’ll perhaps be takin’ a few more hooves ta help?  From what Ah heard, that band of robbers ain’t exactly a small group,” Hank asked as he returned behind the bar and poured me something to drink into a glass.  Upon looking I saw it was just water and I happily took it and downed it in one gulp.  Spirit answered while I got some much needed relief.

“From what I have seen these four ponies do, I do not believe they will require much more help than what they are taking.  Still, it would be wise to at least seek the local law enforcement ponies for assistance with this,” Spirit finished, turning her gaze on me, horned head cocked to one side.  I shook my head in return and explained.

“We’ve already spoken with the mayor and the deputy in charge of town while the Sheriff is away.  There’s simply nopony to spare from town, since the deputies are stretched thin as it is with the Sheriff and those that went with her still missing.”  Once more Hank jumped into the conversation.

“Them griffons flew off lookin’ for th’ good Sheriff and her team, so Ah reckon they’ll be back in no time.”  He refilled my glass with water and pushed it back over towards me.  “Ah’m sure th’ town can spare a few of th’ local guards ta go with ya.”

“Actually no,” I responded, picking up the offered drink and swallowing it more slowly this time, “They’re needed here, in case the stories of raider activity to the south of Tombstone turns out to be true.”  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spirit about to say something but held up my hoof to stop her.  I had a feeling I knew what she was about to say, “As much as I’d like your help with this, I think the wounded here need your services far more then we will.”  At least at the moment, I added silently.  If the numbers were right, we’d be far outnumbered.  But then, when has that stopped me thus far?

“You are right, of course.  I dare not leave the good Doctor with so many injured ponies, for he has only two nurses to assist him,” she began as I took a slow sip of my drink.  “However, I was about to suggest you seek out Balefire’s assistance.  Though young and brash, he seems well skilled in the art of killing.”

She had a point... during the gunfight he’d more than pulled his weight with the bandits.  He’d spoken of being a part of the Confederate Army, though I imagined his lack of discipline was the reason he’d been captured by raiders in the first place.  Perhaps he was a bit brash, as she had said, but then so was any stallion at his age: ready to take on the world and whatever it threw at him.  At least he was somepony I’d already fought with before and knew at least well enough to trust. 

“Also, if you do not take him with you on this mission, I believe I may be forced to geld him for his own good, or otherwise he shall sire a dozen foals.”

I’d been finishing my drink when she’d said that, and ended up spraying the floor with much of it.  Behind the bar, Hank roared loudly with laughter at either Spirit’s matter of fact statement or my reaction to it.  Perhaps both.  Thankfully, the ever vigilant medic began slapping me upon my back as I gasped for air.  Well, with something like that, I had to take the poor buck with us.

“Alright, alright, I’m fine...” I said between coughing and clearing my throat, waving a hoof at the buffalo hovering over me.  “I’ll see if I can find him before we leave town.  I’d rather not take too many with us; if we’re going to have any hope of getting those supplies back to town we’ll need as much room inside the chariot as we can manage.” I suppose if it came down to it, Stone and I could haul the stuff out in a normal wheeled wagon, if we could get our hooves on one in the bandit’s town.

“So, let me get this straight... yer just gonna waltz inta their hideout, take out all them bandits, rescue th’ supplies they stole and fly ’em back here ta Tombstone?  As pretty as ya please?” Hank asked, and by now several of his patrons were paying more attention to us.  I nodded my head in answer, and the pony whistled as he shook his head.  “Well, Ah reckon yer reputation is bein’ well deserved there, Marshall.  Not many ponies have th’ balls ta do what yer about ta.” I heard murmured comments from many of the ponies around us and I hurriedly explained it was not going to be that simple, or perhaps that one-sided.

“From what I’ve heard of their hideout, the bandits there come and go quite often, either on scavenging missions or just to rob other settlements around them.  If we’re quick, we may just catch them while a number of the gang are away on one of these gathering missions.  If so, we’ll not have to deal with that many.”  It was a long shot, but I was also hoping we might find a way into the town secretly or perhaps talk some sense into the ponies assisting the Blackhoof gang.  I had to at least try and save as many of the more innocent ponies as I could.  Still, we wouldn’t know what we’d be up against until we got there and saw the place for ourselves.  

A mare from the kitchen stepped out and waved a hoof towards Spirit to come on back.  The buffalo nodded her horned head and rose to follow, but stopped and looked over to me, placing a hoof upon my shoulder.

“And from what your companions have told me, there is little chance of talking you out of this, so instead I shall wish you and your friends luck, Shadow.  May both our ancestors watch over you.”  With that, she turned and followed the mare back into the kitchen, the door shutting behind them.

“Ah think Ah can safely say that goes double for everypony in this here town,” Hank said, starting to refill my glass once more until I waved a hoof at him to not bother with it.  It was going to be a long flight, and we’d not have time to make a pit stop. 




*     *     *     *     *



The sky beyond the open doors of the chariot darkened slightly as the sun, hidden behind a thick layer of clouds, lazily dropped below the distant unseen horizon.  The cooling night air that flowed through those doors was a relief from the hot humid day, and the mood within the chariot was relaxed, despite the fact we were likely heading towards another fight.  But then, it was starting to become the norm for the ponies I shared the chariot with. Since the moment we’d all meet, we’d been fighting raiders, mutant wildlife, or a mix of the two.  I turned away from the darkening wasteland to look over those ponies traveling with me.

As always, my eyes fell upon the first pony I’d met after leaving my home behind.  Stonehoof sat across the passenger compartment from me, working on something he’d pulled from his saddlebags.  A couple pieces of scrap metal and wiring along with a couple of tools sat beside him on the seat, his hooves working gently on the dull brown metal.  I’d never seen him work on it before, and idly wondered what he was making.  Normally he spent the time between fights caring for his trusted hunting rifle.  I suppose it could have just been nothing more than a way to pass the time.  As I’d said back in Tombstone, everypony needed a hobby. 

What was mine?  Getting in trouble?  Killing raiders?  Saving ponies?  I shook my head slowly and looked back to my grey coated friend and his quiet work.  As he was working, he spoke quietly with Wild through the chariot’s headset, often times snorting loudly or shaking his head at something the mare said, but despite it all, he wore a contented smile.  Out of respect for my friends and the new couple's privacy, I’d switched my headset off and allowed them time to talk among themselves.  I looked away from him and over the other two within the chariot.

Near the rear of the passenger compartment sat Carrion.  The ghoul had not said much to me since Stone had returned with him to the Drunken Mare.  As my friend had thought, the former army officer had been busy helping organize the disorganized guards into a more ready fighting force.  Somehow I imagined it’d take longer than a few hours to get them up to the standards of the former Equestria Military.  At the moment, it appeared he was working on some explosives using a few old lunch boxes and disarmed mines. 

He glanced up from his work as he felt me staring at him and locked onto my eyes with his glowing orange orbs.  We stared at one another for a moment, before he looked back to his wiring.  It was nothing new with the undead pony; he never seemed to say much to anypony.  Not on the train ride to Tombstone, nor while he’d been helping Wild protect Tassles and the others we’d saved from the hospital basement turned slave pen.

Perhaps he was still angry with me over Kanzi and her family, or perhaps he was simply missing his home.  Or maybe like me, he found himself in a strange new world and was simply unsure how to deal with everything around him.  He’d lived in Equestria before it was turned into a radioactive wasteland of mutant animals, twisted ponies and forsaken settlements.  He’d lived in a world with sunlight and thousands of ponies around him.  I looked away from the ghoul and back around the chariot.  I suppose I could relate with him on that...

My eyes landed upon the last pony sitting within the chariot, a dark green unicorn who was busy inspecting his twin custom-made revolvers.  It was the fifth time since we’d left Tombstone he’d done so, and this time he’d disassembled one of the weapons and was hard at working cleaning every part of it.  Parts of the gun floated about his glowing green horn like the stars I had read about in the night sky.  Tools and a cleaning cloth drifted with the barrel and hammer and numerous other parts.  We’d found him upstairs in one of the Drunken Mare’s rooms, asleep with three mares around him and a number of empty bottles of beer.  It was a wonder the stallion had any energy at all.  He was the exact opposite of the ghoul sitting behind him, having much to say while we’d loaded the chariot with the supplies the mayor had bought for us.  A number of sad-eyed mares had come to see him off.  Despite it all, I found myself smirking and shaking my head.

I’d been a little surprised he’d so quickly agreed to go with us on this trip, knowing the odds we faced.  He’d said simply he owed us for the rescue and that we seemed to always have something exciting going on.  Perhaps he was right; since coming to the surface it’d been one exciting thing after another happening around me.  I wondered how he’d react if I told him my plans for settling down and starting a farm once we reached San Ponsisco?  He didn’t seem the type to settle down, at least not for long.

Like the orange winged mare pulling us through the clouded night sky, the unicorn took a little getting used to.  He’d been loud and boastful when we’d first meet aboard the train, but he’d fought beside us to take it from the raiders.  He’d helped us out afterwards with the prisoners despite being one himself, and had even helped drive the bandits out from Tombstone’s bank.  Perhaps it was time I’d gotten to know him a bit better, since after all it would be another hour or so before we reached the ruined town.

Standing from my seat across from Stone, I worked the feeling back into my legs and flicked my tail that had become tangled from being sat on for so long.  Stone looked up from his work as I moved, and I nodded towards him.  Seeing that we had not yet arrived, nor were we under fire, he nodded back and went back to his project.  I turned and moved down between the seats of the passenger compartment towards Balefire.  Carrion barely spared me a glance as he put the finishing touches on his homemade bomb, dumping a hoof full of rusty nails and screws into the open space of the lunchbox.  At the sound of somepony approaching him, Balefire looked up.

 The unicorn’s red eyes lifted from his work on his revolver to spot me sitting down on the seat across the aisle from him.  He grinned and nodded his horned head towards me.

“Heya, boss pony, how’s it goin’?  We there yet?” he asked, a question he’d asked quite often, so much so that Wild had threatened to fly back here and shove his mic down his throat if he didn’t shut the fuck up and let her talk to her dirt pony in peace.  We’d taken the headset away from him after the chariot lurched violently to the right.

“No, not just yet.  It’ll be another hour or so before we reach Oddwick,” I said, looking from the unicorn’s face to the ivory grip of his revolver.  Princess Luna floated a few inches from his face, glowing a pale green color in his magical grip.  The lunar goddess’ outstretched wings seemed ready to lift the alicorn into the night sky that shone behind her, as upon her horn a single star sat atop the very tip.  Just behind the goddess’ head rose the full moon.  The craftsponyship was amazing and I suddenly found myself wondering just where he’d gotten them.

“Yeah, she’s a real beauty, Luna,” the stallion said with a smile, lowering the ebony grip down near his hoofs, where he ran the cleaning cloth gently over the carved relief of one of Equestria’s rulers.

“Indeed she is, if you don’t mind me asking.  Where did you get them?  I’ve never seen anything quite like them.”  Which isn't saying much, really, seeing as how I’d spent my whole life in a stable.  But even the few books and tapes we’d had on art seemed to pale in comparison to the work put into these weapons’ grips.

“From what I’ve managed to piece together, they date back to the start of the war and have been in my family for generations since... at least from what I’ve learned from family friends and the few records I’d managed to find,” he said, looking over the carved grip of the revolver before lowering it back down.  I didn’t ask, but he must have seen the questioning look in my eyes, or else he’d expected the question to be asked.  “Nearly my entire hometown was destroyed by a Super Mutant attack when I was four or five.  Most of the ponies I’d been raised with were killed in the attack, and only about a dozen of us survived to be rescued by the Confederate Army.”

I winced inwardly at that.  It could have been a fate of my own home, if we’d been overrun by the raiders.  What sort of effect would that have on a young colt... or filly?  My thoughts turned for a moment to Sweetie Pie.  Balefire went on.

“We were actually lucky anypony was nearby to help; Middletown isn’t exactly a place many ponies go to.  The unit that rescued us was actually in the area searching for the same group of Mutants that attacked us, but they’d lost the trail in the rocky terrain.”  With a skill for levitation I’d never seen before, the unicorn manipulated the small glowing pieces of the revolver back into place, reassembling the weapon as he spoke.  “There wasn’t much left of Middletown after that; the Mutants had burned it nearly to the ground.  After the fighting had died down, the unit salvaged what they could and returned home, with us in tow.

“Most of the survivors elected to stay in San Ponsisco, but none of them could take care of a young colt, so the unit commander took me in and raised me as his own son alongside his daughter.”  With his horn glowing, the collection of random parts and tools began to take shape into a revolver once more, “Sadly, I was hardly a good pony.”  By the smirk he wore, I could tell there was little regret in his mind.  “I got into all sorts of trouble, stealing and such... I was a real hoof full, but my foster parents never gave up trying to make me into a good boy.”

At the mention of stealing, I glanced to the stallions flank and the cutie mark he had there, a broken padlock.  Well, that was a rather unusual special talent, I suppose (says the pony with a flower on his ass... thank you years of torment in school).

“I did my best to behave, even joined the army like my foster father and sister.”  The now complete revolver floated up between us, along with its twin.  “After I passed basic training, he took me aside and gave me these, told me he’d found them on a half burned stallion in Middletown.  According to the survivors he’d been the town's Sheriff, and my father.”

The weapons suddenly began to spin quickly before being cocked and uncocked.  Finally the display ended when the twin revolvers twirled their way into holsters on either of Balefires forelegs.

“He told me he’d had my foster mother look them up in the government's historical documents they had taken from a stable and found information that they’d been given to a pair of royal guards back at the start of the war... I’ll admit, I didn’t pay as much attention to the history lesson as I suppose I should have.  My mom’s a bit of a egghead at times.”  He flashed me a cocky grin and began placing his cleaning tools back into a small pack.

“You should have more respect for your mother, kid.”  The rough voice of Carrion broke in on the conversion, causing both of us to turn our heads back towards the ghoul sitting at the rear of the chariot, but he said no more, his eyes fixed on another explosive.

“I’ve plenty of respect for my mom, she can buck like a mule when she’s mad,” the unicorn said with a wide grin rubbing a hoof over his cheek as if in memory of a recent example, “A fact most ponies find odd since she’s always so nice and polite to everyone, even her dumb ass counselors and assistants.  Now, I think I’ll get a little more rest; didn’t have much time for that back in Tombstone.”  The cocky pony flashed both Carrion and I a grin before wiggling down into his seat to get more comfortable. 

I snorted and rolled my eyes.  Maybe if he tried sleeping in a bed for once he might get some rest.   His father sounded rather high up in the Confederacy’s Army, and if I remember right he’d said his mother was in charge of the entire Confederacy.  I wondered how much of it was true, or if any of it was.  I started to ask the as of yet unsleeping Balefire when I heard Carrion muttering to himself behind us.once more my ears perked up towards the ghoul, but I couldn’t really make out much of what he was saying beyond something about family.  

After that, the conversation died down and I returned to my seat at the front of the chariot, leaving Balefire to nap and Carrion to work on his explosives, I suppose it helped him keep his mind off things he did not want to think about.

With Stone still quietly speaking with Wild, it left me with few choices to pass the remaining time to Oddwick.  I attempted to get some sleep, but found it would not come to me, for I was too worked up over the morning’s events and wondering what lay ahead for us.  I wasn’t hungry, or thirsty, so I left my supplies alone.  The scenery outside was now impossible to see; it had grown so dark and we were so high up that there was really no hope of seeing much below.  I turned then to my Pipbuck and the radio, searching for a bit of music to help break the silence.

As I turned the knob slowly across the radio, I heard mostly static and a few badly garbled words of signals too far away to properly pick up.  After a few moments of searching, I came across the sounds of a familiar song on a station I knew well.  Stopping, I allowed the music to fill the small space of the chariot and settled into my seat for the last hour or so of the trip.

I was just about to drift off to sleep when the song ended and was replaced by the loud voice of the station’s DJ.

“Thanks for tuning into the Big L.N.R. where we play the same dozen songs over and over and over again!  Yep, nothing but the same damn song, but don’t worry, these recordings survived a balefire bomb so we’ll likely be listening to them into the next century!  

“But, if you're reeeaaaalllly getting sick of hearing the same thing for the past hundred and fifty years and are interested in doing something about it, then I’d like to suggest something.  All you wasteland savages out there in the Wastes, you’re already digging around hazardous ruins and shifting through possibly radioactive garbage.  Why not hit up the local ruins of your friendly neighborhood music store and send Ol’ Three Horns some new tunes?

“Now, normally we’d get started with the news right about now, and that is indeed going to happen, it’s just today the news is so shockingly new, I thought I’d give you all a moment to prepare.  What's so surprising, you may be asking?  Well, normally we start off with the usual depressing shit that we have almost every damned day, but not today, kids! 

 “Now, for my long-time listeners, and you know who you are Mr. Lone Gunpony, you’ll remember I mentioned something about a large group of ponies making their way across the wasteland just west of Crossroads.”

My eyes snapped open and I nearly fell out of my seat as those words left the DJ’s mouth.  She was talking about Bright and the others from home... not only that but it seemed she was also talking to me!  Lone Gunpony was the name she’d given me after I helped out Crossroads.

“Well, we just got an update here in the station on their progress.  For those just tuning in, or having been busy trying to stave off a radscorpion infestation, this group of ponies are not your typical herd.  They are neither raiders, slavers, nor even those armored buffoons the Steel Rangers.  No, this was a group of battered, tired and very much alive Stable ponies, who were just attempting to make their way across the wasteland to safety.

‘Now, a lotta you ponies might be asking yourself, ‘Why didn’t you tell us sooner, Three Horns?!  We coulda gone to help the poor Stable ponies!’ and to the majority of those ponies I say, ‘Shut the bucking hell up, you slaver bastards!  Ol’ Three Horns wasn’t born yesterday.’  I know there’s more than just my little ponies listening into my station, and I sure as hell ain’t gonna make it any easier for your pitiful excuse for a pony to make a living selling flesh.”  The DJ cleared her throat and after a pause went on.

“Anyways, as I was saying, I’ve been following these ponies for some time now thanks to my friends scattered all throughout the Wastes.  Their progress has been good at times, but they’ve not had an easy time of it.  Most of us know just how deadly the wasteland can be to anypony caught unaware of the hazards.  The increase in raider activity over the past few months has certainly not made travel any safer, and they have been creeping ever closer to San Ponsisco.  Well, these poor ponies had the misfortune of stumbling across one of their camps just south of Salt Lick City.  From the local Sheriff’s report, a couple dozen strong.

“Now, its when we reach this part of a story that you expect to hear the usual sad ol’ bit of news.  About how the ponies are slaughtered to the last and turned into fodder for the raiders’ cooking pans... well, not this time!  This time the story does not end with the slaughter of every stallion, mare, and foal, for this group of traveling ponies was made of far sterner stuff.

From what I have gathered of the fight, these ponies put up one hell of a stand, so much so it threw the raiders back in confusion and made it clear to anypony with a lick of sense that you do not mess with Stable Security.  In a turn of events that is as shocking as my sex life, they not only managed to hold the bastards off long enough, they had driven them nearly back down the trail east, and right into the guns of our very own C.S.E. Rangers.  And did our ponies in green prove their worth.

“Of course this is the wasteland, and not the land of candy canes and lollipops.  There were losses suffered from both the Rangers and the Stable ponies but at this time I’ve not heard any exact numbers.  My heart goes out to them.”

I sat back in my seat as she finished speaking.  Losses?  No.  No.  How many?  Who?!  My ears twisted to the sides and I felt myself getting a bit shaky.  What had become of the others?  Of Sugar Pie?  Bright and everypony else?  My dark thoughts were shattered a moment later as once more Three Horns began to speak, but not for long.

“Now, to put any worrying minds at ease, I’ve got a little message to pass on.”  A new voice began speaking a few moments later, belonging to somepony I’d never expected to hear from again, at least not when I’d first begun this journey.

“So... you just want me to say something about us?” Brightblade was asking somepony else as the recording started.  “Well, we’re all from Stable 45 and were forced to leave after raiders attacked us over a week and a half ago.  We’ve been traveling across the wasteland ever since and I don’t think any of us were prepared for how things are up here.  We’re all tired, dirty, hungry, and near ready to drop, but we’re not about to stop until we reach San Ponsisco.  From what your commander told me, we’ll be getting there soon enough.  We really can’t thank you for helping us out back there with the raiders.”

If Bright was alright, then Sugar had to be.  My oldest friend would never let anything happen to my niece if he could help it, and I had faith in my fellow Stable ponies to watch after her. 

“It was nothing, sir.  Just doing our duty is all,” another voice said, likely belonging to the pony recording the conversation.  Perhaps one of the army rangers?  A moment later the sound of hooves running up towards Bright and the recorder came from the Pipbuck’s speaker and another voice soon filled the chariot with giggles.

“Mr. Bright!  Mr. Bright!!  Lookit what the pretty winged pony gave me!!  Candy!!” my niece said in her happy giggling voice.  A huge wave of relief washed over me and I sunk back into my seat, fresh tears rising to my eyes.  I’d missed that happy voice so much over the past few days... and after the hospital basement...

 For his part, Brightblade simply chuckled as the sound of scampering hooves came from the recording.  My niece on a sugar high was almost unstoppable, at least until nap time.  After several seconds of this, Bright once more began speaking to the pony recording it.

“So, this will be played on the radio all across the wasteland?”

“Yes, sir.  Well, at least as far as the signal can reach,” came the response from the second voice.  Another moment of silence followed, where I could hear Sugar happily jumping about the taller ponies.

“Sugar, would you like to say hello to your Uncle?” the jumping at once stopped and was followed by a huge gasp.

“Uncle Shadow’s here?!” she squealed and by the sounds Bright was making, I knew my hyper active niece was climbing up the tall pony’s flank and onto his back to look around for me.

“No, he’s not, but he might be listening to this when they play it over the radio... you remember the radio, right?”

“Oh, yeah.  Momma always let me listen to it when I had trouble sleeping!”  I smirked and shook my head.  Ebony sometimes turned her Pipbuck radio on so Sugar could listen to some of the music that was played late at night.  It helped the little filly settle down and rest, often times having the same effect on her mother as well.  I heard the recording pony let out a surprised yelp as something grabbed ahold of the mic he was holding and yelled loudly into it, “HI UNCLE SHADOW!!!!”  Such a loud sound within the confines of the armored covered walls of the chariot echoed about like a gunshot.

Carrion let out a shout as my niece yelled, and a second later I heard the sound of tools and metal parts rattling all across the floor of the chariot.  Well, we didn’t blow up so I guess whatever he’d been working on had yet to be armed or filled with explosives. 

Between the loudly swearing ghoul and myself, I felt somepony kick at the back of my seat with all four hooves.  Balefire let out a low snort through his nose as he woke from his nap, muttering something about wanting to ride the pony again.   

Stone, who had already been listening to the radio from across the aisle simply chuckled at the small foalish yell coming from my Pipbuck.  The stallion shook his head and looked back to our traveling companions as my niece went on talking to the recorder, apparently holding it up to her face with her hooves.

“The pretty winged pony lady gave me candy, Uncle Shadow!!   See?”  There was a short pause as she know doubt showed the recording device her most prized possession, sweets.  “She’s real nice, an’ all the ponies in funny green shirts are really nice, they made the bad ponies go away!  I miss you and mommy, you should hurry up and come back home now... well, not to our old home which is all sad and dark but to our new home... well, whenever we get there... are we there yet Mr. Bright?  Huh?  Are we?” I could well picture her bright smiling face looking up to my old friend as she bounced around in excitement. 

“Not just yet, squirt.  Come on, let’s give the nice pony his recorder back... and his helmet.”  There came a long, drawn-out “awww...” from a small foal, before the recording ended.  The silence only lasted a moment, until the voice of DJ Three Horns began to speak.

“Sweet Celestia and Luna that little foal is just too damn sweet!   Ol’ Three Horns thinks she’s gonna have to get some insulin after that!  I dunno who her Uncle Shadow is, but if you're out there listenin’ I’d hurry on back to that little filly.  Now, lets get back to some music...”

As music replaced the DJ’s voice inside the chariot’s armored compartment, the ponies behind me went back to what they’d been doing moments before.  Balefire settled back into his seat and within seconds began snoring lightly.  Behind the dark green unicorn, Carrion’s horn flared to life and the ghoul began picking up his fallen tools and explosives.  Across from me, Stone slipped whatever he’d been working on back into his packs.

“Yer niece sounds like a real hoof full,” Stone said as he finished putting his own things away.  I looked up to my friend and smiled a bit.

“Indeed she is.  She takes after my sister and I instead of her father.  I suppose it was revenge for all the times we drove our mother crazy.”  The chariot rocked slightly, due to a sudden shift in the wind; we’d encountered a number of small bumps like it since leaving Tombstone, “She’s something of a Stable foal.  Everypony there always looked after her ever since she was born.”

“Yer still a bit of a hoof full, Shadow,” Stone said with a grin.  He reached up and adjusted his cowpony hat a bit.  “Ah’m lookin’ forward ta spendin’ a bit of time with my nephew when all this here’s done.”

“You know, Crossroads isn’t far from Tombstone.  When we’re finished here, you and Wild should head on back home,” I suggested.  They’d both signed on to help me get inside Kanter City and rescue my sister.  Neither had expected us to end up halfway to San Ponsisco aboard a stolen raider train with a bunch of rescued prisoners.  

“Ah reckon Ah might do that once yer safely with yer niece, but Ah don’t like leavin’ things half done.”



*     *     *     *     *



I awoke suddenly to a large grey hoof shaking me gently on the shoulder.  Blinking my eyes a couple times, I saw Stone leaning over saying something to me.  After yawning and rubbing the sleep from my eyes with a hoof, I asked him if something was wrong.

“No, Wild just said we’re approachin’ that town and figured ya may wanna get a look at it while we fly over.”

“Over?” I asked, sitting up in my seat.  After Stone and I had talked a bit more I’d returned to listening to the radio for another couple minutes before I quickly fell asleep.  Looking over my friend’s shoulder, I saw both Carrion and Balefire and risen from their seats and had moved over to the right side door of the chariot.  Both ponies stood looking out into the darkness of the wasteland below.

“Wild said it’d be too risky ta try and land so close ta the town, so she’s gonna set us down a ways away behind some hills,” Stone pointed out, reaching a hoof up to the headset hanging above me on the wall and offering it to me.  

I reached up and pulled off my hat before taking the headset from my friend’s hoof and slipping it over my head.  The black metal band pressed down onto my mane as I adjusted the speaker and flicked the switch to turn it back on.  At once I heard Wild’s voice coming from outside, the sound of wind slightly muffled as she flew through the night sky.

“... for a pony who gets his ass knocked out so much he sure sleeps a lot.  I mean, I could understand if he had some company.  Goddesses know you’ve not gotten much sleep over the past few days, Stone...”

“Shadow’s awake now, Wild... and has his headset back on,” the stallion said, clearing his throat and trying very hard not to turn several shades of red.  

“Bah, it’s nothing he hasn’t heard before... unless he hasn’t heard it before in which case I’m really going to need to find that pony a mare to...”

“You were saying something about the town?” I interrupted before she had both of us turning as red as Brightblade.

“This conversation isn’t over, young colt.  But yes, landing.  The landscape around town is clear, so if they have guards posted they’d spot us the second we drop down out of the sky.  As it is, the coloring of the chariot is helping us blend into the clouds.” 

“Ya’ll don’t exactly blend in with th’ shadows, Wild.”

“Well, when you're this damn hot its hard to blend in anywhere... but unless they have griffons with them, they won’t see me.  We’re high enough up that I’d be little more then a dot to them.”

I stepped up beside Carrion and Balefire, looking out into the darkness that zipped past below us.  We were indeed quite high up, higher than we’d been when we’d approached Kanter City.  But then, we’d been trying to stay close to the ground to avoid any griffon patrols in the area.  

“Where’s Oddwick at?” I asked through the mic, looking about the ground for any sign of the settlement.

“At my nine o'clock, near that dark jutting shape that is a piss poor excuse of a mountain.” 

I quickly figured out what she meant and turned my attention on that particular bit of darkness.  The mountain was easy enough to see, or rather, the jagged shape that rose up into the night sky.  What little light there was reflected off odd angles of the mountain slope.  Following the dark shape back down to the ground, I strained my eyes to take in any details at all.  After several minutes of staring, I began to pick out small squarish shapes below.  A dozen or more of them, all clustered together at the base of the rock pile above it.  Oddwick.  There was little to no hope of making out anything else about the town from this height and this light.  Wild was right; it’d be safer to land elsewhere and backtrack.

“Any idea where we’re going to land?” Carrion asked, the ghoul stepping back from the doorway to move back to his seat.

“A mile or more east of town, there looks to be some low rocky formations, judging by what I can make out from here.  If not, we’ll circle the town until we find a place to touch down... now, if you’ll all return to your seats and please leave your trays in their upright position, we’ll be landing soon.”

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my passengers for flying Air Fire, even though when it comes to travel by air, we know you have absolutely no choice in the matter whatsoever.”



*     *     *     *     *



Once Wild had set us down just beyond a low rise east of our objective, we hurriedly packed up what things we needed and left the sky chariot half hidden under an overhang of jagged rocks.  This far south of Tombstone, the landscape had once more turned rocky and uneven, with a number of gullies and ravines to be watchful of.  Despite the fact we had flown here with the chariot’s doors open, I still noticed as we trotted the chill in the night air.  Like my first night in the wastes, I was surprised at how quickly the temperature could change from unbearably hot to near freezing.  It was hardly that cold, but it was noticeable different.  It took us little more than an hour to make the trip in the near total darkness, and we did not use any lights for fear that somepony in town may see us coming.  

Wild had the easiest time of it, the grinning pegasus simply flying above the deadly drops into darkness that’d mean a broken leg or neck for any of the rest of us.  She at least scouted ahead, warning us of sudden drops or possible radscorpion nests of which there seemed to be many.  Thankfully the killer beasts were out hunting away from their homes.

As we passed one such lair, I noticed with a bit of alarm how large the cave was, easily twice the height of a pony.  While a creature would likely make use of any shelter it could find, too large or too small, the roof of this particular cave looked to have claw marks across it.  Noting my alarm, Stone decided to put my fears to rest by assuring me the homeowner was likely far away hunting for its evening meal.  Then he went on to explain what likely lived inside.

It seems there was a certain breed of radscorpion that made its home in such terrain all across the wasteland: the albino radscorpion.  As its name would suggest, it was completely white, with red burning eyes and a temper that would leave a dragon wary of attacking it.  How a species already known for being aggressive had become even more so was beyond me, and I silently prayed to both Celestia and Luna that we’d not run across one tonight, or any other night.

Yes, thanks Stone... I can sleep easily tonight having learned that.

Just when it seemed we’d be walking all night to reach our destination, we made our way up a low hill and spotted the dark shapes of the town below.  It’d been difficult to see from the air; the bandits either had covered the windows and doors of the buildings to block any light from escaping, they were early sleepers, or they’d already left.

After creeping a bit closer, red blips began appearing on my E.F.S. along with a number of yellow and green, but it was still proving difficult to see much more than dark looming shapes of buildings and the rocky background.  That is until Wild passed me a pair of dark metal binoculars.  Unlike Stone’s, hers had a number of small buttons and switches upon the sides, and was much heavier than the earth pony’s.

“One of the few perks of having worked for the Enclave,” she whispered over to me as the five of us lay on our stomachs atop a rocky hill.  

Bringing the black metal binoculars up to my face, I blinked and felt my ears perk straight up in surprise.  Ahead of me, the ruined town of Oddwick leapt out at me nearly as clear as day... if daylight was bright green.  Night Vision goggles... I’d read something about them in the history books and tapes we had of the war.  For the moment, I pushed aside the marvel of technology and focused upon the town ahead.

Oddwick was what I had come to expect for a post war town out in the middle of the wasteland.  The town was about the size of Lonesome Hoof, and in about as good a condition as the long abandoned town.  The town was an odd collection of stone and wooden buildings, half repaired and half ready to collapse at a moments notice, although there were signs that somepony not that long ago had attempted to repair some of the more upright structures.  I found the town's name suddenly more fitting. 

There were a number of patchwork repairs on a dozen or so of the buildings, roofs, walls and windows.  All were hurriedly fixed up so that ponies could move in and out from the hostile territory that surrounded the entire town.  Most of these buildings were located within the center of town and had likely once been stores and hotels judging by the worn faded signs hanging above the doors.  Scanning the streets, I saw little movement that was not the result of the breeze that had begun to blow twenty minutes earlier.  I was just about to finish scanning the town when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  Turning the binoculars towards the movement, I saw a dark green shape moving along the roof of one of the repaired buildings.

It was a pony, judging by the size and shape.  Stallion or mare, I couldn’t really tell, as whoever it was was wearing a heavy looking jacket and wide brimmed hat.  I could just make out the shape of a rifle slung across their shoulder as they slowly moved along the roof.  I sudden white flare appeared near the pony’s face and for a moment I was confused what I’d just seen.  Watching, I saw the sudden flare of light once more, and realized the guard was smoking, and I was seeing the orange glow of the cigarette.  

A quick scan of the surrounding buildings roof tops revealed another two shadowy shapes doing much the same, standing watch.  Luckily for us, the near total darkness would provide us with a good chance of approaching the town unseen, and then it would simply be a matter of ducking into one of the outlying buildings.  The darkness would not be our only ally in this.  Looking near the edge of town, I saw a short black shape half circling the buildings.  It was the unfinished wall the mayor had spoken of, and it would allow us to work our way past the patrolling guards.  Lowering the binoculars I turned to my friends and nodded my head towards the row of dark shapes.

“They have three ponies atop the three tallest buildings in town, but unless they’re using a pair of these, they won’t see us until we get close.  By then, we’ll be able to use the half constructed wall to work our way into one of the ruined buildings this side of town.”

“And do what exactly?”  Carrion asked, the ghoul looking over the town from where he lay on my right.  Did those glowing orange eyes give him night vision?  Better question, did the patrolling guards see them?

“Yeah, the plan’s a bit vague really,” Balefire piped up from across the ghoul ponies right.  The young unicorn had given up on making anything out in the darkness and was looking over to the rest of us.  

“Get used to it,” Wildfire said.  Though I couldn’t see her from where I was laying, I could tell just by the sound of her voice she was grinning.  Stone simply snorted in amusement and I rolled my eyes.

“Alright, alright, so most of my plans involve killing everything that moves.  This won’t work here.”

“Awww...”  Again that was from the no doubt grinning pegasus.

“My Pipbuck’s picking up both hostile and friendly targets, a fair number of both, and that’s only what it can detect from this range.”  Who knew how many more there were further inside town.  “We’ll attempt to sneak in and find these friendly targets and see if they can tell us where the supplies have been taken.”

“Where are these friendly targets at?” Stone asked from just beside my left.

“There’s two large groups of them, about eight each.  Both are located within buildings as far as I can tell, and on this end of town.” I pointed a hoof towards the dark structures in front and just below us, “That single story building there, and the large two story fenced-in barn there.” 

“If we’re worried about a time frame here, we’ll likely need to split up to cover more ground,” the raspy voice of our ghoul companion said.  It seemed a risky move to divide our forces when we were out numbered, but... “Most of the actual gang members are likely guarding the stolen supplies or their own building, I doubt they’re expecting any trouble just yet.”

“If there are friendly ponies in those areas, maybe we should get them all to move to that barn.  It’s closer to the edge of town, and if things turn ugly it’ll keep them out of the line of fire,” Balefire suggested, and I had to admit, it was a good one.  I nodded my head and took the idea.

“Thats good, we’ll send anypony we meet who’s willing to help us there.”  Now to just divide up.  “Stone, you take Wild and Carrion and check out the barn, secure it real quick, and join Balefire and myself at the one story building.  Hopefully somepony in either location knows where to find Tombstone’s supplies.”

“And if they don’t?” Wild asked, the mare having moved from laying upon the ground to standing over the rest of us.  I rose up and brushed the fresh dirt from my armored chest, as beside me the others stood as well.

“Then we go to plan B: kill anything shooting at us,” I answered simply.

Once everypony was ready, we set out across the open plains towards Oddwick and its half-finished wall.  We moved as quickly as we dared, not wanting to trip or make any more noise then we had to.  The darkness protected us, and within a few minutes we were pressing ourselves up against the rough surface of the patchwork wall.  Like every other hurriedly constructed barrier within the wasteland, it was made of a assortment of items, doors, planks, even a wagon wheel or three.

Peeking over the edge of the wall (it only came to our shoulders, so we had to kneel down behind it), I saw nopony had raised the alarm.  I silently cursed myself for giving Wild’s night vision wonders back to her, I’d have liked to have one more look around before we broke away into teams.  But the mare along, with Stone and Carrion, were already at the other end of the wall, ready to move up and over it to slip into the town.

Turning back to look, I gave a quick nod, and both groups set off to work their way to the locations on my Pipbuck.  Balefire and myself to the building my mapping spell had given the name Post Office, the others to what I can only assume was the Oddwick Corral, although for some reason my Pipbuck had shortened it to The O.K. Corral.


Welcome to Level 13!

Perk Added: Intense Training: A week out in the wasteland has toughened your body and sharpened your reflexes.  You can put a single point into any of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes.

Shadow (lvl 13 Stable Dweller)

S: 5
P: 6
E: 6+1
C: 7
I:  5
A: 6[/b
L: 5

> Chapter 13: High Noon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 13: High Noon


With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. 


Oddwick was little more than a ghost town, the darkened streets near silent save for the creak of the nearby wooden buildings settling after the day’s heat and the slight sound of wind rustling through the broken windows.  What few rusted street lamps still stood had long ago stopped working from either neglect or damage.  If not for the steady glow of over a dozen green dots on my E.F.S., I’d have said the town was deserted.  A door shut nearby as the wind picked up, causing Balefire and myself to come to a halt in the alleyway we’d ducked into.

I scanned the dark, dirt-covered street ahead of me.  Thus far the red blips I’d detected earlier had not left the building they’d been gathered inside.  Minutes before, as we’d crossed a street that lead down towards the cluster of hostile bandits, snippets of laughter and music came drifting down towards us from a large, three story structure, formerly a saloon judging by the sign that'd been hanging over the doorway.  The patrolling lookouts had yet to spot either us or Stone, Wild, and Carrion, who’d moved off to check on another group of possible friendlies.  Our lucky was holding out, but I knew we’d only be able to rely on that for so long.

Looking over my shoulder, I barely saw the dark green form of Balefire standing against the wall of the alley, his coloration mixing in well with the shadows.  His revolvers were holstered, lest the glow of his horn give away our position to the ponies keeping watch on the roofs in the center of town.  Balefire looked back down the alley behind us before turning back to me and nodding his head.  He was ready to press on, and I was ready to get this over with.  Looking back out into the street, I checked my E.F.S. once more and saw that beyond us, everypony else was where they had been moments before.

Stepping back out into the street, we made our way silently towards our destination, the Oddwick Post Office, a small single story building halfway down the street; luckily, our side of the street.  Like many of the buildings we passed thus far, the Post Office was in various states of decay.  It appeared that the bandits had done little to repair the town’s crumbling structures since setting up shop here.  I suppose that made sense, since it seemed their ultimate goal was to leave Equestria far behind and move on to greener pastures (if such places even still existed within the world).

A faint orange glow flickered through the shuttered and boarded up windows of the Post Office, the air carrying the faint scent of wood smoke to our noses as we approached the building cautiously.  The sidewalk that had once run along the row of buildings had long since rotted away, leaving bits of wood sticking up from the dirt and sand that had filled in the holes over time.

I crept over the rotting chunks of wood and to one of the boarded windows to try and get a look inside.  The little cluster of eight green dots had not moved from their original positions, so the ponies inside were resting or asleep.  Either way, it seemed there was nopony keeping watch.  One thing, however, had changed: the number of dots.  Where at first there had been eight, now there were more, at least a dozen.  They seemed huddled closely to one another, throwing my E.F.S. off.  Still, it didn’t change anything.  They were still green, and there was no point in turning back now.

Edging closer to the window, I peered between the old wooden planks and through the grime-encrusted window.  Though visibility was poor, it was enough for me to make out over a dozen pony-shaped bodies sitting or laying within the building’s main room.  The orange glow came from three small fires, burning low inside rusted-out steel drums that were scattered about between the huddled bodies.  I could just make out two doorways behind a counter and a number of tables and boxes shoved along the walls.  It was impossible for me to tell if anypony inside was armed, with the thick grime on the window giving everything beyond a hazy look.  

Still, it was the wasteland; if a pony wasn’t armed, they were as good as dead, so I suspected at least one or two of the ponies inside would be armed.  Stepping back from the window, I nodded once towards Balefire.  Without saying a word, the unicorn took up a position across from me near the doorway, ready in case anypony inside started shooting.

I reached for the doorknob with a hoof.  Not surprisingly, it was unlocked.  I pushed it open, and the door gave out a soft groan of age and rusted hinges as it swung back slowly.  I stepped inside the doorway, the heavy tread of my hoofsteps almost seeming to echo within the room beyond as several pairs of brightly colored eyes turned to stare at me.  

At first it seemed they thought I was simply one of them, perhaps from the other gathering or from the saloon.  I suppose nopony expected to get many visitors this far south from Tombstone, or any other settlement for that matter.  The flight here had pointed out just how isolated Oddwick was from the rest of Equestria, and it had likely been so even before the bombs fell.

I used the few moments I had before they realized I wasn’t a member of their merry little band of outlaws to look over the ponies gathered inside the room.  Unsurprisingly, the majority were mares with foals huddled closely to their hooves as they slept off their evening meal.  Cans of food and bottles of water lay where they’d been left.  Were they spoils from Tombstone or their own meager supplies?  I noticed a couple of the mares wore pistols strapped to their side, small caliber weapons that would be hard pressed to kill a Radroach, let alone a pony.  I suspected that was intentional, if what I’d begun to understand about the Blackhoof gang was true.

Behind the huddled mares and foals were several battered-looking stallions.  The ponies had bandages on hooves, heads, flanks and chests, some stained red with fresh blood, others still white and clean.  All looked tired and covered in dust, no doubt from the long journey back from Tombstone.  Like the mares, most appeared sleeping, and only one seemed to look over at us, a young stallion no older than Balefire.  The pony stood out for one reason, however; unlike the others, he did not seem to be injured.  Perhaps he had not been with the attackers?  I wouldn’t have time to dwell on it very long, as movement from my right drew my eyes away from the young pony.

From the group of mares, one stood up and made her way towards us, a short unicorn with a dark blue coat and purple mane.  I could not see her cutie mark, as it was too crowded in the room for me to see much more then her chest and head as she worked her way between the sleeping bodies.  I did see a holstered revolver on her right foreleg, however.  It looked far beefier than any of the other side arms I’d seen the others carry.  Her light green eyes narrowed as she drew nearer.

“What do ya’ll want now?  Can’t ya see th’ poor thin’s are restin’ after goin’ out on your little suicide mission?  Just turn yerselves back round and go tell Blackhoof he’ll have ta send a couple of you goons off on whatever pointless task he wants done,” she said as she stopped before me, ears laying flat to her head.  She thought we were members of the gang and clearly she did not think very highly of them.

“Ma’am, we’re not here to take anypony back with us...” I began, but did not get a chance to finish as she snorted and pushed a blue hoof into my armored chest pushing me back a step or two.  As she spoke, she repeated this with every other word she said, driving me back from the huddle of mares and wounded stallions.

“Yer damn right yer not here ta take anypony with ya.  Ye’ve done enough damage ta them as is.  So why don’t ya... just turn ...”  She blinked as her hoof brushed across the metal star pinned to my chest.  Slowly, she lowered her hoof and allowed it to drop back onto the worn floorboards of the room, her green eyes dropping to my chest and that metal symbol I had pinned there.  She then began to look more closely at me, my armor, and my weapons.  Her eyes darted from me to the smirking green unicorn who stood beside me; Balefire clearly thought it was funny as hell I’d been pushed around by a mare whose horn barely reached eye level with me. 

“Yer not Blackhoofs...” she finally said, taking a step back and tilting her head a bit to the side as she shifted her gaze from Balefire and back to me.  She had said it more as a statement than a question, but I answered it anyway, giving her what I hoped would be seen as a calming smile.

“No, we’re not with them.  We’re here to find out what's been going on and to recover the supplies stolen from Tombstone’s bank.”  I had made sure to say ‘them’, instead of ‘you’.  If what the captured ponies in Tombstone’s jailcell had said were true (and thus far I’d seen little evidence to the contrary), than the majority of the ponies in this town were simple farmers who’d been lied too, with a few like him who might have begun to doubt their heroes, and indeed ,judging by this mare’s attitude, that was seeming more and more likely.

“Yer not th’ Sheriff... nor do ya look or sound like a pony from Tombstone or th’ surrounding settlements... ya’ll a couple mercs?” she asked, stepping between us and the sleeping foals and mares behind her.  As she did, I caught sight of her cutie mark, a single red apple, not an odd thing for a pony whose town was supposed to grow food for Tombstone.  

“No, ma’am.  We were simply passing through town when it was attacked by bandits, and we volunteered to go looking for their missing supplies afterwards since it seemed they would be needing them come winter,” I said, before pointing a hoof at myself slowly.  “My name’s Shadow and this here is Balefire.”  The green unicorn behind me nodded his black-maned head to the mare.

“Willow,” the mare said, a hoof pressed against her own chest.  She continued to stare at us oddly.  “If’n yer not mercs then who are ya?  Ain’t no pony helped another just because.  It’s a fact we’ve learned th’ hard way.”

“I know a little about that, Willow,” I began, looking behind her at the huddled ponies trying to get some rest in the cramped Post Office lobby.  The uninjured stallion had stood up and was slowly walking over to stand beside the mare, who looked over her shoulder at him.  As I began to speak again she turned back to focus on me.  “I’m originally from a Stable, and I’m quickly learning that not many, if any, ponies do anything for others out here unless it can earn them some caps.  It sounds like the settlements around here have been taken advantage of by a group of thugs only looking out for themselves.”

“Sounds like ya know more than most around these parts, Shadow... how is that?” she asked, clearly not ready to trust me yet.  I couldn’t blame her.  The pony beside her narrowed his eyes a bit on us.  He had an assault rifle hanging from around his neck.  The old battered weapon looked held together with strips of cloth and tape, the barrel and stock a bit rusty from ill maintenance.  Up close, I saw he was a rusty red color, with an orange mane and tail, and his cutie mark was of the weapon he had against his chest, along with a knife, criss-crossed over one another.  His purple eyes looked from me to Balefire as I answered Willow’s question.

“A pony I met by the name of Runner told me a little about what was going on out here.”  To my surprise, the moment I mentioned the name she gasped and all thoughts of distrust and hostility towards me ended.  She took several steps closer, her face full of shock, eyes wide and ears erect.

“R-Runner’s alive?”

“Yes, he and a couple others were captured when they attacked Tombstone.”  Beside me, Balefire cocked his head slightly and looked from me to the mare standing before me.  I’d told both Carrion and him a little about the conversation I’d had with the prisoners while we flew out here, but I hadn’t mentioned the name of the pony who’d told me.

“They said th’ others were all dead... that my Runner was dead... “ she muttered to herself, turning her head to look back at somepony within the mass of sleeping colorful bodies.  Following her eyes, I found a small sleeping foal, resting in an empty spot that had been left by Willow when we’d entered.  The tiny, light blue filly slept quietly with a badly repaired stuffed animal at her side.

I looked away from the filly to Willow, watching as she reached a hoof up to her face and rubbed lightly at her cheeks.  Runner had mentioned he had family back here... what were the chances the first pony I’d find was his wife?  The wasteland was a sick, twisted place, but sometimes it seemed to try and be better.  After a moment of silence, she turned back to me, green eyes still moist with tears.

“What's to become of them?” she asked.  A difficult question, since I had not asked either the Mayor or the deputies in charge what would become of the prisoners.  Would they be tried for their crimes, or simply executed?  I didn’t think the ponies of Tombstone would simply kill all the prisoners... at least not for a time.

“Honestly... I don’t know.  I don’t know much about the townsfolk or the laws they live by,” I responded truthfully, shifting my weight on my hooves as I saw the mare wilt a bit before me.  “They attacked Tombstone, in some cases injured other ponies, and helped steal supplies the town needs to survive the coming winter.”

“Ah told ’im it was a bad idea... Ah told ’im... why didn’t that stallion listen?”  She shook her head and sat down suddenly, the strength she had shown moments ago all but crumbling as thoughts of her husband's fate ran wild through her head.  Would he be killed?  Set free?  Locked away forever?  The worry written all across her face was something I was very familiar with.  I reached a hoof out and gently lay it across her shoulder, causing the mare to look up at me.

“I think the mayor now has some idea of why they did what they did.  At first, they just thought they’d been attacked by a group of bandits, but after your husband spoke to me, one of the deputies explained it to the mayor,” I said gently, trying to give the mare at least some hope for her husband.  “I doubt the mayor is the kind of pony to just kill others for trying to feed their children.”  I lowered my hoof and went on.

“But, it would help if we could get those supplies back to him and the townsfolk soon, and perhaps if you’d be willing to explain everything yourself to him, he might be willing to help you out.”

“No!” the sudden shout caught both Willow and I off guard, and awoke several of the sleeping ponies nearby.  We both turned to look over at the young stallion who’d been giving Balefire and I the evil eye ever since we arrived.  He had his weapon up and pointed at me, a determined look in his eyes.

“Roy?” Willow’s ears flicked upwards in surprise at the weapon and took a step backwards, wiping her face hurriedly.

“Don’t listen ta him, Willow, he just wants ta take the food back with ’em and leave us here ta starve!”

I remained where I was, slowly moving my forehooves up to show I wasn’t going to try and pull any of my weapons on the young buck.  He seemed nervous as is, and the last thing we needed was for somepony to start shooting.  I doubted his old weapon would do much damage with my armor on, but it was pointed at my unarmored face, plus the noise would attract unwanted attention.

“No pony is being left without food, friend.  We’re just here for what was taken from Tombstone.  From the sounds of it, the Blackhoof’s have been gathering food from all across the area.”  I glanced from the barrel of the weapon to the pony holding it.  He looked worried, but there was something else about him, “Besides, the food that was taken is for everypony in the area to use for the coming winter.  You’ll get your share of it when the time comes,” I pointed out.

“Do ya take us for some kinda fools?  Them ponies in Tombstone don’t plan on sharin’ any a’ their food with us!  They didn’t even come help us when we was attacked by raiders!”

“Only because they never found out about the attacks.  None of your runners ever reached the town,” I tried to explain, eyes fixed on the purple stare of the stallion with a weapon on me.  “They never intended to exclude anypony from the winter supplies.”

“And we’re just supposed ta take yer word for it?  Th’ Blackhoof’s said...” at this, the barrel of the weapon was brought down to point at the floor by a blue hoof, as Willow stepped up beside the stallion.

“Th’ Blackhoof’s said a lotta thing’s, Roy.  Ah’m beginnin’ ta wonder how much of it was true,” the mare said, as she reached out and took the assault rifle from the pony’s mouth and clicked the safety on with ease.  “Ya know as well as everypony else ‘round here that the Blackhoof’s have been actin’ strange lately.  Not like they haven’t always been a might odd.”

“But Willow...”

“No buts, Roy.  With Runner gone...” she stopped and shook her head, pushing the weapon back to Roy.  “With Runner not here, that leaves me in charge of th’ ponies from Southfield, and Ah say we’re gonna give this Shadow a chance ta prove himself.”  She turned to regard me, having regained some of her strength.  “Any ideas how yer gonna be doin’ that?” 

How indeed.  All I had was what I’d told them, and half of that was guesswork.  I really had no way of knowing what the punishment for the ponies back in Tombstone’s jail would be, if the mayor would go easy on them knowing more about their plight, or if he’d simply kill them and be done with it.  I had no idea if he’d listen to anypony else about the problems the settlers out here have suffered, but I had to hope he would.  He’d seemed a reasonably friendly enough sort.  My only hope was what I had come to believe about the Blackhoof’s was true, and if it was then they’d need somewhere to hide it, keep it from being seen by the settlers.  But where?  Oddwick, for its size, was still a large enough town that if we searched the buildings we’d be at it all night... unless....

“I have an idea, but you’ll have to bear with me,” I began, looking from Willow to Roy and back again.  “Is there anyplace in town where nopony’s allowed to go?”

“Just where they keep th’ supplies at.  Ain’t nopony allowed inside ‘cept for members of th’ Blackhoof gang,” Willow began, arching a brow slightly.  “They said it was supposed ta keep thieves from makin’ off with th’ town’s supplies, as few as they are.”

Of course.

“I need you to show me where it’s at...”

“Told ya, he’s just interested in takin’ away our food,” Roy growled, cutting me off.  He opened his mouth to speak again, but was himself cut off as Balefire spoke up.

“If we were really just interested in taking away the food you guys had already stolen, why the hell would we bother coming in here in the first place?  For that matter, why bother asking at all?  Last time I checked, ponies don’t ask nicely when they’re planning on robbing you,” the dark green unicorn said with a snort at the end, red eyes shifting from Willow to Roy.

“Just th’ two of ya?  Against all th’ Blackhoofs?” Roy snorted again and narrowed his purple gaze on my companion.  “You an’ what army?”

“Do I count as an army?” a voice said from above, causing everypony present to look up into the rafters of the ceiling and the orange coated mare laying across the wooden beams.  I smirked and shook my head slowly.

Wildfire’s battle saddle was uncovered as she held her wings open, the barrels extended and looking rather deadly in the flickering light of the trash fires.  With a flick of her head, she sent her mass of red mane back across her neck and shoulders before looking back down at us with those bright, playful blue eyes.

“What do ya think, handsome?” she asked somepony behind us.  We followed her gaze back to the door we’d just entered in several minutes before. 

“Ah’d say yer a right army unto yerself,” the familiar drawl of Stonehoof answered his marefriend as he stepped inside the Post Office.  The large gray earth pony’s frame filled the doorway completely when he stopped to looked around the room carefully, his green eyes taking in the armed stallion beside me along with everything else, all from below the rim of his battered old cowpony hat.  

“Aww... ya always say the sweetest things to me.  You're definitely getting some when we get back to town,” came the typical Wild response as she gracefully rolled off the support beam and dropped to the floor below.  Before she could slam into the wooden floorboards, her wings snapped open and halted her fall, allowing her to hover for a moment, hooves inches off the floor, before she landed with barely a sound.

“I take it things went well at the barn?” Balefire asked the pair, the unicorn stepping around behind me to stand near Stonehoof, who’d trotted on inside while Wild settled onto the floor.  The large grey stallion nodded his head.

“Eeyup, bunch of nice pony folk agreed ta stay in th’ barn while we sorted this whole mess out.  Carrion offered ta stay behind and watch out for ’em, since a couple ponies were needin’ some medical attention.”

“See!  They’re holding them ponies hostage...”  Before he could carry on any further, an orange hoof was shoved into his mouth to silence him.

“We’re not holding anypony hostage, now shut the buck up and let the big ponies talk.”  Wild removed her hoof and wiped it off on Roy’s chest as she looked back over her winged shoulder to Stone.  Nodding, he stepped towards me and began to explain what they’d found at the barn.

“Like Ah said, we found a bunch of injured ponies at th’ barn, mostly th’ elderly and badly wounded.  Carrion said he’d patch ’em up as best he can.”  Stone looked over the room with all the mares and foals in it, then back to me, voice lowered a bit.  “Ah don’t like it, Shadow.  Th’ way they got ’em seperated just ain’t settlin’ well with me.  Somethin’ else is brewin’.”

I had the same feeling, and simply nodded my head before looking back to Willow and Roy.  The latter was going to be a problem, since he seemed to refuse to believe anything we said about the Blackhoofs.  As for Willow... she had her doubts, but she also wasn’t about to just trust anypony who came out of the wasteland saying they were the good guys.  Shame she hadn’t been in charge to begin with, or her settlement might not be in this situation to begin with...

Of course, a voice in the back of my head said, they’d likely be dead.

“What are ya plannin’ on doin’ ta us?” Willow asked, after the silence had gone on for sometime.  It was Wild who answered first.

“Don’t go getting your tail in a knot, we aren’t planning on harming anypony at all.  Well, actually... I think we’re going to be harming the Blackhoofs.”  She lightly tapped her chin with a hoof as she thought about it before looking over to me.  “Hey, we are going to be harming the Blackhoofs, right?  I mean, they’re pretty much guilty as sin.  Please tell me I can shoot them without you getting all mopey on us.” 

I snorted and shook my head before turning to stand in front of Willow, looking kindly at the mare before saying, “No, we’re not going to harm any of your ponies.  We’re here for the supplies and to help you if you're willing to accept it.”

“Ah can’t rightly say I trust ya, but ya’ve givin’ me no reason not to thus far.  As ya said, th’ Blackhoof’s are up ta somethin’.  Ah don’ rightly what it is, but Ah think our chances are better with y’all than with them.”  As Willow spoke, I saw Roy’s face fill with surprise at the mare’s decision to trust us.  “Ah can show ya where th’ supplies are bein’ kept.”

“Thank you.  You’ve made the right decision, and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make sure your friends and family are safe,” I said, gently laying a hoof upon her shoulder.  She blinked at those words and looked up at me; not for the first time had I gotten that look.  

“Alright, lets get these ponies over to the barn.”  Turning away from Willow, I looked to my three friends and at once we set about waking the sleeping mares up as gently as we could.

At first, Willow seemed ready to disagree with the need to send them to the barn, mostly due to the loud mouth of Roy.  The stallion’s constant questioning of my intent was in truth beginning to irk me, but I managed to keep from lashing out.  I also kept Wild from flying him up a couple hundred feet and seeing if he’d bounce (I’m fairly sure she was kidding... I think).  It was Stone, however, who smoothed things over, pointing out one very important fact to everypony concerned. 

It was clear to anypony with a brain (excluding Roy) that once the Blackhoofs learned of what was happening in their town, they’d likely come looking for the ponies responsible.  While Roy steadfastly refused to believe us, Willow was not so sure they’d be willing to listen to reason.  It would be far safer for everypony involved to be in one easily defendable building should this happen.  That barn, my large grey friend pointed out, was just such a building.  It was easily three to four times the size of the Post Office, with only three ways in and out, being a front and side door along with a window on the second floor. 

Stone did not mention that it’d likely be us doing the defending, since the weapons the mares had would likely not cause an armored pony much trouble, and not even Roy’s assault rifle would do much more then give a pony a case of rust poisoning should he choose to shoot somepony with it.  Still, I still hoped we could avoid this.  If we could gather up the supplies in a couple of wagons along with those willing to go with us, we could slip out under the cover of darkness.

Reluctantly, Roy gave in, mostly in part to Willow convincing him to help us, and within ten minutes we had roused the sleeping ponies and gotten them ready to move.  Foals of every age lay draped across their mother’s or older sister’s backs, blinking sleepy-eyed at everything going on around them.  One of the mares had slipped out while we’d been waking the others and returned with an old battered wooden cart, on which the wounded stallions were carefully loaded.

Thankfully, Roy would not be coming with us.  He would instead help the mares through the dark streets and towards the barn, where he’d agreed to help Carrion watch over them.  While I’d been happier if one of us went along to keep an eye on the stallion, we’d likely need all the help we could get when we found the stolen supplies.  I had faith once they reached the barn that Carrion would be more than able to keep an eye on that pony.

I had just finished helping a mare with her few personal belongings when I noticed Wild approaching me. The mare I had just helped thanked me, then balanced the small rag with the few items she had upon her back and went off in search of her foal.  Wild nodded as she passed the other pony before stepping up near me.

“Something wrong, Wild?” I asked, as the pegasus watched the ponies moving towards the front door.

“Look, I know you mean well, and I agree we should try and help these ponies, but how exactly are we going to do that and get Tombstone’s supplies back to them before the Blackhoofs catch wind of us.”

“I honestly don’t know,” I answered, looking over as Willow helped one of the wounded bucks to the door.  He had several gunshot wounds on his flanks and couldn’t move very quickly.  “If we simply left with the supplies, the bandits would likely blame them for it.  While they aren’t exactly raiders, I’m still not so sure they wouldn’t be above just killing them.”  Hell, for all I know that had been the plan all along; get them to help steal the supplies, then kill them when they were of no use.

“I don’t think they’re planning on killing them... at least, not all of them,” my friend said, a troubled look in her eyes as her wings fidgeted a bit.  She stared over my shoulder at Willow as she slipped through the doorway with the stallion in tow.

“What do you mean?” I asked, glancing around to make sure nopony else was nearby as we talked.  In truth, something had been bothering both her and Stonehoof since they’d returned to the barn.  It was not hard for me to see, having gotten to know the pair rather well on our journey across the wasteland.

“The way they have the elderly and injured separated from the mares and foals... I’ve seen this happen before in another town,” she began, as a couple of foals scampered past with their mother.  Waiting until they had trotted out of earshot she went on, “While I was in eastern Equestria fighting with Griffon Mercs, we happened upon a town that had been attacked just recently.”  

“Our squad leader told us to search the town for anything useful that may have been left behind.  At the time we thought it’d been attacked by raiders, but it seemed fair to well organised.  The buildings had neither been razed or covered in blood.  While we searched, I happened upon town hall and discovered evidence that a number of ponies had been held there: worn blankets, empty water canteens and the like.  As I was searching the rooms, Redtail, the squad’s griffon leader, told me it was a common tactic for slavers to divide a town's population into those they could use, and those they couldn’t.”

I hadn’t learned a lot about slavers since being on the surface, nor did I really have any desire to do so.  Selling other ponies as slaves just made no sense to me.  It just seemed so... evil.  As bad as what raiders did, if not worse.  At least the raiders killed you eventually.  What little I did know of them had been gained from listening to Three Horns talk about them on the radio and from Stonehoof.

“As for those of no use to the slavers, the sick, injured or elderly... well, one of the other mercs in the squad found them.  Lined up in a garage at the edge of town, shot repeatedly.”

“We need to stop them from leaving...” I said, sitting up and getting ready to yell for Willow, before an orange hoof stopped me.

“Carrion’s already aware of the possibility, and Stone was right when he said the barn would be more easily defended than the Post Office.  Before we got here, I did a quick flight over the town, and while I lack the fancy Pipbuck for tracking targets, I did see most of the gang at the saloon along with a few mares.  I think the Blackhoofs will be busy for most of the night,” she said quickly.  Well, that did give us some time.

“That gives us a couple hours at most to find those supplies and get the fuck outta town.”  I frowned and glanced back to the front door, where I could see Willow outside helping the wounded stallion into the cart, then cocked my head.  It had worked for Stable 45... “Wild, did you see any wagons or carts while you flew over town?” I asked, turning back to the pegasus, an idea forming.

“Yeah, there are a couple parked not far from the barn, actually.  Stone passed them as I flew over the saloon.” She tilted her head a bit.  “You think we could get this many ponies loaded up before sunrise?” she asked.

“We’ll have to... come sunrise, we’ll either be out of town or fighting for our lives.”



*     *     *     *     *



As the last of the ponies filed slowly out the front door of the Post Office, Willow turned to lead us back inside the building and past the now-empty beds that lay scattered across the floor.  Behind me, Stonehoof, Wildfire, and Balefire followed closely, our hoof steps echoing within the now empty, silent room as we wound our way around the dust covered counter and into the back.

Willow pushed the door open, sending rays of flickering fire light into the darkness of the back room.  Stepping past the doorway, I scanned the room where long ago ponies would have sorted mail coming and going around Oddwick.  Now the shelves and desks that had once held letters and packages were covered in a thick layer of grey dust, any papers that had survived the passage of time having likely long since been burned away in the barrels out front.  Old mail bags lay where they’d last been dropped near the rear of the room where Willow lead us.

“Th’ building where they keep th’ supplies at is near the saloon where th’ Blackhoofs stay.  Ah reckon ya’ll wanna try and avoid ’em as much as possible, so we’ll take a side road up through town ta the back of the storehouse.  It’s normally guarded by two ponies, one at th’ front and one at th’ back,” she said, looking back across her shoulder to us.

“Just lead the way, and we’ll take care of the guards,” Balefire said with a cocksure grin.  I’d not had a chance to tell the pony what Wild had told me, mostly because he had spent most of the last few minutes helping the mares load up the cart.  I didn’t want to worry anypony else just yet.

Willow nodded once before turning back to the path before her and the closed wooden door at the rear of the Post Office.  The blue unicorn’s horn began glowing as she started removing a number of locks from the door.  I suppose being a government run building, they had to be sure the mail was safe until it was delivered to the correct ponies in town. 

As she unlocked the door, I glanced over to a desk sitting nearby and tilted my head slightly to the side.  There was an odd piece of paper sitting out atop the desk, along with a badly faded photo of a pony.  Stepping away from the others, I reached a hoof up to turn the piece of paper around so I could read it.  It was just some report on a troublesome mail mare the Post Office had a visit from a couple of months ago... well, I suppose it was a hundred or so years ago by now.  Reading over the notice, it made mention to not allow her to stay for long, since the mayor of Oddwick had made it clear she did not want the town’s mail being scattered across the desert again.  Arching a brow, I looked up to the faded photo and saw a wall-eyed grey pegasus with a sheepish look on her face.  Somehow, I had an odd feeling that she wasn’t quite sure what went wrong.

“Alright, looks like th’ coast is clear.” Willow said from the doorway, causing me to look up from the report and to the mare as she held the door open with a hoof, “We’ll need ta be quite as we travel through th’ streets.   Ah reckon most of the Blackhoofs are deep in their cups at th’ moment, but we still wanna be careful if yer lookin’ to avoid a fight.”

“Indeed we are,” I said, stepping away from the desk and checking my shotgun’s safety, which was off.  I was going to try and avoid trouble, but trouble seemed to not ever want to return the favor.  I stepped up near Willow and peered through the open doorway myself, allowing my E.F.S. to do the long distance search as I focused on the neighboring buildings and street.  Neither my own eyes nor the targeting spell showed anything nearby, simply the last of a line of green dots moving away from us and the Post Office.  There were no signs of red dots anywhere in this part of town; a bit odd, but then, I supposed the ponies here had nowhere else to go but miles of hostile desert.

“Alright, lets go... Willow, lead the way, please.”  The mare nodded her head and quietly slipped past me and out the door.  With a nod to Stone, who stood directly behind me, I plunged out into the open street and the near total darkness of the night.

The only sounds to reach my twitching ears were of our little group’s hooves treading upon the dry, dirt-covered streets of the former mining town, plus the distant sound of revelry coming from the bandits’ saloon.  Willow walked quickly through the empty streets, working her way between the shadows of buildings and alleyways whenever the path ahead was blocked by a fallen roof or collapsed home.  While my Pipbuck’s map was updating itself with these sudden changes to the town’s layout, I still found it better to trust a pony who knew the route herself.

I glanced behind me. Despite the lack of red dots or visible enemies, both Stone and Wild were keeping a watchful eye on the darkened buildings’ windows as we passed.  Like me, they were expecting trouble, for years of living out in the wasteland had taught them that trouble was everywhere.  At the rear of the group I saw Balefire trotting along with a wide grin, the unicorn’s red eyes looking this way and that.  Not much seemed to worry that buck.  

But then, he had no idea what was going to happen come dawn.  Come to think of it, neither did I.  The Blackhoofs could just as likely stay here another couple days before killing the ponies in the barn.  

Turning my attention back to our surroundings and away from my dark thoughts, I looked over the ruined homes as we trotted down one of the side streets.  Most had fared poorly over the years and it was clear neither the original settler ponies who’d once tried to reclaim the town nor the current bandits had attempted to repair any of them.  Roofs sagged and doors and windows lay broken and shattered, whether from the harsh elements or scavengers was unclear.  Like most small towns throughout Equestria, during the early days of the end of the war, survivors had likely searched everywhere for supplies to help them stay alive for a few more days.  Ponies like Marshall Pipsqueak and those he’d lead to safety away from Kanter City.

I looked down to the metal star pinned securely to my chest armor, and then to the black metal combat shotgun that bounced about with every step I took.  Both had belonged to the long-dead lawpony; one had apparently been left as a gift for somepony (Had it really been me?  It seemed so unlikely, but then, who?), the other had simply been left with the other symbols of his former life as a Equestrian Marshall.  I’d taken them all with me, and ever since then ponies had been looking more and more to me as some sort of hero.  But I wasn’t a hero... I was just a normal pony trying to do the right thing.  

Willow, who was still leading the way, turned suddenly away from the street we’d been following and motioned for us to follow her into an alleyway.  A quick check showed two red dots just beginning to appear at the edge of my E.F.S.  The guards near the supplies?  

Stepping in between two homes, I followed Willow as she slowly stepped over piles of rusted garbage and scattered trash.  My mind returning to my earlier thoughts.  But hadn’t Pipsqueak been just a normal pony?  Dressing up as a colt for Nightmare Night like I had, having hopes and dreams like any pony would.  The newspaper clippings I’d seen in his office had hailed him as a hero.  Who did the wasteland hail as a hero?  Three Horns spoke well of the C.S.E. in far off San Ponsisco, but again I asked myself: who was the pony looking out for all the ponies scattered across the wasteland?  Ponies like Willow and her husband?  Towns like Tombstone and Crossroads?  Each had their Sheriff’s and guards, but they simply watched over the towns.
 
I shook my head.  No.  I was no hero.  I just wanted to reach San Ponsisco, settle down, and raise my niece.  I’d leave the heroics for other ponies.  Looking ahead, I saw Willow had slowed to a halt and was peering carefully around the corner of the buildings and out into the dark streets.  I heard the soft hoof steps of my friends behind me.

“Perhaps, but who will pave the way for them?  Who will save the heroes?”

I blinked and looked back behind me, about to ask Wild what she was talking about, but the question died on my lips as I saw the winged mare was focused instead on speaking quietly with Stone.  Behind them, Balefire stood watch at the other end of the alley, eying the street we’d just left.

Come to think of it, despite the voice having come from a mare, it hadn’t sounded like Wild’s voice.  A quick glance ahead seemed to indicate it had not been Willow either, a fact I’d already dismissed since the voice had lacked the southern accent that ponies around Tombstone seemed to all share.  No, the voice had not been very loud, almost as if it had been whispered to me, or been in my head...

I silently groaned and brought a hoof up to my face, shaking my head.  It had sounded similar to the voice in the bank’s vault, yet that had been a male voice, and had sounded quite unsettling and a bit evil.  This one had sounded more gentle, calm even.

Great, I’m going crazy... and I’ll have two voices inside my head to keep me company when I get hauled off to the crazy farm.  This reminds me of a story I once read in school, about some crazy unicorn named Firedoor, Firewalled or something...

I was forced to leave the question of my sanity for a later time, for now Willow had turned away from her scan of the town’s streets to look back at me, waving a hoof for me to come forward.  Carefully I worked my way towards the mare and stopped near the edge of the buildings we stood between.

The one on my left had appeared solid when we’d entered the alleyway from the other end, but the rear of the building had completely collapsed into the street, blocking much of it in a jumble of wooden support beams half rotted away and twisted flooring.  However, it was not this pile of debris I was interested in, nor was it why Willow had called me up.  It was the dark building across the street from us that she pointed a hoof at and whispered softly in my ear, “Thats th’ buildin’, but seems there might be a bit more trouble than Ah thought.”

Indeed it was, for it made perfect sense why the bandits had picked this building over any other to house their stolen loot.  I found it also somehow ironic. The building was two stories tall, and unlike most of the other shops and homes I’d seen in Oddwick, this one was made of stone, likely from the mines that were once the lifeblood of the little town.  Small windows sat barred from the outside, blocking entrance into the stone structure.  Though it lacked columns or any real decoration, the building was almost a mirror image of the bank in Tombstone.  Fitting, since it too was a bank.  Or rather, had been.

My Pipbuck’s mapping feature updated itself once more, and the First (and only) Bank of Oddwick appeared in the center, watched over by four red blips that stood on either side of the square building.  Looking into the murky shadows that surrounded the rear of the building, I saw movement just near where the wall.  As I watched, I began to make out the shapes of two ponies standing watch over a single door that I had no doubt would lead into the offices and employee rooms of the bank.  I couldn’t make out much detail about the two; the darkness that had hidden us was now working against us. 

Leaning back, I turned to look for my friends.  Stone and Wild were just a few steps away with their weapons drawn and ready, and Balefire I could just see at the other end of the alleyway, standing watch for any trouble that might catch us by surprise.  I fixed my gaze upon Wild and waved a hoof towards her.  Slipping from her coltfriend’s side, the pegasus gracefully trotted up the alleyway to slip up beside me, hardly making a sound as her hooves stepped over mounds of rusting trash and debris.

“Mind if I borrow those night vision binoculars of yours again?” I whispered as quietly as I could.  The night was still silent, and I did not wish to give us away just yet.

“What would you boys do if us girls didn’t know how to pack for a trip?” she whispered back as she slipped the black metal binoculars over to me, already free of her saddlebags.  She winked, adding, “Somehow I figured you might need them and kept them close at hoof.”  As I took them from her and turned back towards the bank, she whispered once more, “What are we up against?”

“Four guards, two in the front and two in the back,” I whispered back, lifting the binoculars up to my eyes.  Once more the world turned several shades of green as the the night vision setting went to work.  I focused them where I’d seen the dark shapes of ponies just moments ago, and now I could better see the pair.

Both were stallions, one an earth pony and the other a unicorn.  Color wise, I couldn’t make much out given how everything was a shade of green,but that was hardly important at the moment.  Both ponies wore similar-looking combat armor, with shoulder pads, a high collar, and thick armor plating around the chest and forelegs.  I found it once more odd how familiar looking the armor was to what the guards in Crossroads and the deputies in Tombstone wore.  In fact, it also reminded me of Carrion’s armor and that of the twins we’d found in Kanter Cities subway tunnels.  Was it possible everypony around used salvaged military armor used by the Equestrian Army?  It’d make sense... and it was also not something I should be thinking about at the moment.  Well, it was a question for another time at least.

Looking back to the guards, I focused instead on their weapons.  As was typical for ponies in the wasteland, neither carried the same type of weapon.  The unicorn had a simple rifle slung across his back.  Like Stone’s, it was a bolt action, and had a small clip secured and ready to fire.  The earth pony next to him carried a double barreled shotgun; unlike the stallion aboard the train, the barrels were not sawed off, but looked as if they’d been repaired a number of times.  Both had sidearms in the form of pistols holstered at their sides as well as a small collection of spare rounds and clips strapped to their armor.  The unicorn had a short knife tucked into his foreleg armor.  

My eyes narrowed as I watched them; from the armor they wore to the weapons they carried, everything appeared well maintained and clean.  While there was evidence of repair work on the armor plating and the weapons, it had been done by skilled hooves.  There did not appear to be any real weak point in the armor plating, nor the joints.  There were no massive scars along the weapons barrels or stocks where they’d been used as blunt weapons.  They were also quite alert.  Any sudden noise, and the two ponies’ twitching ears locked upon the sound and their eyes soon followed, glaring out into the darkness for any sign of trouble.

I shifted the binoculars away from the guards and further down the street, looking for some way we could sneak up on the pair, but it seemed the wasteland was not going to offer me a free pass.  That, and it appeared the Blackhoof gang had some tactical knowledge.  The street was largely clear of debris of any size.  If not for the ruined building we sheltered behind, the street would fit in well with any in Tombstone or Crossroads.  There were no rusted-out carts or piles of trash, just a wide open, empty street.

“We’ll never get close enough to them to take them both out before they sound the alarm,” I whispered softly, as I looked from the street to the nearby buildings.  “I suppose we could go further on down the street, work our way up via way of the alleys...”  But if anypony made a sound, we’d likely be discovered.  I lowered the binoculars to look over at Wild and Willow.  Perhaps Willow had an idea on how to get us closer; she’d been in town for a couple weeks now.  Hoofsteps from behind us caught my ear and I turned to see Stone moving up beside us, peering into the darkness.  After a moment, he nodded his head and looked over to me.

“Ah reckon Ah can take care of this problem if ya’d like.”

“How?  If we fire a gun everypony in town will hear it.”  In all likelihood, the sound would travel halfway across the desert, it was so damn silent.  

“Ah got somethin’ for that, don’t ya worry, Shadow.” Stone said, patting his saddlebags with a smile.  

“But are you sure you can take them both out quickly enough?  It’ll only take one of them to sound the alarm,” I whispered back, although I’d seen the stallion do some pretty amazing things with his rifle.  Nearly every one of his shots went to the head, and he’d rarely, if ever, missed.  An amazing skill for a pony without a Pipbuck’s S.A.T.S. to aid him.  

Stone stood there silently, staring at the two guards lurking within the shadows for a while, then reached up and removed his cowpony hat with one hoof while the other ran through his sweat-soaked mane.  Finally, he slid his hat back on before nodding to my question.  As his hat dropped back over his ears, he pointed the hoof that had held it towards the right of the alleyway.

“Ayep, sure enough Ah can, but Ah’ll need one of ya’ll ta make a distraction for me, cuz Ah’m gonna need both of’em ta be lookin’ in th’ same direction.”

I was about to ask what he needed when the blue unicorn who’d silently been standing beside me bent over and lifted a piece of rubble from the ground with a hoof, a simple small stone.

“Ah reckon this should make a quiet enough sound ta not attract th’ other guards but catch them two’s ears,” Willow said, looking from me to Stone.  The grey stallion nodded his head in approval.

“Ayep, should do just fine.” Stone whispered back before motioning me to move back.  As I did, my friend reached back into his saddlebag and withdrew something cylindrical.  In what little light there was, I saw him reach down to his rifle where it lay against his chest and place the object to the weapons barrel.  Then he began to slowly screw it into place and it was then I realized what he had: a homemade silencer. 

About two hooves in length, it appeared made out of a metal pipe, with a good deal of grey tape wrapped around it.  Whatever else had gone into making the silencer was hidden inside and instead I focused on the pony about to use it.

Carefully, Stone edged up to the corner of the alley and peered out across the street at the bank, focusing the two targets he was about to shoot.  As he had moments before, the pony simply stood there, sizing up his shots and what he needed to do to make them happen.  After several minutes, he slowly reached down to his trusty rifle and brought it up, its barrel now much longer and thicker than it normally was.

As he stood there, holding his weapon, Stone’s gaze lowered from his targets to the rubble pile beside him, looking for something among the twisted debris and piles of trash blown in from the streets.  With critical green eyes, my friend searched for something, only he knew what, among the rubble until he at last seemed to spot what he needed.

Moving carefully so as not to dislodge anything from the pile, the large gray stallion slowly stepped up onto the ruined rear section of the building and slipped the barrel of his rifle between a broken wooden window frame, the weapon easily resting in the crook of the frame.  He then carefully moved it from side to side, ensuring he had a free 90 degree firing arc, enough to cover both targets.  Finally, satisfied with his position, the pony lowered himself down and gripped the rifle in both forehooves.

And then we waited, for several minutes, as Stone finished adjusting the sights on his rifle.  As he did so, I brought the night vision binoculars back up to my face and looked back towards the two guards, seconds away from hopefully no longer being a problem. 

Hmm, was it bad I didn’t seem to have an issue with what was about to happen, yet I had gotten so worked up over the ponies I’d killed in Tombstone?  What made these bandits any different from those ponies?  Through the green lens, the two stallions did not look like raiders; there were no body parts on their armor, no scars.  True, they did look rough, but then, so did anypony forced to live out in the wasteland.  So why didn’t I have a problem with seeing them about to die?

Simple.  They robbed a town of supplies and left the ponies to starve to death or risk trying to go for help.  While they didn’t kill and eat their victims, they were no less harmful than raiders.

My thoughts were disrupted when a grey hoof appeared from the corner of my eye waving over to us.  It seemed Stone was at last ready, and that was Willow’s cue to catch the guards’ attentions.

Though my focus was on the green view I had of the guards, I could well imagine Willow drawing her forehoof back as she prepared to toss the small stone across the darkened street.  I had a fairly good idea of where the cap sized piece of debris would land, the wall of the neighboring building.  My ears twitched at the noticeable noise it made as it clattered against the wooden wall and rattled into the street, and I saw the guards through the binoculars turn their heads towards the sudden sound.

In that fraction of a second, as the guards heads began to turn to the right, Stone squeezed the trigger of his beloved rifle and the weapons normally sharp report was reduced to a muffled sound barely louder than the stone used to distract them.  Just as the sound of the shot reached my ears, I watched as the pony on the left jerked backwards, leaving a dark green spray in the night vision.  The wall behind him was equally splattered with blood as the round tore through his head and impacted the stone wall.

I blinked and saw the second pony, the one on the right, turning back towards the noise of his companions head splattering all across the wall.  From the corner of my eye, I saw Stone’s grey hoof work the bolt of his rifle, and the slowly spinning brass shell smoking as it flew out.  Almost impossibly fast, he had chambered a new round as he swiveled the rifle over towards its second target.  The barrel had hardly stopped moving when he fired again.

The second guards eyes grew wide in shock as he watched his fellow bandit slump lifelessly to the ground in a heap. He began to open his mouth to yell, but suddenly his horned head jerked backwards and he dropped to his knees as the blood ran down the rough stone walls of the bank, and he simply toppled over onto his side, very dead and very silent.

I lowered the binoculars from my face and turned my head to the left to stare at my friend.  With a practiced hoof, the stallion slipped the bolt and ejected the second spent shell casing, allowing it to softly clatter down the debris pile and roll to a halt against my hoof.  Slowly, he stood up, still holding his rifle and gave a slight smirk. 

“Holy shi-!” Before I could finish, an orange feathered wing rose up suddenly before me and smacked me squarely in the snout.  Luckily I managed to keep from yelling obscenities out as I stumbled back a few steps, shaking my head and trying to see what just hit me.

Willow wasn’t nearly as lucky as the mare was suddenly struck in her rump by another orange feathered attacker and dropped face first into the alley, but she held her tongue and only a small grunt of surprise passed her lips as she lay there dazed for a moment.

I arched a brow as I saw what had just happened.  Wildfire stood in the center of the alley, eyes fixed on the two dead ponies across the street from us, blood likely pooling around the gaping holes in their heads.  The pegasus’ wings were sticking straight up, and it had been them that had pummeled both Willow and myself.

The red-maned mare turned as Stone carefully climbed down from the rock pile, then wrapped her forehooves around his head and pulled him into a very passionate kiss.  Judging by the surprised look on my friend’s face, I had no doubt there was tongue involved.  

“What the hay’s going on up here?” I heard hoofsteps quietly approach from the other end of the alley as Balefire trotted up to investigate all the sudden noise, though it seemed none of it had alerted the two guards still standing on the other side of the bank.  As the green unicorn stepped up beside me, he followed my shocked gaze to the pair all but making out in the middle of the alley and blinked his red eyes.

“Damn...!”

Damn indeed my good, pony... damn indeed...

Finally, the kiss ended, as Wild pulled back her muzzle from her coltfriend’s and reached a hoof up to readjust Stone’s old cowpony hat, which had gotten knocked askew as she’d eaten his face.  Stone’s green eyes were slightly dazed and he had a rather goofy looking grin on his face as Wild stepped back and relaxed her wings a bit.

“That... was hot,” she whispered seductively to Stone, giving his lips a final lick before trotting off out of the alley and into the open street beyond.  Stone’s hind right hind leg gave a little twitch as he sat there stiff as a board (likely in more ways than one).

“Wild, sometimes I worry about you...” was all I could whisper as I began picking myself up from the ground, using my tail to brush my backside off.

Once we had Stone moving again, we quickly and quietly followed Wild across the street towards the pair of still warm bodies laying beside the messy back wall of the bank.  A check of the door they’d guarded proved it was secured tightly by no less than five locks running along the door, which itself was made of steel, rusted in spots, but still strong enough to keep anypony out.  Despite their age and neglect, the locks still held tightly, and would likely take me several minutes to remove.

As I reached back for my lockpicking tools, I saw Stone rummaging through the dead ponies saddlebags and pockets, while Wild stood watch near one end of the building.  Willow, meanwhile, stood between me and the dead bodies, and was trying hard not to look too closely at the bloody sight.  Just as I found my screwdriver, Balefire trotted past us and sat down in front of the door, red eyes narrowed on the locks.  After inspecting them, the unicorn’s horn began to glow softly and his own screwdriver and pins floated out from his packs, red eyes looking over to me as he motioned a hoof towards the door.

“Mind if I give it a go?” he asked, to which I simply nodded and stepped back to give the pony room.  Carefully, the green glowing pin and screw driver floated towards the first of the locks (how was it first?  I don’t know, it was simply the top one and so as logical a place to start as any) and slipped the thin piece of metal into the slot open for a key.  After several seconds of twisting and turning both tools, there came a soft, barely audible click from the door as the first lock was undone.  Flashing me a grin, he removed both from the lock and set about going after the second.  With the first one gone, the unicorn began swiftly removing the door’s defences with a skill far beyond what an earth pony could ever hope to do with just their hooves and mouth.  Within seconds, the last lock gave a soft click of defeat and the door quietly popped open an inch.

Stone looked up from his looting as the door was pushed open by a green hoof, looking from the unicorn to me.  We were both impressed by the stallion’s skill, and I was quite thankful for Spirit’s suggestion to bring him along on this mission.

Stepping past Balefire, I checked my E.F.S. once more, and still saw only two red dots remaining.  Judging by their distance from us, both were on the other side of the building, likely near the front entrance.  Still, I reached down to picked up Luna’s Ruse from where it’d hung against my chest and slowly, cautiously entered the bank.

Our hoof steps echoed off the walls of the narrow, dark room we entered, much like the Post Office.  At first it appeared there’d not been much activity within the room for some time.  Dust seemed to cover everything within the small back room of the bank.  Old desks lay shoved into the walls, terminals, lamps, phones, and old empty coffee mugs cluttering their tops.  Filing cabinets stood watch over the desks, standing halfway to the ceiling in some cases.  Looking around, I saw the outline of another door on the far right of the room, likely leading deeper inside the building.

We all finally shuffled inside, the last in, of course, being Stone.  The pony had busily spent as much time as he could stripping anything of use off the two dead guards, which had no doubt barely made a dent in the available space of the cavernous packs he carried across his flanks.  He reached out, and quietly shut the door we’d entered through.

“Shouldn’t we do something about the bodies?” Balefire asked, as he put away his tools and looked over the room.

“No, it’d cause just as much panic for them to be found missing as it would if they were found dead,” Wild answered the young stallion, stepping around the room lightly, her blue eyes taking in her surroundings.

“Besides, this is just gonna be a quick smash and grab mission.  Once we’ve found th’ supplies, we’ll pack ’em up right quick and hoof it on back ta th’ barn,” Stone added, as he trotted from the door we’d just entered and towards the inner one. 

“We’ll round up a couple of wagons and then slip out while it’s still dark.  If we’re lucky we’ll be several miles away before they realize what's happened.  And unless anypony brought along a mop and bucket, we’d never clean up everything out there,” I said, following my friend to the door, ready to get this over with before something went wrong.

Willow cocked her head slightly as she went over what we’d just told her, before slowly nodding in agreement as Stone’s strong grey hoof reached up and took hold of the doorknob.  The earth pony gave it a gentle twist, and discovered it was not locked.  With a click, the door slowly opened inwards, the hinges creaking just a bit from age and disuse.

The hallway beyond was completely black, due to the fact that there did not appear to be any windows (not like there was much more light outside) and no emergency lighting here.  Stone’s ears flipped forward as he stood there, peering out into the inky darkness, before turning to his packs.  Whatever he was about to remove, a new lantern or flashlight, he wouldn’t get a chance to use, as Wild stepped up between him and the hallway.  The pegasus reached a hoof up to her chest and pressed the button to activate the light built into her armor, the pale white light stabbing out into the darkened hallway, allowing us to see what lay before us. 

The bank’s inner rooms seemed to largely lead off from this single hallway, as I could see a number of doorways along the narrow passage, most of them closed.  Along the hall there was little real debris scattered about, unlike most of the other buildings I’d been inside.  Perhaps not many had entered the bank after the bombs fell, but beside the lack of garbage there were signs of recent activity.

Lifting my hoof over Wild’s shoulder, I pointed the narrow beam of light down upon the floor and the dozens of hoof prints left in the dust, some made in dry mud from the recent rain several days ago.  Bits of gravel from the streets outside littered the wooden floorboards of the bank.  

“Unless this is where they come to take their shits, I’d say we’re in the right place,” Wild said beside me with a smirk, before taking a few steps out into the hallway.  Stone followed, causing the floorboards to groan at the sudden weight and making the stallion freeze in alarm.  Wild simply turned and flashed her lover a grin.

“Ah’m not fat... think ya’d of noticed since ya’ve been gettin’ a good look at me recently.” 

“If you two are finished putting mental images into my head, I’d like to get further into the hallway then the door before the bandits catch us,” Balefire called from the rear, sadly beating me to the punch.

With Wild in the lead, we followed the tracks as they lead us towards the front of the bank, and through a doorway on our left.  Once through, I saw much the same thing as there’d been at the Tombstone bank.  A row of teller windows separated us from the lobby, each housing a booth for a pony to work for their shift, taking and giving out money to those with accounts here.  Empty money drawers lay covered in dust under the booths, along with faded yellow ledgers and other office tools.

Just behind the booths and in front of us were four desks, with terminals sitting atop them, their screens black as the night outside.  Like the Post Office, there were pens and lamps laying about atop them, along with more recent additions, such as empty beer bottles and cigarette butts.  It looked like somepony had simply crushed the smokes out atop the wooden desk tops.  The desks appeared to have been used by managers, or some other higher ranking pony with the bank; there were a few personal objects laying about the desk or floor.  Clearly whoever had been drinking and smoking in here had no care for respecting others possessions.  But then, these were the same ponies who’d just taken all the food away from an entire town.

Finally, to our left was the vault itself, nearly a mirror image for the one in Tombstone in size, if not state.  Unlike the one back there, this one had no working lights inside the room, so like the rest of the bank it was completely dark.  Also unlike the Tombstone vault, it appeared this one had not been shut for some time, yet even now the large steel door dominated the wall as it lay open wide, allowing us to see inside the vault itself.  

The similarities to Tombstone’s bank continued, as I lifted my right hoof up and cast the shaft of light coming from my Pipbuck inside.  Looking around I could see the walls lined with deposit boxes, a fair number of them open.  There were also a number of old, well-worn wooden tables within the vault.  Judging by their scuffed appearance I doubted they were original to the room, more likely hauled in by the town’s recent inhabits.  The reason they had needed them became plain to see, to anypony looking.

Boxes of every size, type, and shape sat scattered about the vault, atop the tables and all over the floor.  As my narrow beam of white light passed over them, I could see cans of food and boxes of supplies poking out from the tops.  Small boxes of ammo sat beside cans of CRAM and bottles of Sparkle Cola.  Under one table, I saw a cardboard box overturned and a large number of Spark Batteries laying spread out across the floor.  Shifting my hoof to the right, I saw one of the open deposit box filled with nothing but jewelry, gold and silver chains for necklaces sparkling as they dangled over the edge of the door. 

As I stood back, taking it all in, Stone, Wild, and Willow had all stepped up to the door and where looking inside in amazement, I couldn’t really blame them.  Not since leaving Stable 45 had I seen so much in one place.  Not all of this could have come from Tombstone; they’d never had time to remove this much in the time since the attack had started to when Balefire and I had reached the bank.  A large number of this likely belonged to the settlements the Blackhoofs had ‘saved’.  

“Ah’m gonna need a bigger saddlebag...” I heard Stone mutter as he stepped inside the vault.

“Fuck that, we’re gonna need a bigger wagon for all this,” Wild said from beside her coltfriend, as she pushed open a wooden crate on the floor.  Reaching a hoof in, she removed a bundle of medical bandages before letting them drop back inside.

A soft gasp from Willow drew my focus to her, as she’d moved to the right.  The mare had removed a ring from within one of the deposit boxes near the door.  As my beam of light struck, it reflected off the slightly tarnished silver wedding ring, causing the single remaining blue stone to sparkle in the brightness.  Looking closer, I saw a number of fittings around the stone, likely where others had once sat beside it.  Either over the years, or from ponies removing them, the other stones had been lost.

“This belonged ta Runner’s Grandmother!” the blue unicorn said, holding it gently in her magical grip.  She turned and looked over to us.  “Ah thought Ah lost it when we was forced ta flee th’ town... it’s been in his family for generations.”  The mare shook her head slowly.  “They said th’ raiders got everythin’ of value from home.”

“Well, at least they were telling you the truth,” a voice from somewhere behind me called out.  I arched a brow to Stone and turned away from my friend and the vault to bring my Pipbuck’s light to bare on Balefire’s green, horned face as he leaned around the hallway doorway.  

“Find something?” I asked the young stallion, who simply nodded his head in response.  I heard Stone and the others stepping out from the vault as the unicorn moved into full view of the tellers room, sitting down.  He jerked a green hoof back down the hallway.

“You're gonna wanna see this, especially Willow.” 

Sharing a look with my friends, Willow simply blinked as she looked between us.  I offered the mare a nod before setting off at a slow trot towards the door and the dark hallway behind.  Stepping out into the darkness, I looked back down the row of doors we’d passed on our way to the front of the bank and saw Balefire’s flank disappearing into one of them.  If memory served, it had been shut when we’d passed it earlier; the unicorn must have gone back to check on the other rooms while we’d focused on the vault.

With the others close behind, we followed after our friend and entered the room.  As my hooves crossed the threshold of the door, I froze and jerked my head back in surprise.  A spiked raider head was staring back at me, dark red goggles reflecting my startled face and the light coming from my Pipbuck.  As I began to reach for my shotgun, I noticed something out of place about the raider, such as the lack of a pony.  It was simply just the armor, left sitting near the door in such a way that anypony who wasn’t expecting it would think somepony had gotten the drop on them.

Stepping side a bit, I let the others in and lifted my right foreleg up once more to better look over the room.  There was more than just a single set of raider armor to see; in fact, there appeared to be a little under a dozen sets, judging by the number of helmets, scattered about the former office space.  There was no mistaking them, those crude metal plates with any number of sharp edges and spiked tops, those chains and bits of ragged cloth hanging off chest plates and flank guards.  Each piece was covered in gore and bits of bone, the usual trophies taken by raiders.  Everything about the armor was linked with death.  Even the smell coming off the suits of battered armor was of blood and death.

“These look like th’ raiders that attacked Southfield,” Willow spoke up from the doorway, ears laying flat to her skull as she looked over the suits of armor with wide green eyes.  “Ah don’t understand... what are they doin’ here?” she asked, looking from Stonehoof to me.

“Looks like they’ve been thrown out, since it appears they’re no longer needed,” Balefire spoke up, lifting a hoof up to idly swat at a steel spiked helmet, rolling it onto its side where it rocked back and forth a few times.  The shadows of the spikes appeared to be impaling our own on the wall as the lights moved across the room.

“Are ya saying these belong ta th’ Blackhoofs?  Did ya’ll know about this?” Willow asked, sounding surprised.  I suppose I couldn’t blame her; to anyone else there’d seem to be no logical reason to dress up as raiders.  But then, I had found logic rarely went hoof and hoof with the Wasteland.

“I think most of us had some idea what to suspect, after what we’d heard from Runner and the townsfolk.  It just sorta made sense,” I answered.  In truth, I wasn’t really sure how much my friends had suspected, but they were smart ponies.  “After all, what were the chances the Blackhoofs would be nearby for all of these sudden and unexpected raider attacks, when there’s been no raider activity for months around Tombstone?”

“Ah thought they came from th’ border.” Willow began, before I waved a hoof off vaguely towards the south of town.

“Judging by the map I saw back in Tombstone, there’s little more than desert out that way without another town for sixty miles.  That’s an awful long way to trek with little food or water.  From what I heard, there’s been no real activity from the border in a very long time,” I explained.

“That’s mostly because of the N.C.A.  They patrol the border between Equestria and Caledonia, making sure nopony crosses it without their knowledge,” Balefire spoke up, stepping away from the bits of armor to stand near the group.  “And that’s the New Caledonian Army, for those of you in the back,” he piped up before either Willow or I could ask.

“Balefire’s right, th’ raiders stay clear of th’ border.  There’s easier pickin’s further south in th’ small towns scattered across th’ countryside,” Stone added, earning a few looks from Balefire and Wild as to how the stallion had any knowledge of the other country.  “Traveled inta th’ country once with a caravan Ah was hired ta help protect,” he added.  “It’s a nice enough place, Ah reckon, but Ah’m a might fond of Equestria.  As messed up as it is, it’s still home,”

“Right, so why would raiders risk crossing the border when there’s less risky locations to go terrorize ponies?” I asked, walking over to the bits of armor laying about the room and halting before the helmet Balefire had knocked over.  “I mean, anything is possible, but it just doesn’t add up with everything else that’s going on.”

“But why would anypony dress up as raiders?  It’d get’em shot faster than if they was slavers,” Willow asked as she lifted a piece of ruined armor from the floor, bullet holes riddling the charred piece of metal with a number of holes all across it.  Like the other pieces, it bore spikes and broken blades attached to it.

“For caps,” I answered.  Feeling four sets of eyes settling on me, I went on, “There’s a treasure trove of items back in that vault, from jewelry to supplies.  There’s enough stuff there to keep a small town fed for almost a year.  Just imagine how much it’d be worth if they could sell it.”

“It’d set a couple ponies for life,” Balefire said, looking back into the dark hallway as if he could see the vault’s open door from here.  “To the right buyers, some of that stuff would go for hundreds of caps.”

“Exactly, so either they found this armor laying around or killed a couple raiders for it and they decided to make use of it.  At first they must have gone out dressed as raiders simply to rob caravans, kill a couple of the drivers, then slip away into the desert, letting raiders take the blame.”  I stepped away from the others and towards the helmet Balefire had overturned, reaching out a hoof to stop its gentle rocking.  “But then somepony, perhaps one of these brothers that lead the gang, got it into their head to stage an attack on Tombstone for the supplies they’d heard were kept there.”

“No easy task.  The walls aren’t just for show, but in fact are very well made.  It’d take a large force of determined ponies to take the town, more than any gang could hope to bring to bear,” Wild piped up, adding her knowledge of military tactics to the discussion, along with knowing how to attack a fortified position.

“And so they decided to start leaving survivors to their attacks.  To more than just place blame on a sudden group of raiders from the south, but also so that they could come ride to the rescue and appear to drive the raiders back,” I went on, righting the overturned spiked helmet back up onto its bottom.

“They convinced everypony our homes weren’t safe, that we needed ta go somewhere else where they could protect us while they hunted th’ raiders down,” Willow spoke up, having first hoof knowledge of the lies the Blackhoofs had told her town, “They urged us ta pack whatever we could and they’d lead us ta safety.  We had ta leave so much behind, but they said we could go back for it.”  Her shoulders slumped and she lowered her head.

“But you couldn’t.  They told you the raiders returned and burned down your homes, and took everything that was left.”  The blue mare nodded her horned head to me.  “Then they kindly set you up here, along with others they’ve so bravely ‘rescued’ from raider attacks.”

“So, every time they left town, only ta return all beat up...”  Stone said, remembering what Runner had said.

“It was from them attacking another small settlement or farm.  Most they killed for being of no use to their ultimate plans, then picked over their homes for food and weapons.”  Balefire turned back to us, shaking his head as he put the rest of the pieces into place.

“And once they had enough, they started sowing dissent in the ponies they’d so bravely saved from the raiders.  Telling them how Tombstone had abandoned them, how their messengers had been shot when in truth it was all their doing.  All to get them ready to attack Tombstone and steal the supplies for them,” I finished, eyes narrowed on the spiked helmet before me.  With a flick of a hoof, I sent it rolling backwards and off the table to disappear beyond the light of my Pipbuck.

“But how’d they get past th’ walls?” Stone asked, looking between us.  “There’s no way they coulda gotten close enough ta climb over it without somepony seein’ that many.”

“There’s only a couple guards that stand watch at night, stationed near the gates and four corners of the wall.  The deputies said they found the ponies near the south gate dead, stabbed several times in the back.” Balefire pointed out to my friend.  “They had to have help... from somepony inside the town.”

“Ah reckon yer right bout that, but that ain’t exactly solvin’ our more immediate problem,” Stone said, bringing us all back to the matter at hoof.  “How exactly are we gonna be bringin’ all that stuff back with us ta Tombstone?”

“You want to bring it all?  I thought we were just after the supplies they stole from town.”  Balefire cocked his head looking between Stone and myself.

“We was, but in case ya ain’t noticed, everythin’ in that vault is stolen from th’ hardworkin’ ponies all across th’ area.  Some of ’em likely died tryin’ ta keep their stuff outta th’ hooves of those Blackhoofs.”  Stone shook his head slowly.  “It don’t sit right with me ta just leave it here for those that killed ’em.”

“I agree, Stone... believe me, I do.  This isn’t fair in any way, to just let ponies who’ve stolen, killed, and lied get their way goes against everything I was raised to believe, but we’re not just here for the supplies anymore.  There’s a whole building full of mares and innocent foals we have to think about.”  I turned to look over my friends’ faces.  “If we’re right, and they no longer need the ponies they took in...” I looked over to Willow, wondering if I should refrain from mentioning the likelihood she and all her friends would be sold into slavery if the Blackhoofs had their way.  She already had enough to worry about, without adding that.  But then, perhaps I should.  She had a right to know what was going on. 

“We can’t allow so many young lives be taken away by possible slavers.  We have to get them to safety, then we can try and return for the supplies.”  If they're still here, I added silently.  Once the Blackhoofs discovered their former followers missing, they’d likely move up their plans for leaving the area, taking everything they could with them.  That must be what the wagons were for, to haul the loot they’d collected over the past few weeks with them across the border.

“We should get back to the vault and figure out what we’re going to do,” Wild suggested, turning back towards the door.  Giving the room another look, both Willow and Stone turned to follow her.

I looked ahead, where Wild was leading the others back down the hallway.  I wondered how much we could load into the sky chariot before the Blackhoofs discovered us.  I mean, for all we knew, the guards could be due to change shifts soon.  As I followed them down the hallway, I thought of all the items inside the vault.  Even if we loaded down all of our saddlebags with food and medical supplies, there’d be well over five times that left behind in the vault, not to even mention all of what we couldn’t take.  Ammo, weapons, personal effects, all of it left behind for the bandits to take. 

“We could always burn whatever we can’t take,” Balefire piped up as we rounded the corner into the main room.  Stone looked back to the young green unicorn and frowned at the idea.

“That’s an awful lotta food ta be burnin’ when there’s so many ponies in need of it...”

“Better that than letting these thieves get away with it,” Balefire responded, looking over the vault behind Stone and Wild.

I followed his gaze to the large steel door.  It was as thick and well built as the one I’d seen in Tombstone.  No rust marred its surface and I wondered what sort of metal it had to be made of to resist one hundred and fifty plus years of rot.  A quick look around the room, however, showed there was very little sign of structural damage to the building, no way for water to get to the door.  I shook my head.  The Blackhoofs had been very lucky to find this town, and this place.  The door had likely been left open after the ponies had abandoned the town.  If it’d been shut...

I shifted the beam of my Pipbuck’s light away from the open door, to the door itself.  It rested against the wall that covered the vault’s steel edge from sight; the massive door had likely been sitting open for sometime, but recently, somepony had seen fit to chain the door down to the wall and floor.  Maybe to keep it from being shut accidently...?

My thoughts were interrupted by a number of red dots just coming into range of my E.F.S. from the direction of the front of the building.  My ears flicked back and I narrowed my eyes at what only I could see.  The original two that had been standing guard seemed to move a few paces towards the others.  Had somepony discovered the bodies we’d left out back? 

 I shifted my head slightly, looking off towards the rear of the building and saw nothing but the green dots of my friends standing around me.  No... but how?  The two guards that had been outside turned and joined the rest as they approached the front entrance to the bank, over a dozen strong.  My pulse began to race.  If they were as well armed and armored as those two guards... without the element of surprise, I doubted Stone could so rapidly dispatch this many before we were overwhelmed.

“Shadow?” Wild asked, slowly trotting over towards me as she’d noticed my sudden change in posture.  Her stormy blue eyes widened as I snagged the firing bit for my shotgun in my teeth and whipped my head back up and towards the teller windows.

“Take cover!!!” I yelled as the door burst open in a shower of splinters and glass, causing Willow to scream in surprise and my friends to dive for cover.  Luckily Balefire lunged forward and tackled the frozen mare to the ground as automatic weapons fire shredded the wooden teller stalls.

Slamming my shoulder into the nearest stall, I ducked below the counter as rounds ripped through the wooden top like it was made of paper.  We couldn’t stay here; the bank hadn’t been built with shootouts in mind.  Growling around the bit of my shotgun I rose up and returned fire, scattering our attackers as they rushed in through the shattered doors.  I heard one yelp as I struck his flank, but beyond that, most of my shots missed.  

“How’d they know where we were?!” Balefire yelled, his horn snapping to life as he drew his twin side arms and floated them up over the edge of the counter and returned fire.  Next to the young unicorn, Stone was slipping his rifle around to his chest and reaching for the firing bit.

“We can’t stay here!” Wild shouted over Stone’s flank as rounds showered them both with splinters as they ripped through the poorly made teller stalls.

Ducking back below the counter, I gritted my teeth as several rounds tore through my cover near my flanks.  Rolling out away from where I’d been sitting, I saw a number of other rounds tear through the wooden stall where I’d just been a moment before, several impacting the wooden floor and leaving deep grooves. 

Time to go...

“Balefire!  Can you open that?” I called out to the green unicorn a few hoof steps away.  At the sound of his name, he glanced over his shoulder to me as I raised a hoof towards the vault door.  His red eyes traced my black limb to the steel door and the chains holding it open.  His ears perked up at what I was asking before a smug look crossed his face.

“Not a problem, boss!” he called back with a cocky grin on his snout lit by the glow of his horn as he floated his revolvers back up and emptied them blindly into the lobby full of red dots.

“Stone!” my focus snapped from the grinning face of Balefire to the earth pony attempting to rise up and return fire, an act made almost impossible by the sheer weight of fire coming towards us.  Wooden chucks rained down on the pony’s hat as he took shelter.  Yelling his name once more, it finally caught his ears and he looked across the open space to me.

“The chains!  Shoot the chains!” I yelled, waving a hoof towards the vault door and the two chains holding it open.  The stallion arched a brow and looked over his shoulder at the door.  For a moment he shook his head, not understanding what I was saying before Wild, who’d figured out what I was up to, grinned and leaned in to fill in the gray pony beside her.

Stone’s green eyes traveled from the vault door to the chains holding it firmly in place as Wild lifted her muzzle from the stallion’s ear and flicked her feathery wings.  The barrels of her battlesaddle rifles slid into view as the firing bit raised towards her mouth.  Glancing back to his marefriend, Stone nodded his head quickly before reaching for his own weapon’s firing bit and crawling away from Wild’s side towards one of the desks in the room.  Rounds struck all around him as the bandits out in the lobby blindly fired into the quickly disintegrating wooden divider.  A few rounds struck near me, but luckily they only struck my armored back and shoulders instead of my unarmed flanks.

“Balefire, get Willow the hell outa here!” I yelled out.  The mare had no armor to speak of, and Balefire wasn’t exactly equipped for this sort of fire.  The dark green unicorn snapped his head towards me, about to argue when a few rounds struck near the panicked mare laying behind him and caused her to let out a surprised and frightened yelp.

The argument died on his lips as he watched Willow cover her head with her forehooves and was quickly replaced by one of determination.  Snapping off the last of his rounds at the targets hidden from sight, the unicorn swiftly holstered his weapons and the glow around his horn dimmed as he rose to his hooves and helped Willow to hers.

As the pair began stumbling towards the hallway door, I rose up and began snapping off wild shots at any moving target I saw within the lobby.  Like Tombstone’s, the room had a number of small tables and chairs scattered about, but the Blackhoofs had shoved much of it into the corners of the room, giving themselves little cover.  Still, my rapid firing shots wounded only a couple of targets at best, as I was more focused on keeping their heads down long enough for Balefire and Willow to reach better cover.

As Balefire and Willow made a dash for the safety of the hallway, Stone had finished lining up his shot on the sturdy chains bolted to the floor and wall that kept the vault door open.  The grey stallion squeezed the trigger of the firing bit in his mouth and the rifle’s barrel spat a single brass round towards his target.  Barely had the report echoed within the room when his hoof reached up and worked the bolt action of the weapon, ejecting the spent round and sliding another into its place.  The weapon had barely been returned to its position when he fired again, and again, and again.  Four rounds ripped through the thick air of the bank’s dark room.  Two rounds for each of the heavy chains, which sparked as each round struck and shattered a single link and allowed the rest of the length to swing freely from the wall or drop uselessly to the floor.

The vault door groaned as it slowly began moving away from the wall where it’d been restrained for the past few weeks.  How it had been before then, I could only guess, but as I watched, the door began gaining speed as it swung towards the open vault frame.  Beyond the tellers windows, I heard somepony yell out in alarm as he saw what was happening just out of his reach.  

“Wild!  Covering fire!”  I didn’t need to tell the mare twice.  In fact, I hadn’t needed tell the mare at all: the orange coated pegasus had already risen from where she’d been laying and clamped down on the firing bit of her battlesaddle.  The twin heavy rifles roared to life, putting the entire Blackhoof firing line to shame as rounds ripped through the wooden divider between us and lanced out into the lobby.  Shouts of alarm and pain began sounding from beyond my cover as Stonehoof scrambled to his hooves and started running towards the doorway behind me.

When he had passed, I rose to my own hooves and snapped off another couple shots at the darting forms of ponies out in the lobby.  Somepony threw themselves through a window to avoid the hail of lead being fired towards him, landing out in the street in a shower of glass shards.  Satisfied they’d keep their heads down, I  turned to look back at the vault door, just as it slammed shut on Tombstone’s stolen supplies, along with countless other stolen goods.  The large wheel located in the center began to slowly spin as the seal began to form.  My eyes then traveled to the control panel beside the door, and the electronic locks that no longer had any electricity running to it simply remained dark.

Shit...

Of course.  It was never easy.  Glancing back towards Wild, I saw the mare slowly making her way down the length of wooden teller stalls, still a good distance away.  If I hurried... just as I began to rise to make a run for the now-sealed vault door, a green blur darted past me and into the room.  I blinked and locked onto the dark green flanks of Balefire as he swiftly dodged between desks and bullets to reach the control panel.

As I sat watching in surprise, the dark green unicorn lept across one of the desks that stood in his path, skidding to a halt just beside the massive steel door, a few stray rounds from the cowering Blackhoof gang striking the door beside him.  Ignoring the threat, he reared up on his hind legs and placed his fore hooves between the panel, his horn sparking to life in a deep green glow.  This made him a target for anypony with half a brain, which it seemed most of the gang had, as more rounds began impacting near the stallion.  Checking my E.F.S. I saw I only had four rounds left in Luna’s Ruse and little time to reload.

Rising up from cover once more I entered S.A.T.S. and at once focused upon the most immediate threats.  A somewhat portly-looking stallion wearing black combat armor and wielding a well-maintained assault rifle in his mouth was standing closest to me.  The earth pony’s dark brown eyes were locked on the glow from Balefire’s horn and he was seconds away from spraying the unicorn with lead.  The buck stood almost fully in the open, as he’d been running towards the divider to try and cut us off from retreating out into the hallway.  Behind him, I saw a number of other ponies following him up.  Locking onto him with two shots, I saved the rest to send those behind him into cover.  At least, I hoped that would be the result.  With a silent prayer to Celestia and Luna I released the targeting spell and time began to speed back up.  The assault rifle’s barrel slowly turned on my dark green friend.

My teeth clamped down hard around the steel firing bit wedged inside my mouth, my tongue wrapped around the metal rod, and pulled back on the trigger located just in the front.  I felt more than heard the click of trigger as it was fully drawn back, setting into motion a chain of events that would mean life and death for those around me.  The weapon pressing against my jaw and cheek gave a slight shudder as the inner works went to work, the hammer falling and striking the firing pin on the brass metal percussion cap of the loaded shotgun shell, which in turns ignites the powder and sends the shell rocketing forward.  When it at least reached the opening at the end of the barrel, the shell exploded into the world amidst a flash of smoke and a roar of sound.  The single slug ripped through the air of the lobby and impacted the chest armor of my target, causing the stallion inside it to shout in pain and alarm, his assault rifle discharging as he clamped his teeth down upon the firing bit in agony.  Pointed rounds zipped past my face, missing by inches.

My jaw clenched as the force of the first shot sent a wave of energy back into the weapon and my face.  Those hot gases that had propelled the first shell forward was even now flowing back inside the piping of the shotgun, forcing the receiver backwards.  As it did, the drum feed rotated slowly, bringing a fresh round into the chamber, even as the hollowed out smoking casing of the first was ejected out the side with a soft click. 

Without even thinking, I pulled the trigger once more, and again the action was repeated, faster as time returned to normal.  The second round followed the trail of the first almost perfectly, striking the edge of the weakened chest armor worn by the unlucky pony who was now stumbling over his hooves as the force of the first shot knocked the wind from his body.  The second round knocked far more than wind from him, as a red mist sprayed out from the wound in the earth pony’s chest, sending him tumbling to the tiled floor.

Not bothering to spare the wounded stallion another moment, I snorted through my nose and pulled the trigger of Luna’s Ruse twice more until the weapon clicked empty and my E.F.S. ammo counter displayed a blinking double zero.  The final two shells did their job, far better than I’d hoped, as one caught a stallion in the shoulder as he attempted to step over his fallen comrade.  Instead, he face planted into the downed pony and was further forced onto the ground as another pony slammed into his flanks.  The final round simply ricocheted harmlessly off somepony’s helmet, though it was enough to cause him to dive for cover, taking the two others following him down in a tangle of hooves and weapons.

I dropped my shotgun from my mouth, allowing it to snap taught around my neck on its shoulder strap. My hooves clattered across the tiles of the floor as I spun to make a dash for the exit, but stopped as I saw the unmoving form of Balefire slumped over one of the desks, several hoofsteps from the vault door, three holes ripped in his side that allowed blood to flow over the wooden desk top.

Changing direction, I rushed to the downed unicorn’s form and clamped my teeth on his neck, pulling him up onto my back.  Struggling with the stallion’s weight, my ears twitched at the sound of rounds striking nearby as the stunned Blackhoofs began to organize themselves against the steady thunder of Wild’s rifles.  She couldn’t keep it up forever; she would need to reload soon.  With a growl, I finally managed to haul the pony onto my back, feeling his blood flow down over my coat and drip onto the floor.

“Hang on, Balefire” I whispered to the brave and reckless pony, before moving as quickly as I could for the doorway and the bank’s exit.  

Wild and I reached the door at nearly the same time, the mare halting to allow me to dart through to Stone, who immediately took the weight from my back.  As he did, I flicked the drum of my shotgun open,  hurriedly reaching for the spare rounds I kept in my saddlebags.

“What now?” Stone asked after he’d finished getting Balefire settled between his shoulders and saddlebags.  The dark green unicorn was still breathing, and he groaned softly.

“We win yet?” he asked, before groaning again.

“Not yet, Balefire, we’re working on that,” I answered quickly.  The wounds were deep, and it appeared as if the rounds had not gone straight through, but where instead lodged inside his body.  I found myself wishing I’d managed to talk both myself and Spirit into coming along now.  “We need to get him somewhere somepony can work on those wounds,” I said, stating the most obvious fact for my friend, who returned the favor.

“Th’ barn’s th’ only real safe place at th’ moment.” 

“Th’ barn?  Oh no... if they knew we were gonna be here... then that means they might be attackin’ th’ barn... my daughter...”  Willow spoke up for the first time since the bullets had started flying.  I couldn’t really blame here for freezing up back there.  She likely hadn’t seen what Stone or I had seen... shit, I hadn’t seen half of what my large friend had.

“Likely so.  Just another reason we should get there before they do,” Stone added as an orange ball of fur and feathers lunged through the doorway, followed by a hail of lead.

“I suggest we get somewhere before those assholes try returning all the bullets I so kindly gave them,” Wild said as she reached a hind leg out and slammed the door in the face of a stallion rushing up towards her.  “Like now, ponies!”

None of us had to be told twice, and with Willow in the lead, we ran back down the hallway and away from the shouts behind the door.  It wouldn’t take them long to break it down: it hadn’t been built to keep ponies out after all.  That was the vault doors job.  The vault.  My eyes went back to the prone form of Balefire and prayed they stallion had finished whatever he’d been doing to the door’s controls.  Hopefully it would buy us some time, but to do what?  Any hope of getting Willow’s ponies out of town had gone up in smoke the second the Blackhoofs had rushed the bank.  How had they known where we were?

Gunshots echoed along the hallway as somepony back inside the vault room began shooting out the door’s lock.  The sound was quickly followed by a pair of hooves striking the wooden door and knocking it back into the wall.  Looking back, I saw a large, familiar stallion pushing his way through. As he turned and locked eyes with me, a look of surprise filled his as he recognized me.  Luckily, the hallway was too narrow for him to quickly bring his battlesaddle to bear on me, so before he could, I was through the door at the end of the hall and slamming it shut.  

“How close are they?” Stone asked.  Before I could answer, two high caliber rounds ripped through the doorway I was standing in front of and struck the wall behind me, sending out a shower of pulverized concrete and plaster.  Blinking, I looked to see a blown out section of door inches from my right hoof and another smoking between my hind quarters.

“Pretty damn close,” I squeaked out, stepping away from the door.  The sound of grinding wood soon filled the room as Wild and Willow shoved a desk against the door.  With Balefire still laying across his back, Stone trotted over to a row of filing cabinets and, turning his flanks towards them, gave them a mighty buck.  The row of dust-covered metal cabinets toppled like dominos until the last slammed atop the desk the mares had just pushed up.

“Should slow’em down some!” Wild said, before turning and rushing for the rear exit door.  Yanking it open, she poked her head around and peered out into the inky darkness for any signs of trouble.  There wasn’t any yet, though it was approaching.

“Got three coming around from the right side of the bank.  They must have gone back out through the front door,” I called out to my friends, shaking off the close call I’d just had as I trotted up to the door.

Once more, Wild took the lead and stepped out into the street, stepping over the dead bodies of the guards we’d killed just minutes earlier as she started back across the road towards the alley.  Stonehoof, with Balefire still over his shoulder, was right behind her, and Willow keeping pace with the large earth pony.  I was the last one out, and quickly shut the door behind me, to make the incoming ponies think we were still inside, trapped between them.

Darting across the open street, I slipped into the alleyway just as the red dots in my E.F.S. resolved themselves into three black armored stallions carrying a mix of weapons.  I spared neither their appearance nor gear a second look, as it seemed they were focused on the shut door and dead bodies laying beside it.  Taking the opportunity, I hurriedly followed my friends back down the alley and into the nearby street, retracing our steps back to the Post Office, though with a good deal more speed.



*     *     *     *     *



It took us only a few minutes to reach the barn from the Post Office, a task made far easier by the simple fact that our cover had already been blown and there was little reason to try and be stealthy at this point.  Well, beyond attempting to attract more unwanted attention.  However, it seemed the majority of the Blackhoof gang had gone off to the bank to try and catch us, and as a result, the streets were still surprisingly clear of danger.

Wild lead us through the streets from the air, hovering just above the buildings as she kept a watchful eye out for any trouble.  The darkness was making her job difficult, if not outright impossible, but as we stepped out onto one of the towns streets, a soft glow on the horizon made me turn.  It couldn’t be dawn already could it?  Noting my confusion, Stone spoke up.

“That sometimes happens, th’ sun comin’ up sooner than it should.” I glanced to the stallion and arched a brow.  He shrugged. “Be time ta explain it later.” 

As we worked our way across the street into the next alleyway, I noticed something else: the buildings were growing fewer and smaller.  We must have been near the edge of town by now, and near the barn itself.  My guess was proven correct as we once more exited from between the buildings.

A large wooden structure rose up before me, dominating the end of town in a wall of wooden boards, faded red paint, and rusted metal roofing.  Despite its age and lack of maintenance, the barn appeared in good shape, only bearing a few holes in its sturdy frame and missing metal sheets from its roof.  The building was two stories in height, and easily as large as the bank we’d just escaped from.  There was a massive double door at the front, and just above it on the second floor was a smaller door just below a wooden beam.  Looking closely, I could just make out a rusted pulley bolted to that beam, and the end of a frayed rope sticking out from between the metal groves.

Beside the barn was a sizeable corral, the wooden fence broken in several places, time having rotted away the boards that made up the fence.  The gate was all but gone, just a jumble of wooden planks lying forgotten in the dirt of the road.  Whatever it had originally been used for I wasn’t sure, but now it was occupied by a group of two headed cow creatures busily munching on a bundle of what looked like old hay.  On all of the creatures, one head continued eating while the other head turned to regard us as we approached the barn.

They did little more than watch as we made our way towards the set of double doors, Wild dropping down from the sky to help me push them open.  We’d barely gotten them open an inch when the barrel of an assault rifle was shoved through and jammed into my snout.  A second later, a familiar rotting face appeared, horn glowing softly as the barrel was removed from my face.

“Well, it’s about damn time...” he snarled.  “I was beginning to think we were opening a Celestia-damned daycare in town.”

Once we were all through the door, Carrion hurriedly shut it and replaced a wooden board, securing it.  As the ghoul turned back, he caught sight of Balefire and cocked a rotting brow.

“Run into trouble?” he asked, helping me get the wounded pony down off Stone’s back.  The grey stallion’s flanks and saddlebags were covered in the unicorn's blood.  There’d been no time to try and bind the wounds while we’d hurried to stay ahead of the Blackhoof’s.

“Ya could say that, he needs a doctor or a couple of health potions, neither of which we seem ta have,” Stone said as he turned his head back to his stained packs and lifted the flap of one.  Either he knew where every item was inside those large bags or he was very organized, because a moment later he withdrew his head holding a familiar looking yellow pack in his mouth.  The three pink butterflies sewn upon the cover identified it as the medkit he’d used once before.

“Ya’ll need a doctor?” a voice from within the barn asked, and I looked past Wild’s shoulder to see an older-looking unicorn mare trotting towards us.  Despite the dirt and grime that covered her body, I could still see evidence of a soft yellow coat and light blue mane and tail, both of which were tied back with worn red straps.  A heart surrounded by three pink butterflies indicated her talent.

As we stepped aside, the mare’s eyes widened at the sight of the Balefire laying upon the ground, blood oozing from his wounds.  Hurriedly, she took charge and pushed her way between us to reach the downed pony.  After a quick scan with dark purple eyes, she looked up to somepony behind us and spoke quickly.

“Ginger, fetch my saddlebags from th’ back and get Tara ta help ya clear out one of them stalls, Ah’m gonna need ta remove these bullets fore I can patch this poor fella up.”

Within minutes, both Stone and I helped haul the limp form of our wounded friend towards one of the barn’s many stalls.  The two mares the doctor had called to had hurriedly swept and cleaned out the space to the best of their abilities.  Like everywhere else in the world, dirt, grime, and trash had heaped up inside the barn in piles over the years, along with the moldy bundles of hay that had been here for goddesses knowns how long.  Carrion had returned to the door to stand watch, while Wild flew up to the second floor to do the same from the roof.  Willow, meanwhile had gone off in search of her daughter.  The mare was shaken up by the Blackhoofs’ attack on us and the knowledge of just what they’d done to her and her fellow settlers.

We gently laid Balefire down atop a pile of slightly less rotted straw covered over with a well-used but clean blanket.  As we stepped away, the doctor, whose name I learned was Sunny, set to work.  It seemed whatever luck we had had seen fit to bless us with the only doctor in the area.  Sunny had taken care of no less than five of the surrounding settlements, at least until the Blackhoofs had arrived.  She’d refused to leave the wounded and elderly to the barn, so they had left her with them.  Whether or not she would suffer the fate Wild had mentioned for the others, I wasn’t sure.  The fate for those taken by slavers may have made being shot a better one.

I quickly cleared my head of such dark thoughts and went back to watching the mare work on my friend (yes, I suppose after such a short time the brave and reckless stallion had grown on me).  Sunny started her work by cleaning the wounds as best she could, using whatever scraps of cloth she could find that weren’t covered in dirt.  After that, she began removing items from both her saddlebag and the faded yellow medkit Stone carried with him.  Two of the items gleamed in the dim light offered by twin lanterns suspended from the rafters.

Whispering an apology to the buck, she began lowering the blade to his wounded shoulder to cut the bullets free of his flesh.  We had no pain medicine; what little any of us had been carrying had been used up on the train ride to Tombstone, and my own supply of Med X had gone to the wounded ponies we’d saved from the raiders.  We’d not had a chance to resupply before the town had been attacked, and much of their own stock had been stolen.  What little they had left was being used to care for the ponies shot up in the attack.

Balefire merely fixed his red stare ahead as she began to work.  One of the mares had given him a piece of wood to clamp down on as the pain began, and his teeth ground hard into the chunk of wood.

Turning away, I gave the unicorn some privacy as he was forced to endure more pain.  Stepping away from the stall, I instead looked around the barn and got my first good look at where we’d ended up.  It was hauntingly reminiscent of another place I’d recently been, a place several hundred miles from here: underground in an abandoned, bombed-out hospital basement.  My eyes shifted from scene to scene as it was once more played out.

The barn was covered in dirt, grime and trash; that much I’d already seen.  The smell of so many unwashed ponies together in one place was strong, but one that had helped dredge up those memories.  I looked to the right of the barn, at the group of over twenty ponies laying huddled on that moldy and vermin-ridden hay, worn blankets thrown over their shivering forms.  The elderly of a half dozen small settlements stared blankly back at me, either too tired to really notice or too sick to care.  The cold night air had done none of these ponies any favors.  

Laying near the older farmers were the wounded, hurt either from the raid on Tombstones or attacks by the local wildlife.  Many of them had missing hooves or other body parts and sat motionless upon their makeshift beds.  Their sides rose and fell as they attempted to get some sleep.  Beside them sat or lay their loved ones, keeping them company now that they were no longer separated by the Blackhoofs. 

I shut my eyes and looked away, opening them as I turned my head to look back towards where Sunny worked upon Balefire.  The doctor had claimed the last stall on the left side of the barn.  The rest contained the mares and foals we’d discovered in the Post Office.  Among them was Willow, who sat nuzzling her daughter gently.  None slept, unable to after we’d arrived.  While they were slightly healthier than the wounded and elderly, they were in no better shape; covered in dirt and small, minor scratches and nicks.  A few were thin enough to where I could begin to see ribs and other bones.

Suddenly, the Blackhoofs seemed little better than the raiders they had dressed up as to trick these poor folks.



*     *     *     *     *



I’d moved off from the others to try and think, or rather, to keep from thinking about Kanter City and my sister.  It was going to be a very long time before I could think of either without feeling so many mixed emotions.  And that’s if I had the time to come to terms with them.  At the moment, things seemed a bit grim.  My hooves carried me towards the far right front corner of the barn, away from most of the other ponies attempting to get some rest.  

I glanced over towards the middle of the barn and the double doors.  Carrion sat quietly before them, peering through a small hole that’d been made in one of the large doors, either by himself, somepony else, or simply time.  The ghoul was so still one might think he’d died at his post.  His assault rifle sat propped up beside his hooves, ready to be gripped by his magic should the need arise.

I only got a few moments of peace before somepony came looking for me, and judging by the sound of heavy hoofsteps, it was Stonehoof who had come.  As always, my friend’s concern was evident with the first words out of his mouth, along with his tone of voice.  Despite it all, I found myself smiling a bit at that.

“Everythin’ alright, Shadow?” 

“As well as can be expected, Stone.  How’s Balefire doing?” I asked without looking over to my friend.  I heard the rustle of his saddlebags and scraping of hooves as he settled down on the floor nearby.

“Doctor says he’ll be fine.  She got th’ bullets out without much fuss and managed ta stop th’ bleedin’.  Pony’s tougher than he looks, it seems.” he chuckled softly before pressing on.  “Doctor says he’ll be back on his hooves in an hour or so, Ah reckon.”

“Good, by then I’m hoping to have us all away from this place and on the road to Tombstone.”  Was there even a road to Tombstone from Oddwick?  It’d been so dark last night that it had been impossible to see much of anything from the sky chariot.  Speaking of, what had caused the night to end so suddenly?  Another question, however, rose to the forefront of my mind, and I looked over to my friend as I asked it.

“How had they known we’d be at the bank?”  There was no way that’d been a simple change in the guards.  They’d come charging in, as if they knew somepony was about to take back what they’d stolen.

“Ah rightly don’t know.  Don’t make no sense, ain’t no reason they aughtta have known we was there,” Stone answered, reaching a hoof up to adjust his cowpony hat a bit and wiping off his face with a hoof.  “Sure does seem we’ve stirred up th’ hornets’ nest though.”

“Excuse me.”  A soft voice came from the end of the stall, and both Stone and I turned to look at Willow as she approached us.  “Have any of ya’ll seen Roy?  Ah can’t find ’im and nopony in th’ barn seems ta know where he’s at.  Ah wanted ta tell ’im what we found at th’ bank in th’ hope he’d see fit ta give ya’ll a hoof.”

Stone and I shared a knowing look as the name left Willow’s lips.  Roy.  The stallion that had been so admit we were there to harm them, to steal from them.  Standing up, I pushed my way past Stone and hurriedly trotted towards Carrion.  Hearing my approach, the ghoul’s tattered ears swiveled towards me.

“Carrion, did you see a stallion arrive with the mares we sent from the Post Office?  He’d be about our height, sorta reddish coat with an orange mane.  I think his cutie mark was of a gun or knife?” 

“Can’t say I remember seeing him come in with the others.  Only stallions I saw were the ones being helped in by the mares,” Carrion responded, keeping his glowing red eyes fixed on the hole and the streets outside.  “Why?”

“Lookin’ like he mighta been th’ one ta tip off th’ Blackhoofs ta our presence,” Stone answered, trotting up beside me as I sat down and swore to myself.

“Roy wouldn’t...” Willow began to defend the pony, before stopping herself and allowing her shoulders to slump.  Even she had to admit the truth.  “Ah just can’t believe he’d betray his own, and for what?”

“Money.”  The simple word brought all our focus back on Stone. “Balefire said himself, th’ amount of supplies they have in that bank vault.  It’s more than anypony could hope ta use in a lifetime.  Even a gang like th’ Blackhoofs would be hard pressed ta use it all before they died.”  The grey earth pony nodded his head towards me. “Shadow was right back in Tombstone when he said they’d likely try and sell it.  Ah reckon that’s why Roy ran off ta his new friends ta warn ’em.”

“He’d either figured out the score, or knew how things would go from the start,” I added as I reached up and removed my hat.  Running a hoof through my messy damp mane, I went on.  “Once they’ve given up searching for us in town, they’ll head here.”

“Well, that’s just wonderful... now what?” Carrion finally tore his gaze away from the streets outside to look over at us, and the gathered ponies inside the barn.  “There’s no way in hell we’ll get all these ponies out of town before they get here.  Not with the supplies...” a rotted brow arched as Stone cleared his throat a bit at the mention of supplies.  “We... did get the supplies right?”  When the grey earth pony didn’t answer he shifted his stare to me.

“It’s... a work in progress,” I answered, rubbing a hoof over my left foreleg.  

Carrion snorted loudly and shook his horned head.  The ghoul looked away from me and back at the barn door, and silence settled uneasily around us.  Only the occasional cough or groan from the wounded behind us drifted around the barn.  

As we sat there, I noticed Carrion’s head turn back to the ponies behind us, looking over the foals and mares, to the wounded elderly and stallions, before he sighed tiredly.  The ghoul had been fighting for ponies like these his whole life, and whether he admitted it or not, had been fighting for them even in death.

“So what now?” he asked as his red glowing eyes went from the ponies to me.  “How do you plan on getting them out of here?”

“The only way we’re getting these ponies out of town is on the wagons Wild and Stone saw on their way to the Post Office.  How far away are they from the barn?” I turned away from the burning gaze of the ghoul to my still-living friend.

“Couple streets at most, bout halfway ta th’ saloon, Ah reckon.”

“It’ll take us an hour or more to get them settled and loaded, and that’s if nothing goes wrong.  Even if they give us that much time, which I doubt, who’s going to be pulling them?” Carrion asked, pointing out the flaws in my plan, which I admit was hardly a good one.

“Our only other option is to stay and fight them.”  I shook my head slowly, letting my white mane fall across my face as I did so.  “Which is what I was hoping to avoid when we set off... and even more now that we’ve seen them.  These Blackhoofs are no raiders; they’re professional killers who don’t just blindly rush into fights to be gunned down by the dozens.”

“They may have been mercenaries judgin’ by their gear.  It's all in tip top shape,” Stone added, making the task seem even harder.  "If we end up fightin’ them, ponies are gonna end up dyin’ and not all of’em will be th’ Blackhoofs.”

“Nopony else is going to die because of those bastards,” I said with a growl, earning a surprised look from Willow and Carrion, and a concerned look from Stone.  “If I have to go out there and keep them busy myself, I will.” 

“Might buy us some time, if somepony distracted them,” Carrion said, rubbing a hoof over his chin in thought.  "Still doesn’t help with who’s going to pull the wagons, though.  Not saying a mare can’t, but none of them are in any shape to haul themselves halfway across town, let alone a full day’s walk back to Tombstone.”  At this Willow spoke up.

“If ya’ll can get them wagons here, Ah reckon Ah can speak with th’ brahmin ‘bout helpin’ us ta Tombstone.  None of ’em have any love for th’ Blackhoofs since they went and took ’em off their ranch.  Once Mabel learns it wasn’t raiders that burned down her momma’s farm she’ll be all too happy to help.”

“Mabel?” I asked, to which Willow nodded and jerked her head off towards her right side, where the wounded and elderly lay.  One of them was Mabel?  “I don’t think they’re in any shape to haul wagons, Willow.” 

“Ah forget yer a Stable pony and don’t rightly know much bout th’ surface.  Mabel’s one of th’ brahmin outside th’ barn in th’ corral.”

The two headed cows?  Owned a farm and could speak?  Well, of course they could.  I’d vaguely remembered something about cows being just as intelligent as ponies, but it was sometimes easy to forget that, when you’d never seen a cow in your whole life.  Also, they’d changed a bit in the past hundred years.  Willow went on to explain.

“Mabel’s th’ oldest of th’ survivin’ brahmin here; been lookin’ after her herd since her ma passed away a couple months ago.  Couple of ’em died in th’ raider attacks... which was just th’ Blackhoofs’ doin’.” 

“Ah reckon just one of ’em would be enough ta haul a wagon full of injured ponies back ta Tombstone.  We’d make it a lot faster with their strength,” Stone added.  The plan was finally coming together.

“Alright, then Stone and I will head out to collect the wagons.  Shouldn’t take us long...”  The sound of rustling wings caught my attention and I stopped speaking to watch as Wild dropped down from the loft, landing lightly beside Stone.

“I doubt you’ll have that much time to go anywhere,” she said, a sad smile on her face.  “The Blackhoofs are coming up the street.”

I glanced to my E.F.S., wondering how I’d missed them, and saw nothing but a mass of green.  Only after another minute ticked past did a red dot appear at the very edge of the spell’s range, and I sighed.  Near the door, Carrion hurriedly jerked his head back towards the narrow opening in the barn door’s wooden surface and began swearing.

“Shit, they’re surrounding the front of the barn.”

“Then we’re outta options,” Stone replied, reaching for his rifle.  The weapon slipped from its resting place across his shoulders and back and into his forehooves.

“We could escape out th’ back...” Willow started to suggest, only to have Wild shake her head, the pegasus’ long red mane falling across her shoulders.

“They moved snipers onto the rooftops on either side of the barn.  We’d not make it a dozen paces away from the barn before they’d start picking us off one by one.  By then, the rest of the gang would be on us, and let’s be honest,” she waved a hoof towards the back wall of the barn, “There’s jack and shit out there, and jack got eaten by radscorpions a couple weeks ago.”

The single red dot I’d seen turned into three, then six, then twelve, as the members of the Blackhoof gang began to surround the wooden barn on three sides, likely taking cover in the nearby buildings.  As Wild had pointed out, there was no need to send anypony to the rear of the barn, since there was nowhere for us to go but out into the desert and to a sure death.  I turned hurriedly to Willow, laying a hoof upon her shoulder.

“Willow, get as many mares as you can and start stacking up those rotting bundles of hay in the back.  Make sure to stack them deeply.  When you're finished, I want you and the others to take the foals and hide back there.  When the shooting starts, the hay should slow down the bullets enough.”

“What about th’ wounded...” she blinked, ears upright and her body shaking a bit.

“If there’s time, get them behind the hay as well, but see to the foals first.”  She nodded her head, tears at the corners of her eyes, before she hurriedly turned and rushed towards the group of mares and their children.  I sighed and turned away from the ponies and looked back to the door and the line of red dots beyond it.  

We’d faced worse odds to, be sure.  Kanter City had been crawling with all manner of feral ghouls and raiders.  We’d faced down a nest of radscorpions and crazed robots.  But in each case, we had the element of surprise on our side.  We’d ambushed the scorpions and killed them with overwhelming firepower.  For most of the trip through the city, the raiders had no idea we were there, but when they did, we’d fled.  The ghouls, well, we’d been lucky.  It had also helped that nearly everything we had fought against had been either mindless machines or beasts, or had been completely crazy.

The Blackhoofs where none of that.  

And we had nowhere to run.

“Hay won’t exactly stop much,” Carrion said, though thankfully keeping his voice low, as I started to check Luna’s Ruse.  The weapon was fully loaded with solid shot, since buckshot would do little against the Blackhoofs’ combat armor.

“I know, but I had to tell her something,” I responded, looking up from my shotgun as I gently pushed the drum closed with a hoof, hearing it click softly into place.

The ghoul nodded and clicked the safety off on his assault rifle, a sound mirrored from Stone as he flicked a hoof over his rifle’s own.  Wild flared her wings and began to launch herself back to the loft.  I looked to her as she hovered for a moment, and nodded my head.

“Looks like it’s going to be Plan ‘B’ after all.”



*     *     *     *     *



Despite my concerns the Blackhoofs would beginning firing the second they had taken their positions, nothing happened.  A quick check showed that the dozen or so red dots I’d seen had not moved from where they’d been moments before, and moments before that.  There'd been no yell for surrender, or that we were dead.  Nothing.  Just silence.

After an entire hour had passed, I began to wonder what they were doing.  Could they be planning on simply waiting until we made the first move?  Or till we ran out of food and water?  That could become a very real possibility with the number of ponies we had inside the barn.

Once more, I heard the heavy hoof falls of my friend approached me.  I’d taken up a position near the door, watching the streets through a small gap between the door and the wall.  In the last several minutes I had seen a bit of movement across the street, in the ruins of what looked to have been a bakery.

“Anythin’?” Stone asked in a whisper.  The grey stallion had slowly been making his way around the barn, offering comforting words to the mares and foals hiding behind the makeshift barricade near the back.

“I thought I saw some movement a little bit ago, but nothing since then.”  I groaned and leaned away from the sliver of dim light, my back and hooves aching from where I’d been standing for so long.  Working my forehooves about, I turned to look back at my friend.  “I think it would have been better if they’d just started firing.”  A horrible thing to say, but everypony’s nerves were starting to fray and if this went on, somepony was going to do something stupid.

“Ah reckon so, but they know they got us, dead ta rights, and there ain’t much we can do bout it,” he said, reaching for a canteen on his pack.  Unscrewing the top, he offered it to me first, before taking a drink himself.  Water was nearly gone.  Something stupid was likely to happen very soon and I had a feeling I’d have something to do with it.

“They do, I just wish...” my words died in my throat as I heard a shout from outside the barn.  At first I thought it had been directed at somepony with the gang, but a second later the same voice yelled out again, only louder and clearly intended for us.

“Hey!  Ya’ll in th’ barn!” 

Stone and I shared a look before I turned away from my position near the door frame and moved quickly towards the center of the doors.  Carrion, who had been keeping watch at the other end of the front of the barn, quickly lifted his assault rifle up and looked over towards me.  I nodded my head, and the aura of his magic surrounded the wooden board keeping the doors shut.  He easily lifted it from its twin groves and laid it gently down on the floor nearby.  As Carrion turned back towards me, I reached out a hoof to grip the right side doors handle and gently push it open slowly.  

Metal hinges groaned from disuse and rust as the large wooden door slowly swung outwards, opening a narrow space just large enough for a single pony to step through and allow what dim light escaped the overhead clouds to enter.  It also allowed a breeze to sweep past my hooves and rustle the manes of the sweat-soaked ponies huddled up inside the barn.  It felt rather pleasant, despite being mostly warm air.  

I edged closer to the opening, pressing myself up against the door as I eyed the nearby buildings.  One was two stories tall and would make a good spot to snipe from.  Sure enough, a red dot appeared in my E.F.S. in that direction.  This was a bad idea...

“What do you want!?” I yelled back at the unseen speaker, eyes fixed on the second floor of the nearby building.  Like much of the other buildings I’d seen in town, the majority of its windows were blown out.  But the light coming down from overhead cast whatever lay beyond those empty window frames in shadows.

“And who do Ah have th’ pleasure of speakin’ with?” the voice responded.  It belonged to a stallion, that much was clear.  The voice was deep, rough, with the same accent as everypony else had in the area.  But at the same time, it was polite, even friendly sounding. 

“My name’s Shadow, and who am I speaking with?” I called back, beads of sweat running down my face and neck.  My blue Stable Jumpsuit was soaked, and strands of my mane and tail clung to my body.

“Th’ Marshall?”  The voice sounded somewhat pleased, and I frowned.  Great, now even the ponies trying to kill me called me that.  “As for myself, my names Buford

“What’d you want?” I called out again, glancing away from the building I’d been staring at to look across the open street.  I couldn’t see anything, nor did I see anything on my E.F.S. in that direction, beyond the single red dot.

“Ah’ve a proposition for ya,” Buford said.  A glance to the cluster of red dots indicated he was somewhere to my left, likely in the street, “We’re both reasonable stallions, and Ah don’t see why we can’t come ta some sort of agreement.  Why don’t ya step out into th’ open so we can more easily speak.”

“And give your goons an easy shot on us?  In your dreams, pretty boy!” Wild called out from the loft, and I snorted a bit.

“Ah, the fiery pegasus!  Ya make a good point, mah dear.”  A moment later I heard hooves clap, the sound echoing through the narrow streets of the town.  Movement from my left caused me to jerk back towards the door before I saw a pony standing in one of the dark windows, a rifle pointed towards me slowly lowering towards the floor.

Arching a brow, I glanced back inside towards Stone, who’d edged closer to me and seemed as surprised as I.

“Ah assure ya, my good Marshall, no harm will come ta ya while we’re speakin’.  So please, feel free ta step out a bit.  Yer lovely winged friend has myself and my ponies covered from her spot.”

Stone frowned and narrowed his eyes at the unseen speaker, either at what he was suggesting or his comments directed towards Wild.  Looking back to me before vehemently shaking his head Stone mouthed the word ‘no’.  I glanced from him to the sniper and his lowered rifle.  There seemed to be little choice if I was to find out what this Buford character wanted.  I turned back to Stone and shook my head back before waving him to take a couple steps away from the door.

He frowned and sighed before finally backing up a few steps.  Once he was out sight I reached a hoof out to slowly open the door a bit more, as it creaked open I moved out into the open.  At once I got the feeling of being stared out by multiple eyes, and my ears twitched to some unheard sound.  The faint breeze that had blown through the doorway picked up, and soothed my damp body as I exposed myself for any number of bullets.

“That’s better.  Ah find it easier ta speak with a stallion when Ah can look ’im in th’ eye.”  I followed the sound of the voice back to its owner and the collection of red dots I’d seen off to my right.  My eyes settled upon five black armored stallion, one of which I recognized as the large black stallion I’d seen twice, armed with an impressively large rifle.  The other four I’d never seen, at least not as far as I could remember.  Of the others, only two stood out from the group.

The first of them bore a strong resemblance to the larger stallion I’d seen in Tombstone’s bank, as well as here in Oddwick.  He was about my height and build, with a solid black coat and orange reddish mane.  Like the larger pony beside him, he wore a battered brown trench coat over much of his upper torso, though I could see hints of combat armor underneath.  A wide brimmed hat covered his mane, keeping it from his eyes, and a spiral horn rose up from a small hole in the hats front.  The unicorn wore a large revolver that bore a similar look to my own.  This must have been Buford Blackhoof, and the larger stallion with the rifle must have been his brother.  The Blackhoof Brothers, leaders of this little gang.

The other pony stood out simply due to his clothing and armor, or rather, the lack of armor.  Instead of combat armor, he wore a rather clean looking suit over his chest, looking as if it had been freshly cleaned and pressed.  It was black, helping him blend in somewhat with the ponies around him.  A red tie with a white collar completed the businesspony look, which was completely at odds with our surroundings.  As he shifted his weight on his hooves I could see the hint of a hidden pistol under his jacket, within easy reach of his hoof should it need to be drawn.  The rest of the stallion was as odd as his choice in clothing, with a clean dark-gray mane and tail, the mane smoothed back between his ears, a pair of rather disturbing red eyes, and a near midnight blue coat.  He looked me over for a moment, before appearing bored and reaching for a pack of smokes in his jacket’s front pocket.  However, as he turned to light the small white paper I got a look at his flank, and the shackled pony he had as a cutie mark.

Slaver...

“Alright, what was it you wanted to talk about?” I said as I tore my eyes away from the well dressed pony and turned them instead to the armed and armored stallions nearby.  Buford smiled, flashing a mouth full of perfect white teeth.

“As ya might have noticed, we both have a problem, a problem we can help each other with, Ah reckon.”  His horn began to glow a light violet as he lifted his hat from his head, and from a pocket of his trench coat he pulled out a cloth and wiped the sweat from his brow before lowering his hat back into place.

“And how would we be doing that?” I asked, arching a brow at Buford and his calm demeanor.  He held all the cards at the moment, or so it seemed.

“Ah was thinkin’ of a simple trade.  We’ll let you and all th’ ponies in th’ barn go.  Yer large slow friend with my taste in hats, the plucky young colt with his unique side arms, and of course the lovely, sweet little pegasus.” 

Well, it seemed he knew all about us, with the exception of one.  He hadn’t mentioned Carrion.  But then, if I was right and he had gotten his information from that bastard Roy, then perhaps that was something we could use.  

“In return for allowing yer merry little band of miscreants ta leave unharmed, ya tell us what we need ta open th’ bank vault’s door.  We get ta keep all the goods and ya get ta keep all th’ little ones and their mothers among th’ livin’.”  His smile never wavered as he spoke, which only made me want to shove my hoof into his face and ruin that perfect set of teeth of his.

Still, his request proved that Balefire’s tinkering had indeed sealed the vault up tight, and would resist the Blackhoofs attempts to get it open.  It also presented a problem: we had no way of knowing how to get it open, beyond allowing Balefire to attempt to break through the locks.  Leaving the dark green unicorn with the gang was out of the question.  In fact, even if we had a way of telling them how to open it, they’d likely simply gun us down as we attempted to leave.  The only reason they hadn’t thus far was because they thought we could open the door.

“How do we know you’d keep your word?” I asked.  It was the most obvious question, and it got the most obvious answer.

“Well, ya see ya really don’t.  Yer just gonna have ta trust me on that.”  That same smug smile remained fixed to his snout as he stood beside his brother and fellow gang members.  I merely snorted and shook my head, to which he actually laughed, “Ah suppose that it’s askin’ a might much from ya’ll, but then, what other choice ya got?”

Trust.  Trust ponies who dress up as raiders, lie to innocent ponies and use them to attack a well defended town and steal their food?  Well, that made the choices so much easier.  Still... this could buy us a bit of time.

“I’ll have to speak with the others about this, of course.  Something like this can’t be decided quickly.”  He likely knew I was playing for time by saying this, but I still had to try.  The more time we had, the better chance we had of figuring someway out of this mess.  

“Of course, but not too long...” Buford’s smile seemed to widen a bit, as he mulled this request over.  “An hour should be more than enough for ya’ll ta decide.”  He waved a hoof to his followers before turning to his brother.  “One hour.  Any more than that... well, Ah’m sure ya can figure that one out yerself.”

“Yeah, I suppose I can,” I said through my teeth, eyes narrowed at the unicorn as he turned his back on me and calmly trotted away.  His brother lingered, eyes fixed on me, before he too turned and followed after his shorter sibling.

With little else to say, I backed towards the barn’s still open door and slipped inside.  The door shut quickly behind me as Stone hauled on the handle.  The dim lighting inside took on a soft glow of unicorn magic as Carrion lifted the board back in place.

“Well, that went well,” Carrion said wryly, turning to look at me once he was sure the door was secure.  The comment earned a snort from my large friend.

“That’s an understatement, Ah reckon.” Stone said, lowering his rifle in his hooves and giving the door a look.  “He’s got no intention of just lettin’ us walk outta here.”

“Ya think?” Wild called out from the loft, her red mane poking over the edge of the second floor, blue eyes going from Stone to me.

“You were right with what they were planning to do to the settlers.  I think he has a slaver out there with them.”  Wild simply nodded and jerked her head towards the door and the ponies outside it.

“Shackles.  I saw ’im standing behind the Blackhoofs.  Nasty fucker works for the top slaver boss out of New Haygas, Sodom, and his Guilty Pleasure Slavers.”  I arched a brow at the leader’s name and the name of his group.  Charming.  “Shackles is his right hoof, a nasty son of a bitch who’s killed or broken more ponies than all the raiders in Equestria put together,” Wild said, ears laid back as she spoke.

“Ya already had a run-in with a couple of th’ group.  That’s who was chasin’ my kin and Ah across the desert back ‘round Crossroads,” Stone said, his own ears laid back as he ground his fore hooves into the floor.  “Celestia-damned slavers...” an orange hoof lifted to gently rub over Stone’s armored shoulder.

“If he’s here, then Buford’s planning on selling the mares and foals to him.”  Wild looked away from Stone to me.  “We can’t let that happen, Shadow... it’d be better to shoot them ourselves.”

I looked over my friends slowly, all waiting for me to come up with something.  Some way to get us out of this mess, a mess I’d gotten us into in the first place.  But like before, there seemed to be no way to avoid what was outside the barn.  No way to slip away unnoticed.  There didn’t seem to be a way out that did not involve going through the Blackhoofs outside, and with those snipers, that’d be a short fight.  My eyes wandered over each of my friends’ faces before stopping upon Carrion’s.  The one pony Buford had no idea was here.  But what good would that do?  The second anypony set hoof outside the barn every pair of eyes would be fixed upon them.  Suddenly, I went still and sat down upon the floor.  

Everypony would be focusing on whoever set hoof outside the barn...

Wild and Stone both noticed the sudden change in my body language, and shared a look.  I, however, was looking off towards the left side of the barn, and the wall.  The boards had resisted wind, rain, and time, but I doubt they’d so easily resist being pried off.  Wouldn’t need to be a large hole to start, just so we could talk...

“Shadow?  What’s the plan?” Wild asked, head tilted to the side.

“I think I might have an idea, but first I need to have a talk with Mabel and see how she feels about letting a pony get really close,” I responded, sitting up from the floor.  Turning away from my confused looking friends, I looked towards the bundle of hay that hid the mares and wounded ponies, looking for Willow.  We only had an hour to make this happen.

We only had an hour to save a barn full of innocent lives...




*     *     *     *      *



Our time was nearly up, both figuratively and literally, as I rose from my seat near the door and trotted towards it.  Reaching up with a hoof, I shoved the wooden beam that held it closed out of its hooks and allowed it to drop to the wooden floor with a loud thunk.  Taking a deep breath, I shut my eyes and whispered a prayer to Celestia and Luna (and whoever else might have been up there) before pushing the double doors open with my fore hooves.  With a groan of aged wood and rusty hinges, the barn doors slowly swung open, spilling the dim afternoon (or was it still morning?  I’d have to get Stone to explain that to me if we survived the next several minutes) light into the musty old building.

  Behind me, I heard movement as mares and foals peered out from behind their makeshift hay wall.  Willow’s green eyes were fixed on me as she held her daughter close to her chest, while at least six other pairs of brightly colored small eyes looked towards me as they hung near their mothers.  I offered them all a smile before turning away to stare out past the doors and into the dusty street beyond.  My E.F.S. glowed with eleven red dots, arranged in a rough circle in front of the barn, all of them with their attention and weapons pointed towards the now wide-open doors.

The dirt outside the doors whipped up as a breeze blew through the narrow, empty streets of Oddwick, blowing a warm burst of air into the barn, where the nearness of so many bodies alongside the day’s heat had turned the barn into a sauna.   I inhaled the fresh air deeply, before letting it out in a relaxed sigh.  It was out of my hooves now.  Either this plan I’d set into motion would work and we’d all walk out of here alive... or this would be where my story and life ended, along with those of many others.

I pawed heavily at the wooden floor boards as the thought of defeat lingered inside my mind.  Well, if this was to be where I meet my end, I’d make it count for something.  Reaching my left forehoof up, I adjusted my worn and dirt-covered marshall’s hat, settling it more firmly upon my head.  Lowering the hoof, I checked my weapons.  Both Luna's Ruse and the Raging Buck were armed and ready for the coming fight, for either way, there would be a fight.  There was no way this could end any other way.  

Hoofsteps from nearby caught my ears and I glanced over to see Stonehoof step up beside me, the stallion’s rifle resting across his neck and chest, within easy reach of his mouth.  His battered and mismatched armor rattled a bit as he came to a halt beside me, having been freshly repaired and cleaned.  I could make out a few faded patches and stickers upon the curved surface of his shoulder guards.  Had they belonged to the original owner of the armor, or had they been something from Stone’s past?  Warm green eyes glanced over to me and he offered me a friendly smile and nod.  As I had done a moment before, he reached up to fix his own cowpony hat a bit.

Wild arrived a second later, in a flash of orange feathers and her long red tail.  The pegasus mare settled down beside her coltfriend, brushing a wingtip along his flanks as they folded back across her sides.  The twin barrels of her battlesaddle’s rifles extended into place, ready to fire.  The firing bit was lowered, but it would only take a quick jerk of her head to close her mouth around it and open fire.  Wild glanced from Stone to me, and her patented smirk quickly spread across her snout.  Her stormy blue eyes twinkled with mischief before she turned and gifted her stallion a quick peck on the cheek, turning Storm’s normally gray-furred face a slight red hue.

Despite what we were walking out into, I smirked and shook my head at the couple's antics.  After a moment I stopped and glanced to my left as I heard another approach.

The dark green form of Balefire stepped up beside me, his black mane retaining bits of hay from where he’d been laying for the past few hours.  His side was bandaged, but healed.  Despite Sunny’s objections, the unicorn had refused to miss out on this, saying that if there was going to be a fight, he’d be on his hooves to face it, and that laying on his back was for spending time with lovely mares.  The comment had caused a number of single mares to blush, and a few mothers to swat their older daughters for said blush.  The twin revolvers he carried were tucked away in their holsters on either side of his forelegs.  The weapons’ ivory and ebony grips sparkled from a fresh cleaning he’d given them to help pass the time.  He pranced in place for a moment; whether nerves, energy, or eagerness to get to grips with our foes, I couldn’t tell.  For a moment, his red eyes passed from Stone to me, then back again, before he smirked and turned away.

“Suppose if I’m going to be riding with you guys, I’ll have to find myself a swanky hat too.”

“Can we get this over with sometime soon?  I’d like to get back to Tombstone before somepony else gets Stone and mine’s room.  That bed was quite soft and large, and we’ll be needing to make up for lost time.”  Stone snorted softly at Wild’s words, but smiled despite it. 

Chuckling, I nodded my head and looked away from my friends and back into the empty street, a small cloud of dust blowing up across it.  One way or another...

“Lets get this over with,” I agreed, and took a step towards the open doors, my three friends following closely behind.

As we crossed the threshhold out into the open street, I felt the tug of the light breeze flow across my damp mane and tail, rustling what exposed fur I had on my flanks and lower back.  It felt good, relaxing even.  But then the harsh reality of what was about to happen came crashing back down, along with the sight before us.  Six heavily-armed ponies stood where they’d been an hour before, manes and trenchcoats blowing in that same relaxing breeze.  It was Buford and his large brother, along with four other stallions.  Like my friends, their weapons were within easy reach, rifles across chests, holstered weapons exposed from under their thick coats.  On either side of the group were more members of the Blackhoof gang.  Standing in the doorways, windows, or upon the roofs of buildings, the gang members watched as four ponies trotted out to meet them.

The only sound to disturb the moment was of our hooves treading upon gravel, the creak of the old buildings in the wind, and the cry of a few predatory birds circling overhead, perhaps drawn to the scene by thoughts of an easy meal.

As we closed the distance to the central group of ponies, I locked eyes with Buford, whose smirk remained fixed to his face.  The black-hearted stallion’s cold blue eyes seemed intent on staring me down, but I was in no mood to back down, unwilling to show any signs of weakness in front of this monster.  His grin grew, as if he could read my thoughts or intents.  Finally, after we were no less than a dozen paces away, he held up a hoof for us to stop.  For a moment, nopony said a word, and the silence settled across Oddwick once more.   It was Buford who finally broke that silence.

“My, my, almost ta th’ second of th’ hour deadline.  Ah must say, Marshall, yer quite th’ pony.  If what Ah’ve heard about ya has any truth, then yer a rare breed of pony.”

“Thanks.”  I reached up and tipped my hat to the stallion, which had the desired effect of surprising him.  He quickly recovered, though his smile seemed to waver ever so slightly.

“It was hardly meant as a compliment, Marshall.  Bein’ from a Stable yerself, ya don’t exactly know how th’ world really works beyond yer little grey walls.  But th’ world ya no doubt read about in yer school books is long dead, never ta return.  Ponies like you soon figured that out, most as they take their final breaths.”  Buford waved a hoof before him and snorted, his smile once more returning.  “However, that is not what we are here ta discuss.”

“No, we’re not.  We’re here to give you our answer to your offer.”

“And since there are four of ya’ll to deliver an answer, Ah can rightly figure what that answer might be.”

“I suppose you do.”

“Ya know ya don’t have a chance in hell, right?” he asked pleasantly, teeth flashing in the light as the ponies around him shifted their weight.  Within seconds weapons would be drawn, bullets would fly, and blood would be spilled.
 
“I dunno...” I said, my own smile growing as something caught my eye off to my left, near the second floor window, before I returned my attention to Buford and his gang.  “... I’ve never really had a very good chance since coming to the surface.  That hasn’t stopped me yet.”

Overhead, buzzards circled, their shadows passing across our faces as they waited for the coming feast.  The wind moaned softly through the streets as Buford and I stared into one another’s eyes.  The glow from his horn was all the warning I had, as he began to draw his revolver from his holster.  Beside him, his brother brought his rifle up from where it had been pointed at the street.  The ponies around them brought their own assortment of weapons to bare.

As I saw the glow, my own mouth went for the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse...

...one way or another, this would end in bloodshed.



Welcome to Level 14!

Perk Added: Action Pony: Each level of Action Pony gives you an additional AP to spend every combat turn.  You can use these generic AP’s on any task.  You're gonna need ’em...


> Chapter 14: End of The Journey
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 14: End of A Journey


“This ain’t no place for a hero, this ain’t no place for a better pony.”



… as I bit down hard on the firing bit, my teeth clamped around the metal rod and the weapon’s trigger, even as the rest of my body began to move.  Hooves digging into the loose gravel and dry dirt of Oddwick’s streets, I lunged hard to the right and out of sight of the sniper who’d taken up position in the second floor window of a ruined supply store.  A shot zipped past my face and through my trailing white mane to strike the ground where I’d been standing seconds before.  He’d been aiming for my head. 

Beside me, my friends were already in motion, having seen my head lower for my weapon.  Stonehoof twisted to the right, bringing his snout up along with the hunting rifle he used; a forehoof lifted up to help steady the long weapon’s barrel upon the right side window of the supply store.  The stallion’s rifle bucked in his forehoof and mouth as he squeezed the trigger, causing a single deadly shot to burst from the muzzle.  The round spun through the humid desert air before shattering the remains of the window frame, along with the throat of the sniper busy working the bolt action of his rifle.  With a startled cry, the wounded pony stumbled forward and toppled through the windowless opening to plummet the short distance to the ground below, landing in a mess of hooves, limbs, and blood.  His rifle clattered into the street beside his lifeless form.

As my hooves skidded across the gravel to a stop, I jerked my head upwards, bringing Luna’s Ruse to bare on the now-moving group of stallions before us.  Buford’s eyes widened as he realized something was wrong when neither my nor my friend’s head exploded from his second sniper.  Grinning around the firing bit, I brought the weapon up towards the stallion, ready to end this once and for all.

A blur of orange and red darted above me as Wildfire took wing, the pegasus mare’s teeth clamped down upon the firing bit for her own weapon.  The twin barrels roared to life, sending out a deadly shower of high caliber lead.  Dust bloomed as rounds tore into the ground between us and the Blackhoofs’ leaders, throwing off the aim of the two stallions beside the brothers.  Assault rifles sparked to life, but their noise was overpowered by the Enclave battlesaddle.  Both were busy scurrying for cover, but one was not quick enough and ended up being struck by the quickly moving rounds.  His hind quarters were all but shredded as he was strafed with lead, sending the luckless stallion flipping across the street.  Sadly neither Buford nor his brother was hit by the opening salvo, and both were using the ensuing chaos to rush for cover.

I snapped off two shots towards Buford’s retreating backside, one striking the ground between his hooves and the other just missing his rapidly-moving form by inches.  Snarling around the firing bit, I adjusted my aim and fired again, just as he galloped behind a building and into cover of the porch.  My shot struck the thin, rotting railing and blew a sizeable chunk of it to splinters, but the round was slowed and sent off-course, allowing the villain to escape into cover.

A whooping cowpony yell echoed throughout the narrow streets of Oddwick as Balefire reared up on his hind hooves, his twin revolvers (Celestia and Luna as he called them) flying from the holsters he wore on his forelegs, surrounded by the glow of his horn.  The weapons pointed towards the hulking form of Buford's brother and began firing.  Twin hammers jerked back as the triggers were pulled and slammed down onto the chambered rounds.  With a spark of fire and smoke, two bullets burst from the barrels and struck the armored form of the large stallion, but only just before he reached shelter.  The stallion following him was not as lucky, as the revolvers moved to track him and fired.  Each pistol held six rounds, for twelve in total.  In a matter of seconds, Balefire had sent all twelve screaming into his targets.  The hapless stallion’s armor protected him from most, but a few found weak points and wounded him before he could follow his boss into cover.

It was then that the second sniper made his appearance, although likely not how Buford was hoping.  A black armored stallion flew through the second floor window left of the barn, hooves waving wildly as he dropped to the street below.  He impacted the gravel-covered streets with a crunch of bones and whinny of pain, his rifle broken in half and landing upon either side of him.  Seconds later, another stallion appeared in the window, grinning with rotten yellow teeth and mad, glowing orange eyes.  Carrion’s assault rifle floated up in his magical grip and began hosing down on the street below him, where a number of Blackhoofs had begun to appear.

“Feel your hooves, you sons of bitches!!!” the former Equestrian Army pony yelled as rounds poured from the barrel of his weapon like water through a pipe.  Brass shells rained down around the ghoul, some dropping down upon the bleeding and broken sniper below.  Sweeping the assault rifle wide, Carrion scattered the bandits that had emerged from their hiding spots to try and get better shots on my friends and I.  They went diving for cover as rounds kicked up dirt and rocks all around them.

 Stone was already swinging his rifle around as the exposed bandits raced for the safety of alleyways or buildings.  Wild had already angled herself towards the left side of the street, strafing the scurrying ponies with her rifles as she swooped down.  Balefire, meanwhile, had taken cover behind a porch and was busy reloading his revolvers, his horn making it go so much quicker than using a hoof or mouth.  

But I had no more time to worry about my friends, as a sudden hail of fire began peppering the ground near my hooves.  One round struck my armored shoulder, causing me to grunt and stumble.  I rushed towards the same building Buford had just ducked behind, hooves pounding across the lose roadway before I skidded to a halt against the wall.  The move kicked up a small cloud of dust and I snorted and tossed my head to clear the thick cloud from my nose and eyes.  Looking around, I saw that I had in fact taken shelter behind the building’s porch and a rain barrel resting up beside it.  A quick glance around the corner rewarded me with a shower of splinters stinging my face and eyes.  Swearing, I ducked back, but I’d seen my attacker.  

It was an earth pony stallion wearing that same combat armor and wielding an odd-looking assault rifle.  Unlike the ones I’d seen, this one appeared to have a wooden stock and a sickle clip.  It looked a lot less modern than the Equestrian model I’d seen most ponies using.  Perhaps this was one of the zebra assault rifles?  I’d seen them in books and old movies and newsreels.  Despite its simple look and design, it was still deadly. 

Another round of bullets hammered the water barrel, sending up clouds of pulverised wood and dirt.  Luckily for me, the barrel was hardly empty, and the filthy, stagnant rainwater-turned-sludge slowed the bullets enough to give me time to duck.  The rounds splintered my side of the barrel and struck the ground not far away.  That same putrid water trickled from the holes, soaking me in foul smelling gunk.  Still, I couldn’t sit here forever; Buford could be getting away.  And not to mention I was a sitting duck.  Gritting my teeth, I flicked open the drum feed for Luna’s Ruse and craned my neck around to reach for my saddlebags and the ammo within, intent on at least topping off before I got back into the fray.  

Reaching back to my saddlebags, I grabbed the flap of the left side pack with my teeth and yanked it open.  But before I could reach inside and nose around for the spare shotgun shells, I heard the thunder of hooves as somepony rushed towards me from around the corner of the building.  A hurried glance to my E.F.S. indicated that it was nopony I’d want coming up behind me, but he was close and I only had a few seconds to react.  I couldn’t go back, since the pony who had me pinned would just gun me down; I couldn’t move around the porch... my eyes wandered to the porch...

Aw, fuck it...

Slapping the saddlebag shut, I turned and reached for the firing bit of my shotgun.  It had more than half a drum left; more than enough for the moment, I hoped.  Clamping my teeth firmly around the metal bit, I rose to my hooves and placed my forehooves up the edge of the railing.  Hauling myself up with both forelegs and a kick from my hind legs, I vaulted over the wooden railing just as my original attacker opened up once more.  His assault rifle clattered as rounds zipped past my body, impacting the wooden railing below me and the walls of the building behind me.  At the same moment, a heavier weapon fired, blowing the railing I’d just lept over into hundreds of small shards of wood.  The pony flanking me had arrived and had just narrowly missed killing me.

  Ignoring the incoming rounds I dropped back down onto the rotting wooden floorboards of the porch.  My hooves slammed down hard as I landed, one board bursting through into open space.  With one hoof caught, I stumbled forward as I managed to pull my hoof free before I could twist it.  It slowed me down a bit, but I still managed to recover quickly enough to snap off two shots towards the pony to my left.  The first round grazed the orange-brown stallion’s shoulder, causing him to flinch.  The second, however, put a stop to him completely as the solid slug slammed full on into his chest.  Blood and broken armor plating trailed behind the pony as he stumbled back and slumped to the ground, assault rifle dropping before his hooves.

Without stopping to see if the first stallion was down for the count, I raced ahead, knowing the other pony was likely moving up behind me once again.  I allowed the momentum I’d built up from the jump to carry me forwards, towards the end of the porch where I’d seen a Blackhoof duck for cover.  If I was lucky, I’d get the drop on the bastard.  The pounding of hooves told me my flanker was nearing the spot I’d been, and would soon be able to snap a couple shots into my flanks.  I had to keep moving.  Approaching the end of the porch, I reared up and leapt once more across the railing, twisting around as I did to snap off another two shots at the pony following me.  Or rather, where the pony following me would have been. 

Both shots struck the railing where I’d started below, blowing the abused pieces of wood into sawdust before I landed hard on my back and rolled over into the neighboring building’s foundation with a grunt and a cloud of dust.  The flanking pony’s weapon fired, a single round exploding inches above my head, showering me with bits of concrete.  Scrambling quickly to my hooves, I snorted and coughed the thick cloud away from my face and fired another round blindly towards the porch, the shell blowing apart a wooden support for the railing but little else.  There was still a red dot ahead of me, along with a number else where around.

Taking the chance, I hurriedly reached for my saddlebags once again, snapping the drum feed of Luna’s Ruse open to try and reload the weapon.  Gripping each shell by the brass cap, I began sliding them into the empty slots of the drum.  Years of practice on the Stable’s firing range, along with the past weeks’ numerous frantic gun fights, had left me with the ability to very quickly reload my weapons.  As I slotted the last round home, I heard and saw movement from my attacker.  He was attempting to edge around to my left, towards the body of the dead assault rifle gunner (he was very much dead,  hence the lack of a red dot coming from his direction).  Snapping the drum shut, I started to move around the corner and snap off a couple shots to force him back.  However, somepony else had my back.

The rapid fire of twin revolvers echoed within the narrow confines of the street as Balefire galloped onto the scene from between two buildings.  The dark green stallion wore a wild grin and yelled at his target.  I heard several grunts of pain come from the other end of the porch, before the red dot simply disappeared from my vision.  Peering around the corner, I saw a black armored stallion laying on his side in the street.  A rifle similar to Stone’s lay where he dropped it, blood seeping from a half dozen wounds in the stallions side.  Like Stone’s and my own riot armor, the Blackhoofs’ armor simply protected their upper body and forelegs.  Balefire had managed to do what the bandit had attempted on me: a flank attack.

Looking from the dead bandit to Balefire, I saw he was already in the process of reloading his revolvers and looking about for new targets.  His red eyes caught sight of me and his grin widened.

“Heya, boss, was wondering where you’d gotten to,” he said as small caliber rounds drifted from his saddlebags to his weapons, slotting in quickly and with practiced ease.  As the last round floated into the weapons’ barrels, his horn gave a sudden flare and both weapons snapped closed and the hammers pulled back.  “You wounded?” he asked, nodding his still glowing horned head towards my flank as he pawed at the ground, eager to get back into the fight.

I glanced back to see what he was talking about.  There’d been no flashing warning popping up in my vision warning of injuries, but it wouldn’t have been the first time I’d ignored them.  Just below my own saddlebags were a number of minor wounds, caused from the flying wooden splinters and a few too many close calls with assault rifle rounds.  It was nothing life-threatening, nor was it going to slow me down.  

“It’s nothing.  How’s everypony else?” I asked, standing up from the ground and dusting my hindquarters off with a flick of my tail.  A number of wooden splinters dropped from the length of white hair as I moved.

“Fine, so far as I know.  Stonehoof’s got a couple bandits pinned down in a bakery just down the street from where Carrion took out that sniper.  I saw Wild flying overhead, strafing a few strays that looked to be trying to get at the barn. I think she’s herding them back towards Stone’s position,” Balefire answered quickly, his red eyes darting about the empty street around us as the sounds of gunfire drifted from just down the street.  “I haven’t seen Carrion since he snuck out of the barn.  Who knew a ghoul could be so damned quiet?”

“Carrion can likely take care of himself,” I responded, checking Luna’s Ruse.  The weapon had received no damage from the tumbles I’d taken, save for a bit of dirt that had been kicked up when I’d dived for cover.  I quickly brushed it away with my hoof.  “What about the big guy, the one who took off over that way?”

“Asshole got away.  Slipped off into another street.”  The unicorn jerked his head back towards the two buildings he’d come running from a moment before.  “I started to follow him, but you wanted us to stay in teams of at least two.” I was glad the pony could rein himself in long enough to stick with the plan I’d outlined in the barn.

“Right, well, we’ll get ’im later.”  Looking away from Balefire, I scanned the building to my left, the one I’d seen Buford duck behind.  “If I’m right, we’ve got his brother cornered.”  As I looked, I saw the alleyway ended suddenly in a high fence that blocked it off.  It was easily twice the height of a pony, and would be difficult to scale with nothing to help boost a pony up.  The building along the left side of the alley had no windows or doors in the narrow space; just thick, if somewhat chipped, brick walls.  The building with the porch I’d dived over, however, was a different story.  About halfway to the fence, there was a set of steps leading up and into the second story.

“The bastard running the show?” Balefire asked, his grin widening (if such a thing was possible) as his revolvers begun to spin within his magical grip.  “Well, just don’t seem right to leave him all alone.  Shall we just set the whole thing on fire or do you wanna do this the hard way?”

As tempting as it was to burn the whole thing to the ground, it would cause far too many problems.  The most pressing was the stolen supplies in the town’s bank.  Burning an entire building down would make a lot of smoke, which could be seen for miles around.  It seemed we weren’t facing all the members of the Blackhoofs’ gang, and if they saw a cloud of smoke coming up from their home base...

“The hard way, I suppose,” I said, causing Balefire to slump a bit.  Seems he’d been looking forward to the prospect of setting something on fire.

“So, what's the plan?” he asked, stepping up beside me to stare down the alleyway at the stairs and the second floor entrance.

“We’ll need to cut him off if he attempts to run again,” I answered, looking from the stairs to the porch and the front door, before pointing a hoof toward it.  “We’ll split up here.  You’ll take the first floor.  Make sure he hasn’t already fled downstairs.  If you find him do, whatever it takes to stop him from getting away.  If you don’t find him, make your way upstairs.”  The unicorn nodded his head, looking over to where I was pointing.

“I take it you’ll be upstairs then?” he asked, to which I nodded in response.  “He’ll likely expect somepony to come in behind him, you know.”  Then he looked over to me and smirked a bit.  “Of course you know.  That’s why I’m going through the front.” 

“Balefire...” I began, but was hurriedly cut off by the young pony.

“Eh, I’m used to it.  You sorta remind me of my step sister.  She refuses to send anypony into harm’s way if she can do it herself.”  he shrugged.  “Well, let’s get this over with then!”  With a chuckle, he saluted me with the barrel of one pistol before turning and walking up towards the porch and the front door.

Better to lead from the front.  That’s what my father always taught me, and what I’d learned from reading through old military history books (though it seems some authors did not share this viewpoint, calling it reckless.)  It had served me well as Stable Security Chief, but out here I suppose it would just get me killed a lot quicker.  Still, that wasn’t going to change how I did things just yet.  Pushing away those thoughts for the time being, I hurriedly trotted down the alleyway and up the rickety wooden steps to the second floor doorway.  It likely lead to another store or apartment of some sort.  I knew Buford was still inside the building.  For whatever reason, the bandit leader hadn’t attempted to escape back out into the streets.

With each step, the stairway groaned and the steps themselves sagged as my weight was put upon them.  Despite it all, it held, and I found myself nearing the door.  I heard little movement coming from within the building, just the creak of the decaying building settling and the echo of gunfire from down the street.  Stepping up beside the door, I reached for Luna’s Ruse and gripped the firing bit tightly in my mouth.

With what little room there was on the second story landing, I edged closer to the wall and lifted a hoof to try the door.  Little to my surprise, I found it unlocked and even slightly ajar from recent use.  Pressing my hoof against the cracked wooden door, I gently gave it a push and allowed it to swing open on aged and rusty hinges.  The door swung slowly back into the darkness of the second floor, coming to a rest against an inner wall with a light thump.  I waited to see if anypony was going to start firing at either the noise or the now-open doorway, but after several seconds it was clear Buford was not that dumb.  Turning my head, I still saw the red dot that represented a hostile inside the building, but now it was hard to tell just where inside it was.  Below me, the green dot that was Balefire slowly made its way about the first floor.

Letting out a deep breath, I cautiously edged towards the door frame, attempting to keep as much of my body out of sight as I could.  I peered around and scanned the murky interior of the room carefully for any signs of movement.  It was dark, save for what little light managed to filter through the moth-eaten curtains that still clung to rusted, dust-covered rods over the windows.  The few shafts of light that filtered through were filled with specks of dust floating down from the ceiling to land upon furniture.  

It seemed the second floor had been somepony’s home so long ago.  A dark brown couch sat with its back to the door, facing a low table and a pair of chairs of a similar color.  Off to their left were the two windows, between which hung a few framed photos that I couldn’t make out in the near darkness.  There were also a couple of shelves to the left of the door which seemed to run the length of the wall.

Looking away, I scanned what lay beyond the living room: two doorways, one leading right while the other led straight into what appeared to have been a kitchen.  To the left of the kitchen door was a short countertop that allowed a pony to see fully into the kitchen or living room.  From where I stood, I could see a single window in the kitchen, but it seemed covered in dust or grime and little to no light managed to make its way through.

While I couldn’t see any sign of Buford himself, I did see the layer of dust that had settled upon the floor and where it had recently been disturbed by a set of hoofprints, which led toward the right side door.  The bandit leader must have fled further back into the apartment, perhaps to a bedroom or bathroom.  There was no other tracks I could see, so it seemed safe enough to enter, though I still remained alert.

Stepping around the corner of the doorway, I placed my forehooves into the room.  As I settled my weight upon them, the floorboards below creaked rather loudly in the darkened living room.  My ears perked up from both the creak and the sound of shuffling coming from in front of me, from the kitchen.  I froze for a moment, trying to hear exactly where it was coming from, ever so slowly scanning the shadows behind the counter and doorway until I saw movement.  

I spotted Buford inching around the corner of the kitchen doorway. Then I saw the glowing shape of a Raging Buck floating up beside him in his pale white magical grip.  A grin formed across his muzzle as he leveled it at me and pulled the trigger.  My eyes widened as the hammer started to fall.  At this range, my armor would be little more than cloth to that round.  I should know; I’d killed enough raiders with my own trusty sidearm. 

As the hammer fell, I dove for cover behind the nearby couch.  From the corner of my eye, I saw the barrel of the revolver explode in fire, releasing a bolt of death that had been aimed at my heart.  The round tore through the air between us, impacting my saddlebag and ripping through it like it was little more than air.  Passing through the pack, the round skimmed over my flank, just above my cutie mark, and over my tail before striking the wall behind me in a shower of splinters and dust.

Despite it being no more than a glancing blow, it stung like hell and bled freely.  Snorting loudly, I narrowed my eyes and began to move.  The couch would give me no better cover from that weapon.  I’d shot more than my share of raiders through walls and doors over the past week.  My hooves dug into the wooden flooring as I rose up.  Buford fired his second shot and, sure enough, it passed cleanly through the cloth and wood couch like it wasn’t even there, before embedding itself in the floor and likely passing clean through.  I, however, wasn’t in that spot, having vaulted the couch with my forehooves as I’d done the porch railing below.  Luna’s Ruse bucked in my teeth as I returned fire.

Both shots were wild, meant only to buy myself some time.  The wooden frame of the kitchen door broke apart where the slugs struck, earning me a few swear words from the unicorn’s lips as he ducked back down.  He fired off another round towards me.  It seemed my wild shooting had earned much more than a few swear words, however, as the round zipped harmlessly past my neck and shoulders.  The miss also gave me enough time to cover the small distance between the couch and the kitchen counter.  

With a grin of my own, I charged towards the narrow opening between the ceiling and the countertop that separated the kitchen from the living room.  As I neared, I reared back on my hind legs and lept across the top. At the same time as I was tucking my forehooves up, I twisted my head around to bring Luna’s Ruse to bear upon Buford.  As the barrel’s iron sights landed upon the bandit leader’s face, I squeezed the trigger and felt the weapon fire once more.

With an angry roar, Luna’s Ruse lashed out with another solid slug, the spent shell casing smoking as it was ejected from the opening port on the side of the weapon.  The spinning iron slug flew through the air towards the ducking Buford, impacting the wooden support beam at the end of the counter.  The beam burst apart at the middle, sending out razor-sharp splinters several inches in length.  Though slowed, the slug continued on its path to the unicorn, catching him right in his shoulder guard.  The black metal armor burst from the force of the strike, spraying bits of broken metal through the air, but stopping the lethal force of the blow.  It did not, however, stop the momentum from staggering Buford and sending him stumbling backwards into the dining room.  The black unicorn’s fall was broken by a table and some chairs set up in the center of the dining room.  The table folded in half as the armored unicorn buck struck it, and his flailing hooves sent the four chairs scattering about, one skidding over to a stop near where I was about to land. 

My hooves had barely touched the tiled floor before I was turning to face Buford, Luna’s Ruse whipping around to fire off a pair of rapid fire shots towards the entangled stallion and table.  But he was no rookie at being in a firefight where the stakes were life and death.  Glowing pale white, the table was flung towards the ceiling and me, taking both shots and deflecting them from the downed bandit leader.  I ducked under the table as it flipped end over end, one of the legs grazing my head as it crashed into the wall behind me with a clatter of wood, metal, and tiles.

I lashed out with my hooves, catching one of the chairs that had been knocked over from Buford’s tumble with my hind legs.  The chair was sent skidding across the floor, striking the rising unicorn and throwing off his aim.  His revolver fired, the round spraying my face with broken tile and wooden floor boards.  Four shots.  He had one left and would likely be desperate to use it on me.  He, however, had other ideas.

The barrel of Luna’s Ruse began to glow and was suddenly jerked downwards to point at the floor.  The sudden movement caused my tongue to pull back on the trigger, sending a round through the wooden floorboards.  Suddenly, the weapon jerked hard in my mouth, and the firing bit slid through my teeth and out of my mouth completely before the entire weapon began to spin rapidly, tightening the strap around my throat.  I gasped for breath, reaching up with my forehooves to grab ahold of the tightening noose around my neck, eyes flying to Buford.

The unicorn's horn was glowing brightly as he struggled to hold my gun in his magical grip.  Luckily, it seemed he wasn’t skilled enough to hold both it and his revolver, as the weapon was floating down near the floor.  Still, he wouldn’t need it if he strangled me to death.  I gasped for air as the strap twisted.  Shit, shit, shit!  I couldn’t get my hooves under the strap... it was too tightly wrapped around my throat.

My right front hoof grasped around desperately for something to cut the cord, something to free me.  Slapping at the counter, I felt something round touch the edge of my hoof, and looking over, I saw a stack of plates had been knocked over.  One lay near my hoof... if I could just... reach it...!

My hoof finally landed atop the dust-covered metal plate and pulled it closer until I could get a good hold of it.  Once I had it, I locked my eyes back on Buford’s sweat-covered face and flung the plate as hard as I could at my target.  If I’d been thinking more clearly I would have activated S.A.T.S., but the loss of air does funny things to a pony.  Fortunately, I didn’t need the magical spell within my Pipbuck to strike my glowing target.  The tarnished metal plate spun through the air, striking Buford squarely in the forehead just at the base of his horn.  With a sudden cry of pain, the glow faded, as did the grip on my shotgun.

I dropped to the floor, not having realized I’d been pulled up onto my hind legs by the force of the magical grip.  Gasping for breath, I hurriedly unwrapped the strap from around my throat.  The stale humid air within the building had never smelled so damned good. 

  Rising back to my forehooves, I saw the trailing end of the bandit’s trench coat disappearing into a doorway at the end of the dining room.  My sudden move had driven him deeper into the apartment.  I’d already begun to follow him, checking the ammo count on my shotgun and gulping air greedily into my lungs.  I had seven shots left.  As I drew near, I saw his revolver reappear around the corner of the doorway.  Seems he’d gotten over the horn ache I’d given him.  The weapon fired off his final shot.  Luckily for me, I’d already expected the move and ducked down at the first sign of the magically floating weapon.  The round zipped harmlessly over my head and struck the overturned table behind me.  Five shots.  He was out.  Time to finish this.  Without their leader, the rest of the Blackhoofs would either turn tail and run, or be much easier to pick off.  Either way worked to the advantage of my friends and I.

Gritting my teeth on the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse, I rushed the doorway, eyes narrowed as I heard him retreating further into the apartment.  As I neared the door, I slowed to a trot and carefully rounded the corner into the hallway.  He might be out of ammo for his revolver, but he likely had a backup or some other trick up his trenchcoat.  My right forehoof brushed across something in the floor and I looked down, seeing a single brass shell casing rolling away from my black hoof to a pile of four more.  With alarm, I jerked my head back up and towards the far end of the hallway, where Buford was standing, his revolver glowing in his magical grip.  The cylinder snapped shut as he cocked the hammer back.  He had spare ammo for that thing?  Of course he had spare bucking ammo!  I ducked back into the dining room as two rounds struck the doorway behind me, showering me with wood chips and dust.

So not fucking fair...

Carefully, I peered around the corner of the doorway and down the hallway.  Buford held his fire for the moment, so I quickly got a feel for the area in front of me.  Like the living room, the hallway’s floor consisted of bare boards covered in a heavy layer of dust.  A single light fixture hung from the ceiling, but emitted no light.  On the right side of the hallway were two doors, one only a few hoofsteps from where I stood.  The other remained at the end near the room Buford had taken cover in.  Both the room and the far end of the hall appeared damaged.  Looking at the ceiling, I saw evidence that the roof had likely caved in on that side of the building, probably blocking the last door completely with debris.  Off to the left of the hallway, I saw another door situated roughly between the two on the right.

“Give it up, Buford!  You're not getting outta here!” I yelled down the hallway at the bandit, giving myself time to figure out how I was going to get to him.  Just then, the far right side doorway rattled loudly, drawing the attention of the Blackhoofs’ leader.  With a snarl, the unicorn reappeared from the left side and fired off another round into the door.  I heard a muffled shout of surprise that sounded like Balefire.  He must have found the stairs inside the building when he’d heard the gunfire upstairs.

Not wasting anymore time, I broke from the cover of the dining room and dove into the closest doorway to my right.  Luckily, the door was open and I tumbled into a bedroom.  Rolling across the dust and dirt covered floor, I struck the bed and winced from the pain in my flanks.  The headboard of the bed struck the wall and, from the other side, I heard a voice call out my name.

“Shadow!  Are you alright?!”  It was Balefire.  He must have been standing in a stairway on the other side of the wall.  

“Balefire!  Fire through that door!” I yelled through the wall, picking myself up to stumble to the bedroom door.  Buford had to have heard me yell, so there was no time to waste.  As I dove through the doorway out into the hall, I saw Buford adjusting his aim towards me from his hiding spot before a yipping yell echoed from the stairway, followed by a hail of lead that exploded from the sealed door.  Though small caliber, Balefire’s revolvers were nasty at close range, and the dark green unicorn must have been right up next to the door.  Each shot sent out chunks of wood as they passed through the door.  The noise drew Buford's attention away from me once more, and I hurriedly scrambled into the left side door.  It was shut, and I had no way of knowing if it was locked, but I’d yet meet a door that could stop a pony running full speed into it.

The door gave with a groan of hinges, the door knob breaking free and flying back into the hallway as I skidded to a halt within the apartment’s bathroom tiles.  Fortunately, I managed to keep from striking the sink with my head, and hurriedly righted myself back towards the door.  Peering back around the corner, I saw the last few rounds from Balefire’s guns burst through the wooden door before the pony himself yelled out.

“Door’s blocked by the roof!  I can’t get it open!”  Buford took the opportunity to fire at the source of the voice and I heard a cry of pain come from the door, followed by the sounds of something falling down stairs.  

Balefire.  

No.

My eyes locked with Buford’s as he turned away from the doorway, the smug look on the unicorn’s face fading quickly.  With a snarl of rage, I charged down the hallway.  Luna’s Ruse dropped from my teeth as my hooves pounded across the creaking wooden floor boards, closing the distance between myself and the Blackhoofs’ leader.  

His eyes widened in surprise as he attempted to bring his revolver back to bear on me, but I was simply too fast and not about to give him a chance to use it again.  Rearing back on my hind legs, I sprang across the threshold of the doorway and into him, slamming him hard with my forehooves and sending us both into the back wall of the bedroom.  The force of our impact dislodged several pictures that had been hanging between two large windows overlooking the streets.  The photos dropped to the floor between our stamping hooves, shattering the glass in the frames.

As he floated his revolver back towards me, I hauled back with my right foreleg and struck him hard across the jaw, causing his horn to sputter and the revolver to clatter to the floor.  He recovered quickly and shoved me back with his own forehooves, sending me stumbling to the floor.  It gave out a groan of protest to the sudden weight being forced upon it after so long.  He slammed down atop me, left hoof impacting my cheek in a hard blow.  The blow stung like hell, and my hat tumbled from atop my head.  The attack was followed by another aimed at my nose, which I quickly blocked with my Pipbuck.  The hard hoof struck the near-indestructible metal leg band with a clang that caused the bandit to rear back with a yelp of pain.

Using the opening, I knocked him off of me and onto the floor beside me.  The unicorn grunted heavily as his face impacted the dust covered floor, which seemed to yield slightly to the pony’s weight atop it.  Climbing unsteadily to my hooves, I reached for the firing bit of my shotgun to end this.  Buford’s horn flared to life once more, matching a glow around my weapon.

Not this time...

Reaching up with my right foreleg, I grabbed ahold of the already-glowing weapon to keep it from being yanked free of my mouth.  Already I could feel the tug on the end of the gun, my teeth clamping down hard on the fighting bit as we struggled for the weapon.  With my hoof, I slowly began to turn the barrel towards the downed unicorn, intent to end this struggle.  Seeing his trick wasn’t going so well this time, Buford scrambled to his hooves and narrowly dodged two shots aimed at his chest.  The rounds left holes in the floor, earning a tremor through the wooden planks.  Looking about wildly for his own dropped weapon, he spotted it beside the room’s bed and lunged for it with his hoof.

Still fighting his magical grip, I lashed out with a hind leg and kicked the revolver under the bed and out of his reach for the moment.  I squeezed the trigger once more, Luna’s Ruse roaring out and once more missing Buford by inches yet again, blowing a sizeable hole in the abused floor.  Desperately, the unicorn lunged towards me and slammed me back against the floor, fighting for the weapon in my mouth.  He slammed his left forehoof into my face and my head struck the floor, causing me to see stars and black spots in my vision.  It also caused the floor to shake yet again, followed by several snaps and deep groans.  

Oh fuck, not again...

The floor gave a shake, as support beams under the floor gave up their fight with gravity and the newly made holes from my shotgun.  Wooden floorboards bent and, with a mighty crack, it all gave way and sent us plunging down into the first floor.  It must have been a shop in the past, because there were a good deal of shelves in the room.  I know this because I passed through about six of them on my way to the floor.

I felt, more then heard, something snap in my back as I landed hard upon a pile of broken floorboards, shelves, and assorted pieces of trash.  Buford crashed hard upon my chest a second later, knocking out whatever wind that hadn’t already been expelled from my lungs.  Bits of the ceiling continued to rain down atop us as the shelves we’d knocked over began a domino effect throughout the room, sending empty glass jars and soda bottles to the floor in a shower of glass shards.

As I lay there gathering my wits, I took the chance to look over the first floor quickly.  The building had once been a general store of some sort, judging by the rows of empty shelves inside, most of which still stood upright.  There was room for countless items to be put on display, but now the only thing resting upon them was years worth of dust and cobwebs, along with empty glass jars and bottles like the ones we’d broken on the way down.  Looking off to my left, I saw the shelves ended near a row of glass counters.  The glass had long since been shattered and now lay strewn across the floor.  Like the shelves, the cases were empty, but I could still see faded posters and signs sitting inside, advertising the items that had once rested within.  

Behind the counter was a wall with more shelves and two doors.  One was shut and likely lead into a back room.  The other appeared to have steps going to the second floor, but most of it was blocked by the end of the counter.  I looked to my right to the front of the store and a pair of windows on either side of the front door.  They allowed a bit of light to filter through their moth eaten curtains.  It did little, though, to dispel the heavy shadows in the corners of the room.  

Seconds had passed as I’d scanned the room, my head aching but my breath slowly coming back to me.  Though even breathing was turning out to be painful.  The weight on my chest was removed a second later, as Buford stumbled to his hooves, but I was a bit quicker to recover than the unicorn; after all, I had experience falling through floors (not something I’d put on a job resume, to be honest).  I lashed out with my hind legs, catching the stumbling unicorn by surprise and sending him face first into the floor with a muffled cry.

Had to keep the pressure on him.  Slowly, painfully, I rolled over onto my hooves, ignoring the red flashing warnings in my vision about broken ribs.  They’d been broken before, they could wait.  Raising my head, I spotted a dark green crumpled form laying just at the end of the counter near the stairs.  His fallen revolvers lay nearby along with a small pool of blood.  I took a step towards him, when a wooden plank slammed into my face, breaking my nose (once more) and coating the end of the plank with my blood.

“No time ta worry ‘bout yer friend... should worry ‘bout yerself.” Buford said, that damned smug grin returning as he swung the plank once more in his magical grip at my face.  I had no time to dodge or duck and simply took it.

SMACK!!

The blow staggered me back several steps and my hooves became tangled in the pile of debris that was scattered across the floor.  I attempted to right myself, but the sudden move wrenched my back and white hot fire laced up my spine as I dropped to the floor on my knees.  Right into the piles of broken glass.  Wincing in pain, I heard the board behind me drop, and something metal dragging along wood.  Turning my head was painful, but what I saw floating towards me would be far more.

I dropped down into the glass, feeling the shards digging into my belly and legs, but I avoided the four inch piece of metal pipe that sailed over my head.  As it passed, I climbed to my hooves among the pile of wooden and glass debris, clawing my way into a more clear area of the floor.  I wasn’t fast enough, and I cried out as the pipe struck my flank where a bullet had previously grazed me.  

The blow sent me stumbling into one of the still mostly upright shelves, more empty jars crashed to the floor along with rusted cans and cardboard boxes.  More warnings flashed in my vision, ignored as I gripped the shelf to pull myself upright.  Heavy hoof steps behind me made it clear that Buford was following me.  The uneven ground caused the stallion to stumble to my left and in an instant I seized upon a chance.  Pulling all my weight on the shelf, I brought it back upright and then tipped it forwards.  With a startled cry, the shelf crashed atop Buford, knocking the pipe from the unicorn’s grip.  However, it failed to pin him to the floor as I’d hoped.  The uneven pile of rubble stopped it before it could.

Hurriedly, I ducked behind the shelf as Buford picked his pipe back up and swung it towards my face.  The heavy makeshift weapon cracked the side of the shelf in as it struck.  I stumbled out from behind the shelf and ducked another swing of his pipe.  The weapon whistled through the air before striking a section of ceiling with a heavy thunk and becoming wedged firmly.  My teeth closed around the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse and I brought the weapon back up towards him.  With a grunt, he tried to tug his weapon free, before he saw me lifting up my shotgun.

I squeezed the trigger twice, emptying the weapon.  The muzzle flash from the weapon lit up the darkened room, casting crazy shadows all about the place.  The shell struck Buford hard on his left shoulder.  At this range, the armor could only do so much, and took less than half the force of the strike.  The black armored shoulder pad blew apart in a cloud of metal fragments and blood as the slug found bare flesh below.  The bandit leader grunted heavily at the hit and stumbled backwards as the second round hit him in the chest.  The armor here was a bit thicker, and while the first shot had sent the stallion stumbling, the second shot only grazed his armored body.  Still, it blew a sizeable piece of metal from the armor and punched hard enough to break bone as I heard him scream in pain before he dropped down atop the rubble.

The force of the shotgun’s kick knocked me back onto my flank, and I winced as I sat there, breathing heavily.  My red warning signs of injuries continued to flash, which the ammo count for my shotgun soon joined, warning that I was out of ammo.  For a moment, I allowed myself a second to breath, before I painfully turned and reached for my saddlebags and the spare ammo.  I had to finish this fight and check on Balefire... there was still a red and green dot in the room with me, so I knew both were still alive.  The sounds of gunfire coming from outside had begun growing closer, as well as a couple of red dots.

With a click of my right hoof, which had a number of glass shards sticking out of it painfully, the drum to Luna’s Ruse snapped open and released twelve empty slots for shells.  I brushed my sore snout against the latch to my saddlebag and began withdrawing shells one by one with my teeth, blood dripping down my nose across the shells and into the pack.  I’d gotten six shells in when the sound of movement caught my attention.  I looked up to see Buford stirring from where he’d been laying.  I quickly slotted the seventh shell in place before flicking it closed hurriedly.

Both Buford and I rose to our hooves at the same time.  Reaching for my firing bit, I caught the glow of his horn in the corner of my eye, and heard the sound of wood snapping as something broke free.  I closed my lips around the bit and was hauling the weapon up when the pipe slammed once more into the side of my face.  My jaws closed around the firing bit and the weapon fired, missing Buford by inches as the slug buried itself into the wooden counter at the end of the room.  With my ears ringing, I stumbled back, dazed before another hit struck me in the chest and caused the pain in my ribs to flair up. I screamed out, dropping the bit of my shotgun as I collapsed to the floor.

Faintly, I heard something metal strike the floor and looked up through narrowed eyes as Buford floated his revolver up to him.  It must have slid close to the hole and dropped through when he’d pulled the pipe free.  Speaking of the pipe;  it slammed into my jaw and sent me skidding across the floor and out through the door.  I rolled a couple times across the porch and stumbled down into the street.  At this point everything was flashing red in my vision.  I snorted, blowing a cloud of dust up from my snout.  Hoofsteps came from the porch as Buford followed me outside.

I rolled over, excruciatingly, and looked up.  Buford looked to be as in bad a shape as I felt.  He was limping, favoring his left front leg.  Blood was running from a gash in his forehead and nose.  He held his right hoof against his chest where I’d shot him, and he’d lost his hat.  Ha.  Take that, you son of a bitch... got your damned hat!  He arched a brow as I snorted in laughter before floating his revolver up near his face.  One eye was swollen shut so he aimed down the iron sights with the other.

“Told ya, yer type never lives long enough...”  The glow around the trigger flared as he began pulling it.

I stared down the barrel of the gun, as my hooves fumbled with the shotgun pressed against my chest.  Well, this wasn’t how I expected my day to end... but it didn’t.  Suddenly, the revolver that had been pointing at my face was just gone, replaced by a shower of sparks and hot jagged bits of metal.  Buford’s head jerked back in shock as his weapon simply blew apart before his face.  The report of a rifle echoed around the narrow streets of Oddwick as I lay there in surprise.

Buford pulled his head back a moment later.  As he did, I saw a trickle of blood running down his face between his eyes and dripping off the end of his nose.  A bullet had struck the revolver he’d held and ricocheted into the stallion’s forehead, glancing off his horn before striking him in the head.  It had not been shock that had caused the Blackhoofs’ leader to jerk his head back, but rather the force of the impact.  The already-dead unicorn crossed his eyes comically to look at what had killed him, before he simply dropped to his knees and then his side on the porch, blood dripping from the nasty wound.

I turned my head slowly to the right, looking back down the street towards where it had all started, and saw Stonehoof lowering his rifle.  The barrel was still smoking from his last shot as he began running towards me.  I grinned and waved a hoof at the earth pony before dropping back onto the ground with a grunt of pain and staring at the overcast grey sky above.  The distant sounds of gunfire reached my ears over the steady thump of hooves on dirt as my friend drew near, and I let out a relaxed sigh.  A moment later, the lazy drifting clouds were blotted out by the sight of Stonehoof’s face appearing in my field of vision.  A worried look covered his face as sweat dripped down his forehead.

“Heya, Stonehoof...” I said, grinning stupidly up at my friend.

“Ya alright there, Shadow?” the stallion asked, ears perked towards me as the sounds of gunfire died.  His green eyes quickly scanned my bloody body and he frowned.  “Hang on a sec,” he added, before looking away from me and turning his head to do something out of my view.  I heard the rustle of cloth as a saddlebag was pulled open, and the noise of objects rubbing against one another.

“Yeah... I’m good... just a couple extra holes... nothing new really for me,” I said calmly, eyes wandering from the stallion kneeling beside me back to the sky before I remembered something.  My eyes darted back to my friend and I tiredly prodded him with a bloody hoof.  “Oh... ya know, you're gonna have to teach me how to do that sometime.”  I waved my hoof off towards the porch and the dead body atop it.  

My friend just chuckled and turned back around to face me.  He held something in his mouth: a small glass bottle with red liquid inside.  He reached up with his forehooves to take ahold of the bottle and pulled the cork off with his teeth.  He pushed the open bottle to my mouth and held my head up so I could drink.

“Ah’m afraid Ah missed...”  I blinked at that as I opened my mouth to drink the health potion that he’d found Celestia-knows-where.  Stone missed a shot?  Impossible!  “Ah was actually aimin’ for his head,” he said, giving me a sheepish grin.  I snorted in laughter, nearly choking on the thing he’d given me to save my life.

“Close enough...” I managed to sputter out after clearing my throat and getting my breath back.  Already I could feel the potion beginning to heal my wounds, stopping the flow of blood, knitting my bones back together, and easing the pain that went along with all that.  Gritting my teeth, I felt another pain, small and sharp.  I looked over to see a vial of Med X in Stone’s hoof.  At once, the pain faded and I lay back on the ground.  Well, for a moment at least, until I remembered Balefire.  I waved a hoof towards the store.  “Balefire’s inside... he got shot...”

“I’m fine, boss,” a tired voice said from that same doorway.  My ears perked up and I tried to lean up a bit more to see better.  With Stone’s help, I managed to rise to a sitting position, and spotted the dark green unicorn stumbling out through the store’s doorway.  His revolvers were holstered at his side and he was leaning on Carrion, who had a foreleg around his fellow unicorn to help him walk.  There was something about him that was different and it wasn’t until I noticed how much duller the glow from his horn was that I figured it out.  I arched a brow and waved a hoof to a dark hat resting atop his horned head.  Seeing the look, the young buck grinned and tipped it back with a hoof.  “Seemed a shame to let such a nice hat go to waste, since he doesn’t need it anymore.  Besides, helps me blend in with the rest of you,” he said with a nod of his head towards the body of Buford.

Carrion rolled his glowing orange eyes and allowed the young buck to sit down on the top step of the porch.   Balefire rested against the wooden support beam while the ghoul trotted down into the street and looked over to me.  “Well, I have to admit... you're crazier than Wildfire.”

“Ah think Ah’ll keep outta this conversation,” Stone said with a chuckle, looking back over to me as he produced another health potion from his saddlebag and helped me drink it. 

Hell, I could go for a twenty four hour nap after all that.  I laid back on the warm dry gravel road, staring up once more at the sky and the drifting grey clouds.  A moment later, an orange shape zipped past the vast grey wall before dropping down towards us.  With only the rustle of feathers to announce her arrival, an orange mare landed lightly beside me.

