> Fallout Equestria: Sisters
>  by Arowid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue:  The Book of Nadira
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid





Prologue: 


The Book of Nadira



“Knowing something about the past made it easier to deal with my problems in the present.  Even the scary ones.”


So… It’s come to this, then?  Just my luck, really.  Persuasion has never been my forte, yet you are leaving me no other option. How could I possibly compel you to cease in this endeavor?  How could I possibly stop you of all ponies, from continuing down this path? 

Do you not care?  Do you no longer feel empathy?  Have you become so disconnected that you no longer appreciate that which you are trying to save?

Perhaps I should recount for you my journey, then?  Teach you what I have learned in my time wandering the wastes?  It could remind you of what it means to truly live.  To learn.  To laugh.  To cry.  To love.

I could tell you the tale of my entire life; it’s not as if I have much else to do, cooped up in my little prison as I find myself.  I certainly have the time, thanks to you.  But…. that seems a bit… excessive.

No, no.  That won’t do.  My entire life’s story would just lose your interest whilst I slog through endless minutia .  Instead, I think I shall simply tell you of the ridiculous adventure that has become the defining experience of my life.  I believe that I shall do my part to edit out a fair amount of the ‘uninteresting’ bits; there’s no need for all of the tedious details to be told.  And to be perfectly honest, I probably wouldn’t be able to remember all of them anyway.  But, with any luck, perhaps my tale will help to remind you of exactly what it is that you’re threatening to take away from me.  Maybe that will move you.  And maybe you will let me go.

Well then, how to start?  Oh, don’t give me that.  I’m a doctor, not a storyteller!  It’s not as if I can just come up with this off the top of my head!  Hmm…. Oh!  I know!  This might seem a little out of order at first, but trust me, it should work just fine.  After all, it’s just like Mother used to say.  “It’s important to know your roots.  And your heritage.”

Hmm, nothing?  I guess that only an alchemist could appreciate that old joke.  Oh nevermind then, I’ll just start with the first chapter in Mother’s book.  Oh?  What’s that?  Why yes, I do have it memorized.  

It starts like this...


**********************


One of these days, girls, you may find yourselves wondering more about your heritage.  I've decided to try and write some of my experiences down for the two of you, so you might be able to learn a bit more about my life, both before and after I met your father. Hopefully the two of you might be able to learn something from my own experiences.  The chronicles of my life should be able to teach someone something, I hope.

I won't be around forever dears, but I want you to know that I love you both so much.  I had some great times before I met your dad, but getting to meet and raise the two of you was so much more special than anything else I could have ever done.

Take care of your father for me, and take care of each other,
        Love, Mom


**********************


The day that my life changed began just like any other day.  Wind crept through the trees and brushed against my mane.  It carried the familiar scents of rotting wood and sweet decay.  I could hear the Everfree coming to life all around me, plants and animals stirred to action by instinct.  That activity is what woke me; as the grey clouds that are ever-present in the sky would not allow the sun to pierce the canopy of leaves under which I slept.

Ugh, mornings.  I've never cared for them.  That may sound like blasphemy, coming from a zebra, but I never really adhered to the previous generation's superstitions about the night.  Besides, it's easier to keep from being seen when the light of day isn't giving you away to anyone with at least one working eye.

It was my third trip, in as many months, into the forest for herbs.  The Everfree had quite a lot to offer a student of alchemy, and I was an eager pupil.  My family had taught me what they could but to truly learn something you just have to do it yourself.  Instruction is nice, but experience is the best teacher.

I rose from my bedroll, donned my black traveling cloak, and began to sift through my packs for a meal.  The only foodstuffs I had left were centuries-old cans of beans and corn.  Not exactly the breakfast of champions, but I wouldn't starve either.  I pried the lid off of one of the cans of corn, then dug in.

The rest of the morning proceeded in much the same manner.  That is to say, it was boring.  So I won't bother going over the details.  What you need to know is that I was a young zebra-mare in the Everfree forest, I was looking for herbs, I had been there before, I knew what I was doing, I could take care of myself, I was at least somewhat prepared for a trek through treacherous terrain, and I was being very careful to not disturb the local wildlife.

The pony that came crashing through the undergrowth as if he were being chased by ravenous hellhounds, however, was none of those things.  It's funny, really.  Children will sometimes ask their parents how they met.  Who gets to say that the first thing they did to their future husband was knock him out cold?

I may be the only one.

The blue unicorn leaped out over a bush, and was heading straight for me.  I may have mistook his look of fear and surprise for a menacing war-face, but in my defense I was surprised too.  I just react a little differently than most folks, I guess.

Drop stance, bend the knees, sweep out the leg, bring up the hoof.  Under the jaw, across the muzzle, top of the neck, behind the head.  He was out before he hit the ground.  I stood still, savoring the silence, then realized that I had just knocked out some poor fool.  Well, whatever.  Mornings, and all that.

I decided that I should wake him up, as opposed to just leaving him lying there.  It was the least I could do, really.  I thought about tying him to a tree, but realized it wouldn't do much good against a unicorn.  Opening a small jar of one of my more recent concoctions, I smeared some of the paste under his nostrils and sat on my haunches in front of him.

He woke up a moment later, “Owwwwwww.”

“First impressions can be disconcerting, I hope that ours will not leave you hurting.”

“Wha-what?”  He blinked his eyes a few times and shook his head.  “Oh Goddess! That didn't help....why did I think that would help?”

“My apologies for the bruise, but your entrance did not amuse.”

“Hmm?  Oh, yes, right.  The jumping and the leaping and the running.  Didn't mean to startle you.  I was just tired of this endless forest and wanted out.”  He pushed himself to his hooves, swaying gently.

“If, of the forest, you have grown weary, I'd visit the desert.  It's quite airy.”

“Oh, yes.  Dusty too.  And full of rocks, and cacti, and boring as about anyplace could be.”  He paused, poking a hoof in my direction as one of his eyebrows rocketed upwards,  “Wait, hold up, just realized something.  Sorry if I'm a little slow on the uptake here, but I did just get cold-cocked.  Are you a zebra?”

I pulled my hood back.  “Noticed that did you?  Took you long enough.  I thought I was gonna have to rhyme the whole conversation to get you to say anything about it.”

“Why would I say anything about you being a zebra?”  He actually looked like he didn't know.

“Most ponies that I have come across were... not very welcoming, when we met.”

“Did you say 'Hello' to them with your hoof as well?”  He rubbed the back of his head and winced.

“So far, you are unique in that regard.”  I smiled, “Though I have, on occasion, said 'Farewell' in a similar manner.”

“Right...  Well, anyway, my name's Dream Chaser.  I'd say it's been a pleasure to meet you, but  honestly, ow.”

I held a hoof over my heart as I gave a polite head nod, “Nadira.  Let me get you something for the pain.”

So yes, that was how I met my husband.  Don't judge your mother too harshly.  With any luck you'll both soon find just how powerless we are against the wills of our hearts.

I learned that Dream Chaser was apparently a member of a caravan that was trying to gather supplies and take them southwest.  He had gotten separated from the rest of his group when raiders had attacked them a few days ago, and was trying to find his way back to his village.

He seemed rather sure that his friends had already written him off as dead, “No, no.  I’m no great fighter, haha.  I’m better with fixing things, or fixing ponies.  What with how those raiders were chasing me away from the group, they’ve probably all assumed that I’m decorating the interior of some structure in Manehattan by now.”  

Having dealt with raiders before, it only took me a moment to understand what he meant by ‘decorating.’ 

“Of course, they can all keep thinking  that for a while as far as I see it.”  He continued, waving his hoof as if he were dismissing some small annoyance, “There are some things and places out here that I want to see before I have to go back.”

I told him about my alchemical training, hoof-to-hoof fighting, and all the other things I had picked up from my family.  He seemed very interested when I told him that my great grandparents had come from Stable 3, and that the family had been trying ever since to rediscover our lost heritage.

I nodded, “Oh, yes.  There are quite a few styles.  Too many to name, really.  I’ve already mastered the basics of Fallen Caesar, Rising Sun, and Still Water, but, to be honest… a lot has been lost to us over the years.  Luckily, it didn’t take long to regain our alchemical expertise.”  I couldn’t hide my prideful grin as I added, “I’m even better at brewing than my parents or sister.”

His eyes were wide and his jaw slack, “You can brew Zebra potions?  The really complex ones?” 

“Of course!  I’ve even started making my own recipes!”  After rummaging through my packs for a moment, I produced a short, fat little jar along with a re-used Sparkle-Cola bottle.  “This white paste is called Sleeper’s Bane, it’s good for waking others up.  And this purple liquid that helped soothe your pain?  It is known as Sweet Water.”

He rubbed the back of his head again, “Heh, I wondered why you were giving me a healing potion that came out of a soda bottle…”

By the time the conversation had wound down a bit, it was becoming late enough that we both agreed we should be heading on.  I told Dream Chaser how to exit the forest, then bid him farewell.  I was just leaving when he asked the question that changed my life.

“So, uh, is there a 'Mr.' Nadira?”  Oh yes girls, your father was quite the charmer.

I turned back to him and arched an eyebrow. “Beg pardon?”

“Well it's just that, uh, a pretty mare, out here, by yourself… I'd be worried about you if you and I were… uh, I didn't mean to imply that, err, I mean… ”  It was actually kind of cute how he was stumbling over every other word.

“You.  Were worried about me?  Which one of us just got knocked out?  I can take care of myself just fine.”

“Oh, of course, I… ”

“If anything, I'm worried about you.”

“What?  I know what to do to get by out here!”

I smirked, “Oh?  Make lots of noise and run straight at unsuspecting hoof-to-hoof specialists?”

“What?  No, I didn't… I mean… ”

“Since you know how to get by out here so well, what are you gonna do next?  Do you have any supplies?  Weapons?  Food?  Medicine?”

“I, uh, I lost all of it except for my pistol.”  He admitted, drooping his shoulders.

I sighed.  “Well, come along then, you'd better come with me.  We'll find some food to share and set up camp for the night.  No funny business though, unless you want another headache.”


*******************************************


And that, little dears, is how I met the stallion of my dreams.  Oh he didn't seem like much at first glance.  But after that night, he volunteered to help me gather herbs.  He was terrible at it, of course, but his presence was able to brighten even that gloomy wood.  Somehow he always knew just what to say to lift my spirits.  Before long, I found myself hanging on his every word.  We continued in that fashion for the rest of the week, and afterwards, we returned to my parents.

They were…  not as amused with Dream Chaser's words as I was.  Perhaps they could tell, even before I could, that he had won me over.  Perhaps they didn't like the idea of one of their daughters associating with a pony.  Perhaps they simply didn't like him.  Whatever their reasons, I'll never know.  I was of age, and ready to see more of the world.  Dream Chaser had ideas, plans, dreams.  I wanted to experience more than the forest, or the safety of my family's hut.  So I left.

I bade my sister and parents a fond farewell, and set out to see the world.  Dream Chaser and I would travel together from place to place.  He, healing ponies of their various physical ailments.  I, protecting him while he did so.  Along the way, we both learned a great deal about each other.   He seemed to be driven by something greater than personal desire.  When I asked him what it was that drove him to action, his answer surprised me.

I eyed him through the rising steam of our supper as I sprinkled more herbs into the soup.  “Really?  I didn't take you for a religious pony.”

His horn lit up as he focused his attention on stoking the flame underneath our meal.  “I know.  I don't act all high and mighty like some of my fellow practitioners.  They all seem to think that it's imperative that we blot out anything that questions our faith.  But I've seen the world like they never have.  I know that parts of the teachings are wrong.  I've seen the evidence with my own eyes, and I can't deny the truth when it stares me in the face.  But I also think that I understand the real truth of our faith.  I don't have to take the bad with the good.”

He smiled, staring into the bed of coals.  “I have felt the warmth of the sun on my face when I traveled to the lands beyond the clouds, and it was not harsh, or burning, or evil.  I felt the moon's light as well, and while I did feel a special connection to that heavenly body, it was no more special than the time I had spent praying at the altar of our goddess.  I know that my religion isn't right about everything.  But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's merits.”

Pausing for a moment, his gaze rose to meet my own.  He continued a moment later, “Selenism teaches us to do our best works in secret, shrouded in darkness, that we may benefit others without becoming too egotistical.  We shouldn't covet the property or domains of our fellows, and we shouldn't allow our emotions to dictate our actions.  How could I say no to a religion that has, as a central tenet, a mandate to not let emotional attachment to that religion stymie the search for truth?  I may interpret that last part differently from the priests in my stable, but that doesn't mean that I'm not right.”

Turning,  he sighed as he walked over to the nearby ledge and looked out over the darkening valley that lay beneath us.  “One day, I'm going to return home.  I've been outside for a long time now.”

He paused, glancing back to me over his shoulder, “How long have we been together?”

I arched an eyebrow dangerously, “Have you truly forgotten so soon?”

“Désolé, mon chère.  I apologize,”  He was chuckling to himself while I continued to stir the bubbling pot, “I was simply making a point.”  

After noticing my state of agitation he quickly added, “Ten months tomorrow, love.  And every moment more wonderful than the last.”  

I relaxed, and continued tending to our meal as a small smile spread across my features.  It’s strange how such a simple word can have such a devastating impact.  

His gaze grew distant, as he scanned the clouds and the valley below us, “Ten months… There's a lot that I could teach the other members of my stable, when I go back.”  He sauntered back over to sit beside me, and whispered into my ear, “I... was hoping that you'd come with me.”

How could I say no?

Stable 76 was not exactly what I was expecting.  A small cave entrance in a hidden canyon, deep in the desert, winding down to a busted up door?  Not exactly the grandest of homes, but I couldn't deny that the seclusion would almost certainly guarantee a degree of safety.  Stable 76 was a hole in the ground, true.   But it was a safe hole in the ground.

It was also crowded.  I suspect that the two of you will be used to the lack of personal space, having grown up within the confines of these steel walls, but I was born under an endless sky.  I yearned for open spaces.  Please forgive your mother for venturing out with the yearly caravan so often.  I simply needed the space to breathe, and to reconnect with my wasteland roots.

The ponies of my new home did not take to me, at first.  It took a lot of persuasion from your father, whom they were glad to see was still alive, and a lot of generosity with my potions to sway popular opinion.  (I recall one colorful mare asking if I knew how to brew what she referred to as “Moonshine.”  Unfortunately for her, I knew more about herbs than booze.)  Eventually though, they all seemed to warm up to me.  Or rather, they were at least willing to tolerate my presence.

A couple of them were actually rather enjoyable to be around.  Dust, another outsider, was a particularly interesting fellow.  I fear I may have beat him round the head too severely when he made an off comment about your father during one of our sparring sessions, but for the most part he was rather enjoyable.  And since he was the leader of The Caravan, I had to let him win a couple of our matches.  Eventually.  Out of a sense of duty.  (Please don't tell him that.  It would break his heart.)

Those first few years were a little touch-and-go, for sure.  But after the ponies got used to me, and realized that I wasn't there to wage a centuries-old war on them in their sleep, we all settled into our usual routines.  Life in the Stable was safe, for sure.  But it was also boring.

Your father and I ventured out with The Caravan at every opportunity for those first few years.  He would always lend his medical expertise to the group, and the two of us would often go on scouting missions together.  Dust would sometimes accompany us, but mostly it was simply your father and I.

Oh, how do I describe what it's like to be in the middle of a firefight with the love of your life at your back?  To know that he trusts you, as much as you trust him, and knowing that together, nothing can stand against the two of you?  How can I possibly put into words the exhilaration that comes from surpassing insurmountable odds?

I'll spare you the details of how your father and I celebrated our victories.

Don't roll your eyes at this poor book either, it might be all that's left of me before too long.

Once you were born, Candy, we realized that we couldn't be so reckless anymore.  Your father and I took turns, venturing out with The Caravan, while the other stayed behind to watch after you.  This continued when Nohta was born a few years later.  From that point on, I believe that the two of you can probably remember what life was like for our family in Stable 76.

Once I grew ill, Dream Chaser stayed behind to look after me.  I knew he wanted to be out there; getting into fights, righting wrongs, healing the sick, singing by a campfire at night.  But he stayed with me, to try and heal this abominable illness.

Candy, please dear, don't blame yourself for my death.  You're still far too young to have that burden upon your heart.  And despite how hard you may study, no one is able to learn everything in a day.  My coming death is not your fault, and there is no way for you to prevent it.

Nohta, darling, it may seem egotistical for me to acknowledge it, but you look just like me.  While it has pleased me to no end to hear you say that you want to be just like me when you grow up, I can only hope that your life does not completely mirror my own.  Please, don’t repeat my mistakes.  I never did go back to find my sister.  I loved her dearly, but never found the time to visit my old family and tell them about the two of you.  Don't forsake family Nohta, and never stop trying to make friends.

I love you both, so, so much.  I'm trying to hold out for as long as I can.  Every day longer with the two of you is a day I seemed to have snatched away from the stars themselves.  Pale Death beats equally at the poor mare's gate and at the palaces of princesses, but we don't have to let it take us without a fight.

If my parent's are right, then may our souls meet together in the ever-after.  If your father's religion is right, then hopefully Luna will be amused at watching over the soul of a zebra.  Either way, know that I'll be waiting for you.  Make me wait a good, long time, ok?

Just remember one thing, daughters.  Don't frown because our time together is over.  Smile at the fact that we had any time together at all.

Now then, enough of this dreary, sappy stuff.  How about some of your dear old ma's potion recipes, hmm?


**********************


Really?  You weren’t moved at least a little by that?  Mother was on her death-bed when she wrote those words.  She poured her heart into the pages of her book.  I… I must admit, her book has taught me quite a few things.  

But nowhere within that tome was any mention of how heartless somepony like you could be.

I can see that this is going to take something greater than a few moments of emotional strife.  This will require something a bit more… lengthy.  A tale within which you shall have the opportunity to come to learn who I am, why I made my decisions, why I came to love those whom I called “friends.”

And why I came here.

Well then… I suppose there’s nothing left to do but to go ahead and tell my tale.  As I said, forgive me if I happen to take some liberties with my re-telling of this journey.  I would never consider myself the creative type, but every good story deserves a bit of embellishment, no?  And besides, sometimes the truth is harder to believe than fiction.  I believe that you, of all ponies, could appreciate that.

You see, I grew up in a hole in the ground.  But it wasn’t just any hole in the ground, it was a Stable.  Stable 76.  And the first thing you should know about Stable 76 is…

> Chapter One: Better Late Than Never
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid





Chapter One: 


Better Late Than Never



“Now let’s see.  Are you a pony, or a zebra?”



It’s not everyday that you first step outside of The Stable.  It’s a pretty exciting time for anyone living in Stable 76.  That first time you step out past the huge, busted door, climb up to the top of the cave, move a little ways through the canyon, and see that massive expanse of openness is rather intense.  It’ll take your breath away, for certain.  It was pretty special for me the first few times I went outside with one of my parents; usually to learn about the local flora with Mother, or for my abysmal attempts at target practice with Father.  However, after about the fifteenth time or so, the novelty starts to wear off, and you begin to realize that the surface around our home doesn’t really change all that much.  It’s just a bunch of little shrubs, a few cacti, and a whole lot of dirt and rocks.  There’s not much in the way of excitement, and not a whole lot of reasons for anyone to venture out towards our secluded home. 

So, with that in mind, I’m sure you can understand my vexation with my little sister when she woke me up to share in her excitement for her first day outside.

“Candy, get up already!  It’s almost time to leave!” 

“Ugh!”  A perfectly reasonable and exceptionally eloquent response at such an early hour, if you ask me.  Doubly so before breakfast.  Fortunately, I was safe from the rest of the world underneath my bed sheets.

“Candy, seriously.  Get up, or we’re gonna be late.”  Now she was poking me with those ruthless hooves of hers.  “C’mon, I made you breakfast and everything.”

“Nohta, what time is it?”  I groaned.

Nohta’s tone was insistent, “It’s three in the morning, we’ve only got about an hour before we have to go.”

“The pious make the most of the night, dear sister…”  I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

She was having none of that, however, “We don’t have any night left!  The Caravan leaves in just a little bit!”

Wakefulness has its uses, but they seem so tawdry and miniscule when you’re still in your bed and only just beginning to attain consciousness.  Still, something she said was niggling at me.  “Wait, what time did you say?”

“Three!”

Sure enough, the white interface of my Pipbuck verified that it was entirely too late to be laying about.   While I loathed the idea of leaving the warmth of my bed, it simply wouldn’t do to be late for such an important event.  “Alright, alright, you win.”  I pulled the covers down off of my head and was greeted by my sister’s wide, purple eyes. 

“Yes!  Today’s gonna be awesome!  I’m finally gonna get to see the outside, and we get to go on a trip, and none of those jerks from class are gonna be there!  Best day ever!”  She was practically bouncing by my bed, her zebra-coat almost mesmerizing to my sleep-deprived mind. 

She looked so much like Mother that it hurt.  Same stripe pattern.  Same dark-grey on light-grey coat.  Same striped, grey mane, styled in that cute, little mohawk that tilted off to the side.  Truly, there were only minor differences to set her appearance apart from Mother’s.  Her tornado cutie mark gave her away for a zony instead of a true zebra.  Instead of Mother’s dark-green eyes, Nohta’s eyes were a light purple.  She was a little shorter than Mother as well, but that was probably just because of her age.  Nohta may not have been fully grown, being on the last leg of a late growth spurt, but she was almost as strong and quick as any adult in The Stable.  Honestly, she was quite a bit faster than I was.  And I could be quite expeditious if the mood so struck me. 

I did not want to be quick this morning, however.  I wanted to be lazy and sleep in, but the needs of The Stable necessitated that I bid my blanket and pillows a fond, if reluctant, farewell.  I slumped out of bed, nearly landing on my side as the sheets tangled themselves in my legs, and proceeded to shuffle my way to the kitchen as Nohta lead the way through our mutual domicile. 

The soft illumination offered by the overhead lighting revealed the tidy, well-kept living quarters that Nohta and I shared with Father.  The majority of our meager living space was dominated by the sitting area near the old jukebox and ratty sofa that Father simply refused to get rid of; a lone hold-out of uncleanliness in an otherwise spotless room.  Books which had been read so often as to be driven to the point of dog-eared pages and flimsy spines sat upon the shelves that lined the walls.

The rest of the space in the main room of our abode was taken up by the kitchen, with its spartan stainless-steel decor.  Cooking pans and utensils hung from their racks above the table, gently swaying in unison to the distant vibrations of one of the centuries-old generators that supplied our home with electricity.

As the two of us entered the room, one of the long, cylindrical lights flickered for a moment before going out with a small 'Pop.' I would have made a mental note to remind the maintenance workers to fix it, but they were busy enough trying to keep the rest of our stable from falling apart without having to worry about a light that wouldn't be seeing use for months.  And besides that, I was much too hungry to remember anything quite so complicated.

“I got your favorite!  Apple Sugar-Bombs!  I even scrounged up a few Sparkle-Colas, too.”  Nohta offered the small bowl of heaven to me as my ears automatically perked up at the promise of a very complete and balanced breakfast.  I sat at the small kitchen table and began eating as the soft, red light of my levitation spell cast its familiar glow on our immediate surroundings. 

“Are you all packed?”  I asked, “It’s a long trip, you don’t want to forget anything.”  Now supplied with glucose, my mind was starting to function at a proper level, allowing me to carry a conversation.

She bounced around the kitchen table excitedly, “Yup, got everything in my bags.  I can pack your stuff too if you want me to.”

“Don’t worry about it, dear.  I’ll take care of my things.  I still need to acquire a few items from the clinic before we set out, anyway.”  I popped the cap off of one of the bottles and took a drink.  The cool, carroty flavor mingled well with the overly-sweet deluge of apple from the cereal.  I looked around the kitchen, and realized that somepony was missing.  “Where’s Father?”

“Dad already left a little while ago,” Nohta slid into a chair at the table and continued, “he said he had to organize a few things for The Caravan.”

“Hmm, that makes sense.  I imagine he has quite a lot to take care of this morning.”  I sat the bottle down and levitated the cap up to my eyes so I could take a better look at it.  Surfacers actually used these as a form of currency?  How odd.

Nohta, meanwhile, was busy barraging me with questions, an almost manic excitement spread across her face,  “What’s it like out on the surface?  Is it hard to breathe?  How often does it rain?  What does rain even feel like?”
        
Nohta had never been to the surface.  Quite a shame really, since most ponies her age had been at least a couple of times.  Father and I were always busy with our work at The Stable’s clinic, so neither of us could find the time to take her.  And of course, anypony else that could teach her anything of value was either much too busy, or would never even consider helping her.  Most of The Stable didn’t care much for my little sister.

I looked across the table as I continued eating, “Big, and open.  No, the air is, if anything, clearer than it is down here.  It rains often enough that the plants don’t all die.  Like a cold shower, that’s everywhere all at once.  Don’t worry Nohta, you’ll get to see it all in just a little while.  I need to get going though, if I’m going to be on time.”

“Okay, okay.”  She groused.

I finished my cereal, thanked my sister, brushed my teeth, and fetched my towel and lab-coat.  I intended to take advantage of the showers while I still had the chance.  The grey, metal halls of Stable 76 were almost empty, but the mare’s shower room was already thick with steam when I arrived.  Several of the regular members of the annual caravan were trying to savor their last chance at hot water.  The early maintenance shift and breakfast cooks were beginning to arrive as well.

Setting my things down on a bench by the sinks, I proceeded to step into the showers.  The hot water was a treat, just like my breakfast, that I knew I wouldn’t get to experience for a long, long while.  I was just about done washing up when I realized that I could overhear a few of the other mares talking.

“...wise to send her out?  She has such a temper.  What if she does something reckless?”

“I’m not sure if it’s wise to keep her here, especially with her father’s position in The Caravan and her sister going as well.  She’s the only one that can keep that little hoodlum in check.  We should be thankful to get a few months without her.”

They were talking about Nohta.  Of course they were talking about Nohta.  Everypony seemed to believe that she was some sort of delinquent troublemaker.  But did they ever bother to get her side of the story?  No.  Did they ever see the bruises?  Of course not, I was the one that healed those.  Did they ever wonder why she was always trying to find a way into the dark areas of The Stable where nopony could find her? 

Actually, that last one was at least partially my fault.  Once, quite a few years ago, after Nohta had gotten in trouble for fighting three days in a row, I had suggested to her that she simply try to avoid the bullies.  I should have been able to predict her next actions.  She had taken my advice, and asked Mother how to avoid her assailants.  I loved Mother dearly, but the advice of a zebra assassin from the wastes was hardly ever conducive to good relations with our neighbors in The Stable.  She had taught Nohta the basics of lockpicking, and Nohta had taken to it like a fish to water, much to the horror of most of The Stable’s staff.

I learned a long time ago that speaking up in Stable 76 didn’t really do anything useful.  There wasn’t anypony besides Father that I could talk to about Nohta, and he was already doing everything in his power to assuage everypony’s fears that she was a simple delinquent.  Nopony would consider any other reason for her actions than what they had already assumed, which was that she started fights and picked locks for no reason other than to be a general nuisance. Still, we were setting out soon, and I didn’t really feel like having to listen to snide remarks about my sister on our last day in The Stable.  I was just about to speak up when somepony beat me to it.

“Shut up you two, I’m tired of hearing your nagging.  Nohta’s not as bad as you think.  The real problem is the gang of idiots that keeps messing with her.  ‘The Cave Eels,’ or whatever they call themselves.  If not for them, she’d be as sweet as her sister.”

I couldn’t see over the dividers in the showers, but I could tell from the voice that it must have been Pipe Sleeves, one of the maintenance mares.  She was one of the only ponies in The Stable that didn’t immediately write off Nohta as a miscreant.  I decided not to join in the conversation after all.

“Oh please, you’re just saying that because she acts all sweet and innocent in front of you.”

“No, I’m saying that because I bothered to hear her side of the story instead of just judging her like the rest of you lot.”

“And when did you hear it, hmm?  After she broke into one of the maintenance tunnels and tried to avoid punishment by feeding you a sob-story?  I’m telling you, that filly is trouble.”
        
“Whatever.  Like I care what a couple of mane-dressers have to say, anyway.”

The hot water didn’t hold quite as much appeal anymore.  I turned the knob and left the still-dripping shower head behind as I made my way to the sinks, and away from the disparaging comments regarding my sister.  The mirrors were completely fogged up but, after a moment’s effort, I was able to wipe away enough of the condensation to see my reflection.  

My obnoxiously pink mane was still wet, and hanging down to just past my shoulders.  It was parted by my horn, and framing my nearly-white face.  As the day went on and it started to dry out, it would find its way into its usual loosely-curled strands all on its own.  The two pink stripes on my face, just under my blue eyes, were partially concealed by my mane.  I levitated my towel over to myself and began to dry off.  With my mane out of the way I could see the rest of my coat, stark-white save for the pink marking on my flank.  

As jarring as the contrast of my colors might have been, I always thought it was my glyph mark that seemed to stand out the most.  Nohta and I used to joke about how weird it was that she looked exactly like a zebra but had a cutie mark, while I could almost pass for a unicorn, but had a glyph mark.  Mother once told me that my glyph was the Zebra sign for “One who makes others whole.”  I wasn’t going to disrespect my own heritage in front of Mother, but, well... it looks like a big, pink ‘plus’ sign with some squiggles around it, ok?

I donned my Stable-Tec lab-coat and tossed the towel in the receptacle.  It would head down a level to Laundry, but I needed to pack my things so I would be ready to depart.  More ponies were waking up now, and the halls were starting to fill with busy ponies dashing this way and that, trying to gather one last thing or say goodbye to one last friend or loved one before The Caravan set off.  I rounded the last corner and hurried into The Stable’s clinic, trotting straight into Father’s assistant.

The rather annoyed looking unicorn glanced from his now tea-stained lab-coat to me and sighed.  His atypical, monotone voice droned out a greeting, ”Hello, Candy.”

“Oh!  I’m sorry Pearl Grey, I didn’t see you there.  I just came by to pick up some supplies for The Caravan.”

“Of course you have.”  Pearl levitated his teacup back in front of him, then used his magic to refill it.   “Your father was here earlier, he put together some things for you.  They’re in a bag on the counter in the back.”

“Thank you, Pearl.”  I said, then added, with my best apologetic smile, “and um, sorry about the tea.”

Pearl stared at me over his steaming cup.  “Candy, are you sure you’re ready for this?  You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“Yes, I’m sure.  My sister is going, and I need to be there for her.”  I had made up my mind about the trip a long time ago.  Father’s tales of the surface had enticed me for far too long.  “Besides, I want to see the world, like Mother and Father did.  Why do you ask?  Is something wrong?”

“I just think that you might still be too young for this sort of thing, is all.”  That stung.  And it wasn’t even true!  “Yes, your father was very adamant about you going, but I can’t really justify sending two of our three doctors on the expedition.”

“I’m sure that you’ll be perfectly capable of handling anything that comes up here, Pearl.  As for my age, I’ve been eligible to join the expedition for three years now.  I’ve just been waiting for Nohta to catch up.  Come on, Pearl, have a little faith in me!”  My attempt at a reassuring smile probably wasn’t the most convincing, but he did relent.

“Candy,” his stern face softened for a moment, “be careful out there, okay?  I know you’ve been outside before, but that was just for a few hours at a time.  The caravan trip is important.  And very dangerous.”

“I will Pearl.  Thanks again.”  Pearl was nice enough, being basically neutral about everything, but I still had a lot to do this morning. 

I was making my way through the sterile-white rooms of the clinic, in search of the bag of medical supplies, when I noticed that not all of the beds in the clinic were empty.  There was a little, red filly whom I had never seen before with a cast on one of her legs and an IV in another.  There was still a little time to spare.  I walked over to her, gave her a warm smile, and asked what her name was as I started checking her chart.

“Cherry Blossom,” she replied.  “Are you a doctor, too?”

“Mmhmm, my name’s Candy.”  Her chart informed me that a faulty pipe had explosively burst last night in one of the bathrooms, completely shattering the upper portion of the metatarsal of her rear, right leg.  There was a fair deal of damage done to her talus, tarsus, carpus, and calcaneus bones as well.  The entire knee was in pretty bad shape, really.  Luckily not much damage had been sustained to the fibula, but that was a small blessing when faced with so many broken bones. Additionally, she was suffering from some mild poisoning due to the chemicals that were traveling through the pipe spilling out and soaking into her coat.  “Oh, you poor dear, it looks like you had an awful night.  But you should really be asleep, you know.  If you don’t get any rest, your body won’t be able to heal itself right.”

She frowned, “I couldn’t sleep, my brother’s going on the expedition and I’m worried about him.”

Ahh, of course.  I laid a hoof on top of her’s, “I know how you feel, sweetie. I’m going on the expedition, too.  So is my little sister.  But so are lots of ponies that have been plenty of times before, and they all know what they’re doing.  I’m sure your brother will be just fine.”  I tried to soothe her worries, but persuading ponies had never been my area of expertise, and the doubt and fear on her face showed it.  

“Hmm, give me one second, okay?”  I walked over to the counter where the bag of medical supplies was located.  The cabinets above the counter held all manner of medicines.  I levitated out a mild sedative and prepared a small paper cup of water from the nearby water fountain.  “Okay, here you go, take this.  And drink all the water, okay?  It will help you sleep.”

She looked at the small pill and then back to me, “Why do ponies have to go on the expedition anyway?”

“Well, you know that pipe that burst last night?  That’s one of the reasons.  We need spare parts for repairs to our home.  We also need lots of other things, like food and medicine.”   Weapons and ammunition, too, but she could wait a few years to find out about that.

She took the pill and drank the water, then looked back up to me and asked, “But why do they need my brother?  Couldn’t they let him stay here?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the only participants of the expedition were volunteers; regular members of The Stable who simply took it upon themselves to gather the necessary supplies required to keep our home in habitable condition.  Instead I sat by her bed, gently stroked her mane, and tried to reassure her that her brother would be ok until she fell asleep.  I was starting to run out of time, but I wasn’t going to leave without doing one last thing.

I closed my eyes, and focused my magic, reaching out with my consciousness to ‘feel’ her shattered knee.  A dull ache flared in my hind-leg, coupled with mild nausea, as my special talent took effect.  I felt her pain as my own now.  I concentrated on her knee, and was able to sense the extent of the damage; little shards of bone were in all the wrong places, threatening to cut and stab the ligaments and muscles of her leg.  There was quite a decent amount of bruising as well.  I could tell that another unicorn had been trying to set the bones earlier, probably Father.  The work wasn’t shoddy, by any means; Father was still a more knowledgeable doctor than I.  But he didn’t possess my special talent, it just wasn’t something he was capable of.  I checked her heart rate and breathing, to make sure she was sleeping deeply enough for what I was about to do, then I set about re-arranging the shards of bone with my magic, fusing them together with my special talent.  I made others whole.  She’d be walking again in a couple of days.
 

I grabbed the bag of medical supplies with my magic and gently levitated it into place upon my back.  My PipBuck registered an exorbitant amount of healing potions, as well as quite a few syringes of Med-X, some bandages, forceps, tweezers, gauze, rubbing alcohol, and all manner of other medical supplies.  Much more than we could use for the injuries sustained on the road.  We’d be healing any surface ponies that needed aid as well as our own.  I took one last look at the little room that I had spent so much time in since I earned my glyph mark, and then I left the clinic.


**************


Nohta was busy cleaning the kitchen area when I got back to our quarters.  I walked back to the bedroom that I shared with her and grabbed the saddlebags that I had stored under my bed.  I packed my spare lab-coat, a few books I had received from Mother and Father, and finally, my little laser pistol.  Father had attempted to train me in its use, but I really wasn’t very good with it.  I had only fired the little thing a few times; ammunition for it was somewhat scarce.

Whilst stuffing everything else in my bags, I secured the pistol in its holster on my right foreleg.  I still didn’t like the look of it.  Magical energy weapons were notorious for completely destroying their victims.  Bullets could be pulled out, and their wounds healed up.  Same thing for knives.  Even an explosion could be weathered and the damage healed if you got lucky.  But not even the best doctor could heal a pile of ash.

Nohta finished with the kitchen just as I finished packing.  I set my gear next to hers and checked the time on my PipBuck.  We still had 15 minutes before we had to be at the meeting room.  I was cutting it close.

“Nohta.”  I’d have to be gentle.

“Ya, Sis?”  She looked over at me from the kitchen sink.

“We won’t be coming back here for a long time.  Depending on how long it takes us to get everything we need, it could be quite a while.  Do you want to say goodbye to Mother?”

Her head sank, “Ya.”

I walked over to her and nuzzled her neck.  “Come on.  We’ll go together.”

We walked back to the little closet behind our bedroom and I pushed the button on the door.  It opened with a soft hum, and we stepped inside.  The space was dark, but the illumination from the rest of our quarters was more than sufficient for our needs.  We could see the table and what was on top of it just fine.

The picture frame that held Mother’s face sat undisturbed on the small table.  “Nadira” was engraved on the bottom of the frame.  Mother’s green amulet, a polished shard of malachite with her elegantly swirling glyph mark etched into its center, lay just in front of the frame.  Nohta lit a stick of incense and set it in a small bowl in front of Mother’s picture.  Then we both sat on our haunches, closed our eyes, and bowed our heads; just like Mother used to do for her parents.

Mother had passed away years ago.  Cancer, brought on by overexposure to radiation, of all things.  If it had been anything else, we might have been able to help her.  We might have been able to have done... something.  Instead we were forced to watch as the tumors ate away at the most caring, loving, and graceful individual we had ever known.  She died in a bed in the clinic.  Not at all the warrior’s death she had hoped for, but she fought it for as long as she could, all the same. 

Father and I were devastated when Mother died.  Neither of us were able to do much of anything besides cry and sleep for the week that followed.  Nohta, however, had taken it much harder.  She had idolized Mother, trying to follow in her every hoofstep.  When Mother passed, Nohta changed.  She stopped laughing.  She stopped trying to impress anypony with her athletics.  She stopped practicing all of her hobbies.  The only things she had kept up with were the things that Mother was known for; fighting, and lockpicking.  In every sense, Nohta was still trying to live up to her romanticized notion of a parent she had known for far too little time.

I could hear Nohta sniffling softly, trying to hide the fact that she was on the verge of tears.  I put my foreleg around her shoulders, and pulled her close to me.  There wasn’t any hiding what came next.


**************


We walked into the meeting room together, our eyes still raw.  Everypony else was already gathered, and roll call had begun.  The leader of The Caravan was standing behind the podium at the head of the long room and calling out names in alphabetical order.  

We stood near the back, waiting for our names to be called.  I took the opportunity to set the bag of medical supplies on the floor.  I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, and it was rather heavy.  The caravan leader was just finishing the A’s when a familiar beige face popped excitedly into my view. 

“Candy!  I was hoping to see you before you left!”  The bubbly earth pony in front of me was one of my oldest friends.  “Oh, your little sis is here too!  Hey Nohta, what’s up?”

“Hello Caramel, it’s good to see you.”  I had always found it hard to not smile around Caramel, her happiness was infectious.  “Nohta and I are just about to set out.” 

“Think you packed enough stuff?”  She poked at the bulging bag at my hooves.

“Medical supplies from the clinic,” I explained, “all of our actual belongings are in our saddlebags.”

“I was joking with you, sugar.” She chuckled, turning to Nohta, “How is she still this gullible?”

Nohta had perked up at the sight of one of the few ponies whom she could get along with, “You got me, you’d think she would’ve learned something by now.”

I snorted in response, sticking my nose in the air in indignation. “Gullible?  Hmph, I’ll have you know that when I started studying medicine, one of the first things I learned was how to spot a filly playing sick to get out of taking a test.”

“Not too observant when it comes to the stallions, though, are you?”  Caramel smirked.

“I, huh? Wha?” 

“Rumor has that it that Spicy Salsa has been trying to catch your eye for a while now.  Maybe he just wants to say he’s sorry because of how much of a mule he was when we were little.  But from what I’ve been hearing, it’s a lot more than that, sugar.”  She winked at me.  ”You know,” she grinned wickedly at me, “he’s not bad looking since he lost all that weight.”

“I, uh, really?” Somepony liked me?

The caravan leader called out, “Butterscotch!”

Caramel glanced at the crowd of expectant caravaneers, “Yup. Looks like roll call is about to get you. Hey, before you have to go, I wanted you two to have something.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, brown, paper bag. “Open it up once you’re on the road, okay?  No peeking!”  She gave us a warm smile and trotted off to the gathering crowd of ponies who were seeing their loved ones off today.

I hadn’t ever thought about somepony liking me before.  I was always focused on my job at the clinic.  It was just a rumor, true, but it felt… nice.  I didn’t think anypony would ever want to be with me.

My introspection into the lack of any romantic encounters in my life was cut short when the caravan leader’s gruff voice called out, “Candy Stripes!”

“Here!”  I waved my hoof to make sure he saw me, then looked to my sister. “See you again soon, okay?”

“Yup.”  She sat on her haunches, it would be awhile before she got called.

I levitated the bag before me as I made my way to the front of the room with the others.  I got a few sideways glances, like usual, but nothing too bad.  I had a much better track-record for making friends than my sister. 

Setting the bag of medical supplies on the table, I surveyed the other members of the expedition.  Now that I was closer to him, I was able to get a good look at the caravan leader.  He was in exceptional shape for his age, with a body hardened by the perils of life outside The Stable.  There was a little grey creeping into his dark brown mane, and he had a few visible scars on his tan neck.  His leather barding was scratched and worn.  In comparison, the other members and I looked soft and pampered.  

I suddenly realized that we just might have been. 

I sat down on the bench and waited for roll call to finish, keeping myself busy by organizing all of my things in my pack with my Pipbuck.  Father had taught Nohta and I a few basic functions of the little device that he had said would come in handy on the surface.  How to instantly organize everything that you were carrying, how to keep track of someone else from our Stable, the map feature, the radio, the personal health and status feature;  all sorts of little spells and applications.  I was rather intrigued by the Eyes-Forward-Sparkle feature, it could apparently judge someone’s intent, and would paint their corresponding marker red if they were hostile.  I had no idea how it worked, but Father had been utilizing the function on his own Pipbuck all his life, and was able to attest, first-hoof, as to how beneficial it was.  I trusted his judgement.  I was only hoping that I would never have to use the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell.  I didn’t relish the idea of getting into a fight.

Before long, roll call had proceeded to the N’s.  When the caravan leader finally called out “Nohta!” a hushed silence fell over the crowd.

“Right here!”  Yelled Nohta.  The crowd was whispering, and quite a few of them were openly staring, but Nohta kept her head high as she walked straight to the front area. 

The caravan leader looked down at Nohta from behind the podium.  “So, you’re Nohta.”  The room was silent.

“Yup.”  She met his stare with her own.  Luna bless her, she wasn’t backing down even when half The Stable was staring at her.

He shuffled some papers, “I have a note here from the Overmare that says you know how to pick locks, and that you routinely get into fights, even when outnumbered?”

She paused, but didn’t look away.  “Yes. It’s all true.”

The caravan leader shifted his weight onto another leg.  “Being able to pick locks is not something that most ponies here would view as a good thing.”  The crowd’s whispers grew in volume as they started to voice their collective disapproval of Nohta’s clandestine skills when he spoke up again, “Out in the wastes though, being able to pick locks has saved my life more times than I can count.  I’m glad to finally have another pony with that skill along for the trip.” 

The crowd was silent.  I was just trying to conceal my smile behind a hoof.  Nohta was never one to worry about what others thought of her though, and the smirk on her face showed it.  “Zony, actually, and I’m glad to be going.”

The caravan leader nodded and motioned for her to take a seat, then resumed roll call.  Nohta walked over and sat next to me.  Still wearing that cocky little grin, she asked, “How was that, Sis?”

I rolled my eyes (though my grin may have belittled the token show of disapproval by a marginal amount) and hugged her.  Then we both started looking through the food and water rations that were piled on the table.  It took a while, but I was able to scrounge together a few boxes of Apple Sugar Bombs and Fancy Buck cakes to compliment the more traditional fare of pre-war convenience dinners and canned vegetables.  Some of the centuries-old food was palatable, but most of it made my stomach queasy.  Food was not meant to be lying around for hundreds of years before someone ate it!  That’s how you get stomach cramps.  Well, either that or buprenorphine, but I hardly ever prescribed that for my patients.

While we were busy with the food, the caravan leader had finished roll call.  The ponies in the room were all neatly divided now.   The members of the expedition were all near the tables, and those who were staying behind were at the back of the room, by the doors leading into the rest of The Stable.

The Overmare joined the caravan leader by the podium, and prepared to make her speech.  She was an older mare with a white mane and a dark green coat.  Her voice rang out over the crowd with the kind of comfortable and easy authority that long-term leaders so often slip into, “Fillies and gentlecolts!  Thank you for gathering here this morning.”  The crowd settled down and hushed up, eager to to get things underway.  “As you all know, we are not a self-sufficient Stable.  Several decades ago, most of our systems began failing at a fairly regular rate, and we lack the raw materials needed for repairs.  Some thought that we should abandon our home completely, but it was my predecessor’s belief that this out-of-the-way location would guarantee us some safety.  So, with that in mind, we had to devise a system through which we might gather the resources required to repair Stable 76.  We had to send out The Caravan.”

The ponies who were staying behind were all staring with reverence at the group by the tables.  The Caravan was something of an honored tradition.  We were responsible for gathering the supplies needed to maintain our home, and everypony knew just how important that was.

There was a bustle at the back of the crowd, and several mumbled voices were whispering surprised apologies.  The crowd parted slightly as somepony made their way towards the front. 

“Oh yes, um, pardon me.  Sorry about that.  Oh, did I get your tail?”  The throng of onlookers parted fully, and Father stepped out in front of the crowd, carrying overstuffed bags on his back and levitating more packages behind him.  Mother had always said that Father was late for everything.  As far as I could tell, she had been right.

Father’s coat was a pale blue.  The same sort of blue that the sky was supposed to be, according to all the pictures in the foal’s books.  His cutie mark was covered by his lab coat, but I knew it to be a fluffy white cloud with a series of “Z’s” trailing behind it.  Father’s curly mess of a light brown mane was getting in his golden eyes as he trotted up to the podium.  “Err, hehe, sorry I’m late, ma'am.”

“Dream Chaser.  Glad you could join us.”  The Overmare gave him a look, but quickly turned back to address the crowd.  “Now that we’re all here, The Caravan’s leader will begin to assign roles and divide responsibilities amongst those leaving us.  To the ponies of The Caravan: Follow Dust’s orders as you would follow my own, come back to us safely, and may Luna watch over you.”

In hindsight, it wasn’t much of a speech, but it did get the ball rolling.  The caravan leader, Dust, set about telling us all who was in which group and what our responsibilities would be while we were on the road.  Since there weren’t that many members in The Caravan, some had heavier loads to carry than others.  Some ponies’ responsibilities simply amounted to hauling anything heavy, like the various wagons and carts that would carry our supplies, while others had more specialized tasks.  Father and I represented the entirety of the medical team.

Father came over to Nohta and I, and laid his various bags on the table.  “Hey girls, did you sleep well?”

“Yup, sure did!”  Nohta was getting excited again.

I sat down a box of centuries-old bubblegum and turned to speak to him, “Yes, Father, we managed to sleep well enough.  Where were you?  I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it.”

“I had to take care of a few last minute things.”  His eyes glanced over to the bag of medical supplies from the clinic, “You got the bag, good.  That’s important.  Yes, you wouldn’t want to forget that.” 

“You ok, Dad?” Nohta squinted her eyes and stared at him.

“You do appear to be a bit flustered, Father,” I observed. 

“Oh, I’m fine, just a bit too much coffee is all.  Now Nohta, I know that you’d prefer to stay with your sister, but she and I will be busy with our duties on the road.  However, there may be a good alternative.  Dust has already inquired about taking you under his wing, so to speak, and I think that you could learn a fair deal from him.  He made a rather decent case for nurturing your, ah, talents, and I believe he has the right idea.  I know that he can teach you well, he used to spar with your mother, and I don’t know anypony else who is better at picking locks.”

“You mean, you want me to just stay with him all the time?”  Nohta’s ears drooped.

He waved his hooves in front of himself, “Oh, heavens, no!  You’ll join Candy and myself for evening meals, and well, the three of us will probably all end up sharing the same tent, I do hope it’s big enough.  But I just want you to sort of follow him around and pick up all the information he can give you.”  He leaned in closer and almost whispered, “Also, get into a few good sparring matches with him.  Preferably sooner, rather than later.”  Gesturing towards me, he finished with a mischievous wink, “Candy shouldn’t be fixing any broken bones the first few days, I’m sure she can handle whatever the two of you do to each other.” 

“Oh yes, thank you for the extra workload, Father.  Not to mention the fact that you just encouraged your youngest daughter to get into a fight where she will now expect to be wounded.”  I couldn’t help it, Father always brought out my sardonic side.

“Heh, better she learn what it’s like to get into a real fight when she’s in the relative safety of The Caravan than getting jumped by raiders or ghouls in the middle of a scavving run.”  He leaned back and gave me a cocky little grin.  Father and I both had a mutual love of needling the other when we knew that we were right.  And he was right often enough that he almost needed his own pin-cushion.  Almost.

I conceded, “Fine, fine.  I suppose that makes sense.  I still don’t like it.”

Father turned to Nohta again, “Okay, so will you go with Dust, Nohta?”

“If it means I get to learn how to fight for real, then ya, I want to do it.”  She looked at me, “I’ll be fine, Sis.  I promise I’ll try to not get hit.”  I had to roll my eyes at that one, but I didn’t object any further.

“Ok, good.  So, as you know, I’m second-in-command of this little excursion, and that means I get to make a few calls of my own.”  He started digging through his bags and pulled out a few packages.  “These are for you, girls.  You weren’t allowed to have them while in The Stable, but since we’re technically under a different jurisdiction now...”  He trailed off with a sly grin on his face.

Nohta and I looked at what lay before us.  For Nohta; a set of gleaming brass horseshoes and a black cloak.  For me; a small, black matte case, and a brown leather-bound book with no title.

Father was wearing a melancholy smile, “They were your mother’s.  I’ve waited to give you these for far too long,”

Nohta and I stared at what lay on the table before us.

Nohta began, “These were...”

“...Mother’s?” I finished.

“I know.  I wish I could have given them to you sooner.”  Father sighed, then nudged the packages toward us.  “She wanted you to have them.”

That case.  I had seen it before.  Mother had always carried it on her when she ventured outside The Stable.  Could it really be what I thought it was?

My hooves trembling, I popped open the case’s small, metal latch, and gently levitated it open.  It was Mother’s alchemical set.  I could almost hear her voice then, echoing through the years, “Alchemy is just like chemistry, Candy.  You like chemistry, don’t you?  Just think of it as chemistry… with magic.”

The tools with which nearly any potion could be crafted lay encased in soft, grey foam.  Tiny, graduated, glass beakers and pipettes were held in place next to a porcelain mortar and pestle.  A set of brass scales and weights rested beside an array of stirring apparati.  And taking up nearly an entire side of the case by itself sat a smooth, flat, polished oval of onyx with a chaotic swirl of blazing-orange dancing along its surface; Mother’s fire talisman.  If Father had just given me Mother’s alchemical set, then that could only mean…  

I hoofed through a few pages of the book.  It was Mother’s recipe book!  Every potion she had ever learned how to make, or had concocted herself, was written in here.  Sentimental value notwithstanding, the tome was still priceless!  It had little doodles from all aspects of her life in the corners.  Little poems lined the margins.  Some of the pages were diary entries, some of them mouth-drawn illustrations of plants or animals.  It was a treasure trove to any who had skill in alchemy, and to me it was worth so, so much more.

Beside me, Nohta was already trying to get into the cloak.  It was more a set of armor than just something to keep the wind off your flank.  Large sections of hardened, black leather covered her legs, chest, barrel, and stomach while the loose fabric flowed across her back and down her flanks.  Little looping symbols were woven into the fabric, and from the way it seemed stiff in certain areas, I was betting that there were plates of some other material concealed within the folds to protect the wearer.  The cloak had leather straps hooked around it to support bags and satchels, extra pockets for hiding items, and a very dashing hood that came down to conceal her eyes.  

When she finally got it on, she stood up from the table and walked around to gauge the fit.  The red and gold under layers flashed as brilliantly as her grin when she trotted around the table.  I noticed that the cloak’s armored patches, along with her PipBuck, were doing a great job of concealing her stripes.

“Wow, this is awesome!” Nohta was prancing around, showing off her new regalia to any onlookers that happened to notice her.

I was fighting back tears again, “Thank you, Father.  I haven’t been able to practice alchemy since before… a long time.”  Since before Mother had passed.

Father started packing some rations into his bags, “Well, the both of you will get chances aplenty to use those soon enough.  I’m allowing you both some spare time every night when we stop to train your skills a bit.”

Dust walked over to us, the rest of the group having been addressed and everypony getting ready to set out.  He looked directly at Father.  “Get everything squared away?”

“Yes.”  Father replied.  “Everything is in order.  I was actually just seeing how Nohta liked the idea of studying under you for a while.”

Nohta stopped and looked up at Dust, “Dad said you used to spar against Mom?”

“HA!”  Nohta and I were taken aback by the sudden show of mirth on Dust’s face.  “If by ‘spar’ you mean, ‘She kicked my flank until my coat was more black-and-blue than tan’ then yes, I ‘sparred’ with her.  She eventually beat a proper education in hoof-to-hoof combat into my thick head while teaching me how to not get hit, and my hide has been thankful ever since.  I remember enough of her zebra style that I should be able to instruct you in some of it.  It’s going to hurt; but I can teach you, if you’re willing to learn.”

“I am.  I want to learn how to fight like Mom did.”  The sincerity in my sister’s voice was apparent. 

The older buck seemed to size her up for a moment before nodding his consent, “We’ll start tonight.”

Turning to the rest of the caravan, he belted out our first command, “Alright you lot!  We move in five!  Get everything stowed away and get in your groups!”  Turning back to Nohta, he added, “Stick with me kid, there’s a lot that I want to talk to you about.”

We were moving soon afterward.  Father, Dust, Nohta and I stayed together, somewhere towards the front of the mass of ponies making their way towards The Stable’s entrance.  Nearly everypony else was lined up along the walls in the hallways and wishing us well as we made our way to the big, busted door.  

Long ago, The Stable’s door had malfunctioned, and the air scrubbers had stopped working at the same time.  With no backup system to speak of, the ponies of that generation had panicked and blown the door out of place.  The entrance was still a blasted wreck; the metal twisted, burnt, and rusting.  The door itself looked like a giant cog; thick metal with massive steel teeth, some of them boiled away from the magical energies used in the explosion.  I wasn’t entirely sure how those ponies had managed to blow the door out of place, or how they had lived through the event, but I imagined that it must have been quite the lightshow.

The Stable’s preacher, Moonglow,  was standing by the entrance, wishing each member of The Caravan a safe trip and praying to Luna to safeguard the expedition.  His dark blue robes were emblazoned with a crescent moon, and flowing softly as he moved. “Lady Luna, bless these travelers, guide them not into the harsh light of misery and despair, but into your cool glow of everlasting love.  Mother Luna, save your children in their time of need, paint your night dark with the blood of your enemies, so that we may be concealed from evil.  We beg of you, Mistress Luna, fill our heads not with the terrible nightmare’s of your wrath, but with the comforting dreams of your glorious return.  May Luna bless us all.  Amen.”  Father, Nohta, and I all stopped momentarily and prayed with him, then we stepped outside.

I always felt a thrill when I stepped past that door, like I was approaching something better, something more.  I suspected it was just the natural reaction of anyone to not want to stay cooped up in a hole in the ground all their life.  As we made our way up through the cave, that feeling grew.  I looked to Nohta, and couldn't suppress a grin as I noticed her gawking face.  Her eyes were wide, taking everything in.  After we passed through the cave entrance and Nohta got that first little taste of sky, she was practically bouncing with excitement.

“Sis!  Look!  Clouds!”  She pointed at the sky with a hoof.

I chuckled to myself.  “Just wait until we exit the canyon dear, you’re in for a treat.”

The rest of The Caravan was paying no attention to the little shrubs and cacti that were growing along the path to the end of the canyon, but since I had just been given free reign to resume my alchemical studies, I was trying to harvest every little leaf, berry, and root that I could get my hooves on.  You’d think that most of the ingredients you’d require for good potions would be hard to harvest, but in fact, most of the stuff doesn’t take more than a few seconds if you know what you’re doing.  It’s almost instant, really.  I stuffed everything I could into my packs, making a mental note to find a decent container later for all of the alchemy supplies.

We finally found ourselves at the mouth of the canyon, and the reddish brown rocks that had risen above us were giving way to grey clouds as far as the eye could see.  The desert stretched out before us, nearly barren of all features save for the occasional cactus or boulder.  Our carts and wagons were waiting for us where the ground started to even out.

Nohta was rooted in place, her eyes transfixed on the sky.  “It’s… wow.  I mean, I knew it was gonna be big, but.  Wow.”

I stood next to her.  “This is as far as I’ve ever gone outside, Nohta.  After this, everything is new for me, as well.”

A gentle breeze washed over us, blowing my mane back and forcing Nohta’s cloak to billow in its wake. 

“Is that the wind?” She whispered.

I whispered as well, “Mmhmm, that’s the wind.”

She beamed up at me and simply stated, “I like it.”

“I thought you would.”  I gave my little sister a smile.  She had a lot to learn, but back then, we both did.


**************


I was glad that I had gotten to share Nohta’s first experience outside The Stable, but now we actually had to get moving.  Dust called for her to follow him soon after her we had reached the wagons, and Father asked me to load the medical supplies onto one of the carts.  After that, we started walking.

If you’ve never walked through the desert, let me describe it for you.  Monotonous.  No, wait, that word is far too exuberant and cheerful for something as boring as a hike over a near-endless expanse of dry, cracked earth.  Dull.  Now that is a perfect word to describe what we did for several extremely long hours.  It was a very dull trek.

Luckily there were plenty of ponies to talk to.  Some of them were even friendly.  The brown buck that was pulling our cart full of medical supplies had a few interesting stories about last year’s expedition. 

“Ya, so there I was, right?  Just kinda, you know, doing my business behind this bush, when I saw the damn thing just leap up onto the cart and start screaming bloody murder!  Scared me shitless… uh, literally.”

“Oh goodness, what did you do?”

“Pulled out my gun and put a round through his chest.  But that didn’t kill him.  Hell, only seemed to piss it off.  I unloaded that damn gun right into the bastard and he was just screaming and walking towards me… hadn’t even cleaned myself off yet.”  He shivered at the memory.  “Damn thing still gives me nightmares.”

“If it’s too hard to talk about...”

“Aww shucks, girl, it didn’t traumatize me or nothing.  Just scared me right good.  Banshee ghouls are good at doing that.  Of course, once the caravan heard all the commotion, most folks knew what was going on and came running.  The fight afterwards was a bit hairy, but 35 or 40 ghouls against the same number of ponies gets a little one-sided when those ponies all have rifles and S.A.T.S.”

“Are attacks like that common on the road?”

“So far as I’ve seen, not on that scale.  Each year’s Caravan comes back with a few good stories, but if it got too bad out here, we would just move, right?  I trust the Overmare and Dust to get it figured out, they’ve been doing this for years now.  If anypony’s got a good grasp of the situation, it’s Dust.”

“Where did Dust come from, anyway?  It’s hard to imagine he would have those scars from living in The Stable.”

“Noticed those, did you?  Yep, he was born and raised outside.  Learned to fend for himself out here.  He just kinda wandered around, scavving off old ruins and exploring till one of the earlier Caravans ran into some trouble and he helped ‘em out.  I guess they figured it’d be a good idea to have a native to the surface along for any future trips, and offered him a home.  He’s stuck around ever since.”

“He must really understand what we need to survive out here, then.”

“Oh ya.  Like I said, if anypony knows what they’re doing out here, it’s Dust.”

“That’s good to hear, he’s supposedly teaching my little sister some tricks of the trade.”

“Your little...Oh...that’s right.”  Conversation was a little scarce from him after that.

Other ponies provided more insight into what to expect on the road.

“Oh I’m telling you, the bucks in Whinnyappolis are the best!”  The white mare was much too enthusiastic about her, ah, hobby, to be ashamed.

“The bucks… in...”  Was I really hearing this?  And from Cream Puff, of all ponies!

“Oh ya sweetie, soon as we get to a proper town, get yourself a fine little stud and find a place wheres the two of ya can go knock horseshoes for a while.  Best way to unwind after spending a week on the road!”

Not all of them had advice I was particularly interested in, of course.  

However, there were a few little gems about life on the surface.

“No, no, the rules are simple, it’s finding the cards that’s the hard part.  The cards have to be in good shape or you can’t play with ‘em.”  The black stallion levitated a small, stiff rectangle of paper in front of us.  It displayed some odd symbols that I didn’t recognize, as well as two black number sevens in the corners.

“So how do I get a pack of cards?”

“Buck if I know.  I’d sell ya mine, but I don’t even have a full deck anymore.  Just got the numbers, none of the face cards.  Some jerk swiped ‘em from me last year.  Never did find out who.”

I was just about to see if anypony else had anything interesting to say when Dust’s voice rang out from the front of the herd.  “Alright everypony, we’re taking a break!  Pulling team, form a circle with the wagons!”

The pullers all moved in unison, and everypony else gathered in the middle.  Rugs were thrown on the ground so we could all sit without getting too dirty. 

Dust stood and addressed us.  This time he didn’t have to yell, “Okay folks, we’re making good time, we should be in Mareon by tomorrow night.  Then we can get some good info on where to head next and plan out the rest of our trip.”

Father spoke up as well, “For all the new people, listen up.  We have to protect our stable’s location.  It’s secluded, but it’s not so far out that a raiding party would decide that it’s not worth the effort, and without a door to protect the folks inside it, our home is a ripe target.  Secrecy is our best line of defense.”

Father shifted his weight and continued, “Because of that, from here on out, I want all of you to memorize this: We are from a small, tribal village to the west called “Ol’ 76”.  It was founded by ponies who were forced out of their stable by flooding, and named after their old stable.  That’s why we have PipBucks and stable clothing.  We need supplies for our home and are willing to trade goods, services, and knowledge in order to get them.  You can use your real names, just don’t go into too much detail when it comes to describing where you’re from.” 

Dust started pulling some small, round devices out of a bag in the wagon he was next to.  “These are sonic deterrent extensions for your Pipbucks.  Put them on, turn them on, and for the love of Luna, keep them on until I tell you it’s safe to take them off.  You really don’t want some of the bigger, nastier, dangers of the wastes coming after you when you need to sneak off and take a leak.  Everypony got that?”  We all voiced or nodded in agreement.  “Good, we’re gonna rest here for about an hour, then we’re gonna travel until it starts to get dark.  So smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”

Most of the ponies around me looked as if the very last thing they needed was to be smoking.  Many of us were sweating, and a few were out of breath.  I did not envy the pulling team.  Nohta was engaged in conversation with Dust about picking locks.  All I could make out was something about bobby pins and a screwdriver.  That seemed a little odd to me, but I wasn’t really interested in learning how to pick locks anyway.  That sort of clandestine pursuit wasn’t something that a lady such as myself would ever dream of doing.

Father trotted up to me, levitating one of the little sonic devices before him, “Here Candy, I already gave Nohta her’s.  This one used to be mine.  I made a few modifications to it, so don’t worry if there are a few bugs with the interface, it actually works a little better than the normal ones.”

“Oh, alright then.  Thank you, Father.”

I examined the little sonic deterrent that I had been given.  It looked like somepony had ripped one of the tiny speakers out of The Stable intercom system and designed it to fit into a Pipbuck.  I plugged it in, and opened up the user interface.  It recognized the device immediately, and after a short, if buggy, systems-check, verified that it was operating correctly.  I couldn’t tell what it was doing, but apparently it was keeping me safe.

“Oh!  Candy!  One more thing, before I forget.  Look, there’s really no easy way to bring this up dear, but you need to know something about the ponies up here.”

I looked up to see Father’s frown, “Oh?  What’s that?”

“Even though it’s been over two-hundred years since the war, some folks out here still blame zebras for the whole conflict.  It’s asinine, I know, and completely ridiculous to assume that any one people were wholly responsible for turning the world into what it is now, but it’s just the way some folks feel.”

He paused before continuing, “Racism is alive and well out here, I’m afraid.  You’ll need a way to blend in.  Your mother used to have some goop that she rubbed on her face, but I can’t remember how she made it.  So, until you figure out a way to conceal your stripes, we need to come up with a believable story about why you have markings on your face.”

I arched an eyebrow, “Do you really think that anyone would mistake me for a zebra with a horn and a pink mane?”

“We can never be too careful, dear.  Now, I was thinking that you should tell anypony who asks that your stripes are tribal markings.  That should fit well enough with the rest of our story.”

“And what should I say when they notice that nopony else has them?  Or for that matter, what about Nohta?”

“Nohta should be fine as long as she keeps her hood down and doesn’t attract attention to herself.  That cloak is still a little big on her, and it should cover her up well enough that nopony will notice.  As for you, just tell them that you’re… uh… training.  Yes, that ought to work.  You have to mark your face because it’s an initiation ritual or something.  Just make something up, dear.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Use that big brain of yours, eh?”

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t fight off a little grin at the compliment, “If you say so, Father.”

I went over to the miscellaneous supplies cart and got out a medium-sized satchel, slinging it over my neck and fitting the straps in place so that it would ride snug against my shoulder.  Then I levitated out the alchemy supplies I had gathered earlier and placed them in my new satchel.  Feeling much better after having organized my supplies efficiently, I decided to spend the rest of my time reading through Mother’s recipe book, and see if I could brew anything yet.  Unfortunately, I was still lacking some of the ingredients for a basic healing salve,  so I decided to simply try and commit recipes to memory.  Maybe I could remember what to pick up, and what to leave behind. 

The afternoon’s trek passed by as uneventfully as the morning’s had, and we soon found ourselves under a darkening sky.  Dust called out for the pulling team to circle the wagons and carts again, and a small fire was built in the space between.  A few tents had already been set up on the inside of the circle, and most everypony was starting to settle in and look for something to eat.

We had set up a tent alongside a wagon and rolled out our beds.  Father was walking around checking on the various teams of ponies, making sure they didn’t have any injuries that they might have been too proud to tell us about.  Caramel’s bag had been opened, and the remaining crumbs of the brownies that had been inside were either speckling Nohta’s muzzle or scattered near the entrance of our tent.  Nohta was, of course, going on and on about how different the surface was.  

The sky and the wind especially seemed to fascinate her.  “Nopony ever said that the clouds were like a big bowl of Apple-Sugar Bombs!  How’d they miss that?”

Honestly, I was at a loss as well.

“Nohta, darling, how can you possibly be comparing the weather to a breakfast cereal?”

“Hey, it’s not like I’ve got a lot to go on here!”  Well, she did have a fair point in that regard.  “And besides, it does too look like cereal!”

“It’s like, all uneven, but covering the whole thing up, you know?  Some parts of the sky have more cloud than others, and those parts move around a lot.  I thought it was just gonna be like a big blanket, all smooth and boring  This is way cooler!”

I chuckled at my sister’s analogy, hiding my amusement behind Mother’s book.  I was finishing off my last chocolate treat while reading about a particularly nasty poison that Mother had used to wipe out a nest of bloodwings, when Dust’s voice came through the front entrance of our tent.  “Hey kid, you ready?”

“Huh?  Oh!  Ya, let’s do this!”  Nohta was outside before I even remembered what was going on.

Once I got out of the tent, I could see that the few ponies who were too wound up or just not tired enough to have already passed out were following Dust and Nohta to an area a little ways off from the wagons.  Only the two guards were staying at their stations.

I followed the herd, and then remembered my part in all of this.  I hurried to catch up to Nohta and Dust.  I didn’t like that Nohta was going to get hurt.  It was bad enough having to come back to our quarters and see her waiting for me with bruises and cuts.  Now I was going to have to watch it happen?

It was starting to get pretty dark outside, and the fire was back by the wagons, so most of us had turned on our Pipbuck lamps. The various green, blue, white, and amber hues illuminated the small patch of desert we walked over, and painted the tiny shrubs and rocks unnatural colors.

Once we had gotten far enough away that the noise wouldn’t wake the others, Dust spoke up, “Your mother was a terrific fighter.  One of the best I’ve ever seen.  She did her entire race proud.  If you wish to be like her, you’re going to have to learn how to move like a zebra, not a pony.  Can you do that?”

Nohta paused for a moment, “Do you mean fighting on two legs?”

“Not all of the time. But, yes, that’s the basic gist of it.  To truly fight like a zebra, you’ll need to be able to control every movement.  You’ll need to understand how to fight with grace and agility, and how to strike in order to inflict the most injury.  Occasionally, that means you will need to display levels of nimbleness beyond most ponies, such as cartwheels, somersaults, and maintaining balance on two legs.  You’ll need to know how to fight on more or less as the situation calls for it, as well.”

“You can fight on less than two legs?” Nohta’s incredulous tone questioned.

Dust raised a hoof to his chest as he spoke, “Situational, at best, but occasionally you may find yourself in the middle of a fight where it is advantageous to only have one hoof on the ground, usually only briefly.  Sometimes the best strategy is to have no hooves on the ground at all.  You must learn how to judge each particular engagement, and the best way to respond.  That can, unfortunately, only come with experience.” 

He shifted his weight, and hoofed the ground.  “Think of hoof-to-hoof combat like a game of chess.  Only, instead of pieces, you have your body.  Instead of a neat and even board, you have whatever setting you’ve gotten yourself into.  And instead of having to wait on your opponent to take their turn, sometimes you can get two or three ‘turns’ off before they react.  Since you are part zebra, I’d recommend that you use your inherent aptitude for speed and precision strikes to hit first, hit hard, and continue to hit quickly.  Don’t let them see you coming, don’t let them predict where your next strike will come from, don’t let up on the attack, and if at all possible, make sure that you choose the ‘board’ that is to your advantage.  But you must always be mindful of your position.  Bad hoofwork, overextended blows, and not paying attention to surroundings have killed more of my friends than I care to admit.”

“That’s... a lot to take in, all at once.”  Nohta admitted with a sheepish grin.

Dust nodded.  “That’s why I wanted to start early.  You’ve got a lot to learn.  For now, we’ll start with the basics.  Can you move on two legs?  Can you fight on two legs?” 

“Ya, that’s how I do it.  I mean, I saw a little of what Mom used to do, and I know some of the stances.”  She answered.

Dust lowered his body, as if he were about to charge, and said in a calm voice, “Show me.”

The other ponies had finally started to realize what was going on, and started to give Dust and Nohta some room.  Nohta took a deep breath, and reared up on her hind legs.  She held one of her front hooves low in front of her, and the other stretched out and upwards behind her.  For just a moment in the soft glow of light, it was almost as if Mother were with us again.

The two of them stood there for a moment, Dust on four legs, Nohta on two.  Neither moving as they sized each other up.  Dust was the first to break the silence, “Well?  Are you going to hit me?”

Nohta grinned and let out a snort.  The kick that followed was fast, I almost couldn’t see it, but Dust simply moved his head to the side, dodging it.  He pivoted one of his back hooves, brought his front legs up underneath Nohta and grabbed hold of her outstretched leg.  Turning in place, he used her own momentum plus his considerable strength to launch her over his body and right into the ground.  Hard.

“Whoa!”  Somepony said, “did you catch that?”

“Nohta!”  I yelled.

I got a muffled reply and a dismissive wave of a hoof, ”M’alrigh, Fif.”

Dust gave her some room as she got back up.  “Good, your speed is admirable, but you need to work on the technique.  And try to not be so predictable.  Again.”

She pulled herself up off the ground, brushing dirt off of her cloak.  She smiled again, and launched herself at Dust.  She was providing quite a show, with her cloak swirling around her as she would spin and leap to buck out at her opponent.   She almost landed a few hits, too.  But his size belied his speed; this was how he had survived the wastes, by being stronger and faster than anypony else.  He took Nohta out again in a few seconds by parrying a blow and countering with a strike to her face before she could recover, sending her sprawling in the dirt. 

“Very good job, little one.  You’re not afraid to try a little improvisation, and that’s good, just watch your position and don’t overextend.  Also, don’t be afraid to drop back to all fours.  Not all zebra styles made such extensive use of the two-legged stance.  Two legs are excellent for speed and agility, but they don’t have quite the power that an old-fashioned double-buck provides.” He circled around and gave her some space.

She got back up, a small trickle of blood running down her muzzle.  It was spreading around her lips, giving her a crazed, savage appearance in the midnight gloom.

This was becoming too much to bear, “Hold on, let me heal her first.”  I asked.

“No, not yet,” Dust waved me off.  “She should learn to fight while she bleeds, It imparts a certain strength upon you.  Makes you realize that you’re fighting for your life.”

Nohta flashed a third grin and dove back in, I swear she could be insane sometimes.  But I guess I shouldn’t have expected any different from my little sister.  She had earned her cutie mark from getting into fights, after all.  She was enjoying this, perhaps too much. 

Several swift blows to her head later and Nohta had staggered just enough for Dust to spin around and buck her right in the stomach with both back hooves.  She flew backwards from the impact. landing on her side and rolling in the dirt.  The crowd gasped.

She staggered to her feet before I could reach her.  “I’m fine, Sis, really.  Mom’s cloak is absorbing most of the force.  It’s amazing.” 

“What was all that about promising to not get hit?”  I furrowed my brow in annoyance. 

“I said I’d promise to ‘try to not get hit’, remember?”  With that she was back in the fight.

Nohta was adapting to Dust’s patterns quickly.  It was taking him longer to bring her down this time.  This time, when Dust would inevitably land a strike, he didn’t stop his assault for her to recover.  Instead, he chased her down and tried to land a knockout blow before she could get up.  But my little sister was nothing if not fast; she baited him into a counter-kick to his ribs while she was on the ground before he could react to dodge.  He didn’t let up, or even grunt in pain.  Instead, he slammed his hooves down on the ground where Nohta had just been a second before.  She darted away and around him.  Finding her hooves under her, she kicked out at Dust’s ribs again.  This time she hit her mark, but Dust shrugged it off, caught her in his front hooves again, and slammed her down in front of him.

“Okay,” he said, finally breathing hard, “why did you lose?”

Nohta looked up at him from the ground, “Too strong… I couldn’t....”  She was panting now, having finally had the wind knocked out of her.

“No,” he replied. “I beat you because I knew the proper time to dodge a hit, the proper time to block one, and the proper time to take one.  Sometimes it’s better to absorb a small blow, because you will have better position, than it is to dodge and force yourself into a bad spot, where your opponent can land a lethal strike.  Sacrifice a pawn to save a rook.”  He paused for a moment, “Once more.”

Nohta got to her hooves, then raised herself to her rear legs again.  She lowered her stance and calmed her breathing, then stared Dust down. 

He raised a hoof and hooked it towards himself. 

Nohta responded with a kick to his chest, he tried to grab her, but she was back out before he could catch hold.  She unleashed a flurry of blows from her front legs.  Dust was just barely blocking most of them, and dodging what he couldn’t block.  She wasn’t hitting him, but she was keeping him busy.  She dropped to all fours as she swept her back legs around, knocking his hooves out from under him. He rolled out of the way of her stomp, and bucked out at her legs, knocking her off balance.  Then he was in her face, unleashing his own barrage of attacks. She was able to block some of them, and dodge a few, but experience was winning out over youthful enthusiasm.  Eventually she was staggering into all of his attacks, not being able to block or dodge any of them.  She tried to buck out at him one last time, but he caught her extended limb with one of his front hooves, and sent his other hoof straight into her ribs.  She hesitated from the force of the blow, and he raised his front legs up and slammed down on her back.  

She fell to the ground and didn’t get back up.

“Nohta!  That’s quite enough!  I’m healing her!”  I rushed over to Nohta’s side and felt out with my magic.  She had no broken bones, thank Luna, but there were multiple contusions, lacerations, and sprained ligaments as well as, from what I could sense, a great deal of pain. 

“Not bad, little one, “ Dust was already walking back to The Caravan, looking about as exhausted as one might be from a light stroll to the cafeteria.  “One day you’ll live up to that cutie mark.”

“Ow.  Ow ow ow.  Oh.... hey Sis.  Guess I got hit, huh?” She glanced back at me over her shoulder. 

“Lie still, I’ll take care of you.”  I knelt by her, opening a small bottle of disinfectant, and began working on the bruises, cuts, and various other injuries she had sustained.

“Thanks again, Sis.”  She at least knew to not move while I was healing her.  It wasn’t the first time we had found ourselves in this position, after all.

Father chose that moment to come over to us, “You actually did pretty well, Nohta.  I’m impressed.”

She winced as I cleaned, and then mended, a cut above her eye.  “You think so?  I barely seemed to hit him.”

“You’ve only been in a few little scuffles with bullies up until now.  You’ve got nowhere near as much experience fighting as Dust does.  Besides, whenever he started sparring with your mother, he didn’t land a single blow for a month.”  Father chuckled to himself, apparently amused at his memories.  “Anyway, I’m hitting the hay.  Don’t stay up too long, alright?”  He turned and walked towards the wagons.

The other ponies lost interest and walked back to the wagons as well, leaving us alone. 

I lifted my head and cut off my magic.  The red glow died with it.  “Alright, I’m finished. Your body should be able to heal the rest of the damage while you sleep.”

She looked up at me, “Did I do okay, Sis?  You got to watch Mom practice a lot more than I did.  I was just trying to do what I remembered her doing.”

I sighed, and gave her a soft smile, “I’m sure that,  with a little bit of practice, you’ll be just as good as her,  Nohta.  Now we need to get to bed.“  I helped her get to her hooves, and then we walked back to our tent.


**************


If my little sister’s mood during her first day out of The Stable could be described as ‘excited’, then the second day would be more along the lines of ‘ebullient exhilaration.’  Or, at least it was by the time we found ourselves in Mareon.  I, too, was a bit on edge.  These were the first ponies I had ever come into contact with on the surface, and I wanted to make a good first impression.  

Mareon sat on the banks of a river whose original name nopony in our group could remember.  There was a small concrete bridge with a chain-link fence along its sides allowing passage to the relatively small portion of the town that sat on the western side of the waterway.  The paved road that shot west across the bridge and into the mountains had seen better days, but the bridge itself seemed passable.  The eastern side of Mareon rested in a natural bottleneck in the local geography, the Macintosh Hills (I remember thinking that they looked an awful lot like mountains) rising up out of the land nearby.  The cloudy sunset painted a somewhat depressing backdrop for the few pre-war buildings surrounded by ramshackle tin houses and junked vehicles of every variety, but I was still excited to see surface civilization.

I just wasn’t expecting “civilization” to look like an old junkyard surrounded by sheet-metal walls.

“Over time, this town has expanded enough to stretch all the way from the river, to the hills.  If you want to go northeast, you have to cross through Mareon.”  Father was elucidating to anypony who would listen to his geography lesson.  “And since we’ll be stopping here a second time on the way back home, we should try to be extra polite.”

Nohta was travelling up ahead with Dust, the two of them conversing over the finer points of hoof-to-hoof combat.  They were the first to reach the large, steel gates that blocked the entrance.  They were also the first to speak to the guards on the settlement’s walls.  I couldn’t hear the conversation, but the guards seemed to recognize Dust and allowed us to enter the settlement.  The wagons and carts were pulled off to the side, forming a sort of impromptu marketplace outside of the town walls, as a few of our number remained behind to barter with any local residents who came to visit The Caravan.  Our own guards were stationed to watch our goods.  After all of that had been taken care of, I walked into the first town I had ever come across on the surface.

As I passed through the heavy, metal gates and into the town, my PipBuck vibrated (when did it start doing that?) and beeped. I checked it.  “You have discovered Mareon” was emblazoned on my white user interface.  I looked up from my map and let my eyes wander over the town.  It was, well, dirty.  I guess I should have expected as much, we were surrounded by dirt for miles in nearly every direction, after all. 

“Howdy folks!”  A short, grey mare had jumped out into the broken-asphalt road that led through town, and was approaching our group.  “Ah’m plum excited ta see some new faces in our fair lil’ town.  Mah name’s Compass Rose, and y’all look like you could use some directions.”

Dust began describing for her our fabricated story, and she ate it up.  I secretly hoped that I wouldn’t be so gullible if somepony were lying directly to my face.  Before too long, we had the directions to all the merchants in town, the saloon, the mayor’s office (which doubled as the sheriff's office as they were apparently the same pony), and the doctor’s office. 

Dust thanked Compass Rose and turned to address the rest of us, “Ok everypony, you know what to do.  Split up and see if you can find anything we need.  Enjoy yourselves while you’re here, but try to remember why we came.  Oh, and uh, dibs on the saloon.  Dream Chaser, you still owe me that drink.”

“Heh, I suppose I do.”  Father turned to me, “Think you can see if the ponies at the doctor’s office have any useful information?  Do a little pro bono work if you have to.”

“Mmmhmm, I’ll get on it right away.”  I left Nohta and Father behind as I trotted over to the doctor’s office, the large bag of medical supplies balanced on my back.

The dirt road leading up to my destination was relatively empty of ponies.  The office itself turned out to be a pre-war house with a dilapidated picket fence.  A mailbox stood askew next to the gate, and a large wooden sign that had pink butterflies painted on it was leaning against the front of the house.  I trotted up to the front door and took a calming breath, then knocked on the door a couple of times with my hoof. 

I only had a few seconds to worry about differences in culture regarding visiting another’s home or work space, and whether I should have knocked or just walked in, before an elderly unicorn stallion opened the front door and asked me to come inside.

“Well howdy there, young’un.  Come on in to ol’ Doc Flannel’s office.  Catch a bit of the feather flu?  I can get ya fixed up right quick like.”  He was squinting at me, and his face was threatening to break out in a genial, but toothless, grin.

“Uh, hello sir, my name is Candy.  I am one of the doctors that came with the caravan that recently arrived in town.  I made my way here to inquire as to whether or not you might have any work that needs doing.”  I smiled up at him. 

“Uh, whazzat missy?  Hearing ain’t so good in this ear.  Best lemme try the other ‘un.”  He cocked his head to the side and raised a hoof to his ear.

“I’m looking for ways to make myself useful.”  I proclaimed, with an expectant and enthusiastic grin.

“You’re counting the days until you’re youthful?  Well now, that don’t make no sense.  Looks to me like you’re still pretty young.  ‘Course mah eyes ain’t what they used to be either.”  He blinked several times and stared at me, still utterly confused as to what I was trying to communicate. 

“I’m trying to see if I can help around town!”  Maybe talking loud would do the trick?

“You’re trying to get kelp to frown?  Well I guess you could try being mean to it, though I don’t know why in Equestria you’d wanna go an’ do that for.  Poor kelp never did nothing to nopony s’far as I know.”  This was hopeless.  The old doctor was either quite senile, or couldn’t hear me at all.  I had my doubts about his eyesight as well.  Is it even possible for non-pegasi to contract the feather flu?

Still, this was my first task out here in the wastes, and I wasn’t going to report back to everypony that I hadn’t given it my all.  I brought out a few medical potions from my pack, as well as a few doctor’s tools that I hardly ever used.  (Who needs an ophthalmoscope when you can ‘feel’ the inside of an eye?)  I floated the potions and tools in between the two of us, and said very loudly and plainly,  “I am a doctor.  Do you want some help with your patients?”

“Aww shucks, girl, you’re a doctor?  Why didn’t ya just say so?”  He turned and began leading the way into the building, motioning for me to follow.  Sighing in relief, I did so.  

The interior of the building wasn’t as deteriorated as the exterior, but it had some definite signs of wear.  The wooden panels of which the walls were comprised were mostly still intact, but the ceiling had a few cracks and signs of dry rot.  He rounded a corner and walked through a doorway, into a long room filled with beds.   “Well shoot, lemme see now.  You any good with broken bones and what not?  Got a few little ones back here, went and broke some leg bones after taking a nasty fall off of a roof or some damn thing.  I done ran out of splints and braces, and I ain’t never been no good at makin’ casts out of scrap.  And, to top it off, I ain't got no healing potions ‘cept them what we been keeping back in case of raider attack.”  He directed me to a small group of colts, then turned and pointed at the other patients.

“Got a couple more serious cases back here too, in case you’re up for it.  Ol’ fella, done got himself shot all to hell and back.  I pulled out the bullets, but he ain’t waking up for some reason.”  A yellow stallion with about twenty brand new bullet wounds was sleeping on one of the beds, his breath raspy and his coat drenched in sweat. 

Dr. Flannel continued down the row of beds in the building,  “Got that young smart-flank from down south a ways, thinks she knows everythin’ cause she was in some group of doctors or scientists or some-such.  Well, she didn’t know enough to avoid the damned manticores flying around in the hills.  She went and got herself stung, then cut up, and even chewed on a little, from the way she looks.  She just barely managed to stumble in here, and I ain’t got nothing to clean out the infection with.  Been hoping she was sturdy enough to make it without needing medicine.”  A red mare with a light green mane and freckles on her face was groaning slightly in her sleep.  I didn’t need my talent to know that she was in a lot of pain.

He continued,  “Last case I got is a familiar ‘round these parts.  She’s done a lot of good for Mareon, but she’s too fond of the dash, if’n you’re asking my opinion.  I think she’s drunk, or maybe just high on Med-X.  One way or another, I can’t get her to snap out of it, so until I can think of something better to do, she’s sleeping it off in one o’ mah spare beds.”  He pointed to the last bed on the row. Lying there on her back with her front legs spread wide and snoring rather loudly was an indigo mare with a silvery white mane.  The left side of her face had some sort of swirling, black markings, and her left ear was pierced with a small bone.  There was a small pile of belongings underneath her bed, on top of which rested a dusty, black cowpony hat.

The blue mare whinnied in her sleep and rolled over, disturbing her blankets.  That was when I noticed the wings.  “She’s a pegasus?”  I pointed to her feathery appendages.  I had been taught that the pegasi had abandoned the ground in favor of the skies, why was one here?

“Heh, yup.  Came from the northeast, If’’n I can recall.  Had one saddlebag full of ammo and one saddlebag full of chems.  She strolled right up to the sheriff and asked if there were any slavers ‘round town he needed taken care of.”  He chuckled to himself.  “Things were a little lively after that, but trade perked right up as soon as folks started hearing the roads were safe again.”

If this pony knew about the northeast, then she was the one that I needed to talk to.  Maybe I could glean a few details about the towns in that direction if she were awake.  Still though, the other patients needed me more.  I used the doctor’s sink to wash up, then I turned back to the manticore victim.

