Chapter I: The Beginning (rewritten)

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The electronic beeping of the alarm clock ended my restful sleeping too early, as it did every morning. I hated this thing. Military training doesn't run away form you, did it? It rather runs into your dorm, pulls away your blanket and makes you leave the soft bed by shouting at you, just to get you into another tough day of boring training.

I curled up under my blanket, opened my sleepy eyes and took a look at the room, this cruel, cold and not bed-like environment. The dorm of the Lunar Rock Military Academy look like it always did. Four beds, one at each of the four sides of the room, a desk next to each bed and a dresser on the other side. What was missing were the three other pegasi who should still be sleeping in the beds.

The Lunar Rock Military Academy was currently inhabited by five dozen pegasi soldiers, sixty young pegasi bucks and mares like me, and half a dozen trainers. Being a soldier was what life in the Enclave was about, at least here in Lunar Rock, I didn't know how things were handled in other cities. Maybe it was because we were that close to the borders of the Griffin Kingdom, we always had to be vigilant to counter griffin attacks, even if nothing mentionable had happened since I was born. But we had to be vigilant, that was what the government said. Be vigilant and ready to fight back.

I sighed. Why weren't there other pegasi who could fight those hypothetical griffin aggressors?

My eyes wandered to look at the alarm clock again. Fifteen minutes left. Why were there just fifteen minutes, I always set the alarm that it would wake me an hour before I actually had to get up. It was usually me who would be awake and ready to go by the time the others just started to wake, it was me who always was on time.

But not this morning apparently. But it wasn't too late, until then I still had ten minutes left.

First of all: Stocktaking.
Two eyes? There.
Four legs? Reporting for duty, begrundgingly.
Two Wings? One...where's wing two?! Ah, there it is.

Eyeing my alarm clock I put on my cloths and wandered into the bathroom. A look into the mirror showed me my usual morning appearance: a white coat with an also white feather on my flank, blue eyes and a messy blond mane, which looked quite good in combination with my coat and the black uniform I was wearing. I filled the sink in front of me with water and plunged my head into the cold fluid, dispelling any thoughts and urges of starting to sleep again. Now wide-awake I took a look at my wings. Preening wasn't really necessary right now, a few feathers were disarranged, nothing that would prevent my from flying at maximum speed, but sill... well groomed feathers are essential for a spruce appearance.

Whoever built this place all those years ago, I thanked him or her for installing a real clock right above the sinks, otherwise I might have forgotten that I was expected to be on the academy's central yard in about five minutes. Well then, Feather, it is time to go out to where our trainer, Wind Claw, should already be waiting for us. Another beautiful day at the Lunar Rock Military Academy, the last outpost of the Grand Pegasus Enclave before the evil griffin country. And one of the Enclave's biggest armories, at least if you take the ratio of guns to pegasi being able to wield them. Yes, we were just that small. One of the smallest enclave settlements that still counted as a city, with our own government, aircraft, supply of ammunition and so on.

Walking through the corridors and down the big stairs of the central hall, I thought about the coming day: a big military maneuver should take place in the afternoon and the unit I was in, and only that one, would perform. Of course I had to oversleep – almost oversleep – because the goddesses just didn't like me. Well, they usually did, since I managed to get through every kind of test the academy had been throwing at me for the last six years, but this morning they obviously hated me.

A pair of orange coated pegasi flew down to the main entrance at the other side of the hoofrail to my right. At least I wasn't the only pony who was late.
I could count myself lucky that my unit, Delta-4, was housed on the first floor of the five story building that was the academy. I always had the shortest way down, no need to hurry. Of course I imagined it to be quite thrilling to throw yourself into the empty space of the big staircase because you had just one minute left and bolting down five floors in less than ten seconds.
But I never did that. It was prohibited, I didn't know why, but I had no problem with following that rule.

As I stepped out of the entrance I saw the crowd that was the other eleven pegasi of my unit. Wind Claw obviously hadn't arrived yet. And he was never late. That meant I wasn't late too.
I could make out an orange mare with a mane as blond as my own in the crowd, Sunshine, so I flapped my wings, took off and moved towards my friends as silently as possible. Sunshine was the First Lieutenant of our unit, I was the Second, and together we were responsible for the other ten pegasi. Since we were all nearly the same in age and origin, coming from high ranked military families – but who above the clouds didn't come from an military family? – keeping the peace wasn't too difficult.

Almost there...

Sunshine was quite an impulsive mare with a strong love for practical jokes. Unfortunately I was her room mate and that meant that I and two bucks, Sky Striker and Hurricane by name, had to bear the brunt of her activities. But even then it was mostly I. And it usually involved my wings or, to be more precisely, my feathers. She simply loved pulling them out. Some goddesses-damned medical pony had once delivered a lecture about pegasus wings and that involved informing us that a pegasus was still able to fly with two-thirds of its feathers. And since then she was eager to test this statement. Typical best friend stuff.
Being plucked didn't hurt at all, it was just... a surprise every time it happened.

I was hovering about two meters away from her, ready for the lunge as I heard a loud throat-clearing straight ahead of me, on the other side of the cluster of pegasi in front of me. I knew only on pegasus who could make noises like this and this was our trainer.
We formed a line immediately, Sunshine and I were standing at the right end. She gave me a friendly nod and I returned it. Well, there would be another time and then revenge would be mine!

"Good morning, recruits!" The stallion in front of us shouted the greeting he used since the first day. Everypony was a recruit to him until he or she had fought in some war.

Wind Claw was a stallion who had left his best times behind long ago, which one could see for he was wearing an eyepatch, something he had obtained in the Griffin Wars, where he left his eye and almost a wing too, by his own words. He was stern but fair, a shining example for a peagsus and we respected him for that.

"Good morning, Sir!" we shouted in return and stomped our right forelegs on the ground in unison. He liked discipline like this and when he was in a good mood, that meant less warm-up exercises for us. Wind Claw was known for his excessive use of warm-up exercises, but there was a positive aspect too: after that, we were warmed up and able to concentrate on other things.

"Perfect conditions for the training flight today." He walk along the line of pegasi. "Weather Control gave us some extra clouds to make the maneuver more realistic." He stopped, turned around and his eyes started wandering from one face to another. "Today, we take things seriously: no training barding, you all will use your power armor, except for Sunshine and Whirling Feather, who will wear their officers uniforms. You will use real ammunition and your performance will be assessed by an committee of the High Council. Everything ist authentic except for your targets. They are drones, remotely controlled by some other recruits, but nonetheless weaponized with EMP- and Stunguns, so don't get hit. I don't want to report that somepony has fallen through the clouds and has been torn to pieces at the surface by some abomination. Expensive equipment would be lost. The maneuver will start this afternoon, fifteen hundred hours in the academy's hangar."

He turned his back to us and looked to the distant training area.

"But before you all do anything else, you will fly around the academy. Twenty five times."

Wind Claw and his infamous warm-up rounds...

""")_x_("""

As always a training of agility followed the initial flying and after that we went to the shooting range, where everypony would be trained to use "his" or "her" weapon. Different from other enclave cities, soldiers of Lunar Rock were also trained to use projectile weapons, since we were supplied by the Lunar Rock Bunkers, which hold a high amount of such weapons and fitting ammunition.
As an officer, I was armed with a single sidearm, Wing Beat by name, a hoofmounted 12,7mm sniperpistol with laser sights and a special trigger, adjusted to fire whenever I would bow my ankle. It was a gift from father to congratulate me for joining the academy.
In any normal case this would have been forbidden, but nopony prohibited Storm Feather, hero of the Griffin Wars and High General of the Enclave, an act like this.

They said, during the war, he had fought off a whole squadron of griffins attacking a medical transport without the transporter itself taking any damage. The counterpart of the gun he used to defeat the griffins and that should belong to my mother, another officer who was killed by the enemy in another surprise attack when I was only a few months old, was now mounted on my right foreleg, adapted to my hooves of course, and I used it quite well.

For it being an expensive, custom-made weapon this was to expected.

The others were armed with several different weapons, varying between light machine guns, beam rifles, plasma weapons and sniper rifles, which were fired by using fully automated battle saddle. Barding which, once it was activated, imitated any movement of the pony's head and could fire the installed weapons due to a bit on the tongue trigger. We all were capable marksponies, but one couldn't expect high accuracy from machine gunners, could you? And after the training at the shooting range and another flight exercise to improve our endurance we finally went for lunch.

The dining room was really large, half the size of our central yard, and it could easily hold more then twice the amount of pegasi in training. Why it was so large was beyond me, but the most common answer to anything in Lunar Rock and the Enclave in general was: it's attributable to military efficiency. Maybe it had been a storeroom once. But it was not until I seated myself next to Sunshine, Hurricane, Sky Striker and his sister Cloud Striker, that I realized that there was something odd.

“Am I the only one who tastes that?” I asked the ponies around me. All their eyes were focused on the plates in front of them, I could see how they all carefully chewed the food.

“I think we are going to die this afternoon.” Hurricane replied and broke the awkward silence. “That tastes as if it is some kind of last meal to fulfill a dying pony's dying wish, not like the slop they usually feed to us in here. We are so dead.”

“Well, the other food isn't really that bad,” I answered, looking back over my shoulder to make sure the cook wasn't in hearing distance, “but I have to admit, this is outright delicious. Definitely better than the usual daisy sandwiches. But I'm not sure if they gave us those as a last meal or simply to impress the councilponies. They do have to eat something too, don't they? And I doubt they would be satisfied by Cream Puff's daisy-sans.”

“I hate those sandwiches.” Sunshine mumbled over a mouth full of whatever the stuff we were eating right now was called. It somehow look like a daisy sandwich or a hay burger, but the taste was entirely different. “Seriously, it's always daisy sandwiches. Except for Friday, when there's this creepy white soup that tastes like nothing. I bet they're boiling down clouds to make that.”

“Sounds plausible.” the Striker twins nodded in unison. Usually they weren't like that. They did everything to avoid the genesis of another psycho pair of twins. As they had been taken to the academy they had even requested separate rooms. “Let's toast on our untimely deaths.”

The ponies around me exalted their tumblers and clinked them in complete silence..

“Okay, all jesting aside,” Sky Striker continued, drowning his chuckling. “Did the two of you finished our plan? The one you said you would elaborate with Wind Claw?”

Yeah, our plan.
Of course we weren't thrown entirely unprepared into the most combat-like situation we would ever endure in our lives, our grumpy trainer had played a bit of information about the maneuver into our hooves a week ago and since then all twelve pegasi of our unit had tried to make a real plan out of this mess. Our group had grown smaller and smaller until there were only my room mates and me left, and even then the two bucks didn't really do anything. It essentially were Sunshine and myself who had tried to figure something out for the last two days. And mostly nights.

“As if I hadn't anything better to do...” Sunshine grumbled in a low voice and the indigo buck's eyes widened in horror. “Of course we finished it, as good as possible at least. You know Feather, she might have not the biggest brains, but her voice sure can be annoying enough to force you to do your work, just to make her shut up. And other than us, she never seems to grow tired. You're going to regret keeping me awake all this time, you know that.” She added with a smirk and looked over to me.

“Is there something I can do and won't “regret” it?” I asked. The answer was obvious...

“Not if it takes place in the middle of the night!”

“It was barely past midnight. And it only took us so long, because you wanted to go to the gym first. I'm not even sure why you always go...”

“Shut up, that's why.” the orange mare concluded. That's how our arguments – If you could call those talks arguments – always ended. "Anyways, here's the plan...” Her wing rifled through the pockets on her uniform. “Somewhere in here...” Next pocket, no plan. The pocket after that, no plan and the next... “Feather, did I gave the draft to you?”

“Yes. Yes you did.” I said, drawing a piece of paper out of one of my chest pockets. “But I insisted that you would keep a copy too. You really need to become a bit more organized.”

“Shut up!”

Spreading out the relatively large piece of paper on our table we started to go through our plannings. First in our own small group, later with our whole squad.

We would be dropped by an unarmed vertibuck, a small transport-aircraft powered by storm clouds, and would have to scout and take over an “enemy” base, guarded by the remotely controlled drones Wind Claw had mentioned before, optimally without triggering any kind of alarm.

If everything would be going according to plan, Sunshine would take the major part of our group and would lead them to a frontal attack on the base, while two other soldiers would follow me to infiltrate the base from the opposite side. While the others would launch their feint against the fortress, we should be able to disabled the base's security systems and after that we would attack the base together and defeat the remaining enemies.

The plan may have had some week spots, but it was the best Sunshine and I had been able to think of. After all, this whole maneuver wast just about pure efficiency, but about cutting a good figure to impress the other cities' councilponies. That was one of the other universal explanations for doing anything in the Enclave: if it wasn't to fend off some griffin aggressors or a military thing in general, it was to overawe the other cities.

By the time we had finally finished briefing all the others, the time to start the combat maneuver had already come.

""")_x_("""

The vertibuck waited of us in the academy's hanger, the two storm clouds at the end of its wings, which were attached to the aircraft's upper end, were already roaring. A single pegasus stallion stood there, waiting for us, apparently he was the pilot of the vehicle as I deducted from the complicated looking helmet that lay next to him.

He didn't say a word as we arrived, he just nodded at the vertibuck's tail and we entered.
The interior of the vertibuck was the exact opposite of the dining hall. At least in the cockpit, where Sunshine and I had taken our places. The cargo area behind us could hold maybe a dozen pegasi plus their power armor, exactly the right size for us. The pilot's seated himself on one of the two seats at the nose of the vehicle and with another crack of the thunder clouds, we started moving.

While we were flying most of the ponies behind started to chat. Two of the snipers talked about relationships outside the academy, just stallions being stallions. I was glad I had not to worry about stuff like this, because for stuff like this I knew the pegasi around me too well. Buh... thinking about topics like this made my head spin. I preferred thinking about our mission. And clouds. Especially clouds .It was a good way to keep my head clean.

The pilot, still completely silent, pressed a few buttons on the console in front of him and with a low *click* two red-light numbers appeared on a screen above his seat, visible for the ponies in the cargo area. A countdown. And it was counting down, because that was its nature. Either this vehicle would destroy itself in... about two minutes or it was...

“Listen up, fillies.” The pilot's magnified voice sounded through the entire vertibuck, silencing the chatter. It wasn't really necessary, but it is said there are ponies who like the sound of their own voices.
“We are going to land in about sixty seconds. Once the tailgate is opened, you have exactly fifteen seconds to leave the bird and then your mission will begin immediately. Understood?” He couldn't see it, but everypony was nodding. Checking their gear and ammunition one last time, my power armored squad mates lined up in two rows in front of the gate at the rear end of the vertibuck. The countdown, which was also visible above the tailgate, showed that there were thirty-eight seconds left.

Thirty-eight seconds that felt like eternity.
It felt as if we were marching into our doom, like when I had done something wrong as a filly and had to “report” to my father to get my monthly dose of getting eyed disappointedly.
By the golden necklaces of Celestia, I was nervous. And looking at the faces of my companions, they weren't doing much better. I could see how Cloud Striker struggled not to chew on her battle saddle's mouth trigger. I was glad she didn't, because that would bad for obvious reasons. But Sunshine and Hurricane just smiled. They never ever looked nervous.

With a soft hiss, the tailgate opened and the two rows of pegasi in front of me exited the hovering vertibuck in pairs, jumping out its rear end and landing on the cloud ground maybe ten meters below.

“Just try not to act too incompetently in front of the High Council. You and your team are representing Lunar Rock for the next few hours.” The stallion behind my said into my direction the moment before I jumped. “And one last word from Wind Claw and I quote: You won't screw this up. Understood?”

Well, the local clouds were quite boring. I think that's all the description needed and possible to make. Cloud fields were always boring when compared to the forests of Equestria which I had red about in some Old World books. One couldn't hide well up here, but in return it was easier to understand the information our EFS, the Eyes Forward Sparkle, some kind of magical radar system, that showed enemies as red dots on our visors, even if we couldn't actually see them, gave us. Pre-war unicorn magic or something like that. Still, pretty handy .

There was no need for any kind of speech like the old movie heroes always did before a huge battle. This was neither a huge one, nor a battle at all. It was just a test.
Well, that didn't make it better for all our tension, but...

Screw the speech, this is a just drill. Just do as it is planned, then everything will turn out alright. Just stick to the plan.

I nodded towards Hurricane and Cloud Striker, signalizing them to follow me. Hurricane might not have been the most stealthy stallion of them all, but he was our expert in close-quarter combat, and that would count once we would be inside the base. And Cloud Striker... well, she was the exact opposite of the blue stallion. Her specialisation were long range sniping and – even more important – computer terminals. We had gotten wind of the “secret” terminal inside the base's security center, which should be able to disable at least the turrets. That was the whole reason our small stealth team even existed.
And I? I was there to keep those things in balance and inform Sunshine about our eventual success. Just me being the First Lieutenant's deputy.

“Let's go.” I said to the two pegasi who stood by my side and pointed my hoof to my right, away from where Sunshine was leading the rest of our squad. “It's a big cloud field, we should get this over with as soon as possible. Just remember, cut a fine figure. Really important ponies are watching us. Somehow.”

""")_x_("""

There were only four of the “guards” patrolling alongside our sneak path. Four quickly eliminated guards I might add, Wing Beat's armor-piercing rounds and the shots from Cloud Striker's sniper rifle lay waste to the drones pretty quickly, ripping their mechanical bodies apart as if they were made of toy blocks. That was some expensive gear we were destroying right now, but... we were told to do so, so it was okay.

Either the pony-shaped combat devices weren't equipped with some kind of audio recording thing or our silencers – another advantage of projectile weapons – did a pretty good job to hide our position by not needlessly drawing anypony's attention from the ponies who were currently fighting at the other side of the base.

Only once we – or better, Hurricane – might have accidentally revealed our stealthy approach as he tried to take out one of the drones by hoof. Maybe there was something like an off-switch on their backs or something, but what mattered was that Hurricane didn't manage to deactivate his enemy before it could recognize him. The only thing preventing this mistake form being fatal was Cloud Striker's quick shot in the two ponies direction, decapitating the not-pony guard, sending the pieces of his head flying into all cardinal directions.

It didn't take us long to reach the base after this “controlled escalation” as Hurricane called it after I had to nag at his – I quote myself – stupid, unnecessary, stupid, reckless and stupid displaying of skill. Seriously, what pony would endanger the whole mission just because this on take-down maneuver was preying on his mind for a few days now? Hurricane, that's who.
The base – if you could call a pile of ten stacked disposable bunkers a base – was less impressive than we had though. Over the radio I had heard muttering of disappointment a few minutes ago, obviously I wasn't the only pony who had imagined it to be... more.
But since we weren't pay for grumbling – actually we weren't pay at all – we could go on with the mission just as well. It made little difference.

"Why do they even use terminals like this?” Hurricane commented four guards later, as we finally stood in front of our target, the terminal which could switch off the turrets and unlock all the base's doors. “It doesn't make sense to have a terminal with all this functions, located in a room which is literally next to the hind door, which wasn't even locked by the way."

“Well, I'm sure it makes sense.” I answered as Could Striker used her wingtips to press a few keys on the cloud-based terminal. “Somehow at least. I mean, it would make less sense to let us go against an impossible-to-take base with nothing to do except for standing there and shooting. I'm sure the High Council wants to see a bit more plot instead of just action. And in case you haven't notice, the door was locked. The next patrol just unlocked it at the right moment for you to charge in. Again. I guess we're lucky that those patrols consist of one pony each or we might be in serious trouble right now.”

“Yes, I know, it's just that...”

“You can complain about it later.” Cloud Striker said, stifling the blue buck. “Maybe you should say Wind Claw that you didn't like it. That you felt they demanded to little from you. You know, there's this awesome new dress I saw a few days back and your funeral would be the perfect occasion to wear it out for the first time. By the way, Feather,” she turned her head to me. “I'm now read to deactivate virtually everything, so if you want to call Sunny, this might be the perfect moment.”

“Straight away, just one question:” I said, fiddling about my communication device. “Do you mean that black one mareswareshop Ammunition and Apparel featured last week.”

“Yes, so?”

“That's mine”

“Well, how about you wear it at your own funeral? I think I can arrange that.” she hissed. This mare was quite touchy when it came to any kind of wearing matching clothes with somepony else. Another way of her trying to get rid of any “strange twins” impressions. Anypony had a topic like that, an emotional or physical weak spot. Hers was the twin thing, mine were my wings and feathers, everypony had one. Except for Sunshine. Apparently.

“Girls, the call.” Hurricane intervened by stepping between us, shaking his head I frustration.

“Of course.” I said, smiling at the mare behind his back, who was smiling back. Of course all of this had just been fun. I activated my communicator and began to speak:
“Feint team, feint team, please come in.”

I heard gunshots and whatever word could be used to describe the sound of discharging plasma weapons on the other end of the line and a mare gasping, most likely Sunshine. If nothing else that meant she was still alive and that was good, even if it was pretty hard to get injured in this maneuver.

“Feint team, Lieutenant Sunshine, are you still there?” I asked, pressing the micro closer to my mouth. “How's your status?”

“No need for talk like this, Feather, nopony's listening.” the heavily breathing mare answered in a sore tone. I wasn't that sure about the last part. “We're alright. Lightning was hit, but we recovered him. And how are you doing? Did you lock yourselves out of the base and need me to open it for you from the inside or did you actually managed to do something? ”

“That's why I'm calling ma'am,” I said in an military ductus, making the orange mare at the other end huff. She had never liked all the rules in the academy and being treated as a superior was just as unpleasant to her than to me. “We successfully infiltrated the base and are now ready to turn its defenses off. We're waiting for your signal.”

“What signal?! Just turn the damn thing off, featherbrain!” She shouted so loud my ear pluck almost jumped out off said orifice and with a soft *click*, our conversation ended.

“Did you get that?” I asked the mare standing next to the security terminal.

She nodded and with a grin of anticipation Hurricane let the gemstones of his multi-plas rifle crackle. He was looking forward to what came next. Scrapping even more drones, but this time, he would handle things his way. Cloud Striker press a single key on the cloud terminal's keyboard. The soft hiss that should accompany the opening of the door was drowned by the shrilling alarm that went of at the same moment. As I turned my back on the mare again and looked towards the now opened gate, I froze.
I found myself face to mechanic face equivalent with one of the mechanical enemies we had tried to avoid for the last half-hour. The pony behind it seemed to be just as surprised as me, because it took it a little while to ready its stungun.

“Celestia, no!” I shrieked, flapping my wings and ascending into the air.

“Oh hell, no!” Cloud Striker concurred, trying to take aim with her sniper rifle.

“Oh fuck, yes.” the blue buck behind me on the ground said with a pleased voice as his three barreled plasma weapon turned our mechanical enemy into a pile of green glowing goo. “I've been waiting to do this since the mission started. Stay back, ladies. If you don't mind, I'll do things my way from now on.”

That was so hurricanish. Well, sunshinish too, but she was at the other side of the base and not the blue buck in front of me. So I stick with hurricanish.

“If I would say I mind, would that stop you?” I asked in a faux-serious manner and he shook his head. Of course not. “In that case, I order you to do things your way. ” I said with a smile and added whisperingly: “Stick to the chain of command, at least for the appearances' sake. You know, we're watched.“
Presumably.

Letting Hurricane precede, we made our way towards the shooting noises originating from the other half of the base. Everything had gone according to plan thus far. Excellent. It liked it when things were going according to the plan.

""")_x_("""

"This was probably the last one." Sunshine said as the last drone went down, sparkling and smoking from the shot of her semi-automated pistol. And with the drone, the last red dot on my EFS vanished.

Taking the rest of the base had proofed to be less difficult than I had feared. Apparently, being attacked from the one side by ponies with an unhealthy amount of ill will and firepower equivalent to a vertibuck, while almost a dozen other ponies pressed from the other side, overtaxed the coordination of the recruits behind the drones. And since only two of us were hit by the EMP blasts, one of them during the feint and another one while he and the rest of Sunshine's team rushed through the complex, I counted this as a success. Seventeen percent casualty rate seemed... okay for a frontal assault. The two bucks were right now laying in there dead power armors, waiting for one of our more technically skilled ponies to “resurrect” them. However this committee of the High Council may had watched us, there was nothing they could complain about.

Sunshine seemed happy too. Apparently, destroying some pretty expensive military hardware and thereby defeating the drones' pilots had raised a flush of victory. She was the most combative mare in our squad, with Hurricane as her male counterpart. If I hadn't known her test results were always a little bit better than mine, I would have questioned her qualification to lead our unit, but apparently she could do both. Planning and leading our squad's movement and actions while shooting at our enemies. Lucky her... I was only capable of the first thing.

“To all enclave soldiers of unit Delta-4: we're done here.” the orange mare next to me announced over the radio. “We're leaving this place. Rally at the main entrance, departure in a minute, let's get the heck out of here. Oh, and if one of our technicians feels the urge to do something productive, Lightning at the front gate is still in desperate need of a spell-matrix reboot. Otherwise he will be carried by the last two ponies who arrive at the rendezvous point.”

The sound of flapping wings suffused the room and it seemed as if the room had emptied the second Sunshine had finished her last sentence. I could see a few feathers slowly floating down to the ground. Sunshine and I took our sweet time to reach the exit. As she told me, she did that to show off her officer rang to our subordinates. I knew she was lying. She just wanted to see other ponies run. She didn't care for rules or ranks. Least of all her own.

Arriving at the central gate, I could see a crowd of ten ponies waiting for us. Apparently, one of our techno-ponies had taken Sunshine's threat seriously and had administered to Lightning's needs.
After enumerating to make sure we hadn't forgotten somepony, we spread our wings and returned to the drop point, where we were told our vertibuck should be waiting for us.
And indeed it did, well, not waiting, but by the time we arrived at the landing field we could already hear its thunder cloud engines and see it drew closer at the horizon, next to the silhouette of Lunar Rock in the distance.

But the moment it landed I felt my feathers ruffling. Something was strange, not right. Not right as in tumbling into the bathroom at the morning and find slight traces of toothpaste on your toothbrush. Nothing world-shaking, but irritating.
And it was exactly the same with this vertibuck.
It looked like the one that has dropped us before, heck! all the vertibucks looked the same. Maybe because it was flying with its tailgate turned towards us? But it would make sense to do that, the pilot wouldn't have to turn around to fly back home. But what kind of pony could pilot a vertibuck that precise with his or her head turned away from us? Vertibucks weren't equipped with rear-view mirrors and... why was this one equipped with missle pods?

“Sunshine!” I called after the orange mare who I was leading our company with and who was currently dashing towards the aircraft. She as our highest ranked officer had to be the one completing the mission by reporting to the pilot.
“Sunshine, there's something fishy about this one! You should... Just fly away! This isn't...”

The cracking opening of this vertibird's tailgate interrupted me and all of the sudden, Sunshine found herself face to faces with seven enclave soldiers in black power armor. Seven heavily armed enclave soldiers in black power armor.

For a brief moment everypony was paralyzed. More soldiers? That wasn't how we were told it would be. Wind Claw had told us that we would return to our vertibuck, would fly back to the academy's hangar and get our debriefing there. He had said nothing about ponies taking us there and he usually didn't hold anything back.

This was fishy.

But maybe they had been send by the High Council or Wind Claw himself to... tell us we screwed up maybe? Suddenly my heart dived. Please don't tell us we screwed up!

Then the power armored ponies started to “talk”. The central gunner, the one in front of Sunshine, was carrying a battle saddle with two miniguns attached to its sides. A really unusual weapon due to its high wastage of ammunition. For Sunshine's sake, the minigun took a few moments to get moving before firing and that gave her time to take off.

For a brief moment I assumed that everything would turn out alright, but the my heart skipped a beat as the flying mare was struck by struck by a fusillade of five bullets in midair and went down on the clouds above, a few feed away from me. She lay there, motionless, while everypony ran or flew for cover.

Those were enclave soldiers! And they were shooting at us!

"Lieutenant Whirling Feather to Enclave High Command! Lieutenant Feather to Enclave High Command – please come in! Something is... we are attacked!" I shouted into my microphone, holding it close to my mouth. We needed instructions. Who were those ponies?
“I repeat: we are under attack. Can...can you hear me! Can anypony hear me? ”

Silence.

Had our communicators been disabled somehow? I had heard about a thing like this, but never actually suffered from it. The gunfire around me drowned every shout, but I was able to hear my fellow soldiers screaming over the radio. They still worked. So why weren't our superiors answering?

"Who are they?"

"What do they want?"

I could hear my team mates shouting in desperation and fear. We weren't informed... we weren't ready for a battle like this. Whoever this was, they had taken out our leader right at the start and left us stumbling around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Should we fight back?"

"Who's in command now?"

But... as long as there were pegasi left, there was always somepony in charge. Wind Claw, no! my father had said this to me one time. It had been long ago. Years even.
And this somepony would be me then. I was the Second Lieutenant of this squad and as such I had to do what Sunshine couldn't do anymore: figure something out.

First thing on every pegasus anti-griffin battle plan:
Evacuate innocent bystanders and bring allied forces out of the line of fire. And this allied force would be Sunshine. Before I could do anything I would have to retrieve the orange mare or her corpse... no! I would retrieve her!
And then I could make a plan to fight back. Or maybe negotiate? They were enclave after all.

Nope, that one bullet almost punched another hole in my head. No negotiation then...

Come on, Feather, think of something!

“To all enclave soldiers of Delta-4! This is Lieut... this is Whirling Feather. I'm... I'm in command now!” I yelled into my communicator and to my relief I heard shouts of approval in return. Well then, time for my orders...
Killing the attackers was no option. I slapped myself for even thinking about ordering my friends to shoot at other pegasi. What was essential right now was to get Sunshine to safety, if... to get her to safety. And that would require our attackers to hold their fire for a while. And soldiers usually did that when they were shot at themselves.

“Return fire!” I ordered and before anypony could start to comment or utter their doubts, I added: “Return fire, but don't aim for the heads of other vital organs. Immobilize them if possible, drive them into cover, but whatever you do, don't kill them. I don't want anypony to shoot another enclave soldier. Drive them into cover, I'm going to get Sunshine.”

My orders were carried out, not without hesitation of course. I myself wouldn't feel comfortable to shoot a fellow enclave soldier or anypony at all. But we had to keep them occupied in order to retrieve Sunshine. And while the attackers slowly retreated to the vertibuck, were some of them had erected some kind of deployable cover I dashed towards the fallen mare. Gunshots rang through the air and I could almost feel the bullets zipping through the air I didn't know how far away. But they were definitely too close for my liking.

Grabbing the mare's forelegs I flapped my wings to move her towards the bunch of clouds I had taken cover behind. A pretty stupid idea, but it seemed to work. The intensity of the defensive fire ebbed away after the two of us were “save” again and only now I dared to look at her. What I saw left me both shocked and relieved:
She looked bad. And she was bleeding. Her right wing had been hit by at least two bullets, penetrating shots, and I could see another wound at her belly. But at least her chest was moving up and down. Goddesses be praised, she was still breathing, alive.

“I need a medic over here!” I shouted into my radio once again. Even if Sunshine was still alive, I couldn't guarantee that if I would just let her bleed out next to me. And I still needed to think of a plan to... overcome the power armored pegasi who were shooting at us right now.

Taking a brief glimpse out of cover I found time to look at the attackers. This time they didn't shoot back, they were too busy being shot at themselves. All of them were armed with machine guns or rapid-fire weapons of some kind, no pistols or long range weapons.
Strange.
Usually the commanding officer of a pegasus unit was armed with a easily accessible pistol. For deserters...
Even stranger – and this time it was in our favor – was that we had somehow managed to surround them on three side, their own vertibuck cutting off an easy escape route. The Cloud Striker and Hurricane along with three other ponies were shooting at them from the right, Sky Strikerand his group hold the line at the center and the unconscious Sunshine and me were – scratch that – would be able to attack them from the left.

But the cover they had was pretty good and they were in a defense formation, I hadn't heard of a confirmed hit yet. And with the curtain fire they threw at us, it was impossible to get close enough for their cover not to matter. But if one would come from...

“I'm still in need of a medic or at least somepony who's carrying bandages around, Sunshine is wounded but alive. And I also need a pony from each front at my position, everypony else: keep firing, cover them. Execution, now!”

The gunfire increased again for a about twenty seconds and after that, Sky and Cloud Striker were cowering next to me, the former reloading his two machine guns while the latter held a small yellow and butterfly-ornate medical box in her muzzle.
While Cloud Striker dashed towards the unconscious Sunshine and began wrapping her wing and body in bandages, her brother seemed much less active.

“We are the reinforcement.” he said, then turned around and fired a few shots at our opponents. “Whatever you've planned, Feather, I hope it works out fast. We'll run out of ammo really soon if we keep shooting like this. They on the other hoof...” he nodded towards the enemy... the other soldiers. “...don't seem have this problem. Not yet. Come on, spill it out. What's your plan, Feather?”

“Sky, that's: Lieutenant Feather or ma'am, she's our commanding officer now.” his sister snapped at him.

“Screw the ranks, we have bigger problems!”

“But you have to...”

“It's not important how he calls me right now. We don't have time of arguments.” I interrupted her with my tension clearly audible. If Sky Striker was right and we ran out of ammunition now, my plan wouldn't only fail, it would backfire. Badly.
“How much ammunition is left?”

“Apart from my current magazine? I've got two more, the others may have a third one, I'm not sure. But it's not enough to sustain our fire for more than a few minutes. Is it enough for you?”

“It has to be.” I said hesitantly. It really had to be. “If everything works out, we won't need a few minutes. Listen up now, there won't be a another chance...”

""")_x_("""

The attackers had fallen back to their defense position entirely by now, only now and then they peeked out of cover to fire a few shots at the equally entrenched pegasi, who had pinned them down with a massive attack, with almost mechanical accuracy. There had been reports about hits, but nothing that had wounded the pony inside the power armor. Nonpony noticed the red dot that was twitching across the chest of the minigun wielder, nopony but me.
Of course I did, the dot was caused by Wing Beat's laser sight.

Okay, Feather, take a deep breath. This won't kill him. Just... just hurt him, very badly, so he won't be able to shoot back at you.

“Are you ready?” I heard Cloud Striker whispering. I should be the one asking this, I was the leader.

Don't be a pussy pony, Feather, you won't kill him. They told you that at anatomy class.

I moved my hoof joint and the soldier's chest erupted in a cloud of smoke and stuff I couldn't make out and didn't want to. As he went down, his fellow ponies hold their fire for a moment, scanning the area for the origin of the attack. Me.
And I was much closer than they thought.

“Now, drop them!” I called out to the two pegasi who were lying next to me on the cloud and together we plunged down at the power armored soldiers below.

Sky Striker managed to hit two of them with spurts of his automated weapons, but then the moment of surprise was gone, they grouped and shot back at us. After taking down another one with a well aimed head shot, Cloud Striker's wing was hit and I saw how she lost control over her flight, trailed off to the left and went down a few meters away from the defense position and the vertibuck.
Sky Striker as our own heavy gunner drew the majority of their fire as he flew away from the crowd and towards his fallen sister and I, who somehow nopony seemed to notice, managed to land right in the middle of the three remaining ponies. Almost instantly, two of them turned towards me and fired.

Luckily, due to the momentum of my impact, I was still crouched as the two unloaded their guns into my direction. Unfortunately for them, they were standing exactly in the line of fire of each other. That was lucky indeed.

“Drop your weapon or I'll shoot you!” I yelled as loud and intimidating as possible at the last attacker, pointing Wing Beat at his only centimeters away from him.
“Drop it now and you won't be...”

He didn't even hesitate before he took aim himself instead of deactivating his battle saddle. Surprised as I was, I would have been annihilated by my opponent this very moment, if he hadn't transformed into a heap of green goo right in front of my eyes.
My eyes widened in surprise, I turned my head and my gaze fell on Sky Striker, who was kneeling next to his fallen sister, her own secondary weapon, a plasma pistol, aimed at me. Or rather at the spot where the last enemy's head had been moments ago.

For a brief moment, we were surrounded by nothing but silence.
But then I heard shouts of joy and relief. In fact they were so loud that I had to take out the ear piece of my communicator not to go deaf.
While Sky Striker got rid of his battle saddle and talked insistently to his fading sister, I dashed back to Sunshine, dragging the orange mare on my back and as I returned, everypony with a first-aid kit was eager to help either the unconscious mare on my back or the wounded one on the cloud ground. Cloud Striker's medical treatment had been provisory, the ongoing battle had kept her form paying the attention her wounds needed.

Leaving our more skilled ponies alone with the wounded, I trotted over to a small group of ponies who were examining our fallen enemies. It was a shame it had to end this way. I had tried to negotiate, but... they simply didn't want.

“Feather!” I heard Hurricane call out to me. The group around him diffused and I could see him standing over on of the corpses. "I think you should take a look at this one."

""")_x_("""

"Robots!" I called out loud after I had investigated the "corpse". "Were that...drones too? Like the ones in the base?"

"You're asking the wrong pony, Feather. I'm no technician.” Hurricane answered, shaking his head. “They're definitely robots, but they're way to agile to be remotely controlled by the same ponies who were driving the drones. Those are military-mechs, like the ones used in the Great War. Killer robots."

"But why are they wearing enclave armor? And why were they attacking us?" This was confusing and somehow disgusting. “I've never heard ”

"I'm still no technician, but I don't think it was a malfunction. I doubt Lunar Rock is secretely controlled by an AI which decided to get rid of all feathered meat bags above the cloud right now, so I think they were programmed to attack us by somepony."

“Why should “somepony” do that?” I asked. Was "somepony" playing games with us? Nopony would use miltary-mechs with lethal weaponry and combat programming at a maneuver of cadets of our ranking.

"I think you should ask whoever is coming to us in this other vertibuck." the blue buck said and as I turned my head I could see two other vertibucks approaching, one of them was heavily armed and armored, the other one was the vehicle we had arrived in.

As they landed, everypony was taking aim at the tailgate of the vehicle, preparing ourselves for another attack. But the ponys we saw now were't dressed like the robots we hat fought, this ones were wearing some kind of golden power armor, and first of all: they weren't shooting at us. They formed an alley and then some other pegasi, wearing blue, grey, red and golden robes which I had seen before, even if it only had been in pictures, left the aircraft:
Members of the High Council of the Grand Pegasus Enclave, several pegasi and, to my amazement, two unicorns as well.

"Congratulations." one pegasus stallion, who was apparently acting as the spokespony for the others, said with a patronizingly sounding voice.

"You made it."

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 2

Skill(s): Firearms 25

New Perk added: Charge! (I)

"This was close."
Standing on a higher ground you get the opportunity to charge at an enemy on lower ground.After dealing an medium amount of damage, your next attack will deal 20% bonus damage, but you also will find yourself at melee range.

Chapter II: The Enclave (rewritten)

View Online

"I assume you are the commanding officer of this unit?" the stallion in front of me asked, the dying winds originating from the council's vertibuck's storm cloud engines made their robes waving in the wind in an awe-inspiring way. Those admittedly aged pegasi looked so... awesome. And one of them was speaking to me! A member of the High Council! If he would have been maybe five or ten years younger I would consider describing him as... scratch that, he was talking to me!

"Hello, young mare, I'm talking to you. Are you this unit's commanding officer?" I nodded hastily, trying to banish any thoughts about... him to the darkest and most chained up place in my mind. I didn't knew a stallion that young – relatively of course - could even be a council member. I had always imagined there was some kind of rule saying only pegasi whose feathers had already started to turn grey were allowed to become members of the council.
"Excellent. What's your name?"

"I'm the Second Lieutenant of this reconnaissance..."

"I asked for your name. Not your rank or any numbers. Just your name."

He wanted... what? Close your mouth, Feather. I really must have looked stupid right now, standing in all those metallic remains, my feathers ruffled in excitement, just staring at the small crowd in front of me. He wanted my name? Better obey the... whoever he was.

"I'm Whirling Feather and I..."

"Whirling Feather you say? I know this name from somewhere... anyway, my name is Nimbostratus of Neighvarro, member of the Enclave High Council. And I have to say, I'm most impressed by what you - all of you of course," he raised his voice so that all of the ponies behind me could hear him too, "just did. Taking on a whole squadron of mechs is really... impressive to say the least. I bet there's one pony who would like to talk to you right now."

Nimbostratus turned around to call whoever he meant be the "pony wanting to talk to us" as a hissing noise cut trough the air above us. Just as we raised our heads towards whatever was buzzing above, but the only thing my eyes could see were flashes of light, followed by the noise of pegasi impacting on the cloud cover to our hooves, whirling up enough cloud dust to take our eyesight for a few moments.

As the dust started to settle again I could see the silhouettes of the... six pegasus shaped show-offs who were now standing between me and the councilponies. Six really bulky show-offs... They had to be the ones behind the attack, I mean, who else would do anything like siccing combat robots on – relatively – defenseless pegasi. I hoped, whoever they were, they had a really good explanation for their doing. Or just an explanation at all, I was just curious at this moment. With a violent shake of my head I reminded myself that two of my friends had been injured because of the attack.

Keep being upset, Feather, keep being upset!

A sudden draft from above blew the dust away and now I could see another pony landing inside the circle its allies had formed. My eyes jumped to the six ponies, who were revealed first. They were... wearing power armor, but not the same black model as my squad mates or the golden ones the High Council's guards wore, these were completely made out of polished silverish metal, reflecting the sunlight in the most awesome way possible. Those were Lunar Rock's Silversih Guards. Pegasus elites, covered in polished power armor from head to hoof, both armed with battle saddles and hoof-mounted guns like Wing Beat on mine. Their high-caliber rounds were visible in the transparent magazines stuffed into the pistol, the rounds that were powerful enough to effectively fight other power armored ponies.

Between those shining soldiers I spotted another stallion, wrapped in a black coat, which had the emblem of Lunar Rock on its shoulders and the signs of the High General...

It was him. Storm Feather, bemedalled veteran, war hero, High General of Lunar Rock. Oh right, and my father too. And he was angry like I never saw him before.

Before anypony could do anything, father stood in front of Nimbostratus, pressing his own hoofgun Squall Line, Wing Beat's counterpart, against the stallions neck. The council guards tried to ready their battle saddles, but were stopped immediately by the Silverish Guards who aimed their own weapons at them. I grinned internally as I saw the non-Lunar Rock battle saddles adjusting much slower to the selected targets than the ones of the Silversih Guards. Lunar Rock battle saddles weren't known as the fastest on this side of the cloud cover for nothing.

"You have got some explaining to do, Nimbostratus." father growled, his grey hide darkened with red anger. Instinctively I moved backwards a bit. Being near angry Storm Feather was never healthy, neither to your hearing nor to your feelings. At least that was what I remembered of him, I hadn't seen father, angry or not, for... longer than I could imagine. A few painful foalhood memories were all I based my attitude on right now.

I couldn't see much the crowd of councilponies behind Nimbostratus, but from what I little I could spot at this moment almost all of them hid behind their golden armored guards. Cowardly on the one hoof, but comprehensible nonetheless. Most likely it would have been my action of choice when I would have been hold at gunpoint by an angry pegasus stallion. The pegasus father held captive tried to maintain his straight face but the 12,7mm barrel on his neck didn't make it easy for him.

"Please calm down, General..."

"Explain! Now! Why were fully operational combat drones attacking those unprepared cadets? Why were they armed with lethal weapons? And why were you so damn close to the battlefield?

"General, watch your language!" Nimbostratus started but was immediately reminded by a clicking noise of Squall Line's trigger that he was the pony who should pay attention to what he was saying. "Alright, alright, we... I think I can give you a.... I can tell you."

"It better be good, because I swear to the goddesses, if your reason doesn't please me, I personally going to brand you. If you're lucky. Did you even talk to the High Command - or to anypony from Lunar Rock before setting this up?"

"Well, I..."

"Please, calm down, Storm." another voice said from behind the crowd of councilponies, a female and calm voice that sounded familiar... somehow. I had heard it not too long ago, but couldn't match it. The crowd divided and made way for an elderly blue mare in a stark but somehow even more official looking robe. She looked familiar too...
"This action took place in consultation with Lunar Rock's military operation base. We were informed, High General."

In unison the Silverish Guards bowed down clutteringly and my father even got of Nimbostratus' face. He still had him collared, but at least his weapon was deactivated again.

"You... you knew about this? And you agreed to it?" he said, but with a doubting undertone. "I'm sorry ma'am, but that seems really... unusual. With all due respect, we talked this through for months and we agreed on letting the maneuver end after the cadets defeated the last remote controlled drone. But this..." he pointed a wing at one of the advanced combat droids to his hooves, "...this wasn't even discussed, it had never been even considered."

"You're right, High General. The idea was born out of spontaneousness as the council watched the maneuver. Councilstallion Nimbostratus here gave the initial idea." I started feeling sorry for the pegasus father glared at as if he was about to eat him alive. "But we came to the conclusion that it was necessary to keep anypony else in the dark to guarantee... unaltered results."

"Unaltered result? I beg your pardon, madam president." Now father sounded just as surprised as the pegasi of my squad – myself included – looked. "May I have your explanation about this "incident"? It doesn't make any sense to me, a victory of the cadets was extremely unlikely. Why would anypony let the mechs attack the unprepared and untrained pegasi? And why did he..." he glared at Nimbostratus again, "had any influence on our training habits. The last I remember Neighvarro asseverated they would stay out our city's business ever since they managed to almost got me shoot down their precious Wonderbolts last year."

"That was you? I swear I..." Nimbostratus started, but quickly went silent again as both father and the the president glared at him.

"That's not important now, councilstallion." Cirrostratus said casually, "The High General demanded an answer and we should be willing to give that to him." the... president, the most powerful mare on this side of the cloud cover. Okay, that was something every last enclave city insisted on for their rulers, but still: we were looking at the president of Lunar Rock! "Actually it's all very simple: we were informed about some outstanding elements inside this group, for example the young mare, who happens to be the commanding officer by now." the mare answered. "So when we saw this cadets taking on the maneuver with ease, councilstallion Nimbostratus suggested to make this challenge a bit more... challenging."

Said stallion tried to smirk as my father glanced at him, his look promising many painful ways of dying. "But lethal weapons? Why? Two of the pegasi were severely injured." father replied and pointed a wingtip at the Sunshine and Cloud Striker, lying on the ground next to us. "Was that really necessary?"

"We simply assumed that the cadets would overcome this obstacle as well and so they did. Or do you want to cheapen your cadets' efforts, High General?" President Cirrostratus answered. "As I was informed, your own daughter is involved in this action and to a not insignificant degree I may add. Do you really want to discuss this matter in front of all of them?"

A collective gasp went through the High Council in front of us. Apparently to them, this was a new information. Nepotism had never been a big problem in Lunar Rock, I wasn't able to say why. Since we were such a small city it would be a predictable issue, but we somehow managed to stay clean from trouble like this. At least I had not heard of anything as long as I could remember. The councilponies of Neighvarro and the other cities however... the seemed surprised, some of them even looked scandalized.

Father didn't flinch or showed any emotion at all. He didn't even care to further go into this subject, he just shook his head. "You are right, madam president. This is neither the right place nor the right time to further elaborate anything. The injured need help and the cadets a transporter. We'll talk about this later. And we will too." he concluded with an angry glance towards the continuously shrinking Nimbostratus.

"Of course, High General. We held the cadets' vertibuck back so itwouldn't get damaged. It's ready and waiting a few minutes away, but..."

"...but you think we should get the wounded to the hospital faster than with a vertibuck. I agree. You there!" father nodded towards his Silverish Guards. "You four take the wounded to the hospital as fast and careful as possible, while the you two escort the High Council back to the academy. Understood? Good, execution!"

With a speed I hadn't thought to be possible for power armored warriors four of the pegasi loaded my wounded squad mates onto their backs and took off, leaving behind nothing but cloud dust, which concealed the members of the High Council as they entered their vehicle again. It was not until the wind created by the vertibuck's cloud engines blew the dust away that we could see something again. In that case, said something was my father, our High General, standing there in silence and with his back turned on us.

"Soooo... what do we do now?" Hurricane asked to break the awkward silence.

"Keep your mouth shut, Hurricane," a female voice from behind hissed, "that's the High General, you do want to leave a good image, don't you?"

I shook my head and shrugged, visible to nopony but myself. Of course they were right, father was the High General, the commander with the highest authority in the enclave military. And as such I didn't want to disturb him while he was... whatever he was doing right now. Maybe just standing there. But as my supreme commander he surely had his reasons for doing that.

A sudden poking sensation in my side ripped my out of my thoughts and as I turned my head I looked into the eyes of Sky Striker. "Feather... uhm... what will we do now?"

"Why should I know? I'm just..."

"...our commanding officer at this moment. And the General is your father, so maybe he won't take offense by you... you know... asking him what's going on. I mean what we should do now. Apart from just standing here of course."

I heard affirmative mumbling coming from the rest of my squad. Great. It was like my first weeks at the academy all over again.

"You clearly don't know my father." I muttered. "The only difference between General-him and home-him is the absence of stars on the epaulettes of his uniform. Believe me, I speak from experience, you don't want to be anywhere near him when you or anypony around you breaks any protocols or code of conduct or anything like that. And his scoldings are able to create black holes inside of ponies. Did Hurricane never tell you?"

Another painful foalhood memory...
The only thing I remembered was that cookies had been involved and that father had been really upset about it. And the following lecture of course. I was glad I didn't remember anything else about it. It had been both frightening and embarrassing back then.

"He gave a few hints, nothing specific, but that doesn't matter now. I think you should ask your father for further instructions."

"But..."

"Lets vote!" Sky Striker said, turning around and facing the remaining eight ponies of our squad. "Who's in favor of having Feather go and ask the High General?" Five hooves were raised. "Countercheck!" One hoof. Mine. Damnit! "Bare majority. You have to go, Feather. The will of the people demands it."

Damn this whole democracy thing and the ponies who had invented it!

Slowly I trotted forwards, bracing myself for what was to come. I was just glad there were nine other pegasi who would pick up the pieces the stallion dressed in black would leave of me. A few meters away from him I wondered if I should raised my hoof to tap his shoulder, but then all of the sudden, father spoke up: "I wondered how long it would take you all to bring yourself to do that."

"I'm really sorry... Sir." I said hesitantly. He didn't like being called "father" - or even worse "daddy" - neither at home nor in public, "But we've been asking ourselves what will happen now. Are we ordered to wait for further instructions or is the exercise finished? Or are there any new orders you wanted to deliver us personally? Is there anything wrong?"

"No."

"So we're allowed to leave?"

"I don't recall saying that." he said in a monotone voice, "The maneuver ends once the soldiers arrive at the hangar again. And while I might be the highest ranked member of the military on the spot, I committed all authority to Lieutenant Colonel Wind Claw. And I think he committed that responsibilities to your highest ranked officer, which is by now you, Lieutenant Whirling Feather." I huffed internally. I really hated it when he used my full name to talk to me. I mean, we were family, that just felt... wrong.

"May I ask why you're here then?" I asked and mentally slapped myself simultaneously. That wasn't the way to talk to him if I wanted to get out of this alive.

"I spontaneously decided to supervise the extraction of your team." father answered in a relatively friendly tone, his back still turn on me. "You did call your vertibuck to pick you up, Lieutenant?"

Of course I... had not. And father knew that well. At what point should I had done this? He wasn't always like that, rubbing in anything I had done wrong, I mean. Only if it was a bad day. Which apparently it was. If his much too calm voice didn't give it away, it was him calling me by my rank's name. Usually he would refer to me as "you". But this wasn't usually.

"No, I didn't..." I started, but was cut off by the light grey stallion who was my father only on weekdays without an "A" in their name.

"Then you should go do it, don't you think, Lieutenant?"

The talk ended right now and I knew that. It wasn't our first conversation that had ended that way. I trotted backwards until I stood next to Hurricane again. Apparently the whole squad had been eavesdropping, because nopony asked any questions as I just shook my head and turned away to phone our vertibuck. Of course they knew my father too, maybe just as well as I myself. It were rare encounters but in a relatively small city like Lunar Rock such were impossible to avoid. And if it were only him signing our competitors' certificate given to us after the annual inner-city sports competition. He had always been taciturn, he preferred letting others have all the spot-light to themselves. Maybe he had been different once, but I couldn't remember it. What mattered now was to get our transport as fast as possible, to get out of this while keeping up appearances as good as possible. And very soon we could hear the vertibuck's cracking thunderclouds coming closer.

""")_x_("""

It was mostly silent as we flew back to the academy's hangar. If somepony spoke at all, it was nothing more than a whisper I couldn't really make out. Hurricane sat next to me in the cockpit, filling the place where Sunshine had been on our way there and I could watch the academy drawing near. After a while, the blue stallion tapped me on the shoulder with his wing.

"You've done a good job out there, Feather. I really mean it." Mumbling of approval. "You know, when Sunshine got shot... I didn't know what to do. But you took command as if it was nothing. And when you, Sky and Cloud attacked those things from above... I haven't seen that before, only in those Old World movies."

And now the silence was broken and every pegasus on board started to chatter in relief.

"That was fantastic."

"I didn't expect anypony to be able to pull off something like this."

Facing all this compliments, I blushed a little. What they were saying wasn't true, both I and they knew that. But after getting out of a exam - as which this maneuver definitely counted, maybe even as two - this was the usual reaction. I was reminded of our first combat maneuver ever, the twelve of us against two dozen cloud target dummies, it had turned out the same. Just without somepony getting shot and thankfully Cloud Striker being the one everypony was heaping praise on. Good times.

"You were like the Wonderbolts!" a female voice shouted from behind.

"Are you out of your mind, Thunder?"

"Sky and his sister did a good job as well.The last one would have killed me for sure if Sky hadn't shot him." I muttered in a low voice. Apparently too low. And the others weren't interested at all, since the focus of everypony's mind was now an argument about if comparing pegasus of Lunar Rock to the Neighvarro Wonderbolts was to be taken as a compliment or an insult.

"That was luck." the buck next to me said. "You could have destroyed the drone just as easy as I did. Luck, nothing more. Well, and that I'm faster than you. But apart from that: luck."

"But..." How could he deemphasise his actions so much?

"But me no buts! You gained your laurels and you earned them." Hurricane interrupted me. "Without you and your plan, I would most likely still sit behind my cover without ammo, throwing cloud dust at them robots. We have to thank you for getting us out of this unharmed. Well, nearly unharmed." the blue buck called out loud and enthusiastically and the whole team agreed by stomping the vertibuck's floor with their hooves. "Sunshine and Cloud will be okay in no time, I'm sure." he added almost silently.

The pegasi not busy arguing about Wonderbolts kept adulating me for some time, each minute passing increased the room temperature I felt and the blood pressure in my cheeks and just as I wanted to scream the vertibuck landed in the academy's hangar. Oh thank Celestia.

Hard to imagine there could be something else to be afraid of apart from the metallic pegasus-shaped and power armored robots that were out to actually kill us, but in the exact moment the tailgate opened and we found ourselfves face to red-face with Wind Claw. Was there anypony not angry today?

"Lineup!" he yelled and neither of us dared to refuse his command. An angry Wind Claw could be... harmful, but different to my father, this violence wouldn't stop at an emotional level. Older soldiers of the academy had told us that our trainer had once gotten into a brawl between him and two other cadets of our age, maybe a bit younger. It was said that afterwards one of the combatants couldn't fly properly for two weeks, another one was almost expelled and the third had to stand trial for unnecessary violence later.

"I was watching you." the stallion said slowly and somehow menacingly as he walked the line of pegasi, past the empty place somewhere in the middle, Cloud Striker's position, and the one at the left end, next to me, where Sunshine should have been. "And I am extremely displeased by what I've seen."

Did I mention Wind Claw didn't suffer the first or the second fate?

I could almost feel the tension of my teammates, but nopony dared to look at the one next to him or her. All of us were thinking about one thing: what had we done wrong this time? Had we broke some kind of attack formation? Was he disappointed by the two mares who got injured in battle against Celestia-damned war machines? No, there had to be another reason! Wind Claw might have been as quick-tempered as a dragon, but never without a reason that was somehow comprehensible to mortal ponies. And I would bet my wings that getting stabbed in the back wasn't entirely our fault. Of course if he had known of all this...

"I'm displeased by..." he made a pregnant pause, "...by how those council chumps treated you. Stabbed you in the back with robots. Robots!" He spat on the ground. But then a strange expression sneaked up into his face, something I couldn't remember to have seen as in... forever. A smile. "But I am pleased by how you handled them. It reminded me of my old training days, when I was still young and kicking flanks. Good days. Of course we will cherish the memory of the ones who fell for glory."

"But... Wind Claw, Sir, Sunshine and Cloud Striker are not dead." I interjected. "They were brought to..."

"Second Lieutenant Whirling Feather, when I give a funeral oration for our brothers and sister fallen in battle, you'll shut up. Understood?" Seeing the confused expression on my face, he smirked to an almost scary degree. I honestly didn't know he had that many teeth.
"What I want to say: I'm proud of you, soldiers, even if it's just a tiny bit. And because you did such a good job, the Council decided to give you some free time for the next couple of days, so you can swagger about the maneuver and lick your wounds."

"Sir?" we asked, distrustfully. Now he started to really scare us. When free time was announced by Wind Claw, that usually meant his next days would be occupied with strangling somepony for not getting their lockers cleaned properly. And even if he would be busy, there seemed to be an uncountable amount of backup officers, just waiting in his own shadow to take his place whenever needed.

"I'm only joking of course. The High Command ordered you to recover for the next few days, for good publicity. They need time to discuss, when who made what kind of mistake and whose wings must be clipped. Not my liking but an order is an order is an order. But I would be damned if I let you get away that easily..." he turned his back on us and gazed at the distant training field and before we could fly away he added: "You'll fly around the academy, twenty-five times."

We looked at each other disbelievingly, but now the stallion chuckled.

"Just kidding." he said, spreading out his own wings. "Only ten times."

""")_x_("""

My wings ached more than usual after Hurricane, Sky Striker and I had finished enjoying Wind Claw's parting gift. Although the number of rounds had been reduced, we all were pretty exhausted. No wonder, since we had just been fighting killer-robots merely an hour ago! But on the bright side, the prospect of returning to our dorms was that much more delightful now. So after we had returned our weapons and power armor back to the armory, the first thing we did was diving head first into our beds. In the Lunar Rock Enclave, the dorms weren't separated as they were in the pre-war Equestria and probably the rest of the Enclave for reasons I didn't knew, but I guessed it was more practical that way. Somehow. Each team's pegasi were divided in three groups, each inhabiting a room with four beds. The inhabitants of "my" room were - along with me - Hurricane, Sky Striker and Sunshine.

"What a day!" Hurricane said, yawning loudly. "And as I said before, Feather: You were great."

Sweet Celestia, not again.

"And as I said before: I don't want to hear this anymore. Can't we talk about something else? About lunch today and why there isn't lunch like this more often? About Neighvarro conspiring against Lunar Rock? Because those are topics I would prefer to discuss. Or Sky having a crush on Sunshine?"

"Hey!" said buck yelled from the other end of the room, where he took off his uniform. "I'm not..."

"Just kidding." I replied to assuage the blue pony, who looked at me with a grim face which passed over to a smile after a short time of silence. Of course he wasn't in love with Sunshine. I doubted anypony would dare to even think of something like that, at least if said pony knew our orange officer for a few days. "Or what about this: has anypony an idea who those unicorns in the back of the council were? I though the unicorns were extinct. I thought we pegasi were the only equine beings left in Equestria." I asked, putting my own uniform into the locker. "And even if there would be somepony left on the surface by now, why are they here? I thought only pegasi could walk on the clouds."

There was a fuzzy noise coming out of the bundle of uniform and wings around Hurricane's head.

"Come again?" I asked.

The same noise, just louder. I approached the mumbling piece of clothing and yelled into its neck opening: "Outside of the uniform!" Hurricane got airborne for a few seconds, then fell onto the ground and his head peeked out of the wrong opening.

"Those were the unicorns of Thunderhead, I assume. It's some kind of pre-war research facility-thing with an awful amount of unicorns in it when the cloud cover was established. They live together with the pegasi over there, since they couldn't just kick them out or something." he said annoyed by the imprisonment, his head disappeared again and was soon replaced by his wings.

"And the whole cloud-walking-thing?"

"Magic, I assume." sounded his voice out of the holes again.

"And now we're on vacation until next week." Sky Striker said, changing the subject while I was watching the blue buck struggling to get out and thereby getting even more tangled in his uniform. "What should we do until then?"

"First thing? Showering." Hurricane answered as he chucked his uniform to the ground, shouting a battle cry. "I don't know what you're thinking, Sky, but I feel the need for a decent ventilation system integrated into those power armors."

Now that he mentioned it... Showering sounded like a good idea indeed.

"Hey, wait for me!" I called out after Sky Strike, who was standing in the door frame already, he turned around and grinned as I caught up with him.

"We should hurry." he said, still grinning. "Twenty minutes from now night curfew kicks in and we..."

"I am at the academy just as long as you are," I answered in annoyance, "I know we aren't allowed to be out there after the curfew starts. The name kinda gives it away. You are the one who got caught strolling around at night several times." I didn't even know what he had been up to back then, the guards had found him sleeping alone and barely dressed, but he had refused to say something about it since then.
Anyway!
"You're coming as well, Hurric... Ah!" I felt pain bursting through my right wing, took off and crashed face first into the wall of the corridor outside the door, which Sky Striker had opened moments ago, fortunately. I heard broad laughter and as I had turned around I saw the laughing Sky Striker and Hurricane just standing there, a primal feather dangling from his muzzle.

"What was that for?!" I screamed while examining my now disarranged feathers.

"You know... revenge and stuff... for yelling at me earlier." the blue buck answered, went over to me and helped me to rebound. "Now we're even."

""")_x_("""

And then... nothing worth mentioning happened. Sure, we visited Sunshine and Cloud Striker at the hospital, only to learn that they would be on their hooves to the end of the week due to to the work of some unicorn doctors flown in from Thunderhead. I wasn't sure if I really wished for some tension in this situation, but getting the two pegasi healed by unicorns felt a bit like cheating. Okay, that was mostly due to the fact that I hadn't believed in the existence of unicorns above the clouds. But that didn't even matter any further, since the councilponies of the other cities quit the field pretty quickly after our combat maneuver. Meanwhile I had lost one of my left wing's primal feathers as well, this time to Sky Striker, either because of my "great plan" and his sisters fate resulting from it or for reasons of symmetry, he didn't make it clear.

The only thing unusual was the nomination of our squad for some kind of honor badge or as Wind Claw - when he wasn't busy smashing other pegasi's heads for sending robots at us - put it: for showing those council chumps whose pegasi were the best above the clouds. From what we heard it was going to be discussed in a sub-committee of the Bureau for Inter-City Relations, meaning it was most likely going to die after a few months of pointless discussions and referendums. But a pegasus could dream.

Hurricane, Sunshine, Cloud Striker, Sky Striker and I spent our free time talking about enclave politics and other cities, training at the shooting range, playing board games - I really liked board games - while watching my feathers growing back and by the time they had reached a acceptable length again, our vacation was already over. And with its end Wind Claw returned as shouting and military-trainer-being as ever. But one day, he brought something else alongside his bad mood with him.

"Line up, cadets!" he shouted, while we stumbled over each other in order get into a proper formation. The world around us was still dark and if I haven't seen my alarm clock showing that it was actually 3 am I could have sworn it was still midnight, maybe even earlier. The fact that both Sunshine and Hurricane had somehow managed to get drunk last night hadn't helped on that account. By bucking down our doors Wind Claw had stated just this morning - or night, whatever you want to call it - that in order to re-accustom us to the discipline and demands of our military life, it would be a great idea to start the drills two hours earlier. To drive out the fat resources we apparently had built up over the last week.

"Are you having fun yet?" Sunshine growled next to me, her eyes bloodshot and her tone sore. Apparently I was looking too okay for her to be confirmed in her hatred for our trainer. "Just say what you always say in moments like this, Feather,. Tell me I shouldn't have done this, just get it over with."

I smirked, but she most likely couldn't see it. She was right, I had prepared telling-offs for situations like this for years. Or more likely had thought of them for a long time, then lost interest and then came up with it again last night when Sunshine and Hurricane hadn't stopped singing what could have been some kind of traditional folk song - or rather what would have become of it after two hundred years of radiation. The lectures mostly resolved around the affected pony's health and/or sanity, while bringing in Sunshine's looks was always my favorite thing to do. It was my way of getting back on her for other things that had happened and would happen to me. It was a doom loop, but as long as everypony had a bit of fun, it was alright.

"You know, Sunshine, I really think you shouldn't have done this." I whispered, "You could've known Wind Claw would be planning something like this, I mean, he has been to kind for the last week. You really should've seen it coming." That was me: a buzzkill for the one, a voice of reason for the others. For Sunshine almost exclusively the former.

To see the orange mare's head growing slightly redder with each word I said made me smirk even more. Those were the looks I lived for, at least after a full night of enduring singing and very loudly talking pegasi.

“Am I interrupting something?” a raspy male voice whispered to our right. The moment I turned my head I became aware of the fact that there wasn't anypony standing to Sunshine's right. Or rather: shouldn't be. At this very moment, Wind Claw looked as if he could bite a robin's head clean off. Not that I had ever actually seen a robin, the only thing I knew was that they were some kind of pre-war singing bird and quite cute on top of it. Nothing anypony would like to see losing its cute little head. And I didn't like to loose mine too.

“Of course not, Wind Claw, Sir! It was nothing!” both Sunshine and I shouted in unison. Stuff like this always pleased the elderly pegasus stallion and maybe we would survive this day.

"Are you sure?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!"

“Alright then, if our two lieutenants say it's nothing I'll have to trust them, don't you agree?” We nodded. “Excellent, now before anypony else looses his or her head in the beautiful clouds the weather station released today, I'll have to make an announcement: due to an attack of a group of griffins at the south-eastern border of Lunar Rock, all the surface-reconnaissance teams are now busy saving your poor flanks. So in order to not letting whatever crawls the face of the old Equestria be unmonitored, the High Command has decided to let you take on this mission. In other words: you're going to take a flight lesson below the cloud cover, while the real soldiers do something of actual value. Any questions?”

Silence, then somepony raised a hoof, luckily it wasn't me.

“And... when do we start the mission?”

“An excellent question, cadet Sky Striker. Today!”

Wait, what?!

Carefully I turned my head around and looked into ten faces filled with both amazement and plain-out fear. I doubted mine looked any better at this moment. We just had gotten the order of... leaving our home for the first time. And to venture into a world of dangers, mutants and invisible radioactive fires. Well, that and there were griffins attacking us. And all of that today?

“Today? Like... for real?” I heard a mare stutter, it was Cloud Striker if I wasn't mistaken. I simply wasn't used to hear her voice shaking like that. “As in: today today?”

“Are you complaining, Seargeant Cloud Striker? To me!?”

I closed my eyes and said good-bye to the cute bird with its red head and chest that hovered there peacefully before my inner eye.

“Well, you're right to do so. What's the time a patrol has to be made public by the High Command before it can be taken on?”

One and a half weeks.

“One and a half weeks.” Cloud Striker said after a short pause.

“And if there's an emergency?”

“Five days”

Damnit

"And if there's a real emergency?"

"Uhm... immediately?"

“Good work, seargeant. If you continue like this, you'll be taking Lieutenant Whirling Feather's place in a month or two. She's growing a bit... plump, don't you think.”

Ponyfeathers! I knew it.

The pegasus mare in front of Wind Claw looked at me with pain in her eyes and took a deep breath. “Wind Claw, Sir, I doubt this is the correct...” she started, but was immediately silenced by a swing of the elderly stallions wing.

“I was just joking.” he smirked. My body shook and all my feathers – at least the ones I still had – stood on end. Whoever this new Wind Claw was, I really wished the old stallion we all knew and... endured back. Really. The thought of a joking Wind Claw really creeped me out.
“About everything but a few details and the fact that the patrol will take place in five days. Your usual schedule has be altered to fit the necessities of a surface patrol and will begin immediately. Well, almost immediately...”

His face twisted to form a smile.

“...there're still a few rounds of training that need completion. You all grew a bit fat over the last week. Now go and don't stop until I say so!”

In silence, we took off. Everypony was still stunned given the huge “announcement” our trainer had made. To see the surface... this was an opportunity not many pegasi ever got in their entire life. And only the most elite and trustworthy enclave soldiers were granted the honor to leave the territory of the Enclave to scout its borders below. And I would be one of them!

“You really have potential.” Wind Claw whispered to Cloud Striker as we flew past him.

Flying ponyfeathers!

""")_x_("""

Usually I would consider it needless to say that our "surface schooling" lessons were boring, but... they were really boring. And that was coming from the pony who considered pre-war ornithology interesting. At least they always had nice pictures in those lectures. But being told over and over again what kind of plant might be edible - if it wasn't extincted by now of course, which they were most certainly - and how to get water that wasn't irradiated - surprise answer: you didn't get it - all we took out the lecture halls basically boiled down to: if you get lost, you're screwed. So don't get lost.

We didn't hear much about the battle between the griffins and the pegasi who were actually used to do this mission, but usually no news meant good news. Nothing really changed in the attitude of the leading pegasi and no further troops had to be deployed, so either things were going just fine or this threat wasn't as big as the government had feared. Whatever it was, it didn't have to worry us. We were going to see the surface - or what was left of it - but hey! it was the surface nonetheless.

The day of our mission drew closer and closer and with each day it became more apparent that our entire "training" was most likely set up to keep us busy. Because apart from the not that encouraging message the lessons delivered, Wind Claw filled us in to our "mission objectives", if one could call them that. As it turned out, when Wind Claw had said "flight lesson below the cloud cover" he really meant "flight lesson below the cloud cover". No surface contact, no engaging with whatever may or may not live down there, just... keeping an eye open in case something tried to built a gigantic tower or anything like that to reach the Enclave by hoof. Or tentacle. Whatever any potential lifeform down there would use to move forwards.

So when the day had finally arrived, most of us were more annoyed than cheerful. It really wasn't that big of a deal. Fly approximately a hundred feet below the clouds for approximately six hours and to forget to flap your wings while doing that seemed to be the biggest threat down there. The same could be said for every day of life in the Enclave. Just because the pegasi could walk on clouds didn't mean we were immune to whatever cloud we were walking - or in that case: falling - on. But why the weather control center would build the biggest part of the cloud cover out of inactive storm and blizzard clouds was beyond me. I guess it made some kind of sense, since those hazardous clouds would be even more annoying up here, after all "inactive" just meant not active on their own. Touching was still going to activate them and therefor equally as stupid as to fly face-first into a wall.

But nonetheless, on that day as I saw the great cloudgate of Lunar Rock open for the first time, I couldn't help but feel kinda proud for doing what we were going to do. I mean, not everypony was going to see the surface. And even if our job was almost danger free - which made our completely geared up soldiers seem kinda unecessary - that didn't make seeing the scorched remains of our former homeland less interesting. Everypony could look at a picture in a book or a reconnaissance report, but we would see it with our own eyes.

The surface awaited.

""")_x_("""

Level up: 50%

Skill(s): --

New Perk added: --

Chapter III: The Surface

View Online

The first thing I recognized on the surface, or more specifically the airspace overhead, was the darkness. Not darkness like when it was night, but the daylight was somehow... dull, which also reduced the range of vision, so I couldn't see as far as I was used to above the clouds. From my point of view at the alongside vertibuck could barely see the silhouettes of some huge mountains in the distance. Because of that four of us flew next to the vertibuck all the time to "recon" the environment. There was no indication of any kind of life at the ground below, but the measuring devices showed us although the level of radiation wasn't as high and deadly as we thought, it still wouldn't be healthy to live down there for long.

"It's hard to believe that ponies once lived here." I said to my wingpony, Hurricane. "Judging by the looks of it, I heavily doubt anything will live down there ever again."

"Look at those scrubby trees." the buck to my right answered and pointed at some kind of small forest of small, leafless and withered trees. "If those can make it, so surely we can do it too, someday."

"Yeah, someday..." I mumbled to myself. Someday would be a pretty long time.

"But it must be said that the surface, minus all its poison and deadliness, looks quite interesting." the blue buck continued. "I saw trees like those only in the storybooks and now... I'm here, seeing all the stuff live and in color."

"You can hardly call those things "trees", Hurricane." I answered.

Storybook trees were huge, green... thingies with a massive wooden brown trunk, limbs and lots of leaves at the top, things that those plants... hadn't, except for a small trunk-thing. These plants were cheap excuses for real trees and still they had grew and survived in this wasteland, for I doubted they were here before the war.

Our route led us to a medium sized mountain and Sunshine suggested that we would take a break and ask our superiors for permission. It wouldn't hurt anypony. Fortunately they thought the same thing and so we got the permission to land on the mountain below to rest. As we flew towards the landing area I was struck by the thought that this might be the only time in my whole life when I would set hoof onto the earth ground of Equestria.

Apparently I appeared a bit too thoughtfully, flapping in midair, because a surprising force pulled on my tail and I hit the ground little gracefully.

Thank you...Hurricane, I think.

However after I had turned around I saw Sunshine grinning through the end of my tail. "You seemed so vacantly, so I thought I rather take you back to earth." the orange mare said and released my tail.

"I was constructing a catchy line for setting hoof on the surface, you know? Something I can tell my grandfoals one day." Not that I intended to have foals one day myself... whatever! "Something like: that's one small step for a pony, but a great leap... and so on."

As I finished my sentence I noticed that there was no Sunshine standing in front of me anymore, she had edged away to the cliff, where the rest of the pegasi stood and observed something probably interesting. It was interesting indeed: we were looking at the ruins of a small town, but a sight naming it couldn't be seen. A fossil from another time, remnants of a brighter past.

"Almost unbelievable that our ancestors used to live in cities like those." Sunshine said next to me.

I had thought the same thing.

"And it's also almost unbelievable, that everything was annihilated in one single moment." So many lives ended on that one day and not only here, but everywhere in Equestria too and beyond. "It's depressing and somehow... encouraging."

Depressing because of the many lives lost to the war and encouraging if I thought about the possibility to reach the former glory again. The town, even if it lay in ruins, was easily twice the size of Lunar Rock and unlike my hometown, towns like the one in front of us hadn't been uncommon in the days of old.

"End of the break!" Sunshine shouted after several silent minutes of watching the ruins. "Everypony back to the vertibuck. Sky and Cloud, you will replace the left wing, Feather and Hurricane, you will be relieved soon, too. And now let's scram before I get all whiny and depressed."

""")_x_("""

And so we took off again, ending the first and possibly only shore leave we would have in our lives. Flying next to Hurricane I thought a lot about the town.

Why would intelligent life do something like this? What could make somepony or zebra to destroy hundreds of lives, bombing whole cities, even the country itself, to smithereens? What had gone wrong...

"Guys, I think I'm getting something." said a voice and it wasn't Hurricane. It came over the radio and belonged to the buck monitoring the radar-system. "Movements. More than half a dozen larger... life forms? I think... I think this might be... ponies?"

"I want to see this." Sunshine yelled in the background and then we got the message by radio. "Activate EFS-Systems!"

Sweet Celestia, it was true! I could see some dots, maybe ten, moving on the ground. Oh, and there was another one, a few meters in front of the group. The dots were yellow, meaning the... subjects... below weren't hostile towards us. Our EFS could tell this by... magic, I guess? I don't think there's somepony above the clouds fully understanding the EFS-System nor will there be one one day.

"Wingponies, get down there and check it out, but stay covered. I don't want anything or anypony do spot you until I do want you to be spotted." Sunshine commanded and Sky Striker,

Hurricane, Cloud Striker and I dived towards the running horde. There were ponies for real, but the marks on theirs flanks were... strange, bizarre and they seem somehow mean. The cutie marks of the ponies of the horde showed bludgeons, cages and hoofcuffs. Their clothing didn't look much better: the cloths were hoofmade, torn in several places and darkened. Was... was that blood? Oh Luna, this is getting worse and worse. The pink mare with the flower cutie mark they were following was the only pony around looking nice, left alone the rushed expression on her face. This looked like some kind of pursuit and I doubted the result would be pleasant.

"Reconnaissance unit to commanding officer. We identified the target: they are ponies and they are chasing somepony else. Some of them are armed with blunt weapons, melee only."

"Understood, reconnaissance unit. I will inform High Command."

There was a soft clicking noise as Sunshine activated the communicator to call our superiors.

"This is reconnaissance team Delta-4, lieutenant Sunshine to High Command. High Command, please come in."

"This is High Command." I heard a male voice answering. "Is there a problem, lieutenant?"

Sunshine cleared her throat, than she said: "We have encountered a group of locals, ponies according to our reconnaissance unit, and they are endangering another local. They're slightly armed, I don't think they're a threat to us. Asking for permission to intervene."

Silence.

"Repeat: I ask for permission to intervene."

The silence continued and with a crackle the line went dead. Was this another "test" like the one with the drones?

But shortly afterwards the communication was restored and there was Sunshine's voice again.

"This is lieutenant Sunshine speaking. Both wingteams, I command you to fly down there and solve the conflict whatosever. Intervene!"

The four of us dived towards the gap between the chasing ponies and the mare, who was stumbling over a rock or something right now and went down slitheringly, holding her hooves in front of her face in terror. Just a few more seconds and the other ponies would catch her...

The horde was obviously surprised at the two power-armored pegasi and me as we hit the ground right in front of them and aimed our guns at them. Cloud Striker landed next to the fallen mare, carrying a first-aid with her.

"Halt!" I shouted as loud as possible and Sky Striker shot the ground between us and them to emphasize my words. "Stay where you are! This coursing ends now!"

A dark brown earth pony buck with a nail board kept in his mouth, possibly the leader, looked at us with ill-concealed anger and equally concealed fear in his eyes.

"Who are you?"

"We're the ponies with the big guns." Hurricane answered threateningly. "I doesn't matter who we are."

I as the commanding officer of this unit stepped forward and talked to the leader of the group. "We watched your cruel and relentless pursuit. We want to know why you do this and after that, we will part company."

"That's none of your business, pidgeon!" somepony shouted from the background. "Just bugger of already!"

"Yeah, get lost again!"

Hurricane fired into the air, silencing them..

"Why were you chasing this mare? What's she accused of?" I asked and the ponies answered by bandying uneasy looks.

"It's... business, you know. You wouldn't understand it." the leader answered hesitantly.

Oh Celestia, this doesn't sound good...

According to rumors there were only cannibals and other abominations living on the surface and this ponies look awfully like the first. Bloody clothing, chasing a single mare... but there wasn't any blood around their muzzles, so...

"Then make me understand it." I demanded and my wingponies intensified their aim at the group to substantiate my request.

"Feather!" Cloud Striker called from behind. "She's responsive again. I'll take her to you."

The light pink mare leaned against the power armored pegasus as both of them moved slowly towards me. The horde in front of us grew disquiet, but were silenced again by some warning shots.

"Hello, my dear." I said and the mare's ears raised. "We're not your enemies, we don't want to hurt you. We want to know what happened just now. Why were you running?"

Now she lifted her head from Cloud Strikers shoulder and glanced at me uncertainly.

"I... I had been running. My companions... did they... did they make it?"

"We saw only you, nopony else."

"They didn't make it then..."

"Didn't make what?"

"We were running... away..."

Yes, I got that.

"Yes, but from whom?"

The mares eyes widened as she noticed the crowd behind me. "From them!" she yelled trying to move away from the pegasus mare supporting her and pointed at the ponies, which looked ashamed to the ground.

"Please, calm down." I said calmingly and she actually stopped shaking. "Why are you scared? Who are they?"

"They are slavers! The wanted to capture me!"

Slavers?

"Is that true?!" I asked reproachfully.

"It's... it's just business..." the leader stammered

"Is that true?!" I screamed and aimed Wing Beat at him, the red dot shaking at his also shaking forehead. "Did you want to capture this mare and sell her to somepony else as a... slave?" I badly wanted to turn his head into bloody chunks. Freedom was obviously one of the only things the pink mare possessed and this pony wanted to take this from her as well.

So badly...

"Is that true?!"

"Yes, dammit yes!" the buck shouted at me and his group readied their weapons as did the pegasi next to me.

For a while we just stood there, aiming at each other, than I hissed: "What about her companions? Have you captured them and don't lie to me."

"They ran away after they had seen us." the brown buck answered through his clenched teeth, still in a battle stance. "We lost them half an hour ago. They escaped."

"So there's nopony captured until now?"

He nodded.

"Then get lost. Now!"

The ponies didn't need to be told twice, they turned their backs on us immediately and galloped away as fast as they could.

"And get another job!" I shouted after them, but most likely they didn't hear it over the noise of their hooves.

My friends looked at me confused for a short time, but I didn't elaborate on my actions any further.

"Whirling Feather to Sunshine. We resolved the issue, but we also go ta a wounded pony."

"One of us?"

"No, the mare they chased. Cloud patched her up, but we have to take her back home."

Sunshine didn't thought about it for a second and replied instantly. "I take the vertibuck to your position. Find out where she lives, so we can take her there."

I nodded, not aware that Shunshine couldn't see it, and than turned to the pink mare, which lay on the ground again, Cloud Striker standing next to her.

"Everything is alright." I said as I kneel down. "It's over, they're gone and can't hurt you anymore. Not while we are here." I put my hoof on her shoulder and she shivered briefly, but calmed down after all.

"Am I... are they really gone? Am I safe?" she asked snifflingly and I nodded as confidently as possible.

"As safe as somepony can be down here. And don't worry," I added and pointed at the two armored pegasi, which were talking a short distance away. "They're no threat to you either. And guess what: we can take you home as well."

"How!"

"Our vehicle will be here soon. You just have to tell us where you live, so we know where to drop you off."