“Good plan, handsome.  That’ll keep you outta trouble in the future.”  Wild flashed a grin and wink towards Stone before she looked over the rest of us, her blue eyes settling on me.  A slender orange hoof rose up to nudge me in the side and her grin grew.  “Now, if you boys are finished relaxing, there’s still a lot to do before the sun decides to take another early nap.” 

“No rest for the wicked, eh?” I asked, sitting the second empty glass bottle down beside me as I rose fully to my hooves.  Despite the healing power, it would take my body a couple hours to fully repair all the damage it had suffered, but with the Med X flowing through my system, I at least wouldn’t feel it.

“Or the heroes,” Wild added with a smile towards me. 

I snorted softly to that and shook my head slowly.  It seemed my long nap would have to wait.  

 As I thought, once word of Buford’s death had reached the surviving bandits, their will to fight quickly broke.  Most of them fled the town, seeking safety within the surrounding mountains and hills of the wasteland rather than face the wrath of the ponies who’d just kicked their flanks; a group of ponies who just so happened to be on their last legs.  If they’d decided to make a fight of it, I’m not sure how well we would have fared, but fate seemed to smile on us.  That, or the bandits were simply cowards at heart and had no real stomach for a fight.

Of my group of friends, Balefire and I were the worst ones off, myself being a bit more banged up than the unicorn.  He’d been lucky; the shot had simply grazed his neck, and he’d lost his hoofing and fell down the stairs.  The blood I’d seen had been caused by his wound being struck so many times by the stairs on his way down.  Everypony had suffered a number of grazing shots, minor cuts, and bruises.  Stone had been shot in his shoulder by a small 9mm pistol, but that had hardly slowed the large earth pony down.

I, of course, had suffered a number of injuries, like I always do.  Most of them had been blows to my head and chest, along with a number of deep cuts and bruising.  Broken ribs, a twisted ankle, a shattered leg bone, and of course, a broken nose and cheek.  Luckily, I was getting used to being hit in the face, a fact Wild had commented upon while she wrapped my face in healing bandages.  Yeah, most of the bandits we’d killed had a number of health potions and other items on them.  I always wondered why the raiders we killed never seemed to use them... I’d thought it was because they were raiders, and thinking was hardly their strong point.  But these bandits had also failed to use them.  Perhaps there were dumber ponies than me running around?

The last holdouts of the gang were driven from the bank by Wild, Stone, and Carrion an hour after the shootout had begun, ending with the deaths of two more Blackhoof divisions.  Surprisingly, not all of the gang had been killed or fled the town during the fighting.  Two actually survived their wounds and found themselves on the losing side.  Despite Wild’s and Carrion’s suggestion to simply kill them both and put them out of our misery, I decided not to stoop to the bandits’ level and instead had them bound tightly.  They would be taken back to Tombstone to stand trial for their crimes against the town.  Even in the wasteland there had to be some form of Justice.  

At that, Carrion snorted and trotted off, leaving Wild to explain that wasteland justice was found at the end of a gun.  Perhaps she was right, but I wasn’t about to start killing unarmed prisoners.  

While the others cornered the last holdouts in the bank, Balefire and I went back to check on the settlers.  Luckily, during the entire fight, not a single one of the settlers was injured, largely due to the fact that they kept their heads down during most of it.  Now that the shooting had stopped, they began to emerge from the barn, looking around worriedly and unsure which side had won.  Needless to say, Willow and the others were overjoyed to see us trotting up to the barn and hurriedly rushed out to thank us.  The stronger of the settlers began to assist us with our next task: the stolen loot.

It seemed the bandits had not attempted to open the heavy vault door, as the bank looked exactly the way we’d left it, with empty shell casings and drying red pools of blood scattered about the floor.  A good thing, too, as Balefire had said while working on the locks.  If the bandits had attempted to force the door open, a lot of things inside could have been damaged or completely destroyed. He pointed out that while the more robust electric locks would not have engaged due to there being no power, the manual locks were just as tight.  In the end, while it took nearly his entire supply of pins (and a couple of mine) and an hour of work, Balefire did eventually manage to pick all of the locks, proving his cutie mark was more than just for show.  The hour was not wasted, however, for while he had been working and I’d been watching his back (the bandits could have simply been regrouping to try and take back the town), the others had gone off to complete a few tasks of their own.

Wildfire had flown back to the sky chariot, not wanting to leave such a valuable piece of old-world tech just sitting around in the desert with the scattered remains of the Blackhoof gang wandering about.  She returned twenty minutes later saying she’d spotted what looked like a stagecoach making tracks towards the north.  It likely belonged to the surviving gang, but none of us were in any shape to go after it and, luckily, Wild had not decided to tried to deal with it herself.

The sky chariot now sat near the front of the bank, as Willow and a few other mares began loading the bulk of the medical supplies inside.  Wild would fly them back to Tombstone, along with the more heavily-wounded settlers, as soon as it was loaded.  She would then warn the town of the stagecoach and tell them we’d saved their supplies.

For the past hour, while Wild had been away getting the chariot, Stone and Carrion had seen to the wagons near the saloon.  With the help of the brahmin, we had most of them pulled in front of the bank, ready to take the settlers and supplies across the desert back to Tombstone.  

The brahmin had been more than willing to assist us since Willow had spoken to them that morning about helping us deal with the Blackhoofs.  If it hadn’t been for them, we never would have managed to take down one of Buford’s snipers.  Even after prying a board loose on the side of the barn, we never would have gotten Carrion out into the corral without the large bulk of the two headed cows to hide behind.  Then, while the bandits’ attention had been fixed upon us opening the barn doors and making a fine show of trotting out, Carrion could have never run across the open space to the other end without first holding onto the side of Mabel and letting her carry him over to the edge of the fence.  Once there, he had slipped quietly over the broken fencing and across the street while the bandits had focused fully on us.

After getting Mabel and her sisters hitched up to the wagons, Stonehoof and Carrion had gone off to search the saloon that the Blackhoofs had been using as their home.  It was very likely the gang had amassed a pile of loot within their rooms, and perhaps most of this would be items we ourselves could keep to restock our supplies of ammo, food and water.  However, there was far more than just a wealth of guns, ammo, and stolen loot inside the saloon.  There was, in fact, a far more important discovery waiting inside, in the form of a half dozen slaves: five mares and one stallion.  They’d been chained to beds throughout the saloon, and had listened to the sound of fighting throughout the town.  Most had been afraid they’d be left to starve to death, or be killed by the local wildlife that would surely swarm the town once the fighting had stopped. 

Thus, they were understandably grateful when somepony beside the Blackhoofs or raiders showed up in their rooms.  They more than happily told their rescuers the locations of hidden stashes of ammo and medical supplies, along with where they kept small bags of caps.  In the end, most of the items recovered from within the saloon belonged either to Tombstone or the settlers, but there was enough left for us to resupply ourselves.

As the rescued slaves joined the rest of us at the bank, they began to tell us their story.  Seems they’d been bought from the blackhearted stallion, Shackles, a couple months ago and had been there ever since.  They had been payment for something the Blackhoofs had done for the slavers.  They told us that the Blackhoofs had indeed been planning on selling the settlers to Shackles, for a hefty sum of caps.  Willow had paled at the news, and hugged her daughter tightly at the thought of either of them ending up as the five mares had.

Before returning to the bank, however, Stonehoof found somepony else within the saloon we’d not expected to see again: Roy, the stallion who had most likely sold us and his neighbors out to the Blackhoofs.  For what, we could only guess, but I believe Wild and Stone were right when they said it had likely been for caps.  Well, he’d not be selling anypony else out ever again, not with his throat slit and his body used for target practice behind the saloon.  Stone left him there to rot... an act I found myself unable to disagree with.

Sadly,  there was no sign of either the slaver or Buford’s large brother, so both must have been among the five or so ponies that had managed to escape.  They had likely been on that stagecoach fleeing northward, and it seemed unlikely we’d be seeing either of them again.

The sun did not set suddenly today.  Instead, it slowly made its way across the sky as it had done the first week I’d been upon the surface.  I also learned that it was not an unusual occurrence either.  Without the Princesses to guide them, the sun and moon rose and fell at their own whim, and sometimes would be in the sky at the same time for several hours... or even days.  Just another oddity of the wasteland I’d have to get used to it seemed.  One of many.

However, now wasn’t the time to be thinking of that.  Now it was simply time to head back to Tombstone.  Wild had already left an hour earlier, promising to come back as soon as she’d dropped off the supplies and wounded to the clinic in town.  

Tiredly, I climbed up into the wagon.  The Med X had worn off a few hours ago, and the aches and pains of my body were starting to catch up with me.  The sun was just beginning to set in the west, turning the normally grey clouds a softer white.  Off to the east, those clouds turned a darker grey as night began to settle.  A cool breeze began picking up as the wasteland settled in for the night.  I held my head up, allowing the cool wind to rustle my fur and mane.  I smiled and settled down into the seat, before glancing over my shoulder at the sleeping ponies nestled together in the back.  My eyes then lifted to the wagon behind me, and the sight of Willow at the driver’s seat.  Her daughter lay sleeping beside her.

 We’d left Tombstone with a single sky chariot of five ponies and the hopes of the townsfolk that we’d recover their supplies.  We were returning with six wagons, over three dozen battered but alive ponies, Tombstone’s stolen winter supplies, and everything that had not been nailed down in the bank or town.

Stonehoof had made sure of that.

Turning back, I gave a nod to Mabel, who began pulling the wagon towards the road.

No rest for the wicked... or heroes, indeed...



*     *     *     *     * 



Once more, we found our approach to Tombstone attracting a fair deal of attention.  I lifted my head towards the walled town and scanned its length for any pony among those gathered I might know.  However, we were still too far away for me to make out much.  I doubted the focus of our arrival was due to our means of transportation.  After all, the town once had frequent visits from caravans traveling out of the north and west, along with those going south across the border.  So the sight of five wagons loaded down with boxes of supplies, while no longer routine, would be no cause for so much fuss.  Nor could their sudden interest be for those that rode within the wagons; we were all ponies.  No griffons, zebras, nor buffalos among us to stand out from the townsfolk and draw their multicolored eyes to our row of wagons.  

Behind those curious onlooking heads, smoke from cooking fires drifted lazily above the roofs of homes and businesses, rising into the darkening sky.  I lifted my gaze from the rows of ponies to that overcast threatening sky.  It was beginning to look as if rain would be a possibility sometime soon.  The storm clouds had been gathering for the past several hours, out of the west.  Dark and ominous things, similar to the storm that had approached my friends and I near Steeldome.  A brief flash of white lightening arched across the dark clouds, forking about wildly.  My gaze was pulled away from the sudden light show to a spot of color that had appeared above the town.  Or rather, soared into the sky as quickly as that bolt.  I smirked and tilted my head a bit to the side as I continued my earlier train of thought.

No, it was most definitely not one of those reasons the townsfolk had gathered atop the walls to see us arrive  We were neither travelers or strangers.  I had a feeling the reason for the gathering had something to do with the orange pegasus darting out overtop the town’s defensive wall.  The orange shape dropped down close to the ground and flew towards us.  Even from this distance, I could tell she was grinning.

“Looks like your friend’s gonna have some company, don’tcha know?” called a feminine, yet deep voice just ahead of me.  I looked down to see one of Mabel’s two heads looking up towards the incoming orange streak while the other watched the road ahead.  I smirked to the brahmin and nodded my head, tipping my hat back with a hoof as I looked back to the rapidly approaching pegasus.

“I suppose you're right.  Hopefully she lets us get into town before dragging him off to the hotel,” I answered.  I wouldn’t put it past Wild to snatch up her stallion and fly him back into Tombstone, and back to the activities they had been forced to leave.  I chuckled at the image of the slender pegasus hauling the large bulk of Stone about the sky.  I looked back towards the town and the rapidly approaching mare.  With a flap of her wings, she slowed and banked wide to drift over the wagon.  

“Well, you lot made good time,” Wild called out a greeting as she circled the wagon once before dropping down to fly slowly beside me.  Her wings kicked up a bit of dust as they flapped so near the ground.  “Seems I won’t have to worry about coming back to check on you.  I just arrived a few hours ago; been helping them unload the wagon for most of it.” 

“I trust you had nothing to do with that?” I asked, waving a hoof to the wall and the ponies lining the top.  The mare turned her head towards the wall, ears flicking to the side a bit as her grin remained.

“Well, I may have mentioned we’d kicked the Blackhoofs’ flank all the way to Canterlot and back... and we’d saved their supplies... and a bunch of prisoners...” she smirked and flipped upside down.  She flew slowly around the wagon once more, forcing me to turn my head to keep my eyes on her.  “I may have also told every single mare and some not-so-single mares that you killed ten bandits unarmed with your bare hooves and you’ve got the stamina of a long distance runner.”

“Uh huh...” I said, rolling my eyes as I finally gave up and instead turned back around in my seat.  Mabel chuckled deeply, but continued to steadily trot up the rough dirt road.  A sudden lurch of the wagon nearly sent me tumbling off and into the road before I got myself steady once more and back on the seat.  I turned my head back to look and see what we hit.  The left side rear wheel had slipped into a deep rut, causing the whole wagon to shake and groan in protest.  If we’d been going faster, we could have broken the wheel.  As it was, we were lucky Mabel hadn’t stepped in it and twisted her hoof.  Behind us, the other wagons began to slow to a halt.

“So sorry there, didn’t see it until it was too late.” Mabel said with a soft chuckle and bow of her twin heads.  I turned back and saw her getting ready to haul us out and braced my hooves on the wooden seat.  The brahmin’s own large, wide hooves once again began to dig into the soft gravel and soil surface of the road, easily pulling us free of the rut in seconds.  Her stamina, along with her large frame, meant she had little issue with hauling us across the terrain.  Since setting out from Oddwick, we’d not had to stop once.  It was a testament to the brahmin’s strength and endurance.  It put us earth ponies to shame and had explained why we had not been that far behind Wild.  Once we were back underway, Wild continued to explain about the ponies lining the wall.  It did not set me at ease in the least. 

“I figured it’d do them some good.”  Wild had once more settled into drifting beside me, wings flapping steadily to hold her aloft.  I arched a brow and looked over to my friend.  Catching my look, she shrugged her shoulders (since her wings were busy).  “There’s more than storm clouds hanging over the town.”  She jerked her muzzle back towards the wall.  “I honestly have no idea what all’s happened.  As soon as I arrived, Spirit and the town doctor took the wounded from me and got them inside the clinic, but while helping one of the nurses with some of the medical supplies, she let it slip that a couple ponies died last night.  One of the other nurses told me that there’d been some more problems with bandits, but that we’d have to talk with the mayor.”

“More problems?  Did the ones who got away...”  A snort from Mabel silenced me, and I looked back to the cow as she turned one of her heads towards me.

“They would have been forced to stop a couple hours ago, don’tcha know?  We woulda overtaken them before reaching Tombstone.”

“She’s right, and I didn’t see anything on the flight into town.  No signs of that stagecoach anywhere,” Wild added, agreeing with what Mabel had said.  “They likely went either west or east to try and avoid Tombstone entirely.  Shame, was looking forward to blowing the head off a slaver... ah, well, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure those mares kept their hooves off my pony.”  She gave me a wink before pulling a 180 and zooming off towards the rear of the column.

Pulling my attention from my thoughts and trying (but failing) to stifle a laugh at the sudden cry of Stonehoof in the rear of the column as he was suddenly set upon by a winged pony, I looked back to Tombstone and the approaching gate.  Once we’d gotten close enough, the two rusted slabs of metal and wood began to open wide, allowing us to see into the streets of the town.  One of the gates had a set of wheels underneath it to help ease the strain on the ponies pulling the chains. 

As we drew closer to the now wide open gate, a few ponies along the wall began to cheer for us, waving their hooves and, in some cases, their hats at us as we passed under them.  The noise awakened a number of sleeping forms behind me as Mabel pulled us through the gate and into the town itself.

“What's going on?  Are we under attack?!” a mare’s voice asked.  It belonged to one of the slaves Stone and Carrion had freed in the saloon.  I turned back towards her.  The fidgety green unicorn eyed the cheering ponies above her, ears laid back in fright.  She turned her pink eyes back to me and cocked her head.

“No, they’re just thankful to see us,” I answered.  “Or rather, their winter supplies,” I added as the cheering began to grow as more ponies joined in.  More hats were tossed and a couple of shots were let loose into the sky, causing the frightened former slave to duck back into the wagon.  Thankfully, the street ahead was largely clear of traffic and cheering ponies.  I leaned over to catch Mabel's attentioned and called out, “Take the road straight ahead, Mabel.  We’re going to drop the settlers off at the clinic, then the supplies off at the bank.”  The brahmin simply nodded both her heads and continued to move up the street.  Behind us, more of the wagons began rolling into town through the open gate, met with much the same greeting as we had.

Beyond the gate stretched the street I had chased the bandits’ stagecoach down.  Most of the buildings on this street were homes or former stores turned into homes.  The sidewalk on either side was lined with ponies, watching as we rode into town.  A few waving, a few smiling, and a few just watching.  Here or there was the odd pony wearing combat armor and carrying a heavier weapon than the normal townsfolk’ well maintained assault rifles and hunting rifles, along with a couple battle saddles.  It looked similar to the deputies’ equipment, minus the badge.  These must have been the town guard, the ones patrolling the wall and keeping watch.

As we continued on towards the intersection of the street, the bank came into view as it sat at the end of the row.  The doors opened as we rolled past them and Rich, along with his personal assistant, stepped out onto the sidewalk to watch us pass by.  The stallion did not cheer as a few townsfolk around him did (personally I wondered if the pony even knew how to smile.)  His eyes were fixed upon the wagons hauling the town’s stolen supplies.  I suppose I could understand where he was coming from.  He was the one responsible for the town’s winter foodstuffs and personal effects, after all.  From what I had gathered, it had been something of a family business, and he had had those things taken away from him at gunpoint.  He was likely eager to have them locked safely back inside his vault, away from anypony looking to snatch them while they were out in the open.

The slender white mare beside Very Rich, Snowdrop I believe her name was, smiled towards the row of wagons passing her, even waving a hoof to me.  I gave the white coated mare a wave in return, before I remembered what Wild had said she’d told the mares of the town.  I dropped my hoof back to the seat and turned away from the unicorn, lest she get the wrong idea.  I looked across the street towards the Sheriff’s Office instead, and spotted a couple of familiar and welcome faces among the gathered crowd.  It was rather easy to spot them among the ponies.  They stood out like a sore hoof among my fellow brightly-colored equines that surrounded both sides of them along the sidewalk.  It helped that they also stood a full head taller than most ponies.

Razor and Griff, the mercenary griffons we had rescued from the prison train, stepped from the front door of the Sheriff’s Office and walked along the sidewalk.  The pair looked up and over the heads of the crowd to spot me.  Razor’s face remained blank, but Griff’s beak broke into a grin as he spotted me atop the lead wagon.  Calling out behind him, the griffon made his way between the crowd and down onto the well-worn dirt street.  His aunt quickly set off beside him.  Following the pair closely were Sprak and Jury Rig, the last two surviving members of the Razors mercenary unit.  Before they got too far, however, somepony opened the Sheriff’s Office door and called out to them, causing them to stop and turn back to whoever it was. 

The last time I’d seen any of them had been just after we’d arrived in Tombstone.  The locals had went to greet them, having worked with caravans passing through the town.  The last I’d heard of the group was as we were preparing to leave Tombstone for Oddwick.  They had gone off to help Sheriff Sweetshot with the ambush that the bandits had set up for the lawmare.  If they were back in town, then the friendly Sheriff should be as well.  I could then unload the two prisoners we had with us on her and be done with them.

Mabel slowly brought us to a stop at the end of the street and I looked up, before I noticed we’d arrived at the clinic.  The familiar white two story wooden building sat beside me on the right.  The majority of its formerly broken windows were repaired, judging by the quick look I gave them.  As I rose up to drop down to the street below, the clinic’s door opened and a couple more familiar faces appeared from within the building.  Spirit set hoof onto the sidewalk and looked over the wagons parking along it in wonder.  Upon seeing me, she bowed her horned head in greeting and offered me a warm, if not tired, smile.  Behind the large buffalo trotted Doc Mitchell, along with a couple of nurses.  It seemed the medical staff of the little town clinic had grown since last I was here.  Or perhaps there’d always been that many and I’d just not seen them before.

“Well, I see your reputation for doing what most think impossible is well founded,” the pegasus doctor said as he looked over the wounded ponies climbing out of the wagons.  His wings rustled a bit at the sight of some of them.  “Just when I thought I’d have some time off,” he snorted before trotting off, calling out to his nurses to hurry up.  He stopped before he got too far, turning back to look at me.  “Good job, by the way,” he said quickly before turning back to the wounded.  Spirit watched him walk off before turning back to me.

“I told him you would return as you promised the mayor, and that you would bring their stolen good back to them.”  The buffalo’s smile widened a bit.  “After all, promises seem very important to you.”

 “My mother always told my sister and I to never make a promise unless we intended to keep it,” I answered, standing up in the wagon’s seat and dropping down over the side and onto the street.  My hooves sent up a small cloud of dust as I landed.  Sadly, there would be one promise I’d have to break.

“A pony of his word.  Such things are rare within the wasteland, as I am sure you are well aware,” my large friend said, eyes scanning the ponies as they climbed from the wagons.  Nurses helped those with sleeping children as best they could, while Doc Mitchell looked at the more heavily wounded.  “The town will be most greatful that you have returned their supplies to them.  However, I am unsure of their feelings towards those you have brought with you.”

I followed her eyes over towards Willow and her child as they climbed down from their wagon with the aid of the nurse who had seen to me.  Around them milled worried mares and their young foals, looking about the town with a slight bit of fear and uncertainty.  After all, they’d been told to expect no help from Tombstone.  For a while, it had probably seemed true.  No doubt they would want to go to their husbands, brothers, and friends sitting within the town’s jail, to see them and make sure they were still alive.  I had been unable to tell them if their loved one was one of the many who had died while storming the town.  Given Spirit’s words,  I was unsure how wise it would be to let them go off to the jail.  I sighed and shook my head, looking back to my own wagon and helping one of the former slaves to climb down.

“Perhaps it shall just take time, my friend.  Time we do not have, not if you wish to return to your own friends and family waiting for you within the large pony city to the west,” Spirit pressed on.  She stepped up beside me to help the young abused mare I’d gotten from the wagon, to make her way towards the clinic door.  

Watching them, I turned slowly to look over the crowd that had gathered around us.  Most were smiling and thanking my friends as they helped the wounded settlers, but a few were giving the injured ponies dark looks.  Stone raised a hoof and pushed one stallion away from the wounded ponies in the rear cart.  Doctor Mitchell moved to stand beside the large gray earth pony.  I snorted and shook my head.  She was right, of course.  It would take the townsfolk a long time to accept the settlers once more.  A lot of damage had been done to their trust in that unprovoked attack.  Their supplies had been stolen, ponies were attacked and some even killed.  I suppose it would be foolish to think there’d not been consequences for those events.  The mares and foals, however... they could hardly be called killers.  I had faith that no matter the amount of anger, nopony could blame them.  But what if they did?  I couldn’t exactly stay here, and why should they listen to me?  I mean, I wasn’t anypony they should or would listen to.  Just a security pony a long, long way from his stable.

“Everything alright?” a voice called out from behind.  I turned to see Balefire trotting down the sidewalk towards me, helping a mare with a bandaged hoof along the sidewalk.  Behind the young unicorn, Carrion trotted along, being followed by a couple of curious foals who were amazed at the ghoul pony.  Once or twice, I saw a colt get brave enough to try and touch the stallion’s rotting hoof before glowing orange eyes turned on him, and he would drop his small hoof back to the sidewalk.  Behind them, the last of the settlers were being helped by Stone and Wild.  Meanwhile, the doctor spoke to several townsfolk, looking to try and smooth things over with them.  Most of the settlers seemed ready for their month-long nightmare to finally be over, and I prayed they’d not have to face the town’s anger.

“I’m not sure... there could be some trouble with the townsfolk over the attack.  I get the feeling we’ll want to get them inside the clinic as soon as possible.” 

“It’s a hard thing to forgive blood spilled,” Carrion said as the foals hurried after their mothers.  The ghoul’s eyes passed from pony to pony before he looked over to the gathering townsfolk.  The undead unicorn turned his head to look back down the row of carts as voices began to increase in volume from where Doc Mitchell and some of the townsfolk stood.  The pegasus’ eyes were narrowed and his wings open as he stood beside a couple of larger earth ponies.

“They killed my friend, and we’re just gonna let ’em walk around like it ain’t nuthin’?” one of the earth ponies was asking, rather loudly, earning the attention of several of the skittish mares who hurriedly pushed their children towards the clinic door.  Spirit had stepped back out and was holding it open for them.  The stoic and mostly silent buffalo watched the yelling match.

“They’re not going to be just walking around, not in their condition at any rate.  They will be staying in the clinic.  As for whether they are welcome in town, that’s up to the mayor and the judge to decide, not the town's loudest pony,” Mitchell responded, not seeming to back down from the large stallion.

“Well, Ah say that ain’t good enough.  Th’ mayor ain’t gonna do nothin’ anyway,” the loud mouthed stallion said, ears laying back in anger.  His hoof came up to shove the smaller pegasus doctor back a couple steps.  “Should string ’em all up in th’ jail, not just th’ ones the judge said was guilty.  They’re all guilty of attackin’ us, stealin’ our food... how we suppose ta know if they ain’t just gonna stab us in th’ back first chance they got?  Ah think we should make sure they can’t.”  Unsurprisingly, several ponies around the earth pony were nodding their heads in agreement.  After all, he was only saying what a good deal of them seemed to feel.

“Ah reckon we oughta put a stop ta this, ‘fore it gets outta hoof,” Stone said, standing up to do just that.  I agreed.  Thus far nopony had been hurt, but with tempers high it was only a matter of time.  But before we could take a half dozen steps towards the gathering, somepony, or rather someone, else took care of it.  A good thing too, as the doctor was about to get a punch in the face.

The raised hoof never landed, as a clawed hand wrapped about the limb and stopped it mid flight towards the wide eyed pegasus.  The owner of the hoof gave out a startled cry at the strong grip and looked back into the face of a not-so-happy Razor.  The female griffon easily hauled the large muscle bound earth pony right off his remaining foreleg as she stood up with her wings flared.  The stallion’s eyes went wide and his hind legs began to shake.  Stepping up beside his aunt, Griff smiled pleasantly to the pony.

“Now, my aunt’s not known for her patience, so trust me when I say you're seconds away from requiring the good doctor’s talents at mending a couple broken bones.”  Stepping away from his aunt and between the crowd and the doctor, he turned and continued to smile.  “That goes for anyone attempting to take the law into their own hands... or hooves, in your cases.”

From the back of the crowd an either brave or very stupid pony called out, “What's it any business of yers, ya ain’t th’ law round here!”

“For the time being, my aunt and our companions are just as much the law as your deputies.  The mayor’s asked us to assist the local law enforcement ponies as well as your own town guard in getting things back on track around here.”  That got their attention in a hurry, along with mine.  Had they lost that many in the attacks?  “Now, if you’ll please all return to your homes or go about your business and allow the good doctor to go about his.”  With a nod to his aunt, the powerful griffon opened her clawed hand and allowed the pony to drop back to all four hooves, nearly resulting in him falling face first into the dirt.  While I’m sure this wouldn’t be the end of things, the crowd of ponies largely disbanded and began filtering back to their shops or elsewhere in town.  As they did, I got a better look at the griffons and the two ponies that traveled with them who had been covering the crowd from the rear.  

They’d been using piecemeal raider weapons and bits of armor the last time I’d seen them.  Now, however, it appeared they’d found far better replacements.  The broken and battered armor they’d been wearing looked to have been recently repaired, the missing bits replaced with salvaged raider armor.  The pale green armor and clothing with the bright yellow stripes they’d been wearing when I’d first seen them was now matched with bits of black and red armor plating.  Luckily, all of the former raider accessories- ears, hooves, eyes, and the like- had been removed, along with a good deal of the spikes.  Their formerly empty weapon holsters were now home to an impressive array of small arms and knifes.  

The rusted and near worthless assault rifles they’d been using had also been replaced.  Razor sported a large-barreled weapon that, if I didn’t know better (and I’m not sure that I did), looked like it belonged on a damned mount of some sort.  It bore a massive banana style clip which was open in the middle, revealing some large rounds inside.  Her nephew carried far more manageable weapons: a standard issue Equestrian assault rifle, with what looked like a grenade launcher mounted below, hanging from around his neck in the manner that I wore Luna’s Ruse.  Swung over the younger griffon’s shoulder was a simple pump action shotgun.  Sparks also had an assault rifle over her neck, though it was missing Griff’s add-on (I idly wondered if I could find myself one of those).  Beyond this, she had far more pistols strapped to her armor than anyone else.  Lurking in the unicorn’s shadow was Juryrig, whose only weapon I could see was a simple 9mm pistol holstered against her chest.  However, she had a large number of packs across her small frame.  In short, the four appeared to be a walking armory and looked the part of mercenaries quite well.

“Well, it looks like you guys actually pulled it off... Razor and I were just talking about coming to check on you lot when that your winged friend dropped in with her fancy chariot,” Griff said as he walked down the row of wagons towards us, that smile still on his beak.  “Had a rough time I take it?” he asked, waving a clawed hand towards my bloody armor and jumpsuit.  There’d been no time to wash up before setting off.  There’d also been no clean water to use, and I wasn’t about to use any of our drinking water for something like this.  I snorted and nodded my head.

“You could say that, but I doubt the town will be needing to worry about the Blackhoofs for a while,” I answered as the last of the crowd moved away from the clinic.  The pair of troublemakers from earlier gave the backs of the griffons the evil eye.  “We took care of most of the gang.  A few got away, but without access to their supplies or one of their leaders, I doubt they’ll cause much trouble for anypony for awhile.”

“Wildfire told us you killed Buford.  Nasty son of a bitch, had dealings with him before.  Good riddance to ’em.  At this point, I don’t think the townsfolk could handle any more problems than what they’ve had in the past couple days,” Griff said, looking over to the ponies we passed on the road.  Like the crowd around the clinic, most of them had started back to their homes.  I arched a brow and looked a little closer at them myself.

Despite the welcome we were getting, I saw some of the same looks I’d seen in the troublemakers’ eyes a few minutes ago.  Wild’s words came back to me and a knot was beginning to form in my stomach as I watched their faces pass.  While a good number of them had cheered, a equally large number were giving some of us a dark look.

“I get the feeling a lot more happened than I know... what happened after we left, Griff?  Wild said she’d heard talk of more ponies dying, and I heard just now that stallion talking about stringing ponies up?”  Griff had this look in his eyes as if he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure how to begin or even if he should.  I waited to see if he would eventually say something.  Finally after several more seconds of silence, he spoke up.

“It’s not really my place to say.  The mayor, however, wishes to speak to you as soon as possible.  I know most of what he’s going to tell you will answer your questions.”  He waved a clawed hand towards the building ahead of us.  “We’ll be keeping an eye on the ponies you brought back with you, make sure nopony bothers them while they’re being treated.  Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose,” he added, shrugging his wings a bit.

“You’re really working for the town then?” I asked as my mind mulled over what he’d said.  The mayor would explain everything, and it was clear they’d been expecting trouble long before we returned with the settlers.  I also had an idea what stringing a pony up meant, and it had been directed at the captured ponies in the jailhouse.  That knot in my stomach was growing.

“Yeah, the mayor asked us to stay and give them a hand getting the town’s defences set back up.  Giving us free room and board, along with three square meals a day for all four of us.  Razor talked it over with us.  Well, she had me do the talking anyway.  It’s a good deal for both the town and ourselves.”  The male griffon looked over at his companions before adding, “After what happened out with that caravan and the raiders, I’d say we could use a little rest for awhile.”

“I know the feeling,” I said simply and looked over at my own friends.  We were all tired and ready to drop.  To them I added, “Why don’t the rest of you go get some sleep.  I’ll go see the mayor and get things straightened out, and then meet you at the saloon.”  Wild merely grinned and sidestepped into Stone’s shoulder.

“Come on handsome, there’s a couple more bottles of Wild Pegasus over at the Drunken Mare with our names on it.”  She leaned in and nuzzled from his jaw up behind his ear, purring “And I still owe you for that impressive shooting display you did.”  Tugging on his saddlebags with a hoof, the winged pony lifted into the air and headed off towards the saloons.  Stone started to follow before he looked back to me, and I simply nodded my head with a smile, waving a hoof at him.

“I could actually go for something to drink and eat as well,” Balefire said, yawning a bit before giving me a nod and trotting off after the others.  Carrion, after a moment’s silence, merely left and headed into town on his own business.  That left me and the four mercenaries outside the clinic.  The doctor had already gone inside sometime while we’d been talking, and the sun had finally set.

“The mayor’s at town hall, just at the end of the street,” Griff answered my unasked question, pointing a clawed finger down the street where my friends had just left.  “Large three-story brick and wood building with a small tower, ya can’t miss it.”

“Thanks for keeping an eye on them, Griff.  They’ve had a rough time.”  The griffon nodded his head slowly and seemed to want to say something else, but couldn't for whatever reason.  He sighed and finally began telling the others to head on into the clinic.  

Griff was right, you couldn’t miss it; it was right smack dab in the middle of where the street ended along, with smaller buildings on either side.  Like much of the town, and indeed every building in the wasteland, the paint was faded and peeling.  There were a number of cracks and broken bits along the trim, windows, and doors, but its roof seemed solid.  A set of stairs led up to the double doors, and I hurriedly trotted up them to meet with the mayor.

Only the left side door appeared to be working.  The other had been nailed shut sometime in the past, judging by the rust stains on the faded brown paint.  Pushing the door open, I stepped into the lobby of the large building and looked around.  A few wooden benches lined either side of the room, with what looked like pots for long-dead plants.  Old photos and pictures hung from the faded yellow walls, while the ceiling was an off-white color.  In the center of the room was a red wooden desk, neatly organized with piles of paper and books.  A working terminal sat quietly beside a row of books on law (judging by the names on the spines).  Behind the desk sat an aged unicorn stallion, his features highlighted by the glowing green screen he worked on. 

As the door shut behind me, the blue-green stallion lifted his eyes from the terminal screen.  He looked over a pair of worn reading glasses with lenses that seemed to enlarge his already large orange eyes.  Arching a brow, he cleared his throat and cocked his ears towards me.

“Can Ah help ya?”

“I’m here to see the mayor.  My name’s Shadow,” I answered, trotting up to the desk and looking behind it as I came to a stop.  A large central staircase lead up to the second floor directly behind the desk.  On either side of it were four doors, two on each side.  Two faced the front door, the other lead off to each side of the building.

“Ah’m sorry, but th’ mayor’s not in any condition ta be seein’ anypony right now.  Ya’ll have ta come back tomorrow,” the older stallion said, looking back down to the terminal as he did. 

Condition?  What the hell was going on?  My ears swiveled back and I placed both forehooves upon the desk, pushing my face close to the pony sitting beside it.  I stared him in the eyes as I ever so politely refrained from swearing like Wild.

“Look, I’ve been getting the runaround since I got back into town.  Somepony’s going to answer my questions.  Now.”

“Ah... uh... Ah...”  Luckily there was somepony on hoof to save the focus of my ire, as a mare trotted out from one of the doors to the right of the desk.

“It’s alright, Clip, th’ mayor’s expectin’ th’ Marshall here for a meetin’,” Lucy said, stepping up to the desk.  She placed a hoof upon the older stallion’s shoulder and gently pushed him and his chair back from my face.  She turned to me and offered me a small smile in greeting.  “It’s good ta see th’ bandits didn’t hurt ya none, Marshall.  After what they did ta th’ town and out at th’ farm... well, some was beginnin’ ta think ya may’a been killed.”

As she placed herself between us, my eyes shifted from the source of my frustration to the deputy pony.  The mare looked tired; there were dark circles under her purple eyes, her armor and clothing had seen better days (more so than the norm for a pony living in the wasteland), her hat was covered in dust, and her teal mane and tail looked as if she’d just woken up from a bad dream.  However, there was something else about the mare that seemed off... I just couldn’t put my hoof on it...

“Almost didn’t make it back.  Luckily, my friend’s aim is better than that of the Blackhoofs’ leader,” I answered.  She turned and started to trot back the way she’d came, motioning for me to follow.  “What's going on around here, Lucy?”

“Nothin’ good, that’s for sure,” she said with a sigh, pushing the door open with her hoof and stepping inside.  I followed and found myself in what looked to be somepony’s office.  It included an assortment of furniture, from a large wooden desk near the back wall to tables, chairs, and couches.  It was actually quite nice and well organized.  As my focus returned to the mare, she walked over to one of the tables in the corner of the room.  Her horn glowed a light green as she lifted a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, pouring a generous amount into each.  She returned the stopper to the bottle and turned back to me.

“A lotta things went wrong after ya left, Marshall.  A lotta things changed for th’ town and th’ mayor.”  One of the glasses floated over to me and I sat down to take it in my hoof.  As I looked up to thank her, I finally noticed what was different about the deputy... she wasn’t a deputy.  At least not according to her new gold badge.  She was the sheriff.  Noticing my look, she glanced down to her armored chest and smiled sadly.  She lifted a hoof up to lightly touch the shining star gently.

“Not how Ah wanted ta get th’ job,” she said sadly before letting out a sigh and taking a drink from her glass.  “Th’ ambush th’ bandits set up was near perfect, from what Griff told us.  Had th’ farmhouse all set up waitin’ for Sheriff Sweetshot and anypony she brought with ’er.  Copper said it looked right peaceful enough when they first arrived, but that th’ family wasn’t anywhere outside.  They trotted on up ta th’ front of th’ house ta see if anypony was home when th’ first shots took out three of th’ others.  Copper and th’ Sheriff dove for cover behind a wagon and started returnin’ fire.”  Lucy turned and walked slowly across the office to one of the windows behind the desk.  “One of th deputies, Lulubell, was just wounded and th’ Sheriff tried ta get ta her...”

I closed my eyes and lowered my head.  The only sound was the tick-tock of a clock somewhere in the building and the distant rumble of thunder as the storm continued to build up in the mountains.  The wasteland had claimed yet another good pony, it seemed.  While I had not known the Sheriff well, she had seemed a nice enough mare and seemed to have the respect of her fellow townsfolk.

“By th’ time Griff and th’ others arrived,  it was just Copper and two others alive and about ta be overrun.  Th’ griffons tore inta th’ bandits, killin’ most of’em in th’ fight, takin’ a couple prisoners.  I wish they’d just killed th’ lot of ’em,” she added with a grunt and stomp of a forehoof.

“As do I,” a male voice said from my right.  Turning, I spotted the mayor stepping from the side room and shutting the door behind him.  I was rather surprised to see the kindly old stallion.  Given what had happened in the past twenty four hours or so, I’d have expected him to be home grieving.  Anypony else would be... but then, he did have a lot more responsibilities than any other pony.  I could relate to that.  He remained on his own hooves, somehow pushing himself onward for those looking to him in these troubling times for leadership.   As he stepped to what I assumed was his desk, I looked at how much he’d changed.  Given the circumstances, I could understand why.  

He was still dressed as he had been when we’d first left the town the morning before.  While his clothing could not have been called spotless, they had at least been clean and well cared for.  Now, the patchwork jacket he wore was covered in dirt, sweat, and dark red stains near the sleeves and chest: dried blood.  His stovepipe hat was still perched atop his head, but its look was dirty and appeared to have been sat on or stepped on.  The stallion’s mane and coat stood out in places, and he had dark circles under his normally bright eyes.  Gone was the warm smile I’d seen in the bank, replaced with a worn, tired look.  A look I knew all too well.

“Mayor, I’m sorry about your wife...” I began, before he held up a hoof to stop me.  He turned to look at me and simply nodded his head.

“I know you mean well, Marshall, but... I’ve heard that enough over the past several hours and it does nothing for the pain.”  He reached up and removed his battered hat, tossing it atop his desk as he sat down behind it with a tired sigh.  “I did not call you here because of what happened to my wife... I suppose it really hasn’t hit me just yet.”  He shook his head and a glowing glass full of whiskey floated before him.  “Thank you.”  He took the glass and nearly emptied it in one gulp.  After a few moments of silent, the mayor pressed on, “I need your help, Marshall, with fixing a mistake my fellow townsfolk have made.  One that my wife would not want us to repeat.”

“I’ll do what I can, Mayor,” I said simply, not sure what it was they expected me to do for them, beyond what I already had.  

“While we are not members of the Confederacy, we do try and follow their laws as best we can.  One of those laws is that everyone is to be given a fair trial by their peers.”  At this, Lucy snorted softly, earning a glance from the mayor.  However, he went on.  “Unlike most towns and settlements in the wasteland, we actually have a judge.  A friend of mine from back west.  We both traveled here from San Ponsisco a couple years back.  He became the Justice of the Peace and I took up teaching.  As might be expected, the members of the Blackhoof gang were found guilty of every charge that has been placed on them and their sentence will be carried out tomorrow morning.”  My ears perked to the word ‘sentence’.

“What's that?” I asked, but I had a feeling I already know what they’d decided to do with the surviving members of the gang.

“They’ll be hanged,” the mayor said simply.  “Either that or firing squad, but at the time we were unsure if you’d managed to return with our stolen supplies.  Those bullets would be better served defending the town.”

Well, I can’t argue with that judgement.  The Blackhoofs had done about as much harm to the town and outlying settlements as a band of raiders, perhaps more so.  At least with raiders you could see clearly they were evil bastards... that reminded me.

“They had help getting into town.  Somepony inside opened the gate for them.”  Both the mayor and Lucy nodded, before the mare spoke up.

“We know, we caught her tryin’ ta break the members of th’ gang outta the jail.  It was one of th’ Drunken Mare girls; she had a thing for one of th’ survivin’ gang.  Enough so ta kill two ponies she’d known all her life and betray th’ town she was born in.”  Lucy shook her head and sat down beside the desk.  “Ah grew up with ’er...”

“She was charged with much the same thing as the Blackhoofs and will be joining them tomorrow.  And therein is the problem.”

“When it came ta th’ prisoners we had in th’ jail, th’ ones from th’ attack ya helped us with, it was a might harder for ponies ta make up their mind.  Some wanted th’ lot of ’em hung, others wanted ’em shot, a couple wanted ’em forgiven since word got out about what ya found out from th’ one named Runner.”

“The number of ponies wanting them to stay with us here are small, perhaps only a dozen.  It would never be a real option,” the mayor broke in with a sigh and shake of his head.  “If we let them stay in town, their lives would be miserable.  If we kick them out of town... well, the wasteland is a harsh place and it may be more merciful to simply kill them.”  He leaned back in his seat, rubbing a hoof over his face tiredly.  They had few options it seemed.  Kill them or toss them out of town and let the wasteland kill them.  Then it struck me what the mayor needed from me.  I had another option to give them.

“You want me to take them with me to San Ponsisco?” I asked, figuring out what they wanted me for.  ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ Griff had said.  You couldn’t get fifty or more ponies more out of sight than across a mountain range in a distant city.  There was no question we had enough room on the train... if Doc Brown had managed to fix the engine, at any rate.  But this had been their home, and I said as much to the pair.  The mayor sighed and nodded his head, but it was Lucy who spoke.

“It is at that, and as long as Ah’m sheriff they’ll be welcome in town.  But Ah can’t watch ’em twenty four hours a day, and Ah can’t rightly lock a pony up cause they say things or refuse to sell ta other ponies... and th’ simple fact is that Ah’m not so sure after tomorrow if any of th’ settlers ya saved will want ta stay here.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.  That knot in my stomach grew tentacles and started squeezing my lungs.

“While most of th’ stallions we captured were guilty of thievery, assault, and th’ like.  While thievery is punishable by death, th’ mayor managed ta convince th’ townsfolk that if our roles had been reversed, they’d have done th’ same thin’.”  Desperate ponies are capable of just about anything.  “Two though... are directly responsible for the deaths of one of my deputies and a store owner, and that’s murder.”

I wanted to stand up and tell them that no, they had been tricked.  They had thought the townsfolk had turned on them and left them to die.  That it had been the Blackhoofs’ fault, who filled the settlers’ heads with lies after pretending to be raiders... but I did not.  For one simple reason: they were right.  Being a security pony back in Stable 45, I knew the law.  Or at least, the law that Equestria had obeyed over a hundred and fifty years ago.  Most crimes were punishable by jail time, community service, or rehabilitation.  Murder, however... there was little else that ponies had found so distasteful, ironically even as they killed zebras.  

Despite it all, despite everything that had been done to them, the settlers had still knowingly attacked Tombstone, carrying guns which they fired on unarmed ponies and deputies.  It would be naive of anypony to say they expected nopony to be hurt from such actions, especially when tempers had been flamed and judgement clouded.  In fact a good many had been injured, and two had been murdered in cold blood by a mare they likely had trusted.  More had died as a direct result of the supplies they had helped steal.

My shoulders slumped in defeat as I realized I could not come up with any good reason why those they’d found guilty of murder should be pardoned.  That they had families would not matter to the victims’ children or wives.  Despite the fact it had all been a group of ponies manipulating them, they had still knowingly killed somepony else.  The two watched me silently as I thought all this over, seeing my reaction.  Lucy turned away to look out into the street as the mayor meet my stare.  

“They’ll be hung tomorrow, along with everypony else that was found guilty,” the mayor spoke up again.  The sad look in his eyes was for not only himself, but also for the ponies on which he was about to inflict the same heartache that he’d just suffered.  “After we kill two of their husbands, I doubt they’ll want much else to do with us.  And I don’t blame them...”

The conversation drifted to the mares and foals I’d just brought in, about allowing the families of the condemned stallions a chance to see them before tomorrow morning.  I must admit, I really didn’t pay much attention to a lot of it.  I only nodded or shook my head when a question was asked of me.  Who would be the best pony to speak to about finding out the names of the families?  How would we approach the subject of them leaving Tombstone with my friends and I?  Luckily, Lucy volunteered to go speak with the mares at the clinic.  She felt it was her responsibility to look them in the eyes and tell them what was going on.  I was at least aware enough to know that despite the loss of Sweetshot, the town would not be without a fine sheriff.  However, I did not envy her job.

Once Lucy had left, the mayor then began outlining what would need to be done to see to the settlers’ safety if they decided to leave Tombstone with me.  I knew that word would sooner or later reach San Ponsisco and the Confederacy about what had happened.  He worried that the persecution that had surrounded them here would follow them to their new home.  To that end, he said he’d write a letter out to an old acquaintance of his who held a position of power in the city.  He would explain what had happened and ask him to try and ensure the settlers were given a fresh start.  For some, it might seem he was going well out of his way for these ponies, those who had harmed his town and his family, and I duly asked him why he’d do this.  After all, I’d been told so many times that ponies did not go out of their way to help strangers or even their neighbors.

“My wife was never the type of pony to hold a grudge against anypony.  Nor would she want so many lives to suffer for the mistakes of a hoof full, or the lies of others.  She would have forgiven them and attempted to help them get back on their own hooves so they could look after their families,” he said softly, a pencil held in between his teeth as he wrote out some letter for me to give to his friend in San Ponsisco.  “She told me once that she’d always wanted to be a sheriff when she was just a filly, so she could protect the ponies around her.”  He stopped writing and sat the pencil down.  “Said it just didn’t seem right to not help others.  Some townsfolk called her naive, foolish for believing that.  Most, however, respected her... myself included.”  He smiled sadly.  “It’s one of the reasons I was so taken with her when I first arrived in Tombstone.”

“I won’t let her death be the reason the town holds mothers and fathers accountable for simply attempting to look after their children.”  He picked the pencil back up in his teeth, ears flicked back against his skull and a determined look filling his eyes as he stared down at the letter.  “I won’t let them.”  He focused on his work after that, ignoring everything and everypony else in the building; even his assistant, the stallion I’d met in the lobby, who’d slipped into the office to see if the mayor required anything before he left for the evening.  

It wasn’t just a single letter he was writing, but several.  Only one of which would I be taking with me when we left Tombstone.  The others were meant for the town’s elected council of four ponies.  From what little I could piece together from Clip, it was a system similar to that we had in place back home in Stable 45.  Gearbox and the others would have their say on what the ponies under them needed, and my sister would insure it was in the best interest of the Stable and for all the ponies living inside it.  The town’s council seemed to work the same way.  They would meet and talk about issues the stores or individual ponies were having and how to deal with it.  New laws would be passed, or old ones repealed.  It was the mayor's job (and that of the Overmare) to insure these changes were corrected and carried out.

As Clip left the office, I took the opportunity to follow him, leaving the mayor to his work and silent grief.  Stepping out of town hall, I looked up into the overcast sky and the flicker of lightning off in the distance.  I could smell rain on the air.  The breeze picked up, blowing dust between my hooves.  Lowering my eyes back to the street, I sighed and shook my head, mulling over what I’d just learned and trying to figure out some way around it.  I kept coming back to the same question though, one I found myself asking several times. 

Would Ebony have done anything different?  For that matter, would I?  

As I thought it over, I wandered the streets of Tombstone for lack of anything else to do.  There was no question the Blackhoofs were guilty as hell.  I’d seen them in Oddwick heard what Buford had planned for the settlers, saw what he’d done to make them distrust the ponies of Tombstone.  They’d killed a good pony, Sheriff Sweetshot.  Celestia and Luna above know how many more innocent ponies they’d killed to set up their little scheme.  The wasteland would be a better place without them in it.  But did the settlers really deserve the same thing?  Not all of them, no, but the ones that had killed...

I glanced up to see the Drunken Mare just down the street.  Merry music and laughter drifted out from the open doors as a group of ponies went into the building.  My friends would likely be waiting for me inside; probably celebrating our return to town, the recovery of the stolen goods, and our victory over the local gang.  They’d be in high spirits, no doubt, and I’d have to bring them crashing back down to the harsh realities of the wasteland.  To the realities of ponies about to be killed.  With a sigh, I began trotting towards the saloon and to a conversation that I was not looking forward to having. 

As I climbed the few wooden steps off the dust covered street and onto the porch, I heard several familiar voices mixed with a number of others inside.  I stopped beside the door and, for the moment, just looked inside the very busy saloon.  I suppose my friends weren’t the only ones ready to celebrate our victory.  A good deal of local townsfolk filled the seats of the main room, laughing, gambling, and generally attempting to forget the past two days’ events.  

It didn’t take me long to spot my friends, as most of them stood out from the crowd.  Stonehoof was seated at a table near the center of the room,  just under a chandelier of dim lights, and playing cards with four local ponies.  Judging by the sizeable pile of caps on his end of the table, he was winning.  His saddlebags sat upon the floor beside his seat, the stock of his rifle sitting atop them.  Sitting on the table was a number of empty and half-empty bottles of Wild Pegasus and pre-war beer.  The game had attracted quite a few ponies to simply stand nearby and watch, a few placing bets on the next hand, and it seemed my friend was the favored to win.  He wasn’t alone, however.  Wild was with him, doing what Wild does best: attempting to annoy him.

There were no free chairs at the table, but that hadn’t stopped Wildfire.  The mare had a habit of getting her way.  It seemed she fully intended to sit as close to her stallion as she could.  She was sitting close alright.  Her upper half atop Stone’s back and neck while her lower other half sat perched atop the back of his chair.  Her chin rested comfortably atop his head, watching the game below her with excited blue eyes while her forelegs wrapped lightly around his neck.  Resting atop her wild red mane was a familiar-looking, worn and beat up cowpony hat, which she wore tilted back.  She wasn’t wearing her battle saddle or her black armor, nor was Stone wearing his armor.  The two looked so different without the bulky plates.

My attention was pulled from the pair towards a table near the bar, where I found another of my recent friends sitting, surrounded by a number of pretty mares.  Balefire laughed once again as a young mare seated beside him nuzzled his neck and cheek.  The buck had his forelegs wrapped about her neck and the neck of a purple earth pony mare seated on his other side.  A number of empty glasses and plates littered the table before them.  As I watched, I noticed a couple of the mares seated with the green unicorn looked a bit distant, their thoughts perhaps on one of their own about to be sent to the gallows tomorrow.  Still, they lavished Balefire with attention as he paid for another round of drinks for the ladies.  Where he’d gotten enough caps for that I wasn’t sure, nor was I going to question it.  Let him have his fun and take the barmaids’ minds off what lay ahead.

I watched as one of the mares slipped from the table to fill the order, and followed her towards the bar where a familiar, large brown shape sat.  Spirit Walker had finally taken a break from caring for the wounded, it seemed, and was sitting at the bar with Doctor Mitchell.  Most likely they were speaking about treatments and the like.  The normally serene buffalo’s face was smiling at whatever the old pegasus stallion had to say and began to answer him.  However, that was not the only surprise at the bar.  Sitting beside her was Kanzi. 

I’d not seen the zebra mare since we’d arrived in Tombstone, largely in part to the suggestion that the townsfolk would look unkindly on wartime Equestria’s former foe.  It did appear most of the townsfolk were giving her a wide berth, but she seemed used to it.  She’d said as much when we’d arrived.  Old grudges never truly die, it seems.  She at least appeared fully healed; there were no scars or wounds covering her striped form.  At least, none physically.  The emotional scars would likely take far longer than a couple days to mend, if they ever would.  I could only imagine what she’d been through in Kanter City.  At the moment, however, she was speaking with Ol’ Hank, the saloon owner, and offering the stallion a slight smile at whatever he was saying.

The only one of my friends I didn’t see and wouldn’t expect to was Carrion.  The ghoul had spent so much time alone in the sewers of Kanter City, he likely wasn’t used to large crowds.  His pony skills left something to be desired from my first meeting with him, but he’d eased up since we’d left that hellish place.  Another reason I didn’t see him could be the same as why I hadn’t seen Kanzi so much.  It likely irked the former Equestrian Army Officer, being lumped into the same group as zebras.

The sound of cheering caused my ears to twitch and swivel back towards Stone and Wild’s table.  My eyes followed them and I saw that my large earth pony friend had once more managed to win the pot and was scooping the caps up from the center of the table into his pile.  He wore a large smile as he sat back in his chair and reached for the deck of cards sitting where the caps had once sat.  Atop his head, wearing her usual mischievous grin, Wild turned and nuzzled the stallion’s ear with her nose.  The action caused a couple of cards to go flying from his hooves as he lost his concentration.  The table broke into laughter as my friend’s face turned red.  I smiled a bit at the happy mood in the room.

I stepped back from the door as a pony trotted out, nodding to me as he passed.  It seemed none of my friends had seen me yet, and I meant to keep it that way.  At least for a bit longer.  Let them have their fun for a little while more.  The wasteland could wait to crush their happiness for a couple more hours, at least.

Stepping off the sidewalk, I glanced about the dark and largely deserted streets.  Most ponies seemed to either be at home with friends and family or at one of the saloons.  I saw only a small number of townsfolk walking down the sidewalks, and most of them appeared to be either guards or deputies.  It would seem they’d increased either their numbers or presence since the attack.  Laughter from the Drunken Mare caught my attention and I glanced back at the dim, warm glow of the doorway.

Before I could change my mind, I turned away and began trotting down the street.  I had no real destination in mind.  The few ponies I passed would nod their head in greeting, a few thanking me for saving their family and town.  Most simply left me alone, perhaps seeing the troubled look on my face.  After another hour, I found myself more or less wandering the town aimlessly.  I was passing the time either looking at the quiet stores all closed for the evening or thinking more about what tomorrow would bring.  The streets became more and more deserted as I walked, not really paying much attention to where I was going.  Before I knew it, I ended up stopping before the train station.

I stood there for a moment, looking up at one of the taller buildings in town.  Though made of wood and brick, it was in fair shape for the wasteland.  My hooves and wandering mind had actually done me a favor for once, bringing me where I needed to be.  After all, if the mayor was right and the settlers did decide to leave Tombstone for good, we’d need a working train to take us across the mountains.  The wagons we’d arrived in from Oddwick were on their last legs.  While they could be repaired, it’d take us weeks to cross the high passes, likely under fire from raiders or attacked by any number of mutant animals.

Glancing up to the sky and a flash of lightning, I saw smoke rising up from just behind the train station.  My ears perked up as I also began to hear the sound of metal striking metal, as well as machinery running, namely an engine.  Having spent several days aboard the train we’d taken from the raiders, I’d gotten used to the sounds it made.  I worked my way up the stairs at the front of the station and trotted around it to the loading platform just behind the building.  As I turned the corner, I spotted a line of cars resting upon the tracks.  They ran the length of the platform and back towards the eastward facing gate, the way we’d come into Tombstone.  There, sitting at the end, was the caboose, residing where the engine had set the other night.  Well, at least he got it facing in the right direction it seemed.  The cars themselves looked in slightly better shape, with a number of crude raider modifications removed.  Mostly in the form of chains, spikes, and the odd body part from some long dead animal or pony... to be honest, it was rather hard to tell what some of them had been.  Once more, the sound of metal striking metal caught my ear and I turned towards the source.

The engine was indeed facing the correct way now.  Steam was lazily rising up from its sides, fading into the air just above the station’s roof.  The source of the smoke I’d seen was coming from the stack (which had also been de-raiderized) and was lessening as whatever fuel was in the boiler burned away.  Around the platform sat several oil lanterns, glowing brightly in the dim lighting of the station’s loading platform.  A number of the bulbs had blown out some time ago and were never replaced.  Between these lanterns moved two ponies, one of which I’d met earlier. 
 
Doctor Brown stepped down from the engine and onto the platform, his horn glowing a dim silver as a number of tools floated beside him.  The cracked goggles he’d been wearing when I’d met him had either been repaired or replaced, and now sat atop his head.  They somehow held his wildly frazzled white mane down.  Across his back, he wore a pair of saddlebags that had been modified to hold a number of tools along the outside and within easy reach of hoof, mouth, or magic. As he turned to examine something on the side of the train, I caught sight of his cutie mark.  It appeared to be a cuckoo clock of some sort, though the numbers on the clock's face were backwards.

The other pony followed closely behind the Doctor.  Or rather hovered just behind him, lazily flapping his feathered wings to stay aloft.  This must have been the Doctor’s assistant.  He’d mentioned him when we’d first met; Marty, I think was his name.  He was a blue pegasus stallion, looking about as young as Balefire, if not a bit younger.  He was wearing a red jacket of some sort over his upper half, though it’d clearly seen better days, with a number of rips and tears on the side.  Like the Doctor, he was wearing a pair of saddlebags.  However, they lacked the unicorn’s tool belt along their side.  He was also armed, wearing a leg holster much like mine with a revolver tucked inside.  His cutie mark was of a flaming wing, like the Doctor’s.  I found it somewhat odd.

Neither had seen me yet.  The Doctor was focused on working on something and his friend had his back turned to me.  I made my way along the platform to where they stood.  The sound of my metal shod hooves upon the wooden loading platform alerted Marty that somepony was behind them and he turned to see who it was.  He looked me over closely with a raised eyebrow before landing beside the older pony, nudging him in the flank with a hoof.

“Hey, Doc... we got company.”

At his young assistant’s words, Doctor Brown pulled his head back from the engine and turned to look my way.  I nearly stumbled at the stallion’s head gear.  A pair of magnifying glasses were perched upon his nose, making his already large eyes that much larger.  He blinked a couple of times before reaching a hoof up and pushing the glasses up away from his eyes.  Without me being blown up several times my normal size, he saw just who was trotting up towards them.  He smiled warmly and lowered his floating tools down to his saddlebags, each slipping into their own respective home.  With this finished, the unicorn turned fully towards me.

“I see you’ve finally returned from your little adventure!  Not a moment too soon; we were just putting the finishing touches on the engine.”  He lightly patted a hoof against the black metal side of the train, causing a slight ringing sound to echo out across the platform.  “As I expected, it just required some basic maintenance and a few replacement parts, most of which we found quite easily.”  At that, the pegasus rolled his eyes and tucked a few tools away that lay scattered across the platform around the wheels of the train.

“Yeah, easily found if you don’t mind flying around that train wreck up north, he means,” the pegasus added with a shake of his head, but a smile on his face.  “I’m Marty by the way, Doc’s assistant and friend.”  He offered me a hoof shake which I took and returned the smile.

“Nice to meet you, Marty.  My name’s Shadow.”

“Shadow?” he blinked a few times before looking a bit surprised.  “I thought you’d be taller, really...” he said quietly, but still loud enough for me to hear.  Doctor Brown poked the pegasus in the side, making him flinch.  “I mean, I’ve heard a couple ponies around town talking about some new Marshall going around freeing slaves and such.”  He forced a chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof, before he hurriedly changed the subject.  “So, what brings you out to the station so late at night, Marshall?  I’d figured you’d be getting a bit of rest after fighting off the Blackhoofs.”

They’d already heard about that?  Hmm... small town, it seems... 

“Yes, well some things came up, and I wanted to make sure everything here was good for tomorrow,” I answered, looking back over the row of empty train cars.  It appeared they’d done far more than simply patch up the worn engine, but had also removed a fair amount of raider decorations from the cars.  Even removing the skeleton from atop the smokestack.

“Oh?  Leaving so soon?” the pegasus asked as he looked from the train cars to me, a brow arched.  “It’s a long trip to San Ponsisco from here.”

“Well, after tomorrow, I have a feeling the number of ponies joining me on this trip will be increasing,” I said, running a hoof across the now smooth side of the steel engine.  I could see where the spike had been removed from the side and the hint of rust around the patched hole.

“Ah yes, tomorrow morning...”  The Doctor shook his frazzled white mane and looked over the black surface of the engine.  “I have never agreed with capital punishment.  And in a place like this it seems doubly wrong.”

“Nothing about this place seems right, Doc.  You said it yourself, everything about this is all wrong.  But you can’t really blame them, Doc, they’re simply doing the best they can,” Marty responded, looking back into town.  “I’m not saying what they’re doing is right, but they really don’t have any other choice.  It’s not like there’s a prison they can ship them off to anymore.”

“In the end, it all comes down to the simple fact that somewhere in the past something went wrong.  If things had taken a different path, the right path, such a thing as hanging a pony for stealing somepony else’s food would never have to happen.”

“You mean with the bombs?” I asked.

“Not just the bombs, but the entire war... a war that never should have happened in the first place,” he said as he floated a wrench from his saddlebags.  He began tightening a loose bolt upon the side of the engine door.  There wasn’t a pony alive, or dead for that matter, that wouldn’t agree with what he said.  But the way he said it... it was different than how I’d heard it before.  He sounded so sure, as if he knew something the rest of us didn’t.

“No argument there, Doc... this entire world is just wrong.  I’ll be glad to get home,” Marty said, looking up into the grey overcast sky as if looking for something.  With a sigh, he looked back to the ground and scanned the platform for any missing tools, while leaving me to stare at the train and to my own thoughts.

I couldn’t argue with them on what they’d said, everything about the world was wrong.  Ever since we’d first set hoof out on the surface it had been wrong.  We were supposed to be rebuilding, healing, fixing the mistakes of the past.  It’s what the Stables were built for.  Instead of repairing the cities, though, we were fighting over the scraps left inside them... instead of healing the land and nature, we were fighting against the mutant beasts that roamed the wasteland.  Killing one another over bits of canned food.  

How had we fallen so far?

Marty cleared his throat and I blinked, looking away from the train over to the other two stallions standing nearby.

“I wouldn’t worry, Marshall.  She’ll get you where you're going with little to no problem; likely further, if you decide to.  Doc does good work, once he’s figured out all the kinks and so long as he isn’t working with any megaspells.”  The pegasus smirked and the old unicorn snorted.  “I’d suggest letting somepony overhaul the steam pipes and boiler at some point though.  The patches we placed will hold for a good long while, but when dealing with something that can explode, it’s best to be safer than sorry.”

“I’ll remember that, but my journey ends once we reach San Ponsisco,” I said.  Marty must have thought I’d been worried about the work they’d done to the engine, but my mind had been else where.  However, at my words, the stallions shared a look, but then simply nodded their heads after a moment of silence.  Were they expecting me to go somewhere else after reaching the city?  Where else was there to go?  Crossroads?  It was nice, but a little too close to Kanter City and the raiders that had already taken so much from me.  

No.  Once I reached the city and found Sugar Pie, I’d be hanging my hat and shotgun up for good.  I was all my niece had now; the wasteland was on its own.  As the silence once more dragged on between us, Marty rustled his wings and looked between us before speaking.

“Well, since we’re finished here, I’m going to head back to the workshop and get our gear stored, Doc.”  He nodded his head towards me and smiled.  “It was nice to meet you, Marshall.”  Spreading his wings, the pegasus took to the sky and looped over the top of the train and off towards the work sheds.

“Hmm, Marty’s right, actually.  About the ponies living here in Tombstone, I mean.  They are doing the best they can given the situation they’ve found themselves in. Still, I do not expect this news will go over well with your friends or the settlers you saved,” the doctor finally said after another moment of silence passed between us.  His horn glowed once more as he picked up the wrench he’d been tightening the door with.  “I take it that’s why you haven’t joined your friends yet?”

“Something like that...” I answered, looking away from the brown unicorn.

“Hmm... well, let me give you some advice, my boy.  You're doing yourself more harm than good by delaying the news.”  The light from his horn faded again as he lowered the wrench back into its home on his saddlebag.  “Such a thing can injure a pony as surely as a bullet to the leg or by claw of a radscorpion.  Trust me, I know a thing or two about being unable to tell a pony news of what's to come.”  With that rather odd comment, the odd stallion trotted off towards the front of the train and to the tracks below, while leaving me alone on the platform.

He was right, of course.  There was no point in putting this off any longer.  They had to know and it would be better coming from me than some random drunk townspony.

Turning away from the train, I trotted back the way I’d came, heading towards the Drunken Mare.



*     *     *     *     *


 
A worn group of townsfolk stood beside my friends and I in Tombstone’s town square the next morning.  Thunder was rumbling occasionally overhead as the storm that had threatened to break all last evening brewed within the thick overcast sky.  The mixed emotions of the crowd were plain for anypony to see.  Some shifted uneasily, others wept, and a few seemed pleased with the events about to take place.  I was none of those, and all of them.  My feelings for what was going to happen were a jumble.

Across the street from where we stood, the front door to the Sheriff’s Office opened.  It drew everyone’s attention to the dark interior and the line of ponies beginning to make their way from inside.  A tired looking deputy was in the lead as they stepped off the wooden sidewalk and into the still dust-covered street.  A pump action shotgun swung over his neck and within easy reach should he need to enforce the judgement of the court.  Behind him came a line of ten stallions, heads down and tails dragging behind them.  The ponies’ hooves were shackled to one another, a thick metal chain connecting them to the pony in front and behind.  Due to the heavy metal chains, they were forced to shuffle along the street.  They slowly moved past the gathered crowd as another peal of thunder rolled overhead and a few drops of rain began to fall upon the crowd’s heads.  Beside them walked the remaining deputies of Tombstone, weapons drawn and eyes watchful.

Their journey soon ended as the ten condemned ponies climbed the rough wooden steps of the platform that had been hurriedly built only the day before.  It would be removed once its grim task had been completed.  Standing atop the platform, and waiting on them to step into place, were the leaders of the town.  The mayor stood near the front, his face a mixture of sadness and weariness.  Beside him stood Doctor Mitchell, who seemed more angry, judging by his turned back ears and ruffled wings.  Very Rich stood off to himself, seeming more bored than anything else.  I doubted he was even really paying much attention.  There were another three ponies with them.  None I knew, nor did I have any desire too.  Finally, standing near the mayor with her head lowered, was the town's new Sheriff, Lucy.

The line of ponies passed them slowly as the deputies guided each to a spot along the platform.  They stood atop trap doors that would drop out from under them once a lever had been pulled.  Each turned to face the onlooking crowd.  Their faces were framed by ten nooses gently swaying in the warm, rain-scented breeze, rustling their manes.  I knew most of them, or had at least seen them before.  Six of them were members of the Blackhoof gang, wanted for a mix of crimes from robbery to murder.  The remaining four were their unwilling accomplices in many of those crimes.

Once each stallion had been placed upon a trap door, a unicorn deputy slowly walked along the line.  Her horn glowed as she began to fix the nooses over the heads of the condemned.  Before tightening the noose, she offered each a cigarette or blindfold.  Most ignored the offer, the members of the Blackhoofs merely spit at her face.  After the second attempt, she did not offer to any of the others.  Beside me in the crowd, a pony snorted, saying it was a waste to give them a cigarette.  They’d burn soon enough.  A few agreed, a few did not.  Overhead, thunder rumbled.

With the task finished, the unicorn trotted back to the end of the row of prisoners.  She stopped beside a wooden lever near the steps and stood waiting.  No pony spoke, no pony moved as we all waited for the end to come.  My eyes went from the row of stallions to the mayor... he could stop this from happening, but I knew he wouldn’t.  I knew he couldn’t and I damned both him and myself for knowing this was the right thing to do.  

Locking eyes with the unicorn deputy, he nodded his head.  As the mare’s horn began to glow, I turned my own eyes away from them to the last pony in the line.  I locked eyes with a pair of sad, resigned blue eyes as Runner looked back to me.

With a loud click, the lever was pulled.  Runner, along with nine other ponies, dropped from sight.  Their hooves jerked to a sudden halt, swinging slowly in the humid morning breeze...



*     *     *     *     *



Smoke and steam rose from the engine as it prepared to leave, taking us away from Tombstone and back out into the wasteland.  All along the loading platform, ponies climbed aboard the train cars.  Some looked back, others refused to do so.  The mayor had been right.  The settlers had decided to leave the town behind and make the trip to San Ponsisco.  A chance for a new life, away from those that had killed two of their own.

Thunder rumbled deeply overhead as the final mare stepped aboard the train, carrying her foal upon her back and a dirty suitcase in her mouth.  Her ears were folded back and her tail drooped as she climbed the steel steps up into the car.  Behind me the whistle blew, signalling our departure from the station.  My ears perked as I heard the hiss of steam and the grind of metal as the wheels slowly began to turn.  The length of passenger cars lurched lazily forward as the engine began pulling them from the station.

Turning away from the empty station, I set hoof aboard the nearest car and watched as we approached the western gate which had already been opened for us.  Atop the wall, I saw Sheriff Lucy and the mayor watching as we slowly slipped below them and emerged out into the wasteland.  Looking back, I saw they’d turned to wave farewell.  I sighed and nodded my head once to the pair before turning my eyes on the distant mountains and the black clouds looming above them. 

The wasteland rolled steadily past the window of the train car, a sea of browns, greys, and blacks as far as the eye could see.  Every so often the dull scenery would be illuminated by a flash of lightning that would fade quickly, leaving the world to be swallowed by darkness once more.  There was little to see outside the cracked piece of glass: scrub brush, rocks, and the odd ruined home or wagon.  My thoughts, as they often did, drifted to my sister.  I shut my eyes for a moment, thinking about the missing part of myself, back in Kanter City.   

With a snort, I opened my eyes and shook my head.  My eyes wandered to the landscape drifting past to get my mind off what had happened.  Something large looming ahead caught my eyes.  A ponymade shape appeared from out of the gloom.  As it drew closer, I saw it was a billboard like those I’d seen traveling from Crossroads to Steeldome.  It had been placed facing south, for ponies traveling a highway that crossed the tracks.  Drawing closer, I saw it had once been a sign welcoming travelers to Equestria.  A smiling, pretty white unicorn mare waving a hoof in front of rolling green hills and blue skies.  

At least, that is what it had looked like over a hundred and fifty years ago.  Now it looked completely different.  Time had faded the colors to a shadow of their former glory and in places it was peeling away entirely.  Like everything else in the wasteland, raiders had left their mark upon the board.  Crudely written words were smeared in whatever they had at hoof covered much of the sign.  Where once the sign had said, ‘Welcome to Equestria!  Land of Harmony and Friendship,’ it now simply said, ‘Welcome to Equestria!  Land of DEATH and MURDER.’  As if to prove the point, I noticed several rotting bodies swing from the billboard by their forehooves and looked away.

This was the world I lived in now.

Looking away from the wasteland, I scanned the downcast faces of the ponies I shared the passenger car with.  Nopony had said a word since we’d left Tombstone.  Not even the foals had spoken.  What could anypony really say?  Only two of them had lost loved ones to the hangpony’s noose.  However, a number of their stallions had died in the attack.  The mood inside the train was as dark and gloomy as the wasteland we traveled through.  I sighed softly.  

Was this all anypony had to look forward to on the surface?  Pain and loss?

Standing up from my seat, I made my way through the narrow alleyway between seats.  I looked at the faces of the ponies I passed before looking back to the path ahead.  My heart ached for these ponies and what they’d been through.  My heart ached for my sister and what my niece was about to go through.  

Reaching the door, I yanked it open and hurriedly stepped outside in the space between cars.  The warm breeze blew overhead and ruffed my mane and tail as I moved closer to the steps.

Was this really all Sugar Pie had to look forward to in the world?  Pain, loss, struggling to survive, and the constant threat of death all around you?  Could nopony do anything to make the world a better place?  Was anypony even trying?

My eyes shifted westward, towards San Ponsisco and what Three Horns had said was the best hope for the wasteland: the Confederate Stables of Equestria.  

“If so... where were they when places like Crossroads and Tombstone needed help?”  No one was there to answer my question.  Not even the voices in my head seemed inclined to answer me.  I looked skyward, perhaps expecting the goddesses to answer me.  But as before, they were silent.



*     *     *     *     *



With Tombstone behind us, and San Ponsisco ahead, we settled in for the long, cold, and dangerous ride ahead.  Our route was taking us through the Saddlera Mountains, one of the highest mountain ranges in Equestria.  One that nopony had traveled across in the past several months.  Anything could have happened in that time, from rock slides and avalanches to raiders blowing the tracks.  Of course, those things could all happen while we traveled the winding course through the cold stone cliffs and rises.  However, we only had enough supplies to last everypony for a little over four days.  It would take us two... if the route was clear.

The dangers we faced became evident to everypony aboard as we passed through a narrow ravine and came across the wreckage of another train.  The engine pointed eastward.  How long it had been laying there half buried in the snow was anypony’s guess.  Perhaps for as long as Equestria had been ruined.  As we passed, we all looked over the twisted remains of metal and wood.  Somepony long ago had taken and piled the skulls of the passengers atop one of the cars.  The blank hollow eyes watched us as we passed.

Stubbornly, our train continued to climb the tracks.  Steel wheels fought for traction at times over iced rails, smoke billowing from the stack as it struggled to haul itself and the eighty plus ponies we had aboard.  There was a lot at stake, and nothing anypony aboard could do but will the old steel and iron machine onward.

Ancient wooden bridges groaned as we crossed them.  Snow fell from the straining support beams as our passage shook the old structure.  More than once, we heard the crack of beams as something gave out below us.  However, we had little choice but to press on.

We did not stop.  We slept, ate, and lived aboard the train.  To relieve ourselves, we simply stepped outside the cars and did our best to insure it landed on the tracks rather than the train.  To stop here would likely mean death.  More than once somepony had spotted yellow eyes watching us from the dead, snow-covered forests and cliffs.  Several times we’d seen pony skulls driven into spikes.  No, we couldn’t stop.

By the morning of the third day, it was looking as if we weren’t going to make it out of the pass before our supplies ran out.  However, just as it seemed we would be forced to ration what we had left, we began to at last descend.  Looking out from the windows, we saw the distant rolling plains that lay beyond the mountains.

In another two days we would arrive at San Ponsisco... and my adventure would finally be over.



*     *     *     *     *



We were now a little over an hour from reaching San Ponsisco, at least according to Balefire.  For the past several hours after leaving the mountain pass behind, we had been riding through an endless expanse of flat, featureless plains.  At one time it had all been grasslands around the city.  Now it was little more than a rock infested brown wasteland of mud and centuries old ash. 

Little had happened within that time.  Most ponies had spent the trip quietly, speaking only when spoken to, when they had a question, or to voice a concern.  After everything that had happened to them over the past few weeks and months, none of the ponies aboard had any energy or desire to do much more than just savor the peace.  However, there was one question most asked: just what the capital of the only stable government within Equestria would be like.  So many of them had heard stories of San Ponsisco, but had never seen it.  The Confederate Stables of Equestria was little more than a myth to some.  

I took the time given to me to think on those still with me and what the future might be for some of them.

Those joining us from Tombstone still grieved for their lost loves ones and their home.  Most kept to themselves.  Of them, Willow was the only one among them I knew in any way, but the mare was mostly avoiding me.  Surprising, since it was a rather difficult task to avoid somepony aboard a cramped train with only so much room to move.  However, I did my part in avoiding her and her filly, except to insure they were doing alright.  She blamed me for the death of her husband.  I couldn’t blame her nor was I going to seek her forgiveness.  It had been out of my hooves, but if it helped her to blame somepony... well, once we reached the city, she’d likely never have to see me again.

Not surprisingly, Stonehoof had declined staying behind in Tombstone, saying he’d promised to see me safely back with my family and that’s just what he was going to do.  The stallion hadn’t really been too keen on staying in the town after the hanging.  Despite the fact that it had been necessary, he still hadn’t liked it.  Neither had I.  I was once more thankful he’d not left my side just yet, and so was Wild.  Without my fellow earth pony’s steadfast loyalty and words of wisdom, I doubt I would have made it much further than Crossroads without being killed.  Once I was settled, he would be returning to his home to help take care of his nephew and sister-in-law.

Wildfire had nowhere really to go.  Her former government had disowned her and even attempted to have her killed, a fact that most who just met the pegasus would find hard to believe.  The former Enclave commander turned mercenary followed me for several reasons.  One, she was bored of living the life of a Dashite in the wasteland and was out for one last adventure.  Two, she had told me more than once that I was a very different kind of pony than most she knew, and she followed me to see just what I was going to do next.  Lastly, and most importantly, she followed me because Stone followed me.  The pair had been nearly inseparable on the trip to Tombstone, and the bond they’d formed had only strengthened since then.  She would join Stone in returning to Crossroads and get back to their old lives, together.  I would miss them both when they leave.

Thinking of going home, I was reminded that the settlers from Tombstone and I were not the only ones without a home to return to.  Spirit Walker would be staying in San Ponsisco.  Like those of us from Stable 45, her home had been destroyed by raiders.  The buffalo and her young colt ward would see to it that the others from their former settlement found themselves a place to stay and then perhaps seek work at the local medical center or one of the shops selling first aid supplies in the city.  There was nothing left for her back east.  No word of her fellow buffalos, no clues as to their fate, and now she had the young pony to look after.  She couldn’t exactly go back out into the wasteland to seek answers.  As for the colt, he didn’t seem inclined to leave her side for long just yet.  Although, he was at last speaking with some of the other children aboard the train.  That much was progress.

Carrion was another pony without a home and I honestly had no idea what the ghoul had planned for his future on the surface.  He’d not spoken of what he intended on doing with his newfound freedom from Kanter City’s hellish sewers, likely because he’d never really thought of trying to escape them.  If we hadn’t shown up, the undead stallion would likely still be waging his one pony war against the raiders that had taken over his former home.  As it sounded, however, he may not have been so alone as he thought.  While traveling through the mountains, Balefire had mentioned that a number of San Ponsisco’s inhabitants had sought shelter when the air raid sirens had blared out that fateful day.  Like those in Kanter City, they sought shelter in the sewers and subway tunnels (like most major cities across the country no doubt), and they had likewise been turned into ghouls.  Unlike in Kanter City, however, only a small number of them had turned feral.  Many had retained their minds.  Over the years, they’d built themselves a city under the ruins of their former home.  Oddly enough, they named it Purgatory.  Perhaps Carrion might find some long lost friends among the ghouls that lived there, or at least a new start.

Most of those survivors from my Stable were looking forward to seeing their loved ones in the city, those lucky enough not to be captured by raiders.  Among them, Silverflash and Tassles.  The happy couple spent the trip helping their fellow travelers with whatever they could.  When not helping others, they spent their time speaking of the new life they’d start in the city and of the foals they’d always wanted.  I left them to their happy thoughts, knowing that few things ever seemed to end well in the wasteland.  Still, I prayed they’d have a happy ending.

Like Stone and Wild, Balefire would be returning home once we reached the city.  After all, San Ponsisco was his home.  He’d only been away from it while on some recon mission for the Confederate Army.  That was also why I doubted I’d see much of the plucky green unicorn.  As a member of the standing army, he would likely be returning to his duties.  Once he’d been declared not dead, that is.  He seemed to be looking forward to that, saying some of his fellow soldiers always told him he would end up dead in a ditch somewhere if he ever came across raiders.  I believe he said he’d walk into the barracks and yell, ‘Guess who’s back from the dead, bitches?!’  He was also looking forward to seeing his foster family again, that most of all.  He spoke often of his sister and mother, even going so far as to suggest hooking me up with his sister.  I had a feeling Wild had her hoof in that. 

Not everyone had left with us from Tombstone, however.  Kanzi had stayed behind, along with Razor, Griff, Sparks, and Jury Rig.  The zebra had been convinced to stay by Hank, the owner of the Drunken Mare.  I think the old stallion was smitten by the pretty mare.  I just hoped he could keep any of the townsfolk’s anger from turning from the banished settlers to the striped equines.  Her family had stayed behind with her, though I’d never gotten to know them well.  Doctor Mitchell seemed pleased with the mare staying in town, saying she had a future as a doctor and had even asked her to help him in the clinic.

As for the mercenaries, both the mayor and new sheriff seemed to trust them.  After getting to know them a bit better, both on the ride to Tombstone and hearing what they’d done to try and save Sweetshot, I felt good knowing they’d be there to help.  I was sure they’d have the town guards whipped into shape in no time.  As Griff had said, it would be good for the group to find themselves someplace to settle down for awhile.  I think it was because the griffon was sweet on one of the nurses in Mitchell's clinic as well. 

And me?

I lowered my eyes from the speeding scenery outside the window.  My thoughts drifted from the ponies both with me and left behind in Tombstone.  Instead, my gaze turned to the photo laying beside me on the torn fabric seat.  I gently reached a hoof out to the yellowed piece of paper, picking it up to look more closely at it.  Like me, it had had a rough time in the wasteland and had gone through everything I had.  The fall into the underground river in Kanter City’s subway tunnels had left it with water damage.  The edges had been torn and ripped from the number of falls and hits I’d taken since beginning my journey and there were a number of creases across its once-smooth surface.  The top right corner was even slightly frayed from where a bullet had passed through my saddlebag and it.  

Despite all the damage it had taken, however, the three smiling ponies still looked back at me from the photo.  The family photo of my sister and her daughter along with myself in the Stable’s apple orchard.  A reminder of happier times, better times, times long past now.  I closed my eyes and held the photo close to my chest, tears stinging them as I thought about those times and what lay ahead.

San Ponsisco would be both a blessing and a curse.  The moment I was most dreading was quickly approaching.  The moment when I’d be forced to tell my niece her mother wasn’t coming back to her, that I’d failed. 

Opening my eyes, I felt a few tears run down my cheeks to strike the photo resting against my chest.  I pulled it away and looked down to the faded image of my sister, lightly tracing a hoof over her smiling face.  Of the three ponies in the photo, it was her who had suffered most of the damage over the past two weeks.  It was as if the wasteland was not content to simply remove her from my life, but also was seeking to remove her completely from the world.  As if everything the wasteland touched was its to change how it saw fit.  Even the tears I’d shed for her had stained her image, and I rubbed the fresh moisture away from her mane.

A noise from nearby snapped me from those dark and perhaps insane thoughts, and I looked up to see Balefire standing beside my seat.  A worried look was etched upon his dark green face, red eyes going from my own face to the photo in my hoof.

“Everything alright, boss?” he asked, red eyes going from the photo back to my face as I hurriedly stuffed it away back inside my saddlebags that lay on the seat beside me like a pillow. 

“Yeah... everything’s alright, I was just thinking...” I answered him quickly, rubbing a hoof over my damp cheek before looking back up to them, ears rising up.  “Is there something wrong?” I asked him, thinking perhaps the train had broken down or something else had forced us to stop.  Part of me actually hoping that was the case.  Anything to put off crushing my niece’s hopes.  But that hope itself was crushed by the steady rock of the train car I was in.  The young buck simply shook his head and motioned behind him.  I looked where he’d indicated and noticed nearly everypony inside the passenger car had moved from their seats over to the left side of the car.  All of them were staring out at something in the distance.

“No, there’s nothing wrong.  We just reached the point where you can really see the city very well.  I thought you might like to have a look at your new home,” he said with a smile, ears perked towards me.  I’d seen that look before, in another young pony back in my Stable: Flash, the rookie Security pony.  

Wild had mentioned Balefire looking up to me after everything I’d done, but I’d not really thought much about it.  Seemed the mare had been right.  A fact my sister would have no doubt rubbed in my face about how often mares were right about everything.

I nodded my head to him before rising from my seat and reaching for my saddlebags out of habit.  They’d not left my side for longer than a moment.  Turning away, Balefire led the way down the empty aisle between seats and moved towards the front of the train and the flatbed cars.  Pulling open the door earned us a grumble from the ponies nearest as the wind swept inside the car, blowing manes, tails ,and anything not held down about the car.  Flashing them a grin, the unicorn hurriedly stepped outside and I followed suit, shutting the door behind us as I did.

Outside the train, I noticed something different about the air as it blew across my face, whipping my mane and tail behind me.  Like everywhere else in the wasteland I’d been, it was dry and humid.  However, there was a smell to it I’d never come across.  I tilted my head and raised my muzzle to the breeze, sniffing the air blowing across it deeply.  It sorta smelled salty.  In front of me, Balefire chuckled as he watched me, and I hurriedly lowered my head from the sky.

“That’s the ocean you're smelling.  The wind is blowing in across the city at this time of day.”  He turned his head back to the flatbed and started trotting across it, with me following closely behind.  As we wound our way between the stacks of lumber, I glanced over at them, thinking about the plans we had for them.  Once we’d reached the city and got everypony settled, we’d sell the lumber to the government through sources Balefire knew.  We then would divide the caps we made between everypony aboard the train.  According to Stone, there should be enough to give them all a better chance at a new life.  It seemed fitting that something so many had died to collect should be used now to give them a chance to live.

Working our way to the second car, I saw that we were not the only ones out here.  I smiled at the little group gathered along the edge of the flatbed, either sitting on the car itself or resting upon the logs piled up beside and behind them.

Stone turned to look at who had just stepped onto the car and smiled upon seeing me following Balefire towards them.  The large earth pony reached up a hoof and tipped his hat towards me.  Beside and laying stretched out upon a log, Wild looked over the top of her lover's head and grinned.  She waved a feathered limb in my direction before she turned her face back westward.  I noticed how much brighter her orange coat and red mane appeared in the light of midday.  Odd seeing how the clouds overhead had not released their hold on the sun and sky.

Standing off to himself, Carrion’s rotting face was an emotionless mask as his orange glowing eyes rested upon the western horizon.  His combat armor was still resting upon his frame, though he’d removed his helmet and had it hanging from a belt across his midsection.  His horned head nodded once as he saw me looking his way from the corner of his eye.  He looked slightly better than he had and I hoped getting further away from Kanter City would do him good.

Towering over the ponies around her, Spirit sat with her young pony ward resting atop her horned head.  The buffalo’s eyes shifted from the distant horizon to me, a smile forming across her snout as she dipped her head towards me in greeting.  The colt atop her head blinked as his position was shifted and held tightly to the twin short black horns curving up from his caretaker’s curly mane.

Following their gaze westward, I looked out across the rolling plains of rock and scrub brush and spotted San Ponsisco, far closer than I’d expected.  Dark twisted towers of jagged steel rose up into the brightly glowing sky, much like they had been in Kanter City.  It seemed the bombs had sheared away their upper stories as well.  However, unlike the city of darkness, death, and misery, this city was alive... with light.  My eyes widened and I took several steps back in awe.

“Sweet goddesses above...” I whispered as the tracks below the train curved slowly westward, taking us towards the single most beautiful sight I’d seen since leaving my home and setting hoof upon the surface.

Rising among the shattered black towers of stone and steel, stood a single gleaming spire painted in vibrant colors of turquoise and gold.  It glowed brightly against the darkness that surrounded it.  Against all odds, this single building had not only survived the destruction of the world around it, but continued to shine.  Glass windows sparkled in the warm yellow glow that the building seemed to generate for itself, casting a rainbow of colors for miles around.  It was no wonder ponies had flocked to this place, to this beacon of hope in a world of eternal twilight.

“Hope Tower,” Balefire said softly beside us, giving the towering spire of light a name that befitted its majesty.

“That it is...” Stone whispered, reaching up to remove his hat as he stared on in wonder with wide green eyes.  Even Wild seemed speechless for once.  She rose up from where she lay on the log, watching the gleaming tower of light sparkle in the distance.  She leaned over and gently nuzzled her stallion’s cheek, a smile on her lips.

Behind us, I heard Spirit’s soft whispered words, offering thanks to her father and their ancestors.  I didn’t need to look back to know she was smiling, I could hear it in her voice somehow.  The colt sitting atop her head gasped.

An unexpected sound, however, did force me to tear my eyes away from the tower and shift them towards Carrion, who seemed to be the source of the sound.  A rather unexpected sight greeted me as I looked towards the ghoul.  He stood, looking up to the glowing beacon of Equestria’s former glory.  His orange eyes fixed upon a point near the very top.  Another choked sob passed his lips as tears began running down his pockmarked cheeks.  I started to ask him what was wrong, when he stiffened and saluted sharply at whatever he had seen.  I turned and followed his gaze, looking to the top of the tower and something billowing in the breeze that blew in from behind the city.  As my eyes traced up the narrow antenna atop the roof, I saw a purple flag waving against the glowing grey clouds.

Waving proudly in that humid, salty breeze was the flag of Equestria.  It was deep purple in color with twin alicorns circling one another.  One white,one black, with a sun and moon between them, horns pointed towards them and each other.

“Welcome to San Ponsisco, guys...” Balefire said, grinning up at the tower.  “Welcome to New Equestria.”



*     *     *     *     *



We reached the outskirts of the city an hour later among the excited murmurings of the ponies aboard the train.  The sight of Hope Tower had lifted the spirits of many of the passengers we carried westward, even those who had lost everything.  As the tracks brought us into the still-ruined sections of the city, I got a better look at where ponies had begun rebuilding.  

As the raiders had done in Kanter City, the inhabitants here had erected a wall around only those sections of the city where they lived and worked.  To wall in the entire city would have been impossible, given the amount of time and work it would have taken.  Cities like this had once been home to hundreds of thousands of ponies.  Now most held no more than a few hundred, while big ones like San Ponsisco housed a couple thousand.  However, according to Balefire, there was talk of expanding the wall outward to take in more sections of the city, given the growth of the population within the city walls.

The wall itself was a truly impressive sight.  Though we were still some distance away, I could tell a good deal of work had gone into its construction.  In places, whole ruined buildings had been incorporated into the wall and formed towers of stone and steel like some ancient medieval castle of old.  With the help of those buildings, I got a general idea of how tall the wall was, roughly between four and five stories in height.  It put the walls I’d seen in Crossroads and Tombstone to shame in scale and design.  I imagined it would take nothing less than an army to have any hope of storming them.

Yet it was not the only defence that the city had from attack.  Scattered around the walled-in inhabited portion were a number of small forts, built around a collection of repaired buildings and walled-in like small bases.  They had been built within key locations along routes leading towards the cities gates.  They formed checkpoints for ponies seeking to enter the Confederacy's capital, where caravans and travelers would be searched to insure they were not raiders, slavers, or intent on any harm to the citizens of the city.  Each fort was home to over thirty or fifty ponies (depending on its size and importance).  All of them were members of the Confederate Army and were kept supplied by wagons from the city or, in times of conflict, by the sewers and subway tunnels under the city streets.  Each was heavily armed for repelling attacks by raiders, mutants, or rampaging wildlife with a number of machine guns, sniper rifles, and even a few army artillery pieces found scattered about the wasteland.

It was one of these forts we now approached, built along the tracks to check anypony using them to find their way to the city.  Additionally, to check those using them to move goods and supplies with hoof driven carts or brahmin pulled wagons.  According to Balefire, it was one of the more smaller forts.  Since so few ponies used the tracks, it hadn’t seemed practical to build a larger defense.  The walled section of ruins we slowly moved towards had a wall more similar in size and shape to that of Crossroads.  It was only two stories in height in places and made of broken chariots, rubble, or iron support beams driven into the pavement.  

The walled-in section surrounded five small buildings, all showing signs of actually being repaired.  The discolored bricks stood out easily where sections of collapsed walls had been replaced and even glassed in the windows, though it appeared a bit foggy.  Four of the buildings stood between four or five stories in height and appeared to have been mostly apartment buildings, with rusty-looking fire escapes and faded paint.

  The fifth building actually appeared to have been a restaurant, the faded letters atop the roof at one point spelling out ‘Donut Joe’s’.  Beside the building was a tall sign that seemed to have survived the centuries rather well given the state of the rest of the city.  The sign had once been a rather large donut made of metal with the name of the restaurant written around the hole.  Now, only the word ‘Joe’s’ remained, as the top half of the donut had been cut away and been replaced with a flat metal platform and short walls.  It formed the perfect and most basic of watch towers and gave the ponies atop it a good view of the city around them.

It was currently occupied by three ponies sitting atop it, two of them with sniper rifles while the third held a pair of binoculars, and all of them pointed our way.  I was suddenly very glad Doctor Brown had removed so much of the raider garbage that had adorned the train.  Nothing gets you shot faster than looking like a raider.  Movement behind the ponies caught my eyes and I looked past them to a building with something atop it.  It was a flag, but not the Equestrian flag I’d seen billowing atop Hope Tower.  This one appeared to belong to the new government, though it shared a number of similarities to the older flag.

At its core, the flag was a soft white instead of the royal purple used on the older one.  Its center bore the same twin alicorns along with the sun and moon circling one another upon a disk of dark blue.  Around this were smaller disks of the same color, each with a single golden star within.  Each of those stars had a single number sewn upon it in black thread, 47, 55, 38, 50, and so on.  It took me only a moment to release that each of those numbers represented a Stable, and for the ponies within them that had made the journey here to San Ponsisco.  It was those same ponies who then formed the Confederate Stables of Equestria.

My eyes dropped from the flag and the walled fort to the tracks ahead as the train came to a complete stop, releasing a cloud of steam and smoke into the midday air.  As the cloud cleared, I saw that an old rusted out passenger wagon had been pulled across the tracks.  It was easily the size of one of the train cars and about as large.  It had been used to carry ponies all across the city, drawn by two strong drivers in the front.  Now it was being used as an impromptu road block.  Beside it stood over a dozen armed ponies, their weapons pointed towards the train.

They wore tan colored jumpsuits that bore a striking similarity to my blue and yellow stable jumpsuit.  Over this they had a drab olive green combat armor, looking almost brand new save for a few nicks and chipped paint.  Nearly all wore combat helmets that were colored the same green as their armor, and personalized in some way to each pony.  Those that didn’t wore cowpony hats of dark brown with a olive green wrap.  Their weapons looked as well-maintained as their armor, and were largely Equestrian assault rifles.  Two had battle saddles across their backs; one with a rocket launcher, the other a mini gun.  There was no telling how many more weapons were pointed at us from behind the fort’s walls.  Once again, I was thankful for Doc’s maintenance.

Still, we’d been expecting this, and we’d already planned out how we’d deal with it.  Carefully, keeping our mouths far away from the firing bits of our weapons, or in Balefire’s case keeping his horn dark, we dismounted from the side of the train.  Our hooves kicked up a small amount of dust as we landed upon the gravel lining the tracks.  We’d decided to only approach them with three of our number to help keep things from getting complicated.  Balefire would lead the way since he knew how things worked here, despite being missing for a few weeks.

The dozen ahead of us shifted their aim from the train to us.  The more heavily-armed ponies turned their weapons back onto the engine in front of them as if expecting a sudden trick.  I couldn’t blame them and their caution, as I couldn’t blame the ponies of Steeldome when they’d disarmed us.  This was their home, their rules.  Given their place, I’d do no less, especially after seeing what all the wasteland had waiting in the darkness.

“That’s far enough.  What brings you to San Ponsisco, and where the hell did you get a working train from?” one of the mares called out to us.  She wore a cowpony hat similar in shape to my own, though a lighter brown.  On her shoulder guards, I saw a number of yellow bars, marking her out as an officer among the others, and therefore the leader.  The pink coated earth pony looked us each over before her blue eyes stopped upon Balefire.  “Balefire?” she asked incredulously, not believing her eyes.

“Captain Rosestar, nice to see you’re still as lovely as ever!” the buck said with a grin, earning a blush from the mare.

“Sergeant Backfire said you were killed by raiders,” she went on, arching a brow to the dark green pony before her.  Her assault rifle lowered as she spoke with us.  The remaining seven weapons, however, stayed pointing towards us.

“I suppose I can’t blame him for that; anypony captured by raiders is as good as dead... and I would have been if not for this pony.”  At that, he wrapped a green foreleg around my neck and dragged me over to him.  I erped at the sudden inclusion to the conversation.  “He and his friends saved my flanks from a rather hard death as a slave laborer.”

“And the train?” she asked, eyes going from Balefire to me, looking more closely at me.  My weapons, my armor, perhaps seeing if I possessed some sort of risk to her or her soldiers.  

“Stolen from the raiders inside Kanter City, along with every prisoner they still had alive, plus a number of refugees from raider-destroyed settlements near Tombstone,” Balefire answered with a slight smirk.  The soldiers’ weapons wavered at that, some whispering to one another while all looking over at me.  Balefire released me from his hold and trotted a few steps towards Rosestar.  “Look, Rosey, we got almost a hundred hungry and thirsty ponies aboard that train, all looking for a change for a better future.”  The mare turned her eyes from me to Balefire and tilted her head a bit.  She shook her head, though a slight smile formed on her lips.

“You never did learn how to address a superior officer, Bale,” she said with a snort.

“No, but I know several ways to undress them,” the buck shot back with a grin.  Rose ignored him, though the blush on her cheeks darkened as she turned back to me.

“So, you’re the Marshall who Three Horns has been yapping about for the past couple days?” she asked me, blue eyes softening a bit from their earlier scrutiny.  They passed from me to Stone and then quickly back.  “If you’ve really done half the things that crazy old bitch has said...”

“I suppose I am the one she’s been talking about.  Though I don’t know whether everything she’s said I’ve done is true, not having heard much of what she’s said,” I calmly replied, meeting her careful stare.  It seemed enough for her, and she smiled before turning to the soldiers around her, speaking to a unicorn stallion on her right.

“Sergeant, I want this train searched from top to bottom.  Every nook and cranny, as we would with any caravan entering the city.  Search any ponies aboard as well and get Second Squad’s lazy flanks out here to help you.  Have them bring some food and water as well for these ponies.”  The stallion saluted and hurriedly began issuing orders to the ponies around him.

“You heard the Captain, fillies, get a move on it!” 

“Sorry, no exceptions to the rules, boys,” Rosestar said, waving for two of the soldiers to remain with us.  With a nod to Stone and I, she turned to Balefire.  “Your mother and sister are going to be surprised to see you, Bale,” the mare said, as she started trotting towards the train.  Balefire moved to walk beside her.

As Stone and I turned to follow, I noticed one of the soldiers that had been left behind to watch us was eyeing me closely with wide, young purple eyes.  The cream colored earth pony mare couldn’t have been much older than Balefire and seemed struggling to ask me something.  Seeing the other mare from the corner of her eyes, Rose sighed and shook her head.

“Is there something you’d like to ask, Private?”  The younger mare blinked and looked back to her superior officer and blushed, but nodded.  Before anypony else could say anything, she turned to me to ask.

“So, you didn’t drop a tower onto a giant radioactive gecko?”  She blinked again as Stone laughed from beside me, the older stallion turning to grin at me and then to the mare.

“Oh, no, that part’s true, miss.  Dropped an entire tower onta th’ things head as it was tryin’ ta eat me.”  The mare’s eyes got wider and even Rose looked interested.  “‘Course, that didn’t kill it, so when he saw it rise up and charge us, he threw himself onto it and shoved a grenade down it’s throat.  Blew it up from th’ inside.”

“That’s so cool...” the mare whispered as she stared up at me in awe.

Nope, never going to live that down... fuck you, giant radioactive acid-spitting gecko...



*     *     *     *     *



Thankfully, it didn’t take very long for Captain Rosestar’s soldiers to check the train and the ponies aboard.  Most, however, were a bit upset over being searched and questioned so much, especially after everything they’d gone through just to get here.  But the food and water the soldiers offered did much to smooth over any ruffled manes, and was much appreciated.  

After another hour or so of waiting (I lost track of time, thanks in part to Stone and Wild filling the heads of off-duty soldiers with tales of my exploits; most of them were true, sadly), we were finally cleared to continue into the ruins and enter the city.  The Captain assured us she would send word ahead so we’d have no trouble getting past the guards at the gate and I thanked her.  Everypony aboard was tired and ready to put everything that happened behind them, myself included, and get on with our lives. 

The route to the gate led us through the still ruined parts of the city.  The tracks had been cleared of rubble and debris and actually looked repaired in places.  Not all that surprising, really, since Stone had pointed out the Confederacy had a working train.  Given what I’d seen and heard of their military thus far, it was likely they used it for moving supplies and troops about their territory.  It’d give them an advantage over the raiders and slavers.

Unlike the fort, the buildings we passed by slowly had not been repaired and many of them had simply collapsed into the empty streets.  Some were blocked completely in places, covered in two or three stories of rubble.  Others, however, did show signs of having been partly taken apart: missing walls, door frames, fire escapes, and entire floors in some cases.  All of it was taken behind the wall or to the forts in an effort to help maintain those buildings that ponies used.  Perhaps some of it had been used to help build the wall around the city.  At least that’s what I thought until we drew a bit closer to it and I could see it more clearly now.  

As the train rattled along the tracks, I saw that the wall around the city was not made up of wagons and rubble as the forts or the other towns I’d visited had been.  It was in fact made of huge steel slabs that towered over the streets.  Looking closer, I saw that in places it appeared two different pieces of metal had been welded together to fill the gap between buildings.  In places where the rusted metal met the stone walls, it had been slotted almost neatly into the stonework.  This must have taken years to build, including ponies with rare skills.  Atop these steel slabs, catwalks had been placed with metal fencing to serve as protection for those ponies walking between the buildings.  Metal struts held them in places every so often along the length of the walkway.  This wasn’t so much a city as a fortress; a fortress against the horrors of the wasteland.

Nearing the wall, I looked up in awe at the skill that had gone into constructing this wall.  I then noticed something about one of the metal slabs.  Narrowing my eyes upon the oddly out of place design, I suddenly realized where these pieces of rusted metal had come from.  The odd design was in fact faded white letterings.  If you looked closely, it simply said, ‘HMS Buttercup.’  These had once been the hulls of ships.  They had likely sat rusting out in the city’s harbor for years until ponies had returned and begun rebuilding, slicing through the hulls to make their wall.  Still, it must have taken dozens of ponies to haul those bits of metal all the way from the shipyards and docks.  

“Works a hell of alot better than the wall that used to protect the city,” Balefire said from beside me.  I blinked, not having heard the stallion approach.  He pointed a hoof towards the base of the wall and the piles of rubble laying about.  “About thirty years ago, it used to have walls like those in Tombstone and a dozen other small settlements across the wasteland.”

“What happened?” I asked, looking from the wall to the unicorn beside me.

“Large band of raiders happened.  Just trotted on in after blowing a hole in the wall and started slaughtering ponies in the street.  The defense force they had back then managed to hold them off long enough for the army to return from a push against the super mutants to drive the raiders out and kill most of them.”

Hmm.  So the city had been attacked before.  Not surprising, really; it likely attracted a fair bit of attention, being so large and well known in this part of Equestria.  Raiders likely drooled at the thought of so many ponies gathered in one place for them to kill.

“So Mom and the other leaders of the city called for plans to be submitted for a new, better wall to protect the city.  A number of ideas were sent in for review, everything from demolishing entire buildings to build a mountain of rubble, to tearing down buildings to build it brick by brick.  A lot of ideas; only a few of them were good, but this one caught her eye.  It’d been sent in by a young unicorn stallion fresh out of a stable.  He had a wealth of good ideas for how to improve the city.  His idea was bold...”  The young stallion looked away from me to the wall we were slowly approaching, “... very bold.  Nopony believed he could pull it off, nopony but Mom.  She gave him the chance to prove it could be done and he spent his own caps hiring a crew from his own stable and a number of other ponies to help him.  They went to work in the shipyard with blow torches working day and night to cut through the thick hulls.  When they were done, a team of unicorns combined their magic to lift the things all the way to the building sight.  Then those ponies who had cut them began welding them back together and attaching them to the nearby buildings and shoring them up.”  He pointed a hoof to the wall.  “Each section of the wall is made up of two parts, the outside wall and the inside wall.  Two sections of hull with space between is filled with rubble, sand, and a number of other things, capped with concrete at the top.”

Bold indeed.  I looked up at the section of wall he pointed and thought of all the work that must have gone into it.  

“It took them nearly two weeks to finish just one section of wall,” he added, looking over the wall with pride.  “It impressed everypony.  Before he knew it, he was hired not just to build the wall, but to become the first City Manager.  They even gave a hundred ponies to work for him.  Had the wall finished in a year.”  His hoof swept over the wall.  “Goes all the way around the city to the waterline.  From there they sunk a couple of ships out in the harbor and built the wall upon them until they finally could go no further.”

“So a pony could just swim around it?” I asked.  That seemed a bit of a bad idea.

“It’s possible, but the wall extends a fair distance out.  At the ends they wrapped wire over and under the water attached to buoys tied to anchors.  There’s also the predators to worry about.  The radiation didn’t just fuck with those animals on land.”  He looked off to the distance. “There’s some nasty beasts prowling the waters around the city: sharks with tentacles, giant eels, and crabs... no way to completely kill them all off, they just move in from deeper out in the ocean.”

“Right... well, I suppose skinny dipping is out of the question.” That comment earned me a chuckle and he turned back towards me.

“They stay away from the shore for the most part.  Attacks on ponies working around the docks are rare.  They mostly hunt out around the edge of the wall and the wire we have strung out.”

Below us, the train began to slow more as we approached the gate sitting across the track.  As Captain Rosestar had promised, they began to open slowly outward for us.  The gates themselves appeared to also have come from the ships used for the wall, perhaps from a large cargo vessel of some sort.  They had been placed between two sections of hull with a smaller section welded above them.  The doors themselves were held by four hinges, likely from the original ship.  As the doors opened, it appeared they had some system in place that did not require ponies to push them open.  However, I couldn’t see any way they had been set up.  I would have asked, but before I could, I caught sight of what lay beyond those doors and the wall around it.

As the train pulled through the gateway and into the city, I stared up in awe at the number of buildings before me.  Some six or seven stories tall and all nearly in perfect condition.  Like the fort, there was evidence of where other building materials had been used to repair holes or collapsed sections.  Windows filled with foggy glass reflected the shining light from Hope Tower.  While there were signs the upper stories still needed work, it was also clear that they were being worked on.  Most had scaffolding in place so workers could reach the places in need of repair.  A few were even whole, having completely been rebuilt.  I could even see ponies in the windows going about their lives. 

My eyes dropped to the streets below and the hustle of dozens of ponies going to and fro for reasons only they knew.  Among them I saw olive garbed soldiers moving with them.  They were likely off duty since few wore armor or carried a weapon and most seemed to have mares or stallions dressed as civilians walking beside them.  I noticed two other things about the crowds.  Few beyond the soldiers seemed to be armed.  While I’d not heard or been told of any law against carrying weapons within the city, it was clear that most felt safe enough inside the walled area to go without them.  The other thing I noticed was that there were not just ponies among the crowd.  There were several griffons, zebras, donkeys, mules, and a fair number of ghouls mingling among the colorful manes and coats of the ponies.

“We’re approaching the station.  You’d best get everypony ready to go,” Balefire said, nodding towards a building we were coming up on.  It bore a similar appearance to the one in Tombstone, with a large platform for passengers to climb off.  Like many of the other buildings around it, it showed numerous signs of having been repaired and seemed to still be in use, given the number of ponies standing upon the platform.  Were they expecting a train to come along soon?  Looking closer at the milling group of ponies, I spotted a number of familiar faces, many wearing blue and yellow jumpsuits and couldn’t help but smile.

Within moments, we at long last had come to a halt with a hiss of steam and a blow of the whistle.  The doors of the cars opened as ponies placed their hooves to them and began to step hoof out onto the platform lining the length of four of the cars.  Off to one side were a number of soldiers, their weapons holstered or over their backs.  Likely they were there to make sure we got ourselves off alright.  Most of the ponies who set hoof outside stared about themselves in wonder at the sights and sounds of an actual living city.  Few had seen such tall buildings whole and in use, or been anywhere beyond their small corner of the wasteland.  Foals of every age darted out between their parents’ legs, happy to be free of the confines of the train.  They laughed and explored their new surroundings, asking questions about this or that.

Balefire had already gotten off the train while I’d been looking over the city.  Stone and Wild were still likely up front in the engine.  Spirit was off seeing to the ponies we’d brought with us.  Carrion was wherever Carrion was; the ghoul hadn’t said much since we’d left Tombstone.  As I stepped out onto the loading platform, I spotted the ponies I’d seen standing around the platform began trotting my way.  A large, red unicorn stallion in the lead wearing a large grin.  I’d not taken a half dozen steps when a voice whispered out beside me.

“Mom... daddy...” broke through the sounds around me, and I turned in time to see a slender mare slip past me and the others near the door to rush out towards the oncoming crowd of ponies.  Two of them detached themselves from the others and rushed to meet Tassles as she threw her forelegs around a middle aged blue stallion, wearing a stable jumpsuit.  The mare began sobbing happily into his mane as she held him tightly.

“Daddy!” she cried as the stallion nuzzled her cheek.  The older mare beside him, Tassles’ mother, nuzzled her daughter’s other cheek, tears streaming down her grey coated cheeks.

Silverflash hurried out after his marefriend, seeming reluctant to interrupt the tearful reunion.  Instead, Tassles’ mother tugged the stallion over into what was becoming a group hug that had several nearby ponies in tears themselves.  All along the platform, a number of similar reunions were taking place as those captured by the raiders found those who’d made the trip to the city on hoof, neither believing they’d see the other again.  The close-knit bonds that we’d shared within the Stable drove more than just family and friends to gather around one of the returned ponies.  We were all family in one way or another.   Above it all, Hope Tower cast its warm glow down upon the happy scene playing out below it.

As I stood there watching, Tassles’ father looked up and saw me.  A smile spread across his tear stained face.  Before either of us looked away, he mouthed the words, ‘Thank you.’  I could do little more than nod my head, a smile on my own face.

Against all odds, all reasonable expectations, across a wasteland made to kill us, through hell itself in the tunnels of Kanter City, past mutant beasts with a taste for pony, insane raiders and any number of other hazards, we had made it.  Somehow, we’d really made it, but never alone.  Friendship had seen me through nearly all of it, from the very beginning of my journey to its end.

The fierce loyalty of Stonehoof, never leaving my side even though he had the chance to do so several times.  It could have cost him his life, but he stood by me through it all.

The kindness of a buffalo willing to help a complete stranger, half drowned.  Anypony else would have left me for dead or simply taken my gear, but Spirit Walker had gone out of her way to mend my broken body.  

Wildfire had never spent a moment worrying when she could have spent it laughing or lifting our spirits.  When I’d found the broken mare, she’d had a quick wit and sharp tongue.  Over the past few weeks, both had gotten worse.  I’d have it no other way.

Even Carrion, despite his rugged demeanor, had honestly stood beside me, pointing out flaws or mistakes and fighting as hard as the rest of us when push came to shove.  I hoped he could find himself a new life here.

Balefire generously lending a hoof when he could have simply sat it out with the other rescued prisoners.  The dark green unicorn had given everything he had in our fight to save the settlers from the Blackhoofs, and had risked his neck to keep the stolen goods out of their hooves. 

I suppose the old saying is true: friendship really is magic.

With my mind wandering, I hadn’t seen the rather unmistakable sight of a large red unicorn trotting up to me, nor had I seen him reach out with thick forelegs.  I did see, however, as they wrapped around my neck and hauled me off my hooves.  I also felt it as I was crushed against a large barrel-like chest wearing a Stable jumpsuit.  It seemed the intent was clear... to crush the life from my small frame... or simply to hug me to death.  Whichever came first.  I waved my hooves in panic for a moment before a deep tearful voice said.

“You damned lucky son of a bitch!”  I snorted softly as Brightblade’s voice boomed out from his mouth even as he hugged me tightly to his chest like a filly hugs a stuffed toy.  He at last noticed I was turning blue and released me from his vice like grip, letting me drop to the platform with an *oof.*  “Some of us were beginning to lose hope we’d ever see you again.”

Picking myself up from the floor, I dusted myself off and turned to look at my childhood friend.  He’d aged a good deal since last I’d seen him, two weeks ago outside our former home.  The stallion’s once smooth, handsome face now sported a large nasty scar running down his cheek and to his throat.  How he’d not died from the wound was a wonder.  His perked ears were tattered in several places and there were a number of wrinkles along his muzzle and cheek from wind and worry.  His normally happy eyes had dark circles under them and they looked tired, but  warmed as he looked at me.  Lastly his long golden mane had been cut short, shorter than I’d ever remember seeing him have it.  I must have stared longer than I thought because he snorted and flashed me a familiar looking smile.

“Ya know, ya don’t look much better, Shadow.  You look like I feel.” he said.  I chuckled a bit at the words, himself and a few ponies standing around us joining in.

Looking around, I saw most of the ponies with my friend where from the Stable.  Most had worked for me as security ponies.  I was glad to see that most of them had survived the trip, since they’d been taking the brunt of whatever the wasteland threw at them.  I didn’t see Cinnamon or any of the older ponies in the team.  Brightblade noticed my look and signed softly.

“We lost about fifteen ponies crossing the wasteland before we ran across the Confederate Rangers.  Most of them from Security.”  He looked back to the ponies around him.  Like him at the mention of their lost comrades, their ears and tails drooped as they thought of them.  I could only imagine what had happened from my own experiences, but it began to worry me at those missing from this little group.  My friend sighed before turning back to me.  “But we can talk about that later, in one of the local bars while we toast those gone to a better place.  For now, this is a time to celebrate.  You’ve managed to save nearly all of those taken... and more it seems.”  He smiled once more and pointed a hoof towards the train behind me and the ponies still dismounting it.  “Never did things small, did you?”  Despite the grim news of earlier, I chuckled softly.

“No, I suppose I never did,” I answered back, looking back over the platform as the train emptied of ponies.  I saw Wild and Stone standing near the front of the train speaking with one another.  The mare flapped her wings as she looked up at the buildings overhead.  My eyes then passed over Willow as she led her fellow Tombstone ponies into a group.  She’d become the leader of them with the death of her husband.  Most of the settlers looked up to her and, despite trusting the Blackhoofs, she had enough common sense to make a good leader.  I noticed that Balefire was speaking to her, nodding his head down the street to something just out of sight.  As he did, his horn began glowing and, from a pair of saddlebags he’d taken from the Blackhoofs, he withdrew some papers and presented them to the mare.  

I blinked and looked down to my own saddlebags.  Those had looked like the papers that the mayor of Tombstone had given me to give to them.  Papers giving them a full pardon for the actions of a few in Tombstone.  Sadly, it placed the blame upon the two who’d been hung (Willow’s husband included), but it was worded carefully to not incriminate the others.  It was to help them settle here in San Ponsisco, make them seem more the victim so nopony would look at them with suspicion.  How Balefire had gotten them, I had no clue.

As Willow turned to her fellow settlers, saying something I could not hear over the muffled cries of joy coming from my own corner of the platform, Balefire turned his head towards me.  He gave me a grin before turning away and falling into step with Willow and the others.  I suppose he’d earned that cutie mark for more than just picking locks.  He’d likely known I was planning on helping them get settled myself, and had taken it upon himself to see to it.  That there were so many single mares among them likely had nothing to do with it.  I snorted and looked away as they trotted down the street.

 I turned back to my fellow (former) Stable dwellers as they spoke with one another, hugging those I’d brought back.  They started to move away from the train, likely to their new homes.  I saw a few sad faces among those waiting at the station, as some of the ones I’d saved told them of the ones I hadn’t.  Mothers wept for sons and daughters, friends for friends.  I knew how they felt, and it made me think of the one last duty I had to perform before I could allow myself to relax completely.  My eyes scanned the platform for any sign of a short pink filly.  However, beyond those with Willow’s group or those drawn from around the street by all the ponies suddenly coming from a strange train, I saw no sign of my niece.

“If you’re looking for Sugar, she’s with Nurse Spearmint.  We didn’t want her to get her hopes up too high if the train full of refugees Three Horn had been talking about wasn’t you and the others missing.  Still, she said it’d be you, that her Uncle Shadow was coming back.”  Bright chuckled and shook his head, his short yellow mane shifting about as he did.  “She’s been busy planning a party ever since, despite us telling her to wait.  I dunno how you or Ebony did it.  That filly’s a hoof full, but I’ll be damned if she didn’t take the journey here better than some of the adults...” his voice faltered as he noticed the look come across my face at the mention of my sister.  He sighed and lowered his head.

“I couldn’t save her, Bright... I couldn’t save my own sister...” I said, my voice barely a whisper, tears threatening to once more spill free across my face as I remembered the last time I’d seen her... before I’d been forced to... forced to...

“I’m so sorry, Shadow...” he answered.  The ponies behind him blinked at the news that their Overmare was dead.  She’d been the most beloved of the mare’s to hold that title in the Stable.  More so than even our mother.  “I know you did everything you could to bring her back.  I know how much she meant to you... hell, to all of us!  Is there anything we can do?”  He placed a hoof gently upon my shoulder as I sat down on my haunches.

“Just take me to Sugar, please... I have to tell her...”



*     *     *     *     *



The final leg of my journey was fittingly by hoof, as it had started out.  It only took us a few minutes to reach the collection of buildings the survivors from 45 had been given to live in by the government.  A few were in need of simple repairs, but for the most part were far more than anypony could have dreamed of while out in the hellish wasteland.  It wasn’t far from the train station, which is why they’d all arrived so quickly.  More familiar faces waited for me on the street as we made our way towards one of the buildings.  However, at the look on my face, they allowed me to pass with only a ‘welcome back,’ or nod of their head.  To be honest, I didn’t really pay that much attention, despite knowing some of them hadn’t made it.  My focus now was on my niece.

Thunder rumbled out overhead as we entered one of the buildings, a simple looking red brick apartment building.  Bright told me what floor and what door was the one Spearmint shared with my niece, and I nodded my head in thanks.  With a hug and soft nuzzle, we parted ways and I began my steady slow climb.  I began wondering just how I was going to tell the filly that her mother wasn’t coming home.  Should I lie to her as we did when she asked about her father?  Given the wasteland’s cruel nature, it may be better to tell her the truth.  Death was the way of life on the surface.  At last, I reached the correct floor and stood before the correct door.  My niece lay just beyond it, happy and safe.  Taking a deep breath, I reached for the doorknob and pushed it open.

The room I stepped into was simple yet clean and organized, for the most part.  There were several pieces of furniture inside: a couch, a pair of chairs and a simple table marked off the living room.  Behind this was a table with four wooden chairs and a couple cabinets built into the wall for the dining room.  A walled off section before me was likely the kitchen, and a hallway to my left would lead off to the bedrooms and bath.  There were even a few old faded photos hanging upon the wall over equally faded and old wallpaper.  However, it was the chaotic parts of the room that caught my eye.

Somepony had been busy preparing a party.  Streams of every color of a fabled rainbow hung from the ceiling by nails, tape, or anything else the decorator had close at hoof.  They draped across the photos and over the wallpaper, giving the room a more cheerful look.  Tied with string from the armrests of the chairs and couch were an equal number of colorful balloons.  A number of them had a smiling face drawn on them with a black marker.  Both a small table before the couch and the dining room table had a fair number of treats upon them, from a couple bottles of Sparkle Cola to pre-war snack cakes.  Beside the food were a couple party hats and favors.  Scattered across the wooden floor and over the tables was confetti, completely tossed wildly about.  It looked as if a party store had exploded in the room. 

Stepping more fully into the room, I reached back and loosened my saddlebags from my back, allowing the heavy packs to drop the floor in a cloud of dust.  Dipping my head down, I slipped Luna’s Ruse from around my neck.  Insuring the safety was on, I placed it lightly upon the bags.  As I turned back to the room, I spotted something on the wall to my left.  A large banner written in a childish scrawl with crayons read ‘Welcome home Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Shadow!’

“Oh, Tiny...”  As if my whispered words had conjured the filly, a small pink foal trotted out from the doorway leading into what was likely the kitchen.  She was carrying a large plate of cupcakes in her mouth.  The plate was nearly as large as her.  Somehow, she managed to not only make her way towards the dining room table, but to also leap up onto one of  the chairs that had been pulled out and slide the tray of sweets atop it.  A serious look crossed my young niece’s face as she cocked her head to the display, sticking her tongue out she reached a small hoof out to adjust a couple of the party hats into a far more fitting display.  Party planning was serious business, she had told me once.  At last happy with how it all looked, she grinned wide and nodded her head.

“Now, Sugar, I think we’ve done enough for now, we need to wait and make sure it’s really them before...” the voice trailed off as Nurse Spearmint trotted through the doorway a few moments after Sugar.  Her eyes went wide as I stood there in the doorway to the apartment.  A tray of cups clattered to the floor as she lost her grip on them with her magic. 

“Auntie Spearmint, what's wrong?” Sugar called out to her caretaker, looking over to the mare before following her shocked look to me.  The filly froze and her golden eyes widened at the sight of me.  A moment passed, the cups rolling about the hooves of the green unicorn, but forgotten for now.  The moment was at last broken as Sugar gave a loud, happy, childish shout and leapt from her chair with a room brightening smile.

“Uncle Shadow!!  Uncle Shadow, you’re back!!  You’re home!!” she giggled and nearly tipped over the chair in her excitement to reach me.  Only the sudden glow of magic kept the seat upright enough to stop my niece from face-planting into the hardwood floor.  None of this mattered to the tiny pink filly as her hooves clattered across the floorboards, racing up towards me to wrap her tiny forelegs around one of my own and at once began nuzzling me.  “I knew you’d make it back!!  I told Uncle Bright to stop being such a frumpy grumpy pony.  That nothing could stop my Uncle Shadow!!” she giggled at that before releasing my leg and leaning back a bit.  

That bright smile and those happy eyes for a moment made me forget why I’d been so dreading seeing her.  I smiled a bit and reached a hoof out to gently ruffle her mane.  She giggled at that and swatted at my large black hoof with a smaller pink one, bouncing away from me a bit.  Her ears perked upright as she looked to the door behind me, perhaps expecting two other ponies to follow me in.

“Where's mommy and daddy?”

Those four simple words brought the harsh realities back for me and my smile faded from my face.  I found myself unable to answer that simple question.  She looked up at me, the happy look in her eyes replaced with a bit of worry.  She asked me again, a slight trace of fear in her voice that replaced the joyful note from just a moment before.  My eyes settled upon those of my niece.  So much like mine.  So much like her mother’s.  I lowered myself down upon the floor, the weariness of the past two weeks catching up with me.

Tears began forming in those large golden orbs as she looked up at me, ears drooping and her lip quivering.  She began to sniff, her small body shaking as the door behind me shut with a soft flick and glow of Spearmint’s horn.  She knew.  She’d likely known from the moment I set out how this would end.  The mare sunk to her hunches and leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, shutting her eyes.  Gently, I reached a foreleg out to my niece and pulled her shivering body closer to me.

“I’m sorry, Tiny... your mother and father... well, they...” I stuttered, my own ears drooping at the sight of my niece and the memory of her mother.  All those things that I’d pushed aside for a week, all those emotions that had flooded out in Wastefall Gorge, began returning as I tried to tell Sugar that her mother was dead.  That she was never coming back.  That I’d killed her to stop the pain she was in.  How?  How could I even tell her she was dead?  Celestia... Luna... anypony...

But I didn’t need their help in the end.  She knew.  Tears began to roll down her pink cheeks that moments before had been pulled back in a grin.  I gathered her tiny form up into my forehooves and pressed my muzzle down against her frame.  Small pink hooves reached up to wrap around my nose, as she pressed her face down into it and began to cry.  Tears from both our eyes dampened our fur.

The storm that had followed us across the mountains at long last broke outside the apartment's windows.  A sudden hard rain began to spill from the thick grey clouds, dulling the warm glow from Hope Tower.  Streams of water ran over the foggy glass windows of the room, as lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.

The broken world cried with us for the ponies lost, and hopes crushed.


Welcome to Level 15!

Perk Added: Wasteland Survivor: You’ve traveled the length of the Wasteland and seen and done some amazing things.  Your ability to scrounge for ammo, food, and medical supplies have kept yourself and your companions alive.  You're now 50% more likely to find items others have missed, and 20% more likely to find rare ammo.



> Chapter 15: Settling In
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 15: Settling In 


Home -- that blessed word, which opens to the equine heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an angel's wings.



My eyes opened slowly and for a moment I forgot where I was.  Hazy thoughts of being out in the wasteland drifted to the front of my mind; that is, until a very annoying buzzing sound began to ring out from beside my head, reminding me where I was.  Blinking my sleep-heavy eyes several times, I stared up at the blur of whites and browns above me for several seconds.  Slowly my eyes began to focus upon the smudges of colors, and they resolved themselves as the white tile of the room’s ceiling, speckled with brown water stains from years of neglect.  For the moment I simply lay in my warm bed and stared up at the speckled tiles, eyes wandering over the perfectly square panels, thankful that I was not waking to another day of walking and endless fighting.  I would have likely remained laying there, if the buzzing hadn’t reminded me that I had responsibilities to deal with.

With a yawn, I rose tiredly from the pillows my head had laid upon and turned to look at the nightstand beside my bed, and the red flashing numbers sitting there blinking back at me.  Where once not long ago I had mulled over seeking out my shotgun to silence it, now I simply swatted it with a hoof and shut off the alarm, my mind not so clouded by a hellish hangover that I needed to try more than once.

 The bed under me shifted as I slid to the edge and rubbed at my face with a forehoof, yawning loudly as I continued to wake up.  Even after two weeks, it still seemed strange to be sleeping in a bed, safe and with no threats to rush off and face.  No lives depending upon me, no raiders out to kill me.  Yet... something nagged at me from deep within my mind.  My ears twitched as thoughts of the wasteland lead to other thoughts, and as I so often did the past several days my head once more turned towards the nightstand and passed over the alarm clock, past the empty glass and the odd cap to a familiar photo sitting near the back edge.

It lay behind a glass panel, framed within a silver picture frame.  Though still cracked, worn, and stained in a spot or two, the three ponies smiling back at me seemed just as bright as they had been the day it had been taken.  As it always did, the photo brought back those happy memories, as well as more recent painful ones.  A single shot echoed throughout the basement of a ruined hospital within a dead city.  My eyes closed and my head lowered for a moment.  Thankfully, the happier ones were far more numerous than the bad.  I lifted my head and opened my eyes to look once more to the photo and the smiling black coated mare sitting beside her daugher on a picnic blanket near a short pale apple tree.  Golden eyes alight with joy, smile full of life.

“Good morning, sis,” I whispered softly to the photo, placing a hoof gently upon the glass panel over my sister’s face.  A small smile formed upon my lips as I thought of that day, and others like it.  The hospital basement faded from my mind, like darkness fleeing from the light of my sister’s smile and habit of waking me.

“Why my loving little brother!  Can’t your big sister make you breakfast?” Ebony grinned over to me, batting her lashes playfully...

With my morning ritual complete, I rose fully from the bed.  The mattress groaned as my weight was removed from atop it and at once attempted to retake its original lumpy form.  It did this by poking several odd springs up, mostly where I lay.  I rubbed the offending spot that had recently been poked and let out a tired sigh as I stretched out my legs upon the floor, earning a few pops.  Lifting my head up, I looked over what was quickly becoming home.

Like the rest of the apartment, my bedroom was simple and small, a good deal smaller than my room back in the Stable.  Of course, my room there had been a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and dining room all in one.  Here those each had their own walled-in section away from the others.  While there was no sign of heavy decay and damage, there were a number of cracks and missing plaster along the faded green painted walls where the odd, dull red brick showed through in spots.  A single cloudy window looked out to the city beyond, the once white trim chipped and flaking.  

Beside the bed and nightstand, there was a single empty bookshelf (likely to remain empty), a desk missing one leg (it had been replaced by a piece of metal), a locked cabinet (where my armor and weapons sat out of the reach of small pink hooves), and a large overstuffed chair that looked to have been patched a number of times.  Everything was a mismatch of colors and materials, and all had been repaired and re-repaired.  But it was all in good enough shape to make use of, and that’s what mattered most on the surface: what you could and couldn’t use.

There was little to be seen within the room to personalize it.  But then, I’d never unpacked my things from home... or rather my former home.  This was home now.  Photos of places and ponies long dead and turned to ash hung here or there along the walls, likely having been here before the end of the world.   Only three of them were of ponies I knew, and one was beside me on the nightstand.  The others were on the desk beside my saddlebags.  Two doors stood out from the drab green paint in the same chipped white as the window frame; one leading out into the hallway, and the other to a closet, where the few boxes of my stuff sat.

It was to the former I made my way, hooves clopping across the cold wooden flooring.  As I neared the door, I managed to shake off the last bits of sleep from my body and reached out to the tarnished brass door knob.  With a twist and a soft click, the door opened back and I stepped out into the hallway beyond it.

I took only a couple of steps beyond my door before coming to a halt.  Standing there in the center of the narrow passage, I perked my ears and listened for any sounds coming from within the apartment.  Beyond the by now familiar sounds of life outside on the streets, the groan of the aged building as it settled, and my own breathing, it was mostly silent.  My eyes shifted from the path before me to a door not far from my own.  As quietly as I could manage, I stepped over towards it; well, as quietly as one can with hooves on a hardwood floor.  Once near it, I stopped and listened, hearing only a soft murmuring coming out from beyond the door.  I quietly turned the knob and placed my shoulder against the door, pushing it open only a crack so I could peer inside.

Much the same as my room was, this one was a mix of whites, blues and a few greens and, like mine (and the entire city for that matter) the paint was faded and chipped with age.  The view from this room’s single window looked out over the neighboring building, a tower of dark red and brown bricks with a number of windows reflecting the light from Hope Tower so distant away.  Musty old white curtains hung from a rusted rod and obscured most of the details of the world beyond the room.  Like my room, this one was only basically furnished with a dresser, table and chair combo, an old trunk, and a bed that was far too large for the small pony sleeping soundly upon it.

The tiny pink form lay huddled upon the mattress, her horned head atop the pillow and a pink hoof wrapped around the body of a stuffed purple unicorn with a number of repaired seams.  She shifted in her sleep, turning her face away from the bit of light spilling in through the crack in her door and began to drift back to sleep.

I smiled and hurriedly withdrew from the room, quietly latching the door back as I turned away from my niece’s room.  She could sleep for a few more minutes at least.  School didn’t start for another hour.  My hooves quietly clopped across the hallway to the third door just across from Sugar’s.  The door was already open, and I stepped across the threshold and into the bathroom.  Unlike the rest of the apartment, the floor was covered in white tiles, nearly all of them cracked from the original bombing, age, or hooves.  Beside the door was a sink and an equally cracked mirror upon the wall.  I lifted a hoof and flipped the switch between the door and sink, causing a dim bulb to spring to life above me.  In the light, I looked over the rest of the room, which consisted of a water-stained bathtub near the back wall, a toilet (which actually worked), and a closet where a number of towels and other cleaning supplies were stored.

Moving past the sink, I stepped towards the tub and reached a hoof inside to turn on the water.  After a moment of groaning pipes, water began to fall from the shower head, striking the bottom of the tub.  A few cold droplets of water splashed upon my foreleg and face as I stood near.  As I waited for the water to heat up, I turned away from the tub to shut the bathroom door; however, I stopped when I caught my reflection in the mirror.  I tilted my head, and my reflection did the same.  For some reason, standing there at that my moment reminded me of that fateful morning a month ago as I did much the same.  I’d changed a lot since that early morning wake up call.

I was a lot leaner than I had been.  While I’d never been what one would call fat, I’d simply been about average for a pony my height and age.  Now I had a lot more muscle, mostly around my shoulders and flanks, from all the walking, running, and fighting I’d done across much of the western Equestrian Wasteland.  If Wild had been here, no doubt the winged mare would have gleefully pointed out how much mares love a stallion with muscles.  I snorted softly, a smirk forming across my muzzle as I thought of my friend and allowed my golden eyes to wander to the other things she’d have no doubt said mares love: scars.

The wasteland left its marks upon anypony... or anyone who braved it; in mind, body and soul.  It had certainly left its share of marks upon me.  Most had healed over the past two weeks, leaving little more than thin lines of pink flesh along my black coat.  Others... well, it would take a long time for some of them to fully heal.

I turned my head back to examine myself more closely.  Across my right flank was a long running scar from a close call with Buford’s revolver back in Oddwick.  The bullet had come close to leaving a line across my cutie mark but had missed it only by inches.  My chest and shoulders seemed to have borne the brunt of a number of wounds, from bullets and any number of sharp objects, which had left small to medium scars across both.  Turning back to the mirror I looked at my reflection once more, focusing upon my face.  My snout was slightly crooked and a bit more flat on the front, having been broken so often over the course of my journey.  It gave me a more ‘frowny face,’ as Sugar liked to call it.

Well, I’d never really been worried about my looks, and perhaps now I’d have some relief from all the mares attempting to toss themselves at me.  Besides, there were ponies far worse off than I.  The mirror before me began to fog over slowly with steam and I turned away from it, to the rapidly falling water.  Shutting the door, I stepped back and climbed into the cascading shower of soothing warm water. 

I didn’t take long to wash myself up in preparation for my day.  I even attempted to comb back my white mane and tail, not spending any more time on them than I had back in the Stable.  Besides, they were just going to get dirty and sweaty while I worked.  Opening the door to the bathroom, I was greeted by a faceful of pink and childish giggling.  I snorted as best I could around the soft pink mass clinging to my face, earning more foalish laughter from my niece.

“That tickles, Uncle Shadow!” she giggled happily.  I chuckled as tiny hooves scrambled up my face, small teeth clamping onto one of my ears to help haul her up fully atop my head.  Once she’d reached the perfect spot, Sugar planted her rump down between my ears and slid down my neck and back to land upon the bathroom’s white tiles behind me in a clatter of tiny hooves.

“Good morning, Tiny.  Sleep well last night?” I asked, turning around to watch as the small pink foal scrambled over towards the tub I’d just left and jumped for the edge.  Swatting several times with her hooves, she finally managed to grip the rim and haul herself up just enough to turn on the water before dropping back to the floor.

“Yep!  I had a nice dream about mommy again, I didn’t wanna wake up but I gotta get ready for school,” she said, galloping full speed back over towards the door and me (which meant more slipping about on the smooth tiles then it did actually moving her short legs).  I simply smiled down at her as she started tugging on one of my own legs.  She’d been dreaming about her mother a lot lately.  At first I was worried they might make her withdraw into herself as she had the first few days after I returned.  But instead of making her sad, they seemed to be positive things, cheering her up when nothing else would.  I think it also helped that she had me... and I her.

“Oh, I see... well we had better hurry up with your bath then so I can make you breakfast,” I responded with a smile.  A few days ago, she’d begun attending one of the schools in the city with a number of other foals from 45 and some local children, on the suggestion of Spearmint.  The former nurse had told me Sugar needed to be around children again so she could return to a normal life (at least as normal as it could be given everything that had happened).  I’d agreed, and been thankful to learn one of the teachers from home would be there.
 
“You're not gonna set the kitchen on fire again, are you?” she asked, head tilted cutely to the side to look up at me with wide bright golden eyes and a hint of a smile.  I snorted and narrowed my eyes back at her.

“That only happened once...” I reminded her.

“I never knew oatmeal could burst into flames... it was kinda cool.” she said clapping her fore hooves together, “Maybe you can fix some pancakes this time?” my tiny bundle of pink energy asked, beaming up at me with her full smile.  I chuckled and shook my head; there was no defence against that smile.  

None whatsoever.

“I... suppose I could try...”  As one might have guessed, my cooking skills were not good.  The only reason I hadn’t starved out in the wasteland was due to dried food and food I’d found throughout the numerous ruins.  Who knew one hundred and fifty year old preserved food could be safer than making your own?  Though I doubt the preservatives were much more healthy for me than the radiation they’d kept out.  

The promise of pancakes seemed to please my giggling, slave-driving scamp, who spun in place a few times before I reached a hoof out and ruffled up her mane.  This in turn caused further giggling as she swatted at my larger hoof with two smaller ones before prancing off into the bathroom.

Chuckling softly I followed her inside, first stopping beside the door to the closet and taking out a couple of towels, tossing them across my back I moved over to the tub.  Tiny had managed to get her fore hooves back up on the edge of the tub and was attempting to pull herself up, hind legs kicking as she did so and tail swishing about.  I smirked and reached down to gently take hold of the scruff of her neck in my mouth and lift her up and over the edge and into the tub.  Hind legs still kicking, she splashed water all across my face as I lowered her into it.  I suppose I could have just saved time and waited for her to wake so we both could have gotten a bath.  

“Whoops... sorry,” she said, ears laying back as she grinned up at me, a hoof batting at a chunk of soap floating past her in the water.  Somehow, I doubted that very much and simply shook my head before grabbing the soap with a hoof.

“So, have you decided what you’re going as for Nightmare Night this year?” I asked, as I began lightly scrubbing the soap into my niece’s bright pink coat.  For her part, she sat in the warm water moving her legs about as I worked to get her clean, seeming content to let me do all of the work.

“Yep!  Miss Bright is helping me with it!” she stated happily, yellow eyes twinkling with joy.  Nightmare Night was something of a family speciality for us, for as long as I could remember.  Mom and Dad had always made a big fuss about it, baking lots of treats for the children of the Stable and organizing a party for everypony.  Even though we’d long since grown up, I still recalled Ebony dragging me along to trick or treat with Sugar last year.  As my sister put it, you're never too old for free candy.  It was a good memory, one I cherished.  

“So, what are you going to be?” I asked her, I turned the water on once more letting it wash away the white suds covering much of my niece’s tiny form and soaking her mane to her face and neck.

“It’s a surprise!” she answered with a grin up at me from below a soggy mane held up by one tiny hoof.  

It was the same answer she’d been giving me for the past few days, and she wasn’t budging on it.  Normally, Ebony or I would have helped her with it, but this year she was determined to surprise me.  I snorted softly and finished washing her up before allowing the tub to drain.  Reaching down, I lifted Sugar up from her hooves and down onto a towel I’d placed over the floor.  Grabbing the one remaining towel still draped across my back, I tossed it over my giggling niece’s head and body and begun drying her off, the giggling increasing as I neared her sides.  Smirking, I then moved in swiftly and began tickling her under the towel, causing the giggles to turn into laughter as she attempted to escape, only managing to fall over onto the second towel, and become wrapped in both.

“Uncle... hehe Uncle Shadow! Nooo!!! Hehehe... stoppit!” the tiny pink filly gasped as I finally relented and pulled the towels from her ruffled mane and coat.  Once free, she shook herself off before trotting around me towards the sink, looking up to the edge of it and her brush sitting there on the corner.  With a spark of pink magic and a determined look, the comb’s handle began to glow a similar shade of pink as it slowly slid off the edge and dropped down to the floor.  Before it could clatter over the tiles, she reached out with her forehooves to catch it, and grinned.  I was impressed.  

“Well, seems you're getting better with your magic, Tiny,” I told her as I tossed the wet towels into the corner with a few others.  I’d need to do laundry soon before we ran out of clean ones.  Another odd thought after two weeks in the wasteland.  Clean towels and warm showers...

“A little...” she answered, with a bit of a blush on her cheeks.  Once more the comb handle glowed pink as her horn sparked to life, and she began combing her damp mane with it.  I smiled, seeing so much of my sister in her, from how she tilted her head to the side as she combed to the things she said.  She acted a bit older than she was, but after what we’d all been through, everypony had been forced to grow up quick.

“Alright, well while you finish getting ready for school, I’ll go see about starting us some breakfast.”  A nod from her horned head was the only response I got as she focused on her combing.  I trotted past and moved back out into the hallway.  I’d barely taken a dozen steps and exited into the living room when the smell of cooking food reached my nose.  Ears perking up, I scanned the living room for any sign of another pony before I made my way past the couch and chairs to the kitchen door.

“Honestly, you burn one breakfast and the whole building turns against you,” I said with a smirk and shake of my head, before walking into the olive painted room with its similarly-colored counters and appliances.  

“As I recall, it was five burnt breakfasts, one of which resulted in the fire department being called.  The landlord said you weren’t allowed near anything flammable again,” Spearmint said with her back to me, though I could still tell by the tone of her voice she was smiling.  Her horn glowed a faint green as a spatula that had been floating beside her head moved down to the stove and flipped a pancake over in its skillet.

“I wasn’t aware oatmeal was flammable,” I shot back, pulling out a jug of milk from the fridge as I trotted past the older unicorn.

“Nor was anypony else until two weeks ago,” came the response, to which I rolled my eyes.  “Don’t you roll them eyes at me, young colt.”  I blinked and looked back; she always knew when I was doing that somehow, ever since I was a foal.  “Now fetch me a plate, dear.  These are just about finished and we don’t want Sugar to be late for school.”

Setting the milk down atop the kitchen table, I trotted across the small space to the cabinets and pulled them open.  There was little inside any of them, save for a few plates, cups, and bowls, all salvaged from across the ruins of the city.  Like the furniture, not a single piece matched.  As I began withdrawing three sets of dishes out, Spearmint looked back towards me.

“How is she doing this morning?”  It was a common question asked of me by a number of former Stable ponies.  

“She woke up as she normally does, with a smile and laugh,” I answered, placing the dishes onto my back and closing the doors of the cabinet.  “She had another dream of her mother.  A good one, she said.”

“I suppose that’s to be expected... after your parents died, you both had similar dreams.” 

Did we?  I honestly didn’t remember them if I did.  Still, I trusted Spearmint’s judgement.  After setting a larger blue plate down beside the stove for the pancakes, I trotted past her and back out into the living room and began setting the table for breakfast.  Down the hall, I heard the sounds of an excited foal getting ready for school as she talked with her stuffed unicorn toy, the only toy she’d taken from the Stable.

Hoofsteps from the kitchen drew my attention away from the bedrooms and to the green coated mare as she walked out.  A tray of pancakes floated beside her head, along with a pitcher of syrup and the milk I’d left on the table.

“She’s looking forward to Nightmare Night,” the mare said, as the items she held in her magic began to drift down atop the table between the plates I’d just set down.

“Like always... though she’s keeping what she’s going as this year a big secret for some reason,” I replied, looking over the food.  I had to admit, it smelled far better than anything I could ever hope to fix.  “Has she told you?” I asked.

“Yes, she has,” came the simple response as she trotted back towards the kitchen for something else.  

“Don’t suppose you’d care to tell me?”  She simply smiled and disappeared back into the kitchen.  I didn’t think so.  My ears drooped and I sat down upon one of the chairs at the table.  However, the wonderful smell of fresh brewed coffee perked me right up, as she returned with a pot along with a chipped coffee mug.

“Now... where is that filly?” she asked, as the mug and pot were lowered to my corner of the table.  She was just about to call out for my niece when the tiny bright pink pony came galloping down the hallway, her saddlebags in her mouth filled with paperwork and books.  These were quickly dropped to the floor beside her chair and then used to help her spring up the short space to her seat with a wave of giggles.

“Morning Aunt Spearmint, you here to walk me to school?” she asked, forehooves dropping onto the edge of the table as she sat up in her seat.  Her small nose twitched as she sniffed and her eyes went from the elderly unicorn to the stack of pancakes before her.  The grin widened.  “Yay!  Pancakes, and they aren’t on fire!”

I was never going to live that down...

The conversation drifted as we began to eat, and the subject of Sugar’s dreams dropped in favor of talk of friends at school and the lessons she was being taught.  As she had done in the Stable’s school, my niece was excelling at nearly every subject, and would likely grow up to be a very smart pony much like her mother and unlike her uncle.  Though, I wondered what she would do now, in this new world.

In the Stable it was assumed she would one day take over as Overmare from her mother, a position no longer needed.  While a few of the former inhabitants from 45 still looked to either Brightblade or myself for leadership, most had begun accepting the local government.  In fact, a good number of my former security team was now working for the local police force, a few even joining the city’s guard.  While the two seemed similar, they were in fact very different jobs.  The police patrolled the city streets, dealing with crimes and the population.  The guards patrolled the walls and the wasteland around them, dealing with mutant creatures and raiders.  Of course, there was still the army, but that was a bit off topic.

My eyes wandered from my nearly empty plate of food to my niece as she held her own plate up to her face to lick every last drop of syrup from its surface, getting a bit on her face.  This of course drew a *tsk* from Spearmint, who levitated a napkin up from the table and attempted to clean the giggling foal’s face.

What would she do?  There were any number of jobs within San Ponsisco, from the merchant district to the government district, but perhaps it was a bit too soon to be thinking of her as the next president.  She was still a little filly, so that was quite a few years away.  Hopefully happy years spent growing into a young mare... of course, that would lead to other problems.  Luckily I still had my shotgun for any colts hanging around her.   

“I swear, you take more after your uncle in your table manners,” the elderly unicorn said as she pulled the smeared napkin away from Sugar’s face, a playful frown on her face.  

Sugar looked over to me and I winked picking up my own empty plate and making a show of lapping the syrup from it, earning more giggles from the foal and a paper towel to the muzzle from the mare.  Still giggling, she dropped down from her chair onto the saddlebags she’d placed beside it.  Whatever she had inside shifted, causing her to tumble onto the floor with a slight yelp of surprise.

I only half looked over, knowing she’d be fine.  Sugar was made of tougher stuff than most fillies.  Sure enough, she hurriedly rose to her hooves as if it’d never happened, golden eyes looking towards the green unicorn floating the towel away from my face.  

“Come on, Aunt Spearmint!  I’m gonna be late for class!  Uncle Shadow’s old enough to clean himself!”

“Heavens, a foal looking forward to school... what's the world coming to these days?” the green mare said with a chuckle, horn glowing as she cleared the dishes from the table and carried them back into the kitchen to dump in the sink.  I’d see to them tonight after work.

As Sugar struggled to get her saddlebags into place, I picked up the last of the milk and trotted back into the kitchen, passing Spearmint as she returned to my niece.  Placing it into the fridge, I then retrieved a thermos from the cabinet.  No sense in letting good coffee go to waste.  I had taken only a few steps back out when I was again assaulted by something pink gripping my foreleg tightly in hers.

“Bye Uncle Shadow!  I’ll cya tonight!”  A quick nuzzle later, the sugar-buzzed Sugar rushed back towards the apartment's front door and attempted to pull it open.  Sweet Celestia, what had we unleashed upon the unsuspecting population of San Ponsisco?  

Spearmint trotted after her, calling back to me as she opened the door, “I’m picking her up after school today, so you don’t need to worry about her getting home.”

The mint green unicorn trotted after the tiny terror, horn glowing as she opened the door for them both and stepped through the door, my niece bouncing around her hooves.  “Have a good day at work, Shadow,” they both called out, as the door glowed a soft green and shut behind her.  Their hoof steps receded down the stairs, leaving me alone in the apartment.

With a smile on my face, I checked the time on my Pipbuck.  I had an hour before I had to be at work, so no need to rush.  Still, I had little else to do at the moment, so I reached over for the coffee pot still sitting upon the table and filled the thermos with what was left.  While it would never be as good as what we’d had in Security, it was passable.  Bright had ended up with that coffee maker, so I’d have to figure out some way to get it back from him. 

Setting both pot and thermos back atop the table, I turned away and trotted back down the hallway towards my room to retrieve my saddlebags and the few items I’d need today.  The door was still slightly ajar, and I pushed it fully with a hoof, looking towards the desk and closet.  Stepping into the room, I made my way over towards the closet door and opened it.  Inside were a number of worn brown boxes and the tools I needed for my job.  A worn shovel and hoe were propped up against the wall.  As I took hold of the shovel, it brushed up against one of the boxes, sending it to the floor so that it spilled out a number of items.  Swearing softly, I set the shovel down and withdrew the hoe, causing a few bits of paper to flip over as the metal end brushed across them.

I’ll deal with the box later.

I was just about to step out of the closet when I caught sight of just what had spilled out from the box.  A dog eared book with a faded blue cover.  The family picture album.  I hadn’t seen it in a year or more; Ebony had kept it when our mother had died and added pictures to it.  However, it was the large photo sticking out from the pages of the album that had caught my eye.  Reaching a hoof down to it, I gently lifted it up from the floor and sat back on my haunches to look the picture over.

Over four dozen smiling faces looked back at me from the piece of paper, young and old, mares and stallions.  All of them were dressed in blue and yellow Stable jumpsuits with the number 45 plain to see on their chests.  Many of them also had the standard black barding over their normal clothing, batons and side arms tucked into their respective places.  All wore badges, and every one of them I knew well.  The photo was a group shot of Stable Security taken over a year ago, and a reminder that we’d lost a lot of good ponies; more than just my sister.

For a moment I looked over each bright smiling face, colorful manes, coats, and eyes, and my thoughts turned to those I’d never see again.  Only a moment, before I reached out and gently pushed the photo back into the album laying on the floor along with a few others that had spilled out.  If I started thinking of them, then I’d likely get nothing else done the rest of the day, and besides... there’d be time to think about them tonight at the bar with the others.

Standing up, I slipped my saddlebags on and shoved the two retrieved tools from the closet under its straps, where they would be safe for the walk to work.  I reached a hoof out to shut the door, but stopped and looked down at the photo album still sitting out on the floor.  They’d be remembered tonight at the bar... but perhaps they’d be remembered better with something of themselves there.  My mind made up, I retrieved the album from the floor and slipped it into my bag, sealing the flap in place to keep any dirt or water from getting into it.

Giving my room another look, I reached out and closed the door to the closet and trotted back towards the door and the hallway beyond.  Once I’d reached the living room, I retrieved the warm thermos from the top of the table and tossed it into the empty side of my saddlebags.  With little else to keep me here, I stepped towards the front door.  It was time to start my day. 

As I stepped out into the central hallway, I heard hoofsteps further down the passage and looked up from my lock.  A mare was just stepping out of her door, doing much the same as I.  She no longer wore the blue and yellow jumpsuit of a stable pony, instead wearing a maroon colored vest over her chest and shoulders.  It stood out against her cream-colored coat and pink and blue striped curly mane.  Like the jumpsuit, it left her flanks bare, showing off the silver needle and yellow thread cutie mark.  Her plum-colored eyes brightened upon seeing me and a smile soon followed.

“Good morning, Shadow!”  Tassles called out as she finished locking up her door before trotting down towards me as I finished doing the same.  “Heading off to work?” she asked.

“Yeah, I am.  You have work today?” I asked, ears twitching to the sound of the lock sliding home.  While I trusted nearly everypony in the building (a somewhat easy thing seeing how everypony living here was from Stable 45), there were a few less... savory types out on the streets I wouldn’t have trusted very well.  Perhaps it was due to my training as a security pony, or my time in the wasteland, but trust seemed harder to come by on the surface.

“Yep.  My new boss seems to have taken a liking to me and has been giving me more and more work to do,” she said, as we began trotting towards the stairwell down the hall.  Outside the apartment, the building looked much the same, with some cracks repaired and some still in need of fixing.  The walls here were painted a dull olive green with faded red carpets running the length of the hallway.  The apartment doors were all bare wood for the most part, with chipped gold painted numbers beside them.  All in all, it was a nice place to live above the surface, free of trash and mostly free of pests.

“Oh?  Well, that’s good news, but how’s Silver handling that?” I asked.  Tassles former coltfriend, now husband, had always been protective of the mare, ever since they’d started dating, and it had only gotten more so as time went on.  I’m sure being kidnapped by raiders had done wonders for that.  To my surprise, Tassles simply laughed and looked over at me was we began trotting down the stairs.  We had seven flights to cover before we reached the ground floor, and the streets of San Ponsisco.
 
“I’m sure he’s fine with it, seeing as how my boss is a mare,” she giggled and winked over at me.

“Tassles... I had no idea you swung both ways...” Tassles’ ears shot up at that, mouth hanging open.  She blinked several times before she began attempting to clear things up.

“What?  No!  I just meant...”  Her laid-flat ears swiveled forward at the sound of my chuckling, her eyes going wide as she realized what I’d done.   A cream-colored hoof shot out and gently punched me in the shoulder.  “Shadow, that’s mean!” she huffed, tail hiked a bit as she stomped down the steps like a filly.  I simply chuckled and followed.

“Sorry, but you sorta had that one coming after making me switch rooms with Sugar and convincing her that Silver and you were simply playing a game.”  The mare’s already-red cheeks turned brighter still as we set hoof on the first floor.  Well, seems another pony could be made to change colors as easily as me... wait...

“I can’t help it if Silver’s just really really good at... erm ‘that game,’” she finished lamely, ears folded back in embarrassment.  This earned a chuckle from me and a snort that drew our attention from our conversation to the pony sitting ahead.

“This again?  What are you two, a couple of foals?”  Sitting in her wheelchair in the building’s lobby was Wendy and her young foal who sat resting on her lap, giggling happily up at his mother.

While she had survived her wounds from the attack on Stable 45, the spear that had been buried in her hind quarters along with the cruel cuts of the raiders had left the young earth pony mare nearly crippled.  She’d been given one of the first floor rooms, since the original builders had failed to make the upper floors wheelchair accessible.  Still, despite all the problems being bound to a wheelchair brought, the young mother pressed on for her son.  An inspiration to many from the Stable, myself included.

“How are you doing this morning, Wendy?” I asked as we stopped beside my former security pony while Tassles wiggled a hoof at the small blue bundle waving his hooves up at her.

“About as well as can be expected with a young colt going through the terrible twos,” she answered, watching with a smile as Blueberry began noming on Tassles’ hoof, green eyes sparkling with happiness.

“I remember Sugar going through that...” 

“As do I.  Ebony got very little sleep for three months,” Tassles said, sitting down on the floor beside Wendy’s wheelchair so she could tickle Blueberry’s pudgy tummy with her free forehoof, earning a squeal of laughter.

“Well, if she’d asked for help a bit sooner, she’d not have had to go through so much trouble.”  My eyes went from the happy foal to Wendy.  “At least you don’t have to worry about magic surges from Blueberry here.” 

“No, but he’s learned how to kick with his hind legs now.”  I winced at that.  While unicorn foals sometimes suffered from sudden surges of magic, earth pony foals were largely born with their unnatural strength already present and ready to wreak havoc on a household.  The real fun started once they learned to walk, because learning to walk leads to learning to flail one’s hooves around.  While a foal couldn’t knock a full grown adult pony down (well, not all of them could, but luckily dad forgave me), anything not tied down was fair game (I still feel bad about grandma’s favorite tea cup... and the vase... and the one maintenance robot...).

As the two mares spoke about raising foals, I looked towards the front of the building and the double doors leading outside.  On either side of them were large windows.  Though the glass panels were as clouded as those in my apartment, they still allowed me a view of the city beyond.  Weathered with age and nature, the brick and stone buildings still appeared strong.  Chipped and faded paint, cracked or missing plaster notwithstanding, there were few buildings in Equestria that looked as good as these.  There were few places like this in Equestria period.

San Ponsisco.  One of a small hoof-full of cities that survived largely intact after the war, either due to malfunctioning weapon systems, defenses, or just dumb luck.  A little of each, in this city’s case.  It was one of fewer still that housed ponies in the thousands, around thirty thousand from what I’d heard somepony say.  And not just ponies, but zebras, griffons, diamond dogs, mules, and donkeys, along with a small number of rarer races.  It was only one of three that had any form of real government.  While most had committees, San Ponsisco was a democracy, its leaders voted into office by the citizens, not just those with power.  

It was the only city in the wasteland that still ran as it had before the bombs dropped and nearly sent pony civilization back to the stone ages.  Inside those buildings were pipes, much as those that ran to my apartment with real running water as clean and nearly as pure as that as we’d had in the Stable.  Similar pipes carried waste down and out into the sewers below the largely clean streets.  Down near the docks were a number of factories, likely targets for zebra megaspell bombs.  They had survived and were once more busy, making everything from spoons to guns.  There was a police department, a fire department, two hospitals, and schools.

Ebony had been right about this place... a fact she’d never have let me hear the end of.

“Aww... I’m sure he doesn't mean it, do you big guy?”  I snapped back to the present and turned back to the mares.  Tassles cooed to the foal, who merely giggled and continued to suck on her hoof as he bounced happily in Wendy’s lap.  

A good place to raise a foal, be it yours or your sister’s.

“I’ll remember that next time I need a sitter,” Wendy threatened with a smirk as Blueberry nommed on Tassles hoof.  “That is, if you’re not too busy trying to make your own,” the purple mare added, her smirk growing wider.

Tassles’ ears flicked back in embarrassment.  Sensing his target was no longer interested in playing, Blueberry yawned and lay back against his mother’s chest. 

I looked between the two mares and attempted to hide a smile.  Well at least it wasn’t me for once.  Sorry Tassles, but you’re taking one for the team...

“At least somepony is trying,” Wendy added after a moment of silence, adjusting her forelegs to hold her son more comfortably.  “I’m beginning to wonder if your winged friend was right about you, Shadow...”  Uh oh...  “Do you even know where to put it?”

Dammit!  Retreat!  Retreeeaaat!!!

“Well, would you look at the time...”  I held up my left foreleg, looking down... shit, right, Pipbuck’s on the right, well just roll with it... “We’re going to be late for work if we don’t head on out, Tassles.”  Hooking a hoof under the mare’s front leg, I pulled her towards the exit.

“Oh, um, alright... bye Wendy, I’ll see you tonight!”  The cream colored earth pony waved a slobber-covered hoof back as we passed through the front door and out into the busy streets of San Ponsisco.

“She gave me some magazines to give to you!” Wendy called out as the door shut, luckily before she could inform the random pony passerby about whatever magazine Wild had left for me.  Probably Playmare or Mares Gone Wild.

“Has Wendy always been that bad?” Tassles asked as some of the color drained from her cheeks and we started down the sidewalk, passing by a few ponies going the other way.

“No, not always... she used to be a lot worse in school,” I said, trotting around a large stallion pulling a wagon off the road and onto the edge of the sidewalk, trash cans rattling in the back as the wooden wheel jumped the curb.

“Worse?!” the cream colored mare responded, plum colored eyes going wide at the possibility of Wendy being any more crass.  Well, she was tame when compared to ponies like Wildfire.

“Oh yes, she’s how my sister found out about... well, a lot of things.”  That and before she started liking mares, she’d caught me in my office one time and had me pinned to my desk.  Thank Celestia that Bright had walked in... actually, no, he took one look and walked back out with a smirk, and promptly put a Do Not Disturb sign on my office door. 

“I suppose... though you were never a very good liar when you were a kid.”  Tassles smirked and came to a stop at the end of the street, where our paths would split.  “Well, have a good day at work, Shadow.”

“You too, Tassles.”  I stood and watched as the mare trotted across the street, avoiding a wagon as it slowly made its way down the road.  After a few moments, the pink and blue tail disappeared into the brightly colored crowds.  I turned away, and took a few steps down the street towards my own job when a flash of light from above caught my eye.

Hope Tower stood shining above the rooftops of my neighborhood, the glowing building several blocks away from where I stood.  As I stood looking, movement in the sky drew my gaze away from the Beacon of Hope to a winged form cutting its way through the sky.  In moments, the small, colorful dot revealed itself to be one of the pegasi who called San Ponsisco home.  Surprisingly, there were a fair number of them living and working throughout the city.  Some like my friend Wildfire were Dashites, outcasts from the mighty Enclave, but a good deal of them had been born on the surface to unicorn or earth pony parents.  Dirtwings was the name their cloud-born brethren gave them.  Wildfire had explained that, to the Enclave, a pegasus born on the ground was as bad as a Dashite.

As the winged pony soared overhead, my thoughts drifted to my bright orange friend.  While it’d only been two weeks since I’d last seen her or Stonehoof, it seemed much longer...



*     *     Two Weeks Ago     *     *



The streets of San Ponsisco were covered in slightly radioactive water from the storm that had seemed to hover over the city ever since we’d arrived.  It didn’t seem ready to stop anytime soon, either, and most who called the city home were indoors with friends and family, or at work.  Everypony was doing something to take their mind off the steady downpour.  Well, most ponies...

I stood silently, water running down my face, matting my mane and tail to my soaked black coat and blue stable jumpsuit.  My armor and weapons were at home... home... an odd thing to think of the apartment I’d found Sugar Pie in a couple days ago.  All around me was the steady drone of water striking pavement, metal, and stone.  The rain didn’t bother me.  What was going on in front of me did.  It was never easy telling a friend goodbye, and I’d been forced to do just that a number of times over the past few weeks... at least this time it wasn’t forever.  Close enough though.

I lowered my head from the sky to the two ponies moving about the smooth black-armored sides of a sky chariot.  They checked and rechecked the carefully stored packages inside the armored compartment, and those larger wooden crates packed on the roof.  I idly wondered if they’d even manage to get it off the ground.  One of the two stopped what she was doing to look back at the stallion as he opened a pack and rolled her blue eyes.

“Oh for Celestia's sake, give it a rest, Stone!  That’s the third time in the past hour you’ve gone over that pack alone.  I doubt we’ve forgotten anything with that razor trap of a mental list you keep... and even if we did I highly doubt any store in the whole Luna-damned city has anything left to sell or trade you,” Wildfire called out, ending her rant with a tired sigh and leaning her slender frame against the front of the chariot.  She was, of course, speaking to a large grey flank sticking out from the chariot’s passenger door.  His brown tail trailed heavily from the rain, but still managed to flick back and forth.

“Ah know, Ah know... just, we ain’t comin’ back this way for awhile, Ah reckon, and Ah wanna make sure Ah got everythin’ th’ girls asked for back home,” the muffled voice of the stallion called out from inside the chariot.  I simply smirked and watched as Wild pushed herself off the chariot and moved a bit closer to the grey flank.

“What?  Did your relatives give you a shopping list when we set off for Kanter City?”  The mare’s ears flicked upright and she put on a rather goofy looking smile as her voice changed, turning more feminine.  “Oh, by th’ way, Stone, be a dear and pick us up some milk, bread, and eggs while you’re out. Oh, and kill any raiders ya see on th’ way ta th’ store!”

I chuckled and shook my head, starting towards the pair once again.  The sound of my hoof steps and laughter caught Wild’s attention and the orange mare’s ears swiveled towards me, her head following a moment later.  Her already wide grin turned into that trademark Wildfire Smirk that meant either she was about to embarrass me, we were about to get into a fight, or she was happy.  Oddly, all those generally blurred together.  

“Well, if it ain’t the saviour of the wasteland.  Come to see us humble sidekicks off, have we?” I could only snort and shake my head.  Word of my deeds had spread quickly through the city by word of mouth from those ponies I’d saved, and also in part due to the winged mare trotting towards me.  “Hmm, I bet that makes for an awesome pick-up line in bars.  ‘Did ya know I killed a whole train load of raiders with just a spoon and a piece of string?  So, how ‘bout we go fuck?’”  She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I felt warmth going to my cheeks.

“I thought that was how you got Stone into bed with you,” I shot back, the warmth in my cheeks remaining but a smirk playing across my face.  Wild blinked in surprise and sat down on her backside before finally letting out a laugh, slapping the ground with a forehoof.

“Woo... the kid had a comeback!  If the world hadn’t already gone to shit, I’d say it was the end of the world!” 

“Learned from the best,” I answered with a laugh of my own, coming to a stop before her as Stone extracted himself from the chariot to look our way.

“Yeah, I suppose you did...” was her response, an unusual one for the normally loud spoken mare.  She fixed her eyes on mine, the confident smirk losing some of its energy as something ran down her cheek.  “You’re a good pony, Shadow.”  With that, she wrapped her fore hooves around my neck and brought me into a crushing hug.

For a moment I just stood there blinking, made unsure by the sudden show of affection from the rough and tumble former wing commander.  I looked over at Stone from across the pegasus’ shoulder and wing as he trotted towards us, his own smile a bit sad.  I wrapped my forelegs around my friend and returned the hug, earning a motherly nuzzle to my cheek. 

“You’re a good pony too, Wild.  Thanks for everything you did,” I managed, despite getting a bit choked up.  Releasing me, she hurriedly rubbed a hoof over her cheeks, muttering about the wind blowing dirt into her eyes, despite there being no wind.  She gave me a final look before trotting back towards the sky chariot, brushing a wing over Stone’s side as she passed him.

“Well, will wonders never cease?” he asked me, sitting down as we watched Wild shrugging on the flight harness for the chariot.

“You have everything you need?”

“Ah reckon th’ ol’ nag’s right about buyin’ most of th’ shops out,” he answered, turning his head to look back at Wild.  The falling rain dripped from the brim of his old, weatherbeaten cowpony hat, plastering his short brown mane to his neck. 

 From the first moment we’d meet, the grey earth pony had looted every body, every room, and every trash can from Crossroads to Kanter City.  He’d sold most in Tombstone, making a fair bit of caps, and the rest he’d sold here.  Those caps had gone towards much needed supplies for his home town, such as replacement weapons for the guards, ammo, food, and armor.  Always thinking of somepony else, just like a lost pony fresh out of the Stable.

“Ya sure yer gonna be alright, Shadow?” he asked me, green eyes looking into mine as he turned his head back towards me.  “Ah reckon we could stay a might bit longer if ya need us ta.  Lilly and Rose can manage without me a bit longer...”  I held a hoof up to cut him off and placed it upon my friend’s shoulder, smiling up at him.

“I’ll be fine, Stone.  Really.”  They’d both been worried about me since Kanter City, and had likely wondered what seeing my niece would bring up.  Memories of a hospital basement.  A single gunshot.  But for the most part, I was okay.  Seeing Sugar had reminded me I had something to live for, somepony who needed me.  A promise to keep.  “You’ve both done more than anypony could have been expected you to do for a stranger.”

“Yer no stranger, Shadow, yer my friend.  In fact, Ah reckon yer more like kin ta me now.”  As Wild had done, he pulled me into a hug, though while Wild’s grip had a fair amount of strength, Stone’s hugs were near bone crushing.  Before I could gasp for breath, he released me and I stumbled back a bit.

“I suppose I see both of you the same way, Stone, but I’m home now.”  My eyes drifted away from my friend’s face to the city around us, the rain still falling from the grey overcast sky.  The light from Hope Tower dimmed because of it, but never masked completely.  “Its time for you to go home.  I’ve kept you away from your family for long enough, Stone.”  

“So, this is goodbye then?” he asked, and to my surprise, a few tears appeared in his green eyes.

“I reckon it is,” I said with a smile.  “But not forever.  I’m sure we’ll see one another again.”  He chuckled softly and nodded, offering me a hoof in farewell.  I took it and shook it firmly, before getting pulled back into a tight hug.

“Take care of yerself, Shadow,” he said as he released me once more from the vise like grip, and I found myself able to breath again.  He turned, and stepped back towards the chariot and the mare he’d likely be spending the rest of his life with.

They really did make a good couple, and I hoped they’d find a quiet, peaceful life for themselves in Crossroads.  

With the chariot loaded and its pilot strapped in, Stonehoof climbed into the armored passenger compartment and called out to Wild.  The pegasus began flapping her wings, lifting the rain slicked armored hull of the chariot skyward.

A few minutes later, I stood atop the wall overlooking the ruined city beyond, watching my two friends fly off towards the east.

As the sky began to lighten an hour later, I was still there.



*     *     Present     *     *



While I’d only known them both for a little over two weeks, and they had only been gone for roughly the same amount of time, I still found it hard not to wonder how they were doing.  The bond we’d formed through our trek across the wasteland was unlike any I’d had with anypony from the Stable, despite having known them far longer and been raised with them.  It was more than just simple friendship.  I’d not lied when I said I’d thought of Stone as family.  Both he and Wild were as close to me as my sister had been.  I suppose if anypony had gone through what we had, they’d feel the same way. 

I suppose it was a bit silly to be thinking of it like this.  After all, if I really wanted to see them I could simply make a trip out to Crossroads.  Or maybe that was silly.  A simple trip across the wasteland to a fortified town, facing Celestia knows what in the vast empty landscape between here and there.  Maybe I should just try writing them...

There was a far better chance of them visiting me here.  After all, with Wild’s sky chariot it would take only a couple days to fly out here, with very little risk.  They’d promised to check in from time to time, to see how I was doing and of course keep me up to date on everypony I’d made friends with in Crossroads.  It would also allow them to do a bit more trading with the Confederacy, a fact that would likely please Rose.  While they did well enough on their own, they could do better with some of the things made here in San Ponsisco.  And of course it wasn’t as if all my friends had left me; some had settled down in the city for their own reasons, though most simply had nowhere else to go.  Like me.

All around me the streets of San Ponsisco were coming to life as more and more of the city’s inhabitants awoke to the start of a new day.  As I looked over the doorways and windows, I saw a colourful collection of ponies of all three tribes, though pegasi were the minority out of them; at least of the ponies.  I saw only one or two of the other species we shared the city with in my neighborhood and they didn’t say much to me when I’d greeted them a couple times.  A lone zebra stallion lived in the apartment building across from mine, and worked down at the docks.  A few buildings down was a pair of griffons.  Judging by what I’d seen of Razor and Griff, these had once been mercenaries.

My first day in the city I’d seen a wide variety in the different races walking the streets, talking and working with one another, but it seems old prejudices are hard to overcome.  While I’d seen or heard of no law saying otherwise, most seemed to gather in groups among themselves, each with a different area of the city to call their own.  The zebras lived mostly near the wall in what most called the Zebra Quarter, or as they called it, the Steel Savanna.  The griffons gathered closer to the taller buildings near the northern end of the walled-in portion of the city in what all called The Perch.  While there were not many of them, the few Diamond Dogs who called the city home had taken a ruined shipyard as their territory and called it, aptly enough, the Junkyard.  And of course the large number of ghouls who’d been living here stayed where they’d been living since the bombs had fallen, Purgatory, a maze of tunnels under the city streets.

No, that wasn’t quite right.  It was more than just a maze of sewer and subway tunnels.  The ghouls had spent the last hundred and fifty years turning it into an underground city, a place where they could hide from the mutated creatures and raiders of the new Equestria and live in peace.  At least until the stable dwellers had begun arriving.  From what I’d learned, first contact between the two survivor groups had not gone well.  Like myself, most of those ponies returning to the surface for the first time had been attacked by feral ghouls in one way or another.  So when they at last arrived in San Ponsisco they’d become a bit jumpy.  Luckily nopony had been killed when the shooting began (pony or ghoul; despite what some might think, ghouls are ponies).

In a way it was because of the ghouls that the stable ponies even had a city to return too.  Most who had survived in the subway tunnels had lived and worked in San Ponsisco all their lives and knew how old world tech worked.   They’d been repairing the city from the ground up since day one and it was because of their work that we had running water or working sewers.  Of course I had another interest in the ghoul city.

Purgatory was where Carrion had disappeared to a few days after we’d arrived in the city, and I’d not seen him since.  He’d been a tough pony to like, and his blunt and rough manners made it hard to get to know him, but then I suppose anypony would be rough and blunt if they’d been living with raiders for as long as he had.  Or had seen their world burn and everypony they’d known die.  Still, he’d seemed to relax a bit while he was around us; he and Wildfire had a history and seemed to have the most in common.  Both had been in the military, if of a different kind.  He’d helped me rescue Stonehoof from the raiders, and later he’d followed me out into the wasteland to Oddwick to help the citizens of Tombstone recover their stolen supplies.  I found myself missing the surely undead unicorn as much as the others and if he didn’t turn up soon, I might just spend a day off looking for him.

Beside those areas claimed by one species, the city still retained its original district names, such as Sunset Row, Dock Side, The Hilltop, The Market, and a dozen others, most of them beyond the walls.  It had been how ponies divided the different areas of the city, making it far easier on determining where one lived and worked within the maze of streets and buildings.  Sunset Row, for example, was located near Highway 1 that ran across Sunset Bridge and was where the vast number of private homes had been located.

I was jostled out of my thoughts by a large earth pony stallion brushing past me.  Looking around, I noticed the street had become a lot more crowded.  A number of ponies passed me by, making their way to work, judging by the lunch boxes or bags resting on their backs or held in their magical grip.  Like I should be, I reminded myself.  I’d been so lost in thought I’d forgotten where I was for a moment.  With a snort, I started once more trotting down the street, knowing my head start on the morning rush was most likely lost.  It’d take me several minutes to reach Greenleaf Street with the crowds of ponies moving about the streets, even though it was a couple blocks over and near the wall.

As I trotted with the crowd, I looked up towards the defensive wall that surrounded us.  Only the very top of it could be seen over the tops of the buildings down the street from where I walked.  While the walled in portion of the city made up only a small part of the entire ruins of San Ponsisco, it was still large enough to take an hour or more to walk from one end to the other.  Public transportation in the form of repaired buses made their routes throughout the city.  However, they did cost caps to ride, and while I did alright for myself, I hardly had the money to spare.  Besides, after walking across the wasteland, a trot through the city hardly seemed much.  It also gave me a chance to see one of my friends, one of the two I still had regular contact with.

Nearing the intersection, I waited for two wagons to roll past, before I attempted to cross the street.  It would be easier to do so here rather than try on one of the busier streets.  Also it gave me a chance to run into somepony I knew, or rather some buffalo.  The building I trotted towards as I moved with a group of other ponies over the faded white crosswalk was not very large.  Made of brick and concrete like most of the buildings in the neighborhood, it stood only five stories in height and was about half as big as the apartment building that I called home.  But this was not an apartment building.  A sign above the door was of a trio of pink butterflies with the familiar name of Doctor Kindheart written below it.

I’d expected her to look for work in the medical field, given the training she’d received from her adopted father Brightheart back in Wastefall Gorge, a pony settlement destroyed by the same raiders who had attacked Stable 45.  However, few of the hospitals seemed interested in a skilled buffalo healer.  For some reason they thought she’d be too clumsy for the job, due to her size.  Although, they’d not seen her work in Tombstone, or save a half drowned and mentally wrecked pony from a river.  Still, she hadn’t let that stop her and so when she’d heard a pony was opening up a small clinic in my neighborhood she’d come to see if they’d need help.  

It was truly a match made in heaven.  The day the two of them met, they’d hit it off at once, the buffalo saying she’d found a pony who knew the true value of medicine and our irreplaceable doctor for his part taking an immediate liking to the knowledgeable buffalo healer.  After only an hour of speaking with her, hired her on as his assistant.  With the exception of three of his nurses, most of the stable’s medical staff had gone to work in the crowded hospitals.  

This left our Chief doctor to deal with a little over two hundred ponies from Stable 45.  A normally impossible task, but Doctor Kindheart would only be dealing with minor problems from now on, everything from stomach aches to small wounds.  Cities like San Ponsisco had once been home to a number of such family doctors and they were needed now more than ever.  Community doctors like Kindheart would cut down on the number of patients in the hospitals and help the overwhelmed staff deal with more pressing issues.  Issues such as the wounded soldiers of the Confederate Army returning from fighting off the Super Mutant threat, or defending nearby settlements from raider or mutant wildlife attacks.

As I set hoof upon the curb of the sidewalk, the door to the clinic opened up and the large unmistakable form of Spiritwalker made her way outside.  Most walking past her simply ignored her, a few offered her a greeting, and a very few shied away from her large, imposing form.  Broom held in her mouth, she ignored the few stares and nodded her horned head to those who greeted her before she began sweeping off the steps leading up to the door.  

While there was no shortage of places to stay within the city, Doctor Kindheart had insisted on letting her stay in the building, seeing as how he only needed a few of the rooms for his patients.  Like most of us, the good doctor was not fond of empty rooms or a lack of contact with somepony or someone else nearby.  Living your life in the Stable made one used to such things.  At first Spirit had been unwilling to live for free under his roof, the buffalo’s beliefs not letting her be given something for nothing.  In the end, they worked out a deal to where she’d help with the keeping the building repaired and clean, though to hear Doctor Kindheart tell it she did it all.  The sound of my hoofsteps caught her attention and she glanced up from her sweeping to look my way with blue grey eyes, a smile forming around the broom handle.

“Good morning, Spirit, how are things today?” I called out with a smile of my own.  She’d saved my life once, and had selflessly helped everypony in need we came across.  I came to a halt before her, stepping near the wall of the building to allow the ponies behind me to pass on by.

“Things are well, my friend,” she responded, finishing with the sweeping.  Bits of dust and sand were brushed off onto the sidewalk, having been blown in from the wasteland the night before.  “I was just finishing the morning chores before Doctor Kindheart opens the clinic.  He is expecting several patients today.”

“Nothing bad I hope?”  In the past few days, a couple ponies from the Stable had come down with sudden illnesses that according to the local doctors was normal.  Having lived our lives for so long cut off from the world, diseases that we would have once been immune to had mutated, both from the radiation and from time.  Still, nothing serious had appeared; those had been suffered by the first stable ponies to settle the city and cures were found.  Still, Sugar had been unhappy at the prospect of so many shots... and her uncle wasn’t crazy about it either.

“No, just four routine check ups, three casts needing removal from various limbs, one minor surgery to remove a rotten tooth, and the odd walk in.” 

“I see... well, its a good thing Doctor Kindheart has Spearmint and you to keep all that straight.  He’s never been the most organized pony,” I chuckled softly before thinking of something else.  “Speaking of Spearmint, did she and Sugar stop by?” 

“Yes they did, they picked Dusty up and took him to school.  I can not thank you and your niece enough; he was doing so bad with the other children until Sugar Pie found him alone on the playground.  He has not been able to stop talking about how nice she is,” the buffalo chuckled softly.  “That is a small miracle itself, as you well know how little Dusty spoke when we first found him.”

Indeed, the young orphaned colt had not said much during our travels across the wasteland, only speaking a few words to Spiritwalker.  Neither of us had quite figured out why he had taken such a liking to her, rather than one of the other survivors from Wastefall Gorge.  She thought it may have had to do with treating him when he was very small, but he never said when asked.

“Well, Sugar’s always had a way with other ponies, she really seems to like him as well.  When she first meet him, she came home telling me all about this nice shy colt in school.  I had no idea it was Dusty she was talking about until I saw them playing when I picked her up from school.”  I’d been happy to see her making friends with other ponies, she’d been so quiet since I’d told her about her mom.  She’d refused to leave my side for the first couple days.  

“I believe they will help one another through this, more so than either of us could hope to,” Spirit said, as if reading my thoughts, but then it seemed an easy enough thing for others to do.  “He is looking forward to Nightmare Night.  I hoped he might be able to go trick or treating with Sugar, as Doctor Kindheart has a surgery planned for that evening and will need me to stay to assist.”

“Of course, Spearmint had mentioned you’d agreed to work so she could spend the night with Tiny.  Dusty’s more than welcome to come with us.”

“Us?” she arched a brow and looked over to me.  “You are going with them as well?” 

“Its kind of a family tradition, though my costume will be a simple one this year.”  Ebony and I had always gone dressed up as a pair, our costumes themed.  It would be the first Nightmare Night without my sister, without Tiny’s mom.  I suppose I could have just stayed home this year, not bothered at all with getting dressed up.  But Ebony would never have wanted that, nor could I let Tiny go out on her own... besides, it was a family tradition.

“Are you not a bit old for trick or treating?” the buffalo asked, head tilted to the side.

I smiled at the question a pony had once asked my sister, and gave the same answer she had.

“Too old for free candy?  Never!”

“You are a very unusual pony, my friend,” was her only answer, though she did smile.  After a bit more talk about when we’d be picking Dusty up this weekend, I said my goodbye and once more began trotting down the sidewalk.  The remaining walk to work was uneventful and soon the two large warehouses that made up Green Acres Farm came into view.

When the city had been whole, the warehouses had been owned by a large wagon company.  The ram’s head logo was still visible above one of the building’s doors.  The company founder had been a ram, odd given that rams weren’t known to use a lot of wagons.  At any rate, the warehouses had been used to store their finished products before shipping them all across the country.  During the war, they made armored wagons for the Equestrian Army, even a few of the new tanks: motorized wagons that had no need for a team of ponies to pull them, heavily armed and armored.  Now the warehouses played a very different role than its builders had intended, but in this new Equestria, it was a very important one. 

Crossing the street, I trotted along the sidewalk until I came to the front gate, where a single guard stood watch.  The guard was new, at least according to those ponies who’d worked here longer than I.  For me, Roseart had always been here to greet me.

“Morning, Shadow, early for work again I see,” the rose red unicorn said, smiling up to me as I reached back into my saddlebags and withdrew my ID card.  Horn lighting up a soft pink, she took the card from my hoof and looked it over quickly.  Too quickly, really, to see the information written on the card, but then she seemed to know nearly everypony who worked here by name already.

Roseart was here in response to concerns that citizens had raised for the safety of the city.  Given the recent troubles with the Super Mutants to the north, the Steel Rangers to the south, and stories of increased raider activity in the east, the government had decided to protect all areas of the city that were vital for its survival, if only to help ease the tension of its citizens.  It seemed very unlikely that anyone could make it this far past the walls without somepony noticing.  But then again, it had once seemed unlikely that the Stable door would have ever failed to protect us.

“Mom’s already inside along with a few of the others.  Go on in,” she smiled brightly and unlocked the gate with a flick of her hoof.  Perhaps it would seem odd that she knew everypony who worked here... if she hadn’t been working here as a foal before joining the Confederate Army when she came of age.  Her parents ran Green Acres Farm, her father being one of the brothers who owned it.  Luckily she’d managed to dodge the odd naming the rest of her family was into.  The glowing card drifted back over to my outstretched hoof and passed over my shoulder before I felt the flap to my saddlebag rise slowly and the card dropped inside.

“Thanks, Rose.”  I started forward before I noticed that her pale green eyes remained on me.  “Er... something wrong?”

“No... just, I’ve been meaning to ask if you had a date yet to the Nightmare Night party the Farm’s having... if not, well...” the mare’s suddenly-shy gaze went my face to the pavement between us, a rose-red hoof idly kicking at a bit of loose stones.  She also seemed to have something of a crush on me.  Thank Celestia that Wild wasn’t here.

“No, I don’t have a date, but I actually wasn’t planning on attending the party.  I’m spending the evening with my niece.”  I smiled gently, hoping not to crush her hopes too deeply.  She was a cute mare, polite to everypony she spoke with, and nice to Tiny the two times she’d visited me at work.  If I was honest, I’d have to admit to admiring her flanks once or twice while heading out for lunch.  She was also about ten years younger than me... a fact a certain orange pegasus would salute me for.  

“Oh.  Well, okay... yeah, I remember hearing her talk about that the last time she was here.”  Though her ears wilted a bit, she perked back up a moment later.  “Perhaps another time, then.” 

“Perhaps.”  I maintained my smile and trotted past the gate, making my way across the empty parking lot that lay between the street and the warehouses themselves.  Both buildings stood roughly two stories in height thanks to the arched roofs.  Beyond a few small rooms near the front, the warehouses were mostly a single large room.  After all, the original purpose of these buildings had been to store wagons side by side.

Ahead were the smaller, pony-sized doors that allowed us access to the front section of the building.  This was where the few rooms that made up the warehouse were located.  Around back were the larger doors, where wagons had been driven inside to await somepony to buy them.  Those doors were still used today, allowing the wagons to pull inside the building so what was grown inside could be easily loaded.

Reaching the front door, I pulled it open and quickly stepped inside, looking around the entrance room.  A couple ponies sat near the corner of the room near a window, eating breakfast and talking amongst themselves about the coming holiday.  Sitting atop the table was an old model coffee maker and a dozen or more spotless coffee mugs.  Bits of food sat between the ponies as they finished up their meal.  Beside the chairs near the table, there were a number of other seats scattered about the room, along with two dozen battered lockers salvaged from elsewhere in the city.  Somepony had attempted to spruce up the drab grey, rusted walls with a coat of light green paint, but over the years it had begun flaking and gave the room a camo pattern.  They’d also hung up a few landscape photos, also salvaged from somewhere else and held up by nails or old screws.  Lastly there was an off white clock hanging above the entrance door showing I was ten minutes early.  

With a nod to those in the corner, I trotted towards the lockers and went to mine, Locker 02.  I didn’t bother with the lock on the front, as there was little inside anypony would want to steal, and simply opened it up.  I withdrew my tools and thermos from my saddlebags, and started to toss them into the bottom of the locker as usual.  However, I quickly remembered the book tucked away inside.  So instead, I gently set the bags down so as not to damage the photo album.  The thermos was placed on the only shelf inside the metal box, beside a bit of paperwork I’d had to fill out to get the job.  It’d seemed odd to have to fill out job applications with personal information.  I suppose the new government was simply attempting to return things to how they’d been before the war, to give those living within its borders a feeling of normalcy.

Shutting the metal door to my locker, I picked up my tools from where they’d been leaning against one another and laid them across my back.  Minding my step, I turned away from the lockers and moved the short distance to the nearby wall and the door leading further into the warehouse.  The short hallway beyond broke off into three other directions.  To my right, the hallway went a few more steps before coming to a set of stairs leading to the only thing on the second floor: a set of offices (really it had been only a single room that had then been split with wooden dividers for the owners and their single secretary to work.)  I’d not been up there often, just to get the job.  The passage to my left led to the restroom/washrooms.  These had been added after the warehouse had been bought and converted for its current purpose.  It was a fairly large room, with working shower stalls for around eight ponies and five toilets.  It was also one of the more important rooms in the warehouse and my first stop before heading out onto the farm.

Luckily one stall remained free, even though several other workers had arrived here ahead of me.  Reaching back, I took the handle for both tools and sat them across a bench near the door before trotting further into the room.  The floor was still concrete, but it had been redesigned with a downward angle and a metal drain located within the center.  The eight stalls were all against the outer wall, and each divided by a piece of smooth metal giving us some privacy, seeing as how the showers were for both male and female.  

Taking my spot under the shower head, I placed a hoof down upon the activation plate located on the floor.  I was never too sure why they just didn’t have handles like normal showers, but then, it wasn’t normal water.  It was a chemical bath to remove as much radiation from our bodies as possible.  Everything in the wasteland was irradiated to lesser or greater degrees, even if a balefire bomb hadn’t struck for miles around.  The wind had carried the irradiated dust for hundreds of miles after the bombing, and rain clouds had dropped still more upon the land.  Over the past one hundred and fifty years there was hardly a place in the world that didn’t cause a Pipbuck to click.  But time had also seen levels drop, even if it was far slower than what had been predicted.  While the amounts in most areas of the city was harmless, it could really screw with plants; especially those plants we depended upon for food.  It either killed them outright or mutated them to kill us by soaking up lethal amounts of radiation.  RadAway and health potions could only do so much... as I found out.

Like the mutated disease, radiation in food had killed more than its share of ponies returning to the surface, and even those who had survived here all their lives.  In the first couple days of leaving their Stables, many ponies had attempted to grow food on clean plots of land, cleaned either by use of magical or technological means.  However, whenever the wind blew or rain fell, radiation found its way back inside the soil and into the fruits and vegetables on which we depended.  One Stable alone reportedly lost over half their population to radiation poisoning in food they’d grown.

The ponies who had been surviving on the surface ever since the end of the war had learned those lessons early on, and most were willing to warn their stable dwelling neighbors.  Mostly.  They had survived on the scraps of the past, scavenging small towns and the lesser irradiated cities for canned food, or caves for mushrooms.  Some had even begun to eat meat to survive.  Perhaps that is what the raiders had been forced to do, although a number of ponies I’d meet since coming to the city ate meat and did not seem likely to turn crazy because of it.  In the end it was the Stable Dwellers who came up with a way to grow food on the surface.  It was the only way we knew how to grow food and it worked.

Of course it might seem odd why we simply didn’t use the same chemicals we bathed in to help clean the plants that grew outside, and the answer to that was simple.  It killed well over half of them.  Those that survived were more resilient, but not by much.   Radiation wasn’t the only problem.  Diseases and pests always plagued us.  Over 50% of the plants were the same ones we’d grown in Stables, hence the indoor farming.  The pale green plants had been specially bred for low light underground farming.  Unfortunately, those same qualities had weakened them, and they had fewer defences against the outside world and radiation just made things worse.   Sooner or later the plants would adapt to their new world, just like we had had to do.  It was simply a matter of time.

As two of the other ponies trotted out of the room, another joined us, a light green earth pony stallion that I knew well.  His dark blue mane and tail were cut short to keep from getting caught in tightly packed paths of the main room.  He wore a light brown vest over his upper body with a number of pockets and items sticking out from them.  His cutie mark was a circle of leaves and vines with a small red heart in the center.  A pair of slightly cracked glasses sat perched on the end of his snout, enlarging his ice blue eyes.  On his left foreleg was a Pipbuck.  The stallion scanned the few remaining shower stalls until he spotted me, and then looked away to the seats near the door, and the tools I’d brought with me.  He lifted his Pipbuck and waved it over the pair, earning a very faint click I could still hear over the falling water.  With a snort, he sat down and pulled out a packet from one of his vest pockets and ripped it open with his teeth.  Dumping the contents over the metal implements, Green Hoof began rubbing it in.

Green Hoof had been the pony in charge of 45’s Orchard and garden level, keeping the apple trees and other plants healthy.  He had dearly loved his job.  Like many ponies, it’d been a job his family had done for generations, and likely would have continued.  And like so many of the ponies who had worked in the Orchard, Green Hoof had taken a job here.  It was work they knew and in nearly every case enjoyed.  It was close to our new home, and most of the ponies they knew.  When I’d earned my cutie mark on the school trip to the Orchard, it had been under the guidance of Green Hoof’s knowledge of plants.  Everything I knew about growing I’d learned from him.

Finishing my own shower, I stepped from the stall and trotted over to a row of shelves and the towels sitting upon them.  Picking one up I began drying myself off as Green Hoof finished with the shovel and set to work on the hoe.  Most tools were kept in the warehouse, to keep them from getting contaminated in the air outside.  A speck of dirt or dust drifting out of the wind could find its way into the wooden handles.  While a single speck could do little real harm, it was just easier to keep them here.  Tossing the towel over towards a bin, I trotted towards my plant teacher as he finished cleaning my tools.  The green and blue earth pony jerked his head towards those same tools before speaking.	

“You know the rules, Shadow.  We’re not suppose to take them home with us at the end of our shifts.  That disinfectant isn’t cheap, ya know.”

“Yeah, I know, and I’m sorry Green.  The shovel’s head was loose and kept rolling over whenever I had it full of soil.  And the shaft on the hoe had been getting more and more worn.  A pony can only handle so many splinters in their mouth before you have to do something about it,” I answered.  Seeing him about to respond, I hurriedly pointed a black hoof to the shovel.  “I knew I could fix them at the apartment so I took them home with me last night.”  Indeed, I had fixed them.  A new screw had been driven into the metal head and wooden shaft of the shovel, keeping it securely in place.  Some sand paper had been all that was needed to fix the other problem.  My tongue was definitely grateful.

“I could have just as easily done that for you here in the workshop,” Green said, offering me my tools back once he’d run them under the shower head for a moment, letting the powder wash away.

“I know you could have, and I normally would have let you, but you’ve been pretty busy with the new guys’ broken tools.  I figured I’d take care of it myself and spare you the headache.” 

“Those two can’t seem to figure out which end goes into what hole,” he said with a sigh.  I snorted to the slightly crude joke, even though it was true.  Both had started around the same time as me.  The only difference was, I’d been growing things since I was a young colt.  It was my cutie mark after all, for Celestia’s sake.  These two, well... they had needed a job and were friends with one of the farm’s owners.  It’s not as if they didn’t try, for the most part they really did... it’s just their trying seemed to result in a lot of broken tools or bruised legs and flanks if you happened to be working near them.

“Somepony should take them aside and show them what they are doing wrong.  I think the brother will listen; his sister however...”  I reached a hoof out for the cleaned tools and placed them back upon my slightly damp back.  “Have you tried talking to Corncob about them?”  Corncob was one of the owners, and the one we had the most contact with.  The dull yellow earth pony ran the Green Acres Farm with his two brothers, Cornhusk and Cornflake (don’t ask, I think the family just ran out of corn related things to name their children after).  They seemed an honest enough family.

“Oh, I spoke with Cob alright.  He agrees with you that they need somepony to take them by the hoof and show them the ropes.  Somepony like me.”  My fellow Stable pony flopped back down onto his plot and held his hooves up to his face.  “Celestia help me, I’ll kill them before the month’s out!”

“Oh, it won’t be all that bad.”  I chuckled softly and shook my head, lightly tapping a hoof on my friend’s shoulder.

“You want the job, smart ass?” he asked, brow arched. 

“Uh, I better get going... don’t wanna be late for work,” I said, giving him my best apologetic smile as I hurriedly trotted past him and back into the hallway.

“Uh huh... that’s what I thought.”  The door shut as I looked back, nearly hiding the ghost of a smile playing across his lips.

I turned and followed the hallway towards a set of large double doors and the heart of the warehouse where I worked for eight to nine hours everyday.  Placing a hoof upon the bar that ran across them, I pressed down and forward, hearing the click as the doors began opening inward.  As I followed them into the room beyond, my hooves left the hard concrete of the hallway for the soft soil of the farm.  The lingering scents of the city fled as the smells of freshly tilled earth, fertilizer, and plants drifted up to my nose.   The harsh white glow of light bulbs and panels gave way to the steady hum of grow lights, casting a warm yellow light upon the warehouse below them.  I smiled and took in a deep breath, feeling the warm ground beneath my hooves.

To either side of me were rows of pale green plants rising up from the carefully tended soil, corn stalks growing beside wheat.  Near the far wall were two rows of tomato plants, growing up around wooden poles reused from broken furniture.  Warehouse Number Two covered roughly four acres of ground, with a total of eight acres for both.  Enough food was grown within the steel walls to feed over a hundred ponies for a year.  The food that was grown here was clean and showed no signs of radiation.  It could be eaten without the need for cleaning or expensive spells and chemicals.  All made possible by Stable Tec and a little ingenuity on our part.

Clean soil was dug up from the Orchards of dozens of Stables and transplanted here to the city, where it was placed within specially protected buildings.  Their floors were hollowed out to a depth of two to four feet, depending on the crop.  Grow lights, with special magical bulbs made to act like small weak suns, were removed from Stables and hung up over the soil, much as they had been within the Orchards.  Water talismans were divided between farms, providing clean drinking water both for the ponies living in the nearby neighborhoods and the farms growing them their food.  Workers were cleaned of radiation before being allowed inside.  All to feed a hundred ponies.

And there were nearly three hundred times that many ponies living within San Ponsisco, not counting those that lived beyond its walls in small settlements and towns that depended on the food grown here.

Fortunately, there were over a hundred other farms just like this one scattered throughout the city, along with more traditional farms in empty lots, not to mention those in the small settlements that surrounded the city.  While it was impossible to clean enough food to feed everypony, it was possible to clean smaller amounts.  This also had the added bonus of building up the plants’ immunity to radiation and disease.

Given that the Confederacy had only been around for a little over thirty years, the level of organization was amazing.  Clearly the ponies in charge of the government planned on San Ponsisco being here for the foreseeable future.

Moving away from the shutting doors, I made my way along a path near the wall, just large enough for two ponies to walk side by side.  It framed the central growing area on all four sides, allowing workers easy access to every corner of the warehouse and the rows of plants.  I followed the path to the left, towards row two where I’d be working today.  It was simple work, peaceful and quite rewarding given what all this meant to everyone around us.  It was definitely a welcome change of pace from the wasteland.  I was doing a lot of good here... wasn’t I?

Shaking my head, I stopped beside the row of corn stalks, many of them already heavy with husk-covered cobs almost ready to harvest.  Setting my tools down upon the soil beside me, I prepared to begin my inspection of my row.  Music from the old battered radio somepony had brought in played off to my left, near the wall sitting upon an wooden table.  The radio was one of those old models you saw in old movies and photos, from before the war.  Unlike some of the newer models, it still worked, despite being in a city hit by a balefire bomb.  I suppose in some cases they really didn’t build them like they use too.

I glanced over to the red wood box covering the radio components, a softly glowing yellow dial stared back at me.  Black numbers lined the short band of light for the different stations that had once been in use across the country.  Of course there was really only one station anymore, and as I turned back to my stalks the music ended and the well known voice of the station’s DJ boomed out from the rusted speaker.

“Goooooooooooooooooodddd morning Wastelaaannnddd!!  How’s everypony doin’ out in hell this fine, fine cloudy day?  Well, hopefully most of my usual listeners are still among the land of the living and the ranks of the sane, because ol’ Three Horns doesn’t like to think she’s talkin’ to herself every damn morning!”

I snorted, and reached for the wooden shaft of the hoe laying upon the ground between two stalks as Three Horns began her usual morning wake up call.  Closing my teeth around the end, I brought the gardening tool up and began shifting the soil near the base of the first corn stalk.  While most started from the top down, I liked to go from the bottom up.  There was a rare beetle that infested farming settlements all across the wasteland.  Orange-shelled with a black head and legs, they spawned in the hundreds and could strip a field the size of the warehouse in a matter of days.  They’d struck the city once a couple years ago, and the only way to find them in time was to look for their nests near the roots of the plants.

“Now, before we get back to the same ol’ songs you heard last night, and missed earlier this morning, and will be hearing the rest of your life, it’s time for the news.  That’s right, my little ponies, the wasteland doesn’t stop running just because it’s nighttime and all good little ponies are sleeping.  No, if anything it gets all the more worse out there.  Raiders, slavers, and mutant beasts don’t keep regular business hours and aren’t known for coming back to kill you at a more convenient time.  So lets get this shit over with.”

As anypony expected in the wasteland, the majority of the morning news was anything but good.

“The settlement of Old Oak was attacked last night by what most of the survivors are calling the most organized raider attack they’d ever seen.  Now typically a settlement gets some warning of a raider attack, usually from the raiders themselves.  As we all know, our insane, rape-loving cannibals are as fond of yelling fuck over and over again at the top of their lungs and emptying their guns into the air to admire the pretty lights and loud noises as they are into spiked armor and cutting themselves.  This general lack of concern over their own well being and that of their attacks gives us an advantage.  An advantage Old Oaks lost last night.

“Not only did they manage to avoid alerting the guards on the settlement’s walls of their presence, they also managed to use some rather high end explosives to breach the wall and gain entrance to the town.  But luckily for Old Oaks, the raiders’ old habits came back in force when they began swarming the towns streets and attacking the ponies living inside.  Well... luck for some.

“The town’s new Sheriff said she’d never seen anything like it, but once they’d reverted back to their normal ways the surviving guards and townsfolk managed to drive them back out through the breach and back into the wasteland.  While she was unclear about whether they’d be attempting to rebuild the damaged and destroyed buildings, she did say that the townsfolk will be staying together, whatever they decide.  

“Well, kids, ol’ Three Horn’s ain’t the type of mare to tell ponies to just give up on their homes, but at this point it may be an option for some.  This isn’t the first such attack on settlements bordering the C.S.E. territory using such organized tactics, and it likely won’t be the last.  If raiders really are learning to sneak up on settlements, then we’re in for a lot of trouble.”

I frowned around the wooden handle at that comment, wondering about places like Crossroads and Tombstone.  While the settlements that had been attacked were much smaller than those towns, it seemed all but inevitable that they’d be hit.  It seemed something was building up out in the wasteland; thoughts of what Carrion and Tassles had told me in the sewers of Kanter City came back to me.  Things about a pony uniting the raiders, plans to attack San Ponsisco.  It was hard to believe, and for some ponies it was simply impossible to believe.  The warnings we’d brought with us had been met with disbelief and largely ignored as the imagination of a Stable pony unfamiliar with the way the world worked.  Most who’d been living here all their life seemed to think it was just a normal thing, something that happened every so often.  

Increased raider attacks had been happening all across the wasteland for as long as there’d been a wasteland.   As raider populations grow, either from having foals they don’t use for food, turning their victims into new recruits, or from two bands joining forces, they tend to kill everything around them for several miles.  With little else to eat, they tend to migrate towards areas with larger pony populations, coming into contact with more and more settlements and towns.  And so the number of attacks grow.  Thankfully this also helps cull their numbers, as normally raiders are wild and insane fighters, throwing themselves mindlessly at fortified towns.  It’d been twenty years since the last major outbreak of raider attacks here in the west, so it was about time for another, according to some. 

I prayed they were right, but something in the back of my head wouldn’t let it go, wouldn’t let me stop thinking about it some nights.

“As expected, the President is calling a joint meeting of all government officials this weekend to discuss the increase in raider attacks and their sudden change in tactics.  However, nopony, myself included, is expecting much to come from this meeting.  It will just be a way to ease the minds of the population and let them all know their government is doing something to protect them.  Well, at least all those living within the C.S.E.’s borders.  

“As for the rest of my faithful listeners out there, I’d say its time to stock up on the ammo and food till winter comes.  Nothing’s better at cooling a large group of raiders down than below-freezing temperatures.”

That was something I’d asked myself often while out in the wasteland, and now it once more popped into my head.  Who was protecting those ponies beyond the C.S.E. borders?  Small town guards and law enforcement ponies?  Mercenaries?  Shop owners and farmers?  The question brought back a conversation I had not that long ago with Balefire, before the unicorn was shipped out on patrol with his old unit.



*     *     Three Days Ago     *     *



“Balefire?”  When I’d gotten up from the dinner table to answer a knock at the door, the last pony I expected to see on the other side was my dark green coated friend.  He stood in the apartment building’s hallway, dressed in his army uniform minus the weapons and equipment.  His helmet hung on a strap at his side while he wore a dark brown cowpony hat he’d acquired at Oddwick.

“Sorry to interrupt dinner,” he said as I waved him inside, shutting the door behind him as he passed me.  “I just wanted to drop by and let you know I’ll be outta town for a couple days, so I likely won’t be able to make it to the party tomorrow with you guys.”

“Out of town?  Is something...” I began to ask, but whatever else I was going to say was drowned out by the clatter of small hooves upon the floor.  A moment later my niece arrived in typical fashion, leaping out to grab ahold of anypony that caught her attention.