Dr. Flannel followed me over, and observed as I examined her.  She had a lot of swelling around her neck, and appeared to be having trouble breathing.  The wounds had been bandaged, but not very well.  The doctor must have been something of a medical amateur.  I sat down on my haunches next to her bed, and took a deep breath.  Then I ‘felt’ out with my magic.

The fit of sneezing that I received for my trouble ended a couple of minutes later.

“This patient doesn’t have an infection!”  I coughed out between sneezes.  “She’s having an allergic reaction to the manticore venom!” 

I cleaned the venom out of the wounds, re-bandaged them, and gave her an anti-inflammatory from my pack of supplies.   If I could make it easier for her to breathe, I reasoned, her body should be able to fend off the rest of the reaction on its own.

The yellow stallion with the bullet wounds had developed an infection.  Multiple infections, actually.  Inspiration struck as I found a way to heal the buck’s infections with some rudimentary alchemy.  Ignoring the questioning look from the doctor, I withdrew Mother’s alchemy case and got cooking.

Grinding a few herbs into a coarse paste, I combined them with a healing potion to create a solution.  Once I added a bit of rubbing alcohol to ward off any bacteria, I strained the solution into a beaker, and took out Mother’s fire talisman.

I traced the orange swirl with the edge of my hoof until I had gone from the center of the spiral to the outer edge of the stone’s surface.  The talisman activated at full power, and the top of it began to warm up as the orange swirl glowed with magical heat.  I placed the beaker atop the gemstone, and left it to boil until the solution had reached the desired consistency.  

I floated a few leaves of what Mother’s book labeled as “Horsetail” out of my pack and dipped them in the alchemical solution, allowing the heat to break the herbs down.  Once the leaves were made pliable, I laid the new poultice atop the infected bullet wounds and wrapped the affected areas in fresh bandages.

It may not have been a proper alchemical concoction; truthfully it was more like herbal medicine.  But I still felt a small swell of pride at retaining my understanding of the basics.  And to be honest, it was quite nice to be reminded of Mother whilst helping somepony recover from their condition.
 
Dr. Flannel was impressed with how quickly I healed the colts.  They had all sustained clean breaks, so it was easy enough to fuse the bones back together and tell them to be more careful.  They assured me that they would, in fact, stop playing on the roofs of the buildings and keep their games on the ground. 

That left the pegasus at the end of the room.  I walked over to her, and started to ‘feel’ with my magic.

There wasn’t anything wrong, she was just sleeping.

Amused at the sight of such a heavy sleeper, and grateful that my work was done, I turned to Dr. Flannel and related the news with a tired grin on my face.  “That’s it Doctor, I’ve done all I can.  This one is just resting, she should wake up shortly.”

The doctor was holding a small horn to his ear.  “Well that’s good, wouldn’t want her to go nowhere yet, we still got a few jobs left for somepony with her skills.  You done a good thing here, young’un.  Any way I can repay you?”

“We’re looking for information regarding where we ought to go in order to find supplies for our village.”  Maybe he could tell me now, and spare me the trouble of rousing the pegasus from her slumber.

He sat on his haunches and rubbed his chin, contemplating my request.  “Hmm, well now I ain’t ever been down there myself, but I’d go southeast if I were looking for supplies for a whole village.  Got a few towns here and there, but eventually you’d find Dise.  I hear it’s a big ol’ place. Place like that has to attract all sorts of merchants.  Maybe you could get whatever it is you’re looking for there.  ‘Course, I suppose you could just as well go north, eventually you’d start coming across a few good spots for trade here and there.  New Appleoosa is pretty far out there, but it’s got ol’ Ditzy Doo, fairest trader I ever dealt with.  Manehattan has Tenpony Tower, I heard there’s some folk up there might want some trade.”

Finally, some direction!  “Thank you very much, Doctor Flannel!  You’ve been extraordinarily helpful.”

“Hey now, no biggy.  You been a big help here, young’un.  You ever find yourself in a bind, you come on back to ol’ Doc Flannel, ya hear?  I’ll be sure to help ya out if’n I’m able.” His face finally broke out in that smile that it had been threatening to do since I met him, and he walked me to the door. 

I thanked the doctor again and began to make my way back towards the center of town, taking in the sights of wasteland civilization.  I was tired from using so much magic in such a short span of time, and I was getting hungry.  I decided to head straight for the saloon and see if Father, Dust, and Nohta were still there. 
        
Along the way, I was intercepted by a rather tall, red, earth-pony stallion.  One with a yellow mane, green eyes, and peppers for a cutie-mark.  One who had been travelling with my little caravan since we had first set hoof out of The Stable.  Spicy Salsa.

“Oh, hello Candy. How ya doin’?”  His voice was a brilliant tenor.

“I’m doing well, Spicy,  I just finished Father’s errand and was on my way to tell him what I had learned.”  I adjusted the pack of medical supplies on my back.  “I’m just glad that we arrived when we did, or otherwise that poor stallion might have needed an amputation!”  

“Already helping folks out, huh?  Ya, that sounds like you.”  He scratched the back of his head with a hoof and glanced around.

“Well, it’s what I love to do.”  I offered a smile, which was quickly returned.  “On what task has Dust sent you?”

“Ah, nothing much.  He told me, ‘Just go see if you can help out whoever you can.’  I don’t know much about anything besides cooking, but I figured I might be able to run some errands for somepony.  Did ya need anything done?”  He smiled and stepped closer. 

“Oh, well, I actually just finished my job, so, no.  But, thank you for offering!”  Why did it feel like I was apologizing?

“Oh, ok, ya, alright.  Uh, well, I guess I better go look for somepony to help!”  He trotted off in the direction where I had just been, then rounded a corner and was quickly out of sight.  

I felt like I should have remembered something, but honestly, I’ve never been able to think straight on an empty stomach.  I took off for the saloon, eager to try wasteland fare.

As it turned out, Father was waiting on me by the doors to the saloon.  “Hey Candy, have any luck?”

I relayed the recommendations I had received from the doctor, then asked where Dust and Nohta were. 

“Oh, they took off to spar a while back.  Don’t worry,” He added quickly, after noticing my glare of disapproval.  “they’ll be fine.  No really.  I gave them a few potions and told Nohta to learn as much as she could while we were stopped.”

I had to say something, “Father!  She’s going to get hurt!  Were you even watching last night?  Dust didn’t even break a sweat And yo-”

“Were you paying attention last night?”  He countered, cutting me off.  “Dust is a good enough fighter that he knows how to pull his bucks.  He won’t let her get too banged up, just enough that she’ll know that he’s being serious and that she needs to take it seriously as well.  I know you love her, Candy, I do too.  And I know you don’t want her to get hurt, but she’s an adult now, and this is the only way she is going to be happy.”

“I… well, I just don’t know how she’ll be happy in the… at home, if all she’s good at is fighting.”  Was I the only one who could see it this way?  “How is she going to convince everypony back home that she’s not just a troublemaker if all she knows is how to bloody a nose or break a bone?”

“Everypony back home can go buck themselves, all I care about are my daughters.”  He looked morose, his eyes searching me for something.   “The ponies back home won’t always be a problem for Nohta, eventually they’ll figure out that Nohta’s not the worst thing that could happen to somepony.  They might even be glad to see her, after all of this is done.  Hell, I think she’ll be fine, as long as she doesn’t start to abuse her fighting skills.  Try to keep her from using her hooves to push folks around, will you?”

“Yes, Father, of course.”  I could try to keep her from bloodying a few noses, but it didn’t mean that I thought she wouldn’t be entitled to doing just that.

“You know, if you think Nohta has it rough, you should have seen what your mother went through before she started sharing her potions with everypony.”  He seemed to cheer up at the memory of Mother.  “She was so mistrusted that folks eventually decided she’d absolutely have to be integrated into the… er, village so that she couldn’t get out and tell folks where our home was.  Most ponies back home didn’t take too kindly to me sharing that little secret with her, either.  Our family has always gotten a lot of criticism for that.”

“Don’t worry, Candy.  Sooner or later, thing’s will work themselves out.  They always do, one way or another.”  He brought a hoof up to my cheek and smiled warmly at me.  “So, I imagine you’re pretty hungry by now.   How about some food?”


**************


We stayed in Mareon for three more days, Nohta and Dust sparring almost continuously.  I kept checking on them.  At first, I was constantly by their sides, watching over them.  Then I realized that Nohta was actually getting better at not getting hit and wasn’t getting beaten into the ground like she had that first night.

I started venturing into the town, and checking up every 30 minutes.  Then it was every hour.  Then a couple times a day.  Sometimes I would see an empty health potion, but not often.  It didn’t make me worry any less, but at least she wasn’t getting hurt too badly.

I spent my spare time talking to the shopkeepers in town, sampling the local cuisine (If you could call it that), and reading Mother’s book.  Occasionally, I would wander over to Doctor Flannel’s office to check up on the patients.  The colts had healed nicely, and were walking by the second day.  The yellow earth-pony was well on his way to recovery, even if he didn’t seem cognizant of his surroundings just yet.  The manticore victim was rather cowed by her experience, and extremely grateful that I had helped her in her time of need.  She practically forced a copy of “Big Book of Arcane Sciences” upon me.  I tried to tell her she needn’t bother paying me, as I had already gotten the information I needed from Doctor Flannel, but she insisted.

The pegasus mare was gone before I got there.  The doctor told me that she had said something about an old contact and a new lead, then blitzed out the door before he could say anything to her.  After a moment’s disappointment, I figured that it was probably for the best that I wouldn’t get to talk to her.  I’d probably just bore her by asking a series of inane questions such as ‘What do pegasi talk about?’  Judging by the doctor’s reaction to her race, I had assumed that pegasi probably weren’t all that rare out in the wastes.

Hey, just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you’re right all the time. 

After having gathered together all the rumors, gossip, news, and any other tidbit of information we could scrounge up, Dust and Father decided that we should head Northeast, towards the majority of Equestria.  Geography had never been my favorite subject in class, but I could certainly remember that most of Equestria lay north of home.  

So after bidding the inhabitants of Mareon a fond farewell, we were back on the road.  The long, boring, road.  We spent two days walking, and talking.  Two nights were spent watching Dust and Nohta spar, or at least, sitting next to their ‘ring’ and reading more of Mother’s book until one of them called for medical attention.  The crowd of ponies that gathered to watch had gotten bigger since the first night.  Some of them seemed to enjoy the matches almost as much as Nohta.  But eventually the call of bedrolls would always win out, and the tired ponies would drag themselves to bed.

The monotony of our dusty, flat environs had given way to rocky outcroppings and small valleys.  The sparse vegetation hardly seemed like enough to support any sort of animal life beyond tiny insects, but the howls of coyotes and other, more dangerous, animals could be heard every night as we laid down to sleep.  A nocturnal lullaby that hinted at the dangers of the desert all around us.

I had settled into the routine that I could see forming.  Walk, rest, walk, study, heal, sleep, repeat. But it didn’t actually last all that long.  The third day out from Mareon is when everything changed.  Goddess, I can still remember it so clearly. 

That day was colder than usual.  The air was still.  We had set out at the normal time, but everypony was still groggy when the first thing went wrong.  One of the wagons broke a wheel. 

No.  Really.  This entire debacle started with a busted wagon wheel.  Most folks probably wouldn’t think that was such a big deal, but it ruined our entire day’s schedule.  You see, this particular wagon was the wagon holding all of the water that we weren’t carrying in our packs.  Leaving it wasn’t an option, as we needed the water to keep us alive out in the desert.  So we were forced to attempt to make repairs to a wagon wheel using magic, as we had no resources with which to mend the break.  And of course, all of the unicorns that had any skill in making repairs to anything had remained at The Stable, in order to keep it in habitable condition.

Hmm?  Why of course I thought about pulling a wheel off of another wagon!  What do you take me for?  I proffered my proposition to Dust directly!  But he just waved me off, citing a lack of tools or some other such rubbish.  I believed his reasons to be quite ludicrous, but I couldn’t really start an argument with the pony in charge of the whole expedition, now could I?

So there we were, trying to fix a busted wagon wheel in the middle of the desert, which gave everypony not working on the wagon plenty of time to talk.  Most of The Caravan had gathered off to the side, collectively worrying about the wheel. 

Nohta was with Dust, like usual.  She and Dust had become quite close over the last few days, his tutelage into aspects of her life that she had been previously shunned for had quickly gained her trust.  The firsthand accounts of Mother’s fighting skills had sealed the deal, and Nohta was looking up to him more and more every day.  He, on the other hoof, seemed to immensely enjoy having someone to pass his skills onto.  He would have made a fine teacher in The Stable had his skillset not been quite so… brutal.

I was off by myself, reading from Mother’s book as per usual, when Father trotted up to me, “Candy, we’ll be ready to move out in ten minutes, but the wheel might need a smaller load.  We’re going to move some of the water from the wagon to the other carts.  Get all of your things packed and ready to go.”  After a moment’s pause, he added.  “Also, grab that bag of medical supplies you got from the clinic.  I wanted to check it for something.”

I already carried most of my belongings in my pack, but I figured I could go ahead and grab anything else I had.  I was levitating my little alchemy set into my packs when Spicy Salsa asked if he could have a word with me.  In private.  

Once I had stowed all of my belongings away in my saddlebags and the pockets of my lab coat, I walked around the wagon to where Spicy was waiting on me.  I gave him a puzzled smile, asking what he wanted to talk about.

“Well, I, uh… I wanted to ask you something.”

“Oh?”  I cocked my head to the side, taking note of his tense posture and labored breathing.

“Ya, I wanted to, uh… “

“Spicy, are you okay?”

His eyes widened in confusion, “Huh?”

“Well, it’s just that you’re sweating rather profusely for how chilly it is right now.  Did you think that you might be coming down with something?  If you’re sick, then it wouldn’t be wise for you to overexert yourself by pulling one of the wagons.  I can probably squeeze in a checkup before the situation with the wheel is resolved, if you’re feeling ill.”

“No!  Er, no thank you, I mean.  I’m not sick.”

“Are you sure?  You don’t have to be embarrassed to come to me for help, you know.  I am a doctor, after all.”

“Yes, yes.  I’m fine.  I’m just, uh… Wait.  What was the deal with the wheel, anyway?”

I waved a hoof in the air dismissively, “Oh, somehow the ancient thing has cracked or bent.  I asked Dust if there were any way I could help, but he said that the situation was under control.”

His brow furrowed, “I’m surprised that we don’t just take a wheel off of one of the less-important wagons.”

“Ha!  That’s what I said!”

“Haha, leave it to you to figure it out before the rest of us.”  What began as nervous laughter turned into a genuine chuckle that the two of us shared.  Luna forgive me, but I’m a sucker for a compliment.

The laughter died away as I explained, “Well, my idea must not have been as grand as I thought!  Dust said that it wouldn’t work, for whatever reason.”

“Oh.  That’s too bad.  I wouldn’t ever be able to come up with how to fix the wagon myself.  I can’t even fix the light in my kitchen back home.”  His self-deprecating statement may have begged for it, but I couldn’t help but want to repay his compliment.

“Didn’t you do just that?”

“Huh?”

“Figure out how to fix the wagon?  I’m sure that substituting another wheel would work, if only they’d give it a chance.  You thought of the same thing.  I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit, Spicy.”

He smiled, and seemed to finally relax.  “That’s sweet of you to say, but… well you know how it was back when we were in class together.  You were always blowing everypony away when it came to grades.  I wasn’t ever that smart.  It can take me a while to figure things out..”  He sighed, “And some things… take me a lot longer than others.”

“Candy, I’ve been thinking...  Everypony is saying that this trip is really dangerous.  It hasn’t seemed that way so far, but just in case something happens, I wanted to tell you something.  Back when we were foals, and the door came down on me; you saved my life.  Even though I had been nothing but awful to you.  I never properly thanked you either, or apologized for how I had been acting.  I don’t know why it took me this long to get around to it, but I wanted you to know that I really did appreciate it, and that I am really, really, sorry about everything before that.”

That’s what this was about?  “Oh, well, it’s alright I suppose.  I got my glyph-mark out of the whole ordeal.  Besides, we were foals.  I can’t hold something like that against you.”

“Well, there’s more.”  He admitted, taking a deep breath before continuing, “See, I think the others were just giving you a hard time because you were, uh, you know.  Different, I guess?  But, I, uh.  Damn, this is hard to say.”

I gave him a quizzical look, not really sure what he was getting at.  Why would he drag up these old memories?  Surely he had to know I didn’t harbor any resentment for him or his foalhood friends.

He looked squarely at me, with a pleading look in his eyes, and opened his mouth to speak, “Just in case we don’t make it, I wanted you to know; I’ve always had sort of a cru-” 

BANG!

Spicy Salsa’s head exploded from the bullet that tore through his skull.  Little chunks of him flew in every direction, including at me.  I had bits of his skull in my mane, and one of his eye’s had landed right between my front hooves.  His blood was splattered all over the wagon, and all over my face.  His body fell against the side of the wagon and buckled at the knees, smearing a wide bloodstain against the tarp that went over our supplies. 

My mouth hung open.  I could barely register what had just happened.  Being a doctor in a stable, I would occasionally see an older member of our number succumb to cancer, bad health, or just old age.  Very rarely I would have to declare a younger member of The Stable dead after a heart attack, or a bad accident due to faulty pipes.  This was the first time I had witnessed bloody, violent, death.  This was the first time I had seen a gun used on a pony purposefully.  This was the beginning of my education in what to expect from the wastes.  

And I was about to learn the hard way.

“CIRCLE THE WAGONS!  EVERYPONY GET TO COVER!”  Dust was already barking out orders. 

More gunfire from unknown and unseen assailants peppered the wagon all around me, shocking me from my stupefied state.  I had to get down!  I had to get around the wagon!  The attackers had just killed Spicy (Luna help us), and I was right in the path of fire!  I scrambled around the side of the wagon, keeping my head down as splinters of wood flew in every direction.

“ARM YOURSELVES!”  Dust was passing out guns and ammunition.  It was then that I remembered the little magical laser pistol that Father had given me.  I was a terrible shot, but what else could I do?  Lie there and wait to die? 

I drew the gun from its holster around my leg and started to inch around the side of the wagon when a heavy hoof drug me back behind the wooden barrier.  I turned and saw Dust, holding onto my shoulder.  

His gruff voice was disturbingly calm, “Medical personnel are too valuable to throw to the grinder.  Stay back, and look after the wounded.”

“O-Okay.  Where is Nohta?”  I needed to find her first, to make sure she was alright.

She slid into cover beside Dust and I, “I’m right here, Sis!  You ok?”  Her eyes were wide underneath her hood. 
        
Dust raised a rifle and made ready to return fire. “You two stick together.  Nohta, guard your sister while she works, keep her safe, and remember what I told you!  GO!  NOW!” 

“Got it!  Come on, Sis,  Let’s go!”  Nohta scrambled towards the next bit of barricade we had set up, an overturned cart that had held most of our food.  I followed as fast as I could.

The gunfire was loud, but still I heard screams all around me as I tried to keep my head down. Father dragged a mare back to our cart, a great, bloody hole torn through her shoulder.  Blood had stained her ivory coat and mane scarlet, and pooled around her when he sat her up against the cart.   

“Hold on, Cream Puff!”  I tried to tell the mare.  She looked up at me, eyes beginning to close.  I frantically began to work as fast as I could.  “Just stay with me!”  I took out a healing potion and poured it down her throat, while simultaneously levitating the bullet out of the wound.  She lost consciousness, but kept her life. 

Father had disappeared.  I couldn’t tell where Dust was.  Ponies all around me were falling, great spurts of blood accompanying the cracks of gunfire.  I drug another pony behind the cart and began to work. 

“Severed artery.  Goddess be with us… Nohta, raise that leg and press down on the wound as hard as you can!”  I had to yell over the din of battle.  Nohta obliged but, Luna bless her, she had no idea what she was doing.

The buck’s eyes began to drift shut as I held his head with a hoof and spoke directly to him, “Seven Card!  Hey!  Stay with me!  You need to stay awake!”  I floated out a healing potion and raised the small container to his lips, but more of it dribbled out of his mouth than was actually swallowed.

“No… no, no, no.  Hang on Seven!” The paltry amount of healing offered by the potion wasn’t working fast enough.  I slipped into my talent.  Tears welled in my eyes, obscuring my vision as I jammed a hoof against the upper portion of his leg and pinned his brachial artery against his humerus.  It was a desperate attempt to stop the flow.  It was all I had left to give.

I felt the artery slipping out of place as I hurriedly tried to fuse the ends of it back together with my talent, but… I could feel him fading.  He had lost too much blood.  

Goddess, I… I wasn’t strong enough.  I was failing another patient.  

The world dulled in color.  Sound became distant.  

No!  There was still time!  If I could administer a healing potion directly to the site of the wound…

The world faded to black as half of me experienced a total cessation of sensation.  The other half felt a pull.  It was as if my mind had become a rope that had been wound far too taut between two points.  I had just enough time to feel Seven Card’s last pained moments in this world.

And then the rope snapped.

“Gah!”  I reeled back from the stabbing pain between my ears and tried to blink the stars out of my eyes as the world rushed back into focus all around me.  The sounds of gunfire, explosions, and screams pierced through the hazy veil of my mind, and I remembered where I was.

“Sis?”  Nohta was still holding Seven’s leg.

My eyes met with her’s as my lips quivered.  I couldn’t bring myself to say it.  Fresh tears rolled down my face as I closed my eyes and gently shook my head.

Nohta laid Seven’s leg down, “Wow, Sis, that’s…  He’s gone?”

I clenched my eyelids shut harder, “It was just… just like-”

She shook me, “No!  Sis, this is nothing like that!  Okay?  It’s not!”  Looking around us, she added, “We still have others that we need to help.  We have to keep going!”

Nohta was right.  Work now, mourn later.  I brushed the tears out of my eyes and chanced a look over the cart, trying to discover who or what was attacking us.  I didn’t notice anything at first, but then I saw them.  Wings, claws, beaks, and black armor.

The stallion that had been pulling our medical cart ducked for cover next to us.  “Fucking Griffins, Luna save us!” 

“Griffins?”  Nohta asked in shock, “What did we do to them?”

“Fuck if I know, kid, but we’re in for it now!  Looks like a merc squad!  KEEP YOUR GODDESS-DAMNED HEAD DOWN, GIRL!”  He forced me back behind cover just before the wood panel that I had been peeking over exploded in a shower of splinters.

“Right, sorry!  Next patient, next patient!”  I dragged over another pony with blood foaming at her nostrils and mouth.  I began to clear her lungs of the obstructing blood with my magic and jammed a Med-X into her flank.  There was a deafening *BOOM*, and the mare’s head was reduced to a sanguine pulp.  

A griffin landed beside me, kicking up a dust cloud with her wings.  She had holstered her shotgun in exchange for a set of knives, and was bearing down on me like death incarnate.  Nohta slammed into her side a second later, sending them both rolling.  The griffin was trying to get back up when Nohta reared and stomped both front hooves into her left wing.  Even over the gunfire, I could hear a loud series of cracks as Nohta broke my assailant’s wing and the griffin screamed in pain.  The mercenary lashed out with her knives, and blood painted the air crimson.

I stared in horror as the blade rent a jagged, bloody channel across my sister’s face.  Drawing my weapon, I tried to aim, but Nohta was too close to the griffin, and I wasn’t a good enough shot to be certain that I’d hit our attacker, and not my sister.  I lowered my weapon and prayed to Luna to protect her.

Nohta cried out, falling back as the griffin got up.  My sister grit her teeth against the pain, and ducked under the griffin’s next attack, lashing out at the mercenary's exposed belly.  The griffin grunted and stabbed downward at Nohta, but missed her by mere inches.  Nohta sidestepped the griffin’s slashes and thrusts, blood flowing freely from the knife-wound, and landed a savage blow to one of the griffin’s ribs.  Again, I heard cracking bones, as the griffin swung her blades in response.  Nohta had learned, however, and the knives missed her completely as she jumped back.

Apparently, our attacker had anticipated as much, and with a single, fluid motion, dropped her knives and drew her shotgun.  Nohta closed the distance between the two of them quickly, sliding underneath the first shot, and got a hoof underneath the barrel, bucking it upwards, where the second round also fired harmlessly.  She bucked out at the griffin’s armored chest, using Mother’s horseshoes in a quick succession of hammering kicks.  The blows stunned the griffin long enough for Nohta to turn and land a double-buck to her throat.  The mercenary was lifted off of the ground from the force of the blow, and fell backwards in a heap, blood pouring out of her beak.  She didn’t get back up. 

I ran to my sister as fast as I could, the bag of medical supplies still balanced on my back.  Her wound needed immediate attention!  She was gushing blood from the gash, her coat staining red around her mouth as the blood flowed down her face.  I fished a healing potion out of the bag and practically threw the contents down her throat as I slipped into my talent’s trance-like state and fused the skin and tissue back together.  The pain was excruciating.

She pushed me away and gestured to the rest of The Caravan, “Ponies still need our help, Sis!  We need to get moving!”

I heard an unfamiliar whooshing noise, and the cart that we had previously been using for cover exploded, its contents blown in every direction as splinters of wood peppered us.  The brown buck that had saved me moments ago was thrown backwards by the blast.  His limp body rolled to a stop, and his blood seeped into the dry earth.  

I looked back at The Caravan, and realized that the dead or dying now outnumbered the healthy.  We were losing.

I spotted Father trying to help another pony, and ran over to him, Nohta close behind.  “How can I help?”

Father glanced at me, then gasped as he locked eyes with my sister, ”Nohta!  Your face!”

Nohta dismissed him with a wave of her hoof, “I’ll be fine, Dad.  Candy healed me up already.  Besides, the griffin that did this got a lot worse than a scar.”

His mouth hung open in shock, “What?”

Nohta’s voice was cold.  “She got dead.”

Father brought his hoof to his face, smearing blood across his brow.  “Oh Luna… Girls, you need to listen to me.  I know this won’t be easy for you, but I need the two of you do something for me.”

I nodded, “Of course, Father.  Anything.”

Taking a deep breath, he made his request, “Run.  Run away from this fight as fast as you can.”

“What? Are you crazy?”  How could we leave?  How could he even ask us to go?

“That’s an order, from your father and the second-in-command!  Run, keep each other safe, and wait in Mareon for three days.  If we’re not back by then... Tell the Stable.  They’ll need to know.”  He looked directly at me.  “I love you,”  He looked to Nohta, “both of you, so much.  Run.  GO!”

I was stunned, how could I leave Father to die?  I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, I… Nohta was pulling on my lab-coat, trying to get me moving.  Nohta...

“Goodbye, Father.  I love you.”  I had to stay strong, I had to do this, even if every fiber of my being screamed at me that it was wrong, cowardly, selfish.  I had to do this, for her.  I could do this, for Nohta, to keep her safe.

I turned, and we ran.  We ran as hard as we could.  Fleeing into the desert, away from the fight behind us.  Away from the deaths of ponies that had depended on us.  Away from the rising column of smoke that I hadn’t even noticed.  We ran.  And we survived.

We survived.  And everything we knew about the world changed.


******************************************


Footnote: 

Candy Stripes:

S	 3
P	 6
E	 4
C	 5
I	 9
A	 6
L	 7

Good Natured: You’re good natured at heart, more prone to solving problems with your mind than through violence. +5 to Barter, Speech, Science, Medicine, and Repair, but -5 to Firearms, Magic Energy, Explosives, Unarmed, Melee, and Battle Saddles.

Skilled: You’re skilled, but not experienced. You gain +5 to all skills, but suffer -10% experience gain.

Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 2!
New Perk!

Wasteland Surgeon:  Your medical expertise and special talents allow you to heal crippled limbs without the use of Doctor’s Bags. You also gain a +2% Critical Chance when attacking non-mutated creatures or equines.  Make others whole, Doctor.

Skills Note: Barter 25
Skills Note: Medicine 50
Skills Note: Repair 25
Skills Note: Science 50
Skills Note: Speech 25
Skills Note: Survival 25

Footnote: Nohta has joined The Party!

Nohta:  

S	 7
P	 6
E	 6
C	 2
I	 5
A	 7
L	 7

Kamikaze: Nohta’s reckless nature allows her to act faster in combat. She gains +10 Action Points, but suffers -2 Damage Threshold.

Hot Blooded: When Nohta gets hurt, she doesn’t just accept it!  She gets MAD!  When her health drops below 50% she gains +15% damage, but suffers -2 to Perception and Agility.

Tagged Skills: Unarmed, Lockpick, Sneak

Nohta gains a Perk:

Intense Training (Endurance):  Nohta’s sparring sessions with Dust have left her in excellent physical condition.  She permanently gains +1 Endurance for a total of 7.





> Chapter Two: Class Is Now In Session
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Two:


Class Is Now In Session



“Way too many strangers coming into town these days.  No offense.”


“Dears, your father and I traveled far and wide across the ruined lands of Equestria and beyond.  I have only a few regrets.  But one that I find unbearable is knowing that I will not be able to share in your experiences as you travel the world like Dream Chaser and I once did.

The sunset in The Badlands is nearly as beautiful as the snow capped ruins of the great, glittering palace of the ancient Crystal Empire.  The sweet smells of life which emanate from The Everfree Forest are worth the hazardous trek through its darkened canopies and then some.  To gaze upon the magnificent pink waterfall flowing from beneath the dead city of Canterlot will chill you to the bone, while warming your heart to know that not all tragedies are inescapable.

Everywhere are pockets of civilization, poking up from the ruins of our dead world like weeds in a garden.  Ponies and zebras are stubborn, that way.  You just have to learn which weeds to pull, and which to leave behind.

But no matter how you deal with those who dwell on the surface, remember this one little fact:

You are the gardeners of your own lives.  Cultivate your herbs well, and they will provide for you in your time of need.

…Just don’t try to plant anything in the dry soil outside The Stable.  Even my green hoof couldn’t grow anything in that canyon!”


-Excerpt from the Book of Nadira, pg. 12



---------------------------------------------------------------


Nohta and I had survived.  When the griffin’s ambushed our caravan, the two of us had abandoned the ponies that were depending upon us to flee into the desert.  The griffins were either too absorbed in their attack or didn’t have the numbers to give chase.  I still wanted to go back and try to save Father and the rest of The Caravan, but he had given us explicit instructions.  The Stable was just too important.

We were galloping hard for The Macintosh Hills, trying to find cover from any pursuers that might have come after us.  I was nearly out of breath and we were hardly halfway there.  Nohta, at least, was able to keep a constant pace.  When I started to lag behind, she grabbed the bag of medical supplies and placed them on her own back without a word.

Eventually, I just couldn’t run anymore.  My legs were practically numb from exertion, and my breath was catching in my parched throat.  I desperately needed a break.

“Noh...” I tried to get my little sister’s attention, “wait... need...”

“I know it’s a long way, Sis, but we need to keep going.  Those griffins could be on top of us at any moment!”  She turned to look back at The Caravan in the distance, scanning the clouds as she did. 

“Can’t... keep pace...” I was exhausted.  I had never before been required to run so hard for so long.  

Nohta looked over to me, noticed my pitiful state, and acquiesced, “Okay, we’ll take a break as soon as we reach some cover.”

“Thank...”  I coughed, stumbled, and nearly fell over.  I felt dizzy, lightheaded, and so very, very exhausted.

“Okay, maybe we’ll take a break now.”  She let out an exasperated sigh and trotted back to my side, setting our supplies on the ground and allowing me to lean on her for support.  “Are you gonna be alright?”

“Don’t... know...”  I had opened a bottle of water, and was attempting to take sips between ragged breaths, “just... left them.  How...?” 

She pulled back her hood and looked me in the eye.  “I was asking if you were gonna be able to make it to the hills, Sis.  We can worry about everything else later.”  

“I... okay.”  I was in no state to try and press the issues I wanted to discuss with her, so I simply stopped talking and tried to catch my breath.  

Nohta kept a vigilant watch for the duration of our brief respite.  My eyes, however, were glued to the pillar of smoke that was rising from the remains of our caravan.  The griffins must have set fire to the wagons. The particular pillar of smoke that had my undivided attention was most likely the cart of medical supplies.  It was the only one that contained the chemicals necessary to produce the vibrant green hues present in the billowing pillar.  That shade of green stuck out like a sore hoof in the reddish-brown desert.  The medical supplies cart had been the special charge of Father and myself; and now it was a smoking wreck.  What had become of Father?

Father had been outside plenty of times before, I told myself.  He knew how to deal with the dangers of the wasteland.  Maybe he and Dust could fight the mercenaries off, or perhaps he could broker a truce.  Maybe Father would still be able to save everypony in The Caravan! 

I knew it was fantasy as soon as the thought crossed my mind.  Father was most likely already dead, along with Dust, Spicy Salsa, Cream Puff, Seven Card, and every other pony in the expedition.  It was very possible that Nohta and I were going to be the only survivors of the ambush.

I shuddered.  Partially from my body’s attempts to draw breath, and partially from the realization that I’d most likely never see Father again.  I wanted to cry.  Part of me wanted to run back to The Caravan and tell Father that I was still daddy’s little girl.  Hold him in my hooves and allow him to stroke my mane.  Let him assure me that everything was going to be okay.  But I knew that none of that was possible now.

I was the elder sister.  I was supposed to be the responsible one.  I had to look out for Nohta.  I had to be her foundation.  Her base.  I had to make sure that we both got out of this alive.  But, I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d manage all of that.  It seemed like a rather daunting task, and I was already faltering, completely winded and having to rely on my sister’s strength to simply stand up.  

Taking stock of myself, I couldn’t help but feel rather pathetic, and ashamed.  I glanced at my sister.  Her eyes were still scanning the horizon and areas just above, watching for threats.  But it wasn’t what her eyes were looking at that gave me pause.  It was the piercing look of determination mixed with anger in her hard, purple eyes that made me reevaluate our situation.

Nohta wasn’t going to take this lying down.  She wouldn’t sit and cry and bemoan her fate like I was on the verge of doing.  She was stubborn.  She was a fighter.  She was like Mother.

I might have taken after Father more than her, but I was still Mother’s daughter as well.  If Nohta could find the strength to keep going, then I could too.  A cold resolve took hold of me as I found some measure of my own strength.  I would not let this be our end.  I would not simply roll over and die.  I would not let the deaths of so many serve no purpose.  I would fight, kicking and screaming if need be, until the life was forced out of my body by means beyond my control.  But I would not die now.  Not today.

It seemed I would be relying on Nohta’s strength in more ways than one.  
        
I wasn’t really recovered yet, but we had already tarried too long.  Nohta was right, the griffins could be on top of us at any moment and we desperately needed to get out of the open and find cover.  We set out again, Nohta carrying nearly all of our things this time.  The lightened load helped considerably, and we were able to make our way to the more rocky terrain to our south with only minimal delays.

We slid down a steep incline into a small ravine and found a cave cut into the side of the rock.  “Noh…  This looks…”

My sister’s eyes darted between myself, the sky, and the cave with nervous glances, “Ya, this might work.  We gotta get out of sight and lay low for a minute.  Let’s go inside and rest.  I’ll make sure nothing’s gonna jump out at us.”

The two of us activated our Pipbuck lamps and walked into the opening.  The mouth of the cave was small enough to grossly misrepresent the enormity of the chamber which lay inside.  The musty smells of fungi and stagnant pools of mineral-rich water emanated from deeper within the cavern.  My curiosity begged and pleaded for me to go spelunking, but the rest of me (with special reference to my burning lungs and aching muscles) was content to keep my hooves on the gravelly soil near the entrance and catch my breath.

Nohta dumped our belongings near the mouth of the cave and ventured further.  I marvelled at just how quiet she could be.  Her hoofsteps made no more noise than the distant drips of water from the stalactites, or the faint breeze that passed through the ravine outside our temporary shelter.  With some embarrassment, I realized that my heavy breathing was the noisiest thing within earshot.

I sat on my haunches, my strength completely spent.  Nohta was inspecting a faintly glowing stalk of fungus, its blue luminescence bathing her in an eerie glow.  Our surroundings had no signs of habitation, and the entrance was well hidden by the walls of the ravine.  We were, at the moment, safe.  

The events of the last few hours played back through my mind.  Chunks of Spicy’s brain and skull flying in all directions, then the screams, the gunfire (it was so loud!), Seven Card’s last moments… 

That poor buck hadn’t deserved his fate.  If only I had been quicker!  That hadn’t been the first time that I had followed another soul to the edge, only to stare death in the face and have it tell me that I couldn’t follow any further, but it had been only marginally easier to deal with than the first.  Seven’s death had only served as a reminder for just how painful losing a patient could be.  I had to tell myself over and over again that my efforts wouldn’t have mattered either way; the griffins had probably made short work of everypony still alive after Nohta and I had fled, but the fact that I had still failed another patient gnawed at me.  

Why hadn’t I thought to use the potion sooner?  Why hadn’t I directed Nohta to pinch the artery when I knew I was too weak to hold it in place?  Why did I allow his pain to distract me?  Why did I hesitate when I knew what needed to be done?  I was better than that!  I knew that I was!  So why hadn’t I been better?  How could I have failed so miserably?  Was I not the doctor that I believed myself to be?

Before I could fall into a recursive spiral of guilt, doubt, and self-pity, my thoughts drifted towards the rest of the events that had transpired during the ambush; the mare that I had tried to save, only to have her head blown apart, and the griffin that Nohta had fought off.  Merciful Luna, Nohta had killed someone! 

“Nohta!” I called out to her.  She turned away from the fungi that surrounded the stalagmites and trotted over to me as my own voiced echoed off the rock.

“You okay, Sis?” Her countenance was unreadable; hidden underneath her hood.  “I know that gallop must have been hard on you, but we should be okay here for a while.”

“Yes, dear, I’m fine.  Better now than earlier, anyway.  But what about you? Are you okay?” 

“Ya, I’m fine.  My face is still a little sore from the cut, but other than that I feel alright.  Why?”  She cocked her head and stared at me.  

“I wasn’t talking about how you felt, physically.  I’m well aware of how tough you are.”  I tried to sound comforting, but I needed to know what she was thinking.  “What I meant was, ‘Are you okay with what happened... with the griffin?  Are you okay with leaving the rest of the group behind?”

“Ya, I’m good.”  She pulled her hood back from her eyes, revealing an icy glare.  “Peachy-fucking-keen over here.” 

“Nohta...” I began.

My sister quickly averted her eyes, visibly shaking with her rage, “Candy, just… just dont!  Okay?”  She walked back to the stalagmite, taking ever-deepening breaths as her chest heaved with rage.  Upon reaching the fungi-covered formation, she reared up, bracing herself against the slick rock with her front hooves, and screamed.  “FUCK!  Goddess-damn it, Dad!”  She beat her shodden hooves against the stone, working through her emotions as Mother’s horseshoes chipped away at the rock.

My lower lip quivered.  I hadn’t seen her so clearly upset in such a long time.  How could I quell that anger?  “Sister, please… “

Her attacks on the stalagmite came to a slow stop, as she braced her outstretched hooves against the stone and hung her head between her legs.  “Look, Sis, I’m not blaming you for anything.  I’m just pissed off, okay?  Give me a few minutes without trying to pry into my head and then we’ll talk, alright?”  She walked over to our belongings, and sifted through our food stores, still huffing.  

I knew my little sister better than to attempt to press an issue with her when she was truly upset, so I simply waited as she rummaged through our belongings.  She came back with two bottles of water and some Fancy Buck cakes.  Setting the cakes and a bottle of water in front of me, she spoke again, “Here, eat something.  And try to drink some water too, you’re sweating like crazy.”

“I, uh... yes, of course.”  Who was the big sister here?

She lay down in front of me, avoiding my gaze.  “We’re okay on water, but we don’t have a lot of food.  We might have to scrounge up some fruit or something from the surface plants.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to find something along the way.”  I wasn’t exactly sure that we could find anything, but I could skip a meal or two if it were absolutely necessary. 

“Also,” she continued, looking at the Pipbuck on her right foreleg, “my sonic-thing broke.  I’m not sure when it happened.” 

The little speaker attached to her Pipbuck was nowhere-to-be-seen.  The only sign that anything had been attached at all was some wiring that was dangling out of the port.  I still didn’t know what the little devices were supposed to deter, but I reasoned that it was probably something we couldn’t handle on our own.

“Well, we still have one,” I held up my hoof.  “we’ll just have to be careful with it.”

She took a drink of her water and stared at her hooves.  After a long and fretful moment, she whispered, “Sorry, Sis.  I didn’t mean to snap.”

Eager to have the unpleasantness of her anger assuaged, I pressed on, “I know dear, don’t worry about it.  But, Nohta, are you okay?  I’m grateful that you saved me, but...” I trailed off, both hoping and dreading that she would catch on to what I was talking about.

Nohta, despite popular opinion, wasn’t dumb.  She knew exactly what I wanted to discuss, and this time she obliged.  She whispered in a defeated voice, lightly shaking her head, “She tried to hurt you, maybe worse.  I didn’t even really think about what was going on, I just acted.  I didn’t want you to get hurt.”  Her eyes rose to meet my own, as anxiety bloomed across her face, “That griffin got what she deserved.  I’m not worried about that.”

She continued, speaking at an unsteady pace, “I’m scared, Sis.  I’m sorry, I’m just... not sure about all of this.  I mean… Dad’s gone.  And he told us to run, but... now that we’re actually out here, and he’s… It just feels wrong, doesn’t it?”

I reached out and placed my hoof over her own.  She looked up at me, worry etched across her features.  I didn’t say anything at first, I just wanted her to know that I was there.  

It seemed our roles had been reversed yet again. “It does feel wrong, leaving them like that.  But, Nohta, we’re still alive.  Okay?  Whenever Father ordered us to run, he was trying to keep us safe.  And he had to account for all the possibilities as well.  If we don’t see anypony from The Caravan in Mareon soon after we get there, we’ll have to inform The Stable that no aid is coming.  Hundreds of ponies might be depending on us, and we need to stay strong for them, okay?”

Nohta didn’t say anything.  She just lowered her gaze and nodded. 


**************


Nohta really wasn’t joking when she said that we were low on food.  Neither of us had been carrying much in the way of provisions when the griffins had attacked, and the Fancy Buck Cakes that she had given me represented an entire third of our reserves.  If I had known that at the time, I would have forced her to split them with me.  We reasoned that we had about a day’s worth of very thinly spread rations left to walk back to Mareon.  We’d be hungry, but we would make it so long as we set out soon.

Nohta had calmed down enough to allow me to give her new wound proper treatment, but despite my best efforts, she was left with a scar marring her striped face.  She didn’t seem to mind, believing that it made her look, in her words, “tougher, more like a fighter, and,” she added with a nostalgic grin, “more like Mom.”

It took several bottles of water, but I was nearly able to wash Spicy’s blood out of my mane and off of my face.  I couldn’t help but spare a moment of quiet reflection as the diluted red poured onto the cave floor.  He had said… He had nearly said… 

Ugh!  Why had all of this happened?  Why now?  How would things have been different if the two of us had been standing on the other side of the wagon?  Would he be here now?  Beside me?  Consoling my sister and I as the three of us made our way through the desert?  Could he really think that…  Did he actually mean it?

What would I have done, anyway?  I had no experience in those things!  What was I supposed to do?  Should I have given him a chance?  Had he really changed?  Was a relationship even something that I was capable of right now?

It was my last thought that brought me back to my predicament.  Spicy was dead.  There was nothing that I could do for him.  No amount of pondering over past events would be able to change the course of my life.  At that moment, I had an obligation to my sister.  I needed to see us out of this mess.  As the last drops of crimson flowed off of my cheeks, I whispered my goodbye to a chance that I knew I’d never be able to regain.  The water from the bottles was my saving grace, concealing my tears from Nohta as the clear liquid poured down my visage.

After I had picked a few of the glowing mushrooms for potions, we walked out of the cave and climbed up out of the ravine.  We started heading in a very general southwesterly direction, navigating the assorted boulders, shrubs, short trees, and fat little cacti that dotted the hills.  I took the occasional opportunity to pick flowers, berries, roots and leaves as I came across them, adding them to my growing collection of alchemical ingredients.  With any luck, I reasoned, I could actually make a few useful potions that night.  Or at the very least, maybe we’d end up with a salad.

The temperature in the desert had risen by an impressive amount during our short stay in the cave.  It, along with the rough and uneven terrain, was impeding our already sluggish progress.  My labcoat clung to my body due to my excessive perspiration.  I simply could not fathom just how out-of-shape I was compared to Nohta.  She was carrying all of our things except for the clothes I was wearing, a couple of health potions I had stashed in the pockets of my lab coat, and my magical laser pistol, and yet she was still moving faster than I was.  

I clambered up over the colossal boulder, and had to take another breather.  Nohta didn’t complain; she just offered me another bottle of water and kept an eye out for trouble.  I drank the water and tried to catch my breath, letting my eyes wander over our current environs.  

All around us The Macintosh Hills rose majestically past the horizon.  The warm reds and earthy browns rose and dipped, creating fissures and canyons as well as spires and sheer cliff-faces.  Tiny brown and grey trees with just a speckling of verdant leaves, as well as short patches of spiky grass, clung obstinately to life amidst the boulders and canyons.  The rocky topography was actually quite beautiful in an austere, rugged sort of way.  Unfortunately it just didn’t seem to love me back.

I finished the water and got back to my hooves.  We really should be going faster, I reasoned, and I was slowing the two of us down.  Nohta asked if I was ready.  I nodded, and had just started to move when she held a hoof against my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.

“Nohta, what-”

“Shh, Sis!  Look!”  Her eyes were wide, and focused on the sky.  I didn’t really need to to track her outstretched hoof to know what she was pointing at, but my eyes followed her simple command on their own.

Tiny black specks were moving in formation through the clouds behind us.  Only one thing came to mind as to what they might be.

“It’s the griffins!  C’mon, Sis, we gotta go!”  She hissed through clenched teeth.

I was already nearing complete exhaustion.  How far was this day going to push us?

Nohta and I fled, seeking cover amidst the crevices and overhangs of the rocky terrain, going to ground as if we were tiny animals being chased by large predators.  I scuffed a fetlock against the protruding edge of a boulder as I made my way down to the little hidey-hole that my sister had found.  

We were bunched up together, literally between a rock and a hard place, and peering out past the boulder at the sky.  My leg ached, and I silently wondered if the collision would leave a bruise.

“Nohta, do you-”

“Shh!  Sis, they’re right there!”

Sure enough, the clouds above us were doing a sub-par job of concealing our attackers.  I caught glimpses of wings and very large weapons being held by talons.  Weapons that could surely end both of us in an instant.

The tension was so heavy that I could feel it upon my chest, weighing down my breaths as I struggled against my body’s earlier exertions to control my breathing.  I felt as if every ragged inhalation was a small betrayal, sure to alert the griffins to our presence, but found myself incapable of calming my racing heart.

After an agonizing wait, the mercenaries had all made their way southwest, passing the two of us by with no signs that they were aware of our presence.  I finally let myself breathe freely in relief.

Nohta was already wriggling out of the confined space, “I think we’re in the clear, Sis.”

I shifted my weight to begin climbing out of the small space, “Thank The Goddess.  I believe that you may be right, Nohta.  Give me a hoof getting out of this cramped little hole, will you?”

Nohta leapt onto the boulder and held a hoof down to me, disturbing a small pebble from its roost amongst its brothers.  The pebble toppled down, thudding and knocking against the walls of the canyon, and crashed into the earth, shattering the thin veneer of rock that lay at the bottom of the canyon and exposing a deep, dark sinkhole below the surface.

I gasped in surprise, “Oh, good heavens!  Nohta, be careful!  The rain in this area must have eroded the terrain!”

Her tone was incredulous, “I don’t know, Sis, It’s pretty dry out here.”  She looked all around us, her expression indifferent, “Do we really need to worry about that?”

I shook my head, dismissing her assumption.  “Just because it’s dry now doesn’t mean that it’s always been that way, dear.  Long ago, the water flowed freely through this area.  The ‘Rock-Farmer’s Almanac’ even suggests that, with a little bit of magical assistance, you might be able to harness the underground flows to help clear away the pesky copper deposits and expose the wild turquoise that lies abundant in the region.”  I nodded sagely, remembering one of the many books that Mother and Father had brought back from their adventures.  “The evidence is all around us, Nohta, haven’t you been paying attention to the canyons and ravines?”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes, “Kinda been preoccupied there, Sis.”

I held a hoof to my chin, surveying the foothills of The Macintosh Hills one more time, “Well, judging by these rock formations, I’d venture to say that we are standing amidst plenty of underground sources of water.  I’d bet that some of them are probably flowing into the river near Mareon.  All of that flowing water has probably left the surrounding terrain in a dangerous state of structural decomposition.  There are probably sink-holes, pits, loose shards of rock, and all other manner of nasty little surprises in store for us if we’re not careful.”

“In fact,” I continued, my lecturing skills only just getting ramped up, “I suppose that these foothills are chock-full of them.”

She sighed, probably anticipating the coming lecture, “Really?”

I shifted my weight as I prepared to take Nohta’s hoof and climb out of the hole, “Absolutely.  We must use the utmost care as we-”

*CRACK*

The ground beneath our hooves lurched and gave way, sending the two of us tumbling into the darkness below the earth.

Pain pushed all thought out of my mind as I fell against a hard, slanted surface, and bounced into another terrifying moment of free fall in the darkness before impacting with the rock again.  And again.  And again.  I landed on my shoulder, then my back, then at an awkward angle on my legs, then my face.  I knew something had broken, my own body had never been in agony like this before!

The horrific descent finally came to an end when I fell into a shallow pool just deep enough to splash around me as I lay splayed on my back against the hard rock of the pit’s floor.  Nohta fell beside me with a tremendous grunt of pain and lay panting by my side.  A third object fell on my other side against the rocky floor, and I heard glass break as some of the medical supplies shattered within the bag.  The intense reek of disinfecting agents cut through the musty odor of our surroundings.  I was just hoping that not all of the supplies had been damaged.

I was too afraid to move my Pipbuck leg, so instead I simply spoke towards the darkness where I knew my sister had fallen.  “Noh… Nohta, are you okay?”

She groaned in response, “That.  Really.  Hurt.”

I groaned as well, speaking slowly as I tested my limbs for breaks. “That it most certainly did.  Can you move?  Is anything broken?”

She strained, but I could hear water dripping out of her coat and back into the pool as she managed to push herself to her hooves, “No, I don’t think so.  I’m just…. fuck that hurt!  I’m just sore all over.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t use such vulgar language, dear.”

“Pfft, not like anypony’s around to stop me.”  She activated her Pipbuck lamp, and the cool-blue light shone in my direction as she looked me over.  “Damn, Sis.  You don’t look too good.”

I gently prodded my left foreleg, just above my Pipbuck, and hissed as the pain flared in intensity.  Broken metacarpal.  More careful prodding and poking revealed a severely twisted rear-ankle, several minor lacerations, and a fair amount of bruising.

I spoke through my grimace, “I don’t feel so well, either.  I don’t think I can get up.  Could you bring me the bag of medical supplies?  Do you know what Med-X looks like?”

“That’s the one with the needle and-”

“Yes, yes, that’s the one.  Please hurry!  This hurts a rather substantial amount, dear!”

“Okay, one second.”  Nohta sloshed through the pool beside me, making her way to the bag of supplies on my other side.

As the liquid soaked through my lab-coat, I could feel the coolness washing over my skin.  It would have been a welcome reprieve from the heat of the desert, had I not been solely focused on the excruciating pain in my leg.

“Here, Sis.”  Nohta offered up the bag, “Do you think most of this stuff is okay?”

My horn flared to life as I enveloped the bag in my magic, “I certainly hope so, that bag of supplies may end up as our only bartering chip out here.  And until we reach safety, we desperately need it ourselves.”  

I tried to shift to a more comfortable position, but stopped quickly when I only succeeded in exacerbating the pain in my leg.  “If we have nothing left with which to trade, the ponies of Mareon may not… even…”  Something was moving in the darkness.  “Nohta, check your E.F.S.”

“My what?”

“Your Eyes Forward-”

“Oh, right!”  She glanced around us, holding her leg aloft to better shine her Pipbuck’s light through the gloom, “One blue bar, I think that’s you, and a few red bars, Sis.  That’s all.”  Judging by my sister’s relaxed tone, she didn’t realize that we were in danger. 

The magic surrounding the bag of medical supplies vanished, sending the bag splashing into the shallow pool as I focused my attention on unholstering my pistol, “Nohta!  Red is bad!  Red means hostile!”

“Oh.  Shit.”

The sound of rocks shifting against each other and splashing into the pool came from my right as I craned my neck to peer into the darkness.  The water threatened to submerge my right eye as I turned my head, but I needed to see clearly.  Having finally wrested my pistol from its holster, I levitated it to my teeth and shouted, “‘Tay back!  I haff a gun!”

Low growling and light yips and barks answered as several shadows moved in unison.  The red and blue lights of my horn and Nohta’s Pipbuck died a few yards away from us, and we were unable to peer into the gloom beyond our little island of light.

I lay sprawled on my back in a shallow pool of what I could only hope was water.  Only two of my limbs were functional beyond simply throbbing with pain.  I could feel tiny rivulets of blood coursing down my face, tickling the hairs of my muzzle before dripping from my lips to introduce the taste of copper to my tongue.  I was attempting to aim my magical laser pistol with my teeth in order to keep my magic free, but that only meant that my already awful aim was compromised even further.  I was in a rather sad state.

I knew that, whatever might be in the darkness, I had a better chance of seeing us both through this if I could stand up.  But for that, I’d need a little help.  It’s surprising just how much aid is offered by the judicious application of a powerful painkiller such as Med-X.  

Using my magic, I tugged on the bag of supplies and sent a portion of its contents scattering into the pool.  Picking out a familiar-looking syringe, I levitated it into the air and removed the cap that kept the needle sterile.  As I jammed the little needle through the skin near my Pipbuck, I felt a moment’s trepidation.  Med-X was highly addictive.  And the pains of withdrawals were nothing to scoff at.  I had felt, through my magic, just what sort of agony I was in for if I had to deal with an addiction.  Should I even-

Warm waves ebbed over my body as the pain first dulled, then died completely.  Suddenly my predicament didn’t seem so bad.  Why was I so worried?  It’s just a few spooky shadows.  Who cares?

Don’t worry about it, I told myself.  You can deal with any bad stuff, like addiction, later.  Get out of this mess first, and deal with whatever happens when it happens.  Just keep Nohta and yourself alive.

I rose to my hooves, being careful not to place too much weight on my Pipbuck-leg.  Levitating my pistol out of my mouth and pointing it at the shadows, I steeled myself against whatever monstrosity may lay in wait.

Three very small coyotes splashed into view, barking and leaping over each other while occasionally nipping at each other’s ears.  They were playing.   They were puppies.  I sighed in relief.  Puppies weren’t anything to worry about.  Right?

Nohta walked in between the animals and myself.  “Oh my gosh!  Hey!  Check it out, Sis.  What are these little… dog-things?  They’re sooo cute!”

I coughed, smirking.

Her whole body visibly stiffened, “Uh.  I mean… They’re cool.  Ya.  They look like they could be useful in a fight, or something.  Maybe we should see if we can keep one…”  

My voice came out clear, but my whole body felt sluggish, and weak.  “Nohta, be careful!.  Those are the young ones.  The adults are-”  My warning was too late.

Nohta had reached out to pet one of the little animals, just as the growling beyond the darkness reached a crescendo, and one of the adults leaped onto her shoulders.  It sank its teeth into the hood of her cloak as another adult rushed out of the dark and clamped its jaws around her outstretched hoof.

“Ow!  Fuck!”  She backpedaled, thrashing wildly in an attempt to remove her assailants.

Two more coyotes had circled off to both of my sides, and chose that time to lunge at my sister as well.  I panicked, and activated my S.A.T.S.

Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell.  Father had made mention of the spell before, but I had never used it.  He had always stressed the necessity of learning how to fight without the use of a spell.  After continually missing shot after shot during Father’s horrible “Practice Sessions” in The Stable’s canyon, I found that to be a rather silly assertion.  When else was I guaranteed a seventy-six percent chance to place an energy blast where I wanted it?

The secondary benefit of S.A.T.S. made itself immediately clear to my panic-stricken mind.  I had time to think.  The spell had slowed time to a crawl, or at least my perception of time had slowed.  It was allowing me the luxury of freely picking my targets, judging the likelihood that I would hit (or miss) each of them.  It also provided an intriguing glimpse into just how much damage it could be expected that my attack might render unto my targets.  I’d have to be careful with this spell, however; Nohta was one of those available targets.

Needless to say, I was impressed.  The ponies of the past had certainly created some amazing things.  It took me a moment to realize that I should probably get on with using this technology, as opposed to just marveling over its possible applications.  I assessed the situation, and queued up a salvo at what I judged to be my best targets.

As I released the spell, I felt odd.  It was like an invisible force took hold of my body as the world sped back up to nearly the speed of reality, and my horn and limbs acted of their own accord.  In this case, my magic floated the pistol in front of me, whipping the weapon into position moments before activating the trigger bit and sending a burst of brilliant crimson lancing towards the adult beast that was assaulting Nohta’s hood.

Flames bloomed on the creature’s shoulder as the concentrated points of heat ignited the coyote’s coat and burned deep wounds into its body.  The air was filled with the repugnant stench of burning fur and charred flesh as the creature let out a terrified yelp and fell into the pool at Nohta’s side.

In this slow-motion state of only-slightly-controlled chaos, I witnessed my sister pull her injured hoof down to the pool, dragging her other assailant’s head with it, as her other foreleg came crashing down on the soft part of the coyote’s neck.  Her hoof was released from the grip of the beast’s maw a moment later, as the pool of water was made murky with blood. 

S.A.T.S. wasn’t done.  My body turned as the spell assisted my actions, moving far faster and with more precision than I could have possibly managed alone, leaving me facing the creature behind my sister.  To my surprise, even my face was contorting into a determined and angry grimace as the pistol floated between myself and the lunging beast.  The first shot missed entirely, briefly illuminating the wall that formed the perimeter of our pit as the magical energy burned and dissipated into the rock.  My final shot, however…

Light sprang from the end of the pistol as the crimson beam connected with my target’s eye.  The eye itself ruptured, charred, burned away, and was completely destroyed before the entire creature took on a bright, pink glow.  Before S.A.T.S. relinquished its hold over me, the animal was vaporized; its ashes scattering to cloud the pool of water at our hooves.

Nohta, and the rest of the world, returned to a normal pace as the final adult recognized the threat that I posed.  It changed tactics, leaping to assault my shoulder.  A very dull pain, really just a minor annoyance, creeped across my senses as the beast ripped part of my labcoat away and made to tear my throat out.

Nohta tackled the creature, pinning its head underneath the shallow pool as she used her weight to ensure it couldn’t move.  Bubbles jostled the surface of the pool as the creature finally ceased to struggle, and lay still.

She moved to me, “Sis!  You’re bleeding!”  She glanced at our supplies as she cursed again, “Shit!  Use a potion or… do something!”

I glanced down at my left shoulder, “Oh.  Look at that.  I am bleeding.”  Red had seeped out to stain my labcoat where the coyote had bitten me.  “Med-X really does the trick…”

She poked me in the chest with a hoof, “Oh no you don’t!  No more chems!  Just grab a healing potion or something and get yourself fixed up.  And hurry!  I’m worried about more of them coming after us.”

“Nohta, I can’t use a potion with my metacarpal broken in three places.”  I explained calmly and with only a little slurring, my head dipping slightly as I mused over how difficult blinking both eyelids in synchronization actually was.  “The bone would set the wrong way, sister.  I’ll need a moment to use my magic, dear.  Just… “ the pain was coming back, seemingly worse than before.  “Just give me a minute.  It’s proving rather hard to concentrate right now.”

Sitting down in a relatively dry spot, I raised my good leg to my temple and tried to rub the bleary haze of my thoughts into order, “Could you fetch me the bag of supplies?  I may not have the strength to mend our cuts and bruises after I set my broken bone.”

“Ya, sure.”  She set off to retrieve the bag, and I turned my attention toward my broken leg.

I should note that, up until that day, I had never sustained a major injury, and so I had never had cause to implement my talent upon myself in such a manner.  So when I turned my magic inward, on my own body, I was not expecting the overwhelming sensation of vertigo that I experienced.  I also wasn’t expecting to fall over and vomit, but that didn’t stop it from happening either.

“Oh shit!  Sis, are you okay?”  Nohta had abandoned the bag and was standing over me, eyes wide.

Coughing up bile, I pushed myself up to a sitting position.  “Gracious!  I’ve certainly never done that before!”  I wiped my good hoof across my muzzle, frowning in disgust at the mess.

“What happened?” She was holding her hoof to my head, apparently inspecting me for a fever.

“I was attempting to use my talent in order to heal my leg.  It felt… weird.”  Did everyone experience that sensation when I healed them?  Nohta had never complained of any nausea…  and wouldn’t I have felt it if she had?  Was it just me?

“Weird enough to make you throw up?”  She glanced at the puddle of vomit, frowning.

“Evidently so.  Give me a minute, I think I’ll be okay.”  Waving her off, I levitated a bottle of water to myself, and sipped on it.  Perhaps the lingering nausea had just been a delayed side-effect of the Med-X? 

I tried to heal myself again in a few minutes, concentrating only on the part of my leg that I needed to mend.  I still felt a little queasy, but I didn’t throw up again.  The feeling of actually mending the bone was odd.  It was as if I were wearing myself, on myself, and then I took myself off, and rearranged myself, to better fit myself.  Like a coat. Or a boot in this case, seeing as how it was my leg.

Nohta hauled the bag of supplies in my direction.  “Couldn’t you just, you know, heal an injury without using your special spell?”

“Nohta, my talent doesn’t just let me know what’s wrong, it helps to focus my attention towards exactly how to help the patient and boosts the potency of my other spells.”  I scoured my flustered mind for a useful analogy, “Without my talent, trying to mend a bone would be like a maintenance pony trying to fix a generator whilst blindfolded and using… using… that thing that you hit things with...”

Her brow rose sharply, “A hammer?”

I nodded, jabbing a hoof in her direction, “That.”

Real worry seeped into her voice, “Are you okay, Sis?”

I tried to play it off as a joke, forcing a weak smile across my lips.  “Please, Nohta, never let me take Med-X again unless it’s a dire emge… emeren… really important.”

She sat the bag at my hooves and dug through the bag’s contents.  I could just detect the faintest smirk on her muzzle.  At least my efforts had allayed her fears.  “Well… if you can’t really use it on yourself, what are we gonna do if you get hurt later?”

I accepted the healing potion which she had obtained from the bag and sipped.  Were healing potions supposed to taste like grapes?  “As long as things are calm enough that I might be allowed to concentrate, I believe I’ll be okay.  I’ll just have to be meticulous in my application of the spell, and focus only on the area in which it is needed.  Otherwise… “  Dear Goddess, this potion was delicious!  “Well, let’s just assume that I won’t be able to fix broken bones in the middle of a fight.”  The feeling of my various bruises, scrapes, cuts, and other small injuries healing themselves felt like somepony had taken a warm rag and massaged it into my tissue.  The pains of my body simply faded away, to be replaced with a deep sense of relaxation and comfort.

My eyes widened as I inspected the glass container in my hooves.  “By The Moon…  Nohta what did you give me?”

She arched an eyebrow, “Uh, healing potions are purple, right?”

I levitated the small jar over my head, taking care to keep the rest of its contents from spilling as I inspected the underside of the bottle, and found a piece of white tape on the bottom of the jar.  The letters “S.W.” were written on the tape in black ink.  “Nohta… I think this is one of Mother’s potions.”

She scrambled to my side, sending the light of her Pipbuck flashing against the cave walls.  “No way!  Really?  How’d it keep for so long?”

I showed her the tape.  “S.W.  I think it means Sweet Water.  Mother’s book has the recipe for it.  And regular healing potions don’t really go bad unless they’ve become contaminated by an outside source.”  I couldn’t suppress a small grin, “Why would one of Mother’s?”

“Heh, guess you’re right.  I didn’t think that any of Mom’s stuff was still around.  I figured that all of the ponies in The Stable had used them up.”  She grinned, facing me, but the grin quickly faltered as her words left her mouth, “Hey, I bet Dad… kept some of them for himself.”

As she had turned to face me, her Pipbuck lamp had illuminated the darkened corner of the cave.  Within that space lay a large object covered in tattered rags.  Hoping to distract my sister from her troubled thoughts for a moment, I pointed my good hoof at it, “Nohta, what is that?”

She turned, and walked over to inspect the lump.  “Oh… fuck!  Sis, it’s a pony.”

I realized then why the creatures had been so willing to attack us.  It hadn’t been to protect their young, as I had assumed.  They had been feeding on the body of some hapless adventurer.

Nohta, ever the pragmatist, noticed an opportunity.  “Hey, look!  His saddlebags are alright.  We should take his stuff!”

“Nohta!”  I spluttered, nearly doing a spit-take with the precious liquid.

She huffed, “It’s not like he needs it.  And guess who probably does?”

I sighed, she did have a point.  We were woefully unprepared for what lay ahead of us.  “Fine.  Just be respectful about your… replenishment of our supplies.”

She was already rummaging through the deceased buck’s things, “Hmm… Damn.  No guns or anything.  No food either.  No caps… this guy was a real deadbeat, huh?”

“Nohta!  That is the opposite of respectful!”  Even Mother’s potion couldn’t hold back the imminent headache, “That’s… That’s… Not respectful at all!”

She cheered up, and her tail swished underneath of her cloak, “Oh, hello!  I take it back big guy, you were alright after all.”

“Did you… find anything useful?”

“A nice knife… ”  She tossed the sheathed blade at my hooves, where it fell with a heavy *thud* against the rocky floor of the cavern.  The heavy steel blade slid partially out of its sheath, revealing a nicked and scratched curved edge opposite a similarly worn serrated edge.  Despite its well-used appearance, the notches cut into the sheath left little doubt as to its effectiveness in combat.

“Practical.”  I nudged the knife to the side and awaited the rest of Nohta’s scavenge.

“A couple of old porno mags… ”  She tossed three magazines onto the ground before me, alongside the knife.  ‘Wingboners: Issue 68,’ read the outside cover of one of them.  Another of them fell open to reveal a… well I’m sure you’re not interested in that.

Wait.  Seriously?  You are?

One of them fell open to reveal an undeniably beautiful butter-yellow pegasus mare with a gorgeous pink mane.  Her face wore an expression of pure ecstasy, which had forced her eyes shut in its rapturous hold.  Her hooves were wrapped lovingly around the long, hard object in front of her whilst it splashed her outstretched tongue with the milky-white liquid emanating from its tip.  Dear goddess… At that point in time, I would have given nearly anything to trade places with that mare.

“New, limited-edition Sparkle-Cola Frost.  Expertly-mixed using our signature Sparkle-Cola formula, with only pure Cloudsdale snow, the finest Stalliongrad vodka, and just a hint of refreshing mint.  Magically enhanced to stay ice-cold, no matter what!  Five bits from every purchase goes towards helping the orphans of the war.  Sparkle-Cola Frost.  Get frosted!”  The advertisement certainly had my attention!  It was really too bad that it had to languish within such a seedy periodical for all eternity.

“What was that, Sis?  You think we can get anything for the magazines?”

I blushed, mindful of the contents of the pages before me and thankful that Nohta was still preoccupied with her scavenging.  I used my good hoof to shove the magazines towards the knife, “Ugh!  I’m sure… someone… might want these.”

After a few more minutes of rifling through his pockets and satchels, Nohta produced the real prize which lay in the deceased buck’s inventory.  “Awesome!  Check it out!”  She turned to me with an excited grin on her face, holding up two small objects.  They appeared similar to apples, but were very plainly comprised of metal.

“Uh, what are they, Nohta?” I had never before seen anything like them.

“I think they’re grenades!”  Her grin got bigger.

I backed up, trying to distance myself from the little balls of death.  “Grenades?  Grenades explode!  Put those down!” 

“I think they’re safe as long as the pin is still in them.”  She pointed to the little piece that was poking out of the top of the apple-shaped device.  “You have to yank that part out to arm it, then it blows up in a few seconds.”

I stared at my sister, unbelieving of her recklessness.  “You ‘think’ they’re safe?”

She stubbornly defended her position. “Well… that’s what Dust said.  And he knew what he was talking about.”

Dust.  Another of the ponies that had been depending upon us.  I hadn’t even spared a thought as to my sister’s feelings regarding Dust.  How could I have been so callous?  Nohta had been forming her first real bond with somepony outside of her family and the two of us had abandoned him.  What must that have done to her?  Would she come to resent Father and myself for taking her away from her new role-model?  

Ugh!  What was wrong with me?  There was nothing that I could do for him now!  And nothing I could do to alter the past.  This was not the time to dwell on it, I told myself.  At least not where I was liable to break down in tears in front of Nohta.  No.  No, just get Nohta to safety.  That’s all that matters right now.  Worry about yourself and your own feelings later.  

Goddess, if only it could be so easy...  Keeping Nohta out of harm’s way is patently impossible.  Still, I needed to try.

Perhaps I could bring her to see reason?  “Nohta, I’m not sure if carrying around centuries-old explosive ordinance is a good idea!  What if they should detonate as we’re holding them in our packs?”

She shrugged, “They lasted this long without blowing up… And this guy obviously got into a fight or two.  But he didn’t get exploded… he got eaten.”

Sighing in exasperation, she pleaded with me, “Look, Candy, we’ve got next to no weapons.  We need something big that we can use to scare folks off.”

I still couldn’t help but feel frightened of the explosives, “Nohta, I’m not sure.”

She stuffed a grenade into her bags, heedless of my worries.  “Hey, if nothing else, these are worth a lot of caps.  Ponies go nuts over these things.”  Looking me in the eye with an earnest expression, she added, “We could use the caps, Sis.”

She had too many good points to argue against.  I relented.  “Well, I suppose we can hold onto them for now.  But only if you are sure that they are safe!”  I watched as she slid one of the grenades into my packs, next to Mother’s alchemy set.  Pushing my worry aside, I concentrated on our next immediate problem.  “Come along, dear, we need to find a way out of this pit.”


**************


After squeezing through a few damp passageways and navigating some precarious tunnels, Nohta and I found the cavern’s entrance.  After seeing how dark it had become outside, the two of us decided to spend the night in the cave.  I changed into my spare lab-coat and tried to make a pillow out of the tattered remains of the one that I had been wearing.  Nohta and I slept, huddled together for warmth beside Mother’s fire talisman, on the rock floor.

My rest was fitful, and filled with horrid dreams.  Wings fluttering beyond sight in the shadows.  Claws and beaks scratching and pecking at my eyes as I scurried through the halls of The Stable.  I woke, and adjusted my aching leg.  A hallway of mirrors.  An infinitely reflected image of myself staring back at me before the reflections all shrieked in an awful, discordant symphony of anguish and terror, leaving me to whimper on the floor.  Nohta rolled over in her sleep, waking me.  I lay my head down again, next to her’s.  The Caravan.  Seven Card lying beside me, beckoning me to follow him just a little further into the void.  Cream Puff, bleeding out of her eye-sockets as she glared at me, asking why I left her to die.  Father.  Father telling me to run.  Father telling me that it’s going to be okay, telling me that all that mattered to him were his daughters, telling me that he would be fine.  But I knew better.  I knew what would happen to him as soon as I turned my tail and fled.  When Nohta woke me again, burying her muzzle in my neck as she slept,  I held her a little more tightly, afraid to let her go.

When the morning finally came we emerged from the cave, happy to abandon the gloomy depths of cold, clammy rock, and walked out into the brisk air of the desert.  The sun had just begun its futile attempts to pierce the clouds, and the ambient temperature of the valley in which we found ourselves was still quite cool.  After quickly checking our orientation and general position, we set off for Mareon with all due haste, ready to begin the arduous process of traversing the myriad boulders, ravines, valleys, and other various desert obstacles.  

Occasionally, the rusted remains of an old motor-wagon or abandoned campsite would serve to break through the illusion that we existed in a pristinely primitive vacuum, devoid of other inhabitants.  Unfortunately for my sister and I, none of the wrecks or camps held anything of value.  Other scavengers had picked those bones clean long before the two of us had arrived.

My leg was still giving an intermittent twinge, occasionally causing me to stumble as pain lanced past my Pipbuck, but it was nothing so burdensome as to force me to stop completely.  I was more concerned with our lack of supplies.  My leg wasn’t going to re-break itself anytime soon, but even the mere thought of starving to death was enough to send shivers down my spine and push my legs to keep moving.  I promised myself that if I ever wrote a book like Mother’s, one of the lessons I’d include would be: “Don’t begrudge others their actions when they allow their belly to think for them; hunger is a powerful motivator.”

It was, perhaps, a mistake to finish off our stores of food so early in the morning.  As the day dragged on, the lack of sustenance was taking its toll on me.  I was exhausted, irritable, felt the stirrings of a significant headache coming on, and was beginning to entertain the notion that my poor stomach might actually be capable of mutiny.  

Nohta was still soldiering on.  If she had complaints about our situation, she never voiced them.  In fact she hardly said anything at all, only speaking to alert me to the presence of possible sources of food, or other scavenge.  Given that we had only passed a hoof-full of said sites, the conversation was rather lacking.  

I silently worried about my sister’s emotional state.  Her nature was that of a loner, but she had never been so quiet around me.  I chose not to push her into a conversation, hoping that she would open back up to me when she was ready.

My mind was left with time to wander.  With the course of recent events and the predicament in which we now found ourselves, it probably comes as no surprise that my thoughts were dominated by two topics.  

One:  Survival.  Or rather, to be more direct and to-the-point about it, food.  I was inspecting every single shrub, cactus, tree, grass, weed, and every other bit of dry vegetation with an eye every bit as scrutinizing as the one that I employed for delicate operations in The Stable’s clinic.  But hardly any of it was edible.  And of that which was, the nutritional value was assuredly so poor as to more likely be detrimental to our survival, especially after one factored in the background radiation inherent within many of the species of desert flora after the war.  And on that cheery note…

Two: the ambush of my caravan.  Mother and Father’s stories had told tales of groups within the wasteland.  Groups which banded together to assure that they might be afforded the opportunity to continue living their amoral lives.

Foremost amongst these degenerates were the brutes known as ‘raiders.’  Little more than savages, they would attack anything and everything that moved, often with blatant disregard for the safety of their comrades, or even their own safety.  But raiders had not attacked my caravan.

Also high on the list of those to be avoided were the slavers.  As if the equine races of the world killing each other over scraps of food wasn’t capable of generating enough misery, we somehow had the nerve to posit the idea that we should start enslaving each other!  But slavers would at least try to keep their quarry alive, even if only for a profit.  I hardly believed that slavers would use such indiscriminate means of violence as the explosive weaponry employed in the ambush to subdue their potential slaves.  Slavers had not been the ones to attack my caravan.

Mercenaries.  Mother and Father’s accounts of the wasteland had only said enough about mercenaries to let me know that they were complete wildcards.  They were sometimes a force for good; cashing in on the lucrative business of escorting trading caravans, or possibly ridding old ruins of wild creatures or raiders.  However, they were just as likely to commit terrible atrocities in the name of personal monetary gain.  

But no matter what, mercenaries always had one thing in common: the job.  And the ambush of my caravan had been conducted by griffin mercenaries.  Somepony had offered them a job.  Somepony had wanted us dead.  Somepony had been willing to pay for that to happen.

And who was the only group that we had come into contact with since leaving The Stable?  Where did Father want us to wait?  Where was I now dreading equally as much as I was hoping that we would be allowed to enter?  

Mareon.

The night was closing in on us, just barely being held at bay by my Pipbuck lamp.  Nohta was refusing to activate her own lamp and fussing about my own, citing a need for ‘stealthy tactics.’   But I knew that we really didn’t want to get caught out in the open in complete darkness, and my Pipbuck was informing me that we were agonizingly close to Mareon.  When we crested that last hill, and the expansive, rusted walls of our destination came peeking into view past a pair of short mesquite trees, I sighed in relief.

We had persevered, over the course of the entire day, and had finally gotten within eyesight of the town.  Neon lights adorning storefronts within the town, as well as lamps which hung from the shacks and guard posts near the entrance, perforated the darkness.  From our vantage point, we could see the layout of the entire settlement, from the hills underneath our hooves all the way out to the river of dubious designation.

Noha pushed past a low-hanging branch, “Heh.  It’s actually kinda pretty.”

“That it is, dear.  I’m certainly glad that our little hiking trip has come to an end.  I am positively famished!”  I absentmindedly plucked the bean pods from the branches of the trees as we continued to gaze at the town beneath us.

“You’re not the only one, Sis.  Can we get a move on?  We still have to find some food and a place to stay once we get inside the town.”

“Well, then.  No point in any further delay!  After you, dear-”  The crack of gunfire, followed by distant screams, silenced me.

There was an explosion in the night, maybe a few hundred feet away from the northern gates of Mareon.  More gunshots rang out from that direction, but it was too far away and too dark to make out what was going on.

Nohta groaned, “Ugh!  What now?”  She crept forward, trotting down the hill with an easy gait that allowed gravity to work in her favor.

“Nohta!  Wait up!”  My own attempts at navigating the loose, rocky soil of the hill were met with sub-par results, and I was having trouble maneuvering my three good legs down the incline without slipping.

Of course, I sped up a great deal whenever I finally lost my balance, overcompensated, flipped over, and slid down the hill on my back.

“Aaah!  Nohta!  Look out!”

“Wha-”  My sister glanced behind her just in time for the two of us to collide, knocking her legs out from underneath of her and sending us both crashing noisily to the base of the hill.

A cloud of dust had amassed in the wake of our descent, and hung in the air all around us, blurring our vision as the light of my Pipbuck diffused into the particulate.

I covered my muzzle with a hoof, trying to dissuade my body from sneezing, while extricating myself from the tumbled mess of limbs that my sister and I had become.  “Er, my apologies, Nohta.  I slipped.”

She rose to her hooves as the dust settled around us, brushing the dirt off of her cloak, “Eh, whatever.  Are you hurt?”

“No, dear, I’m-”

The report of a gun, this time much closer, cried out from the darkness as the ground between Nohta and myself jumped.  A great clod of earth leapt free from the rest of the ground as the bullet punched into the soil.  I gasped and fell backwards onto my haunches, as Nohta dropped into a combat stance and dove to the side.

Wild, manic laughter erupted from the darkness as the filthy forms of two unicorns and three earth ponies trotted into the light of my Pipbuck.  The majority of them were clad in makeshift armor comprised of what appeared to be various pieces of scavenged scrap.  One of the unicorns was levitating a crude club made of rebar and concrete in front of her, while the other held a long rifle in his grasp.  It was pointed right at my head.

The crimson stallion with the rifle was in good spirits, “Ha!  Told you guys!  That’s a Pipbuck lamp.  We got some stragglers over here!”  His blazing eyes flashed with malicious delight, “Hot damn, I might even get a round in The Funbox for spotting ‘em!”  His armor, alone amongst his party, actually looked like armor.  He wore grey metal plates and tubing that had been welded together, complete with a nasty-looking set of spikes jutting out from his shoulders.

I heard my little sister swear under her breath.  To my side, Nohta was also being held at gunpoint.  One of the earth ponies, this one dark brown and wearing a large, bent traffic sign fashioned as a chest plate, was staring her down with a crazed look in his eye and a large revolver in his mouth.

A smaller yellow stallion wearing a rusty pot on his head was twitching and grinning with excitement at Nohta.  “Shoot her.  Come on, shoot her.  Shoot!  Shootshootherohfuckinggoddessesjustshoot!”

The final earth pony, this one a light-green mare wearing nothing but the shackles on her forelegs, scowled at the twitching buck but stayed quiet.

The smaller buck looked back to her, and in a fit of screaming giggles, he asked, “What do you think, Mutey?  Think we can have some meat tonight?”

She glared at him for a moment, then sat on her haunches and looked to the sky.  Her face bore the unmistakable expression of the incredibly desperate as her eyes darted to and fro amongst the blackened clouds.

Ms. Rebar-And-Concrete-Club stepped forward, clad in a mishmash of pre-war sports apparel that just barely covered her ivory coat, and spoke in a surprisingly articulate voice, “Forgive our… associates.”  Both she and the other unicorn took a moment to glower at the earth ponies.  “The Pyro’s… group… were not overly burdened with a great deal of intelligence, nor an impressive sense of hospitality.”  

“My name,” She continued, with a small flourish of her club, “is Powder.  And on behalf of the Farseer herself, I’d like to take this opportunity to-”

The unicorn with the rifle tapped his hoof against the ground with a distinct air of impatience, “Oh, for crying out loud!  We’re supposed to kill ‘em, right?  Those are the orders: Get to Mareon.  Kill everypony you see that’s not part of the gang and doesn’t want to join up.  Simple.  And now that it’s all gone to shit, we should just gun ‘em down and keep running.  Why are you still talking?”

Powder stuck her nose in the air, sending her golden mane cascading down her shoulders.  “That may be how The Outcast’s ruffians handle things, Bolt-Action, but those of us who follow The Bard like to take a different approach.  Hmph!”  With a little pout, she swung her club overtop of him and gently bopped him on the poll of his head.

Of course, being ‘gently bopped’ with about fifty pounds of concrete and steel would probably be sufficient to smack some sense into anypony.

He shut his eyes, rubbing the top of his head and hissing in pain.  “Bah!  Ow, you bitch!”  He turned to her, his eyes seething, “You are so fucking lucky that I can’t kill you right now!”

Powder chuckled, swishing her tail across his muzzle, “Oh come off it, darling!  I’ll help you work off some of that anger and frustration later if you just let me do the talking.  Now does that sound fair to you, Bolt?”

He sighed, holding his face in a hoof as he lowered his rifle.  “I’m not sure sex is worth this hassle.”

Powder rolled her eyes and spoke to nopony in particular, “Need I remind you that it is impolite for a lady to spit?”

He blinked several times, apparently ruminating over her last words, and finally squinted his eyes and acquiesced, “Fine.  You give ‘em the speech.”  He turned around, muttering under his breath, “Fucking mare… Using my weakness against me… “

Neither of the unicorns were paying attention.  The briefest, faintest flash of red from my horn unlatched the strap holding my pistol in place.  None of the raiders had noticed the magic.  I grit my teeth, silently thanked Luna for the small blessing, and tried to figure out what to do.  

I had never desired this.  To be put in this position was agonizing.  I didn’t want to hurt them.  I didn’t care that these ponies were raiders!  Evil for the sake of evil was just a fairy-tale, right?  Perhaps they could be swayed?  Surely they had to have a reason for their actions.  Surely there had to be some good in these ponies!

There’s good in all of us, isn’t there?  Isn’t it worth saving?

No.  I wouldn’t expect you to agree with me.  Not yet.  I’ll have to show you a great deal more of the insanity of this world before my words will truly have impact.

I quickly assessed my situation.  I had, at best, the ability to incapacitate or kill (Luna help me… but I actually viewed that as a good thing) one of our assailants before the other three could retaliate.  If I attacked the crimson buck with the rifle, I’d ensure my own safety, and be free to harass the other three with magical energy beams until… no, no.  That wouldn’t work.  I’d just muck things up.

I could attack the buck holding my sister at gunpoint.  That would allow her to close into melee range and do what she does best.  But, three on one… and that rifle was still hovering in the air… 

I examined the raider’s weapons with a more discerning eye.  The revolver looked shiny; polished, even.  The rifle, by comparison, looked like a hodgepodge of everything but the kitchen sink.  I wasn’t exactly an expert on firearms, but I was pretty sure that anything being held together by duct-tape was of less-than-stellar quality.  If I had to do this, then my sister and I would be better off with the revolver out of the equation.  Or maybe… 

Maybe I was looking at this the wrong way?  The entire group seemed to be following the white unicorn known as Powder.  Or at least, they were willing to allow her to talk to us before things got out-of-hoof.  And she had seemed at least somewhat amicable.  Not precisely what I would call a ‘Lady,’ but still, not outwardly offensive.  Maybe I could talk us out of this mess?

Not likely, but it was worth a shot, right?

Powder refocused her attention towards Nohta and myself, “Ahh, good.  Now as I was saying, on behalf of She-Who-Sees, I’d like to offer the two of you a grand opportunity to enter the exciting world of professional raiding!”

Her eyes lit up, “Our darling leader wishes to acquire the help of the whole region, in order to stand up to the monster known as,”  She paused, grimacing, as if she had to force the name out.  “Red-Eye.”

After taking a moment to recollect herself, she continued in her previously cheery demeanor, “Raiding is quite the lovely little venture, you know!  Not at all like what most wasteland scoundrels would have you believe.  You get to meet all sorts of ponies!  And travel to exotic locales!  Oh, and how could I forget?  Sample exquisite cuisine!  And all of this is yours for the low, low price of complete and total subservience to the mare who’s going to be running the whole show within a few months anyway!  Might as well get in on her good side while you can!  What do you say?”  She leaned in and smiled expectantly.

Throughout this entire debacle I had remained silent.  First from fear.  Then from surprise.  And finally, out of necessity while I tried to plan our escape.  But now?

Now I was just confused,  “I… What?”

Powder sniffed, “Oh, Dolt-Action, you’ve succeeded in once more,finding a set of complete-and-utter buffoons.”  She sighed, looking me over, “Why do the pretty ones always have to be such vapid imbeciles?”

I bristled at the remark, clearly having my priorities in the right order, and threw the option of negotiation right out the proverbial window.  My horn flared to life as I gripped my pistol.  I knew just who to target now!  “Vapid!  Imbecile!  Why, of all the-”

My tirade was cut short by a small object, which fell from the heavens with a hollow, plastic thud against the earth between the raiders and myself.  Seven sets of eyes stared at the tiny thing as if it were the most important empty inhaler of Dash the world had ever seen.  The light-green mare smirked.

That was as much warning as anypony got.  A blue blur descended between the twitching buck and the stallion holding my sister at gunpoint, flaring her indigo wings so as to rake her feathers against the buck’s sides, and slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash as she planted all four hooves into the earth.  Blood erupted out of the raider’s torsos, splashing her wild, silvery-white mane with red, before she pivoted to the side and smashed her back hooves into the twitcher.  He flew with an impressive speed, for an earth pony, and cackled wildly as his body tumbled and rolled, causing his intestines to snake out of his sliced belly like worms trying to escape wet soil.  He only stopped laughing when his red blip disappeared from my E.F.S.