She nodded, the vertibuck drew closer, indicated by the roaring noise of its storm cloud engines and as its tailgate opened and Sunshine, accompanied by two power armored pegasi, came out, her jaw dropped. Without saying another word my superior nodded towards the vehicle, directing the mare to enter the aircraft and after she did so, the orange mare came over to us.

"Feather, Hurricane, Cloud, Sky: you're relieved, somepony else will be the wingponies for the rest of the flight." And with that, we all mounted the vertibuck again.

""")_x_("""

While we were flying towards the mares home, we tried to star a conversation with the rescued mare, but she seemed to be to startled by the technology around her to say anything. But for an earth pony she had been very precise about the location of her home town, even though we traveled there by air.

"You did well down there, Feather, even if those slavers deserved to be torn to pieces by Hurricane. I probably would have shot them in the back the moment they turned their backs on me." Sunshine whispered to me. "On the plus side, we made a good first impression, nopony dead on the slavers side and a ex- mare in distress, rescued by us. And she doesn't look too bad, does she?"

Sunshine? What's your point?

"I... don't understand..."

"Oh, come on, I saw how you were looking at her."

Looking? Me? I... I...

"I... I wasn't..."looking"... at her. I wasn't!" I stammered while blushing with the brightest red the rainbow could offer. Sunshine sized me up, said nothing and looked at me... Uh, I couldn't read her look.

"Well... maybe I'm wrong..."

"Visual contact with the target!" the pilot called from the cockpit and ended this embarrassing moment. Celestia may bless this buck.

"I'll begin the final descent, prepare!"

"Both wingteams, back to the vertibuck immediately, I don't want to take a risk of any kind." Sunshine called out into the radio, the tailgate of our vehicle opened and four pegasi landed next to us.

Shortly before we were going to land, Sunshine, the pink mare and I assembled once again to talk about what was going to happen.

"The best would be to go out there alone, one of us or both and she. The other would appear to scary with those power armors, the guns and stuff... " I said to Sunshine, who answered by excessive nodding.

"And if they're hostile, which I hope they aren't, since we rescued you, we still could fly away and figure something out. The vertibuck is well armor-plated, there's no way the ponies in here will be harmed." she added and looked over to the pilot. "So if there's shooting out there, you will fly the bird away to a save distance and don't shoot back, until I give you a different command. Understood?"

He nodded in response.

"Well then, we'll be landing soon. So when we go out there, you'll to the talking, Feather."

Me?

"Why me?! You're in command, you'll do the talking."

"Yeah, but, you know... you're white and got this nice feather on your flank... it looks kind of peaceful and diplomatic, doesn't it? More peaceful than my burning sun or Hurricane's hurricane, right?" She got a point.

Oh Luna, this feather brought me nothing but trouble.

""")_x_("""

As we had landed in the village - I presumed it was a village – and the three of us stood before the opening tailgate, the last thing I had expected to see of the "civilisation" on the surface were over a dozen guns, pointed straight at us. Although I kind of expected it, but fewer weapons and more friendly faced would have been nice.

"Don't move!" a male, brown stallion with some crazy metal thing as a cutie mark, shouted at us while stepping out of the armed crowd, a rusty yet functioning revolver in his makeshift battle saddle. "What do you want, poultry?"

"Please calm down." I said and emerged with my wings hold close to my body as a sign of peace. By the noise of many clicking hammers I recognized that the surface-dwellers didn't know this gesture. Why should they knew it at all, stupid Feather! "We haven't come to harm anypony."

"Why you came than? You won't buy from us and we don't want to buy anything from you for sure."

"All we want is to help you." I said and his face darkened.

Well done, Feather, this works any time. You could have said: "We come in peace, surface dwellers." too, it wouldn't have been less persuasive.

"We don't need your "help" and we don't want it twice as much. Poultry like you just spell trouble, so get back into your tin can, before anypony's tongue slips."

"Dad!" somepony yelled from behind me and the brown one's eyes widened as the pink mare, the one reason we were here at all, passed me by and positioned herself between me and the stallion.

"Dad, they are the good ponies, they won't do us any evil."

Some of the guns seemed to be lowered.

"Sunflower?" the he brown one said doubtfully. "Sunflower, get away from them, those creatures are dangerous." And after a short pause of thinking he added fast and with a threatening voice: "What have you done to her? Abducted her? Cut her open? Experiments?"

What? Experiments? We weren't aliens. Well, we might look like some kind of extraequestrian beings, the wings, the aircraft, clean manes...

"We haven't..."

"They are no aliens, dad! And they're no "creatures" either, they're ponies like us and they rescued me."

As the crowd slowly realized that neither Sunshine nor I made any move to shoot all of them at once the remaining guns were lowered as well and everypony just looked at each other.

"Rescued you? When, where, from whom? Are you alright, girl?" the stallion sputtered and took a few steps forwards his daughter, presumably to see if there wasn't any evidence of experimental treatment after all.

"Can't we discuss this somewhere else? Somewhere inside, where I could get some water?"

"Of course, of course, we..."

"And those two will come as well." she added, nodding towards us.

"You... all right, they can come along. And you are..."

"Liet... Whirling Feather." I answered with a friendly smile and reached out with my wing, only to be reminded by a shove that this wasn't a known gesture down here.Instead I just nodded, smiled and let Sunshine introduce herself. The crowd scattered quickly and the four of us went over to the building, but only after Sunshine had attained that the other pegasi would get a loo around the village to fight the boredom.

""")_x_("""

"Welcome to my home." Sunflower said happily as we entered the house, her father had vanished into a side room, perhaps to inform the mare of the house, and she added whisperingly:

"I'm sorry for my father's and the villagers' attitude, maybe you were a bit to much for them with your wings and your machines..."

"No big deal." Sunshine answered while we were led into some kind of living room. "We were prepared for something far worse."

"For example the crowd not lowering their weapons, it would have been ugly... for us." I muttered to myself.

Really ugly.

"But you haven't told us from what exactly we have rescued you. Because I don't think there are simply groups of ponies, wandering around, telling other ponies: "Too bad, folks, but from now on you belong to us."" The pink mare looked at me as if I had asked her about what kind of pony has a horn and no wings. "Right?"

"Unfortunately there are." the brown stallion answered after putting a tray with some drinking glasses of water down on a table next to us and offered us to sit down. "I'm very sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Plumb Line, kind of mayor of this village. And I also want to apologize for the harsh welcome, we just aren't... used to pegasusses like you. No offense." he said after everypony had one of the glasses standing in front of her or him.

"None taken, but it's "pegasi"." Sunshine said smilingly.

"What?"

"Pegasi. The plural of "pegasus" is "pegasi"."

"Ah, well, I got this. But what happened to you, Sunflower, tell me. Usually there aren't any slavers around here and we're far away from places like Paradise."

"I was... I kind of..." Sunflower started hesitantly. "Old Pipe said the water purifying thing will went dead soon if he doesn't get his hooves on some replacement parts or repairponies, so I asked one of the traders from last week if they have something like this in stock. He couldn't offer them to me, but they were on their way to the ruins anyway, so I decided to accompany them to..."

"You... you "accompanied" them, just like that? You should have told us, we were worried sick. You..." Plumb Line yelled.

"I know, I know. But... you know... the caravan was leaving right then, I simply had to go with them, no time to tell anypony anything."

Waiting would have been too much to ask from them, I thought to myself while Sunshine and I were listening to the mares story, nodding from time to time.

"And..." I asked eagerly and took a sip of water.

"Well, last night we camped near the ruins and we wanted search them tomorrow, but one of the guards saw this heap of ponies coming right at us, we thought they might be other merchants, it was dark after all. And as we could see their cutie marks it was too late already. I don't know what happened to the merchants afterwards, I ran away and then you saved me. End of story."

Very simple indeed, kind of disappointing. I had expected it to be more... complex. But this is the real world, Feather, not some story from a book somewhere on the shelf at home. For a while we all just sat there doing nothing but looking at the each other from time to time.

Now what?

"And what happened to the slavers?" Plumb Line asked to break the silence. "You brought them dow, didn't you?"

Oh. yeah... that...

"We..we drove them off, they ran away."

"Ran away? " I shrank back as the stallion shouted at me. "You let them get away? They're still alive, still out there to do the things they did to my daughter to other ponies?! Are you out of your mind?"

"Dad!" said mare interjected deprecatingly. "Don't be ungrateful, just because the pegasi didn't kill anymore ponies than die everyday anyway. Maybe those slavers become better..."

Yes, maybe. After all it maybe had been a bad idea to let those slaver walk away. Maybe we should have demanded to see their camp and maybe they had captured Sunflower's companions.

"It doesn't matter now." the pink mare said calmly. "I'm back and everypony is happy, except for the purifier and Old Pipe..."

"Yes, that..." Sunshine said and raised a hoof. "You said you need some replacements parts or repairpoies?"
Both the earth ponies nodded. "I don't know if there are spare parts in our vertibuck, but I know we got a capable technician. They could take a look at your water purifier. Should we go get them?"

"You... you would do that...?" Plumb Line asked doubtingly.

"It's the least we can do, isn't it?" With this my superior raised and together we walked to the door.

""")_x_("""

We spent the following hours at a round of questions, answering the local foals' questions about the life up there in the clouds. Well, except for Sunshine and our technicians, which were busy patching up the water supply. And the pony answering was mainly Hurricane, telling stories about how he slew dozens of combat robots, unarmed and all by himself, giving me the opportunity to steal off, since everypony was hanging on his every word.

Inside the water treatment plant I saw our technicians at work. The problem seemed to be some leaking pipes and several wrong adjusted pumps, but I'm no technopony, maybe it had been something more difficult. Just as I had entered the building the engines were turned on.

"It's hard to believe that the surface ponies suffer from small things like this." Sunshine said with a shake of her head and told the technicians to get back to the vertibuck, since we had been here for a while now, sometime we had to get back home after all.

As interesting as the surface had been, right now I desired nothing more than to lie down on my bed at the dorm at home. There were scattered tears among the foals, which were sad about the end of Hurricane's stories, as we said goodbye to the villagers and some of the adults even wanted to give presents to us, which we could turn down fortunately, but we couldn't stop Sunflower from giving me a kiss on my cheek.

Sweet Celestia, surface ponies were so... weird...

There was an unpleasant silence inside the vertibuck as we were flying back towards the great cloudgate, first-class culture shock I assumed.
I tried to start a conversation with Sunshine several times, but the orange mare was only wriggling uneasily about on her seat.

"Whatever happens now, I take over responsibility." was the only thing she said as we were just a few minutes left until we would reach the gate.

Did I really want to know, what she was worrying about? Had there been an incident at the village? Something concerning the treatment plant?

As we had passed the cloud gate, had landed in the hangar and got off the vertibuck we were surprised at the sight of... energy weapons pointed at us? Wind Claw clenching his teeth in anger? Hadn't we just saved a pony from slavery or worse? What was happening?

"What's happening?" Cloud Striker voiced my thoughts behind me, but before her brother could answer me, three pegasi stepped forward.

"Commander Sunshine." my father said with a threatening voice and the two Silverish Guards next to him activated ther battle saddles with a just as threatening clicking.
"You are under arrest. You will be court martialed for insubordination."

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 3

Skill(s): Barter 25

New Perk added: Peer Pressure

"You may not be the most impressive pegasus, but with a little backup you still can be quite persuasive."
Your barter skill is increased by 10 points whenever you are accompanied by two or more companions.

Chapter IV: Dashite

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Nopony had imagined our heroic act of rescue to end this way, until we were told that there had never been an order for any kind of intervention but one for withdrawal, so Sunshine had simply shut off the communication relay and ignored the last. We were brought to our dorms after the orange mare had been arrested and were told to do nothing until some higher ranked pegasi said something else. Non of us, neither Hurricane nor Sky Striker nor me slept that night, we just sat there, silently, thinking about the events of the day: Sunshine had done the right thing for sure, but to disobey a direct order had been very... unwise. She had impulsive since our foalhood, but that impulsive...

"What do you think will happen to her?" Sky Striker asked and broke the silence we had kept since our arrival.

"I don't know." I answered and turned towards the buck. "I remember seeing Wind Claw or my father angry before, but it was nothing compared their faces when they arrested Sunshine. Disobedience... it's serious business, even if we helped somepony from the surface. We are enclave soldiers after all."

"But what do you think? They cannot simply... kick her out of the Enclave or something like that, can they? Banish her to the surface, imprison her or banish her to the surface and imprison her there?"

"I really don't know. Nopony got hurt, neither of us nor one of the surface dwellers, so it won't be a harsh penalty."
At least I hoped it wouldn't, because Wind Claw had made himself clear he would shoot her instantly if it was up to him.

""")_x_("""

Sunshine's hearing and the following trial itself weren't anything I had ever seen before: the central element was to find out, who had done something wrong and how bad this had been. Sunshine explained repeatedly she had been the mastermind behind the whole operation, that it hadn't been an act of general refusal by our team. She declared that she alone had heard the order to withdrawal and she herself had decided to ignore it, but somehow this wasn't enough for the courtponies. Mission reports were analyzed, recorded transmissions were reheard and again and again there were the voices of the elder and more conservative pegasi, demanding her immediate condemnation and banishment to the surface, after amputating her wings of course.

The others, myself included, were interrogated as well and sometimes it felt as if we were caught inside one of those old detective stories like the ones you could borrow from the library. They launched threats and promises, put pressure of any kind on us, even the pegasi of higher ranked families weren't spared. After one week of trial, when nothing new became apparent, the judges finally retired for deliberation.

The appointed day was the first occasion for us to see our formal commander again and the detention had left her looking terrible: an unwashed mane, a filthy orange hide, dark circles around her eyes and without her uniform she seemed... naked somehow. During our forced hiatus I had gone through some of the Enclave's law book and searched for the possible penalties. Among other things there were multi-month prison terms and compulsory labor, but fortunately no dismemberment and banishment, thank Celestia.

And when the judges finally announced their verdict, I felt relieved:

They had come to the conclusion that Sunshine alone was the responsible pony, that we had been following the orders we had thought were coming from our superiors in all conscience. Therefore we were acquitted of any charge, our commander on the other hoof was found guilty. But since her action didn't hurt anypony, it being quite comprehensible and because our whole group had become kind of famous by the maneuver-incident-thing- the last one was only an assumption of mine - she was punished mildly: For the next month she wouldn't be our commanding officer anymore, she wouldn't be anything to be exact, just an ordinary pegasus doing some irrelevant jobs for redemption.

I had never heard of that kind of penalty, but I didn't want to question a court decision I didn't know nothing about. And Sunshine was still with us after all, so it was... good... definitely positive. Just as another hiatus we got to go on, as compensation for the time in investigative custody. Or maybe Wind Claw had simply refused to train us anymore...

The days at the academy melded to the same, regular time units they had always been, but the break took the periodic training sessions and replaced them with countless hours of boredom and talking. At least we were still allowed to go to the gym, the shooting range and the library so we could kill some time. The majority of my team had went home, I thought about it myself, but my father had made it clear that he had neither the time nor the energy to deal with me too. But it had always been like this, the only thing more exhausting than being the daughter of the High General of the Enclave was being said general.

Sky and Cloud were almost in the same situation, but their parents seemed to have more problems than only their work and Hurricane remained at my side out of loyalty probably. Sunshine came around from time to time, time to time meaning actual every afternoon after she had finished her work at the cloudgate. Everypony seemed to be more relaxed while she was with us, it gave us the feeling of everything being as it should be. And she could tell what she had heard at work.

Among other things she told us that the pegasi of Thunderhead were discussing actions like Sunshine's for a while and were thinking of "legalizing" them, Lunar Rock's council was also discussing the matter of forming some kind of surface-support-group. We didn't talk about the issue of the orange mare's misconduct or anything connected with it if it wasn't Sunshine herself bringing it up, you never knew how she would react and I preferred to keep my feathers. Normally we were talking about ordinary things, stuff like our teammates' flings and so on. I was quite surprised by Hurricane and Sky Striker, I never thought the two bucks to be... gossipy and I knew them for a while now.

And so the days went by and nothing really mentionable happened, except for a rogue storm cloud in the dining hall. But one day Sunshine kicked our dorm door open, a piece of paper hanging out of her muzzle. She checked her surroundings, saw only me standing there and literally smashed me to the floor.

"Refefted unanimoufly!" she mumbled, completely forgetting to take the paper out of her muzzle and only me confused look let her think of it. She spit it on the ground, still standing above me. "They rejected it."

"Who rejected what?"

Had she asked the court to give her rank back earlier? Even I could have told her this wouldn't work.

"They don't want a volunteer corps like the one in Thunderhead. The council has rejected it."

Don't say something wrong, Feather, or you will loose more than just another pinion.

"Oh,well... and that's not good, is it?"

"Not good? Not good?!" she shouted into my ear. "That is damn awful! It's a disaster! You were down there too, you have seen the ponies down there. They need help an they need it right now!"

Holy Luna, she was burning with anger.

"And those council klutzes refuse to act, just like that!"

"Well, them may have had a good reason to..." Oh, if looks could kill...

"Oh, yeah, there was a reason: sending a team down there would be too dangerous, the war-like situation would overtax any pegasus. Rot! I've seen how it is down there and so have you." And with that she set me free and threw herself on my bed, while I tried to sit up as painlessly as possible. "I can't believe that they're doing this. There's no danger for well armed pegasi like us and still we have to sit up here in the clouds while those innocent surface-dwellers die because of some stupid leak in their water pipes."

"Maybe we just haven't seen the real dangers yet? The Enclave wouldn't tell us to stay away from the surface just because they're evil or something, would they?"

Ouch! Apparently this had been the wrong choice of words, because the mare flew me down and took place on my wings again.

"Oh, I do think so. Why else would they call us back from helping Sunflower?"

"They may have thought you were missing something."

"We told them that they were armed with melee weapons, nothing that could harm us!"

"But we didn't knew for sure, they could have stashed the firearms away. You haven't seen anything, you were depending on us, we could have made a mistake."

Slowly the angry look faded and the orange mare descended me.

"You... you really believe they're not just holding us up here?"

"Why should they? If it would be save down there, we would have gone a long time ago."

Sunshine trotted to the door slowly and sight, standing in the door frame.

"There're times I would like to do it, just like Calamity in Neighvarro. Just fly down there and help the surface without any support by the Enclave. Everything would be much easier..."

Now she started to frighten me. Saying such things out loud was dangerous, not just that said stallion had killed his entire team, if there was any evidence that Sunshine would make an attempt to do something dashite again it, compulsory labor would cut it.

"Please don't say such things, Sunshine. You know what would happened to him, what would happen to you..."

The crime of turning dashite had been created shortly after the cloud cover had closed at the end of the war. The mare Rainbow Dash, one of the most important ponies in pegasus history and bearer of the Element of Loyalty, had decided to shift the focus of her loyalty from her own people to the still burning remains of ponykink below the clouds. Turning dashite was punished by branding and being exiled, if the Dashite was lucky, but death was also an appropriate punishment. Death by the hooves of her own team... our hooves... but it wouldn't come to that!

"You're right, Feather. Of course you're right." the mare answered sadly. "It was just a... monomania, I was wrapped up in the idea..."

Any without another word she left me alone.

I sat on the ground for quite some time after Sunshine had left, uncertain about what to do now.
Should I report her? If she really wanted to leave the Enclave, this would be the best thing to do, not only for her sake, but for ours too.
But on the other hoof, Sunshine was one of my closest friends and she already had had some crazy ideas in the past, but it those had been ideas, nothing more, so I decided to take counsel with my pillow. If Sunshine would act strange again I would have to... I didn't want to think about it.

""")_x_("""

Sunshine didn't behave any dashitely the next weeks and with her, the daily routine returned as well, even Wind Claw agreed to train us again, most likely he had been convinced by his superiors, using only solid arguments and a multiplas-rifle. But the orange mare visited us less and less and Cloud Striker revealed to us one day, that Sunshine had struck up a relationship with on of the bucks at the cloudgate.
Funny, I always thought her to be into the mares... like... me

And after the... nothing happened.

One day...
And the day afterwards...
Even the day after the day afterwards.

Not sign that Sunshine had changed at all, except that she was going for the males now. She visited us more often again and regained her rank after that month of compulsory labor, joining us in training again, even if Wind Claw apparently hadn't forgiven her yet. But he had his orders and, as he reminded us again and again, he obeyed them. Sunshine even attended a course for using power armor, even if she would never had to wear such a thing for her being a commanding officer. "You never know what time the griffins decide to attack again." she answered, rolling her eyes, whenever I asked for the reasons. But besides that, she behaved normally and she seemed to be over the whole volunteer corps thing and her Dashite phase, she was the old one again.

One night, while the others were still on a flight around the academy, Sunshine and I were talking about the coming elections of the Enclave high council when suddenly her face darkened and she looked at me gimlet-eyed.

"Feather, do you remeber me talking about that volunteer corps and this Dashite from Neighvarro, Calamity?"

"That about you shooting us all, swooping down to the surface and saving the locals from any trouble without the help of the Enclave? Yes, I remember it, but don't worry, I didn't take it that serious and I haven't reported you either. You're welcome." I answered, making a expansive gesture with my wings. As I glanced at her she was still looking at me. Was it just me or did her eyes looked sad or... regretful?

"If – and that's just a scenario – if you would have the opportunity to leave the Enclave behind and help the surface, would you do it?"

"Sunshine, please. You know as good as I do that the Enclave will not..."

"Just a scenario! IF you WOULD have the opportunity. If so, would you fly down there, possibly with – I don't know – your marefriend to do the right thing?"

Was that some kind of trick question or – her what? Did she... had she said friend or... marefriend?
I thought she was dating that buck?

"Would you?"

"I... well, I..."

Oh, I felt really uncomfortable.

"Tell me."

"I really don't think I should..."

"Tell me ! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" She almost screamed and took a step towards me.

I don't want to loose any more feathers, please!

"I... I don't know." I answered, finally, and she paused for a brief moment, looking at me in bewilderment. "I really don't. Yes, of course I've seen how miserable lives they live down there, of course I pity them... and I would like to help them, even without the Enclave's help..."

Whirling Feather, what are you saying? You shouldn't even think of that!
Sunshine's face brightened in relief.

"But on the other hoof: What else is down there? Sure, we may have seen that settlement and the ponies inhabitating it not being nasty mutants, but we've also met these slavers and, according to the locals, there're even worse things down there: bandits, mutants, monsters... And besides, what could somepony like us do at all? We are soldiers, we shoot at things and maybe we hit a bad guy, but we can't solve a village's problems by force. And after all, the Enclave is still my... our home, I could never abandon it like that. Helping the surface, maybe, but not if that means leaving my home without the chance of ever returning, left alone the death squads that would pursuit us."

It hurt physically to she Sunhsine's hope being crushed by these few sentences, turning the joy in her expression into sadness.

"So, no. I wouldn't fly down there without permission, besides every piece of armor is equipped with a transmitter, they would caught somepony leaving not an hour later, and the cloudgate itself is also locked, there's no getting through."

The orange mare looked at me sadly, muttering something that sounded like: "me then" and walked slowly towards the door.

"Hey, we're you going?!" I called out to her and she called back:

"I'll spend the night with my coltfriend, you know... the buck from the cloudgate."
And just as I wanted to respond she added:
"Don't worry, our superiors agreed. Farewell, Feather. I hope we'll meet again."

What?!

After she had left I lay on my bed, thinking about what had been said: I could never leave the Enclave and live a pointless life on the surface, alone. But with the Enclave's help... maybe the surface policy would change within our lifetime, maybe. But before I could think about my friend's plan and why something like that would snare me in a morality trap, my body decided that it would rather sleep than think. Good idea, body, there had been enough stress for one day.

""")_x_("""

The alarm clock! Again!

I hated this loud, ear-piercing noise that... wait, that wasn't my alarm clock. And it wasn't in the morning either! I looked out hte window and saw that I was nighttime, but no usual nighttime with all that blackness, the darkness was illuminated by countless spotlights.

"What... what's happening?" Hurricane was grumbling from his bed, trying to get rid of his blanket.

"Fire drill?"

"This is no fire drill." I answered in a rush and searched for Sky Striker, who also got out of his bed slowly.
By Luna, this buck was a sound sleeper.

But before anypony could guess the type of the alarm we were hearing, there was an announcement over the academy's speakers:

"Attention! Attention! Viilet alert! There's an unspecified assault on the cloudgate and the academy! All combat personnel, report to your action station at the courtyard, unit Delta-4 is required at the armory, initiate combat preparation! This is not a drill! I repeat: this is not a drill!"

Why us?

"Why us?" Hurricane echoed my thoughts, the bucks stared at me cluelessly and I looked back just as clueless.
Maybe she...

"Well, we're a few steps from there, probably that's why" Sky Striker answered in a rush, put on his uniform and bolted for the door. "Come on, this is an emergency, we better don't be late."

A short time after that we all were on our way towards the armory, everypony wearing either uniform or their power armor jumpsuit. There was quite a number of in the coridors and we brushed against other cadets and power armored pegasi frequently. We reached the armory, the entrance was guarded by two soldiers in power armor, and saw the result of the "unspecified assault": The original guards, a stallion in green uniform and two armored pegasi were laying on the ground, next to stallion's head was a small pool of blood and muted shouts issued from the paralyzed soldiers next to the entrance.
Several suites of armor were scattered on the floor, but the gun cabinets were still closed and, presumably, locked. But who should assault an well stocked armory without taking any of the weapons? Just some rioters eager to make a mess?

Suddenly there was a stomping sound behind us and as I turned around I found myself face to mask with a heavily armored soldier of the Silverish Guard. "Take arms, armor yourself immediately and follow me towards the hangar!" he announced with a deep and metallic voice.

"But... there's still somepony left, Sir." I said cautiously after the others had started to take on their power armor. "Sunsh... Commander Sunshine is still missing."

"If she's not here yet, she won't come at all. Now, grap your weapons and folllow me!" he answered forcefully, so we hurried to do as we were told, not thinking about what that could mean for Sunshine, and as I had my battle saddle sat onto my back, the laser rifle attached to it,Wing Beat at my foreleg and my uniform in place, the soldiers urged us forward and towards the exit, where the immense metal pegasus spread his equally metal wings and took of, with us in tow.

A vertibuck was waiting for us as we arrived at the hangar and along with the aircraft there were several pegasi standing around, waiting as well.
The bad feeling that had grown inside my chest intensified as I saw president Cirrostratus, my father and the angriest Wind Claw ever standing next to her.

"Unit Delta-4 is ready for deployment." The guardspony said and stepped away, revealing the faces of the two highest ranked pegasi in Lunar Rock, both of them looking at us with a sad expression.

"My little ponies." the grey mare intoned sadly. "Something sad has happened, something I had hoped would never happen during my period of government:"

Oh goddesses, it was as bad as I had feared.

"By now you may have realized that your team isn't complete. And unfortunately it won't be complete ever again."

The wishpering among my teammates was ended by my father stomping his hoof.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to tell you that your Commander has left the Enclave.
Sunshine has turned dashite."

...

I... I had that in contemplation, but hearing it now... it was like being punched in face and stomach simultaneously.
The ponies around gasped collectively.

"It has been a long time since the last pegasus decided to leave the Enclave's safety and broke through the cloud cover. Their reasons were different any time. Sunshine's reasons might be upright, but she assaulted the armory and the cloudgate itself and by doing this she committed a crime that has to be punished." Cirrostratus continued. "You're her teammates, you will be the first pegasi to take up the pursuit, to chase her down and capture her."

The buck next to me, Sky Striker, raised a hoof.
"Excuse me, ma'am."

"Feel free to ask."

"How are we supposed to find her? The surface is a huge place and there're hiding spots everywhere for sure. She could have flown anywhere."

My father took a step forward and answered after he had been authorized by a nod of the president.
"We're informed that she acquired a set of power armor in the armory."

But I had said to her...

"The good news is that every armor is equipped with a transmitter. Every vertibuck has an integrated tracking system, so you will be able to follow her." He looked at my team, than his eyes fixed on me. "In case you can't capture or persuade her to follow you back you.. " he took a deep breath. He hated to say what he had to. "...you are constrained to shoot her, there's an explicit firing command. We can't risk her getting caught by an anti-enclave faction, she might have vital information about Lunar Rock's defense and security protocols. The Enclave's security has top priority."

He pointed at the vertibuck and we entered the vessel without another word. Much to my surprise Wind Claw was entering as well, wearing full combat gear. According to him it was a matter of honor for him to bring her down, for he was to blame for her betrayal as well. I didn't like his verbalization...

""")_x_("""

There was a dead silence as we crossed the great cloudgate, nopony had expected that Sunshine, our Commander, a mare we knew for years, would be capable of doing such a thing. Wind Claw and I, the former second in command, were sitting in the cockpit, looking at the radar-EFS-whatever-system and watching Sunshine's movements. The orange mare was a swift flyer, but we were following her at top speed, we would gain upon her in about ten minutes.

"But how did she pass the cloudgate?" I asked with a low voice, breaking the silence seemed... inappropriate.

"She had an accessary to the act." Wind Claw answered grimly. "Surveillance tapes show her entering the control room, a stallion opened the door from the inside and then both of them went to his post. And as he looked away for merely a second she knocked him down just as she did with the armorer and opened the gate." the stallion huffed in anger. "I always said you should need more than on pony to open the cloudgate, but no, nopony is listening to me, ever."

"The buck...?" Had Sunshine started an affair just to bludgeon him and fly away?

"He will have to stand trial after we got the Dashite. For those exact reasons visitation is forbidden at the control room."

"And the alarm?"

"Automated. It starts whenever the controller doesn't press a button every now and then."

Then suddenly there was a peeping noise and the dot that displayed Sunshine stopped.

"What happened?" I asked the pilot, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"The target has stopped moving, that's all I can say." he answered.

"Great! "Wind Claw shouted next to me. "If she doesn't move we get her even faster!"

Why should she stop flying? Had she been attacked by somepony or... something? Was she hurt?

"Sir, we'll get visual contact in about three minutes." the buck in the cockpit said to Wind Claw, who was already stretching his wings.

"Excellent. She must not escape. Ready the missiles! Blow that traitor to pieces."

Missiles? We had missiles? I always thought vertibucks were for transport only and now our trainer was about to shoot at Sunshine. With fucking missiles?
Dashite or not, that's stretching it too far.

"Private, I order you to reject that command!" I shouted at the buck, who was now looking from Wind Claw to me irresolutely and our trainer did the same thing.

"Countermanded!"

"Reject the command!"

"Reject that command!"

"I am commanding this operation, Sir, and it's up to me to decide by when we're talking and by when we're shooting. And right now, I want to talk, Dashite or not."

"You have no right..." the stallion started and was about to dart at me when Wing Beat's laser on his chest stopped him.

"Oh, I don't think so, Wind Claw. I don't know what's gotten into you, but it isn't common sense as far as I can see. Sunshine is my... she our friend and we won't shoot her down just like that."

"I'll court-martial you." the elder stallion said with a snarl. "Soldier," he turned around and was now addressing Hurricane, who had watched our dispute for the longest time. "you will arrest this mare, she's interfering with our mission. Take her to the escape hatch, tie her down and gag her, good and proper."

The blue buck looked at the outraged stallion for about half a minute until he shook his head and walked over to me. "No, Sir." he answered, causing Wind Claw's head to turn even redder than it already was.

"Say that again, colt!"

"Sir," Hurricane assumed a upright pose, just like the one we all assumed everyday in the morning when Wind Claw came to train us. "I'm rejecting that command, Sir. You volunteered for this mission, Sir, and therefore you have no authority, Sir."

"Arrest him." I said to my blue comrade. "Do what he told you to do."

He nodded, but as soon as he taken a step towards Wind Claw said stallion reared up, drew his own gun, an ordinary pistol with a tongue trigger, but before he could fire a singeel shot or even take aim there was a blue flash, he went down and lay there paralyzed except for his head.
Fortunately he lost his firearm in the process or he would have shot everypony in range. I turned around a found Sky Striker, a strange blue sparkling energy weapon pointed at spot Wind Claw had been standing a few seconds before.

"Pulse gun," he said descriptively, "very effective against power armor."

Why did we had... nevermind, we also had missiles.

"I will destroy you, every single one of you! I will end you and your traitorous dashite and I willmbf..."

A gag in his muzzle ended his furious screaming and he was dragged towards the end of the vertibuck. He was kicking and screaming, literally, but since his limbs were caught inside his armor, this didn't hurt anypony. Hurricane took his place in the cockpit next to me.

"It was the right thing to do." he said and I nodded.

Of course it had been the right thing, but Luna, there would be so much trouble if we got home again, regardless of whether we caught Sunshine or not.

"Lieutenant, visual contact in one minute." the pilot said and tried to sound as emotionlessly as possible. He didn't seem to be as sure about our action as we were.

"Understood." Hurricane and I rose and turned towards the team, it was time to deliver a speech as heroic as possible to motivate the remaining pegasi. "Motivate" them... to hunt one of our own down and maybe kill her.

"Listen up, everypony! I'm telling you the way it is: we were send out to catch Sunshine and..." Everypony knew what was next and stared blanky at the ground. "...and maybe... maybe... kill her. Sunshine decided to leave the Enclave, her and our home, and although I respect her decision I cannot agree. She's a potential threat to the Enclave. But we'll only shoot if there's no other choice, until then we talk. "

"Visual contact!" the pilot called out behind me.

Well then...

"Everypony get ready for deployment!"

I stepped into the cockpit again and took a look out of the front window. And there was she: I saw the orange mare walking on the ground, a few hundred feet away. She had dropped her armor but seemed uninjured, thank Celestia. It felt like an eternity since I had seen her the last time... And suddenly there was another peep and flashing lights, different from the one I had seen earlier and they seemed... dangerous.

"Proximity warning!" the buck next to me shouted and started to hit many buttons.

Proximity... That was...

And explosion shook our vessel, a loud creaking and the tail gate opened, a strong wind beating through the gaping hole.

"What. Was. That?" I asked shocked.

"Some kind of Celestia-damn missile." the pilot answered hectically. "We've lost our communication, we've dropped off the radar." He pressed the same buttons again and again, then his jaw dropped as the same warning light flashed again. "By the love of Celestia and Luna, here comes another one! We can't take another hit!"

Another shake and then I saw how the back of the vertibuck exploded in a bright orange ball of fire. Wind Claw and two other pegasi looked at me with pure fear as they were consumed by the fire. And I did nothing but looking back.

"Hold on, everypony!" somepony shouted from somewhere, maybe I was the pilot.

"Cling on tight, we're going down!" I yelled and clutched at my seat, seeing the ground coming closer and closer.
A deafening bang and then everything around me went dark.

""")_x_("""

I heard shots and distant screams as I woke inside the cockpit. My whole body ached and my wings felt shredded, but they weren't, thank Luna.
I looked at the rest of my body: my uniform was torn open in many spots and the hide below wasn't white anymore. It was red.

Blood.
But something else was wrong... very wrong...

I... I had been laying on the ground... no the vertibuck itself , or what was left of it, had turned upside down! And the blood was everywhere, to much blood...

I turned my aching head around and saw the pilot his... corps: He was hanging in his own seat, his eyes widened and whole body twisted in pain, a huge piece of metal had pierced his chest, impaling him.

I did the only thing I was capable of right now: I screamed and crawled away from the bloodstained corps as far as I could before I hit the wall.
Gore and debris everywhere. I tried to control my breathing but it was futile. And then there was a hoof from behind, grabbing my shoulder and turning me around.

"Feather? Feather, are you alright?" Hurricane asked, his face covered in blood and his armor being penetrated in several non-essential spots.

"I'm... I am okay." I muttered and looked at the blurry blue buck with watery eyes. "What happened?"

"An assault by some of those dirt dwellers. Shot us down with missiles. We took up an allround-defense position and are currently we shoot at everything that moves, but things look black, we already lost four ponies. Fortunately they ran out of missiles and grenades." Slowly we crawled towards the exit of the wreckage and towards the shooting.

A nightmare.

This seemed the appropriate description for what I was seeing now: We had crashed into a small canyon, my team had taken cover behind rocks and pieces of the vertibuck and was firing at a faceless bulk of ponies at the other end. And there was laughter. Crazy, vile, repulsive laughter.

Four pegasi were already lying on the ground and as Cloud Striker was about to draw her fallen brother to safety there was a loud "bang" and...

...her head exploded in a cloud of gore and flesh.

My wings convulsed, I went down and couldn't look away from the decapitated body of my friend.
Hurricane was calling out for me, but it seemed far away.

Blood... laughter... gore... Cloud Striker's head...

A hoof struck me in the face and woke up... kind of.

"Feather, snap out of it!" Hurricane shouted, his foreleg risen for another strike. "We've still got a mission to fulfill. Do you hear me?"

Right... Sunshine, ouch! dash it...

"We still have to find Sunshine and bring her back."

"But... how?"

"She's been on her way south or east, whatever, this way." he pointed his hoof at the other end of the canyon, the one that wasn't occupied with attacking surface dwellers. "There are more than a few boulders over there, a pony with power armor can't overfly it without being shot, but you... you're swift enough to cross them by hoof, while we fend off those dirt ponies. Are you still with me?"

I nodded, barely swallowing the lump in my throat. "Y... yes..." So much blood. "But what about you? You can't stay..."

He hold my head between his forelegs and looked straight in my eyes. HE hold MY head. A fine leader I was...

"We will stay and figure something out. The Enclave would never abandon us, they'll send help, dead certain, so don't worry about us. Now go and just get her!"

I nodded again and dashed towards the rocks, while the blue buck dived into cover and started firing wildly. When I snapped out of my adrenaline rush I was standing atop the hillside, watching the plains around me and in the distance I spotted an orange shimmer of the mare I followed. I hesitated to turn around again, pictures of falling pegasi, covered in blood, dominated my thoughts so I spread my strained wings and took flight, the shots and the vile laughter were chasing me, driving me to fly faster than I thought I was able to. Somehow I thought if I could reach Sunshine, everything would be fine. No Hurricane would be left alone facing countless enemies, no nameless pilot would be impalted in his own seat, Cloud Strikers head wouldn't have exploded in gore, nopony would be hurt at all.

My whole body was aching during my flight, the few hundred meters felt like kilometers, my vision blurred time and time again and I drifted away from my course. As I had drawn very, very close Sunshine seemed to notice that she was followed. She shouted out loud, span around and saw how I hit the ground. I didn't land, I hit the ground, literally.

I picked myself up and the pale light of the surface showed her face.

"Whirling Feather? What..what are you doing here..." she asked aghast, but then she noticed the rest of my body, her eyes were widened in horror.
"What happened? How did you...?"

"Shut up!" I yelled, Wing Beat pointed at her, the red dot dancing on her chest. "And don't move!" My side was killing me, oh Celestia, my whole body was killing me. "Sun... Commander Sunshine, I arrest you on behalf of the Enclave's high council and the president of Lunar Rock."

The orange mare looked at me, first confused, then saddened, and sat on the ground. I had to be quite a sight to her, standing there all bloodstained, dressed in shreds of an uniform and a heavy pistol pointed at her chest. I had never understood why weapons like Wing Beat were called "heavy" pistols, but now it felt heavier than a fucking power armor, I nearly collapsed keeping it up.

"What happened, Feather? Where's all the blood from?" she asked shakingly, while I was fighting for consciousness.

"It doesn't matter, you will join me and..."

"Where is it from?"

She already knew...

"Your trap!" I tried to scream, but whimpering was the only thing I was capable of.

"Trap?"

"You knew there was an tracking device in every power armor, Luna, I told you so myself. Everypony thought you were after better comabt gear, but you... you turned it into a trap. For us! We were following your signal, overflew a small canyon and... and then some filthy dirt dwellers attacked us, the shot us down! I woke up inside the vertibuck, there was blood everywhere... but not just mine..." Tears of pain and sorrow were running down my cheeks. "But your friends just couldn't leave us alone. No..."

"My friends?"

"Four of us were dead even before I woke and as crawled out of the wreckage I saw how... how Cloud's head exploded!" Her eyes widened and she gasped in horror. "Hurricane's holding them off for now and now I'm here... how could you do this, Sunshine?" I asked and heaved my foreleg to aim at her again. "How could you leave the Enclave, your home, us, just to help those pon..those monsters down here?!"

She looked at me with her sad eyes and didn't say anything.

"There would have been other ways to accomplish your goal..." Yeah, ways which would have cost pony's lives. It was her fault all over, Whirling Feather, it was all her fault! She was to blame for everything. She, the Dashite, the traitor, the enemy...

"Feather, please..."

"Don't call me that!"

"I know it won't comfort you, but it was never meant to hurt anypony."

Lies!

"I left that armor to set you on the wrong track, yes. You should loose me and stop your pursuit. I never wanted you to get attacked, I never wanted you to get hurt, it was... an accident."

"Shut up! We'll contact the Enclave so they come and pick us up. The court will decide what happens to you."

"I'm so sorry, Feather, but I cannot let this happen."

Before I could answer, before I could do anything, she had closed up to me and rolled over me as usual. I lost myself inside a vortex of streaks of color and wings and as I returned I was laying on the ground and Sunshine stood in front of me, holding Wing Beat in her muzzle.

"I respect and love you as a friend, but I can't let you drag me up there again where I would be no help for anypony. I'm sorry for what I've done..." She lifted her foreleg she had attached the gun to and I closed my eyes. "...and I'm even more sorry for what comes next." Something hard hit my face, killing my lights and drowning me in darkness again.

"I'm sorry."

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 4

Skill(s): Survival 25

New Perk added: Adrenaline Rush

"Just... a little bit... further..."
You gain +1 to your Strength and Agility whenever your health drops below 25%

Chapter V: Grounded

View Online

Ouch!

Dull pain was the first thing I felt as I came to life again. I was lying on something soft, a cloud maybe, and the sensation around my chest told me that I wasn't wearing a uniform or anything at all. Where... what was this place? Finally I opened my eyes and found myself in a dusty room full of tables and cabinets with equally dusty device-thingies on them, myself lying in a bed, an hospital bed if I wasn't mistaken. Some lights were on at the apparatus next to me, hold together by nothing but some duct tape, but the line it showed didn't move.

What had happened? Who...
Sunshine!
That featherbrain, that... bitch had shot me with my own gun!

So this was the Everafter.
I had to admit, I expected it to be less dusty and a little more cloudy just like Lunar Rock.
Well, I guess it could have been worse, so I decided to have a look around, since I was dead, to find out what the Everhafter had to offer. What could go wrong?
I sat up, stretching my wings and bounced out of the bed.

And then the world was spinning, spinning again and again and again
and then one last time and I was lying on the floor.
I heaved myself up and focused on standing for a start.

I succeeded and walked slowly through a corridor of tables and towards the door, but I stopped abruptly as a bottle of water along with some tumblers were sweeped away by one of my wings and were shattered on the floor. Looking back over my shoulder I saw both my dishevelled wings sticking out my trunk, reaching from one end of the path to the other and beyond, since the extremities were sticking out not quite horizontally.
No no no no, not this and not just yet! Wingboners were awkward, humiliating and very impractical given my current situation. And there was only one way to remove them...

I flapped my wings for more than two minutes and tried to persuade them to lay themselves back to my body.
Flapping them at all wasn't easy considering them being all sleepy.

Speaking of sleep, I had obviously fallen asleep while standing there because as I reopened my eyes I was lying on the bed again, my uniform still missing but fortunately my wings had returned to be fully under my control again.
After another attempt of leaving the bed and another fall flat on the face I was struck by the thought that this whole everafter-world was actually some kind of hell, a world of meaningless trials I would have to relive until the end of time, as repentance for a life corrupted by sin.

The sound of a closing door ended my thinking about sin and purpose.
Wherever I was, I wasn't alone.
I couldn't see the entering pony since I was lying on the floor until its head was coming around the corner, revealing a yellow unicorn mare with a red mane. She stared blankly at my empty bed and was about to leave again as her eyes moved downwards and spotted me.

"By Celestia, you're out of bed! Again?!" she yelled, her voice roaring like a vertibuck's storm clouds inside my head. I preferred to chat at eye level, so I raised again.
Or tried to raise, also again. The world around me was slipping away and darkness surrounded me, only the mare's voice remained.
"Duct Tape warned me about poultry like you being..."
And then it faded as well.
Damn this hell or everafter or whatever!

""")_x_("""

I could hear low voices as I woke from my unconsciousness for the third time.
Okay, easy now, Feather, you don't want to break your face by falling on it, do you?

So I slowly opened my eyes and saw the yellow unicorn standing at a table at the further end of the room, I could see her cutie mark, needle and thread, and some bottles were floating in front of her, wrapped in a field of light yellow of magic.
Unicorn magic was fascinating. If I recall correctly I hadn't ever seen magic before, the Thunderhead unicorns yes, but I had never seen them doing actual magic. A sudden cough right next to me made me spin around and as I the blurring faded I looked into the eyes of an elderly brow unicorn stallion, his grayed mane partially covering his big glasses.
I couldn't resist the urge to jump up, bolt towards a corner and cowering there without saying anything.

"Hello." the stallion said kindly and raised his hoof, maybe a sign of kindness. He seemed not to be displeased or even surprised at my reaction.

"H-hello." I answered, still cowering in my corner.

"There's nothing for you to worry about." he said, still smiling. "We don't want to harm you. I'm Duct Tape, the local doctor, I've been patching you up for the last couple of days." The mare at the other end of the room coughed admonishingly. "Together with my faithful assistant, Suture, of course."

His name wasn't inspiring any confidence, what kind of doctor was named Duct Tape?

"What's your name?"

"I'm Whirling Feather, Second Lieutenant of the Grand Pegasus Enclave military of Lunar Rock, ID 23-6..."

"Suture, it's Whirling Feather!" the elderly pony called out to his assistant, who was writing something down onto a piece of paper, thereby stifling me. "You're asking yourself what has happened in the last days, don't you?" Duct Tape asked and indicated to me that I could safely leave my corner. I nodded, but stayed put.

"As you wish. So, you're not dead, even if you might feel so. Oh, and don't worry, the heart rate monitor over there has stopped working a long time ago." So, not dead. Kind of positive, wasn't it? "As far as I can tell, somepony hit your face with his or her bare hooves and dropped a wagon on you, could have been the other way round as well, I can't say for sure."

Pictures of the crash flashed through my mind. The pilot, blood...

"Clam down, Whirling Feather!" Duct Tape called out through my vail of tears and painful memories, the stallion and the yellow unicorn kneeling by my side.

"I didn't thought pegasusses to be so emotional." Suture whispered while stroking my mane. "I mean she said it herself, she's in the military. I would expect her to be... a little more stable, harder, you know?"

"Don't you see how young she is? She's barely a mare. I think she flew off, became a Dashite and stuff, and they sent a death squad after her, hence the injuries at her wings and body, the getaway must have caused them. The only thing I am surprised at is: why does she still have her cutie mark or why is she still alive? As far as I know there're two punishments for becoming a Dashite in the Enclave: branding or death. But she didn't suffer from any of it. She has some bruises and a concussion, nothing else."

"Why don't we asked her ourselves?" Suture asked abruptly as she noticed that I had stopped whimpering a while ago and was listening to them.
Those ponies knew a lot about Dashites...
"Come on, Whirling Feather, tell us: Why did you flee the Enclave?"

"I didn't flee..."

"Okay, okay. Why did you leave the Enclave? Have you done something wrong, couldn't you agree with their politics or...? "

"I'm no Dashite."

"Or did you... what?" Both unicorns looked at me in bewilderment. "Come again, please."

"I. Am. No. Dashite." I answered, making pauses between each of the words. Why they had such a hard time to get it?

"Well, then..." the stallion and the mare bandied looks again. "It's just very... odd to find an enclave pegasus, injured and alone, down here. If they come down here, the Enclave usually sends nearly a dozen pegasi, power armored and with heavy weapons, never a single mare without any firearms worth mentioning."

Pffh. I had had a firearm worth mentioing, "had" being the operative word, until Sunshine took it away from me. Wait...

"Duct Tape, were there any other pegasi with me? Some with power armor or an orange mare?"

"I'm afraid no." he answered. "We've got only you. The buck who has brought you here said that there wasn't anypony else but you."

"Brought me here? From where?" If I could find out where I had been knocked out I track the others and do... something. We would figure something out.

"Many, many miles south of this place. Or west. Could have been east as well, I don't know. In the middle of nowhere at least. You want to talk to Angel, I'm certain. He can tell you more about it for sure."

"And who's Angel?" I asked, knowing the answer I would get.

"The buck who brought you here. He came with a caravan from Fillydelphia, picked you up on his way. Don't ask me why he did it, it is not something usual in the wasteland, but wonders never cease. You should really talk to him, if only to thank him."

I intended to do that. If this buck knew where to find the others I could return to my team, if they were still alive... Darn, Feather! Of course they were alive, at least some... don't think about it!

"Can I leave without getting knocked sideways again?"

"I think you can, but take it easy. We would have let you out yesterday already, but no, you had to give your wings a whirl. So if you decide to leave your corner I'll give you one last syringe for your muscular stabilization and you're free to go."

I moved hesitantly towards the brown stallion, who had levitated a small syringe off one of the surrounding tables and was currently floating in front of his narrow eyes, perhaps to read the label.
Then he took a step towards me and plunged the needle into my foreleg I had hold out to him.
I hated needles and syringes in particular, no idea why, but this time I could resist the urge to bolt away again.

"What do you charge for... all this?" I asked while he was giving a last shot to my wings.

"Normally 75 for the initial treatment, 100 for accommodation, 50 for not letting you starve while you were unconscious, 125 for medical treatment, 25 of it for the shots now, and another 50 for the painkillers." he said while Suture levitating a small bottle of pills towards me.
425... whatever.

"I'm afraid I don't exactly have..."

"Don't worry, my dear." the mare interrupted me, the pills floating in front of my face. "Take those for a few days, in the morning and in the evening, and there shouldn't be any problems. Angel has picked up the bill already. He seems to see something in you obviously, consider yourself lucky. "

After finishing my last treatment, Duct Tape retired to his so called office and Suture directed my to the door and the stallion's voice sounded from his room: "One last time, Whirling Feather: no fast movement, no flying, don't drink anything alcoholic and no drugs, except for the ones we gave you, understood?"

Who did he take me for? Some kind of drug fiend?
I turned to retort, but this obviously counted towards the "fast motion" counter and while I felt dizzy again, Suture muttered "He told you so." opened the door with her magic and shoved me out of it.
"Welcome to Springmare, try not to break something."

If I hadn't been at the surface and even inside a surface village not long ago, the culture shock would have sent me back into the clinic behind me immediately. Unlike the Enclave's dwelling houses, most of them clean and recognizable as such, the local buildings mainly consisted of rubble and pre-war ruins. Even calling those houses "makeshift" would have been an euphemism. "Collapsing" would be more fitting. Back home those constructs would be used as rain shelter, if used at all. The "clinic" behind me was built halfway into the hill it was standing on, the metallic catwalk I was standing on now led down to a big puddle, a well maybe.

I descended to the ground and then there were ponies. No pegasi, only earth ponies and unicorns, all of them filthy and pinched with hunger to some degree, but not as desperate as I would have expected given their situation. Maybe everything wasn't as terrible down here as I had imagined.
While I was strolling around I bumped into a couple of ponies, arguing about something. Or the dark pink mare was angered because of me bumping in.

"I'm sorry..." I said, shrinking before glare.

"Use your eyes!" the mare yelled at me, despite the fact I was standing right in front of her.

"I'm so sorry, it was my fault..."

"You're damn right, it was your fault. Haven't you seen this heap of rubbish for like the second billionth time, Mare Head in the Air?" The dark pink pony approached me in a threatening manner, her nose almost hitting mine.

"Please calm down, honey." the accompanying buck intervened and separated the mare from me, I thanked Celestia for his intervention. "That's the new one for sure, the one who had come here with that caravan."

"The turkey?"

"Yes, the turkey, honey."

She belched and turned around. "I hope she'll be gone soon, those turkeys just spell trouble." I remembered another surface dweller saying this. "Have fun with the newcomer, I'll be waiting at home!"

"I'm very sorry you had to meet her in this condition." the buck said apologetically as his associate was out of sight. Luna, this mare had creeped me out more than all the stories about Nightmare Moon combined!
Okay, maybe not all... but some of them!
"Grape can be... difficult to handle if she's drunk like this."

Drunk? She didn't seem drunk.

"Don't worry about her, I'll handle her, she won't stomp you even if her eyes may have promised it to you. But I have no manners. You have to be the new Dashite in town, aren't you?"

This again?
"I'm no Dashite."

"But... you're a pegasus!" He craned his neck and I spread a wing to confirm his statement. "And you're enclave."
I nodded and could nearly hear him thinking. "Whatever." he said suddenly. "Main point is that you're here and unhurt, relative." he added referring to my still battered body. "I think ol' Tape has patched you all up."

I nodded again. As best as he could, I guessed.

"I'm looking for Angel." I said bluntly, my dialogue partner looked at me blankly. "The stallion who had brought me here. The caravan pony."

"Oh, yeah, that weird guy. This way." the buck pointed a hoof to the left. "They camp next to their brahmins mostly, but if he isn't there he will be at the hotel for sure. This way," A hoof to the right. "You can't miss it, big building, reading "Hotel"."

"Thank you for the information." I said, sweeping a curtsey. "Have a nice day."

He dropped one too, obviously missing the point, said good bye and walked away, following his associate or friend.
So, first stop: brahmin pen, whatever I would happen to be...

""")_x_("""

Nopony was at the camp and the pen itself wasn't... impressive: it was just a pen and some strange dark red rocks were lying inside. Why did those ponies need a pen at all? During my time at the surface, maybe a day if everything was added up, I hadn't seen any kind of animal.I doubted they had survived at all. Who would built bomb shelters for animals? I shook my head, it was pointless to think about animals now, I had to find this Angel buck and therefore I had to fly... walk over to the hotel. Since the night was drawing near two questions crossed my mind, next to the leading question how I could find my team: where would I sleep tonight and, more pressing, what would I eat before? Duct Tape and Suture had fed me somehow, but hearing my stomach growling I knew it hadn't been very substantial. But even if this village would have a grocery, I didn't own anything to offer in return, even my uniform had got lost.

Whatever the "hotel" had been before the war, now the only thing it had in common with an enclave hotel, despite its decay, was the sign. But the "O" was dangling already, it would hold on for much longer and the building would turn into a htel, that would be by all means more appropriate. How did this thing obtained the label hotel at all?

It had looked bigger from afar, but now I was seeing it was just a ordinary two-storied building, looking similar to the clinic, but there was a sign that read "hotel/restaurant" in case anypony missed the big sign above. So, a restaurant too? I stood in front of the door, staggering about how to enter. It was still the first time I ever entered a room full of possibly drunk surface dwellers, alone and unarmed, who weren't paid for not harm me...

Get a hold of yourself, Feather! You're no foal that is scared of walking into a bar anymore. Okay, take a breath, smooth down your mane, lay back your wings, chin up, chest out, don't show any weakness!

I entered the building and my oh so confident entrance was stopped dead in its tracks as I was greeted by a booming noise and a bottle. The first nearly knocked me over, but fortunately I could evade the last and it cut its way into the night. I shouldn't move that fast, he said.

Something was happening inside the hotel, something best described as a bar fight: ponies, unicorns and earth ponies alike, stuck in a heap of, well, other ponies, beating each other with hooves and bottles. The landlord, a mustard colored stallion with a beer tap cutie mark, stood at the furthest end of his bar, protecting a pile of bottles with his own body. For a while I just watched the brawl with my mouth agape, it was kind of fascinating, but then somepony prodded me, I turned left, slowly this time and looked straight in the face of a young blue mare.

"Welcome to Springmare's "Watering Place", the nicest source of relaxation and cold drinks in 100 square kilometers. I'm Shot Glass, what can I do for you, Sweetheart?"

I looked at her for about ten seconds before answering. She was very close.

I muttered something she apparently understood as "I'm searching for Angel.", she pulled me away from the fight and towards a side room's door.
As she opened it and had shoved me inside my gaze fell onto a light grew unicorn stallion sitting lonely at a small table, his blue striped mane hanging down and hiding a glass of a transparent liquid.

"Angel, you've got a visitor!" Shot Glass called out to him.

"Who is it?" he asked, not looking up from his drink.

"The new Dashitesses... the one with the wings." the mare said bluntly, taking away the empty glasses and left the room.

"I am not a Dashite!" I yelled at her, but she didn't notice.

His head shot up, his eyes widened in surprise and he set down his last glass while I was taking place opposite to him.

"Uhm, hello." I said cautiously and raised a wing as a greeting. "I would like to thank you for, you know, for the whole finding and taking me here thing. Thank you."

He didn't answer, he was just looking at me with disbelieving eyes. They were as grey as his hide, showing joy and surprise, but there was something else... I knew this look. Father had it on his face sometimes...
Inspecting him face to face I found him not to look as old as I had imagined, he wasn't much older than me, maybe seven or eight years, the grey color was to blame for him seeming older.

"I'm sorry, I was rapt in my thoughts. You want anything to drink?"
I shook my head, although I would appreciate some water but... ordering something without be able to pay would be quite embarrassing.
"What's your name?"

"I'm Whirling Feather. And you are Angel, I assume?"

He sighed, lifted his glass again and took a sip. "Angel, Guardian Angel, they named me so. It's not my real name but... I don't find it inappropriate, so I keep it."

Okay, a surface unicorns with strange names with a mysterious reason for not letting me die.

"How are you? I see that Duct Tape has patched you up. For a time I thought even he couldn't do it. By the time I found you you looked quite awful. Cuts and contusions, snapped off wings and a hell of a bruise on your face, as if somepony kicked you right into it. You're lucky my caravan heard your shots and sent me to scout, elsewise you would still lying out there."

That was true indeed. Every set of enclave power armor was equipped with a tracking device, but nopony seemed to bother doing the same thing with the officers' uniforms.

"What are you doing down here anyway? What leads a pegasus mare from above the clouds down here into the dirt?" he asked. "You were wearing enclave uniform when I found you. You're a Dashite?"

Again? Again?!

"No, no, NO! Do I have to tell this to everypony down here? I'm no Dashite traitor! No, Equestria: I. Am. No. Dashite!" I shouted as loud as possible.
The world should know, nopony should ever ask that question anymore, not ever!
I had unwittingly climbed the table in front of me and the distance between my face and the buck's was only a few centimeters. He just looked at me and took another sip.

"So, no Dashite then, I'm fine with that. I was wondering why you are still having your cutie mark, most Dashites don't. So, what is it then?"

"We were searching somepony, another pegasus."

"We?"

Okay, Feather, tell him.

"I had a team, we all were following her. Her name was Sunshine, she was a friend of mine."

"A friend or a "friend"?" Shot Glass asked. Damn, she was sneaky or maybe I hadn't been paying enough attention. My cheeks reddened nonetheless. "Okay, okay, you don't have to tell me." she chuckled, replacing Angels drinks, and left again. "Please continue."

"We... she was wearing a transmitter so we could track her, but just as we had found her we got..." I gulped. "...attacked. I don't know by whom but they were able to shoot down our vertibuck. And after being shot down I passed out, kind of. The other were already engaged in a firefight when I regained consciousness, everywhere lay injured and... and even dead pegasi. Hurricane and I craweld out the wreckage and then Cloud's head... it just... burst..."

There were tears running down my cheeks again and Angel laid a hoof around my neck consolingly.

"You don't have to say more, I understand." he said and I calmed down a little.

"Hurricane... Hurricane sent me after Sunshine, he remained behind, stopping the attackers. He sent me... I was the leader! I should have..."
I halted, the grey buck was looking at me with this look again. He didn't ask anything, no "Who was Cloud?" or "What's a vertibuck?", he was just sitting there, listening to me. And I was most thankful for that.

"So, did you find her? Sunshine, I mean?"

"Yeah, kind of. I confronted her but we had a... disagreement, so she knocked me out. "
He didn't ask what kind of disagreement it had been, fortunately, because if he had I would have to told him that we were pursuing her to bring her back to the Enclave where she would be either killed or branded. Or both. But he just sat there.

"So, what are you up to next?" he asked after I had finished my story.

"I want to return to my friends. We will contact the Enclave, tell them the mission failed, screw Sunshine, somepony else should take care of her."

"And how are you planning to find them?"

"I hoped... I hoped you could tell me where you have found me in the first place. From there I can trace back my way, I think. So far as I recall, the distance hadn't been that long."

"You have to know it, you were the one flying. But I wanted to ask you something else: do you have a place to sleep for tonight?"

Good question, next to what I should eat.
"I don't know." I sighed. "I don't have any money or anything to trade at all, not even my uni..." Wait a minute! "Angel, did you took my uniform from me?" Okay, I hadn't imagined it to sound that accusingly

"Y... yes, I did." He blushed slightly, his grey hide covered it well, and for the first time he stammered. "But... but it is not like you are thinking it is."

Thank you, Angel, now I was thinking about something bad.

"Your uniform wasn't more than a bloodstained scrap of cloth when I found you. After we had arrived here I brought your clothing to the local merchant, for fixing it. She should be done by now, even if you might not recognize the uniform as yours anymore. Is that a problem? You know, for the identification?"

"I don't think so." Or hoped. "If I encounter any other enclave pegasi I can tell them my rank and ID, this should work."

"Good to know." Angel downed his pint. If this had been anything alcoholic it didn't affect him much as he stood up and walked straight to the door.
"Are you coming along?" hes asked. "There should be something eatable back at my camp at the brahmin pen, a place to sleep should be there as well. But you don't have to, only if you want."

As a filly I had been warned about to go along with elder stallions, promising me something, but this time had no real choice.
The sound in the main room had died away while I was talking to Angel and as Shot Glass opened the door again to look for us, I saw the landlord chasing off the brawlers wielding a shotgun, poorly conditioned but unhealthy nonetheless.
I wouldn't get such an offer here, I presumed, not for free.

"Okay, but don't try anything funny." I answered snappishly and walked through the door he was holding open with his magic. He might be a knight in shining armor for now, but limits had to be set.

"By the goddesses, I swear." he chuckled and closed the door behind us.

""")_x_("""

We walked through the night, our way illuminated by a small, blue glowing orb Angel had summoned and as we walked past the pen I asked what it was for. It was nothing I would die to know for, but it was definitely better than trotting in silence.

"Well, for the brahmin of course." the grey buck answered and pointed his hoof somewhere in the direction of the red rocks.
Was something hiding there?

"What is a brahmin anyway? Some kind of pony? A bird? A..." I searched my brain for the most exotic animal I could think of right now. "A lizard?"

"Did you just fell out the skies, kiddo?" A deep voice came out of the darkness and there I was, staggering and in the air – only a peagsus could manage that – scouting around for the voice's source. It sounded accusing.

"Don't be so hard on her," a second voice said from almost the same direction. But from where? "You see that? Wings. She's a pegasus, man! I haven't seen no pegasus in years." I looked deeper into the darkness, but there wasn't anypony or anything, except for the rocks.

"You have never seen a pegasus."

"I have!"

"No, you don't!!"

"Yes I did!!!"

"I would remember that!"

"Okay, okay, it was a picture..."

"Yes, from a playcolt magazine!"

"So what!!"

Whoever was doing it, they kept arguing until Angel's magic gently embraced my tail and nudged me to land again.

"Jeff! Fred! Is that your way to welcome a newcomer?" he said reproachfully. "Don't you want to introduce yourself?"
His light fell onto the empty pen and the, suddenly, something was moving in the darkness, making it look like the rocks had changed... wait a second, the rocks were moving for real!

The... thing that rose from the ground looked like a big, red, hairless... cow.
Well, actually it looked like two cows, two heads, but only on body...
By Luna, it was a big, red, hairless cow with two heads.
Two heads!

The two-headed cow-thing noticed my stunned expression and he... it... the two of them started laughing.

"Never seen a brahmin before, huh?"

Brahmin. Cow. Tow heads. Luna, I was glad the day would be over soon, I couldn't take any more of this surface stuff.

"What... who... what are you?" I asked, still stunned by the look.

"We are a brahmin, Fred and I." the more serious head said, while the other one was still chuckling. Or maybe it was still sore.

"But how..."

"Your question isn't exactly what I would call elegant. But to answer it: We simply are. Maybe it was radiation, maybe taint or evolution, I don't know, but we are who we are, just like you, pegasus."

An awkward silence followed as I was still staring at the brahmin, still unable to fully wrap my head around this fact.
If I wouldn't get anything to eat this night, I would have this to digest at least.

"So... and what... are you doing all day?" I said. Be nice to the the weird cow thing, maybe it eats ponies. "You aren't just standing there all the time, are you?"

"Oh no." the Jeff head answered. "While we're not traveling with them caraveners, carrying their stuff, because they're too weak, we are solving crimes and wasteland mysteries, chasing the most wanted criminals of these lands, the most despicable and abhorrent creatures that ever walked the face of Equestria."

"We are?" the other head sounded surprised. "Then why are you still standing there, Jeff? Start running. Save yourself."

And there they were, bickering again.

"Well, I'm afraid we have say good bye." Angel said into the argument, much to my relief. "I have to put this young mare to bed and you need your beauty sleep as well, don't you?"

"You're dead right, Angel." the heads answered in unison and then they... it plumped down on the ground, instantly starting to snore. It looked like a red rock again.

"Come now, you look hungry and in desperate need for sleep. You won't get either if you keep standing there and stare at the brahmin. "

He was dead right, I was starving.

""")_x_("""

I never would have guessed that I would feel so happy about a simple can of ready-to-use-vegetable-whatever-thing and a mattress along with a blanket.

Angel provided both without asking another question, although I was wondering why he carried around so much bedding, aside from his own he offered me another blanket and some kind of pillow. Not as comfortable as a cloud, but it would work. He also lit a small campfire to warm over the food between the two bedrolls.

As I lay there, my muzzle filled with delicious 200-years-old vegetables, I noticed something strange about the grey buck, something very strange even: on his flank, where his cutie mark was... should be... was a dark colored spot. It wasn't easy to tell where his coat ended and the spot began, but I simply knew it wasn't natural. From time to time the flickering fire was throwing light on his flank. I wasn't sure what exactly I saw, it could be a flying bird or a pegasus. I would need Celestias' sunlight to have a good look on his...

I suddenly became aware of Angel watching me as well. Oh goddesses, what was he thinking of me, staring at his hindquarters for I didn't know how long. Just... just focus your eyes on your can, don't say anything and everything will be fine, Feather. And don't blush!

While I was eating I struggled with myself about whether ask him about his flank or not. Awww, probably not. Maybe I was just an ordinary surface-unicorn cutie mark, looking strange in the dark, I bet stranger things were happening.

After I had finished my meal and had taken one of the pills Duct Tape had given to me, I looked up again, thanked Angel, who was gazing at the sky in abstraction, for the meal, he was acknowledging it with a nod and wished me a goodnight. After I had laid down on my bedroll and curled up under my blanket, I turned my gaze towards the cloudy sky as well, my first surface night sky: I wasn't used to it, the clouds covering the sky were dark and heavy, only the faint light of the moon was piercing them. It was my first night down here and I already missed the stars. It was depressing to see it, but the prospect to return to the other side of the clouds again raised my spirits.

So, this was it then, my very first night at the surface. Well, it could have been worse, I guess. I had a roosting-place, blanket and bolster, a well-filled stomach, potentially the friendship of a surface dweller and at least the tolerance of others.

""")_x_("""

I had slept deeply and felt well rested as Angel woke me by poking me with his hoof. By the sounds of ponies on their hooves around me it was already getting late.

"You slept well?" Angel asked und levitated a bowl of... cornflakes towards me. "Sugar Bombs." he said as I looked askance at my breakfast. Who in Celestia's name came up with the idea of producing bomb-shaped cereals? Apart from them being 200 years old they didn't even taste good as I nibbled one of the "bombs". Angel, who was wearing a short blue, flank-covering overcoat, saw the disapproving look on my face and the bowl floated towards him once again.

"Not everypony's taste." he said while raising one of the cereal flakes towards his muzzle. "But I don't have anything else right now, I'm very sorry." Another flake went down his throat. "Sugar bombs were one of the most famous and widespread cereals of the pre-war Equestria, you're finding them in all places. Or you used to be at least, somepony seems to acquire a taste for them."

"What time is it?" I yawned and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"I don't know, but judging by the shops of the village it's late in the morning, maybe noon already. I didn't want to wake you earlier, my last attempt made you slamming your wings into my face, but you should really get up now, I would like to get your equipment before the waiting queue gets to long."

I nodded, rose and was about to pack my bags when I was realizing that I had neither bags nor something to pack. The only thing I owned was the small bottle of painkillers and I gave them to Angel for safe keeping, simply because he had a pair of saddle bags.

""")_x_("""

While we were walking to the shop Angel had entrusted with the repair or rather restoral of my uniform I decided to ask him about his strange cutie mark which, in day light, showed a pegasus, wings outstreched, and that wasn't eve the strangest thing. Also a long horn was emerging from the pegsus' head.
His cutie mark was portraying one of the princesses.

"Angel, my I ask you a question?" I asked and he nodded. "I've seen your ctuie mark. What has happened? It looks so..."

"Strange?" he finished my question and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Yes, that's one way to put it. I mean, it shows one of the... I think they're called alicorns, aren't they? I don't know how cutie marks are supposed to be down here, but back home, cutie marks show all kinds of clouds, sunrises, sometimes a star, never a other pony and never one of the princesses. I've never seen something like this, not even in books."

I could see how the unicorn buck was balancing the reasons to answer or not, then he shook his head. "It's something... private. I would appreciate not to talk about it now, maybe later."

Sure, I didn't want to force him.

We continued our way and soon we arrived at low building, a small crowd of chattering ponies standing in front of it. Unlike the clinic or the hotel, the shop we had been heading to was built directly on the ground, not bridges or catwalks were connecting it to other buildings above.
The chatter passed into whispering as Angel and I reached the front door and stepped inside.

"They're talking about you." Angel whispered while we were enqueued.
Hey, they had those too at the surface.

"About me?"

"Well, they are talking about the odd pegasus the caravan guard dragged along lately."

"Odd pegasus? I'm... I'm not odd." I said in displeasure. "I'm pretty ordinary."

"You've got wings, that's good enough for them."

"A pegasus can't be such a rare sight down here. I mean, there have to be some surface pegasi... or not?"

"Maybe there are, maybe there aren't." Angel answered, his voice still lowered. The looks of the ponies around left me unsure about if they were trying to listen or if they tried the opposite. "There are stories about pegasi called "Dashites", you may have heard of them, but hardly anypony has actually seen them. Your Enclave itself hasn't exactly a good reputation amongst the surface dwellers. The ponies only know that you, up there on your fluffy clouds, don't struggle for survival day in day out, that you don't come down to us and that you sealed off the sky. That's mostly enough for the ponies down here to dislike your kind."

Just as I wanted to give him a lecture about the Griffin Wars, food rationing and the necessity of the cloud cover he continued.

"I do not say I share their view or agree with them. There has been a solid reason for the Enclave to seal up the sky after the Great War for sure. Many times I ask myself how the sun, the moon or the stars actually look, but I don't miss anything I've never seen, but I'm speaking exclusively for myself, nopony else. I just want you to understand if you talk to somepony and he or she seems to dislike you for no apparent reason. Just keep it in mind, okay?"

There were only a few more ponies in line before us and strangely nopony else had entered the store after us. As the stallion in front of us had received his goods and left we were alone, the shopkeeper apparently had left the room too, maybe he or she had gone into the backroom.
Neither of us talked while we were standing before the counter and just as the silence was about to grow really unpleasant a yellow mare entered. A yellow unicorn mare, carrying a small package with her magic.
It was...

"Hello, Suture." Angel said befriendingly and the mare nodded in return.

"The same to you, Angel. And to you, Whirling Feather. You're here for your order, aren't you? That - I'm grudgingly calling it that – piece of clothing you asked my to... mend."

"Is it finished?" the grey buck next to me asked and Suture let out a guffaw.

"You can say that, it's... wearable. She could put it on, but she couldn't do it too, that's what I would advise. Given the raw material you gave to me there really wasn't much I could do."
She then turned around and was looking at me, still stunned about the coincidence.

The local doctor's assistant was also the local tailor. And the assistant assisted a doctor named Duct Tape. Which one of them was treating wounds that needed to be stitched up? None of the answers actually comforted me.

"Young mare, I am talking to you." the assistant/tailor said with an accusing voice, as if she had already tried several times to get through to me.

"Excuse me. Say again?"

"I just said: I hope you didn't cling to your uniform too tight, because everything I was able to rescue was the form. Look at it." she said and the package she had lain on the counter opened.

If I hadn't know the thing I was wearing now had once been my enclave officer's uniform I wouldn't have recognized it as that:
Instead of the black blazer that was used to be buttoned diagonally around my chest I was wearing a kind of vest, mainly composed of a solid brown fabric, partially covered by black parts of my former uniform. Even the buttons were displaced, they were centrally arranged on my chest without any apparent reason, the buttonholes were missing. My upper neck would be covered by a grey collar and I would wear a black shirt underneath to cover my chest.

Additionally Suture had equipped the garment with two small pockets that were easy accessible for both my mouth and my wings. Wings might not be the most precise grabbing tools, not match for a unicorn's horn, but a pegasus like me was able to grab smaller things with the stronger primal feathers.

I didn't understand what Suture had meant with "wearable". The garment wasn't looking too patched up, it would fulfill its task and looked quite fashionable for it being mainly recycled.
Apparently Suture was knowing her craft.

"I'm charging 120 caps for the garment, minus 50 because there's something left of the high quality materials and minus another 20 for you've already payed her hospitalization. Uh, and you ordered that other pair of saddle bags, right? Another 40, please." Suture continued once I had put on my cloths. "Anything else I can offer to you?"

"Yes, indeed." Angel answered quickly, attached the saddle bags to my back and pulled a list out of one of his own. "I need ammunition for my guns, 10mm, eight magazines in total. We will also need some of the Pea&Beans if you still have some of them." We? "You've got no weapon, have you?" he said suddenly and turned to me, I was shaking my head. "Well then, a 9mm pistol, mouthgrip and fitting ammo, 50 bullets, that should do..."

We finally left the store after Angel had listed several more items, bagged them up in our saddle bags and paid Suture an awful lot of bottle caps – bottle caps, of course they paid in bottle caps, because why not? - and trotted back to our campsite, our bags bulging. After we had arrived at the fireplace we renegotiated the load, the grey buck generously burdened himself with the major part, then he pulled out a map, laid it onto the former campfire, his magic grabbed a little stick and he set it down on his map, marking a random location.

"This is where we're headed." he explained. "I've found you there, so if your friends are still at the surface then most likely there." Quite logical, remaining at our last known position after being shot down was the reasonable thing to do.

"We?" I asked carefully.

"I'm coming with you, of course. The wasteland is a dangerous place, you'll need somepony to cover you. And after all, I am the one who knows the way back. I don't want to question your pathfinding abilities, but even with a map it's very unlikely you would reach your goal. That's why I'm going to accompany you."

Okay, Feather, shut up, you don't want to shoo away the one who rescued you once and offered to guard you further.

"You can handle that kind of firearm?" Angel looked at his saddle bag, where my new gun had been stored away and I nodded. I was used to use a battle saddle, but we were also trained to use mouthgrip weapons, you could never know... "That's good for our journey won't be an easy one. You and your friends went down on raider territory and not just any raider's, no, Bloodhoof Raider territory."

I looked at him in confusion. Were those Bloodhoof... things something I had to know? "What's a raider?"

He looked back, equally confused, then he shook his head and his look darkened. "I nearly forgot, you're new to all this. What's a raider... how shall I put it... raiders are the pony-shaped wasteland. They've already abandoned every principle, everything that distinguishes us from the wasteland's beasts, except for the weapons, they still use those. They're like animals, no, they are animals. They're driven by their instincts. Robbery, murder, torture, rape, that's what delights them. Luckily they seem to prefer being in certain places, a head quarter if you like, and they only come out from time to time to... hunt."
The sad look returned to his face as he continued. "You and your friends simply had bad luck to encounter such a hunt."

Bad luck then? I half hoped that Sunshine hadn't met those ponies too, the other half shouted "screw her!".

"Are those raiders also slave traders? I visited a small town for maybe half a day not long ago, we've ended one of their slave hunts, dozen ponies chasing one mare."

"No, they're no slavers, slavers are different. As much as I detest slavers, they do their work to survive. It may sound cruel, but a part of me, a very small part, understands. If raiders on the other hoof catch somepony and don't kill him or her instantly, than that's no mercy. They're only taking prisoners to continue the torture and the killing." He made another pause and looked to the sky before he continued. "Fortunately most of the time we'll only brush their territory. But if we encounter one of them shoot him, just shoot him. You will not be able to talk to them and death is an undeserved mercy for each of them."

That was... straight. "And how am I going to make out if somepony is actually a raider or like you, you know, one of the good guys. Their not wearing name badges reading "raider", are they?"

Angel didn't answer, but his muzzle formed a faint smile.

"Are they?"

"No, no they do not wear badges. It's just... there are no good guys out there in the wasteland, you will learn about that once you're down here for a longer time. There are ponies who will take your caps, ponies who will take your caps after killing you and there are ponies who just want to kill you and these ponies are the raiders. You will recognize them once you see them, sure as death."

"And how far away is this raider territory?" I wasn't frightened, just a little uneasy... oh, who was I kidding, I was frightened by his description of murder and torture, but what kind of pony wouldn't be?

"Three day's march, maybe less."

"Three days?! You... your caravan... you were carrying me for three days?"

"What should I say, we had a not fully stretched brahmin with us, Jeff and Fred didn't even notice you lying on their back. We would be able to cover the distance in two days, but that would mean constant gallop and Suture and Duct Tape made me swear by Celestia I wouldn't let you run or fly too fast. And since I love my life I recommend to split the journey into three or four parts." The stick tapped several marked placed on the map. "There're some ruins alongside our way, we'll stay there for the nights, there may also be some not already scavenged supplies. I bought some, but it would do any harm to get more for there are no other settlements on our way. It will be tough, but we will make it, don't worry."

After his monologue had ended he rolled up his map again and stored it it away. "You're ready?"

I nodded. The sooner I would be able to leave this wasteland the better.

""")_x_("""

Boring.

That wasteland really lived up to its name. There wasn't anything apart from some dead bushes and whole lot of dirt and stones. Well, above the clouds there wasn't much as well, some cities here and there, but I hadn't seen any of those down here yet.

Angel and I were trotting alongside silently for hours now, no word had been spoken since we had left the village of Springmare. My companion seemed to be buried in thought again and I was gazing at the surrounding landscape in hope of seeing something interesting. And nothing interesting happened. For hours.

It was late afternoon as we decided to take a break at a small hillside, consuming a part of our provisions.

"It's weird." Angel said as he gazed into the distance once more. "I didn't expect our route to be so quite and peaceful, it's... boring."

"Boring?" I asked, not actually listening, only repeating the last word of his sentence out of boredom. Oh Celestia, even warming up at the academy had been more exciting than this.

"I've been expecting at least a bloatsprite or a small RADscorpion to cross our path."

"And what exactly is a bloatsprite or a whatsitsname scorpion?"
Surely nothing that had existed before the war, I would have heard about them otherwise.

"Well, RADscorpions are... scorpions, I guess."

My look suggested "that's not helping" and he tried again.

"Ah,... huh... they're just scorpions."

"I am enclave, above the cloud cover there isn't much except for pegasi and even more clouds, try to be a little bit more descriptive. Are they ponies? Are they small? Furry?"

"Okay, now you're describing the opposite of a RADscorpion, that's good." he chuckled but then his eyes widened.

Something small and spiky hit the back of my head and was stuck in my mane. I soared into the air, swirled around and drew the pistol I had haltered in a holster attached on my right foreleg. But there was nothing behind me, nothing but dead grass and a blasted tree. Then I saw something small coming at me again, it brush my cheek and suddenly I saw something moving in the grass. Or more precisely: above the grass:
The creature was hold in midair by way too many transparent wings and looked at me with its two blueish eyes that were sticking out of its deformed and bloated body. It wasn't bigger than a newborn foal's head but with its bottom it was shooting the small projectiles at me.

Before I could examine the strange any further it exploded in a cloud of green and grey goo. As I looked back over my shoulder I saw Angel, his own pistol raised by his magic, its barrel still smoking.

"That one was a bloadsprite." he said and his gun returned to its holster. "They're not dangerous, only if there're like ten of them or one of their projectiles finds its way into one of your eyes, then you should start being worried." He moved slowly towards the grey puddle of bloadsprite and beckoned me over as well. I hesitated for a moment. Blown up headshaped bodies weren't exactly the thing I wanted to see ever again after the incident with Cloud Striker...

After I had forced myself to join the grey buck and trotted over to the what remained of the insectile creature I saw exactly what I had expected: a small heap of sludge, to cap it all one of its wings was still twitching. And Angel poked it with a small stick.

"Is that really necessary?" I asked in disgust and pointed my wing at his stick.

"They may look disgusting but some parts are of use, you can even eat some of them." I turned up my muzzle in disapproval. Disgusting. "You can't be fussy about food down here. But don't worry, blaodsprites aren't the ugliest things down here..."

Oh, thank you, Angel!

" If I think about it, I don't want to know what a RADscorpion is. Can we just move along again? Please?"

We left the puddle behind and returned to our path. "It's going to be dark soon," my companion said as he fetched his map again, letting it float in front of our faces as we walked. "so we should seek sleeping-place. We're almost here." he continued, tapping on the paper, one of the marked location. "One of our stopovers. The ruins of a small town, I forgot the the name but the local buildings should give us shelter against the night's cold."