“Cousin Ballfire!!” the happy voice of my little niece shouted, the clatter of hooves ending as she launched herself up from the floor and onto Balefire’s shoulder, small pink limbs clinging tightly to the unicorn as she grinned up at him.

Cousin Ballfire.  Tiny had a habit of calling anypony close to the family or her as Aunt or Uncle, hence Aunt Spearmint and Uncle Brightblade.  It was a fact all my friends had found amusing when I’d first introduced them to Sugar Pie.  Wildfire had been far more amused than most, gleefully pointing out it was likely the reason I hadn’t been laid in a while, seeing how I was likely related to everypony in the Stable.

When she started calling the others Uncles and Aunts, Balefire had chuckled and bent down to my niece’s level, telling her he was much too young to be her uncle, unlike the rest of us old timers.  He’d gotten a slap upside the head from a wing for calling Wildfire old.  Tiny, of course, didn’t miss a beat and switched to calling him her cousin, and declared such loudly into the young buck’s ear.  Of course she’d also changed his name, so it was easier to say and sounded more fun.  Cousin Ballfire took it in stride and laughed it off.

 “Hey there, squirt!  That’s quite the grip you got there.  Take it easy on the shoulder, I sorta need that.”  His red eyes dropped from my face to the ball of pink fur wrapped happily around his limb, giggling the whole time.  He smiled and reached a free fore hoof up to ruffle her mane.  However, her next words caused him to lose that smile, if only a bit.  A sad looking smile coming across his face.

“Are ya gonna stay and play with me tonight?  Huh?  Are ya?”  She’d taken a special liking to Balefire over everyone else, likely due to him having stuck around San Ponsisco more than anyone else.  He also had the energy to keep up with her, and he’d snuck her sweets and toys since the first time he’d meet her.

“I wish I could squirt, I really do, but I gotta be up early tomorrow morning to ship out with the rest of my unit.  We got called up for a mission suddenly and I’m afraid I won’t be around tomorrow for the party.”  He gently patted her mane as she frowned up at him, golden eyes losing some of that happiness that had moments ago filled them to the brim.  “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you back something special when I get back into town, and I’ll still go trick or treating with you this weekend, alright?”

“Awwww.... do ya gotta go?” she asked, pink ears drooping as she slid slowly down his limb, rump planting into the hardwood flooring as she looked up at him.  As he nodded, she lowered her head and sighed.  “Okay...”  Balefire looked ready to go AWOL for the tiny filly, so I jumped in before he did anything of the sort.

“Tiny, why don’t you go help Spearmint with the dishes and once you’re all finished up, I’ll read a couple chapters of your favorite story before bed, alright?”

“Really?” she asked, ears perking up as she looked up from the floor to me.  I nodded and she bounded up onto all fours and happily jumped around us.  “Yay!!  More exciting adventures from Commander Shepard and the crew of the Marmandy!”  Within seconds the filly was a pink blur as she darted off towards the kitchen, likely scampering up the cabinet to reach the sink, if the surprised yelp of Spearmint was anything to go by.  Balefire and I shared a chuckle before I remembered why he was here.

“What’s going on, Balefire?  I’ve been hearing more and more reports of raider attacks on the border, and it seems nopony is doing anything about it.”

“There’s nothing wrong, Shadow.  Where I’m going has nothing to do with those attacks, but I can’t really tell you what it is.  Classified and all that shit.”  The buck smiled up at me, not wanting me to be upset by the lack of information he could share.  Balefire had come to respect me, according to Stonehoof.  I wasn’t upset with him being unable to tell me his orders, I was upset with something else he said.

“Nothing to do with the attacks?  But what is being done about these attacks?  A lot of settlements have been hit by raiders, and all those ponies look up to the Confederacy.  Is it going to do nothing for them?”

“There’s nothing we can do...” he began, looking down at his hooves.

“Nothing?” I blinked and cocked my head, ears swiveling back.  “With everything I’ve seen in this city... the wonders that have made impossible possible... everything they have and there’s nothing the Confederacy can do for settlements close to their borders?  You were out there, Balefire... you’ve seen what those raiders do to ponies...”

“I know very well what those raiders do to ponies and the settlements they attack, Shadow.  You're not the only pony to have lost family to them,” he growled back, eyes narrowed as his head rose up, meeting my stare.

“I’m sorry, Balefire...” I sighed and sat down, shaking my head.  “I know I’m not, and I know what you went through.”

With a tired sigh of his own, Balefire sat down and ran a hoof through his black mane.

“Celestia and Luna, I wish we could do something for those settlements, Shadow, but we’re spread thin enough as it is.”  He looked towards the kitchen to where Sugar had gone, where splashing could be heard.  “There’s only so many ponies willing to fight, and most of them are only willing to defend what they have, be it this city or their tiny settlement.  Hell, we can barely defend that!  The army isn’t anywhere near as large as what Equestria had before the war ended!”

It was true.  For all San Ponsisco was, it was still a single city among a country.  And for all the Confederacy was, it was pitifully small when compared to the broken wasteland of a country it sat within.

“Even if we had more ponies, we’re involved in a fight with the Super Mutants to the north, and we can’t be sure what those steel armored bastards to the south are going to do.”  He snorted softly and turned away from the kitchen to look back over to me.  “Besides... this isn’t that unheard of... raider bands sometimes grow too large and end up going on a short rampage.  It happened to my settlement a little over twenty years ago... they always end up getting killed either by a rival band, wildlife, the weather, or a well-fortified town.”

“So I’ve heard,” I said, ears flicking from laying flat across my skull to drooping to the sides.  

Just how many ponies would die before one of those things happened?



*     *     Present     *     *



“... it’s still unclear if the Steel Rangers will actually honor their word with the settlement’s leaders, but the locals seem to believe they will.

“I’d like to believe that myself, but the Steel Rangers have never been known to come to the aid of ‘tribals,’ as they love to call us unarmored ponies.  Oh, well there was that one time they defended that newly discovered Stable from slavers... but that one really doesn’t count seeing as how they ended up killing most of the ponies inside the Stable when they refused to turn over any and all technology that they said rightly belonged to them.  Nice going, Steel Assholes.”

I blinked as the DJ’s voice snapped me out of my memory and back to the here and now.  With my focus returned, I went back to my work, raking the soft soil away from the base of the stalks.  My ears, however, perked towards the radio as Three Horns continued with the news.  I wondered what I had missed while thinking of Balefire, but I expected most of it had been more bad news about attacks and deaths.  The wasteland seemed full of such things.  Or was it all the wasteland was?

“Before we get onto your five day forecast, cause that’s the typical life experience of wastelanders, I have a bit of good news for all you folks in San Ponsisco and the surrounding settlements.  The Confederate First Corps, better known as ‘The Big Red One,’ is on its way back to the city and should be arriving sometime tomorrow afternoon.  That’s right, all you mothers, fathers, wives, and husbands, your loved ones are coming home for the holidays.  

“According to General Ironsides, First Corps will be receiving a couple months down time as they rearm and replace their losses from the heavy fighting they’ve seen these past five months.  As most of ya know, First Corps has been slugging it out with the Super Mutants up north.  Those big dumb lumpy sons of bitches nearly reached the walls of San Ponsisco back in early summer and it was only due to the efforts of our brave soldiers they were driven back.

“Now some of you might be asking, ‘But Three Horns, if they’re coming home, what's to stop the mutants from just coming back?’ and to that I say, let ol’ Three Horns finish, will ya?!

“As some of you may know, another army group has been formed only recently from volunteers from all across the Confederacy and beyond its borders.  This Second Corps has taken up the job of keeping Ol’ Lumpy the mutant busy up in the mountains.  Now, don’t get your manes in a tissy, the General said that even though these are mostly raw recruits they would be lead by veterans of other fights from across the wasteland.  He said further that he’d be the pony at the head of the army.

“That’s right, ol’ Ironhoof the Hero of Raider Valley is leading Second Corps.  I imagine the President’s been chewing his ear out for even thinking of running back off to fight.  But we all know how old stallions get their knickers bunched up and run off like some damned young buck to prove their stallionhood.

“I doubt she’ll talk ’em outta this one folks.”

I finished the row and set the hoe down upon the ground, out of the way of anypony working the neighboring rows or coming down the path.  Turning back to look along the pale line of green corn stalks, I saw little evidence of any bugs chewing away at the roots, but I’d have to look more closely to be sure.

“Well then, lets get to the weather.

“Clouds and rain.

“Same as any other damned day in the wasteland.  Well, that’s about it for this break.  Now let’s get you back to some music so ol’ Three Horns can go get herself some breakfast.”

I tuned out the music as it began playing across the row of plants.  I ignored the sound of hooves entering the enclosed farm and the voices of ponies talking about this or that, returning my full attention back to my work.  After all, ponies depended on me for this food.



*     *     *     *     *



Despite the late hour, or perhaps because of it, the city streets were still quite crowded with ponies.  Some of them were coming home from work, while others were just setting out for the graveyard shift.  A good deal of them were simply out for a night on the town with friends as I was about to be.  Couples trotted past side by side, while fathers and mothers attempted to keep up with excited happy foals looking forward to spending time with their parents outside of home.  

I smiled warmly at the young foals running past.  I wondered if Sugar had had a good day at school with her friends and if she’d managed to stay out of trouble for once.  I chuckled and looked back to the sidewalk ahead of me, trotting down the cracked worn concrete until I reached the corner of the street.  As I turned to continue down the next street, I came to a halt and looked out across the city as it dropped down.  Despite having seen the view a number of times over the past two weeks, it was still an amazing sight.

The older parts of San Ponsisco had been built along a series of hills overlooking the bay.  It had expanded over the years and centuries, growing out into the nearby plains and forming the newer quarter of the city.  It was the old quarter that had been walled in, the water and the creatures that prowled below its surface making a natural defence.  It had also been the least irradiated section of the city, and where most of the buildings had survived, along with Hope Tower a couple blocks back.

Where I now stood, a pony could look down the street and see all the way towards the shore and beyond, out into the vast dark ocean.  Buildings had been built along the steep incline, looking like short squat creatures grasping to the edge of a wall for a place to rest.  Most of the buildings here had been private homes and still were.  The street itself curved downwards, looking more like a foals slide than a roadway.  Far at the bottom lay the docks and the vast majority of the warehouses, factories and shipyards that had made up the city’s main source of income.  Most of these still worked, though few made what they’d originally been built for.  Beyond the docks was Sunset Bay, and spanning the dark waters of the bay was the Sunset Bridge, one of the city's main landmarks.

The bridge ran across the length of the bay, connecting the two landmasses together by a hoof-built piece of steel and ingenuity.  On the other side of the bay, the bridge turned into Highway 1, going through what had once been a large park and homes for the rich.  It was now little more than a mass of twisted, dead woods and marshes.  On the city side, the wall had run across the highway, forming a gate for travelers willing to risk coming across the bridge rather than taking the old routes through or around the unwalled sections of the city.  Sunset Bridge, like everything else in Equestria, was a shadow of its former self.  Sections of the roadway had broken off and fallen into the water, and a number of the thick cables that held the entire thing up had broken and hung loosely from the side.  Despite the damage, much of the orange paint that had given its name remained in place, seeming to shine in the light from Hope Tower.  It must have looked beautiful before the war, when the sky was clear and the sun set.

I sighed and shook my head, not wishing to start thinking about such things at the moment.  My eyes drifted from the ruined bridge back into the bay and the city’s other famous landmark, a small rocky island located nearly in the center of the bay and outside the protective wall of the city.

Alkatrot Island, one of the more infamous and well known prisons in all of Equestria.  It was here that a number of ponies were sent following the Nightmare Moon rebellion.  Over the years it had housed a number of political and war criminals, and it survived as a maximum security prison for captured zebra and griffons during the war.  There’d been some talk about reopening it for the Confederacy’s use, but it was not very practical at the time.  Over the years, few had even thought about using it as a prison.  The few ponies who had gone out to look it over for anything useful said it was infested with radroaches and stale water.  It was also creepy as hell, according to one report.  

From where I stood, you couldn’t see much of the prison, just the vague outline of the uppermost buildings and towers.  The wall around it was still standing and keeping most of the prison hidden.  Oddly, the entire island seemed forever in shadow due to three tall ruined buildings  that sat between the water’s edge and the only source of light in the wasteland, Hope Tower.

Looking away from the dark island, I continued trotting down the side of the street, passing decaying wooden homes that nopony had yet repaired and a few buildings that had been fixed up.  Most of the ponies living in these homes had family in the army; it was a reward for those ponies willing to help defend the territory of the Confederate Stables of Equestria.  Each home would be the size of three or four Stable homes put together.  In some cases as many as six.  I suppose risking one's life had to have some perks beyond better pay.  

Most of the homes I passed were dark and silent, their owners likely out for a night on the town.  A few appeared to never having been lived in.  I ignored the private homes as I trotted on down the street.  Just ahead was the turn I’d need to take to reach the Market District and my final destination before I headed home.  However, I had taken only a few steps towards it when the bright neon lights and sounds of loud music and laughter reached me upon the hillside, and my eyes went towards the bottom of the hill.

Ocean View lay at the bottom of the hill and the end of this street, the private homes giving way to a number of bars and nightclubs.  Most of them closed completely, but a few had reopened.  They sat between the Docks and Factory Distract and the homes and stores of the Sunset and Market Districts.  Every city in Equestria and likely beyond it’s borders once had places like Ocean View.  It was the type of place where workers could go to unwind after a long day on the job, or escape their problems.  Soldiers looked forward to R&R in these places, and law enforcement ponies did their best to patrol.  It was the type of place where a pony could find whatever he or she wanted to relax, be it alcohol, food, drugs, or somepony to share a bed or a backseat of a wagon with for the night.

It still was.

A sad fact of life in the wasteland (one of many) was that a pony never knew how long he or she might live.  Death was a constant in the new world we all lived in, with danger around every corner and rock.  While life inside the walled city was far easier than outside, it still did not change the fact that the odds were stacked against us living to see old age.  Most ponies could deal with it, some could not.  The bars, clubs, and pleasure palaces of Ocean View gave them a way to escape the horrors of the world.

Of course Wildfire and Balefire had dragged us into it.

I snorted softly, a smile forming across my face as I watched the pulsing purple and blue neon lights casting their glow across the rooftops.  It reminded me of a less than enjoyable stroll through the seedier place in San Ponsisco.  Wild had of course attempted to get me a night with every pretty mare on a street corner... and a few stallions.

Once more I found myself missing the fiery orange pegasus and the stead grey bulk of Stonehoof.  Shaking my head before I could recall the more embarrassing moments of my walk through Ocean View, I turned and made my way towards the Market District, passing several more homes and empty lots as I did so.  While Ocean View was home to the larger and more well known bars, a city the size of San Ponsisco wasn’t known to have all of them in one place.  Beside stores and shops, the Market District also had a small number of bars.

As I trotted further down the road, homes began giving way for stores, restaurants, and roadside stalls.  All around me were ponies milling around the different shops, buying, selling, talking, or just simply looking at all there was to be had within the Market District.  And what a selection there was.  Like in most of the towns I’d visited, there were a number of general stores, but also stores that sold only a few types of items and they always seemed to have what you needed, or knew someone who did.  The locals had a saying: if you can’t find it in the Market District, it likely didn’t exist.  

There was a gun shop filled with any number of weapons from combat shotguns to battle saddles, while next door was an armor shop with ponnequins sitting in the window wearing combat armor and leather armor.  Near the street corner was a young mare and her foals selling fresh baked bread and rolls, while across the pavement was a old stallion selling curiosities from all across the wasteland: radscorpion stingers, shiny stones carved to look like ponies, old bits of armor and guns, and more.  Beyond the crude wooden stall on wheels was a hardware store filled with scrap metal, wood and any number of other building materials for repairing one’s home.  Hmm... perhaps I should check that one out later, seeing how the apartment could use a bit of work.

Crossing the street, I continued on towards where a number of restaurants had been set up.  The one I was interested in sat almost at the end of the street, and was brightly lit so it was hard to miss and I could see the glow of its multi colored lights from here.  Ponies weren’t the only ones shopping or selling, as a number of zebras and donkeys also went about their lives.  While their stores were not as full as those owned by ponies, I was happy to see there were a few ponies shopping with them, laughing and talking with the owners.  

I also noticed, moving between the shoppers and store owners, the local law enforcement ponies.  These few were dressed in armor similar to my security barding.  It was a dark blue instead of black, and lacked the Stable markings.  The name of the pony wearing it was stenciled in white on the chest as normal, however.  On the shoulder guards was painted a gold shield with ‘SPPD’ written above it.  They were armed with simple pistols and batons, though I noticed a couple with heavier weapons, shotguns and assault rifles.  Likely a few of them were even from my Stable, seeing as how some from Security had decided to continue protecting the ponies around them.  A couple even joined the army.

I was so intent on looking around me that I missed the sound of running hooves coming towards me.  I suppose it was my fault then when a cloaked figure came running out of the alleyway I’d just stepped in front of alleyway and slammed into me.  I heard somepony let out a surprised yelp, though I was unsure if it’d been me or the one who’d run into me.  I stumbled, losing my hoofing and fell to the hard sidewalk with a grunt of pain.  The figure standing over me tripped across one of my legs and landed lightly atop me with a slight squeak.  I attempted to rise, only to find myself pinned to the ground by the figure atop me.  As the pony shifted, the hood of their cloak fell back across their mane.  I blinked as I found myself face to face with a very beautiful looking mare.  Our eyes locked and my ears perked up.

Thank the goddess’ Wildfire wasn’t here to see this...

Wide, sparkling blue eyes looked back at me from behind a slender long muzzle of soft grey fur.  The shape of her eyes seemed a bit off, but not in a unpleasant way.  In fact, they reminded me of someone.  She weighed next to nothing as she lay atop my chest, black tipped hooves on my chest where she’d placed them to stop her fall.  The cloak that hung over her body was far too large for her, though she appeared around my age.  With her hood now back, I saw she had her ears swiveled back, gold trinkets in both ears clinking together as she shifted.  Around her throat was something I’d seen before, a rusted metal slave collar, though it appeared to have been unlocked a long time ago, judging by the missing lock in the center.  Lastly was her mane, which fell across her neck and shoulders in long straight waves of white and black that marked the stripes on her body... wait... she was a zebra?  No... she didn’t look like a zebra.  At least none I had seen thus far.  As I waited for her to move, I noticed a number of ponies standing around us looking at us oddly and I blushed.

Well this was awkward.

“Uh, excuse me, miss... you’re sorta on my chest and I can’t get up until you move,” I said, trying hard to smile politely.  In response, she cocked her head to the side, eyes darting from my face to the ponies around us, a slight blush coloring her pale cheeks.  Gracefully, she rose to her hooves and stepped away from me, giving me room to rise myself.  As I began picking myself up from the sidewalk, the striped mare reached a foreleg up and took hold of the hood of her cloak, pulling it back across her head quickly.

Dusting off my saddlebags, I looked around at the ponies milling nearby.  Most seemed to lose interest in us, as it seemed nothing else was going to happen from the sudden run-in.  Many turned away, trotting back to their shops or small stalls.  Most simply went on down the street, not giving either of us a second look.  I looked away from the thinning crowd back to the strange zebra/pony to ask her if she was alright.  As I did so, I noticed her eyes had once again turned back to look up at me from under her dark hood.  I blinked and arched a brow at the stare, which was neither threatening nor friendly... just... there.  I shifted my weight on my hooves a bit as I pondered what to say, deciding to go with my original question and break the silence.

“Are you alright, miss?” I asked, reaching a hoof out to try and help steady her if she needed it.  For a time she didn’t answer, the only sign she’d even heard me was from the shift of her ears under the hood.  The silence between us became more awkward and I began thinking of continuing my walk towards the bar.  Finally, when I was just about to walk off, she opened her mouth to speak, but what she said left me with more questions.

“I am fine, my pony friend.  We meet at last, here at world’s end,” she said in a strong yet musical voice, her eyes never leaving mine.  There was something in those bright blue orbs, hidden deep.  She smiled at me, the sort of smile one gives to a friend or old acquaintance.  “Though in truth it is sooner than I’d like.”  

“I’m sorry... do I know you, miss...?” I asked.  Did she just rhyme her answer?  As for her use of World’s End, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard somepony call San Ponsisco that.  In a way it was a fitting name, we were at the edge of the world... or at least Equestria.  San Ponsisco had been built along the western coast of the continent.  The very tip in fact.  Beyond here there was only ocean, and Celestia and Luna knew what beyond that.  My ears swiveled towards the odd mare as ponies trotted past us.

“My name is Second Sight, its meaning is quite right.”  She brushed a black tipped hoof over her wrinkled cloak.  It looked as if it’d seen far better days.  But then, what or who hasn’t in the wasteland?  “To answer your other question, I mean to cause no misdirection, but before today we had not met, at least not in the physical yet.”  Her smile never left her lips as she spoke, waving a hoof towards me.  “Stories I have been told, of the pony who is so bold.  Things you have done, and still have not yet begun.”  I blinked, and felt even more confused than I had before.

“I’m sorry... you must have me mistaken with somepony else...” I began, before she cut me off.

“You will do much, and it will be such.  Despite your own belief,  though there will be grief.  Much work has gone into what will unfold, with ponies dying for a plan so bold.”  Finally satisfied that everything was where it should be under her cloak, she reached down to the sidewalk and retrieved a length of wood.  As she straightened back up, I saw she was holding some sort of walking stick in her hoof, odd bits of metal and glass hanging from its gnarled top and held in place by strips of leather.  Gold trinkets, bits of steel and iron, broken pieces of glass, and even a small animal skull or two.

“Um... alright.”  Stories of me coming to San Ponsisco?  Well, Three Horns had spoken a bit about me over the radio.  I suppose that’s what she could have meant, but what was she talking about things to come and all that?  I looked back to the strange speaking mare and cocked my head.  “Are you sure you're going to be alright?”  Perhaps she’d hit her head harder than either of us thought.

“A tumble was all I took, while running out from the nook.”  She waved a hoof to the alleyway she’d just come from and I nodded my understanding... well, somewhat understanding. “I can find my own way, there is no need for you to stay.  We will meet again quite soon I’d say, for our destinies are intertwined this coming holiday.  But for now I believe you have some friends nearby to see.”

“Well... if you're sure...”  I nodded my head and turned away to continue on my way when it hit me what she’d just said, but when I turned back to question her about it, I found myself standing alone on the sidewalk.  I blinked and looked about quickly, thinking perhaps she’d simply trotted off, despite not having heard her do so.  After spending a few minutes looking, I could find no trace of the odd mare among the thinning crowd of ponies and I found myself wondering just who she was that she seemed to know so much about me.

Shaking my head, I finally gave up the search and turned once more towards the sidewalk and the bar just down the street.  The less crowded street made it much easier to move and I made up a bit of lost time from my odd conversation.  The mare’s parting words troubled me a bit, but I pushed them aside to dwell on later.  For now she’d been right, I did have some friends to meet.

It was hard to miss the building ahead, as it stood out a good deal from the buildings and stalls around it.  It had been aptly named by its owners, sisters from back east.  The building itself was made of nothing special, simple brick, wood and steel.  It was no taller than any of the other buildings around it, standing only two stories in height with a third story along one corner.  It was however a large building, taking up half the space between two streets.  Along the side I trotted, for only a single store stood beside the bar.  Fittingly enough it was an ammo shop, as nothing went better with boozes than guns.  On the other side of the block, there were two other shops sharing the space, one a clothing store the other a general store.  

Whatever color the building had been painted before the end, it had been painted over in a bright sky blue.  At least in the places the paint hadn’t been chipped away by bullets, acid rain, or the passage of time.  Along the first floor there were no windows, only three entrances, one on this side and two on the other.  The second floor had a number of small windows along one side, and only a few on the other.  The building had likely once been some sort of factory or warehouse I think. All of this wasn’t enough to make the building stand out from its neighbors.  No, that honor was given to the lights. 

Strings of multi colored holiday lights were hung up along the roof and frames of the windows and doors.  A mass of flashing reds, oranges, yellows, blues, greens, and purples that cast a rainbow of colors over the ponies walking nearby and across the windows and any reflective surfaces of the buildings across the street.  Even the sign had been written out in those bright colorful lights.  As I trotted up to the double doors on this side of the street, I glanced up at the sign as it flashed into life.

‘The Double Rainboom.’

Lowering my gaze from the flashing sign, I took hold of the door handle and pulled it open.  Music, smells, and colors assaulted me all at once, but I had become a bit used to it having been here a number of times with Balefire and the others.  The inside of the bar was what one would expect, numerous tables and chairs scattered throughout the large main floor, many of them filled with customers talking, drinking, and just enjoying themselves.  Along the left side of the room was the bar, running the length of the room and ending near the back.  Like the saloons I’d been in, a mirror ran for most of the wall behind the bar, shelves placed in front of it with bottles and glasses filling it.  The walls, at least those not covered with framed newspaper clippings, old photos, and odd knick knacks, was the same blue color as the outside of the building.  And like the outside, multi colored lights flashed all across the room, hanging from the ceiling like stars.  Even the normal light features had colorful bulbs inside them, shining out large areas of color.

Beside the tables and the bar, there were also a number of pool tables set up along one corner of the room, along with dart boards and card tables.  Like the rest of the bar, these were crowded with ponies, looking to unwind after a hard day in the factory, or patrolling the walls and streets of the city.  In one corner, there were even ponies and a few of the other races that called the city home dancing to the deep steady music bumping out from the speakers hung up all around the place.

  I looked over the faces I could see, and the cutie marks of those I couldn’t see.  However there were simply too many ponies moving about.  The lighting didn’t help matters, turning coats different colors as they flashed overhead.  Perhaps I was too early?  Well, I knew how to find out.

Turning away from the busy floor, I looked over towards the very edge of the room and the bar there, looking for a particular mare standing behind the bar top.  It was a well known fact that nothing that went on within the bar went unnoticed by this pony... it was even said that nothing went on throughout the city that she didn’t know or have something to do with.  I wasn’t sure if I believed all those rumors about the mare, but sometimes I did wonder.

 I saw a number of ponies behind the bar, from two bartenders to a couple of waitresses filling orders for drinks.  It wasn’t until I neared the center of the bar that I found the pony I was looking for, and even with the flashy over head lighting, she stood out from the crowd around her.  Looking up from the two stallions she was waiting on, she spotted me and offered me a wave and a grin, maroon colored eyes glowing a deep red as the lights above shifted.

Waving back, I began making my way through the busy tables and towards the bar, passing a few familiar faces among the tables.  Most of the bar’s patrons were off duty guards, law enforcement of factory workers.  Over the past two weeks I’d gotten to know a number of locals, either from dealing with them at work, at the school where Sugar Pie went, or from living near them.  Some were even ponies I’d saved out in the wasteland and from Stable 45.  As I neared the bar, the mare turned to the stallions and said something to them before making her way down along the bar to where I was quickly approaching.  Her name was Lightning Shot, one of the bar’s owners along with her sister, Windbreeze.

As I neared, the mare’s smile grew and she leaned her forelegs upon the bar, the over heading lighting changing her already colorful coat and mane into a spectrum of colors.  However, I’d seen her in normal lighting and knew what she looked like.  Her coat was sky blue, nearly matching the paint the walls of the bar had been covered with.  However her most noticeable trait was her mane and tail.  The multi colored locks of her long mane and tail that rose up from under the black headband she wore to try and keep it in place.  Around her tail, she had a similar band attempting to hold the nearly constant twitching limb in place.  Her cutie mark was gone, replaced by the same mark that had covered Wildfire’s flank.  Both she and her sister were Dashites, like a good number of pegasi within the city.  At first, most ponies were unaware she was a pegasus, an easy mistake to make in the rapid flashing lights of the bar.  However if one looked close they could see the mare’s wings... or at least what was left.

As she rose to place her fore hooves upon the bar, the overhead lighting choose that moment to change to red, casting her twisted stumps that had once been a pair of feathered wings came into a hellish shadow.  Where a normal wing would fold near the middle, like a knee or elbow, only a broken stump remained.  Not even feathers grew from the limb, making it appear small and shriveled.  It was a wound shared by both her and her sister, along with the marks on their flanks.  Wildfire had said such punishments were not that uncommon for the Enclave for pegasi who betrayed the government.  If not for her rescue, Wild might have suffered a similar fate.

Neither sister spoke of their past, and few in the city knew the reason for their banishment, their wounds or why they looked so much like the famous Ministry Mare Rainbow Dash.  Stonehoof had told me the most likely reason was due to something called Killing Joke, a plant that grew far to the east in a place called the Everfree Forest.  According to him, the plant liked to play a joke on anything that wandered into its reach, like some sort of curse from old stories.  The magic of the plant changed you in someway, so you’d end up dead.  Hell of a joke...

“Evenin’ Shadow, can I get ya anything to drink?” the wingless mare asked, the smile still on her face as her maroon colored eyes flicked from me to the other patrons around the bar.  She was always watching for trouble, always ready for a fight it seemed.  It was also common knowledge that you did not fuck with Lightning Shot.

“Maybe later, Lightning, I was actually looking for Bright and some of the others from my Stable.”

“Ah, Big Red’s in the back with them.  Got some meeting going on?” Big Red was the sisters’ name for Brightblade, a nickname they’d started using for the stallion after speaking with his coltfriend, Goldmane.  I wanted to believe it was simply about his height... but a voice in the back of my head was saying otherwise... a voice that sounded oddly like Wildfire’s. 

“You could say that...” My eyes shifted from the colorful pegasus before me to the right and the more secluded parts of the bar.

“Well, you're running a bit late, I think they were beginning to believe you weren't coming.”  At that I turned back, surprised that Bright would think that.  Lightning was busy pouring a bottle of amber liquid into an empty glass for a customer, the mare’s head tilted to the side as she held the bottle in her teeth. “Not me, I know how busy the streets can be, and how odd things can happen.”

“I ran into somepony on the way to the bar, or rather she ran into me.  Odd mare with stripes, cloak and walking stick... spoke in rhyme.  Know her?”  There was a small chance she did.  After all, she was all but hinting at the fact she’d known I’d run into the mare.  Likely she’d just heard it from somepony who’d passed me on the street.  The Double Rainboom was in a good location, nearly in the center of the city.  As such, it had the most business out of all the bars, or so Lightning liked to say and so information was always flowing into the bar and into the mare’s upright ears.  Always alert for anything new, anything important or valuable.

“You're talking about Second Sight?  The zony?” she asked, sitting the bottle back atop the bar, her hoof scooping it up and lightly hammering the cork back into place with her free hoof.

“Zony?” I asked, the name sounded familiar to me, like I’d read about it in school or something.

“Its what you get when a zebra and pony bump nasties.”  She flashed me a grin, and I really wondered if all pegasi where perverts or if it was just those cast out.  Come to think of it, maybe that’s why they’d been cast out.  “She’s a crossbreed, generally not welcomed in either group, well... cep for here.  Like most crossbreeds, she can’t have kids and it makes them prime targets for slavers looking to sell them to stallions or mares unable to get their sex toys the old fashioned way.  Or maybe they’re just too damn ass ugly.  Anyway, there’s actually a couple dozen zonies living in San Ponsisco, all snug and safe behind the walls and protected by the guards, army, and police.  Still, most end up in brothels or on street corners since most ponies or zebras won’t hire them.”

San Ponsisco was a nice place, but like everywhere else in the wasteland, equal rights were not always so equal despite what the government might try to say.

“So she’s a local?” I asked.  Made sense, if she knew so much about me, but she quickly dashed those thoughts away.

“No, she’s from way the fuck back east, from a tribe of ponies that live out along the Big 52 highway.  Supposedly they’re able to see the future or some shit,” Lightning said.  By the tone of her voice, I could tell she thought it was a load of crap. “Some call ’em Farseers, others shamans.  A lotta folk seek ’em out to find out what their future holds.  According to the rumors, they’re usually right.  Me, I just call’em nuts... wackos who can no more see the future then I can see me flying again.” She shrugged her shoulders and reached for another bottle behind the bar as a pony waved for her. “But so long as she pays for her food and drink, I don’t mind what she’s trying to sell.”

“Sell?” My ears perked up at this.

“She’s going on about a war coming to the city, about the end of the world... think she’s a bit late for that.” The rainbow maned mare smirked. “About how we’re all in danger from the raiders and mutants.  About something bad getting free and generally fucking us all.  Not many pay much attention to that sorta talk, Three Horns and that fuck DJ Pon-3 back east are saying nearly the same thing.  Just without all the mystical mumbo jumbo.” She likely would have gone on, if one of her waitresses hadn’t called out for her.  The mare’s blue ear began to twitch.  “Well, duty calls, one of the factory workers are likely trying to fuck my waitress’ on the table again.  I believe you have someponies to join in the back.” With that, she slid from the bar top and trotted off towards the waitress, leaving me to think over what she said.

See the future?  Bah, that was just a load of shit.  Nopony could see the future, not even the Princesses it seemed. Otherwise the world may have ended up in a far better place.  My own sixth sense notwithstanding, I decided to not worry about what some zony was saying or thought she knew about me.  With a shake of my head, I turned away from the bar and trotted further into the building, intent on finding Brightblade so we could get this meeting started and finished.  Sugar Pie would be expecting me home in a little bit.

The back of the bar was a bit quieter thanks to a wall that divided the room in half.  There were no doors, those having been removed a long time ago, if they ever existed at all.  Back here, it was a more private place where ponies could gather without having to worry about a lot of things bothering them.  Large tables were set up in even spacing, with enough seats for twelve ponies at each.  Like the front, there were no windows in the room, just the constant overhead lighting and items hanging upon the wall. 

Most of the tables were taken, all by ponies from Stable 45 and all of them from security.  Not everypony of course was here, a few had no way of making it, either due to their new jobs, foals, or medical issues.  Wendy was not here for two of those reasons, and of course there were those who simply hadn’t made it to the city to begin with.  They were the reason we’d all gathered here tonight.  

It’d been Bright’s idea, though I’d agreed it’d be a good one.  He wanted us all to get together for one last big gathering of the security ponies who’d protected the Stable and the ponies living inside it.  In a few years or even a couple months, we’d likely be unable to all be gathered in one place.  Some were talking of moving back out to the smaller settlements, the big city not exactly to their liking.  Bright had wanted us all to gather and speak about those we’d lost in the journey and the defense of our former home.  Security had lost the most ponies to the raiders and the wasteland, which I supposed meant they all did their jobs to the end.  A lot of us still had trouble with the losses we’d suffered and this would be a good way to get those unwilling to talk about it to do just that.  Surrounded by friends, co workers, and ponies who knew something about it.  

Would this heal the wounds completely?  No.  Only time could do that.  Time and the will to go on.  Both things I thankfully had in abundance.  

Stepping through the doorway, I looked over the faces of those ponies seated nearby, all of them offering me warm smiles or nods in greeting.  I knew everyone of them by name, having spent many hours working closely in the Stable.  There weren’t just security ponies here though, but a number of others from medical, administration, the Orchard, and techies.  Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters of those we’d lost had gathered here tonight to share their memories of their loved ones.  I could tell by the collection of bottles scattered atop the tables, some empty while some remained full, that most had already begun.  It appeared most were enjoying themselves, laughing at a story told of somepony’s most embarrassing moment, smiling over photos.  A few wept, holding one another close as they recounted how they lost their friends or family.   As I passed them, I heard snippets of their conversations.

“I always knew he’d take after his grandfather, the stallions of our family have always been fighters.  Why, over a dozen on my father’s side fought in the war...”

“... she never was very quick to catch on.  So I was starting to get worried when she didn’t say yes at once.  I’m glad I stayed around to see...”

“I swear, she just shoved her camera right in his face and said, ‘I need this for evidence.’ and snapped a dozen photos.  She was telling me how much you and the boss would like ’em, Bluebelle.”

“... almost beat him, damnit, but he was fast for such a big earth pony.”

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to make it.” I stopped and swiveled my ears towards that voice, as this one had been directed at me.  Luckily, Brightblade stood out in a crowd.

I took a few steps around a table before I found him, standing up near the back wall, surrounded by a half dozen ponies.  Spread out around them were a number of empty bottles and small puddles of liquid from spilled drinks.  It took a fair bit to get my large friend drunk.  It seemed he’d not quite reached that point, but he was close as I saw him swaying a bit on his hooves as he waved me over.  I smiled and hurriedly made my way towards the table and an empty seat across from Bright.

“Sorry about that, got held up by an unexpected encounter on the street.  Nothing to worry about though.” Bright arched a brow at that, and he looked at me a bit closer.  I’d decided to skip telling him or anypony else here tonight about my odd encounter with the zony, Second Sight.  Not that I held much stock in what she’d said, or what Lightning had said her tribe was known for.  If I mentioned it, Bright might read too much into it and worry about me.  The red unicorn had been doing that a lot lately for his fellow Stable dwellers.  At least according to Goldmane, Bright’s coltfriend.

I knew that feeling.  Perhaps it was something any leader felt while out in the wasteland with others looking to you for their safety.

“Well, you’re here now, that’s all that matters.”  He flopped back into his seat heavily, causing a few standing bottles to clatter loudly onto their sides.  “Come on over and have a seat... oh wait... you already did.” The stallion chuckled and I simply smirked, shaking my head. “I was just telling Blaze and Flash here about the time ol’ Cinnamon found Goldmane and I in the weapons locker.”

“I hope you left out the more graphic parts of that story... I doubt Flash here wanted to learn the mistake of using half a bottle of lube.” I glanced to the pony in question and saw his coloring had turned a bit green... at least I think it had.  It was hard to tell with the flashing lights, but he was holding a hoof over his snout.

“No, of course he didn’t edit that part out... or about how quickly his side arm retreated at being discovered...” Blaze responded with a wide smirk, the orange pony holding a bottle of beer in his hoof.  He tilted it back and emptied it in one swing.  “He’s telling it the same way when I was a newbie.”

“Fuck, Bright... I thought Goldmane said the next time you told another living pony that story, you wouldn’t be getting any for a year.”  Another pony sitting at our table called out to my friend.  His name was Jinx, a relatively new pony in security, having only been in the team for a little over two years.

As he asked, Bright rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat, waving a hoof at something that, thankfully, was hidden from view under the table.

“He’d never do that, he can’t resist my charms...”

Several groans cut off the old lame joke, my own included.  After a second, we burst out laughing and called for more drinks.  A white unicorn mare hurriedly entered the room with two trays floating beside her in her magical field.

“You sure you can afford this, Bright?” Blaze asked, looking over the bottles of alcohol settling down on our table.

“The guard pays good caps for protecting the city,” came the answer, as my friend took a bottle of whiskey from the tray and floated it over to his side of the table.  He shakily poured two glasses with the strong drink.  One was left on the table while the other drifted over to me.

“Comes with a private home as well.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t wanna leave you guys... kinda gotten use to having you dumb shits around.”  Another round of laughter circled the table, even Flash joined in.  The horror story told from earlier forgotten by Bright’s sudden bout of swearing.  It happened whenever he started drinking.  Which he didn’t do much of until just recently.

The red stallion had taken the deaths we’d suffered across the wasteland harder than anypony else, perhaps more so than even me.  After we’d gotten settled in, Goldmane, Bright’s coltfriend, had taken me aside and asked for my help.  Bright had been drinking more and more, mourning the loss of ponies he blamed himself for dying.  Their relationship was in tatters and a lot of ponies from the Stable had begun avoiding the once jolly unicorn.  It was even hurting his job with the city’s guard.  Although his commanding officer was giving him a couple breaks, something about having gone through the same thing herself.  I doubted she’d be able to hold off his dishonorable discharge for long.  

In truth, it was putting a strain even on our friendship... something I did not want to see fall apart.  So I did what I could.  Like attending this little gathering, inviting Goldmane and him over for dinner, going out to the shooting range with him.  Hopefully he’d snap out of it before one of us said something we’d both regret.

I looked around the table at the faces of the others, seeing them losing things to speak about, and beginning to sulk into their empting glasses.  

“Well, before any of you get completely wasted, I have something here to show you.”  Everypony at the table turned towards me at the sound of my voice, some with unfocused eyes and goofy grins.  I turned away and reached back into my saddlebag, gently taking hold of the photo sitting within.  Pulling it out with a hoof, I made sure there was no spilled liquids or food on the table where I would lay it, since it couldn’t easily be replaced.  A half dozen ponies learned over the table to get a better look at the slightly faded color photo.  Almost at once, they began talking and jabbing a hoof towards a section of the photo.

“Hey... I remember the day we took this photo... it was the same day I actually scored with Mendy from maintenance...” 

“Sweet goddesses above, would you look at Turf’s stupid ass grin!!  Hahaha... oh that pony could tell a dirty joke like nopony else.”

“Hey, wasn’t this the day you asked June to move in with you?”

“Celestia, if Blue and Wendy were any closer they’d be making out... whatever happened between them anyway?  I thought for sure those two fillyfoolers would be settling down.”

As they talked, I looked over at the photo.  Despite it being upside down due to my seating and how I placed it upon the table, I had no trouble at all in recognizing the faces within.  I looked over each bright smiling face amongst the rainbow of manes, coats, and eyes.  All wearing blue Stable jumpsuits with the number 45 on the collars or along the back.  Pipbucks gleaming in the flash of the camera, giving the lower half of the photo a green glow.  A good many held weapons- shotguns, pistols, batons- some attempting to look badass for the picture.  I smirked at a few familiar faces giving their best John McColt pose.

Around me the conversation carried on, as names were called out and memories of that pony were shared with everyone in the room.  I instead focused on a couple of spots within the picture.  There was Bluebelle, Wendy, and Mav standing beside one another.  The three mares had their forelegs wrapped around one another's shoulders as they grinned towards the camera.  It had been Mav’s camera we’d used for the photo, her husband from medical had agreed to take the shot for us.  Mav had loudly declared that it’d give him something else to take a picture of beside her hot flank.  

Off to the side of the photo was the dynamic duo of Tanner and Nova.  Like Bright and myself, they’d been best friends since their first day of school.  Later that friendship had turned into love and they’d just gotten married a few weeks before the photo was taken.  The brown stallion had his face mashed up beside Nova’s orange neck, a goofy grin on his snout as he waved at the camera.  

Blaze and June stood just behind Bright and myself in the center of the picture, the camera snapping just as one of them had finished telling a funny joke or story.  Both unicorns were laughing happily, leaning upon one another to keep from falling over.  

Speaking of Bright and I, there we stood, the large red unicorn resting a foreleg upon his pump shotgun.  A warm contented smile spread on his face as he stood beside me.  We’d been like brothers, still were I suppose.  No family got through life without a couple problems arising.  Nothing had ever come between Bright and I, not even him being gay and having a crush on me.  He’d taken my rejection better than most.    

My eyes slid over to look at myself.  Looking so Celestia damned young and hopeful with a confident grin as I stood there with my forelegs folded over my chest.  How I’d changed in the months since that photo had been taken.   

On and on the list of names went.  Lucky Stars.  Charger.  Rose Petals.  Pepper.  Crosswires.  Tag.  There were also ponies missing in the photo, ponies who’d joined Security only a few weeks before the attack, such as Flash and Whisper.

Whisper.  The young colt whose armor barely fit him, and whose grandmother had been tightening his helmet just before we charged into the entrance room.  He’d survived the trip, spending much of it recovering from his wounds.  I’d not spoken to him often since he’d joined the Confederate Army, a fact that had surprised all of us.  That is until I’d managed to speak with him, and he told me he had to make up for his earlier weakness.  He had to be like his grandmother.  As I thought about her, my eyes shifted to the left and the mare standing beside me in the picture.  Cinnamon Twist. 

I looked over to the dark brown mare as she stood proudly for the photo.  Her red and pink mane was tied back into a braid to keep the loose strands from falling into her face.  Dark green eyes staring fiercely at the camera as she stood beside her security chief, the very picture of a security pony.  Her armor was perfectly polished and maintained, fitting her small frame well.  Her Stable jumpsuit was clean, pressed and spotless.  Her shotgun rested against her left foreleg, beside her Pipbuck likely having just been broken apart and cleaned inside and out.

She’d been the most skilled shot in the Stable, far better than any unicorn as well.  I still had fond memories of her training us new recruits on the finer points of using a gun, be it pistol or either type of shotgun we had in stock.  She even covered weapons we didn’t have: machine guns, rifles, and even rocket launchers.  It was from her that I earned a respect for history about war, and about ponies.  It was thanks to her that I survived my countless battles across the wasteland.  Her training helped me maintain my weapons in the harsh environment of the surface, and to quickly adapt to the use of new weapons.

She’d worked for years in Security, before even my father had become its head, serving with my grandfather.  She had been as dependable a pony as one could hope to have working for them, an old war horse in every sense of the word.  

And now she was gone.

Killed in the line of duty, defending the ponies she’d sworn to protect the day she took her oath as a Stable Security pony.  Somehow, I think that’s how she always wanted to go out, not peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her friends and family (sadly most of her family had died before her, leaving her with only Whisper), and I knew for sure that she’d never want to go the way her husband had.  Wasting away in Medical’s beds, waiting for her body to fail her in someway.  No, Twist would have wanted to go out fighting.  And fighting she did.

Bright had shared the story with me a few days after I arrived in San Ponsisco and after I’d gotten Sugar settled down from the news I’d had to tell her.  We’d both come here to grab something to drink, he’d needed it to tell me how many we’d lost crossing the wasteland.  How many he’d lost.  He blamed himself for each of them, I could tell... I’d done the same thing myself... hell I still did.  I’d realized later that he hadn’t been the only one in need of a drink.

They’d barely been out in the wasteland for three days when they ran into their first bit of trouble.  A small band of raiders.  Whether they were from the same group that had attacked our Stable or a different group completely didn’t matter.  They foolishly attacked the heavily protected caravan of make shift wagons.  Only a few ponies we injured in the fight, a couple bullet wounds and cuts when the crazed ponies got too close.  We’d learned a harsh lesson in our former home, how to fight them and win.  However, nopony had yet come across one of the wastelands more deadly predators.  

Perhaps their nest had been nearby or they’d been attracted by the scent of blood, but a group of three radscorpions fell upon the still recovering security detail.  Ginger was killed completely by surprise, I doubt she even knew what happened to her as the lead scorpion's claw sliced her in two.  The shock killed Jasper, nopony could have expected something so large and armored to move so fast.  Nopony could have expected such a monster to even exist in the first place.  

Those still alive attempted to drive the things away.  However, as I had at Lonesome Hoof, they soon discovered their shotgun shells did little damage to the scorpions natural armor, unless you got a lucky shot in.  They were quickly pushed back towards the wagons, fighting for their own lives now, dodging claws and stingers.  More ponies rushed to their aid, among them Cinnamon Twist.  She saw what was happening and wasted no time in rushing towards the clawed fiends.  Most thought she’d gone mad according to Bright, himself included.  He yelled for her to get back with the others, only for her to ignore him.  That should have been a clear message to him that she knew what she was doing.  Twist had never disobeyed an order from myself, my father, or my grandfather unless she was doing so to save lives.  She’d done so when she’d rushed blindly into a room on fire to pull out a mother and her daughter.  She’d done so when she’d tackled a pony about to take his own life after his wife left him.  And she did so now, when she saw the ponies she’d protected her whole life come under threat from a couple of overgrown bugs.

At closer range her shotgun was much more effect.  Perhaps not as much as my Raging Buck had been at Lonesome Hoof, but more than enough when targeted at the joints in the scorpion’s armor, or its face.  It had the side effect of putting the pony at a far greater risk of being injured or killed, but knowing Twist, she wouldn’t have cared.  She knew the risks when she joined Security, we all did.

With the scorpions attention on the mare, the others managed to get the wagons of wounded and young away from the fight.  While a few others bravely attempted to follow Twist’s example in getting close, most hung back and poured fire into the black armored creatures, distracting them from their friends fighting much closer.  Through the combined efforts of the surviving security team, the scorpions were brought down one by one, leaking their foul smelling blood.

By the end though, the fighting had cost us another three of the security team, among them Twist herself.  Trying to drag a wounded pony out of the path of a near blind scorpion, the mare was struck a half dozen times by its wildly flailing stinger.  The barbed tip was long enough to stab completely through her body, and injected its poison into her.  She knew she was dead, so she spent the last of her energy throwing herself atop the scorpions head to blind it and shoved her shotgun against its mouth to kill it.

She’d given her life to save her friends and fellow Stable dwellers, without a second thought.  Just as Turf and the others had given their lives so I could help Tassles and the survivors of the raider attack out of Kanter City.  

Sighing softly, my hoof trailed down the photo and back atop the table as the others around me continued speaking about their departed friends and co workers.  My ears drooped as I thought about the mare who’d been like family to me.  Father had often spoken of her like a mother.  We’d always become attached to those friends who were closer to us than others.  It was just a weakness I suppose... or a blessing.  I was snapped out of my thoughts by a voice to my right.

“Well, would you look at these two young colts...” I opened my eyes to look towards Bright.  The large unicorn was looking down at the photo, his eyes a bit more glazed over but still focusing on the two ponies in the picture’s center.  A hoof tapping lightly upon them as he added, “... young as hell and ready to take on the whole world.” 

“Not so young anymore,” I said, looking to ourselves in the picture.  Though it’d been only a few months ago, and I was barely middle aged, I felt older, fatigued.  Bright snorted deeply, and I glanced back to my friend, his eyes locked on me.

“We’re not quite ready to be put out to pasture just yet, are we?” 

“No, I suppose not.” I chuckled softly, hoping this wasn’t heading where I think it was.  My stepping down as Security Chief had bothered my friend.  Though to be honest, there was hardly anything to be a Security Chief of at this point.  I suppose I could be a glorified Hall Monitor of the apartment.  No, all I wanted, all I ever wanted while making my way out of the wasteland was to settle down and put the life of the warrior behind me.  Bright and I had both aged on our respective journeys, seen and done things we never thought we’d have to.  We’d both survived it.  More or less we’d both managed to keep those around us alive to survive it, too.  But Bright had changed more than just in appearance, and the argument I’d hoped to avoid seemed all but inevitable.

“So why’d ya quit, Shadow?” he asked, as he’d asked me a week ago.  His eyes lowered from my face back to the empty glass sitting before him.  His tone was different from then, less confrontational and more sad.

“I didn’t quit, Bright.  I just decided to settle down.”  It was the same answer I’d given him a week ago, and he took it about as well as he did then.

“Don’t give me that shit, Shadow.  You quit.”  His hoof lightly jabbed me in the chest while Blaze and the others began giving us a worried look.  I snorted and shook my head.

“I had Sugar to think of...”

“Didn’t stop you from running off to save the others,” he answered back.  “I talked to some of them, Shadow, heard the shit you did to save them.  No normal pony could have done that.  You could be doing so much more than just growing some fucking plants.”

“I only did what I had to, to save them and survive.  I don’t want anymore fighting, Bright.”

“You could have signed up with me, like we did in the Stable, help protect the city from the Mutants and raiders.”

Was that what this was about?  I didn’t follow him into the city guard as he’d followed me into security?  He’d claimed he’d done it to keep an eye on me, to make sure I didn’t blow a hoof off the first time they gave me a weapon... maybe it’d been less about me, and more about him.

“Bright, I told you before you joined that I wasn’t going to.  Sugar needs me, and I need her.” I sighed softly, ears folded back. “I’ve had more than enough killing to last me a lifetime.”

Besides, the chances of the city actually being attacked was slim.  The real fighting was in places like Crossroads, Tombstone, and the numerous small settlements all across the wasteland from here to Manehattan.  If I was to join the guard, I’d much rather it be one that actually needed the ponies... wait.  Wasn’t that why I didn’t join the local guard though?  Ugh...

“So have I... but I can’t just sit back and do nothing.  I don’t know what else I’d do...” Bright said, lowering his head back to the table, laying it down between the empty bottles and glasses.  His gold mane fell over his neck and forehead.

“You could always take up writing again, Bright... back in school you used to write some pretty nice stories... I still read some of them to Sugar between her usual bedtime stories.”

“Maybe...” was all he said, with a soft tired snort.  I hoped the rift that had been forming between us was mending, but it would take time.  Time it seemed was the one thing I had a lot of lately.

“Well, I’ll never retire,” Blaze said from my left, the orange stallion breaking the awkward silence that had settled around the table.  Both Bright and I turned our heads towards the pony as he stood up from his seat, full glass held in his magical grip.  He eyed us all, a smirk forming across his snout.

“The day I’m put out to pasture...” he began on his own.

“...is the day they pry my shotgun from my cold dead hoof,” we all finished with him.  It was the answer Twist had always given anypony asking her when she was going to retire.  We all chuckled, Bright included, the tension breaking at last.  I looked over to my friend as he looked to me.  Sliding my hoof over, I lifted the glass he’d poured for me when I first sat down and held it up to him.

“I’ll drink to that.”

And we did.  For a couple hours straight, though thankfully I’d managed to stop before getting completely wasted.  Bright... not so much. The stallion said little else to me the rest of the night, hopefully thinking upon what I told him and not just pushing it away.  Though it was looking like I might have a chance to find out, seeing how he could barely walk to the bathroom, let alone down the street.

 Luckily Blaze and Flash were willing to help the large stallion home, so I could head on back to the apartment and see Sugar to bed.  The drinks had been paid for in advance, so I spent a few more minutes speaking with some of the others.  Eventually, I stood and made my way towards the front door of the bar, and back out into the street.  As I did so, I noticed it had begun to drizzle slightly from the overcast sky.  The steady clicking of my Pipbuck let me know the water wasn’t exactly good for my health, but it’d take several hours of exposure to be deadly.

Ah, the joys of living on the surface.  Shaking myself off a bit, I set off for home.



*     *     *     *     *



What had started off as a light drizzle as I’d left the Double Rainboom, slowly turned into a more steady rain.  The rhythmic clip clop of my hooves was broken by the occasional splash as I trotted into a puddle of water along the sidewalk.  All around me the streets were largely deserted, most ponies already at home or in bars relaxing for the night.  In the past twenty minutes, I hadn’t passed more than a dozen ponies, most of them being the local police.  Not that I paid them much attention as I walked.  My thoughts were a jumbled mess over the events of the past hour.

Was Bright right?  Could I really be doing more for everypony other than simply growing food for them?  Should I really pick up my shotgun and join up with him and a dozen others from security?  While the risk of an attack on San Ponsiso was slim, I had to admit to myself that it was a slight possibility of it happening sometime in the future.  Mad Eyes sure did seem intent on attacking it, if what Carrion had told us was true.  Would I be able to just stand by while others fought to defend the city?  Defend Sugar? 

 Of course, there was always the question of the ponies living beyond the wall.  More and more they were coming under attack.  Would I be better off out there trying to help them?  Fighting against the odds for a slim chance of saving a couple ponies?

And what of my niece?  I’d promised myself and her mother that I’d look after her.  Raise her as my own.  While it’d only been a couple weeks... I had enjoyed the time we’d spent together.  She looked up to me almost like a father, and it felt good.  Could I just run off and leave her with Spearmint again?

And of course let’s not forget Second Sight, the odd zony I’d run into on my way to the Double Rainboom.  What had she meant when she’d said our destinies were intertwined?  What was that all about?  Was it something she’d seen of the future?  What if Lightning was wrong and she really could see the future?  She’d seem to know a little about me, most easily learned by listening to the radio... but what about my meeting with the others?  It wasn’t exactly a secret... I suppose she could have overheard somepony talking about it.  Maybe it was just another mare trying to get intertwined with me... not that I’d mind really, she had a pretty face and those stripes... dammit.  

Fuck you, Wildfire.  That pegasus had corrupted me.  There’s no way she was going to take Sugar out when she was old enough to start drinking.  No way in hell.  I’d just find someway to keep track of her... Pipbucks had tracking devices built into them... maybe I could do that.  Speaking of my niece, I came to a stop and lifted my head from the water soaked sidewalk to the apartment building standing above me.  A brief flash of lightning illuminated the building.  I’d gone from living underground to living above it.  Seems I was moving up in the world.

Oh Celestia, that was awful...

All joking aside, I lowered my head and trotted towards the steps leading up to the front door.  It was unlocked, and I pushed the wooden door open with barely a creak.  Somepony had finally gotten around to oiling it.  Good, it had a nasty habit of waking up those nearest the front.  On that, I glanced towards the nearest door, Wendy’s, and looked to see for any sign the wounded mother was awake.  No light shined from under the door, and it was silent.  She must have gone on to bed.

As carefully as I could, I shook off as much of the water as possible on the large mats lining the floor.  Droplets of water splashed upon the walls and ceiling, but that’d been taken into account when they’d refurbished the building.  The water simply ran down the bare stone walls and over the water proofed paint that covered the ceiling.  When I was finally a bit dryer, I began trotting quietly towards the stairs and the short walk up them to my floor and room.  It didn’t take me long, despite my attempts at being silent.  I suppose I needed have bothered as a couple doors still had lights on beyond them, one with music playing loudly.

Once I’d reached my floor, I made my way towards the door to my apartment and began fishing around inside my saddlebag for my keys.  After a few seconds of trying to remember which side they were in, I found the key ring under the photo and pulled it out.  Slipping it into the lock, I turned it and pushed the door open.

Stepping into the apartment, I was immediately struck by the scent of food coming from the kitchen doorway, along with the sound of my young niece and Spearmint talking and laughing.  Removing my still dripping saddlebags, I laid them down upon the floor near the door and made my way through the living room.  As I set hoof inside the kitchen, I found the mare and filly working around the stove and kitchen counter, smiling and laughing among themselves.

Spearmint was standing beside the stove.  A pot of something was boiling atop it, steam rising and smelling wonderful.  Scattered across the counter were a number of vegetables, most cut and ready to be added to the pot.  There was also a can or two of stewed tomatoes from before the war.  It was near the cans I saw Sugar, standing atop the counter and holding one of the cans in her forehooves, waiting for the signal from Spearmint to add it to the mix.  At a nod from the old green mare, the young filly gave a happy little shout and stood up on her hind legs, somehow managing to balance herself and the can of tomatoes.  With a flick of her hooves, the can was upended and the red juice and lumpy preserved tomatoes slid from the can and into the pot.  The second can glowed green in the older unicorn’s magic and she more carefully spilled its contents into the pot.

Sugar giggled as she licked several droplets of juice from her fore leg and shoulder where she’d gotten splattered.  Luckily it didn’t seem to burn.  Turning to set the can back down atop the counter, yellow eyes widened as she spied me in the doorway.  With a excited yell, she lept from the counter and onto the kitchen table, knocking several things onto the floor before she too dropped onto the tiles.  Small clattering hooves carried the young pony towards me where she attached herself happily to my right foreleg with her tiny pink ones.

“Yay!!  Uncle Shadow’s home!”

“Hey, Tiny, you helping Spearmint cook again?”  I chuckled and gently patted my niece on her head, earning a nuzzle along my lower leg.

“Yep!  She said I’m doing a good job... though she doesn’t cook as well as you, Uncle Shadow.  There’s never any fire,” she giggled and I groaned, earning a nuzzle from my young niece.  Spearmint simply shook her head at the sight, cleaning the counter of whatever was unfit to add to the stew she was making.

“There’s actually a fair number of ponies who can cook like your Uncle Shadow.  They’re called stallions,” Spearmint said with a laugh as she finished cleaning up the counter.  Once she had finished, she turned back towards us, her expression changing as she looked down at Sugar.  “Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes or so, we were running a bit late because somepony got in trouble today and I had to go speak with her teacher.” At those words, Sugar’s grip on my leg loosened and she slumped to the floor.

“Trouble?” I arched a brow down to my niece as she attempted to hide behind my forelegs.  Her eyes stared down at the floor and her own small hooves. “Tiny, what happened?”  The little pink filly mumbled something and shrunk down to the floor, curling her tail around her hindquarters, ears downcast.  When she still didn’t answer, I sighed and looked back up to Spearmint.

“What happened?”

“She got into a fight with two older colts, giving one of them a black eye and the other a couple burn marks on his flank from her magic,” was the answer the old mare gave me as she sat down upon the kitchen floor, looking over to Sugar who was still vainly trying to sink into the floor tiles.  “The teacher said it wasn’t the first time the three of them have gotten into trouble, but she had thought it was just kids being kids.”  At that, the little filly jumped up from the floor and stomped on it with her hooves.

“They’re always picking on Dusty and me, calling us names and making fun of us for being blank flanks!” her small ears went from hanging loosely to the side to laying back against her head as she got angry. “I had to fight ’em Uncle Shadow!  They started being extra mean to Dusty and all he did was bump into them while we were playing ball outside.”

“Why didn’t you tell the teacher, Tiny?  We always taught you not to fight.”

“I do, but she never sees them being mean to us.  She thinks we’re just making it up!  I know mommy and you told me not to fight, but I just had to this time.  They was calling him names, telling him his mommy didn’t love him and thats why she left.  They knocked him over and broke the ball we were playing with.  When he started crying they just made fun of him more... they were being big dumb meanie heads!  So I bucked Timon in his stupid face and shocked his little brother so they’d leave Dusty alone.”

My other brow arched at as she spoke, thinking how much she sounded like Ebony right then.  Right down to the lashing tail and stomping hooves.  I attempted to hide a smirk that was forming as I heard the names she’d given the troublesome duo, just in case Spearmint looked my way.  I was torn though.  On the one hoof, she’d gotten into a fight.  Something Ebony and I had taught her not to do, but to instead go find an adult for help.  On the other, my niece stood up to two older children and, by the sounds of it, kicked their sorry flanks.  I was a bit proud of my little pink filly.  Still, she had to know starting a fight just because somepony was calling you names wasn’t the right thing to do.  I looked down to my niece and found a pair of wide golden tearing eyes looking back.  

Oh hell... there wasn’t a defence against that look.

“I don’t want you fighting, Tiny.  You’re a better pony than that.  It should always be a last resort, if there’s no other way to resolve the problem.” Sugar’s ears wilted and she slumped back to the floor, mumbling her response.

“Okay, Uncle Shadow... I’m sorry...”

I smirked at the sad expression on her face and lowered my head down towards her, gently nuzzling along her back and neck, “But... I am proud of you.  You stood up for your friend, despite being outnumbered and knowing you’d get in trouble for doing it.”  Her ears perked up and she twisted her head to look up at me as I smiled and nuzzled her cheek with my nose.

“Y... you are?” she asked, sniffing a bit.

“Yes I am, Tiny.  Not many ponies will stand up for what's right, especially when the odds are against them like that.”  She sniffed once more before reaching up to wrap her forelegs around my snout and press her face into my forehead.

“You do, Uncle Shadow.  When I grow up, I wanna be just like you.” 

I chuckled softly and wrapped my own fore hooves around my niece, picking her up off the floor as I sat back on my rump.  After holding her for several more moments, Spearmint cleared her throat.  Both Sugar and I looked over to the mint green unicorn, a smile on her face as she shook her head slowly.

“If you're quite finished ‘punishing’ your niece, why don’t you both go get washed up while I finish dinner.” 

“Sure thing, and after dinner, we’ll sit down and read a couple more chapters of Magic Effect.”  At that, Tiny’s hug on my face slacked so she could toss her hooves up in the air and shout in glee.

“Yay!  Commander Shepard was just about to confront the evil Mareran aboard the Citadel and fight the big super space dragon!”  Wiggling out from my hooves, she dropped to her own on the tiles and began tugging on my larger ones in an effort to make me move faster, “Come on, let’s go get clean!”

Chuckling at her antics and rapid change of mood, I rose to all fours and allowed myself to be tugged out of the kitchen and into the living room. 

After a quick shower and bath, followed by Sugar’s attempts to shave the fur that’d grown a bit long around my chin and neck, we left the bathroom and returned to the kitchen.  After helping set out the bowls, cups, and silverware, we sat down and enjoyed a nice stew made with one hundred and eighty year old stewed tomatoes.  As bad as it might sound, they had aged well, added with the fresh pale vegetables I grew at work.  It was a far better meal than any I’d had traveling out in the wasteland.

With dinner finished, the table cleaned, and the dishes washed, Spearmint bid us good night and returned to her own apartment across the hall where she’d likely be turning in for the night.  We, on the other hoof, had a very important story to read, lest Tiny explode from being forced to wait another night.  

Laying back on the couch with Tiny resting upon my chest, head tucked up against my neck, I held up the dog eared paperback novel that had been passed around for many years back home.  Everypony in the Stable had read the story at some point in their life, either as an adult or as a foal.  Of course while reading it to children, parents (myself included) skipped over the romance part near the end of the story.  That part of the story was solo for adults, which many grown foals went back to read when they were older.  I’d likely hide it when Sugar got that age...

Skimming through the yellowed pages, I found the spot where we’d last left off a few nights ago,  just after Shepard was forced to choose between sending either her best friend or her lover off on a suicide mission to give everypony else a chance to escape.  It was almost at the very end of the story.  Turning a few more pages, I found the start of the next to last chapter and began to read.

“As the Pormanda rapidly approached the Citadel, Commander Shepard prepared her crew for the fight ahead.  She wasn’t sure if any of them would make it out, but she knew that they were the only ones able to stop Mareran from destroying the station and everypony aboard...”



*     *     *     *     *



A sudden loud rumble woke me with a start and I blinked, a bit confused about what had just happened and where I was.  I began to rise when I felt something small shift on my chest and looked down to see Sugar Pie sleeping soundly with her head resting on her bedtime story.  Outside the rain continued to fall, and another deep rumble of thunder echoed throughout the apartment.  

Reaching over to the back of the couch, I pulled a blanket that’d been left there the last time this had happened over us, accidentally waking my niece as I gently laid it across her back.

“Momma?” she asked tiredly, eyes barely open.  I paused for only a moment before I leaned over and nuzzled her cheek softly.

“No, go back to sleep, Tiny.”  At my nickname for her, she smiled and snuggled back into my chest.

“Good night, Uncle Shadow,” she muttered softly before falling back to sleep, making my smile grow.

“Good night, Tiny.”

Laying my head back on the armrest of the couch, I closed my eyes and wrapped a foreleg over my niece’s small form, drifting back to sleep to the steady rhythm of the rain.



Half way to Lvl 16


> Chapter 16: Choices
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 16: Choices


Any change, any loss, does not make us victims. Others can shake you, surprise you, disappoint you, but they can't prevent you from acting, from taking the situation you're presented with and moving on. No matter where you are in life, no matter what your situation, you can always do something. You always have a choice and the choice can be power. 



I awoke with a start as the bed beneath me rocked suddenly.  The thick haze of sleep still clouded my mind as I rose my head up from the pillow and blinked in the near total darkness.  My ears twitched to the steady clickity clack of steel wheels rattling under the floorboards and my bed... no, my seat swayed gently to the rhythm of the cabin and suddenly I remembered where I was.  I was aboard a train on its way across the country and I was far from home.

My eyes shifted from the cushions of the seat I’d made into a bed to the passenger compartment of the train car in which I was.  The dim lighting from the lamps flickered as the wheels ran across uneven sections of the track.  Despite the lack of lighting, I could still make out over a half dozen ponies laying about the train car.  Most of them, like me, had found someplace comfortable to catch up on their sleep.  No, not all, a single dark shape stood at the very end of the car near the doorway.  His dark coloring helped him blend in with the shadows around him.  His armored back was to me, head turned towards one of the windows nearest him while, most likely, watching the moon.  It had been a long seventy two hours since leaving Canterlot, and much had happened in that time.  

After a few more moments of staring at the dark figure, I looked away and rose to my hooves, working the kinks out of my lower back and neck.  It seemed the train’s seats had not exactly been meant for use as bedding and had not been very kind to my body.  As I rubbed a hoof along my shoulder, a thought popped into my head and I smirked.  Father would say I was getting soft if he saw me now, and I suppose in a way I was.  The beds my sisters and I had shared while growing up had not been the most comfortable things in the world, nor was life on a farm an easy thing.  Especially not the type of farm my parents ran.  Had it really been almost fifteen years since I’d last been home?  When I was used to being up early in the morning to begin my chores alongside my sisters?  Most of the work kept us busy in the fields until supper, and after that it was a bit of schooling followed by sleep.  My thoughts of home were interrupted by a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye.  

Turning my head, thankfully with little to no pain, my eyes fell across one of the dark windows along the train car’s walls.  The lamp light behind me reflected off the glass, making it almost impossible to see anything beyond it.  Not that there was a lot to see anyway, just flat seemingly unending desert for miles around.  It wasn’t the movement of the landscape that had caught my attention, but the reflection of a mare, her image waving in the glass as telephone poles sped past.  

A light gray earth pony face stared back from the window, light purple eyes blinking slowly.  Her slender face was framed by her long, straight dark gray mane.  She wore a dark blue jacket which hung over a bulky black armored security barding.  It looked out of place on the mare, along with the sidearm she had holstered on her right foreleg.  A simple semi automatic pistol, small caliber.  Her head turned slightly to the side, revealing a number of small cuts along her cheek and jaw and an even nastier looking scar on her neck.  As she turned her head back around, her long mane dropped across the scar and hid it from view once more.  Beyond the signs of recent fighting, she looked tired and worn out, but she had every right to be.  It had been a long, hard trip and nothing had gone as it should have. 

I looked away from my reflection in the window to look over the half dozen survivors of my guard detail... my squad mates... no, my friends.  It was hard to imagine that three days ago I’d not known any of the sleeping forms scattered about the train car’s many empty seats, but in that time we’d shared so much.  Jokes, food, laughter, and loss.  We’d started off with twelve, but the damned zebras had been on us nearly the whole way and would likely continue to hound us until we reached our final destination.  Again, my eyes wandered to the proud. dark figure seated at the other end of the train.  His back was still to me as he stared out into the night, likely to the moon.  It was full tonight.  I bit my lower lip as I briefly thought of going to him, but a voice to my right gave me a start.

“Isabella?” 

“Everything’s fine, Midnight.  I was just going to go check in on our prisoner.  Go back to sleep,” I answered the owner of the voice, a dark furred unicorn.  Her blue eyes opened just a bit, sleep once more overtaking them as she nodded her horned head.  Laying it back atop a pillow, she slowly drifted back to sleep.  I looked back up towards the end of the car and arched a brow.  The dark figure was gone, having slipped out while I’d been distracted.

I turned away from the car and took several light steps towards the door.  Pulling it open, I hurriedly stepped out between the cars before the noise could disturb anypony else.  Warm night air flowed across my face, blowing my mane and tail about as I took a deep breath of the fresh air.  Thoughts of my parents’ farm returned to my mind as I moved across the narrow platform between cars and onto the next.  The only sounds were the dull roar of air rushing past as the train rocked over the tracks and the steady clanking of the wheels.  Reaching a hoof out to the door of the second car, I pulled it open and stepped inside, allowing the door to shut on its own as I looked about.  Almost at once, I noticed something wasn’t quite right.

It was empty, nearly completely dark, and it felt wrong somehow.  I stood for a moment in the darkness and let my eyes adjust.  The only source of light was a single lamp still flickering near the back of the car.  The light of the full moon shone in through the few windows where the shades had not been pulled down.  Once I began to make out the shapes of the seats, I began looking for Thunderwing.  It was likely his turn at watch, but I saw no sign of the pegasus anywhere... maybe he’d fallen asleep?  A trained soldier in the Equestrian military, who’d seen combat, falling asleep while on duty...

Without even realizing what I was doing, my mouth quickly lowered to the pistol strapped to my over large security barding. With a slight tug, I quietly pulled it free.  The unfamiliar taste and weight of the firearm filled my mouth as I nervously clicked the safety off with a flick of my tongue.  Beyond firing it a couple times wildly, I’d not really used it.  Still, some part of me was telling me I was going to need it.

Taking a few steps away from the doorway, I scanned the rows of empty seats while looking for any trace of the dark blue pegasus.  As I went, I noticed it was growing brighter behind me and quickly glanced across my shoulder to look towards the windows on the left side of the car.  A massive billboard had been built along the tracks on a hill and we were rapidly approaching it.  Its lights were bright enough to even shine inside the train car’s shaded windows.  I turned away and took another step and stumbled, nearly falling into the floor as something caught my right foreleg.  Looking down, I saw a blue furred limb sticking out from between a row of seats along with a pool of dark liquid that I didn’t need light to tell me was blood.

“Bad timing, pony,” a voice whispered from the shadows.  I jerked my head back up just as the sign outside reached the car I was in.  In the all too brief flash of light that traveled the length of the passenger car, I saw a dozen zebras shimmering into existence from beneath their stealth cloaks.  Silenced pistols, submachine guns, and rifles held in their hooves and mouths.  The one that had spoken held a serrated knife in between his teeth, blood still dripping from it.

Oh fuck... I was so very dead.  I took several steps back towards the door, but I knew I’d never make it.  They’d reach me before I could even touch the doorknob.  Shouting for help might alert the others... but it could be muffled over the train’s own noise.  I felt tears running down my cheeks as the zebras began closing the distance.  The knife wielding stallion was in the lead, a wicked grin on his muzzle.  I opened my mouth to scream, but what happened next surprised us all.

The window a few steps to my left exploded inward in a shower of sparkling glass shards as something large and pony shaped slammed into the zebra wielding the blood soaked knife.  The striped equine went down without a sound as clawed horseshoes slashed across his throat, turning whatever he’d been about to say into little more than a gurgle.  As the zebra bled out beneath him, the large dark shape flung out it’s right foreleg.  Something flew out from the motion, slicing through the air between two stunned zebras to smash into the remaining lamp.  It burst, snuffing what little dim light it had been producing in a spray of oil and bits of glass.  Darkness settled over the train car, but that was quite alright.  My saviour had no need of light to see and, for a moment, I almost felt sorry for these poor bastards.

My rescuer’s head snapped upward.  The moonlight was shining in from the broken window behind him and reflected off his golden eyes with their narrow black slits, like dragon eyes.  He rose to his full height, towering over the zebras as they slowly recovered their wits.  However, their courage once more fled them as the figure’s wings snapped open.  Unlike most ponies wings, his had no feathers but a thin tattered membrane of leather stretched out from the joints.  Honestly, it made him resemble something from a nightmare.

The zebras shouted in alarm at the beast among them, for it was not just something from anypony’s nightmare... it was their nightmare, or rather one of her nightmares who had just appeared.  A creature of death and darkness.

The moonlight danced across his silver armor as he moved far more quickly than a creature his size should ever be able to.  The zebras’ legendary reflexes and quickness seemed to forsake them in the face of their most hated foe.  The flashes of gunfire they managed to snap off briefly illuminated the scene before me, as the single shape slid easily between the infiltrators.  As another zebra was struck by the razor sharp claws, he squeezed the trigger of his weapon.  The resulting flash of light from the pistol’s muzzle showcased the killer.

The shape and size was that of a large pony stallion.  A large snout, wide eyes, ears, mane, tail, and hooves all where they should be.  However, there were a number of differences from your average pony, quite noticeable in the burst of light from the pistol’s muzzle flare.  His coat blended in well with the darkness, being midnight black in color.  Long sharp fangs gleamed in the light as the stallion snarled, his long ears ending with tufts of fur laid back flat against his skull.  The normally wide eyes of a pony were narrowed to slits in his anger, drawing attention to the glowing golden irises that filled them.  Pupils that were slit like a cat or dragon, unlike the rounded ones found on most living creatures.  He was a member of the rarely seen fourth tribe of ponies, a negasus.  Personal guards of Princess Luna and born warriors and killers.

He wore the armor of his office, silver plate trimmed in dark purple covering his large chest and forelegs.  Upon his head was a helmet of similar craftsponyship with a dark purple and midnight blue striped crested fin.  Upon each hoof he wore silver armored shoes that came up over them, the front pair tipped with claws; claws that were already stained red with the blood of the zebras and were even now slashing downward.  The zebra’s pistol flared to life once more, the bullet flying harmlessly into the ceiling of the train car as the razor sharp claws of the hoof armor struck him.  Crimson painted the nearby windows of the car as those claws sliced neatly through flesh and bone, severing arteries as it went.  More gunfire lit up the scene as the downed zebra’s comrades opened fire upon the negasus. 

However, he was already moving, the bullets skimming across his armored flanks to embed themselves into the passenger car’s walls or shattering the windows.  A few struck the already dead zebra as he dropped to the floor, blood pumping from deep cuts in his throat.  

His bat like wings flapped once to give him a boost to the ceiling, where he deftly twisted about to bring his hooves to bear upon the roof of the car.  With a flash of sparks, his armored hooves kicked off from the wood and metal ceiling to propel him downwards into the midst of the zebras where he lashed out with both front and rear hooves.  

A zebra caught by the slashing claws staggered back, his face mostly missing and his submachine gun dropping uselessly to the floor.  His hooves flew to his face to attempt to stop the flow of blood.  The zebras closed in around the winged stallion, some dropping their weapons in favor of drawing knives and similar close combat weapons.  One of them leveled his pistol towards the silver armored pony, ready to end the fight with a shot to the skull.  How he knew, I’d never know, but somehow he did.  With a kick any earth pony would be proud of, the negasus slammed his forehooves into the floor and lashed out with his rear.  

The metal shod limbs connected with the zebra’s jaw, causing him to pull on the trigger and fire a round.  The shot flew just in front of the pony who had ducked down with the kick.  The bucked zebra flew back from the force of the blow, striking the door at the back of the car with enough energy to break the lock and force it open.  The zebra crashed through the doorway and out onto the walkway between cars and lay still below a pair of hooves standing near the next car’s door.  My eyes jerked up as the door began to close back and I caught sight of the pair.  Zebras, one kneeling down beside the doors many locks.  Most of them were now open with the last being probed by a long piece of metal held in the striped stallion’s mouth.  The other had been standing watch, her assault rifle swung over her shoulder.  A stealth cloak was quickly brought up as the body of the prone zebra came to a stop beside them.  She looked from him to the door and me.  Our eyes locked and she smirked.

Shit...

“Look out!” I shouted and lunged into the pitiful cover that a row of seats would provide as the zebra mare opened fire with her rifle.  High caliber rounds tore through the train car, shredding the cushions of the seats and sending stuffing into the air.  I heard rounds striking flesh and heard the familiar sounds of zebra voices yelling out in pain.  Covering my head with my fore hooves, my pistol laying on the floor in a pool of blood, I screamed in fear as the rounds drew closer to hitting me.  Opening my eyes, I saw the silver clad hooves of the negasus as he rushed towards the door before they disappeared as he took to the air.  The firing stopped and I heard another shout of pain, followed by a door slamming shut.

Blinking, I slowly began to rise from where I lay beside the body of Thunder and peered over the tattered remains of the seats.  A dozen bodies lay scattered about the car, claw marks and bullet wounds flowing red with blood.  A few twitched or moaned, but I doubted they would for very long.  My eyes followed the trail of death towards the far end of the car and the armored pony standing there with a zebra mare impaled on his claws. 

The stallion stood on his hind legs, a number of cuts and wounds along his body from the fight.  His armor was stained with blood, nearly all of it somepony else’s.  One clawed forehoof was pressed into the chest of the mare, pinning her to the door of the train car several so high up off the floor that her hind legs dangling in the air.  The stallion’s free front leg was pulled back, ready to drive the blades of his clawed shoe into her face.

For her part, the mare glared hatefully at the negasus, her forehooves wrapped around the limb holding her in place.  Her ears folded back against her skull as her orange eyes glared into the golden orbs of her killer.  The remains of her assault rifle’s shoulder strap dangled uselessly from around her neck, the weapon itself half broken on the floor below her hooves.  The mare bared her teeth and muttered a couple words in her native tongue to the pony.

“Shetani shujaa weusi na kifo...” teeth bared, she hissed out in her native tongue as blood ran down her chin.  The negasus merely smirked, flashing his row of sharp fangs to the mare.

“Yes, I am...” he said in response to whatever she’d said, before slamming his free hoof into the mare’s face.  

I closed my eyes and turned away at the bloody sight, ears folding back as I heard the sounds of flesh being ripped and the mare’s gurgled last breaths.

“...your death.”

The bat winged stallion let the lifeless body of the zebra slide down to the floor before him, slumped over against the door to the passenger car.  The pony dropped to his hooves and scanned the room slowly, golden eyes looking over the fallen bodies of his foes before stopping upon me.

“Are you alright?” 

“I... yes... I’m fine.” I managed to say, stepping over a slain zebra stallion.  His eyes stared lifelessly up at the ceiling as his blood pooled out around him.  The thick liquid flowed slowly around the dropped submachine gun he’d not had a chance to reload before having his throat ripped out, “Better than Thunder...” I glanced over my shoulder at the dead pegasus before a thought struck me. “The prisoner!”

With a quick nod, my rescuer turned and pushed the dead mare out from the front of the door before pushing it open.  The howl of the night air rushed into the compartment, rustling my mane and tail as the negasus stepped over another dead body to reach the next car.  Behind us, the door to the car we’d all been resting in burst open.  Midnight, along with most of the others from our team, came in with drawn weapons.

“What the hell...” the mare began, the soft glow of her horn flickering as she saw the devastation.

“It was a zebra strike team... they must have snuck aboard at our last stop.”  The unicorn simply nodded her head before her eyes stopped upon the prone form of Thunder.

“Oh no...”

A slender, red coated earth pony mare pushed past Midnight, making her way towards the still form of Thunder.  Her saddlebags were marked by a trio of pink butterflies.  She was our medic, Rubyheart.  I turned away from the sight of the mare examining the pegasus.  I knew he was dead, there’d been too much blood around him for him not to be.  As I turned, one of the prone bodies rose up quickly and I screamed in fear.

Blood flowing down the wounded zebra’s scalp, he shoved the barrel of his gun into my face and pulled the trigger...




*     *     *     *     *



With a gasp, my eyes snapped open and I was suddenly awake once more... or was it for the first time?  Jerking my head up from the pillow I was laying upon, I blinked rapidly and attempted to get my bearings on just where I was at.  My heart was racing and I was surprised to find myself somewhat out of breath as if I’d just run a race... or been fighting for my life.  I’d never had a dream quite like that one before, it’d been so real.  The smells and sounds.  The taste of cold steel as she’d held the pistol in her mouth, the feeling of the recoil as the weapon fired.  It had almost been as if I’d actually been there, like I’d been that mare... which was perhaps the oddest thing of all.

I’d had dreams before where I’d been somepony else, who hasn’t really?  A famous hero from history who held off waves of zebra soldiers, a beloved character from a story about pirates and lost treasure, or the stallion who saves the day in one of those cheesy horror movies.  But in all those dreams over all these years, I’d never once dreamed of being a mare and not a stallion... and what's worse... I could feel the differences.  I had been that mare, right down to the changes in body parts and that was a bit extreme for a dream.  

What's more, those ponies I’d seen seemed familiar, like somepony I’d seen years ago, but that was impossible.  I’d never seen a batpony before, and he’d be fairly obvious in a Stable.  Also, it’d looked more like life before the bombs had fallen.  At least, I’d gotten a sense it had been before then.  Ugh... this was getting me nowhere fast. 

Pushing away those thoughts, I once more focused on my surroundings as I noticed the dim light from earlier had grown brighter and was coming from a doorway just across the floor from where I lay.  Reaching a hoof up, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and blinked a couple of times until the living room of the apartment came into clearer view.  I then realized I’d slept on the couch all night.  No wonder I was having crazy ass dreams.  The couch was nice, but it was hardly the most forgiving thing to sleep on.  I could already feel a couple kinks in my back.  Huh... what time was it anyway?  

As I began to turn my head towards the side to see the clock hanging on the wall, a sharp pain ran up my neck causing me to wince.  Yep, not forgiving at all.  I snorted softly and rested my head back down on the couch’s armrest and stared up at the off white ceiling, waiting a few seconds for the pain to ease up.  Once it had, I lifted my right foreleg up to my face and checked the time on my Pipbuck.  The green glow of the screen highlighted my face and the couch I was on.  The darker green digital numbers displayed that the time was seven thirty-six on a Friday.  Well, it was a good thing neither Tiny nor I had anywhere to be this morning, otherwise we’d both be running a good deal behind.

With the army coming home and Nightmare Night tomorrow, the government had issued a citywide holiday for the weekend.  Thus, all the ponies with family returning could meet them and spend the day with them.  The three day weekend would begin for most this afternoon, and for the rest this morning.  I was lucky enough to be in the latter group as was Tiny and every other foal in the city.  School had been canceled for today.  

Of course, not everypony had family in the army.  None of us from 45 did, though in another couple months we just might if Bright and a few others were intent on joining up.  Nor could every business in the city be shut down completely for three whole days.  While the factories were normally closed on the weekends, a couple of ponies from maintenance would still be working for a few hours today, even including a couple from our Stable.  The police and guard would of course still be on duty, although they might be slightly under strength, as would the doctors and nurses of Princess Cadence’s Hospital for Foals (the largest hospital that was within the walled sections of San Ponsisco), since so many of their numbers would be staying at home with friends and family.  The shops would be open for a few hours today as well, before shutting down for the weekend and the holiday.

Thinking about the holiday reminded me, I needed to head into the market district today and pick up a few things.  Spearmint said we were running a bit low.  I needed to get cleaned up first and as I began to rise I felt a light weight pressing down on my chest.  Blinking I looked down and noticed a lump under the blanket in just about the right spot.  Reaching my right hoof out, I took ahold of the cover and lifted it up.  The worn green blanket barely got a few inches up when I saw who was laying there.

A pink ball of fur, hooves, and curly mane and tail was pressing herself tightly to my chest, rising and falling slowly as she slept peacefully.  Her head was still using her bedtime story book as a pillow.  Seems neither of us had made it to our beds last night.  I smiled at the sight of my niece, contently sleeping there with a smile on her small face.  At least my chest seemed more comfortable than the couch.  

As carefully as I could, I wrapped her sleeping form up in the blanket and slid filly and all off my chest and onto the couch.  Rising to my hooves, I heard a light murmuring come from her mouth as she snuggled into the blanket and drifted off to sleep.  Pushing a lock of her solid pink mane away from her face, I watched her sleep for a moment more before stepping away from the couch.

Once I’d reached the bathroom, I set about getting ready to shower before making breakfast and waking Tiny up.  My bundle of endless joy would need to come with me to the Market District today, seeing how Spearmint would likely be busy helping Doctor Kindheart with the overflow from the hospital.  Reaching a hoof into the tub, I twisted the knob marked for hot water.

While the water warmed up, I checked my reflection in the mirror over the sink.  Running a hoof over my chin, I noticed I was getting a bit scruffy there and would need to trim up my coat soon unless I wanted to end up with a beard or mustache.  I snorted at the thought, and of Ebony’s suggestion I grow one.

 Some mares dig facial hair, my sister had said in one of her many attempts to get me married off to one of my co workers or ANY mare in the Stable.  I chuckled at the happy memory and reached out to the mirror to open the door it was on.  Behind it was a small medicine cabinet built into the wall of the bathroom.  It was where I kept my shaving supplies along with a few other things.  As I took out a few things, a random thought popped into my head.  I found it odd that we called it a medicine cabinet when it rarely, if ever, held any medicine.   




*     *     *     *     *



With my shower and shave complete, I opened the door to the bathroom and braced myself for the Sugar Rush that was sure to await me beyond it.  To my disappointment, the hallway beyond lacked any sign of the hyperactive pink filly of happiness.  Walking out, I retraced my steps to the living room and found my niece still happily curled up in the blanket, sleeping away the morning.  I chuckled softly and decided to allow her a few more minutes of sleep while I fixed us a quick breakfast.  I could do without the audience waiting for something to burst into flames.

Moving away from the couch, I entered the kitchen and prepared myself for the epic struggle ahead.  Standing in the doorway, I glanced over the only room in our home I spent little time in, at least recently.  The olive green kitchen appliances all sat humming with electricity in their places within the row of cabinets.  Was it just me, or was the stove glaring at me?  No... it was just the shadows created by light forcing its way past the curtains and onto the metal frame.  At least I hoped so...

Stepping away from the doorway, I trotted over towards the cabinets above the stove and pulled out a medium sized pan from the bottom shelf and sat it atop the counter.  Then I went to the pantry that covered a section of wall between the kitchen and living room.  Opening it, I looked about the few boxes we had inside until I found what I was looking for: a round plastic container marked Oats.  Hmm, Spearmint was right, we were running low on a lot of things.  

Shutting the pantry door and with container in mouth, I turned back to the counter beside the stove and sat it down.  After filling the pan with water from the tap (and making sure it didn’t click with a pass of my Pipbuck), I sat it atop the stove to boil.  It didn’t take long, the stove was quite good at getting things hot, as I’d found out a number of times before.  Adding a good bit of dry oats to the water, I replaced the lid on top of the container and waited for the mixture to finish.  Oatmeal, the breakfast of champions... and lazy stallions.  Still, mom had fixed it often enough for Ebony and me, and she’d always spiced it up with some cinnamon.

While the oats soaked up the boiling water, I returned the plastic container to the pantry and retrieved a couple of bowls, cups, and spoons from elsewhere in the kitchen.  As I sat the pieces out onto the small kitchen table, I was reminded of how ramshackled life on the surface was.  One bowl was yellow, the other pink (Sugar had of course claimed that for herself), both were faded with years of being exposed to the elements.  Some pony had likely found them in the ruins of the city, or somewhere else out in the wasteland.  The cups were two different sizes, one made of glass and the other blue plastic with flowers.  The glass cup had a small crack running down the inside, but not all the way through.  I wondered if it had been caused by a megaspell blast or simply poor handling.  Even the silverware was mismatched.  Still, it was better that it worked than it looked pretty.  I suppose if it bothered me that much I could have always gotten a set we’d brought from the Stable.  

Celestia knows everypony was insistent on letting me get first pick on anything in short supply we’d brought with us from there.  They all seemed to think they owed me for saving their friends and family, but I’d turned them down in favor of giving those things to ponies who could actually use it.  Well... ‘almost’ everything...  

After retrieving a small shaker of cinnamon from the top shelf of the pantry, I began scooping out the finished oatmeal into the bowls and carrying them over to the small kitchen table.  With the table set, I then set about getting my morning coffee ready, filling the pot with water and rummaging around the cabinets until I found the packets of instant coffee.  Seems there’d been a whole warehouse of the stuff found outside the walled sections of the city.  Thank the goddesses for small favors.  

Stopping to get the last bit of milk from the fridge, I trotted back out into the living room and towards the still sleeping form of my niece.  Somehow, in the space of time it took me to fix breakfast, the little filly had gotten herself all wrapped up in the blankets and had her hooves and tail spread out in every direction.  Her head was even hanging off the edge of the couch.

“Tiny... Tiny, it’s time to wake up,” I called out, gently unwrapping the end of the blanket from around her right hind leg.  The filly twitched and mumbled in her sleep.  My ears perked towards her, but missed whatever it was she’d said.  As the last hoof was extracted from the cover, I sat my niece up and gently poked her in the belly with my nose.  “Come on, Sugar, it’s time to get up.”

“Uncle... Shadow?” came a reply to the poke as she laid back on her side and yawned before opening one bright golden eye to look about the room.  It stopped its slow scan when it landed on me, the other opening a bit to join the first at looking up at me.  A moment later, a wide smile spread across her face.  “Good morning, Uncle Shadow!” she chirped happily as she sat up on the couch, rubbing her eyes with her fore hooves before letting loose a massive yawn.  

I chuckled and waited a few more minutes for her to wake up fully before reaching down to snag the scruff of her neck in my teeth.  Lifting her up from the couch, I deposited one yawning and giggling filly onto my back.  She promptly flopped over onto her side and stretched out as I carried her back towards the kitchen.  As we neared the door, she leaned back and lifted her muzzle into the air.  Sniffing and sitting back up on my back, her ears perked up right and she blinked.

“Did you fix breakfast without me, Uncle Shadow?” 

“Yes, Tiny I did.  But you didn’t miss anything, there was no fire this time.”  We stepped into the kitchen, the bowls of oatmeal still steaming.

“Awww....”  Pouting, she folded her forelegs over her chest and slumped on my back.  I chuckled and trotted on over to the kitchen table, pulling out a chair so that she could get down. “But I like helping you cook.”

“I know, Tiny, but you can help me fix dinner since Spearmint’s busy tonight.” I turned towards the chair and, with a hop, my niece dropped down from my back onto the dark green seat of the chair.  Placing her fore hooves upon the table, she reared up and peered up at her bowl of oats.  Ah, I almost forgot, the chairs in the kitchen were shorter than the dining room.  Looking to the wall beside the window, I trotted over and retrieved a sturdy plastic box for just such a situation.

“Aunt Spearmint’s busy?” she asked, cocking her head to the side before turning around to watch me bring her makeshift booster seat over to her.  Scooting back, she waited until I’d placed it on the edge of her seat before hopping on and allowing me to slide it fully in place.

“Yes she is, she’s normally so busy with work and taking care of me.”  To this, Sugar giggled as I expected.  She was actually more busy with my niece, but I didn’t want her thinking she was a bother to anypony.  “And doesn’t have a lot of time to herself.  She’s made plans to go out with a friend tonight.”  In truth, it was a bit more of a date than going out with a friend.  

The kind hearted unicorn had meet the stallion at the market a week ago while shopping with Sugar Pie.  He was a local and, according to Wendy, cute.  I’d take her word on it.  I was happy for Spearmint.  She’d found herself a nice pony, and I’d hoped he’d make her happy if things turned serious.  However, it was a bit soon to be thinking that way.  At least I thought so... Wendy and Tassles seemed to think otherwise. 

“Out with a friend?  Why can’t we go with them?” Sugar asked as her horn sparked to life.  In a glow of light pink, the cinnamon floated slowly over towards her from across the table.  I watched, a bit worriedly, as the shaker jerked and dipped a few times in midair threatening to spill the rare spice across the floor.  Finally, it lowered closer to the table and she added a fair amount to her breakfast.

“Well, she already spends so much time over here with us that she doesn’t get a lot of time with her other friends...” I began, trotting back towards the kitchen counter and the coffee maker.  It was still making a pot, so I simply switched out a mug for the half full pot.  As it finished filling, I replaced the pot and turned back to find Sugar once more with her head cocked to the side and looking at me.  Oh... I know that look... it was a look Ebony got whenever she figured something out I was trying to hide...

“She wants to spend time with her other friend alone...”  Her ears twitched a bit as she thought about it.  A second later, her smile grew once more and she looked up from her bowl to me.  “Aunt Spearmint’s got a coltfriend!” she giggled and clapped her forehooves together happily.  I stumbled a bit on my return to the table.

“I suppose so...” I answered, not really wanting to get into that subject with my young niece.  “Who told you about coltfriends?” I asked, walking back to the table carefully with my mug of coffee.  It was still quite hot after all.

“Aunt Wild did!” came the answer.

Of course she did...

Wildfire.

“It must be that nice pony she met at the market!  He’s really nice and gave me a few oranges for being a good filly!” I snorted softly.  My niece would like anypony who gave her free food.  She continued talking about the stallion as I sipped my coffee.  “He seemed kinda shy though.  Oh... oh... I bet after dinner they're going to go home and ‘do it’!  Aunt Wild never said what that means, but she said it’d make you feel better, Uncle Shadow.  Maybe you should go join them.”

…

“Are you okay, Uncle Shadow?  Was your coffee bad?  I’ve never seen you spit it out all over the place before!  Oh!  Are we dancing now?  Yay!!”

Coffee was even hotter when it was sucked down the wrong pipe, my lungs were less than happy.  

Also, it tended to burn a lot when you spilled a mug of it on your crotch.

You are so dead, Wild...



*     *     *     *     *



After breakfast was finished and after explaining to Tiny that we weren't to use ‘do it’ in conversation, I managed to corral my now fueled bundle of energy into the bathroom.  Getting her cleaned up resulted in me taking a second bath, since my small pink niece seemed intent on splashing me quite often.  A fact not helped when I returned the favor.  In truth, I needed to clean up again anyway, seeing how my hind quarters smelled like coffee and I really didn’t feel like trying to explain that.  With the bathroom cleaned up of spilled water, my niece took it upon herself to comb my mane and tail.  Luckily, I managed to convince her that neither needed to be braided.  As we trotted out of the bathroom, I sent her off for a couple pieces of paper and a pencil from a small table near the front door.

With my assistant following closely behind me, we set about making a list of things we would need for the month.  Starting in the bathroom, we worked our way through the apartment looking in closets, cabinets, and the refrigerator.  As I called out something we needed, my niece would scribble it across the paper, her horn glowing brightly as she worked.  Of course to ensure it was legible, I helped spell out a number of things for her.  While there were a few cleaning supplies, personal items, and general everyday things on the list, a good deal of it was food.  Despite Tiny’s best efforts otherwise, there were only a small number of sweets on the list.  Once the list was finished, I checked to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything, and I erased the notes on why we needed four dozen cupcakes from the bottom of the paper.  Gently, I rolled it up and shoved it into my saddlebags.    

Opening the door to the apartment, I turned to the sound of small galloping hooves and smirked.  Tiny was rounding the corner of the hallway to our rooms and skidded a bit across the hardwood floor.  Spinning around a few times, she came to a halt when her slide brought her into contact with the dining room table.  Both table and filly scooted another inch over before coming to a stop.  Shaking her head to clear her vision and regain her balance, Tiny ran up to me.  Her own saddlebags bounced against her sides as she jumped out into the hallway with a happy little giggle.  Smirking, I took ahold of the door and closed it, making sure to lock it before we set off.  As I passed my niece, I ruffled up her mane and chuckled at the long drawn out complaint that followed.

“Uncle Shhhhaadddoooww!”  A small, pink hoof swatted at my own as I headed for the stairs. 

After taking the first few steps down, I heard a shout and the scurrying of hooves before my niece landed upon my back in a flurry of pink and laughter.  Luckily, I’d expected the move, and had already braced myself for the assault.  My hooves spaced a bit on the steps to take the sudden increase in weight (as little as she was.)  As she got comfortable between my saddlebags, I merely snorted and continued on my way down the steps.  Unsurprisingly, we saw little sign of the other inhabitants of our building in the stairwell.  Most either were still asleep or simply relaxing in their homes.  Tassles had already left for her own job earlier most likely, though she’d be getting off around noon to enjoy her holiday weekend.  Wendy and her foal were both likely still sleeping.

Reaching the ground floor, we made our way through the silent lobby and out through the front doors.  As we set hoof out into the street, we found even it was almost deserted save for a couple of ponies.  They appeared to be heading off to do some shopping, judging by the looks of their empty saddlebags.  Looking around, I noticed something odd about the day.  It was brighter than any other I’d seen since coming to the surface.  Glancing skyward, I saw the thick grey cloud cover hanging over the city was a bit lighter today.  It was a sign that the storm last night had likely blown away some of the pegasi’s thick cover.  Seems not even the legendary weather controlling power of the pegasi could keep such a massive layer of clouds in place forever.  I suppose they’d get around to replacing it sooner or later, lest us muck ponies should see a bit of blue sky.  Ah well, enjoy it while we can.

“So, where to first, Tiny?” I asked, as I turned to start trotting down the sidewalk.  I nodded to Mr. and Mrs. Copper, an elderly couple that used to teach in the Stable’s school.  In fact, they’d taught Ebony and me when we’d been foals.  They smiled and nodded in return as they passed me.

“The candy store!” Came the cheerful response from my niece, followed by a giggle as I groaned.

“Don’t you think you’re going to get enough candy this weekend, Tiny?”

“Enough candy?  There’s never such a thing, Uncle Shadow!!”  My niece sounded shocked that I’d said such a thing and I snorted.

“Celestia forbid...” I smirked and started to suggest we start our shopping at the general store when a voice called out from just ahead.  I came to a halt as I realized there was a pony a few steps ahead of us.

“Come on, Harvestgold... I’m sorry, but somepony has to check in on the crops...”  It was Green Hoof, sitting on the sidewalk with his head tilted back towards the apartment building that stood beside my own.  I followed the green earth pony’s gaze up the brick and mortar eight story building to it’s fourth floor.  A window was opened and a yellow coated mare was sticking her head out, looking down to the sidewalk and the stallion.

“It was supposed to be your day off, Green!  It’s our anniversary today.  Or have you forgotten... again!” Harvest yelled back down to her husband, orange eyes narrowed.  Harvest was a well liked mare back in the Stable, and even here.  She had a way with plants, just like Green Hoof, and it was this that brought them together.  Both had helped me immensely when I’d first discovered my special talent.  Green Hoof had showed me everything he knew about plants and how to care for them, and Harvest had encouraged me to take up the role of Stable gardener.

Over the years, however, things had become more difficult for the two.  Running the Stable Orchard did not leave them a lot of  time to themselves.  A sudden change to the Orchard could spell disaster for the entire Stable.  One broken light, one flare up of some plant disease, one faulty water pipe and we would have been facing food shortages.  Both had wanted children.  I think working with me as a young colt had made them see that.  Sadly, neither had had the time to work on having them.

Recently, I’d overheard Harvest and Tassles talking about foals while we’d been going to work.  The older mare had hoped she might finally have a chance to become a mother with the responsibilities of safeguarding a Stable full of ponies lifted from their shoulders.  Even after Green Hoof took the job at Green Acres Farm, it still seemed highly likely the middle-aged couple would get to have at least one foal.  But then Green Acres discovered just how much Green Hoof could offer...

“I know, Harvest, I’m only going to be gone an hour at most.  Once I’m finished, I’ll be heading straight home,” the unhappy stallion called back up to his wife, eyes hopeful that she’d calm down.  

“And then something else will come up and you’ll stay another hour... and then another hour!” she yelled back.  Before Green could even open his mouth, the window was slammed shut, seemingly ending their discussion completely.  

Green sighed and lowered his head back down to the pavement and his hooves, his shoulders slumping a bit.  Well... it could have gone worse... at least she didn’t throw a lamp at him this time.

“Wow... overreacting a bit, isn’t she?” I asked, trotting up to my friend and mentor, offering the stallion a smile.  He looked up from the sidewalk and arched a brow.

“Word of advice, Shadow... never, ever, ever say that to a mare.”  This drew a giggle from my back, and Green looked from me to the tiny bundle of pink as she sat up on her hind legs to look at him from over my head.

“Like... Duh!  Even I know that, Uncle Shadow!”

“Well, my lack of social skills with the opposite sex notwithstanding,” I responded with a roll to my eyes and a slight smile from Green, “Wasn’t somepony else supposed to go in this morning to check on the crops?  Why’d you suddenly have to go in?”

“Yes, Gensien was supposed to go in this morning, but her mother came down with a bad flu yesterday and she just found out before she left for the day.  She has nopony to watch her foals and her mother is going to have to be hospitalized for a few days...”

“So you volunteered,” I reasoned and the stallion nodded.

“Yeah, nopony else seemed interested in giving up their day off.  Even for an hour and for a good reason.”  He glanced back to the window where his wife had just been and sighed once more, shaking his head slowly.  “I didn’t think Harvest would take the news so badly.  Like I said, it’s just for an hour... but I suppose I’ve said something similar before.”

“She has to know you wouldn’t just run off on her unless it’s important.”

“She does, but she’s really been looking forward to finally starting a family, like we used to talk about when we first got married.”

“Yeah, I’ve come across a couple of the mares from the Stable and her talking about it.” I felt bad for him.  He’d given up a lot for the Stable, and now for the city.  Time that others normally got to spend with their families.  “I wish there was something I could do, Green.” I really wished there was, but Sugar had been looking forward to this weekend for a while.  While I had more time than I did running security, we still only got a few hours a day to spend with one another.

“You can help Mr. Hoof out, Uncle Shadow!” my niece said, scurrying up a bit further up my neck until she could lean over my head to look at me upside down. 

“I’m not sure, Sugar...” Green started to say.  He knew, as did most ponies from home, how much my niece meant to me.  Even more so after Ebony’s death.

“I am, Mr. Hoof.  He’s already wanting to help you out a bunch, I can tell!”  A pair of golden eyes shifted from my face to Green’s.  “I like going to where Uncle Shadow works anyway... I love playing in the tall green plants!” she giggled and wrapped her fore hooves around my jaw and hugged my snout to her face.  “We can go shopping afterwards anyway!”

Green looked from my niece to me, a slightly hopeful look in his eyes.  She was right, I did wanna help out my former mentor.  He’d taught me a lot and had given a lot for everypony in the Stable.  The grip on my snout loosened as Sugar leaned away from me, lowering her voice to whisper to the green earth pony.

“Besides... maybe I can convince Uncle Shadow we need more cupcakes before we go to the stores.”  The fact she was just a few inches from my ears had made her attempts at secrecy pointless.  

“Hmmhmm...” I snort and toss my head back slowly, feeling the pink ball of fur slide down my neck, giggling as she came to a stop beside my saddlebags.  “Still, she’s right.  I could go to the farm instead and check up on the crops.  An hour won’t matter much for our shopping,” I added before a thought popped into my head and I glanced back to my niece with a small smile.  “Although I suppose they could run out of cupcakes at the bakery if we wait too long...” the response was almost instantaneous.

“Run OUT of cupcakes?!  Can they do that??” Tiny sat bolt upright at that comment, eyes wide and blinking rapidly as she thought of such a thing happening.  Her mouth formed an ‘O’ as the full force of what I said came crashing down.  She brought her fore hooves up to her cheeks and fell back onto my saddlebags once again.  “The horror!  The horror!!”

“Well... if you’re sure it won’t cause a problem...” Green said with a chuckle at my niece’s antics who, after a few more seconds of twitching and muttering ‘the horror’, sat back up.

“I’m sure it isn’t a problem, Green.  After everything you’ve done for us, it’s the least I can do,” I answered, glancing back to my niece as she slumped on my back.  Snorting softly, I gave her a quick nuzzle to the side.  I earned a few giggles before turning back to my friend.  “Now, I think we’d better get going, lest somepony miss her chance at cupcakes.  Plus, you’ve got a wife to make up with... I believe Miss Blossom just down the street may have some spare flowers.”

“I think she does...” Green had already begun trotting on down the street as he spoke, waving a hoof back to us.

Quickly waving a goodbye, Green Hoof rushed off for flowers to help smooth things over with his wife while we continued on our way down the street.  Despite the time of day, there were still few ponies out and almost no wagons rumbling down the streets.  It made it much easier and faster to cross, so we made good time across the block and onto the next.  As we crossed the street, Doctor Kindheart’s clinic came into view.  Unlike yesterday morning however, there was no sign of Spirit Walker outside.  Instead, a young earth pony colt was attempting to do her job for her.

Dusty was doing his best to sweep off the couple of steps that led up to the front door of the building.  He was holding a broom tightly in his teeth.  The problem was that the broom was nearly as twice as tall as him, and he was forced to hold it about midway up the pole.  Unfortunately, he had to stand higher up off the ground, leaving his fore hooves to grip the broom tightly.  Still, he was making a good try of it... at least until he spotted Sugar Pie waving happily to him.

The young colt attempted to wave back, and lost his balance as the broom handle shifted in his mouth.  Flailing his fore hooves he stumbled down both steps and nearly face planted himself on the sidewalk.  Luckily, a bit of fancy hoof work and the broom kept that from happening.  Spitting the handle out, he wiped off his brow and waved once more to my niece as we trotted up.

“Heya, Dusty!  How’s it going?” the pink filly asked as she leaned over my back to look over at the colt.  For a moment, I wasn’t sure if he was going to answer her with me being there.  He’d hardly said a dozen words to me since he’d been hanging around Sugar, but he surprised me this morning.

“Mornin’ Sugar.  It’s goin’ well, Ah think.”  He had an accent similar to Stone’s and the tone of a young pony yet to his puberty.  “How are ya and Mr. Shadow today?”

“We’re on our way to Uncle Shadow’s work.  I’m gonna help him make sure nopony missed out on corn!”  She clapped her hooves excitedly and I chuckled.  Only Sugar could get excited about anything.

“Oh... so, are ya still goin’ Trick or Treatin’ with me?” 

“Of course!  I’d never dream of missing Trick or Treating with my bestest best pal!!”  The colt blushed and looked down to the sidewalk, kicking at the ground with a fore hoof.  “It’s gonna be a lotta fun!”

“So, what’re you up to this morning, Dusty?” I asked, causing the young pony to look back up from the ground.

“Ah’m just helpin’ Spirit with her chores this mornin’... her and Doc Kindheart are busy with a pony that came in last night with a bad case of somethin’.  They’re expectin’ a couple more in a few hours.”

“Spearmint said it’d likely be busy for them today,” I responded, looking back up the street.  “Well, we better let you get back to work.  It’s almost lunchtime and we still have a ways to go before we reach the farm.”

“Yeah, and the bakery might run outta cupcakes if we don’t hurry!”

“Right, and there’s that.  Tell Spirit and the others we said hello, Dusty,” I said as I turned to make my way down the street, my niece waving back to her friend.

“Ah will, Mr. Shadow,” the colt answered, picking the broom that had fallen beside him back up and getting ready to return to his own morning tasks.

“See ya tomorrow night, Dusty!”

“Looking forward to tomorrow night, Tiny?” I asked as we made our way along the sidewalk, passing a few ponies as they stepped outside to begin their late day.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be whole lotta fun!!  Plus there’s a whole bunch of new ponies to meet and get candy from!”  She giggled for a moment before going silent, causing me to blink.

“Tiny?”  For a moment she said nothing, until I felt her shift a bit and scoot closer to my neck, tiny pink hooves wrapping around me.

“I wish mommy was here with us...” It was said so softly, I almost missed it over the sound of my hooves clopping across the pavement.  I faltered a bit, but quickly pressed on, ears flicking down.

“I know, Tiny.  I do, too.”

Nightmare Night was a special day for our family, always had been.  It and Hearth’s Warming Eve would be the hardest for both Tiny and myself.  Ebony had always made such a big deal out of both, especially after having Sugar.  It would be the first year that she would not be there with us.  While we’d been doing better over the past two weeks, it was still going to be sometime before the pain fully passed.

Turning the corner of the street we’d been walking along, Green Acres Farm finally came into sight.  The twin massive warehouses were half hidden behind the fence that separated them from the rest of the block.  Like everywhere else, the streets here were largely deserted and I wasted no time in getting us to the gate.

While all the workers had been given the day off, a pony was still expected to be stationed at the guardpost just beside the gate.  Obviously making a job already dull and monotonous into an even longer one.  I was surprised to see who was stepping out of the small building beside it, a slender unicorn mare smiling towards Sugar and myself.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite pair of visitors,” Roseart called out in greeting, horn lighting up as she lifted the key ring from her side and began shoving one of the worn metal keys into the rusted padlock.  With a click, the lock opened and was gripped in the mare’s magic, sliding free and releasing the gate to open.

“Morning, Rose.  I’m surprised to see you here, I thought somepony else would be watching after this place today,” I said to the red unicorn.  She pushed the gate open, letting us trot past before following us in, shutting and locking the gate behind us.

“I could say the same of you.  I thought Green Hoof was supposed to fill in for Gensien this morning?” she asked as she hurried to catch up with us, light green eyes wandering from me to the filly on my back.

“He was, but we ran into him as we were heading for the market...” I began, but Rose quickly cut me off with a snort.  I arched my brow and glanced over to the mare as we neared the first building.

“Harvestgold was yelling at him again, I take it?” she noticed the surprised look on my face and smirked a bit.  “She’s stopped by a couple times to retrieve him when he’s forgotten the time.”

“Yes, he has a habit of losing track of everything while working on something.”  A habit that had helped Stable 45 a number of times over the years, and caused most of the problems for him and his wife.

“Not many working here stay as late as him.  Hell, even my own parents are out of here as soon as it's quitting time.”  Once more, a glowing set of keys floated out from the mare and slid into the lock on the door.  With a flick, the lock was undone and the door creaked open a bit.  “Though I think its more due to them running all over the city, trying to keep track of everything.” 

“I suppose I can relate.  I’d rather much rather deal with problems myself than have somepony else do them for me.” I followed the mare inside.  The room was mostly dark with the only light coming in through the windows that were scattered about the entrance room.  It was also silent, and a bit eerie if I was honest.  

“I think it has more to do with them being too cheap to hire ponies to manage the other farms for them.”  Rose chuckled softly, shutting the door behind us and locking it as well.  The mare shifted and flicked a hoof over the light switch beside the door.  At once, the room was filled with light, though the warm white glow did little to dispel the silence.

I took a few steps into the room before looking over my shoulder at the uncharacteristically silent filly laying on my back.  She had scooted closer to my neck during my talk with Roseart, and had her face hidden in my mane.  The white locks of hair practically swallowed the pink filly’s head up.  I sighed softly, the thought of her mother had darkened our happy little morning.  While I felt about the same as my niece did, I knew it would do neither of us any good to dwell on it.  Beside me, Roseart had noticed the silent filly as well and was looking at her worriedly.

“Here to help your uncle with the crops, Sugar?” she asked, a red hoof coming up to brush some of my mane away from Sugar’s face.  The little filly blinked up at the mare and turned her head away after staring at her for a minute.

“I guess...” came the muted response. 

“Well, I sure hope you can, Tiny.  I can’t do this all on my own after all.” I trotted slowly towards my locker, spinning the combination lock around a few times to open it.  The only response from my back was a sniffle and I flicked my ears to the sound.  Carefully as I could, I turned my head around and unbuckled my saddlebags from around my flanks.  Taking hold of them with my teeth as they slid off, I dropped them into the bottom of my locker.

With that done, I turned back around and gently clamped onto Sugar’s small bags and lifted her up off my back by them.  Four pink hooves and a limp, fluffy tail hung loosely in the air as I brought her down to the ground before me.  As I had with mine, I unlatched the bags from my niece and deposited them atop my own.

Meanwhile, Roseart had remained largely silent as I removed the saddlebags.  The mare eventually left us for a moment to go unlock the door into the hallway and remained beside it to give us some privacy.

“Now, is my assistant going to be able to help me with this?” I asked, nosing Sugar’s cheek gently.  The filly sniffed and glanced up at me.

“You really need my help?” she asked, ears turning up from their sad downcast state.  I smiled warmly and placed a hoof upon her back, pulling her closer to me.

“I sure do.  After all, there’s cupcakes on the line.”

“Okay, Uncle Shadow...”  A small smile appeared on her muzzle as she wiped a hoof over her golden eyes.

“That’s my girl... now, lets go get ready.”  Standing up, I started towards Roseart and the door beside her, lighter hoof steps following hurriedly behind me.  Roseart had her own responsibilities to see to, and left us at the door to the showers.  She would finish inspecting the second floor office, along with all the windows and doors of the building.  She’d then rejoin us in the ‘field’ and help where she could, mostly by keeping Sugar busy.

For her part, Sugar remained largely silent and withdrawn as we trotted into the shower room.  The only sound within the room was from our hoofsteps on the tiled floor.  I was a bit worried about her, since it’d been very hard to help her adjust to a life without her mother.  Likewise how I was having to adjust without having my twin sister.  In the end, it was only through the help of my friends that I was able to finally get Sugar to begin interacting again with those around her.  Going to school and making friends had helped as well.

After finishing our second shower of the day (and my third), we walked back out into the small hallway. In time, we made our way down to the double doors leading out into the main floor of the warehouse.  Stepping hoof out into the ‘field’, Sugar slowly began exploring the rows of pale green plants, being careful to mind her step as I asked her.  Step by step, she poked gingerly around clumps of dirt and fallen leaves.  As she went, my niece’s mood began to improve and when Roseart finally joined us once more and asked if we’d like to share our lunch with her, things got much better.  

The pair began to laugh and talk about anything that came to mind.  When the subject of colts came up, my niece declared them to all been gross.  ‘Cept for her Uncle Shadow and best friend Dusty.  And ncle Stonehoof and Brightblade.  And Cousin Ballfire... and... well, by the end of the list, it seemed only a few colts were actually gross.  

In the end, it took us almost two hours to fully inspect the two warehouses for any signs of problems.  Mostly due in part to chasing a giggling filly around the large open rooms and the parking lot outside.  By the time we began trotting back towards the gatehouse, we were all panting , sweaty and tired.  However, the pink lump laying across my back was smiling brightly and tiredly waving her hooves about and laughing with Rose who walked beside me.

“Thanks for the help, Rose.” I glanced back across my shoulder to Sugar, who was slowly sitting back up from being sprawled out across my back.

“No problem, Shadow.  I’ve seen a few friends have to go through what she did... it wasn’t easy for them either, but it gets better, in time,” the mare said, her horn glowing as the chain link gate slid slowly open on its squeaky wheels.  As I began to trot past her, Sugar hurriedly jumped up and hugged the unicorn mare around the neck, giving her a nuzzle on the cheek.

“Thanks for the fun games, Rosey!  It was a lotta fun!”

“You’re welcome, Sugar.  Maybe next time you come with your uncle to work, we’ll get another chance to play.” Rose returned the nuzzle and gently patted the filly on her back, before she leaned back up onto my back.

“I’d like that.”  Wide yellow eyes turned to look up at me, a pout on her lips.  “Can I, Uncle Shadow?  Huh?  Can I?”

“We’ll see, Tiny.  For now, we need to go get our shopping done before all the stores close.”  Smiling down to my niece, I looked back up to Rose and nodded my head.  “Thanks again, Rose.  See you at work on Monday?” I asked.

“Yep, same time as always I imagine,” she responded with a grin, horn glowing once more as she trotted back a few steps and closed the gate back, locking it in place.

Turning away from the mare’s retreating backside, we finally began our journey towards the Market District of the city.  Only a few hours behind schedule, of course.  Luckily though, there were a number of places we could buy the things we needed, and I doubted all of them would be closed.



*     *     *     *     *



By the time we arrived in the Market District, it was a little after two in the afternoon and a good many of the stalls and smaller shops had already closed for the day.  A couple of them were places where I’d normally buy my things from, but no matter.  Most of the larger stores were still open, if a bit busy with other last minute shoppers.  Ponies, zebras, donkeys, and griffons were coming and going all around us.  Their packs were stuffed with everything from common household items to special treats for tomorrow’s trick or treaters.  I was once more thankful Sugar was riding on my back.  In a crowd this size, she could have easily become lost.

“Alright, Tiny, you’re in charge of the list, so what’s first?” I asked over my shoulder as I stepped aside for a large stallion to pass us by.  I felt my pink passenger lean over my side and open the flap to my saddlebags, retrieving our shopping list in a soft pink glow of magic.

“Hmm... we need some more soap, shampoo, detug... detar... um, soap for clothes!”  A giggle followed the failed attempts and I chuckled as well. “And food of course.”  As she spoke, she scooted back up to my neck and peered around my head at the stores and shoppers.

“Well, we’ll save the food for last since a few items we need should be kept cold,” I answered as I scanned the storefronts along with my niece.  After a few seconds, I caught sight of a general store that Spearmint and I had gone to before to buy a few things when our usual shops were out.  It was run by a family of zebra, and their prices were quite low due to them making much of the things they sold themselves.  I’d been thinking of giving them more business, and it seems now I would get the chance.

“Aww... but what if they run outta cupcakes before we get to the bakery?” my pink filly asked, wrapping her tiny legs around my neck and hugging me.

“Then we’ll simply buy the items we need to make our own,” I answered with a chuckle, setting off for the corner store while trying to keep from bumping into anyone.

“Oh yeah...” the grip on my neck loosened as Tiny sat back on her rump.

Stepping into the store, I was not surprised to see it mostly empty, despite the amount of traffic that was out on the street.  Like I’d noticed before, zebra run stores tended to get less business, than say a griffon run store, with the pony population of San Ponsisco.  Still, there were a few other ponies inside the aged brick building, browsing the aisles or checking out near the register.

“Can I help you find anything?” a voice said from my right.  As I turned to look, I spotted Xenia, the daughter of the store’s owner.  She helped usually by welcoming customers into her parent’s store.  In addition, helping them if they needed something or thanking them as they left.  Like her family, she was a zebra, but looked and sounded more like a pony.  Most likely, that had to do with being born in the city.  Her family had escaped the land of their birth from what I’d managed to piece together.  Like Equestria, the Zebra’s Empire had been all but destroyed by balefire spells.  Xenia’s mother and father had wanted their first born to have a chance at more than just endless warfare and had come to Equestria to try and find it.

The striped mare lacked the thick accent of her parents, though she spoke both languages fluently.  She also lacked the mohawk that most zebras from their homeland wore.  Instead, her mane was cut short, coming to just half way down her neck.  It still had the familiar white and black stripes to it, though there was more white than black.  She did wear the gold neck and leg bands her mother wore, polished to a bright shine, and a pair of jade earrings that she’d told us had belonged to her grandmother.  While zebras called them something different, and it was hardly as colorful as a pony’s, her cutie mark was a smiling zebra with outstretched forelegs in welcome.  Fitting, given her name meant ‘welcoming’ in her native tongue.

“Nia!”  The weight on my back was suddenly gone as Sugar lept across the open space between us and hugged the smiling zebra mare.

“And a good afternoon to you, Sugar Pie,” Xenia, or ‘Nia’ as my niece called her, said to the pink filly happily hanging from her gold neckbands.  “It’s good to see you again.  Out helping your uncle with some shopping?”

“Yep!  Uncle Shadow would be totally lost without me helping him around!” my pink small guide said with a grin.  Black hooves reached up and lifted her from the mare's neck, sitting her down on the ground. “Are you ready for Nightmare Night tomorrow?  Huh?  Are ya??”  Fortunately, Tiny missed the sudden shift of the zebra’s eyes to her father near the back of the store.  Nor did she hear the unhappy snort and stomp of hooves that followed as the striped equine went into the back of the shop for something.

Ponies weren’t the only ones with long memories in the city.  While nearly all the zebras living within the walls of San Ponsisco had little issue with ponies, most, if not all, had a special dislike for Princess Luna and anything associated with her.  Such as Nightmare Night.  I was still a little unclear on the how’s and why’s of it, nor had I really asked any of them I’d met.  All I’d learned had come from a bookish unicorn mare we’d met a few days after arriving.  She worked for a organization called the ‘Integration Department’, funded and run by the government to help newcomers when they first settled in the city.  

The mare said that while it wasn’t an official rule, it was best not to mention Princess Luna in front of the zebras, or to try to get them to come to anything related to Nightmare Night.  It was something most older zebras, and those raised in their ways, disliked speaking of as a whole.  Still, she had said it wasn’t uncommon for a few more open-minded zebras to be seen out with friends on the Princess of the Night’s holiday. 

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to go tomorrow night, Sugar.  I have to help my parents with some things here at the store,” came Nia’s expected response to my niece’s question.  Of course, this resulted in a pout from Sugar whose golden eyes widened up at the mare.

“But... but... all the free candy you’re going to miss... and the games...” I could already see Nia’s resolve cracking.  No one was immune to my niece’s pout.

“I... I’m sure there’ll be plenty of candy on Hearth’s Warming Eve, and games to play,”  Xenia said as she attempted to ease Sugar’s unhappiness at the thought of someone not getting to enjoy Nightmare Night.  “I’m sure we’ll even get a chance to play a couple games together as well... and in the meantime...”  The young mare looked back to where her father had disappeared, then over to the counter where her mother and aunt were busy checking a customer out, before she looked back down to Sugar. “I’ve already got me some candy for Nightmare Night.”

With only us watching, Xenia turned and retrieved a small bag from behind a counter near the door.  It was a simple thing, no bigger than a money pouch, with draw strings at the top.  Pulling it open, she shook two pieces of candy from inside and hoofed them over towards Sugar whose eyes grew as wide as saucers at the sight.  

To Xenia or I, the candy was just that: candy.  Nothing special that you couldn’t buy from a few stores in the Market District, even her own.  Xenia’s mother and Aunt were both skilled alchemists and cooks, making everything from cold remedies, love potions, cough drops, hair regrowth tonics, dried fruits, herbs, and candy.

To Sugar Pie, however, these were simply no ordinary candies.  Oh no, these were special candies, meant for a special night that came only once a year.  Nightmare Night.  No other candy could taste as good, as sweet, or as sugary as Nightmare Night candy.  These were candies crafted by the goddesses themselves.  Or so my young niece thought... and so had I at her age.  I could still fondly remember my father sneaking Ebony and I a few treats from mom’s kitchen.

The filly’s horn sparked to life and the two wrapped candies floated from the zebra’s hoof towards Sugar’s wide yellow eyes.  A smile replaced the frown that had been forming just seconds ago.  Then she blinked and looked back around the shop, as if expecting somepony to be staring at her... or rather her special treats.  With a sudden flare of her horn, one of the candies floated up to me, while the other was unwrapped... more or less.  It took her several tries, but she eventually got the small square piece of chocolate free of its paper wrapper and into her mouth.  Seeing her reaction, I chuckled softly and offered her back the candy she’d given me.

“Well, I hope you know what you’re in for,” I began, as my niece happily took the candy I offered back to her.  In a flurry of wrappers, hooves, and magic, the candy was freed and tossed into her mouth.  “Sugar on a sugar rush isn’t a pretty picture.”

“It wasn’t THAT bad Uncle Shadow!” Sugar got out between chews.  By the smell of it, the candy was chocolate filled with maple.  “I helped clean all the soap bubbles out of the Atrium...” this earned a confused look from Xenia to which I simply explained.

“Ponies were sliding around the place for weeks afterwards... and I swear anything on the tables tasted like dishwater...” Sugar giggled and blushed a bit.

“Well, I think we will survive a couple pieces of candy.”  The striped mare’s eyes went from my niece to me, a smile forming on her snout.  “Now, as nice as this is, I believe you stopped by for more than just a chat.”

“Yep!” Sugar stood back up and retrieved the list she’d dropped in her hurry to hug Xenia and floated it up to the mare.  “Uncle Shadow put off grocery shopping again!”

“Oh... did he now?” Xenia arched a brow as her green eyes scanned over the list, seeking the items that we could easily find in her store.

“Work’s been really busy... it just slipped my mind...”

“Well, lucky for you, we still have just about everything on your list in stock... though I believe we are out of unscented shampoos... and why do you need three pounds of taffy?”

“Sugar...” My eyes dropped to my sheepish looking niece.

“Um... it’s for your birthday?”




*     *     *     *     *



In less than ten minutes, Xenia helped us gather the items we needed from around the store.  A good thing, too, for there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the system her father used to display his goods.  She mentioned her mother and aunt were working on fixing that tomorrow, hence why she was going to be busy for the holiday, though I still doubted her parents would approve of her celebrating it anyway.  Both had been raised in the ‘old ways’, as Xenia put it.

Bringing the basket to the counter, we quickly got checked out by her mother, Nefrit.  The older mare was not as vocal as her daughter or sister, but she was still far friendlier than her husband.  She was dressed similarly to her daughter, with gold neck bands and leg bands, a tradition of her tribe.  Like her daughter, her cutie mark was a mix of black and white stripes forming a picture.  Her’s was of a mortar and pestle, tools used by those working with herbs, minerals, and other ingredients to make potions and the like.  I’d found out during my first visit to her store that it was a skill all the mares in her family had been taught.

The total came to around sixty caps, a reasonable amount for what we’d gotten.  All the items were naturally made from local ingredients and made by hoof here in the store.  Still, it was cheaper than buying the same type of items in the other stores.  Those were made en masse by ponies all across the Confederacy and, while still cheap, cost a few caps more in price.

“My, my, aren’t you a big helper?” Nefrit chuckled softly as my niece pulled the items into one side of my saddlebags with horn and hoof.  Sugar beamed up to the older zebra and dropped a couple bars of soap into the bag.

“Yep!  Somepony’s gotta take care of my Uncle Shadow!” was her response, as she pulled my money pouch from the other bag and dropped it on the counter before me.  I snorted softly to my niece and began retrieving the caps from inside.

Nefrit flashed the filly a smile before reaching below the counter for something.  Placing her hoof back atop the counter, she slid it over towards Sugar and lifted the black tipped limb up.  Below were two more wrapped pieces of candy.

“If I am not mistaken, my daughter has already shared a couple with you.  Have two more, for being so good.”  There was the expected giggle as the candies floated up from the counter and away from my field of vision.

“Thank you, Mrs. Nefee!”  This was followed by the expected leaping hug, which the older mare thankfully knew was coming.  Laughing, she hugged my niece before sitting her back atop the counter, where she climbed back atop my back.

“Your niece is a treasure, Mr Shadow.  I have met no other with a heart so pure,” Nefrit remarked as she slid the caps from the countertop and dumped them into the till of the register.

“She is at that,” I answered, glancing across my shoulder as Sugar tucked her two newest pieces of candy into her saddlebag.  Feeling eyes upon her, she looked up and over towards Nefrit and I, giggling a bit as she took her place between my saddlebags.

“Well, if you need anything else, don’t hesitate to stop by again,” Xenia hurriedly said as the sound of another customer entering the store reached her ears.  The striped equine turned and went off to greet the newcomer, leaving Sugar and I to say our goodbyes to her mother before stepping out.

The streets of the Market District were beginning to thin out a bit as everyone began finishing their shopping.  It was still packed, but at least now there were open paths between the stores and stalls.

“Hopefully there’s still some milk and eggs left...” I began to say before I heard something from further down the street.  My ears twitched and I turned my head towards it.  It’d sounded like somepony yelling...

“Shadow!!”

The shout had also caught Tiny’s attention.  The little filly was standing up on my back, ears perked towards the source of the noise, but like me she was having no better luck.  The crowd had closed in around us from that direction.  Unlike me, she had a answer for that problem.  Small pink hooves began pulling the unicorn filly up my neck with practiced ease.  I stopped my looking and instead focused upon where the last shout had come from as Sugar climbed atop my head.  Sitting down between my ears, she began scanning the crowd for whoever had shouted for me.  After a few seconds of looking, the filly lifted a hoof up to point at something, or rather someone, I couldn’t see.

“It’s cousin Ballfire!” she said excitedly, hopping up and down on my head and completely ignoring my suggestion to calm down.  I winced at every jump, having gone a whole two weeks without any blunt force trauma to my skull... it’d been a good two weeks for my head.

When the excited filly finally stopped bouncing upon my head, I turned towards the direction she’d been pointing and noticed a gap beginning to open up in the crowd.  Through the narrow open space walked a familiar looking green unicorn, a smile on his snout as he spotted Sugar and I standing near the store front.  

Speaking to the ponies around him, he quickly made his way towards us.  I noticed he was wearing the olive green uniform of the C.S.E. army.  He must have gotten in last night sometime, or else earlier this morning if he’d had time to change out of his combat armor and weapons.  Well, most of his weapons.  The twin revolvers bounced against his chest as he trotted, in perfect shape as always.  I noticed he still wore the cowpony hat he’d taken from Buford’s head, tilted slightly to the side at what I’m sure he thought was a jaunty angle.  Following close behind, came somepony else who I’d mistaken for simply another pony in the crowd.  However, as the rest of the crowd parted around them, it quickly became apparent she was actually following him.  

She was a bright yellow, slender-shaped mare.  Her coat was far more bright a color than any I’d ever seen before on a pony.  Even though I’d never seen it before, it made me think of sunlight.  She had a long, rich purple mane, tied back along her neck in a ponytail by a number of light blue bands.  As she looked from the crowd over to Sugar and I, I blinked.  Her eyes were the most beautiful turquoise blue I’d ever seen.  It became even more apparent she was with Balefire when I noticed the similar uniform she wore.  It looked far better on her, than on him.  Unlike the unicorn, she did not appear to be carrying weapons.  As the pair broke free of the crowd, I noticed something else about her: a pair of bright yellow feathered wings were tucked closely to her sides.  She was a pegasus.    

As they came closer, I could also make out more details about their uniforms.  I noticed the C.S.E. patch upon both shoulders of their shirts.  The twin alicorn princesses surrounded by a number of stars for every Stable in the Confederacy.  Balefire had yellow corporal stripes upon his left sleeve, where the mare had none.  Instead, she had a single silver bar on her collar, marking her out as a First Lieutenant.  I arched a brow, wondering just who this mare was.  I noticed both wore a unit patch on their right shoulder, just below the C.S.E. patch.  A red circle with a pair of assault rifles crossed over one another, over which a pony skull sat.  Upon the skull was a combat helmet in desert camo pattern, and written above it was, ‘1st Rangers’ on a scroll.  Another scroll near the bottom read, ‘Paving the Way for Harmony, in Blood.’

So, it’d seem Balefire hadn’t been overstating his role in the army.  Rangers were among the toughest of ponies in the Equestrian Army, and I imagined the Confederate equivalent would be no less rugged.  Beyond taking on the role of pathfinders and forward scouts, the Rangers also worked deep behind enemy lines, often on missions to kill enemy officers or destroy targets too well defended for a larger force to assault.  This was according to the books and films I’d seen, and not all of them were made up.  I was just about to step forward and greet the pair, when my niece decided she’d much rather do it for me.

“Pretty winged pony lady!!” she happily shouted, right into my ear as she once more began jumping up and down on my head.  A second later she was hurrying down my neck, almost falling off my back as she slid down.  I quickly turned my head around to steady her before she could go face first onto the pavement.  This, of course, resulted in my face being used once more as a step, only this time to reach the ground more quickly.

When pink hooves struck the sidewalk, she rushed towards the yellow pegasus in a fit of giggles.  The mare stopped her advance and was smiling down towards my niece as she approached, before standing suddenly still and shooting a salute to the pink filly.   

Sugar skidded to a halt before the mare, almost tumbling over as she lost her hoofing.  As she righted herself, she stood up straight, thrusting her chest out and returned the salute as best a small filly can.  She managed to stay still for all of a minute, a new record for her before she dropped her foreleg and tackle hugged the mare’s front leg in a fit of giggles.

“Hey there, Junior Ranger,” the mare greeted the hugging filly with a warm smile and a pat on her head with her free hoof.  “How have you been doing?” she asked when Sugar finally released her.

“I’ve been doing great!  Uncle Shadow had me go to the school here and it’s a lotta fun!  I made me some friends and beat up some bullies, just like my Uncle Shadow does!” Tiny smiled happily up at the mare, waving her fore hooves around to emphasize a few points in her story.  Meanwhile, Balefire had come to a stop beside the pair and sat down, putting a pout on his face as he looked down to Sugar.

“Wha... doesn’t cousin Ballfire get some love, squirt?” the green buck asked.  In a blink of an eye, Sugar launched herself from where she’d been sitting in front of the mare and was now firmly wrapped about the stallion’s front limb in a ‘crushing’ Sugar Pie hug.  “Celestia’s shiny plot, Squirt, that grip’s gotten stronger since the last one I got!”  Balefire arched a brow and narrowed his red eyes on the filly. “You been working out?”  At which Sugar merely giggled.

“Ballfire, hmm?” the yellow pegasus asked, looking over to the unicorn with a widening grin.  The mare’s ears swiveled towards me as I began trotting after my little filly, her head turning to regard me as I settled down nearby.  I waved a limb over to Balefire and my niece.

“Better watch out, Balefire.  She’s had candy today.”  The unicorn stallion simply chuckled and ruffled Sugar’s mane with a fore hoof before letting her go.

“So, you must be ‘Uncle Shadow’, the pony my brother’s been talking about so much these past few weeks,” the pegasus said, arching a yellow brow over a bright blue-green eye.  She began to look me over more closely and I shifted a bit on my hooves at the scrutiny.  I felt like I was suddenly a rookie security pony, under the harsh eye of Twist.  After a few more seconds of staring, she finally sat back on her haunches and opened her mouth to speak.  “Not much to look at, are you?  I was expecting a pony taller than my brother... according to the stories I’d been hearing anyway.”

“Sorry to disappoint, I’m no super pony and some of those stories have gotten blown out of proportion,” I said back.  The comment had caught me a bit off guard to be honest.  I mean, how was one supposed to react to that?  It seemed to do the trick, as she looked from me to Balefire.  The stallion freed his hoof from my niece so he could walk over beside us, Sugar giggling as she skipped around him. 

“Shadow, I’d like you to meet my sister, Sunburst.”  He waved a hoof to the yellow mare.  So, this was his sister?  The one he’d spoken of a couple times while we’d been traveling.  The daughter of the president was an officer in the army?  Balefire continued the introductions as I mulled this information over.  “Sunny, this is Shadow.  The pony who not only saved my flanks, but those of all those civilians from and around Tombstone and Kanter City.”

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet the pony who saved my little brother from those raiders.” Sunburst offered me a hoof in greeting, which I took.  She had a surprisingly strong grip for such a slender mare.  “I take it you’ve given up the hero game?”

“Nice to meet you, Sunburst.  Balefire has had nothing but good things to say about you.” I smiled to the mare as I lowered my hoof back to the pavement.  She snorted softly to that, eyeing her brother for a moment.  “And yes, I’ve hung up my guns... I have a niece to raise now, and there’s nothing left for me beyond these walls.” Sugar skipped happily around us as we spoke, finally coming to a halt between Sunny and I.

“Oh!  Uncle Shadow!  Maybe Cousin Ballfire and the pretty winged pony lady can come with us to finish shopping?” the pink bundle of joy asked me, golden eyes going from Sunny to me.

“I think both Balefire and Sunburst have more important things to do than helping us shop, Tiny.  Besides, Balefire’s going trick or treating with us tomorrow, remember?” I answered my niece with a chuckle, nuzzling her cheek when she pouted at the answer.

“Actually, we just got back into the city this morning and have nothing planned for the moment,” Sunburst spoke up, having seen the pout and, like everypony else who comes across it, was powerless against its effects.  “Besides, I wouldn’t mind hearing more about my brother going trick or treating again.”  She flashed Balefire a grin and started trotting forward, Sugar bouncing along beside her and telling her about ideas she had for Balefire’s costume.

“I’ll never hear the end of this tonight,” Balefire said from beside me, as he watched them trot off ahead of us.  He quickly chuckled, however, and started to fall into step as I followed them, “How have you been, boss?”

“Balefire, how many times do I have to tell you, don’t call me ‘boss’.” I snorted softly as we made our way through the crowd.  “I’m nopony’s boss.  And I’ve been alright, taking it one day at a time.”

“Good to hear.”  We walked in silence for a few moments as Sunburst and Sugar spoke ahead of us.  The pegasus allowed my niece to jump up onto her back and settle in between her wings.  “How have things been going for the others from your stable?” he asked finally as we turned a corner and ‘Mrs. B’s Corner Market’ came into view.

“They’re adjusting,” I answered, “It’s easier on some than others.”  Mostly those who hadn’t lost anypony on the journey here, or in Kanter City.  “Bright seems to be doing a bit better, though I haven’t spoken with him since he’d gathered up the surviving ponies from security.”

“Hmm... the wasteland has a way of changing ponies, mostly for the bad,” my dark green friend said as we walked through the front door of the grocery store.  Unlike the zebra run shop we’d left earlier, there were a larger number of ponies inside the brightly lit building.  The main floor of the store was divided up into aisles, where different food products could be found in cans, boxes, or bags.  However, there was more shelf space than there was things to fill them with.  At the front of the aisles where we’d came in were three registers, but only one was open.  The other two hadn’t worked since the building had been found and reopened by the elderly bovine, Mrs. Bloom.  However, she prefered to be called Mrs. B.  A pair of ponies worked inside the store for the kind hearted cow, stocking the shelves and running the register.

Ahead of us, Sugar was floating out her shopping list and directing Sunburst towards the aisles where the items we needed could be found.  Sugar had been here often enough with Spearmint or myself to have the entire thing memorized.  I smiled and simply let my little filly lead the way.

“The wasteland does change a pony.  I can vouch for that much,” I finally said, ears folding back as I thought of my journey through the hell that was Equestria.  We turned a corner in the store and stepped out of the path of an older mare and her three arguing foals.  “I’d seen things out there I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”  Nor should I.  

“It’s gotten worse out there.”  The unicorn stallion looked away from the mother and three foals, his own ears flicked to the side in sorrow.  I arched a brow to my friend, not recalling a time when I’d seen him like this.  Then again, I’d only known him a few weeks.

“Balefire?  Are you alright?” I asked finally, glancing back ahead to make sure Tiny was still in sight.

“Do you know why I left the city?” he asked instead, causing me to shrug my shoulders.

“Given your unit patch, and what I heard on the radio, I’d guess it had something to do with the returning army.” Rangers were known to be scouts for the larger army, finding paths and clearing the way for rest of the ponies behind them.  Balefire nodded his head, red eyes flicking back up to his sister as we walked.

“You're smarter than you look.”  A hint of a smile formed across his face and I snorted a bit.

“I have my moments.” I glanced from my niece to the unicorn. “Did something happen out there?”

“Our unit was sent to help guide the First Corps back to the city.  We were simply to ensure there were no surprises for them between there and here.  They were all tired, on their last legs, and low on just about everything.”  He held back a step, letting the girls get ahead of us and I slowed my walk to match him.  “On our way to them, we came across a number of caravans of ponies fleeing the east.  Some of them had been destroyed, but a few had survived and spoke of the increased raider attacks.  Whole settlements have been destroyed just beyond the Confederacy’s borders.”

“I’d heard a bit about it on the radio... I thought you’d said this sort of thing happened every so often.  Whenever the raiders’ numbers grow too large they start seeking out new places to sow their chaos.”

“I thought it was just that... but I’m just not so certain anymore.”  The stallion looked away from me, his red eyes focusing on his sister as she helped Sugar lift a gallon of milk from a working cooler.  “It was the same story, no matter who I spoke with.  Settlements miles apart, attacked by different bands of raiders.  All of them talked about how organized the raiders were that attacked them.  How they had weapons and machines nopony had ever seen before.  How they were being led by ponies in black armor, like that worn by Steel Rangers, yet adorned with spikes and body parts.  I don’t like it, Shadow... something’s building out there in the wasteland.” 

“Black armor?” I blinked, remembering what Tassles had told me about meeting the pony who led the raiders responsible for the attack on our Stable.  Responsible for the attack on a number of places all across the wasteland.  Her body guards wore Steel Ranger armor, painted black as night and decked out with spikes and the bloody trophies that raiders loved so much.  That there were more of them out there was unsettling... that they could be the same ones Tassles had seen in Kanter City was worrying.  The edge of the Confederate territory was hardly next door to Kanter City, but a fair distance away... perhaps a few hundred miles?  Maybe less. 

“Yeah, you heard of them before?”

“Tassles told me a little about them.  They were the personal guards for the mare calling all the shots in Kanter City,” I answered, ears folded back.  The mare who’d sent raiders to my Stable, and who’d been responsible for killing my sister.

“I had the misfortune of meeting them in Kanter City, not long after I was captured.  I’ve seen raiders in power armor before... it’s not exactly that uncommon really.” I nodded in response, I recalled seeing the big buck in the ruins of a hotel kitchen back in that damned city.  At the time, I thought his armor had been hardly whole, or even working. “They either recover it from Steel Rangers they somehow kill themselves, or from the bodies of those killed by something else.”

“They’re not exactly that common, Bale,” Sunburst called back from a few steps ahead of us.  The yellow mare turned to look at her brother while Sugar checked over the list.  “You’re more likely to see them using the Ranger’s battlesaddles than the armor itself.  Power armor is not exactly easy to destroy.  By the time you do, it’s almost always worthless unless you know how to fix it.  That’s not something raiders are known for... fixing things.”

“That’s what I was about to say...”  The green buck folded his ears back and glared at his sister who merely wing shrugged and returning to helping Sugar with whatever else we needed for the apartment.  “For there to be anymore than a hooffull running around is unheard of... and all in the same group?” Balefire shook his head.  “Hell, even the Super Mutants are gearing up for something.”

“The Super Mutants?  I thought you guys had them on the run or something?” I asked, taking my place in line with the others.  

“Barely,” the other stallion answered, “They’ve been getting help from somewhere; better weapons, better armor...” before he could say much else, he was cut off by his sister.

“Balefire!”  The mare whirled around on the unicorn, her ears laid back as she glared angrily at her brother.  She glanced to the other ponies around us, who’d looked up at her sudden outburst, before looking back to us and dropping her voice.  “That’s not something we’re supposed to be talking about!”

“Oh, stuff it, Sunny.  I’m not blabbing this to everypony on the street,” her brother shot back, his own ears laid back as he stared at his sister.  “Besides, I think they're going to notice when we start retreating from the mountains.”

“Father’s not going to let that happen... him or mom will figure something out before then...”  The mare sounded unsure of that, and it showed in her eyes as they dropped from her brother.

Any further argument was cut off by a bright pink filly standing up on Sunburst’s back and hugging the mare tightly around her neck, smiling towards Balefire and I.

“Silly willies!  Stop fighting with each other and pay the nice pony for the food so we can go get everypony cupcakes!” 

I looked from the siblings to the pony checker who was giving us all an odd look.  I then looked behind me at the line of ponies waiting to check out, some of them giving us similar looks to the checker.  A few just looked angry at being held up in line.  I smiled sheepishly and reached for my money pouch.

After paying for the groceries and placing them either in my saddlebags or in plastic bags the store provided for a small fee (you could at least reuse them), we walked along the sidewalks of the Market District in silence.  After a few minutes of trotting, the bakery came into sight and we made our way towards it.  Luckily they were still open, and still had a few cupcakes left to sell.  While it helped improve the mood of everypony around, the talk of Super Mutants and black armored raiders was left closed.  At least for the moment.

I was still thinking on it, even as Sugar got Sunburst and Balefire to talk about Nightmare Night.  As the sister and brother spoke with my niece, I munched on my slightly stale snack in silence.  

Was it really possible something was happening out there in the wasteland?  Carrion had said he’d found evidence that the raiders were uniting under a single banner, evidence that the local military did not believe.  As Balefire had told me, it wasn’t uncommon for large bands of raiders to pop up from time to time out there.  They were due for it, so this talk of large groups laying waste to settlements was expected.  It’d work itself out in time, as it had before.  

Or would it?

What if these bands of raiders was actually a single band.  United under a single pony, with one goal.  Hundreds of armed murderous cannibals assaulting one of the few cities still left standing in Equestria... 

I set the half eaten cupcake back down atop the table, finding myself suddenly not hungry.




*     *     *     *     *



Pushing the door open to our apartment, I made my way inside and allowed the door to swing shut behind us and latch itself.  With a flick of a switch, the overhead lighting kicked in and cast a dim, warm glow over the living room and the two tired ponies standing before the entrance.  As I turned to lock the door, a brief flash of lightning lit up the darkness beyond the kitchen window.  This was followed by a rumble of thunder as a storm moved into the city.  My ears twitched as the click of the lock slid home and I turned back to make my way towards the dining room table.  Once there, I set the plastic bags I’d been carrying in my mouth down atop it, thankful to get the odd taste of the handles out of my mouth.  I glanced back towards the doorway to the kitchen, as the sound of rain striking the kitchen window reached me.  Seems we’d gotten home just in time.
  
We’d left Sugar’s favorite sweet shop just an hour earlier, saying goodbye to Balefire and Sunburst before making our way to the final store on our list.  It’d been closed, so we’d had to backtrack to another store who luckily hadn’t yet sold out of fresh bread.  Turning away from the kitchen, I began reaching back for my saddlebags when I heard a soft murmur come from their direction.  I smirked and glanced across my shoulder to my niece, who was still happily sleeping upon my back just between the bulging saddlebags and my neck.  Right where I’d put her when she’d begun to lag behind a few blocks back.  It’d been a long day for us both, but the filly had worn herself out from all the excitement and running around she’d done.  Her back rose and fell with every breath and a slight smile was on her lips as she slept peacefully.

Careful not to disturb the bundle of pink fur, I unbuckled my saddlebags and gently sat them upon the floor beside the table.  I winced as the weight of the stuffed bags caused the floor to groan.  I’d have to see about fixing that loose board sometime.  As I pulled away from them, I noticed the flaps barely remained closed on my packs.  No surprise from the things we’d bought today, which included three dozen cupcakes.  I made sure they were still safe and unmashed, before smirking.  I couldn’t say no to those wide golden eyes and that pouty lip... sue me.  I looked back to my niece and chuckled softly before heading towards her room.  I’d put the groceries away after getting her to bed.

Rain drummed against the filly’s bedroom window as I pushed open the door and trotted inside.  I left the light off, as there was plenty of light coming in through the open door from the living room.  Careful of any toys laying about the floor, I made my way over towards the left side wall and her overly large bed.  At least overly large for her age, she’d grow into it.

Pulling the covers of the bed back with my teeth, I turned and gently lifted my niece off my back with a hoof and nose, before getting both fore hooves under her.  I slid her onto the sheets, resting her head upon the pillows.  Another soft murmur escaped her as she wrapped her forelegs around her stuffed purple pony and snuggled her close.  The smile she’d been wearing widened a bit before she drifted back to sleep.  Pulling the covers back up around her, I brushed a stray lock of mane from her face.  I smiled back to my sleeping filly, but now that I was alone, my thoughts once more drifted to what Balefire had been telling me, and what I’d been thinking of myself.

Was San Ponsisco really as safe as I thought it was?  As everypony else said it was?

I glanced up to the curtain covered window as a flash of lighting outside lit up the darkening city.  The dim light from Hope Tower was being washed out by the steadily increasing downpour.  The weather outside seemed to be mirroring my worsening mood and I shook my head, running a hoof through my slightly damp mane.

Maybe the city wasn’t as safe as I’d thought, but it was better than being cornered in an underground death trap should the raiders return.  It was still safer than anywhere else in the world.  There was no point in dwelling on things you had no control over, on things that were not certain.

Stepping away from my niece’s bed, I made my way back towards her bedroom door and the hallway beyond.  I took one last look inside at Sugar’s happily sleeping form, and quietly shut the door.

Tomorrow was our holiday, and I wouldn’t let it be ruined by dour thoughts of raiders and what the future might hold.  Those things could wait at least one more day to trouble me.  I just wanted tomorrow to go off perfectly for Sugar.



*     *     *     *     *



Nightmare Night.

It was finally here.  Outside the apartment, dozens of parents rushed off with excited foals to begin their trick or treating before the big city wide party in one of the reclaimed parks.  The morning and afternoon was spent getting the last pieces of my costume ready while Spearmint helped Sugar with hers.  The filly still refused to tell me what she was going as, and had made me promise to stay in my room while she got ready.  I had chuckled to that, wondering if this was how her teenage years would be.

As for me, my costume was hardly amazing and was in fact quite simple.  I’d simply not had the heart to do much this year, given that Ebony and I had spent every last Nightmare Night planning our costumes together.  Even after we’d both grown up.  Sometimes I wondered if I’d even have bothered to go at all, if it wasn’t for Tiny.

I glanced over to myself in a floor length mirror Spearmint had found in the apartment somewhere and had put in my room so I’d not need to use the bathroom mirror.  I was dressed in a simple black shirt, with a red stripe down either sleeve, it was a bit similar to my old Stable Jumpsuit, though the colors were different, as was the position of the stripes... hmm, maybe it wasn’t that similar after all.  Beside the red stripe, the only other decoration was a letter and number where my old suit would have had my name, along with a red triangle sitting on its side.  Both letter and number were in white and were simply, ‘N7’.

I smirked at the logo in the mirror.  It was a special forces unit in the ‘Magic Effect’ book series I was reading to Sugar Pie, a series I had been read to as a foal.  Having nearly finished the first of the trilogy of books to my niece, I’d quickly found myself remembering bits and pieces of Commander Shepard’s adventures.  Almost to the point that I’d already finished reading the first book, and was starting the second.

Beside the black top, I’d affixed a piece of orange plastic to my Pipbuck to match what the Omni tool was in the book.  It worked in a lot of ways to the Pipbuck, only it could form a blade out of thin air that the Commander could use to impale her enemies’ heads... something I’d likely have to reword when it came time for that part of the story for Sugar.

I was adjusting the plastic blade when a knock sounded from my door and I mumbled ‘come in’ as I worked the piece back into place with my mouth and free hoof.  As the door was opened, I glanced up and saw Spearmint poke her head inside to look for me.  A smile appeared on her face as she finally spotted me in the corner of the room.

“Having trouble?” she asked, trotting on inside my room.  The medical pony was dressed as a famous mare from early Equestrian history, judging by the flowing white robe she was currently wearing.  Though from when and where, I was unable to say.  More recent history was my thing.  The robe was trimmed in curving black lines along its edges.  Located where a pony’s cutiemark would be on their flank, was a very old symbol for medicine and medical ponies.  A pin crowned with feathered wings opened wide and on either side were two alicorns rearing up, with their horns touching the top of the pin.  Atop the mare’s mane was a crown of green laurels held in place by a fake gold ring and glass ruby.  I’d never seen her put so much effort into a dress, and I wondered if her coltfriend would be joining us tonight.   

“Stupid glue won’t hold...” I answered, hiding a smile at the thought of Spearmint dressing up for somepony.  I returned my focus to my own costume before finally getting the wobbly piece of plastic to stay in place long enough to let the glue dry.  “Sugar almost ready?” I asked, sitting my right fore leg back upon the hardwood floor.

“Almost, she has a couple more things to do before she’s ready to show you her costume, but you're free from house arrest.”  The green mare smirked at that and pushed the door open to my room, allowing a bit of a cool breeze to blow inside.  The storm last night had brought with it a fresh wave of heat, and I’d just discovered that my bedroom window didn’t exactly open.

“Hmm, it doesn’t normally take her this long to get ready for Nightmare Night.” I smirked as I started walking towards the door, careful not to shake my plastic Omni blade from my Pipbuck.  “Something to look forward to in a few years?” I asked as I passed Spearmint.  The mare laughed and followed me into the hallway.

“Perhaps... but as I recall, Ebony hardly spent much time on getting ready for anything.  Besides, I believe Sugar’s going to be taking a bit more after you.”

“You saying I primp?  I thought that’s what Bright used to do...”  We both chuckled and walked into the living room.

“How is he doing anyway?” she asked, before sitting down upon the couch to wait on my niece.

“I haven't spoken with him since the gathering at the Double Rainboom.  I think he’s avoiding me.” I’d been meaning to go check on him as soon as I had some time and, in fact, I’d started to his and Goldmane’s apartment earlier today.  Unfortunately, nopony was home. “Perhaps he’ll be at the party tonight.  I’ve never known Bright to turn down free booze or a chance to dance with Gold.”

“He took their deaths hard, Shadow... he thought he was letting both them and you down whenever we lost somepony.” Spearmint sighed softly and looked towards the kitchen and the window out into the city.

“I know... I suppose if it’d been me, I’d have done the same thing.” I had done the same thing.  With those I’d lost along the way to Kanter City, and again on the trip back to my niece.  However, this wasn’t the best subject to be talking about tonight.  This was to be Sugar Pie’s special night, her favorite holiday.  I wanted it to go well, and for her to enjoy herself as she had the few times we’d celebrated it as a family since she’d been born.  At this rate though, it seemed that same filly was going to be late for her own favorite night.

“Tiny!!  Are ya almost ready to go?  We still have to pick Dusty up from Doc Kindheart’s place!” I yelled down the hallway, checking my Pipbuck/Omni tool for the time.  We’d really have to hurry to make it over to Kindheart’s office if we didn’t want to be late.  I heard a muffled sound come from her room and looked back up towards her door, ears perking up a bit.  “What?”

“I can’t get this last piece on!” was the response, followed by a very un-Sugar Pie grunt of anger.

“Well, maybe I can help.”  Without thinking, I started towards her room, pushing it open as I stopped beside it.  What I saw inside made me freeze in place and my eyes go wide.  Sugar Pie sat in the center of her room.  While it was hardly ever clean, it was even more chaotic with the mess it was in now.  However, it wasn’t the scattered bits of cardboard, empty glue and paint bottles that had stopped me.  It was the pink filly and what she was wearing.

Over her tiny frame, she was wearing what appeared to be black combat armor, made from strips of cardboard and painted black.  It was held together by a mixture of glue, tape, and string.  Under this was a foal sized stable jumpsuit, blue trimmed in yellow.  Along her forelegs were split open paper towel tubes, painted as black as the armor.  Though upon her right foreleg was a smaller piece.  It was grey, with a green square across it.  A Pipbuck.  Around her neck, hanging from a piece of string, was a toy gun, home made by the looks of it.  The barrel was another towel roll, the drum a couple pieces of cardboard glued together.  There was even a cardboard stock and mouth grip.  She was also wearing her saddlebags over her flanks and a battered, old foal sized hat atop her head.  She looked like a short, pink version of me.

“Uncle Shadow!  I wasn’t ready to show you yet!” my tiny copy of myself shouted, tossing her forehooves into the air.  An empty glue bottle and bent paper star went flying and she folded her ears back in despair.  “I ran outta glue... the star won’t stay in place...”

I stepped around the leaking bottles of paint and glue, careful not to slip on anything.  As I made my way over to my niece, she slumped on the floor and folded her ‘armored’ forelegs across her chest as she pouted at the misbehaving paper star with it’s foalish written ‘Murshell’ across it.

“So this is the costume you’ve been working on in secret?” I asked, sitting down beside her.  While it was crude, and basic... it was good work for what she’d used to make it.  She nodded her head and kept staring at the floor.

“Yeah... I’ve been digging around for weeks finding everything I needed... but it’s ruined without the star...”

“Why’d you dress up at me?  I thought you wanted to dress up as your hero Commander Shepard this year?” I asked, placing a hoof under her chin and lifting her head up to look at me.  She wrapped her forelegs around my hoof and hugged it.

“You’re my hero, Uncle Shadow.”

I smiled down to my niece and wrapped her in a hug, feeling a few tears forming in my eyes.  I’d wondered sometimes if she’d have blamed me for not bring her mother back, but now I felt a bit silly for even thinking it.

“But it’s ruined... how can I be you if I don’t have a star?” she asked, voice muffled by pressing her face into my leg.

How indeed.

Leaning down, I pulled her up off the ground and placed her upon my back, careful not to tear her costume.  She blinked and cocked her head as I stood up and started trotting out of her room.  Instead of turning towards the living room, where Spearmint stood watching us, I walked down the hall to my room.  

The door was still open and I made my way over to the cabinet where all my gear had been stored.  Rearing up onto my hind legs, I searched around the dust covered cabinet top until I felt something metal brush my hoof.  Sliding it to the edge, I took ahold of the key in my mouth and dropped back to all fours.  I’d need to find a better hiding place for it later, but for now this was too important.  Pushing the key into place, I twisted and heard the lock click as it was opened. 

As I sat back on my haunches, I pulled the cabinet doors open and glanced over my weapons and armor briefly before finding what I was looking for.  A bit of silver sitting on a shelf near the bottom.  Sitting the key down beside it, I took ahold of the badge I’d found in Wastefall Gorge’s saloon and shut the doors.

Sugar Pie said nothing and simply watched from my back until I motioned for her to jump down.  As she did, I turned around and carefully pushed the pin from the badge through her cardboard armor and into the small blue stable jumpsuit she wore under it.  The material would hold it more securely than the ‘armor’ would after all.

“There.  Now you’re a proper lawpony,” I said, sitting back and admiring my hoofwork.  Tiny gazed down at her chest and the shiny silver badge pinned to it.

“Oh... thank you thank you thank you, Uncle Shadow!” she shouted with joy, once more hugging my fore hoof with her two smaller ones, grinning happily up at me.  “So... do you like my costume?” she asked.

“I love it.” I cleared my throat to avoid choking up before continuing, “Now, what do you say we go pick Dusty up and get to Trick or Treating, hmm?”

“Yay!  Free candy!”  She began tugging on my foreleg as she rose up, attempting to get me to stand.  

Chuckling, I stood up and began following her before stopping to glance over my shoulder at the slightly ajar cabinet door, and the black riot armor hanging up inside.  Shutting the bedroom light off, I turned and hurried after my filly, who was ready for her favorite night.

Leaving the apartment, the three of us made our way quickly down the stairs and out into the early evening.  The heat was beginning to fade, coming up off the pavement in almost visible waves in some places. The street lights were just starting to come on as the forever overcast sky darkened above.  Beyond a few puddles here or there, there was little trace of the storm from last night. 

 All around us, ponies were going to and from homes as they took their children out for trick or treating.  Most of the apartments on our block were dark.  A small number of adults had stayed behind on the steps or in the doorways of their buildings to hoof out candy to the foals skipping ahead of parents.  A half dozen fillies and colts rushed past us on the way to the neighboring building to knock rapidly on the door.  As the ponies inside opened the door, I heard the all too familiar lines of the holiday chant.

“Nightmare Night!  What a fright!  Give us something sweet to bite!!”

This, of course, was followed by gasps or awws from adults, depending on the costumes the foals were wearing.  Usually followed by hoofing candy into their bags.  The group would then scamper away, giggling and laughing as they rejoined their parents and went for the next home.

Though we were running a bit behind when we left home, we managed to make up most of it by quickly working our way through the busy streets towards the clinic.  As we rounded the corner, we spotted the large form of Spirit Walker giving out treats to a large group of children.  All of them jumping up and down around the buffalo.  Standing beside her was a small brown colt, attempting to hide from the other foals.

At first it was hard to make out what the young colt was dressed up as, but as the swarm of brightly colored and costumed children began to thin out, I could better make out his costume.  He was dressed up as one of the royal guards that had once protected the Princesses.  Like Sugar, his armor was made of cardboard and a few bits of plastic that had been painted yellow and trimmed in red.  His head was covered in what looked like a hoofball helmet with a brush glued to the top of it.  To complete it, he had a slightly crooked plastic spear sitting beside him.  As we got closer, his eyes brightened upon seeing Sugar.

“Sugar!  I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me...” he trailed off as my niece ran up and hugged him, lifting him completely off the ground.

“I’d never forget my bestest best friend!” she practically screamed into the colt’s ear, before sitting him down.  “Ooooo, I love your costume!  Its sooo cool!” the earth pony colt blushed and kicked at the ground with a hoof.

“He worked on it for the past week,” Spirit said, looking from her ward to the armored filly, her smile widening.  “And who are you, Sugar Pie?” she asked, eyes shifting from my niece to me.

“I’m Uncle Shadow!  Wasteland Marshall!” she said, proudly thrusting her tiny chest out to rub a hoof over the silver badge.  “I’m gonna bring all them bad ponies to justice!”

“Well then, I imagine you will be needing some energy to do all that.” Spirit reached into a small bag hanging around her neck and withdrew a number of sweets.  She dropped them into the plastic candy bag that my niece was carrying in her mouth and then some into Dusty’s bag.  The pair grinned and thanked the buffalo before Sugar began tugging on her friend.

“Come on!  We got like a buzillion more houses to go too!”  The young colt waved to his caretaker and was pulled away by the hyper pink filly as Spirit watched him go.

We quickly said our goodbyes and hurried to keep up with the excited pair of foals.  I had a feeling my niece’s estimate on the number of homes we’d be getting dragged to was correct.



*     *     *     *     *



We made a very thorough circuit of our block, hitting any building that even remotely looked like they might be giving out candy.  Sugar seemed to have the nose for sniffing out chocolate and sugar coated sweets.  After twenty minutes of walking, we began making our way out of our neighborhood,  Before we’d made it a dozen steps, however, somepony called out for us to wait.

Looking back, I saw a darkly dressed stallion rushing over towards us.  At first I didn’t recognize the pony, due to his costume.  His face was painted to make him look pale and he had a pair of fake fangs in his mouth that hung down over his lower lip.  A black tattered cloak fluttered behind him as he galloped towards us and he seemed to be wearing a suit beneath it.  It wasn’t until he got closer that, what I’d mistaken for contacts, was in fact his natural eye color and I caught hints of dark green fur under his outfit.

“Hey guys... sorry I’m late, had to finish a bit of paperwork for my slavedriver of a sister,” Balefire said, slightly out of breath from having ran across the block to catch up with us. “Hey, nice costume, squirt!” he called out to Sugar Pie as she hugged him.

“Thanks, Ballfire!  I worked extra hard on this one for Uncle Shadow... and look he let me borrow his shiny star!”  She tapped her hoof against the marshall badge upon her ‘armored’ chest, grinning proudly.

“I see... well that just makes it look all the more real!” the unicorn turned vampire said, before greeting Spearmint and Dusty. 

Once everypony was ready, we set off once more.  Walking slowly along the street, we passed by numerous foals running this way and that, laughing all the while.  It was really a wonderful holiday for them and I smiled over to the two skipping ahead of us.  After another four homes, I looked to Balefire and his costume.

“I didn’t expect you to go for one of the classics, Balefire,” I commented.  Vampires were one of the most common outfits for Nightmare Night; right up there with ghosts, clowns, Daring Doo, and the Princesses.  I’d half expected him to go dressed as a pimp given his way with mares.  I guess that wasn’t really fair to him though, there was more to him than just trying to get under the tails of mares.

“I wanted to try something new this year,” he said to me as Sugar and Dusty ran up to a couple of adults on the street corner.  A number of ponies in the nearby buildings had gathered under one of the street lamps to give out candy to all the foals rather than forcing them to go up to several buildings one at a time.

“The suit looks good on you, Balefire.  Is it your’s?” Spearmint asked, keeping a careful eye on our foals as they jumped up and down while awaiting their turn for treats.

“Yes, actually.  Mom got it for me after I graduated from school.”  He chuckled at Sugar as she began talking excitedly to the foals around her,  “I don’t often wear it though.  Not exactly practical out in the wasteland.”

“Come on, Sugar, we don’t want to be late for the party later!” Spearmint said as she noticed my niece spending more time talking with the other foals.  The green unicorn mare trotted over to collect her and Dusty as it was her turn to do so.  I had to practically drag the filly away from a mare giving away cupcakes to the children a few houses down.  The sugary treat had quickly disappeared in the filly’s mouth, and I think it’d already begun to affect her.  As Spearmint collected the two foals, Balefire leaned in near me to whisper.

“As for the costume, I don’t often go for vampires, but there’s a book series all the mares are reading lately about vampires.  One of the wastelanders found it out in a library beyond the wall.  Apparently it’s a bit of a turn on for them.”  He grinned and winked once before leaning back up as Spearmint trotted over to us.

Of course it is...

We spent the next hour and a half being taken from one end of the city to the other.  Well, perhaps not that much, but it seemed close to it.  Finally, with both foals’ saddlebags overflowing with treats, we parted ways with my fanged friend.  

Seems his unit was having a party nearby with a couple of squads of new recruits.  His sister was supposed to meet him there, and they were going to check up on their training (and in Balefire’s case, check up on any female recruits).  He’d promised his sister and friends to catch up with them later after he’d spent a bit of time with Sugar.  He may be a ladies’ stallion, but he kept his promises and he really cared for Sugar.  But then, I don’t think anypony who’d met her didn’t love the little scamp.

 We began making our way from the rows of apartment buildings and homes to a part of town I’d not often been to: the Woodland District.  It was hardly deserving of the name after a hundred and fifty years of radiation and neglect.  Most of the trees that had once lined the streets were little more than stumps, and most of those had been pulled up for firewood or for the few scraps of wood they could recover.  The homes here were large things, some covering more than twice the space a single normal home would.  These had been the homes of the rich and famous of San Ponsisco.  A few had been burned to the ground, likely during the chaos of the final hours of the city.  Those that survived were currently in use.  They were homes for important ponies in the government, and all were behind fences or walls, watched over by hired guards.

These homes, while fancy and impressive looking even after all these years, were not the reason we’d come here.  It was for the party being held in the center of the district, a city wide party, and it sounded as if everyone in the city had showed up.

By the time we arrived at Park Square, the festivities were in full swing.  A number of booths had been set up around the edges of what had once been one of the city’s public parks.  Everything from bobbing for apples to ball tossing was open for anypony willing to spend a couple caps and the skill to win one of the prizes hanging behind the counters.  A number of ponies were already trying their luck and, judging by the number of shouts, more than a few were winning.

Near the center of the park, a space had been cleared off for ponies to dance, dressed in their costumes.  Ghouls, vampires, wereponies, and any number of other types of creatures were happily trotting about with their partners.  At the front of dancers was a small stage, where a pony was busy playing music over a set of mismatched speakers.  Thankfully the sound was good, and I’d heard the music from a block away.

Between the dancers and the booths, other ponies were simply standing around in groups.  Most were speaking to one another, sharing drinks and food as they enjoyed one another's company.  I was happy to see that beside the brightly colored coats half hidden behind costumes were a number of striped equines, as well as a few griffons.  Looking closer, I noticed that some of the ‘monsters’ were actually ghouls, dressed up to look a bit more spooky.  A few even appeared to be dressed up as normal ponies.

Between Spearmint and myself, Sugar and Dusty were twisting this way and that, trying to take everything in all at once.  Small pink and brown hooves stomped across the hard packed earth as they darted between our legs to see what this sound was or that bright flash.  I chuckled, happy to see my niece so relaxed and enjoying herself.  I’d been worrying she’d miss her mother so much that she’d not be able to enjoy herself.  After all, Nightmare Night was a special night for our family, something we had celebrated since I was a tiny colt.

“Take it easy you two, otherwise you're going to end up spilling your bags of treats and you’ll not have enough to give Nightmare Moon her share,” I called out as the duo hopped up and down in front of a game booth.  As expected, that stopped them and Dusty hurriedly checked his bag of candy hanging off his side.

“Oh gosh, I almost forgot!” the little colt said as he insured the strap on his bag was secure.  “I don’t wanna run outta candy before we give Nightmare Moon her share.”  He glanced worriedly towards the sky.

“Yeah, otherwise she’ll gobble ya up and I won’t have anypony to play with!” Sugar exclaimed, golden eyes wide in alarm as she too checked her bag, then made sure Dusty’s was good.

“You don’t think she’s gonna come early, do you?” Dusty asked, swallowing hard as he edged closer to Tiny.  His eyes darted about at the shadows surrounding us, his crooked plastic spear shaking as he held it in his hoof.  

“Nah, Uncle Shadow said she can only get out of the moon at midnight,” she answered with a smile before once more looking around the brightly lit booths.  After checking out a couple, she stopped and stared at one.  “Uncle Shadow!  Uncle Shadow!  Lookit, lookit!”  The little pink filly bounced away from Dusty’s side, causing the colt to yelp and fall to the ground.

I smirked and helped him back up onto his hooves before we all followed after the skipping pink pony whose path was about to collide with a ball toss game booth.  The mare standing behind the counter grinned at my neice as she drew near and gave the rest of us a nod.

“Well hey there, cutie, wanna try your luck?” the mare asked.  Sugar attempted to jump up onto the countertop, failing twice before catching the edge with her forelegs.  Her tail and hind legs wiggled about as she struggled to pull herself up.  

Before she lost her grip and hurt herself, I lowered my head down and gently nudged my niece up fully onto the counter.  The pink filly rolled once before she came to a halt with a happy giggle.  Beside me, Dusty rose up onto his hind legs to look over the counter at Sugar and the prizes hanging up at the back of the booth.  Spearmint trotted to a stop just behind me.

“Yep!  I’m gonna win me that big stuffed pegasus pony there!” A small pink hoof pointed up at said prize: a bright yellow plush pony with wings folded out.  Like most stuffed animals, it had a bright smile on its snout.  It also appeared in good shape which surprised me.  So many things I’d seen throughout the wasteland were hoof me downs, like Sugar’s purple unicorn.  The mare working the booth perhaps saw my look and spoke up.

“You're not seeing things, it hasn’t been salvaged from some kid’s room out in the city.  It’s brand new!  My family has been making toys here ever since we came out of our Stable.” I looked away from the toy to the mare.  She was a light orange unicorn with a turquoise mane and tail, both smooth and long.  Her cutie mark was a teddy bear and red ball with yellow stars.  Still wearing the same smile she’d had since we arrived, the mare turned her attention to my niece who was still excitedly waiting upon the counter.  “Now... I believe somepony wishes a try.”

“Oh!  Oh!  Me!  Me!  I wanna try!  I do!” Sugar said, lifting one hoof in the air and waving it about wildly even though nopony else was waiting in line beside us.

“Alright, cutie, that’ll be one cap for three tries.” the mare said with a chuckle at the foal’s antics. 

Sugar blinked and cocked her head a bit at this news before she turned and rummaged in her candy bag, pulling out goodies she’d gotten from trick or treating.  Sticking out her tongue, she continued to rummage about.  Her upper half all but disappeared inside the plastic bag.  I arched a brow and peered up over her wiggling tail, getting hit by a few pieces of hard candy as she tossed them out in her search.

Shaking my head as one fairly large piece struck me right between the eyes, I snorted and clamped onto my niece’s curly tail and pulled the filly out of her bag.  Her face was smeared with chocolate and sugar.  Upon seeing me, she offered me a sheepish smile as she swung back and forth by her tail.  She pointed a small hoof to her candy bag.

“I had to make room so I could look for caps...” 

“Uh huh,” I said calmly, placing my fore hooves upon the countertop so I could more easily sit my niece back down atop it.  With her tail free of my mouth, she sat down atop the counter and gave me a pitiful look with huge gold eyes and pouty lip.  Agh!

“Uncle Shadow... can I pwease have a cap?”

With a sigh, I shook my head and looked away from the filly with the heart melting pouty lip.  It could no doubt drive raiders to renounce their life of bloodshed and force radscorpions to stinging themselves.  Tugging the flap open to my saddlebags, I reached inside to find my money pouch.  After only a second of rummaging, I found it and gripped the strings in my teeth, pulling it and my head back out.  Sitting back on my haunches, I opened the bag and withdrew a single cap which I slid towards the mare.  She took it and began dropping rubber balls atop the counter.  I was just about to drop the pouch back into my packs when Tiny waved her hooves frantically.

“I wanna pay for it!” she said, folding her fore legs across her chest.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, looking back to the mare who simply arched a brow at the scene.  I reached a hoof over and slid the cap I’d just given her back to me, before sliding it over to Tiny who sat beside me.  With a giggle, the filly picked it up in her mouth and held it out to the mare to take.

“Here ya go!” she said around the cap, which the mare took and dropped back where it’d been.  She smiled down at the filly who reached out to pick up one of the balls... which was almost as big as her hoof.  I could already see how this was going to end and leaned up against the counter.

“Go for it, Sugar!” Dusty yelled excitedly as he continued to stand up on his hind legs.  His helmet was pushed back from his face and almost fell off before he scrambled to keep it in place.

With a determined look on her still candy smeared face, Sugar took a few steps back on her hind legs while her front held onto the ball.  Slowly, she lifted it up over her head to throw it.  Only it slid through her small hooves and dropped to the ground... by way of Dusty’s head.  The helmet he’d just been adjusting bounced off his head and landed on the ground, followed by the colt a second later. 

“Ow!” the colt yelped as he fell back, rubbing his head with a hoof.

“Dusty!  You made me miss!” Tiny said with a huff, peering over the counter top at the colt

“Sorry...” he said, ears drooped as he rolled back onto his hooves, grabbing for his slightly dented hoofball helmet.

“Now I only got two more tries.” 

“Sugar, would you like your Uncle to try for you?” Spearmint asked as she stepped up to the other side of my niece.

“No!  I can do this on my own!  I’m a big pony now.”  She turned back to the two remaining balls and reached out to lift the nearest one up with her hoof and magic this time.  The red rubber ball glowed a soft pink in her magical grip as she eyed the pyramid of blue cups at the back of the booth.  Sticking her tongue out, she took a hopping jump forward and tossed the ball with all her physical and magical might.  And what a throw it was... going all of half a foot as she face planted into the countertop. “Okay... maybe Uncle Shadow can have a try...” she replied, her voice slightly muffled.

“Alright, Tiny.” I smirked and helped her back up onto her rump and reached a hoof out for the last ball, giving it a couple tosses into the air.  As I got a feel for its weight, my eyes fixed on the blue cups.  Oddly, it felt like I was about to attempt some desperate shot, like the grenade I tossed into the mouth of that radioactive gecko back near Crossroads.  This was just a game, not life or death.  Besides, this shouldn’t be too hard, it didn’t seem like a difficult throw.  Though I had a feeling those cups were far from hollow and if I missed, oh well, I could always try again.  A single cap was hardly going to break us.

“No using S.A.T.S.” the mare called out, noticing my Pipbuck.

I simply nodded my head and began to pull back my hoof to toss the ball when I noticed Tiny sitting nearby.  The filly was leaning forward on the counter.  Her ears were perked up right, eyes wide and tail swishing back and forth excitedly as she waited for me to make my throw.  Hmm... perhaps not life or death... but I wasn’t about to let Tiny down... not after she came dressed as her ‘hero’.

I drew back my hoof for real this time and tossed the ball as hard as I could.  The faded rubber sphere sailed through the warm night air, spinning slowly as it closed the distance to its target.  Tiny gasped and went still and I heard Dusty urging the ball onwards.  With a crack of rubber meeting plastic, the ball struck the tower of blue cups dead center and sent them tumbling to the booth’s floor to roll about wildly.  I grinned slowly as I lowered my hoof back down to the ground, letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.  Hmm, not bad...  

Beside me, Sugar reared up on her hind legs and cheered loudly, drawing the attention of a few nearby ponies as they trotted past and a laugh from the mare in charge of the booth.  Dusty waved a single fore hoof in the air, a wide smile on his snout as bounced around as best he could.  Even Spearmint clapped her fore hooves at the sight, a wide smile on her lips as she watched the excited foals in front of her.  I simply looked to the side at Sugar and grinned, giving my tiny counterpart a wink which earned me a hug from the pink filly.

“Well that was a good throw there, mister, now would you like to claim your prize?” the mare asked once the foals had settled down and I was free of a pink mini me.  I nodded my head once before pointing over to Sugar who’d settled back atop the counter.  At once, a pink hoof shot out to point towards the yellow stuffed toy pegasus, which was nearly as large as her.  The mare grinned and nodded her head.  “Good choice, my mother made that this past spring.” Stretching her body out to reach the top shelf, the mare picked the toy up by her teeth and placed it before Sugar.

With wide gold eyes, the filly threw her front limbs around it and gave it a might squeeze.  A fit of giggles followed as the sizeable toy toppled over onto Tiny, nearly sending both to the ground before I lifted a hoof to stabilize them.  Deciding to not take another chance, I lifted the pair down from the counter and back beside my hooves as I thanked the mare.  A muffled shout from below cut off whatever she was about to say, muffled due to the owner’s face being buried in bright yellow fluff.

“IT’S SO FLUFFY!!!”

As the four of us stepped away from the booth and back onto the path through the park, I looked over at my niece and smiled.  Any fears I had that she wouldn’t enjoy herself this year seemed baseless, and I was thankful.  Meanwhile, Dusty came up to Sugar, grinning happily at his friend and her new toy.

“That sure is a swell stuffed pony, Sugar.”

“Yep!  Miss Sparkles will finally have a friend.”  Golden eyes blinked as she looked past her friend and around the park before she gasped, “Come on, Dusty!  Lets go see what else Uncle Shadow can win for us tonight!”  She tossed the stuffed pony across her back where it rested against her saddlebags.  Snagging her candy bag from the ground in her mouth, she proceeded to scamper off towards the nearest game, a small brown colt in tow laughing along with his friend.

“Oh my... you’ve created a monster,” Spearmint said as she hurried past to keep up with the pair.  I chuckled, shaking my head.

Somehow, I got the feeling it was going to be a long night until it was time to give ‘Nightmare Moon’ her share of the candy followed up by bedtime.  A shout from ahead snapped me out of my thoughts and I perked my ears towards a booth with toy guns loaded with darts that Sugar was climbing onto a stool to play.  Actually, I doubted I’d get much sleep tonight.

And so that’s how the rest of the night went.  Going from one booth to another, playing games until the dynamic duo got hungry (again) and we stopped to grab something to eat.  Luckily it wasn’t completely coated in sugar so there was a slim chance I might actually get a bit of rest tonight.  Very slim.  After a few more games, and a couple photos taken so we could remember our first Nightmare Night on the surface, it was time for the candy sacrifice to the Princess of the Night which would be held at one end of the park.  The end with the fewest working lights, which I had a feeling was intentional for the festivities.

Somepony had made a rather convincing statue of the Mare in the Moon.  Whether it’d been before or after the war I wasn’t sure, but it was in remarkably good shape in either case.  It stood about twice as tall as an average pony, about the height of one of the Princesses in fact.  the mare was posed to appear standing over her subjects/victims awaiting their offering of candy.

Foals lined up to dump a bit of candy out before the scary statue, most doing so hurriedly as the few still standing dead trees in the park swayed in the breeze.  The creaking branches added to the mood and caused more than a few fillies and colts gave out startled yelps at the unexpected noise.  I expected Sugar to ask me to go with her, but she said she was a big pony and big ponies like me weren’t scared of anything.  I smirked and stood back with the parents and guardians as their foals went up.  

When it was Sugar’s turn, I was surprised to see the tiny pink filly escorting Dusty towards the statue.  The colt looking nervously up at the dark statue as the pair approached it, his teeth all but cutting through the strap of his candy bag.  His ears were laid back and tail tucked between his legs.  For her part, Sugar put on a brave face, though I could see a slight shake in her tail and ears as she got closer to the sharp toothed mare.  I saw her say something to Dusty, but over the noise of the gathered ponies I wasn’t sure what it’d been.  

Whatever it was seemed to calm the colt as he sat his candy bag down on the ground to toss some of the hard won loot out before the statue’s hooves.  Meanwhile, much to my amusement, Sugar had taken her ‘combat shotgun’ into her mouth and was standing guard over her friend as he finished and picked his bag back up.  Sugar’s horn sparked to life as the ‘weapon’ floated from her mouth to her side and she dumped a bit of candy on the growing pile.

With the deed done, the pair hurriedly made their way back towards us, giving the statue a couple of quick glances to ensure it wasn’t attempting to gobble them up while their backs were turned.  The first one back was Sugar who threw her hooves around my leg and giggled, if a bit tiredly, followed by Dusty who was dragging his tail along the dirt.

“Well, now that all the important business is finished for the night, I think it’s time for all good little foals to get back home and get to bed.”  Of course, this was met with the expected comments.

“Aww... but Uncle Shadow... do I have too?  I’m not even...” Her complaint was cut off as she yawned and blinked her yellow eyes a couple times. “... tired.  There’s still so much to do!”

Spearmint chuckled and shook her head as she went over and picked the near sleeping colt up off his hooves and placed him upon her back.  Despite the late hour, and his half closed eyes, the young pony held onto his candy bag with a death grip.  I looked back to Sugar and her pleading eyes before an idea came to me.

“Well, of course you can, Tiny... after all, you're a big pony now.”  She clapped her hooves excitedly and hugged my leg once more while Spearmint arched a brow towards me.  I winked to the unicorn and lowered my head down towards Sugar, lowering my voice to a whisper that the old green mare could still hear.  “But Dusty looks like he’s had it, he’s not as old as you are you know.”  The pink filly’s ears twitched and she looked back over to the colt who appeared nearly asleep.

“Yeah... he does look...” Another yawn. “...pretty tired.”

“Now, I still need to talk with Brightblade tonight before I head home, but Spearmint’s gotta take Dusty home.  While the city’s safe enough during the day, I’d hate to see a single mare and foal get robbed by somepony on their way home.” Sugar’s eyes got real big at this and she nodded her head quickly.  Seeing I had her attention, I went in for the kill. “I’d want somepony I can trust to walk them both home, keep them safe.”

“Oh!  I can do it, Uncle Shadow!” the filly yelled excitedly, fumbling with her cardboard shotgun for a moment before shouldering it and giving me a salute.  “Officer Pie ready to escort the civilians home!”

I managed to hide my smirk and hold the laughter in as I sat down on my rump and returned the salute.

“Very good, Officer Pie, see to it they both get home safely.  I’ll expect a full report when I get home.”

“Yes, sir!” she answered in her best serious voice before grabbing my leg in a hug once more and turning to Spearmint and Dusty. “Alright citizens, nothing to see here, let’s move along.”

“Of... of course, Officer, lead the way,” Spearmint said between giggles and holding a hoof to her mouth to try and hide the smile she was wearing.

With Sugar Pie in the lead, her ‘combat shotgun’ sweeping the shadows for any suspected muggers, Spearmint took the tired foals back down the street for home.  No doubt Dusty would be sound asleep by the time they got to Doctor Kindheart’s place, and Sugar would likely be dragging her ‘weapon’ the last few steps to the apartment building.

I chuckled and turned away from the three to scan the still sizeable crowd around me.  While it was indeed getting late, a little past midnight, most still seemed in the mood to enjoy the night with friends and family.  A good deal many were wearing army uniforms in place of costumes due to the lateness of their return to the city.  However, I didn’t see the one pony I was looking for.

Bright and I hadn’t spoken much since the gathering at the Double Rainboom, and I was a little worried.  While we’d left on better terms than we had the first time we talked about me ‘giving up’, it was still unusual for the large red stallion to not spend a few hours chatting with me.  At least, it had been before our journey across the wasteland.

After searching the park, I moved out into the nearby streets where a number of small parties had begun.  Dancing, drinking happy ponies and zebras were everywhere around me and, for the most part, ignoring one another's differences.  As I trotted between them, I noticed a bit more adult oriented entertainment set up in the darker corners of the street, along with the alleyways.

Finally after another thirty minutes of searching, I decided to just give up and head on home.  It’d just be easier to wait until the morning and head over to their building across the street.  It wasn’t as if he lived half way across the city.  I was just beginning to turn around when a strange light caught my attention.  Turning back, I noticed the almost black light was swaying from a dark colored tent set up at the end of the street I was on.

The rough canvas tent had been dyed a dark blue color, almost black, and had a number of silver stars sewn onto its surface.  Beside the stars, there was also different images of the moon with all its different phases carefully displayed between the stars.  The swaying black light seemed to cause the silver images to glow in darkness and, as it swung back towards what appeared the front, it also lit up a sign hanging above the entrance.

Madame Pinkie Pie.

I arched a brow at the name and took a few steps towards the tent, noticing as I got closer that there didn’t appear to be anypony else around.  Still, my curiosity was peaked and I called out to whoever maybe inside.

“Um, hello?  Anypony home?” 

“Please, come in,” a voice called out from within the tent.  It was a mare’s and seemed familiar somehow.  

Taking a few more steps closer, I lifted a foreleg and pushed the flaps of the entrance way aside as I ducked my head and trotted inside.  As I scanned the dark interior for the owner of the voice I had heard, I saw that it looked similarly inside as it had on the outside.  

Those same silver stars and moons were sewn onto the gently swaying walls and a dark tattered purple carpet had been thrown over the pavement of the street.  A round table sat in the center of the open space, a tablet cloth with a lighter shade of blue than the tent covering it.  Upon that, rested a crystal ball of all things.  It sat snugly atop a red pillow and reflected the images of two ponies inside it.  The first was myself, the lights from beyond the tent flap outlining me in the orb.  The other was sitting just opposite of me, half hidden in the shadows.

I recognized the striped equine at once, Second Sight’s almond shaped blue eyes sparkled in the rainbow colored lighting reflecting off the crystal ball.  As they had been during our first meeting, her eyes were fixed on me.  Her mane was tucked neatly under a dark purple hat, tassels swaying gently in the breeze from the open tent flap.  The zony’s dark cloak had been replaced by a dark blue and black robe with those same stars on them, which I found odd.  Zebras distrusted anything having to do with the night sky, a fact I’d discovered while speaking with some of the shop owners.  It had also been a reason why we’d gone to war when Luna became the leader, beside the coal and gems.

“Come in hero of the light and dark, of your future we must remark.”  She waved a hoof towards a red velvet seat cushion near the table, a match for the one she herself was resting upon, her tail wrapped about her flanks.

I arched a brow at her, but remained standing where I was.

“I don’t think we have anything to discuss, at least not about my future.  I already know what my future holds, I don’t need some fortune teller to tell me.  I’m going to raise my niece here in this city and I’m going to continue to grow food for the rest of my life.  Maybe someday I’ll even manage to start a farm somewhere nearby.  If I’m lucky, I’ll even have a couple foals of my own.  Grow old and die a happy pony.” I turned to leave, but her next words froze me to the ground.

“I wouldn't be so sure, my friend. Your story has not reached its true end.  These events you have already begun, when your sister’s end was done.  A hard thing for anypony to do, especially for one so close to you.”

“How do you know about my sister?” I all but growled out, turning my head back towards the strange mare as my ears swiveled back against my skull.  

I’d never told anypony what happened in the tunnels under Kanter City.  Wildfire and Stonehoof were there, but I found it unlikely they’d go tell complete strangers about it.  Tassels and the others had been there, but had been far too sick to really know what had happened.  What I’d been forced to do for my sister...

“As you may have been told, and may now know, my tribe sees much of what is yet to be so. Many future events and great, some of which to you and I relate. Come then, and sit beside, and I will tell what we have scried.”

I glanced down to the cushion she had once more indicated with a nod of her head, then back up to the odd mare sitting calmly across from me.  I should just turn around and leave.  Anything she had to say was likely made up or heresy.  There wasn’t any reason for me to stay... but still, I found myself sitting down upon the seat and placing my fore hooves upon the table.

“Alright... lets hear what you have to say,” I said evenly, eyes fixed on the striped mare who merely smiled and nodded her head.

“All beings have a destiny; be they zebra, gryphon, or pony. Simple then are the destinies of most; in them they can rarely boast, for always will come one greater still, their destiny achieving for good or ill; some fates as horrible as war, oft' not seen ‘til but storied lore.” She smiled towards me as she said that, and I simply arched a brow. Undaunted she continued, “Rarely does one know his destiny; foreknowledge can change what is meant to be. Cutie marks are all one has most often, with a pony’s talents giving purpose, then.

"Rarer is foreknowledge of another’s fate, if foreknowledge of self danger does create, what more could knowledge of another’s make? Possible maybe to steer for one’s own sake.” At this, a look of sadness crossed her face as she looked to me. “It is not my plight I fear, to judge whether it is wrong or right to so interfere."

“Rarest still, the destiny of one so great, so that with it others have an entwined fate. Some gates entwined long before this being’s birth. So important they impact the whole earth. Often is so great their role, it is labeled as a miracle.”

In such a way your fate is set, to a pony who is not born yet. Such strength and kindness she will give, it will reshape the world in which we live. Some thing Equestria had lost before, forever lost, she will restore.” As she finished speaking, the crystal ball flared to life and sprang forth an image of a rather ordinary looking unicorn mare with an odd cutie mark, a Pipbuck.

I sat in shock.  I’d seen images created by unicorns before, I’d seen video projections in the Stable... but never had I ever seen something so life-like.  The mare before me seemed to float above the table, yet her hooves were placed firmly upon some flat surface.  She was wearing a stable jumpsuit, though I couldn’t make out the number on the collar.  Across her back was a saddlebag and she was loaded down with a variety of weapons and bits of gear.  In short, she looked like a pony well accustomed to the wasteland.  However, what happened next made my eyes widen.

“She, however, is just the start. It will take more ponies to return it to its heart.“

A path of light spread out from the mare’s hooves, branching off in different directions around the room.  Where the lines stopped, another image burst to life while more lines spread out from them.  Most of the images were of ponies, but there were zebras, gryphons, mules, diamond dogs... almost every race in the world was appearing.  My eyes scanned over those nearest. 

 Another unicorn mare stood off to my right, her coat was a pure white with a red and black striped mane and tail.  She must have come from a Stable, as she bore a Pipbuck on one leg.  She was taller than the first mare, with playing cards on her flank as a cutie mark.  She appeared to have been through alot, as parts of her body had been replaced with robotic replacements.

Movement to the mare’s left shifted my eyes from her to a unicorn stallion.  Like her, he appeared mostly white in color with a bluish mane and tail.  He bore a number of ugly scars upon his face.  Also like the mares, he wore a Pipbuck on one foreleg and some odd set up on his hind legs.  They appeared to be shotguns, did they trigger when he lashed out with his hind legs?  Nasty.

 A hulking form near my left caused me to turn quickly.  My ears shot upwards in surprise at the wall of muscle and mare standing before me.  She was a huge gray earth pony with a short cut pink and white striped mane.  Her front limb was missing, a robotic replacement attached to her shoulder and appearing quite sturdy.  For a pony her size, it’d have to be up to the task.  Her cutie mark was oddly fitting: three stones.  She likely felt like a mountain when striking with her hooves.  She had a wound across her face as well, as if hit by acid or a close range energy shot.   

More and more glowing images of wastelanders began appearing around me.  All of them armed, bearing scars from numerous battles with everything the world had thrown at them... I’d begun collecting a few of them myself.

“All these heroes bound to only one, their deeds will fix what was undone, and reconnect the world’s fractured plain, that then harmony and peace again might reign.”

A tall unicorn stood with her back to me, her tail and mane braided tightly back.  Across her flanks were a pair of medical saddlebags with the symbol of the Ministry of Peace upon the flaps.  Her upper body was covered by a long flowing trench coat with something odd upon them.  Wait... were those feathers on her sides?  Sweet Celestia, was she an alicorn?  As if sensing me looking, she turned her head towards me and I blinked in shock as her eyes came into sight.  Her pupils were slit like that of a snake.

A few steps away stood another alicorn, her long flowing green and purple striped mane flowing in some unseen breeze.  She was a deep purple color, with wide sad red eyes.  Around her throat was what looked like a slave collar and upon one foreleg was the familiar shape of a Pipbuck.  Her feathered wings were spread open wide as she stared off to something only she could see.

“Before you lays a path, hero of light and dark...”

As I watched, I noticed a glow coming from below me.  I lowered my eyes to see a line running from the first mare to me, causing me to suck in my breath.  I pawed at the light as it surrounded me before I noticed lines beginning to spread out to the others around me.

"...you were born for a purpose, mark. Two beings this mare did foresee, and so entwined your destiny. One being wishes her to be destroyed, lest she make the darkness void. The other wishes the other way, so that the light again holds sway. 

"And yet, the choice is yours to make, the past you trod is yours to take. No god or goddess can force it be, only you control your destiny. I cannot tell to take which way, for such knowledge is not for me to say." 

The glowing mare turned her head towards me and locked her eyes upon me.  A jolt of energy seemed to race through my body at the visual contact and I slowly stood up, facing the short unicorn.

"Within her hooves Equestria’s future lies, and within yours, it lives… or dies."  

The ghostly pale image before me lifted her hoof to me, and I found myself doing so as well.  Seconds before either limb could touch, the mare before me winked out of existence.  As did the pale glowing pony shapes behind her.  With them also went the light and everything around me was plunged into shadows.

I yelled out in surprise and attempted to find out where I was.  Had I been returned to the tent?  Was I even in the city anymore?  The blackness around me was so complete that I couldn’t even see my hoof as I waved it in front of my face.  And it was so silent.  Second Sight had only seconds before been speaking, and now there was nothing.

Sitting back on my haunches, I lifted both fore hooves up to my face, grasping with my left to try and find my Pipbuck’s light.  Once again, my surroundings changed in a blink of an eye.  Literally.  I blinked, and I found myself once more at the end of a street in San Ponsisco, sitting out under the night sky... alone.

Standing up quickly, I slowly turned around in a circle and looked around the deserted street and the dark silent buildings around me.  There was no sign of the tent I’d just been sitting inside.  No soft red cushion I’d sat down upon, or table with its glowing crystal ball.  There was also no sign of a striped mare who’d just suddenly vanished along with everything else.  Along with all those others.  What had she called them... heroes to come? 

I blinked once more and wondered if perhaps everything wouldn’t change back.  But it didn’t, and I was left to try and figure out what the hell had just happened.  As I sat there thinking, I noticed it wasn’t just the street I was on that was silent... but the whole city seemed completely quiet, where minutes ago there’d been the sound of ponies partying just down the street.

Lifting my right fore leg once more, I looked to the clock on my Pipbuck and cocked my head to the side at the unexpected time.  I’d been sitting here for over an hour and a half?  It couldn’t have really been so long... could it?  It’d felt like just a few minutes ago that I’d first walked up to the tent, and started my conversation with Second Sight.  Looking about the deserted street, I sat my fore hoof back down atop the pavement with a soft clop.  

Well... given everything that just happened, I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised.  Very little of what I’d just seen and heard made a whole lot of sense to me and standing in the middle of a dark street wasn’t getting me anywhere either.  I should really be getting back home to check on Sugar, she might be worried about me being gone for so long.  Spearmint was likely still with her so at least she wasn’t home alone, but the mare had to be at work tomorrow... er, later today.

Shaking my head, I turned away from the dead-end street and began trotting back up the sidewalk.  I’d need to retrace my steps to find my way out of this part of the city, but it shouldn’t be too hard.  If I got lost, I could just use my Pipbuck’s auto map feature.  I managed to find my way back to the park at least, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find my way home.  As I passed them, I noticed most of the stalls had simply been left where they were.  Likely most ponies would return later to tear them down... though why some still had things to sell was a bit worrying.  Surely nopony would leave their merchandise out on the street all night.

Rounding a bend in the road, I began to hear something beside the clopping of my own hooves on the sidewalk.  Raised voices drifted towards me from the direction I was going.  I began to increase my pace, wondering what I’d missed while under the odd zony’s tent.  Within a few seconds I began to see a large crowd standing out front of one of the fancy homes we’d passed earlier tonight.  The tall iron wrought fence kept them at bay, along with a small number or armed ponies in green olive uniforms.  

The majority of the crowd were ponies, but like at the party a hour before, I saw that there were several zebras, gryphons, and ghouls mixed in with the colorful equines.  Most were still dressed in their Nightmare Night costumes, but none looked to be enjoying themselves in the slightest.  Judging by their raised voices, I’d say more than a few were angry.  The guards appeared to notice this too, and had already drawn their weapons.  The barrels, for the moment, were pointed at the ground though their faces betrayed their nervousness as their eyes shifted about.  A lot of them appeared young, likely new recruits given an easy assignment to ease them into their new jobs.  An assignment that seemed to have turned overly hard in a matter of an hour.  As I drew nearer, I saw a pair of familiar ponies on the other side of the fence with the guards, one still dressed up as a vampire.

Balefire had wiped off most of the face paint he’d been wearing earlier tonight.  His fake fangs were nowhere in sight as he spoke with the uniformed winged mare beside him.  Sunburst glanced from her brother to the crowd, the mare’s blue green eyes flicking from face to face, concern written across her face... but not just for her soldiers, but the citizens as well.  As Balefire spoke with her, she kept turning to say something to the young ponies near her.  Whatever it was, it seemed to be helping them as they began to fidget far less.

“You’ve got to do something!” someone shouted from within the crowd.

“How can you just stand there!?” a female voice screamed.

If I was going to make any sense of this, I’d have to try and reach Balefire.  I doubted they’d just let me inside the yard, but maybe he would if he saw me near the edge of the fence.  To that end, I slowed my approach and began working my way as close to the crowd and the fence as I dared.  A couple of armored and armed ponies gave me worried looks, to which I simply offered them a small smile and nod of my head, hoping to ease their tension somewhat.  

Drawing closer to the crowd, I spotted a single mare hanging back from the rest.  Her back was turned to me as she watched the goings on.  I approached her on the chance I could learn something about what’d happened while I’d been... wherever  I’d been.

“What’s going on?” I was nearly forced to yell the question to the mare, the noise from the crowd seeming to increase.  The pony... or rather the ghoul turned to regard me, eyes glowing a soft green in the dim street lights.  Like Carrion, she’d decayed in spots across her body, though the worst seemed to be around her snout where most of the flesh was missing.  It was left mostly bare with white bone exposed.

“Where th’ hell ya been, stranger?  Didn’t ya hear th’ broadcast an hour ago?” she asked in an accent similar to Stone’s.  She turned her head back towards the fence, eyes narrowing with what flesh she had left on her forehead.  “Raiders attacked Old Oak again.  Th’ survivors are holed up in their Town Hall and are radioin’ for help.  Th’ signal was picked up at th’ party and somepony played it over th’ speakers.  It wasn’t pretty...”  She shut her eyes and shook her head, the remains of a dark blue mane flowing around her face.

“It was horrible... all those ponies screaming for help... the gunshots...” another mare beside the ghoul said, tears in her green eyes.

Old Oak?  I frowned and thought that name sounded familiar... wait, it’d been attacked the other day.  I’d heard Three Horns talking about it on the radio back at the farm.  It’d sounded as if there had been little left for the ponies that’d survived the first attack to do but leave.  However, it seemed they’d not done so in time.  From further in the crowd came more shouts and yells, confused, angry and upset.  The iron bars of the fence rattled as somepony pushed against it, and the guards on the other side raised their weapons in response. This was quickly getting out of hoof... someone was going to end up getting hurt...

“Stand down!  Stand down!” a stallion’s voice rang out over the crowd, quickly followed by a dark green unicorn rushing up to the soldiers from behind to stand before them.  He waved a hoof frantically to calm them down.  Balefire snorted loudly, ears folded back against his skull as he trotted along the armed ponies. “They aren’t getting in, guys, so just relax.  Please.”

Before I could get his attention though, a loud sound shout out from in front of the crowd and I looked over to see what had caused it.  It’d sounded like feedback and, after a moment, I discovered it was just that.  A unicorn near Sunburst had cast a spell, his horn glowing a dim red as he used a spell I’d seen Ebony cast before.  I knew this because she’d often used it to surprise the hell out of me with the sudden noise.  More commonly, she used it in public gatherings for the entire Stable when the speakers were on the fritzs.

“Attention citizens!!  Please remain calm, there is no need to panic!  I assure you everything that can be done, is being done for the ponies of Old Oaks, but you must all go home!!  Gathering outside the President’s home is going to do nopony any good!  She’s not even here!  She’s with her staff discussing the attack and what we can do!”  The crowd quieted for a moment before they began shouting once more.

“There ain’t no help for them trapped ponies,” the ghoul I’d spoken with before said quietly, her tattered ears folded back in regret.  “Ah don’t think th’ Confederacy can aford ta be sendin’em help.”

“She’s right you know,” Balefire said even quieter and I turned my head towards the fence to see my friend.  He must have noticed me while I’d been looking towards Sunburst and had trotted over to stand beside me on the other side of the iron bars.

“What?”

“We can’t send them any help,” the green buck said sadly, red eyes looking from me to the crowd.  His voice was low enough not to be heard by the frantic yells of the others, continuing, “There’s nopony to send.”

“What about the First Corp you just escorted back?”

“They’re in no shape to help anyone, they’re half dead on their hooves.  I expect most wouldn’t even make it across the wasteland to the Old Oaks, let alone save the town.  The City Guard are only assigned to patrol the walls of the city, they won’t go out there on their own.  Not willingly anyway, it wasn’t what they signed on to do and if mom attempted to order them... well... we’d have another riot on our hooves.”  He shook his head sadly and pawed at the ground with a fore hoof, looking away from me and over towards his sister.

I looked away as well, shoulders slumping as voices rose in pitch.  Demanding something be done, yet not willing to do anything themselves.