The other earth buck grunted in pain, dropping his pistol.  “Oh, shit!  It’s Li-”  He managed to shout half of a warning to his comrades, before the pegasus snorted, twirling her body around, and brought one of her wings up underneath his jaw, neatly separating his head from his neck.  His dull, lifeless face fell to the ground with an equally dull thud, leaving his tongue to loll free out of his mouth.

Powder and Bolt-Action turned, but too late, as the pegasus drew a revolver from the holster on her shoulder, and popped off three shots in rapid succession while using the decapitated pony’s body as a shield.  The first entered Powder’s throat, creating an entry wound about the size of a bottle cap, before it tore through her flesh and blew most of her trachea and esophagus to a location that was decidedly outside of her neck.  Gore showered Bolt-action, as his face and mane turned a darker shade of scarlet with Powder’s blood.  As Bolt-Action was trying to wipe his partner’s bodily fluids out of his eyes, shot number two rammed into the heavy steel armor covering his hide.  It dented the armor, knocking the stallion off balance, but failed to penetrate.  He was just aiming his rifle to return fire as the third shot flew high and shattered his horn into a hundred little shards.

Powder fell to the ground, where she lay writhing in agony, her eyes wide and terrified.  Her eloquent speech and refined mannerisms had been reduced to clawing at the ground with her hooves and choking on her own blood.  She worked her mouth, spitting up little droplets of crimson, but the only sound that escaped the devastated remains of her throat was a wet, bubbling gurgle.

Bolt-Action fell on his side, screaming and holding the base of his stump between his hooves.  The bubble of magic surrounding his rifle imploded, sending the weapon clattering to the ground.  He was rolling around in the dirt, clearly in too much agony to notice anything else in the world.  He never stopped screaming.  Given his current state, he was no longer much of a threat.

I hadn’t moved an inch, absolutely terrified of the scene that had played out before me.

Nohta, however, was prodding my shoulder with a hoof, “Damn, Sis!  Did you see that?”

The pegasus spat her gun back into the leather holster that was slung low on her shoulder, stepped over the body of the decapitated earth pony, and ambled over to the screaming ex-unicorn.  She kicked his hooves out of the way, and ground her own hoof into the stump of his horn, eliciting even louder shrieks of pain from him.  In a husky voice that was saturated with excitement, she yelled into his face, “You dumb fucks actually thought that you could pull that shit and get away with it?  Seriously?  When I’m in town?  What the hell are you smoking?”

Powder’s horn flared to life, enveloping her hammer in its magic.  Her face had twisted into an expression of sheer rage even as her life’s blood poured out of her neck and over her hooves.

The pegasus hadn’t noticed, and continued taunting the raider as he groaned and wailed, “Seriously though, I gotta give you bastards credit.  You sure livened this place up a bit!  Plus with that sweet new bounty on you folks, I’mma be swimming in the caps!”

Powder’s cudgel levitated high over the pegasus’ head.  With a start, I realized that she wasn’t going to notice the threat until it was too late.

I drew my weapon as S.A.T.S. assisted my aim.  Three bolts of crimson flew into the unicorn mare’s head.  Powder’s mane and coat burned away from the top of her head, leaving her skin to blister and crack from the concentrated points of heat.  Her charred skull blew inwards on the third shot, leaving her brain to sizzle from the blast.  The hammer dropped to the side of the pegasus and impacted against Bolt-Action’s armored flank with a loud *clang.*  The reeking odors of burnt fur and flesh joined the already overpowering aroma of blood that permeated the dry night air.

The pegasus turned, taking note of my trembling figure, before looking from my pistol to the dead mare and then to the club at Bolt-Action’s side.  After a pregnant moment of silence, she looked back to me and spoke, “Heh.  Thanks, babe.  I owe you one.”

My eyes were drawn wide as my entire body shook with the realization of what I had just done.

My levitation spell faltered, sending my pistol clattering to the earth, as a brittle whisper escaped my throat, “Luna… Dear Goddess, forgive me…”

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw the pegasus flash her wing downward to plunge her primary feathers, and the only barely visible blades the she wore upon them, into Bolt-Action’s neck.  His eyes shot wide, and then faded as he passed away.

I tried to control my uneven breaths, unable to pull my eyes away from Powder’s smashed, burnt skull.  

The pegasus turned back to me, pulling her wing from the raider’s corpse, “Heh, what’s up with you?  You look like that bitch is trying to haunt you or something.”  She snorted, and winked in my direction, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe from the ghosties.”

My response was to stare at Powder’s corpse as my lower lip quivered.

She had just started to walk to the light green mare before she abruptly stopped.  Turning her attention towards me again, her face fell into a grimace before she swore under her breath, “Shit.  You’re actually worrying about raiders?  Why?  This couldn’t have been your-”  She stopped mid-sentence as her crimson eyes widened before closing with an embittered frown accompanied by a small shake of her indigo face.  

With some small portion of her brash behavior replaced by genuine concern, she continued, “It’s your first time, huh?  Your first kill?”

I nodded, still shaking

She sighed, and walked to Powder’s body, poking at the fallen raider with a hoof.  “Yep, thought so.”  She shuffled some of the raider’s mane over the gruesome, and still smoking, hole in her skull, concealing the charred ruins of Powder’s face.  Turning back to me, she spoke in a soft and oddly erudite tone, “There’s only a few things that can put that look into a mare’s eyes.”

Taking to the air, she flew the short distance to me, and placed herself between me and the corpse, blocking my view of Powder.  It… helped; to not be able to see what I had done.  I wasn’t completely able to tune it out, but the barrier that she had put between myself and my actions kept me from falling completely to pieces.  

I couldn’t help but stare at the pegasus, as her form dominated my field of vision.  And now that she was close, I could see all of her features in great detail.  Her silvery-white coiffure was spiky and untamed, and almost completely drenched in raider blood.  When combined with the small animal bone (Femur.  Small mammal.  Probable Species: Rock Squirrel.  That’s right Candy… Facts.  Concentrate on facts!  Not on killing!  Facts!) pierced through her left ear, it gave her a savage appearance.  That barbarous, exotic mien was only made more apparent by the sweeping black whorls and curves dancing from the left corner of her mouth to above her left eye, the iris of which matched the blood in her mane perfectly.

I was still shaking when she spoke to me, “Nopony forgets their first kill.  Don’t even try.  Remember it.  Embrace it, “ She paused, breathing deeply before continuing in a sincere, breathy whisper, “not fighting it makes the next one easier.”

Nohta poked my shoulder, startling me.  “You alright, Sis?”

A tremulous whisper escaped my lips, “I… Nohta...  I killed somepony.”

The pegasus turned and began walking to the light-green mare, who was waiting patiently, but called back to me over her shoulder in a light, jaunty voice, “Hey, if it makes it any easier, she was pretty much dead anyway!  All you really did was save me a bruise!”  As she trotted off to the earth pony, her cutie mark passed through my field of vision; a single flower with six white petals.

“That’s true, Sis.”  Nohta glanced at the ivory corpse, “She wasn’t coming back from that first shot.”

Nohta was trying to help me.  She was trying to help me!  This was not how it was supposed to work!  I was the elder sister!  I needed to keep myself together!  I was… I was failing at that too, wasn’t I?

I shook myself.  Now was not the time to fall apart!  Nohta still needed me!  It took every ounce of willpower that I possessed, and several deep breaths, but I was somehow able to disconnect myself from the violence and focus on the present.  If I could just hold out a little longer…  Get the two of us to Mareon…

The pegasus trotted over the bodies towards the green mare, deftly sweeping her wings over heads to snip off ears and rifling through pockets as she went, and let out a great, boisterous laugh, “Bahaha!  Dumb sons-a-bitches actually thought that attacking Mareon would be a good idea!  Guess they forgot who was in town, eh, Margie?  Long time nosey, by the way!  Where ya been?”

The light-green mare snorted, rolling her eyes where she sat.  She didn’t seem at all surprised by the recent turn of events, patiently waiting with her front hooves outstretched and a bored expression on her face.  I took the gesture as a means to convey, ‘I’m still in these cuffs.  I can’t break them myself, you know.’

“Hey!  I can help with that!”  Nohta trotted over to the pair and dug through her pockets, pulling out a black-handled screwdriver along with a small box of bobby pins.  

The pegasus flapped her wings once, sprinkling droplets of blood on the ground, as her face lit up in a wide grin, “Hey, alright!  It’s always nice when you rescue somepony and they turn around and actually help you out.  Right Marge?”

I joined the rest of the group, providing Nohta with light in which to work.  She had her face pressed sideways against the iron lock that held the green mare’s bonds in place, making nearly imperceptible adjustments with her teeth.  Her front hooves were both occupied with manipulating the screwdriver that she was using to apply torque to the lock.  I had never seen Nohta pick a lock before, but the mechanics didn’t seem all that difficult to figure out… I had to remind myself that my curiosity need not get the better of me in in every situation.

Instead I indulged it in other ways.  Forcing myself to concentrate on keeping my voice steady, I spoke in a slightly less-wobbly whisper, “Pardon me, but did you say that Mareon had been attacked earlier?”

The pegasus turned to me, “Ya.  Happened just the other day.  I had just gotten back into town and was trying to find some smokes when all of a sudden, those bastards just poured into the town over the old bridge.  Anyway, the town starts fighting back, ponies start dying left and right… Bad times.  We only just now got the last of ‘em chased outta the saloon and the doctor’s office.  Been a rough couple of days ‘round here for most folks.”

She paused, gesturing to the green mare with a head nod, “The last few that were holed up started to pull out with their captives, one of ‘em being my friend here.  I chased after her when I saw them leaving.”

Sighing, she continued, “Hope you folks didn’t need much from Mareon, most of the supplies are stupid-expensive right now, and lotsa folks got hurt in the attack.”

I could feel a familiar urge begin to grow, overtaking my disgust with my recent actions, “There are wounded?  How many?  What is your doctor doing about it?  What supplies are left?  How safe is the town?  Do you-”

She cut me off, flapping her wings in annoyance, “Yeesh, cool your flank sweet-cheeks!  We’re working on it!  Yes, folks got hurt.  I don’t know what the count is, but the doctor was one of ‘em, so that answers that one.  The town’s safe enough, but I wouldn’t stay too long if I were you.”

My frazzled nerves could hardly take any more of this.  How many slights would this evening force me to endure?  “Sweet-cheeks!  Sweet-cheeks!  I am a doctor, and I wish to be addressed as such!”

She blinked as the weight of my words struck her thick head like a gong, before exclaiming, “Wait… you’re a doctor?”  Rising up in a storm of sharpened steel, feathers, and dust, she began to lightly shove me in the direction of the settlement with her hooves, almost yelling in my ears, “You need to get to Mareon!  Folks need you there!”

I fended her off with a foreleg, scowling as I tried to retort, “And we were well on our way to-” 

Nohta stomped a hoof on the ground, silencing the both of us.  It was just as well, really.  Somepony was bound to end up saying something she’d regret.

The green mare stayed silent, staring at her hooves as Nohta gave the screwdriver a final push, causing the lock to pop open with a small, metallic *click.*  When Nohta pulled away, the green mare gave her a curt little nod of appreciation.

The pegasus didn’t lose any time getting back into a conversation.  She landed beside her lime-green friend and whined, “Oh come on, Margarita!  Why are you being all quiet?  What’s the matter, cat bought your tongue?”  Did she just...

Margarita sighed, placing her hoof over her face and shaking her head in exasperation.  Then, looking forward with a stern expression, she opened her mouth and pointed a hoof at her tongue.  Closing her mouth, she crossed her arms and shook her head.

The pegasus’ brow furrowed, “What?  Seriously?  You can’t talk?  What happened?”

Margarita shrugged, shaking her head.  She rocked back on her haunches, scratching her chin with a hoof and looking towards the sky, deep in thought.  She threw her hooves forward in the air, as if bucking out at an invisible opponent, and sat back down.  Then she shrugged again.

Nohta and the pegasus were both lost for words, but I saw a challenge.  And a welcome distraction from my own thoughts.  “You got in a fight?”

Margarita nodded, and the pegasus continued prodding her with questions, “You lost your voice in a fight?  How does that even… Who’d you get in a fight with for that to happen?”

Margarita shivered, and glanced back at the mountain on the opposite side of the river of Mareon.  She turned back to the group, and clopped her hoof against her forehead, then brought it outward in a slow, steady motion.  She then closed her left eye, and pointed at her right, while staring at each of us.

I blinked, utterly confused.  Nohta looked back to me with an equally clueless expression.

The pegasus gasped, “No… No fuckin’ way!  You went after her without me?”

Margarita hoofed at the ground as she lowered her gaze.  She nodded.

The pegasus’ face twisted in worry, “How many of the gang did you take with you?”

The green mare sniffed, and tapped her hoof on the ground.  She did it again.  And again.  Again…

“Five… eight… TWELVE?  You took the whole crew!  But that would only leave the guards to look after Mareon, and they’re shit!  You left the whole town wide open for an attack!”

Margarita cried silently as she nodded.

The blue mare groaned in frustration, “Well, you got her, right?  Who made it back?”

The green mare shook her head, and tapped her chest with a hoof.

“Just...  you?  Shit!”  The pegasus stomped a hoof on the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust which was quickly dissipated by her excited, flapping wings, “She killed the whole crew?  How many bodyguards did she have?”

Margarita shook her head again, spilling tears onto the ground.

The pegasus’ mouth dropped open.  After blinking a few times, she whispered, “Fuck me…  Psyker really is a monster, isn’t she?”

I’m not really accustomed to being left in the dark about topics of interest.  My curiosity was piqued enough for me to ask, “Who is Psyker?”

The green mare and the pegasus both turned to me, one with tears in her eyes, the other with fire in hers.  The pegasus answered for both of them, “Psyker is the leader of the raiders in this region.  She’s the bitch that organized the attack on Mareon.”  She glowered at the mountain across the river, and continued as she stared, “And she took out almost every good fighter in Mareon all by herself…”

Nohta turned to Margarita, “How’d you lose your voice though?  How’d she do that?”

Margarita made an effort to clear the tears from her eyes, before she held both of her front hooves to her mouth, and swung them forward in a great, violent display of force.  Sitting down, she blinked at us.

Nohta was the first to guess, “She… spat on you?”

Then the pegasus tried her luck, “She had really bad breath?”

I shook my head several times, eyes wide.  I hadn’t the faintest notion of what she was trying to convey.

Margarita’s brow furrowed in a clear sign of frustration, as she took a moment to ponder her next action.  Sitting back on her haunches, she held one hoof across her heart while the other was held aloft above her head.  Her eyes had closed, and her mouth was open.

I had seen that pose before!  “She sang?”

Margarita nodded before squinting and holding two hooves very close to each other.  Then she repeated her previous action.

I concentrated, working it out like a puzzle.  “It’s close to singing, but not quite… and it’s more violent?”

She nodded.

I hesitated for just a moment, then guessed, “She screamed?”

The green mare shivered, and nodded again, then held a hoof in front of her, while making a show of the other hoof being between her barrel and the first hoof.  Then she tapped her forehead and grimaced.

The pegasus had somehow been able to beat me this time, “She screamed… inside your head?”

Margarita nodded and shivered again, clearly uncomfortable with the memory of her encounter.

The blue pegasus scratched the back of her neck, “Huh.  Well… That’s a new one on me.”

Margarita pointed a hoof to the pegasus’ mane, and then bopped the top of her own head.  She held her hooves out in front of her.  One was held at length, only slightly bent, while the other was held closer to her barrel.  She pantomimed getting knocked back by an invisible force, then moved her hooves rapidly before repeating the gesture.  Was she mimicking the use of a rifle?  When she had finished, she stared at the pegasus and shrugged.

The blue mare stared back for a moment before realization dawned on her face, “Oh!  One of those bastards shot my hat up!  Can you believe it?  I can’t keep a good hat for more than a few days!  And I left the Medicine Stick back in town.  It’s bad enough that I’m wasting my hollow point forty-fours on these raiders, no way I’m gonna bust out the forty-five-seventies!”  She smirked, and flared her wings wide, “Besides, my wing-blades and Forgiveness are more than a match for these soft targets.”

The pegasus took to the air, flapping her wings just enough that she was left hovering above our heads.  She hooked a hoof behind her, in the direction of Mareon.  “Well… shit, Marge… after what you’ve been through, it sounds like you could use a drink or seven.  Wanna head back to the saloon?”

Margarita scowled, and pointed her hoof away from the town, then stamped on the ground insistently.

The pegasus was confused, “Huh?  You want to head back to the wastes?  There’s nothing out that way but ghouls and raiders right now.  And it’d be really bad if we ran into Bright Eyes at this time of night.”

The green mare stamped her hoof again, and glowered at the pegasus.

But whatever Margarita was trying to convey had been lost on the blue featherbrain.  The pegasus perked up, and exclaimed, “Oh!  Hey!  I just got a great idea!  I’m gonna go get more raider ears for the bounty!”  Margarita audibly facehoofed, before the pegasus continued, “Can you take these two to town, Margie?  Awesome!”  She hadn’t waited for a response, instead she turned to me, “And thanks again for the save, doc!  I’ll have to buy you a drink sometime!”  And with that, she looped around in the air and disappeared into the gloom.

I realized just how un-ladylike I was being by not thanking her for her help.  “Wait!  I didn’t even… catch your… ”  She was nowhere to be seen, and E.F.S. had already lost her.  Ugh!  What a frustrating pony!

I turned back to Nohta and Margarita, to see their odd expressions.  Margarita had arched an eyebrow and was staring at me with a wary, cautious expression.  Nohta was sniggering.

“Why, whatever is the matter?”

“Your cheeks are all red, Sis.”

My muzzle rose into the air as I slid into lecture-mode, “Well, it… It’s hardly my fault if the emotional strain of the evening has caused the release of adenylyl cyclase into my circulatory system, triggering a drop in vascular resistance and the subsequent vasodilation of the various arteries, veins, and capillaries of my cheeks in order to better facilitate the anticipated influx of adrenaline!  Why, this is nothing more than a rather textbook-example of the body’s response to fight-or-flight stimuli.  Of course, adrenaline is also responsible for the vasoconstriction of-”

I looked back to them, to ensure that my audience was following along, only to find them both heading towards the gates of Mareon.

Nohta nudged the green mare with her leg and chuckled, “She’ll follow us.  It never takes her too long to realize that nopony is listening to her ramble.”

I grumbled to myself, and hurried after them.  One of these days, I vowed, someone would listen to what I have to say.

I’ll admit that the circumstances are a little odd, but I was right about that, wasn’t I?


**************


The northern walls of Mareon had certainly seen better nights.  The gates at the northern entrance lay battered and mangled on the ground.  Bullet holes bit through the sheet metal as blood stains further discolored the already rust-covered walls.  To make matters worse, vast segments of the barrier had been burnt and twisted, becoming gnarled and jagged in an awful way.  Several portions of the wall had been blown apart entirely, leaving gaping entrances for the wasteland to seep into Mareon.  A pair of unicorns and an earth pony from the town were already hard at work, trying to make repairs to the walls.  I couldn’t help but think that they had rather a lot to accomplish by themselves.

A hoof-full of ragged, worn-out guards stood just past the broken gate, huddled together near a lamppost and looking as if a stiff wind could blow them over.  They were guarding the broken-asphalt road, cracked and uneven as it was, which provided a straight path into the heart of the settlement.

One of the guards, a yellow buck wearing a pre-war combat helmet over a freshly bandaged head-wound, stumbled away from the group and lifted his voice in warning as we neared the town, “Hold up, now!  Y’all ain’t trying to get inta Mareon is ya?”

One of the other guards, a purple mare in a scratched and worn set of combat barding rolled her eyes and groaned, “Shit, Cross… Just let ‘em in.  They ain’t raiders!”

He squinted his eyes and peered in my direction, “Well, how c’n we be sure?  Maybe they ain’t raiders, but maybe they is!  Or maybe… “  He looked to my sister, “maybe one of ‘ems a spy!”

The purple mare took a long drag from her smoke, only exhaling after she had spoken her companion’s name, “Crossfire… Why don’t you settle down and let somepony who didn’t just take a hammer blow to the head sort this one out, okay?  It’s just three ponies.  They ain’t gonna cause trouble when the whole town’s on high alert.”

“Three?  I, uh.  I see six of ‘em.”  The buck lifted a hoof to count us, only to wobble and nearly fall over.  Frowning, he abandoned his mathematical pursuits, and walked back to his group, “Damn headache… Thinkin’ hurts.”

I stepped forward, speaking to the purple mare as I floated out a healing potion, “Did you say that your friend took a blow to the head?  I may be able to help.  May I inspect him?”

She inhaled from her cigarette again.  What kind of tobacco was blue?  “You a doctor?  Thanks, but ya ain’t gotta worry ‘bout it none,”  She tapped a hoof against the butterflies decorating the yellow box hanging at her side before exhaling.  “I already checked him out.  We’re damn lucky that the big lug was wearing that helmet of his.  He only got a mild concussion.  His eyes are fine, he ain’t throwin’ up, and he’s only being about as dumb as he normally is.”  She sighed as a small smile crept across her lips, “Cross’ heart was always bigger than his brain.”

She nodded towards the middle of town, “If you’ve got the medical skills and some spare time, folks in town could sure use some help.  I’d be in there myself, but the Sheriff wants me to stay with the guards in case the raiders get brave again.  Besides, I gotta watch Cross for a while anyway.  Head trauma and all that.  Go on in.  Just… be mindful of the fact that everypony’s still a little spooked.”

After thanking the purple mare, we followed the road past the guards and towards the center of town.  The signs of recent fighting were everywhere.  Pools of blood, spent bullet casings, and slivers of glass from busted windows reflected the faint light of the town’s lamps and neon signs.  Rubble from the road and a few of the more substantial pre-war structures lay scattered in the streets.  Wary looks accompanied hushed voices and the glint of metal as ponies unholstered their weapons at our passing.  ‘A little spooked’ was an understatement.

It wasn’t hard to empathize with the residents of Mareon.  Having been on the receiving end of an overwhelming and vicious attack only days ago had made it quite easy to imagine how these ponies must have been feeling.  I wanted to help them.

I also wanted to leave as quickly as possible.  I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were walking into the very last place in Equestria that we should be.  I didn’t want to give the pony, or ponies, that had hired the mercenaries a chance to finish the job on their own.  Still… Father’s orders had been clear.

Three days.  Nohta and I would have to stay for three days.  No less, but certainly no more.  We’d have to be careful about how we handled ourselves in town.  If the two of us were lucky, then we might be able to avoid having anypony realize that we were from The Caravan.  If we were unlucky, then, well… I still had my pistol.

Margarita led the way into town, clearly more knowledgeable about the layout of the settlement than Nohta or myself.  When she reached a familiar-looking building with a painted sign leaning against its wall, she paused and turned to me.  

I examined the outer wall of Doctor Flannel’s dilapidated house, contemplating the butterflies on the sign out front.  No matter what obstacles the wasteland had thrown in my path, I was still a doctor.  And surely not all of these ponies had helped to orchestrate my caravan’s demise.

I looked to my sister, “Nohta, I need you to do something for me.”

“What’s up, Sis?”

“Get Margarita to show you around town and tell the ponies of Mareon that someon- pony with medical experience has arrived.”  I grimaced, but continued on.  The damage had already been done.  The silent, green mare arched an eyebrow at my verbal slip, but didn’t seem to be interested in acting out any questions she may have had.  At least I hadn’t blown our cover in front of somepony who could run and tell the whole town.  “Tell them that I’m trying to help the wounded in Doctor Flannel’s place of residence.  We’re going to help as much as we can in the time we’ve been allotted.”  

I sighed, “And Nohta, make no mention of The Caravan.”

Nohta cocked her head in confusion, “Why shouldn’t we tell folks about The Caravan?”

“I’ll explain later, dear.”  I turned to Margarita, and spoke to both of them, “Time is of the essence.”

Margarita smiled and bowed her head in my direction, then trotted off down the road, leaving Nohta to hurry after her.  My sister glanced over her shoulder in my direction once, and then followed our new acquaintance further down the dimly lit streets.

I shut my eyes and sucked in a deep, calming breath before raising my eyes to the heavens.  The moon’s glow was almost completely hidden by the clouds, but random gusts of wind would occasionally part the cover and allow me the briefest of moments to see its luminous surface.  I knew in my heart that if my sister and I were to survive the coming days, it would not be without assistance.

I whispered a prayer to that beautiful orb, “Luna, Nohta and I could really use some help right now.  We’re hungry, and tired, and beginning to wear down.  Please don’t let this town be our end.”  

The clouds rolled back into place; impassive to my plea.  I didn’t see the moon again for three nights.


**************


I had started working immediately, setting up shop in Doc Flannel’s house as if it were my own clinic.  I had just enough time to organize the Doctor’s meager amount of supplies and sterilize as many of the tools as I could find, as well as set out all of the potions, bandages, and other miscellaneous medical supplies from my own stores before the first wave of patients had arrived at the door.  I admitted them all of course, and busied myself with prioritizing the dire emergencies from the survivable conditions before getting down to work.

It was a gruesome affair, having to tell ponies, ‘No, I’m terribly sorry, but there is only one of me, and I can’t attend to your needs right now.  I have to make sure that another patient survives the next ten minutes.’  Or, ‘I know it hurts, believe me I do.  But we just can’t spare any Med-X right now.’  Or my personal high-point of the night, ‘No, I didn’t just pass out from the sight of your foal’s blood.  I’ve just been awake for far too long.’

Luckily, one of the first patients that I had cared for had been The Doctor himself.  The raiders had mutilated his leg horribly.  I did what I could, but some injuries were just beyond my abilities.  Honestly, at his age, I considered it a Lunar blessing that we hadn’t been forced to remove the appendage entirely.  

He was hobbling around on a hastily-fastened brace that Margarita had fashioned from a few bits of scrap, determined to help his neighbors and friends.  He was still unable to use his left foreleg, but was quite capable of attending to his patients.  Despite my initial apprehension as to his level of medical prowess, he proved rather adept at being able to remove bullets, administer potions, and round up volunteers to assist the two of us in some of the more mundane and less technical responsibilities of medical care, such as sterilizing equipment, boiling water, cleaning bandages, and tending to the bedpans.  The doctor also proved to be as stubborn as a mule, instantly dismissing my demands that he rest.  His assistance with the patients, and his determined attitude, helped me get through the night.

Nohta had found the two of us some food during the course of the night, and I was able to stave off the worst effects of starvation.  I was so completely taken with ravenous hunger that I hadn’t even bothered to ask what it was.  It was just a bowl of grey mushy stuff, but to me, it was quite certainly the best grey mushy stuff the world had ever known.  Somepony had also offered up a couple of Sparkle-Colas as thanks for my care.  The caffeine and sugar helped to jolt my fading consciousness back into a state of wakefulness. 

There finally came a moment in the night, nearly the morning at that point, when all of the most severe cases had been stabilized.  All of the beds were full, nearly all of our potions had been used, and I had been reduced to using donated liquor to keep my equipment sterilized.  It was at that point that I found myself unable to stay awake long enough to wrap a bandage around a mare’s lacerated knee, and had to excuse myself to try and get some sleep.

I don’t even recall getting to bed that night.  I woke the next day, lying upon Doc Flannel’s waiting bench.  I excused myself from the worried eyes of the incoming patients and made my way to the little filly’s room to wash up.  Then it was right back to work.

Nohta had offered to help with the patients in the morning, still being accompanied by Margarita, but I asked her to keep an eye out for The Caravan.  I was hoping that if she saw me being optimistic, it might help to keep her own hopes up.  And on the off chance that The Caravan actually rolled up to town, I wanted to know straightaway.

From a few of my patients in the morning, I was able to gather that the raiders had not been content with simply allowing the ponies of Mareon to take the town back.  They had resorted to harassing stragglers on the roads, attacking wandering traders in an attempt to cut off Mareon’s ability to resupply itself from the salvage of the wasteland.  When I had asked which roads had been rendered impassable, the response was not one that I had wanted to hear.  All contact with Equestria, save for the radio broadcasts, had been severed due to raiders blocking the northern roads.  If my Caravan had survived the griffins, it would most assuredly run right into a veritable army of savage raiders.  I chose not to share this information with Nohta.

By the end of the day, my patients were comprised of not only the ponies who lived in Mareon, but wasteland wanderers and traders who had been fortunate enough to survive an encounter with the gangs.  The injuries were still piling on, and all of the attacks meant lots of bullet wounds, bruises, broken bones, burns, blisters, bad backs, bursitis, buck addictions, and even a case or two of bad breath brought on by binging on “battle-brew.”  In other words, I had my work cut out for me.

By the second morning, all of my potions had been consumed, along with all of Doctor Flannel’s supplies.   The Mayor had appropriated two more houses within the settlement’s walls for use as clinical wards, much to the dismay of the ponies who had lived there.  I could understand their frustration, but couldn’t see a viable alternative.  The sick and injured had just been too numerous for The Doctor’s modest residence.  

There was a minor scare when a young mother brought in her wounded colt around midday.  Upon seeing me for the first time, she practically jumped from fright, gasping and shrieking, “Stripes!  You’re a zebra!”

“Er, no, they’re just a tribal marking.  Part of my home’s traditions!  I’m in the middle of my right of passage and, as a doctor, I’m supposed to mark my face so that others know what I do.”  I backed away, trying to reassure her with a smile while I pointed to my cheeks, “See?  Pink.  Like the butterflies?”

There was a disturbingly long moment of silence within the clinic as everypony present focused their attention on the mother and myself.  A bedridden stallion coughed.

Another stallion, however, proved much more helpful.  “Ugh!  Petunia, you dumb-flank!  You ever seen a zebra with a horn on her head?  That’d just about be the most ridiculous thing ever!  Right next to you thinking that our pink-maned doctor is a ruddy stripe!  ‘Sides, look at the rest of her!  She’s only got markin’s on her face, you idjit!”  

The mother blinked at me for a few moments, her eyes traveling upwards to notice my horn, then her look of surprise turned to one of timid embarrassment, “Oh, yes.  Of course.  How... silly, of me to make such an assumption.”  She prodded her colt forward, pleading with me, “Please, I’ve heard that you can help my son!  I’ll do anything!”  With her unease abated, I was able to continue my work in relative peace.

It was only as the sun was setting behind the clouds on the third day that Doctor Flannel, myself, and our hoof-full of spirited volunteers found ourselves watching over three houses of patients in stable condition.  Due to my past experience with the traumatic injuries often sustained in The Stable, as well as Doctor Flannel’s aptitude for caring for wounds sustained in combat, we had been able to save the lives of nearly four dozen ponies.  Part of me wondered if the wasteland had been set up with a system of checks and balances.  I had lost my caravan, but saved its equal in strangers.

Well… maybe not its equal.  Can anyone truly put an estimation of worth on the life of their father?

Most of the town was preoccupied with tending to the morbid affair of grave digging.  Those who were not lucky enough to funnel their sorrows into the meditation of physical labor were either weeping near the rows of the deceased or sobbing into their drinks at The Saloon.  Intermittent caterwauls of anguish rent through the silence of the night as mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers all came upon the realization of loss.  As a doctor, it is a sound I am agonizingly familiar with.

I hadn’t been able to save all of them.  I had tried… Goddess, I had tried.  Not even my unique abilities had been enough to save them all.  I remember; one buck had died from blood loss the moment he reached my table.  It was callous, perhaps, to immediately and unceremoniously levitate his body off of the table so that another might be spared, but I had no choice.  Every moment was precious, doubly so with my faltering strength and waning consciousness.

Another mare had died of subdural haematoma after receiving a club to her head.  I found bits of concrete embedded in her skull, drawing me back to unpleasant memories amidst an already unpleasant atmosphere of misery and despair.  Every death that might have been prevented carved its niche a little deeper into my heart.  It was only for Nohta’s sake, that she might be able to depend upon the facade of my strength, that I kept my feelings bottled inside.

Nohta and I were left alone that last night as the town mourned its losses.  I was far too weary to even play at making conversation with her, and we both found ourselves in bed early that evening.  Three days of intense triage with hardly enough time to even use the restroom or find a meal had left me completely physically drained, and without any sign of The Caravan I was forced to let go of the last fraying threads of hope that I might ever see Father again.  The only mercy lain upon me was that my nights were dreamless.  Luna had surely scattered my nightmares to the abyss, granting me some small respite from my imagination.  I was thankful.  I had no desire to wade into the horrors waiting for me within the darkening confines of my own mind.


**************


Three days had come and gone.  There was no sign of The Caravan, and no word of any large group of ponies beyond the walls except for the raider gangs.  As I woke the next day, I resolved myself to carry out Father’s last orders.  We had to go home.  The Stable needed to know.

“You’ve been a gracious host, Doctor Flannel.  Thank you ever-so-much for the lodging and provisions.”

The doctor was holding his horn up to his ear.  “Aww shucks, missy.  Don’t think too much of it.  I’m just about tickled pink to help.”  He blinked several times,  “Y’all ain’t leavin’ already, are ya?  Ya just got back!”

I pulled my now filthy, but whole, lab-coat back over my natural coat and adjusted my pistol’s holster.  “Unfortunately, yes.  My sister and I have prior and pressing obligations to which we absolutely must attend.  Rest assured, however, that should we ever find ourselves in Mareon again, I’ll make it a point to pop in and visit.”

“Well now, I reckon that sounds alright.  The both of ya are welcome to stay here anytime ya like.  Oh, and ‘fore I forget, I wanted you to know that I hope you find yer kin.  Ain’t right, gettin’ separated like that.”

I froze, and with a flash of magic, unlatched my pistol.  “How did you-”

“Now hold up missy!  I didn’t mean to get ya all riled up.  I was just sayin’ that I think it’s a right shame that you got separated from yer caravan.  Y’all were lookin’ fer supplies, right?”

The bubble of my magic had not yet lifted the pistol from its holster, but I wasn’t about to let it go, either.  “How did you know about what happened to The Caravan?”

“Well now, I don’t rightly know just what happened.  But I figured that there had to be some reason fer a whole passel of ya to show up and leave, only fer two of ya to come back a few days later.  Figured it mighta had somethin’ to do with the raiders, actually.”

I relaxed an infinitesimal amount.  “Raiders?  You think that the attack on my caravan and the attack on Mareon are connected?”

“Well, the timin’ is awfully suspicious, ain’t it?  Bunch of raiders head for Mareon, and a bunch of raiders go after yer kin at the same time.  Sounds to me like something that Psyker’d do.”

The crimson flare of my magic faded as I latched the strap of the holster back into place, “Raiders didn’t attack my caravan.  It was mercenaries.”

“Mercs?  You sure about that, young’un?  Only mercs we got ‘round these parts are Margarita’s company, and you and she seem to get along just fine.”

Margarita was a mercenary?  “No.  These mercenaries were griffins, not ponies.”

The doctor stiffened, his eyes snapped wide with shock before narrowing with rage as he struggled to maintain his balance on his crutch, “Griffins!  Them fuckin’ turkeys!  They ain’t got the sense that Luna gave a molerat!  Those fuckin’ feather dusters ain’t worth the time of day!  If I saw one on fire-”  The doctor’s tirade veered off into a series of increasingly vulgar profanities and racial slurs that were, quite frankly, astounding.  He was pitching a fit in the way that only an elderly stallion, securely set in his ways and completely unashamed of his views, can.  The sincerity of his diatribe took me completely by surprise.  It also left little doubt in my mind that the doctor was not the pony whom had hired the griffins.

I blushed, amused at the doctor’s polemic even as I felt guilty for enjoying his assessment of an entire people.  I left the clinic shortly after the doctor had calmed down and I had gotten him to promise not to tell others about my caravan’s fate.  He had agreed wholeheartedly, being extremely grateful for my help with the patients, and I felt assured that there was at least one unicorn in Mareon whom I could trust to keep a secret.

As my sister and I traveled through the town that morning, I happened to notice a wooden sign detailing the new bounty on the raiders.  Mouth-written notices about the different raider gangs in the area were nailed into place over top of fading, yellow job offers.  The bounty board was rife with information regarding how to collect on the bounties on the raider leaders.  I did not believe it to be a coincidence that the bounty board was positioned in such a way that it should be the first thing somepony would see when they exited the saloon.  

There was a standing bounty for any and all raiders in the amount of twenty caps per left ear.  Defiling corpses was a most barbaric practice to be sure, but one that I was in no position to argue against.  These raiders posed a threat to the safety of the entire settlement, and the town’s solution was swift and violent.  The townsponies were baying for blood.  Still, I couldn’t help but wonder who amongst the settlement’s survivors would be brave or foolish enough to try and collect.

Specific bounties for several high-profile raiders known as “The Outcast,” “The Bard,” and “The Pyro,” were given for quite a few more caps.  The pay was two-hundred caps for The Pyro’s mask, three-hundred for The Bard’s guitar, and an impressive five-hundred for The Outcast’s Pipbuck.  But they were all drops in a bucket compared to the bounty for a pony named “Psyker.”  A mouth-drawn illustration of an impressively severe looking unicorn glared down at any who should pass the board.  Underneath of Psyker’s glowering face was the bounty for her head: Five thousand caps.

Nohta and I had been able to sell a few miscellaneous items, including the, er, adult-oriented publications and had made a small pile of caps.  We had enough of the wasteland currency to afford some more food, a single bedroll, and a couple of the town’s precious healing potions.  A small pang of guilt washed over me as I realized that it was quite possible that I could have produced a few healing potions myself, had I only possessed a few more ingredients.  It would have spared us quite a few caps, as any healing supplies were still in great demand due to the raider blockade.  And more importantly, it would have spared the supplies for Mareon.  The town was still in danger, while Nohta and I were soon to be heading for the relative safety of The Stable.  But, I wasn’t about to set hoof outside of town without at least one restorative potion for each of us.  

Before the two of us had left town, Nohta had insisted that we stop at what she referred to as “The Commons.”  She had spent the better part of our stay in Mareon alongside Margarita, and wished to say goodbye.  

Long wooden buildings with peeling shingles and dirty yellowed windows were arranged in rows near the southern part of town.  As we approached the first in the series of identical structures the green mare came out to greet us, carrying a polished wooden case and a pad of paper.  Before either of us could even raise a hoof in greeting, the mute mare was nudging the case towards Nohta with a smile on her face.  

She held up the note which had been scribbled on the paper.  It read, “Thank yu fur pikeen the lok.  I wuz trapt beefor yu helpt me.  I unnurstann that yu hav to go, but yu need to be careful!  This wuz Dad’s gunn.  I want yu to hav it.  Walkeen thru the waistlann with no gunn is not a gud idea.  It kiks bak, hard, but hurts them moar.  Take care of yorself.  The waists need moar gud ponys, ann gud zeebruhs.”  I looked farther down the page, and noticed an addendum, “Never wuz gud at spelleen.  Wuz bettur at talkeen.  Leev Psyker alon, she messt with my hed!”

Nohta finished mouthing the words as she read the note and looked back up to Margarita’s grinning face.  The green mare took that as the cue to pop the lock on the case, which sprung open to reveal a veritable cannon of a pistol.  A dark, polished wooden grip met a jet-black frame and barrel.  Amber letters rode out across the frame, spelling “The Worm.”

Before Nohta could look away from the pistol, Margarita had scrawled out another note, “Worm is bad for agave, not shur why sumpony wud put it in tequila.  But gunn is gud.  Eezee to use.  So eezee, eevun a drunk like Dad wuz a grate shot with it.”  She ripped out the page before writing on another one.

Margarita held her last note in her mouth, as she sat on her haunches.  “I will be in Mareon for a long time.  Noware to go, with raydurz all ovur.  If yu cum bak to town, find me.  We will go hunteen for raydurz or gools.  Lots of fun with a gud groop of frendz!”

Nohta lingered on that last word, before looking back up to meet the mare’s eyes, “I’ll be back, Margarita.  You can count on that.”

As the two of us were walking past the guards at the southern entrance to the town, I nudged my sister’s shoulder and whispered, “Someone made a friend.”  The grin on her muzzle was just barely visible underneath her hood.

The cracked and barren landscape that lay south of Mareon stretched out before us as we made our way back to The Stable.  I felt marginally safer after we had lost sight of Mareon, even if it was the only semblance of order for miles.  The scant few travelers that had come from the south had reported no trouble with any gangs.  And with Mareon acting as a barrier between us and the raider blockade, I felt safer than I had in days.  It felt good to be on the road again.  Productive, even.  Perhaps Nohta and I had inherited Mother’s wanderlust?

Miraculously, we actually managed to find The Caravan’s old campsite from our first night out of The Stable.  The ash pit had since been emptied by passing winds, leaving the stones that had encircled the bed of coals as the only sign of a campsite.  We decided to call it a night.  My little sister passed me a freshly opened (which is about as fresh as most food gets out in the wasteland) can of corn as I fiddled with Mother’s fire talisman.  After activating the magic, I levitated it into place under a small pile of brush and twigs.  The fire was welcome in the darkness of night.

“Sis,” Nohta spoke through a mouthful of carrots, “do you think we left too soon?”

“We are following Father’s orders.  He wanted us to leave Mareon after three days if nopony from The Caravan had come back yet, and that’s precisely what we did.  Besides, something was wrong there.  Every moment we tarried in Mareon was another moment that we were in danger.”  I levitated the can of corn to myself and ate.  You never really miss silverware until you’re forced to do without. 

She looked up from her dinner, “What do you mean?  Folks seemed to like us well enough.  Or, they at least liked you.  And Margarita was really nice.” 

“No, not that.  Mareon as a whole didn’t seem to mind us, I just think that somepony there really didn’t want us around.”  I finally explained my musings about the griffin mercs and their possible employer to Nohta. 

“That’s… wow, Sis.  I hadn’t even thought of it like that.”  She stared into the fire, trying to make sense of the past week’s events.  “So, somepony in Mareon had to do it?  Wait, hold up.  What if the merc company was just bored? Or maybe they weren’t mercs at all, just griffin raiders?  How can we assume anything about what happened?  We don’t really know what life is like up here just yet.”

“I...”  She was right, I didn’t actually have any evidence that they were mercenaries other than the opinion of a now-deceased brown buck.  I was assuming things.  In all honesty, we didn’t know anything about life on the surface besides the few scant details we had gleaned from our parent’s tales of adventure, the experiences relayed to us from other members of The Caravan, or from our own meager amount of personal dealings with surface ponies.

The moon was peeking through the cloud cover again.  I lifted my gaze to examine its light as I spoke to my sister, “You’re right, Nohta.  We don’t know anything out here.”  I rubbed my eyes, trying to concentrate.  

Nohta sighed, and finished her can of carrots, “I was hoping that you would tell me I was wrong.”

After the two of us had finished our meal, I levitated the fire talisman from the bed of coals and towards myself.  It was no more warm than the ground upon which I sat.  Tapping its rounded onyx edge with a hoof, I positioned it snugly back into place in the alchemy set.  I was simply too tired to try my hoof at making a real potion, even if I believed I possessed the required ingredients to do so.  Instead, I closed up my packs and unfurled our new sleeping bag by the fire.

Nohta and I hadn’t shared a bed in years, not since long before Mother had passed.  But with only one bedroll between the two of us, and each of us much too stubborn to simply let the other sleep on the ground, we both finally compromised and lay down next to each other.  Nohta was asleep in a few minutes, lightly snoring as she lay against my back.

I kept the fire going by levitating more wood onto the flames, unable to get to sleep.  I kept worrying about what The Stable would think as we walked back into the shelter.  Once we crossed over the threshold that was our stable’s broken door, our Pipbucks would link to The Overmare’s terminal to announce our return while simultaneously letting everypony know that something had gone horribly wrong.  I was dreading the reaction that most of The Stable would have towards Nohta, fearing that they might come to blame her for the loss of the expedition.  And the loss of the head doctor, the caravan leader, several other precious specialists, and of course the lives of so many of our number.  I couldn’t imagine that they would be terribly excited to see me either.  I was expecting nothing but accusations and anger.

Eventually I ran out of wood to put on the flame, and lay my head down next to Nohta’s.  Everything would work itself out.  Right?  Father had promised.


******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 3!
New Perk!

Intense Training (Endurance): Your recent trials and tribulations have worn you thin, but not worn you out!  You permanently gain +1 Endurance, for a total of 5.  Suck it up, Doc!

Skills Note: Survival 50

Nohta gains a Perk:

Luna’s Chosen:  Nohta is truly a friend of the night.  Her eyes now adapt more quickly to low-light conditions, allowing her to peer into the darkness that others fear.  Pipbuck lamps are for scaredy-ponies!
> Chapter Three: Life In Your New Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Three:


Life In Your New Home



“There can only be one princess in Equestria.  And that princess will be me!”


Once when I was sneaking through a raider camp looking for chems and small weapons to ‘acquire’ and sell, I came across a young filly.  She was chained to a fence post; beaten, bruised, and bloody.  She had been left to rot like the wood she was bound to.  When I moved next to her, she lifted her head slowly and asked me if I were going to “Play” with her as well. 

Sometimes, when you walk the wastes, you will come across things so horrible that all thought is pushed from your mind and you simply act.  You will know it when you see it for yourself, and when your emotions grip you like a vice.  It happens to the best of us.  But it is seldom to our advantage, I’m afraid.

I always had a soft spot for children, and the little filly’s pathetic situation had sparked a fire within me.  I was soon unable to control the inferno that was my rage.  I slaughtered the entire camp.  Most of them had no idea that an assassin walked among them, slipping between shadows and dragging bodies to dark corners.  When the last two begged for mercy I broke their legs and dragged them to the filly.  I told them to ask her for forgiveness.

It turned out that they were her parents.

On that day I learned a very valuable lesson.  If you let your emotions dictate your actions, you will often end up doing something that you will regret.

Three weeks later, I learned another lesson when I came upon the trio on the road; the parents beating the little one senseless.  

When it comes to raiders… just kill them all and spare someone the heartache.


-Excerpt from the Book of Nadira, pg. 18.



---------------------------------------------------------------


I was in the Stable.  I was… running?  Why was I running?  Why were the walls so tall?  Was that… Mother?

It was!  Mother was here!  Why did everything seem so big?  Wait, why was Mother here?  I was scampering behind her, dodging the hurried legs of the ponies all around us as the world continued to confuse me.

I looked to my hooves, taking note of just how tiny they were.  I was a filly.  Oh… Oh!  Of course!  Mother had just taken me outside to learn about herbs and potions!  How could I have forgotten?  

Mother’s cloak flowed behind her, oscillating with her gait as she strolled through the bright halls.  She was absolutely beautiful; dark green eyes intensely flashing with the same brilliance as the most alluring of emeralds.  Her stride was elegant and practiced.  She moved with the same graceful steps that only a dancer, or an expert in martial arts, is able to employ.  She radiated confidence, her body practically singing out in exultation of the sheer strength bottled within her form.  Scars warped and distorted the stripes running along her exposed neck; testament to countless battles fought, and countless opponents bested.

But it was her voice, dusky and exotic and mesmerizing, that I ached to hear.  Nohta had inherited everything but her eyes, her mark, and her voice.  That voice dredged up imagery of far away wilds, where unknowable beasts lurked in oily shadows.  Imagery of smoking cook-fires and bubbling cauldrons sitting prominently in the interiors of wooden huts.  Imagery of sharpened blades in the darkness, glistening with poison just before they struck.

Mother was an assassin, an alchemist, and a warrior.  Mother was clever, and agile, and resourceful.  Mother was strength, and beauty, and mystery.  

She was warm, and kind, and gentle.  She was cold, and deadly, and ruthless.  She was two extremes melded into one glorious whole.  Mother was a zebra.  And for that, she was feared.

Mother walked before me, a veritable goddess in my young mind, and the ponies quaked at her passing.  I followed in her wake, struggling to keep pace as her mere presence parted the crowds.  She was wearing a satisfied smirk, and kept glancing over her shoulder to check on my progress.  Every time her verdant eyes met mine, her grin would grow a little wider.

That voice that I yearned for called out to me, resonating through my ears like bittersweet chocolate.  “That was a good lesson today, Candy.  You’ve learned much already!  Next time I’ll show you how to make a few simple poisons.”

My filly-self questioned her wisdom, “But, why would I want to make poison?  I want to be a doctor, not a fighter!”

She nodded, speaking as she walked.  “Even healers must be capable of defending themselves, little one.  You need look no further than your father for proof of that.”

“Father is trying to teach me how to use his laser pistol.”  I sighed, “I don’t think I’m very good at it.”

Mother stopped walking, turned, and lowered her head to look me in the eye.  “No.  You’re not.”

I stopped in my tracks, jaw falling in shock. Mother was able to hold her face for just a moment longer, then her lips scrunched up from her efforts to hold back her amusement.  She snorted, and covered her face with a hoof, “Candy, you’re too easy!”

“Mom!”  I playfully beat upon her covered shoulder with my tiny hooves as her dark voice chuckled in the middle of the hallway.  Ponies skirted around us, eyeing us warily.

Mother’s tittering fit died off, and she grinned at me again, “There is no shame in acknowledging that you are not good at something, dear.  I have never had an aptitude for repairing equipment, or for medicine.  I have to rely upon others for those services.”  She held a hoof under my chin, and my face curled into a smile at the touch.  She continued, “But if you know that you are not good at something, then you must work to improve your skill.  Or else, find another solution to your problem.”

Her hoof returned to the floor as her eyes held mine in their emerald grip.  “You are your father’s daughter, love, but you are my daughter as well.  One day you will find a weapon that will sing for you.  It will obey your every whim.  And you will understand every nuance of every note of its melody.  But until that day, we will continue searching for its sweet music.  And I will keep instructing you in what I know.”

She sat on her haunches, heedless of the ponies trying to avoid us, “I have been all across Equestria.  I have fought opponents who wielded every kind of armament imaginable.  None of them are invincible, daughter.  Even the enemies whom you believe can not be felled will fall prey to the right weapon, or the right tactic.  Sometimes, guns and bullets and knives and grenades and lasers are all just a burden.  They can keep you from seeing just how easily your opponent may be dealt with; blind you to opportunities under your very nose.  Do not fool yourself into believing that there is only one way to overcome adversity, Candy.”

She pulled a small vial of viscous, pink liquid out of one of her many pockets, holding it between us as she smiled.  “Even the greatest of foes will be brought low if their bodies betray them.  None alive can stand against you if they cannot breathe, little one.”


**************


Nohta woke first, unable to extricate herself from the bedroll without waking me as well.  I didn’t mind.  At that point I felt that any action, no matter how simple, was preferable to letting my mind wander.  Lying still only left me time to brood over unpleasant memories and worry about things to come.  After a quick breakfast of centuries-old canned vegetables, we packed up our belongings and set out for Stable 76.

By midday the desert wind had become ferocious, blowing great clouds of dust into our path.  Nohta had lowered her head, and was attempting to shield her eyes with the fabric of her hood.  Unfortunately I was afforded no such luxury, and had to make do with wrapping the remains of my old lab-coat around my face in an attempt to block out the stinging winds.  We must have looked like quite the sight; two weary travelers braving the perils of a desert sandstorm, occasionally kicking the odd tumbleweed out of our path as we made our way deeper into the desert.
        
We only found relief from the winds as we finally descended into the Stable’s canyon.  The sky had long since darkened, leaving the two of us to navigate the trail towards our home by the light of my Pipbuck.   It had taken us the entirety of the day to reach the familiar landmark, and I was looking forward to resting my hooves for a spell when we finally re-entered our home.  Nohta was mostly concerned with other things.

“Candy,”  Nohta scoffed, “why do you even have that thing on?  You’re just telling everypony within eyesight that we’re out here.  Remember what happened outside Mareon?”

“Oh, Nohta, please… We don’t have to worry about that here!  Stable 76 has been kept hidden for decades!  I doubt that more than a hoofful of outsiders have ever even bothered to come to this part of the desert.”

“And besides,”  I continued, rolling my eyes as we plodded down the winding trail that snaked between the rocky cliffs rising up all around us, “I don’t know how you can see anything at all with it being as dark as it is.”

I was stuffing my old lab-coat back into my packs as we entered the Stable’s cave, when Nohta suddenly grasped my shoulder.  Confused, I looked forward.  The sight of what lay before me caused my jaw to drop.

The cave floor was coated in blood.

“Sis…” Nohta looked back to me, her eyes wide.

“What… Goddess, what happened here?”  Confusion, terror, and curiosity mingled in my mind; each one fighting the others for dominance of my thoughts.  What was going on?  What should we do?  What could have possibly happened here?  We needed to know.  I needed to know!  But… I needed to do something else as well.  

I glanced to my sister, her eyes darting through the darkness before us as she searched for clues.  I needed to know.  I had an obligation to the Stable!  But… I also needed to keep my sister safe.  That’s what Father would have wanted.  Laying my hoof upon her shoulder and meeting her startled expression with my own worried but firm look, I continued forward.  Proceeding carefully, I undid the latch of my pistol’s holster and descended into the cave, Nohta following just behind me.

We crept forward, over the rocky floor made slick with blood, and paused before the busted door.  The gigantic, mangled steel cog that was Stable 76’s door lay heavy upon the cave floor,  resembling a doormat before the open portal that led to our home.  When we stepped over the door, into the Stable, all of my worries about what everypony would think of our return vanished.

Moonglow was there to greet us as we returned from our voyage.  A cold, dead smile had been carved into his face, inviting us into a hellish scene of brutal insanity.  He had been left hanging from the ceiling by a hook, his exposed vertebrae and internal organs dangling limply out of his shredded torso.  His hind legs had been ripped from his body, carelessly discarded upon the floor like so much common refuse.  Blood pooled underneath of him, and had been smeared across the windows of the nearby observation room.  The dark blue robes that he was never seen without had been left in tatters, clinging to his blood-soaked body even as the crescent moon upon them was stained a deep, dark crimson.  That same crimson liquid was coating the stairs and their rails, dripping down from the ceiling, and pooling by the door.  

My lip quivered as my hoof rose to my muzzle in shock, “Luna...”  I had never seen such a grotesque display of violence!  The fetid reek of decaying organs and bodily fluids hung heavily in the stagnant air of the Stable’s entrance, nearly suffocating in its intensity.  I felt sick, violated even, at the repugnance of the sight before me.  Moonglow had been one of the kindest, sweetest, gentlest ponies I had ever known!  He didn’t deserve to die like this!   What monster could even fathom such a fate?

Nohta stayed silent, her tense posture betraying her anxiety.  She crept inward, past the macabre scene and towards the first interior door.  After she motioned me forward I moved alongside her, holding my hoof to my nose in an attempt to avoid the stench of death.  My E.F.S. was showing no hostiles, so I latched my weapon back into place and moved deeper into Stable 76’s corridors alongside my sister as the two of us passed underneath the watchful gaze of one of the Stable’s wall-mounted cameras.  

The door let out a soft hum as it opened for us, revealing that the rest of the Stable had been treated no better than the entrance.  Severed limbs, trailing the bloody remnants of tendons connected to chunks of meat, lay scattered in every direction.  Great patches of skin, with fur matted by blood, could be found pinned to the walls.  Piles of organs lay rotting and reeking in nearly every corner.  Some poor pony’s kidneys had been tied up with string, left dangling from one of the protruding light fixtures in the hallway.  Decapitated heads, charred corpses, torsos impaled with sharpened bones… Goddess, it was too much.

A pleading breath escaped my quivering lips, “Luna… no… please…”  I slumped against the doorframe and slid to my knees as I found my legs incapable of supporting my weight.  The Stable… my home.  How could this have happened?  We had been careful!  Excruciatingly careful!  Nopony knew about the Stable!

Several of the light fixtures had been shot out, and the few that were left were flickering on and off, leaving the interior of the Stable in a state of nearly perpetual darkness save for the few fires still burning in isolated corners and the occasional spark arcing away from exposed electrical wires.  Bullet holes and burn marks speckled the walls.  Pipes had burst, spilling their contents into the hallways.  Not all of it was water, and the reek of chemicals mixed with bodily fluids and death overpowered our nostrils.  I was very nearly gagging from the grisly sights alone.  But the intensely fetid stench that permeated the air seeped down our throats, despite our best efforts to avoid it, and threatened to push my already queasy stomach completely over the edge.  The fetor invaded our bodies like a conquering warband, raping and pillaging our very souls in its relentless and malefic rampage.

Nohta lifted me to my hooves, ushering me further inside past the buzzing and crackling electrical wires dangling precariously from the gaping holes left by absent ceiling panels.  We saw designs and words smeared onto the walls with blood.  “FUCK YOU” was written, very plainly, above the door to the cafeteria, illuminated by the malicious, snarling flames dancing upon a pile of wooden debris.  A giant, smiling face with X’s for eyes and a nasty, sharp-toothed grin awaited us inside the mare’s bathroom; I had the misfortune of looking directly at it as one of the ceiling panels liberated itself from its fixtures and fell directly behind us with an ear-splitting crash.  As we continued in our search, moving from room to room, the distant reports of booming thuds and clangs could be felt or heard from deeper inside the Stable.  So far, we had seen nopony.  Nopony alive, that is.

I recognized so many of the faces I came across.  I almost couldn’t bring myself to look.  Cooks had been eviscerated by their own cutlery.  Mutilated teachers were left to rot atop their desks, holding silent lectures for the small hills of tiny bodies in the corners of their classrooms.  Maintenance ponies had been restrained by their own rolls of duct tape and bludgeoned by their own tools.  Scribes from the library were identifiable by their violet stained muzzles, having been force-fed their own ink.  There was no escaping the overwhelming presence of death.  It followed us down every hallway, peered back at us through every door, and was reflected in the surface of every window.  Nowhere were we able to find relief from the atrocity that had befallen our stable.

On weak and trembling legs, we made our way to the clinic, picking our way through the ravaged remains of our home.  The normally neat and tidy clinic, my clinic, had been defiled beyond recognition.  The cabinets had been torn from the walls, leaving their miscellaneous medical supplies scattered upon the floor.  A ceiling panel was swinging to and fro above the operating table, threatening to come crashing down at any moment.  A dark-green stallion lay upon the same table, his legs tied down and his chest cut open.  His face had been mutilated, his eyelids ripped off and his tongue laying over his forehead.  His intestines hung limply at his sides.  Somepony had defecated in his open torso.

‘Repulsion’ doesn’t begin to describe the feeling that raced through my being.  I braced myself against the doorframe as I vomited, no longer able to control my body’s reaction to my home’s violation.  Purging myself of the scant contents of my stomach provided only a temporary relief, as the intense and suffocating stink poured back into my body soon after I had finished.  My tears flowed freely, as my body relinquished its attempts to keep any measure of decorum.  I couldn’t hold it any longer.  I was nearing my breaking point… 

I fell into a sobbing heap between the doorframe and my sister’s hooves.

Nohta didn’t shy away from my sickness, staying only inches away from me.  Her eyes darted between darkened corners and dead bodies as she whispered anxiously into my ear, “Come on, Sis.  We need to keep moving.”  Nohta pulled my weeping form away from the clinic, wrapping a hoof around my shoulders to lift me back to my hooves.  I turned into her embrace, letting her lead me down the dark passages as we proceeded past the clinic, classrooms, and library.  

Descending down a flight of stairs, we made our way towards the armory and storage room, but found nothing besides empty shelves, spent bullet casings, pools of blood, and mutilated bodies.  Whoever had done this had taken everything of value.  The entire Stable’s worth of food, weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies had been plundered.  They had even taken the spare clothing.

Nohta was whispering to me, worry cutting deeply into the usually blunt and forceful tones of her voice, “Sis, I don’t think anypony made it.”

I steadied myself against a rack of steel shelving and began to think aloud.  It was a desperate and epic struggle to choke back the tears and simply speak.  “We should… We should check the Overmare’s office and The T-Temple.  They’re the deepest in-inside, and L-Luna may have preserved her most faithful.”  The entire Stable wiped out?  No…  Goddess, please, not like this!

We staggered into Luna’s Temple, and my heart broke.  The attackers had defiled The Temple as well.  Luna’s stone statue, once a majestic and fearsome replica of the most powerful being to ever live, had been desecrated beyond repair.  There were obscenities smeared onto her likeness with blood.  Her horn and right wing had been broken off, and her entire body was pockmarked with bullet holes.  The tapestries and wooden pews had been gathered into a flaming heap in the corner, the flames still flickering and dancing against the ruined interior walls.  This was unbearable!  How could anypony commit such sacrilege against The Dark Mother!

I moved closer to the broken effigy, wiping away tears and swallowing the lump in my throat. “No!  Luna… G-Goddess, how could they?”

Attached to the base of the statue rested the plaque commemorating the deeds of The Goddess.  I levitated away some of the charred debris and, in a voice still shaking with consternation and thick with emotion,  read aloud, “In m-memory of Princess… L-Luna, the greatest amongst all p-ponies and the only… only known alicorn to have ever lived.”  My vision had become blurry, making it hard to see the words in the gloom, but my faltering voice began to even out as the words left my lips.  Clearing the tears away with a hoof, I continued reading.  “She who f-fought back the tyranny of the sun, and gave us the night.  S-she who brought order to chaos, and founded the nation of… nation of Equestria.  She who banished the… the Nightmare, and brought peace t-to our dreams.  May her moon lead us through this everlasting night.  May her moon rise over us all.”

Nohta moved beside me, and brushed the ashes of the tapestries away from the four tablets that lay at Luna’s hooves before reading the first one aloud.  Her voice wavered only slightly, betrayed by her own worry.  “Truth number one: Fear not the darkness.  For by peering into the unknown, you shall learn Honest things.”

The two of us shared a glance before reading the second tablet together, “Truth number two: Be faithful to friends and family.  For Loyalty is among the greatest of virtues.”

I found some small measure of strength returning to my voice as the two of us continued,  “Truth number three: Take pleasure in simple things.  For Laughter is forever important.”

“Embrace the Night.  For We shall guide our children through the darkness.”  We finished reading the fourth tablet, our voices a strengthening chorus in the tenebrous temple.

The tablets of Luna’s truths had caught me, stopping my nightmarish descent.  Her wisdom lifted my aching soul out of the pit of twisted despair brought on by the emotional turmoil of recent events.  I was far from bursting into song, still left on the brink of madness as the hounds of misery nipped at my heels, but Luna’s tablets had left me grasping at the edge of the sinkhole.  I found strength in those words, perhaps even enough to heave myself back onto the firm ground of hope.  But whether or not I fell back into the void would be up to me.  

My voice still trembled, but I no longer had to choke back tears.  “Nohta,” I began, “something awful has taken place here.  But we need to find out exactly what.”  I gazed into the Luna’s eyes, hoping, praying that I might be afforded an opportunity to rectify this atrocity.  “And if there are any survivors, they will need our help.”  Nohta nodded grimly but kept silent, and the two of us exited The Temple.

Moving past The Temple, we found ourselves at the entrance to the Overmare’s office.  The decor of death and obscenities smeared upon the walls gave way to a single, undamaged door illuminated by the flickering and humming bulb above it.  We had checked nearly every room that anypony might have used to escape from the attackers.  None of the safe-rooms had held survivors, and none of the major gathering places had been occupied.  When we had swept through the residential halls, our calls into the darkness were only answered by the fading echoes of our own voices.  I was beginning to lose hope of finding any survivors at all, but if anypony was left, they would be in here.

Nohta hit the button to open the Overmare’s office, but the door wouldn’t budge.  Instead, it mocked us with a small and annoying noise.  It reminded me of an alarm-clock.

My sister jabbed at the button again and again, but it just kept making the noise over and over, while the door stayed shut.

“Nohta, I believe that the door is locked.”

She wasn’t deterred in the slightest, “Duh.  Hold on a sec, I’m using a trick Dust told me about.”

My brow arched with my confusion, but I bit my tongue and allowed her to continue.  After a few more moments of mashing at the button, Nohta finally stopped and took a step back from the door.  Turning around, and throwing her weight into it, she placed a thunderous buck right into the button.  The clang of the impact reverberated and echoed off of the Stable’s interior walls.  

I gasped, “Nohta!  Be careful!  You’re going to break it!”

Her reply wasn’t what I had expected, “Yup.”  Just as I was about to ask why she wanted to break the poor button, she dug her screwdriver out of her pockets and jammed it into the newly-formed crevice between the button and the faceplate.

She manipulated the screwdriver with her front hooves as she spoke to me, “Stable doors are a little different from normal ones.  See, some of them don’t have locks for you to pick.  So you have to fiddle with the electronics underneath the button.”  She adjusted the screwdriver slightly and continued moving it back and forth, “But if you overload the device’s circuits and cause damage to the internal systems in just the right way… “  She buried the screwdriver up to its hilt, applying leverage to the underside of the handle.  There was a loud sizzling sound, followed by an electronic *pop,* as the door slid open.  “ ...Then you can activate the emergency override, and open the door.”

Despite our surroundings, the barest hint of a smile crept across my lips at my sister’s accomplishment.  “Nohta!  That’s brilliant!  Excellent work, dear!”

She chucked her screwdriver back into one of her myriad pockets and rubbed the back of her neck, “Eh, hehe.  Thanks, Sis.”

What?  That’s not like her… “Nohta?  What’s wrong?”

She averted her gaze, taking great strides to avoid eye contact, “Well…  I think this is the first time you ever said anything good about my picking locks.”

Perhaps I had been too hard on her?  Well, I knew of only one way to fix that.  “Yes well, there is a time and place for everything, dear sister.  Even the typically clandestine pursuit of lock picking can be used in an altruistic vein.  Don’t let anyone ever tell you that your talents aren’t useful.”

She turned to the side, probably trying to conceal her grin, and got a good look at the the inside of the Overmare’s office.

“Sis, look.” Nohta was pointing to the Overmare’s desk.

“What, dear?”  

“It’s clean!”  She pointed out the obvious that I had somehow missed, “This room isn’t bloody and dark like the rest of the Stable.  Maybe the terminal still works?  Maybe the Overmare left a message for The Caravan?”

The two of us hurried into the office before Nohta pulled the latch on the inside of the door, allowing it to close behind us.  Again, a barrier had been placed between myself and the horrors of the wasteland, and I was immediately grateful for it.  It was so much easier to think when I wasn’t being bombarded with a constant reminder of horror and death.  I worked quickly,  checking the Overmare’s terminal for... something… anything!  To tell the truth, I was more grasping at straws than anything else.  But I wasn’t going to let something like this go without exhausting every single option available to me.  In my frantic state, it took a full ten seconds before I realized that I didn’t have the Overmare’s password.

“I... can’t get in.  I don’t know the password.”  I admitted to Nohta, shame on my face.  It had been such a good idea too!  Ugh!  What were we going to do?  This could be our only shot at discerning what had happened to our home!  Think, Candy, think!  You have to figure this out!  You must!

Nohta broke my concentration with her own suggestion.  “What do you mean, you ‘Can’t get in?’  Just fire it up like a normal terminal!”  She stomped a hoof, insisting that I simply ‘make it work.’

Frazzled nerves allowed frustration to seep into my voice, “Nohta, the only Stable-Tec terminal I’ve ever used is the one in the clinic, and I had to log in with my password every time I wanted to use it.  That’s how terminals work!  They use passwords!”

Staring at me with a blank expression, she offered her most logical and simple piece of advice.  “So… hack it.”  I should have expected as much from her.

“Nohta, I can’t…”  Well, actually…  I wasn’t exactly an expert on this sort of thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  Wasn’t it at least worth an attempt?  “Hold on a minute.”

I opened up my saddlebags and levitated out the “Big Book of Arcane Sciences.”  I started reading.

After nearly twenty minutes, my studies paid off.  I had acquired a semblance of understanding for the basics of hacking a terminal.  The system was actually fairly simple, if one knew what to look for.

But that didn’t stop it from feeling wrong, like an invasion of privacy.  I had to talk myself through it, “Okay, first time for everything, Candy.  You can do this!  It’s not like you’re trying to hack into the Overmare’s terminal to give yourself extra Sparkle-Cola tickets or anything selfish.  We’re doing this for good…”  I looked to Nohta, “Right, little sister?”

She had been busying herself with the pistol gifted to her by Margarita, loading one of the magazines with the massive 12.77mm bullets.  She stared up at me from her weapon, looking rather like a foal who had been called on to answer a question in class whilst daydreaming, “Uh… Sure, Sis.”

My hooves clicked and clacked against the keys, aided occasionally by a small tendril of crimson that would snake its way from my horn to the device.  “Right.  Okay, I just need to open up the…. there we are.  Now to… yes, yes that looks like the illustration in the book.  And now I just have to bypass the  SSL system so we can get to the GB driver through the open-source TCP program and-”

Nohta groaned, “Ugh, Candy… you’re killing me, here!  Can you just hack the damn thing and spare me the technical mumbo-jumbo?”

I continued in my ministrations, absentmindedly working out a simple puzzle involving letters and numbers, “Well, some of us are not as accustomed to the ‘rough and tumble’ approach as you are, dear sister.  As it turns out, hacking terminals requires a fair amount of patience and finesse.  Things which you have unfortunately- “  The monitor beeped, simultaneously disrupting my lecture and indicating that I had successfully worked out the puzzle.  “Oh.  I’m in.”

The correct password (Eclipse) was easy enough to find amidst its erroneous companions.  After entering it, the entirety of the Overmare’s files lay at my hooftips.  It was surprising to see just how little that amounted to.

Nearly everything of interest had already been deleted.  Of the few files left, the first was a sort of “to-do” list detailing little notes about personnel and current resources as well as daily plans, both personal and professional.  

The second was a dossier of all the members of the current expedition for resources.  She had detailed biographies for each one of us.  They included physical attributes (Ugh, stripes are far from garish), personality profiles (I was not stuck-up!), useful skills (Well, of course I was an excellent doctor!  I had a superb teacher.), and every other pertinent bit of information you could possibly imagine (Self-centered tendencies?  How preposterous!).  Oh, and it had a bit of information about Nohta as well. 

The third file was encrypted, leaving me with no way to open it.  I downloaded it anyway, desperate for anything that might help us discern what had happened to our home and finding no pressing need to keep the vast amounts of memory on my Pipbuck free.  With a bit of luck, and quite a bit more time spent reading the science book, I believed that I could possibly find a workaround for accessing the file.  

Now, I know that this is beginning to look pretty bad, as if I cared about some log in a terminal more than the pony that had written it.  And, granted, I was rather engrossed in my snooping into the Overmare’s terminal.  But I was doing this to try and find a way to help!

You’re not buying it are you?  Okay, I’ll admit it… My curiosity had gotten the better of me.  Oh, don’t judge me for that!  How many times are you really afforded the opportunity to learn what others feel about you?

Oh?  Really?  Well I suppose it would be rather difficult for them to hide anything at all from you while they are in that state.  Though I can only imagine how many wildly inaccurate details were recorded due to your employing that means of gathering information.  Moving on… 

The very last entry was also the most recent.  It was an audio file.  I downloaded it to my Pipbuck, setting the file to play for Nohta and myself.

“It’s been just over a week since The Caravan left.  The excitement has died down quite a bit and most folks are finally starting to get used to the absence of some of their friends.  I still miss my son.  I’m proud of his volunteering for The Caravan, but mothers will always worry.  His little sister misses him so much.”

Nohta stopped tinkering with her gun and looked up at me, “That’s the Overmare’s personal log!  Maybe it will tell us what happened?”

I hushed her, “Shh.”

“-was going over the numbers yesterday, and noticed a discrepancy in some of the items we were supposed to have stored away.  I’m not sure if it was just shoddy bookkeeping or if somepony… or that little half-breed… is stealing from our reserves.  I’ll have to go over the video records to figure out who it was.  Whatever the case may be, I don’t plan on this being a pleasant endeavor.”

“Wow.  I knew that most of them didn’t like me, but I didn’t think that they believed I would actually steal from them.”

“Nohta, shh! I can’t seem to pause this.”

“-opefully all of this will be resolved by the time The Caravan returns.  That way we can…  wait… somepony is back already.  No… Wait.  Oh no.  No, no, no, no…”  The sounds of papers and quills being shoved off of the desk accompanied the slam of a hoof.  Looking about the room, I noticed the scattered stationary had been flung to the side, and that the Overmare’s desk had a small indentation of a hoof over the button for the intercom system.  She’d slammed the device so hard that she had broken it.  “ATTENTION EVERYPONY!  THIS IS THE OVERMARE!  PLEASE DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING IMMEDIATELY AND REPORT TO THE ARMORY!  WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!”

The sounds of gunfire and screams, muffled through the thick metal walls, poured out of my Pipbuck’s speaker.  The sounds were too dampened by the layers of steel and concrete that lay between the Overmare’s microphone and their sources, but my imagination led me to awful places.  It was surely only my mind playing tricks on me, right?  I didn’t want to hear that Caramel’s last moments had been spent in a screaming resistance.  I didn’t want to know that Pearl had been bludgeoned and then dragged away.  I didn’t want to hear Pipe Sleeves screaming in agony as her assailant shot her down.  I didn’t… wait.  Now that I thought of it, why hadn’t I seen them?  There were so many of my friends and neighbors that I hadn’t seen since returning to the Stable!  Could they have escaped?  Where had they gone?  

I could hear the sound of the Overmare shuffling things around in her desk.  Then the soft click of a revolver as she answered my question.  My stable-mates had not escaped.  But neither had they been slaughtered.

“Slavers?  Here?  How?  Surely The Caravan wouldn’t sell us out.  Dust and Dream Chaser would have told everypony not to reveal our location…  think Wintergreen, think!”  There was an audible gasp as the Overmare came upon the beginnings of a plan.  “The Caravan!  Of course!  Yes, that should work!  But, how do I tell them where they’re taking us?  Ahh stupid!  I need a Mintal!”

Slavers?  Of course!  That would account for the lack of… wait.  No, that didn’t make any sense at all!  Ugh!  This entire travesty was mindboggling!  Nothing about any of this made sense!  By the Moon, what had happened here?

I heard the sound of a small, metal box being opened and shut, then the hurried sounds of chewing.  The Overmare resumed her monologue shortly after.

“Ok, so here’s what....Ya. Ya, they won’t think of that.  Perfect.  Okay, to whomever is listening to this right now, I have a task for you.”  The sound of a metal drawer being yanked open and the faint tinkle of a levitation spell joined the sound of the Overmare’s voice coming from my Pipbuck.  “In my desk you will find an empty bottle.  Peel the label off of the bottle.”  Hurried scratching and the familiar clink of a quill colliding with an inkpot drifted through my speaker.  “On the backside of the label, you will find the tracking codes for every Department Head in the Stable.  Enter those codes into your Pipbuck’s map and tracking feature and you should be able to find us, even if the slavers take us halfway across Equestria.  The only way this could fail is if the slavers chop off our Pipbuck legs, and they won’t want to damage their property before they can sell us.”

I pulled open the drawers, and found a green bottle.  Our Overmare had apparently acquired a taste for scotch.  The label peeled back with almost no resistance; it had been removed before.  I found that several lengthy codes had been hastily scrawled on the underside of the label.  On my Pipbuck, the screaming and gunfire were getting louder as the attackers got closer to the Overmare’s office.

“They’re almost here.  Luna help us.  Make sure you get the codes!  They’ll lead you to us.  Luna be with us all... ”

Loud banging blared through the Overmare’s door from my Pipbuck before the recording ended.  I looked up at the door, and saw the impact points of bullets just to the left of the frame.  The Overmare had not gone down without a fight.  But judging by the lack of blood in this room, she had probably depleted her supply of ammunition and been corralled by the slavers soon after.

Still, something was off, “I don’t understand.”  

Nohta pulled her hood back, looking me in the eyes.  “What’s wrong?”

“Why would slavers violate our home like this?  They didn’t need to profane the Temple or mutilate ponies.  There’s no profit in it.”  I could understand some of the dead bodies, sure.  A slave raid was bound to end with a few dead.  But why would slavers go through the trouble of hanging ponies by their intestines, or smearing obscenities on the wall, or that gruesome display in the clinic?

Realization struck with an awful intensity.  Slavers wouldn’t.  But I could think of another group that would.

The terminal beeped, startling me.  I hoofed a few buttons, and saw that the camera feed was detecting motion at the entrance.  

“Nohta, we have company.  And they brought a flamethrower.”


**************


I had been able to discern so far that this was the gang of raiders led by “The Pyro.”  He (or she, I couldn't really tell with the bulky, flame-retardant metal armor and gas mask that covered all of the pony’s features) was the one carrying the massive tank of presumably flammable liquid on their back connected to twin nozzles running along the pony’s sides. The rest of the raiders were wearing crude barding comprised of hide or scrap metal as well as an assortment of improvised helmets made from what appeared to be pre-war cooking utensils, leather scraps, animal bones, street signs, and anything else they could find.  None of them looked to be rather friendly, brandishing their simple cudgels and firearms with eager and malevolent grins.

We had waited too long to start moving.  In my frightened state, I had somehow convinced myself that it would be a good idea to try and gather intel on the raiders by staying in the Overmare’s office and watching them through the cameras.  If we had started moving sooner, we wouldn’t be trapped in the tiny room, watching their numbers slowly advance on our position.  

Nohta was going through our supplies, taking inventory of our ammunition.  With a confused and desperate expression, she looked up to me, “Candy, we don’t have enough.  I mean, maybe if I can make every shot with this gun count, but… “  She trailed off, not wanting to speak of how dire our chances actually were.  “Sis, I’ve never even shot a gun before, and this thing… “  She held the mouth-cannon in her hooves, as the two of us pondered the recoil inherent in such a large caliber of ammunition.  I knew how hard it was for my sister to admit to what she would perceive as weakness.  The acknowledgement on her part spoke volumes about the severity of our situation.  

She continued, her brow furrowed in worry, “We’re gonna have to hope that I can either take some of them out with my hooves and knife, or we’re gonna have to pick up ammo and weapons as we go.”

Part of me wanted to argue that we might have been able to talk our way out of this, but after having spent the better part of three days healing wounds caused by raiders just like this gang, and hearing stories about their brutality, I knew better than to hope for a peaceful resolution.  There were also the lovely little snippets of information that we had gathered through the Overmare’s surveillance devices.  Such as the fact that the raiders were apparently planning on eating us.  After raping us.  And skinning us alive.

I found myself agreeing more and more with Mother’s warning.

I sighed, “Alright, let’s come up with a plan.  We’re two against... how many?”  The odds were horribly in their favor.

“About thirty, maybe more outside.”  She slid a fresh clip into her pistol and pulled back on something.  I saw a massive bullet slide into place.  If we were lucky, that bullet would kill somepony.  Goddess, what a terrible thought…

This was going to be a bad night.  We were either going to wind up dead, or responsible for the deaths of a lot of ponies.  I didn’t want either, but I knew which one I preferred. 

“Nohta,” I began, “If we’re really careful, and a little bit lucky, we can get through this.  Be careful, okay?  I love you.”

She froze.  Her response was rigid, and cold.  “No.”

“Nohta, we need to exercise caution!  We can’t just barge in there and start shooting!  We’ll get killed in seconds!”

“I’m not talking about that!”  She looked directly at me, tears welling in her eyes as she let her emotion carry her voice.  “You don’t get to say that, okay?  That was the last thing Mom said to me…  It was the last thing Dad told us…  You don’t get to say that!  I’m not letting you die here.  Everything else is fucked and everyone else I ever cared about is dead!  I’m not losing you too!”

“Nohta... ”

“Check your pistol.  Make sure it’s on the right setting.”  She was rummaging through our supplies, searching for anything we could use in the coming fight.

I drew my laser pistol, checked the energy cell, and re-holstered it.  “Okay, anything else?”

She sighed as she looked me over, “We should have gotten you some armor.”

We packed everything we didn’t need for fighting into our various bags, while our potions and ammunition lay in our pockets for easy access.  Nohta pulled her hood back over her eyes and crouched low, then hit the light switch in the room as well as the latch on the door and crept out into the corridor.  I followed as quietly as I could, fearing every small noise that I made.

My E.F.S. was filled with hostiles.  The closest three were meandering through The Temple.  The two of us edged up to the doorway, and Nohta snuck inside when all three raiders were busy examining the ravaged statue of Luna.  I stayed in the hall by the door, peeking around the frame as I hugged the wall.  Not wanting to risk somepony seeing the glow from my horn, I undid the latch on my pistol’s holster with a hoof, and surveyed the scene which lay before me.  None of the raiders had guns.  Nohta kept to the shadows cast by the pillars and broken pews, moving only when the three raiders were otherwise occupied.

And they were doing a wonderful job of distracting themselves.  

A shrill voice squeaked out of a deep-red unicorn mare, “Hey Grump, get a load of this shit!  Is this the statue we’re supposed to fuck up?”

A light green earth stallion answered his distaff counterpart with a shrug, “I don’t know.”  Turning to the third raider, he whined, “Hey Lump, when’s the boss gonna let us eat?  I’m hungry.”

The brown stallion closest to the door stopped examining the shadow in which Nohta was hidden, and turned to his companions, “Probably when the two of you finally do as you’re told and smash that damn statue!  We ain’t gettin’ nothing until we find the fucking brats that Lasher saw scurry in here, so hurry the fuck up!”

Grump whined louder, “But why do we have to break the statue?  It’s pretty.”

Nohta inched closer.

Lump swore, and pointed at Luna’s likeness,  “I swear to that fucking bitch right there… if you weren’t my brother and sister I’d fucking kill both of you dumbasses.  Look, the boss thinks there’s treasure inside, so just smash the shit and let’s go!”

The red mare squeaked, “Treasure?  Like gold?  The fuck we gonna do with gold you jackass?”

“It doesn’t matter what we would do with gold, Thump, we ain’t gettin it.  But the boss wants it, and I ain’t getting turned into fucking fat-flank fricassee on account of your not following orders!”  He moved next to his siblings, and reared back on his hind-legs, preparing to strike the statue, “Here!  Since you’re so slow, I’ll show you how it’s done!”

I saw a glint of metal near Nohta’s muzzle, before her cloak whirled out behind her as she rose to her full, two-legged height behind the rearing stallion.  She grasped Lump’s hooves in her own, tying his body up in her strength, and jerked her own head to the side in a violent, stabbing motion.  Judging by the stream of sanguine cascading to the floor, as well as the startled expressions of the other two raiders, she had slit his throat with her knife.

His limp body fell to the side as Nohta leapt at the red unicorn, catching her before she could react.  Nohta planted a hoof squarely in her face, followed by another, and another.  The mare withered under Nohta’s brutal assault, grunting and screaming as her features were beaten to a pulpy mess of exposed flesh and broken bone.

Grump was finally startled into action.  He roared and charged at Nohta, knocking her off of Thump’s body and sending the two of them rolling across the floor.  Nohta’s knife went sailing through the air as she gasped from the impact, the metal of the blade ringing against the floor in the middle of the room.  The wind had been knocked out of her, leaving my sister wheezing for breath as she only just barely dodged a heavy blow that would have surely crushed her head.  She ducked out from underneath of him and managed to get back to her hooves just before Grump slammed into her again, pinning her against the base of Luna’s statue.  His thundering stomps were fueled by his rage; every attack eliciting a terse grunt or an awful, shrieking cry from Nohta as blood spurted out of her nose and away from her split lips.  Her hooves were completely occupied with trying to deflect his blows, redirecting most of his kicks to land harmlessly behind her where his attacks left spiderweb-cracks along the base of the stone replica of The Goddess.

I sprinted into The Temple eager to help my sister, but found myself unsure of what to do.  I’d just get into Nohta’s way if I tried to enter into their melee, and my pistol, while much quieter than a conventional firearm, would just alert more of the raiders to our presence.  There had to be something I could do!  I looked left and right, scanning my available options for the best course of action.  As I looked down, the twinkle of reflected firelight before my hooves gave me a third option.

Nohta was squirming underneath of her assailant, deflecting his stomps and jabbing at his ribs, but unable to get out of his reach.  One of his blows connected with her muzzle, bloodying her nose and causing her to cry out in pain.  She moved her head to the side, dodging his followup attack by a fraction of an inch, before his hoof connected with one of Luna’s hooves.  The brute’s attack shattered the stone, causing the statue to teeter in place before collapsing forward.  Nohta and Grump flung themselves away, but Nohta had gotten her cloak caught underneath Luna’s outstretched wing, pinning her in place.

Grump righted himself and dashed over to her, preparing to slam his hooves into whatever part of her he could reach, when my magic lit the room in a deep-red glow.  The light was emanating from my horn, and the knife I had just buried in his shoulder.

Grump cried out and fell backwards.  I retrieved the knife and stabbed at him again, this time nicking his carotid artery.  Tears flowed freely down my panic-stricken face to moisten the fur of my cheeks as I gasped, hyperventilating from a mixture of terror, rage, and grief.

“No!  Fuck!  Stop!”  He screamed, flailing his hooves in front of himself in an attempt to ward off the blade.  The knife darted between his limbs, sinking into his exposed hide over and over again.  Blood spurted onto the floor of The Temple and across my wide-eyed face, but I was too distraught to care.   I brought the knife down again.  He yelped in pain, but I just… I just… 

I’m sorry.  I… Killing the unicorn, Powder, was a bad experience, mostly because she was my first.  And the blue pegasus had been correct; it does get easier after the first.  Alarmingly easier, given the right circumstances.  I’ve killed… goodness, I’m not even sure how many ponies by now.  

But this… It is so much different when there isn’t a simple trigger to pull or a spell from your Pipbuck to guide your actions.  You can’t calculate or think.  You can’t activate a command and slip into a soft and easy trance.  You can’t submit yourself to any sort of assistance.  You can’t give yourself any sort of barrier.  You can’t make it easier.  If my memory serves me correctly then you know, as well as I do, that you can’t be cold about killing when the only thing you’re using is a sharpened edge.  It’s too focused, too close, too real.  All that you know is reduced to yourself, the blade, and your opponent.  Everything is reduced to simple action, driven by instinct and emotion.

And after having nearly everything that I held dear torn away from me, I had a lot of pent-up emotion that I needed to let out.

“Sis…”

Blood arced in the air as I brought the blade upwards, splashing crimson droplets frenetically in all directions.

“Sis.”

A wet, squelching noise, as the knife fell again to bury itself in flesh that was already losing its warmth.

“Candy!”

The knife clanged to the floor as my magic dissipated, splashing into the shallow and growing pool of crimson to heave tiny droplets of blood upon my already-stained legs.  The light of the fire in the corner flickered and danced, illuminating The Temple and allowing me to see the body of what had once been a pony underneath my hooves.  Now it was… unrecognizable.  Hot stinging tears fell from my face to disappear into the deepening pool of blood at my hooves.  My breath came out ragged, and in short gusts, as I stepped off of the body and looked to the bleary image of my sister.