"How far?"

"We should reach it before nightfall at this rate, enough time to look for stuff worth scavenging and a protected room to sleep."

"Sounds good to me."

""")_x_("""

When Angel said ruins he meant ruins. Plain fields of dust, gravel and wooden rubble surrounded the remnants a few larger buildings, each four of five stories high and built of grey concrete.

"What happened?" I asked and pointed at the ruins.

"The Great War, maybe?" my companion answered bluntly. "It looks the same in almost every city of Equestria."

Thanks, smarty-pants. "I mean the buildings."

"As I do."

"I mean, one... two... " I was counting the bigger ruins on my wings pinions. "There're like four building. That was no town, left alone a city, maybe an office block. But nonetheless there was place-name sign, we couldn't read it, but it was definitely such a sign."

"You've never seen destruction by balefire, have you?" Angel asked and I shook my head.
By old pony tales I knew you could gather the remains of an balefire in a shopping bag, but I've never thought about it very much.
"Once there were many buildings, houses and stores and offices alike, dozens as I was told. And the balefire strike sweeped them away."

"How!?" I asked staggered. Before my mind's eye a crimson red beam struck an enclave city, an explosion followed and debris and scorched clouds were everywhere.
By Celestia, why was I imagining anything struck by missiles!

"As I take it, balefire is, as its name implies, fire. Radioactive and dark magical fire but fire nonetheless and it burns fast, long and very hot. And just that happened." His hoof gathered a small pile of dust. "Beat your wings, please."

My eyes wandered from his face to the dust pile and back, than I nodded and did as I was told. The dust was blown away, just as anticipated. "And what was that about?"

"That's what happened to the town around. The dark fire incinerated the wooden things and turned them to the dust we're standing on, only the most resilient ones remained, but they were damaged too, as you can see."

It was impressive. Just like the city I had seen on my first day down here. The destruction that had been unleashed here and in so many other places was shocking and terrifying, but also impressive. And so were the buildings of ponies that had resisted fire, heat and time itself, even if they had been scorched by them. They were still intact.

"Once your done marvelling we should go any try lodging ourselves inside one of those. I don't want to search for a good place when it's dark and the ceiling could come down any moment." Angel said and walked towards one of the doors, I followed him. "Come on, maybe there's still useful stuff inside one of those."

"And when you say "stuff" you mean....?"

"Just that. Stuff. Something useful we can carry with us. Some of the pre war buildings are veritable goldmines, in the figurative sense of course. You wouldn't believe what things the old ponies carried to work."

We opened the doors and stepped inside.

It was... dark in here.

The only things I could see were some silhouettes of scattered objects on the ground, only alit by the light coming from the outside. Night was falling indeed. I merely stepped into the darkness, looking for a mysterious source of light, and found myself slipping on a cylinder-shaped object, managing to keep staying upright only by excessive wing beating.

"Luna, didn't those ponies install any windows?" I grumbled as Angel's horn started to illuminate the furnishing. As the light fell onto the ground the trip hazard turned out to be an empty soda bottle somepony had carelessly dropped over two hundred years ago. But maybe it wasn't careless after all, considering the large bulk of litter and empty bottles that lay around everywhere, fallen from the desks and reception counters that were lining the room. "Now what?"

"Now we're going sift through every desk, filing cabinet, wastebin and whatever's standing around here." he said while he was walking towards the reception counter. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

"Wastebins? Are you serious?"

"You remember me talking about the pre war ponies bringing all kinds of stuff to work?" I nodded. "Well, they've thrown those things away too, so yes, we will search the wastebins."
As if he was going to proof his statement he levitated one of the trash bins towards himself and a small box floated out of its maw. "Hah, Cake!" proclaimed triumphantly and floated the, apparently unopened, box to me.

"That's disgusting." I said sniffily. Two hundred years old food, fair enough, but two hundred years old food fresh from the rubbish was an entirely different matter.

"Have a go at it, please." he said, thrusted another waste bin towards me and applied himself to his own again.

I sat onto the ground, my forelegs crossed in front of chest. "No."

Angel's turned his head around in disbelieve "No? Come on, don't be so prudish."

"You can talk." I replied and pointed a hoof at his horn. "Your the buck with the horn and I..." I flapped my wings, "...am the one with wings. And I will not use the limbs I might use to eat later on to ransack rubbish. I will search the desks, okay?"

My companion nodded unimpressed while I was trotting towards the office desks and floated a whole series of things past his eyes. "So what have we got there?"

Two more soda bottles: "Garbage"
A clipboard: "trash"
A collection of intensely chewed pencils: "May come to use one day, but still: garbage"
Something that looked like an old and burned book: "rubbish"
Another smaller box of...
"Cigarettes, bingo!"

Cigarettes?

"You're smoking?"

Angels turned his head again towards me while I was rummaging one of the desk's drawers. "What makes you think..."

"You're very happy."

His look turned from the box to me and back. And again. And again...

"Oh, they're not for me."

"For whom then?"

"For the pony paying for them. An article of commerce, plain and simple. I don't know why, but many merchants bade a high price for those. Two or three cartons can earn us... me dinner once I'm back in the civilisation again."
And with that he dumped his head in the garbage bin again.

""")_x_("""

"You found anything?" he asked once we had finally completed looting the room, thereby wreaking havoc inside.

"I don't know what's really useful down here." I answered and pointed a hoof towards the pile of items I hadn't classified as "absolutely useless and/or harmful to me or other ponies around".

"Any bottle caps or are they inside this heap too?"

"Angel, I might be an enclave pegasus but that doesn't mean I'm stupid. I've filled alle the caps I could find in here." I shoved a small bag of caps towards him. "There're also some singed bits, I think it's pre-war money. Is it still worth anything down here?"

The grey buck levitated a few coins out of the back, held them before his testing eyes and stuffed the caps into one of his saddle bags.
"I think so. You know coins like those were of gold once?"

"I know. And in the war they reduced the amount of gold the bits were made of more and more, to gain more money for the war effort of course. Hell of an inflation would have come soon if the war hadn't ended the way it did. The latest coins stored by enclave museums were of less than five percent gold, 2.7 percent if I'm not mistaken. They thought about replacing Equestria's coinage with paper money several times, would have made good economic sense, but I'm not sure if they really did it. But even if, the banknotes would have turned to dust by now for sure, the war..."

Before I could continue my lecture about the two hundred years old economics a rumbling noise from above silenced me. Angel dropped everything he was holding with his magic and drew one of his guns and signaled me to do the same. After I felt the discomforting feeling of a trigger at my tongue we slowly moved towards the nearest stairway. My companion was peeking around every singel corner once we had entered the staircase, probably to spot potential aggressors.

We finally arrived at the first floor and were standing in a corridor, maybe ten or fifteen meters long and angling off at one end, the other was buried beneath the collapsed ceelings and floors of the other stories. Angel immediately backed up against the wall and sneaked towards the corner, his weapon raised.

"Maybe there're travelers, just like us." I whispered after I had holstered my weapon once more. "Shouldn't we try... contacting them somehow? I'm sure, if we are nice we..."

He rose his hoof, signaling me to shut up, and then his magic grabbed a piece of the rendering and threw it around the corner and into the attaching corridor. Nothing happened, except for the crumbling noise of the rendering hitting the floor. After that he looked around the corner himself, then he turned around and laid his hooves onto my shoulders, looking deeply into my eyes.

"Listen: if you hear pony-indicating noises inside an abandoned building, be it near raider territory or somewhere else in the wasteland, you shoot first and ask questions later. Believe me if I'm saying that nopony out here's going to help or become friends with us. And they might harm us if we didn't preempt them. It's them or us."

I looked at the grey unicorn in shock. That wasn't the Angel I had traveled with for the last day, left alone the one who had rescued me back then. This Angel seemed cold and ruthless as he sneaked around the corner in shooting position. There wasn't anything to see except for more dust and crumbling walls, but my companion trotted over to the next corner, again levitation his pistol and a stonelike piece of the walls.

"Maybe there isn't anypony here at all, a piece of the ceiling could have come down and that's what we've heard. Maybe we should just to the lower levels again and search for a nice and warm roosting place, so we..."

Suddenly my companion swirled around, pushing me back and pressing me against the wall with one of his forelegs. His eyes were flashing in anger and determination. "What's so hard to get at: them or us?" My pistol fell out of my muzzle and landed clangingly on the floor, fortunately not snapping a shot.

"I wanted to say... maybe we can treat them peacefully..."

"Peacefully? Peacefully?! There's nothing peaceful down here. It's kill or be killed and I know what I'm talking about, Miss I'm-at-the-surface-for-two-days-already. What good was your peaceful behavior since you've come down here, huh?!"

For a while he was just looking at me angrily, then I coughed: "Angel, please... I can't breathe..." He whipped his foreleg away from my throat, threw the chunk into the next corridor and turned around again to continue our argument when something obviously unexpected happened: several shots were punching holes into the wall to our right, causing even more of it to crumble, and were followed by barely hearable shouts. Angel raised his gun again and trotted over to the corner.

"Come now, let's get this over with." he said in determination.

"Please, Angel..." I rasped and continued laying on the floor, making no move to take up my gun again. "Just one try."

"But they'll shoot you and I won't be able to save you this time!"

"I'm sure this can be dealt with by peaceful means. Just one try." I looked up to him in the most heartbreaking way I was capable of.
For a while he was just staring back, his anger melting down and sorrow filling his eyes, probably because he felt like he had hurt me, then he lowered his pistol.

"Celestia and Luna, damn me! One try and only one. And if they make any kind of attempt to harm you, I will kill them, okay."

I nodded. A small chance was better then none. Okay, Feather, recapitulate what professor Warhorse told you about weaponless conflict resolution on the battlefield. Three years ago...

First: Whispering while communicating with allies, you don't want the enemy to know your force levels.
Second: Figure out the enemy's own force level.

"Angel, can you do anything unicornic to say me how many ponies we're dealing with?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. Magical reconnaissance isn't my métier."

"Any other ideas?"

"Well, from what I know about the distribution of enemy wastelanders in gunfights I think they're standing in the corridor, most certainly covered by something, and are currently pointing their weapons in chest high of a pony shaped like me. But you're a pegasus, maybe we can trick them.
Without any killing." He added the last at my questioning glare. "You could try flying up to the ceiling and look at them from there, they won't expect it, I can say that for sure. But still, don't be out of cover for too long, even the most braindead raider will spot you eventually."

I sat back on my haunches and thought over Angel's suggestion again: Flying up to the ceiling, a peek around the corner to see how many diplomatic targets I was dealing with and ideally not getting shot in the process. No problem at all.

Flapping my wings as silently as possible I moved upwards and became stable centimeters under the ceiling, then I was struck by the thought of how I would manage to only peek on my targets. Unlike griffins pegasi were very precise flyers but even we couldn't move that precise while airborne. And since I was no pony with super-duper spider powers there was no climbing the walls either.
Well, then I had to be precise...

I fluttered towards the wall, so close it and my forehead nearly met, and took one final breath then I turned my head to the left and over my shoulder, getting a view on the corridor: two ponies, both of the pointing their weapons on the corner below, just as Angel had predicted it. A full grown brown earth pony stallion, wielding an old revolver, and an unicorn foal, a colt if I wasn't mistaken, levitating a small, homemade shotgun. Both of them were dressed in fawn clothing, baring many patches, and didn't quite fit the image of a raider as I imagined it from Angel's poor description. And those two had shot at me? A colt?

"Watch out, kid! Up there!" the old one yelled and pulled his gun up, presumably just as the foal did, but I couldn't see any of it, for my head had long returned behind the edge at the time the two shots hit the wall.
I landed next to Angel again and told him that we were up against two other ponies.

"Just two of them? Great! If we have to fight them, we..."

"That's a colt." I snarled. "You would actually shoot an innocent foal?" He shut up and stammered something scarcely audible, something had hurt his feelings. Good. "We won't shoot if I can prevent it somehow, until there's no other way left to go." I said gravely, staring at him, hanging his head and not giving any word of objection, as he stept away from the corner so I could talk to our discussion partners.

"Hello?" I called out into the corridor. "You're still there?"

Yes, apparently they still were, if I interpreted the next shot correctly.

"There's no need for violence, no need to shoot at me, I am no threat to you!"

Another shot.

"Please, answer me!"

"Shut up, scum! You won't screw us, we know who – or better – what you are!" The stallion answered, reinforcing his argument with a third shot.

"Dad!" another voice yelled, sounding much younger than the previous one. "You didn't tell me monsters could talk, you said they only could hiss or roar."
Maybe we could talk via the foal...

"Shush, son! It's a trick. That thing won't lure us into a trap just by making speaking-noises."

Or maybe not.

I turned my head to Angel, seeking help of any kind, but all I got was his "Told you so" look.

"I assure you we don't mean to harm you. To neither of you."

"Oh, it's "we" now? How many of you are there? Five? Ten? Don't worry, I've got enough bullets for all of you!"

Gosh, he was going in very emotional, but Angel had been just like that a few moments before. "Is there anything I can do so that you trust us... me." Hopefully the answer would not be: "Blow your brain out!"

"No!" the stallion shouted and cocked his revolver.

"There has to be a way we could manage this situation without anypony getting shot." I said almost in desperation. Didn't the ponies down here trust each other?
Then I came up with an idea. Not a good one, but it would definitely lower the suspicion, I hoped.

"How about I through my gun over to you and come out of cover, so we can talk face-to-face? I will be alone and unarmed, no need for shooting."

He didn't reply anything. No "No" meant "Yes", didn't it?

"And whatever happens, please, don't shoot them." I said to my grey companion, unloaded my gun and shoved both the pistol and its magazine around the corner with a forceful swing of my wings, then I counted up to ten silently and stepped out of cover, my eyes closed.

Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me.

A shot rang through the corridor and I flung myself on the ground, yelling: "Please don't shoot me!" Then there was the noise of an revolver's hammer clicking on an empty chamber, but much to my relief no noise coming from the shotgun. I reopened my eyes cautiously and looked at the two ponies in front of me, both of them aiming their weapons at my face, but I knew stallion had no ammo left in his gun and the colt wouldn't fire. At least I hoped so. From the corner of my eyes I could see Angel cowering at the edge of our former cover, both his pistols raised, but he was lowering them since I hadn't been shot after all.

"Is that a monster, dad?" the small one asked and poked me with his gun barrel. "It's got wings."

"What does the Enclave want here?" the father growled, pulling back his son from me, and stared down at me. His weapon might be empty, but I would appreciate not to feel his hooves on me.

"I'm not here with the Enclave." I began but he burst out in laughter.

"No Enclave, right! Clean clothing, clean mane and hide, wings. You're no native." Clean? My mane was anything but clean after a day traveling through the wasteland. "And you're no Dashite either, you still got your cutie mark, so what else you're then? A time traveler?"

"I'm... I'm an enclave pegasus, that's right, but as I said I'm not here with the Enclave. I'm here on my own and... AH!"
Before I could finish my sentence a sudden pulling sensation on my right wing made me cry out and blush, then I turned my head to the right.
While explaining to the elder stallion why I would like not being stomped to paste by him I had lost track of the small unicorn colt. And there he was, stretching and pulling on my wing and its individual feathers with both magic and hooves.

"Is that a pegasus?" the colt asked his father as he plucked one of my small feathers. "Can I keep it?"

He could have asked me myself as well, but since it seemed to calm down the elder stallion I was okay with being the object of interest. The anger faded from his face, turning into concern. "Stay away from her, son. It might be a trap!"

"But it doesn't do anything. It's just lying still and quiet." The small one turned his head away from his father's and looked into my eyes. "My name's Trifle, and yours is..."

"Whirling Feather." I whispered. Don't destroy his picture of you.

"Are you an evil pegasus?"

I shook my head. As little as I liked being seen as a pet, at least could talk to the two this way. "I don't want to do you any harm, I swear. And my companion does not as well. Angel," I called out over my shoulder, "please come out, they don't want to shoot us." The grey buck did as he was told, coming around the corner, both of his pistols holstered, and kneeled down next to me.

"What do you want?" the stallion asked, relatively kindly and more quiet than before.

"We want to talk."

""")_x_("""

Well, that had worked out better then I had thought: After the elder stallion had come to the conclusion that neither of us was about to hurt him or his son, whereby the colt himself had been more than slightly involved in the process, we went down to the ground-floor again, Angel packed our saddle bags with everything we had classified as useful or valuable, and together we made ourselves comfortable within the upper floors of the office building. Separated rooms of course, both stallions of our groups didn't trust each other that much to share bedrooms.

The father introduced himself unwillingly as Steed and he made no secret of how he his son was the only reason he hadn't left us straight away.
I managed to arrange a meeting in the building's central lobby to empower the fragile mutual trust. Both the stallions had refused to come at first, but the begging looks of the colt and me convinced them in the end.

The meeting itself amounted to nothing more than Trifle and me sitting on the ground, he told me many stories about several locations in the wasteland I didn't know and couldn't imagine, and in return I had to tell him everything about my life in the Enclave, but only the interesting parts, so I cut the whole military-stuff. And of course he had to play with my wings again...

Angel and Steed just stood at the opposing ends of the room and obviously tried to nail each other down with distrustful stares. If the colt addressed a question to my silent companion he answered in such a cryptical way I had to invent something to keep the foal interested. And since Trifle was describing his own life on an epic scale it wasn't necessary for me to ask his father, but even if I would have to I wouldn't, Steed's death stare exceeded even the worst my father had to offer.

After it had ended I summarized the talk as: not ideal, for two of the members of the group had avoided talking to each other, but relatively good, since neither of the older males would kill somepony, even if it only was for their companions.

Angel and I were sitting on our bedrolls and watched a can of beans simmering on a small camp fire we had ignited with two hundred years old matches. Old bills, documents and clipboards didn't burn well, but it met our requirements and a hole in the ceiling above prevented the smoke from being dangerous to us.

"I'm sorry." said the grey buck. I heaved my head up from my hooves to look into his face, but he was still staring into the fire. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. You were right about those ponies, you could talk to them, it would've been a mistake to simply kill them."

"Forgiven and forgotten, Angel, no harm done. But why... did you act how you acted? I mean, you couldn't have known those two, you haven't even seen them before I initiated the dialogue."

Angel gave a bitter laugh and looked up from the fire. "As I said earlier: It's kill or be killed in the wasteland, especially when you're near raider territory. Nopony want to risk their lives or the lives of their friends or foals by not taking the advantage of ambushing a eventual opponent. That's why you shoot first and ask questions later when you hear strange noises inside an abandoned building."

"Have you ever... killed a pony, just because they crossed your way in the wasteland?" Right after I had closed my mouth I didn't want to know his answer anymore.

He thought about my question for at me, then he shook his head. "I don't know. Scavanging ruins isn't my full-time job anymore. I'm a caravan guard for ten years now and most of the time they pay enough for me to live a good life. When you're in on it for two or three years it's basically just endless traveling, you know the ambush points and give them a wide berth. But to answer your initial question: I've hurt ponies back in the day I was a scavanger, some of them died later on, but if they weren't raiders I often managed to scare them away." I stared at him startled and he added. "That's life down here."

He probably had a point and I could understand his position, but I couldn't agree. Killing ponies was never right.

"While we're at asking questions about each other why didn't we continue? There barely was time yesterday, was it."

Yesterday...

Hard to believe I had been down here for merely two days. It felt like days, even a week, which was perhaps down to the fact that there had been so many new things slamming into my face. But if her offered to tell me more about him, I won't ignore an opportunity, he had rescued me for no apparent reason after all. "You start."

"Okay. How old are you?"

"Twenty-six. And you?"

"Thirty-four, maybe?"

Maybe?

"You don't know?" I asked with both shock and disbelieve. How could he don't know?

"I don't think anypony down here can tell for sure, what with? Tear-off calendars? Tallies? And in case you haven't noticed, the clocks down here are broken as well."

Really? I looked up to the wall clock that was hanging over the door: it had stopped working indeed. "Why are they broken."

"Hello? Great War? Balefire bombs? Time itself?" Angel chuckled. "The balefire blast and it's aftereffect have damaged most of the arcane devices, clocks being no difference. And even if one of them survived the Last Day, very big if, they've run out of power a long time ago. The batteries powering them are considered very valuable, so nopony bothers with looking at the clock if they can power something more useful with the spark cells. And since every tear-of calendar in Equestria has turned to dust by now I'm guessing my age."

I nodded. That things I had taken for granted in the Enclave were rarities down here gave me a shock.

"And the next question."

"What has happened to your cutie mark? Is it a birth... something hereditary? An accident?"

The smile on his face died away all of the sudden and a pondering look replaced his prior happiness. "Can we defer this to another day? To a day that is not today, tomorrow or the day after? It's something very personal. You can ask me about my eating habits or about the remedy I use to let my horn be so shiny, about anything but my cutie mark. Okay? "

I didn't say anything for a while, but then the question escaped my mouth: "You've got a remedy for your horn?"

His sad look faded a little and he chuckled again. Mission accomplished! "You're great fun. No, I don't have some kind of washing agent, all I use is a little sip of water, Mother Nature takes care of everything else." He was still chuckling while he was taking our meal of the fire, filled a bowl he levitated out of our bags and handed it over to me while keeping the can to himself.

"Is there... family of yours?" I asked over my filled muzzle.

"No, there's not." Angel answered hesitantly. "Not anymore. My parents died many years ago, I was barely a colt. I struggled along on my own. They were good people, if I look at it from the distance. And you? Parents, grandparents, siblings?"

"No siblings, no. Though sometimes I wonder what it would have been like. I've got my father, my mother died in the Griffin Wars when I was a filly, I didn't know her properly. And Father..." I sighed. "...Father's a good father, I guess, considering him being an enclave High General. I didn't see him often, he's busy for most of the time, so I spent most of my time at the academy."

"High General sounds quite impressive." Angel said, picking up beans now and then and shoved them into his muzzle. "I'm sorry for your mother, she was a good mare, I'm sure. And what's your job in the Enclave? Not anypony can be a High General after all, am I right?"

I smiled. That was exact the kind of relaxing conversation I appreciated. Our talk proceeded for quite a while, by the time we finished and decided to go to sleep the fire had already died and only the unicorn's light allowed me to still see my companion. Right before I could wish a good night he trotted over to the door and examined the lock, then his horn lit up and the lock clicked a few seconds later. I was about to ask what he had done as he turned around and lay on his bedroll again. "Just a small reinsurance. I've locked the door and twisted a peace of metal inside, no lockpicker will pick that lock, not tonight."

I nodded in acceptance. He didn't trust the ponies we had just met, it was somehow understandable, but as long as he didn't harm the others I didn't mind. After I had turned around and shut my eyes there was a short silence, then the grey buck cleared his throat.

"There's one last thing I would like to know, if you don't mind." he said and I turned around again. After all the question he had answered it was only fair I would answer some more. "Earlier, when that colt, Trifle, "investigated" your wing, you were acting pretty weird. Is anything wrong? Are you... hurt?"

Oh, that...

"It's... complicated." I said and blushed once again. Not that as well!

"Complicated how?"

By Celestia, he didn't know anything about that and I had to explain the facts of peagsus' life to him. At least he was now foal. "It's a... pegasus affair..." I answered, blood was rushing through my cheeks. Damn it, Feather, why didn't you just said: "It's too personal."? Why? The grey unicorn looked at me questioningly. And I had to choose between two evils: I could give the buck an repulsive answer like: "That's none of your business!" or I could give detailed information about pegasus arousal to him. What should I just do? What!?

"Hello? Are you still there?" Angel suddenly asked worriedly. I awoke out of my rumination and looked at him in shock. "You are staring at those filing cabinets for some minutes now. Are you alright?"

Minutes?

"No, no, it's nothing, I'm okay."

"If it's something too personal we'll leave it undecided, besides I wouldn't understand a "pegasus affair" anyway, would I? And that it is too personal I can see even in the dark."

Oh great, I was that obvious. At least my wings didn't betray me this time, maybe they still had a guilty conscience. They had put me in this difficult situation after all. "It's just... normally we don't touch another pegasus' wings, only if we're in a close to somepony else. Our wings are very sensitive and..."

Angel raised his hoof abruptly. "Stop, that's enough. It's... all I wanted to know." he said and added scarcely audible. "And I thought he bit her." He wished me a good night and without another word he turned around and started to snore.

"By Luna I think I've embarrassed myself quite well today." I whispered to myself. Celestia shall banish those wings to the moon, along with that whole stupid pegasus anatomy! If I would awake the next morning with a wingboner and had shed all my feathers due to the molt I would've finally collected the Full House of pegasus specific awkwardness. I grumbled and curled up under my blanket, falling asleep after a short time. Quite a achievement, considering this was my first night in the wasteland, surrounded by unknown perils and enemies, only protected by nothing than a solid wooden office door with a reinforced lock.

Thank you, brain. Now I was scared.

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 5

Skill(s): Speech 25

New Perk added: Harmless

"It looks kinda cute... "
Your Speech skill increases by 10 if no weapon (firearm, energy or melee weapon) is equipped.

Chapter VI: A Wasteland Sweeping Blow

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As I awoke the next morning, mercifully without any kind of embarrassment, the light falling through the hole in the ceiling was still pale. On the other hoof that most likely didn't mean anything, the light was always pale down here, the daytimes only differed in the paleness of the light. Except when it was dark, then there wasn't any pale light. It was dark. But still, it seemed early in the morning, because Angel was still sleeping, this time I was the one who had gotten up early.
My companion breathed slowly and regularly and I decided to act just as commendable as he had yesterday, trotting over to our saddle bags and plodded through their content, searching for something I could offer the grey buck for breakfast.

If I remembered correctly he had found some kind of cake inside one of those wastebins, but he didn't seem to mind, so I was okay with that. I pulled the carton out of the bag and, using both my muzzle and my wings, maneuvered it back to our campsite but realized that I hadn't any kind of plate to serve them on. Laying the carton on my bedroll I returned to our luggage in search for something like a plate but I didn't make a find.

I looked around: our room had only one door, locked with a magic trick by my companion himself, and since neither of my extremities had develop any metal-twisting abilities over night, I wouldn't get out, that was for sure. So the only things available were the ones inside this room: there was also a large desk at the end of the room and way to many filing cabinets behind it, something we hadn't salvaged the day before, even the size of Angel's saddle bags was limited.

So I sneaked over to the desk and pulled out the drawers. If fortune favored me the pony who had worked at this place over two hundred years ago had left a bowl or a dish inside his or her desk.

Upper drawer – nil return, empty except for some blank sheets.

Center drawer – sheets again, this time they might have been lettered a long time ago, but no plate.

Bottom drawer – still more sheets – Oh! Five caps, better than nothing – but no bucking plate.
I facehoofed. What had I expected? I could have searched the cabinets, having the same chance of success.

I pulled out one of the closest cabinet's drawers in frustration. "Celestia, I swear, if you grant me the wish of finding even one of those damn clipboards I will sacrifice my firstborn fo..." Oh goddesses, why do you hate me so much?
Inside the drawer lay not one or two but a whole packet of party plates, along with another two cartons of the prefabricated cake. "I didn't mean it." I whispered and took the plates out of the drawer. The filing cabinet's drawer. What had happened here before the war?

Shaking my head I trotted towards Angel again, placing the cakes on the dish and sat on my bedroll, the plate in front of me, looking at the sleeping buck.
Well, I guess it's waiting now.

To dawdle away I proceed to hum my foalhood's lullabies, later the Enclave's national anthem...

Risen from the scorched remains
Our homeland used to be
And with pride in our chest
We're greeting our princess three.

"Hey."

And while the earth below our hooves
is covered in the ancient dust
We endure the daily fight
To regain our race's former trust.

...and later to that I tried some of the songs I had heard in the early years of my life at some military parade, but couldn't remember precisely.

"Hello."

It was a nice memory. I remembered standing on a rostrum, holding a little flag with the emblem of Lunar Rock embroidered in my mouth, just as so many other pegasi forming the crowd in front of us. I didn't know the exact occasion anymore, maybe somepony had won something, maybe a sports event.

"He!"

Once they're gone you realize the true value of some things.

"Hello!!!" a voice called out next to me. I flinched and refocused my eyes and thoughts on the buck in front of me, still wrapped up in his bedroll, but his eyes were opened and he looked at me. "You seemed abstracted, are you worried about something?" he asked worriedly, but I just wagged my head and shoved the breakfast over to him.

"It's nothing, but I made you breakfast." I said self-consciously. "I've found a plate too."

The grey buck eyed the presented food mistrustfully. But I hadn't told him anything about my cooking skills the night before, he didn't know what damage I was able to cause by even touching food.

"Are those Fancypant's Snack Cakes?" he asked hesitantly. I glanced at the carton on my bedroll. Yes, FSC was written all over it.

"I... think so. Is that a problem?" Please, don't be allergic to any of its ingredients.

"No, no, I like them..." he shoved one into his muzzle. "I like them very much."
He cleaned the dish, eating any and all of the offered sweets. He looked almost cheerful while chewing, maybe I should try on of those later.

After annihilating his food Angel got up too, trotting over to the door good-tempered, his horn lit again and I heard almost the same clicking noise as the one yesterday. A squeak, a rattle and then my companion pushed the door open. I laid on my mattress, looking at another pack of cake staggeringly about what to do, but then Angel returned, walked towards our saddle bags and started fiddling around with them.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm packing." he answered. "We have to leave real soon, if we want to make it to our next station in time."

"And the others? Trifle? Steed?" I asked and raised one of the biscuits to my muzzle.

"They won't come with us."

"They won't? Why?"

"They're gone."

The small cake fell back into its wrapping. "Gone? How are they... gone?"

"Well, they're not here anymore. I think they've left us early in the morning already."

"But maybe they're just downstairs or they've settled over into another building. How can you tell anyway? You haven't even left the room for more than a few minutes!"

"Believe me, they are gone."

"How do you know!?"

"Because I know the indications of attempted burglary if I see them!" he had to shout to drown out my voice.

"Attempted burglary?" What should that mean? Was he implying...

"Well, somepony tried to pick the lock last night." Angel nodded towards the door. "And I found this. It lay right before the door."
A small piece of paper, teared out from something, maybe one of the clipboards, floated over to me.

"And what's that?"

"Read it." Angel said, almost demandingly.

Dear Whirling Feather,

Dady says we have to go. I don't want to go, but he says that it is very important and that

we can't say god bye.

He got up tonight and left me alone for some time and then he came back.

Then he said that we have to pack our bags very quickly. I stil wanted to say god bye, but

your dor was locked, that's why I'm writing this leter.

I don't know where we're going, dady says that it's far away, but I would like to say that I like

you and all the bad things the ponies say about pegasuses aren't true.

I hope I will se you again.

Trifle

P.S.: I like your wings

I stared at the sheet I was holding. It was a foal's hoofwriting, no doubt. But why should they leave? It was obvious that Steed didn't trust us, but we didn't do anything to him or his son, we promised it.
"What does that mean?" I asked Angel who had sat down on his bedroll again. "Why should they go? We haven't done anything."

"I know you don't want to hear it, but he maid it pretty clear that Steed tried to mug us while we were asleep."

"But why..."

"We're two adult ponies. We could carry loads of valuable stuff with us. Maybe he saw us eating to much or we talked about our caps a bit too loud. It's no fortune but it will pay for some meals for sure. According to the scratch marks on the lock, Steed tried to pick the lock and when that failed he tried to force it open. But that didn't work out either. And when he realized that he left to much evidence for us not to notice his involvement he most likely took fright."
He sighed.
"You know, anypony down her, anypony but you, would kill him for even trying to rob us. And his son would die for good measure, just because he belongs to him."

There was only one question, echoing in my thoughts again and again: Why?

"Why? Why he had to do that?" I grumbled sadly, more to myself than to my companion. "The first two nice ponies we meet out here and then... something like that happens and destroys everything. We should stay together, protect each other..."

Angel laid one of his hooves on my shoulder in a comforting manner. "I can see that it makes you sad. And I know you won't feel better when I say that this is life down here. Family and friends always come first and to Steed we were neither friend nor family. I don't endorse what he was trying to do, but I understand that he was worried about his son. He couldn't take a chance, he couldn't know how we would react. "

He was right.
I didn't feel better.
I had trusted those ponies, I still trusted Trifle, who hadn't known anything about his father's plan, and the elder stallion had repaid that trust with... that. It was devastating, but not anypony in this wasteland could be like him. It was impossible.

"Come on." Angel said after a few minutes and put some other things into his saddle bags.. "Eat your cake. You'll need it, our way is a long one and the weather doesn't look like it will be nice today."

"I'm not hungry." I answered bluntly and stared at my former meal angrily and in frustration, shoving it over to my companion, who looked back gloomy and levitated the box over to me again.

"Come on, please." he said encouragingly. "If we go now, maybe we take the same way they chose. We may find them and can reconcile us with them and so on. Trifle's still a colt, we could eventually make, given that we don't have to pause every half an hour for you to eat. So do it now and we can go."

I looked up to the unicorn and my mood lightened, just a bit. Sure, the probability of walking the exact same way the two others had taken was really really small, but at least I thought it was existent. According to my knowledge of reverse psychology it was quite likely that the two ponies would also travel towards the raider territory.

"Okay, okay." I said smilingly. "I'll do it. But only if you pack our bags more quickly, so we can leave soon. I can't be the only pony here saving time, can I?"

"So be it, Mylady." Angel replied with a smirk on his face and sped up, literally pulling the rug out from under my feet.

""")_x_("""

He had said weather might be bad today, but seeing and – further more – feeling the liquid falling from the sky and describe it as "bad" was hardly accurate, the word simply wasn't strong enough. Obnoxious or dreadful would fit better. Finding the others, even just chasing them, was made impossible by the constant rain, but it had mostly been a emergency starting move for my motivation to move along. But the only thing this rainstorm had in common with the ones the responsible pegasi made in the Enclave from time to time was that it was made out of water, I least I thought so. This water felt different, not light and refreshingly wet, but unpleasant soaking, oily and... heavy. The rain I knew didn't feel like being punched by horseshoes all the time.

"What is that?" I called out to my companion, both of us were soaked to the bone in a matter of minutes. Fortunately for him his short cut mane didn't fall down into his eyes like my did.

"What?" he answered over the roaring sound of the rain. "What exactly?"

"The rain!"

He didn't seem to understand and I had to accept that a proper conversation was impossible in the rain. We would have to continue it somewhere inside. Somewhere...
We continued walking in the rain and soon I felt every last bone inside my body. How was it possible that it got so cold in such a small period of time? When we had left the office blocks it, the sun had been shining, relatively, and it had been quite warm. That was hardly an hour ago.

My gaze turned towards the cloud cover above. If I had enlisted at the weather-control section of Lunar Rock and not the military and if the mass of clouds would have been just some of them and if I wouldn't be vaporised while approaching, which I would most certainly be, then and just then I would be able to fly up there and buck those rain clouds to pieces and switch off the rain.
Yes, if... I could have made more out of my life...
But by the time I would be able to leave the surface again I wouldn't have to bother anymore.

"Is that a cave?" Angel shouted and ripped me out of my thoughts. Through the constant rain I saw how he raised a hoof and pointed it towards... somewhere, I couldn't see. But if he could, all the better.

Measuring up to the mound I came to the conclusion that "cave" wasn't the appropriate term to describe that sinkhole in the earth wall. "It's better than staying in the rain, isn't it?" was Angel's comment as we squeezed through the narrow entrance, it didn't seem necessary to say anything, of course it was better.

Inside the sinkhole expanded to a large cave again, the ceiling was high enough to stand upright and its end was lost in the darkness maybe twenty meters away from us. Our spot was illuminated by the grey unicorn's light orb and the dull light from outside.

"Well, at least it's dry in here." Angel said, deposited his saddle bags near the entrance and shook his mane and tail to get rid of the water. I did so as well and swept my still wet mane out of my face afterwards. "We'll stay here for a while, until the rain stops at least. You can bring out something to eat if you're hungry while I'll scout the rest of the cave, we don't want to encounter a dragon, do we?"

"No way!" I called out, putting down my bags as well.

"Exactly, I will..."

"There's no way you're going alone. I will come with you."

"No way!" Panic creeped into the unicorn's eyes and he shook his head repeatedly, his forelegs raised in defense. "It's too dangerous, you..."

"Please don't tell me what to do, Angel. I've got some recon skills too, I will be of use. And scouting the area will be done much faster if we unite our efforts, don't you think?" Whatever would come next, there would be nothing he could say to persuade me to stay here.

"You don't know what's back there..."

"And that's the reason I want to come with you. Neither of us knows what inhabits this sinkhole, that's why we're going to scout. I will come along, no back talk!"

Angel looked at me in desperation, then he sighed and nodded towards the dark end of the cave. Slowly we trotted over and into the darkness, his horn was still lighting our path as we descended deeper into the cave. His head was stuck to the ground, he was searching for hoofprints, while I was looking out for any threats that would engage us head-on. I would like him to do my job, from what I knew of me he would be much more competent to wield guns and shoot things that would pop out of the darkness, but the one thing I was even worse at than shooting wasteland monsters was read wasteland monster's tracks and that was the other task. So then it was shooting...

"What do you see?" I asked after maybe half an hour later, that cave was bigger than it hat seemed on the outside. The path of mud and earth had made way for material that felt just like the stone floors of the office building.

"It's difficult." he answered, stopping and then looking at the ground to his hooves more intense. "On the softer ground I was able to spot some tracks, but it was too sandy as well, so I couldn't dedicate them, could be anything. Well, I think we can eliminate some of the more dangerous threats, we would have noticed if this would be hellhound cave. You've seen any movements?"

I shook my head. The darkness outside the light cone had been absolutely motionless, just as darkness was supposed to be.

"I think we can go back. If there's something down in this cave I don't think it'll come out while we're resting, as long as we don't take the whole day and we have a watchful eye on the path in the front cave. If we're lucky the rain will stop soon and we can leave."

We turned around and walked back through the small natural corridor, but as we had reached the half-way again a clicking noise let Angel and me recoil, his guns darted out, I pulled mine too. The clicking continued and then it died away, unlike my companion's tension. He searched the entire area with the light his horn emitted and I followed him, but nothing was there except for more rocks. We kept moving back towards the start, but then my gaze felt onto a junction, no two junctions. A crossroad, so to speak, we hadn't seen at our first walkthrough, because they were slightly displaced into the walls around. And there was the clicking again.

"I think we've got to split up." I said and pointed my wings at the both the turnings in the darkness.

"Nowise! Not frigging way! Not under any circumstances!!" Angel shouted, but instantly he shut up, as the strange noise intensified. "No. I won't let you..."

"Angel, how often do I have to tell you again: I am of use, I think I'm sneaky enough to not to be seen in the dark. And despite that, how do you want to cover two ways that point in an entire different direction. You haven't bought me a gun and the ammunition just for the looks, have you?"

"But I won't be able to protect..."

"The gun is all the protection I gonna need. Oh, don't start. I won't let you do all the work, I've been trained for stuff like this for years now. I can handle myself, don't worry."

"Okay, okay!" he called out. "I see. I can't convince you otherwise." He sighed and levitated a magazine out of one of his coat's pockets. "Take this at least. It will power up your shots, incendiary rounds. But please, please promise me that you'll only scout, no shooting unless you're attacked, understood? You don't know what you're up to, what the weakness of the thing is you will face eventually. So, just scout, okay?"

"Yes, yes, yes. I'll be careful, don't worry." He was worrying way to much even for my liking. And I thought I was overcautious.

"And take this too." Angel added and pulled out another thing out of his jacket. Illuminated by the light of his horn it seemed to be a small red gemstone, a ruby if wasn't mistaken, edged into a small pendant with more straps to hold the gem in place somewhere on my chest or my foreleg. The pendant itself looked like two convoluted ponies, both with wings and horns. Both were stretching one wing out, while their horns met the other one's at its top. And that was were the ruby was edged into. "It's an angelic sunlight pendant. Of course that's just a name, it has nothing to do with sunlight, to the extent I know at least. It's an artifact from the time before the war, emits light when you touch it and illuminate your environment when needed until you touch it again. It's not as bright as my orb but it will fulfill its purpose. Please, don't ask me from where I've taken this, it was a long time ago and at a place very far away. Use it carefully, you're not the only pony that's able to see this light, its magic doesn't go so far."

I nodded and he strapped the pendant around my left foreleg, I touched it with my wing and it began to glow in weak golden light. I could see why it was named "sunlight pendant", for a pony like Angel, who had lived his whole life on the surface, it wasn't comprehensible but the light actually looked like the light of a warm and sunny day above the clouds.

"Okay then, time to split, isn't." I said each of us sneaked towards the tunnel he/she was about to investigate.

""")_x_("""

The pendant was quite helpful, I had to admit, I hadn't thought through my idea completely, if Angel hadn't given the light source to me, I would've been hamstrung. The clicking had returned every now and then, obviously I was heading into the right direction, but if that was good or bad I didn't want to think about. I held my gun in my muzzle and aimed at the dark before me, slowly moving through the tunnel.
And then again, nothing happened.
That seemed to be a habit of the surface.

Then there was the noise.

Not the clicking noise originating from whatever creature or thing was waiting further behind, but a low piping, accompanied by a tiny squeal. It felt... nice and... good and out of place in a cave like this, and even as it grew louder and louder, even reaching the sound level of a cracking thundercloud, it never felt unpleasant. And then, all of the sudden, there was a pony. But it didn't feel right use the word "pony" to describe what was standing in front of me: It was a unicorn, judging by the horn on its forehead, but it was different from all the other unicorns I had seen before, both in the Enclave and in the wasteland. This one was tall, it was head and shoulders above even Angel, even its horn was bigger, and it was of a pure white, that seemed as if it was shining through the... pony-shaped being, that stood in front of me in all its glory. I had thought that my hide was white, but the color I saw just now made said hide go green with envy. I was overwhelmed and then, as fast as it had appeared, the entity was gone, so was the ringing noise and all its light, no trace was left.

I still stood there, asking myself what the heck I had just seen, but then I shook my head. Confined spaces like this tunnel wasn't good for pegasi, my kind was meant to soar in the skies, not to crouch through muddy caves. It had been a illusion born from claustrophobia for sure, but still... it had felt nice, my feathers were still fluffed in relaxation. But then I heard the clicking again and something was moving in the darkness, but maybe it was just the noise that made my think I was seeing something. Anyways I broke my light and sneaked forwards cautiously.

I reached a large chamber at the end of the tunnel, my light wasn't needed, there was daylight shining through several small holes in the ceiling above. But as my gaze went downwards I wished it would've been dark on the outside: Inside the sink at the bottom of the cave there were several... creatures crawling all over the place. All of them were sickening green but their seize varied from pony-size to being the size of half a vertibuck. Way too many legs were sticking out their trunks, another two huge and scissor-like extremities at the front were quite intimidating as they sent out the now known clicking noise, just as their tails, that ended in a just as massive stingers.

I gulped. Angel had warned me that I didn't know what I was up to and he was right. Slowly I backed up to the entrance tunnel again, anxious not to make any noise myself. I doubted my gun would do any damage to monsters like these, even if I would use the special rounds my companion had given to me. One of them, a smaller one maybe, but not one the colossuses and much less the whole group.

Easy, Feather, you're sneaky. You're sneaky, you're sneaky, you... Knack!

Fuck!

Oh wait... that wasn't me!

I turned around and looked directly into the many black eyes of one of the massive green creatures that had obviously sneaked up from behind me.
I had been outsneaked by a wasteland monster easily four times as big as me!

The giant monster looked at me just as surprised as I did, at least that was what I thought it did since it didn't cut me to pieces instantly, its disgusting mandibles clicking just like its scissors. Maybe it confused me with a rock, that would be great, because I hadn't moved a muscle since the noise that had revealed the creature. Moving wouldn't make much sense as well, since the only way out I knew was the one now blocked my the monstrosity, the holes in the ceiling weren't much bigger than my head and if there was a way out somewhere at the other side of the cave I would most likely scare up the rest of the bulk. Yeah... I would scare them up...

But right now I had to deal with the one in front of me, that was still looking dazedly at the pony-shaped statue that was me and still blocking my way out.
My thoughts went to the pistol on my right foreleg, but I didn't believe I would find the gun and could shoot enough bullets into the beast's... body... to stop it from slicing and stinging me to death first.

Okay, Feather, don't move or breathe, maybe it will leave you alone...

For a brief moment I thought the green one would do just that, loosing its interest in me and crawl away to its companions, as it bend down – as far as this was possible for a creature like that, maybe lowering would be the better word – then it reached out with one of its big frontal limbs. But before it could touch me in any way I saw, what the lowering process had caused: for the monstrosity not standing as high as it had before, it didn't cover the whole tunnel I had come from anymore. A small pass was now accessible over its left shoulder-thing and if I hadn't been a pegasus in that moment I would've been goujoned in a few seconds.

But I was one and in a matter of winks I spread my wings and half jumped – half flew behind the massive creature, stunning it again. But not for too long. Just as I overflew it I felt a short pulling sensation on my tail that disequilibrated me enough to make me drop into the tunnel's ground face first. I jumped up immediately, looked around and much to my despair I saw the massive monstrosity turning around. I had hoped that it would be, somehow, too large for the small tunnel, but... obviously it wasn't.

I screamed as it reached out with its scissor again and started to gallop through the empty tunnel, back to the crossroad, hopefully. Keeping to the right I hoped that there was not other sideway I just happened to overlook, because I would take the first way I would encounter. Looking over my shoulder from time to time I saw the giant monster still chasing me. Celestia damn it, that thing was fast for its size.

And then, just as I thought I had become lost in the underground hollows, my wing felt a turning to my right, I galloped past and...
...and I slammed into something, something growling in agony. Something grey growling in agony and lighting the environment with its...

"Angel!" I yelled, lying on the ground due to the massive force of the impact.

He looked as if he had galloped as well, his mane was a mess and his two guns were floating at his side.

"What happened? Did you encounter..."

"I don't know what it is, but it's green, huge and it's chasing me!"

As if my command the weird clicking noise flared again and Angel jumped around the corner, shooting wildly at the creature. Then he came back, but the clicking was still there.

"Get up! Run. Run!"

Together we ran back, I followed my grey companion, trusting him to know the right path, and then he suddenly shouted: "Watch out!" But it was too late. I managed to slow my gallop but it still hurt brutally as I my forehead crashed into a piece of stone that was outstand from the ceiling. My vision blured, more than usually while running over the last while, and then it went dark for a moment.

"Are you okay?" a voice asked from far away and I shook my head. I wasn't okay, I just galloped face first into a stone! "You've to keep moving. Just a few meters and it's done." the voice of probably Angel called out through my veil of pain, and I felt him dragging me into his direction.

As my vision cleared again, I saw his face over mine, his guns floating over me and his hooves were holding mine as well. I fidgeted for a moment to signalize that I was conscious again, he let me go immediately and jumped over me. As the sound returned I heard gunfire and the clicking noise. The beast wasn't gone. As I turned my head I saw the huge green creature that was... stuck behind the low rock I had crushed into.

"Are you okay?" Angel asked again and this time I nodded. My forehead still hurt as hell but I could see clearly. I drew my weapon just as my companion had done it and together we marched towards the massive monstrosity.

"Go for the eyes." was the only thing Angel said as we started shooting.

""")_x_("""

"That was... intense..." I breathed heavily as I looked down at the giant smoking corpse that was now blocking the tunnel. The creature had reacted poorly to our special bullets, the incendiary rounds had finished it off, every inch of its shell was perforated by our shots and green sludge was pouring out of every hole. It had taken a few minutes of battle until the monstrosity finally fell. "But what... what was that?"

"That was a RADscorpion. Remember asking me what a RADscorpion looks like, well that's it. You're satisfied?"

Uah!

"You're right. There's no way you could've describe it in terms I would have understood, but I would've appreciate it not to encounter my first one while it was chasing me to death. Or while we're killing it." My companion handed me over a small set of healing bandages for my forehead. My injury was painful, but he assured me that it felt much worse than it actually was.

"Large ones like this are very rare around here. I guess I was pure bad luck for you to encounter one, my way was totally clean."

So, bad luck again?

"That's not the only one. I've seen..." I tried to remember how many of these scorpions I had seen, but it didn't come to my mind. It had been so many. "...a dozen at least. Smaller ones but also two or three or so of his size."

"I thought so." Angel sighed but nevertheless he holstered his guns. "But we're quite lucky under the circumstances. It blocks their way up to us now, so as long as we don't remain here for too long I doubt the others are going to reach or even find us."

Suddenly I stumbled and went down to the ground. Everything blurred again.

"Are you hurt?!" Angel's voice cracked in fear as he dived to my side and held my head up with his hooves. "Did that thing... did it hit you with its stinger? Because if so we have to..."

"I'm alright. I'm just a little fuzzy-headed. The stone and..."
Wait a second! That pulling sensation back when...
My head turned around, I looked at my hindquarters and what I saw made me shriek. My flanks and hindlegs were intact, they were dirty and dusty, but I could see neither cuts nor other wounds, but the thing between my hindlegs was shocking me:

My tail, once of the same golden blond color as my mane, was simply gone. Well, at least a large part, maybe half of it. What I was now staring at was a bloody stump of a former beautiful tail. Or it would've been bloody if it had been more than hair. But despite this: It was gone! Half my tail was gone! That Celestia and Luna damned scorpion had cut it off!

"So... you're not hurt then?" Angel's ignorance hurt. Couldn't he see... on the other hoof, that new tailcut didn't look that bad. Sunshine once had a close-cropped mane with a matching taildo, many years ago. Not that I envied her for her mane but... it had looked damn good. Short and military-like, fitting our upcoming duty at the academy.

"No, I'm not. Just my... nevermind, you wouldn't understand. But how did you do it?" I said, bluntly changing the subject away from my fashionable thinkings and back to our survival/battle-issues.

"How did I do what?"

"I've examine that scorpions corpse and every last one of its eye-thingies was perforated. And not by any incendiary bullets, those leave a small burn mark around the bullet hole, but by yours."

"Pure luck?" the grey buck shrugged. But after I gave him my "don't pull that luck-thing again!" stare he added. "Or it's the daily fight for survival. When you're stuck inside a big lethal trap labeled "Equestrian Wasteland", where you have to be ready to use your weapons every single second of every single day, a certain talent comes all on its own. Plus, a unicorn like me is always superior when it comes to weapon control, but don't be sad, you can fly in return."

I nodded in acknowledgement and trotted slowly towards the chamber with our exit inside, Angel accompanied me after he had disemboweled the dead scorpion, a task I wasn't eager to witness. To be an earth pony down here had to suck, considering the lack of wings or first-hoof magic. The old stories told that earth ponies were able to do their own kind of magic, but it would be more subtle, like growing things and stuff. Well, good luck with that. But if Angel, despite everything just a "ordinary" unicorn, could do such things with his pistols, what else were the surface dwellers capable of? The thought made me shiver and I was glad that unicorns and earth ponies weren't gifted with wings, that I would be in a save distance in a little while and everything would be fine again.

Well, I wouldn't see Sunshine again, would I?

Damn it, I was thinking of her again. And I had suppressed my thoughts so well for the last days...
By Luna, I didn't even know whether to wish her to go well or not! Between her being a dashing Dashite and me being lured into a trap, willingly or unwillingly, for chasing her, she was still one of my oldest friends... Screw that, she had made her decision and whatever I was thinking or feeling now, it wouldn't make her magically reappear. I had to accept that she was gone!

"Do you know how long the rain will last?" the grey buck next to me said much to my surprise. The question itself seemed rather pointless to me, but every possible talk was better than sitting here and thinking about facts I couldn't change anymore.

"Why are you asking me?" I replied and looked over to him, who was taking on his saddle bags again."You're the one born down here, you know more about the surface's weather habits than me. I'm enduring this for the first time, remember?"

"You're the pegasus. I thought, maybe you've something like a, you know, "sixth sense" concerning stuff like this."
He turned his head away and went silent again, not what I had planned. I trotted over to my own bags and reorganized their interior, thinking wildly about what to speak of next. Silence wasn't what I wanted to hear right now.

"Is it always like this? The rain, I mean?"

"Is it supposed to be different?" Angel answered. Quite understandable, he had never felt something else. The question was silly, but if I managed to revive our talk this way, it wasn't all bad. "Is the Enclave's rain any different?"

I had to contemplate for a second or two. The only aspects to compare of the rain here and the one above the cloud cover were that both kinds of rain were coming down from the sky in liquid drops and were made out of water, but I wasn't sure about the last thing. "Well yes, it's different. At home it feels... nice, nicer than this one, and refreshing. It doesn't last as long as well, but in return it doesn't hurt when you're hit by the raindrops, which are, by the way, also smaller. And it doesn't feel all oily, left alone the color."

For a while the grey buck seemed to think about what I had just said. I wasn't satisfied with my description at all, but explaining such a common matter to another pony was... difficult. He obviously came to the same conclusion and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't imagine it, but it has to be great. But if you don't like the rain, there're some good news for you: Downpour like this doesn't happen too often around here. But the further you go north the worse it gets, I've heard the area around Hoofington's under water all the time, but don't worry, that's far away."

As if it had heard that it was needed somewhere else, the rain stopped.

"At least it doesn't last too long and ends abruptly, don't know why." he said casually while my jaws were still dropped open at the ground. "Come on, we should leave before those scorpions catch up." He left the cave without even looking for rain anymore and so I burdened myself with my bags too and followed him.

If I hadn't learned that even we pegasi weren't able to control the weather in that scale I would have thought our weather factory had simply cut off the water. "I only know the basics of how the weather works, but even I know that this is impossible." I grumbled and stared at the skies, but I could resist to ask "How is that possible?". A question I had asked myself and others too often in the last couple of days for my liking.

"Are you coming as well?" Angel's voice sounded from the nearby trail, that the rain had made was barely visible. Now it was little more than a mud track, only sticking out of the remaining dirt by being less muddy. I shook my head and flew over to him. A long time since I'd been flying for the last time, all the jumpy scary takeoffs didn't count. The last time I really flew I had been chasing Sunshine... dammit!

I was thankful for the magical pulling at my now shortened tail as I brought my back down to earth.

"Ahhh, we're heading this way." My companion pointed a hoof to the... uh, I didn't know which cardinal direction it was exactly, but I wasn't the one I was flying towards. "If you continue your path that way you'll reach the zebra lands in maybe one or two weeks, if they still exist..."

"I'm terribly sorry." I answered, altered my flight course by 180°, landed next to the grey unicorn and together we started walking again. "It's just that I wasn't really airborne for some time now, I'm getting... kinda itchy, you know? Another pegasus affair, nothing serious."

"No need to be sorry, I fully understand. My horn was injured once too, it's been an age since then and it was barely a scratch, but I wasn't able to cast magic for a week or so and it... wasn't pleasant. To be unicorn without its magic is strange, it's a cruel thought, just as a pegasus with its wings broken." He shuddered. "Is this possible? Can a pegasus... break its wings?"

After he had finished his question I shuddered as well. Questions like this always made my legs prickle, and not in a pleasant way. "Yes." I answered hesitantly. It was nothing I liked talking about, no pegasus enjoyed doing this. "I'm no doctor, but basically a wing isn't any different from other limbs. Just like a leg they're composed of bones, muscles and cartilages. The difference is that a wing's much more resilient compared to a leg, which is pretty stable as well. So in order to break a pegasus' wings or disable them somehow else you'd need a good deal of physical force. But if some pegasus manages to loose its ability to fly or, but that's very uncommon, is born without this ability then that's usually the end for said pony. Without your wings you're basically trapped on the one cloud you're borne on, since we can't afford our vertibucks to fly from cloud to cloud every day, so, yeah, they're finished. Most of the affected pegasi choose suicide to..."

"Please, stop. You don't have to tell me more." The grey buck said with an appeasement gesture and gazed into the distance once again. "There're things I don't want to think about, unicorns without horns and pegasi without wings are among them. The wasteland causes enough mutilation and mutation every single day, so that I don't want to fill my spare time with such things. Those things, flying and magic and so on, are what makes us special, but the wasteland tends to take what makes you special away from you, so hang on to it, as tight as you can. For that reason, at our next stop there's a large underground gymnasium, I think you can let off your steam there without catching the attention of everypony around."

"How long?"

"Considering the time we've lost because of the rain? One, two, maybe three hours at the maximum. We should reach our destination in the late afternoon."

"A chance that we encounter other scavengers like Steed?" I didn't know what answer I wanted to hear. Some more friednly faces or just another bundle of betrayed trust?

"There's always a chance of meeting some other ponies inside pre-war ruins, scavengers or travelers just like us. But I don't think so. The area we're heading to is located near an offshot of the Bloodhoof raider territory. No merchant or traveler would walk this way and since it's just a couple of old school buildings, no scavenger would go there as well, it simply wouldn't be worthwhile. Office blocks, okay, sometimes there's something valuable inside those, factories are always highly coveted for their spare parts, something anypony needs. And police stations or even military bases you can forget a priori. If they were not destroyed in the war or are tainted or contaminated with radiation and if neither raiders nor bandits nor RAD skropions or other vermin decided to make themselves a home there, then they're mostly likely occupied by the Talon Company, the Steel Rangers or those Fillydelphia Slavers. But school buildings... there's nothing valuable to them, no weapons, no technology, no spare parts, nothing worth a single bottle cap. Thankfully most of the time those groups come to the same conclusion, resulting in us being the only ones around there, save and hidden. And there're also plenty of good spots to sleep, most of the pre-war bunkers underneath the buildings are still intact. And the best part..." the grey unicorn's chest was swollen in pride. "...I don't think there's anypony except for me who knows of this place."

An abandoned school then...

I couldn't understand why nopony was eager to save the knowledge inside those buildings, even if this knowledge was only basical stuff, it would be valuable, not just in a financial sense, but further more in a cultural one. But for the majority of the surface dwellers the problems down here seemed to be too pressing for them to be solved by simple basics out of books, that had most likely crumbled into dust years ago.

"So you were there before?" I asked my grey companion. Whatever I was thinking, he could draw on lifelong experience, if he said that it was save, then it was save.

"Yes, it's been a while since then and the last time it was just a short stop with one of my caravans I had recommended this route. We came out all in one piece, no raiders, just a few scorpions, but the small ones. And if none of the buildings has collapsed since my last visit, I even know a pretty campground."

"Collapsed?!"

"These are over two hundred years old buildings, sometimes something comes down."

"And how are we supposed to know that the ceiling won't come down tonight? I would appreciate not be crushed by pre-war rubble." Thinking of which... that would be a rather extraordinary end for a pegasus. Fallen from the skies, trapped at the surface and finally dying underground, buried by stone. Almost poetic. I would've something to tell, if I this story wouldn't need me to die in the process.

"Don't worry, I can calculate what's and what's not save to use. And if that one room isn't good enough anymore, then there're plenty more to use. So we won't get buried underneath the collapsing ceiling." His gaze turned towards the horizon. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. And now come on, once we reach the top of those hills over there you should be able to see the school buildings. It will still take a while from there, but we can see our destination room there, that's at least something, isn't it?"

""")_x_("""

The afternoon sun already began to set as we reached said hills and just as Angel had said I could see a couple of buildings in the far distance, hidden away inside a small valley. Easy to miss at least if you were just cluelessly walking around.

"Can you see it yet?" my companion called up to me, I was flying a few meters above the hilltops, my gaze fixated on the buildings. They looked pretty much intact, but I was still asking myself why anypony would build a school out here in the middle of nowhere. Maybe some kind of boarding school, I had heard of those, somewhere in the Enclave should be some too... Angel watched me landing next to him with questioning look and after I had told him that I hadn't seen anything to worry about we marched down the hills again.

"I still can't understand why they've build it out here. I mean, if you look at it from above, and I think that was quite common before the war, you have to ask yourself: why should anypony come to attend this school? And from where? There's nothing around here, no town, no village, not even some... pffh, how got ponies transported before the war again... railroads."

"Maybe it looked different then." the buck answered, but he didn't sound too convinced either. Obviously that was nothing the surface ponies thought or cared much about.

I shook my head. "No, I don't think so. I've seen the skeletons of a pre-war city before, and this looks nothing like it. There're no ruined buildings or devastated streets. It's just... nothing."

"The pre-war ponies had many secrets." my companion said in a voice as if he was about to tell a scary Nightmare Night story. "Maybe this has been a secret training ground for Equestrian Special Forces or a laboratory for chemical weapons or a ministry hub, disguised as a school."

Ah, the ministries... those six organisations, appointed by princess Luna to win the war in its last years, when everything started do go downhills. Of course that hadn't seemed that way back then, but... hindsight is always easier than foresight, isn't it. The ministries of Moral, Image, Wartime Technology, Arcane Science, Peace and Awesome. For the Enclave only the last two were of historical importance, since they were the two that were run by the most important of all pegasi: Fluttershy, the mare in charge of the Ministry of Peace, known for her kindness, even towards the enemy, and Rainbow Dash, an idol for both heroism and betrayal. A heroine in battle, loved by the Equestrian citizens and feared by our zebra opponents, the leader of the Ministry of Awesome, who abandoned her home by the times the balefire had already obliterated our capital and the lands below, thereby generating the crime of turning dashite, committing the same act the ministry mare had committed all that time ago...

"Whatever it once was, the Last Day put an end to their work or they covered up their traces really good before." Angel continued while we were drawing closer and closer to the school buildings. "Last time I visited it looked like an ordinary pre-war school, its top quality location didn't save it from the bombs though, but due to that there're few who know about it today."

I turned my head forwards again. I was thinking too much, the pre-war Equestria hadn't been a country full of conspiracy and secret facilities, this was most likely just a simple boarding school, built to keep rich pony's foals away from the war.

"Are there no maps which show places like this?" How could a location be "secret" after all, considering the pre-war ponies' mania for mapping everything they could see, resulting in very detailed surface maps in the Enclave's museums.

"What gives you that idea?" Angel asked back and his map floated out of his bags again. "I've got a map and there're several locations marked on it."

"Yes, but this map is hoofmade by yourself. I'm speaking of official pre-war maps, like the ones we have back home, maps on which everything is drawn on. How is it possible that the knowledge about places like this is lost when a pony just has to look on his or her map to see that there are several unknown places in the wasteland."

"You know, there are some things down here that are more valuable than a whole mountain of caps and a pre-war map is one of those, since most of them were incinerated in the fires of the war and the ones that are still existent, be it by luck or because they were saved inside arcano-tech devices, then the Steel Rangers most likely got their hooves on them. Ordinary ponies' maps, like mine for example, are based on experience. While we travel through the wasteland we see some interesting places and when they're interesting enough we mark them on our maps. The result is no exact map of course, unless said pony happens to be a pegasus, and since the adventurers hardly ever exchange their views there are those "secret" locations."

So, no accurate maps...
Somepony would have to gather all those bits and pieces and create a true wasteland map. It would be a great improvement for sure.But this would be another pony's task, I wouldn't have to worry about surface dweller's pathfinding problems once I was back home.

"Soon we will arrive at the school, I'll show you our campsite and then the gym. Sounds good, doesn't it?"

I nodded.
Indeed, I had been looking forward to this since the first time the grey unicorn had brought it up.

""")_x_("""

The school buildings themselves were beautiful to look at, apart from the cracks in their facades, but that was nothing anypony could do something about right now, time and war hadn't gone by without leaving their signs all over the place. Three large buildings, neither of them the gym according to Angel, since that one was build underground for some reason, were arranged around a wide, but dead by now, meadow. The buildings were either two or three stories tall and there was no sign of any physical connection between the houses. The remains of a old playground were scattered all over the places, along with remnants of more grownup ponies fields for playing, but blessedly no remains of equine origin.

The only inhabitants of this place were several "small" RADscorpions, half a dozen or maybe a few more, but they fell prey to our guns really quickly, obviously their shells weren't as thick as the giant one's had been. While we were disposing of the vermin I noticed the uneasy look on the face of my unicorn companion, just as he was expecting another assault. But nothing happened.

"It looks nice here." I said to end the awkward silence, but the answer I got was a nod and a continuation of the glacial staring. "Like the pictures in the storybooks, if you ignore the debris and the dead grass." He still didn't react, something was bothering him, that was obvious, but I also doubted it were animals or creatures, he didn't seem to worry much about them since I knew... well "knew" was the wrong word... since I was traveling with him. "Is something not right?" I finally asked. But what should happen at the worst? "Is there anything wrong with this place?"

His gaze wandered about the scenery several times again, before answering. "Yes... no... I don't think so. Something's hampering me, but I don't know..."
Suddenly he spun around and I heard another bang as the entrails of another RADscorpion were spilled all about the walls of one of the school buildings a few meters away.

"I... I think that was it." Angel said hesitantly, but he was still observing the area around us. So, more monsters then? "Let's go inside."
But he didn't act like it was it.

""")_x_("""

Flying! I was flying again! For real!

After we had entered the middle building and proceeded quickly to the underground cellars, past a large number of doors, which, according to my companion, led to even more bomb shelters, Angel had shown me a room hidden behind a pile of boxes and after he opened the heavy door I found myself in a large and spacious room, with cots mounted to the walls and multiple shelves with tinned food inside. In my imagination bomb shelters were tiny little cabins, in which a pegasus could barely stretch its wings, and the ponies would be packed together as if they were clouds, but this was nothings like that. According to the cots on the walls, this room was meant to house ten ponies, fifteen at its maximum capacity when the second layer of cots above the first level ones were occupied. And given the wide underground tunnels the individual shelters were diverting from, nopony would be in danger of an immediate claustrophobic panic attack. Even the lights were still working, much to my surprise, at least the lights of the room we left our saddle bags behind in, the underground corridors had to be illuminated by Angel's horn as he was leading my towards the promised sports hall.

It was amazing how the single buildings were connected to each other. But it was even more amazing to see the – even in comparison to the rest of the building and its subsurface rooms in special – massive gym. It was approximately twenty meters broad and easily five times as long. And completely underground!
Whoever had built all this all those years ago, they had spared no expense to preserve it for all eternity. The lighting was functional again and after a couple of minutes we even found a tolerably functioning shower block. Angel wished me fun and left a small bag with an orange liquid inside next to the shower, it was meant to be consumed after the showering for a reason he obviously didn't care to explain, and then he bolted away, probably to take a closer look around.

To fly again was exactly as liberating as I had expected it to be. Hard to believe it were only – how much? - five days since my last flight. Two of which I had been unconscious.

While I was working through my rounds, my thoughts were revolving around my strange unicorn companion, who had never justified his actions towards me. Of course I was most thankful to the goddesses for my rescue, but there were so many suspicious things about the grey buck, starting with his super-friendly behavior towards me – well, most of the time – opposite to his willingness to attack everypony else in sight, to his strange cutie mark and him being the most precise shot I had ever encountered, beating even all the famous military marksponies who had visited the Lunar Rock academy now and then. While he had answered the latter in a very evasive way it came to my mind that hadn't asked him yet about the first one. And whatever his reasons might be, I doubted that they were "too personal" to tell. Maybe I should ask him this evening during dinner, yeah, that sounded like a good plan, he would've no way to get away, figuratively spoken.

With this intention enrooted in my head I set off towards the shower block. Just as the rain prior this day, the water felt strange and oily and it didn't smell good, but for two centuries old and thereby stale water that wasn't too surprising. And it was better than nothing.

By the time I had finished my shower, was wearing my clothing again and stroked my still wet mane out of my face – it had been a deuce of a task to dry myself off, but due to "misuse" of my black undershirt I manged to – I took a look on the gym's big clocks, only then getting aware of my fallacy: the clocks had stopped working a long time ago and I had lost my sense of time during my flight session and I was struck by a mild panic. We may had not agreed on a fixed time I would return, but if he was hungry now and only waiting for me...

I hit my sunlight pendant and rushed back through the otherwise dark corridors, hoping I would take the right turn, the one that was leading back to our camp site.

After bursting into the wrong room three times I finally recognized the pile of boxes next to the door of our bomb shelter. There was no smell of food or fire in the air, meaning either that Angel hadn't started the fire yet or that the vault door wasn't transparent for smells, which would make sense, since it was the door of a bomb shelter.

As I crouched to the door I found it unlocked – which I had expected – but also ajar. That was no good sign. I could hear no voice or other noises that indicated the presence of a pony behind the door, no good sign either. And I was unarmed. Great!

What if the scorpions or any other creatures had found their way inside and down here and were going for our supplies right now? Or thieves? Or those raider ponies?
Glancing through the gap between the reinforced door frame and its interior I found my worries unjustified: although it was empty there were no traces of any recent fighting, our saddle bags lay at the exact same position we had left them behind. There was no Angel, but no hacked to death corpse either, that was good... somehow. I dashed over to our baggage, slung the holster of my gun around my foreleg again and sneaked up to the surface again.

The night was as black as the underground tunnels of the RADscorpion cave had been and to cap it all the light emitted by my pendant was fading. Was it in need to recharge? Could a magically enchanted gemstone be recharged or recharge itself at all? I couldn't see a trace of my companion up here too, no light was shining out of any window I could see – or not see on that score. Three possible options concerning his disappearance were crossing my mind: either he was investigating the buildings on his own without saying anything to me, maybe he was searching for something, in this case I would spot him by the light of his horn. Or he had been attacked by the scorpions again, but they hadn't seemed a problem before.

Or he had abandoned me, but... that wasn't a possibility, was it? His whole stuff was still located at our camp site and he had helped me so many times before, it wouldn't be worth it. So, then it was search for him or wait for him...

By the time I entered the first of the school buildings I regretted my decision not to curl up in front of the campfire and wait for the unicorn. It may seem impossible, but in here it was even darker than at the outside. I had tapped out my light, hoping it would regain its strength soon and was now guided by my sense of touch alone, without my torch I had to grope my way alongside the walls, hoping to notice Angel by some kind of noise or light or anything like that. But the building was dead silent, so maybe he... no, forget it, Feather, he's still here!

Tripping through the darkness I cursed this construct's creators. Why couldn't they make their corridor lighting as durable as the gym one's? Just because this stupid little megaspell blast, that destroyed the world? They should really get clear of that weakness. And the litter ploughing service hadn't run through this building quite a while now, the could have at least set up a trip hazard warning sign for those damn soda bottles and tin cans I was nearly falling over every two steps. Okay, maybe there was a danger sign – but the lights didn't work to let me see it!

I worked my way through an entire floor of the house and had climbed the stairs to the second as I noticed a glowing light at the end of the corridor to my right. No unicorn's glowing horn, that was for sure, it was flickering to much, and its color wasn't as colt as the magic light Angel emitted. I took a wild guess: fire. So there had to be somepony, a fire doesn't lit itself, not even on the surface. Sneaking up to the door, eavesdropping for any kind of noise that would indicate a living being inside the room, I found its door just as open as the one sealing our camp site. Not willingly to take any risk I cautiously knocked at the door and waited a few seconds for something to move. Then I knocked a second time, waited a few seconds again and finally entered the room, already thinking of an excuse to interrupt whatever I would be interrupting.

A really good one involving weird coincidences and a legendary bloatsprite was just coming to my mind when I discovered that there was no pony inside I could present it to. I would've been sad if it hadn't been for the upcoming concern about what had happened to whoever had been resting here and, even more pressing, what had happened to Angel then. It was clear by now that he wasn't the only one who knew about this place, so who else had been coming for it?

I decided to take a look around, maybe the pony who had set up his or her camp at the end of this room, next to the blackboard, was just hiding from the oh so awesome and dire pegasus that had entered the room seconds ago. My first glace fell on the light source that I had mistaken for fire. Well, not entirely mistaken, but would you describe a stained lamp as a fire, even if it was powered by it? Anyway, since the fire was still burning I doubted its owner could have been gone for long and considering the mess that were the former residents saddle bags I also doubted he or she went away voluntarily. They were rifled through, ransacked and partially torn apart, the pony or maybe creature which had searched them obviously hadn't cared about any further use, the interiors, boxes, bags and what I assumed were empty magazines were scattered all over the illuminated area of the room. Even as few as I knew about hoof-to-hoof combat I could see that there had been a fight in this place not long ago, an hour or two at least.

Okay, there was a desk at well... make that several desks, some turned over to build something like visual or actual battle cover, though I doubted its efficiency, it was wood after all and what good were plastics and wood against bullets or magical plasma charges?

"Somepony at home?" and other things I called out as I was looking under the desks and in the dark corners for a living being to answer, but nope! - nopony home. While I was walking around my look fell on a grey box lying in the darkness of the visual cover, obviously fallen from one of the desks either in battle or simply because it had been standing on one of the pushed over desks, and there was a soft green gloom coming out of one of its sides. Drawing closer to the fallen object I suddenly remembered where I had seen such a thing the last time – okay, before I woke up at Duct Tape's: that was a terminal, a pre-war arcano-tech device, sometimes referred to as a "computer", used to interact with the just as technical systems connected with it. We had such in the Enclave too, the surface wasn't so so alien, was it? Waiting in line, technical devices such like this one, no carnivorous pony-mutants...

Righting the terminal and laying down in front of it, I hoped it wouldn't be encrypted or locked somehow, like the Enclave's ones often were to prevent unauthorised pegasi from messing with the system, or would cause any harm when used incorrectly. I wasn't exactly what one would call a computer whiz, other pegasi were trained to deal with administrative, life-sustaining or even military terminals, all of which this one hopefully wasn't. While I wouldn't have made Lunar Rock explode in rainbows and storm clouds by simply touching one of this arcane things I also doubted I would have accomplished anything by doing so. Touching – not exploding of course! But since this terminal didn't seem to be weird to a weather bomb, I dared to give it both a look and a hooftap, neither resulting in me getting blown up. The dull green monitor came to life, its screen was now of a less dull green color, and I could see several entries listed under a whole screen of introduction to this product ("This terminal is brought to you by: EQTech Inc. – Equestrian technology for Equestrian ponies"), copyright issues ("Any attempt of copying or stealing this product or related hard- or software will result in bonded labor, zebra scum!") and an acknowledgement ("Thank you for using equestrian technology, citizen"). All of the entries were provided with a date and by what I knew about time, they were very old, possibliy from before the war, except for the last few and a corrupted file, which wasn't dated. They were knew, recently written, I guessed, maybe by the former resident pony.

Pushing one of the bigger keys, that I had learned was the confirm-key, - even I wasn't entirely unaware of certain functions – after using some cursor keys to select the first new entry, the screen flashed and a new one appeared, thankfully with text on it:

22...97#6
I'm one lucky unicorn.
I was just traveling, minding my own business and then, out of nowhere -bamm! - there's this valley. Yeah, cool enough that it isn't overrun by those damn RADroaches or the even more damned scorpions, no, at its end there were some buildings, a few critters around, but Nightmare Moon may care. The buildings are mostly intact and untouched and from what I've seen so far, there's pretty much to loot. I hope there's still some food left, my supplies dwindle.

22...97#7
This place is amazing.
Looks like a school, isn't a school, at least not a normal one like all the others I've encountered so far. Under the surface there's a huge system of bunkers, not roach- or scorpion-infested I want to add, and its just unbelievable: there's light, constant water – mildly radioactive, but nothing RADaway can't fix - breathable air and more tinned food than I can carry along.

22...98#1
Found an armory today.
An armory... inside a school with a bunker beneath. Hell yeah! Most of the good stuff's gone, but there are some batons and smaller firearms left, along with fitting magazines and - to top it all – there're even a few magical energy weapons. Energy weapons, by Celestia's hindlegs! Despite the fact that I don't know how to use such a thing, what I know for sure is that they'll make me goddesses-damn rich once I'm back in Appleloosa.
I'll be rich! I'll be rich! I'll be

The writing ended abruptly.
And I got into a conflict of what to be surprised at first.
The fact that there were at least two other ponies in this building apart from Angel and me, that there was an armory inside a school – looted, but an armory nonetheless – or that my caring unicorn companion had allowed me to shower in radioactive water! Okay, mildly radioactive, I hadn't liquified during the last hours, so yeah...
Or that a pony had written something like this in the first place. It made no sense to me, who was he or she writing to? But maybe writing was a way for those ponies to relief themselves. Absentmindedly I selected the corrupted entry, not really caring about what a pony would write who had a fully stacked armory located in their school's basement, whether it was readable or not.

File corrupted – Error 09
[L33T]...24(H4X0R)4
I doubt anypony will be smart or stupid enough to read this, but in case I forget, there's a secret safe behind the book shelf next to the door. I bunkered the good stuff I couldn't carry with me there, and since I've no idea of the code to reopen the save I just left the door ajar. I really should figure out how to pick a lock, it can't be that hard... though I haven't seen anypony doing it yet...

Okay, now I knew what to wonder about first:
About a pony who gave away its secret hoard in a non-encrypted file. If I would have been a thief or something this would be... awesome for me. But whoever had taken the author of this notes, they had been too stupid to read this special entry, since said shelf next to the door was still on its spot while everything else was looted.
For a second I thought about taking whatever was left, but... in case I would be able to rescue this pony, what would I say?

"Hello mister Stranger, I just happened to come by to free you from your misery. Oh, don't mind, I've taken the reward already, we're even."
But on the other hoof, what if there was a magical energy weapon inside the save? Triggering the firing mechanism of a projectile weapon within my muzzle and the resulting recoil wasn't exactly pleasant, a plasma pistol wouldn't recoil... Shaking my head I decided to leave this room alone for now, once I was reunited with Angel, he could decide what to do, he was the wasteland grunt after all.

I entered the dark corridor once again, touching my sunlight pendant with my wing. Much to my delight it had recharged and was emitting its golden light again. The floor was still littered with garbage of all kind, but with some light it was much easier to avoid tripping over it. No other room was illuminated like the one with the lamp and the terminal and I didn't hear anything so after another eternity of searching I decided to abandon plan A – like "active search" – and proceed to plan B – like "bonfire", meaning I would return to our camp site and wait for Angel, just as he would appreciate it.

But just as I had climbed down the stairs again and was on my way towards the exit I heard laughter. Definitive male laughter, although I hadn't heard it that loud until now.
Maybe it truly was Angel, who had... found a funny cartoon? Anyway, not taking any risk I crouched and tracked the source of the noise the old fashioned way – with my ears. It was coming from my right – no – from down under? Turning my head I saw another case of stairs leading downwards into the bunkers. I was in luck, the laughter repeated itself every few seconds so I could trace it through the underground corridors and ended up in front of a door, but not a heavy one, just a normal wooden door, with an untransparent window up its top half and a keyhole at its middle.

I wasn't sure I wanted to... no, mind you the reason for the laughing was still unknown to me, I definitely was sure I didn't want to interrupt anything... private going on inside this room. No, brain, not today! After successfully fighting down the upcoming pictures in my mind, I decided to knock at the door first to avoid any kind of delicate situation, but merely seconds before my hoof struck the wood a voice from within the room made pause.The pony was laughing too, but this wasn't Angels kind of laughter as well.

Okay, Feather, don't knock, not yet.

I bowed down in front of the door and took a look through its keyhole, because that's what keyholes were made for.

On the other side I spotted a buck, definitely not Angel, lying on a mattress and looking at something I could not see, but I could say for sure it was what made them laugh. His brown body was wrapped in heavy leather armor, which covered his chest and a large part of his back up to his flank, and his red mane was cut short. But the thing that really made me shiver was the picture on the buck's flank. I had thought with the slavers' I had seen the strangest and most extreme examples of surface cutie marks, but now I was proofed wrong. Compared to the bloody piece of razor wire their cages and batons seemed almost harmless. Though I had imagined them a little bit more... evil, I was sure the pony I saw in front of me was one of the infamous raiders.

While I stood there, stunned by the buck's appearance, it totally slipped my mind that there was another male pony inside this room I hadn't yet seen. And just as I remembered that fact, my look got blocked by a green chest, the door opened from the inside and I found myself face to face with the of the monstrosities Angel had warned me about.

"Oh, look at that..." the raider began, after we had stared at each other for a few moments, he seemed to be just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. "Folks, we've got a visitor!"

I backed away and against the wall behind me as I saw how the brown pony rose from the mattress and drew himself up to his full height. He had seemed smaller lying there.
Much smaller.

In a presence of mind I hadn't trusted myself to be capable of I drew my weapon off my foreleg and pointed it towards the two bucks.

"Nopony moves! You. Back into the room!" I shouted as impressive as possible to compensate shivering legs. By Celestia's mane, one could smell my fear throughout the whole bunker complex.

"Relax, sweety." the slimy green buck in front of me said with a just as slimy sounding voice. "We don't want..."

"Back into the room!" I shouted again, but I guess it sounded like a squeal. But despite like what it sounded, the gun pointed at his face made the the raider take a few steps backwards, until he stood next to his boofy companion, who had done nothing but staring at me. Unlike me he wasn't sure if I would fire my weapon.

"Listen, baby, why don't you lower your gun, there will be no..."

A twitch of my gun's barrel silenced him.

"You would like that, wouldn't you?"

By the time I had followed him into the room and the light fell on my whole body the green buck blew a whistle.

"Oh, see what we've got us. It's a pegasus. That's something new indeed. And since you're one civilized pony, I think you should put away your weapon, so we can talk like the grown ups we are. We are civilized grown ups, aren't we, Brute?"

The massive brown one seemed not to understand his partners opening, he just stared at my wings.

"Eh, boss, if she's one of those enclave-freaks she might not be alone. They say that there's always a whole flock of them."

"You're right, Brute. Maybe we should ask here about that, shouldn't we?" The brawny buck nodded stupidly and his green boss, obviously the brains of this team, addressed me again. "So, pegasus: you're alone or is there backup of your's out there?"

Maybe there was a chance of getting out of here unharmed. If they were afraid of enclave soldiers.