“Please, we’ll do everything we can...” Sunburst looked over the crowd, wings wilting as her voice was drowned out by the angry crowd.  Even from where I stood, I could see the despair forming in the mare’s eyes.  She knew she was lying to them.  She knew they had nothing to send to help the town and it was tearing her up inside, despite her attempt to appear a hard nosed soldier.

“You’re not going to do a damn thing to help them... they’re not even a part of your Confederacy!” a stallion yelled back, “You’re going to let them die just because they’re outside your borders!  It’s happened before... it happened to my home... well, this time you’ll have to listen to it happen!” the crowd went silent as the stallion spoke, stepping away from him to reveal a ragged unicorn buck with a Pipbuck.  His horn coming to life in a burst of tan light before his radio began to play.

“... please we need help!  Raiders have attacked Old Oaks... we’ve held them off as best we can, but they’re inside our town’s walls... killing us.  Please... somepony... anyone send help!!” a frantic mare cried out of the silence, gunshots and screaming coming from the back ground.  Somepony in the crowd near me began to cry.

Sunburst deflated and slumped to the ground beside the unicorn, his horn going out as he let the spell fade and attempted to help support the mare.

“Please... we have young foals... somepony help us... they’ll kill them... please... someone has to help us...”

I looked away from the crowd, feeling tears coming to my eyes.  Balefire moved away from the fence, making his way towards his sister.  Nopony was willing to go to their help... or couldn’t.  The military was stretched too thin.  The citizens were not trained for it, nor willing to leave the safety of the city walls.  Everyone was upset about what was happening, but wanted someone else to fix it for them.

Old Oaks’ cry for help would go unanswered.

As I began making my way from the crowd, I passed a stallion who was slumped in the middle of the street and crying into the mane of another as he was attempting to comfort him.  While most of what he said was unclear, I made out enough.

“My sister’s there... whos going to save my sister?  Who...?”

I’m not sure how I got home really.  I just remember walking away from the crowd with my tail dragging in the street.  I remember walking with my head hung low to the ground, only seeing the hooves of ponies as they walked past me.  Whether they said anything to me or not I couldn’t say.  If they had I didn’t hear them... or maybe I did.  I don’t know.

I vaguely recalled walking up the stairs back to my apartment.  The entire building was silent, either asleep or still out somewhere in the city.  How many knew about Old Oaks?  Was it broadcast all across the city?  Making my way across the floor to my door, I fumbled with my keys before finally managing to get them pushed into the lock and opening up the door. 

Inside, I found Spearmint asleep on the couch with Sugar Pie held tightly to her chest.  Wads of tissues were scattered about them on the floor and both appeared to have been crying.  Had they heard the news?  Had Sugar been leaving the party just as the first call for help played out?

I left them to sleep, trudging down the hallway to my room and dropping into bed.  I left my clothing on as I closed my eyes and tried to get the cry for help out of my head.



*     *     *     *     *



How long I lay in the darkness of my room, I couldn’t say.  I didn’t have the desire to look at the clock on my nightstand, or the one on my Pipbuck.  I simply lay atop my bed, eyes staring straight ahead at the shadows of my room.

 The darkness and silence of my bedroom was disturbed by the soft creak of the bedroom door opening.  A shaft of soft white light dispelled the darkness that surrounded me.  I blinked my eyes a couple times to adjust them to the sudden light and lifted my head from my bed to look towards the doorway.  I expected perhaps to see Spearmint, maybe waking up sometime after I’d gotten in and come to check on me.  However, it was not the elderly unicorn.  In fact, the silhouetted shape that stood in the light was small, the size of a filly, and one still wearing her costume.

As my eyes adjusted slowly to the light coming in from the hallway, I could more easily see my young niece standing there in her Nightmare Night costume, her bag of candy missing.  The hoof made cardboard and plastic security armor’s black paint reflected the light from beyond my room.  It was looking a bit rough after being worn for so long.  Around her neck was the combat shotgun she’d made, its paper towel roll barrel pointed towards the floor.  

Her wide, bright golden eyes stared up at me from the floor with something held in her mouth.  The light reflected from it’s smooth, metal surface.  My ears perked forwards and I rose my head from my forehooves and the blanket.

“Tiny?”  She didn’t answer me, but simply began trotting towards the bed and me.  Her small hooves lightly clattered across the hardwood floor.  The closer she came, the more clearly I could see what she was carrying in her mouth.  It was my Marshall badge I’d given her to wear.  

As she reached the bed, she stood back on her hind legs and attempted to haul herself up by her fore legs.  Clearly, she was not intent on speaking until she could sit down beside me.  I reached down and took hold of her foal sized jumpsuit, just above the cardboard armor across her neck, and lifted her up onto the bed beside me.  She quickly pressed herself up against me, her tiny body trembling.  Wrapping her up in my forelegs, I pulled her to my chest.

“Oh, Tiny...”

As she turned to grab ahold of me, the badge she’d held in her mouth dropped out and landed on the covers beside us.  Placing my head atop hers, I looked over to the bit of silvery metal.  Gently, I reached a hoof over to pick the badge up.  Turning it over, I looked more closely at the writing and designs etched across it’s smooth surface.  ‘In Harmony We Trust’ stood out.

“On the way home... we heard something come over the radio.  Some of the other kids from school heard it too and started to cry,” she said suddenly, resting her head against my foreleg.  “Their mommies and daddies are in trouble from those bad ponies that attacked our home.  The bad ponies who took mommy away and hurt our friends.”

My eyes went from the badge back down to my niece.  So it had been played all across the city... at least in places with radios to pick it up.  Sugar shifted her head and looked back up to me, wide yellow eyes locking with my own.  Tears loosened at their edges, but held at bay for the moment.

“Nopony should lose their mommies and daddies.  Mommy said you’d want to help them, but you didn’t wanna leave me.”  I opened my mouth to respond.  To say something to reassure my niece that everything was going to be alright.  But I couldn’t.  How could I when not even a officer in the army could tell a crowd of strangers everything was going to be alright? “You can save them, Uncle Shadow... I know you can.”

I blinked once more, as her words hit me.  Neither of us spoke after that and time slowly ticked by as we sat holding onto one another.  Finally I looked away from my niece, my eyes settling upon the wooden cabinet with its lock still unlatched from earlier.  My armor and weapons were tucked away within.  Like Pip, I’d never really expected to use them again...

Could one pony really make a difference out there?  Could one pony save the lives nopony else would?

Who would look after those ponies beyond the walls of the city?  Beyond the reach of the C.S.E?

My eyes dropped back to the silver six pointed star.  The ring around it emboldened the words, ‘To Protect and Serve Equestria.  In Harmony and Friendship we Trust.’  where both had been engraved.  I closed my eyes and remembered the words written upon a scrap of paper.  Words from a pony who’d been very much like me.

Friendship and Harmony.  Defend those weaker than us, and serve those who defend the weak.

Defend those weaker than us...

Defend...

...who will save my sister?

My eyes snapped open and I took a deep breath.

I had to try!

Ears folding back, I looked down to Sugar as she sniffed and nuzzled into my chest.  What was to stop the raiders once they’d finished with places like Old Oak?  Tombstone?  Crossroads?  Was San Ponsisco any safer?  Was Sugar safer?

For Sugar’s future... I had to try.

Placing my fore hooves upon either side of my niece’s body, I gently slid her away from my chest and rose up from the bed.  My eyes fixed upon the cabinet where my gear was stored.  She lifted her head and watched me as I stepped away from the bed, my mind made up on what I had to do.  Whether it was my destiny or not... it was the right thing to do.

For everypony’s future... I had to try...

Sitting down in front of the cabinet, I placed my hooves upon the handles and pulled the doors fully open.  The lock fell from where I’d placed it on the shelf inside earlier that afternoon, clattering to the floor between my hind legs.  It wouldn’t be needed anymore after tonight.

For everyone's future... I had to...

As the worn oak wooden doors creaked open, my black riot armor greeted me, hanging from a hook I’d placed inside the cabinet just for it.  On either side of my armor were my weapons.  Both were oiled and cleaned before being put away for what I’d thought would be forever.  I’d reached the end of my journey... or so I’d thought.

You're not dead, little brother.  It’s not your time yet.  You still have much to do.    

Reaching inside, I withdrew the armor and began sliding it on piece by piece.  The feeling was familiar, even comforting.  The weight of thick kevlar padding brushed across my black jumpsuit and exposed coat.  With practiced ease, the buckles snapped into place on every piece, locking them on my body.  With the final piece in place, I reached for the leg holster and the Raging Buck still tucked inside it.  As I did, my hoof brushed up against the hilt of the heavy revolver.  It’d been the first thing I’d found in the wasteland and had saved my life more times than I could count.  It’d also been used to take the life of the mare closest to me, besides Sugar.  Though the ammo for it was scarce, it packed one hell of a punch.  However, I had scored a number of spare rounds in Oddwick off the body of a dead stallion slaver.  The leg belt wrapped easily around my left hoof, where I’d worn it since finding it in Lonesome Hoof.

If you’re listen’n, lone gunpony, good job.  You saved a whole lotta ponies with that.   

Looking up, my eyes landed upon Luna’s Ruse, Pipsqueak’s personal combat shotgun.  The smooth black metal reflected the light that spilled across my body into the cabinet.  The dark wooden stock was still whole and mark free as the day it’d been made.  My hoof took ahold of the weapon’s shoulder strap and withdrew it from its place on the hook.  With a flick of my hoof and a snap from the latch, the drum feed opened smoothly and revealed the softly glowing runes of magic that somepony had cast upon it so long ago.
 
Ain’t no pony helped another just because.

I found the box of shells sitting on the shelf near the top of the cabinet, right where I’d left them, and began loading it.  With each shell sliding into its slot, I recalled the number of times this weapon had saved my life and that of my friends’.  How it had came to be in my possession and what it had likely done for its previous owner as he’d fled into the desert to escape the end of world.  Finally the weapon was loaded and I snapped it shut, ensuring the safety was still on as I hung it over my shoulders. 

We’re taking everybody with us.  No one gets left behind this time.

Lastly, I withdrew my hat and lowered it down upon my mane.  My ears slipped easily through the holes on either side and flipped upright.  Stepping back from the cabinet, I looked at myself in the mirror near the door.  A familiar looking pony looked back at me.  A pony who’d set out from his former home on the chance to save his sister.  A pony who’d ended up helping others, doing what a pony was supposed to do.  Looking away, I turned towards the bed and my niece.  However, I found her standing before me, horn alight with magic as she lifted something up to me.

We don’t get many strangers willing to lend a hoof to others around these parts anymore.

The Equestrian Marshal's badge floated up to my chest and slid into place where I’d worn it weeks ago.  The silver star seemed to shine as bright as the light from Hope Tower.

Wasteland could use a good Marshall to clean it up.

Sugar smiled up at me, wrapping her small fore legs around my right one.  I returned the smile and brushed a hoof over her mane as I looked back up to the mirror.

It was time to take back our home... it was time to take Equestria back.



*     *     *     *     *



Once again, I found myself trotting down the stairs from my apartment room.  This time, though,  my hoof steps were a bit more heavy.  Due mostly in part to the armor, weapons, and saddlebags I was wearing, but also in what I was about to do.  Despite this, I still managed to reach the first floor without running into anypony, or waking anypony up.  For that, I was thankful.  I’d left the apartment without waking Spearmint, knowing the old mare would likely have attempted to talk me out of what I was doing.  I suppose it did seem foolish.

A single pony, setting out alone to fight off a horde of raiders attacking a distant town.  A town that would likely take me days to reach by hoof if I couldn’t find a faster means of transport.  But I had to try.  Just as I had to try and save Ebony.  

The clip clop of my hooves across the first floor hallway echoed loudly to my ears, and I attempted to both quicken and soften my steps.  I glanced to the door to Wendy’s apartment, hearing no sound coming from behind the wooden barrier.  Wendy would likely have understood why I was doing this.  Why somepony had to do this.

Pushing the doors to the apartment building open, I stepped out into the early morning air.  It was still slightly humid from the previous night's storm.  The thick, sticky air reminded me of my time out in the wasteland. Folding my ears back, I took the stairs leading down from the front door quickly and paused to glance back up to the building.  My thoughts drifted onto Sugar and on what I was about to do.

So... this was it then?  Once more into the breach... alone.

“Well, we reckon’d ya’d try somethin’ stupid and here ya are,” a thickly accented voice called out from the shadows of an alleyway next to the steps.  

I blinked and turned my head quickly towards that patch of shadow, as a pony stepped out from the narrow path between my building and the one next to it.  A familiar, grey coated stallion walked out into the glow of the street lights.  A battered cowpony hat was perched atop his brown mane, a smile on his lips and dark green eyes fixed on me.  A well maintained hunting rifle was slung across his back between two large saddlebags.  Bags deep enough to store a Stable’s entire supply of spare parts and ammo should he take a mind to try.  At once I smiled, despite being a bit confused as to why he was here.  And why now?

“Stone?  What are you doing here?” I asked, taking a few steps towards my friend, only to have him start walking down the street away from me.  I blinked once more and quickly fell into step beside him, before something he said struck me.  “Wait... we?”  The large earth pony didn’t answer me, simply glancing over as we walked to the end of the street and turned the corner.  I was about to ask him again when he came to a stop and stared straight ahead.  I turned and froze, eyes wide on the scene before me.

A sleek black shape was parked across the street, the rear of it sitting slightly raised on the curb.  Standing in front of it, hitched to the  armored sky chariot, was Wildfire.  Her own armor was recently polished and gleamed in the dim light.  Her battle saddle rested comfortably across her back, the barrels of the rifles tucked back.  Her blue eyes were looking towards me, a devilish smile on her face.  

But she wasn’t alone.  Movement from the doorway to the chariot forced me to look away from my winged friend’s grin to see a large shape standing at the ready.  Spirit Walker filled the doorway to the passenger compartment, her medical bags slung across her broad back and her slender looking rifle hanging from about her neck by a colorful band.  She nodded her horned head once to me and glanced to her left.

There stood two other familiar ponies.  Balefire, in his C.S.E. olive green uniform, was leaning against the hull of the chariot.  His holstered revolvers stood out on his chest and his unit patches had been removed.  He too wore saddlebags across his flanks, and a zebra made assault rifle across his back.  He winked to me from below his cowpony hat, still a bit battered from when the head it had belonged to had been blown away.  

Beside the young unicorn stood Carrion.  The ghoul pony’s once filthy, faded combat armor had recently been cleaned and repainted a darker green than Balefire’s.  His assault rifle rested against his side, the shoulder with a new strap, and he had a number of grenades affixed to his belt and chest.  His glowing orange eyes were fixed firmly upon my face and he stood at attention, as if waiting for something.

I looked slowly back over my friends and sat down hard on my flank.  What... how?  The heavy tread of large hooves announced Stone’s presence beside me before the earth pony spoke.

“We reckoned twas ‘bout time somepony stood up for what's right in th’ world.  Figured ya’d be the pony to do it... so we’re gonna be there ta help.”  He offered me a hoof up, a smile on his face as he watched me.  “What d’ya say?”

I looked up into the face of my close friend and down to his offered hoof before I scanned the waiting faces of the others.  They’d all somehow known what I was going to do.

Trust in your friends; in this new world we live in, friendship is more powerful than any gun.  Treat them well and together nothing can stop you.

My hoof rose up and took the larger one before me, Stone hauling me upright onto my own four hooves once more.  I smiled back to him, feeling a bit of moisture run down my face.

“I say... saddle up, partner... we’ve got a town to save.”



*     *     *     *     *



“Good morning Wasteland!  Now before Ol’ Three Horns begins the day, she has a special message for all you folks holding out at Old Oaks.  Hold on just a bit longer... help is coming!

It’s not the whole Confederate Army, nor is it the Steel Rangers.  It ain’t no Princesses come back from on high to save all our collective asses either.

No, it’s better than all that...

A few weeks ago, I talked about a pony chargin’ across the wasteland.  A pony who had everything taken from him, who was fighting to save his family, and who eventually found safety behind the walls of a city.

Now, normally that’s where our story ends... but not this time.

That same pony is giving up everything, but this time willingly.  This pony is setting out to fight for complete strangers for no other reason than because they need help.  He’s heading back out into the wasteland.  He’s coming to help.

It’s been a long time since I spoke about hope, kids.  But this pony might just give it back to us.

So... hold on, Old Oaks... a pony is coming to help...”

The DJ’s voice broke for a moment, but whatever else she was going to say was interrupted by another voice coming in much louder, along with the sound of rushing air as the chariot’s intercom drowned out the radio broadcast.

“There’s raiders swarming all over the town, Shadow!  Doesn’t look to be a safe place to land anywhere inside the walls!”

“Land us as close to them as you can, Wild... we’ll have to fight our way to Town Hall!” I said back into the mic, lifting my eyes from my Pipbuck and shutting the radio off with my free hoof.  I looked to the ponies and buffalo gathered inside the passenger compartment with me.  All looking to me.  “Alright everyone... lock and load!!”

The click of weapons safeties being switched off echoed within the compartment before the grinding of the door panel drew our attention.  Stone stood holding the door open, the wind blowing at his hat.

“It’s time to go be heroes...”


Welcome to Level 16!

Perk Added: Master Trader: Your two weeks in San Ponsisco has left you with a better understanding of how the new money system works.  As a result, you have mastered one aspect of bartering - the ability to buy goods far cheaper than a normal person.  With this Perk, you get a 25% discount when purchasing items from a store or another trader.

> Chapter 17: Last Equestrian Marshall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 17: Last Equestrian Marshall


A small group of thoughtful ponies could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. 




Old Oaks was a half burning ruin by the time we finally reached it.  Even by air, it’d taken us almost an entire day to cross the wide plains beyond San Ponsisco’s wall.  The small pony town was located some eight hundred miles west of the Saddlera Mountains, the same rocky range we’d crossed by rail two weeks earlier.  Still, it was better time than I’d made by hoof on my own.

As it turned out, Old Oaks was the first town with that name.  It was also the only surviving town with the name as New Oaks was little more than a radioactive crater some eighty miles further north.  How such a small town could have been singled out for a Balefire bomb was beyond me.  At least it was until Stone explained what it was that the town did. 

 As one might suspect from a town named Old Oaks, a good number of Equestria’s lumber came from the area.  Much of it was procured from the enchanted forests that dotted the hillsides of the area.  I had been a bit confused over the term ‘enchanted’ as I was fairly sure trees were not magical in nature. 

Stone went on the explain that according to what he’d been told, the Princesses had decided long ago to try and preserve as much of Equestria’s forests as they could.  To that end, they set aside the hilly countryside of this area to become a sort of tree farm.  Earth ponies would plant and tend to the trees as they grew, while unicorns would help the trees to grow even faster than normal. 

As the war began, Old Oaks, or rather New Oaks, as most of the population had moved to the larger and more modern city, sent much of their lumber to the Equestrian Military to help in the war.  A lot of things the army had used every day called for wood; from packing crates to weapon stocks.

Wild, who had been listening into our conversation via the headsets and mics, commented that in between the sky chariot’s armored plating was a wooden frame.  The lighter material gave the chariot greater lift and made it easier for a pegasus to pull.

Of course, this made the town a target for the zebras, as did anything that even remotely had something to do with the Equestrian Army.  

A town littler bigger than Crossroads was wiped from the face of the map by a single balefire bomb, which also turned the surrounding hillsides into a firestorm when the thousands of still uncut trees caught fire.  Carrion had spoke up then, saying that even for a year after the bombs had fallen, he could still see a green glow on the horizon north west of Kanter City.

Before Wild began descending towards the smoking town, I managed to get a good look at what we were getting into from high above.  Standing in the open doorway of the chariot, I felt the wind whipping at my face, mane, and hat as I scanned the landscape below us.  My right foreleg was raised to brace myself against the doorframe of the passenger compartment and held me in place as the chariot rocked in the winds flowing about it.  

I could see hundreds of blackened stumps and, in some cases, whole trees pass below us.  They were mixed in with the usual browns, tans, and grays of the wasteland.  All of them surrounded a small collection of ponymade buildings.  I also saw a number of small ruined buildings as well, sawmills I’d guess according to what Stone had told me.  The graveyard of dead trees was held at bay by what I generously had been told was a wall.  From up here, Old Oaks looked like any other town or city I’d had the fortune (or misfortune in Kanter City’s place) of seeing since coming to the surface.  It was a pale shadow of its former self, empty streets and deserted buildings.  Like everywhere else I’d been, the town hardly matched up with photos and videos of the time before the war.  I shook my head and focused once more upon the town below. 

It had been built along one of Equestria’s many highways.  The black asphalt was still visible in places where sand and dirt had been blown away by countless storms and summer winds.  From what I could make out from here, it appeared two gates had been built where the highway met the walls.  Then again, maybe they’d simply dumped more junk in those places.  Behind the wall, the highway formed the town’s main street along which the majority of the larger buildings had been constructed.  Side roads spread out from the central one forming two more streets, one on either side of the main street.  Along each street were more buildings, these looking more like homes where, once upon a time, happy ponies lived and played.

As Wild began to bring us in closer, I could see more details of the wall itself.  It was made from the typical junk usually scattered about the wasteland.  Broken sections of chariots, homes, rocks, and even a half a skyliner (a larger version of the sky chariot, made to haul large numbers of passengers to a number of destinations both in and out of Equestria) was shoved into the making of the wall.  Only this time, that was quite literally what they had done, piling trash atop itself until a wall had formed around the town.  It was hardly the most impressive defensive barcade I’d seen, San Ponsisco’s walls dwarfed this one in all ways.  Even the walls around Tombstone and Crossroads were higher and far better made, despite being largely made of the same type of salvaged junk.

Still, if what I’d been told by Stonehoof and Balefire was correct, then the town had never been seriously bothered by beasts or raiders for a good sixty years when ponies first resettled the town.  The crude barrier had done it’s job of keeping the ponies within the town safe from the horrors of the wasteland for all that time.  Stone had told me he’d visited the town once as a caravan guard some years ago, and had heard the townsponies talk about how peaceful things were in the area;  about how they’d not been bothered by many of the things that had plagued other towns all across the wasteland.

At least they hadn’t until today... I suppose everyone’s luck runs out...

Large sections of the wall had been blown to bits.  The pieces were scattered about the landscape and craters were blown into the hard packed earth where the wall had once stood.  It was still a bit difficult in judging the depth of those holes from our height, but given the distance some of the pieces had been blown... I doubted even those thicker, stronger walls of Crossroads could have hoped to withstand such a blast.  It was ominous to say the least that raiders suddenly seemed to have possession of explosives they’d never had before... at least in the numbers coming from the radio reports.

I felt the chariot tilt more towards the ground as Wild began our final descent towards the smoking ruins.  I placed more of my weight on my right fore hoof, which was still thankfully braced in the doorway.  As we came in lower, the winged mare slid us skillfully between the rising smoke columns and I could make our more details of the town itself from between those pillars.

The buildings were made of stone and wood, in a style that seemed to dominate the Equestrian west.  Like other towns I’d visited, they stood no higher than three stories in height.  I also began to discern a few other buildings of note: a red school house, a grocery store with most of its windows boarded up, a police station, and a fire station.  All were small buildings compared to what I’d seen in San Ponsisco.  Still, it had likely been enough for a town of just under a two hundred ponies.  Back when there were more ponies to call this place home anyway.

Now many of the outer buildings were burning, the source of the thick black pillars of smoke Wild was forced to dodge as we came in.  Looking back skyward, I saw those pillars reaching high into the air.  They were so high that we’d spotted them long before we’d seen the valley the town had been built within.  I wondered if the smoke had caught the attention of the pegasi... likely not.  They didn’t seem to really care about what went on below their own hooves, so long as it didn’t bother them.

Looking back down into Old Oaks, I could begin to easily see the path the raiders had taken once the walls had been breached.  The lines of destruction were as clear as crystal and cut straight through from the destroyed sections of walls to the burning buildings.  Those constructions that had been nearest the walls were little more than charred ruins, now merely smoking frames of former homes and stores.  Those nearer the main street were still burning, and even from here I could smell the acrid scent of burning wood and plastic as well as the scent of metaling plaster and metal.  Under it all, I could smell the all too familiar stench of burning flesh.  

I wrinkled my nose in disgust and narrowed my eyes upon the fires.  Cursorily, I wondered how many ponies had perished within their homes rather than at the hooves of the raiders. It had likely been a better death...

The fires had been burning out of control for hours, even before we’d left San Ponsisco.  It was doubtful if the raiders even cared if Old Oaks burned to the ground around them.  In fact, given what I knew of them, I half expected they’d likely had a hoof in helping the fires spread so quickly throughout the town.  At least the fires had yet to reach the center of town, where Town Hall was supposed to be standing.  I’d not been able to see it due to the smoke.  I prayed we’d not arrived too late to help any survivors who may still be within its walls...

Incoming rounds struck the black armored hull beside the open door, pinging loudly near my head as they bounced harmlessly off the plating.  We were taking fire from the town below, the raiders no doubt seeing us as we came in.  I pushed off the door frame with my right hoof and stumbled back into the passenger compartment as more rounds struck the sky chariot.  The impacts echoed about within the armored hull like hail stones on a tin roof (a rather interesting sound I’d recently heard back in San Ponsisco.)  

Just as I was getting my hooves back under me, a pair of rounds flew in through the doorway.  The bullets embedded themselves into the softer material that the inside of the chariot was made of.  I suppose whoever had designed the armored personnel carrier had thought of that, hopefully before it proved deadly for those riding inside.  Another half dozen strikes on the hull rang out loudly.  I glanced to the pony standing beside me as I rose to all four hooves.

Stonehoof stood silently with his ears laid back and grinding his teeth at each strike on the chariot.  His eyes stared worriedly towards the front where Wildfire was all but exposed to the raiders’ incoming fire.  The only thing between her and getting shot was the fact the raiders were such horrible shots, the lightly armored sides of the flight harness, and the bits of armor she herself wore.  The two had become closer in the weeks since I’d seen them last, and the stallion was understandably unhappy with her risking herself like this.  Then again, this is what Wildfire had been trained to do back in the Enclave.  Perhaps she’d not always pulled a chariot into fire, but she’d been a soldier, always ready to fight.  She was trained to take risks.

I placed a hoof gently upon my closest friend’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile and nod of my head.  He returned the nod, but quickly returned his gaze to the wall separating him from his lover.  Behind us waited Balefire and Carrion, the two unicorns’ horns alight with magic as they held their weapons beside them.  The pair was ready to unload on any raiders nearby once we landed.  I fully expected we’d be in for a fight the moment we touched down and checked my own weapons as I looked over my two other friends.

A set of revolvers floated within the green glow of Balefire’s magic just to my left.  The custom made mouth grips of the pistols that were beautifully carved into the likeness of the twin alicorn princesses seemed to come to life in the soft magical glow.  To their right floated an old model Equestrian assault rifle beside the rotting face of Carrion.  It’d seen more combat than anyone in this chariot, with the exception of the chariot itself and its owner.  While in good working condition, the rifle still bore signs of heavy use and it’s own customization and repairs over the years. 

Both stallions were ready for what we were about to step into, having been trained most of their adult lives for combat by the military (though Carrion had been fighting for much, much longer than anyone else.)  The ghoul pony calmly checked over his rifle, a sudden drop by the chariot not seeming to bother him at all.  A quick look down showed his legs spread out evenly to absorb the sudden changes in directions the chariot was forced to do.  It was clear he was used to this sort of transport into combat, and given the unit he’d been a part of before the ‘Last Days’ of Equestria, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised.  

My eyes then slid to the left where Balefire’s youthful energy was bubbling to the surface as he pawed at the armored floor with a fore hoof.  He was ready to get to grips with the ponies outside shooting at us.  Like Carrion, he had his hooves braced against the rocking of the chariot.  I recalled reading that the Confederate Army had a number of pegasi within their ranks, as well as sky chariots similar to this one.  Balefire was a member of a Ranger Unit, and had likely been deployed far away from the city by chariots before.

Behind them both stood the massive form of our misfit team’s medic, Spirit Walker.  The female buffalo towered over all of us, even Stone.  Like Stone and myself, she seemed less at ease within the rocking armored chariot than the unicorns.  She shifted her weight as the chariot dipped and turned, almost losing her hoofing a couple times throughout the trip.  Her thick, curly brown coat was once more covered in bits of salvaged armor, all of them showing signs of rust and past battles.  All of it held to her body by cord or lengths of wire.  It was the best she could do, as few made armor in her size unless it was for a griffon or diamond dog.  Even then the proportions were simply all wrong.  Across her back was the old rifle she’d used when she’d first found me back in Wastefall.  It had seen little action since then, but the saddlebags she wore across her back which contained her medical supplies would likely see a lot of use. 

The scent of smoke flowing into the chariot’s door seemed to increase suddenly as the armored floor straightened out beneath us.  I looked away from Spirit and back towards the open doorway.  I could see the ground outside rising up to meet us.  Bits of the wall that had been blown away, rocks, and the odd bit of scrub grass that stubbornly grew all across the wasteland dotted the landscape.  Beyond it was the wall that circled the town, along with one of the holes that had breached it.  The gaping hole was only a short distance away from where we’d be landing. 

As I braced myself for the drop, I caught sight of three rapid bursts of light along the ruined wall.  Muzzle flashes appeared once again as I looked away from the wall and to the gap that had blown into a section of it.  Already my E.F.S. was beginning to update itself with a number of red dots located just ahead of us.  My ears flicked back against my skull as rounds struck the hull of the chariot once more.  The ground just in front of the doorway was riddled with puffs of dust and dirt as bullets landed short.  I counted a total of nine hostiles located among the ruins of the wall.  Nine raiders between us and the town.  

“Lock and load, everyone!!!” I yelled over the sound of bullets impacting the metal hull around me.  I reached down to the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse and brought the weapon up, taking a step towards the doorway.  A second later, Wild’s voice came through the headsets hanging about the passenger compartment, agreeing with me in her own, very colorful way.

“Touch down!!  Grab yer shit and kiss yer flanks goodbye, fillies, cause the weather’s Celestia fucking NASTY as shit out here!!!” the mare yelled into her mic as a jolt rocked the entire cabin.  The landing wheels of the chariot gave only slightly as the hard packed wasteland soil made contact with them beneath us.  The chariot creaked and groaned as it settled, but I spared it not a second thought as the fire from the breach focused in on us.

“Alright, let’s go kill us some raiders!!” Balefire added his own shout to the mix from just behind me.  I could imagine the young buck grinning widely as I heard his hoof pawing heavily at the metal flooring.  The kid was good, but he was likely to get himself killed if I didn’t keep an eye on him.  I doubt his sister would like that very much, though I wondered how he managed to slip away without alerting either his sister and fellow soldiers. 

With the sounds of incoming rounds pinging off the armored hull, the distant sounds of gunfire and raider yelling, we began making our way up to the doorway.  With our weapons gripped tightly, Stone was the first to reach the door, being on my left and closer to the opening.  He wasted no time in dismounting the chariot, as his large form would have been the perfect target framed in the door.  

The earth pony dropped down with a slight grunt as his hooves struck the ground, sending up a cloud of dust around him.  A round bounced harmlessly off his already chipped shoulder pad, and the large pony simply ignored it.  I followed him out, allowing my knees to bend and take my weight as I dropped the short distance to the ground beside him.  All around us, rounds tore up the soil or struck the chariot.

I’d barely began moving away from the doorway when Stone brought his rifle up to bare on our attackers.  He quickly snapped off his first shot by aiming for the muzzle flashes of the raiders’ weapons.  The round exploded from the muzzle of the rifle in a small ball of fire before ripping through the air towards its target.  A second later, a distant yelp signaled a hit and forced my Pipbuck’s E.F.S, to update itself and display eight red dots now.  The sudden death of one of their own seemed to give the raiders pause and us time to fully exit the chariot.  It wouldn’t last long, however, as raiders didn’t seem to care much for one another.

Moving forward quickly, I began to size up the terrain around us.  I was looking for the quickest, safest route to reach the wall, while the others behind us caught us.  Balefire and Carrion spread out at once, taking up positions on either side of Stone and myself.  Spirit followed a second later.  The buffalo would make an easy target for the raiders, standing over us as she did.  She did not seemed troubled in the slightest about this, however, and simply scanned the others for any signs of wounds before dropping into what cover she could find.  

I’d only just registered a second break in the wall off to our left when the sound of flapping wings distracted me.  Wild, who had been unhitching herself from the chariot’s front, came flying around towards us.  Her hooves were mere inches from the ground as she flapped her wings quickly.  A shot rang out, and the following bullet skimmed past the mare’s flanks, embedding itself into the ground.  Seems our time was up.  Turning back around, I saw Stone pointing a hoof ahead of us, at what appeared to be a long dried up creek bed.  It was now little more than a narrow trench, but it’d give us some much needed cover.

“Take cover, everyone!” I shouted over the increasing noise of gunfire before diving into the ditch.  My hooves and knees slammed down upon rock and dirt as I landed, grunting from the impact.  The others followed closely behind me in a clatter of loose stones and small clouds of dust.  The raiders’ poor aim followed them, rounds striking the edge of the ditch or the opposite end.  We’d be safe for the moment, but it wouldn’t last long.  The raiders’ patience would wear down and they’d likely rush us.  A result that would likely see most of them killed, but also bring unnecessary additional risk to us... and I doubted the townsfolk had that sort of time to give us.

Peering over the edge of the ditch, I looked out to where the red dots appeared on my E.F.S.  It was pretty much as I’d expected, the group of raiders had all taken cover in the breach they’d blown in the wall to gain entry into the town.  Luckily for us, the wall seemed to lack any sort of walkway atop it.  Given its haphazard nature, the wall was likely deemed too dangerous to walk across.  This denied the raiders any real high ground over us and canceled the risk that we would be fired upon from above.  

As I looked further away from the hole, I could see a large number of broken bits of junk scattered across the ground between us and the raiders.  Most were pieces of the wall that had been blown away.  They might provide cover for two ponies to hide behind as they approached the breach, but it’d be risky.  The hole itself was large enough for the chariot to be flown through, with room to spare on either side. 

Through the hole, I could see the fires burning along one of Old Oaks’ side streets from collapsed buildings.  Along much of which was most likely the bodies of the dead.  I would have liked to think most of them were raiders, but seeing how not all of them had spiked armor I knew some of them were not.  Beside the sounds of gunfire coming from the raiders in the gap, I could hear fighting going on deeper within the town.  Along with the unsettling noise of raiders laughing and somepony screaming.  

Were we too late?  Had they finally taken Town Hall from the survivors?  I was forced to duck back down as a round struck the ground, inches from my face, sending a shower of loose dirt and stones into my eyes.  Swearing, I rubbed a fore leg across them as Stone’s rifle barked loudly next to my ears.  I heard the sound of the bullet zip out across the narrow space as I blinked my eyes open several times to clear the grit from them.  I heard another yelp of pain a second later, only this time one of the red dots did not wink out.  Likely it’d just grazed him, a thought the pony confirmed a moment later.

“Bastard moved at th’ last second,” Stone said as he lowered himself back into the ditch beside me.  His hoof worked the bolt action of his rifle, the single brass casing rolling about between us.  To my right, Carrion was attempting to edge up to the side of our low cover, trying to get off a couple shots himself at our attackers.  The ghoul was forced to duck back down by a fury of shots aimed towards his horned head.  We really couldn’t stay here for long... if the raiders had taken the last holdouts, then they’d be drawn to the sounds of fighting... and if they hadn’t... every second counted.

“We can’t stay here forever,” Carrion said, voicing what I and everyone else already knew.  He floated his assault rifle up to the rim of the rocky trench, the weapon barking angrily as he fired it blindly towards the raiders.  “Rushing that wall would likely just get us all killed... not that I’m against such a plan, having been alive for far too fucking long... but does anypony else have a better idea?  Perhaps one with a chance of us killing more raiders?”

“Actually... I do,” I began, before outlining what I was thinking.  “Carrion, I need Wild, Stone, and you to keep them focused on you three while Balefire and I flank them.  There’s a smaller breach in the wall just to the left of us.  I saw it a second ago while we were diving for cover.  It’s not far, but it’ll take us a few seconds to reach it from here.” The old unicorn risked a quick glance over the edge, glowing orange eyes finding the hole I’d mentioned before ducking back down.

“We should be able to cover you long enough, I think.  Though it looks like it’ll be a tight fit,” he said as his horn began glowing more brightly.  He once more snapped off a few random shots into the raiders’ cover, keeping them busy and less likely to charge us while I explained the plan to them.

“From what I saw in the air, once we’re past the breach, it should be a straight shot to where the raiders are holed up.  Once we have their attention, you guys can move forward to catch them in a crossfire,” I finished up, chancing a look over the edge of the ditch.  Carrion’s fire must have forced them back into cover as nopony shot at me.  I once more eyed our target before looking back into town.  It didn’t look good.  I hurriedly ducked back down, lest someone decided to get brave and snap off a couple shots.

“I got your back, boss!” Balefire said from across Stone’s back.  The green unicorn grinned as his revolvers floated beside him, their cylinders spinning in his magical field.  The older grey stallion glanced over his shoulder and snorted a bit at the cocky comment before speaking up himself.  His green eyes slid from the unicorn to me.

“Ya sure ya wouldn’t rather Wild or Ah come with ya, Shadow?” Stone asked, glancing back at the young buck beside him once again.  Balefire either ignored the implied question of his skill or had not heard him.

In truth, I would much rather have one of them with me as both had proven themselves capable fighters under pressure.  Both had been with me since I’d began my journey to save my sister, and I knew we worked well together... but that wasn’t exactly fair to Balefire.  The green unicorn had proven himself ever since joining us aboard the raiders’ prisoner train.  He’d fought with us in Tombstone, storming the bank beside me and later when I’d chased Bufford into that store in Oddwick.  He was a skilled fighter and a trained soldier of the Confederate Army.  Not to mention a Ranger in said army.  One did not earn that position easily... at least I hoped not.  There was also another reason for my choice in backup.

“Both Balefire and I have short ranged weapons (though I’d made some rather amazing long range shots for a shotgun over the past month) and it would be better for getting in close with the raiders,” I answered Stone’s question.  The grey stallion nodded his head and glanced back to the lip of the ditch we lay in.  I followed his gaze while adding, “Plus, if I get into trouble, I’ll need somepony to blow the raider’s face off with a well placed shot.” 

“Ah think Ah can do that,” Stone said with a chuckle, his lips curving upwards into a smirk.  From the other side of Carrion, I heard Wild snort loudly and I grinned myself.  “Just don’t go makin’ a habit outa it,” he added.

“I’ll do my best, Stone... but you know how I am.” I smirked and looked back towards the edge of the ditch and at what my E.F.S. showed me.  Eight red dots stood between us and the town of Old Oaks, a town that was quickly being consumed in fire.  Every so often a couple of other dots would appear as raiders wandered into my Pipbuck’s range.  Beyond the six of us, the rest of the town was devoid of life.  Perhaps they were just out of range?  After all, I wasn’t picking up every single raider in town either, and there were a number of them beyond the wall.  You could hear them from here over the sounds of fighting and ringing... wait... what was that?

I blinked and sat up a bit more in the shallow trench we lay in, ears perking towards the new sound: a high pitched, ringing noise.  It was faint, likely due to it coming from so far away and the louder noises nearer us... but I could still hear...

“Do you guys hear something?” Wild asked, the orange mare’s head tilted to the side as her own ears perked up.  Like me, she’d caught that sound ringing out across the blazing ruins.  Stone and Balefire both stopped and listened, heads angled towards the lip of the ditch.  We weren’t the only ones to hear it though as the sound of laughter and shooting slowly came to a halt as the raiders too listened to the sound.

“Is that... a school bell ringing?” Balefire asked, his eyes looking over to Stone.  “I could have sworn it sounded like the school bell from my old home town...”

“Why would raiders ring a school bell?” Carrion asked.  Despite the fact they were glowing, I could see confusion in the ghoul’s orange eyes as he glanced about the group.  His tattered ears twitched to the steady rhythm of the bell.

“It ain’t th’ raiders... it’s th’ survivors,” Stone answered their questions.  His hoof reached up to tilt his hat back from his widened green eyes. “They musta saw us fly overhead...”

“And they’re letting us know somepony’s still alive in there,” Wild finished for her coltfriend, narrowing her own stormy blue eyes towards the wall and the raiders beyond.  “As well as everything else in town...”

“They won’t be for long.  If they have not focused upon the schoolhouse before, they will now,” Spirit stated calmly from behind us.  For such a large buffalo, she made almost no noise when she wanted to.  She had her rifle off from around her neck, and the barrel pushed up against the rim of the ditch.

“She’s right,” Carrion added.  The ghoul pony’s horn glowed steadily as he ejected the nearly spent clip from his assault rifle.  It switched places with another, going into his saddlebag as the fresh clip clicked home into the weapon.

“Not if we can help it,” I growled. “Alright everyone, get ready to cover us.  Balefire... it’s time to pony-up.” I inched towards the left side of the ditch, carefully moving around Carrion.  As I passed him, the unicorn readied his assault rifle to open fire on the raiders.  Balefire followed closely behind me, keeping his head lowered as he worked his way between Stone and Carrion to join me near the shallow end of the trench.  

As we readied ourselves, waiting for the right time to give the signal to open fire, my eyes wandered towards the town’s wall.  I looked over the shadows playing along its uneven surface until I spotted our destination.  Just beside what had once been a washing machine, was the gap I’d seen.  The shadows were a bit darker where the hole disappeared into the wall.  Carrion had been right, it wasn’t very big at all and had likely been caused by a smaller explosive.  Still, it should be enough room for us to get in single file and we really had no other choice at the moment.

So... this was what I’d come back out into the wasteland to do?  Once more into the breach and all that shit?

Despite what I was about to do, I found myself oddly calm.  Here was something I’d become used to, risking my life for strangers who would very likely not do the same thing for me if our roles were reversed.  Doing the right thing.  Not for pay or praise, but because it was the right thing.  As my parents had taught us.  As Ebony would have wanted me to do.

“Ready,” Stone whispered, rifle gripped tightly between his teeth.  His eyes narrowed as he watched me from beneath his dusty, old cowpony hat.  I had no doubt he already had a target lined up who would very soon be dead.

“Let’s do this,” Balefire whispered from beside me.  He was hunkered close to the ground with his revolvers floating beside his face.  I looked away from the grinning buck and back towards our target.

If ponies only did something for somepony else, expecting to get a reward for the deed, then why did we put so much faith in friendship?  It had been what had saved us so long ago when Equestria had first been founded.  It had been what united us all against those foes who had sought to destroy what we’d built.  Helping others was the right thing to do.  It was the pony thing to do.  These ponies needed help.  Needed somepony to save them from something nopony else would.  Did that make it my destiny then?   

Was it my destiny as Second Sight had said?  Was I destined to be some great hero?  A forerunner for those who would come after?  

I honestly didn’t know... maybe it was... maybe there was a mare somewhere who would make everything better... who would bring the old Equestria back from the grave...  

The weight of Luna’s Ruse lightened as I took the firing bit once more into my teeth and shifted my weight on my hooves.  As I did, I felt the small stones and bits of smooth glass mixed into the soil brush against my hoof.  Closing my eyes, I steadied my breathing and readied myself for the mad dash.  Oddly, despite it all, I felt a smile spread across my face.  Was this my destiny?  It really didn’t matter in the end.  

I opened my eyes and looked towards the small breach, ears rising upwards as my smile widened.  Regardless of the reasons, they didn’t really change anything.  I’d have been here regardless of what some zony said.  

“Covering fire!” I growled quietly so that only those nearest me could hear.

Carrion opened up first with his assault rifle.  The glowing weapon floated inches above his head as he squeezed the trigger with his magical grip.  7.67mm rounds screamed from the gun’s barrel and down range into the hardcover in which the raiders had set up their welcoming committee.  

Stone was quick to follow, and though lacking a horn that the ghoul soldier possessed, the earth pony rolled up to the edge of the ditch to brace the wooden stock of his rifle upon the soil.  Almost a second later and without seeming to even need to aim, the rifle cracked to life, sending its’ deadly round towards a raider.  

The orange mare beside him simply tossed caution to the wind and stood up, clamping her teeth down hard on the firing bit of her battle-saddle weapons.  The twin heavy rifles on either side roared to life, drowning all other sounds of battle.  Spent brass rounds rattled from the ejection ports of the weapons as orange flashes of light flared at the ends of the barrels.  New holes were blown into the junk pile of a wall, sending bits of metal raining all around in a deadly shower.  

Even Spirit added to the storm of lead being flung towards the raiders, her clip-fed rifle popping as quickly as she could squeeze the trigger.  Her aim wasn’t anywhere near as good as the others’, but it didn’t have to be for this.  It just had to make the raiders keep their heads down, all happening within seconds of my shout.

Flicking my ears back, I dug my hooves deeply into the soil beneath me, kicking up bits of rock odd bits of debris as I came charging up and out of the ditch.  My mane and tail flew behind me as I galloped hard for the wall and the narrow gap half hidden within the shadows.  Behind me came another set of pounding hoof steps as Balefire followed me across the open ground.  Further behind me, the sounds of firing began to peter out as clips and magazines were emptied or they were forced back into cover from the raiders’ returning fire.  

At least those still capable, since my E.F.S. had once more been forced to update the enemy count from eight to six.  I had a feeling I had Stone to thank for at least one of those... if not both.  That stallion was a damn good shot.
 
I doubted any of the remaining raiders could draw a bead on us from their position, and it didn’t look as if they’d seen us either.  I skidded slightly in the loose gravel near the wall as I adjusted my path, leaving a cloud of dust and loose stones to drift away from me.  The gap was just ahead and was far more jagged than I’d expected.  Bits of metal, rock, and wood seemed ready to cut into our flesh as we approached the breach.  Well, it was the only way past the raiders and would be the least likely thing to kill us.  

I lowered my head and lunged forward, intent on forcing my way through and trusting in my combat armor to protect anything vital from being cut to pieces.  Somehow, I managed to avoid the worst of the sharp bits, though I hardly got out scott free. 

As I passed between the two ends of the hole, I felt something nick my armored shoulders and forelegs.  The scrap of metal sounded as loud as a gunshot to my ears as sparks shot off from my right shoulder pad.  Something else brushed across my face, leaving a scratch along my cheek and just above my right eye.  That same something caught hold of my mane and jerked my head backwards a bit as I pushed through.  I snarled as the strand of white hair came free of my head.  Son of a bitch, that hurt!  I was forced to hurriedly lift a hoof up to my head, least my hat join the bits of hair that had been ripped free from my scalp.  

Lastly, I felt my saddlebags being pulled back just as I set hoof on the town side of the wall.  I frowned and briefly thought of seeing if I could free them.  After all, my spare ammo, food, and water was all contained within them.  A sudden increase in the number of red dots around us, however, made me decide against it.  I pushed on through, hearing wood snap and metal twist as I reached the other side of the breach.  Luckily, the tough, old bags were more rugged than I’d given them credit.  They managed to remain on my body while being ripped free of the grasping bits of junk I’d ran through; all without the buckles or straps snapping free or any deep tears in the fabric.

I wasted no time in turning back towards the larger breach in the wall, where the cluster of six red dots lay pinning the rest of my friends down.  Behind me, I heard Balefire struggling through the narrow gap I’d just come through.  Like me, he’d run into many of the same problems and I briefly glanced back to make sure he was alright.  The unicorn had fully pushed his way through the twisted grasping bits, his revolvers floating several inches out in front of me.  He slowed a bit to shake himself off before looking back towards me and nodding his horned head.  He was good to go on, despite a deep cut upon his cheek and a number of smaller  scratches across his neck and flanks.  He looked unharmed otherwise.

Turning back towards the raiders nearest us, I slowed my pace a bit to allow Balefire time to catch up with me.  As we trotted forward side by side, I scanned the area around us.  The buildings nearest us were little more than smoking husks, their blacked timbers and bricks scattered about the still glowing ashes.  Past them, further into town, the homes of the townponies burned brightly.  The heat easily reached me as we pressed onward.  Beads of sweat ran down my face and neck, and under the black combat armor my jumpsuit was getting damp with my perspiration.

We’d barely taken a dozen steps when the broken remains of a section of the town’s defensive wall came into sight.  Fallen refrigerators, metal chariots, tractors, and bits of stone and concrete lay about the ground where it’d been blown about by the explosion that had breached the wall.  Laying among them was the source of the red dots on my E.F.S. and the burning buildings behind us.

Six raiders took shelter in the broken bits of the wall, spiked bits of crude hoofmade armor covering their patchy scarred and tattoo covered hides.  Bits of chain, rope, and cable hung from about the armor, holding everything from spare clips and magazines to grenades and bloody trophies.  All of it was covered in rust, dirt, and dried blood.  They were a collection of unicorns and earth ponies, and wielded rusty weapons; most commonly, battered old Equestrian assault rifles.  It was the most heavily produced weapon of the war, so it made since it was the most widely used gun in the wasteland.  

Their focus was largely on my friends taking shelter in the ditch just beyond the wall.  One appeared to actually be patching up a wounded comrade who’d taken a round to the shoulder.  The wounded raider snapped his teeth at his would-be medic in pain before looking away from his bleeding wound and over towards the burning town... and us.  His yellowed, sickly eyes widened in surprise at seeing two armored ponies standing behind them.  He lifted his unwounded fore leg up to point towards us and opened his mouth to shout a warning to the others.

He was unarmed.  

He was already wounded.  

He was a raider.

I didn’t hesitate.

Luna’s Ruse came up just as he was opening his mouth.  The custom combat shotgun roared to life as I squeezed the trigger.  Smoke and fire blossomed from the weapon’s black barrel and launched the solid metal slug through the air towards my target.  The wounded raider’s chest exploded in a fountain of blood and bone as the shot tore through his unarmored body and out the other side.  He was dead before the force of the blast knocked him back against the ruined wall, bouncing his head off a chariot’s rusting wheel and sliding down onto his side.

The raider standing over him jerked his head back in shock as bits of blood and flesh from his dead friend covered his face.  He turned towards us and, as he did, I saw the horn atop his head snap to life.  His magic took ahold of the assault rifle propped up beside him on the wall, intent on returning fire.

However, he didn’t have any more luck than his dead comrade, as Balefire opened up on him with both his revolvers.  What the smaller weapons lacked in raw force and stopping power over Luna’s Ruse, they more than made up for in rate of fire.  My friend’s horn glowed brightly as he pulled the triggers one after the other, sending each gun’s barrel climbing from the recoil as the round shot out towards his target.  

This was why unicorns rarely dual-wielded weapons.  The focus required to manipulate two guns at the same time left the focus of simply holding the weapons aloft weaker.  The weaker magical field meant the weapon’s recoil would be much greater than if they were holding a single gun.  Dual-wielding would spring back much more, throwing off the wielder’s aim. 

While Balefire was young, cocky and sure of himself at times, he was still the most skilled pony I’d ever seen using two revolvers.  Where most unicorns seemed to fight the recoil fully, he allowed it some freedom, while still holding the mouth grip firmly as he could in his magic.  As he fired the second revolver, the first was already being lowered back into position, where it would be fired again.

The result was the second raider’s body jerking backwards as bullets ripped into his exposed flesh.  The glow about his horn flared as his focus on his magic faded from the pain of a number of wounds, before going out completely as a round struck him in the throat.  The battered assault rifle clattered uselessly to the pavement.  A shaky, dark brown hoof reached upwards the bleeding wound as he attempted to stem the flow.  He was as good as dead, however, and stumbled to the ground beside his dropped weapon.  Two down, four to go.  Celestia knew how many more still waited within the town behind us.  A problem for later though.

His attention drawn to the rear, a raider near the breach turned around and brought his rifle to bear upon us.  His face twisted up in a snarl as he squeezed the trigger of his weapon.  The round cut closely to my flank as Balefire and I took cover behind a fallen piece of the wall.  Another round pinged off the metal slab before burying itself into the soil as a second raider caught onto what was happening.  More rounds struck around our cover and even over our heads to strike buildings further in town.

“I think we got their attention, boss!” Balefire said with a grin, his revolvers floating up to his chest as he began to reload them.  The cylinders slid out to either side of the pistols, releasing their spent shells which rattled about the ground between his hooves.  Fresh bullets floated up to them from the belts his guns hung from.  Once more, I found myself impressed with his skill as he managed to reload both weapons at once.  

“Yeah, I sorta noticed that,” I shot back and snorted at the young pony’s humor.  Peering over the edge of our cover, I saw the remaining raiders turning their focus on us.  It was just what I was hoping they’d do, and what the others had been waiting for.  Four green dots began rapidly approaching the remaining four red dots from just beyond the wall.  A moment later, one red dot winked out.

A bullet ripped through the skull of the raider still nearest the wall.  His old, battered military helmet did little to save him due to the damage it’d already taken both from combat and its owner.  The chin strap snapped and sent the spiked helmet rolling away from the dead body as it too toppled down to the ground, the top half of it’s head missing.  A raider turned, unsure who to attack before starting to move back towards the wall.  He paid for his hesitation with his life as I brought Luna’s Ruse up and fired off two rapid shots towards him.

The first round caught him in mid step and staggered him sideways, nearly knocking him off his hooves.  His forward movement, however, drove him into the second shot.  It had originally been aimed for his chest as well, but instead struck his right shoulder.  The crude cooking pot he wore as armor upon his shoulder did nothing to stop the slug, which all but ripped the limb from his body.  The raider screamed in pain and slumped to the ground, his remaining hooves lashing out wildly as he bled to death.  

The remaining two raiders charged towards Balefire and I, intent on at least killing us if nothing else.  I shouted out a warning to the green unicorn beside me before turning my shotgun towards the pair.  I didn’t need to have bothered, as one simply seemed to disappear in a hail of high caliber rounds that poured like heavy rain through the breach, leaving bright orange tracers behind them.  The other staggered as he was peppered with shots from two revolvers.  He dropped to his knees as his partner’s gun spun away from the bloody mess that its’ owner had been reduced to after being hit by both of Wild’s guns.  

The wounded raider’s eyes locked with mine as he struggled to bring his own rifle up towards me.  He didn’t even clear the ground when Carrion calmly stepped from behind the wall and put a bullet through the back of his head from nearly point blank range.  The body dropped to the ground a moment later, smoke drifting up from the hole that had been drilled through his head.

“Well, that was easy,” the ghoul said as he wiped the barrel of his assault rifle off on the filthy clothing of the dead raider.  The former Equestrian army officer looked up from the cooling body and towards me. “So, what now?”  Behind him, I saw Stonehoof already beginning to strip the dead raiders of anything useful as Wild helped.  The winged mare tossed any medical supplies they found to Spirit who was placing them into her saddlebags as she brought up the rear of the group.

As the ringing in my ears began to clear from all the gunfire, I could once more pick up the sounds of still distant fighting going on.  Along with the clear sound of a bell ringing out.  

A call for help.

“Now, we save some ponies,” I answered, rising up from the cover Balefire and I had taken shelter behind.  I slid open the drum feed of my weapon and began reloading it, knowing I’d likely need every single shot.  My E.F.S. had begun to update itself after the fight and crossed over into the town.  Red dots were beginning to appear in larger numbers.  Unfortunately for us, nearly all were together and deeper inside the town.  I counted at least thirty of them, maybe more if they were too close together for my Pipbuck to pick up individuals.  But there was something else it was picking up: green dots.  Well over a dozen of them and all of them right in the middle of the red dots in two locations, though there were far more in one location than the other.  Likely Town Hall, since that was where the majority of the survivors were supposed to be holed up.  

Thirty raiders versus the six of us.  It would have been better if the raiders had been more spread out.  We could have thinned out their numbers a bit.  Now... now it appeared we’d be facing a small band of the mad ponies.  

I snapped the drum shut on Luna’s Ruse and turned towards the center of town.  Behind me, I heard the flap of wings as Wild took to the air.  A gentle breeze announced her arrival beside me a moment before the orange coated pegasus mare dropped down.  Her ears swiveled towards the still ringing bell before she asked a question.

“So, how many of them are there between us and the survivors?”

“At least thirty, maybe more since they’re so densely packed in a single area,” I answered, ears twitching to the sound of the bell.  My hoof pawed at the ground.  I was ready to rush in and save those trapped, but doing so would get us killed and help nopony.

“Ah reckon that’s bout five ta one,” Stone said as he joined Wild and I.  His green eyes scanned the empty street and the burning buildings ahead of us. “Not good odds, but Ah’ve seen worse,” he added as he calmly sat down beside the orange mare and began checking his rifle for any dirt. 

“Odds never been something he’s worried about,” Carrion said from behind us.  I suppose he meant me, and he was right of course.  The odds have never been in my favor since leaving Stable 45, but somehow I manage. 

“So, what's the plan?” Wild had been watching Stone work on his rifle before turning away and looking over towards me.  Her wings folded back against her sides as she waited on my answer.

“Did you get a look at the center of town while we were flying over?” I asked, looking away from the road ahead and to my friend.  “I couldn’t see much thanks to the smoke.” I waved a hoof towards the sky, where smoke hung over much of the town.

“I did, it’s hardly much more than an intersection with a large stone building on the street corner, likely Town Hall.  I think the town’s police station was beside it and the school was further on down the road, so that’d put it between us and Town Hall.”

“That sounds ‘bout right from what Ah can remember of this place,” Stone added from beside his marefriend, his check of his rifle finished.  He looked once more down the street ahead of us.

I’d spotted both the police station and the school through the smoke, so I had a better idea where she and Stone were talking about.  The two buildings we were most worried about would be within a quick run of each other, that would save on time.  With them being so close together, we could more easily drive the raiders back from both.  Still, that was thirty raiders to drive back and only six of us.  Granted, we were damn good at killing raiders by now.

“Those trapped within the school house will need our help soon.  The only reason they have not yet been killed is due to the fact that the raiders had not seen them inside,” Spirit added as she joined us upon the road into town.  The buffalo closed her saddlebags as she came to a halt beside us.  She had a point.  Town Hall had held out thus far (if it still had and, judging by the green dots, I was sure it had.)  The only thing that had thus far saved those ponies in the school was the fact they had managed to avoid being found by the raiders.  The building itself would likely have little protection from the raiders and would fall sooner than Town Hall.  Damned monsters loved going after those weaker than themselves.

I looked back around at my friends.  This was going to be a hell of a fight.  While getting in and out of Kanter City had been hectic, this would be  far more different.  At Kanter City we were going in quietly, and even though we had had to fight our way out, we had still been moving forward.  Being mobile had saved us from being truly swarmed by the raiders’ sure numbers.  Here, we’d almost have to go hoof to hoof with the raiders if we had any chance of saving the survivors.  

As I thought once again of that nightmarish city, my eyes stopped upon Carrion who was reloading his spent magazines.  He’d survived for years in the tunnels and sewers of his former home fighting raiders.  He’d been out numbered badly, but had managed to come out alive... for the most part.  Shame we didn’t have tunnels to fight the raiders in... wait a second.  I turned back towards Wild and quickly asked.  

“Were the buildings around them on fire yet?”  It would be just like the wasteland to spare the survivors from the raiders only to burn them alive, but that wasn’t my only reason for asking.

“No, I don’t think the fire’s reached any of them just yet.”  The orange mare stood still for a moment and lifted her muzzle towards the sky, spreading her wings.  I arched a brow, wondering what she was doing before she looked back to me.  “The wind is actually blowing away from the center of town and towards us.  Unless the raiders have begun setting fires, which I doubt they have with their focus on the survivors, the buildings should be alright for the time being.” Wild flicked an ear back towards the street as a loud blast of gunfire drowned out the bell for a moment.  She returned her full attention to me, however, when she noticed the smile I was wearing and arched a brow towards me. “What?”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about raiders over the past month, it’s that they can’t resist a helpless target.” I waved a hoof towards her.  “Without all your weapons, you could pass for a harmless mare well enough I imagine.” I began rubbing my hoof along my jaw as I thought about it.  Yeah, this could work... but she’d need to be unarmed for them to take the bait.

“Ah can honestly say, that even without her guns, she an’t a harmless mare,” Stone added, earning a slap from Wind’s tail a second later.  “Ow... see what Ah mean?”

“Carrion, how many mines do you have on you?” I turned towards the ghoul, my plan already forming in my head.  In truth, it had been recalling how Carrion had survived in the sewers and tunnels of Kanter City for so long that I’d gotten the idea.  To answer me, the ghoul sat down and reached back with a fore hoof, opening the saddlebag facing me.  Inside was a number of small round disks, along with a couple square boxes that looked homemade and a few grenades nestled beside them, “Right... silly question.  How long would it take you to set them up?” he arched a rotting brow towards me before a slow smile began to spread across his snout.

“I think I see where you’re going with this, how many buildings do you want to rig?”

“Two at most, I don’t want to split us up anymore than we have to and there’s no telling how many would actually take the bait.  We’re already outnumbered as it is.”

“About twenty minutes if somepony helps me.  If this works, it should even the odds a bit in our favor.”

“If what works?” Balefire asked, looking between us all.  His ears folded back against his head in confusion before shooting upright at another burst of gunfire echoing down to us from deeper within the town.  

“I’ll tell you on the way to the center of town, for now we better hurry.  We’re on the clock here.”  With that I took off at a dead run up the road, praying we’d have time to set everything up before things went to hell.  I could hear my friends’ hooves clattering close behind me as they quickly caught up with me.  We’d not gone far when Balefire pulled up alongside me. 

“So, what’s this plan?”  His revolvers were floating closer to him as he ran.  He was unwilling to holster his weapons while we ran, the risk of being attacked at any moment being on mind.  A smart move he’d likely been trained to do.

“I’d like to hear that myself, since it seems I’m going to be used as bait, once again,”  Wild added as she flew just above and to my right, her eyes on the path ahead looking for any signs of trouble.  She nor Balefire need not have bothered, my E.F.S. still seemed to place the raiders further down the street.

“We can’t go head on against that many raiders and hope to come out in one piece.  Getting ourselves killed won’t help the ponies of Old Oaks any.  I actually got the idea from Carrion.” The ghoul looked over towards me and cocked his head.  “How you held out in the tunnels of Kanter City.  By laying traps for any of the patrols sent down to kill you.”  He nodded his horned head and looked back ahead.  “We’re going to do something similar.”

“Ah reckon that’s why ya was askin’ bout the buildin’s around th’ survivors.  Yer plannin’ on lurin’ th’ raiders into some of’em and blowin’em ta bits,” Stone spoke up from just behind me, the larger stallion’s hoof steps easy to make out as he ran.

“And you’re planning on using my sexy flanks to get them into the buildings?” Wild snorted as she looked down at me as she flew over. “Ya know, one of these days you boys are going to have to be the bait.  Raiders like stallions just as much as mares.  After all, they just want something warm to put their...”

“Next time we need bait I’ll do it,” I hurriedly added before she could finish that sentence to it’s no doubt colorful conclusion.  “And you’ll only be luring them into one of the buildings, not both.  The raiders won’t be able to resist chasing after a single unarmed mare after spending a couple hours fighting to a standstill outside of Town hall.  You lead them into the first building that Carrion rigs up with some traps.  We’ll let them stumble around and pick off the survivors from the safety of cover.”

“And the second building?” the ghoul asked as he jumped across a small overturned cart, bits of stone and junk lay scattered across the pavement.  Perhaps they’d been attempting to repair the damages to the wall from the first attack on the town.  I tried to ignore the large red stain beside the harness of the wagon and the discarded doll laying in the debris.

“Those of us not backing up Wild will be holed up in there.  We’ll take a couple pot shots at the remaining raiders to draw their attention to us and then let them come storming inside.  I doubt they’ll just sit back, knowing how much they love getting in close.  Once inside, we’ll let the mines and other traps that Carrion sets up do most of the work like Wild’s building and we pick off the survivors.”

“And if they do hang back?” Balefire asked. “You're right about them loving to get in close... bastards love looking in a pony’s eyes when they got them.”  The stallion’s ears laid back and he locked his eyes on the street ahead. “But they might just return fire on us while the others go after Wild.”  I recalled how he came to be in San Ponsisco and answered his question.  We all had reasons to hate the raiders.

“Then Wild and the others can flank them once they’re finished with the raiders they’ve lured into her building, or they can slip out the back and rejoin us.”

“Its a good plan, Ah reckon we’ll get at least ten or fifteen of’em like this, maybe more dependin’ on if we can shoot a few of’em from th’ buildin’s.  Only thin’ botherin’ me is this plan depends on them raiders chasin’ after Wild.  What if they don’t and all stay back ta fire on us?”

“Then we’re in defendable positions from where we can pour fire down onto them.  If things start looking bad we can fall back into town and perhaps draw some of them with us, giving the survivors some breathing space,” I answered, darting around a flaming piece of debris that had managed to find its' way into the middle of the street.  “I know the plan isn’t perfect, but I think it’s our best chance at saving these ponies.”

 “Good enough for me.  If th’ survivors got any ammo left from all th’ fightin’ they’ve been doin’, Ah reckon they’ll more than happily take a couple shots at any raider comin’ outta cover.” Stone drew up alongside me, his ears laid back atop his hat as it rustled about in the wind. “Ah’ll be goin’ with Wild of course ta th’ first buildin’,” he added, and by the tone he used it was clear this was not up for discussion.  I glanced over to my friend.

In truth I’d rather have him in the second building.  He was the best shot we had, and up on a second floor he’d likely pick off a half dozen raiders all on his own.  He could do the same from the first building, but if Balefire was right, the others may hang back and shoot at us.  However, I had half suspected going into this that he’d refuse to leave Wild’s side.  Especially knowing she’d be unarmed for the beginning of my plan.  I supposed there was no pony better to watch her back... and I really wasn’t going to change his mind at any rate.

“Alright, that’s fine, Stone.  Wild, Balefire and yourself will be in the first building.  Carrion, Spirit, and myself will take up position in the second.” I looked back ahead of us and flicked my ears back.  The street was blocked by a pair of broken wagons turned onto their sides.  Somepony had likely set them up as a hasty barricade to slow down the raiders.  All around them were signs of heavy fighting; spent shell casings, empty glass bottles (which had likely been filled with health potions), and the still bodies of a couple of raiders lay about the wheels and on the sides of the wagons.  From beyond them, we could hear the sounds of a large number of ponies.  I could see the red and green dots more clearly.  My original number of raiders had grown from thirty to closer to forty.

“That’s gotta be town hall there,” Wild whispered as she dropped from the air to land on the ground.  She moved up between Stone and myself to point it out.  She didn’t need to bother, as even without the orange hoof raised beside me, I could clearly make out that this was an important building.

While none of us could see the lower floors, what we could see was impressive for such a small town.  The corners of the building were made out of the same dark brown and red stone I’d seen throughout the wasteland, while the walls themselves were made of brick.  It reminded me of the bank in Tombstone, thought it lacked the pillars that lined that building’s front.  The windows were arched and outlined in white stones or bricks.  Like the wagons that separated us from it, the building bore the marks of fierce fighting.   

Bullet holes pot marked the building’s stone work, leaving small to large holes all across it’s once smooth walls.  Those windows I could see had been hastily boarded up from inside with whatever the ponies had at hoof.  In some cases, it appeared fortune had been pushed against them in an effort to keep the raiders out.  There were still a number of small openings near the bottom or sides of the windows for those inside to fire.  If the size and grandeur of the building wasn’t enough to mark this as town hall, then the radio tower atop it would be.  Or rather, the remains of a radio tower.  One of the raiders had gotten a lucky shot with something heavy and had blown the metal tower in half.  The twisted remains were now hanging over one side of the roof.  That would explain why they’d suddenly stopped transmitting their distress signal.

No one needed to point out the schoolhouse, the sound of a ringing bell solved that mystery.  The small bell tower atop the building’s slanted room bore a number of bullet holes itself.  As we slowly approached the wagons, another gunshot rang out and a new hole appeared in the tower.  The round struck the bell, causing it to ring out harshly from the force.  I heard the raiders beyond roaring in laughter as they toyed with their targets.  At least the red dots around both buildings were outside, as best as I could tell with my E.F.S., and the green dots were all located inside.

Edging closer to the wagons, I pressed myself up against one of them and rose up onto my hind legs.  I placed my front hooves on the wagon’s side to help myself balance.  Beside me, my friends took up similar positions as they attempted to get a look at what we were up against.  Before I leaned up anymore, I hurriedly reached up and removed my hat before poking my head up over the side and scanned the center of town.

The raiders had split into two groups, the first group had the majority of them with around twenty eight or so.  They surrounded the Town Hall and had set up a crude camp of sorts in the street in front of the building.  A number of cooking fires had been set up around ratty tents and a pair of wagons.  My stomach twisted at the smell coming from those fires and the thought of just what they were eating.  Worse still was the sight of bodies strung up on lamp posts along the side of the road, mutilated in any number of horrible fashion.  Even worse, a few were still alive.  Their pitiful whimpers and prayers for death were all but drowned out by the harsh laughter from their tormentors.  

My eyes narrowed as I looked over the monsters that were once ponies and searched for any signs of black power armored raiders among them.  Balefire’s comments in San Ponsisco made me wonder if we’d have to face one of them here.  If they were indeed twisted Steel Rangers in those suits, then that could explain the raiders’ sudden use of tactics.  Stories I’d read about the Rangers back in the Stable had made them out to be powerful warriors in mind and body.

Thankfully the search turned up empty.  However, there were still a good deal of the spike armored variety, as well as a few with battered security barding from a number of different Stables judging by the numbers on some of them.  At least those that I could still see the numbers, most were covered in filth.

The second small group of raiders had broken off from the main group and were milling around the school house, occasionally firing off their weapons into the thin wooden walls.  Spirit had been right; the trapped ponies inside there would need our help the most.  What little separated them from the laughing beasts was just wooden walls and doors.  The only thing that had kept them alive thus far was the fact the raiders were only making half assed attempts at getting inside, seeming to enjoy mocking the trapped ponies.

Movement from my right drew my attention away from the raiders.  Carrion was quietly making his way over to me, the ghoul rising up to peer over the wagon at my side.  His orange eyes took in the scene quickly, before lingering on the ponies hanging from the lampposts.  It likely reminded him of Kanter City as well.  He was silent for a moment longer before he finally spoke, keeping his voice low due to the proximity of the raiders.

“There’s more raiders than you thought, but I take it you’re still set on going through with your plan?”  When I nodded my head in response to his question, he snorted softly and looked back out to the street.  “I thought as much.  The buffalo was right, we need to get those raiders away from that school.  I suggest we set Wild’s group up in one of the building to our right.  Most of them looked to have been mostly residence, so any of them should have a number of doorways for me to rig up with trip wires.”

“We don’t need them all trapped,” I said, eyes going from the ghoul to the raiders near the school.  One opened up with his assault rifle, laughing the whole time as the rounds struck the walls.  Empty shells rained down between his hooves.

“No, but we’ll want at least the doors leading off from the path Wild takes rigged.  Just in case these clowns try and get around in front of her.”  He glanced towards our left.  “The second building should be more straightforward, it looks like it was a store of some kind.  I’d also suggest we use those nearest one another, that way if things go badly we can at least provide fire support for each other.”

A store meant fewer rooms to lay traps in, but fewer ways for the raiders to get at us.  Both of the buildings he was suggesting were also two stories, so we could set up on the second floor and only have to worry about the stairs.  That made me think of something else and I looked back over to the explosive making unicorn.

“We’ll need to check them for back doors, or another way out.”  The last thing we needed was to get trapped in our own trap. I started to ask Stone to check the right building while I got the left, when the sound of hoof steps from behind us caught my twitching ears.  I looked back, ready to bring Luna’s Ruse up, half expecting a raider to have come up around us.  However, it was Balefire who came trotting out from the narrow space between buildings.

“Got ya covered, boss.  Both buildings have another way out.  The house has a back door that leads out into the next street over and the hardware store has a fire escape on it’s backside.  It’s collapsed from neglect, but it’s done so by falling across the neighboring building’s roof.  It should be strong enough to allow us to cross to the other building.  From there, it’s a simple matter of working our way down the collapsed roof to the street below.”

“Alright.  Lets get the explosives set up.  I doubt the raiders are going to be patient for much longer.”  With that, Carrion began trotting towards the home to our right, horn glowing as a number of things floated from his saddlebags.

I looked back towards Town Hall, which stood over the raiders’ camp.  For a moment, I saw a white face appear in one of the upper windows.  Only for a moment before it quickly disappeared back into the shadows.

Hang on, whoever you are... you’re not alone...



*     *     *     *     *




In the end, it took Carrion a little under an hour to finish rigging both buildings.  We had enough explosives to slow, maim, or kill the raiders we were about to attract.  I could hardly blame him for taking the extra time, as we were dealing with a few more raiders than any of us had originally expected to be going up against.  Luckily for everyone involved, the raiders seemed content enough to simply torment their victims from outside the school house.  It also allowed us time to find the best possible firing positions within our respective buildings for the coming fight.

The building that Carrion, Spirit, and I had taken up position in had indeed been a hardware store as Balefire had said.  It still was judging by the merchandise on display downstairs.  Shelves of old tools, parts for houses and wagons, along with bits of junk lay scattered about the store beneath our hooves.  There were also a number of mines, trip wires, and other hazards mixed in with all those things.  Even more, so was the front door and the stairs leading up to the apartment Spirit and I was sitting in.

Like many of the other stores I’d seen throughout the wasteland, it seemed the shop owners here (both the original builder of the store and the current one) made their home on the second floor.  I suppose it made better sense than using the room for storage, seeing how many of the shops I’d been in had back rooms for that sort of thing.  Thankfully, they also made excellent places to shoot at raiders.  As Carrion finished wiring the first floor, Spirit and I had rearranged the little furniture that was in the room.  The nightstand, chester drawers, small writing desk, and trunk had all been pushed over towards the stairwell to offer us a bit of cover.  While nothing could stop any high caliber rounds completely, it was better than standing out in the open yelling, ‘hey raiders, shoot me!’  

As for the bed, it had been left where it was.  It would block out the windows completely if we were to prop it up across them.  I’d also scattered a number of personal effects across the top of it, taken from the items we had used for cover.  Photos, odd little trinkets and the like lay upon the wrinkled grey blanket.  I hoped the owner of those items would be able to reclaim them soon.  I looked away from the bed and the random bits of a pony’s life, to the window I sat beside.  For the third time in the past hour, I checked the iron sights of my newly acquired repeating rifle.  

The weapon had been pulled from Stone’s saddlebags which he had in turn pulled from the dead hooves of one of the raiders at the breach.  Like everything the raiders owned, it had seen better days a very long time ago.  The wooden stock was cracked in a number of places and had a chunk missing from the underside.  There was a good deal of dirt and rust all along the metal workings of the weapon, and strips of cloth had been wrapped about the barrel for some unknown reason.  I finished looking the weapon over and turned it onto its’ side, inspecting the lever located just in front of the firing bit.

Like the bolt action rifle, the lever action rifle was one of the older styles of firearms found in the wasteland.  At least according to Stone, that pony knew his guns.  Unlike a bolt action rifle, the repeating rifle worked by way of a lever that slid down and up by hoof.  It had originally been made for earth ponies, allowing them to fire off a greater number of shots much more quickly than they could with a bolt action rifle.  

At least, that’s what the history books say.  After seeing what Stone could do with his bolt action... well, I wondered if he couldn’t out shoot a pony armed with this.  Still, this would give me a bit more range over Luna’s Ruse.  It also helped that it was a Winnychester rifle.  A weapon seen in every western movie I’d ever seen in the Stable and written about any any number of novels.  If anything was going to give me an edge in this long ranged fire fight, it’d be this gun.  At least until they got close.  I looked up from inspecting my new weapon as Carrion trotted up the stairs.  Across from me, Spirit also regarded the ghoul as he crested the final step and looked over to us.

“That’s all I can do, short of bringing down the entire building on us and the raiders,” the ghoul said as he slipped his shoulder strap for his assault rifle up and over his head.  “Balefire is going back over to let Stone and Wild know we’re ready.”

“How is his eye?” Spirit asked from where she sat upon the floor.  After helping me move things about the apartment and checking her rifle, she’d settled down and attempted to commune with the spirits.  At least, that’s what she had told me once when I’d asked her about it on the train trip from Tombstone to San Ponsisco.

“I think he’ll be able to see out of it just fine... Stone held back a bit,” was the answer, followed by a chuckle.  

Balefire had the misfortune of being in the room while Wild had been removing her armor and battle-saddle.  Unfortunately for him, one of the buckles on her saddle had become jammed.  In attempting to free it, the mare had bent forwards.  I supposed that wouldn’t have been so bad, if she hadn’t flicked her tail in annoyance and exposed... well... Stone wasn’t happy about the young unicorn’s sparking horn.

“Got anything left?” I asked, changing the subject and waving a hoof towards my friend’s notably flatter looking saddlebags.

“I saved a few trip mines in case we need to bug out quickly.” His horn glowed brighter as he levitated three clips from his bags, placing them upon the window ledge he would be shooting from.

“A wise precaution,” Spirit added, picking her rifle up from where she’d laid it up against the window.  the buffalo looked from us to the street below the building and frowned.  “It would seem you also finished your task at just the right time.  The raiders seem to finally be preparing to take whoever hides within the school house.”

Both Carrion and I quickly looked out our respective windows to the faded red building across the street.  Spirit was correct, and judging by the half dozen raiders climbing the school’s steps, they were about to force them open.  I frowned and flicked my ears back in worry.  Wild was supposed to wait ten minutes once Balefire returned before stepping outside.  It was supposed to allow everyone time to get into position for the coming fight... but now it seemed likely to doom the two ponies hiding within the school. 

“If we open fire now, they’ll rush us first.  There’s not nearly as many explosives between us and them as there is between the others and them...”  Carrion had likely noticed my worried look, and quite correctly guessed what I’d do to stop those raiders.  

He was right of course.  The building we’d picked had fewer rooms in it than the home Wild and the others had taken position in.  This meant that the raiders would have only one way to go to find us.  Up the stairs, behind the shop’s counter.  The home, meanwhile, had a number of rooms all leading off to others with the stairs to the second floor located near the rear of the house.  They’d be forced to search for the way up, and would set off more of the traps.

“Dammit,” I swore softly, eyes fixed on two raiders as they made their way up to the school’s small porch and finally up to the double doors.  The larger of the pair, an earth pony stallion, who was so covered in scars and filth that I wasn’t sure if his coat was red or brown, approached it first.  He began pounding his large hoof upon the door, causing it to shake visibly from the impact.  The smaller, another earth pony sat down beside him.  The fellow had a slight twitch to him, and wore a manic grin upon his face.  Like the larger stallion, he was covered in scars that looked more self inflected than random... I was sure if they had been from fighting, that the end result would not spell out ‘fuk u’ across his side.  

They both laughed as the larger raider called out for whoever was inside to open up, that ‘they just wanted to talk.’  Yeah right.  I glanced down to the clock on my Pipbuck’s screen and saw only a couple of minutes had passed while we’d been watching.  Looking back up, I saw both raiders had gone from pounding on the doors with a hoof to pushing themselves up against the entrance.  Neither of the doors moved much, and despite the abuse the raiders had inflicted upon them, they thankfully remained outside.   I watched worriedly as the larger of the two lifted a hoof and shoved his smaller companion back towards the steps.  He seemed ready to decide on a new course of action on getting inside.

Turning around, he looked back over his shoulders at the doors and gave them both a hard buck with his hind legs.  The wooden barriers shook under the strike, but remained shut.  The raider narrowed his yellowed eyes upon the doors and bucked again... and again.  Stubbornly the doors held their ground, though I began to see cracks running out from where his large hooves struck.  As he hit it once again, I began to see sizable splinters falling off the damaged sections.  This only seemed to make the raider all the more angry.  He stomped his foreleg hard into the porch, punching through the wooden boards completely.  The raiders watching from out in the street began booing and jeering the huge pony, further angering him as he attempted to extract his foreleg from the porch.  

Meanwhile, the smaller raider made his way once more back up onto the porch.  Moving around his angry friend, he trotted over to one of the windows to peer inside and see what was blocking their path.  His tattered ears stood upright as he turned his head this way and that.

Come on... just a couple more minutes.  I brought my rifle up to bear on the raiders below, aiming for the large earth pony as he extracted his hooves from the hole on the porch.  The barrel of my rifle pressed against the window ready to fire.  We didn’t want to risk the raiders hearing us breaking the glass out since we had no way of keeping all the pieces from falling down onto the street below.  Granted, the raiders were making a lot of noise, but we didn’t want to risk it.  We’d also been forced to give up opening them after spending ten minutes failing to so much as budge them.  Time or paint (or perhaps both) had sealed them shut long ago.  I suppose there was little reason for anypony to want to actually open the windows.  The fresh air of the wasteland smelled either of smoke, death, or dust and likely had trace amounts of radiation mixed in with it.

As I sat watching, the shorter stallion was squinting his eyes to see past the grime that covered much of the glass panes.  Rising a hoof up over his forehead, he looked about the room beyond before his ears sprung fully upright in alarm.  A second later he jerked his entire body back and narrowly avoided a bullet that shattered the glass pane.  The round got the jeering crowd’s attention and a couple of the crazed ponies actually ducked down to avoid getting hit.

“Th’ bitches are armed and they got th’ door barricaded from th’ inside!” the short raider yelled.  He picked himself up from where he’d fallen over in his haste to avoid getting a bullet to the brain.  Meanwhile, the gunshot had attracted a fair amount of attention.  Raiders, who’d been busy in their camp, began coming over to investigate with their weapons drawn.  The new comers, however, came to a halt when a mare screamed out in terror.  I admit I jumped in surprise and, judging by the sound of dropped clips, Carrion did as well.

Shifting my position, I pressed myself more closely to the window and attempted to see just who had made that noise... what I saw made me thankful I’d not been living next door to Stone and her for the past two weeks.

Wild stood several feet from the front porch of the home she and the others had set up in.  The pegasus mare was devoid of her black Enclave armor and the large battle-saddle she always seemed to have across her back.  The mare’s wings were spread open wide, in what I’d come to understand was fear, and her stormy blue eyes shifted about wildly as she took in the large group of raiders before her.   Her ears flicked backwards and she tucked her tail between her hind legs.  It definitely would be seen as a classic display of fear for any pony.  The glance towards my window, followed by the cocky smirk and wink would dash those thoughts... if the raiders had bothered to see it. 

 They were far too busy looking at a unarmed single mare and, in their minds, just asking for their attention.  As she turned to flee, she hiked her tail and all but flashed herself at the group of stallions.  I wondered if they’d even manage to reach the traps Carrion had set up for them, or if Stone would punch them all to death first.  

I quickly lost sight of Wild as she slipped past the range of my window and hurriedly looked back towards the raiders.  Oddly, they seemed a bit dumbfounded by this... at least for a few seconds, before the large buck who’d been attempting to force the schoolhouse doors open all but ran over his shorter companion to give chase.

And that was all it took, as the herd of raiders let out a shout of approval and began following after the larger stallion.  They fired their weapons into the ground, the air, the buildings around them, and in one case their fellow raiders.  I had already begun counting them as they followed after Wild.  Five, six, eight... a couple more and we’d open fire.  We didn’t want the others getting swamped in raiders. 

 As my weapon tracked over the eleventh raider, I narrowed my eyes on him and pulled the rusty trigger of my rifle.  I felt the weapon buck in my teeth as the round was flung rapidly from the barrel.  The glass panel I’d pushed the muzzle against shattered out, sending glass shards flying as the snub-nosed 30.30 round flew through the air.  I loosened my grip on the firing bit and brought my right fore hoof downwards, working the lever action of the rifle to chamber a new round.  As I did, the first spent casing flew out of the ejection port.  It spun past my right eye as it dropped towards the ground, landing with a soft clatter even as the bullet struck my target.  

A raider stumbled among the group, a hole blown through his shoulder and out the other side.  He wasn’t dead.  I’d missed my target of his lungs due to being unfamiliar with the rifle.  Still, he was out of the fight, and would bleed to death if not helped.  Behind and beside me, I heard two other weapons discharge as Spirit and Carrion opened fire.

Sighting down the barrel of my rifle, I saw Spirit’s shot strike the raider next to the one I’d dropped.  While the round that her rifle fired was smaller and did less damage, it was still a hot piece of metal being shoved into flesh.  The raider dropped to the pavement heavily as his right hind leg gave out on him.  A moment later his head exploded in gore as Carrion swept the street below with point-tipped rounds of death.  The raider I’d shot slumped backwards as rounds ripped across his flanks and neck.  He staggered before striking a third raider who’d been forced to slow down around the two fallen bodies.

Firing again, I pumped the lever down and back up as the remaining raiders began turning towards us.  My ears twitched towards the neighboring building where Stone and the others were.  I thought I’d heard a small explosion, but over the sounds of gunfire and screaming I wasn’t sure.  Some of the raiders below began returning fire on us, blowing out the remaining glass panes of the window I was firing from and forcing me to duck.  I heard more rounds strike the sides of the building, most stopping in the aged wood, but a few higher caliber rounds pierced the walls and embedded themselves in the roof.  

Bits of wood rained down on me as the bullets struck all around the apartment.  A good number of the raiders, however, reached the door to our building and began pushing their way inside.  That was judging by the red dots merging with the green of my friends.  I rose up and began moving towards the stairs, as hoof steps pounded around the first floor of the store.  I heard items falling off shelves as the raiders, in their hurry to get to us, bumped into them.  It would be their doom.

Carrion had laid a trip wire across the front door.  When it was opened, it would trigger a bundle of grenades he had taped together that were stuck on the shelf beside the door frame.  The grenades of course were on a timer, only a few seconds, but it allowed a good number of raiders to pass by.  The door would then become jammed in bodies.  I had just reached the top of the stairs when the blast struck.  Bits of wood, metal, and flesh exploded from the edge of the stairwell.

Like a young foal’s set of dominos, the blast set off a chain reaction that went from one end of the building to the other.  Bodies were sent flying from the edge of the blast and struck the shelves of the store.  In turn, it sent them toppling over onto other raiders seeking safety.  Most of the shelves had been rigged with their own smaller explosives, which upon being disturbed began going off.  A unicorn stumbled out of the smoke, his battered pistol floating beside him.  He only had a second to look up at me before a mine removed his legs out from under him.  I watched as he spun in the air, his limbs trailing blood as they dropped out of sight.  Another pushed the screaming mess of a raider out of his way and snapped off a quick shot from his shotgun.

I ducked back behind the dresser we’d pushed over and heard buckshot ricochet harmlessly over the furniture.  I came back up a moment later and quickly returned fire on him before he could get off another shot.  My own shot was hurried and simply grazed his flank, but it was enough to make him move for cover.  Behind him, another mine exploded which was followed by another, and another.  Raiders screamed from below as they were blown to bits or lay wounded and were trampled by their fellows.  

I felt no pity for them.  

“That’s the last of the traps... we’re on our own!” Carrion yelled over his shoulder.  The ghoul pony had somehow managed to keep track of the rapid blasts coming from beneath his hooves.  He looked back towards the window he stood beside and fired his weapon on full auto.  Spent rounds rained down onto the floorboards between his hooves.

A raider stumbled into sight from the first floor.  His hind leg had been blown off and he looked a bit dazed.  I brought my rifle up and fired quickly, striking him in the chest and dropping him to the floor among the other dead bodies.
  
I turned my gun as another raider rushed the stairs.  Blood was running down his ears and nose from the force of the explosions.  He held a woodcutting axe between his teeth and had a crazed look in eyes.  I pumped the lever of the rifle, ejecting the spent round and fired again.  Not bothering to aim this time as he was nearly point blank.  The raider stumbled and dropped his axe upon the steps before falling dead across the desk.   

Three more raiders appeared, mostly uninjured and likely entering in after all the mines had gone off.  I ducked back as one unloaded his pistol up at me, peppering the body before me with rounds and splattering me with his blood.  I was lucky he hadn’t shot me with something more powerful, as I doubt the raider’s body would have stopped the rounds.  I heard them beginning to climb the stairs, even as another opened fire on me to try and keep me pinned down.  I looked from the floor to the body and narrowed my eyes.   

With a growl, I threw myself against the desk, digging my hooves into the floor as I began pushing it towards the edge of the stairs with my shoulder.  The added weight of the raider slowed me down, but I was fueled by adrenaline now that the fighting had begun.  Once the edge of the desk reached the stairs, his weight was his friends’ doom.  The desk toppled over and began sliding down the steps, its’ legs shattering like twigs as it bounced down.  The speeding piece of furniture caught the raiders below by surprise.  It jerked to a halt about half way down, becoming stuck on a wall and the bodies of the raiders who’d gotten caught between it and the stairs.  It hadn’t killed them, but then it wasn’t meant to do so.  That job was for my rifle.

I entered S.A.T.S. and, despite being slightly unfamiliar with the weapon I was using, I had a few factors on my side.  First was the fact that two of my three targets were all but pinned to the walls and desk, rendering them immobile and increasing my chances of hitting them.  Second, while it wasn’t a shotgun, the rifle worked closely enough that my skills with the other weapon seemed to translate well enough.  

Still, it was barely above sixty percent chance of a hit, less for the target who was free of the desk.  I lined up my shots on the raiders and made sure to give the lowest rating a double dose.  Four shots, three raiders, with a sixty forty percent chance of hitting them.  Releasing the targeting spell from my Pipbuck, I raised the rifle up and fired my four shots as quickly as I could.  

The first blunt nosed round spun through the hazy air of the stairwell until it reached its target.  The raider had attempted to dodge the desk by pressing himself against the wall as it passed.  It would have worked too, if not for his spiked armor making it almost impossible to press himself up to the wall entirely.  It was his own actions that had caused the desk to become stuck, as an edge of it pinned him by his flanks.  His struggles ended as a bullet ripped through his exposed chest and was stopped from exiting by the armor he wore on his back.

Shot number two was fired after turning the barrel of my rifle over to the right.  A raider was climbing over the top of the desk, a wickedly curved knife between his teeth and two pistols floating within his magical grip.  The yellow glow around the guns winked out as a round struck him just below the chin.  I’d missed his head by only a couple inches, but luckily the shot struck his neck and killed him, if a bit slower.  The dagger he’d been holding between his stained teeth dropped out of his mouth as his lower jaw ceased to exist.  The rusty, blood stained weapon clattered across the desk top until it dropped from sight.

Once more, I turned the rifle away from the soon-to-be corpse of a raider and towards my final target.  Somehow, he’d managed to avoid the desk entirely, likely due to his companions slowing it down enough for him to outrun it.  He stood up slowly from where he’d been kneeling behind the desk and brought a rifle up towards me in his mouth.  I could see the trigger starting to pull as his tongue yanked back on it.  Thanks to S.A.T.S., I managed to fire before him.

The third round left the barrel of my rifle and slammed into the raider’s chest armor.  Somehow, it appeared to be in much better shape than the others.  I noticed this as my first round was stopped by the thick metal plating, the bullet’s blunt nose giving it almost no armor piercing ability.  The armor allowed him to remain standing mostly upright, and to finish pulling the trigger on his own rifle.  

Still held within the grip of the magically aided targeting spell of my Pipbuck, I was unable to prevent what was about to happen.  My hoof pumped the lever of my rifle, chambering the next and final shot.  I lifted the weapon up to my shoulder, teeth sliding across the firing bit as the butt of the rifle pressed into my shoulder pad.  Almost like a mirror image of myself, the raider did likewise.  His yellowed, insane eyes narrowed upon me as he prepared to fire.  I fixed my eyes upon the pony on the other end of the barrel and pulled back on the firing bit with my tongue.  I heard and felt the trigger click, as the inner mechanics of the weapon triggered the round.  Almost at the exact moment, the raider’s weapon jerked back as he fired at nearly the same moment.  

The final round tore from my rifle’s barrel, literally.  The weapon had already been heavily used and I suppose it was only a matter of time before it happened.  It just chose a really, really shitty time to do it.  As the rifle fired, the cracked wooden stock pressed hard into my armored shoulder and snapped in two.  This put nearly the full force of the recoil on the firing bit and my teeth, which were raked hard by the metal bit.  The feeling of metal harshly rubbing against one's teeth was hardly pleasant, but I had gotten use to it.  Being an earth pony meant you got used to having to hold your weapons in your mouth.  That included the unpleasant things that brought with it like recoil and misfiring.  This however, hurt a lot worse than normal recoil, and I’d never had a weapon misfire before.

It felt as if a fellow earth pony had bucked me fully across the chest.  I stumbled backwards away from the cover of the furniture set across the stairs.  To sweeten that, I dropped the useless rifle to the ground, its’ barrel still smoking from the final shot.  As I began to drop to my knees, gasping for air, my eyes went back towards the stairs where I could just barely see the remaining raider.

Despite the damage to it, my borrowed rifle’s final round still managed to strike its target squarely where I’d been aiming.  The pony, who had foolishly been standing more or less out in the open while aiming his weapon towards me, was struck just above the armor that covered his chest.  The blunt nosed round had buried itself into his unprotected flesh.  He yelled out in pain and was pushed back by the force of the blow.  His hind hooves slid over the edge of the steps and he fell back down them, hooves and tail flying as he rolled down them and out of sight.

Only after his red dot on my E.F.S. winked out did I allow myself a moment to check myself over to see how bad the damage was.  With a grunt of pain, I lifted my right fore leg up and gently pressed my hoof lightly to the spot that the raider’s bullet had struck.  I could feel the sizeable dent placed within the armored shoulder pad as my hoof shakingly traced over the crumpled metal.  It’d saved me from a nasty wound that most likely would have crippled me, but in so doing, the pounding that the armor took had driven it right into my flesh.  I imagined I had a sizeable bruise under there.  At least no broken bones as the injury report from my Pipbuck normally threw up was noticeably vacant.  I lowered my hoof back to the floor and painfully stood up on my injured limb.  It could wait... we had ponies to save.

“How we doing, Carrion?” I asked through gritted teeth as I reached for Luna’s Ruse, still hanging about my neck.  The rifle had been nice, its’ longer range a blessing in the opening of this fight, but now it was time for something I knew well.  Something that wouldn’t fall apart in my face, or nearly take all my teeth with it.  Something that, while lacking range, made up for it in brute force.  As I moved, the armor over my shoulder rubbed into the flesh and caused me a bit of pain.  Pain I would ignore though.

“It looks like Stone and the others are still with us,” the ghoul began.  A quick check of my E.F.S. confirmed the fact as three green dots appeared to our right in the second building.  “The raiders themselves have actually begun falling back to a couple overturned wagons between Town Hall and us.  We also caught the survivors’ attention as they’ve begun firing on the raiders a lot more than they have been.  They must have been conserving their ammo before.”

“And the schoolhouse?” I asked.  I could already see a lack of red dots around the two green ones that had barricaded themselves within the small building.

“It’s taking the odd shot from the raiders, but for the most part they’re focusing on Town Hall along with Stone and the others.” The ghoul pony floated his assault rifle this way and that before finally lowering the weapon and flicking his ears back in frustration.  Glowing orange eyes narrowed on whatever had caught his ire.  “Damnit!  I can’t get a target from here.”  He stepped back away from the window and lowered his gun.  The light from his horn grew brighter as he began picking up the spent magazines laying about his hooves.  As the slender steel boxes floated up beside him, he began reloading them with spare rounds from his saddlebags.

“Nor can I,” Spirit added, having lowered her own weapon as she stared out her window.  She too began reaching for the few spare rounds she carried with her.  “I believe if you wish to save those within the schoolhouse, now would be an excellent time to do so.  The raiders are distracted and we have cover from the others should that change.”

I limped over towards the window I’d been firing from before and cautiously leaned forward to look outside.  Without the crusted over glass, it was much easier to see the street and buildings around us, along with the raiders still fighting. They had indeed erected a crude bit of cover for themselves, in the form of the two overturned wagons I’d spotted earlier near their camp.  Judging by the red paint and bloody trophies that covered them, I imagined they belonged to the raiders.  Below our building in the street were six dead bodies, blood and spent shell casings littering the pavement all around them.  Even more had died below us in the building.  Not a bad start to this fight.

“Shadow, you are injured.” I looked away from the street, to the buffalo who’d somehow managed to quickly and quietly close the distance between us.  Spirit had likely noticed my limp as I’d walked past her, and the dented shoulder armor was also a dead give away.  I waved her away, but the buffalo refused to do so until she’d at least inspected the wound.  As much as I appreciated her concern, if I didn’t stop her, she’d likely have my armor off and wrapping the wounded shoulder up in a sling or something.  While it’d help with the pain, we didn’t have time to mess with all that.  The raiders could attack us again at any moment.  

“I’ve had worse, Spirit.  My armor stopped the bullet and nothing’s broken, it just hurts like hell.  I’d rather not waste a health potion on a bruise.  We can fix it up after this is done.”  The medical buffalo looked as if she wanted to argue with me on that, but she finally sighed and nodded her head slowly.  While she clearly wished to ignore me and treat the wound now, she knew I was right and resisted her urge.  Instead, she withdrew a small syringe from her saddlebag and swiftly injected it into my neck.  Immediately, the pain began fading as the Med X coursed through my system.  

“That will help with the pain until we can attend to your wound.” She pushed the empty vial back into a pocket inside her saddlebag before returning to finish reloading her rifle.

I returned to scanning the center of town.  Carrion was right, there was no way we could fire on them from here.  Whoever was leading them had some basic knowledge of tactics, even if he didn’t have complete control over his troops.  Stone had been right when he’d once said that raiders were little better than animals nearly all of the time.  The wagons had been turned over in such a way that provided them maximum cover from our building.  The action only exposed some of their number to the others’ weapons.  The only real worry for them came from the survivors of the town.  Their fire had indeed increased, but was nowhere near enough to drive them off.  I could only imagine how little ammo they had left.

Looking away from where the raiders took shelter, I could just barely see the house that Stone, Wild, and Balefire had set up in.  I could immediately see why the raiders were not worried about fire coming from my friends.  From where I stood, I could see that the roof and bell steeple of the schoolhouse appeared to block nearly all firing lanes from the second floor of the home.  This unfortunately allowed the raiders the option to ignore it almost entirely.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt to link back up with the others either.  Both so we can figure out our next move and just in case those bastards decide to rush us again.  Given how a raider thinks, that’s very likely.  Without all those traps to slow them down, they’ll manage to overwhelm either building with sheer numbers unless we can bring a mass of fire onto them.”

He was right once again.  The traps he’d set downstairs had saved both groups’ lives by stunning or killing the raiders rushing inside.  It had made the job of killing those that survived almost too eas... the armor over my shoulder brushed against me again and I decided not to finish that sentence.  Still, without them to even the odds, we’d be as good as dead.  I suppose that was why Carrion had climbed to the rank of Lieutenant.  

I nodded and turned away from the window, to begin slowly trotting across the room towards the bed and the window beside it.  Smashing my hoof into the window while shielding my face with my other foreleg, I watched as shards of glass rained down onto the floor before me.  As the last piece settled, I lowered my leg and stared out onto the fire escape.  At once, I noticed a problem that Balefire hadn’t.  While it had indeed broken away from the store, and lay half atop the roof of the building next to us, it still looked good enough to support us... at least ponies.  There was no way the much larger and heavier buffalo would ever manage it... there was also the problem of the window.

“It would seem Balefire did not take into account my larger size over that of the average pony,” Spirit said as she approached where I stood.  She eyed the small window and the rickety mass of rusted metal bars.  “Nor would it seem wise to trust the fire escape with my greater weight.”  A piece of the support bar gave a small shudder and broke off, as if just looking at the thing was enough.

“It should be safe to leave the way we came in.  The fire escape was mostly there should we need to make a hasty retreat,” Carrion called out from where he busily stood reloading his weapon.  The steady click of rounds sliding into magazines could barely be heard over the sounds of gunfire coming from the street beyond the windows.  The raiders seemed determined to kill the survivors for some reason or another... though given these were raiders, that was likely the reason.  Just to kill somepony.

“A good thing we did not have to use it then.” Spirit turned away from the window and began eyeing my shoulder once more.  A frown formed on her snout as she saw me shift my weight on my forelegs a bit.  “I do wish you would allow me to treat you, but I understand that time is a factor.”

“It is indeed, enough ponies have already died due to wasted time,” I said, looking away from the window and back across the room towards the top of the stairs and the makeshift barricade we’d set up.  It would need to be moved before we could more easily make our way down the steps.  Spirit followed me to the stairs and, seeing what I was doing, began helping me to push the furniture away from the stairs.  It would have been painful work given my shoulder, but thankfully the Med X continued to work its’ magic.  

I moved over to the final piece, the heavy chest of drawers sitting on one side of the stairs.  Turning to the side, I pressed my unwounded shoulder to the thing and began pushing it towards the side.  However, it seemed to resist moving from its’ new home.  With a frown, I dug in my rear hooves into the floor and pushed more firmly against the stubborn piece of furniture.  Still, it refused to budge and by now I had sweat running down my forehead and around my eyes.  Finally, I stepped away from the heavy thing to wipe my foreleg across my face.

“As soon as you're both ready, we’ll work our way over to the schoolhouse by circling around Stone and Wild’s building.  We’ll collect the two survivors from within and fall back to the others,” I said as I prepared to give the drawers another shove.  Before I did so, Spirit stepped between me and it.

“A sound plan,” Spirit added as she easily shoved the heavy chest of drawers away from the steps with her horned head. “I am sure you loosened it for me.”

I sat my rump down upon the floor and arched a brow towards my large friend.  She had turned away to look over towards Carrion.  For a moment, I could almost swear I’d seen a smirk pass across her face as she said that.  Wildfire was likely to blame for that... she corrupted everyone around her.  I chuckled softly and shook my head before looking over to Carrion as well.  He was just finishing up his preparations on leaving.  Four reloaded clips floated across his body and slipped into two small pouches along his chest.  He glanced up towards me. 

“Indeed so,” Carrion said as he shut his saddlebags and slipped the final reloaded magazine smoothly into his assault rifle.  The slide of the weapon was pulled back as he chambered a round and turned his glowing orange orbs upon us. “The sooner we move, the better.  Raiders can’t focus on anything for very long.”

“Alright, let’s move.” I rose up from where I’d been sitting and began descending the stairs.  Spirit and Carrion fell into step behind me.

“Just try not to harm yourself again,” Spirit suggested helpfully, to which I simply rolled my eyes.  As we neared the lower stairs, she gave them a questioning look.  The spilled blood of the raiders had now stained them.  “I would suggest we be careful upon leaving this floor.  A raider may have survived the traps set for them below and may be awaiting us.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Spirit.  According to my E.F.S., it’s pretty clear around us as far as I can tell,” I answered, working my way carefully down the steps.  While I wasn’t worried about raiders suddenly popping up from the shadows, I was worried about slipping in their fluids.

“E.F.S.?” the buffalo asked as she followed me down the final few steps.  Her brow arched a bit before I waved a hoof towards my Pipbuck.  She nodded her horned head slowly.  “Ah, yes I have heard other ponies speaking of the many abilities of the thing you call a Pipboy.”

“Pipbuck actually.”

“Again with the pony names for everything.”  She shook her head and continued to follow me down.  “I have often wondered why it is your people have taken to naming your cities after yourselves so much.” 

“Hmm.  I never really thought about it like that.” I looked about the first floor of the shop.  Smoke rose from the dead bodies of the raiders, many of them missing parts of said bodies.  It was a grisly scene, even considering what I’d seen them do to their prisoners.  I pushed the body of a dead stallion out of my path and spared him no more of my time.  Mourning evil ponies could be the job of somepony else.  I wouldn’t waste my time on it, not while there were others I could still save.

Once we had our hooves on the first floor, we quickened our pace as best we could through the carnage of Carrion’s traps.  The floor was littered with debris that had fallen from the broken shelves and displays that had once lined the store's walls and aisles.  Among the scattered wares, lay the remaining bodies of the raiders, bits of broken glass, and metal parts laying across them.  Our sudden increase in pace was brought to a near crawl by the sure amount of things littering the floor.  Being in the lead, I managed to make my way towards the front of the store and the door more quickly than my friends.  Or rather to the doorway, as the door itself was missing.

Looking through the open portal, I scanned the small covered porch.  It was clear of any bodies, as the killing had taken place either within the building or on the streets beyond.  The door itself was laying out in the street, broken into three pieces with shrapnel peppering the surface of each part.  Leaning a bit more out from the doorway, I could once again see the barricade that the raiders had set up just down the street from us.  It appeared nopony was looking our way for the moment.  Their focus was upon the ponies firing down on them from Town Hall.  It seemed they’d increased their efforts since we had joined the fight.

I was just about to turn away and check on the others’ progress, when a sudden increase in green dots began appearing in the corner of my vision.  Looking back towards Town Hall, I saw no real change in the building itself.  However, I could see a few more windows that had been boarded up were now uncovered and more ponies firing from them.  This could be a problem if it drove the raiders back towards us before we were ready.  

Although, that wouldn’t explain the new friendly signatures my E.F.S. was picking up, as those within the building showed up more or less as a large green dot.  Movement from just down the street from the hardware store caught my attention and I quickly focused my eyes upon a narrow alleyway running between two buildings. 

A small group of ponies moved into view, using the building on their left as cover from the raiders clustered not far away.  My ears perked upwards as I focused on these newcomers, quickly looking them over.  There was six of them as far as I could see, four mares and two stallions.  

Only two of the newcomers seemed to be wearing any sort of armor.  They wore a mish mash of combat armor and security barding, along with a few hoof-made pieces.  All of it was well worn and heavily scarred with recent combat.  However, they lacked any signs of belonging to raiders.  I’d seen everyone from town guards to mercenaries wear armor similar to this, so I wasn’t sure what to make of them.  The four unarmored ponies, however, seemed to be looking to these two for leadership.  They followed their whispered instructions on where to stand and when to move.  They weren’t likely mercenaries then, unless they’d been working with the townsfolk closely for a while.  No, it was more likely they were members of the town's former guard or police force.

I hurriedly looked over their weapons next.  All six ponies were armed with a variety of weapons; from pistols and shotguns to rifles and even what looked like a homemade gun of some sort held by a mare.  It was the two armored ponies who seemed to be carrying the far better maintained weapons.  Likely the townsfolk had taken whatever weapons they could when the attack started, while the guards had already been carrying their weapons.

As Carrion and Spirit at last reached me, I was about to point out the little group of ponies to them.  However, one of the mares in the group looked over towards me.  The light blue coated mare’s purple eyes widened in shock upon seeing me.  I saw her mouth start to open to call out to the others.  However, she quickly thought better of it and instead began jabbing her  hoof into the shoulder of the nearest pony, which happened to be one of the guards.  The guardpony, also a mare, turned around to see what had the other in such a panic.  When the first pointed a hoof towards me, the guard looked and blinked in surprise.  Rather than shock or fright though, an almost relieved smile spread across her face. 

“If we’re going to link up with Stone and the others, we better get moving while those raiders are distracted.  Those ponies in Town Hall are really pouring it on for some reason,” Carrion called out from behind me.  I looked away from the new comers to my undead friend.

“We’ve got us some company... the good kind for once.” I sidestepped from where I’d been standing, across the doorway and to the other side to make room.  Carrion quickly moved up to where I’d just been standing and poked his head around the doorframe.  His orange eyes landed upon the two mares looking towards us and the hardware store.  His tattered ears shot upright and he looked over towards me.

“Where the hell did they come from?  I thought they were all in Town Hall.”

“They’ve likely been hiding somewhere on the other side of town from us, out of range of my Pipbuck’s E.F.S.,” I answered ears flicking a bit to the side as I thought about it.

“So, your ‘Pipbuck’ is not infallible then?” Spirit asked.  I had the feeling she already knew the answer and was simply making a point.

“Regardless, we need to contact them before we stir up the raiders.” I continued glancing over to the buffalo who merely stared past me out into the street.  A second later, she lifted her hoof up towards the doorway.

“I believe they have that taken care of,” she said simply and I followed her hoof out to the street.  Hugging the light blue mare, the armored mare pulled away and gave a last look towards the raiders before she darted away from the others.  It was clear she knew the town well.  Her path took advantage of every bit of cover she could put between her and the raiders, to hide her approach.

As she drew closer to us, I began taking in a few more details about her.  What I could see of her coat, under the mostly black combat armor, was a light grey color.  It was far lighter than Stone’s, and looked almost silver in the light of a nearby fire.  She was a unicorn, her spiral horn rising up from between the uneven bangs of her mane.  Both it and her tail were cut shorter than most mares I’d seen.  Likely it was to keep out of the way while fighting.  Both were royal blue with lighter blue stripes through them.  A sudden turn into the cover of a building’s steps gave me a look at her flank and the cutie mark there.  A single starburst with a blue circle around it.  

Like us (and any wastelander according to what I’d both seen and been told) she was loaded down with weapons and gear.  Strapped across her armored chest was a small semi-automatic pistol.  Nothing as powerful as the Raging Buck judging by its mouth grip, but a good sidearm should she need it.  On the other side of the pistol was a long bladed knife, down low enough to allow her to draw it with her mouth if she needed.  Across her neck was a zebra style assault rifle, with a cherry wood stock and black metal finish.  Like Carrion’s, it showed signs of heavy repair and customization.  The sickle style magazine was wrapped in red tape for some reason, as were a few of the clips hanging from pouches across her body.  What was most surprising was what she was wearing on her left foreleg: a Pipbuck.

When she suddenly stopped moving I looked away from her equipment to see what had happened.  It became clear as I took in her surroundings.  There was an empty lot between the building she was hiding beside and our’s.  I looked off towards the raiders, seeing their focus had not changed, then back to the mare and arched a brow.  She’d lowered her forelegs down and kept her hindquarters up... wait... was she getting ready to...

Looking over to the others, I noticed I seemed to be the only one left standing in the doorway.  Spirit had taken a number of steps back the way we’d came.  Carrion was pressed up against the wall beside the door, assault rifle floating beside him and ready to fire.  Hurriedly, I stepped back just as the sound of hooves kicking off against the pavement came from outside.  The mare dove in through the open doorway, ignoring the steps and porch completely in her mad dash to cover.  She likely wasn’t expecting the store to be in its current state as I saw her purple eyes widen and heard a soft yelp of surprise as she sailed past me.  This was followed by a crash as a body struck said mess.

I winced and looked back towards the doorway, where Carrion had already returned to his previous position.  His eyes were no doubt fixed upon the raiders.

“Doesn’t look like they heard her,” he said.  I doubted they would over the sound of so much gunfire.  

Confident we weren’t about to be rushed by the remaining raiders, I turned around and looked for our new comer.  She’d somehow managed to land on something soft rather than the sharp jagged tools and assorted junk that was once for sell in the store.  The only problem was the soft thing that had broken her fall was the body of a dead raider who was missing all four limbs.  Most of his blood had also drained out across the floor.

A bit dazed, the mare shook her head slowly to clear it before she noticed just where she was, and what was under her.  She all but lept off the raider as if he was on fire and stumbled back several steps before regaining her balance.  Her eyes dropped to the red stains covering her armor and coat, making a disgusted face.  She hurriedly wiped a hoof down her armored chest, leaving a red smear in its’ wake.

“Are you alright?” I asked, taking a few steps towards her to help steady her.  Her ears perked up at my voice and she quickly turned away from the body and towards me.  She took a moment before answering to scan my face and armor.

“I’ll live, it’s not the first dead body I’ve seen this week,” she answered finally.  Her eyes stopped for a moment on my Pipbuck before returning to my face, a questioning look in her own.  Whatever she was thinking, she kept to herself and instead looked over to the two others beside me.  “Is it just the three of you?  I thought I’d seen more...”

“No, there’s more.  The others are in the home across the street from us,” I answered, indicating the direction the others were before getting to the introductions. “My name is Shadow, and these are my friends: Carrion and Spirit Walker.  The ones across the street are Stonehoof, Wildfire, and Balefire.  We picked up your signal in San Ponsisco and flew out here as quickly as we could to help.”

“My name’s Silverluck... and did you say San Ponsisco?” I nodded and a small smile appeared on her lips.  “So Jinx really did see a sky chariot fly over the town...” the mare muttered to herself before she addressed us once again, “I was beginning to think the Confederacy was going to leave us to die, like some of the others had been saying.”

“Well...” I looked back to Carrion and Spirit for help.  However, it looked like no help would be forthcoming.  The buffalo’s face was once more unreadable, as she looked over towards Silverluck and I.  Carrion merely grunted and shook his horned head before turning away.  He once more focused his attention out across the street, intent on keeping an eye on the raiders.  As I turned back to the mare, I saw her ears once more wilt and a slight look of worry cross her face.  It soon replaced the smile and relief that had been there moments before.

“You mean... you're really it?” she asked, “Just the six of you?”

“Well, I suppose when you put it like that it sounds bad,” I said, feeling a bit under appreciated here. “But I believe we’ve more than made up for the lack of reinforcements.” I waved a hoof about the store and our recent victory against the raiders.  Once more the mare’s facial expression changed rapidly from worry to one of shock as she took in the carnage all around her.

“Sweet Luna’s horn...” she muttered, “You three did all this?”

“Yes we did, with a little help of some well placed explosives and a bit of planning ahead.”

“Planning ahead?  Since when?” Carrion muttered from the doorway.  I shot a glance towards the ghoul, who pointedly ignored the look as if he’d not said anything.

“There looks to be a dozen raiders in here...” she said aloud, carefully stepping over a hoof.  “More or less.”  She looked away from the blood splattered walls and floor to me.  “I was wondering where the rest of the raiders had gotten off to... wait, you said there were only six of you?”

“Yeah, there’s just six...”

“Then who’s in the schoolhouse?”  She lifted her foreleg up and showed me the soft green glowing screen of her Pipbuck.

“I have no idea who’s inside.  We thought it was some of the locals who’d managed to hide out when the attack began.  Whoever they are, they risked their lives to let us know someone was still alive within the town when they started ringing the bell.” A bell that had finally gone silent I noticed.

“Jinx was trying to convince me she’d seen your chariot when we heard the school bell ringing ourselves from the cellar we’d taken shelter within.  As the others and I got closer to  the main street, I began picking up friendlies away from Town Hall.  At first, I was worried the raiders had captured somepony.  When we didn’t see anypony being... well, you know... in the streets, we started thinking somepony had actually come to help us.”  She looked us over again before glancing towards the doorway.  “I suppose it could be somepony from town who’d escaped the raiders... I don’t know... everything just went to hell in a handbasket so quickly...”  She shook her head and ran a hoof across her face.  “Look... there’s maybe around twenty or so raiders left out there.  They’re bunched up pretty good behind those wagons and I can’t get a good count on them.”

“Neither can I.” I lightly tapped my own Pipbuck and she smiled a bit.

“Never thought I’d meet another Stable pony out in the middle of nowhere.” She smiled towards me before returning to the matter at hoof. “We need to finish this, and soon.  We don’t have a lot of ammo left, and I can’t imagine those within Town Hall do either.  The raiders took the police station before we could really get much of our reserves out.”

“Do you have a plan?” I asked.  It was her home after all, and she may know of a way to quickly end this.  She shook her head, however, and dashed those thoughts at once.  I sighed and nodded my head, she continued on.

“Sorry, we’ve been running for the past couple hours... I haven’t given much thought to retaking the town while focusing on keeping us all alive.  I started with eight ponies...” she looked away and I placed a hoof upon her shoulder gently.

“I’m sorry...” I offered quietly before looking away from Silver and  back over to Carrion and Spirit before continuing.  “We were just getting ready to rescue whoever is in the school before we spotted you.  Afterwards, we’re going to regroup with the others and try to plan something out to take out those remaining raiders.  You're welcome to join us.  I doubt the raiders will attempt to take Town Hall now that we’ve bloodied their snouts.”

“Alright, sounds better than just shooting them in the backs and hoping we kill them all before they kill us,” Silver answered. “But then, Buckshot’s never had a lot of good ideas.”  She chuckled a bit before looking back up and over to Spirit and Carrion. “And... just in case this all goes to shit... thanks for helping us.”

“You’re welcome, Silver, but it hasn’t gone to shit just yet.” I smiled to the mare and helped her stand back up, putting on my most confident smile. “We’ve killed twice our number already... what's a few more?”

“I suppose you're right.” She smiled back and nodded her head. “Alright, I won’t be long, we’ll need to cross quickly so they don’t...”  Her words were drowned out by a sudden flurry of gunshots followed by a yelp of pain.  The grey coated unicorn’s ears stood straight up and her pupils shrunk to pin pricks.  “Jinx!”

“Shadow... I believe it’s all gone to shit now,” Carrion said calmly as Silver pushed her way over to stand beside the ghoul.  I hurriedly turned back to look out through the doorway and felt my blood run cold at what I saw.  The blue mare who’d spotted me originally was laying on the ground with a hoof over her right flank, blood running out from a gunshot.  The armored stallion was firing off towards the raiders as two of the townsponies scrambled to drag the wounded mare back into cover.

“No!  They shot my sister!”  Before any of us could move to stop her, Silverluck took off running towards the downed mare.  Jinx, if that who the blue coated mare was, was screaming at the top of her lungs as she was dragged back into the cover of the wall.  A trail of blood spread out behind her.  I was about to call for the others to give them covering fire, when a large brown shape pushed past Carrion and I and out into the street.

Spirit Walker had heard the wounded mare’s cries and her caring nature had gotten the better of her.  Now, she was hot on Silver’s trail.  The sudden appearance of the large, brown furred buffalo on the streets seemed to stun the raiders as their fire slackened off noticeably.  A buffalo wasn’t exactly a common sight in the wasteland it seemed.  They quickly got over their shock, however, as the fire began to increase once again upon the two females.  Even from where I stood watching, I heard a round ping loudly off Spirit’s makeshift armor and swore loudly.

Looking away from the pairs’ retreating backsides, I saw six raiders rising up from behind their wagons and break from cover.  Like any group of raiders they carried a mixed bag of weapons.  Those with firearms continued to fire towards my friend and the guardpony.  The raiders’ intent was clearly written on their twisted, leering faces.  They’d spotted easy prey and were going to sate their bloodlust on them. 

Yep... things have most definitely gone to shit... well, why the fuck not?  It was what I did best after all...

“Change of plans, Carrion...” I said simply before pushing forward with all four hooves.  As I began clattering across the porch, I heard the ghoul swearing about damned foolish heroics behind me.  I raced after Spirit and Silver, catching the sound of Carrion’s hooves pounding across the pavement behind me.  

As a round sped past my face, I brought Luna’s Ruse up from where it was slapping itself against my chest armor.  Biting down on the firing bit, I turned the barrel towards the six raiders rushing to meet us and squeezed the trigger.  I knew there was no chance of hitting them, due to the speeds we were all traveling.  My snap shots were simply to try and slow them down.  I’d barely taken two shots when the steady rhythm of Carrion’s assault rifle joined in.  Red hot tracer rounds ripped across the narrow space between us and the raiders.  A space that was rapidly narrowing.

I put everything I had into running as hard as I could towards the raiders, in the hopes I’d reach them before they got to the others.  I risked a quick glance towards Silver’s group and saw that both she and Spirit had arrived.  The kind hearted buffalo was already rapidly digging through her saddlebags, yanking out a health potion and some bandages.  

Silver, meanwhile, was attempting to help calm her sister as she fired blindly at the approaching raiders.  When Spirit passed her a syringe of Med X, she quickly plunged the needle into her sister’s flank, just above the wound.  At once the screaming stopped and Jinx collapsed against her sister, sobbing quietly.  

The rest of Silver’s group seemed about as even in their effectiveness.  The other guardpony, the stallion who’d been firing before, now lay against the wall of the building and held a hoof to his neck where he’d been shot.  His rifle held weakly in his mouth as he attempted to keep firing while the other stallion attempted to help stop the bleeding. The remaining two townsponies had taken up positions close to the wounded guard and were attempting to help drive the raiders back.  

The older mare of the pair was missing badly with a hunting rifle that looked in as good of shape as a raider’s weapon.  The second mare was quite a bit younger than the others around her.  She was the one I’d seen earlier wielding the home made weapon.  The gun was larger than the grenade launcher I’d ‘borrowed’ from a robot back near Steeldome, and looked cobbled together from any number of parts.  Before I could ponder just what it did, the brown-orange coated mare clamped her jaw down tightly on the trigger and it fired with a loud snap.  A spinning disk flew from the wide muzzle of the weapon, and sliced through the air... wait... was that a saw blade?  

A moment later I had my answer, as the spinning disk slammed into the lead raider’s throat.  The sharp thin piece of metal collided into the stallion with such force that it sent him tumbling backwards.  As I looked more closely, I saw just how sharp that blade was.  It had nearly severed his head from his body and blood was spreading out across the pavement.  For a moment I’d hoped the raiders following might slip and fall in that pool, but they seemed familiar with having to avoid such things and easily avoided it.  

We reached the group of survivors a second later, as did the remaining raiders.  A crazed, wild eyed unicorn stallion came rushing towards me, his horn glowing brightly as he held both a pistol and a serrated knife in his magical grip, intent on murder.  The pistol leveled itself at me and fired off a single round, the muzzle flaring with fire as the round tore free from the weapon.  There was no time to dodge as I was still running towards them.  Thankfully, my armor deflected the bullet away from my body and sent it downwards into the pavement near me. 

 I ignored how close I’d come to dying and lashed out with my left front leg, knocking the floating pistol away from me.  At the same time, I brought Luna’s Ruse up to block the knife’s swing towards my face.  The sturdy metal that my weapon had been made from easily halted the attack  with a loud clank of metal on metal.  The raider locked eyes with me as we stood close.  I could see the madness in his, as he could see the determination in mine.  

Nopony else was going to die here. 

I quickly followed the blocked attack by swinging the barrel around to slam into the stallion’s face.  He was a born fighter and killer, however, and saw the attack coming the moment I began turning my head towards him.  He swiftly stepped back and avoided the blow before trying to bring his pistol back up towards me.  His magic was already squeezing the trigger.

Narrowing my eyes upon the weapon, I moved quickly towards him and lowered my wounded shoulder to slam into his chest.  I felt and heard the impact, as my armored shoulder knocked the air from his lungs.  Foul smelling breath washed across my face as I pushed the raider away with my right foreleg.  His balance off, he stumbled back a few steps, weapons already coming back to threaten me.  He never got the chance.  I turned my head back towards him, and squeezed the trigger.

No more.

Luna’s Ruse fired and the solid slug impacted the still dazed raider in the chest, just a few inches from his left shoulder.  It was all but blown apart by the near point blank shot, the crude rusted armor doing nothing to stop the slug at this range.  Blood, bone, and metal fragments scattered out from the wound.  I was splattered along my chest, neck, and face with bits of my foe.  His crazed eyes went wide for a moment before the twisted life within them began to fade.

He slumped to the pavement, blood gushing from the large hole where his left fore leg had been seconds ago.  Now, his blood joined the spreading pool from the other dead raider behind him.  I had no time to relax, as a second raider leapt across the fallen bodies.  A massive earth pony swung an equally massive club towards my face.  How something his size could move so quickly... but again, I found myself with no time to dodge and did the only thing I can think of.  I brought my right foreleg up to block the downward blow.  I knew it would break, but it was better a leg than a skull.

The end of the club came down hard on my leg, striking just below the knee and above my hoof... right across my Pipbuck.  Sparks flew as the metal bits that had been driven into the wooden club impacted the metal casing of the old magical device.  A Pipbuck was far more than just any magical device however.  It was made to withstand a lot of punishment... including Balefire blasts should it come to it.  Despite the force the raider put behind it, my Pipbuck did not break.  I wish I could say the same for the limb inside.

Despite padding around the inside cuff of the Pipbuck, I still felt the strike through it and grunted out loudly as pain flared up in my leg and raced up to my shoulder.  Alerts began flashing in the corner of my vision about a fractured leg bone, but I ignored them.  I could be in pain later... right now I needed to fight.

I attempted to get some room between myself and the club wielding raider.  Favoring my wounded leg as best I could, I backed away.  I wasn’t going to be fast enough, however, as he was already twisting his head about to bring the club back down upon my head in what would be a killing blow.  I doubted I’d manage to stop that with just my leg, even if I could get my Pipbuck to take the second hit.  I brought Luna’s Ruse up and entered S.A.T.S. as it finally finished recharging.

In the familiarly almost frozen time state I found myself, I had the chance to more closely see my attacker.  It wasn’t pretty.  Like most earth pony raiders I’d had the misfortune to come across, he was larger than any other I’d seen.  Larger perhaps than even Stone or Bright.  It seemed a life of killing turned ponies into muscle bound monsters with a taste for pony flesh, if his sharpened teeth were anything to go by.  His pale green coat was patchy and the pink flesh below was a mass of scars and sores.  I doubted he’d feel much of anything really and this would be a problem.  I wasn’t sure if Luna’s Ruse would have the power to knock him back... or even stagger him before he completed his downward swing.  I was sure it’d kill him... but in time to save me, too? 

Looking upwards, I eyed the club held in his rotting, yellowed teeth.  It looked as if somepony had ripped a limb off a long dead tree and beat metal spikes into it.  I suppose that very well could have been what had happened.  The spikes had not been placed so that the pointy ends showed, but they had the large, rusted flat heads exposed.  With the force of the swing, the weight of the club... they would cause massive blunt force trauma.  The club WOULD crush my skull, I was sure of it, and likely my neck and chest.  The club was the weak point... it was just wood and metal, something I could stop.  If I was lucky.

Despite it taking a lot more from the spell to hit the fast moving object, I locked everything I had onto the club and offered up a prayer to Celestia that this would work before releasing the spell.  I’d get only two shots.  Time once more began to resume it’s normal speed and I felt myself already beginning to bring Luna’s Ruse upwards.  Away from the raider’s body and to the long wooden stick he held in his mouth.

Luna’s Ruse shook in my mouth as I squeezed the trigger and fired the first shot.  The slug spun slowly through the air as it approached the club half way between the top and the raider’s mouth.  It barely missed, instead grazing the wooden haft on the very edge and shaving off bits of wood as it sped off towards the sky.  I squeezed the trigger again with my tongue, and felt the shotgun buck once more as another slug left the barrel.  This round sped towards its target and struck squarely where I wanted.  The aged, wooden weapon shattered in the middle, sending splinters of wood flying off in every direction.  Some pelted my face, leaving scratches and even sticking into my cheeks and along my neck, while the raider got the worst of it.  A large piece struck him squarely in the eye and he yelled in pain.

“You fucking piece of shit!!  I’ll gut you!!  I’ll gut your family and friends!!!” the raging beast screamed as he opened his mouth and let the useless piece of wood fly towards me.  

I hadn’t expected that, and the still heavy lower half of the club struck me in the cheek, knocking Luna’s Ruse from my mouth.  The raider took several steps towards me, swinging his huge iron shod hooves towards me.  I ducked the first swing, but my wounded right leg gave out.  I fell to the bloody pavement within inches of landing atop the steel topped club head.  Well, that would have been a shitty way to go after all the trouble I’d gone through to avoid it the first time.  Hoofsteps near me prompted me to turn over and look, as the massive earth pony raged above me.

“I’ll feed you your own balls!!  I’ll rip off your head and...” the raider screamed madly, spittle flying from his lips as he loomed over me.

“Eat your own goddesses damned head!!” I screamed back, grabbing up the fallen club head with my left foreleg and sending it towards his face.  Much to my surprise and his, the heavy steel spikes that had been pounded into the wood struck him in the snout.  I heard bone break as his nose shattered and he screamed even louder as the sizeable splinter of wood was shoved deeper into his eye socket by the club.  He stumbled back and gave me room to move, but quickly reared up and attempted to stomp me into the pavement.

I rolled away as his hooves came down where my head had been, but I was struck by bits of broken concrete.  As I rolled back onto my side, I saw I was just to the right of the frenzied raider.  I clamped my teeth about the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse and brought the shotgun back up to fire.  I didn’t need to worry about S.A.T.S. or aiming, as the raider was close enough and large enough not to miss.

Slugs flew from the weapon’s barrel towards the raider’s left side.  I squeezed the trigger repeatedly, striking his flanks and eradicating the twisted cutie mark of a pony raping another (how do you even get that?!)  The second and third shots hit him in his exposed underbelly, the most vulnerable spot on a pony.  The slugs did horrific damage to his body, easily passing through his stomach and leaving large exit wounds on his right side.  The fourth shot struck his left front leg and removed the limb from the knee down.  That finally sent the raider crashing to the ground in a pile of gore and smoke, very much dead. 

A grunt of relief escaped my lips as I looked back to see how the others had fared during the fight.  Spirit had finished working on Silver’s sister and had moved on to the wounded guardpony.  The light blue mare seemed calmer now that her life wasn’t flowing from her wound.  Her sister was busy with the last of the raiders trying to attack them.  

Silverluck was no stranger to hoof to hoof combat and seemed to easily avoid the larger pony’s wild swings.  After another strike failed to land, the raider screamed in rage and threw himself towards the mare.  This seemed to be what she’d been waiting for as her horn flared to life in a bright white glow that also surrounded the mouth grip of her pistol.  It was pulled smoothly from its’ holster and leveled at the charging raider.  Four rapid shots later and the crazed pony had been dropped, four neat holes through his neck and face.  While we were clear for the moment, the overall fighting wasn’t over.  A number of rounds striking near my hind quarters kindly informed me on that detail.

I quickly rolled over onto my side and pressed myself up against the only cover I had out in the middle of the street, the smelly hide of the large earth pony raider.  I ignored the gore that matted my fur and smeared across my armor.  I had more pressing worries than that.  A quick glance to my E.F.S. told me we barely had a dozen raiders left behind their makeshift cover.  Already that number dropped by one as the report of a rifle shot echoed out across the street.  Looking off towards the buildings we’d recently been holed up in, I saw Stonehoof laying upon his belly atop the roof of the home that he and the others had been in.  Balefire, meanwhile, was galloping hard across the open street to reach us.  His revolvers blasted away towards the raiders’ overturned wagons.  I saw no sign of Wild, and wondered where the pegasus had gotten off to.  However, I soon heard her battle-saddle open up and the number of red dots in my E.F.S. dropped once more. 

Twisting my head back around, I saw the fiery maned mare sweeping down low across the rooftops of Old Oaks.  The barrels of her rifles blazed as she strafed the raiders behind their wagons.  They had nothing to stop the rounds as they tore up the aged pavement and their pitiful armor.  It truly was death from above.  Seconds before she would have plowed into the ground, Wild flared her wings and pulled up, giving out a very excited, “YEEEEHAWWW!!”  She then sailed over low over the panicking raiders’ heads.

It seemed to be the final straw for some of them, as five of them broke cover and fled away from the wagons and us.  They galloped northward to the other side of the small town, trying to find better cover.  The ponies within Town Hall raked them with unforgiving fire from their second and third story firing positions, though they only managed to drop two of the five raiders.  Stone, however, made up for this and dropped another two quickly; one with a bullet through the back of the head and another with a shot to the neck.  I doubted even an entire squad of trained soldiers with assault rifles could have out shot Stone.

I hurriedly ducked back down behind the dead raider’s body as a number of rounds struck the pavement and his armored side.  The raiders still alive seemed to be firing at anything and everything now, their easy victory against a small town having turned into a horrible slaughter for them.  Their already poor aim was further lowered by the fact they were panicking as it seemed likely they’d soon be dead.  They were shooting everywhere, even in places where nopony was remotely visible to them.  I snorted and flicked my ears back, feeling a bit of satisfaction at seeing raiders afraid.

“Shadow!” A voice called out from down the street we’d just recently charged up.  Looking away from the raiders, I turned around just in time to see Balefire skid across the last few feet of pavement to come up beside me. “You look like shit.” Despite his words, he was grinning ear to ear at me as his horn sparked to life.  A health potion floated up from his saddlebags and over to me.  This time I didn’t argue at being given one and quickly pulled the cork free with my teeth.  I chugged the thing down hurriedly and dropped the empty glass bottle beside me, relaxing as I felt my right leg begin to mend.  

I rolled back onto my hooves once I was sure I could put some weight on my leg and peered across the dead body of the raider once again.  Between Wild’s strafing runs and Stone’s sniping anypony stupid enough to expose themselves to his rifle, the raider numbers were shrinking.  

“I think we should get into better cover, boss.  I doubt this fellow can take much more,” Balefire said from beside me, before pulling his revolvers back out from the hostlers on his sides.  After nodding to him, the young pony rose to his hooves and made a dash for the safety of the building.  The raiders for the most part ignored him, focusing on firing off towards the orange mare flying over head. 

I followed closely behind my young friend, ignoring the last lingering pains from my foreleg as the healing potion finished repairing the damage.  Coming to a halt beside Carrion and Silver, I looked once more over towards the wagons and the remaining four raiders.  Despite the fire, the remaining unicorns had managed to haul what was left of the second wagon over top them, giving them a bit of cover from Wild’s attack runs.  Not by much though, the high powered rifles on her battle-saddle easily punched through the wooden bottom of the wagon.  What wasn’t riddled with holes now had a number of saw blades sticking out from it.  This fight seemed all but over now... it was only a matter of time before Wild shattered the raiders’ cover or Stone picked them off one by one.  I dropped tiredly to the ground and ran a bloody hoof over my still aching shoulder.  The shoulder pad was biting harshly into the flesh, making it tender despite the health potion and Med X.

“Hold your fire everyone... there’s no sense in wasting ammo,” Carrion said to the survivors beside him.  “We have them as good as dead.”  Smoke slowly rose from the barrel of his rifle as it was lowered down beside him.  Those still able to fight, seemed to agree and did as he said.  Even Silver and Balefire lowered their weapons.  One, however, seemed unwilling to do so. 

“They ain’t dead enough ta suit me...” the mare with the saw gun muttered from beside Balefire and I.  I suppose she was old enough to be considered a mare, although she looked quite young.  Perhaps younger than even my cocky, green coated friend.  She was not one of the town’s guards, that much was clear by the lack of armor.  She seemed more likely to be the town’s mechanic given her clothing.  She was dressed in a faded pair of blue work overalls that had a number of oil stains all across them.  There were also more recent blood stains mixed in with the oil.  She was an earth pony, a bit taller and stockier than most mares, even for an earth pony.  Her coat was orange, thought it was far darker than Wild’s and as oil stained as her clothing.  Her mane and tail was blue green in color, fading lighter near the tips.  Both were worn about normal length, though like the rest of her appearance, were also messy and oil stained.  From where she stood, I couldn’t really see what her cutie mark was and instead looked to what she was carrying.  

Beside the saw gun she reluctantly lowered from her mouth, I saw no other weapons on her.  It was cobbled together from a number of parts.  I saw everything from a small air compressor to a couple of spark batteries, seemingly held together by Wonder Glue and duct type.  The only things she carried were a number of tools across her chest as well as a pair of aged saddlebags.  She narrowed her light pink eyes upon the raider she’d killed before finally looking away and around at the others.

“I wouldn’t worry.  Once Wild’s finished with them, they’ll be plenty dead,” Balefire spoke up to the mare with a grin.  His red eyes shifted from the wagons to her, nodding his head towards her weapon. “That’s a nice gun you got there... never seen one fire saw blades before.”

“Ah reckon’ ya wouldn’t, seein’ how Ah made it myself,” the mare answered.  A note of pride laced her voice, even as I could hear the anger at being unable to kill the raiders.  I turned away from the pair, to check in the others.

Spirit had finished with the wounded guard stallion, who was laying against the wall of the building, drinking water with the help of one of the other mares.  Silver sat beside her sister, holding onto her with her fore legs wrapped around her shoulders gently.  I was about to ask her how we could contact the rest of her friends in Town Hall, when a mare’s fearful scream ripped across the street.  

We all reacted and reached for our weapons, looking about us for the pony who’d just screamed.  As I was scanning the nearby buildings, I saw something back the way we’d come and froze.  Thick black smoke was pouring out through the shattered windows of the school house.  The doors that had been whole at the start of this fight... another scream came from within the building and I saw two red dots on my E.F.S. mixed in with the two green.  Shit!  A pair of raiders had somehow gotten past all of us in the chaotic fighting and had managed to get inside the small red building.  They would kill the two ponies inside without a second thought, likely just to get back at us...

NO!

“Shadow?” Spirit asked, looking up from where she’d knelt down beside the dark orange mare and wrapping a bandage around her left foreleg.  She must have gotten injured during the fighting.  The questioning tone in Spirit’s voice caught the attention of the others who turned away from whatever they’d been doing to her and finally to me.

Carrion stopped reloading his assault rifle and narrowed his orange eyes at the sight of me already rising up from where I’d dropped tiredly to the ground.  I checked Luna’s Ruse again for how many rounds I had left..

“Fuck...” he growled out as he slid the empty magazine from his assault rifle and slid another in quickly.  The swear earned a glance from Spirit, who was about to ask what was wrong. “He’s about to do something recklessly stupid,” was the answer he gave her.

“Doesn’t he always?” Balefire asked as he spun his revolvers in the air beside him, rising up to his own hooves to likely give chase.

“How do you...” she started to ask before I took off at a dead run towards the burning building and the screaming mare, “... never mind.”

Rounds almost at once began zipping past me as the raiders holed up behind their wagons likely thought I was either coming for them, or attempting to flank them somehow.  I galloped hard towards the burning school, the raiders all but ignored as my focus was on the two ponies trapped inside.  Plumes of dust and pulverized concrete rose up  into the air all around my hooves as I pressed on through the incoming fire.  The sounds of gunfire rose suddenly in volume and, for a brief moment, I thought I might be in trouble... at least until the amount of fire I was taking slacked.

I risked a glance to my left and saw the raiders forced back into their dark hole as rounds struck the wagons.  Looking further back, I saw Carrion standing out in the street while laying down suppressing fire along with Silver and the wounded guard stallion.  Balefire must have been following me, as he was some distance away from the others.  He was forced into cover and was now emptying his revolvers into the wagons now as well.

Turning back around, I urged my tired limbs to go faster.  My tail and mane flew behind me as I charged straight for the school house.  I couldn’t go through the door, they might be waiting for someone to try and save the ponies inside. I’d have to find another way in.  As I drew nearer, I saw my way in and turned towards it.

 Nearing the porch, I used S.A.T.S. and snapped off a single round, blowing the guard railing away just in front of one of the windows.  As my hooves reached the porch, I ignored the stairs and instead lept from the ground, kicking off with my hind legs.  I flew through the air for a moment before coming back down atop the porch with a clatter of hooves.  I heard someone from inside ask what the noise was.  Using my momentum, I launched myself into the air once again and ducked my head as I flew through the window.

The remains of the window frame shattered and flew in with me, sending small shards of sparkling glass flying across the room and into the backs of two raiders cornering a pair of wounded mares.  One of the raiders turned back at the sound of splintering wood and blinked in surprise at seeing me coming in through the window.

“What the fuc...”  My fore hooves slamming into his back cut off the rest of his curse as he went down hard onto the floor under my weight.  As he did, my legs buckled and I was sent tumbling to the ground myself.  However, my training as a security pony and weeks of fighting all across the wasteland kicked in and I rolled with the fall.  I didn’t get away clean though.  As I twisted around to land on my right shoulder, I felt something pull and pain flared up through my limb.  Still, I could fight through the pain as I’d had far worse.  I came up before even the still standing raider had recovered from my sudden entrance.

“I believe you boys have earned detention...”  The raider’s yellow eyes had only a chance to widen as I leveled Luna’s Ruse towards him. “... FOREVER!”  The shot was almost point blank and, at this range, only power armor could have saved him.  The crude, rusty scraps of flak armor he was wearing was little better than paper.  It shattered as the round struck it, sending metal shards flying away from him as he tumbled backwards.  Blood spurted from the hoofsized wound I’d blown into his body.  He landed in a heap among the tables and chairs that had been piled up around the front door and lay still.  By then, his buddy had gotten himself to his hooves and was charging towards me with what appeared to be lightning dancing across his hoof.

I ducked, trusting that it would be bad to get hit by a pony with a light show flickering across his fore leg.  As I did, I noticed his leg was in fact encased in metal with a number of wires running along it from the hoof to the other end.  A power hoof?  That’d explain how they got into the schoolhouse and why dodging him was a very good idea.

I attempted to bring Luna’s Ruse up to bear on him, but he was far too close and I was forced to dodge once again as he swung once more for my face.  He was a bit more skilled with his weapon than most raiders I’d seen.  He knew he had to keep close and keep attacking my head.  I’d be forced to dodge and twist my neck around to avoid the strikes, thereby throwing off my aim, an earth pony weakness when it came to using ranged weapons.  I’d have to switch tactics with him.

I once more attempted to get some space between us.  Once again he came in for a punch to my face, likely seeking a quick end to our fight.  Again I dodged the blow by ducking beneath it, but instead of backing up as I had before, I moved forward.  Tightening my grip on the mouth grip of Luna’s Ruse I rose upwards into the raider and brought the butt of my gun into his jaw.  With a crunch of bone, the wooden stock slammed into his snout, sending a few teeth flying across the room.  He grunted in pain, but held his ground, refusing to back up when that would give me room to shoot him.  I expected as much.

Luna’s Ruse dropped from my mouth as I reared back on my hind legs and lashed out with my front.  My hooves slammed into his chest and sent him backwards a bit from me.  Letting gravity take over, I dropped back to all fours and lunged forward with my neck down and head out.  I winced from the impact of my head against his bruised chest, but it further unbalanced him and he dropped onto his flanks.  The power hoof he wore slammed hard into the wooden floor of the school house as he came down.  Like the large brute of an earth pony earlier, his hoof became trapped within the flooring.

He was attempting to struggle back upright when I stepped back and lifted my left foreleg upwards.  My knee struck Luna’s Ruse and sent the weapon up from where it lay across my chest.  Clamping down on the firing bit as it came close to my mouth, I jerked it up into the raider’s face and narrowed my eyes as I pulled the trigger.  His skull burst like a wet melon, splattering blood and bone all across the wall behind him.

Staggering back a few steps, I shook myself off and turned towards the mares hiding at the back of the room and their wide fearful eyes.  I glanced down to myself, realizing I must have looked as bad as the raiders with blood matting down the fur on my neck and face, running down my armored chest and shoulder pads.  My hat had fallen off somewhere in the fight, and my mane was a wild mess.  I dropped Luna’s Ruse from my mouth gently, and held up a hoof towards them.

The older looking of the pair held a 9mm pistol in her mouth, the barrel of the weapon shaking wildly about as did the owner.  She was a soft yellow colored earth pony with a green mane and tail.  Her purple eyes were wide with fear as she kept the pistol fixed upon me.  However, they quickly darted to the pair of raiders laying dead nearby.  The younger pony, who was hiding behind the armed mare, wore a faded brown shirt with a number of holes in it where I could see her white coat.  Her mane and tail was blue in color, and matted to her forehead and neck with sweat.  Both mares were dirty and had a number of minor wounds over their bodies, but it looked as if nothing serious had physically happened to them.

“It’s alright... I’m here to help.  Are you...?” I never got to finish as the sound of a pistol striking the floor rang out from where they’d been standing.  The pair of young mares wrapped their hooves around me and began sobbing into my chest despite the stains.  Blinking, I stood there and lowered my raised hoof down onto one the yellow coated one and gently stroked her messy mane.  “It’s alright... it’s over now.  You're both safe,” I said softly.

“They... they said they were going to kill us... after they... they...” she managed between sobs.  I could well imagine what they’d said they’d do to two young mares.

“They won’t be hurting anyone else, ever again.” I held the two shiving forms against my chest and looked up to the two still bodies of the raiders.  “Never again.”  The sound of hoof steps rapidly approaching the front door drew my hard glare away and over to the faces of Balefire and Silver as they entered the school.

“Shadow?  Everything alright?” my young friend asked as he leveled his revolvers down at the two bodies bleeding over the floorboards.  After carefully looking them both over, he realized they’d not be causing us any more trouble and lowered his pistols.  “I suppose you had it all in hoof then,” he said with a smile before noticing Silver walking past him.

“Honey?” Silver asked, her voice uncertain and flicking her ears to the sides in worry.  Tears began forming in her eyes as she took a few steps closer to us, a hoof going up to her mouth.  “Oh thank Celestia and Luna... it’s you...”

In answer to the name, the yellow mare who’d been holding tightly to me eased up and lifted her head upward to see who it was.  Her purple eyes widened upon seeing Silver and she pushed herself away from me, taking a few unsteady steps towards the guard mare before calling out in question.

“Mom?”  The name had barely left her lips when the older mare closed the distance between them and wrapped her daugher up into a hug, breaking down into tears.

Balefire smiled at the sight and slid his pistols back into their holsters before he began walking over towards me.  I felt the other mare begin pushing away from my chest to see what was going on.  Upon seeing her friend and mother, she broke away and rushed past Balefire to reach the two, throwing her hooves happily around Silver’s neck.  The older mare was nearly pulled off her hooves by the sudden weight of another pony holding onto her.  She blinked and looked over to see who it was, a smile forming on her tear soaked face.

“Rachel?  Oh, your father’s going to be so happy to see you...” Silver leaned over and kissed the younger pony on her cheek. “Come on... I’m sure he’ll want to see you as soon as possible.”  Without another word, the three began making their way out of the building, leaning heavily upon one another.  As they left, another pony entered, folding her orange feathered wings across her sides.  As she trotted up to us, a smile formed on her snout.

“Well, I see it’s how things normally end up around you,” she said, the smile turning into a familiar looking smirk.  As I looked over my friend, I noticed she’d not come out of the fight unscathed.  All in all, it could have been worse.  She had a half dozen red slashes across her neck and flanks from grazing shots.  I suppose I had to give the raiders a bit more credit with their aim.  A few feathers on her left wing looked out of place, and like the rest of us her coat and long red mane was damp from sweat.

“Are you alright, Wild?”

“Bah, I’ve had a lot worse...” She waved a hoof dismissively at the shallow wounds.  “I suppose I’ve just gotten a bit soft, living with Stone the past two weeks.  As for the wing, it’ll heal once I get those feathers back into place.  Got a bit too close to a roof when a raider took a pot shot at me.”  Speaking of, I hadn’t heard any shooting since they’d arrived and I noticed a lack of hostile targets in my E.F.S. “And before you ask, yes, its over.”

“The remaining raiders?” I hardly expected they’d give up, but I did wonder if they had managed to escape in the confusion.  I found the idea a bit disappointing really.  However, I didn’t need to worry about that judging by the cocky grin Balefire was giving the winged mare.

“They didn’t get away... let’s just say if you ever find yourself taking cover under wooden wagons from somepony using anti armor rifles... save them the trouble and just kill yourself,” Wild said with a flick of her wings and the metallic click of her large guns sliding forward and locking into place.

“After seeing what you can do with them, I doubt even a building would protect somepony from them.” Balefire waved a hoof over towards the rifles as they began to slide back to rest under her wings with a flick of the firing bit.  Balefire turned his head away from Wild and over to me. “Spirit said Silver’s group is going to be fine, don’t worry yourself over them.  We sent Tinkerbell up to Town Hall to let the rest of the survivors know it’s safe to come out.”

“Tinkerbell?”  Okay, it was a perfectly normal name for a pony, as I recalled they’re been a mare in Stable 45 with that name a couple generations ago.  Still, I couldn’t help but arch a brow towards my young friend as I began making my way towards the door.  I stopped beside the window I’d burst in through as I found my hat on the floor beside it.  Picking the old marshall hat up, I turned it over and let a couple shards of glass slide off it and onto the floor before placing it atop my head.  Despite the hundreds of shards, it appeared to come through without a scratch.

“The mare with the sawgun,” Balefire explained as he followed behind me, “We’re supposed to meet with their town leader there.  It’s also where Spirit’s taking the wounded, given its’ defendable position.  It was Carrion’s idea.  Said if the raiders had any reinforcements, it’d be a good idea to have someplace safe to be gathered in rather than out in the open.”

“He’s right, though if there’s anymore raiders about, there’s not going to be enough of them to cause us any trouble... and they likely took off once we killed the last of their buddies,” Wild added as she walked behind me.

As we stepped out onto the porch, I looked over the town’s center and over the bodies of the dead.  Nearly all were raiders, their spiked armor and mutilated bodies easy enough to make out.  Looking over towards the wagons, I saw little left of them save for the wheels and bits and pieces.  Between them lay the bodies of the last couple raiders.  Ponies wearing armor similar to Silver’s were walking between them, retrieving their guns and ammo.  I smirked a bit, wondering if Stone was somewhere trying to stay one step ahead of them.  Speak of the devil...

“Mighty good plan ya had there, Shadow,” my large, grey coated friend said.  He trotted to a halt at the bottom of the steps, Carrion beside him.

“Thanks, Stone... you come out alright?” I asked.  He didn’t looked wounded, but I still wanted to make sure.  To my surprise, he actually laughed and nodded his head.

“Ah reckon Ah come out alright.  Better than them raiders at least.”

“After the raiders pulled back, and while we were trying to figure out how to get a shot on them from where we were, Stone took the liberty of looting the bodies of the dead,” Wild said as she trotted down the steps to nuzzle the large stallion’s reddening cheeks.

“Ah was just restockin’ our supplies is all...” was his answer, and to everyone’s surprise I laughed.

“Stone... you need professional help... but then, so do I.” I held up my right hoof and after a moment, he bumped it with his own.  “Now, come on, we need to meet with the rest of the survivors and see what we can do to help them.”  Trotting down the steps, I began making my way up towards Town Hall, my friends following closely behind.

We passed a dozen ponies running the other direction, four of the stronger looking stallions pulling an old model fire engine behind them.  I doubted they’d have much luck putting out the fires that still raged around Main Street.  There were just too many of them for a single hose to ever hope to put out.  Looking back, I saw that instead of going to the burning buildings, they had pulled up near a home that was near the fire, but not itself ablaze.  As I watched, they began to spray water over the roof and walls of the home, in an attempt to slow the spread of the fire.

Turning back around, I spotted Carrion and a pair of armed ponies I’d never seen before coming towards us.  Despite the worried looks the two others were giving the street and buildings around them, Carrion had his assault rifle resting against his chest.   Behind them, came a single unicorn mare carrying a pair of white saddlebags with pink butterflies on them.  She herself was followed by a pair of young foals, a bit older than Sugar in age and looking up at the ghoul in amazement. 

“Still among the living I see, despite your stupid heroics,” came my undead friend’s first words as we neared one another.

“Sorry to disappoint,” I shot back, before nodding my head to the mare.

“This is Fiona, the town’s doctor.” Carrion waved a hoof towards the mare.  “Spirit’s helping her with the wounded, but she needs some supplies from her home on the next street over.”

“I suppose chivalry isn’t completely dead then,” Wild piped up from the back.

I started to make a comment about that when I felt someone tugging on my sleeve.  I looked down to see one of the young foals had approached me.  He was pointing a hoof up at my armor and I cocked my head to the side.

“Are you our new Sheriff, mister?” he asked.  I smiled and shook my head. “Then why are ya wearing a badge?”

“You're the pony the radio was talking about,” one of the armed ponies said as she looked me over, and looked to my friends behind me. “Are you mercenaries or something?” she asked.  The young colt who’d walked up to me turned to the mare and frowned a bit.

“He’s a sheriff... can’t ya see his badge?”

“Sweetie, he’s not a sheriff... it’s a marshal's badge, says so right on it,”  Fiona said, as she stepped forward and guided the young colt away from me.

“What's a marshall?” he asked.

“Well... they used to be like sheriffs... except they protected ponies all over the place instead of just one town.  I don’t think there are any now though.”

“It’s still got one.”  For a moment I wondered who’d said that.  After all, it was an odd thing to say when she’d said the truth.  There wasn’t any anymore.  I arched a brow when I saw all my friends looking at me oddly, and even the doctor and the two armed guards.  The colt blinked and perked his ears towards me as he wormed his way out of Fiona’s hooves.  Wait... I’d said that?

Looking down to my chest where the silver badge hung proudly, somehow free of the blood that covered the rest of me and seeming to almost shine despite the lack of direct light.  My eyes followed the writing across it.

To Protect and Serve Equestria.  

I looked back to the colt as he watched me, waiting for me to say something more.  I smiled and knelt down beside him before offering him my hoof, when he shyly took it with his smaller one, I began shaking it slowly. 

Why the hell not?

“My name’s Shadow, Equestrian Marshall.  My friends and I are here to help.”

 



Welcome to Level 17!

Perk Added: Light Step:  After seeing the mess Carrion’s traps left of those raiders, you’ll be sure to watch your step from now on!  This perk halves your chance of setting off traps.  But let’s face it, you’ll probably run through a landmine field to save some filly’s cat stuck in a tree... so why do we bother with these perks?!

> Chapter 18: Long Road Ahead
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 18: Long Road Ahead


Ponies who for truth and honor's sake


Stand fast and suffer long.


Brave ponies who work while others sleep,


Who dare while others fly...


They build a nation's pillars deep


And lift them to the sky.

 

“My name’s Shadow, Equestrian Marshall.  My friends and I are here to help.”

Thirteen words, simple words hardly worthy of note.  There had been far grander words said throughout history; words that were worthy of history books, stories, plays, and song.  A long time ago, those few words would have meant so little to the ponies hearing them; ponies who did not need to fear death at the hooves of someone so like them, yet so different.  Ponies who were not driven mad by the horrors of the world.  Ponies living before this time in a world of peace and harmony; a world before war, a world that was not this one.  Now, those thirteen simple words meant far more than all the grand speeches throughout recorded history.  A fact which was driven home by the hope filled faces of the ponies around me... and the surprised reactions of my friends.

Two young foals looked up at me, smiles slowly spreading across their dirt covered faces as they approached me.  Large clear blue and green eyes took in my battered appearance.  The scarred and stained black riot armor, the revolver resting within its holster upon my leg, and the shotgun hanging from its strap around my neck.  The Pipbuck clamped around my right foreleg and the worn, old cowpony hat perched atop my white mane.

“So... you're really a Marshall?  Like my mom says... protecting all of Equestria?” I smiled and nodded my head to the young colt.  He looked up at the silver star with a bit more awe after learning what a Marshall did.  “Wow... have ya fought a lotta bad guys?” he asked, trotting up to me and rearing back on his hind legs to better see the badge I wore.

“Of course he has!  Look at all them weapons he has!” the second foal said.  She was a little older than the colt, who at once joined him, her green eyes fixing upon my shotgun and its smooth black finish.  “I bet he killed all those raiders that attacked us!”

“I killed a number of them, but I couldn’t have done it without the help of my friends and yours,” I answered, waving a hoof to the ponies gathered around me.  Looking up from the colt to my friends and the locals, my ears flicked to the side as all eyes remained fixed upon me.  A mix of emotions was clear on their faces; the most common, though, was surprise.  I suppose it was a rather bold statement to make seeing how the Equestrian Marshalls had died out with the country a hundred and fifty years ago.

Stonehoof seemed the most accepting of it, a slight smile upon his face as he looked towards the young foals and me.  Beside him, Wildfire wore her usual smirk, wings folded neatly to her side and ears perked towards me.  Carrion seemed most surprised of all my friends at my new title and simply shook his horned head slowly.  Of all my friends, it was Balefire who seemed the most happy about my declaration.  He was grinning as wide as a young foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve about to open his first present.  The town’s doctor, Fiona (and the foals’ mother I believed), stood behind her children with a look of shock and hope upon her face.  It was a look mirrored by the two local guards accompanying her.

The idea that thirteen simple little words could have such effects on my friends and others... I suppose those words were not so simple after all.  I once more looked up to the ponies around me, knowing I’d soon have some explaining to do... but not now.  For now, we still had work to do for the ponies of Old Oaks.

 “Do you think it’s safe to go out into town so soon after the fight?” I asked Carrion, turning my attention solely upon the old ghoul.

“No.  While we killed the raiders we saw, there could be more hidden anywhere within or outside the town,” he answered, glowing orange eyes looking away from me and over to the medical mare.  “However, she insists upon going to search for more medical supplies.  Silverluck assigned two guards to go with her and Spirit asked me to go with them.  Our buffalo seems to agree that the risk is worth it, if we can get our hooves on more healing items.” 

“Silverluck?” Stone asked, and I remembered he hadn’t meet the town guard yet.  He’d been too busy firing off shots at raiders when we’d encountered her, along with Wild and Balefire.

“She’s one of the town guards.  Shadow and the others ran across her and the group of survivors she was leading near the hardware store,” Balefire explained to my large friend.  He went on to further explain a bit more about the silver grey coated mare before Carrion spoke up.

“Seems she’s also the pony in charge around here now,” he said, orange eyes coming back to rest upon me and arched a rotting brow at my surprised look.  “The position was in need of filling, seeing how the last Mayor of the town was killed by raiders during the first attack, along with the first Sheriff.  Lack of leadership can kill a town as easily as it can kill an army.” I suppose he was right about that.

“Well, we’d better hurry along and talk with her.  At the rate leaders in this town die, we might just get there in time to save her,” Wild quipped from beside Stone.  Her wings flexed a bit as she looked to me with a grin, adding, “Likely by some stupidly heroic move that’ll have all the mares fawning over you.”

“Right...” I looked away from my smug pegasus friend and to my slightly decayed friend.  “Do you need any help with watching the doctor’s back?” I wasn’t for sure, but I thought I heard Wild snicker and say something about flank.  I was just thankful that neither of the guards were female... though that’d never stopped Wild in the past.

“No.  I’m sure we can handle a couple of scattered raiders if we encounter them,” Carrion said, orange eyes shifting to Wild.  A hint of a smile formed upon his rotting face before he turned back toward me.  “Her house isn’t far from here and we’re not staying long.”

“It’s just on the next street, a few houses down from here,” Fiona spoke up as she rounded the two energetic foals up.  Both had gone silent as we’d spoken, but had continued to poke and prod at my armor and weapons.  “But be that as it may, I want you both to stay here with the others.”  The young ponies’ ears wilted at the news as their mother turned back towards Town Hall and the ponies gathered outside it.  She waved a nearby mare to come over.  “Mary, can you see to it that Ginger and Popper get back to my mother?”

The newcomer smiled and began speaking to the two foals, who seemed to know her well.  A family friend perhaps?  Then again, it was a relatively small town, much smaller than San Ponsisco.  Likely all the ponies who lived here had known one another more than those living in the larger city; not too different from a Stable really.  At that, my thoughts turned to home and memories of my sister.

“Alright, Carrion, just be careful, alright?” I asked after the tan colored unicorn, Mary, herded the young foals away and I managed to push aside my dark thoughts.  The ghoul snorted and stood back up from where he’d sat as he waited for everypony to finish speaking.  Fiona finished saying her goodbyes to her foals and the guards began walking ahead of her.

“I’m not the one jumping onto speeding trains or running into burning buildings,” Carrion said as the two guards and Fiona began walking back down the street past him.  The former Equestrian Army Officer grinned, yellowed teeth flashing in the firelight as he trotted after the others.

“Oooo... burn...” Wild called out from behind.  I rolled my eyes, smirking a bit as I watched the four ponies trotting down the street away from us.  Hopefully they would be alright...

“Well, Ah reckon we should go see what trouble this Silver’s gotten herself into,” Stone said, bringing my attention back to the ponies around me.  As I turned away from watching the four walk off, I set my eyes upon Town Hall. 

“As Wild said, we’d best hurry... hopefully it’s something simple.  I’m not too sure how many more windows I can lunge through before this Med X wears off.”  This was said with a smile towards Wild and a hoof rubbing my sore shoulder.  Despite that Med X and a health potion, it still hurt at times if I moved it wrong.  

Lowering my hoof back to the pavement and pushing the dull pain of my shoulder to the back of my mind, I began trotting along the road.  The others fell into step behind and beside me.  We’d not gone far when I noticed the grinning orange mare trotting beside me.  I knew this was going to be an interesting walk after what I’d just said a few minutes ago.  For a moment I attempted to ignore her, instead looking ahead towards Town Hall.  The large stone building had served as a bastion to these townsfolk.

“Sooooo... when were you going to tell us you got promoted to Marshall?” the orange grinning mare asked.  Stone was walking beside her, a neutral look on his face.  “Or has living around the Confederacy given you delusions of grandeur?”  The grin widened as she looked back behind us, and added, “No offense, Balefire.”

“None taken...” the stallion called out.

“I don’t have delusions of grandeur, Wild,” I answered with a snort,  “And I haven’t been promoted either.”  As we drew closer to Town Hall, the thick haze of smoke that had been hanging over the town since we arrived began clearing a bit.  I noticed a large number of ponies had emerged from the safety of the building and were currently milling about in the street before it.  Far more of the townsfolk had survived than I’d expected, and for that I was thankful.  Wild’s response brought my attention back to my friends following behind me.

“Well, that’s good because Marshall doesn’t sound like any title I’ve heard a farmer receive.”

“No, Wild, I don’t imagine you have,” I added with a roll of my eyes and glancing to my winged friend.  “And I really don’t have a job in Stable security anymore, seeing how there’s no Stable,” I muttered before focusing once more on the road ahead and the ponies standing out in front of Town Hall.  I could see Spirit there among them, likely working to heal any of the wounded.

“So... why declare yourself a Marshall?  It’s not like most ponies alive even remember what a Marshall is,” Wild asked once more, storm blue eyes looking towards me, “Really... I’d like to know.”  She sounded quite serious and I noticed her normal permanent grin was gone.  I arched a brow towards her and wondered if she was worried that I had snapped or something.  A moment later she snapped back to her usual self when a slow grin began spreading across her snout and she added, “Or are you just trying to explain why you wear that shiny little star on your chest?” 

“Yes, Wild.  I said that to explain my taste in accessories,” I snorted and looked back to the road ahead as the mare beside me snickered.  It would have seemed to end the entire conversation, but another pony still had another couple questions to ask.

“Shadow, Ah’ve been wonderin’ just why ya’ve been wearin’ that badge around with ya, too.  Where’d ya get it from?” Stone asked from across Wild’s winged back, joining the conversation at last,  “Ain’t rightly seen ya without it since ya first found it.” 

As I glanced over to my friend, I noticed his green eyes had lowered to the silver star pinned to my chest armor.  I had never told any of them about where I’d found it, or how.  I hadn’t even told them much about Wastefall, beyond how I had met Spirit Walker and how she’d saved my life.  

I’d never even told Sugar or Spearmint about that hidden ladder in the deserted town’s saloon, or the secrets it held: the journal of Equestria’s last Marshall, Pipsqueak, his gun, which was given to him, by all accounts, by the Princess of the Night herself, the badge he’d worn while defending Equestria from its enemies, and the strange note I’d found beside it in the gun cabinet.  

But, what could I say about any of it?  I’d found something that seemed to have been addressed to me, written only years after the fall of the country, by a pony I never knew existed?  A pony who all but asked for me to take up the mantle of Marshall?  They’d think the loss of my sister and the horrors of the wasteland had gotten to me... hell, I sometimes thought that.  And should I stop there?  What about the two voices I’d heard?  Should I tell them about them as well?  Or the zony, Second Sight and what she’d showed me?

“I’ll admit, I was wondering that myself when I first saw you on the train,” Balefire spoke up, trotting to catch up with us and slowing to walk beside me.  “I’d never heard of a Stable with an Equestrian Marshall in it... hell, as far as anypony knows they all died with everypony else in the bombings.”

Well... I had to tell them something... just not all of it...

“I found the badge in Wastefall Gorge shortly after Spirit rescued me from the river.  She’d left me alone in the town’s saloon while I... dealt (ranted like a mad pony) with some things I’d stumbled (got knocked the fuck out) upon a hidden room above the bar,” I began, eyes fixed straight ahead.  “It’s also where I found my shotgun, Luna’s Ruse.  Both had belonged to a pony, an Equestrian Marshall, who’d managed to survive the bombs and lead a group of ponies to safety there.” I doubted anypony here would know Pipsqueak’s name, so I decided to simply leave him out of it; let the stallion have his rest.  “At the time I needed a replacement for my own shotgun, since it had been destroyed while we’d attempted to escape the tunnels under Kanter City.”  Despite the fact Luna’s Ruse was a superior weapon in every way compared to my original, I still missed it sometimes.  That old gun had belonged to my father after all.  Shaking away those thoughts, I looked back to the ponies around me.

“Ah reckon that explain’s th’ gun, but not th’ badge,” Stone said simply.  

True enough.

“I’m afraid I can’t really give you a good reason as to why I took the badge.  It was just sitting there beside the shotgun and a box of shells.”  Along with the note, I added silently to myself. “While I was waiting for Spirit to return, I began to read a bit about the Marshall and what he’d done for Equestria.  About the Marshalls themselves and what they stood for.  It seemed a shame to just leave it there, to rust and be forgotten or for some looters to find and be melted down for scrap metal.”

“And ya’d just lost yer sister...” my large grey friend added, looking over to me from under the brim of his cowpony hat.  His voice held a note of symphony for me, for what I’d lost in Kanter City.  He also didn’t seem to really be pushing for any real answer... perhaps he was just asking to see if I myself knew why I wore it.

“And I’d just lost my sister,” I agreed, slowly nodding as I recalled the breakdown I’d suffered in the saloon.  Only bits and pieces of what had happened came back to me.  “Along with all of my friends.” I looked over to him and Wild, a smile on my lips.

“It’ll take more than a city full of cannibal ponies, whose idea of personal hygiene is to roll around in somepony else’s guts, to split us up,” Wild cut in.  Though, I noticed her grin was not quite as full as it had been.  I also noticed her left wing extending to brush against Stone’s side, as if to ensure the stallion was still nearby.  She’d taken his capture the hardest...

“Or radioactive mutant geckos, Ah reckon.” Stone joined in, flashing me a grin, even as he stepped closer to Wild to ease her worry.

Fuck you... ya know what?  Forget it... it’s been long enough...

“Beyond Spirit, who I didn’t know very well yet, I was completely alone again for the first time since leaving Stable 45,” I went on, looking away from the two and pushing thoughts of scaly monsters from my head.  “I was about to set off in an attempt to find you two... or die trying.  I suppose the badge was something for me to grab ahold of after having lost so much.  From what little I’d known of them and had just read... the Marshalls were something I could...”

“Believe in,” Wild finished for me, surprising me more by the lack of humor in her voice.  The winged mare smiled as I nodded my head, her blue eyes sparkling in the distant fire light.  “Everypony needs something to believe in,” she added, looking away from me and towards Town Hall.  Her wing spread across Stone’s back as they walked.

“Goddesses know we need something to believe in,” Balefire said from my right, the green unicorn stallion glancing down to the badge on my chest.

“Yeah... I suppose we do,” I answered.  “And not that long ago, a pony told me Equestria could use a good Marshall.” I’d not gotten to know Sheriff Sweetshot of Tombstone well, only a few hours really.  What I did know about her, though, was that she was a mare who believed strongly in protecting others.  Still, despite the short time, she’d left an impression on me and was one of the reasons I’d kept the badge.  Not long after we’d met, she’d galloped off along with most of her deputies in response to a nearby farming settlement coming under attack.  An act that resulted in her death... but somehow I doubt she’d have changed a thing if she’d been given the chance.    

“They were right,” Balefire spoke up once again, red eyes looking from me to the ponies gathered around Town Hall.  “Beyond the Confederacy’s borders, lawlessness reigns almost completely.  Murder, rape, and slavery is how the world works now.  If I’m completely honest, it’s little better in the towns furthest away from San Ponsisco with the hardships most have to face just to survive a day.  Most ponies would rather kill you and take your things then help you.”

“As grim as it sounds... that’s not far from th’ truth,” Stone said.  “Ah’ve been all ‘cross th’ wasteland and seen some mighty bad things.  Ponies goin’ hungry while them Steel Rangers kill ’em for a small thin’ of tech.  Towns turnin’ on each other for water.”  My friend shook his head sadly before looking back over to me.  “But... Ah reckon if any pony is gonna clean up th’ world, it’d be somepony like you.”

It was the second time he’d said something like that.  The first had been as we’d been leaving San Ponsisco to come here.  It... meant a lot to me to know that somepony like Stonehoof thought so highly of me.  It made me all the more determined to prove myself worthy of his praise.  I noticed it was becoming fairly more crowded now as we neared Town Hall, and looked back towards it.  Ponies stood all about the front steps.

“He’s certainly heroic enough to try,” Wild grinned as she spoke, her seriousness used up for the moment it seemed.  “So long as it doesn’t get us all killed.” I heard Balefire chuckle from beside me at the mare’s words.

“We all gotta die sometime.  Might as well be while doin’ somethin’ worth dyin’ for,” Stone added, green eyes darkening for a moment before he turned away from us and looked up at the ponies around him.  I followed his gaze and looked at them.  Beside me, Balefire’s chuckles ended.

A large number of the ponies gathered beside the large stone building stood looking out across the devastation of their home with tear stained faces.  Some held their loved ones closely, while others wept for those who had not made it.  Among the adults were a number of younger ponies, along with a fair number of foals.  All were looking about the ruins of their home and lives with confused wide eyes.  Most were too young to really understand what had happened.  Others, those oldest, had seen it before and stood beside their siblings, giving comfort alongside their surviving parents.  One little filly among the crowd clung to a stallion's leg as she watched a building in the distance collapse from the fire.  She looked to be about Sugar’s age.  Far too young to have to see so much death and destruction.  Far too young...

“Yes... it would be,” I said softly, agreeing with Stone’s comment before looking about the townsfolk for any sign of Silver.  I did not spot the grey mare, but I did see another familiar face.  

Spirit Walker moved among the wounded, tending to their injuries as best she could.  I expected the kind hearted buffalo had wasted no time in seeking out those in need of her help.  As she looked up, she caught sight of us standing near the edge of the crowd and nodded her horned head towards us.  She did not stop working however, but continued to heal as she slowly made her way through the wounded towards us.  Where she stopped, ponies seemed to relax, their pains eased by either her tender hoof or soft, kind words.

As I watched, I noticed others moving among the wounded.  Four local ponies who seemed to be doing what they could to help the buffalo tend their fellow townsfolk.  Of them, two bore saddlebags bearing a similar mark to Spirit’s own.  Three pink butterflies, though none so colorful as hers with the beads that adorned it.  These two seemed trained in first aid, and pulled bandages and half-full health potions from their bags at times.  The remaining two ponies seemed to mostly be cleaning wounds and offering bottles of water.  Likely just locals wishing to help.

A groan from nearby drew my attention away from Spirit, and the four medics helping her, to a wounded mare near the edge of the group.  She appeared to have a number of burns along her hind legs and flanks and was laying on her side as she waited for somepony to get to her.

Reaching back for my canteen hanging from my saddlebags, I knelt down beside the wounded pony and offered her a drink of water.  She looked up at me and offered a small smile, thanking me as she took the canteen in her hooves and began drinking slowly.  As she finished, hoof steps nearby announced the arrival of Spirit.  A second later, the buffalo knelt down beside me and began looking over the wounded mare’s burns.  

“I am afraid fresh water is something of an issue at the moment.  It seems the raiders poisoned the town’s well,” Spirit began.  Her hoof gently ran across the edges of the mare’s burns, earning a slight hiss of pain from her.  As she worked, Spirit continued, “It is good to see you are no more injured than you were in the hardware store despite, as Carrion said, your disregard for your personal safety.” I could hear a slight joking tone in the buffalo’s voice and, a moment later, the hint of a smile appeared despite our grim surroundings.

“I tried my best not to undo all your hard work,” I answered with a more open smile.  The wounded mare she was treating looked up from her injured flanks and a faint smile appeared upon her lips.

The soft groans of the wounded yet to be treated nearby made our smiles fade, however, and I looked back over the ponies around Spirit.  As I scanned them, I felt a slight chill run through me which was not a result of seeing so many open wounds.  Looking skyward, I noticed how dark it had gotten in the last few minutes since the battle had ended.  The flight here had taken us most of the day, the battle taking the remainder.  Night was falling as the sun, hidden by thick grey clouds, sunk beyond the horizon.  It would likely become far colder this far north.
 
“How are they?” I asked, looking back to my medically gifted friend.
 
“There are numerous bullet wounds, deep cuts, and severe burns as one might expect given the fighting that has gone on within the town.  The most seriously wounded have been tended to by their town doctor before we had arrived.  Many of those will not walk again for some time, if at all.”  A look of sadness crossed the young buffalo’s face as she looked over a group of ponies laying closest to the steps.  Many of them were covered with stained blankets or sheets to help fight the chill of the early night air.  The simple covering did little to hide the sight of missing limbs.  “She has gone out in search of more medical supplies.  What little we had brought with us I have nearly used up,” the buffalo said as she turned back to the wounded mare and began wrapping a bandage around the mare’s hind leg.  Her green coat was charred where the flames had burned her, though it did not appear life threatening at least.

“We passed her and two guards on our way here, including Carrion.  He said he was going with her.”  I noticed that the bandage she was using looked to be a ripped up bedsheet.  Mostly due to the floral print across it and the fact it looked as in poor shape as those covering the wounded.  “Here.”  I reached into my saddlebag and withdrew the two bandages I still had on me, tossing them towards her.  “I think you need those more than I do.”

“I believe with no enemies to fight, you may be safe enough from injury to give these to me,” Spirit answered as she easily caught both rolled up pieces of cloth in her fore hooves.

“I’m sure he’ll find a way,” Wild added from where she stood behind me.  An innocent smile crossed her lips as I looked over my saddlebags at her.  “You're what we’d call... special.”  The last word was said with air quotes using her wings of all things.  Oddly a dark grey coated unicorn with a flaming shield for a cutie mark who had only minor wounds rolled his eyes at this motion and walked off to smoke a cigarette away from the rest of the wounded.  

Rolling my own eyes at her comment, I reached in and withdrew the two health potions and two vials of Med X I’d taken from the apartment.  I left the rest there in case Sugar or Spearmint needed them.  I set them down beside Spirit.  The mare she’d been tending looked hopeful at the sight of actual healing supplies given to the healer.  A few other ponies nearby also starred with pain-filled eyes at the pitifully few items I’d sat down.  One appeared to have a broken leg, another riddled with buckshot to much of her back and neck.  

The others followed my example and began giving what little medical supplies they each had over to our healer.  Neither Wild or Balefire had much to give, little more than what I had.  Stone, however, had easily twice that, which was not surprising given his habit of looting dead raiders.  All total there were eight health potions, five Med X, and about a dozen rolls of bandages.  It wasn’t a lot given the number of wounded, but hopefully it’d help those who needed it most.

“Do you need any help?” I asked as she finished looking over one of the health potions Stone had given her.  Given its likely origin I could hardly blame her.  It was stored inside a cracked bottle with the words, “Helth Potsion” written across in messy letters.  Uncorking the top, she sniffed the contents before waving one of the mares helping her over.  She gave the red potion to the pony and whispered softly to her before sending her on her way towards one of the wounded. Only after she was finished did she answer.

“There is little you can do for them that another can not.  Doctor Fiona has two assistants that survived the attack helping her, as well as four volunteers from the townsfolk.  Most are out here helping me, while the others are inside tending to the remaining wounded,” Spirit answered as she carefully finished picking up the remaining medical supplies and placing them within her saddlebags, “I believe your presence has been requested within Town Hall.” 

“So I heard,” I answered,  “Something to do with Silver needing our help.”  My ears twitched as the steady clip clop of approaching hooves drew my eyes away from my friend and back towards the stairs.  Two ponies were quickly descending them, looking about those near the street before stopping on my friends and I.  As I got a closer look at them, I realized I recognized them both.  However, I only knew one of them by name.

The larger of the pair was an earth pony stallion.  His coat was dark red in color and he stood just a few inches shy of being able to look Stonehoof in the eye with his own blue-grey irises.  His cutie mark was a axe leaning up against a tree.  I wondered how a pony could earn a cutie mark like that, given an almost complete lack of forests.  I couldn’t imagine there was much call for his special talent in the wasteland, which made his choice of employment all the more understandable.  He was wearing a mismatch of armor types, from homemade to scavagened.  As was the norm for wasteland armor, it was a mix of colors, although, it seemed somepony had made efforts to paint it primarily black and grey.  It also bore enough of a resemblance to Silverluck’s armor to make it clear he was one of Old Oaks’ surviving guards.  

An old model Equestrian assault rifle was hanging off his side from a strap swung over his head and neck like most weapons.  Rust had built up along the bottom of the weapon’s stock and grip and about half the barrel back to the ejection port was wrapped in oil stained rags.  Despite this, it appeared the weapon worked well enough if he was still carrying it.  In truth, I’d often thought it was a small miracle that any firearm worked given how beaten up and old so many appeared.  

If not for the red stained bandages around the stallion’s neck and throat, I would likely never have remembered him.  It’d been a somewhat hectic time when I’d first saw him, having been with Silverluck when we’d first ran across the group of survivors.  He’d later been shot shot through the neck by a raider, along with Silver’s sister, while the grey mare had slipped away to speak with us.

Beside him trotted a mare, though young, who still managed to come up almost even beside the stallion as she walked.  She too was an earth pony and had also fought alongside Silverluck when we’d first encountered the guard.  This mare was no local guard, however, nor any sort of fighter I imagined as her lack of armor attested.  But fight she had, and well enough to stay in one piece.  Still, she looked more likely to be found working with some sort of machines rather than guarding the town’s walls or killing raiders with saw blades.  

Her coat was a dark orange, far darker than Wild’s and just as oil stained as it was when I’d first spotted her.  Her blue-green mane was mussed up and as dirty as her coat.  Both it and her tail were cut short, almost to the same length as mine.  Her blue overalls fit her large frame well, even though they appeared to have been made for a stallion.  The stained clothing had a number of tools shoved into its many pockets.  The worn overalls covered up her cutie mark, but I had a feeling it would be something to do with machines or tools given what I’d seen thus far.  

The unique weapon she had been using in the battle lay swung across her back as Stone so commonly carried his rifle.  However, the large metal lump bore little resemblance to my friend’s hunting rifle.  It was far larger in size and scale, looking more like the grenade launcher we’d pulled off a robot near Steeldome.  As they neared, I could see even more exposed wiring, tubes, and loose bits all across the weapon's barrel and stock.  About where a normal weapon's magazine would be, the homemade weapon had a large metal cylinder locked in place with some sort of latches.  If I hadn’t seen it used to such deadly effect, I’d be hard pressed to believe it worked at all.

As their hooves touched the sidewalk and began approaching us, I expected it would be the young mare who spoke, given the guard’s injuries.  So I was surprised when it was in fact the stallion who greeted us instead.  Albeit in a rough gravelly voice that sounded like somepony who’d smoked far more than was healthy.

“Tis a pleasure ta meet th’ pony responsible fer savin’ our lives.”  Although speaking appeared to cause him a good deal of pain, he seemed determined to do so.  As he and the young mare, Tinkerbelle I recalled her name, stopped before us he held out a hoof towards me.  I took it and shook it warmly, offering the wounded guard a smile and nod of my head as he sized me up.  As his eyes passed over the silver Marshall badge pinned to my chest armor, they widened a bit before coming up quickly to my face.  “Ya have my gratitude, Marshall.”  At the mention of the title, Tink’s ears perked up and she looked more intently towards me than she had before while her grandfather carried on speaking.  “Ah heard a bit about what ya did on th’ radio couple weeks ago in Crossroads and around Tombstone.  Mighty fine work if Ah might say.  Th’ name’s Jackhammer, and this here’s my granddaughter, Tink.”

“Evening, Jackhammer and Tink.  It’s good to see you both up and around after what happened.  These are my friends: Stonehoof, Wildfire, and Balefire.” I stepped aside so that they could better see the others beside and behind me.  I noticed Balefire smiling towards Tink and the young mare looking back to the brash stallion.  I quickly stepped between them, lest Balefire end up getting himself in trouble so soon after surviving the battle.  “I believe you’ve already meet Spirit.  The surly ghoul helping your doctor is Carrion.  If not for them, I doubt I’d have made it here at all.  They all had a hoof in helping save your town.  And please, just call me Shadow.”

“It’s a pleasure ta meet all th’ ponies... and buffalo,“ he hastily added.  His ears flicked back in a bit of alarm, much to Wild’s amusement and Spirit’s indifference.  “Who risked their lives ta save a town of strangers.  Not many are willin’ ta do that, least of all ta cross so much of th’ wasteland ta do it.”

  “So I’ve heard and seen... but we were just doing what seemed right.”  As we spoke, I once more looked to the side and Spirit tending to the wounded mare.  “I’m just happy we arrived in time to help you all.  The trip from San Ponsisco took us longer than I thought by air and I was beginning to wonder if we’d find anypony alive.  Especially after your transmission was cut off.”

“Ta be honest, Ah don’t think anypony here expected any help ta be comin’ because of that transmission.  Ah think most were doin’ it just ta keep their hopes up.  As for it bein’ cut off... well, one of them bastards got lucky with a rocket launcher,” Jackhammer said, lifting his head to look at the roof of Town Hall and the radio tower jutting off one side of it.

Following his gaze skyward, I was amazed that the entire thing hadn’t come tumbling off the roof as a result of the damage it had suffered.  The twisted, rust-covered beams stuck out a good ways from the edge of the roof.  Wires and bits of metal were swaying gently in the breeze.  Fortunately for the wounded in the street, somepony had had the forethought to keep them from directly under where it would fall, though that was hardly foolproof.  Picking up on my concern, Jackhammer spoke up again.

“Ah’m afraid it’s not th’ best place ta have ’em, but we had to move ’em out of th’ buildin’ so we could do some repairs.  We was afraid ta move ’em too far away, in case th’ raiders attack again.”  The stallion’s blue eyes had followed mine to the wounded.  “As fer any of us bein’ left... it was very close.  If th’ raiders had waited ta attack us for a few more hours, I doubt very much if there’d even be half of who’s here.  Most ponies would’a been asleep in their beds instead of just sittin’ down ta dinner.” Jackhammer shook his head and glanced back up to us.  “It was hearin’ th’ first couple expositions that tipped off so many.”

“While they’re usin’ new types of weapons ta get into towns, it seems raiders are still a mite impatient,” Stone added.

“Right ya are, friend.” Jackhammer’s head turned towards Stone as he spoke.  A smile formed across his face as he eyed the large stallion.  “Take it ya’ve had a fair number of run ins with them?”

“Ya could say that,” my friend answered, ears flicking back. “Th’ wasteland’s crawlin’ with ’em from San Ponsisco all th’ way back east ta Manehatten.  Ponies bein’ driven mad by th’ world around ’em, or simply given up bein’ ponies ta be monsters.” Stone lightly stomped a forehoof into the pavement.  “Seen far too many raiders for my tastes.”

“Ah reckon more than one is too many for anypony,” Jackhammer said, before turning to regard me once again.  His eyes lowered to the badge attached to my combat armor.  “So, what's yer plan now, Shadow?  Return ta San Ponsisco perhaps?”

“Maybe.  To be honest, I hadn’t really thought much beyond getting here to think about what would happen afterwards,” I answered with a wave of my hoof to what was left of Old Oaks. “I suppose it really depends on if anypony else out here needs my help.  Old Oaks’ call for help was only part of the reason I left San Ponsisco.”

“And what was the other reason?” asked a young voice.  Turning, I saw it was Tink who’d spoken.  The orange coated, young mare’s ears were perked towards me, as were her light pink eyes.  She seemed quite intent on my response for some reason and I arched a brow towards her.  She blinked and took a step back.  “That is... if you wanna tell us,” she added.

Breaking eye contact with Tink, I glanced back to my friends.  Both Stone and Wild had remained standing beside one another.  I suppose they knew out of everypony who’d come with us why I’d set out.  They knew me, much like the ponies I’d lived with for my entire life.  The others- Balefire, Carrion, and Spirit... well, I’d wondered if they really knew what they were getting themselves into when they’d agreed to follow me back out into the wasteland.  Turning back to Tink and her grandfather, I answered the young mare’s question.

“I felt I could do more good out here, helping those who can’t help themselves and those who no one else will help,” I began, shifting my weight a bit onto my other forehoof.  The sore one had decided it disliked me staying still for so long. “The original reason for leaving my Stable had been to save my sister.  When that... failed, I chose to save those around me instead of just giving into the despair I felt at the time.” I glanced to my friends once more and smiled to them.  “When we reached San Ponsisco, part of me felt relief at finally finding someplace safe for my niece and I.  But another part of me felt for those ponies left beyond the walls of the city, beyond the reach of the Confederacy.” I looked around at all the wounded ponies.  The scent of blood was growing thicker as the wounded waited for treatment from the overworked ponies and buffalo trying to help them all. 

“That was the other reason I left San Ponsisco.  To help anyone I could,” I added, looking back up to Tink and Jackhammer.  My words seemed to surprise Jack, as his eyes had grown wide.  Beside him, Tink tilted her head to the side and looked closely at me before a smile began forming upon her face.

“I knew what they said was true...” she said, mostly to herself, before looking to her grandfather.  “I told you those stories weren’t made up.”

“Ah’ll admit, Marshall... Ah didn’t rightly believe all them things Three Horns was sayin’ about ya... and Ah’ve never been more happy ta be proven wrong.”  The dark orange hoof of his granddaughter rose up and lightly touched the old stallion’s shoulder, causing him to glance in her direction and smile. “If yer willin’ ta help us some more, Ah won’t turn ya away... goddesses know, we need all th’ help we can get.”

“I think Silver could use their help, Grandpa,” Tink suggested, pink eyes turning back to her grandfather.  “The sooner the better... I don’t know how much longer she’ll keep her cool having to listen to those three upstairs...”

“Ah reckon yer right, Tink,” Jack answered as he looked back to the young orange mare beside him.  A hint of a smile appeared upon his snout as he added, “As usual.”  This seemed to please Tink, who smirked back at her grandfather and gave a nod of her head.  Jackhammer turned back towards us, silently studying us once more.  A thoughtful look crossed his face, with perhaps a bit of hope. “Perhaps ya’ll might just be th’ ones ta talk some sense into them damn fool hards upstairs.”

“You said something was going to happen when we spoke earlier, Tink,” Balefire spoke up from where he’d been largely silent beside me.  The green unicorn stallion stepped around from where I’d blocked his line of sight to the young mare and arched a brow towards her.  “What’s going on upstairs?” 

Tink’s ears wilted a bit as her grandfather glanced over towards her with a slight frown, as if she’d overstepped her bounds.  After a moment, the old stallion snorted and shook his head, offering the young mare a nuzzle before turning back to us.

I had a feeling I had a good enough idea where this was going, and frowned.  It had happened to me a number of times while crossing the wasteland.  Ponies too stubborn to see what was right in front of them, too stubborn to change their ways.  I suppose it was a flaw we all shared, seeing how the history books were full of examples of ponies making mistakes due to their pride or belief that they were right. 

“Silver’s attempting to convince some of the ponies in charge that we need to leave Old Oaks.  That it’s no longer safe here... it’s... not going as well as she or us would have hoped,” Tink answered, ears rising back up a bit as her grandfather nodded his head to go on.  “We’ve been all but cut off from the rest of the world here, due to trouble with caravans reaching us and the sudden rise in raider attacks around the countryside.  So, we’ve known for a while now that sooner or later we’d have to try and either get help or leave the town.  After we were attacked the second time, and the mayor was killed, a lot of ponies were set on leaving.”

“Why didn’t you?” I asked.

“Sheriff Butterhoof.  Not th’ best or bravest stallion ta hold th’ position, but he could talk a radscorpion inta lettin’ ya cut off its’ stinger,” Jack answered, a hoof lightly rubbing his bandaged throat as he spoke.  “He took charge of th’ town after th’ first attack, said we’d be better off stayin’ together since small groups on th’ road would be easy pickin’s for raiders.  He pointed out that th’ raiders barely got inside th’ walls, usin’ some crude ladders.  Suggested we build th’ wall up higher and have some ponies stand guard on th’ roofs of th’ buildin’s nearest the edge.”

“All true, and as my grandpa said, Sheriff Butterhoof had a way of convincing ponies he was right.”

“Helps when he’s speaking th’ truth,” Stone agreed.  “Ah reckon if anypony had left th’ town so soon after th’ first attack, they’d have been killed by raiders waiting for ’em to do just that.”

“That seems a bit more intelligent than I’d think for raiders...” I said as I looked over towards my friend.  Raiders had never come across very smart to me, from the condition of their weapons to their mad lust for murder and mayhem.  Although, recent events had been forcing me to rethink that belief somewhat.

“Don’t take a genius ta know that fearful ponies do stupid and rash things.  If there’s one thing raiders know, it’s what fear does ta ponies,” Stone answered, pulling his hat back down across his face. “So ya stayed, and th’ raiders attacked again.”

“They did indeed.  They used some sort of explosives ta breach the walls and flooded inta the streets.  Th’ Sheriff and his deputies were killed in th’ chaos that followed.  From what I hear, they barely got th’ doors ta Town Hall shut before th’ raiders began beating on them.  Tink and Ah was across town when the attack happened, ran inta Silver and her sister while we were attempting to reach th’ center of town.”

“So... if the mayor and sheriff are both dead... and Silverluck’s in charge, what’s the problem?” Balefire asked, looking between Jack and myself.

“Th’ surviving members of th’ town’s council is th’ problem.  Th’ mayor inherited them from the previous one and most have held th’ same position for as long as Ah can remember,” Jackhammer answered, ears flicking back against his skull as he spoke.  “Most of’em are either related ta th’ original ponies that settled Old Oaks or moved here after th’ bombin’ ta start a new life.  My own family has lived here since long before Equestria was a radioactive shithole.”

“They don’t want to leave the only place they’ve really known.” 

I knew the feeling.  Quite well actually, as did another two hundred ponies I’d once lived closely with.  How many other ponies had been forced to leave their home because of raider attacks or food shortages?  How many of them actually made it to where they were going?  How many of the bones I’d walked past to reach Crossroads and Steeldome had been from them?  

“I know the feeling,” I heard Balefire whisper to himself and looked back towards the unicorn.  I then looked around at all my friends and realized that was something all of us had in common.

Balefire’s home had been attacked by raiders, much as Old Oaks and my own Stable had been.  Everypony he knew had either been killed or taken captive.  He’d been found by a force of Confederate soldiers trying to stop those same raiders.

Wildfire had been forced to leave the Enclave after refusing to murder innocent ponies for their supplies.  While anyplace that would condone such an act wasn’t anyplace I’d want to live, it’d still been her home.  The place where she’d been born and raised.  She’d never see any of her friends up there again.

Spirit Walker had left her home to search for her people.  While she’d failed to discover anything concrete about the buffalos, she’d at least known she’d had a place to go back to.  At least she thought she had, because like Stable 45, raiders had attacked Wastefall Gorge and killed or captured many of its inhabitants.

When I’d met Stonehoof, he’d been taking his sister in law and soon to be born nephew to the safety of Crossroads, after their home had been attacked.  They were then jumped by slavers, and nearly captured.

“I think we all know how they feel,” I added, looking from Balefire to Tink and Jackhammer.  “But you’re right about leaving Old Oaks.  If anypony tries to stay here, they’ll likely end up dead in a week.  I think you’d better show us where Silver’s at, so we can help talk some sense into the others.”

“Ah reckon she’ll be much obliged for th’ help. Th’ ponies of th’ council don’t always see eye ta eye on things...” Jackhammer began to explain as he turned to lead us back up the steps.  His granddaughter, however, quickly cut him off with a snort.

“Don’t sugarcoat it, Grandpa, a lot of ponies don’t like Silver or her sister.”  The dark orange mare’s ears flicked back as she spoke, pink eyes narrowing as she tilted her head to look up the building standing over us. “Silver’s from a Stable back east, wandered out here trying to find someplace safe to raise her sister.  A lot of ponies blame the recent raider attacks on her, saying she led them to us.”

“Would raiders really follow two ponies for so long?” I asked as I followed Jackhammer up the steps, the others right behind me.  While I didn’t doubt their single minded determination in making a pony’s life a living hell, it seemed a lot of trouble for just two ponies.  Raiders tended to have the attention span of a foal at times, from what I’d seen and heard of them.  Granted a foal with a habit of eating the living and making weapons out of anything at hoof...

“I had a group of them tracking me through the sewers of Kanter City for days before Carrion found me,” Wild answered, wings rustling a bit at the memories of that horrible place. “I’ve heard similar stories from other ponies in bars throughout the wasteland.”

“Not everyone blames ’er for th’ attacks, Old Oaks has always had th’ odd raider attack over th’ years... just not by so many raiders all at once,” Jack said, looking from my friends to me. “At least, not all of us blame ’er,” he added softly, but I was close enough to pick up on it.

Great... I’d likely be wishing we were still trading shots with the raiders if this was going to get as ugly as it sounded.   

Still, maybe they’d listen to somepony else telling them it wasn’t safe here anymore.  That they’d have to leave what was left of their homes.  But then, if Tink and Jackhammer were correct, this was something they’d been getting told for a while now.  This was the same thing that Silver seemed to have been telling them.  Maybe it was because it was her that they weren’t willing to listening.  Could ponies really be that petty?  

I wasn’t sure.  At least, not totally.  I’d seen some things since coming to the surface.  Some things I hadn’t thought ponies were capable of doing.  

The wounded stallion turned and made his way back up the steps with the rest of us following him.  Balefire moved past us to fall into step with Tink, asking her a question about her unique weapon.  Wild and Stone were speaking quietly to themselves about the day’s events, or on the town’s defences.  To be honest, I had stopped paying attention to everypony after we neared the doors.  There was something unsettlingly familiar about them...

As we quickly climbed the few steps to the double doors, I noticed a pair of stallions off to the right, pulling some of the wooden boards off the windows.  I wondered why they’d be doing that, seeing how the whole reason the wounded hadn’t been moved far was due to the safety offered by the building.  The closer we came to the doors, the slower my pace became until I’d fallen back to the rear of the group by a good half dozen steps.  The front doors into Town Hall had been left open, heavy looking wooden chairs placed to insure they didn’t close.  Jack, Tink, and Balefire had already gone inside, and Stone and Wild were just passing through.  

As I neared the doors and prepared to step past them, I came to a complete halt.  My legs locked up tightly as the smell hit me, one hoof raised in mid step.  A foul mix of unwashed bodies, blood, waste, and the almost constant scent of fear.  Despite the thick humid air outside the building, I shivered as the smells from beyond the door assaulted my nose and brought with them a painful memory.  

“Shadow?”

I felt my ears twitch at the sound of my name being called out from just ahead of me.  Was that Stone?  I wasn’t sure, it didn’t sound like him and my eyes had gone out of focus as I stared at the darkness of the room beyond.  I knew I was in Old Oaks... about to enter it’s Town Hall, but my thoughts were elsewhere at the moment.  To a place far away...

Walking into the room, I should have known at once something was horribly wrong, but I’d failed to see those signs.  Signs my friends had already seen as they followed me into the dark, dank hole.  The only sound was of water dripping from the broken ceiling, landing into stagnant pools of foul smelling liquids.  I ignored the smell of unwashed flesh, feces, decay, and rotting flesh.  I ignored the single flickering emergency light that attempted to brighten the darkness of the room, and ignored the yellowed bones of dead ponies under piles of waste and trash.  All this and more I ignored as I approached the lone figure within the room.

Ebony...

“Shadow?  Are you alright?” came another voice, Wild’s this time.  I wasn’t really sure if I was alright... I sure as hell didn’t feel alright...

She’d been chained to the wall, two links of rusted metal running from posts driven into the stone.  Water dripped from the orange-tinted iron chains.  Those same links disappeared into the shadows of the room where my sister lay, her Pipbuck tag flashing. That single bulb of light made it so I could only just make out the edges of my sister's body, laying among the garbage and waste of the prisoners.  Her head was propped up on a old jacket that had sat for goddesses knew how long in the filth. The lengths of chain ran from the wall to metal bands around her throat and left hind leg.  Both areas were devoid of fur from how tight they had been around her body.  She lay on her side, facing the wall.  Her arched back was a mass of scars from whips and hoof alike.  Her long white mane and tail was knotted and covered in filth.  Stepping closer, the scent of rot and death hung heavily around the thin form.  Weeping white sores covered her hind quarters and midsection.  Looking closer, I saw they seemed to cover large areas of my sister's body.  The fur around them had fallen out, leaving bare pale skin below, dark red and blue veins visible just below it.  Everywhere I looked she was bruised.  Despite not wanting to, my eyes traveled to her hips and the dark marks around her tail.  My heart broke as I saw what those bastards had done to her...

“Shadow, what’s wrong?  Shadow?”

Shakingly, I lowered the weapon to her head, pressing the cold metal barrel to her skull.  Rather, I tried; I was shaking so badly it wobbled around.  Until a slender black hoof rose up from outside my field of vision and steadied the gun.  My sister’s hoof.  Our breathing slowed, and I could feel the unsteady beat of her heart against her chest as my own seemed to match its rhythm.  I tightened my grip upon the pistol in my mouth, feeling the trigger and pulling back, the hammer slowly rising up as the chamber rotated.

My sister smiled and held my gaze as I squeezed the trigger... and a hoof pressed into my shoulder.  

I blinked and reared back as I felt something pressing into my armored shoulder, jerking my head back up to see who had come up from behind me... hadn’t Wild and Stone been watching from the doorway to the room?  I blinked again rapidly to try and clear up my blurred vision as two fuzzy shapes appeared, standing in front of me.  I took a couple of steps back and shook my head again to get my bearings.

“What... ?” I choked out, my throat feeling tight and dry all of a sudden.  Only after I finally managed to slow my rapid breathing and felt my heart slowing down to normal was I able to focus on the two in front of me.  I found myself staring into the worried faces of two of my friends.

“Shadow, are you alright?”  Wild asked, lowering her hoof that had been resting upon my shoulder before I’d jerked away at the touch.  The mare’s storm blue eyes looked me over with concern, wings slightly open as she took a step towards me.  When I retreated a step she stopped and tilted her head a bit.  A moment later, a knowing look came across her face and her ears folded back along her mane. 

“Yeah... you sorta zoned out on us there for a bit.  Shaking and muttering to yourself,” Balefire added from where he’d been standing beside Wild.  The young unicorn arched a brow as Wild took a step back, giving me a bit more room to gather myself. “Do we need to fetch, Spirit?” he asked, red eyes going from me to Wild when I didn’t immediately answer either of them.

“It’s not something she can heal, Bale,” Wild answered, taking her gaze off me as she looked to the green stallion beside her.  “Nothing anyone can heal really...”

Balefire hadn’t been in Kanter City.  He hadn’t seen or felt what had happened to me down there.  The others had.  Oh, I’d told him about what had brought me to the surface, and out towards the raider infested city.  I’d told him as much as I could about what had happened in the basement of that ruined hospital... the others had likely filled in the missing pieces for him.  But, hearing it... and living it were two very different things.  And, it hadn’t been his sister he’d been forced to... forced to...

“I’ll be alright... I was just reminded of something very painful is all...” I answered, lifting my right foreleg up along my cheeks to wipe away the tears that had been blurring my vision.  I ignored the ash and dirt that replaced them.  Instead, I took a deep breath through my mouth and took a few unsteady steps towards the doors once more.  While he may not have been there... Balefire had lost his own family to raiders not that long ago. 

“Come on, let’s go and see what it is we can help these ponies with before it gets much later,” I added as I walked past them, my steps steadying as I crossed the threshold into the building.  As I did so, I stopped and allowed my eyes time to adjust to the dim lighting within the large main room.

All the first floor windows had been boarded up to prevent the raiders from getting inside.  Even though they were slowly being removed, what little light managed to work its way inside wasn’t enough.  Only a half dozen low burning candles, scattered about the first floor, gave off any real light.  As one might expect from a building that had just recently been used as a fortress, nearly the entire floor was littered.  Spent shell casings, dirt, bits of broken glass and wood, wadded up bandages stained in places with blood; all the signs of ponies fighting to survive.

What little furniture that must have been on the first floor had been pushed around the front doors, and the doors leading off to a half dozen side rooms.  It had been used to barricade the ponies inside should the raiders force their way in.  As my eyes grew more accustomed to the flickering light of the dark room, I saw the three others who had entered before us.  Stone, Tink, and Jackhammer all stood beside the bottom steps of a set of stairs leading to the second floor.  The stairs were wide enough to allow three ponies to walk up them abreast of one another and had been made of wood.  At the top of which, a pair of large old desks had been shoved out of the second floor landing, allowing access to the floor and likely to another set of stairs to the third floor.

Whoever had set all this up had done an impressive job, despite it being a rushed job due to the nature of the attack.  It was no wonder the raiders had seemed hesitant in attempting to force the ponies inside to come out.  They’d never have gotten in by force alone, not without using more explosives at least.  Knowing the raiders, they had likely used all of them up to breach the walls... at least I hope they had.  Best they could have done was to starve them out, which seemed to be what they’d resigned themselves to do.

“Th’ others are upstairs, in th’ old courtroom.  If ya’ll need some time...” Jackhammer said as we approached him and the others.  The older stallion had been speaking with Stone when we’d entered while his granddaughter stood beside him and listened.  He seemed to want to ask what had kept us, but didn’t, while Tink seemed oblivious to it.  Stone, however, noticed almost at once something was wrong. Behind me, I heard Wild and Balefire trotting across the littered, wooden flooring.

I offered a weak smile towards my old grey friend and a slight nod of my head, trying to let him know I was okay.  Well... perhaps okay wasn’t really the correct term.  I was here.  I didn’t want him worrying about me... thought I knew that was likely pointless.  In response to my nod, Stone turned away and looked back towards Jack and Tink.

“Ah doubt th’ arguin’ will wait.  Lead th’ way up,” Stone said as he motioned towards the stairs.

For his part, Jackhammer seemed to notice he’d missed something but again choose not to ask.  Instead, he merely nodded his head to my large grey friend. 

“Alright, follow me then.”  With that, he turned and began climbing the stairs.  Tink paused for a moment to look towards me before she quickly followed her grandfather up.  The sound of heavy iron hoof steps drowned out the slightly softer steps of the mare as they trotted on up.

Stone waited for the rest of us to begin climbing before he began following Jackhammer up.  My fellow earth pony fell into step beside me, green eyes passing from the stairs to look closely at my face.  He saw the signs of my recent break down.  I once more offered him a nod and a slightly less forced smile.

“Everythin’ alright, Shadow?” my friend asked as we reached the midway point up the flight of steps.

“I’ll be alright, Stone,” I answered gently as Balefire and Wild fell into step behind us.  “Coming in here just reminded me of something.” It seemed enough, at least for now.  The large grey stallion nodded his head before looking to Wild, who trotted up on his other side.

“All right, if ya need ta talk ta somepony thought...” he began.