She was eyeing me with a stunned, wary expression, having freed herself of her imprisonment.  She was cautiously inching closer to me as a crimson river gushed down her face.  Her anxious words came out garbled and croaky,  “Hey, Sis?”  She paused, and had to spit a gob of congealed red out of her mouth to speak properly, the blob hitting the floor with a wet smack.  “Calm down, okay?  It’s gonna be alright.”

My magic reached out to her, and the newfound pain in my muzzle grew to an unbearable level.  “Nohta, your face!  Stay still, sister, I’m here!”

She moved closer to me, waving her hooves as if to dismiss me.  Why was she doing that?  She knew better than to move while I was trying to work!  “Candy, I’m fine.  See?  Just a little blood.  No big deal.”  She stepped right up to me, resting a hoof on my shoulder.  “You’ve got more blood on you than I’ve got on me.”

Her reassurance came as I had finished casting one of several spells to staunch her bleeding and mend the bruised tissue of her face.  I felt my heart calm itself by a fraction as I finished my medical ministrations.  I was left panting for breath as relief washed over me.  “There.  You’re okay, sister.  Thank The Goddess… you’re okay.”

“Sis… That was just a buck to the face.  I’ve had a lot worse before.”  She was acting as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

How could I make her see?  This was so much different!  So much worse!  How could I make her understand? “Yes, dear, but this raider,” I glanced at the carved and mutilated remains of the green buck as my voice wavered uncomfortably, “wasn’t just going to beat you up.  He was trying to kill you!”  I shuddered at the thought.

She began to lose her patience, her voice steadily rising until she began to yell, “Candy, I know that!  They’re all trying to kill us!  The only way we’re gonna get out of here alive is if we end up killing them first!  I can see that this shit is getting to you, but you need to pull yourself together!  We won’t last long if you’re falling apart every time you-”

I cut her off, “I’m sorry!  I’m sorry…”  I couldn’t hold it in any longer, the entire weight of our situation came down on me all at once.  Father.  The Caravan.  Spicy Salsa.  Dust.  Seven Card.  Cream Puff.  Powder.  Dad.  The patients in Mareon.  The entire Stable.  Caramel.  Pearl Grey.  Pipe Sleeves.  Daddy… I didn’t want to cry in front of her.  I had to be the elder sister.  The strong one.  I had to…  Had to… 

I had to let it out.  I couldn’t hold it anymore.  I was done.  I couldn’t do this!  Not anymore!  Luna… Please… Tell me this was just a dream… just a wayward nightmare…  Please?

I fell into Nohta’s chest, my weeping eyes slamming shut as my hooves held onto the only thing I had left in this world.  Nohta held my shaking, sobbing form in her hooves, and sighed into my ear, “Fuck, Sis…”

I’m not entirely sure how long we remained in that position, with me sobbing into Nohta’s mane and the hood of her cloak as we sat beside the fallen remains of the statue.  We were alone, just the two of us, surrounded by death.  How could things have gone so wrong?  We weren’t ready for this!  How could we be?  No one could ever be ready for this! This wasn’t ever supposed to happen!  

It took a long time.  That’s as much definition as I can bestow upon that embrace.  But eventually, I had managed to ride the storm out by clinging to my little Nohta-sized life raft.  I had only just managed to keep my head above the water, and even if I was spluttering and choking, I hadn’t drowned yet.

I was still struggling to keep my voice constant when I spoke, “This cloak m-makes you look like M-Mother.”

Nohta snorted, and I could tell by her tone that she was grinning, “Thanks.”

“The last time I c-cried into this cloak, she had j-just told me that she was leaving for The Caravan trip.”

I could feel her breath in my mane as she whispered, “That must have been…”

I nodded, “Her last one.  She c-came back sick afterwards.”  I wiped my eyes and pulled away from her, “I’m sorry, Nohta.  I’m not doing a very good job of being a big sister, am I?”

Her brow furrowed, “What?  What are you talking about?”

I stamped my hoof, “This is my fault!  I’m supposed to be looking out for the both of us!  When I first saw that the Stable had been attacked, I should have grabbed you and ran straight back to Mareon!”

She shook her head, showing off a perplexingly smug grin, “Your fault?  You’re the one looking out for the both of us?  Heh, I guess I’ve been doing it wrong all along… “  After noting my confusion, she continued, “Candy, you’re only three years older than me.  I may be younger than you, but I’m not your baby sister anymore.”  

She kept going, this time without being so flippant, “You weren’t listening, were you?  To the raiders?  They saw us come in here.  They were probably waiting on top of the canyon, and just watched us walk into the cave.”

“I…”  They knew all along?  Then my Pipbuck lamp… 

“We’ve been stuck in here since then, Sis.  We just didn’t know it, yet.  Ponies that would do this,” she pointed to the defiled walls and decorations of The Temple, “for fun are not the kind of ponies that would just let us walk away.”

I started again, seeking catharsis in confession, “Nohta… I’m sorry!  This is still my fault!  I didn’t pay attention to your warning about the light and-”

She cut me off, holding a hoof to my muzzle, “Hey!  Don’t blame yourself, Sis, neither of us had any way to know.  The raiders are the ones at fault here.”  Her tone darkened even as her eyes smouldered with a cold fury.  “Blame them for being psychotic, murdering fucks.  Hell, help me take some of ‘em out.”  A slow, vicious grin crept across her lips, “Maybe a little revenge will make you feel better.”

“Revenge?  Seriously?  Nohta I-  ”  How could I?

She stood up, interrupting me, “Okay, listen… Why did you attack that guy?”

Well that was an easy question.  “He was trying to hurt you.”

“Right, you wanted to protect me.  I get that.  You know why I killed those other two?”  She waved a hoof at the bodies of Lump and Thump.

I stared back at her.  She loved to fight.  Did she really have a reason beyond ‘Kill the bad guys?’

“I was trying to protect you, Sis.  I might be able to sneak past these creeps, but you… Not so much.  If they saw or heard you, they’d… “  She glanced away for just a moment, averting her gaze as if she were afraid to speak clearly.  Nohta had always been so blunt though, why was she acting this way now?  After the briefest moment of pause, she returned her gaze to my own and continued with a touch more steel in her voice.  “Sis, they’d kill you.  They’d do awful things first, and then they would kill you.  I’m not going to let that happen.”  She shook her head, placing emphasis on her last sentence as the light of the flaming debris danced in her amethyst eyes.

“So…”  I trailed off.

“So here’s the deal.  You protect me, while I protect you.  Think of it as trying to keep me from getting hurt, because that’s exactly what I’m trying to do for you.  If you can watch my back, while I take out as many of ‘em as I can, then I think we might be able to pull this off so long as we only have to fight a few of them at a time.  And as an added bonus, we’ll get some payback for what they did to Luna’s Temple.  Sound good?”

Something about her logic was off but, at the same time, it made a certain amount of sense.  Did I have any better ideas?  What else could we do?  We were mice; backed into the corner by the cat.  We had no other options.  I stood up, nodding slowly.  “I… Okay, sister.  I’ll follow your lead.”

She threw up a hoof and pumped her leg in a sign of celebration, “Aww fuck yes!  Time to do some real damage!”

“Nohta!”  She looked back to me as I hissed and nodded towards the remains of the statue, “Darling, you’ve been swearing in The Temple.”

Her eyes went wide in alarm as she regarded Luna’s broken statue, “Oh shi- um, darn?  Sorry, Luna, I didn’t mean it!”

Luna’s response was surprising, to say the least.  The cracks and fissures in the stone widened, and with the grating, crunching noise of rock sliding against itself, the entire statue was reduced to a broken heap of rubble.

Nohta was shocked.  After collecting her jaw from the floor, she voiced her confusion with a skeptical and vehement outcry, “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!  You’re kidding me, right?  Did I seriously just break her?”

As the two of us stared, dumbfounded, at the crumbled remains of the statue, a single object came tinkling down the miniature crags of broken stone and rolled to our hooves.  We stared at it for an indeterminate amount of time, unsure of what to do, before Nohta gently picked it up between her hooves.

She held the tiny glass ball with all the care and consideration one might give to a newborn foal, “They said something about treasure in the statue, right?  Do you think this is what they were after?” 

There are not many times when my mouth outpaces my brain.  This was one of those times.  But even as the words left my lips, I knew them to be true, “Whatever it is, I don’t want them to have it.  These fiends have taken enough from us already.  Come, little sister, we need to get that orb, and ourselves, to safety.”  She gently laid the tiny bauble into my packs, and the two of us made for the doorway.

After wiping the blood off of her knife and onto Lump’s filthy coat, Nohta joined me in the hallway. The two of us crept down the darkened corridor, making our way towards the cafeteria as I silently wondered how the walls had already managed to rust.  Were they that deteriorated before, and I just hadn’t noticed?

Voices echoing off of the walls alerted us to the presence of another group of raiders in one of the Stable’s classrooms.  Nohta and I edged along the walls, trying to be as silent as possible, and peeked into the room as we held our pistols in our mouths.  Five raiders, much better armed than the previous trio, were heckling each other while lounging in the student’s desks.  

One of the group, a dirty-yellow unicorn, lay reclined in the teacher’s chair with her rear hooves on the desk and a bottle of amber liquid floating by her side.  Every drink from her bottle caused her necklace, a sickly, barbaric thing made out of unicorn horns, to clink and clack against itself.  

She was boasting of her magical prowess to the others in her cadre.  “I’m tellin’ ya, they make me stronger!  Every horn I get; I add that asshole’s strength to my own.”

Another unicorn, this one male, didn’t believe her.  “That’s a load of brahmin-shit, Flash!  I haven’t seen you do anything as awesome as what you’re talking about.  If you could pull that shit off, you’d be leading this gang, not cowering in fear of The Pyro.”

Flash took another swig of her booze before sneering at the other unicorn.  “I just need a couple more horns... I could start with yours.”  Her horn flared brighter, smashing the end of the bottle down against the edge of the desk.  The glass shattered into a multitude of glinting slivers and shards.  Holding the most jagged edges of the bunch aloft in a golden aura, she leapt onto the desk and leered at her rival. 

The other three raiders started to giggle and whinny, as Flash advanced on the dissenting buck.  Nohta and I attempted to scramble out of sight, but we were too slow!  He backed into the hallway, and saw us.  

He opened his mouth to scream, “I FOUND-” 

Nohta’s muzzle flashed brightly underneath her hood as The Worm blared, sending one of the ridiculously high caliber rounds of ammunition on an imminent collision course with the unfortunate buck.  The bullet tore through the raider’s makeshift armor and slammed through his ribcage before exiting his filthy body as it splattered the walls with gore.  He was silenced from the sudden impact, staggering backward to brace himself against the doorframe. 

Margarita hadn’t been lying, The Worm really did hit hard!  That bullet had nearly torn the raider in two!  And it was loud!  So loud!  Nearly deafening when fired within the confines of the Stable’s corridors, where its ear-splitting roar was free to reverberate off of the steel walls.  That mouth-cannon had surely alerted other raiders to our presence!  The buck’s blip on my E.F.S. vanished before he had even managed to topple over onto a seeping pile of disembodied organs.  

Unfortunately, The Worm’s recoil had been too much for Nohta.  She cursed as the gun flew out of her mouth and landed at my hooves, “Fuck!  I think I chipped a tooth!”

With immaculate timing, one of the four remaining raiders in the classroom screeched in delight.  I heard the sounds of metal scraping against metal, and galloping hooves.  A wide-eyed, orange mare lunged over the dead unicorn in the door frame, giggling around the lead pipe held in her mouth, and charged in our direction.  Nohta acted quickly, placing herself between myself and the mare as she ducked under the orange raider’s attack.

Nohta sprung upwards, kicking the raider in the chin hard enough to lift her front hooves off of the floor.  The raider’s grasp of her simple club faltered, sending the pipe clanging to the floor as the two of them grappled with each other.  Within a few moments Nohta had caught one of the mare’s legs between her front hooves and, with a sickening crunch, bent the mare’s knee entirely too far in the wrong direction.

The raider screamed as her companions whooped and laughed at her misfortune from inside the classroom, “Haha!  Dumb bitch can’t even use a pipe the right way!  Let me show you how to fight!”

Nohta, able to see the danger in the classroom, gasped and ducked behind the orange mare just before the glass shards of the liquor bottle sliced through the doorway, embedding themselves in the raider’s hide or shattering against the the walls.  Both the orange mare and my sister called out in pain, as the raiders in the classroom continued to treat our combat like a game.

“Pfft!  What was that, Flash?  You got more glass in Blunt Force than the other one!”

“Hey asshole!  If you think you can do better, be my fucking guest!”

I heard the easy sliding of a mechanical device, “Aww shucks, babe, I thought you’d never ask me for that dance!  And here I thought I’d never get to use my saddle!”

We were in for it now!  I dashed to my sister and threw the both of us past the doorway as a hail of bullets ripped through the orange mare and dented the wall where Nohta had just been.  The two of us landed on our sides as the orange raider screamed one last time and fell over in a bloody heap.

The raiders inside the classroom continued to taunt us, as the one with the gun continued to plink bullets off of the walls with wild abandon, “YA! Come on and get some, BITCHES! HA HA!”  The gunfire was deafening!  I couldn’t hear myself think!

I suddenly realized how likely it was that we were about to get shot.  I didn’t want to get shot!  I toggled through my Pipbuck’s inventory as quickly as I was able, “Clean Water, Dirty Water, Endoscope, ugh… why do I even still have that?  Ahh!  There it is!  Nohta, stay back, I’m about to do something… crazy!”

She looked back at me.  “Huh?  What are you-”

I levitated one of the grenades out of my pack and pulled out the stem.  Nohta’s eyes went wide as she buried her face in my neck.  Using my magic so that I could stay behind cover, I floated the grenade into the classroom, and threw the extra slack of Nohta’s cloak over my face.

“Ha Ha, what’s this shit?  An apple?  Oh fuck!  Flash, grab tha-”  *BOOM!*  The explosion was LOUD!  It shook the wall that I was lying against!  The glass window in front of the classroom burst outwards, blowing tiny shards against the opposite wall further down the hallway.  My ears involuntarily folded against the sides of my head as I felt, rather than heard, the scream tear itself out of my throat.  The overwhelming pinch of pressure on my eardrums left me wondering if I had just deafened my sister and myself.  Tiny slivers of glass fell over our bodies, sending the smallest of vibrations through Nohta’s cloak and the steel plates of the floor as they impacted with everything in the immediate vicinity.   Throwing Nohta’s cloak off of myself, I checked E.F.S. as a high-pitched ring replaced the silence of the world.  The raiders were dead.

I didn’t even bother to ask my sister if she were hurt, I wouldn’t have been able to hear her reply anyway.  I simply cast my spell, located the shards of glass embedded in her legs just above her hooves, and removed them before peering through the blown out window that had once allowed doting parents to look in on their foals.  The dim bursts of light emanating from the crackling bulb in the hallway poked meekly at the gloom through the observation window.  The scene that it revealed was… intense.

The entire room was a disaster.  Blood and guts were strewn everywhere.  The student’s desks were crumpled and twisted, having all been blown away from a central point.  Shrapnel was embedded into the chalkboard.  The usually clean, grey floor was now a blackened wreck.  Not a single light source, not even a badly flickering one, had survived the explosion.

I moved into the room, activating my Pipbuck lamp to further inspect the carnage I had unleashed.  Nohta followed me, stepping carefully around the jagged edges of bent steel and broken bodies.

She let out a low whistle, “Damn, Sis.  I didn’t think you would actually… Wow.”

I found myself stammering, trying to defend my decision.  “I... well...  we had to do something!  They were trying to kill us!”  I had killed another pony.  Three ponies.  So, why didn’t I feel remorse?  Was killing already getting easier?  No.  No, it wasn’t that.  Was it?  No… Maybe?

No, it was something else… something else entirely.  Why did I feel so… 

Nohta disturbed my inner ponderings with a well-timed warning, “Well, if the other raiders didn’t hear the gunfire, they sure as shit know we’re here now.   Even if they didn’t hear it, they had to feel it.  Let’s grab that buck’s ammo and get the hell out of here!”  She scurried over to the fallen buck, scooping up his packs and hurrying out of the room to collect her pistol.

In the spirit of survival I emulated my sister, and tried checking his rifles, but they had both been reduced to mangled heaps of metal.  There was no way we could use them for anything other than clubs.  The other raiders had been carrying nothing of value except for a single, miraculously unbroken bottle of healing potion and a few various chems.  Nohta placed the chems into my packs.  If nothing else, we’d be able to sell them later.  I pocketed the potion as I deactivated my Pipbuck light and trotted after my little sister, hoping that our luck would hold out.

Shards of glass crunched underneath our hooves, as we hurried down the hallway.  We had nearly broken into a gallop when we rounded a corner, coming face to face with three raiders lying in wait underneath of a badly flickering ceiling light.  The closest raider grinned and drew a switchblade.  

Nohta wasted no time.  Without breaking her stride she flung herself at the raider with the knife and bowled him over.  The two of them rolled directly into the second raider, who let out a startled yelp and dropped her shotgun.  Their melee quickly devolved into something fierce and primitive, with hooves flying in nearly every direction as my sister pummeled them ruthlessly.  Getting into fights in the hallways was something she was quite familiar with.

The final raider down the hall drew a revolver and fired at all of us, friend and foe alike, as quickly as he could manage with his manic grin.  His second shot was so close that I felt the wake from the bullet wash over my face as the projectile passed through my mane and slammed into the wall behind me, sending tiny pink strands of my mane floating listlessly to the floor.  Gritting my teeth around my laser pistol, I  slipped into S.A.T.S. and queued a salvo at Mr. Revolver before letting loose.  He got off another shot in my direction just as the spell activated, and I tongued the trigger.  His shot grazed my leg, tearing out a channel of flesh just above my Pipbuck.  

Oh Goddess, that hurt!  I could feel the pain in my leg with excruciating clarity as S.A.T.S. held me in its iron-grip, and the pistol’s beams sliced into the buck’s neck, burning deep holes through his coat and into his blistering, charred flesh.  Most of my attacks missed horribly, causing points of the walls to bubble and warp from the concentrated heat.  One of my shots grazed his face, slicing open a cauterized wound underneath his eye before causing his mane to combust in a flash of flame.  He was opening his mouth to scream when my final beam collided with his muzzle, causing his body to glow bright-pink before being reduced to a cloud of sparkling ash and dust as his gun thudded to the floor.

I came out of S.A.T.S. wincing in pain as the burning, stinging sensation in my leg grew in intensity.  Simple reflex commanded me to check the wound, but after seeing nothing life-threatening I diverted my attention back to my sister’s brawl.

Nohta had made swift work of one of her victims, his mangled body laying between us, but the mare who had dropped her shotgun was proving to be more of a challenge.  The two of them were rolling over top of each other, fighting for the dominant position where one might be afforded the opportunity to pound the other into lifelessness.  As the raider wedged Nohta against the wall and lifted herself up to strike, her shotgun levitated next to her face.

She turned to stare down the barrel.  “The fu-”  *BLAM!*

Nohta shoved the mare’s limp form off of herself, coughing and spluttering, “Bleh!  Ewww!  SIs!  Couldn’t you have, I don’t know… Shot her in the back or something?  I just got her brains all over me!”

“I’ll take your suggestion, and your desire for cleanliness, under consideration at some point in time when I haven’t just been shot, thank you very much!”  I held my injured hoof in the air, brandishing it at my sister like a club.

“Oh, uh.  Alright then.”  She scrambled from body to body, looking for anything of value.  “Come on, Candy, we need to hurry!  They’ve probably all heard the racket by now.  We need to get somewhere where we can get into cover and fight them off!  Let’s go!”

We threw the revolver, the shotgun, and all of the ammunition we could scrounge off the bodies into my packs.  My leg was stinging and burning but Nohta was right, we couldn’t stop.  We could hear yells and laughter echoing off the halls, and I feared that the entire gang was about to converge on our location.  I followed my sister as quickly as I could, barging through a familiar doorway that had been propped open with a metal panel that had fallen from the ceiling.

Darkness.  Complete and utter darkness, crushing in its totality.  I knew from experience that this was the library.  But I was given no clues to help affirm that belief.  The fetor of death overpowered the smells of books and ink.  Blood ran thick under our hooves, keeping me from feeling the familiar bumps and grooves of my favorite haunt’s polished steel floors.  Distant jeers and insults were the only sound to reach my ears; not the familiar and hurried scratching of quills or the relaxed turning of pages that I had come to expect of this chamber.  

With no ability to see the room before me, my mind drifted to memories of a less violent time.  I could see the shelves stretching out before me, full of tomes and scrolls eager to be read .  Caramel was there, perusing one of her favorite recipe-books, waving a hoof and smiling warmly as she noticed me enter.  Diligent and studious foals were engrossed in a history textbook, quietly fussing about who’s turn it was to read about Luna’s exploits in the time before the bombs lit the surface in a brilliant and soul-shattering flash of baleful light.  The Caravan leader and the Overmare were quietly conversing in a corner.  Moonglow stood by the back of the room, directing the scribes as The Caravan unloaded their haul of literary knowledge gleaned from the surface.

With my mind’s eye I could see the scribes carrying the latest load of literature culled from the wasteland to the cleaning room, scuttling about in a frenzy of motion.  I could see the constantly swaying double-doors of that room.  The familiar trio of cerulean lozenge diamonds emblazoned upon those doors.  The large sign before the doors that read, “Scribes Only - Keep Out.”

Every time The Caravan returned, I knew that I would be presented with another golden opportunity to learn something new about the world.  I just had to be patient.  It was certainly a trying time, knowing that the books brought in from the wastes couldn’t find themselves directly in my hooves without first being given to the keepers of the library.  If I were lucky, The Caravan would return early in my shift at the clinic, allowing the scribes time enough to give at least some of  the books proper maintenance and cleaning by the time I was off work.  

I didn’t like waiting, but I would rather that the books be capable of withstanding more than just the one read through.  With so little time to myself most nights, I treasured the moments that I got to spend reading.  I wouldn’t want to deprive another soul in the Stable the same joy by damaging a book before the scribes had been able to take care of it.

Nohta broke me from my waking dream of a happier time, tugging at my labcoat and leading me into the gloom as my leg ached and stung bitterly in protest.  I was sure that we were going to trip over something, or knock into one of the shelves, but she proved quite capable of navigating the shadows.  

“Sister, where are we goi-”

A firm, but gentle, hoof found its way to my lips as my sister silenced me.  “Candy, shh!  We have to stay quiet!”  She was almost yelling through her clenched teeth, whispering as loudly as she dared in the gloom.   “Don’t move!  And keep your light off!”  I stopped reaching for my Pipbuck, and instead stood quietly in the darkness.

Hooves scuffed against the floor outside the library, and a dull female voice shouted,  “I think they went in here!”

Another mare answered, this one sounding much more lively, “Are you sure?”

The first mare’s voice faltered, “Uh… I think so.  It’s stupid-fucking dark in here though.”

The second mare repeated her question, but with more intensity.  “Are you sure?”

“Maybe?”

There was a loud thud, followed by several seconds of manic laughter, and the first mare shouted again, “Hey!  That hurts!”

The second voice rang with the tones of authority, “You five get in there and see if you can find ‘em!  The rest of you fan out and keep looking!  Get going already you dumb-shits!  I ain’t gonna be the one to tell the boss that we lost dinner, so move your fucking flanks!”

Nohta led me through the shadows, the two of us being as silent as possible.  I heard a quiet thud and the creak of a swinging door on a rusty hinge.  Had we just entered the scribe’s chamber?  We must have.  The pleasant, musty odor of books had been replaced by something much more… sterile.  Clean and industrial.  As if we had just stepped into a factory floor.

Behind us, I could hear the disorderly noises of five raiders entering the library and stumbling through the darkness as Nohta’s muzzle brushed against my ear.  With her breath only the faintest hint of a whisper, she spoke two words, “Stay still.”  And with that, she left my side.

The oily blackness had stripped me of my ability to see, leaving me a lone island of frightened thoughts adrift in the grip of the rampaging storm that was my imagination.  My eyes darted uselessly towards every crazed snicker, every manic giggle.  I could see, with my mind’s eye, the raider’s malevolent grins, their scarred and dirty bodies heaving with the anticipation of finding us in the gloom.  They drew nearer, and I wanted nothing more than to run.  It was terrifying!    Where was Nohta?  What was she doing in the dark?

One of the raiders was whining, “Oh sure… Send five earth ponies into the dark after two brats… that makes a lot of sense.  How the fuck are we supposed to find ‘em if we can’t see ‘em?  Dumbass should have given us at least one horned bastard.  I mean, shit… We ain’t even got a fucking flashlight!”  Judging by the sound of her voice, she was about to find us by stumbling directly into me.

A rush of wind passed over my mane, forcing a small gasp past my lips.  I heard a faint thud, as if something very hard had just impacted with something very soft.

Silence.  Then a voice in the dark.  A stallion.  “Hey guys?  This place is full of books right?  Why don’t we set the books on fire so we can see?”

Another voice, this one female.  “You got a match?”

Another male voice, just a body’s length away from me.  “You idiots are surrounded by paper!  You really want to set all that shit on fire?”  As soon as his voice died down, I felt another gust of air rush past my face.  A soft grunt was followed by a wheezing sigh and the sound of fabric brushing softly on the floor.

Another male raider cackled in the darkness to my right, “HA HA!  Cooked by the books!  Griddled by the riddles!  Braised by a phrase!  Flambéed by an essay!”

A shrill, feminine voice squeaked in the dark.  “Will you shut the fuck up?  We’re supposed to be looking for the half-breeds, not… not whatever the fuck it is you’re doing!  What in the fuck are you doing?  I can’t see shit.”

The excited male kept giggling, “I’m reading!  I found a thesaurus!  IT WAS UNDER ‘T!’  And those two are just right over there, I can see them cowering! HA HA!”

We couldn’t hide any longer!  I still couldn’t see the raiders, but their blips on my E.F.S. began moving frantically in every direction.  Several bumps and thuds could be heard emanating from the dark, accompanied by the grunts of pain and swears that each impact elicited from the raiders.  Finally, one of them shouted, “How the fuck do you see anything?  Where are they?”

“One of them’s right by that big conveyor belt, you blind fucknugget!”

“That is so not a word!”

“It totally is!  It means ‘idiot!”

“What, did you find a dictionary too?”

Intense light flashed for the briefest of moments, burning the quickly fading afterimage of my surroundings into my vision.  We were in the scribe’s chamber.  There was a book-sized conveyor belt to my left, with the tri-diamond insignia painted onto the steel face of the machine sitting above it.  Piles and piles of literature lay scattered in mounds and heaps all around us.  Several bodies, more than the few that my little sister had just dispatched, lay broken and bloody on the floor.  

Nohta had snuck past our pursuers, and was holding The Worm to the devastated remains of a raider’s head.  Once again I was blown away by just how loud the weapon was.  The roar of the pistol echoed off of the walls as I recoiled from the sudden noise, instinctively ducking my head and flattening my ears as my hooves rose to protect my face.  The flash of its muzzle had illuminated the darkness, showing that the other two raiders were both to my right and advancing on my position.   I panicked, and with only two adversaries left, decided to take matters into my own hooves.

I unlatched my pistol, bathing the chamber in a blood-red glow as the weapon floated to my side.  The raiders noticed my presence immediately, galloping in my direction even as they lost themselves to manic laughter.  I was going to regret my actions, but at the time it seemed like the most logical thing in the world.

Seven beams of crimson lanced from my pistol, nearly imperceptible in the scarlet light of my magic.  Two of them connected with one of the raiders, slicing through her shoddy barding and carving smoking craters into her flesh.  She fell, screaming, and writhed on the floor as her partner continued in my direction.

My aim was far from perfect.  One of the beams had connected with the other raider, despite my aiming for his companion. He grunted in pain, but kept charging as the other four beams flew past his face and found their way into piles of books and scrolls.  

The four fires quickly converged, each feeding off of the heat produced by its sisters to consume the exceedingly dry literature in a gluttonous inferno.  Paper roasted and charred, as tiny motes of flame danced and soared along the curling pages of books and the weathered edges of ancient scrolls.  It was only a matter of time before the blaze found its way to the bookshelves, and then none of us would survive the intense heat loosed from the scorching oven that the library would become.

The building conflagration was a terrifying backdrop for my assailant’s approach.  Rushing towards me, he whinnied in glee and batted my pistol out of the air with a hoof before plowing straight into my side.  I was thrown backwards, crashing into the conveyor belt and gasping for breath as he tackled me.  I had been pinned!  And he was so much stronger than I!  I squirmed and beat upon his chest, but I couldn’t break free!  I cast out with my magic, trying to regain my pistol from the floor, but the raider’s hoof slammed into my chest, breaking my concentration and preventing me from properly grabbing hold of my weapon.

Goddess!  This monster was attempting to beat me to death with his bare hooves!  I turned to the side, narrowly dodging a stomp, and kicked out at his chest.  He spared my pitiful attack no attention, slamming me back into the machine and causing the crimson flare of my horn to die a second time as pain roared its way to the forefront of my mind.  I grit my teeth, telling myself only one thing:  Not today.  Red light washed over us both one last time.

He raised his hooves in the air and slammed them down with all of his might.  In my desperation I had leaned into him, burying my face in his reeking fur in an attempt to evade his blows even as I shut my eyes and prayed to Luna that Nohta might be able to help me.  As it turned out, I didn’t need Nohta’s help after all.

As the brute was attempting to smash me into a fine red mist, his body lurched forward with the force of his attack.  His hooves flew past my head and connected with the steel plate that bore the diamond markings with a resounding clang that echoed through the chamber, but his neck found something else entirely.  

I felt a pressure near my forehead, followed by a warm wetness spiraling down the fluting of my horn.  The raider tensed, ceasing in his attacks even as his body twitched to match the wet gurgle escaping his lips.  I opened my eyes as his blood began to trickle down my snout, and looked upwards to see what had happened.  His mouth and neck were exuding an eerie scarlet glow, even as the room had been cast back into semi-darkness.  He had impaled himself upon my horn!  

The muscles in his throat pushed and prodded against the tip of my horn as he fought to speak or swallow.  His hooves found the back of my neck with a tentative hold, cautiously searching for a way to disengage himself from our violent embrace.  Realizing that I now had the upper-hoof, I decided to push my advantage.  Literally.

“Ahh!  Get off of me!”  I shoved into his chest with my hooves as I craned my neck backwards, tearing a wet channel out of the underside of his jaw. and splashing his blood all over my face.  The room was re-lit in the scarlet glow of my magic as his massive shadow raced along the walls.  After stumbling and choking on his blood for a moment, he fell forward, slumping past my shoulder to smash into the machine atop the conveyor belt.  The entire thing crashed to the floor with the loud clatter of metal upon metal as the plating fell away, exposing the device’s innards.

I let my magic die down, activating my Pipbuck’s clean-white light, and scanned the room as my eyes adjusted to the relatively plentiful illumination.  E.F.S. was empty, save for my sister’s white bar.  We were alone again.  I reached up to my horn and face, trying to wipe the blood away from my eyes.  

Nohta was beside me, staring at my face.  “Damn, Sis… That was pretty awesome!  You just gored that guy!  Bet he didn’t see that coming!”

I frowned at his body, “Nohta, we’re still in danger.  Now is not the time.”

“Alright, alright.  You gonna grab any of the books before they all burn up?”

I looked back to the growing inferno that I had unleashed.   It only needed several more minutes.  Then it would reach the main chamber of the library.  And after that… All of my home’s records would be lost.  All of that history reduced to ash.  The fire was quickly growing out of control.  There was nothing I could do.  An entire stable’s worth of knowledge, gathered across the breadth of multiple generations… The hard work of thousands of ponies, stretching all the way back to the day that Luna herself had sheltered us from the harsh light of The War… All undone by the scant few blasts of magical energy I had loosed in a terrified panic.  What a waste…

I shook my head, scattering drops of red to the floor.  Why wasn’t the blood bothering me?  “No, sister.  We need to move.”

Nohta trotted past me to the fallen buck.  Unceremoniously shoving his body off of the machine and peering into its casing.

“Nohta, what are you doing?  We need to go.”

“Did you hear this thing fall?  It’s hollow.  I’ve been in here plenty of times when I was looking for hiding spots, but I never messed with this thing.”  She reached into the case, and pulled out a small gem: A garnet.  “Check it out.  This is what the scribes used to clean the books, right?  We should keep it.  Maybe we can sell it or something.”

I gasped, “Nohta!”  Need she pocket everything she came across?  

She was already stuffing the tiny gem into her pockets, speaking to the air with closed eyes and a shameless smirk, “Yep.  Maybe we can sell it off and get you some armor.  Or maybe we should use the caps to buy food… better weapons… or maybe we’ll be able to use it later.”  She opened one eye and stared at me with a smug grin, “You know… like those grenades you wanted me to put back?”

“Ugh!  Fine!  But don’t whine to me when Luna sends a nightmare or two your way for stealing from the library!”  I turned to exit, when I heard something that sent a shiver down my back.

Wild laughter and lewd insults echoed off of the walls.  We weren’t out of this yet.  After retrieving my pistol I cleared a passage through the burning pile of books with my magic, causing the tomes to light the gloom beyond my Pipbuck’s light in a flickering, malevolent illumination.  The two of us fled the library just as the flames overtook the bookshelves, blasting us with heat and causing my mane and Nohta’s hood to whip about our faces wildly as we galloped through the doorframe and into the hallway.

We ran down the halls searching for a safe exit, but only succeeded in finding blockades of furniture and dead ponies at every other junction.  We were being corralled.  Another doorway further down the hall was open, propped up with another ceiling panel.  Was our home really falling apart so quickly?  We ducked inside as quietly as we could.

The cafeteria was empty, save for a lone raider sitting at one of the tables and stuffing his face with something red and bloody.  He was so preoccupied with his meal that he didn’t notice either of us until Nohta had slit his throat.  He fell onto the table, wide-eyed, as blood poured out of his wound.  We were getting better at this at an alarming rate.  Or maybe we were just lucky.  Or maybe… Maybe Luna really was looking out for us.
        
The laughing and yelling were getting louder, and closer, as they echoed off the walls.  Nohta pushed a few of the metal tables against the doorway as I levitated the panel holding the door open out of place.  The cafeteria’s door slammed down, just before something massive crashed into it from the other side.  Nohta and I shared a worried look before we both skidded into place behind the serving counter.

I needed something bigger than my little pistol for whatever was coming for us!  I fished one of the weapons that we had scavenged from the raiders out of my packs, taking aim with a shotgun at the doorway.  Nohta braced herself against the counter, holding her own pistol in her teeth as she stood on her hind legs to aim over the glass sneeze guards.

Not two seconds after I had ducked behind cover, a thunderous crash resounded from the entryway as something immense collided with the door.  A feral, rage-driven roar could be heard on the opposite side of the barrier.  Nohta and I shared a look of terror as a white sheen of magic enveloped the door and levitated it upwards.  I knew from experience that these doors were impossibly heavy!  The hydraulics systems alone had multiple tons worth of pressure keeping the doors in place!  How could a unicorn lift something like that?

A hulking raider wearing a welding helmet lumbered through the open door, crashed through our barricade, and stumbled into the relatively open expanse that was the Stable’s cafeteria, panting heavily underneath his helmet.  He wore a bandolier of very long, pointed bullets draped over a set of metal armor that looked as if it were fashioned from a filing cabinet.  His destructive passing had left the tables a crumpled, twisted wreck of sharp metal.  White light shone from the inside of his helmet, far brighter than anything else in the room, as he stomped his hoof and grunted in exertion.  One of the ruined tables flew into place in the doorway, wedging the door open once again.  He had just opened the door for his comrades!

Nohta took aim with her pistol, as I did the same with the shotgun, and the both of us unloaded our weapons in his direction.  The brute shrugged off the barrage of projectiles that impacted his thick armor and kept coming, brandishing an automatic rifle with a curved magazine and a wooden stock.  Roaring in rage, he levitated it above the counter and sprayed bullets all around us.  The sneeze guards cracked and shattered, sending shards of glass flying  in all directions.  I scrambled back to the kitchens and took cover behind the ovens, abandoning the empty shotgun as I tried to avoid the barrage of lead which zipped past my body to clang and ping off of the metal pots, pans, and appliances.  Nohta had other ideas.  

My eyes met hers as she dug something out of her packs and held it to her mouth.  After a brief and terrifying moment that left me utterly confused as to what she was doing, she leapt over the counter, kicking the rifle out of the unicorn’s levitation field and closing the distance with him before he could reclaim it.  Rearing up on two legs, she kicked straight out at his helmeted head.  I could hear the impact of Mother’s horseshoes against our assailant’s helmet echo throughout the cafeteria.  The metal helmet dented, and the unicorn’s horn shattered.  His screams of rage turned to wails of agony as he tried to kick her away with his front legs, but Nohta caught one of his extended legs with one of her own and brought her other front leg straight down on the knee joint with a sickening crack.  She whirled around the broken appendage, her cloak flowing out behind her as she landed back on all fours, and bucked the raider in the ribs, knocking him off of his hooves.

More raiders poured through the doorway as Nohta stomped her hoof down on the huge unicorn’s neck and crushed his windpipe.  His screams turned to a bubbling, wet gurgle as his shuddering body curled in on itself, waiting to die.  She dove behind an overturned table as bullets tore through the air.  My magic unlatched the holster on my leg, floating the pistol to my teeth as I peeked around my little oven.  I depleted the charge of my pistol’s battery firing into the mass of raiders who were closest to the door, vaporising two of their number and wounding another’s leg.  Bullets ricocheted off the metal ovens and walls of the kitchens near my position in retaliation as I slid back into cover, their reports and impacts nearly deafening in the enclosed space.  The sound of gunfire was hammering my eardrums into submission; I lifted my hooves to my head to try and block out some of the noise, but it was just so loud!  

Sparks flew off of the metal appliances as projectiles whinged into them and flew in haphazard directions.  Pots and pans fell all around me, knocked from their racks by the storm of speeding lead.  The glass door of an oven shattered, raining shards of glass over my hooves, slicing into my flesh.  All I could do was curl into a ball and scream as I fought to concentrate well enough to levitate the slivers out of my skin.

The entire group had focused its attention on me.  Nohta, sensing an opportunity, took advantage of their momentary distraction to slip within their perimeter.  My sister dove for the raider nearest to her, knocking his gun, as well as some of his teeth, out of his mouth with a brutal kick that left him reeling.  He stumbled into the path of another raider’s fire as her SMG burped, and several rounds bit into his chest and neck, simultaneously killing the first raider and shielding Nohta from harm.  

These ponies had no love for their own kind, and were all firing their weapons wildly at the whirling, cloaked figure within their midst, completely heedless of each other’s safety.  Luckily, they were all terrible shots.  Almost as bad as I was.  Nearly every shot went wild, many of them hitting another raider.  

Nohta ducked low, sweeping a mare’s legs out from under her, miraculously avoiding a buck’s shotgun blast.  Spinning around, she batted the shotgun to the side with a foreleg just before it fired again, sending the blast into a third raider.  Number three shouted in alarm and agony, his assault rifle burst going wide and tall as a massive, bloody hole was torn through his chest.  Nohta braced herself against the floor with her hooves as she brought her pistol out of its holster and fired a round point-blank into the shotgun buck’s chest.  His blood splattered over the twisted wreckage of the table left behind by the massive unicorn’s entry as his body collapsed to the floor.

The mare that Nohta had knocked down kicked out at my sister’s legs, causing Nohta to stumble and topple over as her pistol fell from her mouth.  The two of them lay squirming on the ground as the final raider took aim with his SMG, and emptied his weapon in their direction.  

Nohta, realizing the danger too late, kicked out at one of the many bodies that lay all around her, and used it to push herself to the side, but couldn’t avoid all of the buck’s fire.  The stream of lead perforated the body of the downed mare and rose to bite into Nohta’s legs, causing my sister to scream in pain.

“NOHTA!”  I leaped out from behind cover, scanning the room for something, anything, that I could use to prevent the buck from causing further harm to my sister.  My pistol was useless until I could reload it.  I needed something now!  I quickly scooped up the first thing that my eyes came across in a blanket of levitation magic.

“Hey!  Over here!”  I shouted at the raider, gaining his attention.  “Don’t forget about me!”

His eyes widened as a crimson cloud descended on his head, and a dozen shards of glass whirled over his body.  Concentrating on so many points at once proved rather difficult, and despite my best efforts at slicing him to ribbons, I only managed to startle him into dropping his weapon and flailing his front hooves around his face.  The shards gouged and slashed at his legs, but provided only minor wounds before he knocked them out of the air.  That distraction, however, was all that my sister needed.

Climbing back to her now bleeding hooves, Nohta bolted towards the raider and slammed her hoof into the buck’s throat.  He doubled over, gagging, as Nohta brought her right leg up and slammed her Pipbuck into the back of his skull.  He fell forward, dead before he hit the floor.

I ran to my sister’s side, picking my way past bodies, shards of glass, and scattered weapons.  She pulled her hood back, smearing her own blood over her forehead and mane as she sat on her haunches, panting and grinning at me like an idiot.

As I revved up my magic to pinpoint the locations of her wounds, an excited squeal escaped her lips, “That was so AWESOME!”

She was fidgeting and shaking with glee as my magic bathed the both of us in crimson light.  “Nohta, please be still darling, you’re hurt.”  

“Did you see that?  Did you see what I did!  Holy fuck, Candy!  THAT was fighting!  That’s what Mom used to do!  WOW!” She ignored my ministrations to trot between bodies and gather up all the weapons and other useful materials she could find before stuffing everything into her packs, heedless of the trail of blood she was leaving behind.

I had to get her to calm down, “NOHTA!”

“Huh? Oh ya, right.  Go ahead, then.”  She sat on her haunches and allowed me to look her over with my magic.

I could finally tell the extent of the damage when my spell took effect, “Nohta, you’ve been shot!  Five times!  By The Goddess, you’re insane!  Don’t ever do that again!”  I clutched at my own chest reflexively, gritting my teeth against the sudden pain blooming across my body.

Most of her wounds had been clean flesh wounds, with the bullets passing through her body with relatively little complication.  One had lodged itself into one of her ribs, cracking the bone and threatening to pierce her lung.  I could feel it digging its way deeper as she breathed, the flattened bullet slicing and jabbing into the flesh.  I couldn’t fathom how she wasn’t screaming in agony; I was ready to double over and whimper until the pain stopped.  

Another bullet was still in one of her front legs, scraping at her knee joint.  I honestly had no idea how the drop in blood pressure from her various wounds hadn’t caused her to pass out or, for that matter, how she was still even capable of standing and moving about.  But I wasn’t about to question good fortune when it came my way.

I felt something else with my magic as well.  Something that I couldn’t quite place, like the echo of a fading song that was playing too slowly.  I had trouble figuring out what was wrong, until it struck me: Nohta was acting reckless, even for her.  I looked over to the serving counters, noticed the little inhaler lying where we first hid, and asked, “Nohta, that’s a chem.  Have you been self-medicating?”

She smiled, closed her eyes and nodded, as if she had something to be proud of, “Yup!  Things were getting kinda crazy so I took a hit of Dash and OH WOW THIS IS GREAT!”  She was bobbing and weaving her head, as if she were listening to one of the Stable’s musical broadcasts.  “I mean, everything still hurts like a motherfucker, but Goddess damn!  I feel INCREDIBLE! ”  

I ignored her ridiculous attitude toward self-destructive behavior and extracted the bullets as quickly as I could.  “Ugh!  Nohta!  Just… try to be still, sister.”  We still had, at best estimate, a few more than ten raiders down here with us, and I really didn’t want them to catch us like this.  I mended her wounds, and instructed Nohta to drink one of our potions for good measure.  I then healed the scratch on my own leg with a simple spell while Nohta scavenged for useful supplies. 

It only took me a moment to reload my little laser pistol.  Hitting the release, I slid the drained pack out of the slot and replaced it with a fresh one.  Not for the first time that day, my thoughts drifted back to Father, and his sessions of ‘target practice’ in the Stable’s canyon.  I had never thought that I’d need  to know how to use such a weapon, and had only agreed to continue the sessions to humor him.  Now though, I found myself extremely grateful for the lessons that he had tried to teach, and regretful that I hadn’t paid more attention when I had the chance.  

I couldn’t help but regret the many wasted opportunities with Father… and I had no chance to ever rectify them.  I’d never have the chance to get into another debate with him, or to tease him about his abysmal cooking, or to have him correct my mispronunciation of a word in Fancy.  I’d never again have the opportunity to discuss surgical techniques with him over tea, or to chide him for being late to a meeting with a patient, or to pray with him in The Temple.  I’d never be able to ask his opinion of a book, or to listen to his tales of adventure, or roll my eyes at his suggestion that I get a colt-friend.  I’d never have another opportunity to get into a fight with him over Nohta.  I’d never have the chance to cry into his shoulder as we remembered Mother.  I’d never be able to hold him in my hooves as all the restless tension of a long day washed away, to be replaced by the gentle warmth of a quiet embrace shared between a father and his daughter.

And I’d never again have the opportunity to simply tell him that I loved him.  That hurt the most of all.  We never seem to take enough opportunities to tell our loved ones those three simple words.  And we never think to do so until it is far too late. 

We exited the cafeteria and made our way towards the residential halls, only to find a hastily erected blockade comprised of furniture and dead bodies.  We were forced to take a detour through a lower level to get around.  Almost all of the lights in the basement level had been shot out, and the only way I could see was by activating my Pipbuck lamp.  

We crept through the darkened passageways, skirting by the dangling, sparking electrical wires and loosely hanging ceiling panels.  More than once a panel came crashing down in the darkness, causing the two of us to jump and draw our weapons only to find ourselves aiming at nothing but gore splattered walls and our own shadows.  I had known that our stable required constant repair, but I had never thought that the facility was in danger of literally falling apart.

We were skulking through Laundry when the door through which we had just passed slammed shut with a grating screech.  The portal on the opposite side of the room opened, bathing the washing machines and racks of chemicals with the familiar sterile light of the ceiling fixtures in the next hallway as raiders started pouring in through the entranceway.  We ducked for cover behind a row of washing machines as bullets ripped into the metal appliances, sending lead ricocheting away in a multitude of directions.

I deactivated my lamp to help conceal my position.  Nohta and I drew our weapons, scurrying to opposite ends of the row as we alternated taking shots at our foes with S.A.T.S.  Nohta scored a direct hit with her pistol on her third shot, causing a sneering mare’s head to explode in a fountain of gore.  As I popped out from cover, my seventh shot caused a stallion to glow red and illuminate two of his comrades’ startled faces.  Their expressions were even more surprised when Nohta used their distraction to leap over the row of appliances and beat them into a sanguine pulp.  

I was counting the remaining raiders, keeping track of their faltering numbers in my head as I allowed myself to hope that we might actually survive the night.  ‘Nine,’  Nohta pounced on an unsuspecting mare, pounding her hooves into her face several times before slinking back to the shadows.  ‘Eight,’ my pistol burned a hole through a raider’s traffic-sign armor and cut deeply into his chest.  ‘Seven,’ I used my magic to overturn a rack of chemical supplies, burying a raider underneath heavy buckets of cleaning chemicals before Nohta’s pistol silenced her screams.  The caustic odor of ammonia blended horribly with the scents of singed fur, charred flesh, and gunpowder as one of the buckets splashed open, releasing its contents across the floor and towards the open doorway.

We were doing this… We were actually going to escape!  Despite all odds, we were actually going to live through this night!  Those were the thoughts racing through my mind when I heard a hiss, and a clicking noise, followed by a small ‘wumpf.’  The Pyro stepped into the doorway, blocking our escape as easily as it crushed my hopes.  The flamethrower that was mounted on its back was almost as big as the pony that carried it!  The twin pilot lights of the nozzles at The Pyro’s sides lit its armored features with their dancing motes of flame, exposing a gargantuan earth pony clad neck-to-hoof in thick steel armor.  Only its head was left unarmored, instead being covered by an ancient gas mask made of shiny black leather.

The Pyro, true to its name, immediately walked over the puddle of spilled chemicals and turned to one of the raiders before dousing her in twin gouts of impressive orange fire.  It then turned and bucked her hard into the middle of the room.  The newly-immolated raider flew through the dark, crashing into the row of washing machines in front of me with enough force to dent the appliance with a loud *CLANG* and cause my cover to rock dangerously on its side for a moment before slamming back down to the floor.  She screamed and writhed in place for a moment, then lay silent, her still-burning corpse illuminating the majority of the room with flickering orange flames.  I ducked back behind cover, only just barely peeking around the side of my own precious laundry cleaning device.

An awful, screeching voice emanated from The Pyro’s throat, finally shedding light on her gender.  “Hahaha HAha!  Burn, bitch!  Burn for me!”

She continued to laugh for a moment, as the rest of the raiders nervously joined her, before stomping her hoof and screaming, “Lasher!”

A dirty brown unicorn, small enough that I almost mistook him for a foal, scampered to The Pyro’s side with a sycophantic grin on his face.  He was dwarfed by her enormity, the tip of his horn barely rising up to her withers.  With starry eyes, he stared up at her and wheezed, “Yes, mistress?”

“Get the spices ready you miserable fuck!  We’ve found the striped bitches and I’m hungry!”  She stomped the floor, sending a reverberating thud throughout the room.

He twitched and bowed his head, “Ah, yes!  Of course, your blazingness!”  Her what?

The Pyro turned, and with a single hind leg, kicked Lasher hard in his barrel, sending him sprawling to the floor.  “I told you not to call me that!  Shut the fuck up with your damned titles and just bring me the seasonings!  I’m not about to try zony without at least a little salt and pepper!”

Lasher limped towards the door, whimpering, as The Pyro turned in my direction and reared onto her hind legs.  Two rivers of fire surged out of the nozzles at her sides, coating the ceiling in a sticky, roiling inferno of liquid orange.  She slammed back down to the floor, causing the entire room to shudder and quake as the impact of her hooves echoed off the walls.  Tiny droplets of flame occasionally rained down upon her form to bounce, roll, or stick to her thick armor as she giggled and guffawed. “AH HA ha!  Ha ha!  I...  am The Pyro!  How would you like your meat?”

Nohta sidled up to my side, “The fuck is her deal?  Is she completely nuts?”

I had to find a way out of this.  That weapon could kill both of us in seconds, and I doubted that even my sister’s aptitude for melee combat would prove effective against that brute’s strength and thick armor.  “Try to get her talking, Nohta,” I whispered, “I need some time to think.”

The Pyro stomped her hoof again, shaking the floors and rattling the glass windows of the washing machines in their fixtures.  As her taunts continued, her voice rose in volume until she was left screaming through her mask.  “The chef demands your order!  Char-broiled?  Singed?  Well-done?  Cooked-to-a-fucking-crisp?”  The raiders whooped and cackled, taunting us from their positions behind their leader.

Nohta yelled out from behind our cover, “Uh… Hey there…  You big, obviously-not-insane murderer!  Fancy seeing you here!  Why, with a big ol’ flamethrower like that, I reckon you’re a pretty good chef, huh?  What’s your favorite dish?”

I facehoofed, “Really, Nohta?  Favorite dish?”

She shrugged, “I’ve got the munchies!  And you put me on the spot!  Give me a break!”

I detected a smirk in The Pyro’s voice, hidden underneath her mask, “My stew is exceptionally exquisite.  Hehe… It’s a pity that you’ll never get to try it for yourselves.”

Nohta spoke up again, yelling over the row of appliances, “Oh, ya?  Why can’t we try it?”

The Pyro chuckled, as if the answer were supposed to be obvious to those of us in the room who weren't insane.  “Ha ha!  Because you’re the main ingredient!  AH HA HA!”  Two plumes of brilliant orange gushed over our cover, forcing the two of us to huddle against each other as our world was dominated by the heat.   Raucous applause and wild laughter erupted from the raiders.  We were running out of time.  

Nohta was grasping at straws, “Oh!  That’s a good one!  But, seriously, you wouldn’t want to eat us!  We’re full of worms!  I’ve got parasites as big as my head!”

One of the stallions in the group shouted out, “Extra flavor!”

I’m still not sure what made her say it, but that was when Nohta stumbled onto a line of questioning that completely changed the conversation.  In a split-second it went from a desperate delay for time to a bid for deadly-important information, “So uh… do you always travel so far out of the way for your ingredients?”

The Pyro was growing impatient, sending tiny spurts of flame to roll over our position as she tested our cover’s ability to protect us.  “Only when Psyker commands us.”

Nohta and I scrambled a few feet in another direction, narrowly avoiding the burning liquid.  Nohta continued as we reached our new position.  “Oh, I see... So you don’t have any real say in what you do, you just do whatever this ‘Psyker’ tells you, huh?”  Nohta winked at me, confident that she had just touched a nerve.  I rolled my eyes at her behavior, believing that agitating the giant pony that had us trapped with a flamethrower was a rather poor choice.

The Pyro stomped a hoof, grunting in frustration.  She unlatched the collar holding her mask in place, and ripped the stiff leather off of her face, revealing a surprisingly well-groomed, blazing-red mane that flowed down a pretty, bright pink face set in a wicked scowl. “Fuck this shit!  I don’t want anything obscuring my view of your torched body as you writhe in agony!  I’m going to watch the ashes fall from your bones, you little cunt!”

The Pyro took a single step toward us, sneering as she aimed her weapon, and spoke, “Dinner is usually not so talkative.  Unless you count begging for mercy.”  Her eyes grew wide, and intensely eager.  “I like it when my dinner begs.  Do you want to beg, bitch?  You still can.  I might even go easy on you… make it a quick death.  Flash-fried instead of slow-smoked?”   She was panting in anticipation, teetering precariously on her little razor-edge of coherent thought as she fought back her drool.  “The meat’s not as tender, but sometimes I like my meals a little chewy… “

Nohta spoke in that tone.  The tone that I was sure she had practiced to employ maximum annoyance.  By Luna’s grace, I wanted to smack her!  “Na, I’m good.  I’m not really into the whole ‘grovelling at somepony’s hooves’ thing.  So, you take orders from Psyker, huh?  What’s the deal with that, you not smart enough to figure shit out on your own?”

The Pyro’s face hardened.  She ground her teeth together in agitation and began to slowly advance on our new position, sending small spurts of fire in our general direction as she taunted us, “Psyker is so much more than someone like you can comprehend!  She leads, and we follow.  She sees, and we learn.  She sings, and we listen.  She deals with the others, and we reap the rewards.”

Even as the two of us scooted further down our current row of appliances and behind a perpendicular row, my sister continued to heckle the gargantuan pony with her incredulous voice, “She sings?  Really?  Who are the others?”

The Pyro snorted in disdain.  Apparently even an insane murderer can have contempt for ignorance.  “Her songs are beautiful.  They tell of things that have not yet come to be.  She dealt with the slavers, and she gained a new base.”  She gazed all around her, taking note of the slowly dying flames on the ceiling and walls before settling her eyes on our position and lowering her head as she pawed at the floor.  The sound of her steel-shod hooves scraping against the metal floor scratched at my ears as she continued.  ”Your stable is going to make a fine little home for us, bitch…  Do you like the decorations so far?”

The slavers and the raiders were working together?  This was news to me, and bad news at that!  If the two groups joined forces, this entire area would be overrun!  Mareon would be demolished, and its inhabitants sold off.  The only chance we’d have would be to run.  Of course, that was all assuming we made it out of the Stable alive.

With a wild bark of laughter, The Pyro charged at the row of washers in front of us!  Goddess, how did somepony that large move so quickly?  Nohta and I fled back to the last row of appliances in the room, having been effectively cornered by the advancing, psychotic mare as our previous cover crunched and bent, the metal shrieking in protest as The Pyro’s massive frame mangled and twisted the steel box in her path.  Bucking the remains of the machine to the side, she chuckled to herself and began to slowly walk in our direction again. The washer’s clipped water-line hissed, spraying a fine, pressurized mist against her armored flank.  This was hopeless… What were we going to do?

Remembering the path the conversation had been taking, I urged Nohta to continue in her endeavours, “Keep her talking, dear!  We need to hear this.  And we need more time!”

Nohta nodded, and continued, “So the slavers took the ponies here, and then you came in and... what?  Took over a broken-down hole in the ground?  Can’t you see that this place is falling apart?  The fucking fire extinguishers aren’t even going off!  This place is a pit!”

The Pyro was resolute, “Psyker sees far.  Pskyer knows what we must do.”

“Ohhhh, I get it.”  Nohta drew her words out in an over-the-top display of insolence, “She just doesn’t share everything with the lowly peons like you, right?”

The Pyro glowered at us, standing still in the cleared space in the middle of the room.  “Every insult you offer will only make your coming screams all the sweeter, little half-breed bitch.”

Nohta’s great talent at annoying ponies to no end was working in our favor, “Oh, did I touch a nerve there?  Does it upset you to know that you’re not trusted with the great plans of your crazy leader?”

“Psyker is not crazy!”  The Pyro emphasized her opinion by stomping her hoof on the floor again, causing the washing machine that we were ducked behind to shudder in protest.

My sister was on a roll, “Oh?  And what did she tell you to convince you so easily?”

The Pyro explained, “She spoke of a stable, with exotic prey inside.  My gang has never tasted zony before.  We wonder; will you be tough, like a zebra?  Or tender, like a pony?  Greasy, perhaps?  Will your bones make good stew?  Will your fat be good to fry in?  Will your tongue’s flavor match its sharp insults?”  A dying glob of flame fell from the ceiling-fire to burn and sizzle its way into her neck.  The Pyro didn’t even flinch.  Instead, her eyes took on a dreamy, rapturous look as she inhaled deeply of the air and licked her lips, “By the fucking goddess… I LOVE that smell!  Burnt fur and flesh,”  Looking back to us with an evil smirk, she added, “with just a hint of fear.”

Nohta gagged, “Okay seriously, you’d eat my tongue?  You’re a twisted fuck!”

“This conversation bores me!”  The Pyro let out a massive, theatrical yawn, before slamming a hoof into a defenseless appliance and sending it careening off to the side of the room with a thunderous slam, knocking aside one of the racks used to hang freshly laundered clothing.   A thin jet of water arced towards the ceiling in its absence as she continued to taunt us.  “Why don’t you come out from behind that machine, bitch?  If you give up, I’ll let the two of you choose which one I eat first.  Or better yet, why don’t you run around some more?  Ha ha, that was fun!”

Nohta turned back to me and whispered, “Any ideas yet, Sis?  I’m running out of topics of conversation here.”

I was frantically searching our options.  None of our weapons had the punch required to bust through that armor, and rushing that weapon would only result in a fast, painful death.  Neither of us was accurate enough to guarantee a quick headshot if we broke cover, and the Pyro’s weapon would incinerate us if we tried to shoot her anyway. I couldn’t risk using the second grenade in here, if The Pyro’s tanks of gas blew up we were all dead, and we were much too close anyway.  We’d be caught in the blast as well!

There had to be another way!  Think Candy!  Think!  My eyes roamed over the fire-lit walls, latching onto anything and everything within sight.  Steel shelves, empty buckets of bleach, boxes of Abraxo cleaner, spare parts for quick repairs to the appliances…  Nothing here was helpful!

I brought my hoof to my muzzle, absentmindedly brushing my hoof against my chin as I probed my mind for ideas.  That was when it hit me.  The smell of the ammonia on my hoof obliterated the other odors of the room even as Mother’s words found purchase in my frantic mind.  Under my breath, I found myself whispering her wisdom, “None alive can stand against you if they cannot breathe.”    Opportunities under my very nose, indeed…

“Nohta, I’ve got another crazy idea.” I brought out my old lab coat and held it between my hooves.

Nohta facehoofed and sighed, “Luna save us... ”

I brought out a bottle of water and soaked the fabric with it, then whispered my plan into my sister’s ear.

Her face pulled away from my own, confused and scared.  “But… Sis!  She’s got that-”

“She won’t be fast enough, and she doesn’t have magic!”  I grinned, as I flared my crimson light.

“But… There’s no way that I can outrun her!  And what if she goes after you instead?”

“You’re the one that insulted her Nohta, She’ll be after you.”  I toggled through my Pipbuck’s inventory spell, and held up our last inhaler of Dash, offering it to her.  Despite the absolutely horrid things that went into its manufacture, and the ever-increasing risk of addiction that my little sister was facing, we needed the drug right now.  I stared into her purple eyes, “Run, dear sister.  Run like the wind.”

She took it, giving me an agonized look.  I bopped her nose lightly with a hoof, dispelling her frown as she looked up to me.  I smiled back at her.  “I can’t say what I want to say because you’ll get mad at me, but we’re gonna make it out of this.  We’ll be okay.  Just follow the plan and be as fast as I know you can be.”

She threw her hooves around me, knocking me into the washing machine with her weight, and whispered, “You better be right, Sis.”

My grin got bigger, as I tried my very best to give my sister some confidence in the plan, “Come on, Nohta… This is your big sister you’re talking about!  When am I ever wrong?”

Don’t answer that.

The raiders didn’t seem to care about what I was doing, but The Pyro was impatient.  She smacked her lips, fighting back her drool, “I think I might start off with a course comprised of your companion, girl.  Ground unicorn horn makes a fine seasoning when added to a cream broth... “

I levitated the tattered, and now thoroughly soaked, rags of my old lab-coat in my magic, and nodded to my sister.  She bit down on the inhaler of Dash and braced herself to run as my magic levitated my coat down the row of washing machines.  With a final heave, I flung the old coat out past the row of appliances and into the middle of the room.

The Pyro reacted exactly as I predicted, rounding on the coat and letting out a great guffaw as she bit her weapon’s trigger, sending two brief spurts of flame towards the offending article of clothing before quickly realizing that she was about to waste her fuel on nothing more than cloth.  Nohta used the distraction and sprung like a cat, her cloaked form darting out from cover in the opposite direction as she sprinted down the length of the room.  

“HA!  Tricky bitch!  There you are!”  The Pyro laughed maniacally as she pivoted, turning in Nohta’s direction as she reactivated her weapon and swept the flames across the entire row of appliances I was hiding behind.  I threw myself to the ground, covering my head and face with my hooves, just before the flames washed over the machines and all over the wall behind me.  The flames clung to the walls as the liquid stuck to the surfaces it fell upon.

I stood, knowing that this was my only chance.  The intense heat poured over my face and body in waves, whipping my mane wildly through my field of vision.  Levitating my laser pistol above the washing machine, I slipped into S.A.T.S. and took aim.  My entire body went rigid as time slowed down, and I was able to witness my plan fall together perfectly.  If I hadn’t been in the middle of a fight for our lives, I might have even smiled.

My S.A.T.S.-guided laser barrage caught the raider furthest from Nohta in a deluge of crimson bolts.  A fair amount of them passed her by harmlessly, but nearly half of them impacted against her barding and coat.  Her makeshift armor buckled from the heat of my blasts, glowing white-hot against her skin.  She sucked in one last frightened breath before her entire body was vaporised, scattering her cremated remains near the open doorway.  As S.A.T.S. released me from its hold, I grabbed the remains of my lab-coat, thanking Luna that the water had saved it from incineration, and flung it into the pool of ammonia at The Pyro’s hooves.

The Pyro’s weapon sprayed liquid incineration in a wide curve, trailing behind Nohta.  As I had predicted, The Pyro was turning faster than my sister was running, but that didn’t matter as soon as Nohta slid behind the final row of appliances and ducked low as the gouts of flame swung over top of her cover.  The Pyro was reckless, with no consideration for her gang.  Her own weapon bathed three of her raiders in flame as she turned to catch my sister.

After taking notice of my reappearance and subsequent attack on one of her cronies, The Pyro turned my way, her face set in a shocked and confused scowl, and poured flame over my position as I dove back behind cover.  With an unsettling tone, she cheered, “Hey!  This barbeque calls for a song!”

I muttered under my breath as the heat washed over me, “Goddess, tell me she’s not… “

She was.

She drew in a deep breath and cackled, alternating lines of her performance with bursts of flame, “HA HA HA!  All you have to do is heat it up!  Full power!  Blast it at the bitch!”

A brief respite from the heat was followed by another blazing deluge of orange.  Her screeching followed soon afterwards. “Now just take a little time; aim where she cowers!  Give her a gout, just a singe!”

I heard the sounds of the last raider, Lasher, crying for help as Nohta took advantage of The Pyro’s distraction to pummel him with her hooves.  The Pyro laughed raucously as she surveyed the burning wreckage of my home, ignoring her underling’s pleas.  “HA HA!  Yes!  BURN!  Burn it all!”  

To my horror, her cackling voice belted out another line, “Baking you stripes in your own home; with enough left, I can grill ya!”

She drew another breath, as I heard Nohta scrambling with the buckets of cleaning agents by the fallen rack, “Your tangy blood pours all over the floor.  Don’t forget, I am your kill-a!”

She finished her musical number with an insane glee, advancing on my position, “Zonies!  Two flavors in one!  Zonies!  It doubles the fun!  Zonies… Zonies! Zonies! Zonies!”  Flames rippled and surged as the burning accelerant washed over my cover, spreading liquid inferno all around me.  A great splotch of flame splashed my tail as tiny flecks of fire collided with my hooves and neck, scorching through my fur and-  By the Goddess!  THE PAIN! 

Ignoring the other burns for now, I took out every last bottle of water I had and poured them all onto my tail as I desperately stamped at the flames with my hooves.  The fire sizzled and died, leaving me stomping on a ruined mess of pink.  I’d have to deal with my injuries later.  There wasn’t any time left!

I screamed at the top of my lungs, praying to Luna that I had bought my sister enough time, “NOHTA!  DO IT NOW!”

The Pyro’s flames turned in my sisters direction, “Oh?  What’s the other bitch up to?”

I rose from cover again, ignoring the searing pain in my tail, and found my old coat on the floor.  Lifting it in my levitation, I wrapped it around The Pyro’s face as tightly as I could manage as she screeched in confusion and anger, “Mmph  mmmph?”

Nohta had found the container she was looking for and hurled it into the air above The Pyro’s head.  I caught the bucket of bleach in my levitation and, before The Pyro could turn her flames on either of us, drenched her wrapped head with its contents.

The Pyro screamed through the fabric of my coat,  “AAAAhh, What the FUCK?  This shit... burns?  Heh.  Hehe.  Hehe ah HAHAHAHA!”  Doubling over, she coughed and spluttering as the folds of cloth clung to her head, “Ack... shit.  Fuck you bitch!  I’m gonna boil your eyes out of their sockets!”

She clawed at her face, trying to rip the chemicals away from her muzzle.  Crimson light poured from my horn, basking every nook and crevice in the room with the light of magical overglow.  I held the fabric against her head with every ounce of arcane strength I could muster, grunting and straining in concentration, but it wasn’t enough.  She was just too strong!

“Ugh… fucking unicorns!”  The Pyro clamped down on her weapon’s bit through the coat and spun in my direction.  I only had just enough time to duck back behind cover before the flames poured over the appliances.  How was she still standing?  She should have passed out by now!

“Candy!  She’s ripping the coat off!”  Nohta called out from the other end of the room, but I had to take cover from the flames, and with no clear line-of-sight my magic was faltering.

I heard a thud followed by grunts and shrieks of pain, as the flaming jets died down.  I rose to witness my sister, clinging to the back of The Pyro’s head as she held the coat in place over The Pyro’s face.  Even as the colossal mare struggled in an effort to free herself, bucking and kicking wildly in an effort to throw Nohta off, the dangerous fumes began to take effect on both of them.  

I reached out with my magic, and found The Pyro’s forgotten mask lying on the floor.  With a prayer to The Goddess, I jammed it over my sister’s head.  She held onto The Pyro for dear life as the gang leader sunk to a knee, then two, then finally toppled over and lay still.

Nohta climbed off of her, taking care not to trip over the hoses and nozzles connected to the titanic flamethrower, and rushed to my side.  The two of us held each other, shaking, as the revelation of what we had accomplished washed over us.

Nohta’s voice was ragged underneath the mask, coming out in an awful sounding cough, “Candy!  We… we did it!”

The fumes were beginning to make it hard for me to breathe as well.  “Come dear, we need to get out of here.”

Just as we were turning to leave, The Pyro stirred back to life.  By The Goddess, she was tough!  Ripping the coat off of her face with a hoof, she gazed in our direction.  Confusion, fear, and anger riddled The Pyro’s voice as she yelled in a raspy voice, “What in the FUCK did you goddess-damned half-breeds do to me?”

My magic lifted one of her raider’s weapons from the floor, and I ground the barrel of the shotgun into her forehead.  I couldn’t stop myself.  This pony was responsible for utterly destroying my home, killing my friends, coworkers, and neighbors, and desecrating the temple of my goddess.  I walked back to her as the shotgun kept her head from descending to her weapon’s trigger.

She glared at me, past the barrel of the weapon.  Bloodshot eyes that only seemed to hold a feral rage.  There was no remorse, no pity, no regret.  Just a desire to kill.  I stared into those eyes as the fumes began to take their toll on my own lungs.

I don’t even remember doing it.  I only remember being on top of her, beating against her face with my hooves as I screamed and coughed incoherent gibberish.  The flames in the room cast dancing shadows across her bloody face as she laughed weakly at me.  Her arrogance only served to incense my anger, and before I knew it, the shotgun was pinning her head to the floor.

The meaning of her last words was lost amidst my fury.  “Seasoned, but left raw… just the way…“

With a final grunt I lifted the shotgun’s barrel and brought it straight down above her eyes, using it to slam her head back into the steel floor.  The last thing thing she ever saw was my glaring visage.  And the last thing she ever heard was my taunting question, “Were we tough or tender, bitch?”

Sometimes… killing is very easy.


**************


After an incredibly hasty session of looting bodies, the two of us exited Laundry to ascend through the catacombs of our old home as we made our way towards the entrance of Stable 76.  I had stuffed The Pyro’s mask into my saddlebags, reasoning that we could at least collect the bounty from Mareon’s sheriff when we returned to the town.  Despite what I kept trying to tell myself, everything that we had just done felt good.  Maybe it didn’t feel right, but it felt good.  

I had a better understanding of what had happened in the Stable, now.  The slavers must have lead the charge on our home, claiming as many prisoners as they could.  Afterwards, the raiders had probably moved in, looting and destroying with wild abandon.  Somehow the two groups had brokered a deal and were now working together.  The amount of enemies that Nohta and I had accumulated over the past week was troubling, but those enemies threatened the safety of others as well.  Surely, if we informed the leaders of Mareon about the slaver and raider alliance, they would be able to help us.  If nothing else, they needed to know of the danger they were in.  And given our troubling lack of supplies, we had no choice but to return to the town anyway.

Before Nohta and I left, the two of us returned to our old quarters.  With some measure of relief I realized that the door was still locked.  Nohta had to bypass the emergency override to force the door open, but we entered to see the room almost exactly as we had left it.  

Wisps of dark smoke were starting to drift throughout the halls, only barely visible by the light of my Pipbuck.  Once we started to feel the heat underneath our hooves, we knew we didn’t have much time left before the entire stable turned into an oven.  Even if the steel walls and floors themselves wouldn’t catch flame, there was more than enough combustible material that had been brought in from past caravans to bring the ambient temperature of our home to dangerous levels.  We needed to leave.

I took the opportunity to hurriedly wash the blood off of my face and hooves, but Nohta’s immediate concern was for our practical problems.  She dashed for the refrigerator, stuffing every bottle of water that we had left behind into her packs.  We now had a grand total of five bottles of water between the two of us.  They may not have been kept cold, but they were at least clean.  After a futile attempt at ransacking our own cupboard for foodstuffs, and scouring the entirety of our quarters for anything that immediately came to mind as “useful,” we both found ourselves staring at the door to our old bedroom closet.

The last thing we did in the Stable was say goodbye to Mother.  It was with no small amount of disappointment that we had found Mother’s amulet to be missing.  We reasoned that Father must have taken it before coming to meet up with The Caravan.  With our last few moments in our old home, we lit the rest of the incense, prayed for Luna’s forgiveness, and left Stable 76 behind.

We set up camp at the edge of the canyon.  Nohta had long since come down from her experience with Dash, and we were both feeling worn and weary.  My bruises and burns still ached with every movement but her cough had died down as soon as we had exited the Stable, and that was all the relief that I needed to keep going.  The night air out in the desert might have been dry, but it was much better than breathing in the noxious fumes that the chemicals had unleashed in Laundry.

Once we had made sure that no more raiders were lurking outside the Stable, I got a campfire going with the fire talisman.  Nohta was busy tending the flames and trying to warm up our late-night meal as I entered all the codes for the Department Heads into my Pipbuck.  The only thing that I received for my trouble was a repeated “Error” message on the Pipbuck’s interface.  

I didn’t understand.  I had double-checked them!   I had triple-checked to make sure that I had entered them correctly!  This should work!  Why wasn’t this working?

I looked up from my task to find Nohta trying to open a pre-war box of mashed potato flakes, some of the last bits of precious food we had left.  “Nohta,” Desperation and frustration had seeped into my voice as I called out to my sister over the fire, shaking my head as my hoof tapped out the sequence of numbers and letters.  “None of the codes are working!”  

She stopped savaging the box with her teeth and stared into the fire for a moment, then looked back to me, confused.  “None of them?”

“None.  I can’t get any of these to work.”  Had the Overmare been wrong?  Would the codes not work if the ponies were out of the Stable?  

She was silent for a moment, then spoke.  “So, we don’t know where anypony from the Stable is?”

I shook my head, “Nopony.”  

Nohta looked back to the fire, and put voice to the fear that I didn’t want to acknowledge, “So... We’re all alone, now?”

I didn’t know what to say.  By The Goddess… what were we going to do?  This was the only plan of action we had left to us!  The only chance we had of finding our friends and neighbors!  I… I couldn’t think of anything to do… I was completely at a loss for what to say.  We hadn’t even had a chance to try.  We had already failed… 

After a moment’s pause, Nohta spoke again.  Her voice was hard, and cold.  “Good.  I’m glad.”

What?  “Nohta!  How could you say that?”

Her expression was sullen, “What do you expect me to say, Candy?  They treated me like shit every day! The only reason that I didn’t get kicked out was because of you and Dad!  If it weren’t for the fact that they wanted to keep you two around they would’ve booted me out a long time ago!”

I was at a loss, “But, Nohta… to say that you’re actually glad that our stable has been enslaved…”

She conceded, “Ya, well… I’m not really glad about all of them getting taken.  Some of them deserved it, sure, but some of them were nice.  Moonglow was alright, he let me hide in The Temple a few times.  And Pipe Sleeves was sorta fun to hang around with, even if she did cheat at checkers.  And Caramel was… Caramel.”  

Huh?  My curiosity got the better of me, and I momentarily forgot to be upset about her poor choice of words regarding our stablemates.  “What do you mean?”

Her brow furrowed, showing her discomfort, “Well… Caramel was nice.  But she was, uh, really friendly.  Especially with you.”

What problem could Nohta have with one of our best friends?  “Well, of course she was friendly, Nohta.  Caramel had lots of friends.  She was one of the friendliest ponies in all of Stable 76.”

“Ya, but she was really friendly with you.”  Nohta’s face was scrunched up, almost as if she feared I were going to hit her.

It wasn’t like Nohta to dance around the subject and mince words.  This was completely unlike her.  What was she trying to tell me?  And why was she so worried about my reaction?  “What are you saying, Nohta?”

She tapped her front hooves together timidly, a display that I never thought I’d see from my little sister.  “Well, she was always coming by to say ‘Hi’ or dropping off something that she baked.”  Her eyes pleaded with me, but I was still utterly lost.  “She uh… and she was always kinda bumping into you… brushing up against you...“ 

“Nohta, I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.  Yes, Caramel was certainly friendly, and not at all afraid to show her affection.  I’d personally find it surprising if the Stable’s baker didn’t form a strong bond with someone who has an, ah... expert appreciation of confections.”  I blushed, it was certainly no secret that I had an infamous sweet-tooth, but I still found it embarrassing to speak of.  Father had even joked that I had earned my name from it.

Or at least, I thought he was joking when he told me that.   At the time, I was too wrapped up in the blessedly saccharine and carroty caress of caffeine and cola that was emanating from the quickly draining soda bottle to pay much attention to anything else.  

I continued, “But why would that bother you?  She was one of our best friends.  Or certainly one of mine.”  I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice.  Had Nohta no love for anypony in the Stable?

Nohta’s eyes could barely meet my own.  With a seemingly intense effort, she finally broached the subject in clear detail.  “I think that Caramel was kinda… you know… sweet on you?”  Her gaze was averted to the desert as soon as she finished speaking.

What?  How preposterous!  I waved a hoof in the air as I dismissed her claim, “Nohta, don’t be silly!  Mares don’t do that with each other!”  Although… that would explain… Ugh!  This was ridiculous!  Caramel hadn’t been that way!  She was as devoted to the teachings as I was!  I continued, confident in my mind that I had thoroughly examined, and trounced, Nohta’s assertion, “And besides, sister,”  My voice dropped as I remembered what had befallen the ponies we were talking about, “I think she was trying to set me up with Spicy Salsa.”

“Spicy?  Really?”  Her nose wrinkled in disgust, “The guy that you started calling ‘Chunky?’  The complete ass of a pony that you couldn’t stand when you were little?  You sure she wasn’t just teasing you?  You know… gauging your reaction?  Maybe just joking?  I think she wanted to, uh…you and she…”

“Yes, really!  She hinted about his feelings even before he… told me himself.”  Or rather, he had tried to.  A griffin’s bullet had silenced him before he could get the words out...

I shook myself, and huffed.  This conversation had quickly gotten completely ridiculous!  “Nohta, you know as well as I do about the Lunar Mandate.”  Closing my eyes, I dredged up a small portion of my lecturing prowess, “And lo, The Dark Mother breathed out, with all the strength at her command.  From her moon’s light, four stars were born, and she bade her children, ‘Go forth to scatter your lights widely across Equestria, that all might come to see the glory of our passing.’  And her children obeyed, spreading the cool glow across the heavens.  But always, always, her moon was chief among the night sky.”

I continued slowly, my patience with this tangent waning, “Mares do not do that with each other, Nohta.  It would violate the creed.  Selenism is meant to spread across the world.  The only reason Mother’s people fought against Father’s is because the two didn’t know that we were all equal under Luna’s Moon!  Both peoples believed that the other was inferior!  How is Selenism supposed to spread love across the world if there are no foals to carry the teachings?”

“Wait, back up.”  She stood, and held a hoof in front of her face as it contorted into an unbelieving scowl, “His feelings?  What fucking feelings could he have possibly had for you?  He used to bully you, for Luna’s sake!  He was a piece of shit, Candy!”

I stammered, taken aback by her sudden outburst.  “Nohta!  He… He apologized for all of that!”

Her incredulous eyes stared at me over the fire, “And what, you believed him?”

Why shouldn’t I have?  “Well, of course I did!  His apology was sincere!  And he never bothered me after the incident with the door!”

She was examining the fire again, wearing a bitter grimace that twisted the gruesome scar upon her face.  “I think he just wanted to see if he could get under your saddle.  That bastard was probably trying to see if he could hurt you again, get some revenge.”

“Revenge?  For what?”

Her purple eyes rose back to mine.  Stomping a hoof by the flames, she spoke in an exasperated tone, “Come on, Candy!  He bullies you for years and then he gets his flank handed to him by karma.  But you turn around and, without so much as a taunt, light up your horn and save his worthless fucking life! Nopony respected him after that!  And it was just made worse because he never thanked you.  Ponies couldn’t figure out what was worse, that the little half-breed filly had saved his life, or that he was too spineless to acknowledge it!”

I… I hadn’t thought of… “No.  Nohta, you’re wrong!  You weren’t even there!  That… he wouldn’t… They wouldn’t…“

She crossed her forelegs before her as she laid down by the fire, huffing.  “As gross as it might seem, if I had to pick between you being with Spicy and being with Caramel, I’d pick Caramel.  She could at least make you smile.”

Was Nohta right?  Was Spicy just…  Ugh!  It’s in the past!  Move on!  I whipped my tail in agitation, wincing as the pain of my recent injury brought a stark reminder of what our previous topic of conversation had been.  I stared at my sister over the flames, “Nohta, I believe we were discussing your egregious wording regarding your own attitude towards our stable’s fate?”

She eyed me warily, reluctant to abandon a conversation when she had the upper hoof, but slipped back into her usual mannerisms and resumed our previous topic, “Well, whatever.  I’m not glad about what happened to some of those ponies.  Caramel and Moonglow and Pipe Sleeves and a couple more… “  Her head lowered for a moment as she stared at her hooves, before her face hardened and she stomped the ground, nearly yelling.  “But the rest of them can all get fucked for all I care!”  She jabbed her hoof in my direction, “You don’t know what it was like for me, Sis.  You didn’t have to put up with that shit all your life!  It was just a few years for you.  You got lucky.  You were like Dad.  I was…”  She eyed her hooves again, carefully pulling back a portion of her cloak to trace her eyes over her stripes.  “I was too much like Mom for them.”

“Nohta, are you really going to sit there and tell me that you know exactly how I was bullied?  Do you really think that I never got teased, or picked on, or called names, or-”

She interjected in a flat voice, gazing across the fire with her furrowed brow, “Beaten up?”

Sighing, I placed a hoof over my forehead.  I could feel an immense headache coming on.  “I’ll admit, your bullies tended to assault you physically more than I had to put up with.  But-”

She stomped a hoof on the ground, yelling, “Did your teachers ever make you feel like you were worthless because you were part zebra?  Did you ever have to try and hold your temper while the other fillies and colts were making fun of Mom, because they knew you’d be the only one to get in trouble for fighting?  Did the Overmare have anything nasty to say about you in her files?”

I stared over the fire, mouth agape, before lowering my gaze and shaking my head, “No.”

She seemed to calm down, lowering her voice to a near-whisper, “I had to deal with that my whole life, Sis.  It never got better.  Not after you started working in the clinic.  Not after Dad talked to the Overmare for the hundredth time.  Never.”

Lowering her head to stare into the flames, she continued, “Not until I got out here.”

She looked back to the canyon that we had exited, “the Stable was a pit, Sis.  I hated it in there.  I was meant to be out here.”

She sighed deeply, and gazed over the flames at the desert, “I was meant to be outside.  Like Mom.  Like Dust.”  Her eyes traveled back to her own flank, as if she were gazing through the cloak that covered it to look upon the swirling storm that was her tornado cutie mark.  “Like the wind.”

Turning back to me, she continued, “Candy, we may be alone out here, but we’ll always have each other.  I promise you that.  We’re strong, too!  We just took down an entire gang of raiders!  That’s the kind of shit that Mom and Dad used to do!  We can make it out here by ourselves!  We don’t need the Stable!  We don’t need anypony’s help!  We just need to stick together.”

She gestured with a hoof at the darkened landscape beyond the fire’s light, “We’re out here, in a world of freedom and possibility, and we can do whatever we want!”  She sighed before continuing, her voice reaching a near-grumble by the end of her sentence.  “Look, we both know that you’re a lot smarter than me, so I’m gonna follow your judgement... Most of the time.”  She perked up again, tapping her hoof on the ground for emphasis, “But right now, we need to keep ourselves alive and learn how to get by out here!” 

She kept going, gaining steam, “We just took down one of the raider leaders!  One of the big targets!  She was worth a lot of caps.  And I saw the look on your face when you killed those evil bastards.”  She gave me a sly grin as she explained, “Sis, you liked it.”

I… did I?  Is that what I felt?  Surely it must have been something else… 

Nohta left me no time to consider her assertion, “I think we should get you some armor, learn how to fight for real, and go track down the other raiders.  It should at least get us enough caps that we won’t starve.  And,” She added, almost as an afterthought, “we might learn something about where the slavers took everypony along the way.  After that, we’ll... well, we’ll figure out what do when we get to that point.  What do you think?”

I shook my head, but found myself only capable of putting up a token amount of resistance to her argument.  “Nohta, I’m a doctor!  I’m not supposed to be killing ponies!  I’m supposed to be helping ponies!”

Her voice rose as she pointed out something I hadn’t considered, “Dad was a doctor too, Candy!  And he didn’t have any problems with killing if he thought it would help!”  She calmed down, but her eyes continued to pierce mine over the flames.  “There’s lots of ways to help ponies, Sis.  You can heal patients, sure, but what about the bad ponies out there?  The ones that hurt others in the first place?  Wouldn’t it be better to stop them before they hurt somepony, like what happened to our stable?  Didn’t Dad always say ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?”

Nohta’s last words drew my mind back to my medical training, as my thoughts wandered to all the times that Father had instructed me in the removal of tumors, or when infections called for amputation.  I searched my heart for the right thing to do, but felt nothing except the cold pit of loss and the sheer outrage of knowing this needn’t have happened.  Could I spare someone else this misery?  Wasn’t it worth trying, even if I couldn’t?  With no clear direction for us to take, did I really have any better ideas?

A random gust of wind tugged part of the cloud cover away, revealing the glowing orb that held dominion over the night.  For a moment, I allowed myself the opportunity to entertain the vain idea that The Goddess herself would deem my response worthy of gracing her ears.  If only she could hear me, I mused.

I could feel my heart break one final time that night, as I realized that this world wouldn’t allow me the luxury of going through life without causing harm.  I had no other choice than to fight, because the world had forced my hoof.  This world had ravaged my life!  It had taken nearly everything from me!  I had never wanted this!  How dare it!  I had done nothing to deserve this!  It wasn’t fair…  This wasn’t fair at all!

I latched hold of that feeling.  Indignation.  It was a tiny ember, a small light surrounded by the darkness left by the absence of justice, but it burned ever the more brightly for it.  I believe that you might be able to appreciate that.

There was no way that I could stand idly by and allow the wasteland to do to others what it had done to my sister and myself.  I wouldn’t allow it.  I would struggle against it.  I would fight it!  I would thrash and scream and stab and kick!  I would kill if I had to, but I would not let it take me meekly!  It would not see me roll onto my back as if I were submitting to its will!  

I looked to my hooves, still bearing the faint stains of blood that I hadn’t been able to wash away in our hurry to escape the Stable.  I could kill.  I could end lives to protect others.  It was a simple realization.  A liberating admission to myself.  I had killed before…  And in so doing, I had saved lives!  It was the right thing to do…  It’s what Father would have done… 

My eyes could barely hold back my tears, hot and swelling as they were.  The dreary blackness behind my closed lids gave way to the faces of friends, coworkers, neighbors… Father.  Of all the things this world had taken from me… Why did it have to take Father?  Grief poured out of my body freely, moistening the stripes upon my face as it found its way to darken the loose soil at my hooves.  