"Yes, yes,of course!" I answered instantly. "There's an whole vertibuck filled with battle-tried pegasi at the court and they're waiting for my orders to charge in here."
What's the idiom? A lie never lives to be old. Or is it a liar...? Don't act like you're in panic just because you're in panic, Feather! You're a professional!

"So I dare you, don't do anything stupid, or... or I'll turn your brain into paste."

For a while the boss just looked at me appraisingly, then he slapped on his slimy smile again.

"If that's the matter, I very much apologize for our rudeness and of course the two of us will let you go in peace, if that's what you want."

He nodded to the door behind me and I slowly started walking backwards and towards it. Even if my lie had persuaded them not to attack me, I didn't want to turn my back on them. However this had worked didn't matter now, what I had to do now was finding Angel and get the hell out of here. Eventually even this dumb brute would figure out that I had been lying and then there would be nothing to hold them back.

As I passed thee door frame my hindquarters hit something soft that hadn't been there before and after I turned around I faced three more earth ponies, all of them wearing the same kind of reinforced leather armor. In fear I jumped a few feet backwards into the room again and spun around again as the green buck yelled: "Get her, Brute!" With a speed I considered possible for him, the massive Brute reached out for something under his mattress and then – bamm!

Pain flashed through my body as a bullet smashed right through my right foreleg. I lost my balance, plunged to the ground, holding my left hoof protectingly over my wound, and cried in pain. Throughout the veil of pain, tears and fear that was clouding both my hearing and my vision I heard the green leader yelling at his muscular companion: "Are you nuts, Brute! We want them alive! Especially if they're as high-prized as this one. "

"But... but, boss... you said "Get her!" so I got her like the unicorn before, you said "Get him!" too then and you weren't angry after I whacked him."

A unicorn... whacked him... no...

I could barely see the boss tearing his mane.

"For fuck's sake, somepony turn her off! I can't think with that noisy brat screaming her lunge out!" he shouted at one of his other henchponies. Following his order one dirty white buck stepped closer to me, a heavy branch hold in his muzzle.

"If you kill her, you're the one to answer if our employer gets pissed! Understood?!"

Then the world around me went dark.

""")_x_("""

The first thing I did by the time my unconsciousness ended was to scream. I didn't try to move, nor did I take a look at my environment, I just screamed. Screamed both in agony and horror, because of what had happened to me and what would follow. My head ached terribly and the pain in my foreleg beat against a bloodstained rags somepony had mercifully wrapped around it. Yeah, mercifully... I didn't exactly know what fate my captors had planned for me, only that they wanted me to stay alive, and I wasn't sure about that being a good thing or not...

Every second I lay there and my heart pumped blood through my veins hurt. Being actually shot hurt so much, more than I had ever expected. Of course I had felt pain before, even some major injuries like pitching a wing under one of Lunar Rock's metal doors, the blow Sunshine had given me or the slamming face first into a stone earlier this day, and of course I read about it in some of my books, when a protagonist got injured himself, but it was all nothing compared to what I was enduring now.

Finally, after I had stopped the screaming due to my dry throat, I felt able to move my body again, but I found both my fore- and hindlegs tied together, preventing me from moving more than a few inches, even my wings were bound to my body by a rope. My gaze wandered from my own body to the room I was lying in. It was one of the underground bunkers, at least it looked just as the one Angel and I had set up our camp and the ones I had burst in on my way back, but apart from the improvised brass door I had no good look at from my current position and a small table-like construct there was no furniture, no cots, no shelves with food. Just one of those indestructible lights, that...no, that was none of the lights illuminating the gym, judging by the flickering the light source directly above was an ordinary light bulb. Not slightly as durable, efficient and complicated as the arcano-tech fluorescent lambs most of the Enclave's cities were lighted with, but they compensated that "defect" with the sheer number of which they had been recovered by the Enclave's troops before sealing the cloud cover. In its flickering light I could see parts of my equipment lying on the table, to make sure I looked at myself again. Yup, everything was gone. From my overall uniform to my holster, gun and even the pendant Angel had given to me. But apart from their absence and the beating wound at my foreleg I couldn't spot any other injuries and felt relatively unharmed too. Good, aside from the fact that I was captured, tied down and held in a underground room somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Raiders then...
The grey unicorn had warned me about them, told me to shoot them on sight. I had hesitated and now I would pay the price. "If raiders on the other hoof catch somepony and don't kill him or her instantly, than that's no mercy." he had said. "They're only taking prisoners to continue the torture and the killing." I was deep,deep down in the soup, if he was right. And Angel himself... he was most likely already dead if the boofy raider, Brute, had told the truth. And I couldn't think of a way or a reason he would've been actively lying to me.

"My, my, see who's awake again." a cold and familiar voice said as the door opened and the slime green earth pony buck entered. Then his attendance followed, but this time it wasn't just one ore two other bucks, no, this time it were easily ten of them, I couldn't count all of them. And the brute who had shot wasn't even with them, maybe he stood guard before the door to my cell. The leader planted himself maybe a meter away and bowed down to me, while his companions lined up around us at the bunkers walls. "Now, that you've gotten rid of your annoying little toy, we can talk like two sentient ponies, what do you think?"

"You killed Angel!" was the only thing that came out of my mouth as I threw myself against my fetters, trying to do... something. The fury or the despair or whatever it was that was fueling my body right now drowned the pain.

"That unicorn? Yes, Brute took him down a few hours ago. Not a pretty sight, believe me, but unfortunately we don't need ponies like him."

"Need? For what?"

"For our employer of course, the one who pays us. And he's not interested in unicorn buck's, so, that's bad for him, not for us."

"Interested in... in ponies?" I asked whisperingly. "Why would somepony be interested in... other ponies?"

He green one gave a laugh. "Why? Pffh, that doesn't matter. What does matter is, that our employer's rich as shit and that he'll be paying us whole lot of caps if we bring him somepony like you, that's enough reason for me. You know, earth ponies dwell the wasteland in profusion, way too much to sell them to a collector, unicorns are rarer, but there're still so much of them so nopony needs professionals like us. But a pegasus..." His eyes sparkled with greed. "...you can't imagine the amount of caps you and your wings will earn us. Maybe even more than a zebra."

"A collector? Who..." Why was I even talking to those... those raiders?

"A guy near Trottingham, maybe his brain's a little bit liquid, but as I said, he's damn rich and he's collecting rare specimen, like you. I don't believe he's eating ponies, he's paying to much, so this way everybody wins. You live, we're rich, you know... it's nothing personal, just business."

Before he could continue his horrible pleadings the door opened and Brute entered the room, a dark brown sack held in his enormous muzzle.

"Boss, what should I do with his body? The unicorn's?"

The green buck rose and turned towards his henchpony, I could nearly see how he was about to tear his mane again.

"I told you, Brute, we don't need his body, what we need is his head. Those tribals pay for unicorn horns, but only if they're fresh, so you..."

"I've already did it," he handed the sack over to his green superior and sat back on his haunches. "It's in there. I want to ask what should I do with the rest of him?"

My eyes widened in horror as he extracted Angel's head from the sack, laid it on the table, next to my uni-...clothing and started to examine it.

"Well done, Brute, that's a good job you've done there."

I tried to look away, but the image had already burned itself into my mind.
I nearly vomited. That... that wasn't possible... this couldn't be happening...

Looking up again I saw how the green on patted the brute's head, he was squeaking with pleasure.

"Well then, guys, we don't have all night to talk about funny business, we're out of schedule for some time now, the discovery of this complex was unexpected but it's definitely worth to remember. But nonetheless we have to go real soon, our account executive's not waiting for us. Ready our guest for transport, then come to the camp, we've got some packing to do. We leave in twenty minutes."

Unwilling grumbling.

"Oh, get a hold of yourselves, think about all the caps it's gonna earn us, it'll easily be worth this double shift."

Then, in the moment when I was abandoning all hope to get out of here somehow, I heard something I would have never thought to be so happy to hear: gun shots.

They were followed by a cry of pain, right in front of the room. I looked at the door as confused as everypony else, but soon they drew their own firearms, revolvers, automated pistols, even some submachine guns if I wasn't mistaken, and aimed them at the door, thereby crushing my hopes for a mysterious rescue. Whoever had been come to save me, willingly or by accident, would be perforated by the countless bullets my captors' weapons would shoot into him or her as soon as the door opened.

"You said there were only two camps." the leader growled at one of his companions, who just shook his head in confusion.

"It were only two, I swear it, by my sister."

For a while, nothing happened, the mysterious attacker seemed to pause, maybe he had heard the talking behind the door and thought over coming in again, and my gaze fell on the severed head the leader had left on the table, Angel's head. His grey hide, the light green mane...

Wait a second...

With a sudden bang the door got ripped out of its hinges and was flung into the room, another shot rang through the air and ripped apart the light bulb almost simultaneously, wrapping the world around me in darkness again.

"Goddesses-damn, fire! Off it!" one of the gang members around me yelled and promptly everypony around me wielding a gun in his muzzle follow the order.
The shooting lasted one second, two seconds, three...

Then there was silence.

Absolute silence.

"You think we got him?" somepony whispered in the dark. Heavy breathing was replacing the breathless silence. "Did anypony hit him?"

"We have to. Everything's coming through this door should be a fucking sieve by now."

"Can somepony light the light, please. I can't see shit."

"I'm no unicorn, pal."

"That's enough!" the leader of the group shouted, at least that was what I thought by the voice I heard. Could have been one of the others as well, but this made the most sense.
"Brute and I're going back to our camp, we get some torches or something else and then we'll come back. You others keep an eye on our guest, I don't want whoever this is to..."

Suddenly three grey glowing spheres appeared in the center of the room, from were the green boss pony had been talking to me, exactly in the middle of the grumbling, cursing and mildly panicking stallions. One of the spheres surrounded a horn and the other two...

The shots that rang through the air as my savior fired his dual-wielded guns weren't deafening as I had expected, I had heard guns being fired before, even in close proximity, but this sounded nothing like them. It sounded a bit the the usual rat-tat of a submachine gun, but the noise was nearly silent, a bit like when a silenced weapon was fired in one of the few archived movies we had in the Enclave. In the light of the muzzle flashes I could see how one after another the raiders were mowed down by precise bursts of fire, the two pistols switching position every time they successfully struck down one of them, while the horn remained at the same place all the time.
The whole action lasted only several seconds, but they seemed like eternity to me.

There was utter silence and complete darkness again, only the three spheres cast weak light on their surroundings, then a bright blue light emerged out of nowhere, blinding me and as me eyesight returned I could see Angel, his ghastly face glowering at the fallen bucks to his hooves, two pistols floating next to his head. but this weren't the firearms I had seen him using earlier today, the ones he had killed scorpions and bloatsprites, they looked not home-made or two centuries old like his other guns or the weapons the raiders had used.

This pistols looked like preserved work of an artist from before the war: the frame shined black in the light of the unicorn's horn, one of the slides was black, the other one silverish, a reinforced frame, which also extended their barrels by a quarter, was added to them and their muzzles were ornamented with a extending pointy right-angled triangle that covered the lower half of the barrel. I couldn't see any kind of a mouth grip, the weighted magazines, each with a gemstone edged into its base, were stuffed inside shafts at the back end of the guns. Apparently their firepower was only available to unicorns.

"Are you... are you alright?" Angel asked worriedly, the stern expression on his face faded instantly as he bowed down to me and loosened the bonds around my legs. "Did they harm you in any way?"

By the time he had untied me I leaped up and flung my forelgs around his neck, pulling him into a close embrace and started weeping weakly, not in fear or pain, but in relief to see him again.

I regained control about myself not until the grey unicorn had lifted me on his back and had carried me all the way back to our own shelter room. And along with the control the pain in my foreleg returned.

"I'm so so sorry." Angel gasped while he laid me down on my bedroll. "It's all my fault."

I shook my head. "That's not true and you know that. You could've never know they were here and you looked around quite well, I'm sure of it."

"Well, if I had looked around a bit more well, you wouldn't have been hurt! I felt ill at ease from the very beginning, when we arrived here, but I thought it were only those damn scorpions. I should've known better... Oh, goddesses, what happened to you?!" He started to remove the bloodstained rag from my wound with a painful pulling sensation that made me clench my teeth. His controlled facade was fallen out of his face completely by now, and his eyes were filled with fear. Fear to loose me...?

"I... I was searching for you." I replied through my teeth. "I returned from the flying thing and you weren't there, I thought you might be inside one of the other buildings, so I went out to...ah!"

By now Angel had unwrapped my poorly bandaged right foreleg completely and as the air touched the flesh below, it made me hiss.

"A gunshot wound? That... that wasn't me, was it?"

"No. They were it. I couldn't find you inside the building I sifted through and was about to leave as I heard noises coming up from the underground. I though it would be you, so I walked downstairs and... looked through the keyhole of the door separating me from the noises." While I was talking the grey unicorn examined my wound and nodded from time to time to show that he was still listening. "Then I saw a buck, laying on a mattress and looking at something. And his cutie mark stunned me."

"Stunned you? Was it something uncommon?"

"It was a bucking bloody piece of razor wire! What kind a pony gets a cutie mark like that?!"

He just shook his head silently. "You don't want to know. There're many things you don't want know about the surface."

We paused for a few moments, then I continued.

"I was about to chicken off as another one of them opened the door right in front of me. I kept them at bay with my own gun, but then... things got messy. I got surrounded somehow, the giant one shot my leg and another one knocked me unconscious."

I paused as he stood up, trotted over to our saddle bags and returned with a small flask filled with red or purple liquid.

"Then I awoke in that cellar and the other came in. They... they told me cruel things. I though... I thought you were dead! They had a grey unicorn's head with them. A Head! And they showed it to me!"

"Slow your breathing down or you'll faint. Everything's alright, they're gone and can't hurt nopony anymore. It's over."

"I... I should've shot them on sight, just like you said." I whispered, more to myself than to my companion.

"Yes. You should have, but there's no disgrace in not doing so." I was staggered by hearing him say this. Especially after I remembered him yelling at me before, the first time I tried to talk to Steed. I had expected him to be angry, to shout at me for being so careless and unaware of the danger. But he didn't. "You may have thought you could talk sense to them, you could've never known that this wasn't the case. And instead of killing a potentially innocent pony you chose to let them go, even if they didn't let you. It was... kind of you, something I would never be capable of. Your behavior speaks of the innocence so many ponies lack down here." One of his hooves patted my head tenderly. "You've done the right thing, I just resolved the matter."

I began to feel better. Not in a physical matter of course, my injury still ached too much for that, but I was glad he wasn't angry at me.

"However," he continued. "I've examined your wound and I guess you were quite lucky under the circumstances..."

"I hate this idiom."

"...the bullet went right through your leg, without shattering any of your bones."

"And how's that good?"

"It's good, because I can simply give you that." He levitated the purple flask up to my face. "A healing potion. The clue's in the name, it'll heal your injury in a matter of seconds, but despite that, you should rest until morning, you've been through a lot."

I reached out with one of my wings and downed the liquid. A pleasant warmth spread out inside my body and I saw in astonishment how my with hide closed over the exposed flesh. It tingled.

"Why wasn't one of them administered to me after my crash, it would've been much easier and cheaper for you that way, instead of putting me into care for a few days."

"Those potions should be used only for minor or simple injuries. I think Duct Tape simply rated the damage on your body as too severe to be treated with a potion. He's the doctor."

"And you're sure he didn't want to clean you out?"

"No, I don't think so, he's not that kind of pony. He's different from other wasteland doctors, he offers medical treatment for a fixed price, not depending on the severity of the injuries of the offered pony. In another way he would make more caps for sure, but he rejects that. He says it's his policy." He stood up, turned around and trotted towards the door.

"Why, Angel?" I asked. "Why did you do this?"

"I want to search the building again, make sure that there're not other of those buggers or captured ponies."

"No, that's not what I meant. Why're you helping me?"

He cocked his head and looked at me enquiringly, then he sighed.

"It's nothing worth mentioning."

"Oh, I don't think it's nothing. You and your caravan carried me through this wasteland for three days, you paid hundreds of caps to set me on my hooves again and get my clothing repaired, you accompany me at a journey to raider territory and now you're charging into a room full of armed ponies, just because they might've got me captured. You wasn't even sure of that. So now..." I took a deep breath. "...I want to know it: Why are you doing all this? Why are you helping me."

No muscle moved on Angel's face, it looked just as questioningly than it had before my question. Call me crazy or maybe a little fuzzy-headed due to the healing potion – I didn't know what was in there – but I thought I saw my father's old sorrow manifesting behind his eyes. "You... you wouldn't understand... you couldn't understand it." he stammered. "It's a... I made a promise a long time ago."

"Why shouldn't I understand a promise?"

"It was a very special promise to a very special somepony."

And with that he vanished into the darkness behind the heavy metal door that sealed our room. I couldn't hear anger in his voice, but yet I still felt as if I had hurt his feelings.
A special promise to a special pony. I was immensely curious now, but I had a hunch that pushing this topic any further wouldn't affect our relationship in a positive way.
So I decided to do exactly what Angel had told me to do: just lay down in my bedroll and let the healing potion do its work. And before I could take another thought my eyes closed. The whole day had been exhausting indeed.

""")_x_("""

I felt well rested again as I awoke. I had no clue about what time it was, it felt as if it was past noon already, but Angel hadn't woke me yet. Speaking of, I couldn't see the grey unicorn anywhere inside this room, but his own bags and his bedroll were still laying on the spot. So he hadn't left me with suppressed fury due to my uncaring questions earlier.
With a quick glance I made sure the healing potion's power lived up to Angel's statement about it, and for real: the margins of my wound had closed entirely, no scar or exposed flesh was left, the hurt point was only recognizable by a a little bit darker spot in my fur where it hadn't regrown to its full strength yet. Cautiously I stood up, not wanting my legs to slip away from under me again like they had at Duct Tape's clinic, but they worked totally fine, so I laid down on my back and stretched all my six extremities.

After I had finished doing so I spotted another hint at the presence of Angel: one of the small party plates with something on it, no Fancypant's Cakes or whatever they were told and none of the tinned beans either, the thing presented to me looked like an apple. No story book apple, this one had some dents and some parts looked overripe but there was no way this fruit was two hundred years old, it tasted to fresh for that as I took a bite.

From where had he taken this one? A question I hoped he would answer, I heavily doubted he would react offended to that question.

I realized that apart from going to sleep again there was no other course of action than climbing the stairs out of the bunkers and looking for my companion again. Hopefully this time he would be just standing out there on the court and wouldn't still search the buildings for other dangers, but that would be silly.

After I had left the tunnels and the building itself I found myself standing in the sunshine of the high noon. The school buildings didn't look as scary as they had tonight anymore, furthermore they looked almost nice and inviting, maybe they had looked that way in the time before the war. As I had arrived at the central playground I spotted Angel through a gap between the buildings, just sitting there on the ground. He seemed thoughtful from behind, so I moved towards him as noisily as possible to call his attention, I didn't want to make him jump. As I drew closer and crossed the ten-meter-boarder his ears rose and he turned around to me. Now I saw that the color of earth to his hooves was a little bit different from the rest around us, as if it had been dug over somehow.

"Good morning." he said with weak smile. "Or to be exact: good midday. Could you sleep?"

I nodded. Surprisingly good in fact.

"Did you find any other ponies in there?" I asked and with a nod towards the school. "I found another camp earlier, though it seemed looted already."

"Yes, I stumbled across it as well, nothing to fetch there."

I told him about the safe, the other unicorn had mentioned in his journal on the terminal, but my companion only nodded slumberously and grumbled something about getting it later.

"And what's that?" I asked and pointed a hoof at the field before us.

"I spent the night burying the dead." he answered with a sigh.

"Bury the dead?"
Maybe it had something do do with his cutie mark, I couldn't draw a direct connection between it and his acting, but there was a lot I didn't know about him or the surface or whatever his cutie mark should symbolize.

"It's how we treat them down here, or rather, how ponies down here should be treating the dead. A little bit of respect for them, regardless of whether they were pony-hunting buggers in life or a poor but virtuous wasteland settler."

"How long...?"

"The whole night as I said earlier, or what was left of it." He yawned.

"But that means you didn't..."

"Please, don't worry about me, I don't need to sleep every single day. One day or two I can endure without any kind of sleep."

I looked at him in disbelieve, then my gaze felt on the round again. "I... I don't want to question your intentions, but... wouldn't it have been much less time-consuming if you had... simply... burned them? Because that's what we do back home." Above the clouds there were no ground to bury anypony in. Maybe the pegasi of old had burned their dead too, but nowadays it was most likely solely a question of space and hygiene.

"It would've been easier, but... I don't burn anypony, dead or alive, never. Call it... religious faith."

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 6

Skill(s): Survival 35

New Perk added: Entomologist

"Considering you're coming from above the clouds, you've already gained precious insights into the local wasteland fauna."
Your attacks against mutated insects (including RADsorpions and Bloatsprites) run a chance of 20% do deal additional 50% damage. Critical hits affected by this perk deal the same amount of bonus damage.

Chapter VII: Her very first Nightmare Night ever

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The high noon sun had passed her zenith as we finally started on our way again. After we had sat there for a couple of minutes in silence – other ponies religious believes were nothing I wanted to talk about, especially with Angel, he seemed not to be too wrapped in it too tight, but I still had a feeling as if I could crush our entire friendship over this matter – we returned to our camp site. Telling me he hadn't slept this night was a fatal mistake on the part of my unicorn companion, for now I was adamant about packing our things together by my own hooves and mine alone, while he should rest and elaborate an adapted route in the process.

The result was that we would travel northeastwards and walk an arc towards one last sea of debris we would sleep at, one last time. Tomorrow we would reach the vertibuck crash site. Thinking of the near end of my journey I felt joyful, soon I would be safe back home and the wasteland's horrors would be nothing but a bad memory.

The safe at the other unicorn's camp had held several magazines of "special"-labeled ammunition, incendiary rounds and some others I wasn't too exited to know about, some spark batteries and cells to power a magical energy weapon, but sadly no such gun itself. The true treasure of the secret safe although was a fragment of pre-war combat armor, two legguards fitting on a pony's forelegs. Arguing they weren't fitting his hooves, that he wouldn't need any extra armor and that I had found the stash after all, Angel nearly force me to take them for myself.
The incredibly resilient material, colored in a light but bleached green, – kind of predictable since it was supposed to be combat armor – was divided into several armor plates that lay partially above the following and were overall attached to a glove. The right hoofguard was also equipped with a implemented holster for my gun. It came in handy, since the hunter-ponies from the night before had been rotten to my old one.

"Angel, did you know those... hunters?" I asked as we walked through a small valley.

For a few seconds the unicorn seemed to think, but then he shook his head.

"Neither of them in person, though I haven't looked at them too closely, but I knew, who they were. They were members of a gang operating in several locations all over the wasteland."

A group? Oh marvelous, so there were even more of them out there...

"The're called – or further more call themselves – "The Hyaenas", quite fitting, considering the cowardice and treachery in their acts."

"Hyaenas? I thought I knew the name..." I muttered. But had they been griffins or zebra tribe from before the war? I was almost sure the name wasn't connected to ponies of any kind.
"Help me along, please. What were those hyaenas again? I think I've... heard something about them, but I don't recall from whom. They're connected to the zebras, right? Maybe a one of their special forces groups?"

"First thing was right, the latter... not so much. Once, I was told, there were animals living in the lands of the zebras. All of this was long before the war, when the zebras themselves were little more than animals yet, and by that time, they were natural enemies. Maybe the gang gave itself that name because of... racial reasons, I don't know."

"And are those hyaenas..." I gulped. "Are all the raiders like them?"

"Raiders?" Angel looked a me in surprise that big, as if he was told that he would see one of our princesses his next birthday. "No, no, no, you've gotten something wrong. The Hyaenas're just an ordinary wasteland gang, with a big field of operation, yes, but far too much civilized to be raiders, at least they have their "goals"."

"So you're telling me the ponies who captured me to sell me to a "collector" and killed and decapitated another unicorn to sell its horn "fresh from the roast" to other ponies, were no raiders?"
He shook his head again.
Just an "ordinary" group of ponies? I didn't wanted to know what tier of sickness raiders embodied then. And the featherbrain I was had thought it couldn't get worse.

""")_x_("""

"You gave me an apple back then?" I asked as we took a short rest mid-afternoon. Our baiting-place was located near a larger line of hills, a hillside to one of our sides, a field of tall grass on the other. We had been a little bit ahead of schedule and the time of dusk was still far away as we took our last break to brace ourselves for the last part of our journey. The last hours had been pretty uninteresting, no RADscorpions, bloatsprites or other ponies had attacked us, we didn't even spot something living apart from ourselves. And I was torn between finding the lack of "action" good or not, but balancing the threat of an animal attack and the sight of Angel's awesome guns I came to the conclusion that I would've appreciate it not getting attacked again. Once we would've reached our final destination I could ask him about them.

"Well, that's true." Angel answered, taking a few apple wedges out of his saddle bag. They weren't as shiny and fresh looking as the one I had ate this... midday.

"But from where did you get it? I mean..." I made a sweeping gesture. "It doesn't look as if anything's going to grow here, no living plants, left alone an apple tree."

After gulping down one of the wedges, he answered. "You think it looks like this everywhere in the wasteland?" On my questioning look he continued. "That's actually right for probably ninety-nine percent of the equestrian wasteland, but some places... Some places are still gifted with pre-war facilities. The apples I got out of one of those, it was kind of a... conservatory, if you know what that is..."
I nodded slowly. Conservatories weren't needed above the clouds, our cloud seeding program took care of our food supply most of the time. But if it didn't... we would have to improvise something, taking food from somewhere else, maybe the surface, even though it would most likely be contaminated. I was glad a famine like this hadn't yet occurred during my lifetime, but I was sure it had been... dreadful.
"We visited the Fillydelphia region a few weeks ago, some jobs before the caravan that found you. My group traded a few packages of them for some higher quality ammunition and weapons."

"But how is it possible that those facilities survived the war? I mean, not even that school was spared, even if it wasn't a direct hit? A miracle?" He nodded. Or maybe the pre-war ponies hadn't been so shortsighted after all, maybe the had built them underground, like the gym, which was fairly intact as far as I had seen. Built it to survive the war and... what came afterwards...

A swish, right behind Angel in the grass...

By the time I had drawn my gun and looked up again I saw much to my disappointment that my companion hadn't brought out his elegant black but his home-made weapons. Together we took aim at the swishing grass next. As the noise intensified the grey unicorn gave me a nod, his eyes suggested to be prepared to shoot. As if this would work in my case...

Suddenly something khaki hopped out of the bushes. I almost thought it would've been another RADscorpion, but as I looked closer said creature turned out to be a pony, with a kakhi hide and dark grey mane, but a pony nonetheless. A male pony... another one...

By Celestia's crown was the mare-to-stallion ratio in that part of wasteland seemed awfully imbalanced!
The stallion cocked his head and immediately his eyes widened in fear as he found three pistols pointed directly at his face.

"Please don't shoot me!" he cried out and threw his hooves over his head. I saw how the weapons wrapped in Angel's magical grip shook a little as the kakhi one moved his head towards his own weapon, strapped to his shoulder.

Please don't let him attack us, for his sake!

"I... I will surrender my gun, okay?" he said shakingly, drew his gun slowly and threw it to the ground in front of us. "I've got bottle caps, I left some goods behind at my camp site, please, you can have everything, even my clothing, but please, please don't kill me. Take everything!"

"What?! No!"

"I... I can tell you, where the next merchants travel, please, just..."

"We aren't bandits!" I had to shout to get through the constant begging to spare his life. Hastily I put away my own gun, signaled my grey companion to do the same and kneeled down next to the grey-maned stallion, who was still lying on the ground, his hooves clenched over his head. "We don't want to kill or rob you, we just thought you were going to attack us. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

The stallion stopped crying and looked up to me again, as I shoved his gun back to him, then he stood up and faced us.

"Luna's butt, girl," he said, his voice still a little bit raspy, and pulled a canteen out of one of the many pockets his dark brown jacket was cluttered with. "I thought you would be my end." He took a deep sip, than offered the canteen to me, but I rejected it with head-shake. "You know, the wasteland..." Then his gaze fell onto my wings, he seemed to choke on the sip and his voice pitched a doubting tone. "You... you're not from around this lands, are you?"
It wasn't a question.
He took another sip after another unsuccessful attempt to pass his canteen along to Angel.
"So you're another one of those dashite-do-gooders,"

"I am..."

"Ha! From smoke to smother, or better, from heaven to the dirty boot scraper of the goddesses below huh? Listen to me, kiddo, when I tell you, that there's nothing down here worth leaving your pretty house on a cloud,"

"She isn't... please, don't..."

"You Dashites better stay where you..."

"I! Am! No! Dashite! By Celestia's forelegs and Luna's horseshoes!" I pitched my saddle bags, reared up, spread my wings, performed an half-turn and thereby showed him my fully intact cutie mark. "I didn't leave the Enclave! I may be stuck down here, but I didn't turn my back on my home! Do you understand? Do you understand me!?"

The stallion had fallen over with shock and was now lying on his back, staring at me blankly and in fear. And I stared back, panting in rage. I was angry... furious, but I didn't know how or at whom, I simply was angry.

"Ah... yeah... I should've known..." the stallion stammered and crawled backwards, away from me. "You're no Dashite, of course not, you're... you are... way to clean, yes, that's it!"

I scowled at him and breathed heavily.
A grey scheme edged itself in the small gap between the stallion and me, and I heard Angel calling out to me:

"Please, please calm down. He didn't mean it like that. Pegasi like you're just a rare sight down here, do you understand?"

"I know." I growled. I had experienced it last night.

"Why... why don't you fly ahead a little bit, to the hills. Maybe you can see our next stop from there, hm?"

I snorted, dropped on my forelegs again, took my saddle bags in my muzzle and flew away, towards the line of hills in the distance Angel wanted me to be.

As I had went airborne and flew a few meters above the ground my anger was already fading and by the time I landed on the ground again, it was entirely gone.

But why... why had I become so angry in the first place? I had managed to scare a full grown and armed stallion, I wasn't more impressive than any other enclave pegasus, I wasn't dressed in an especially intimidating way and I my gun had been holstered since the beginning of our talk. It had been my anger alone that had frightened, the anger arising from... I didn't know where.
But it was related to the Dashites... an hence to Sunshine.

Was I blaming her for everything that had happened?
For Cloud Striker? For the others who fell in the battle... but they were alright, weren't they?

What if they hadn't made it?
What if all of them had died, just like Cloud Striker?

No, no, no!
I hammered my wings against my head.

No, Feather, you must not think something like that. Never, at no time, never ever!

But it was too late: the thought had already entered my mind.
Cloud Striker was dead, I had seen it happening, her... her head had been spilled all over my body!
An the others... they had been n bad shape due to the crash... could they take on a large group of bloodthirsty raiders? And how big had this group been? Ten ponies? Twenty? Hundred?

Three of us had already died in the vertibuck... four died on the ground... then her... what had we, no!
What opposition could Hurricane and the others have offered to them?
I had chosen to leave, had taken flight to... to chase Sunshine. I. Their leader. I should have stayed, to fight alongside my friends and... and die with them.
Hurricane had sent me away, but why? Had he been aware of the lost cause?

Behind me somepony stepped on a dry bough.

"Angel," I said without turning around. I simply knew it was him. "I... I want to know something."

"You... what...? Anything."

My voice trembled and he had caught that, but that didn't matter now. He couldn't refuse to give me that answer, he had no right to.

"I want to know the truth. And you will tell me the truth."

His face darkened in concern.

"Do you really think my friends are still alive?"

The grey unicorn remained silent while I dropped on the ground, fighting down the tears. Then suddenly I felt like Angel lay down next to me, putting one of his forelegs around my neck.

"What's the matter?" he asked gently. "Is it... something about last night?"

"Just answer me, Angel. What do you think? Did they... survive?"
I turned my head around to look my companion in the eyes, but his head was bowed down in consternation. "What do you think?"

He just lay there in silence while I wiped the tears out of my eyes with my wing. Everything was still under control, the locks were still sealed.
After what seemed like eternity he took a deep sight and turned his head up and towards my face. In the meantime I had fully curled up on the ground and was looking up to the cloud cover.
Lunar Rock was somewhere up there, but even if I would return somehow, nothing would ever be as it was used to be.

"Feather," he said slowly, addressing me by my name for the first time. "I don't know anything about the enclave soldier's abilities to fight raiders, but..I've heard stories about single ponies taking on dozens of enemies in heroic battle. It's not entirely sure something happened to your friends."

"But I want to know, what you're thinking. You yourself!" I tried to scream but all I managed to do was to whisper. "What do you think, be honest, please."

He followed my gaze upwards to the skies, sighed again.

"Feather, listen, I don't want to hurt you. But if you demand it... I think... I think there might be an terrible surprise once we reach the crash site."

So he thought it too. He didn't believe that they were alive and neither did I, not really. I may have tried for the last days, made up an illusion for myself, tried to blind myself to the truth, but deep inside I already knew all hope was gone.

"So, why came you along with me?" I whispered while the tears ran down me cheeks, I buried my face in my hooves and covered it with my wings. "If you don't believe in their well-being, then why are you coming with me? Why did you even bother feeding me, giving me a place to sleep, why did you bring me to Duct Tape in the first place, if there was no hope for me ever to find home again? Why didn't you just..."

"...leave you behind? To die out there? You want to know why?"
I nodded.
"You want to know why I didn't simply left you you to die of blood loss or starvation? Why I didn't shatter your hopes of a save return to your home back in Springmare?"

My eyes were still shut as I felt how he shoved my wings aside and lifted my head with his hooves.
As I reopened them I looked him directly into the eyes.

"Feather, your hope was the only reason for not destroying it back then. Hope, even if may be in vain, is something even rarer than kindness or innocence in the wasteland. I didn't want to drown that delicate little flower that was your hope, and be it just to make your first days on the surface a little bit less cruel."
He let my head down.
"Besides, I never said that there was absolutely no hope for your friends to be alright, like I said, I've heard stories about the Enclave's soldiers..."

It may have been a lie, but it... it gave me strength.
Strength to move on eventually. Maybe he was right...

"Thank you, Angel." I mumbled and laid my wings on my head again. And he just lay there.

""")_x_("""

By the time I had regained control over my body, I felt dizzy... no, that wasn't dizzy, I was drowsy. Had I... fallen asleep? I lifted my head and saw that the dust had drawn near. In an hour or two it would be pitch-black.
And there it was again:
The pure white unicorn, standing upon a hill in the distance, gazing at the sky just as I had. The sound I had heard inside the scorpions' cave had returned, it remained soft this time but didn't fail to relax me again. I gasped in surprise as the tall unicorn... spread its wings?

"You're doing better now?" a voice asked from my side.
I blinked. Turning my head I saw Angel, still lying by my side and smiling at me gently. Was I doing better?

"I... I don't know." I answered and looked into the distance again, but the... princess-pony was gone, as was the noises that had accompanied it. "But if you think that there's still hope, I will believe in that too."

"Trust me, holding on to your hopes is something way too many ponies have stopped doing. You have to hold on to it and never let it go. Never."

A short pause followed and the two of us gazed into the distance and at the sky once again. As I saw now, there was a group of buildings not too far away, standing out against the darkness by its few illuminated windows. Our destination, the last stop.

"What happened to the other stallion?" I asked to break the silence. Lying here was well and good, Angel's soft side to lean against, the tranquility... but we had to get moving or we would never reach our next camp site.

"The traveling merchant?" Angel asked in surprise and I nodded. "He left, soon after you flew away."

"What did he want?"

"His answer surprised even me. He said he was coming out of a town, a few steps from here. I guess he meant those." He pointed a hoof at the distant buildings. "I never heard of anything you can call a town this far out in the fields, but that's not saying much, smaller communities are founded as fast as a pegasus makes its nest... no offense. But I'm concerned about how they... will react to you."

"Because I'm a pegasus."

"Because you're enclave. Well, that usually means you are a pegasus, so both of it."

Of course. Although being a pegasus had saved me from... what, getting killed instantly? I didn't know what those other bucks would've done to me in case I would've been an unicorn. But then it was highly unlikely I would have ever been in this kind of situation.

"So... what are we going to to about that whole... wing-stuff? I doubt I can tuck them away like that. So, are we going to sleep outside tonight?"

"No, no, don't worry, fate's granted you a favor. The traveling merchant had some things to offer, this among other things." His magic wrapped around a dirty brown blanket that was lying on his back, between the saddle bags. "He gave me a discount, since I prevented you from stomping or abducting him. Or maybe because we didn't shoot him in the first place."

"Abducted... oh, nevermind." I began to wonder how all those "the Enclave's abducting ponies for cruel experiments"-stories came into being at all, considering the No-trespassing-policy of the Enclave regarding the surface. Well, there were those Dashites... and they were obviously excoriating their former fellow enclave citizens. If they liked it... pffh.
"And for what are we needing this blanket, it won't make me invisible and I doubt we can trick other ponies by shrouding me with a dust sheet, dusty and dirty as it might be."

"Oh, that's no blanket and no dust sheet either. That's..." the unicorn struggled for words. "...how can I describe it... those are wasteland settler garments for earth ponies. And since you've got no horn sticking out your forehead, wearing this will conceal you and your pegasus wings."

I took a closer look at the clothing he offered me. Basically it were several shredded sand-colored pieces of fabric, stitched together, resulting in a coat not unlike Angel's blue coat. Of course his was was much shapelier than mine. Upon closer examination I saw three holes in the fabric, one bigger hole, probably for my head, and two smaller ones for my forelegs.
Somehow I felt reminded to the High Council's garments.

"I don't want to push you, but you should change your clothing soon, if we want to arrive at the... town... before nightfall." Angel said as he pushed me with his head, then he stood up and walked downhills towards the buildings. "I'll be waiting dead ahead, follow me when you're finished."

To putting on the wasteland settler outfit felt like... like... exactly like slipping on a dirty, patched-up and sweat-soaked piece of clothing felt like. Judging by the looks and smells I assumed that it had been worn by more than a dozen ponies before and by the time the fabric had touched my hide I came to think I wasn't the only one living inside this garments now.
At least the outfit fulfilled its purpose: nopony could tell for sure if I had wings hidden beneath the coat, if I was a little bit plump or if the outfit itself wrinkled up in a strange way.Having to hide my race's distinctive features to not have any problems with other ponies left a nasty taste in my muzzle and I wondered if griffins had to do anything like that to be tolerated, though I imagined it to be pretty difficult to make a griffin look like... something else. Or zebras. Thinking that ponykind's worst enemies would be treated equally to ponykind's proudest citizens felt strange. They had destroyed the pegasus' capital Cloudsdale and the whole of Equestria afterwards and what had we done?

But it didn't make sense to think about stuff like this right now. I had no clue about how non-ponies were treated in the post-apocalyptic Equestria, maybe everything was alright. As "alright" as it could get in the wasteland at least. As I burdened myself with my saddle bags again and I strapped my "old" and tattered holster around my foreleg again I recognized twinkling in the corner of my eye. I turned towards the sparkling object and found a large piece of broken glass lying a few meters away from the place Angel and me had been laying earlier. Either it was broken quite recently or wind and weather had been kind to it, any way it was clean enough so that I could see a reflection. A reflection that – bringing in a giant amount of imagination – resembled the picture I had seen all that time ago, the last time I had looked into the mirror of the Lunar Rock academy. I fought down the upcoming memories and images.

No, Feather, not another breakdown right now! The last one had occurred just moments ago.

I took a closer look at my reflection dressed in sand-color:
The once white hide of the pony I was looking at was now stained with dust and mud, its dirty blonde mane dangled in its face on which the first signs of fatigue were already becoming manifest. But I didn't feel that exhausted at all. If my father could see me right now, would he recognize his daughter? I thought asking myself this question to be enough to proof my disguise's effectiveness.

Fairly satisfied I checked my clothing and its straps one last time and closed up to the grey unicorn buck at the foot of the hill, who was by now scouting the area around the town from the distance.

"I'm done." I said and sat down next to him. "And I have to admit, it's feeling pretty awkward. Dusty and sweaty. And I think there's something crawling around in there."

"That's good." Angel answered and raised a hoof full of dust. "You're looking pretty lousy already. No offense. But there's still something missing. A finishing touch."
Saying this he blew all the dust on his hooves into my face and mane.

"A..."
He set his hooves on the ground again, looking satisfied. "Much better."

"A..."
"Against your prior assumption, you weren't dusty enough."

"Achoo!"

With a massive sneeze a large part of the dust blown into my face returned to its initiator's face. Angel just looked at me in bewilderment and shook his body, dedusting himself.

"No, no, not I'm not dusty enough, you are. My whole life I had the opportunity to obtain this dirt. But I appreciate your thought, thank you and: gesundheit. Now let's get moving, before the night catches up to us." my companion said with a smile and together we started walking.

""")_x_("""

"Angel, why do I have to wear this again?" I asked during a short break as I was trying to scratch my neck somehow. By Celestia's sweaty back, usually I would use my wings for that, but no – they were cuffed behind my back now, figuratively spoken. By now I was sure something was living in there. And to top it all I started to think like one of those wasteland ponies!
"It itches and it stinks and its dirty and it stinks..."

"Yes, you're not saying this for the first time. I've heard your prior complaining."

"I'm not complaining, I'm whining right now."

"But it's necessary."

"Necessary, right." I grumbled sarcastically as I tried to reach out for my neck with my forelegs, but falling flat on my face was the only thing I accomplished by that.
"Nothing happened in Springmare and we were able to talk sense into Steed as well, so why do we need this disguise now? Are the ponies here differently minded or..." Lying on the ground I finally managed to eliminate whatever had caused the prickle. "...or is it just another "reinsurance" in case somepony tries something?"
Now it was itching at three other places. Great!

"Trust me, it is necessary." Angel said with a blank expression while he was watching me tossing about in the dust. "You're right, nothing happened in Springmare, but even you must've noticed that the residents were all but eager to house a pegasus like you."

I tried to remember how the surface's ponies had been dealing with me before:
Duct Tape and Suture had been kind towards me, but they were payed for that. The drunken mare, Grape if I wasn't mistaken, had been really drunk and thereby honest I guess, but here buckfriend had compensated that. Shot Glass acted friendly as well, but once again, she was most likely payed for that.
And besides that... The whispering crush of ponies in front of Suture's store, Steed...

"I think it balances each other." I said and pulled myself up again, without dedusting myself again, and we continued our walk.

"You know, Springmare's completely different than this town here."

"Why's there a town at all? You said there was nothing out here."

"Exactly, that's what's concerning me." he answered. "The last time I tracked through this area, there was nothing yet, meaning this "town" has to was founded recently. From this follows, that I don't know the inhabitants of the place and how they react to strangers. Hence the disguise. Whoever settled down here had to be aware of the danger. Living that close to raider territory makes pulling triggers much easier. Unlike in Springmare. You have to admit that a pegasus would raise suspicion, and your disguise will prevent one of the guards or settlers from acting with precipitation."

"They would kill me?!"

"Shoot you, leastwise."
Because it might be that I was an enclave pegasus.

"You might be an enclave scout or soldier."

"I am a soldier. Technically."

"Yes, but you're no danger to the surface peace, are you?"
I nodded slowly and bowed my head down, watching the ground passing by under my hooves.

"I'm sorry, that's life down here. And you don't have to wear that garment for long. After we've left the town, do anything you want, you may burn the outfit, but right now, just act like you're an earth pony."

"So they're not shooting at earth ponies and unicorns?"

Racists!

"Oh, they do, but not as quickly. Hush now, we're coming in sight and..."
Angel froze in his tracks, hit his face with his hoof and I stared at him in confusion. I didn't reckon that.
"You're so stupid!" he grumbled and rubbed his forehead.

"Excuse me?"

"No, not you. I'm stupid."

What was wrong now? Was I still not dirty enough? Were my clothes suspiciously little ragged?

"Is something wrong with me?" I asked in annoyance. He nodded. Of course it was me, it was me every time something was wrong.
"And what's it? Not enough dust in my face?"

"Everything's alright on the outside."

"Great! So what's it? I don't have to catch a weird wasteland disease to be authentic?"

Angel shook his head.

"No, you don't have to. It's all about your name. Your name isn't exactly common in the wasteland, it will raise suspicion. And we don't want that."

"So what are we going to do about that?"

"We have to think of..."

"Halt!" a female voice called out form a wooden barricade that was surrounding the town, wherever it wasn't covered by debris. A bright spotlight beamed out from somewhere before us and blinded me. "Stand still, immediately!"

"We're only passing by, we don't mean any harm to you." Angel said and I could see his silhouette stepping forwards. Then a shot rang through the air, I hit the dirt and pictures of Angel's bursting head came to my mind. But luckily there was no noise of a bullet ripping apart flesh and bones, instead the projectile bounced off a rock nearby, sending small splinters flying into me.

"Another step and the next one won't be a warning shot!" another pony, another mare, yelled from the distance. Snipers?

Angel was in no need for another invitation and so he immediately retreated to my side.

"I assure you, we're no thieves, no bandits and no raiders either. We don't want to afflict damage, neither to your community nor to its inhabitants." I answered. Why couldn't I hold my own tongue?

"You can make sure of it." Angel resumed.

My eyes adjusted to the blinding light – as far as this was possible at least – and now I could see the silhouette of the mare talking to us. She was standing between two of the wooden walls, the spotlight was attached above. She gave a laugh.

"Yes, sure. And let you just off..."
By the time she had finished her sentence, it seemed to become clear to her that neither of us would leave this place in one piece, if we would show any hostility to her.

"And now?" I whispered towards my companion.

"Now we wait and hope for the best." he answered, but I also saw the tiny spheres that were cocking the guns strapped to his forelegs. Please Luna, don't let it come to that.
"Your name," he added quietly, "Think of a new and unsuspicious name, while I'll do the talking."

Right. New Name. Unsuspicious and with a connection to surface, that would be the best. But also nothing extraordinary. Think, think, think!

"Okay, strangers, I'll come down, but don't try anything funny. You won't survive that!"

Name, name, name!

Suddenly the bright light vanished and was replaced by the smooth light of an unicorn's horn. It wasn't the blue light of Angel's magic, the pony whose horn was emitting the light was a light pink mare with a just as pink mane, swathed in nearly the same clothing I was.

"Now let me take look at you, and if I get the impression that either of you..."

Creating a new name couldn't be that hard, could it?

"Angel?" Much to my surprise it wasn't me who was calling out my companion's name, but the approaching mare, who was by now flinging her forelegs around the buck's neck. Illuminated by her horn I could see Angel being just as surprised as I was now.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Angel, it's me. Late Tulip."

"Tulip... Tulip, you were that pony, I..."

Now the buck's horn lighted up and I saw a big grin spreading across her face.

"Two years ago you guarded a caravan over there at the Great Oat Lake, I was the daughter of the caravan's leader. You guided us through the valleys in record time and smashed that one gang lying in ambush nearly single-handedly. It was so awesome!"

It seemed as if he was starting to remember the mare's face and name, because the clueless expression on my companion's face faded and with a small *klick* he disarmed his pistols again.

"Ah, yes, Tulip from... Manehattan? To the Great Oat Lake and back, yeah, hell of an adventure..."
Or he was just pretending.

"Indeed, that was us." The pink mare squealed. All of the sudden she seemed to realize that Angel wasn't alone and her head started traveling from Angel to me and back to him. "So, I guess you're not traveling alone either, do you? But I've no manners, you and your companion, both of you are welcome to follow me inside, we will talk someplace more... pleasant."

Tulip turned around and started walking towards the gap in the barricades again, signaling us to follow her. As Angel and I had caught up to her, she almost tossed herself at my grey companion, causing him to blush slightly and forcing me to trot behind the two other unicorns.
If my mare's intuition did fool me right now I would guess somepony had a crush on a certain buck.
As soon as we had set hoof behind the wooden walls, two earth ponies came galloping, closing the gap with another part of debris they were lifting with the help of a strange treadmill-apparatus.
Several times Angel tried to start a talk, but every time he was confronted with either silence or words of procrastination. Since no dialog of any kind seemed to achieved I tried taking a look at this town, but apart from some windows, covered from the inside by close-drawn curtains and even more barricades blocking the streets, I couldn't see much in the light of the two unicorns' horns in front of me.

After several minutes of walking through the relatively cleaned up streets in awkward silence, Tulip turned left all of the sudden and opened a door to one of the higher buildings. This – former – city seemed to be in better shape than the one we had encountered the scavenger family in. The bigger buildings must have been more than five stories tall before the war. By now most of them had lost around twenty percent of their former height, but they were still impressive to look at. That and the streets being mostly clean – at least of the usual debris such cities tended to produce when bombarded – made the whole settlement look more... welcoming look.

The foyer of the office building we had entered by now was illuminated by the warm and flickering of an open hearth in the middle of the room and was definitely meant to be some kind of living room. The floor had to be cleaned up repeatedly, there was no rubble of the ceiling, no empty soda bottles or even a piece of paper lying on it. It almost looked like the halls of the Lunar Rock academy, imagining it without the cracked concrete of course. Even a roughly woven carpet was decorating the room. Almost all of the desks had been moved into the corners or broken up to result in burning material for the fire and some lockers were placed at the room's walls. The few desks that remained were arranged as a dining table next to the hearth.

"Please, take your ease, you two. I'm just going to get us something to eat. You can leave your saddle bags in the lockers." Tulip said in a rush and before anypony could reply she had already vanish upstairs.

Angel and me took a seat. Everything had worked out so far, nopony was hurt, we had met a friendly pony and I finally came up with the banal name "Earth Walker", should I be asked for it. It was no graceful name, but at least it didn't obviously spell "pegasus".
My grey companion gazed into the fire, saying nothing. What was going on inside his head? Something connected to Tulip, even I could tell that.

"So, Angel... care to explain?" I asked.

My companion just shook his head. "For a caravan I don't think this is a good place to stay. They're too noise, too bright and way too close to the raider territory..."

"That's not what I meant. I mean..." I nodded towards the staircase. "...Tulip."

"What's with her? I know her."

"You know her or you "know" her?"
Luna spank me with the moon, had I really just asked this? I felt my ears and face burning, lucky for me, my wings were bound together and thereby in no condition to betray me.

"I worked with her father a few times and that was it." he said and I saw how he blushed again. "But maybe... just maybe things look different to her."

"Please, help yourselves." Tulip's said suddenly from behind us and as we turned around I saw the pink mare, holding a tablet laden with all kind of wasteland food in her magic grip. She dropped the tablet as soon as he had reached the table and tossed herself at my grey companion again, causing the same discomfort than before. I wasn't entirely familiar with how the surface ponies expressed their affection for each other, but judging by the grey unicorn's reaction – or further more the absence of any reaction – I guessed that kind of acting was just as odd as it would've been at home.
I turned my head away from the yearning mare and towards the food she had offered us. The table was now set with several pre-war food cartons, some old and wrinkeled fruits – maybe once apples – and a couple of hoof-sized bowls with a strange mass inside, presumably a kind of surface food I didn't know yet.

"Now tell me, Angel: what are you doing out here? Are you no caravan-guard anymore or is she..." Without turning her head away from the grey buck she pointed a hoof at me. "...your caravan now?"

I got the strange feeling that she somehow didn't like me. Angel seemed to think the same, for he tried to initiate a three-pony-talk.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves as a start? You two don't know each other yet."
That was my cue.

"Hello, my name is Earth Walker. You're Late Tulip, am I right? And I'm..." In default of any knowledge on surface greeting rituals I decided to simply sit still on my seat.

"Fresh out of the Stable, are you?" was everything the mare answered as she turned her head away from Angel.

"How do you know?" Angel bailed me out, once again. What the heck was a stable?

"She's far too clean to be true wastelander like us. She's out here for a few weeks at max."
Too clean? I was wrapped into a carpet full of vermin and I was too clean?
"So, which one was it? Stable 5 or 27 or... no, no, by your looks... let me take a wild guess, it was the infamous Number 38. Diplomacy and talking stuff, superciliously until they're confronted with the outside. Then they're unviable. Am I right?"

I looked at Angel, seeking help. But since he couldn't help me without saying something suspicious I decided to take my chance. I might not know what a stable was, let alone Stable 38, but I had gotten the hint "diplomacy and talking", so I should be able to make... something out of it.

"You're right," I finally answered. "Number 38, diplomacy and stuff, hence my cutie...

"Your cutie mark shows your talent for diplomacy?" she asked with a furtive look. "I've never seen such a cutie mark before, not even on a stable pony. Show me. Please."

I gulped, not able to decide what was more shocking. The fact that I might be unmasked as a pegasus, which, according to Angel, might have quite a fallout on us, or that another mare had just requested me to disrobe myself in front of her and a buck. While I stared at her in disbelieve I saw how the grey buck facehoofed in shame.
Just keep your composure, Feather!

"I... I would rather not..." I jabbered while my cheeks started to burn. "My... I doubt it'd be appropriate if I..."

"Oh, come on, don't be such a killjoy. In exchange I'll show you mine..."

"Please, Tulip," Finally Angel spoke again. "when it comes to her cutie mark, Earth's a bit... quirky about it. You know, stable pony kind of quirky, their whole habit of dressing and so on. She doesn't like it when anypony's looking at her, let alone if she's undressed. Some kind of an inner problem." He whispered the last part in a conspirative manner.
When it helped...

"If that's the case, then I'll go without that, of course. You could've simply said something, Earth. Anyway, an introduction isn't what I had in mind as I brought you here, you'll have to excuse me for a few minutes, I have to talk to the guards."
And with that, the pink mare stood up again and rushed to the exit, leaving the two of us alone without having said anything about herself or the town.

"What was that?" was the only thing I managed to say after a solid minute of awkward silence. I was still a little bit shocked by the pink mare's... candor. "What was the point?"

"Well, that was Tulip and that's the whole point. I think right now she's rampaging through the streets, beating her head against a few walls to calm herself down. At least that's the kind of thing she usually does. That's what she's like."

"Why should she be in need of calming herself down? I mean, our talk lasted for – what – a few minutes at last and we did barely say anything and nothing of it seemed offensive in some way."

"Like I said, it's Tulip. She's a little bit odd, when it comes to... anything connected to me. I mentioned before that I worked with her father some time ago?"
I nodded.
"Actually it's a few years, but nonetheless, she cast an eye at me back then. Trust me when I'm telling you, that she's used to be a pleasant contemporary, except when she's... obsessed with something. And when she's disappointed by something or somepony, then she can get... unpleasant. And I'm sorry to say that I was that disappointment all those years back."

"Do I really want to know it?"

He rolled his eyes as if he was asked to remember a gruesome wound. "Long story short: I refused to spend the night with her."

The twitch moving through my body destroyed the chain of foodstuff I had arranged in orders of size out of boredom and sent most of the items to the floor.

"She... she, you... she wanted you to... together with...?"
He nodded and closed his eyes, obviously trying to fight down the pictures coming back to his mind. I did the same.

"And then?" I asked as if I was remotely controlled. I didn't want to know all the details, but a lower instinct of some kind forced me to continue the talk. Like whenever an accident occurred back home in the Enclave and the present pegasi were fluttering all over the place, watching the spectacle instead of doing something.

"I asked her to leave. Three times." Angel continued with a sigh. "Eventually she decided to do me the favor and absconded. I guess there might be a connection."

A connection? By Luna's tush did she just... me... oh, Celestia!

"Did she just try do score with me?"

"By the goddesses, no!" Angel shouted in surprise. If I remember rightly I had never seen him that surprised.
"I don't think so..." His eyes wandered to the door. "Well, I hope so..."
He shuddered. "However... I think she thinks of you as a rival."

"A rival? In what way? Are you suggesting she thinks you... and me...?" He nodded and my heart skipped a beat. "But we aren't..." He shook his head and I felt relieved somehow. "And that's why she left?"

"Like I said, she's odd when it comes to that. She's good at detecting interpony signals, whether they're real or not, and it has yet led to some... weird outcomes."

Angel didn't want to give away more details, maybe because Tulip could come back every second and then that would be very weird as well. And I was thankful for that.
After we stared into the flames of the hearth for what felt like eternity the sound of a closing door made my ears perk. Turning around I saw Tulip entering again, her mane dripping with water. But it didn't sound as if it was raining on the outside.
So that was how she was calming down? I guess better than demolishing any walls.
She didn't sit down as close to my companion as before, now she was placed in the middle of our seats.

"Okay, let's start this all over again. I'm sorry for... whatever I've said earlier. You're earth Walker, nice to meet you, and I'm Late Tulip. I'm basically the leader of this settlement – well, along with the other ones of course. So, you two are traveling together? "
I nodded, but I wasn't sure where this was going. One the one hoof she sounded nice but on the other hoof... she'd been odd before.
"Consider yourself lucky, traveling with Angel's always a... pleasure. And please excuse the harsh treatment at the gates, you know, a town can't be secured enough. Just because you don't carry any severed heads on spikes with you, that doesn't mean you're no bandits or thieves or – even worse – spies from above."

"From above?" I asked with feigned ignorance. The more I was able to strengthen the image of the clueless stable pony – whatever that was – the better. "You mean from outer space."

The pink mare burst out laughing and looked at me with both amazement and amusement afterwards.

"Almost forgot: stable ponies don't know nothing. But somepony has to tell you eventually. So, tell me: How long are you really up here? A month, maybe three weeks. However, did you see anything else than unicorns and earth ponies?"

"I saw a few bloatsprites and RADscorpions."

"I mean ponies, airhead. Ponies with wings."

"You mean pegasi?"

"Yeah, the turkeys..." Tulip spat out. Oh, I could tell what would come next by now. "Did you see even one of them? No, of course you don't and you know why? Because the only thing those birds care about are their own feathered butts embedded in those Celestia-damn clouds they use to block out our sunlight. But every once in a while they really come down here, not armored or with a whole squad of their weird flying machines, but as "ambassadors of peace", dressed in fancy and shining uniforms. Believe when I'm saying you: those are the worst. They are their scouts, being on look-out for their next target."

"I severely doubt that's what those ambassadors are for." I said glowering. "I mean, why should they do that? Because they're evil? Come on, you make it sound as if those Enclave ponies are just aliens and want to destroy everything good what remains of Equestria for good measure."

"So you've already heard of them? The Enclave, I mean?"

"It's hard not to hear about them as soon as you see the cloud cover by the time you exit your stable, isn't it." Angel stepped in. "That's the story anypony gets about the Enclave."

"Tell me, why do you believe that the pegasi are just that evil?" For a second I didn't care about my disguise. I was just sick of all the accusations those surface dwellers stated against my home.

"Careful, sweety, if you wouldn't have got no wings I would say you're one of them. But who cares about their "reasons"? All I know are the stories our own trading partners tell us about them. That they carry off settlements, sometimes even a whole stable, for reasons of testing whatever they're concocting up there in the sky. I think "They're just a bunch of sick fuckers" is enough to settle this argument, don't you think so. After all, they were the ones who sealed the sky. Not that there no sick fuckers down here too... but you get my point. But since you're traveling with Angel I don't believe you're such a spy, he's a good pony, he wouldn't waste his time with filth like them. Speaking of traveling: what brings you here? This isn't exactly the nicest place to walk by."

"I was about to ask you the exact same thing." The grey unicorn growled. "Have you any idea how close you are to the raider territory? Too close, that's how! And you... you're camping here. What kind of irresponsible blighter has lead you here and what kind of caravan-route is this anyway? And why are you carrying all this stuff along?"

"Don't you get it? This is no encampment, this is our new home. We want to live here!"

Angel looked as if Tulip had bucked him right into the face. Even I was wondering about their chosen location, since it was merely a stone's throw away from the place those raiders had slaughtered... attacked me and my team.

"You... you want to live here? As in forever?" The pink mare nodded. "But what about the caravan? Your father's life's work?"

"There's no Tulip-Caravan anymore. Father died a few months ago and without him... business just wasn't as fruitful anymore. So I and most of our staff decided to settle down, to start our own town. If you've all the uninhabitated wasteland to go, one spot is as good as the other, isn't it? That's why we choose this place. There's no taint, just minor radiation..."

"But it's irresponsible!The Bloodhoof territory is maybe a half day's trott away and you move into some old ruins right next to them? And then you pull off a crazy light show like that one earlier? Are you out of your mind? This is madness!"

"Don't lecture me, Angel!" Tulip shouted back at my grey companion, while I tried to crawl out of the line of fire as unflashy as possible. If looks could kill...
"We just found a home and you with your spooky raider stories won't take it away from us! There hasn't been a sign of them since we arrived here four weeks ago and guess what: the Sparrowtans also marched in there two weeks ago, so even if there once were raiders, by now they should be toast. Or they've finished off themselves."
Or it had been my friends... wait!

Four weeks? The attack on our vertibuck had been... how many days ago?
Springmare, Steed, Wasteland, School, around three days unconscious... a little bit more than a week.

"But I've seen them, the raiders, a whole horde. Maybe a week ago and not far away!"

Tulip's gaze wandered from Angel, who was still burning with anger, to me. And by her look I could tell she wasn't convinced.

"Is that so? What makes you so sure about that? Because if you really would've encountered a horde of Bloodhoof-Raiders, then you wouldn't be talking to me right now. Then you would be dead."

"They attacked us!"

"It's the same. I know Angel's one hell of a gunslinger, but even he can't take on a whole hunt of raiders all by himself without any casualties."

Without casualties?

"Without casualties?! They killed my friends! Well... at least some of them..."

"Your friends? You didn't mention your friends earlier. What've you done out there?"

Stick to the truth, Feather, as close as possible at least.

"They were friends from my stable and we were... investigating a strange vessel we had found in the desert. It looked like an enclave flying-thingy, so we drew closer to... investigate. And then they came. Some crazy giggling ponies with..." I couldn't remember the clothing I had seen anymore, but my guts told me they had been gruesome. "...disgusting cloths."

The pink mare asked with the same urge that had driven me to ask Angel about the juicy details of Dana's "proposal". "And then? How did you get away?"

"We fought against them and then I fled. I got injured in somehow, Angel found me and took me to Springmare. And that's it."

"You've been in Springmare? Why... why didn't you just stay there, it's nice according to what I've heard and save. Out here there's nothing, well, except from us, but I'm sure you weren't searching for us."

"In fact we... I'm searching my friends." I said quietly and Angel tenderly put a hoof on my shoulder from behind.

Now Tulip looked as if she had eaten something long beyond its expiration date. Did the ponies down here even expiration dates?

"You two... you're searching her friends? Stable ponies with maybe a month of experience, who got attacked by raiders? Angel, did you even tell her the odds of her friends being something else than a bunch of severed limbs on sticks by now?"

"She knows that there might be nothing to find, she knows the odds and she's fine with them. And while she's fine with that, I'm fine with that, So I'm going to help her until the very end."

Silence fell after the grey unicorn had spoken his last sentence. Adding something simply didn't seem appropriate to me and I was surprised by the determination that had spoken out of Angel. Would he... really follow me until the end, whatever that would happen to be, or was it just another layer of our disguise? I wasn't sure what to wish for.
Tulip's gaze turned from my face to Angel's and back again. She seemed... impressed, a little bit envy and but impressed nonetheless.

"I guess I won't be able to talk you out of this, will I? So, in exchange for letting you throw away your time like that, would you care to do me a favor? Of course that's no question as such, you've no choice. I, as wrong as this sounds, order you to take this night off of your journey, you'll stay here. Of course that's usually nothing I can decide all by myself, but... I'll set things straight in a moment. Come along, I'll show you your room for tonight."

The pink mare got up and guided us towards the staircase she herself had used earlier and up to another floor, this one, in contrast to the ground floor, fully wrapped in darkness. The stairs kept coming and coming, it used to be a highrise once after all. It came to my mind that I had never ever climbed that many stairs before, I had been flying all the time. And flying was definitely less exhausting. After finally arriving at what Tulip described as the top floor, the pink mare led us into a room, easily as big as the one back at the school vaults, minus the bunker feeling. That was nice. But it was even nicer that the room's shattered windows were set so high that the only thing able to look through them would be a pegasus flying by at close distance. Or a griffin.
But either way, I would be able to get rid of this itchy cluster of rags I was wearing right now. And even if it would only last for this night.

After showing us the room Tulip made quick exit, jabbering something about "the others" and "settling things", closing the door behind her. We put down our saddle bags we had brought up from the living room below. After all we were storing our food in them.
I unfurled our bedrolls, while Angel fanned a small fire in the middle of our room and set up our cooking equipment.

"That worked out quite well, didn't it?" I asked and slipped off my bug-infested clothing , after the grey unicorn locked our door at my request, allowing me to stretch my wings again. Hard to believe they had been bound together for merely a few hours. Angel had been right with what I had said about the torture of his horn being hurt for a week. "And our disguise fooled them as well... okay, that sounded much more scornful than intended, like one of those "ambassador-spies" Tulip was talking about earlier. Pffh, why would we use spies at all?" I huffed. "There's just one thing I didn't understand earlier: what's a stable?"

"You... the enclave pegasi know nothing about the stable-projects?" Angel asked in a surprised tone that surprised me in return. He hadn't sounded like this as I asked him about raiders or the surface's wildlife. Obviously stables were something pretty common down here.

I shook my head. "At home we know... nothing about the surface and the life down here. Actually I was surprised that there were civilized beings at all, we're always told that nothing remains of the pre-war Equestria, that we pegasi are the only ponies left. Of course some ponies tell stories about the surface, but it's just fiction. Along with the stories about evil griffins, the surface tales are the most popular of the bedtime stories among the pegasi parents. They're quite creepy and support the idea of an uninhabitable surface."

"Well, I bet by the time those stories were created the surface indeed was uninhabitable. And for that matter, the stables were build underground, not unlike the bomb shelters yesterday. But the stables... they're the school's underground to the power of ten, maybe more. All in all they're underground bunkers, built to preserve pony life, but they also served a "higher purpose". Often social experiments to figure out... something, I guess."

Wait a second! Did he just said that there were... "Other survivors?" Okay, there had been many survivors, due to what I'd seen prior this week.
"I mean..." How was I able to ask my question without sounding disrespectful? Civilized survivors? Pre-war survivors?
"...ponies like me. No pegasi, just... ponies without wasteland experience." Well, that sounded neutral.

But instead of giving my the lightening answer I had hoped he had intended, he just shook his head and sighed, looking saddened again.

"I'm afraid there are no, at least none I've heard of." the unicorn buck said, chewing on his lips. "You remember all those experiments the surface dwellers blame on the Enclave? That crazy talk about abducting ponies and cruel experiments? Well, many... some of the stable's – often social – projects tended to... backfire. Sometimes a stable can be best described as a nightmare factory. There's only a hoofful of stables I know about whose population survived in a significant number and even less of those survivors can cope with the surface's ways of life. But to return to the matter of experiments: they come from the pre-war Equestria, not unlike the Enclave, and therefore most of the ponies associate the too, resulting in the fear and sometimes hatred you've already encountered."

"Okay, so why is it better to play a stable pony again? I mean, if the Enclave and the Stables are treated nearly equally? Shouldn't ponies like Tulip hate me too?"

"Unlike the pegasi, the stable ponies are often seen as the victims of the builders of their homes. Up to the point where they start to attack the wasteland – be it in self-defense or not – or try to force their ideology on the wasteland's ponies of course, but... let's skip that part."

To me it seemed highly unlikely that there were other ponies like me out there. Ponies who still possessed a pre-war attitude to morality, just like me, who were lost, confused and disoriented. I was glad Angel had taken me to a safe haven like Springmare or else... maybe I would have hurt another pony or myself. But since I doubted I would meet a stable pony in the few hours left for me to get something wastelandish thrown into my face, I decided to let this topic be. At least I still had a perspective. Angel too seemed not to be too interested in any further explanations.
Silence fell again afterwards, until somepony, judging by the voice it was Tulip, tried to get into our room. Of course that resulted in her slamming face first against the locked door and as Angel unlocked the door again after I had dress again, the pink mare seemed both happy and a little bit pissed. Quite understandable considering the her face being a little bit tablet-shaped.

"I'm not interrupting something, am I?" she asked with the conspiratorial look I had seen before after entering our room. The abrupt head-shaking of both Angel and me made her smile grew even wider. I hated this mare."Your mane, Earth. You should really do it again before we go down for you two to meet the others. There will be a nice little dinner, you will introduce yourselves, talk a bit, offer your presents to your hosts and so on. Our town council will be there as well, watching you with their judging eyes, and at the end they'll decide whether you two can stay or not. But don't worry, everything will be fine."

Dinner? – Introducing? – Talking? – Town Council?! – Presents?!
Goddesses, I was finished!

"Come on, Earth, it'll be fun." Both Tulip and Angel yelled again and again while they tried to magically remove me from doorframe I had managed to get my teeth into. "Apart from that: you have no choice until you want to sleep outside the towns boarders tonight."

""")_x_("""

"That was no dinner, that was a trial!" I shouted after we finally arrived back at our room. I felt empty as if I hadn't eaten for days. Tulip had led us back down, through the streets and to another of the tall buildings where our "dinner" should take place. We had entered a large hall with a just as large table in it and a whole bunch of earth ponies and unicorns sitting around it. Empty seats were arranged at the front side of the table, two next to the entrance – our seats as Tulip mentioned – and three others at the opposite side. After sitting down the pink mare had left the room again and returned a few silent minutes later with two stallions, and together they occupied the other side of the table.

After watching us with his eyes for what felt like eternity the oldest of the council members rose and inaugurated our meal, but the judging eyes of the ponies around kept me from eating any of the offered food, though it didn't seem too tasty as well. The meal was finished in complete silence and I felt as if I had somehow blundered into some kind of secret society, but the worst part was just about to start as the three council ponies at the end of the table raised their voices to address – or rather question – Angel and me.

Angel was doing most of the work, answering all his questions and a whole lot of the ones addressed to me, while I was able to avoid most of the questions about my background by simply referring back to my "stable life". But apart from hearing that Angel used to be a caravan-guard for the whole time he was knowing Tulip by now, I didn't learn anything new about my companion.
After we didn't mention anything about connections to the raiders or any other villains, the council seemed satisfied and proceeded to the presents we would have to offer them.

A present to make them let us stay – given the circumstances of their life I could understand that habit, but it was still nothing common for an enclave pony like me. My worries about the present not being valuable enough were shattered by the time Angel revealed "our" offer: a pre-war magical energy weapon, a plasma pistol, just like the ones I was used to use back home in the Enclave. The gun made both me and all the other ponies at the table gasp in surprise. And for it being around these lands for over two centuries it still looked pretty good and – and that was the most important part – it was still fully functional.
After eying the weapon for several seconds and making a few uncharged test shots the residents, the crimson stallion next to the main councilpony most of all, seemed impressed and generously granted us the permission to stay for the night.

"Yeah, when it comes to strangers they're sometimes a bit... harsh, either with words or without. They were like this when we met them first all those years ago and since nothing bad ever came from their habits I'm okay with it." Tulip said casually, lying next to our campfire, a large bottle of... something not too tasty in front of her. Inviting her to stay until we would go to bed had been a fatal mistake by Angel, but since I didn't want to put one of the ponies who would house us for tonight off, I agreed. And that meant I would have to wear my wasteland vermin outfit until she was gone again.
"But don't worry, they like you, or at least they like the present you brought them. I still can't believe we have our own energy weapon now, even if it's public property now. Which means Old Timer's going to use it and nopony else. But still... that's amazing."

She continued her monologue about the plasma pistol and how it was awesome and how Angel was awesome. I groaned inside and nodded every time I felt as if she had ended one of her sentences. How a single mare could talk so much about having a shiny new toy, even if it was of plasmic nature, made my head spin

"There's just one thing I haven't understood yet." I started several times, stifling the pink mare at my third or fourth attempt. "From where have you taken the plasma pistol? You weren't carrying it with you the whole time, were you?" Because a plasma weapon would've been nice to use – even if I hadn't used my own gun to the point it hurt by now. But still, it would've been nice.

"I've got my tricks." the grey unicorn said with a smirk. Something I hadn't seen too often on his face before. "Bigger ones and smaller ones, the gun counts towards the latter. You know, it's an old trick among us caravan-guards to leave secret stashes behind, filled with a small amount of supplies for the time of need. Sometimes these supplies are food, medicine or weapons, along with fitting ammunition of course, because otherwise that would be just cruel."

"But how do you hide those at all? And where? You're not burying them like a treasure chest, are you? And how do you prevent other ponies from taking what is yours?"
Okay, now I was just as chatty as Tulip had been when it had come to the issue of a plasmatic weaponry.

"Ah, kind of. Most of the time we stash away our stashes in hollowed-out rocks, sometimes in a tree trunk, but that's not happening very often due to the lack of tree around here. And to prevent ponies from taking them... We do nothing against that. You could call it some kind of karmic idea: One of s hides a syringe of medicine we don't need right now, another pony finds it and is able to rescue somepony else, that's good for us, indirectly of course, karmic. And if said pony keeps the medicine to itself, well, than that's none of our business. That way everypony wins."

Suddenly the pink mare to my left nudged me with her horn and whispered loud enough for everypony around too hear: "I've gotten around a lot with daddy's caravan and you know what? I haven't met one single pony who's hiding away spark cells and beam pistols, except for Angel, because Angel's awesome." Whatever she had been drinking since she had joined us, it was loosening both her tongue and her restraint and that wasn't good.

"I just want to be prepared." the grey buck tossed in. "In case of an beam pistol emergency!"

For a few seconds nopony said anything, only the noise of what sounded like a cricket sounded through the shattered windows. Then we all burst out in laughter and as it ended I saw even Angel wiping a tear of joy out of one of his eyes. A strange picture, he had always seemed so calm and restrained. As we sat there, recovering from the sudden burst of laughter, I was overwhelmed with a emotion which could be best described as sorrow.
Of course I would leave this wasteland eventually, tomorrow if possible, but even when all the mutated creatures, the RADscorpions and bloadsprites, and all the hyenas and raiders would be gone and I would be at home again... that one part of my life, the surface, the dust the bug-infested clothing, Angel... all of it would be over, forever. And I think I would miss it.

"So, Earth *hick*, when you find your friends tomorrow... what will you do then?" Tulip asked, her head bowed, chewing on a pre-war hay burger she had levitated out of my saddle bags. "You're going home again?"

"I... I think so." I would fly home when possible, that was for sure. But would I stay? For a time of course, but then... I doubt I could ever completely forget what I had seen and experienced down here or live my life as if this week on the surface had never been. "But honestly, I haven't thought thus far yet. I will return to my home, but then... maybe it's possible for me to come back somehow. To help the ponies on the surface."

The pink mare choked over the sip of her drink and chuckled

"I'd like to see that. Stable ponies emerging from the underground to make the world a better place. Please don't do that, sweety. If you manage to get home again, then stay there. You have it nice, warm and save in your stable. The wasteland's no place for a pony like you and with your attitude you would be eaten within days. Come back in when you and your friends're tolerably wastelanders. If we make it that long, then you can come and get us some shiny arcane device thingies, I've heard you undergrounders are pretty schooled in stuff like that."
Would she be disappointed when one day a vertibuck full of enclave technician ponies would land in the middle of their town and it would turn out that the pony she knew as Earth Walker never existed? Even worse, that she had been one of the "enclave spies"?

"However, let's drink a toast to Earth and her friends, our future saviors!" Tulip bawled, levitating one small glass of her drink over to me and another one to Angel. Balancing such a small thing like a tumbler on your hooves was pretty difficult when you were used to do it with you wings. "Here's to you, Earth! And so that you may find your friends in one piece."

Tears of affection ran down my cheeks, as the two unicorns chinked their glasses and we all took a deep sip out of them. All at once everything seemed to be good and easy...

After the two unicorn's glassed had touched a few times further, toasting the town, the caravans, the goddesses in heaven and much more, Tulip began to totter and was led out of the room by Angel. But not after bidding her goodbye to the two of us with blown kisses and juicy murmur.
Whatever she – and therefore I – had been drinking, had one wacky side effect on me: it made me bone-tired – fortunately not affecting my restraint. And before I knew it I had fallen asleep.

""")_x_("""

I woke out of my pleasant slumber in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. My head hurt a bit and I felt the urge to breath some fresh air, the now faded campfire had made the air inside our room stifling and along with the booze – I was now sure what we had been drinking had been something alcoholic – it had made my dizzy and sleepy. Which would be great if I hadn't slept for maybe an hour prior this day – or was it yesterday already – resulting in me not being able to sleep through the night. I hated it when something like that happened, being awake at night if I didn't want to be awake was annoying, since you couldn't do anything without waking the others. I groaned, scanning my environment for something interesting to focus my thoughts on. Pale moon- and starlight fell through a window at our room's walls, casting its light on my companions bedroll. His empty bedroll.

"You can't sleep either?" A voice said from one of the windows and turning my head I saw my grey unicorn companion, bathed in the moonlight and gazing into the night. Without his blue overcoat he seemed strangely naked, as I noticed not without discomfort. I negated his question with a shake of my head he most likely wasn't able to see. "I never sleep well if there's something else I should be worried about. It's not pleasant, but it had kept me alive ever since... I started my life in the wasteland."
So he was worried. Of course he was worried, he always was. Although we were protected by twenty or so guardponies, as Tulip had dropped by the time she wasn't drunk yet.
"There's nothing for you to worry about, we're save, relatively. It's just silly me, watching out for trouble whenever other ponies sleep and thinking whenever I should sleep. And what about you? Is something bothering you?"

I shook my head again and extracting myself from my bedroll. A unpleasant tingling sensation went through my wing tips, usually warning me of Hurricane or Sunshine about to rip out one of my feathers, but that seemed highly unlikely right now. Apart from my sleep overdose there was only one on my mind able to end my sleep.

"No, there's nothing. I awoke, just like that. Maybe it was... whatever Tulip served us or the meal earlier, but..." I sighed, finally freeing my wings from the sheets I was wrapped in, and trotted over to Angel. "You know, as strange as this may sound: When tomorrow... when everything's over for me... I... I don't know... I think I'll miss all this."

"Miss this?" Angel said with a chuckle that sounded extremely pretended. "No, really, you shouldn't miss any of this. Life in the wasteland is nothing anypony should miss. But still...I think I'm going to miss you too. It was nice to travel with you, even if it was just for such a short time. "

"And what are you thinking about? What's bothering you?" I asked, lying down next to him.

"A little slice of everything. The ponies here, the ones in Springmare, Steed, the Hyenas, the way we'll take tomorrow... you see: I'm thinking about everything and nothing of it has to worry you."
While he was talking, I rose from his side and trotted over to the window and, balancing on my hindlegs, took a look out of it. This windows were either really really impractical or they had been built for giant monster-ponies. Or just for ponies who were larger than my, Angel for instance. Many of the fires which had lighted the darkness of the night while we had been walking through the streets were dead by now, just the ones at the barricades and on top of the building in front of me, some kind of sentry tower, were still lit. But...
"But come on now, you should really go back to sleep." Angel said, sounding like my father... no, sounding like one my foalhood memories I had of my father. "or else you'll look terrible when we..."

"Angel, I think... we may have got a problem." I said as my eyes started to adjust to the lighting conditions of the outside. Something raised my suspicion, but I couldn't say what.
Three ponies, whether they were mares or stallions I couldn't make out, were standing around the fire at the front gate, obviously chatting. My grey companion rose from his position in the moonlight, trotted over to me and looked at the scene below. He was just about to say something, but then he saw what had shocked me:
The fire at the building below was lit, but instead on a bunch of chatting ponies around it, it cast its flickering light on three dark pony-shaped figures, each of lying in a small pool of... blood.
Realizing what exactly I was seening took a moment, but then Angel and I gasped in unison.

"Your damn right, we have got a problem." Angel said grimly as he span around and dashed to our saddle bags in the corner of the room. He lit his horn, opened his bag and began rifling it, pulling his shiny black automated pistols out of his bags, while simultaneously levitating his home-made guns out of their holsters and into the bags, along with two strange bar-shaped... devices?... he strapped around his forelegs immediately. While whipping on his dark blue overcoat, he tossed my own gun to the ground in front of me, the magazines followed clatteringly.

"I don't understand..." I stammered, standing there while my companion obviously prepared himself for battle. "How could somepony... who could do that?"

"Raiders. Bloodhoof-Raiders, I bet my own horn it's them." he grumbled, stuffing two magazines into his guns simultaniously and taking off what seemed like the safety catches. "I told them this would happen, but they wouldn't listen, nopony ever listens. Now take up your arms and get your saddle bags. I doubt this is going to be easy."

Without questioning him any further I obeyed his commands, crawled into the itching carpet-clothing again – since I didn't want to be shot for good measure/mistaken for an enemy while there was an ongoing raider attack – slung the holster around my foreleg and burdened myself with the bags. Nothing was left of the caring expression on my companion's face as we walked towards the door, which just got ripped out of it angles with a loud crack, and we entered the corridors again.
Within my recollection it had been much more steps downwards, but we were in such a hurry I almost tripped over my own garment a few times as I followed Angel rushing through the large building, we were probably on our way to Tulip's room, but I couldn't tell for sure.
After a few minutes of rushing my companion finally stopped in front of a door at the first floor. I was about to warn him not to charge into a mare's bedroom without previous announcement, especially a mare like Tulip – Thank you, brain! – but before I could say anything he had already pushed open the door and flooded the room with his magic light.

I spotted the pink mare lying under a blanket in one of room's corners, dashed over to her and froze in front of the curled up figure, no sure how to wake her without getting punched in the face. That had happened before. Sunshine's right hook had been devastating. I decided to wake the mare by poking carefully.

"Tulip!" I whispered. "Please, wake up, we've got a problem."
No reaction.

"Tulip, come on!"
Nothing.

"Don't make me..."