“I know, Stone,” I began, looking once more over to him. “But, I did nothing but talk about that for four days after arriving in San Ponsisco.  To just about everypony from my Stable it seems... I don’t really want to talk about it again... at least not while we’re out here.”  At that, we reached the second floor and stood facing a doorway into what looked like an office of some sort.  Broken chairs and boarded up windows was all I could really see through the open door.

“This way,” Tink said from our right.  Turning to look, I saw the young mare waiting at the end of the landing near the entrance to a hallway.  My ears twitched as I heard the heavy tread of Jackhammer’s hoofs on the floorboards.  He must have gone on ahead.  Balefire had spotted the mare and the path we were going to take before the rest of us and had already trotted up beside her.  I snorted softly.

“You could learn a thing or two from that pony, Shadow,” Wild said from where she trotted beside Stone.  The comment earned a look from both of us, and a smirk from the orange, winged mare. “Well, it’s true.  That buck’s got his priorities straight.  Kill raiders, chase mares, something... profit.”

“I think that third to last one is where her grandfather catches him,” I said with a smile that was far less forced than the last couple.  The sudden change in topic was quite welcome, and I suspected deliberate.

“Ah doubt th’ young filly needs her grandfather ta look after ’er.  Ah imagine she’s more than capable of takin’ care of herself,” Stone added, a smile once more upon his face as well as he glanced over to his marefriend.  “Besides... Ah thought ya was gonna try and fix Shadow up with Ruby back in Crossroads.”

“Hmm... thats right... the poor mare’s been having dreams about you.” Wild’s smirk grew into a full grin as she caught a hint of a blush on my cheeks.  “Oh, yes,” she said, going in for the kill now.  “Dreams of you... doing things... so many things...”

“Buck me, I need an adult...” I groaned as we turned the corner and began trotting along the hallway, my own pace a little faster to try and escape the pair.  Stone and Wild chuckled at my hasty retreat up the hall, and seemed content to let the matter drop.  Although knowing that mare, she’d likely bring it up again.  I’d rather take on another forty raiders than deal with her when she was on the subject of sex.  As we walked along the hall, I glanced towards the walls to get my mind off my friends’ teasing, along with the images it had popped up inside my head.  

While from the outside the building had appeared to be made largely of stone, the inside it was another story.  Nearly every surface I could see was made or trimmed in wood.  It wasn’t surprising for a town that had dealt largely in lumber.  The walls had hoof-carved wood paneling along much of their surfaces.  Although, through numerous cracks and breaks in the paneling, I could see the stone beneath.  On my left were a row of doors, around about six of them.  Most opened into small offices that were once used by the ponies working here.  The rooms looked as if they’d been recently converted into sleeping quarters with bedrolls, blankets, and pillows laying about the floor in no real order.  On the right was a row of windows.  These hadn’t been as heavily boarded up as those on the first floor, and I could actually see quite well through them.

 Looking out through the cracked glass and one or two boards covering them, I saw that most of the smoke that had been billowing up into the sky had eased as the fires found less and less to consume.  I could see all the way to the protective wall that had stood to keep out the wasteland.

Miles upon miles of dark brown earth stretched out towards the distant hills.  In some places, the ground was blackened by fires that had burned so intensely that even now you could still see where they had been.  The worn, cracked half covered highway that ran straight through Old Oaks could still be made out.  It wound its way between the hills and around those blackened spots before disappearing from sight over a rise in the landscape.  Upon either side of the road stood hundreds of blackened stumps, the source of the fires, and in places even whole dead trees remained.  Their twisted, gnarled branches reached up towards the overcast sky.

“Old Oaks used to be a lumber town,” Tink’s voice called out from ahead of me, pulling my attention away from the view outside and towards the young mare.  “Sorry, but I noticed you staring at the ruined trees surrounding town,” she added.

“It’s alright,” I said, smiling gently to the young mare.  “I’d actually heard a bit of Old Oaks history from Stone on the way here.  There was little else to do on the flight here, beyond what we’d already done.  It had been a lumber town long before the war, and even after it had started.  Unicorn magic was used to help the trees grow faster than even an earth pony’s own.”

“That’s right.  I’m surprised anypony bothered to learn about the town’s history, seeing that it isn’t exactly on any major trading routes,” Tink responded, looking over to my large grey friend.

“Ya travel enough, ya end up pickin’ up a few things.” Stone said simply, nodding his head towards the young mare.

“Indeed, you’re just full of surprises, Stone.  Why, up until a couple weeks ago, I never thought I’d meet an earth pony who knew how to preen wings as well as you,” Wild chimed in, a wicked grin on her lips. “You simply must tell me who taught you so I can thank her.”

“Preening?” I asked, turning back to regard my friends.  Only then did I notice the sudden reddening of Stone’s cheeks.

“A necessary thing us pegasi must do to keep our wings healthy and the feathers in good order.  Though, it can also be used as foreplay seeing how sensitive our wings can be when we’re worked up.”

“Which with you, is almost all the time,” I added with a snort.  Wild’s storm blue eyes opened a bit wider and she actually looked a bit hurt, but only a bit.

“You make that sound as if it’s a bad thing... I don’t hear Stone complaining about getting so much ta...”

“Aren’t we there yet?” the stallion in question hurriedly asked.  His ears laid back atop his hat, which had lowered to hide his face from view.

As it turned out, we were actually.  Coming to the end of the hallway, which seemed to run the length of the building, we turned to our left.  A short distance away stood Jackhammer, waiting beside another set of stairs that would take us to the third floor.  Beyond we would find the courtroom where Silver and the ponies she was meeting with would be.

“Talkin’ bout th’ trees again, Tink?” the old pony asked his granddaughter, a smile on his face.  

Among other things, I thought to myself.

“It’s just hard to imagine what this place must have looked like before the war.  When everything was green and alive,” she answered, one last look given to the windows behind us before she started up the stairs.  Jackhammer fell into step beside her as Balefire followed close behind.  We’d barely taken a couple steps before she continued, “Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get my chance to see some.  After all, there’s all sorts of stories on the radio about real, living trees growing somewhere out in the wasteland.”

“Ah think them’s just stories, Tink.  Ah wouldn’t get yer hopes up ta much,” her grandfather said.

“I’ve heard those stories as well,” Balefire quickly added, causing the young earth pony in front of him to glance back towards him.  “I’m not sure if there’s any truth to them to be honest, but I’ve heard at least a dozen or more traders in San Ponsisco talking about seeing them, or knowing somepony who has.”

“Ah’ve heard that rumor for years now, been told all across th’ wasteland on just about every radio signal Ah can get,” Stone spoke up, eager to jump on the subject change.  “Ah reckon there could be some truth ta th’ story... seein’ how it’s almost always th’ same... but a lotta ponies just think it’s wishful thinkin’.” 

“I can understand why somepony would want to believe it.  Seeing even a small bit of the old world with your own eyes would be something else,” I said as we reached the top of the stairs.

“Ah reckon yer right on that point, Shadow,” Jackhammer said from the front of the group.  “It’s certainly kept my little tinkerer’s hopes up.” He glanced to the young mare beside him, whose cheeks had turned a brighter orange at his apparent nickname for her.

“Grandpa...” 

I chuckled softly, and looked away from the happy pair to the hallway we were walking along.  It had been one of three we’d seen once reaching the third floor, forming a T shape.  One of the other hallways must have lead to the stairs to the fourth floor, as I’d yet to see any sign of it down this one.  In fact, there were only three doors and no windows.  One  door on each side, leading into more work spaces, offices most likely.  They were far larger than those on the second floor.  The last doorway was at the end of the hall, and was in fact a set of large wooden double doors.

In fact, much of the building seemed to have been made of wood.  I wondered how such a thing had survived the blaze that had consumed the forests around it... for that matter, how did the town?  I started to turn and ask Stone, when I noticed we’d reached the end of the hall.

Rearing back onto his hind legs, Jackhammer placed both fore hooves upon each door and pushed them open with a slight grunt of effort.  As the doors slowly swung open, Jackhammer dropped back down to all fours and entered.  We quickly followed and found ourselves in a large room that looked about how I’d expect a courtroom to look.

On either side of a path leading towards the front of the room were a number of worn wooden benches.  Eight to ten ponies could easily sit upon them, and they appeared bolted to the floor.  That would explain why they’d not been used for barricades.  At the end of the row of benches were a pair of large tables with three or four chairs each, likely used by lawyers and defendants during trials.

It was at one of these tables that we spotted Silverluck and a half dozen other ponies.  Most of them were sitting at the table, pointing at this or that.  Two stood to the side, speaking to themselves, looking back every now and then to say something.  In fact, all of them seemed to have something to say.  The only problem was that they all seemed to want to say it all at the same time.  Most were talking quite animatedly as well, which did not help matters as hooves jabbed at this or that.  If I was a betting pony, I’d place my caps on the subject being about moving away from Old Oaks.  

Sitting beside her mother was the young mare I’d saved from the school house, Silver’s daughter.  She sat quietly as the ponies around her argued over who was louder... at least that’s what it sounded like.  She had her ears laid back and a frown on her lips as she listened.  One other pony in the room seemed to be siding with Silver, a tan coated stallion standing near what appeared to be a jury box.  He was attempting to get the others to shut up and let Silver get a word in... it didn’t seem to be working, however.  

Also, seeing how nopony at the table had noticed us yet, I took the opportunity to get a better look around the room.

Beyond the arguing ponies was the podium where the judge would sit and listen to the cases being presented to him or her.  Behind and to either side along the walls were a number of bookshelves and three doors leading off to other rooms.  Hanging upon the walls, between windows, were badly faded photos and dust covered paintings.  The books upon the shelves did not appear to withstand the test of time and the elements any better than the pictures.  A number of them had mold growing upon their cracked and worn covers.  One thing within the room had endured however: behind the podium, hanging upon the wall, was a portrait of Princess Celestia and Luna.  They wore serene expressions upon their faces, eyes angled to look down upon the courtroom.  I could well imagine the effect having the immortal goddesses of Equestria (even if just a painting) looking down upon you could make a guilty pony confess their crimes.  Sadly it seemed to have no effect on those currently arguing their cases in the room.

The dying light of the day forced its way between the hastily erected boards that still covered the large windows.  Like those in the hallways, they bore fewer than the ones on the first floor.  A few lacked boards at all, but had them sitting just below the windows beside hammers and nails.  Likely those working on them had been called away to help fight.  Below the large windows were a number of short benches, probably for use if more seating was needed.  The windows were not the only source of lighting, though.  The trio of simple metal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling provided far better.  Flickering candlelight cast the room into a soft white light.

As we walked along the alley between benches, Silver had apparently had enough and was attempting to bring order to the gathered group.  Waving her fore hooves towards them, she was asking the council to please be silent.  After being all but ignored, she gave up and simply slumped in her chair, rubbing her face tiredly as her daughter attempted to comfort her.

It seemed Jackhammer had not been joking when he said there were those within town that disliked Silver, to the point of arguing an almost clear truth.  With the exception of her daughter and the one stallion, they seemed to be ignoring the grey coated mare who had become the town’s new leader.  By default it would seem, seeing how there was nopony else that had survived the attack.  At least in this it seemed Silver agreed.  The mare did not look at all pleased with her sudden role as leader, judging by the tired worried look upon her face.  I could sympathise with her.

As we drew closer, I could begin to make out bits and pieces of what was being said. 

“It’s too far... we’ll never survive the trip.  We should head north instead.  Maybe somepony in Wintertrot can help...”

“...it’s our only choice, maybe they’ll take us all in if we bring enough supplies to...”

“...we can not abandon our home.  We’ve been through worse...”

“The Confederacy doesn’t give two shits about us... why would they take us in?”

Silver looked between the ponies around her and shook her head slowly in disgust.  As she started to look away and back to her daughter, she caught sight of us approaching the table and looked relieved that help had seemingly arrived.  Her daughter noticed something change in her mother and turned to look towards us as well.  Somehow, it seemed they were the only ones who did.  The rest continued to argue back and forth.

“Sweet Celestia’s horn, they do love the sound of their own voices, don’t they?” Wild asked, having to speak a bit louder to be heard.  Stone nodded his agreemment and attempted to speak, only to be drowned out as a mare’s voice rose in reply to something another had said.

“Wait until you hear the Confederate Congress argue about something... I used to sneak in while waiting on my mom to finish with them,” Balefire added, ears laid back as he looked around the table at the ponies. “Though... they at least have the common decency not to ignore the President when she’s speaking...”

“Ah was afraid of this, seems things got outta hoof rather quickly after we left.  At this rate they’ll be at it all night,” Jackhammer lamented.  “Ah’ll try and talk some sense into ’em, but Ah’m not thinkin’ it’ll do much good.”

“I doubt it’ll help... talking doesn’t appear to be getting anypony anywhere,” Tink added from beside her father, shaking her head at the sight.

Maybe I was just tired from the trip and the fighting... maybe remembering what had happened to my sister had put me in a fouler mood than I thought.  Maybe I was just tired of ponies arguing over pointless shit.  Whatever it was, I had to agree with Tink.  Talking did not seem to be working.  Patiently waiting hadn’t gotten Silver anywhere, and given that time was an issue, we did not have all night.  Perhaps it was time for a more... direct approach.

Wild caught what I was doing before anypony else in the room, as I lifted Luna’s Ruse up to my mouth.  I suppose the slow, widening grin spreading across her snout should have been a warning to me.  That I’d crossed the line somewhere and started thinking a bit more like the winged pony.  Silver was the second to notice, having been looking over towards me since we’d entered the room.  The mare’s eyes widened and she hurriedly reached for her daughter to cover her ears, causing the young mare to blink in surprise. 

Wrapping my teeth around the firing bit, I hefted the shotgun upwards towards the roof with a tilt of my head and neck.  Once it was more or less skyward, I pulled the trigger twice.  Despite the size of the room, it still sounded as if somepony had just fired off a cannon.  The ponies gathered around the table jerked back in alarm, one even falling over his chair as he attempted to dive under the table.  As the echos of the gunshots faded, over a dozen pair of eyes were fixed on me from all sides.  The only sound, apart from the distant calls of ponies downstairs on the street, came when bits of the ceiling rained down beside me from where the shotgun slug had punched through.  

Not surprisingly Balefire and Wild seemed impressed, Wild going so far as to sit on her rump and clap her fore hooves while Stone attempted to hide a smirk beside her.  Whether at her antics or mine, it was hard to say.  Jackhammer seemed as surprised as the others, although Tink and Silver seemed to share my friends’ opinion.  Those who had been arguing, however, did not seem to agree with them. Hmm... better say something...

“Now that I have your attention, the ponies downstairs filed a noise complaint and would like you all to keep it down to a low shut the fuck up.  I’m sure if we hadn’t killed all of your neighbors from outside the wall they’d also be on their way right now to complain about the noise and kill the lot of you,” I said as I lowered my weapon back down to my chest.  Well, I’ll admit that sounded better in my head... wait, no it didn’t... ah fuck it.  Looking around the table at the gathered heads of the town I noticed my entrance had earned me mixed results.  The older ponies at the table either seemed dead set to ignore me or glare me to death.  The younger ones, however, seemed more interested after spotting the badge I wore.  At last, my gaze settled upon Silver and I offer the tired mare a smile. “Now... is this a bad time?” I asked to the stunned silence of all in the room.

“Not at all, Shadow.  You’re more than welcome to join us,” Silver began, looking over the ponies around her.  “An outside perspective may be just what we need.” Judging by the looks she was getting in return, it seemed not all shared that view.  “After all, the opinion of the ponies responsible for our rescue should hold some meaning.”  That, however, got the others’ attention and once more they began looking towards me.  

As they did, I took the opportunity to look down at the table.  I now saw what had held their interest so much, and what had been worth arguing so vehemently for.  I was surprised to see a map of Equestria spread out between them.  It looked similar to the map we’d used in Stable 45, made long before the war and long since out of date.  A good map of current changes to the country was hard to find, and an accurate one was even harder according to what Stone once told me.  I’d heard once in a bar back in San Ponsisco that the Confederacy had commissioned one to be made a year ago.  However, whoever they’d hired for the job had yet to return.  It seemed most expected they never would.  For now, only older maps that had been altered by ponies living in the wasteland, like this one, were available.  Even those would cost you a fair amount of caps.  Thankfully my Pipbuck had an auto map feature, as well as the ability to update itself somehow with locations I’d been told about.

“We were just talking about where we should go...” Silver continued, attempting to take advantage of the continued silence.  However, one of the ponies sitting between us decided not to allow her the chance.

“More like talkin’ of abandonin’ our home...” the older mare said in a huff.  She was an off white unicorn with a blue-green mane and tail that appeared to be fading in places.  Around her light brown eyes were a number of wrinkles, along with more around her cheeks and mouth.  While it was hard to tell, due to her sitting upon a chair and the table blocking much of my view of her other side, it seemed her right hind leg appeared bent in the wrong way.  An old wound that had likely not healed correctly.  She wore a simple blue shirt that looked as old as her, and in about as good shape.  Her cutie mark was of a stack of bits.  Her eyes darted from me to Silver, cutting the younger mare off before she could reply.   “And don’t try and sugar coat things... that’s exactly what we’re talkin’ bout here.  Abandonin’ our home that we’ve fought for.” An exasperated sigh caught my ear and I turned to look to another pony standing across the table from where I was.

“Lillyblossom, we’ve been over this... none of us want to leave Old Oaks, but isn’t safe here anymore.  If we stay here and the raiders attack us again, we’ll most likely die,” said the stallion who’d been standing off by himself, earning a glare from the older mare.  He was a little older than Stone and was also an earth pony.  His coat was actually more orange in color than tan as I’d first thought.  He had a dirty, scruffy looking yellow mane and tail, cut short as I’d seen a number of stallions had styled.  He wore crude armor made from a variety of things and had a long barreled hunting rifle across his back.  His cutie mark was of a crosshair.

“Yer wrong about that,” Stone said, breaking up the glare that Lillyblossom and the stallion were engaged in.  All eyes turned towards my grey coated friend and he stepped away from his marefriend to stand closer to the table, “They’ll most definitely kill ya all next time.  No if’s or but’s about it.  Ah’ve never seen raiders use explosives like they have here before, but given what Ah’ve been hearin’ from th’ radio and word of mouth, it’s happenin’ all across th’ wasteland.  Not all towns are gettin’ out as good as ya’ll did.”

“You call this good?” the unnamed stallion asked.  His light green eyes were wide as he looked out a nearby window at the fading plums of smoking rising up into the darkened sky.  “They killed over a quarter of us and burned nearly the entire town to the ground!”

“In every other instance Ah heard of, they either killed, ate, or drug everypony off and burned th’ whole town ta th’ ground,” Stone answered calmly, green eyes fixed upon the stallion’s own and forcing him to look away after a few seconds.

“Perhaps those were simply the rare exception.  Besides, we drove them off,” Lillyblossom retorted.  Her brown eyes went from Stone to the other ponies around the table.  “They won’t attack us again so soon.”

“Ah reckon ya could be right about that, but ya should keep somethin’ else in mind.  This time ya drove ’em off.  With our help Ah might add, but next time ya might not be so lucky,” Stone quickly added before she could go any further, making her shut her mouth.  “And there will be a next time, Ah’ll stake my life on it.  There might not be somepony willin’ ta help ya out when they attack again... or they might get here too late ta help do more than bury whatever th’ raiders leave behind.” The old mare’s ears wilted and she slumped a bit in her seat.  She knew what he’d said was true, if a bit brutally honest.  Still... sometimes that’s what it took to get through to a pony set on something dangerous.  Didn’t stop me from trying to reach Kanter City though.

“I know Old Oaks means a lot to you, Lilly.  I know what you and your family went through to settle it.  But... the town’s gone.”  Silver leaned forward, placing a hoof upon the older mare’s shoulders.  “Nearly all of the town is on fire with little hope of getting it under control anytime soon.  The wall is breached in numerous locations and we barely have enough to repair one of the larger holes.  Even if we managed to get the fires out, what about the walls where we live?  Where will the foals stay?” she asked softly.  When the older mare didn’t answer, Silver went on, “We can’t stay here and risk the lives of our children.”

“Which is why we need to find someplace safe to go,” a young dark red coated mare said from beside the armed earth pony.  Her hoof tapped on the map along the coast, drawing my eyes away from Silver.  “San Ponsisco is our best bet.  We really should have left sooner, given what the last traders to reach us told us is happening back east.”

“You’re a crazy mare if you think we’d make it all the way there with the supplies we have, Red!” the armed stallion shouted, brushing the mare’s hoof off the map with his own.  “That’ll take us a week or more by hoof to travel.  Maybe longer seeing how many wounded we have and how few wagons we have to pull them in.  If we still had all our supplies...” that caught my attention, along with Stone’s.

“What happened ta yer supplies?” my friend asked, beating me to the question.  Surely they had some stocked away someplace safe.  While I’d only been to three towns thus far, I’d known each to have some sort of stockpile of supplies stored away... just in case.  Tombstone’s had been in the bank’s vault.  A good place for it, unless it was robbed.  According to what I’d been told, San Ponsisco had a number of supplies hidden throughout the city, in case of an emergency.  Mostly located in the hospitals, police and fire station, as well as the couple of government buildings they had set up.  While I wasn’t sure about Crossroads, I did not doubt Rosey had some hidden away somewhere.

“Burned, along with everything else in town,” the stallion answered, waving a hoof off towards the window nearest the table.  “We had no warning the raiders were about to attack us again.  We’d thought we’d beaten them back the second time.  Normally they make one hell of a racket when they’re coming up to the walls... but not this time.  First clue we had we were in trouble was when shit began blowing up all along the walls.  By the time anypony figured out it was another full scale raider attack, they’d already begun setting fire to half the town.”  

“After that it was mass chaos,” the mare, who’d suggested heading towards San Ponsisco, said.  ‘Red’, I believe he’d called her.  The mare flicked her ears against her skull and looked down at her hooves upon the table.  “None of us had time to grab any supplies of food and water when they started setting fire to our homes.  My neighbors tried and were caught by the raiders and...” she sniffed and looked away.  “I heard them screaming for help as I followed a group towards... towards...”

“What emergency supplies we had stored were in the Sheriff’s office.  Those were designated in the old city’s Police Station, the Fire Department, and Town Hall.  The only supplies we managed to save were those inside Town Hall.” Silver picked up as Red quickly excused herself and hurriedly left the room.  Her sobs followed her while the door shut.  The armored stallion who’d been arguing with her signed softly and looked about ready to go after her before he stopped himself.  “In truth, we’ve been having to dip into those reserves for the past several months, and the sudden loss of everypony’s personal stores did not help matters.  For the time being, I have a couple ponies going through the raiders’ wagons outside in the streets.  We might recover some of our stolen food.  Once we’re finished here, I’m going to organize teams to search the rest of the town for anything that might have survived the fires.”

“Running low?  How is that possible?  Even though you’re not a town of the Confederacy, the road from Janesvillie has always been well traveled by traders,” Balefire spoke up, the young pony looking over the ponies gathered around the table.

“We didn’t waste ’em if that’s what yer thinkin’, boy!  We aren’t stupid like ya’ll Confederate types think we are.  Or tribals like them Steelfucks think we are.  Just ain’t been no new supplies comin’ inta town!” an older stallion, who’d been silent up until this point, said.  His steel blue eyes fixed upon the younger unicorn.  He was a unicorn, dark yellow coat with a short black and grey mane and tail.  His cutie mark looked like a map with a large red X on one side.  

“I don’t think everypony in the Confederacy believes you’re stupid,” Balefire replied, narrowing his red eyes on the stallion.  “At least...” I quickly reached a hoof up to Bale’s shoulder and caught his attention.  Shaking my head, my young friend managed to swallow whatever remark he was about to use.  Instead, he looked away from the stallion and ground his hooves into the flooring.  

“No new supplies?  What happened ta ‘em if we might ask,” Stone inquired, looking from Balefire to the armed stallion.  Seeing he had earned more than just the young buck’s ire, the pony wisely backed down and looked away from us.

Part of me understood why this stallion seemed to have an issue with the Confederacy.  After all, it seemed they had left a number of small towns out to dry, including Old Oaks.  That they did not have the resources to spare or the raw equine power to spread between so much territory was a hard excuse to swallow, even if it was true.  It was likely especially hard when it was your town that was being picked apart by raiders and your friends being killed.  Rosey had made it clear that Crossroads was on it’s own when it came to the protection of the only stable government in the country.  Their only contact with it was in the form of Three Horns, or the odd caravan that risked the trip across the mountains and the raider infested territory between towns.  

It was Silver who answered Stone’s question, forestalling any more sharp-tongued responses from the stallion or Balefire.

“Old Oaks’ problems began long before the raiders.  For the better part of this past year, the supply caravans we normally rely on have been unable to reach us,” she went on to explain when she saw nopony was going to interrupt.  “At first glance, it looks like Old Oaks has little in the way of natural resources that somepony can use. Especially these days.  What it did have before the war was burned away by the bombs.”  At this she waved a hoof over the map, to hills and green patches that surrounded the town... or had.  The forests that had once been the sole reason for the little town’s existence were little more than burned stumps lining the countryside.  “However, what was left was the largest field of easily obtainable charcoal in Equestria.  Luckily, that is more than enough to warrant ponies coming here to tradee.  Both Janesville and Old Oaks trade charcoal to the Confederacy.”

“Sound’s like a nice, easy paycheck for somepony.  Th’ traders that ran th’ route musta been makin’ a killin’.  Haul supplies easily obtainable from one of th’ Confederate towns and trade it for charcoal,” Stone said, nodding his head as he looked over the map. “Take it back ta th’ Confederacy and make a good deal of caps.”

“What’s so important about charcoal?” Wild asked, looking between Silver and Stone.  It was her coltfriend who answered her.

“Blacksmiths use it ta melt iron and ta make silver.  It burns hotter than anythin’ else and it’s easier ta get than coal, seein’ how th’ zebra’s land is th’ only real place that’s covered in th’ stuff.  Th’ Confederacy uses it ta make weapons and armor if Ah ain’t mistaken.”  At this, Stone looked over to Balefire.

“You're not wrong.  We also use it to make new steel and iron parts to repair the buildings within the walled sections of the city.  Without it, rebuilding San Ponsisco would be impossible,” Balefire confirmed, before tilting his head to the side.   “But what I don’t understand is why the caravans haven’t been able to make it to Old Oaks.  The Confederacy drove that group of Super Mutants out of the hills over six months ago.  You know, the ones that had been causing both towns problems on the road.  I was there when their last lair up in the hills was destroyed.” Balefire blinked and looked from the map to Silver.  “Did they return without us knowing it?”  However, before she could answer, somepony else broke in.

“Why would the Confederacy drive a band of Super Mutants out of the hills of a town they don’t seem to give a fuck about?”  This of course came from Wild, who sat beside Stone with a confused look on her face.  She became even more confused when she noticed Stone, Balefire, and myself all staring at her rather unhappily at her lack of tact. “What?  It’s the truth isn’t it?”  To my surprise, it was Balefire who answered her question.

“In a twisted way, I suppose it is.”  The dark green stallion reached up and removed his hat, running a hoof through his dirty black mane.  “With what the Confederacy already holds, the war going on with the Super Mutants and the worry that the Steel Rangers just might try and take the city from us... there’s just no hope for us to defend every town outside of our borders.  Despite how much some of us would really like to...”  It was even more surprising when a grey hoof was laid upon the stallion’s own on the map, causing him to look up into Silver’s face.

“I know, and despite being one of those towns, I understand.” This earned a few dark looks from the ponies seated around her, which the mare ignored.  “There’s been times where we have been forced to make similar choices.  As to your winged friend’s question, the answer is simple:  Janesville.”  Her hoof lifted from Balefire’s and tapped a spot on the map about twenty or thirty miles from Old Oaks.  The spot was near a sizeable body of water, seemingly named Honey Lake.  “It’s a little larger than Old Oaks in size with a little over half again more ponies living behind its walls.  It’s also part of the Confederacy and sits right on the border of their territory.”

“The Confederacy uses the town as a rest stop for units moving further north of our borders, mostly small Ranger recon teams,” Balefire added, tracing a green hoof from the town of Janesville to the surrounding countryside.

“Why?” I asked, looking over the map.  Beyond a few cities further north of either Old Oaks and Janesville, there did not seem to be any reason to send ponies out into the wasteland.  Of the cities I saw, I was sure nearly all of them were little more than radioactive mass graves much like Kanter City and New Oaks were.  San Ponsisco had been lucky to escape the bombs largely intact... well, as much as it was.

“Resources, Ah’d reckon,” Stone said, nodding his head to the map.  “This part of Equestria is supposed ta be rich in minerals.  Gold, silver, and iron.  Even some sizeable gems, but ya can find those just about anywhere in th’ country.”  At my look, the large stallion went on, “Places like Canterlot, Manehatten, and Hoofington ain’t places ya generally find lots of raw iron.  The mountains around these parts have generally been full of th’ stuff and minin’ is much more common.  I should know, my family's been minin’ for generations, ever since ponies first settled this land.” At that, I noticed Wild perk up and a grin appear once more on her face.  No good ever came from a grin on that mare’s face...

“And you're so good at exploring those deep, dark places,” Wild said, making sure to put some emphasis on those last three words.  This, of course, caused Stone’s cheeks to flare red and Balefire to snicker, defusing a bit of tension that had built up in the young pony.  The orange mare turned away from her coltfriend and to the map.  “There’s also the simple matter of territory.  Any government attempting to show it’s might would want to have as much land under their control as they can.  After all, you’d take somepony more seriously if they tell you they have over a dozen towns and cities under their hoof than if they said just two.”

“So it’s all about size, hmm?” I asked, then blinked... oh fuck... I was really starting to sound more like her.  I sighed and face hoofed as everypony looked to me.  “Never mind...”

“More towns means more ponies.  More ponies means more workers and soldiers.  More soldiers means more protection for all those towns.  More workers means more food, weapons, ammo, building supplies, and the like,” Balefire said once he’d managed to control his snickering.  Whether at my comment or Wild’s, I was unsure.

“So if the Confederacy drove the Super Mutants out of the hills, why haven’t caravans been arriving to resupply Old Oaks?” I asked, getting the conversation back on track.

“After the Confederacy cleared them out, the caravans returned for a while.  But within a couple months they began arriving less and less frequently until they stopped altogether once again,” Silver answered, looking from the map to me.  “When we could get it to work, we managed to contact the nearby towns over the radio and find out if they were having similar problems.  None were, at least not to the extent we were.  Janesville was having some issues, but they had an armed caravan every so often from the Confederacy.”

“Ain’t unheard of for traders ta stop comin’ ta some towns if they ain’t makin’ enough caps from it. Crossroads had that problem for a while.  Also ain’t unheard of ta find the remains of a caravan alongside th’ road from where bandits or raiders attacked ’em,” Stone added.

“Janesville began alerting us to the last three caravans to try and reach us.  They never made it, and never made it back to Janesvillie either.”  Silver sighed.  “The mayor sent out a search party to try and find out what happened after the third caravan disappeared... but they never returned either.  After that, he had us seal up the town to try and wait it out.” 

“Havin’ been a guard for caravans before, Ah can tell ya that nothin’ drives caravans away faster than talk of others goin’ missin’ or bein’ killed,” Stone managed to add, despite still looking a bit flustered.  It didn’t help that Wild was giving him the odd playful look and every so often leaning in to nuzzle his cheek.  “Greed will only drive a pony so far before self preservation wins out,” he stated, lightly swatting Wild’s muzzle away from his own.

“There’s more than just Super Mutants and raiders ta worry about in th’ wasteland as ya’ll well know.  Radscorpions and other mutated wildlife can overwhelm a small group of ponies right easily,” Jackhammer spoke up for the first time since I’d fired off my weapon to get the others’ attention.  “As well as swarms of bloatsprites.  Th’ forests round these parts are full of th’ little buzzin’ bastards.”

“I think maybe we got a bit off topic here,” Tink spoke up before anyone else could.  “While missing caravans explains why there’s no food, it’s not helping anypony decide what they need to do next.  We really need to decide that.”  The young mare looked between her father and those ponies still seated at the table.  “Before the raiders come back to finish what they started.”

“She’s right,” Silver said, looking back over the ponies beside her.  “This is getting us no closer to deciding what we should do.  I know many of you want to stay, and just as many want to leave, but can’t decide where we should go.  We need to make that decision now though, and get underway before we are attacked again.  Either from raiders, bandits, or the local wildlife.” As she finished, she looked slowly over the faces of the ponies around here.  None seemed inclined to speak, to make the choice of what they should do.  Silver sighed and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes tiredly.  “Suddenly nopony wants to speak... perfect...”  After waiting another moment she finally looked over towards me.  “What do you think?”  That, however, got Lilly’s attention.

“I don’t see why you’re asking a stranger what we should do.”

“That stranger saved all our lives, along with his friends.  I’d say he’s more than earned a chance to offer up his opinion.  He’s also been further out into the wastes than anypony in Old Oaks has been in months.” Well, I wasn’t sure about that.  Stone and Wild had clearly covered far more of the country than I.  “Plus, I don’t see any of you stepping up to offer anything helpful,” Silver added, shutting the old mare up. 

I lowered my eyes from the pair as they stared at one another and looked over the map that sat between them on the table.  The town of Old Oaks was easy enough to make out in the top left hoof corner of the map near the Saddlera Mountains.  Those mountains effectively cut San Ponsisco and those few cities on this side of the range off from the east.  Across those peaks lay the rest of Equestria; Las Pegasus, Las Haygas, and Salt Lick City were nearest the mountains.  Further away was Kanter City, Crossroads, and Oaklahoma City.  Somewhere in that mass of brown was also Stable 45.  Beyond them was Hoofington, Manehatten, and Canterlot to name just a few.

I drew my focus back to Old Oaks, and the towns around it.  The armored stallion wasn’t joking when he said it would be a long, hard walk towards San Ponsisco.  Despite it leading them into territory held by the Confederacy, I did not doubt there were still bandits and small groups of raiders hidden within the hills and valleys that separated the two.  There were also a good number of wounded that would need help getting across the rough terrain.  That could be eased if they followed the highways... but doing so would add time to their journey.  No, it’d be too risky to take so many overland... still, there was another town nearby.

“What can you tell me about Janesville?” I asked Balefire, earning Silver and Lilly’s attention. My unicorn friend arched a brow before stepping a bit closer to the map and me, placing a hoof upon the town in question.

“Well, like Silver, said the town’s a bit larger than Old Oaks.  It’s mostly spread out across a half dozen streets.  There’s around about half as many pony’s living there as here, at least last I’d heard,” he said, before circling his hoof around the town.  “The town’s defended by a wall... er, more similar to Crossroads and Tombstone in design,” he continued, glancing around at the ponies at the table.  Yeah... the scrap pile wall around Old Oaks did leave something to be desired about defences.  “There’s two gates, with a guard tower at each.” 

“You mentioned Confederate troops sometimes being stationed there?” I asked.

“A small barracks was built within the town, in a three story apartment building.  It’s able to house thirty ponies, sixty if the rooms are doubled up.  Normally there’s only about ten stationed there at any given time to help guard the town,” he answered.  “There’s also a Sheriff and around a half dozen deputies that patrol the surrounding countryside.  There were about seven small farmsteads around the town.” 

“So, they’ve likely got room and food to spare?” I asked, earning a nod from my friend and looked back down to the map.  This could indeed work.  

The highway that ran through Old Oaks (Route 77 it seemed) continued onward towards Janesville.  It passed through the dead forests and hills that surrounded both towns, before finally passing straight through the other town and turning southeast.  The highway would make their travel easier and faster, avoiding the natural pitfalls of the wasteland.  It would also give them a better field of view around them, making sudden attacks more difficult... that is if the trees did not encroach on the road too much.  Of course, on the other hoof, it would be the most likely place for raiders or bandits to ambush travelers.

“How clear is the road?” I asked after a moment of silence.  I figured it would be better to take the quick deadly way, rather than the slow deadly way.

“Clear enough.  Like most highways in th’ wasteland it’s covered in sand and dirt in spots, but it’d be smooth goin’ for much of th’ way to Janesville,” Stone answered this time.  He stepped up between Balefire and I to place his hoof atop the map, mid way between the two towns.  “Th’ forest is right atop th’ road here though, makin’ it a prime spot ta be ambushed.”

“Yer not suggestin’ we up and move ta a Confederate town, are ya?” the aged stallion asked, eyes now narrowed upon me.  “Why, them bastard’s ain’t never done anythin’ for us when we needed it!”

“We killed off those Super Mutants,” Balefire said, and quickly spoke over the stallion’s response, “Even if it wasn’t solely for your benefit, it still helped you.  And without question they’d take you all in.  While we don’t have the ponypower to protect everywhere in the wasteland, we won’t turn away those in need.”

“It’s not like you have a lot of choice in the matter either,” Wild added from beside Silver, the mare having trotted around the table to find a place to get a look.  “You can either listen to those trying to save your worthless hide or stay here and get killed by raiders.”  She narrowed her eyes upon the pony and leaned over the table, nearly nose to nose with the old stallion, ears laid back.  “You're likely old enough they wouldn’t ass rape you a half dozen times... doubt they’d eat you either... you’d likely be turned into someone’s tent.  I imagine your hide’s tough enough.” The stallion paled and wisely shut up.

“What my friend’s trying to say is... this is your only option that has the best chance of saving everypony here,” I said before anypony else could argue with us, or get Wild to more graphically explain why staying was a bad idea.  “At the very least, it would get you somewhere safe where you can decide whether to stay there or go somewhere else... but it will give you time to make that choice.”

“I agree,” Silver spoke up, “As Jackhammer pointed out, we don’t have the supplies to make it anywhere else.  As Red and others have said, we can’t very well stay here.  We’re vulnerable, and everypony who heard that broadcast for help knows.”

“I told them it was a mistake...” Lilly said.

“Regardless... it’s decided.”  That got even the old stallion’s attention away from the threatening pegasus still eyeing him.  “I’m not going to let our second chance at life be wasted.  We’re leaving Old Oaks tomorrow morning and making our way to Janesville.”  She turned away from the ponies at the table to look at me, ignoring their weak protests. “Marshall... I hate to ask after what you and your friends have already done for us but... our chances of making it to the end of this journey would be vastly improved if you would help us.  Please, we’ve already lost enough ponies... I don’t want to lose anymore...”

I looked over the gathered ponies for a moment before I answered and noticed Silver was not the only pony looking at me hopefully.  Jackhammer, Tink, and Silver’s daughter all shared the look.  Even the two old ponies who had done nothing but complain seemed to be looking towards me with less hostile eyes.

In truth... I think I’d already decided to go with them while looking for someplace safe for them to go.  I’d come this far to save them... hell, I’d come out here to do a lot more than just save one town.  I had come to help anyone I could.  Still... I couldn’t speak for my friends.  With the sky chariot, Wild could easily get them all back to San Ponsisco and safety.

“My friends are free to do as they wish... all I can speak for is myself,” I answered, looking from Balefire, Wild, and Stone before turning to Silver and the ponies sitting around the table.  “But, I came out here to help anyway I can.  I’ll do my very best to protect you all on the journey to Janesville.” The room was silent as I finished and I looked over the surprised faces of the ponies at the table.  I suppose this was something I’d have to get used to.

“Well, don’t think yer gettin’ rid of us that easily,” Stone said, breaking the silence and looking over towards me with a smile.  “Ah meant what Ah said back in San Ponsisco.”

“Yeah, I suppose I might as well stick around since my other plans are shot all to hell.  After all, it’s not like Stone’s going to let me whisk him away to some tropical island and work on them dozen foals we talked about,” Wild piped up, grinning evilly over to the aforementioned stallion who suddenly found his hooves very interesting.

“I didn’t leave San Ponsisco just for a change of scenery.  I think it’s high time somepony did something to make the wasteland a better place,” Balefire chimed in, grinning as he put his hat back atop his head.  “Seeing how you was planning on doing that yourself, Shadow, I figured I’d just tag along,” he added, looking to me.

“Well then...” I chuckled at my friends, knowing that Spirit would likely have no problem with going if the wounded needed her.  As for Carrion... well, he had come with me to Old Oaks.  “It seems we’ll all be going with you.”

Silver smiled, nodding her head, and was about to respond until the sound of rapid hoof steps caught our attention.  The noise caused nearly everypony present to swivel their ears towards the source.  Whoever it was, was in a hurry as they approached the double doors leading into the courtroom.  I turned my head just in time to see those doors fly open as three ponies stumbled into the room.  All three looked as if they’d recently been in a fight.  I recognized Carrion at once, then the two guards that had gone with him and the town’s doctor.  I also noticed Carrion limping as he walked...

“Carrion?  What happened?  Where’s the doctor?” I asked, moving towards the ghoul as he neared.  His glowing orange eyes passed from the gathered ponies to me as I spoke.  As he came closer, I realized that not all the open wounds on his face and neck were the ones he always wore.  Instead, some were quite fresh and still dribbling what passed for blood.  His pitted and worn armor also seemed to bear fresh scars.  The two guards trotting beside him bore a number of recent wounds, one trailing blood from a gunshot to his shoulder that his armor had failed to stop.  Turning back to Carrion, I notice him stagger a bit and reach a hoof out to help try and steady the wounded ghoul.  He brushed the offered hoof away and snorted, eyes locking with mine as he answered me.

“We tripped over the rug in the doctor's house...” he answered, before growling.  “The damn raiders jumped us as we were leaving, what the hell do you think happened?” This was met with a sudden increase in noise as nearly everypony in the room attempted to ask questions all at once.  Carrion rolled his glowing eyes and seemed intent on ignoring them all.

“She shouldn’t have gone off like that...”

“More raiders?  Oh goddesses they’ve come back to finish us off...”

“Likely just a single raider... the ghoul’s overreacting...”
 
“”Quiet!  All of you!!” Silver shouted, slamming her fore hooves upon the table.  “Sweet Celestia’s tits, you're all fucking useless!!”  I blinked and turned back towards the table, seeing an enraged grey coated mare glaring down at the ponies seated around here.  “How Mayor Newflower ever put up with you is beyond me!”  The only sound in the room was from Wild, calmly clapping her forehooves together for Silver.  When the group seemed unwilling to speak again, Silver turned back towards us.  “Now... what of Fiona?  Is she alright?”

“She’s alright.  Luckily she was in the middle of the group when the shooting started... well, lucky for her,” Carrion answered, glancing to the wounded stallion who had sat himself down beside one of the benches.  He was holding a hoof to his shoulder.  The second guard stood beside him, eyeing him worriedly.  He seemed to have come out largely uninjured save for a couple minor cuts and scrapes along his face, neck, and flanks.

“I’ll live,” the wounded pony said as Stonehoof went up to him and began looking over the wounds.

“How many were there?” I asked, looking back to Carrion.  The ghoul pony shrugged and shook his head slowly.

“Couldn’t get an exact head count on them, they were shooting at us from a couple buildings down.  We killed two of them, injured at least one more.  If I had to guess, I’d say around six maybe.  I heard at least three types of weapons being fired.”  His answer was quick and to the point, like a trained soldier.  Which he was.  “Most of the buildings on that street haven’t been touched by the fires yet so they could be in any number of them if they stuck around after we left...”  Whatever else Carrion was about to say was cut off as a rather annoyed sounding stallion spoke up.  Wild’s death glare apparently had worn off... pity.

“I thought you killed them all?” he asked, eyes narrowed as he looked from the wounded guard to Carrion and myself.  It was as if we were somehow to blame for all this.  

“How’d we miss them?” I asked Carrion, turning away from the old bastard and pointedly ignoring him for the time being.  We didn’t have time to play the blame game and that seemed to be all that a couple of ponies wanted to do.  It was no wonder the town had been so easily taken with these fools in charge. 

“Hard to say.  They could have been on the very edge of town, outside the range of your Pipbuck’s scanning spell.  Or they could have come in through one of the breaches in the wall after we killed the others,” he answered, running a foreleg across his face to wipe away the ooze coming from his wounds.

“That seems more likely.  If they’d been in town, they would have heard the increase in weapons fire from Town Hall and we’d have been dealing with them a lot sooner,” Wild added, stepping up beside Carrion and myself.  Her blue eyes darted over to Stone and the wounded guard before looking back to the old stallion to silence him.

“So... what, a random group of raiders?” Balefire asked, trotting up with Jack, Silver, and Tink.

“Maybe...” I answered, ears flicked back.  I didn’t really believe it could be just dumb luck that a group of raiders just happened to be passing by.  The others picked up on my tone of voice and looked to their weapons, safeties clicking off.  “At this moment, that isn’t important.  We have raiders inside the walls again with unarmed and wounded ponies scattered about outside.”

“Jackhammer, take Skip and Tink downstairs.  Have the wounded moved back inside Town Hall as quickly as you can.  Get somepony to round up the search parties I sent out around town,” Silver called out.  The mare was proving herself more than capable of taking charge despite what others might have thought.  “Once everypony’s inside and accounted for, get with Flint.  We need to do a sweep of the town and kill these bastards before they can hurt anypony else.”

“Got it.  Come on, Skip, let’s go get them wounded inside.”  Jackhammer looked from the grey coated mare to the unwounded guard sitting beside his friend.  The stallion, Skip, nodded his head and stood back up.  He slid his pump action shotgun back around to his chest and within easy reach of his mouth.  Offering a foreleg to help the wounded guard up, he began following after Jackhammer.  Tink quickly followed after her grandfather and the two guards.

“Flint, I want you to start rounding up the remaining guards.  Get them restocked with whatever ammo we have left and divide them into teams of four.” Silver turned to the armored stallion beside the table, ears laid back.  This mare was in no mood to be messed with.  “We’ll need to find them if we’re going to be able to search the town for supplies.”

“We’ll have at least four or five teams at most if we do that.  Most of the guards died defending the town when the raiders first breached the walls.  The few that aren’t wounded, well, most would simply get themselves killed from exhaustion,” Flint answered, rubbing his forehead slowly.  “It’ll take us most of the night to shift through the rubble looking for any hidden raiders.”

“Damnit... if we split them up more, we run the risk of losing more lives to these raiders...” Silver sighed and sat down hard, reaching up with a hoof to rub her face tiredly.  Like everypony else in Old Oaks, I doubted she’d gotten much rest over the past twenty four hours.

“We can help,” I said, stepping toward Silver.  The mare lowered her hoof to look up at me.  “Some of us have been fighting raiders for years, longer in some cases,” I added, looking over to Carrion who merely nodded his horned head in agreement.  “We can either search with your ponies or spread out on our own.  With our help, you can get the place secure more quickly.”

“Agreed.  Go with Flint and get yourselves restocked from our ammo stash,” Silver said, looking from me to Flint.  “Give them whatever they need.  We owe them our lives and I won’t have them getting hurt because they ran out of ammo.” The old stallion at the table seemed ready to argue, but silenced himself for once.  Perhaps he wasn’t as stupid as I thought.  Silver stood up and nuzzled her daughter once, speaking softly to her, “I want you to stay with Fiona while I’m gone, alright?”

“Gone?” the young mare asked, looking worriedly up at her mother.

“Silver?  What are you doing?” Flint asked as he trotted around the table on his way to the doors.

“Just because I’m the new leader of this town doesn’t mean I’m going to sit on my flanks while my fellow guards go raider hunting,” she answered him.  Her horn glowed as she hefted her weapon up to her from where it’d been laying against the table leg.  She looked over towards me and smirked.  “Now... let’s go kill these assholes.”




*     *     *     *     *



The darkness of a cloud covered wasteland night would have surely completely swallowed Old Oaks hours ago if not for the fires still burning throughout the walled town.  What would have been dark deserted streets, ruined buildings, and burned out piles of rubble was instead cast into a soft, almost calming orange glow.  As if the entire town was lit by candle light.  The scent of smoke filled the air and the steady crackle of the fires replaced the normal silence of the wasteland.  

Occasionally that constant sound would be interrupted by a sudden single gunshot, normally followed by more.  Other times it would be from a nearby team yelling, ‘clear’ or ‘enemies down’ as ponies slowly advanced through the town.  Thus far, however, neither Stone nor myself had encountered any signs of the raiders.  It was beginning to look like it had only been a small group of raiders that had attacked Carrion and the town guards.  Perhaps stragglers from the larger group that had attacked the town.

Despite the risks involved, we had decided to work in pairs.  While it had worried Silver, I had agreed with my friends.  After all, they had far more experience in fighting raiders than anypony else in Old Oaks, myself included.  Perhaps due to that fact, it had been agreed that Stone would be watching my back, while Wild would keep Balefire in line.  Since Spirit would be staying with the wounded, Carrion was the odd pony out.  Somehow, that did not seem to trouble him.  When Stone had suggested him working with one of the locals, he had snorted and said he worked better alone for this sort of thing.  A fact backed up by his many years of hunting raiders in Kanter City alone.  

The remaining guards had each broken up into teams of four.  As Flint had feared, there were only enough to form four of them.  In an effort to more quickly clear the town, Silver had decided to have us search in one long row, stitching to either side of the walls enclosing the small town.  The smaller groups (my friends and I) would work in between the larger, watching their flanks for anyone attempting to sneak around behind them.  It was a sound plan, and allowed for something else.

Behind the line of armored ponies came a group of volunteers armed with nothing more than shovels, crowbars, an old beat up wagon, and their wits.  As we searched and cleared the ruined homes and piles of rubble of any raiders, they would quickly come up and search for anything that might have survived the fires, or the raiders looting.  Along each street trailing the patrols were groups of a dozen ponies.  Two to pull a wagon, and the rest to divide into groups to search either side of the street.  While it didn’t seem they were having a whole lot of luck, they’d still managed to find a couple things for the journey to come.  Canned food that had been looked over by the raiders, a trunk of odds and ends that could be used to repair the wagons the raiders had brought with them, and those that the townsfolk had been forced to use as barricades.  Even the odd bottle of water or medicine.  Some had even begun taking toys for the foals.

Stone and myself had been given the town’s main street to walk along while local teams on either side of us cleared the still intact buildings and smoking piles of rubble.  My large grey friend trotted beside me, eyes scanning the ruined buildings to either side of us as we worked our way slowly down the street.  Ahead I could see the edge of the wall looming, marking the end of this leg of the search.  

We’d both been silent for much of the search, focusing instead on the possibility of raiders lying in wait for us.  However, it seemed less and less likely.  As we drew to a halt to give the teams on either side of us time to search two partially burned down homes, I turned to my friend and decided to strike up a conversation.  We’d not really had a chance to talk a whole lot on the way over here, and it’d been awhile since I’d seen either of them. 

“So, things seem to be going well with Wild,” I began, my words drawing Stone’s attention from the team on our right to me.

“Ah reckon ya could say so,” he answered, looking a bit flustered for the moment before he continued, “Ta be a bit honest, Ah was wonderin’ if it hadn’t just been a fling.  After all, we’d just survived goin’ inta Kanter City, and ya both just saved me and a whole lotta other ponies from the raiders.”

“Plus, you two did fight like cats and dogs,” I added with a chuckle, well remembering how they had acted after leaving Crossroads.  This earned a deep snort from my friend.

“Yer right, we did fight quite a bit.  Th’ mare just got under my skin with her constant devil may care attitude.”  We both looked away as a sudden crash caught our attention.  It turned out to be nothing more than one of the pony’s searching the ruins brushing up against a ruined support beam.  It had tumbled out into the street and glowed slowly from the fires that had eaten away the rest of the wall.

“I suppose... but you don’t strike me as the type of pony to just be up for a short fling,” I said.  The local guard smiled sheepishly at us before rejoining the rest of his team in finishing the search.  “Wild on the other hoof... well...”  How could I put it mildly...

“Wild wouldn’t think twice about it, Ah reckon,” Stone answered with a smile.  “Ah was a bit worried about that, too... ‘specially after Raincatcher.”  For a moment, I had to search my memory for the owner of that name.

It wasn’t until we’d advanced to the next row of buildings that I finally remembered the mare he spoke of.  It’d been while searching one of the walled up well sites around Crossroads that we’d come across her... or rather her body.  The mare had died alongside her fellow guards defending the fresh water source from a horde of geckos that had attacked them.  Stone had never really gone into the details of his relationship with the poor mare, just that they had been close once.

“Are you worried something might happen to her like Raincatcher?” I asked as the team on our right entered the remains of a home.  The other team was just finishing up their search and were advancing upon the last one on their side of the street.

“No, well... not exactly,” he said, looking away from searching the wall and back to me.  “Ah told ya once, each day yer alive is a gift and not a given right.  Ah know eventually somethin’s gonna happen ta one of us... Ah can only hope it’s me if it comes down ta it.”  He noticed my worried look and smiled, though it lacked the sincerity it normally held.  “Th’ wasteland’s not a kind place, nearly everythin’ out here’s out ta kill us.”

“So... if not that, then what?” 

“When Ah got with Raincatcher, she’d just lost her family.  Ah suppose Ah shoulda known better, but... well, we all make mistakes Ah reckon.  It’d been a while since Ah’d let myself get attached ta a mare and Ah enjoyed havin’ somepony ta spend my time with.  Ah shoulda really seen it wouldn’t last.  In th’ end, it was just a copin’ method for her.  At least, that’s what Lilly and Rose said.  Everypony deals with things differently and Ah didn’t hate her for it,” he said, green eyes going from me to the ruined home across from us as the team finished their searc.

“So... you're worried it’s just a fling for Wild?”  I suppose given the pegasus’ free spirited nature, I could see why my friend would be concerned.  When I’d first met the mare, she came off as flippant, smart mouthed, and downright crude.  However, as time went on, and the three of us began spending more and more time together... well, I got to know the real Wildfire.  While she was still the flippant, smart flank mare with the foul mouth I’d found atop a rocky outcropping, she’d also become a friend I could depend on to watch Stone and mine’s back.  A pony who knew right from wrong, and had paid for that belief.

“Ah suppose part of me is... a part that’s afraid she’s gonna wake up one mornin’ and wonder why she’s wastin’ her time with an old buck like me.”  My chuckle caused my friends ears to turn towards me.  A moment later, his head followed with a confused look on his face.  “Well, Ah didn’t expect pourin’ my heart out ta ya to be funny... or ya of all ponies ta laugh at somethin’ like this,” my friend said, ears laying back as he narrowed his eyes upon me.  I suppose we all got defensive when bearing our heart and souls to another.

“It’s not that, Stone...” I answered, smiling towards my friend and holding a hoof up.  “It’s just that anypony can see that mare’s crazy about you.  Even a pony as blind to a mare’s advances and charms as me it seems.”  That got a slight smile from him, and he relaxed a bit.  “She couldn’t stand the thought of you being captured by those raiders.  She ignored me when I told her to get the wounded to safety and came to rescue you herself.”  I thought over my next words before continuing, “Hell, she all but broke down in tears when she told me how you’d pushed her off the ledge to keep those raiders from capturing her again.” I glanced around the street before looking back to my friend.  “Just don’t tell her I said so, or she’ll break my legs.”

“Ah know it’s all hogwash, what my brains thinkin’... but it’s nice ta hear somepony else thinks th’ same thin’.”  He chuckled softly.  “Ta be honest... Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever been this close ta a mare before.  Or any pony for that matter...”

“Hey... what am I?” I asked with a hurt look on my face.  It soon turned to one of pain when a large grey hoof punched me in the shoulder, thankfully not the sore one.

“Yer cute and all that, but yer not really my type,” was his response before he seemed to be thinking over something.  At first it seemed the subject was going to be dropped.  At least until he seemed to come to a decision and went on to add,  “Ta answer yer question proper... thing’s are goin’ very well.  In fact, Ah’ve been mullin’ over somethin’ for th’ past two weeks.”

“Oh?  So you are thinking of having a dozen foals?” I asked teasingly, earning a blush from my friend’s cheeks and a raised eyebrow from me.  “Really?”

“Sorta... Ah’ve actually been savin’ up my caps for somethin’.”  He reached back into his saddlebags and rummaged about for whatever it was.  

Meanwhile, the remaining team had finished their search of the final home and were inspecting the wall in preparation for the return trip.  Up the street, the search teams had combed through the rubble for anything useful for tomorrow's journey.  As Stone continued to search, I looked back the way we’d came to see the dozen ponies that made up our street’s search team making their way slowly towards us.  I noticed that the two that had begun the journey pulling the wagon had been switched out.  I suppose as not to tire them should things turn ugly.  The wagon itself appeared held together with wonder glue and prayers.

“Here it is!” my friend cried out in triumph from beside me.  I turned to see just what he’d been looking for in that bottomless pit he called a pair of saddlebags.  As my eyes fell upon the object held in his mouth, I blinked and flicked an ear to the side.  What he had was a plain wooden box, though it did appear to be quite old judging by the workponyship put into its creation. 

Sitting down on his haunches, he placed the box carefully upon an upturned hoof and nosed the lid open.  Old metal hinges gave a slight squeak as they swung the top upwards.  Holding it out towards me, I stepped closer to see what was inside and found myself still wondering what all this had to do with our earlier conversation.  At least, until I got a better idea of just what all these things had to do with one another.

The two most noticeable items within the box were two stones, or rather quartz.  One was half the size of a hoof and a smokey grey color, while the other was a bit smaller and had a rich red orange hue to its edges.  Actually, the smaller of the two had also been chiseled into the shape of a pony.  Judging by the look of the back, it was a pegasus.  Beneath them lay a simple metal band, appearing to be made of steel... or was that silver?  Tucked into the corner of the box were a set of tools, fine tipped for working with small objects.

“Believe it or not, th’ hardest thin’ ta find was th’ right colored stones.  Ah asked every trader that came inta Crossroads about quartz, so much so that Ah think Ah might’a annoyed a few of ’em,” my friend said as I looked over the items.  He sounded a bit nervous.  “Th’ necklace was actually easy enough ta find, with a bit’a help from Rose and Lilly.”

“I suppose you never heard the end of that once they figured out what you were up to?” I asked, smiling warmly to my large, embarrassed friend.

“Only a few days worth.  Ta be honest, Ah think they were both happy Ah’d found somepony.”  He looked over the half finished figure of a pegasus in flight fondly.  “Been workin’ on it ever since.”

“You made this?” I asked, looking from my friend to the hoof carved figure.  While it was far from finished, it still showed a high level of skill in the mane and face of the pony.

“Ah didn’t get this cutie mark just cause Ah can break stone right easily,” he answered with a snort.  His free hoof lightly tapped his flank and the pick and shovel cutie mark he bore.  “Ah’ve a bit of skill when it comes ta workin’ with stone ta make things, too.”  He gently shut the lid, as the search team approached us and the final row of homes.

“Well... it shows in the details.  So, the orange quartz will be a pegasus and the smokey grey stone will be an earthpony, right?”  He nodded in response and I smiled a bit.  “I wonder who they could be.  How long until it’s finished?” I watched as he returned the small box back to his saddlebag, noting how careful he was when dealing with it.  The box likely had some value to him as well, besides the items held inside.

“A couple weeks, Ah reckon.  Ta be honest, it’s taken me a bit longer than Ah thought it would, but then it’s somethin’ Ah wanna take my time on and make perfect.  Ah’d also like ta be somewhere safe when Ah give it ta her... and ask ’er ta marry me,” he answered, turning back towards me.

“Wablah?” was all I managed to get out for the moment as my brain decided to lock up at this news.  Hell, I think even my E.F.S. flickered out.  My friend, meanwhile, chuckled at my reaction and stood up from where he’d been sitting.  He dusted his haunches off with a swish of his tail. 

“Ah’ve been thinkin’ about this for awhile now, ever since we escaped Kanter City.  Talkin’ with y’all had helped me see that Wild ain’t really in this just for a short fling.”   He shook his head slowly,. “Ah feel a mite bit ashamed of even thinkin’ for a second she might... and  Ah don’t wanna waste anymore time thinkin’ or wonderin’ about this.  Ah want that mare ta be my wife.  For however long we got in this world.”  He smiled and lowered his hat a bit over his eyes. “Maybe once we’re all finished with this here mission yer on... it just might be time ta think about them foals she’s always teasin’ me about.”

“I... well.... I suppose congratulations are in order, Stone... if not a bit early,” I began, once my brain (and Pipbuck) restarted themselves.  Stepping up beside him, I placed a hoof upon his shoulder and smiled warmly.  “Once you’ve finished that necklace, don’t let me keep you two from starting a life for yourselves back in Crossroads.  I can handle myself.”

“Ah’ll keep that in mind, but yer th’ reason Ah even got ta know Wild.  Ah’m not gonna just up and abandon ya out here.  It’s not just her Ah found myself gettin’ close ta... Ah’ve started thinkin’ of ya as a little brother ta be honest.” He placed a hoof over mine and smiled.  I was speechless at that.  To think my large grey friend thought of me like that... well, it meant a lot to me.  ”Sides... Ah ain’t convinced ya can take care of yerself without one of us watchin’ out for ya.  Not ta mention Wild’s made it her quest ta get ya laid before th’ next apocalypse.”

“Well... hopefully she doesn’t quit her day job.” It felt good to laugh about something so silly after the fierce fighting we’d just been through.  Along with whatever we were about to face on the trip.  Just then, I remembered something I’d been meaning on asking him and Wild whenever we had a moment.  Getting my laughter under control, I looked back to my friend.  “That reminds me... how exactly did you guys know what I was going to do?” Stone snorted softly as he reigned in his own laughter to answer me.

“Well... that’s a mite bit of a strange story ta be honest.  We were already plannin’ on visitin’ ya yesterday as ya know.” As I nodded my head, he continued slowly, giving himself some time to think how to explain things.  “It was a couple days ago, a strange mare came inta Crossroads lookin’ for Wild and myself.  Said it was important she talk ta us about ya.”

“A strange mare?” I asked.  I already had a suspicion who he was about to describe and felt my stomach tighten up at the possibilities. 

“A zebra shaman of all things, speakin’ in riddles and th’ like.” He went on to describe a zebra mare similar to Second Sight.  At least it sounded like her.  “Ah’d have just ignored ’er as another crazy wastelander if... well, she knew things about ya.  Like... well, what happened ta yer sister.”  He went silent at that, knowing that subject was not something I cared to really speak of... or think of.  “Ah knew ya wouldn’t go round tell’en some stranger about that... Ah doubt ya even told yer fellow Stable ponies th’ full story.”

He was right of course.  I hadn’t told them.  Oh, I’d told them what had happened to Ebony, that the raiders had taken her away to be worked to death... only Bright and Spearmint knew just what all they had done to her.  Not everypony needed to know what she’d gone through.  But... I hadn’t told them how she’d died.  I hadn’t told anypony I’d shot my own sister to spare her so much pain...

“Shadow?”  A grey hoof lifted up and placed itself upon my shoulder gently, a worried looking face staring at me from beneath a worn dusty cowpony hat.  “Ah’m sorry, Ah didn’t mean ta bring up painful memories... but Ah can see Ah was right about that.  Ya didn’t tell anypony else that.”

“No, Stone... I didn’t.  It’s not something anypony else would really understand... not until they’re faced with something like that themselves,” I answered, rubbing a hoof against my cheek.  Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any tears this time.  “So... this stranger... what’d she have to say?” I asked, attempting to get the conversation back on track.

“Ta be honest, not a whole lot,” my friend said, lowering his hoof from my shoulder and snorting softly.  “But what she did say was enough for th’ both of us.  She said ya needed us, that ya was about ta do somethin’ no other pony had in a long time, and that ya’d need us there with ya till the end.”

“You believed her?” I asked, earning a knowing look from my tall friend as he lifted a single hoof up.  He waved it around us, at the smoking ruins of Old Oaks and the wasteland beyond.

“Ah knew ya well enough, Ah reckon.  Yer not th’ sorta pony who’d willingly sit on yer haunches while others are in trouble.  So, Ah believed what she said well enough, as did Wild.”

“And here we are...”

“And here we are... tryin’ ta help ponies in need.”  A smile began to spread across his snout as he looked around the ruins.  “Not off ta a bad start, Ah reckon.” I chuckled softly and shook my head.

“And the strange zebra?  What happened to her?”

“She just up and vanished from town after speakin’ with us.  Th’ last thin’ she said was she had ta go find th’ Marshall.” I blinked at that and felt my ears stand up straight.  “Ya see why Ah was a mite interested in why ya’d taken ta callin’ yerself that earlier.”

“I... well, it was the first time I ever did call myself that,” I answered simply, tail twitching a bit as I’d been sitting on it for a bit and rose up onto my hooves.  “Like I said earlier... it just seemed the right thing to say.”

“And this mare?  Ya’ve seen her yerself, ain’t ya?” he asked, head tilted to the side as he waited on my answer.

“Yes... twice actually.  Once I’d literally stumbled upon her in the streets while going to see some friends and again during the Nightmare Night party.  She seemed to be waiting for me... though how she’d know I’d come down that street is beyond me...”  At first, I was only going to tell him about what she’d said.  I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be if I started bringing up seeing images of ponies who supposedly hadn’t been born yet.  Yet... as I spoke, I couldn’t find it within myself to leave them out.  Especially one pony in particular... the short grey unicorn mare with the Stable jumpsuit and Pipbuck.  Even now I oddly felt some sort of... connection to that mare.  As I began describing what all I’d seen, Stone said nothing and simply listened to me.  When I’d finished, he continued to be silent.  I wondered if perhaps I shouldn’t have told him.  However, what he said next surprised me.

“Ah... believe ya, Shadow.”  I blinked and sat back down in shock.  “Ah’ve seen some fairly amazin’ sights in my travels across th’ wasteland.  Some frightening and disheartenin’... others wonderful and enough ta give a pony hope.”  He sat up straighter as his green eyes fell back upon my face. “Ponies need hope.  We ain’t had it for a long, long time.  Most have given up hope, that things can’t get better.  Not even those in San Ponsisco really believe it’ll ever be like it was... but ponies like ya... well, ya believe it can.”

“I’m not sure, Stone... I mean... I want to help those I can...”  He held up a hoof and stopped me, before continuing himself.

“Were ya not sure ya could save me from th’ raiders?  It’d been safer and easier ta just write me off and get those ya had saved back ta Crossroads.  Nopony would’a thought any less of ya... since that’s what nearly any sane pony would do given th’ choices.”

“I couldn’t do that...”

“Did ya want ta help all them ponies on th’ train?  Ya had saved me, could’a just taken me and jumped off th’ back of the train.  Th’ raiders wouldn’t have known what happened till we was long gone.”

“And left them all to die?  No... I couldn’t...”  

“Since Ah’ve known ya, ya’ve put yerself in harm’s way more times than Ah can count.  Ya’ve risked yer life for ponies ya’d never met, had no obligations to.  Ya’ve fought harder ta save a single life than any pony fought for whole town full.”  His smile grew.  “That’s why Ah believe ya, Shadow.  Yer one of them rare things Ah’ve seen in th’ wasteland.  Somethin’ ta give a pony hope.”

I... honestly didn’t know how to respond to that.  My eyes lowered from my friend’s bright green eyes, and his warm smile.  I think he really did believe me... and what Second Sight had said.  Maybe it was time I started believing.  If not in that... then in myself.  I was about to thank him when the sound of approaching hoof steps caught my ear. 

Turning around to look over my shoulder, I saw one of the local guards approaching us.  A large unicorn stallion by the name of Longstake if I remembered correctly.  Similar in coloration to Stone, expect his coat was a bit darker grey in color and he had a much longer brown mane and tail.  I had not seen his cutie mark, due to the long coat he wore over his combat armor.  His weapon of choice was a lever action rifle slung across his neck, similar to how I wore my shotgun, and a pair of revolvers similar in caliber to Balefire’s.  He was in charge of the two teams sweeping the buildings on this street.

“Ah reckon we’re just about finished up round here, just as soon as th’ search teams are done combing through th’ last two homes.  Once they’re finished, we’ll be headin’ on back ta Town Hall and settin’ out for th’ other side of town,” he said as he drew to a stop near us, dark blue grey eyes looking over the darkened ruins behind us before down to us.  “Everythin’ quiet, Ah take it?” he asked. 

“Beyond the sounds of gunfire a couple streets over earlier, it seems to be,” I answered.  It had been a rather uneventful few hours (despite the conversation I’d just had) given we were expecting raiders to be waiting to ambush us.  “Everypony alright in your teams?” I asked and was rewarded a snort from the town guard and a rolling of his eyes at the question.

“Surehoof got ’er hoof stuck in somethin’ by one of th’ homes that had only partially collapsed.  Th’ stupid mare twisted it fairly badly as a result and Ah had ta ask th’ wagon ta haul her sorry flank with th’ recovered supplies,” the dark grey stallion answered.

“Oh?” I glanced back towards the wagon and to the sight of a dark blue earth pony mare sitting miserably upon one side.  Her head hung low as she stared at the cracked paved road beneath the wheels.

“Ah’d have been happier if Silver would’ve assigned ’er ta one of th’ other patrols instead.  Th’ mare’s not th’ most focused in th’ world,” was his response before he slowly began walking a couple steps back the way we’d came.  “She’d have gotten somepony killed if we’d run inta any ‘real’ raiders.” 

Thus far, the only sign of raiders any of us had come across was the body of a dead stallion in one of the untouched homes a few buildings up from Town Hall.  He’d been found hiding in the former home’s bathroom, clutching a nasty looking gut wound that had eventually killed him.  He must have been involved in the firefight near Town Hall, and had escaped in the confusion.   At that time somepony stumbled upon him, most in the patrols were quite jumpy.  Many were expecting to be shot and killed after having survived the siege on their home.   So it was understandable that when the bathroom door, which had been locked, was kicked in and the first thing they’d seen was a spike-armored, blood soaked pony propped up in the shower they had fired off a dozen shots wildly in response.  I wondered if this Surehoof was one of the ponies involved in that.

“At least we found no livin’ raiders,” Stone spoke up, turning to regard the guard stallion for a moment before looking to the flame lit streets behind us himself.

“Doubt there ever were raiders in this part ’a town.  It seems whatever activity yer ghoul friend came across was all over near th’ Doc’s home.”  He was right of course.  As we’d come up this side of town, we’d heard a couple rounds of gunfire going off across the street from us.  Twice it’d gotten intense enough to the point that I’d almost suggested that Stone and I go to check up on the other teams. 

I looked from the street to Longstake and cocked my head a bit, ears perked forward as I regarded the unicorn guard.  He almost sounded disappointed we’d not found more than a single dead raider on this search.  Was he really hoping to find more of them?  Stone picked up on that as well and decided to ask him pointedly about it.

“Ya sound a mite disappointed we didn’t find more than a single dead raider,” my friend pointed out, ears twitching a bit.  “Were ya hopin’ we found some live ones ta fight?” he asked, brow arched a bit beneath his hat.  The questioned stallion’s own brow lowered and he narrowed his eyes upon the street and buildings around us, not looking towards Stone.

“Ah’d be lyin’ if Ah said Ah hadn’t... Pa always taught me ta tell th’ truth,” he said, ears laying back as he went on.  “After everythin’ those bastards took from us... Ah’d like a chance ta repay ’em,” was his final response, before turning away from the way back and walking between us towards his fellow guards.  “We’ll be movin’ out in five minutes,” he added as he passed me.

As we watched him move away, I wasn’t sure which had me more surprised.  The fact a normal pony, a member of a small town and one of it’s defenders, would actually hope to run into a group of crazed raiders just so he could kill them... or the fact I found myself understanding the reasons why a pony would want to... and myself actually having wanted the same thing not that long ago...



*     *     *     *     *



As another wasteland night fully settled over the smoking ruins of Old Oaks, the survivors of the once peaceful town began to take stock over what they had lost and what they had managed to safe.  For the past three hours all across the town, ponies had shifted through the ashes of former homes and stores looking for anything that had survived the fires.  Cans of food, boxes of random bullets, and the odd bag of medical supplies was the main focus of the search, but more then that was found.  Family heirlooms were pulled from beneath the rubble of homes along with small personal effects that had belonged to ponies that were no longer with us.  A scrap of clothing.  A favorite tool.  A foal’s plush doll.  These were the most painful items for the searchers to find, a constant reminder of those they had lost.

The final death toll was high, but not as high as it could have been if help had not arrived.  Of the roughly one hundred and sixty ponies that had called this place home, well over a quarter of them had been lost since the fighting had begun around Old Oaks.  Included within those lost was the family of Longstake.  Killed as they’d attempted to flee their home near the wall.

Only now, after everything else had been seen to, could the survivors see to their dead.  Burying them was the most traditional way and had been for much of pony history.  Before, each tribe had it’s own way of seeing to ones family and friends off to the next life.  The pegasi had long given their honored dead a warrior’s send off, and would burn the remains upon a pyre.  For those who had betrayed their fellow tribe, they would be left to rot upon the surface.  An act they still practiced according to Wild and one backed up by the existence of Dashites.  Unicorns would build tombs within gem mines, sealing their loved ones within vaults of beautifully carved rooms with personal effects and mementos from their family.  As for us earth ponies... well, we’d always buried them within the ground.  Returning them to the world that had given them their life.  After the tribes came together, most began practicing this method as it was simpler and far easier.  

At first it was decided that the dead of Old Oaks would have the traditional send off, taken beyond the walls of the town and buried in the graveyard half hidden behind a nearby hill.  At least to begin with... but doing so was fraught with problems, the two most worrying was safety and time.  To bury so many, and in the time allowed, at least a dozen or more would need to begin digging now, and would have to work through the night to see the grim task finished.  More would need to stand guard over the gravediggers, and would put more lives at risk of a raider attack.  Even digging one mass grave would take time... and deprive ponies of much needed rest.  In the end, Silver relented and agreed to going with a simpler method: a large funeral pyre.  

Of course this led to more heated discussions (something I was beginning to think ponies did just for the sake of being difficult) and a few earth ponies resisted the plan.  At least until Wild got a hold of them.  They quickly silenced themselves once my winged friend made two very good points.  First, it would save the strength of the survivors who were about to set out on an almost two day journey through the wasteland to Janesville (something Silver and I had been arguing about for the better part of thirty minutes).  The other was that it would insure that any raiders who entered the town after we’d left would not dig the dead up for... things nopony wanted to think of.  Wild was more than happy to detail, to which both Carrion and Stone backed up.  

With these matters resolved, my friends and I left Silver and the locals to see to the final details of the funeral and their preparations for leaving town.  As for us, we all finally managed to get ourselves some much deserved rest.  I sat quietly on the steps of Town Hall, carefully running an oil stained cloth across the smooth metal barrel of Luna’s Ruse.  I worked thoroughly to wipe away any trace of the day’s grim work.  Beside me on the worn pitted stone step, lay the magically enchanted drum magazine for the shotgun.  The runes glowed a deep midnight blue, far brighter than they ever had before in fact.  It made me wonder if the moon was out tonight.  Or if it was a full moon.

Pausing for a moment, I lifted my head up and looked across the dark lightless sky above and sighed.  Not for the first time since coming to the surface, I silently wished those clouds would open up... if only just a bit so I could catch a glimpse of the sky.  Of the sun or moon... even just a few stars.  Sadly it seemed, my prayers would once more go unanswered.  I lowered my eyes back down to the steps of Town Hall and the street below.  Hours before, the wounded had been laid out across the open space.  In the dim flickering light of dying fires, I could see red stains upon the pavement and bits of blood soaked cloth.  Now over a dozen wooden chariots lay parked about the area, along with one sleek black armored shape.

Wildfire was carefully looking over the sleek military craft with the eyes of a skilled pilot.  She’d brought the black armored transport in from the outskirts of town not twenty minutes ago after returning from wherever she and Stone had slipped off to.  Since then she’d spent all of that time going over it, looking for any signs of damage.  The orange mare slowly walked around the backside of her chariot, hoof running along it’s smooth surface.  Despite the long trip, and our opposed descent into Old Oaks, the chariot had suffered very little real damage.  It bore a few fresh dents and scratches that marred the paint where raiders had hammered away at it.  With a nod of satisfaction, the winged mare smiled to herself before moving around to the front and the flight harness.

A few of the locals, Silver among them, had suggested we make use of the chariot as a transport to move the wounded to Janesville while the others traveled by hoof and wagon.  However, it would take Wild a number of trips to ferry all the wounded to the neighboring town, given the chariots limited and cramped interior space.  I’d decided against doing that, not only due to it wearing the pilot out quickly, but also because thanks to the efforts of Spirit, Fiona, and the local townsfolk who had volunteered, none of the wounded were in immediate risk of dying.  The sky chariot would not only be better served as air cover should we be attacked, but also giving us a bird’s eye view of the terrain around the road.

Lowering the cloth I held in my hoof to the drum sitting beside me, I reached over and picked up one of the small tools Stone had let me borrow.   Its small tip would work well to dig dirt from the tight confines of the gun’s workings.  In my haste to leave San Ponsisco, I’d left my own gun cleaning kit behind.  I was about to placed the well chewed tool handle into my mouth when I noticed Stone had stopped his own work on the step below me.  Instead, the stallion was watching Wild as she worked on the fight harness of the chariot.  His hat rested beside him on the steps along with his heavy saddlebags and rifle.  I smiled and shook my head slowly at the old stallion, looking for all the world like a young buck with his first crush.

As I closed my teeth about the handle and began my work on my shotgun, movement from the end of the street caught my eye.  Shifting a bit to get a better look while continuing to work on Luna’s Ruse, I saw Balefire and Tinkerbelle walking slowly down the sidewalk away from Town Hall.  They appeared to be speaking to one another about something.  It became clear what the subject was when she lifted up her homemade weapon for Balefire to see more easily.  I snorted softly as my young friend attempted to show more interest in the sawgun instead of it’s inventor.  I looked about for the mare’s grandfather, not spotting the old stallion anywhere nearby and chuckled softly, hoping he’d not break anything Bale needed for fighting.  For Tink’s part, she seemed genuinely happy somepony close to her own age was showing an interest in her work.  Silently,  I hoped Balefire would not hurt her feelings.  It wasn’t something I’d need to worry about really, seeing how of the many... and I do mean many, mares he’d seemed to know, none seemed upset with him despite his ways.  Still... if he did, I was sure Spirit could put him back together for me.

Focusing back on my shotgun, I gently brushed the dull tip of the scraping tool against some build-up of dirt and grime between the barrel and stock.  It seemed blood had gotten into it and dried, making a bit of a mess.  The slow steady scrap of metal against metal echoed about me as I worked, eyes fixed upon the small mass of filth.  Flakes drifted down from the mess as I worked.  I was so focused on it that somepony had managed to sneak up behind me.  Although given who it was, I doubted I’d have heard him if he really wanted to be quiet.  Years of hunting raiders alone had a way of honing such skills.

“I hear you’re calling yourself a Marshall now, Shadow..” Carrion’s rasping voice said from above and just behind me, making me jump a bit.  Luckily I managed to keep from dropping either the tool or my weapon as I turned back to regard the ghoul.  “I hope that badge hasn’t gone to your head.  There’s a lot of lives depending on you.”

“Perhaps it has a bit.  Celestia and Luna knows no sane pony would willingly come out into the wasteland unless they were a bit crazy,” I said.  I set Luna’s Ruse back down beside me and spat the tool out of my mouth, smirking a bit back to my friend.  “But then, I suppose it takes one to know one, eh?”  When he didn’t answer, but instead remained looking off down the street, I added with a sigh, “I know what’s at stake, Carrion.  I’m trying to help them as best I can.  Just as I did on the train, I’ll do everything I can to save these ponies.”

“We’re not on a train, Shadow.  This won’t be as easy as that was, despite the fact we have a shorter distance to travel.  We’ll be on hoof, exposed to the elements and the wildlife.  Sometimes the best you can do isn’t enough,” the former Equestrian army officer said, sitting down upon the top step while keeping his eyes locked on some point down the street.  “I did my best to save as many of my soldiers as I could in Kanter City and all that did was insure I watched each of them die slowly of radiation poisoning along with any civilians ‘lucky’ enough to make it into the sewers with us.”

I frowned at that and turned away from the ghoul to look out across the ruined town; at where Balefire and Tink had just gone off towards, and where Carrion was so focused upon.  A new fire had started within the walled town.  However, it was not wood or stone that burned within it, but flesh and bone.  Around the pyre, stood nearly all of the town’s survivors as her dead was slowly consumed within the blaze.  Though we had saved the town from complete annihilation, it sure did not look or feel as if we had.  I sighed softly and lowered my eyes from the sad sight and flicked my ears away from the sound of weeping.  As I looked away, my eyes happened upon Luna’s Ruse.  Its smooth black metal seemed to shimmer in the fire light.  I gently ran a hoof along it, recalling the pony who had owned it before me, and what he had done with it.  Finally, I answered my friend. 

“The best is all we can give, Carrion.  Nopony can give more than that, as I spoke, I looked back up to the pyre.  Instead of the flames, I looked to the ponies standing around it.  “Even if all you save is a small hoof full of lives or none at all, at least you know you didn’t just give up.  At least you know you tried your best and that’s all anypony can really hope to do.  Try and do what’s right, try and save as many lives as they can.”  As I finished, I looked back up the steps and saw Carrion was gone.  I shook my head and turned back around towards the fire, before my eyes lifted skyward and searched the clouds overhead.




*     *     *     *     *



Morning in the wasteland came and with it came the threat of a wasteland storm.  Whether normal or acid it was too soon to tell, but regardless of the type we had to be on the move soon.  Last night had been peaceful enough, but nopony was for sure how long it would last.  As I stood in the window on the third floor of Town Hall, my eyes were drawn to the distant dark grey clouds and the occasional flash of yellow or blue lighting.  As the most recent flash of light faded from my vision, I saw a pony standing behind me in the broken remains of glass that clung to the edges of the window.  A grey coated mare wearing mismatched armor, looking past me at the storm clouds beyond.  Her purple eyes shifted over the rolling thunderheads before they turned to me.

“We’re as ready as we’ll ever be, Shadow,” Silver said, ears folding back a bit as her eyes shifted from me to the dark rolling clouds hanging above the eastern hills once again.  “We couldn’t have picked a worse time to travel it seems,” she added with a soft sigh.  A flash of lightning masked her reflection as it cut across the darkening skies.  I gave the storm clouds one more look before I turned around to answer her.

“I honestly doubt there’s ever a good time to travel in the wasteland, Silver,” I began, offering the mare a smile as our eyes locked, attempting to reassure her.  “Our luck may yet change, according to Wild.  The storm is slow moving, and we may only be forced to spend a few hours weathering it before we reach Janesville.  She also believes it’s normal rain, and not the acid storms that sometimes sweep down from the mountains.” On that I hoped she was correct.  There’d be no cover between Old Oaks and Janesville for us if it turned out to be acid rain.

“I believe our luck did change, Shadow,” she said, calling my attention back to her in time to see a small smile replace the worried frown she’d been wearing.  “When you answered our call for help.”  She placed a hoof upon my shoulder and leaned up to kiss my cheek. “Thank you.” 

“Well... you’re quite welcome...” I said, feeling a bit of heat rising to my cheeks as she lowered her hoof back to the floor and took a step back.  “So... everything’s ready then?  Carrion’s finished with his work?” I asked, to which she nodded her head.

Carrion had come to me earlier in the morning with a suggestion.  The old ghoul had an idea on how to slow any raiders following us down a bit, by using a trick he’d done in the tunnels under Kanter City.  Mining the path behind us.  I’d been reluctant at first, given the nature of his explosives and their inability to tell friend or foe, but he had made a good point when I’d voiced my worries.  Anyone behind us as we left Old Oaks would not be a friend.  After speaking with Silver and Stone, they had both agreed and Carrion had set to work.  Ironically enough, it was the raiders themselves who gave my friend the means to carry out his plan.

While we had prepared to begin our search of the ruins the previous night, Silver had had a couple ponies go through the raiders’ wagons.  Within one of the overturned wagons they discovered four wooden crates filled with military grade explosive charges and, in some cases, still in their original shipping container.  Carrion had taken a look at them before we set out, and had agreed they were the actual hardware used by the Equestrian Military during the war.  If anypony was to know for sure, it would be the one who used to use the stuff.  To the best of everypony’s knowledge, there was nowhere within the wasteland where they could still be made, outside of San Ponsisco.  Balefire had said the Confederacy had managed to recover and repair a small weapons factory within the city, and had the ability to make small amounts of these kinds of explosives, but he’d not heard of any missing military shipments.

However, there were a number of abandoned military bases and small ammo dumps scattered all across Equestria where somepony could have recovered the explosives.  It was not uncommon for a trader to come into a town to sell such things after braving what normally would be a ghoul infested location.  Although, it was not so common to find so much of one thing, and not generally all in one place.  Not after a hundred and fifty plus years of salvaging anyway.  However, we’d worry about that later.  For now it was time to be get underway and the wasteland waited for nopony.

“You know, I’m still not crazy about this plan,” I said, nodding my head towards the stairs at the end of the hallway and began making my way slowly towards them.  Silver turned with me and fell into step beside me.  Our’s were the only hoof steps within the old building, everypony else would be outside finishing their last minute preparations.  “What if some scavengers should arrive instead of raiders?” I asked, turning my head to look beside me.

“Do you always worry about imaginary ponies, Marshall?” Silver asked, a teasing smile on her muzzle as we began walking down the wooden steps towards the second floor.  “For the better part of six months, nopony has managed to reach us... I doubt it will change within the next couple of days.  Besides, we can’t leave this building for anyone with bad intentions to move in.”

“I know, Silver, and I agree with you,” I said as we reached the second floor and started for the stairs to the first.  Despite my concerns about the plan, I had agreed with Silver and Stone on setting the traps for any raider who set hoof inside Town Hall.  However before I did, I made sure the trap would not sit unsprung for longer than needed and convinced Carrion to set a timer on the explosives.  The longest timers he could find or make would give us half a day's head start before going off.  While it seemed a shame to destroy a building that had survived the end of the world, I did agree it seemed smarter to insure no raiders or bandits could use it for a base to harass Janesville.

“I know how they feel, despite not having lived here my whole life,” she said softly, eyes looking over the first floor as we made our way towards the front doors.  “My sister and I were forced to leave our home back east and had to do something similar.” 

I arched a brow to the mare and wondered what had happened to force the two to travel so far.  They had once lived in a Stable somewhere back east, but she’d never said where.  Now it sounded as if something major had happened.  Major enough to blow up an entire Stable?  Was that even possible?  I mean a Stable was made to prevent just that from happening.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I noticed we were quickly approaching the main doors and that Silver seemed to be slowing as we drew closer.  The silver coated mare stopped completely before the doors in an odd repeat of my reaction the day before.  I came to a halt beside her and arched a brow as she shut her eyes and swallowed uneasily.  I knew that look.  It was the same look Bright had when I’d told him he would be taking charge of getting the ponies from Stable 45 to San Ponsisco.  It was the look I imagined my face had when I realized I’d just put the lives of a train load of ponies in my hooves.  It was the look of a pony who had the weight of the world suddenly thrust upon her shoulders, and unsure how she was going to do it.  Worried she was going to get somepony killed.  

I knew that look quite well...

“You can do this, Silver.  You’ve been doing this already and despite what some might say or think, you're the right pony to lead them.” I reached a hoof up and gently rubbed her shoulder.

Opening her eyes, she looked from the doors to me.  Concern and fear filled her wide purple eyes as she tried to calm herself.  Finally, a small smile once more spread across her face and she nodded her head once towards me.  Releasing her shoulder, she took a step forward and pushed the double doors open.  The dark storm clouds had yet to reach this side of the building.  Dim morning light filled the doorway, along with the humid wasteland air which still smelled of smoke and death.

Following the mare out, I took a couple steps away from the doors and looked out over the gathered ponies waiting on us.  A dozen rickety wooden wagons sat lined up from end to end along the street, all pointed westward.  Each of the wagons had been assigned a group, starting with two ponies who would pull them along the road ahead.  Within each was the collected supplies the townsfolk had recovered from the smoldering ruins of their home.  Everything from food stuffs to water and ammo were carefully stacked in wooden boxes, trunks, or anything else that could be found to hold them.  Upon the rear of each wagon were two barrels, filled with filtered water from the town’s aging well system.  Also within the wagons were the wounded, spread out as best they could, along with those too old to make the journey by hoof.  All the gathered medical supplies were stored within a single wagon, located within the center of the group.  It also would serve to hold those with the worst wounds.  Spirit and Fiona would be near them at all times, when not checking up on the others.

My eyes were drawn to the wagon sitting near the base of the steps, and a middle aged stallion helping his daughter and young son up into it.  The pair settled beside a truck of supplies where a guitar had also been set.  Silver had allowed every pony the chance to take something from their former homes with them (at least those whose personal effects had not been burned away by the fires).  In most cases the items were small, old photos of parents or grandparents.  A keep sake from a loved one, or hoof made gifts from friends.  It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

As we began descending the steps to the sidewalk below, the ponies who had been talking among themselves or sitting quietly waiting for the order to depart started to look towards us.  I glanced over them as we moved, looking over the worn tired faces of ponies who had survived the worst the wasteland could throw at them.  Despite losing their home, and in some cases loved ones, I saw a glimmer of hope within their eyes.  Hope that at the end of the road they’d find something they’d been lacking for months: peace.

A few of the ponies we passed called out greetings to Silver or I.  This seemed to bolster the mare’s confidence and, before long, she was answering their calls with one’s of her own, which seemed to help ease the worry upon a number of faces.  Not all were welcoming to their new leader though, but it was clear the majority of the ponies agreed with Jackhammer and Tink.  They were sure Silver would steer them right.

A few moments later, we reached the head of the convoy and the lead wagons.  I was not surprised to also find my friends there, waiting for me.  I smiled at all of them.  Jackhammer, along with another stallion, were hitched to the nearest wagon.  The old pony looked over to me with a nod of his head and a slight smile.  Behind him upon the buckboard, his granddaughter was seated.  Her razor-gun was held firmly in her forehooves as she watched us.  The seat beside her was empty, until Silver climbed up into it.  Behind her in the wagon lay her sister, the wounds she had suffered the day before looking well cared for.  Beside her sat Silver’s daughter, looking about at all the ponies and wagon with some excitement.  I suppose it would be a bit exciting to be going out into the world for the first time.

Across from the ground based wagon sat the second wagon, sleek armored sides reflecting what little light filtered through the grey clouds overhead.  Hitched to the front was Wild, her long unkempt red mane tied back into a ponytail for once.  Her black helmet was attached to the chariot, tucked under one foreleg.  Standing within the back of the chariot, in the open doorway, was Stonehoof and Lonestake.  Both stallions’ rifles leaned against them in the doorframe.

Nodding to each, and offering a smile to my two friends, I turned and looked towards the not too distant wall.  A group of four ponies stood beside the open doors of a simple gatehouse.   Balefire and Carrion, along with two local guardponies, scanned the surrounding hillsides for any signs of trouble, looking through binoculars or using their own eyes.  We all waited for several minutes as each made sure no raiders or beasts lay waiting for us to step hoof beyond the wall.  At last, after each had nodded to the other, Carrion turned back and waved a hoof forward.  The way was clear... it was time.

Turning back to the lead wagon, I saw Silver giving the smoldering ruins of Old Oaks one final look, before lowering her purple eyes and settling into her seat beside Tink.  She sighed softly before looking down to me, nodding her head.

“It’s time to go,” she said, to which I nodded my head.  “Marshall, would you take point?”  

“It would my pleasure,” I answered, smiling up to the mares before looking to Wild and Stone, nodding my head to the pair.  My winged friend needed no more urging, and snapped her feathered limbs open with a burst of dust and soot.  Flapping them quickly, she and the chariot she was attached to began to rise up from the pavement, slowly beginning to move ahead.  I watched them pass over the wall before I turned back to the line of wagons behind me.  Over a hundred faces looked back at me.  A hundred lives rested within my hooves and those of my friends... I’d not let any of them down.  I wouldn’t let Sugar down... and wherever she was, I wouldn’t let my sister down.

My name is Shadow, and I am an Equestrian Marshall, and I will help these ponies...

“Alright ponies... roll out!” 


Welcome to Level 18!

Perk Added: And Stay Back!:  While using a shotgun, you have a 10% greater chance per pellet, or flat 30% chance for a slug, to knock an enemy back. Note that this perk actually knocks down the enemy rather than sending them flying as the description suggests, similar to Super Slam for melee attacks.



 

> Chapter 19: Trail Of Tears
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 19: Trail Of Tears



A hundred wagons... that means that you've accepted responsibility for better than three hundred lives and you'd better not let 'em down, either. 



I'll do my best. 



That's all any man can ask of you, but you know so many times the best is just not good enough. When you think of all the people, seventy five or a hundred of 'em who are gonna die when the cholera hits your camp without you knowin' it's comin'... and that Indian war party that comes down off the high hills, their screams splinter the night and their arrows set fire to it... you say, "Well, I did my best." That's what you say to all those silent dead, "I did my best.”





Centuries old ash rose up around my right forehoof as it came down upon the edge of the cracked and worn highway.  I shifted my body forward and stood for a moment, scanning the countryside.  My Pipbuck’s radiation meter began clicking steadily louder in my ears as the cloud of fine powder settled about it and my front hooves.  Big surprise, the stuff was highly radioactive.  For the past several hours of walking, I’d noticed my Pipbuck’s heads-up-display flickering out in a burst of static, making many of its features worthless.  For the moment, I ignored the steady clicking of rads I was soaking up and instead scanned the twisted, jagged branches of the Dead Forest with tired, dry eyes.  With my E.F.S. being down, it was all I had.    

As I turned my head slowly to look across the hillsides and small valleys, a humid breeze picked up from the north and stirred up small clouds of ash as it flowed along the earth.  Upon reaching me, the wind ruffled my mane and tail gently, offering a bit of relief from the constant oppressive heat that seemed to smother the wasteland.  The wind thankfully blew away the offending clouds that had settled about my forelegs before it could rise any higher and irritate my already stinging nose.  Much of my black coat was already covered in the pale grey stuff, along with my sweat stained blue jumpsuit and black riot armor.

Shifting my weight upon my hind quarters, I glanced down to my ash covered body and brushed my right fore hoof across my chest, watching as the fine powder drifted away on the dying breeze.  The ticking of my Pipbuck began to die down and I could only imagine how many rads we’d soaked up since leaving Old Oaks this morning.  Thank the goddesses above, we’d found enough Radaway while searching the ruins the night before; otherwise, I doubted we’d be able to make it to Janesville.  The sound of movement from in front of me caught my attention and my ears swiveled towards the noise, my hoof dropping back down to the pavement as I focused on the possible threat.  

As I scanned the nearby trees once more with my yellow eyes, I tried looking for any signs of something living among the blackened husks.  I attempted to pick out any threatening shapes among the trees, trying to ignore the bursts of static that popped up where normally my E.F.S. would be.  At times it would almost seem to work, green dots popping up in my vision to indicate the location of the caravan behind me and the ponies scouting ahead of me.  However, as quickly as it appeared, it would disappear, replaced with a blur of static grey lines.

After a moment of standing still, hoof poised to bring Luna’s Ruse up to my mouth, I determined the sound had most likely come from the trees surrounding the roadway.  The breeze had disturbed the twisted, craggy branches, causing them to rub up against one another.  Beyond the distant rumbling of thunder, it had been the only sound anypony had heard for hours now.  After everything they’d been, it was beginning to unsettle a few of the locals.  Their nerves were already frayed, as we’d been forced to stop a couple times due to somepony thinking they’d heard raiders sneaking up on them.  If I was honest, it was doing the same to me.  Or was it the lack of fighting?  I’d really expected something to try and kill us by now.  Or maybe it was just the location?  I wasn’t one to normally be spooked by places uneasy, yes, but down right scared… well, not since I’d been a foal.  Then again, the name my Pipbuck had assigned to this place hadn’t helped matters.

The Dead Forest.

As far as names go, I suppose it was quite fitting for our surroundings.  While it certainly wasn’t the most original name, it worked well.  Before the bombings and mass deaths, the forest’s real name had been Old Oaks.  I suppose when you got right down to it, us ponies weren’t the most original when it came to naming places, as Spirit had pointed out a few hours ago.  I snorted softly and looked away from the nearby branches, gently swaying in another humid breeze, to look out across the hillside I had stopped upon.

For miles around, all anypony could see were the blackened, twisted trees covering the hillsides and flat lands surrounding the road and well beyond it.  Most of the trees had been reduced to little more than short wooden stumps or pony-high posts.  Their branches had been ripped away by the balefire-storm that had killed them.  In places within the forest, black bits of bark stuck up from the blanket of grey ash that covered everything.  In other parts, whole fallen trees rose up like islands along with stones and even a few bits of buildings, blown all the way from New Oaks.

A few of the trees among the forest still had their upper halves intact.  Their branches looked like the clawed fingers of some fossilized creature grasping for the sky in their final moments of life.  Most stood little higher than six or eight feet in height.  Others towered over their smaller brethren and looked to be a good four or five stories in height.  Those were far rarer, since these trees had been raised solely for their lumber and thus fewer would grow to be so large.  It would seem these were also the resting place of ponies seeking refuge from their doomed cities, as most large trees had small clusters of skulls gathered below them.  Some with horns, most without... some adults, some foal-sized.  Alongside the dead lay rusted weapons or personal effects, hastily removed from homes as they fled in the dozens to the forest.  All were half buried within the ash where they had been dropped as their owners perished from the fire, smoke, or radiation.

Ash.

Slowly, I rose to all four hooves and shook myself off.  A cloud of grey ash rose up from my coat and equipment, causing my Pipbuck to click like mad.  I snorted heavily to clear my nose of the stuff and brushed my tail back and forth across my flanks to clear whatever ash had gathered about my backside.  The stuff got into everything, to which Wild had more than happily related to anypony who’d listen when we’d stopped a few hours ago to give everyone a chance to rest and relieve themselves.  

In truth, this was something I’d found rather surprising... the ash, not Wild (I seriously doubted there was much the wild tempered mare could do or say that would surprise me anymore).  The ash covered the ground from the edges of the pavement all across the deathly silent forest floor, up into the hills and beyond.  According to Stone and Jackhammer, the blanket of ash stretched all the way towards the crater that had been New Oaks and further to the south.  I’d have expected the rain or wind to have blown much of it away after a hundred and fifty years.  For whatever reason though, it hadn’t.  In some places it easily came up to one’s knees and shoulders.  Again, that was according to what I was told.  To step off the road was almost certain to end in death from the high levels of radiation.

Looking away from the desolate ash covered wasteland, I stared ahead at the roadway and frowned.  While the highway was mostly clear of ash, there were still places where it had blown across it.  Walking through it resulted in the stuff getting packed up tightly in our horseshoes.  Ahead lay just such a patch, and just beyond it stood Carrion and Balefire.  They were stomping their hooves against the pavement in an effort to knock the ash from between their shoes.  Carrion seemed far less worried than Balefire, likely due to the radiation being less hazardous to the ghoul.  He began walking once more before Balefire had finished.  My young green friend quickly rose up and, after giving me a wave, began following after the surly, former army officer.  Undead or not, having one's hooves filled up with itching irradiated powder was annoying.

Thankfully, the ash pile was only hoof deep and barely five feet wide.  As my friends had before me, I paused and began stomping my hooves upon the asphalt to try and knock the ash out from them.  While I worked on freeing the last of the ash from my hind hooves, I glanced towards the radiation meter on my Pipbuck’s display.  It had steadily been rising from green to yellow, though it was still quite a way from red.  Another couple hours and I’d be forced to use one of the Radaways in my saddlebags or risk radiation poisoning... or at least a more severe case of it.  I’d take pissing blood over throwing up my internal organs anyday of the week (even though it burned like hell coming out).  

As I knocked the last of the the ash free, I glanced back the way we’d came and looked to the darkened sky where Old Oaks must have been.  The storm we’d spotted earlier that morning before leaving was making its way slowly across the wasteland, creeping ever closer to the highway and our little convoy of ponies.  Wild had said it likely wouldn’t hit until we were a few hours from Janesville… if everything went as planned.  I snorted and shook my head, wondering how often things ever went as planned.  A distant flash of lightning lit up the sky for a moment, which was followed a second later by a distant boom of thunder.  The storm seemed much closer than it had before.  

Lowering my gaze from the sky to the roadway, I scanned the line of rickety wagons slowly trudging their way up the hill.  The last in the row had just crested the last hill we’d climbed and began working their way down the other side.  Most of those riding that were able to walk had dismounted to help ease the burden of those pulling them, leaving those who could not to rest.  Everypony, however, looked tired.  The high radiation levels were sapping the strength of those trudging through it and those that had been injured in the fighting around Old Oaks.  I found myself regretting the choice I’d picked for this journey, but as Wild had pointed out when we’d stopped earlier, it was really the only choice we had.  

The pegasus had flown us here from San Ponsisco, and while we’d been unable to see everything from within the armored passenger compartment of the sky chariot, she had seen just how far off the vast field of ash had stretched around the small town.  I suppose that also explained the lack of any real effort on building a wall around the town.  After all, why build a massive wall of junk when you were surrounded by a irritated forest?  Because somepony might use the road to attack you, was the answer my more tactical side shot back.  A sudden shadow passing overhead caught my attention and I glanced skyward. 

A slender orange mare came into sight, pulling a sleek black armored chariot behind her above the trees.  The armored chariot and hooves of the pegasus skimmed inches above the dead forest before looping back towards the roadway where I stood.  Wild passed overhead again, glancing down and giving me a salute with one foreleg before winking playfully at me, her red mane and tail flowing out behind her.  As the chariot came over, I spotted two ponies standing watch on either side of the armored transport, leaning out the side doors.  As I watched Wild slowly bank herself and the chariot to the left, I spotted Stone waving a hoof off towards the south and yelling into the headset’s mic he had on under his hat.  His marefriend nodded her head before she leveled them out and, with a powerful flap of her wings, sped off towards whatever he’d spotted.  

We’d been lucky thus far, as our eyes in the sky had little to do beyond spotting a single radscorpion that appeared to be making its way towards the road.  Stonehoof’s sharp eye, steady hoof, and uncanny skill with his rifle had dropped the mutated beast before it had even reached the wagons.  Few had even known of the threat.  However, if they should spot a larger threat, I would have liked to have some more time to know about it.   I lamented the lack of communication we had with one another, and made a mental note to look into fixing that in Janesville.  I doubted radios would do much better in this radiation field than my Pipbuck, but at least it would be better than waiting for them to get close enough to shout a warning down to one of us. 

Out of habit, I glanced to my E.F.S. to check the surrounding area for any signs of hostiles.  Of course, now was not one of the times it would decide to work, and static was all I saw.  With a snort, I looked back out across the landscape with my own eyes, seeing little more than the twisted dead trees and miles of ash covered hills.  Once I was sure whatever Stone had spotted from the air was nowhere nearby, I lifted my right foreleg up to my chest and switched the display on my Pipbuck to a map of the area.  

We’d covered a little over ten miles thus far, and we’d only been walking for about seven hours.  That was actually better than I expected, though it still put Janesville some twenty miles away.  If we managed to maintain our current rate, we’d arrive in the Confederate protected town in another day and a half of travel.  That was, of course, not counting if we were forced to stop before nightfall.  

I lowered my hoof back down to the pavement, and I once again began trotting slowly down the roadway.  Carrion, Wild, and Balefire had suggested we push on through the night, in an effort to reach Janesville sooner and to put as much distance between ourselves and any raiders who might be following us.  They also wanted to avoid the approaching storm, in case Wild’s predictions that it was not filled with acid rain proved incorrect.  Stone had disagreed, however, with the rest of my friends, as had Jackhammer and Silver.  

They’d pointed out quite correctly that we’d be risking more lives to travel under the cover of darkness than we would if we waited.  After all, nopony was certain when or even if raiders would be after us.  What was certain were the ever present hazards of the wasteland, even while traveling along a highway.  With no light to see by, any of the sizeable cracks or holes in the pavement we avoided in the day could result in broken wagon wheels or even limbs and necks if the fall was sudden enough.  If we used lights, from those with Pipbucks or simple torches and flares, we might as well baste ourselves and lay down on the ground for the local wildlife to enjoy an all-you-can-eat pony buffet.  Spread out as we were in a line, it would be very difficult to protect everypony from giant radscorpions.  Well, Stone hadn’t exactly used the words ‘pony buffet.’  Wild had provided that uplifting comment, once her coltfriend had made his point.

I agreed with them, and despite time being an issue (even if the raiders and storm were not a threat, the radiation was and lingering on the road any longer than necessary meant using up more Radaway) traveling at night was just too risky.  We would lose a good seven or eight hours of travel time while we waited for the sun to rise... if it chose to do so at the correct time that is.  I would have given more thought on that worrying issue if I hadn’t noticed Balefire ahead of me.  He had stopped in the middle of the roadway.  Normally that wouldn’t be something I would immediately react to, but I still unclicked the safety off my weapon.  Mainly because a dark red glow of magic shimmered from my friend’s horn.  A glow that also surrounded his assault rifle slung across his back.  

My dark green friend appeared quite fixed upon something just off the side of the pavement, within a dark cluster of dead trees and shoulder deep ash.  I quickened my pace towards him while rechecking Luna’s Ruse as it bounced against my chest armor.  I glanced to my E.F.S. (old habits are hard to break, and I’ll be happy to be out of this damned forest), but once more there was nothing to see but more static.  Although, there did seem to be an increase in radiation the closer I came to Balefire and the road’s edge...

“Problem, Bale?” I asked as I came to a halt beside him.  For the moment, my friend did not respond yet continued to watch that cluster of trees.  A glance to his face revealed his dark red eyes slowly passing across the tortured landscape, ears perked for any sound from beyond the road.  I also noticed he’d swung the assault rifle around his body, the barrel pointed towards the ground.  Something had him spooked.  I turned away from him to scan the ash covered forest floor, trying to see whatever it was that had caught his attention so completely. 

After several minutes of looking I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary... at least as ordinary as a forest of dead, charred trees could be in an irritated wasteland.  Still, I looked for any signs of hoofprints between either the black stumps of the dead trees near the road and those still intact trees further up the hillside.  Nothing.  All I could make out was a mass of twisted branches and the long burned hulks of trees.  The carpet of ash was as smooth as it had been since we’d set hoof outside of Old Oaks.  Nothing had disturbed it in quite sometime and I doubted anything ever did.  All I could see that stood out was a pair of skulls near the base of a large tree, one with a broken unicorn horn.  They lay atop the ash and, upon looking closer, seemed to be filled with the stuff.  After another two minutes of silence, my friend finally spoke up. 

“I thought I saw something moving out there among the trees...” he said softly.  His head shook slowly as he blinked his eyes rapidly to clear them.  “Must have been mistaken I guess.”  He didn’t sound so sure of that, and I glanced once more across the nearby hillside. 

“Ain’t nothin’ movin’ among them trees no more,” a voice spoke up from behind us, causing us both to jump a bit.  Turning around, I spotted Jackhammer trotting up towards us.  The stallion was still pulling the lead wagon beside another pony from Old Oaks.  “Ain’t been nothin’ livin’ in them woods for over a hundred years now Ah reckon.  Nothin’ but bloat spirits and th’ odd radscorpions.  Th’ whole forest is plum soaked in radiation from th’ bomb that destroyed New Oak’s.”

“I think it’s one of the more irritated areas in the wasteland,” Balefire said.  He stepped away from the side of the road while he swung the assault rifle back around his shoulder, the glow of his horn going out.

Everything within the wasteland was irradiated.  It was a fact of life that everypony had to deal with.  The amount varied by location and could be anywhere from barely a few rads worth to an amount that would kill an unprotected pony in seconds... and even a protected pony in minutes.  I hadn’t really worried, knowing we’d brought a good supply of Radaway... but if there was enough to mess with the Pipbuck’s targeting spell.

“You’d be dead within an hour of entering it,” Silverluck said calmly from atop the wagon.  The grey coated mare scanned the black twisted trees Balefire had been eyeing carefully, her ears laid back.  “My sister and I crossed through a narrow patch along the eastern edge and nearly paid for it with our lives.  Nopony goes into the forest willingly, and only then as a last resort...”  She frowned and looked away from the trees back down to Jackhammer.  

“Highway’s clean... well, as clean as anythin’ in th’ wasteland, Ah reckon,” Jack added as he slipped a canteen from his saddlebags and unscrewed the cap.  “Back when ponies were resettlin’ th’ area, a bunch of ’em cleared th’ road of all th’ ash that had built up over th’ years.  It was th’ best means of gettin’ in and outta th’ area.”  As he spoke, he waved the canteen towards the pavement before placing it to his lips to take a long drink.  The stallion beside him took the chance to take a drink from his own as we spoke.

“I still don’t understand why anypony would settle so far away from any other town or settlement, and in a place that’s known to be hazardous to one's health,” I said as I look awayed from the pair of stallions to the ash covered hillsides around us.

“Not everypony likes th’ idea of givin’ their freedom up ta the Confederacy.  For a long time, ponies been used ta dependin’ upon only themselves and their family.  Mostly cause trustin’ any other pony mighta resulted in gettin’ yerself shot in th’ back.  A lotta ponies still thinkin’ governments are just gonna get ’em inta another mess like th’ war that caused all this in th’ first place,” the stallion beside Jack piped up, his canteen held in his hooves as he looked to me, “Sides, not like we’ve been livin’ in some pit or th’ hellhole Hoofington turned inta.” 

“Ponies made a livin’ by travelin’ this here road back and forth between Janesville and Old Oaks sellin’ charcoal.  Only takes a couple days if ya got a good wagon, a good team, and th weather on yer side,” Jackhammer spoke up after replacing the cap atop his canteen.  “Ah used ta take th’ road a few times back when Ah was a mite younger.  Before them Super Mutants started ambushin’ caravans and th’ like.”

“Alright, fair enough.  I didn’t mean any disrespect to your home,” I said, holding up a hoof in apology to them all.  I didn’t want this to turn into another argument like the one back in Old Oaks’ city hall.

“We know ya didn’t mean anythin’ by it Marshall.  Yer just new ta this whole thing,” Jack responded with a smile towards me, nodding his head a bit.  

“Maybe, but I’m learning and I’m not as new as I used to be,” I answered before turning back to Balefire.  He was once more scanning the surrounding hillside and that little cluster of trees.  “Well, if you're sure you didn’t see anything, we’d better get moving.  There’s still a few hours of daylight left and I think we can make it another couple miles before we need to stop for the night.”  As I finished speaking, he turned his head back around towards me and shifted his weight on his hooves.

“Yeah, must have just been my eyes playing tricks on me... probably just all this ash blowing around,” he answered, glancing off towards the trees again and sounding more like he was trying to convince himself of what he’d seen instead of anyone else.  “Let’s get a move on then,” he added, before taking a couple steps away from me.  Despite his words, he hardly sounded very convinced of what he said.  As I watched him walking away, he glanced once more towards the right side of the road, ears flipped to the sides of his head in concern.

I followed his gaze and stared at the cluster of trees.  Behind us, Jackhammer and the other stallion begin pulling the lead wagon past me, following after Balefire.  I scanned the clump of dead trees, wondering what had so spooked my young friend when something caught my eyes.  The unicorn skull... had it always been turned towards the road?  

Cocking my head a bit to the side, I stepped closer to the edge of the pavement.  My Pipbuck began clicking louder as I neared the shallow tip of the ash bed to get a better look.  Once more I ignored it, for there was hardly a time in the past several hours it hadn’t been clicking.  Instead, I focus on the skull.  There was no sign of it having been moved in the past several minutes, the ash around it was undisturbed.  Anypony walking towards it would have left hoof prints... and if magic had been used, the ash would still have been disturbed someway.  I was almost certain that it’d been facing towards the other skull beside it... which as I noticed it was turned towards the road as well... what the?

“Something the matter, Shadow?”  For the second time today, I found myself jumping in surprise as somepony spoke up behind me... or in this case, some buffalo.  Once I’d hurriedly stepped back onto the roadway and shook loose the ash from my hooves, I turned and looked to my large brown friend.  Her blue eyes lifted from me to the trees behind me.

“No... nothing’s wrong,” I answered quickly, tapping my left hoof against the pavement to knock loose the last bit of ash from within it.  “Balefire thought he’d seen something a few minutes ago, and I suppose it had me a bit worked up.”  Glancing back to the skulls for a moment, I looked back up to my friend and asked, “Is everything alright with the wounded?”

“I believe they shall be fine, so long as we reach Janesville as quickly as possible.  Exposure to this much radiation is not good for their bodies’ natural healing processes.  A few of the more severe wounds have begun to seep a bit,” she replied, eyes fixed upon something behind me; most likely the skulls.  Her eyes softened a bit.  “Hmm... there is no reason to be embarrassed by your worry.  The spirits of the dead rest uneasily here.”

“I suppose that’s true anywhere in the wasteland.” 

“Yes... but in such places as these, it is far more noticeable to even those who would not normally notice such things.”  She slowly scanned the hillside, looking over the trees and the remains half buried within the ash.   “Many lost their lives within this forest violently while seeking shelter.”  Finally, she lowered her gaze from the forest to me. “Large cities are also such places, especially those that continue to take lives such as Kanter City.”

“And what about places like San Ponsisco?” I asked as I finished wiping the ash from my forelegs and turned to walk away from the trees.  Spirit fell into step beside me, as we moved behind Jackhammer and Silver’s wagon.  As I turned away from my friend to look at the path ahead, I saw both Silver’s sister and daughter curled up in the back asleep.

“San Ponsisco is a rare place within the wasteland.  While the loss of life within its borders was as great as any other city within Equestria, it does not feel as dark and cold as other places I have visited.”

“Oh?”  I turned back to my friend, brow arched as I regarded her with curiosity.

“I believe most ponies refer to them as cold chills or shivers whenever they enter into a place like this.”

I glanced away from the wagon ahead of me, and the peaceful forms of two young mares asleep, and looked over the ash covered wasteland we were walking through.  Beside the road lay, half buried in the ash, a badly rotted two wheel wagon.  Little was left of it’s wheels beyond the iron or steel rims.  In the back was a small pony skull beside what appeared to be a cat skeleton.  Whether due to her words or the scene before me, a chill ran up my spine and I looked away.  I remembered a similar feeling when I’d first stepped out of the Stable... and when I’d made my way through the ghost town of Lonesome Hoof.  Or within the subway tunnels under Kanter City...

“It is a... unsettling feeling.  One that most surface ponies do not feel anymore,” Spirit went on as we passed by the small wagon and its grim cargo,  “After growing up surrounded by such horrors, one becomes immune to them.”  She sighed softly and closed her eyes, whispering to herself in another language.  Several minutes ticked by before she finished and opened her eyes once again.  “As I said, that feeling is all but absent within the walls of San Ponsisco.  The dead of that city seem more at peace than anywhere else within the wasteland.  Perhaps due to your people’s attempts at reclaiming the city.  Rebuilding and repairing the homes and businesses of the ponies who had once called it home.  The quiet sounds of a decaying city have been replaced with the sounds of laughing foals and happy ponies going about their lives.”

“If only everything in the wasteland could be solved with something so simple as the laughter of foals,” I added, looking once more to Silver’s daughter as she slept.

“Who is to say it can not?” she asked, her horned head turning to look down to me as I turned and looked back at her, “My father believed that showing a bit of kindness could do more good than all of the weapons in the world.”  A soft snort left her nose as she looked back ahead of us,  “I am not so blind to say it can solve every problem in the world.  No amount of kindness will halt a radscorpion from attacking you, or stop raiders from doing what their twisted minds say they must.  But ponies are far too quick to distrust someone new or if they do not look like themselves, to go for their weapons when presented with a problem.”

“Not all ponies are like that,” I said, thinking of those ponies from Crossroads who helped me out when I needed it.  Or Stone, Wild, Balefire, and all my friends I’d made while out in the wasteland, who’d helped despite what I was attempting to do. “There’s good ponies left in the world.”

“Of that I am certain for I have followed one such pony back out into the wasteland, despite the wisdom of staying someplace safe,” she responded with a hint of a smile on her short muzzle.  Her eyes went back to the road ahead,  “I fear though that there are far more ponies causing problems then there are those fixing them.”

After that, we both fell silent and continued walking until we over took the lead wagon.  Spirit turned and began speaking softly with Silver about her sister and daughter, how they were faring on the trip and if she’d noticed how their wounds were healing.  I only half listened, as I mulled over what my medical friend had said.  She was right, of course, there were far more ponies running around the wasteland making things worse for those just trying to survive.  Those of us who were trying to do good were few and far between...

In all the time I’d ever listened to the radio, both in the Stable and in San Ponsisco, I hadn’t heard Three Horns say much about anypony helping others.  Oh, there was talk of local ponies defending their towns from raiders and mutant beasts.  Reports of the victories the Confederate Military had with the Super Mutants up north, and with raiders closer to home. But nothing else... no stories of ponies going out of their way to help others.  Just stories of towns going silent, caravans missing, and small settlements burnt to the ground.

A shadow passing overhead broke me from my thoughts and I looked up to watch as Wild flew quickly overhead.  The long black shape of the armored chariot was close behind her as she flew back along the line of wagons.  I then turned back to look ahead of me, to see the sight of Balefire and Carrion walking on either side of the highway.  Both were alert for any dangers that might come from the forest or road ahead.  I then glanced to Spirit, as she offered advice to Silver on how to soothe a fever her daughter was getting.  

A smile slowly formed across my face as I watched my friends working to protect the ponies around us.  No, I wasn’t the only pony willing to help others... there were a few who believed like me... I’d just had to show them how.

I blinked at that thought and tilted my head to the side as I looked back over to Spirit.  Part of me didn’t like thinking that it was simply because of me that they had banded together to help others... but another part thought otherwise.  A part of me that said if not for what I’d attempted to do, none of my friends around me would have ever met.  Stone would likely be sitting in Crossroads, working as a guard or escorting another caravan for bits.  Wild would be drunk atop her little rock pillar home.  Carrion would still be in Kanter City, fighting a losing battle against raiders.  Balefire... he could have ended up like my sister.  Spirit would have likely gone off to her own death, seeking revenge for her father.  Something Second Sight had said to me popped into my head suddenly...

 In such a way your fate is set, to a pony who is not born yet. Such strength and kindness she will give, it will reshape the world in which we live. Something Equestria had lost before, forever lost, she will restore.

She, however, is just the start. It will take more ponies to return it to its heart.

All these heroes bound to only one, their deeds will fix what was undone, and reconnect the world’s fractured plain, that then harmony and peace again might reign.”

Second Sight had spoken of others following this mysterious hero’s example, working to make the wasteland- no, Equestria, a better place.  While I wasn’t for sure if what I’d seen had really been from the future, or even if what she’d said had been true, I still found myself wanting to believe it.  That harmony and peace might return to Equestria someday through the efforts of ponies willing to stand up for what's right.  Ponies (and buffalo) like my friends... like me.  A large brown shape stepped up beside me, snapping me out of my thoughts.  I looked over to Spirit.

“I am pleased to see your mood has improved somewhat,” she noted, her horned head cocked towards me a bit as we walked on,  “I am curious as to why, as there is little worth smiling about given our surroundings or situation.”

“I was just thinking on what we’ve been talking about,” I began.  The roadway was beginning to climb higher as we advanced up the hill.  “Maybe we are the only ones out here doing good, ‘fighting the good fight’ as DJ Three Horns likes to say... but it’s a start.”

“A start?” a voice called out from across my large friend’s brown coat.  As the buffalo slowed her pace a bit, I spotted Silver’s sister leaning up over the side of their wagon and listening intently to what we were saying.  “A start of what?” the mare asked.  I noticed that her sister and Jackhammer seemed interested in what I was saying as well.  Spirit nodded her head towards me to go on and I glanced over six pairs of eyes watching me.

“Well... everything has to begin somewhere, doesn’t it?” I asked, looking from the ponies and buffalo beside me and back to the road ahead.  “After all, Equestria didn’t just spring up from nothing.  It took the three tribes working together to create it over many, many years of hard work.  This is a beginning of something.  Don’t ask me to explain it though, I really can’t… I just get this feeling that this could be something that just might change the world for the better.”

“Thinkin’ a mite highly of yerself, ain’t ya?” the stallion pulling beside Jackhammer called out, smirking towards me.

“He did save us from those raiders, Grill,” Silver said from her seat atop the wagon.  “And according to the radio and his friends, he saved a bunch more out east.  I’d say that gives him some room to talk.  Besides, he’s right… Equestria only came about because three ponies had the vision to do more than simply fight among themselves.”

“It isn’t about me...” I began, only to have Spirit cut me off.

“It is about what he represents.  A pony willing to sacrifice himself for others is a rare thing within the wasteland.  I have traveled far in search of my people and I have found few who are so willing to do as much as Shadow,” the soft spoken buffalo said, smiling warmly over towards me before going on with a nod of her horned head.  “I believe there are still good ponies in this world who would be willing to rise up and help others.  All it takes is for one pony, who is willing, to show them how and give them hope.  I would say the spirits spoke truly of you, my friend.”

“Maybe.  I came out here to try and help those who couldn’t help themselves or who had given up hope.  If in so doing I set an example for others to follow… well, all I really did was show them that they can make a difference,” I answered as we crested the hill.  At last, it gave me another look to the distant horizon beyond the highway and over the tops of the tree covered hills.

“Th’ more Ah hear ya talk... th’ more Ah’m wondering if ya found that badge, or if that badge found you,” Jack said as he trotted alongside Grill.  The old stallion offered me a nod of his head before turning back to the roadway to watch for potholes.  “Ya sound like how Ah’d think them Marshals woulda sounded.”

“Or one of those heroes from the stories daddy used to read to us,” Silver’s sister spoke up again, smiling towards her sister.  For her part, Silver merely smiled back and nodded her head before glancing my way.  A thoughtful look crossed her face as she silently watched me for a moment before looking away.

A hero, eh?  I looked ahead to the worn highway as silence settled over the group once again.  Each settled in for the remainder of our journey today.  A hero.  There might be some ponies who’d not wish to be called such a thing… I was just doing what I could to help.  Did that automatically make me a hero?  I knew for sure that at least one little filly thought it did and smiled to myself.  If for nopony else, then I’d be a hero… goddesses above knew the wasteland needed one.




*     *     *     *     *



After another two hours of walking the winding highway 77, we at last called a halt to our journey once we’d found a good defensible spot for the night.  Or at least something that would do well enough.  We couldn’t really afford to be overly critical when there were so many tired ponies ready to drop where they stood.  The roadway had gradually begun to straighten out the further west we traveled, and it was on one such long stretch of the highway that we’d stopped.  On our right side, the ground had steadily been dropping away as the road followed along the path of a long ago dried up river.  Its banks were quite steep and covered in smooth stones.  While it would not be impossible for somepony or something to climb them, it would make it far slower going and thus allow us to have our backs to something.  Of course, that something could bite us all in the flanks if we ended up surrounded on the other three sides… but it was better than being out in the open.

The two lane highway made it rather difficult to gather everypony up in close to one another.  Because of that, we’d be forced to spread ourselves out a bit wider than any of us liked.  I found it rather ironic that after discussing how best to defend ourselves that we settled on using the classic circle of wagons from any number of western movies I’d seen as a child.  Still, it seemed to work.  We set up three of the wagons on either side of the highway, blocking it off completely and making a decent defendable position that ponies could sit up and fire from behind.  If things truly got dire, we could tip them over to offer greater protection for the ponies inside the circle.  Three more wagons sat blocking off the southern side of the highway, their wheels kept several feet away from the edge of the pavement and the ash covered ground.  Luckily the forest had been cleared a bit from the roadway, and there was a good half mile of open ground between us and the tree line.  This had likely been done fairly recently, given that the two local towns traded.  The remaining three wagons were placed within the center of the circle, and held the most critically wounded as well as the majority of our supplies.  These would remain guarded throughout the night, while teams of five ponies watched each of our little makeshift forts throughout the night.

Looking away from the wagons, I scanned the inner circle and the two dozen fires crackling merrily away.  All of them were surrounded by ponies attempting to keep warm from the chilly wasteland air.  I was a bit worried about lighting fires at first, since it would alert others of our position, but it was either that or let ponies freeze to death.  Stone had reluctantly agreed that the fires would be necessary and Balefire had pointed out that even a raider could figure out where we’d taken the townsfolk once they learned Old Oaks was deserted.  The highway being the only safe option for so many ponies to take, and since the raiders were largely coming from the east...

The fires also helped with moral, which was unsurprisingly low among everypony here.  The forlorn looks most had as I trotted past were understandable, given the fact they’d just been driven from their homes and had lost friends and family to the raiders’ attack.  The further away from the makeshift wall I went, I saw more than a few ponies held in the forelegs of others.  Many were seeking comfort from the horrors they’d recently gone through.  I sighed softly and left them to their grief, trotting towards the far end of the little camp, where a single chariot had been parked beside a campfire.  The scent of food drew me a bit faster, along with the sounds of familiar voices.  

As I was passing the last of the wagons, I noticed a mare gently plucking away at a guitar beside a fire as her fellow passengers set about fixing dinner.  I noticed most seemed to be smiling, and it lifted my own spirits a bit to see a bit of joy despite everything that had happened.

The sky chariot sat parked upon the highway with one armored side facing outward towards the river bed.  The other offered cover and shelter for my friends seated beside it.  As I drew nearer, I could see them all quite clearly in the fire Stone had built to cook dinner.  My large grey friend sat with his back to me, busy stirring a fair-sized, beaten cooking pot with a spoon.  Even from where I was, I could hear something slosh against its sides as he worked.  Beside him lounged Wildfire, the mare had her head tucked up against Stone’s flank as he sat, her head towards the fire.  I couldn’t imagine how tired she must be after spending her entire day pulling the sky chariot about.  While she’d once told me flying to a pegasus was nothing more tiring than walking for a unicorn or earthpony, we’d still covered a good deal of ground today.  What’s more, she’d also done more than fly in a straight line.  Across from the couple was Carrion.  The ghoul pony was leaning against the side of the armored chariot with his flak helmet off and horn aglow with magic as he carefully cleaned his assault rifle.  Years of military training, it seemed, was hard to let go… even after so long.  Beside him sat his saddlebags, upon which his dented helmet rested.  Further towards the front of the chariot, sitting in the open doorway to the passenger compartment, was Balefire.  His own horn was glowing as he carefully worked a cloth over one of his revolvers.  Sitting beside him, I was surprised to see Tinkerbelle.  Although, given the fact she had her snout buried in something that appeared to belong somewhere inside the chariot, I suppose I really shouldn’t have been.  The earth pony had been amazed at the sky chariot, and had likely leapt upon a chance to more closely study it.  I’m sure Balefire didn’t mind a chance to more closely study the young mare either.  The only one not present was Spirit, who was no doubt busy with her medical duties to the wounded. 

Upon hearing my hoofsteps approaching them, Stone’s ears twitched back towards me and a second later his whole head followed.  Though much of his face was hidden in shadows from the fire behind him, I still saw a smile spread across his muzzle as he spotted me.  He quickly waved me over towards them with a fore hoof.

“Bout time ya decided ta come join us, Shadow.  Dinner’s bout ready and Ah doubt Ah’d be able ta keep Wild’s greedy hooves from takin’ yer share.”  At the mention of her name, the pegasus shifted her head a bit and promptly bit Stone’s flank, right on his cutie mark no less.  My large friend let out a rather high pitched yelp and swatted a hoof playfully at his lover.  “Wh’d Ah tell ya about that?” he asked.

“Well given our current sleeping arrangements, I doubt we’ll get a chance to do that tonight.  Shame, I do so love your preenings,” she answered as she rose up onto her hooves, wings rustling a bit along her sides.  “I suppose I’ll just have to wait till Janesville when we can get a proper bed, hmm?” she asked, nuzzling along Stone’s blushing cheeks as she turned to me and winked.

“Ah... um, reckon we can do that…” he answered before turning and nuzzling her own cheek in return.

“Get a room you two!” Balefire called out from the other side of the fire.  The young stallion grinned fully towards the happy couple.  A moment later, a metal spoon struck him in the forehead and he fell back into the chariot with a thud, muttering, “Ow… my horn…” Tink glanced up from the wires she’d been looking over to see what was going on for a moment, ears perked.

“Wild, the mechanics of your chariot are amazing!  I’ve never seen such a perfectly working example of old world tech before in my life!” the young mare practically gushed with a wide grin.  Her bright blue-grey eyes stared at the orange pegasus as if she held the secrets of the universe itself.  “Does it run solely off energy absorbed from static electricity by flying through clouds or is there an energy spell matrix in the generator with a self sustaining spell to feed the chariot power?” the young mare asked, staring intently at the orange pegasus who could only blink at the earth pony.

“Er… sorry Tink, I’m afraid I never really paid a whole lot of attention to the technical aspect of things back in basic training.  At least as far as sky chariots are concerned.  I was trained more in our basic power armor.”  At the mention of power armor, the orange earthpony’s eyes lit up and she actually squealed in joy.  “Uhh…” Wild flicked her ears back in alarm at the sight of the young mare.

“You know about power armor?  Oh, I have so many questions!!” she exclaimed, ears perked towards Wild as she leaned forward out of the chariot’s door.  “I’ve gotten my hooves on a few pieces of Steel Ranger armour, but it no longer functioned and I’ve toyed around with a couple robots but I’ve never seen pegasus power armor before!”  My winged friend smiled a bit sadly towards Tink as she looked down to the black colored armor that covered her upper torso.

“Well, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed, kiddo.  Most of mine has been damaged throughout the years and no longer functions either.”  She snorted softly and shook her head.  “Hell… I don’t even have a complete set anymore.”  Her smile faded completely as she finished speaking, the sad look completely replacing her normal jovial one.  At least until Stone nuzzled her unkempt mess of a red mane and kissed her on the tip of an ear.  And just like that, the look of regret left her face, replaced by the more familiar smile. 

“Now, who’s ready for dinner?” Stone asked, quickly changing the subject before Tink could ask any more questions.  Although, I did wonder what had become of Wild’s armor to cause her such sadness.  Still, I wasn’t about to dig into her past.  Not if it was going to cause her any distress.  Slowly, Stone began ladling some sort of lumpy stew into bowls.  A red glow surrounded two of the bowls and floated them over to Balefire and Tink.  The dark green unicorn offered a smile to the mare beside him as one bowl was offered.  She smiled back and held out a hoof to take it.  Another surrounded by orange magic made its way to Carrion’s side.  The ghoul never once looked up as he continued working on his assault rifle.  

Making my way around Wild and Stone, I took the second to last filled bowl from my friend’s hoof.  Carefully, I carried it in my mouth and walked over to a spot between Carrion and the open doorway of the chariot.  Setting the bowl carefully down upon the cracked pavement, I turned my head around and began unbuckling my saddlebags.  Thankfully I’d continued using them while in San Ponsisco and had the rusting buckles replaced a week after arriving.  They easily came free from my sides and I slid them down to the ground, letting them drop the last few inches in a small cloud of ash.  It felt good to have that weight off my back and I sighed, stretching my shoulders a bit.  The armor would have to stay on, since we were hardly in a safe place here.

As I settled down onto the roadway, I unswung Luna’s Ruse from around my neck and sat it down beside my bags.  I pointed the barrel up and mouth grip within easy reach should we be attacked.  With all that settled, I reached out and scooped up my bowl and began eating with the spoon Stone had shoved in.  It smelled strange… but not bad, and was filled with brown lumps.  I wasn’t sure what they were, but I noticed some sliced carrots and bits of onions.  They weren’t fresh, so they’d likely came from a can.  Still, they tasted good, if a bit mushy.  The brown lumps were sort of stringy, though.

We ate in silence for a time, the only sound coming from our corner of the camp was the scraping of spoons on bowls or the crack of the fire.  As I chewed, I looked down to my Pipbuck.  Perhaps a bit of music would help restore the good mood, or a bit of news… well, not the news.  As DJ Three Horns was so fond of saying, most news in the wasteland was bad news.  I’d just lifted my right foreleg up when I noticed the display on my screen.  I had earlier set it to show the radiation levels, given that the map and E.F.S. features were worthless at the moment.  What I saw was somewhat worrying; I’d soaked up a fair amount of radiation today… anymore and I’d be suffering the effects of radiation poisoning.  

Setting my bowl down quickly, I turned and began rummaging through my saddlebag for some Radaway when a thought popped into my head.  In truth I’d thought about it before, but pushed it aside as unnecessary at the time… but now we had the time.  And I was rather curious about the answer.

“You know, something's been bothering me ever since we entered the forest,” I began, looking over to Stone.  He normally had the answers to most of my questions regarding the Wasteland.  I let the flap of my saddlebag fall close.  “How’d the Super Mutants withstand this much radiation?” I asked, while tapping the package of Radaway I’d pulled free while my Pipbuck was still happily clicking away.  “I know somethings like radroaches and scorpions actually thrive in the shit… but even they have to have a limit to how much they can withstand.”

“Yer right, course,” Stone said from across the fire where he was finishing his own bowl of stew.  He looked up to me, tilting his hat back with a hoof.  “Only th’ most hardy of creatures can withstand this much radiation for longer than a few hours.  But like th’ road here, there’s a few other areas within th’ forest that ain’t as soaked with radiation as th’ rest of it.”  He pointed his hoof behind me at the hills beyond the riverbed.  “Keep in mind, it ain’t from personal knowledge, just from what Ah heard talkin’ to travelers.  There’s supposed ta be whole cave systems up in them hills.  Some rocky ravines and hills where th’ ash never built up and, of course, more dried up river beds like th’ one behind us.”  Setting his bowl down beside the stones that made up the firepit, he added,  “Also don’ rightly affect ’em like it does normal ponies.  Ah’ve actually seen it heal th’ yellow hided bastards once while guardin’ a caravan passin’ near Tombstone.”

I recalled the skull I’d seen in Sticks.  It had been far larger than a pony’s, yet still pony shaped.  I also recalled the other signs of the battle that had been fought over the ruined homes by the Steel Rangers and a band of Super Mutants.  It was no wonder the Rangers had so much trouble fighting their enemies.  Beside being stronger and tougher than a pony, they could heal just from being near a strong enough source of radiation.  I bit into the top part of the Radaway package and ripped it open before swallowing the contents quickly.

“The eggheads back in San Ponsisco think it’s similar to how ghouls can withstand and even benefit from radiation,” Balefire spoke up from just behind me.  I turned to look at my young friend as I tossed the empty plastic package away.  My young friend was holding his bowl in his fore hooves while he ate.  Beside him, Tink ignored her own food in favor of tinkering with something she’d pulled from her saddlebags.  “Super Mutants aren’t like scorpions and radroaches.  Those have been around the Wasteland for as long as there’s been a Wasteland.  Super Mutants are a rather newer edition, only having been around for the past sixty or so years. Near as anypony can figure, they are just ponies that soaked up too much radiation either while scavenging or just poor luck.  Instead of becoming ghouls, their bodies mutated as well as their minds.”

“Ah’ve heard stories over th’ years that some ponies were actually seekin’ out th’ changes,” Stone spoke up again.  His ears flicked back as he went on, “One of th’ last traders Ah spoke with that came ta Crossroads was talkin’ about this cult up north that was preachin’ how th’ Super Mutants are th’ answer ta how ponykind survives th’ new Equestria.”  He shook his head sadly.  “Ain’t bad enough that a pony’s gotta worry bout raiders and slavers, but cults now as well.”

“I’ve heard of them, call themselves the Brotherhood of the End,” Balefire said as his horn glowed with magic.  He lifted his bowl up and set it down beside him in the doorway.  “They’ve started coming into towns loyal to the Confederacy just recently.  Mostly up north of San Ponsisco and have been preaching their rhetoric to anypony who’d listen.  One of my buddies in the 1st Corps told me about hearing one of them speak.  He said most ponies ignored him, but a few seemed to take his words to heart.”

“And you let them?” Wild asked, sitting her empty bowl beside Stone’s on the ground.  Her stormy blue eyes regarded Balefire, head tilted to the side.

“The Confederacy has no law against religious beliefs, or freedom of speech.  Unless they are doing something illegal, the local law enforcement and garrisons can’t do a damn thing to them,” he answered.  Though by his tone and words, it was clear he wanted to do something about them.  I bet most felt that way if a group came into their home and began telling ponies the only way they were going to survive was by sitting in toxic waste.  I could only imagine how many would die from doing that...

“Not how Ah wanna end up, tossed inta some room packed with barrels filled with balefire sludge...” Stone muttered, shaking his head.

“Is that how they do it?” I asked, looking between my friends.  Fuck… that… just fuck...  

“Don’t rightly know.  That’s th’ rumor anyway.  Course they also say they don’t away ask a pony if they wanna join their little group,” Stone answered, ears remaining laid back as he looked from me to the fire. “Heard that’s what happened ta the settlement of Clear Lakes.  No signs of a fight, no bodies.  They just up and disappeared in th’ middle of th’ night.  Just don’t seem right ta do that ta a pony.”

“I’m afraid there could be some truth to that rumor.  The local Sheriff had reported a caravan of Brotherhood members stopping in their town for the night.  Never could prove it.” Balefire ran a hoof through his black mane, red eyes dropping to the fire burning in the center of our group.  “Since then, Mom’s- well, the President ordered the local law enforcement ponies of all our towns to be on the alert for any reports of kidnapping.  Plus, they won’t allow more than five priests of the Brotherhood into a town at once.  As for how they do change… what you heard makes about as much sense as any other way I’ve heard of.”  His ears laid back as he went on, “From being injected with pure balefire straight into your bloodstream to taking a bath in the shit.  I can’t imagine why anypony would willingly do that.  I’ve seen ponies die from radiation poisoning before.  Seen a couple of them come back as feral ghouls afterwards... it wasn’t pretty.”

“No… it’s not pretty what happens to a pony when they’re exposed to that much radiation,” the rough voice of Carrion broke in.  I looked back over my shoulder to the ghoul, his orange eyes fixed on the assault rifle floating before him.  The weapon looked as good as... well, not new but better than most.  “While it was happening to me, I had to watch an entire city die from it.”  He glanced up for a moment towards Balefire.  While the effects of the radiation left much of his face a ruined mess, I still caught sight of a glimmer of pain in his expression.  “I do not believe anypony would willingly submit themselves to that.  At least none with half a fucking brain in their heads.”  With that said, he levitated his bowl of food up to himself and began slowly eating.

“Um… we actually had one of them show up at Old Oaks about eight months ago before caravans stopped coming to town,” Tink said, drawing our attention to the young mare and causing her cheeks to flame up a dark shade of red.  Beside her, Balefire appeared worried his words had upset Carrion and was looking worriedly towards the ghoul.  He swore softly to himself and looked to the earth pony sitting beside him.  “He stayed a few days before the mayor and sheriff asked him to leave.”

“Anypony seem interested in what he had to say?” I asked.  She tilted her head to think.

“Not really, no.  I think most ponies found him insulting and a bit unsettling, what with his rotting face and green glowing eyes...”  At that, she glanced over to Carrion, ears flicked back.  “...I mean no disrespect, Mr. Carrion.”  The ghoul snorted and simply nodded his head towards her.  She relaxed somewhat, as did Balefire beside her.  The young earth pony began to reach for her bowl of food when it was surrounded by an aura of red magic and floated towards her.  She took it and offered Balefire a small smile. “Thanks.”

“Insulting how?” I asked as I heard Wild snicker behind me.  I noticed Balefire’s cheeks turned a darker shade of red than Tinks.  

“Hmm?” Tink looked back to me and blinked for a few moments before she realized what I’d asked.  “Oh… yeah, sorry.  He was sorta preachy about how ponykind wasn’t going to survive much longer as we were.  That we needed to abandon our old gods and embrace the ‘End’ as he called it.”  She shook her head slowly, her short cut blue green mane dancing about her face.  “That didn’t settle too well with a lot of folks.  I mean, nopony would ever accuse us of being big worshipers of the Princesses but we still respect them.”

“Ah reckon that would be enough ta make some displeased with ’im,” Stone spoke up as I began once more eating my own meal.  “Faith’s about all most ponies in th’ Wasteland got anymore besides a good gun.”

The conversation slowly began to peter out as ponies finished their meals and began returning their bowls to Stone one by one.  Wild settled back against Stone’s flank and lit a cigarette.  I noticed she was careful not to blow the smoke into her coltfriend’s face.  After another twenty minutes, Tink yawned widely and began collecting her things.  The young mare stood up and bid us a goodnight before starting to walk off in search of her grandfather.  Balefire quickly stood up and offered to walk her back and I chuckled softly to myself.  

I yawned myself and idly glanced to the clock on my Pipbuck.  It was already past eleven thirty.  Well, I was supposed to take watch in a few hours so I’d best get some sleep. Standing up myself, I picked up the empty bowl and moved over to place it down beside the others.  I nodded my thanks to the chef, though I’d still wondered about something and decided to ask about it. “Thanks for the meal, Stone, I don’t think I’ve ever had anything like that before.  What was it exactly?”

“Yer mighty welcome, Shadow.  Ah know how hungry a pony can get while walkin’ beside wagons,” my friend answered with a grin as he began picking up the bowls.  He began wiping them out with a rag he’d pulled from his saddlebag.  “Eh, wasn’t anythin’ special really, just a can of carrots and onions.  Ah found ’em a couple months ago while searchin’ a wrecked transport wagon out near Crossroads.  Th’ rest was just some radhog Ah shot while we were on patrol this afternoon.”

I went rigid at the mention of radhog, my ears wilted along with my tail.  As in… meat?  Behind me, I heard a deep snort.  Was that Carrion laughing at my plight?  A moment later, I heard the ghoul getting up as Stone merely laughed.  Wild glanced up from her smoke and arched a brow to the lot of us.  Her ears perked towards me as Stone reached up with a large strong hoof to slap me on my armored shoulder.

“Don’t ya fret none, Shadow, it ain’t gonna kill ya!  I’ve been eatin’ meat fer most of my life.  Out here, ya learn ta eat what ya can so ya don’t end up gettin’ eaten yerself.  Sides, it’ll put hair on yer chest,” my friend said with another chuckle as he picked up the bowls and began putting them away into his saddlebag.

All I could do was stand there lamely while my stomach tried to decide whether to void itself or ask for seconds. “But… I already have hair on my chest…” I said with a slight whine to my voice.  This, of course, caused more chuckles from Stone and Carrion as well as a smirk from Wild.  It was the only warning I got before she spoke.

“Well… maybe it’ll put some hair on your balls so you’ll use ’em for something besides almost getting shot off.”  She waved an orange hoof vaguely towards my hindquarters and offered a playful wink.

“You walked right into that one,” Carrion said as he trotted past me to begin his watch.

“I swear, I get no respect from you lot…” I lamented and reached for my canteen to get the odd flavor off my tongue.

With the mood lightened and our numbers somewhat diminished, I helped Stone clean his bowls and battered pot.  We ended up cleaning them with a bit of sand he had stuffed in a pouch in his saddlebag along the edge of the road.  Using water would have been easier, but given the majority of what we carried was for drinking, that wasn’t really an option.  As we worked, lightning flashed off in the distance, followed by the now familiar sound of thunder rumbling across the hills.  I prayed once more that Wild was correct and we’d manage to avoid the worst of that storm.  It seemed to have grown a bit more menacing throughout the day.  Then again, perhaps it was simply the darkness that added to it.  

With our task finished, we returned to the chariot and I bid my remaining friends a good night.  Settling down near the sky chariot, I pulled my saddlebags close and rested my head down upon them, using them as a makeshift pillow.  A rather lumpy pillow filled with shotgun shells.  At least I remembered to not use the side I stored my health potions in.  Rolling over onto my left side away from the fire, I attempted to make myself as comfortable as possible on the concrete and closed my eyes.  Thankfully, the day’s journey had worn me out and I began to feel sleep overtake me.



*     *     *     *     *



Slowly I began to wake, the feeling of life flowing back into my tired sore body, reminding me what I’d been through the past couple hours.  Something soft brushed against my mane and I could feel it yielding as I shifted my head upon it… a pillow?  Had somepony placed one beneath my head as I slept?  As more and more of my senses returned, I could feel soft sheets rubbing against my bare fur and a warm bed beneath me.  I was laying on my side, as I so often did while sleeping.  

Wait… where was I?  There’d been no real beds on the train… and with that thought, returned the memory of my last waking moment.  A zebra assassin who I’d thought dead rose up suddenly and shoved a weapon into my face.  I recalled staring down the barrel of the weapon… pain… than nothing at all…

Weakly, my eyes fluttered open and I blinked a couple times to bring the world into focus.  For a moment, I sat confused as to what I was staring at until the scene before me cleared itself.  Dim lighting was coming in from just to my right, motes of dust floating down a beam of sunlight behind which was a nearly bare white wall.  The white paint alongside the light was quite bright and I quickly shut my eyes.  I was stunned for the moment until I decided to try another look and inhaled a deep breath through my nose.  The scent of clean linens, freshly washed floors, and the almost overpowering smell of antiseptics entered my nostrils.  I snorted once, revealing a slight tight dryness to my throat… how long had I been sleeping?

Laying still for a moment to allow myself more time to awaken, I listened to the sounds coming from around me.  I could hear the steady beep of a nearby machine, the breathing of other ponies somewhere behind me, along with the muffled sounds of conversations beyond the wall my bed sat against.  There were more noises coming from what I assumed was another wall towards the foot of my bed.  It sounded like a good many ponies were walking past along a sidewalk.  There was also the creak of wagons as they rolled past in a street.  So… I was in a town somewhere… and in what I was now certain was a hospital room with other patents.  Had somepony else aboard the train been injured? 

With more confidence in my strength, I pushed myself slowly upright on the bed.  A bit too perfectly I admit to leave that soft pillow.  I once more opened my eyes, though more carefully this time and turned my head away from the light of the window.  As I scanned the room from left to right, I saw it was fairly large with a number of windows along the far wall from my bed.  All had shades that attempted to block out the bright rays of a morning sun.  Between the windows along the length of the room, sat more beds similar to my own.  Most appeared occupied with sleeping ponies, their brightly colored coats standing out against the white sheets and walls of the room.  

Some had very visible injuries, limbs in casts and held up by pullings to keep them from moving.  Machines also sat beside their beds, helping them with breathing or monitoring their hearts.  A few had white bandages around their heads and shoulders.  None seemed awake yet, either sleeping naturally or so heavily medicated that they simply could not wake up just yet.  At the sight of so many wounded, I flinched and wondered what must have happened to me.  A quick look beneath the sheets of my bed revealed no sign of injury there, which just left my…

With deep breath I lifted a forehoof up towards my face carefully searching for any bandages that might be wrapped about it.  I did not feel anything… in fact I felt no pain at all… but I hadn’t just been dropped off inside a hospital for nothing.  Despite the slight shaking of my hoof, I found nothing along my forehead and face… however as I ran it across my jaw I felt something that was not normally there.  

Lowering my hoof, I felt soft bandages wrapped around my neck and going under my jaw.  I carefully attempted to swallow, and almost at once felt as if something was constricting.  I fought back the urge to panic and, after a moment of fear, found that it wasn’t so much constricting as it was more tight.  It was if half my throat was blocked with something.  Well… that explained the tightness of my throat I suppose.  As my hoof continued to explore my neck I felt fear tightening within my chest… had I lost my voice?  How would I be able to eat?  Ears wilting atop my head, I fought back the urge to cry when somepony spoke.

“You will be fine, Isabella, please do not worry yourself too much.”  I’m not embarrassed to say I let out a rather foal-like meep of fright at the sudden deep voice coming from somewhere beside my bed.  Losing control of my limbs, I dropped back into bed.  I landed thankfully on my pillow and swore softly to myself.  “I am sorry, I did not mean to frighten you,” the voice spoke again and I realized I knew that voice. 

Shifting my eyes towards the source, I found myself looking towards the corner of the room near my bedside.  It was mostly hidden in shadows as the light from the windows had yet to reach it.  However, having been accustomed to the darkness over the past few days of sleepless nights, I could make out the shape of a pony sitting upon the floor.  Blinking rapidly, I brought my upper body upright once more.  Strands of my long grey mane fell into my face with the motion, but I ignored it as I opened my mouth to speak.  However, all that came out was a rasping cough which forced me once more back into my bed.  A moment passed as I attempted to get the cough under control, before a glass of water was pushed up against my muzzle, held in a large black hoof.  I opened my mouth and felt the cool glass touch my lips while the clear liquid flowed down my sore throat, offering much needed relief.  In my haste I began drinking faster, and once more the voice spoke up.

“Easy now, don’t want to choke yourself to death so soon after the doctors got you all patched up, do you?”  There was a hint of humor in his voice, along with something else.  Worry perhaps?  Most ponies would find that surprising for the imposing figure of Noctensis, a Lieutenant in the Night Guard.  He was a large mass of muscles, dark colors, and gleaming silver and purple armor.  While it was vastly different in color, material, and design to that worn by the more notable Royal Sun Guard, it was close enough to be clear that this was no normal pony.  Still, I knew Noctensis better.  Perhaps only because I’d gotten to know the pony behind the armor.  As the water began to drain from the glass, I took the opportunity to look into the face of the stallion standing beside my bed.

At first glance, one might mistake Noctensis for a typical pegasus stallion, albeit a very handsome one.  His coat, what you could see beneath his Guard armor, was a rich midnight black and normally was well brushed and cared for.  Though it looked a bit more messed up tonight… today?  He stood a good deal taller than your average stallion, even with his armored boots off.  His wind swept mane and tail were an equally dark color to his coat, a dark blue that bordered on black.  His cutie mark was one of the few spots of color upon his body and was that of a white circular shield.  Within it, a crescent moon sat between flared out leathery wings.  That was where the similarities to a typical pony ended, however, and the differences began.

The most noticeable thing one would see upon looking into Noctensis’ face was his eyes.  They were more cat like in appearance, with black slit pupils surrounded by a rich, vibrant yellow color.  In the darkness of the room, they almost seemed to glow.  Up until two years ago I’d never seen a pony with eyes quite like his.  The next thing somepony would notice about him was his larger than normal ears, with tufts of fur sticking up from their ends.  At the moment, they were laid back slightly in concern.  I rather liked his ears.  As if sensing me looking at them, they rose upright and peaked towards me.  It was followed a moment later by a small smile upon his large muzzle, a smile with a number of sharp fangs.  It was another difference Noctensis had from the average pony, one that most found far more unsettling than his eyes.  I admit, when I’d first meet him and others like him, the fangs had worried me as well.  They were the teeth of a predator.  But, like everything else about him, I’d become used to them and found myself wishing he’d smile more.  Something my oldest sister would have insisted upon, in fact.  The last major difference of the stallion before me was the limbs upon either side of his body that would normally mark him as a pegusi.  Unlike the feathered wings of a pegasus, however, they were the leathery wings of a dragon or a bat.  It was because of them that most ponies referred to his kind as ‘bat ponies’.  A name most of his kind had simply come to accept.  However, they were more properly known as negasi, the personal guards of her highness Princess Luna.

“Better?” Noctensis asked, once the last of the water had been drained from the glass and I finished swallowing.  Nodding my head, he sat the glass down upon the table beside my bed, one I hadn’t even noticed before.  Resting also upon it was his helmet, with it’s almost fin like crest casting odd shadows upon the wall behind it as the sunlight at last reached my bed.  The silver and purple armor still bore signs of recent combat, small specks of blood that I attempted to ignore.  

It was surprising he’d not cleaned it and the rest of his matching silver and purple guard armor yet.  Noctensis so rarely went anywhere without insuring it was properly taken care of.  The suit was quite old and had been worn by generations of his family in service to the Princess of the Night, and he was rightly proud of it.  I also noticed he no longer had his foreleg armor on, a fact blatantly evident earlier when he’d held the glass up for me.  The sharp claw like blades that had been affixed to the hoof armor would have been a bit awkward so near my face… not to mention what they were no doubt covered in...

“What… happened?” I asked after a moment of silence, and I’d been sure I wasn’t about to end up in another coughing fit.  At the question, I noticed his ears drop a bit.  He sat down beside the bed, placing his forehooves on the sheet beside me.

“In all of the confusion from the fighting, one of the wounded zebra pulled the body of one of the dead atop him to hide.  Most likely he was attempting to wait for us to lower our guard before he sprung up to renew his attack.  To what effort I’m not sure… a single zebra, while deadly, could do little to so many armed ponies,” Noctensis spoke, his eyes refusing to meet mine.  I suddenly realized he seemed to be blaming himself for what had happened.  I’d seen him do it before.  “I believe he thought once I’d left the car he could quickly dispatch some of you while everypony else was distracted,” he explained.  Something that the previous attacks had succeeded in doing given we had begun the journey with more than we currently had...

I well recalled a zebra suddenly standing up before me as I’d made my way towards the back of the train and the car holding our prisoner.  I’d wanted to ensure that none of them had gotten past us and into his car.  If they had, there was no telling the chaos that would have been unleashed aboard the train.  Far more than a single zebra strike team could hope to sow.  Like him, I’d thought all the zebra had been killed, but this one had survived and had all but shoved his weapon into my snout as he rose to his hooves.  The last thing I remembered clearly was staring in fear as he begun pulling the trigger… I should be dead.  I looked to my savior with confusion and he went on to explain.

 “I heard Midnight shout a warning behind me and turned to find a zebra already pointing his weapon at you… I hesitated for a moment before I reacted.  I flung one of my wing blades towards the back of his head.  The sudden impact threw off his aim and, as he fell forward, his neck lowered and the gun went off.  If I’d been a second too late… or too slow, the gun would have gone off while in your face and you’d be dead.” Noctensis’ head remained lowered.  “I haven’t frozen up like that in a long time… at least not since basic training.”

I blinked and lay there thinking about just how close I’d come to dying… I mean… I knew the risk was there.  Princess Luna had made those risks quite clear, and had made it clear it was not a royal decree.  She was not ordering me to take this assignment for her.  She simply asked me to… and how could you not say yes when one of your Princesses asked you for your help?  It’s not like this wasn’t my first brush with death either within the last three (four?) days.  Swallowing slowly, I realized I had a very permanent reminder of just how close I’d come to dying… if it hadn’t been for the stallion sitting beside me.  I looked down to my side, noticing he’d not moved from his spot with his head still held down.  

He blamed himself for letting me get hurt.  Despite my own fears, I felt the corners of my mouth pull back in a small smile and a bit of heat build up in my cheeks.  I lifted up a grey coated hoof and lay it gently atop the larger black one near my side.  His golden eyes shifted to look upwards at me, ears rising up from their lowered state.

“None of us noticed him, we were all caught by surprise.  It wasn’t your fault, Nocty,” I said softly, using the nickname I’d given him.  I smiled as I saw his tufted ears twitch to the name.  He’d taken the loss of every pony under his command somewhat personally, and had fought harder than most to protect those of us that remained.  I had also noticed how much more he risked himself whenever I had stumbled into danger.  Oddly it was due to this tendency that we’d even met.  “You do seem to keep saving my life… a mare could get used to that.” 

Noctensis lifted his head, eyes settling on mine.  He carefully twisted his hoof around to take ahold of mine and gave it a soft squeeze with the other.  The unhappy frown he had been wearing was soon replaced with a slight smile.  I suppose to some this might seem odd; such a large strong stallion, a member of Luna’s Royal Guard, looking so unsure of himself… but then I did know him a bit better than most.  Sitting up a bit more on his hindquarters, he leaned over the bed to bring his muzzle against the side of my cheek to place a soft kiss.  The warmth on my cheeks doubled and I chuckled softly, despite the slight pain it caused my throat.  All I wanted was to lay back in bed and return to sleep.  However, before I could relax fully, I needed a bit more information about what happened after I blacked out…

“How are the others?” I asked.

“They are well, only minor injuries save for Thunderwing… he was K.I.A. when Rubyheart got to him.”  I sighed softly at the mention of the dark blue pegasus’ death.  He’d been well liked by the rest of the squad, though I’d found his sense of humor a bit on the dirty side.  Something that most ponies in the military seemed to share if a few of the others were any judge.  Still, he’d been a good stallion.  I wondered how many more of us would die before this mission was over.  As if reading my mind, Noctensis spoke up again.  “I still wish you had said no to her Majesty’s request,” he whispered before kissing me again, a bit further up my snout.

“We’ve been over this, Nocty…” I answered softly, though I’d begun to believe he was right… this was no place for me.  I was no soldier, just a simple rock farmer.  Granted my sister was well placed… but that hardly meant I was anything like her.  There were few ponies quite like my sister.  Thank the Princesses for that.  This of course still left me with no clear reason why I, of all ponies, would be called before the Princess of the Night… or why she’d ask me to go on this mission.

“I know… I know,” he responded.  He sighed softly, his warm breath blowing across my neck and shoulders causing me to shudder a bit at more happy memories and times.  

“What about the prisoner?” I asked, attempting to keep my mind on track less it dissolved into other thoughts… later perhaps… it had been sometime after all.

“We’re preparing to transport him to a secure room within town while the train is refueled and repaired.  The stripes struck the engine  before paying us a visit, killed the engineer and her assistant before damaging the boiler.  Luckily there was enough pressure left in the tank for us to reach Tombstone,” he explained before glancing to the wall behind me.  Turning my head just enough, I spotted a clock positioned just above a doorway.  “In fact, it’s due to take place within the hour.  I better get going if I’m going to lead the patrol.”  Giving my cheek a final nuzzle, he leaned back to fully stand up.

“You’re going to be released in a few hours, I’ll return then.  Midnight has gotten us all rooms at one of the local taverns so I’ll help you back to them,” he said as I rested my head back atop the pillow and stared at the ceiling.  I nodded my head once and listened to him as he picked up his helmet from the nightstand and began to fasten it back atop his head.  Afterwards, he leaned over and placed his lips over mine.  I returned the kiss with a pleased little murmur.  He pulled away, less the kiss turned into something more.  “I’ll see you shortly.”  He smiled, revealing his sharp fangs before trotting off towards the door.  

For a moment I mulled over  the possibility of simply going back to sleep, but I doubted I could so easily drift back off now.  Not after that kiss… and not while the possibility of something happening with the prisoner loomed within my mind.  So instead, I sunk back into my bed and waited for either word of how the transfer went or for my release from the hospital.

After thirty minutes of laying beneath the sheets of my bed, I began to hear a commotion from beyond the windows.  Curious, I shifted a bit to see what was going on.  By now, a few of my fellow patients had awoken.  Those nearest the windows, and those who could stand on their own, pushed the shades away.  Outside was a simple looking dirt road with buildings, which would not be out of place in a western, lining it on either side.  Wagons were parked to either side of the road and a number of ponies stood on the sidewalk.  Locals by the look of them, all watching something beyond the windows’ field of view.

Noctensis stepped from beyond the window frame, trotting into the street with his leathery wings tucked to his sides.  His purple and blue guard armor gleamed in the light of a midday sun.  I noticed his golden eyes squint as he scanned the street ahead.  Though they could tolerate it, negasi still were not big fans of sunlight.  He’d once told me it hurt their eyes, which were much more suited to the dim light of the moon and the darkness of the night.  Behind him came the rest of the squad, weapons drawn but pointed towards the ground.  Mixed among them were army regulars and local law enforcement… it seemed Noc was taking no chances with this. 

As the others within the hospital room began to talk, I saw Hardrock stepping into sight.  A harness was across his shoulders and his beloved battle-saddle mounted machine gun vacant.  The large earth pony hardly seemed troubled by the wagon he pulled on his own, despite the heavy load in the back.  My eyes then shifted from the large stallion to the contents of the wagon he was pulling along the street.  Siting within the back was our prisoner.  Or rather, the tall metal box he was being shipped within.  It was bullet proof, a fact that was proven at our last stop, and had a number of magical wards to keep anypony or zebra from getting inside quickly.  They were not infallible, and could be dispelled if given enough time and an individual with the knowledge to do so.

Once it had passed the windows, I noticed the little convoy of ponies turning down the street, heading towards one of the buildings along it.  When it rolled to a stop outside a bank, I arched a brow and rubbed a fore hoof along my bandaged neck.  Were they… were they seriously going to just lock him up inside the vault?  Did the bank even have a vault?  As I sat watching, Noc give a quick glance to the rest of the group before breaking away to trot inside the bank… they were, weren't they?  I suppose it was likely the only real secure place within the small town… but I’d thought Princess Luna had been planning this for a year now.  Surely she would have planned for something like this?

Over the course of the next hour, Noc and the remaining members of our team began assisting with the unloading of the heavy metal crate.  The group’s unicorns’ horns were flaring to life as they levitated it as best they could.  Yet another ward written across the iron sides of the container were there to resist unicorns from doing just that.  In case there were any assisting the zebras in their attempts to capture the prisoner.  At best all a unicorn could do was lighten the box, but it would float no more than a couple inches off the ground.  After a sudden fright when Hardrock’s hoofs busted through the wooden sidewalk and the box nearly toppled atop him, they managed to pony-handle it into the bank and out of sight.  I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and sat back against my pillow.  While trouble could still threaten them within the bank, it was at least enclosed.  Noc had explained to me at the beginning of this trip the many hazards of being out in the open.

Little else happened over the next hour and a half beyond the wagon being pulled away.  The crowd also began to disperse when it was clear nothing exciting was about to happen.  It was during this time that one of the nurses entered the room.  She had come to tell me that I was going to be released soon due to them needing the bed for a more critically wounded pony.  It seemed the zebras had begun a new offensive down south and all the local towns were being sent the wounded.  After a few minutes of getting myself up right, I followed her out into the hallway and down to an examination room where a doctor would check me over one last time.  

The check-up went quickly, likely due to the knowledge that in a minute several sky chariots would be landing nearby to drop off the wounded soldiers.  The doctor told me what I already knew, that I had been incredibly lucky.  Any closer to my windpipe and I might not have survived the trip into town.  Any lower and I would have completely lost my voice.  He prescribed some medicine for me to take and told me to try and get some rest… something I highly doubted would happen given the group’s mission, but I nodded anyway and thanked him for his help.  Once more, the nurse arrived and dropped off what little personal effects I’d had on when I arrived; my ill fitting uniform and armor, as well as my sidearm which I vowed to become more familiar with.

Noc arrived twenty minutes later as I was signing the last of the release forms, his helmet tucked under one wing.  He thanked the nurses working the front desk for seeing to me and we trotted for the exit.  The bright afternoon sun caused me to squint a bit as we stepped outside.  Noc chuckled softly beside me, teasing me about hanging around him too much and becoming such a night owl.  I snorted and started to shove him away when a bit of dizziness overcame me.  Luckily, he steadied me with a hoof before draping a leathery wing across my back to keep me close.

With his help, we crossed the dry packed dirt street and stepped up onto the wooden sidewalk along the other side.  I glanced into one of the windows of the bank as we passed, thinking how odd the stone columns along the front wall looked within the western town.  Inside, I saw a number of ponies waiting in line at the teller windows.  Several others seemed to be trying to get a look behind it at the large steel vault door.

“Don’t worry, he’s safely tucked away for the next twenty four hours,” Noc said beside me.  I nodded my head, looking away from the windows to the sidewalk ahead.  So, we’d be laid up for a day as the train was repaired and a replacement crew was located.  I suppose that wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought… the longer we stayed in one place though, the more attacks we could expect to suffer.  I glanced across the street at a young mare and two fillies following behind her, before looking away… yes, the sooner we got moving the better… for everypony.  I noticed we’d apparently reached our destination and looked up to the sign above the door.

“The Drunken Mare… really?  A saloon?”  My eyes shifted from the wooden sign hanging above us to the stallion beside me who smiled sheepishly down to me.  “Wait… this was Berry Punch’s doing, wasn’t it?” I asked, though I already knew the answer and groaned as we trotted inside.  The mare in question was already drinking a couple locals under the table.  Beside her, Midnight and the others were enjoying themselves.  The dark colored unicorn waved a hoof towards me to come join them.  Noc, however, came to my rescue before I could get pulled over towards them.  Although, given his choice of words, I wasn’t so sure rescue was the correct term.

“Sorry, but Doc said she’s got to take it easy.  She’s going to spend the next couple hours in bed.”  At that, the mares in our group all looked at one another before grinning and giving me playful winks.  

I groaned and facehoofed as gently as possible.  Noc looked at the mares in confusion, before he realized what he’d just said, resulting in a drawn out grunt.  Before the winks and whistles could grow to anything else, the large winged stallion pulled me towards the stairs and helped me up them as quickly as I was able.  Once we’d reached the second floor, it was a short quick trip down the hallway and into one of the many rooms along it.  It looked about how you’d expect a motel room to look: a medium sized bed, a dresser, and a mirror with a small cabinet in one corner of the room.  A window with closed curtains was in the middle wall opposite the doorway and allowed a bit of light to spill into the room.  Oddly it reminded me of my foalhood room, and I smiled at the fond memories.

Noc moved past me as he closed the door, placing my equipment upon the dresser before sitting his helmet beside them.  As he did, I made my own way towards the bed.  He’d been correct about getting some rest for a couple hours… whatever they had me on when I’d been unconscious was still making me a bit unsteady on my hooves.  I had almost reached the soft looking blankets when one of my fore legs gave out from under me and I stumbled a bit.  

A black foreleg, the hoof covered with silver armor, caught me before I ended up in the floor and another steadied me.  Once more I found myself pressing against Noc’s side and his muzzle pressing close to my cheek.  Looking to my right, I met the stallion’s golden orbs and blinked once.  As my breathing rose, I suddenly had a feeling the doctor’s request for me to take it easy was going to be for nothing.  Closing my eyes, I leaned towards his muzzle, feeling his lips pressing into mine…



*     *     *     *     *



With a start, my eyes snapped open and my forelegs flailed about above me for a moment before I realized where I was.  Thankfully, instead of staring into the golden eyes of a batwinged stallion as he was leaning down to kiss me, I was looking up at a familiar overcast grey sky.  I released a relieved sigh and rested my head back against my saddlebags before I arched a brow slightly.  Wait… was I actually happy to be back in the Wasteland rather than dreaming about making out with another stallion?  Even if I was a mare in the dream... and he was sorta cute as she’d said.  Once more, I blinked and slapped my fore hooves over my eyes.

Really brain… you, too?  It’s not bad enough I have to put up with Wild’s constant ribbing about my sex life, but now you're getting in on the action?  Oh fuck, wrong choice of words.  Also… what was up with these dreams?  It was the second time I’d dreamed of those ponies… and it also seemed as if the two were connected… odd...

Letting my forelegs drop back down to my chest, I let out a snort of frustration and rolled over onto my side.  Figuring out my odd dreams could wait till later.  For now, it was time to get up.  With a tired groan, I began to sit upright, ears wilting as I heard the cracks and pops coming from my back and shoulders.  Well… I suppose I learned a valuable lesson today.  

Dear Wasteland, a cracked hundred and fifty year old highway was not the best thing to sleep on.  Your as of yet unkilled wanderer, Shadow.  

All complaining aside from both body and mind, I did feel amazingly rested.  It seemed as if I’d gotten a full night’s sleep.  Looking to my Pipbuck’s clock, I noticed it was well past six in the morning… I’d slept through my turn at watch.  Why hadn’t Stone or one of the others gotten me up?  My ears soon began to pick up more than just the pops of my bones from my right and I looked up from my clock.  Behind me, ponies were waking up, getting breakfast ready and foals up from their beds.  I also heard the creaks and groans of our aged wagons as ponies began to replace their bedrolls.  The sound of flapping wings and the clatter of hooves alerted me that Wild had arrived.  I looked away from the waking camp, over to my pegasus friend.  

The bright orange mare stood a few steps away, ears perked towards me along with her stormy blue eyes.  Her wings flexed themselves once more before folding neatly to her sides as she sat down where she landed.  Most telling about her mood at present was the wide grin she was wearing.  Oh good… she’s already grinning… Celestia forbid the day start out without some ribbing from my friend.  I was about to ask why they’d let me sleep in until she spoke first.

“So… it does work I see.  Hmm… seems the rumors the mares in my old unit told me were true.  Earth ponies are really better equipped than pegasi.  All the while I thought it was just my Stone,” she said simply, grin widening a bit as she added, “Maybe that’s why so many go Dashite.”

What?  My mind went blank for several seconds as it attempted to process what my oddball friend just said.  I blinked several times when nothing came up and shook my head in confusion.  “Wild… ugh… it’s too damned early to be so confusing.  What the hell are you talking about?” I asked as I began to stand up.  When I did, something came to my attention with the sudden movements, it felt as if something had become stuck to my lower body.  I glanced down to see if I had become entangled with somethi… OH… SHIT.

With a squeak of surprise, I quickly sat back down on the pavement (wincing as I did) and placed my forelegs in front of myself.  As if things weren’t bad enough, I noticed that Wild wasn’t the only one to spot my display.  A pair of guard mares near the eastern facing wagons were looking more at me than at the the road.  I blushed and glared at the pegasus across from me.  Sadly, Wild ignored my attempts to make her burst into flames and appeared about ready to lose it.  Her wings unfolded from her sides as her shoulders shook with barely contained laughter.  Just then, Stone arrived to make things all the more awkward.

“Bout time ya woke up,” my friend said as he trotted past Wild, giving the mare a kiss on the cheek.  He paused when he noticed how she’s acting and arched a brow.  “What’s gotten into ya?” he asked, to which she snickered and I groaned in response.  With a shake of his head, the large earth pony moved over beside the still warm embers.  He began picking up his saddlebags from the ground, glancing over to me.  “Well, don’t just sit there, Shadow.  We got another long day ahead of us, it’s time ta get up.”

“Oh… hehe… don’t worry Stone... most of him already is,” she managed to say between snickers before falling over onto her back with laughter, hooves kicking up at the sky.  Stone, for his part, simply cocked his head and looked back and forth between us.

Why me?  I sighed and shook my head, ignoring Wild for the moment.  I looked over to Stone, who thankfully hadn’t caught onto Wild’s hints.  “Stone, why didn’t you wake me last night after your turn at watch?” I asked, while at the same time thinking of things to calm parts of me down.

“Wasn’t much need for ya ta take a turn at watch, what with all th’ ponies we got around willin’ ta lend a hoof,” my large friend said as he began strapping his saddlebags in place.  “Plus, ya tend ta push yerself a bit ta hard.  Noticed it while we were travelin’ out ta San Ponsisco th’ first time.  Figured ya could use th’ rest while we got th’ chance at it.”

“I appreciate your concern, Stone, really I do… but I don’t want somepony else doing what I can do myself.  It just doesn’t feel right,” I responded, ears twitching as I noticed Wild had gone silent.  Perhaps she’d gotten it out of her system.  “These ponies need just as much rest as I do.  More so I think, given what they’ve had to endure for the past two days or more.”

“Yer right, oh course, but it was a couple of them that asked ta take yer turn at watch.  Said it was th’ least they could do ta repay ya for all yer doin’ for’em.” I arched a brow to his words and glanced over to the camp.  A few of the ponies going about their breakfasts waved towards us when they saw me looking.  “Yer shapin’ up ta be a hero in most of their eyes Ah reckon.  It ain’t just th’ young foals who think so.”  The tone my friend’s voice took as he spoke that last bit caused me to look back towards him, both brows arched.  “Yer my friend, Shadow.  Almost more like th’ brother Ah lost if’n Ah’m honest with ya.  Ah respect ya a good deal for what ya done and what yer doin’ now.”

“Stone… I don’t know what to say…”  I never got a chance to figure out what I could say as the sound of laughter from above me caught my ears.  Tilting my head backwards, I looked up and spotted a rather dark looking cloud hovering only a few feet above me and Wild’s grinning orange face poking out from the side of it.  

“Since there’s not enough time for you to put that to good use, and since walking with five legs will slow you down and be a bit uncomfortable, I found something to fix that ‘problem’,” she said, using her wings for air quotes.  I barely had time to figure out what she was up to when she gave a little hop off the top of the cloud and slammed her hooves back onto it.  With a rumble of thunder, the cloud opened up and poured its’ payload of very cold water onto me.

“There… allll better!” she sing songed as she stood atop the now mostly white cloud.  

I sat there on the now damp pavement with my mane plastered to my face and neck.  My stable jumpsuit clinging to my body and water dripped off my muzzle.  Wild took a close look and began (you guessed it) laughing her plot off, falling back upon the cloud to roll around.  A few nearby ponies looked over to see what was going on and began snickering a bit themselves.  Even Stone was fighting a losing battle to keep from laughing directly in my face.  Et tu, Stone?

“Oh… it… hehe… it isn’t that bad… hehehe… besides, a few more rads… won’t kill you!” Wild snickered as she hopped off the cloud to sail down to the ground beside Stone.   

Once I had been suitably embarrassed by my friends, in front of everypony within earshot of Wild or eye sight of me when I’d stood up earlier and with my personal problem seen to thanks to the sudden cold shower, I trotted on.  After they had laughed themselves silly, the three of us set about getting the sky chariot ready for another long patrol after a quick breakfast.  Thankfully I’d managed to dry off by the time we’d finished, getting a bit of revenge on the orange mare by shaking myself off near her once she’d settled in.  There wasn’t a whole lot to reload the chariot with, luckily, and we would be finished in only a couple minutes… that is, if Wild could have stopped snickering whenever she looked my way. 

Behind and to either side of us, the ponies we were escorting were doing much the same with their own wagons.  Tossing saddlebags, bedrolls, and other items back into the transports as the elderly and wounded were more carefully helped up inside.  Smoldering fires were put out with buckets of ash retrieved from the roadside, and teams began harnessing himself back into place.  

Among the ponies there, I spotted Fiona.  The doctor was moving away from one of the wagons and towards the next.  Beside her was the unmistakable form of Spirit.  The buffalo towered over the smaller town doctor and those ponies around her.  The pair were making a quick  last minute check of the wounded scattered about the caravan, to ensure that they were well before we set off on the road.  Behind them, I saw the bouncing manes and tails of Fiona’s two young foals along with a number of other children from among the caravan all taking one final chance to play.  A blue rubber ball with yellow stars and lightning bolts was being tossed between them, and the sounds of their laughter was easily heard over the preparations to leave.  It was good to see and hear, after the horrors the young ponies had witnessed over the past several days.  Their laughter was bringing a few smiles to the ponies around them. 

Returning to the task at hoof, I walked over beside the cooling embers of our fire and began picking up the last of the supplies Stone had removed from the chariot the night before.  Despite my thoughts to the contrary, he actually couldn’t fit everything into his saddlebags.  Though I had not seen the battered pot and bowls since he’d cleaned them last night.  Wrapping my teeth about the wooden handle of the box, I lifted it up and balanced it upon my back, the canned food within rattling a bit as I walked.  

As I was carrying the box of supplies back towards the chariot, my ears perked towards the the rumbling sound of thunder.  The cacophony silenced most of the conversations going on among the others.  Ponies stopped what they were doing and glanced skyward, even Fiona and Spirit paused in their rounds to stare up at the sky.  The normally thick layer of grey clouds were beginning to be replaced by far more ominous black ones, seeming to boil with energy above us.  These dark storm clouds lit up the dim morning with sparks of bright white and blue bolts of lighting.  They seemed content to stay within the air… for now.  Luckily for us, the storm had not overtaken us as we slept.  Unluckily for us, it showed no signs of dying out or passing us by.   

“I wouldn’t worry about it, we should almost be to Janesville by the time the weather turns ugly,” Wild called out from the front of the chariot.  She was checking over the flight harness for any tears or defects.  “Besides, you know better than anypony else that a little cold rain water won’t kill you.” 

I could sense the grin on her face as I set the box onto the floor of the chariot.  With a snort and roll of my eyes, I shoved the box back inside the chariot with a fore hoof.  Perhaps a bit harder than I needed by the sounds of cans rattling against one another.  I wasn’t overly worried about them, however.  Those cans of food had withstood a balefire bomb and years of neglect and rough handling as they were sold and moved from place to place by wasteland ponies.  A bit of jostling wouldn’t bother them any.  Though, come to think of it, should we really be eating something like that?  

Before I could ponder the health risks of hundred and fifty year old canned food, I caught the steady clop of hooves approaching from behind me.  By the sounds of it, it was more than a single pony.  Looking back, I saw Balefire and Carrion approaching the sky chariot.  Both stallions were glancing occasionally to the rumbling sky above them.

“Good morning everypony, did you guys sleep well?” Balefire called out as I turned to face them.

“Well enough.  Although it seems some ponies neglected to wake me up for my turn at watch,” I responded with a playful frown towards Stone.  My earth pony friend snorted and shook his head before I rounded back on the young pony before me, giving him a playful glare.

“Uhh… yeah…” was all the dark green unicorn could say.  He smiled towards me as he rubbed the back of his head with a foreleg, ears lowered in worry.  “At least you seem well rested,” he finally got out, his smile cracking a bit as he looked up to me.  Beside him, Carrion snorted and took the opening of the sudden silence allowed to speak up.

“The path ahead is clear,” he said, before the current conversation can go continue.  “I managed to climb one of the hills further down the road and got a good view of what we’re walking into.  There are a few spots where sinkholes have appeared and swallowed up one side of the highway, but it appears to have left the other half of the road intact.  If it turns out too unstable to pull the wagons across, the ground is level with the road and we can easily go around them.  I checked with Spirit and she said we have enough Radaway for the detour if needed.  Beyond that, we should be good for the several miles.”

“Oh well, maybe a few more rads will kill you,” Wild called out from the front of the chariot.  The winged mare stepped away from the flight harness to look between Carrion and myself, grinning as always.  “Sorry bout that, Shadow… but they say cleanliness is next to godliness.”  As I leveled a stare at her, she chuckled and went on, “Carrion’s right though.  I did my own quick reconnaissance flight around the forest and saw little to no trouble us beyond what he mentioned.  I did see something just over the next ridge, however, outside his field of view... could be a rock slide or just a couple fallen trees.  Afraid I couldn’t really tell for sure what it was and if I went much higher, I’d likely have attracted some unwanted attention.”

“Th’ Enclave’s th’ last thin’ we need troublin’ us,” Stone added from nearby.

“What about behind us?” I asked, agreeing with Stone.  While I’d not seen this Enclave that Wild had told me about… I trusted her opinion on them.  They seemed like bad news, and Celestia knew we had enough of that.
 
“Clear as far as I could tell, but there were a number of places I couldn’t see the road clearly.  There could be a group of raiders following us hidden by all the hills and valleys.”  Hmm… that didn’t bode well at all.  It seemed everypony around me agreed, judging by their looks.  I snorted softly and reached over to my saddlebags to begin pulling them up and across my back.

“We should assume we’re being followed and get moving as quickly as possible,” Carrion replied, the ghoul saying what everypony else was fearing.  As he spoke, his ears flicked back against his old army flak helmet.  “The raiders could just as easily be cutting across the forest instead of taking the road.  Yeah, the radiation would kill them eventually, but they don’t often think in the long term.”

“Carrion’s right, th’ raiders will likely be chompin’ at th’ bit to get ta these ponies,” Stone added once more, glancing back the way we came.  “If they think they’ve gotta better chance at catchin’ us by comin’ in straight, then they’ll do it.”

“Agreed, the sooner we get moving the better.  As soon as Longstreak arrives, I’d like you three to get back up in the sky.  Keep a close eye behind us, in case the raiders are closer than we think,” I said after tightening my saddlebags buckles in place.  I looked from Wild to Carrion and Balefire.  “Since they’ll be focusing on our backsides, we’d better get a few more ponies to help scout ahead with the three of us.  I’ll go speak with Silver and Jackhammer while the others get themselves ready to go and inform them on our fears.  I’ll see who they suggest to join us as well.”

Once the last of the supplies were settled into the chariot, I departed quickly to search for Silver and Jackhammer among the crowd.  I set my first stop for their wagon located at the front of the convoy.  Given how most ponies were all ready to get moving, it seemed the best course of action.  I’d passed three wagons before I spotted Longstreak and Tink walking towards me.  The young mare smiled as she saw me and the older stallion nodded his head in greeting.

“Good morning, Marshall, how are you today?” the young earth pony asked, sounding far more chipper than she had the day before.  I suppose a good night’s rest and getting some old world tech to tinker with could put a smile on anypony’s face.  Well, anypony with a love for technical things as she seemed to have.  Me?  I’d be happy to just be seeing Sugar off to school once I returned home.

“Doing about as well as one can expect having slept on the road,” I answered with a light snort and smile given to the pair.  “I was just heading out to look for Silver and your grandfather, Tink.  Are they still up front?” I asked the mare as she came to a halt before me.  Longstreak simply trotted on past, likely to join Wild and Stone.  Good… the sooner they got airborne, the better I’d feel knowing we had eyes in the sky.

“Yeah, Silver’s dead set on staying up front where she can keep an eye on the ponies behind here,” Tink answered, head turning to glance back the way she’d just came.  As I followed her gaze, I spotted the grey mare in question standing atop her wagon.  She was speaking with a number of gathered ponies and helping her wounded sister up inside the transport.  “Despite Grandpa’s warnings about her staying closer to the back.  I think both of them were talking about coming to look for you… at least until I mentioned I was going to come ask you something…”

“Leading from the front is all well and good, but leading from the front is what got our previous leaders killed,” a unicorn mare said from beside the wagon Tink and I had stopped near.  Looking over, I noticed she was one of the armored guards Silver had under her command.  Her armor was badly dented and she’d likely been in the thick of the early fighting through Old Oaks.  Her rifle was in bad shape as well, but appeared serviceable.  Beside me, Tink seemed ready to say something, even getting so far as to open her mouth.  However, she hesitated and quickly shut it as she realized that what the other mare had said was true.

“I’ve read enough military strategy books that point out the foolishness of leaders being up near the fighting.”  As I spoke, I nodded my head to the unicorn as she checked over another mare who was getting strapped into the harness of the wagon.  “However, given our current situation, I doubt there’s really any place safe for anypony.  Better she’s up front inspiring the ponies that follow her than seen hiding in the middle.”

“A… fair point,” the unnamed unicorn said.  Her horn glowed a light blue as she lifted her rifle up from the ground where she’d laid it against the wagon’s wheel.

“Isn’t that how you fight, Marshall?” Tink asked, bringing my attention back to the orange coated mare.  I chuckled at the question, having a good idea where she got it from.

“Oh?  Heard that from Three Horns I take it?” I asked.  She nodded in response before hurriedly adding more.

“Yeah.  Balefire was telling me a couple stories about the fights you and your friends have gotten into.”

“Hopefully he hasn’t gotten as colorful in describing my exploits as Wild has…”  I rolled my eyes and earned a small chuckle from the gathered mares.  “I suppose some of what they say is true and that I do lead from the front.  Celestia’s horn, I’ve gotten shot up enough to tell me it’s a horrible idea.  Now… I believe you mentioned wanting to ask me something?” I asked, head tilted to the side as she suddenly looked from me to the ground between us.  She kicked her left fore hoof against the pavement as she did so.  Wait… this reminded me of Sugar when she’s about to ask me for extra frosting on her cupcakes…

“Well… I was just sorta wondering if… well, if I could maybe ride in the sky chariot with the others today?” she asked at last, doing a damn good impression of Sugar’s puppy dog eyes as she looked back up to me.

“Well… I think that’s a question best asked of Wild, as she’s the one doing all the flying and pulling.  Still, I doubt she’d object much.”  Tink perked back up and gave me a hopeful smile as she looked from me to the black armored chariot.  I glanced back and noticed Balefire looking our way, the young stallion smiling and waving to Tink.  The orange mare only half waved back towards the stallion, seeming almost oblivious to the grin he gave her when she responded.  Her focus was more on the large machine behind him.  “Just make sure Balefire knows I need him to stay on the ground with Carrion,” I added hastily before she started walking away.  Knowing Bale, he’d likely try and get aboard with the mare.  While Wild had hauled us all across the Wasteland to reach Old Oaks, I didn’t want her pulling more ponies than she needed.  Especially if we got into a fight.

“Alright, sure thing, Marshall,” Tink said, and hurriedly ran off as Long and Stone begin climbing inside the passenger compartment.  

As I sat and watched, I saw her rush up towards the front of the chariot where Wild was finishing the last checks of the harness and helmet she wore.  The orange pegasus’ ears perked towards the orange earth pony as she pointed a hoof back towards me and then to the chariot.  As I expected, Wild seemed to laugh at something and nodded her head towards the open door.  With a pleased shout I could hear from where I was, Tink jumped up and trotted happily back towards the chariot.  Balefire, who had been watching near the back beside Carrion, suddenly seemed more interested in the pony entering the chariot than in the ghoul speaking to him still.  Upon noticing he had lost Balefire’s attention, the old unicorn rolled his glowing orange eyes and let out a heavy breath.

“It would seem Balefire has become quite focused on that mare.  If the world had not already ended, I would believe it to be a sign of such things to come,” Spirit said from behind me.  I turned to see the smiling face of my buffalo friend as she walked towards me from further down the line.  There was no sign of Fiona, so I assumed she had stopped to help another pony.

“I would tend to agree, Spirit,” I responded and turned around to face her as she brought a family of four along behind her.  A single earth pony mare and three young fillies all around Sugar’s age.  

The mother was wounded, one foreleg wrapped heavily in what appeared to be bed sheets.  Thankfully the fillies seemed unharmed, though worried for their mother.  Movement to the side caught my attention and I glanced over to see the two stallions pulling the wagon beside me, looking across their shoulders towards the group.  The tall, skinny dark-yellow unicorn bore similar features to that of the three foals… the father perhaps?  The other unicorn beside him was younger and also bore some striking resemblance to the older pony, so perhaps he was his son.  I found myself rather hopeful that they were all one family.  It would mean the slim possibility that at least one survived Old Oaks without losing anypony close to them.

“I trust we will be on our way soon?” Spirit asked.  She reached up a hoof to unlatch the tailgate of the wagon, letting the wooden door drop down to swing below the bed.  As she did, one of the fillies, the oldest, leapt up into the back of the wagon and scurried up towards the front to greet who was indeed her father.  The two youngest, meanwhile, seemed to be having some trouble with getting inside.  Spirit seemed torn between tending for the mother or helping the foals.

“Soon, I was just on my way to speak with Silver about that.  Wild should be getting airborne as well, to keep an eye on us as we sit here,” I answered, stepping forward to help the tired looking buffalo.  I wondered if she’d even gotten any sleep last night, between caring for everypony else.  The two fillies looked up and smiled when they saw my badge, though seemed to shy to ask any questions like Fiona’s children had.  I gently lifted one and then the other into the back of the wagon, where they scurried off to greet their father up front.

“Good.  While we have enough Radaway to last us beyond the trip, I would still rather not risk it,” Spirit continued as she checked the mother’s bandages and frowned.  She’d likely want to change them, seeing how dirty they had become.  However, like everything else she had, bandages were limited.

“Well, if things go as well as they did yesterday, we should make good time towards Janesville.  Wild and Stone both agree we have at least another full day of travel before we reach the town,” I said as the three fillies all came climbing across the wagon’s contents to look down at their mother.  “In fact I should get going.  I still need to speak with Silver before we start moving again.”  Spirit merely nodded her horned head towards me as she treated the mother and I turned to go.  I suppose I should have know better… you do not tempt fate in the Wasteland… she was a real bitch after all.

I had barely taken a half dozen steps away from Spirit, and was just coming abreast of the two stallions pulling the wagon, when the ground between us exploded in a shower of smoking concrete and ash.  Sharp bits of stone pelted my armored upper body and protected me from the worst of it.  The stallions, however, were wearing much more basic armor and were cut a number of times.  Thankfully nothing life threatening though.  However, the sudden explosion caused them to panic a bit and back away, pushing their wagon into the group behind them.  The three young fillies, watching their mother from within the wagon, let out screams of fear and ducked back inside.  The move likely saved their lives as bits of stone impacted the wooden sides of their cover.  At the back of the wagon, Spirit threw herself over the wounded mare.

“AMBUSH!!!” somepony behind us yelled.  I snapped my head back to see where the fire was coming from.  It took me only a second to spot the two groups of raiders, sitting atop one of the bigger tree’s branches and reloading a pair of rocket launchers.  The spike-armored monsters were grinning like jackals down towards us.  I narrowed my eyes upon them.  The hell they were killing anypony else… I whirled back to the stallions, who were beginning to collect themselves, and slammed a fore hoof into the pavement.  

“They’re behind us!!  We’ve got to get out of here!!” one of the ponies behind us yelled out, clearly frightened at the thought of just standing still in the center of a highway.  A couple wagons ahead, I could hear Silver’s voice calling out for calm, and to get everypony loaded up.

“Alright everypony, stay calm and don’t panic!  Let’s get everypony into their wagons as quickly as we can!  It’ll take them a few minutes to reload those old war launchers so let’s make use of that time!  When Silver’s wagon starts moving, follow it!  Jackhammer knows the way out!” I yelled out for those who hadn’t heard Silver’s shouted commands over the rising sounds of fear.  Despite our calming words, it was clear we were seconds from full blown panic.  The pullers, whose wagons were full, attempted to get them out of range of the pony portable heavy weapon.  Those behind the wagon I was near were looking ready to go around.  The stallions had recovered and were pawing at the pavement, ready to get underway, but there was a problem.

“Hurry, get inside!” Spirit called out from behind me.  I turned as she finished helping push the wounded mare she’d been caring for back into the wagon beside her foals.  The three young ponies were crying loudly for their mother.  The second that the amber colored mare dropped in beside them, she was wrapped in three sets of small hooves.  The wagon was beginning to pick up speed when something zipped past my face and impacted the back of it.  Small bits of wood flew out from where a round had struck the tailgate, thankfully stopping it before it could strike one of the ponies huddling inside.  Another struck near my hooves, helpfully pointing out that we had more than a couple of raiders with a rocket launchers to worry about.

As another of the wagons began moving around us, I saw more raiders coming up the roadway.  Their mix of ill-cared weapons fired blindly at anything that moved, or simply in the air for the hell of it.  How’d they get so close without somepony spotting them?  They were less than two hundred feet from us and were charging straight towards the caravan.  They thought we were an easy target.  Well, they were about to find out how wrong they were.  Through the rising cloud of ash being kicked up by their hooves, I saw something flash between the press of spiked armored bodies that froze me in my tracks...a blue and yellow jumpsuit… worn by ponies from my Stable (and perhaps all Stables).  

For a moment, I thought I even saw the number forty five crudely written upon a blood covered shoulder pad which itself looked close to the type of riot armor we used.  Were these some of the same raiders who had attacked my former home?  At the thought of these… monsters wearing armor taken from the bodies of my former security ponies… my friends... these same bastards who had killed my sister.  I felt my anger rising at what had been done to her and everypony else I’d known.  I stepped forward as another wagon roared past. 

I heard somepony behind me call out my name, but I ignored them as I began advancing towards the raiders, Luna’s Ruse coming up to my mouth.  My teeth had barely closed around the firing bit of my weapon before I squeezed the trigger and felt the shotgun recoil back into my mouth.  The solid round screamed as it flew from the barrel and across the open highway.  The long range of the shot robbed the slug of much of its force.  However, it managed to slam into the chest of a raider near where I’d seen the blue and yellow.  While it lacked the full force, it still sent the hapless stallion back onto his ass, blood gushing from the hoof sized hole I’d just put into his upper chest. 

A few rounds zipped past my body as I fired again, the heavy roar of Luna’s Ruse drowning out the shouts coming from behind me.  The slug struck another raider in the foreleg, knocking him down onto the pavement but not killing him outright.  The hobbled stallion began to rise back up, his horn flaring golden magic as he lifted his rifle towards me, intent on taking me with him.  A second round ripped into his other shoulder, sending him fully to the ground.  

As I looked for another target, the rage I’d felt began to ease a bit, allowing me to notice a raider wielding a zebra made assault rifle near the middle of the herd.  He was doing a poor job of hitting anything, but with the amount of ammo he was spewing it was only a matter of time.  I had just tightened my grip upon the trigger in my mouth when the raider’s body jerked back suddenly and tumbled to the pavement.  Fresh blood spurted from a large wound in his side.  Another beside him flailed helplessly as rounds tore into his exposed hide, ignoring the crude armor he wore and sending him to the ground atop the first.  

Wild and her sky chariot raced past overhead, the mare’s battle-saddle weapons roaring to life once more as she unloaded upon the raiders running along the roadway.  In one doorway, Stone sat braced against the frame.  His rifle was held up as he snapped off a rapid shot, downing another raider.  In the other door I spotted Longstreak, his own rifle raised as he fired off two quick shots into the mass of raiders below and sending at least one stumbling to the ground.  I was about to fire once more when I heard somepony yell out my name again and I paused to look back.

“Shadow!!”  It was Carrion’s voice and, after a moment, I spotted my undead friend.  He was urgently waving a hoof towards me from across the road.  I stumbled back a bit as a wagon drove between us and I coughed at the dust that the wheels and hooves kicked up.  Looking back up, I spotted the ghoul again and he shouted out with a hoof pointed towards Wild and the chariot.  “They’ve got us covered!  We need to get these civilians out of here!” 

I nodded my head before looking once more towards the raiders, spotting a flash of blue and yellow for just a moment again among the blood encrusted raiders.  It caused me to narrow my eyes once more.  Carrion was correct, we needed to focus on getting these ponies out of here first… I hadn’t come out here for revenge, after all.  Shaking my head and turning away, I attempted to calm the fire still burning hotly within me as I directed another wagon past.  I’d only been this angry once before…

Aww… you should have really given in… it would have been much more fun…

What the fuck?  I stumbled a bit over a pothole in the middle of the road as I looked about me for the source of that voice.  The raiders were too far away to have been one of them, and it sure as hell wasn’t Carrion’s raspy voice.  One of the ponies racing past?

He’s not yours to play with.  Now, go back to your spawn and leave him…

Wait… I’d heard these voices before… back around Tombstone… in the bank and later while searching for the stolen supplies.  But I hadn’t heard them together like this… and it almost sounded as if they were speaking with one another?  Were the voices in my head carrying on a conversation now and, by the sounds of it, about me?  Fucking lovely…

“Shadow?” a calm voice said from beside me.  A gentle large hoof came upon my shoulder, turning me around to look into the kind eyes of my buffalo friend.  Spirit looked a bit worried to me.  “Are you alright?  I thought I heard somepony speaking with you.”

“I’m fine…”  I think, I added mentally before what she just said sunk in.  She’d heard the voices, too?  “Wait… did you just say…” I began to ask when a round pinged off her armored shoulder guard and zipped between us to impact the ground near my fore hooves.  We both blinked and looked down to the small cloud of dust settling back down around the hole before looking back up to one another.  “Right… I think we have more pressing issues at the moment.”

“Shadow!!  A little fucking help here!!”  At Carrion’s shout, we both turned to see what had happened to the ghoul.  I spotted him not far away from us, with his shoulder to the tail end of one of the wagons that had passed us earlier.  He was trying to free it from where one of its’ wheels had become wedged quite firmly in one of the larger cracks that criss-crossed the highway.  At the front, the two lead ponies strained at the harnesses to pull themselves free of the rut, sweat running down their exposed coats.  Not far away, I saw another wagon had slid almost entirely off the side of the road, and had thrown a couple of the ponies out of the back.  Even now they were scrambling to get back inside as the two stallions pulling it fired back at the raiders.

“Spirit, go help those ponies back into the wagon!” I shouted as I began moving towards the nearer of the two.  Bullets began to increase in number as the raiders took notice of the trapped ponies on the roadway.  Without another word, the large buffalo rushed past me.  Even in a rush she managed to make almost no noise as her hooves struck the hard concrete.  

Half turning, I snapped off a final round towards the nearest of the raiders before turning back towards the stuck wagon.  As I got closer, I saw just how wedged the wheel had become.  The pair pulling strained with all their might against the weathered roadway, which seemed unwilling to release it’s captives.  Fucking wasteland… always trying to get ponies killed it seemed.  Closing the distance quickly, I lowered my left shoulder and slammed it hard into the back of the wagon beside Carrion with a grunt of pain.  Almost at once, my hooves begin to skid across the concrete.

“We’re not gonna make it…” the mare in the back said to herself.  She held her foal tightly against her chest, tears staining her amber colored coat.

“The… fuck we aren’t…” I snorted.  I dug my hooves harder into the unyielding pavement, sweat beginning to run down my face and neck.  Rounds began striking the pavement around us more quickly, one imbedding itself between Carrion’s and my head to punch through the wood.  It missed the mare and the foal sitting inside the wagon by mere inches.  The young filly cried out in fear as her mother attempted to comfort her even as she herself wept.  Unfortunately, the filly’s cry seemed to attract more of the raiders’ attention.  I snarled at the thought of what those bastards would do to them… at what they’d done to Ebony.

“Come... on!!!” I shouted over the sounds of panicked screaming and gunfire.  Silver’s words for calm had long since gone to hell.  My shoulder screamed in protest as I shoved it hard against the wagon, my hooves skidding over the roadway.  Carrion was having no better luck, the ghoul snarling as he slammed his shoulder back into the wagon’s wooden frame.  His glowing orange eyes were closed tightly as he strained every muscle to move the wagon.  My ears detected the groan of wood coming from below and in front of me as the wheel fought against the confines of the split in the road.  Worryingly, I heard a few snaps as well.  Broken wheel or trapped… we were screwed either way.  Had to get them free. 

“Come… the… fuck… ON!” I yelled again and shoved against the frame with a snort.  Finally, I felt the wagon shifting forward.  With a groan of worn aged wood, the wheel popped free of the crack and rolled back atop the pavement.  With nothing to restrain them, the wagon jolted forwards, alarmingly towards the river banks.  However, the pair pulling it began to turn them away and back towards the road.  I grinned and turned to see Carrion picking himself up off the ground.  Spirit hurried over to rejoin us, the wagon she’d gone to help already well on its way to rejoining the others.

“We’d better get moving while Wild…” I never got to finish that sentence as something streaked past overhead.  It was far too small to be my orange winged friend and her chariot, though the look of horror on Spirit’s face told me all I really needed to know.  Turning back towards the wagons, I saw the streak of silver metal slam into the highway, half way under the wagon we’d just freed.  A ball of fire and smoke appeared below it, sending it and the ponies within into the air… and over the side of the embankment.  A single body tumbled away from the blast.  The remains of the harness he’d been attached to the wagon with flapping about his blue coated body.  As he rolled to a halt, he’d left a trail of blood splattering along the highway.  The other driver stumbled slowly to his hooves, looking to be in shock.  Somehow he’d not been sent flying away from the blast, but I noticed he was missing one his hind hooves and had a number of wounds all across his flanks.

No…

I stood to run towards the edge of the road where the wagon had tumbled away, but a hoof grabbed ahold of my shoulder and yanked me back down to the pavement.  At the same time, a storm of lead flew over my head, a few striking near me and a good deal impacting the unlucky stallion who’d just stood up.  Blood flew from his body as it was ripped to shreds before my eyes.  He’d never even had a chance to cry out in pain.  I looked over and saw Carrion beside me, ears laid back alongside Spirit who was attempting to make herself as flat as possible as rounds passed overhead.

“Stay down!  They’ve got a battle-saddle with a heavy gun behind us!”

Looking back, I saw a large orange earth pony mare trotting slowly forwards.  A very large gun was mounted to the saddle she wore across her back with an equally large drum magazine on the other side for balance.  She was grinning madly, her teeth filed to sharp points as her weapon roared again.  The muzzle spat out fire and death as she advanced towards us.  Luckily for us, she couldn’t get the long barreled weapon lowered enough to strike us accurately.  That wouldn’t be a problem if she got much closer, but if we moved we’d be as good as dead as that stallion.  I doubted we could hope for another jam like the one back in Stable 45…

A second later, the problem fixed itself as the mare’s head simply exploded, showering those nearest her with bits of skull and gore.  A second after this rather sudden event, her corpse dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.  The weapon sputtered out as the trigger no longer had any pressure on it.  Something far larger than the rocket swept over us almost at the same instant as the body struck the pavement.  I risked a glance upwards to see Wild and her sky chariot swooping over us and back towards the raiders, Stone offering a nod down towards us as they passed.  I was going to owe that pony a lot after all this was finished…

With their focus once more upon our air support, I pushed myself to my hooves and began running hard across the open roadway.  Spirit and Carrion followed suit a few steps behind me.  The pavement was pot marked with fresh holes from the heavy weapon ripping across it, in some places smoke was still rising from the shots.  I stumbled a few times upon the larger ones.  However, I managed to keep my hoofing and pass the body of a very dead stallion.  A round struck behind me and another flew over my head.  The raiders had noticed us again it seemed.  My eyes went to the blue stallion who was beginning to pick himself up, eyes unfocused and taking a few stumbling steps back towards where the wagon should have been.  A round struck near his hooves, but he didn’t seem to really notice it.

“Spirit get to the wagon, I’ll get that pony ahead.  Carrion, cover us!” I yelled as I changed direction, hooves skidding upon the pavement a bit.  I heard Spirit change direction behind and start running hard for the edge of the roadway.  Being the larger target, I’d hoped she’d manage to drop out of sight of the raiders.  Further behind me, I could hear the rattle of Carrion’s assault rifle as he fired back at the raiders.  The noise caught the dazed stallion’s attention and he looked up from the highway.  His eyes widened just in time for me to slam into him.  My momentum carried us over the edge of the highway and out into the air.

The stallion in front of me wore a rather confused and comical look as he stared at me.  We were in the air for only a moment before gravity decided that earth ponies were not meant to fly and dragged, rather harshly I might add, us back towards the ground.  I slammed back into the river embankment, seemingly striking a spot where there were more stones than earth and felt my lungs emptying themselves of air.  Just in front of me, the stallion landed hard on his back and let out a yelp of pain.  He began sliding further down into the river bed still on his back, hooves kicking in the air wildly.  I wasn’t so lucky as I landed on my side and began rolling down behind him.  I managed to tuck my legs up close at least to try and avoid any broken limbs.  My stomach churned as the world went end over end.  Grey clouds were replaced by white ash, which itself was replaced by brown earth followed by grey skies once again.  For a moment, I saw the blue stallion laying prone before he disappeared again as I rolled over.  A second later, I felt myself roll over that same stallion who’d come to a halt before me, and onto the ash covered riverbed beside him.  A large cloud of ash rose up around us, sending my Pipbuck into a frenzy of clicking.  

For the moment I lay there and groaned, my eyes closing as I ignored the irradiated ash that I’d sunk into.  I quickly took stock of myself… it didn’t feel like I’d broken anything anywhere, nor was my Pipbuck yammering about any major internal injuries for once.  A few seconds later, I felt and heard someone drop down beside me.  I decided it’d be best to see if I was about to be gutted by a raider or not.  Opening my eyes quickly, I lifted my head up from the ground and turned it to glance to my side.  Instead, I found a rotting hoof inches from my snout and buried just up to its fetlock in the ash.  I leaned my head back and looked upwards to follow the limb towards the slightly cocked head of Carrion.  He regarded me for a moment laying in the ash, a slight smirk on his lips.