But something else was filling up the void left by its absence…  My vast reserves of anguish had become a rapidly withering resource of resistance against the hatred taking root within my heart.  Once the tears had dried up, there was nothing left to keep the fire at bay.

The ember burned more brightly.  Rage overtook my other emotions, burning them out with its heat before casting their ashes to the desert wind.  My chest heaved with its intensity.  My breath caught in my throat.   My lips curled into a grimace and my eyes finally found the strength to glare at the tears that had fallen from them.  The ember had birthed a flame… 

I was about to take my first step down a path I had never believed I would travel, and I was going completely against Mother’s advice by allowing my heart to control my actions.  The logical part of my mind was racing, desperately trying to make itself heard over the torrential downpour of my emotions.  Eventually, it only found my ear when it began to rationalize what I wanted to hear anyway.  

The complete frustration at being stonewalled at every opportunity for happiness, the indignant anger at the injustices I had suffered since leaving the Stable, the indescribable anguish of personal loss; all of these burned with a white-hot fury within my chest, tempered only by the weakening voice of caution that bade me to keep my sister safe.  But even that voice was faltering, drowned out by the surging tide within my soul.  How could I argue against her?

Nohta was right.  I needed her to be right.  We had defeated a powerful opponent, hadn’t we?  We were strong!  I would have revenge on those that had wronged me!

But… Wait!  Wait!  This wasn’t me!  Was it?  It couldn’t be…

I wasn’t a killer, was I?  The raiders didn’t count!  They were trying to hurt us!  That’s just self defense!  My protecting Nohta didn’t make me a killer.  Right?

I wasn’t vengeful!  Mother was, yes.  Nohta was too.  But… If the griffins were standing before me, what would I do?  Was there anything wrong with revenge, so long as it brings justice to the world?  Why couldn’t I think of an answer?  This was maddening!

But then… It wouldn’t be revenge.  Not really.  We’d just be doing the world a favor, right?  Revenge would be, if anything, a fringe benefit!  This would be for the betterment of all!  Surely none would argue that removing a violent group with ill intent from the wasteland of Equestria would leave the rest of us wanting!  So why hadn’t anypony else begun to do so?  If they lacked the power to deal with the raiders, or the ability to fend off the slavers, shouldn’t I protect them?  Shouldn’t I help them see?  Even if they didn’t realize that they needed my assistance, or didn’t even want my help, shouldn’t I aid them, anyway?  That was the logical thing to do… Help as many as I possibly could.  

Ahh, yes.  Now I’ve finally got your attention.  Please believe me when I say that I’ll do my very best to keep it.  Because I believe this is exactly what you need to hear.  You need to know how my journey truly began.  Not with my stepping outside of my home, but with a small and easy rationalization.  Not with a hunger for adventure, but with a desire to help.  My journey truly began when my little sister asked me a simple question, and I found that the answer to her query was not an easy thing to give.

I found myself caught up in my meandering, philosophical quandaries.  But the only thing that I seemed to know for certain was that I wanted to help.  And from what I could tell, this world needed plenty of help.  Help with things like raiders, and slavers, and griffin mercenaries.  This world, I realized, is a sick and twisted place.

But then… I am a doctor, aren’t I?   I can deal with sick.  I can deal with sick just fine.

I let out a long, tired sigh, clearing my thoughts.  Nohta was waiting patiently for my answer.  She was right about so many things… She really wasn’t my baby sister anymore, was she?  No matter, though.  I loved her.  I’d still do everything in my power to keep her safe, whether she wanted my aid or not.  That’s what family does for family.  

My gaze drifted from Nohta to the moon, and I gave my answer to them both.  “You’re right, sister.”  I stared into that beautiful orb, even as my mind was wracked with worry for our future,  “Sometimes the only way to cure a sickness is to cut it out.”


******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 4!
New Perk!

Egghead: You graduated from the Stable’s educational system at the top of your class, and it shows!  At each Level Up, you gain +3 skill points.  Your mind is your greatest weapon, Doctor!

Skills Note: Explosives 25

Nohta gains a Perk:

A Little Dash:  Nohta has really learned how to move in that cloak!  As long as she is wearing light armor or no armor at all, she runs 20% faster.

> Chapter Four: Living Off The Land
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Four:


Living Off The Land



“Shield yourself from those not bound to you by steel, for they are the blind.  Aid them when you can, but lose not sight of yourself.”


I have lived most of my life in the so-called “Wasteland.”  The tragedy of Equestria’s new moniker lies in its irony.  A plentiful bounty of supplies and wealth can be wrought from the wilds, and a bevy of technology and secrets await every pair of inquisitive eyes that know where to look.  Our new world may live within the corpse of the old one, but it is no less magnificent for it.

Everywhere in my travels, I have seen ponies, griffins, and other races squander opportunities that lay directly before their eyes. Of all the races I have come into contact with, only the zebras and buffalo seem to acknowledge the cornucopia of gifts our world has bestowed upon us.  A wise mare makes more opportunities than she finds, daughters.  One should never be so reliant upon the wonders of the old world that they forget the simple majesty of new growth.

Plucking a berry or harvesting the remains of a dead animal can often mean the difference between life and death.  Indeed, most of the battles I have fought in my life were won long before I even encountered my foe.  I emerged victorious not by the tip of a blade, but by the stirring of a pot.

Candy dear, you took to alchemy almost as quickly as I did in my youth, and I’m sure that you will become as great, or maybe even better, an alchemist than I am.  I know that I am asking much of you with this request, but if little Nohta should wish to learn of our kind’s most celebrated magic, teach her all that you can of alchemy.  Please, don’t leave the task to your father.  I love the stallion dearly, but for all his smarts he is completely incapable of brewing anything more complicated than coffee.

I’m not sure if the two of you remember any of your father’s ‘experiments,’ but… after witnessing such epic failures I have become quite convinced that ponies simply cannot brew proper potions.  Dream Chaser is the smartest pony I have ever met, and he was only just barely able to make a simple sleeping elixir!  Ha!


-Excerpt from the Book of Nadira, pg. 18.



---------------------------------------------------------------


Sometimes when you walk the wastes you realize that the only decision you have to make is which direction to walk in.

“What do you think?”  Nohta’s cloak fluttered loudly in the wind as she stood beside me.  “I mean, we’ve really only got two options, Sis.”

The steel pole upon which the rusty street-signs hung was bent.  It creaked and swayed in the breeze smugly, mocking us like it must have mocked every weary traveler near death that came upon the marker.  I wondered how rewarding it must have felt for the lucky pony that reigned in the sign’s haughty bucking to brand it forever with the wooden plank reading “This way to Mareon - 15 miles.”

She hopped on top of the crumbled roadway, “Or… I guess we have three.  But I really don’t want to go back into the Stable.”

I shook my head, allowing my mane to caress my cheeks and neck as the wind continued to blow in my face.  “The Stable isn’t a viable option anyway, dear.  The fires burned everything out.  And the refrigeration had failed before we even arrived.  Besides, we can go a few days without food if we have to push ourselves.  We need water.”

Nohta scratched at the road with a hoof, “So… What do you think?”

I glared at the sign, trying my absolute best to burn holes with my eyes through the dancing box-letters that read “Coltsville - 3.5 miles.”  The sign bobbed and weaved merrily, probably loving every moment of my inability to simply pick a path.  Goddess, I hated that sign!

Sometimes when you walk the wastes terrible things happen.  Sometimes those terrible things come to you.  Sometimes you bring them upon yourself.  But they are always there.  Lurking just beyond the edge of your vision in most cases; staring you in the face in others.  Sometimes they are borne upon the wind; like plague, like taint, like death from winged assailants.  Sometimes they are carried by hooves; like raiders, or slavers, or bandits.  And sometimes… sometimes they are a burden we carry ourselves.  Anger has burned its hole through so many hearts, rendering its victims unrecognizable from the beautiful souls they once were.  Sorrow has drowned so many pitiable minds in its vast and inescapable current that I often wonder if it would be a mercy to end their pain altogether.  Indecision, however, can be the deadliest load you might ever heft upon your back.

After finding my home defiled and desecrated beyond repair, and coming to realize just how very alone that made my sister and I, I could not bring myself to any sort of reasonable decision.  My grief and fury battled each other for control of my mind, and I found myself without the ability to choose which of those emotions I found preferable.  Was I destined to wallow in despair, bemoaning my fate as the world kicked and lashed at my heart again and again?  Would that heart find itself hardened by the atrocities coming for it, and lash out in return?  Was there another way?  Any other way?

I looked east along the road.  “We should attempt to ration our supplies and make the trek to Mareon.  Coltsville is an unknown at best, and the den of an untold number of raiders at worst.  We’re in no condition to go on a vindictive rampage, sister.  We need to rest and replenish our supplies.”

“But that map we found says that Coltsville is their base, Sis.  You can’t have a base without having supplies to feed the troops, right?  We could just take what they’ve already got.  We can raid the raiders!”

I turned to my sister, arching a brow in question, “And exactly how many of those raiders will we be fighting for water and food?”

“That’s the thing, though!”  She stomped a hoof on the broken road.  “The Pyro’s gang was trying to relocate to our stable, right?  How many ponies do you think got left behind?  It’s probably just a few slackers trying to pack up gear and get ready for the move! That’s all that’s left of the gang.”  

My sister looked me dead in the eyes and asked, “Do you think it’s gonna feel better to walk back into Mareon as the pitiful survivors of a gang attack, or as the two badasses that just wiped out an entire gang?”  Ugh… of course she would think of glory.  “Sis, I know which one I would think better of.  And I bet the folks of Mareon would appreciate us helping them out on this one.”

Well, she had a fair point there.  “Mareon probably would enjoy a little good news after the attack on the town… “  Helping ponies in their time of need had always proven a great way to get on their good side, but something was amiss with Nohta’s argument. “Wait.  That’s not like you.  Why do you care how the town feels about us?”

She rolled her eyes, “Oh come on, Sis… I don’t give two shits about most of them.  Margarita was pretty cool and all.  I’d like to see her again.  But I’m just trying to be practical here.  We need to stay cool with Mareon because we don’t even know where the next town is.”  She shifted her weight to another leg, “I can act all nice and quiet if I really need to so we don’t get kicked out into the desert to starve.  I did it while we were in Mareon the first two times, I’m not that dense.”

I shook my head, “I never said you were, dear sister.”  After a quick pause, I continued, “You truly believe that wiping out the rest of the Pyro’s gang in Coltsville is our best option, don’t you?”

“Fuck yes, I do!  We’ll even get paid for our revenge when we hoof over a bunch of ears!”  She exclaimed.

Was she right?  Was this really our best option?  To trade a harsh and dull certainty for a gleaming unknown?  Mareon may have been the marginally safer route, but the open road beckoned.  My inherited wanderlust and the fire that still burned within my chest both sought the same answer.  I’d have to be careful, but my mind was made up.  I had chosen my path.

Of course, most of the time the direction you choose through this hell will lead to your untimely demise… but hey, it’s called “The Wasteland” for a reason.  You can’t really expect to find happiness in the wastes.  You just stumble across it sometimes.  And in my own case it beat my door down with a battering ram while shouting at the top of its lungs.  But that’s beside the point.  I just got incredibly lucky… sort of.  Well, I’m still alive at least.

What I’m trying (and probably failing) to convey to you at the moment is that life can be hard.  It can be terrifying.  It can take what little sanity you have left to yourself and rip it into the tiniest of pieces.  It can sweep the rug out from underneath your hooves and laugh at you while you lay wriggling comically upon the floor in a vain effort to right yourself so that you can chase her down and levitate her little striped behind straight to Mothe… Sorry…  The point is that life can be unfair.

And my life was being exceptionally unfair.  Absolutely nothing was going my way!  And faced with the daunting prospect of life separate from the Stable, from Father, and from any sort of direction at all… I was quickly finding myself falling down a terrifying spiral of self-doubt and fear.  When faced with the enormity of options left before me, indecision had rendered them all moot and myself paralyzed.

Well, alright.  it wasn’t quite that bad.  Nohta was correct in her assessment of our newfound positions as wastelanders.  We were afforded some freedoms on the surface that the two of us had never found in our old home.  And the prospect of relying entirely upon ourselves, while extraordinarily intimidating at first, was actually rather refreshing in an oddly liberating sort of way.

But still, the two of us were simply not ready for what lay before us.  We were not prepared for the atrocities that the wasteland would unleash upon our souls.  We had witnessed only enough of that brutal savagery to embolden our hearts against it, and to embrace the romantic idea of becoming, as Nohta put it, “Big damn heroes.”

“Alright, Nohta.  We’ll go to Coltsville.”  I looked west along the cracked road, past my sister’s growing smirk, and hoped that I had made the right decision.

She clopped her forehooves together in a menacingly loud display of her excitement, “I knew you wanted revenge!  And it’ll help us in the long run too, I promise!  The ponies of Mareon aren’t like the jerks that lived in the Stable, they’ll appreciate this!  Just imagine their dumbstruck faces when the two of us stroll into town and slap a sack-full of raider ears and the Pyro’s mask on the sheriff's desk!  Ha!”

I scratched my chin with a hoof, “Perhaps we might find a clue about the slavers and our stablemates as well.  I’m beginning to like this idea of yours, sister.”

Nohta groaned and rolled her eyes, “Let’s just deal with the enemy we can find first, okay?”

I believe that I covered the uselessness of my endeavors regarding the Overmare’s codes for our stablemates, yes?  How no matter what I tried, I was only met with a repeated error message from my Pipbuck and a callous response from my sister?  I wanted to save as many of our stable as we could manage to locate, and believed that dawdling over other pursuits would only see us wasting valuable opportunities to do exactly that.  Nohta, though…

Nohta very nearly wished to abandon our stable to its fate altogether, and allow its newly enslaved residents to be put to work for Goddess knows who doing Goddess knows what.  She didn’t seem to harbor any sense of pity for the ponies who had tormented her during her life within the cold metal walls of Stable 76.  In many ways, I couldn’t blame her.  But her alternative idea regarding what we ought to do next was… questionable.

I understood fully that the wasteland was an abominable place, but was I really ready to wage my own personal war against the raiders, slavers, and mercenaries?  How could the two of us, alone, bring all of the various groups that had wronged us to justice? The answer was simple: We couldnt.  That’s why I wanted help, and why my sister was diametrically opposed to that idea.  I broached the subject once again as we turned towards our new destination of Coltsville.

“Candy!”  Her voice whined, “Come on!  We can do this by ourselves!  We don’t need anypony’s help.  They’ll just give us a hard time for being part zebra, anyway.”

I stomped my hoof as we continued walking side by side, “No, Nohta.  We do need help!  We know next to nothing about life on the surface!  How much do we really know about the surrounding area?  What do we know of the raiders?  Or the slavers?  Or the mercenaries?  Whom do we know that we can trust?  And whom should we avoid?  Will the town of Mareon ask too many questions about where we encountered the Pyro?  Should we even bother to protect the location of the Stable, now that it is a ruined pit?  What about the other raider leaders?  Are we going to go right after them, with no plan of-”

“Sheesh!  Alright!  I get it!”  She pulled her hood over her eyes as she shook her head.

The desert lay all around us, bleak and barren, save for the direction we were facing.  Part of the spoils of the night before had been the map from The Pyro’s little sycophantic comrade.  Lasher’s map had given us only the most foalish of directions, but given our trivial amounts of water, food, and other supplies, we were all but forced to venture towards the nearest point of interest:  The Pyro’s base.  After leaving our stable’s canyon, we had veered off to the northwest before taking a sharp turn northeast to follow the river that sliced through the region, guaranteeing that we had not taken the same path that we had used our first time leaving our old home.  I had hoped to find some clue about the direction the slavers had taken our stablemates, perhaps an old motorwagon charging station or ancient convenience store that had been used as a temporary shelter, but we had only found the road leading east and west across the dirty and wildly irradiated river whose name I still wasn’t sure of.  

The crushed rubble of the ancient paved road crunched underneath our hooves as the constant whine of the wind passed through the surrounding hills and valleys.  My nose no longer seemed to be working; all I could smell was the heat.  Seldom did the odd landmark or interesting rock formation catch my eye.  And of those that did, few were able to hold my attention for more than a moment.  When we crossed the time-worn bridge spanning the river’s breadth my trembling hooves were grateful for the planks of wood that partially patched the gaps in the concrete.  And though my poor hooves were somewhat less grateful for the scorching sheet metal occasionally used in lieu of wooden planks, a moment’s discomfort was infinitely more preferable to accidentally taking a plunge into the roiling waters below.  Judging by its appearance the bridge was ready to fall apart at any moment, and I couldn’t have been happier to have found myself safely on the other side of the churning water.

Wind, dust, and stones made up the majority of our surroundings, supplemented by a scant few signs of pre-war civilization such as road signs or rusted motorwagons.  The occasional cactus stood tall and erect, dominating its cowering peers in an oddly phallic display of botanical superiority.  In the distance, I could see a frenzied bloatsprite dive bombing an agitated radroach; two gladiators locked in an epic struggle for survival in an oppressively sweltering arena.

Nohta and I continued our travels in silence for a moment, ignoring the titanic battle of insects taking place against the backdrop of the jagged and ominous mountain to our north, before she finally asked, “So who are we gonna ask for help?  Margarita?”

I levitated one of our last bottles of water to my lips, “That seems like the logical choice, does it not?  A mercenary with whom we are on good terms and has lived in Mareon long enough for the locals to recognize her?  Surely she could answer our questions. Perhaps point us in the right direction.  Maybe even… accompany us?”  I drank deeply of the water.  Dehydration was a real threat out here.

“Seriously?  You want to make this little duo a trio?  That’s… huh.”  She paused a moment, smiling underneath her hood.  “Well, if it’s Margarita… I could try that.”

I would have grinned had I not been fearful of cracking my parched lips, “I thought you might see it my way.  I think that after we finish our business in this area we should go back to Mareon, have a nice, long conversation with your friend,”  I let the word linger in the air like sweetly burning incense, and hoped that I could butter my sister up enough that she might follow my proposal, “and see what information we might be able to ascertain regarding life on the surface.  And then… We’ll see about following the rest of our little plan.”

I continued, as the few blurry shapes just underneath the horizon’s edge coalesced into the dilapidated buildings that made up the pre-war town of Coltsville,  “We have a lot to learn, dear sister.”

We stopped just shy of the town’s borders, drinking in our surroundings with wide and cautious eyes.  The scene before us was… impressive, actually.  Stubborn and impertinent little weeds poked up through the cracked sidewalks and crumbled roadways that divided the few buildings left standing and bisected the town into two neat halves.  Homes, stores, and government offices alike had all fallen prey to the ravages of time, and many of their number had collapsed inward upon themselves to form dangerous looking mounds of concrete, wood, and rebar.  Ancient and blackened lamp posts, their lights having long since been extinguished, dotted the sidewalks like dutiful sentinels standing guard over a funerary service.  Rusted and crumpling motorwagons of every fading color still sat along the edges of the roads, parked like loyal pets that were vigilantly waiting for the day their equine masters would return to see them home.  Only the wind moved through the dead streets, and only its occasional low howls rose to meet our ears.  This town had not been torn apart by the ravages of war.  It had withered on the vine in that war’s wake.  Our Pipbucks vibrated and beeped as we entered the ghost town, alerting us to our “discovering” the town of Coltsville.

The town had an odor.  It wasn’t a stench, to be precise.  Just an unpleasant stillness that pervaded the environment and seemed to seep out of the ground in a steady and slowly-rising, inescapable stream of malodorous calm.  Coltsville didn’t bear the fetid reek of decay, but the neutral reek of stagnation.  It was as if death itself had fled the town in search of more fertile lands.  A crisp, dry odor that felt entirely too fitting for a settlement whose memory was all but forgotten as a quiet stop along the long abandoned highway under the shadow of the mountain to our north.

The illumination provided by the afternoon sun was, as ever, feeble and filtered.  The faint light of day lit the ghost town in a washed-out and greying spectrum of depressed light.  A pale and sickly green colored rotting bench still stood outside the “Cinna-Fillies Bakery and Cafe,” a smallish structure adorning the southern side of the road with cracked and dirty windows taking up the majority of its storefront.  We ambled past it, carefully avoiding the slivered remains of a busted motorwagon window.  My rumbling stomach and ravenous sweet-tooth pleaded for me to dive into the building right away but, unfortunately for both of them, my worried mind knew of what might be lurking within the town.

Opposite the cafe stood a simple, but large, brick building whose only defining characteristics were the many bloodstains and burn marks smeared or scorched across the sign above its door.  The sign read “Coltsville General Store.”  I surmised that this building must have been the home of The Pyro’s gang.  And in that case, it was our first target.

“Ready, Sis?”  Nohta pulled her hood over her eyes and teased her knife from its scabbard.  

I levitated my little laser pistol to my side and, after finding the weapon had more than enough charge left in its energy-cell, nodded to my sister, “As ever, Nohta.”

She whispered underneath the sound of the wind, “Stay here, I’ll see if I can check it out first.”  I did as she asked, and took cover behind an old motorwagon, aiming my pistol at the doorway over one of the tiny back wheels and trying hard not to imagine whether all of those exposed and eroding spark batteries had enough charge left in them to detonate.

She crouched low, dashed over to the front of the building, and raised her head just enough to peek through a hazy and broken window.  Just long enough to get a quick glance of the inside.  She fell to her belly, adjusting knobs and pressing buttons on her Pipbuck, and rose again to rub the excess length of her cloak against the glass, removing years of soot and dust.

She called out to me, her voice more excited than anxious, “Sis!  Come here!”

I hurried over to her, “Nohta?  What’s wrong?”

Nohta cocked her head, nodding at the building.  “This is where the raiders were holed up, alright.  But they’re all dead!  Somepony got here before us.”

My sister peered through the broken window.  “Most of the raiders look like they were killed with knives.  That one looks like he just got squished, his guts are everywhere!”  The troubling shadow of a sadistic grin passed over my sister’s face before her eyes resumed their travels.  “But there are a few piles of ashes too, the kind that your gun leaves sometimes.  Maybe whoever did it had one of those laser weapons?  I’m not seeing anything else in there.”  

Just to be safe, I checked my E.F.S.  After looking in all directions and only finding my sister’s white bar, I breathed a sigh of relief and holstered my weapon.  “Well… at least we won’t have to deal with any psychotic brutes while we’re here.  But… on the other hoof, the town has probably already been looted.  We’ll be lucky if we can find anything useful at all.”

She shrugged, before walking towards the door, “Whatever happened, they didn’t take the ears.  We can at least grab those for some more caps once we get back to Mareon.”

Ugh.  Mutilation of bodies was not exactly what I had hoped to accomplish by coming here.  I couldn’t hide my discomfort from my face or my voice, “If you insist, dear.  I’ll be right behind you… providing, ah, moral support.”  

Nohta shoved the door open, causing an ancient brass bell atop the doorway to jingle as it announced our entrance, and waltzed into the general store as if this were just another normal day.  Part of me wondered just how she was adjusting to life on the surface so easily.  And if she was having such an easy time of it, why wasn’t I?  Did she really have no problems with killing at all?  Were our values really so dissimilar?  She was my sister for Luna’s sake!  So why was she taking to this new life like a fish to water?

I followed my sister into the reeking cesspit of violence, stepping past the doorway and overtop the busted tiles and debris scattered upon the floor.  I paused in the entrance, allowing my eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness.  Diffused and feeble light was filtering through the many yellowed windows of the building, shedding illumination upon the wooden shelves or steel racks still stocked with miscellaneous items and the bodies of the raiders that had once stood guard here.  Bloodstained mattresses lay forlornly in a corner, surrounded by piles of bones arranged in odd, matching patterns.  The raiders here must have taken to playing games with the remains of the original residents of the town.  

I couldn’t comprehend what would drive somepony to collect or arrange body parts.  What a barbaric practice!  For Luna’s sake!  What sort of monster would do that?

Nohta slipped amongst the bodies that had not been atomized by magical energy, sawing off ears and flipping them nonchalantly into her packs.  I shook my head in a combination of disbelief and disgust, and stepped further into the store while trying to quiet my own mental discordance for the sake of survival.

My Pipbuck chirped and beeped.  Looking down at it, I wondered if I had crossed the threshold to finally receive a radio signal.  All these weeks of travel and still no music!  Silently I prayed to Luna that whatever station I had picked up might have something worth listening to.  Some Tchaitrotski, maybe some Johann Sebastian Buck, perhaps if Luna really would reward her faithful… a little Octavia Philharmonica?  Instead, I found a warning message displayed across the interface, simultaneously dashing my hopes and confusing my mind.

[Danger Imminent.  Preparing Countermeasures.]

“Nohta?  Hold-”  Without any further warning, my Pipbuck began to vibrate and beep furiously as the sonic deterrent extension Father had given me spun in place.  A nearly inaudible high-pitched whine played from the mechanism as my entire leg felt as if it were about to be shaken from my body.  Ugh!  The sound was grating!  Much more of it and I would be facing a severe headache!  After reflexively placing my hooves over my ears, only to have my head jostled silly by the vibrations of my Pipbuck, I abandoned the pursuit altogether, resigning myself to whatever audible atrocity lay in wait for my poor tortured ears.  By The Goddess herself!  What was going on?

Something massive shuffled in place on the other side of the shelf that Nohta was currently crouched by, knocking into the shelf and jarring boxes and cans in their places as the entire thing nearly collapsed upon my sister.  I heard a loud and startled snort, followed by a sharp intake of breath and a grinding, scraping screech as something incredibly sharp raked against the tiled floor.

And then the entire store was filled with the most savage, pained, and feral roar I have ever heard.

Whatever was behind that shelf bolted for the opposite end of the room.  I only caught a faint glimpse of red in the gloom before it crashed through a door and out of sight entirely.  The sounds of a window breaking cut through the muffled and agonized panting of the creature as it fled from my device.

Nohta asked the question that had already floated to prominence within my mind.  “What the FUCK was that?”  She was perhaps a little more vulgar than I would have chosen to be.

My chest heaved as I somehow managed to subdue my racing heart.  My Pipbuck had stopped vibrating and beeping the moment the creature had left the room, and the sound had died soon after.  In my terrified state, I could only choke out a few words.  “That… that wasn’t a pony… “

“Fucking hell!  That thing was right next to us!  I didn’t even hear it until your sonic thing went off!”  Nohta had dropped into a fighting stance, warily glaring at every shadow, door, or window within sight as she looked for attackers.  With a start, I realized that the room had been bathed in a deep-red glow.

I put my laser pistol back into its holster, deactivating my magic and trying to catch my breath.  “Breathe, Candy… breathe… “  I whispered to myself, trying to will my body to calm down as I fought to remember exactly when I had drawn my pistol.

“Candy, you alright?”  Nohta had returned to my side, eyes still as wide as plates, checking up on me.

I nodded, swallowing the last bits of fear to clear my throat, “Yes dear, I’m… I’m okay.”

“Son of a bitch!  That thing was… Do you think that’s what killed the raiders?”  She was eyeing the shelf now, understandably afraid to approach it.

Bless you little sister, you gave me something to occupy myself with!  I looked around at the carnage left in the store, and allowed my curiosity to overtake my fear.   “I… I’m not sure.  I don’t know what that was, but it sounded like a large animal.  Perhaps a yao guai?  That would account for the slash marks.  Possibly even the crushed individual over there…”  Did yao guai venture this far into the desert?  Father had mentioned them before, as had Mother, but I had thought they inhabited more verdant climes.

I activated my Pipbuck lamp as I strode over to one of the downed raiders, hoping to learn of what befell them. “Subject: Female. Approximate age: Late twenties.  Cutie Mark: ...Exsanguinated Foal.”  My impromptu autopsy was suddenly a lot easier to perform with a clear and clinical focus.  “Bite marks along the victim’s neck suggest large carnivorous predator with pronounced canines and angular jaw.”  My gaze fell to her ribs, “Slash marks indicate excessively sharp claws providing relatively clean cuts through barding, flesh, bone, and organs.  Dear Luna!  This creature’s claws were massive… Ahem.  Probable cause of death-”

“Oh come on, Sis… she got torn apart by one of those… bear things!  No need to go all ‘Pearl Grey’ on the body.”  Nohta was already back to scavenging from the dead raiders.  After the reminder of whom she was scavenging from, I found that I had no problem with her practicality.

“Pearl was an excellent mortician, anesthesiologist, and clerical consultant!  His autopsies helped to save lives by furthering our-”

“Yeesh, simmer down, Sis.”  She gave a rather incensing eye-roll, “I was just saying there’s no need to go solving this little mystery.  Big animal finds tasty raiders.  Raiders die.  We come along and scare off big animal.  We get loot.  The end.  Now come help me with these ears, we need the caps.”  Though she was being a bit irritating, I realized that she did have our best interest at heart.  I dropped the argument and moved to help her, resigning myself to the eternal struggle of being the big sister.

Though the task was grim, it was also blessedly short.  Nohta had stuffed a total of seven ears into her packs in the course of minutes.  I just had to keep telling myself that it was either this… or possibly going hungry later on.  We were already skirting the boundaries of starvation and dehydration and I didn’t want to be overly concerned with such basic needs as food and water once we were back in the only populated town we had visited thus far.  And as I have pointed out before, hunger is a powerful motivator.

After rifling through dirty pockets and near-empty packs, Nohta had procured several inhalers of Dash, a bottle of Buck tablets, two bottles of irradiated water, a syringe of Med-X, an inexplicably skewered and charred squirrel (What horrible obsession with fire had driven these raiders to torture cute little animals?), and a veritable treasure trove of… four and a half bottle caps.  Neither of us could figure out the reason for the missing half, so we discarded it along with the poor squirrel.  With some small and self-righteous amount of macabre amusement I realized that, given the cornucopia of chems compared to the rest of their belongings, these raiders clearly had their priorities in order.

Those two bottles of water now represented our entire reserve of the precious liquid, but neither of us wanted to take the radiation into our bodies.  We knew all too well what it could do to someone.

Desperate times, however… We stuffed the bottles into my packs and gingerly inched further into the general store.  The ceiling looked as if it were half-way through the process of caving in completely.  Lifeless electrical cables softly swayed above us like vines.  None of the lights were working, of course, but open holes in the roof allowed a few impotent beams of light to feebly assault the darkness, tiny pillars of illumination stretching from the dusty and debris-littered floor to a ceiling that threatened to crash down at any moment.  At least it wasn’t creaking and moaning as we passed underneath of it.  That would have just been creepy… 

As we shuffled our way through fallen clutter and detritus, we did eventually find food: A box of Fancy Buck Cakes, somehow left miraculously untouched by the ages.  Nohta and I tore into the package, devouring the entirety of its contents in a matter of seconds.  By Luna’s grace, nothing had ever tasted so divine!

Further examination of the simple general store revealed a back room with a locked door.  Nohta knelt in front of the door, pulling out her screwdriver and bobby pins as I continued to peruse the shelves like a grocery shopper from long ago.  I had just stuffed several boxes of Abraxo cleaner into my packs, hoping to find some time in the future when I might be afforded an opportunity to remove the bloodstains from my labcoat, when Nohta opened the door and called for me to follow her inside.

Despite several overturned steel shelves and a few scattered crates, the storage room still looked cleaner than the rest of the building.  It didn’t have any holes in the ceiling, and the well-worn tiles hadn’t yet cracked.  A small desk sat in the corner, illuminated by the soft green glow of the terminal perched atop its dusty surface.

All around us were shelves and crates of goods, but Nohta made a beeline for the metal containers marked “Equestrian Military - 5.56mm.”  I was similarly drawn to the desk, like a moth to verdant light.

Leaving my sister to shuffle through ancient stores of ammunition, I accessed the terminal to find several typed notes left by a series of owners.  The first few were from before the war.  A simple series of keystrokes opened the files, and I soon found myself lost in the past.

>Hey hey hey!  Turns out my little bro really was as smart as we all thought he was!  Little guy landed a job working for the M.A.S!  Mom and Dad are stoked, of course, I called him up to congratulate him too, and he was just all kinds of excited.  ‘Gonna get to work with the top heads in the ministry,’ this.  ‘Chance of a lifetime,’ that.  Hehe.  Little guy can hardly contain himself.  I told him to ask Uncle Lex for a good book to give the Ministry Mare, but he just said that she probably has all of the books ever printed anyway, and he didn’t want it to seem like he was trying to smarm up to her.  Little guy always was afraid of ponies not thinking he could stand on his own four hooves.

>The town had one hell of a strange visitor today.  A zebra!  Walked into town like a fucking boss, hauling his little cart full of creepy-ass masks and crazy, snake-oil potions.  Like we need that shit around here!  He got stopped by the soldiers right outside the store, and I thought they were gonna haul him off for sure, but Uncle Lex showed up and then they were happy enough to just ignore the whole thing.  Damned guards are too lazy to do their job!  I’m gonna have to go higher up.  Contact somepony in the M.o.M. or something.  Uncle Lex can’t be sympathizing with the stripes!  Not now that Midnight just got in good with the M.A.S.

I skimmed through a few similar entries, all of them revealing equally unimportant information.

>Midnight Oil is still happily employed by the ministry.  Says they’ve sent him to a military research outpost or something.  Can’t say where, since the stripes are all over the damn place.  Can’t give away sensitive info and all that.  I get it.  I just wish he could come by and visit the family some more.  Apparently, he’s working with a couple of the top dogs in the whole shebang.   A couple of twins.  He says they're cute.  I told him to set us up on a double date.  Ha!  I could hear his blush through the phone!  Little bro needs to get out more!

>Things here at the store are looking up, too.  I’ve got a whole lot of those Stable-Tec asshats in here lately, buying up all my water, but hey… Bits is bits, I don’t care where they come from.  You’d think a company as big as that would have a steady supply of the stuff instead of running off with all my stock.  Oh well.  Just wish I had a little more to sell to the folks that like to go camping in the desert.  Lots of ponies been running out there to get away from the war lately.  Go camping underneath Luna’s moon, do a little stargazing, reconnect with nature, all that jazz.  

>Ha!  More like having wild parties with lots of illegal chems and kinky sex.  Can’t wait for the next one.

Much to my relief ownership of the terminal finally changed hooves, and with that change the notes became much more interesting and relevant.

>Fuck ya!  Got  a whole shitload of stuff in this place!  Me and my girls are gonna set up shop here in this shit-hole and pick off the traders coming from the west.  Once we get some decent caps and guns, we’re gonna waltz into Mareon all calm and nice-like, buy up all the town’s ammo and hit ‘em from the inside!  This plan is fool-proof!  Shit, it’s a damn good thing, too.  ‘Cause most of these dumb cunts can’t figure out which end of the gun you stick in your mouth.  Not exactly the best crew I ever worked with, but these bitches will work out fine for soaking up bullets while I take out the Sheriff.  Then, we’ll see who laughs at The Lash! I ain’t nopony’s fucking cronie!  That cocksucker can take his “Deputy” offer and shove it up his ass!  I’m gonna take the whole damn thing!

Nohta disturbed my local history lesson, tossing a small white box atop the desk next to the terminal.  “Sis!  I found some ammo, but it’s all the wrong size.  There is some food though, you want another snack cake?”

“Oh, thank you!  Did you find any water?”  I had already opened the box and levitated out a small pastry.

She shook her head and snatched the cake out of the air with her teeth, grinning.  Her voice was muffled as she talked through a mouthful of chocolate.  “Nod yeb, anyfin on da termal?”

“No, dear.  I’m afraid not.”  I waited for her to turn back to her scavenging before dumping the conten-, er… daintily taking a lady-like bite out of the remaining confection and continuing my research.

>Got another group of traders today.  Me and my girls had fun with this one.  Had this huge pink bitch leading the caravan.  We showed up and they all just fucking threw their hooves in the air.  Fucking priceless!  Like we give a shit if you surrender!  Ha Ha!

>So I get an awesome idea, right?  I mean shit, we could use a little fun out here.  So we take this bitch.  We tie her up.  We let her watch.  We started with the parents of the little filly, so she’d be screaming and crying.  Nothing gets the blood pumping like the scream of a kid who just lost their folks.  Nothing!  This pink bitch, though… she’s bawling as bad as the kid.  So we figure she needs to be cheered up, right?  So we roast the filly with that flamer fuel we found in the back.  We ‘gave’ her the best part, too!  Ha Ha!  You can see it in her eyes… she’s breaking.  It’s gonna be fun to watch when she finally loses it.  Heh, or maybe… she is still tied up.  I think I’ll go have some fun with her right now...

At some point in my reading, my hoof had found its way to my lips.  The corners of my vision had become blurry with wetness.  How… How could they?  Why?

What had possessed these ponies to abandon all that was good and simply harm others for the sake of their own grim satisfaction?  How could anyone fall so low?

Nohta was looking at me from across the room, one hoof still in a wooden crate.  “Sis, you okay?  You look… bad.”

“I… yes, dear.  I’m fine.”  Images of bloody corridors and bright flames had risen to the surface of my mind, refusing to slink back into the dark waters where they belonged.  I wiped the welling tears from my eyes with a hoof, “I just found a stark reminder of what these ponies are capable of.  Or rather, what they were capable of.”  I peered over the desk at my sister, my voice hardening.  “The Wasteland is a better place without them.”

She nodded once, and continued rummaging through crates and boxes.  “Damn straight it is.  Lemme know if you find anything about water, that cake dried my mouth out pretty bad.”

My hooves clicked and clacked against the keys, downloading the last file on the terminal.  Soon a mare’s voice, tired and rough, was creaking slowly through my Pipbuck’s speaker as I moved to help my sister with her scavenging.

“Seventeen days.  Seventeen fucking days…  That’s how long I’ve been wandering through this blasted desert.  Searching.  Starting to feel fucking pointless.  I mean, I already knew I wasn’t gonna find anything until yesterday, why did I feel the pull telling me to start searching two weeks ago?”

“Fucking sight…” 

The voice in my Pipbuck trailed off for a moment as its owner could be heard shuffling through crates and boxes.  The background noise blended easily into our own efforts to search for supplies, sounding as if a phantom third party were there scavenging with us.

“Nohta, do be careful with our newly acquired provisions.  The last thing we need to do is rip a package and ruin the only food we have left.  These old pre-packaged dinners make my stomach queasy enough as they are.  I’d rather not eat moldy hay fries, if it can be avoided.”

“Ya, ya.  Just hold open your packs so I can dump this stuff in there.”  I obliged, as the mare in my Pipbuck cleared her throat and continued her monologue.

“Finally found one of the three.  Her name is Trail Blazer.  Red mane, pink body, flaming tire tracks for a cutie mark… ya, she looks just like her.  This is my girl.  Poor mare was a wandering explorer, trader, and scavenger.  Used to delve into the old ruins in the hills and use all that strength of hers to haul back the good salvage, ‘til she got caught by raiders.  The real raiders.  Not what I’m putting together.”

“She was made to watch as they killed her friends.  Looks like they force-fed her somepony’s heart.  Based on how she’s acting, it was probably her lover, or a family member.  But…”  The voice in my Pipbuck sighed,  “I can’t tell.  Hard to see all the details sometimes.”

“Looks like Trail decided that she wanted to survive, even if she was irreparably broken by their torture.  Seems she decided to make that choice:  Take the Wasteland into herself instead of letting it consume her.  She became The Pyro, because her shattered mind couldn’t fathom any alternative means to live.”

An indescribably tired sigh breathed out of my Pipbuck, “I know that feeling, girl.”

I pointed to the wall by the desk, “Nohta, do you think you can get that safe open?”

She popped the lock on the small yellow and pink box in front of me and headed for the painting to which I was pointing.  “Sure thing.”

I didn’t spare much time to ruminate over why somepony would place a lock on a first aid box, potentially foiling the attempts of a wounded individual to heal herself.  It wasn’t as if ponies before the war had stored hazardous or addictive chemicals in public areas… right?  I pushed my questions to the back of my mind and busied myself with collecting the contents of that box, which consisted of some magical healing bandages and a single length of surgical tubing.  I had been hoping for a bottle of clean water.  I rubbed my temples, massaging away my frustration as the voice continued speaking.

“I got here just in time.  Surprise, surprise.  She only had four of her captors left.  The rest of them were all spread a little too thin across the walls.  Girl’s got some strength, I’ll give her that.  Almost surprised nopony shot her.  Almost surprised she hasn’t shot herself.”

“She was easy enough to ‘convince.’ Her mind didn’t even put up a little amount of resistance to the nudge I gave her.  Probably because she’s damn-near batshit crazy.  I had to get close to her first, inside the range of her flamer, but that was just a simple teleport spell.  After she wore herself out trying to hit me, she calmed down enough for me to talk to her.  That’s when I let her have it.  Just a little shove in the wrong direction.  After telling her what I was gonna do,  and her part in it, she fell in line real easy.  She was happy, even, jumping for joy at the chance to hurt somepony else.  She’s like a fucking orthrus on a leash, ready to be set loose as soon as I tell her to bite.  I don’t really get it, I only gave her a little push.  But, whatever it worked.  That’s all that matters.”

“I’m gonna have to put some real work in on getting her a gang.  It’s too bad she killed most of the fuckers that broke her, we could’ve used them.  But… it’s okay.  We’ve still got years before everything needs to be in place.  And… I’m glad that she’s so fucked in the head.  I need her broken, angry, confused.  I need her terrified of being hurt again.  I need her to be a monster, so that she…”

“Hell, I’m feeling the pull again…”   The audiolog trailed off to the ethereal noise of magic, barely audible over my sister’s scavenging.

So that was The Pyro’s story?  I didn’t believe it.  There had to be some reason…  Some terrifying desire that had lurked within that mare’s heart that had compelled her to commit such awful acts.  You don’t just flip a switch and go from being a good pony to being the scourge of the wastes.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and resumed rummaging through crates and overturned shelves.  I found an unopened Sparkle-Cola buried underneath several badly burned cookbooks bearing what I could only hope were gravy stains.  I had just sat down to enjoy the delicious treat when the mare in my Pipbuck continued in a mockingly light and cheery voice.

“Well hello there, Candy.  Been a while since I’ve seen your pretty little face… Looks like you’ll have used up most of your water and won’t have much food.  You’re gonna need a good night’s rest and a place where you can catch your breath.  Truth is, you need to get back to Mareon as soon as you can.  Too bad you can’t go, yet.  You still have… bridges to burn.“

My eyes shot wide, staring at Nohta.  Her head slowly turned in my direction.  Her eyes looked as unbelieving as I felt.

“Combination for the safe is 36-19-24.  Take what’s inside, you’re gonna need it to get back to town.   Mind the hole outside the library door.  Nohta really doesn’t need a broken leg; that would just slow you down.  And you’ll need to be fast to make it through the night set before you.“

The nearly-forgotten bottle of soda fell from my magic and clinked to the floor, rolling away from my hooves as the precious liquid drained across the tiles.  I whirled in place to scan the room, my ears laying flat against my head as I searched every shadow and crevice for the assault I was sure to come.  My pistol was already floating at my side, jumping at every creak produced by the aging building and every shadow that danced along the walls due to my own magic.

She could see us?  How?  This was a recording!  Wasn’t it?  Had this pony hacked into my Pipbuck?  Was she watching us from afar, sniper rifle at her side and waiting for us to make a mistake?  Goddess, she knew our names!  By the sun’s unholy burning light, what was going on?

At several points I activated S.A.T.S. only to find that the only target within view was Nohta.  Much to my horror, I had queued up several shots to fire in her direction before I realized my mistake and deactivated the spell.  I took a deep and calming breath, shaking in fear as I pointed my pistol at the ground and away from my sister.  Goddess, I almost… 

Nohta called out to the voice, “Who’s there?  Show yourself!  We’re not afraid of you!”

The only response that came was from my Pipbuck.

“Oh stop looking around like you’re about to get jumped, girl.  If I wanted to kill you, I would take a little late-night stroll into Stable 76 right-fucking-now and kill you in your sleep.  The only one in this entire region that could’ve stopped me was your mother, and she’s dead now.”  The voice in the Pipbuck continued, changing abruptly from haughty annoyance to sincere sympathy.  “My condolences for that, by the way.  Nadira was a good mare.”

She continued, her voice slowly lowering until her final words were dripping with anger.  “You and I need to have a chat, Candy Stripes.  And I intend to make sure that we’re both ready for it when the time comes.  Don’t bother fighting it, girl.  This is going to happen.  Even if I have to drag your broken body halfway across Equestria, you will give me what I want.”

The sounds of cans and papers being knocked to the floor accompanied the soft clop of a careless hoof prodding at buttons in an annoyed and haphazard manner.  “Fucking sight…  I hate this disorienting shi-”  The monologue cut off abruptly, leaving Nohta and I shaken, confused, and terrified.

Nohta’s vulgar speech mirrored my own thoughts exactly.  “That pony knew Mom?  Who was that?  What the fuck is going on, Sis?”

I shook my head, trying to concentrate.  I wasn’t sure what had just transpired, only that somepony that knew an uncomfortable amount of information had somehow left a message for the two of us.  Nohta and I sat in silence in the darkened storage room for a moment.  It was a massive effort to fight against my frightened shaking, but the growing silence left me a window to ruminate over the recording.  I was content to stare at my Pipbuck and continue pondering the mystery set before us as my heart rate fell to something approaching normal, but my sister was quickly growing impatient.

“Well, whatever.  It’s probably just a trick anyway.  Somepony fucking with us.  I’m gonna check that combination.  See if it’s good.”  She turned to the safe, and began spinning the dial.

“Nohta, wait!  What if the safe is booby-trapped?  It could explo-”

Nohta stepped aside, pulling the latch of the safe and opening the door as its rusty hinges creaked in feeble resistance.  I fell to the ground, throwing my hooves over my face as my sister scoffed at my trepidation.  “Who would bother to trap the inside of a safe?  They’d never be able to get to what they stashed in there.”

Peeking around one hoof, I eyed the contents of the safe from my position on the floor.  I was only able to spot several bottles before Nohta stepped in front of the safe herself, blocking my view.  Her hoof waved over the contents as she hurriedly stashed everything within the safe into her packs.

“Thank Luna… This water’s clean!  Here, drink up.”  A bottle was tossed nonchalantly in my direction, nearly landing on the floor before my magic grasped it out of the air.  My own Pipbuck verified that the water was free from radiation or poison.  I tentatively unscrewed the cap to take a sip, as my sister continued to stuff things into her packs and pockets.

“Hell yes, we got caps too!  And a bottle of soda.”  My ears perked, standing straight up to better hear her.  “It’s mostly weird junk in here, though.  A couple of tin cans, some dried up plants, and a jar of black powdery-looking stuff…  Oh damn.  Uh, Sis… Maybe you should take a look at this.”  

Nohta stepped aside as I stood and made my way to the safe.  She had been so eager to examine its contents before.  Why was she so hesitant now?  Had my fears been correct?

Inside the safe, nestled amongst a few miscellaneous bits of scrap metal and junk, lay a bundle of thin red sticks held together with duct tape.  A small egg timer was attached to some exposed wiring leading to their ends.  Our unknown surveillant had given us an unarmed time-bomb.


**************


Nohta and I had exited the general store and were making our way towards the cafe across the street.  Several bottles of water and a day’s worth of food jostled happily in our packs as we traversed the cracked road, but I still wanted to check the other buildings for supplies.  We had enough rations to make it to Mareon, but I wanted to be sure that we would have enough food and water to last more than a couple of days.

Nohta sidestepped one of the lampposts as we crossed the street, “She said we’re gonna need it.  I think we should keep it.”

“Nohta, it’s a time-bomb!  What possible use could we have for something with enough explosive power to level the same building in which we found it?”  The bundle of dynamite and wiring was sitting between the bottles of water and my alchemy set, seeming to weigh far heavier in my packs than the half-a-pound my Pipbuck claimed it to be.

“Well, let’s hold onto it.  Just in case, okay?”  Nohta was, of course, arguing from a stance of pragmatism.  But I was having a hard time believing that we would need anything so deadly in the lifeless town of Coltsville.  The deadliest threats we had come across were rusty nails poking up from rotted floorboards, a few potholes in the pavement, and ornery radroaches scuttling between piles of detritus in a futile attempt to defend their territory.

“Nohta!  I already-”  I snapped at her, before catching myself.

She turned to me, wide-eyed, clearly as surprised as I was that I had raised my voice in anger.

Guilt and worry overtook me, and I was quick to apologize.  “Oh, I’m so sorry dear.  I… I’m just… “  I was having a hard time dealing with the weight of our situation and didn’t need any more unnecessary distractions or possible threats breathing down my neck?  “I’m just tired, darling.”  I lied, hiding my ineptitude at persuasion with a sigh as I rubbed my eyes.  “And I can only hope that the message we received was a fluke.  I have absolutely no idea what she meant, or why she spoke so strangely."

She nodded, pawing at the broken road as she lowered her gaze.  “That makes two of us.”  She looked back up at me, underneath her hood.  “Did you notice how she was talking like we were still in the Stable, but… not?  That didn’t make any sense.  I don’t know about you, but I’m just confused.”  Her eyes drifted to the side and back to the cafe.  “Candy, let’s find a place to take a breather.  We’ll be better off if we aren’t running on fumes, okay?”  Nohta stepped past the green bench outside the store, and peered into the dirty, cracked windows.  “There’s not much in here.  I see a couple of radroaches, but nothing else.  Let’s check it out.”

The store’s wooden door swung open easily after Nohta had slammed her hoof through the glass pane to unlock it from the inside, and the two of us stepped into the interior of the cafe as the pleasant smell of cinnamon wafted over us.  My mind’s eye drifted back to more pleasant times; the scent of the spice thrusting forth memories of Caramel dropping by the clinic to unload trays of freshly baked cinnabons.  “Happy mistakes,” she had called them, citing some imperfection so miniscule as to be beyond my powers of perception while she beamed and winked at my surprise.

Reality reasserted itself to show yellowed windows washing a small dining area and counter with a dimming, faintly-golden light.  A single radroach had raised its legs and was hissing at our intrusion into its domain.  It was a rather short-lived protestation.

Nohta lazily ambled over to the insect and placed a hoof upon its head, crushing it with a sick crunching noise.  Its kin paid this casual violence no heed, and continued to aimlessly meander about the store, flitting their diaphanous wings and twitching their segmented antennae as Nohta ended their lives one by one.  Only the last roach attempted to defend itself, hissing and biting at Nohta’s cloak before she brushed it to the floor and stomped on its back.

Dull yellow-grey guts sprayed from the creature’s abdomen to coat the floor under her hoof.  “Sis, this town is deserted.”  She turned in place slowly, twitching her ears to and fro for threats before she opened her mouth in a wide yawn.  “I’m not picking up any more red bars on E.F.S.  That means it’s safe, right?  Let’s get a little sleep.  We could both use some rest.”

We laid down between the counter and the tables, spreading our bedroll upon the flattest piece of floor we could find.  We were finally able to stop and catch our breath.  Resting in the dim light beside my sister, our bellies full for the first time since leaving Stable 76, I finally had time to ponder something beyond the immediate necessities for survival.  Finding myself completely unable to puzzle out who had left the message, or why they had bothered to do so in the first place, I allowed myself to take Nohta’s advice and focus on problems that I had a clear understanding of.  I tried to enter the Overmare’s codes one more time, hoping that I had simply lacked a signal by the Stable’s canyon.  But my endeavour only produced a predictably ineffective result and an equally predictable stony, if still slightly cowed, look from Nohta.  After the codes had all ended in error messages, I relented.  Perhaps if I tried them again in Mareon?  I’d find out later, I told myself, if we made it back there in one… or rather, two pieces.

Sleep came easily to my weary body.  I had scarcely lain down and closed my eyes before swirling visions of long-ago were dredged from the pool of my memories to torment my mind.  

I was in the Stable again, hurrying to follow Father’s pale-blue form as he nearly cantered through the halls in his urgency.  My lab-coat was still a little too big for me, but I had managed to roll the sleeves up at the ends to keep them out of the way as my not-quite-fully-grown self made quick apologies to any ponies Father had shoved aside in his passing.

Why couldn’t Luna grant me a respite from these visions?  Was one moment of honest-to-goodness rest from this hell too much to ask for?  And it was this dream, of all things!  A foreboding sense of dread was already beginning to overwhelm me; I knew exactly where this dream was going to end.

The Overmare’s office.  Just past the Temple.  My dream-self and I both made quick prayers to Luna as Father rapped on the Overmare’s door.

“Wintergreen!  Open up!”  Father’s voice echoed through the halls, full of anxiety and poorly concealed anger.

The door opened with a soft whooshing noise a moment later.  The Overmare looked up at us from her desk, causing the thin, dark-green stripes in her white mane to bounce past her shoulders as her startled voice addressed Father by name.  “Dream Chaser?  What’s the meani-”

“I’ll tell you what the matter is!  My wife is dying and you won’t let me save her!”  Father stomped into the room and straight up to the Overmare’s desk.  He promptly began shouting overtop of it, his angry voice reverberating off the walls in the confined space.  “I can do this!  You should know that I of all ponies in this stable can look after myself in the wastes!  I only need one month!  Just enough time to travel to New Appleoosa and back!  I can find the-”

“Dream Chaser!”  The Overmare rose from her chair, slamming her viridian hoof onto her desktop.  Several of her personal knick-knacks and family photographs were jostled to the floor or fell over on her cluttered workspace as Father was left silenced  “I will not be spoken to that way in my own office!  Take a deep breath, calm yourself, and think a little more clearly about what you’re going to say and to whom you’re speaking!”

I cautiously made my way into the room to stand at Father’s side, my glance darting between both sets of furious eyes staring at each other over the desk.  My timid voice pleaded with both of them to calm down as they silently glared at each other.  “Ma’am, I apologize for Father’s lack of decorum.  He’s simply worried about Mother.  Surely you can understand our family’s plight and forgive his rudeness?”

Father shifted his weight uncomfortably and ceased scowling at the Overmare, clearly abashed at having his teenaged daughter show more poise than he was capable of.  The Overmare sighed and calmed herself as well, but her voice was still firm when she spoke to me, “I can understand, Candy.  What’s more, I can sympathize.  Losing Peppermint was the worst moment of my life.  I know what your family is going through.”

She continued, easing herself back into her chair as the tone of her voice broadcast the troubles weighing on her mind, “But I have an entire stable to think about.  After the accident that took Needles and Bandages, and after the horrible incident with last year’s Caravan that took Dr. Patches… We only have two fully-fledged medical professionals and one trainee,”  The Overmare nodded her head in my direction, “on staff to care for hundreds of ponies.”  Her eyes returned to Father as she explained her reasoning, “I simply cannot risk another doctor, Dream Chaser!  Not with the rate of injuries my little ponies suffer from this stable.”

Father had taken his deep breath, and had succeeded in calming himself enough to cease his yelling.  His golden-yellow eyes bore into the Overmare’s as he begged.  “Wintergreen, please.  I only need one month.  Nadira’s body is beginning to fail from the radiation.  If I can’t find any RadAway or gather the ingredients for one of her potions in that amount of time then I’ll come back, but I have got to try something!  I can’t just sit here and wait for her to… to… “  Father couldn’t meet her eyes, and he couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud.

“Dream, I’m sorry.  I truly am.  But my decision still stands.”  The Overmare’s eyes were soft, sympathetic, but her voice bore the notes of finality.  The discussion was over.  “I’ll be in the Temple later today, if you wish to join me.  My prayers are with you and your family.”

Father’s pleading expression slowly sank into a deep glower.  He glared daggers at the Overmare for a moment that felt much too long, then turned and walked back into the hall.

I knew it was hopeless, but my dream-self refused to listen to reason.  Maybe… Maybe the Overmare had only answered that way because of Father’s outburst?  Maybe if I asked nicely?  I had to try.  “Ma’am, can’t you grant Father’s request?  I know that Father is important to the Stable, but… “

“I’m sorry, Candy.  Your mother’s fate is in Luna’s hooves now.”  She sighed, rubbing the circles underneath her eyes with a hoof.  A soft white bubble of magic lifted her photos and little figurines back onto her desktop.  “I have a meeting with Dust in fifteen minutes to discuss the plans for our next Caravan trip.  It is my hope that our next foray into the wastes will be able to procure the necessary medicines or herbs for Nadira’s recovery, but I cannot divide our resources in the manner that Dream Chaser wants.”  She looked at me, and I could see the hurt in her olive eyes, “Tell your father that if he wishes, he is free to volunteer for the Caravan this year.  You can finish your studies under Pearl Grey.  That way, I can hold Pearl and you back for the Stable while Dream searches for RadAway or whatever herbs your mother needs to cure herself while he is looking after the Caravan.”

“But, Ma’am, please… if you won’t allow Father to go then surely somepony else would volunteer for the trip?”  This was all my fault.  I had to make this right.  There had to be something I could do!

“Candy…”  The Overmare’s eyes searched my own; soft comfort lying atop calculating steel, like a cudgel wrapped in wool.  Indeed, when the hammer over my head fell, it was quite blunt.  “Your mother is a zebra.”

My mouth dropped.  The Overmare was quick to continue, speaking slowly and evenly in a manner that implied she was trying to teach me an important lesson.  “I have tried, Candy.  I have tried so hard, to be accommodating.  To smooth tensions.  To keep the peace.  But the fact remains that only a hoof-full of the ponies in this stable have allowed themselves to get close to Nadira.  Your Father, Dust, Moonglow, myself, and just a scant few others.  Mostly Caravan regulars.  Nopony else has seen what your mother has done for the Caravan.  Nopony remembers how her potions have saved lives.  All they know is that she bears stripes. And that’s reason enough to fear and despise her.”

“But-”

“It’s not as if your mother made it easy for them to get close, either!  Teaching your little sister to pick locks, teaching you to make poisons, always being so quick to end an argument with a petty show of her strength… ”  The Overmare shook her head, scowling as her voice lowered to a near hiss.  “Do you have any idea how hard it has been to keep the ponies of this stable from fearing an assassin?  Or to downplay exactly what she was capable of?  Stars and Moon, Candy!”

She tapped her hoof against her desk with each sentence, her eyes boring into my own.  “Every year, I’ve had to personally debrief every member of the Caravan!  Every year, they’ve brought me staggering accounts of her prowess in battle.  And every year, I’ve had to swear each of my little ponies into secrecy about what she did.  All of that just to keep the rest of the Stable ignorant of her abilities.  The thing’s she’s done…”  The dark green mare trailed off, her brow furrowing in a mixture of exasperation and respect.

“But that’s just it!”  I couldn’t hold it any more.  I had to speak, even if I was out of line.  “She did all of those things to benefit the Stable!  She taught Nohta how to pick locks so that she could avoid fighting! She taught me how to make poisons so that I could defend myself on the surface!  And she only fell ill because she was trying to save Dr. Patches!”  Each explanation was accompanied by a frustrated stomp of my hoof.

“I know that.”  She nodded, but stayed firm.  “But my hooves are tied, Candy.  Of any here who might be willing to venture out to help your mother, all of them are too valuable to the Stable.  Or otherwise too incapable in the skills needed to survive on the surface to be of any use scouring the wastes for her cure.”  Her horn flared as her eyes apologized in that cruel way that only a leader delivering bad news can.  “I’m sorry, but this is what has to be done.”

A picture of a red-and-white stallion floated to her hooves, as my dream-self fought to find the words to change her mind.  But of course, persuasion has never been my forte.  We remained silent as she gazed down at the photograph while speaking to me, her voice nearly a whisper.  “I know what it’s like to lose a loved one, Candy.  I’m just hoping that you and Dream don’t have to learn that lesson anytime soon.”  She looked back up to me, tears welling in her eyes, “I need to get ready for my meeting.  Your father will be needing you.”

I lowered my head, accepting my defeat.  “Yes, ma’am.”  

I turned to exit her office, dragging my hooves as I went.  As I was passing through the door, I was just able to make out the sound of her hushed voice, “Pepper… tell me I’m doing the right thing.”  I kept walking as the door slid closed behind me.  Of the two ponies that needed comforting right then, Father was more important to me.

I found him bracing himself against the wall next to the entrance of Luna’s Temple.  He was shaking, having worked himself up into a near-rage at the Overmare’s decision.

As I approached him, his breath came out in a sharp, vile exhalation, “Dégoûtant putain!  Lumière prendre tu, salope!”  

“Fa-Father!”  I gasped, taken aback by his colorful language.

“Huh?”  He turned to see me, quickly shaking his head and apologising, “Je suis désolé, ma chère fille.  I shouldn’t speak that way in front of you.  But that… she…”  He was shaking again, his face worked into a snarl as his eyes shut and his chest heaved.

I laid a calming hoof on his shoulder, “She truly was sorry, Father.  She meant every word.”

His eyes opened, staring past his curly brown mess of a mane.  “Candy…”  I was soon pulled into his embrace, the both of us wrapping our hooves around each other as he slowly let go of his fury.  “Sweetheart, never lose your faith in the goodness of the heart’s of others.”  He kissed my brow, and pulled away to wipe tears from his eyes.  “Come on, we need to go check on your mother and sister.”

“Father, wait!”  I wouldn’t have time to talk to him later.  I needed to tell him now.  “I’m… I’m sor-”

He placed a hoof over my quivering lips, “No, sweetheart.  This isn’t your fault.  No matter what anyone tells you, this is not your fault.  I was there with you.  I saw what happened.  It was an accident.  Sometimes things happen that are just beyond our control.”

He turned to walk down the hall as the Stable’s walls collapsed around us, melting into puddles of grey anguish at my hooves.  Beyond our control?  What was a doctor good for if she couldn’t help one patient?  What did it say about me if my first patient ever was going to die because I made a simple mistake?

My dream-self followed the course set before her with all the stubbornness of a freight train, adamantly refusing to deviate from the tracks leading to the horrors down the seeping hallway.  Luna, please… not again.

I struggled futilely against the binds placed over my consciousness; lucidity and dreamfulness melding into a terrible half-nightmare of regret and exultation.  Father was with me now!  I missed him so much!  But… I’d never see him again.  My dream-self placed a hoof in front of the others, slowly plodding after him even as my mind fought to reassert itself.

I had the words.  Goddess, I had them on the tip of my tongue and at the forefront of my worried mind.  But I just couldn’t speak.  ‘Father!’  I would have cried out, ‘I’m sorry!  All of this is my fault!  I’m sorry that I didn’t pay enough attention when I had the chance!  I’m sorry that I wasn’t a better doctor!  Daddy… I love you… don’t leave me.  Don’t leave…’  

It was too much.  No matter how I fought, I couldn’t change the past.  I couldn’t change the dream.  Luna please, I begged, rid me of this vision!  

I followed Father into the darkening, shapeless void as my dream faded to a hazy reality, and crossed through a seamless barrier between sleep and wakefulness to find my sister dozing against my back.

I quietly rolled off of the mat, being careful not to wake Nohta as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and checked our surroundings for threats.  Luna had granted my request, but she couldn’t take away the memories.  I laid out my alchemy set upon one of the tables, hoping to take the opportunity to clear my head while crafting something useful.  

I levitated Mother’s book by my side, following a simple recipe for a medicinal salve.  It seemed the most practical concoction to piece together with my meager amounts of herbs.  The blaring heat emanating from the fire talisman was quite uncomfortable, but the sweet smell of stewing herbs that mingled with the store’s aroma of cinnamon more than made up for it.

It wasn’t long before that smell carried to Nohta’s sleeping form.  She woke, rubbing her eyes and swearing, “Damn it… I didn’t mean to pass out.  How long was I asleep?”

I continued setting out additional herbs and roots.  “Not long dear, we only lost an hour.  Did you sleep well?”

“No I…”  She rubbed her eyes again, turning to reacquaint herself with our surroundings, “Not really.  This bedroll sucks.”

The liquid in the pot before me was beginning to take on a delightful coloration to match its pleasing aroma.  “Well, I’m going to be stirring this salve for a while it seems.  You can go back to sleep if you wish, dear.  I’ll keep watch.”

“Nah… don’t wanna sleep.”  She shook her head vehemently, pushing herself to her hooves and trudging towards our packs.  “I’m gonna make sure our stuff is organized.”

We allowed ourselves a brief respite; one hour to finish the salve and take stock of our supplies.  We had staved off starvation with the snack cakes, but it wouldn’t be long before we were hungry again.  We were in desperate need of food and water.  

Nohta was going through our packs, counting ammunition.  She shook her head, cursing under her breath.  “Shit… I’ve only got twelve rounds left.  And you’ve only got two full batteries.  We need ammo, Sis.”

“We still have a grenade as well, sister.  And I’d rather avoid any fighting if we have the opportunity to do so.”  I stirred the thickening goop in the pot as the thin green mist rose to curl lazily above the rim.  “Now that we know The Pyro’s gang have been wiped out completely, I’d rather like to finish looking for food and water and make our way straight to Mareon.”  

She looked up from her pistol after loading seven of the rounds into its magazine.  “Well ya, but we haven’t exactly been able to pick and choose when we get to fight.  It would be better to be prepared than just hope that we don’t run into trouble.”

I sighed, depositing the viscous and faintly glowing liquid from the metal pot atop the talisman into a Sparkle-Cola bottle.  “Yes, dear.  I know.  I only meant that our primary concern should be for food and water.”  The healthy green aura exuding from the glass cast a thin sheen of vibrant light across my sister’s face before I gently magiced a cap into place on the reused container and laid it within my packs next to my only bottle of water.  “I’m beginning to think that I’m thirsty enough to drink the irradiated swill that we scavenged from the raiders.”

“Candy, don’t drink that shit, it’s poison!  We’ll find good water soon enough, I promise!  We just have to hold out for a little while.” She shuffled her hooves underneath of her, rising to her full height.  “We should get moving.  Maybe we can get lucky and find what we’re after before night falls.”

“How is your leg, darling?”  I pointed to the recently wounded appendage.  “Do you want me to take another look at it?”

She pulled the red and gold sleeve of her cloak down over her Pipbuck with her teeth, concealing the raw and sensitive skin that I had mended hours ago.  “It’s just a couple scratches, Sis, I’ll make it.  Stop worrying, okay?”

“Nohta, telling me to stop worrying about you is tantamount to yelling at the sun to stay underneath the horizon.”  My brow rose in annoyance as I wondered if I’d have to use my ‘Big Sister’ voice.  “I’ll use my magic If I have to.”

“C’mon Candy, you already took care of it this morning!  Stop fussing, I’m fine!”  Nohta proved her point by jogging in place for a moment.  “See?  Let’s go.”  My tail swished in combined frustration at her behavior and memory of the wounds I had healed earlier.  I could still feel the exertion in my horn from expending so much magical power to heal our bodies, but that fatigue was of little consequence.  No matter, I told myself, the important thing was that we were both whole.

I tapped the black edge of my fire talisman twice with my hoof, being careful to not touch the glowing swirl of orange in its middle. The talisman cooled immediately, and I packed it back into the matte case along with the rest of my alchemical tools.  My hooves and magic scooped up the small assortment of ingredients arrayed before me and deposited them into my satchel before I rose to stand beside my sister, “Agreed.  Let’s be off.”

I stepped over the rotting wooden floor, my hooves producing dull and hollow-sounding thumps, and proceeded to the counter.  The ancient cash register sitting atop the serving space was still functional, but its contents had long since been pilfered.

When the two of us had searched the entirety of the front room, and found nothing of use, we both made our way towards the back.  The smell of cinnamon was growing stronger, and I was sure that we were moving towards the kitchen and storage rooms.  Sure enough, a row of magically sealed jars sat atop shelves lining the halls.  One of the jars had been knocked from its perch to shatter atop an unfortunate radroach, coating the dead insect in a sizable pile of glass and cinnamon.

Picking the bones of an ancient town clean was not as appealing when my stomach offered no encouragement.  “I wish this didn’t feel so much like we were looters taking advantage of a momentous tragedy.”

My sister paused in her attempts to pick the lock on a closet door to look up at me with a tired expression, “Uh, Sis… We are looters.  And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

I frowned at my sister, “Well, yes, but… Doesn’t this feel at least a little wrong to you?  Breaking into dead pony’s homes and places of business to steal their once treasured belongings?”

She rolled her eyes and readjusted the screwdriver in her hooves, speaking around the tiny bobby pin stuck between her teeth, “Ah’d raffer feel full dan feel raight.  Af had ‘nuff esperence beeng made da feel ‘wrong’ ahlreddy.  Ah’m used do id.”

The lock clicked open, and Nohta was about to slink through the passageway when my hoof stopped her.  Before she could react, my other hoof was around her shoulder, pulling her sideways into my chest.  “You don’t have to feel wrong around me, sister.”

“Ugh… Candy!  Enough with the mushy stuff, I get it!”  She resisted at first, but both of us knew that if she actually wanted to escape my grasp I wouldn’t be able to stop her.  Nohta gently tossed her head up and to the side, rolling her eyes as she laid a hoof across my own and relaxed.  After a moment, she spoke again in an exasperated whisper, “Are you done, yet?  This is kinda embarrassing.”

I couldn’t keep the sly smile from creeping across my lips as I held her tighter.  I had so few opportunities to pay her back for her impertinent behavior!  “Embarrassing?  Why, how could this be embarrassing, Nohta?  It’s just you and I here!”

“Now you’re just messing with me!”  She squirmed out of the embrace to stare indignantly into my eyes.

I grinned smugly in her direction, “Ahh, yes well, you are the little sister, dear.  You’re destined to bear the brunt of my inexpert teachings and poorly conceived wisdoms, as well as the full force of my familial affections.  And if the only way for me to wrench you out of your glum demeanor and put you in your proper place is with a well-deserved and extraordinarily sappy hug, then so be it.”  I moved past her, chuckling to myself at her frustrated groans as I opened a yellow and pink box hanging on the interior closet wall.

Inside the box I found another bottle of water and several empty syringes.  I stuffed them into my bags, reasoning that I might be able to sterilize the needles and re-use them for direct application of a portion of healing potion.  An unorthodox practice to be sure, but direct application of potion could save a life so long as the one administering the medicine knew how to avoid the… messy… complications.

Nohta grumbled as she moved to my side and withdrew several tools and a roll of duct tape from a tool box.  We had apparently progressed from collecting bare necessities to scavenging for anything that might pull in a couple of caps.  The added weight from the miscellaneous scrap was causing the straps of my saddlebags to bite into my coat, but I knew that any unpleasantness now would likely guarantee easier times once we returned to Mareon.

Moving past the closet and through a swinging door, we found ourselves in the kitchen.  The metal counters and appliances were so thoroughly deteriorated by rust that I was surprised they hadn’t collapsed under their own weight. As my sister and I continued to scavenge for miscellaneous items the fading light shining through the dirty glass panes of the kitchen’s windows made it abundantly apparent that the day was quickly coming to an end.  The two of us had just agreed to leave the town behind and use what little day we had left to begin our trek back to Mareon when the muffled sound of voices trickled through the cracked and broken windows.

Nohta and I froze, neither of us even daring to breathe.  My eyes darted to the windows, catching just a glimpse of movement from the other side before Nohta pulled me to the grimy wall and out of sight.  My sister and I huddled together on the floor, listening as the voices slowly approached.

“Can’t believe we never took this route before.  It’s practically a straight shot to Mareon from here.  Lots faster than going ‘round the mountain!”  A stallion’s voice called out to his companions in a light-hearted manner.  “I told y’all we should do things my way.  I can be pretty sharp at times… Eh?  Eh?”

“Honey, please, stop making puns.”  A mare’s gentle voice chided the stallion.  “You’re upsetting Moonster.”

These ponies didn’t sound like raiders.  A quick check of my E.F.S. assured me that the ponies weren’t hostile.  I eased upwards, towards the window, as Nohta shook her head and hissed at me to stop.  Ignoring Nohta’s anxious expression, I cautiously peeked through the window.  I was soon staring into a set of wide blue eyes that were every bit as surprised as I was.

“Moo.”  I was staring at a cow.  She had paused to inspect the window, her body turned to the side.  Her brown-and-white-mottled form was laden down with a heaping pile of bulging bags, stretched satchels, creaking crates, and precariously placed pots and pans.  Jammed into the center of the mess of supplies that was the burden upon her back was a single rod, jutting out over her head to suspend an unlit oil-lamp as it dangled just above her short horns.  Her ears twitched, and the two of us blinked at each other.

“Uh… Moo?”  I never really know what to say when I meet someone for the first time.  And first impressions can be ever so important.

To my alarm the heifer turned in my direction, revealing a second head!  I still think that my response was at least somewhat reasonable.

“AAAHH!”  I fell backwards on top of Nohta, screaming in shock even as she grunted underneath the sudden weight.  My flailing hooves connected with the lid of a rusted pot, flinging the cookware into an assortment of cutlery and pans, scattering a pile of dishes, forks, and spoons to the floor with a resounding and thunderous clatter.  My sister and I lay in a heap; each of us softly groaning as our pains slowly abated.

“The hell was that?”  The stallion’s voice wasn’t light-hearted anymore, his jaunty tones replaced by notes of fear and the telltale signs of spiking adrenaline.  I heard the unique and unmistakable sound of a shotgun pumping a shell into its chamber.

“Oh!  No need to fret now, Cheddar.”  An oddly rural accent that I couldn’t quite place answered the stallion from just outside the window.  “Moonster and I scared da poor dear right-good, dontcha know!”

“Scared who, Moozzarella?”  The mare from earlier piped up as Nohta and I struggled to extricate ourselves from the tangled mess of limbs, loose clothing, and tails that we had become.  “String!  Stay back!”

“Poor dear looked like a unicorn with just a dreadful case o’ da willies, ya know!”

“Moo.”

“Oh jeepers!  Dat’s right, dear!  Moonster says dat she’s got stripes on her face, like a zebra, only dey’s pink.  I hope da poor dear didn’t bang her head in all dat commotion.”

“Moo.”

“Oh, don’t be like dat, Moonster!  We scared her more’n she scared us ya know!”

The back door leading to the cafe’s kitchen burst open, flooding the room with light as a bright-yellow stallion wielding a pump-action shotgun in his telekinetic grasp barged through the opening and leveled the weapon at my head.  In a voice full of attempted bravado, he stammered around a sprig of some indiscernible fern hanging from his mouth, “St-Stay right there!  Don’t move!”

Nohta ignored the stallion’s request, attempting to wriggle out from under me, “Candy, can you get off of me?  You’re kinda heavy.”

“Ah!  Heavy!  Nohta, I’m shocked that you would say such a thing!”  And about her big sis- ah, elder sister, too!

The stallion shook his gun in the air, whining, “Hey, come on!  You two are supposed to be quiet and stop moving when I tell you to stop moving!  That’s how this works!”

“What for?  If you were gonna shoot us, you would have already.  Nopony just mugs somepony in the wastes, they just shoot ‘em and loot the body.”  Nohta’s reasoning had come too quickly for my liking, and I could only assume that she had picked up that nugget of knowledge from one of her various teachers on the surface.  Most likely Dust, but perhaps Margarita as well.

However, I had no time to lament her acclimation to our new, violent lives as she found the leverage to shove me away with a hoof, depositing me messily upon the floor where I landed with a soft grunt.  “Oof!  Nohta!  That hurt!”

“You two… you’re not exactly the smartest bandits around, huh?”  The buck grinned behind his shotgun.

My jaw dropped, aghast at the scandalous accusation, and I rolled to right myself upon the floor.  “Bandits!  Ah!  Perish the thought!  We’d never dream of attacking somepony simply to take their possessions!”  I huffed, feeling insulted, “We’re simply trying to find some food in this cafe!”

“Food, huh?”  His eyebrows waggled independently of each other, and his ears found the same lack of synchronization as they flapped about in haphazard directions.  “Ya, alright.  I guess that makes sense.  I got food for sale, if ya’ll want some.  But you’re gonna have to come outside and meet the rest of the family before I take my gun off of ya.”

What?  “That’s a rather… odd request.”

“And I’m a rather odd pony, so it makes sense now, don’t it?”  He waved his gun towards the door, motioning for us to get up and walk outside.

Seeing no other option before us, I gathered myself up off of the floor and led the way into the alleyway behind the store.  As I had assumed earlier, these ponies were not raiders.  They were a traveling trade caravan complete with a wagon being pulled by two mares and a cart being hauled by the strange cow creature.  One other mare, unburdened save for the formidable rifles balanced at her sides in a battle-saddle, was trying to keep her weapons trained on me while positioning herself between the wagon and myself.  A small colt, almost a foal, could just barely be seen peeking past the cloth covering of the wagon.  Everyone present, save for one of the cow’s heads, bore a frightful and wary look.  I had done a wonderful job of startling an entire family.

I was immediately beset with an intense feeling of guilt, “I… I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to-”

The stallion called to one of his companions, cutting me off, “Brie!  Might need your help with this other one.  She’s lookin’ a mite ornery!”

One of the ponies pulling the wagon, the one with the creamy white coat and shortly cropped dull-yellow mane, sloughed off her harness binding her to the wagon.  Her deeply red partner gave her a look of worry, but she shrugged it off and trotted to the back portion of the wagon.  She procured a sledgehammer with a head the size of a small foal, and continued to trot casually in my direction as if the massive weapon held between her jaws was no burden at all.  Did I mention how intimidating an earth pony can look when they wield a hammer in their teeth and their eyes stare menacingly in your direction?

Nohta stepped out of the cafe a moment later, huffing and making a decent show of her agitation at our predicament.  Apparently one pony with a shotgun was not something she believed we needed to worry about any longer.  “I said I was coming!  Sheesh!  You don’t have to rub in the fact that you’ve got us at gunpoint!”

The white mare, presumably the pony named Brie, let her weapon slide out of her mouth so that the heavy metal head thudded against the gravel lining the alley as she balanced the long shaft against her shoulder.  Tapping the hammer with a hoof, she smoothly stated, “Better safe than sorry, kid.”

“I’m not a kid!”  Nohta grumbled underneath her hood, sitting beside me on the uncomfortably pointy rocks and crossing her forelegs in front of herself.

“Please,” I interjected, raising a hoof tentatively in a pleading fashion.  “If we can all settle down and simply talk about this, I’m sure we’d all come to agree that this is a simple and unfortunate misunderstanding!”

The yellow buck moved up beside his backup, ears flapping wildly.  He lowered his weapon to point at the ground even as his eyebrow rose in question.  In a rather civil voice, he spoke directly to me, “Okay.  So talk.  What are ya’ll doing skulking around like yer gonna ambush us the moment we have our backs turned?”

Nohta exhibited a wonderful example of why so many ponies found her hard to get along with, slamming one of her free hooves into the gravel and shouting.  “The hell are you talking about?  We weren’t skulking!  We were hiding!  What are you doing waltzing through raider territory like it’s no big deal?”

The burgundy mare wearing the battle-saddle ambled towards us carefully.  “Raider territory?  Cheddar, I thought you said that this route was safe?”

The shotgun wielding stallion stammered, “I uh… I thought it was?  Nopony ever comes this way to get to Mareon, I thought it was deserted.”  

Ms. Battle Saddle was becoming agitated now as well, something that didn’t bode well for our immediate future.  I could only draw solace from the fact that she was becoming incensed at the stallion instead of my sister and myself.  “You said this was going to be an easy trip, Cheddar!  We can’t be taking String through raider territory!”

“Arrgh!  Calm down, Cabby!  My ears are a-tingling enough as is without you shouting ‘em off!”

Brie lifted her hammer just enough to bring it down on the rocks with an attention-gathering smack, effectively silencing the argument before it began, and glowered at Nohta, “What do you mean about raider territory?  If it’s so dangerous out here, why are you here?”

Nohta answered plainly, nearly speaking over me as I attempted to answer as well.  “We’re here for the raiders.”  

“We’re here for supplies.”  I looked to my sister, both of us realizing that we now had to backtrack in order to make our answers less suspicious.  What came next was as confusing for me as it was for anyone else within earshot.

I threw a hoof in the air and blurted out the most sensible thing I could think of, attempting to draw attention to myself lest my sister say something foolish before I could speak.  “Were here to raid supplies!”

“We’re here to supply raiders!”  Nohta spouted off before groaning and drawing her hood even further down her face in confusion and frustration.  She never has been any good at talking her way out of a problem… 

I waved my hooves frantically in front of myself, “Oh my goodness!  Wait!  We need to start over!”  This was becoming ridiculous and I needed to put a stop to it.  “We came here out of a necessity to scavenge for supplies-”

“And to get revenge on the bastards that destroyed our home and tried to eat us.”  Nohta finished, her voice a low growl as she ground her hoof into the gravel before her..

We both sat in silence as I covered my face with my hooves and shook my head, waiting for a response from the ponies arrayed before us.  Finally, after a pregnant moment filled with wary stares, Cheddar sighed and adjusted the fern stalk to the other side of his mouth before declaring his opinion, “Yep.  They’re crazy.  Looks like we’re just gonna have to-”

“Dad?”  A sickly looking yellow colt with an icy blue mane peeked out from behind the cloth covering of the wagon.  “Did you…  find any more medicine?  I think I’m…  gonna be sick again.”

No… That look… I had seen it before in a beautiful striped face.  The sunken eyes, the thinning mane.  The pale and weakening frailty of form as the sickness robbed the body and soul of strength and resolve.  I didn’t need to use my spell to feel that pain.  I knew it all too well.  It was something I would never forget.

“RadAway!”  I stomped my hoof on the gravel, eliciting a gasp from the pinkish-red mare and surprised stares from Brie and Cheddar.  “That colt needs RadAway this instant!”

Ignoring the shouted warnings of the ponies and my sister, I dashed towards the wagon, activating my magic to ‘feel’ his weakened body.  There was a commotion behind me; a small scuffle, the sound of gravel crunching underhoof, shouts.  None of it mattered.  I wasn’t going to let this happen again.  Goddess, not to a life so young…

The familiar, creeping, insurmountable wall of pain and nausea overtook my body as the phantom presence of opening sores, aching joints, and feeble muscles assaulted my senses.  Everything hurt.  It was as if the world itself were slowly crushing me under its weight, squeezing every fiber of my being with an impending sense of doom as I futilely struggled to amass some meager resistance and simply live.  I wanted nothing more than for the pain to end.  I cut the spell, before I could be overtaken completely by unpleasant memories of my own bedraggled reflection in exhausted emerald eyes.  

As my focus was drawn back to my own body, I finally recognized the presence of hard, cold steel against my temple.  The barrel of Cheddar’s shotgun was pressing lightly against my skull.  His eyes were hard and dangerous, staring intently at me from the other end of his gun.

“I said,”  He began, his voice deadly-sharp, “Not.  Another.  Spell.”  The trigger of his weapon glowed brightly with the pressure of his telekinesis.  I was a moment from death.

I was as still as Luna’s statue had once been, only daring to move my eyes and mouth.  Ignoring the threat to my own life, I pleaded with the stallion, “This colt has a severe case of radiation sickness.  He needs RadAway.”

“You think I don’t know that?”  His voice was a low whisper.  Behind me, I could hear the distinct shuffling sounds of the other two ponies wrestling my sister to the ground.  

“She’s a doctor, you stupid fummph!”  Nohta’s voice was muffled, her head having been shoved into the ground by the remaining red pony from the wagon.

Cheddar’s ears were flapping again.  In a less severe and dramatic situation I might have thought that they looked as if he were trying to fly away upon them.  As my situation warranted however, I kept my observations to myself.

He whispered to me, still staring down the length of the barrel of his weapon, “Is that true?  You a doctor?”

In the space of one breath, I spared a moment for Father, now that he was gone… “I’m the best healer my tribe has left.”

His stare was still cold, but I could see the wheels turning behind his deep-blue eyes.  I could practically feel the desperation he was exuding as he cautiously asked,. “Can you help my son?”

I spoke slowly, carefully.  “I have no spells to cleanse his body of radiation.  I’ll do what I can, but I already told you that he needs RadAway.”

“We’re out.  Already gave him all we had.  Wasn’t enough.”  He adjusted the stalk that he was chewing on again, bringing it around the shotgun and into plain view where I finally had a chance to get a good look at the fern.  I recognized that plant… 

A series of quick mental calculations later and I found myself blessing Mother’s memory.  “In that case, have you got any more witchweed?”

His gun inched to the side and away from my head as he stared at me in confusion, chewing slowly on the fern dangling from his lips.  His ears never ceased their wild flapping.  “Tell me what we need to do.”


**************


“Dang, girl!  What you got cooking over here?”  The yellow buck slid into the chair next to me, inhaling deeply as the sweet scent of fermenting herbs rose from the cookpot sitting upon the decaying tabletop.  “Smells like you actually know your way around a kitchen!  Think you can teach my wife a thing or two?”

My lips pursed as I fought back the grin, and I was able to cover my laughter by pretending to cough.  “I only know a few simple recipes my mother passed on to me.  But this…”  I added another sprig of dried witchweed into the simmering concoction atop the table.   The magical energies released from the plant caused the shimmering verdant water to bubble and churn, releasing more of the wonderfully sweet fragrance into the air.  “...this isn’t for eating.  This is for your son’s illness.”

The introduction of Nohta and myself to the Cheese family had been a little strained at first.  Understandable, given the circumstances under which we had met.  But after Cheddar had announced that his “senses” were “going absolutely schizoid” he released me from gunpoint, and after my medical expertise had been proven by my mending of Nohta’s new cut upon her face (while giving the deeply red mare I came to know as Merlot a scathing glower), our two families came to regard each other with a quiet if moderately strained respect.  Of course, my promise of medical aid for the youngest member of their family, little String Cheese, had produced significant results in smoothing tensions over between the Cheese family and Nohta and I.  

Cheddar was the leader of this small band.  Or as he liked to call himself, “The Big Cheese.”  I soon discovered his love of puns and general good-humored nature to be quite at odds with the display in the alley.  His wife, Cabernet, likewise calmed down and stopped snapping her rifles in my direction once she learned that I could help her son; an attitude that was quickly adopted by the rest  of the family.  The two ponies pulling the wagon, Brie and Merlot, mostly kept to themselves, but Brie was kind enough to offer to clean Nohta’s pistol while I worked on the potion.  It was only later that I realized the likely possibility that she had only done so to ensure that my sister wouldn’t be able to use her weapon for the next few hours.

“You’re… making medicine?  Do ponies even do that anymore?”  His eyebrows were cocked quizzically as his eyes roved between the brew, my little pile of herbs and roots, and myself.  “I thought we just healed everything with spells or potions left from before the war.”

“Well, I make medicine.  I’m sure that somepony out there is doing the same thing somewhere.  A healing potion is relatively simple to make, provided you can gather the necessary ingredients.”  I lifted one of the sprigs of witchweed between the two of us, gazing through the scarlet bubble to meet his eyes.  “You’ve been chewing on one of the most versatile and prodigious species of magical flora known to all of equinity since antiquity.  Witchweed is an important base for many elixirs, and lends magical power to nearly any potion or philter.  But it can’t grow in the desert.  The soil is too rocky.”  I grinned as his hoof met his face.  The trader had clearly possessed no knowledge of how valuable the herb actually was.