Bright pinkish light erupted before my eyes, blinding me and I fell over, screaming.
My eyes! I'm blind!

"Please shut up, Earth." the mare muttered. "My head... what's wrong with you? Why are you waking me in the dead of night... it's still night it is?"

"We've got raiders!" Angel answered for me, still standing in the door frame.

I sat up again, rubbing my eyes, surprisingly I wasn't blind after the light show. The pink mare was suddenly wide awake and sat bolt upright on her mattress.

"Say again? You mean... actual raiders? Here?" She stammered. "Okay, okay, okay, okay... from where – whatever – how... where are they?"

"They already killed your guards on the roof."

With a loud gasp Tulip leaped up and dashed towards a pile of clothing next to the door. Worn dresses and other wasteland clothes flew past my head until the pink mare finally levitated a revolver along with an holster out of the pile and stapped it around her forehoof, then she bolted out of the room, almost running down Angel.

"What are you two waiting for?!" she shouted from the end of the corridor as I left her room. "We have to warn the others. The guards. The council. Everypony!" And with that she disappeared behind the corner and into the staircase. We galloped after her.

While we had galloped through the empty building I had already heard screams of terror and pain, but I didn't sense them until we were standing on the street.
Screams of ponies fighting, screams of ponies dying...
Tulip was already charging towards the bigger building that had housed the council before and I followed her, but then I felt Angel's magic wrapping around my shortened tail. Before I could say anything or stop my run I went down to the asphalt and Tulip met the same fate.

"Hold up." Angel said with a calming voice and released our tales. "We should think over our next action before we do anything stupid. We have to be prudent."

The pink mare next to me jumped up again and span around, facing Angel, her eyes blazing with anger.

"Be prudent? We should be prudent? While my friends get slaughtered over there, you want me to be prudent and sneak through my own home like a thief." she shouted, varying between swinging her forelegs against the grey unicorn and trying to hit him with applebucking kicks. "I don't know how you treat your family, but I won't..."

The pink mare was silenced by Angel as he focused his magic on the pink mare's collar, pushing the struggling pony to wall behind us and pressed his foreleg against her throat. I couldn't see his face but by his voice I imagined it to be dead angry.

"Listen to me carefully, Tulip." he snarled, "I know you want to help your friends and I understand that. But if you're just running in there head over hooves then a painful and bloody death is the only thing you will accomplish. The Bloodhooves just secretly killed your guards, even you have to notice that something's wrong here. I'm sure whoever did this is just waiting for you or other ponies to charge in without thinking. So for your sake: be patient and let's get the hell out of here! Understood?"
The mare ground her teeth. I approached the grey stallion and was about to say something to calm him down, to defuse the situation somehow, but then his head span around, and he focused me with the same glare he had in those first ruins, shortly before I talked to Steed.
"You too. Did you understand what I'm saying!" he shouted at me.

He was right, of course he was and I should listen to him. He had survived many years on the surface... but those were Tulip's friends fighting for their lives. And I wanted to help them too, I wanted not to fail them how I had failed my friends...

"Angel..." I muttered. "We have to help them. Her friends are in danger and we...we can't just stand here doing nothing, while they're getting..." I gulped, "...killed. We can't leave. It's her family."

Something inside Angel's head seemed to snap, he loosened both his magic and his foreleg, letting the pink mare slide to the ground, rubbing her throat.

"You can't be serious! Those are raiders, if not even worse, we should avoid a fight while we still can. And you're not up for this. I mean, no offense, but from what I've seen of your fighting skills, I can tell you this won't end well."

"You don't have to stay, Angel, we..." I glanced over to Tulip, who was standing up right again by now. I was playing a dangerous game by now, I wasn't absolutely sure about the grade of my companion's loyalty. And if my tactic would fail and backfire I would have to stand against a unknown number of enemies and wouldn't have a pony leading me to my friends anymore. "...we will figure something out on our own. You can go whenever you want."
Giving him the choice whether to abandon me, the pony he had saved at the hazard of his life a few times by now, or save his own hide. I was surprised by my own cruelness.

The gears inside the buck's head run hot and after a few seconds of tense silence, he burst and agreed to help us with our bold undertaking, not without swearing to the goddesses, that he would pull me out of the next dangerous situation on my tail if necessary. Everypony drew his or her guns and we started walking. Together we moved through the streets, much to my surprise not dashing from cover to cover how I thought it might be good, but in the middle of the street. Angel reminded us several times "not do do something stupid", but how was our way of wandering around sane in any way?

"Please don't mind me asking, but... wouldn't it by much more... efficient to find some cover? I mean... because of the cover. Whoever assaulted this town will be able to shoot at us from everywhere." I whispered, barely loud enough for the two ponies by my side to hear it. "At least that is what I've heard in the class."

"You've never encountered Bloodhoof-Raiders before, that's for sure." Tulip replied and Angel remained silent, watching out for anything hostile. "If this would be any other gang, then I would completely agree with you, but we aren't fighting another gang or slavers or those enclave fuckers. You see, every raider tribe's got one special weapon they're using most of the time. And if there's one good thing about the Bloodhooves, then it is that they don't use ranged weapons. See, their name's got quite a history..."

The pink mare was immediately silenced as a scream rang throughout the empty streets. No cry of fear, pain or – Luna forbid – death, but something even more terrifying. I was almost overwhelmed by the same feeling of terror and disgust that had carried me away at the crash site.
The battle cry of a Bloodhoof-Raider.
And it was accompanied by the same insane and vile giggling than earlier that week. We formed a triangle, each of us covering one direction, scanning the area for the source of the noise. And then my eyes spotted him.
A dirty cyan earth pony buck, standing on top of a small pile of rubble, bathed in moonlight. I couldn't make out the color of his tangled mane, for it was covered in dirt and liquids I didn't want to know, but what I could see more than I preferred: the vile smile around his smeared muzzle.

With a roar the dirty stallion launched himself at us, laughing and giggling in the same way I had feared all the time. I couldn't see any kind of weapon, so what should I do? Except for shivering?
Spare him? Maybe he was one of the monsters who had attacked us a week ago, maybe even that one fucker who had killed Cloud Striker.
So kill him? I would be the right thing to do. Tulip would approve. Angel would say it had been right. But it didn't felt right. He was unarmed, he could have been a deserter and not hostile towards us. Maybe we could talk to him... finding out what was going...

Blam!-Blam!-Blam!

The buck got tossed backwards as my grey companion's gun took care of him, sending a burst of three bullets into the charging raiders brain. Its momentum made the lifeless corpse slid over the street and towards us, stopping a few meters in front of me. I tried to look away. I had seen ponies dying in battle once and that had been enough for me.

"That was close." Tulip said, carefully walking over to the fallen buck. "Why did you not... oh... I'm sorry. Stable pony and the first time you see a Bloodhoof, that must be... hard. They can be pretty intimidating, especially when they're charging at you." She began searching through the raider's pockets. It was amazing in some way that the buck's leather armor, ripped apart as it was, was still equipped with enough pockets to hold what seemed like my entire left saddle bag. With a disappointed sigh the pink mare turned away from the dead body, obviously not satisfied with what she had found. Searching the dead seemed inappropriate to me but I guess, since this were wasteland-murderers and bandits, it may be... okay. If it was for our own good.

"So this... this is a raider? An actual raider" I asked, pointing a foreleg at the figure to my hooves while I still tried to avoid looking at him. "That's one of the ponies who have attacked me? And killed..."

Angel remained silent, so Tulip nodded. "Yes. Maybe not this particular one, but he's associated with them. We are lucky, he has been just a low ranked one, without any special chems. You see..." she kneeled down next to the corpse and turned it around, stretching out one of its forelegs. As I realized in horror – after making the mistake of looking – this was not the normal hoof of a normal pony. Something like a small was stretched to it, something that... was that a severed hoof? Vomit raised in my gullet and I could barely avoid to release it into freedom. What kind of sick pony was walking on the hoof of another pony? To make matters worse, the... hoof, strapped at the bottom of his bloodstained leg, had all kind of nails, shards of glass and other sharp objects attached to it. "...this is why they call them "Bloodhooves". Their hoof-club is what gives them the name."

She dropped the raider's leg and on Angel's mark we started walking again. I only hoped that the others – if there still were others – hadn't heard our shooting. But that seemed like wishful thinking.

"It's gruesome, I know," Tulip continued in a whispering tone. "but for our sake, most of them're just using this as their weapon, no guns, no nothing. Of course they're high on chems while in combat, but since they have to come close to you... you've get your chance. You see now why we were walking in the middle of street? Longer way for any of them, more time for us to shoot."

I wasn't really listening to what the pink mare was saying. I was still shocked by the... the severed hoof. Would I really want to find what was left of my friends if they had been at the mercy of ponies like this? Would I even be able to?
I felt almost relieved as another pony crossed our way. Just as the one before he was covered in stuff I didn't want to see and was mowed down by my companions really quickly. But how did ponies like these managed to invade this town without setting off any kind of alarm? They didn't exactly seemed stealthy at all.

Occasionally we heard screams as we moved silently through the thankfully both raider and corpse-free streets, but now something encouraging joined them: gun shots. So that meant that apart from us there was still somepony out there, fighting back.And after a little while Tulip finally gave a signal for us to stop. It seemed as if we had arrived at the main building – or at least the one we were headed to. Peeking around the corner we saw nothing, except for a few bullet casings shattered across the road, which – in combination with the lack of dead ponies – meant that the guards had made it into the building alive. But so had the raiders as we were told by chortling chatter, so loud we could hear it through the main door.
Drawing closer I could see that there were several cracks in the door, some of them even large enough to look through them and into the foyer. But by the time I had glanced through the gaps I was already regretting it:

Corpses.
A lot of them.
The entire main hall was cluttered with lifeless figures, most of them dresses like the two raiders before, but also nearly a dozen ponies that looked like the earth pony town guards I had seen before. Blood was covering the sand bags, that were meant to be cover for the guards, and the even walls and in the middle of this slaughter five of the giggling and bloodstained raiders were standing between the dead ponies, talking in a language I couldn't understand. Or maybe it was just a very strange accent. Sometimes when pegasi of other enclave cities came visiting Lunar Rock I had heard similar noises, especially some of the Neighvarro ponies, the biggest military force above the clouds. The only signs of town ponies still being alive were the shots that rang through the building, I presumed it to be coming from a room behind the big door inside the foyer. Obviously they surviving defenders had withdrawn back there.

"Five of them." I announced after I had returned to my two companions, who were waiting a few meters away, cowering against brick-colored wall and monitoring the two corners of the street. The face of the grey unicorn was still looking stonily, but unlike before he went into the rapture of nodding. "And... it doesn't look pretty in there, Tulip. They've killed... many of the guards, but... I think there still some left deeper inside the building, somepony's still shooting there."

With a saddened look the pink mare sighed, she checked the rounds inside her gun and a small smile spread across her face as she emptied the magazine shoved in another one.

"I've got more than twice the bullets I need left, so don't worry about that. Those rounds will teach them the meaning of fear, for the few seconds before they're burned from the inside at least." As a result of my questioning look, she added: "I'm going to use the good stuff. Maybe I can't save them anymore, but I can still take revenge. So now let's get in there and hose those Celestia-damned monsters. Oh!" the pink mare snapped at Angel. "Don't start. We won't do something smart this time. I just want to blow the shit out of them."

"I didn't want to hinder you, I just wanted to talk about how to take them out as efficient as possible. Without running the risk of any of us getting hurt by any of them. Can we agree on that?" Angel said while he was checking the filling of his own weapons. "You said five raiders?"
I nodded and detailed the distribution of our enemies inside. We – well, mainly Angel – elaborated a tactic to take down them while charging into the main building. We would form a trident, Tulip and I would secure our flank while Angel, the buck with the two guns, would cover the front.
Cowering next to the cheeks of the door, I waited for the signal to... initiate our attack and tried to brace myself for what was coming next: I would have to face a raider in close combat and then I would have to shoot him. Was all this really necessary?

I took one last breath, then Angel tapped my shoulder, we formed our battle formation, the two unicorns' horns flashed and the door was shoved open. Accompanied by a loud crack as the leaves crashed against the wall we rushed in, taking aim at the raiders inside.
Due to our trident fomation one of the side-mares would have to face two enemies and fortunately tat wasn't me. The raider I had to face now just rose from a mutilated body of an unicorn stallion, turned his face to me and then the time froze.

The raider I was seeing over the barrel of my gun now turned out to be an earth pony mare, a few years older than me, maybe as old as Angel or Tulip, with an light indigo hide and a felted and dirty blonde mane, that dangled into her face. I could see her eyes narrowing in what I thought was rage, then she started charging towards me in slow motion.
What... what should I do now? I had to shoot her... I simply had to, she was about to injure or kill me and my companions after all. Over the ironsights of my gun I could see the raider mare's head.

Just move your tongue a little and it will be over.

But... what made me sure she really deserved to be killed, to die? Because she was in this room, with all those dead ponies around her? Because she was dressed in the same clothes like the ones that had attacked my friends and me? Because she could be a murdering, ransacking pony of prey?

Just move your tongue and pull that trigger.

Were the ponies, who were getting killed by Angel an Tulip right now, her friends, maybe even her family? Did raiders had families? Maybe she had a foal of her own?

Just pull the Luna-damned trigger, you featherbrain!

My gun shook inside my muzzle and my ironsights wobbled.

Kill her already!

My head twitched and I closed my eyes.

Blam!

I wasn't shooting. Somepony else was.
As I opened my eyes again I saw in horror how a fountain of blood erupted on the mare's chest.
But even more terrifying was: that didn't stop her.
The raider seemed staggered for a second, but then she continued her charge.

I gasped as the mare's chest was torn apart by the bullets Angel's automated pistols sent into her. She stumbled, went down and then she screamed. Not in rage or anger, but in pain. The noise was ear-piercing and brought the tears to my eyes. That was exactly that kind of scream we had been hearing all the time since we had left Tulip's house. And at the crash site.
The scream of a dying pony.
That wasn't right.

Blam!-Blam!-Blam!---Blam!-Blam!-Blam!

The raider fell silent after the grey unicorn stallion next to me sent two other bursts of fire into her head, tearing apart flesh and bones, sending drips of blood flying all across the surrounding ground. And across me.
And I, mesmerized by the fallen mares wreckage that had been her face seconds ago, started to cry.
Angel had just murdered another mare right in front of my eyes. A mare I had been about to spare, even if she had been a raider. I had been overwhelmed by my feelings and thoughts of her life and I wasn't able to do what was right. What Angel wanted me to do. So he had cleaned up my mess. He had done the right thing. So why did I fell so... miserable?

"What was that?!" the voice of another mare echoed through my mind. It was Tulip and she sounded angry. "What the hell was that, Earth? That thing was about to tackle you, to kill you and you just turned away? That was a raider!"

"I'm... I'm so sorry." I muttered. I truly was, but for what or whom was I sorry? For not killing this mare or for being so weak right now. She was right. That mare had been a raider, murdering scum, a pony who had most likely killed more than one pony in the last hour. And because I hadn't removed that flaw on the face of Equestria I had endangered my friends... no, my companions. She would've killed me first and then she would've attack my friends off their guard.
"I just...couldn't do it."

"Couldn't do it? That was a raider, a scourge of ponykind! If anything, you should be happy to kill something like that. This one alone might have slaughtered dozens of ponies just this week. What is wrong with you!"

Angel chipped in, levitating one of his guns between the enraged mare and me.

"Tulip, stop! You can't understand... you see, a stable pony..."

"I! Am! Not! A stable pony!" I screamed as loud as I could.
I was sick of this. Sick of this place, sick of all those ponies, be they dead or alive, sick of the blood in my face and all around, sick of this dirty and bug-infested rag the surface dwellers may call clothing. Sick of hiding myself for what I really was. And what I truly felt. "I am no underground-bunker-dwelling pony and I haven't come down here by my own choice! I don't want to be here, I don't want to fight, I don't want to kill and I don't want other ponies to kill! I never asked for that!"
With a loud ripping noise my I teared my overcoat to pieces, revealing my white wings and looked the gasping mare in the eyes with tears and anger in my own.
"And I don't want to hide myself anymore. You see!" I spread my wings and reared up in front of her. "I am Whirling Feather, Second Lieutenant of the reconnaissance unit Delta-4 of the Grand Pegasus Enclave city of Lunar Rock. That's what I am and nothing else. No stable pony, no Dashite, just that!"

The pink mare's jaw dropped. The pistol she hold with her magic grip shook, maybe she was taking aim at me, the "feathered spy", but I didn't care. For now all that mattered was that I finally felt free again, free of the physical and psychological bounds I had taken on not even one day earlier.

"She... she's what?!" Tulip shouted at Angel, who jumped in between me and her. "She's one of those... she's an enclave scumbag? Did you lie to... how long did you know? And don't tell me you're just as surprised as me! Tell me the truth!"

The grey buck, his two guns still floating in front of him, tried to sound nice.

"I'm sorry, Tulip, I truly am. We... I knew about your and the town's... dislike for pegasi of any kind. It just seemed much less problematic to go into a town without her being constantly treated like somepony... she is not. She is no spy and no danger for you either, she's just a mare who wants to go home again. Do you understand?"

"Why didn't you just tell me..."

"Would you have listened? Or would you have told your friends what and who she is? And can you say for sure, that they wouldn't cast her out? Or shoot her for simply being a pegasus? In case you want to shoot her right now, let me tell you: you'll have to shoot through me first."
I could see Tulip's eyes widening and she lowered her gun. Now her own eyes were sparkling with tears.
"Now listen, Tulip. Your friends are still in danger, they're fighting inside this building and we still want to help you, whether one of us got wings or not. And as long as you can inhibit your rejection against ponies like her for a few hours, then everything will be fine. Together we can save what's left of your town, but if you don't want her to come along, I won't come either. So, what's your choice?"

That was no choice and I knew that. Just as the one I had offered Angel earlier hadn't been a real choice. For a few seconds the pink mare only stared at Angel's face, I could understand why she was confused. A pony she had admired a long time ago, heck!, most likely she was still admiring him, had lied to her to help another mare. And now said pony threatened her with leaving her alone against a group of hostile ponies of an unknown force level.
Tulip dropped her weapon completely, moved sideways, past the grey unicorn in front of me, and took a look on me. I was still sat next to the raider with the blown off face, breathing heavily. I hadn't taken a single breath during Angel's speech.

"So be it." she said with a sigh, turned around again and trotted over to the hallway, that led to the place of the ongoing shootout. "If that's what you want, okay. She can come with us, but after that... Heck, I don't know what will happen afterwards! But I guess, another gun between us and the raiders is something good, even if this gun is jammed and is only there for them to shoot holes in it." And with that she vanished into the hallway. Angel wanted to give me a leg-up, but I refused. I was strong enough to stand up on my own.

"Is everything okay?" my grey companion asked while we were following Tulip towards the next battle field. "That raider I've killed... she seemed to have an impact on you."

I shook my head. Of course I wasn't okay. He had just murdered another pony right before my eyes. With the same ruthlessness the raiders had acted as they had shot us down and stared killing the others.

"I just... I felt as if I was there again. At the crash site. With all that death around me and as I had to... to kill another pony... I simply couldn't do it. It felt unnecessary. There already were so many dead ponies, I couldn't stand sending one more to the ground..."

"That's your only mistake." the unicorn answered in a low voice. "You see those raiders as ponies like yourself, like me or Tulip. But they are not. For what they've done they forfeited their right to be called ponies. You just have to think of them as the mindless beasts they are... but, " he looked at me with a sad expression. "But if you don't feel well by... fighting against them, just stay behind me. I will protect you."

An angry hiss of the mare walking a few meters in front of us made us stop. We had arrived at another corner, one corridor was crossing the one we had been walking through. To our left would be the big hall that had housed the dinner and to our right was a closed double-door, behind which I could hear the battle.

"Alright, everypony." Tulip growled, her gun floating next to her face. "Behind this door is our own "stable". As soon as we enter this room, we should search for cover, so that my people don't turn us into paste from the inside of the bunker. On my mark. I'll count to three."

The stomped her hoof to the ground.

Okay, Feather, be cool now. Just go inside and duck, then everything will be fine.
A second stomp.

Just don't get killed.
And the third!

Break a leg!

With another wave of magic the two unicorns shoved open the large double-door and together we rushed inside.
Somepony was shouting something at the other end of the room, there was the sound of fired weapons and cries of pain and anger everywhere, but the only thing I was aware of now were the sand sacks that were piled up next to a stone pillar a few meters away from the entrance. Only when the three of us had arrived at the cover my tunnel view faded and I realized, that there already was a pony, hiding behind the sacks. And that he wasn't a raider. In fact he was the crimson council pony who had been sitting next to Old Timer, the highest one, and was now wielding Angel's plasma pistol. His eyes widened in surprise as Tulip dashed right over to him.

While the two town ponies talked to each other in a rushed but relatively happy voice I tried to peak around the corner of our cover. Why were the fighters of the townsfolk even cowering behind cover if they had a bunker with what seemed like a machine gun attached to...
Angel's magic wrapped around my tail again and pull me back into the cover, just as a fusillade punched many shards of stone out of the pillar, right where my head had been eyeblinks ago, followed by a loud burst of laughter from the inside of the steely fort that was erected at the far end of the large hall. A shiny, but by now pretty gauged metallic cube that rose almost up the ceiling, with small embrasures attached to the walls and one bigger one for the main MG.
And the raiders were inside that bunker?!

"How is this possible?" I asked the Tulip and the stallion next to her. Obviously he had introduced her and Angel to the current situation already, because none of them seemed surprised by my question or asked what exactly I meant. "How did they get inside?" And why were they using guns?

"I don't know, they were here by the time the most of us came running. They started storming this place as soon as they arrived here from what I've heard. They knew exactly what they were looking for. We got most of them,but... unfortunately not all." the stallion said with a grim expression. Either he hadn't discovered my wings yet or he simply didn't care right now, because he said nothing about them. "Acting like this is highly untypical for Bloodhooves. Or - and that thought is even more terrifying - those are elite ranked raiders. The ones who extend their usage of weapons. And to cap it all, they've got a Celestia-damned griffin with them, he is the one who's using our own machine gun against us. But that doesn't matter now. How do we're getting them out of the fort again is all I'm worried about now?"

"You tried shooting?" I asked. "I mean, using the plasma pistol. From what I know the energy projectiles become extremely hot by the time they get contact with a target. Did you try... melting your way inside?"

"We're already past that. I mean, the fort was build under the instruction and with the materials of the Sparrowtans, for stable ponies: it's nearly impenetrable for smaller firearms."

"Any grenades or rockets."

"Oh, no of course, how could we forget that? You're one smart stable-filly, aren't you? Your mother must be so proud." the crimson stallion replied with a sarcastic undertone. "Listen, kid, we've got our whole weaponry behind this bunker, guess why they were so eager to build this colossal piece of trash in the first place. To protect our weapons and all the explosive stuff from whoever would attack this town. And now those raiders have occupied it and we're deep, deep down in the bloody soup of our own organs."

I could see that. Their whole weaponry they need to bust this bunker - if this was possible at all - was stashed away behind the enemy's line. Each and every attempt to break through was answered with another fusillade of machine gun fire, which had mowed down half a dozen ponies already. And this count grew larger and larger every minute, when somepony was stupid or bold enough to move out of cover to take a lucky shot at the embrasures, without success as it seemed so far. But there had to be something we could do apart from besieging this fortress for... how long? Hours? Days even? Even if this plan would succeed, it would cost the town countless ponies...

"There has to be something we can do. No besieging. Any..." I searched my mind for any bunker.busting strategy I had ever heard of in class, had read of in a book or seen in a old movie tape.
- Calling in Raptor-class air support: negative.
- Siege the enemy's position until hunger or thirst would drive them out of their fortress: I had discussed that before.
- Detonating a miniature-seized bunker-buster megaspell inside the bunker: neither did I have one of those right now nor am I inside the bunker to plant it, so: nope.
- the path of the ninjapony, hiding in the shadows, infiltrating the enemy base and taking them out without being noticed: would be nice, but I was no... on the other hoof, I was a pegasus, that would come almost as surprisingly as a ninjapony.
Worth a try!
"Are there any secret entrances the raiders don't know about?" I asked, but as soon as the words had passed my lips I felt as if I was asking for a magical alien laser-canon that could shoot right through those primitive armor plates, reducing every raider behind to dust without touching the weapons.

"No, there are no "secret passages", no air shaft leading into their backs and no secret trap door either. We wanted this place to be safe." he sighed. "And that's what we get. So as long as you're not carrying a shitload of grenades with you and your horn-headed buckfriend can't grow you a pair of wings to reach the small breathing hole on top of the bunker, I think we have no choice but to stick to the siege..." The crimson buck fell silent as he saw the sneaking looks on the faces of the two unicorns.

I spread my wings and the stallion gasped, aiming his gun at me. That seemed to be a habit of the wasteland bucks too. Angel did his best to shove away the weapon and Tulip began to talk insistently at him, explaining what she could explain about my presents. That was nice of her.

"But if I would happen to have wings, purely hypothetical: what would we do?"

What had come over me to suggest that stupid, stupid, extremely stupid action and even more important: what had driven me to agree with what I had just said? Ninjapony - pffh!
Suddenly I fluttered behind the massive stone pillar, centimeters under the ceiling, Angel's old plasma pistol held tight in my muzzle, my wings flapping and waiting for the the townsfolk's leader's signal to open fire on the bunker, hopefully covering my approach in the process. Angel had told me it was a crackpot idea, even Tulip had tried to hinder me, but no... I had to insist on being a strong, independent pegasus, that was able to save the day all on my own. Featherbrain!

"You're really sure you want to do this?" The crimson buck asked up to me, he still looked a bit confused given the latest revelation. But at least he was just as reasonable as Tulip had been, accepting me for being useful in the current situation.
I nodded shakingly... what?! I nodded?! How... stupid body of mine. Celestia curse my mind for sticking to what I had suggested! Fuck my brain, nopony needs a conscience and this stupid little thing they call coherence.
"Okay then, stable... spy... pony, on my mark." he raised one foreleg and he "leaders" of the other fighter-citizen groups did the same.
Any second he would stomp his hoof down and then all hell would break loose.
Any second now...

There was the signal, every pony who was wielding a firearm right now jumped up and unloaded their clips at the steel fortress. After waiting for a second I span around the stone structure and dashed towards the small gap between the bunker's and the room's ceiling. Just as I had reached it the machine gunner under my hooves began to return the fire. I turned around and gave the small crowd of armed town ponies an encouraging nod.

Just don't let them see how you feel about this.
Slowly I crawled along the metal plate beneath me, any noise that could originate from my hooves clomping against it were drowned by the sound of gunshots from behind. The breathing hole, my target, was only a few meters away and before I could think about it twice I was already there.

I lay down the plasma weapon and took a deep breath...

Alright Feather, you know what comes next, don't you? You will go down there and turn those fucking raiders into a fucking green pile of goo. Every last of them, don't think about it. They are evil. They are not ponies.

I gulped, took the magical energy gun in my muzzle again and slumped through the small hole.
Landing as soft as a feather I scanned my environment: raiders - three - one of them... dead?... and one griffin at the MG.They hadn't heard a thing, consumed by the shooting and the vile laughter as they were.
Three targets and I had enough charges for a dozen enemies.
I took aim at the first raider's head. A buck. Brown hide. Red mane.

Pull the trigger, Feather.

Had he dragged his dead companion in here? His friend maybe?

Don't start with that again, pussycat, raiders have no friends. They are animals. Beasts

None of them suspected a thing, most likely they would feel anything if I would shoot them.

They are evil. They don't deserve the mercy of a painless death, but you will give it to them.

You will make this place better in doing so.

I... I had to do it. I had volunteered for this, it had been my own idea.

Don't be a coward. Not again.

Show all of them that you aren't as week as they think. That you don't need to be protected.

That you can protect yourself and the ponies around you.

The gun in my muzzle shook.

Three simple moves with your tongue and it will be over.

This nightmare will be over.

Maybe I would be able to talk to them this time. The others had said that this were no ordinary raiders. Maybe I could talk...

Come on, featherbrain, do it!

They attacked you. They attacked your friends. They killed them and so many other ponies.

They deserve to die!

I steadied my weapon again.

They did this to you.

They're responsible for you being trapped down here... maybe forever!

Take vengeance!

Cloud Striker's head exploded in front of me.

Avenge them!

It is the right thing to do!

Kill them!

Then I pulled the trigger.

Three blast of magical plasma flew through the bunker and the two bucks liquified instantly as they were hit. Their giggling laughter merged with the burbling screams as their figures vanished and all what was left was a pile of green goo on the ground.
The third shot however missed the griffin, who turned around, his eyes widened in horror as he saw me.
A small pegasus mare with an instrument of death clenched between her teeth.

"Wohoho... calm down!" he screamed. "Don't do something stupid! We can talk about this, I'm sure!"

"No." I almost whispered. "We can't talk about this."

And then a fourth blast of plasma hit him, but he didn't liquify like the others had. Instead the bolt of magical energy flew towards his face and burned its path through it, exterminating those eyes, begging for mercy.
His lifeless body dropped and without hesitation I trotted towards the entrance and crashed into the heavy metal door face first. It wasn't locked.
As the door opened I saw ponies cheering. Cheering me and what I had just done.

"I'm done." I whispered and then everything around me slipped away.

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 7

Skill(s): Energy weapons 25

New Perk added: Plasma Captain

"This! Is! Plasma!"
Any damage you inflict with a magical energy weapon during a critical sneak attack is doubled. Those sneak attacks gain a chance of 15% to cause critical damage.

Chapter VIII: A Glimpse of the Goddess

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A fireball was falling from the sky and impacted on the ground with a deafening noise.

Cheers and giggles accompanied me as I trotted over to a curled-up figure.

A gun was clenched between my teeth.

Now I stood above the pony and noticed that it had wings covering its face.

Pathetic!

I shoved the wings away and stared into the face of a white mare with a blonde mane.

Her eyes were burnt out.

""")_x_("""

I jumped awake with a scream, my look darted through the room searching for... anything that would tell me I was actually awake and what I had seen moments ago had been the dream.

Okay, Feather, calm down... you're awake now... it just feels awakish. Calm down...

There were windows... good... but they were either blocked up by the cabinets or by heavy wooden planks, nailed on the window frames, and as a result there was just enough light filling the room that I could make out my environment. The room I had been sleeping in was neither our camp at Tulip's house, nor was it the large hall with the bunker and the armory at its end, this was a new one. A room I hadn't seen before. Broken desks, filing cabinets and a whole bunch of litter were decorating my environment, giving my new camp site the same look as every single one before. Those office blocks – I guess this was another office – all looked the same to me.

Just now I noticed that my hooves were clenching something. A look downwards showed me I was hugging... a pillow? An actual pillow? Well, somepony had ensured I would have a good shuteye.
Relatively good...
Shivering I tried to recap my dream... my nightmare... but its content had already slipped my mind. I just remembered it had been shocking. Horrible.
As I was about to release the bolster my hooves touched something wet at its... everywhere. Why was my pillow wet? I looked up to the ceiling. Maybe there was a hole and a shower of rain had wetted it, but that was... impossible for so many reasons, and the absence of holes in the ceiling was only the most basic one. Absentminded I raised my hoof, touched my cheek and gasped as I felt something rough and dried up.
I had been crying. And not just a little bit, considering the soaking wet bolster.

The sudden bang of a door pulled me out of my thoughts and as I turned my head towards the noise's origin I could barely see anything, except for the pink lightning bolt that knocked my down instantly. Fortunately I was still half lying half sitting on my/whoever's bedroll, so it didn't hurt too much as the pink mare – Tulip, as I remembered – dragged me to the ground again.

"You're... you're awake again." she said with a wheezy voice and not without confusion I realized she wasn't trying to choke, but to hug me. That felt weird, somehow. Taking a closer look at the pink pony's face, I wanted to make sure it was really the mare that had looked at me as if he would like to strangle me with my own wings last night. Her eyes were widened and bloodshot, her mane wasn't brushed and all in all she looked pretty... stove up, but it was indeed Tulip. And a very tired Tulip as she told me with a intense yawn right into my face.
"Finally. We were all worried sick about you." On my questioning look, she added quickly. "Well, at least Angel and I were worried sick. The others were just worried, but also a little pit pissed."

"Where is Angel? And why are you...?" I asked. I had to admit, I had rather expected it to be him than her who would be charging into my room after I had suffered... something, even if it was just exhaustion or fatigue. I didn't know why, but among all his other traits he seemed a bit over-protective to me. Just like a mother some of my teammates kept whining about a long time ago. Everything seemed to have happened such a long time ago...

"I last saw him as he was talking to the town council, that was maybe an hour ago, but the council... Old Timer likes to hear himself talking, so everything takes its time. And since I don't need to hear your story again – Angel has told me the important parts already – I was just wandering back to my own house when that one buck told me he heard a scream coming out your room. What happened? Did you...?"

"Just a bad dream." I answered. "Nothing to worry about."

Suddenly the pink mare seemed to recognize the wet pillow between my belly and hers and after backing away a little bit, her look ran over her own body then over mine and up to my face.

"You look awful." she said, her gaze swaying to and fro the soaked bolster and my caked cheeks. "What... that must've been one hell of a bad dream you had there. Just wait here for a second, I'll get you some water and a... there has to be a mirror lying around here somewhere, just... just wait a second."

"There's no need for that, Tulip. Just show me a bathroom somewhere, give me a few minutes and I'll look presentable in no time."

"You can't do that." She said, trotting over to the door again.

"Please, it was just a bad dream. There's nothing for you to worry about, I promise I won't freak out or something because of an odd reflection in the mirror." I said calmingly. "And while I appreciate your intentions, I don't need another mare mothering me anymore."

The mare blushed slightly, although, maybe she was blushing a lot, but her pink hide covered it well.

"You don't understand. You can't go, so I'll bring the stuff in here. Potato crisp!" She hammered her hoof against the wooden door three times, it opened, she vanished trough and then it closed again with a bang, followed by a series of clicking noises.

Okay... what the heck had just happened?
Here she comes, tries talking about something... and then – bamm! – she's gone again.
Weird. Her whole acting had been weird. What had Angel told her about me to "achieve" that?
After sitting there for a few seconds longer, still stunned by the pink mare's behavior, I decided to take my leave as well. My legs felt pretty alive and were eager to run free, and one of my wings was still asleep. The answer to both this problems would be a good morning walk somewhere outside, maybe even a little flight divertissement too. That would be great.

My thoughts about strolling and flying and the outside in general were suddenly concluded as the door didn't give ground to my hoof and I stumbled against the wooden board, bumping my nose on it. Okay, Feather, unlocking the door first sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?
Reaching out with my wingtip to the iron doorknob, I found it locked in place, much to my surprise.
Well, that was one malfunction definitely worth a letter of complain, if the company responsible for the door would still have existed and I would have a piece of paper and something to write on it.
I had neither.
Checked.

Knocking my hoof against the wooden door, just like Tulip had done it before, I hoped to to be able to address whoever had opened it for her. Obviously this was a known problem, since there had been somepony standing in front of it to open the door when needed. But still, Tulip could havve at least hold the door open, that would save the pony on the other side the work tear the probably jammed door open. But instead of a helping hoof removing that obstacle in my way I was greeted bluntly by a male voice behind the door.

"You're in there again?" the stallion on the other side of the door said, sounding somehow bugged. "I could swear I saw you leaving just moments ago."

In there again? Either I had been really, really drunk last night – which I usually wasn't – or he was mistaking me for Tulip.

"Ah... no, sorry, you're mistaking me for somepony else. Not again, I'm still in here. But it would be nice of you to let me out nonetheless. I would like to take a walk..."

"Sure thing. Parole?"

Parole? Was this some kind of joke?

"Ice cream?" I took a wild guess. Why would I need a password to get out of my room? Okay, it wasn't exactly my own room, but somepony had taken me here and had brought me a bedroll as well, so he or she had wanted me to be there. So it was technically my room.

"Stop playing games, Tulip..." the stallion started, but then he was interrupted by another voice, male too, equally bugged, but a bit younger and a lot harsher.

"It's her." the second buck growled, but his companion just huffed, mumbling something. I was sure, if I would be able to see through the wood I would see him shrugging. I heard what sounded like a facehoofing pony, then the second voice continued, now just as bugged than the other. "The spy? The partridge? Rings any bells? Or have you been sleeping through the last two days?" His fellow pony finally seemed to remember whatever he had been told, uttering a noise of recognition. "And do you remember what they said about talking to the her?"

"No talking?"

"Damn right, so keep your mouth shut! No talking to the prisoner means no talking to the prisoner. Nice try, feathered turkey. But you won't fool us twice." The stallion yelled and from what I knew about acoustics and given the roaring, thunder-like noise that almost threw me on my back again, I was sure an apple buck against the door followed his shout.

Okay, by Celestia's crown jewels, what the double heck?!
I wasn't sure what to be upset about first... I mean "feathered turkey"! What kind of insult was that? Had whoever had invented this quotation ever seen a turkey? Well, I had neither, at least no living one, but from what I knew birds were always feathered, making that adjectivally description pretty redundant. Feathered turkey... pffh!
What was the other thing I had decided to be upset about again? "No talking to the prisoner." The prisoner... I was a prisoner?

Suddenly the arrangement of the furniture alongside the "jammed" door made much more sense. The door wasn't malfunctioning, it was locked. And the cabinets hadn't been placed in front of the windows to keep the pale sunlight out but to keep me in.
That was what Tulip had meant. I couldn't go. I was a prisoner.

Given my lack of other options I decided to do what I always did when I was upset, grounded and had a lot of time with nothing meaningful to do: I groomed my plumage.
A prisoner! A prisoner my flank!
Hold captive by the same ponies I had... saved last night by... by sacrificing what according to Angel was my most valuable property down here: my innocence.
I had helped those ponies and they answered that by putting me in a cage like this. Why?
Because the world hated me, as I was reminded by one of my pinions whipping back into my face.

I didn't exactly know how long I had been sitting there, how often I asked myself what I had done to deserve this or how often I moaned about the lack of water for the preening to work properly, it could have been minutes or hours since Tulip had left me alone. But by the time I heard the locks clicking again, I had already come up with some accusatory words to make her feel bad.
Because that was what she... what they deserved for treating my like this.
Like a spy. Like an enemy. Like one of those raiders.

Like the raiders I had killed...
Three of them, the night before...
Three raiders - no! - two ponies and a griffin, whose lives I had ended for them.
The lives I had ended...

The words of accusatorial slipped my mind as I dashed over towards a pile of garbage, in desperate need for something...
I vomited into a cracked wooden bowl and tears followed as I put it away and threw myself to the bedroll, again hugging my pillow.

I had just killed three ponies!

The now familiar bang of the door behind me sounded dull through the veil of tears that clouded both my vision and my hearing, but I didn't care to look around, there was nopony interesting or alive enough to distract me. To distract me from what I had done.
I heard a shout. Somepony was shouting something, maybe it was my name, but it sounded distant and meaningless. Moaning something like "Go away." in return, I wanted to be alone with my self pity. And if there was one thing I wanted even more, then it was not to see, talk or smell those unthankful dirt ponies ever again.

Oh, by Celestia, if that pony shouts my name one more time, I'm going to...
Wet! Cold! Much! And it was all over my head!

With a scream I started up, my eyes searching for whoever had done this to me. The cabinets and closets seemed unsuspicious, maybe a little bit too unsuspicious, but I severely doubted the had done it. Another look up to the ceiling told me that there was still no hole to pour something down on me in it. To empty out a bucket of water right over my head, that was mean, even for... wasteland standards.
Suddenly I felt a gentle hoof touching my shoulder, I span around and looked into the face of Tulip again, her eyes widened again, but this time I saw a tiny bit of fear in them. And next to her head floated brass bowl, dripping with water. She!

"What was that about?!" She yelled, glaring at me in confusion.

"I could ask you the same thing. You just... you just showered me, for no reason!"

"Oh, so you lying on your bed, crying and nearly liquefying in your own tears and bucking at everypony trying to come close is no reason?"

Now she was pissed. Well, good, because I was too, both literally and figuratively spoken. Although I was glad and she was lucky I wasn't dressed yet.

"You've taken me prisoner; Tulip! After... after what I've done for you, for your town, for all of its inhabitants! You can't do this to me!"

"Please listen, Earth... Feather – that was your name, right? – I'm just as unpleased by the latest turns of events as you are and believe me, Angel's more pissed than I ever saw him before, if he wouldn't be a civilized pony he would most likely gun down everything the raiders left of us to express his anger. Neither of us wanted that and I can take that you two lied to me, after what Angel told me about you, but the others... they're quite prickly about stuff like that. I would be too, if I wouldn't know Angel. They think you might be an enclave spy..."

"I just saved them!" I shouted. Enclave spy, feathered turkey, prisoner... I had saved them from being torn to pieces by their own Celestia-damned machine gun. They had gotten themselves into this situation, they settled to close to the raider territory, they had left their armory unguarded and after I intervened and helped them, they still considered me a spy.
"I just saved their poor dusty flanks instead of simply walking away with Angel. I decided to step into this hell with you out of pure compassion. I've taken three lives for you..."

"...and I'm most thankful for that..."

"But you shouldn't be thankful! You should be disgusted! And you should trust me! I killed... just for you, and you still think I will... tranquilize everypony without wings around me, strap them onto my back, deport them to my secret cloud-laboratory to test rainbow acid on them, just because I'm evil! I've killed three people for you!"

"They were just raiders, not..."

"They were living beings! Two pony bucks and one male griffin. They lived and they had parents and friends and..." Now I started sobbing again and threw myself on the bedroll. Great. I looked weak and she was there, probably those two guard bucks were watching too. "...and I just burned them away. Like that. With a simple move of my tongue, each push costing another being its life. I don't care if they were raiders, if they were evil or if killing them was the "right thing to do". It just feels so wrong..."

The pink mare lay down next to me, her magic shoving away my wet mane and levitating my face up to hers, while one of her hooves was gently brushing my mane.

"It was your first... the first life you ended, wasn't it? Angel told me in confidence you are an enclave soldier, but he also said you... wouldn't act like that. I couldn't imagine... you've never killed anypony before?"

"Are you disappointed now?" I growled between two sobs. "Is it that what displeases your fellow surface dwellers? That I'm not blood-soaked enough?"

"No, it's just... odd for a pony of your age not to have killed a raider yet."

The pink mare was just as sensitive as a percussion drill, I should have seen it coming. She made it sound as if killing another pony was like cooking your own food, brushing your mane or doing your preening all by yourself. She continued to "comfort" me for about five minutes longer, using both pseudophilosophic arguments, surface allegories I didn't understand and jokes, and she didn't stop until I nearly bit her twice. She just didn't know how I felt and slowly she seemed to realize that too, resulting in her trying to get me my morning wash instead of harping on my feelings of guilt.
I was most thankful for that. No only wasn't she saying anything anymore but the cold water – at least the tiny bit that was left after her "Snap out of it"-shower – was able to banish my dreadful thinkings for the moment too, as it washed my face clean of the traces of last night. Was that how other ponies felt when the drowned their problems in whatever kind of delirium-promising distillate they were use to drink down here?

Tulip levitated some kind of towel over to me and after I had dried my face and mane, she led my over to one of the closets that were occupying the walls of my... room. Opening its doors my gaze felt on the saddle bags I had left... somewhere, I didn't remember where, but that didn't matter now, I got them back. And next to them lay my clothing, the brown and black jacket neatly folded, and the two foreleg hoofguards were placed on top, unfortunately but quite understandable without my gun in its holster. Oh, I had been looking forward to wear my "uniform" again and not only because its fabric wasn't itching all the time.

After I was dressed again, Tulip left the room again, but this time she stated expressively that I should come with her to, in her words: settle things right... again. We left the "cell" and passed my two guard bucks, both dirt brown earth ponies, who looked slightly like some of the Hyenas and were looking at me equally pissed. Shrugging off the unpleasant thoughts I followed the pink mare through the long corridors and after a while I started to remember the building. It seemed to be the one that housed the town council, the dinner the evening before and the battlefield in front of the armory, but I wasn't entirely sure until we reached the foyer again. The upcoming discomfort at the sight of countless dead ponies turned out to be reasonless, for somepony had dragged the dead bodies out and even cared to clean away the traces of the battle. Here and there were still some... red spots and the bullet holes at the walls were still existent too, but apart from that it all looked as if last night never happened.

We met only a few ponies as we made our way through the building, the pink mare trotting next to me explained that they were all busy tidying up the mess the raiders had caused. But when we happened to see one, they were looking either pretty stressed, tired or they were glaring at me and Tulip, sometimes hissing. Most of the times they did all four things. No word was spoken, except for some occasionally whispering behind our backs.
They didn't trust me.
Nopony trusted me.

"So... what happens now?" I asked after two dark green earth pony mares passed us, muttering something about a funny trial taking place in a few minutes. I hoped they were only saying this because I was there, the dinner had been trialy enough, I preferred not to imagine a wasteland trial.That would be a trial trial, a double trial... and I imagined that to be awful. Not for the outcome, they couldn't do much more than banishing me, could they? It just would be terrible while it lasted.

"They'll... question you. Old Timer and the others I mean, they will want you to tell them who you really are, why you are here and were your allies are. I would advise telling the truth, but since they've no way of expose you again, it really doesn't matter. And after that..." Tulip sighed. "...I don't know for sure what they'll do after that. Whatever you say, they won't believe you and that means you're still a potential threat to them. You'll have to leave, but... I don't know when they'll let you."
When they will let me? They couldn't continue my imprisonment!
"But don't worry, I'm sure we'll figure something out. We were caravaners after all, so a few financially well-resourced arguments should be enough to... convince them of your innocence."

Bribery then... or was it appropriate to us the word "bribery" when you were trying to keep somepony from doing something they had no right to do in the first place? And again I would cost Angel money or caps or whatever, heck, if I would stay with him much longer he would run dry soon for sure.
We arrived at what was the door to the council/dining/trial room, the doors were closed and two unicorns were standing in front of it, eying us – well, mainly me – with ill-concealed hatred. Their looks told that if it was up to them there would be no need for me to step through those doors. They would take care of me. And suddenly I realized how I was feeling, how I had felt since our first encounter with the ponies of the surface: I felt branded. Being hated not for what I did but for what I was, for what I could eventually do, even if the chance was oh so tiny. It was like being a Dashite, just the other way round. Being branded a Dashite was enough for the most enclave pegasi to shoot the barer of the mark on sight. We didn't knew exactly what he or she had done, but they were Dashites, it had do be something serious.

"Are you ready?" Tulip whispered into my ear and I nodded. How bad could it be? "Don't forget: I might be sitting in front of you, right next to your judges, but I'm still on your side. And I'll do everything I can to get you out of this mess."

And with that she gave the two guards a sign, they shoved the double-door open and together we entered the court room.
I had to admit, those surface ponies were true magicians when it came to varying the interior decoration of a room without letting it look as improvised as it was. First my own "prison cell" and now the former dining room. Where once had been the big table was now a big empty spot, the parts of the table had been either moved to the walls or were now acting as a footing of the town council's doom seat, which was located nearly at the same spot the three chief ponies had sat before. Only now they were sitting much higher.

The two guardponies guided me to the center of the space in front of the piled up tables and continued standing by my side as the oldest stallion, most likely Old Timer, who was the one sitting between Tulip and the unnamed crimson stallion, who had given me the plasma pistol last night, began to talk.

"State your name, pegasus." he said, slowly but with such high intensity I felt my feathers shaking and could barely resist to puff up to seem bigger. This was one hell of leader if he could make you feel bad and guilty without doing more than asking for your name. He reminded me a bit of the judges who had held a trial against Sunshine a long time ago. Her crime had been similar serious.

"I'm... my name is Whirling Feather." I said shakingly and added. "Your Honor."

"Well then, Whirling Feather... you know why you are here, don't you?"

"I am... no, to be honest, I don't know why I'm here. The last time I checked I was helping your people defending your town against raiders." I said with a relatively firm voice. Being self-confident seemed decent to me on the one hoof, while the other was about to beat me to a feathered pulp for not trying to be a little bit more submissive. "I can't see what crime I committed to receive that kind of treatment from you."

Now the crimson pony shook his head.

"That's not the point. Helping our people's just good if you did it for the right reasons. Now tell me: did you lie to us as you told you were a stable pony. Of course that's a question of rhetorical nature, we know you lied. Your... friend told us so."
He pointed to my right and as my eyes followed the hoof I saw Angel, dressed in his blue coat, standing at the wall, an angry look on his face. How had missed him as I entered the room? Maybe his grey hide...
"So tell us: who are you really?"

"As I said before: I am Whirling Fe..."

"State your true affiliation and intent!" the crimson one growled. That was strange, a few hours ago he hadn't seemed to mind who I was, but now... as if there was some kind of reward for..."exposing" who I was.

Okay, Feather, no use in denying it, if Angel already told them.

"I'm Whirling Feather..." Just as he wanted to interrupt me again I continued. "And I'm no stable pony. I am a citizen of Lunar Rock, city of the Grand Pegasus Enclave."

The crimson stallion emitted a triumphant laugh and turned towards his fellow councilponies.

"I told you she's a spy!"

"Please, Shotgun." Tulip cut him short. "That doesn't mean anything. Remember that one pegasus that we met a few months ago in Friendship City? The one who helped building the..."

"That doesn't mean anything. He was a Dashite, no enlcave pony anymore, while this one" he waved his foreleg into my general direction while his face was still turned to Tulip. "is definitely no such Dashite. She's still got her cutie mark and so on. So don't give me that merciful mugger thing, I won't take it. If she wouldn't be here to do damage us or spy on us, why would she use a fake name and a fake identity, huh? Why didn't she just said who she was when we first met her?"

The elder stallion between them raised his hooves and in an instant the two ponies were silent. That was authority.

"An interesting question indeed, but I think Tulip isn't the pony capable of answering that question. So" All three ponies turned towards me again. "Whirling Feather, why did you hide your true self?"

My look darted to Angel and the grey buck nodded. Truth then...

"I...we thought it would be much less problematic to let you think I would be an earth pony. We... I... we had some previous encounter where being a pegasus did more harm than good when it came to social interactions and..." Full truth. "...and my companion thought revealing my true nature to this town's citizens might cause trouble concerning our overnight stop."
Great, that sounded a lot more like taking the advantage than I had intended.

"Causing trouble..." the crimson pony – I wasn't entirely sure if Shotgun was his actual name or nickname – said with a questioning voice. "But what kind of undertaking could we possibly trouble? There's nothing out here except for raiders, dust and some tumbleweed, nothing that would lead an enclave... pony this way. Apart from watching us of course."

"We were searching... my friends..."

"Of course, your friends. Them stable ponies you joined up with to investigate that odd flying machine somewhere out in the desert, am I right." he said with smug voice. "Oh no, that's some evidence we haven't considered yet. The enclave and the stable ponies..."

What was the point of this whole show of his? Would he gain something be just making me look as if I couldn't fly and bust a cloud at the same time? Although I didn't remember doing so, but I thought myself capable of such a thing. Couldn't be that hard, could it?

"They are no stable ponies either, they are enclave just like me." I hissed at the my crimson accuser, but his smug smile grew even wider, just as if he had sniffed out another lie.

"It just keeps getting better and better. So there are even more pegasi down here? And you never considered that to be important enough to tell us?"

"Shotgun, that's..." Tulip tried to say, but now I snapped.

"No! Because it's none of your business!" I shouted. What was wrong with him? "Or should I have told you parents' middle names, my favorite type of cloud and my dress size too? "

Much to my relief Old Timer intervened before the crimson stallion could reply or launch any further accusations at me. How was he able to remain so restrained when all the ponies around him started yelling at each other. Even Angel look oddly upset, but he didn't say anything. Most likely he was either forbidden to do so or he thought it would jeopardize my case, but his facial expression confirmed what Tulip had said before: if he would have been no civilized pony, he would end this trial the leaded way.
As the elder stallion had finished calling his younger co-judge to order, which resulted in the crimson one shrinking markedly, he rose his next question.

"So you're saying that there are indeed friends of yours still out there and while I agree, that your dress size is none of our business, I still have to ask if you're really thinking it's just a coincidence, that a Sparrowtan followed you here."

"Exactly!" Shotgun suddenly grew again. "Everypony knows that the Sparrowtans only chase ponies if they're suspected of harming the wasteland population. And because he was chasing you, that means that you are a threat to us. That you are indeed a spy!"

Seeking help and with a questioning look on my face I turned my head towards Tulip and Angel. I was lost.
What was a Sparrowtan? When had I encountered one? Since when had he chased me or had he chased me at all? I hadn't noticed a thing and Angel did neither, or at least he hadn't mentioned anything about so called ponies before.

"I don't know of any "Sparrowtans", left alone one following me. Nopony followed me. What or who is that supposed to be at all?" I said, but I vaguely remembered hearing about them or something sounding quite similar before. But not at the time I had come to the surface or afterwards, an enclave class had told me something about them, history maybe.

"The griffin you killed..." Angel growled, letting the two guards to my side and the crimson pony on the tables gasp and frown. "They found some badges on his armor, showing him as a member of the elite griffin corps known as The Sparrowtans. Long story short: they're some soldiers protecting their country – or what's left of it – against the wasteland and among other things..."

While Angel continued his elucidation, I remembered. The Sparrowtans were a group of elite griffin warriors, just like the Wonderbolts – only much higher in numbers – were for the Enclave and the pre-war Equestria. They had existed long since the war and had been important a few times in griffon history, including their temporary alliance with Equestria in the Great War, but I basically thought they were extinct like the rest of the old world.

"...they're not per default on the hunt for pegasi, but they'll do everything to disrupt any sort of enclave operation on this side of the wasteland. Sworn some holy oath to bring the Enclave down since your race picked up a quarrel with theirs and, by what I've heard, you beat them."

Okay... so when they were following an enclave pegasus that meant most certainly that said pegasus was up to something. Oh, Celestia, that made me suspicious indeed, if their intelligence service was just half as efficient as our one back home. If it comes to political complot or overall public endangerment (and that usually meant something like speaking dashite thoughts out loud), those ponies were arrested faster than one could say cumulonimbus.
Old Timer shook his head and looked at me again, this time I could see fair regret in his eyes. I had to admit, the situation he was in now was none I would envy him for. He had to protect his fellow ponies from whatever threat I might be, but doing so would also mean some kind of harm to me. And I had helped them before.

"I think we..." he started, but was cut off by... Angel?

"The presence of a Sparrowtan doesn't mean anything. In fact we're not even entirely sure that this griffin was one at all. His badges could be self-made, stolen or maybe he's a outcast or a renegade. I haven't yet heard of any event in which a Sparrowtan in official mission teamed up with raiders and made havok of a neutral town, just to get rid of one enclave soldier. That simply doesn't seem like them."

"I... I know, but still..." For the first time since I knew him, Old Timer seemed a little bit doubtful. "I acknowledge your objection, but we have to deal with the potential threat your companion poses. She lied to us, hid her true intent and so on. We can't be entirely sure what she says is the truth, but your point is valid too, Angel. She might be innocent and we don't want to punish a innocent mare, especially not after she helped us defending our town. And with regard to the mysterious griffin... there's only one way we can know for sure."
The elder stallion sat up and his fellow judges did the same. "Judgment time" I thought.
"We will send a legpony to the Sparrowtans and request an identification of the fallen one. If it turns out they sent him after you, Whirling Feather, then we will hand you over, but we will still be thankful for your intervention. And if they say they don't know about him or you, then you are free to go, to do whatever you want."

That sounded reasonable and fair, but...

"Of course you will have to stay here until then. We can't take the risk of you flying away. I'm sure you understand."

"How long does the whole thing take?" I asked. I wasn't sure my journey could take a delay of a few days.

"A week. Maybe two. We've got not the fastest runners in the wasteland and they'll have to find the griffins first. And after that they'll have to discuss the matter and send a messenger of their own back to us. It'll take its time, but I'm sure you'll feel fine the time you're here. We could use a pony like you after all to build some new watchtowers."

Two weeks? Maybe even more? My jaw dropped. That wasn't acceptable. Even if my friends were still out there, be it dead or alive, they wouldn't wait three weeks for me, they couldn't wait for so long. This... verdict had to be changed.

"That's... I'm sorry, but I can stay here until the messengers return, there has to be a way to cut this short. I'm..."

My objection found a sudden end as the door behind me burst open and a group of relatively well dressed and armored ponies entered the court room, accompanied by half a dozen guard ponies, yelling at them and trying to convince them to wait outside. Some of the town's ponies even had their guns held in their muzzles. The two unicorns next to me drew theirs and span around, taking aim at the intruders.

They weren't raiders and by what my guts told me they weren't bandits or slavers either (but since when did my guts knew the truth?), the faces showed nothing but professional calm and all their weapons were still holstered at their forelegs and shoulders, three of them were carrying rifles on their backs. The ponies took their place next to me, totally ignoring the angry ponies around them and faced the council, giving me the opportunity to admire them and their clothing at close range.
The group – minus the surrounding guards of course – consisted of five ponies, three stallions and two mares, all of them dressed in the same kind of reinforced armor-clothing. Grey armor plates were covering their shoulders and chests, while the color-matching black or light grey fabric of their clothing either covered the rest of their torso, resulting in some kind of coat (bucks) or ended a few inches off their cutie marks (mares), not unlike my own. And while their clothes also covered their forelegs, I could see some of them had hitched up the sleeves for their holsters.
Like mine their outfits looked as if they would have been produced recently, if one ignored the snags and the dirt in some spots, and I assumed pre-war business clothing to be the given source material. Whoever their tailor was, he or she was just as talented as Suture, maybe even more talented. I looked at the garment I had been wearing for the last weak. No offense to Springmare's dressmaker, but compared to what I saw now, her products looked a little bit tasteless.
I wanted one of their outfits...

Just as I noticed that all of them were unicorns, their leader – I assumed – , a pre-war fedora on his head, took a step forward, thereby breaking the protective circle the townguards had formed around the group. He was... old. Not as old as Old Timer, who I would describe as a doter if it wasn't for his still well functioning mind, but he wasn't like me or Tulip too. This stallion stood in the prime of his life, his hide was of a dark yellowish green and the dark brown mane looked perfectly brushed – relatively of course, but by comparison to hairy mess I carried along with me on my head it looked gorgeous. The whole buck looked gorgeous and then his voice... as if they had come directly from before the war.

"Greetings, citizens of... here." he announced with a smooth tone, clothing his face with a gentle smile. "We've come a long way to visit your proud and thriving..."

"What do you want?" Old Timer asked, annoyance swinging in his voice. "I've worked as a merchant for the longest time of my life, I know it when somepony's trying to use his silver tongue to seduce me. So just say what you want, I'll tell you the price and then we'll get this over with. Whatever it is, I hope for you it is important or profitable enough to interrupt an ongoing trial."

The yellow stallion looked shocked for a second, but immediately he recovered his smile. That had been an harsh welcome, even by what I was used to experience. Okay, it wasn't as bad as being shot at or nearly foalnapped by random strangers, but for enclave standards it was very rude. And that towards such a handsome buck...
Pull yourself together, Feather, that's not what you should think right now!

"What we want... oh, it's actually pretty weird...You see, we were just wandering the wasteland – we get about in our business – and then, all of the sudden, we meet this one merchant, almost mistook him for a RADscorpion. Turned out he's a nice pony, good manners, some interesting stuff for sale, reasonable prices and a font of anecdotes for free. You wouldn't guess what he told us: he said that out here's a town, founded by some venturesome caravanponies. We didn't believe it until we saw it, is that right, my friends?"
The group of unicorns behind him nodded in unison.
"And since that's not fantastic enough, he also told us that there's a pegasus around here somewhere. You see, for our current business we're in desperate need for a pegasus associate..."

"We're no slave market." Old Timer answered with professional calm. "If that's all..."

"No, no, that's quite a misunderstanding. We're no slavers. As I said, our current client needs a pegasus for some... special task they want it to perform."

That sounded... gross...

"And as I said: we don't do slave trade. And even if we would, we could let her go anyways. Would you care to leave now?"

The handsome stallion's eyes wandered across the room, from the three coucilponies to Angel and the town guards behind himself and finally I stuck on me and my wings.

"So it's a her, all the better. You work with your eyes first. Okay, I know a Dashite is a valuable addition to your town's people, but I can assure you, we'll come to an agreement that's profitable for the both of us. And it doesn't involve slavery of any kind." He added the last sentence with a touch of peskiness. "We just need her for one simple job, pushing a few buttons, stuff like that.It isn't even far away, just for two days, maybe three, and then she'll be back, safe and sound. And with a good deal of caps for herself and for you."

"She accused of espo... epsi... of being a spy." Shotgun suddenly called out as Old Timer took a second to think about what had been said. "She can't go with you, because she has to stay here until the evidence of her guiltiness comes together. And that won't be until one and a half weeks at minimum. You can come back later."

"Accused of espionage, I understand..." the businesspony mumbled, his look was still lying on me, searching me for whatever he wanted to search for. "No Dashite, maybe still enclave... this should be no problem at all."
He turned his head towards the three ponies on the tables again.
"Okay, I think I understand what's going on. Basically she's grounded, you don't want her to leave, since she could return to her spy-masters and tell them about you. I don't understand why she would, but I understand your concern. However, I think I've got the solution to all our problems:"
Two smaller bags emerged from somewhere under his grey overcoat, making a climpering noise as the he levitated the first one over to Old Timer.
"Three thousand caps for you to "lend" us her for the next couple of days. We will keep her from running or flying away so that you don't have to worry about that. She'll be back soon. Take two large more as a "insurance" for us not to let her go, just because she asks nicely."
The second bag changed hooves... or magical fields... or whatever...

"And on the score of your reward..." The greeny one turned his gently smiling face towards me again. "I'm sure we can figure something out on our own. It'll be to your satisfaction, I promise. Do we have a deal?"

That sounded... ambivalent.
Of course it was very nice to escape the whole grounded-thing by doing something... with buttons. And if I would earn some money with that to repay Angel, all the better.
On the other hoof: that deal sounded a little bit too good to be true.
But if I would manage to escape them after we had reached our goal, after they would pay me... I could make it to the crash site – given I would know the exact location, but I would figure something out eventually – catch up with what was left of my friends and then... everypony would win. I would be free, Angel would be repaid, this town would have five thousand caps more – quite a lot I assumed – and those businessponies would have satisfied their client. Thinking of which, maybe I should leave a part of my paying for them, it would damage them in a financially way after all.

"I... I think I can agree with that." I said hesitantly, making Shotgun gasp in indignation. He stammered something about that action being illegal and used the word "outrageous" more than once, but finally he was silenced by Old Timer, who hesitatingly agreed too. The only thing he wanted to negotiate again was the amount of caps in play and the leader of the unicorns assigned one of the mares to this task before leaving the room, but not before he invited me to come to their own encampment for further conversations about business after this "inconvenience" ended.

And after the unbidden guests were gone, the trial was completed very fast. Powered by the bottle caps, the elder stallion basically just repeated what his younger negotiating partner had said and after that, he, his crimson co-judge and the guards left the room too, leaving Angel and me alone with Tulip again.

They were merchants after all.

""")_x_("""

"Okay... what was that?" I asked as we walked through through the town. The news about the businessponies and – much more important – the bottle caps they had left had spread like wildfire, causing the ponies we met on our way to glance at me not only in fear or ill-concealed anger, they didn't stop that, but also in... well, appreciation wasn't the right word... by Celestia's collection of scatter cushions, I wasn't able to summarize everything the town ponies' faces showed me in one word. It was condemnation with a large part of worry and a tiny pinch of thankfulness.
Angel had split off as soon as we had left the main building, promising me to get our stuff together and taking move it to my new "home". For the rest of the day if I was lucky, for the rest of the month if I wasn't.
"I mean, they completely dumped the whole trial, just because somepony threw a few caps in. Okay, it wasn't a few, it were five thousand caps, maybe more, but still... I had thought them to be a bit more adamant, I'm "posing a potential threat" after all. And Old Timer simply let me off the rope. Why didn't anypony, Shotgun at least, interfere? You're his co-judges after all."

"Co-judges?" Tulip asked and yawned. "From what kind of world are you... sorry, forgot you were not from around these lands. No, we weren't Oldy's co-judges, he was the only one with the "authority" to decide a verdict. He was the one who brought up the whole town/council-idea after all, so he was elected – or rather announced – to be the head of the council, meaning head of the town. Strange story. He and his family once lived in a giant library full of pre-war lawyer-stuff, rubbed off on him. But it works fine, so nopony questions that. Shotgun and I are... delegates for the aspects of the town Old Timer sees himself not to be an expert in. Since my father taught me what I had to know about caravans routs and -trading I the contact pony – or at least, I will be the contact pony if it comes to setting up a caravan any time soon. Red Glare..." Tulip imitated the crimson stallion's facial expression as he had tried to "unmask" me. "...he used to be the caravan guard with the most convincing stories to tell, so he's in charge of the guards now..."

Okay then...

"What?! He's the head of security? The same pony who let the raiders and the Sparrow-griffin take your armory is the mastermind behind this town's defenses?" His red hide might made him look like a aggressive opponent, but from what I've seen the night before, he could barely handle a plasma pistol. "He should've been at least a little bit thankful. I helped him doing his job after all. Accusing me of espionage is a strange way to express that you're alive and not still besieging your own arsenal."

Tulip cracked a smile, but her chuckling was interrupted by another immense yawn.

"That's exactly why he's so pissed. You did his work and took those raiders, who were out of reach for us, out. You basically saved the town and that made him look bad. It was the first real test of his strategic and his combat abilities and then there comes this one pegasus and steals all the spotlight. Not that were would've been any spotlight for him at all, like you said, without you we would most likely still stand before the bunker, hoping for miracle. So the only way to lessen the damage done to his reputation is to make your reputation even worse. Nopony likes the treacherous spy after all, even if she happened to save the town. Of course they would've made it without your help then."

While the "just one judge" rule had sounded really alien to me, I was highly familiar with the latter. Big enclave city's politics used to be a lot like this.
A vertibuck landing on top of one of the school buildings of Neighvarro – who's bad was it?
The ambassador's Raptor being put on hold – whose fault was this?
A councilpony suddenly having a new foal – who was to blame?
Even in Lunar Rock, where there was usually not that kind of excessive politic intrigue – we couldn't afford a quarreling government, the griffins had been a constant threat once, and that mentality was still established in many pegasi's heads – there had been this incident with the overloaded maneuver, the week before I had seen the surface for the first time. I didn't remember who they decided to blame at the end, but the Neighvarroian councilor was forced to praise our acting in an almost embarrassing way, especially for his own home, since the Neighvarro pegasi always boasted about their own military being the most superiorestes in the entire universe.

We came across what seemed like the town's central place, the townsfolk guided us – or rather Tulip, since most of them still refused to look at or speak to me – into the right way towards the camp of the newcomers. For quite some time now I was smelling something I couldn't really assign, but it wasn't appetizing and as we arrived at one of the gates and stepped through it, I could see why I didn't like the smell:
Half a dozen of the guardponies stood in front of a large, smoking pile of what seemed to be pony-corpses. They were burning the raiders, Tulip explained, since they didn't deserve a "proper" "funeral". I wondered whether Angel would agree.

Trotting past this burning grave I tried not to look at, we approached a couple of tents, about two or three hundred meters away from the barricades of the town. Two of the ponies I had seen before were standing in front of the larges tent, easily as big as my cell had been. How they were transporting this giant was beyond me, but I think unicorn magic would be an appropriate explanation. Unicorns were weird. Inside the large housing stood the handsome yellow stallion, hunched over a desk with some maps – pre-war maps I assumed from the excellent condition – on it and was dictating something to a mare standing behind him. His eyes darted upwards as the guardponies announced our arrival.

"Hello again, my dear." he said, slapping on his smile again, and as he spotted Tulip next to me quickly added. "...my dears. Please, take a seat." He guided us over towards a small seating area in one of the corners of his tent and asked us if we would care for a drink. The last stallion who asked this of me had been Angel in Springmare. Since I had learned from my mistake back then, I didn't reject it and was rewarded with a small glass of a carrot-flavored liquid. It glowed. Slightly, but it glowed. But it also prickled softly as I downed it. Whatever it was, I doubted it was poisonous simply doubted it was poisonous. I hadn't drank something in... it felt like weeks, but it was mostly a three-fourths of a day.

"Ah, another pony with good taste." The stallion chuckled as I sat down the glass and gave Tulip, who was still levitating it in front of her face, eyeing it suspiciously, a smugly smile and assign his assistant to show the pink mare what other drinks they had in stock.
"Finally somepony who values a Sparkle Cola RAD." he said after the two mares had trotted away and refilled my glass. "They're pretty hard to get, but it's worth the price, don't you think? Anyway, I assume you're here for your job. Trust me, it's as easy as it sounds. The only thing you'll have to do is to accompany us while we travel to an old ruin in the desert and once we're there, I'll get you to the right place, you'll go inside and bring whatever's in there to us. And after that, we'll let you go."

I accidentally spit out my current sip of Sparkle Cola as he finished his last sentence.

"You..you'll let me go? But you gave the council..."

"Five thousand caps? Peanuts in comparison to what we'll get once we emptied that facility out. Consider it as a bonus for exemplary collaboration. But now let's address the dragon in the room: your payment. Considering you're not after the caps, but if so, we can agree on that too. So... anything on your mind? Don't be shy, there's almost nothing I can't offer you. Ask for whatever you want."

Whatever I wanted...
But since a time machine was something I considered one of the few things he weren't able to give me I decided otherwise.

"Earlier you said you were coming about due to your business. May I ask you if you... if you have seen other pegasi lately. Enclave ones I mean. You see, I've got some friends out there somewhere and we were attacked by raiders. Did you... see them? Were they...well? Alive?"
The businesspony seemed to gather his thoughts for a second, then he nodded.
And my heart exploded in joy.
"Can you... can you bring me to them after we're finished or maybe just point me into the right direction? That would be all the reward I would need. Maybe five hundred bottle caps, I've still got some depts to square, mister..."

"Of course, of course. Anything you want." he said while pushing me back into my seat again. In my excitement I had literally climbed the table between us. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for such an valuable and crucial member of our group..."

"Is that her, Silver Tongue?!" Somepony asked from the entrance. Definitely a female voice, but it wasn't Tulip's. Turning my head around I saw a pale, yet dirty orange mare standing next to the two guardponies. She was an unicorn, just like all the others, but her clothes didn't match quite their aesthetics. She was dressed in a tattered, purple hemmed red robe that covered her body from chest up to her hindlegs, but was cut short there, resulting in the lower half of her legs being still free. As were her forelegs, but those were covered in several holsters, none of them were holding a weapon, but bunch of screw drivers, spark batteries, several technical device thingies of unknown functions and something that looked like a set of bobby pins. Why would she or anypony carry bobby pins around? As far as I could tell, they weren't meant for her ginger mane, that was mussed up and just as dusty as the rest of the mare.
"Is that the one who's supposed to open the top of the treasure chest for us?"

The yellow stallion, apparently his name was Silver Tongue, nodded and rose from his seat.

"Indeed, that's her. We just negotiated her payment and are ready to leave any minute. Allow me to introduce..."

"That isn't necessary, I'll do that myself." The orange mare stepped closer towards me. She was barely older than me, if she was older at all, as I saw now, but life in the wasteland had left visible traces on her face, making her look both older and intimidating. As I tried to avoid direct eye contact my eyes spotted two vaguely familiar markings on her red robe: a set of gears, a sword bisecting them and all of that stuffed into a apple-shaped frame. The logo of the Ministry of Wartime Technology.
"Can't say it's a pleasure to meet you, pegasus, but since you're of the party now I can just as well introduce myself: Hi. Your name doesn't matter. I'm Scribe Gingerbread of the Steel Rangers, wider area Trottingham."

"But Trottingham's more than..." I tried to remember a pre-war map I had once seen in one of the enclave museums, showing the relative location of several enclave cities to the mayor cities of the pre-war Equestria. "...it's very far away."

"Yes, that's why I said wider area, featherbrain. So, did Silver told you about what we're heading for." I shook my head. That it should be easy was all I knew for now. "Good. The lesser you know the better. Just catch that we haven't recruited you for your character, your skills or your good looks. I heard you shot three raiders in the back last night, well buh huh huh, good for you, but we don't need somepony like you. Your wings are the only reason we're giving you the opportunity to do something productive. So gather whatever you want to take with you and make yourself ready to go. We're leaving in fifteen minutes."

And with that the orange mare turned around again and left the tent, leaving Silver Tongue and the confused me behind. I noticed just now I was shaking slightly.

"Yeah... okay, so now you know her too. The Steel Rangers are our customer for this mission and their elder, or whatever superior they have, lacked of anything better to do than sending us the most grumpy scribe I've ever seen or heard of, so... we have to deal with her. Junior Scribe Gingerbread, that's who she really is, though she hates being called like that. Just keep that in mind."

A rumbling sound from outside the tent forced the two of us to end our talk again, because the pony that now entered Silver Tongue's base of operation was no other than Angel. He look tired and he was a bit out of breath, but it was him, his and my saddle bags strapped to his bag.

"I want to join you too. No payment, just go with you." The grey buck coughed as he unscrewed a bottle of water he had levitated out of his bag and took a deep sip. "Please. I was a caravan guard for the last ten years. Another pair of guns between you and whatever lives out there's nothing you can get that cheap very often."

"Agreed." the yellow stallion said and clopped his hooves together. "Since a no-pay contract doesn't need any paperwork, you're in. Get your stuff, we're leaving in ten minutes."

""")_x_("""

They didn't lie about the whole thing taking place in the middle of a desert. For five or six or seven hours now we were marching through a featureless landscape of sand and a few tiny rocks now and then. The only plus side: there were no monsters or raiders or other ponies either.
After Angel had successfully joined our "science expedition" as Silver Tongue had jestingly named the party, we had watched the business unicorns pulling their own baggage together, literally. They folded the large tent so many times it easily fit into one of their saddle bags. Unicorn magic.
We said good bye to Tulip, who was just now returning with a glass of water, thanked her for what she had done for us and after that Angel levitated a piece of paper over to her, saying it was in case they reconsidered their plan to settle down here.

And after that we set off. Our group now consisted of six businessponies, the four I had seen before, Silver Tongue and one additional one who had guarded their camp, Angel, me, Gingerbread and her two bodyguards, cased in a bulky, grey power armor. It looked slightly like the shining armor the Silverish Guard of Lunar Rock used, but it looked a bit battered, the steel was dull, several parts were obviously broken and patched up with scrap metal and instead of metal wings, two boxes were strapped to their sides. Those were no saddle bags, but heavy battle saddles incorporated in the power armor, like the ones the enclave soldiers used, the only difference was the bulkiness and the size of the barding.

The two "body guards" were Steel Rangers themselves, as Angel told me on the way through the desert. A group of heavily armed ponies, founded before the war and with a strong connection to the Ministry of Wartime Technology. Their firepower was exceeding every other known faction of the Equestrian Wasteland except fo the enclave military – if you could count the Enclave as a wasteland faction. They were collecting and preserving technology and searched pre-war facilities that weren't rifled yet. Gingerbread on the other hoof was a scribe – or junior scribe if Silver Tongue was to be trusted. They were the brains behind all the Rangers' operations, sighting, sizing, cataloging and archiving the tech their muscles, the rangers, dragged along.
In contrast to their leader the two rangers were at least not rubbing my nose in their disapproval, since they were silent most of the time.

I could see now why they were associated with the company of the buisnessponies, though I didn't understand why they needed to. From what I could see their armor and weapons would protect them from who- or whatever wasn't scared away by them. But neither of the two leaders nor their henchponies were talkative about their motives. But except for Silver Tongue and Angel, nonpony in our group seemed talkative at all.

The afternoon sun was already setting as we reached a large rock formation and the yellow stallion gave us the signal to stop. Whatever was our destination was, apparently we had reached it.

"We're here." Silver Tongue announced, pointing a hoof at the mountain of rocks. "The storage facility of the StTRDUbATiAwMoA." He had to make several attempts and looked at his map about ten times to utter the last acronym. And I had thought the ETRFABT, the Enclave Research Facility for Airborne Battle Technology – basically the pegasi who tried to maintain enclave battle saddles, energy weapons and aircrafts – was a name that was hard to memorize. But no! the pre-war ponies had a habit of making everything more complicated than it already was.
"Its full name is Stable-Tec Research Department for Unusual but Awesome Technology in Association with the Ministry of Awesome" he added with a look at my questioning face. "But usually it's simply called the Stable Tech Storeroom. It's much catchier. Now watch out for whatever kind of entrance might lead in there."

We split up in all directions. Was this the action they needed me for? Circling above some rocks, trying to spot a door or a cave or something looking like an entrance, that seemed almost too easy to pay somepony for. No, this couldn't be my task, it was said it involved pushing buttons. So it would most likely take place inside the... building/cave/storeroom, whatever it would turn out to be.

Rocks, rocks, rocks, nothing but the same rocks again and again.
Scanning the landscape beneath me only halfhearted I started to think about what we were searching for. The StTRandsoon. In association with the Ministry of Awesome, the ministry lead by the infamous Rainbow Dash. The Traitor. Every pegasus learned about her and Fluttershy in school, but while there were loads and loads of information about the Ministry of Peace, the only thing we really knew about the MoA was that there was nothing to know about it. Most of its hubs were storage rooms for other ministries' gear and stuff, nothing interesting.

And now we were searching for a research facility that had something to do with that most unproductive of all ministries. It felt strange, but I would have a story to tell once I was reunited with my friends. My still living friends my brain added and my heart cheered again.

"I've got it!" a voice from below called out and as I landed next to the mare the others had already crowded around her and what she had found. The dark navy mare was standing before a large foothill and wiped away the dust covering a small... terminal. Built into a rock? In contrast to the other surface terminal I had seen yet, this one looked pretty much intact and strangely clean, its screen was glowing in a soft cyan light. "I think... I think it's locked"

"Get out of the way, I'll have a look on that." Gingerbread and the two Steel Rangers shoved themselves through the small crowd – actually the two bucks shoved and she just followed them – nudging a few ponies, myself included, out of their way. The pale orange whipped out one of her technical devices and connected it to the terminal, but after only ten seconds she snorted in contempt. "It's not locked, you dumb pony, it's wide open in fact. The only thing you have to do..." she detached her device from the terminal again and pressed her hoof against a small, virtual button on the screen. "...is to press the OPEN key."

With a loud crackle and a lot of falling stones the escarpment on our left drifted apart, revealing a large and shiny steel door. Ministry of Awesome was written on the top and a storm cloud with a black and white lightning bolt beneath it covered the central ring of the gate. With a low hiss, the ring turned rotated once, then several yellow and red lights came to life as it opened.
Silent and with awe we stepped inside.

On the inside it looked... untidy.
The storeroom's elongated foyer looked as if a sand storm had ripped through it a long time ago. The metal floor was covered in dirt, dust and smaller rocks. Clip boards and sheets of paper, the usual litter, were lying all over the place and the glass window of the reception counter was smashed. I couldn't spot anything I would classify as valuable. Apparently somepony had been here before.

"Are we... too late?" I asked hesitantly. That didn't look good. Bye bye freedom.

"No, we've just been here before." One of the Steel Rangers said, his voice muffled by his heavy helmet. "A few schematics for unfunctional battle saddles, one or two beam rifles, three crates with spark grenades and disruptor ammunition, a shitload of sensor modules and a broken small framed minigun, that was it. One big pratfall if you ask me."

"Don't talk to her." Gingerbread hissed as she trotted past us. "There's only one reason she's here, and that reason isn't to entertain you. So, can you start now? We don't have all day."

Silver Tongue nodded and stepped to my side.

"Indeed. Follow me, Feather, as I promised I'll take you to the place you're needed the most. And you lot..." he turned towards the crowd of ponies that had spread out among the destroyed furniture of the foyer, "you should search the room. Maybe your prior troops forgot something. Gingerbread, you should stay with them. I promise we won't steal whatever's hidden behind this door, become invisible and sneak past you. If the door's open I'll call for you, okay?" He smiled, the orange mare looked highly displeased, but obeyed his command. He really had a silver tongue. And with a final nod towards his fellow businessponies he added. "Take care of whatever's left."

We strode the foyer and another MoA logo door opened as we stepped close. Angel wanted to come with us, but his request was instantly denied by both the rangers and the businessponies. The cocks of his weapons clicked back not until the small crowd and I myself made an attempt to persuade him, I with the most heart-melting look I was capable of and the other... by readying their own weapons.
Behind the gate was a elevator, labeled "Vault". Silver Tongue levitated a small card out of one of his pockets and held it in front of a grey and yellow striped field at the right end of the lift.
The door slid close behind us and a bright blue light filled the chamber for a few seconds, then there was a *bing* and a female, but indubitable mechanic voice announced: Keycard accepted. Welcome CEO Scootaloo. Warning: For reasons of safety and mental stability only two ponies are allowed to enter the vault at once. The maximum of two passengers is reached. The elevator will start moving now. Have a nice day.
And just as the voice had said the lift started rattling down its shaft immediately.

"What's done there to justify a regulation like this?" I asked to bridge the silence. How deep down were we going? From what I heard the lift was moving Celestia-damn fast, we had been driving for a few minutes now and still hadn't reached our destination. "I mean: reasons of mental stability? What is it, that they stash it away that deep underground?"