“You’ve got to be the luckiest son of a bitch ever born, ya know that?” he asked while holding a hoof out to me.  I snorted, ash flying up from my muzzle as I took the offered hoof.  I let him help haul me upright and out from the pony shaped hole I’d made in the much shallower ash covering the riverbed.

“So I’ve been told…” I answered him, shaking off a bit of the ash from my coat and armor.  “... and so I’ve been noticing,” I added before looking from my friend to the stallion laying still behind me.  As quickly as I was able, I made my way towards him and checked his pulse.  It was strong and his chest was rising and falling steadily.  He must have simply gotten knocked out when he’d hit the ground or when I rolled over him.  He had a number of shrapnel wounds along his flanks and down his hind legs, which had been the source of the blood.  Most seemed to have cloated or been covered in ash.  I doubt that was going to do him any favors, but neither was dying from blood loss.  He was lucky not to have lost any limbs from the explosion.  I sat down beside him and rubbed a hoof over my forehead.  “What's the situation on the road?”

“Wild’s got the assholes pinned down for the moment, but it won’t take them long to force her to back off.  They’re packing some serious fucking firepower beside that single battle-saddle.”  As he spoke, his horn glowed orange as he began replacing the magazine on his assault rifle with a fresh one from his saddlebags.  “There’s a lot of ’em up there, Shadow.  Easily forty or more raiders.”  With a click, the old mag slid free.  “If they reach this section of the road and happen to peak over the edge… we’re as good as fucked.”
 
A quick glance around our current surroundings confirmed his statement.  There was no cover to be found anywhere beyond a couple stones that ‘might’ give a single pony some protection.  The only thing else within the riverbed besides us was the wrecked remains of the wagon a few steps away, where Spirit was tending to somepony behind it.  It would provide some cover should it come to it, but it would be worthless for anything beyond small arms.

“What about the rest of the convoy?” I asked, looking back to the ghoul unicorn.  He trotted a bit further away from the bank, orange eyes scanning along the largely flat surface of the riverbed above us in both directions.  I had a feeling I knew what he was thinking about and followed his gaze towards the edge of the roadway.

“Last I saw of them before jumping over the edge was a dust cloud down the highway.  If they’re smart, they’ll keep running,” he answered, orange glowing eyes going from the top of the riverbank back down to me.  “Those raiders will be after them again once Wild’s forced to fall back.”  He waved a hoof down the river, towards where the convoy was now following the highway.  “It’ll be safer to follow the river as far as we can.  It’ll keep us out of sight of the raiders for the most part.”

“Agreed, we can find a way back up onto the road further down.  If we have to, we can follow it as close to Janesville as possible.  Once Wild realizes we’re not with the others she’ll circle back to look for us.”  I stood slowly, dusting ash from myself quickly before taking a few steps towards the wagon.  “See if you can wake him, I’ll go check on Spirit and anypony else that survived the crash.  We’ll need to hurry if we’re going to avoid those raiders and regroup with the others.”

Clouds of ash rose up into the air as I hurriedly made my way across the open riverbed towards where the wagon had crashed.  Thus far, Spirit had remained focused on her task.  Glancing back up to the road, I could hear the continued sounds of gunfire as the raiders slugged it out with Wild, Stone, and Long.  If not for them, the raiders would have likely already reached us.  Whether my friends knew it or not, they were buying us a bit of time as we gathered ourselves up.

As I reached the wagon, I stepped carefully over the ground where a number of personal effects, supplies, and bits of wood from the wagon were strewn all about.  The wagon itself had broken in half.  The front had landed on it’s side while the bottom was facing back towards the road and where I’d rolled to a stop.  The back had all but disintegrated on impact, and was a mass of wood planks, broken crates, and a chest.  Stepping around the front side of the wagon, I avoided the still spinning wheel and turned to see all who had survived the fall.  

Laying a few feet away from the broken wagon lay a badly wounded mare.  The ash she had sunk into was turning crimson with her blood.  Spirit had already wrapped much of her lower body in bandages as well as one of her forelegs.  I could only suspect the wounds had been caused by the large splinters of wood laying beside the pair on the ash.  I winced and looked back to the wagon, seeing an old stallion with his neck turned at an unnatural angle.  As I scanned the rear of the debris, I noticed a yellow hoof sticking out from beneath a couple of trunks and moved to check on whoever it was.  However, I stopped when Spirit caught my eye and she shook her head.

“No one else survived the fall.  This mare is lucky to have been thrown from the back of the wagon as it went over the edge or else she may have suffered a similar fate as the others,” Spirit said, as she finished tying a bandage around the mare’s neck with her mouth and hoof.

I wasn’t sure how lucky she really was, given the number of her wounds and the trail of blood that was left upon the ground and edges of the wagon where she must have landed.

“How is the driver?” my friend asked while retrieving a health potion from her saddlebags.  With a careful hoof, she opened the wounded pony’s mouth and began to pour the red liquid inside.

“He’s alive.  I only managed to quickly check him over, but he seems alright for the time being.  I noticed a number of wounds all up and down his hind quarters, bits of metal sticking out and the start of some bruises along his body, but he seems good,” I answered quickly.  Spirit merely nodded her horned head before putting the empty bottle away into her saddlebag.  As she did, I looked to the mare and asked, “Is she going to be alright?”

“I have managed to remove most of the wood from her wounds.  I am running low of disinfectant, but I’ve done the best I can with cleaning her wounds.  I believe she will be fine unless a serious infection sets in.”  As she finished speaking, a rocket came streaking overhead before disappearing behind the trees.  After a few seconds more, there came the sound of a not so distant explosion and ash fell from the trees nearest us.

“Alright, I believe that’s our signal that it’s time to fucking go.  Get her ready to travel and I’ll check the wagon for anything useful.  Carrion said the raiders won’t be far behind us once Wild’s forced to retreat.”  Spirit thankfully had already begun to get the wounded mare onto her belly so she could be more easily lifted up from the ground.  

As I was turning away to check over the scattered remains of the wagon’s contents, my hoof brushed against something in the ash and I looked down.  A stuffed bunny looked back up at me with mismatched button eyes, half covered in ash.  I tilted my head and looked back over to the mare… a sense of dread overcame me.  There’d been a filly with her… when Carrion and I had been attempting to push the wagon free on the road.  “Spirit… did you say she was the only survivor?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes.  She was thrown from the wagon as it struck the ground and landed back atop the frame.  The elderly mare and stallion were both killed on impact,” she said.  Hoof steps from behind the wagon announced Carrion’s arrival, the wounded wagon puller laying across his back and atop his saddlebags.

“Wait… you just found three ponies inside?” I asked, turning back to quickly look over the remains of the wagon… had the little filly been crushed beneath the boxes of supplies and personal effects?  Maybe she’d been ejected like her mother…

“Shadow we need to get moving, I’m pretty sure I just saw Wild and the others bug out a second ago.  Soon as those raiders get done fucking themselves we’ll be next,” the ghoul said, looking from me to Spirit.

I ignored my friend and stepped closer to the front half of the wagon as I began pushing boxes aside looking for the filly.  Dammit… this was going to take too long, and time was not on our side… but I couldn’t leave without at least making sure she’d not survived the fall.  Looking about quickly and, not for the last time, cursing all this damned radiation that was making my Pipbuck all but useless.

“Shadow, there’s no time to look for anything that survived that fall.  Those raiders will be coming soon,” Carrion tried again, stepping towards me.

I turned around to answer him when I noticed something about the ground to my left just beyond the crash site.  Hoof prints… small ones leading off across the open riverbed and up the shallow bank on the other side… before heading straight into the forest.  “Oh, fuck no,” I whispered as I pushed past Carrion.  He grunted in response and narrowed his glowing eyes upon me.  He was about to make some comment about watching my step when he spotted what had my attention.  He turned his head to look at the mare laying across Spirit’s back and then to the ruined wagon behind me.

“Fuck me…”

“What is wrong?” Spirit asked, stepping towards the both of us.  Her hooves sank into the ash a few inches away from the smaller prints.  Blue eyes scanned our faces for a moment before she followed our gaze to the ground and along the path the foal sized hoof prints went.  Tilting her head she stood silently for a moment before she agreed with the both of us.  “Fuck you indeed…” Carrion blinked and looked over at the buffalo with a confused look on his face, brow arched above one glowing orange orb.

Looking back down, I spotted the stuffed bunny laying beside my hoof, a few feet away from the foal’s tracks.  With a sigh, my ears lay back against my head and I reached down to dig the worn toy from the ash.  I ignored the foul taste of the stuff inside my mouth and I turned back to stuff it into my saddlebag.  I now noticed Carrion had stopped giving Spirit the evil eye and was instead staring at me.

“And just what the fuck do you think you're doing?” he asked, his own tattered ears laid back as he waited for an answer.  Behind him, I saw Spirit watching us both quietly.

“What I promised these ponies I’d do,” I answered with a snort to clear the ash from my muzzle and looked from him to Spirit.  “I need you both to get those wounded ponies back to the others as quickly as you can.”  As I spoke, I sat down in the ash and began reloading Luna’s Ruse as quickly as I could.  The sound of a good number of hoof steps further down the road could be heard approaching our position.  We were out of time…

“You run off on your own into that fucking forest and you’ll be as good as dead as that poor foal…” Carrion growled out, stepping up near me as I slotted the slugs into the drum feed of my shotgun.  He jerked his horned head towards the tree line behind me and added, “You heard them.  Couple hours out in that shit and you’ll be throwing up your internal organs from the radiation before you keel over dead.”

“I can’t just walk away from this Carrion…” I began as the last round slid in.  Before I could close the drum and finish my sentence, Carrion cut me off.

“I know you fucking can’t… that’s why I’m saying let me go in after her.  I’ve already hacked up most of my inner shit when I died the first time.  Ghouls are more resilient to radiation than you smooth coats anyway.”  I blinked and looked to my friend, almost tilting Luna’s Ruse back far enough to let all those shells slide out all across the ash covered ground.  This was coming from the same pony who'd never been one to stick his neck out unless he had to.  But… that wasn’t really true was it?  He’d come with me… even though he didn’t have to.  “What?  I may not have a fucking heartbeat anymore, but I still don’t wanna see a kid hurt… I ain't that fucking cold yet.”  The steady click of my radiation meter told me he was quite right about everything.  I smiled up to the stallion standing before me.

“I agree… you’d be the better choice for this type of thing... but everything you just said is also true about why I need you to go with Spirit.”  I nodded towards the wounded stallion across his back and the mare over Spirit’s as I remembered to snap the drum of my weapon shut with a flick of my hoof.  “Those two need to get back to the others as quickly as possible and, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re trapped in this river bed for Celestia above knows how long.  The radiation down here isn’t much better than in the forest and if it overwhelms Spirit and I while we’re carrying them back, we’ll be sitting ducks for the raiders if they come up on us.  Besides… I need you to tell Wild something for me.”

“Let me guess… you want us to tell her that if you're not back in a few hours to leave you behind and head on to Janesville?  That we shouldn’t risk the others’ lives to try and save you?” the ghoul asked.

“No… I want you to tell her if I’m not back in a few hours…” I rested a hoof on his shoulder, looking into his eyes with the most serious look I could muster and added, “...that she needs to come find me.  I don’t wanna be out here after dark, it gets fucking cold out here.”  For a moment, the stallion’s face was unreadable, before a slight grin threatened to break his normally frowning lips.  I saw a smile forming on Spirit’s muzzle as well before she shook her head and spoke softly in her native language. 

“You’re fucking one of a kind…”  He laid a hoof upon mine.  “Ya know that, right?” he asked, brushing my hoof off his shoulder after another second.

“I’ve gotten that impression, yes.  For now at least I’m one of a kind, but who knows what the future might bring,” I answered with a grin, standing up and glancing back to the roadway above.  “Now, we’d better get moving before those raiders get any closer and spot us.”

“Watch yourself within the forest, Shadow,” Spirit said from behind Carrion as the ghoul pony adjusted the stallion laying still unconscious across his saddlebags.  “I fear this sudden rise in violence within the woods will make the dead resentful of our presence.” 

With nothing else to say, and knowing neither would talk me out of it, we offered one another a final good luck and nod of our heads before both my friends turned to leave.  Carrion quickly took point, as Spirit fell in step behind him.  The odd pair galloped off as quickly as they could, weighted down with two wounded ponies.  Clouds of ash rose up behind them and, for a moment, I looked worriedly towards the roadway.  I hurriedly prayed to whatever goddesses happened to be listening that the raiders wouldn’t notice it.  While I heard no shouts of alarm coming from above, I could hear a number of voices approaching.  None of them sounded like anypony I’d want to stay and meet.

With a final look to the crashed wagon, I turned away from it and the ash cloud left by my friends.  I soon passed it to begin my own flight from the area.  My hooves sank into the ash beside the young foal’s tracks, my eyes following them up to the twisted forest ahead.  Climbing from the riverbed quickly, I made my way closer to the line of blackened trees, the click of my Pipbuck increasing.  Behind me, I could hear the sound of ponies shouting.  Whether about the crashed wagon, my friends, or myself, I wasn’t sure nor was I going to try and find out.  Flicking my ears back against my skull, I plunged into the shadows of the Dead Forest.



*     *     *     *     *



Slowly, I trudged my way through rather ominous remains of the forest.  Overhead in the darkening sky, thunder rumbled loudly, at times shaking the remaining branches of the looming trees above me.  It was the only sound within the dead wood beyond the crunch of my hooves in century old ash and the odd creak of the trees.  I glanced upward to look over the rolling black clouds that seemed ready to release their payload of irradiated rain upon me.  More radiation was not something I needed right now.  As I took another step, I did my best to ignore the growing pains in my lower body and the sickening taste of bile in my mouth from the vomiting fit I’d suffered ten minutes ago.  No… more radiation was definitely not something I needed right now since the amount I had already soaked up was doing a fine job of killing me.  

I took another step forward, ignoring the ash that clung to my lower body.  I let out a startled yelp as my foreleg sunk deeper into the ash than I’d expected, nearly all the way up to my shoulder.  Swiftly, I caught myself before I could tumble face first into the thick clinging powder and steadied my hooves beneath me.  Beneath the ash, I could just hear my Pipbuck clicking away madly at being submerged in the stuff and I sighed.  I was going to need to stop and take some Radaway soon.

Regaining my hoofing fully, I glanced around me at the blasted husks of trees that now had me surrounded on all sides.  Their blackened trunks were largely free of the ash and looked rather unsettling enough like burned flesh.  The long dead trees’ roots were all but swallowed up in the thick blanket of ash, as were the remains of the dead.  As I’d seen from the road, there were a number of bones scattered about what had once been the forest floor.  Most noticeably were skulls of ponies, mules, and a number of other intelligent races alongside the smaller skulls of woodland animals.  Their empty sockets appeared to track me as I passed.  Thankfully none seemed to move to follow my slow plodding through their domain.

With a grunt of effort, I forced my way through the deep drift of ash.  I felt it shift about my body as I struggled to maintain my hoofing through the stuff.  It was the sole reason I’d not made much headway in the last hour and a half since leaving the highway.  I’d gone from walking through hoof deep deposits to being nearly up to my haunches in the stuff.  The fact that it clung to my armor, clothing, and any patch of exposed fur was not helping matters either.  The added weight was only making my already slow progress through the deeper sections come to a grinding halt.  It had also a nasty tendency to bunch up between my hind legs, but I was trying my best not to notice that.  If I survived this little walk, I idly wondered if I’d end up glowing in the dark… Wild would likely have a field day with that...

With another grunt of effort and a snort at the thoughts of my lower body glowing, I worked my buried limbs forward through the ash.  I also hoped I’d not stumble into another hole or trip over a hidden rock or skull.   I checked once more to ensure I was still on the right path, it being very possible to get lost within the field of white and black.  A quick glance to my right told me I was still following the little filly.  The shallow hoof prints of a young foal were just barely visible in the deep ash.  Her smaller, lighter form made her passage through the dark woods much easier it seemed.  

Not weighted down by armor and gear, she could and was probably walking atop the ash.  Its clinging nature did not slow her down in the slightest it seemed.  Why she was going further into the forest however was unclear… had she been frightened after the crash and ran away from the wagon?  Was she wounded and confused?  Thus far, I’d seen no signs of blood along her trail… so, I was hopeful that she wasn’t wounded.  Though I was worried about how much radiation she’d soaked up.  Being a young filly, her body likely couldn’t handle as much as an adult pony’s could.  She had no Radaway… and would be reaching the point of no return soon… if she hadn’t already.

With a final bit of effort, my right foreleg bursts through the ash.  The action sent the white stuff flying up into the air as my limb came back down upon a more shallow section of the ground.  Working my hind leg forward, I quickly brought my left foreleg out to join the right, the ash now coming barely up past my hooves.  With a bit more wiggling, I managed to free both hind legs.  I quickly stepped away from the very noticeable path I’d left through the drift behind me and shook myself clean of the white dusting as best I could.  The thought of how easily somepony could follow me made me ponder the wisdom of stopping, if even for a minute.  A quick look back revealed the pony sized path I was leaving behind me in the ash.

I fought the urge to sit down, knowing that if I did I’d likely not want to get back up.  I knew I was on the clock.  Struggling through the ash was sapping my strength, and the constant radiation was not helping matters.  I already had a couple spots along my exposed hindlegs where fur was showing signs of falling out.  Remaining on my hooves, I turned back to my saddlebags and unlatched the buckle holding the flap closed.  I had to spit out the ash that had remained stuck to the metal.  Not like swallowing it could do any more harm, I thought to myself.  Pushing the flap back, I reached inside and rummaged around for my Radaway, finding them quickly after pushing aside my spare shells and rations.  I had only four left…

Letting the flap fall to a close, I turned back around and lifted my right hoof up to hold the little packet of medicine.  Carefully, I used my teeth to rip the top open.  The scent of oranges filled my nose before I bought the plastic up to my mouth and began sucking the stuff down.  As the fluid ran down my throat, I noticed the radiation warning in my flickering E.F.S. began to lower.  Finishing it quickly, I lowered my hoof and tossed the plastic package away into the ash.  As I allowed the Radaway to work it’s magic on my body, thunder once again rumbled overhead.  A second later, it was followed by something wet striking the tip of my nose.  It seemed the rain was catching up with me now.  

Wonderful.  

I scanned the trees around me for any sign of the filly as several more drops fell nearby.  When there was no sign of the little pony, I began looking for anything else that might give me some idea where she was even going.  Yet, there was just nothing to see but hoof prints continuing onward into the forest, white ash, and black dead trees. 

Three Radaway was all I had left in my bags.  Two would be enough to see me back to the highway if I wasn’t slowed down too much by the ash or anything living within the woods.  While I hadn’t seen any sign of radscorpions, I knew they were likely lurking somewhere around.  Still, I could just backtrack towards the highway, using the path I’d already forged through the mounds of clinging white powder.  However, doing so would likely end with me dead.  I doubted the raiders that had followed me into the forest had given up just yet.  I hadn’t heard them in over an hour now, but that likely just meant they were taking their time… knowing I had nowhere to run.  

I grunted and glanced behind me.  No… there’d be no going back that way.  Finding another way back to the highway would be my only option really… that was if I was really going to leave the filly to her fate.  Could I do that?  To save my own life and leave a young foal out here alone in the wasteland?  No… I couldn’t do that was.  I reached that answer quickly, but paused when I thought of Sugar?  Was it fair to her if I died for a lost cause?  Could I really die and leave her alone?  No mother or uncle?  I’d asked myself that question a couple times the past twenty four hours and I still had no good answer.  But then… my entire reason for being out in the wasteland was a lost cause according to some.  

A flash of light lit up the dark woods around me, followed quickly with the deep rumble of thunder and the sound of rain striking the trees and my armor.  Drops of cold rain struck my nose once more, causing my ears to twitch.  Water was starting to run down my sides and left clean streaks in the white powder that covered my black coat.  With a tired sigh, I reached a hoof up to remove my sweat stained hat, freeing my mane for a moment.  Despite the risk of further radiation poisoning from the falling rain, it felt rather good striking my sweat soaked forehead and neck.  

I was just about to replace my hat and press on, when a sudden noise caught my attention.  Having been out in the forest for the past hour or so, and on the road for longer, I’d gotten used to the noises it had made… but this was not one of them.  However, it sounded far away and I could barely make it out… or even tell where it was coming from thanks to the steady drone of the rain falling around me.  It almost sounded like a voice.  The young filly?

I went still and strained to hear the voice again.  My ears swiveled this way and that to try and pick up the sound again, to find the source of the voice.  The rain was beginning to increase and was making pinpointing it almost impossible.  Unless I got closer or it louder… wait… there was another sound coming from behind me... 

Twisting around as quickly as I could, I spotted two raiders attempting to sneak up on me while I’d been so focused on trying to locate the source of that voice.  Luckily I’d heard their ragged breathing and the creak of their worn armor plating against one another.  Both raiders were earth ponies and both had their firearms holstered while, within their jaws, they held long bladed daggers with sharp curved tips and serrated edges.  Seemed they’d hoped to catch me unaware and either slit my throat or try and capture me for whatever foul reasons. 

 As our eyes met, they realized their attempts at stealth had failed.  For a moment there was silence as we looked at one another, the rain falling upon us all but forgotten.  As thunder rumbled overhead, the moment of silence and peace was shattered as they both lunged forwards to try and cover the last dozen feet or so to me. 

Raising Luna’s Ruse upwards, my lips closed around the firing bit.  As quickly as I could, I swung the barrel towards the closest raider and squeezed the trigger without bothering to aim.  At this range, if I missed with a shotgun, I would owe Cinnamon an apology when I met her on the other side.  The lead raider’s sickly yellowed eyes widened in surprise as his forward momentum was halted completely by the solid  slug striking him in the shoulder and chest.  Both blew apart in a spray of red mist, bits of bone, and rusty armor plating.  The remains  (for he was very dead after such a wound) were flung away from me by the force of the impact and landed in a shower of ash.  The second raider’s snarling face came into view as the first flew away.  Despite the fact that I knew he was too close, I still attempted to twist my head about fast enough to bring the weapon’s barrel to bear.

With a crash of metal armor striking metal armor, he landed half atop me and slashed out wildly with his blade.  The curved tip caught me across the muzzle and pain exploded all across my face as I heard flesh rip.  I felt and saw warm blood splash across my eyes.  I screamed in pain, dropping Luna’s Ruse from my mouth and stumbling back, momentarily blinded.  The raider’s hooves had also struck my armored chest and I felt the kevlar plating and material buckle inward at the impact.  With the weight of the other pony pressing against me, I had to fight to retain my hoofing.  I knew that if I fell to the ground now, I’d not be getting back up.  

Fighting through the pain in my face, I brought my right foreleg up and smashed blindly into the body of my attacker.  I felt flesh impact with my hoof so I knew I’d struck him somewhere without armor.  The Raider grunted and loosened his grip on me, letting up a bit.  I couldn’t tell how much room I’d gotten, but it was enough for me to hurriedly bring my right foreleg around to rub it wildly against my eyes in an attempt to clear the blood from my eyes.  If I was to survive this fight, I’d need to be able to see.  The falling rain helped my hurried efforts, and my soaked armored limb removed enough blood that I could see more clearly from my left eye, but not my right.  I’d have to worry about it later as my restored vision was not bringing me good news.

The raider’s snarling, blood-splattered face filled my sight, brown teeth bared and locked firmly about the handle of his blade.  He was still far too close for Luna’s Ruse.  I’d be dead before I could  even bring the shotgun even part of the way up to my mouth.  I could only react to his attacks.  I quickly brought my still raised foreleg up to defend myself from his second slash towards my face, the heavy impact of the bladed weapon hitting me hard and forcing me to take a step back.  
I brought my foreleg up again and deflected another blow meant for my neck.  This time the blade slid across the armor and into the softer material between them.  It was a small cut, and all but ignored thanks to the intense fire burning along my face, but it was a reminder that I couldn’t keep this up for long.  Sooner or later he’d get lucky, and I had no way to counter him this close.  Blood was already starting to run into my left eye again and I had to blink it constantly to keep it largely clear.  This left me open to his attacks, but it couldn’t be helped.  

He took advantage of it a moment later.  As I was distracted trying to keep my vision clear, he lunged towards me once more, his intent clear.  He wanted to knock me either onto my side or back where he’d have an easier time of gutting me.  Once more I could only react to him, though this time I went for an attack of my own rather than to try and block his.  I lashed out with my foreleg, putting as much of my strength as I could into the swing and caught him in the side of his head with my Pipbuck.  Sadly the strike did not stop him from slamming into me with the weight of a full grown stallion and a couple pounds of gear and armor.  My three hoof stance had me unbalanced and, with the raider’s added weight, I felt myself stumbling backwards into nothing.  

Perhaps I should have remained on the defensive… this thought passed through my head as the ground beneath my hooves disappeared entirely.  Above me, the raider’s eyes widened as he followed me over the edge.  It seemed only fair he’d come with me.  After all, it’d been his forward momentum that’d pushed us over the edge.  The pain in my face was momentarily forgotten as I once more found myself tumbling end over end down an ash-covered embankment.  

Luckily the drop was not far, though we did roll for a ways from the base of the hill once we struck the forest floor again.  I managed to avoid the worst of being rolled over by my attacker.  His spiked armor would have likely done a fair more bit of damage if he’d not rolled over my armored upper half.  I was stopped suddenly by slamming into one of the blacked trees of the forest and felt a fresh wave of pain wash over me.   I could feel blood all but pouring from my wounds and I was nearly overwhelmed with pain.  As I tried to remain conscious and bring the spinning, red-colored world back into focus with my single eye, I spotted the dark shape of the raider climbing up to his hooves from an ash pile he’d come to a halt within.  

It would seem I’d taken the worse of the fall…

Shaking his head as he rose fully, the raider looked about, slightly dazed, before his yellowed eyes halted upon me.  His scarred muzzle split into a wicked grin of sharp teeth upon seeing me on the ground.  He actually chuckled and looked about the ground for a moment before spotting his knife, sitting blade first in the ash between us.  The cocky son of a bitch made his way slowly towards it, while looking me over… this was not going to end well.  

As I attempted to rise up to my own hooves, I heard movement to my right.  I saw him turning to look towards what was no doubt more of his friends showing up.  However, his grin quickly vanished and he froze in place.  The pupils of his eyes shrank to pin pricks as he stared intently at something near us.  At first I thought it was a simple ruse, to get my attention off him so he could rush me.  Though honestly, he’d already passed up a perfect opening to do just that when he’d first seen me.  More movement to my right caught my ears and I saw the raider take a step away from whatever it was.  I risked a look, as I’d not often seen raiders genuinely afraid before.  It didn’t take me long to find what had him so surprised and afraid, because it surprised and frightened the hell out of me, too... 

There, standing not five feet away from my prone form, was a feral ghoul.  It’s coat had all but fallen out due to the radiation that had killed it, leaving exposed rotting flesh in it’s wake.  Ugly looking scars criss crossed the ghoul’s hide.  Much of its face had either been ripped away by some other mindless beast or had simply rotted off, leaving it’s jaw bones exposed for me to see.  Behind what was left of it’s muzzle were its eyes, glowing an otherworldly green as it glanced from me to the raider standing across from it.  There was no intelligence in them, it’s mind long since gone by what had happened to it.

Now, after all I’ve seen and been through, a single ghoul was not enough to make either myself or a crazed, hardened raider fear for our lives.  No… the dozen or more other feral ghouls standing behind it were.  It seemed we’d fallen into a herd of them, all gathered within what appeared to be a clearing in the forest.  From beyond the edge of the clearing, glowing green orbs stared intently at us from the trees… I couldn’t tell how many there were as they shifted about, some sounding closer.  Movement from behind us made me realize there were likely more of them there… or it had simply been the raider pissing himself in fear… luckily I’d taken care to empty my bladder twenty minutes earlier.  Something, however, was off… none of the ghouls were moving to attack either the raider or myself.  But they were clearly ferals…

A much louder movement from behind me caused me to quickly look back.  I saw the raider struggling to free his firearm from the holster across his side.  It appeared to be a simple pump action shotgun, a weapon more favored by unicorns than earth ponies.  The movement also caught the ghouls’ attention and a dozen or more green eyes fixed themselves upon the frighted raider.  He’d barely gotten the barrel clear of the holster when he fired his first shot wildly into the feral herd.  

Unlike me, he was using buckshot and it was only due to this that he  managed to hit anything at all.  The pellets scattered about the small clearing, striking a number of ghouls.  His lack of aiming for a single target, or even vaguely towards a target, meant that the shot spread far wider than it should have.  Though he hit a number of ghouls, none were hit with enough pellets to do more than anger them.

The ghouls’ odd behavior ended as they were attacked and, as one, they began growling and advancing slowly towards the raider.  Those with still intact ears had them flattened against their skulls, their glowing balefire-filled eyes fixed upon their target.   I expected to be killed then and there, as those nearest me began moving forward.  However, they merely stepped over me or went around my prone form.  They clearly could see me… they had to know I was awake… yet they ignored me.

The raider seemed just as surprised as I, perhaps expecting them to fall on me and give him time to either escape or move further away where he could more safely shoot them.  With whatever plan he had thought up failed, he began backing away from the ghouls as they closed in around him.  He managed to pull back on the pump of his weapon, ejecting the spent shell and leveling it back towards the nearest group of ghouls before the herd was upon him.  The ghouls ears’ laid back and they began to growl at the raider.

I’d seen a lot since coming to the surface.  Scorpions the size of ponies and bigger, miles upon miles of desolate wasteland, towns protected by the scrap of ages past, and good ponies killed by those who no longer deserved to be called a pony.  However, what I saw now… was beyond any of those things.  To watch as another living thing, even if it was a raider, was ripped apart by a herd of feral ghouls… to listen to his agonized screams as his limbs were broken and even ripped from him by the rotting teeth of the former ponies.  Bits of flesh and bone were thrown into the air as they opened him up… that was something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget… if I managed to survive this that is.

With the ghouls focused upon the unfortunate raider, I once more attempted to climb to my hooves.  Thankfully, my body decided to go along with my wishes and allowed me to once more stand up.  My legs still felt like lead, however, and I wouldn’t likely outrun the ferals once they noticed me.  Fighting them was not a better option given their numbers, but it was better than being ripped apart.  As I reached for Luna’s Ruse, which had remained safely swung over my head, movement in front of me caught my attention.  I looked up, fearful of what I’d see.

One of the ferals stood in front of me, blood running down his exposed jaw bone and teeth, green eyes fixed upon me…

...fuck…



Welcome to Level 19!


Perk Added: Soylent Green Is Ponies!:  In this new Equestria, it’s eat or be eaten.  While ponies are not known to eat meat often (if at all), they still have the ability when times are tough.  And times are indeed very tough.  Meat can be consumed to restore health and stamina when hungry, though at a much slower rate than with vegetables, fruits, and grains.  This perk does not lower your gag reflex, however.  Sorry.
> Chapter 20: Lost And Found
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 20: Lost And Found


For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.



The hellish scene before me was lit briefly as a bolt of lightning arced from one cloud to another overhead.  During the brief flash of light, I saw the dark dead trees of the Dead Forest.  Their blackened trunks surrounded me on all sides, slowing my escape if I was to make one.  Standing among them were dozens of feral ghouls, their glowing green eyes reflecting the light as it passed across their horribly scarred and rotting faces.  The twisted remains of the raider sat a few feet away, exposed ribs and organs lit up by the bolt of lightning.  His blood stained the face of the feral ghoul that I now stood before.

In that brief flash of light, I also took note of the fact that he was the only ghoul to once more be looking towards me.  The others were still focused on the now silent raider’s body.  If I was going to attempt escape and avoid sharing his fate, now would be my best chance of doing so.  Carefully, lest any sudden movements attract more attention, I lowered my head towards Luna’s Ruse which still rested against my chest.  The ghouls’ glowing orbs followed my slow movements with little interest, it seemed, at least until he noticed the combat shotgun my muzzle was nearing.

His tattered ears snapped back against his skull and his glowing orbs narrowed upon me as he growled at my hostile move.  Now, a normal pony’s reaction (especially after seeing what had become of the raider attempting something similar) would be to either freeze up or make a mad grab for his weapon.  To swing it as quickly upright as one could and snap off a hasty shot into the face of the monster standing before them in a desperate bid to continue living.  I did neither of those two things however… and to be honest I am not sure why I did what I did.  I paused my movement and watched the ghoul, slightly confused at it’s odd reaction.  He made no other move to attack me as other ghouls I’d encountered had.  Instead he simply remained standing where he was with his eyes fixed upon the weapon and growling.  It was not a reaction I had seen in a feral before.  I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I slowly began lifting my head away from Luna’s Ruse.

Once more, the ghoul’s reaction surprised me.  As my muzzle lifted away from my weapon, he began to visibly relax.  His tattered ears swiveled back upright and his eyes opened once more to their full glowing size.  I was further surprised to notice that we’d gathered a larger audience.  A number of his fellow feral ghouls had approached me, drawn no doubt by the sound of his growling.  Despite the blood dripping from their ruined faces, their ears were perked upright in a relaxed manner and they appeared shockingly docile… so unlike the ghouls I’d fought in Kanter City’s tunnels… or heard stories of from my friends.  They almost seemed still alive.  Something Spirit had said to me yesterday while walking entered my thoughts as I stood looking over the ferals around me.

“My father believed that showing a bit of kindness could do more good than all of the weapons in the world... ponies are far too quick to distrust someone new or if they do not look like themselves, to go for their weapons when presented with a problem.”

Could it really be as simple as that?  The raider had been attacked only after he had fired upon the ferals.  Prior to that, they had been content to simply stare at us.  While it had been a matter of mere seconds from the time we’d spotted them to the time he’d fired, it was more time than any other ghoul I’d encountered had given me.  I looked over the ferals once more with Spirit’s words in mind, looking more closely at the rotting bodies of ponies long since dead… but... ponies nonetheless.  Unlike raiders, these ponies had had no choice in what they would become.  They had simply been the unlucky few who survived the balefire bombing, though their bodies broke and their minds quickly followed.  The harder and longer I looked, the more I could see past the decaying features and see the ponies they had once been.  

Standing to my right was a badly burned mare, a little shorter than me in height.  Near featherless wings were tucked to her sides and I doubted they could even move by the looks of them.  Her cutie mark was mostly gone, along with the coat and flesh it had covered, but there was the hint of a cloud with a wing upon her flank.  Across her back were the remains of a pair of saddlebags, larger than what one might typically wear.  They were covered in filth and ripped to the point of being useless.  Upon the side facing towards me was a badly rusted metal pin.  Just barely visible in the dim light, I could make out the words ‘Equestria Mail’.  She had been a mailpony.  She likely had fled with others away from the cities as the bombing had started.  

Turning my head a bit, I saw an earth pony stallion standing just to the mailmare’s left and just before me.  It was the same one who had first noticed me when I’d attempted to rise up from the ground to escape.  I had been so focused on his horrible wounds that I hadn’t noticed that what I had mistaken for his hide was in fact the remains of a suit of some sort.  There appeared to be a hint of a tie about his neck, but like the rest of his clothing it had all but rotted to his body.  His cutie mark was of a book and quill.  A business pony of some sort?  An accountant perhaps?

Another pony shuffled about just behind him.  With a badly cracked horn rising up from her maneless forehead, the mare still wore bits of an armored vest and shoulder pads upon her pitifully thin frame.  A pair of rusted dog tags rattled about from around her badly damaged throat and lower jaw.  Though it was impossible to tell what colors they had been, I was sure they would have been olive green and bore symbols of the Equestrian Military.  Sadly, I wondered if it would be anypony Carrion would know...  

The more I looked, the more the feral herd was becoming more… well… pony.  While the frightening appearance of the ferals remained, I no longer saw them as simply one of the monsters of the Wasteland.  The two ghouls standing side by side, with matching tarnished metal rings upon their horns, reminded me of the wedding rings my parents had worn… had they been a married couple who’d fled together?  A short, round stallion hobbled about the herd, missing one of his forelegs completely.  The former earth pony had a work belt wrapped about his barrel, though it was devoid of tools.  There was a filly still carrying her lunch box in her mouth, the lid long since having rusted off.  The straps of her saddlebags barely clung to her decaying hide.  The bags themselves looked to have fallen off years ago.

As I stood watching them move about or simply stare back at me, I saw that whatever personality they had once had in life was no longer with them.  Their eyes may have glowed brightly in the darkness, but there was no true intelligence there.  Still… they were not quite as feral as those I’d seen and fought before… somewhere deep within them there was still a bit of the pony they had been.  Not much… but just enough to know when somepony was threatening them with harm… but would they let me leave?  As interesting as it was, I couldn’t stay here… my Pipbuck made that abundantly clear.  I was still injured from my fight with the raiders, and my eye was once more giving me issues.  However, it was not from blood flowing into it… it was just getting somewhat fuzzy, which was worrying...

Rain continued to fall upon us, but I ignored it as the ghouls and I stood seemingly at a stand off.  For their part, they seemed simply content to just mill about the clearing.  I was unsure if they’d attack me if I attempted to move past them.  

I was about to finally see just how much they would allow when a voice shouted out from somewhere behind me.  The ghouls hardly seemed to notice, though I’ll admit I bit back the urge to swear loudly at the sudden sound.  Glowing green eyes stared past me at whoever was speaking.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on out here?  Ya’ll are suppose ta be guardin’ the perimeter, not out here all slacked jawed!  Celestia’s tits, what if the zebra attacked us again!?  Private Jitterbug report!”

As quickly as I dared, I turned to see who this newcomer was that had approached the herd of ferals with little fear by the sounds of his voice.  The answer to that was really quite simple as I discovered while he trotted towards us.  It was another ghoul, though he seemed to be far less feral in mannerisms than those around me.  He also seemed to have stepped from a cave set back in the side of the hill I’d recently tumbled down.

He’d been an earth pony, or still was judging by the spark of life his glowing green eyes still held within them.  As it was with most every ghoul I’d ever encountered to date, it was nearly impossible to tell what color his coat and mane had been thanks to years of decay and, in his case, filth.  However, there still seemed to be just enough for me to get an idea of what he’d looked like before the balefire bombs.  What little I could see that was not sickly brown or black had a hint of tan or coppery red.  His mane was a bit easier to make out, as several long strands of black hair remained upon his head as well as his tail.  Where his fellow ghouls gathered around us wore little more than scraps of their former lives, he was dressed fully, though his clothes were only in slightly better condition than the others; bearing clear signs of age and neglect.

Much of his body was hidden beneath what had been a rather nice dark brown trench coat; the edges now tattered with a number of large holes worn along its edges and dark stains all across the front of the coat, as well as down the sleeves for his forelegs.  The sleeves were almost black in color and reminded me of the ancient dried blood stains I’d seen in ruined buildings all throughout the Wasteland.  Beneath the trench coat, he wore a very familiar style of black armor across his upper body.  Through the holes of the sleeves, I could see it also covered his forelegs as well.  It was the sort worn by Equestria’s law enforcement ponies shortly before the war had started as well as the type given to the Stables for their Security force.  It was very similar to my own in fact.  The style had never really changed overly much through the years, though it looked more heavily worn like what Carrion wore.  Across his chest was a light brown belt which held a single holstered revolver.  Unlike the rest of him, the weapon looked very well cared for… along with the silver star pinned to his breast plate.  It too was very similar to my own… in fact, it was an exact match with the words, “Equestrian Marshal”, written boldly across the top.

I blinked in surprise at seeing an actual Equestrian Marshal before me… in the flesh… sort of.  As I stood shocked, the stranger had stopped before one of the ghouls who’d been milling about near me.  She was a unicorn mare wearing the remains of an Equestrian Army uniform and armor, who was staring dully towards him.  The stranger was about to ask the feral another question, for I assumed she had been the Private Jitterbug he’d yelled for.  However, his eyes quickly shifted past her face and fixed upon me as I sat just behind the mare.  

His glowing orbs widened as he noticed the badge I wore and he took a careful step around the feral mare.  I saw his lips moving, but no sound was coming from them as he approached me slowly.  He seemed as surprised as I was as he came to a halt a few steps away from me.  His eyes finally rose from the badge to look me in the face.  At last, he seemed to find his voice, reminding me heavily of Carrion’s gravelly tone.  Though it had a slight accent to it, similar to those ponies I’d encountered across the Equestrian west… no, not quite… it sounded slightly different.

“Thank th’ stars… Ah… Ah was beginnin’ ta wander if anypony else survived th’ zebra attack.”  His stunned look turned to one of joy as he reached out a hoof towards me.  I lifted my right and shook the other Marshall’s own… no… he was the real thing… I just wore the badge.  “It’s been weeks since th’ attack and we was beginnin’ ta lose hope of ever seenin’ anypony else from beyond th’ forest.  A few was thinkin’ we was it...”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the words died in my throat as I processed what he’d just said.  It had been weeks since the attack… attacks by the zebra… anypony survived the attack.  Was he speaking of the bombings?  Those had happened longer than a week ago… perhaps he was speaking of a more recent attack, by raiders or something?  As I looked at his face, I began doubting that’s what he meant.  I then remembered reading something in the welcoming guide I’d received about San Ponsisco weeks ago, as well as hearing Carrion once mention something similar.  

Some ghouls simply couldn’t handle what had become of them, the state of living in a dead body and most became ferals as their minds broke.  It could happen the moment they awoke to see what they’d become, or weeks or even years later.  Some, however, simply slipped into their own little world… reliving events that had occurred before the war, or minutes before their deaths.  They simply refused to believe what they saw around them and thought it had been only hours instead of years.  Often times, they would wander about the site of their former home or work and see it as it had been.  The Welcome Guide had warned new citizens of the city to beware of any ghoul displaying these traits.  If somepony ever showed them the truth, or if they ever realized it themselves, they would be driven insane by the knowledge and revert into savage ferals that lashed out at anypony nearby.  Luckily for me, the ghouled Marshall took my lack of a response as something other than confusion.

“Landsakes, ya look a might bit rough there.  Had a run in with more of them zebra infiltrators Ah take it?” he asked, eyes shifting from me to the mess of torn flesh behind me that had been the raider.  The ghoul wrinkled his muzzle at the sight and spat towards the remains.  “Bastards been roamin’ th’ highway lookin’ for us for th’ past couple days now.”

I suppose that explained the missing supply caravans to Old Oaks… they’d likely come across groups of feral ghouls wandering the forest and, given the raider’s reaction and what I’d almost done… they’d likely opened fire.  I really couldn’t fault them for it.  After all, I’d done the same thing in Kanter City.  Once the ferals’ anger had been raised, the caravans had likely been swarmed by more than they could easily handle and were overwhelmed.  I glanced to the raider’s remains and winced.  Not a good way to die… but then, there wasn’t ever a good way to die I suppose.  

“Come on then, let’s get ya inside th’ cave and patched up ‘fore infection settles in,” the armored ghoul was saying as he moved over to stand beside me.  He offered a shoulder for me to lean on.  

I nodded my head once to the suggestion before shaking my head to the offer of help walking, trying to indicating I could walk on my own without speaking.  I didn’t trust myself to speak just yet, until I could figure out what to do about the situation I’d found myself in…  I was also attempting not to breath a whole lot near him.  The smell coming off him was very overpowering and I felt tears forming in the corners of my eyes as it assaulted my nose.  

He merely snorted and shrugged a bit before turning back to the ferals to issue more orders to them, of all things.  “Jitterbug, get that corpse outta th’ camp ‘fore th’ younin’s see it.  Miss Mint Julep won’t take kindly if th’ foals start havin’ nightmares again.”

Foals?  They had more foals here than just the one?  Sweet Celestia… one was more than bad enough… but more?

As I began making my way towards the entrance to the cave, I looked back to see the ferals’ reactions to his commands.  I expected they’d simply continue to stare blankly at him as they had me.  However, much to my further surprise, the ghoul he’d spoken to was dragging the remains of the raider away from the clearing with her mouth.  A few of the others had wandered off to stand near the edge of the clearing.  While it wasn’t the most coordinated attempt at keeping watch… it did appear to be what they were doing.  I glanced over to the ghoul walking beside me and wondered how he was controlling them… the stories I’d heard had mentioned that ferals would largely leave a normal ghoul alone so long as he or she didn’t attack them.  Still… to see it happening was unexpected and to see them actually following his orders was something else.  The Marshal noticed my look back and must have thought I was worried about it as he spoke towards me.

“Ah know they’re just civilians and not warriors, but they’ve had a crash course in fightin’ recently.  Nothin’ will sneak up on us, Ah promise ya.”  His glowing eyes went to my right foreleg and he cocked his head a bit.  “Still, I’m a mite glad that fancy gizmo of yer’s stopped that damnable racket it was makin’.   Don’t need makin’ findin’ us any easier.  What’s th’ matter with it, broke?”

I arched a brow in confusion to the ghoul and, in response, he motioned with his snout once more towards my right foreleg and my Pipbuck… which was no longer clicking madly with radiation warnings.  I stumbled a bit in surprise and looked down to the soft glowing green display.  The radiation meter had indeed stopped it’s steady rise and was holding at a still unhealthy level.  However, it had stopped rising… and what's more, the screen was not flickering as it had since entering the Dead Forest.  I noticed that even the E.F.S. had returned.  I took a quick check to see just what my guide registered as.  Green… but he was the only one.  

That’s not to say the horde of ghouls outside the cave registered as red… they just didn’t register at all.  I looked from the green screen of my Pipbuck to the rock walls of the cave and tilted my head.  Stone had mentioned areas free of radiation within the forest.  I guess I’d stumbled upon one.  That’s not to say the cave wasn’t radioactive… very little in the Wasteland was free completely of the ever present danger of radiation.  It’s just the cave wasn’t as soaked in the deadly stuff as the forest itself, likely due in part to the lack of ash and trees which had soaked up vast amounts of the stuff.  That might also explain why the horde of ferals didn’t show up on my E.F.S.  The radiation beyond the cave’s entrance was too high for it to pick them up.  A fact which was validated a moment later as I checked my map.  It showed the cave I was in now with the exit marked, but nothing else.  Attempting to pull up a map of the outside proved pointless and simply went to static.

“Don’t ya worry none, we’re safe enough here in th’ forest.  Th’ zebras don’t normally try comin’ this far in,” the ghoul marshall said as I finished checking my Pipbuck.  “Now, if’n ya excuse me, Ah’ll go fetch our resident doc.  She’s likely in th’ back with th’ foals.”  With that, he increased his pace and trotted off deeper into the cave, calling out as he went, “Miss Mint Julep, we got us a guest in need of yer tender care.”

The strange ghoul disappeared into the darkness of what appeared to be another opening in the cave room wall.  Perhaps it led deeper into the cave itself or a side chamber?  With a tired and sore groan, I allowed myself to finally sit down upon the surprisingly smooth stone floor and wait for this ‘doctor’ to appear.  Outside I could hear the steady patter of water as the rain continued to fall.  As I waited, I began scanning the dimly lit room I’d entered to pass the time, and to get a better idea of just where I was.  

The light in the room came from two badly dented camping lanterns.  The spark batteries that powered them were likely well past their prime, but both continued to faithfully shine.  They’d been left sitting upon chest high stone slabs attached to the floor of the cave.  The slabs appeared to be makeshift tables, judging by the odds and ends scattered atop them.  The lanterns’ off-white glow cast hundreds of shadows all across the room’s rough, uneven walls.  That meant this must have been a natural cave and not one of pony make.  It was about seven feet in height from the smooth floor to the very jagged ceiling, and about as large as my old room back in the Stable from wall to wall.  The jagged spikes of rock that clung to the ceiling were called stalagmites, I think?  

There was more than just the common wasteland junk and a scattering of loose stones within the cave.  Along the walls were a number of wooden and metal crates stacked rather neatly.  Those near the back of the cave and at the bottom of the stacks appeared to be quite old.  The wooden crates showed signs of rot and surprisingly even a bit of black mold.  However, there was a good number that appeared in far better shape.  Not for the first time, a bad feeling began to settle over me as I stared more closely at those newer containers.  My earlier thoughts on the fate of the missing caravans now seemed correct.  A quick glance back towards where the ghoul Marshal had disappeared showed no signs of his return.  I decided to take a better look at one of the closer crates.

Rising from my haunches, I quickly and quietly trotted towards the nearest stack.  Luckily the heavy rainfall outside, along with my hooves being filled with a mixer of ash and water, kept my hoofsteps largely silent.  Reaching the shipping crates without issue, I noticed that the lid of the top most case had already been pried off before and hastily replaced.  It took little effort to lift the lid enough to see what had been carefully packed inside: pre war medical supplies, the three pink butterflies were a dead giveaway as to what the bags contained.  Among the medical kits were more recently made bandages and drugs for various wasteland illnesses.  All of them had been no doubt meant for the ponies of Old Oaks; supplies that could have prevented the disaster that had befallen them…

The sound of a two sets of hoof steps coming from behind me caught my ears and I hurriedly lowered the lid back into place before turning away from the crate.  I didn’t bother attempting to return to where I’d been, there was simply no time.  Sure enough, I’d barely settled myself back down when two shadowy pony shapes appeared within the darkened hole in the stone wall.  The first to step into the lanterns’ light was the ghoul Marshal who, judging by his facial expression, noticed where I’d gotten.  Behind him trotted another ghoul, most likely the doctor he’d mentioned.  Like the Marshal, she seemed far more similar to Carrion than the ferals outside the cave.  She still wore clothing, though what was left of it was faded and threadbare.  As her own glowing eyes landed upon me, I noticed how they held that same spark of intelligence.  She seemed genuinely surprised to see me, but after a few moments she smiled.

She likely had been a slender built unicorn before the bombing as she now appeared painfully thin.  However, if not for the clear signs of decay scattered about her body, she’d still be quite a beautiful mare.  Another thing that stood out immediately about her was how she carried herself.  She walked with far more grace than any pony I’d ever seen.  Perhaps she had been somepony of importance before the war… a noble’s daughter, or a noble herself?  I’d read that most noble families were largely made up of unicorns, so I suppose it could be possible.  Much of her mane still remained upon her head and neck.  Despite the presence of ash, I could easily see it still had retained it’s soft blue color.  She had it tied back into a ponytail, likely to keep it out of her eyes as she worked on patients.  At the moment though, it appeared to be coming undone with stiff looking strands clinging to the grey coat of her neck and forehead.  

Like every other ghoul I’d seen, there were a number of wounds across her body, exposing muscle and even bone in places.  Life in the wasteland even for the undead seemed quite harsh.  However, much of her body was hidden by the no longer quite so white top she wore.  Three badly stained pink butterflies on the shoulder and breast were still easily seen on it.  Across her back was a pair of medical saddlebags bearing the same symbol and looking in as rough shape as their owner.  She paused for only a moment in the doorway to the cave as she smiled brightly towards me before she began trotting towards me.

“Well landsakes, Bronzestar here was just tellin’ me bout us havin’ ourselves a little ol’ visitor to our home away from home,” she spoke as she approached me.  Her accent reminded me heavily of the movie stars in those old romance movies Ebony had made me watch with her, most of those taking place within the far south.  “Ah do declare Ah’ll hav’ ta apologize ta th’ big brute later for callin’ him a liar.”  Her smile widened as she passed by the Marshal, Bronzestar it seemed, as he cleared his throat a bit.

“But wherever are my manners?  My granny’d tan my backside for forgottin’ ta introduce myself,” she rambled on, ears wilted slightly to the side in embarrassment over the failed introductions.  With a last couple cantering steps, she came to a halt before me and placed a hoof upon her chest, tilting her head towards me.  “My name’s Mint Julep and this here lump of a stallion is Marshal Bronzestar, which Ah imagine he neglected ta mention,” she said as she glanced to the other ghoul in the room, her hoof swinging out to wave towards him.  There was a scowl upon her face, though it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“My name’s Shadow, Miss Julep, it’s a pleasure to meet you and Marshal Bronzestar.  I’m glad to see a pair of friendly faces,” I answered quickly, lest Mint thought me rude.  I perhaps laid it on a bit thick there, but it seemed the sort of thing she’d expect, and her widening smile confirmed it.  

“Well, well… a pony with manners in this day and age, my granny’d be impressed.  Y’all could learn a thing or two from this one, Bronze,” Mint said with a glance to the lawpony standing nearby.  The pony in question merely snorted once more and looked away from the mare.  Mint’s horn lit up suddenly with a soft green glow of magic.  Items in a matching colored glow began to be pulled from within her saddlebags, all fairly common medical tools.  “My word, that zebra sure seemed ta do a number on ya, dear.”  Her smile never faltered as she prepared herself to go to work.  I was surprised to see that she had managed to retain most of her teeth over the years.  “Now, just hold still and Ah’ll get ya fixed up in no time at all!”

I’ll admit, I was at first a bit hesitant about letting a ghoul whose broken mind, while granted was only partly broken, used anything sharp or pointy on me.  However, a quick look at said items relieved some of those fears.  How her medical training had held up despite the physical and mental problems she’d no doubt suffered was beyond me, but the tools she held in her magical grip were free of any signs of rust and stains of blood.  I’d seen far less clean tools in the Stable. 

As I relaxed and allowed her to begin scanning my body for wounds, I idly wondered if she was as bad mentally as Bronzestar seemed to be.  My eyes shifted from the glowing green items circling about me and over to the ghoul Marshal as he watched me closely.  He clearly either could not or would not see the feral ghouls as anything other than healthy ponies.  I looked back to Mint as she mumbled to herself over something she’d noticed.  She could have simply been another doctor or nurse from  one of the San Ponsisco hospitals or one of the small doctors in the local neighborhoods given her mannerisms.  However, she had said I’d been attacked by a zebra and not a spike armored, blood stained, clearly a pony - pony.  It seemed whatever caused Bronzestar to believe only weeks had passed since the bombings was selective… or at least he’d only been selective in what he’d seen.  It seemed likely she believed the same things he did.  

Thankfully, it didn’t take her very long to locate the most severe of my recent wounds… which really anypony with two eyes could see was the cut across my forehead.  My Pipbuck’s medical read out had listed it as a rather deep slice once it’d began working.  Now that I wasn’t fearing for my life at the hooves of a herd of feral ghouls, I could feel a good deal of swelling above my right eye.  I suppose that’s why it was so blurry… at least I hope that was the only cause.  My Pipbuck had continued to helpfully label a number of wounds all across my body, most of them minor cuts and scrapes.  A white piece of cloth floated up near my face.  It looked as clean as the rest of her tools, but it also looked about ready to fall apart from constant use.  I also saw a bottle of alcohol floating up beside it, which tipped forwards to allow some of the cleaning liquid to pour out upon the cloth.  

Oh this was going to fucking sting like a son of a bitch…  a moment after I thought it, she gave her own professional medical opinion on the matter which seemed to agree with my more colorful one.

“Now, Ah’m right sorry ta say that this is gonna hurt a might bit, but there’s nothin’ for it.  We gotta get that there wound cleaned out ‘fore an infection sets in,” she said softly.  Her glowing eyes shifted to look me in the face, a look of concern evident in those unnatural orbs.  Once more, I was reminded of just how well she’d fit in with the medical staff back in San Ponsisco… I was sure Doctor Kindheart would welcome the help in his clinic with Spirit gone… if she survived learning the truth that is.   I nodded my head as I refocused on the matter at hoof, showing Mint that I understood and prepared myself for the pain to come.  As I did so, her eyes shifted back to the wound while the glowing white cloth floated closer to my brow.  A moment later the cooling feel of a wet cloth pressing against my face was quickly replaced with the sting of the rubbing alcohol.  I bit back the curse that threatened to spill out of my mouth and simply focused on the ground before my hooves.  I watched the alcohol that’d spilled out of the bottle run across the smooth grey stone as she worked.  Carefully as she could, she cleaned the large head wound of blood and ash, the once white cloth turning an off pink color as she poured more alcohol over it each time it was pulled away from my face.  The puddle of rubbing alcohol before my hooves was turning the stone a darker grey as more spilled out across the floor whenever she wrung it out.  Swirls of red mixed into the odd color combo.

After several minutes of gentle scrubbing (I was rather thankful none of the blood had had a chance to dry into my fur as that would have made things even more interesting), she levitated a red bottle from her saddlebag and removed the cork with her magic.  It was then floated up to my lips and I quickly drank it.  I felt the healing magic within beginning to mend the wound upon my head, as well as those all across my body from the fall down the hill.  The blurriness from my right eye began to clear up somewhat and I could more clearly see the two sitting before me.  The swelling had also begun to lessen and my Pipbuck began updating my health status.  My rad count was still rather high, but the minor wounds had all but disappeared and the head wound had been downgraded to minor.

‘Ah’m afraid that’s all Ah can do for yer wounds at th’ moment.  Th’ swellin’ round yer eye’s already goin’ down and that nasty cut’s mendin’ well with th’ help of that there potion Ah gave ya,” Mint said as her tools began floating back into her saddle bags.  “Th’ potion should help with th’ swellin’ as well and Ah’d say in a couple hours it’ll be all but gone.”  Her smile faltered a bit and she sat herself down across from me with a sigh.  “Ah’m afraid Ah can’t really tell if’n there’s been more damage ta th’ eye itself, at least not till we get ya looked at all proper at a hospital.”  The last bit she said seemed more aimed at the other stallion in the room, who glanced up at the doctor.

“Damnit, Mint… Ah’ve told ya once afore.  Until we know more bout what’s goin’ on beyond th’ forest, we can’t risk th’ lives of th’ civilians,” Bronzestar responded, to what sounded like an old argument of their’s… I doubted either of them knew just how old.  The marshal turned his gaze away from Mint, back to the rock table across the cave from where we sat.

Following the two ghouls’ stare, I spotted what appeared to be an old, rusted and very battered looking two way radio sitting atop the makeshift table.  Beside it were bits of wiring and tools, along with a number of other parts.  I noticed there were also a good deal of empty cans of soda and foil packages.  The remains of whoever had been working to repair the radio I imagine.

“Where th’ hell is Open Mic anyway… that blasted radio DJ said she’d have that ol’ military radio back up and runnin’ in no time,” the marshal added, looking from the battered radio back to Mint and I.  The medical pony was just finishing with her repacking when she answered.

“Ah told ya she was gettin’ sick a couple days ago, Bronze.  She’s been workin’ herself ta exhaustion tryin’ ta fix that there radio.  She’s likely come down with that radiation sickness same as th’ others.  Ah gave ’er a couple hours ta rest.  Give ’er a day and Ah’m sure she’ll be back on her hooves along with th’ others.”

As she answered him, I chanced another look over to the radio and the items scattered around it.  All of them were covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt.  Somehow I doubted she’d gotten any better, or that she’d be getting back to work on it.  She’d likely turned into one of the ferals outside the cave walls.  I sighed to myself and wondered just how long they’d been waiting for Open Mic to get better.  What Bronze said next, however, got my full attention.

“‘Sides, ain’t nopony goin’ nowhere till Ah ask some questions of this here stranger.”  Shuffling hoof steps approaching me indicated the marshal had stepped closer, as did his odor... 

“Now just hold on a sec, Bronze, what’er ya tryin’ ta say?  Ya don’t trust yer fellow marshall?” Mint asked, coming to my defence quickly.

I turned away from the radio to face the marshal standing before me.  His eyes looked me over more closely than he had before, perhaps looking for evidence to say I wasn’t who I said I was.  Well… that’s a problem, isn’t it?  I really wasn’t a marshal, at least not as he’d known them.  Mint rose up from her sitting position to lay a hoof upon the armored shoulder of her fellow ghoul, drawing his attention away from me and giving me a moment to think.  After all, I couldn’t really be honest with either of them about who I was and where I’d come from…

I realized quickly that I’d just been placed in a very bad position… and a potentially very dangerous one if what I’d learned about ghouls in San Ponsisco was correct.  If I told them I wasn’t a true marshal, but a Stable pony out attempting to protect ponies, that would lead to more questions.  Why were ponies in a Stable to begin with?  I looked between Mint and Bronze as both began staring at me.  The latter appeared to be processing what Mint had said to him, but I could tell he had an answer already for her.  I’d have to tell them something.  But what?

“That’s just th’ thing… Ah’ve never heard of another marshal bein’ in th’ area, Mint.  Or of one named Shadow.”  At that, Mint lowered her hoof and looked over to me, a hint of worry on her face. 

Well… it was now or never...  

“I haven’t been a marshal long to be honest, only a week or so and I’m not originally from this area,” I began, racking my brain on anything I’d learned about the marshals when I was reading history books back in the Stable.  Bronze seemed to have indicated that the Marshals might have been assigned different areas of Equestria to patrol.  It made sense, as I seemed to recall reading something about the Marshals being a small force of law enforcement ponies.  To do what the history books had said would mean that they’d have to have been split up all across the country.  If so, then it was possible marshals working close together might know of one another’s whereabouts in case they needed help.  I quickly thought up something that might seem plausible to the ghoul.  “I’m originally from Kanter City.”  While I hated to associate myself with that… place… it was at least close to the truth.  And far enough away from Old or New Oaks for him not to have ever heard of me… maybe.

“Ah reckon that seems likely… th’ High Marshall was plannin’ on trainin’ a few new ponies in th’ city next time he was visitin’ it,” Bronze said slowly, ears perking a bit.  It still sounded as if he was a little unsure, though.  Perhaps he thought I was some sort of zebra spy.  Ponies during the war were quite paranoid of zebra spies… and I guess they had good reason.  The zebras were masters at stealth and information gathering and had us beat on both almost at every turn.  “Still… it’s a long way from Kanter City ta here.”  The ghoul’s eyes narrowed as he watched me.  Mint seemed to pick up on this and looked over to him.

“One of my friends is a pegasus.  When the bombings began, I asked for her help in going out to find ponies in the outlying towns.  She had access to a sky chariot due to her rank in the military,” I answered.  Again, it was true enough and it seemed to ease Mint’s worries.  Bronze, however, merely snorted a bit.

“Might bit convenient, don’t ya think?  Th’ army just lettin’ yer friend borrow military hardware?”

“I… suppose it could seem to be.  Regardless, it’s the truth.”  That was all I could really say.  However, it was Mint who spoke next.

“Ta be honest, it’s possible, Bronze.”  The marshal turned to look at the mare behind him, arching a brow at her.  “How do ya think Ah managed ta get those supplies sent ta th’ hospital?  My aunt works in th’ Ministry of Peace as a nurse and she managed ta pull a few strings for me.”

“Ah… reckon so…” he said, looking between us and clearly attempting to find something wrong with my story.  If he looked hard enough, I’m sure he could find at least a half dozen things wrong.  I decided to speak up myself before he could ask me any specific questions that only a true marshal would know.

“Look… I don’t want to cause any problems… but I really need to get back to my friends.  My friends and I were answering a distress signal we’d picked up a short time ago, it was being broadcast by survivors who had holed up in the ruins of Old Oaks.  It’s why I asked her for the use of a sky chariot.  The ponies who sent out the signal were under attack by raiders…” Bronze and Mint both looked at me with confusion, and I realized I’d let slip something that they weren’t familiar with.  I quickly attempted to repair the damage.  “It’s what we’ve taken to calling the… zebras wearing spiked armor.”  That seemed to ease Mint, but Bronze still didn’t seem one hundred percent convinced.  It was him I’d need to convince completely… after all, he had the weapon and the feral ghouls at his command.

“Ah’d thought anypony still livin’ in Old Oaks woulda died in th’ fires or woulda fled east… are they alright?” Mint asked.  Despite the otherworldly glow to her eyes, I saw a familiar look in them: concern for wounded ponies.  I’d seen the look on both Spirit and Spearmint’s face often enough in the past.   

“Most of them are, but I’m afraid a good deal of them died defending the town before we’d arrived.  We lost at least another four or more along the road just a couple hours ago.”

“Oh my stars… is that how ya come ta be wanderin’ th’ forest all alone?”  As I nodded my head in response, she began to stand up.  “Well, if’n ya’ll can wait a bit, Ah can load up some medical supplies and come take a look at them wounded ponies…” the kind hearted ghoul said, starting to turn away and do just that when Bronzestar spoke up once more.

“Tarnation, Mint!”  The ghoul stomped his hoof onto the hard stone floor.  “Ah ain’t finished askin’ questions just yet!”

“Bronze!” Mint called out, eyes still narrowed and a fierce scowl fixed upon her face.  “Ya keep yer voice down, ya’ll wake th’ little ones.”  Not surprisingly, that seemed to cowl the stallion.  “‘Sides, yer bein’ a might bit paranoid Ah think.  Not everypony is a zebra spy out ta kill us like those videos say,” the mare added, tilting her head to the side.  “My word… th’ first friendly face we see and yer treatin’ him like a criminal.”

“Ah’m just bein’ careful is all… Ah don’t want a repeat of what happened th’ last time we thought we’d found a friendly face,” the stallion responded, eyes shifting quickly from me to Mint and back again.  His ears folded back against the brim of his hat.

“What happened?” I asked, earning a pained look from Mint and an angry one from Bronze.  While it might not have been the best question to ask, it at least kept the conversation going.

“Zebras happened,” was the stallion’s only response.  I was content to leave it at that, though Mint seemed inclined to at least explain it a little more.

“It wasn’t long after ponies started gettin’ sick.  Bronzestar volunteered ta lead a couple ponies out along th’ road and look for help.  They’d come across what looked like a group of ponies fleein’ their homes with whatever they could carry in a couple wagons.”  As she began speaking, she sat back down upon the smooth stone floor.  Her eyes shifted from the marshal to me.  “Bronze and two of th’ ponies he was with approached the lead wagon and was about ta ask’em for help when they began shootin’ at’em.  Killed the others and badly wounded Bronze.”

“Celestia damned black magic...” the stallion muttered, looking down at the ground.  “Th’ others with me started shootin’ back.  Luckily they’d been in th’ army and knew how ta use their rifles.  When the shootin’ finally stopped Ah’d lost another pony but we’d killed everypony that’d been in those wagons.  After th’ fightin’ died down, Ah checked one of th’ dead ponies and found an amulet on ’em… when Ah took it off one, they changed back inta a zebra.”

“I see…”  So, that had happened soon after they’d entered the forest.  Then they’d gotten sicker… and likely had hidden in the caves as the fires raged outside.  Carrion had said it’d burned for days… perhaps it hadn’t yet reached the section of the forest they’d been forced to stop in and after that… well.  I shut my eyes tiredly and sighed softly as I realized the full depth of the tragedy that had played out here.  “Did you ever try again?” I asked, knowing the answer already as the results of those attempts sat stacked behind me.

“A couple times… each time with th’ same results.  Wagon loads of what look like ponies travelin’ along th’ road.  Th’ second they see any of us they open fire and we’re either forced ta run or fight for our lives.”  I shut my eyes and sighed softly.  “We ain’t found any amulets on ’em since th’ first time, but no pony would fire on another.”  No, I suppose in their time they wouldn’t.  “Near as we can figure, th’ zebras have been raidin’ pony towns up north and have been sendin’ them along th’ road ta somewhere else.”

“So that’s where you’d come across so many supplies?” I asked, opening my eyes once more and looking back to the marshal sitting across from me.

“Seemed a waste ta let ’em sit out on th’ road.  ‘Sides, we’d been forced ta flee New Oaks quickly and didn’t have time ta grab anythin’ from our homes ta survive out in th’ wilderness,” Bronze answered, ears rising back up a bit.  “Ain’t gonna let them striped bastards plunder pony homes and take it Celestia knows where.  Still, Ah wish we coulda learned what’s been happenin’ beyond th’ forest.”  At this, Mint blinked and gave the marshal an odd look before speaking herself. 

“Well, Ah might just be a small town doctor, Bronze, and no street smart marshal like yerself or tactically wise as th’ Captain was, but if yer so keen on learnin’ what’s become of our country, maybe ya might think of askin’ this here new marshal a couple other questions?  After all… he’s not from New Oaks as he said and he’s been beyond th’ forest.”  A familiar look came over the ghoul mare’s face.  One I’d seen often enough on the face of my sister when I wasn’t getting the hint… or as she called it, when I was being a stupid, thick headed stallion.  “Ah imagine he might know a thing or two about how things are goin’ for us... perhaps even knowin’ what’s become of our Princesses’.”   

“Well… how bout it, Marshal?”

So… there it was.  The question I’d been dreading they’d ask.  One I’d attempted to dodge, but deep down I knew it’d be asked eventually.  If our roles had been reversed, I know it’s one I would have asked as soon as I could.  They both seemed to believe what I’d told them so far… so what would I tell them about the world beyond the forest?  

The truth?  Watch the world they’d built up around themselves fall apart as they realize just how long it’d been?  Why nopony was coming to their rescue?  Sorry guys, Equestria burned to the ground around you and everypony you knew died a long time ago.  Oh by the way, you’re both walking corpses.  What then?  Would I be forced to kill them as what was left of their minds crumbled?  

Or should I lie… tell them what they wanted to hear instead.  Keep what sanity they had intact and their lives… such as they are, safe.  Let them keep on believing that the world they lived in still existed beyond the forest.  That only a few days had passed and ponies were fighting off the zebra invaders?  That their loved ones had perhaps escaped the bombings?  Was it right to lie to them?

And what of the foal I was following?  If I told them the truth and they did break, I’d be forced to fight off the currently docile ghouls and she’d be getting further away from me.  I looked up into the hopeful faces of the ghouls around me and realized I had no good choice to make… either one I picked was wrong one way or another.

So I decided to go with a third option.  A bit of both.

“To be honest with you… I know little more than either of you do.  The past few days have been very chaotic for everyone,” I began, reaching for the canteen at my side.  “Communications all across Equestria have been down since the bombings so nopony’s sure of what's going on beyond their little corners of the country.  The only thing we know for certain is that all the major cities have been hit by Balefire bombs, same as New Oaks and Kanter City.”

At that, Mint gasped and fell back onto her haunches, eyes wide and ears wilted to the sides.  “Th’ death toll must be in th’ thousands…”  The ghoul mare hurriedly looked away from Bronze and myself as she fought back the urge to cry.  “Ah… Ah’d hoped New Oaks was th’ only place hit… that it was just some sorta mistake…”

I took the opportunity to take a drink from my canteen and gather my thoughts.  Everything I’d told them thus far was true… more or less.  Since they’d believed only a few days had past, I’d left the details of what I’d been through to that.  The past few days had indeed been hectic for my friends and I, fighting to protect the ponies of Old Oaks from the raiders.  As for communication, that was completely true- phones, radios, and television stations had all gone dark that day.  Beyond the odd radio broadcast, nothing else was heard across the wasteland.

“What of Canterlot?  Th’ Princesses?” Bronze asked, the marshal looking somewhat fearful of the answer I’d give him.  After all, even the half truth could be painful.

For those of us living in this Equestrian Wasteland, the Princesses were one of two things.  To some they were larger than life figures, the ponies who had helped build Equestria into what it had been.  Powerful beings who had defended the country throughout recorded history.  But, they were just ponies... ponies who did make mistakes as the ruined cities and homes of the surrounding countryside could attest.  To others, however, they were much more than just Equestrias former rulers: they were immortal goddesses.  When the bombings had occurred, they had assented to another plan where they would make a paradise for the ponies that followed them.  To these ponies, they were worshipped and prayed to.  I suppose I fell somewhere in between those two, neither leaning one way or another.  

But for ponies like Bronze and Mint… the Princesses were very real ponies, not figures of history or goddesses of some holy scripture.  Even if they’d never seen them personally, they still knew they lived with them in the same country.  They lived in the capital to rule over them and protect them.  They’d likely heard them speak over the radio or on the television set.  They may even have met them… given the photos I’d seen in Pipsqueak’s attic.  To learn that they had most likely died would be a terrible blow… one that they might not recover from in their current mental state…

“Nothing’s confirmed, just that Canterlot was hit but had a shield raised at the time.”  Again it was true, mostly.  There wasn’t much concrete evidence about what had become of Equestria’s Princesses.  Rumors that they had survived the bombings and fled to a Stable were told, alongside those that their broken remains had been discovered at the base of the mountain their capital had stood atop.  Wild had once spoken about the Canterlot ruins and the strange pink cloud that clung to the ruined capital of Equestria.  The mare had flown across it once while protecting a supply caravan to a small Enclave outpost.  Stone had mentioned that anypony who’d ever attempted to enter the ruins to loot them for supplies and magical artifacts had never been heard from again.

“It’s worse than any of us thought,” Bronze muttered to himself.  The news I’d told them had shaken the stallion, though I hoped it hadn’t broken him. “Ah reckon that’s why nopony’s been lookin’ for us then?” he asked to which I nodded my head, while screwing the lid back atop my canteen.  “What of th’ Army?  Th’ Ministries?  What about th’ Marshals?  Surely there’s somepony takin’ charge out there?”

“I’m afraid nearly every military base was targeted by the zebras, as were the Ministries.  While I haven’t visited many, I doubt they’re in any real shape to do much.  As for… our fellow Marshals I’m not sure really.  You’re the first one I’ve found.  There’s places where ponies are taking charge, small towns and settlements that weren’t targeted by the zebras.  Crossroads, Tombstone, and Janesville to name a few.  I wish I had better answers for you, Bronze, but I’m afraid that’s all I know.”

“Its more than we knew, Ah’m sure it ain’t as bad in other places.  After all, no news is good news,” Mint said.  Despite her brave words, I could hear the worry in her voice and the hint of tears in her glowing green eyes.  The ghoul mare looked from me to Bronze who moved a bit so he might look out of the cave entrance which stood behind me.

“Maybe… but it’s clear we can’t expect any help comin’ anytime soon,” the marshal said with a grunt, ears folded back as he stared towards the exit of the cave.  Outside the rain continued to fall, the sudden silence that had fallen between the three of us was now filled with the steady patter of rain drops striking the stone walls of the cave’s entrance.  Mint broke the silence, speaking towards her fellow ghoul survivor.

“No, Ah reckon that hope’s burned away with th’ forest around us.  Whatever we do, it’s clear ta all of us that we can’t stay here,” she said softly.  Her own ears wilted to the side of her head as she looked away from the marshal and down to the floor.  “Th’ nights are only gonna be gettin’ colder and th’ youngin’s won’t survive a winter in this damp cave.  Th’ elderly we got with us ain’t gonna be doin’ much better…” 

“Ah know, Mint, Ah know… we gotta rethink what we’re gonna do and soon, for all our sakes,” he responded without looking over to the mare sitting to his side.  His eyes were still fixed upon the cave entrance.  “Ah’d best go check on th’ sentries right quick, make sure none of’em are slackin’,” he added after a moment of silence and stood up.

I looked between the two ghouls once more and pondered my next decision.  Time was running out for the little filly I’d come to find as well as for the ponies and friends I’d left behind traveling along the highway.  It was running out for these ghouls as well… so should I just up and leave them?  Or… perhaps there was something I could do for them?  Somewhere they could go that would be better than this irradiated forest.  I was about to speak when I felt a hoof touch my shoulder.

“Let ’em go… he needs time ta think bout what ya’ve told us,” Mint said softly as Bronzestar trotted to the entrance and back out into the rain soaked morning.  I suppose she was right… still…

“Sadly time is not something I have a lot of at the moment,” I said as I stood up, feeling a bit light headed.  Thankfully, the throbbing pain that had filled my head earlier was all but gone.  Once it passed, I quickly did a quick check of my equipment.

“Ya’ll worried bout th’ ponies ya were leadin’ away from Old Oaks?” she asked as I began reloading Luna’s Ruse.

“Yes, the last I’d seen of them was before entering the forest.  They were being chased by a band of raiders…” I glanced to the mare for a moment.  I was still slightly worried about how she and Bronze would react to the name “raiders”, but it seemed they had fully accepted my explanation.  She still seemed confused about something, however. “Something wrong?” I asked, turning my head fully towards her.

“Ah’m a might curious ta be honest.  It’s somethin’ that’s been botherin’ me since ya explained what ya was doin’ here in th’ first place.”  I nodded my head towards her to continue, and she asked, “Why did ya leave’em to come into th’ forest anyway?”

“Well, one of the wagons my friends and I were protecting was overturned in the fighting and a young foal ran off into the forest alone… not sure why, maybe she was hurt,” I answered, turning back to focus on slotting the last couple shells into the drum feed of my gun before going on to explain, “Her mother and one of the stallions pulling the wagon survived the crash, but the rest of her family did not.”  Come to think of it, was it her mother that survived?  Was it even her family that she was with?

“A young filly, ya say?” I was set to simply answer with a nod and slip another round into the drum, but the tone of her voice caught my attention.  I instead turned around to look into the ghoul’s glowing eyes, brow arched a bit.  “Perhaps five years old, earth pony with an amber coat and blond mane?”  Once again, I nodded.  While I’d not gotten a very good look at the filly, I’d seen the mare we’d pulled from the wreckage and she’d matched that description.  “Th’ poor dear came stumblin’ into our camp just twenty minutes before ya’ll dropped in.”

“Is she alright?” I asked, my full attention fixed upon Mint as it was her turn to nod.  A smile formed on her muzzle, but her eyes were sad.

“She’ll be fine once she gets some rest.  Th’ poor little dear was all cut up from her trip through th’ forest and likely that crash.  She had a couple bruised ribs and a sprained ankle.”  She motioned with her horned head towards the tunnel she’d come through earlier.  “She’s restin’ in th’ back with th’ other foals.  Ah gave ’er a health potion, bandaged her ribs and ankle.”

While I was relieved that she wasn’t lost out in the forest, wandering to Celestia and Luna knew where… I was also still worried about her.  “Can I see her?” I asked after a moment of silence.  While Mint seemed a very capable healer, I still had questions about how much of her mind was affected by her transformation into a ghoul.  If she hadn’t noticed the massive amounts of radiation surrounding us, she may not have checked the foal for any… and given how long she’d been without any Rad-Away that could prove just as deadly.

“Of course ya can, hon.  Just follow me and Ah’ll show ya where she’s restin’.  Remember ta be as quiet as ya can, though Ah don’t wanna wake any of ’em,” she answered as she began standing up. 

Following her towards the back of the cave, we entered the side passage she and Bronze had exited from earlier.  It led us even deeper beneath the hillside I’d fallen down.  As it turned out, there were a number of smaller chambers along the passage I found myself standing within.  Ahead, Mint was moving slowly along the smooth floor, horn glowing as she lit the passage.  Though there was light coming from a few of the chambers she passed, and as I trotted to catch up, I noticed the light was coming from the same worn pre war lamps I’d seen in the main chamber.  Of the chambers we passed, I glanced into a couple.  At least those that were lit well enough for me to see within.  Most appeared to have been used as sleeping chambers by the survivors of New Oaks.  The tattered, dust covered bedrolls and blankets scattered about the floors of the chambers appeared not to have been used for sometime, while one we passed had the resting form of another ghoul.  He or she (I couldn’t tell due to the damage their body had suffered) lifted their head as we passed, glowing green eyes watching us.  Laying beside the ghoul were a few personal effects.  I noticed a few more beside the makeshift beds as we passed.

“Ah’m sorry bout Bronzestar’s manners,” Mint said from ahead of me.  I looked away from the side rooms.  “He’s put himself in charge of us all since th’ Captain and a few of his soldiers went off ta try and find us help.  Ah think th’ pressure's gettin’ ta him… he’s really a nice pony once ya get ta know ’im,” she added, looking across her shoulder to me as she spoke.

“The Captain?” I asked her as we came to a bend in the cave.  The ceiling was slightly lower here and I ducked my head, the top of my hat rubbing against the uneven roof.

“Captain Ironshield, he’s a retired Royal Guardsman and th’ commander of New Oaks’ defense force…” she began, though as she went on, her face began to darken once more.  She focused her attention upon the path ahead.  “Least he was while there was still a New Oaks ta defend,” she added softly, ears laying back against her head.

“You said he left the camp?” I asked, attempting to get her mind off the destruction of her home.

“Yes… he and Bronzestar didn’t exactly see eye ta eye on what we needed ta do.  Th’ Captain thought we should try and reach the nearest city or military base ta New Oaks.  He took two of his surviving soldiers with ’im ta try and reach help.  It’s not been long… but Ah’m worried they might’a ran into trouble.” 

I nodded my head and kept silent, wondering just how long ago Captain Ironshield and his ponies left.  It seemed highly likely that it’d happened early on in this ordeal.  Perhaps just days after the transformation into ghouls.  Something told me neither he nor the two ponies who’d followed him were coming back.

“I’m sure they’ll be alright,” I said instead, and she smiled.  Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better about lying to the poor mare.  I didn’t get anymore time to think upon my feelings as it seemed we’d reached our destination, another opening into a larger cave.  

Ahead of me, Mint slowed to a quiet walk and motioned for me to do the same.  Mindful of the fact she’d mentioned foals, and that the wounded filly I’d been following was asleep herself, I followed her example and lightened my steps.  The medical mare stepped through the opening and I followed right behind her.  The room I entered was similar to the larger entrance cave, though it was a bit smaller.  As I looked about the room, I faltered and Mint gave me an annoyed look at the sudden sound of clopping hooves upon the stone floor.  

Like the larger room, this one was filled along two sides with stacked crates and even a few barrels and ammo cases.  The remaining two sides of the natural cave were free of the recovered supplies, but instead had a number of badly rusted cots lined up along its wall.  It was the forms laying upon them that had caused me to falter.  Small huddled bodies laying upon the tattered remains of pillows and blankets.  Their glowing green eyes settled upon me as I stumbled past the doorway.  Foals… most of them as young as Sugar Pie… and all of them as undead as Mint, Bronze, or Carion.  Not all of them though, I quickly noticed.  One lay sound asleep upon the nearest bed.  A young filly who I recalled seeing upon the stuck wagon, clinging to her mother in fear.

Her tiny chest rising and falling as she slept peacefully, for which I was thankful.  If anything were to give a young pony nightmares, it would have been the events of the past few days.  I noticed parts of her small body were wrapped in clean bandages, all free of any signs of blood.  It would appear Mint’s assessment of the young filly’s wounds was correct, but I still worried about her rad count.

Stepping closer, I was intent upon checking her with my E.F.S. when my hoof brushed up against something lying upon the floor beside her bed.  As I looked down, my ears perked to the sound of a glass bottle rolling across the stone flooring.  In the dim lighting from the lanterns, I caught the glint of the bottle as rolled to a halt against one of the rusted wheels of the cot.  As I bent down to get a closer look at it, I noticed the label had ended facing upward.  The familiar symbol of Rad-Away blazed upon it was clear to my eyes.  Arching a brow, I rose quickly back upright and scanned the still sleeping filly.  I was somewhat surprised to see that her radiation levels were well within the green.  So surprised was I that I barely noticed the empty bottle floating up in the glowing field of green magic.  At least until it was just passing by my shoulder.

“Now, how’d this find its way down there?” Mint asked as the empty bottle floated closer to her face.  She raised an eyebrow as she looked from the spent Rad-Away to the sleeping foal.

I was wondering much the same thing as the ghoul mare, looking past her to the stacked crates in the room.  It seemed likely one of them had contained the medicine given what I’d already seen.  But, how did it get from them to the filly?  She surely didn’t have the strength to go over and get it herself… from what Mint had said, she’d fallen asleep shortly after she’d been treated for her wounds.  Could she have woken up and gotten it?  It seemed the most likely answer as most parents taught their children about the hazards of radiation as soon as they were old enough to walk.

My eyes traveled from the stacked crates to the filly laying asleep upon her cot.  I would have left it at that if movement hadn’t caught my attention.  I looked up from the filly to the cot beside her, and one of the ghoul foals, a young filly a few years older than Sugar… or she had been.  Like Mint, she seemed to have retained much of her coat and mane.  Both of which were blue, her coat a much darker shade while her mane and tail were more lighter.  She also bore a cutie mark, a shooting star.  She’d lifted her head up from where it’d been laying upon her forehooves and was looking over towards the sleeping foal.  When she noticed I was watching her, her eyes shifted to look into mine. 

Unlike the feral ghouls outside, her glowing orbs held that same spark of intelligence that Mint and Bronze had.  She still retained her mind, only… there was something unsettling about her stare.  I’d never seen a foal with such an intense stare… in fact it reminded me more of an adult… of a pony many times older than what she should be.  To my further surprise, the mysterious ghoul foal nodded her head once to me before laying it back down upon her forehooves.  Her eyes shut closed a moment later.

It seemed that not everypony within the cave was blissfully unaware of their fate, or how much time had passed… if she knew, what about the others around her?  Did they know too?  

“Well… perhaps the bottle had fallen from your saddlebags earlier, Mint,” I answered the mare’s question.  The ghoul filly across from me cracked open a single eye to stare at me once again.  I offered a small smile and nod of my head to which, for a brief moment, she returned with one of her own.  However, her eyes dropped back to the sleeping foal between us and the smile faded as quickly as it had appeared.  Shifting upon her cot, she turned her back to us and the ghoul foal laid her head back down upon her hooves.

“Ah suppose yer right,” Mint said from behind me, the green glowing empty bottle floating towards the back of the cave.  “Not like it was anythin’ we’re usin’, we’ve got more than enough Rad Away for one ta break on th’ floor.”  With that, the bottle floated down into what appeared to be a trash bin, made up of an empty wooden crate.  “If yer satisfied th’ young dear’s alright, Ah’d like ta ask ya about th’ wounded ponies ya have with ya before ya race back out into th’ forest.”

“What makes you think I’m going to go charging off?  And besides, I didn’t think Bronze was going to let you help?” I asked, turning away from the resting foals to look at Mint.  The mare glanced over towards me as she trotted towards the medical supplies stored within the cave.

“Ya was all but set to take off a couple minutes ago before Ah mentioned th’ filly.  Besides, Ah’ve seen that look on yer face often enough before.  Ah know yer gonna go off lookin’ for yer friends and those ponies ya came to protect.”  When all I did was look at her confusedly, she simply smiled and turned back towards the nearest crate, horn glowing as the lid was lifted away.  “Bronze usta get that look all th’ time back in New Oaks and more so lately whenever one of th’ others goes missin’ for too long.”  A moment of silence passed before she added,  “Ah suppose it’s a Marshal thing.”




*     *     *     *     *




After a little over twenty minutes of work, Mint finally seemed content with the stock pile of medical supplies we’d retrieved from the creates.  My saddlebags were bulging with everything from simple bandages to those enchanted with healing spells.  A dozen or more healing potions and, much to the mare’s confusion, as much Rad Away as I could stock up on was also added.  When asked why I needed so much, I’d been forced to lie and say that some of the ponies we’d rescued had been exposed to high levels of radiations after the bombings.  It seemed enough for her, and she asked no more about it.  Instead, she focused on helping me get the life saving materials into my overburdened packs.  

When we at last exited the room, the ghoul medical mare began seeking more ways for me to transport supplies to the wounded ponies in the caravan.  Luckily I managed to convince her that there was no way I could afford to leave any of my ammo behind.  Instead, I suggested we tie a few medpacks together and secure them to my saddlebags’ straps and along my back.  My movements would be hindered, but I had a feeling Spirit and Fiona would need these things, and soon.  There seemed little left for me to do but set off.   However, I would need to see to one final issue before leaving the safety of the camp.

With Mint’s promise to look after the still sleeping foal, I stepped back out of the medical/sleeping area of the ghouls and trotted back towards the central room, and ultimately the outside.  As I moved out into the larger cave like room, I spotted Bronzestar.  The ghoul must have returned while I’d been speaking with Mint and was now seated near the table with all the radio bits scattered about atop it… or at least they were.  They’d been pushed to one side, and something had been rolled out across the flat stone the ghouls had been using as a table.  

One of his ears swiveled back towards me as I entered the room, the only sign he’d heard me.  I stood still for a moment, before taking a few steps towards the stallion.  Despite not being able to see his face, I could tell something was troubling him.  His shoulders were slumped, his tail (what little remained of it) hung limply behind him, and once his ear returned to its forward position, it dropped down to the side.  I had a pretty good idea what was on his mind.

“Ah’m at a loss, Shadow….” the ghoul pony said without turning to look at me.  Taking it as an opening, I stepped closer and spotted what he was so focused upon.  It was a map of Equestria, very similar to the one Bright and I had looked over back in Stable 45… it seemed a lifetime ago.  The map before Bronzestar had seen a lifetime, judging by the numerous creases and tears along its surface, not to mention much of the detail had faded away with time.  “Th scope of all this… it’s just ta much for one pony ta get a grip on.”

“I’m sorry the news I’ve given you couldn’t have been better, Bronze.  The... past couple days have been hectic for everypony,” I answered as I stepped up beside the stone table, looking over the map he had spread out before him.  Once again I managed to be… if not completely honest, honest enough with the confused ghoul.  From his perspective, it had been only a couple of days.

“Ain’t yer fault what happened, Shadow… ain’t yer fault ya had ta tell us th’ truth.”  I winced as he said that.  Luckily, his eyes were fixed upon the map.  “Of what's goin’ on beyond th’ forest.”  He looked away from the map finally and past me, to the boxes stacked neatly along the wall of the cave.  “These supplies ain’t gonna last us forever… and Ah’m a might concerned about lettin’ anypony eat th’ food we took from them damned zebras.”

I followed his gaze to the boxes, once more noticing how bad some of them had gotten.  A half dozen near the back of the cave had almost completely rotted away with time.  He was right about these supplies not lasting them long, certainly not in these conditions.  While I’d seen no sign of running water, I doubted the caves were completely water free.  Whether from humidity or the rain, water was likely getting at the stored supplies.  While not everything would simply rot away, time would ruin the rest… or whatever pests still lived within the forest.  The food that was not canned or made before the war would be the first to go, while the medical supplies would last a bit longer depending on where they were stored… but not forever.  Supplies that had been desperately needed by the ponies of Old Oaks, and perhaps even Janesville as well.  Supplies taken from pony traders who the ghouls had mistaken for zebra.

“If only we had someplace ta go… someplace ta regroup and get our bearings… or someway of gettin’ ahold of somepony in whatever government or military remains.”  He lowered his eyes from the crates and stared at the floor for a few moments.  He spoke again, his voice a bit softer. “Ah ain’t afraid ta admit it, Shadow… Ah just don’t know what ta do for these ponies,” he said without looking at me.  Despite his previous words to the contrary, he still sounded somewhat ashamed to admit it.  I doubted he’d said as much to anypony here, though I had a feeling Mint might have suspected.

“I know you’ve said you’d tried it before, but why haven’t you tried to leave the forest again if things are so dire?  Surely you have enough supplies stockpiled to last you long enough to reach one of the nearby towns or cities?” I asked, sitting down beside him.  The ghoul law pony grunted in response to my question and simply tapped the map sitting before us with a chipped hoof.  

Looking closer at the map, I could see it’s edges were even more worn and frayed than I’d thought.  There were a number of other rips and tears along the middle of the almost hair thin paper.  I noticed a number of alarming dark stains along one corner of the map as well, looking similar to pools of old dried blood.  My eyes wandered away from the stains and after only a moment or so of searching found the area we were at now.  Along the way, I saw that somepony had been adding updates to the map in a similar fashion to how we’d done to our’s back in the Stable.  A few of the marks were faded with time or covered by stains, but some were still easily visible.  Of those marks, New Oaks and Old Oaks had been marked out by a large black ‘X’ along with the hastily scrawled word, ‘destroyed’.  A number of the towns around those two had the word ‘zebras?’ noted beside them, of which Janesville was one.

“Th’ surrondin’ countryside seems ta have been taken over by zebra infiltrators masqueradin’ as ponies,” Bronze said as he noticed where my eyes have moved.  The ghoul’s own glowing orbs narrowed upon the town’s name.

“Have you been to any of them to be sure?  I mean, it could just be bands of zebras moving through the area,” I said, not having heard of any stories from Balefire or Silverluck about ghoul attacks on the surrounding towns when we’d talked about the risks of taking the forest road.  While it could have happened a while back, I’d think so many ghouls appearing near the walls of one would have earned some attention.

“No… not personally anyway…” the ghoul marshall said.  “But th’ day we reached this here cave, a group of army soldiers who’d come with us volunteered ta go out and scout th’ area for anyplace safe we could take th’ survivors.  We ain’t heard back from ’em since, and they were packin’ some serious hardware.”  Bronze sighed and shook his head, before reaching up a hoof to remove his hat.  As the worn, battered cowpony hat left his head, I got a rather shocking and close up look at the insides of a pony’s head.

Right below Bronzestar’s right ear was a good two to three inch wide gash in his flesh running along the side of his skull as well as a slightly smaller hole in the skull itself.  Through that, I could see the decayed bits of his brain.  As I sat there transfixed at the sight, I actually saw bits of his brain pulse and flex as he moved his hoof up to rub his eyes tiredly.  Sickeningly, I’d seen enough wounds over the past month that I realized this one wasn’t fresh or even recent.  It had likely been one he’d suffered a very, very long time ago.  How’d he survived that?  Or had it happened while he’d been fighting against those supposed zebra?  I idly wondered if it could have something to do with his memory problems as well… but that didn’t explain Mint.

“Ah’m afraid if we leave this here cave Ah’ll be losin’ more ponies to this damned insanity that’s gripped th’ world,” Bronze spoke again, breaking me out of my thoughts.  He tossed his hat angrily atop the map, the aged paper not taking the sudden impact well and bits of it cracking in places.

“You could always come with us.”  The words were out of my mouth before I even knew it.  Inwardly I swore to myself, oddly in a voice that sounded similar to Carrion’s.  I suppose if I was to have a voice of reason, it’d be that pony.  Outwardly, I maintained my cool and looked over to see Bronze’s reaction.  He looked surprised by the offer and a bit wary as well.  Well… that was something we both felt.

After all, it’s one thing to take a group of normal ponies from one town to another… despite what I’d seen in the different towns I’d been to, most seemed to be run in similar fashions.  It wouldn’t take much for them to adapt to their new homes.  However, it would be something else entirely to relocate a group of ghouls who were either in denial of what had become of their world or flat out feral.  But I’d already made the offer of help… and it wasn’t like I hadn’t already been thinking about it.  Nopony deserved to remain trapped within this dead forest, alone, slowly losing themselves to the wasteland.  Despite everything they’d done, didn’t they deserve a chance?

“You and your ponies are more than welcome to join the group I’m leading westward towards safety.  While our supplies are limited, you all have more than enough to go around if you don’t mind sharing.  As for Janesville, I know for a fact that it is safe and inhabited by survivors of the bombings.  Besides, it would be far safer for all of us if we traveled together.  With our combined size, no zebra raiding party would dare attack us.”  I wasn’t so sure about actual raiders, however.  They commonly ignored the odds.  As for Janesville being safe, well, it was safer than the forest… I would just have to do some fancy talking to get them to allow the ghouls inside.  If they didn’t… well, there were ghouls living in San Ponsisco, I was sure they would take them in.  Even if I had to lead them there myself.

“It’s a mighty kind offer, Shadow… Ah just don’t know…” Bronze began, the ghoul replacing his hat back atop his head as his eyes scanned the map for any other possibility.  I couldn’t really blame him in being hesitant.  He had a lot of lives on his hooves.  “Ah reckon it’s th’ wisest course of action… Ah’m just worried about what's waitin’ for us out there.” 

Even if he didn’t truly realize it, he’d been living in this pocket of safety for so long and he didn’t want to chance leaving it.  Something I’d felt back in Stable 45, at least until those raiders attacked us.  But I was also worried about what was waiting for him and the other ghouls out there… the truth.  I sighed inwardly and glanced over to the map, knowing that sooner or later once they left the forest they’d need to be told the truth about what had happened and what they were.  Taking a deep breath, I prepared to push my point and reminded myself that we had to take this one problem at a time.

“You said it yourself, Bronze, you can’t stay here forever and sooner or later you’re going to have to make the decision to leave the caves.”  Looking back over to the torn ghoul, I laid a hoof upon his armored shoulder.  “It’d be better to do so while you have friends willing to help everypony out.”  The ghoul’s eyes remained fixed upon the map before him, though his tattered ears swiveled backwards.  After a few more seconds of silence, he nodded his head.

“Ah’m afraid Ah’ve let my fear get th’ better of me… th’ others have been wantin’ ta go somewhere else for a while now.  Yer right of course, it’d be best ta make our move while we got friends willin’ to lend us a hoof.  Ah reckon it’s best ta do so in th’ company of a fellow Marshal as well,” he answered finally, looking up from the map to me.  “When do ya wanna set out?” he asked.

“As soon as possible,” I answered, dropping my hoof from his shoulder to the map upon the table.  I traced the roadway from Old Oaks to Janesville through the forest.  “The longer we wait to set out, the further my group gets away from us and the harder it’ll be for us to link back up with them.  I doubt those raiders have given up so soon.”  Bronze followed the trail and snorted.

“Th’ zebras never seem ta give up… even after they burned th’ world with their dark magic,” he responded, eyes narrowing a bit before he once more shook his head and went on to add, “Ah’ll need ta get Mint Julep started on organizin’ our supplies and gettin’ the foals ready ta travel.  Ah’ll also have ta get some of th’ others ta help carry the supplies... and Ah should leave a message for th’ captain in case he comes back…” he trailed off as he started looking past the map to the surface of the table for something.  He clearly didn’t find what he was looking for as his ears flicked back flat across the brim of his hat.  “Where is that blasted book Ah had with me a couple days ago?”

I glanced quickly across the tabletop myself for any sign of a book, but came up empty.  There was so much clutter upon the table and after so long it could have ended up anywhere within the cave.  Also… I doubted the captain would ever return to read it and, as I’d said, time wasn’t on our side.

“Why don’t you go on and get started on those other tasks, since you know the ponies here better than I do.  I’ll search for your book and if I find it, write out a quick note for the captain for you telling him and the others where you’ve all gone,” I offered, hoping to get them on their way quickly.

“Right, Ah’ll go get Mint started before Ah speak ta th’ others,” the ghoul said simply, giving one last look over the table before he stood up.  “Just don’t go tearin’ out pages from my book, it’s rather special ta me… there should be a few loose sheets of paper in th’ back though.”  With that, he made his way back down the tunnel I’d just come from, leaving me alone in main chamber.

Standing myself, I looked about the room for something to write on.  Any piece of paper or piece of cardboard would do and I quickly spotted a likely item sitting upon one of the wooden crates.  It looked like a clipboard, perhaps one that still had some paper attached to it.  Stepping around the table, I hurriedly made my way across the room towards the stacked crates.  Once I’d written this note, I’d see about helping out with the supplies, as Spirit could make use of a lot of these things with our wounded.

As I moved closer to the far wall of the cave, I noticed that the crates here seemed to be among some of the older ones stored within the room.  Many of them had a rather unhealthy looking black mold growing upon those closest to the floor while others had completely fallen apart.  The stack I approached had lost the bottom most box to rot, and the entire stack had fallen sideways onto its neighbor.  It was on one of these fallen boxes I’d spotted the clipboard and as I lifted it up with my hoof, I noticed something sitting beneath it.  It was a book, well worn judging by the creased spine and yellowed pages.  I was about to ignore it when I noticed the symbol on the front cover partially hidden by dust: a silver star.

Curious now, I sat the clipboard back atop the create and lifted the book up.  Bringing it closer, I blew across the dirty cover and read the words written above and below the star, all in some sort of silvery ink. ‘Equestrian Marshals Handbook, Laws and Regulations’.  Sitting back on my haunches, I carefully flipped the book open to the first couple of pages and scanned the index.  It seemed to be just what it said, a book of Equestria’s Pre War laws… which I suppose was worthless now.  I was surprised, however, at how well preserved the book was despite its age.  The pages had yellowed and the binding was loose, but it held up well to my quick skim through the pages.  When I’d just about reached the end, something else about the book caught my eye.  A loose piece of paper was sticking out from the last couple pages.  Pulling it free, I noticed a number of reddish brown spots staining it and arched a brow.

Unfolding the piece of paper, I saw more of the brown spots splattered across the page along with a hastily written note.  I’d seen enough of those sorts of stains all across the wasteland to know what they were.  I had a sinking feeling I knew who it belonged to given the book I’d found it in.  Still… I’d come this far and I settled my eyes upon the first shakily written words.

‘Why’d I ever listen to her?  I knew we were still in danger… I knew we needed to keep moving further away from the city.  I should have made them drop their positions and carry those who couldn’t keep walking… I should have…

Now they’re dead… all of them… even my Mint.  My little Star won’t get up.  All I can do is sit here holding her body as the ash continues to fall outside… hell… maybe all of Equestria’s dead.  Why didn’t I insist on keeping them moving?  I should have done better...  

The fires are getting closer to the caves… I’ve tried dragging their bodies inside… they shouldn’t be burned to ashes.  Fires all around us… around me.  There is no us… only me.  

But not for long… the smoke is burning my lungs… and I can feel myself growing weaker from that damned radiation.  Damn whoever gave those stripes megaspells... I hope they suffer for what they’ve done to us… to Mint… to my little Star.

I can’t go on… I can’t live without them… Celestia and Luna forgive me for what I’m about to do… but maybe I’ll see them again…’ 

Glancing back to where Bronze had been, I sighed before folding the note back up and sticking it back inside the book.  I suppose that explained what had happened here so long ago, after the survivors arrived from New Oaks.  Bronze was forced to watch as his friends and fiancee slowly died around him, either from radiation poisoning or smoke inhalation.  After which he attempted or succeeded in committing suicide, depending on how you looked at it.  The story might have ended there with a cave full of dead bodies lost forever in a hellish forest, if not for the radiation their bodies soaked up.  It transformed them into ghouls… breaking their minds in the process.  Although after what some of them had gone through, I imagined some had broken before.

Turning back to the stack of crates, I returned the book back to where I’d found it and stood up.  With clipboard in hoof, I returned to the rock and began writing out a message for Bronze’s missing ponies.




*     *     *     *     *




The weather had not improved despite the amount of time it’d taken us to get ready to leave.  In fact, it seemed to have actually gotten worse.  In that time though, Bronzestar had managed to gather up the scattered feral ghouls living around and within the cave.  Mint Julep, meanwhile, had gathered what supplies we’d be taking with us and divided them among the other ghouls.  The mare had also roused the foals from their slumber and gotten them ready for the journey ahead.  I’d helped the two where I could, though it seemed the ferals would only listen to either Bronze or Mint.  Why that was I had no idea, and simply decided not to question it.

Standing outside the cave, I glanced skyward from beneath the brim of my hat as rainwater ran across it and onto the ground.  The steady drone of the falling rain had been replaced with the far heavier sounds of a full blown thunderstorm.  The once distant rumble of thunder was now fully overhead, and overpowered whatever other sounds the wasteland had.  At times, the ground itself seemed to shake with the storm’s fury.  The wind had picked up, causing the dead trees to creak and groan as what remained of their branches moved about.  Within minutes of stepping outside, we’d all become drenched in rain water.  At least Wildfire had been correct that it wouldn’t be acid rain… so I suppose there was that.

Lowering my head from the heavens and back to the ground, I scanned the ash covered forest floor.  Where before it had been a thick glue like substance, it seemed to become more like mud or quicksand now.  Clumps of the stuff still stuck to armor, clothing, or fur and weighed you down as you attempted to move through it.  This was far worse than when I’d original entered the forest because now the extra weight threatened to sink you deeper into the bog-like ground.  The forest seemed more intent than ever on killing anypony who dared enter it.  

Traveling through it now would have been all but impossible for myself or anypony else.  With no landmarks to speak of, no map, and no Pipbuck, a pony would become hopelessly lost within the labyrinth of dead trees.  The ash would drag them deeper as they searched for a way out, sapping their strength alongside the high levels of radiation until finally they collapsed.  Luckily for us, however, we had somepony who knew the forest well, according to Bronze.

Standing in front of us was a former pegasus mare, what bits of her coat remaining was a rich forest green.  Her wings were surprisingly intact unlike some of the other feral pegasus ghouls I’d seen.  Only a few feathers seemed to be missing from them.  Every so often the ghoul would shift them, something I’d seen Wildfire do whenever she was nervous.  It made me wonder if some of her personality had remained.  The ghoul mare’s mane and tail had been a very light orange color and a few loose strands of each clung to her body.

“Give ’er a moment… just needs time ta orientate herself since th’ fire burned through this part of th’ forest,” Bronze whispered to Mint and myself as the ghoul mare’s ears flicked away from the sound and back to the direction we’d all been facing.  I had been surprised when Bronze had brought the ghoul pegasus to meet me shortly before we’d finished packing up the supplies.  

When he first entered the cave with her in tow, my initial impression of her was that of just another one of the ferals living in the caves.  However, I’d quickly been forced to rethink that when she’d looked at me.  I saw understanding within her eyes.  She held that same spark of life as Bronze and Mint.  The pony she had once been was still there under all that rotting flesh.  When I’d greeted her, she’d merely nodded her head and remained silent.  Bronze had explained that she hadn’t spoke much since the bombings.  I wondered if it had something to do with that, or the effects the bombings had on their bodies.  Had she lost the ability to speak completely?

Bronze went on to explain that her name was Fleethoof, and pointed out there was no relation to the Wonderbolt.  The way he’d said it had been almost joking, and the pegasus had smiled slightly at the comment.  I suppose it was an inside joke between the two, or perhaps something similar and nodded my head in understanding.  Still, it didn’t explain why he’d decided to introduce me to the mare.  Thankfully he got to that part quickly.

As it turned out, Fleethoof was one of the most knowledgeable ponies around when it came to the twisting turns of the forest trails and the surrounding countryside; a somewhat unusual fact since pegasi were not widely known for their skill with plants as earth ponies were.  The mare had actually been born to earth pony parents.  Pegasus blood had been passed down through the generations, resulting in her given wings.  However, she’d retained the special abilities of her parents and was in fact quite larger in stature than most pegasi I’d met.  This was also the reason Brightblade was so large compared to normal unicorns,  his father having been an earth pony.   

Lighting flashed overhead and I snapped myself back to the present, looking back towards the pegasus.  She began taking a few careful steps forwards, head lowered closer to the ground as she looked about the forest.  Cold rivets of rainwater flowed down my unarmored fur and matted strands of my mane to my neck.  I looked away from Fleethoof to check on my passenger.  A small, amber colored face peered back up at me from beneath a piece of dark purple plastic.  Blond strands of her mane stuck to her damp face as wide green eyes stared up into mine.  I smiled softly to the filly, Softheart, as she wiggled a bit further back under her cover to try and escape the rain.

“You alright, Softheart?” I asked the filly, her eyes blinking a couple times as she flicked her ears towards the sound of my voice.

“Yes, sir… just a bit cold…” she whispered back, stuttering a bit as she shivered under the cover.

“Ah think she’s got her bearin’s now,” Bronze spoke up more loudly this time, returning my attention to the ghouls standing ahead of us.  Fleethoof had taken several more steps away from the herd and was pawing at the ground between two large trees.  I was surprised to see her standing almost completely free of the muck, despite the fact another ghoul was standing beside her up to his knees in the stuff.  Perhaps it had to do with pegasus magic?  Though ash was a far cry from clouds, I’d think.

“Everypony be sure they got everythin’... Ah doubt we’ll be comin’ this way again anytime soon,” Mint said as she checked her saddlebags one last time.  Upon her back was another piece of the purple plastic we’d found in the cave and cut up.  Under it, lay two of the ghoul foals.  One I noticed was the same that had treated Softheart with Rad-Away.  Beside her were four feral mares, all carrying foals… perhaps even their own.  A good number of them also wore saddlebags packed with the supplies we’d taken from within the cave.  Even with the ferals helping to carry as much as they would, we still didn’t manage to take everything with us.  I suggested we move most of those items that were still good into the back of the caves, to try and help them last longer.  If the ponies of Janesville had any way to safely reach the caves and recover them, they’d be invaluable and I didn’t want them going to waste.  Too many ponies had died for them for them to simply rot.

“Alright everypony… if we’re gonna catch up with Marshal Shadow’s group of survivors, we’re gonna need ta double time it.  As Ah told each and everyone of ya’ll, this is th’ best chance we’ve got at survivin’ this mess.”  I looked back up towards Bronzestar as he began speaking.  The ghoul marshal had stepped out in front of the others and was looking over his herd of ferals, the ponies he had attempted to save from New Oaks.  “We can’t hide here forever and we all agreed it’d be best ta make a run for it while we got friends to guide us into th’ unknown.”  His eyes lowered towards the ground.  He took a deep breath before looking back into the eyes of the ghouls around him and continued, “Ah promised ta look after each and everyone of ya… and Ah’ll see ya through whatever’s ahead.”  With that said, he looked back towards Fleethoof and nodded his head once to the mare.  At the unspoken command, the pegasus began leading the ferals forward.  Surprisingly enough they didn’t even seem to hesitate for a second, trotting faithfully along behind her.  Mint stepped between Bronze and myself and offered the ghoul pony a small smile and a gentle nuzzle to the cheek.  

“Don’t ya fret none, Bronze.  We’ll make it through this yet,” she said softly to the marshal, who merely smiled down to the mare before he began following after the others.

As I fell into step behind them, I silently prayed they’d make it this time.  Somehow though, I doubted the wasteland was through with this band of ponies.




*     *     *     *     *




With Fleethoof’s assistance, we made good time towards the highway.  The ghoul mare had an almost sixth sense about what lay beneath the shifting, mud-like forest floor.  A number of times thus far she’d halted and redirected the line of ragged ponies around hidden pitfalls that anypony else would never have noticed.  A short time after leaving the cave she’d even found a path of stones for us to travel along, increasing our speed greatly as we didn’t have to force our way through the ash.  I guess it all had to do with the pegasus’ knowledge of the area as a child, though I would have thought that so much had changed to make such knowledge almost useless.

The stone path we followed was littered with debris from the past, from the rotted half buried wagons of the forest’s original inhabitants and perhaps those who had fled here after the bombings to the odd bone or rusted tool and weapons of those ponies.  There had even been a burned out sky chariot a mile back.  When I first saw it I’d become concerned it belonged to Wild, that my winged friend had come looking for me and had been shot down.  As we’d gotten closer to it (and I’ll admit I’d began running towards it) I could see it had actually been here for sometime.  Unlike my friend’s, this one was badly rusted and much of its roof had been ripped away.  There were also a number of markings across its sides, but were so badly faded with age that I couldn’t make out what they’d been.

The storm that had seemed to follow us from the caves for the past two hours had begun to die out.  The thunder and lightning had all but stopped completely.  The wind had settled as well as the rain.  What had begun as steady downpour was becoming a slight drizzle.  Still the damage to the ground had been done, and I doubted it would dry anytime soon.  With the storm fading, the lighting hadn’t gotten any better.  In fact it only seemed to get darker within the forest as we traveled.  I wondered if perhaps it wasn’t going to be another short day.

“It’s so… dark and scary looking…” Softheart said from her place upon my back.  I couldn’t help but chuckle softly at the young filly’s words.  

Here we are, surrounded by what amounted to the trotting dead, and she was more afraid of the dark than anything else.  I glanced back to the young filly, seeing she’d poked her head out from beneath the tarp cover, ears laid back flat to her mane.  I smiled to her and asked, “Yes it is, but I don’t think we have much to fear from it beyond the radiation… did you already take your medicine?”  Before we’d begun our journey, I’d made sure she knew where to find the Rad-Away in my saddlebags.  She nodded her head and looked up to me before answering.

“Yes, sir.  Just a few minutes ago.”  I was about to return my focus to the path ahead of us when I noticed my little passenger had spotted something, or rather somepony of interest.  

Following her stare, I found it directed towards Mint Julep’s back and the two ghoul foals sheltered there.  Or to one foal in particular.  The dark blue coated unicorn filly had remained near motionless for much of the trip, as had her fellow ghoul foals.  When she sensed somepony watching her, the young filly lifted her head from Mint’s back and looked over towards us.  When she noticed Softheart looking over towards her, I noticed a hint of a smile appear on the ghoul filly’s face.

“Made a friend?” I asked back to my passenger, offering another kind smile to the dark blue filly.  Softheart nodded her head and, despite not seeing her face, I could sense the smile from her voice.

“Yeah… at least… I think so.  I never had a friend before.”

“Never?” I asked, turning back around to look at my passenger.  I would be surprised if nopony found the little filly friendly.  She’d been nothing but polite and happy since waking up and had even attempted her very best to help us prepare to leave the cave.

“No… well… not really.  Mommy and Daddy moved around so much, they’re traders… or were.  They had to stop cause the roads weren’t safe anymore for a filly, that’s what Daddy said.  So they sold all their stuff and settled in Old Oaks.”

Not safe for a filly… true enough, but in the end Old Oaks hadn’t proven anymore safer than the roads.  I turned away from Softheart to stare at the path, ears flicking back a bit.  Again, I wondered if she’d lost anypony when the wagon she’d been riding on crashed.  Spirit had managed to save a badly wounded mare who most likely had been her mother… and there had been two stallions pulling the wagon.  I hadn’t told her yet what had happened, and thankfully she hadn’t asked yet. “Ah, I see.  Didn’t you make friends with the other fillies and colts in your school?” I turned back to look at my passenger once more.

“No… I was shy when I first started school… I’d never seen so many ponies my own age before…”  Somehow, I managed to keep from chuckling as the little filly ducked her head back under the tarp.

“Well, Ah’m sure Star would like ta be yer friend.  She’s not said much since we found shelter in th’ caves,” Mint Julep said from beside me, the mare having slowed to walk beside us.  “And Ah’m right sorry for eavesdroppin on ya’ll, but not like there’s a whole lot bein’ said.”  The mare said with a wave of her hoof to the silent ferals around us.

“It’s alright, Mint,” I responded with a smile to the mare.  My ears perked back up as I looked over to the dark blue filly, Star seeming to be her name.

“Ah’m afraid my little filly’s never been th’ sort ta make friends easily,” Mint continued and glanced back to the filly in question who narrowed her glowing green eyes upon who it seemed was her mother.  “Always gettin’ inta trouble and startin’ fights with th’ other foals.”  Despite her words, I saw a smile form over Mint’s muzzle.  “Takes after her father.”

Father?  Well… I suppose if Mint was her mother and, given what I’d observed thus far, I guess her father would be Bronzestar.  Ah, and this would be ‘his little star’ he’d mentioned in his note.  I’d at first thought he’d been talking about Mint…

“What about you, Marshall?  Any foals back home?”  I blinked when she asked the question and she hurriedly added, “Oh… Ah’m sorry, hon… Ah didn’t think… Ah mean, what with th’ bombin’s and so many cities destroyed…”  She paused when she noticed me smiling kindly over towards her.

“It’s alright, Mint.  Really,” I began, attempting to put the kind unicorn at ease over what she’d said.  “To answer you question, no, I’m afraid I don’t have any children of my own.  Simply never found the right mare to settle down with and start a family… yet.”  If Wild had her way, I’d likely settle down with a half dozen mares.

“That’s a right shame, Marshal.  Ya’ll should really find th’ time ta do so… my Bronze might not say as much, but Ah know he’s happier now than when Ah first started datin’ him.”  Mint smiled up towards the ghoul pony keeping watch ahead of us.  “Ah think family is th’ most important thin’ in a pony’s life.”

“I agree completely… if not for ponies needing help out here, I’d likely be back home raising my niece, Sugarpie,”  I chuckled as I thought of the little ball of pink energy.  “She’s a real hoof full sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade all the trouble for anything.”

“Oh?  How long have ya been raisin’ her?”

“I suppose ever since she was born, I helped my sister Ebony as much as I could.  Her husband died before Sugar was born,” I answered.  “For the past month it’s just been the two of us.”

“Ah’m sorry, Marshall.”

“It’s alright… the pain’s still there, but I’m just happy Tiny’s doing better.”  Mint cocked her head towards me in confusion and I smiled back.  “It’s my nickname for Sugar.  She was born a bit early and was quite small when she arrived.  She’s always been a good filly, but sometimes she can be a real hoof full.  Lately she’s been getting into a bit of trouble, starting fights with school yard bullies.  If it’s not that, then she’s off on one of her adventures in the apartment building we live in.”

Mint chuckled softly and looked back ahead of us, a smile still on her lips.  “Well, it sounds like she might be takin’ a bit after her uncle then.”

A image of Tiny dressed up as me on Nightmare Night popped into my head and I couldn’t stop my own chuckle escaping me.  She’d been so proud of her card board armor and shotgun, bravely protecting her friend from the bad ponies.

“I guess she does.”

“It sounds much like what Star did a few days ago when one of the older colts started picking on her friend…” Mint trailed off slowly as she came to a halt, ears perked towards the path ahead.  

I turned my focus back to the ferals in front of me.  They had all halted and stood stock still in the ash, ears perked towards something only they could hear.  Even Bronze stood unmoving, his face an unreadable mask as he stared further ahead of us.  When I looked to see what everypony was looking at, I saw Fleethoof with one fore leg lifted to call a halt to our little group.  The pegasus’ wings were spread and she looked ready to run at a moment’s notice.

I stood still for several minutes, ears perked, straining to hear whatever had caught Fleethoof’s attention while Softheart slid back fearfully under her cover.  Around us, the falling rain slowly began to slacken to a halt and with it, the steady drone of water striking the soaked ground eased.  As the forest became almost deathly silent, I could make out the distant sounds that Fleethoof had caught before us.  

Even as far away as it sounded, it was unmistakable for anypony who’d been in combat.  The drone of the rainfall was replaced by the rattle of firearms and the shouts of ponies fighting for their lives.  We had reached the highway at last… and the convoy of Old Oak survivors.  I looked to my side at Bronze and noticed the other stallion already looking back at me.  We didn’t say anything… there was nothing to say.  

We both knew what we had to do.

“Mint… Ah want ya ta take th’ foals and wounded back ta that last hill we crossed,” Bronze said, turning back towards the mare who’d come towards him a bit at the sounds of fighting.  She was just about to protest, but he cut her off.   “Ah want ya ta stay there with ’em till we come back for ya, and Ah don’t want ya ta argue with me about it.”  The marshal’s eyes softened a bit and he laid a hoof gently upon her shoulder, head moving closer to hers. “Please,” he whispered that last word pleadingly to the mare as his eyes shifted to the silent filly on her back.

A mixture of emotions washed across the ghoul mare’s face as she looked into the stallion’s eyes.  Anger, fear, understand, respect, and love wared for domination as she stood before Bronze.  Her ears wilted as  her emotions slowly began to fall into check.  Finally, it seemed understanding had won out in the end and she nodded her head curtly before leaning up and kissing his cheek.

“Ya’ll better come back for me soon, Bronzestar… or Ah’ll come find ya,” she answered before looking away.  A hint of softly glowing tears ran down her cheeks as she trotted back towards me.

“Ah don’t doubt ya will…” the marshal said before looking away.  His own glowing eyes blinked rapidly as he began calling out the names of those ferals nearby.  “Gingersnap, Pineneedles, Appleleaf, and Lemontart- yer with Mint.  Help ’er with th’ foals and wounded and don’t let any stripes get ta them.  Th’ rest of ya are with Marshal Shadow and myself.”

I turned to look at Softheart still riding upon my back.  The little filly’s ears lay flat against her head as the sounds of gunfire and shouting increased in pitch.  Shivering in fear, she seemed reluctant to leave the safety of her tarp.  She would have likely remained if a soft green aura hadn’t surrounded the foal and lifted her up, still wrapped in her cover.  Looking back to Mint, I saw her horn glowing as she levitated the fearful filly across to her own back and down between the ghoul foals she’d been carrying.  Star looked from her father to the filly beside her before she pressed herself against Softheart and wrapped a foreleg across the shivering foal’s covered shoulder.

“Ah’ll look after her, Marshal… just look after my Marshal…” Mint whispered to me.  The ferals assigned to help her took the remaining foals from the backs of those who’d no doubt be following Bronze and I further down the hill.  

“I’ll do my best, Mint,” I answered, nosing the safety of Luna’s Ruse off and nodding once to the medical mare and the foals she carried.  Turning away from the small group I noticed six ferals missing limbs hobbling back towards her, the wounded I imagined.  I glanced to them as I passed, seeing signs of recently applied bandages to their old wounds.  The last pony to pass me spared me a glance and oddly a half smile.  I wasn’t sure if he knew me or, like the others, was just reacting to things… but maybe.  

Shaking my head, I turned away and hurriedly chased after the others who had already covered the distance to the next hill we’d been set to climb.  Catching up quickly despite the sludge, I climbed the last few steps of the hill to join Bronzestar and a small number of feral ghouls standing at what appeared to be the edge of the tree line.  Indeed, I crested the small rise and saw the hill drop back down again, stopping at the highway a short distance away.

“Well, Shadow… this ain’t how Ah wanted ta meet yer friends,” Bronze said as I trotted up beside him and came to a halt.  My eyes took in the sight below me even as Bronze’s shifted from looking to his ferals to me.  Beyond the hill lay raiders… well over two dozen of them judging by a quick head count.

“Well, they say first impressions are the most important,” I responded.  I tore my eyes away from the spike armored forms moving about below us and offered a smile over to the stallion.  “I’d think galloping to the rescue would look fairly favorable on the strangers’ behalf.”  That earned a snort of laughter from the ghoul as he turned back towards the scene before us.

“Ah reckon yer right about that, it worked on winnin’ the heart of a certain infuriatin’ mare Ah know,” he added as the last of the ferals who’d be making the charge with us gathered around us.  I noticed Fleethoof standing nearby as well, the mare’s ears laid back as she stared down the hill we stood atop.  The ghouls around us began to grow restless as the sounds of gunshots increased.  Bronze’s mood switched from a jolly one to one of a serious lawpony.  “Th’ hill we’re on leads straight down onta th’ road as ya can see.  Fleethoof did a quick check further down th’ roadway while we was waitin’ on ya.  Seems them raiders ya spoke of got yer convoy bottlenecked.”

Looking past the raiders and towards the north west, I saw the wagons of Old Oaks lined up along the highway, trapped at a narrow section of the road.  Something had crashed into the forest floor a half mile further north and left a deep trench.  Large rusting bits of metal were scattered across the ground until finally crossing the highway.  Much of the pavement had been ripped away by whatever had crash landed.  Subsequently those broken parts of the road had been swallowed by the shifting ash dunes, which had turned to sludge by the relentless rain.  This left only a narrow strip of stable ground for wagons to cross.  It was here that the raiders had caught them.  On the far side of the gap lay a smoking wagon, further blocking the path.  Of my friends and the sky chariot, I saw no sign.  

There was no escape for the convoy now.  It was either stand and fight, or be killed as they attempted to flee across the sucking muck.  Unless they got help… only problem with that was our current position on the hill side.  True the raiders hadn’t seen us yet, nor did they have any reason to suspect an attack on their flank.  It’d be safer if we could circle around the raiders and assault them from behind, catching them between us and the convoy’s guns rather than charging down in line of sight of both convoy and the raiders.  

“Ah don’t reckon we’ve th’ time ta circle round back,” Bronze spoke up, pointing out the issue I’d seen.  “Those ponies won’t last long once th’ raiders realize there’s no way they can withstand a frontal assault… and judgin’ by what Ah’m see’en, Ah gotta feelin’ them raiders ain’t worried about casualties.”  The ghoul stallion’s eyes narrowed and he pawed angrily at the ground.  “Ya we’re right about them raiders… they look like ponies, but they fight like monsters.”

“I’d rather not charge headlong into their flank… while we’ll have the element of surprise, it’ll put us in danger of the convoy’s weapons.”  In truth, I was worried that the ponies defending the convoy would simply fire wildly into the two groups.  After all, to them they’d simply be firing at a herd of feral ghouls.  I’d hoped we would have managed to link back up with them long before encountering any raiders, that way I could explain why a group of feral ghouls was fighting for them.

“Ah reckon them civilians would get a might jumpy see’in another group of ponies appear suddenly.  We are a bit ragged… but once they see us fightin’ the raiders, Ah’d hope some of’em have th’ sense ta hold their fire.”  Bronze looked away from the raiders below us and over to me, confusion on his face.  He’d gotten my point… or at least the gist of it.

“Maybe… but like your group, they’ve been through a lot.”  Not by a long shot, but it was the best I could do to explain my reasoning for wanting to avoid friendly fire.  “Perhaps if they saw me fighting beside your ponies that might hold their fire.”  It was a slim hope at best and I’d just as likely get a bullet in the ass for my trouble, but I had to at least try.  Who knows, it could work.

“Seems a might risky… but if yer sure they might just fire blindly into us, Ah don’t see we’ve another choice,” Bronze answered as the feral ghouls around us began snorting and pawing at the soft sludge beneath our hooves.  They were getting more restless and agitated the longer we waited.  We also were running out of time to decide, as it seemed the raiders were readying themselves for a charge.  The ghoul marshall turned back towards the roadway and snorted.  “First impressions on th’ raiders.”

“I’m sure it’s one they won’t soon forget,” I added, gripping my shotgun’s firing bit into my mouth.

“Reckon this is where Ah’m suppose ta give some inspirin’ speech or another…” Bronze muttered to himself from beside me as he loosened his six shooter on his chest.  The marshal glanced to the ferals around him and me, before a grin slowly formed upon his muzzle once more.  “Nothin’s comin’ ta mind so… fuck it… let’s give ’em hell ponies!!” he shouted while yanking out his sidearm.  Without giving us a second look he charged down the hill, with the ferals snarling and growling down after their leader.

I followed them quickly over the lip of the hill and down the slope.  I nearly lost my hoofing as I did, but at the last second I managed to correct it and began picking up speed.  The ash turned goop had been a major hindrance in my journey thus far, but now it proved to be helpful.  While it did turn the hillside into a slippery hazard, it had the side effect of masking the hoof-falls of over two dozen ghouls charging down towards the raiders.  The raiders didn’t realize they were under attack until we’d nearly reached the bottom of the hill.  By then, it was too late to do much more than fire off a couple wild shots towards us.

A ghoul beside me yelped out in pain as a round tore into her shoulder and sent her tumbling into the ground.  Another feral ahead of me dropped down as the right side of his head and neck were struck by a raider firing madly with his assault rifle on full auto.  I leapt over the fallen pony and squeezed the trigger of Luna’s Ruse quickly.  The first round missed the raider completely, my landing having thrown off my aim a bit as I stumbled in the muck, but the second and third stuck the raider in the shoulder and lower leg.  He dropped to the ground in time for a pair of ferals who’d been running ahead of me to leap upon him.  

As they’d done to the single raider I’d fallen into their camp with, the ghouls attacked the raiders in a wild fury of hooves, teeth, and raw muscle.  Throats were ripped open, limbs torn off, and skulls crushed as the tide of undead ponies reached the raiders’ exposed flank.  The one I downed met a messy end, but I found little compassion for the dead raider as his fellows began firing into the ferals.  More of the ghouls dropped, but most got right back up and continued to fight, ignoring wounds that would have sent a normal pony into shock.  By now the raiders were in disarray, unsure which direction they were getting attacked from and began backing away from the convoy.

Working my way towards the left side of the ferals, I attempted to make myself as visible as I could to the convoy sitting further down the road.  As I expected, they hadn’t let up on their firing as the herd of ferals appeared from the forest.  I quickly began to suspect Stone was one of the ponies firing into the raiders.  The reason why was when a raider’s head exploded messily near the front of their ranks, one who’d been turning towards me.  However, more than a couple ferals were hit by the incoming fire from down the road and I had to do something before this turned into a massacre for my new friends.

“Hold your fire!!  The ghouls are on our side!!” I shouted out, dropping Luna’s Ruse from my mouth as I ran into the middle of the two groups.  A round struck my shoulder guard and bounced off into the melee.  “Hold your fire, damnit!” I yelled out again angrily.  I was taking fire from both directions, but I didn’t allow that to stop my frantic waving and shouting.  I was about to take a step away from the ghouls and towards the convoy when movement from my left caught my attention.  A raider pushed himself free from the ghouls, a bloody knife clutched in his jaws and his own blood running from a number of wounds across his body.  He seemed more desperate to escape than anything else.  However, he quickly started running towards me when he spotted me.

Grabbing ahold of the firing bit of my shotgun, I hurriedly yanked it upward and snapped off two rapid shots towards the raider.  Once again, my first shot missed, but still struck a raider in the side further back in the fighting mass of bodies.  He fell a second later as a ghoul pounced atop him.  The second shot struck the charging raider in the chest and staggered him.  However, unlike most armor raiders wore, his largely stood up to the impact due to it being recovered combat armor of some sort.  It didn’t withstand the third and fourth shots I fired into his body, his armor shattering as did the ribcage it had been protecting as it was pounded by the solid slugs.  He dropped, the knife flying from his mouth as his head struck the pavement.

The clatter of hooves from behind me was all the warning I got and I quickly ducked my head as something large sailed past it.  Blindly, I lashed out with my hind legs and felt my hooves striking something metal.  Using the impact, I swiftly (if not gracefully) distanced myself from my attacker and turned about to face him.  It was with little surprise that I found myself facing a rather large earth pony stallion with a street sign gripped firmly between his rotting, yellowed teeth.  They do grow them big in the wasteland it seems… near constant fighting played a role I imagined.  The raider’s nostrils flared as he snorted and took several steps towards me, his head lifting the rather sharp looking sign skyward.  

I had no doubt it’d easily split my skull in two.  As it descended towards me, I rapidly sidestepped the strike and fired off another round into the mass of muscles, spikes, and scars.  The shot grazed the raider’s shoulder, drawing a bit of blood but doing little else.  What the fuck’s wrong with me?  I can’t hit the broadside of a barn!!  To make matters worse, my E.F.S. was mostly working now that I was back atop the roadway.  The ammo counter had dropped from twelve to five.  Sparks erupted from where the sign impacted the pavement beside me.  With a twist of his head, the sign was brought in a sudden swing into my side.  My saddlebags and armor took the brunt of the impact, but I felt the sign’s edge dig into my unarmored flanks.  I snarled in pain as I staggered to the side from the strike.

With my options limited, I went with a quick finish to the fight.  I stepped into the earth pony’s reach, shoving Luna’s Ruse directly into his chest and firing off two shots.  Needless to say, I didn’t miss this time and was splattered with blood and flesh as the raider shuddered once and died.  He crumpled to the ground, a smoking hole blown deep into his chest.  I was forced to quickly step back lest I end up buried beneath him.  As he dropped, the sign slid free of his grip, but cut me even more as it moved.  However, I’d become accustomed to pain in my time in the wasteland.  I ignored it and the feeling of blood running down my flank and leg to focus on the fighting around me.

The raiders nearest me were largely focused on the ferals snapping at their necks and flanks.  It seemed the sudden attack of ghouls had completely broken the raiders’ focus on the convoy.  A few were even attempting to retreat back up the highway.  I noticed the incoming fire from the convoy had slacked a bit as well and I glanced back towards them.  It was then I noticed an orange shape hurtling towards me from the convoy’s lines.  I smiled in relief, knowing that at least most of my friends were alright if the fiery maned mare was here.

Wildfire came in like her namesake, battle-saddles blazing madly into the raiders nearest me.  Unfortunately in her haste, she’d almost struck a couple of the ghouls as well.  They snarled up towards the mare, snapping their teeth at her before they were forced to focus once more on the raiders attempting to fire their guns or stab them with melee weapons.  I frantically waved a hoof towards my friend, attempting to wave her off from her attack run before she could hit a ghoul.  As she neared, I could see the confusion on her face, but she released the firing bit of her weapons and flared her wings open to slow down.  As the muzzle flashes died, she landed beside me and happily tackled me to the ground.

“You’re alive!  Are you fucking stupid running out into the middle of a fire fight even with ghouls chasing you?!” she yelled into my face as the wind was knocked from my lungs.  All I could do was blink up at her as she held me pinned down.  “Of course you're fucking stupid… it wouldn’t be you if you aren't risking your flanks for others… now stay down… I’ll try and drive some of these ghouls off!”  The mare took up a more defensive stance and started reaching for her battle-saddles’ firing bit.

Seeing she had no intention of letting me get a word in before she opened fire on the ghouls nearest us, I was forced to grab ahold of her head and yank her down atop me.  Despite her slender frame, she wasn’t exactly made of clouds… either she’d been putting on weight thanks to Stone’s cooking or her battle-saddle weighed more than I thought.  Her stormy blue eyes widened in surprise and she managed a slight yelp of surprise before her muzzle was pushed into my chest.  As it turned out, the impromptu hug saved her life as a sudden rain of bullets whizzed past overhead from the raiders’ lines.  Their barrage ended as ghouls locked onto the sudden noise and charged into them.

“They’re on our side, Wild!” I shouted into her folded back ears as the raiders unleashed their automatic weapons into the attacking ghouls.  I heard a few yelps of pain from the ferals, but the firing soon stopped afterwards as the raiders became bogged down in fighting for their lives.

“What do ya mean they’re on our side!?  They’re feral ghouls for Celestia’s sake!!” she yelled back as she wormed her way free of my grip and stood back up.  Her stormy blue eyes fixed upon the rotted corpses of the dead ghouls near us.

“They just are… look, I don’t have time to explain everything, Wild!!  We’re in the middle of a fucking firefight!  I just need you to fly your ass back to the others and tell ’em to only target the raiders!!” I’d never taken that tone of voice with the pegasus, or any of my friends really… but I needed to make my point clear.  To my surprise, Wild merely cocked her head a bit before looking back up to the ghouls fighting the raiders.  Her feathers ruffled a bit before she looked back down to me and pushed a hoof against my chest.

“Sheesh, first ya start callin’ yourself a Marshal and then ya get all bossy like,”  She smirked, head tilted to the side as I frowned up at her.  She held her fore hooves up in surrender and added, “Alright alright, I’ll go tell ’em, but…”  Her look turned serious and her left fore leg poked me solidly in the chest.  “After this settles down, you’re telling me what the hell’s going on!”  All I could do was nod my head as she poked my chest three more times.  Her wings flared open with a snap and she launched herself skyward.  With a twist of her body, the mare rocketed back towards the convoy and the rest of my friends.  Damnit… I shoulda asked about Spirit and Carrion.  Rolling over myself, I checked to see just how those ghouls I’d spoken up for were doing.  What I saw both relieved and worried me.

The raiders had been driven completely back from the convoy as the ferals’ sudden appearance forced them to fight foes on two fronts.  Judging by the number of spike armored bodies scattered across the highway, I’d say the attack had succeeded in killing a good number of our enemies.  It hadn’t all gone our way, however, as a couple of ferals lay mixed among the raiders.  I frowned at the sight, but knew there couldn’t have been any other outcome to this once we’d left the ferals’ cave.  I rose fully to my hooves and took a few steps towards the fighting.  It was time to even the odds back in favor of my new silent friends.  I was about to turn back towards my saddlebags to quickly reload the shotgun, but a round struck near my hooves and caused me to look ahead.

A raider came rushing towards me from the press of bodies, a crazed look in her yellowed eyes.  The spike maned unicorn was wielding a simple 9mm pistol in her dark blue magical aura and was rapidly snapping off shots towards me.  I’d just closed my teeth about my firing bit when one of the rounds nearly found its mark, my ears twitching as something zipped past my face.  The solid metal slug hurled from Luna’s Ruse halted the raider’s charge as her neck and shoulder burst open and she tumbled to the pavement.  The pistol clattered uselessly to the pavement as she rolled to a halt before me, blood running from the wound I’d given her.  Stepping over her body, I glanced down at the raider and frowned… I’d been aiming for her chest.

A nearby cry of pain reached my ears despite the maelstrom of sounds assaulting them and pushed the thoughts of my sudden poor aim from my mind.  Turning my head towards the source of the sound, I spotted a ghoul mare stumbling towards me.  She made it only a few more steps before she dropped to her flanks, blood running down her front leg and shoulder from the newly made bullet holes.  Following close behind her, with a cruel smirk on his snout, was one of the raiders.  His pistol was still smoking lightly from his last few shots.  The earth pony dropped the gun from his mouth, appearing to be out of ammo judging from the fully extended slide.  He reached for a crudely made mace hanging from his belt.    

He never noticed me standing across from him, his focus still fixed upon the helpless ghoul.  As he lifted the blunt weapon skyward to crush her skull, I lifted my own weapon and leveled the barrel at his chest before squeezing the trigger.  I only had three shots left, but it would have to be enough.  The slug tore through his leg instead of his chest, but it had been the one supporting his weight as he shifted his neck and head.  The wounded limb gave out as it was all but blown apart by the powerful strike and he fell to the ground before the feral.  She wasted no time in turning upon her falling attacker to end his life messily.  However, it seemed I still wouldn’t have the chance to reload Luna’s Ruse.

More raiders began approaching us almost immediately after the last one’s body stopped jerking about.  The ghoul finished him off and he lay on the ground lifeless.  There seemed to be no end to them… I began wondering if perhaps the entire population of Equestria hadn’t all died in the bombings, but had instead decided to all become raiders.  Two shots… at least a half dozen raiders near me if not all of them focused on me… no time to reload.  Time for a change in weapons.  Dropping Luna’s Ruse, I lifted my left  foreleg up towards my face as my muzzle lowered to meet it.  The firing bit of my sidearm, the Raging Buck, brushed against my teeth as they closed about it and I yanked the weapon from its holster.  Tightening my grip on the firing bit, I charged forward and snapped off two of my five shots.

One actually hit its mark, spinning the female raider a complete three-sixty as blood flew from the newly opened crater where her right hind hip had been.  She was as good as dead.  The second shot missed its mark completely and allowed a large brute of a raider to swing his fire axe into the neck of the slowly rising feral ghoul ahead of me.  The weapon sunk into her neck and she staggered back to the ground in obvious pain and distress.  I snarled in rage at both the raider for wounding the former pony, and myself for failing to stop him.  Shouldering aside another raider who had become busy fighting off more of the ghouls, I rushed towards the large axe armed raider and his prey.

Leaping over the body of the dead three legged raider laying in the center of the highway, I closed the distance between myself and the pair.  I held my fire until I was nearly upon my target, no longer trusting my aim at any distance…. not to save a life and tip off my target.  As I closed in, I pulled the trigger and felt the metal firing bit slide along my teeth as the miniature cannon recoiled into my mouth.  The high caliber round tore through his unprotected side, doing massive damage both external and internal if the sight of blood exploding from his mouth was any indication.  

The large stallion dropped dead to the ground with a hole in his side large enough to fit both my fore hooves through.  He gave a final gasp of air and lay still finally beside the whimpering ghoul pony he’d attempted to kill.  I hastily reholstered my revolver and reached out to grab the axe handle still wobbling about as the wounded ghoul lay on the ground in pain.  

As gently as I could, I pulled the axe head still embedded in the feral’s neck.  It slid free with a sickening sucking noise of flesh and blood and the poor thing lay whimpering loudly on the pavement.  Dark blood dripped from the axe and down onto a slowly spreading pool beside the mare… her glowing eyes darting about wildly in fear at the sounds of raiders near us.  She deserved a better end than this… she looked so afraid, so alone… they’d all deserved a better end than this.  

“Hahaha… whadda we got here?  A wounded meat sack and a weak little stallion?” a harsh voice called out from my right.  I hurriedly turned towards its owner, seeing a group of four raiders trotting lazily towards us despite the chaos happening around us.  My ears lay back further as I glanced from one twisted pony to the others.  All had spiked and blood stained armor, rusted weapons, and bits of ponies hanging from their bodies.  The leader of the group had a blood red, spike maned head and what appeared to be a nail driven half way into his skull.  His tail was all but nonexistent.  The four all wore odd necklaces with large beads of some sort… at least that’s what I thought until they stepped closer and a bit of light caught on the glossy white ball with blue irises.  Eyes.

“Yeah… yeah boss… two meat puppets wantin’ fer us ta play with!” said the raider to the right of the leader.  His yellowed, pointed teeth flashed a wicked grin.  I could smell his foul odor from where I stood and I narrowed my eyes upon him.  Like the others, he wore a necklace of eyes.  However, most of his were smaller…

“I call dibs on th’ mare… worked up a bit of an itch in my loins after chasin’ these damned ponies from that fuckin’ town,” another said, stepping around his leader.  He eyed the downed ghoul behind me with hunger and noticeable arousal, thanks to his stance.  Shit… did they put spikes on everything?  The comment (or my look of revolt) earned a chorus of dark laughter from the group.  That is, until the smallest of the lot noticed something on my chest and took a step back.

“Oh fuck… oh shit… he’s that there law pony they’ve been talkin’ bout on th’ radio!” I noticed a bit of fear in his voice and a slight shake in his hoof he lifted to point at me.  “Th’ Marshal.”  The title was said with a note of fear foals normally reserved for ghosts or the monsters under their beds.

The leader’s brow arched over his yellowed, hate filled eyes before they lowered to my chest armor and the silver Equestrian Marshal star pinned to it.  His eyes widened and he jerked his head back a bit as if he’d been stung.  The remaining two raiders of the group shrunk back a bit as well when they noticed their leader’s reaction.  Suddenly, none of them seemed inclined to approach me for fear I might simply kill them with a look.  Had I made such a name for myself among the raiders?  

For a moment, we all stood staring at one another.  While it seemed his lackeys would rather find somepony else to torment, the leader’s tattered ears swung back against his skull as he looked between his fellow raiders and me.  I knew what was coming when he locked eyes with me… he couldn’t afford to back down from fighting me.  He’d appear weak in front of the others.  

“So what if he is?” spike mane said, his earlier fear forgotten as he focused on appearing tough before the other three.  He pointed out the obvious fact to his lackeys that they’d seemed to forgotten when they’d discovered who I was.  “He’s just one pony… he ain’t nothin’ special.”  While it seemed to ease some of the worry from the others, the smaller one still seemed unsure and looked from me to his boss.

“They say he killed th’ whole Bloody Hoof gang aboard their own train and took their slaves…” 

“Th’ Bloody Hoof gang was lead by a cunt of a mare and she had a bunch of pussies followin’ her, Scrat.  Everypony knew they was a weak bunch,” spike mane snarled out and slapped the smaller raider, Scrat, upside the head with a forehoof.  It seemed the comment had struck a nerve with the leader.

“Nails’ right, th’ Bloody Hoof gang wasn’t anythin’ special… only reason they worked for th’ boss was ‘cuz they knew how ta work that damned train of theirs,” said the raider who’d been eyeing the fallen ghoul.  He seemed to regain some of his courage from Nails’ words.  “‘Sides, th’ boss put a sizeable reward on this Marshal’s head… we’d been rich and have all th’ cunts we’d ever need, Slab.”  The latter half seemed directed towards the third raider who eyed me a little less worriedly.  The scrawny one, Scrat, still seemed hesitant about fighting me, but it was still three to one and my aim was off.

“Right… so let’s collect that there reward by killen’ this so called Marshal and hurry up and kill th’ rest of these ponies once we’re finished,” Nails said, stepping towards me as a pair of serrated blades floated up beside him, each surrounded in a reddish glow.  I blinked and glanced to the raider’s forehead, seeing a matching glow surrounding what I’d mistaken for one of the spikes of his mane.  The spiral horn had been coated in either red paint or dried gore (I’d bet on the latter) and had blended in with his mane.  At least he hadn’t gone for his rifle slung over his back.  Either he felt the four of them could take me in close combat or he was out of ammo.

“Time ta die, little law pony,” gleefully said the unnamed raider beside him.  He reached for his own weapon and this time it was a ranged weapon.  What looked like a small caliber pistol was being pulled from the raider’s shoulder harness.  The raider I assumed that was named Slab pulled a spiked bat from his harness.  The last of the group to reach for a weapon was Scrat, but the small raider still seemed unsure of facing off against me.  That was fine, one less threat to worry about.  

Gripping the fire axe handle tightly between my teeth, I made my move first, surprising the raiders with it.  They’d likely been expecting me to go for my shotgun still hanging about my neck, but I’d known better.  There wouldn’t have been enough time to drop the fire axe and bring Luna’s Ruse up to bear upon them.  They’d have killed me before the axe struck the ground.  I also only had two shots left against four raiders… and my aim was off.  I instead lunged towards them, intent on getting in close to negate the pistol wielding raider’s aim and to quickly bring him down.

My target’s eyes went wide in panic as I darted between his leader and the raider called Slab, both of whom seemed caught completely off guard as well.  The raider before me brought his pistol up quickly and began firing wildly towards me in an attempt to drop me, his tongue squeezing the trigger rapidly.  He managed to lose over half of his clip in the time it’d taken me to reach him, rounds whizzing past either side of my body as well as above my head and falling among my hooves.  A round struck my shoulder guard, another bounced from my front leg armor, and yet another impacted my neck.  Thankfully it had bounced from the pavement and lost much of its force alongside hitting well clear of anything vital.  Still hurt like hell and was bleeding freely.  

Seeing his shots doing little more than annoying me and sensing his imminent demise closing in, the raider attempted to backpedal away from me as he continued to squeeze his gun’s trigger.  Bullets continued to zip past like angry bees as I rushed towards him, the axe swinging upward to put as much weight into my first strike as I could.  Now as I neared him, it began its descent and proved to have all the lethality of a freight train striking a melon.  The heavy axe head slammed down atop the raider’s unprotected skull with a wet smacking crunch and a gurgling scream that ended quickly.  Blood flew from the raider’s mouth and nose as his head was nearly cut in two by the force of my swing.  The pistol dropped from his jaw and I jerked my head away, yanking the axe free of the hole I’d just made.  His body dropped lifelessly to the pavement.

“Holy shit!!!”

I ignored whoever had yelled as well as the static warnings my Pipbuck was attempting to pop up in my vision.  Using the momentum of my reverse swing from the dead raider’s skull, I began to turn towards Nails.  He was, after all, my next highest threat in the fight.  The raider leader had recovered quickly however from the sudden death of one of his own and brought both his bladed weapons up to block my quick swing, sparks flying away from the strike.  Luckily for him he was a unicorn as even an earth pony would have had a hard time taking that much force to the face.  As we stood locked together, I saw ghouls and other raiders fighting behind him.  Things still seemed to be going mostly our way and it seemed the convoy was picking its shots much more carefully now.  If I could finish these three then I’d be able to help push the raiders further back… than we could link up with the convoy...  

My neck and jaw ached as I fought to wrestle the blades from Nail’s magical grip even as he fought to rip the fire axe from my mouth.  The three weapons ground into one another with the screech of metal on metal and something was going to have to give.  I could hear the wooden axe haft straining and was about to shove more weight towards the raider when he made a quick move.  While the axe head was halted, he could easily maintain one of his blades in holding it in place and flicked the other towards my face.  It was a smart move as it would force me to either release my weapon or get stabbed in the forehead.

Quickly as I could, I lifted my right foreleg upwards to block the slashing blade.  Nails’ look of victory quickly disappeared from his face.  My Pipbuck once more proved itself a lifesaver as its hard metal casing deflected the strike, sending sparks flying from the point of impact.  With his focus on his failed attack, I hurriedly stepped away from him.  At the same time, I jerked my neck back and brought the axe with it.  The blade still hooked with it was nearly ripped from the unicorn’s magical grasp and he was forced to strengthen his hold at the last second or risk losing it.

While stepping away from Nails allowed me to avoid his blades for a moment, I wasn’t able to avoid the spiked club coming down across my back, nor had I seen its owner approaching me from my right side.  The blow nearly buckled my legs out from under me and pain raced up my spine from the blunt force of the weapon.  At the same time, I felt something slash across my front, nearly striking my throat.  I stumbled back once more as Nails attempted to press his failed attack.   With little time to think, I lashed out wildly with the fire axe towards the unicorn, who managed to leap back before the cutting edge could touch him.  I wasted no time in attempting to halt the weapon’s flight path, allowing it to continue onward to the right and taking me with it to pivot on my fore hooves.

With Nails to my left and my body following the fire axe through its swing, I spotted my second attacker.  Slab, it seemed, had recovered as quickly as his leader.  He had stood within my blind spot, nearly right atop me and was preparing to take another swing for my skull.  The earth pony had raised his head and neck half way upward to bring his spiked club down for what would be a crushing blow.  He was ready to do just that when the movement of my swing brought the axe’s handle into contact with his exposed throat.  The rough wooden shaft brutally slammed into his exposed neck, forcing his weapon from his mouth as he gasped for air from the impact.  The raider stumbled away from me, clutching at his neck with one forehoof as he’d narrowly avoided having his windpipe crushed, thanks to his earth pony heritage.  If I’d hit him just a little harder… still, I was lucky I’d struck him where I had… anywhere else and he’d still be in the fight.

I was just returning my focus on Nails when a sudden burning pain lanced up from just below my left shoulder.  I looked down to see a still glowing blade hilt jutting from just under my armored shoulder guard.  Nails had used my divided attention to strike where my armor was weakest, in the mesh coating between plates.  I could feel blood starting to flow from the wound which was made all the worse when the raider yanked the serrated blade free.  I cried out and my vision blurred as the weapon ripped the flesh far worse coming out than going in, the fire axe dropped from my open mouth.  New warnings popped into the corner of my eyes as my Pipbuck tracked the wounds

“Time ta die Marshall…” the lead raider said, his face twisted into a grin as my vision cleared.  I spotted his second weapon flying straight for my face as he ran behind it.  He intended to finish the fight right then and there… and might have succeeded in doing just that if I hadn’t quickly ducked beneath it.  I felt the sharp edge of the blade cut through my hat and knock it from my head.  The sharp burning pain coming from my shoulder and my back was all but ignored as I fought to stay alive.  I was about to grab for Luna’s Ruse and make a desperate shot at the raider rushing towards me when I spotted the fire axe’s wooden handle hovering inches from my nose.  The weapon must have bounced a bit when it had struck the highway.

“Not today, asshole…” Instead of the shotgun’s firing bit, I wrapped my teeth about the wooden axe handle tightly before twisting my neck and head around towards Nails.  The unicorn let out a startled yelp as the blunt back of the axe head followed my sudden movement and swept into his front legs.  The sudden surprise move knocked the lead raider from his hooves and loosened his magical grip upon his weapons, both of which landed upon the pavement about me, one still covered in my blood.  So it was a surprise to me when a smaller dagger flew from where the unicorn had fallen and nearly imbedded itself in my chest, my combat armor halting the weapon’s flight.  It seemed he had spares… lovely...
 
As I dodged another one of Nails’ throwing knives he’d pulled from somewhere on his person, I felt something else pass by over my still lowered head ruffling my mane as it went.  A quick glance to my side showed me Slab recovering from his swing and about ready to take another at me with his recovered spiked club.  I was trapped between the two raiders with nowhere to really move and blood was running freely from my wounded shoulder.  Looking back towards Nails I saw him already attempting to get back to his hooves, his twin blades floating back towards him. 

Snorting I lifted my head back up and brought my recovered weapon with it.  The large weapon moved slowly and lacked the force it’d had upon coming down on the first raider’s head.  Still, it struck Nails on his left shoulder and left a rather deep cut as he’d been climbing to his hooves.  The raiders’ leader snarled in pain from the strike, but held his ground stubbornly.  He lashed out with his right foreleg, catching a glancing blow along my wounded shoulder.

With both of us unbalanced and with Slab still nearby, I decided to fall back a bit and get both my attackers in my field of view.  Slab seemed to dislike this idea however, the spike clubbed raider attempting to follow up his previous failed attack with another.  I backed up again to avoid the raider’s wild swing, the end of the club ruffling the whiskers on my chin as it sailed past.  He wouldn’t give up however, not about to allow me time to recover as he moved in for another swing.  I brought my own weapon up to block the attack, grunting as the spiked club impacted the wooden shaft of the axe not far from my face and sending splinters flying from both weapons.  Taking another step back, I felt my left hind leg press into something soft and warm behind me.  I dared not look, but knew I’d likely backed up into the downed feral I’d been attempting to defend.  

Narrowing my eyes, I realized there was nowhere to back up to and once more went on the attack.  Ducking from a third wild swing, I stepped forward and swung wildly with the fire axe.  The raider dodged it easily as I’d expected, but in so doing he’d been forced to step back and give me a bit of room to work.  It wasn’t much, but I took what I could get.  I was running on adrenaline now, the pains in my shoulder and back all but forgotten as I focused on the two raiders before me.  Taking a step forward away from the wounded ghoul, I pushed my attack into Slab and jabbed hard with the end of the axe head to strike the raider’s chest armor.  The wooden grip slid against my teeth from the force of the blow, leaving splinters in my mouth as Slab staggered.  He narrowed his blood shot eyes on me as he gasped for air and took a step back to my right.  Before he halted, the raider’s twisted face split into an evil grin.

Ah shit…

The grinning raider and the hackles rising along the back of my neck were the only warnings I got about an immediate attack on my backside.  With little recourse, I blindly dodged to my left away from Slab and hopefully from whoever had managed to sneak up behind me.  Still expecting a blow to my skull or a knife between my shoulders, I turned about to face my new attacker.  What I hadn’t expected was some help in covering my back.  The fallen ghoul I’d been protecting had wrapped her fore legs about the hindquarters of Scrat, who’d been sneaking up on me with a knife between his lips, and was giving him quite the fight despite her injuries.  

The scrawny raider was trying and failing, quite badly I might add, to lash out with the knife he had clutched between his teeth.  He was doing little to no damage to the ghoul either due to his own incompetence or a dull blade.  Perhaps both.  For only a moment the ghoul and I locked eyes and for just that moment it appeared as if a glimmer of intelligence filled those glowing green orbs, as if she was telling me she had this one.  

Slowly, I smiled and nodded my head to the ghoul mare in thanks.  I wasn’t sure if she understood me or not… honestly though it didn’t really matter.  Turning my head back around, I narrowed my eyes upon Nails and Slab as they began approaching me.  My teeth gripped the wooden shaft of the fire axe tightly.  However, it seemed more than one ghoul was there to help me out.  Somepony plowed into Nails’ side, knocking the unicorn away from me and almost off the edge of the road.

“Don’t ya worry none, Marshal, Ah’ll get this one while ya finish off that traitorous bastard with th’ club threatin’ Rosemerry!” Bronze shouted out over the grunts of pain, blasts of gunfire, and clatter of hooves.  The ghoul law pony offered me a wide grin as he turned his attention back on Nails, who was just starting to pick himself up.  He’d lost his own hat somewhere in the fight and his ruined mane was sticking to his neck and face with sweat, rainwater, and blood.  His trench coat had a number of new holes in it as well, but he seemed in good shape.  Nails snarled in anger at once more being denied a chance at killing me.  He fixed his hate filled eyes upon the ghoul marshal.

I couldn’t see much else as I returned my attention on Slab, who was running towards me once more.  His club was rising up to deliver what the raider hoped would be a killing blow.  Snorting, I lowered my head and stepped into his attack, taking the blow onto my unwounded shoulder and side.  The nails driven into the weapon scratched harmlessly against my armored shoulder, doing little more than scratching the paint.  At the same time, I brought the fire axe around and slammed it into the armored side of the raider.  The battered weapon had finally had enough it seemed because as the axe head impacted the crude armor, it snapped free of its wooden handle.  Still, it had done damage by crumpling Slab’s armor like cheap tin and leaving a nasty gash in the flesh beneath.  

Left with little more than a ruined stick clenched between my teeth, I jabbed the splintered end towards his face while he reared back in pain.  The bits of splintered wood stabbing him in the neck and jaw loosened his grip on his spiked club and the weapon dropped from his lips.  My folded back ears perked as I heard the sound of scrambling hoof steps behind me and I assumed Scrat had rejoined the fight.  With Slab grabbing ahold of the broken fire axe handle with his mouth, I struck wildly with my hind legs at whoever had come up behind me.  The blind buck missed by a mile and I felt the familiar piercing pain of a blade in my flesh, this time my hindquarters.  My neck, meanwhile, felt like it was about to pulled from its socket as the raider in front of me fought for the ruined weapon… well… if he really wanted it so badly...

“You can have it!!” I growled around the stick before releasing it from my mouth.  Slab blinked in surprise as he suddenly had nothing to pull against and went stumbling back away from me towards the highway’s edge.  At the last second, he recovered his balance and managed to stay on all four hooves.  His quick recovery kept him from falling into the ashen ditch, but the raider’s panicked expression turning to one of triumph was short lived.  

I slammed my right fore hoof down upon the wooden bat’s handle laying beside me and sent the weapon flying upward.  Ignoring the spiked business end of the weapon, I darted my head out and snatched the grip in my teeth.  At the same time, I began turning back towards whoever had crept up on me.  It turned out to simply be another raider who’d decided to join the fight.  He ducked the bat’s swing and hurriedly stepped back from me.  However, as I’d done with the axe, I followed the swing through.  As I spun back towards Slab, I opened my mouth and released the bat.  It flew the short distance between myself and its owner before coming to a halt, embedded in the raider’s forehead. 

I didn’t bother watching as Slab dropped to the ground.  Either he was very dead from a nail to the brain or knocked out cold, but I still had another raider to deal with.  Like all the other raiders, he had on bits and pieces of crude home-made armor as well as wearing a necklace of eyes.  Like Nails he was a unicorn, though he seemed far more crazed than the other stallion.  That is, if one raider could be thought of as less insane.  I guess he’d seen my back turned while fighting ghouls and thought I’d be an easier target.  My eyes shifted from the raider approaching me to the dull kitchen knife sticking out of my left flank and back again.  What was it with the knives today?

With a half crazed scream the raider launched himself at me, bounding the short distance between us on his long lanky legs while his horn flared to life.  A rusted butcher’s knife was pulled from a belt hanging around his torso and was readied to come smashing down atop me.  He’d be on me in a matter of moments.  I suppose I would have been screwed if I hadn’t already grabbed for Luna’s Ruse’s firing bit as I’d turned away from Slab.  

The shotgun only had two shots left, and my aim was definitely off… but thanks to his rapid approach, my aim nor ammo really mattered.  Lifting the weapon up to meet the raider, I slammed my tongue down hard on the trigger.  The weapon roared to life as it fired both slugs almost point blank into the unicorn as he lunged towards me.  His head snapped back in a spray of red as his horn and much of his forehead flew up into the air away from his neck.  The body was all but halted in mid air from the force of the first shot and nearly annihilated by the second.  It simply crumpled to the ground beside me.

As the final raider threatening me dropped to the pavement, I quickly turned towards the fight between Nails and Bronze, only to see it was not going so well for my friend.  The raider had inflicted a number of deep cuts all across the Marshal’s body and had even sliced one of his ears nearly completely off… the ghoul stallion hadn’t let up, however, and Nails was bleeding from a few new wounds himself.  It was clear I’d need to help and I’d just begun to approach the fighting when disaster struck.

Time seemed to come to a complete halt as I watched helplessly at what happened next.  The ghoul Marshal’s glowing green eyes widened in surprise as Nails’ twin serrated blades pierced through his armor as if it hadn’t existed, dark blood running from his open mouth.  My own mouth widened in horror as I saw the blades bury themselves nearly to their hilts, surrounded in the unicorn raider’s magical glow.  Reality began to slowly move once more as Nails trotted smugly over towards the ghoul.  A grin was plastered across his face while he yanked both blades free, along with chunks of flesh.  

Bronze could only stumble back a few steps from his killer, a fore hoof lifting weakly up to the holes in his chest before holding it up to his face.  A confused look crossed the ghoul’s face as he stared at the blood covering his hoof, as if he didn’t understand where it’d come from.  Then he simply fell back… landing upon his side on the blood stained pavement.

No…

The fighting around me faded into the background as I stood staring at the unmoving form of Bronzestar, dark blood pooling around his prone body.  After everything he’d been through… to die at the hooves of a raider… on some abandoned road.  My eyes drifted over towards Nails who stood over the body, a smug satisfied look on his face.

“Well, killed myself one marshal… Ah reckon it’s time ta complete th’ set and make it two fer two,” the raider said as his horn flared to life.  The silver star pinned to Bronze’s chest was lifted up in his magical grip, the twisted unicorn gave it a brief glance before tossing it back down upon the pavement.  He chuckled madly as he stepped towards me, casually stepping upon the emblem of the Marshalls.

No.

Nails’ knives floated up beside him, blood running along the blades while leaving a trail of droplets across the pavement as he lazily made his way to me.  I felt my ears twist about and lay flat to my skull as I stared at the raider, my breathing becoming more rapid as anger swelled in my chest.  Bronze deserved better… his ghouls deserved better… Ebony deserved better.

Without even thinking about it, I began walking towards him, fully intent on removing that fucking smug ass grin off his face.  Intent on giving Bronze and everypony else what they deserved… but I needed a weapon… Luna’s Ruse was out of ammo.  A sharp pain in my flank reminded me where I could get one and, without hesitation nor even feeling the pain it caused, I turned my head around to grab ahold of the knife still jutting out of my hip.  With a slight grunt, as the blade had been buried quite deeply, I yanked it free and twisted back around to face Nails.  His confident look faltered as we locked eyes and he slowed his pace somewhat.  

“Well?” I asked, eyes narrowing upon the raider.  “I thought you wanted to finish this?”  Either from the tone of my voice or the look of pure hatred I was giving him, the raider froze in his tracks and actually took a step back.  Not about to let him get away I began advancing on him, teeth tightening about the hilt of the knife.  With a shake of his head, Nails sent both blades towards me.  Much to his surprise, I didn’t try to dodge them.  Instead I lowered my head and charged right into them with a yell.

The first blade sailed past my now lowered head and struck the back of my armored torso, sliding across the metal plating.  It did catch my Stable jumpsuit though, easily slicing through along with the flesh beneath.  The second blade was sent a bit lower and clipped my cheek as it flew past before hitting my chest armor.  Unlike Bronze’s, mine was newer and had been more recently repaired.  Still, the direct strike, along with my forward momentum, drove the blade into the plating until it found a weak spot and slid into my chest.  The warning from my Pipbuck about critical damage was ignored… as were both wounds as they bleed freely, along with the others I’d earned… my entire focus was on Nails’ face, which had already been shocked and had now turned to a look of fear.  Weaponless, the raider began to panic somewhat and I could feel both my weapons trying to be pulled free of my body, only to either become caught on my armor or clothing… at any rate, he was out of time.

With a scream worthy of the raiders and with the knife still clutched tightly between my jaws, I covered the last few feet to him in a single lunge.  Bringing the weapon straight towards his face with a rapid thrust of my neck and head, he attempted to bring his right foreleg up to defend against my attack.  His armored leg guard deflected the strike of the blade and the spikes jutting from it cut my chin and cheek in the process.  I didn’t let up, and allowed the knife to skid along the armored covering until it slid off into his flesh, ignoring the scratches that his spikes left along my face.  As blood struck my muzzle and Nails yelled in pain, I released the knife’s grip and slammed my own right foreleg into the raider’s head.  The Pipbuck did as fine of a job as a club as it had a shield.

Nails staggered backward, his eyes a bit dazed from the double strike.  However, this was a stallion who was used to hoof to hoof combat and would recover quickly.  A hard slug from my left fore hoof into his face halted any chance of that and sent a couple of his yellowed teeth flying from his mouth.  The raider recovered enough wits to realize he needed to fight back and he drunkenly threw a punch at my face.  I surprised myself by not only blocking the attack, but by actually catching hold of his hoof with one of my own.

“Whats the matter, Nails?!  I thought I was just some dumb nopony!  Just another life for you to take!” I screamed into his face as I grabbed ahold of his armored shoulder halting his attempt to get away from me.  “Just another trophy for you to show off!”   My hoof brushed against the twisted necklace he wore, the shriveled eyes of dead ponies looking up at me.  They had deserved better… my free hoof slammed into the knife sticking from his wounded leg, driving it in deeper and causing the raider to scream in pain. 

Releasing his shoulder, Nails dropped to the pavement before me.  Blood ran from his foreleg like a burst pipe, as well as from his nose and mouth.  Yellowed eyes stared up into my face, all trace of malice was gone from his face, replaced with pure fear.  For a moment I paused; my hoof was pulled back to deliver another blow to his face, to punish this beast for what he’d done to so many.

“Wh… what are ya?” he asked painfully, blood running down his chin and across the staring eyes of his victims.  Most were large, but a single pair were smaller… a foal’s eyes.  I lowered my hoof and took ahold of his head and brought my face closer to his.  I could see my eyes staring back at me from within his own, they almost seemed to be glowing pure white with my rage.  

“I am justice…” I answered in a whisper, causing his eyes to widen even as his pupils shrank to pin pricks.  Grabbing ahold of his head with my other fore hoof I slammed the side of his head into the pavement… the side with the nail jutting out from it.  The rusted metal spike was driven into his skull like a bullet, finishing its once halted journey into the raider’s skull and killing him instantly.  “... for those who deserved better.”  

As I stood over the body, breathing heavily and with blood running from my numerous wounds, I released his head and took an unsteady step back.  Whatever had been keeping me going through that fight seemed to be slowly fading away, pain was beginning to flood into my head.  Taking another step away from the dead raider, I could feel every scratch and bruise covering my body.  Everything from the jagged dagger sticking from my back, to the bleeding stab wound in my shoulder.  I could also see a dozen warnings fading in and out of my vision as my Pipbuck attempted to list all my injuries.  

A groan from my right turned my attention away from my battered body and towards the shifting form of Bronzestar.  I blinked in surprise as the badly wounded Marshal held one of the raider’s revolvers in his mouth, pointed straight at me.  I’d barely registered this fact in my pain-clouded brain when he fired, the bullet flying inches past my face before I heard it impact something behind me.  Turning around, I saw a very shocked looking Scab standing only a few feet away, a hole in his chest.  The raider gurgled once before toppling over dead, the knife he’d been about to plunge into my back dropping from his slack jaw.

Turning away, I was about to thank Bronze until I noticed the downed stallion had dropped his own weapon and had laid back down upon the hard pavement.  Stepping past the dead body of Nails, I made my way painfully over to Bronze.  His already rotted flesh was turning a very unhealthy shade of grey.  It was a miracle he had managed to fire off that last shot… hell, it was even more so that he was still alive at all, given the blood he’d lost… but then, he’d survived worse thus far.  Dropping down beside him tiredly, I placed a hoof upon his blood stained chest to halt his attempts at standing once more.  The ghoul stallion grunted, but finally relented and lay back upon the pavement, glowing green eyes looking up at me.

“Did ya… get ’im?” he asked, voice weak and a bit more raspy than I’d remembered.  I nodded my head and he smiled with blood stained teeth up at me before coughing a bit.  “Asshole got me good… Ah reckon Ah’m a sight ta see… glad Mint ain’t here ta see me, she’d likely been fussin’ over how Ah look.”

“Nonsense… you’ve likely had...” I began to say in an attempt to soothe him, however I needn’t have bothered.  His eyes bore into mine with a knowing look and instead I said, “... you’re right… you look about as good as a diamond dog stripper.”  That actually got a laugh out of him, though it quickly turned into a wet cough.

“A burned dog Ah’d wager…” he added after he got his coughing under control.  I blinked my eyes in surprise and he once more smiled up at me.  “Th’ haze that’d been cloudin’ my mind seems ta have lifted… maybe it’s th’ pain… or maybe it’s th’ fact Ah’m dying again.  Whatever th’ reason Ah’m seenin’ more clearly than Ah have in a while, Ah’d reckon.”  Another round of coughing halted our conversation and I painfully reached for one of the health potions in my saddlebag.  He stopped me with a hoof to my shoulder.  “How much of it was a lie, Shadow?” he asked softly and I turned back towards him.

“What?”

“About what happened ta our home… how much of it was true?” he asked me again.  Despite the pain he was in, I could also see a look of desperation in his eyes once more.  Perhaps holding out hope that most of what I’d said was a lie to ease his confused mind.  Sadly, I would have to burst that hope as I refused to lie to the dying pony any longer.

“Most of it was true, Bronze… I just had to leave out certain details…” I trailed off.  When he didn’t look away I sighed and placed a hoof atop his on my shoulder.  “The only thing I lied about was how much time had really passed.  It’s been well over a hundred and sixty years since you and the citizens of New Oaks set out for the woods.”

“Has it really been so long…?”  I nodded my head as he shut his eyes and turned his head away from me to cough again, dark specks of blood flying from his muzzle.  “Then Equestria lost th’ war?  The Princesses are dead?”

“Nopony nor zebra won the war, Bronze… we all lost,” I answered sadly and truthfully.  “The ponies who were lucky enough to survive the bombings scrapped a meager existence from the rubble of the once mighty cities or hid for years in the Stables.  And… I don’t honestly know about the Princesses… some think they’re long since ash… others think they might be watching us from somewhere.”

“Ah suppose yer right… nothin’s like it was… everythin’s gone…”  His eyes scanned the blackened trunks of dead trees around the road, and the dark grey overcast sky.  “All gone…” he finished with a whisper, a tear running down his cheek before he turned his head back to me.  His eyes drifted down, locking upon the badge pinned to my chest armor.  “But not th’ Marshals… some of ’em had to have survived if yer one…” I frowned and looked to my chest and reached a hoof up to it. 

“One survived the bombings that I know of, but he stopped being a marshal to raise a family.  I’ve never heard of any others in the Wasteland,” I answered, starting to unpin the badge from my chest.  “I’m sorry, Bronze… but I’m no real marshal.  I just found this badge in his ruined settlement far from here, along with my shotgun.  I took them both and thought perhaps I could be a symbol.”  A shriveled hoof lifted up to stop me from removing the badge and I glanced back to Bronze. 

“Not a marshal?” he asked, the green glow of his eyes beginning to fade.  His strength was following suit as he struggled to hold his head up and look at me.  “Yer wrong, Shadow… Ah’ve seen ya fightin’ fer ponies weaker than yerself… protectin’ ponies who can’t protect themselves.  Yer a Marshal, Shadow… one of th’ last.”  His hoof pushed lightly against the badge on my chest before sliding off, the glow from his eyes dimming to nearly nothing.  “Never take off th’ badge, Shadow… long as ya wear it… justice still lives in this new Equestria… as does th’ Marshals… t’was an honor… fightin’... with...” he whispered before going still, his eyes dark and staring up into the sky.

“The honor was all mine, Bronze… rest in peace.”  Head lowered, I reached up with my right fore hoof and gently shut his now sightless eyes.  “You deserved better.”  I lowered him to the pavement.  Climbing to my hooves, I looked down to the silver star upon my armored chest and sighed softly before lifting my head up to take in my surroundings.  It appeared that most of the fighting had come to a halt.  The combined firepower of the convoy and the brute strength of the ghouls had prevailed this day.  The pavement of the roadway was covered in bodies, blood, spent shell casings, and fallen weapons.  

I was surprised to see a number of ferals standing nearby, their eyes unfocused yet directed at the fallen body of Bronze beside me.  Despite having nearly been emotionless the entire time I’d been around them, I noticed nearly all bore expressions of sorrow.  Their ears laid back, head lowered to the ground, and tails (those still with them) tucked between their legs as they stood still.  Well, not all were still.  One was moving, the ghoul pegasus who bore a number of wounds all across her body and looked ready to drop.  However, she stubbornly made her way between the ferals, glowing eyes fixed upon the still form of Bronze.

As she neared me, the wounded pegasus slowed to a halt and lowered her head further down to gently nudge Bronze’s neck, as if expecting him to rise up.  When he didn’t, she tried again… and again.  After the fourth attempt she went still and cocked her head at the body before dropping down to her knees and laying her neck across his, shoulders slumping.  While I stood watching, the rest of the feral herd approached and gathered around them, heads all lowered to their former leader.

“Shadow?” a voice called out quietly from somewhere behind me.  I turned to see Stone, Wild, Carrion, and Spirit walking up quickly from down the roadway.  Not far behind my friends, I spotted Silverluck among a number of armed ponies from the convoy.  All their weapons were partially raised as if expecting an attack.  All of them, my friends included, were looking uneasily towards the gathered ghouls near me.  It wasn’t something any of them expected to see in ferals I suppose, mourning the loss of one of their own as they appeared to be doing.  Of my friends, Carrion appeared the most ill at ease.  His glowing orange eyes narrowed upon the rotting animated remains of ponies.  Given his history with his fellow citizens and squad mates of Kanter City, I suppose it made sense that he would have.

“I’m glad to see you two made it back to the convoy safely,” I said towards Carrion and Spirit, my smile weak despite the fact I was very relieved to see them.  I’d wondered if they’d managed to avoid the raiders while carrying the wounded survivors from Softheart’s wagon.  As for the ponies from Old Oaks, they hung back from my friends and I… or rather, the ghouls nearby.  Nopony had raised a weapon on them yet, but I could see the unease on their faces.

“We barely made it back,” Carrion began, eyes moving across the ghouls as they milled about with uncertainty. “These raiders hounded us the entire journey back and there were a couple of times I didn’t think we’d make it.”  My ghoul friend looked to Fleethoof as she held Bronze.  “Wild told us the ghouls were fighting for you… I didn’t believe it at first… how did you manage it?” he asked, a slight note of sadness in his tone.  He’d been forced to kill the ghouls of his home city… I suppose he wondered if there’d been another way.  The rest of my friends appeared equally as curious about it.

“Ah’d thought they were ghouls like Carrion, with their minds intact… but they look like any other feral Ah’ve seen roamin’ th’ wasteland,” Stone added.  Like the ponies from Old Oaks, my friend still had his weapon drawn, but was pointing it towards the pavement.  “Ain’t never seen so many well behaved feral ghouls before… can’t honestly remember seein’ one.”

Silverluck had pushed her way to the head of the group of armed ponies and was looking curiously towards the ghouls.  Thankfully, she appeared to be attempting to calm her ponies.  A number of weapons were relaxed, though their owners kept a close eye on the undead herd.

I started to open my mouth to answer their questions when I spotted a glint of metal coming from the ground between Stone and myself.  Stepping away from Fleethoof and the others, I moved closer before reaching down with my right fore hoof to pick up the small round metal object.  Lifting it up to my face, I looked over the slightly dented star and its still legible engraving.

“They weren’t just another herd of feral ghouls, Stone.  They were ponies just like us.  They just forgot that for a while is all,” I answered as I tucked the star into a pouch on my chest and looked to Carrion.  “As for how I did it… I can’t take any of the credit for this one, it was all Marshal Bronzestar’s doing.  Despite the changes, he managed to hold them all together somehow and keep their spirits up long enough to be rescued.”  I waved a hoof over to the downed pony as Fleethoof began to rise and step away from the body.

“But now that their leader is dead… are they going to turn on us?” somepony from the convoy asked.  I didn’t see who questioned that as they all appeared slightly scared of the herd of ferals.  Old Oaks hadn’t gotten many ghoul visitors if I’d recalled what Silver had told me, nor had they any such citizens.  They’d accepted Carrion well enough, but he was one pony.  This many was more intimidating, especially to ponies who’d no doubt heard stories from members of the former trading convoys coming through their town.

“No… they’re not going to turn on anypony, so long as we treat them well.  Like anypony else they dislike having weapons pointed at them, and will attack if somepony shoots them,” I quickly explained, waiting to avoid further bloodshed and loss of life among the ferals.  Silver was about to ask another question when something to my right caught her attention.  

Turning my head in that direction, I found myself once more looking at the same feral ghoul I’d come face to face with back at their cave.  The stallion’s business tie was more torn than I remembered and he bore a number of fresh scars all across his body… and was carrying my hat in his mouth.  The feral ghoul slowed to a halt and looked between the group of armed ponies and myself before dropping the hat down on the highway beside my hooves.  He nosed the old cowpony hat over to me before sitting down.  Looking back up to the ghoul, I smiled and nodded my head in thanks before reaching over to pick it up and replace it atop my head.

  “All they need is for somepony to show them… a little bit of kindness,” Spirit whispered.  She’d not said anything earlier until now, looking from the ghouls to me.  The buffalo’s eyes softened a bit and she smiled towards me, nodding her horned head once in my direction.  She seemed about to simply remain standing where she was before she noticed the knife wounds all across my body.  Likely due to the fact that the knives themselves were still stuck in my body.  That was a rather uncomfortable feeling now that I noticed it...

“You are in need of medical attention, Shadow,” my large brown coated friend stated the obvious and was already moving towards me.  She already was opening her medical saddlebags, reaching for bandages and clean cloths with her mouth.  At the mention of wounds, my other friends blinked and looked more closely to me.  I couldn’t fault them for not noticing before… after all, they’d been focused on the ferals that might still poss a threat.

“Yer suppose ta dodge th’ knives thrown at ya, Shadow.  Ya do know that, right?” Stone asked upon seeing the blades jutting out of my body.  He relaxed his grip on his rifle and arched a brow at me as if awaiting an answer.  When I simply snorted my response, he smirked a bit and moved to help Spirit by offering a second set of hooves to hold things.  Spirit, meanwhile, had withdrawn a number of bottles from her saddlebags by then and sat them upon the pavement beside me.  Two of the bottles she was opening first were a soft orange color.  I recognized them as a sort of numbing potion.  She’d bought the recipe for them from a trader who was visiting San Ponsisco a week ago.

“Well… what do we do with ’em now?” Wild asked me as she trotted up behind her coltfriend.

I turned away from Spirit just as she began pouring the contents of one of her potions onto the knife wound upon my neck and back.  Almost at once the feeling of something metal sticking into my flesh was replaced with one of… well nothing.  I was quite thankful for that, as the adrenaline from the fight had long since worn off.  Only my desire not to scare the ferals had kept me from screaming.  That and the strap that Luna’s Ruse hung from was now wrapped around my fore hooves.  Instead of watching what was no doubt to come, I looked over to the orange winged mare.  She scanned the torn apart bodies of the raiders laying near us, and then looked over to the dead ghouls that had killed them.

“What we do for anypony in need... we help them,” I said simply and looked to see where Fleethoof had gotten to.  The winged ghoul had moved a bit away from us, perhaps sensing the unease in Silver’s ponies.  My answer seemed enough for Wild, at least for the moment.

“How exactly do you plan on helping them and, for that matter, where did you even find them?”  The answer wasn’t enough it seemed for Silver.  She stepped away from her group to walk closer to my friends and I.  Well, that was a question I wasn’t looking forward to fully explaining the answer to.  The ferals were responsible for the supplies not reaching Old Oaks… which resulted in ponies getting killed, both on the road and in the town.  After everything that had happened, I still wasn’t sure if I should even tell anypony.  I mean, it really wasn’t the ghouls’ fault, was it?  Once again today, I decided to tell just half truths until I could figure out what to do.

“They’ve been hiding in the forest ever since the bombings.  They’d been trying to escape New Oaks and reach someplace safe when they’d cut through the forest,” I began, making sure to keep my voice low enough so none of the ghouls would hear.  I wasn’t sure if Fleet knew what she or the others were or if, like Bronze and Mint, she had mentally blocked the changes from her mind.  At the thought of Mint, I swore to myself and worried if learning her husband had been killed would finish breaking the poor mare’s mind.  With a slight slump to my shoulders, I continued to explain to my friends and Silver what had happened in the forest, leaving out the ambush on caravans traveling along the highway.

“So… you found Softheart with these ghouls… and she’s alright?  She’s with this ghoul doctor?” Silver asked once I’d finished telling them most of what I’d learned and what had happened since leaving the highway.  After nodding to her question, she asked another, “And you're sure she’s alright?”

“How do we know they didn’t kill her?” one of Silver’s ponies asked from the back.  The question sparked the crowd of armed ponies to mutter and eye the ghouls, who were mostly ignoring us as they gathered around Fleet.

“She’s fine, Mint Julep wouldn’t let anything happen to her.  You have my word.”  I could see fear of the ghouls was going to be a very real problem for the ponies of Old Oaks.  I can’t say I was surprised, since I’d expected as much from them.  I also couldn’t say I blamed them.  However, such thoughts fled my own mind when I felt something being pulled from my body… or rather the weight of it leave my back.  I twisted my head around to see Spirit holding one of Nail’s blades in her mouth by the grip, the jagged blade dripping with blood.  My blood...

My stomach decided now was as good a time as any to point out just how freaking unsettling that was and began to twist this way and that.  Thankfully, I’d long since thrown up any breakfast I had left inside it due to the radiation poisoning I’d taken the trip in and out of the forest.  Taking a quick breath, I managed to avoid dry heaving in front of everypony… but only just.  Looking back up to the ponies around me, I noticed Wild looked a bit green about the cheeks as she stared at Spirit beside me.  Even Silver shifted her eyes to something else.  Okay… I was glad I only had to sorta feel this… and hooray for unsettlingly derailing the current conversation until I could figure out what to do.

“How are your ponies?” I asked Silver.  It was both to further forestall the conversation we’d been having and to avoid thinking of why Spirit had retrieved a needle and thread from her bag after dropping the knife on the ground.  Oh, I wasn’t stupid, I just didn’t want to think about… fuck, I was thinking about it…

“We lost another seven to the attack, a number of others are wounded pretty badly.  Jack was injured in the last round of gunfire, Fiona thinks he may lose his leg,” the mare began, looking away from me and back to the wagons, her ears flat.

“I believe she is right,” Spirit said between her stitching.  “Our medical supplies are quite low and without more potions, I am afraid we will lose many more ponies to their wounds tonight.”

Damnit… Jack was a good pony, and in a lot of ways he reminded me of Stone… if he was in such bad shape I imagined his granddaughter would be by his side.  That likely explained where Balefire was.  Thankfully, we’d brought enough supplies with us from the caves to likely help him and the other wounded recover, but there was something else I was worried about.  I looked down the highway to the parked wagons and the remaining ponies milling about them.  The ruined wagon still sat across the narrow path, smoke rising steadily into the sky.

“How are the wagons?”  I knew we’d lost one for sure, but given the raiders’ firepower we might have lost more.  That would most likely be our most pressing problem at the moment.

“One’s a complete wreck thanks to the rocket that began the attack, two others are heavily damaged… we think we can get one of them repaired, but the other one may have to be left behind.  I’ve already told them to start tossing personal effects over the side of the road to allow more ponies to ride the remaining wagons,” Silver answered, beginning to sound more and more depressed as she went on.  “Of course it seems to be a moot point, seeing as how we don’t have enough healthy ponies to pull them all anyway.”

“The raiders really fucked us over,” Wild spoke up.  Her ears pinned to the back of her skull as she narrowed her eyes on the body of a raider nearby, kicking it in the head with a forehoof.  “For the first few minutes they actually seemed to be aiming to disable our wagons rather than just to kill.  As Silver said, their first shot was to the wagon in the front which blocked the narrow strip we needed to cross.  Thankfully they reverted to their old selves once we became bogged down on this side of the passage and just started firing randomly into us.”

“If Ah hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, Ah wouldn’t have believed it,” Stone said from beside me as he helped Spirit with mending my wounds.  The stallion was now busy with holding a blood stained cloth and pan.

“To be honest, even after what they did to our walls back in Old Oaks, I still can’t believe it,” Silver added, ears folded back as she looked from us to her smoking ruined wagon.  “I’d almost believe we’d been attacked by a band of mercenaries rather than crazed psychopaths.”

“Surely smart raiders aren’t all that rare?” I asked my grey friend as Spirit finished her sewing.  “I mean, they have some sort of crude leadership even in those roaming bands of their’s.”

“It ain’t uncommon for a raider ta be smarter than others.  But they normally ain’t all in one group.”  Hmm, I suppose that did make sense now that I thought about it.  “Smart raiders like ta be leadin’ the dumber ones like ya said.  They aren’t known for bein’ able to share leadership.  In all my days travelin’ th’ wasteland, Ah ain’t ever seen so many raiders as organized as Ah’ve seen th’ past couple days,” he answered as Spirit tossed the needle she’d been using into the pan he held.

Having finished with one wound, Spirit turned her attention on the second blade sticking out of my body.  She turned my head a bit to one side and lifted my right foreleg to better get at it and set to work.  Thankfully the numbing potion she’d used still seemed to be working.  The others continued to speak about the raiders’ unusual activity.  Given what Three Horns had been saying for the past couple weeks, it was quite widespread across the wasteland.  

With little new to add to the conversation, I instead mulled over the issues of the wagons.  We couldn’t stay here for long seeing how we’d already been attacked twice while on the road.  It was worrying that Old Oaks had suddenly gained so much attention that we’d been the focus of so many raiders.  

Shifting my eyes back towards my friends, I noticed Carrion had moved away from everypony else and was standing over the corpses of two of the raiders I’d killed.  While my ghoul friend wasn’t always easy to read, thanks largely in part to the fact some of his face rotting away, I could still tell something was bothering him.  Nopony else had noticed him missing just yet as they started talking about other attacks across the wasteland.  As I watched him, he rolled one of the bodies over and began examining it closely.  His hoof reached out to run over the necklace of eyeballs the raider still wore.  After a moment, he turned the second body over and studied it.

With a slight twinge to my stomach, I felt some weight pull from my chest as Spirit no doubt removed the second blade.  As she retrieved the needle and thread from Stone, I attempted to see what had caught Carrion’s attention on the raiders.  From where I sat, I couldn’t make out a lot of detail about them.  They had similar coat and mane coloring, as well as being both earth ponies… come to think of it, now that I really looked, their armor was very similar.  Still, it’s not like raiders were very original in their dress.  Spiked armored shoulder pads, body parts hanging from their belts and weapons, cutie marks depicting suffering, the whole nine yards.  A quick look revealed that these two had the typical mark on their flanks, a pony being stabbed in the face.  Wait…

“They both have the same cutie mark…” I whispered.  It caused Spirit to halt her sewing and glance up at me, confused as to what I’d said.  Beside me, Stone halted his conversation with Wild to look over at me himself as well, before following my gaze to Carrion and the raiders.  From the way his ears perked up, I could tell he’d spotted the same thing as me.

“Twins?” he asked, to which I shrugged my shoulders.  It seemed as good an answer as any… what were the chances though?  Still, even twins didn’t get the same cutie mark so far as I knew… and I was one.  Ebony and I looked alike, but we each had earned our cutie marks separately.  Maybe it had to do with them being raiders though.  I guess there was only so many murder cutie marks out there before they had to begin copying themselves.

“Maybe… but what's more worrying to me is the fact I’ve seen these before.”  Carrion’s comment silenced the others and the ghoul stallion found all eyes turned towards him.  He pointed a hoof to the first one and then the other raider’s unsettling taste in jewelry, going so far as to pick one up so we could better see it.  Silver wrinkled her nose at the sight of half rotted and shriveled eyes and I think one of the ponies from the crowd actually turned away to throw up.

“Damned raiders and their trophies…” Stone muttered, ears laid back as he looked from the twins to the necklace before scanning the other raider bodies around us.  “Most bands of raiders have somethin’ that denotes its members… either in th’ way of body paint, piercings or trophies.  Ain’t nothin’ new to that,” he said, perhaps more for my benefit than anyone else's.  After all, even a month on the surface wasn’t enough time to learn everything.

“You’re right, Stone… the thing that worries me is that the last time I’d seen this particular mark on a raider was in the sewers of Kanter City, whenever they’d get ballsy enough to try and come hunt me down.”  As he spoke, he let the necklace fall from his hoof.  “And I only began noticing them after somepony began uniting the different factions within the city itself.”

Looking back to the necklace of eyes, I began to figure out just what they were suppose to represent.  If one wanted to show loyalty to a pony with a name like Mad Eyes, then eyeballs would be a good way to do that.  Mad Eyes… I’d rather hoped I’d not have to think of that particular pony again.  She’d been the one who’d apparently ordered the attack on my Stable, if what I’d heard was correct about her leading the raiders of Kanter City.  However, something else he’d said struck me suddenly. “Wait… why are they way the hell out here?” I asked.

“A good question… up until today I haven’t seen them outside the city.  At least not beyond Sticks or the train we’d fought them on,” Carrion answered.  It wasn’t like Old Oaks was just down the road from Kanter City… far from it… and it got me to wondering if perhaps the stories we’d been hearing on the radio were due to raiders bearing the same symbol.

“Perhaps its just a group of raiders that split from those in Kanter City,” Wild suggested, though it didn’t sound as if she believed it herself.  It didn’t seem very likely, given the number of raiders we’d fought since arriving in Old Oaks.

“Ah don’t reckon they are… unless a whole lot of ’em decided ta all move out at once,” Stone pointed out.  “But if they’re from Kanter City, why are they way th’ hell up here?  There’s towns closer ta that city than Old Oaks.”

“As interesting as this all is… this isn’t helping us…” Silver pointed out, and I had to agree.  “I don’t doubt this means more trouble for us, but it’s going to be dark very soon and I’d rather not be stuck sitting here.”

“Yer right o’ course, Silver.  Just we’ve ran inta this particular group before.”  As he spoke, Stone looked over to me, perhaps worried this was bringing up some bad memories for me.  It was… but I wasn’t going to let it bother me.  As worrying as the thought that more raiders were flocking to the banner of Mad Eyes, it wasn’t our primary concern at the moment.  “We need ta collect th’ rest of yer ghoul friends from th’ forest and figure out how ta get these wagons movin’ before we’re attacked again.”

“I have an idea on how we can do that, Stone… but I have to ask them if they’re willing to help first,” I said, looking over to Fleethoof.  The winged ghoul mare hadn’t done much since stepping away from Bronze’s body, simply sitting with the other ghouls while silently listening.  However, when she’d noticed somepony looking towards her, she lifted her head and arched a brow towards me.  Behind her, the ferals had begun to scatter out a bit along the highway, wandering around the bodies of the raiders.

“And it’s going to require the ponies from Old Oaks to trust those from New Oaks,” I added while Spirit finished sewing the knife wound in my chest.  The buffalo rose back up and dropped the needle into the pan as everypony else looked over to me.

“Ya can’t be serious,” one of the ponies from the crowd accused, causing me to look away from the nervous Fleet and to the red coated mare who’d spoke up.  She wrinkled her nose at the ghoul pegasus, who shrunk back at the look she was getting.  The ferals around Fleet merely blinked their glowing eyes at us in confusion as they found themselves the center of attention all of a sudden.  Not surprisingly, they began to gather around Fleet.  With Bronze dead, it seemed she’d been nominated the new lead pony by the herd.

“I am serious.”  My tone lowered as the mare looked unhappily upon Fleet before catching my own glare and looking away.  The last thing we needed was for the ghouls to feel threatened by somepony being stupid… I suppose Spirit had been right, ponies were quick to judge strangers.

“A feral ghoul is a might bit stronger than a normal pony for some reason,” Stone muttered mostly to himself before he began looking over the surviving herd of ferals.  There were only eight left who could stand, though a few wounded sat about the highway. “Ah’d reckon they’d be able ta pull th’ wagons non stop ta Janesville, some of ’em at any rate.”

“Silver… ya can’t seriously be thinkin’ bout lettin’ him do this, are ya?” the same mare asked.  I noticed a few more from the crowd looking less than pleased by the thought.  “They’re mindless beasts that’ll turn on us in a second.”

“I suppose it depends...” Silver answered, looking over the ferals, Fleet, and then myself.  “On whether they’d be willing to help us.”  The silver coated mare offered me a slight smile before turning to address her ponies.  “The Marshal’s done us right so far, and if he trusts them, then that’s good enough for me.  Besides, they’ve already saved one of our foals from dying in this hellish forest… and they did just charge in to save us all from these raiders.”  I was pleased to see more than a few shameful looking ponies among the crowd after that.

Fleethoof, for her part, still seemed confused about what was going on.  More of the ferals surrounded her and eyed the other herd of ponies uneasily.  Several had their ears back, but thankfully none seemed ready to attack.  I was surprised by Silver’s next move.  With her short speech finished, the leader of Old Oaks stood up and trotted away from us, slowly over towards Fleet.  The pegasus stood herself, looking ready to dart away should Silver attack her… I couldn’t blame her.  After all, the crowd had been talking about her as if she hadn’t been there.  Silver opened her mouth to speak, but paused and cocked her head a bit before looking back to me.

“Her name is Fleethoof,” I said after realizing what Silver wanted.  Looking over to the pegasus, I offered the nervous ghoul a friendly smile and added, “No relation to the Wonderbolt.”  At this, she returned my smile and seemed a bit calmer.

“Fleethoof… I know we’ve just met, and your ponies have suffered as much as mine,” Silver began, waving a hoof over the fallen forms of the ghouls and then back to the smoking ruin of a wagon and the frightened faces of the young and old hiding behind the remaining wagons.  “You’ve already proven yourself a kind pony, willing to come to the aid of complete strangers.  I really do hate to ask more from you, but... I believe if we combined our resources we can reach Janesville.  And safety for both our groups,” she finished, offering the ghoul pegasus a hoof.

For a moment, Fleet looked at the offered hoof and then back up to the mare it belonged to.  Her glowing green eyes shifted from Silver to the group of ponies behind her and finally to the wagons.  Beyond the slight twitching of her wings, she hadn’t moved from her spot.  The ponies gathered nearby held their breath, some no doubt thinking Silver was about to be mauled.  Their silence was shattered however by a couple gasps as Fleet reached a hoof up and took Silver’s, shaking it gently as she looked back into the silver mare’s face and smiled.  The gathered ponies from Old Oaks slowly began to relax, a few even starting to smile a bit at the prospect of no longer being stuck here.

It was a good feeling to see these two groups slowly coming together after all they’d been through.  For the moment, things were getting better and it seemed a very real possibility we would get through this without losing anypony else.  Kindness, it seemed, had won the day.  Oh, I knew well there’d be problems further down the road, both the metaphorical and physical ones.  I had no way of knowing how the ponies of Janesville would respond to feral ghouls once we reached the town, or even if the ponies of Old Oaks would fully get over their fear of them.  

The single thing that worried me the most right now, however, was the heavy weight of the recovered badge in my chest pouch and the knowledge I had some very bad news to deliver with it.  My good mood over our victory faded completely as I remembered the worried look that Mint had given towards Bronze.  After that, my attention drifted away completely from the ponies around me and I looked back out towards the forest.  I would have to go find the rest of the ghouls and Mint before it started getting dark… I had to tell her about Bronze.

“Spirit, I need to head back out into the forest, can you wait until I return to finish treating my wounds?” I asked, glancing over to the buffalo in question.  She halted her treatment of the stab wound upon my flank to look up at me.  Before she’d even had a chance to speak a single word, I could tell she did not like the idea of me leaving so soon with so many untreated wounds.  Neither did I, but it couldn’t be helped.  The more time I wasted sitting here looking after myself, the longer it would take me to reach Mint and the others.

“Your wounds are quite deep and many are covered in dirt that run the risk of infecting them.  I should finish treating them at the very least before you run off again,” she answered before looking me directly in the face, or rather at the wound across my right eye.  She frowned and tilted her horned head slightly to one side.  Lifting a fore hoof up in front of my face, she slowly moved it from side to side.  “Of more concern to me is the wound across your face.  Your right eye does not seem to focus on things as it should, nor does it track on its own.  I fear whatever blow you suffered has severally damaged it.”

“I’ve been having trouble seeing things on my right side…” I admitted.  “My aim’s been off since I got hit in the face as well… I did take a health potion not long after the attack,” I added, ears folding back a bit.  I’d known something was wrong with me and had a sneaking suspicion it’d been the slash to the right side of my face.  A large black tipped hoof lifted up from the pavement once more and gently touched the side of my face.  Spirit turned it to one side so she might have a better look at my eye.  As she did, I attempted to remain as still as I could and stare straight ahead.  However, it was hard given that I now noticed just how much loss of vision I had.  I couldn’t see Spirit from the corner of my right eye at all...

“The wound has scarred more heavily than it should after taking a health potion,” she began, speaking softly as she held my face still.  “I believe the radiation from the forest has kept the healing magic of the potion from working completely and has resulted in the scar across your brow and check.  It likely also kept it from fully healing the eye, which was most assuredly damaged by the weapon that struck you.”  Releasing my cheek, I turned back to look directly at my buffalo friend as she withdrew another health potion from her bag and offered it to me. When I didn’t immediately take the potion from her, she smiled a bit and explained.  “Since I believe you are about to tell me that since there is little else for your eye I can do, you may as well go.  That you will be fine until you return to finish letting me treat you.  However, you should at least use this to heal some of your smaller wounds and those I’ve sew shut.”

Chuckling a bit, I nodded my head once before taking the potion she held out.  I yanked the cork out and nodded my head towards the wounded ghouls across from us.  Before drinking the red liquid, I asked, “Is there anything you can do for them?”  The wounded ferals hadn’t moved much from where they’d fallen, though most of the healthy had settled down beside them now that Fleet seemed safe enough.

“I do not believe there is much I can do for them.  Ghouls do not heal normally as a pony does.  Radiation has a way of healing them, however, and I believe they will recover fully given enough exposure to it which should not be a problem,” she answered, waving a hoof to the sides of the highway and the ash-turned-goop.  “I will, however, insure that their bones are properly set to keep them from healing back wrong,” she added while beginning to put away the medical supplies she had withdrawn.  Upon noticing his services were no longer needed, Stone turned his attention back on us and noticed my less than fully healed self.

“Let me guess, he’s gotta go run off an’ be a hero again?” my friend asked, a smirk upon his muzzle as Spirit nodded her head once in answer to his question.  The stallion rolled his eyes and stepped around the buffalo to stand in front of me.  He tilted the brim of his cowpony hat back as he asked, “And just where th’ hell do ya think yer gettin’ off to so soon?”

“We left the badly wounded and foals back in the forest atop a hill to await the outcome of the fight,” I began.  At the mention of foals, both my friends appeared to be confused.  After all, they’d only known of a single foal I’d gone looking for.  Spirit put the pieces together first and her face shifted to a look of great sorrow for those who’d never fully grow up, at least in body.  Stone caught on a moment later and swore softly to himself about damned radiation.

“There is more to it than simply going back for the others though,” Wild said, stepping around her colt friend.  Her eyes searched my face as I began hurriedly reloading my shotgun.  “Otherwise you’d just send that Fleethoof out to collect them.  So, why do you personally have to go do this?”  The orange mare smiled a bit, head tilting as she added, “You're going to have to work on being harder to read, Shadow.”

“I normally don’t have any problems when dealing with strangers,” I said in my defence before answering her, “As for sending Fleet, I don’t believe that’s a good idea right now.  She’s needed here to keep the ferals calm.  The others haven’t all exactly warmed up to them yet and if they feel threatened, I’m afraid what will happen.”  They’d already been through so much… to die because they didn’t understand why the other ponies were looking at them or pointing weapons… well, I wasn’t about to let that happen to them.  “You're right though, there is a reason I need to go back myself.”

“Ya know Shadow… ya don’t need ta shoulder everythin’ yerself all th’ time.”

“I know, Stone… but this is something I just really have to do… I owe them that much,” I answered, glancing over towards the body of Bronze and sighing.  My friends followed my gaze and shared a look among themselves.  

“Who?” Stone asked as I slid the last few slugs into Luna’s Ruse’s drum magazine.

“His wife and filly,” I answered and shut my saddlebag.  I recalled how worried Bronze had been about leaving their cave.  He’d been so worried about losing anymore of his ponies to the ‘zebras’ or to the forest.  He’d fought so hard to save them from the falling bombs that he hadn’t wanted to risk it.  In the end though, he had… to help me save the lives of the ponies of Old Oaks.  “He could have stayed where he was, kept his ponies alive… or as alive as they could be.  But he didn’t and he died.  I owe him to tell his wife and filly what had happened.” I was surprised when Wild reached out and took ahold of my shoulder, the unwounded one thankfully.

“Are you sure you don’t want one of us to come with you, Shadow… I know how difficult it is to tell somepony their loved ones aren’t coming back.”  At times, I almost forgot she’d been in the Enclave army and had led other pegasi into battle… I suppose she’d had to do this more than a couple times.

“No, I don’t want to risk upsetting them… but thank you, Wild,” I answered, offering my winged friend a smile.  She nodded her head and released my shoulder, stepping closer to Stone.

“Alright… Ah know how stubborn ya can get when ya’ve made up yer mind on somethin’,” Stone said, holding up his fore hooves in surrender before asking, “Is there anythin’ ya need us ta do while yer gone though?”

I looked from my friends to the highway around us and the dead bodies littering it.  Some of the ponies from Old Oaks were beginning to loot the dead raiders for ammo and spare weapons, while the fallen ghouls sat untouched.  “Yeah… bury the ghouls… they deserve to be laid to rest for all they did today,” I answered, snapping the drum shut and standing up.

“Was gonna do that anyway.  Nopony should be left ta rot,” he said, laying a hoof of his own on my shoulder.  “Just hurry yerself back here,” he added, a note of concern in his voice.

“I shouldn’t be long.  Hold down the fort for me, Stone,” I responded as he lowered his hoof.  With a nod to my friends, I turned and began making my way across the roadway, stepping carefully over the bodies.  Once I reached the edge of the pavement, I climbed down a low ditch we’d jumped across and began my climb up the hill.  It would be slow going, but I’d make it.





*     *     *     *     *




The dim lighting of a portable lantern alerted me that I was growing closer to where the remaining ghouls waited for news of the battle.  It had taken me only twenty minutes to traverse this same path earlier, but now it seemed to take me twice as long.  My progress had been slowed by the thick sludge that still covered the ground as well as my own pace.  Despite the lack of rain clouds looming overhead, or the oppressive feeling of racing the clock to reach the highway, the Dead Forest was still very much a grim and dark place to be within.  I suppose the reason why I was making the trip back myself could also have had something to do with that fact.

Others had offered to do so in my place, some citing my injuries while others thought I might be better served staying near should the raiders attack again.  All perfectly good reasons to remain with the convoy.  I’d declined them all though.  I could walk well enough, and I doubted we’d be attacked again so soon by raiders.  I also wasn’t about to push this off on another.  Not when I felt it was my duty to see it through.  Not after I’d made a promise.

The hill I climbed was largely devoid of trees with only the odd twisted truck rising up from the muddy ground.  Instead, it was loosely covered by large stones and further up by larger boulders.  As I neared the top, I’d already come across one of the ghouls Bronze had ordered to stay behind.  The feral had been watching from atop a rock for any sign of movement.  At first he had approached me with ears laid back and teeth bared, but after a moment he relaxed his stance and stood fully upright, even seeming to smile towards me.  Did he remember me?  It was hard to say what went on in the mind of a feral ghoul, but it was clear he had some idea that I wasn’t here to hurt anypony.

He followed me now, trotting along just a few steps behind me looking rather pleased to have found me.  I smiled a bit towards the undead stallion, before looking ahead as we walked around a rock and I spotted the ferals before me.  Most of the ghouls were laying around the flickering lantern somepony had sat atop a rock.  The ferals all lifted their heads and turned towards me and my escort, a number of smaller heads popped up from beside the larger bodies.  It was here among the resting ferals I found the pony I’d come looking for.