“Dang it.  You mean I been chewing this damn weed when I could’ve used it to help my boy?”  He sighed and glowered at the wall, then shrugged, “I guess it’s just a good thing I started picking it wherever I found it.  Never figured it woulda’ been useful for somethin’ like this.  And I never would have started chewing on that plant if I hadn’t been trying to quit smoking.”  He grinned apologetically, and I assumed he was joking to make amends for earlier.

I floated the fern closer to my eyes, relishing how the bitter aroma of the dried stalk cut through the saccharine miasma of potion brewing upon the tabletop.  “Well to be honest, without the required acumen of magical herbs you would be hard pressed to utilize witchweed in any sort of fashion beyond rudimentary wortcraft.  The euphoric feeling that you likely experienced was an influx of arcane energy being released into your circulatory system where it coalesced into-”

“Uh… “  His blank expression let me know that I had gone beyond his vocabulary.

“Oh, um…”   Now it was my turn to feel sheepish.  I hadn’t intended to make him feel uncomfortable with my knowledge.  “You would need some understanding of proper alchemy to get any effects from the plant beyond the trivial benefits gained from chewing it.  The… good feeling you had when you chewed it was the extra magic of the fern building itself up in your body.”

His eyebrows wriggled freely, like bushy little caterpillars fighting to flee his face.  “Oh, I… I guess that makes sense.”  With a touch of honest resolve in his voice, he laid a hoof upon the table, “Tell you what, if this can help String I’ll give you the rest of my stash for free.  Seems like you could get a lot more use out of it than me.”  His tired exhalation caused a few of the dried leaves on the table to flutter gently.  I laid the sprig of the fern upon the broader leaves to weigh them down as his voice went quiet and low.  “I’m serious.  My boy means the world to me.  I’d do anything for him.  And one good turn deserves another.”

Cheddar was a father caring for his son.  It was easy to see the similarities.  Easy to understand why I wanted so desperately to help him.  Perhaps the souls of my parents would rest easier if they knew I wasn’t about to abandon my calling to simple rage.  Perhaps Luna would show them that I was still making others whole.  I certainly hoped so.

The wooden ladle held in my magical grasp slowly drifted through the curls of steam to stir the potion.  My eyes lifted over the pot to land upon Nohta in the other room, crouched low to scrutinize the various disassembled pieces of her pistol laid atop an oily white cloth as Brie cleaned and reassembled them.  My sister, practical as ever, was trying to learn everything she could about how to use her weapon.

I tapped the side of the fire talisman once with my hoof, reducing the heat as my mortar and pestle floated over to the pot and dumped the finely ground roots into the mix.  A brief flash of deep purple light was followed by a quick puff of indigo smoke, and the brew turned an alarming shade of red.  I placed the remainder of my alchemical ingredients back in my little herb satchel, “Believe me, Cheddar, I understand.  I feel the same way about my sister.”

“She’s your sister, huh?”  Cheddar rocked back in his chair, lifting two of the legs from the floor to teeter precariously as he nodded with a knowing expression.  “I was wondering about that.  She looks a little… exotic.”

With a deliberate slowness, I diverted my attention from the potion to his stern face.  “Oh?  Is that a problem for you?”  The brief magical flash that unclasped my pistol was lost amidst the scarlet light already stirring the potion.  If this buck was only playing us to help his son… 

Goddess, why was I becoming so quick to assume the worst?  When had my pistol become my go-to option instead of a last resort?

He sighed, landing the chair back on all four legs as his hoof rubbed his lips in contemplation.  “If you had asked me that question a couple years back… I’d have given you a different answer.”  Shaking his head, he continued, “But now… I guess it doesn’t really matter.  Fighting each other over a centuries-old war seems a little pointless when we have more important things to fight over, like centuries-old food.”

I reached over with my hoof to secure the latch back around my pistol, purposely letting him see the action.  “Good.”  I failed spectacularly to keep my frustration out of my voice, but I was just so tired of ponies judging Nohta before they knew her!  “I’d rather we not engage in a pointless conflict when we should be helping each other.”

He raised his hooves in front of himself defensively, wearing an embarrassed smile as he apologized.  “Right, message received.  Touchy subject.  Shouldn’t have brought it up.  I was just curious is all.  Most ponies don’t walk around all dressed up like a zebra if they can avoid it.”  He leaned forward, pressing his chest against the table’s edge.  “So, uh… is that how’s come you’re able to make potions?”

“It’s not as if ponies are completely incapable of creating simple potions.  They’re just usually not very good at it.“  I winced, realizing that I had all but given myself away.  Acting quickly in a last-ditch effort to cover my tracks, I raised my eyebrow dangerously and questioned him in an annoyed tone, “And I was under the impression that you didn’t want to exacerbate your social faux-pas.”

“Ya, well… Momma Mascarpone didn’t raise a cautious fool, just a curious one.”  I found his personal assessment of his own intellectual acuity to be rather accurate, but his playful wink disarmed me completely.  “Hell, just ask Cabs.  I’m the idiot that likes to poke through ruins and go on adventures.  She’d prefer to settle in a town to raise String and read her books.  The only way I was able to convince her to try this new route was because I heard that this town still has a mostly intact library.”  He chuckled to himself as I filed away the information he had just given me, “‘Course, after all this excitement, I think she’d rather we just hightail it on outta here as quick as can be.”

The potion was nearly done, the red liquid beginning to thicken and bubble angrily.  I tapped the side of the fire talisman once to lower its heat once more.  “You’re planning on travelling to Mareon, aren’t you?”

“Yep, that’s the plan.  Gonna see if we can offload some of our scrap there and maybe see about heading up towards Tenpony afterwards.”  He waited for a second, staring off into space with an expectant look on his face.  After nothing happened, he shrugged, “Or I guess we’ll just stay in Mareon for a bit.  Two bits if I can help it.  Caps would be better.”

Pressing past my confusion at his odd behavior, I pleaded for a favor.  “Cheddar, my sister and I have quite a lot of problems on our hooves already.  I would truly be thankful if you stayed quiet about our heritage.”

His eyebrows gave a weak wiggle, and one of his ears twitched as he nodded solemnly.  “You got it, kid.  We all got our little secrets we don’t want folks to know about.  Not really sure how you’re planning on keeping something like that under wraps when it’s written all over your face, but if you can cure my son’s condition with a potion I promise I won’t say another word about you and your sister and whoever your parents were.”

I sighed, feeling a weight lift from my shoulders as I breathed out in a tired voice, “I’d appreciate that.  I would rather not enflame old hatreds and vendettas originating from a conflict that neither my sister nor I had anything to do with.”  I had forgotten what this was like.  In the Stable, I had been… well, almost accepted.  Certainly tolerated without anypony questioning whether they were safe around me.  But on the surface nopony knew me.  Nopony understood that I was just like the rest of them; trying to survive and hopefully benefit the world in my own small way.  How many times would I be forced to convince somepony that my sister and I weren’t evil?  

Quite a few times, apparently… 

I lifted the spoon out of the pot, tapping the talisman twice more to deactivate it completely, and poured the concoction into a nearby half-empty bottle of vodka.  Placing the cap back upon the bottle, I shook it vigorously to diffuse the potion into the alcohol until the bright red liquid had taken on a softer hue that only spoke of a quiet malevolence as opposed to outright fury.  “This is called Dragon’s Breath.”  I elucidated, “Mother said that it was capable of purging the body of poisons, radiation, and the contents of a stomach.  All at once, I’m afraid.  We’ll need to do this outside.”

“Got ya.  I’ll go get String.”  He slid out of his chair, and turned to leave, but paused at the doorway of the kitchen, “Candy… thanks.”

“Mother called me a healer.”  My eyes left his own to stare at the tiny pot upon the table, and the remnants of the potion still clinging to its sides.  ”She said that I would ‘make others whole.’  The truth is that no matter what you may think of her people, I am a doctor.”  My voice was harder than I had intended, but I found that I needed to stress this point to him.  I needed him to understand.  “I can’t sit idly by while your son suffers from an affliction I can cure.”  I got up from the table, levitating the rest of my belongings into my packs and satchel in a great flurry of scarlet magic.  I approached Cheddar and nodded my head in the direction of my sister.  “I would avoid mentioning this to Nohta, if I were you.  She’s dealt with bigotry for far longer than anyone should, and it has only made her more stubborn and proud of how closely she resembles Mother.”  My voice finally softened as I remembered the pains Nohta had suffered at the hooves of our stablemates.  “She would likely take great offense should you say anything regarding Mother’s people.”

“Right.  I read ya loud and clear.  Rest o’ the family’s smart enough to avoid saying anythin’ for now.  I’ll explain all the pertinent details to ‘em once we hit the road again, so nopony says anythin’ about it once we get to Mareon.”  He opened the door, bowing graciously, “Ladies first.”

The two of us stepped outside into the cool evening air.  Moozzarella was standing nearby, leaning against the wagon that she had been pulling previously and engaged in a seemingly very one-sided conversation with Moonster about the worth of the family’s wares.  From what I could make out, Moonster was rather displeased with life in general.  Perhaps not an altogether unlikely opinion to be had from the second head of a two-headed cow.

When Cheddar and I reached the wagon, he turned back to me.  “Candy, can you wait back here a second while I go get String?”  I nodded, and he climbed up the small ladder to disappear behind the hanging cloth.  I was left alone with Moozzarella and Moonster.

The pair ambled towards me as Moozzarella spoke, “Oh, dearie, we’re awful sorry ‘bout earlier, dontchaknow?  Didn’t mean to scare ya none.  Ain’t ya never seen a brahmin before?”

I sat on my haunches, clutching the bottle of medicine to my chest as I answered, “Ah… no.”

A nonplussed response from the other head answered back, “Moo.”

Moozzarella, at least, seemed genuine.  “Oh, hush up Moonster!  Dat’s no way to speak to our new friend here.  Cheddar said she was gonna heal up String.”

Moonster rustled her eyebrows together in a strained grimace, then spoke directly to me in broken Equestrian, “Hep Moo-Moo hep String?”

I had time to blink twice before grasping her meaning, “Er… yes, I mean to heal little String.”  I held up the softly glowing bottle of red liquid, “I’ve just made this medicine for him.”

She nodded, and her usual, dull expression overtook her face once more.  “Moo.”

“Moonster says ‘Thank you,’ dearie.  It’s such a relief to know that somepony could help String.  He hasn’t been da same since he and Cheddar got back from dat trip into Manehattan a few weeks ago.”

My curiosity was overwhelming my social graces, “Um, please forgive my ignorance of this matter, but… How do you understand her?”

Moozzrella’s ears perked up as her face brightened, “Oh!  Well, I speak Cowhili, dontchaknow!”

“Cowhili?”  I had never heard of this language.  “That’s not exactly what I expected.  Is that where you’re from?  I must admit that I’m not terribly familiar with your accent.”

“Ah haha!  Ya, hey!  Whenever you grow up in da brahmin herd you never really lose the twang!  Moonster and I are ‘Questrian natives, ya know.  Grew up in da wild herd west of Canterlot.  We came across Cheddar and Cabernet long before little String was even a twinkle in his daddy’s eye!  Been traveling with the two of ‘em ever since!”  Moozzarella was overwhelmingly polite and good natured.  I suspected that she really was genuinely sorry for frightening me earlier.  

“Say now!  Is dat a magical laser pistol?  Uses dem funny little energy cells to feed itself?”  Moozzarella was gawping at the gun strapped to my hoof.

“Oh!  Why yes, it is.”  I raised my hoof to indicate the holstered weapon.

“Can ya give me a look at it?  Just levitate it on over here real quick, once.”  With a bemused expression upon my face as I pondered why exactly a two-hea… brahmin would be interested in a weapon designed to fit into a smaller mouth, I floated the small armament between the two of us.  Moozzarella nodded in appreciation.  “Dat’s a fine weapon if I ever did see one, sweetie.  But I bet ya find dat ammo for it’s pretty scarce, huh?”

“Ah, well.  I do find myself running rather low on my supply of ammunition for it, yes.”  I admitted sheepishly.

Moozzarella smiled warmly, “I’ll tell ya what, dearie.  You help make little String right as rain and I’ll show ya a little trick I picked up from one o’ dem pegasi with da sparklin’ armor last time I was roundabout New Appleoosa.  You’ll need to know how to take da gun and da cells apart and put ‘em together again, but it’ll help ya scrounge as much use out of yer weapon as ya can by stretching yer ammo out a bit further.”

“Oh!  That would be lovely, thank you!”  Luna was smiling upon me!

“And if dat ain’t enough, we have a few of dem cells stashed away back here somewhere.  Just ask Cheddar aboot it.  I’m sure he’d like to barter a bit before we get to Mareon,  or my name isn’t MoooOOOOoozzarella!”  She dragged out her name with a joyous smile on her face, counterbalanced by the completely flaccid expression borne by Moonster.

“Ask me about what?”  Cheddar descended from the back of the wagon, gently holding his son against his own body as he stepped down the ladder, and sat String Cheese down on the ground in front of me.  String stood on shaky legs, pale of pallor and with the beginning signs of severe dehydration and radiation poisoning.

I shook my head, still grinning.  “Nevermind, Cheddar, I’ll ask you later.”  My eyes fixed String with the kindest smile I could muster, “After making sure that our little patient here is doing okay.”

“Alright, that’s fine.”  Cheddar spoke to his son, “This nice mare has some medicine for you, String.  It’s gonna make you feel better, okay?”

String nodded, but I felt the need to correct his father.  “Well, technically, this medicine is going to make you feel a lot worse, and then much, much better than you do now.”  Cheddar and String eyed me dubiously, and I hurried to make myself clear.  “...But it will all be worth it, I swear!  Mother’s potions were legendary in the… back home.”  If only we had been able to acquire Witchweed when Mother had been ill…

String looked to his father, who gave him an encouraging smile, “Go ahead, son.  She knows what she’s talking about.”

String’s eyes turned to my own, full of a pleading worry, “Is this gonna hurt?”

“No dear.  Or at least, I don’t believe it will.  I’ve never used this myself, though from its description I believe it should be quite an experience for all of us.”  Bedside manner was never my strong suit, but I was not going to lie to the poor thing.  He needed to know that his caregiver could be trusted.  And a little honesty would go a long way in that regard.

I levitated the bottle over to String so that he could take it between his hooves.  I must admit that my own curiosity at that point was rivalling my desire to heal the young colt; I desperately wanted to know if I had made the potion correctly, and exactly why Mother had left the warning in her book regarding how to administer it.  I levitated the cap off of the bottle for him, and urged the sick colt onward, “Okay dear, be sure to face the road.  That’s critical.  And then drink as much as you can in one go.  It’s okay if you can’t get it all down at once, just try to drink as much as you can.”

He sniffed at the contents, and a weak smile spread across his pallid face.  “This smells spicy!”

“Mmhmm.  Cinnamon: courtesy of the cafe in town.  A crucial ingredient for this concoction, and luckily it lends a heavy portion of its piquant aroma to an otherwise atrocious bouquet,” I explained, twirling a hoof in the air to accentuate my words before I noticed String’s confused blinking.

Cheddar’s sly grin caught my attention, “You’re goin’ on about that medicine the way my wife talks about wine.”  His words came out between his chuckles, “ O’ course, she don’t make those funny little faces like you just did.”

“My face isn’t-”  I stopped myself before I could say anything further, but not before my tail swished angrily of its own accord.  I’d had enough experience with Nohta’s teasing to recognize when someone was trying to get my hackles up.  Cheddar, however, was completely undeterred by my refusal to stoop to his foalish behavior.

His eyes squinted into an ecstatic smile as he chortled and waggled a limp hoof in the air, his voice an annoyingly good impression of my own.  “Piquant aromas!”  Those same eyes bulged as he pantomimed gagging, his hooves now clutching at his throat and nose.  “Atrocious bouquets!”  He finished his charade by leaning precariously to the side and mimicking an overexcited mare about to faint, complete with a dainty hoof placed prominently upon his brow.  “Notes of cinnamon, vanilla, and vodka!  Oh my!”

Self composure is all well and good, but occasionally one must refuse to be a doormat and stand up for herself.  I was just about to do so when I realized the reason Cheddar was verbally assaulting my character.  Despite the severe pain that I knew him to be in, little String Cheese was chuckling with genuine amusement.  His laughter a gentle trill in the stillness of the night.

I shoved my pride deeper into the recesses of my mind as a chagrinned smile slipped across my face.  “Ahem.  Yes, well…”  Gently nudging the colt with my hoof, I urged him onward.  “Go on, dear!  It’s not going to do you any good to smell it!  You need to drink!”

String nodded and turned away from all of us, facing the street as I waved my hoof at his father to stay back.  String upended the bottle between his hooves, guzzling the liquid with surprising alacrity and gusto as his eyes closed tight against the assuredly horrid taste.  I stayed behind String to steady the poor colt while the potion purged his body of radiation.  I was lucky to have been standing beside him.  And I was lucky that he hadn’t turned in my direction after chugging nearly half the bottle in one go.  The results were every bit as impressive as Mother had made them out to be.

String’s eyes bulged in their sockets as he felt the potion take effect, doubling over and dropping the glass container to the ground where it smacked against the earth with a dull thud.  His body spasmed, and before any of us could react he threw his body forward to vomit an intense gout of searing green flame.  The heat sent my thoughts drifting momentarily to the laundry room in the Stable, and the orange flames that had pursued my sister and I just a scant few hours ago, but the sight of the young colt belching magical fire out of his mouth proved quite effective at banishing any wayward memories.

String Cheese shuddered, closing his mouth and dropping to his knees as his body convulsed.  I rubbed a hoof against his back as another wave of nausea overtook him and he spat more flames across the cracked roads.  Beads of sweat had broken out along his forehead, glistening in the flickering, verdant illumination provided by his sickness.  Minute particles of vibrant green light swam up out of the flames, dancing on the chaotic columns of rising heat from the fire before blinking out of existence as easily as they appeared.  One of the motes flew backwards, lighting upon my Pipbuck as the device clicked angrily at the received radiation.

I activated my spell, reaching out with my consciousness to test his body for radiation poisoning.  With each wave of vomited fire that left him, his body felt stronger, purer, cleaner.  By The Goddess, Mother had been a genius in her own right!  To piece together the alchemical ingredients necessary to produce a remedy for radiation sickness was astounding!

It was over in a few moments, with String letting out one final burp that produced a tiny wisp of smoke and a single playful mote of green light.  The tiny dot of light swirled and floated and danced in front of the colt’s wide and curious eyes before silently exploding into nonexistence.  It was surely my imagination, but it almost seemed to be apologizing to the boy, and saying goodbye.

“I… wow!  Dad!  I feel better!”  The young colt was all smiles and joy now, nearly jumping in place.  “Did you see what I did?  That was awesome!”

“Be sure to thank your doctor, String.”  Cheddar chuckled at his son’s display, winking in my direction.

I was nearly thrown off balance by String’s sudden and unrestrained hug as he vehemently thanked me.  Deactivating my spell,  I simply allowed myself to revel in the joy of helping another overcome their hardship, and ruffled his mane as he held me in a vice-like grip.  “There.  All better.  You be sure to get plenty of rest and good, clean water for the next few days, “ I pointedly looked back to his father, who seemed to take the hint, “and after that you have my permission to do… whatever it is that young colts do these days.”  Hopefully just not running off the top of a building and breaking his legs… 

The rest of the night was rather uneventful.  Moozzarella had made good on her promise to show me how to perform basic maintenance on my pistol, mostly how to clean the interior parts and make sure that the focusing lense was free of errant debris, and had also shown me how to open up the little energy cells to collect the dregs of powdered gems that weren’t entirely used by the weapon.  I marveled at both how inefficient the weapon’s design was, and how knowledgeable she had proven about the weapon’s systems.  Knowledge has a habit of finding its way into the oddest of places at times.

Cheddar had likewise hoofed over his entire collection of witchweed, for which I was exceptionally grateful.  I now possessed an ample supply of one of the more important ingredients for a multitude of Mother’s potions, possibly even enough to begin my own experimentation.  For the moment, however, I was content to brew recipes which I knew would yield reliable results.

Nohta and I shared a house with the Cheese family that night, partially out of their desire for a safe place to rest for the evening and partially out of our desire to barter for supplies.  By selling nearly all of the weapons we had scavenged from the raiders and some of the miscellaneous junk acquired in Coltsville to Cheddar, we had amassed enough wealth to afford ammunition for our two pistols and the battered twelve-gauge shotgun that had delivered the coup de grâce to The Pyro.  Nohta was rather dismayed when Cheddar had informed her that the caliber of ammunition used by The Worm was exceptionally rare, and quite expensive, but she still bought his entire meager stock of the gargantuan bullets.  Almost equally as rare were extra cells for my pistol.  Though after the recycling trick shown to me by Moozarella, and after my own short stint of bartering with “The Big Cheese,” I was feeling confident that I had collected more than enough ammunition for my own weapons.  Cheddar had relieved us entirely of our small cap collection, but I was sure that he had offered us a generous discount.

Nohta had taken our last grenade out of her packs, but despite my initial intent to sell the thing off to Cheddar and be done with it, I couldn’t bring myself to sell it.  I certainly couldn’t argue with how effective its twin had been in the Stable.  I took the grenade for myself, rolling my eyes at Nohta’s cocky expression and muttering something about “keeping our options open.”

I told Cheddar all I knew and some of what I suspected, leaving out the details regarding Stable 76, of the situation in Mareon.  Despite my warnings, his opportunistic side shone through when he realized that demand for his wares would most certainly be up, driving prices through the roof.  I only hoped that the family would find the town safely, and that no further attacks would be visited upon the settlement while they stayed there.


**************


When the morning found us, Cheddar, Brie, and Merlot set out to scavenge what they could from the remains of Coltsville before the family would leave for Mareon.  The family was ready to move on, and Nohta and I found ourselves likewise ready for another day.

Cabernet softly closed the door behind us, “Do you like to read?”  String’s mother had stayed behind to watch after the sleeping colt, and was whispering over his muffled snores as the two of us exited the room he had slept in.  I blessed whomever had decided to install the lime-green shag carpet in this home.  The tacky color was an eyesore, but the carpet deadened our hoof-falls completely; String would get his rest so long as we stayed quiet.

My face broke out in a broad smile, “Oh, of course!  Who doesn’t?”  My scarlet light danced off the peeling wallpaper and frayed sofas as I brought out several of the books I had been carrying across the desert.  I tried to keep my voice down as I gushed about my small collection of literature, books shuffling from their places in my packs to flash between us as I hurried to describe each in turn.  “I got these from my mother and father!  This one is about ancient Equestrian history and the nation’s relations with the bordering kingdoms!  This is a thorough biography of Starswirl the Bearded!  And this one details the great scientific and cultural advancements that took place just after the unification of the three tribes under Luna’s-”

She cut me off before I could build up too much steam, gently prodding the book between us to the side and replacing it with her amused face.  “Candy, not to be rude or anything, but do you read anything a little more, er, relevant to our time and place?”  

“I…”  I hesitated a moment, then brought out my science book.  “Well, I have this.  The arcane technologies that make up the majority of this tome’s contents were only invented within the last couple hundred years…”  Was that relevant enough?  I didn’t really want to share Mother’s book with her, but it had been a while since I had found somepony to discuss literature with; I desperately wanted our conversation to go well!

“Oh, that one’s a little… lengthy.  And the words are a little… ”

“Sesquipedalian?”  I offered, instantly wincing at the irony.

She chuckled behind her hoof.  “Well, I was going to say… big.  But yes, that works too.”  She glanced in the direction of the kitchen, and the two of us plodded into the room to sit at the small wooden table.  

“The Big Book of Arcane Sciences’ seems like it would be right up your alley, but I didn’t much care for it myself.  I’m more a fan of books like this one.”  She reached into her packs, producing a thick book covered with numbers and geometric shapes before laying it upon the table.

I eyed the blue and red cover, reading aloud.  “Bean’s Electronics: Everything you’ve bean dying to know about repair, from sky-chariots to radios!”  I couldn’t help but groan and roll my eyes at the word choice in the subtitle.  

A sly smile crept across my face as I looked back to the red mare sitting next to me, “Between this and Cheddar, it would appear that you have a weakness for bad puns.”  

She laughed, and winked one of her lilac eyes in my direction.  “Ha!  Yes well, we all have our guilty pleasures.”  She returned my grin with her own full-force smirk as her voice took on an oddly warm quality.  “And I find it’s often the simple pleasures that are the best ones.”

My gaze fell to my hooves atop the table as I recited the third truth of my faith in a cheerless voice.  “Take pleasure in simple things.  For Laughter is forever important.”

“Candy?”  I looked back up to her, and saw the concern in her face.  “Are you alright?”  She reached out and placed her burgundy hoof over my own.

The genuineness of her worried inquiry took me off guard.  I couldn’t help but answer truthfully as I felt her hoof rub over my own.  “I… no.  No, I’m not.”  My free hoof left the table, rubbing my eyes while I thought aloud.  “My sister and I are just aren’t prepared for this.  She wants to find and kill raiders, but I know we should be more focused on finding-”  I caught myself, sighed, and opened my eyes to find Cabernet listening intently.  “I know that time is of the essence, but I haven’t the faintest notion of what to do in our situation.  I can’t fix our problem if I can’t even find it.”  I shook my head, a wry smile twisting my lips, “I suppose I should just be happy that Nohta and I are still alive, but I can’t help but think we should be doing more.  I just wish that I knew where to start.”

She pulled her hoof away from mine, “Well, it sounds you have a lot of things on your plate already, sweetheart.”  Was that disappointment in her voice?  She smiled wanly at me, “But you know what I do when I can’t figure something out?”  I shook my head, and she nodded at the book upon the table.  “I read.”

“Really?  How is learning how to repair… “  My magic flipped the book open to a random page, “...toasters of all things going to help my sister and I?”

“You might be surprised at how helpful it can be to try something new.”  Her smirk returned, and she inched closer.  “Something you never thought you’d do?”  I swear, she was starting to remind me of Caramel… Just not as… bubbly.

My eyes drifted to the wall, looking at nothing in particular as I thought aloud.  “So I just have to do things that I normally wouldn’t do?”  My mind was piecing her advice together, adding its own bits of wisdom along the way.  “Just start taking small, safe chances so that I might be able to gauge myself and learn along the way?”  My eyes found hers again.  “That… actually makes a lot of sense.”

“It’s the only way any of us ever figure ourselves out, sweetie.”  Her hoof returned to my own.

“Well, in that case, I need to ask you a question.”  Okay Candy, you can do this!  It doesn’t matter how unladylike it is!  This is a test!

Her voice was a breathy whisper, “Anything.”  She batted her pretty lashes, but my eyes were already focusing on my target.

“Can I have that book?”  My free hoof pointed to the repair book.

She stammered slightly, probably taken aback at the rudeness of my solicitation.  “O-Of course.  I’ve already read it several times through anyway.”  My goodness, she was right!  That small and very impolite request had actually proven rather beneficial!

She gripped my hoof in her own and resumed speaking in her dusky voice, “Is there anything else you want?”

I levitated the book into my saddlebags, “Well, there is one thing…”

“Yes?”  Her half-lidded eyes smouldered in my direction as she leaned closer.

I opened my mouth to proffer my second request, but was abruptly cut off when Nohta’s voice called out from behind us.  “What the fuck are you doing?”

Cabernet snapped back, her hoof leaving my own as she sat straight up in her chair.  We both turned our heads to see the questioning glare upon my sister’s uncovered face.

I didn’t want Nohta to scare off my new literary companion, so I attempted to ease over the tensions with some honesty.  “Nohta!  I was just about to ask Cabernet where we might find the library that Cheddar mentioned last night.”

They both raised their eyebrows at that, which I found to be exceptionally odd, and they both voiced their disbelief with the same word.  “Really?”

“Mmhmm.  I thought that since we were already in Coltsville, we might as well make a stop at the library that Cheddar spoke of.  Perhaps we could find a book or two that might fetch a decent price once we return to Mareon.”  A small smile spread across my face as I nearly giggled at my own cleverness.  “Of course, that will be after I’ve had the chance to read them.”  Oh, taking risks was fun!  

“You know as well as I do that we could use the caps, dear sister.”  I winked at Nohta, who blinked twice, then shook her head and chuckled.  I had no idea why she would find that funny, but at least she was in a good mood.

“Ya… ya I do.”  My sister walked around the table and sat opposite of Cabernet and I.  “So, Cabs…”  Her face was set in a near-scowl as her eyes narrowed at the red mare.  “How do we get to the library?”  Her voice was oddly rigid, sounding forced and terse as she held her brass-shod hooves together on top of the table and stared intently at our friend.  My brow wrinkled in confusion.  Nohta was being positively rude!  Er… relatively speaking, of course.

Cabernet lightly shook her head, muttering under her breath imperceptibly and rolling her eyes.  After her confusing show of frustration, she looked to Nohta and spoke in an equally terse voice.  “I think it’s on Elm Street, off that way.”  She waved a hoof towards the general direction of the center of Coltsville.  “We passed it on the way into town.  Merlot had said something about finding a spot to rest in town and Cheddar’s ears started flapping, so we kept moving.”  She got up from the table, sighing.  “Thanks again for helping my son, Candy.  If you find any good books in the library that I don’t already own, then I’ll buy them from you when you get back to Mareon.”  She hooked a hoof in the bedroom’s direction, “I think I’m going to go make sure String is sleeping well.”

My sister and I watched her go, and after the last flash of her scarlet tail had disappeared behind the closing door I turned to my sister and whispered plainly.  “I think you scared her away, Nohta.”  My eyebrows were set in a scowl as my lips pursed from frustration.

She leaned back in her chair, inspecting her brass shoes nonchalantly, “Ya, probably.”

“Moon and stars, you did that on purpose!”  I kept my voice low, trying to keep from waking String as I hissed through my teeth.

Her voice was flat, “Maybe.”  She brushed some miniscule fleck of dust from her shoulder and stared at me from across the table.

“It’s not exactly as if we have an overabundance of ponies lining up to be our friends, Nohta.  Are you going to attempt to drive them all away?”

She stared evenly at me from across the table.  “No.  Just the one’s I don’t like.”  Her voice was calm and relaxed, as if she was completely justified in her actions.  I snorted, crossing my hooves in front of myself and shaking my head.

She leaned forward against the table, her eyebrows furrowing to betray her curiosity.  “So what’s the deal?  Why do you really want to go to the library?”

“I… I just told you.”  The abrupt subject change took me off guard.  I was forced to abandon my frustration with my little sister to answer her questions.  “We might be able to scavenge intact books to bolster our bartering supplies.  Surely the library must hold something of value that could be of use to us.”  I had no idea just how right I was.

“Ya, about that.”  She jabbed her hoof in my direction as she bore a cautious expression.  “You’re not really the one that thinks of the practical things, Candy.  You’re more like the one that gets wrapped up in daydreams and her own imagination.  What’s with you and thinking about caps all of a sudden?”

My muzzle rose indignantly, “I’m free to change my mind about things, dear sister.  I’m trying something new!”

A note of melancholy tinged her voice, “Don’t change too much, Sis.”  I didn’t really know how to respond to that, and so the two of us sat in silence.

After a moment, my little sister fidgeted in her seat and resumed conversation.  “So, uh.  This library.  It’s probably got like, old newspapers and stuff, right?”  Nohta was beginning to work out her own plan.

I followed along as best I could.  “This town looks as if housed only slightly more ponies than were in our… home, Nohta.  I doubt that a small settlement like this would keep an archive of newspaper articles spanning back for very long, if at all.”  Wheels in my mind turned of their own accord.  “But there might be a digital archive of data stored within a terminal.”

She continued in a slightly hopeful tone, rubbing her hooves together and scrunching her eyebrows in thought.  “So, we might be able to get some info there?  Stuff like the local school’s hoofball game?”

“I hardly see why you of all people would be interested in the affairs of ponies who died over two centuries ago, but… yes, perhaps.”  I shook my head in disbelief.  “Where are you going with this, Nohta?”

She held a hoof before her in a cautious manner.  “I’m saying that there might, and I mean might, be a reason to go to the library after all.”  My brow raised sharply, and she took that as an opportunity to continue.  “That map we got from the Pyro’s little bitch wasn’t really all that great.  I mean, seriously, we’re pretty fucking lucky that he could even spell.  There’s next to no information on it that’s useful.”  She tapped the table with her hoof, staring at me with her amethyst eyes.  “But maybe there’s something in the library about the local towns in this area.  The Pyro decided to make Coltsville her base.  What if the other raider bosses did the same?  Maybe there’s a couple other towns out here just a little ways away where the raiders are holed up and waiting on… what's-her-face’s orders.”

I scratched my chin with a hoof, allowing my sister’s idea to sink in.  I nodded, “Mareon was originally a small settlement in this region; Coltsville another.  It stands to reason that there may be other small towns in the area.  And if they are in comparable condition to Mareon or even Coltsville, then it is likely that ponies might seek shelter within them.”  That was it!  “Any group larger than one of our caravans traveling through the area would most likely have to stop and rest in one of those towns.  It’s very likely that by finding the local settlements, we might find a clue as to the whereabouts of our stable!”

Her face scrunched in disgust as she quickly reversed her opinion, “Eh… shit.  I knew this was a bad idea.  We should just get back to Mareon, where it’s safer.”

“Nohta!”

She nodded, ignoring me.  “We could probably just ask somepony where all the nearby towns are anyway.”

“Nohta!”  I was hissing, trying to get her attention.  It didn’t work.

She looked back to me, her face pleading.  “I mean, come on… this is a dumb idea, Sis.  Let’s not take unnecessary risks.”  Goddess, the irony… 

“Nohta!  That might work, but what if the ponies of Mareon have forgotten the location of an abandoned town?  Time may have robbed them of that knowledge.  But not enough time has passed to wipe the digital memory of an archive.”  My outstretched hoof pointed to the east, “Luna only knows how much desert is out there, Nohta!  And how many signs have we seen that haven’t been rusted over completely?  How likely would it really be for us to stumble across the answer from chatting up the ponies in Mareon?  What if somepony only took that as an opportunity to send us to the middle of the desert where they might ambush us?  I don’t want a repeat of our Caravan’s fate, Nohta!” I tapped the tabletop with a hoof, my voice carrying the finality of my decision.  “We need to go the library, sister.”

Her eyes regarded me for a long moment as she slumped her shoulders, defeated.  Finally, she spoke in a tired whisper.  “Fine.  But only if we can scrounge up enough supplies today to still be okay after we waste our time poking through this damned library.  I don’t want to have to watch you scarf down all the snack cakes and Sparkle-Cola only for us to go hungry while we lug a bunch of books back to Mareon.”

She glanced at the bedroom door which separated us from Cabernet and String.  “I’m still kinda tired, I’m gonna take a nap so we aren’t leaving at noon.”  I nodded, beginning any venture at all during the most unholy hour of day was widely regarded in the Stable as bad luck.  If nothing else, it would allow us to stay indoors and out of the excessive heat.  She stifled a yawn and continued, “I’d like to mess with my gun before we leave too.  Try to remember how to clean it and whatnot.”

My pistol floated to the tabletop as I inspected the grooves, lights, and numbers on its frame.  “I’ll join you.  For both.  A little beauty sleep might do us both some good.  And I’m still a little unsure of how to disassemble and reassemble my little laser pistol; the practice would be welcome before we depart.”

“Feel free,”  She began, hopping out of her chair and stepping towards the room she had claimed last night, “just don’t snore too loud.  I’m wanting to sleep, not listen to you saw logs.”

“I do not snore!”

“Right, and I don’t have stripes.”

After spending a good deal of time allowing ourselves to rest, and an equally fair amount of time reviewing the skills that we had picked up regarding weapon maintenance, Nohta and I walked back into the town.  Cabernet and String were nowhere to be seen as we left the small house, and we surmised that they had left with the rest of their family.  It was well past midday when Nohta finally announced that our scavenging had yielded enough food and water that we could make the return trip to Mareon, and it was getting close to night when the two of us trotted to the library.

We followed the town’s deteriorated streets deeper inside its boundaries, weaving between rusted motorwagons and overturned vending machines.  We passed boarded storefront windows and graffitied  walls along the way, sparing them only cursory glances as I ushered Nohta towards our destination.  Before long, the two and three-story buildings to our sides gave way to a wide-open lot underneath the cloudy sky.   

The library was colossal.  From the outside, it appeared to be every bit as large as the Stable had been.  And above ground, at that.  Greying brick walls towered over the immediate area, dwarfing the dead husks of nearby trees in the expansive lawn in front of the building.  Rows and rows of cracked windows stretched along the three storied structure.

The sun’s light, dimmed by the blanket of clouds in the sky, was slowly disappearing behind the ravaged northeast corner of the building.  It was one of many breaches torn through the outer wall; brick and mortar giving way to exposed wire, insulation, and planks of rotted wood.  Deeper inside the wounds I could make out the shapes of desks and cubicles, and the lovely telltale glow of terminals promising a bevy of local information to sate my curiosity.

“You sure this is a good idea, Sis?  I mean… We don’t really need anything from here.  We could just hit the road right now, maybe make it back to the bridge we crossed getting here, and camp out for the night before we head to Mareon tomorrow.”

“We’ve already tarried too long in this town, dear.  We will most certainly have to end up spending the night in one of the abandoned homes later on.  So, with that in mind, what’s the harm in spending just a little more time to learn of history?”  Nohta huffed at my answer, but I knew my little sister well enough to understand which strings to pull.

I let my voice take on a dreamy longing for days gone past, “This is the sort of thing that Mother and Father used to talk about, you know.  Finding an abandoned relic, discovering past intrigues, learning little bits and pieces of puzzles that you only seem to understand much later.”  A small smirk crept up the side of my face as I dropped the last little bomb on my sister’s fortress of resistance, “Hacking into terminals and cracking safes to find tiny treasures…”  I sighed theatrically, utterly failing to conceal my enjoyment at Nohta’s expense.  “Of course, if you don’t want to go exploring like Mother and Father did… “  I turned and began slowly walking back to the town.

Nohta caved mere moments later, “Okay!  Fine, fine.  We’ll go into the boring old library and poke around for a while.  But when we start to get tired, we gotta get back out here and find a bed, okay?”

I was practically giggling with excitement as I raced back to my sister and hugged her.  “Agreed, let’s go!”

We followed the walkway leading up to the stone stairs of the library, sidestepping ancient fissures and potholes as we trotted along.  Nohta and I both skirted past a small pit that had been lazily concealed with old newspapers and twigs.  It looked rather out of place, conspicuously cut into the concrete and earth before the facility’s entrance.  The two of us ignored it and continued onward up the steps as our Pipbucks buzzed and indicated we had discovered “The Coltsville Library.”  A moment’s hesitation was all I spared for my Pipbuck before the promise of literature shoved all other thoughts aside and I kept moving forward.

Large revolving glass doors, still surprisingly smooth in their motions, gave way to an interior vestibule decorated by a single receiving desk with about half of a broken terminal sitting atop its surface.  A fading picture in an elegant golden frame adorned the wall behind the desk, allowing the image of a dapper young gentlecolt in marvelous business attire to welcome all who should enter his domain.  Several short ficus trees, clearly artificial as evidenced by their still-green leaves, sat within pots along the walls next to uncomfortable looking wooden chairs with threadbare upholstered seats.  On either side of the desk a doorway leading deeper into the facility could be found, but the portal on our left had been blocked by chunks of fallen concrete debris.

The tattered and fraying rug upon the marble floor muffled our hoofsteps as we moved past the desk and towards the open entranceway.  It was exceedingly quiet, just the way a library should be.  I was beginning to have trouble containing my enthusiasm, and the grin on my face had long since broken free of its bonds.

As we entered the massive chamber that was the library proper, my heart melted.  Even if the shelves were dirty, dusty, and falling apart…  Even if quite a few of the books had been destroyed by time, eaten by radroaches, or simply pilfered from their shelves by wandering passersby…  Even if the fading light of day was poking through the rebar that stretched between the gargantuan holes in the ceiling…  This was a palace of literature.  A bastion of learning and creativity.  An oasis of wisdom in a desert of dull thoughts.  A quiet temple erected to honor a goddess every bit as wonderful as Luna herself: Knowledge.

The floor of the library dipped in a low curve, as if somepony had built the facility within the bowl of a crater.  Concentric circles of bookshelves, divided into quarters by walking paths, expanded from the middle of the room, eventually reaching the walls on the lowest level.  New shelves ringed each ascending circle as the terraced floors rose from the center of the bowl.  In the middle of the room, a monolithic support column climbed out of the interior space of a service desk, and as with nearly every other surface in the chamber, it was covered in racks of time-worn literature.

So lost was I in my pleasant fantasies about snuggling into a comfortable chair with a cup of tea and becoming enraptured in the bliss of quilled words that I hardly noticed either the bulky black or thin red shapes scattered amongst every level of the terrace.  My sister’s hurried words were lost amongst pleasant memories of my favorite pastime.  Even as she tugged on my labcoat, I simply waved her off dismissively, revelling in the joy of finally finding something truly good in the wasteland.

A synthetic voice, rumbling in an electric bass some ten feet from my side, startled me from my daydream, “Alert!  Noncombatants are advised to leave the area.  Security sweep in progress.  Lethal force may be used without warning!”

I turned to face a robotic nightmare.  A jet black steel monstrosity of armor and weapons rolled on four metal spheres attached to the ends of outstretched legs.  The mechanical clank and clatter of bullets and machinery loading into place accompanied the sight of three armaments mounted on a swiveling torso that were far and away more dangerous than anything else I had yet encountered.  Two massive, six barreled guns adorned its sides, while a red-tipped rocket was sliding into place in a turret mounted along its left shoulder.  

A series of smaller turrets, fixed to the floor and ceiling in front of us by bolted plates of shiny steel, beeped ominously as their metal gears whirred to spin multi-barreled weapons in our direction.  I understood the necessity for a quiet place in which to read, but enforcing that silence through such extravagant means seemed like blatant overkill.  Surely nopony had been that tardy when returning their borrowed books.

My sister’s anxious voice finally found my ear, “Sis… I think we need to go.”

Shouting from the center of the room cut through the noise of robots advancing on our position, “No!  I said shut them down!  Now!”

The large robot to my right rumbled in a voice comprised of synthetic thunder, “Vacate the premises immediately.  You have fifteen seconds to comply.”

“Right… ah, we’ll just be going then.”  I began to backpedal towards the door, when another metallic giant rolled into the doorway, cutting off our escape.  I nearly backed into the enormous construct before I realized it was there and turned to face it.

The newcomer belted out another perilous warning in a digital bass identical to the voice of the first, “Your presence is interfering with military operations.  You have ten seconds to leave the area.  Lethal force has been authorized.”

“You’re blocking our only way out, you giant tin fuck!”  Nohta, even if vulgar, always did have a way of cutting right to the heart of the issue.

More shouting from the service desk, “I don’t care!  Activate the codes!  That’s an order!”

A quick glance towards the center of the room revealed more robots, only pony-shaped and moving upon four legs with natural and powerful strides as opposed to rolling about on treaded balls attached to stiff limbs.  What I first imagined to be the robots’ red-coat-wearing masters were bustling amongst each other, shouting and jabbing their hooves wildly in a frenzy of motion as they crowded together near a terminal on top of a great wooden desk.  The ominous sound of spinning weapon-barrels regained my attention as a thin red beam snaked its way towards my forehead.

My jaw dropped, my ears went limp against my head, and I froze in fear. The metallic brute was aiming weapons that could reduce my body to a fine red mist directly underneath my horn.  I had no option against such an opponent.  There was no way to win this fight.  I was powerless here.

I should have run.  I should have drawn my weapon.  I should have… taken much more thorough precautions when I decided to go poking around old ruins, especially when I had all but dragged my sister along with me.  As I found myself then, still largely ignorant of the danger lurking around every corner and ill-prepared for the proverbial hornet’s nest which I had stirred, I saw no other option than to pray.

I wrapped my hooves around Nohta, pulling her to my chest and whispering to The Goddess, “Luna save us…”

“This is your final warning.  Trespassers will be executed.  You have five secoooonnndssss… “  The final rumbling word emitted from the giant robot drug on as its form slumped and its weapons slowed to a crawl, then stopped completely.  Its dialogue faded to a low hiss before ending with an abrupt *Pop.*

I was shaking.  Nohta had already fished an inhaler of Dash from her cloak and was attempting to bite down on the tiny plastic mouthpiece when we realized that the robots had deactivated.  She spat the little thing back into one of her pockets and held onto me a moment longer, then slid out of the embrace to face our new assailants.

Two of the pony-shaped robots lumbered in our direction.  Massive weapons, every bit as extravagant and demoralizing as the bulkier models, were hanging at their sides and trained on our position.  Much to my surprise, one of them spoke to us.

“Hey!  What the hell are you two doing in here?”  I jerked back, startled to hear such natural speech from a robot.  “Keep your weapons holstered and come with us, Star-Paladin Sandalwood wants a word with you.”  It took me a moment, but I soon realized that these weren’t robots.  They were ponies.  Ponies in massive suits of heavy steel armor that encased their entire bodies in thick protective shells.

Nohta and I glanced at each other, sharing a wary look of desperation, but neither of us saw any way out of the predicament.  The doorway was still blocked, and we had no way of escape.  We had stumbled into a den of… well, not raiders, but we were utterly at their mercy all the same.  I whispered to my sister, “We should do as they say for now.  Let’s try to find a peaceful way out of this situation.”

“Shit, Sis, are you sure?  I’m getting a bad feeling here.”  The tinge of fear in my sister’s eyes broadcast precisely how much trouble we were in, but I couldn’t think of a way to assuage her worries.

I continued whispering, desperately hoping that my own warning would stick with her.  “What other option do we have, Nohta?  Let’s just be careful of what we say, alright?”

Her simple and inelegant response was a perfect prelude to how the rest of our night would proceed.  “Fuck.”

Nohta clearly didn’t approve of following their orders, but the two of us had no choice.  We followed one of the armored ponies as the other stepped behind us, and the pair escorted us down into the terraced pit of the library towards the central desk.  The hurried forms of nearly two dozen ponies, all wearing either the long and flowing crimson robes or the bulky metal armor, rushed to and fro between bookcases and shelves.  By The Goddess, how had I missed all of them?

A brusque voice, clearly a mare’s, was belting out commands that were only slightly distorted by the helmet she wore.  “Two tribals!  TWO tribals!  Why are the sentinel’s threat-level recognition software suites still prepping missiles for every minor threat?  I don’t want them bringing this whole building down on our heads when they expend ordinance on TWO wasteland savages!  And those firing vectors!  They were RIGHT in each other’s line of fire!  Five more seconds and they would have been perforated heaps of scrap!  Scribe Cypher, fix that programming!  Knight Rain, police the perimeter!  Paladin Able, seal up that door and make sure these are the only two idiots to barge in here!”  Her armor bore several scratches and indentations indicative of past battles, but was still polished to a shiny-black sheen save for the silver filigree upon her helmet and matching six-pointed star upon her breast.  A long rifle adorned her left side, while one of the multi-barreled guns hung at her right.  Her presence and demeanor demanded respect, and I was sure that we had been brought before the leader of this band.

A flurry of salutes, hurried apologies, and acknowledgements of orders accompanied a rush of activity as the armor-clad pony regarded us, flanked on either side by two more ponies in nearly identical barding.  Their armor, I noted, lacked the shiny silver star upon the breast, but possessed broader shoulders and more robust frames to presumably fit their male occupants.  A unicorn mare with a bright green mane and a dusty-yellow coat, arrayed in one of the long red garments that all of the unicorns wore, stayed behind the trio to eye Nohta and I with her curious expression that somehow managed to come off as extraordinarily arrogant.  It was the sort of look one might give a particularly interesting insect before deciding that the bug needed to be squished.  I had an instant dislike of her.

The leader stepped forward, raising an armored hoof to poke and prod at the base of her helmet.  A tiny hiss escaped the armor as her helmet was lifted from her head, revealing the tan face and short, burnt-sienna mane of the earth pony that held our fate in her hooves.

She placed her helmet upon her shoulder where it hung like a war-trophy and regarded us for a moment with cold cinnamon eyes, then asked in a voice as rigid as steel, “Do you two have any idea where you are?”

Before I could puzzle out exactly how to respond to the not-so-nice pony who had begrudgingly saved our lives, and was now asking infuriatingly condescending questions, Nohta answered for me.  “What?”

The armored mare sighed, shook her head lightly in agitation and whispered under her breath, “Luna save me from the ignorants in the wastes…“  Then pointed to herself with an armored hoof and continued in a mocking tone, “Me Sandalwood.  Me big big boss lady in Steel Rangers.  We make short home here.  You tribals not welcome!  Why you come?”

Now that was just insulting!  I clopped a hoof on the marble floor, “While your timely intervention with the robots was most appreciated, I would enjoy the opportunity to beseech you for a cessation of this mockery you call communication.  It behooves nopony to belittle our intelligence in such a foalish manner!”

Her face lit up, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.  “Ah!  Good!  You know Equestrian!  I was afraid that I might be reduced to pointing and grunting… “

Where was all of this hostility coming from?  “Whatever did we do to upset you so?”  

“You’re tribals.”  She stated as if the answer should have been obvious.  “Ignorant, backwater savages who utterly destroy any useful technology that you get your grubby little hooves on.  You’re only good for getting in the way, breeding at an alarming rate, and soaking up bullets that might wound a ranger.”

Her eyes traveled over me as I glared at her.  Without turning, she addressed the unicorn behind her.  “Senior Scribe Meadow, what do you make of them?”

The unicorn that had stayed behind the armored ponies to silently judge us came up beside Sandalwood, adjusting her black-rimmed glasses and squinting in our direction as her nasal voice rattled off descriptive details in quick succession, “Two tribals.  One a unicorn, one an earth pony… possibly.  Unicorn bears primitive tribal markings presumably designed to bear resemblance to zebra stripes.  Unicorn wearing badly damaged Stable-Tec labcoat and a Model 3000A Pipbuck, along with what appears to be a magical energy pistol.” 

Her brow furrowed in concentration as she adjusted her thick frames and peered at my hoof.  “While Enclave technology is well beyond my realm of expertise, this appears to be a military-grade sidearm.”  I felt the urge to cover myself, feeling exposed and vulnerable under her scrutinizing eyes.  I had to settle for shrinking back as my tail instinctively curled itself around my flank.  She continued, heedless of my discomfort as she jabbed her hoof at my weapon.  “Note the position of the serial numbers.  That alone sets it apart from a civilian model, though it is plainly obvious that this weapon has undergone extensive improvised modification.  Somepony in the Wasteland has thoroughly customized it to their preference.  Admittedly, somepony who knew far more about energy weapons than I.”  She sighed, as if simply admitting her ignorance pained her.  

I, on the other hoof, couldn’t help but think of Father.  He had never spoken of how he had acquired the pistol.  But if what this unicorn was saying was true, he had put quite a lot of work into making it his own weapon.  Certainly, it had served him well in his travels.  And he had chosen to give his best weapon to me, in the hope that I would learn to protect myself…

The unicorn coughed, clearing her throat and dragging me back from my thoughts.  “Moving on,”  She stated in a clear and academic voice.

I was more than a little disgusted to have the entirety of my worth summed up by my possessions, but she continued before I could get a word in.  “Second individual is harder to assess.  Though clearly a young mare, this individual is wearing an age-worn Zebra assassin cloak.  The stealth talisman is clearly nonfunctional, possibly due to the magical energies being exhausted.”  Stealth talisman?  Mother had never said anything about that.

Meadow continued in that same grating voice, “Small bulge along her right foreleg suggests that she too is wearing a Pipbuck.  Curious, though not altogether unexpected given that her companion wears one as well.  Of course, being a mare of science, I’d have to see it for myself to be absolutely sure.  You never really know what these filthy tribals might have stuffed up their sleeves.”  Nohta squirmed at being regarded and visually dissected like a common radroach, but kept quiet save for the barely audible and near-feral growl rumbling from her throat.  Instead of responding verbally, she inched closer to me, subtly attempting to place herself between me and the ponies.

“Conclusion,”  Meadow adjusted her glasses with a hoof and continued, “Two individuals, possibly stable dwellers though just as likely to be simple wasteland scavengers, who pose minimal threat.  Code requires confiscation of their Stable-Tec property, zebra relic, and class one energy weapon, but otherwise I can see of no reason to waste ammunition or any further time upon them.”

“Confi-  confiscation of what?”  I stammered, hoping that Meadow hadn’t meant what I thought she had.

Sandalwood answered, locking her cold eyes with my own anxious stare.  “Your Pipbucks, her cloak, and your pistol.”

Nohta bristled, offering her own suggestion in a voice of cold fury, “I have a better idea.  Go fuck yourselves, this cloak is mine.”

Meadow perked up, “Second individual’s vocal patterns suggests that she may, in fact, be a zebra.  Star-Paladin, may I?”

Sandalwood’s eyes squinted, her rifle pointing directly at my face.  “Yes.”

Before either of us could figure out what was going on, a magenta glow enveloped my sister.  We both gasped, and she was lifted off the floor by the reddish-purple haze while her legs kicked and jabbed uselessly in the air underneath her.  I looked back to the unicorn in front of us.  Meadow’s horn was glowing with the same light surrounding Nohta.

“Let me go!”  My sister was screaming, thrashing wildly while the unicorn’s magic held her.  I knew we needed to keep from aggravating the situation, but my ire was quickly rising.  How dare they?  They had no right!  How dare they!?

Stay calm, Candy… I had to tell myself.  Stay calm or you’ll both end up dead.  She’s just lifting her hood back.  The unicorn won’t hurt her…

“Fuck!  What are you doing?”  The red and gold sleeve that Nohta had pulled over her Pipbuck was peeled away, exposing both the device and her striped hoof.  

Stay calm… Control your breathing… I closed my eyes.  Nohta was tough, and this was nothing.  I had levitated her many times when we were both fillies.  

A nasal voice.  “Pipbuck, like I suspected.  Stripes too, but I’ll have to unveil her face to be certain, ma’am.”

A gruff and concise answer.  “Do it.”

Calm Candy!  Stop grinding your teeth!  Nohta used to enjoy levitating.  She liked flying around the room… She liked it because she could imagine she was the win-

“Shit!  Candy, help!”  That simple cry for assistance in a pained and frightened voice was like a hammer through glass.

When I opened my eyes everything that I saw was bathed in a blood-red glow.  I was expending far more magical power than was needed to lift my pistol from its holster, but the shadow cast over the unicorn’s startled features by the weapon I was levitating inches from her nose was worth it.  Goddess, the weapon had practically teleported!

I spared no attention to the flickering orb of energy floating over Meadow’s head.  And I only noticed the half-dozen or so orbs that quickly joined it when they streaked through my vision to coalesce into a pulsating sphere of swirling electric hues above her horn.  For reasons unknown to me at the time, her confusion gave way to a wry smile.

“Release her.”  I ordered slowly, my face as rigid as my voice.  My sister had endured quite enough torment at the hooves of our captors and I was ready to be done with this entire debacle, no matter the consequences.  Unfortunately, the ponies had other ideas.  

Meadow smirked behind my pistol; one eye hidden by the short barrel of my weapon, the other boring into my own.  “Apprehension at first, while she judges her surroundings and likely forms a plan.  All thrown to the wayside in favor of protecting her comrade.  Or rather,”  My sister’s hood was thrown back as she was dumped unceremoniously at my hooves.  “...in favor of protecting her sister.”

“Nohta!”  I moved to aid my sister as she struggled to right herself on the library floor.  My pistol slowly floated back to its holster on my leg while I held Nohta’s shaking form.  Knowing my sister, I was sure that it wasn’t fear, but rage that was robbing her of control.   Our position, impotent in the face of such opposition, had the potential to grow wildly out of hoof if I couldn’t find a peaceful solution soon.  I was lucky that my emotional outburst hadn’t ended up killing us both.

“Sisters?  Are you sure?”  Sandalwood’s cold eyes regarded us on the floor at her hooves.

Meadow adjusted her glasses, “Note the stripes on their faces, underneath the eyes.  Nearly identical.  Combined with the level of familiarity they exhibit towards each other and the intel ascertained by our scout, I’m almost positive.”

Sandalwood snorted, “Maybe this can work after all.”

The armored mare stared coldly at me for a moment, before breaking her silence and posing a question to the unicorn named Meadow.  Regarding me with calculating eyes, she nodded in my direction, “The unicorn is wearing a labcoat, and your scribe said that she was a capable doctor.  If they came from a stable she might have a little skill with terminals.  Do you think she can do it?”  

Meadow balked at her armored comrade, “Star-Paladin Sandalwood!  With all due respect, ma'am, surely you don’t mean to entrust them with such-”

“If it keeps our scribes and knights out of harm’s way, then yes.  I would like to throw the cannon fodder at the problem first.  Besides, you know as well as I do that it’s probably just another replica.”  Sandalwood let out a long exhalation before continuing, “The knights could use the rest after marching through the desert with all of our gear.  Even more so after all the recent surprises we’ve been through.  If nothing else, our volunteer will be there to make sure things go smoothly.”

Volunteer?  What?  Of whom was she speaking?  I didn’t want to help these savages!

Meadow rubbed her chin in thought, before slowly nodding, “Yes ma’am.  If they are, in fact, from a stable, then it stands to reason that the unicorn may have some skill in manipulating Stable-Tec technologies.  If nothing else, they might be able to provide cover for our scribe.  Provided they are as amicable as our scout has described them.”

One of their number knew us?  That was preposterous!  Surely I would have remembered meeting somepony in that heavy armor!

Throughout the conversation, Sandalwood’s eyes had never left me, and the massive weapons at her side had never pointed away from the kneeling forms of my sister and I.  I was left surprised when Sandalwood addressed me directly., “You.  What’s your name?”

Was she trying to be polite now?  “I… My name is Candy.”

“Can you hack a terminal?”  Or maybe she was just being very to-the-point.

I finally regained my composure, and with it my ability to question her as well.  I glared at her for a moment before replying, “I don’t suppose why I shouldn’t be able to, given enough time.  But why would I want do anything to help you?  You’re nearly as bad as raiders!  You’re threatening to rob us; possibly worse!”

Sandalwood chuckled, finally turning to Meadow as she gestured in my direction with a hoof, “See what I mean?  This is a problem.  Your scribe understands that.”

Meadow’s eyes narrowed.  Whatever was being communicated between the two of them was clearly not to her liking.  “With all due respect, ma’am, there is very little room for ‘personal interpretation’ of our laws and traditions.”

“That’s true.  But there is a precedent for this situation.  Remember Foxfire Company and the assault on X-16?”

Meadow scoffed, “Ancient history?  Ma’am, please tell me you’re joking!  That occurred so long ago that anypony would be hard-pressed to argue that it’s even tangentially relevant to our current situation.”

Sandalwood smirked at me, ignoring Meadow’s protests completely.  “Here’s the deal.  You have three possible courses of action.  One: You hoof over your belongings and get the hell out of my sight, where the wastes will deal with you soon enough.  Two: Resist.  And I will kill you.”  She paused, having lost her smirk as her reddish-brown eyes promised a quick and merciless death.  “Or you can take the third route, and do me a favor.  If you help me out, I’ll return the kindness and let you keep your gear.”

I gulped back my fear, meeting her cold eyes with my own  “It appears that we find ourselves with a dearth of appropriate options.”

She placed her helmet back upon her head, and after the sounds of latches and clasps fastening into place mingled with the hiss of the pressure in her suit being equalized, she spoke in a voice only slightly muffled and distorted by her layer of steel skin, “Good.  I knew you’d see it my way.”



******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 5!
New Perk!

Bookworm:  Books!  You’ve read several on the subject!  Which subject?  All the subjects!  You pay much closer attention to the smaller details when reading.  This nets you an extra skill point when reading skill-books, more potent spells from spell-books, and your temporary bonus to skills from magazines is now doubled!  Better stretch those eye-muscles, Doctor!

Skills Note: Medicine 75

Nohta gains a Perk:

Iron Hoof (Rank 1 of 3):  Nohta’s gotten used to hitting things.  She’s gotten pretty good at it, too.  With each rank of Iron Hoof, Nohta gains +5 unarmed damage per strike.
> Chapter Five: The Value Of Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Five:


The Value Of Family



“An auspicious name, don’t you think?  It was mine before I became as I am now.  Before the Great War, even.  Truly does the creator author a destiny for each and every one of us.”


Daughters, I am… was… an assassin.  It only dawns on me as I write this that the two of you may not have the same appreciation for that occupation as most others do.  After all, I never hid that fact from you.  It was common knowledge amongst our family.

Assassins, dears, kill for a living.  Just as your father worked tirelessly to save lives, I was often employed by one individual or another to end them.  Of course, that all changed when I found my way to the Stable.  But I never forgot the lessons revealed in a target’s final moments.  And I never forgot the thrill of silently hunting my prey while cloaked in shadow.

How does a mare justify killing for profit?  Oh, I could easily rationalize it with some easy answer: I needed to trade my services in order to gain vital and life-saving information.  Or, my target was a savage fiend who preyed on the weaknesses of others.  Or better yet, I simply had no other choice than to kill in order to survive.  But, no.  I will not lie to you, girls.  Not any longer.  Lies and deceit are part of any assassin’s toolkit, but I refuse to use them on you.

The truth is that I gravitated towards this profession simply because I was good at it.  The caps it provided allowed your father and I to outfit ourselves well in our journeys, and the small reputation I had garnered within certain circles kept your father safe on more than one occasion. I killed because I felt it was the best course of action set before me.  And I did it time and time again to the best of my ability.  Truly I had the opportunity to become quite good at my craft, but the quality of my work left me with no shortage of sleepless nights.

I often found myself in the early hours of the morning, staring into a swirling concoction of greens and purples.  I would take refuge in alchemy; in the meditative quality of stirring a simmering pot above the dim glow of my talisman.  Yet for all those times I sought answers as to why I had done the things I had done, or what I would do next, the answers simply slipped into the liquid or floated away with the rising vapors.

Whenever potion-making could not soothe my mind in my later years, I sought solace within our home’s temple.  Luna’s statue, illuminated by the hoof-full of candles at her hooves, heard many confessions in those later years.  I often felt it odd that my people had despised her so, and hoped that she might understand that not all of us did.  But despite my musings about your father’s deity, she could never provide the answers I sought either.  The answers have only come recently.

I did not fully comprehend the truth until I was left alone upon this bed.  It wasn’t by the playfully flickering light of midnight candles, or by the calming glow of my talisman, or even by the deadly still shadows through which I skulked towards my next victim that I found myself.  I only came to fully understand the nature of my soul, both my strengths and my flaws, as I lay impotent upon this bed under the harshly sterile light within the clinic.  There is, I believe, wisdom in that.  Something worth passing on.

It is often the brightest lights that reveal the harshest truths.  But accepting the truth is something that we all must do.  Even if we wish to pull the comforting veil of darkness back over our eyes, we must learn to stand bravely in the light.

And sometimes we simply have to accept that others will see our faults for what they are.  Allow your tears to fall where they may, daughters, there is no shame in that; a truth I have learned only far too recently.


-Excerpt from the Book of Nadira, pgs. 24-25.



---------------------------------------------------------------


The ‘Steel Rangers,’ as they called themselves, had come to the library for a book.  I wasn’t sure if I should laugh at the obviousness of such a task, or lament the fact that even they with their large weapons and thick armor were leery of venturing into the depths of the building for their quarry.  I was assured that the task set before my sister and I was no simple fetch quest, and that there were plenty of obstacles within our path.

As Star-Paladin Sandalwood and Senior Scribe Meadow turned their backs on us, and resumed hoofing out directives to the busy ponies, a single unicorn in robes identical to the rest of her ilk approached us.  It only took a moment for me to recognize her freckled face.

She tip-hoofed towards us timidly as if she were afraid we might hurt her.  In retrospect, given our recent treatment at the hooves of these armored barbarians and their robed cohorts, I can understand why she might have decided to err on the side of caution.  

“Um, hello?”  Her voice was gentle, bearing the same tones one might use to calm a wild animal.  “You’re the doctor from Mareon, right?”  She asked behind a light green mane that was hanging in front of her eyes.  “The one that helped me get over the manticore stings?”

I scowled, my answer laconic from indignation.  “Yes.”  Perhaps this pony didn’t deserve the brunt of my frustrations, but being forced to do another group’s bidding had put me in a rather sour mood.  And that was only being exacerbated by the arrival of a former patient that turned out to be a part of said group.  Not to mention how these savages had treated my sister…  My sister!  Did this unicorn really expect no retaliation for that humiliating display?

I huffed, still holding Nohta’s shaking form in my forelegs as I pointedly looked towards the doors that Sandalwood had directed us to.  “I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”  One might have been inclined to believe I had just spent hours with my alchemical supplies, given the poison and vitriol with which those words were laced.  

The manticore victim shuffled her hooves, pursing her lips and furrowing her brow in an apologetic grimace.  Her eyes flitted between my sister and I as she fought to come up with the correct words.  “I… I’m so sorry about all of this.”

Nohta reacted almost exactly how I would have expected her to, her answer an abrasive and curt vulgarity spoken through grit teeth.  “Fuck off.”

The unicorn flinched at the words but adamantly tried again, raising a forehoof in a pleading gesture.  “Please, Star-Paladin Sandalwood and Senior Scribe Meadow were only doing what they felt was necessary.  I didn’t want any of this to happen, but we really do need help.”

“Perhaps you should have thought of the dire straits you were in before tormenting my sister.”  My stare was icy cold, but the unicorn took the brunt of my resentment without a word.  I continued a moment later.  “But then, I suppose we don’t really have a choice in the matter, now do we?”

“I’m sorry!”  The genuineness of her apology was written all over her face.  “I tried as hard as I could to convince the Star-Paladin that you two weren’t a threat, but she has to make decisions with the mission and our safety in mind!”

My voice was rising with each word as I failed to hold my frustration in check.  “And so your group decides that the appropriate action is to immediately threaten our lives and then proceed to force us into doing your dirty work?  And only after it has been made abundantly clear that we are in no position to resist does one of you come to apologize?”  This entire situation was ludicrous!  With every passing second I was lamenting the fact that I had sought out this library more and more.

She pleaded sheepishly, rubbing a robed leg against her shoulder and visibly deflating.  “You… You saved my life.  You didn’t know it, but you saved a lot of Ranger’s lives that day by helping me.”  Her eyes were hopeful as she added, “It’s only right that I should try to help you in return.”

Nohta pulled away from me and slammed a hoof onto the tiled floor, her purple eyes flashing brilliantly in obstinate rage as she shouted.  “I said, FUCK OFF!”

I could only agree with Nohta, glaring daggers at the robed unicorn before us.  “Perhaps it would be best if you simply left us alone.  My sister and I have no desire to be in this position, and neither do we want any aid you might offer.”

The unicorn lowered her head, nearly whispering, “I… I can’t.”

“And why not?”  My voice was low, dripping with indignant fury.

“Because I vouched for you.”  Her eyes were pleading with mine again, her lips trembling as she fought to get the words out, “I owed you a debt.  More than that science book was worth by far.  I volunteered to help you retrieve the artifact.”  She shook her head, grimacing.  “It was the only way to convince Star-Paladin Sandalwood to let you go!  But if we fail… I… I won’t be welcome in the Rangers anymore.”

Nohta cut her off, seething with rage.  “You think that makes any of this right?  You think that just because you’re sorry,”  My sister’s voice dropped to a mocking tone with her last words before rising again to carry her anger, “You think that makes any of this shit better?  Fuck you!”

“No!”  The unicorn’s face contorted into a pained scowl at Nohta’s words.  “No, I don’t!  And it doesn’t!  I hate that we have to do this!  I hate this whole fucking thing!  And I hate that we have to hurt others to get what we need!”  She glanced back at the wooden doors leading further into the facility before stomping her hoof on the floor with a frustrated grunt.  She continued with a bit more steel in her voice.  “But this mission is just too important!  You have no idea what is going on!  We must do this!”

As much as I wanted nothing more than to hold on to my rage, some part of me knew that our only hope for getting out of our predicament was to go forward.  I rubbed my temples in an attempt to abate my anger and asked in as civil a voice as I could muster, “Then perhaps you should explain to us exactly what we have to do.”

“Candy!”  Nohta rounded on me, her voice a mixture of surprise, anger, and hurt.  “Fuck these assholes!  Why should we do anything to help them?”

“What else can we do, sister?  We’re in no position to refuse their demands!  I don’t like this anymore than you do, but we only have one option before us.”  I stared into her eyes, “The sooner we acquiesce to their monumentally selfish and unjust request, the sooner we can be free of this entire debacle!”

Nohta’s eyes hardened even further as she stared back at me.  That was enough for me to keep speaking before she could misunderstand my intentions, “Sister, please.  I’m sorry.  I didn’t want this!  But we need to go along with their plans for now.  We can’t stand up against all of…”  My hoof waved towards the dozen or so armored ponies with extraordinarily large weapons, “...that!”  I leaned in towards her, and in a quieter voice so that only she could hear, I added, “Have faith, Nohta.  I’m trying to figure out how to get us out of this mess, but I need more time.”

Her eyes widened a miniscule amount in realization before her gaze fell to the ground.  Pulling her hood back over her face, she nodded.  “Okay, Sis.  I don’t like it, but okay.  We’ll do this your way.”  She calmly sat on her haunches and addressed the unicorn, “Tell us what we need to do so we can get out of here already.”

“I really am sorry about all of this.”  The unicorn turned from Nohta and spoke to me in a voice that was far too civil for my liking.  “I’m glad you could calm her down.  We need to have clear heads when we go further into the facility.”

I couldn’t help it.  I wanted my sister to know that I had been genuine, and well… My own frustration was far from pacified.  I glared at the unicorn, my voice dripping with venom.  “Don’t you dare mistake my intent.”  I stomped a hoof against the floor, “I am not taking your side over my sister!”  She was struggling to respond, unable to form words or maintain eye contact.  I asked her a second time, “What exactly must we do?”

Her eyes still couldn’t reach mine, but she did find her voice.  “There’s… there’s a terminal.  It will need to be hacked to bypass a barrier and retrieve the book.”  She looked up to lock her eyes with mine, “It will be hard to reach.  Judging by the directory at the service desk,” She glanced at the desk ringing the monolithic support column in the center of the room, “...we’ll probably find what we’re looking for in the director’s office.  That’s on the top floor.”

My eyes narrowed as I questioned her in an only-slightly-irritated voice, “If you haven’t been there yourself, then how do you know about the terminal?”  I wasn’t sure if it was my frazzled nerves or if my suspicions were correct, but something told me that she knew more than she was letting on.

“There’s always a terminal.  And there’s always a magical barrier.  A stasis field.”  She sighed, shaking her head, “We’ve had to do this so many times… “

Nohta’s voice was flat, unreadable.  I took it as a sign that she was struggling to maintain her facade of compliance.  “This doesn’t sound hard to me.  This sounds like a milk run.  What do you need us for?”

The unicorn turned to address my sister, “There are dangerous creatures further inside this building.  Creatures which pose a threat to our knights and paladins.  We can’t risk the power armor, and our sentinels are likewise vulnerable to their attacks.  We need non-power armor wearing fighters, and most of our scribes are more trained in technical pursuits than in combat.”  Sparing a glance in Sandalwood’s direction, she continued, “Of course, the Star-Paladin would rather that none of her Rangers be at risk, but I was able to convince her to allow me to accompany you.”  

She stepped closer, cautiously gauging her steps while her voice maintained its amiable levels.  “Did you read the book that I gave you?”

I didn’t answer at first, opting instead to warily regard the unicorn and continue huffing in discontent.  Nohta took the ensuing silence as an opportunity to get some answers, jabbing a hoof between the two of us, “Wait, you two know each other?”

I continued to glower at the red mare before us, “This is the pony that gave me the science book in exchange for treating her injuries when we first got to Mareon.”

“Hold up, she’s the one that gave you that book?”  Nohta pointed a hoof at the unicorn, “Really?”

Nohta surprised me then, gently walking towards the mare and speaking in a tone far softer than I had thought she would use for our captors, “Thank you.”

The unicorn perked up, “Oh… it was the least I could do, really.”

Nohta continued, “If you hadn’t given Candy that book, we would’ve walked right into an ambush.  And we never would have... figured some things out.”  She whipped her tail, a sure sign of annoyance, but continued speaking earnestly, “I’m still pretty fucking pissed about all of this shit, but… well… thanks.”

Really?  Was she really thanking a stranger for such a small thing?  “Nohta?”

My sister turned back to me, “You being able to hack terminals saved our lives, Sis.  She can ask…”  Nohta placed a forceful and angry emphasis on that word while glancing quickly back at the mare, “...for a favor if she wants.”

Now I was confused.  Nohta was not one to show much thought towards anypony; and coming from her, this display was tantamount to an undying declaration of love and adoration.  Was she still playing along and hoping to find the fastest route of escape, or genuinely thankful towards the one pony in this group that had given us any apologies at all?

I had witnessed how something so simple as a kind word could turn her around.  Pipe Sleeves, Moonglow, Caramel; each of them had won her over simply by treating her as an equal.  But she was nothing if not Mother’s daughter.  And mother had been an assassin. Deceitfulness was just another way to get close before a killing blow.  Perhaps that was Nohta’s aim.

Or maybe… maybe this pony before us was truly genuine.  Maybe her apologies were a lifeline in the treacherous waters through which we now swam.  What if this pony could be a friend?  An ally?  She had convinced her leader to not kill us.  Maybe she could guarantee our safety after this task was finished?

I sighed, relaxing my posture even as I considered my options.  For now, all I could do was go forward.  And that meant I’d have to wade through the injustice of my predicament and hopefully find a way out of this dreaded library.

My stern features softened, and I made my very best attempt to extend an olive branch.  “Thank you.  It’s true, I learned the basics of hacking terminals by reading the passages in that book.”  Despite my admission, I still felt the need to remind her of the maltreatment suffered by my sister and I.  “And it seems that my skill in doing so is the only thing keeping your comrades from absconding with our family heirlooms.”

The mare frowned again, “I’m sorry.  Most of our order stays back in tight-knit groups, running in herds towards the next objective or staying at our fortified bunkers in secret locations.  They don’t really realise how hard it is for some of the ponies… er… population out in the wastes.”

I pursed my lips in an incredulous glower, “And you do, I take it?”

She nodded, “My task for several months has been to travel the local area, assess threats to our interests, and gather intel for Star-Paladin Sandalwood and Senior Scribe Meadow regarding anything that might affect our operations.  Along my travels, I’ve come across some things that… that… “  She was becoming noticeably upset now, stomping her hoof on the marble floor, “The conditions on the surface are just awful!  There has to be something we can do!”

Nohta pointed a hoof at the mare, “You can start by telling us your name.”

“Oh!  Of course!  I… I’m Holly.  Scribe Holly of the Steel Rangers, Order of the Quill, Special Operations Squad 108.”  She rattled off her full title with a rote memorization more befitting an academic than a scout.  Actually…

I voiced my puzzlement, “You don’t exactly strike me as the sort of pony that would be sent out into the wastes, alone, on any sort of dangerous mission, Scribe Holly.”

“Well, I wasn’t really supposed to be getting into danger.  It just has a habit of finding me.”  She admitted, her face turning an even brighter shade of scarlet.  “But I always try to help if I can!”

Her body rose up, and her face was no longer hidden behind the green strands of her mane.  “Please, let me help you.  The creatures in this building are dangerous!  We’ll be safer if we all stick together.”

Nohta was the one to ask the obvious question, “What sort of creatures are we talking about?  What could scare off those armored ponies?”

Holly steeled herself, casting anxious glances towards my eyes and Nohta’s questioning face.  “Ghouls.”  She whispered plainly.

I blinked.  That… was not what I had been expecting.  Ghouls?  The ones that Father had dubbed “Necrotic Meta-Equines?”  

Nohta was as incredulous as I was.  “How the hell is a zombie gonna pose a threat to one of those big armored bucks with a minigun?”  

She shook her head, speaking quickly to explain herself.  “No.  No, you don’t understand.  These ghouls are different.  Mutations.  Aberrations.  They… They’re screamers.”  She explained to our oblivious stares.

“Screamers?”  I asked, curiosity withering my desire to be upset.

“Uh… Maybe you know them as something different.  Screechers?  Wailers?  Witches?  Banshees?  Sire-”

“Banshees?”  Now that was a name I was familiar with, though it still left me confused as to what the problem was.  “The Steel Rangers are afraid of banshee ghouls?”

“Of course!”  She nodded emphatically, and hurried to explain, “The sonic attacks emitted by these ghouls are capable of interfering with the internal systems of our power armor by resonating along a parallel harmonic frequency to the power reserves, effectively blocking stable transmission of magical enhancements and halting power routing to the internal systems.  Complete and catastrophic disharmonization of the power arrays-”

“Oh come on!  Am I the only one not getting this?”  Nohta threw her hooves in the air in frustration.  “What is it with you eggheads and all the tech-jargon?”

Much to my dismay, Holly and I each hid identical smiles behind our hooves, amused at my sister’s outcry.  My own grin quickly faltered as I remembered exactly who was smiling with me.

A moment later, the scribe cleared her throat and continued in a much more approachable manner, “When they scream, they knock out our power armor and make it so our knights and paladins can’t move.  But it’s even worse if our sentinels get caught in the attack.  Their IFF systems go berserk if they’re in range.  Then they start shooting at everything until we can power them down and reboot their systems.  Scribe Cypher’s in charge of them, and he’s ready to pull his mane out.”

“So you brought a bunch of walking tanks into the desert against a bunch of zombies that could shout them to death?”  Nohta questioned her logic, raising her voice and gesticulating her hooves wildly.  “That’s about the stupidest thing I ever heard!  Who goes up against an enemy they know has an edge on them?”

“Knowledge of this particular class of ghoul surrounding the objective was only ascertained when Squad 108 reached its destination several days ago.”  Holly rubbed her leg with a hoof uncomfortably, “I might have been able to recon the area but, due to my unexpected sick leave, I was unable to properly gather intel or relay my recommendations to Senior Scribe Meadow.”  She swallowed audibly, “My failures could end up getting good knights and paladins killed if we run out of time and Star-Paladin Sandalwood decides to charge the facility head on.”

“I must admit that the banshee ghouls have a rather weird way of incapacitating their victims.”  I silently pondered if that sort of harmonic resonance could be captured in a module of some sort to be used against one’s power armored enemies.  Perhaps if I had the time to tinker with my sonic deterrent?

I pushed the thought aside, raising a forehoof to urge her to explain.  “But, what do you mean ‘run out of time?”

“Screamers aren’t the only type of ghoul unique to the surrounding region.”  Holly explained, “There are several more types that I have yet to fully examine.  Sniffers to the north, ramblers out east, bloaters down sou- well, just about everywhere, really.”  She shivered as she recounted her escapades in the surrounding areas.  “But… those aren’t the worst.  Just the typical mutations.  I’m hoping that we can get out of here before anything worse shows up.”

“Worse?”  I asked, my brow wrinkled in curiosity and dread.

I could only just detect the subtle hints of fear that danced across her face before she steeled her eyes and nodded.  “Let’s just try to be quick about the whole thing.”

She regarded us both for a moment, “I’m guessing that since you’re both still walking you know how to fight?”

“Damn straight.”  Nohta’s hooves smashed together, sending a resounding clang throughout the chamber as Mother’s horseshoes collided with each other.  Several heads turned, but nopony seemed to care after a moment.

I floated my pistol before my eyes, checking the charge and wavelength.  Eleven shots left in my current cell.  Two full cells at the ready.  Probably seven or eight more shots after I could recycle my batteries.  The weathered shotgun still sat within my packs next to a small pile of shells and our last grenade.  A small and wry smile spread across my lips as I realized I hadn’t even needed my Pipbuck’s inventory sorter to remember the weapons and ammunition I now carried.  “We are… rather too rapidly for my taste, becoming thoroughly acquainted with violence, yes.”

“Well, at least you’re not defenseless.”  Holly looked to me, “Are you ready to go?  Can I come with you?”

“I suppose that we are, but…” My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Honestly, why would you want to put yourself at risk like this?”

She raised a hoof to her chest, exclaiming, “You saved my life!  Or at least gave me several crucial hours that I was able to use to transmit vital information!”  She lowered her head, hoofing at the hard floor.  “I don’t like that you’re being forced into this position, but Star-Paladin Sandalwood has a mission to complete, and isn’t always graced with the ability to take the moral high road.”

She seemed genuine, and I found myself wanting to believe her, but hearing the Star-Paladin’s name only brought Nohta’s recent treatment to the forefront of my mind.  A scowl quickly overtook my face as I raised a hoof to indicate the pony in question.  “If you’re so taken by our plight, then why don’t you say something to that brute you call a leader?”

She went straight from being mopey and apologetic to furious and obstinate, “Star-Paladin Sandalwood is being positively charitable in her interpretation of The Codex for you!  Allowing wasters to keep their technology simply for retrieving an object when it is inconvenient for us to do so?  You should be at her hooves thanking her!”  She was stomping her own hooves on the ground, her mane becoming more frazzled and frayed with each shouted word.

Nohta looked from my scowling face to the suddenly passionate visage of Scribe Holly and let out a single bark of laughter, “Yeah… That’s not gonna happen.”  She started pushing me up out of the bowl that housed the bookshelves and towards the door, whispering into my ear.  “C’mon, Sis, let’s get this shit over with.  I need to hurt something.”  I was still fighting back the urge to retort to Holly’s outcry while Nohta and I passed by a hoof-full of armored ponies.  Just as I was about to execute a brilliantly eloquent and loquacious verbal maneuver my sister cut me off, calling back to Holly over her shoulder in her uniquely exasperating and practiced sing-song tone.  “Come on, Mrs. Know-it-all!  Just don’t slow us down!”

Scribe Holly hurried after us, levitating a nearly pristine submachine gun beside her in an emerald glow, either impervious or oblivious to Nohta’s attempts at annoyance.  “Oh don’t worry, I can handle myself well enough.”

The wooden double doors that led into the depths of the library opened with the creaking protests of aged and rusty hinges.  Nohta dashed ahead of us to peer around cracked corners while signaling Holly and myself forward past chunks of fallen debris.  The extravagant marble floors of the library had given way to a simple and matted beige carpet, muffling our steps as we cautiously delved deeper into the building’s interior.  

“These first few hallways should be relatively clear,”  Holly whispered to me as she nodded towards a string of bullet holes and blasted craters torn into the walls, “The paladins and knights were in the process of securing the area when they encountered the first screamer.  It was just a lucky coincidence that Scribe Cypher was with them, and was able to fell the beast after it shut down everypony’s power armor.  He’s one of the few scribes we have that knows how to use a spell matrix master key, so they were extra lucky that he was able to reboot their armor.”

“Did they clear the bodies?”  Nohta asked without turning around, still crouching by a doorway leading into a small office.

“I… “  Holly looked all around, seemingly having just noticed that the halls were barren of corpses.  A small gasp escaped her lips as the scribe spun around, her eyes widening in realization.  She cursed under her breath, and raised her weapon in front of herself.  “The ghouls have reanimated.”

“Uh… what?”  Nohta turned around.

Holly checked her weapon’s ammo, “Do the two of you know what a Canterlot Ghoul is?”

My sister answered plainly, the motion underneath her hood indicating an ear twitching from agitation. “A ghoul… from Canterlot?”

Holly nodded.  “More or less, yes.  But what makes them special, and altogether horrifying, is their ability to reanimate.  A Canterlot ghoul can be cut down numerous times but unless their wounds are so severe as to decapitate or dismember them, they will come back to life.  The weakest among them make for hardy and determined opponents, and the strongest of their numbers… “  She paused for a moment, as if contemplating how much to tell us, “The strongest of them are truly a force to be reckoned with.”

My brow furrowed, “I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with the ghouls near Mareon?”

“Canterlot Ghouls are so resilient because of the necromantic energies from the megaspell released in the capital city.  That “Pink Cloud” seeped into the buildings, into the roads, and into the ponies themselves.  But a good portion of it was washed away by the waterfall below the royal palace.”

She shook her head, as her eyes pleaded with us, “I haven’t been able to track the river that flows through Mareon to its source, but initial tests have indicated residual amounts of Pink Cloud within the water.  It is very diluted, but it’s there.  It’s just a hypothesis, but I believe that the ghouls in this region have mutated through exposure to trace amounts of the Canterlot megaspell.  That would account for the multiple types of ghouls seen throughout the region.”

I mulled this information over in my mind.  Pink Cloud was an extraordinarily powerful poison, apparently capable of liquefying its victims in one of the most horrible deaths I could possibly imagine.  Mother and Father had both told me that it had once been released upon the populace of Canterlot.  The war-time zebras had specially crafted Pink Cloud to just one end; it was meant to kill The Goddess herself.  But how was it here?  We were weeks of travel from the capital of Equestria.  Surely the effects would have worn off by now?  Between time and distance, how could there be enough of the Pink Cloud left for it to possibly be affecting the surrounding area?

Nohta broke the moment of silence with a confused question, “So, these ghouls aren't really dead.  They’re just pretending?”

Holly blinked.  Twice.  “Um… No?  They’re quite dead.  They just… somehow by means beyond comprehension… slowly come back to life if you haven’t utterly destroyed their bodies. Or at the very least, severed the brain from the spinal column.”  After an awkward moment of silence, she rubbed the back of her neck and added, “At least… I think that should work.”

I pursed my lips and glared at her, “You think?”

“I haven’t really had the time to fully study these abominations!”  Holly quickly explained.  “But I’m almost positive that decapitation should work on most of these monsters.”

My little sister nodded quickly, causing the hood of her cloak to flutter around her face.  She reached down and slid her knife from its sheath, “Ah geff iss a good fing Ah haff fiss!”

“Well, we can hope that your knife works…”  

I groaned, rolling my eyes.  “Are you trying to frighten or inform us, Holly?  We don’t need your rendition of a foalish ghost story.  Just tell us what we need to know.”

The scribe shuffled her hooves uncomfortably, biting her lip and shifting her eyes between myself and the shadowy hallways.  In a timid voice, she nearly whispered, “How much do the two of you know about Bright Eyes?”

I cocked my head to the side.  “Bright Eyes?”  As certain as I was that I had heard the name before, the exact time and place eluded me.  Turning to my sister, I asked, “Nohta, does that name sound familiar to you as well?”