"I don't know. The last scribe and I made this ride once, but all we found was a locked door, the one you are supposed to open. Whatever it is, the Steel Rangers believe it might be something very, very important and I'm willing to believe them. MoA bunkers hold, if any at all, few but very precious pre-war treasures. It might be a piece of armor that makes its wearer invincible, maybe it's some kind of unlimited power-source, a weapon of mass destruction or even a megaspell. Whatever it is, that it is hidden away is reason enough for them to get their hooves on it." he said with a little bit of disdain in his voice. "And after they got it they'll stash it away, to "preserve" it. Nopony will ever use it again. But since they're the only ponies of the wasteland with the knowledge about how to read those pre-war maps, we have to choose, whether we let them or the wasteland keep it. The wasteland may not pay me beforehand, but maybe..."

Before he could elaborate his thoughts any further the elevator door slid open again and we stepped out. I had expected a gap, an unscalable altitude difference or something like that, but what I saw now was just twenty meters of tunnel, leading towards a lonely door of steel and glass. No large gate like the two before, with the storm cloud on them, this looked just like normal security door in Lunar Rock. I took a few steps into the tunnel and looked for something that looked more like I would be able to do something, but nope!, no junction, no other doors, just the dark corridor and the shiny door at its end.

"Why am I here?" I asked, turning my head towards the yellow stallion. "I don't see what my wings can do here. There's nothing a skilled technician like Gingerbread can't do better than me..."

"It's not about how skilled you are." he responded and signaled me to follow him through the darkness and towards the light. "Like Gingerbread told you, even if it was quite rude, we didn't recruit you for your skills or your good looks. We took you with us for what you are and your wings are only one piece of your nature. Every of the three pony races is different on the inside too and that is why we need you. You see..."
He trotted towards the door and held his hoof against a lighted grey area next to it. There was beep, a noise as if something small sprang out and cut through flesh. With a hiss, Silver Tongue pulled back his hoof, a small, bleeding wound on its bottom.
Then the female elevator voice spoke again:
Access denied. DNA sample doesn't match paradigma. Activate audio-message:

Another voice started to speak. Not a synthetic one, but the voice of an actual pony. A recording:

"Pony who seeks what is stored here: turn your back on this vault. Your DNA sample doesn't match the precept. You're no pegasus, so what is save inside this bunker is of no use for you. Leave for your own sake. "

"See now why we need you?" he said while his magic was wrapping a healing bandage around his wounded hoof. "That thing won't let one of us in there, telling us that's dangerous to go inside, that trying is futile and that we wouldn't have any use for what's in there, since we are no pegasi. Trust me, the last Rangers tried everything to breach this door, they even tried to remove the walls around it, but nothing worked. But you... you can open the door, get inside and bring whatever's in there out."

"Or maybe... maybe we should leave, like the voice said." I said with a low voice for no reason. Whatever was hidden behind this door, it made my feathers stood on end. "I mean, it's pretty clear that what's in there is pretty dangerous and won't be of any use for the Steel Rangers. I have to admit, the whole thing seems... I'm not... comfortable with the whole thing."

"I'm not comfortable with it either, believe me, I thought the exact same thing as I stood before this door the first time and I tried to convince him as well. But Steel Rangers... don't really think about stuff like that when it comes to technology. Like I said: they tried everything to get in there. But I think it's the best for all of us, if we do what they want us to do. They paid me and I paid for your freedom, so we... owe them and I begrudge saying so. So please," he took a few steps backwards and pointed his hoof at the grey panel. "do what you're supposed to do. Try to think of something nice, then it won't hurt at all."

I gulped. He was right. I owned them. But I still felt really, really uneasy as I approached the door and took off armored hoofguards.

Okay, Feather, think of soaring through the skies and raise...Ouch!
A siren went off as the small needle that had pierced into my hoof drew back and with a soft thump a transparent glassy wall closed the opening behind me. I could see Silver Tongue looking shocked and being frozen in place, then the steel door behind me opened with a hiss and bright white light blinded me.

Get a hold of yourself, featherbrain! There are no killer robots or zombies in there. You are a pegasus, the voice said – well, indicated – that it isn't dangerous for pegasi.
I took one last breath and stepped through the door.

The bright white light faded as soon as I had paced the door, but to make things worse again, said door closed behind me again. After my eyes recovered form the sensual overload and I opened them again, I found myself inside a long room, maybe fifty square meters, with a operating table at the hind wall. It was attached to the wall and fortunately nopony hang on it. And apart from that, there was... nothing. No weapons, no computers, no furniture, heck! not even the usual litter.
The room was completely empty, except for the operating table.
As I took my first steps forward a static crackling noise erupted out of nowhere and a voice started to talk. It was the same voice as the one before. Not the computer voice, but the mare's from earlier:

Post-War Protocol 1.4.13
Scootaloo here, you might... no, you won't know me. You won't know anything anymore. But that's not your fault, it's ours...
Hello there, whoever you might be. If you hear this specific audio message, that means that none of our employers has pressed the reset-button and that means that this is at least the sesquicentenary of the last day of pony kind. I don't know how things are out there in Equestria now, but I guess it's bad. Our scientist have predicted a uninhabitable wasteland, but since you're here now, that means we managed to save at least one pony.

You know what: screw all this. Screw the introduction, the long and sad sob story about what has gone wrong or why it's entirely our own fault. I made too many of those Luna... Celestia... of those damn recordings. One year, two years, five, ten, fifty years and one for every damn Stable, I don't want to do this anymore!
Calm down, Scoots.

Okay, you might have noticed the Auto-Doc at the end of this room. It's connected to this installation's main power-source. A piece of... science. It powers this whole facility on its own and to top it all, it's merely hoof-sized. We at Stable-Tec and the Ministry of Awesome worked hard for that piece of technology, it's a gift for all of... for what is left of Equestria. A way of independent energy, that would make this whole stupid war lapse. But since you're hearing this message... destiny was faster. It obviously didn't manage to stop the war, but maybe it can help the ponies who survived it.

The Auto-Doc will... equip you with this device, so you can bring its blessing to your fellow ponies. Unfortunately I can't let you leave without... forcing you to take that blessing. The door behind you will open again once the procedure's completed. I'm sorry for that, but it's for your... no, for pony kind's good. Might work, might not, but it's worth a shot, trust me.

There'll be a manual on how to use it, it'll explain everything I can't.
Scootaloo out.

I eyed the table at the end of the room with suspicion. I didn't want to know, how exactly this Auto-Doc-thing would "give" me the science-power-device-thingy, but the door behind me was sealed until I would embrace whatever this mare, this Scootaloo, was willing to give to me or another pegasus would open it. And I couldn't wait that long! My friends were out there and I would see them again, once I had finished this last inconvenience. And whatever it was, I doubted it would be as painful as getting shot in the leg or... killing another pony.
Trotting towards the ominous apparatus felt like reporting to my father when I had been a little filly and had done something wrong. It felt like marching into my doom. The black walls did nothing to lighten the mood.

The metallic table looked even more ominous as I had arrived. A pony-shaped pit was engraved on the steel plate. I couldn't see any operation equipment, that made me feel a little bit better, but the seven metal rings, that would hold down my legs, my wings and my head, drowned this spark of hope again. Oh, dear...

I reared up and pressed my back against the metallic surface and hoped for both nothing and something to happen. A smart move, that way I felt relieved as the metal rings snapped shut, pinning me on the table. I sent a prayer to Celestia and Luna as the operating table moved – dear Celestia, it moved – and brought me to a horizontal position. There were several clicking noises, I couldn't turn my head, but I felt that numerous needles pierce my forelgs, my hindlegs, my entire body, even my wings. And almost immediately my whole body felt numb. After that a robotic arm emerged from the ceiling, holding a mask and attached it to my muzzle.

A narcosis, goddesses be blessed!

But... why was I still awake? Wasn't a narcosis supposed to... put me to sleep?
A red light was blinking next to the robotic arm and the synthetic voice announced:

Error: narcotics either corrupted or the supply system damaged. Patient will be conscious. Operation proceeds. Medical advice: Think of something nice. Here are a few examples: the sun, the moon, a cloud, a mare, a stallion, a sip of Sparkle Cola...

Oh, I tried to think of one of those, but my mind was dominated my the images of my body getting sliced open by buzzsaws. I was most thankful that I couldn't move my head as the Auto-Doc started butchering me.

""")_x_("""

I didn't know how long I had laid on that gruesome machine, but after a period of time – could have been hours or minutes – the metal straps disappeared into their casings in the steel again. For a few moments I couldn't believe that this... operation had ended. I had imagined it lasting for ever and ever, but now it was finished. For real!
I sat up most carefully and tried to move my limbs. It worked, much to my surprise. This anesthetic had worn off just the right moment. I was either damn lucky or those pre-war doctors knew how to anesthetize a pony. That sounded somehow wrong...
My gaze wandered to my side, to my limbs, my forelegs and with a gasp I saw...
...that nothing had changed. No leg or wing was missing, my hide was still white and even that one scar by the Hyenas was still there. It looked as if nothing had happened at all.
Maybe all of this had been just a tasteless joke?

I rolled down the table and tried to land with the grace a pegasus was famous for, but instead I bumped to the ground. Obviously, being able to move your limbs and them being at their full strength were two different pairs of horseshoes. Grumbling I heaved myself up again as a bright light flashed across my vision. Again.
I covered my eyes with my wings, but the light was to bright and penetrated the feathers, so I closed my eyes, but it didn't disappear either, it was... by Celestia, the light was inside my head!
And then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone again. Weird.

Hello, new owner of the PegasusBuck 20 "Salvation"

This message is fully automated and will start playing five minutes after the device is

activated and connected to your neural system.

I shrieked as a mechanic voice began to speak... inside my head!

Your body has been upgraded with the most advanced piece of technology this Stable-Tec

facility ever produces, so be proud.

While you're hearing this words, the Salvation collects your body's vital data and sets up the

Body Monitoring Spell (BMS), the Eyes Forward Sparkle (EFS) and Inventory

Management Spell (IMS). Note the two last features are activated by a thought and

further controlled by your own hooves. Think "Activate EFS" now, to activate your EFS.

Don't tell me what to think... damn it I had thought it!

An unusual EFS compass appeared at the top end of my... vision. That freaked me out! The Enclave military gave us special visors that would show us this radar-system, but now...
It was of a cyan blue and showed both the cardinal directions and one lonely dot straight in front of me. Silver Tongue. He was still there.

Think "Deactivate EFS" now to deactivate your EFS.

And it was gone.

Activate EFS – there it was.
Deactivate EFS – it was gone.

Awesome! Maybe not everything is bad.

Combat system is prepared, please stand by.

Wait, what? Combat?

Slowly I trotted towards the steel door again, and to my relieve, it opened with the same soft hiss than before. Scootaloo hadn't lied about that. Outside stood the yellow buck and his eyes widened, as I left the now completely dark room. He looked tired and a little bit angry, quite understandable, since I had been inside this room for at least an hour.

"Did you find something in there?" he asked with a yawn.

I hesitated. Yes, I had found something, but... I couldn't give it to him, nor the Steel Rangers, neither willingly nor unwillingly. That thing, the Salvation, it was a part of me now. I shook my head.

"You... you didn't find anything? That... that's impossible!" he reared up and bucked both his forelegs against the wall with a loud crack. "We were sure about something big being stored here, now we go in and there's nothing. That... that cannot be!" Another enraged apple-buck against the wall. "We paid thousands and thousands of caps, we eliminated those rangers and what for? For nothing! This! Is! Impossible!"

Suddenly he seemed to notice my guilty expression. I couldn't help but to look at least a little bit guilty, I was playing him after all.

"Except of course... what if you're lying." He fell on all four legs again and looked at me, gloweringly. "What if you found something in there, but want to keep it for yourself. Let me ask you one simple question: what have you done in there for the last two hours."

So it had been two hours... that was a long time.

"What have you done in there!" Silver Tongue shouted. "You have found something, I can see it in your eyes! You're a filthy feathered thief, nothing more. You tried to betray me, the one who saved you! The one who bought you your freedom!" His forelegs pressed me against the steel door behind me and I gasped for air. "Give it to me!"

"I... I can't..." I stammered, gasping for air. "It's of no use for you..."

"I don't care. I want what you found in there. Give it to me!" he growled, murder in his eyes.

"That... that's impossible. It's... it's inside me... I can't..."

Suddenly his hooves disappeared and I was able to breath again, but not for long, since his magic grasped my own forelgs and then he chucked me down to the ground with enormous force. I lay on my back and was just about to rise again, as the stallion's forelegs pressed my wings to the ground again, making me cry in agony. He was lying on top of me now and I could feel his heavy breathing on my face.

"So... it's inside you, huh? Well, there will be something else inside you soon, thief. And it won't be over in two hours, no, I'll make it last."

My heartbeat accelerated as I understood what he was about to do.
No, no, I would let that happen! I had to do something.

I tried to kick him, but his own hindlegs were pressing mine down.
I tried to swing my forelegs at his face, but his magic hold both of them down.
Both of them?

No, somehow the magical field around my right foreleg imploded and I punched his face as hard as I could. But apart from him becoming even more angry and an horned headbutt it didn't accomplish anything.

In my desperation I set my right hoof against his forehead, closed my eyes and tried to push him away from me.
I didn't want this to happen!

Salvation Combat Mode fully active.

Adrenaline detected! Danger ahead.

Isolate Moonstone element.

He uttered a gurgling cry and as I opened my eyes again, I was blinded by a white and golden light that was bathing my face now. And I hold my breath as I saw what happened to Silver Tongue's face, from where this light was coming:

It is said, the eyes are windows to a pony's soul.

If that was true, then, right now, I was watching his soul burn.

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 8

Skill(s): Unarmed 25

New Perk added: Savior of the Surface

"I do as I am told, because I'm a good pony."
You have been given the important task to spread... whatever Scootaloo meant across the Equestrian Wasteland. Nopony can stop you on your Holy Mission. Your Damage Threshold (DT) increases by 3 even if you're not wearing armor.

Quest Perk added: Reflex Booster

"Two down, three hundred to go."
Due to the cybernetic implants of the PegasusBuck 20 your Agility increases by 1

Quest Perk added: Salvation

"And Celestia said: Let there be light. And the light scorched all evil."
A tap on an enemy's head activates the internal Moonstone-powered combat systems of the Salvation, that disrupts his/her magic abilities and burns away their souls. A Salvation kill won't grant you any Experience Points, nor does it trigger any other kill-related perks. A Salvation kill can only be applied to one enemy at a time and only when you are in melee range.
But be careful: Stronger souls take longer to burn.

Chapter IX: Ranger in distress

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I squatted next to the door that led into the vault and stared at my hooves. I didn't want to see what I had just done.

The yellow stallion, Silver Tongue, lay in front of me, his face turned away from me. But I didn't need to see it, its image was still burned onto the back of my eyes.
His nose bleeding from my first and only strike.
His gaping muzzle, opened wide in surprise, fear and pain.
And his eyes... those dead and blind eyes that had blazed like Celestia's sun itself the moment I had...
I didn't know what I had done. But whatever happened, he was dead now and I felt... nothing.

And I hated myself for that.

Why wasn't I feeling anything? Why didn't I hate myself or liquified in tears like after I had killed the raiders? They had been scum, everypony told me that, they had been murderers and many more evil things. They had killed countless ponies before, they had attacked my friends and they had killed an unknown amount of the townsfolk too. I had proof of that, I had seen it myself. They had been evil, I had killed them and felt bad afterwards.
Silver Tongue on the other hoof....
He hadn't been a bad pony, I thought so at least, he had just experienced a disappointment, a big one, and had lost much money. And to cap it all, I had tried to play him, to smuggle away his prize, even if he couldn't use it. He got angry and... simply lost control, I guess.
The only thing I had done was defending myself. I hadn't known what this thing... the Salvation... the device that was now integrated into my right foreleg, was capable of. I admit, I had hoped for a miracle, for one of the goddesses to descend from the heavens to save me, but this... this had exceeded my wishes to the point it scared me.

I had wished for... for everything to end in a peaceful way. I had tried to convince him that what I had taken was of no use for him, to talk my way out, but instead I had taken another pony's life in the most horrible way I could imagine. I shuddered as I remembered.
Being decapitated by a heavy-calibered gun was quick. Getting shot with a magical plasma weapon was over quickly too, at least that was what I had been told back home, that a pony wouldn't feel the liquefaction process at all. And I trusted them.
But what had happened what seemed like an hour ago... that had lasted. It had lasted about five seconds, five seconds I had laid there, frozen in place, and watched the handsome yellow stallion die in agony, as I kept pressing my hoof against his forehead, delivering whatever hellish pain he had felt that moment.
And then it had been over, his body had slackened, slid to the ground next to me and in horror I had dashed towards the door again.

And since then I sat there, asking myself why I wasn't feeling terrible. Last night I had killed three ponies, but was it that? Was it just the number of lives that made me feeling guilt for taking them? What had been different?
This had been self defense. He had been trying to hurt me and to prevent him from doing that I had - accidentally - killed him. He hadn't endangered Angel or somepony only vaguely known to me, he had endangered me. Was I truly that selfish?
Or was it like Tulip had told me before I snapped at her, that it would be easier the next time? That I would get used to it? But I didn't want this to happen, I didn't want to become used to it.

Pull yourself together, Feather! It was just self defense! Nopony will condemn you, nopony but you!

Apart from Silver Tongue's companions... I would have to tell them what happened, explain why I had to do what I had done. And hopefully, they would understand when I would go up to them again.
Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Quit the whining, go up there and face the consequences of my doings. Even if that meant searching the corpse in front of me to get his elevator-activating keycard.

You're a strong and grown-up mare, you are not - I repeat - not afraid of somepony's corpse!

I heaved myself up and started trotting towards the pony on the ground. If I didn't know his ultimate fate I could have mistaken him for sleeping. He looked peaceful, relaxed and nothing like the raider after Angel had mauled her. But of course this illusion was shattered into a thousand pieces as I had rounded him. His face was still a grimace of horror and pain, his white eyes stared into the void and something like traces of dried-up tears ran down his cheeks. I would rather not like to know what exactly it was.

Kneeling down in front of him I tried to loosen his small saddle bags. It was quite difficult, since I tried not to touch him, but finally I managed to reach the belt buckle that hold them in place, opened them and pulled away the bags. Emptying them out on the floor I found a few bottles of water, magazines for the gun he was carrying - a 9mm like mine, but in much better shape - the map he had used earlier and something that look like an old audio recording. Well, since I lacked a fitting play-back device I had no use for that. Apart from that there were just a few papers with a hoofwriting I could read, regardless how hard I tried.
I felt a little bit uncomfortable as I slipped the items into my own saddle bags, but I kept telling myself that he was already dead and that they would be of no use to him anymore. I eyed his armor for a brief moment, but then I slapped my face for even thinking about that. Killing a another pony and taking his stuff was bad enough, stripping him as well seemed a bit... too much. Of course a pony had no problem with not wearing anything, but I would never be able to wear a dead ponies clothing, as pretty and well made as it might have been.

The keycard I looked for was nowhere to see among the litter that was now scattered across the ground. That meant that it was still in his jacket. Great. Now I had to search his corpse. With shivering hooves I reached out under Silver Tongue's lifeless body, gulped and turned him around, so that he lay on his back. Now I started rifling though the few pockets he had and I was glad as I found the card inside the second one I tried. Maybe not all the odds were stacked against me.
With the keycard hold in my pinions I turned my back on the the dead stallion and trotted over to the elevator shaft, pressed the card against the panel and with a hiss, the door closed behind me.

Keycard accepted. Welcome CEO Scootaloo. You are leaving the Vault now.

Another wave of blue light and with a bit of rumble, the cabin started moving. It would take a while before I would arrive at the surface again, so I sat down in a corner and closed my eyes. And just as my thoughts grazed the matter of my near future, it occurred to me that I had bigger - well, maybe not bigger, but other - problems concerning my overall future. With their leader dead and me being his murderer, like hell they would let me go, if they wouldn't shot me on the spot. And the Steel Rangers...
I didn't have illusions about them reaching out to help me. Apart from Gingerbread's basic dislike for me, I wasn't able to bring them what they wanted and because of that they had no reason to protect me any further. No bright prospects at all.
Gulping I tried to weight my... our odds. Angel would fight alongside me, that was for sure, but even if the Rangers remained neutral, it would still be the two of us against five well armed and armored ponies with an urge to kill me. If we could take them by surprise... but that would mean shoot first and ask questions later and was the exact same mentality I disliked at Angel. And it would most likely turn the Rangers hostile as well.

I was doomed.

Suddenly the rumbling stopped and the elevator's door opened in front of me, making me jump up. That had been less time to think than I liked. Damn it, Celestia, why had everything turned bad so quickly? If the device I had found had been just another sensor module or would be at least outside my body, it would all be fine, but no! of course everything had to get complicated.
Slowly I trotted towards the gate with the storm cloud on it, bracing myself for what would happen.
It would've been so much easier if the ponies of the surface would just carry flags along with them to indicate if they were hostile towards me or not. It would make things easier indeed. Or if my activated EFS could predict the future and...

By Luna's homemade moon cake, the whole thought-command thing was starting to annoy me already.
Deactivate...

I stopped dead in my tracks.
Red dots - enemies - maybe half a dozen, right in front of me in the foyer of the Stable-Tec foyer. The wall of red was mixed with a few blue markers, which apparently indicated neutral or allied forces. But there were only two or three of the blue ones.
What had happened by the time I had gone down there?

I trash the plan about going inside there to meet the others. Okay, I didn't trash it completely, I was still about to enter the large hall, just without any bigger announcement. Stepping closer to the door I heard muffled voices. I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but it didn't sound like the giggling and strange accent of the Bloodhoof raiders. This ones sounded civilized, as far as I could tell, but they being red on my EFS was... complicating the situation.
By the time the big door in front of me slid open, I was struck by the thought that whoever was out there would probably hear...

Blam!

The sound of a... a shotgun? followed by the noise of pellets pinging off a armor plates. I had heard the noise of a shotgun so few times before I could count them on my hooves and in combination with the sound of the buckshot impacting on metal armor, it was nothing I appreciated to hear.

Blam! Blam!

The last of the two shots was combined with the splashing noise of flesh getting ripped apart and I had cover my muzzle with one of my wings in order to drown the gasp of dread. The last time I had heard a projectile weapon being fired against power armor, the outcome hadn't been pleasant.
Though I didn't feel well with the thought that a pony out there being hurt or killed had just concealed my entrance, I slipped through the barely open gate and into the foyer. Pressed against the wall to my right I started to sneak towards the voices, cursing my coat for being so white it almost illuminated the environment as I arrived at some kind of ante a few meters in front of the gate.

"What the hell was that?!" A stallion called out. "That was unnecessary!"

"Unnecessary?" a female voice replied, shaking with excitement, followed by the sound of a gun being reloaded. "This fucker almost killed Pal here. We have to get rid of them one way or another. They're of no use anymore once Silver brings the... whatever it is what's hidden down there. And then we all will be filthy rich. Rich enough to get the other Rangers off our backs, if they ever find out what happened. I mean, the raider territory's just a few hours away, this is a dangerous place..."

"Yeah, yeah, you might be right, but... don't you think it would be even more unsuspicious if those rangers' brains weren't spread all over THIS place? Really, we can't afford a mistake like this, we're professionals. Now get a hold of yourself and get some water. You'll clean this mess up."

Peeking around the corner I saw two of the businessponies standing around two piles of scrap metal, while the others were apparently still searching the room for something of value. One of the piles was... bleeding? Taking a closer look I saw that...
With a suppressed shriek I dash back to the wall again. The two heaps of metal were the two Steel Rangers, somehow immobilized and one of them was missing his head. His Celestia-damned head!

"Soon. But previously... I know what I'll do to this one..." Peeking around the corner again I could make out one of the mares kneeling down in front of the paralyzed ranger. "They're always so smug and behave oh so superior, as if they're something better, just because of the fancy armor and their weapons. And then - bam! - all of it is gone with a single spark grenade. You don't feel all that strong anymore, do you, Tinny?" The blue mare knocked two times on stallion's helmet with the gunstock of her shotgun. "How are things going, huh? Let me guess, you're kinda stuck?"

"If I could move I would tear you apart with my bare hooves." the muffled voice of the stallion that had told me about them being here before hissed. "I should've seen it coming. Tribals like you always betray..."

The stallion was silenced as the blue pony kicked his armored face with one of her forelegs.

"Yes, yes, yes. If... should've... and so on. That's what you are, a bunch of ifs and subjunctives. Let me see of there's something else inside that armor, apart from your big words..." The unicorn's magic wrapped the helmet in a telekinetic field, then she pulled and with a soft *thump* the ranger's head wasn't armored anymore and a soft blue coated and oily green maned face appeared.
"Well, look at that, you're one handsome..."

He spat right into her face. Just like that.

The mare's gun answered for her.

The second ranger's head exploded from the buckshot, fired at point blank range, only inches away from his head. Bones, blood and gore splashed and with a chuckle, she whispered. "I love you too."

"I guess that was necessary too?" The stallion sighed and the blue mare nodded in euphoria as she shoved another shell into the tube of her gun. "Well, I guess it's your flank the boss will spank once he's back, but for all I care, as long as you clean it up, do what you want. So... what's with the other three? The pompous scribe, the turkey and this Mr. Comatose over here?" He trotted towards a grey pile of fur and kneeled down next to... Angel?
"He has got some nice tech and look at those guns..." he levitated one of my grey companion's black pistols in front of his face. "...they're looking just awesome..."

"Yeah, and that's something when you say it. But no... I think I'll let him live. Even you have to admit that he looks quite handsome..." So he was still alive, Celestia and Luna be praised.

"Don't make me shoot him..."

"And since he didn't hurt anypony before we had to knock him out, isn't associated with the Rangers and is after all just another wasteland blighter, he doesn't pose a threat to us. And even if he would tell the Rangers - if they don't maul him first - they most likely wouldn't believe him. And maul him afterwards. So yeah, I think we can let him go. The other two however... I'm not sure about the turkey. She's basically like him. Has done nothing wrong, helps us getting into the vault and - most important - has somehow pissed of the redheaded scribe. And when it comes to that little bitch..."

She trotted over to her fellow pony and bowed her head down, facing something next to Angel. Two of the other three businessponies had left the room, through the only exit available to the outside, by now, either to get some fresh air or to to avoid further talks with the now giggling and obviously mad mare. Shaking his head, her companion trotted over to the last remaining stallion. Since the risk of being seen was almost halved by now, I dared leaving my cover to get a closer look on what was happening. I still struggled about what to do. I couldn't just... kill them too, could I?
The magic of the mare wrapped around a brown sack and pulled it towards her, revealing Gingerbread's head.

The scribe looked awful. Her ginger mane was messy, her left right eye was black and a piece of scotch tape was covering her muzzle. I could spot a small laceration at her left cheek and some spots of her red robe were darkened with blood. She had been beaten, repeatedly, and right now, she was slapped again, went down, unable to sit up again due to her shackled legs. With a ripping noise, the businessmare removed the gag from her muzzle.

"Well then, my little pony. What should I do to you, huh?" she mumbled, rubbing the muzzle of her gun against Gingerbread's. "Oh goddesses, there're so many things I can think of right now..."

"What's wrong with you?" the scribe asked with a shaking voice. "Why... why did you do all this? I though we were part..."

"Partners? Oh yes, we are partners." The mad mare spat out. "I just give you the same reward you gave the last time you were "partners" with my family. Guess how long I've been waiting to do this. Half a year? Two years? No, I've been waiting to see one of the mighty Steel Rangers lying before my hooves and at my mercy for over ten years. Since you slaughtered my sister during one of your stupid tech raids in Trottingham. Her name was Pumice, just an ordinary rock farmer who happened to have a gem mine. Do you even remember her?!" Another kick into her side. "Do you remember her?!"

"Please..." Gingerbread sobbed, her voice crackling. "I... I had nothing to with it. I was still an initiate by the time the Dry Dust massacre happened. I wasn't even allowed to leave the bunker back then. I swear, the ponies responsible for killing your sister were punished and..."

"I. Don't. Care." she huffed, "Weasel-words and evasiveness, like always. That's all a pony gets from you, Ranger, in case you don't blow them up first. Somepony has to release all those warm words from your tinned bodies and I think... I think I know just how to do that." The blue mare rummaged around in one of her saddle bags and both me and the Ranger scribe gasped as she drew a large combat knife. "An old zebra tradition, cut open the legs of a pony to make the evil spirits leave. Sounds pretty appropriate for a fucker like you, doesn't it?"

Unable to do anything, I just stood there, frozen in place by horror and disgust, as the torturer walked behind the struggling unicorn mare, the knife raised, and pulled out one of her hindlegs.

What should I do? - what should I do? - what should I do?

She would hurt her - badly - and maybe kill her afterwards. Gingerbread was innocent, concerning the massacre the other mare had lost her sister to, but on the other hoof... possibly this mare wasn't an evil pony either, she... she was just hurt badly on the inside and took revenge for a crime committed by a crowd of faceless ponies a long time before...
Hadn't I done the exact same thing as I killed the three raiders? Hadn't this been the final straw that had driven me to kill? Who was I to judge her doings? Maybe I should just sit back and hope for the best.

This wasn't my problem after all, it was something between Gingerbread and the businessmare. Well, not exactly between the two of them, but between her and the organisation the scribe was connected to. She said it herself, she would most likely let me go, if they forgave me for killing their leader in self-defense, Angel would be able to leave as well. Those ponies meat no harm to us, just to the Rangers. A small price...

The scream of the ginger unicorn as the knife cut deep into her leg woke me paralysis.
No! This was wrong. Hurting and killing an innocent pony was never right, even if an act like this was understandable. Nothing good could ever come from justice like that. I couldn't just sit there and watch, even if the same sin had driven me to what I had done, that didn't mean I was forbidden to prevent other ponies from doing the same. And first and foremost: save their victims.

Clearing my head of any troublesome thoughts I drew my own gun and took aim at the businessmare's head. She had to be stopped, just like her fellow ponies, who did nothing to prevent her from giving in to her rage, who didn't care about the lives of other ponies being ended without a valid reason. What I was about to do now wasn't an act of rage or selfishness, I did it to save a pony from imminent danger. And another pony from herself.
It didn't feel good as my tongue pulled the trigger, but it felt like I was doing the right thing.
And doing the right thing isn't always pleasant.

Blam!

The gun I held in my muzzle roared, but I merely heard anything, its recoil slammed into my muzzle, but I hardly felt it. My eyes were fixated on the female blue pony as the bullet I had shot at her dig itself through her skull. She gasped silently as it ended her life as painlessly as possible and with a soft *thump* she went to to ground, next to Angel and Gingerbread, who was squeaking in either relieve, surprise or horror. Maybe it was because of the small amount of blood or the lack of bursting heads and shredded faces, but I contained myself quite well for what I had been doing.

Time returned to its normal flow as the two other ponies, two dark green stallions, screamed in surprise, their horns levitating a rifle and a pistol... no wait, two pistols. Apparently Angel wasn't the only unicorn with the ability to dual-wield his guns. I sincerely hoped that wasn't a bad sign, because if this black maned stallion was just half as capable as my loyal, yet unconscious grey unicorn companion, then I was screwed. But fortunately, they seemed pretty surprised and ill-prepared as they started tossing their heads from one end of the foyer to the other, luckily overlooking me. At least for the first two times.

"She's over there!" The stallions with the rifle shouted and both of them took cover behind one of the massive upset desks. At least that was what I thought they did, since my EFS showed both of them staying put next to each other on almost the exact same spot. Taking cover was the only thing reasonable to do and so I had done the same as soon as they were alarmed. Shots rang through the room and several bullets hit the MoA gate and the antes I was cowering behind, making them crumble a little bit.

Great. Now I was pinned down with no escape. You should have really thought this through, Feather. Maybe even twice! Of course they wouldn't just keep staying there, occasionally shooting in your general direction, while you would take them out one by one. This was no game or combat maneuver, this were sentient ponies. Sentient ponies with an urge to kill you.

Just as I finished that thought the firing stopped for a moment. I peeked out of cover for a second, but couldn't spot my two opponents. They had taken cover very well, only my EFS showed me they were still there. Quiet for one second, two seconds, three seconds... And without any prior warning, a black maned pony darted out from behind one of the desks, his two pistols floating next to his head. After firing a few shots myself, I was fortunately agile and quick-witted enough to drew my head back into cover before almost a dozen rounds hammered at the stone construct I was cowering behind.

I turned my head towards my enemies and much to my surprise, one of the dots had almost faded. But I clearly hadn't hit the stallion carrying the rifle, since he hadn't moved out of cover yet and since the other one was currently shooting at me, there was only one explanation that came to my mind: he was moving. Away from me and towards the exit. Towards his friends...
I had to do something against that. Two against one was bad enough, but maybe still manageable, four against one on the other hoof was one different pair of horseshoes. If they weren't carrying grenades or other weapons apart from their firearms to drive me out, they would simply cut down my cover with constant shooting. Brilliant as I was I had trapped myself between the stone antes and the MoA gate, which would take its sweet time to open, sweet time I wouldn't have to retreat. And even if I would manage to do so, then what? I would still be trapped down there in the vault.

No, I had to take action. Being besieged was no option.
I calmed my breathing. Handling situations like this was what the Enclave's military was trained for after all. Battles against sentient beings like griffins. And ponies. And dragons, sometimes.

You are a military pony, Feather, now think and act like one.
By the rate of fire the black maned pony's guns displayed and my admittedly quite small knowledge about surface firearms – I simply transferred what I knew about enclave guns – his magazines would run out of bullets soon. And that would be my chance. If I would be able to neutralize him, I could advance and that would give me at least a bit more available cover and space to move.

Peeking up my ears I swapped the magazine of my pistol. I didn't want to charge into a firefight with a half empty gun. For a brief moment I thought about using Silver Tongue's pistol, since it was in a much better condition than mine, but then I doffed the idea. As tempting as it was, I didn't want to take the risk of it being jammed or blowing up in my face due to some damage to its inner workings. Just me being a bit paranoid.
I also fished the strange audio recording thingy out of my saddle bags – thanks to my new Inventory Management Spell – pretty quickly. It wasn't exactly what I needed right now, but it surely looked technical enough to do its job. Putting it into one of the pockets near my chest and my gun into my muzzle again I readied myself for the takeoff.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

The bullets kept striking my cover. Apparently my black maned opponent still had enough ammunition to sustain his suppressing fire.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

But what if his allies would be here before he would run dry? Or if he was capable of some freaky unicorn reloading trick? Then I would be royally screwed.

Blam! Blam! *klick*

Finally. My turn.
Without waiting for the sound of his magazines clunking on the floor I swirled around the ante, my gun raised and pointed towards the red dot on my EFS. This was a huge advantage I was at now. He didn't see me coming as I took aim at...

...at the black maned stallion, who was now levitating another gun directly in front of his eyes. A clean, black and elegant one, with a silverish slide and a pointy black and triangular ornamentation at the muzzle, with the gemstone embedded on the bottom of the magazine.
Angel's pistol.
The stallion was smiling. Had he planned all of this? Of course he had, he wasn't dumb too.

"Gotcha." he said as his grin widened. Frantically I tried to move my gun in the right position to fire at his head, to preempt him by shooting first. I could see how the gun's trigger was pulled by the unicorn's magic.

*klick*

For a few seconds, the two of us just stared at each other – or more precisely – at Angel's gun between us.
It didn't fire.
There was a magazine loaded, we both checked it, and it didn't sound jammed or damaged either, it didn't even sound as if the safety catch was on. There was just the clicking noise of the trigger as it hit nothing. As if it wasn't attached to the inner machinery inside the gun.

"Well, crap... just plain crap." was the only thing he managed to say, before I regained control over my body and pulled the trigger of my own – fully functional – gun. Three shots right into his forehead and he went down. The red dot on my EFS vanished. He was dead on the spot.

Not deigning to look at him or rather his dead body, I darted forward and took cover once again, this time behind the upset desk in the middle of the hallway. One enemy was gone, but there were still three more left to go, literally, since the three ponies were just now striding through the front gate at the other end of the foyer. Two mares, one stallion, all of them armed either with rifles or shotguns, I couldn't really see it in the brief moment I looked. But they were all galloping near to each other, just as I had hoped they would. Now it would turn out if my bold strategy wasn't too bold – or downright stupid.
My right wing took out the recording, I let the cock of my weapon click as loudly as possible and threw the useless device towards the three charging unicorns. Come on, take the bait! Take the bait!

"Grenade! Get down!" I heard the stallion shout. Success!

The three ponies stopped dead in their tracks, obviously either cowering down or searching for cover to escape the "grenade". I knew it: if something looks technical, clicks and is thrown at you, why shouldn't it also explode right under your hooves?
Enclave me 1 – dirt ponies 0.
Okay, to be fair, right now I would have most likely fallen for it too.
With a speed I hadn't thought possible I lifted off and hurtled towards the three still distracted ponies.

I couldn't remember flying that fast ever before, left alone being capable of it, but my wondering found a sudden end as my hooves slammed into the first unicorn's chest, sending her flying and crashing into the wall two or three meters behind her. While executing a 270° rotation to the left I redrew my gun and unloaded a barrage of four bullets into the head and chest of the mare to my right. Her shotgun went off, luckily for me it didn't hit anything but the ceiling above, causing a bit of dust and rubble to crumble down onto the mare's corpse. With another flowing move I swirled around to face the last stallion standing, but only to see the gunstock of his rifle swinging towards my head. I jumped back a little to evade the blow, but unfortunately I was not quite fast enough, the wooden butt slammed against the weapon I held in my muzzle, sending it flying.

Finally my luck had run out. At least that was what he must have been thinking at this very moment, since he took his sweet time to levitate his gun into a shooting position again. Or maybe that was just the adrenaline rushing through my body right now. Anyway, he had all right to look surprised as I lunged towards him, seemingly unarmed, and brought him down to the ground. In fact, he was so surprised that he didn't even flinch as I pressed my right hoof against his forehead, lying on top of him. I was cursing me a bit for hoping that whatever had happened to Silver Tongue would happen again and in my favor. For a few moments, centiseconds at most, it seemed as if nothing would happen, but then the stallion's eyes began to glow slightly and after the light had grown stronger for a few seconds his body slackened.

I breathed heavily as I stood up again and took a step away from the dead buck, but I instantly stopped as I heard a well known clicking noise behind me. As I slowly turned around, I saw the unicorn mare I had launched into the wall, her rifle floating between us. She looked shocked. And she had been crying, I didn't know whether for physical pain or for sorrow and despair. But she was about to shoot me.

Think of something, featherbrain! This has worked out so well thus far, it must not end like this.

"You... you killed them all." she stammered, her gun shaking in her telekinetic grip. Was she sobbing? Great, now I started to feel bad again." And you will die for that, you... you... evil, magic, feathered... turkey!"

Really? Again?

I didn't close my eyes this time. I had tempted fate once too often in this last minutes, sometime even the goddesses had to say it is enough. And apparently this was just such a moment. A gun in my face, my back against a wall - figuratively spoken -, nowhere to run and not able to talk myself out of this situation. I had to admit, this was my own fault. My legs were shaking and my recently found courage went up in smoke.
Shots rang through the room, again not fired by the opponent right in front of me. The mare's watery eyes widened, she screamed out in pain and a single shot was triggered, that hammered into the wall at the short end of the foyer, as her magic imploded. And with her the last red dot on my EFS died away, leaving only the two blue ones. The still unconscious Angel and the zonked looking Gingerbread, who was holding my dropped pistol in a magic field.

"You... you saved me." I stammered as I walked slowly towards her. I didn't want to scare her somehow, so she wouldn't shoot me too. What was left of the self-confidence I had felt while the battle had lasted vanished completely as I deactivated my EFS.

"Crap, you're right." she answered, the scared look faded immediately from her face and was replaced by the confident and smuggy smile from earlier. "So... since I just rescued your sorry flank, would you care to untie me, turk... please?"

""")_x_("""

The night had wrapped the landscape around me in its darkness as we were finally able to lay down again. I didn't know what had taken so long, whether it was the whole operation/implantation, the battle with the businessponies or the following cleanup. I thought it was the first part, although the second and third had felt nearly twice as long. Stupid subjectivity.
Since neither Gingerbread nor me nor Angel – even if he still was unconscious – wanted to spend the night in a room decorated with the blood and brains of seven ponies, the two of us agreed to relocate our camp site to the outside, or at least into the small entrance area between the first MoA door and the secret rock gate. Being covered at three sides and from above seemed good enough for us to consider the camp save.

While Gingerbread did whatever a Steel Ranger scribe did to his fallen comrades and started to rifle through her former captors' baggage afterwards, I gathered the contents of Angel's saddle bags and whatever else they had taken from him. After all he was carrying the main part of our bedding and at that moment, my first urge was to sleep. It almost exceeded my curiosity about my grey companion's weaponry and "interesting tech" as the black maned stallion had called it. Almost.

After I had dragged him out the door, embedded him and took my place on the opposite side of the small fire Gingerbread had helped me to light, I grabbed the malfunctioning firearm and weighed in in my hooves. For the first time I could take my time to eye it without being shot at, since most of the time the grey unicorn seemed to hide them away, replacing them with another pair of pistols, the ones that were holstered at his foreleg. Contrary to the homemade ones, I didn't recall him cleaning the black guns ever, although they looked pretty pretty for that, but I had seen to what outcome that had led: a malfunction in the middle of a fight. The gun itself was quite heavy for its size probably due to the weighted magazines, because apart from that, it was just slightly larger than Wing Beat had been.

I sighed. Remembering Wing Beat meant remembering everything connected to its loss. One of the many losses I would have to explain once I would be back home. To remember my team, Hurricane, Sky and Cloud Striker... Sunshine. I wondered how she was doing down here. Probably better than me, she had always been slightly better than me, that is why she had been the First Lieutenant and I the Second. Well, and me being the High General's daughter, that most likely ironed out some problems too. It still felt strange thinking of her as a Dashite, in my memory she was still the lightheaded and a bit impulsive mare who would wake me by throwing her own alarm clock through our dorm. Thankfully those devices were almost indestructible.

Or maybe not so thankfully when I remembered her – heck! – all of our faces whenever one of those tiny fiends ring shrilly, thereby ending the sleep which we had always to little of, regardless of the time we went to sleep or had to be ready for morning drill. When I thought of her every morning look I was kind of relieved that she hadn't been literally branded for being a Dashite. I liked the looks of her sunrise cutie mark, it was just so much more... interesting than the boring feather on my flank. Stupid Feather... feather... whatever!

"So... you're enjoying yourself?" I shrieked as the ginger unicorn appeared out of nowhere. Damn it, I always knew it was a mistake to bury myself that deep in my thoughts so that I wouldn't notice a giant, noisy and lit-up door right behind me. But memories simply had gotten the better of me...

Refocus, Feather, close your mouth, get a hold of your wings and simply don't look like the jumped gotten silly filly you are right now.

"You've been staring at this piece of junk for a few minutes now, anything wrong with it? Want me to fix it?" A field of magic appeared around the black weapon, but before it could float away from me I reached out and grabbed it again.

"I... don't think that's necessary. Or possible." I said and laid down the weapon next to Angel, since his holster were still occupied. "I'm not even sure if he would allow it. And apart from that, this is no piece of junk. If it works - and it usually does - then that's one of the most... awesome weapons I've ever seen."

"Well, lucky for you it wasn't that awesome by the time this black maned guy tried to use it, if so I would've had to tidy up this place alone. But if you say it's awesome, that has to mean something. You're... a Dashite, right?" Not again. She was treading on thin ice, making me almost forget that I had just saved her not long ago. But strangling her to death now seemed quite contra-productive to me at the moment, since it would rob me of the only other activity I had apart form watching Angel sleep and would make rescuing her at all redundant. "You must've seen a whole lot of awe-inspiring things back upstairs, at your fluffy clouds. It's too bad those enclave vultures keep all the good stuff to themselves, isn't it? I would like to have one of those plasma..."

"They aren't vultures." I said, almost whisperingly, but still under full control. "And I'm no Dashite either. I'm still – technically – a Second Lieutenant of the Enclave's airforce, so please, don't talk about them like that." I could see her glancing at the pistol next to Angel, but since I made no move to jump at her and scratch out her eyes, she left it at a glance. "And we don't "keep all the good stuff to ourselves", we need it to survive up there. What good would be a fully armed, air based, storm cloud driven siege platform down here? Or even just a small hummingbird, since it is designed to be piloted by pegasi only? Apart from being used as scrap metal, the only thing those things can do is kill or scare away ponies, there's nothing life-sustaining inside."

"What's a hummingbird?" was the only thing the orange mare said before smacking her own hoof against her forehead repeatedly. "That's not important right now, silly." she whispered to herself. An awkward silence followed, but finally she rose to speak again.
"So, you're enclave?" I nodded. "No Dashite? So you still have your cutie mark. So... ahem, that's great isn't it? I mean, still having your cutie mark..." She was either pretty bad at conversing itself or her whole subject area was circling around the diabolic Enclave.

Time for my super special surface social skills to kick in! Keep talking until Angel awakes, then things will surely be less awkward.

"And you are a Steel Ranger? I have to admit, I don't know anything about you, except that this one mare apparently dismayed you for a – what was it – tech raid? Wherefrom do you get your power armor and what are you doing with it all day? Come on, tell me something about the Steel Rangers."

"I don't think I should. You know, it's kind of a military organisation and giving information about us to the enemy – I mean – outsider... I shouldn't do that. Let's just talk about something less important, like your buckfriend over there. Congratulations by the way, you hooked a gorgeous one."

"He's not my buckfriend!" I exclaimed. "He's just... just my partner." Okay, that was nearly the same. "I mean, he is my protector, he guides my through the wasteland. There's nothing between us, just a bit of friendship."

"You're blushing." the scribe commented with a chuckle.

"No, I'm not!"

"So, you don't find him handsome? Strange... on the other hoof, you're not unappealing either. I bet there's a whole bunch of winged bucks almost breaking their necks for you when they browse around. Or aren't you interested in bucks?" Oh no, I knew that look from another orange mare. "Do you prefer the mares...? One of the knights once told me that's how you're raised up there, makes sense considering the lack of..."

"I... I'm not... that's not what I am." I stammered, while my cheeks started burning. Okay, now it's official: I hate orange mares! "Of course I like mares, but that doesn't mean that I... oh, Celestia, but I don't like them."

"You're blushing."

"Maybe!"

"There's nothing wrong with preferring mares over bucks, that's perfectly fine and..."

"My barn door doesn't swing that way!"

The ginger unicorn peered at me with a questioning look, I hadn't fully understood myself what I had just shouted. It just kind of happened... it simply slipped my mouth. I tried to calm myself down again, wondering if concentrating all my thoughts on one of my hooves would help to get rid of the blood in my cheeks. Looking down on my right foreleg, to where my mysterious PegasusBuck device had been implanted, I cursed the stupid Body Monitoring Spell for not helping. I had to ask myself why everypony's view of me differed so much from what and who I truly was. Down here I was either an enclave spy or a Dashite and Gingerbread was not the only pony "accusing" me of being a fillyfooler. Was it the way I talked or moved or behaved in general? I couldn't find anything wrong with any of it?

"Can we... just talk about something different? Something that doesn't make one of us – most likely me – evaporate? Like something that happened in there." I said, pointing a hoof at the big door behind us. "But only if you're comfortable with talking about it of course. I don't want to push you..."

"Push me? Nothing too bad happened." Nothing too bad? She had almost cried as the blue mare had threatened her. Scratch that: she had cried then.

"But two of your friends died in there! And if it hadn't been for me, you would've most likely done the same!" Well done, Feather, take the credit for shooting all those ponies. You earned it.

Gingerbread huffed and crossed her forelegs as she finally lay down at her bedroll. "Yeah, thank you for that by the way. But Pear and Linzer weren't my friends, at least not in the narrow sense of the word "friend". They were rangers, a part of my team and they were assigned to protect me and every piece of valuable technology we would find inside the vault. Their deaths are regrettable, but nothing our order can't take."

"Well, that's quite a... pragmatic mindset." I answered hesitantly. Pragmatic, but definitely useful when something bad happened to the ponies you used to know.

"We're Steel Rangers, of course we are pragmatic. Pragmatism is the whole reason for acting like we act." Okay, either she didn't fully understand what pragmatism was or the this whole Steel Ranger club was a pretty strange one. "And it's the only rational way of thinking when you live in the Equestrian Wasteland. I bet your friend would've agreed, if those tribal traitors hadn't knocked him out before I could start a talk. Everything just went to hell after you and Silver went down to the vault." She shook her head and sighed. "Speaking of which... what happened down there? You were absent for quite a while, so I simply assume the two of you were successful. Well, he might not, since he's most likely dead by now, but what about you? Did you found something?"

And there I was again, reaching another crossroad. Lying hadn't worked out well earlier and I doubted it would this time. Since she already suspected something, the scribe wouldn't take "No" as an answer. I mentally cuffed myself for being so faithless. I had just rescued this mare, she wouldn't do something like – I don't know – chop off my foreleg to get hold of the device inside. And besides that, she wouldn't have any use for it.

"Yes, I – well, found is a pretty nice way to say it – in there. It's kind of a... management device. Getting it was kinda unsavory." I showed her my right foreleg, tapping my wrist first and then my temple. "An Auto-Doc machine implanted it, hence the two hours of my absence. But it's all in here now. EFS, BOS, Inventory Management – if you know what I'm talking about. It can also be... used as a hoof-to-hoof weapon, but I don't get how it really works yet. Just that it is... gross."

"So we were sent her to retrieve a glorified and slightly less bulky PipBuck with a few fancy bonus features? Great!" she huffed in disappointment. Heck, I would have been disappointed too. "Keep the PipBuck or whatever it is called. We've got enough of those already, back in our base. Yet another failure I'll have to report to the elder. If I'm lucky they will let me sort holotapes for the next year. Luna rape me with her royal horn, I'm looking forward to that."

Now I was the pony who was staring at another mare, my mouth open in bewilderment. That was both blasphemous and fascinatingly creative at the same time. Thankfully, Gingerbread didn't notice me as I gazed at her, since she had started looking into the fire after ending her last no-swearing sentence. I could barely see her face through the flickering flames, but she looked... lost.

"And what will you do now?" She asked after a short pause. "You're free to go – or fly or whatever – I won't hold you back, just as Silver promised. I think I'll stay here for some time, I'm not eager to get back to the bunker with nothing but a story about how an enclave pegasus rescued my butt from being sliced open by a tribal."

Maybe I would have to do the same. Rescuing Gingerbread had meant cutting off the easy way towards finding my team again. Luckily for the scribe and unluckily for me, this thought had only occurred to me after she had unloaded my pistol's magazine into the last businessmare. But I bet Angel would still find a way to the crash site, he always did. Looking towards the peaceful looking unicorn stallion I thanked the goddesses for having an asset – no, a friend like him. Even if he didn't tell me everything about himself, he was still there every time I needed him. It felt good to repay this dept, even if it was just a small piece.

"I will try to join up with my squad again. Silver Tongue told me they were still out there and if I hadn't killed him, he would be leading me to them. But I think, I will have to search them on my – or our – own now. Doing what is right isn't always the most worthwhile thing, isn't it?" I forced a smile.

"So you tell me there're other enclave ponies around here? For how long? Why don't I know anything about it?" Gingerbread sounded surprised as she looked up from the fire and into my face again.

"We are... down here for maybe a week. Our vertibuck crashed somewhere..." I pointed hooves and wings in every direction available, "...around here. Got attacked by raiders, but from what Silver said, my friends made it. "

"Only a week ago? But how would he know? I've traveled with his group for more than a month and I haven't seen any enclave soldiers down here. We saw the wreck of one of your flying machines, but the only pegasi we saw..." she stopped. So they had seen pegasi, but not my squad? How would they know if I belonged to them or not? The orange mare cleared her throat and her look shifted towards something I... didn't like. A look I had seen too often on my father's face and on Angel's too.
"I'm... I'm sorry to break this to you, but the pegasi we saw... almost a dozen of them... they were all dead."

It was as if the world collapsed around me. My stomach turned, my legs became numb and my chest began to ache as if Gingerbread's last word had driven a hot nail deep inside it. My body crocked and my eyes began to water, but no tears ran down my cheeks.
I simply couldn't believe what I had just heard. My friends... dead? But Silver Tongue had said that they were still alive, that he would lead me to them. How couldn't he know about this? Or... had he known it? And had lied to me...

"They... they are dead?" I whispered and my wings covered my face again. "The pegasi?"

"Listen, Feather – that is your name, isn't it? – I hate to say this, but yeah... we found them, killed by raiders and it wasn't... pretty." The orange unicorn trotted towards me and lay down at my side, stroking my mane. "It must sound odd to hear this from me, but I am truly sorry for your loss. We didn't knew they... – if I had known it I would have said something to you in the first place."

No, she wouldn't have told me, she didn't care then and I doubted she cared now.

"What happened to them?" I asked shakingly, fighting the tears. But if it was to hold them back or to force them out I could say for sure. "What have they – no – what have you done with them? Have you burnt... or buried them at least? Please tell me you didn't just leave them out there."

Why was I okay with the fact that my friends, ponies I had known half of my life, some of them even longer, were no more? When had I accepted this? All I felt was tiredness. Tiredness instead of the appropriate rage my mind should be flooded with right now. I wanted to be angry with Silver Tongue for lying to me, with the whole Equestrian Wasteland for being so cruel and with myself for... being me. I didn't want my friends to be laid to rest properly, I wanted them to be alive. To return home with them, to our families.

"We... we took care of them, in a way. You know, usually a Steel Ranger recovery group is larger than what you've seen in there. Five rangers and a scribe, that's me, left the bunker and joined Silver and his ponies to re-investigate this place. Our... outdoor... collectors overheard that he had found a way into the vault, so we were sent out to see if it was true. We headed his group off, gave him caps and together we wandered the wasteland for a month. When we finally arrived here, a few days ago, we discovered a wreckage of a high technological level and... bodies too. A few raiders, but among them were pegasi, power armored pegasi. So I made a decision: three of the rangers would stay behind to bring the equipment we... collected back to our base. Most of it was burnt or damaged to the point we couldn't use it anymore, but the sets of power armor were mostly intact."

"So you robbed my dead friends?" I asked with a sour tone. But I wasn't angry. Just tired...

"We... recovered – heck, you're right, we robbed them. We took their armor and what was left of their weapons and after that we... burnt them. I ordered my rangers to do it, they were sentient ponies after all."

There was a part of my mind that didn't believe her. There was no reason to show your respect to ponies you didn't respect at all. And Gingerbread had despised the pegasi, most likely she was still despising my race, so I had every reason to doubt her account. But the other, much bigger, part of my mind wanted to believe her. This part wanted to believe everypony right now, Gingerbread, Angel, Tulip, even Silver Tongue. I didn't want to be surrounded by liars. If she said they had laid my friends to rest, how couldn't I believe her. It was the dead she was talking about and if there was still a little bit of integrity left in the wasteland, she was telling me the truth.

"Listen, Feather, I'm so sorry for robbing..."

"It's okay. A pegasus is never burnt in its armor, it's tradition." Or we did it to preserve our resources and equipment. But the first possibility seemed better..."You did it right, even if you didn't know. It's okay."

I moved my wings away from my head and looked up to the cloud-covered sky above. Somewhere up there were their families, our friends, Father...
A white spot in the corner of my eyes attracted my attention, my gaze wandered downwards and there it was again: the tall white unicorn, its wings weren't spread this time and it didn't gaze at the distant horizon. This time it was... hiding behind the large rocks that surrounded the Stable-Tec storeroom, I could see only a small part of its beautiful form, and it was looking at the three of us, but something told me its eyes were focused on me.
And now I heard it again: the soft sound that had accompanied its first appearance inside the RADscorpions' cave, the low squeal and whistling, that sounded as if it was radiated by the goddesses themselves. I smiled weakly. It never failed to cheer me up...

"Feather, what are you staring at?" I heard a voice, but it sounded so distant. I was so tired and this beautiful sound was so comforting.

I didn't want to answer at all, but it seemed rude not to share what I was seeing and hearing right now.

"Can't you see it?" I asked, almost whisperingly, pointing a hoof at our mysterious watcher. "Over there, next to the rocks. The white..." How should I describe it? "The winged unicorn..."

"An alicorn?! Where is it?" The mare next to me shouted, levitating one of the rifles the businessponies had carried with them in front of us. "By Celestia's royal tush, not that as well! Where is it?! Tell me!"

"Right over there, can't you see it? It is of pure white..."

"White? Damn it, I've never seen those before. Where exactly?"

"Right there, just look at the..."

It was gone. The glint of white, the comforting sound... All that remained was the feeling of solace and peace and the tiredness.
Gingerbread rose carefully, her look wandering back and forth between me and the night-shrouded field in front of us. Slowly she walked away from our camp site and into the darkness, her horn illuminating the scenery with its orange light. She passed the spot in which the white... goddess had been standing and turned around the dark corners of the rock formations.

I blinked and there it was again. The tall equine being stood only a few meters away from me, but I wasn't afraid, even if I would have had every reason to be. Its presence felt pleasant, the sound that was ringing in my ears felt pleasant, everything felt pleasant.
The last thing I saw before my eyelids closed was the celestial being kneeling down in front of me, its golden eyes looking deep into mine.

""")_x_("""

"So, let me get this straight: you want to come with us?" Angel was just as surprised as I was. Gingerbread's offer had come out of the blue sky, right after we had finished our breakfast. The night had gone by quiet and peacefully, with no further disturbance, neither by somepony else nor the white alicorn. It had simply... disappeared. The orange mare didn't mention seeing it at all as I asked her about it, but she also told me that there were ponies like that out there in the wasteland. They were simply called "Alicorns", mighty creatures of an unknown origin and various magical abilities, who were making life down here pretty hard sometimes. The white one had to be one of those, although it didn't seem hostile in any way.

"Not all the way, wherever you want to go now, just until we reach a civilized place, a town or something like that. This is a dangerous area after all and we're stronger if we work together, aren't we? You will protect me and I will protect you in return, so everypony wins." she said and levitated another bowl of Sugar Apple Bombs towards her. "So, where do you two want to go?"

"Back to the town where Silver Tongue found me. I've nowhere else to go. You said you took care of my friends and I believe you, so I'm stuck down here. No flying back home anytime soon." I sighed. Accepting this felt much easier now that it had come so far. Almost as awfully easy as accepting the deaths of my friends had been.
Angel nodded, he had made it clear that he would follow me wherever I would go next, that he would stick by my side until I would be home again or my journey would find another end. I was most thankful for that, even if his ridiculous loyalty started to worry me, but just a little bit.

"We... I kind of promised it to Old Timer and the others. If I don't come back to "stand trial" for what I haven't done, they might be displeased. And I don't want to displease anypony, especially when they're the only ponies down here who I know for more than half a day. Apart from that, they said there will be work for me, something I can do while figuring out what to do next. Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?"

"It's reasonable, that's more than I can say for most of the new wastelanders' agendas." the scribe answered with a muzzle full of cornflakes.

"It's a save thing, that's all I want for you. And since you're not associated with the Enclave..." Angel harrumphed as I stared at him with an accusing look. "...to the point where you're an enclave spy I mean, there's nothing to fear from them. The Sparrowtans won't harm or arrest you if you haven't done something to them, which you haven't." As far as I knew at least.

"Maybe I can arrange a small surprise for you, Feather, once we're back. There's something on my mind... Anyway, is there something that hinders us from get moving?" Gingerbread threw away her bowl, stood up and trotted towards our saddle bags. We had started to pack as soon as Angel and I had awoken from our sleep, we all wanted to leave soon, since we didn't want to arrive at the town in the night again.
"It's almost high noon, the raiders should be asleep right now. They are light-shunning tribals." And with that she put her own saddle bags on her back and started walking.

The two of us just looked silently at her slowly departing backside, until Angel levitated our bags on our backs.

"That's not true, is it? The whole light-shunning part." I asked the grey buck as we galloped after the orange pony in the red cloths. Angel shook his head. But we decided it was the best not to tell Gingerbread as we reached her.

Trotting alongside the two unicorns I tried not to think about anything. Not about my last victims, not about my future or the Enclave or my friends, I just wanted my head to be empty. But since this was the only thing my head didn't agree on, I decided to occupy my brain with the strange device Gingerbread had called a fancy "PipBuck". It was indeed a handy thing, an inventory sorter, a way to detect damage done to my limbs, the EFS... I wanted to strike myself for thinking it was worth the price.

"So... you've got yourself a PipBuck now, Feather." Angel stated and I pricked up my ears. "Oh, don't think I'm deaf while I'm sorting our stuff. I've heard you and her" he nodded towards Gingerbread, who was whistling away to herself and didn't take part in our conversation. I wondered if she was even able to hear us. "talking about it while I was searching for a few more of the Apple Bombs. Fortunately for her, you're not a big fan of those. Anyway, you've got your own now?"

Had I used one before? Had he used one before?

"My own?"

"Well, like those stable ponies of course." he added quickly. "They have those too, everypony knows that. Sorry, okay, now you know it too."

"Well, if you say so... Yes, this... PipBuck thing was the treasure Silver Tongue and the others were looking for. I think it's called a PegasusBuck, nickname Salvation, don't ask me why." I waved my right foreleg in front of his face, but then I was struck be the thought that he couldn't see anything. It was no wristwatch after all.
"I'm sorry. It's... under my skin. Again, don't ask me why. After I entered the vault, there was this audio message. It told me that I couldn't leave without this gift, whatever that means, and that the door behind me would open once the "procedure" was completed. Believe me, you don't want to imagine this Auto-Doc or what it was called..."

"You're right, I don't want to imagine it. But a PipBuck inside your leg... I never thought this to be possible. I have heard of ponies with cybernetic implants, even cybernetic limbs and other body parts, who had stuff like this implanted, but into living flesh... I guess Stable-Tec is always able to give us a surprise. Into living flesh..." He whistled. "So how does it work? I don't see any buttons. Usually PipBucks have buttons to press."

"It's all driven by mere thoughts, at least that's what the voice told me. It's kinda cool, but also a bit... frustrating sometimes. For example when I just think "activate EFS"" There it was again, "then it it's activated. But it works just fine, at least as far as I can tell. EFS, Inventory Sorting, Body Monitoring, even I'm not sure why I even have this..."

"You tried S.A.T.S.?"

"One moment please..."
S.A.T.S. Activate S.A.T.S. Initiate S.A.T.S.
Nope, nothing. Maybe it's...

S.A.T.S. not available. Due to a personal request of the CEO of Stable-Tec, this feature has

been disabled. Stated reason: not awesome.

Curses! I hated it when a new gadget was delivered and it didn't work completely. But since the Stable-Tec tech support, along with the whole company, had gone out of business about two hundred years ago, there was nothing I could do about it right now.

"Doesn't seem to work." I said finally. Whatever S.A.T.S. was, I wouldn't be using it anytime soon, because one stupid pony had decided it wasn't awesome enough.

"And the map?"

I had got a map?

Loading map data...100% complete

One-hundred-and-fifty-years-past-Boom! protocol dictates editing of current map. Cities and

settlements removed.

Clearing map...100% complete

Suddenly a blue holographic square appeared maybe two meters in midair, right in front of me. It looked like one of the Old World maps in the Enclave's museums, streets, mountains, but no cities. Their boarders were indicated by a fine dark line, but there were no buildings marked on the map. Well, at least I had got a map at all, as Angel had stated earlier this week, a pre-war map, even if it was a bit curtailed, was something very valuable down here.
But stop! There were a few marked places, far away from a blinking dot that seemed to be me. At least that was what my name above the dot indicated. The closest locations was named "StTRDUbATiAwMoA" in very, very small letters, the other two, the first almost at the edge of the map, the other closer to us, but still far away, read "Springmare" and "Town". I didn't knew what surprised me more: that the device somehow knew the name of a obviously post-war settlement by name or that it had labeled the town whose name I didn't know as "Town". Strange...
I didn't want to think about the machine somehow sucking those information out my mind... brrrr!

"Do you see this?" I asked the grey buck next to me, pointing a wing at the map in front of us, which was moving along with us, and he shook his head. Of course he could see it, it was in my head after all.

"I guess that means you have a map." Angel chuckled in response. I had to seem quite pathetic to the two unicorns. Having a nearly invisible pre-war gadget attached to my foreleg's bone, seeing spooky holograms inside my head. And then this alicorn...
For the last few days I had been sure it was just manifestation of my inner turmoil, but after Gingerbread told me those goddess-ponies were real... I wasn't sure anymore. I thought about asking Angel, but on the other hoof, I didn't want to seem too crazy right now, so I dumped the idea again.

After those last words were spoken, silence fell and we trotted through the desert without saying anything for at least an hour or two, could have been three. Nothing interesting happened, except for a tumbleweed crossing our path one time, making the orange unicorn mare almost firing a shot at it. But apart form that, there wasn't much to see around here, since it was a bucking desert, by Celestia's drying sunbeams it was even more boring than the usual wasteland, and the only two topics of talk I could have come up with right now would have been about Angel's knowledge about PipBucks, that would involve his past he didn't want to talk about, and if he had buried the businessponies, that would touch his religious faith. Both of them were topics I wanted rather not touch right now. I tried to talk about his jammed weapon, but he only muttered something like "everything's alright, don't worry" and silence fell again. But Gingerbread... well, maybe I could talk with her, since Angel seemed to be buried in his own thoughts again.

I trotted over to her, leaving the grey buck alone.

"So... anything on your mind?" I asked, grinning sheepishly. "Anything you want to talk about with me, as your goood friend? Please talk to me, I'm bored."

"Well, there is something I would like to know." she said hesitantly after she had stopped whistling. "Your handsome buckfriend..."

"He's not my buckfriend!"

"...his name is Guardian Angel, wasn't it? Have you seen his cutie mark? I mean, a flying alicorn looks pretty nice and mysterious, I wonder if he has trouble with any dumb village mares throwing themselves at him, but it doesn't look... healthy, does it? It doesn't look natural. Have you ever considered asking him about it? I mean, as his marefriend..."

"I'm not his marefriend!"

"...he may entrust you with it."

As if I hadn't tried... He always said he would discuss this matter on another day, probably the day when a mysterious pre-war spell would fix the Equestrian Wasteland in one sweep and would cast sunshine and rainbows all over the country. So most likely: never.

"I tried, believe me." I answered after a short pause. Since I didn't knew anything about the grey pony's maybe terrifying past, there was nothing I could spill, so no need to keep my mouth shut. "But it's always "too personal" and I should ask something else. I mean, he's a..." choose your next words very carefully, Feather. "...very okay guy, he has been kind to me..." Curses! "...I mean, he was very helpful. But apart from that and him having a habit of respecting the dead, I know almost nothing about him, except for his like for Fancypant's Snack Cakes and his general dislike for raiders, but I think all of this is something pretty common down here."

"Well, if you ask me, not telling your partner anything about you isn't a good way to be in a relationship with..."

"For Celestia's sake, we are not in a relationship...!"

Blam!

Finally, I was free again.
Getting shot at seemed to be a pretty small price for being able to end this conversation. What had I been thinking to start a talk like that, talks with Gingerbread tended to turn out that way.

Another bullet dug itself into the ground a few meters away from us, finally getting the attention of our whole group. Leaping into cover, some slightly bigger than a pony rocks, I drew my gun off the holster on my foreleg and glance towards my two unicorn companions. Gingerbread was cowering next to me, desperately rifling her saddle bags for a weapon, while Angel had taken cover behind his own rock. Shot after shot rang through the air and impacted on our cover, but the stone chips didn't do any damage to us.

I peeked out of cover for a moment, but only to be rewarded with a bullet missing me only by inches and no knowledge whatsoever about our enemies force level. Excellent, I had achieved nothing.
Due to a tapping sensation on my shoulder I turned around and looked into Gingerbread's face, a gun floating next to it, which nodded towards Angel. It was hard to make out his facial expression from the distance, but his look seemed questioning. He wanted to know something.
The grey buck stamped his leg four times and looked at me again, but I just shook my head. What did he want from me?
Three stomps, another questioning look and another head-shaking of mine.
Two stomps -

"For Celestia's sake, what do you want from me?" I said in frustration. I could yell at him, but that would mean our opponents would hear us. I assumed that was the only reason for this stupid stomping game. "If you want to stomp them to death, then you should wait until they run out of bullets."

"I think he wants to know how many of them are out there and shooting at us." the orange mare next to me said. "I think it's pretty obvious."

"And why should I know how many... oh." Stupid Feather! You have an EFS now, remember?
Bringing up the Eyes Forward Sparkle I looked towards the rock we were kneeling behind right now. Since we hadn't yet been penetrated by bullets from behind and I simply assumed that our enemies wouldn't just sit around in our backs, drinking Sparkle Cola RAD and watching the show, that meant all of them had to be in front of us. All... three of them. Three red dots on my compass, two of them with quite a distance to the last one. It would be nice if the EFS would also indicate the distance between me and whoever was shooting at us right now, but you cannot have everything. Knowing how many opponents you face was something pretty neat already.
Turning towards Angel again, I hit my foreleg against the rock three times and gave him a nod, which he returned.

I gasped in both horror and astonishment as he took a leap out of cover, stood right in the middle between our two objects of cover, shooting both his pistols apparently wildly, and then dashed back behind his rock again. That was some agility I had never seen before in any non-pegasus pony. And it was reckless too.
But as reckless as it had been, it had apparently worked: one of the red dots had vanished, one was still standing at its position and the last one moved away to the right. Fleeing enemies are the best kind of enemies. You don't have to kill them. So there was only one of them left...

"Did he hit anything?" Gingerbread asked, nervously biting the mouthgrip of her weapon. It didn't make sense for her even having the gun held in her mouth, but everypony was different when it came to work off the stress. "Anything?"

I nodded. As unlikely as it had been. This grey unicorn really knew his stuff. I knocked against our rock one more time and nodded towards our gunslinger, who nodded in return again. If he was able to get a lucky shot again, this battle would be over. This had been almost too easy...

With a loud roar, a stallion lunged for us from above, a rusty knife held in his muzzle and a makeshift rifle slung on his back. He was dressed in tattered leather armor with spikes on his shoulders, but I was glad I couldn't see a Bloodhoof's hoof-club anywhere. Apparently those ponies weren't raiders.
Buck it.
Fleeing enemies? More like flinging enemies. This had to be the one who had been running away from his allies after Angel had shot one of them, but he didn't exactly run away, he had rather run towards us. And I hadn't noticed that.

Stupid, stupid Feather! Remember EFS basic training? As long as it is red, it's still a threat.

I dashed aside to avoid the roaring stallion landing on my back, but unfortunately Gingerbread wasn't as quick-witted as me right now. And I myself wasn't quite fast enough to dodge the attacker's first kick that sent my gun and me flying to the ground a few meters away. Out of cover, as I noticed as the a burst of four or five bullets impacted right next to my head. The world stopped for a moment and as I took a look around, I saw the mud-brown stallion as he held Gingerbread against the rock that had been our cover for the longest time, pressing his knife to her throat. Her magic collapsed and the gun the telekinetic field had been holding fell into the dust below. I could see Angel's face, his eyes widened in horror. He had to make a choice of his own now: either rescuing the newest addition to our group by taking an extremely dangerous shot at the brown attacker or killing the last markspony standing, thereby preventing me form getting perforated by his or her bullets. Tough choice...

He didn't struggle for a millisecond before he stepped out of cover again and unleashed a barrage of bullets, tearing apart the bandit in the distance or forcing him into cover again, I couldn't say for sure, since my eyes were still focused on the ongoing battle in front of me. Angel couldn't help her, he had to keep the pony with the ranged weapon occupied, so there was just me left. Against one slim, but muscular bandit with a knife at the throat of my friend...

"I'm going to kill you, cunt." I heard him giggle as his knife cut into the mare's flesh, blood began to drip down its blade. Maybe they were raiders after all, they appeared vile enough at least. "Or I'll fuck you. Or I'll fuck you and then I kill you. Or the other way round."

I quickly searched the environment for my gun, but didn't make a find in the short time I could afford looking for it. Gingerbread was in danger and I was unarmed.
Well, almost unarmed...

"You like that? Huh? You like that, you dirty naughty pony?" he said with an abominable calm voice, nothing was left of the vile laughter as his forelegs stroke the orange unicorn's mane, making her shriek. Either he was extremely oblivious to the fact that there was another armed unicorn standing only a few meters away from him, or he was terribly aware of his occupation. "You'll be my ticket out of hellhole and into a brighter future. Don't worry, I'll be kind... most of the time."

However, there was still me. Struggling to my hooves, I had only one thought which I repeated over and over again inside my head.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

I felt something moving inside my right foreleg, the Salvation device was slightly vibrating. It was unpleasant, but nothing I wouldn't be able to endure if it meant I could blast this raider-scum's eyes out as a result.
As I drew closer with determined steps I felt something I had never felt before: satisfaction.
I would kill this raider, but I wouldn't have any regrets. He was evil, Gingerbread was innocent and good, black and white. Nopony would mourn for him, the least of all I. And I wouldn't feel bad afterwards. I had not to feel bad afterwards! He was evil, I was good!

"Hey, dirt-dweller..." I said with a firm voice, standing only inches away from the two intertwined ponies. The raider's head moved around, for a brief moment his eyes widened, but then a smuggy smile appeared on his face. He only saw a white pegasus mare with her spread wings and a dirty blonde mane, no firearm or any other weapon pointed in his direction. He grinned, his tongue was lapping the grip of his knife, but then my hoof stroke his grinning face, knocking away the knife and the brown stallion off the mare and against the rock behind him.

"...you're dead."

I pressed my weaponized leg against his forehead, watching in glee as his eyes burst into internal flames, the dazzling light illuminating the afternoon environment. It didn't took as long as it had for the two businessponies and I was almost disappointed by that as his body crumpled.
It was done. He was dead.
And I felt nothing but satisfaction.

"So, I guess I saved you twice today..." I said, sinking down next to the unicorn mare, both of us breathing heavily. I had hold my breath for the entire time since I had engaged the raider. "You're welcome."

"No, only once." she coughed back. "That other rescue doesn't count."

"Why?"

"Because it was yesterday. And Feather...?"

"Mh?"

"You definitely have to show me that trick."

""")_x_("""

It was later this afternoon as we approached Tulip's town again. My digital pre-war map had done a better job than the one I had taken off Silver Tongue's body, it had taken us less then six hours to reach our destination. Luckily without being attacked by raiders again.
It had turned out that the three of them had been indeed raiders, "initiates" as Angel told them after he had killed the last of them. No real members, but... contenders, hence the use of firearms and the absence of hoof-clubs, which I was most thankful for. Those things were disgusting.
The attack had apparently been a part of their initiation ritual, something I would rather not know more about, since Angel hinted it would involve nails, and lots of them.

The night was still far away, but the sealed sky above made it seem as if it was evening already, making me considering turning on my Sunlight Pendant several times. The last hours of our journey were mostly filled with Gingerbread sputtering about how awesome my rescue had been, how she hated the raiders and that she wouldn't thank Angel for anything. That he had prevented the last shooting pony from perforating me didn't trouble her. He hadn't shot the raider molesting her, so he wasn't to thank.
I on the other hoof...
Five minutes after she had started, I was already tired of her compliments about my fabulous white hide and my dashing short-cut tail. Well, I'm not saying it didn't look good, but getting it rubbed in every ten minutes...

"So, how did you do that freaky light thing?" the scribe asked enthusiasticly, bouncing up and down next to me and the silent grey unicorn. "Was it magic? Tell me it was magic. I never knew pegasi can do magic. Can you show me how to do it?"

"Please, Ginger," I said, covering my face with my right wing. "I already told you, I have no clue what I did, except that it is somehow connected to the PegasusBuck inside my foreleg. I don't know what it does, what it is or why anypony would build an apparatus like this. If you want to learn magic tricks, ask Angel. I'm sure he would be glad to help you out."

"Keep me out of it, Feather." the grey buck replied, eyeing Gingerbread with a look I couldn't clearly identify. Annoyance maybe. "And apart from that: I doubt she would be interested in the range of spells I could offer her. Most of them revolve around my guns and my... training with them. The interesting parts are nothing I can teach anypony. And even those don't involve burning away your enemy's eyesight by touching them. I once read a book about alicorns being able of doing such things, but unicorns or pegasi..."

"Alicorns? Like the one I saw yesterday?"

"There was an alicorn?" Angel gave Gingerbread a black look, but she only shrugged, however she did it while bouncing.

"She told me she had seen one, I took a closer look, but there was nothing. She said it was white. I was white,wasn't it?" I nodded. "So maybe it's a new kind of breed we have to worry about. Maybe they can turn invisible too, something like that. It's something the Elder might be interested in once I'm back. But your point was another, Angel-Bunny."

"Stop calling me that." he growled and turned his head towards me again. "No, I don't mean those wasteland alicorns. The book told stories about real alicorns, you know, like the goddesses themselves. Immortal celestial entities, devoted to the goddesses and charity, who would protect ponykind from any evil that would invade their lands. Alicorns so glorious, they had to cloak themselves to make their presence bearable for the ordinary ponies. Warriors of light, who would smite all the enemies of the good, empowered to turn the power of the sun and the moon against them, nothing like those twisted and cheap imitations that roam the wasteland nowadays."

"And is it true?"

"What?"

"The story about those alicorns, the good ones. Is it true?"

Angel's chuckle sounded sour.

"Look at the world around you, Feather. Does it look as if any immortal servants of the goddesses would have protected the world? If so, they did a terrible job. And for the trueness of the story itself: it was written by some kind of mad sectarist, long before the Great War. But just being old doesn't make its content true. Of course the clerics had explanations for the wasteland and the war and everything. That the end of the world had been our own fault, that the angels - that's what they told them - were saddened and left to live with the goddesses. I tried to have faith in the story too, but... it didn't work out well. At least not for long." He sighed. "That was the most peaceful year of my life... It was great while it lasted. But this part of my life, like so many, is over and now I'm traveling with you, Feather."

I asked myself if his cutie mark originated from whatever cult he had been talking about. An alicorn, a fighter for good and protector of ponykind. That seemed like something fitting Angel. But he had left the cult for reasons I didn't knew and didn't want to know right now. The story was nice, no need for it to be ruined by reality.

As I looked up from Angel's lips I saw that we were almost at the gates of the town again, I could see the guardponies walking the barricades and the fire that was lit inside one of the lookout towers.

"I wonder why they don't blind us like they did the last time we tried to enter." I muttered to myself, but then the wooden gate maybe a hundred meters in front of us opened and a single pony bolted out and hurried towards us. A pink pony.
Tulip.

"Thank the goddesses, you're back again." she said with a wheezy voice, flinging her forelegs around the necks of Angel and me. "And you're early, that's even better. Hurry up, we have to get inside."

"Tulip, what happened?" Angel asked worriedly as she dragged the two of us towards the buildings, while Gingerbread trotted after us. The last time I had seen the pink unicorn that... flushed was as the raiders had been butchering her friends.

"Asking: what is happening right now would be more appropriate."
And with a portentous look she said:

"Sparrowtans."

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 9

Skill(s): Unarmed 35

New Perk added: Crusader

"No rest for the wicked."
Thanks to your growing dislike for raiders and ponies acting like them, any damage inflicted by you against those ponies is increased by 10%. Outside of combat, you'll sometimes have access to unique dialogue options when dealing with those factions.
But why would you do that?

Chapter X: Sparrowtans

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We were hurrying through the streets of the town. Well, actually it was Tulip doing the hurrying, holding one of my wings in her telekinetic magic, while my two unicorn companions and I were just trying to keep up with her. I for obvious reason - I really liked my face and knees unharmed as they were now - and the other because they were companions. Or because they didn't want to miss the show. I still didn't know what was driving Gingerbread right now, but the still bouncing mare seemed far too happy for my liking, considering our situation.

The evening sun, even if it was dimmed by the cloud cover, cast its warm light over the town's buildings, making me sigh. It almost looked like home. But I would have to be content with this, going home was out of the question. I wouldn't go home any time soon and this town, its ponies, especially the pink one and the other councilponies... they wanted me to stay here, even if it was just for a short while. I just hoped Old Timer's offer was still valid, now that the griffins, those Sparrowtans, had arrived.

The Sparrowtans...
Great, another trial. That was the third in three days, the fourth if I count Silver Tongue's interrogation. And as a foal I had wished never to see a court room from the inside. But I had one huge advantage I hadn't had the last three times: this time I was really innocent, I had nothing to hide and that meant the griffins wouldn't be able to find something. If they didn't condemn me just because they hated pegasi. And since they were griffins, that was most likely the case. If the surface dwellers were despising the Enclave that much, I really didn't want to think about the people we had actually fought a war against.

"Have you seen them?" I asked the running pink mare next to me. "Or did they say something? The griffin-judges I mean. "

Tulip huffed, slowing down pace to be able to talk.

"Judges? They don't look like judges and that's coming from the mare who holds the assizes together with Shotgun. At least our judges don't wear metal armor and carry enough weapons for our entire town with them. Well, they say they will be the judges, but... I think they look a bit odd for that."

Oh fantastic, knowing my luck they were most likely hangponies... hanggriffins... executioners, that should be the right and least complicated word.

"And? Did they say something? About me?"

"I heard nothing. Before I left to keep watch for you they were talking about the dead griffin's badges and demanded to see them. They didn't really seem to care about the dead on. Griffins are strange..."

"And what about me?"

"The only thing they said it that they want to talk to "whoever took him down" and "reward you for your act". Sounds pretty ominous if you ask me, but don't worry... somehow..."