Hearing me and my escort approaching, Mint Julep looked up from the feral she was bandaging and offered me a warm smile.  “Good evenin’, Marshal, Ah was startin’ ta get a might worried since ya’ll been gone a while.  Ah take it th’ fight went well?” she asked, her horn glowing softly as a piece of the white gauze floated about the wounded limb of her patient.  Despite her calm demeanor, I could here a note of worry in her voice.

For the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to speak to the mare and instead glanced to the side of her.  Despite my words to the contrary, I truly had wanted to put this off for as long as I could.  I did not want to see Mint break down, and perhaps lose what was left of her mind to the wasteland’s horrors.  As I began turning my head back towards Mint, I spotted two others laying beside her.  Star and Softheart, who both had been reading a book near the lantern, but had stopped when I arrived.  Now the ghoul foal was watching me intently.
  
 Instead of answering her, I worked my way towards Mint and the wounded ghoul, glancing to the ferals as I passed them.  I could tell by the tilt of their heads and the way their ears perked up towards me that they knew something was wrong.  Even the foals scooted a bit closer to their parents or guardians.

Like the ferals, Star tilted her head slightly to one side as her eyes searched my face.  She knew something was wrong.  Worry began working its way into her expression as her green glowing eyes shifted from my face to looking behind me for somepony.  Upon seeing only the feral stallion who’d been following me, panic filled her eyes and she sucked in a lung full of air.  Beside her, Softheart blinked and looked from me to her new friend, speaking softly to the ghoul foal as I came to a halt before Star’s mother.

“Shadow…”  The smile Mint had worn a moment before was beginning to fade as she looked up at me.  The light around her horn flickered a bit as she began losing her concentration on her magic.  “Where’s Bronze?”  The same panic I’d seen in Star’s eyes entered her mother’s as she looked back the way I’d come, ears laying back.  “Shadow… where’s my husband?”

“I’m sorry, Mint…” I began, my own ears flicking back as I reached down to the pouch on my chest armor and pulled the silver badge out with my teeth.  Lowering my neck, I placed Bronze’s marshal star before Mint’s hoof which shakingly reached out to take it as I lifted my head.  “He died, saving the lives of the convoy, his ponies, and myself.” The roll of bandages dropped to the muddy ground between us and unrolled itself.

“No… he… he can’t be…” the mare whispered looking to the badge in her hoof.  Soft glowing tears formed at the corners of her eyes before she shut them tightly.  Pressing the silver star to her chest, the mare began to shake.  The fur beneath her eyes glowed gently as tears ran down her cheeks.

Star moved into my field of view, head hung low and tail dragging across the muddy ground as she approached her mother.  The ghoul filly slipped between her mother’s fore legs and pressed herself against her belly.

Mint lowered her head to press her muzzle against her daughter’s body, eyes remaining shut as she cried.  The filly hugged her mother's neck with her forelegs, speaking for the first time since I’d met her.

“He died a hero, mom… he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”




*     *     *     *     *




“Goooood morning, wasteland!!  It’s seven a.m. on a Tuesday and this is ol’ Three Horns here being entirely too chipper for this early in th’ morning!  If you're hearing this, then it means you’ve likely made it through yet another hellish night of wandering if you were even going to wake up.  So, with that in mind, what’a ya say we get to some news?” 

Yawning, Longshot trotted along the nearly empty streets of Janesville as he made his way to his post, atop the watch tower facing east out into the forest.  Glancing tiredly to the clock atop City Hall, the stallion thought it was much too early to be awake… four in the morning was an ungodly time for anypony to be out of bed.  Reaching the wall, he began climbing the steps up to his post and found that the pony he was supposed to relieve hadn’t left just yet.  Smirking to himself, he wondered if perhaps she wasn’t after a bit of personal relief again and sauntered over to her.

For her part, Summer didn’t acknowledge the arrival of her relief and sometime bedding partner.  Instead, she continued to stare out into the wasteland.  The unicorn’s ears were perked upright as whatever she was looking at held her full attention.  It wasn’t until she felt another pony standing right beside her that she noticed she had company.  She jerked her head around to see Long grinning stupidly at her.  

The stallion’s brief thoughts of sex were, to his mind, sadly dashed when instead of pushing him down and doing what she liked with him she instead pointed a hoof out towards the highway and asked, “Long, ya’lls got better eyes than me, what do ya make of that out yonder?”

“... th’ prez is tellin’ everypony not to worry, that th’ newly minted Second Core is up to th’ task of pushin’ this latest Super Mutty offensive back.  I know we’re all hopin’ they’re up to th’ task, I’d hate ta think all them taxpayers caps went to trainin’ our boys in green how to play shuffleboard instead of fighting.

Well, with all th’ bad stuff and slightly less bad stuff sorted out, how bout some good news for a change?

What’s that?  Ol’ Three Horns actually has some good news from the wasteland?  Well, as much as the Wasteland likes ta think it’s running a tight ship with a steady stream of shit, it does slip up now and then.  Specially when this pony’s involved…”

Janesville was in a slight, understandable panic.  The morning guards up on the eastern wall had reported sighting a line of wagons slowly approaching along the old highway.  Early estimates put the size of the group at six wagons and well over a hundred ponies.  Rarely had any convoy that had approached the city walls ever been so large.  In fact of the few times they had seen anywhere near such a large number of ponies coming towards their town, it was soon followed by a raider attack.  

As a result, the alarm had been sounded and ponies began to panic.  Bells rung out from the school house and city hall, as ponies rushed this way and that through the streets attempting to reach either their homes or their posts.  Ponies dressed in green army uniforms rushed towards the eastern gate alongside the normal black armored forms of the town’s guards.  The ponies of Janesville wouldn’t be caught unaware a second time.

“Just this mornin’ ol’ Three Horns got a report out of Janesville… what?  Where’s that ya ask?  Well it’s up north and out east a ways from San Ponsisco… ya never heard of it?  Well, trust me, it’s there… now if I can finish tellin’ the story?  Alright?  Good.  Now then, as I was sayin’, there was a report from Janesville this morning about a large band of ponies approaching their walls.

Now as ya might expect, the sudden appearance of a large group of strangers outside your walls would cause a bit of concern for anypony.  And th’ ponies of Janesvillie weren’t any different.  They prepared a nice warm welcome for what they thought was just another friendly raider health inspection on the number of limbs the locals had.  What they saw as the strangers got closer was not what they had expected at all…”

Standing beside his fellow guards and the small contingent of Confederate soldiers, Longshot watched uneasily as the approaching convoy neared the gates.  Fourty minutes ago through a cracked pair of binoculars kept atop the tower, he had managed to get a better look over the group that had caused quite a stir in the populace.  The closer view of the ponies revealed something of a surprise to him, and to the mayor.  

The approaching convoy of wagons and ponies seemed to lack any tell tale sign of being raiders.  There was no spiked armor and no bloody trophies hanging from their vehicles and bodies.  They were quite heavily armed however, and while in these troubling times it wasn’t uncommon, it was worrying.  Twenty minutes after spotting the ground wagons, they’d spied the sky chariot patrolling above. What had further surprised the ponies of Janesville though was the fact there appeared to be foals among the wagons.  What confused the hell out of them completely was the fact the wagons appeared to be being pulled by ghouls.

The mayor and local officer of the Confederate contingent had quickly met to discuss what to do, the inclusion of foals changing things entirely.   After a tense five minutes of hurried talks, since time was a factor, the pair had decided to meet the approaching strangers at the gates to see what they wanted.  However, everypony was to remain alert.  It wouldn’t have been the first time a group like raiders or slavers used foals to try and gain entrance to a town.  

So, it was outside the walls of Janesville with his back to the now closed gate that Longshot found himself standing completely exposed on the highway.  The stallion shifted a bit on his hooves as he watched the ragged line of ponies and ghouls closing the distance between them.  The sky chariot had hung back and was circling the highway slowly from where the group had appeared.  It was a smart move, as the skies above Janesville was a no fly zone for anything unknown.  The griffon bandit attacks were to thank for that.  As the wagons came within speaking distance of the wall, the officer held up her hoof and stepped forward.

“That’s far enough!  You at th’ front, step forward to identify yerself and state yer business!”  She lowered her hoof and pointed it to the stallion at the front of the line.  He glanced back to the others and held up a hoof for them to wait, clearly he was the leader.  Stepping away from the others, he began walking slowly towards the officer, keeping his hooves and mouth away from his weapons.  As he did, the ponies of Janesville got a better look at one of the strangers.

At first glance he appeared a fairly typical earth pony, black coat and white mane dressed in dirt stained armor and saddlebags.  Nothing special.  Looking a bit closer, however, the ponies standing guard over the gate began to notice he was far from typical.  His black combat armor was indeed covered in dirt, but it was also worn and chipped from constant use and he wore a Pipbuck upon his right foreleg.  This pre war tech marked the stranger as a former Stable Dweller or maybe a rich enough pony to afford one.  Those among them with combat experience made note of the way he carried his weapons, all within easy reach of his mouth and all well cared for.  However, the one item that got the most responses out of the gathered ponies was the silver star pinned to the stranger’s chest.  This earned a few quick murmurings from the gathered ponies until the officer in charge once more held up her hoof to halt the stranger before he came any closer.

“My name is Shadow, I’m an Equestrian Marshall and these ponies behind me are under my protection.  They are the sole survivors from Old and New Oaks.  As for our business, we are here seeking shelter from the wasteland within the walls of your town and, if possible, a new home for these refugees.”

“That’s right, everypony… ya heard ol’ Three Horns correct.  An honest ta Celestia Equestrian Marshall.  Th’ same one who rescued those ponies from a raider train last month, and who went on to put a stop to th’ bandits who robbed Tombstone.

As some of ya might recall from a few days ago that I’d mentioned this same pony setting out into the wasteland in response to th’ cry for help from the ponies of Old Oaks… well, wasteland… he answered it… and more.”



Welcome to Level 20!

Perk Added: Eye for an Eye: For each critical hit you take, you do an additional 10% damage with all weapons.
> Chapter 21: The Needs of The Many
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 21: The Needs of The Many


Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.



Well, I was going to ask how things went in there… but judging by the looks on your faces, I’d say they didn’t quite go the way we’d been hoping.”  Those were the first words I heard after stepping through the front doors of Janesville’s City Hall.  The owner of said voice did not come from the pair of ponies I’d exited with, but from the orange coated mare leaning up against a black iron lamp post on the sidewalk.  A few locals walking by eyed the mare as she pushed between them to reach the base of the steps to the building.  I snorted at the question and lightly stomped a forehoof onto the step.

“No, Wild… they most certainly didn’t go the way we’d all hoped,” I answered while slowly making my way down the half dozen stone steps leading to the sidewalk from City Hall’s main entrance.  Two sets of hoofsteps followed me after a moment’s pause at the top.  Once I’d reached the sidewalk, I moved a couple paces away from the stairs and turned towards them.

Silverluck gave me a quick look from beneath her striped blue mane before shifting her eyes away.  She looked towards the passing locals on the sidewalk or to a wagon rolling past us along the street on its way somewhere or another.  Her ears were laid back and when she sat down near the steps, her shoulders were slumped a bit.  She looked both tired and defeated.  I sighed after a moment.  Shaking my head, I stepped over to the miserable looking unicorn before speaking.

“Silver, don’t blame yourself for how things went in there… I don’t, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it.”  Those were the first words I’d said to the mare since leaving the mayor's office.  I suppose I could see how she might think I was upset with her.  When she didn’t even acknowledge my presence and continued to look away from me, I added, “There wasn’t anything you could have done to change how things went.  They’d already made up their mind before we’d even entered the room… hell, likely the second they saw who all was with us.”

“Maybe not…” Silver finally spoke up, turning her purple colored eyes towards me as she shook her head slowly.  “But I could have at least said something in their defence… stood up for them, told them how they’d saved us... but I didn’t.  I kept my mouth shut.”

I sighed and rubbed a hoof across my face.  It was still largely covered in the accumulated grime of several days’ worth of travel through the Dead Woods.  I realized just how tired I truly was when I found myself almost wanting to agree with her.  She’d not bothered to say much after the mayor agreed to allow her ponies to shelter within the walls of Janesville... but that wasn’t really fair.  She had a number of foals to think about, as well as wounded, and of course her sister and daughter.  No, I doubt anypony else could have worked the courage to speak up… not if Ebony and Sugar had been here.

“Shadow’s right, Silver.  There was no way any of us could convince them to change their minds about this and doing so may have put your own ponies at risk of being kicked out.  I also don’t believe any of us can truly blame them.  After all… they are just looking out for the welfare of their citizens as any of us would,” said the second pony to follow me out of City Hall.  One who had the dubious honor of being the devil’s advocate.

Carrion stood unmoving as Silver turned her gaze away from me to look over at him.  She seemed slightly surprised to hear the ghoul unicorn say such a thing… all things considered.  I might have been surprised myself, if I hadn’t gotten to know the old army officer a bit more on this trip.  He spoke his mind, and told you the truth… despite whether you wanted to hear it or not.  Most of the time he was correct.

“He’s right, Silver.  Despite my actions to the contrary, I can’t really blame them for being afraid… after all, they don’t know them as well as we do,” I said, rubbing the mare’s shoulder with one hoof.  I let it drop back to the sidewalk with a light clopping sound.  “I’d imagine even in San Ponsisco they’d have been treated the same.”  That was a bit depressing really when you considered what the city and the ponies living within it were supposed to represent.  

“I take it the ghouls can’t stay?” Wild asked us as she looked between the three of us.

“No.  They can’t stay inside the town’s walls,”  I confirmed, perhaps a bit more bitterly than I’d intended.  While our welcome to town hadn’t gone quite the way DJ Three Horns had spoken of, it had gone rather well all things considered.  Nopony could really blame a town about being apprehensive over the arrival of just under a hundred strangers on their doorsteps suddenly, with nowhere else to go and talk of raider attacks all along the road.  With so many mouths to feed and issues with shelter, it would cause a perhaps unrecoverable strain on any small town.  I doubted even towns like Crossroads and Tombstone would have been more welcoming.  There was rarely enough food, shelter, and medicine for their current citizens.

Still, they’d been friendly enough, if a bit leery of allowing us all inside at once.  A number of ponies had even began to line the walls in curiosity as we told our stories to the officer in charge of the local Confederate unit, Lieutenant Swift, a rather agreeable pegasus mare who looked barely older than I.  As the next hour passed, the locals began to relax somewhat and a few came out to assist with the wounded. 

That all changed when they discovered just how many ghouls were traveling with us.  Then again, ghouls had been vilified by their feral counterparts attacking most anypony on sight.  Carrion had appeared the least affected by the locals’ reactions to ghouls in our group’s little herd.  Fleethoof appeared quite distraught with how a few of the townsponies eyed her with fear and a bit of hatred.

Things had almost turned hostile when they discovered how many of the ghouls were ferals.  It was rather pitiful watching a couple curious ferals come running back to us when one of the local mares began screaming about monsters.  They’d looked more like frightened foals than pony eating beasts.  Luckily, both Fleethoof and Lieutenant Swift had managed to calm everypony down once guns were drawn.  If somepony had been killed, I doubt even one of the princesses could have stopped a massacre from happening right there in front of the gates…

“So… what’s going to happen to them?” Wild asked, a note of anger filling her voice as her ears folded back.  “Are they just going to be kicked out of here?”  She and Fleethoof had taken a liking to one another after I’d introduced the ghoul mare to her, as well as a number of the ferals while we’d finished the last leg of our journey to Janesville.  She had especially became fond of the foals, but I don’t think any of my friends didn’t feel something for the young ponies who’d never gotten a chance to grow up… at least not properly. 

“Hey, ya’ll mind not blockin’ th’ sidewalk?” a stallion asked before I could answer my friend’s question.  He trotted around us with an aggravated snort, his saddlebags appearing loaded down with something.  Judging by the direction he was going, I expected most of it was scrap or looted supplies.  A couple other locals went around us with similar expressions to the stallion and, judging by the looks we were getting from others, I doubted we’d be allowed to stay for much longer.  I had an appointment to keep elsewhere anyway. 

“Not entirely no…” I answered before standing up as I noticed a pair of armored ponies round the street corner behind us.  “Come on, let’s get out of everypony’s way before we get a ticket for loitering,” I added, not wanting to cause any more problems than our arrival already had.  I began walking slowly away from the guards and City Hall.

“What do ya mean, not entirely?” Wild asked as she quickly fell into step beside me.  Behind us, I heard Carrion and Silver standing to follow.  The path I’d chosen would take us deeper into the town, towards its business district.

“The mayor agreed to allow them to stay on one condition: that they’d remain within the abandoned section on the north side of town,” I explained as the others easily caught up with us.  

Unlike some towns across the Wasteland, Janesville had been inhabited since the day it was built by a small wagon train of ponies coming out west.  The falling balefire bombs had not frightened its citizens enough to leave their homes.  However, they had wisely built a large number of bomb shelters in their backyards or basements.  While not Stables by any means, they proved enough protection for the citizens to survive the first couple months and allow them to begin attempting to piece their old lives back together. 

The first thing they’d done was build the first wall surrounding the town and it proved to be the most intelligent thing to do.  It was crude and very simple, but effective enough for the time.  I’d seen it while one of the local guards had shown my friends and I around the town’s current wall.  It looked a lot like a cross between the hastily thrown together piles of trash and scrap metal that had surrounded Old Oaks and a very tall fence.  

As the years after the bombings went by, the number of ponies living within the town began to drop due in large part to untimely deaths.  A large number of them were caused by mutated animals entering through gaps in the wall and attacking the citizens as they walked along the streets.  A smaller number was caused by radiation poisoning either from contaminated food or water.  A few even came from the first ever recorded raider attacks.  

The surviving citizens began rebuilding their wall into what it was today: an imposing defensive ring of stone, metal, and wood all taken from the surrounding countryside.  In the process of strengthening it, however, they also had to shrink it due to lack of many of the raw materials used to build it.  So they were forced to leave out parts of the town, but luckily for them at the time they were buildings they didn’t need anymore.  Those were the buildings that the ghouls would be moving into now.

“You mean they’re letting them move into the town’s dump?” Wild asked with a snort and a ruffle of feathers.  As we crossed the street, my winged friend glanced down the row of buildings to either side of us and lashed her tail in anger while adding, “Yeah… that seems reeeeal generous of ’em.”  Behind us, I heard Silver sigh while Carrion was silent as usual.  Although, I had a feeling this was affecting him more than he was letting on.

“No, it’s not fair, Wild.  Nothing’s fair in this fucked up world anymore.  I get that… I argued with the mayor for the past hour, but in the end it was either that or they’d be forced to leave the town,” I pointed out, feeling my ears fold back against my head at recalling the somewhat… heated topic.  “It’s better this than leaving them to fend for themselves out in the wasteland.”  This was especially true now that the remaining few who could successfully hold the herd of ferals together had begun figuring out just what had happened to them and how much time had truly passed for them.  

“They seemed to be doing a pretty good job of that actually,” Wild countered with an angry look directed towards me which disappeared almost as soon as it appeared.

I sighed and could tell she regretted her words almost immediately after saying them… still, they’d been said.  She had a fair point.  Despite the conditions of their former home, they had been surviving just fine on their own in that cave.  Blissfully so even.  Believing that help was coming for them, that the Princesses and their government hadn’t abandoned them to die out there.  At least they had until I trotted along and ripped them from that nice fantasy and tossed them out into the harsh realities of life.  They were my responsibility, and I wasn’t about to leave them adrift until I could find them someplace safe to stay.

“Surviving sometimes isn’t enough,” the rough voice of Carrion said from a few steps behind us.  His sudden inclusion to our conversation caused both Wild and I to stop and look back towards the old ghoul unicorn.  Silver was doing likewise from her spot beside him, head tilted to the side as he went on.  “I survived just fine in the underworld of Kanter City for a very long time as you might recall, but I wouldn’t truly call it living.”  Orange glowing eyes shifted to look at me as he continued to explain, “I started doing more than just surviving the day you three dropped into my little dark world.  I also started thinking of doing more than just surviving, but of rejoining the rest of the world and help clean up the mess those of us from the past made.”

“The mayor and the town’s council are just afraid of what will happen to innocent ponies when the feral ghouls begin remembering themselves from before the balefire.  I’ve noticed a few acting a bit differently from how they were when I first met them.  Trust me, I’ve seen it happen before… and it’s never a good thing for those around them,” Silver added, ears folded back.  She’d mentioned something about that before, back in Old Oaks.

“And they have every right to be afraid of that happening,” Carrion spoke up again, his own tattered ears flicking back for a moment.  “I’ve seen it happen both in Kanter City and San Ponsisco.”  That got a surprised look from me until I recalled the welcome book we’d all been given upon arriving in the ruined city and the section speaking of the ghoul ponies living within it.  I suppose if they’d had to write a warning down, it wasn’t as uncommon a thing as I’d thought.

“What's done is done, there’s no going back and undoing it,” I said, shaking my head and turning back around to begin walking down the sidewalk.  The number of ponies coming and going had increased as we drew closer to the town's business district.  “We’re just going to have to make do with what we have and the choices that we made or had forced upon us.”  Wild glanced up from looking down at the sidewalk, locking eyes with me before she simply nodded her head.  Nopony spoke as we continued walking, my winged friend falling back into step beside me before speaking up.

“Shadow… I’m sorry about what I said… I know you didn’t really have much choice… and the young filly’s life was at stake...” she began.  It really wasn’t in her nature to be quiet for long, especially if she thought she’d hurt one of her friends.  Before she could say anything more, I snorted softly and gently bumped her flank with my own while offering her a smile.

“It’s alright, Wild, don’t worry about it.”  She smiled back at me, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.  Despite my words, I could tell she was still bothered by what she’d said to me… but she seemed to let it drop for the time being.

Our journey was slowed somewhat by the crowds of ponies seeking to do business with one of the stores lining Main Street.  It was about midday, and while it normally wouldn’t be this busy, a couple of the smaller outlying settlements had sent ponies into town to buy supplies.  Like Tombstone, Janesville seemed to have a half dozen small clusters of ponies living around it.  Mostly on or near natural resources such as a bit of farmable ground to the south or the iron mine to the north.  Main Street crossed over the highway at the exact center of town, with the shorter roadway leading to these outlying settlements.

As the center of town came into view, I took the opportunity to look over the rather surprisingly large open space.  The highways didn’t simply cross one another as one might expect, instead forming a box around what had once been a small park.  Beside the stores housed within the buildings lining this plaza, there were a number of wooden stalls set up within a nearly empty park.  The trees had long since been cut down, likely for the construction of one of the walls and in general I doubted they had survived the radiation.  All that remained were stumps used for seats now by the ponies manning the stalls or those just seeking a quick spot to rest, along with a few surviving park benches.  The statue standing within the center of the park remained, however, and appeared almost pristine despite the decay of the park around it. 

As we worked our way through the crowd, I found our path going near the statue.  I glanced up at the only slightly chipped and worn stone figure standing upon the pedestal.  A larger than average earth pony stallion posed proudly upon a bit of sculpted rock, a rugged scruffy face staring across the eastern horizon and the town of Janesville.  Oddly enough, he was equipped about as well as any wastelander I’d ever come across, a simple looking shirt with a trench coat over it seemed to be his only protection from the elements.  Under the coat was a couple belts to which a number of weapons and pouches were attached.  His cutie mark also could have belonged to a pony living in the wasteland rather than the past.  A pair of runs, one an Equestrian assault rifle and the other a machine gun crossing over one another.  

When we were forced to stop for a moment as a pair of mares pulled an overladen cart past us, I happened to catch sight of a plaque attached to the statute’s base and saw writing across it.  Like the statue, the brass plaque appeared to be in fair shape and the words could actually be made out.

‘Dedicated to the hero of Clayton, who dared stand up to the corrupt nobility and who freed its citizens from unjust taxation.  In his honor do we rename our town.’

Before setting off with my friends again now that the sidewalk had cleared a bit, I glanced back up to the statue and arched a brow at the… rather unheroic looking stallion depicted there.  The more I really looked at it, the more my old security training kicked in and I started profiling the pony as a criminal.  Maybe a hired gun judging by the amount of weapons he carried.  Snorting, I shook my head and turned away from the oddity and focused upon our first stop which was just across the plaza.

The sleek black armored sky chariot was hard to make out thanks to the crowd of curious ponies that had gathered around it.  Only the top of the passenger compartment could still easily be seen over the tops of their heads.  Our transportation was parked outside a two story building on what had once been a parking lot for wagons.  Now it was a landing pad for the odd sky wagon that happened to pass through.  These mostly came from the Confederacy, due to the rarity of finding a working one out in the wasteland. 

“Those four goons we gotta babysit had better damn well be here or I’ll leave their happy flanks behind,” Wild said while eyeing the crowd of locals before she started across the street.

“Be nice to those ‘goons’, Wild… they’re members of the Confederate Army and the last thing we need to do is piss them off,” I responded as I followed her.  The orange coated mare snorted and glanced over towards me.

“Little late to be worrying about pissing them off, seeing how we’ve got a deserter traveling with us.” 

The comment caught me off guard and I stumbled a bit in the middle of the street as I came to a halt.  Silver and Carrion stepped past me before I recovered and quickly moved to catch up with the others as they reached the other side of the road.  I perked my ears towards my winged friend, whose only response was to smirk towards me and shake her head.

“What?  Didn’t you wonder how Balefire managed to come with us?  He’s a soldier in the Confederate Army and has responsibilities… I seriously doubt they just let him run off to go adventuring with us,” she said as she looked away from me.  “Or did you think they just let him use up his vacation time?” she asked, her ears folding back as she continued to trot on across the sidewalk to the makeshift landing pad.  “Most militaries look poorly on soldiers deserting on them.  The Enclave used to have most of theirs shot at least until someone realized how wasteful it was… so now they just get life in prison to do manual labor.”

“Well fuck…” was all I really managed to say, which received a faint but noticeable chuckle from Wild.  That was all we needed… problems with what was likely the only real official goverment in the wasteland.  With a freakin’ army.  Just.  Fucking.  Great.  “I suppose I better talk with him about this soon… hopefully he got some sort of permission before joining us.”

Wild sniggered at how stupid that sounded and looked away.  “Yeah… you best do that.  Hopefully he got a hall pass too...” was all the response I got from my friend before she plunged head first into the crowd of ponies.  

At first they seemed hesitant to move, too fixated upon the chariot, but after a few choice words from Wild they began parting around us.  Trotting between the locals, I spotted our parked sky chariot and the large form of Stonehoof standing out front speaking with a half dozen mares.  I could just make out the stallion telling them something about the chariot, though I noticed they didn’t seem overly interested in the chariot.  They did seem interested in Stone’s backside as he bent forward to point something out.  Wild noticed too… and her ears snapped back with an almost audible sound.

Stalking forward, the fiery maned mare pushed her way between the local mares with a bit more… force than was really necessary.  I doubted the orange coated unicorn who had been leaning forward to look more closely at Stone’s flanks didn’t appreciate being shoved face first into the ground.  Luckily the pavement had worn down enough that there was a thin layer of dust to break her fall rather than her nose.

Stone was just turning around when Wild reached him and whirled around to face the assembled mares, one foreleg going up to wrap around Stone’s neck and bring his head forcibly against her chest.  The other lifted up and waved at the mares as she narrowed her eyes upon them.

“He’s mine ladies, back off.”  I heard a couple chuckles come from the crowd around us, along with a few sighs.  The semi circle of mares around my friends took the news much the same way, though the one who’d been shoved into the dirt eyed Wild angrily.  Two of them stood out from the rest however and I realized just who these two mares must be.

“Ain’t a problem, ma’am… got my own back at th’ house.  Don’t need two of ’em muckin’ about th’ place,” called out one of the mares I’d noticed.  She was a unicorn who was built more like an earth pony mare, with strong legs, shoulders and flanks… at least what little I could make out.  She was wearing the same olive green armor that I’d seen every other soldier of the Confederate Army wearing and it was this that had caught my attention.  

Her coat was a very pale blue to the point of almost being grey while her mane and tail were a dark shade of green, both cut short.  The parts the armor didn’t cover was instead hidden by a tight fitting green jumpsuit, similar to my own Stable’s version.  Though her’s lacked the yellow stripping of mine, her shoulders were adorned with a pair of yellow chevrons.  Like anyone living in the wasteland, she wore a pair of saddlebags, but they were smaller than my own and a light tan color.  Upon the flaps were the letters C.S.E. in yellow.  Resting across her chest was an Equestrian style assault rifle, well maintained and without a speck of rust or dust upon it.  Beside her main weapon, she had a pair of revolvers holstered to her saddlebags and a combat knife strapped to her right hind cannon.  

She trotted a few steps away from the other mares and offered a pale blue hoof to Wild.  She locked her own dark blue eyes with the stormy blue of my friend, explaining,  “Ah’m Corporal Shady Oaks and this shy thin’ is Private Honeyrose.  We’re from th’ local garrison and are th’ two soldiers yer lovely self is tottin’ round th’ wasteland today.”  As she spoke, she waved a hoof to the mare beside her.

Private Honeyrose was the opposite of the larger built unicorn.  She was a slender built earth pony mare who would stand just a few inches shorter than I if she hadn’t been sitting down.  The fur upon her face and neck was a pale yellow while her tail was a deep red color.  I could only see a few strands of her mane due to her position.  Most of it was hidden by a slightly worn combat helmet which had a pair of goggles strapped to them.  As for her eyes, they flicked with annoyance from us back to the mare doing all the talking.  The rest of her body was covered in the same olive green combat armor and jumpsuit, although her shoulders bore only a single chevron.  Like Shady, she had a pair of saddlebags across her sides and an assault rifle over one shoulder.  Also like the Corporal, she carried a backup weapon in the form of a semi automatic pistol slung across her chest and a couple of grenades.

“Hmm… not that I’m not grateful or anything, but I got the impression the good Lieutenant would be sending a couple more of you guys along for the run,” Wild answered after taking the offered hoof and shaking it.  “I’m by no means complaining, I honestly wasn’t looking forward to having to haul a wagon full of supplies and armored ponies all the way back here after the trip we just made.”  Beside her, Stone managed to slip free of Wild’s rather tight grip and dusted himself off a bit.  Meanwhile, the rest of us shared a quick look and took the chance to close in before the crowd cut us off from our friends and the two soldiers.

“Ah reckon that was th’ original plan, but there’s been some trouble up north with th’ mine,” Shady began to explain as Carrion, Silver, and myself stood off to the side.  “Seems th’ miners diggin’ uncovered a large cave that musta lead out ta the wasteland… if’n that was all they found wouldn’t be a problem, right?  Well, just so happens this cave housed a nest of radscorpions.  A messenger ran into town with th’ news a short while after ya’ll arrived and after th’ original plans had been made.  Lieutenant Star sent Sergeant Lucky Strikes and his squad ta help clear ’em out while ya’ll was talkin’ with th’ mayor.”  At this, Stone wrinkled his muzzle and folded his ears back.

“Radscorpions on th’ surface are bad enough ta fight, but fightin’ em underground in their own lairs?  That ain’t easy.  Ya can easily outmaneuver ’em on th’ surface, but underground there ain’t normally much room ta work with.  Ah hope this Sergeant Strikes is as Lucky as his name claims,” my large grey friend said, looking between the two military mares.  As I recalled, Stone’s family had originally been miners so I believed what he said.  It also helped that I’d fought my share of radscorpions to know just how deadly they could be.  The ache in my flank was all the reminder I needed of that fact.

‘Ah wouldn’t worry about th’ good Sergeant, he’s been in th’ Army longer than Honeyrose’s been outta diapers… as he’s so fond of remindin’ her.”  The pale yellow earth pony darkened a bit around her cheeks as she blushed.  “He’s fought everythin’ th’ wasteland can throw at ‘im and come out on top… if a might ruffed up a bit.  ‘Sides, he use ta be a miner himself back before he joined.”  This seemed to ease Stone’s mind, and the large earth pony nodded while letting the matter rest.

“Well, it really doesn’t matter to me as I said, beyond lighting my load a bit.  It’s not like we’re expecting much trouble on this milk run, the caves are pretty damn deep inside the forest.  Once we reach ’em, it’ll be a simple smash and grab.  To be honest, I figured your Lieutenant just didn’t trust us,” Wild said, no longer paying the two soldiers any mind as she instead focused all her attention upon the sky chariot.

“Yer right, ain’t much livin’ out in th’ forest that far in.  Ta be truthful, Ah doubt much of anythin’ is livin’ in that place,” Shady said while watching Wild walk slowly around the chariot, running a hoof across its armored surface.  “And yer right about th’ Lieutenant not trustin’ ya.  No offence, Marshall,” she added, looking over to me.

The comment didn’t seem to bother either of my two friends.  Carrion was as straight faced as always.  In truth it didn’t bother me either.  After traveling across the wasteland and seeing what I had, I couldn’t honestly say I blamed them and I said as much, “None taken.  After all I’ve seen since leaving my Stable, I can’t say I blame your Lieutenant.”  Honeyrose lifted her head up as I spoke.  The skinny earth pony blinked and shook her head before speaking up in a soft voice.

“But… after everythin’ ya’ve done for ponies across th’ wasteland… it ain’t right ya should be treated like that…” Shady looked over to her partner and rolled her eyes, though she had a smirk upon her muzzle as the other mare continued speaking, “Ponies on th’ radio been talkin’ up a storm about ya.  Savin’ ponies from th’ likes of slavers and raiders… defeatin’ Celestia knows what all single hoofed…” her voice got even softer as she went on, if that was even possible and she smiled up at me.

Uh oh...

I arched a brow as she continued to list my achievements and I caught myself leaning a bit away from her.  Blinking a couple times, I shook my head and glanced around to my friends.  Wild had halted her inspection of her chariot once the mare had began to speak, and was hovering with just her eyes and ears visible.  Despite that, I knew she was grinning evilly down at me, likely either plotting to get me some plot, or to make fun of me… or both.  Stone, meanwhile, had lowered his hat across his face, head lowered a bit, but judging by the shaking of his shoulders he was laughing.  Thankfully I couldn’t see Silver or Carrion, though I did hear what sounded oddly like grunting laughter from my ghoul companion followed a second later by a whisper.

“I’m beginning to believe Wild about his ability to attract the opposite sex…”

“Well… he is sorta cute…” Silver whispered back and I groaned.  Thankfully, Shady decided to step in before things got anymore out of hoof.

“Ah reckon’ th’ Marshall knows all about those things, Honeyrose, bein’ he’s th’ pony who did ’em,” the corporal said, smirking at her partner before looking over at me.  “Ah take it yer not comin’ with us?”  Thankful for something else to talk about, I nodded my head and answered her question.

“No, neither Carrion nor myself will be going on this run.  As Wild said, it should be an simple matter to go in and recover the supplies,” I began, glancing back over my shoulder at Carrion and Silver.  “We’ve both got a couple things we need to take care of in town.”  As I finished speaking, I tried not to notice how disappointed Honey looked since I wouldn’t be going with them.

“Mite lucky of them ghouls happenin’ ta find those missin’ supplies out on th’ road,” Shady added.  

Before I turned around to respond, I could see Carrion frowning a bit while Silver took it at face value as had nearly everypony else thus far I’d told this version of the story.  I didn’t like lying… but what had been done was done and telling both Silver and the ponies of Janesville the truth would serve no purpose.

“Yes, we are.  Thankfully they still had enough presence of mind to recover them from the destroyed caravans, believing they would need those supplies,” I answered, turning my head back around to stare at Shady and Honeyrose.  Behind them, Wild and Stone shared a look, having figured out the truth for themselves on the journey here.  They had pulled me aside earlier to ask me flat out what really happened to the missing caravans. Of the two soldiers, however, only Shady seemed suspicious of the facts…

“Woulda been a right waste if’n they’d just been left ta rot out in th’ woods or them bastard raiders found ’em and took ’em for themselves.  Ah reckon this will give a couple folks round here peace of mind knowin’ their loved ones didn’t die fer nothin’,” the large unicorn went on, eyes fixed upon mine.  I was almost sure she knew I hadn’t told the entire truth, but I had a feeling she wasn’t about to say anything… not for the moment at least.  We continued our stare a few moments longer before she nodded her head ever so slightly towards me, turning back to Wild.

Perhaps she wouldn’t tell anypony at all…

“If’n yer ready ta be away, ma’am, we’re ready ta be goin’.”  Beside her, Honey nodded her head, finally pulling her attention away from me to look over at Wild.

“Well, we should be good to go now,” my winged friend said, landing at the front of the chariot and beginning to climb into the flight harness.  Stone was beside her quickly and began helping her.  “The chariot’s in good shape despite a couple hits from the raiders.  I’d like to be back before nightfall if at all possible.  Be nice to sleep in a real bed before somepony I know decides to drag us to Celestia knows where.” 

“Sleep?  In a bed?” I asked, the comment gaining me the attention of most of the ponies around us.  “Hopefully your guys’ room won’t be on the other side of the wall from mine again so I’m not kept awake by all the ‘sleeping’ you two do.”  Wild began chuckling as I finished, while Stone simply rolled his eyes.  However, I noticed a hint of a smile on his muzzle before he bent down to finish tightening a strap on Wild’s chest.  “Besides, you signed up for this little adventure.”

“Wow, a snide comment today and a snappy comeback a couple days ago… you’ve come a long way from that straight as an arrow buck fresh from his Stable.  I do believe there’s hope for you yet, Shadow.”  Wild winked towards me before glancing down to the harness to give one last quick check before looking back to the ponies around her.  “Now, everypony who’s coming along on our shopping trip had better get their flanks in the chariot or get left behind,” she said as she snapped her wings open and gave them a couple flaps, kicking up some of the dust beneath her.

Shady took that as her cue to stand up and step towards the chariot.  As she passed, she gave us all a quick nod and climbed up into the passenger compartment.  Honeyrose was just a couple steps behind her.  As she passed, she gave me a bashful smile before following her squad mate into the chariot.  With Wild secured in her flight harness, Stone trotted back towards the chariot himself and stepped up inside.  Instead of taking one of the seats with the mares though, the grey stallion sat himself down in the doorway with his rifle held at the ready.  Giving another couple flaps of her wings, Wild began to slowly pull up from the ground, sparing a glance to first her passengers than to us… or rather somepony behind me. 

“Don’t forget that thing we spoke about taking care of this morning, Carrion.  I don’t wanna get back and find out it didn’t happen.”  I arched a brow at the rather cryptic message between my friends and glanced back to the ghoul.  

“I remember what we agreed to, Wild.  I’ll take care of it, I gave you my word,” he called back, nodding his horned head ever so slightly.

Well… if I was given to bouts of paranoia that might just worry me… at least more than it did.  I turned back towards Wild to find out what the two of them were talking about, but never got the chance.  “Wild, what are…”  Those three words had barely left my mouth when Wild snapped a salute off to me with her usual grin, before sending herself and the chariot behind her higher into the overcast sky.  Blinking away the dust she kicked up at her sudden departure, I followed her progress until she began moving away from the center of town, angling towards the east and the Dead Forest.  The locals around us, seeing the show was over, began to slowly go back about their business as the chariot moved away.

“Well… I’d best get back to my ponies, let them know we’re going to be able to stay,” Silver spoke up as two of my friends disappeared over the top of the wall, one of the local guards stopping to watch as they went by.  I turned to Silver and nodded my head in response.  “If you stop by the clinic before I do, tell Jack and Tinker I’ll stop by to check up on them as soon as I get everypony else settled in.  That is, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“It’s no problem, Silver.  I needed to speak with Balefire at any rate,” I answered.  “Last I heard he’s been staying close to Tink’s side since her grandfather was wounded.”  The old stallion had been badly wounded during our fight against the raiders and, despite being given his share of health potions, did not seem to be recovering quickly.  While nopony was for sure why he wasn’t healing as quickly as he should, something was said about a sort of immunity being built up to the magic in the potions.  According to Spirit and Stone, they had heard of similar problems in others.  From what they could understand, it seemed that if health potions were taken often enough, a pony’s body could develop a resistance to the magic in the potions.  While it wasn’t scientifically proven, being just another wasteland myth to most doctors it could just as easily be true.  Stone had also mentioned the possibility it could have been the high levels of radiation we’d been traveling through.  It seemed that out in the Hoof, potions would actually go bad due to all the radiation in the area, turning them white.

Silver trotted off shortly after we said our goodbyes and headed for the southern part of town, where the majority of her ponies had been allowed to stay in empty buildings or the homes of locals.  Despite our rough start, and the way they were treating the ghouls, the ponies of Janesville were nice enough.  Turning to leave the plaza myself, I found Carrion standing behind me still, glowing orange eyes staring straight at me.  After all I’d been through in the wasteland, I think I handled it well…

“Bah!  Son of a bitch, Carrion!”  Okay, maybe not that well.  “I thought you’d slipped off when Silver did.”  A couple passing ponies glanced our way as they passed, but thankfully none stopped to stare as I held a hoof to my chest and glared at my undead friend.

“I have no pressing matters to see to at the moment,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, eyes shifting from me to the surrounding buildings.  “I figured I would walk with you to the clinic.”

“Ooookay…” I managed to say as my heart stopped racing and I stood back up.  My glare turned to a slightly confused look.  With nothing else to say on the matter, I turned and began retracing our steps through the plaza and back around the ruined park.  The stalls and shops were still quite busy with both local ponies and a few groups from the surrounding smaller towns and communities.  Carrion followed close behind, still being as silent as always and didn’t seem to have much to say despite me trying to engage him in conversation.  Thankfully it wasn’t that far of a walk from where we’d been to our destination. 

Janesville’s Clinic was located a street up from Main Street and, like most of the buildings in the town, was in surprisingly good shape.  It was a simple two story brick and wood building, sitting upon the corner of the street with a number of homes surrounding it on all sides.  Despite it looking structurally sound compared to most buildings I’d seen, the once white paint across its walls was chipped and faded.  All the windows I could see still had glass in them and looked to have been recently cleaned.  The yard in front of the Clinic wasn’t much larger than those of the homes, and bore only a few patches of that brown grass the wasteland seemed covered in.  Again, there was evidence of trees, two on either side of the cobblestone walkway to the porch, but all that remained were the stumps.

As we neared the pathway from the sidewalk, I noticed a couple ponies outside on the Clinic’s porch.  They appeared to have just stepped outside, two elderly mares being helped by a young looking earth pony stallion.  Both of the mares seemed to be patients, one wore a cast upon her right foreleg while the other was thin enough for me to see her ribs poking from her sides and looked unwell.  The stallion helping them looked to work at the clinic if the white shirt with a trio of pink butterflies on the sleeve was any indication.  As Carrion and I trotted up along the cobblestone pathway, he glanced back towards us for a moment before returning his focus on the mare with the cast, helping her into a seat.

“Afternoon, ya’ll needin’ help with anythin’ or just here ta visit somepony?” he greeted us as we climbed up the wooden steps to the porch.  His hoof held gently to the shoulder of one of the mares as he helped ease her into the seat.

“Just visiting a couple ponies actually…” I began to answer before Carrion spoke up, cutting me off.

“He’s supposed to see the new doctor, Spirit, for a checkup I believe.”  My friend’s face was unreadable as I turned back towards him, brow arched.

“Oh?  Ah think she mentioned somethin’ bout that this morning… but at th’ moment she and Doc Smith are upstairs in room three with a pregnant mare,” he explained, back still to us as he focused upon his work, assisting the ill mare down next to the other.   “Just doin’ a check up is all so it shouldn’t take long… now who was the patient ya was wanting ta see?”

“Actually he’s not one of your patients.  His name’s Balefire, dark green unicorn… he’s been here since two others were brought in, Jackhammer and Tinkerbelle,” I explained, to which the stallion snorted and finally turned to face us.  His two patients were resting well enough on the porch swing.

“Ah know th’ pony ya’re talkin’ about… hopefully yer here ta take him somewhere else…” 

“Has he been causing trouble?” Carrion asked from beside me, brow arched above one glowing orange eye as he regarded the earth pony before us.  The question caused the pony to sigh and shake his head.  His short cut blue and white striped mane bounced about his face before he looked over to the ghoul.

“No, he ain’t been a lotta trouble… truthfully he’s just been in th’ way is all.”  He gave one final look to the mares, speaking to them next, “If’n ya ladies will be fine, Ah’m needed back inside.”  Both thanked him for his help, offering kind smiles and nods to the young stallion before going back to keeping one another company.  When neither seemed to require anything else from him, he nodded once to himself before looking back to us.  “Ah’ll show ya where ta find yer friend.”  With that, he stepped past us and pulled open the screen door.

“Thanks,” I said as he held it open and began stepping inside.  “My name’s Shadow, and this is my friend Carrion,” I added, introducing ourselves to the medical pony as we followed him inside.

“Shadow?  As in th’ famous Marshall bein’ talked about by everypony lately?” he asked, turning back to look more closely at us before focusing his attention upon me as Carrion shut the door behind us.  He scanned the combat armor I was still wearing and the Marshall Star pinned to it, tilting his head a moment before he smiled.  “Well, Ah see ya fit th’ bill for a law pony least… my name’s Mender by th’ way.  Ah help out th’ Doc around here, along with a few other volunteers.”

“I suppose that’s me… I hadn’t thought I’d be the subject of a lot of talk around here, after all I just arrived a couple hours ago…”

“It’s a rather small town, all thin’s considered, and news travels fast,” he answered while leading us into a good sized open room that appeared to take up half of the building’s front.  Judging by the number of chairs sitting along the walls as well as the tables with various books and magazines on them, I guessed we were in some sort of waiting room.  Looking away from the well worn and dog eared reading material, I spotted a desk running along the back half of the room with a pony sitting behind it.  

The mare had been looking over some folders upon the desk when we entered and was looking up to greet us when she noticed Mender leading us.  Like the earth pony, she was wearing a white shirt with the MoP’s emblem upon one sleeve.  She also wore a nurses’ hat atop her forest green mane.  Giving us a quick smile, she returned to her paperwork and left Mender to guide us.  Behind the seated mare was a doorway into what I assumed was either a filing room or some other office space.  In front of us was the stairs to the second floor, which a quick look revealed a hallway running off to either side of the building.  No doubt each were fitted with a number of rooms used for exams or the like.  It was to a second doorway located to our right that Mender was leading us.

“...but it ain’t just th’ locals doin’ th’ talkin’,” he continued, causing me to tilt my head a bit.  He pushed the door open and waved us inside.  As Carrion and I passed Mender, I got a good look at the room beyond and was instantly reminded of Tombstone’s Clinic.  Beds were lined up along the far wall from one corner to the other, with just enough space between to allow a pony to walk.  A chair sat beside most, along with various other medical equipment I’d seen in similar places.  Where Tombstone’s beds were mostly empty, these were currently in use and by ponies I recognized no less.  A fair number of the guards from Old Oaks lay upon the beds recouping from our journey or the fight with the raiders.  Most had bandages upon one part of their body or another.  There were a few other ponies here as well, family members of the wounded I guessed, seeing a fair number of foals.  They were also all looking straight at me.

“Ya seem ta have made a favorable impression upon ’em,” he added as a couple foals ran up to me, and began talking all at once.  Either they were thanking me for saving their mothers or fathers or asking if they could hold my shotgun or hat.  Carrion moved up beside me and watched the bouncing children before looking over the wounded parents and guards.  I was surprised to see a very open smile upon the old stallion’s face, followed by a chuckle.

“He seems to have a surprising habit of doing that,” he said as a couple mothers rushed up to pick up their wayward foals, offering me apologies for the trouble and a number of thank you’s for getting them here.

“I suppose I do,” I answered the two ponies beside me, before offering a kind smile to the mothers and their children.  I let them know it was no trouble, and that they were very much welcome.  This did seem to happen quite a bit of late, but then most of these ponies never expected to see their children grow up or survive the worst the wasteland had to offer.  I guess it was something I was going to have to get used to… though I had to admit, it felt good to know I’d helped.  Once most had wandered back to their wounded loved ones, Mender pointed a hoof towards the end of the row of beds.  I could see the familiar dark green form of Balefire sitting beside a very tired looking Tinkerbelle.

“Yer friends are over there… Ah’m afraid th’ filly’s grandpa ain’t doin’ so well,” he said, lowering his hoof before looking back over to me.  “Ah’m afraid Ah need ta be gettin’ back ta my duties.  Ah’ll stop by and let yer friend, Spirit, know yer here ta see ’er,” he added.

“Thanks, Mender,” I quickly said before he left the room, shutting the door behind him as gently as he could.  Left on our own, Carrion and I began making our way towards the end of the ward room and our friends.  We were stopped a couple of times by wounded guards calling out a greeting to us… or rather me as Carrion pointed out after the third time it happened.  Still, despite it all, it really didn’t take us that long to reach the corner bed.

I quickly saw that Mender’s assessment of the wounded Jackhammer was spot on.  He looked in bad shape, bandages covering his front forelegs and neck from a wildly tossed grenade that had landed near where he’d taken cover.  Another bandage covered a wound further down his side, the bullet wound that had driven him into that cover.  Both sets of bandages were lightly stained red with blood from the covered wounds.  Thankfully it wasn’t a large stain so they must have stopped the bleeding… unless they’d just recently changed them.  At the moment he appeared to be resting.  His eyes were closed, but his breathing was rough and uneven as his chest rose and fell while he lay on his side, head propped up on a pillow.

Tinkerbelle didn’t appear to be in much better shape than her grandfather, despite only having a couple of scratches across her body and a wrapped up hind hoof.  The fur under her eyes was a darker orange color than normal and matted from fresh tears.  The young mare had one fore leg laying across her grandfather’s unwounded shoulder as her head lay beside his head upon his mattress.  Like the stallion, her eyes were closed, but her breathing was much more even as she slept.  It was likely for the first time since he’d been wounded.  I found myself reminded of my sister and I as we had sat beside our mother’s bed… waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Sighing, I shook my head and looked towards Balefire.  The dark green unicorn was sitting upon a wooden stool beside the sleeping mare.  He looked close to falling asleep himself, head resting on a hoof as he fought off the urge to close his eyes.  His attempts to ward off sleep lay about him in the form of a half dozen empty mugs of what had likely been coffee, judging by the scent.  He yawned and blinked his eyes several times before he shifted a bit on his seat.  As he did so, he finally noticed us.  He began to stand, but I hurriedly placed a hoof upon his shoulder, pushing him back into his seat.  

“Hey boss… sorry I couldn’t help out with the ghouls…” he began before I cut him off.

“You’ve been busy, Bale, I know.”  I looked from my friend to the pair resting upon the bed.  “How are they doing?” I asked him.  The young unicorn sighed and rubbed his tired eyes with his hooves.

“They’ll be alright… just need a bit of rest is all...” he began, but didn’t get much further as I turned my head back around to face him.  His ears wilted a bit before being more honest with himself and me with his answer.  “Not very good…”  He rubbed his tired eyes with his hooves as he continued, “They just don’t know what’s wrong… neither Spirit nor the local doctor can get him to respond to the healing potions like he should.  They’ve done what they can for him with surgery so he’s healing naturally, but they don’t know if it’s going to be enough.”  He dropped his fore hooves to the ground before looking past Tinkerbelle to Jack.  “The grenade blast that knocked him out riddled his chest with shrapnel and a few pieces went deep enough to pierce his lungs.  To top it all off, he’s gotten an infection…”

“And Tink?” I asked.

“She’s alright, just a few minor wounds… but seeing her grandfather like this… it’s killing her as much as any raider bullet,” he answered quickly, looking sadly to the orange mare.  

Silence settled across the three of us as we stood or sat watching the two sleep.  The other wounded ponies from Old Oaks either looked on or went back to quietly speaking with their loved ones.  As I looked around the room, I noticed a few more longer hugs and nuzzles than I had before… most appeared thankful that it wasn’t one of their loved ones in Jack’s place.  I suppose that might sound a bit cold hearted, but we’ve all felt that way at least once in our life.  Looking back to my friend, I noticed he’d begun to doze off.  However, when he caught himself doing it, he snapped his head upright and shook it a couple times to try and clear the fog from his brain.

“Well, I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be staying in Janesville for a couple more days while we sort a few things out,” I began.  While it wasn’t my only reason for hunting down Balefire, it was the only one I was going to bring up to him at the moment.  The poor guy had enough on his plate at the moment it seemed.

“A few days?” he asked, red eyes blinking a bit in an attempt to stay awake.  I nodded my head and explained.

“Wild and Stone are going back to the ghouls’ cave along with a couple Confederate soldiers to retrieve the supplies they recovered from the forest.  They’ve agreed to share them with both the ponies of Janesville and Old Oaks as a gesture of goodwill.  Spirit also wanted to spend a little bit of time helping Fiona and the local doctor with all the wounded.”

“Oh… okay… well, I’ll be here whenever you need me, boss,” he muttered, running a hoof through his messed up black mane.

“Try and get some sleep, Bale… they aren’t going anywhere for a while,” I said, laying a hoof once more upon his shoulder.  He only nodded and went back to watching the pair.  I stood beside him for a moment watching the pair rest, before glancing back to Bale.  I tilted my head slightly as I regarded my friend silently.  I’d never thought I’d see him so taken by a single mare.  For as long as I’d known him, he’d been something of a playcolt, even longer according to his adopted sister.  However, ever since we’d encountered Tinkerbelle, Balefire had his eye on the young mare and not in his usual way.  

Sighing a bit, I lightly patted Balefire’s shoulder once more before stepping back from the bed and turning towards the doorway.  Carrion, who’d been standing behind me and who hadn’t said a word, followed behind me.  As we walked, I wondered about Bale’s sister… if she knew where her brother had gone and what he’d done… or if he’d told her anything.  She’d been as upset by Old Oaks’ radio broadcast as anypony else, but she’d been a soldier longer and I doubt she’d have run off on her own.  Maybe she could at least smooth things over for him, if not than perhaps one of his parents… I mean his mother ran the fucking government after all.  Of course, for all I knew, he could have told them where he was going and gotten the okay...

“I suppose I should have brought up the whole AWOL issue…” I said half to Carrion and half to myself once we’d gotten far enough away from Balefire to not be heard.  I glanced over to him as he answered.  

“Probably,” he agreed, keeping step beside me as we passed by the wounded survivors of Old Oaks on our way to the exit.  I noticed three empty beds I’d missed while coming through, the sheets lightly stained with spots of red.  I hoped whoever had once been using them had left under their own power.  While Carrion’s head remained fixed upon the doorway, I could see his eyes shifting left and right to the ponies we passed and those three empty beds.  “But after the events of the past few days, I believe it would be best to wait.  At least until he can focus upon the question rather than the filly he has his eyes on,” he added after a moment’s pause.

“True…” I replied as I pushed open the door and moved back out into the reception room.  As I did I noticed the same mare was working behind her desk still, but there were two others who must have just stepped in.  Spirit was standing beside the desk and was speaking to a pony.  He was writing something down upon a folder atop the desk, his back to Carrion and I.  I recognized the pony at once as the town’s doctor, Bandaid.  A middle aged unicorn stallion, which was something of a rarity in these outlying towns… that somepony would reach the age of over thirty.  He was a rather short stallion, whose coat was a light brown with a short cut white mane and tail.  His cutie mark was his name sake, a band aid.  He looked rather comical standing next to the hulking form of my buffalo friend, though she appeared to be listening intently to whatever he was saying as he wrote quickly.

“...she should be fine so long as she stays away from any strong radiation sources,” the stallion said as we neared him and Spirit, neither had noticed us just yet.

“I agree, Doctor Aid, her foals appear to be doing quite well and she should bear them to term so long as she heeds your advice,” Spirit spoke up before catching sight of the two shapes walking up to her from across the room.  Looking past the stallion’s glowing blue horn, she smiled warmly upon seeing who it was approaching them.  Stepping around Bandaid’s side, she nodded her horned head to the pair of us before offering a greeting, “Good afternoon, Shadow, Carrion, it is a pleasure to see you both.”  As she spoke, Bandaid turned around to see who had approached, the magic surrounding his horn fading as he closed the folder he’d been working on.

“Likewise, Spirit,” I returned her greeting, offering a nod of my own to the pair before speaking once more to my friend, “I see you’re settling in well here.”

“I am just doing what I can for the ponies who have so graciously allowed us to enter their home.”

“Marshall Shadow… it’s nice to see you once again, though I wish it was under better circumstances,” Bandaid said, a warm smile on his face as he offered me a hoof in greeting.  I took it and shook it quickly.  “Mender said you’d come in looking for your friends.”

“Yes, we’d just come from checking in on Balefire, Tink, and her grandfather.”  At the mention of Jackhammer, both Spirit and Bandaid’s expression turned grim.  “I take it Balefire wasn’t exaggerating when he told us how bad he was?”  The pair shared a look before the local doctor spoke up.

“Sadly he wasn’t.  I’m afraid Jackhammer is in very bad shape, from both the number of injuries he’s suffered as well as the radiation poisoning he took traveling through the forest,” the brown stallion said quietly.

“Nopony knows any healing spells here?” Carrion asked as he stepped closer to the two doctors, orange glowing eyes going from one to the other.  Thankfully, Doctor Bandaid had not been phased by the appearance of our group when he’d arrived outside the wall to help treat the wounded.  Unlike some of the other locals, he’d not given the feral ghouls a second look and walked confidently between them to reach the wounded ponies… albeit carefully.  As such he had my respect, and that of Carrion’s if I was any judge of my friend.

“Only the most basic of spells I’m afraid.  Not many well trained doctors leave the safety of the big cities for the smaller settlements in the wasteland.  Settlements that are routinely under threat of raider attacks.”  The unicorn shook his head and looked past the ghoul to the closed ward room door.  “Nothing that could repair the type of damage he’s suffered, and I’m afraid even if somepony knew anything stronger it wouldn’t do him any good.  His body’s built up an immunity to the magic found in health potions… likely due to him having used so many.  I suspect healing magic wouldn’t work much better.”

“I just don’t understand this issue with magic,” I began, drawing the attention of the two medically trained individuals before me.  “We’ve all used a large number of health potions over the past couple weeks… in fact I know I’ve used far more than I ever had inside my Stable.” I looked between them, hoping they might explain what I wasn’t getting.  “And out of all of us… I believe Stone’s likely used the most given his former line of work.  I know I’m not an expert in medicine, or magic for that matter… but it just doesn’t make sense to me with what I do know.”

“It is not something anyone has much knowledge of I am afraid, Shadow,” Spirit began.  “My own father did research on the subject some years ago, but the last I spoke with him, he still did not have an answer.”

“I seem to recall a similar problem during the war…” Carrion began, ears folded back as he shook his head a bit.  “Soldiers dying because the medics’ healing spells no longer worked.  I think some at the time believed it was due to zebra witchcraft.”

“I’m afraid we can not blame our striped friends for Jackhammer’s current condition,” Bandaid said, setting the folder he’d been holding within his magic down atop the desk beside us.  “And it’s not just the number of potions a pony uses that’s the problem… that’s just one part of it,” he continued, settling into what one might call a lecture mode.  “It’s a number of problems all combining into what is in effect an immunity to magic.  At least, that’s the most common and widely believed theory.  As you no doubt learned in school, all ponies be they earth, unicorn, or pegasi have some form of natural magic.”

“Sure, magic for you unicorns, pegasi can of course fly and manipulate the weather, and earth ponies are typically more sturdy and in tune with the earth,” I replied.  All of that was basic stuff that a foal would learn alongside basic reading and writing skills.

“Right.  While everypony has some innate form of magic, it’s normally limited in how much they can use or do with it. There are of course ways of gaining more, either through training or artificial means such as the use of potions, magical artifacts, and spells.  While it might seem limitless the amount of magic a single pony can gain, there is a capacity of how much magic a pony’s body can hold.  Normally this isn’t a problem, as we use magic everyday.  Why, even the act of holding something within our hooves uses our natural magic, something which shouldn’t be possible given how inflexible they are.”  He held up one hoof to indicate what he meant.

“This magic drain is far more pronounced in unicorns and pegasi since they are almost constantly using their innate magic all the time, such as simply flying about or using simple spells like levitation,” he added as he dropped his hoof back to the floor.  “There are a few ponies, however, who either because their bodies are able to store more magic than normal or they simply do not use up as much as others who become overloaded with magic.  Again this normally isn’t really a problem, but start giving such a pony a number of health potions… something that has a high magic content causes issues to arise.  It's like pouring water into an already full glass, the extra just spills out.”

“I suppose I understand what you're saying… although, I don’t know how magic could simply spill out… doesn’t it have to go somewhere?” I asked, tilting my head to the side as I attempted to figure that out myself.

“Yes and no… though I guess the better answer would be we simply don’t know.  That is just one of the unanswered questions doctors have been asking themselves since discovering this problem.  Your friend is correct though, there were reported cases of this going back during the war.” 

“Alright… so if the problem is an over abundance of magic, wouldn’t the solution be to simply work it out of a pony’s body by helping them to expend it somehow, or by draining it with a spell or something?” 

“Yes, at least in theory…” Bandaid began, shaking his head as he noticed my confused look.  “One of the other problems with this condition is its rarity, which is also a blessing I suppose.  With so few cases, there’s few chances to experiment on treatments for it and that’s assuming someone recognizes what’s even wrong with the patent.”  His voice rose a bit as he had gone on, throwing a fore hoof up into the air as he finished before sighing.  “There’s also the problem that Jackhammer is far too weak to be up running about town, and the nearest farm is several miles away from Janesville to the south…”

“And the magical draining?” Carrion asked.

“I’m afraid nopony in town knows any such spell,” Spirit answered for Bandaid who was rubbing a hoof along his forehead, looking very tired.

“So… what you're saying is there’s nothing any of us can do for him?”  While I likely already knew the answer to the question, I still had to ask it if only to hear it said.

“I’m afraid so…” was the quiet response.  The room went silent for a moment, the only noise that of the mare behind her desk shuffling papers and the voices of the ponies in the ward room.  Doctor Bandaid lowered his hoof from his face before clearing his throat.  He stood up a bit taller as he looked over us before speaking once more, “I know it may sound grim, but ponies have not always had magic to heal all their wounds… he can heal on his own.  So long as he gets plenty of rest and we keep his wounds free of infections, he should recover enough to allow us to try and find someway to drain his excess magic.”

“Doctor Aid is correct,” Spirit affirmed, drawing my attention back to the buffalo in the room.  “Jackhammer is not young, but he is in good shape and from what his granddaughter has said this was not his first serious wound.  I also believe he is in good hooves here,” she added with a nod to the unicon beside her, who smiled and shook his head.

“We do what we can, Miss Spirit,” was his hurried response and he appeared to be a bit flustered for some reason.  Was he not used to receiving such praise?  “I’m sure the Marshall wasn’t implying anything of the sort...”  Spirit blinked and looked from the doctor to me.

“I doubt that’s what she meant by it, Doctor Aid,” I said before Spirit could think otherwise.  “I think she was just indicating that she had full trust in you and your staff.”  That was certainly something to keep in mind.  

Spirit was an easy buffalo to trust others.  However, she took the treatment of the sick and injured quite seriously.  While it was true the hospitals back in San Ponsisco hadn’t made any attempts to hire her, she’d not made any real attempts to be hired by them.  Doctor Kindheart had once told me something Spirit had mentioned that explained why.  She’d said that those doctors in the hospitals simply saw their patients as patients and nothing more.  Not hurt, scared ponies with lives of their own. 

“Of course… at any rate, I need to be getting to my next appointment.  Miss Daisy Do has a sick colt I need to look after,” Doctor Aid said as he looked away from us and to the mare behind the desk, who had already pulled a folder out.  The doctor’s horn glowed softly as the folder floated over to him, eyes skimming whatever medical notes were kept in those things before he spoke again, “Will you be coming along, Miss Spirit?”

“No, I’m afraid I have my own appointment to see to at the moment,” she said, looking away from her fellow medical practitioner to me, causing me to blink.  Ever since we’d arrived in town, she’d been after me to allow her time to more completely examine the wounds I’d received while on the road.  The head and eye wounds in particular seemed to trouble her a good deal… as they did me.  Wild had of course snickered at Spirit’s use of ‘exam’, but had thankfully kept her mouth shut.  I just hadn’t found the time to spare, however, as I’d had to convince the mayor and the council to allow the ghouls to remain within the walls… then I’d had to see Stone and Wild off and I really needed to go check in on Fleet and Mint...

“Oh, that’s right, you had mentioned he would be coming here about now,” the doctor said before turning back to Carrion and myself, offering us a kind smile and a nod of his head.  “Well, if you gentlecolts will excuse me, I need to get back to work.”  With that, he began walking back towards the stairs and had barely gotten a few steps up when I realized what he’d just said.

Wait… she’d been expecting me?

“I should be going as well,” Carrion said from beside me, the ghoul stallion standing and turning for the exit.  “I promised Fleethoof I would help her get the ferals settled into their new home.”  He began trotting towards the door, giving both of us a nod.

Wait a sec… Carrion and Wild had just been talking about something a bit ago, and suddenly he’d decided to follow me around until we’d reached the Clinic… now he was off to see Fleet and the other ghouls...

“So is this what you and Wild had been all hush hush about earlier before they left?” I asked, turning to look at my ghoul friend’s retreating backside.  He halted before the door as his horn lit with a soft orange glow which surrounded the doorknob.  He glanced back to me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Shadow.  Perhaps you're just imagining things… or perhaps you should take the time to get your head checked out, it does take a lot of hits,” he answered, a slight smirk on his rotted face before the door was pulled open and he stepped through, shutting it behind himself.

“Oh come on… it’s not like I’m some little foal you guys need to constantly look after…” I said mostly to myself, though I heard a couple giggles coming from behind the desk.

“Of course you are not, Shadow,” Spirit spoke up, waving a foreleg towards the stairs.  A smile crossed her face as she looked over to me.  “Now, let us go to one of the examination rooms and if you're good, you shall be given a sucker.”  With a nod of her horned head, the buffalo doctor began climbing the stairs to the second floor.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” I muttered, standing up and following her up the stairs, totally not sulking despite my ears folded back and my tail dragging the steps behind me.  “It better not be watermelon flavored…” I added.






*     *     *     *     *





I sat quietly upon the examination bed as Spirit looked over the test results she’d had been going through.  The exam had taken longer than I’d expected, but I suppose she’d just wanted to to a thorough job.  Once she’d given me a careful once over, all of her attention was upon my injured eye and the scar running across it.  You didn’t need a medical degree or years of personal training by somepony with one to know something was definitely wrong.  All I had to do was focus upon my right eye and the increasing dark spot filling my vision to tell me that.  In an attempt to think about something else, I found myself examining the room once again.

It was fairly similar to rooms back in Stable 45, a single room with one door leading out into the hallway.  Although, unlike those exam rooms in my former home, this one had a window overlooking the town outside.  Faded yellow curtains hid most of it from view, as did the roof of the house next door.  Along the wall with the window was a pair of wooden and metal cabinets along with a sink and spare chair.  The floor was bare wood, scuffed but clean.  Across the floral green wall paper were a number of posters.  Most were drawing of pony organs, stomachs and hearts, or advertisements for some new drug.  The one about the wonders of health potions was amusing to me, given how common they were now.  The poster hanging upon the back of the closed door was for the Ministry of Peace, asking for trained medical volunteers for the war.  Across the bottom of it was the typical, ‘We must do better’, slogan that one found on much of their signs.

Shame nopony had tried…

Shaking my head from that thought, my attention was torn from the poster towards the only other occupant of the room as she shifted a bit.  My ears perked upright as I looked over to Spirit while she sat beside a table looking over a clipboard she held in one hoof.  A number of loose papers were held firmly in place by the slightly rusty metal clasp.  She had for the past several minutes been silently studying the papers carefully and I assumed they held the results for the tests she’d run on me.  

I’d been surprised when we’d first entered the room and I spotted a couple old but functioning medical scanners waiting for us inside.  I wasn’t surprised that she was using them, as they had been a common enough item in hospitals and larger doctor offices for non unicorn doctors to use.  At least they had been before the war, and while to my knowledge most Stables had equipment with them, what surprised me was that such a small town so far from San Ponsisco had access to them.  What had once been a common tool was now a relic of a bygone era worth more caps than this entire town, if I had to guess.  I suppose this was one of the perks of being a member of the Confederacy.  

“So, Doc… what's the verdict, am I ever going to play the piano again?” I asked with a smile.  While I wasn’t an expert at reading a buffalo’s face, I could still tell by her folded back ears and narrowed eyes that something was troubling my friend.  My attempt at humor at least got her to crack a slight smile before she set the papers down and turned to face me.

“I somehow doubt you have ever played a musical instrument that has not released lead from it’s end,” she began, the smile slowly fading however as she went on, “And despite your best efforts, nearly all of the wounds you had suffered while out searching for the missing filly, as well as those from fighting with the raiders, have either healed completely or is in the process of doing so.”  I made notice of the emphasis she’d placed on the word ‘nearly’.  “As I’d expected when I’d examined you back on the highway, the higher levels of radiation within the forest slowed down some of the healing process of your wounds.  Thankfully now that we are in a less irradiated area they are beginning to heal more quickly...” she trailed off for a moment, eyes shifting from my face to the papers sitting beside her.  It was clear she had more to tell me, but was either having trouble saying it or did not want to say it.

“I’m sensing a but in there…” she looked up as I spoke and I motioned for her to continue with a single hoof.  We both knew what the problem was, her from the test results and me from simply seeing it… or not seeing it.  She sighed and shifted her weight a bit before she began speaking again.

“The location of the wound itself is one of the problems… while the blade did not damage your skull, the tip did cut the top part of your eye and damaged the nerves.  The radiation is the next problem and has kept your eye from healing.  Even now that you're away from so much of it, the eye is still showing almost no signs of mending itself, either naturally or through the use of health potions.  In fact, it appears to be growing worse compared to the simple exam I’d given you yesterday to today’s.”  A large black hoof lifted up from the floor to shift the pile of papers on the clipboard as she searched for something.  Her blue eyes scanned quickly over the writing on the pages before she stopped on one.  “Everything seems to be pointing to one outcome…”

“That I’m going to go blind in my right eye,” I finished for her before leaning back atop the exam bed, shutting my eyes and letting out a sigh.

“Yes, you are.  I suspect it will steadily get worse as the days pass.  Within a week, perhaps two, you will lose all sight in your right eye completely,” she added, sounding about as thrilled as I felt.  “I’m also afraid there is nothing I can do for you to stop it.”

Of course there wasn’t anything she could do… health potions could do a lot, but all magic had it’s limits.  They could mend flesh, heal broken bones, and repair minor damage to organs… but they couldn’t replace severed limbs or organs that were all but destroyed.  While a powerful magical spell could perhaps do those things, the potions could not.  Most of those spells had either been lost due to the passage of time, or there simply wasn’t a unicorn powerful enough to cast them.  Spirit likely knew this as well, but for someone who’d dedicated their life to healing, telling a patient they couldn’t help them was likely a hard thing to do.  Especially if they were a friend…

“I know you’ve done your best, Spirit, so please don’t blame yourself for this,” I said, looking back over to my horned friend as she pushed the clipboard away from herself.  She simply nodded her head once.  “I’d honestly been suspecting it would be something like this… given the problems I’ve been having with it the past seven hours.”  I reached a hoof up and gently ran it across the right side of my face, feeling the scar left by that raider’s blade along my cheek and up to my eye.

“All is not lost, my friend.  While there is nothing I can do for you… there is someone that may be able to help you,” she added quickly and caught me by surprise.  I lowered my foreleg back down to the bed and turned my head back towards her as she locked her blue eyes upon mine.  “There is a doctor in the San Ponsisco hospital who, according to Kindheart, has managed to teach himself a number of complex healing spells.  One of which I believe would help you.”

“Really?”  My ears perked upright as she nodded her head once to my question.  Perhaps he could do something for my eye then, though it would mean a return trip to San Ponsisco.

“I never witnessed it myself, but Kindheart told me once of a visit to the hospital for medicines he needed in his clinic.  While there, he told me of seeing one of the doctors performing the treatment upon a patient who had lost his hearing in a mining accident.”  Her ears folded back a bit as she continued, “In truth I only just recalled his conversation with me while thinking of some way to help you.  I am sorry I did not think of it sooner, if only to have not caused you so much alarm.”

“It’s alright, Spirit, nopony could blame you for letting something that happened weeks ago slip your mind while telling a friend he was going blind in one eye.  I think any of us would be a bit forgetful,” I said with a smile towards the buffalo who returned it and nodded her head, ears swiveling back upright.  Something worrying suddenly sprung to mind that might cause me some problems with this solution though.  “While I know the Confederacy has made medical treatments as affordable as possible, especially for those who would die without it… I wouldn’t imagine this would count.”  Luckily most of the towns I had thus far been injured within had been good enough about waiving any fees I would normally be charged.  Largely in part due to the help my friends and I had given them.  Odd that I never worried about that before.  “I doubt such a treatment like this is cheap… doubly so since it’s such a rare spell…”  Nothing in the Wasteland was cheap… well, except for the lives of those living within it.

“Sadly, you are most likely correct in both instances.  While the loss of an eye is horrible, it is not in itself life threatening.  Under the medical laws, the hospital would not be forced to lower the price for the treatment.  As for the cost itself, I am unsure what the exact price would be, but I do believe it would be within your price range as I imagine our friends will not hesitate to offer you money… despite your desire to not accept it,” she added the last part with a smile.  “I believe Stonehoof has amassed a small fortune while traveling with you.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes, knowing she was very likely correct on both counts.  The smile also indicated she was confident of what my friends would do.  While I wasn’t without some money saved up, I also wasn’t exactly rolling in caps.  My work on the farm in San Ponsisco had paid well, if not as much as some of the jobs available in the city.  I could likely afford it so long as it wasn’t terribly high.  “I suppose I really have nothing to lose by looking into this,” I began, sitting up a bit more atop the exam bed.  “Once things have settled down here we’ll head back to San Ponsisco and…” I trailed off as the smile Spirit wore began to fade a bit.  I tilted my head slightly and she spoke up.

“While your body has already begun to purge the radiation from itself thanks to the Radaway, I am worried that there could be further damage to the nerves in your right eye if you should take in another strong dose,” she began.

“And given the fact the surrounding area is pretty much soaked in the stuff…”

“And your tendency to rush headlong off into danger,” she finished, earning another snort from me, but she continued anyway, “I would rather have this seen to sooner rather than later, so time is a factor.  There is also the simple fact it could take sometime before the doctor can even see you, as a unicorn of his skill is likely kept busy.”

“Alright, alright… it’s not as if we can’t come back once the treatment’s finished…” once more I trailed off as she looked at me.  “Oh come on…”  I threw up my hooves and fell back atop the exam bed staring up at the ceiling.

“Even with such healing magic, I believe it will take a number of treatments to completely heal the damage done to your nerves.  From what I have gathered from studying my father’s old medical books and from speaking with Kindheart, it would have taken several even before the destruction of Equestria.”  She added one final comment to crush any ideas of this being a quick fix, “Kindheart had also mentioned the unicorn performing the spell seemed heavily drained after casting it upon the miner.  I doubt he has the magical stamina to heal a pony fully in one go.”

“So, it’s likely to take a couple days to get this done?” I asked.

“Days, or weeks depending upon how busy the doctor is,” she answered, adding, “But it is the only available option open to us.”

I sighed and focused upon the ceiling as my mind processed everything that had just been said.  She was right of course, it was the only option… but was I ready to head back to San Ponsisco… and so soon?  I’d set out, determined to help the ponies left to themselves across the Wasteland… ponies too far out of the Confederacy’s reach.  Yes, I had already helped the survivors of an entire town, as well as a herd of feral ghouls lost in the woods.  But… was that it?  Had I done what I’d set out to do?  Would it make any difference if I went back for a couple weeks… or even months?  And what if I stayed?  Could I really hope to help anyone who needed it if I couldn’t even be sure I was going to hit what I was aiming at?  What if Stone or Wild got killed because I couldn’t down a raider or a radscorpion? 

My ears perked a bit as somepony walked past the examination room door, but my eyes remained fixed upon the off white ceiling and the odd brown stain that marked places of water damage.  As I stared, I lifted my right hoof up above me and slowly closed my left eye… almost at once my hoof disappeared from my vision until I moved it further left.  It was getting worse, saying I had a couple days was perhaps too generous of a time table.

I had a choice to make… and while it might seem a simple one, I still found myself trying to decide which one to choose... 




*     *     *     *     *


 

Another day was coming to a close within the country formerly known as Equestria.  Although anyone unfamiliar with the workings of this new world would be hard pressed to notice the change thanks to the constant overcast sky that hung like a shroud over the land.  The long dark shadows that commonly clung to the edges of the wasteland, and within the many abandoned buildings and homes, began to creep out across everything as the unseen sun lowered further beyond the horizon.  The shadows from the walled town of Janesville silently moved their way along the broken highway and across a small fenced-in bit of land.  Sometime long ago it’d likely been somepony’s field, though for what was anypony’s guess.  Now it was simply another patch of brown nearly dead earth within a wasteland of dead earth.

The darkness of the gathering night hadn’t quite reached the furthest fence post from the wall, however.  What dim light that had managed to filter through the clouds overhead was reflected dimly in the five empty bottles sitting lined up in a row.  The blasted wasteland around them reflected in their multi colored surfaces; dark foreboding mountains to the north, flat featureless plains to the south and west.  The only movement in this little area came from the lone blades of brown grass that stubbornly grew up between the posts in a slight breeze that blew from out of the north.  The tips of the grass brushed against the bottles.

The stillness of the wasteland evening was suddenly shattered as a gunshot rang out from nearby and almost drowned out the sound of shattering glass as the bottle at the left end of the line exploded.  Sparkling bits of glass rained down as another shot quickly followed the first with similar results, a second bottle bursting apart as a bullet impacted its fragile form.  The seconds ticked by as a third shot echoed across the wasteland with the expected results of a broken bottle.  The shot sent the broken top half spinning into the air, the cork that had been placed within the opening flying free.

Shots four and five were inevitable and before the spinning bottle neck was even half way to the ground they echoed across the surrounding countryside.  However, these last two lacked the accompanying sounds of shattering glass.  Instead one ended with an altogether different sound of splintering wood.  The fourth shot had drifted lower than its intended target and blew a sizeable hole through the fence post sending out splinters of old wood.  The impact was enough to knock the empty whisky bottle loose and send it tumbling to the ground.  Surprisingly it remained intact, if a bit cracked along one side.  The final shot missed the last bottle, the fence, and nearly the wasteland by a wide margin, the fading report of the gun the only sound to follow it.

As silence settled back across the wasteland and the light continued to shift across it, the image reflected within the last bottle’s dark green surface filled with the face of a very discouraged black coated earth pony.  His yellow eyes narrowed unhappily as he stared back at the bottle, as if it had somehow managed to avoid the fifth shot.  The image began slowly filling the entire surface of the bottle, as the pony began moving towards it.  Whatever his intentions towards it, they were stopped as he moved within a couple paces from it and the silence once more was shattered by a single gunshot.  The reflection of the now surprised pony disappeared entirely when the bottle shattered in a sparkling rain of glass shards from the single bullet that impacted it near dead center.

I recovered from my initial surprise quickly and, with ears laying flat twisted about towards the source of that gunshot, I clutched Luna’s Ruse tightly with my jaws.  I was expecting to find a raider standing behind me, having snuck up on me while my focus had been on the bottles… perhaps one of the bandits or thieves that I’d heard hid within the mountains to the north.  Perhaps both given my luck.  What I found, however, caused me to pause my return fire and frown around the firing bit of my shotgun instead.  

The still smoking barrel of an old, well worn and maintained Equestrian assault rifle floated behind me pointed towards the the row of fence posts and the bottles that had sat atop it.  The weapon was surrounded in a familiar orange magical glow.  My attention quickly shifted to the weapon’s owner, orange glowing eyes staring calmly down the barrel of my combat shotgun pointed towards his rotting horned head.  He looked no more concerned than if I’d been pointing a pencil or spoon at him.  The barrel lowered to point towards the ground as I relaxed somewhat.

“Trying to give a pony a heart attack, Carrion?” I asked, releasing the firing bit completely from my mouth and allowing Luna’s Ruse to fall slack upon its shoulder strap around my neck.  “Or just trying to get your horned head blown off?” I added with a snort, ears turning upright as my ghoul friend lowered his own weapon, a second later the safety clicking smoothly in place.

“If you haven’t died from seeing my ugly ass face by now Shadow, I doubt you’ll do so anytime soon despite me catching you off guard… twice today actually,” came his slightly raspy response.  His own tattered ears lifted back up from his old army helmet.  Carrion took a couple steps towards me, orange eyes flicking from me to the row of shattered glass shards on the ground.  “Besides, I doubt you could’ve even hit my head given your less than stellar target practice just then.”  His horn once more lit up with magic as he picked up the cracked but still intact whiskey bottle I’d knocked off its post.

In response, I snorted and rolled my eyes.  “I dunno… I doubt even I could mess something glowing as brightly as your afore mentioned ugly ass face,” I shot back with a slight grin.  As he slowed to a halt beside me, I saw a hint of a smirk crossing the stallion’s scarred face before he sat down.  His orange eyes studied the bottle floating before him before he focused upon the row of fence posts I’d been using for target practice.

Sitting down beside him, I looked back up the cracked worn highway he’d come down and the westward facing gate that still appeared open despite the late hour.  That would change soon, I knew.  The walls of the town were easy to see from the short distance we were even despite the growing darkness.  I could even make out the tops of the pony guards patrolling the wall, along with the roofs and chimneys of the homes nearest the wall.  Looking away, I snapped open the drum magazine for my weapon and began rummaging around my saddle bags to replace the spent rounds I’d just fired.  Despite the safety of the nearby town, I’d gotten used to making sure my weapons were always ready to go.  As I withdrew the first slug, I glanced back over to my friend beside me and asked, “Spirit send you out to fetch me?”

“She was worried you’d find some way to get yourself nearly killed if we left you out here alone long enough.  Also, I thought you might like to know Wild and the others just returned a few minutes ago and are unloading the supplies.  It seems things went smoothly for once,” was his answer, head turning slightly so he could look over at me.  The wind ruffled the remains of his tattered mane.  “As for Spirit, I doubt she wanted all her hard work to go to waste.”

“I’m sure if you hadn’t shown up when you did, I’d be in mortal combat with something or another,” I said as the first slug slid into the drum.  “A tumbleweed rolled past not ten minutes ago, I’d wager there was at least a dozen raiders hiding within it… or glowing geckos.  I suppose I’d best hurry about and go see how they did… and to stop Wild from setting me up with those two Confederate soldiers that went with them.”  I got the next four slugs inserted into the drum before he spoke again.

“Eye still no better?”

I paused my reloading for a moment to glance over towards him.  He was sitting on my left side… if he’d been on my right I would have had to turn my head almost completely around.  “No.  No better,” I answered, hoof running along the drum for my shotgun before I snap it closed.  “Getting a bit worse if I’m honest about it,” I added before turning back to close the flap on my pack.  “Spirit tell you about the tests she ran?”

“No, she wouldn’t violate a patient's privacy like that.  I could tell something was worrying her about you more than your normal recklessness, however, and I noticed when we were fighting those raiders on the highway.  I also heard you talking to Spirit about getting hit above your eye,” Carrion commented, eyes returning to the fence posts.  “Your aim’s off whenever something’s on your right side,” he noted, quite correctly.  “Doesn't take a genius to connect the dots.”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t…” I sighed and looked back up to the walled town.  My ears flattened a bit as I recalled my lackluster shooting from a day ago and just a few moments ago.  I had noticed it during the fight with the raiders, but my attention had been focused on surviving the battle plus attempting to get everypony moving again and what had happened to Bronze… I’d all but managed to convince myself it was nothing.  However, a large black shadow had began filling the vision in my right eye… and that was damned hard to ignore or convince myself it was anything but serious.

“Spirit ran a number of tests on my eye and the results were hardly good unsurprisingly.  The raider’s blade hit me just right along my forehead to damage the eye itself and weaken the nerves.  Since the high levels of radiation I’d been soaking up in the forest prevented the healing potions from working properly, the wound only worsened as time went on,” I explained what I’d learned just a couple hours ago.  I noticed the gates of the town were finally beginning to shut and stood back up, not eager to get stuck outside at night… even if there were fewer animals this close to the Dead Forest.  Luna's Ruse dropped back down against my armored chest from my movement and I waited for Carrion to rise before we would began walking towards the gate.  “The end result seems to be the loss of sight in my right eye.”

“Nothing she can do for it?” Carrion asked, falling into step beside me.  Together we trotted the short distance from the fenced in field to the road towards Janesville in silence.  I mulled over the question as we drew nearer the gates.  There was something she could do… but it’d mean going back to San Ponsisco.  Was it really something to even be thinking about?  I shook my head before answering him.

“No, the damage has been done.  Not even a healing potion can repair already damaged tissue, at least not something as sensitive as an eye.”  I glanced to the ghoul beside me and added with a smirk, “Otherwise I doubt you’d still look like an extra from all those horrible zombie movies ponies used to love.”  This earned a snort from my friend and a roll of his glowing orbs.

“We did make a fucking lot of those back in the day, didn’t we?” he asked as we drew closer to the gates.  The guards didn’t seem to be paying us any attention as they worked on getting a few other ponies who’d been beyond the walls back inside.  “Besides, I’ve gotten used to it and it’s not as if I’m attempting to attract the mares with you around,” he added, earning a snort from me this time and a light chuckle from him.

As we neared the back of the short line to enter town, one of the guards waved us to halt and wait.  They’d already managed to get one of the gates sealed by this time, the large metal and wooden door towering well over four ponies in height above them.  It seemed a bit much, until you took into account the supply wagons coming through from the Confederacy, as well as any of the outlying settlements that might need to bring or take things out.  This size did make them slow to open and close, however, since they relied on pure muscle to manage them.  It was an easy target for a surprise raider attack as well.  We stood silent for several minutes as the guards checked over names and stories from the ponies coming in.  The wait gave me time to mull over the choice I had yet to make.

“She did have one suggestion…” I began as we waited, my friend’s glowing orange eyes shifted from the guards and travelers to me.  “Spirit thinks there’s a doctor back in San Ponsisco who might be able to save my eye, but we’d have to leave soon.  She’s worried any more damage to it might either prevent the doctor from using this rare healing spell on it or make it take far longer to heal.”  I shifted a bit on the pavement as the line moved forward.  “There’s also the fact there’s only a single unicorn who can cast it apparently, and his services are not surprisingly in high demand.  It might take sometime for me to see him.”

“Well, it didn’t exactly take us very long to reach Old Oaks and, given the reason for the return flight, I imagine it would take us even less time to return to San Ponsisco from here.  Especially if Wildfire has anything to say about it,” he responded as we stopped moving once more while one of the guards searched a lightly armored mare at the front of the line.  He had began pulling out some oddly glowing mushrooms from her overly large saddlebags.  “And having been living in a time when such spells were more common, I can tell you if this doctor can cast one, your eyesight should be returned to you almost completely.”  Once the guard was satisfied by the search, he waved the mare on in and began speaking to the next pony in line, who was just in front of us.  “By your tone, however, I gather you haven’t decided to return?”

“No.  I haven’t.  Spirit said it could take sometime to even see the doctor, and even then it might take a number of treatments to repair the damage to my eye.”

“She’s right.  While I had once considered myself lucky enough to avoid ever needing such a spell used upon me personally, I had a couple soldiers under my command who needed it.  The length of time for recovery and treatments all depended upon the severity of the wounds and what was in need of healing.”  He turned his head back to me, one brow arched as he asked, “My question is, why is that an issue?  The wasteland’s not going anywhere.  It’s been sitting here for the past one hundred and fifty years and it’ll likely be sitting here for another one hundred fifty.”  One fore leg lifted up from the pavement to wave about us at the hills and rocky outcroppings to the north of us.   “You're going to lose your right eye right now if you don’t go get it healed.  Why would you not go?  You expecting to miss something by being cooped up in a hospital for a couple weeks?”

I frowned and remained silent, staring straight ahead as the guards searched the pony in front of us.  My tail twitched back and forth.  When it was put like that, I suppose me needing sometime to think it over did seem a bit silly… no, I suppose it seemed very stupid.  It really should be a simple decision to make, it was either go back to San Ponsisco or lose all sight out of my right eye.  What was there to even think about?  Before I could form any sort of response to his questions, a new voice spoke up suddenly from just behind us.

“Your friend asks a very good question, young stallion.”  Both Carrion and I turned a bit to better see who had decided to join our conversation so unexpectedly.  

Standing just behind us were three figures, two of them large earth pony stallions wearing typical wastelander armor with dirty reddish brown coats and short cut brown manes and tails.  There was also a much smaller looking figure standing in front of them, cloaked in a dirty brown piece of cloth that hid nearly all of her from sight.  I assumed the speaker had been the cloaked figure, as the voice had sounded female, despite being a bit gravely and raspy.  While I couldn’t make out much, I could see her hooves were a light purplish grey color and what looked like the tips of a light grey mane hanging just at the edge of her hood.

“Your decaying friend is correct.  You should see to your own health first and not worry about what may or may not happen while you are away,” she continued, moving a bit closer to us and I found myself oddly a little unnerved for some reason.  Although, for the life of me I couldn’t put my hoof on just why.  Was it her voice, or maybe just how she was covered so completely up as if hiding something?

“No matter whether you are here in this small town or in the capital of the Confederacy, the Wasteland will always be changing.  Nopony can ever truly stop it from doing so, despite their attempts to do so.  It’s far too chaotic a place for that to happen.”  Her head rose just a bit and, in the dying light, I could just make out the tip of a rounded short muzzle and a wide smile full of rather sharp looking teeth.

“Um… I see…” was my less than intelligible response I managed to make to this odd mare.  Beside me, Carrion seemed just as much at a loss for words as I was.  We would have likely stood there dumbly looking for some better response if we hadn’t been snapped out of our stupor.  Somepony luckily needed our attention elsewhere and cleared their throat to get it.  Breaking my stare away from the odd mare, I turned my head back around to notice we were next in line to enter the gate.  Offering the rather tired looking guards a smile and quick nod of my head, I turned back towards the mare and offered her a slightly sincere smile.  “Well, thank you for your advice, ma’am… I’ll be sure to think it over, but for now we’d best stop holding up the line….” I glanced back to the two nearly identical earth ponies who had remained silent the entire time and simply stood watching us.  I nodded once for Carrion to follow me before stepping up to the guard beside the gate.

I put the odd encounter with the equally odd group behind me and focused on the three armored guards before me.  As I neared the one waving us up, I noticed once more how the local town guards brown combat armor stood out against the patchwork colors of the walls and gate.  I suppose it worked very well as camouflage out in the surrounding wasteland, likely far better than the olive drab color the Confederate soldiers stationed here wore or my own matte black riot armor.  Thankfully neither my troubles with my eye nor the odd mare stopped me from recognizing the stallion at the front of the group.  He’d been stationed at the gate a couple hours ago when I’d left to go do my target practice and luckily he’d apparently seen Carrion pass through the gates just a couple minutes ago.  While we still had to submit to a quick check of our saddlebags, it did allow us to forego the normal questions asked of ponies entering town.  Once they were sure we didn’t have anything unusual in our packs, he gave us a quick wave forward before motioning to the cloaked mare to step forward.

With a nod of thanks for the quick check, I stepped past the guards and made my way through the open side of the gateway and out onto the walled in side of the highway.  Not wanting to get in the way of either those still to enter or the ponies going about their lives, I made my way from the paved street and up onto the sidewalk.  A quick glance behind me revealed Carrion had fallen a bit behind me, with a somewhat troubled look upon his face as his pace slowed.  I arched a brow as I watched him for a moment before coming to a halt beside an old rusted street sign and waited for him to catch up.  It took him far longer than it should, as he slowed to an almost complete stop a couple times.  He looked almost as if he was about to go back before stopping himself and continuing onwards with a slow shake of his horned head.  By the time he’d finally coming to a halt beside me, I could tell something was troubling he greatly.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.  After several minutes of silence and him looking back towards the gate, I asked it a second time when it appeared he wasn’t about to answer me the first time.  He grunted and tore his gaze away from the gates and locked his glowing orange eyes upon me as he answered my question.

“Honestly?  I don’t really know… just got this odd feeling all of a sudden… like I knew that mare from somewhere, but I just can’t quite put my hoof on it...”  His response caused me to blink as I thought of my own odd feelings for the strange group.  Deciding to keep that to myself for the time being, I looked back towards the gate and the cloaked mare.  She seemed to have been held up with something.  Unfortunately I couldn’t hear whatever she and the guards were saying to one another, as the streets around us were surprisingly busy for the late hour.  Behind the mare, I noticed the two large earth pony stallions who I began to suspect were brothers had moved up closer to the cloaked figure.  Were they working for her then?  Perhaps bodyguards for the road?  I looked away from the gate and back to Carrion.

“Well… maybe she just reminds you of somepony you knew before the bombings?” I suggested before realizing how stupid that sounded.  How could she remind him of someone when you couldn’t even see what she looked like under that cloak?  However, that gave me another idea and I tilted my head in thought.  “Or perhaps she’s a fellow ghoul and you really did know her.  Given the town’s feelings towards our friends, I’d imagine any ghoul traveling here would attempt to hide what they were from the locals.”  Carrion rubbed a hoof along his face tiredly and made a couple of his permanent wounds  in his face widen a bit and- oh hey look, that’s what the inside of a throat looks like from the side.  Okay… could have done without that sight...

“Maybe… her voice just sounded so damned familiar...”  He sighed, sounding less than convinced.  I worried if he was planning on approaching them once they got inside town.  His hoof brushed across his eyes, cutting off their constant glow for a moment before lowering back to the sidewalk.  “You're probably right actually… hell it could just be a sign of me finally snapping...” he began to say more, but a sudden flash of light off to our right got our attention.  

Luckily I’d been sitting more towards the gates than the street or else I might have missed it completely thanks to my eye.  Both Carrion and I turned to attempt to see what had caused the sudden flash.  I half expected to see a unicorn casting a light spell or perhaps a couple foals playing with a flashlight.  However, I quickly noticed there didn’t appear to be any reason for it… none of the unicorns I could see appeared to be casting a spell of any type, nor did anyone have a flashlight or other source of light.  I checked the streetlamps nearest the gate and noticed they either had yet to come on or simply didn’t work.  I would have shrugged it off as just another symptom of my damaged eye if Carrion hadn’t also clearly seen something.  It was clear we hadn’t been the only ones to witness it as a couple other ponies who had been walking across the street had stopped to look around for a minute as well.  

The only thing that I noticed had changed was the guards had allowed the odd cloaked mare and her two large escorts to enter the town.  The guards stood silently beside the open gate, staring off down the road and didn’t seem to have noticed anything unusual.  Though, they did have their backs to the town itself.  After a few more seconds, they began shutting the large gate and pulling it hard to seal it completely.  The guards above them on the wall were looking over either side of the walkway,  Had they seen it as well?  Ugh… this was going to drive me crazy, but it would seem there wasn’t an immediate answer for the sudden light.  The guards seemed to agree as they simply shrugged it off and went back to their patrols.  I glanced to Carrion, who simply shook his head and turned away from the gate.  

“It could have been anything really.  There’s no sense in worrying about it, most likely one of the streetlights just attempting to come back on after so long… seen them do that in Kanter City often enough,” he said, ears folded back a bit before he stood up and waved a hoof across the street.  “Come on, we should go check in with Wild and Stone.  They should almost be finished unloading the supplies by now and I’m sure they’ll want to hear about your test results.”

Nodding my head, I stood back up and brushed my tail across my flanks.  The action knocked away a bit of dirt and ash I’d picked up from being outside the wall and from sitting upon the sidewalk.  Making our way across the highway, we set our course for the center of town and the makeshift landing sight for the sky chariot.  Mounting the neighboring sidewalk, we hurriedly stepped aside and managed to avoid a number of ponies moving the opposite direction from us.  I noticed most of those we passed were guards, likely the replacements for those still on duty.  Some still seemed to be hurriedly donning the rest of their armor as they trotted past us.  Only a couple spared us more than a fleeting glance, their focus on getting to their post on time.  I did see a few who watched me as we walked past though.  Instead of looking back at them, I focused on the path and buildings ahead.  It seemed if you got your name… or rather your newly self given title said over the radio and you became a bit famous.

“Good thing Wild isn’t around to see that,” Carrion said from beside me, eyes fixed upon the sidewalk ahead of us.  “Otherwise she might say something along the lines of you not just being popular with the mares.”  This caused a long suffering sigh to escape my lips followed by rolling my eyes.

“Oh yes, thanks for pointing that out… I’m sure if she’d seen that I’d be embarrassed beyond belief by now,” I replied before shaking my head a bit and attempting to change the subject to something else.  “After leaving the clinic earlier, you said you were going to go check in on Fleet and the others?”  After a nod of his head I went on, “How are they doing?”  We’d just reached the corner of the block and turned inward towards the center of town.  A wagon slowly rolled passed us as we followed the street.

“All things considered, they’re doing… well enough on their own,” he answered.  For a moment, I wondered if that was all he had to say about them.  He turned his head a bit and shifted his eyes to look back across his shoulder and towards the northern end of town.  “For the moment, they are settled in the most intact building within the old wall, a warehouse.  It was the only building large enough to house them all in a single place and it should be easy enough to defend should anything attempt to bother them.”

I frowned and looked back to the ponies passing us.  I still wasn’t happy with how things had turned out, but I had come to realize it was the best we could do.  For now.  “What kind of shape is the wall in?  I only got a quick look over it myself and I’ve heard a couple locals talking about how old it was.” 

“I’ve seen worse, the wall around Old Oaks comes to mind… but I’ve also seen better,” Carrion explained, ears folded back a bit as he turned his head back around.  Despite what he’d said earlier, I could tell that something still bothered him.  Hell, it bothered me, too.  “It should keep out most animals, but something with more than two brain cells could likely find someplace to get inside.”

“So no raiders then?” I asked with a slight smile, attempting to lighten the mood.  My ghoul companion simply grunted as we neared the center of town.  I winced and looked away from him to the crowd of ponies ahead of us.  What was going on here?  Above the multi colored manes I could see the top of the Sky Chariot sitting where we’d left it earlier… I suppose it had simply drawn the attention of the locals.  “I’d think something with more than two brain cells would think twice before running into a warehouse full of ghouls,” I added quickly to which my friend grunted again and nodded his head in agreement.  “How’s Mint doing?”

“The same…”

It was my turn to grunt and I stared at the crowd ahead of us.  With the death of Marshall Bronzestar, Mint Julep had withdrawn completely from the world around her.  Not even her daughter could coax the poor mare to say or do anything.  The most she had done was on the last leg of our journey to Janesville she carried Star upon her back and followed the ponies in front of her.  I was worried seeing her dead husband might shatter the mare’s slim grasp on reality.  And if she turned, what would become of Star?  She’d lost her father already… while she wasn’t your typical foal, I knew losing a parent regardless of age was painful.  Would that force her to turn feral herself?

“She’ll either recover or turn into one of the mindless ferals, Shadow,” Carrion answered my unasked question.  He either noticed my troubled look or simply knew me well enough by now to guess what I had been thinking about.  “Nothing anypony does will change that, not even her daughter.  This is something Mint needs to deal with in her own way and in her own time.”

“So the fact she’s shut down isn’t a bad sign?” I asked, to which he simply snorted and shook his head.

“It’s not something anypony can predict, Shadow, not even a ghoul.  Going feral can happen at anytime in a ghoul’s life or unlife or whatever the fuck you wanna call it,” he answered with a grimace.  His ears once more folded back and his eyes narrowed.  “It can and does happen a number of times… most commonly when we’re under a lot of stress such as being in a fight where death is a very real possibility.  A major loss can trigger it as well, like the death of a friend or loved one.”  The more he spoke, the more I could tell the subject was bothering him and part of me regretted bring it up.  However, he continued speaking, “There were days back in Kanter City where it seemed I was struggling daily to keep what was left of my sanity intact.  Stumbling across my soldiers… having to put them out of their misery… I think there were times I actually wanted to go feral.  Just so I wouldn’t have to think about what had happened to us all.”  

“I’m… sorry, Carrion…” I said lamely as he trailed off.  My ears folded back as I attempted to give my friend something that might express my feelings for what he’d gone through.  But what can anypony really say to that?  I’d known a little about ghouls going feral.  The welcome book we’d been given upon entering San Ponsisco had spoken a little upon the risks of the ghoul residents of the city going feral.  I looked back to Carrion to try and say something else, anything, but found myself at a complete loss for words.  My friend seemed ready to let the matter drop entirely.

“Just… forget it, Shadow.  I know you mean well, but there’s really nothing anypony can…” my friend’s gravelly voice was cut off before he could finish saying whatever he had intended by a sudden and very loud scream.  Both we and the crowd ahead of us froze up, our fears springing back upright in surprise.  A few seconds after the first scream, another voice loudly shouted out from beyond the crowd.

“Goddesses’ tits, lady, just calm the fuck down!!” the voice sounded oddly familiar, but it was hard to be sure at the same moment whoever spoke.  The entire crowd of ponies came back to life and began shouting themselves.  Whatever had happened, it snapped both Carrion and I out of our surprised stupor and got us moving forward quickly.  Thankfully it seemed to have a slightly different effect upon some of the ponies in the crowd as a few backed away from the source.  It seemed to be somewhere near the front of the them.

Luckily neither Carrion or I were having much trouble pushing ourselves past the remaining ponies standing between us and the disturbance.  Whether this was due to the sight of two large armored ponies carrying a number of weapons appearing right behind them or the flash of metal coming from my badge didn’t matter.  Either way, the end result was the same as locals began stepping aside, giving us a narrow path to the front of the crowd.  As we stepped past the last few ponies ahead of us, we came upon a rather unusual looking scene.  One that had similarities to one I’d witnessed this morning.

“Get that fucking monster away from me!!” somepony shouted loudly, drawing my attention to the source of the problem.  A unicorn mare was pointing a shaking grey coated foreleg towards a stunned looking ghoul pegasus, Fleethoof.  At first I thought she was just some random local I’d never seen before, but quickly realized I had in fact seen her before.  That morning as we’d waited for permission to enter the town, she had been the pony who had began screaming bloody murder when two of the ferals had gotten too close.  She had nearly caused a riot, in fact.  I was sure it was the same mare as I hadn’t seen many unicorns in town with as many scars as this one.  Her neck and lower jaw was a mass of poorly healed wounds, from what though I wasn’t sure.  Very few ponies went very long without getting permanently marked by the horrors of the world.  

Around the frightened mare stood a small number of ponies, all with equally dark looks directed towards the uncertain and frightened ghoul.  Judging by what they were wearing and the look of their cutie marks, I got the feeling a lot of them were some of the shopkeepers in the plaza.  Almost all had caps or coins for cutie marks and a number wore belts with tools or pouches for caps.  It made sense due to where we were presently, but of course they could have just been ponies getting off work for all I knew. 

“Well stop looking at your reflection in a damned mirror and you won’t have to.  Oh wait, you weren’t talking about yourself, were you?” came an answering shout from another mare involved in this mess.  One I was much more familiar with and whose words caused me to groan inwardly and roll my eyes.  Wildfire, the less than diplomatic pegasus pony, stood beside the uneasy Fleethoof with one of her orange wings extended across her fellow pegasus’s back.  Her stormy blue eyes were presently  bearing twin holes into the local unicorn mare’s face and those backing her up.  Her words were a bit of a low blow, but then Wild wasn’t known to pull any punches.  

Wild wasn’t alone, however, as Stone stood beside his marefriend.  His rifle was thankfully still slung across his back, so things hadn’t gotten to bad… yet.  He was refraining from shouting out insults back towards the crowd, but I could tell he wasn’t very happy with the locals at the moment.  His green eyes were narrowed upon the cowering unicorn, and his ears were laid back atop his hat.  If push came to shove, I knew my large friend wouldn’t be holding back.

Behind my friends was our sky chariot, parked in nearly the same spot it had been hours before.  However, sitting beside the open doors was a stack of crates I’d last seen in a dark cave some miles from here.  One of the crates lay upon it’s side, the lid having fallen open to allow moldy straw and a number of bottles to spill out across the gravel.  Those who had been helping to unload it had left quickly to attempt to break up what sounded like a fight about to happen.  The two Confederate soldiers who had gone with my friends now stood between them and the group of angry shopkeepers.  Their weapons, while not held in their magical grip or mouth, were within easy reach and ready for use.  Of the two, I could tell Honeyrose was nervous as she kept stealing glances between Shady and the group of ponies in front of them.  For her part, Shady Oaks appeared calm, but she did appear less than pleased by this sudden confrontation. 

“Those… things should be killed before they kill somepony!” the scared mare at the front of the locals yelled.  “It was about to attack me!”  She snorted and fixed her purple eyes upon the still cowering Fleethoof.  Thankfully, I noticed a few in the crowd shifting their opinions as they looked at the ghoul pegasus.

“Bullshit!  She just walked up towards us when you began screaming your damned fool head off!” Wild shouted back, gritting her teeth as she took a step towards the mare.  Thankfully, Stone placed a restraining hoof upon her shoulder to stop her.  She glanced back to her lover before turning back to stare at the unicorn across from her.  “She wouldn’t hurt a damned bloatfly.”

“Oh fer fuck sake, Lilly, would ya just give it a rest already?” Shady shouted over the two mares.  The Confederate Corporal looked a bit more green than I remembered.  “My stomach’s still threatenin’ ta empty my breakfast and th’ both of yer yellin’ ain’t helpin’ my damned headache any!  Celestia’s plot I hate flyin!!” the large unicorn added that last part to herself.  She shifted her focus from the crowd to the ghoul and finally to my two friends.

“Yeah… about that…” Wild blinked and broke eye contact with the unicorn shopkeeper to glance sheepishly to the large army mare.  When she spoke next, it was in a more civil tone.   “Sorry about that, Shady, we just got a sudden updraft from that ravine we flew over and rocked the chariot before I could stabilize it.  Wasteland’s not known for very stable weather patterns…” my friend trailed off as she spotted Carrion and myself stepping out from the crowd and moving over towards them.  Her expression shifted once more, this time to relief as she called out, “Shadow… thank the goddesses you're here… would you please tell these ponies to calm the hell down?”

I arched a brow at my winged friend before glancing to the two Confederate soldiers standing between her and the locals.  “While I wear the badge and call myself a Marshall, Wild, I’m afraid I don’t have any real authority here in town,” I answered simply, getting a surprised look from Honeyrose and a relieved look from Shady.  

I understood both their reactions, as both likely expected me to start throwing my nonexistent weight around and undermining the authority of the local ponies in charge.  While I had done something similar back in Old Oaks, it had been to snap the locals out of their idiotic arguments in the face of certain death.  Just as in Tombstone, here I had to abide by the local guards and law enforcement… which come to think of it… I hadn’t seen a sheriff or any deputies in town yet… was the Confederacy replacing them as law enforcement?

“Thank ya kindly, Marshall,” Shady said, nodding her horned head towards me.  Despite not wanting to step on anypony else’s hooves… I still agreed with Wild, this needed to stop and I had a general idea how to do so.

Looking away from Shady and my friends, I instead focused my gaze upon the group of ponies standing before them.  I narrowed my eyes as I began by stepping between Wild, Fleethoof, and the others.  “That said… I’d still like to know why somepony who sought shelter within the walls of this town, and was granted it, is now being harassed for doing what sounds like, nothing,” I said simply and earned a number of dark looks from a few of the troublemakers.  If looks could kill, I’d be dead a dozen times over from the look the lead mare was giving me.

“That… thing shouldn’t even be IN this town.  It and the rest of its kind should be killed before they turn on us!” the mare practically snarled, slowly starting to advance upon me and the group of friends I was standing in front of.  My eyes narrowed upon her, but she didn’t back down.  “Why is it even in the town to begin with?!  I thought those beasts were supposed to stay outside the walls?  How’d it get in?  And when is the mayor going to do something about them?  Those things are monsters that are only interested in killing…”  Thankfully, she was cut off before she could go on any further.  I had a feeling she intended to go on for a while about her thoughts on the fate of all ghouls.    

“Lilly!  That!  Is!  Enough!” Shady managed to shout over the mare’s little rant, punctuating each word by stomping her fore hoof into the pavement as she stepped closer.  She moved around me to impose herself between us.  When she was nearly muzzle to muzzle with the frightened unicorn, she continued, “Th’ Marshall’s correct, th’ mayor did allow th’ ghouls a place ta stay in town while our guests are gettin’ patched up.  This ghoul…”  She winced and shook her head.  “Fleethoof has permission to come and go as she pleases as she’s no different than th’ Marshall’s friend, Carrion, here.”  At this, Shady waved a hoof towards my silent scowling friend who had remained standing where he was.  As attention was focused upon him, however, a number of locals hurriedly took a few steps back from him.  One of the mares in Lilly’s group yelped in surprise. 

“Oh for Celestia’s sake…” Wild muttered behind me.

“I don’t care how dressed up it looks… it’s still a damned ghoul and it’ll turn on us sooner or later… I’ve seen it happen before,” Lilly responded, eyes narrowing upon Carrion who stood his ground.

“Lilly… just… give it a rest, okay?” Honeyrose asked softly, the slender earth pony mare finding herself the center of attention as she spoke up.  “The ghouls are in the old quarter of the town, they’re safe from the wasteland and we are safe from them.  I don’t think they mean us any harm… they’re just a bit lost…” she trailed off some as Lilly gave the pale yellow soldier a withering look, before she added softly, “The Marshall vouches for them, after all.”  With those words, the attention shifted from Honeyrose to me.  Once again, I was thankful my armor was impervious to dark looks.

“His word doesn’t mean a thing, you foal, he’s just a pony.  A pony who let a lot of other ponies die in Tombstone so I hear.”  I winced at her words, recalling just who she was speaking of.  “Nopony can vouch for another fully…” she hesitated on adding that last part, and for a moment the hateful look in her eyes faded… and a frighted pony replaced her… but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone in a flash as her eyes focused upon Fleethoof.  

I wondered… what had happened to make her this way?  A ghoul attack?  A friend going feral?  My thoughts were interrupted as Shady stepped back from Lilly and placed a hoof gently upon her shoulder.  She quickly spoke up before the scared unicorn could continue her verbal attack.

“Private Honeyrose is right, Lilly.  Th’ ghouls ain’t goin’ do anypony any harm behind th’ old wall.  So why don’t ya’ll just get back ta yer booths and stores and finish up yer business ‘fore it’s closin’ time?” she spoke gently with the mare, who frowned and shrugged the hoof off her shoulder.  Giving Fleethoof and the rest of us a final stare, she turned and sulked off.  As she drew further away, Shady sighed and sat down upon the pavement of the sidewalk.

“Damn stubborn ol’ mare,” the corporal whispered loud enough for me to hear before brushing a hoof through her short cut dark green mane.  Her attention drifted back to my friends and I.  Honeyrose simply sat beside her fellow soldier, looking sadly to where Lilly had left.

“What’s her problem?” Wild asked, giving the retreating pony in question a final glance.  Her laid back ears and scowl made it clear what she thought of the pony.  Shaking her head, she turned back and began helping Fleethoof up.  She guided the ghoul mare away from the remaining crowd and over towards the sky chariot.  Stone eyed the ponies still lingering nearby before snorting softly to himself and standing up.  He stepped away from the two pegasi and over towards Shady and myself.  Carrion, meanwhile, simply remained where he was, indifferent from the stares he was receiving from the remaining locals.  He gave Lilly a look himself before swiveling his head back around towards us.

“Ain’t rightly my story ta tell,” Shady began, horn lighting up a soft blue.  She pulled a pack of worn cigarettes from a pocket located upon her armored chest.  “But given th’ circumstances, yer’ll gonna hear it soon enough if ya stay in town long.”  A single white stick floated from the package glowing in the unicorns magic and floated towards her muzzle.  It lit a second later by a small burst of fire magic before she began her tale, “Th’ short and public version of th’ tale is that Lilly’s parents were travelin’ merchants.  Traveled all across th’ western wasteland sellin’ stuff ta ponies in towns includin’ this one.”  

As she was speaking, Honeyrose slipped away from the four of us and went back to help Wild with calming Fleethoof down.  The ghoul mare was flexing her tattered wings uneasily as her glowing eyes darted between them and the last few ponies lingering nearby.  It was hard to say whether she fully understood why another pony was yelling at her… I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure how much of her original personality remained, and how much was suppressed.  Due to her inability to speak it was hard to tell, but I had a feeling she was more like Carrion then she was Mint or Copper.  She’d seemed surprisingly coherent during our trek through the forest and the fight with the raiders.  The talk with Carrion minutes ago made me worry if something like this wouldn’t be the thing that drove her over the edge.  Shady, oblivious to my concerns, went on with the story.

“One year, Ah think Lilly musta been seven or so, her parents hired a couple mercs ta guard them as they make their usual rounds.”  She floated the pack of cigarettes back to her vest pocket before taking a puff on the one in her mouth.  “They couldn’t afford a lot, but luckily one of ’em was a friend ta th’ family and worked fer free.  He was a ghoul.”   Standing up, she turned away from the last few members of the dispersing crowd to get back to work unloading the chariot.  Stone and I followed, while Carrion remained silent.  I could tell his attention was focused upon Shady’s story though as his ears followed her every step.  “Don’t remember his name, dunno if anypony bothered ta write it down… anyway, on th’ trip somethin’ happened that made ’em go feral.  Ah think it was a raider attack… or maybe a radscorpion.  He ended up killin’ Lilly’s parents and most of th’ other mercs before any of ’em knew what was happenin’, rippin’ out their throats with his teeth.  Th’ last survivin’ merc ended up kill’en this ghoul, but not before he mauled Lilly up good.  Luckily, they was close ta Janesville when it happened, and th’ doc saved her life.”

“Ah reckon somethin’ like that would leave a bad impression on a pony,” Stone spoke up for the first time.  He glanced back towards where Lilly had left, before looking over to Fleet and Wild.  “Ain’t right… but Ah can understand where she’s comin’ from.”  Wild, meanwhile, looked like she was about to argue, but she shut her mouth and shook her head.  She either thought better of what she’d been about to say, or decided that her coltfriend made a good point.

“Yer right, somethin’ like that makes a pony bitter.  ‘Specially if they never learn ta let it go… all that hate just eats ’em up inside,” Shady said, smoke trailing up from her nostrils as she breathed.  The cigarette in her mouth glowed as she took another puff.  “She’s a good enough mare, so long as there ain’t no ghouls around.”  The mare’s horn lit once more with magic as she began pulling the last few crates from within the chariot and out onto the ground.  Stone was busy picking up the items from the box that had fallen out during all the yelling.

“Is that why ghouls aren’t welcome in town?” I asked, taking one of the floating boxes from midair to lighten Shady’s load a bit.

“Partly.  Th’ real reason is th’ town’s just had a bad history with ghouls, feral and otherwise.  Years before th’ town joined th’ Confederacy, it wasn’t uncommon for ghouls ta be shot on sight from th’ walls,” she answered, ears folding back.

I frowned at that, but kept my mouth shut.  The wasteland was a harsh place and breed harsh ponies just trying to protect themselves… even if it meant killing other ponies.  Again, I found myself thinking of Tombstone thanks to Lilly’s words.

“Twasn’t just Janesville.  It was sadly a common enough occurrence for towns ta do for a long time,” Stone said from beside me as he finished picking up the last package of what looked like old bandages.  “Ah can still remember my pa tellin’ my brother and Ah about similar things happenin’ at Crossroads.  For years didn’t make no difference whether they was feral or not… just shot ’em soon as look at ’em.”  Stone placed the lid back atop the box with the remaining nails pointing downward.  He then carefully stomped atop it, driving the still sharp nails into the wooden sides.  “Rose’s ma put a stop ta it when she became mayor, but if’n Ah’m honest, at th’ time my pa was tell’en me about this, Ah didn’t have a problem with it.”  He glanced over to Carrion who had remained silent for the past several minutes.  “Ah know better now, havin’ fought and worked alongside ghouls for a while now,” he added quickly.

“I understand, Stone.  It’s a flaw inherent to nearly all ponykind.  I know because I was and, to some extent, am still guilty of it myself.  I hated zebras for what they’d done to our country and people… and still do,” Carrion said, shaking his horned head slowly before standing up and moving over to join the rest of us.  Behind the ghoul, I noticed the large brown, shaggy shape of Spirit as she pulled a wagon towards the chariot.  “It’s a very deadly flaw… and one of the reasons I think the war got so damned ugly there near the end.  We simply stopped thinking of them as living beings and thought of them as the enemy.”

“Perhaps the flaw is still a common thing for ponies today, but there have always been those who have managed to overcome it.  Otherwise, I would likely not be standing before you today if my father had not taken me in,” Spirit said as she pulled the cart to a halt beside the stack of medical supplies.  The buffalo looked over the faded shipping labels for some idea on what they contained.  “And while it is not perfect, I believe the beliefs of the Confederacy are quite noble in their ideals to bring all people of the wasteland together under one banner.  Let us not forget also our little group,” she added with a smile to each of us, before unhitching herself from the harness to begin sorting the supplies.

“Ah reckon we have Shadow ta think for that,” Stone said with a chuckle.

“Indeed so.”  Spirit looked up from her inspection and locked her eyes upon my own, horned head tilted slightly to the side as she spoke once more, “However, before we cause our young friend to blush from our praise, I was wondering if perhaps he had reached a decision on our conversation earlier?” 

I glanced between my friends as I thought about my answer.  I suspected her primary reason for asking me this in front of everyone else was simply because she wanted to know if I’d decided what I wanted to do.  At the same time, however, I suspected she’d also intended to put me a on the spot, in case I decided to dilly dally around about my eye.  Spirit could be quite sneaky when she wanted to be… I wondered if Doctor Kindheart hadn’t been giving her tips on dealing with me while they’d been living and working together.  

My friends all turned to look at me curiously.  All except for Carrion who I had spoken with mere minutes before about my choices.  The ghoul stallion had helped, whether he knew it or not.  While Wild had started the entire thing by ensuring Carrion got me to see Spirit, I doubt she knew the seriousness of my situation.  Stone simply stood silently with a brow cocked.  He either hadn’t known or simply was waiting for my answer.  Even Shady, Honeyrose, and Fleethoof looked up from what they’d been doing, ears perked towards me.  

Carrion and that odd, old mare had been correct.  The wasteland wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but my eye just might.  It might take a couple weeks to fully heal, even a month, but in the end I would be back to one hundred percent.  With that, I could better help those ponies who needed it.  While I’d only been away for a couple of days, it would be nice to see Tiny again and hear how school was going.  

“I have actually,” I began.  As we continued loading the medical supplies on Spirit’s cart, I began telling my friends and two strangers about what my examination with Spirit had revealed.  Stone had suspected something along those lines, same as Carrion and Wild had, but my two oldest friends from the wasteland were surprised at the seriousness of the injury.  Wild was all for leaving right then and there, but I managed to convince her to wait until morning.  She had been flying almost nonstop for almost twelve hours after all and could use the rest.  Shady and Honeyrose followed our little group to the clinic, asking a couple of questions about my wounded eye.  

In the end, the seven of us spent the remaining hours talking about old injuries.  It was well past nine when we decided to call it a night.  I planned on speaking with Silver and Mint before we left.  I also needed to see whether Balefire was going to come with us or stay behind to look after Tinkerbelle.  Spirit was staying regardless, as the local doctor and his staff would need her help looking after all the wounded.

As we bid goodnight to Honeyrose and Shady, Carrion took Fleet back to the other ghouls.  The rest of us headed back to the motel we were all staying in.  Along the way, Wild joked about the scar over my eye and how I should keep it.   Of course, she said that mares dig scars.  I chuckled, but found my thoughts drifting off to my decision to head back.  Despite what I’d told my friends, I still couldn’t convince myself completely that it was the right one to make… nor could I explain to myself why I felt this way...  





*     *     *     *     *





The desolate countryside flashed past the window as the train sped along the tracks.  Resting my foreleg upon the window sill, I propped my head up and watched the scenery.  It was all dusty browns and deep reds with the odd bit of green here or there where a tree or shrub stubbornly grew.  As I watched it pass, I thought of my family for some reason.  Perhaps it was due to the line of work they had chosen.  I smiled a bit, thinking how much father and mother would love it here with so many rocks.  Not for the first time in the past three hours since leaving Tombstone, I found my eyes growing heavy.  The steady rocking of the passenger car and the clanking clacks of the wheels was threatening to put me to sleep.  I suppose I wouldn’t have this problem if I’d gotten a bit more sleep last night… but ‘we’d’ had other plans, and who was to say when we’d get another chance to do something like that again?  So I couldn’t really complain too loudly, largely due to the ponies I was sharing the car with.  I had no doubt they would happily point out just why I was so sleepy.  The reflection of my face looked back at me through the glass, looking tired and a bit grumpy if I was honest with myself.  The glass also reflected the mirthful looks of my companions who were sitting in seats across the aisle from mine.  I shut my eyes and rubbed them with a hoof as my ears swiveled back upon hearing a couple snickers from behind me, which earned a groan from me.  

Ugh… I was never going to live this down… stupid sexy bat ponies… stupid thin walls...

A few minutes passed as I pondered my options, whether I could possibly hide in another part of the train somewhere or disappear into the seat cushions of the chair I was on.  It was when I was wondering about climbing onto the roof when I finally noticed how silent the car had become… the faint click of the door was nearly drowned out by the rattling of the wheels on the rails.  Had they all just suddenly up and left?  Odd, it wasn’t time for a shift change yet.  I mulled over the schedule for the remaining leg of our trip.  When I lowered my hoof and opened my eyes to see where everypony had gone and why, I was startled to see that the reflections of the seats behind me and my friends had been completely blotted out by a large imposing (and sexy) armored figure sitting down in the seat beside me.  I quickly turned my head around to see if something was wrong and bumped my nose into Noctensis’ well worn and battle scarred shoulder guard, giving out a surprised yelp.

“Noctensis?” I asked, while rubbing the end of my snout with a hoof.  The batpony simply chuckled softly at my surprise and reached over to pull my hoof away to examine my nose.  When he leaned over to kiss it, I blushed and hurriedly scanned the train car.  I quickly noticed that all the seats were now empty and it was just the two of us.  Blinking, I looked back up to the large stallion and tilted my head a bit, confused still by the sudden departure of the others.

“How are you feeling?  Any better?” he asked.  While the question was genuine, I had a feeling it wasn’t why he’d suddenly appeared in the car and everypony else had disappeared.  I perked my ears upright at my commanding officer and lover.

“Yes, I’m feeling a lot better,” I answered.  I reached a hoof up to my still scarred throat where the zebra infiltrator’s bullet had passed through it at nearly point blank range.  I was lucky to be alive.  If it had been a higher caliber gun, it would have simply blown my entire throat apart… a sombering thought.  “The soreness in my throat is almost completely gone now and I can speak without coughing,” I went on, ears twisting to the side as I snorted.  I decided to try and lighten the mood a bit.  “I’d think you’d already know this given how… vocal, things got last night.”  His slightly larger ears flicked a bit as he chuckled once more, though it was more a nervous one than his usual.  I arched a brow to the large stallion, wondering what was wrong.

“Before we left this morning, the doctor who treated you wanted to speak with me about something,” he began, and almost at once my confused feelings turned to those of dread.  I knew what this was about.  Shutting my mouth, I hurriedly looked away from his searching golden eyes as they settled upon my face.  “He was understandably worried about your recent injury and why a mare with... your condition was still on active duty.  When I explained you were just a civilian here to help the military and not an actually soldier, he became even more confused... so I asked what condition as I don’t recall Princess Luna informing me of any special medical needs for you...”  Well, I knew this was going to come up sooner or later… it would be kind of hard for him not to notice after all.  I felt a hoof gently touch my shoulder and I shut my eyes.  “At first he refused to tell me… ‘patient-doctor confidentiality’ he said.  But judging by his tone and the way he kept worriedly looking over his charts, I knew it was something serious… given how close we’ve become… well I may have… used my contacts back in Canterlot to get him to tell me what was wrong.”  So that’s why we’d been so late to depart Tombstone.  I couldn’t fault him… he was a very loyal coltfriend… more so than most.  “When a princess personally contacted him, he finally explained what was wrong… though I suppose it’s not really… um wrong...”  Oh buck me, the Princess knew?

“I… I didn’t mean to keep it from you, Nocty, and I was going to tell you… just not until we’d finished this damned mission,” I began, opening my eyes and turning quickly to the stallion sitting beside me.  I reached up my forehooves to take his own larger one resting upon my shoulder.  “I’d also only just found out a couple days before the Princess summoned me to Canterlot.  When she told me what and why she needed me… I decided not to tell her I was pregnant.  We all had enough on our minds to worry about… you especially and I didn’t want to add to it…”

“But… why take the assignment?  You knew how dangerous this mission was… Princess Luna made all of us aware that we might all be killed seeing this thing finished.  You yourself have almost died twice... ” he began and I could tell he was going to work himself up into a fit of worry for me.  More than normal now that he knew about the foal.  Before he could go on, I quickly cut him off.

“I really didn’t think the zebras would try so damned hard to get our prisoner… and honestly, what else was I going to say, Nocty?” I asked, tilting my head to the side as I sighed softly.  “Let somepony else do this?  There was nopony else for the job or she would have asked them before me... and besides that, she was convinced for some reason that if I didn’t come, the mission would fail,” I added, although I still wasn’t sure just why that was.  I mean… I was just a damned rock farmer… not a hero or anything.  Pushing those thoughts aside once more, I offered a smile up to the large batpony.  I gently squeezed his forehoof in my own.  He was so damned cute when he was worried.  “Besides… it brought us closer together, didn’t it?”  He returned the smile, but I could still tell he was worried about me.  I admit… it felt rather nice knowing someone outside of my family cared so much for me...

“If nothing else, then it has been worth that alone and this will just make me more determined not to let anything happen to you,” he said.  Damn, he’d gotten all chivalrous with that.  I chuckled softly, nuzzling his cheek.  After a few minutes had passed and we’d sat silently, he asked, “So… it’s not mine?” 

The happy mood evaporated once more and again I looked away.  This was what I’d really been worried about telling him… not many stallions wanted a mare who was pregnant with somepony else’s foal.  “No, it’s not… though not from lack of trying I can assure you,” I added, earning a soft snort from him.  “It’s my ex coltfriend’s…” I said simply.

“The one you mentioned when we first met?”  I nodded and he cocked his head a bit.  “Does... he know that you're pregnant?” 

“Yes, he knows… but as I said… things just didn’t… couldn’t work out between us.”  I sighed and attempted to put the thought of that damned unicorn and his even more damned family out of my mind.  He hadn’t been the problem… his parents had… they hadn’t wanted their only son to marry an earth pony.  Here we are, fighting for our lives in a war with a country that seemed determined to kill us all… and his parents were freaking out over their son’s fillyfriend’s lack of a horn… really?  Were someponies so petty?  My frown deepened as I recalled my first and only encounter with them… but before I could work myself up into a frenzy over that old wound, I focused upon the winged stallion beside me.  I was lucky to find him… he had been my knight in shining armor.   “I… I’m sorry I lied to you, Nocty.”  I sniffed and shook my head… dammit, I wasn’t going to cry…

A warm leathery wing wrapped itself around me and pulled me up against cool smooth metal.  A second later, his head lowered to rest atop my head and nuzzle between my ears.  “I was just worried, Issy…”  When I didn’t immediately answer, he rubbed my foreleg with a hoof and added, “I’m not about to abandon you because you're pregnant… at least for our first foal you can’t blame me for the pain of childbirth.”  His attempt at humor got a sniffling snort from me and I buried my muzzle into the soft fur of his neck.  “I’m afraid you're not going to get rid of me that easily.” 

I lost it then.  All the fears I’d kept contained on this journey: that he’d find out, my worries he’d leave me because of it, the near constant zebra attacks, the deaths of so many good ponies… I just couldn’t contain it any longer and began sobbing against his chest with him holding onto me tightly…




*     *     *     *     *





“Shadow?” a voice called out, sounding further away than he’d been seconds before… was that how long I’d been crying?  Seconds?  How had Noctensis stepped away?  He still had his wing wrapped around me… my brain was surprisingly sluggish in processing these things when it grinded to a half completely… the pony calling out wasn’t Noc… he had a very different accent than the batpony…

“Shadow… are ya awake?” the voice called once more, sounding a bit closer this time.  Wait… I knew that voice… didn’t I?  Groggily, I attempted to open my eyes, but only to see a blurry darkness all around me.  I was laying upon something warm… had we moved to another part of the train… no, I don’t think we were on the train anymore… or for that matter, who I thought I was.  A few more seconds passed as my sluggish brain attempted to make sense of what was going on around me, and just who I was.  Whoever was attempting to get my attention, however, didn’t seem to be inclined to wait for me to make up my mind.

“Shadow, ya need ta wake up… Ah know it’s still a mite early fer ya, but Carrion really thinks ya need to see this.”  As he spoke, I felt something touch my shoulder and gently shake me, causing me to mutter something less than intelligible to the speaker… Stonehoof… it was Stonehoof… in my room.  As I processed this, the images of the train ride and the batpony I’d been sitting beside faded into my mind and my brain began to run at a more normal speed.  It had all been one of those dreams… although I was beginning to wonder if they really were…. they seemed far more real than any dream I’d ever had.

“Stone?” I asked.  I attempted to rise from my bed, only to find myself wrapped up in the old blankets that I’d pulled over myself last night.  Well… that explained the feeling of being held in a wing I suppose.  Still, whatever I was having at night was becoming more frequent and more intense.  As I struggled my way free of the cocoon I’d made for myself, still mulling over what was happening to me, I failed to notice my hind legs were still bound up.  As I attempted to rise from the bed, I found out too late the bed was determined to keep me.  Falling forward, I was thankfully caught by a large grey hoof that spared me a face plant into the hardwood floor or my room.

“Easy there, Shadow,” Stone said, helping to steady myself back up on the edge of the bed.  

“Stone?  What… what are you doing in my room?” I asked while still blinking away the sleep lingering in my eyes.  As I reached a forehoof down to untangle my hind legs, I glanced down to my Pipbuck and read the time displayed on the softly glowing green screen.  “What’s going on?  It’s almost five in the morning.”

“Somethin’s happened in town that’s got th’ locals spooked and worked up… Carrion said ya’d likely wanna know and ta come see since it seems ta involve us,” my friend said as I managed to focus my eyes upon Stone.  I finally slid off the bed and onto my own four hooves.  It wasn’t often I saw my friend without all his equipment and trademark hat.  Even without all the armor, he was still a very large stallion.  I also noticed he bore a couple scars that were normally hidden by his saddlebags and armor.  Like me, he appeared to have just woken up within the past few minutes.  His mane was sticking up in several odd angles, as was his grey coat.

“What happened?” I asked again, while running a forehoof through my own messy white mane to try and straighten it a bit.  Reaching for my slightly faded and by now worn jumpsuit, I began pulling it on as he answered my question.

“Ah rightly don’t know… Carrion just burst inta Wild and Ah’s room and said ta get everypony up.  While Ah was comin’ down th’ hall ta get ya, Ah heard a lotta shoutin’ outside the saloon’s windows,” he answered, glancing to the window across from my bed.  I perked my ears to listen for anything coming from the streets outside.  While I couldn’t hear anything, I also noticed a lack of any fires as it was still dark outside.  Fires seemed to be a sure sign that a town had been attacked by raiders.  “Ah don’t think we’re under attack,” he added, either reading my mind or thinking the same as I.  “But somethin’s got ’em worked up.”

“Alright… where’s everyone else?”  I paused while reaching for my armor, and instead went for my revolver still sitting in its holster upon the bedpost.  I doubted I’d needed the armor since we didn’t seem to be under attack.  I would’ve left my shotgun behind as well, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.  Something almost always went wrong in someway...

“Wild went on ahead ta see what was goin’ on.  As for Balefire and Spirit, they stayed at th’ clinic last night so Ah ain’t seen ’em since,” he reminded me.  Spirit had waited to stay and help the wounded, and Balefire had been unwilling to leave Tink or her grandfather’s side.  It seemed the young stallion had it hard for the young mare.  “We’re supposed ta meet Carrion in th’ town square.  Seems whatever's happened, happened there a few hours ago.”  I wondered while I finished strapping the holster onto my left foreleg, what it was that could have gotten Carrion worked up enough to come and find help.  With the comforting weight of my sidearm on my leg, I looked back up to Stone and nodded my head. 

“Ah’ll need ta stop at my room ta grab my hat, and a weapon just in case,” my friend said as he noticed I was finished.  He hurriedly headed back out my door and I started after him.  I had only made it to the doorway when a noise behind me caused me to pause.  

Standing in the doorway, I glanced back inside my room and around the darkened corners of it before my eyes drew to a stop upon my riot armor.  It was still sitting where I had left it last night, atop the dresser near my bed.  However, I quickly noticed that the silver Marshal’s badge that had been attached to the chest had fallen off.  It was resting on its side with the image of the Royal Sisters reflecting in the dim lighting coming in from the open door.  Turning around, I made my way back into my room and to the dresser, reaching up to pick up the badge from where it had fallen.  I found myself staring at it for a few seconds before I started to put it back.  I was about to drop it when something made me stop and turn my hoof back over to stare at the star.  Without bothering to second guess myself, I sat down and hurriedly pinned the badge to my jumpsuit before standing and leaving the room.

Stone was just emerging from his and Wild’s room when I entered the hallway.  Turning towards me, my friend arched a brow at the flash of silver coming from my chest, but didn’t question it.  Instead, we quickly headed down the hallway and towards the stairs that would take us down to the second and first floors.  As we descended the steps, I began to make out the sounds of voices coming from the main room of the saloon.  Given the hour, it should still be empty.  Stepping hoof onto the first floor, however, I saw a number of ponies milling about the front door and windows of the building.  A number of them were guests who had been staying the night as well, along with a few of the mares who worked here.  

Nopony paid Stone or I much attention as we finished walking down the steps and moved between the empty seats and tables.  We managed to move past nearly all of them without much trouble and were out the doors and into the chilly early morning air within a minute.  I was quickly thankful I’d stopped to put on my jumpsuit when my breath came out as a rapidly fading white cloud.

Similar to the saloon, I noticed a fair number of ponies standing about outside their homes or businesses.  All of them were staring down the road towards the center of town, and all talking about what had happened late last night.  I caught bits and pieces of their conversations as Stone and I trotted past them down the road.  What I heard made the chill of the air seem like a humid wasteland afternoon compared to the chill I felt running through my blood.

“... I’ve never thought this would happen here.”

“Did ya hear?  They don’t think it was a robbery, nothin’ was taken from her shop…” 

“-her neighbor found ’er layin’ in a pool of her own blood, said she heard screamin…”

“What kind of monster rips out your throat?”

“She was sorta a bitch… but nopony deserves an end like that…”

“Ah heard there was another pony found up th’ street… killed in th’ same way… only he was one of th’ guard...”

“-I heard they already caught the sick fuck what done it.”

I shared a troubled look with Stone as we quickened our pace towards the plaza-like center of town.  As we moved further down the street from the saloon, the number of ponies crowding the sidewalks only increased.  Once we caught sight of the statue in the former park, it appeared as if the entire town was here.  The bits of conversation we’d caught on our way here, along with the crowds, and the fact Carrion had mentioned us being involved in this somehow, all combined to make me worry just who had been killed… and by whom.  I doubted I was going to like it, either way…

Working our way along the edge of the crowd, we began making our way towards what appeared to be a small store located along one side of the plaza.  As a matter of fact, it was quite close to where we’d landed the sky chariot a few hours ago to unload the supplies.  Thankfully, the local Confederate Army commander had allowed Wild to park our transportation atop the building they were using as their base inside the town.  Otherwise I suspected it would have been used as a platform for ponies to better see over one another… or as Wild had feared, stolen by one of the few pegasi in town.  Speaking of the local detachment of soldiers, they seemed to be out in full force tonight, alongside the local town guards.  

A pair of grim faced olive green dressed ponies of the Confederate Army stood beside the crowd, keeping any overly curious locals away from the store.  A number of local guards and unarmed ponies were either standing or entering and leaving the building.  Among the unarmed individuals, I noticed the mayor leaving the shop, looking like she was about to be sick.  Beside her, was Doctor Bandaid and the unmistakable large frame of Spirit.  Both looked grim, and were talking among themselves as a local guard offered the mayor his canteen.  As I stood watching, I noticed Spirit looked far more than grim… she looked worried.  Something I hadn’t often see the buffalo express before.  She kept looking back from the doctor to the store behind them as Bandaid answered her, shaking his head and looking a bit worried himself.  I stepped forward to try and get Spirit’s attention when the two soldiers brought their rifles up to bare my path.

“Hey, easy now, I don’t want any trouble.  I just need to speak with my friend, the buffalo there with your doctor,” I said, trying to explain myself to the pair.

“Nopony’s allowed through until the mayor says otherwise, bud,” said a large, dark grey earth pony stallion who looked like he could give Stone a run for his money in a hoof wrestling contest.  The fellow’s olive green armor seemed to barely fit him.  While I’d never seen this guy before, the pale yellow coated earth pony beside him was a different matter however.

“Private Ironside… this is Marshal Shadow… Ah… Ah think we can let ’em through… don’t ya think?” Private Honeyrose asked softly to her larger companion.  “He might be able ta help out with his friend, th’ buffalo doctor…”  The stallion simply looked down at her and she trailed off, causing him to focus once more upon me.

“Then this is his fault.  If he hadn’t brought those things here, none of this would have happened,” he said to the mare beside him while staring down at me with cold, steel blue eyes.  I arched a brow and he snorted, pushing me back a bit with his rifle.

I frowned and stared back up at the pony before me, rubbing my chest where he’d pushed me back.  I realized my fears about who was involved with this seemed all but confirmed by the large stallion’s comment.  I was about to try and find out more from him when Stone spoke beside me, his tone immediately catching my attention.

“What th’ fuckin hell?”

I turned away from the two blocking my path to see what had so surprised my friend.  I noticed where his attention was fixed and followed it to the doorway of the store that Spirit and Doctor Bandaid had just exited.  More ponies were coming out, over a half dozen of the local guards.  All were with weapons drawn and pointed towards the pair of ponies they surrounded.  It was these two that had caught Stone by surprise as it did me.  I had to blink a couple times just to make sure my bad eye wasn’t acting up.  When the image didn’t fade away or change to somepony else… I had to accept it for the truth.

A dazed Fleethoot shuffled between the guards around her, ears lowered in fear as her wings clung to her sides tightly.  Not just due to her fear, but also by a length of rope that had been secured to keep her from escaping into the air.  The ghoul pegasus’ legs where bound by cuffs that connected the front and hind set with a length of chain that dragged across the sidewalk as she moved.  Her glowing eyes darted about as a few among the crowd of ponies began to shout out obscenities towards her, calling her a monster and murderer.  Standing beside her, taking the jeers and taunts yelled towards him, was another ghoul.  He was scowling angrily at the crowds and looking far less afraid.  His own hooves were bound in a similar fashion as Fleet’s, restricting his movement and forcing him to move unsteadily beside his fellow prisoner.  All his weapons had been stripped from his body and a magic supressessor had been fitted to his horn, rendering him unable to cast a single spell.

“There’s the killers!!” somepony from within the crowd shouted out and I blinked in surprise more at the words than the volume or pure anger the owner of the voice had used.  All at once, as if a dam had been opened more ponies began shouting towards the two ghouls, a few of the more angry ones even tossed bits of trash or small stones that had been laying upon the road.

Carrion, had been arrested for murder…



Halfway to Lvl 21

Injury, Bad Eye:  You've been to hell and back, faced the worst the wasteland can throw at you and survived to tell the tale, but you have not come out unscathed.  Your luck has finally run out as one of your numerous injuries has failed to heal correctly.  One of your eyes  has been injured, resulting in a blind spot as well as hindering your ability to hit some targets.  While in combat, you suffer a 20% penalty to hit targets in your blind spot and a decrease in your ability to spot threats.  Using STATS results in only a 10% penalty for hitting targets.  It’s not all bad… mares dig scars after all...


Shadow (lvl 20 Stable Dweller)



S: 5


P: 6-1


E: 7


C: 7


I:  5


A: 6


L: 5


	
> Chapter 22: Law And Disorder
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 22: Law And Disorder


Ponies gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it.  Maybe because down deep they don't care.  They just don't care.



Stone and I stood mute in shock at what we were seeing, the world around us seemed to grind almost to a halt.  The pair of ghouls moved slowly, Fleethoof stumbled a bit away from one of the guards as the rest flanked them on either side.  Carrion for his part simply glared at the ponies around him.  Both had their hooves secured with cuffs and even Fleet’s tattered wings were bound by rope.  Around the pair, the jeering angry faces of the ponies seemed frozen in mid shout, insults and threats on the tips of their tongues.  Even the guards that stood between the angry crowd looked to their prisoners darkly.  

The mayor was still doubled over, a green tint to her face, ill from whatever she’d seen within the store.  The large form of Spirit standing beside her, with a hoof raised up patting the sick mare upon her shoulder.  Bandaid, the local doctor stood off to one side, speaking with one of the guards not escorting the prisoners.

Despite seeing this all with my own eyes… I still couldn’t bring myself to believe it.  One of my friends… a murderer?  While a month was hardly a lifetime… I still believed I knew them well enough to judge their character.  Carrion was perhaps a bit rough around the edges… and he could even be cold to those he didn’t know or trust… but a murderer?  No… I refused to believe the former Equestrian army officer could be a murderer…

I was snapped from my thoughts when I noticed something small and uneven whiz past my face and time appeared to resume its steady pace once again.  As first I was at a loss for what it was I’d just seen, that is until I saw it impact the ground between Fleet and Carrion’s hooves.  The dark red object burst upon impact with the solid pavement of the sidewalk… a piece of fruit?  Another struck my friend’s shoulder, leaving a dark smear upon his tattered fur coat.  It seemed the crowd wasn’t satisfied with simply throwing insults… they were throwing rotten fruit and bits of trash from the ground.  

Fleethoof whinnied in fear as several bits of refuse struck near her hooves and one struck her on the side of her neck.  The frightened ghoul shied away from the crowds, accidently bumping into one of the guards as she did.  The guard scowled and pushed her back towards the crowd and the direction they were going.  The frightened winged mare was either unsure what was going on or confused entirely as to why she was being struck.

Carrion said something to the guards, his words lost in the noise of the chaos surrounding me… but I was sure he was standing up for Fleet.  Most of the guards seemed to ignore his protests, although one shoved him towards Fleet in response and another looked ready to strike my friend with a baton he held in his magical grasp.

I felt the all too familiar anger burning within me as I stood among the crowd and watched the treatment of the two.  To either side of me I could see numerous ponies picking up bits of trash and small stones from the sidewalk with either hoof or magic.  All of them hurling those little bits of debris towards the ghouls.  It seemed the locals had already settled upon the guilt of the two.  My right fore hoof ground itself into the cracked pavement as the muscles along my back and hind legs tightened in readiness to stop this insanity… to… do what?  Attack civilians?

From slightly behind and to my right, I caught the muffled swearing of Stone.  I’d lost sight of my large grey friend while I’d been so focused on Carrion and Fleet.  I was just turning around to see what was happening with him when movement to my left caught my attention.  A pony had moved a few steps ahead of me into the open space between the crowds and the guards.  

They scooped up something from the cracked pavement and with barely taking the time to aim threw it hard towards the ghouls following up with a shout of ‘murdering monsters’.  Despite the hurried throw, the rock still managed to strike one of them, Carrion, in his unprotected neck.  The ghoul unicorn flinched from the sudden hit and staggered a bit to one side in surprise.  Pausing for a moment he lifted a hoof up to where he’d been struck and drew back with it covered in his thick dark red blood… I could see the gash, despite all the ragged scars he had from centuries of living beneath Kanter City’s radiated streets.

The guards, either having missed seeing the rock strike him, or simply not caring, shoved Carrion to start moving again… and with that my anger boiled over into pure rage.  I whirled upon the pony who’d thrown the stone, who was bent over to pick up another rock from the ground.  Without thinking on what I was doing, I took two steps forwards, shoving another member of the crowd out of my way and reached for the individual responsible.  I’m not sure what I intended to do… throw words or hooves at them… given my darkening mood perhaps both.  

As I reached the rising pony, I grabbed ahold of their shoulder and harshly turned them towards me.  All at once the words died in my throat, my mouth half open to begin shouting into their face while my free hoof rose to strike them  Before me stood an elderly light green earth pony mare who bore a slight resemblance to Spearmint.  She at first glared up at me for grabbing ahold of her.  Her glare turned to one of confusion as I remained frozen in shock at what I’d nearly done… looking from me to her own hoof her confusion seemed to increase.  She almost seemed to not realize she held a stone in one hoof and quickly let it drop back down to the pavement with a dull thud.  Shaking her head, she broke free from my weakened grip and stumbled back into the crowd.

I’d almost hit a little old mare...

Go ahead… hit her… she deserves it for harming your friend!

My eyes widened as those words seemed to whisper into my ears.  I staggered back a bit myself, jerking my head this way and that to see who’d gotten so close to me.  However, no one seemed to be paying me much attention at the moment… the crowd was too busy with their shouts and even the guards, Private Ironside and Honeyrose, seemed to no longer be watching.

Oh please… don’t you start getting an ego about being the center of attention like that little fillyfooler, Pipsqueak.  Back to the matter at hand, however… aren’t you angry at them, hero?  Why don’t you do something about them…

Shaking my head, I took a step or two away from the edge of the crowd, my right hoof coming up to rub at my face… the voice sounded close… yet nopony was speaking to me… was I imagining it?  Could it be the stress of everything?  

No… I knew that voice… I’d heard it a couple times now…

Come on… a little maiming will do them some good… just ask Cardflank… if she isn’t busy crying or screwing...

Back in Tombstone… in the bank... and again on the road here.  But what was it?

Good thing you brought that shotgun of your’s.  After all… I hear shotguns do wonders for breaking up crowds when fired into them… oh… are you beginning to figure things out, my boy?

Whether from my own experiences in the wasteland or the comment, I could almost see the effect a shotgun would have upon such a dense crowd of innocent ponies.  Despite all the blood shed I’d witnessed recently, I was surprised to find myself growing sick at the very thought...

Innocent?  Oh my dear boy… nopony’s completely innocent… these ponies want to hurt your friends.  Isn’t that what friendships was all about, hmm?  Killing those who try and harm them?  I suppose that would explain some of the things Sparkle’s little group of murderers got up to during the war… why, who woulda thought that dear old Flutters would have the highest kill count of them all?  It’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it?

My ears folded flat across my mane as the deep voice began crackingly madly within my head. And this was all in my head… as nopony else around me seemed to notice it.   I took a couple more steps away from where I’d confronted the old mare, feeling my stomach rolling over what I was forced to listen to.  Had I finally gone mad?  That had to be it… it was the only explanation...

We’re all a little mad, my boy… some more than others… why just ask the little pink ghost looking for her mommy… hahahahHAHHA!!

As thoughts of insanity filled my head, I looked about for some sign that might say I hadn’t snapped.  My gaze passed over Spirit and halted.  The buffalo was still standing where last I’d seen her, beside the mayor and the local doctor.  However, her focus had shifted from one distressed pony to another… namely me.  As our eyes locked onto one another, I saw shock written across her face, one that I imagined mirrored my own.  It was at that moment that something she’d said while we’d been in the road here came back to me… it had been while we’d fought off the raiders who’d caught up with us.  She’d mentioned hearing voices around me… did she hear him too? 

Hmm… why I do believe you’re correct… I think she can… doesn’t that over grown throw rug know it’s rude to eavesdrop on a private conversation?  

Spirit’s eyes widened and her shocked expression turned to one of surprise and worry.  I was just about to call out to her when a hoof suddenly pressed itself down upon my right shoulder and surprised the hell out of me.  A confused voice was also calling out my name… by the sound of it they had been for several minutes now.  Tearing my eyes away from Spirit, I turned my head around to see Stone standing beside me once again, a confused and slightly worried look upon his face.

“Shadow?” he began, green eyes scanning the crowd around us slowly before settling back upon me.  “Everythin’ alright there?” he asked.

“Stone?  I… everything…” I hesitated as whatever I wanted to say wouldn’t come out.  My mouth was suddenly very dry and I just couldn’t seem to form the words… or even know what words I wanted.  Was everything alright?  My ears swiveled to the side as I pawed at the ground beneath me with a forehoof nervously.  No… I don’t think anything was alright.

“Shadow?” Stone called out once more, a note of concern in his voice as he noticed my hoof.  

After everything we’d been through, I’d mostly managed to keep my cool.  I looked back up to my friend, seeing the worry on his face.  Around us the crowd continued with their taunts and jeers, though the throwing of trash seemed to have at least stopped for the moment.  A part of my mind pointed out it was likely due to a lack of ammunition rather than anything else.  Another part of my mind asked if the first one belonged to the voice.  I blinked and shook my head slowly… no.  I couldn’t start thinking like that… or I would go mad.  

Shutting my eyes, I took a deep breath and settled my hooves firmly beneath me.  The voice had gone silent for the moment, for whatever reason… though given its history I doubted it would last long.  I’d heard it before and I was willing to beat I’d hear it again.  At least I knew I wasn’t the only one to hear it… Spirit had… once things calmed down, she and I would have a talk about the voice.  But for now, I needed to focus on getting to that point.  Opening my eyes, I looked back to Stone and placed my right hoof upon his shoulder.

“Yeah, everything’s fine for the moment, Stone,” I answered him at last.  Although judging by the look upon his face it was clear he didn’t completely believe me. “Sorry, I just got a bit distracted by something,” I added quickly.  Even I could still hear the uncertainty in my voice.  I ran a hoof across my muzzle, then sighed and shook my head.  Despite the doubts he had with my response, he knew we both had more pressing issues to deal with.

“What’re ya waitin’ on?!  Hang ’em from th’ nearest lamp post!” somepony from within the crowd shouted out.  The call for ‘wasteland justice’ (as I’d heard in stories from both Stone and Wild) was taken up by another half dozen throats all around us.  More would join them… no doubt.  Stone scowled and eyed the ponies around us darkly.

“This is gettin’ well outta hoof… th’ damned guards need ta do somethin’ about this…” my friend said more to himself than to me.

I looked from the crowd and Stone to my captive friends, reinforcing the point my large grey friend made.  The local guards wouldn’t be much help if the crowd attempted to enact their plans for justice.  Only the small number of Confederate soldiers were attempting to restore some order.  I would worry about the strange voices later… for now a friend was in trouble.  Shaking off the last bits of unease, I began moving back towards the edge of the crowd… I couldn’t do anything for Carrion or Fleethoof from here after all.  I turned back towards Stone and waved him to follow.

“Come on… we’d best go do something before this mob turns any more ugly than it already is,” I called back to my friend while I pushed past a mare whose attention was riveted upon the spectacle ahead of her.

“Ah think it’s a might late fer that, Shadow...” Stone answered as he hurriedly followed me.

Despite the inaction on the part of the local guards to stop the near rioting actions of the crowd, the number of ponies along the leading edge were few.  We managed to make our way through them quickly as their focus was upon the pair of ghouls to pay either Stone or myself much mind.  Most simply stepped aside as we approached them and we once again found ourselves coming upon the same pair of Confederate soldiers attempting to hold back the crowd.

Of the two, Honeyrose seemed the most distressed by the mood of the foul mood of the crowd.  The short earth pony was doing her best to reason with those nearest her, urging them to calm down and return to their homes.  When they seemed unwilling to listen and attempted to push their way past her she began using more forceful means.  Her baton was held firmly in her mouth and she poked and pushed more than a few ponies larger than herself.  The mare stood with her back to the local guards and their prisoner, her focus fully on the ponies in front of her.   

Ironside, meanwhile, seemed largely indifferent to the plight of my friends, although he was still doing an admirable job of keeping the crowds back.  He seemed to be skipping the gentle approach altogether and was going straight to force.  His baton wasn’t nearly as gentle as Honeyrose’s as it whacked anypony trying to get past him, the dull smack of it striking somepony’s side or head was quickly echoed by a painful yelp.  I couldn’t fault him for using this method…although for more personal reasons than out of agreeing with the use of force.  It was the large earth pony who noticed Stone and I approaching.

“You two again?” Private Ironside grunted out between his baton before he swatted at another stallion’s forelegs who attempted to make use of his apparent distraction.  The pony yelped and hobbled back, rubbing his sore leg as Ironside turned to focus upon us.  He frowned towards me and jabbed a hoof against my chest as I got closer.  “You stay back along with the rest of ’em.” 

From just to his left, I noticed a soft glow and movement.  A unicorn had slipped past us and was holding a bottle within his magical aura.  Beside him was the hobbled stallion Ironsides had just struck… it appeared his friend was out to get some payback on the soldier.  Neither had noticed me… nor had Ironsides noticed the danger coming up from his rear.  Honeyrose was busy with her own problems to the right.  Before me lay two choices that at first seemed simple enough…

On the one hoof I could step up and save the big brute from the surprise attack that, while it’d likely leave him with a headache, wouldn’t harm him.  The act might earn me a few points in the Confederate soldier’s favor and thus might allow me to get past him and over to Carrion and Fleet.  But I doubted it would be that easy as Ironside seemed to have no love for ghouls.

On the other hoof… I could just let the chips fall where they may.  If the attack struck home, Ironside might very well be knocked out cold… thus allowing me to pass the position he’d been guarding and to get to Carrion and Fleet.  Even if he wasn’t knocked unconscious by the hit, he’d surely be distracted enough for both Stone and myself to slip past.  However, it would also allow others to pass by… and leave Honeyrose in danger herself.

Oh… let him get hit… I’m sure there’s not a pony sitting out there who doesn’t want to see this assclown get whats coming to him… am I right?

The Confederate soldier never saw the blow coming and had a look of stunned surprise written across his earlier smug face as the bottle swung downwards… to shatter across the ground beside his hooves.  His surprised look could have also been due to my sudden lunge towards him, and a quick swing of my right foreleg.  His head jerked around in time to see a unicorn reeling from the punch to his face I’d just delivered and the magical glow surrounding his horn winking out.  The angry citizen dropped back onto the limping stallion, pinning him to the ground with his weight as he went limp.

“Wha…?” was all Ironside could ask before I stepped across the fallen pair and turned to stand beside the soldier's left.  The crowd around us backed up a few steps after witnessing me slugging one of them in the jaw.

“You don’t like me… and I can’t say I’m crazy about you,” I began and lifted a hoof up to wave it across the crowd before us.  “But these ponies need to be held back, lest they do something foolish they’ll no doubt regret later.” I switched my attention to a pair of young teenager colts caught up with the crowd. “I don’t wear the badge because it looks nice…” I added lightly tapping the star on my chest as the two young stallions turned around and disappeared into the gathered bodies.  Once I was sure they were gone I turned back to look at Ironsides.  “I wear it to try and help ponies,” I finished.

“Told ya he was a good pony,” Honeyrose said between her baton as she stepped up beside Ironside on his right.  Beside her, Stone took up a position and set his hooves into the loose gravel.  While he lacked a uniform or badge, I imagined few of the ponies within the crowd would want to try their luck with the large stallion.  Ironside merely snorted and shook his head before returning his full attention to the crowd.

“Fine… just try not to get in the way…” was all the large soldier said as he returned his focus fully upon the crowd.  Beside him, Honeyrose rolled her eyes and shook her head while Stone snorted and surveyed the ponies milling about.

“Somethin’s gonna have ta be done ‘bout this here mess…” Stone said.  A couple ponies started towards our line before thinking better of it when Honeyrose and Ironside focused their attention and their batons upon them.  “Even if we had a dozen more of us, eventually somethin’s gotta give.  We gotta get their attention off Carrion and Fleet.”

He was right of course.  Sooner or later somepony out there would push their luck with one of us, or one of the other Confederate soldiers attempting to hold them back.  Somepony would end up getting seriously hurt… or perhaps even killed and the loud, angry herd of ponies would turn into a full blown riotous mob.

Give me enough time and they’ll do just that…

A low throated growl escaped my throat as that damnable voice decided to speak up once again at that moment.  Rather than feeling fear over what it was saying or how it was saying it within my own mind, I felt nothing but anger.  Anger not for the ponies within the crowd, but at the voice.  Shaking my head to clear it I glanced across the crowd, before my ears swiveled back towards the others.

“... went to gather the rest of the soldiers stationed here… at least those that didn’t go with Sergeant Lucky Strikes out to the mine,” I overheard Honeyrose saying to Stone.  I realized I’d missed most of what she’d said to my friend, but got the basic jist of it.  Help would be coming.... but Stone was right.  We had to get the crowd’s attention off the ghouls.

 However, it seemed almost impossible for anypony to be heard over the shouting of the ponies around us.  At least without a megaphone or something similar.  As it turned out however, we wouldn’t need one of those… somepony had something far better.  I also learned something… it was possible to physically feel somepony speak.

“THAT!!  IS!! ENOUGH!!!!”

It seemed almost surreal that three words felt like I’d been hit by an invisible wall.  The voice came from somewhere behind me and all but exploded out over everypony within the area.  Those three words sent manes and lose bits of clothing rustling, hats flew from atop their owners heads and the windows of nearby buildings rattled, a couple even shattering.

The resulting silence at first confused me, thinking that whoever had shouted had deafened me and in fact my ears where ringing enough to drown out all other sound, both were pinned tightly to my skull.  As were those of everypony near me.  However, as the silence stretched on for solid minute, I began to pick up the sounds of hooves scraping against pavement as ponies picked themselves up from the ground or inquired about a friend.  I noticed most of the crowd had their attention fixed upon something behind me, likely the source of the shout.  

Shaking my head a bit to try and clear it, I turned to see for myself who or what had spoken.  I was expecting to see somepony holding something… a megaphone perhaps or even a bass cannon for all I knew.  However, what I found wasn’t any of those, it was far more unexpected.

The mayor had moved from where I’d last seen her beside Spirit.  She now stood between the majority of the crowd and the ghouls, her horn glowing brightly in her dark blue magic.  Carrion, Fleethoof, and the guards all looked as dazed as everypony else and were either staring in surprise at the unicorn mare or in the guards’ case, looking ashamed of themselves.  I wasn’t sure what to be more surprised of: the fact the short mare had managed to silence the entire town or that large armored ponies looked more like foals who’d been caught with their hoof in the cookie jar.

“I am ashamed of all of you!  This isn’t how we treat guests of our town… even those accused of a possible crime!” Mayor Evening Rain shouted, although nowhere near as loudly as she had a few seconds before.  The midnight blue pony glared angrily at the citizens of her town and guards under her command with narrowed turquoise blue eyes.  It was funny to see when she barely came up to anypony else’s neck.  Funny if it wasn’t for the situation we were in at least.  

“We’re not having any wasteland justice in my town, not while I’m the mayor!” It was still a surprise to hear a voice so loud come out of a pony so small.  The mayor was far shorter than an average unicorn mare.  One could almost mistake her for a older filly than a adult mare.  Despite her size though, she was scowling larger ponies into backing away, her horn glowing brightly as whatever spell she was using to amplify her voice continued.

“Everypony!  I want you all to return to your homes and let us do our jobs!  Please, everything will be fine and we will get to the bottom of this!”  As she finished speaking I began to notice the number of Confederate soldiers in the lot increasing.  Green armored ponies were moving inward from the edges of the crowd, simply trotting between the gathered ponies and forcing them to spread out.  Though I couldn’t see any weapons from where I was, I had no doubt the trained soldiers had them within easy reach.  I also noticed that the number of friends I had nearby had also increased… if only by one.

“Well… I guess I didn’t need to hurry,” Wildfire said as her hooves touched the pavement and her feathered wings folded back across her sides.  She’d landed beside Stone and I, as Honeyrose and Ironside had fallen back towards the mayor and their newly arrived comrades.  A quick glance revealed the Confederates had taken over the task of escorting the ghouls.

“Ah’m thinkin’ yer right, th’ mayor seems ta have managed ta knock th’ fight right outa these ponies with a couple words,” Stone answered his filly friend.  He offered her a quick nuzzle in greeting and as thanks for bringing the cavalry.

“Literally it seems,” Wild responded, looking around as ponies began shuffling away, some still dazed from the verbal assault.  “I heard it halfway down the street… and I imagine they heard her all the way in Canterlot.  So… what do we do now?” she asked, looking from the decreasing crowd to me.

“We follow the soldiers to wherever they’re moving Carrion and Fleet.  Try and figure out what happened in the shop and then do what we can to help our friends,” I answered, shifting my gaze from Wild to the aforementioned ghouls as they were escorted further away from the store, passing us as they went.  As the two hobbled past in their hoofcuffs, Carrion glanced to me from beside Fleet.  He seemed to want to say something, but a nudge from one of the soldiers got him to look away and focus on keeping pace with his escort.  I watched as they trotted past and frowned.

“Th’ sooner, th’ better…” Stone said what I’d been thinking.  I was about to follow them when a questioning female voice stopped me.

“Marshall Shadow?”  Turning my focus towards the owner, I found myself looking at somepony that could almost pass as Wildfire’s sister.  She was a shorter pegasus than Wild, with a lighter yellowish orange coat.  She was built like a Wastelander, slightly dirty and scruffy.  After all, it was hard to keep clean out here.  Like Wild’s, her bright orange mane was a mass of wild strands, though she appeared to have attempted to tie one side into a ponytail which showed off a stripe of pink running through it.  She looked up at me with almond shaped green eyes, head tilted slightly.  

Unlike my winged friend, her armor was not the thick black plates of the Enclave, but a thinner Kevlar armor I’d seen a few of the Confederate scouts wearing back in San Ponsisco.  It was painted matte black, and under it she wore a black shirt that had seen better days.  Across her back was slung a long rifle similar to Stone’s.  The only other visible weapon she carried was a pistol holstered to her left foreleg.  A quick glance to her flank revealed the branding of a Dashite.  Unlike Wild’s, however, I could still make out her true cutie mark: a tribal looking four pointed star cutout with a red diamond in the center.  Odd, but I wasn’t one to talk… after all mine was a flower.

“You... are the Marshall, right?” asked the mare’s companion standing just beside her and looking over at me.  He was a unicorn stallion that stood every bit as tall as Stone with a build to match.  It was clear he didn’t just rely on his magic to solve all his problems.  His fur was a dark midnight blue… almost black.  Unlike the mare, his mane looked a bit better maintained (maybe it was something to do with flying… or just pegasi in general) and both it and his tail were tied up in pony tails.  Two stripes of light blue ran through his white mane and tail.  His turquoise eyes sized me up as I returned the favor.

Also unlike the mare, he appeared unarmed and unarmored save for a basic tan colored basaltic vest across his large chest.  He also bore a Pipbuck (a slightly newer looking model than my own) and had likely been a Stable Dweller like me… or had just found one somewhere.  His cutie mark was of a single white wing, unfurled fully.

“I am… can I help you?” I asked, turning to face the pair more fully.  As I did, I could see the Mayor and Spirit speaking among themselves, the buffalo pointing a hoof towards me and my friends.  The Confederate Officer with them also looked my way.  It was the pegasus who responded first and returned my attention to the pair.

“No… it’s just we wanted to apologize for what happened,” she said simply waving a hoof back towards the thinning crowd and earning a confused look from me.  She hurriedly added, “For the way your friends were treated.”

“Alright…” I began, ears cocked a bit to the side as my confusion remained, “Unless you started it… I don’t think you have to apologize for it…” I added shaking my head.

“No, we didn’t start it… but we also didn’t do anything to stop it from happening either,” the stallion said, shaking his horned head a bit.  “We also joined in… although I don’t know why.”

“Wait… so you were yelling at Carrion and Fleet, but didn’t know why?” Wild asked, her voice tinged with anger and her wings unfurling.  Stone held a hoof up to her shoulder to calm her temper.

“It was the damnedest thing…” the confused looking mare added, shaking her head slowly.  “We were just passing through the square on our way back to our room when… well, we just got sucked into the crowd.”

“Sucked in?” I asked, still confused at what they were saying.

“Look… it’s not something we’d normally do, okay?” the stallion said bluntly, sounding defensive and a bit confused himself.  “I don’t know what got into us, so I’m sorry if we caused your friends any more problems than they already have…”

As I stood there listening to the odd pair, I recalled what I’d seen in the crowd… how some ponies seemed confused at what they’d been doing seconds before the Mayor’s shout snapped them out of their bloodthirsty mood.  The old mare I’d nearly hit had also seemed confused…

“Storm’s right… we’ve actually worked with ghouls before on a couple jobs so neither of us hold them any ill will… it was like something just overcame us…” the mare looked between her friend and I before flexing her wings a bit.  “Anyway… we just wanted to apologize and also say thanks for all the good you’ve been doing across the wasteland.  My name’s Solar Burst and my grumpy friend’s name is Storm Flicker.”

“Oh Celestia… more groupies…” Wild muttered to herself just loud enough for us to hear.  She at least seemed to forget her anger at the pair.  Stone elbowed her lightly in the side earning a soft meep from his filly friend.

“We’re not groupies… well, at least I’m not…” Storm muttered more to himself than anypony else.  I think most had heard him, which was evident when he gave out a pained grunt when an orange elbow jabbed him in the chest from Solar.

“Marshall Shadow?” asked another voice, though this one sounded as if they’d swallowed shards of glass.  Turning my head towards the owner I blinked as Mayor Evening Rain stepped up beside Solar Burst and Storm Flicker.  “Do you have a moment?” she asked in that same rough tone, looking over at the pair.  Others stepped up behind and I glanced up from the short mare to them.  Spirit, Doctor Bandaid and the Confederate officer in charge of the local garrison in Janesville, Lieutenant Swift, all stood there silently.

“Well, we’ll just be going then, Marshall… if you need any help we’d be happy to lend a hoof, to make up for our poor behavior,” Solar Burst said quickly, looking between the Mayor and me, perhaps sensing this was a private matter.  The winged mare nudged her friend off down the road before the pair set off with a final wave to me.

“Um… sure, Mayor,” I answered, turning around to face her fully now that Solar and Storm had left… they didn’t seem like bad ponies.  “Are you alright, Mayor?” I asked, having been caught off guard by her sudden change of voice.  After all, she’d just shouted down an entire crowd of ponies a moment ago.  She must have noticed my surprise and offered a small smile up to me and a quick explanation.

“Sorry about almost deafening you, Marshall, but it was needed to gain control of my citizens.  As you can see, the Royal Canterlot Voice spell really takes its toll on a pony’s throat.  It’s not a spell meant for normal ponies to use,” she began before shaking her head and hurriedly continuing, “But I didn’t stop by to just apologize, and I’m sure you have many questions about what's happened with your friends.” 

“Yes, I do, as well as worried over their safety,” I answered, ears folding back a bit as I couldn’t hide my anger over what had just been allowed to happened.  The guards had lost control of the crowds and things could have ended a lot worse.  If they’d tried to hang Carrion and Fleet themselves… wait… would that have even worked?

“I’m sorry, Marshall… I’m sure you’re just as surprised as everypony else is at this sudden turn of events.  I assure you that your friends will be placed somewhere safe for the time being.  Actually, I’d like you to accompany myself and the others to the Confederate base here in town.  Both of the ghouls will be held in their brig.  Lieutenant Swift has also agreed to allow us to use her office so we can talk in private about what’s happened and what’s to be done,” she hurriedly said, before rubbing her throat with a hoof, wincing as she did.  “I’d also like to get something to drink and ease the pain in my throat…” she added lamely.

I looked across my shoulder at Stone and Wild who’d moved up closer to better hear what the now hoarse voiced Mayor was saying before focusing back on the mayor and nodding my head.

“Of course, Mayor, we’d all like to get to the bottom of what’s happened to our friends.  We’ll follow you,” I answered and stepped aside to allow her to pass by.

Nodding her head, Mayor Evening Rain trotted past me with the others falling in behind her.  Bandaid and Lieutenant Swift quickly followed the mayor’s lead while Stone and Wild fell in behind them.  I was about to follow them myself when a large brown hoof gently dropped upon my shoulder to stop me.  Turning to look, I saw Spirit had stepped up beside me, a concerned look on her face as she stared into my eyes.

“We also need to speak of what only the two of us heard a few minutes ago, Shadow,” she said gently, ears folded back.  “I sensed a presence near you… a very evil and very powerful presence.”

“I didn’t need your supernatural senses to tell me that, Spirit,” I responded, looking away from my friend towards a few ponies still lingering among the crowd.  “I got that from what he said.” I also got the sinking feeling the odd voice was somehow linked with things that were happening within town… how… I wasn’t sure, but it was damned strange timing.  Plus, it seemed to react to what was going on around me. 

Spirit remained silent as I thought all this over, her eyes scanning the square before she slowly nodding her horned head.  “Stay on guard, my friend,” she added before stepping past me to follow the others.  

I sighed and shook my head.

Great… evil voices… Carrion’s about to get lynched… weird ass dreams... what else could happen?  

I started to follow after Spirit when I felt an odd sensation pass over me and I froze.  Blinking, I looked back around me at the ponies still in the square, looking for… I don’t know what… at least until I caught sight of a robed figure watching me from across the street.  I arched a brow and stood up a bit straighter trying to get a better look, but the hooded figure lowered its head.  Before I could see anything else, a couple ponies walked between us blocking my line of sight to the figure.  When they passed, the hooded figure was gone.

“Sorry I asked…” I muttered to myself, ears folding back once again as I trotted after Spirit and the others.




    *     *     *     *




As it turned out, the building the Confederate soldiers were operating from wasn’t far from Town Hall or from the saloon we were staying in so it didn’t take us long to get there.  I’d actually seen the little walled in complex the previous day while helping escort the ghouls to their new home, though I hadn’t gotten a close look at.  It was in fact three buildings combined into one, surrounded on three of its sides by the roads that ran through town.  The back wall was in fact the same one surrounding the entire town.  Unlike it though, the complex’s walls were barely taller than a pony standing upon their hind legs.  It also lacked the walkway along the top of it, not surprising given its short height.  Still, it did its job, indicating that the buildings beyond were off limits to civilians.

The buildings themselves were built in a similar manner to the rest of town, a deep red stone and darker brown wood, both showing their age.  Although, much of the outer walls were made of a simple, dull red brick.  They’d once been offices and work rooms for some small business.  Why they’d been built so far away from any major city I couldn’t say, nor was it really important.  They’d been modified from their original design of course, and likely looked far different than they had a hundred years ago. 

The windows had been boarded up with thick pieces of scrap wood and metal, leaving only a small slit for which a pony could look through… or more precisely fire from.  It gave the buildings a more bunker like look than the homes around them and further marked them out as being different.  The makeshift window covers would also slow down or deter enemies from breaking in.  Those that had them, had their emergency exits blocked or welded shut and the fire escapes cut free.  I saw evidence that the metal bars from the fire escapes had been recycled as barriers in some of the lower floor windows, giving them more protection from attackers on hoof.  

Sandbags were built up around the front doors to the main building and I saw a spot for a tripod mounted weapon behind them.  Clearly they were not taking any chances… which I could appreciate seeing how far from San Ponsisco we were.  The parking lot for the three buildings had been repurposed as a landing pad for an armored and armed sky chariot.  Unlike the roads around town, it was well maintained and appeared freshly patched.  The chariot was missing however, having been used to take the squad up north to the aid of the miners.  I’d heard Wild mention it once, talking about how she’d like to upgun our own ride.  I wouldn’t be against it although I wasn’t sure how we could afford something like she was suggesting.  Four miniguns sounded like overkill to me...along with the anti tank missiles.

All in all, the Confederate base was an impressive sight, and a reminder that the Confederacy took the protection of its towns seriously… at least those close enough to San Ponsisco to warrant a garrison.  Still, I hoped that if they had the equine power and equipment to protect all of the towns within their territory, they would do so.  Balefire had spoken highly of his mother, and his sister had seemed sincere in her desire to protect ponies.

It was at the gate into the complex where we parted ways with Doctor Bandaid.  One of his staff had been hurrying down the road in search of the good doctor.  His services were needed back at the hospital as the small staff had been swarmed with dozens of minor injuries from the near riot.  Bidding his farewell to us, the stallion quickly followed the white coated mare back up the street.  A swift look towards Spirit showed me the buffalo very much wanted to be following after her fellow medical practitioner.

“If you want to go help, Spirit, go ahead,” I said to her as we approached the small gate into the Confederate base.  My friend merely shook her horned head and fixed her blue gaze upon me.

“I do wish to help, Doctor Bandaid, Shadow.  My father taught me to always help those that need it… even if they had brought their pain upon themselves,” she answered as we slowed to allow the gate to be opened for us.  She added before we stepped through, “I believe I am needed here at the moment, however.  We have somethings to speak about once Carrion’s situation is settled.”

“Somehow, I doubt we’ll settle it in one conversation… although, I would be quite happy if we could,” I responded, frowning a bit before shaking off my worry to look towards the complex again.  

There was a single soldier standing beside the door as we approached.  Like the other soldiers, he was wearing the Confederate olive green and had a simple bolt action rifle slung across his shoulder.  His helmet appeared a bit too large as it rattled about his small horn.  The unicorn saluted sharply as Lieutenant Swift trotted past and gave the rest of us a quick once over.  Swift simply nodded her head towards her soldier.  Looking around the courtyard I noticed the lack of soldiers… wondering if those I’d seen back in the square had really been all that were left.

“I’m afraid the Lieutenant is a bit understaffed at the moment,” the mayor said in her rough voice just ahead of me.  “An entire squad was sent to respond to the distress call from the miners, leaving her with barely a squad and a half.”

 “Still enough ta get th’ job done, mayor, make no mistake,” the soldier said with a smile as we trotted past.

The tallest of the three was barely over three stories in height and that was just one corner.  It was the largest, however, and covered much of the plot of land it sat upon.  A wooden tower had been built upon the roof of the third floor, with a few metal sheets hung over the sides to offer some protection.  It was large enough for three ponies to stand upon, and even had a spot light fixed to one side.  At the moment only a single pony stood atop it, and was busy scanning the wasteland outside the town’s wall.  

This building was the command center for the small garrison as well as housing its armoury, a small brig.  It was also home to the officers and their staff… or officer in Swift’s case and the two ponies she had working for her.  The remaining buildings were only single stories.  These buildings housed the soldiers’ barracks, mess hall, and first aid station.  It was in the main building, however, that we followed the mayor and Lieutenant into.

The inside of the building retained the military look and feel that the outside had.  The entryway was a small room with no windows and a flight of stairs leading up to the second floor.  There were hallways on either side of the stairs with two doors on each.  The walls had been painted an olive green color with a yellow stripe running down the middle.  The floor was bare, off white concrete.  I saw no sign of Carrion or Fleet, but they’d been led her more quickly and assumedly they’d been taken to the brig.  The mayor had assured me back in the square that they would be held here.

Without wasting any time, the Lieutenant and mayor headed for the stairs, waving us to follow them.  The steps turned ninety degrees half way up and we found ourselves in a single hallway running the length of the building.  Along one side was rows of windows looking out into the early morning streets of Janesville.  All of them were partially boarded up of course.  Along the other wall were rows of wooden doors, likely the offices or personal quarters for officers and their staff.  It was the third door that the Lieutenant led us, her hoof coming up to the knob and twisting it quickly.  Pushing open the door she stepped inside, switching on the lights as she went.  While not every home and building in town had electricity, those deemed vital to running the town did. 

Stepping in behind my friends and the mayor, I looked around the room quickly.  Judging by the black and white photos sitting on the desk it likely belonged to Lieutenant Swift as the earth pony mare was prominent in a number of them, smiling happily along with a unicorn stallion and four young foals.  There were a number of other personal effects scattered around the office, a number of foalish drawings that any mother (or uncle for that matter) would display proudly, and a porcelain figurine of a unicorn and earth pony that looked quite old among them.  I also noticed a few awards for distinguished service hanging among the drawings.

The Lieutenant moved away from the mayor and stepped back behind the desk.  With a tired sigh, the light blue coated mare promptly removed her helmet, running a hoof through her short cut green and yellow mane.  When she set the steel headgear on the desk with a heavy thump, the gold bars sitting upon the front reflected in the light of a lamp.  Glancing up to the rest of us, she waved a hoof around the office before slumping down into an old office chair with a grunt before shutting her orange eyes.

“It’s been a long fuckin’ mornin’...” she muttered to herself as the rest of us settled in.

The mayor dropped herself into a chair opposite of Swift and looked as tired as the Lieutenant.  Stone and Wild had moved over to a couch sitting up against the left side wall, the pair settling down beside one another.  While neither had said much on the walk here, I knew they were as worried about Carrion and Fleet as I was… not to mention upset with what had happened.  Wild especially seemed angered… but she’d known Carrion longer than any of us… after all, he’d been the one to help her escape Kanter City the first time.  A soft click from behind me indicated that Spirit had shut the door behind us.  The large buffalo moved to stand to one side of the door.  I simply shuffled off to the right, taking up a spot near a pair of filing cabinets and leaning up against them to take some of the weight off my hooves.

“Well… that coulda gone better Ah reckon,” Swift said to no one before opening her eyes to lock onto those of the mayor.  “Yer guards shoulda known better then ta let th’ citizens get so outta hoof, Mrs. Mayor.”  While she kept her tone civil, I could hear the hint of anger in her voice and she leaned forward in her seat. “Th’ Garrison’s here to help th’ town’s local guards… not do their job for’em.  Ah’ve never seen ’em be so damned foalish.” 

I arched a brow and cocked my head slightly as the Lieutenant said that.  That was the third time in less than an hour I’d heard somepony say something about acting odd.  That uneasy feeling that had been slowly building in my gut began to get a bit painful.  Spirit noticed my unease and glanced my way.  I ignored her look, focusing on the conversation in front of me.  While the mayor looked suitably chastised by Swift for a moment, I could see her back straightening and her ears folding back.

“Don’t you think I know that, Swift?  I mean… shit… I hoof picked most of those ponies because I believed they would do their job without letting personal feelings get in the way,” Evening Rain responded, anger clear in her voice but I didn’t think it was directed towards the other mare.  “And they have done a remarkable job for the past several years until today…” she finished, ears splaying out to the sides of her head and her turquoise eyes downcast.  Her anger died as quickly as it’d appeared.  Silence settled over the room after her outburst, each pony thinking upon the past half hour’s events.

“Yer right of course…” Swift finally said, leaning back in her seat and running a hoof across the top of the desk.  “Ah’ve not seen th’ townsfolk so riled up since takin’ this post.”

The sound of hoofsteps echoed from beyond the doorway in the hallway outside halted any further conversation.  A quick knock came to the door, which was followed by a young looking earth pony stallion pushing it open and stepping into the room.  While he lacked the combat armor of the soldiers, his brown mane and tail was cut in a similar fashion as some of the others I’d seen.  He wore a simple looking olive green shirt and had a wooden tray balanced upon his back with a number of glasses of what looked like water sitting upon it.

“Lieutenant, you asked for something to drink?” the stallion asked, sounding barely old enough to be in the army. 

Swift nodded her head before shutting her eyes once again and letting her hoof slide off the desktop to land upon the armrest of the chair.  Without another word, the stallion nodded and moved between Spirit and I, up beside the mayor and retrieved one of the glasses from the tray.  Offering the drink to Evening, the mare accepted and thanked him softly.  She began to drink, wincing a bit from her still aching throat.  With that finished, he offered the rest of us a drink before departing the room.  Those of us who had accepted, sipped the slightly cool water before anypony spoke again.

“You’re right of course,” the mayor said, looking into her nearly empty glass.  Her voice was a bit better, but still raspy.  “About letting things to get as bad as they had… if I’d noticed a bit sooner I could have gotten them to stop it…” she was cut off by a strangled squawk coming from the couch to her left.

Looking over, I saw Wild had dropped her glass onto the floor.  Thankfully it survived the fall onto the worn carpet although the water had spilled out and left a dark stain.  Stone sat beside her, lightly slapping her back as the mare hacked and coughed.  I assumed she must have been taking a drink when what the mayor said surprised her.  With a few more coughs she stood up from her seat and pointed a hoof towards the door, green eyes narrowing.

“How… how do you not notice something like that?!” Wild all but yelled as her hoof waved about.  “I think the whole damned town heard them!” Stone lifted a large hoof up and pulled his fillyfriend back down onto the couch.  He attempted to soothe her figuratively and literally ruffled feathers.  The mayor winced and looked away from the pair to stare down at the floor.

I folded my forelegs across my chest and scowled at the unresponsive mayor.  Her uncertainty with seemingly everything irked me for some reason.

“My friend’s right, Mayor Rain… that’s not exactly something you can miss,” I said, trying my best to keep any anger out of my voice despite my own feelings… Carrion and Fleet could have been killed right then and there… and she was saying she hadn’t seen or heard what was happening?  Again, the mayor remained silent.  It was Spirit who spoke next.

“The mayor had just seen the aftermath of one of her citizens ripped to pieces, Shadow,” Spirit said, moving to stand behind the mayor and placing a hoof upon her shoulder gently.  “It was a very gruesome sight… one that anypony who had not seen what we all had would find troubling.”  A shuffling came from the head of the office and we all turned towards the Lieutenant as she leaned forward once more.

“Ah’ must admit… even with all Ah’ve seen over th’ years in th’ service of my country, Ah’ve never seen anythin’ that… brutal before,” Swift said, looking each of us in the eyes.  “And Ah’ve seen feral ghoul attacks before… integratin’ ’em into th’ Confederacy ain’t been easy on anypony.”

“What exactly did happen in there?” Stone asked, leaning forward in his seat and looking between the mayor and the Lieutenant.  “Ah don’t rightly see how Carrion can be mixed up with murderin’ this shop keeper.  He’d come all th’ way out ta th’ saloon ta let us know trouble was a brewin.”

“Yeah… I think we deserve some answers as to why you're holding one of our friends,” Wild added.  Despite what anyone else said about her reasoning, she still looked rather upset with the mayor.  

I couldn’t blame her.  Even if I understood what Spirit had pointed out, I was still a bit angry with the mayor’s reactions thus far.  While nopony should have to see the things my friends and I had during our journey (and just during their normal everyday lives), the wasteland wasn’t subtle.  It was in your face nearly twenty four seven.  However, upon thinking about it further, I realized why she might be unsettled.  In the major Confederate towns and cities it wasn’t something that was shoved into your face all the time.  Oh sure, Three Horns reminded you every time you turned on the radio… but hearing about it and seeing it are two very different things.  Having lived in San Ponsisco, you could almost forget the horrors on the other side of the walls… almost. 

“Mayor?” Swift asked, looking over to the mare sitting between herself and the rest of us.  With the eyes of everypony in the room upon her, I was sure the seemingly meek pony would once more go silent.  For a moment, I thought she had.

Mayor Evening Rain lowered her gaze back down to the empty glass floating within her magic before her face.  With a shake of her head, she levitated the glass over to the Lieutenant’s desk and set it down before reaching back with a hoof to pat Spirit’s own.  She offered the kindhearted buffalo a smile and nod of her head. She then lifted her gaze to look around the room before settling her eyes upon me.

“First, let me stress this… neither of your friends have been accused of any crime… yet,” she began, pushing a few locks of her short white mane out of her face before dropping the hoof back to rest upon her seat.  “At the moment they are both simply suspects of the crime, which is murder.”  Her hoof lowered from her face and she shifted her gaze from me to Wild and Stone.  “Also, please understand that what I’m about to tell you is just what we know at the moment… a full investigation has to be run before any charges are brought to bear on either of them, in accordance with Confederate law.” 

“I understand you don’t know everything right now, things were pretty damned chaotic there this morning, I get it,” I said.  I was at least happy to hear that neither Carrion or Fleet would be simply shoved in front of a firing squad with no trial.  “Just tell us what you do know, it’ll be more than any of us know presently.”  She glanced back to me as I spoke and nodded her head once I finished speaking.

“Alright.  At the moment, all we know for sure is that sometime late last night somepony, or ponies, broke into Lilly’s store and home in the Plaza and… murdered her.”  The mayor seemed to have trouble saying the last bit, but she quickly recovered and went on.  “The entire store was a mess… it looked like whoever they were ransacked the place pretty hard either before or after Lilly’s death.  We’re unsure of a motive, but it looks as if it could have been a robbery… at least that’s what Lieutenant Swift believes,” she said, looking from me to the mare on the other side of the desk.

“It’d be th’ most likely reason ta break into th’ shop as any.  And before anypony can ask if anythin’ was stolen we’re not sure at th’ moment… th’ place was a right mess,” she said simply.  “And it’ll be a while still till we know fer sure.”

“Lilly was never the most orderly pony,” the mayor said, shaking her head sadly.  “And while she wasn’t the most well liked pony in town, she wasn’t a bad pony by any means…”

“Ya don’t seem ta buy th’ robbery excuse,” Stone pointed out.  The mayor shifted her focus from myself and Swift to my large grey friend.

“There hasn’t been a robbery in this town in years… not since the last food shortage.  Also… I could maybe understand it if it was anypony else’s shop… but not Lilly’s...”

“What did she sell?” Stone asked.

“Honestly?  Mostly just junk… passing Wastelanders would sell her the odd parts of larger machinery and old bits of pre war Equestrian life.  Being the only Confederate settlement for miles we normally got a number of them seeking to strike it rich from the ruined cities further up north.  There were a number of military bases around here also,” she answered.  “She also had a knack for getting hard to find items for ponies and those adventurers.”  My ears perked up as the mayor said this.

“A black market?” Wild asked, arching an eyebrow.

“No, not that we ever noticed anyway… it was hard to find, but hardly weapons or drugs,” the mayor quickly explained.  I had a feeling there was a bit more to it than that.

I’d heard a few tales of a black market in San Ponsisco during my stay within its walls.  A pony could buy just about anything so long as they had the caps to pay for it.  Honestly, it was to be expected… it would likely be the second oldest profession in the world.  Hell, even Stable 45 had it’s ‘Black Market’... if one could consider the sale of extra deserts black marketing.  Shaking my mind of better times, I focused back on the conversation.

“How did the guards learn about the murder?” I asked.  It was Swift who answered.

“It was Lilly’s neighbor and friend, Crystal Rose, who alerted th’ local guards.  She lives in th’ shop next door ta Lilly’s and said she was woken by what sounded like a couple ponies arguing loudly.  She told th’ guard officer on duty...a Sergeant Jade, Ah believe, that she’d left her home ta see what all th’ ruckus was about.  When she stepped up onta th’ porch, she said th’ shoutin’ turned inta a sudden scream followed by sounds of strugglin.”

“And she didn’t try to help her friend?” Wild asked from beside Stone, head tilted to the side a bit of confusion on her face.

“Crystal’s bout as brave as a crippled rooster in’a radscorpion den,” Swift explained.  “And she ain’t much taller than a filly.  When she heard th’ scream, she took off runnin’... luckily she ain’t stupid and went ta find th’ nearest guard who happened ta be patroling a bit further up th’ road.  He summoned others after hearin’ Crystal’s story.” Swift went on to explain, “They arrived to find Lilly was already… dead… and one of the ghouls you’d brought into town standing nearby.”

“Fleethoof?” Wild asked needlessly as we all already knew the answer.  Instead, she asked another question, “And I suppose they assumed she had killed, Lilly?”  When the mayor nodded, my friend snorted and flexed her wings in agitation.  “That’s ridiculous… Fleet wouldn’t hurt a damned fly…”

“Perhaps… but in my guard’s defense she did have fresh blood on both her muzzle and fore hooves.  I believe anypony would have assumed she was the killer just by looking at her current condition,” Swift answered.  

Wild frowned, the long primary feathers of her wings spreading apart as her anger rose once more.  She looked about ready to retort, but the words died on her tongue.  I spoke instead before she could say something we’d all regret... well everypony but her...

“As a former Stable Security pony I would have likely done the same.”  My words seemed to defuse the situation and I sat down upon the floor before continuing, “However, what Wild said isn’t untrue… for the short time I’ve known her, Fleet has never appeared overly aggressive.  It doesn’t make sense… Fleet looked terrified while she was being lead out of the shop, and yesterday when we first arrived and ponies were yelling about monsters she was far more afraid of them then they were of her.”

“She wasn’t behavin’ like any feral ghoul Ah’ve seen… especially not one who just killed a pony,” Stone added as he attempted to soothe Wild’s ruffled feathers.  “Once a ghoul goes feral, Ah’ve never seen ’em come back.”

“I must agree with my friends,” Spirit spoke up for the first time in a while.  “It is true we have not known these ghouls for very long, but there is no sign of darkness within them as other feral ghouls I have witnessed.  A spark of their former selves remains within them.”  

“Ah’ve no idea about this spark yer speakin’ of, healer… but yer right, o’ course,” Swift spoke up.  “This Fleethoof seemed a might timid for a killer ghoul.  But it’s still a might hard ta explain why she was there in th’ first place.  Lilly wouldn’t have willin’ let a ghoul inta her shop… let alone two of’em.”

“Two?”  We all looked surprised at that, at least until I understood she’d meant Carrion.  “Why was she there?” I asked, turning back towards the mayor.  “I thought all the ghouls we brought with us were locked up in the abandoned part of town… with the exception of Carrion.”

“According to the guard I assigned to the gate along the ghoul’s section of town, it was your friend Carrion who let her out,” was her response… which didn’t really help me any. “As you recall, I made it clear I didn’t want them to feel like complete prisoners… they could be let out so long as they were escorted by a member of the local guard, a Confederate soldier, or one of the ones who brought them into town.”

“So… he’s being held because he was the one responsible for Fleethoof?” I asked the mayor, to which she quickly responded.

“Not entirely, no.  He also struck several of the guards while they were attempting to take Fleethoof into custody once he arrived.”

“So, he wasn’t there to begin with?”

“No… at least I don’t think so… the rough report I received from the officer in charge on the scene only mentioned him showing up after the guards had… but as I said, things are a bit confused at the moment…” the mayor answered shaking her head.

“Alright… so what now?” Wild asked.

“Well, there’s to be a full investigation… normally this would fall into the hooves of our Sheriff but we haven’t had one in a couple years… nopony has wanted the job.”

“Yah, that’d likely be our fault,” Swift said, earning my attention.  “Since th’ Confederacy sent us ta watch over th’ town, most ponies ain’t seen a need for a local law enforcement.  What th’ local guards can’t handle, we do… and th’ mayor was right when she said there ain’t been a major crime committed here in sometime.” I’d suppose not, what with heavily armed soldiers patrolling the streets and walls from time to time… however this didn’t bode well for Carrion and Fleethoof.

“It could explain the… strong feelings ponies have for what has occurred,” Spirit offered.

“So, if not the sheriff, who will be seeing to this?” I asked with a frown.

“Ah’d reckon it’d be th’ guard who’d see to somethin’ like this if th’ Sheriff can’t,” said Stone, frowning himself as he did.  “It’s what most towns in th’ wasteland do, well, when they ain’t goin’ straight ta wasteland justice.” this got a notable response from the mayor who sat up a bit straighter in her seat, ears folding back.

“There'll be none of that here I assure you, Mr Hoof,” the blue coated mare responded, “I won’t allow any citizens or even a single visitors to this town be hauled off and hung without due process.” Stone simply nodded his head, looking only slightly relieved at the mayor's statement.

“So, if there’s no lawpony in town, then who’s going to run the investigation?” I asked, looking between the mayor and Swift.  “After what just happened, I don’t know if the guards can be trusted to be impartial…”

“I can’t fault you for that thought, Marshal…” the mayor said with a sigh, sinking back into her seat a bit.  “And I might even be forced to agree with you… I just can’t believe them…”

“And Ah’m afraid we can’t get much more involved than we already are,” Swift added, gaining all of our attention again.  “Holdin’ prisoners fer th’ local authority is one thin’, but doin’ an investiaction would send th’ wrong message ta th’ citizens… and not just of this town.  Th’ military can’t get involved in a civilian matter unless yer willin’ to declare martial law, Mayor.”  It wasn’t really a question by the sound of it and without waiting to see the mayor’s response, the lieutenant went on, “There is one possibility… we get another lawpony ta investigate th’ crime… th’ law’s quite clear that any lawpony will do so long as th’ local government official approves of’em.”

As she said that, I noticed Wild perking up in her seat.  Her eyes shifted from Swift to me, before she hurriedly turned towards Stone and began speaking with him quietly.  I arched a brow at my friends, but got no response from them.  However, I did have a sinking feeling I knew what they were talking about.

“Where is the nearest town with a Sheriff?” Spirit asked, oblivious to my ill feels and the plotting pair upon the couch to her left.  “I am not that familiar with this area.”

“If’n Ah remember… it’d be Sutter’s Mill.  It’s bout two ta three day’s trot ta th’ west dependin’ on th’ roads and th’ local wildlife.  Half a day if ya can fly,” Stone said, having stopped his hushed conversation with Wild to answer Spirit’s question.  However, whatever they’d been discussing seemed over and both their eyes were fixed on me.  That sinking feeling had dropped another couple miles as I noticed Wild’s smirk.

“It’d take a bit ta get ’em here, but th’ sheriff there’s a goodpony.  He’d come if’n we asked ’em to and explained th’ situation,” Swift said, looking to Spirit and Stone before noticing the odd looks my friends were giving me.  “Ah’ve worked with ’em before…”

“It’d take time we might not have if th’ locals get it inta their heads ta do somethin’ rash… ya said they weren’t actin’ right.  Might be better ta get it taken care of sooner,” Stone spoke up as Swift trailed off.  The mare looked between us as she figured out that my friends were thinking something stupid… at least I thought it was.

“You may be right… but I can’t think of anypony else we could call for,” the mayor said to Stone, looking up and noticing their focus on me.

“We’ve got a lawpony a bit closer,” Wild added, giving voice to what I’d suspected they’d planned.

I frowned and looked between Stone and Wild both of whom were looking to me expectedly.  It wasn’t that I was afraid of running an investigation… truth be told I’d had to do a number of them back in Forty Five.  After all, as the head of Stable Security it was my duty to run them... for the few times we required them.  But I had help… Brightblade, Wendy… Cinnamon Twist.  However, there were two really good reasons I couldn’t do this.  Shaking my head, I looked around the office before speaking.

“As I’m sure, you’re all aware I’m a Marshal in spirit only,” I said, lightly tapping the silver badge upon my chest.  “I didn’t earn this badge from any special training nor was I appointed by anypony in power.  My authority as a real security pony ended with my Stable.  Besides that… it’d be a very blatant conflict of interest seeing how one of the ponies involved is a friend and the other I myself brought here.”  While I wanted to do everything I could to help Carrion, I wasn’t sure this would help… in fact, I believed it would make matters worse.  I could tell just by looking at Wild she didn’t agree.

“I’m afraid he’s right, Wildfire.... even if I was one hundred percent sure my ponies weren’t so distressed over this, I don’t believe they’d allow it… I wouldn’t allow it,” Evening said.

“So… you’re saying we have to wait?” Wild asked.  I could tell this was upsetting her more than Stone or I… and we were both worried for our friend.  

It wasn’t often that I’d seen Wildfire get upset over something… well, let me start over.  It wasn’t often that I’d seen Wild get anything other than angry over something… this was one of those rare times and my ears wilted a bit as I saw the winged mare struggle to keep her emotions in check.

“I’m afraid so… it will simply take a bit longer…”  Whatever else she was about to say was halted as Wild rose quickly from her seat.  The pegasus seemed unwilling to sit still any longer, her wings rustling.  She looked over at me, and I could have swore I saw fear in her eyes and something else… it then clicked why she was so upset.  Out of all of us, she’d known Carrion the longest.  It was Carrion who’d helped her escape from Kanter City and a short life of slavery and abuse at the hooves of the raiders who called that blighted city home.

“Shadow… we can’t just sit by and do nothing…” Wild began, wings fidgeting as she fought to keep them at her sides, her tail lashed about behind her as she stalked the small room.

I rose quickly from where I’d been sitting and covered the short distance between us in a few steps, as I reached her I lifted my forelegs up and gently took hold of her shoulders, halting her pacing.  My friend froze and locked eyes with me, I could see the tears threatening to escape them as she stood still, mouth half open to say something.

“We’re not doing nothing, Wildfire… we’re doing what we can to help our friends.  Rushing into anything without thinking things through would likely cause more problems than it’d solve.  If we broke Carrion out he’d be hunted down by the Confederacy, along with the rest of us.” she looked away as I continued speaking, “We’re all just as worried about Carrion as you… but you heard the Lieutenant, she won’t allow any harm to come to him while he’s under her protection… and you know I won’t allow anyone to harm him or any of you.”

“I’m sorry…” she began, but I shooshed her gently and offered her a kind, confident smile.

“I know, Wild… we’ll figure this out.  I promise.” giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze I lowered my hooves back to the ground and she nodded once before turning back towards Stone.  I glanced back towards the Evening and Swift who had remained silent while I’d calmed Wild. “What can we do to help things go smoothly?” I asked.




*     *     *     *





It took us the remaining morning to figure everything out.  Mostly in part to the fact the mayor had to call the other members of the town’s council in on the discussions.  In the end, as the mayor had pointed out, it was for the best as to do anything less would have sent the wrong message to the local population.  Before we began, Spirit had excused herself to go check in on Carrion and Fleethoof before going back to helping Doctor Bandaid but not before instructing me to see her later.  

Once the mayor had finished explaining everything she currently knew to the councilmembers (and once everypony had calmed down again after Wild had hurled a few… colorful insults towards a mare who demanded the ghouls be tossed out) they began to figure out what needed to be done.

Beside the need for a lawpony to investigate the murder along with any ponies he or she felt was needed, it was decided that a Judge and jury would need to be brought in from out of town as well.  While it might be seen as lack of trust, everypony (with the exception of the mare Wild was attempting to murder with looks alone) agreed that it was necessary for a fair trial and would be openly explained to the towns ponies as such later today.

A trial… for murder no less.  This was not something I had ever expected to be involved with when we’d set out to answer Old Oaks’ distress call… funny how things work out.  However it did mean that for the foreseeable future we’d not be going anywhere… for how long, nopony could really say.  It could be less than a couple days to more than a couple months (although the later seemed unlikely).  This fact troubled my friends.

Before she’d left, Spirit pulled me aside into the hallway and expressed her desire for me to return to San Ponsisco at once and see to my eye.  Her fears of the injury growing worse had not been lessened in the few hours since her prognoses and waiting for an unknown amount of time did not set well with her.  In truth I was worried about my eyesight, as it hadn’t improved all morning… and nearly seemed to have gotten worse.  But I was bothered to leave Carrion in a cell… even if all I could do for my friend was to be there for him.  Leaving for San Ponsisco before I knew his fate didn’t settle well with me.

After my short conversation with her, Stone had managed to get Wild to sit back down beside him and keep her calm enough to sit through the ensuring meeting with only a few interruptions and outbursts from the fiery mare.  Every so often I found myself glancing towards the couple, worried about how things might turn out if this all went south.  Wild owed Carrion everything… honestly we all did.  However it was too soon to start worrying about what a court would decide when we still had to gather everything together.

By late in the afternoon the impromptu council meeting had drawn to a close and everypony had gone their separate ways.  In the five or so hours we had been at it everything had been decided on how to begin.  

The Sheriff of Sutter’s Mill would be contacted via radio and asked to come to Janesville for the investigation.  To lessen the time Carrion and Fleethoof would be in their cells somewhat, Wild and Stone had volunteered to fly out to the neighboring town to bring the lawpony and anypony he needed back.  This all depended on if he agreed of course, but Swift had stated admittedly that he would.  The Confederate officer was confident this Sheriff would answer the request with haste.

As for the trial itself, it would be held in Janesville’s town hall which had a small but serviceable courtroom on it’s first floor.  The day after the Sheriff’s arrival, a request would go out to the Confederacy for a judge and jury to be sent in to hear the case.  They would of course not be sent out until after the investigation was finished, and that was where I was now… standing in the second floor hallway of the Confederate Compound staring out into the courtyard below and waiting.

Waiting for word from Wild about when and if they were leaving for Sutter’s Mill.  Waiting on word about a judge.  Waiting to see if the locals remained calm or lost their shit again.  Waiting for the fate of my friend to be decided and the company of ghouls I’d thought I was bringing to a better life.  Waiting.  Wildfire wasn’t the only pony who wasn’t very good at standing around waiting.

With a disgruntled snort, I stepped away from the window and shook my head.  Perhaps there wasn’t much I could do myself… but there was one thing I could do.  Turning towards the stairs I began trotting down them my destination clear.  I could visit a friend who had nothing else he could do but wait.  A pair of green armored ponies passed me on my way to the first floor, giving me only a curious look before continuing, an odd thing seeing how I was an armed civilian inside their base.  This was in thanks to Lieutenant Swift.

The mare had given me written permission to come and go as I pleased within the Confederate compound (within reason) and had also informed those currently on duty about my privileges before returning to her other duties.  It was a good thing she had, for despite their staffing problem the main building of their little base was well guarded.  At the bottom of the steps, I noticed the single guard out front had been replaced by two others and the once empty rooms on either side of the stairs had another three ponies in them.  All wore their combat armor and carried some form of weapon.  This had gone a long way to ease some of Wild’s worries about a mob assaulting the place and dragging Carrion out into the street.  It had also eased mine.

Turning away from the front door I made my way further into the building, past the stairs to the second floor.  The brig for the base had been built within the basement of this building, taking up much of the space available down there according to the Lieutenant.  The other portion of the basement had been assigned to the small garrison’s armoury and was one of the few places I was restricted from entering.

Finding the stairs directly beneath the others, It was a short trot down them before I set hoof in the basement.  It looked much like you’d expect a basement to look… no doubt when this place had been an office building it had been used largely for storage.  Now walls had been erected on around a small room at the stairs base.  Within this space an old but very heavy looking wooden desk had been sat, behind which a pair of armed and armored stallions sat.  Both looked up as I trotted further down the steps.

“Marshal Shadow?” the one on the right asked, a young looking earth pony with a dusty brown coat and jet black mane and tail.  His guard armor looked a tad large on his small frame, with his helmet set upon the desk.  Both looked new, with nary a sign of damage from encounters out in the wasteland.  Looking closer at the pony inside it, I got a feeling he was new too.  A pair of goggles rested upon his forehead, keeping his unruly tufts of mane out of his amber colored eyes.

“That’d be me,” I answered, trotting the last couple of steps to stand before the pair on the other side of their desk.  I gave the old heavy looking piece of furniture a curious glance and I got the feeling from it’s size and position it was meant for more than just office work.  It looked likely to be able to stop all but a direct hit from a rocket or large explosive.