Nohta’s hoof rose to scratch her chin for a moment before she gently pointed it in my direction, “The pegasus outside Mareon.  She was worried about running into Bright Eyes.”  Ah, that was it.  The Dash-addled featherbrain had spoken the name.

Holly perked up, “Bright Eyes is…”  Her gaze fell, searching the ground at our hooves before settling on me.  “...bad.  I’m not sure exactly what she is.  But she’s bad.  We need to be out of here before she shows up.”

I was about to ask her to elucidate, but Nohta’s hoof on my shoulder silenced me.  “Well let’s get a fucking move on then.”  She pointed her hoof at Holly, then at the both of us, “You don’t want to be here.  We don’t want to be here.  Let’s go already!”


**************


It was quiet.  Not too quiet, that’s just a cliche.  If it’s ever too quiet, then you drop whatever it is you’re doing and run in whichever direction most pleases you.  That’s simple enough to understand for both hunter and prey.  If it’s ever become too quiet, then you’re already in trouble.

No, the catacombs of the library were quiet in the way one would expect a long-dead structure to be: peacefully devoid of life and sound save for we three invaders and our marauding hoofsteps.  We were comfortably alone, enveloped in a welcoming and calm darkness that clung to our bodies like a blanket.  The overhead lighting throughout the hallways had failed completely, forcing me to activate my Pipbuck lamp to keep from bumping into walls, overturned chairs, and potted plants.  To my surprise, Holly rolled up a sleeve of her robes to reveal the brightly green glow of her own Pipbuck, and our white and green lights danced playfully off of the dilapidated walls.  

Unlike Holly or myself, Nohta was as comfortable in the pitch-black corridors as ever.  Her relaxed manner eventually infected Holly and myself, and soon enough we had all come down with a severe case of recklessness.  I was slowly learning to trust Nohta’s eyes and my E.F.S.  But the tone of the entire excursion changed from cautious to curious whenever Holly ceased skulking about as if we would be jumped at any moment.

Somewhere in here, I was sure that I might be able to find some records of the surrounding area.  This town had existed before the war; before The Final Day.  If there was any knowledge to be gleaned from Coltsville’s stagnant carcass, it would be found within the archives kept here.  Nohta knew what to look for but her demeanor left me believing that she was more interested in finding something to relieve her frustrations of being forced into this position.  She wanted to pick a fight.

She also wouldn’t leave a single desk drawer, filing cabinet, trash can, or locked door alone; quickly piling whatever random pieces of valuable scrap she found into her pockets or packs.  Holly was growing agitated with my sister’s behavior, believing that she was purposely delaying our mission, but I assured her that Nohta was simply being practical and searching for worthwhile scavenge; a necessity of survival for the bedraggled “population of the wastes.”  Of course, when I caught Nohta’s mischievous wink out of the corner of my eye, I knew that my excuse had only been half-true.  It was harder to stifle my own giggle than I would have liked to admit.

When our little group came across a staircase, I searched the walls nearby for clues.  The Stable’s stairways had sported embossed metal plates with directions to important rooms clearly etched into their surface.  The library wasn’t all that dissimilar, though the framed poster hanging by the stairs was covered by cracked and dusty glass that was sticking out at odd angles.  It wasn’t nearly enough of an obstruction to keep me from discerning the details of the structure’s layout, though the design was certainly modest in appearance.

The glass in the poster’s frame crunched underneath my hoof.  “Down one floor, into the basement level.”  The fading paper was much easier to read when the text wasn’t being distorted by the shattered and yellowed glass.  “Restoration, Maintenance, Storm and Bomb Shelter, Archives, and Storage.  That’s where we need to go first.”

Holly shook her head, confused.  “What?  No, we need to go upstairs.  The director’s office is on the third floor.  The book will mostly likely be held within Lexicon’s personal office.”  Holly rose to her hind legs, bracing herself against the wall as she pointed to the poster with her own hoof,  “See?  Third floor:  Director’s Office and Presentation Chamber.”  She fell back to all fours and grumbled at the poster, “Must have been nice to have a floor all to yourself.”

“Oh, I don’t know.  I imagine that all that space with no one to share it with would have been quite lonely.”  I mused, scratching my chin.

Holly glanced at my Pipbuck before frowning, “Your stable must have been a lot nicer than mine.”

“HA!”  Nohta’s bark startled us both.  “Nice?  The Stable?  Right.  Maybe like, three or four decent ponies out of a couple hundred.”

“You got dealt a bad hoof too, huh?”  Holly’s voice inquired in a calm and sorrowful manner as she nearly whispered behind her mane.

Nohta snorted, looking down the hall.  “Ya.  Fuck that place.  I was always being told what to do and where to go.  I had ponies looking down their muzzles at me all the time, or just looking the other way while my classmates decided to gang up on me.”  She rounded on Holly, her body tensing.  “Say… seems kinda familiar, doesn’t it?”

Holly’s lip trembled, “I… I didn’t…”

“Let’s go.”  Nohta trotted past the both of us and began descending the stairs noisily, her brass-shod hooves clacking against the tiled steps as she made her way to the basement.

I hurried past the confused scribe to catch up with my sister and walk beside her, brushing my shoulder against her own.  When she looked up at me I smiled gratefully and thanked her.

She rolled her eyes underneath her hood.  “I didn’t do anything special, Sis.  No need to get all mushy on me.”

I continued smiling warmly at her, “I just wanted to thank you for agreeing to seek out the archives, Nohta.  I honestly thought that you would want to find their book and be rid of this place as quickly as possible.”

Nohta glanced up the stairs, “Well… I kinda do.  But if we do it this way we get to piss her off first.”  My sister turned away from me, concealing her face with her cloak as I chuckled and shook my head at her behavior.  “Besides…  This info should help us out.  If we can just figure out where we should go next, then at least we can stop wandering around the desert in the damned hot part of the day like a couple of idiots.”  Her tone was uncertain, shaky even, as if she were trying to justify her actions.

I smiled at the back of her hood as our hooves met the carpeted floor of the basement level.  She knew, of course, that I fully intended to use the data in the archives to find a clue as to the whereabouts of our stablemates.  And I knew that she couldn’t care less about what happened to most of them.  I wanted to thank her for agreeing to go forward with this plan, but didn’t want to ruin the moment.  Perhaps I could try my luck with something else I had been longing to tell her?

I wrapped a hoof around her shoulder, the two of us peering down the darkened halls.  “Nohta, I love y-”

“Don’t say it, Candy.”  She leaned into the embrace.  “This is fine, just… don’t say that.”

“It’s not as if the phrase is bad luck, dear.  It’s just an admission of-”

“I know, Sis.  But… Mom and Dad both… I just feel like if you say it then something bad will happen.”

We sat in silence for a moment before I spoke again.  “Well, how about this?  I really really really really really really really really like you?”

She snorted, shaking her head, and I felt her body convulse with gentle laughter, “You’re such a sap.”

There she was.  I much preferred the snarky sibling prone to bouts of verbally attacking my character to the savagely violent sister looking for a way to disembowel everypony within eyesight.

I sighed dreamily, deciding to give my sister some ammunition.  “Too many romance novels, I suppose.”  

I could hear the smirk on her voice as her hoof poked at my ribs.  “You should try reading something good sometime.  Like ‘Zebra Infiltration Tactics,’ or at least one of the “Martial Arts of the Zebra’ books.”

I rolled my eyes, despite the bemused expression plastered on my face.  “I’ll leave the sneaking and the pounding things into oblivion to you, sister.”  One of my ears swiveled backwards, and the gentle tapping of hooves on tile alerted me to Holly’s approach as I whispered to Nohta.  “Besides, Mother was reduced to a giggling fit at some of the inaccuracies within both of those works.  The ponies who wrote them obviously didn’t do their research.  Really, authors should know better.”

“Heh, or maybe Mom just found a better way.”  Her head nodded gently.

Memories of Mother’s graceful ritual practice sessions within our living quarters, and of my own enthralled observations from the kitchen table, floated through my mind.  “Well, I certainly can’t rule out that possibility.”  With a final squeeze, I left my sister’s side to turn to our robed companion.  “Holly, listen.  We need-”

An emerald glow pointed her submachine gun down the halls as she warily scanned each gloomy corridor, hissing through clenched teeth.  “We shouldn’t be down here.  There’s probably ghouls all over!  What are the two of you doing?”

I spoke calmly.  Plainly.  “We need to find the archives.  It’s the only reason we came to the library in the first place.”  Perhaps some simple honesty would help smooth over the tension from earlier?

“Archives?  What for?”  Her gaze never left the shadows as she spoke.

“We need information regarding the local area.”

“You…”  Her confused face finally turned to mine.  “You could’ve just asked me, you know.  I’ve been through a good deal of this desert already.”

I raised a hoof between us, gently pointing in her direction.  “You said yourself that you didn’t get to recon the entire area.  We’re looking for a detailed account of local settlements.”

“Why?”  One of her ears flicked as she cocked her head to the side.

I looked to my sister, who turned back to to me and nodded silently.  “We’re looking for locations where ponies might have taken up residence.”

Her eyes narrowed, “What kind of ponies?”

My brow furrowed slightly in disgust.  “Slavers,” I began, before Nohta’s eye caught my own, “Or raiders.”

Holly licked her lips as her eyes searched the floor.  After a brief moment, she tentatively spoke up.  “That…”  She looked back up to me.  “That might work, actually.”  She came closer, her submachine gun still hovering at her side and pointing down the hallway.  Whispering, she explained.  “I found another abandoned town to the east, Spursburg, while I was searching for one of our secondary objectives.”  Holly’s head shook while she seemed to speak to herself.  “Fucking hell-hole is what it was.  Raiders and ramblers everywhere.  But there was an old botanical research facility close by.”

Well that had most certainly been generous of her.  Why was she willing to share such information so easily?  I surmised that she must have been attempting to make amends for earlier.

She continued before Nohta or I could get a word in, “If this archive has a map from before the war, it could help us both out.”

“Good.  Then it’s settled.  We both need information and we are in the perfect position to obtain it.”  I gave her a polite smile and turned down the hall before she could change her mind, the white light of my Pipbuck leading the way.

Nohta quickly took point, dashing ahead of me to peer around dusty corners and through the keyholes of rotting doors.  Holly remained at the rear, her weapon floating behind us to cover our flanks.  I was slightly more relaxed, trusting my E.F.S. to alert me to any threats.  So far, we hadn’t seen anything dangerous at all.  When Nohta sat in front of a door marked “Maintenance,” Holly and I stopped to watch as a faint glow from the keyhole danced across Nohta’s muzzle.  Holly was confused at first, but relaxed when she saw the screwdriver in my sister’s hooves.

Nohta spoke through the bobby pin in her teeth, “Jud a fec, almo god ib.”  The door opened with a small *click* and the three of us hurried inside past a dangling ceiling light.

The scent of mechanical oil wafted across my nostrils as I stepped inside.  Nohta made a beeline for the metal lockers to the side of the room while Holly and I stared at the glowing terminal atop the small desk.  Or rather, I was staring at the terminal.  Holly’s eyes were glued to the wall above it.

A timid whisper escaped her lips.  “Ironshod… Firearms…”  I glanced at her face; an ever-deepening shade of scarlet.  “How do you like… them apples?”

“Holly, what are you…”  My eyes finally fell upon the poster; a light-golden earth-stallion wearing a rugged looking vest and cowpony hat, casually leaning his back against a wooden fence outside a western saloon.  His charming grin flashed brilliantly around the polished revolver in his mouth.  Goddess… That smirk…

Holly licked her lips, sighing.  “They just don’t make bucks like Braeburn anymore…”

I looked back to her and giggled behind a hoof, despite the sensation of warmth in my own cheeks.  “Holly?  Control yourself, dear.  It’s unbecoming of a lady to stare.”

Her voice spoke longingly, ignoring me completely.  “Too bad… I’d let him tongue my trigger anyday…”

I gasped, “Holly!”

A series of loud clangs from the lockers accompanied my sister’s guffaws as she rolled on the floor, scattering tools in every direction.  Nohta’s laughter broke Holly from her reverie, leaving a slightly confused and very embarrassed unicorn trying to hide behind her light-green mane in its wake.  

I shook my head and rolled my eyes.  Honestly, some mares!  Against the backdrop of Nohta’s weakening chuckles and Holly’s embarrassed groaning and whimpering, I sat at the uncomfortable rolling chair and began clicking and clacking my way into the system.

I eyed the green text, piecing out the puzzle bit by bit.  There was only one word which fit the character allotment and patterns established by the code.  I whispered the simple, five letter word as soon as I worked out the puzzle.  “Truth.”

The screen popped and blinked, bringing up a series of inter-office emails and work requests.  I toggled through a few simple messages.  “Hmm… Nothing much of interest he- Oh!  Nohta!  The vending machines on the second floor are malfunctioning!  They’re dispensing free Sparkle-Colas!”  I turned to find my sister still lying on her back.  Her fading laughter had returned in full force, her legs kicking feebly at the air as she snorted and beat a hoof upon the carpeted floor.  My nose rose in the air indignantly, “Hmmph, fine, sister.  Ignore useful supplies when they’re easily obtainable.  It’s just more for me, after all!”  Returning to the screen, a tendril of my magic selected one of the more recent emails that caught my eye.

> Sup dude, you still want into that card game this weekend?  50 bits up front, no whining when you lose, haha!  Hey, did you see that stripe that walked in here with the boss?  What in the whole of Tartarus is Lexicon thinking letting one of ‘them’ walk into a government facility?  They walked straight up to the boss’ room in the top floor too, by what I heard.  I swear, this entire place is gonna get sent straight to the moon.  And ‘not' in the good way like they advertise at that casino!

Sent to the moon?  What?  It was not a euphemism with which I was familiar, and the only meaning I could derive from context was negative.  But… Wouldn’t being sent to the moon, Luna’s heavenly orb, be seen as a blessing?  As Nohta’s tittering died down, my confusion was interrupted by a fluttering buzz outside the office door.  Curious, I pushed the wheeled chair backwards and leaned out into the hall to see what was going on.

A large insect, about as long as my leg, skittered into view at the intersection of the hallway a few feet from my location.  A radroach: Hardly a threat, and easily dismissible were it not for the beetle’s agitated demeanor.  With a scientific clarity, I took note of its behavior.  It had raised its forelegs in a defensive posture, trying to make itself appear larger than it was, and was making the oddest little hissing noise as it waggled its antennae and fluttered its diaphanous wings angrily.  It was very clearly feeling threatened.  I soon found out why.

A grotesque mockery of a pony ran into view, pouncing on the beetle and crushing it underneath cracked and dirty hooves.  An oddly satisfying crunch mingled with the radroach’s death squeal just before its attacker lowered a heavily scarred and disfigured head to the insect’s body.  I stared in horror and disgust as the creature ripped the head of the radroach away in its jaws and began to chew, one of the bug’s antennae hanging languidly out of its mouth like a sick parody of a farmer’s stalk of wheat.  As it was enjoying its stomach-turning meal, I had every opportunity to study the very first ghoul I had ever seen.

Ancient scars cris-crossed along its hide, which had lost nearly all of its sickly green fur.  Old burn marks, bullet holes, and knife wounds decorated the decaying skin that was pulled taut around bone and muscle.  The tattered remains of threadbare and filthy clothing hung lazily about its body, testament to the fact that this creature had, at least long ago, once been sane.  But whatever sanity it had once clung to had surely fled this creature’s mind amidst the torment that had ravaged its body.

The few stubborn strands of light-blue mane left atop its head rolled to the side of a broken horn as the ghoul stopped masticating and raised its snout to the air, sniffing.  With a terrifying and deliberate slowness it lowered its gore-ridden face and stared blankly at me, revealing a milky-white, dead eye and the exposed bone and rotting flesh left in the crater of its other ocular cavity.  Luna had bestowed upon me a small kindness; this monster was blind.  But it was unfortunately still hungry.

A decaying leg stepped in my direction as a broken hoof thumped against the carpeted floor.  A lifeless face, showing only the signs of an insatiable hunger, stared through me.  Rotted lips curled back to reveal equally rotted teeth.  The all too familiar stench of dead flesh accosted my nostrils as a throaty and guttural hiss clawed its way out of a neck bearing wounds that should be oozing blood, not as dry as the exposed bones underneath of them.

I stood quietly, holding my breath behind shaking lips as my hoof-falls were muffled by the carpet.  A crimson glow washed over the walls as I lifted my little pistol from its holster and backed into the office, swallowing my fear.  Goddess… that was a ghoul?  That creature shouldn’t have been allowed to exist!

Nohta was next to me in an instant, placing herself between me and the door while drawing her knife from its scabbard.  Holly’s green aura mingled with my red as our weapons floated in front of us.  She poked her head outside the doorway before quickly drawing herself back inside the office and mouthing a single word to the ceiling, “Fuck.”

The scribe gulped audibly in the near-silence, holding a hoof to her muzzle while using her magic to close and lock the door.  A barely audible whisper escaped her lips as she looked back at us, “Screamer.”

We waited for what felt like an eternity, none of us daring to move.  Unwilling to take my eyes away from the door, I instead counted my own heartbeats thudding within my ears to recognize the passage of time.  Five… My pistol was trained on the door, waiting for the ghoul to break through the entrance and assault us.  Ten…  Or would it pass us by?

I heard the plodding hoofsteps make their way steadily towards the door while the blaring red marker on my E.F.S. advanced with a slow and shaky gait.  Twenty… The ghoul stopped outside the door, and I heard a hoof pawing at the only-inches-wide barrier between us and the horror on the other side.  Thirty five…

More sniffing.  More hissing.  Fifty…  A deep and guttural growl followed by heavy thudding blows against the door.  One hundred… Then silence.

One-twenty… Nothing.  One-thirty… Did it leave?  One-thirty-five… Were we safe?

An otherworldly sucking noise, as if all the air in the world were being drawn through a rubber tube, rattled the door in its frame.  Holly dove to the side of the door and screamed, “Get dow-”

The door was bucked off its frame by a pair of undead hooves crashing noisily into it, splintering wood and breaking the simple lock on the door out of its place.  Simple reflex forced me to blink and raise a hoof to protect my eyes as the door swung open to crash against the wall.  I wasn’t able to fire my weapon in time to stop what came next.

The monster threw its head forward as its maw stretched wide in a horrendous and ear-splitting screech that reverberated off the walls of our enclosed space.  Goddess it was loud!  No creature should be able to make such noises!  It was if a thousand forks and knives were scratching and stabbing at the metal tables in the Stable’s cafeteria, as well as being broadcast through the intercom system with all the feedback that the speakers could muster!  Gunfire and explosions had nothing on this creature’s wails!  And worst of all was the resonating sensations of my bones rattling within my body.  This ghoul was killing us with its voice!

This was unbearable!  I threw my hooves around my ears to keep from going deaf.  Holly was a writhing blur in the corner of my vision, her mouth open in a bellowing scream too quiet to be heard.  My sister had fallen over at my hooves, kicking and lashing blindly at the floor in front of her.  My eyes shut tight from the pain.  It was all I could do to force one of them open long enough to point my weapon at the banshee slowly and methodically plodding in my direction.

I panicked, and jerked the trigger of the pistol as I felt my own scream within my throat.  The ghoul was only a couple of pony-lengths away, but the best I could manage to do was to land several glancing blows along its decayed sides, sending the ancient rags laid across its body up in a brief puff of fire and searing several long lines down the ghoul’s flanks.

Luckily, the creature could still recognize pain.  As the beams lanced across its form the screaming stopped, leaving me a moment to gaze into that dead stare before I whipped the pistol directly in front of its face and pulled the trigger, depositing a pink laser straight into its dead eye.  The ghoul fell over, twitching, as smoke curled off its body and the most awful stench of dead, burning flesh filled the air.  It lay on the floor, spasming wildly as spittle and foam dripped from its mouth to soak into the carpet.  

Nohta recovered first, rising up to her hooves and rushing towards the monster that lay twitching upon the floor to stomp its head into a thin paste; her every successive blow coming down more forcefully than the last.  I flinched as I saw the burnt remnants of its face crunch and disfigure from her blows, the one charred eye it had left popping open grotesquely like a jelly-filled sac underneath Mother’s horseshoes.  The body kept twitching even after she had spread its brains across the carpet in a fear-induced panic.

“Hah do ah kill dis fing?”  She screamed through her knife, hooves pummeling every inch of the ghoul she could reach.

“It’s dead!  It’s dead!  Save your strength!”  Holly was gathering herself up, scrambling towards the door.

“Ib dill moofing!”  Nohta’s assault continued as the creature’s ragged tail flopped and spasmed against the carpet by the doorway.

Holly bolted into the hallway, eyes going wide and yelling back at us.  “Leave it, we need to go!”  Her submachine gun whipped in front of her, burping a staccato rhythm of gunfire down the path we had just tread.  Furious screams and rasping hisses answered back.

“Fug!”  Nohta leapt to Holly’s side as I followed her into the hall.

The corridor held a hoof-full of ravenous, twitching ghouls, each of their bodies as grotesque and misshapen as the first.  Five of their number were galloping out of the gloom in our direction, snarling and growling like a pack of hounds baying for our blood.

My voice trembled as my eyes widened, “Luna guide my-“  The rest of my prayer was cut off as I slipped into S.A.T.S.  A moment later, my pistol’s beams sliced through the darkness to collide with undead flesh.  Bubbling, rippling wounds burned into their scarred hides as the concentrated points of heat and light seared through skin and bone.  Two ghouls dropped from my barrage, one of them reduced to a wispy cloud of glowing pink ash that scattered to coat the rest of its kin.

Holly’s weapon bit gaping wounds into the necks and faces of the other three, blowing the back of one ghoul’s skull away from its head as brain matter exploded out the exit wound.

As four dead ghouls and one pile of ash came to a stop at our hooves, Nohta’s raucous laughter caught my attention.  I turned to find her covering our rear, cloak whipping out behind her as she whirled and danced between three decayed bodies, one ghoul laying still at her hooves already.  Her hoof collided with a knee, snapping the joint with an audible crack as its owner wailed in pain and rage.  She ducked under a feral strike to sweep cracked and filthy hooves from the floor, sending a second ghoul tumbling to the carpet before Nohta sunk her knife into its ocular cavity.

Nohta called out between barks of laughter, backing up and deflecting blows with an unnatural grace.  “These bastards are like walking bucking-bags!  Margarita was right!  This is way too much fun!”

Holly and I were nearly panting from pain and fear, but Nohta had finally found what she had been looking for: something to beat senseless.  Judging from the mad cackle bubbling out of her throat, The Goddess herself couldn’t have kept her from seeking release through her pugilistic rampage.

She reared up, slamming her Pipbuck across a rotted muzzle as yellowed teeth scattered across the carpet.  Bringing her other hoof down across the creature’s temple to crush its one working eye, she used her momentum to turn her body, landing on all fours and connecting a double-buck into the neck of her last attacker.  The ghoul’s head snapped backwards, its body lifted from the floor to crash into the wall and crush a fake potted-plant as it fell back to the floor.

Her last target was now blind, sporting several broken legs, and was feebly attempting to bite her with a near-toothless mouth as it wobbled shakily in her direction.  She shoved it lazily to the floor and yawned, “Ugh… Come on!  I had better fights back in school!”  She forced the creature on its back and held a hoof against its throat, looking up at Holly and speaking in an uncomfortably even tone.  “Why aren’t they getting back up?  Is this how we keep ‘em down for good?”  She raised her hoof just enough for the ghoul to raise its head and snap at her, before smashing it back down against the floor to the tune of snapping vertebrae.  

Holly looked around the now-silent halls, surveying the gory remnants of the attack.  “No, these are just normal ghouls.  We’re lucky.  These are no big deal.”

A muscle in my eye twitched, “No… no big deal?”  Was she insane!?  I turned to her, nearly shouting.  “That was absolutely terrifying!  If that wasn’t a big deal, then what is?”

She stared at me, her eyes deadly serious and disturbingly calm.  For just a moment, I saw somepony else in those eyes.  “Wait until we run into a bloater.  Or a rambler.  Or a glowing one.  Or… her.”

“Her?  Do you mean Brigh-”

Nohta cut me off, “Hey!  If the normal ones aren’t supposed to come back to life, then how come the ones on the first floor did?  And how the hell can you tell the difference, anyway?”

Holly looked around us, examining the bodies.  “These are all earth-pony ghouls.  So far, I’ve only seen them mutate into bloaters and ramblers.  Maybe the occasional glowing one, but nothing else.  These poor souls will stay dead.  Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?”  By The Goddess, couldn’t she speak plainly?  I stomped a hoof on the carpet, despising how the padding muffled the gesture.  “What do you mean, ‘Hopefully?”

She pawed at the ground, her voice shaking.  “Well… The truth is, I don’t really know how the ghouls here are reanimating.  And honestly, I don’t want to stick around to find out.  Can we get going?  Please?”  Tears were welling in her eyes, glistening in the light of my Pipbuck.

Tears?  What?  Why would….  The cogs began to turn.

She had volunteered for this out of a sense of obligation.  She shivered when she had to remember the various ghoul types.  She was offering up clearly sensitive information without so much as a request for secrecy.  And now she had been driven to tears by a mere minutes-long encounter.  It all clicked.

She may have offered to help us, but she was scared witless down here.  I could certainly sympathize.  I was sure that she was simply trying to put on a brave face while she traveled through her own little personal hell.

I nodded, “O- Of course, Holly.  Nohta, dear, let’s be on our way.”

My sister raised an eyebrow in question, but otherwise stayed quiet.  She retrieved her knife with a repulsive squelching noise from the zombie’s skull, and wiped the viscid gore that clung to the blade off on the ghoul’s scarred hide.  The three of us stepped over the mercifully still bodies and continued down the dark hallways.


**************


The gloomy corridors only showed more and more signs of deterioration the further we progressed into the bowels of the decrepit structure.  The matted carpet had been ripped from the floor in some places, stained disgustingly in others.  Dead light fixtures swung eerily from the ceiling on dangling cables; testament to the presence of other unseen occupants skulking through the halls.  The further we warily crept towards the archive, the more certain I became that hidden eyes were watching our cautious advance and planning the most opportune moment to strike.

Gone was my relaxed demeanor from earlier, completely decimated by the attack.  I was glaring at every hint of movement within the dark, swinging my Pipbuck lamp at every dim corner and gasping at every dancing shadow.  Shadows that, I might add, were mostly produced by the two glowing Pipbucks possessed by our small group.  I had become quite literally afraid of my own shadow.

None of my fraying nerves were helped by the rising stink that pervaded the air.  The scent of blood was a familiar odor to be sure, as was the horrid reek of death provided by the ghoulish inhabitants of this building.  But the pungent and musky odors of mold and sweat grew prominently the further down the halls we went.  As we continued to move through the derelict corridors a heavy thumping sound accompanied by shrill shrieks and thuds echoed down the halls.  If it weren’t for Nohta’s guiding advance, I’m not entirely sure if I would have had the courage to creep forward.  I drew inspiration from her confidence, and sought solace in the belief that she was capable of keeping us safe within these wretched halls.

The gross funk and the heavy, erratic thumping both grew in intensity as we followed age-worn directions towards the archive.  The reek had forced me to hold a hoof to my nose to keep from gagging, and the thuds were shaking loose particles of dust and drywall from the ceiling to fall listlessly to the floor in the light of our Pipbucks.

My thoughts rambled with horrifying possibility, fervently attempting to discern what could be lying in wait for us further down the corridor.  The muffled crashes and shrieking growls made me believe that something immense was engaged in a monumental struggle ahead of us, but I knew that we had to press on.  What monstrosity could be causing such a commotion?  Or that stench!?  Ugh!  I found myself gritting my teeth in preparation for what lay ahead.

Nohta stopped at the intersection of two hallways, beckoning me over as she drew herself up against the wall and peered quietly down the bend.  I moved beside her, peeking my head just under her own to see what was the matter as the thuds, shrieks, and growls grew to a crescendo.

Dimly glowing green lights were flickering along the walls; their source still hidden down another hallway further along the corridor.  Holly’s mane brushed against my chin as her head joined our stealthy totem pole.  Caught in a rather awkward position, I was forced to listen as she explained the danger before us.

Her voice was a whisper in the dark, “Glowing one.  That’s the only thing that produces light like that.”  The tip of her horn glowed faintly with an emerald aura, blinding due to its proximity to my retinas even when I squeezed my eyes shut.  She spoke around her chewing sounds, “Hope you two brought some RadSafe.  This could get ugly.”

This position was quickly becoming rather uncomfortable.  “Ahem,”  I cleared my throat.  Holly eeped and ducked out of the way as my sister and I stretched our limbs.  As Nohta checked our supplies, I voiced my confusion.  “Glowing one?  You mentioned that before.”  As an afterthought, I added, “Wouldn’t glowing ‘pony’ be more in line with standard Equestrian?”

Holly quickly chewed and swallowed, “Glowing ones are ghouls that have absorbed so much radiation that their bodies become a conduit for the energy.  They ‘glow’ with it, and the excess energy seems to attract other ghouls as well.”  Looking to me, she continued, “Nine times out of ten, a glowing one is a zebra ghoul.  I think their bodies must react differently to-”  She caught herself, staring awkwardly at whom she was speaking.

I paid her guilty conscious no heed.  My sister and I had heard the terrible, magic word.  My jaw slackened as my eyes stretched wide in horror, but it was Nohta’s turn to sound frightened as she stopped flicking knobs on her Pipbuck.  “R-Radiation?”

Holly nodded quickly, craning her head to peek around the corner; avoiding eye contact as she levitated her weapon.  “Lots of it.  They can use it as a weapon, too.  They sort of breathe on you, and you soak up a lot of rads.”  She shuddered before checking her magazine and ramming it back home with a loud, metallic *clack.*  Nohta resumed her search with added gusto.

A tendril of magic reached my Pipbuck, providing a quick and fruitless search of my inventory.  “So,” I gulped, feeling my heart thudding in my flattened ears.  “What do we do if we don’t have any RadSafe?”

She leaned to the side, peeking around the hallway while whispering to us.  “Normally, I’d say ‘Blow its head off from a distance with a really big gun,’ or ‘Just run.’  But with it barring access to the archive and fighting something that sounds a lot bigger than-”

A monstrous, bellowing roar silenced her.  A heavy thud sent vibrations rumbling through the floor as a bloody chunk of meat splashed against our corner and rained little droplets of crimson down Holly’s terror stricken face.  She didn’t bother to wipe them away, staring wide-eyed down the corridor as the droplets ran down her snout.  Her lips and voice both quivered in fright, “Fucking hell-”

My Pipbuck beeped loudly, shaking to life with a determined vibration.  A quick glance at the interface provided a familiar warning.

[Danger Imminent.  Preparing Countermeasures.]

Goddess, the yao guai was here?  Was it following us?  Hunting us?  What was it doing in the library?

The logical part of my mind demanded that I grab my sister and flee.  But my curiosity has seldom been prone to bouts of logic.  I leaned into the hallway, taking note of several dismembered limbs and crushed corpses lying upon the floor.  One unfortunate ghoul was crawling away from the shattered remnants of its ribcage and hind legs, half of its spinal column trailing along behind it to coat the matted carpet in a wide swath of viscera and blood.  With a final ghastly shudder the creature ceased its struggles and laid still.

Just as my Pipbuck began to shake and emit its shrill signal, I heard a loud snorting noise and looked up to see a flash of red whip behind a corner and retreat further into the darkness.  My Pipbuck’s broadcast ended abruptly as a white marker on my E.F.S. winked out of view.  The beast had remembered the sound and was learning to avoid it, but in its haste to flee had left its prey still wriggling upon the floor.  

A shredded and mutilated body was slowly pushing itself to stand upon broken legs and decayed hooves, clawing at the matted carpet as faintly glowing fluids dribbled out of the wounds in its scarred hide.  A hide that bore stripes…  My eyes immediately shot to the creature’s flank, and I beheld the hard lines and elegant swirls of a glyph mark.

I had to raise a hoof to my mouth to stifle my gasp.

Twin swirls of bright green energy coalesced in its ruined eye sockets; hideous lanterns filled with vicious intent. The freshly rent wounds in its hide were slowly knitting themselves back together underneath the mangled remnants of thick, black and red armor.  Instead of a normal zebra stripe pattern, strips of greenish-white light shone from its dark hide to dance along the walls in thin lines.  The beams bobbed up and down our surroundings as the creature drew in ragged, heaving breaths and stumbled to its hooves noisily.  One of the swirls of light winked out of existence with a quiet popping sound as a yellowed eyeball took its place and glared in our direction.

“That… That’s a…”  Nohta’s eyes were glued to the ghoul’s flank.  “It looks like M-”

Holly cut her off, bounding into the hall and leveling her weapon at the creature’s head.  “Quick!  It’s healing itself with the radiation!  We need to kill it now!”  Her gun’s muzzle flashed in a rapid staccato of light and sound, peppering the ghoul’s staggering form with lead.

Congealed blood and shreds of flesh tore from the ghoul’s body to fly through the air as the bullets slammed into its hide.  The undead zebra howled and fell to the side, leaning against the wall as Holly emptied her weapon into its barrel and neck.  Gore splattered the wall and floor near the ghoul, glowing faintly with irradiated energy.

Holly yelled back at us as she slammed a fresh magazine into place, “What are you doing?  We need to focus our fire!”

I shook my head to free myself of my daze and joined Holly in the hallway, levitating my pistol before me.  “Oh Goddess!”  Crimson beams tore into the ghoul’s hide, burning deep wounds into the creature’s barrel as it steadied itself and screeched in pain and feral anger.  I kept firing wildly after my S.A.T.S. charge had been depleted, hoping to score a lucky hit but only managing to graze its mane as I drained my weapon’s battery.

The glowing one’s chest heaved with the exertion of its breath, forcing faint wisps of greenish fog from its maw as it turned in my direction.  The freshly burned holes in its flank closed, leaving warped distortions that didn’t quite heal all the way.  It reared up, sucking air as the dazzling strips of light upon its hide glowed ever-brighter.

Holly slammed into my shoulder as the beast returned to all fours and threw its head forward in a great, violent exhalation.  I was thrown painfully against the corner, slumping to the floor by my sister as a wave of radiant green energy erupted from the glowing one’s mouth.  Nohta and I were only caught by the outer rim of the advancing cone of light, our Pipbucks clicking softly as the attack passed us by.  Holly, now standing where I had been just a moment ago, took the full brunt of the attack.

She staggered backwards as the bright wave crashed into her, whipping her mane and robes wildly in its wake.  Holly winced in pain as the energy washed over her body, driving the soft light of her magic from her horn and weapon.  My own pistol was caught in the blast as well, and the altogether unpleasant sensation of my magic being ripped from my control assaulted my mind; feeling for all the world as if my brain were being sucked through a tube in my forehead.  

“Gah!”  I gasped from the unexpected agony as my weapon thudded against the matted carpet.  These ghouls could nullify unicorn magic?  Why hadn’t Holly mentioned that!? 

The ghoul wasted no time, charging down the hall in a dead sprint for Holly’s dazed and staggering form.  My pistol was too far away, and without my magic I couldn’t retrieve my shotgun in time to be useful.  Oh why hadn’t I listened to Father when he told me to not rely so heavily upon spells?  As I stared at the floor and focused my entire being through my horn in an attempt to rekindle my telekinesis, a squat plastic bottle rattled to the carpet at Nohta’s hooves, spilling several yellow-orange pills out of its opened top.

Nohta was a black blur in the dimly lit hall.  Her cloak flowed behind her as she rammed her shoulder into the ghoul’s side, sending the two of them crashing into the wall.  The ghoul snarled and hissed, reacting far more quickly than the previous zombies we had encountered and striking at my sister with a jagged hoof.

The blow caught Nohta squarely in the face, and in the dim glow provided by her opponent’s radiant stripes I saw a glistening wetness running down my sister’s cheeks.  But Nohta was too focused in her terrible intent to pay any attention to her own wounds.  She reared up, driving a brass-shod hoof under the zombie’s jaw and slamming its head against the peeling wallpaper with a heavy thud as the beast snarled and hissed.

“Goddess-damned radiation!”  Another fast kick from Nohta produced the sharp crack of breaking bones.  “Fucking die!”  Nohta’s attacks were far less elegant or planned than her melee in the Stable; she was pummeling her victim with nothing but brute force.

As she reared back for a blow that surely would have reduced the ghoul’s skull to a glowing smear across the wall, the beast shoved itself free of her grasp and lunged forward to tackle her.  Nohta was caught completely off guard and thrown to the floor with a grunt, squirming between whitish-green and black legs.

The undead zebra stomped its hooves viciously, attempting to crush my sister with its heavy blows as Nohta rolled and kicked at its armored chest.  Its constant growling and hissing almost sounded as if it were attempting to sound out words.  “Has… ira…”  But the only thing produced by its incessant gibberish was a spray of glistening spittle that scattered and dripped across my sister’s face.  Try as she might, Nohta was unable to escape or get to her hooves.

Holly was still out of commission, frantically scouring the floor for her submachine gun, but a twinge in my mind alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t so helpless.  I felt the painful tangle that my magic had become unfurl as the crimson glow emanating from my horn popped back into existence.  As Nohta continued to dodge and deflect stomping blows, I dislodged the battered shotgun from my packs.   

“Nohta!  Hold on!”  The weapon hung heavily in the air as I looked down the barrel and aimed high, activating S.A.T.S.

The recoil of the blast nearly jolted the weapon from my grasp, but the concentrated pattern of shot tore a gory swath through the ghoul’s throat.  Faintly glowing blood splattered from the wound and oozed out of an undead esophagus as the beast’s wails and hisses gurgled out of its ruined neck.  The zebra staggered to the side, thrown off balance by the blast, and stared in my direction with a cold yellow glare.  

My second shot followed the first, slamming into the ghoul’s enraged visage.  I watched wide-eyed in macabre fascination as the distorted effect of time allowed me to take in every gruesome detail.  Shot pummeled the beast’s face, ripping radiant cavities through its cheeks and muzzle.  Several rotted teeth were blown free of its gaping maw, their disintegrated remains soon lost in the intensity of our combat.  A nearly-black ear was completely severed by the blast and the eye that had been glaring at me was reduced to a pulpy yellow and red jelly.  

As my S.A.T.S. charge expired, Nohta gathered her hooves together and bucked at the ghoul’s legs with all her strength.  I heard the sharp crack of bones and joints breaking as the ghoul fell to the floor, glowing fluids pouring freely out of its head and neck.  Nohta rolled quickly, clambering on top of the glowing one to smash her hooves into its devastated face over and over again.  Drops of wetness fell from her face to the ghoul’s, twinkling in the eerie glow emanating from her victims stretching maw.  Goddess, her savage blows sent rippling vibrations through the floor!

The undead zebra’s body twitched and spasmed as it drew another breath, glowing brightly within the hallway.  Just as Nohta slammed both of her front hooves into the glowing one’s face, the wretched beast bellowed ferociously through its wounded neck.  A bubble of luminous blood erupted out of its maw to suffuse my sister’s furious face in vivid scarlet, followed by a bright wave of green energy that decimated the gloom within the halls and wrenched my magic through my skull a second time.  My shotgun was blown backwards into my surprised hooves as I fell onto my haunches.

Nohta continued pummeling the creature’s still form as the glow from its stripes died to a soft, cool glow in the returning darkness.  Globs of gleaming brain matter and shattered bits of skull leaped away from the disgusting mess produced by her attacks; each impact of her hooves producing a meaty, wet smack or a sharp crack that grated against my nerves and made my ears twitch.  It was only as she realized that the beast was now well and truly dead that she ceased pummeling the corpse and sat, shaking, upon the ghoul’s chest to stare at the remains of its destroyed head.

That had been… unpleasant.  My mind still aching, I raced to my sister’s side to check on her, crushing the pile of tablets underhoof and nearly stumbling over the strewn limbs upon the floor.  “Nohta dear, are you-”  Wait… She wasn’t shaking from exertion…

Her breath caught in her throat as she turned away from me, sobbing, and rubbed a sleeve of her cloak against her face so that I couldn’t see.  “It… It looked like…”  My hoof reached her shaking shoulder as I carefully picked my steps around the gore-splattered mess at her hooves.  “...looked like Mom, Sis.”

By The Goddess…  I… I had no idea what to say.  I rubbed my hoof against her shoulder while I searched for the words.  “Shh, dear.  That… thing… wasn’t Mother.  It was… it was just a monster, okay?”

She wiped her hooves off on the ghoul’s ruined barding and nodded, shaking droplets of crimson from her chin.  “Ya… it’s just…”  She stood slowly, wobbling to her hooves as I tried my best to keep her steady.  “Sis… I don’t feel so-”  Nohta threw her head to the side and vomited.  

I gasped, breath hitching in my throat as my eyes widened in recognition of her state.  “Nohta!”  Goddess, no!  Not again!  “Nohta, check your Pipbuck!  Those attacks were radioactive!”

Nohta was staring over her Pipbuck at the puddle on the carpet, “Three… hundred… Fuck… is… is that my blood?”  

A soft green glow appeared next to us; a magical aura holding two packs of liquid.  “Drink.”  Holly was speaking between sips of her own packet.  “This is just the sort of reason why I always carry RadAway.”  

I snatched the packs out of the air, wrapping a frenzied hoof around my sister and forcing the medicine to her lips.  “Do as she says, sister.  Drink!”  

She feebly pushed them away from herself, coughing.  “Candy, you got… you got hit by…”

“No, dear.  No.  You need these more than I do.”  My Pipbuck was barely registering over a hundred rads.  I wasn’t about to use up what little medicine we were being offered for something that wasn’t even bothering me.

She groaned in protest.  “Sis…”

In my panic-stricken state, I was… perhaps a little more forceful than was required.  “Nohta!  Shut up and drink!  I’m not letting you refuse!  I’m your elder and I’m telling you to drink these now!”

Nohta turned to give me a sidelong glare out of one beautiful amethyst eye, her expression a mixture of equal parts fury and anxiety.  Stubborn as ever, she continued to fight me.  “Or what?  You gonna-”  Her body convulsed in a coughing fit as she struggled to answer, “...scold me?  I’m too old for-”  She doubled over and dry-heaved.  I couldn’t convince her like this.  I needed another way.

When she rose back up to stare into my eyes, my Pipbuck was all she saw.  I spoke plainly, my tone even.  “One hundred rads, sister.  I. Am.  Fine.”  I lowered my leg, tears brimming within my eyes as my voice wavered due to worry and my own shortness of breath.  “Please?  I can’t… Not again…”

Her eyes fell to the unfortunate zebra on the floor before closing as she lowered her head.  “Fine.”

Holly’s voice was curt and annoyed behind our backs.  “No need to thank me…”

As Nohta finally gave in and drank, I turned to Holly.  The scribe was still panting, looking cross and faintly winded but otherwise still in decent shape.  Her precautions had saved her from most of the damage.

I swallowed my pride, holding Nohta in my hooves as I spoke through my own shuddering breath.  “Holly, I’m so sorry!  Thank you.  Thank you so much!”

Luckily, she was willing to overlook my uncouth behavior.  Holly shrugged and crept towards us, examining the corpse at our hooves.  “I don’t think this one will be getting back up, but if it does we’ll be in bad shape.”  She leaned down to inspect the thick barding, pawing at the three golden chevrons adorning the chestplate with her hoof.  “Sergeant… Mlezi?  Poor bastard.”  Her horn flared a second time, and what appeared to be a knife-sized chainsaw was pulled from the depths of her robes.  With the flick of a button, the machine came to life, its teeth rotating slowly around the blade.  Holly whispered over the revving motor, “You two might want to look away for this.”  I gulped as my imagination went to horrifying places, and acquiesced as quickly as I could.

I led my sister away from the meaty ripping and shredding sounds behind us as Nohta finished the first packet of RadAway and tossed the emptied bag to the floor.  I was able to clumsily stuff my shotgun into my packs with my hooves, though the end was left protruding oddly out from underneath the flap.  When a small *pop* between my ears left me wincing in pain, I chanced a glance behind us to find my other weapon.  The horrifying sight of Holly tearing a severed spinal column away from a torso was nauseating, but was made worth it when my pistol floated back to my leg in my scarlet glow.

Nohta was complaining in a half-hearted manner as we advanced towards the next hallway.  “These things taste almost as bad as Dad’s cooking, by the way.  I didn’t think you could burn juice until he got ahold of some.”  She opened the second packet and began to sip as quickly as she could.   “Like, seriously… Fuck this taste.  This is awful.”  I smiled.  The RadAway was already having an effect.  Blunt and offensive was a good thing, in that regard.

Knowing that my sister would soon be free of radiation was providing more relief than I can adequately describe.  I found my smile turning into a smirk as I teased her, “Why else would I be so adamant that you drink them both, darling?”

She snorted, taking great pains to keep from spitting the liquid, and managed to swallow before rounding on my giggling form, “Candy!  If you-”  Noticing my state of mirth, she sat on her haunches and resumed drinking.  “Very funny.”

“I’m sorry, dear.  I know I shouldn’t joke about this, but… You had me worried there.  You don’t normally refuse treatment…”  My tone dropped as I brushed away the powdered remnants of the pills that were clinging to my hoof.  “Nohta…”  How was I going to bring this up?  Would she just shrug it off?  Would she just say it was a necessary dose, like back in the Stable?

Holly chose that moment to canter up behind us, looking entirely far too cheerful despite being covered in splattered gore.  “Okay!  This night just keeps getting better and better!  Ghoul samples!  Technological breakthroughs!  Exciting discoveries!  We all good?  Because I need to ask a really important question.”  

I sighed, “Holly, perhaps this isn’t the best-”

She continued, undeterred.  “Did your Pipbuck seriously just scare that monster off?”

“My sister and I were in the middl-”  She wanted to discuss the yao guai?  Really?  “Er… Yes.  This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered that beast, either.  We crossed paths with it once before when we first came to Coltsville.  I fear it might be hunting us, but as long as I have this,”  I held up my Pipbuck, “I don’t believe it will be an issue.”

“You’ve gotten close to it?  And you’re still alive?  Wow…”  She smiled and shook her head unbelievingly.  “You have to be the two luckiest girls I’ve ever met.”

Nohta’s second empty packet fell to the floor with the soft slap of thick plastic as she swallowed and cleared her throat.  “Ya.  Maybe.  I’d prefer the kind of luck where everything goes our way right off the bat instead of going to shit and just being able to survive our way out, though.”  My sister leaned to the side, glancing behind the scribe to see the stomach-turning carnage left in the hall.  An odd mix of emotions played across her face before she finally settled on neutral curiosity.  “Huh… You yanked his spine out?  Neat.”

I wanted to object.  To say something about showing respect for one of Mother’s people.  But then, I couldn’t very well contradict my statement only minutes prior.  Not whenever our survival hinged on Nohta being able to recognize these ghouls as monsters.  It was just another little sacrifice I had to make, and not even one of the important ones at that.  You shouldn’t feel differently about someone simply because you’ve learned they have a name, should you?  We all have names.  We all have lives and loves and dreams.

We continued around the corner, picking our way past a gruesome hellscape of crushed and slashed ghouls.  Slashed chunks of disembodied organs and blood clung to the walls, slowly oozing down the floor to pool upon the carpet.  The carnage was so complete that I couldn’t accurately predict how many feral ghouls had been ripped to pieces.  Fifteen?  Twenty?  Bloody bones were scattered in every direction, still covered with chunks of rotten flesh.  

Holding my disgust at bay as best I could, I took the advice of Mother’s book.  Several unruptured eyeballs of every muted color of the rainbow found their way into holding containers within my ingredient satchel.  At Holly’s bewildered and disgusted stare, I could only shrug and offer up the simplest of explanations.  “Alchemy.”

“Wait… are you planning on making those into a potion?  As in… drinking it?”  Queasiness does not begin to describe her expression.  Her eyes bulged in their sockets while she tried desperately to subdue her gag reflex behind one of her hooves.  

“Mmhmm,” I answered nonchalantly, undeterred from the ghastly process of sinking Nohta’s blade into the temple of a skull to sever the optic nerve.  A little wiggle of the blade and the the eye popped right out.  “I inherited a book from my mother that is simply rife with information regarding practical alchemical applications for various ingredients; ghoul eyes being just one of them.”  I left it at that, being confident that she wouldn’t have understood a more in-depth explanation at all.

And besides that, she was clearly having difficulty stomaching my endeavours in the first place.  Her legs continuously moved as if they couldn’t decide to go or stay and her voice was thick with her efforts to keep from vomiting.  

Between minor convulsions and swallowing back her spit, she managed to piece together a query.  “Doesn’t that… sort of… you know… gross you out?  Or scare you?”

A scarlet bubble plucked another eyeball out of a skull like a berry from a bush.  “These creatures might be the stuff of pure nightmare when they are still moving about, but like this?  Puh-lease… I’ll be fine so long as none of them start moving.”  I waved a hoof dismissively, “I’ve dealt with cadavers before, dear.  After all, death is an unavoidable tragedy when you work in the field of medicine.  I’ve learned to take a clinical approach to this sort of thing.”  I paused, opening another small jar and nearly whispering an admission to myself.  “Though… it’s not as if it doesn’t bother me to some degree, but I’m trying to take Mother’s advice while I have the chance.”

Nohta had begun gathering up skulls, depositing them at my hooves where they thudded against each other dully.  “What advice is that, Sis?”

I turned away from the eyeless head at my hooves to answer my sister.  “Making opportunities versus waiting to find them.  And not passing up opportunities regardless of how… repugnant they might be.”  The heft of the blade in my magic was beginning to bring back memories.  Memories that I would have preferred lain dormant.  With a sharp twist, I freed the knife and offered it back to her.  “Nohta, darling, could you take over the ah… collection process for a bit?”

She took the knife between her teeth before deftly sinking it into a dead temple.  “You know… the other day you were all ‘Oh no!  We’re desecrating corpses!  We can’t do that!”  My sister’s smirk flashed brilliantly in the light of my Pipbuck.  “Now you’re taking eyes.”

“Nohta, you were cutting off the ears of what had once been ponies.  Sentient creatures!  Not these mindless abominations!”  My muzzle rose in the air indignantly, “And that was only for the sake of material profit!  These eyes are one of the primary ingredients for one of Mother’s signature potions!  A true fortune!”

A quiet and pained groan sounded behind my sister. “Oh she… She’s actually gonna…”  I glanced at our scribe.  Holly’s chest was convulsing as she held a hoof to her mouth.  Something I had said had clearly not sat well with her.

“One of Mom’s special brews?”  Nohta’s eyes were wide as she very nearly bounced with excitement.  “Which one are you making?  Do you think there’s gonna be enough for both of us?  What’s it gonna taste like?  Do you think-”

I held a hoof up, interrupting her.  “Darling, I still need two crucial ingredients before I can do anything at all.”  Her face fell for a moment, before she resumed wiggling the blade behind an eyeball.  My hoof scratched my chin idly as I thought aloud, “Though I have absolutely no idea how we’re going to find Killing Joke in the desert.  And I seriously doubt that we could handle a fully grown manticore by ourselves.”

Holly spoke slowly, trying to hold her imminent sickness at bay as she braced herself against the wall.  “Manticores… in the hills… can show you…  after…”

Nohta shot me a bemused grin as she nodded in Holly’s direction.  A sly smirk crept across my face as I called out to our companion, “Holly, if you need to induce emesis dear, please do so elsewhere!   Your stomach acid might deteriorate these ingredients!”  With my smirk widening into a full-on malicious grin, I added, “And that would certainly ruin the flavor!”

Holly’s eyes bulged one last time.  “Oh godde-”  She threw her head around the corner, and a wet splash accompanied her retching sounds.


**************


The gross stinks of death and sweat mingled in a terrible fashion as we entered a room full of glowing terminals and tangled networking cables.  Dead overhead lighting fixtures swung loosely above our heads as Holly and I moved towards the center of the room.  Nohta was crouching by the door behind us, keeping an eye out for the beast that we knew still lurked the darkened halls.  

“This is the archive.”  Holly crept warily through the room, stepping over cables and scattered bones while her gun levitated in front of her.  “Looks like your friend lived down here.”

I examined the room with a more discerning eye, old packages of food had been sliced or ripped open, and some of the bones had clearly been chewed on.  Aged blood stains spotted the floor and walls in rusty brown splotches.  Long gouges had been slashed into the walls by the doorway.  Several of the terminal chairs had been savagely torn apart, the stuffing of their seats gathered into a smelly and cluttered corner.  In direct contrast to the ferocious carnage wrought upon the rest of the room, none of the delicate electronic equipment had been harmed beyond a few minor claw marks.  Everything of significant importance was still completely functional with only the smallest of cosmetic defects.  I couldn’t help but spare the briefest of moments to ruminate about how odd a coincidence that was.  Luna must have been smiling upon us again, I mused.

I nodded, my thoughts returning to the task at hoof as I sat at a terminal.  “Indeed.  If this is its nest, then we should attain our information and leave as quickly as possible.  I’d rather not anger the poor beast anymore than we already have.”

“That sounds like a good plan.  Those monsters are some of the most dangerous creatures in the wastes, I’d rather not keep Squad 108 waiting on us while that thing is roaming the area.”  Holly continued to search the room, poking through shelves and cabinets.  “Let me know when you find the map and I’ll transfer the data to my own Pipbuck.  I’m going to keep looking around.”

I focused on the terminal before me and mentally prepared myself for the coming influx of code to decipher.  It only took a moment to discern that the archive terminal wasn’t protected by a password, obviating the need for hacking and granting immediate access to thousands of files.  While slightly disappointed that the terminal offered no resistance, I was otherwise thrilled to finally have located our quarry.  I scanned through numerous files and folders before finding what I was looking for and reading aloud.  “M.o.A. plans special project for Death’s Head Mountain.  S.P.P. tower number 52 will provide weather control capabilities to the majority of the San Palomino Desert, converting the arid region into fertile farmland.  Planned cities and towns under the area of influence will include Coltsville, Pranceton, Fort Mane, Mareon, Spursburg, and Fancy Lick.”  With a few more taps of the keys I soon had a pre-war map loaded to my Pipbuck.  I couldn’t hold back the disappointment in my voice as I whispered to myself.  “That was rather… anticlimactic.”

Nohta’s smug grin invaded my field of vision, causing me to jump and raise a hoof to my suddenly racing heart.  “What?  You wanted another fight, Sis?”

I hissed at Nohta as I slowly calmed down.  “Goddess!  Don’t sneak up on me like that, sister!”

“I didn’t sneak.  You just get way too into this sort of thing.”  She reached a brass-shod hoof forward to clink against the glass screen.  “What’s the M.o.A?  Or the S.P.P?”

Before I could voice my own confusion regarding the acronyms, Holly’s voice called back to us from the opposite end of the room.  “Found something!  An audio recording!  And still in good condition, too.”  A boxy device floated over to me in a green aura as the scribe offered up her discovery, “Here, move over.  I’ll trade you this for a shot at the terminal.  My pockets are too full, anyway.”

“I was under the impression that you only required a copy of the map?”  I questioned, ignoring the tempting glimpse into the past floating towards my hooves.

“That was before I realized these terminals had potentially sensitive information regarding old tech.”  Holly scooted into the seat after I stood to make room for her.  “This is the sort of thing that my order is after.  I’ll need to copy the entirety of the files here for safekeeping, then destroy the originals.”

Nohta’s face scrunched in confusion, “Why would you do that?”

“To keep anypony else from getting access to tech that might wind up hurting them.  Aren’t you familiar with how Steel Rangers work?”  Her levitation gently pushed the audio log into my chest as she hooked her own Pipbuck into the terminal.  “This is how we try to keep the wasteland safe, by making sure that others don’t have access to the really terrible weapons of the pre-war days.”

Well… there was a certain sense to that, I thought.  We were certainly doing a fair job of killing ourselves in droves by utilising simple weapons.  What carnage would be unleashed should we regain the ability to make more devastating personal armaments… or worse?  

I relented and took the recording in my own magic, hoping that it might provide even the briefest glimpse into life before The Final Day.  For all the scrolls and books that had been kept in my stable’s library, I still had such sparse knowledge of the area around our old home.  Holly’s hooves were a maroon blur over the terminal while I duplicated the map and shared it with my sister, then set the recording to play.

Distorted explosive noises could be heard thumping through the static of the recording in clear contrast to the sharp gasps and frightened squeals of a group of ponies.  A foal’s cries, and its mother’s attempts to comfort it, played backdrop to the erratic but continuous bass rumble of immense detonations.  Every so often, another frighteningly powerful explosion rumbled through my Pipbuck’s speaker, and the wails and crying would rise in strength for another pitiable second.  

A lone male voice, deep and powerful and exotic, spoke through my Pipbuck.  “We… we failed.”  Another booming bass rumble echoed through the speaker as the voice in the recording sighed.  “It is over.  It is all over.”  That voice… that sounded like…

A second voice, just as exotic but softer and smoother and very female, spoke as well.  “Askari?  These could be our final moments.  Why do you speak their tongue?”  These were zebras!

“Because, Shauri, they are not our enemies any longer.  I want them to understand.”

“Them?  Do you mean…”  She questioned.

The male voice was exceedingly tired, but carried the weight of determination.  “They who shall be coming after all is finished.  But before the ending has come.”

“You have listened to Mganga for too long, Commander.  Remember the words of the Caesar...”

“No, Shauri.  There is no remembering.  Listen now…”  Another distant rumble vibrated through my speaker.  “This is the sound of Usiku’s kingdom breaking.  Burning and freezing under her hooves.  Today marks the end for our people.  We have bathed the ponies in balefire and hoarfrost.”  The voice let out another heavy exhalation before continuing, “Now imagine what she has done to our lands…”

The male voice continued, “The Caesar is dead, Shauri.  You know this.  The war is ending as we speak.  We have undone ourselves.  Only the stars know victory this day.”

A second male voice, this one distinctly belonging to a pony, spoke with an academic confidence over the backdrop of frightened wails and sobbing.  “If you truly believe that, then there is no reason to hold us prisoner any longer.”

The first voice, the one I assumed to be named Askari, answered.  “Perhaps…  But why should I be inclined to take counsel from the pony who has harbored Mizani?  His mistake is why we are here in the first place.”  Askari spoke evenly, even as his words dripped anger.  “The two should never have been separated.  To do so is to invite madness into one’s soul!  You ponies know not what you do.”

Another distant explosion rattled the occupants of my Pipbuck as I raced to piece together what I was listening to.  Zebras holding ponies prisoner.  Distant explosions…  Talk of bathing the world in balefire?  

This was The Final Day.  I was hearing a recording of the moment the world was left shattered and charred.  Goddess… these poor souls must have been cowering in some basement, hoping that the hell above them would pass them by.  My eyes scanned the room around me as my imagination whisked away beyond my control.  

Perhaps they had been in this very spot hundreds of years prior?  I could see the ponies with my mind’s eye, huddled together near the archives and in corners, praying to Luna for forgiveness and safety.  I could see how the zebras would have divided themselves from the ponies, praying to the spirits of their ancestors just like Mother had occasionally done within our home.  Both sides caught in the wake of a terrible tragedy brought about by their own hooves.  And if any should ask whose fault this atrocity was, every hoof would point across the room in silent accusation.  

I still could not fully comprehend the level of pure, unbridled hatred that would have driven Equestria and The Zebra Empire to devastate the entire world.  I had only felt a fleeting glimpse of that fury, courtesy of the Pyro’s visit to my stable and my subsequent rage when it came time to take the first life I had ever wanted to take.  But this…  What insanity could drive someone to peer over the cliff and, seeing that the only way to lay their hated enemy low was to join them in the grave, throw themselves willingly into the abyss?  What sane individual could do that?  How could these ponies and zebras have fallen so low?

An icy chill ran down my spine as I sympathized with the poor souls seeking refuge from violent forces which they were impotent to stand against.  It wasn’t so long ago that my sister and I had been cowering in fear of those that had sought our demise, after all.  I shuddered as brief flashes of my caravan’s ambush raced through my mind.  Gunfire, explosions, blood… Panicked calls for aid shouting for my Father and I by name… The world going grey and silent… I shook my head.  Now was not the time go down this mental path!  I needed to focus!  A contemptuous grunt from the pony in my Pipbuck brought my meandering thoughts back to the audio recording and the frightened individuals that inhabited it.

The pony in my Pipbuck spoke again, “Oh, I’m not so sure about that.  Star Bright seems to have a damned good grasp of what she’s doing.  Need I remind you that it was one of your soldiers that lifted the barrier?  My assistant never would have gotten her hooves on that blasted artifact if you hadn’t-”

The male zebra answered, his voice steadily rising to the point of shouting.  “Wawindaji is dying for my error in judgement.  We cannot save him now.  This I know.  But you should have never kept the book!  You should have cast it out!  Returned it to my people!  That honorless traitor Mizani-”

“Was my FRIEND!”  Anger lifted the academic pony’s voice above the zebra’s shouts.

Another massive detonation, this one much closer than the others, silenced the rising argument before it could escalate out of control.  The sounds of various objects falling to the floor and shattering accompanied the agonized wailing of the prisoner ponies.  After the frightened shrieks had died down, and silent stillness had taken hold of the recording once more, the female zebra spoke softly from my speaker. “Please, this argument serves no one.  Askari… Commander… if your fears are true, and both Usiku and the Caesar have perished, then we have no orders.  What shall we do?”

A long moment passed, the silence only held back by the whimpering of the terrorized survivors.  After another excruciatingly heavy sigh, Askari answered his comrade.  “We must reseal the book.  It must be contained.  Now that the two are not one, they are a danger to all.”  Another lull in the conversation made me realize that the explosions had ceased.  Askari’s voice had softened to a heartbreakingly tragic consolation.  “This magic was not meant for your kind.  I know not what will become of your assistant.  We will try to make her death painless.”

The pony’s tone of voice echoed the zebra’s, “Star Bright didn’t understand what she was doing.  She was just trying to save the one she loved.  She doesn’t deserve… whatever is happening to her.”

Askari continued, “No… no one does.  Wawindaji was a fool, and I a larger one.”

The pony’s tone was soothing, comforting.  “But he cared for her.  We all saw it.  And a fool in love is the most dangerous kind.”

The female zebra, Shauri, spoke again.  I could just detect the hint of a wan smile on her voice.  “Well at least we can all agree on something.”

Askari’s words bore the force of a leader.  “You should take the ponies here and evacuate.  Coltsville is no longer safe, but Mareon may suit your needs if the radiation has not yet reached it.”

“You’re letting us go?”  The pony gasped incredulously.

“My Caesar and your Usiku are both dead.  This war between kingdom and empire is over.  All that will be left are we pitiful survivors.”   A brief pause, then the male zebra spoke thoughtfully, “A soldier fights for his people.  For all I know, this room contains all the people left in the world.  We cannot be enemies any longer.”

The pony didn’t seem so sure, “It… might be hard for some of the residents of Coltsville and Mareon to see it that way.  I can try to smooth things over but… “

“After we have reclaimed the book, we will leave this land.  My centuria will return home… “

“Commander?”  Shauri’s voice was confused and worried.

Askari sighed one last time, his voice carrying the notes of painful resignation.  “...I will not.  I need to see Usiku’s corpse with my own eyes.  And… my duty compels me to other ends.”

The recording stopped abruptly, allowing the silence of the room to funnel into my ears once more.  I looked away from my Pipbuck to find my sister deep in thought and Holly staring, wide-eyed and mouth agape, in my direction.  A flashing green-and-white “Download Complete” message was left completely ignored behind her excited face.

She rocketed from her seat, causing the rusty rollers to stick and send the whole chair toppling over behind her.  “Oh my goodness!  It might actually be here!”  She disconnected the small cable running from her Pipbuck to the terminal and made for the doorway.  “Come on!  We need to hurry!  We’re so close!”  Without another word, Holly dug a small device out of her pockets and flung it into the middle of the room, then whipped around and galloped into the hall.

My sister and I hurried after her down the darkened halls we had just traversed.  As we were galloping after her, Nohta bumped my shoulder and nodded in the scribe’s direction, “Pretty excited, isn’t she?”  I nodded, but couldn’t find the breath to respond.  A curious, electrical crackle sounded from the archives behind us as we followed the scribe.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves at the stairs leading back up to the ground level.  A breathless flight of stairs later, I was trudging along behind my sister and Holly as they stepped out onto the ground floor of the building and proceeded further inward.  Nearly in unison, all three of our Pipbucks beeped and vibrated in the gloom.  I glanced down at mine to see the simple discovery message: “Hub 76.”

“This is a hub?”  Holly’s voice was confused and incredulous before her personal revelation.  “Ugh… of course!  They wouldn’t store the book in a simple library!  It had to be a hub…”

What was she talking about?  My confusion was voiced between panting breaths, “Hub?  Hub for… what?”

She paused, raising a hoof to her muzzle as she sat still, and looked around at the dimly lit walls.  “Well it’s definitely not Wartime Tech; I would’ve known about that.  It’s not Peace, this isn’t Awesome’s style, and it most certainly isn’t Morale…  I’d say this is Image.  They always tried to be subtle.”

Nohta asked the obvious question for me, “What are you yapping about now?”

Holly blinked and turned to my sister.  She seemed just as confused as we were.  “You don’t know about the Ministries?”

“Ministries?”  I had to brace myself against the wall with a hoof as I fought to catch my breath.  Goddess, those stairs had been agonizing!  “What do… you mean, Holly?”

“The Ministries!  How could you not know about the Ministries?”  She shook her head in disbelief, appearing nearly disgusted at our ignorance.  “What stable did you say you were from?”

Nohta looked back to me with a questioning glance.  My mind raced.  Had we said too much?  There might still be something left in our old home worth protecting, after all.  And if we ever managed to find our stable-mates, they certainly wouldn’t appreciate our giving away important information.  My mane fell around my cheeks as I lowered my face and shook my head lightly.

Nohta pulled her hood back over her mane and looked Holly straight in the eye.  “What’s it matter what stable we came from?”

Holly sighed, closing her eyes and breathing slowly in exasperation.  “Look, I know that this might come as a surprise to you if you’ve never been inside a different stable than your own.”  Her voice took on a sympathetic quality as she continued to explain, “But only a small fraction of the stables functioned as publicly advertised.  The entire Stable program was set up as a system of social experiments to ‘find a better way.’  Some of the experiments got way out of hoof, and ended up with a lot of dead ponies.”

Nohta snorted contemptuously, “So?  Who gives a shit?”  My sister obviously didn’t care about the fate of long-dead Equestrians.  “Ponies in the past fucked up.  I’m totally surprised about that one.  Real shocker.  What’s it matter?”

Holly pursed her lips in annoyance, “It matters because the only way you could not know about the most important organizations in the old Equestrian government is if you were in a stable that had been involved in a radical experiment!”

“No, you fucking id-”  My hoof found Nohta’s shoulder, silencing my sister’s outburst.  When she looked back to my pleading eyes, she calmed herself and started over.  Her hooves moved before her in a conciliatory gesture.  “What I mean is… This isn’t getting us any closer to that book.  Let’s just get this over with, okay?  Candy doesn’t look all that great and I want to get her out of this town as quick as I can.”

“I… What?”  My own lack of breath betrayed my pitiful physical state.  

Holly’s eyes regarded my panting form.  She nodded and turned to Nohta again, “Alright.  Let’s get back to it.  We might get lucky and find some more RadAway in here somewhere.  I’m all out.”

“Beg pardon?  I’m perfectly… fine.”  Oh… lightheadedness.  Well maybe not perfectly fine…

Nohta rounded on me, her eyes like purple ice, and jabbed her hoof at my chest.  She hissed at me through clenched teeth, “Next time we get blasted by radiation, you either drink that shit or I will force it down your throat.”  She punctuated her next two words with sharp little hoof pokes that very nearly left bruises on my chest.  “No.  Arguing.”

And just like that, our roles reversed yet again.  A corner of my mouth curled upwards as I finally caught my breath and nodded.  “As you say, sister.”

Holly turned away from us, her Pipbuck lighting the darkened hallway in its green luminescence as she slowly trotted forwards.  Nohta and I followed soon after, but it didn’t take my sister long to grow frustrated with Holly’s slow progress down the corridors.  Nohta soon took the lead, darting into offices and noisily ripping out desk drawers and overturning furniture in her hasty scavenging.

Holly and I cautioned her against foolhardiness, but she simply waved us off and proceeded undeterred.  After several minutes of this with no ghoul encounters Holly and I simply shrugged our shoulders and joined my sister in her pillaging, reasoning that the majority of the ghouls in the building had already been dealt with in the basement.

I pondered the exact nature of my surroundings as I traveled from room to room and pilfered long-forgotten desks adorned with the personal belongings of the building’s workers.  This “hub” had been more than a library.  I was sure of that.  It simply had too many offices, cubicles, and restrooms for a library’s staff.  

One of the nearby break areas had already been looted, its Sparkle-Cola vending machines having been gutted and their heavenly innards pilfered.   The adjacent Ironshod Firearms Ammunition vending machine had likewise been torn apart, empty bullet casings scattered on the floor next to dirty brown stains.  I couldn’t help but wonder why anypony would be foolish enough to set up such easy and unrestrained public access to deadly ammunition.

I swallowed back my confusion, pressing onward into the small lounge area, and stepped into the mare’s restroom alone.  A soiled and cracked mirror greeted me with… me.  I stared at my face for a long time, unbelieving.  The radiation and trials of the wastes had not been kind to my visage.

I was, to put it simply, a mess.  My eyes were tired, sunken, and bloodshot.  My mane and tail were tangled, frayed, burnt disasters of pink and my naturally white coat was spotted in several places with the crimson splotches of bloodstains.  My labcoat was likewise stained horribly, but it was at least holding together.  The pink and yellow box hanging by the mirror finally caught my eye, and a single roll of non-magical bandages as well as a bottle of clean water soon found themselves within my packs.  I tugged at my mane with a hoof, futilely attempting to bring some sense of control to the bedraggled mess atop my head while I lamented not even having packed a brush for my travels.  Sighing deeply in resignation, I cast one last forlorn glance at my reflection before leaving the restroom.  I knew that I’d never be as beautiful as Mother but… A mare can dream, can’t she?

I left the restroom and ambled into a large room full of thin and moldy dividing walls, each separating its little space from the next to form a long-forgotten hive of cubicles.  Fresh confusion wracked my mind.  This room could have housed dozens of workers!  What did they do here?  I walked through a row of workstations, their dilapidated dividers looking about as sturdy as roughed-up cardboard.  Each little space had been ransacked, leaving requisition forms and shipping invoices scattered to every conceivable nook and cranny within the squat walls and littered all across the floor.  The yellowed papers crinkled lightly under my hoof as I moved through the work space.  Filing cabinets had been overturned on top of desks, cracking or denting the thin plastic or metal of the furniture.  With an odd feeling of remembrance, I noticed one of the cabinets had been stripped of its metal doors and that large portions of its sides had been removed with the telltale melted-metal-signature of a cutting torch.

The cubicle at the end sported the same disastrous motif as its sisters but, unlike them, retained a glowing terminal.  A small squeal of delight escaped my lips as I sat at the desk and gleefully tapped away at the keys.  Idle fantasies about learning just a bit more about the past consumed my mind.  What would this terminal hold?  A news article detailing The Goddess’ stunning defeat of the invading zebra forces?  The personal account of a pony trying to move her family away from the war?  Perhaps an email full of gossip regarding classified wartime technology?   I was so engrossed in the inevitable glimpse into the past that I was taken completely by surprise when my hacking attempt failed, locking me out of the system entirely.  I caught my dumbfounded reflection in the screen, and shook my head as I wondered if Mother and Father’s thrill seeking hadn’t been passed on to more than one of their daughters.  

“No more rushing when it comes to terminals,” I promised myself in a chagrinned whisper.  I chuckled to myself as I added, “At least Holly or Nohta weren’t here to see that.  Nohta’s teasing would have been dreadful!”

I caught myself.  My eyes shooting wide open as I realized just what a grave mistake I had made.  “Nohta!”  How could I have left them?  Goddess, I was such a fool!  “Nohta?”  Why wasn’t she answering?

I hurried from the cubicle, chest heaving as my imagination ran away to dark places with a terrifying alacrity.  I scanned the room with my E.F.S. but found no other occupants.  “Nohta!”  I called out to my sister, galloping back to the offices we had been looting.  I needed to find her!  Where was she?

I held my pistol in the air before me, allowing the scarlet glow of my magic to light my way through the darkness as I galloped through deteriorated cubicles and past rusty filing cabinets and ancient water-coolers.  I called out again, letting my voice carry through the halls in front of me.  I was dreading the worst, but what actually came to greet me was almost as horrifying.

A quick staccato of gunfire lit the walls at the end of my tunnel in brilliant flashes, silhouetting the flailing limbs of equine figures against the wall.  Feral hisses and guttural roars plowed through the gunfire as Nohta ran around the corner laughing.  

“Ha ha!  Hey Candy!  We pissed somepony off!  Get ready!”  Her hood had been thrown back, allowing the light of my Pipbuck to glint in her wide, excited eyes.

Relief washed over me.  “Nohta!  Thank Luna you’re okay!”

“This little hellion you call a sister is insane!”  Holly skidded into the hallway, nearly toppling over due to her momentum before she caught herself and charged in my direction.  “We have to go!”

I looked behind Holly to see a veritable horde of writhing, undead ponies spilling into the hall in a deluge of undead flesh.  A writhing horde of scarred coats and rotting faces tinted in a muted spectrum of every conceivable color was scrambling over itself behind Holly and hurtling towards us with a ferocious and unbridled intensity.  There were at least twenty ghouls, maybe more.  I didn’t wait to count, I simply turned and fled with as much haste as I could muster, just barely resisting the urge to scream in terror.

Nohta had activated her Pipbuck lamp, the blue light mingling with my red and Holly’s green magical auras.  My sister led the way through the halls, occasionally sparing a moment to laugh and buck out at a hissing corpse that stepped into the hallway ahead of us.  Their aged bones snapped easily under her shodden hooves, leaving them to stagger and stumble after us before being trampled by the herd at our back.

We finally found a staircase, creating a thin bottleneck through which we might funnel our assailants.  Nohta bounded up the stairs with an unreal grace, not slowed in the slightest and still laughing insanely.  I followed as quickly as I could manage, Holly nearly shoving me in front of her as her gun fired wildly behind her.  The ghouls were so close that I could feel the back-blasted gore splatter against my mane and labcoat.  The light emanating from the overhead lights of the second floor lit our way as we crawled our way out of hell.

Nohta was yelling in triumphant glee.  “Hahaha!  This is awesome!”  Holly and I found the second floor as Nohta found her next victim.  “Bring it on!”

A shambling corpse noticed her too late, and the exposed bone of its foreleg cracked as easily as a twig under Nohta’s brutal assault.  The creature fell to the ground, growling and gnashing its teeth before Nohta pounced on the ghoul’s skull with all of her hooves at once, delivering a thunderous stomp that obliterated the zombies head in one swift attack.  Dull-gray necrotic brain matter surged out all over the nearby wall as she happily trounced the poor creature like a pre-war filly squishing grapes for wine.

“Nohta!  What did you do?  There are more of them every second!”  My shotgun levitated out of my packs and swung in a wide arc as I turned to face an open doorway.  Three rotting corpses with lifeless eyes and broken teeth tripped over each other as they scrambled through the opening; heedless of everything save for their insatiable hunger for our flesh.  A blast from the weapon in their direction resulted in a glorious fountain of crimson as an undead head was reduced to paste.

Holly stood beside me, a grimace on her face as she sent a controlled burst of lead that tore bloody little blossoms through the body of the second ghoul, “Your little sister is crazy!  CRAZY!”  The third zombie stumbled past its fallen companions and lunged forward, opening its maw in a hellish reek of carrion breath.  

Holly stepped to the side, caught the creature’s advancing form in her hooves, and slammed it into the wall hard enough to jostle a hanging painting to the floor.  The ghoul’s broken hoof slammed into her neck, puncturing the skin and drawing blood as the scribe drew her mechanical knife and sank the spinning teeth into the zombie pony’s neck.  With a final spasm, the creature let out a gurgling death rattle and fell at her hooves, silent.  Its lifeless head followed a second later.  

I turned back to find my sister surrounded at the top of the stairway, laughing and kicking with an impossible grace for one who just bounded up a flight of stairs in the blink of an eye.  Her body spun, sending her cloak whirling behind her to follow her motions like a second shadow, and she deftly dodged a feral blow to her face while Mother’s horseshoes struck a decaying jawline.  The ghoul was thrown to the side as half of its jaw swung limply; its mandible bone having been ripped partly from its skull to leave its tongue dangling from the gory crater that had only moments ago been its mouth.  Years of medical training may have desensitized me slightly to the sight of blood, but to witness such a gruesome and sudden display unfold before my eyes was still a relatively novel experience.  And to know that my little sister was not only the cause but a joyful reveler in this chaotic and violent maelstrom sent shivers through my spine.

Nohta rose to her full height, sidestepping a charging attack and slamming her hoof squarely into the ghoul’s temple.  She had put her weight behind the blow, driving the zombie’s rotted skull to her side where it crunched into the equally rotted drywall to leave a spider-web fissure at the impact point.  She laughed wildly, “This is so much fun!”

“Nohta!  Can you hold them off?  I need to staunch Holly’s bleeding!”  I jammed my hoof against the jagged gash rent from our companion’s neck and floated my jar of healing salve out of my bags.

“No sweat, Sis!  This is easy!”  Nohta spun in place, sweeping one of the undead herd from its hooves to the sound of snapping bones and rasping hisses.

Viscera and splintered ribs exploded out of another ghoul’s side as Nohta landed a double-buck to the creature’s barrel.  She already had five, now truly dead, corpses laying at her hooves and was absolutely covered in congealed blood and scraps of necrotic scar tissue.  She brought her combat knife from its scabbard and plunged it into another assailant’s throat, severing the spinal column and causing the zombie to drop to the floor before sliding down the stairs.

“Absolutely… crazy… “  Holly panted, wincing slightly as the glimmering green ointment covered the wound and began to regenerate the flesh of her neck.  “Thank you, Candy.”

I nodded silently, levitating the shotgun to my side and slipping into S.A.T.S.  A flash of light and burst of sound later, and another cloud of gore spattered the wall behind a would-be assailant.  These ghouls were nothing if not tenacious!

A series of blasts joined my own, tearing through decayed flesh and dropping bodies to the floor.  Holly’s SMG floated across my vision, a fresh magazine slamming home with a satisfying mechanical click before Holly shouted by my side, “We need to keep moving!”

Holly and I dashed through the cleared doorway.  Nohta ran behind us, knocking over every chair she found in the hallway as the mindless horde tripped and stumbled in her obstructing wake.  The monumental clamour of our skirmish was only serving to draw more ghouls to our location!  The three of us hurried through the halls as more and more zombies filtered into our path.

Soon all I could hear was gunfire as my world devolved into a constant state of violence.  The noise was deafening, hammering into my eardrums viciously.  Gnashing teeth, exploding skulls, and flailing limbs dominated my vision.  We weren’t fighting for an objective any longer.  We were fighting for our lives.

The noise came to an abrupt halt as a ghoul’s head erupted in a fountain of gore mere inches from Holly’s gun, “FUCK!  I’m jammed!”  Holly’s weapon had hung up, an oozing sludge of partially congealed blood gumming the action and seeping from the barrel.

Holly’s outcry distracted me, throwing my already poor and panicked aim off by a considerable degree.  My shotgun blared, shattering a zombie’s leg with my last round of ammunition as its owner tumbled to the ground and tripped up three more of its herd.  For once, I was blessing my own inaccuracy.  The three of us took the opportunity to duck through an office doorway, slamming the three-quarters of the door that remained behind us.  What remained of the quartet of yellowed glass panes rattled in their places as Nohta braced herself against the door and shoved.

A wall of flesh collided with our barricade, causing my sister to grunt and dig into the carpet with all of her strength.  Even as she strained against the door, the ghouls on the other side were winning the shoving match, slowly sliding the door inwards.  Finally panting, my sister grunted, “Sis!  I could use… little help here!”

Half of a unicorn’s face peered through the broken glass panes, gnashing rotted teeth and opening its mouth in an all-too-familiar pose as it sucked in air.  I couldn’t let it scream!  Without any other options, I jammed my shotgun’s barrel down the creature’s throat.  

Nohta looked up to see the ghoul’s stunned face, hooked her forelegs around the poll of its head to grip its horn, and pulled downwards.  The awful sound of crunching bones and shattering glass accompanied rasping hisses and growls, and the ghoul’s head slid back behind the door.  “Haha!  Eat that you stupid fucker!”  At least she was still having fun…

My shotgun fell at my sister’s hooves, rendered useless due to my lack of ammunition.  I scanned the room for something to brace against the door.  I needed something big!  I needed something heavy!  I needed something now!  Finding only a metal office desk with a glowing terminal atop its surface, I prayed to Luna for strength and leapt for the heavy metal furniture.

I slid behind the office desk, friction heating the undersides of my hooves as I heaved myself against the metallic monstrosity.  I just barely managed to rock the desk upwards, scattering stationary and causing the terminal to slide to the edge with the grating scratch of steel-upon-steel.

Holly was busy trying to fix her gun, but looked up at the commotion I was making, “What are you-”  With a quick glance at the door and another back to the desk, she bolted in my direction without another word.  When she threw herself against the desk it finally toppled over and slid towards the door.

“Nohta!  Move!”  My sister obliged, bounding over the door and drawing her pistol as two ghouls slipped through the doorway and charged at us.

*BLAM* *BLAM*

Two shots from The Worm fired over my back as two heads exploded.  I was washed first by the shockwaves from the weapon and then by the cascading showers of congealed blood and brain matter.  The desk slid against the wall, slamming the door back into place as the remaining ghouls continued to beat and thrash upon the weakening wooden barricade.  Even if I had bought us time, we still had a price to pay.

I drew up my inventory spell, scanning my belongings as I was overtaken by a sense of deja-vu.  “Nohta!  Keep them out!”

My sister grinned wickedly around her pistol, raising herself to two legs and bracing her hooves on either side of the door’s busted panels.  She fired point-blank into the seething mass of undead flesh, dropping corpses to the ground and blowing massive, meaty chunks out of others.  Screams of rage and frustration from rotted throats poured through the doors between the deafening reports of Nohta’s pistol.  Expending her ammunition, she spat the gun on the ground and resorted to kicking one of her forelegs through the opening in the door to push back the marauding horde.

“Still got about ten of ‘em out here! I can’t reload like this!”

Levitating the grenade out of my packs and floating it mere inches in front of my eyes, I spared a moment to marvel at its beautiful construction.  Such a simple thing, made for only one purpose.  I wondered if it yearned only for that final, fateful moment, or enjoyed the build up before the release.  I couldn’t suppress a grin as I teased the stem out.  

“What are you doing?  You can’t use explosives in here!  This whole building will-”  Holly’s outcries were silenced as I floated the explosive through the broken panes and Nohta bulldozed us both to the side, shoving my head against the floor as she covered me with her own body.

*BOOM!*

The door was blown apart and inward, flinging shattered glass, splintered wood, and the ruined remains of the desk into the room.  My ears rang; overtaxed by the gunfire from earlier,  and now wholly done in by the thunderous cacophony of uncontrollable sonority.  The whole building shook.  As did I, but not from fear.

Goddess!  It was loud!  And… and… There was that feeling again… It was as if a piece of a puzzle was trying to slot itself into place, only to have to fight against its own frayed ends as it stubbornly refused to fit.  My mind raced to catch up with my heart.  I… I liked this.  Why did I like this?

The rumble of shaking walls, weakened thoroughly by age and dealt a savage blow by my own hoof, sent cascading vibrations through the floor.  My ears twitched, and my hearing returned just in time for me to catch Holly’s screaming tirade, “CRAZY!  Both of you!  I thought you were smart enough to not use high-explosives in centuries-old ruins!”

Nohta was still on top of me, yelling at our comrade.  “It got the job done!  And we’re still alive!  What else do you want?”  

“I WANT to recover the books in this place for future study, you fucking nitwits!  That means not bringing this whole building down around our ears!”  Holly gathered herself up, ridding herself of the dust that blown all over the three of us with a spell.

“Pfft.  You can do that research shit later.  We’re too busy being awesome right now.”  Nohta smugly winked at me, and I couldn’t help but bark out a single laugh before controlling myself.  Perhaps it was petty, but the tiny revenge of antagonizing our companion in such a manner was still as delicious as a Sparkle-Cola.  And the relief that came with the cessation of rasping hisses and howls was even better.

“If the two of you are done being blatantly obnoxious and incomprehensibly reckless, we still have a book to recover.  I’m going.”  Holly stepped into the blasted hall and, after a disgusted groan of frustration, made her way deeper into the facility.

“Heh, uh… We should probably go.”  Nohta collected her pistol from the floor with a flourish, flipping it nonchalantly into the holster draped across her shoulder. She turned and trotted out the door, whistling merrily.

I lingered in the room for a moment longer, my thoughts taking a decidedly introspective turn.  Grenades?  Really?  I levitated out my little laser pistol, staring at the grooves in the metal and the winking lights indicating charge and magical wavelength.  “Father… “  I whispered to the still silence left in the wake of the explosion, my lips curling into a small smile as I shook my head.  “You gave me the wrong weapon, Dad.”


**************


I caught up to Nohta and Holly by following my sister’s whistling tune.  It was a light and cheery weapon, honed to a finely annoying sonic point through years of irritating practice.  But now that it wasn’t directed at me, it was all I could do to stifle my own schaudenfreudistic amusement.

“Let’s try to be a little more careful this time, shall we?”  Holly’s face and voice were stern as she ascended the steps leading to the third floor.

“Sorry, can’t hear you!  I must have some awesome stuck in my ears, hold on a second.”  Nohta tapped the side of her head with a brass-shod hoof, “There we go.  Be careful or you might accidentally get some on yourself.”  She held her face in her hooves as she gasped mockingly, “My goodness, just think of how awful that would be!  The horror!  The horror!”

I had witnessed this scene play out on innumerable occasions in the Stable.  It always ended the same, with blood and bruises for everyone involved and Nohta invariably getting into a little more trouble each time.  And of course, more practice for my medical skills.

“I swear!  Is she always this insufferable?”  Holly groaned and looked to me pleadingly.

I smirked in response, “Only to those ponies whom she deems as acceptable targets.”  I lost my smile, my expression being taken over with curiosity, “What happened after we split up?”

“Oh!  Oh!  I got this one!”  Nohta perked up, spinning in place and beaming at me.  I was suddenly overcome with the most severe case of dread.