We arrived at the big hall that had housed two trials before. Two guards with rifles slung around their backs eyed us suspiciously but opened the door before we collided with it. In the brief moment I had eye contact I could see that their looks reflected the usual scorn for me, but there was also... indecision and fear? They looked more than just slightly worried and I doubted it was because of me. Passing the front door and traversing the rooms and corridors which followed on our way back to the court room, I couldn't see ponies apart from us, except for a pair of mares who darted past us, whispering in an intimidated manner. The griffins had to be impressive, more impressive than me at least, but that wasn't really difficult, was it?

As we turned around the corner that hid the entrance door my gaze fell not on a griffin, but on Shotgun, the second councilpony, the crimson and mean one. And even he looked anxious, even if it was just a bit. As we came into view, he ended his nervous patter and darted towards us.

"She's here? Good. Good... but I'm afraid there has been a small rescheduling. They want to talk with him first." he nodded towards Angel and both Tulip, Angel and me gasped in unison.

"With him?!"

"With me? Why?" Angel asked with much less wonder than I had expected. In fact, he seemed to be the only one not caught completely off guard. Or had he, like apparently always, seen this coming.

"How am I supposed to know that? They're griffins, it's probably some kind of "stick to the protocol"-mania, like all those feathered freaks." Shotgun spat. Right, I had forgotten he didn't really liked enclave ponies, but that it included griffins as well was surprising. I had assumed if the surface ponies despised the Enclave they were sympathizing with its enemies. "Maybe it's a way to test her" he nodded towards me, "story. I'm pretty sure that's it. And I would recommend you to do as they say, you know... they seems kinda... insistent."

"I never thought about refusing. There's nothing we have to hide."

"You said the same thing last time."

"We have nothing to hide from them." Angel put an emphasis on every word. "An unlike last time, the truth won't hurt us. Tell them I'm here and ready for the questioning. Is there anything else anypony or -griffin wants from me?"

"Well, they didn't insist on you leaving your weapons behind, but it still might be prudent to..."

"You never face a Sparrowtan without your weapons. They never do it and they don't expect it from others." Angel said, stepping forward and knocking his hoof against the door behind Shotgun, who jumped up in horror, and then the grey unicorn stallion returned to my side. "They say it would make them look weak if they demand the disarming of their discussion partner." he whispered to me and the other two mares.

Before the councilpony could say another word, the door of slammed open, nearly smashing the crimson pony standing right in front of it. The spot where the pony's head had been moments ago was now filled with the head of a griffin. The griffin was clenched in steel blue metal armor and small armor plates not unlike the ones on my forelegs, were covering his – at least I assumed it was a he, I never imagined female griffins – chest and forelegs down to his claws. An also blue helmet, whose metal plates were hiding the cheeks, sat on his head and an about one inch broad three-colored ribbon - steel blue, white and then steel blue again - was slung around his armored chest. The griffin's eyes narrowed as they focused on us.

"You are Guardian Angel." the griffin snarled, or whatever griffins did instead. It sounded more like a low mew. He pointed a sharped talon at the only stallion left in the hallway. "You will accompany me for the questioning. You can keep your weapons, but any attempt to attack us will result in your immediate destruction. Is that understood?"

"Of course, Sparrow. But I would like to know one thing first:"

"Ask away, unicorn." One of the blue armored griffin's claws patted on the ground and his eyes narrowed even more than before, his voice sounded cold and controlled. A bit like one of the older enclave soldier, minus the hostile tone of the voice of course.

"Why do you want to question me? Whirling Feather here's the only one who can tell you the truth. It's her story you want to hear." That sounded as if he wanted to extradite me. If I wouldn't have known him better, I would think his next words would be... "It's her you want."

My eyes widened and I gasped, again. And again in unison with Tulip and Gingerbread. When had I grown to be so cliche marely? Gasping all the time, squatting in fear and being unable to speak for myself. And now he was... no, there certainly was a reasonable explanation for his last words. Even if it sounded as if he wanted to abandon me, I knew him too well for that. He was most likely just trying to monitor the situation. Yes, that's what he was doing. Hopefully.

The tapping ended and the soldier's yellow eyes wandered to me and then back to Angel, ignoring everypony else in the room. His whole appearance was intimidating, not threatening like the giant RADscorpion, but commanding respect as an enemy or discussion partner in this case.

"It's simple: the captain thought it to be the best to verify your companion's story. There is a second, a primary reason, but you won't be told. Answer all the questions truthfully and there won't be any trouble for you. Now come with me, unicorn. The sooner we start, the sooner you will be reunited with your associates."

With a nod Angel took a step forward, passed the armored griffin, and towards door he was holding open. Before he stepped through it entirely, the grey buck turned around one last time, smiled and nodded towards me. Don't worry. was what he was trying to signalize. Then the door closed and I was alone with Tulip, Gingerbread and Shotgun, who had stayed put behind the opened door.

Silence.

He would be alright. Nopony ever stated those Sparrowtan griffins were evil - well, nopony down here. And they had to know it, didn't they? If anything, the townsfolk had portrayed them as righteous and absolutely abiding to their own laws. Something no pegasus back home in the clouds would ever have the opportunity to witness over the barrel of a gun.

"Don't worry, sweety. They won't harm him or something like that. If they say "questioning" they mean just a normal set of questions, nothing extravagant." Tulip said, laying on of her pink forelegs on my shoulder. "He'll be just fine."

"I know." I sighed. Of course he would be alright. He was always alright. "I doubt they could harm him, even if they wanted."

"Don't be so sure, I mean, they're Sparrow..." Gingerbread began, but was immediately shushed by Tulip.

"Would you just shut up please? I'm trying to comfort her." the pink mare hissed.

"But I don't want her to have false expectations." The red-robed scribe answered. "I mean, she's still new down here and when it comes to those griffins, the last thing I want her to..."

If anything about the ancient stories about the Elements of Harmony, those six magical manifestations of pony virtues, was true, I cursed Honesty in this moment. Sure, being honest was nice and all, but to the point were it made other ponies uncomfortable with no good being achieved for another pony?

"They won't harm her, do you understand that? If she hasn't done anything wrong, she'll be free to go in a few hours!"

"Well, from what I've heard of the Sparrowtans..."

And there started that again. I came to think that the Enclave and the griffins - at least those ones - weren't that different when it came to bad publicity. At least around Trottingham, the area where Gingerbread came from if I wasn't mistaken. I shut down my ears as the Steel Ranger scribe started telling almost the same stories from earlier about the Enclave. Abduction, experiments and murder seemed to be the most popular leisure activities among the winged ones, when we weren't busy conquering the surface of course. But apart from that, Gingerbread knew very little about the talon armed warriors, except that they were somehow honorable. Again that statement stayed in the room without any clarification. And like her I knew nothing that would make the future trial less threatening. Of course, I hadn't done anything to harm those griffins, but still... I felt really uncomfortable. I had killed one of their soldiers...

Please let him be a Dashite - wrong word, featherbrain - renegade.

The first metaphorical slap to my face was followed by a real one. How could I hope not to be punished for shooting a pony... griffin in the back? How could I hope to get away unpunished for this crime? How would anything justify what I had done? I had ended another beings life, even if they would discharge me, I would still be guilty of...

A third slap, again right in the face. But this time it wasn't me punching, my forelegs were occupied with holding my paining head. Looking up I saw both Tulip and Shotgun holding back Gingerbread, who stood a feet away from me, a big red book held in her magical grip. By Celestia's scroll collection, being lectured hurt a lot less in the Enclave.

"What was that for?" I heard Tulip scream as her magic wrapped around the tome too, trying to get it away from the redheaded mare. "You... you just hit her! With a bloody bulky book!"

"She was thinking." Gingerbread replied, fighting over control of the book. "She was thinking too much about passed things and possible future outcomes. Those thoughts can make a pony's head explode they told me back in the bunker, not literally of course, but metaphorical. I saw it in her eyes she was worrying more than necessary. And "slapping the face" is considered an adequate remedy among the Steel Rangers. When it comes to thinking and grazes and stuff like this."

"But you punched her in the face!"

"Thank you, Ginger." I said, rubbing my nose as I stood up again. The poor thing had suffered the worst fate, but it wasn't broken. At least I hoped so. "I really needed somepony to snap me out of it. You're right: too much worrying..."

"You see? You see?" With a nudge against her opponent's horn, Gingerbread regained control about her tome and levitated it back to her saddle bags. "Of course I'm right. I'm the scribe and you are the...local... tribal... whatever you are. I am educated in psychology and medicine and much more. Did you know a pegasus' wings consists of eight bones of which three are..."

"Actually it's just five bones. A pre-war pigeon's wing has - or had - the five plus three." That was the only thing I really knew about non-pegasus anatomy, I didn't even know why I knew that. As much as I appreciated the scribe for getting me back from the dark thoughts, I did want to defuse the situation a little. From the looks on Tulip's face, she was right about to go for Gingerbread's jugular. My plan succeeded, the orange mare shrank a little and she was quiet for a moment. But only a brief moment.

"Fine, if you say so, Miss Pegasus."

"She should know it, don't you think, Gingerhead?"

"It's Gingerbread!" Gingerhead - no, Gingerbread shrieked, glaring at the pink mare.

"I'm terribly sorry for that, junior scribe."

I was surprised Gingerbread's redheaded head could grow even redder, wonders never cease. The two of them would never be a happy couple, that was for sure. If I didn't want one of the mares gouging the other's eyes out with her horn I would have to defuse even more. A look around showed me that Shotgun had sought refuge at the far end of the corridor. No help from this side...

"Oh, you didn't say that, you tribal...tribal!"

Rifling through my saddle bags and the ones Angel left behind, I searched for anything that could help me to cool the two mares down. I severely doubted ammunition would help, especially those incendiary rounds, but even if it had been freezing bullets, I didn't believe in the intended cooling-down effect. A flashbang or some kind of tranquilizer gun would have helped, but then again that would have been really radical, too radical for the townsfolk's and griffin's liking, heck! even for my own.

More ammunition.

Maps and papers - rubbish.

Even more ammunition - How was he even able to store all those bullets in those small bags?

The water bottles I had taken from Silver Tongue - bad thing I wasn't thirsty right now.

Wait, water bottles! That had worked earlier. Well, it had worked on me, but I doubted a splash of cold water would fail to surprise them. Maybe a big splash. A really big one. Taking out two of the bottles and unscrewing with both my wings, my moth and my hooves took much longer than I had hoped, but luckily I was fast enough to scoop the wranglers on assaulting each other. With each one of the bottles wrapped as good and stable in my wings as possible I slowly trotted forward, towards the two ponies, who were just as convoluted as my Sunlight Pendant's alicorns right now, only hoping they wouldn't ally and turn on me after I had finished my undertaking. Fortunately they were still just yelling at each other, no physical harm had been done yet, as I spilled the two water bottles, making both of them yelp as the jumped away from each other. Even after I had already confessed it took them a moment to realize I was the culprit, but much to my relieve they ceased any further hostilities and just took place at opposing seats at the walls.

And so did I. Since I didn't want to look as if I would prefer one of them, I trotted over to Shotgun, who was still standing near the entrance to the room my only reasonable companion was being questioned right now. Nodding towards the crimson councilpony I sat down next to the door, pressing one of my ears against it for a few seconds. I couldn't hear anything. Of course, because that would have been too easy.

"Do you know anything about them?" I asked with a sigh. "Anything I can say to appease them or to make somehow... less angry in general?"

"Angel seems to be our biggest expert on this matter." Shotgun replied. "Apart from "Try not to shoot at them" and "Don't forget to breath in their presence" I'm all out of ideas. I guess the only thing you can do is hope for him to say something clever."

"Well, you could try to seduce them." A female voice muttered loudly from behind. Gingerbread of course. It was always Gingerbread. Hard to believe I it wasn't even an entire days since I had come to know her really, it felt as if we were married for about fifty years already. Metaphorical spoken of course, I would never marry another... Whatever.

"I... I could do what?" I asked, turning around to see the orange mare holding bottle of water of a strange design in front of her mouth.

"Seduce them. You know - or probably don't - the Sparrowtans're all chaps, that's common sense. So you being a mare and all of that... flutter your eyes at them a bit, it makes a difference, believe me."

Flutter my eyes? At a...

"They are griffins!"

"So what? I've heard of ponies who like really them." the scribe looked at me really funny. I knew that look.

"Our races went to war against each other! We needed gem resources out of one of their mountains and they needed more place for their people. We blew up one of their nesting places and in return they almost destroyed my home town's cloud seeding grounds. Not to mention all the pegasi they've killed during this time. They killed my mother! I'm open to many things, but "fluttering my eyes" at them is out of the question."

An awkward silence fell over our group after I had finished my sentence, everypony's eyes were fixated on the piece of grey concrete beneath their hooves. I sighed internally and rethought what I had just said, what I had remembered right now. Griffins were evil. They had threatened the pegasus race more than once in the last years alone, they were our... my enemies.

When they would question me they would most likely ask for information about the Enclave and Lunar Rock. Maybe they would disguise it as other questions, about my well-being or about my adventures on the surface, but that would be their ultimate goal. Angel had said it: their prime directive was to serve the Griffin Kingdom and to corrode and destroy my home. But I wouldn't let that happen. They would have the hardest time of it with getting all this out of me. Without doing anything... painful.

"Still, I think it's your best chance to..." Gingerbread started.

"I told you I won't do anything like that. And besides, I doubt it would work on them either."

"Well, it would work on me, I can say that." Tulip shrugged, trotted over to us and sat down next to me, nudged me.

"Not happening!"

I huffed in frustration. Those two mares were just like Sunshine, it was as if I had never lost her, with all its up- and downsides. Just as annoying, embarrassing and hard to shut up, even Gingerbread's coat color was matching that of my former friend. Another pony I couldn't trust right now, another pony who wanted to do evil to my home. If I would ever return to it at all...
What would I give for another slap with Gingerbread's book, to snap me out of...

"She was doing it again, I could see it!" the orange unicorn yelled again and again as she stood over me, hiding away her blunt weapon much faster than the last time.

I was lying on the ground, rubbing my nose again and mumbling my thanks. Apparently those hit the two mares' ears, because they stopped... whatever they were doing to each other right now and helped me up again. Shaking my head to get the ringing out of my ears and my vision to be less blurry again I was glad my concussion had been gone for quite a while by now. And finally my two female companions shut up. If they had something helpful to say I would have appreciated it, but as they had proven by now, they knew exactly as much about the griffins as I did.

Just as we were about to sit down again to stare at each other in silence the double doors slammed open again, making us all jump up in surprise. There he was again. The grey unicorn buck seemed unharmed, both physically and mentally, he was looking just as serious as ever as he stood next to the blue armored griffin, who was still looking down at us - or me in particular - with the same despising look as the last time. As Angel trotted over to me again, he just nodded towards the Sparrowtan. No words, no smile, just the suggestion, the order, to follow him. Well, there wasn't really an alternative, was there?

In silence I left my companions, stepped forward, past the waiting soldier and the double door he was guarding. Passing the gate to my doom I immediately felt the temperature falling. Okay, maybe that was just me. I would be interrogated by a group of Lunar Rock's archenemies, it wasn't wrong to be afraid... a bit.

The door clicked shut behind me and the noise of a bolt being shot got to my ears. I turned my head around an saw the blue armored griffin planting himself in front of the door, then his head twitched, symbolizing me to look forward again. And I hurried doing so. It was definitely hate that glared in the griffin's eyes. Hate for me and my race.

As I turned my head again I almost collided with another griffin, but this time, he wore a red set of armor and a ribbon much like the other one, with the only exception being an additional red stripe in between the top blue one and the white middle stripe. The armor looked both really worn and simple, but embossed at the same time. Badges and other small ornaments decorated this third griffin's chest. In the corner of my eye I spotted another blue armored one. Obviously this griffin was the "captain" that had been mentioned earlier. I was both terrified and fascinated by his appearance, so fascinated indeed that I just stood there like a... well a pegasus facing a heavy armored predator, as a pair of talons steered me to a seat at the other end of the room. Well, they weren't slashing me open right now, so that was definitely positive.

No! I had to remind myself that those were my enemies.
After I had been taken place the red one sat down in front of me.

"Do you know who we are, pegasus?" he asked, his voice was rough, but... friendly? There was no hate, no anger, no negative emotion at all. Neither in his voice nor in his eyes, at least from what I could see of them under his heavy helmet.

I nodded. "You are a Sparrowtan."

"You say this as if you would know us. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that one of the more... civilized ponies, even if it's an enclave one, knows who we are. And do you happen to know what we are here for too?"

"You've come here to avenge your... associate's death." The only thing I wondered about at this moment was if he was going to deny it or tell me I was right. I hadn't talked to a griffin... well, ever. And they were the only species we hadn't been trained to talk to back at the academy. Kill them or expel them from our territory, that was what we were told to do if we ever encountered one. "The griffin I... I've murdered two days ago."

"Oh, are we?" the griffins sounded surprised and I bet he was raising an eyebrow right now, if griffins had those things. "Are you sure?"

"Of course you are. The only other thing I could think of is... that you want information about the Enclave and Lunar Rock. You want to destroy it! But you won't get anything from me! I swear by the goddesses, you..."

"Believe me or not, we aren't here for that either. While the Enclave might be our declared enemy, at this very moment you aren't involved with it, are you? And I'm not foolish enough to believe someone like you possesses any information that could help us to - what did you call it? - destroy your home. Even if you would be their High General's daughter, I know your hierarchy system well enough to know vital intelligence isn't handed on. Actually, your first guess wasn't that bad. Our presence is indeed connected to the fate of the griffin you took out not long ago..."

The captain's talons rose towards his head, then he removed his helmet, revealing a set of poorly healed scares on his cheeks, and looked at me with his yellow eyes. The weren't narrowed in anger like the ones of the blue armored soldier, not cold like Angel's eyes were most of the time or like the ill-concealed fear that had laid in Steed's, hours before he had betrayed us. What I saw in the captain's eyes right now was the closest thing to friendliness I had seen in my time at the surface. It looked honest. And that was something, considering it coming from a freaking griffin.

He sat his helmet down next to him and continued. "You were right; we are Sparrowtans, as was the griffin you killed. And I'm using the past tense on purpose. A Sparrowtan's bound to the order usually outlasts the oath giver's death, but this time this isn't the case. The reason we came here so fast was that we were already chasing this warrior, he had committed crimes that would meant his expulsion from our order, followed by death. Unfortunately he was able to escape us and fled to the wildponies you know as Bloodhoof raiders. But the dangerous move of charging right into battle with a whole tribe of ponies along with another Sparrowtan, even if he was barely an initiate, wasn't necessary at all, since by the time we had arrived here, he had already attacked this settlement with the help of his new allies. I'm sorry for that. We will indemnify those town's inhabitants. And we will take care of you too."

I gulped. That sounded ominous, threatening. My eyes darted to my weapons. The holster, my pistol still inside, was now strapped to my left foreleg, since we didn't know what kind of impact it may have on the second weapon on my right foreleg: the strange PipBuck with the Moonstone-Space-you-haven't-seen fusion core inside. Whatever it was, it had proofed to be a horrible but really effective hoof-to-hoof weapon. I was sure of that. Ninety-five percent sure, okay make that eighty percent, since the red armored griffin was almost twice the size of me.

Maybe I could take him down by surprise and then kill the other two with that pistol of mine...
When had I started thinking about solving problems by killing ponies - or griffins, in that case - that much?
The last two days alone had cost six ponies their lives, all their blood was on my hooves. Weren't six lives enough?

I looked away from my weapons and forced myself to see the captain in the eyes again.

"What are you going to do now? To me, I mean. Will you... will you kill me?"

"Why would we do that?" the captain answered, sounding and looking almost surprised. If I interpreted the griffin's facial expression right.

"I killed one of your kind."

"And why should I be offended by that?"

"...one of your warriors."

"He wasn't even a Sparrow. Barely a member of our order."

"But it was your job to take him down and by killing him myself I robbed you of your chance to...."

"Get overrun by wildponies? Get my Sparrows' armors all bung up?" The griffin laughed. I wasn't sure what surprised me more. That he insisted on not being angry with me or that an emotionless killer machine was acting so... pony-like. "Believe when I'm saying you saved us a lot of work, little pegasus. And even if you might be associated with our secondary enemy, our codex of honor dictates us to be thankful for that. If you would be a griffin, you might get the chance of joining us, but since you're not... we will have to find another way to reward you. After all you kept the balance of power in this part of the wasteland, one of our primary goals."

I couldn't believe what he was saying. He wasn't just not angry with me, but thankful too? That was all kinds of wrong.

"But I killed..."

"You will be rewarded by us, little pegasus. And we won't take "no" for an answer. If we would, I could just as well whip off this ribbon and spit on our honor. So no complaints! Now tell us, what can the Sparrowtans do for you? Destroy your enemies, take you home: if it is physically possible, we will do it."

""")_x_("""

Take me home...
Those were the freaking Sparrowtans! From what I had heard down here and back home in the Enclave, they were capable of doing pretty much everything. Like the Neighvarro Wonderbolts, they were material legends were made of. No heroic tales of course, but legends nonetheless. It was said - on the quiet of course - that if they had been more active on the last Griffin War, said war might have ended differently.
But on the other hoof...
I wasn't sure if I should be happy just yet. During the past days, hopes of seeing Lunar rock ever again had been raised and crushed by other ponies, myself included, more than once. I wasn't sure if I wanted to set hope on something like that so soon again. I wasn't sure if I was ready to be disappointed once more. They had killed... no, they hadn't, but I severely doubted the Sparrowtans as an organisation hadn't had anything to do with the attack on my mother's transporter.

They had slaughtered my people all those years ago, but right now they were my best way to get at least closer to the Enclave. The captain had leached they would figure something out before he ordered me to leave the courtroom again. From what the griffin had said, we would leave the town tomorrow already.

Angel, Gingerbread, Tulip and even Shotgun had been waiting outside with excitement in their eyes as they saw me unharmed and apparently looking not too worried, after one of the blue armored griffins, Sparrows as the captain told me, guided me out again. I - along with everypony else around me - felt really tired, the questioning had taken much longer than it had felt, made obvious by my companions repetitive yawn, so Tulip invited all of us to her house again. As we were just about to leave Shotgun stepped in, apparently trying to make a objection, but he was quickly stifled by Gingerbread, who insisted on have discuss some business affairs. Considering it being Gingerbread I wasn't sure what she meant by that. Leaving the town's main building the last thing I saw was the pale orange unicorn and the crimson stallion vanishing into a sideroom.
Still not sure what exactly she was up to...

We had returned to Tulip's home in complete darkness and Angel and I were quite surprised as we saw the changes the pink mare had made since our last departure: nothing major, but many, many small things that made at least the living room look pretty cozy and civilized. No bloodstains, because those tend to stick around all over the wasteland, and if there were any bullet holes in the walls from the latest attack, they were now covered by wall hangings. If the floor would have been cleaned a bit more, it would feel like back home.

After we had stored away our saddlebags in the attic room of the building again, I withdrew to the house's bathrooms. The water coming out the tap was a bit greenish and oily, but just as back in the school's gymnasium, it did its job to make me feel less dusty. Sweat of tension, fear, battle and the merciless sun mixed up pretty bad with the deserts dirt and sand, resulting in something best described with: "uah!" And only due to my immense willpower I could resist washing myself with our drinking the water and I suddenly wished there would have been a shower in here. On the other hoof, that water would most likely irradiated. As probably fifty percent of our drinking water. I chose the most reliable way of solving pressing questions like this: by not thinking about it any further.

After climbing down the stairs again after I got changed, now wearing my former white hide only, I joined the two unicorns, who were right now sitting in front of the hearth, ending their talk as I stepped in. Informing me that dinner would have to wait until Gingerbread joined us, the three of us took place around the table in the middle of the room - just as the last time we had been here - Tulip started the conversation with a whistle.

"So," she said and smiled brightly. "You made it out there alive, apparently. I can't wait for the poisonous little brat to return. Twenty more caps for me..."

"You two placed a bet on my trial's outcome?" I asked... well, no, I wasn't surprised or shocked anymore. What had I expected, it were Tulip and Gingerbread after all, the two most strange mares I had ever encountered in my entire life.

"It wasn't a bet. Not really... " the pink mare stammered, darting a glance at Angel, who sat to our right and - much to my surprise - wasn't judgingly eyeing Tulip. "It was more of a deal with... Tell us what they said to you."

"Haven't we agreed on waiting for Tulip until Feather starts explaining?" the grey unicorn buck interjected. "I bet she isn't eager to tell the whole story twice. Since Gingerbread agreed to follow us, I think we should wait until..."

"You're talking about me?" a shrill, yet happy and way too active voice sounded from behind us, making Tulip's mane and my feathers curl. I knew we should have set in a position in which we would be able to actually see the door. Turning around I saw the red-robed unicorn bouncing towards us, levitating a small bag next to her smiling face. "Well, now I'm here, you can continue talking." she said after she took place next to me and Angel. "Don't be disturbed."

"What have you been doing?" I asked, my eyes wandering from her face to the bag on the table in front of us back to her face.

The smile on the orange unicorn's face widened and her whole body seemed to... wobble as she nodded towards the bag, but any further talk was ended in advance by Tulip, who started ranting again about the scribe owing her twenty caps, which said scribe answered with the same amount of slurred ranting. Apparently she wasn't willing to pay for whatever the two mares had been betting on, before I would have told my story to "proof who really won". They didn't stop until Angel stepped in, silencing the two ponies for me to tell what had happened in the hours before.

Revealing that none of them had threatened to slice me to death with his talons was surprising enough for both our Steel Ranger scribe and the pink council pony, but it was me mentioning that the Sparrowtans had agreed on actually helping me to go back home was what made all of the gasp. They were big and menacing griffins, according to Angel able to take anything than a wing of alicorns, whatever that meant, on with ease. And they agreed to help me. I couldn't really believe it myself at that moment.

Leaning back after I had finished my story I waited for my companions to say something. The plan was clear, we would leave with the griffins the next day, the only open question was: who exactly were "we"? I doubted any of my companions would leave me, Gingerbread because she seemed interested in my PipBuck and Angel... because he was Angel. But worrying about things I didn't have to worry about was something that had come with my landing on the surface.

"Now we're my twenty caps?" Tulip suddenly asked, nudging the Gingerbread with more force than necessary. "She's not dead or injured, I've won."

Grudgingly the orange unicorn opened her saddle bags, levitated a small bag, similar to the one on the table, out of them and sat it on the table with a jingling noise. Just as Tulip's magic manifested, another field erupted around the brown sack, causing the pink aura to collapse with a soft *plop*. Three pairs of eyes followed the bag of caps as it quickly floated over to... Angel?

"What's that about, Angel?!" Tulip screamed and... I guessed she was trying to somehow regain control over her caps by doing something magic. I never knew unicorns could compete with each other in magics as if it was bare muscle strength. I had always assumed it was somehow different from any earth pony or pegasus thing, but apparently I was wrong.

"I find it was me who won the bet." the grey buck said, keeping a straight face as always. Quite an impressive thing to do, considering the pink mare struggling in front of us all. But what was even more impressive - or shocking to be exact - was that my only male companion had placed a bet too.

"Et tu, Angel?" I asked whisperingly and my eyes narrowed.

"Different from those two, I said they wouldn't just not harm you." he answered, nodding towards the two mares at the other side of the table. "Ginger here said the Sparrowtans would rip you apart, Tulip said the would let you go and I said they wouldn't stop with that."

"But I was right too." the pink mare mumbled.

"It's like playing Boccia. You don't get a prize for being near your target as long as there's somepony even closer to it." Angel said, cracking a smile while levitating the caps into one of his blue overcoat's pockets. "Deal with it."

"What did she just said?" Tulip whispered to Angel, pointing a hoof at me. "Sounded like zebra talk."

"What the hay is Boccia?" Gingerbread babbled.

Both my grey unicorn companion and me shook our heads in amusement. The reaction of the two mares' reminded me that not everything down was dead serious. The Sparrowtans volunteered to help me and even if their plan, whatever it would turn out to be, failed, causing me to not be able to return home in the foreseeable future, so what? It couldn't get much worse right now, could it? Of course it wasn't all that bad at this moment, but... I would really prefer being at home again. Even if I would have some explaining to do about... No, featherbrain, those were worries for another day! What I should want right now was to hope for my homecoming to be a success.

What followed now were Angel and me having a hard time separating the two unicorn mares, who had somehow managed to get into a fight again - something about zebras and throwing things at stuff - ending up with leading Tulip up to her own room while locking Gingerbread and Angel away in our quarter beneath the roof. The last thing I was charged with before getting some sleep myself was bringing our last pair of saddle bags, the ones Gingerbread had left in the living room, back up again.

Kneeling down next to the two tattered bags I tried to empty my head from all those stupid worries that had befallen it in the last couple of hours. Worries about the Sparrowtans stabbing me in the back, about the other pegasi's reaction when I would be coming home all alone, about Angel maybe not wanting to follow me. Okay, with the last one I was sure my worries weren't justified. He would never leave me, he had said that himself. And while he was with me, the chance of getting caught off-guard was at least halved. And with Gingerbread following me too... Still halved.

A clinking noise roused me from my thoughts. To get these special saddle bags onto my back without some unicorn doing its magic proofed to be much harder than I had thought. Turning my head around I saw one of the bags had opened and two bottles of water were lying on the ground, fortunately neither broken nor damaged at all. Taking a closer look at them I finally recognized the strange design of the bottles: those were Sparkle Cola RAD bottles which had been refilled with water and sealed with what looked like some kind of screw-cap. It were the ones I had taken from Silver Tongue about a day ago.

For a few moments I struggled, but then I picked up the bottle with my wings. The pony owning this thing before had been a bad one, at least in his last moments. He had tried to... he had deserved to die. It had been self-defense.

You need to get over this, featherbrain.

I had only known him for the better part of a day before he had turned on me, he was nopony I should have established any kind of emotional bond for. He had been a stranger yesterday and he still was a stranger to me at this moment. A dead stranger, one I had killed myself for him being evil. And taking his stuff was nothing I should be ashamed of. That was what I was telling myself as I unscrewed the seal. This was the wasteland. It had been necessary.

As the first drips of water wetted my muzzle I had to gag. This was no ordinary water I was drinking right now, this one... burnt, a lot. My eyes went down to the bottle I held in my wings and I saw with surprise that it was only half filled anymore. Somepony had already been drinking from this one and since I had left all the already opened bottles back in the vault, this had to be the one Gingerbread had to be said pony. Sniffing carefully at the bottleneck I smelled...

Either this Steel Ranger scribe was using one hell of a make-up she had somehow managed to smother right into the bottle or the businesspony had been transporting several bottles of what I in my limited knowing would describe as booze. And Gingerbread had down half a bottle of it. That would explain some of her behavior earlier. Somehow. A bit of the behavior. Or maybe she had just been Gingerbread back then. Who knew?

Backing up a bit due to the nevertheless quite heavy saddle bags of the red-robed scribe pony - sealing the drinking bottle and putting it back in didn't help much at that front - I stumbled against the table we had been sitting at a few minutes ago. I was glad not to hear something bursting into flames behind me and was just about to make my way back to the stairs as I heard another noise from behind me. It couldn't have been the bottle again, could it? This had sounded different, much more... solid.

Turning around, almost completely loosing control over my body due to the momentum, I spotted the brown sack Gingerbread had brought with her leaning dangerously close at the edge of the table. So I really had grazed it. Stepping closer I thought about what... no, I wasn't thinking about bringing the bag back to her, of course I would, but she had made it seem so... mysterious earlier and if there was one thing I couldn't resist it were mysterious bags with and even more mysterious content lying around somewhere. Okay, that was a lie, those scared me more often than not, an abandoned bag in Lunar Rock could always contain a griffin or dashite bomb - at least that was what they had always told us - but this one... for no reason this one attracted my attention.

I must have looked really silly, just standing there and maybe talking to myself whether to take a look inside or just bag the bag and take the whole thing up to its rightful owner. I severely doubted this was an explosive charge since... blowing up the building right now wouldn't have made sense in any way. Gingerbread might have behaved really strange for the time I knew her, but the explosion-theory still seemed quite improbable to me. After shuffling off the weight on my back I carefully drew closer to the strange sac on the table, nudging it just as carefully with one of my wings.
It didn't blow up right into my face, that was definitely good for me.

And there was it again: as my wing struck the bag, the same clattering noise as before. I knew that noise, but right now I couldn't remember from where...

Screw that, Feather, just open the Luna-damned bag, get your insight and take the thing back to Gingerbread. No biggie.

Following my inner voice I finally opened the bag and laid my eyes on... caps.
Lots and lots and lots of caps. It must have been... hundred? Thousands? I honestly couldn't tell. How all of them even fitted into this small sac was beyond me. As was how Gingerbread had come by them. She had left us with nothing than her robe, Angel, Tulip or me had been carrying her saddle bags, so she had gotten this money from Shotgun by... uah!

I squeezed sac's opening close again and tried to maneuver it into the worn saddle bags with as little wing contact as possible, fighting the images of Gingerbread and... anypony - scratch that - anypony and anypony in my head. Just don't think about it and everything will be alright, at least that's how it usually worked. Coughing quietly I decided to not talk about any of this ever. It was bad enough when she had been trying to pair me up with Angel, I didn't want to poke the dragon without solid reason.
No talk, never! That would be the most healthy thing for my brain I decided as I slowly trotted over to the stairs.

""")_x_("""

"Can you tell me again why we have to walk all the way?" Apart from circulating rumors about non-Steel Ranger groups, complaining seemed to be one of Gingerbread's further developed abilities and it made me ask myself what her cutie mark - or any cutie mark representing that kind of talent - would look like.

I had no clue how long we would have to walk, not even how far away our current destination was, the only thing I knew that the location was somehow connected to the Enclave . When I had traveled with Angel alone it had always been half a days walk, mostly even less, but those griffins... if what was told about their stamina were to be believed, they could go on for at least a day. Standing next to a chest-high rock I shook my tail and mane to get the sand out off it that had accumulated in there in the last hours of wandering. This part of the wasteland was even more desert-like than the one around the Stable-Tec storeroom and with each passed minute it felt as if there was even more sand everywhere. Looking over to our four male companions I wondered why they seemed to not notice the heat and the dirt and everything unpleasant at all. Neither Angel nor the griffins had said a word since we had left Tulip in the morning. Pretty scampered I might add, to avoid any further conflicts between Tulip and Gingerbread.

"You got any better ideas?" one of the blue armored griffins, a so called Sparrow as Angel had informed me, asked with the usual amount of annoyance in his voice. "Since you two horn-heads wanted to come along with us and apparently neither of you is capable of flight walking is the only choice of movement we have left. If you hadn't insisted..."

"Sparrow, restrain yourself!" the red-armored captain called out, silencing his subordinate immediately. "You're talking to a lady."

"She's an uni-"

"She's a lady nonetheless. And do you remember how to treat them?" The Sparrow nodded and walked slowly over to his blue armored associate, his head still bowed as the captain continued. "I have to apologize. This one's always a bit... impulsive." he sighed. "But to answer your question: he was kind of right when he said it was because of you. But only kind of right. Of course we could have flown if you hadn't decided to come with us, if this would be better times and a better place. But nowadays the Enclave is monitoring and defending the air below the cloud cover, they make it really hard for us to fly at a save height where grounded opponents wouldn't be able to spot and shoot us. You see, there's no reason for you to feel bad about "slowing us down". We probably would have traveled by foot nonetheless. And again: I beg pardon for my nestling's lack of countenance."

"Wait, your nestlings?" Gingerbread and I looked in each others faces with surprise after we had both uttered the same question at the same time. But really? Those two were nestlings? They didn't look alike in any way. "You're his father?"

"His what?!" the red-armored griffin looked surprised for the first time. Or rather sounded, since neither of three had removed his helmet, even in the burning sun. Those were some tough griffins. "His father? How would you...? Oh, I see. No, I'm not. Family bonds are quite rare in our order and if there are any, it's only by chance. Are you ready to continue our walk? It's a longer story and I prefer to talk while walking."

Gingerbread and I nodded, and without saying another word, the captain announced that we were moving on. Both Angel and the two Sparrows - it felt strange to think of them by their rank or was it a nickname? - followed the order without a flinch. Apparently a word of their captain was enough to make the younger griffins do whatever he demanded. Authority like that would have been great to have back home, sometimes.

"Soooo, how is..." Gingerbread cocked her head into the direction of the impolite Sparrow, "he your - what was it? - nestling? You're not his father and without disrespect, you don't look as if you're his brother either.

"I'm not, you're right."

"Why did you call your nestling then?" I asked. "You said there almost no family ties, yet ponies - okay, I can speak only for myself on this account - associate a nest with a griffin's family."

"You're right. The nest is indeed associated with the family and that's why I called him my nestling. It's a way of organisation of our order. You see this?" he asked, pointing a talon at his blue-red-white-blue striped ribbon on his chest. "I'm sure you noticed the similarities between my and the Sparrows' ones. We Sparrowtans have sworn solidarity to each other, but within a relatively big group like us, it's dangerously easy to drown in namelessness. So, to make things a bit easier to handle and to feel at home, especially for new-comers, the order is divided into many smaller units, called "Nests". Ever nest has around twenty to thirty members, older Sparrowtans as well as younger ones, the first to give advice and the latter to have a good rapport with the young and new members, the Sparrows. And one of many things that distinguishes us from any of the other nests are the colors of our ribbons. Coming back to your previous comparison: a nest is basically the equal of a family in our order. Of course we all follow the same ideas, ideals and tradition, but every nest has its own ways of interpretation."

Families then... I had to admit, I would have welcomed a concept like this in my first months at the academy. Would have made things much easier for sure. But on the other hoof, it worked out well for me in the end and for everypony I knew. I didn't knew the exact amount of the Sparrowtans' members, maybe they were even more than the Lunar Rock's academy's cadets. But it was always said these griffins were a small and elite circle of warriors.

"How many are you?" I asked unwillingly. Of course, I would like to know, but on the contrary, I had sworn not to spill any information that could be used for an attack against my home, so why should they? Apparently, the red-armored leader came to the same conclusion.

"It depends on who you count as a Sparrowtan." he said hesitantly. "But I assure you, we're more than enough to protect our home and that's the only thing an outsider should know. No offence. I'm sure you understand that there are some things I can't talk about with a stranger."

"Of course." I answered, trotting slowly alongside with him. Of course he couldn't tell me, but would I tell him the number of Lunar Rock's defense forces? Left alone that I wasn't sure of how many pegasi there were. Maybe I would suggest something like that when I was home again. I mean, it sounded great, didn't it? "And... what are you - the Sparrowtans, I mean - doing all day?" I asked after a few minutes of silent walking. "You don't just wander the wasteland in search for pegasi like me or Dashites - I mean traitors, griffins who broke their oath to serve you?"

The griffin laughed out loud.

"For an enclave pegasus, you're a pretty inquisitive one. Do you want to know what we do or what we are supposed to do?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes, nowadays." he sighed. "Nowadays we really just wander Equestria and what is left of our homeland, trying keep the peace in the latter and to maintain balance in the former. And with our race's big natural rivalry and need for violence, many of us are glad to be sent out here. Solving problems by slicing raiders' throats is just so much less annoying than dealing with two griffin families who argue about getting the aerie in a higher position. And when I say higher I mean just the physical height. Yes, it is banal like that. Given that the female griffins are naturally stronger, things can grow pretty intense pretty easily. And then there's no right thing to do. The only thing you can hope to accomplish is getting your tail feathers out there intact, because even if the griffins in the more civilized areas aren't that fast when it comes to shoot anyone, their talons are even faster than your tongues or horns when it comes to use them."

"I can't imagine the exact event, but I certainly know what you mean. Cloud settling above," I nodded towards the slightly less grey cloud cover, "is pretty complicated too. I'm no expert in weather, but apparently there are good clouds and bad clouds to settle on. I don't know how they're distinguished, but apparently those pegasi can smell when the government is trying to steal them blind." I sighed and paused for moment. "And what were you supposed to do? Besides helping Equestria, which I suppose I should be thankful for?"

"Don't get me wrong, we don really help anypony, it's just in our best interest to... keep the balance." the red-armored griffin said hesitantly and then his head jolted to the left, where just now one of the blue-armored griffins was flying towards us. "I'm afraid I can't continue this talk right now.Our scout is back and it seems we might have a problem. What is it?" he asked as the griffin had landed in front of him.

"I spotted wildponies." the Sparrow said in between coughs. Apparently this armor wasn't all that light. "A few miles our way, it seems they've set up a camp. They're all armed. I checked our maps for backup-routes, I think there is one through a canyon maybe a few..."

"And why would we need a backup-route?" the captain answered with ill hidden amusement in his voice. "We are Sparrowtans, we never run from a fight."

"I know, but I don't know about our guests. We might not be able to protect..."

"Of course we will!" the captain called out, drawing a long sword out of a sheath hidden beneath his left wing. The blade sparkled awe-inspiringly, even in the dull sunlight. An impressive look. And the Sparrowtans' signature weapon from what I had heard. "If we wouldn't be able to, we wouldn't deserve to be a part of the order. We will go onward and..." A sharp whistle made the Sparrowtan stop his speech and turn his head, only to face...

"Excuse me, mister griffin, but I think this is a stupid idea." Gingerbread said snappishly and I facehoofed, prophylactically. Why did she have to speak thoughts like this out loud? Of course it was a bit stupid to charge right into battle, but those griffins were our guards. The last thing I wanted was to put them off.

Just this moment a thought stroke me: those griffins wanted to protect me, us, my companions, ponies. And I hoped they wouldn't be hurt. Why hoped I they wouldn't be hurt? They were the enemies of the Enclave.
But they were people too.
The world down here was weird.

"Really, do you think so, miss Ranger scribe?"

"Yes, I think we should go the way through this canyon to avoid a fight." the red-maned mare said and I swore I could have seen her shaking a bit. "I mean, I'm not scared or anything, I just think... that we should get over this without getting somepony - or griffin - killed."

I hadn't thought of that. I thought of protection as... what? Make the bad ponies magically go away? I didn't knew myself right now. Back home there had always been talk about protecting Lunar Rock against the griffins, it were always the griffins. And then it had been Sunshine who we had to protect Lunar Rock against. And what that meant I hadn't realized until Wind Claw ordered her to be shot down. When I had acted against the rules given by the High Command. Maybe if I had let him do what he intended to do, everything would have turned out to be better. Maybe I should have... No! Not killing somepony would indeed be preferable. There had been enough death in the last two days, I felt no need to add even more names to the list. And the least of all one or even more of my companions or the Sparrowtans themselves.

But before I could voice my dislike and objections, the red-armored captain chuckled.

"I beg your pardon, but our code of honor doesn't allow us to simply walk away from bandit camps on our travel route. Old world history, boring to most ponies and griffins, but we have to dismantle this camp if there's a harmful intention behind it. If there's a civilized way to deal with this, by talking for instance, if they're willing to listen, we'll do that. It would indeed be preferable. You can wait here if you want, but we need to go."

Great, a quagmire. I hated those things. Having to choose between letting the griffins venture alone into a possible battle against a whole camp of ponies, possibly bandits or raiders, or join them. That possibly meant killing more ponies in order to save ourselves.
But before my brain could think it through, my mouth decided for me: "No! I'll come with you!"

Everypony - and griffin - looked at me with the utmost astonishment. Everypony except Angel. He just stood there, shaking his head, and checked his pistols magazines. "I'm coming too." he muttered.

"Do you like to get into trouble like this?" Gingerbread hissed as she passed by me. "I would rather avoid a... scene like yesterday. From what you've told me, you're not that good when it comes to bartering. And I would rather not let them..." the orange mare nodded towards the griffins, all of them armed with the same kind of slender blades, "...do the talking. They like their weapons a bit too much for my liking."

"They said they'll try to talk to them." I sighed. Gingerbread had a point. The griffins seemed ready to slay somepony and I hadn't the impression they really cared for who those ponies were. But maybe... maybe those ponies would listen to what we would have to say. I mean, from what I had heard about the Sparrowtans, they had some kind of dubious authority down here and with two more unicorns and me at their side, maybe the ponies at the camp, even if it were bandits or raiders, would avoid a fight simply because of our number. Maybe they were sentient beings.

"And you believe them?"

Did I?

"Yes, I do. They may be many things, mostly scary. And from what I know about the Griffin Wars, they fearsome warriors too. Maybe they're eating robins too. But if anything I've ever heard about them is true, they're also honorable and honest. And they haven't done anything yet that makes me think different of them." They might not have been what I would call allies, but... fellow combatants.

"Let's go."

""")_x_("""

Twenty ponies.

I could see around twenty ponies in this camp, all looking skinny and cadaverous. Some tents were set up at the side of the only street leading through the dusty red cliffs, which rose at both sides as well. A perfect place to block a route, if those ponies really were bandits. For simple travelers they were well armed, but that didn't say anything about their intention. Traveling down here was dangerous and I had only heard about most of the dangers. I saw pistols, submachine guns, a few rifles and some weapons that looked as if they were made of lead pipes and duct tape. Nothing fancy and not even close in quality or at least cleanliness of the weapons we had scavenged from Silver Tongue's ponies. We had made around a hundred caps by leaving them back with Tulip. And then left more than the half of it with the pink unicorn mare, as contribution for all the food we had eaten and the place to sleep.

Three hooded figures were following me. Gingerbread and Angel as well as one of the young Sparrows. I honestly couldn't tell which one it was, both of them seemed cold, humorless and ready to use violence. He was told to monitor and judge the situation to decide the way of further action.

"What do you think?" the Sparrow to my right - the two other griffins wanted to stay behind for reasons unknown to me, something about a test or something - asked, his helmeted head and the blue armor hidden underneath a wide brown cloak that hid each and any of his features and made the griffin look like a really bulky earth pony, as we slowly drew closer to the camp. I still hated those cloaks, why Angel had kept mine after the disaster in Tulip's town was beyond me. "What do you make of this?"

"Well, they sure look like ordinary ponies." I answered, not quite sure what he was implying. "They're armed, but what kind of pony isn't armed down here. They haven't attacked us yet, that's definitely good."

"And what about that?" he asked as wooden barricade came into side. A spiked barricade, blocking the road through the narrow valley. And several more ponies, big and bulky stallions with more presentable firearms, stood guard next to it.
I stand corrected: now it were around thirty ponies in this camp. It didn't look good...

"I guess some kind of fortification makes sense, especially out here."

"They look like bandits."

"You, Angel, Ginger and I probably look like bandits too. They're just... well prepared, I guess."

I could see the hooded figure next to me shaking his head. It was obvious, even to me, that he wouldn't mind battling those bandits - no! ponies. There wasn't any proof they meant trouble. They were most likely wanderers, just like us. I could see a wave of tension going through the crowd of ponies in from of us as the four hooded figures approached the first line of defense. A dirty green unicorn stallion jolted as we passed at the front barrier and went over to us, a submachine gun held in his magic grip. But from what I could see, he didn't really aim at us. It was just some kind of reinsurance, the same things as when Angel locked our doors at night. His face was young, he was merely as old as Angel, but his eyes showed something I had seen too often down here: calculation, bitterness and a bit of fear, a combination that had lead to ponies try to harm me or my friends quite often in the last week alone. Almost every time we had encountered another pony.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" he shouted way less impressing than I had expected. But the clicking noises of thirty guns being cocked instilled a rational amount of worry into me again. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

"Relax, buddy." the griffin said, the words exiting his beak sounded... wrong. Not because of the way they were spoken, but because of the fact that he - a griffin and beyond that a Sparrowtan - used them. I was well aware that the feeling of wrongness I had now was nothing more but a racial stereotype, something that had been implanted into my brain for my whole life. But the griffins weren't entirely innocent on that part. I hadn't seen one of the Sparrows laugh or even smile ever, just their captain one or two times. 2:1 for the grumpy griffins.

"We don't want to cause any trouble, we simply want to pass through." I added immediately, "There's no need for..." I pointed a hoof at the dozen guards all around us, pointing their weapons at us, "...all of that. We're ordinary travelers, just like you."

"I think they're hiding something." One of the guards, who stood right next to the green buck, apparently the leader of this camp, whispered. "They're wearing hoods and cloaks in broad daylight, want to pass through without questions... If you ask me, boss..."

"Well, nopony's been asking you, so stay quiet and make sure they don't do anything stupid. Until then, I'll go with talking first." the boss hissed, but it was loud enough for me to hear, and his face brightened again as he turned his head back to us. "First of all, travelers, I would like to welcome you to this modest little outpost of civilization. It might be a bit dusty, but it's clean of scum and raiders, I can promise that. Unfortunately..."

Why was there always something unfortunate if things could be handled that easily?

"...civilization means, to a certain extend, order. And to maintain this, I can't let you pass by our customhouse just like that. There are questions that need to be answered, like: are you carrying illegal chems, forbidden materials or anything else to pay duty on? Where are you headed and why? What's your name?"

In a single bound, the Sparrow suddenly stood right in front of the green unicorn. He hadn't used his wings or anything, he still was fully wrapped into the dark brown robe. Luckily, no shots were fired at the griffin who just stood there, spitting words into the cam leaders ears loud enough for everypony around to hear:

"Tell me first: what's your name, buddy?"

"T...t...Toll Token." the green unicorn stuttered, apparently caught off guard, "I..."

"Well, the listen well, Toll Token: I know what kind of game you and your ponies are playing here. You can't hide it, I can smell viciousness like yours from a ten miles distance. But I'm civilized, so I'll give you an ultimatum: this den of thieves will be abandoned in a day. If not, I'll come back. And then things won't turn out that pleasant, I can assure that."

"I'm sooooo sorry!" I called out, jumping forwards and between the griffin and the green buck. de-escalation was of the utmost importance right now. "My friend's a bit..." I tapped my forehead at the hooded Sparrow as I shoved him away from the ponies, "...light-headed sometimes. Jumps to conclusions. He got a nasty dose of the radiation around here, I believe it melted his brain or something. Don't take too seriously what he's saying, he's a decent fellow, most of the time." I took a deep breath. "Of course we're going to answer your questions and of course we will undergo your toll procedure. We're civilized ponies after all, are we?" I hissed the last two words, my face turned towards the griffin.

Apparently I had done something right, because a big part of the tension among the armed guardponies vanished. Now they were just aiming at us. A success, even if it was a small one.

"So is there anything we can do to help you, mister custom officer? I promise, we will give you all the support you need to finish your business without trouble. Both me and my companions promise that, isn't that right?" I nudged the big griffin to my right. He nodded.

Toll Token de-dusted his brown leather armor. "I appreciate your will to cooperate, miss... what's you name."

Great, that again.
I was about to use my fake name from earlier this week, Earth Walker, but then I remembered how that had turned out. I doubted it would matter what kind of pony I would turn out to be, if they were bad ponies they would try to rob us anyway, if they were neutral or good ponies, they wouldn't mind at all. And in the case of an emergency, I could still play the Dashite card. From what I had learned, nopony down here actually believed in non-power armored non-dashite pegasi in the wasteland. Except maybe Tulip, but she wasn't here right now.

"My name is Whirling Feather." I said. Hesitating for a few moments, I added. "And I'm a pegasus. Just to set things strait in the beginning. And those..." I pointed a hoof at the Sparrow and then nodded at Gingerbread and Angel, who were standing a few meters behind us, "...are my companions. So what do you want from us?"

All of the sudden, a smile appeared in Toll Token's face. He waved a hoof at his ponies, indicating to finally lower their weapons.

"Just standard procedure. Note personal data, search your baggage for illegal substances. I'm sure especially you, Miss Whirling Feather, are quite familiar with procedures like this and maybe you dislike them, Dashites often have a bit of an... " Okay, so I would be the Dashite now, "...anarchic mindset - no offense - but what this wasteland needs is order more than anything. So just hand over your saddlebags, my ponies will go through it for a few minutes, me and a few others will take your personal data and then you'll be free to go. As I said, just standard procedure, nothing to worry about. Just make sure your big buckfriend doesn't cause any more trouble. It would be a shame if things would escalate."

I nodded and turned around as he beckon three earth ponies from the crowd and instructed them to follow us back to our baggage. At least they thought of the hooded griffin as a pony, that was somehow good.

"You're aware that those ponies are going to steal whatever they can find within your saddlebags?" the Sparrow whispered as we slowly trotted towards Angel and Gingerbread, accompanied by three of the "custom officials". "They are thieves and bandits, robbers and rapists, those who aren't ex-raiders are on their best way to becoming one. We would do your homeland a favor if we just kill them right here and right now."

"I know who they are." I answered. "But is there really anything of value they could take from us just like that? The few guns we haven't already sold are of low quality anyway and our money is safe in our pockets, all they could do is take away some of the strange water we carry around, of which we have plentiful right now I might add. And if the loss of a few bottles of water and three jammed pistols is the price we have to pay to get through all of this without getting somepony hurt or killed, I willingly paying it." I huffed. "You can have my water if you're that worried about our supplies, but I don't want them to be hurt as long as they remain neutral to us, do you understand?"

The Sparrow sighed, but then he nodded.

"I know "toll stations" far worse than this one, I guess the law can turn a blind eye on this camp this one time. I make you a deal, Whirling Feather: if they don't turn out to be raiders or worse until we depart, then we'll let them be, for once. But I will suggest finding another occupation and when I meet them again, things won't be solved that easy. Is that okay to you?"

I nodded in return. This Sparrow seemed to be more reasonable as I had initially thought. Apparently he wasn't eager to spill blood right now either and I respected him for that. Another step on the path of dismantling any prejudices about the bloodthirsty griffins.

Our small group arrived at the outer barricade, where my two pony companions waited for us.

"Your name is...?" one of the toll ponies asked the hooded griffin.

"...none of your business." he hissed, throwing down the small bag he was carrying with him to the ground in front of the ponies hooves. "Just rummage around my stuff and let me go already. I'm getting tired of this."

"What is this under your forelegs? Are those weapons? I must insist one seeing..."

"Touch them and your hoof will never touch anything again." Angel growled as one of the earth ponies had approached him and found his black pre-war pistols strapped to his forelegs.

"Are you carrying any..."

"Don't you dare touching this book!" Gingerbread yelled as the third toll pony, a light blue buck, rifled through her saddlebags, digging out the big red book the unicorn mare had used yesterday to help me overcoming my fears and worries. "Or those wires! And if you even think of opening this toolset, I'll cut off all your legs and shove them up your-"

This wasn't going well.

"What's this?" Gingerbread's toll pony called out as he lifted the brown bag out of the scribe's baggage. The bag that was filled with hundreds and hundreds of caps. My heart skipped a beat. Those had slipped my mind. Even if the ponies of the camp hadn't intended to rob us earlier, I had no doubt that a shitload of money - to use the technical term for once - would be able to change that.

"You can't take those! They belong to Fea..."

The orange unicorn mare stopped as the stallion in front of her opened the sack. Even from the distance I could see his eyes sparkling. This wasn't going well indeed.

"Hey, boss, I think you might want to take a look at this." the blue buck called out and a few moments later, his green leader came galloping towards us, mistrust in his eyes. He glanced briefly into the brown bag and then stepped towards me and my companions. The toll ponies had already backed away from us and had drawn their weapons again, aiming at us just like the rest of the thirty ponies. Great.

"That's interesting indeed. Very interesting." Toll Token mumbled, more at himself than at us, then he raised his voice. "Can you give me an explanation for this, Miss Whirling Feather?" His magic wrapped around the wallet and shook it, letting the caps inside clink. "Can you explain to me how a group of hobos comes to have something like this with them? More than enough caps to buy a whole caravan company? I'm sure you understand my suspicion, Miss Feather."

I shrugged. Honestly, I had no idea what to say. I myself hadn't any clue of how and from where Gingerbread had taken this money.

"I didn't know that the money would be a problem. I'm sure my companion has every right and reason to carry such a large amount of caps with her and I'm sure she's able to explain this reason too. There's no need for suspicion."

What was I even saying? All three of the Sparrowtans, Angel and even Gingerbread had warned me that those ponies were out to steal from us. Reasoning was pointless, everypony within a mile's radius knew that. The only choice we actually had were either to let them or not. The former meant letting a robbery happen to Gingerbread whereas the protesting would mean a battle with an outcome unknown to me. "Just let her explain!" I finally called out, glancing at my orange unicorn companion. Although I had bigger problems right now - much bigger problems - I honestly hoped what she would reveal wouldn't confirm whatever gross imagery had try to sneak its way inside my brain last night as I had discovered the bag for the first time. Uaah...

"I don't think this is necessary, since she has neither witnesses nor proof of what she says is true. Apart from you of course, but you're... what's the term?... biased. Everypony..." Toll Token began, raising his gun. "...can make up a story and every other pony can fake a witness-testimony. So by the virtue of my office as a custom official I therefore confiscate this sack. All of you, get your things together, leave now and count yourself lucky you did get away that easy. Now go away!"

The green buck turned around, the moneybag floating besides his submachine gun next to his head. I turned my head to Gingerbread, to see what she had to say about this. If worst was coming to worst, we would have to insist on keeping the money, meaning we would have to fight. I didn't knew were the other two griffins were at this moment, but I doubted they would come in time to help us once we would - due to the lack of cover in accessible proximity - be perforated by the bullets of thirty firearms. I could see in the scribe's eyes that she was aware of this fact too. Angel's face looked empty and emotionless, like it always did when something bad was about to happen, but his horn wasn't illuminated, he wasn't preparing his guns for combat.

But then the member of our group of which I had thought of as the last to actually do something now, stepped out: the still hooded Sparrow, who had promised to keep things low if the ponies of this camp didn't behave raider-like as long as we were here. And they hadn't, so I didn't really knew what to be shocked about first: the fact that the griffin leaped at Toll Token, holding him on the collar of his leather jacket with a now slightly exposed talon or that nothing happened in the seconds afterwards. I honestly had expected either the griffin or the tool ponies to do something ending in a bloodbath. But neither of them did anything, the only thing I could hear was the griffin growling, but everypony around could hear it over their hold breaths.

"Just one last question." the Sparrow said in a low voice, "on whose authority are you monitoring this passage? Whose authority in all of the Equestrian wasteland is big enough to install a customs station in the middle of the desert, nowhere near to any old border? To be honest, I'm just asking for the sake Miss Whirling Feather. Now say something witty and save yourself and your ponies." The griffin shifted his weight to his hindlegs, slowly raising his torso and thereby lifting Toll Token as well, until only the green unicorn's hindlegs were still touching the ground. "Do it, say something and save the rest of the scum, thief!" he yelled.

I could hear escaping from Toll Token's throat as the Sparrows unoccupied talon slowly reached for his left wing. Where he was carrying his sword, as I knew. The griffin shouted again and then I heard the green buck... spitting?

"You want to know whose authority we have, buddy?" Toll Token said in a raspy voice and a murmur went through the crowd. "I'll tell you on whose authority we're here. On the authority of the only group that matters in this desert: we're working with the Sparrowtan-griffins. They're the ones maintaining order in the area beyond this post." I gulped. The green buck had pushed his luck a bit too far.

"I'm afraid you picked the only wrong answer there is. So the Sparrowtans sent you here? And if I say the Sparrowtans don't work with outsiders, especially not filthy pony trash like you?"

"Then I would tell you to go fuck yourself and ask them personally. If you're lucky they'll just decapitate you for attacking their partners. If you're lucky."

"Okay then..." the Sparrow said with an awfully calm voice and turned his head to me. "An unauthorized assumption of authority. I'm really sorry about this, Whirling Feather, but this is far worse than raider-like. I'll have to end this immediately."

As quick as lightning, the cloaked griffin span around, slamming Toll Token into the ground in front of our hooves. Then he rose to his full size, his wings tore apart the pieces of clothing wrapped around his body as he stretched them to their full extend, exposing his blue armor and the ribbon, his long sword hold in the right talon. And then he screamed. No, screeched would be the better word. As many things connected to the griffins, it was both scary and awe inspiring at the same time. So awe inspiring in fact, that nopony on no side lifted a hoof to do anything. Toll Token's ponies - their leader lying in the dirt far away from them - were frozen in place for the time the screech lasted. And after it had ended, it was replaced with another noise. A noise I had heard in a similar situation a few weeks ago: the sound of wings slicing through air at high speed.

My gaze wandered upwards and just as I realized what I was seeing and what would happen next, it had already happened:
the two other griffins, their armor sparkling in the dull sunlight just as much as their drawn swords, were diving from the sky and landed directly in the middle of the larger groups of ponies. The landing itself was almost silent, I could barely hear the swish of their feathers.

The only thing I could do was watch in horror as time started to flow again. The blue armored griffin between us and the toll ponies dashed forward, his sword raised and I could swear I was seeing one of his eyes, reflected by the polished blade in his talons. An eye full of disgust. It was an uneven battle. Three griffins only armed with swords and their talons on the one, thirty ponies with firearms on the other side. But not only were the griffins in a better position to cut loose, not only had they the element of surprise, but many of their opponents still hadn't understood what was happening. Some of them didn't even have the chance to turn around before their bodies were sliced open by the razor-sharp blades and talons of the Sparrowtans.

And I was just staying there, watching in horror as the three spinning blades transformed the inhabitants of the camp into bloody shreds of flesh and bone. Sporadically shots were fired, but whenever somepony was able to use his firearms, the targeted griffin took cover behind another pony, regardless of it being still alive or already dead. I wanted to scream, I wanted them to stop. But I just stood there. Letting it happen.

What was I supposed to do now? What was the right thing to do, for me and the others, for the poor ponies who were getting slaughtered by those merciless griffins right in front of my eyes? My eyes wandered to the pistol holstered on my left foreleg. Would that even work? It didn't every time the toll ponies tried to do it, every time the griffins would use another living pony to shield themselves from the attack. Celestia should throw me into the deepest core of the sun if I would kill another pony today! So, did that mean I would have to take out the griffins? The ones that had sworn to guide me, the only ones who know a way home for me? Leaving aside the fact that I probably wouldn't even be able to bring myself to that, neither psychologically nor physically. Their blades would most likely cut me to pieces the moment I entered the battlefield.

"There are no good guys out there in the wasteland" Angel had told me back in Springmare, before I could even imagine the horrors the wasteland... no! the ponies down here would throw at me. I hadn't yet endured being betrayed by somepony I considered at least an ally, being hold captive by ponies who were about to sell me for caps, I hadn't seen raiders yet, hadn't killed one of them or a more civilized pony. Sometimes there were no right choices. Regardless of what you were doing, it would hurt somepony.

I could feel a tear running down my cheek. There was nothing I could do. Ponies were dying right in front of me, but even if I would somehow be able to stop the Sparrowtans from killing them, that would meant I would be stuck down here. If I would help the Sparrowtans that would mean I would be spilling blood of ponies I considered innocent. Ending lives in my eyes not guilty enough to be ended. And by standing there I was selfishly helping myself, letting the same ponies be killed, the only difference was that it wasn't me who was doing the killing. All for the sake of returning home, to not have to see all this ever again.

I felt sick. Was there a day since I had arrived in this hellish place on which I didn't feel sick just because of what the wasteland's inhabitants were doing to each other?
The first day had Steed, who had betrayed me.
The second had the pony hunters.
Then there had been the raiders invading Tulip's town.
After that I had killed Silver Tongue and his companions.
And now this.

Whatever glorious picture of them had formed in my head for the last few hours, whatever thought of appreciation or even admiration had occurred to me during this time, it all fell apart in those very moments. The griffins weren't knights in shining armor, wandering around and saving ponies. They did what every being down here apparently did: they did what they thought they needed to do.
And right now that involved killing those ponies.

I knew it was wrong, I felt terrible because those ponies died, but the same time I was unable to do anything. Not because I had no chance of changing their fate, but because I realized that this was the way things were handled down here. I hadn't really understood it before, but now it seemed obvious: killing was the easiest way of removing threats or obstacles or anything you didn't like. It didn't involve talking or loosing an argument and thereby the argumentative high-ground. Every and all problems one had with another pony or even a group could be solved in a matter of seconds. It simply was the way ponies down here dealt with problems.

Steed had feared we would kill him for trying to steal from us.
Angel had killed the pony hunters because they were evil.
I had killed Silver Tongue and his ponies, because... it seemed to be the only way.

I hadn't even tried talking. Nopony, no griffin, noone tried talking.
This was the way things were handled down here.

As the noises of the battle had faded around me and the red-armored captain delivered the final blow to the green unicorn stallion lying in front of me, I understood that I wasn't immune to the wasteland's poison. And as the three griffins reared up, standing victorious between the bodies of the thirty ponies they had slain, I cried silently.
Not for the ponies who had died, but for me and the kind of world the homeland of ponykind had become.

""")_x_("""

Level up: 50%

Skill(s): --

Quest Perk added: An Uneasy Truth

"What have I become? Something less than pony... but also something more."
You realized an universal truth about the wasteland. And while faith can move mountains, force and violence can crush them into dust, making the way for other ponies easier. Your Damage Threshold (DT) and the damage dealt to every equine being is increased by 10%

Chapter XI: An Envoy of the Beginning

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There was a pyre for all the dead ponies of the camp, set ablaze mere minutes after the battle had ended. Everything felt a bit odd right now, I was still a bit fuzzy from my... emotional outburst earlier, so it could have been hours just as well. The only reference point I had was an argument between the leader of the Sparrowtan unit and Angel, about how to take care of the ponies' corpses. I had learned that Angel - strangely enough supported by Gingerbread - believed in burying them, while the griffins insisted they didn't deserve that, resulting in the two parties arguing and arguing until the griffins finally gave up. A strange thing to think, I hadn't thought either of the parties were capable of doing that. So they agreed that just burning the corpses would be sufficient.

I couldn't remember ever being at a cremation burial. I know I had been - I had to have been to at least one - my mothers - but I couldn't remember. Neither the smoke nor the disgusting smell of burnt flesh, not the behavior of the pegasi around me and not what I was supposed to feel. Right now, as I watched thirty ponies burn on the pyre, I just felt empty.

It would have come so either way, if it wouldn't have been by the griffins' talons, some other pony would have put them down and now, for the first time since I was trapped in the Equestrian wasteland, I could accept it.

"Are you feeling alright, Feather?" a female voice asked. And due to the lack of female companions, I wasn't surprised as it turned out to be Gingerbread. And floating next to her head was her red book. "I have to admit, I'm not quite sure what to do now. You seem... different from yesterday. You look... buck it, I can't say what you look like! A bit like a mixture of Angel-Bunny over there and that one Ranger whose power armor's air filtration we once connected to the sink. That's how you look. Except for the water. And the grenade machinegun. But still... is there anything I can do? You want another portion of..." she nodded towards her book, "...this?"

"No, I don't... I mean, I don't need any of it." I answered quickly, shoving away the book next to my head with my wing. "I'm basically okay, just a bit stressed right now. It's just that I can't...ha!" I called out loud. I finally got it!

But apparently Gingerbread wasn't getting it, since the red robed unicorn mare raised her equally red blunt weapon, her eyes darting over the surrounding cliffs.

"What the buck is wrong with you?"

"I just remembered when I was at a cremation the last time. It was when the last president of Lunar Rock died and..."

*Thump*

"Don't! Ever! Scare me like that again, poultry!" the scribe shouted, swinging the tome at me again and again, while I tried to protect my head with all accessible extremities. The attack lasted for almost a minute, but her blows grow weaker and weaker over time. Another thing I had learned about magic: apparently it wasn't all effortless.

Coughing she sat down next to me, her book floated into its casing in one of her saddlebags. She looked somehow even more exhausted and tired than I did - at least if I looked how I felt - and that had to mean something. I mean, she hadn't been really doing anything for the last hour.

"And what about you? Are you alright, Ginger?" I asked hesitantly, but much to my relief, the book stayed in its saddlebag.

"Of course. Couldn't be better. I'm alive, I've got a nice bottle of water and a two hundred years old daisy sandwich in my bags, the guys are collecting the bodies and for once, I'm not the pony who caused all this unnecessary trouble. " The tone in her voice somehow bugged me. It sounded... reproachful. But why? And to who?

"You...?"

The orange mare slowly rose again and turned her head to me.

"For once I'm not the pony who doesn't listen to others." She took a step closer to me. "Who doesn't care about consequences, even if they're made clear to her." Her face was now dangerously close to my own. And it didn't look pretty anymore. "For once I'm not responsible for thirty ponies getting slaughtered by Celestia-damned griffins - oh, excuse me - Sparrowtans, just because somepony thought it wouldn't come that way! What were you thinking, Feather! Tell me!"

Within a single eye-blink, Gingerbread launched herself at me, knocking me over and pressing my forelegs to the ground with her own while I could feel something like a thin towel being wrapped around by throat. The unicorn mare's horn was lit, that meant... by Celestia's cake ceremony, she was actually trying to strangle me!

"Tell me what you thought when you said you wanted to go with them! When you said you trusted them! Did you know this would happen or did you not?! Tell me!" I could feel the invisible cloth around my throat tighten.

"I... I had no idea..." I grated, tears in my eyes and barely able to breath, "I just thought it would be alright... I didn't knew the griffins would... would actually kill them just because of... because of whatever they did. I didn't knew!"

"But you trusted them?! Why, when you didn't know how they would behave?! Why did you say you'd trust them?!"

"I didn't know..."

"So why did you trust them?!"

"I don't know!"

"So why did you go with them?!"

What did she want from me? Admitting that I had somehow made the griffins kill those ponies? Those bandits, to be correct. Would it have made any difference if I had chosen to wait a few miles away? Well maybe... maybe if they wouldn't have found the sack of caps they wouldn't have made whatever mistake Toll Token had made to convince the Sparrow he and his allies needed to be killed. But on the other hoof, before I had vocally intervened, the griffin had seemed as if his decision had been already made. Whatever I would have done, it wouldn't have changed a thing. It was painful to admit that, but it was the truth, I saw that. But Gingerbread apparently didn't.

"What do you want me to say." I finally said between two heavy breaths, "That I made a mistake by accompanying them? That I trusted them for not being hostile towards you or me? I don't know if you noticed, but mind reading isn't exactly common among the pegasi and neither is fortunetelling. Do you want to hear that I'm sorry they died?"

I saw her eyes widen, but unfortunately her magic grip around my neck was still tightening. Suddenly a piece of text appeared in front of my... inner eye? Or wherever my new management tool's messages were projected.

Magic Disruptor: charging... 25%

"If that's so, then: yes. I didn't want them to die. I would feel good if they were still alive, but what happened happened and if Angel doesn't turn out to be one of his cults angels, we can't bring them back to life. If we could I would do it, but we can't."

Magic Disruptor: charging... 50%

I wouldn't touch her, I wouldn't kill her. I would just repeat what had happened back then in the Stable-Tec storeroom. Before I had burnt Silver Tongue's eyes out of course, I didn't want to do that. I would just mess up Gingerbread's unicorn magic and then continue this talk on eye-level. "I'm really sorry for that, Gingerbread..."

Magic Disruptor: charging... 100%
Magic Disruptor: ready

With a feeling not unlike the one caused by hearing chalk scraping on a blackboard, the so called magic disruptor discharged and for one brief moment, my own vision went white. And just as I asked myself if the thing implanted into my foreleg was actually able to kill its - what was I? Bearer? Host? I really didn't know what to call myself, but bearer sounded a bit more epic and somehow I liked that - the sensation of the magic field around my throat disappearing, followed by a scream, that undoubtedly belonged to the unicorn mare pinning me down right now, showed me that it had worked. I quickly opened my eyes and saw Gingerbread cowering over me, her hooves holding her apparently not working unicorn horn. With a strong beat of my wings, I launched myself towards her, knocking the orange unicorn mare up and slamming her to the ground a few feet further away. Now our roles were switched, I was the pony pinning her down, dragging her forelegs away from her face and looked deeply into her confused eyes.

"...but obviously you're not listening to reason. So let it put me this way: I didn't want those ponies to die. I don't want anypony to die. Even still I wish I could've somehow rescued Toll Token and his companions, I wished there would've been the possibility to spare Silver Tongue and his associates, dammit! I wish I could've talked those raiders and the rogue Sparrowtan into leaving without getting vaporized first. But sometimes, this isn't possible. I know that now. All of those were adult ponies, who decided for themselves to take on this kind of job. They decided for themselves to risk their lives and sadly the odds were against them. If you think what happened was wrong, I'll go along with you. If you wish there could've been another way to resolve this problem, I agree. But don't ever ascribe to me that I wanted them to die! I won't feel guilty for that! Do you understand me?!"

For what felt like eternity I stared at her confused face, tears slowly forming in her eyes, but I didn't let go. When had I been that angry before? I couldn't remember. Even as I had talked myself into killing the raiders who were attacking Tulip's town I hadn't felt how I felt now. Back then there had been nothing on my mind, I had shut down my conscience to pull it off. And now... what was it I wanted to achieve right now? What did I want Gingerbread to say? That she was sorry for what happened? That she didn't mean it?

Her mouth was moving as if she was saying something, but the only thing I heard was a distant squealing noise that grew louder and louder and with each second I could feel my anger fading bit by bit. I blinked and suddenly the whole world looked a touch more... bright. Gingerbread was still looking at me pleadingly, but she almost seemed a tiny bit less terrified and whatever was the source of the squealing noise, which now reached its pleasant climax, I could hear it was now directly in front of me. I rose my head and there it was again: the bright white alicorn with a sky-blue mane and golden eyes. And those eyes were looking at me.

I knew I was imagining this, I knew this alicorn wasn't there, just as it hadn't been there all those times before. It had to be. It simply wasn't possible for an alicorn to be here, left alone one existing at all. But while its body and mane and wings and horn were easy to think of as a trick of my own mind, looking into those golden eyes made me feel different. I simply wasn't able to believe that those were not real. And I was fully aware of how that was impossible.

I blinked again and the alicorn disappeared. But the sound and the feeling of ease that had come with it didn't. Without knowing why I turned my head to the right and there was it again, standing right next to me, its head lowered to be on eye-level with me. Its face looked all that different from anything I had seen of the princesses. While the only word on my mind to describe it, the cheeks, its nose, even the ears was "perfect", the facial features of this alicorn seemed... sharp. There had been photos of both the princesses in the Museums of Pre-Enclave History and compared to them this face looked... male? No, not really male... but definitely not as female as Celestia and Luna had looked.

Then the bright white alicorn moved one of its... his... forelegs towards mine and... gently shoved away my hoof from Gingerbread's foreleg. At the same moment as our hooves parted, the alicorn disappeared, the squealing was gone and the world was a bit darker again, but my anger was still far far away. And I was staring again into Gingerbread's confused eyes. Her mouth was still moving as she whispered: "Please... I didn't mean it. I just..."

"I'm so sorry." I muttered.

Suddenly I could feel what had to be talons grabbing me from behind and pulling me away from Gingerbread as one of the blue-armored Sparrows landed next to the pale orange unicorn mare and gave her a leg-up. And then Angel's face appeared in front of me.

"What was that about?" he asked with a frown. I honestly didn't thought he was going to take "nothing" for an answer.

"It was nothing." I could hear me say, still a bit dizzy from what had just happened. My vision had... touched me. And had moved my limb. Now I was sure that the surface was doing crazy things to my mind. Scratch that, not only my mind apparently. I could swear, if any of Angel's former friars had ever experienced something similar, the thought of founding a cult dedicated to just this phenomenon didn't seem that crazy to me anymore. "She didn't like what happened to those ponies, I didn't like it and we became a bit emotional. Really, it was nothing."

"Well, it didn't look like "nothing" to me. It looked as if you were about to kill her with that... that thing in your foreleg."

"Then why didn't you do something earlier? If you were that worried that I would injure her, then why did you wait all this time to get us two separated. And don't tell me you and the..." I nodded towards the griffins, "...guys were placing bets again."

For a moment, Angel's looked just as confused as Gingerbread's had. "We didn't... wait, what do you mean with earlier? The griffins went into the air the moment we heard you yell. It weren't more than a few seconds before they dragged you asunder. So what do you mean with "earlier"?"

Okay, now that was weird.

"Nothing... I meant nothing with that..."

"Feather, please, you don't really except me to buy that, do you?"

"It's just..." I sighed, "...but it sounds crazy."

"You're talking to a stallion who spend his cutie mark and a whole year of his life in a monastery dedicated to some fictional alicorn ponies, where we were constantly told how worthless and sinful we were until we would one day have the honor to step into a chamber filled with radiation. If we managed to die we were cleaned of our sins and the ponies who survived were... that's another matter. But I think I made it clear that there's a lot of crazy I can take. Everything less than Princess Celestia talking to you won't even surprise me."

"That's the thing." I gulped, "Do you... remember that I said something about seeing an alicorn two days ago? The night when we were at the storeroom after the battle?"

Angel nodded. "A white one. Haven't heard of that color before. But the wasteland is more creative than any pony when it comes to invent new things to make our lives even more difficult."

"I saw it again. Just now, before the griffins took me away from Gingerbread. It was right there." I pointed a wing to where Gingerbread and I had been struggling a few moments ago. "It just stood there and looked at me. And it looked so real, its body, its eyes, it even touched me..."

"Feather, there was no alicorn whatsoever. If so, we wouldn't be talking now, but fighting for our lives. Alicorns don't just "stand there". You...oh..."

"That's what I wanted to say: I see things that aren't there. I can't say when it started, but since I'm down here I often feel... watched. But there's nopony there to watch me. It... it has to be connected to me being down here. I don't know, maybe it's some kind of stress syndrome or something like that, I don't recall the feeling, left alone things like the alicorn... getting into my mind so that I loose track of time, back home. Wandering around aimlessly, the stress of finding food and safe places to stay, room-sized pony-eating critters, ponies wanting to kill me, ponies hating me for what I am, killing ponies for being a threat, seeing ponies be killed even if they're none and now there's an imaginary alicorn spying on me. Angel, I think... I think I'm loosing my mind down here."

Silence.

"Now tell me that's nothing to worry about, Angel. At that rate I'll turn into one of those slavering- and blood-dripping raiders before we even meet another enclave pegasus. I'm going crazy."

"No you won't!" Angel interrupted me in a harsh tone, "You're not crazy and you won't become crazy in the future! It's just all a bit too much for you right now. The last few days were especially rough and for a pony like you, who's relatively new to all this, it's only natural that your mind won't wrap around life in the wasteland instantly. It's pretty much the same when Stable ponies ascends to the wasteland every once in a while.They're all untainted, but the wasteland won't let you get away that easily. A... friend of mine was exactly the same. She thought she could see some of the dead ponies moving. Your mind is just adjusting to the wasteland, that's all. Seeing dead family in the corner of your eye, hearing whispering voices at night..."

"...being touched by an alicorn..."

"...seeing strange things, it's all the same. You don't need to worry about it, it'll go away. At least when we deliver you to your flight back home."

I nodded. He had a point. I knew that what I saw wasn't real, and didn't insanity mean that one couldn't distinguish reality and madness-caused illusion anymore? I knew the alicorn wasn't real, but to look into those eyes... it felt even more real than looking into Angel's eyes. Probably my mind coping with what had happened the days before, just like Angel said. Nothing to worry about. We sat there in silence until Gingerbread trotted over to us, the calamitous bag of caps floating next to her head. She didn't say a word as she put it down in front of us and shoved it towards me with her magic.

"It's your's, Feather." the orange mare finally said after sitting there for quite a while, just being silent together with Angel and me.

"I can't..." Was she trying to makeup for what happened earlier? "Look, Ginger, I'm terribly sorry for what has happened just now and..."

"No, Feather, I'm sorry. It wasn't your fault that those ponies died. But that's not what this is about. This..." she nodded towards the caps, "...is your's. I'm not gifting it to you as some kind of apology, but as payment for saving me back then, in the storeroom. I said I would find a way to repay you and that's it."

But how...? Did I really want to take money the origin of which was more than just dubious...?

"I didn't steal it or anything if that's what you want to ask, Feather. It's money from Silver Tongue, basically my money, the money of the Steel Rangers to be exact. We founded one half of this expedition after all. Those were the caps the business-bastard used to set you free. Or rather the pawn he gave the townsfolk. Two thousand caps if I'm not mistaken. As his business-partner I brought you back, so that they could do their funny griffin-trial-thing and then had to return the pawn. You see, perfectly legal. Now take it already!" she shoved the sack even closer.

I relaxed a bit. So at least the origin of this money wasn't connected to robbery, theft or something similar dirty.But still... "Two thousand caps are..."

"...a lot of money, I know that. But you saved my life and the expedition wasn't a complete failure. I can still observe our "treasure" and although it won't be of any use for the Rangers, it's at least fun to see. A bit less fun to feel although." She rubbed her horn. "That's something I would like to have an apology for."

"Only if you apologize for trying to strangle me!"

"Wait, you what...?" Angel started, but both Gingerbread and me shouted in unison: "It was nothing!" and he closed his mouth again, muttering something closely resembling "mares".

So Gingerbread and I exchanged apologies while the griffins and Angel cleaned up what mess had been made in the most respectful way possible. The pyre would burn for a few more hours, but we couldn't afford staying here. From what the griffins said animals ofrraiders would most likely be attracted by the fire, creatures we didn't want to encounter right now and most certainly not in the dark.Much to both Gingerbread's and my relief, Angel didn't want to scavenge the dead and if it was just because our bags were heavy enough without a dozen guns being added to the mix as well. We took only a few caps he found in some kind of treasure chest inside Toll Token's tent, the "Fund" if its labeling was to be believed. And when I said "a few" I meant over two hundred of them. But right now I still felt the weight of my own bag of caps weighting me down. Quite literally, since most of my remorse about the money was gone after the revelation that it had been earned legally.

Two thousand caps.

I wasn't exactly familiar with currency and the value of things down here, but when I remembered that getting my crash- and Sunshine-caused injuries taken care of, being held warm, healthy, fed and guarded for almost five days with an additional pain-killer supply for the post-treatment costed around five hundred caps, two thousand felt like I could buy a vertibuck with. If there had been one down here of course. A damaged one probably. And if that damaged one had been for sale...
It was still an awful lot of money!