“The Lieutenant said you’d likely be down to visit the prisoners,” the young stallion responded, drawing my attention back up to him.  “We’re to allow you assess to them both during the day, but I’m afraid you’ll have to leave at seven o'clock.” When I nodded my head in understanding he  scooped up a ring of large keys from beside his helmet.  The other stallion simply sat watching us as the younger stepped from behind the desk and moved up towards the door on my left.  It was yet another modification to the old office building, as I doubted they’d had need of a heavy metal door with a sliding view slit for whatever work had been done here.

“Thanks,” I said simply as he inserted the key into the lock and pulled the door open.  He stood to the side and allowed me to step past him into the compounds simple looking brig.  I was reminded of the brig we had back in Stable 45, although this was a bit rougher in design having been converted from a storage room.

The room was similar in size to my apartment back in San Ponsisco, minus all the walls dividing the separate rooms.  Right beside the door into the brig stood a smaller, lighter desk and chair with a few papers and folders stacked neatly atop it.  An old desk lamp sat to one side along with a number of empty bottles and a cracked faded coffee mug.  Beyond the desk stood the cells of the brig, three on each side with a larger one along the back wall.  Each of the smaller cells had a simple cot and chamber pots (which likely made a comeback with the loss of running water in most communities).  A narrow window lined with bars gave each cell a bit of light and fresh air.  The only other light came from the walkway between cells and the two bulbs hanging from the ceiling on cords that lightly swayed in the breeze.

Of the seven cells only two were currently occupied, those closest to the exit.  The remaining five had their doors left open should they be needed in a hurry.  Though beyond the two none seemed to have been used in sometime.  From where I stood, I could easily see the slumped form of Fleethoof on her cot in the closest cell, her back was to the room and she appeared to be resting.  I was quite thankful to see her there, as I’d privately been worried this might cause her to snap and go completely feral.  After all, the ghoul mare had had a long troubling morning… if anything was to cause a pony to break completely it might have been that.

The next cell over from her’s, I could see another pony leaning up against the metal bars while sitting upon his own cot.  The somewhat dim lighting within the brig made any real detail about him hard to see, but I knew it was Carrion.  I could see enough of his tattered hide to know it was him, however my ghoul friend looked less bulky without all his armor and weapons strapped across his frame.  He appeared to be looking at something within his hoof… I don’t know why, but he looked… lost.  I must have stood there silently for a bit as I seemed to have forgotten there was another pony there with me. 

“I’ll wait outside with Tumble, Marshal.  Just knock three times when you're ready to come out and one of us will open the door for you,” the pony behind me said, gaining my attention and surprising me with his words.

“I figured you’d be staying inside to watch me,” I responded turning my back on the cells to face him.  After all, if our roles had been reversed I’d have not allowed anypony to be alone with the prisoners... to insure nothing funny was attempted.  Not that I’d thought about it mind you… of course not… planning out a jail break for a friend was the last thing on my mind… okay, maybe for a second.

“The Lieutenant said you were a good pony, one who’d follow the law no matter what... and I trust what she says,” he said with a shake of his head before adding, “I also trust what Three Horns said about you, Marshal.”  With that said, he offered me a nod before withdrawing back through the doorway and pulling the steel door shut behind him.  As the lock slid into place with a soft click, I turned back towards the others in the room with me.

“He’s right ya know…” Carrion called out from his cell, the old soldier not having moved from his seat.  He still held the picture in his hoof though I could see his glowing orange eyes fixed upon me.  I trotted slowly up to the cell, giving a quick glance into Fleet’s cell.

“So I’ve been told,” I answered as I settled myself down beside the door to his cell, “Many… many times,” I added a second later with a slight grin while the pony within merely snorted and shook what remained of his ratty blue mane relieving something metallic attached to his cracked horn.  I arched a brow and looked closer in the light, seeing the odd magical rune carved into the smooth metal and recognized what it was.  A magic suppressor used by lawponies on unicorns who have been taken into custody.  Ignoring my attention on his horn, my friend lowered his gaze back to a piece of paper in his hoof.

“Celestia’s tits ain’t that the truth... honestly, I’m getting tired of hearing it,” he said with a perfectly straight face although I noticed the slight twitch to the corners of his mouth and after a snort from me, the twitch turned into a open smile.  As we chuckled over the joke, I got a closer look at my friend.

Without the armor and his old uniform to cover it up, I could see a number of open wounds across his body that matched those upon his face.  Although I couldn't tell how old any of them were, I imagined most had been suffered from his years wandering the dead streets and sewers of Kanter City.  Most showed signs of the slow decay all ghouls suffered from.  Just along his side facing me, I could clearly see his ribs showing up against his tattered coat, which I still wasn't sure what color it had been originally.  Just below where the collar of his armor would be, I noticed a hole had been burned through his body, perhaps from a laser weapon or magical attack.  As he shifted on his cot, I spotted the only thing he still wore, a pair of dog tags around his neck, which seemed to be the only thing on him that looked in fair shape.  I glanced towards his flank, but couldn’t make out his cutie mark, as that part of his coat had either burned or been pulled off completely leaving only the muscle showing.  The old ghoul had seen a lot over the past couple centuries, none of it easy.  

Whatever he held seemed to have regained his full attention as our short bout of laughter ended.  While I couldn’t tell exactly what it was of, I believe I could make a guess.  It was most likely a photo, if I was to judge it solely by the  type and thickness of the paper and it’s overall size.  After all I carried one of my sister and niece in my saddlebags and it was about that size.  Perhaps it was a family member… friends?  Whoever it was of, they were likely long dead.

“Well, I promise not to bring it up around you if I can help it,” I responded, returning to the matter at hoof.  I sat down and placed my fore hooves against the cell door, looking at his face.  “A stupid question, but… how are you doing?” 

“It is a stupid question,” was his first response, and for a moment I thought it would be his only response until the photo he held lowered a bit.  “Still… this is better than what I’m use to living in, after several years being crammed into barracks or shuffling about the sewers of Kanter City I suppose this is alright.”  The photo slowly and gently began being rolled up, as best one can with hooves.  It then slid into a spent shell casing hanging beside his tags, with that done, he stood and slowly approached the bars of his cell.  “I’m doing better than her,” he added, jerking his chin towards Fleet’s cell.  “Spirit dropped by to check up on us… she managed to calm her down, said if she’d still had blood running through her veins she would’a had a heart attack due to stress.”

“It’s a miracle she didn’t go feral…,” I said while glancing over once more to the resting pegasus.  She’d looked beyond afraid. “I guess I really shouldn’t be so surprised by what happened out there this morning.  After the way ponies reacted to you all upon our arrival… but they didn’t try to outright attack you at first.”

“Fear makes a pony do strange things…” my ears twitched, unsure if I’d heard that or imagined it.  Turning back I found my friend staring off into one of the other cells and I arched a brow.  Sensing my attention he quickly shook his head before looking back to me.  “I’ve heard of more violent welcomes for ghouls while back in San Ponsisco.”

 “Perhaps… but it shouldn’t have gotten so out of hoof… if the crowd had surged forwards they would have easily overtaken the guards to get at you both,” I grunted lightly, rapping my hoof against the bars to his cell.

“I wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if they had… we’re not ponies Shadow, no matter how much some of us wish we still were,” he said while his glowing orange eyes bored into mine, catching me off guard with what he was saying. “Or some of you wish we were.  We’re just rotting corpses of ponies masquerading as the living, most of us just haven’t figured out we’re dead yet.”

“That’s not true, Carrion,” I shot back once I recovered from my surprise. “You’re more than that.  Fleet’s more than that.  Bronzestar was more than that.”  As I went on, my hoof dropped away from the cell bars to land with a loud clop upon the hard floor.  I was just opening my mouth to continue telling my friend what I thought of his views when he cut me off.

“Save the speeches for how we’re all the same for somepony who still gives a damn, Shadow.” I glared through the bars at my friend, jaw shutting as he went on. “Now… I’m sure you didn’t just drop by to give me a recap on the day’s events or your world views.”

I grunted deeply and swiveled my ears back against my mane.  I wanted to keep arguing with him, argue with anypony who thought that.  None of the ghouls I’d met were just walking corpses… corpses didn’t have feelings… they didn’t feel pain or sorrow.  However, I had a feeling it’d be a long… loud argument and time wasn’t something either of us had in great supply at the moment.  Not if I was going to see to it they both got a fair trial.  I also did not want to risk undoing all of Spirit’s work with Fleet and upset the ghoul again.  With a tired grunt, I slumped my shoulders and lifted my ears up.

“You’re an asshole sometimes, ya know that?” It wasn’t a question… more of a statement.  Carrion had never been what you’d call a… people pony.  I suppose I could understand given his past.  I didn’t wait for him to respond before I launched into a short recap of what had been happening while he and Fleet was locked away.  After a few minutes, Carrion grunted and shook his head before speaking.

“Wild and Stone shouldn’t be going to so much trouble…”

“Trouble?  Carrion, they’re willing to help a friend in need… like any of us would.  Like you would… and did.”  The last bit was more of a guess, but it would explain how Carrion how ended up at a murder scene.  I’d hoped to get him to talk about what exactly had happened in that shop last night, however he didn’t take the bait and instead asked a question.

“So, the mayor’s going to get outside help for this mess?  I’m sure the locals are going to love that when she tries to sell it to ’em…” 

“Doesn’t matter whether they love it or not… it’s within the rights of all Confederate officials to call in outside help if they feel the local authorities would be biased towards the rights of the accused.”  It was Carrion’s turn to arch a brow towards me and act surprised.  I lightly tapped the marshal badge sitting upon my chest.  “While the badge might mean jack shit, I was still a security pony and much of the Confederacy’s laws and regulations are copied from books given to Stables about Equestrian law.  Laws they expected those within the Stables to put into practice once we emerged.” granted of course things were a lot more completed with so many different species interacting with one another, but the core of the laws were the same.

“And the mayor’s lackies agreed to this?” he asked, leaning onto his cot, placing his back against the stone wall of his cell, “They’d all but fought to get the ghouls expelled from the town when we first arrived… I recalled you complaining rather loudly about that fact at dinner in the saloon.”

“True… however most of them agreed with the mayor and were appalled by what had happened this morning,” I answered, ears folding back as I recalled a couple unkind comments somepony had used to describe the ghouls we’d brought into town, and about Carrion. “They’ll also be sending a judge and a couple ponies to act as a jury when the time comes for the trial.”  His ears perked up at that.

“A trial?” he asked, sitting back up.

“Yes, a criminal trial… and while charges have yet to be filed against either of you, I imagine the most obvious one to be used is murder.” Carrion didn’t say anything and simply settled back down upon his bench causing me to frown.  I wasn’t getting anywhere by dancing around it… I had to know.

“What happened this morning?”  This was the one question I’d come to ask him, and one I wanted an answer for.  “Stone said you’d come back to our hotel to warn us something was going on… but the guards say you were at the crime scene.”  His eyes shifted quickly away from me to glance over at Fleethoof before hurriedly looking away.  I arched a brow and leaned closer to the bars.  “Carrion?”  When he didn’t respond, I pressed, “Carrion… I can’t help you unless you tell me what happened.”  Again, silence.  Either from lack of sleep or stress, I felt my anger spark. “Damnit Carrion!  I’m trying to help you…”

“I’m getting soft,” was his response, which… really didn’t help any and only confused the hell out of me..

“Excuse me?”  After a few more seconds of silent, he looked back towards me.

“Do you know how many times I’ve seen somepony die in Kanter City?” he asked suddenly.  The subject change was enough to cause me to pause before I could answer.

“No.  I’d imagine quite a few however.”  That got a snort from the old stallion, however it lacked any trace of amusement.

“Too many,” he answered.  “Even before the raiders, ponies were always coming into that damned radioactive hellhole looking for anything of value… either to sell or to help keep themselves alive a bit longer.  Either the radiation would get to them slowly, sapping their strength or the feral ghouls would… sometimes both… the sewers had a way of carrying the screams and crying all through them.”

I shifted a bit at the calm way he spoke about listening to ponies dying, but remained silent.

“I tried helping some of them… believe it or not at one time I was a good pony too… but that was before the war… before this.”  He waved a hoof at his rotted body.  “I’d always arrive too late to do much more then put the poor devils out of their misery.”   He rubbed a hoof along his muzzle. “Always too late,” he muttered, going silent again.

 “After a while, I just stopped trying,” he began again, eyes fixed upon the floor of his cell. “Didn’t do anyone any good… not me, not the poor bitch crying out for her foals or the two stallions begging for their lives.  After all, in a few weeks or months somepony else would be stupid enough to try again.”

I started to say something when he paused again, but honestly… what could I say to that?  

“Not much changed when the raiders first showed up… except they brought the ponies with them instead of treasure hunters coming in.  The sounds were the same of course… ponies and others crying out in fear and pain.  But, it wasn’t my problem… you don’t survive in a place like Kanter City by taking on more problems than you can deal with yourself.  And I couldn’t deal with an entire army of raiders.”

“But you helped Wild escape,” I pointed out, interrupting his troubling history lesson of Kanter City.  He glanced up to me for a moment, nodding his head slowly.

“I did… I’m sure she’d have you believe I was some damned hero coming to her rescue that night, or you’d paint it as some good deed all ponies are capable of.  Honestly?  When she escaped from her captors I was attempting to return to my base and avoid the running fight they were having through the sewers.  If it wasn’t for the tunnel I normally took back having collapsed I would never have crossed paths with her.”  His shoulders slumped a bit as he went on.

“After it happened, I didn’t feel like I’d done anything good… after I watched her disappear down the subway tunnel I had pointed out, all I thought about our encounter was that I’d made a mistake.  Within hours the sewers were crawling with raiders, all looking for her but all they found was me.  It caused me no end of problems… finding and then destroying my first base… killing ghouls I was trying to find and put to rest.”  His eyes fixed upon mine and despite the damage to his face I could tell by his expression that what he said next was something he truly believed. “If I had to do it all over again, I don’t think I would have helped her… at least, I wouldn’t have until you showed up.”

“Me?” I asked in surprise, head cocked to the side.

“Yes, you,” he answered at once, rising from his seat and walking towards the cell's door, looking angry.  His sudden change in attitude caught me off guard and I backed up a step from him.  “You, and that damned mission to save your sister, even knowing full well there wasn’t a chance in hell you could do it.  Despite everything that stood in your way, you didn’t give up on her, you didn’t walk away and leave her to her fate… leave her to die alone in that hell hole like I had.”

Oh…

“And even though you failed to save her,” I winced at that, shifting a bit uneasily however he pressed on, either ignoring my discomfort or simply not caring at the moment. “You still went out of your way to save those you could… just like you did on the train when any other sane pony would have walked away.”  His glowing orbs glared at me from behind the bars. “And dammit if I didn’t admire that… because it reminded me of who I had been once.”  He turned away from me then, sitting down upon the concrete floor.  “I haven’t been able to sleep since I ‘died’... but I should have just stayed in that damned room instead of going out for a walk around the town.  Should have just walked away when I heard somepony yelling and the sounds of a struggle coming from the shop.  Wasn’t my problem… the local guards could deal with it.”

“But, you didn’t walk away.”  His head dipped down and he leaned back against the bars.  “You did what you would have done a long time ago, as a soldier and pony… you tried to help somepony in trouble.”

“No.  I didn’t walk away… just like I didn’t walk away when you asked for help saving Stone and those prisoners on that train,” he answered, still looking away to the back of his cell, his fore hooves rubbing against one another as he went on.  “The shop door was unlocked and I went inside.  I could smell the blood on the floor, after so many battles against the stripes and my time in Kanter City… I knew that smell well.  When I focused on my surroundings, I found Fleethoof slumped over the body of a mare… both of them were covered in blood and the mare was very dead.  The place was a mess, it looked like there’d been a hell of a fight.  The guards were coming… one of them had yelled out to me as I’d entered.”

Well, that was something… the argument could be made that since the guards had seen him enter just seconds before them he couldn’t be a suspect… of course it could be argued he had been a look out.  And of course neither did Fleet much good… leaving the mare to possibly face the charges all on her own.  But there was something else bothering me about his story... something the mayor had said... but after everything that had happened my head was beginning to hurt.  Maybe it wasn't important at the moment.

“How’d you make it back to the saloon if the guards showed up?” I asked instead, he’d either ran from them or gotten into a struggle and escaped… neither would look good for him.

“When they arrived, they thought I was just one of the town’s folk I guess and shoved me back outside.” I arched a brow to that, that hadn't been a very smart move on the guards’ part.  After all, if Carrion had just murdered somepony they’d just let loose a murderer… but then the town’s guard was all largely volunteers.  “They looked shocked by the mess in the room, I think one or two might have lost their dinners in a corner of the shop.  Figured they’d be no good and decided to come and get you guys, since I had a feeling you’d want to get involved given who was inside.”

“The guards said you assaulted them.”

“I caught Stone and Wild at a bad time… and wanted to get back to the shop before the guards grew a pair and decided to start doing their jobs… most likely poorly.  I didn’t wait around for Stone to extract himself from Wild and headed back to the square.  When I returned, there was already a crowd forming around the shop and a few of the guards had formed a loose circle around it trying to keep them back.  It didn’t take a genius to figure out something bad had happened, the guards’ grim looks was enough of a tip off.  When I heard ponies inside the shop shouting I forced my way back up to the shops doorway, I guess I scared somepony because someone shouted out ‘There’s another one’ and things got a bit chaotic after that.”

“Another one?”

“I don’t know… I guess one of the guards told some of the ponies what had happened and they just saw another ghoul among them and freaked out…” he answered before going silent.

“Maybe…” was all I could really say before turning away from him and slumping into the floor, my back resting against the cool metal bars. “Do you think Fleet could have killed that mare?” I asked.

“I don’t know… maybe, if she was feral enough… but she didn’t act like any feral when we were locked up… she acted more like a lost foal,” was his answer, as unhelpful as it could be thought I didn’t expect anything else.  There wasn’t a clear answer… since the only ponies involved were either dead or unable to communicate.  “My soldiers would have called this a right cluster fuck.”

“I think that describes daily life out here.”  Glancing back towards him over my shoulder, I said honestly, “Nothing you said really helps either of your cases.”

“I doubt much more than a royal pardon would help either of us… these ponies have made up their minds about this, Shadow.  We’re both guilty as fuck…,” he grunted, pressing the back of his head against the bars with a light thud. “They’ll have us strung up sooner or later.”

The image of ten stallions swaying in the breeze of a storm flashed within my mind, ten stallions whose only real crime had been to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Ten innocent lives who had been told a cart full of lies by the real criminals, but who ended up paying the same price.  

And now, it seemed likely to happen again.

“You shouldn’t stay…” my ears rose up at his words and I sat up a bit, turning myself back towards him.

“What?”

“I said you shouldn’t stay here…” he explained, glancing back over his shoulder to me, before he nodded his head towards the door. “You should get back to San Ponsisco.  This trail’s going to take days if not weeks to get put together… more so since it’s likely going to be a circus.” 

“I’m not going to abandon a friend at a time like this, Carrion,” I began, lightly rapping my hoof against his cell bars, eyes fixed upon his face. “Besides, there’s no reason for me to head back to the city just yet…  Sugar knows I’ll be gone for a while and besides, Spearmint’s likely pissed I didn’t tell her where I was going… not to mention my boss at the greenhouse...”

“Spirit told me about your eye, Shadow.” His response silenced my bit of rambling I forced back on him as he pressed on. “While she doesn’t show many emotions, I could tell something was bothering her… she wouldn’t say much, not at first.  But when I pressed she mentioned your head injury and your loss of sight.  The fact I noticed she’s worried about you tells me this is serious.”

“There’s been some issue with my right eye, just a bit of blurring.” 

“A bit?” he asked, frowning.  “I’m dead… not dumb.  I saw you miss a couple sure shots back on the highway here.  You were struggling… you said so yourself.”

“She’s not even sure if anypony can help, or if there’s a time issue,” I answered with a shake of my head. “You let me worry about that, Carrion… a couple days won’t make any difference.”  Rising slowly to my hooves I lightly tapped the bar.  “When I do return to San Ponsisco, it’ll be with all the ponies I left with, nopony gets left behind.”  He snorted lightly at that and he gave me a sad smile, which on him was a bit unsettling with that hole in his cheek.

“It’s a nice sentiment, Shadow… but it doesn’t always work out that way.  Sooner or latter one of us is going to run out of luck…,” he called out as I trotted back towards the door, my hoof steps faltering a bit before I frowned.

“Not if I can help it…” I whispered to myself, before taking the last couple steps up to the door and tapping heavily upon it to be allowed out.






*     *     *     * 





It was late afternoon by the time I finally left the army compound.  The cloud covered sky was growing dark, although it wasn’t just due to the unseen setting sun.  The rumble of thunder could easily be heard in the near empty streets of the town.  Glancing skyward, I catch glimpses of green and blue flashes of lighting among the gathering clouds.  As the wind began to pick up, my oddly silent Pipbuck began to remind me of it’s existence and began to click slowly as radioactive dust and ash was blown up over the walls.

“Not the best weather to be flying in,” called out a voice to my left.  Turning towards Wildfire, I watched as the winged mare trotted up to me.  She was dressed in the remnants of her Enclave power armor with her battle saddle across her back and the saddlebags behind it.

“I take it the neighboring sheriff agreed to come?” I asked, nodding to her attire.

“Yeah, he was more than happy to help once the Lieutenant got on the short range radio with him, seems they go way back,” she answered, nodding her head towards the street before slowly trotting down the sidewalk past me.

“And you're leaving tonight, with that storm coming in?” I shifted the weight upon my hooves and turned to follow along beside her, glancing up as another bright flash lit up the world around us.

“Eh… flown through worse…” her ears folded back as a thunder answered the flash.  The windows in the house we passed actually rattled in response and I swear I felt the rumble pass through my legs.  “Course not while hauling a large metal box behind me…”

“Well… you brought it up.  Maybe you should wait till tomorrow, Wild… you're not going to help anypony if you get yourself fried trying to reach Sutter’s Mill,” I pressed.  While I didn’t doubt my friends skill in the air… I also didn’t see the need to rush out into what sounded like one hell of a storm.  Which, admittedly sounded odd coming from me… Wild agreed.

“You urging caution?” she asked with a raised brow and a slight smirk upon her lips.  “I’d make some witty comment about the pot calling the kettle black but well… you are black,” she added that last bit with a gesture to my body.

“No… really?  And all this time I thought I was white.” This earned a slight snort of laughter from my friend, which I was happy to hear and earned her a smile.  

Ever since our meeting with the mayor, Wild had been unusually serious.  I chuckled lightly as she slowly got her giggling fit under control and took a closer look around us.  I’d noticed as we’d left the Confederate base, the streets and sidewalks were largely deserted.  I thought it was odd for being just a little late afternoon.  The town had been so busy the day before.  Before I could ponder it further, Wild had gotten ahold of herself and spoke up.

“As for the weather, don’t worry about it that much,” she said simply, wings rustling a bit as a rather loud rumble of thunder rolled across the town.  “Despite what I said, it’s not any more of a risk then it might seem.  We’ll be airborne before the bulk of the storm hits, and once we’re above the cloud cover, it’ll be smooth flying all the way to Sutter’s Mill.” 

Hmm, that was likely why the town seemed so dead… the locals were getting ready for the foul weather.  Looking a bit closer at the buildings we passed, I noticed the majority of them had their windows covered in boards that appeared to fit snuggly over the glass and looked like they were attached to metal posts on the windows frames.  I guess storms like this were common enough for ponies to keep something like this close or be forced to replace the glass… which I heard wasn’t easy to do.  However I was snapped out of my thoughts on the price of windows and shipment, by something she had just said and the fiery mare earned my attention and renewed my concerns.

“Wait?  Above the clouds?  Isn’t that a might dangerous for you?” I asked glancing sideways at my friend.  “After all, the pegasi Enclave claims everything above the clouds as their domain… or so I hear.”  

I’d heard a couple Dashites back in San Ponsisco talking about those foolish or unlucky enough to fly up into the open sky.  How patrols of power armored Enclave soldiers would shoot at anything that flew into their airspace and didn’t answer to their hails.  I couldn’t imagine how much worse it’d be for a pony they’d cast down to the wasteland beneath their hooves.  Wild’s first response was to snort and ruffle her wings even more before she answered.

“The damned Enclave claims everything in the sky… from the Celestia damned sun to that glowing chunk of rock Luna hurled about,” she growled, ears pinned back and her tail lashing about as she went on. “Those feather brains would likely shoot an earth pony just for daring to look at their clouds.” She glanced heavenward, green eyes narrowed on the dark undersides of the storm clouds above us.  After a few moments of silence she shook her head and she looked back over to me.  “But… I’m not worried… there’s no major settlement or base this far north… at least not that I remember.”

“Well… that’s reassuring… I think,” I said with a frown and glance to my friend before I noticed we’d trotted back into town square, where this whole mess had begun.  Just on the other side of the former park and it’s statue I saw the top half of our skychariot parked.  I also spotted Stonehoof sitting beside it and focusing on his rifle.  Around him, I noticed barely a dozen other ponies, most going about some errand or another and largely ignoring us.  Behind the chariot stood the Lilly’s shop, it’s windows still exposed and reflecting the glow of the lightning overhead.

“Stop being such an old nag, Shadow… we’ll be fine,” she said after thunder responded to the flash of green lightning. “Besides, you have other things to worry about.”

“Such as?” I asked, as we moved quickly across the open town square, the scent of rain was heavy on the wind as it blew across the walls.

“Such as Spirit gettin’ her hooves on ya,” Stone answered as reached him and the chariot.  Wild stopped to nuzzle her coltfriend before moving past him and up towards the front of the armored transport.

“Spirit?” I watched as Wild began picking up the flight harness from the ground and started sliding it over her armor.

“Th’ gal’s worried bout yer eye… we all are,” he said, and I returned my attention to my friend before me for a moment.

“My eye?” I snorted, ears folding back and I looked away from my friends to the shop behind them. “My eye’s not going anywhere… Carrion and Fleet just might… to the gallows or a firing squad if hanging doesn't work on ghouls.”  My response came out angry and sounded a bit… snippy.  Okay… it sounded a lot snippy, but I was starting to get tired of the constant concern for my eyesight (especially from Carrion), my head was still hurting a bit and for some reason I kept thinking I'd forgotten something important.  I was worried about ponies losing their lives more than my eye.  Sighing, I immediately felt guilt for taking my anger out of them.  I was about to apologize when a hoof gently pressed against my shoulder.  Looking up, I saw Stone standing before me with an understanding look on his face and kindness in his eyes.

“No need ta say yer sorry, Shadow… Ah reckon outta everypony yer th’ one due a bit of slack for gettin’ angry.  It’s a rare thing for ya to be,” he said gently.  “Worryin’ about everypony but yerself is one of yer greatest strengths, Shadow… it’s allowed ya ta do great things for ponies who should, by all rights, be dead and forgotten.”  His hoof patted my shoulder before he moved it to tap lightly at my chest.  “But it’s also one of yer greatest weakness’ when ya don’t stop ta tend ta yerself.  Yer duties been done for th’ moment… so why don’t ya go see what Spirit wants ta talk with ya about?”

“Just listen to the big lug’s folksy country wisdom,” Wild called out from the chariot, the flight harness mostly strapped into place.

“Folksy country wisdom?” I asked, glancing from her to Stone who chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s what I call it when he nags me about something I don’t wanna do…,” Wild answered my question while testing the tightness of the harness around her and to the chariot.  Her ears folded back and she added just loud enough for us to barely catch, “He’s just lucky he’s a damn sexy stallion.”  Beside me, Stone rolled his eyes but I could see a smile on his face.

“Alright… alright…” I held my fore hooves up in mock surrender, relenting to my friends’ words. “I promise after I see you two off I’ll go speak with Spirit again.  Not that I’m expecting it to amount to much...”  Shaking my head, I smiled up at Stone and asked, “When did you get so wise?”  He looked thoughtful for a moment before answering my question.

“Ah’ve my pa ta think fer th’ folksy country wisdom.”  Standing up and moving towards the chariot, I sat and watched them preparing to depart.  Thunder rumbled overhead and the rain I’d been smelling began to fall lightly upon us.  My Pipbuck’s radiation counter was slowly climbing as well.

“Goodluck you two,” I called out as Stone climbed into the back of the chariot and Wild flared her wings.

“You too,” the mare called out before kicking off the ground with all four hooves and flapping her wings hard.  The chariot followed, joustling Stone for a moment in the doorway before he steadied himself.

Again, I found myself standing on the ground, watching as my friends flew off to parts unknown and I frowned.  This was getting to become a habit it seemed, and a bad one as far as I was concerned. Shaking my head, I stood up and turned back towards main street.  I’d promised to go see Spirit and would keep it.  Besides, I had a feeling the buffalo would track me down if I didn’t show up. 





    *     *     *     *




     
The storm had well and truly broke by the time I reached the clinic.  The full fury of the wasteland seemed focused upon the little town on the edge of the Dead Forest.  Rain pounded the streets and roofs in sheets you could almost see… if the bright flashes of lightning didn’t nearly blind you.  Thunder rattled the windows of the clinic, hidden behind their shutters and hastily hung boards as I stood on the porch, water dripping from my mane and tail.  My worn Stable jumpsuit clung tightly to my body, and my black fur coat was soaked completely.

“They will be fine, Shadow.”  An off white towel appearing in the corner of my vision… the left corner.

“It’s a pretty bad storm, Spirit,” I responded, taking the offered towel from my large friend’s hoof and bringing it to my head, rubbing it through my mane.  “I don’t doubt Wild’s good… but this is the worst storm I’ve seen.”

“Hmm… it is quite fierce, but it is hardly the worst storm the wasteland is capable of producing.”  Peering out at her from beneath the towel, I arched a brow as she went on to explain.  “There are no hail stones the size of a pony’s head for one.” I blinked and glanced back out to the streets.  “Nor is the rain eating your flesh or the roofs of the homes.”

“Uh…” was all I could manage as I pulled the towel from my mostly dry mane and slowly rubbed it along my neck.

“As you have commented often, the wasteland is not a kind place to anyone.” Stepping up beside me, she lifted her horned head towards the sky, watching the impressive light show going on between the clouds.  Her ears twitched as the roar of thunder followed.  “I suppose Wildfire told you I wanted to speak with you again?” she asked.

“More or less… more like guilt tripped into coming,” I answered while ideally rubbing along my hunches and soaked tail.  In response to her questioning look I went on, “It was implied I don’t take care of myself.” This earned a snort and nod of agreement from her.  I rolled my eyes and wrung the towel off as best I could.  “I’m not sure what else you wanted to talk about… you admitted there wasn’t much you could do.”

“True… with our limited resources here, the best course of action if you wish to save your eyesight is to return to San Ponsisco,” was her predicted response.  She turned away from the storm and lifted a hoof up to lightly poke me in the shoulder.  “And it is still something I highly advise you to do.”

“I’m not leaving Carrion behind.”  My eyes narrowed as my grip on the towel tightened a bit.  Beside me, Spirit merely stood silently, watching my movements.  With a grunt and shake of my head, I loosened it and returned to drying myself off as best I could.

“I figured that would be your response… but that is not why I wished to speak with you.  I believe you know of what I speak.” I glanced over to her, having a pretty good idea what she was going to say next, “There is something surrounding your spirit, Shadow… something dark… and evil.  I’d first sensed it back in Tombstone, but assumed it was caused by the events in that town and in Kanter City.”

“The voice,” I said simply, glancing back out into the storm.  “I’d first heard it in Tombstone, while we were in the bank.  I heard it again back on the road here… and this morning during the stand off.”

“I believe somewhere along your travels you have picked up an unwelcome passenger.  It is not that surprising, the wasteland is full of spirits.” She frowned. “There has been centuries of horrific and innumerable events all across this land.  So many lost their lives suddenly or to violence that their spirits wander the ruins forever trapped in between this and the next world.”

“So… you're saying the wasteland’s… haunted?” I asked.  That was… an unsettling idea.  Bad enough we had to deal with the living, but the dead as well?  Or… more dead than a ghoul I suppose...

“In a manner of speaking… the land has been soaked for thousands of years in the magic of powerful beings… and now it is soaked in their blood.  But enough of that for the moment, come inside and finish drying off before you manage to catch a cold.”  With that, she rose to her hooves and stepped back from the railing.  Turning, she approached the door and pushed it open, warm light spilling out into the dark porch and sidewalk.

“Knowing the wasteland, it’d be a cold that makes me sneeze radioactive mucus…” I muttered, standing up and dropping the now wet towel across my back.  Turning away from the streets, I trotted past Spirit and stepped into the building.

“No… but one has explosive radioactive diarrhea.” 

At that, my ears shot upright even as my tail hurriedly tucked itself closer to my hindquarters… I could of swore I heard her chuckle as she followed me inside and I glanced back unhappily at her.  Turning back around, I glanced around the clinic’s near silent waiting room and found myself surprised.  Despite the raging storm just outside it’s walls, the building seemed remarkably peaceful.  The nurse I’d seen on duty earlier was missing from her post, although I could see one of the side room’s light was on and I could smell fresh brewed coffee in the air. 

“Wait here and I will go fetch us both something warm to drink while we speak of our unwelcome visitor,” Spirit called out from behind me as she gently shut the door on the storm outside.  The large buffalo stepped past me and moved towards the open door spilling light into the waiting room.  As I waited, I took a few steps of my own towards the opposite side of the room, and the doorway into the patient’s ward.

Pushing the doors open carefully, I poked my front half into the room and looked around.  There were a number of new patents this evening, most likely victims and instigators of the morning’s hectic events.  Only a few appeared still awake, either tossing and turning in their beds or laying upon their pillows with a book in their hooves.  My attention wandered to the end of the room and to the sole reason I had peered into the ward.  Jackhammer was still laying where I’d last seen him.  Only the ever so slightly rise and fall of his chest was the only sign he was still alive.  My eyes wandered to the two forms slumped into a chair beside the wall.  Balefire and Tinkerbelle sat side by side, both asleep and both holding the other up.

Pulling myself back from the door, I held up a hoof and guided the door back into place as quietly as I could.  The smell of coffee had grown suddenly stronger and I turned my head around to find Spirit moving back over towards me with a tray held firmly in her mouth.  The source of the smell came from the two mugs she was balancing upon the tray, steam still rising from them both.  Another pony was following her, but only as far as the counter with a mug of her own.  The mare hardly gave either of us a second look as she settled herself down and began looking over a couple folders that had been seen sitting on the desk out of sight from the front door.  Looking back to Spirit, she nodded her head as carefully as she could towards the stairs and proceeded to climb them back up to the exam rooms as I quickly followed.  Neither of us said a word until we’d entered the second to last room at the end of the hall.  She sat the tray down upon the counter top beside the examination bed.

“How much longer does Jackhammer have?” I asked, shutting the door behind us.  I took the last couple steps over to stand beside her and took one of the mugs of coffee.

“Not long.  A day, perhaps more,” she answered, sitting down beside the counter and picking up the other mug.  “He is fading slower than what either Doctor Bandaid or myself expected.”

“He’s a tough old stallion,”I responded, gingerly taking a sip of the hot coffee.  It almost tasted as bad as the coffee did from that old battered coffee maker in the security office. “Does Tinkerbelle or Balefire know?”

“After I returned from our meeting with the mayor, Balefire caught me in between patients and asked me how Jackhammer was doing, and to be truthful with him,”  She lightly sipped her own coffee before sitting it back atop the counter top.  “Normally I would not tell a non family member such information, but there seemed little harm in doing so.  After I told him, he asked me not to tell Tinkerbelle, that he would do so himself.”

“Did he?” I asked, glancing back to the closed door as somepony walked past it, another nurse I suspected.

“I am unsure, as I became busy with other patients soon afterwards.  Although I believe she already knows her time with him is short.  She refuses to leave his side, save to go to the bathroom.  Balefire has been bringing her food and water otherwise she would be in a bed beside her grandfather.”

Sighing, I rubbed my face, ignoring the flash of lighting coming from the back window of the room.  I was just too tired to be jumpy at the moment.  The past forty eight hours had seen so much pain and suffering… even after reaching the safety of this town, it hadn’t fully stopped.  Tilting the coffee mug back, I took a larger drink, ignoring the pain of the burning liquid as it ran over my tongue and down my throat. 

After another few moments of silence, I heard Spirit rise and move towards the back of the room and to a pair of cabinets sitting along the wall with the window.  Focusing back upon her, I watched as she opened the lower set of doors and pulled out her saddlebags from inside.  The packs looked freshly cleaned and patched from our recent journey.  Without a second thought, she opened up one side and withdrew a small package of what appeared to be leaves.

Arching a brow at my curious friend, I continued to watch as she sat the small bag down upon the examination table and withdrew a few other oddities.  One was about 12 inches in length with a small sphere atop it.  It made a soft rattling noise whenever she moved it and was covered in odd markings all along it’s haft.  The sphere was painted in reds, oranges, and yellows in jagged lines.  I also noticed a black feather hanging from a cord just under the sphere.  Next I noticed a smaller bag, made of a dark brown cloth with a number of green and blue beads dangling from the bottom.  The top was sealed with draw strings and more of that odd writing covered the front and back in black thread.  Finally she withdrew an old battered camping stove, the only recognisable item among the three.  All joined the bag of leaves upon the bed.

“So… you don’t take your coffee black?” I asked, to which she actually chuckled as she began sorting the items out.

“Normally no, I prefer tea over coffee at anyrate.  However this is not tea,” she answered lightly, patting the bag before reaching for the camp stove.  As I watched, she sat it down upon the floor well away from the table and counter.  Next, the rattle and bag joined it, one on either side before she finally picked up the bag of leaves. “These are a special herb mix that will assist us in learning the identity of your unwelcome passenger,” she explained.  “Luckily they were easy to locate and obtain within town, as most have either a medicinal or culinary use.”

“Huh…” was all I could say before sitting my half empty mug down and walking around to the other side of the stove from her. “We’re going to eat them?”

“If you wish to end up dreamwalking for a number of days, then yes,” was her answer and I took a couple steps back from the stove and the herbs she held now above it.  “However neither of us have that time to waste, so no we will not eat them.  Our intent here is to burn a measured amount upon the fire and to inhale the smoke that is released.  It will assist us in reaching a meditative state in which we can attempt to peer into the world between this and the next… where lost spirits and demons reside.”

“We’re getting high?”  The question was rewarded with the knowledge that one of the other items she had placed out had a second use.  The rattle clonking me upon my right knee, “Son of a bi…”

“Anymore questions?” she asked calmly, the rattle sitting back upon the floor as if it had never been used as a deadly weapon.  Shaking my sore leg a few times, I quickly shook my head.  She waved a hoof back to where I’d been sitting.  “Good boy.  Now sit down and attempt to be silent.”

With a slight snort, I sat back down across from her, careful to keep the rattle in sight as I did so.  With a slight nod of her head, she then focused upon her work and began carefully measuring out the contents of the herbs.  It looked a bit random to me as she pulled out small amounts and lay them within one hoof… but then I wasn’t very knowledgeable with something like this.  Once she was satisfied with the pile, she then turned the knob of the stove on and a small flickering flame appeared.  As the light in the room increased, I noticed a wire mesh had been attached to the stove.  It was into this she tossed the herbs.  

Almost immediately smoke began to rise from the flickering flame.  It was an odd yellowish color, however, and looked far thicker than what it should for the small amount of material she’d burned.  Cocking my head, I watched the smoke rise between us as Spirit began to chant softly in another language, my ears twitching slowly.  After only a few seconds, I began to detect an odd smell coming from the smoldering herbs… it wasn’t altogether an unpleasant scent, but I couldn’t honestly say what it smelled like.  

As I focused upon the odd smoke and the smell, movement from the corner of my left eye caught my attention and I looked over to see what it was.  I expected to see one of the nurses working here to have entered the room, looking for the source of the smoke.  What I saw, however, confused me to no end.  I leaned forwards to take a closer look thinking perhaps I was just seeing things.  The small flame and the rising smoke had seemed to make some very odd shadows along the wall… a jumble of shapes and sizes.  The longer I watched them, the more detail they began to take on until they slowly began to resolve into recognizable images.  

I blinked and shifted my eyes from one to the other, unsure if what I was seeing was real or if the herb smoke had some side effects.  There appeared to be ponies standing within the room… casting their shadows upon the walls and furniture.  But it was only the two of us in the room… not dozens.  There were other figures as well… griffons, diamond dogs, even buffalo… some shapes I wasn’t sure of.  One appeared to be of a pony but had small openings where light shone through it’s limbs, wings, and was that a horn?

“Dude… that’s creepy…” I muttered, ears laying back in alarm as the shadowy heads all turned towards the sound of my voice.  Hurriedly I looked back towards Spirit to see if she’d noticed the… I guess I’d have to call them spirits, only to see she hadn’t moved at all.  Worryingly, she didn’t appear to be breathing either. “What the hell?”

She was just still sitting there the rattle held in one raised hoof, eyes closed and her other fore hoof reaching for the bead covered bag that lay beside her on the floor.  But her hoof wasn’t making any progress towards the bag… nor was the rattle she appeared to have been in the process of shaking, the black feather hanging suspended in midair.  As I sat attempting to figure out what was going on, I became aware of something else unusual… the constant presence of my Pipbuck’s EFS was gone… as was the steady click of its radiation detector due to the storm.

Shaking my head, I hurriedly rose to my hooves and attempted to touch Spirit’s foreleg holding the rattle, only for my limb to pass right through hers as if it was made of smoke.  In shock, I dropped my hoof back down to the floor making a loud clopping sound as it struck the tiling.  So… I wasn’t deaf, I could still hear sounds… but only ones I made.  And, I could touch the floor and myself, but not Spirit.  What about…  rising my hoof again, I reached out towards the bed beside me and lightly touched the metal frame, I could feel the cool metal as I slid it across it… not through it.

“This isn’t making any sense…” I whispered to no one looking slowly from one shadow to the next, all of their heads turned towards me… as best as I could tell.  I was just about to turn back to Spirit to try and figure out how to get out of… wherever here was when something answered me.

“Oh… but what's the fun… in making sense…” 

I froze, ears standing fully erect along with the hackles on the back of my neck.  I shivered as a sudden chill overcame me, despite the rather warm temperature of this strange place.  That voice... it had become unsettlingly familiar by now, but it hadn’t come from within my own head this time.  It had come from directly behind me.  My heart was racing as I turned slowly around to see who… or dare I say it... what was the source of the voice.  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, however, and what I found only made me more confused… nothing.  Just one of the walls of the small exam room, with more of those shadowy figures standing upon it… a rather odd mix.  A pony and a griffon… was that a dragon and goat?  Wait… it was just parts of creatures, legs, hooves, wings… what the hell?

As I attempted to figure out just what I was seeing, the shadowy limbs began moving towards one another like oil or water across the wall.  They were accompanied with the sounds of something rubbery being squeezed.  The shapes swirled into one another, and as more joined into the mass, a single large figure began to appear from the mix of parts.  From the wall, a frightening shape rose up, lead by a pair of mismatched horns which crowned a rather pony looking face.  

As the head slid up from the wall, I saw it sat atop a long slender neck.  Further up the strange figure moved, allowing me to see more of it.  Upon the figure’s back was a leathery wing and a feathered wing, both flexing as the figure pulled itself from the wall by an equally mismatched pair of front legs… arms?  A lion's paw gripped the wall tightly, as it pulled itself upright, while the griffon taloned hand supported it… no himself.  The rest of the figure seemed an extension of its neck, long and slender, like a snake or dragon and indeed his tail resembled that of a dragon’s.  His hind legs made no sense either, being a dragon and pony’s leg each.  Like his mismatched body parts, he was a riot of dark colors from red, the color of dried blood, to deep dark greens and blues.  It took me a moment to figure out that the strange creature was somehow in defiance of everything standing upon the wall as I was the floor.  

As I attempted to comprehend the blatant disregard for gravity, I realized he was looking straight at me… sweet Celestia and Luna… those eyes.  His iris were a pair of red glowing coals that seemed to radiate hate and madness while what surrounded them was even more frightening.  Where his pupils should have been was an inky blankness… no, that wasn’t right… it was… a nothingness.  It wasn’t that his pupils were black… they just weren’t there and no light seemed able to penetrate it, not even from his own burning irises.  He slowly began to grin as if sensing my fear, sharp yellowed teeth flashing in the flickering light of Spirit’s camp stove.

It was at this moment, looking into those burning empty eyes, that I realized I was looking into the face of pure evil… nothing I’d ever seen in the wasteland could come close to what I was facing now.

“Hmm… I do seem to have this effect upon everypony I meet…” A chilling laugh escaped the strange being’s mouth as he walked slowly down the wall and onto the floor.  He held his arms behind his back and his tail lightly bobbed back and forth as he went. “Oh, I do so love meeting new ponies, and you my boy, I have looked forward to meeting you for a very, very long time,” he chuckled again as his grin grew, despite the fact it seemed physically impossible.

“Well then… lets get a good look at you, Shadow my brave colt!  Let’s see just who ol’ Loony Woona picked.”  In the blink of an eye, he had managed to cover the half dozen steps between us and was now standing before me.  One clawed hand grabbed ahold of my foreleg and held it up. “Hmmm… really?  Black?  Oh, loony loony, Woona… you have no originality do you?  And yellow eyes, how droll… your only saving grace is your mane’s white instead of red, otherwise you’d be classified as unoriginal.”

“What?” I hurriedly pulled my limb away from the creature and found myself more confused with every passing second.  However, it seemed the strange being wasn’t finished handling me and patted my sides and ruffled my mane.

“Oh, earth pony, well, it’s somewhat original I suppose and I’ll give her points for that.  Still, it’s a shame you don’t have a pair of wings as the name Dark Knight sounds so much better than Marshal… plus I just look good in purple wouldn’t you agree?”  With a snap of his claws, a bright flash of light blinded me.  The spots quickly faded and when I looked again I discovered he had added a suit to his odd appearance.

“I don’t understand…” was all I could manage as he ran his clawed fingers over the purple suit that covered him from neck to hooves.  Both the tip of his tail and his mane was bright green in color and his face was covered in white paint while his grin was all the more creepy thanks to the red lipstick he had smeared across his mouth.  Chuckling, he adjusted his purple bow tie before answering me.

“Of course you don’t my poor simple boy… why if Tiny Pip Toastermare was here I’d imagine she’d have figured things out by now… or more likely, be making out with the buffalo...speaking of!  I’ll have to thank the walking throw rug for setting this little meeting up, it’s so nice to talk to somepony outside of their heads.”  As he spoke he moved over towards Spirit, who was still frozen where I’d left her.  As he reached her, he casually waved a clawed hand in front of her face before knocking upon her forehead. “She looks sorta busy at the moment.”  As his knuckles raked across her head, I swore it sounded like he was knocking on wood.

“What… who are you?” I managed to ask, overcoming my fear long enough to take a couple steps back towards Spirit.  She was now somehow wearing a full feathered headdress and holding a box of cigars in one hoof.  I wasn’t going to question it… that way lay madness.

“Who am I?” he asked, looking back over towards me and leaning over upon Spirit.  One of his elbows rested atop her head between her horns while his other hand drummed his claws idly.  “Who am I, he asks…”  For some reason the question seemed to amuse him all the more and he brought his other arm up so he could rub his chin with the clawed griffon limb.  “Who am I?  Hmmm… such an interesting question, my boy, one that doesn’t have a straight answer I’m afraid… at this point very little of anything is cannon.”

“What..?” I blinked and found my vision suddenly filled with the stranger's still white painted face.

“Lets just say I’m a shadow of my former self and leave it at that, but you’ll need something to call me I suppose.  Terror?  Diablo?  Hmm… Jack the Handsome?  One of the letters from the alphabet?” he asked the room at large while walking up the wall once more and onto the ceiling.  I was getting a headache just watching him, let alone trying to keep up with his insane one sided conversation. “Oh… I’ve always liked Captain Clown… no… I’ll save that for a special occasion.  Let’s just go with Disharmony shall we?  It fits, I think.  And please don’t just repeat me again… that is getting old.” 

“Uh… sure…” was all I could really think to say as he stood upon the ceiling above me.  Too late I realized what was about to happen and had no chance of escaping.  I grunted as… Disharmony’s clawed hands grabbed ahold of me and hosted me up into the air, my hind legs dangling several feet above the floor.

“Now that we have that out of the way let's talk about us, Shadow my boy.  It’s one of my favorite subjects after all.”  With that, he dropped me back upon the floor.

I landed with a thud upon my flanks.  Hurriedly standing, I stumbled back a couple steps from whoever this mad creature was, legs a bit wobbly from the sudden impact despite the short drop.  I looked back up to see he’d once again managed to move quickly from one spot to the other and had even changed his wardrobe.  Now he was wearing an odd red and black jump suit with four gold pins upon the collar and some odd emblem upon his chest, further more he was sitting in one of three chairs along the far wall that hadn’t been there moments ago.

“You see, Mo Maréchal, you and I find ourselves in the middle of a delightful little drama filled with moments of uplifting heroics and soul shattering defeats.  Why the death toll alone will be talked about for years to come… well, by anyone lucky enough to survive till the end.  A real classic tale of good vs evil, and you, my color challenged friend, are to be the main hero.” Disharmony waved a clawed hand towards me before continuing on, his smile suddenly showing a lot more fangs.  “And I… well, while I’d love to say I’m the main villain of this little adventure time, I wouldn’t want to over shadow my little puppet.  She’s worked so hard to make all this possible for her dear old daddy.  Besides, I’m more the end boss type really… my powers well over nine th...”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, interrupting his inane chatter.  Despite everything telling me not to piss off the very powerful and very insane creature before me… I couldn’t help a bit of anger slipping into my next question.  If he was upset from me cutting him off or noticed my rising anger he didn’t seem to care. “What game?”

“Why… all of this!” he exclaimed, sitting forward upon his seat before snapping his clawed fingers.  With a bright flash of light, I found myself gone from the shadowy room and standing within a featureless plain with only the crazed Disharmony floating several inches above the floor.  He gestured towards the ground between us and I looked down.  As I did, I discovered I was standing upon what looked like a map of Equestria.

Cocking my head, I looked a bit closer and noticed that while the details such as mountains and valleys were simply drawn upon the surface of the flooring, other details such as towns and cities were represented in miniature and in opposing colors.  Kanter City, Hoofington, Appleloosa, and a large number of other cities were dark red, while San Ponsisco, Crossroads, Tombstone and very few others were blue… the red definitely seemed to outnumber the blue.  

There were also figures of ponies and other creatures scattered loosely upon the board, themselves colored in red, blue and yellow… again the red seemed to outnumber the blue but the yellow made up a fair bit of the figures.  Scanning the figures nearest me, I noticed a small group near my front right hoof.  A pair of unicorns and a buffalo.

“A game’s not a game without something to represent our players and their forces.  Blue’s the good guys and red the bad… classic… as for the yellow, they’re mostly uninterested in either side and are out just for themselves.”  As I stood watching, Disharmony moved one set of red colored figures further south of where I stood, across the wasteland and into a nearby town.  The figures were clearly meant to represent raiders as they all had spiked manes, armor and weapons.  The town, which was named Hillside was blue, and held a small number of figures of its own, while most were armed they looked more like normal ponies.  

Suddenly my Pipbuck’s radio spring to life which startled me since beside Disharmony’s voice the room had been unsettlingly quiet.  At first, all it emitted was static until it seemed to shift channels on its own, something it had never done before.  As it worked its way through the different frequencies it stopped upon a frantic voice emitted from the speaker.

“... we’re under attack by raiders… they seemed to come out of nowhere just a couple hours ago… send help… just a small farming settlement…” As suddenly as it came, the radio transmission ended.  The town upon the map flashed once, before going dark and crumbling into pieces which themselves turned to ash.  The small blue ponies vanished, leaving only the red raiders standing upon the mound of ash, which in the next moment seemed to blow away in a nonexistent wind.  I stood mutely, unsure of what I had just seen and heard… but… it seemed to have been the death of an entire town of ponies...

“Oh yes, a wonderful bloody little game, one that was begun a very long time ago by two immortal players who foresaw the future of this blighted mud ball of a planet,” Disharmony said, breaking the sudden silence between us and drawing my attention back upon the insane being across from me.  His clawed griffon fingers idly played across the former town marker before moving across the board leaving rents in its surface.  His trail ended upon the ruined towers and walls of Canterlot.  “I’m sure you’ve heard all about it from that lovely striped gypsy, Second Sight.”  A single claw traced its way along one of the towers of the miniature castle.  “What was it she said… ‘two beings this mare did foresee, and so entwined your destiny. One being wishes her to be destroyed, lest she make the darkness void. The other wishes the other way, so that the light again holds sway.’  Why those blasted zebras can’t speak normally is beyond even me…”

Back in San Ponsisco, Second Sight had mentioned that.  Two beings had set something in motion.  She’d also mentioned them being a goddess and… god.  I stared across the map at Disharmony and his unnatural abilities and appearance… two immortal players…

“Ah… starting to put the pieces together, Sunny Jim?” he chuckled and brushed his claws off.  “But Stripes said you had a choice in the matter, didn’t she?  You could either make a choice to get involved in this duel of fates or step aside and allow the chips to fall where they may.” As he said that, a number of poker chips seemed to rain down from the darkness above like drops of rain.  Looking across them I noticed pictures of ponies on nearly every single one.  I didn’t recognize any of them and my attention was pulled back up to Disharmony.  “Good ol’ Loony never did like forcing her precious little ponies into doing anything against their will… takes after card flank I suppose.”

“I made my choice already…” was my response, carefully stepping across the chips and figures spread out across the board.  “I chose to answer Old Oak’s distress call.” 

“Did you?  Did you really think a single act of heroics was enough to take your place in this game of ours?”  While his grin became far less feral in appearance, the smirk he still sported was unsettling in its own way.  “It was merely the latest in a series of steps you have been walking since the moment you set hoof out of that Stable.”

“If that is true, then I’ve made ‘my choice’ long before I knew it was one to make… what’s the point in this discussion?”

“The point, is that you do not fully understand what is going on here, which you won’t, at least not until the end,” was his irritatingly cryptic answer.  He idly stroked his chin with his taloned hand while slowly floating in a circle above me.  Finally he grunted and waved a hand dismissively towards me.  “Very well, you’ve made your choice, a number of them actually, foolishly rushing off with nary an idea of what is at stake.  Be that as it may, you’ve not yet crossed the point of no return.  Nothing you’ve done thus far has truly interfered with the plans myself and my puppet have set into motion.  So… why don’t you take some friendly advice from your dear uncle Disharmony.”  With a dull thud, he dropped from where he’d been floating and gripped my shoulder with one taloned hand, pulling me towards him as he whispered.  “Walk away.  Take ol’ throw rug’s advice and return to your new home away from home and get your eye looked at, take care of that little brat of your sister’s.  Maybe date a couple mares, have a couple kids.  After all, none of this has to really involve you.”

“And… if I don’t?” I asked defiantly after a moment to gather my courage and think about what I’d seen thus far.  Second Sight had seemed to indicate the results of this… game was the future of Equestria.  Or rather… somepony who would be instrumental in it’s reconstruction.  His smirk slowly faded and the taloned hand holding onto my shoulder tightened… painfully so.  There was no trace of humor in what he said next, not in his tone or on his face.  With an expression that was almost more frightening than his feral smile, he simply said.

“If you don’t my little heroic pest… this is what awaits you.”

With those words, his eyes blazed brightly and I was forced to shut my own from the intensity of the light.  The pressure upon my shoulder faded and I suddenly felt a hot wind running across my face and mane.  Quickly opening my eyes, I blinked and attempted to make sense of the sudden change in scenery around me.

I was no longer in the strange dark room with Disharmony and his map… nor was I in the shadowy examination room with Spirit.  The lack of a roof and the all too familiar overcast sky above me indicated I was outside… somewhere.  Looking more closely at the clouds, I noticed something was off about them… the oppressive thick grey clouds had a sickly green tint to them which affected the colors… making it all the more unsettling when I noticed what was around me.  Fog.  Thick, unsettlingly warm fog blanketed where I was standing, tinted green like the sky… but the wind was slowly pushing it away, uncovering more of my surroundings.  

I appeared to be standing atop a building, high above a city… like the sky, it too looked familiar.  Blasted skyscrapers and ruined streets and factories dotted the landscape I could see from my vantage point.  Off in the distant I made out the ruins of the old Golden Gate Bridge… and out in the bay, the dark stone walls of the prison.  This… this was San Ponsisco then?  But… something was wrong… the city appeared to be burning… massive clouds of black smoke rose into the green tinted sky, lit from beneath by fires raging out of control.

“What the…” I began to take a few steps towards the edge of the building to get a better look when I tripped over something lying on the ground.  With a muffled grunt, I struck the loose gravel that lay across the roof of the skyscraper and rubbed my chin.  Glancing back to what I had fallen over I found myself looking into the shocked face of Balefire… or what was left of his face.  I hurriedly pushed myself away from the sight of my young dead friend and felt my heart racing at the sight.

“No…” my word was lost on the wind, as more of the fog that had covered the roof was blown away revealing more bodies… all of my friends… all of them dead.  Horribly dead.  Tears slowly ran down my cheeks as I looked at each…

Stone lay beside Wild, his rifle broken and much of his lower body blown away by an explosion that not even power armor would have stopped.  A trail of blood and gore lay across the rooftop, where he’d dragged himself to lay beside his lover.  His hat lay smoking beside his head before flying off the side of the roof, uncovering his unseeing milky eyes.

Wild’s wings were turned at an unnatural angle, feathers matted with blood.  Her neck had been broken, I could easily see the bones poking through her flesh, her forelegs were a mangled mess of blood, bone and flesh… behind her lay the smoking ruin of our sky chariot, a dozen holes punched through its armor.  She’d crashed into the rooftop… dying almost instantly.

The door to the chariot was pulled back, allowing me to see inside, dim light filtered through the holes casting the passenger compartment in green tinted light.  The still form of Spirit lay slumped over lumps of managed flesh… which I realized was all that remained of Carrion… whatever had punched through the chariot had turned my ghoul friend into his name sake.  Spirit looked as if she’d been riddled with small arms fire....

This, is your fate if you choose to fight against me… the fate of ALL heroes…

A grunt of pain broke the horrible silence after the monster spoke again, and I turned towards it, my mind seizing up for a moment at what I saw… me.  It was me… kneeling upon the ground wearing a suit of power armor that no longer appeared to function… blood running from my mouth and nose.  I saw the marshal badge upon the chest armor, dented and blacked… and I saw the dark figure looming over myself, a revolver held in it’s mouth.

This… is to be your reward…

As I sat watching myself… the figure behind me lifted the pistol to the back of my head and without hesitation pulled the trigger.  The weapon went off, sounding like a cannon.  I watched as the bullet tore through my skull and out behind my eye, taking the orb with it.  Blood flew in a fountain from the wound and my very dead body slumped forward to land heavily upon the gravel.

This is your one and only chance at avoiding this fate… a fate, I might add that awaits you whether you lose… or win… that’s right, hero.  Whatever the outcome… save the world or let it be destroyed… you die.

I sat staring at the dead around me, the sounds of distant gunfire and screaming coming from the streets below and I glanced back towards the shadowy figure who slowly emerged from the swirling fog.  It was Disharmony… even shocked as I was, I didn’t expect it to be anypony else.  As he approached, the sounds of dying slowly faded along with what remained of the fog.  I found myself back in the room, Spirit alive, although still frozen.

“So… what’s it gonna be, hero?  Fight the good fight and die regardless of the outcome… or walk away and live?” Disharmony asked as he twirled the pistol in his clawed hands before pointing it towards Spirit.

I began to rise up but he already pulled the trigger… click.  It was empty.  And so was I, everything I had seen and heard had drained me, physically and emotionally.  With no energy left, I simply slumped back to the floor.

“Decisions, decisions… but then, that’s why you wear the badge isn’t it?” chuckling, he tossed the weapon aside and walked past me causally. “Don’t take to long making up your mind, this is a limited time offer and you expire soon.”  As the pistol struck the ground, it went off, firing off a single round which struck the cooking stove sitting in front of Spirit.  

My eyes widened as I realized what was about to happen, Disharmony’s chuckling turning into full blown insane laughter.  The stove exploded in a burst of flames, throwing me up against the bed.  Darkness consumed me once again.




Welcome to Level 21!

Perk Added: Dark/Light Destiny: The Fates have a plan in mind for you, aren’t you just the lucky one?  For good or bad, you have a role to play in the future of your world, choices you make from this point onwards will have long lasting effects.  Choose, wisely.



	
> Chapter 23: Calm Before the Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 23: Calm Before the Storm


This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.






“You really didn’t have to be here for this, your part in this is over.”

I was startled back to the present by the sound of that deep voice, returned from my troubled inner thoughts.  My ears swiveled towards its owner yet my eyes remained fixed upon the scene playing out in front of me.  There was so much more going on than I’d have suspected for something that had been supposedly kept so quiet.  Then again, it wasn’t everyday somepony simply vanished from armed royal guards.

As I stood there silently watching the spectacle before me, I realized I’d yet to answer him.  Instead, our silence remained as we watched dozens of armored and armed ponies moving about hurriedly.  I’d not often seen so many military ponies up close… well, sleeping with an officer might count as close.  Shaking my head, I pushed thoughts of my ex-coltfriend out of my already troubled mind and looked away from the olive drag armored soldiers to the side of the loading platform.  There, held back by the local police, stood the press from a number of papers and radio stations.  Most were local, while a few were from other cities.  Those few with cameras were snapping pictures of the open and empty box car sitting upon the tracks of San Ponsisco’s freight station while others furiously scribbled notes upon their pads.

I looked away from the crowds forming behind the line and sighed, looking back to the empty box car.  He was right of course.  I wasn’t needed here... I should have been with the other survivors of our squad, getting debriefed before we were sent home.  Noctensis normally was right about a lot of things, which was going to cause problems since it was supposed to be the mare who were always right in the relationship.  Of course he was wrong, too.

I wasn’t really expected to be here, not officially anyway.  I was just supposed to be the civilian adviser for this trip.  An expert in rocks and stonework.  Princess Luna had made that very clear during our meeting in Canterlot.  I was just here to inspect the prisoner the few rare times he was moved from the train car to someplace more secure.  It hadn’t happened often, only twice really and of those two times I’d been unable to once.  When I was injured between Tombstone and Appleoosa, Berry had been forced to step in to do the inspection.  Honestly, anypony could have done it… I wasn’t anypony special after all.

My job for this mission was over the second the report of his escape had been sent by Midnight.  We were all expected to at least show up at the station for a short time, then depart for the army base located near the port.  However, I hadn’t left as the others had.  Berry Punch and the others had been escorted through the growing crowds of curious onlookers and arriving reporters to board a sky chariot.  Meanwhile, I had stayed beside Noctensis for this final act.  I had to stay… for those who hadn’t made it this far, I had to stay and see this to the end.

I had to know, this wasn’t all in vain...

I was snapped from my grim thoughts by a sudden blast of scalding hot steam escaping the idling and battered engine, thick black smoke still rising from its funnel into the late morning sky.  The overworked locomotive had steadily been groaning for the past ten minutes, so much so I’d managed to block it from my mind and ignore it.  It had good reason to be so worn down, as the trip from Tombstone to San Ponsisco normally lasted several hours, a good portion of that spent going up into the high mountain ranges.  The engineer had grudgingly pushed her machine under direct orders from a member of the Royal Guard.  Officially, it was to alert the authorities of the prisoner break out.

“Captain Noctensis,” a lighter voice called out from somewhere just behind me.  This time I did look towards the voice since I didn’t recognize it as anypony I knew.  I found its owner walking slowly up towards us after having just exited a wooden and steel warehouse the authorities were using as a command post.

The stranger wore armor similar to the stallion beside me, with two major differences.  Firstly it was made for a mare, smaller and with more curves along the flanks.  Second, it lacked holes for the wings.  Instead, there was a single hole in the helm for her spiraling horn.  While it wasn’t uncommon to see unicorns and earth ponies in the Solar Guard, they were far rarer in the Lunar Guard.  I didn’t bother looking much beyond her armor as she bore the same coloration as Nocty thanks to the enchantments woven into the suit.  Her cutie mark was also obscured from sight by the plate covering her flanks.

For some reason, I immediately didn’t like her.  Call it a mare’s intuition, but I got the feeling she was staring at Nocty more than just casually.  If asked, I’d have blamed the hormones.  As she neared, she paused and saluted her fellow Guard before offering me a slight nod in greeting, which I returned.

“Lieutenant Ebony Rose,” Noctensis responded, returning the salute with one of his own.  “You're here for the debriefing then?” he asked, glancing past the armored mare to the boxcar.

“I am.  The Princesses are very interested to hear how a prisoner in the possession of the Royal Guard managed to escape, especially given his... unique condition,” she said, swishing her tail a bit as she finished her sentence.  Her gaze shifted to her left for just a moment before returning to the two of us.  Unless one had been paying attention, they would have missed the subtle look.

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed what had earned her interest.  Our group seemed to have gained the attention of a number of the reports still being held back from the scene.  Not really surprising since covering an empty train car wasn’t exciting news, even with a supposed prisoner escaping from inside it.  Without knowing who it was, nopony would really give it much attention.  After all, zebra prisoners were transported around all the time and rarely a few even escaped.

However, an empty train car lacking any prisoner or their identity and two members of Princess Luna’s Royal Guards along with a civilian who’d apparently been aboard said train for unknown reasons was another matter entirely.  Ponies were a curious bunch, myself included, and the Lunar Guard were not yet very well known by the public at large.  While their gold armored counterparts’ exploits were somewhat well known, most of the Lunar Guards missions happened off the official records with little fanfare… at least according to Nocty.  Clearly this was something big, and any reporter who could find a lead to the identity of the missing mystery prisoner might make it big.

“Of course Lieutenant, we’ll follow you.” Noctensis broke the short moment of silence and waved a hoof for the mare to take the lead.  She hesitated a moment, looking between the two of us and he noticed.  This hadn’t been part of the plan I supposed.  I was supposed to be gone with the others.  When she seemed about to ask a question, he motioned over towards me before explaining, “She’ll be coming with us, as she was present when the prisoner... escaped.”  A leathery wing settled across my back which earned a silent cheer from me.  That’s right, he’s all mine, sister.

The sudden flurry of photos being taken curtailed my victory a bit… well fuck...

“Of course…”  Despite the words, she was clearly unsure of this sudden change in plans, but quickly recovered.

Without any noticeable hesitation, she passed us and began trotting along the loading platform, down a couple of steps and out into a flat concrete lot used to stack unloaded cargo from trains.  Rather than boxes and shipping containers, the space had been opened up to allow a sleek black armored sky chariot to park.  When it had arrived I couldn’t say, I’d been lost in my own thoughts for a while after we’d arrived at the station. It sat quietly awaiting us, painted in the dark colors of the Lunar Guard.  As we neared it, my ears folded back and my tail tucked itself a bit closer to me.

A sky chariot… oh… goody...

Noctensis glanced over to me and I looked his way, catching a hint of worry in his golden eyes before I offered him a weak smile.  He likely remembered my last trip in one of those… how I’d spent almost the entire ride hurling my guts out into an airsickness bag.  His wing was still across my back and, gently, Noctensis guided me after the mare towards the chariot.  Thankfully the impending barf fest was forgotten as the noise from behind us reached a fever pitch.

I supposed the fact the only three ponies who had been aboard the train were apparently about to make an exit from the station had gotten the attention of the reports.  I could hear the police ponies telling them to get back, and the reporters’ voices raising as they defended the right for freedom of the press.  When it was clear they wouldn’t reach us in time, they changed tactics and began shouting their questions while those with cameras began taking more pictures.  My ears twitched from the jumble of questions being hurled towards our retreating backsides.  Nocty’s, being far more sensitive, had laid flat against his head.

“Who was the prisoner that escaped!?”

I snorted softly to myself, but kept walking.  Good luck figuring that one out, guys...

“Why was the Equestria Army working with the Royal Guard and why is a civilian wearing combat armor?”

“How’d a train full of Royal Guards allow this to happen?”

My right ear flicked to the side as I caught that last question before somepony else began yelling.  Full of Royal Guards?  I glanced up to the stallion trotting beside me.  Nocty was impressive in a fight, but I don’t know if even he would say he’d qualify as counting as a full squad.  No, we’d been a mix of army, Royal Guard, and volunteers.

“Were the zebras involved with this escape?”

“Does your sister know you're working for her new boss?”

I stumbled over my hooves from that question.  Thankfully Nocty steadied me with his wing and I managed to keep pace with him.  I must admit, that question caught me off guard and both my ears folded back against my head.  I hadn’t spoken with either of my sisters in months.  At least, not for any great length of time which was… depressing.

We’d always been so close, our whole family had been.  Tears formed at the corner of my eyes as I recalled the last time I’d seen either of them.  Both had been drugged out of their minds in an effort to help them… and only one of them had a good reason to be.  I ignored whatever else they were shouting, instead focusing on the mare ahead of us and the chariot we were approaching.  Anything to keep from thinking of my sisters...

It looked fairly new.  At least as far as I could tell, I hadn’t exactly been keeping up on the latest improvements in military hardware.  I was just a simple rock farmer after all, even if I been going to college to learn more than just that.  Granted, I’d learned a thing or two about self defense since coming on this trip.  As well as how far a pony could go when they pushed themselves.

This machine was much more heavily armed and armored than the one I’d ridden in back in Canterlot.  For one, I noticed the two ponies in the flight harness had bucky steel armor and the harness’ themselves appeared larger with sheets of metal to give extra protection to ponies’ vital areas.  The hull itself was more angled, with sharp edges and a bit of flare near the back that reminded me of a bat pony’s wings.  Just behind the pilots and on either side of the hull were a pair of short stubby wings, also shaped like those of a batpony.  At first, I couldn’t figure out what they could be for until I noticed the tubes tucked beneath them with a pair of rockets beside them.  That wasn’t all, as there was also a pair of machine guns mounted upon the side doors.  I would guess this was for the ponies riding inside to use when landing in a fight.

The chariot was painted in the colors of the Lunar Guard which likely meant it was brand new, as the Royal Guards would likely get the best and latest equipment… at least I’d assume so.  The majority of its hull was a matte purple with bits of silver and dark blue here or there.  Beyond a few numbers and letters along the side, the serial number I would assume, it bore the mark of Princess Luna upon the back, just behind the door.  A white crescent moon, similar to the cutie mark of said princess.

Beside the two pulling it, another bat pony stepped out from within the passenger compartment.  He was wearing more modern looking armor than either of the two Lunar Guards I was walking with, although his was colored in a similar style.  Unlike Nocty’s however, this stallion’s armor seemed to lack the enchantment to mask his appearance.  Stepping to one side of the door, he offered the pair a salute as they approached.  As he did, I noticed his mane was a wild mess of spiky light blue which matched his tail.  Lowering his foreleg back down, I saw a pair of flight goggles upon his forehead, pushing some of his wild mane away from his face.  His eyes were a golden orange color, and slitted like most bat ponies.  Leathery wings quivered at his sides, as if they couldn’t wait to spring open and tear into the sky above.  Unlike the pilots, he was armed with a common enough weapon for most winged ponies, a battle saddle.  While they seemed to come in a wide array of armaments, his had twin machine guns with belts leading back into a pair of armored saddlebags just behind them, which also hid his cutie mark.  His armored shoulder pad had a white stylized crescent moon across it with a serrated black bladed dagger beside it.  There was also a small number thirteen in one corner.

Lieutenant Ebony Rose stepped towards the stallion and returned his salute before asking, “How’s the old girl doing, Corporal Rapid?  She looks a lot better since the last time I saw her.” As she spoke, her attention wandered from the pony to the chariot beside him, lifting a hoof up to run slowly across the chariot’s armored hull.

“The Raven’s in good shape, ma’am,” he hurriedly responded as he stood aside and allowed the Lieutenant to inspect the machine.  “The techies did a good job putting her back together after our last mission went fubar.  As ya can see, she got a few new features added since she was due for a refit.  The twins haven’t complained once since we left base, so I’m assuming she’s as stable as ever.”

I had trouble following what he was saying as his words were spilling out from his mouth in a rush in a similar manner to the rounds from his battle saddle I’d think.  Thankfully I’d had experience with ponies talking a mile a minute, although mostly due to sugar overdosing.  I snorted softly as I found myself thinking of my sister again.  I returned my attention to the jittery pony standing at loose attention before us, his wings were still twitching as his tail and ears twitched about.  I also noticed that even after he started moving about the chariot to point out new armor bits and weapons that every movement he made was equally as quick as his words.  I realized that he very likely lived up to his name of Rapid very well.

“Oh?” Ebony Rose paused in her inspection of the chariot to glance back up towards the front and the two stallions standing in the flight harnesses.  “The twins are behaving for once?  That is unexpected.”  A warm smile split across her face as she turned back to looking over the chariot.  Upon being mentioned, the pair of pilots glanced back towards those speaking about them.

At first I’d simply assumed they had similar armor to that of Nocty and Ebony, making their appearance the same.  However, I now saw they instead wore armor similar to Rapid’s, just a bit more of it.  Both had similar coat colors, charcoal grey and their mane styles was that of most military ponies, close cut.  Like their coats, the deep purple color of their mane was the same.  They even had matching turquoise slitted eyes which shifted from the mare to Nocty and myself.  Twins indeed...

“So, I take it we’ve got another passenger?” Rapid asked as he noticed the twins attention seemed fixed upon me.  The fidgety stallion pulled the door fully back.  Locking the door into place, Rapid stepped back to reveal the inside of the chariot.  Unlike the outside, it looked similar to the other I had flown in.  There were a pair of seats within sight from the door, one on either side of a narrow walkway to the front.  Above and behind them were overhead storage compartments for packs, weapons or whatever else a soldier might need.  The door on the opposite side of us remained shut.  I suspected this would continue towards the front of the chariot.

“So it seems,” Ebony responded softly, earning my attention once more.  I pulled my inspection of the entry of the chariot to the mare standing in front of me.  She neither sounded happy or upset by the fact I was coming along.  We locked eyes for a moment, noticing she seemed simply curious about me.  I arched a brow and she simply smiled before a bit louder she said, “Well, let's get everypony aboard, don’t wanna keep the Princesses waiting.”  My eyes narrowed as I watched her climb inside.  She’d said that a bit louder than strictly necessary.

The reporters had clearly heard her as behind us there was a renewed frenzy of shouted questions about secret meetings with the Princesses and if anypony was going to be sent to the moon for this failure.  The mare responsible grinned back at us from within the chariot.  Wondering if she’d planned this, I noticed Nocty was standing beside me.  He looked towards the reporters, the corners of his mouth turned down in a slight frown.

“Very subtle, Ebony…” was all he muttered before looking back to me.  “Come on, let’s see this finished.”  He motioned with his head towards the chariot door before waiting for me to get in first.  My stallion, always the gentlecolt...

“Alright,” was all I said, glancing once more to the reporters before climbing in after Ebony.  The inside was dimly lit, with the only light coming from the open door behind me and two orange lights in the ceiling towards the front.  That was where Ebony had taken a seat, the mare’s horn lighting up in a soft purple hue as she pulled a pair of earphones off a hook beside her on the ceiling.  She’d removed her helmet as well.  While I didn’t have time to look closer, her coloring wasn’t much different than with the enchantment.  Behind me I could hear Nocty stepping inside, so I hurriedly found myself a seat on the opposite side from Ebony.  Surprisingly, Rapid didn’t follow us inside.

“Alright folks, get settled in, we’ll be leaving in just a few minutes.  Remember to leave your seats in their upright position and in case of a water landing, you’re mostly fucked,” Rapid said with a smile while pulling the door closed behind Nocty.  As the door clicked shut and the outside lighting was cut off, a row of floor lighting sprang to life making it only slightly less dark than it would have been.

I ignored the water landing comment.  After all, I had learned military ponies had an… odd sense of humor.  Nocty stood for a moment in the walkway between seats, checking the shut door by tugging on the handle before finally seeming satisfied and turning back to the two of us at the front.  His eyes lingered on me for a moment before they turned to the other mare who seemed fixed upon something displayed on the console beside her seat.

“Before you ask, I already checked just in case anypony back at the repair yard missed anything, the Raven’s clean.” Nocty had just opened his mouth when she’d begun speaking.  He shut it quickly and snorted as she finally turned towards him.  “No bugs, mechanical or otherwise.  I also checked the sound proofing wards that I’d cast before landing this morning, we’re free to speak openly.”  A mischievous look crossed her face as she eyed the stallion.  “Do ya wanna know HOW I checked those wards?”  Nocty’s response was to simply roll his eyes before walking between the seats.

“Did you really have to tease the newsponies, Eb?” Noctensis finally asked, ignoring her question entirely.  He dropped heavily into the seat beside me while reaching up to pull his helmet free before dropping it into the empty seat to his right.  With the enchantment fading from my coltfriend, he swiveled his seat around to help me secure the restraining straps for take off.  Oh yeah… those might be useful...

“Oh please, this was supposed to be a very public display and you know it.  I just made it a bit more public.  Ya know how I like doing stuff in public,” she answered with a wide grin before shifting her gaze from Nocty to the softly glowing green screen in front of her.  Reaching a hoof up, she pressed something upon the side of her headset and spoke again, “Alright, you goons, try not to scratch the paint job on my baby while getting us airborne.  We wouldn’t want to take away the chance from the stripes.”

“No promises, boss lady,” came a muffled response from behind me, causing me to jump a little in surprise and my ears to swivel around.  Turning my head to follow them, I spotted another pair of headphones dangling from a hook just above me.  A second after I spotted them, the voice I’d heard came again from the earpiece.  "But we'll see what we can do."  Looked like everypony riding inside got a pair of them.

Wait… he’d called her Eb.  So they must have known one another fairly well.

Just then before my hormones could fully kick in and I snap into protective marefriend mode, the entire chariot lurched gently to one side and I steadied myself with my forehooves on the seat.  At the same time, my stomach told me we were rising into the air, which was confirmed when I saw the headsets resting above the empty seats begin to sway.  My stomach, however, wanted to stay on the ground.  Honestly, so did my hooves.  I was an earth pony after all, we much preferred the nice solid ground, where we were meant to be.  Not hundreds of feet up in the sky, at the mercy of weather and the soundness of a hoof built machine.

We were going higher.  My stomach and the passenger tucked away near it continued to protest the movements so that was one thing my foal and I had in common.  Shutting my eyes tightly, I pressed my head back against the padded seat back and swallowed the rising nasua.  I was determined not to spend this ride with my head in a… barf bag as a pegasus had called it.  I’d never really been scared of heights before… but then I’d never ridden in a chariot before being summoned to Canterlot.  Nor had I been pregnant before...

"You going to be alright?" Nocty’s soft voice cut through the rising panic in my head.  A second later I felt a warm, strong hoof touch my shoulder.

Opening my eyes, I turned my head to look at him, seeing a kind if not a bit lopsided smile on his square muzzle.  I focused on his face and slowly nodded my head while reaching up to grasp his hoof with one of my own.  His smile grew and I couldn’t help mirroring it a bit.

“So, this is the filly you stole from that army officer, eh?” Ebony’s sudden question caused us both to freeze and blink in surprise which only made the mare laugh.  We looked from one another to the tittering mare who was grinning ear from ear.  “Ah, young love,” she added through her snickering.  I’m sure I was turning several shades of red, but I quickly recovered.

“How’d you know about that?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.  Her response was not what I was expecting as her giggles slowed and she looked from me to the stallion sitting beside me with a reproachful glare.

“You never mentioned me?”  She lifted a hoof up to her armored chest, splaying her ears out to either side of her head and pouting.  “Not even once?  Not even to your fillyfriend?  Why big brother… I’m hurt.”  She sat back in her seat with her head tilted back.

Wait… brother?  The look on my face must have been humorous given the snort that broke through Ebony’s pout before she began laughing again.  I glanced away from the mare as she looked about ready to fall from her seat and back over to Nocty who merely rolled his eyes at Ebony’s antics while scowling at her.

“No, Ebony, I never mentioned you… we’d only just meet a few months before Princess Luna sent us on this damned mission to transport some lawn ornament.”  His tone was low and his words almost growled out.  I’d not seen him angry often.  In fact, before today I could have counted the times on all four hooves.  Two of those times had been on this trip, but this was the first time I’d heard it directed at the Princess and not the zebras.  Ebony seemed to notice it too, as her laughter quickly died down, giving her brother a sympathetic look.

“I know, Batty, I know.”  She sighed and shook her head before slumping back into her seat, ears remaining downcast.  “You know I’d be the first to admit… some of the orders we get from Their Highnesses don’t make a damn bit of sense.”  Her eyes fell to the smooth purple armored plates of her armor before adding, “At least not to us.  But they know stuff we don’t… stuff that either hasn’t happened or is about to happen.”

“Didn’t help prevent this war…,” I found myself saying, although I sort of regretted it the second the words had left my mouth.  Perhaps they did know about things before they happened… but it seemed likely they didn’t know everything.

“I’d drink to that if I had any booze on me,” Ebony quickly said, looking away from her brother to me.  “Fucking hell, they’ve been alive for longer than our entire family, you’d think if they were going to foresee something happening it’d been this damned war.  Still… Luna must have had her reasons for ordering this transfer, even if we lowly mortals can’t see it now.”  She looked back to Noctensis and offered him a hopeful smile.  “Don’t tell me ol’ Drill Sergeant Iron plot’s lectures on duty and obedience have been knocked from your head.”

“Hardly… he was a sadistic pony who took his job very seriously and did a damn fine job of it,” he grunted, completely unresponsive to the attempt at humor by his sister.  “Our duty is not to question why the Princesses do what they do, it’s just to follow their orders to the best of our abilities,” he added, sounding as if he was quoting somepony else.  He suddenly looked very tired and very unlike the strong, confident stallion who’d led us across Equestria.  He rubbed one steel covered hoof across his face tiredly and fell into silence.

Silence quickly descended upon the rest of us, leaving each to their own inner thoughts.  My thoughts turned to the past few days and what we’d been through.  While he said it wasn’t a soldier's role to question orders, I was a civilian and I had a damn many questions.  Questions that I wanted answers to.  Questions that I should have asked upon first being asked to go along on this mission.  However, I’d been awed by Her Royal Highness’ presence and although I’d hesitated, I’d still accepted her request that I go.  Now however… after everything I’d seen and done… I wanted to ask those questions and I wanted answers.  It was the second reason for making this final leg of our journey.

Shaking my head a bit, I looked back to my traveling companions.  Ebony had turned away and was focused on the screen beside her, the mare's ears laid back as she read something.  More bad news I imagined.  Sighing, I glanced to Nocty, but found the stallion tiredly slumped in his seat.  Wiggling a bit in my restraint, I leaned over to lay my head upon Nocty’s armored shoulder guard, lightly brushing the tip of my muzzle along the side of his cheek as I did.  His large tufted ears perked upright as he glanced over to me, a small smile forming across his muzzle.  A second later a leathery wing rose up to wrap around me and I shut my eyes at the embrace.  Smiling, I shut my eyes and began drifting off to sleep.




*     *     *     *




The sound from our hoofsteps was the only noise that filled the dimly lit stone hallway.  Each step echoed like a gunshot among the many stone pillars that rose up into the darkness of the ceiling.  Beyond the flickering torch light that cast shadows among those pillars lining our path was the large arched windows, whose dark blue curtains had been pulled back to allow moonlight to fall upon the floor.  Despite knowing where I was, I still found myself uneasy.  I supposed my recent ‘adventure’ could be to blame for my nerves.  Or it could have been the feeling of being watched.  A feeling backed up by the occasional glance of movement from the corner of my eye.

Every so often as we passed between towering pillars, I was sure I’d seen moonlight or torch light reflecting from golden eyes.  The first time it’d happened I’d convinced myself it was just my imagination working over time, but after the fourth time I found I couldn’t ignore it.  Whenever I attempted to turn my head towards the unsettling glow, they would disappear back into the shadows… if they’d even been there at all.  I couldn’t honestly be sure anymore.  After a while, I simply gave up trying to catch sight of our unseen escort and instead focused upon the two ponies walking in front of me.

Nocty hadn’t said much since we’d arrived, sharing a few quiet words with the stallions who had flown us here.  Of Rapidfire, I’d seen no sign.  I assumed the young batpony had departed before we exited the chariot.  Four batpony guards had greeted us upon leaving the landing pad, but again few words were spoken between them and those I’d arrived with.  Those few words they’d shared had been little more than what to me sounded like chittering and screeching sounds.  Nocty had tried teaching me his native language once, but it seemed I lacked the vocal cords to get some of the higher tones correct.  I still had him try, mostly because I found the sounds he made somewhat adorable.

Despite the brief happy thought, I still found myself within the dark hallway.  Swallowing, I quickened my pace to keep up with my two companions.  I attempted to remind myself that neither Nocty nor his sister were troubled that we were, quite literally, being shadowed, or they simply weren’t showing it.  They didn’t have nightmares about the ponies we’d lost… seeing them killed.  They didn’t hesitate upon entering an unfamiliar room, wondering if zebras were going to leap out at them.  They were trained soldiers, Royal Guards in fact.  They didn’t need professional help.  I supposed showing fear wasn’t something they did.  Not even when those zebra assassins had struck us aboard the train…

My hurried gait was slowed as I stumbled a step or two.  Shaking my head, I attempted to put such troubling thoughts from my mind, but that was easier said than done.  We were in Canterlot, there wasn’t a safer place in all of Equestria after all.  It seemed highly unlikely that a zebra stealth team could get so far into the Equestrian Capital, let alone into the Lunar Wing of the castle.  So… why was I still jumping at shadows?  And why was my face wet?

“It’ll be okay,” a voice whispered from my right, causing me to jump in surprise and reach for a weapon that wasn’t there.  I was stopped when a large grey hoof reached up to take hold of mine, still grasping for my pistol.  Nocty stood there beside me, a concerned look upon his face.  “You can’t keep saying you're fine when you're not.  You need to see somepony about this, Issie,” he said before kissing my ear, “Please.”  Behind him, I saw his sister attempting to give us as much privacy as she could in a large empty hallway and a set of double doors.

I hurriedly wiped my face with one foreleg as I suddenly became aware that we’d reached our destination while I’d been having a mini breakdown following them.  The dark wood doors before us would lead us into one of the Princess’ meeting rooms where the Lunar Alicorn herself would be waiting.  Yet here I was… crying.  Shaking my head to clear the wave of despair that had suddenly washed over me, I glanced back up to Nocty.  I nodded my head slowly before I spoke up barely above a whisper.

“I promise… after we finish here, I’ll go speak with somepony about it.”  He offered me another of his kind smiles that always put me at ease before gently nuzzling my cheek.  He was about to respond when his ears suddenly perked upright sharply and he swiveled his head back towards the door.  I saw his sister who had moved back towards us turn her attention fully upon the door, her own ears standing at attention.  It seemed they shared the same sensitive ears, but not the wings.  I followed their gaze to the doors, as I’d learned long ago to trust my coltfriend’s hearing.

After a few seconds of listening, I noticed the door handle rattling and the aged wood creaking as it was pulled backwards.  Somepony was coming out into the hallway with us.  Had the Princess heard us speaking and was coming out to see what was taking us so long, or was somepony leaving their own meeting with the Princess?  As it turned out, it was the later… although I wished it’d been the Princess instead, or even zebras as I could at least have shot them.  Upon seeing the familiar looking unicorn stallion who stepped out, my fears were quickly forgotten and replaced with anger that I’d thought had been put aside… if not forgiven.

As the golden furred stallion turned from the door to the hallway, his orange eyes stopped upon the pair of ponies who had likely seemed to just suddenly appear behind him.  He seemed to quickly recover from his start and was getting ready to speak to the two when he noticed a third pony in the hallway: me.  The look upon his face when he spotted me was one of shock and noticed his short cut red tail stiffened.  He appeared to freeze up at seeing me, thus giving me a moment to gather my thoughts.  The source of my ire wore his familiar looking Equestrian Army uniform with Lieutenant bars reflecting the light from the torches beside the doorway.  Guess he never got that promotion.  The 105th Equestrian Cavalry logo was still upon his sleeve as well.  In short, he looked every bit the same stallion he had been when he’d walked out on me.

“Issie… I… wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” Heartfire said with a characteristic stutter.  His eyes shifted back to the door he’d just stepped through before falling upon me and then my belly.

That caused me to snap.

“I honestly never expected to ever see you again at all, Heartfire, you made it fairly clear when we broke up.  And my name is Isabelle, only my family or my friends call me Issie,” I quickly added with a growl, “But it's Miss Pie to you.”  The venom in my voice caused the stallion to take a couple steps back until his hindquarters impacted the doors.  I noticed something fall from his back onto the stone floor, but it was quickly forgotten as my focus was upon the deadbeat father of my foal.

“Of course…,” he finally managed to mutter, ears wilting and a pained expression crossing his face.  His eyes lowered from my narrowed gaze.  Only for a moment though, before the hardened soldier he was took back over and his expression changed back to neutral.  Clearing his throat, he looked back to me and said evenly, “I apologize, Miss Pie.”

Luckily for him, Nocty placed a hoof upon my shoulder as it was starting to come up for a swing at that damned stallion.  I was fairly sure I could break that rugged muzzle of his with one good punch… Celestia knew I’d demolished a number of Dad’s waste stone blocks back on the farm...

“What are you doing here, Lieutenant?  Last time I checked Canterlot is a long way from the front lines,” I snapped back instead of pounding him into a pulp.

“I didn’t plan this if that is what your thinking.  I’d imagine I was here for the same reason as you, responding to a Royal summons,” he answered neutrally.  His orange eyes shifted from my face to the hoof grinding into the stone flooring.

“Unless you have any business with Miss Pie, Lieutenant, I believe you should be on your way,” Nocty spoke up, releasing my hoof as he stepped between us. “As you said, we have business ourselves with the Princess and it doesn’t do to keep one of the rulers of the country waiting.”

“Of course, Captain Noctensis.” came an almost automatic response from Heartfire to the batpony, who he quickly saluted with a forehoof sharply.  “I apologize for delaying you all.”  With a nod and returned salute, the two stallions began to go their separate ways when Ebony chose that moment to speak up.

“Excuse me, Lieutenant, but you seemed to have dropped something.”  The dark armored mare’s horn lit and the item Heartfire had dropped earlier rose from the floor.  At the sight of it, my brain seemed to skip the tracks it was on and careen down the hillside.

“A lunch box…?” I asked with a slight snort of laughter before my brain could right itself and remind me I hated this stallion.

“Not just any lunch box, a Stable Tec lunchbox,” Ebony said with a grin, ears perked upright at my small laugh.  “Having a lunch date with the Princess, are we?”  The blue and yellow trimmed metal box rattled about as it floated in front of the stallion’s face.  It was suddenly surrounded by a brighter orange glow that managed to pull it away from Ebony’s own magical grip and floated over to Heartfire.

“Hardly, Lieutenant,” he responded, staring pointedly at the mare before placing the case atop his back.  “It was a gift from the Princess for seeing to a personal matter for her.”

“Oh?  A matter she didn’t ask one of her guards to do for her?  That’s surprising…” Nocty added, looking more closely at the Lieutenant.

“It’s been happening a lot lately I hear.” Heartfire looked between the two guards to me, before looking back to Nocty.  However, his attention was pulled back to Ebony when she spoke up next.

“Besides, it’s hardly just a simple lunch box, despite its appearance.”  The mare nodded her horned head towards the blue and yellow box with the image of a smiling earthpony wearing a jumpsuit of some sort upon its side.  “From what I’ve heard in the news lately, those are being given out to ponies chosen to enter a Stable.  Supposed to have all the things needed to ensure you get into your assigned Stable.  I’ve heard of ponies selling them for a ton of bits.”

“Ponies are scared, and ponies do strange and silly things when they are scared.  However, the Lieutenant’s personal possessions are not our concern, we’ve kept the princess waiting long enough.” Nocty shook his head slowly before taking a step past Heartfire to reach up for the door handle.  “Ladies?” he asked pulling the door back.

Ebony trotted past with one last look at the lunchbox and the stallion carrying it before stepping inside.  I hesitated following her inside, for what reason I’m not sure.  My feelings towards Heartfire and what he did to me were fairly plain to all.  At least, I thought they were before I’d seen him again.  All those wonderful times we’d spent together had started coming back to me as we’d stood talking.  Well, the others had talked, I had silently fumed… or remembered.  Shaking my head I glanced back towards the stallion only to find him already half way down the hall, turning a corner and disappearing out of sight.

So, for the second time, he left quietly with not even so much as a goodbye.  I snorted softly, wondering what else I should have expected of the pony.  I suppose… I’d expected better.

“Come on, Issie, let’s see this done,” Nocty said from the doorway, barely above a whisper.

With a nod of my head, I trotted forward through the door and into the meeting room.




*     *     *     *




With a tired grunt escaping my lips, I groggily shifted upon the soft surface I was laying on and opened my eyes.  I was half expecting to see the dark inside of the royal meeting room I’d just been entering moments ago… or at least it’d felt like moments.  I also half expected to be waking up as that other pony, the one I’d just been dreaming about, being told we’d fallen asleep in front of the Princess.  A quick check however indicated I still had all my boy parts and no lady parts.  Honestly, after so many dreams about her and her bat winged coltfriend, you’d think it’d become second nature to wake up somewhere other than where I’d just been.  Still it would have been interesting to meet Princess Luna even if it had only been just a dream.  Also, those two new ponies seemed familiar… Ebony for obvious reasons, but Heartfire also.  I know I’ve heard that name before… but where?

Ugh, it was too damned early, late or whatever time it was to be confused about my current whereabouts and gender or why I was having these… whatever they were or about ponies names who likely never existed.  At this point, I was sure they weren’t dreams… not after everything that had been happening as of late.

With the memories of that other life and place slowly fading into the background of my waking mind, I took stock of my surroundings.  I realized I had once more woken up in a hospital, or rather the Janesville clinic.  I really should get credit for the number of times I’d spent in a medical facility.  Careful to avoid waking any other patients there that might have been around me, I pushed myself up into a slight sitting position and quickly scanned the room.  Sure enough, a number of them still held ponies in varying states of health.  All seemed to either be resting or still asleep at the moment.  Shifting my head away from the beds, I looked instead to a nearby window.  Despite thick white curtains pulled across it, traces of dim light forced its way into the room.

Seeing it was devoid of any medical personal, I decided to see what the damages to myself had been this time.  Lifting up my sheets, I looked myself over and was surprised at what little I saw mangled, which was nothing.  A pair of bandages were wrapped across my chest and over my left shoulder, thankfully lacking any signs of blood loss.  Either they’d been replaced just recently or my injuries weren’t as bad as I’d expected them to be.  Rubbing a hoof across my neck and face turned up only a few small scratches, one of which had warranted stitches.  So, I’d gotten off easily this trip it seemed.  That was a fact my Pipbuck agreed to, indicating I was 95% fit.  Well, that was 90% more than I was expecting.

With my curiosity sated, I rested my head back down atop the rather flat pillow and attempted to get a bit more sleep before a doctor or nurse came in to check on their patients or just to poke and prod at me.  I’d just barely shut my eyes when the image of a mismatched face popped up into my mind and I shivered despite the warmth of the bed and room.  It seemed my mind was set on thinking about the unsettling events that led to my current stay in a medical facility.  Shaking my head, I rolled over onto my side and attempted to put off remembering anything about last night when another thought popped up into my head.  Perhaps it hadn’t been last night… for all I knew I could have been knocked out for a couple days.  Stone and Wild could have already returned and Carrion maybe free.  That’d be awesome.

With a slight hope, I lifted my right foreleg up to my face and checked the clock on my Pipbuck.  The hope was swiftly dashed upon sharp radioactive rocks as the time indicated it’d only been six, maybe seven and a half hours since I’d met with Spirit last night.  Give or take an hour, I mean, I did slam into that wall pretty hard after the…

Sitting up so suddenly nearly resulted in me falling out of bed.  Spirit, she’d been with me last night in the room.  Shit… she’d been sitting closer to the stove than I had, right in front of the damned thing in fact.  From my unsteady position on the edge of my bed, I began frantically scanning the nearby beds for any sign of my large buffalo friend.  It shouldn’t have been hard, she’d stand out like a sore hoof among the town’s dominantly pony population.  However, with each empty or pony filled bed, my concern for her well being only grew.  Had she been more severely injured than I’d first thought?  That… nightmarish creature had made it clear his intentions on seeing my friends and I dead sooner or later… perhaps he’d started early…

It wasn’t until I turned my nervous attention further from my corner of the room that I finally spotted the unmistakable form of Spirit laying upon a bed near the door.  The buffalo lay upon her side with her back to me and covered as best she could be with white sheets.  She appeared largely whole, at least what of her I could see that wasn’t covered, which honestly wasn’t much.  Her head had a number of white bandages wrapped around it and between her small horns.  I worried how much more of her body had been struck by shards of hot metal, but she appeared well enough, her sides rising and falling as she slept.  I suppose we’d both been lucky all things considered, as it’d happened in the clinic.  With so many ponies in the building, we’d likely been found within a couple seconds of the explosion and treated very soon after.

With my fears for Spirit’s well being eased somewhat, I laid back on my side and stared across the space to the empty bed next to mine.  This time I didn’t even attempt to shut my eyes and get some rest, as I was sure it’d once more elude me.  My mind was already wandering back to those crazy events from last night.  What had happened… or more exactly, what the flying fuck had happened?  Had any of it been real?  Part of me said no, of course not.  It couldn’t have possibly been real… it was too unbelievable to have been real.  If anypony else had told me something so fantastic, I’d assume they needed professional help.

Another part of me though, the part that had told me what I’d seen in Second Sight’s tent had been real, that the voices in my head were something more than insanity brought on by the wasteland.  That the dreams were not just dreams, but something else I was supposed to know, that I was meant to be more than just a gardener as my cutie mark had seemed to indicate.

That I had a purpose in the future of Equestria...

That part of me told me that last night had been real, and that I should take heed of everything I’d been told.  It was a frightening thought.  Everything that creature… Disharmony, had shown me could turn out to be true.  That my friends and I would end up very dead, and everything we’d done would have been for nothing.  The empty bed across from me suddenly seemed less so, as I imagined the bodies of my friends laid out upon it… limbs broken… blood running from their wounds.  Just as I’d seen them last night.  Blinking away tears, I rolled over onto my other side, staring at the cracked wall rather than the empty bed, gripping the corner of my sheets in between my forelegs.  Did we really have no control over our own lives, all this was… fated to happen?  Was this all just some damned game for some omnipotent beings?

With my thoughts spiraling deeper into darkness, I likely would have remained there for a longer time than was healthy if I hadn’t been pulled away from the edge of despair.  The life line came in the sound of a familiar and welcome voice calling out my name from directly behind me.  Rubbing my cheeks (I wasn’t crying… nope), I rolled onto my back and leaned up a bit to get a better look looked at the doorway of the ward room.

“Ya know, if’n ya’ll wanted some alone time, ya could’a just asked us to wander off fore this whole mess started,” Stonehoof said with a cheerful grin as he trotted between the row of beds towards me.  None of the other patients seemed to give the stallion a second look as he passed.  “Ah’d be a might sore with ya as Ah didn’t take Spirit in th’ bettin’ pool.”  Despite the darkness of my earlier thoughts, I couldn’t help a chuckle as I responded.

“I think she’s got another stallion in mind for that sorta activity back in San Ponsisco, Stone.” I sat up fully this time and pushed the sheets back from my body.  “You're sounding more and more like Wild every day, Stone, that mare’s a bad influence on you,” I added with a chuckle.

“Ah reckon so, but then all mares are bad influences on stallions,” he said while covering the last few steps up to my bed.  Stone noticed my bandages and chuckled before making the understatement of the year, “Don’t seem we can leave ya alone without ya hurtin’ yerself in someway despite lackin’ others shottin’ at ya.”  I snorted at that before he went on.  “So Spirit’s got herself a stallion back in Ponsisco, does she?” he asked while reaching back into his ever present saddlebags for something.

"She does according to the rumor mill in my apartment building, but then Bluebell had always been a bit of a gossip even back in the Stable.  If you asked her, I was the father of a number of foals.”  All the moving around I’d been doing seemed to catch up with me as all four limbs ached from their sudden use.  Wincing, I rubbed a hoof along my shoulder and attempted to roll it a bit when movement from Stone caught my attention once again.

“Here ya go,” my friend said as he turned back towards me, tossing something from his mouth upon the bed.

Lowering my hoof from my shoulder, I shuffled the cloth aside to reveal the number 45 sewed upon the collar of my old jumpsuit.  It looked surprisingly clean given everything that’d happened to us over the past few days.  As I lifted it up, I noticed it hadn’t just been cleaned, but patched up as well.  All the new holes from knives, bullets and many, many falls had been repaired to the point I almost couldn’t tell they’d been there in the first place.  Seeing my inspection and no doubt confused expression, Stone spoke up with the answer.

“After they got done patchin’ ya up, they tossed yer stuff in with th’ other dirty laundry.  Ah’ saw it waitin’ fer ya when we got back this mornin’ and decided ta patch it up fer ya while Wild was busy patchin’ up th’ chariot.”  My ears perked up at the mention of damage to our ride, but more at the thought of either Wild or Stone being hurt.  “Don’t worry none, lightnin’ just clipped us on th’ way out.  Chipped th’ paint a bit and blew a couple of th’ lights inside.  Nopony was hurt, just a bit shook up.  Oh, and fair warnin’, expect ta be teased th’ next time ya see Wild.  She heard a mare stripped ya down ta yer coat.  Ah might also tell ’er ya slept with half yer Stable too.”

“Of course she will,” I groaned and hid my face into my jumpsuit while he chuckled.  “And of course you will.  Why are we friends again?”  Folding my ears back, I lifted my head back up and looked over at my friend.  “So cooking, sewing, and a sharp shooter… is there anything you can’t do?  It’s no wonder Wild chases off any mare that gets close to you,” I said while starting to straighten out my clothing.  “She’d look like a vagrant if you ran off with somepony else.”  He snorted, but didn’t argue my point.

“Wasteland’s a good teacher of skills ya need ta survive it, been learnin’ them since Ah was a colt, he said at first with a smile.  For a moment I thought that’d be it, but as I shuffled the jumpsuit about to get it on he spoke again, he switched to a topic I wasn’t thrilled about.  “So, Doc Bandaid said there was an explosion, in th’ clinic of all places?”  He sat down across from me on the empty bed.

“It was hardly a real explosion, Stone,” I began, ignoring the questioning look he gave me by focusing on getting my hind legs through the legs of my jumpsuit. “Spirit’s camping stove just decided to suddenly stop working… violently.  How long was I out for anyway?” I asked, already knowing the answer but hoping it’d be the end of the subject about what happened last night.  However, I knew it wouldn’t be.

“About six or seven hours at most Ah’ imagine, nopony said what time ya tried ta blow yerselfs up.  Wild and Ah’ actually heard about it while th’ lawpony and his assistants were gettin’ settled in, th’ mayor mentioned what happened ta ya.  Figured Ah’d best get over here and check on ya again, see if’n ya woke up and needed yer things,” my large, grey friend explained while I wiggled my hindquarters into the suit.

“Wild go catch up on her sleep?” I asked while fighting with my tail.  It seemed uninterested in threading through the hole in my suit this morning, or maybe I was just having trouble focusing on getting it in.  Glancing up to my friend, I saw him sitting just inches from where I’d seen an image… maybe a vision of his broken body lying across the bed.  Thoughts of the others, dead, entered my mind once again, seemingly burned into my memory.  With an angered snort, I finally managed to thread my tail into place and I began pushing my forelegs through their sleeves.

“Not yet, she went ta check on Carrion while Ah came ta give ya some adult supervision.”  He gave a half hearted chuckle before once more going silent.  I wasn’t certain, but I think he didn’t fully believe my hurried explanation.  His next question indicated I wasn’t wrong.  “Ah’ gotta admit, still not sure how ya two managed to get so hurt from a simple campin’ stove blowin’ up.  Ah’ could see it if it’d been th’ one Ah’ use, it runs off some volatile stuff, but Spirit’s wasn’t that heavy duty.  Did ya turn it up too high or use th’ wrong fuel tank on it?”

My left forehoof froze midway to the end of the suit’s sleeve as images of a grinning Disharmony flashed into my mind seconds before the stove had exploded.  Shaking, I focused on getting my jumpsuit back on and wondered how I was suppose to answer his question.  How had we managed to blow ourselves up using nothing but a simple camping stove?  I couldn’t tell him the truth, could I?  Not when I still struggled to believe it myself.

Nope… wasn’t anything like that Stone.  Spirit thinks I’m haunted by Wasteland spirits so we went and tried to talk to them.  Instead we seemed to accidentally summon an ancient evil demi god from Tartarus into a dream world.  He looked like a patchwork quilt of different things and was prattling on about how we were all just pieces for a game being played between higher powers.  He also showed me our future where we all die messily and needlessly for nothing.  Oh, and I think there were tortured spirits on the walls of the exam room while we had our little chat… how bout that, eh?

“To be honest, I’m not sure, Stone,” I said instead, not ready to be tossed into the nut house.  Although I doubt anyplace still had them, given the everyday insanity that ran rampant across the world.  “Why don’t we ask Spirit, she might have some idea what happened.”  Yep, I just threw Spirit under the bus… way to go, tough guy.  Reaching down between my hind legs, I nabbed the zipper to my suit and pulled it forward, careful not to catch anything as I did.

“That’ll be a might hard, seein’ how she an’t woke up yet,” he answered, glancing across his shoulder towards the door and Spirit’s bed.

“She hasn’t?”  My ears perked upright in alarm and my eyes shot over to the still form of Spirit.  “Is she alright?” I asked, leaving the suit half way closed as I began standing up from my bed, intent on quickly going to check on her.  A grey hoof held me back, however, and I returned my attention to Stone.

“Doc said she’s fine, got th’ worst of th’ blast it seems and just needs a bit more rest.”  Somehow, I got the feeling he didn’t believe that anymore than he believed my half assed story about the stove just blowing up.  His hoof pushed me back down on the bed which I reluctantly sat down upon.  “Doc Bandaid also said ya wasn’t ta go leavin’ th’ clinic or runnin’ around on yer own till he gets a chance ta check ya over. He caught me comin’ in a few mintues ago while speakin’ with his staff.”

“Fine, fine…” I muttered (not sounding like a foal at all mind you) before settling back upon my hindquarters, running a hoof through my messy mane and focusing on Stone.  “How’s Carrion doing?”

“As far as Ah know, Carrion’s doin’ well.  As well as anypony can be in this sorta mess. Wild said he seemed ta have given up… ta be honest, Ah rightly don’t know,” he added that last bit with a shake of his head, looking from me to the window beside my bed.

“Oh?” I hadn’t exactly noticed any problem between the two, but when I thought about it, I haven’t noticed them talking much either.  I decided not to press the issue, if there even was one.  Honestly his answer about Carrion was much more of a surprise than finding a pony who wasn’t in some way (even a small one) distrustful of ghouls.  I had been half expecting ponies to form a lynch mob outside the Confederate barracks at any time, complete with pitchforks and torches (odd… I hadn’t seen a raider using a pitch fork).  After all, he and Fleethoof had been accused of murder.

As I mulled over the lack of mobs, something I’d noticed from earlier caught my attention again and I glanced back to the other side of the room.  I spotted the bed where Jackhammer had been laying since we’d arrived.  The stallion was still lying motionless.  At the foot of his bed, I saw the orange coat of his granddaughter, Tinkerbelle, sitting slumped in her seat.  The young mare had apparently fallen asleep in her chair sometime during the night with her front half laying across the bed.  What I didn’t see, was the only other near constant presence in that part of the ward, Balefire.  I turned back to Stone and asked about the brash, young stallion.

“That’s somethin’ Ah reckon we need ta talk about.  We weren’t th’ only ones arrivin’ in town this mornin’ and ya might wanna be aware of her ‘fore she corners ya,” Stone began and with that he had my full attention.  However, the door to the ward room chose that moment to light up with a magical aura and open.

The first pony to enter was the aforementioned Doctor Bandaid.  The short, middle aged unicorn stallion trotted lightly into the room, attempting not to wake anypony still asleep.  As he approached, he was scanning his patients with a critical eye before stopping on me.  Ears perking up, he nodded once towards me before turning to those following him.  Behind the brown coated doctor came a pair of unicorn nurses, one was pushing a metal cart with a wide array of bottles, small cups, and a couple of needle tipped syringes.  The other floated a clipboard and a number of files beside her in her light blue magic.  After speaking with the two mares, the doctor floated something from the cart and began walking towards me with it floating along behind him.

“Well, I see you're finally awake,” he said as he neared my corner of the room.  The object he’d been holding in his magic floated over to me.  I held out a hoof and he lowered the small plastic cup into it.  Peering inside, I saw two off white medicine tablets.  Well, more like lumps really, they’d obviously been made by hoof like so many things in the wasteland.  “So, how are you feeling this morning?” he asked.  The glow of his horn began lighting up once again as he pulled out a stethoscope from his white lab coat before draping it across his neck.

“Not bad, all things considered, Doc,” I answered before lifting the cup to my mouth and tossing both pills in.  I ignored the odd taste they left on my tongue before swallowing them dry.  I stuck my tongue out as I felt the oddly shaped lumps slide down my throat… ugh, what was wrong with perfectly good health potions to fix yourself up? “Stone said you needed to do a check up before I left, is something wrong?”

“No, nothing really,” Bandaid said while he began checking my bandaged cuts.  The stallion’s fore hooves prodded this and that across my body before seeming satisfied with the lack of blood or yelps of pain (although there were plenty of whinces at a few sore spots.)  “We just found a rather odd magical signature in the fragments of metal we had to remove from both yourself and Spirit,” he added before pulling the stethoscope up to his ears.  “And I wanted to do a follow up once you woke up.”

“Odd?  Odd how?” I asked, wondering if it had anything to do with my unusual visitor last night.  I yelped as something cold was pressed to my side, glancing over to see the cold metal tip of the stethoscope pushing against my black coat.  The doctor gave a thoughtful hum as he listened to my heartbeat and lungs for a moment before finally withdrawing the warmth sucking metal disk.  Honestly, was it an unwritten law that those things had to be ice cold?

“To be honest with you, I really don’t know,” he began, sitting back upon his haunches.  He took the empty cup from my hoof and floated it across the walkway to a nurse as she moved to pass out medicine to another pony.  “We had a terrible time simply getting them removed from you two.  They seemed almost resistant to our magic, which is the normal method of extracting bits of shrapnel by unicorn doctors.  Simply levitating them out from the wound is much cleaner than using scalpels and tweezers.  It wouldn’t work though despite using a number of different spells.”  He reached up and pulled his glasses from his muzzle, taking the end of his coat with the other to rub the lenses as he continued, “We were forced to do things the old fashion way."

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that,” Stone pointed out.  It was, after all, how earth pony doctors would have worked.

“No, there isn’t, but it leaves the patient more chances to develop infections due to more foreign objects being shoved into their body.  It’s simply another risk for a pony whose odds of surviving out here are pretty long,” Bandaid said honestly, looking to Stone while I winced.  Goddesses know I’d had enough foreign objects shoved into my body… wait… oh shit, fucking Wild’s twisted since of humor…

“We also noticed both of your natural magical signatures seemed to be in a state of chaos.  Magical scans turned up unusual traces of foreign magic mixed in with your own,” the doctor added a moment later.  He slipped his glasses back upon his muzzle and saved me from thinking any further along the lines of one sick minded pegasus.

“Well… that sounds bad.” That was all I could really find to say.  Magic wasn’t my strong suit, despite growing up with a unicorn sister and niece.  I knew just a bit more than the average earth pony who had had any schooling.

“Yes, it is bad, very very bad and it's also very unusual giving the circumstances of your injury.  Normally this sort of thing is from having a unicorn casting an offensive spell upon yourself, or a magical weapon of some type being used upon you.  However, this would still only leave small traces of the foreign magic mixed in with your own given how rapidly those sort of spells are meant to work.  While it could be credited to some oddity of the surrounding countryside, there hasn’t been a single case similar to this within Janesville as far back as I can remember.  So it’s very likely it couldn’t have been caused by anything naturally occurring.”

“What’d this foreign magic even do to us?” I asked, glancing past the doctor to Spirit.  “I don’t feel any different really.”

“Beyond slowing our treatment of your wounds, we also believe this foreign magic is why it took you so long to wake up and why Spirit is still unconscious.  The force of the stove exploding wasn’t enough to cause any permanent injury to your head… which in itself is unusual, but I’ll explain that in a moment.  As near as we can tell, it was the stove exploding that implanted this foreign magic into you both.”

“And you're sure it came from the stove?” I asked, to which the doctor nodded.

“That don’t make a lick of sense.  Th’ most magical thin’ in it shoulda been th’ flint used ta light th’ wick,” Stone added, glancing from me to the doctor.  The stallion sounded unsure what to make of it all.  “Ah’ve used one similar ta it years ago, and Ah’ve seen ’em fer sell in Crossroads and San Ponsisco.  If what yer sayin’ is true, then there shoulda been more cases of somethin’ like this happenin’ fore.”

“You're very correct Stonehoof.  As common as this type of stove is in the Confederacy there should be some records of this happening before, even if it was just hearsay.  However, what is even more troubling is the fact we couldn’t find anything special about the remains of the stove we recovered from the blast site.  Nothing about it that would explain how it seemingly infected you both with this unusual magic.”

“Alright… you mentioned something else about my injuries?” I asked.

“Yes, or rather a lack of them.  Judging both by the sound and force at which you two were struck by the shards, the room should have looked like a number of grenades had gone off right in front of you.  Though, beyond the smoking remains of the stove, there wasn’t any other damage.”  Sighing, he glanced back towards Spirit.  “It just doesn't make any sense…” he muttered before returning to examine me.

What's the fun in making sense... 

That comment echoed within my head while Doctor Bandaid went back to poking and prodding at whatever he needed.  I only half noticed whenever he touched something sore.  My mind was elsewhere, attempting to make sense of what was likely pure madness.  This was yet more evidence that what had happened last night had been real… very physical evidence I might add.

Once again my thoughts turned to the game board he’d made appear beneath my hooves, with miniatures of the different factions within the wasteland and markers for towns and settlements.  If I believed everything I’d seen and heard thus far, then whatever Disharmony was up to was bad news for anypony involved.  That much was almost completely crystal clear.  So, what was I supposed to do about it?  At first, I thought everything Second Sight had said was just about me going out into the wasteland and making life better for other ponies.  Now that I thought about it though, her words made it sound as if I had some destiny to play in the coming events, in this chess game of the gods.  She had mentioned another pony who was important to this game...

I glanced across the unicorn stallion’s shoulder, as he turned to answer a question from Stone, and looked to Spirit.  The second nurse was attempting to wake the sleeping buffalo, with little success by the looks of it.  After one more gentle nudge, she shook her head and floated the cup of medicine from her tray and onto the table beside Spirit’s bed before turning and moving to another patent.  Had Disharmony done something to us by way of the exploding stove?  Spirit was the only one of my friends who had heard Disharmony speaking to me during the riot yesterday morning.  She’d just been attempting to help me learn what it was.  Was that why Spirit still hadn’t awoken?  Because she could help me with this?  

Bandaid had said the pieces had not acted normally.  If that was true, what other powers did this creature have?  What could anyone hope to do against someone who could warp reality to their will?  Before I could continue down that worrying path, I was snapped back to the present by a bright light shining directly into my eye.

“Sonofabitch!” I swore, jerking my head away from that blinding light.  I heard Stone chuckle.

“Got ta thinkin’ again, Ah take it?” my friend asked while I rubbed a hoof against my eye.  “Ya always get distracted when yer thinkin’ hard bout somethin’.”

“Yeah, yeah…” I muttered, turning my attention on Doctor Bandaid and noticing at once his worried expression.  “Uh… something wrong, Doc?”

“Yes, your right eye has gotten worse.  It would seem blunt force trauma to the head didn’t do you any favors,” he said while levitating a small flash light back to one of his coat pockets.  “You didn’t react more then a slight twitch when I flashed the light into your right eye, you reacted more when it was shown into your left.”

“Spirit told us it was gonna get worse,” Stone spoke up from the doctor’s left where he’d slipped from the empty bed to stand closer to the foot of my bed.

How bad had it gotten since yesterday?  Deciding to check for myself I lifted my right foreleg up and waved my hoof across my face.  Worryingly, it seemed to disappear a lot sooner than I’d expected.  Now that I was paying attention, I noticed just how much less of the entire room I was seeing.  Stone looked on with concern as I closed my left eye completely.  I was shocked to see just how bad my vision was in my right eye.  A mass of darkness had seemed to settle across my vision, covering almost the entire right half of my sight. Shifting my eye to the left and right, the blob of shadows moved along with my eye.

“I’m sorry there’s not anything we can do for you, Marshall,” Doctor Bandaid said as I opened my left eye and focused on him.  He looked unhappy as if this was somehow all his fault and not the raider I’d fought in the forest or the radiation that had made it worse.  “I suspect you’ll be completely blind in your right eye before the end of the week.”

After that, we all fell into silence.  Nopony seemed interested in saying much and Doctor Bandaid quickly finished his check up.  After another ten minutes or so, he informed me that I was good to go with no signs of anything else wrong with me, but that I should take it easy for the next couple of days.  Spirit, however, was another matter.  Until she woke up, there wasn’t much anypony could really do for her except change her bandages and see to her body’s personal needs.  He wasn’t sure when she’d wake up and although he didn’t say it, I could see he was worried that the buffalo might not ever wake.  I wanted to ask him about Jackhammer, but one of the nurses had called his name to help her with a pony further down the line from my bed. 

Leaving the doctor to his other patients, I thanked him and stood up.  Together with Stone, I approached Spirit’s bed to better see how she was doing.  Upon closer inspection, I could see how many more bandages she had across her chest, neck and head than I.  It wasn’t surprising seeing how she’d been closer to the explosion.  Like mine, however, her’s showed no sign of blood so her wounds must have been healing quickly enough.  The only sign she was still alive was the rise and fall of her side as she lay upon the bed, eyes closed.  If it wasn’t for the location or the bandages it looked as if she was simply sleeping.  Would she wake up?  Somehow, I thought she would.  Dying in your sleep didn’t seem to suit Disharmony’s style… but then I’d only just met the insane creature.

“Ah’m sure she’ll be up and about in a day or so,” Stone said beside me, perhaps picking up on my troubling thoughts.

“She’s in good hooves here,” I agreed, nodding to my friend.  With little else either of us could do for her, we left Spirit in the care of the clinic and walked through the doorway into the waiting room.  It was empty save for the receptionist sitting behind the front desk.  The mare offered us a smile and a farewell before returning to her work.  From there, we left the clinic and started back towards the saloon where we’d been staying.  The plan at the moment was to regroup with Wild, find out where Balefire was, and try and figure out what was going on with Carrion.  I also had to try and piece together what Disharmony had spoken of last night, something I’d have to do on my own for the time being…

A dark grey overcast sky greeted us as we stepped out of the clinic, the same as always if a bit darker from last night's storm.  Judging by the distant rumble of thunder, we were likely due another downpour, or the earlier storm had just ended a while ago.  The paved streets were pock marked with puddles of dark water, and the air smelled of damp earth and the odd scent of rain I’d still yet to grow accustomed too.

There seemed to be fewer ponies this far north of the town’s center, or they were staying indoors still.  Either way, I suppose that would explain why I hadn’t noticed the change in the town since yesterday.  Once we were a block away from the clinic, however, you began to notice the little things around you more.  You’d be mistaken assuming just by a quick glance that despite everything that had happened the day before, nothing seemed to have really changed in Janesville.  A few houses away from the clinic, we began to see a few ponies going about their daily lives, but if you really looked… you could see the change.

Ponies were coming from their homes along the edge of the street, and while the greeting wasn’t the warmest it was still an acknowledgement of our existence.  Most appeared to be heading in the same direction as us, towards the town's center, while others passed us on their way home or to a friends.  The rumble of wood on stone and the occasional splash of a puddle to our left announced the passing of a wagon on the street.  A glance in that direction revealed two earth ponies pulling the patchwork transport while another rode upon the back, another pair following behind it.  All were armed like wastelanders.  They were probably one of the families from beyond the town's walls, getting ready to set back out from gathering their monthly supplies.

The trend of normalcy continued as homes turned to stores once we reached the center of town, and the area where the horrors of the previous morning had been on display.  Many of those shops had their doors pushed open, allowing the slight morning breeze to enter their stuffy and cramped room fronts and cool the shoppers and workers within the buildings.  It also allowed me to peek inside them as we walked past them, seeing normal business going on.  Store owners were either haggling prices with shoppers or simply talking with their neighbors or friends.  A pair of ponies entered a shop ahead of us, giving Stone and myself a simple polite nod of greeting but little else.

“Ya see it too, Ah take it?” Stone asked, breaking the silence that had settled across us since we’d left the clinic.  I nodded to my friend, keeping my eyes on the ponies around us.

“Yes.  They’re afraid.”  That was all I said, nodding politely to a stallion as he exited the barber shop across the road from us.  Despite what appeared to be a normal day, at least what would pass as one, in a normal town in the wasteland, there was a heaviness to the air.  It wasn’t from the recent storm, nor was it caused by the oppressive overcast sky or the near constant reminder of surrounding radiation from my lightly clicking Pipbuck.  The locals were far from relaxed, all you had to do was look.  Really look.

An errant ear twitch there or a sudden turn of the neck there towards an unknown sound in an alleyway between buildings they passed.  Smiles or polite greetings that just two days ago were genuine now didn’t seem to reach the owner's eyes or voices.  While anypony in the wasteland was normally armed, the ponies around us seemed… extra so.  Ready for trouble at a moment's notice.  Not even the arrival of so many feral ghouls the day before had warranted a turnout of firearms and other weapons like this.

There was also a noticeable lack of young foals running about the sidewalks or empty lots playing while their parents shopped or worked nearby.  While I hadn’t seen a school house since I’d arrived, I suppose they might have been there, but I doubted it.  Not all small towns in the wasteland seemed to value a full education, focusing more on the needs of survival.  Though I couldn’t honestly blame them for that, I still hadn’t used much more than simple addition and such.  Those few I did see as we trotted through town stuck close to their parent’s side, despite longing looks towards friends and playmates as they passed.  The young ponies looked to want to be anywhere else at the moment than staying close to the adults.

“Not surprisin’ really given what's happened,” Stone said quietly as we slowed our pace, as just down the street was the saloon.  Despite the hour, it seemed busy enough with a half dozen ponies standing out front and the unmistakeable form of Wildfire among them.  The orange coated, red maned mare stood out among the olive drab dressed strangers.  Stone was about to add something else when he noticed Wild and the group outside our destination and suddenly went silent. 

Thinking perhaps he was about to call out to his mare friend, I glanced over to my right and was confused to see a worried look upon his face.  His ears were swiveled back against the brim of his cowpony hat and his eyes remained fixed not upon Wildfire, but the group of armored ponies ahead of us.  Something was off here… Stone didn’t spook easily.  I turned my attention forward and took in the appearance of this small group.

They were a mix of stallions and mares, all dressed in similar olive green armor.  They most likely belonged to the Confederate Army in some manner.  Odd, I would have suspected Lieutenant Swift would have most of her soldiers stationed around the town given she was under strengthen.  Looking closer, I noticed they all carried rifles of a type similar to Stone’s hunting rifle.  Most appeared to even be bolt action weapons, while a few had small boxy magazines.  One, however, had a battle saddle across her back with what looked like a light machine gun on one side while the other held a large olive colored ammo box.  A stallion standing beside her had extra packs across his sides, likely the mare’s loader.  It was the group's leader who surprised me and who made it clear these were not Lieutenant Swift’s ponies.  The mare seemed far less surprised to see me when her turquoise blue eyes locked on me.  Without a word, she began trotting towards us, the rest of her squad following behind while Wild lept up and flew past the group.

I’d seen her twice before back in San Ponsisco, both times only briefly and at the time she’d been wearing a cloth uniform.  Now, however, the bright yellow coated mare was wearing a lot more than a simple uniform.  Olive green combat armor covered most of her now, fitting snuggly with what I remembered was a slender, shapely figure.  As the distance between us shorted, I could make out the C.S.E. patch on the shoulder guard of the group's armor, the twin alicorns surrounded by stars for each Stable in the Confederacy as well as the unit patch just below it.  A deep red circle with twin black assault rifles crossed atop one another over which a white pony skull sat between them.  Written above this all was ‘1st Rangers’ and below the emblem was the motto, ‘Paving the Way for Harmony, in blood’.  

Her helmet was tucked beneath her right wing, the single silver bar of a First Lieutenant sitting in the center of it made it clear who was in charge of this group.  Without the helmet, her purple mane was left largely free with the majority of its length tied back into a long ponytail with green bands.  Like her fellow soldiers, she wore tan colored saddlebags across her flanks with ‘C.S.E.’ displayed on the flaps in yellow thread.  Hanging upon the bags was an assortment of smaller packs and bits of kit.  Upon her chest armor was a smaller number of pouches, but also a holstered pistol and a knife upon her left foreleg.  This was a feature they all seemed to share. Across her back was an impressive looking sniper rifle, the weapon was as long as its owner and looked well cared for.  I could see the stock was made of some type of dark brown wood while the rest was matte black in color.  The barrel was quite large as was the muzzle and magazine.  It looked more like a gun you’d fire at a tank or one of those power armored ponies.  I had a feeling anypony hit by it would be losing large parts of their bodies.

“Hey, you’re up!  Doc Bandaid wasn’t sure how long it’d take either of you two to come around… this mean Spirit’s back up as well?” Wild asked as she landed lightly beside Stone and myself.  I hadn’t even noticed my friend taking off from where she’d been a moment before.

“No, Spirit’s still down, the doctor wasn’t sure when she’d wake up actually.  I’m sure she won’t be long behind me though.  To be honest, I just woke up an hour ago myself,” I explained, glancing from the nervous looking Wildfire to the Confederate Rangers quickly approaching us.  While being confronted by a bunch of heavily armed and skilled ponies normally might seem a worrying prospect, I’d already faced my fair share of them over the past few two months.  Also, I didn’t get the feeling this group was going to be shooting at me anytime soon.  After all, we were all on the same side here.  They also looked far too calm for ponies about to start something, with the exception of the mare leading them.  She seemed downright intent on speaking with me.  Perhaps with that fancy rifle of hers...

“Oh?  That’s too bad… maybe we should go back and see how she’s doing, eh?” I arched a brow at the odd way Wild had said this and looked over to see her making odd jerking motions with her head.  “Like maybe right now?” she added with a innocent smile, waving back down the road Stone and I had just come… away from the Rangers.  I wasn’t so dense that I didn’t understand what she was attempting to suggest, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.

“I see your friend isn’t as injured as the doctor feared,” Sunburst said to Wild as she and her fellow soldiers caught up with the winged, orange mare.

“Yeeeeeah…,” was all my friend could really manage to say, glancing between the two of us while her wings fluttered in a way that I’d come to figure out meant she was nervous.

“Lieutenant Sunburst, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” I began, offering nods to the ponies behind her before focusing solely upon the mare standing before me.  She was Balefire’s adopted sister, and daughter to the President of the Confederate Stables of Equestria.  Despite all that, and a brief meeting in the market with Sugar to buy groceries and during Nightmare Night when she’d arrived to calm a group of ponies upset over the radio broadcast from Old Oaks, I hardly knew the mare.  Still, I could easily see she was upset, and suddenly I recalled what Wildfire had mentioned only a couple days ago… I suppose I could be forgiven for not remembering sooner.  After all, I’d been tossed into a wall recently.

“I’m sure… I’ve heard my brother talk almost non stop about you.  Marshall Shadow, was it?” she asked, purple eyes locked upon me.  I nodded to her question and she frowned.  “While I’ll freely admit what you’ve managed to do for the ponies of Old Oaks is amazing, I have to wonder why you did it.”  Her eyes narrowed while her ears laid back, a hoof rose up to poke me hard in the chest.  “And I wonder if you even realize just how much trouble you’ve gotten my brother into, dragging his ass all the way out here?” I winced every time her hoof poked into a sore spot on my still bandaged chest.  She wasn’t wrong, however...

“You're right,” I began, ears drooping.  “At the time my focus was on reaching the ponies trapped in Old Oaks.  The fact all of my friends arrived to help me caught me completely by surprise, and I admit that I didn’t stop to think if any of them had duties keeping them in San Ponsisco.  Have you seen Balefire yet?” I asked before movement off to the side caught my attention.  I glanced over to see a franticly jestering Wildfire waving her forelegs while shaking her head no, another harder jab struck my chest bringing my focus back to Sunburst.

“Have I seen my idiot brother?  Of course I’ve seen him… I had to lock him up with that ghoul of your’s in the brig!” she growled out, making me rethink the possibility of getting into a firefight in the middle of town.  The ponies behind her glanced at one another worriedly.  “My brother’s done nothing but talk about you like a damned hero.  It’s not surprising that he went AWOL to follow you off on some damned crusade.”  She stepped towards me, tail lashing behind her. “But I’ve seen enough so called heroes in the wasteland… they're nothing more than mercenaries getting ponies hopes up by driving off a couple small raider groups before disappearing with their caps ‘earned’ from helping while leaving the locals to face reprisals by those same raiders who’ve since banded together.  You're no better.”

The pure anger in her voice made it clear she believed every word of what she said and caused me to take a step back.  I began to wonder just how much of what I’d been doing between my former home and San Ponsisco could have been mistaken for what she was claiming I was.  Most ponies I’d encountered along my journey had seemed confused why I was helping them and not taking their caps, very few had genuinely believed what I was doing. 

While I’d never heard of it happening to anypony myself, that didn’t mean it couldn’t have happened sometime in the past… or even while I’d been blazing across the wasteland to San Ponsisco.  In fact, it seemed altogether possible that someone would use the misery and hopelessness of others to make a profit for themselves.  The wasteland was a very harsh and unforgiving place, filled by those willing to do whatever it takes to survive and who only look out for themselves.

“Hey!” Wild snarled from the side before hurriedly moving up between me and Sunburst.  My friend’s ears were also laid back as she spoke.  “Shadow’s never once asked a thing from anypony he’s saved!  He’s risked his life more times than I can count on all my flight feathers just to save complete strangers.  Hell, Balefire wouldn’t even be here to have gone AWOL if it wasn’t for Shadow!” she added that last part by jabbing the other pegasus in her armored chest with an orange hoof angrily.

“So you say…”

“Ah reckon so says Three Horns and th’ ponies he’s helped,” Stone chipped in.  “Yer brother included.  Yer right, the young buck does idolize Shadow a might at times, ‘specially when he’s tellin’ others stories about him, but yer brother made up his own mind ta come along with us ta Old Oaks.  Shadow was plannin’ on leavin’ on his own that night, he didn’t ask none of us ta come with’em.”

“I’m well aware of what he did to save my brother, but as I recall he was doing it to save his friends, not my brother,” Sunburst began, swatting Wild’s foreleg away with her own while glaring at my two friends.  “Three Horns has been wrong before about ponies, the Steel Rangers are proof of that.”

“You're right,” I said, cutting off Wild who was just opening her mouth.  I had to defuse this situation before it spiraled anymore out of control and somepony threw a punch.  “That was the only reason I went after the raiders’ train and, honestly, if Stone hadn’t been aboard it I might not have tried despite knowing there were prisoners aboard it.” I glanced to Stone and Wild before focusing back upon Sunburst.  “I don’t have anything to hide about that fact, we were all worn out from radiation poisoning and a near continuous running battle with raiders or ghouls.  We were low on medicine and ammo and were hardly in any shape to mount a rescue of anyone.”

“But ya still did,” Stone said.  “Ya risked yer life ta save me and in the process, saved a whole heap of other ponies, griffins, and zebras from a grim fate.”  The earth pony turned to look at Sunburst.  “Whether he meant ta or not, he still saved ’em and what he did after should tell ya what kind of pony he is.  He coulda just left ’em behind on th’ side of th’ tracks ta fend for themselves and face th’ reprisals from th’ raiders.  We had th’ sky chariot, could’a made a faster escape aboard it than on a train.”

“He never asked a cap from any of them,” Wild added, stepping towards Sunburst. “Shadow’s done more for the ponies of the wasteland in the past month than the Confederacy has in the last two.”  She was almost nose to nose with the other mare and I was beginning to wonder if they wouldn’t come to blows after all.  Neither seemed willing to back down and I was just about to speak up again when somepony else beat me to it.

“Excuse me ladies, but I couldn’t help but overhear your… conversation from across the town.  I trust we’re not having any problems here?”  Both mares broke their ‘death glare’ long enough to see who had been so bold as to attempt to break them up.

The speaker was a light tan earth pony stallion with a short cut brown mane and tail.  He trotted from directly behind Sunburst’s soldiers and seemed little troubled by the heavily armored ponies as he walked between them.  A single silver six shooter was holstered upon his right foreleg, similar to my own pistol, while across his back was a repeating rifle close in appearance to the one I’d used back in Old Oaks.  Beyond the firearms, he had a knife and a number of pouches and a canteen strapped around his body.  A worn and slightly dusty black vest was worn beneath the belts and a white cowpony hat sat perched atop his head.

The pony didn’t wait for an answer from the two mares, instead imposing himself between the two before they could continue to stare one another down.  It was quite clear just who this stallion was by the silver star pinned to his black vest which with even my bad eye I could see the word ‘Sheriff’ written across it.  Upon seeing this, both mares relaxed their ruffled wings… if only a little.

“No, Sheriff, we were just having… a difference of opinion,” Sunburst said from between gritted teeth as she glared at Wildfire across the stallion’s shoulder, her ears still laid back.

“Difference of opinion, my plot.”  My ears twitched as I heard Wild’s low muttered growl, which hadn’t gone unnoticed by the lawpony.  The stallion's head swiveled around to stare at the fiery mare.  Unsurprisingly, she didn’t look away and instead locked eyes with the earth pony’s blue-grey orbs as if daring him to say a word about it.  The Sheriff didn’t seem to rise to the bait, although a slight grin spread across his muzzle before he finally broke eye contact with Wild and glanced back over to Sunburst.  A thoughtful expression settled across his face.

“Lieutenant, last time I saw you I thought you were heading for the western gate to relieve Lieutenant Swift’s soldiers for the rest of the day.”

“We were just on the way there, Sheriff, when we ran into this pegasus.”  The pegasus in question snorted, but Sunburst went on.  “I was curious about the whereabouts of the Marshall.”

“Well, you seem to have found him, but I reckon those colts and fillies up at the guard station would like to be relieved after standing watch for the past ten hours.”

“Of course, Sheriff…” she said after a moment's hesitation before waving a fore hoof towards her soldiers, then fowards.  At the signal, the group began filing past us and the lawpony.  The heavy tread of armored ponies with the jingle of equipment was the only sound for a moment before Sunburst started after her ponies.  She stopped beside me, eyes fixed on her squad.  “Stay away from my brother, Marshall.  You’ve done enough harm to him.”  Without waiting for a response, she hurriedly trotted off.

“Ain’t she a charmer,” Stone said from beside Wild.  The stallion had moved up to either soothe the mare’s ruffled feathers or to keep her from leaping after Balefire’s sister.

“Bitch is more like it,” Wild growled, tail lashing about behind her while her ears remained lowered.  “Got a stick shoved so far up her plot…”  She shook her head and looked to me.  “Don’t believe a word she said, Shadow.”

“I’m afraid she takes after her father more than her mother,” the lawpony said with a slight chuckle.  He stepped up beside us and watched as she and her soldiers turned a corner in the street and disappeared behind a row of homes.  “Course that wasn’t always the case,” he added a second later with a sigh and a shake of his head before turning his full attention on us.  “Name’s Ranger, Sheriff of Sutter’s Mill.  Pleasure to meet you, Marshall.”  He extended a hoof towards me and I took it, shaking it firmly.

“I hear you’re a fair and honest lawpony, Sheriff Ranger.  I’m glad you're hear to get to the bottom of this whole mess my friends are in,” I said, remembering what both the Mayor and Lieutenant Swift had said of the stallion.  He simply nodded his head with a kind smile before I asked, “Is there anything we can do to help in anyway?”

“As a matter of fact, I was just on my way to ask you and your friends a few questions about the two suspects in this case.  Fleetfoot and Carrion I believe are their names?  And I’m happy to help anypony in need, Marshall, regardless of appearance or race.”

“Fleethoof’s her name actually, no relation to the Wonderbolt,” I corrected, which earned me a slightly confused look from the Sheriff and an odd look from my friends.  I suppose it wasn’t exactly relevant information to the problem at hoof, but it was something of the ghoul mare that linked her with everypony else in the wasteland: personality.  Despite how they might look, they still had them... most were just burred under years of mental anguish.  Seeing nopony had yet to say anything else, I nodded my head towards the saloon Stone and I had been heading to before becoming side tracked and asked, “Perhaps we could head inside and talk?”

“Of course, wouldn’t mind speaking over a late breakfast to be honest. I had to leave home a mite early this morning and that didn’t sit too well with the wife none,” Ranger answered with a smile and followed me up the steps of the saloon’s porch, my friends behind him.

“What about Balefire?” Wild asked as she followed us through the saloon’s double doors and into the main room.  It was largely empty, save for a hoof full of ponies in one corner of the room finishing up their meal.  They spared us a glance before going back to their conversion or meals as we made our way to an empty table.

“Ain’t much we can do for th’ poor buck, Ah reckon.  Despite her attitude, his sister is in th’ right.”  Stone sounded hardly happy about that fact, but sadly I couldn’t disagree with his assessment despite wanting to go get the young stallion out of jail.  Stone pulled a chair out to offer to Wild who deposited her rump into the seat with a huff.

“I hate it when you’re right,” the mare grumbled before crossing her forelegs on the table and leaning forward.  Her coltfriend sat down beside her, his hat pulled from his head to sit upon her head, earning a snort from the mare.

“I wouldn’t worry too much for your friend.  While the Confederate Army does frown on their soldiers going AWOL, it’s hardly an executionable offense anymore,” Ranger added while waving one of the waitresses in the room to our table.  He deposited his own hat down upon the table and slung his rifle off his back.  “At most it’s a few years in the small military prison down south and even then I doubt he’ll have to finish even a single year.  It’s not as if he ran off to escape the military or killed a pony.  Besides, I doubt his mother would allow him to come to any serious harm,” he added while running a hoof through his messy brown mane.

“I suppose helping ponies isn’t the same as what one thinks of when a soldier goes AWOL,” I said while removing my own head gear and mulling over the last part he’d said. 

Toying with the worn brim of Pipsqueak’s hat, I glanced over to Ranger and wondered about his familiarity with Balefire and Sunburst’s family.  While it could have just been an officer respecting a lawpony, the mare had quickly backed down from our argument when it clearly upset her so deeply.  Laying the hat down upon the back of my seat, I decided to sate my curiosity before we delve into a conversation about Carrion and Fleethoof.  That was a subject I was dreading, given the possibilities.

“It sounds like you know the President and her family as more than just a local lawpony, Sheriff,” I began, which earned a chuckle from him.  Before he could respond to the unasked question, however, a mare trotted up to our table, the same one he had waved to a few minutes ago.

“A good mornin’ ta ya, what can Ah get ya folks taday?” she asked, a note pad floating out from an apron tied around her neck as she awaited our orders.

All conversation stopped as we gave the waitress our orders.  Unsurprisingly, Wild ordered a little bit of everything, but then I suspected pulling an armored chariot through a storm laided sky took a lot out of a pony.  I’d heard it said that pegasi tended to eat more than your average pony, even a pony as large as Stonehoof.  It had something to do with their higher metabolism.  The Sheriff, Stone, and myself ordered simple meals of eggs, toast, and some fried vegetables while my large friend added bacon to his.  I’d tried it once… it wasn’t bad, but I’d noticed my rad count had jumped quite a bit.  With the food still cooking and a round of drinks delivered and sitting before us, Ranger finally answered my question.

“I suppose I do know her and her family a bit more than most around the Confederacy,” he began while adding a bit of sugar to his coffee.  “As I’m sure you're all aware, you get to know a pony after traveling through the wasteland with them, fighting off raiders and the local wildlife.  It was quite by chance that I happened upon her after she was kicked out of her Stable.”  That comment earned a few odd glances from my friends.

“Kicked out?  Ah thought President Starsong left her Stable ta come ta San Ponsisco and help with th’ rebuildin’,” Stone replied.  I had to admit, I was a bit curious myself.  After all, that was the most common version of that story for how the former Stable 52 mare had come to the city.  Ebony and I had talked about it once while listening to Three Horns on the radio. 

“In a way, I guess both stories are true,” Ranger answered, leaning back in his chair with a chuckle.  “She wasn’t originally heading for San Ponsisco though.  In fact, she didn’t have much of a plan at all beyond finding shelter.  I was a scavenger at the time, looting anything that anypony else hadn’t already or hadn’t discovered.  She literally ran into me while being chased by a pair of radscorpions.  How we managed to both climb the stairs up to the fifth floor without collapsing the entire thing is still beyond me.”  This got a chuckle from my friends.  Judging by the looks I was getting, it was likely at my expense.

“What is it with Stable ponies and radscorpions?” Wild asked, flashing me a genuine smile, ears perked upright.  I rolled my eyes which got another laugh from the mare and myself.

“Ah’m still wonderin’ if all Stable ponies are as reckless as this one,” Stone piped up, jabbing me with a hoof as he did so.

“I’d wager they are.  Speaking from personal experience, Starsong managed to trip over or alert about everything hostile in the apartment building she found me in,” Ranger answered before our food arrived.

Thanking the waitress, we began digging into our respective meals.  While we ate, my friends and Ranger shared stories about their adventures in foalsitting Stable ponies.  I took it all in stride, even adding my own two bits in when either Stone or Wild missed one of our more humorous encounters.  As each of us finished their plate, our conversation turned to what had originally brought us into the saloon in the first place.  Carrion, or rather what we knew of him.  While Wild and Stone spoke, I slowly began to notice a rather depressing trend… for being friends with him, we didn’t really know a lot about the old ghoul.

We knew the basics.  We knew he had been an officer in the Equestrian Army during the war and had ‘died’ when the bombs dropped on Kanter City.  We knew that despite surviving the massive burst of radiation from the mega spell bombs, he had stayed behind in the city to search for his missing soldiers.  We also knew that while he hadn’t helped many, he had saved Wildfire from a dark fate by the hooves of the raiders who took over the city.  While he wasn’t the friendliest pony to be around, he wasn’t the sort to lie or go back on his word.  He was a trained soldier and survivor of countless fights in the sewers of Kanter City.  He could and would kill if necessary, but none of us believed he could or would kill a pony in cold blood.  In self defense?  Yes, and without hesitation.

However, beyond that… we didn’t really know who the stallion had been.  Had he been married?  Had foals?  Brothers or sisters in the army?  Where had he been born?  Did he have any hobbies before the end of the world?  Did anypony he know survive the radiation and become a ghoul like him?  Hell, neither Stone or Wild knew his real name.  While I’d seen it on his uniform once, I hadn’t really bothered to remember it since he always went by Carrion.  It made me and perhaps the others realize that despite all we’d been through, we’d never really gotten to know the stallion behind the ghoul.  While he’d never been the easiest pony to be around, it was no excuse in simply ignoring someone I was calling a friend.

Wow… some friends we had been.  Shaking my head sadly, I reached for my mug of coffee before downing the remaining dark liquid.  I’d have to see about righting this wrong I’d done to a pony who had gone out of his way to help a group of strangers and who had followed them back out into the wasteland.  My thoughts of how to get the ghoul to open up were interrupted when the mare returned to ask if we needed anything else.  Satisfied with our answers, she refilled our drinks and cleared away the empty dishes.  Once she had trotted back to the bar, Ranger picked up his fresh drink and looked across the table at the three of us.  He sipped the steaming cup while mulling something over in his head, until finally he spoke.

“Despite what Sunny might think of you, Shadow, I don’t believe you're some simple con artist trying to make caps off the citizens of the Confederacy.  You honestly seem like a good pony, which is a rarity these days as I’m sure you're aware.”  He set the mug back down beside him and leaned forwards in his seat.  “So, I’ll level with you all right here about what I’ve found while investigating this crime.”  This caught me by surprise.  Doing this went against every rule in the book… well, at least those used by Stable Security.

“Ah’m no lawpony, but ain’t that illegal?” Stone asked, earning an elbow to the gut from Wild who likely was no stranger to breaking laws.

“Normally it is,” Ranger began.  “However in this case, I’m simply talking with a fellow lawpony,” he added with a smile.

“Somehow, I doubt Stable Security ponies rate highly among the local law enforcement.  I believe one police pony back in San Ponsico referred to us as gloried foal sitters.”  To this, I couldn’t really argue with that mare.  Compared to what the lawponies of the wasteland had to deal with, Stable Security got off light.  However, this comment earned me a quick and painful kick to my hind legs and a wince as a sore spot from my short flight into a wall last night was hit.

“Don’t sell yourself short, kid.  What you did while traveling from Crossroads to Tombstone earned you a lot of respect.  Even if half of it was made up bullshit from Three Horns, that still leaves a lot.”  Folding his forelegs across his chest, he leaned back in his seat, eyeing me.  “You're close enough to a true Equestrian Marshall for me, and I’d wager that a lot of folks would agree with me.”

“Ya know where Wild and Ah stand on that thinkin’, Shadow,” Stone added.  “Ain’t just any pony we’d follow willin’ly inta th’ wasteland.”

“More like there isn’t a pony stupid enough to take us while going up against hopeless odds.” Wild flashed a grin before swiveling her head away from me to the sheriff.  “You said you’d spill your guts about what you’ve learned so far… so… spill ’em.  What's the scoop with Carrion and Fleethoof?” she asked, getting us back on track.  The sheriff snorted and arched a brow to the mare before speaking.

“I said I’d tell the Marshall, I don’t recall inviting you.”  He chuckled as Wild gave him a withering stare.  He ignored the look though and leaned forwards to place his forelegs back upon the table, glancing to Stone as he did.  “I feel sorry for you, she’s got the same death stare as my wife whenever I've done something wrong.” 

This got a chuckle from the stallion in question.  He leaned forwards himself and pulled the pegasus back into her seat, wrapping a foreleg around her shoulders. Wild’s ears laid back, but beyond that she didn't seem to mind the new position much.

“But to answer the question, there isn’t a whole lot to really tell,” Ranger said, looking between the three of us.

“Wait… what?” Wild’s ears had quickly perked up before flopping to the sides in confusion.

“We only began investigating this a little over four hours ago.  That’s not exactly a lot of time to build a case for or against anypony,” he began again, reaching for his cup of coffee as he went on.  “That said, while we haven’t found a lot of evidence either way, what we have found isn’t good for your friend.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, forgetting my early concerns with the legality of it.  “If you haven’t found much either way, why does it look bad for them?”

“There’s just enough evidence to send your friends to the gallows if this was to go before a jury,” he answered bluntly.  Before anyone could protest Carrion’s innocence in this, the Sheriff quickly added, “Both of them, despite the fact there’s little to no evidence that Carrion was involved in the murder.  The fact he was in the room at the time and is a ghoul is more than enough in most ponies’ eyes.”

“That’s complete bullshit…,” Wild snarled, wings attempting to flare open in rage despite the fact Stone was pressing in on her from one side and his hoof was around the other.

“I won’t argue that fact,”  Ranger continued with a sigh, “Despite everything the Confederacy has attempted to stand for in its short life, equality isn’t always something it gets right.”  Sipping the cooling drink, he set the mug back down and pressed on.  “The capital is home to all manner of people- ponies, zebras, griffons, even a few minotaurs- yet each and everyone of them has carved out their own little niche within the city walls to stay among their own.”

“I noticed, the ghouls live underground for the most part, zebras in their own quarter of town and so forth,” I said, having noticed it myself a few days after arriving in the city.  It wasn’t just ponies who were distrustful of others… they all were, equally.

“Ghouls have always gotten the shorter end of the stick, more so than zebras sometimes,” Ranger grunted and shook his head.  “You’d think they’d be more prone to show kindness to the victims of the war rather than the descendants of those who started it.  But back to the investigation… while nopony actually witnessed the murder happening, there was a pony next door who heard either the beginning or the end of it.  There were only your two friends inside the shop at the time when the town guard arrived and one of them was covered in the murdered mare’s blood.  The other was attempting to keep the guards from arresting her.”  He quickly waved a hoof when Wild snorted.  “And I’m well aware of what those guards did to earn his wrath and if I’d been in his shoes I might’a done the samething.  That, however, doesn’t change the fact that he assaulted the town guards.”

“So, what you're saying is, the odds are stacked heavily against them.”  He looked from his drink to me before nodding his head once in answer.  “Will a jury and judge from outside town really make much of a difference then?” I asked.  He didn’t answer right away, seeming to mull the question over a bit before sitting his cup back down.

“Somewhat, but it all depends on what else we uncover between now and when the case goes to court.”  He began looking over each of us.  “I still have to get statements from your friends, as well as the guards who were the first to arrive along with the guard who allowed Fleethoof to leave with Carrion.  You're right though, the odds are very much against them both.”  The mood around the table once more dropped before he continued, “While in the end this will all be in the hooves of the jury, the judge being sent is at least fair and prone not to allow bullshit in her court.  I know all this isn’t what you wanted to hear though.”

“It’s something at least,” I agreed while toying with my empty cup.  I glanced over to my two friends and began wondering if we’d managed to improve our odds much above the ‘we’re screwed’ mark.  Wait, something he’d just said struck me as… wrong.  An alarm bell was going off inside my head, but I just couldn’t put my hoof on what was wrong.  It was about statements… statements from the guards.  Why was that sticking out to me all of a sudden… it had something to do with Carrion. 

The other night while we’d been talking, I’d asked him for his side of the events.  He’d told me how he’d gone for a walk, heard noises from the shop, and went in to investigate.  Then he’d shocked me by saying that I reminded him of how he used to be back before the war… it had caught me off guard.  Guard.  The mayor had said that Carrion had let Fleethoof out… wait.  That was it!  My hoof impacted the table hard enough to rattle the remaining dishes and earn the sudden attention of my two friends and the Sheriff.

“Somethin’ ya wanna add, Shadow?” Stone asked, brow arched.

“I just remembered something important from last night.  When I was speaking with Carrion, he’d said something I didn’t really catch at the time.” I looked from Stone to Ranger who was focused fully upon me.  “He said he’d heard something going on inside the shop while going out for a walk, but it was only after he entered the building that he mentioned Fleethoof.  He seemed surprised to find her there… which is odd given that he was ‘supposed’ to have been the one to let her out from the walled off section of town.”

“Very odd, especially given that the report I read this morning while walking to the crime scene indicated that the guard on duty outside the ghouls’ section stated twice that it was Carrion who vouched for the mare to be let out.”

“Somepony is lying,” I said, to which Ranger nodded.

“Indeed, the only question is, which one?” he asked while leaning back into his seat.

I held back my opinion on who ‘I’ thought was lying in this case, as did Stone by covering Wild’s mouth with a hoof.  We both knew it was a valid question to ask.  Who was lying and what did they have to gain from doing so?  It was plain what anypony who didn’t know Carrion would think of why he would lie: to save his life.  Even I had to admit that.  The harder question was why would the guard lie?  I suppose he could have just simply had it out for the ghouls and let Fleethoof out on her own to cause trouble in town.  However, I didn’t buy her attacking anypony unless it was in self defense.  She was far too timid around us… well, except when the raiders attacked the caravan, then she had fought as fiercely as the other ghouls.  Could that be it?

“I suppose I’ll have to move questioning your friends and that guard to the top of my ‘to do’ list,” Ranger muttered, cutting off my dark thoughts.

My attention was further stolen by the sounds of heavy hoof steps coming from behind the stallion and beside the entrance into the saloon.  Glancing across the table to the front door, I froze.   “Spirit?” I called out, surprised to see the familiar outline of a buffalo in the dim morning light spilling in through the doorway.  As my eyes adjusted and the one in question stepped inside, I quickly noticed that this buffalo was much taller than Spirit, had longer horns, was male… and… was that a dead bird sitting atop his head?

Like Spirit, this stranger’s body was covered in thick dark brown fur that was almost black in color.  This made the fact he had white paint across his face so… noticeable.  Two black lines on either side of his dark yellow eyes ran from his just below his disheveled mane down to his jawline.  Also like Spirit, he had a number of items woven into his mane from feathers, beads, and even bits of bone.  Unlike Spirit, his armor looked far more natural in appearance, made from cloth and either more bone or wood.  The oddest thing about this buffalo, and the single thing that continued to draw my focus, was the black bird sitting upon his head right between his ivory curved horns.  The bird’s wings were spread out wide as if in flight and it’s clawed feet seemed sewn to a faded yellow and red bandana wrapped around the buffalo’s forehead. 

Sweet Celestia… Spirit had been searching for signs of her people for a couple years, and here one just walks into the saloon while she was laid up in the hospital.  He must have just arrived this morning with one of the groups passing through town as I’d never seen him before.  I was sure someone would have mentioned him to Spirit by now.  I was just thinking of going over to ask how long he’d been in town when he seemed to focus upon our table, or rather Ranger sitting with his back to the door.

Well, that’d save me the trouble if he knew the sheriff… or wait… he had stopped and was staring at us.  No, he was staring at me?  I blinked and hurriedly looked across my shoulder to the table behind our own, thinking perhaps it was someone else he was looking at.  Seeing nothing but empty seats, I turned back around and cocked my head in confusion.

He blinked and cocked his own head before muttering something and leaping aside to hide behind a support beam that failed miserably to hide his much larger frame.  The few locals that were near the doorway glanced over to the large figure, while a stallion who had just entered behind the buffalo took one look and quickly did a one eighty before trotting back out into the way he came.  To my further surprise and confusion, the strange buffalo glanced around the pillar to look at me carefully.  He muttered to himself again while making odd motions with one of his forehooves and… I could have swore the bird atop his head had changed position to one of surprise with wide black eyes and opened beak.

Glancing back down to my mug of coffee, I idly wondered if whiskey or rum was used in its creation… or antifreeze seeing how I’d heard some ponies back in San Ponsisco talking about it being an ingredient in the local beer.  Shaking my head, I looked back up only to see that the odd buffalo was no longer standing behind the beam… had he managed to fit completely behind it somehow?  Wait… no, he had just managed to reach the far wall from me and was just inching along side it before freezing mid step upon realizing I’d spotted him.  With a swift motion, he slid into an empty seat at a table across from a suddenly confused pair of stallions who were just finishing their meal.  Calmly, he seemed to say something to the two that only appeared to confuse them all the more. 

All the while, Stone, Wild, and Ranger continued to speak among themselves.  My twitching ear caught on something to do with the trail, how long it might be or something like that.  A quick check around my table confirmed that none of them seemed to have noticed the unusual behavior going on just a few dozen hoofsteps away from our table.  Then again, maybe this was normal for buffalo and Spirit was the odd one.  Still, I would have expected somepony to have reacted… I clearly wasn’t the only one seeing this given the locals’ reactions.

Just then, something flew past my field of vision and landed upon the floor beside our table with a light clatter.  The others were still engrossed in their conversation and never noticed, nor did they seem to notice another object flying past, a bit closer to Ranger’s head this time.  Following the flight path back towards the source revealed the same buffalo sitting at a now empty table, holding a small pebble in his hoof and about to launch it towards Ranger again.  With a slight smile, he tossed the stone away behind him and instead swiped something from the plate of one of the previous table’s occupants and stuffed it into his mouth… only to make a face and spit it out hurriedly.

“Uh… Ranger, I think that fellow over there wants your attention,” I said while pointing a hoof over to the buffalo.  He was, at the moment, frantically attempting to scrape whatever he’d just eaten off his tongue with his hoof.

“Hmm?” the stallion asked.  He turned to look over his shoulder at the buffalo who was now either attempting to hide beneath the table or trying to wedge his large bulk from between it and the chair he had quickly sat in.  Taking one look at the struggling form, Ranger snorted and shook his head slowly.  “Well, there’s no angry mob after ’em so I suppose it isn’t all bad…” he muttered while waving a hoof towards our table.

The buffalo, upon noticing his cover was well and truly blown, wasted little time and swiftly stood up which resulted in the chair splintering rather loudly.  He gave the plate a dark look and ignored the wood pile behind him, making his way towards us once again.  However, he took a longer way around, weaving between a few empty tables before coming to stand beside Ranger… which I noticed had the stallion between me and himself.  I also had a sinking feeling I knew why... 

“Kemosabe, there seems to be a… slight problem.”  Despite his size, he spoke softly.  He also seemed to be trying not to look directly at me while toying with a small bag hanging from around his neck.

“Of course there is…” Ranger muttered while reaching for his hat.  He turned back to us as he picked it up.  “I’m sorry I don’t have better news about your friends.  I promise I’ll do my best, but that goes both ways.  If they’re innocent, I’ll do everything within my power to see them free.  But if they’re guilty… well, that’ll be up to the judge and jury, but I won’t hold anything back.”  He lifted the hat back atop his head before offering us a small smile.  “For now I’d best get back to work and ensure my friends haven’t managed to kill one another.”  He stood up, picked up his rifle from beside the table and swung it back across his shoulder.

“Thanks for your honesty, Ranger,” I said, earning a nod from the stallion before he focused fully upon the buffalo as he began trotting for the exit.

“What’s Silver done now, Tonto?” I heard him ask as the odd pair trotted out the door.  “Tell me he hasn’t gotten into the whiskey again,” was the last I heard before the saloon doors swung back together with a quiet rattle of aged wood and metal.

For a short time, we settled into silence as the ponies around us either sat to begin their meals or departed for work or home.  The odd behavior of the buffalo, Tonto, was still weighing on my mind, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense.  Out of everyone I’d been around, only Spirit had heard Disharmony speaking to me, the only buffalo I’d ever met up until now.  She’d once said while traveling to San Ponsisco and again while sharing a meal with her and Doctor Kindheart that her people were deeply spiritual.  At least, as much as she knew and could learn of on her own.  At the time I hadn’t put much stock in her comment really, the wasteland was enough to make anyone religious.  Celestia knew I’d often said a few prayers before battles.  But, she had heard him and even managed to… summon, I suppose for lack of a better word, the evil spirit so she could help me be rid of it.  Look at what that got her… and now, this Tonto seemed to be just as capable of sensing Disharmony around me without the blasted bastard saying a word.  I couldn’t blame his caution.

“We were as surprised as ya ta see another buffalo.”

The comment shook me from my thoughts and snapped my attention back to my two friends and away from the now still double doors.  Neither had spoken while I’d been lost in thought, at least I don’t think they did.

“We weren’t expectin’ ta see ’em when we arrived ta pick up th’ Sheriff.  Apparently they go way back ta his days as a scavenger along with another stallion we picked up, that Silver th’ buffalo mentioned,” my friend continued, picking at the remains of his meal.  “They’re a… mite odd Ah’ reckon.”

“No odder than us I’d think,” Wild piped up a second later, grinning between us two stallions.  “A gardener turned Marshall, a wastelander turned sharp shooter, an ex-army officer ghoul, and a hotshot buck willing to go AWOL to help ponies.”

“Let's not ferget th’ smart-mouthed mare,” Stone added.

“Oh hush, you like my mouth and you know it.”  To his credit, Stone’s cheeks only turned a slight crimson under his usual grey coat.  I chuckled, thankful not to be the source of Wild’s teasing for once.  “Shame Spirit’s still out, I was looking forward to her reaction when we arrived with him on board,” she added, a sad smile on her face.  “Well, she’ll get the chance once she wakes up I suppose.”

“Ah’d have liked ta have seen her reaction when he jumped off th’ skychariot while we was liftin’ off,” Stone added with a chuckle.  “Goin’ on bout evil spirits and th’ like and wavin’ his hooves about like a mad pony...”  He waved his forehooves about wildly, earning a chuckle from Wild.

I didn’t laugh however, frowning and glancing back to the doorway.

“Shadow?” 

“Wha?” I shook my head and looked back to the two worried faces of my friends.  “Sorry, lot on my mind and I guess still a bit tired despite my forced sleep.”  Reaching a forehoof up to my face, I lightly rubbed my eyes before offering them a small smile that was probably more fake than that miracle cure I’d seen sold back in San Ponsisco’s market.  What was the name of it again… well, I knew it was made by somepony called Flim Flam...

“Th’ past twenty four hours have been hectic ta put it mildly and ta be honest, we’re both runnin’ on our last leg,” Stone said while glancing to a yawning Wild.  “Was a long, hard trip out ta Sutter’s Mill.”  A snort escaped the mare once she’d shut her mouth.

“Longer for some of us than others, ground pounder,” the mare answered while rubbing a hoof through her, more than usual, messy red mane.  “That storm was a complete bitch to fly through and I’m pretty sure I spotted an Enclave patrol following us for awhile.”

“That explains th’ sudden dive inta that cloud bank.  Think Ah left my lunch and dinner in that there storm cloud.”  She simply smirked and stood up from her seat while Stone continued turning back to me.  “Somehow, Ah doubt it’d stop her from doin’ it again.  Ah reckon we’re due for a small bit of shut eye, but ‘fore we head up stairs…” I knew what was coming and waved a hoof towards Stone before he could press on.

“I’m really fine, guys.  I’ve already blown myself up for the day.  Go get yourselves some sleep… actual sleep,” I added, giving Wild a look to which the mare simply grinned and ruffled her wings before sticking her tongue out at me.  “They’ll be plenty of time for other things later.  After all, we aren’t going anywhere for a couple days at least.”  Wild’s wings drooped a bit, and she shared a look with Stone before stepping around the table to stand beside me.

“But…” I placed a hoof against her mouth to silence her complaint.  It got licked for the trouble and I yanked it away.  “What the hell…”  Shaking my head to the grinning pegasus, I snorted and pressed on.

“No.  I’ve made up my mind on that.  We’re not leaving Carrion behind to face this on his own, and there’s also Balefire to think about.” Wild frowned and cocked her head to the side to look at my face, namely my eyes.

“And your eye?”  A hoof lifted up and brushed my mane back from my eyes.  Wow, I hadn’t noticed it getting so long before.

“Isn’t going anywhere,” I added, reaching up to take her hoof in both of mine and lower it back down to the floor.  “It's not getting any worse than it already is.”

Wild glanced across her shoulder at Stone who’d stood up himself and was tossing a few caps upon the table.  His ears were laid back, but when he looked back to us he simply shook his head to Wild, earning a huff from her.  Rounding the table in a couple steps, he chuckled softly and nuzzled the mare gently upon the cheek.

“Ya know he’s as stubborn as Ah can be when he puts his mind ta somethin’.  Reckon it’s an earthpony thin’.”  This earned a snort from Wild, but she slipped up beside her coltfriend and glanced worriedly towards me.

“More likely a stallion thing,” she added with a roll of her eyes.

“Wake us if anythin’ happens, Shadow,” my large friend said before guiding Wild towards the stairs to the second floor. 

“I will.  Most likely the explosions will wake you before I get even half way up those stairs,” I said with a smile and earning a chuckle from the pair.  “Goodnight, you two… or day I guess.”  Watching them climb the stairs, I slumped back into my seat and glanced back to the doorway where the buffalo and Ranger had departed.

So… now what was I going to do?  Thanks to my forced nap last night, I wasn’t overly tired… sore perhaps, but not enough to want to spend all my time in bed.  I’d already patched up my gear the night we arrived so my weapons and armor was in good shape.  Although I could use a few more shotgun rounds and I could always check for the ammo for the Raging Buck.  Looking back around the room, I noticed a number of ponies entering the saloon, as well as a couple griffons and zebras.  Judging by their uniform armor and weapons, I assumed they were from out of town.  Probably mercenaries or another town’s guards here to gather supplies.  The latter seemed the more likely seeing how there were a few unarmed sitting with them.

I focused back upon the ponies sitting around the room and those entering, seeing if there was anypony I knew among them.  It wasn’t that surprising that I failed to see any familiar faces, but at the same time it was in a way..  After all, I had just helped guide a caravan of ponies to safety so you’d think I’d spot at least somepony I’d brought here.  However, there wasn’t anyone I recognized here.  With Carrion and seemingly Balefire now locked away for the time being, Wild and Stone needed their rest and Spirit... 

My ears folded back as I thought of the kindhearted buffalo laying in her bed back at the clinic, a victim of simply trying to help me. Well, there was no sense in just sitting around in the saloon when I could be sitting around in the clinic if… no, when she woke up.  After all, a friendly face was far better than a stranger’s when coming around.  I was an expert on waking up in a strange place given my trend for getting hurt the past couple months. 

“Ya need somethin’ else hon?” a voice asked from almost right beside me, causing me to jump a bit.  I hadn’t heard anyone approach while I’d been thinking of my next move.  A hurried look to my left relieved a young mare standing beside the table.  A friendly smile was upon her muzzle while she cocked her head slightly to the side.  Her short cut orange mane shifted between her perked blue ears.  “Sorry, didn’t mean ta startle ya, but ya’ve been sittin’ there for an hour or so and Ah was startin’ ta worry.”

“Oh, sorry, I was just lost in thought… and, er, no thanks, I’m good.” The mare smiled and nodded her head before turning to trot off to another table.  I looked away from her swaying flanks and back towards the door while checking the time in my E.F.S.  Huh, it had been almost two hours since Stone and Wild had gone upstairs.  I guess I did have a habit of overthinking things sometimes.

With a grunt, I rose to my hooves and tossed a few caps atop the table for the meal and a few more for the waitress.  She smiled brightly upon seeing the brightly colored metal caps settling between the empty cups and quickly began making her way over.  Slipping my hat back atop my head, I nodded once to the mare as she began collecting the money and the remaining dishes before heading for the door.  Side stepping a pair of stallions entering, I quickly slipped outside and into a furnace.

It was actually very warm, hot even outside the saloon.  The air was actually so thick that I could see it in the form of a soupy like haze settling across the street.  I also noticed it was a shitty day to be a dark furred pony as I began to sweat beneath my jumpsuit and hat.  Flicking my tail, I scanned the street across from the saloon and noticed a number of ponies still going about their business despite the heat wave that had seemed to settle down atop them.  Reaching up, I rubbed my blue covered foreleg across my brow, brushing a few strands of white mane from my eyes as I did.  It was starting to cling to my neck and forehead.

Snorting, I turned and began trotting down the sidewalk, my path taking me in the direction of the clinic and passing a few ponies as I went.  Looking across the street again, I saw a pair of griffons going into one of the buildings.  ‘Tool Time was the name hanging above the door and, judging by the shovels and saws hanging in the window, I guessed it was a tool shop.  I chuckled at the odd sounding name and looked further up the street to a group of bored looking ponies standing beside a covered wagon.  They all wore a riot of mismatched armor and gear, but at least a single piece of each was colored a dark red color.  Come to think of it, those griffons’ armor had a similar colored shoulder pad back in the saloon.  Likely part of the same group then.

It took me slightly longer to reach the clinic than it had to walk to the saloon this morning, largely in part to simply how busy the town had gotten in the past few hours.  I was once more reminded of just how important larger towns like this were to the ponies of the wasteland by the wagons coming and going along the streets.  My trip was not just slowed by the traffic, but by a few vaguely familiar ponies greeting me as I walked.  I was happy to see some of the survivors I’d led here showing up, even if I didn’t know them personally.  I also spotted Solar Burst and her friend, Storm Flicker, trotting the opposite direction as I saw each wearing saddlebags that looked stuffed with supplies of some sort.  While the young orange pegasus stopped to greet me and seemed to want to stop and talk for a bit, her horned friend seemed inclinded to want to get back to their room at the saloon and drop off the heavy packs.

In the end, it took me a little more than an hour to cross the town to the clinic and it was well past noon by now.  The heat only seemed to continue to build at this point.  Upon entering the building, I removed my hat and ran a hoof through my damp mane and forehead while wishing I’d brought my canteen from my gear with me.  While I fanned myself with my hat, I looked around the waiting room of the clinic and was greeted by a rather surprising sight of a dark green unicorn stallion.  He was stripped of his normal equipment and gear, speaking with Doctor Bandaid.

I hadn’t expected to see this pony today.  At least, not without sneaking past any guards his sister had set out for me and with bars between us.  Nether stallion had noticed me yet as they continued to speak quietly with one another.  Judging by the limp tail and lowered ears, I assumed it wasn’t good news.  Movement from further past the two caught my attention and I looked over to the front desk to see the same mare who had been sitting behind the desk the day before.  She looked up from her paperwork to greet whoever had entered the building.  Upon seeing who it was, she offered me a nod and a smile before looking to the two other ponies.  Clearing her throat, she got the attention of the good doctor who looked across the shoulder of the other pony he was speaking to and nodded his head in greeting.  The other stallion turned to see who had walked in now.  Upon seeing me, he hurriedly spun around, ears perking upright in surprise while a sheepish smile spread across his muzzle.

“Uh… hey boss… how's it going?” Balefire asked while pawing at the wooden floor with one hoof.  His red eyes shifted from me to the door just behind me, looking a bit nervous, and for good reason.  I imagine he expected his sister to be not too far behind me.

“Balefire…” I began while trotting up towards the pair, offering the good doctor a nod in greeting before turning back to my young, foolish friend. “Didn’t your sister lock you up this morning?” I asked, causing Doctor Bandaid to blink and look between us.

“Wait… that was his sister that came in here with those soldiers?” he asked.

Wow… soldiers coming into a clinic to arrest her own brother.  That was either dedication to one’s duty or a complete hard ass.  Seeing how she’d greeted me afterwards, perhaps a bit of both.

“Uh, well... you see… would you believe I... got out for good behavior?” was his hurried and stuttered response.  His eyes looked everywhere but my face while his smile never wavered.  He’d yet to look me in the eye.  I noted it was something similar to the way Sugar avoided looking me in the eye whenever she did something she knew was wrong.  He kept fidgeting from one hoof to the other as well while I stood waiting for more of an answer then that.  When none seemed forthcoming, I continued.

“Somehow I doubt that very much, Balefire,” I said nodding my head slowly.  “I got the distinct impression from your sister that the only way you would be getting out of that cell anytime soon was under armed escort back to San Ponsisco.”  Both the Doctor and the mare behind the desk arched their brows at that and looked over to the now heavily sweating pony before me.  “I also got the impression she wanted to shoot me in the face.”

“Oh, so… you already ran into Sunny?” he asked lamely while sitting down.

“Yes I did, and despite that I still have all my parts where they're supposed to be, I think that was implied by knowing you’d been locked up.” I sighed while sitting down myself in front of him.

“Marshall… what exactly is going on here?” Bandaid asked, stepping up to me before motioning one hoof to the door leading to the patient ward.  “I’ve got a number of patients here who need their rest and a distinct lack of excitement if they are to get better, one in particular in fact is about all I can do for.”  At that, he glanced back to Balefire who winced and looked away sadly, but remained silent.  “In the past twelve hours we’ve had a lamp explode upstairs, armed soldiers storming into the clinic, and a strange buffalo visiting your friend.” I blinked at the mention of a strange buffalo, however the doctor took this to mean something beyond my confusion as he held up both forehooves.  “Now, I’m not blaming anypony, but I would like to know if there’s anything else that’s going to come bursting through those doors to upset my patients.”

Balefire frowned and folded his ears back further as the doctor waited for an answer.  He looked more ashamed now than he had a moment ago.  I suddenly had a pretty good idea why he’d broken out of jail to come back here, the one place his sister would likely look first.  Since we’d gotten here he hadn’t left the clinic or more correctly, he hadn’t left the side of a certain young mare and her grandfather.  I put aside the fact that Tonto was most likely here to see Spirit and focused on one thing at a time.  Sighing and shaking my head, I looked away from my friend to the aggravated stallion still waiting some type of answer.

“Excitement and trouble seem to follow us wherever we go Doctor…” I rubbed a hoof across my face.  I couldn’t blame Bandaid for being upset, I could even understand where he was coming from.  “It’s more my fault than anypony else's and I promise we’ll get things sorted out without bothering your patients any further.”  This got the attention of Balefire who stood up suddenly and looked me in the eyes for the first time since I arrived.

“Marshall, this isn’t your fault, it’s mine.  You didn’t know what I was doing at the time… you were worried about the ponies at Old Oaks...”

“Your sister believes otherwise, Balefire,” I began and hurriedly held up a hoof as he opened his mouth, seemingly ready to argue otherwise.  “And she has a point, Bale.  I should have known better.  After all, I knew you were in the army and yes I was worried about others, but that’s no excuse for what I did.  I should have made sure everyone knew what they were getting into.  It’s a mess, but I believe we can get it straightened out eventually, just not out here and not right now.”  His ears wilted and he sat back down with a thump.  “For the time being at least, I think we should get you back to the Confederate Barracks in town,” I said, before adding quietly, “Hopefully before your sister discovers you’ve escaped and burns the town to the ground.”

Balefire frowned and glanced from me to the doctor who merely sighed and folded back his ears.  He didn’t say anything, instead simply lifting his glasses off his muzzle to begin cleaning them and allowing a sudden lull to fall across the conversation.  I’d noticed him doing it quite often when he either wasn't sure what to say or when he had bad news to give.

“I’m not leaving, Shadow,” Balefire said, breaking the few minutes of silence.  The way he said it got my full attention.  It was with a tone I hadn’t often heard from my young friend, he rarely if ever got very serious about anything.  “I’m not leaving Tink to face this alone like I did.”  My ears perked up at that as his red eyes lifted up from the floor to look into mine.  They were filled with determination and a sadness that felt familiar to me.  “She’s going to need a friend soon…”

I took note of what he said. ‘Facing this alone like he did.’ I recalled Balefire’s birth parents had been killed by raiders attacking his original home.  He'd never said much about what had happened exactly.  It seemed though to indicate he'd seen one if not both of his parents die before him.  I glanced over to the doctor who noticed my look and nodded his head while putting his glasses back on with a sigh.

“Jackhammer likely won’t last the night I’m afraid… normally that’s not something I’d tell somepony who wasn’t family, but Miss Tinkerbelle has nopony else here in town.  Not even the other ponies from Old Oaks seem able to help her and most of them have troubles of their own.  Silver and Fiona just left a few minutes earlier after trying to get her to get some rest.  She has, however, shown a good deal of reliance on your young friend here.”  He looked between us and frowned before looking back to Balefire.  “Luckily she was asleep when the soldiers took you away, and since she woke up a couple hours ago we told her that you simply had to go see to something important and would return as soon as you could.  While I generally hate lying to a patient or a relative of one, sometimes it is needed in this line of work.  Especially if there is nothing anyone can do to change the outcome.  I’ve had a nurse watching her since.”

I looked between the two before eyeing the door into the ward room where the sick and injured ponies were resting along with one buffalo (along with one very strange buffalo.)  Additionally, one of them in there who’s granddaughter was watching him die slowly.  I remembered watching my own mother slowly fade away… at least I had been able to end Ebony’s pain quickly near the end.  With a sigh, I glanced back to the sad yet determined face of my young (no, not so young I realized) friend.  It was never going to be easy… but then, if it was easy anypony could have done this.  I nodded my head and reached up with a hoof to pat him lightly on the shoulder while offering him a slight smile.

“Alright, well… seeing how your sister doesn’t agree with my title, I suppose I can’t really arrest you.”  He smiled slowly in return and nodded his head a bit.  I ignored the tear that ran down one cheek and looked back to the doctor while releasing Balefire’s shoulder.  “It looks like I won’t be able to keep things quiet after all, Doc.  Sorry.”  He merely smiled.

“I never blamed you, Marshall, or anyone really.  As you said, trouble does seem to follow you and as I’m sure you're also very aware, the wasteland is not known for taking it lightly upon anypony.”  He stood up and straightened his white coat with a hoof before adjusting his glasses.  “As for problems arising later due to Mr. Balefire being present, I believe I can argue the case to the mayor that he is providing emotional support to one of my patients.  I’m fairly sure she’ll agree and if nothing else will simply order our Lieutenant to place him under house arrest inside the clinic.”

“Will that actually work?” I asked.  Balefire’s sister seemed hardly the type to be deterred by what the local mayor or doctor wanted.  However, the answer to my question came from Balefire.

“Yeah, actually it will…,” he trailed off for a moment as if trying to remember something before his ears perked up and he looked over to me.  “If at anytime two officers of equal rank are operating within the same location, then overall command of that location falls to the officer who has been either assigned there or has been present the longest as they…”  When he noticed my look, he rolled his eyes and hurriedly said, “I have read the manual despite my reputation as a awesome pony.” Both the doctor and I chuckled at the comment before the unicorn began walking towards the door.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go speak with the mayor before anymore trouble comes looking for either of you two.”  Both Balefire and I nodded our heads to the doctor and bid him goodbye.  He paused at the door and called out to the pony behind the desk, telling where she could find him before he opened the door and stepped out.

“So you here to see, Spirit?” Balefire asked as the door shut behind the doctor.

“Yeah, although I hear she has another visitor at the moment,” I said as Balefire stood back up and glanced from me to the ward room door.

“He’s… an odd one,” my friend said as he took a few steps towards the door.  I rose and followed him. “He seemed to know who I was somehow.”

“I’m not surprised really, Stone said it was an interesting flight here.”

“I’d imagine so…”  He paused at the door, hoof raised to push it open before he lowered it back down and looked over to me.  “I’m sorry for causing you any problems with my sister, Shadow… and… well, thanks for letting me stay with Tink.”  I smiled back and patted him once more on the shoulder.

“Don’t sweat it, Bale.  Everypony makes mistakes from time to time.  We were all worried about helping those ponies in Old Oaks than we were thinking about anything else.”  He nodded his horned head once.  “And I’m sure they’ll take that into consideration when we head back to San Ponsisco.  As for your sister, well, it’s not as if we really got to know one another that well and she’ll be one less mare for Wild to tease me about.”  After a moment to think about what I just said and no doubt thinking what Wild would have to say about her, Balefire wrinkled his muzzle and stuck out his tongue turning to look at me.

“Ew… that’s my sister…”  We both laughed and the tension that had built up from our talk with the doctor left us, if only for a few seconds.  He pushed open the door allowing us both to enter into the ward room into what for him was likely going to be a long couple hours and for me a few aggravating ones.

As the door shut behind us, the first thing I noticed about the room was the very distinct lack of a second buffalo with a unusual hat within the room.  He was neither sitting nor standing beside Spirit’s bed, which was the closest to the door, nor was he hiding behind any pillars.  That was mostly due to the fact that the room lacked them completely I’d assume.  It was the bed itself that held the second thing I noticed and which caused me to hurriedly rush towards it.  My friend was sitting up in her bed with a calm yet slightly confused look upon her face as she held something in her fore hooves.  Standing beside her bed and looking equally as confused as Spirit was one of the nurses I’d seen this morning.  Both were looking towards the far wall where a pair of white curtains were fluttering in the warm breeze coming in through an open window.

“Spirit?” I asked while stepping up beside her bed, causing both buffalo and nurse to jump from the sudden sound of my voice.  I cocked my head, wondering what had them on edge.

It was Spirit who recovered her wits first.  Tearing her focus away from the window she looked towards Balefire and myself, her confused expression changed to one of relief upon seeing me.  I also noticed something held within her hooves, although I couldn’t tell what it was.  Although, it was vaguely pony shaped like a small doll.  The nurse on the other hoof, after seeing who it was that had startled her, flicked her tail in annoyance (although I wasn’t sure if it was directed at us or at whatever had their attention when we’d first entered) and nodded her head to the pair of us before excusing herself and trotting off towards the open window.

“Good morning Shadow…,” she began, then stopped upon glancing to the dim sunlight entering the room.  “Or afternoon…”  With a shake of her horned head, she frowned slightly before settling simply on, “Hello, Shadow, Balefire.  It is good to see you both well.”  She still looked a bit confused, but offered us both a kind smile and a nod of her horned head.  After a pause, she added a bit sheepishly, “It would appear I have overslept somewhat.”  This earned her a snort from Bale and a small chuckle from myself.

“That’s one way of putting it, Spirit,” Balefire said with a smile.  “So, what happened anyway?  The way the doctor and nurses were fussing over you gave me the impression there was more to it than just being tired and that you wouldn’t be waking up for a few more hours or days.”

“I would hardly call being tossed into a wall ‘just being tired’, Mr Balefire,” the nurse said upon returning to us.  The window across the room was now firmly shut and the curtains drawn.  “And that about sums up what we all believed would happen to Miss Spirit here.”

“What?” Balefire’s red eyes widened a bit as he looked between the three of us, ears laid back in surprise.

“Wait… you didn’t know what happened?” I asked, likely looking equally as surprised as my young friend.  Hadn’t he heard the explosion above his head or the panic it caused inside the clinic?  I’m fairly sure my head impacting a wall made a very distinctive sound that any of my companions would know.  Even the nurse seemed surprised he hadn’t noticed.  “Bale… this happened last night before Stone and Wild returned right here in the clinic…”

He made an ‘O’ with his mouth as he looked to me, ears wilting to the side as a hoof rubbed along the back of his leg.  He glanced from us to the back of the room.  “Sorry, boss, I suppose I may have been a bit focused on someone else for a while… the doctor’s been worried about Tink, she hasn’t been sleeping or eating very much.  I was trying to get her to sleep for a while last night so that explosion might’ve happened after we both fell asleep.”

“Speaking of Doctor Bandaid, does he even know you’re back… or better yet, does that rather unpleasant Lieutenant know?” the nurse asked, brow arched as she gave my friend a very unhappy look.  After my run in with Sunburst, I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have a similar look on my face.

“Yes to the first and… well, not yet to the second,” he answered with a sheepish smile that quickly wilted at the glare the nurse shot at him.  “I’m sure she won’t notice for a while at least…”  This only seemed to increase the mare’s displeasure.   He backed up a step into the door awaiting the coming tongue lashing from the nurse.  She had just opened her mouth to unleash said storm when I spoke up first.

“Doctor Bandaid is taking care of it as we speak, nurse,” I said, stepping between the two to cut the mare off before she could lay into him.  “He was just leaving to speak with the mayor before we came in, and I believe when he returns he’ll have everything well in hoof.  As for the Lieutenant, she’ll likely be too busy to bother anyone here for a few hours… plenty of time for the good Doctor to return,” I added while laying a hoof reassuringly upon Balefire’s shoulder.

She seemed to think over what I’d just told her, a bit of indecision appearing upon her face before looking more closely at the tired form of Balefire.  She finally backed down from arguing further, a frown still on her lips.  With a huff, she shook her head and looked back to Spirit.

“Well, since it appears everything is being taken care of, I suppose I shall leave you in the hooves of your friends.  Just call if you need anything, Spirit.”  Getting only a nod from my friend, the nurse turned to regard the two of us once again before a patient further down the aisle called out for her.  “I know it wasn’t your fault about last night, Mr. Balefire, but you two… behave.  We’ve got ponies attempting to get well in here and we’ve had more than enough excitement this morning already what with that ill mannered buffalo sneaking in here… honestly, jumping out a window instead of using the door… who does that?”  Looking to the pony who had called out, she trotted off to go check on her patient.

“Wait, he snuck in here this morning?” Bale asked as the nurse began seeing to the other pony’s needs.  My friend seemed quite lost now, although he looked more bemused than upset.  “Wow… I must really not have been paying attention to anything not to notice somepony the size of Spirit sneaking around the place… that shoulda been hard to miss.”  The slight smirk that had begun forming upon his snout disappeared as his mood darkened a bit at the end.

“Don’t worry about it, Bale… you had other things to worry about, right?”  He nodded once before I lowered my hoof from his shoulder and went on to explain, “Anyway, he arrived early this morning with the lawpony Stone and Wild brought in, Sheriff Ranger.  Odd about sums up my own first encounter with Tonto,” I answered, before adding hastily, “Not that I think all buffalo are odd.”

“Do not worry yourself, Shadow.  I must admit, for being the first fellow buffalo I’ve ever met I found him slightly… unusual.  However, he did have some things to tell me that I found quite enlightening about something we spoke of recently,” Spirit said while looking straight at me.  I had a feeling the thing he had told her had to do with Disharmony.  However, before she could explain any further, hoofsteps approaching from behind us drew our attention.

“Bale?” a tired voice asked quietly. 

Turning around, I found myself looking at a very worn down Tinkerbelle, the young earth pony mare looked a sad shadow of her former self.  Her blue overalls were heavily crumped and her dark orange coat was disheveled, making me wonder if the oil stains I had so often seen her covered with didn’t hold the fur down.  Heavy, dark rings lay beneath her light pink eyes and her ears were wilted to the sides.  Her red tail hung lifelessly behind her as she walked up to Spirit’s bedside and her eyes shifted listlessly from each of us before stopping upon Bale.

“The nurses said you had to leave suddenly… is… is everything alright?” she asked.  Even her voice sounded hollow, hardly the excited mare I'd met back in Old Oaks.  I could understand… watching family dying took a toll on a pony.

“Er… yeah, I'm really sorry about leaving and not telling you, Tink.  Something came up rather suddenly... and I had to go take care of it before it got any worse,” Bale explained, trying to make up a story on the fly while reaching up and pulling the sad little mare into a gentle hug.  “I got it all taken care of as quickly as I could though.”  She leaned into the hug and shut her eyes, nodding her head once.

“Okay, so you're back to stay, right?”  The question caused Bale to freeze as he looked between us and the young mare leaning up against him.  He likely knew it wasn't something he could promise with any certainty.  Despite the doctor’s intentions and his own words, I doubted his sister would back down that easily.  He'd also seemed troubled by the fact he'd missed so much of what was going on in town.

It was also very clear that what Doctor Bandaid had said was correct.  Balefire was keeping Tink afloat during this tragic time.  Despite just having met a few days ago, he was a security blanket and one that needed to stay close by as her grandfather slowly faded away.  Sugar had needed me much the same way and, in truth, I had needed her even after coming to terms with Ebony’s death while traveling.  Spirit and I shared a look as my young friend held the even younger mare. Clearing my throat, I gained both their attention.

“Don't worry Tink, he's gotten everything taken care of, I was just walking him back from the local Confederate guard headquarters. Some of the replacements just had a couple questions about the local threats to the town.”  I offered her a kind smile and motioned towards the back of the room.  “You just focus on being with your grandfather and he'll be here to help.”  She returned my smile with a small one of her own before looking back to the stallion holding her who was looking unsure.  “We got things under control for the time being, Bale,” I added towards him.

“Uh, if you say so, boss…”  He hesitated a few seconds more before returning his attention fully to Tink, “Have you eaten anything yet this morning?”  When she simply shook her head, he sighed.  “I didn't think so, you didn't touch anything I brought you last night either.  Come on, let's go grab something from the bakery.”

“I shouldn't leave…” she said softly, looking away from Balefire to her grandfather’s bed.  “He might wake up and need me...”  Her ears perked up as Spirit cleared her throat and turned back to look at her.

“Balefire is correct, Tinkerbelle, starving yourself will do nopony any good, especially your grandfather, and will simply add more work for the staff here,” Spirit added calmly while sitting up a bit more in her bed.  “Getting out of the clinic to get some fresh air and stretch your legs will do you some good.”

“While I haven’t know your grandfather for very long, I would imagine he’d agree,” I added, before another voice spoke up in the conversation.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop upon any of you, but it is a small room.  However, your friends are correct,” the nurse said as she approached Spirit’s bedside once more.  The pony she’d gone to look after looked to have fallen back asleep.  “We could actually use a few minutes alone with your grandfather to change his bandages and clean his wounds… as you can tell, it is a bit cramped around his bed.”  It was a polite way of saying, ‘Your presence is making our job difficult, please give us some room’.  When Tink continued to hesitate, the nurse smiled and added, “Tell you what, why don’t we go over and check on him?  Once we're sure he's stable, you and your coltfriend can go grab a quick bite to eat and be right back… okay?”

Despite the blush that colored Balefire’s cheeks, he leaned down to gently nuzzle the young mare’s own rosy cheeks.  “I promise we won't be gone very long, Tink, we'll head right back.” Finally, she relented and nodded her head to the pair.

“Excellent, why don’t we go check in on him then,” the nurse suggested, stepping up beside the two.  With that settled, she started off towards the other end of the room, and the prone form of Jackhammer.  Guided by Balefire, Tink followed along while stepping slowly down the walkway between beds.

I was tempted to follow them.  Jackhammer seemed like a good pony for the short time we'd known one another and what had happened to him was a cruel fate.  However, I still had something I needed to discuss with Spirit, and she had indicated a similar desire.  The sooner I could speak with someone about Disharmony the better.  So, I was understandably confused when I turned back to my buffalo companion only to come face to face with a small hoof made pony doll, who was smiling happily back up at me with her tiny face.

“Uh…” was all I managed as Spirit held the pegasus figure up to me.  It was a very dark blue color overall, almost black really.  It had a wavy blue mane and tail, whether intentionally or simply due to how or what it was made from was hard to tell.  The small figure even went so far as to have a cutie mark in the form of a black blotch with something white in the middle.  The oddest thing about the small winged pony was the fact it seemed familiar somehow, but it hadn’t been recently.  “What's this?” I asked while taking the figure from her outstretched hoof.  It weighed next to nothing, not really surprising.

“To be honest with you, Shadow, I am unsure,” she answered as I examined the little blue pony more closely.  “The buffalo I met, Tonto, said I was to give her to you.  That it would help you in finding answers.”  I arched a brow at that and looked up into my friend’s confused face. I hadn’t ever seen her that confused before and lowered the figure down.

“What was your impression of him, Spirit?  I know you've been hoping to find another buffalo on our journey back to San Ponsisco,” I asked, genuinely curious of her take on Tonto.  By what I’d gathered from what the nurse had said, it seemed likely he’d been just as odd here as the saloon.

“I must admit to some… disappointment upon finally speaking to another buffalo.  He was not like I expected and I am left to wonder if they are all slightly insane as he is or if I am simply more pony than buffalo.”  She cocked her head to the side, a troubled look crossing her face as she thought of something.  Finally, she turned to look at me.  “Tell me, Shadow, am I as… unusual to you and the others as he is?”

“No, Spirit.” I replied with a light chuckle, sitting the small pony down upon the edge of her bed.  “I can honestly say you have never acted like Tonto… at least not as much.  In fact, there was only one other I have ever meet that was as confusing as Tonto.”  Though, I wasn’t even sure if she was real.

“I am unsure how I feel about that,” she said while looking a cross between humored and confused.  “Even as a young calf I knew I was not like the other ponies of Wastefall.  I did not look anything like them or my father.  Ever since I was old enough to ask questions, I wanted to know where I had come from.”  Her ears flicked back and she looked up towards the window across from her bed.  “My adopted father told me everything he knew of the buffalo.  He had known more than most ponies having actually met a couple in his travels across the wasteland.  But... there was so much he didn’t know and I simply had little idea what it meant to be a buffalo.”  She paused and ran her fore hooves along the plain white sheet that covered her.

“I don’t think anyone could blame you for wanting that, Spirit.  I know if I had been raised by griffons or zebras, I would want to know what it meant to be an earth pony,” I said while maintaining my smile.  She nodded her head once before going on.

“I spent much of my free time after father’s lessons searching his limited number of books for any more information on the buffalo.  When I had scoured them, I would check those few passing traders who salvaged books from the ruins, often spending what few caps I earned from odd jobs around town on books that had only one or two lines about them.”  She paused for a moment, sitting up a bit more in her bed while a faint smile appeared upon her mouth.  “Somehow, I always had just enough caps to afford those books regardless of the prices.  Later I learned Dad had snuck some of his own caps into my pouch.”  It was the first time I’d heard her use the term ‘dad’ rather than father.

“I believe I’ve caught you doing something similar for Tanner once,” I said, taking a seat beside her.

“As you have no doubt done for Sugar.”

“Guilty as charged.” I knew she had me wrapped around her little hoof, but I hardly cared.

“All this time, I have attempted to emulate what I believed my people were like from what my father taught me and what little I have learned of them…”

“And Tonto has failed to live up to that imagine,” I said plainly to which she nodded her head.  “I suppose it's impossible for anyone or anything to live up to our expectations.”  To this, she frowned but didn't disagree.

“You are correct, and it is hardly fair to him, but never in my wildest dreams would I imagine a buffalo acting quite like him.”

“Well, keep in mind he is the only buffalo you've ever met,” I offered back before grinning and adding, “After all, if Wild was the only pegasus you had ever meet you would assume they are all sex crazed mad mares.”

“True, and if you were the only earth pony I had ever met, I would assume they are all recklessly lucky,” she returned with her own smile.

“Touche.”  We lapsed into a comfortable silence.  While I left Spirit to her own thoughts, I reached over and picked up the odd pony doll Tonto had given her.  Again, I had this nagging feeling I knew who this was… or I should.  It was easy to tell it was a mare, due to the shape of the muzzle and slender body.  Her long wavy mane was also another give away since few stallions wore it that long.  In fact… I don’t think many mare’s wore it that long.  I examined her more closely, the cutie mark was still lacking in detail, just a large black splotch on it’s flank.

While I was busy staring at a toy mare’s flank and Spirit sat quietly beside me in her bed, the clinic and the ponies around us went on about their afternoon.  Nurses came and went as patients were given their medicines and some even being allowed to leave.  During this time, the nurse who had first spoken with us finished putting Tink’s mind at ease and they, along with Bale, passed us by on their way to the waiting room.  As the door gently clicked shut behind them, Spirit finally spoke up.

“I must apologize to you, Shadow,” she began, those few words catching me off guard and I quickly looked over towards her.  “My belief in my ability to contact and control spirits resulted in our injuries and could have been much worse.”

“I assume that Tonto’s visit has something to do with this change in your opinion of your ability?” I asked, already having a pretty good idea what her answer would be.

“Yes, it was what he came to speak with me about.  He seemed quite troubled by your presence, or rather that of the spirit following you.  Despite his unusual behavior… or perhaps because of it, Tonto has more knowledge of what we attempted to contact last night then I could have expected.  What he told me was… unsettling to say the least.”  She frowned and folded her ears back.  “It is no lost soul as I so foolishly thought, but something much worse.”  That seemed the understatement of the moment.  She looked back up to me while waving a hoof towards the figure I held.  “It is why he gave me that doll to give to you.  He said it would provide some answers to questions you have, both about your destiny and the evil you must face.”

“Did he say anything else about Disharmony?  Anything at all?” I asked to which she blinked and gave me an odd look.

“Disharmony?  That is a very unusual name…”  She arched a brow as her eyes locked on mine.  “Where did you come up with that name…”  When I hesitated a moment, her earlier confused look turned to one of worry.  “Shadow… who told you that name?”

“He told me his name…”  She blinked and the worry turned to fear within seconds of me answering her.  “Wait, you didn’t see him?”

“No, I do not remember anything of meeting this evil spirit…”

“What do you remember?”

“Just entering the exam room, sitting down and lighting the stove before attempting to contact whatever spirit it was that haunted you.  After that, nothing beyond waking up an hour ago here in this bed.”  I shouldn't be that surprised.  The whole time I'd been trapped in that place with him, Spirit hadn’t so much as blinked.  “It would seem more happened than simply my stove exploding.  What happened to us last night?”

I frowned and glanced around the clinic.  Unsurprisingly, no one seemed to be paying either of us much attention.  Each pony was more focused on their own problems.  When I turned back to Spirit, she seemed to understand my concern and said nothing as she sat waiting patiently.  So, I began to describe the events that had transpired of what I had seen and what happened to her, starting with why I believed she had no memory of the event.  If it had been anyone else, Stonehoof or Wild... I would expect a healthy scepticism about being told they had been frozen in time while I seemed unaffected along with elements of the environment.  It wasn’t something a… normal pony would understand.  She took it in stride however, whether due to the fact she trusted me or her own experiences with the supernatural I'm not sure.  I'd like to think the former, but given the craziness I’d seen and the wasteland’s own history, it was more likely the later.

She paused my story to ask of the chaotic spirit himself.  Given her expression, I had a feeling Tonto had already given her a general idea of what I’d seen.  It seemed I’d need to corner that buffalo and ask him a couple questions sooner or later.  Putting that aside for the moment, I attempted to describe how Disharmony appeared, a mismatch of different creatures who had power over everything happening.  Words faded me at times when I tried to explain how the different parts just… melded seamlessly with the other bits.  Upon hearing his description, she mentioned reading a story about something similar, a ‘chimera’ is what it was called.  I'd heard that name before, now that she mentioned it.  Back in school I believe, it was some sort of magical creature that lived in the wilder corners of the world.  So… was Disharmony a result of radiation?

When she asked what he had said to me however, it caused me to pause.  I realized suddenly that I'd need to bring up things I hadn’t to anyone else yet.  Everything, from my unexpected meeting with Second Sight during Nightmare Night to the unusual dreams I’ve been having since leaving Stable 45.  I would need to go into details about what Second Sight had told me, of my future and that of Equestria.  I would need to tell her about this twisted game it seemed Disharmony was playing with me.  Thus far, Spirit had been very understanding about the craziness I found myself in… and I did not expect that to change anytime soon.  Also… it would be nice to talk to someone about it.

So, taking a deep breath and giving the room another quick look... I told her.  Everything I’d kept from my friends, from Sugar.  From my unusual encounter with the zony in her disappearing tent, the very detailed dreams of another pony’s life, to what Disharmony had said almost word for word.  The whole time Spirit sat quietly and listened, her eyes never leaving my face as I laid it all out.  I only paused my tale four times, twice was when she asked a question, another was when a nurse made her rounds, and the last was when Balefire and Tink returned.

When at last I’d reached the end of my… admittedly insane story it was well into late evening and the dim lights within the room began flicking on.  I sat back in my seat and ran a hoof through my mane, realizing just how good it was to get that all off my chest.  Between Ebony’s death, the attack on my home, all the killing I’d seen… it was a lot to deal with.  Despite what I’d told myself over and over again about not worrying about this all... I had been dwelling and worrying a lot over this.  Destiny, death, the future of Equestria?  Gods playing a game with the lives of hundreds?  That was a lot more than just trying to survive some radiation and the killer wildlife.

“I can understand why you never mentioned this to anyone before,” she began after sitting quietly for ten minutes after I finished.  “It is a lot to take in all, especially all at once like this.”  She looked thoughtful as she went on, “It sounds like something from one of those Daring Do novels Tanner loves for me to read to him.  If I had not seen or know the things I do or you had been anyone else telling me this, I would assume you were simply insane and think no more of it.”

“If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe any of it.  I still find myself wondering if I’m insane,” I responded, ears folded back as I glanced to a flickering light sitting upon the wall beside us.  “Evil spirits and destinies certainly wasn't what I expected to be dealing with when I set out from 45.”  Picking the figure she’d given me at the start of this talk, I glanced over to the buffalo.  “So… you believe everything I told you?”  She simply nodded her head and I asked, “What do you think of all this?  Is what Second Sight told me possible?”

“I have met many so called fortune tellers while traveling the wasteland in search for other buffalo, and again upon moving to San Ponsisco.  Nearly all of them have been charlatans preying upon the fears and hopes of the people around them.  While a fair number of them have been zebras, I have had the good fortune to meet several zebras who are quite gifted.  I have learned that many zebra are quite similar to the stories I have heard of the buffalo, in that they have a sort of insight into the spirit world, or the natural world if you prefer.”  She paused a moment as a nurse trotted past.  The mare hardly gave either of us a second look as she went on about her rounds.

“I believe this Second Sight was telling you the truth, at least in so far as she knows.”  My confused look caused her to pause from going on and instead to explain what she had just said.  “Despite what she had to say, nothing is ever certain in this world.  Visions of the future, destinies of ponies, prophecies of great evils… they are all funny things, Shadow.  Often times they have either been passed down generation to generation orally or through writing.  Few survive the passage of time completely intact as they had been originally told.  All have had something either added, forgotten, or changed.  Your own people’s ‘Mare in the Moon’ legend is a prime example.”

“So, there could be some truth to what she said, but it could also be slightly off in some way?” I asked, frowning.  “Forget what I said about you not sounding like Tonto…”  She snorted and I pressed her for an answer.  “So, what do you believe?  You are the expert here.” I inquired to which she cocked her head slightly.  Once more, we settled into a short silence before she at last answered me.

“Honestly?” I nodded and she looked away to stare out the window across from her bed.  For a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to answer and would instead change the subject, but a calm look settled across her features and she turned her focus back to me.  “I believe what I have always believed since first meeting you.  That you are a very unique pony, Shadow, and that you have done and will continue to do great things.  I am unsure if a unicorn or zebra a hundred years ago foresaw you changing the world, but from where I sit, I can see it happening.”

“I’m hardly special, Spirit,” I said, a bit stunned by her words.  Yeah, sure I’d heard ponies praising me before, but it was how she had said it that surprised me.  “Stonehoof and Wild are just as brave and willing to help others as I am.”

“Perhaps,” was all she said as the nurse returned to us.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to take your friend up to one of the examination rooms.”  The nurse drew to a halt at the foot of Spirit’s bed, her green eyes looking from the buffalo to me, a kind smile upon her face.  “Doctor Bandaid is ready to scan her magical signature once again to ensure the foreign magic has faded and he also needs to examine her wounds.”

“It is alright, Nurse Tendercare, we had just finished our conversation and I believe he was about to leave to get some rest,” Spirit said to the cream colored pony, kind blue eyes shifting from the nurse to me and finally to the small figure I held in one hoof.  “Hopefully... you will find the answers you seek soon, Shadow.”

With little else to say, I nodded to the nurse before stepping aside and allowing her to begin helping Spirit up onto her hooves.  A second nurse, this one a earth pony stallion, appeared to assist the first with steadying the slightly wobbly buffalo between them.  I hurriedly held the door open so they could focus on helping Spirit out into the lobby and I watched as they lead her towards the stairs.  Well… I suppose it was just me and the doll.  Holding the doll back up to my face, I wondered what it was suppose to do.  As I sat looking at it, I noticed something unusual about it’s mane.  There seemed to be something beneath it.

Reaching another hoof up, I brushed the long bits of mane from the figure’s head and saw what it was I had failed to see earlier.  I also realized why the coloring of the figure seemed somewhat familiar.  There on its head was a tiny horn.  It wasn’t a pegasus, it was an alicorn.

It was a figure of Princess Luna...


Halfway to Lvl 23