The sun was slowly starting to set as we were finally able to resume our journey. Gingerbread remained quiet for most of the time, just as Angel, but this wasn't a big surprise. So the only one left I could talk to while we walked was one of the Sparrows, the one that had accompanied me on our journey through the toll station. The one that had given the order to attack it. His name, as it turned out, was Vergil. A strange name in my opinion, but on the other hoof, how had I expected griffins to be named? Razor Strongwing? Or Bill Dreadtalon?

"It's not the name I was born with," Vergil said after a while of silently trotting alongside with me, while his fellow Sparrow apparently scouted the area and the captain marched a hundred feet in front of us, "and it's no usual griffin name either, but it is the name the Nest gave me."

"Kinda like Angel, hm?" I said, "From what he told me he left his former life and name at the portal of a monastery too."

"Oh no, you're getting something wrong, my little pegasus." Vergil said with what sounded like a smile. A Sparrowtan's features were still pretty hard to make out under their helmets, but I discovered that if the looked directly at you, you could see their beak and eyes quite good. They were still intimidating but at least not that faceless anymore. "I don't left my - as you might call it - former life behind. It is still existent, as is my real name, but for the time being an active Sparrowtan, those are secondary. While a life in the order demands many things, giving up your identity isn't one of those. Taking on another name, a sword name as the older griffins like to call it, is just a part of tradition from long before the war. Some don't like their names, some love theirs, but we all accept them as a part of our life. Imagine it like... you were in the enclave military, were you?"

"Would I be wearing those mutilated remains of an officer's uniform otherwise?"

"I'm sorry, it was a stupid question. But what I wanted to say: imagine it like when you achieved the rank of..." he looked at what was left of the chevron on what was left of my epaulettes, "...lieutenant. Or becoming a piece of the enclave military at all. As soon as you're a part of it, you're not Whirling Feather anymore; as soon as you join the military you're suddenly Airpony Feather. And when you reached the rank of lieutenant you became Lieutenant Feather. It's the same with us, just that our names don't represent our ranks - we've got our ribbons for that - but identify us as a part of the Sparrowtans."

"That sounds a bit... too easy to work." I answered hesitantly.

"But it does. Or if something's going wrong it doesn't go wrong enough for it to have an impact on the overall organisation. Just like your system."

I huffed. "So let me sum this up: there's a militaristic group of griffins out there, some of them wandering even the Equestrian wasteland, who slash things in half with swords to prevent evil from spreading... kinda... " I added before he could correct that statement, I hated it to be corrected when I tried to talk about things I didn't really know about, "...an the only system of ranking and structure of command they have are a few of them wearing slightly differently colored accessories and the only way to distinguish the bigwigs from ordinary grunts is by knowing each of them personally and by name?"

"That pretty much sums it up." Vergil answered and I could swear I could hear the gears in his head replaying what I had just said. "Yeah, pretty much."

"And that works?"

"Yes. I know that Archy..." the red-armored captain's head span around almost instantly, despite him standing about twenty meters away from us. Even from here I could see - and even more: feel - his eyes glared at the younger griffin. "I mean Archimedes, is the one to talk to if there's something wrong with my gear or if there's something I don't know about our current patrol routes; if there are bigger problems concerning my overall duties, there's our Strategist.... ahem, the leader of our Nest... and if there are any trivial questions, we've got our Seniors to go to. They're basically retired Sparrowtans, whose job is to know things. But despite what it sounds like, there're not that many griffins in our Nest. Quite a lot of names in the beginning, but that's what my time as a Sparrow is for, getting to know all this stuff."

"Vergil, are you spilling the secrets of our organisation to an enemy spy again?" I heard a voice saying from behind. Turning my head around I looked into the helmeted face of the second Sparrow, the one who had disappeared due to scouting the area. The only more strange thing than a griffin hovering next to me without his talons slicing me open - I just couldn't stop myself from thinking that; prejudices die pretty hard - was that his face, or rather he himself, was upside down. Looking to my hooves I made sure I wasn't the one defying gravity that hard at this moment. I knew some pegasi could fly upside down, I had tried it a few times myself, didn't work although, but seeing a griffin do it... I hadn't even expected they could actually fly in this armor; fall from the sky for sure but... okay, I detected my fallacy. It still seemed highly unlikely for crude armor like this to be light enough for the griffins to fly in. Aw, physics!

"No, no, of course not. Just giving a bit of advertisement. She does seem interested in the whole order-stuff and wouldn't having a sister-Nest of pegasi be a nice thought? International understanding and so on?"

For a few seconds, the two griffins just looked at each other, from what little I could see, their faces totally straight.

"You were telling her the secrets of our organisation."

"I totally was." Vergil said with an audible smirk, "But I doubt she's able to use what I told her to destroy the order." he waved his talons in a spooky manner. "Or maybe I told her that really you were the mastermind behind the whole organisation so that enclave assassins can take you out and finally I get to rule the Griffin Kingdom."

Without saying another words, but with his head shaking reproachfully, the flying Sparrow changed his alignment, dashed over to his leader and landed next to him almost silently. Another thing I had thought to be impossible with heavy armor like this.

Vergil sighed. "You see there are Sparrowtans and then there are Sparrowtans. In my opinion, griffins like Theo shouldn't take this whole order-business that seriously. A few jokes here and there never killed anyone."

"Except those ponies earlier." I heard Gingerbread mutter in a sore tone.

And apparently Vergil heard her too. "Yes, that..." he said, obviously feeling uneasy, "...I'm really sorry you all had to see that. But our laws say that an assumption of authority like that, especially when it is used to harm anyone, cannot go unpunished. That's a degree where jokes shouldn't be made anymore and even I wouldn't. If they had remained silent about who was supposed to authorize them, I would have let them go. If Theo or Archy would have been in charge... they would have cut them down after Toll Token finished his first sentence. As I said: there are Sparrowtans and then there are Sparrowtans. Believe me, I wish people were different, but unlike in the old days, just complaining to them doesn't make them stop anymore. Our order was much, much less violent before the war. But nowadays, violence is oftentimes necessary."

I nodded silently. I too wished ponies would be different. But they weren't and I had to deal with that. Coming to think of it, how was Gingerbread able to keep her non-acceptance for that long? From what she had told me - indirectly at least and it was most likely too - she was at the surface for much longer than me. For a years maybe. And I had lost my clean conscience after a week and my qualms roughly three days later. If I would ask Angel he would say it was better that way, but what was left of my untainted-pre-surface-me told me the exact opposite.

Luckily Gingerbread either didn't felt the urge to start and argument or really didn't see a reason - I didn't know what to wish for - I really had no clue what was going on in her mind. But the mood was ruined all the same, so I appreciated the following silence. Silence that remained until we set up our camp for the night in a small cave in the hillside next to the street. And by cave I mean a small recess in the hills, basically nothing more than a natural rain shelter. Not the most save location, but the griffins assured they would make it save for us.

On the bright side, we didn't had to worry about the smoke originating from our campfire. The light on the other hoof... the griffins said they would keep watch over night. To be honest, what I was looking forward to the most was what the griffins were about to eat. I simply doubted sharp beaks and talons were needed to hunt down pre-war daisy sandwiches or canned beans. Two of the griffins - calling them Archimedes and whatever Theo stood for seemed kinda wrong to me - had left to "take care of the food issue", leaving us alone with Vergil. To be honest, he would have been my favorite too. Even if he was a griffin.

I wasn't in the mood to start another talk with Angel about my visions or with Gingerbread about the rights and wrongs of killing ponies. I knew the outcome of each of this talks right from the start and wouldn't be wiser once we would have finished. Vergil on the other hoof... if there was one thing he was good for it was telling stories, even if those stories were reality and not more than history and rules of his order. But as long as it didn't concern the here and now - well, my personal here and now - he could tell me whatever he wanted, as long as I wouldn't have to sit silently around the campfire with the two unicorns staring at me in worry.
So... the question of all questions: asking him about his food or waiting to see it with my own eyes?

"So, Vergil..." I started hesitantly, I wasn't even sure I was speaking loud enough for the griffin sitting in front of our cave. Actually, this was the first time I saw him without his helmet, which he had set down in front of him. "...there's a thing I'd like to know." I was really surprised that he looked... just normal. White feathers around his neck and face, a dark yellow beak and a set of violet eyes staring into the distance.The only thing that truly make me wonder that there were a few longer, almost horizontally lined-up feathers at the top of his head that looked as if he hadn't even worn a helmet at all.

"As long as it doesn't involve vital information about our order, you can ask anything you want." he answered as I sat down next to him. "And I would prefer not to do any gossiping, Archy's going to rip my wings out if he finds out or even worse, challenge me to a duel on the spot. He doesn't got all those scars from preening. I went through that once and I really don't feel the urge to do a second dance."

"No, it's nothing like that. But I'll keep in mind not to provoke him."

"Don't worry, you are safe." he chuckled, "I mean, you're basically everything that can't ever be challenged. You're not a Sparrowtan, not a griffin and female on top of it all. And while the first two might be a bit... flexible, the first is adamant for probably over five hundred years now. Come to think of it, for the time you're around I'll be safe too, since there's this no-dueling-in-front-of-females-rule. But I don't think you want to know something about us turning our swords against each other, do you?"

I wasn't really sure what to make of that. On the one hoof, being treated specially just because of my gender was somehow... strange, since it almost never had happened back home. Although I had to be thankful for that rule. At least I wouldn't die a death by dueling a sword-wielding griffin. But on the other hoof, did I really care?
"Indeed I don't," I answered, taking a look at the beautiful night sky, "actually it's quite simple. What I wanted to know is..."

Sadly I never got to finish the question. I was interrupted by a purple flash, which I was pretty sure I had imagined, followed by ... something apparently exploding only a few meters away on the road. Well, not technically exploding, there was no shrapnel or fire anywhere, but since I severely doubted a vertibuck or something similar heavy had just dropped from the sky, an explosion of some kind was the only thing coming to my mind to explain the loud noise and all the whirled-up dust.

Sitting there, my mouth open, I said something among the lines of "My mind didn't just make that up, did it?" to nopony -or griffin - in particular as I pointed a hoof at whatever had...done what had just happened. Exploded maybe.

Vergil, his white feathers now darkened from the dust, looked just as surprised as I felt. In fact, hadn't he been that dusty at the this very moment, he would have looked as if he had just been watered. At least that was how I remembered ponies looking after Sunshine had watered them.

"I... I don't think so..." he muttered slowly, "I think something just exploded over there..."

"I would really like to see what just "exploded". Because..."

"I've seen that coming." I heard Angel sigh from directly behind me and only seconds later, the grey unicorn stallion had passed me, his pistols - not the black ones this time, those were still holstered at his forelegs - floating in front of him. And Gingerbread was there too, looking both a bit scared, baffled and curious. Just as everypony - and that one griffin - else. "There's nothing I can say that would stop you, right?"

Probably not.

Shaking my head I slowly rose, taking out the gun on my foreleg. Vergil unsheathed his sword and we made our way towards the "thing". Since we hadn't been vaporized as it had hit the ground - in fact I felt as if it had become a bit colder since that thing had dropped - I could exclude it being a meteorite. Good thing, since meteors were boring. They were just rocks after all. But if this wasn't a meteorite, there were a ton of things it could be: something coming from the Enclave for example.

Drawing closer I could almost hear my inner school-filly squeal in suspense. That was exactly the kind of innocuous thing I needed right now. Just some odd piece of wasteland world that didn't bring any moral dilemmas with it. Just something to look and maybe point your hoof at, with no consequences for an innocent living being. And whatever it was, it was glowing softly in the night. Maybe it was some kind of satellite, sent by an extra-terrestrial race of ponies trying to contact us. In movies, those things always glowed.

Maybe there even was an alien-pony in there, maybe this was some kind of spaceship. I guess the squeal my inner school-filly uttered was audible for everyone around me, but I didn't care at this moment. Stepping closer to the small crater in the road, I looked over the crater's rim...

...only to huff in dissapointment after I had looked at the thing closely for about ten seconds: because it was a just rock. A foal sized and with some kind of lamps studded rock, but a boring rock nonetheless. Yes it was glowing, but this didn't seem like spacecraft at all, it rather looked like the science project I had once seen at a Lunar Rock junior science competition. Well, back home a rock had been something rare, but down here I didn't really see any reason to be excited anymore. There were tons of rocks around us, this one might have been big, but there were bigger in a twenty meter radius around it.

Stupid rock, playing with my expectations!

"That's not exactly what I expected to see." Vergil muttered and lowered his sword.

"To be honest, me neither." Angel said as he hid his weapons in his coat's pockets again. "And I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. This seems..."

"...kinda boring?" Gingerbread finished his sentence, joining the circle that had formed around the crater. "I had expected at least an alien or..."

A purple flash again, this time much, much brighter. And right in front of me. Or around me. I couldn't really tell, since it was bright enough to blind me for a few seconds. And that made me scream and throw myself to the ground. Stuff that blinded a pony was never good and to make things worse I felt as if I were jumping down the main staircase of the Lunar Rock academy. Normally I was no pony who got airsick but that... I felt ill. Really ill. And confused.

"I didn't just scream and throw myself to the ground for no reason, did I?" I asked from the ground, my eyes still shut. "Or just because I imagined that purple flash, because that would be really embarrassing."

No answer.

"Is anypony around?! Angel?! Gingerbread?! Vergil?!" I called out.

Still nothing.

When the ground - or my brain, it is all relative - felt stable again, I finally dared to open my eyes. Hey, the rock was still there. "Stupid rock! I don't like it anymore." I muttered in frustration. But it was still dark. Even if I could barely see anything, that at least meant I hadn't traveled through time - which would have been a pretty whitewashing way to say I lost conscious and was therefor "indisposed" for the rest of the night and the next day. But I doubted Angel would have left me lying there. So I was pretty sure it was still the same time than before the purple flash. The ground was still somehow sandy, a bit of gravel here and there and, but stone-wise luckily nowhere close to where I had went down. I liked my face.

As I raised my head I could see that they were still standing. Okay, Angel and Gingerbread were still standing, while Vergil was lying on the ground like me, curled up into a ball of metal, fur and feathers, his claws covering his eyes in the most un-awesome way possible. This guy had sliced ponies' throats not a day ago and now he lay curled up in the dirt, shivering in what I would call fear if this didn't seem that unlikely. Yes, I was one to talk.

"Is it over? Can I open my eyes again?" I heard the griffin whimper.

The two unicorns standing upright looked taken aback too. I rose, my eyes fixated on Angel, who was... just looking into the darkness around us. What was so exciting about that? Wasn't... I don't know... the bright purple flash or whatever had caused it more interesting?

After I had trotted over and now stood next to the grey unicorn stallion, I hesitantly tapped him on the shoulder. "Ahm... Angel, do you know what just happened? Please don't tell my I imagined that whole purple flash thing, because it so..."

"Can't you see it, Feather." I heard Gingerbread whispering from behind.

"See what?" It was dark, Celestia-dammit! "I'm a pegasus and not a cat! So as long as no unicorn around here cares to make some light, I don't..."

"We've moved."

Of course we had... wait what? Moved? But that was impossible, not to mention highly unlikely. I mean, how? But just before I could say anything, there was another flash and a single purple sphere appeared in front of us, lighting the area with a soft purple shine. And there was it again: the alicorn. Well, not the alicorn, this one wasn't white and it wasn't accompanied by the usual relaxing squealing noise. This alicorn was of a dark purple and from what I could see, it looked much more female than the white one. Almost like princess Luna had looked like on the photographs. Apart from the obviously not matching color of her hide. Well, but apparently my brain was still functional enough to vary the hallucinations, I wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. The only thing I was sure about right now was, that I would consult a psychiatrist once I would be back home. Seeing alicorns that often couldn't be healthy.

I decided not to say anything. The whole scenario was already crazy enough, I didn't see any reason to throw even more craziness into the mix. By Luna's crescent moon, I might not have been able to see Gingerbread's face, but I could swear she was looking at me again as if she know what I thought right now. Or maybe those were Angel's eyes, my psychic powers weren't able to tell one from another. Maybe if I just looked into another direction, the imaginary alicorn would go away, just like all those last times. As soon as I didn't see it anymore, it usually vanished.

That sounded like a good idea. Just don't pay attention, Feather!

"We sought you!" a female voice rang through the air. It was definitely not Gingerbread's voice, so that meant... the alicorn was speaking? Well, that never happened before. How was this better then hearing voices again? Coping with wasteland horrors or not, that wasn't good. I had never thought that my mind would be that creative when it tried to drive me insane.

Just ignore it, featherbrain!

"And as We predicted, We found you. We knew that if We would toss in something that glitters even a bit, you lesser beings would be drawn to it just like moths to the light." the alicorn continued, its mouth moving. So it was definitely her... them... it speaking. And if just hearing voices wasn't crazy enough, what she said actually made some kind of sense. At least it was connected to something real, even if it was the stupid rock. Well, of course it was. It was my imagination after all, about what should it talk if not about what I knew and experienced rock-wise.

"What do you want?!" Angel shouted, light grey magic fields wrapped around the holsters on his foreleg.

My heart skipped a beat. He could see it too?

"Angel, are you talking to my hallucination?"

"Silence, foolish pegasus!" the booming voice choke me off. "We are no hallucination! We are as real as this poisoned lands and you, minor ones, will serve Us, your true goddess. While We have no particular need for those two unicorns, the winged one and the impure one might be of use. There is a cave, an ancient facility, abandoned so long ago that even We struggle to remember. We are interested in this cave and in what lies deep within it. And it will be your task to satisfy Our curiosity."

"And why would we do that?"

"Because We say so!"

Things just grew weirder and weirder at this moment. Not only was I apparently not imagining this alicorn - or I was imagining the same stuff Angel imagined right now - which - come to think of it - was more likely than meeting an alicorn, but this incarnated deity was also sending us on some kind of mission. And that sounded much more noble than it felt. I mean, being on a mission from a goddess wasn't something to be ashamed of. From a goddess that viewed us as minor beings, moths. On the other hoof, given that she... it...she was actually a goddess, the alicorn had every reason to do so.
Then Angel spoke up:

"And if we refuse?"

"You won't. Because if you even think about it, you will suffer the wrath of the Goddess!" the alicorn shouted and by saying that I mean it's almost unbearably loud voice grew even louder. And then more orbs of light started to appear next to the purple alicorn. Two of them purple and another pair of green ones. And each of the balls of light was located above another alicorn, all of them almost identical to the one that had spoken to us moments ago.

I gulped. Refusing was out of the question. Those were alicorns after all, if anypony - if I could call them that at all - was able to transport us from wherever our camp was to wherever we were now, it were those goddesses. Or this goddess in singular as he called them. And who was I to question them? It... whatever?

"What's so special about this cave that the Goddess can't access it?" Angel asked bluntly and if I wouldn't have been sure he knew what he was doing, I would have shut his mouth with my hooves. Teasing a goddess was even less healthy than seeing them again and again.

"Don't question Us! We have our reasons!"

Angel sighed, finally doing the sensible thing and giving in to what they demanded. "If that's so, I guess we have no choice but to accept." he said, turning his head around to us.

"You are right, you don't have a choice. We are almost pleased you understood this. Now go, We would suggest fulfilling your task as fast as possible." One of the alicorns - or all of them? - I really had no clue - said. "While We are immune to this land's poisons, We know fragile beings as you aren't. This crater is irradiated."

It is what?!

"It is what?!" Vergil gave a voice to my thoughts and before I could do anything or even take a closer look, he had already sheathed his sword and was charging towards the crowd of alicorns. "Do you want to kill us!"

We were doomed.

"We will let you feel Our wrath." the circle of alicorns said in unison as Vergil's entire body was wrapped in a magic field. He was slammed into the ground with a noise that sounded as if bones were breaking. I just hoped it was just the sound. Up and down he went, the gruesome cracking-noise repeating each time he hit the ground. "These lands will be cleansed..." Up and down. "...from un-equine filth like you, who doesn't see Our divinity. Feel Our divine power!"

In the light of their magic fields, I could see blood dripping from Vergil's armor and the griffin doesn't even scream anymore.

"Please, stop!" Both Gingerbread and me cried out in unison. Dashing to the griffin's side, we tried to hold him down. "Please, your Highness, please stop! We will... we will do whatever you want, just don't kill him!" I screamed, tears in my eyes. I might have known this griffin for only a day, but he didn't deserve being crushed like this. Apparently this somehow... dazzled the alicorns, because the magic aura that had surrounded Vergil's body evaporated, but reformed around our bodies.

"You all already agreed to fulfill Our wish, pegasus." the voice of the alicorns said, "Why should We stop?"

Because... because...

"Because you are the Goddess!" I said, without even knowing why. It just came to my mind. "You don't need to kill him, we already believe in your strength. And after you turned this strength against him, he won't deny you anymore either!"

After a short while of nothing happening, the magic fields around Gingerbread's and my body vanished. The five alicorns turned around simultaneously and then their voice rang over to us once more, this time much quieter. "You are a true believer, We know that. No go, this environment isn't healthy to you." And with another flash of purple, they were all gone, revealing an ruined gateway behind them.

As soon as they were gone, my eyes darted over to Vergil again. Both Gingerbread and Angel were already kneeling by his side, discussing furiously what to do with the griffin.

"I can't... I can't feel my wings..." Vergil sobbed and my heart almost stopped as I saw his wings dangling to the ground, twitching weakly from time to time. "They... aren't moving, are they? Those damned things..." He tried to sit up, but was immediately press back on the ground by Angel, who rammed at small syringe he held in his magic grip into the griffin's neck. Almost instantly, Vergil's whole body eased as he apparently lost consciousness.

"What... what did you...?"

"Blackout. It's a modified version of Med-X. Eases the pain, ensures a stable coma." the grey unicorn stallion answered and threw the empty syringe into the night. It was a good thing he had kept one of them close, because the biggest part of our medical supplies were in our saddlebags, which we - with the exception of Gingerbread, whose saddlebags seemed to be a part of her robe - had left at the campsite. Which was somewhere in the wasteland, but not here! "And it'll give us time to think about what to do next. And what to do with him."

"We have to help him of course!" Gingerbread screamed, her eyes still wet with tears.

Angel's face darkened. "And how? You're a Steel Ranger scribe, you certainly know the basics about healing potion. And that they can restore damaged flesh with ease, while they can't heal broken bones. Would we give him one of our potions, we would most likely cripple him for the rest of his live. He would never be able to fly again and it's not even sure we would abate his pain if we would "heal" him and his wings."

"So what should we do then? Just kill him for good like the tribals do it with their sick and elderly?"

"I'm just saying we can't heal him now! It would be much easier..."

"He'll need a real doctor!" I interrupted the two unicorns' argument. "A medical pony or a griffin with that kind of expertise. Maybe another Sparrowtans."

The stallion's head turned around to me, his eyes saddened again as he looked at me. "Yes, he needs a real doctor. But there is none around here. We don't even know where we are. I would be surprised if he survives the next two days, given a set of broken wings would be the mildest consequence of what the alicorns did to him. And even if he isn't injured internally too, I would be even more surprised if a real doctor could restore him to how he was five minutes ago. I'm sorry, but this..."

"We won't leave him behind!" I stomped my hoof on the ground. "And if we have to drag him out of here, we won't leave him. Nor will we "put him out of his misery", if it's that what you wanted to say. I'm sure there are things we can do for him. The two of you seem to know quite a bit about treating injuries and I happen to know a few things about wing anatomy. This isn't a lost cause!"

The two unicorns looked at me in silence, Gingerbread's mouth was wide open and her eyes wide. It was not until I had ended my last sentence that I realized that I was screaming louder than I had thought myself to be capable of.

"So... what's the plan?" Angel asked quietly, his eyes avoiding contact with mine.

"First we have to get him and us out of this crater. I spotted the entrance the Goddesses spoke about over there" I pointed a wing at the ruined gate, "and I firmly believe it'll be at least a bit safer in there. And when it comes to Vergil: we'll brace his wings and then...is there any medical equipment that heals slower than the potions? Or just locally... healing bandages! Anypony got any?"

"A few, basic first-aid amount, not enough I fear." Angel shook his head.

"But maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to find more in there. From real first aid kits. You said most of the pre-war buildings were filled with them. And given the "Goddess" is curious about this place, maybe nopony has been here since the war ended." I said hastily.

"It's better than no plan at all, I guess." the grey stallion muttered, "Maybe... we have a chance. I guess this could work."

""")_x_("""

After Angel and I had dragged Vergil trough the big gate and into what looked a bit like the foyer of the Stable-Tec storeroom, we left the unconscious griffin along with Gingerbread, who started to wrap the few medical bandages we had around his limps. The grey unicorn stallion and I started to search the close-by rooms for what Angel described as a "small box with pink butterflies on it". I had a hard time imagining such a thing. I assumed it was kind of an homage to the ministry mare of the Ministry of Peace, Fluttershy, the one ministry mare we were actually tought about in the Enclave. It still seemed strange to me to apply her cutie mark to each and every medical-box. But the ponies from before the world ended had always been weird.

The interior pretty much looked like a mix of the Stable-Tec layout and the furniture I had seen back then, in my first wasteland building I every set hoof in, the one we had met Steed in. All the drawers, all the lockers looked alike, as did the desks and doors. And not only the looks were the same, I could almost predict the way the desks and filing cabinets would be arranged once I entered a room. And this was the third building of this kind I had ever seen. Whoever had built this place and whoever interior decorator had... decorated those rooms must have had either a limited amount of both room and ideas or were just poorly minded when it came to make a room look nice. Seriously, even without all the debris, I doubted I would like to work at this place day after day.

I dared to look into one of the desks' drawers once, only to be rewarded with a hoofful of bottle caps. Pretty weird indeed.

And then my eyes fell on a grey... box that kinda looked like a stone, where it not for the really pale pink butterflies on it: the medical box we had been looking for. Dragging it out from underneath a table - why would it even be there? - I used my wings to open the box. It really felt like touching stone too.

Inside the case lay several vials of healing potion - not exactly what I needed - along with some squeezy bags with an orange liquid, of which I had no idea what they were, and a set of healing bandages. And by "a set" I meant barely enough to take care of a grazed knee. By far not enough for Vergil's needs.

"Did you find anything?" a voice - Angel, whose else? - asked from behind. He sounded... stressed?

"Very few bandages, two healing potions and this stuff." I put everything down in front of him. "I don't even have a clue what it might be, but knowing my luck it's not going to help Vergil."

Angel's eyes widened as he levitated the orange bags up to his head. Maybe this...

"Those won't help healing his broken back, but it will at least prevent us from melting on the inside."

...wasn't what I had expected. Wait, melting from the inside! How...?

"This stuff is called "RADaway"." the grey unicorn stallion said, "Remember when the alicorns told us the crater they teleported us in was irradiated? Well, these little bags hold everything we need to shrug this radiation off. Just a few gulps and everything's as back to normal as it can be. It's a good thing we found those, because apart from a whole box I found back there, I gave the last I had to you at the school. RADaway is pretty hard to find around those parts of the wasteland. It was a lucky shot."

"Hold on there a second, Angel." I said sharply. "You're saying me, that if we would've stumbled over any RADaway by accident, you wouldn't have had anything to fight the radiation we absorbed half an hour ago? When do you intended to tell me that I... we are irradiated?!"

"Uhm... not at all? Listen, Feather, I'm sorry, but there were other things you had to worry about. Vergil's wounds are the most pressing matter right now, so I decided it wasn't that important right now, not even mentioning the fact that I wouldn't have had anything to get rid of the radiation. So apart from making you or Gingerbread panic it wouldn't have changed a thing!" he shouted to drown me out. "So please, calm down! Everything's fine!"

"Everything is fine now, but if we wouldn't have..."

"But we did find RADaway!" Angel shouted back at me, his voice sounded angry, but his face showed only exhaustion, as if he hadn't slept for days. "Enough for the four of us! Enough for now and probably the next time alicorns teleport us into a pit of radiation! So please! Calm! Down!"

For a few seconds we both just stared at each other in an angry silence. I mean, he withhold the fact that I was irradiated! And if we wouldn't have found the... I could have grown a third wing! And he wouldn't have told me! I grabbed one of the orange RADaway bags with my mouth and with a huff I turned around on the spot and walked to the door at the other side of the room. What I wanted right now was find a quiet place and calm down. Maybe find a few more healing bandages on the way. But mainly to calm down.

Immediately after I kicked the door behind shut with a hindleg I could feel my body relax.Angel just behave... urgh! He didn't... just forget about it and calm down, Feather! It wasn't entirely his fault after all. He kinda was right, saying something wouldn't have changed a thing... But I wanted to be angry with somepony!

Sitting down on my haunches I lay down the RADaway in front of me. For all he didn't tell me, Angel had at least hinted that the... medicine I guess, by drinking it. It made sense, given the kind of straw sticking out off the side of the orange bag. And with a few sips all the radiation would be gone?

The concept sounded flawless to be at the start, but in reality it turned out to be a trial of tartaric proportions to get the damn straw ripped from the wrapping. Pegasus wings were only that useful when it came to precise micro-actions. I honestly couldn't imagine how an earth pony would get this medicine to work. How many of them might have died of radiation poisoning with an bag of RADaway right in front of their nose, but they weren't able to get the Celestia-damned straw out! With a unicorn this wouldn't have been a problem, but the only two unicorns I knew in an approximately two miles distance where either busy getting a griffin patched up or waiting for me to come back to him and confess that yelling at him had been a bad idea. And I would be damned if I would do the latter. Keeping me alive in this hellhole or not.

After trying what felt like hours of unsuccessfully trying to balance the bag of medicine with my wings for the straw to reach my mouth, I decided to screw all manners and common sense, put it on the ground in front of me and drank the orange fluid while lying next to it on the ground. The only thing that would have been more silly than how I felt right now must have been actually looking at me. But luckily there wasn't anypony looking, Angel had respectfully decided not to follow me.

Wise choice by him.

I had to say, for the RADaway being medicine, it didn't taste bad. Not good too, but I guess there could have been worse flavor-choices than stale carrot. Sweaty hood for example. Or rock-flavored, although I had no clue how that would taste. I just imagined it to taste really boring. And while I could almost feel a strange tickling sensation going through my body, I asked myself why that stupid PegasusBuck thing in my foreleg didn't tell me about my potential radiation poisoning. I mean, it was apparently able to sense when I needed lethal force and when I needed non-lethal force, and as far as I remembered, the had been a Body Mon...

Well, there it was. In front of my inner eye - I just decided to name wherever the device was sending its messages to my "inner eye" - the shape of a pegasus appeared, along with a four colored bar that was labeled RADmeter, which was set into focus with a mere thought of mine. What would have been a needle one any normal device was slowly passing the second, the green, part of the bar. Each new segment was crested with a picture of a pony apparently indicating the seriousness of the poisoning - from one broadly grinning and one normal smiling pony at the beginning and end of the first white bar, to a picture of a pony with a tentacle growing out of its eye socket. The end was marked by a simple pony head with crossed-out eyes. Right now, the normally smiling icon was highlighted, apparently indicating that I wasn't in serious danger of liquefying any second. That was somehow relaxing.

I banished the thought - and the actual display device - to the corner of my eyes and silently watched until the virtual needle had reached the zero-point again. It would be really nice to have some kind of alarm with in this thing. I knew there was a manual somewhere in there - yep, there it was; down, bad manual! - but other matters were more pressing right now, I could give it a read once I wasn't busy getting teleported around or irradiated by... radiation.

Or seeking medical supplies for the griffin with the broken back. I knew there had been something I had forgotten over being angry, frustrated and a little bit more angry of the sake of being angry. Vergil still needed any healing bandages I could find. As soon as possible. Now get your sorry flank of the ground and do something productive, featherbrain! There can't be that many rooms without any medical boxes in this building, can there?

""")_x_("""

Apparently there could.

A few corridors and rooms filled with desks, dirt and debris later the only thing new in my pockets were two more scrolls of bandages and a few more vials of healing potion. On the plus side, I had managed to create a replacement for my missing saddlebags. Basically a few pre-war cotton shopping bags tacked together at the tabs. It probably didn't look good, but in my situation, I shouldn't be picky. Not really that stable or durable either, but it would be enough to hold a few bandages.

Slowly but constantly my anger for Angel had died away alongside with my curiosity about what the next room or the next corridor would hold. The answer was always "desks". And if wasn't "desks" it was "debris" and "dirt". Although... those three words basically summed up the whole wasteland, but I had to wonder nonetheless, what this alicorn goddess wanted from this place in particular. Or why she couldn't - or more likely: didn't want - set hoof in here.

But who was I that I wanted to understand a goddess? She probably had her reasons and as long as she didn't kill us - and we would manage to heal Vergil - I was fine with that. And speaking of Vergil, it was about time that I should return. If Angel had found as many - or few in our case - bandages as I had, it maybe wouldn't suffice to completely mummify the griffin, but it would definitely be enough to treat the most severe of his injuries without crippling his wings even more. Or at least I hoped so...

But in the exact moment as I decided to return to my companions, one last obstacle hit me: while the rooms and corridors of this facility weren't all that complex, I had traversed many rooms and even more corridors, all looking the same. Meaning: it would be quite hard to get... oh who was I kidding. I was lost. Well done, Feather. You are as incompetent as ever. Because a competent pony would have made a map in their mind or would have left markings when they entered a convoluted area or building. But you had to follow your urge to get away from your most loyal companion and life-saver on multiple occasions for the sole reason of you being stupidly angry. Well done indeed.

Wait a second!

I might have had no real map of this place, but I had something at least equally useful: I had my EFS. And with that I could at least track the others' movements - or lack of movement, since they were most likely with Vergil right now - meaning I would at least know the direction I had to go. Sometimes I had good ideas.

Grinning on the inside, I brought up my Eyes Forward Sparkle, but the moment I did it, my urge to grin imploded.

Yes, there were three neutral colored dots where I would have guessed my companions to be.

But there also were a few dozen other moving dots, almost all of them blue, but sill... How could we have missed a whole pre-war facility-load of whatever creatures those might be? There hadn't been any noises whatsoever and even if I had ignored them out of pure stupidity, I bet Angel wouldn't have.

Okay, Feather... just breath. Inhale... exhale... They weren't hostile, were they? I mean, they were marked as neutral on my EFS and however the device knew that, it was about a hundred percent accurate. So there was no need to worry. It were probably just... some... birds who got caught up in here. Yes, something harmless like that. They were neutral. They wouldn't attack me. But even so, I should take care not to startle them. Angry birds were probably no good.

I gulped and started moving back through the door I had came from. And here my mind's map-making abilities started to fail already. Three more doors, one at each wall of the room. I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything - at least not directly - but the hairs on my neck felt as if I was being watched at any moment.

Choosing the door to my right, simply because a group of three was indicated by my EFS when I looked in this direction, I entered another room, looking almost exactly the same as the other room before had. Now I started cursing the pre-war ponies and their stupid interior designers. And whoever had built such a large complex. And whoever was responisble for bricking the whole thing and letting it be populated by what - knowing my luck - were probably giant RADscorpions! A curse upon ye!

I entered the next room. And the next. And another.

And I could neither hear nor see anything of those strange creatures that were apparently roaming this building too. There was just this odd feeling of being watched. But apart from that: nothing.

As I approached the next door, all I wanted was to scream, just to drive away this menacing silence, but the exact moment I laid a hoof on the doorhandle, somepony - or rather: something - took over that task: a piercing scream, both monstrous and horribly equine sounding at the same time, rang through the room and with a loud crack, the ceiling behind the door I was standing before collapsed and debris, dirt and some technical looking and flashing pieces of metal flooded the corridor on the other side.

Okay, Feather, no need to worry. Not yet. It was probably sheer coincidence with an accident on top. Whatever was screaming couldn't possible have collapsed the ceiling right in front of me. What kind of... pony would be able to do that? Maybe this Goddess, she... they were alicorns after all. And telekintecially strong ones on top. I mean, I didn't have a clue on how powerful alicorns were, but it seemed most likely they there capable of doing this. If you ignored the fact that the Goddess had sent us in here to... do something. But I would bet what was left of my tail that it wasn't getting buried by rubble.

So... probably not the Goddess.

Think less about what could have happened and focus on how you will get back to your friends, featherbrain! The direct way was out of commission as a small sign, that had apparently been tacked to the piece of arcane hardware that had been located above this corridor, stated. If this junk wouldn't have been blocking my way out of this tunnel of horror, I might actually have laughed right now.

Backing up slowly I let my eyes wander across the room. Three more doors. The one I had came through and another one also blocked by debris and a few filing cabinets. So there was only one way to go: the way that led closer to the other blue dots. I began to hate my EFS for that elementally weakness it had: showing enemies - or other living beings in that case - but not indicating any proximity. Whatever those screaming creatures were, they could be waiting around the next corner or sleeping hundreds of meters away. But I didn't know.

But you're a sneaky pegasus, Feather. You successfully out-sneaked a cave of RADsorpions. Okay, almost successfully. But as long as one of these creatures wouldn't out-sneak you again, you're save. Just don't make any noises, don't trip over something and be the Celestia-damned non-curious pony you were above the clouds!

I passed the door slowly, my head turning from one end of the corridor to the other, scanning for anything moving. Nothing moved. That was good. Stuff that didn't move was highly unlikely to eat me. And there was another pleasant thing about this corridor, apart from its emptiness: the end to my right was blocked by - you guessed it - dirt, rocks and debris. One the one hoof this maybe was a shorter way back to my friend, but on the other hoof, I didn't have to decide whether way to take. And I always had been an expert in making poor choices.

Pressed to the wall I began to advance through the corridor and as another door came into view, I stopped, checking both my EFS and my ears and last my own eyes for any indications of danger beyond said door's sill. And nothing was there. Just an empty room half filled with dirt and loose pieces of paper. No ways out. Good, that meant one less decision for me to make. I closed my eyes and sighed in relief, but as I left the room again to resume my expedition, my eyes widened in shock:

The white alicorn was there again.

Great, as if to add insult to injury, I was seeing my favorite hallucination again; I could have seen that coming. At least the pleasant whistling accompanying it calmed me down, as always. The tall alicorn just stood there, looking at me with its golden eyes as I slowly trotted away. And whenever I turned my head around to see if it had gone, it stood a few feed behind me, looking at me and emitting that calming sound. Under any other circumstances I would have been creeped out by the fact that I was followed by an unknown pony-thing, but right now, I couldn't care less. I had at least some company. Things could have been worse.

I proceeded to walk my way through the corridors, each just as empty as every corridor and room before. Slowly but surely I came closer to where I expected my companions to be, the foyer of... wherever we were. The - friendly mind you - blue bars on my EFS barely moved and as I entered the next hallway, I noticed with relief, that almost of them were located to the left and right of me, while the three dots indicating my companions were right in front of me. I had already passed the room I had left Angel in, but it was empty by now too. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was glad about that fact or not.

One final obstacle - come to think of it, there had been many final obstacles on my way back - remained, but it was a rather small one compared to my overall lost-ness back in the beginning and my urge to avoid whoever was roaming this building: just another collapsed ceiling. But I had started to remember the way Angel and I had taken over an hour ago. And this collapsed ceiling with a cyan-painted filing cabinet in it had been blocking a corridor about three rooms away from our starting point. I was almost back.

I turned towards the entrance door of the next office, when a shot rang through the air. Given its relative proximity to my position and the loud noise, I had to assumed it had been fired by Angel and by one of his home-made guns. A gunshot meant trouble. Another meant big trouble! My eyes widened I grabbed my own pistol and rushed into the office.

Or rather tried to.

A big white wing spread in front of me and blocked my path. My gaze wandered along the wing and - as expected - that wing was attached to the white alicorn. What was I talking, it wasn't attached to it, neither was it there at all! It was a hallucination! I stepped forward, but stopped dead in my tracks as I had foolishly made eye-contact with the white alicorn-hallucination.

Those eyes just seemed so real. And so did the worry that I could see within them.

I knew they weren't real, but I wasn't able to believe it.

Snap out of it, Feather! My friends were in trouble and no not-really-there alicorn would stop me from helping them! I gathered myself and stepped forwards, despite the alicorn's panic-stricken face as it shook its head. I really was glad I wasn't stopped by the wing, because then I would have freaked out. The only thing I felt was a weak counterpressure as I passed through it, nothing to worry about.

Just as the white vanished from my eyes, I could see why the alicorn had tried to stop me. Goddesses, that sounded so crazy. It hadn't tried to do anything; it was my Celestia-damned subconsciousness! But I didn't have any time to complain to my mind about my mind, because all my mental concentration died away as I saw what was sitting in front of the door that lead closer towards the gunshots. My door.

The thing cowering in the office room looked like a pony. Four legs, a longer trump, a horn on its forehead. But it wasn't any more equine than the combat drones I had thought all this time ago in my last and first real combat maneuver: the "pony" in front of me had neither a mane nor a tail, or at least no amount of hair that deserved to be called such. And the same applied to its skin. I gasped. Unfortunately that lead to that... thing noticing me.

I could barely keep myself from vomiting as I saw the zombie pony turning around to face me. What was left of its skin dangled down from its cheeks in lappets, it didn't have any lips, its rotten teeth gleamed at me menacingly. Even the eyes seemed rotten away, but not enough for them to be blind. The only thing that looked as if it was intact was the zombie pony's horn.

Why was that creature here at all? It shouldn't be here! It hadn't been here before, so why now!

Unfortunately the zombie pony wasn't as distracted by my appearance as I was by its, because as soon as it had completely risen, its horn was wrapped in a sickening green glow. It was about to do magic! Whatever it was, I didn't want to find out what creatures like this were capable of, so I spread my wings, got airborne and dashed past it, through the open door that was my door. But just I caught a glimpse at the corridor behind it, I heard the pony behind me scream.
It was the same scream as the one I had heard earlier, before the ceiling had collapsed.

I heard wood, plastic and stone crack even before the shockwave hit me. Spinning over again and again I slammed into the wooden door at the end of the small hallway, smashing through it in a rain of splinters. Pain rushed through my body, but what almost hurt me even more was the fact that the dozens of blue dots on my EFS turned red the second the zombie pony had uttered its cry. All but three...

My eyes watering, I crawled forwards, away from the creature. Or towards it. I didn't know. All I knew was that I was in deep trouble: I had lost both my ability to fly and my gun at once, my enemies number had just gone through the roof and probably the layers of stone and sand on top on it. And the one I had to face right now was a unicorn powerful enough to collapse ceilings and throw another pony - namely me - across the room.

I opened my eyes and found myself cornered, with the wall in my back, just as the slightly now glowing zombie pony passed the destroyed door. Wooden splinters, twisted metal pieces of filing cabinets, even a few chunks of the surrounding concrete circulated around it and whatever point end those items had, they were all pointed at me.

What to do now? What to do now?! Come on, stupid brain, think of something!

Close quarter combat was out of the question, being hit a second time by its shockwave would either instantly kill me or immobilize me for the zombie pony to... eat, I guess. It was what zombies did, wasn't it? And I couldn't shoot at it, because my goddesses-forsaken pistol lay on the ground in the opposite corner of the room. For a moment I thought about the knife I had, but realized quickly that I wasn't capable of throwing a knife, left alone mortally wound anypony by doing that, for one thing and for another thing, said knife was Luna-knows how many miles away in my old saddlebags right now. Only one choice then...

Magic Disruptor: charging initialized... Please stand by.

The zombie pony drew closer and with each step, new pieces of junk and metal were sucked into the telekinetical vortex that surrounded it, adding new weapons to its already fearsome arsenal.

Magic Disruptor: charging... 25%

The creature stood now directly in front of me. I could see deep into its rotten eyes.

Magic Disruptor: charging... 50%

This was taking too damned long!

The garbage projectiles in the magic grip shook and adjusted at their target one last time.

And then, a bright light filled the room for an eye-blink and as it had faded away again, the white alicorn stood in front of me. It stood tall enough for me to see, that the zombie unicorn wasn't affected by the alicorn's appearance at all. By sheer coincidence, it's eyelids twitched and it looked as if something had just snapped in its mind, but that was it. The zombie pony didn't stop.
Of course not, the alicorn was my hallucination after all. At least I had a bit of comforting noise in my final seconds...
Another bright flash blinded me and the second I closed my eyes, I could hear the junk projectiles launching.

No. Falling.

"Flee!" I heard a raspy and gummed up sounding voice calling out.

I opened my eyes. The alicorn was gone and only the zombie pony remained in front of me. The glowing was gone and it was surrounded by heaps of concrete, pieces of metal and shards of the door I had crashed through; the weapons that had been pointed at me just seconds ago. Foolishly curious as I was, I took a closer look at my... former enemy I guess: the equine figure was cowering in front of me, its shaking hooves pressed on its face. If two thirds of its skin and mane hadn't been missing and ignoring its size, it would have been quite easy to mistake the creature for a lost foal.

"Flee! Or it will kill you!" the zombie pony screamed again, staring at me with what seemed to be... different eyes.

I quickly stumbled back to me feet. There was no need for me to be told about that a third time, maybe there was some equinity left in this rotten husk after all. My eyes scanned the room for the right door. I didn't know if it was the way my panic worked but I suddenly remembered the few rooms and corridors that were my way back.

Taking the right exit, I entered the next corridor and started galloping. I could hear more zombie ponies scream from every direction, my EFS showed fast moving red dots and I could see and feel the still intact doors on my way bursting open or ripped out of their angles by magic shockwaves. Splinters pierced into my sides and wings, but by know, all I felt was numb thumping in my back. I didn't even think about flying, running away was the only thing on my mind.

One door, a room, a corridor, another door, another corridor, another door and... a wall?

I barely managed to slow down before I slammed into... something. I really needed to stop getting slammed or actively slamming into somethings. This particular something that was definitely solid, but by no way a wall concrete wall. Walls weren't supposed to lie directly behind doors and they weren't supposed to be green, transparent and pulsing either. And if anything, a tall-up standing goddesses alicorn with an illuminated horn wasn't supposed to stand behind that transparent wall.

This was no wall at all! It looked more like a solid version of the shockwaves the zombie ponies were emitting all around me. A shield spell. But this one was different in more than only the aspect of permanence, its caster was different too. Yes, it was an alicorn, closely resembling the ones that had sent us in here and all that different from my white one, but it looked more like one of the zombie ponies right now. Its skin might not have fallen off - at least for the biggest part - and its mane looked pretty much intact, just less floaty, but its bloodshot eyes lacked the look of supremacy and compensated that with a more scary kind of firmness.

"Come with me, little one..." I heard voices echoing through the room, "Join us in the embrace of the primordial beginning... Let all sorrow and harsh feelings go, just stay and be happy..."

No way! I didn't want to stay! I had friends I had to take care of, a home to return to, ponies I would have to apologize to! I couldn't stay. The shield in front of my vibrated and then it seemed to grow. Not in overall size, but small branch-like magic extension, just as green and transparent as their origin, grew slowly from the shield and towards me.
So this was why the Goddess alicorns didn't want to enter this building. Something happened to them in here, just like to everypony else.

"Let go. Just be happy..."

The way forwards was blocked by that branches-emitting alicorn shield thing, behind me was probably a gigantic horde of zombie ponies and even more of those alicorns and I couldn't see another accessible door in this room. I had to...

Magic Disruptor: charging... 100%
Magic Disruptor: ready

The words flashed across my EFS and I had almost whooped at their sight. Forget everything I ever said about you taking too long to charge, my dear Salvation, you're doing fine. You're the greatest hoof-mounted-weaponized-body-surveiling piece of arcane hardware I ever possessed.

Now I could only hope the disruptor would work the same way on a goddess - no, of course it would. And if this creature was defeated and had been subjected to the control of... something mentally even more powerful, then that wasn't a goddess. Not anymore. By now, this alicorn was a not different from the other zombie ponies and that meant, the disruptor would to work.

With the chalk-on-blackboard noise and feeling I had experienced before, I set the magic disruptor charge loose and watched with relief, as the magic bubble-shield, along with all it tentacle-like extensions, burst like a rainbow bubble. And with a high-pitched, not echoing and all-equine scream, the alicorn went down in the middle of the small connecting passage. With grim determination I dashed past the big curled-up ball of pony and began the final spurt, while gunshots rang through the air once more.
Angel, Gingerbread, Vergil... I'm coming and then we'll all get out of here.

"Please, just stay..." I could hear the green alicorn mutter, although the loud noises of screams and shots should have drowned them out.

""")_x_("""

Level up: Level 10

Skill(s): Survival 45

Perk added: Run'n'GunRun

"Just push yourself a little more and you could do a Sonic Rainboom...

Just kidding. You could never do a Sonic Rainboom."
The Equestrian wasteland is a dangerous place and you're not the most durable pegasus. But do you really need to be hard as steel if the dangers can't catch up to you? Your basic movement speed is increased by 5% and your sprinting ability is enhanced by 20% (Speed +15%; Sprint duration +25%).

Quest Perk added: An Angel on your Shoulder

"I really didn't see that coming."
The Equestrian wasteland is a strange place. That strange in fact, that you could swear your own hallucinations help you out from time to time. You should maybe consult a doctor about that.

Chapter XII: A Gateway to Heaven

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I wouldn't loose another friend to the wasteland. At least not without a fight this time.

I burst through the final door, breathing heavily and my right foreleg risen, preparing myself both mentally and physically to take on whoever was making trouble. Taken by surprise, even those shockwave-zombie unicorns would fall to the power of my lethal PipBuck. If it was to protect my friends...

But as my mind had adjusted to the situation in the foyer, my heart missed a beat: the foyer was empty. Not empty empty, the two ponies and the unconscious griffin were still there, indicated by my EFS, just nopony else had entered. And nonetheless, Angel stood in the middle of the room, his pistols raised, and placed shot after shot into the walls around him.

"Where is she?!" he shouted, firing his pistols once again. "What have you done to her?!"

Odd... he wasn't shooting at magical zombie-ponies? I felt almost relieved were it not for the dozens of red dots creeping the edges of my vision, indicating that the threat hadn't disappeared at all. They were still there and if they had somehow lost track of me, Angel's gunshots would most likely lure them here most certainly. On the other hoof, they were probably right behind me at this very moment, so the shooting didn't really matter, as long as Angel would hit his targets. And he always did.

I slowly stepped towards the grey stallion. I was a little scared of him at this moment, I hadn't seen him acting all emotional like this... ever. He always had been restrained and if an outburst of emotion ever occurred, if he yelled at me for being too stupid or naive to get along in the wasteland, he had always quickly drowned out those and returned to his calm self.

"Where is she?!" he shouted, again at nopony in particular.

As I stepped closer, I looked around for Gingerbread and Vergil. They were somewhere in here, I knew that much, but I couldn't see them. That the griffin wasn't preparing for battle or anything was quite obvious, but that the orange unicorn mare didn't do anything to calm Angel down surprised me. Unlike me, she wasn't a greenhorn in the wasteland and even I knew that making a racket like this wasn't under any circumstances advisable in an hostile environment like this.

So either she had left to get more medical supplies, but was still in range for my EFS to catch, or she was afraid of talking to Angel, which was honestly the less likely possibility. Or... no, that were the only reasonable alternatives I wanted to think of. Gingerbread seemed like a loyal pony, she wouldn't abandon us or our griffin patient just like that. She probably knew even fewer things about thins complex than me, left alone an escape route that didn't involve teleporting. Come to think of it, that would come in handy right now.

One of my legs brushed one of the many small piles of rubble that were littering most of the foyer's floor. The barely hearable noise made Angel's ears twitch and he turned around faster than ever, his pistols raised and pointed right at me. He looked both angry and frightened.

"Angel, look, I'm... sorry I yelled at you earlier, but we have a big problem." I started hastily, not sure if I wasn't talking faster as he could hear. Given his confused look, I probably was. "You see, we're not alone here. There are ponies - no, not really ponies, there're more like zombie-ponies. And there are those Goddess-alicorns either and they make shields and the other are able to cause..."

"Are you playing games with me?!"

My heart skipped a beat as the grey unicorn stallion pressed his guns to my forehead. He was looking right through me!

"Angel, what are you talking about?"

"What happened to her?!"

Who was "she"? Gingerbread? She wasn't anywhere to see and...

I gasped as Angel turned his head a bit, thereby revealing the unconscious Vergil on the makeshift sick-bed we had crafted from desks earlier. His wings and large parts of his now armor-less torso were wrapped in healing bandages, some of them already reddened by blood, but it was what was in front of him that shocked me: on the ground, only a few feet away from the unconscious griffin lay Gingerbread, her red robe and mane darkened from... one wasn't supposed to get blood all over one's mane when bandaging a wing! And unconsciousness wasn't supposed to happen either!

What had happened in here?

"You are with them, I can see that." Angel hissed, disdainfully nodding towards Gingerbread, and I began to feel a twinge from his pistols' triangular muzzles. "You will tell me what you've done to her or else, I swear by all princesses and deities, you'll have it even worse."

"What... you... what have you done?"

"She wasn't cooperative, so I tried to help her to become a bit more... nice." Angel said slowly, his eyes fixated at mine and his pistol still pressed against my forehead. "But you look smart and I don't want to hurt... unless you keep concealing where she is and what you've done to her. I'm afraid I'd have no other choice then..."

I gulped.

This... this wasn't Angel. It couldn't be Angel. Sure, this grey unicorn looked like him, his voice sounded like his, and even his two black pistols were the same, but this stallions simply didn't behave like the Angel I had been traveling with for what felt like weeks now. This simply was another pony. A pony who did know neither me nor Gingerbread nor the kind blue-maned unicorn stallion who had dragged me out of the desert.

"Angel, I don't know who you mean..."

"Don't bullshit me!" he shouted, suddenly angry, knocking away my legs from under me with his own, making me plunge to the ground. He stepped closer, levitating both of his pistols in front of him and pointed them down at me. "I don't have the time to play games like that. So I'm going to ask one. Last. Time:" I could hear his pistols click as he cocked them. "Where is she?"

Why wasn't he listening? What was in here that did such things to ponies? Not only did he hurt Gingerbread to get information about the goddesses know what, he was also totally unaware of the danger literally all around us. The zombie-ponies and whatever those alicorn things were were still around as I could see on my EFS. At the same time, I could see Angel's dot constantly switching from blue to red and back. What the heck was going on here?

"I'll count to three and you'll tell me, okay? One... two..."

The second he closed his mouth after saying "two", I forced whatever energy was left in my body into my wings. They hurt terribly from all the small wooden splinters and the crashes, but fortunately I was still able to move them. Bumping upwards, I slammed my hindlegs into Angel's face, causing his magic grip around his weapons to collapse as he was thrown backwards, almost making a full flip backwards. I never thought I was that strong. Although... a pegasus' wing-beat was said to be quite powerful. I got airborne, my teeth clenched together in pain, and dashed away from Angel. Turning my head back, I saw the grey stallion groaning, recovering much faster than I had hoped. By the time I had passed halfway through the spacious foyer, he was already on his hooves again... and he took aim at me!

My time was running out. I knew Angel was a formidable shot. He had hit ponies' heads in a almost fully darkened room, I doubted a moving target would be a challenge for him at all. And what where my options? I couldn't shoot back at him. First he was my companion, my friend, who had saved me several times. Whatever had twisted those ponies and the alicorn was most certainly affecting him too right now. He wasn't responsible for what he had done and was doing. And secondly, I had lost my gun in the fight with the zombie unicorn. And since I had forgotten to recharge magic disruptor and was by now out of reach to begin with, close combat was out of the question too. Despite that, he would have most certainly won that battle too.

So... fleeing? Back to the hordes of red dots beyond the doors of the foyer?

"Playtime is over, turkey!" I heard Angel yell from behind me as I had changed my course and was now heading towards the closest door. "Now get back down!"

Blam!

Searing pain rushed through my body, springing from my right wing. My vision went black for a moment and when I opened my eyes the world span and span around me. I could see drops of red and bloody feathers passing by my face as I became aware that I had fully lost control.

I... I had been shot! Angel had shot me!

And it hurt even more badly than the time the pony hunters had shot my leg. Because he had shot me.

My only saving grace was that I had already set course towards the door, so by the time I crashed down I took the brittle door with me, paving the way for my escape. My rather painful escape. Choking a groan of pain, I dragged myself into the next room. And the next. And another. If Angel was following me, he would have had caught up by now, but apparently he wasn't following me. Sure, I could hear his muffled "chick, chick, chick" calls and a few gunshots now and then through the veil that was lying over my ears. Maybe those zombie ponies were aiding me unwillingly. It was a terrible thing to hope for them to overcome the grey unicorn stallion, he wasn't responsible for what he was doing after all.

I finally collapsed in the corner of anther oddly empty office room. My whole body felt dull, my back and chest were covered in splinters, my blood dripping wing dangled uselessly on my side and my face hurt from my last meeting with the ground. As Angels shouts grew quieter and quieter, I loosened the straps that hold my makeshift saddlebags on my back and emptied it out in front of me. Vergil and Gingerbread would need those bandages right now, but without me being at my best I wouldn't be able to... deal with Angel to get to them. Maybe I should not use all of them on myself.

The good thing about me bandaging my wing was that for five minutes I didn't have to think about what to do next. I couldn't go back to Gingerbread, Vergil and Angel, for the sole reason of the latter most likely killing me on sight. I couldn't hope to lure Angel away from them, since I didn't want him to run into a horde of those pony-eating zombies because of me. And if we all just stayed here we would all die of either hunger, thirst, being eaten by zombies or squashed by alicorns. It felt strange to think about it like that - and I myself felt almost bad for thinking those words - but the only thing on my mind was: we're totally fucked.

Slowly I got up and started moving through the room. There was no point in sitting here while the zombie ponies were all around me. If I would encounter one, I would at least be on my hooves already. And lastly I could just think better if I was moving.

I was just a pegasus. I couldn't teleport or something, I couldn't do a shield spell to protect myself, I couldn't out-range Angel since I had lost my own gun, my only weapon was a close ranged one and even if I would be able to use it on him, it would either kill him or leaving him unarmed but still in melee range. And I doubted I would win a fight like this even if he wasn't able to cast spells. I had been able to knock him down, but only because he didn't see it coming. And I was sure he would be prepared next time.

Yeah, I was totally fucked.

And wounded on top of it.

And why was I here again? Because those stupid alicorns were so effing curious about this place that they just abducted and locked us up with all those ghouls and their apparently insane siblings, with no explanation or aim than "go figure that out"!

Cool down, featherbrain. This isn't the worst situation you're in now. Okay, it is the worst, but there have been other bad situations too. Like the time you were tied up by the pony hunters or when you were chased by the giant RADscorpion, both of which... you wouldn't have gotten away from if it hadn't been for Angel. And Angel - for some reason - was out to kill you right now. So not only does the zombie ponies and alicorns work against you, but a dead-shot unicorn fighter as well, and because the wasteland is just that cruel, there are a griffin and a unicorn in the foyer, who are in desperate need of medical treatment.

Okay, it was pretty bad, but at least there was a silver lining on the clouded horizon. Somewhere. I would just have to look very hard.

I couldn't see Angel's EFS tag anymore. It had been quite easy to track him, since the dot that indicated the grey unicorn stallion had still been changing its color every few seconds. Whatever that meant... uhm, whatever. I had to figure out something, something to get both Angel, Gingerbread and Vergil out of here. I was pretty sure whatever messed with the alicorns and ponies here - unless zombie-fication was normal for ponies down here, which I hoped it wasn't - was messing with Angel now. It had to be this way. It just had to. So if I would manage to lure him out of the building's... range... the problem would hopefully solve itself.

It sounded easy. If one ignored all the threats in my way that weren't Angel and the actual unicorn who would - and I was pretty sure of that after what happened lately - shoot me down the second I appeared in his line of sight. But apart from that, pretty easy.

Stupid featherbrain, you need to come up with a plan. Usually you tell ponies that you're so good at that!

A growl, not to far away from me. Speaking of sounding. My eyes widened as they started to really see stuff again. It was a thing of mine: whenever I started thinking, I oftentimes lost track of what happened around me. But that wasn't important right now. Because what was important was another unicorn zombie that stood at the end of the corridor I was currently walking through. And what what was even more important was that it was looking at me, ready to build up its telekinetic vortex any second.

Any second now.

Any second.

But the zombie pony didn't react. It just looked at me - or rather the corridor I was in - making no move to go away from that position. Thunderstruck I stood there, not really sure what to do. Maybe those creatures track my motions... or something like that. They weren't blind, I could say that almost for sure from what I had experienced earlier and they definitely weren't friendly either. So why didn't anything happen?

This was growing weirder and weirder any second. Even weirder than it already was.

Then, all of the sudden, I heard the slow rataplan of hooves right behind me. Acting against my conscience I span around, completely ignoring the threat that posed the zombie pony at the edge of my vision, and found myself once again in the company of my white-alicorn-hallucination. Could have been worse... but since when could I actually hear that alicorn moving? That hadn't happened before! The last time that creature had come that close to me, strange things had happened and I knew how crazy it was to even think about what the proximity of my hallucination mattered. The white alicorn bowed its head down to mine, looking me into the eyes for a brief moment, before it just...vanished. No purple spark of magic, no sound of rustling feathers, not the *plop*-noise of a bursting balloon.

For a moment, I thought it was just gone, but then - oddly enough - it reappeared right next to the zombie in front of me. Most likely by chance, the zombie unicorn threw its head around, looking towards the white one for a few seconds. The alicorn nodded towards the corridor to the unicorn's right. And then said unicorn just galloped away, into that exact corridor.

Okay.

At this point I just decided not to ask question anymore. After all I was in a most likely underground pre-war complex some pseudo goddesses had teleported me into and right now I was facing more alicorns and unicorns who should be dead given the amount of rotting flesh, but somehow weren't. I guess in a situation like this I shouldn't wonder about one more pony doing crazy stuff, even if it was just me thinking that crazy stuff.

Closing up to where the two... creatures had been a few moments ago, I recognized that the alicorn had vanished again. Strange... no, not strange, perfectly normal given the circumstances. What was strange though was that I hadn't run into any other zombie unicorn or an alicorn in the time I had wandered around. There had been the two I had encountered when I had tried to reach Angel, Gingerbread and Vergil and now there had been this one, but apart from those... not a single one. And this place was swarming with them, if my EFS was to be trusted. Just a bit of luck as a compensation for all the bad luck, most likely.

Maybe something had led the others away just as the alicorn had done it this time. But that was crazy even by my recently set standards.

Shaking off those thoughts I looked down the two corridors that were the possible continuations of my way: the one the zombie pony had galloped into and the... other one. So which to choose? That one path to my left that lead into unknown territory filled with wild, undead ponies or the one to my right, also leading into the unknown and an unknown amount of zombie-ponies plus one. Tough choice...

I then decided to take the right way, because zombie pony or not, from what I remembered this way would lead me closer to Angel again. Even if he was crazy right now and I still didn't have a clue on what I wanted to do about that, the thing I wanted even less was getting lost in this building. If I were where Angel and the others were, then I would be at least close to one known exit. At least.

And there were still no other ponies to be see when I walked down the corridor. They were there - my EFS be praised - but they just... didn't come here apparently. But even if... Angel, the building and me being stupid and unauspicious had already taken care of my daily need for getting hurt: a back full of splinters from smashing through doors stern first and most likely one or two black eyes from smashing through one face first, skinned knees, a hurting face, a now numb wing with a freaking whole in it and I honestly couldn't tell if my legs were hurt or not, because from all the running, stumbling, crash landing and being thrown through stuff they were hurting by default. I was honestly surprised that I could still stand and walk, left alone run away from Angel.

Trotting through the empty corridor, I tried to make up some kind of plan - something concrete - to deal with my unicorn companion. Given that any kind of firearm of mine was still missing, my thoughts quickly arrived at the magic-disrupting device embedded in my foreleg. Speaking of which, I triggered its charge-mechanism with a thought of mine. I wasn't sure how long such a charge would be able to be used, but I just hoped it would be long enough for it to take out Angel's magic. But if I would take out his magic, what would I do next? I would have a few seconds at best and that would only be enough time to...

Suddenly I got aware of the syringes I had stuffed into my jacket's pockets after I had emptied out my saddlebags. After I had taken away the healing bandages for myself, very little had been left, but along those few medical supplies, there had been Med-X, I was sure of that. And what was that drug Angel had used on Vergil called again? Blackout? A modified version of Med-X. I simply hoped that by "modified" Angel had meant "simply stronger dosed". What had I learned about mid-combat medical treatment back home? "A tiny bit too much and you'll be very knocked out very fast." I really hoped that. Or otherwise, my most loyal friend in the whole wasteland would die from an overdose of Med-X I myself would have given to him. "But just a little bit to much and your dear companions will be dead companions. So mind the dosage!" that one instructor had told us.

Settling down in another small office room - this whole complex seemed to be nothing more than office rooms, corridors and some debris here and there - okay, everywhere - I hold the Med-X syringes in front of my eyes and stared hard:

Warning:

Do not mix with alcohol or any other any other anesthetics.

Excessive use might trigger narcotic shock. Please contact a doctor before applying Med-X™.

MediCall Corp. does not assume liability in case of misapplication by laymares.

was written on it in really small letters.

This could only go pear-shaped...

Bracing myself, I stood up again, the "makeshift Blackout" - as I liked to call it now to make less worried - stuffed into my chest pockets. Now I just had to find Angel again.

""")_x_("""

A blue-to-red shifting dot on my EFS, barely visible among all the other red ones which I somehow hadn't stumbled into. There he was. Wasteland luck was a crazy thing. On the other hoof, from all the shooting-noises and the freakish shouts Angel uttered, it hadn't been all that difficult to locate him. And those noises meant that he was still alive and well. Good.

In the half-hour it had taken my to find him again, the consequences and weak points of my "plan" had rushed through my head again and again. Who am I kidding, that plan was one single huge weak point. It would have been far easier to think about ways my maneuver could work than about things that could go wrong. Or not thinking about it at all and just doing it... that sounded like the best way to handle it.

Holding the syringes of improvised Blackout in my one relatively undamaged wing, I lurked forward through the last corridor that lay between me and the trigger-happy grey unicorn stallion. Just get in there, do your job and get them all out of here.

I approached a damaged door that lead back into the foyer Angel was patrolling in, and coincidentally the one I myself had crashed through not long ago. I didn't look all that close, but I could swear there were drips of blood and white - correction, mostly dirty grey by now - feathers littered on floor in front of the door. At least I was at the right place again, so the two blue dots on my EFS really were Gingerbread and Vergil.

"Come out, you bastards!" I heard Angel shout, followed by two bursts of gunfire from his twin pistols. Again followed by the sound of crackling concrete and no death-rattling of another pony, be it zombie or not, meaning he was - again - shooting at thin air. Or he was seeing ghosts or alicorns, like me. Either way, it didn't matter right now. What did matter was that he apparently was a tiny bit distracted. Hopefully that tiny bit would be enough for me...

He walked his round in the room and he did it again and again, shouting and shooting every once in a while, all of it completely mechanical. By now I was sure that this wasn't the Angel I knew. After I had made sure that he would really pass by my position again, I readied the syringes and prepared myself to swoop down on him. As "down" as I was able to right now at least. I started a mental countdown in my head.

Three...

Two...

One...

Go!

As Angel passed by, I launched myself at the grey stallion - as fast as I was able to without my wings at least - and tried to knock his pistols out of his telekinetic grip, to my surprise quite successfully. But I didn't have time to think about it, right now I was wrestling with the much larger unicorn - not only to not get overpowered by him, but because I also needed to put the syringes to use. But doing that proofed to be a lot harder than I had thought, because despite him being an unicorn he was just as capable in hoof-to-hoof combat as I had feared. And without my wings I had lost my speed bonus too. I really should have thought this through again.

Purely by accident, our gazes met in the middle of our fight. But as I looked into his hateful eyes, I felt Angel's body tension trembling a tiny bit. But this tiny bit was enough for me to... Sorry, Angel. I promise I won't do it again. Mobilizing even my last power resources, I span around, delivering what felt like both the most power- and painful buck to the grey unicorn's face.

The awfully familiar and still nauseating noise of something hard hitting bones reached my ears moments before I turned my head to see what I had accomplished. Angel lay a few feet away on his back, his forelegs were wrapped around his terribly hurting face and - with all certainty - broken nose. A small but constant trickle of blood dripped down between his hooves and dyed his grey chest red.

Calm down, Feather, he's not dead. Just hear, he is still screaming in agony.

Fighting down the urge to vomit, I grabbed the syringes of Med-X and stepped closer to the fallen stallion. It was now or never.

"I'm really sorry, Angel." i whispered barely loud enough for him to hear me, "But I have to do this." I raised the syringes, ready to inject the Med-X into his body...

...when something grey and incredible fast punched me right in the face and send me flying across the room.

"Is this the death you had imagined for me...?" Angel asked awfully cold, blood dripping of his deformed nose, as the grey unicorn rose again. "...Raider scum?! I'm not done with you yet. And before I'm not done with you and anypony you hold dear, I refuse to die!"

A magical aura formed around his horn. My eyes darted though the room for the pistols I had knocked away earlier. If he would get a hold of them, I would be finished. Dead. Fried. I saw something covered in a field of grey magic rise at the other side of the room, but without my wings I would have no chance to intercept it. Maybe if I could get my hooves on the other...

A clattering noise right next to me made my head spin around and instantly, my gaze fell on Angel's second black pre-war pistol, wrapped in a telekinetic field. Forcing my ill-treated body to perform one last effort, I launched myself at the gun on the ground, and - as strange as this may sound - ripped it out of Angel's magical grip. But I had no time to be surprised. Taking up the gun, holding it by what seemed like a mouth-piece and trigger, I jumped to my feet and took aim at the unicorn stallion with the other gun.
Stalemate.

"You're quite a crafty pony." Angel said and uttered something remotely resembling an appreciative whistle, but the black gun right in front of his head made it quite difficult to feel anything but terror, not even the insult. "You've got me into an unenviable situation. Two ponies, two fully automated pistols and a full magazine stuffed into each gun. How will proceed further from here, raider?"

"Snap out of it!" I screamed, only barely preventing myself from loosing the hold on my gun, "I am not a raider! We arrived here together! We traveled together! We tried to save Vergil together! This isn't you who's speaking there, something's..."

"Oh yes, you say that. I got that the last time. But where's the evidence that your words are true? My little sister vanishes and all of the sudden, you, the ginger unicorn, all the others ponies in here, you try to attack me and refuse to give me any information about what you did to her."

His... sister? "She" was his... Angel had a sister?

"And even now you're attacking me, you broke my nose and are holding me at gunpoint. You have to admit, it doesn't show you in the best of lights."

"I didn't... I didn't try to attack you! You tried to shoot me! Listen, Angel, you..."

"And you don't even call me by my name. How am I supposed to believe we traveled together, if you didn't even know my name? If you really are my ally, my companion... my friend, then proof it! If it's not my name, tell me... what's my favorite food, my favorite color, what is it I don't like, where was I born. Anything." The gun held in his magical grip clicked as he cocked it. "Proof that you know me."

I hesitated, the counterpart to Angel's gun becoming heavy as the time went by. Proof that you know me. His favorite color? I didn't have the slightest clue. His favorite food? He liked Fancypant's Snack Cakes, but other than that... He didn't like raiders apparently, but what kind of pony liked raiders other than raiders themselves? I had no clue about what he liked...
Then it struck me: I had no clue about Angel at all. I had been traveling with him for a week that felt like months and I didn't know anything about him. I could have just as well met him a few hours ago. Or could have not met him at all before, like a thief... or a raider.

"Now? What's the kind of ponies I don't like at all?" the grey unicorn asked.

I wasn't able to speak. All I could do was stammering. I couldn't answer his question.

"Thought so..." Angel said with a sigh. "Your group thought your pretty face would hinder me to shoot you. I have to admit they were right, shame on me. But come to think of it, to me you're much more useful alive. I still need information about my sister and your gang and you most certainly have what I seek. The only thing that's left to discuss is whether you want to give them freely... or if I have to ask you about it. Like I asked the ginger unicorn. It's entirely up to you, raider."

He almost spat the last word and it hurt just as much as he had intended. I knew nothing about Angel and he was despising me for what was my own fault. I had never asked him. I had never insisted on knowing him better. He who had saved my life time and time again. And now he was out to do to me what he did to Gingerbread, if anything it was unhealthy and most likely very painful. And it would be even more painful because it was him doing it.

"I would like it much better if you would not resist. I'd hate - and I'm sure you think alike - to hurt any more of your body parts. Will you give me the information willingly or not?"

I couldn't give him what he wanted. I didn't knew anything about him or his so-called sister or this group of zombie-ponies he thought of as my allies. But he wouldn't believe me that and that would lead to things I didn't want to think about. My plan with the Med-X/Blackout-imitation had been foiled, the syringes I had selected lay somewhere on the floor outside my field of vision - not that I didn't have a few more syringes, but they were in the pockets of my jacket I couldn't reach without exposing myself. Now the only thing protection me was the gun pointed at my friend and lifesaver.

Sometimes the wasteland really sucked.

"So... what is your answer?"

"I can't give you the answers you seek." I answered hesitantly, stabilizing the shaking pistol I hold. I needed to think. "I'm afraid I... have to leave."

"Is that so? I really can't remember giving you a third choice. As far as I recall, I said either give it willingly or let me make you give them." Slowly Angel shook his head. "Nopony ever talked about departing "in peace". You've already done too much for that. Your answer?"

"You... you seem to forget that I still got one of your guns!" I... well, squeaked. It was all I could do now. Things went south faster than the debris falling from the ceiling. Now I really was threatening him. Goddesses have mercy.

Apparently Angel had caught this inconsistency in my action too. Giving another disappointed sigh, he looked me directly into the eyes. "Please, you couldn't hurt me, even if you'd manage to fire that gun. This was just a test to see if your intention really was good. Well, and you failed the test, my little raider."

A field of grey magic erupted around the gun I held tight and then, Angel started to pull. He was trying to disarm me. If he had wanted to kill me, he had already used his other gun, no, he wanted me alive to be his... source of information. But I didn't want to be his source of information! Not for the Angel who now stood in front of me! As the pistol started to slip from my grip, I did something only the despair I felt was able to make me to do: I bit down on the trigger.

And nothing happened. I just bit down on some hard metal with nothing even closely resembling a tongue trigger. The thing I bit on... was just a piece of metal sticking out Angel's heavy and black gun. Before I could come to a conclusion about whether to be grateful for the fact that the gun didn't fire or become even more desperate because of it, I felt as Angel ripped the gun out of my muzzle, sending me flying backwards and landing on my already terribly hurting back.

"I told you that you couldn't hurt me with those." the grey unicorn said with a confidently undertone. "They aren't meant to be used by the likes of you. They are... special. They are unique and can be used only by a trained magic user such as me." Angel said, now with two pistols pointed at me. "Now with this said, did you change your mind? Or do you have something else to throw at me? If you've got another power up your sleeve, now would be an excellent time to get started."

For a brief moment, my thoughts wandered to the still charged magic disruptor-device Salvation in my foreleg. This would sure come in handy... if Angel wouldn't stand more than three meters away from me. Given his sharpshooting skills, this distance wouldn't matter to him, but I wasn't sure if my disruptor would reach him. I highly doubted it, since by the time I had used it on Gingerbread, Angel and the others had been unaffected. Even if he had been a bit further away than he was now, I couldn't risk a failure. If he would think I was trying to attack him again, he would kill me, despite what he said earlier, I was sure of it.

There had to be a way out of this!

"Now, what is your answer?"

I needed to think of something!

"Tell me, raider!"

This one might work... screw that, there wasn't another way that didn't involve me taking in more bullets than I assumed to be healthy.

"Okay... you win. I'll tell you whatever you want to know." I said hesitantly, careful not to use his name. His fake name. Whatever. And without even thinking about it, I took a step towards the grey unicorn stallion. I assumed he would think that lower distance sure would be better for him to hear me, but... a bullet impacting on the ground one or two inches away from my hoof made me stop dead in my tracks. Apparently Angel didn't think alike.

"I believe you can tell me from other there just as well."

"Do you really mean I'll have to yell all the time?" I asked, needlessly cocky, "If so, my voice might fade halfway through."

Angel frowned, but then he nodded. "It would really be a shame, you're right. A beautiful voice such as yours must not be overstrained. I guess I'll be a gentlecolt and come over to you." This actually worked? He started walking towards me. "I apologize for the inconvenience although."

Then he raised his guns. My eyes widened, I wanted to take off again, but my wing was still bandaged and therefor not moving. And even if I was fast enough to outrun a zombie-pony or even Angel himself, there was no way I would be outrunning his bullets. Stopping maybe a meter away, he looked down at me, his guns floating directly in front of him. "Please understand, madame, that if I come closer to you, I'll have to be sure you're not up to anything." he said casually, "I just want to have a talk after all, no needs for knifes or brass knuckles. It's for your own good too, kinda..."

And with that, he pulled the trigger. Pain erupted in my right foreleg, the same pain I had felt when...no, what was this? Yes, it did hurt, but it didn't hurt as bad as when the Hyaenas had shot through my foreleg. This wound hurt like a... really painful scratch. But not more. But what was even weirder was the sound the bullet made as it dig itself into my limb. Instead of the sickening noise of flesh being ripped apart, the only noise there was was a low *ping* as if it had hit and bounced off a piece of metal. My gaze wandered over to the numb growing limb and the only thing I could see was blood. It felt as if time slowed down as I turned my head back to the grey unicorn that had shot at me. Apparently he was just as confused about what had just happened as I was, indicated by his twin pistols floating floor-wards for a second or two. More than enough for my adrenaline- and pain-driven brain to react.

Now I was armed, Angel was close, confused and that meant open for a counter attack. I just hoped the disruptor's rage was at least a meter. Reaching out for the confused unicorn with my right, bleeding hoof, and bracing myself for what was to come, I started the attack.

Magic Disruptor: charge at 100%
Magic Disruptor: ready

Again my brain felt as if I was hearing a pony scratching the surface of a blackboard, but this time, I was prepared. It was still unpleasant, but I still managed to control my body. Angel, however, could not. Screaming in pain, surprise, confusion or all of that, he threw himself on the ground, the telekinetic field around his pistols vanished and the guns fell to the ground clatteringly, fortunately without loosing a shot. Just like Gingerbread, he held his apparently malfunctioning horn with his hooves. But I had no time to gaze at him, time was of the essence now. I had to get away to think of something else. Maybe about trying the Med-X again. But these were thoughts for another minute, right now I had to get away!

As I darted for the closest door - well, "darted" might not be the right word. Given that my wing was hurting as was my back, my chest, my hindlegs - come to think of it, counting which of my body parts didn't hurt would have been much easier - it was more of a fast limping - I could already hear Angel recovering. By my last Celestia caused sunburn, this guy was tough! And just as I limped past two unconscious... Luna drown me in the high tided sea, I completely forgot about my two other companions! Resting my eyes on the bloodstained Gingerbread for a second too long, I heard how my unicorn adversary launched himself at me. And about a second later, I could feel it too. The impact carried me off my hooves and together we crashed into the ground right next to the unconscious ones.

I landed on my back and felt Angel's wight pressing out the air from my lungs. At this moment though, it didn't hurt anymore. To be correct, it didn't hurt any more, my body had been in almost unbearable pain ever since I had stepped into this goddesses-damned foyer. I just felt numb as he punched my face and I couldn't say if he was using his full strength or not. And to be honest, I didn't really care. My plan was simple. I would let him have what he wanted and would recharge the magic disruptor. And then I would figure out a plan to get away from here. Something involving... I didn't care anymore.

Just as Angel raised his right hoof for another palm probably to my face again - why couldn't my face just stay the way it was? Why did nopony like my face the way it was? - something else than the grey stallion's helpless rage reflecting face above me attracted my attention: the door on the other side of the room - the one I had come from as I had been running away from the zombie-alicorn, was smashed open by a shockwave of magic and forth stepped a purple alicorn. Not one send by this Goddess, this one looked just as tainted and rotten like the green one. Great, now they had found us.

Following my gaze, Angel turned his head as well and saw how the purple alicorn leaped into the air and towards us. I couldn't say if it was using its wings or its magic to fly. All I could say was that it looked weird.

This situation grew worse any second, even worse than it already was.

But as the purple alicorn drew closer I noticed something: different from the Goddess-alicorns, this pony's eyes where of a deep gold. A color I had seen before on only one pony. And just as I finished this thought, said white alicorn literally stepped out of the purple one's shadow. Hovering mere inches above its floating body, it perfectly mimicked the other alicorn's posture.

"Come with me to salvation..." the golden-eyed, purple alicorn said as it was right above us. It's horn began to glow.

"This is my chance." a voice in my mind said.

Then everything vanished in a spark of purple.

""")_x_("""

Level up: 50%

Skill(s): --

Challenge Perk added: Bandage Mare

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Pain sucks. But why endure it longer than necessary? Healing items such as healing potions restore 15% more health and healing bandages restore damaged limbs twice as fast.

Fallout Equestria: Fallen Angels

by Tetragrammaton

Chapter 0: War, war never changes

Chapter I: The Beginning (rewritten)

Chapter II: The Enclave (rewritten)

Chapter III: The Surface

Chapter IV: Dashite

Chapter V: Grounded

Chapter VI: A Wasteland Sweeping Blow

Chapter VII: Her very first Nightmare Night ever

Chapter VIII: A Glimpse of the Goddess

Chapter IX: Ranger in distress

Chapter X: Sparrowtans

Chapter XI: An Envoy of the Beginning

Chapter XII: A Gateway to Heaven