She was bouncing up the stairs with far too much energy, “So, I’m poking through some drawers looking for caps and shit to pocket, right?”

“Err… right.”  I nodded.

“Guess what I found!”  Her grin widened maniacally.

Oh no… “Nohta… “

“Holly in trouble!  Haha!”  She stomped on the floor, laughing.  “Who would’ve seen that one coming, right?”

Thank Luna!  “Nohta!  You had me worried!  I thought that you might have gotten into something much worse!”

“Pfft.  I got this, Sis.”  She waved me off with a hoof, “I totally took some more Buck I found in one of the cabinets, so I’m pretty sure I can handle any ghoul that comes my way right now.  This shit is… the shit!”

“Nohta, you took another chem?”  I held a hoof to my muzzle to stifle my gasp.

“Calm down, Sis!  I doubt just a couple uses is gonna get me hooked.  It’s not like there’s a magic number that I have to cross and ‘Pop’ I’m addicted!  Dust said that he never got hooked on Buck, even though he used it all the time.  And besides, it got us out of trouble.  I got this under wraps, it’s all good.”  She stood proudly, bobbing her head up and down in a knowing fashion.

Holly piped up, sitting down to fold her hooves in front of her and staring sternly at Nohta.  “Please, by all means, feel free to inform your sister of how you acted after your little drug experiment.”

Nohta bucked her hooves out at invisible opponents as she laughed excitedly.  “Ha!  I totally kicked flank is what I did!”

“She activated her lamp and ran through the halls to bang on doors and yell ‘Here zombie!  Here zombie!  Come out and eat us!’  I thought one of us was going to die for sure, until we found you.”

I looked to my sister as we neared the third floor, “Nohta, weren’t you the one chastising me for using Med-X when we were in that cave?”

She stopped assaulting the air and nodded sagely.  “Yep, but this is different.”

I groaned in frustration, my hoof trailing down my face.  “Then if you would care to elucidate, sister, please inform me of exactly how!”

“Med-X addiction is hard to get over.  Dust told me that once you get hooked to it, you’re pretty much screwed.”  She was still bouncing up the steps with far too much energy.  “And ya, Dash is pretty bad, too.  I’m only gonna take that if I really have to.  But Buck is just like a little boost, no big deal.  I’m not all hyper like I was on Dash, I’m just… stronger.  See?”  She made a point of standing still and smiling smugly at me.

“Only if you have to?”  I raised a stern eyebrow.

“Oh, come on Candy… Don’t tell me you haven’t skipped ahead a little in Mom’s book.  You read faster than me, anyway.  Just look up what she says about Doombunny Style, it’s wild!  Ha!”  If Nohta had already read Mother’s passage about chem use, I knew that not even I could dissuade her.  Not at that point in time, anyway.  I could only hope that I’d have an opening for a very serious talk with her later.  I shook my head, and Nohta resumed bounding up the steps.

We reached the top of the stairs, and moldy carpet gave way to rotted hardwood floors.  Elaborate and stately portraits featuring well-dressed business ponies still hung over top of peeling wallpaper.  Above us, portions of the ceiling had fallen through to expose the blanket of clouds keeping Luna’s Moon at bay.  Our hooves clopped on the floor softly as we explored the ruined hall together.  Nohta may have wished to go off on her own once more, but Holly and I had endured quite enough of my sister’s brand of frivolity.  I stayed close to the both of them as we advanced through the lit halls of the top floor.

Holly had stopped by an opened elevator shaft, prying a small metal box upon the wall open and hoofing through a bundle of wires.  She paused for a moment, staring intently at the cables mere inches from her squinting eyes, and whispered to herself inaudibly.  I could only just make out the sound of her cursing under her breath.

I stood behind her, shining my Pipbuck light into the box to illuminate the wires she was working on and trying to not get too close to the gaping chasm.  “Do you believe that we might be able to restore the elevator, Holly?”

“Unless something mechanical has failed… yes.  Despite all odds, this building still has power.”  Her voice trailed off as she spoke to herself in a near whisper.  “Probably backup generators in the basement… Gotta see if we can recover the tech…  Or maybe we should just…”  She paused and looked back to me over her shoulder, “You know anything about electrical wiring?  I could use a hoof.”

I smiled and leaned in, "Nearly everyone in my stable had some affinity for making simple repairs. I can't count the number of times I've had to switch a light bulb or fix a leaky faucet.”  Memories of illustrations from Bean’s Electronics flashed through my mind.  Remembering a passage on electrical wiring, I found the faulty connection and indicated it with a hoof.  “It’s that one, if memory serves me correctly.”

She glanced back at me over her shoulder.  “You sure?  If we fry the circuits then we have to walk back down.”

The text came flooding back to me in waves as I nodded, “Yes.  That’s the one.  I’m sure of it.”

Her hooves were a blur as she worked on the talismans and circuitry.  "I would have imagined you'd have maintenance ponies in your stable to do this kind of thing for you."

My eyes wandered the halls, taking in the once-lavish decorations.  "Oh we did, but they were oftentimes more focused on the crucial issues, like making sure that refrigeration would work through the night or that the electrical generators wouldn't die in the next few hours. Their jobs were much too important to be bothered by something so simple as a faulty light switch."

“That’s… odd.  Stable-Tec always built their stuff to last.”  I turned back to find her frowning at my Pipbuck.  “Never heard of a Stable that needed constant maintenance.”  Her frown rose to meet my eyes in a sympathetic display, “You guys must have had a weird one too.”

My brow furrowed in confusion, “I was under the impression that your leader didn’t like Stable-Dwellers?”  She stayed silent, opting to continue in her repairs as one of her ears gave a feeble twitch.  I tried a different tack.  “How was your’s any different?  If you don’t mind my asking, of course.”

“108 was…”  She paused, smirking at me, “Wait, you expect me to spill the beans about my own stable but won’t tell me about yours?  That’s kinda hypocritical.”

My lips pursed, she had a fair point.  But I still wasn’t ready to divulge that information.  “Mmm, well… I suppose it hardly matters now.  We won’t be returning anytime soon.”

Holly’s eyes fell to the floor before returning to the electrical wiring as she resumed her repairs, “I’m sorry.”

My eyes traveled to Nohta as my sister occupied herself by drawing mustaches on the paintings hanging from the walls.  My head dipped as my thoughts drifted back to days long past.  “I am too.”

Sparks flew from the box to singe Holly’s hooves and robes as the circuitry and talismans snapped to life with an electric hum.   She pulled back, shaking her hoof and grinning as the elevator stirred to life and rose to our level.  “Good.  Let’s keep going.”

The three of us moved on to find a large waiting area with an ornate wooden desk and plush sitting benches, all in a horrible state of disrepair.  Several frayed and curling copies of “Clothes Horse Magazine,” “Equestrian Army Today,” and “Today’s Locksmith” adorned the coffee tables arrayed before the benches.   Burned-out lamps and fake plants rounded out the decorations.  A large pair of oaken double-doors waited for us at the back of the room past the desk.  The doors bore the same tri-diamond insignia that I had seen within the Stable’s library.

“I recognize that symbol…”  My lips moved before I could take the words back.

“What’s that?  The diamonds?”  Holly glanced at me before nodding and pointing a hoof at the doors.  “That’s one of Image’s logos.  This has to be an Image Hub.  Makes sense.  They took care of most of the pre-war propaganda but tried to keep their operations quiet.”

Image… I couldn’t fathom why she kept using that word.  Or why the same symbol found within my stable’s library should be found in a place tied to propaganda.  The tenets of Selenism preached honesty; peering into the darkness to unveil the truth, not covering it up with lies and falsehoods!  Holly had to be mistaken, there was no other explanation.  I pushed the thought aside as my eyes were drawn to my sister’s hurried movements.

Nohta was immediately drawn to the coffee tables, and started stuffing the dog-eared publications into her packs.  “Hey, check it out, Sis.  More magazines!”  She nudged the pages of “Today’s Locksmith” open with a hoof and began skimming the articles and illustrations.  “Sweet.”

Holly practically threw herself at the doors in her eagerness to open them, only to be severely disappointed when they refused to budge.  “Damn it!  We have to get through these doors!”

Nohta’s smirking form gently shoved Holly out of the way, “Move aside and chill out.  I got this shit.”  Holly’s face twisted into a scowl at the casual arrogance of my sister, but she soon resigned herself to quietly watching as Nohta sat in front of the doors and got to work.

It only took a moment for Nohta’s first bobby pin to snap and break off inside the polished lock.

“Oh that’s just fucking great!”  Holly was becoming increasingly irate in her desperation.  “I thought you said you could do this?”

“Oh fuck off… I said I could pick this lock and I can!”  Nohta dug at the keyhole with her screwdriver to evict the jammed bit of metal.  “It just… might take me a while.”

My hoof found Holly’s shoulder just as her mouth opened to yell at Nohta again.  Holly looked to me, confusion and outrage mixing on her face as I tried my best to calm the tension.  “Holly, dear.  Nohta can accomplish this task, I’m sure of it.”  I turned to Nohta, my own failure with the terminal fresh in my mind, and resisted the urge to tease her.  “Take your time, sister.  I have faith in you.”

Nohta rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, a clear sign to me of her embarrassment.  “Heh, okay.”  She readied another bobby pin and splayed the magazine in front of her on the floor before resuming her ministrations with a slow and deliberate caution.

“So…”  I turned back to the scribe.  Her freckled face still bore the remnants of a frustrated scowl.  “This book… Why do the Steel Rangers desire it so badly?”

“For the same reason we try to do anything.  To keep the Wasteland safe from those who don’t know any better.  This book…”  Her scowl softened as her eyes drifted to the side.  “...it’s caused a lot of trouble.  It needs to be contained.  Kept somewhere where no one can find it.”

My head tilted ever-so-slightly to the side as I questioned her.  “No… one?”

Her eyes were calculating and concerned as they returned to mine.  “You’ll see.”  The simplicity of her statement left me with no doubts that she was in no mood for conversation.  I nodded, accepting that I had ascertained all the knowledge I could from her, and walked over to the large desk in the room while Nohta continued tinkering with the lock.

My eyes were drawn to the dead terminal atop the desk.  It seemed as if fate were mocking me; the only object of any interest within the room didn’t even work!  I was about to turn away from the desk when a glint of metal caught my eye from the floor.  

I levitated the small nameplate up to my eyes, whispering to myself, “Star Bright… assistant to Mr. Lexicon.”  I placed the nameplate on the desk next to a picture of two smiling ponies in business suits.  The older pale-blue earth-stallion looked exceedingly professional in his dapper attire, but the younger unicorn-mare with the ivory coat and pink mane was positively beaming at his side.  The two ponies in the picture almost looked like Father and I, save for a few minor details.  Perhaps that was why I felt the sudden urge to check up on my sister’s progress.

“Almo… god… ib…”  Nohta squinted in concentration as the lock finally released with the gentle mechanical jingle of falling pins and the heavy *thunk* of the hefty securing bolt sliding into place.

Holly quickly pushed the door open, revealing a sumptuously decorated personal office.  A massive lavish wooden desk with a single terminal sat in the rear of the room in front of an entire wall that had been converted into a book shelf.  Elaborate and comfortable-looking cushions and sofas were positioned prominently in the room upon an exquisite rug that was surely of Saddle-Arabian origin.

But all of our eyes were locked onto the marble plinth in the middle of the room, and the magenta dome that rose like a shield over its circular top.  Visible within the field was the unmistakable outline of a book.  We had found our objective, and the key to our freedom.

Holly strode towards the stone column, lowering her head to peer through the shield.  “Kinda hard to see through the stasis field but I think this is it!  You’re up, Candy.  Go easy with the terminal, okay?  If it’s too hard to figure out the password, let me help you.  The last thing we need to do is take even more time by dragging Scribe Cypher up here to back-hack into a locked terminal.”

I stared at her, stunned at the prospect of accepting assistance with a puzzle.  Oooh, I’d show her!  Mental problems were my area of expertise!  “Alright then.  Let’s see how this goes, shall we?”  I moved across the room and slid behind the desk.  “Oh my!  This chair is simply divine!  What do you suppo-”

Holly interrupted me almost immediately.  “Doctor, focus.  The book.”

I smiled and waved a limp hoof at her in a dismissive gesture.  “Oh, yes, yes… I’ll get to that in a moment.  But honestly, this chair is so exquisitely-”

A pained expression flitted across her features as she took a deep breath and sighed, then furrowed her brow in a positively pitiful pout.  “Candy… please?”

I was taken aback by the genuine desperation on her face, and subsequently lessened my juvenile resistance.  “Er, of course.”  My hooves moved over the keys as a small measure of pride welled within me.  When it all came down to it, these Steel Rangers needed my assistance, didn’t they?  Perhaps I should remind this mare of that.  Just so long as I didn’t muck it up like last time…

“Ahh, yes.  Let’s see here.  This might take quite a while, it is a massive, ten-letter word.”  I scrunched up my face and shuddered in mock horror, before returning my attention to the screen.  My hooves clicked and clacked against the keys as I thought aloud.  “Well, it’s certainly not ‘chokeberry.’  And ‘adaptation’ is a bust as well, though it does share…”  Was that it?  Yes, of course… it was the only one that matched the algorithms.  “Found it.  ‘Abscission.”  The screen flashed before my eyes, opening up a bevy of files and command scripts.

“Ahh, there we are!  Now, let’s see what fruits my toil and hardship have yielded.”  I held a fetlock to my forehead, just underneath my horn, and gasped.  “My goodness!  Why… That was simply the most overtaxing task I have ever been given!  I’m really not sure how I was able to do it.”

Nohta giggled into her hoof, glancing at our red and green companion.  “I think you upset her.”

Holly sighed and looked over the dome to my raised eyebrow, speaking in a flat voice.  “Yes, I get it.  You’re proud of your mental faculties.  I’m sorry for the unintended slight.  Would you please raise the barrier, now?  I’m as eager to be done with this as you are.”

I waved a hoof in the air dismissively again, relishing the position of power which had landed in my lap.  “Oh, if you insist.  I’ll just be over here reading these entries while you claim your prize.”  A solitary hooftap lifted the barrier in a shimmering wave of disappearing magic while I perused the entries of a certain Mr. Lexicon.

>Those brutes nearly scared my friend away.  I’m just glad that I was able to intervene before these imbeciles started using racial slurs.  Zebras may not be trusted in most of Equestria right now, but Luna will have to take me ‘herself’ before I abandon my oldest friend.

That… was not what I was expecting.  Intrigued, I continued reading as Holly leaned in close to examine her prize.

>I’ve always worried about his traveling.  Equestria simply isn’t safe for a blind alchemist right now.  I’ve asked him several times to allow me to find him a nice, secluded village with ‘friendly' ponies and zebras living together in the harmony we once enjoyed, but…  Mizani is bound and determined to find his own place in this world.  I suppose that I should just be thankful to enjoy his company for as long as he decides to stay.  I’ll have to come up with a good way to repay him for bringing me more of that tea.  Ponies simply cannot blend or brew like zebras, and I’ll never understand why.  

>Mizani had disturbing news of his travels.  Portents of troubled times.  With the war having been in full swing for… how long now? It’s becoming hard to remember in my age…  I’m sure that his predictions are accurate.  I’ve always respectfully disagreed with his ‘bifurcated’ view of the world, but…  There was something in his voice this time.  Fear like that is not borne of idle speculation.  It comes from complete conviction.  Mizani is utterly assured that our world is ending.  I recorded our last conversations, with his permission of course, for safekeeping.  I can’t go through Rarity for this.  That poor mare’s got too much on her mind now.  Perhaps I’ll try to contact my nephew for an audience with Twilight Sparkle.  She, at least, should appreciate the importance of old prophecies and predictions regarded as ‘old pony tales.’

I downloaded the audio files to my Pipbuck and was about to play one of them when I noticed Holly stomping around the room in a huff.  Her magic was throwing the expensive sofa cushions in every conceivable direction in a uniquely innocuous display of her frustration.

“It’s a fake!”  She screamed.

Nohta was edging away from her, dodging pillows and attempting to put a comfy-looking sofa between the agitated mare and herself.  I looked to the marble plinth and the solitary tome that lay upon it.  I got up from the terminal, my body moving almost of its own accord.  

As I moved past the desk my eyes remained glued to the book.  I saw the pure-white leather, the gilded pages still in perfect condition, and the blackened two-half-circles rune upon its face.  I couldn’t take my eyes away from it.  The audio logs were completely forgotten as I found a new object to tempt my curiosity.  I didn’t even care what it was about; I just wanted to read that book!  My voice was a soft and breathy whisper.  “It looks real to me.”

Holly had expended her supply of upholstered ammunition, and so resorted to stomping her hooves as she yelled.  “No. No. NO!  It’s a fake!  Another fucking dead-end!”  She was shaking, wetness welling in her eyes, “I thought we had found it!  I thought this mission was over!  I thought… I thought we could go home…”

Her tears fell freely on the expensive rug.  Nohta stared at the freckled mare in surprise, seeming to recoil from the sudden outburst of emotion, but I felt like I finally understood.  And with understanding came sympathy.  I spared the book one last glance before I moved past it to wrap a hoof around Holly’s shoulders.

“Shh… It’s okay.  It’s okay.”  I knelt beside her, rubbing her back as she sobbed.  I scooped up the book in my magic, relishing a pleasantly warm feeling that flowed down my horn as my telekinesis made contact with the tome, and floated it over to the poor scribe.  “Here, you should take this back to your leader.  Maybe you missed something?  Maybe it’s legitimate?”

She chuckled mirthlessly between sobs, looking away.  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.  It’s not even the right col-”

Nohta finally found her voice.  Judging by the anger and volume, she had found all of it.  “Hey!  We got you your fucking book!  It’s not our fault if you guys didn’t know whether it was the right one or not!  Are you gonna let us go or is this gonna get ugly?  Cause if this is gonna go south then I want to fucking know already!”

I pleaded with my sister, shielding the scribe from her verbal assault, “Nohta, please dear!  She’s-”

Holly stood up, clutching the book to her body with a hoof.  “No, no… your sister’s right.  We should get back to the others.  You two should be free to go after that.  Star-Paladin Sandalwood won’t go back on her word.”  She turned and led the way out of the room, stuffing the book into her robes as she walked.  Nohta and I followed as I glared daggers at my sister.

“What?”  Nohta whispered coolly.

“She didn’t deserve that.”  I answered, my voice equally chilled.

“Fuck that, Sis!  We haven’t deserved any of the shit that’s happened to us since we left home either!  They’ve basically enslaved us here!  I’m tired of this shit!  I want out of this fucking town and I want out now!”  She stomped a hoof on the hardwood, producing a small rattling noise as she disturbed some small knick-knack on a shelf somewhere.

“Well, maybe we can get out if you don’t act too brashly and try to be polite for once!”  I hissed through clenched teeth, managing somehow to almost sound like a… wait a second.

“I… We… UGH!”  Nohta vented her frustrations by turning and bucking her hind hooves into a centuries old door, splintering the wood and ripping the hinges from the frame.  The door fell into a presentation room that was missing its outer wall, allowing the diffused light of The Moon to wash the space in its cool glow.  A chilly breeze flowed through the opening to caress my face and brush my mane aside, bringing an unexpected and foul odor across my muzzle.  Within the room, just past the rotting oval table that dominated the space, were two very surprised unicorn ghouls glancing in our direction with pale-white eyes.  Their maws opened far too wide as they both sucked in air.

My eyes went wide as I forgot the argument and shrieked, “Don’t let them scre-”

The rest of my warning was drowned out by a deafeningly shrill and debilitating screech.  The reek of death poured through my nostrils as the zombies bellowed for all they were worth, one walking towards us to cripple us with sonic death while the other plodded towards the non-existent wall to wail into the desert.  I was still levitating my pistol out of its holster when Nohta activated her S.A.T.S and fired The Worm twice, shattering one skull and blowing a gargantuan hole through the second ghoul’s torso.  The banshee fell out of the opening, shrieking all the way down, and crashed into the ground with a terrible crunching and splashing noise.

Holly was in the room before Nohta or I had even holstered our pistols, wide-eyed and gazing out at the desert.  “No… no no no.  Please don’t… Oh no… oh no.”  Her eyes shot wide in a terror only she understood.  “Fuck!  We have to go!  We have to go right now!”

I peered through the opening to see what had scared her so badly, but saw nothing.  “What’s-”

She was nearing hysterics now, “She’s coming!  We have to run!”

“She?”  I looked back to the shaking mare.

“Bright Eyes!  She must have heard that screamer!”  She shrieked and pointed her hoof to the desert.

I looked through the opening once more, following her hoof to find a faint aura of emerald light in the wasteland.  The hazy lambency was gathering strength, quickly becoming a resplendent effulgence of dazzling green that infected the ruined countryside with a diseased glow.  Two pinpricks of pure-white light shone from the heart of the blaze; two portals into madness lying at the heart of the unholy sun that walked the desert.

Distant wails of banshee ghouls called out to the wastes, and were answered in kind.  The undead inhabitants of the wasteland were stirring to the beckoning light show of their master.  The night was alive with the sound of death, and all I could do was stare into those points of light and wonder if they were staring back.

Nohta seized hold of my coat, forcefully coaxing me towards the opened elevator at the end of the hall as Holly scrambled with hanging wires and stuck buttons.  My tail was nearly caught between the shutting doors as sparks flew from the wiring and singed Holly’s fur.  Flickering lights accompanied the groan of ancient gears and cables as the lift lurched and slowly descended.

Holly slammed her hooves on the buttons repeatedly.  “Fuck!  Go faster you piece of shit!”  

Nohta was silent, reloading her pistol with her last rounds of ammunition.  If Bright Eyes was really as bad as Holly believed then we were in a lot of trouble.  I sighed, opening my bags.

“Nohta… “  She looked up from her pistol to see what I was holding in my hoof, “I do read faster than you.  And if I’m not mistaken I believe that I absorb more of the pertinent details than you, as well,”  I reminded her before my expression softened.  

I swallowed, trying to force the lump out of my throat, “But you’re right about this.”  I hoofed over the various chems that we had scavenged the day before, tears welling in my eyes.  “I can’t lose you, sister.  You’re all I have left.”  I sat next to her, smoothing out the wrinkles in Mother’s cloak as I worried about the coming hours.

She stuffed the Dash and Buck into her cloak’s pockets as her brow furrowed in a questioning gaze.  “You’re… really worried about me getting hooked to something, aren’t you?”

“How could I not be?  You’re my sister, for Luna’s sake!”  I sniffed, wiping my hoof against my eyes.  “Just promise me that-”

“Only as a last resort.  I promise.”  Her voice wasn’t cold any longer.  But her purple eyes were pure steel.  I knew she’d keep her promise.

“Come on!  Come on!”  Holly was still smashing the buttons of the elevator under her hooves, oblivious to the conversation a mere pony’s length away from her in the small space.

I was about to suggest that mashing buttons on an elevator couldn’t possibly make the poor machine go any faster when the elevator came to an uneasy halt as its doors opened to the screech of grating metal.  One red-cloaked unicorn and three armored Rangers stood guard by the lift’s entrance, turning to greet us as we exited.  

“Halt!”  All four of the Rangers aimed their considerable firepower at us as we froze in place.  The unicorn buck barked out a curt question.  “Do you have it?”

“Of course I do!  But it’s another fucking fake!”  Holly levitated the white tome towards the unicorn, “You can take it to the Senior Scribe if you want, I need to speak to the Star-Paladin right now!”

The scribe backed away from Holly, “Oh hell no!  I’m not touching that thing!  You take it to her yourself, we’re just here to escort you to her.”  Judging by the massive weapons trained on us, I mused, we were going to be ‘escorted’ whether we liked it or not.

“We don’t have time for this!  We need to-”  Holly was cut short by a single massive bullet that slammed through the elevator’s inner walls behind our heads and impacted against the inside of the elevator shaft.  I was nearly bowled over by the shockwave from the blast alone, not to mention the deafening report.  A curl of smoke wisped away from the barrel of the rifle at the middle Ranger’s side as his armor automatically loaded another round into place.

“Woah!  Fuck!  Look, we’re not hostile, okay?”  Nohta jumped back, waving her forelegs in front of herself.  “We can play nice!  No need for shooting your fucking cannon there, big guy!”

“Got your attention now?  Good.”  The middle Ranger’s voice came out distorted and tinny through his helmet.  “The orders are clear, Scribe.  You’re doing this our way.”  He turned, and began walking at a brisk pace toward the main chamber of the library.  “Let’s go.”

The four Rangers took us back to the large room that they had made into a base camp, ushering us towards the center of the room as the rest of Squad 108 kept their weapons pointed at our heads.  Once again I was mesmerized by the titanic amount of literature held within this space.  My eyes roamed over the shelves but, now that I knew of their presence, all I could see were the armed and armored figures spread evenly about the library.

I whispered to Holly as I warily examined the sheer amount of firepower aimed in my direction, “Um, Holly dear?  I can perhaps understand why they might not trust Nohta and myself, but why in Equestria are your comrades treating you like a dangerous prisoner?”

“Because I’ve got this,” She held the ivory tome in her magic before her, pointedly looking me in the eye.  “I was the only one to touch it, so I’m the only one that might be contaminated.”

My sister was confused, “Huh?  But-”

Holly explained once more.  “Yes, since I was the only one who’s magic gripped the tome, I’m the only one at risk.”  Nohta finally took the hint, and stayed silent as Holly continued.  “Of course, none of this matters since it’s a fake… and Bright Eyes is going to kill us all if I can’t convince Sandalwood to evacuate right now.”  She growled her last words at the Ranger leading us to the Star-Paladin, who ignored her and maintained his slow pace down the terraced steps and into the center of the room.

“Contaminated?  Whatever do you mean, Holly?”  If there was a medical risk, I needed to know!

She shook her head as we followed the Rangers.  “You and your sister will be fine.”  She gave me a significant look, conveying a simple message with her eyes… ‘Shut up.’  She continued verbally a moment later, “I am the one holding the book.  I’m the only one at risk.”  I dropped the subject, despite my thoughts racing out of control.  At that point, I had to trust her.  I had no choice.

We finally made it to the large service desk at the center of the room.  The four Rangers we had been following moved to the side as Sandalwood and Meadow stepped around the desk to meet us.  

Sandalwood’s voice was still distorted by the helmet, “Alright.  Let’s get this over with.  Scribe Holly, step forward and relinquish the book to the Senior Scribe.”

Holly spoke as quickly as she could, “Star-Paladin, please, we have to leave right now!  The most dangerous ghoul I’ve ever seen is-”

“The book, Scribe.”  Senior Scribe Meadow’s voice was low, promising harsh punishment for disobeying her wishes.  “Now.”

Scribe Holly pursed her lips, levitating the white book to Meadow’s hooves.  “Really, ma’am, it’s a fake.  But we need to go right now!  Bright-”

“No ghoul is a match for a squad of Steel Rangers, Scribe.  Calm yourself!”  The Star-Paladin’s bark was harsh at first, causing Holly to recoil in surprise, but Sandalwood's voice gradually grew softer as she continued, “The knights and paladins will protect you, Scribe Holly.  It’s our honor to do so.  You’ve nothing to fear when in my presence.”  Her voice was more like a mother’s than a leader’s as she added one simple word, “Okay?”  

Holly’s mouth moved but no words came out.  Her face slowly slid back behind her mane as she silently nodded.

Turning to the senior scribe, Sandalwood asked, “Well?  What are we dealing with here?”

Meadow’s brow was furrowed in concentration as she rubbed her chin and pondered aloud, “Not the book.  No.  Not even the right color.  Definitely not a copy or replica either, the runes are all wrong.  But not a fake…”  She adjusted her glasses and stared down her nose at the book, “Zebra origin.  Note the runic characters and leather backing.  Possibly… “  Levitating the tome to her face in a cloud of magenta, she allowed the pages to fall open before her as she continued, “No… no temptation.  No… anything.  I’m not feeling anything at all.”

“Ma’am,”  Meadow turned to the Star-Paladin, “My professional assessment is that this book is a possible zebra artifact.  But it is not our objective.  My recommendation is that we continue to move west until we can go around Death’s Head Mountain and avoid the locals, then move northeast to Manehattan.”  Meadow pointed in our direction, “Scribe Holly has proven herself a capable covert field agent, even if she is somewhat overly apprehensive in regards to local superstitions.”

“But as we’re all aware, ma’am, discretion is the better part of valor.”  The Senior Scribe chuckled to herself, taking wry amusement from a joke I wasn’t privy to.  “I would like to send her through Mareon and then north to New Appleoosa to gather information.”

“Hmm.”  Sandalwood digested the information for a moment before gesturing towards Nohta and myself, “Scribe Holly, how did these two fare?”

The freckled mare at my side cleared her throat before answering, “Ma’am.  Nohta, the cloaked one, is a capable melee fighter and lock picker.  Candy’s hacking skills are competent, and she showed a degree of familiarity with simple electrical repairs and zebra alchemy.  I already reported of her medical expertise after my stay in Mareon; she was the doctor who cared for me.”  Holly looked in my eyes as she continued, “They behaved somewhat recklessly at times, but showed a knack for several skills we have use for.”

My mind raced at those words.  What was Holly saying?

Sandalwood’s voice rumbled through her helmet, “And your recommendation, Scribe?”

This conversation was veering off in a direction I had never imagined.  “Wait… wait a sec-”

Holly’s eyes were still locked with mine, looking far calmer than I felt.  “I’d recommend we take them in as initiates-in-training.  Make them a part of the Rangers.”

Huh?  My hoof rose defensively, as I pleaded for an explanation.  “Hold… Hold on-”  

Sandalwood nodded, “Then they can travel with us until we reach Manehattan.  We’ll give them a full evaluation along the way.”

I was dumbfounded, capable of only blinking and swallowing as I tried to comprehend what had just transpired.  I opened my mouth, but shut it again as realization of what we were being offered washed over me.  

Nohta’s response was no less confused than mine, evident by the flat expression she wore upon her face as her hooves pulled her hood back.  “What.”  It wasn’t a question.

“I’m sorry for fooling you!  You don’t have to accept if you don’t want to!”  Holly’s tone was genuine, pleading with me.  “But if you want to be a part of something greater than yourself, if you’ve grown tired of watching the wasteland consume this world like a fire sweeping through grass,  if you long to be part of a family instead of being alone… “  Her misty eyes were hard to look into as she uttered that word.  “We have a place for… people with your skills.”

A new family?  We wouldn’t be by ourselves any longer… but… What of my old family?  What of my friends from the Stable?  Didn’t I still have an obligation to them?

Sandalwood stepped toward Nohta and myself, “I know that this probably came as a surprise to the two of you, but unlike many of the elders of our chapters, I actually don’t have a problem with recruiting wasters into the order.  New blood is fine, just as long as you realize the chain of command and follow orders.  Scribe Holly vouches for you, and that’s good enough to allow you the chance to prove yourselves.”

I shook my head, attempting to bring some clarity to my muddled thoughts.  “By the Goddess, this is… this is quite… ”  I trailed off, unsure of how to answer.

The Star-Paladin shot a quick glance to Holly, who was still staring in my direction with only the slightest amount of confusion on her face.  Sandalwood stepped close until she was mere inches from me, and removed her helmet.  Her confused, cinnamon-colored eyes bore into my own even as I backed away uncomfortably.  “What did you just say?”

“Er… beg pardon?”  I felt myself withering under her gaze, slowly backing up as she advanced to keep an equal distance between us.

“You said ‘Goddess.”  She stared at me, whispering menacingly under her breath, “Which Goddess?”

Which?  There was only one!  Everypony knew that!  “Er… Luna, of course.”

She leaned in slowly and deliberately, coming close enough that I could see the gray seeping into her cropped mane and feel her breath brush against my muzzle.  In the quietest of whispers so that only I could hear, she softly breathed her question.  “Are we sisters, child?”

It was, simply put, one of the most positively foalish things I had ever heard!  I finally found the strength of will to balk at such a ridiculous question, “What?  Of course not!  I only have one sister!  And I’m no child, I’m a grown mare, thank you very much!”

She held her stare for a moment longer, then backed away and replaced her helmet.  “I’ll keep my word, you’re free to go if you wish.  Or you can accompany us to Manehattan if you’d like to escape this desert and possibly gain a place within our order.”  She pointed to the book at Meadow’s hooves, “Grab the book Senior Scribe, we might as well keep it for study.”  She shouted her next words to everyone present, “We’re heading out in ten minutes!  Everypony get moving!”

The room burst into activity, which left Holly, Nohta, and myself standing alone by the desk.  I looked to our companion, questions swimming through my mind.  “You were… testing us?”

She swallowed back her fear and nodded, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.  One of my duties is to scout out new talent to grow Sandalwood’s squad.  When you showed up here, I had to convince everypony that you could be useful.  I couldn’t think of any other way to keep them from killing you.”

“So we’ve been getting played this whole night?”  Nohta’s mouth was hanging open with incredulity, her brow furrowed in bafflement.  “That’s… that’s just… “  She shuddered for a moment, then stomped her hoof on the floor.  “Damn it!  Mom would’ve seen through that in a second!”

I patted her exposed head, rustling her mohawk, “Well, we can’t all be expert assassins, sister.  Holly,”  I turned back to the scribe as Nohta rolled her eyes, “I’m not saying we will accept, but what would it mean if we did?”

“A lot of things.  You’d receive training, access to gathered technology, a whole group of ponies to call sister or brother…  Being by yourself in the wasteland is a really easy way to get hurt, trust me.  You’ll have to accept our Codex, but otherwise there aren’t many rules if you get assigned as a lone operative like I did.”  She smiled warmly at me, “You should consider it, really.  You two already work well together, but you’ll be safer with backup.”

This would almost certainly keep my sister and I safe, but… our stablemates were still out there somewhere.  And as much as I hated to admit it, part of me was craving revenge against the raiders and griffins.  Still… I couldn’t help but ponder the opportunity with which we were being presented.  Would I be free to pursue my own ends if I were a part of this organization?  Did I even want to associate myself with somepony who would treat others like tools to accomplish a task?

My own wandering thoughts reminded me of the treatment we had sustained at this group’s hooves.  My face twisted into a scowl once more, “Wait!  If this was your aim from the start, why were Sandalwood and Meadow so cruel to us?  That behavior was completely unnecessary and totally unacceptable!”  My hoof stomped feebly against the floor, producing a much less effective display of force than I had intended. The night’s strenuous escapades had taken their toll on my body, and I found myself with an overbearing inclination to simply find a bed and slip into a well-deserved slumber.

“It… it’s sort of a filter.”  Holly looked like she wanted to hide behind her mane, rubbing one of her legs awkwardly as she continued.  “Most ponies don’t really like our order.  They think we’re selfish bullies.  Honestly, a lot of us are…”  

Her gaze trailed off towards the Senior Scribe and the Star-Paladin.  “But even despite that, ponies recognize that Steel Rangers have the guns and the tech and all the safety that those provide.  Lots of them try to join up as soon as they come across one of our patrols.  And then they get killed by one of our knights for being an obstruction to the mission.  If you had encountered almost any other squad, you’d already be dead by now.”  

That steel that I had seen in her eyes before returned as her gaze bore into my own.  “But Squad 108 is different!  I can promise you that.  We treat outsiders like that so that ponies know to stay away from Rangers!  And so that we don’t have droves of wastelanders showing up to join our order or seek protection.  We can’t keep the whole wasteland safe.  We have to pick and choose our battles, and we can only take on the candidates that show promise.  You two just did that.”

My entire outlook on these ponies was changing so rapidly that my head felt like it was spinning.  This was so much to take in after what we had just been through!  I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t decide on any definite answer to give.  I shrugged noncommittally and lightly shook my head.  “We… will think about it.”  

“Goddess, this is so fucked…”  Nohta was holding her own shodden hooves to her head and trying to piece things together.  “After all the shit you put us through?  You turn around and ask us to join you?  What the hell…”  She turned back to me, “Sis, I really don’t like this.  This doesn’t make any sense!”

“I’m not entirely sure of this myself, dear.  But we need to consider our options.  Remember Mother’s advice.”  My gut reaction was to decline the offer, but… I supposed that one way or another, something out there had scared Holly senseless.  All of the heavy weapons borne by the Rangers might come in handy, I mused.

She stomped a hoof on the tile, her shoe clanging loudly on the floor.  “These assholes used us!  They fucking lifted me through the air like a doll!  Do you have any idea what that was like?  Feeling completely powerless like that?”

Her last words brought back stinging memories of pale green eyes underneath a scarlet glow, and of a failing heart monitor beeping erratically.  My eyes hardened as I glared at her.  “You know perfectly well that I do, Nohta.”

Her ears lilted as her eyes widened in realization.  “C-Candy… I-I didn’t-”

My tail swished through the air angrily, “You didn’t stop to think about what you were saying!  Par for the course, sister.”

Nohta’s face fell as her eyes roamed the floor.  She finally groaned in frustration and glared at Holly, venting her emotions on the closest target she deemed acceptable.  “I’m going wherever she goes!”  Nohta exclaimed, poking my shoulder with a hoof and daring anypony to disagree with her.  “This is a packaged deal.  You understand?”

Holly was unperturbed by our little display.  “Yes, I surmised as much.”  Holly grinned at us before her expression turned wary, “Now… we just have to let the knights and paladins take care of Bright Eyes and the other ghouls while the scribes take care of the screamers, and we’ll be just fine.”  Her eyes were a little vacant, as if she were trying more to convince herself than convince us, “Yes… Just fine.  I’m going to go make sure the sentinels are good to go.”  Her eyes cautioned me, “Whether you want to join us or not, you should at least get yourself patched up while you think it over.”

Holly’s eyes scanned the room before she pointed a hoof towards a white unicorn mare with a sapphire mane.  “You should go see Scribe Code Blue.  She’ll get you some RadAway.”  She smiled warmly as she added, “I think you’ll like her.”


**************


“So, I’m holding the catheter in my magic and holding… uh… him in my hoof,”  The ivory scribe with the deeply-blue mane was giggling to herself as she recounted the tale of one of her medical escapades within the Steel Rangers.  “...and he looks down at me, eyes wide, and he just says ‘Code, is this gonna hurt?”

“Oh my goodness, what did he expect?”  My cheeks flushed even as I giggled at the poor buck in her story.

“I know, right?  So I hold the catheter real close to him and I say, ‘Well, depending on how you feel about pain…”  A mischievous grin flashed across her muzzle, “Urethra going to love or hate me!”  

“You didn’t!”  My giggles erupted into genuine laughter.  Goddess, that pun was awful!

She held a dainty hoof to her face in an effort to cover her tittering fit.  “I did!  I did!  Oh goodness…”  Her thin glasses were lifted from her eyes in a sapphire glow as she wiped away a tear of mirth.  “It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to converse with another medical expert.  I really hope that you decide to join up.”

“Well…”  My laughter died down as I sipped the RadAway she had given me.  “...it’s a lot to consider.”

“I know, dear.  I faced the same dilemma myself, not so long ago.”  I felt the curious sensation of her own magical aura enveloping me.  “You’re still bordering on malnutrition and a bit dehydrated, but the radiation has cleared up nicely.  Get some fluids and some decent food in that belly and you’ll be doing just fine in a day or two.”

“And if it makes your decision any easier…”  She winked lasciviously at me, “there are some fine looking earth-bucks underneath all of that armor.  I can introduce you to a few next time we stop.”

My eyes shot wide as I felt the heat rush to my cheeks.  I opted to continue drinking the medicine rather than respond.  The awkward silence drug on as the ivory mare’s wicked grin widened with every passing second.

Nohta bailed me out a moment later, “You sure she’s alright?  Does she need more RadAway?”

Code Blue waved a hoof in the air dismissively, “Oh, your sister will be just fine.  She barely had over a hundred rads, after all.  Just enough to cause some lingering discomfort, mild nausea, and a bit of exhaustion.  Nothing that I’m not fully capable of handling.”  Code turned back to me, her evil grin returning in full force.  “And if the two of you decide to stay with us, I’ll make sure that she’s well taken care of.  Knight Rain still owes me for last time.”  Goddess, she was relentless!

“Oh, great.  Possibly the most important decision of our lives is gonna be decided by Candy’s sex drive…”  Nohta rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves in front of her chest.  “That’s exactly what we need right now.”

“I-I… hold on a second!  I’m not…”  Goddess, the blood in my cheeks was searing-hot!

Code brushed her long mane back and adjusted her glasses.  “Oh, you shouldn’t be so quick to discount the medical benefits of a good roll in the hay, darling.”  Her grin was absolutely unbearable.  I averted my eyes and gulped down the foul medicine as quickly as I could manage while she continued, “Released endorphins, lowered stress levels and blood pressure, a boost to your immune system.”  She giggled at my discomfort, “A good bit of cardio if you’re doing it right…”

“ThankyouI’mwellawareofthebenefits!  Weneedtogo!”  I floated the empty packet of RadAway back to Code and spun on my hooves, cantering away from the white and blue doctor-turned-sex-fiend.

Code’s raucous laughter could be heard over the din of the other Rangers readying their weapons and checking their armor one last time.  As Nohta caught up to me, I glanced back to find Code’s head tilted at an awkward angle.  Oh Goddess, please tell me she was just inspecting my glyph mark!

I groaned and stomped a hoof on the tile.  “I swear, surface ponies have all gone crazy!  At least our stable-mates had the good sense to keep their… deviant perversions to themselves!”

Nohta nodded, “Sure they did, Sis.  Just tell that to Caramel.”

Again with this insane theory of hers!  I rolled my eyes, “Nohta, Caramel wasn’t-”

Her hoof found my shoulder, cutting me off with the abrupt physical contact.  “Look Sis, it doesn’t matter one way or another.  We need to figure out what we’re doing.  You got any ideas yet?”

I stopped in my tracks, my train of thought derailed by the change in subject.  “I… I’m not sure yet.  I’m leaning towards staying with them for now.  Or at least until Bright Eyes has been dealt with.  Holly was certainly frightened of her, and I’m willing to bet it was for a good reason.”

Nohta glanced around the room, glaring at the Rangers all around us.  “I don’t know.  What if that was just part of her act?  Get us frightened of some monster so we decide to join up with these fucks for safety?  I wouldn’t put it past her.”  

A sigh of frustration escaped my lips as I fought to discern the correct course of action.  “It would be best to see for ourselves, dear.  Let’s err on the side of caution for now.  We can always change our minds later.”  

Nohta leaned in, casting furtive glances over her shoulder and whispering conspiratorially.  “So we use them to get past the big bad ghoulie and then make a break for it?”  She nodded, “I like it.  Maybe we can give them the slip during the fight and book it for Mareon?”

“Nohta… I didn’t really want to think of it as callously as that, sister.”  My eyes wandered over the dozens of ponies completely ignoring us as I remembered the events of the last few hours.  Being threatened, humiliated, forced to advance an agenda we had nothing to do with… then being offered a way out.  Safety, comradery, a purpose…  And the only thing it would cost would be the abandonment of our responsibility to a group of ponies that had for the most part never liked us in the first place.

That and freedom.  We’d be shackled to whatever mission the Rangers decided to assign us.  My gaze fell back to Nohta’s waiting eyes.  I might be able to make that sacrifice, but she never could.  The Rangers would never be able to chain her down.  I wouldn’t let that happen.  We had to leave.

A wan smile crept across my lips as I laid a hoof on her shoulder, “But you’re right, sister.”  My smile hardened as I sought refuge in the memories of how we had been wronged.  I cloaked myself in indignation, fanning a familiar flame to burn away my doubts and ease the process of making a morally questionable decision.  “We’ll use them as they used us, then make our way to Mareon.  Lies and deceit, Nohta, just like Mother.”

Nohta’s face was taken over by a savage grin, “I’m beginning to like it when you try new things!  You should keep this up.”

“Yes, well…  baby steps, Nohta.  Baby steps.”  My eyes returned to the armored and robed brutes to fall upon Holly.  She was hoof-deep in the chassis of one of the sentinel robots.  “Looks like that recording was right.”  I shook my head, still utterly confused about the impending veracity of the recording’s predictions.  “We’ll be burning a bridge tonight after all, won’t we?”

The brusque voice of Sandalwood soared over bookshelves and Rangers alike, “Two minutes!  Suit up and move out!”

“Stay close, Nohta.  I’m getting a bad feeling about where the night is leading us.”  Holly had been so frightened earlier.  If it was part of her act, then we’d probably be okay.  If not…  “It sounded like a lot of ghouls were closing in earlier.  There’s no guarantee that these Rangers will be able to handle all of them.”

“As if I’d go wandering off with everything just about to get interesting.”  She smirked, “Someone has to watch your flank.”

All around us, armored ponies and robed scribes were funneling towards the entrance to the library.  Holly and another scribe were walking beside the two monstrous sentinels, and Nohta and I soon fell into place alongside them.  Now that the robots weren’t directing their weapons in my direction, I soon appreciated just how comforted I was by having them beside me.  Surely nothing could stand up against such a massive amount of firepower, I reasoned.  

We were soon leaving the building and trotting down the steps behind a column of walking armor and weaponry.  Sandalwood’s squad obeyed her commands with an immediate and practiced discipline, providing an extraordinarily intimidating sight as the entire squad moved as one to form a wall between the scribes and the wasteland.  After the scribes had combined their magic to float the sentinels down the steps, the entire group set off through the ruined streets of Coltsville with Nohta and I directly in the center of the unit.

We continued in that fashion for all of three minutes.  Just enough time to reach the first intersection of cracked streets laying amongst the dilapidated and crumbling structures.  Then the first ghoul shambled and twitched its way past a rusted motorwagon to stand directly in our way.

Its body bulged in a corpulent mass of writhing flesh.  Unsightly and raw pustules jiggled obscenely all over its bulky frame, threatening to burst and loose whatever putrescence was held within them at the slightest provocation.  One of the blisters was raised directly over its snout, deforming the beast’s face so badly that I could only see one of its dead eyes.  Every movement it made was shaky and erratic, and every ragged breath it took produced a faint wisp of pink mist from its mouth.  

“It’s a bloater!  Don’t let it get close!”  Holly was pushing herself to the front of the throng, yelling directly at the Star-Paladin.

Sandalwood glanced in her direction before belting out a command to one of the armored ponies at her side.  “Knight Lemongrass!  Put a round between its eyes.”

“Yes ma’am.”  A buck with an exceptionally large rifle at his side stepped forward, took aim, and fired.  I had thought that The Worm was loud!  This weapon put Nohta’s pistol to shame!  My eyes slammed shut of their own accord as my hooves reached for my flattened ears.  My eyes reopened a moment later to one of the most terrifying sights I had ever seen.  

Holly explained to everyone in earshot as my eyes took in the expanding column of pink gas rising above the gently swaying traffic signs.  “Bloaters have Pink Cloud in their blisters.”  Goddess, she was right!  The Pink Cloud was melting the motorwagons and street signs!  “They explode when they die, and the cloud is released from their bodies to wreak havoc on anything caught within the blast.”  The pole supporting the long-dead traffic lights above the intersection weakened and bent, swinging the lights in a wide arc to crash through a glass storefront.  An entire motorwagon door drooped and oozed into a sickly glowing puddle on the softening road.  “That patch of road is gonna be contaminated for a long time, or at least until the next big rainstorm.  You really don’t want to get too close to it.”

“Pink Cloud?  Luna…”  This is what it had taken to kill The Dark Mother.  This is what my mother had claimed was the pinnacle of zebra poisons.  A perfect blend of alchemy and… the other zebra magic.  And it was right in front of me… Waiting… Beckoning me to harvest it.

“Goddess…”  Nohta was still beside me, staring wide eyed at the atrocity being squandered before our eyes.  “Sis… That’s…  Wow.”

Shrieks from banshees split the night in twain, jolting me from the stupor of my alchemy-laced reverie.  Shivers ran through my body as the wails echoed off the ruined walls of the town, coming from all directions.  We were surrounded.

Sandalwood boomed out orders, “Defensive positions!  Protect the scribes!”

The hoof-full of red-cloaked unicorns huddled together, readying simple firearms in a rainbow of magical auras.  My laser pistol levitated out of its holster as I peered past armored figures and down the city streets, the Pink Cloud left completely forgotten.  Goddess, I only had one full battery left!

We saw her viridian aura before we saw her.  It washed over the fallen structures and forgotten motorwagons, preceding her like an honor guard paving the way for royalty.  She plodded forward into the street slowly with a steady and confident gait, bathed in an unnatural emerald glow that obliterated the darkness of the night.  Her head was held low; her horn jutting out in front of her as if she intended to spear somepony with her appendage.  Her hoofsteps left wisps of sickly green smoke curling away from melted asphalt.  An obnoxiously pink and full mane and tail that seemed to dance lazily in the rising heat of an invisible flame flowed from her jade body.  A body that, I soon realized, was whole and unblemished.

A single glowing one shambled along behind her, bearing a nearly-full set of zebra combat barding and a striped rifle hanging at his side on a tattered shoulder-strap.  One of the pauldrons had been blasted or ripped from his barding, leaving his glowing stripes clearly exposed but still dim in comparison to the viridian sun that he followed.  His eyes were blank and lifeless, a stark contrast to the show of emotion on the unicorn’s face.

From this distance I could only just make out her expression; coldly neutral with a tinge of anger.  Blazing blank-white eyes shone like ethereal spotlights in our direction.  Goddess, her very presence sapped my confidence and left me only with the desire to flee.  This was no ghoul!  Or certainly not a feral one!  She was intelligent!

Scribe Holly was shaking at my side, “It’s her… It’s Bright Eyes!  Ma’am, we need to go!”

“Calm yourself, Scribe Holly.  It is unbecoming of a Ranger to show her fear.”  Sandalwood stood fast, her armored entourage forming a wall of steel between us and the lone glowing unicorn.  The long rifle at her side exchanged ammunition from a reserve compartment at her flank, “Meadow?  I was under the impression that this unicorn was a ghoul.  She still has all of her skin.”

Meadow’s nasal voice replied in a coolly academic tone.  “The green glow is radiation, ma’am.  She’s absorbed an obscene amount to glow that brightly, and only a ghoul could withstand so much.  Hypothesis: the aberration known as ‘Bright Eyes’ is a relatively young ghoul, perhaps not even fifty years dead.”

Holly spoke unsteadily, her breath catching in her throat as she tried to force the words out.  “No… She… She can-”

Sandalwood addressed one of the more heavily armed ponies at her side, “Paladin Piston!”

“Yes Ma’am!”  The buck stepped forward as a missile pod expanded and oriented itself at his side.  From behind the Ranger, I saw a small plate of metal slide up behind the pod and redirect the backblast let loose by his assault.   I witnessed a streak of vapor hone in on the glowing pony before us as the missile impacted squarely with her frame, shattering windows and kicking up a massive cloud of dust as the warhead detonated in a plume of smoke and fire.  The concussion of the blast caused my mane to flutter frenetically in its destructive wake as I sought cover behind the armor-clad ponies before me.

A motorwagon had been too close to the explosion.  The ancient vehicle was bowled over, exposing sparking batteries and leaking fluids before it too erupted in a dazzling pillar of sickly-toxic rainbow sheen.  The storefront by which the motorwagon had been parked crumpled inward, collapsing what remained of the structure into a heap of broken steel and concrete as dust scattered into the street, obscuring our view of the glowing mare.

I held my breath.  I knew of only a hoof-full of creatures that could survive what had just transpired.  Dragons, Hydras, Cerberi, and The Goddess herself.  None of them stood before me now, so surely this local terror had succumbed to the blast.  Right?

Small thuds echoed off the streets as chunks of blasted concrete and brick landed all around us.  I moved forward, nearly joining the line of Steel Rangers as curiosity overtook me once again, and blinked away dust as I tried to see what remained of the fabled Bright Eyes.

For a moment, there was no sound or motion but the flickering flames left by the exploded motorwagon and the slowly dissipating dust cloud drifting away on a lazy midnight breeze.  Slowly, pink and green light coalesced behind the dust cloud, diffusing into the particulate to form an eerie light show as a horrible ripping sound emanated from behind the curtain of floating debris.  With a loud and otherworldly cracking noise, two spheres of purest white light pierced the obscuring cloud of dust as rasping hisses and debilitating screams rang out all around us.  She wasn’t dead, she was staring at us!  How could she not be dead!?

The dust and smoke cleared away slowly, clinging to her glowing body like rotting tendons on decaying bones as the night was consumed with the sound of screeching ghouls.  As the particulate left her body to disappear on the wind, she glanced behind her to the still and dimming body of the glowing one that had accompanied her.  His stripes faded as she turned and ambled toward him.  

The entire Steel Ranger squad stared, confused, as Bright Eyes stood beside the dead glowing one, and only Holly made a noise when a single orb of green light left Bright Eyes’ horn to dive into the zebra’s chest.  The glowing one’s light returned to his body, and his hooves kicked out at the ground to propel him to a standing position once more at his master’s side.

“Fuck!  That’s how they’re doing it!  It’s so Goddess-damned obvious now!”  Holly’s frustrated revelation was met with confusion from the rest of us.  “We have to kill her!  We HAVE to kill her right now or we’re fucked!”  She poked and prodded at her Pipbuck, and the sentinels moved forward to spin their weapons and expand their rocket pods.

Bright Eyes turned toward us and threw her mouth open in an otherworldly scream unlike anything I had ever heard before, sounding as if the night itself were rippling and deforming at her command.  Any shred of courage I had left was left completely decimated by her ethereal wail.  A growling, hissing, stomping and sprinting herd of ghouls erupted into the streets, gnashing their teeth and closing the distance with alarming alacrity as they poured over the broken roads and between motorwagons like water down a rocky channel.  

Sandalwood’s voice was rigid underneath her helmet as she stepped forward, her multi barreled weapon spinning up to full speed, “Rangers!  Fire at will!”

I thought that I had experienced loud.  I believed that I knew battle.  I dared to imagine that I understood violence.  As I stood behind the massive sentinels and a wall of Steel Rangers loosing their full martial might upon the wave of undead flesh before them, I learned a simple truth.  I knew nothing.

A dozen miniguns spun in tandem, spitting out continuous rivers of lead and phosphorus as the ghouls at the front of the pack were reduced to a splashing red and gray mist.  Missiles, rockets, rifles and shotguns blared as quickly as they could fire into the advancing horde, scattering bodies, severing limbs and painting the town red with congealed blood and black with charring explosions.  Motorwagons burst into blazing pillars of magical flame, flinging ghouls and lamp posts in every myriad direction. The occasional bloater ghoul popped open in a scattering cloud of pink mist, decimating the ghouls that had stood too close to the abomination and fusing several of their number into writhing conglomerations of half-liquefied corpses.  A veritable river or spent casings and linkages streamed away from the sentinels and armored Rangers, spilling onto the ground in shimmering and ever-deepening mounds of shiny brass that converged around the hooves of the armored ponies.  Windows cracked and shattered, walls collapsed from concussive force, and the very streets were reduced to rubble as a withering barrage of firepower beyond my comprehension was unleashed upon the advancing flood of zombies.  It was as if the Goddess herself had deemed this area unfit for existence and had called in her own personal squad of demolitionists to erase it from being.  

And through it all was the overbearing and overwhelming din of battle; a terrifying melody played to the uniformly blaring backdrop of the dozen multi-barreled weapons coupled with the bombastic bass rumble of detonating explosives and high-powered rifles.  The anguish was nearly instant as the cacophonous sonority and pressure washed over me.  My eardrums felt as if someone were relentlessly striking the sides of my head with a hammer!  I threw myself backwards to the ground, my ears lying flat against my head as I covered them with my hooves and slammed my eyes shut from the pain.  I screamed in agony and terror, “LUNA!”  But no sound reached my ears.  My world had been reduced to the erratic thumping of explosions and the small stabbing pains of broken asphalt biting into my hide.

A pair of brass-shod hooves dragged me backwards across the ground, and I felt the tingle of magic seep into my ears.  Muffled but audible sound slowly returned as the pain subsided.  I opened my eyes to see that the world had been tinted a cool, sparkling blue.  Code Blue was staring at me with a bewildered grin.  

“You should know better than to stand next to the paladins and knights when they let off a fusillade like that, darling.”  Code Blue adjusted her glasses, pushing her flowing sapphire mane to the side and allowing her magic to dissipate.  “It’s okay now,  Senior Scribe Meadow has the barrier in place.  Just stay back here with us, alright?”

“Barrier?”  I turned to find a shimmering wall of magenta had been placed between the scribes and the armored Rangers.  It stretched up and over our position, encapsulating us in a bubble of magic.

“Aural inhibiting barrier.  Dulls the sounds of gunfire and explosives.  It’s built into the helmets, but we have to cast it manually.”  She explained.  “Too bad it doesn’t work on the screamers, huh?”

Nohta’s hooves left my shoulders as she stared past the Rangers.  “Sis, something’s wrong.”

The Rangers had ceased firing; the heated barrels of their massive guns glowing red-hot in the night like angry coals that resented being plucked from the flames.  I looked past the Rangers to see a brutal wasteland of death strewn throughout the streets.  Everywhere were the shredded and charred bodies of the undead horde.  Husks of motorwagons lay smouldering where their magical batteries had burst, like blackened islands in a sea of gore.   The dust was clearing, parting for the lone glowing figure left walking calmly through the devastation.

Bright Eyes was striding through the wreckage of the town, surveying her fallen kin with an eerie and infinitely disturbing calm.

Sandalwood balked at the sight, stepping backwards and calling out, “Holly!  Report!”

Holly opened her mouth to answer, but was distracted as all eyes fell upon the glowing mare.  The spotlights of her eyes glowed intensely as Bright Eyes opened her mouth in a silent scream.  Tiny motes of pink and green light raced out of her maw like a chaotic swarm of fireflies, each one seeking out a fallen ghoul upon the ground.  Limbs began to twitch.  Dead eyes began to roll in their sockets.  Only the completely devastated bodies remained still.  The fallen ghouls began to rise again, each one accompanied by a bellowing roar and a terrifying ripping noise as limbs reattached themselves.  My jaw fell as quickly as my hopes.

“Fire!  Fire!”  Sandalwood ordered her squad to fight, but the ghouls were too close.  Charging corpses threw themselves willingly at the wall of gunfire, their chewed and decapitated bodies spewing viscera and bone all over the knights and paladins to gum their weapons and block their fire.  The long-dead tissue sizzled and stuck to the Rangers’ overheated weapons, conjuring up a horrifically reeking stench that overpowered my nostrils and nearly turned my stomach.  The sea of necrotic flesh was still crashing upon the rock of steel, but the tide was rising.  We were about to be overrun.

A second lull in the cacophony of devastation gave us the time we needed.  “Fall Back!”  Sandalwood’s voice held no hint of fear, only the steady notes of a leader.

Behind the turning Rangers, Bright Eyes was levitating a bloody stump to her body.  Bullets that had bitten into her lambent flesh oozed out of her healing skin; glowing-hot droplets of metal that splashed against the carpet of viscera, sizzling where they fell into dead tissue.  Her expression showed only meager annoyance as she calmly held the limb against her shoulder.  A glittering swirl of pink magic coalesced around the leg and bound it back into place seamlessly against her radiant body as her eyes lifted to the retreating squad.  

The Rangers galloped past me, their heavy hoof-falls reverberating through the road as Bright Eyes stood alone in the mounds of bodies.  Her eyes fell on me, bathing my form in her unholy light.  With her every breath, a hoof-full of the green and pink motes escaped her open mouth to slowly resurrect more ghouls as she began to plod forward.  With her second exhalation, I felt a hoof fall on my shoulder.

Nohta tugged at my coat, a wide-eyed look of terror in her eyes, “Run!”

I didn’t think.  The time for that was long past us.  I simply obeyed my sister and my instincts.  I had seen enough; Bright Eyes couldn’t be stopped.  We fled as quickly as we were able, desperately racing for the relative safety of the Steel Rangers.

Sandalwood was the closest Ranger to us.  She turned and braced herself, barking out inaudible orders as a banshee’s scream sliced through the night.  A blinding flash later, a wave of pressure washed past my face and the screaming stopped.  I didn’t turn to see the body.

We ran through the cluttered streets as the undead herd reformed itself behind us, taking an abrupt turn to dash down an adjacent road and place ruined buildings between us and the glowing mare.  I chanced a glance over my shoulder as I allowed Nohta to guide my hoofsteps.  The sentinels had been abandoned behind us at the intersection to buy time, spitting out countless bullets and a constant barrage of explosive weaponry as they were slowly overtaken.

A screamer stood before them and bellowed into the sentinel furthest from us, causing the sentinel to immediately turn its explosive weaponry on its twin, resulting in a brilliant, window shattering explosion that sent rippling shockwaves through the air.  My eyes went even wider than before as its chassis rotated in my direction.  A rocket flew over my shoulder, missing me by mere feet, and collided with the berserk sentinel in a glorious plume of fire and scattering shrapnel as the robot was reduced to a crumpled and twisted heap of scrap metal.

The Ranger squad halted their retreat to make a stand at the entrance to a darkened alleyway as several of the scribes worked furiously to scourge the miniguns of the now baked-on viscera.  Several more scribes took up positions alongside motorwagons and mailboxes in the streets and sidewalks, laying down a barrage of small-arms fire.  The herd of zombies had thinned considerably, but the onslaught was relentless.  Individual ghouls were being ripped apart in the streets by concentrated bursts from SMGs, assault rifles, and pistols.  Tiny orbs of light danced above the battlefield, zipping this way and that before diving into slain ghouls and bringing the corpses back to life.  

It was utter chaos, and I couldn’t have been happier to finally duck down that narrow passage between two stores and place the squad of Rangers between myself and the undead horde.  Nohta and I scrambled through the shimmering wall of magenta at the mouth of the alley just as the Steel Rangers began to rev up their immense weaponry.  In our haste, we nearly ran straight into Holly as she and two other scribes huddled over the prone form of an armored Ranger.  

“Candy!”  Her companions lifted their heads in my direction at the sound of her voice.  “Knight Lemongrass got hit by a screamer!”  As if on cue, two ghouls rounded the corner at the end of the alley, and bolted in our direction.

*FZZAAP* *FZZAAP*

Two beams of dazzling emerald energy streaked past my mane, leaving two glittering piles of ashes further down the alleyway.  “Just a minute, darling!”  A dainty voice called out over the clamor of battle, sounding entirely far too composed.  “I heard that somepony was in need of assistance!  Something about a poor buck being unable to…ah… perform?”

Code Blue trotted past me jauntily, adjusting her glasses and smirking at the scribes and helpless Ranger.  “Oh, Holly dear!  It appears you’ve gone and worn poor Lemongrass out!  I know that it’s easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment, but you really must remember to watch out for that refractory period, darling.  You’ve got to pace yourself!”  The boxy energy rifle that levitated at her side was still pointed down the alley.  Between her calm demeanor and the expertly placed shots into the ghoul’s skulls I was left with the distinct impression that this mare, no matter how flippant or depraved she might be, knew what she was doing.

Holly had already removed an armored plate from the Ranger’s flank, exposing a menagerie of electronics and ports for drug injection.  “Code, now is not the time for jokes!  The spell-matrix has crashed and we need to reboot Lemongrass’ armor!”

Code rolled her eyes theatrically and waved her horn over Knight Lemongrass, “Well pardon me for trying to lift our spirits.”

Holly ignored the white mare and turned back to me.  “Candy, can you and Nohta watch our backs?  Re-booting armor is a delicate pro-”

Three ghouls leapt through the store’s windows above our heads, shattering the glass panes and raining jagged shards over everyone in the narrow passage.  Several of the shards slashed through my labcoat to leave painful lacerations along my back and cause me to cry out in startled pain.  The snarling ghouls that had just descended upon the small group of scribes thrashed and struck at them ferociously, proving to be more than a match for the scribes’ meager melee skills.

I was levitating my pistol out of its holster when Nohta’s mouth clamped down on the collar of my labcoat and jerked me further down the alley.  Simple reflex commanded me to look to her face, where I found a look of sheer terror aimed at the broken windows.  My gaze followed her own to find a glowing one standing on the second floor of the shop and sucking in air, its stripes glowing intensely to illuminate the ruined faces of several more ghouls at its side.

“Candy!?”  Holly’s mechanized knife chewed through the neck of her attacker, spewing blood and bits of bone across her freckled face.  Code and the other scribes managed to kick one of the other ghouls away long enough for the doctor to level her weapon at its head and reduce the zombies skull to a charred disaster.  Now the group was dealing with the last ghoul in the alley, oblivious to the threat above them.

Goddess… I didn’t even warn them.  I could have done so…  Should have done so…  I just… didn’t.

Nohta’s efforts had coaxed me out of the range of the attack, but I was never the intended target to begin with.  The wave of light crashed over Holly and the other scribes, knocking Code off her hooves and sending all of their weapons clattering to the ground as their magic was obliterated in an instant.  I was the only unicorn in the alley with any magic left to me at all, and the armored Rangers were too busy with the advancing flood of ghouls in the streets to notice the flanking maneuver.  

Holly and the other scribes were screaming for help, and if anyone within the vicinity could have aided them, it would have been Nohta and myself.  It was at that point that I found myself facing the most important choice of the night.  Nohta tugged at my coat, beckoning me down the alley, but my eyes were glued to Holly’s.  My panting breath gushed over my lips as we stared at each other for an interval of time that seemed to drag on for hours.  Only when I had seen the pained realization of our intentions splay itself across her face did I turn down the alley to abandon the mare who had done everything in her power to save us.  I fled for the sake of simple survival, but I couldn’t help but feel the stinging bite of guilt as I realized Holly would only see this as betrayal.

Nohta and I galloped as quickly as our legs would carry us in the simple direction of “away.”  We darted between the scattered remains of motorwagons and down dark alleyways, finding the eastern edge of Coltsville as continuing gunfire and explosions echoed off the town’s buildings.  As I had hoped, the vast majority of the zombies had gone after the Steel Rangers, but a relatively small pack of five ghouls was shambling through the road.  Their ruined muzzles were lifted to the air as they attempted to sniff out their prey.

“I got left!”  Nohta drew her pistol, as I floated out my own.  She waited until we were mere feet from the party of corpses before tonguing the trigger twice, the bullets ripping the torso of one ghoul apart in a shower of crimson.

S.A.T.S. assisted my aim as I queued as many shots as I was able into rotting heads.  Only two lucky beams connected, blowing a charred hole through a skull and vaporising another in a vibrant cloud of pink ash.  Nohta dove into her second target, slamming its body into a parked sky-chariot with a sickening crunch.  It flailed its limbs wildly, beating upon my sister’s neck and shoulders while she pummeled its face with an animalistic ferocity fueled by fear-induced adrenaline.

The last zombie growled and charged in my direction, knocking me to the ground as my magic imploded from the impact.  The wind was knocked out of me, leaving me panting and shaking on the the broken asphalt of the road as the corpse descended on me.  The fetid stench of its breath was overpoweringly nauseating and nearly incapacitating in its own right.  Broken, jagged hooves beat on my neck and face, knocking me senseless as my vision exploded in bright stars.  All ability to think clearly dissipated, crushed underneath the ghoul’s stomping blows.  I tried to call out to my sister, but no sound escaped my lips.  A terrifying wetness was flowing down my lips, lending the horrific taste of copper to the experience of being beaten to death.

The ghoul’s head snapped downward, sinking its rotted teeth into my left shoulder.  The pain was more than sufficient to pierce the hazy veil of my mind.  “AAAAAHH!  NOHTA, HELP!”  I beat my hooves fruitlessly against the zombie’s neck and face, but its only response was to shake it head and viciously tear out a chunk of flesh nearly the size of my hoof.  My world went fuzzy as fresh agony exploded through my mind.  

I stared in horror as the ghoul masticated my flesh and swallowed.  I was too weak to stop this.  I was too scared to think clearly.  I couldn’t do anything.  The ghoul’s head snapped forward again, but stopped inches from my neck.  Nohta’s face was behind it, gripping the combat knife she had just plunged into the back of its skull in her mouth.

The corpse listed to the side and fell to the ground as Nohta replaced it.  Her voice came out in terrified gasps, “Sis!  Hang on!”

My lips could only just barely form words, “Po… Potion… “

A moment later, an unfamiliar and vile taste filled my mouth.  This was no Sweet Water, but it would do its job.  My eyes opened (when had I closed them?) to find my sister dumping a bottle of healing potion down my open gullet.  Bland relief and leftover adrenaline mixed in my veins.  I moved to sit up, wincing as the pain in my shoulder ebbed and dulled by a marginal amount.  My left foreleg didn’t want to move properly.

“M-More,” I croaked.

Nohta fished another bottle out of our supplies, draining its contents down my greedy throat.

The tingle of rejuvenating flesh had already left my face, back, and neck, but I could barely notice.  The searing agony in my shoulder demanded all of my attention.  “More.”  I hissed the word through clenched teeth as my body involuntarily reacted to the pain.

She procured one final bottle, “This is our last one, Sis.”

I glanced at my shoulder, my stomach flipping over at the sight of my own mending body.  Muscle and sinew knit themselves back into place over my scratched scapula to leave a raw and profusely bleeding wound.  This would require more than a potion.  “Then half, give me the bottle.”

I turned the bottle around in my magic, dreading what I was about to do, and hoping that the imminent pain would lend some sense of clarity to my mind.  This had to be done, or I’d be permanently deformed.  Or worse, the wound might not heal all the way, leaving me to die a slow and painful death due to the inevitable infection.  

A second scarlet bubble levitated what was left of my healing salve over the wound, dumping the goop directly into the cavity with an irritating tingle.  The salve sunk into the wound, quickly evaporating as its healing magic was used up almost instantly.  I steeled myself with one last sharp inhale of breath and jammed the neck of the bottle into the still-mending flesh as pain’s familiar hold gripped me like a vice.

My groan burst past the barricade of my teeth, clawing its way out of my mouth as I fought not to scream.  My eyes bulged in my head before the pain peaked, leaving me gasping for breath and blinking back the wetness collecting in my eyes.  Direct application of healing potions is regarded as an acceptable practice only in dire emergencies.  If a gaping hole in my shoulder while Nohta and I were busy fleeing for our lives from ravenous ghouls didn’t fit that bill, nothing would.

I allowed half of the bottle to drain liquid fire over my raw muscle, simultaneously cursing and blessing every new nerve ending that popped into existence, then drank the rest of the potion from the bloody bottle for good measure and concentrated on the wound as I activated my spell.  A wave of nausea nearly forced me to vomit the potion from my stomach before I reeled in control of my magic through sheer force of will and concentrated only on my shoulder.  As I feared, the the potions and salve hadn’t been enough.  

The rigors of the previous few days had left me dangerously close to magical exhaustion, but I had no other option.  My horn ached dully in protest as a layer of crimson overglow erupted above my eyes.  A thin cord of ethereal pink light danced between my horn and shoulder like a rope in a lazy breeze, sweeping over the ripped flesh in the strongest regenerative spell I knew.  Goddess, the wound was still healing too slowly!  I was losing too much blood!  I needed more…

A third layer of light blazed over my horn, obliterating the shadows cast by the moonlight and strengthening my spell.  Sweat beaded across my brow as my body fought to keep pace with my magical exertions.  The thin cord widened into a pulsating beam of energy, quickening the mending of flesh and growing new skin over the wound.

Nohta had never seen me go this far.  Her eyes were wide with worry and awe, “Fuck, Sis…”

I was racing time; racing against my own withering reserves of magical energy.  I couldn’t sustain magic of that amplitude for long.  Not back then…

Just as the wound finally closed shut I felt the last flickering wisp of magical energy leave me.  A fuzzy, dull ache and terrifying numbness replaced the vigorous and powerful sensation I had enjoyed just moments ago.  I fell forward into my sister’s embrace, panting and blinking back tears.  

She pulled away after a second, “Damn, Candy… Are you gonna be okay?  We really need to keep moving.”

I nodded, still panting.  “I think so.  Let’s… Let’s go.”  

I scanned the ground for my weapon, finding it a few feet away.  I focused on my pistol, but nothing happened.  “Oh Goddess… Please, not right now.”  I focused harder, to no avail.

“What’s wrong?”  Nohta’s eyes were still wide as she cast hasty glances all around us.

My lips quivered with the pained admission, “I… Nohta I can’t pick up my pistol.”

My sister was utterly baffled and understandably anxious, “What do you mean!?  Grab it!  Fast!  We need to fucking move!”

I looked back to the pistol, concentrating for all I was worth only to feel the same crushing impotence I had felt so long ago.  A fresh wave of tears fell down my cheeks, born of fear and guilt.  There was only one possible explanation for this.  “Nohta… I… I can’t.”  My lips trembled, “I can’t use my magic.”

She stared at me, confusion and apprehension plastered all over her face.  “You… Oh shit.  Candy!”

“I’m sorry!”  Goddess… without magic I was useless!

Her eyes roamed over the streets as she thought aloud.  “No… no, it’s okay.  You just… You gotta do things without your magic for a while.”  Her eyes found mine again as she added, “And we still gotta get the fuck out of here.”  Her hoof found the underside of my jaw, lifting my falling features to her own terrified face as her voice dropped low in a comforting tone.  “Let’s go, okay?”  My mind raced as I realized just how dire our situation must have been for her to adopt that tone.

I nodded and made to get up, but as I stood my left foreleg protested with as much ferocity as it could muster, nearly sending me to the ground as it failed to support my weight.  I braced myself against the sky-chariot as my sister slid underneath of me, throwing my leg over her own shoulder to support my weight as she ignored my protests and groans of pain.

“Save it, Candy, I don’t care.”  Her hooves jammed my pistol’s bit into my mouth before she continued, “We’re getting the fuck out of here!  Keep your pistol ready!”  I caved, allowing her to guide my awkward gait past the edges of town as we fled from the increasingly sporadic sounds of gunfire, banshee screams, and explosions.

We traveled through the moonlit night, following the road.  There was no plan, we simply fled.  Eventually our pace quickened as we found a simple synchronization of movement.  We had worked ourselves into a canter by the time we were closing in on the river.  My labcoat was soaked in sweat from my exhaustion, and I had to holster my pistol simply to breathe properly.

“We did it again.”  I muttered between heaving breaths.

“Huh?”  Nohta’s breathing wasn’t even taxed in the slightest.  How I envied her physical fortitude!

I gulped, “We… ran away.”

She squeezed me with the hoof she had wrapped around my barrel, “Sis… don’t.  Don’t do this to yourself.  It’s not the same.”

“But-”

“It’s.  Not.  The.  Same.”  With each word, her voice rose just a little more, before she caught herself and explained calmly, “We ran from a bunch of mindless freaks.  And we’re still alive.  We didn’t lose anypony we cared about.  We just ran.  We’re still alive.”

I looked to her hooded face beside my own, beginning to lose my breath, “That’s… small comfort.”

Her gaze was locked ahead of us, “It’s enough for me.”

The sound of churning, roiling water filled our ears as we neared the river.  I had no idea what to do next, but we had at least made it to a noticeable milestone.  My eyes lifted to the source of the noise, and I found more than just the contaminated waterway.  The bridge spanning the river had lights shining over it.  Oh Goddess, what now!?

My sister had no idea what it was either, “Is that… “

“Moo.”

“Oh goodness!  Everypony come here real quick, once!  It’s dat doctor and her companion!”

A small group of five ponies and one (two?) brahmin were standing on the bridge under the illumination of magical auras and oil lamps, a large wagon and smaller cart hitched to three (four?) of their number.  Cheddar Cheese ran to greet us, his shotgun floating at his side.

“Candy!  Is that you?  Oh shit, what’s going on!?”   He turned before I could answer, “Cabernet!  Get the medical supplies!”

“No… No… I’m… I’m fine.  We just… “  I panted, completely winded.

Nohta answered for me, “We need to get the fuck out of here right fucking now!”

The red mare with the battle-saddle, Cabernet, arrived with a pink and yellow box in her mouth.  Setting it at Cheddar’s hooves, she asked, “Why?  What happened to you two?”

Nohta continued as I caught my breath, “There’s an army of zombies that just ran through Coltsville!”

Cheddar and Cabernet exchanged worried glances, before Cheddar asked us, “And the explosions?”

“Steel Ranger Squad!  They were all killed by ghouls!”  As the words left Nohta’s mouth, I realized that they might not actually be true.  We didn’t see the ghouls kill any of the Rangers, and it was still hard to imagine that one of the zombie ponies could harm anypony inside armor like that.  But whatever the case, I was too winded to correct her on a technicality.

“Steel Rangers?  What were they-  Wait… What’s that?”  Cheddar was looking past us.

I very nearly groaned as I turned around, extricating myself from Nohta’s grasp and limping feebly.  The verdant aura shone brightly, illuminating the desert with the blazing fire of an earthbound, emerald sun.  Screams shattered the silence once more, as several dozen ghouls rampaged in our direction.  The vibrations of well over fifty sets of hooves resonated through the earth beneath us as I turned back to Cheddar and Cabernet.  “We need to go.”

My sister was the one that answered me, surprising us all.  “No.  Wait.  We can’t run.  We have to fight.”

I blinked in shock and nearly screamed at my sister.  “Nohta, are you insane?  You saw what Bright Eyes was able to live through!  And what she did!  We can’t fight that!”

Her eyes were cold and calculating despite the fearful expression she still wore.  “No, I know.  We just need to hold them off for a second.  Remember the recording?  And what we got in the safe?”

The bomb.  My heart fluttered all the way down into my stomach, where it fell not into a pit of acid, but into an icy bucket of water.  I wasn’t sure of whether to feel ecstatic that I’d get to use the explosive, mortified that I’d be blowing up what was very nearly the only means of travel west of Mareon, relieved that somepony had our backs out here, or infuriated that that same somepony was playing us like fiddles.

I nodded slowly, my breath a reverent whisper.  “Yes.  I remember.”

Nohta’s voice was calm with her returning confidence, “Set it up on the bridge.  Let’s see if those fuckers can swim.”

My heart was racing.  I nodded, “Okay, “  I turned to Cheddar and Cabernet, “We need to move to the eastern side of the bridge.”

“What are you doing?”  Cabernet asked, a tinge of worry at our vague conversation marring her smooth voice.

Nohta pulled me alongside her, past the two traders, and blurted out a blunt response, “There’s no fucking time!  Just hurry!”

Banshee screams urged us all onward as Cheddar and Cabernet rounded up their family.  Nohta stayed by my side as I knelt in the center of the bridge and used my hooves to clumsily extract the bundle of explosives from my packs.  I couldn’t help but stare at the explosive as my thoughts wandered down absolutely delightful passages.  A small smile spread across my lips as I imagined the raw power and destruction about to be wrought by my own hoof.

I looked up at my sister as I placed the explosive bundle in a jagged crack in the concrete.  “Do you think I should try to get Bright Eyes with this?”

Nohta scoffed, “I think that would take some pretty fucking crackerjack timing, Sis.  Just set it up to blow and let’s get to-”  Her eyes darted upwards, “Fuck!  Out of time!  Set it and run!”

The fastest of the ghouls had reached the bridge, scrambling over the sheets of metal and wooden planks spanning the gaps and lunging for us.  Its snarling maw found Nohta’s shodden hoof as rotten teeth cracked and scattered to the river below our hooves.  The second ghoul was already on the bridge when my hoof primed the explosive for one minute, noting the time on my Pipbuck as I did so.  I clenched my teeth around the bit of my pistol and emptied its charge into the ghoul’s decayed chest.  The smoking ruin of a long-dead pony finally skidded to a halt at my hooves as I staggered backwards.

Nohta had caught the attention of two more zombies, she ducked under the first’s feral kick to slam her hoof into its exposed ribcage, shattering bone and producing a sick squelching noise as her hoof penetrated its torso.   My sister’s strength was intense, but without the drugs coursing through her system she had become sloppy.  Her hoof had caught in the zombie’s chest!  The other ghoul took advantage of her distraction to sink its teeth into her neck, eliciting a terrible cry of pain from my sister.  I panicked; completely unable to aid her.

*Blam*

The zombie’s skull exploded next to Nohta’s surprised face, bathing her head in gore.  I turned to see Cabernet, Cheddar, and Brie plodding back across the bridge.  Thank the Goddess!

Nohta drug her hoof out of the ghoul’s torso and hobbled in my direction, keeping her head down as Cabernet’s rifles roared in twin blasts of lead that resulted in glorious fountains of scarlet.  Cheddar’s shotgun blew a gaping hole through a scarred flank to completely sever a zombie’s leg from its body, sending the ghoul cresting the bridge’s curve tumbling through one of the gaps in the ancient structure to a sudden, watery demise.  Brie ran forward, sledgehammer at the ready, and snapped a zombie’s spine with a single swing before scooping Nohta on top of her back and galloping towards us.

“Get back to the carts!”  I shouted, “There’s a bomb on the bridge!”

Cheddar’s jaw dropped, his eyebrows attempting to wriggle off of his face.  “Shit!”

The five of us ran for our lives, running along the river’s side towards the wagon and cart to put distance between ourselves and the bridge as Cheddar and Cabernet turned occasionally to pepper our attackers with lead.  Brie rejoined the pair after depositing Nohta at my hooves by the wagon, fending off the hoof-full of zombies that reached our side of the river.  I checked my Pipbuck, “Fifteen seconds!”

“Sis,”  Nohta’s voice was troublingly desperate, “don’t feel so good anymore.”

“It’s okay, dear.  We’re almost out of-”  The terrifying scream of a banshee silenced my reassurances.  I looked up to see a horrifying sight.  Bright Eyes was standing on the other side of the river, casting her spotlight eye-glow directly across Nohta and myself.

I checked my Pipbuck again, “Five seconds!  GET DOWN!”

Cheddar, Cabernet, and Brie skidded behind their cart with the rest of the family as an irresistible urge overtook my good sense.  My gaze rose to the bridge.  I needed to see…

It was as if the Goddess herself deemed that the simple structure of concrete and steel was an ugly thing, undeserving of blemishing her lands.  It needed to be done away with, and she would see to its demise personally.  I could feel her descend from beyond the clouds.  And I could feel her brush her hoof against the world as the air itself ached at her presence.  For one wonderful, terrifying moment of building anticipation, all was still and silent.  Then the pressure was released, and my world changed again.

A concussive wave blasted my mane backwards as my eyes instinctively slammed shut and my ears lay flat against my head.  I forced my eyes open a moment later to witness the cloud of ash, dust, and various bits of wooden or steel debris that had once been the bridge soaring through the air on a graceful midnight wind.  A disastrous hole had been ripped out of the middle of the bridge, neatly separating the eastern and western sides of the structure by a several-yards-long jagged divide.  The remains of the structure creaked and groaned mightily, collapsing into the river as gravity finished what explosive destruction had set in motion.

And it was all unleashed by my hoof!  A giddy excitement coursed through my veins as that realization sank in.  I had done that!  Goddess, such power!  It was wonderful!

Not a single ghoul was left standing.  We had escaped.

“Nohta!”  I laughed, reveling in the simple joy of survival, “We did it!”

There was no response.  My laughter died in my throat.

“Nohta?”  I pulled her hood back to reveal a bloody gash torn through her neck.  “Oh no… No.  NO!”

By reflex, I focused on her neck and tried to cast my spell, but the absence of any sensation at all jogged my memory.  My hooves shook as they reached for the gash in her neck, only serving to smear the blood across her stripes and make a terrible mess.  Goddess, I was so clumsy with my hooves!   I couldn’t work quickly enough!  I needed help!

“Hold on, Nohta!”  Luna damn me!  Why did I have to use the last potion on myself?  I threw my packs to the ground, digging out the only restorative item we had left: a single roll of healing bandages.  It was better than nothing, but only just barely.

My bloody hooves spread crimson all over the packaging for the bandages, slipping and preventing me from opening the roll.  Terror and determination gripped me; I was NOT going to lose her!  The taste of copper flooded my mouth as I used my teeth to rip open the package and gain access to the gauze inside.  The surreal realization that my little sister’s blood was now coating the inside of my mouth was swept to the wayside as I quickly focused on staunching her bleeding.

My hooves wrapped the bandages around her neck in the best attempt at medicine I could manage without use of my magic.  The bandages soaked through with crimson nearly as soon as I had applied them, but all I could do was apply pressure and mutter gasping prayers to Luna.  As I was huddled over her form, a bright green aura cast faint shadows from my packs across my sister’s face.  A horrible noise, like all the air in the world was being sucked through a tube, came from across the churning river.  I looked up to see Bright Eyes inhaling deeply.  I felt my heart plummet into my stomach as Bright Eyes exhaled a brilliant cascade of emerald light in our direction.  A wave of uncomfortable warmth and nausea permeated my body, soaking into my very soul with an awful and crippling intensity as my Pipbuck clicked wildly.

Simple curiosity bade me check the interface on my hoof.  “Plus… three-hundred rads?”  Another wave crashed through us, sending tiny motes of jade light dancing through my blurring vision as I stumbled backwards from the blast.  “Six… hundred?  No…”  Bright Eyes was killing us from across the span of the river!  This… this wasn’t fair!  We had escaped!  We had already won!

Weariness borne of my own wounds, fatigue, overexertion, the creeping effects of radiation sickness, borderline dehydration, and near starvation finally claimed their prize.  Another blast of magical radiation washed over my body as I feebly attempted to drag Nohta’s unconscious form away from the river.  Without my magic, I had to rely on my own paltry strength to drag her in the direction of the Cheese Family’s carts.

I grunted in exertion, the hood of Nohta’s cloak gripped between my teeth as I strained to get her to safety.  A terribly violent and exceedingly painful ripping sensation burst forth from my shoulder as the wound re-opened, spilling scarlet down my leg and past my Pipbuck.  My leg gave out underneath me, sending my panting form toppling to the ground.  Dirt and rocks scratched at my cheeks, clung to my bloody lips, and matted all over my perspiration-soaked face.  Tiny puffs of dust were blown before my eyes by my rasping breaths.  I lifted my hoof to my eyes, but lacked the strength to right myself.   I had nothing left.

The last thing I saw was my blood-covered Pipbuck’s interface, “Nine… hundred…fifty sev... Father, I… can’t-”  My world fell to darkness as I lost consciousness.  

Luna’s soft embrace was every bit as welcoming as I had been led to believe.


******************************************  


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 6!
New Perk!

An Apple-Grenade A Day:  Well, you finally did it.  You went and blew it all up!  Your newfound love of explosive weaponry and burgeoning skills in repair have combined to give you all sorts of crazy ideas!  Who knows what insane toys you’ll come up with?  But watch out!  You don’t want to blow your horn off, Doctor!

Nohta gains a Perk:

Rad Filly:  Nohta may be down now, but she never stays that way for long!  Nohta has taken on so much radiation that her body has permanently mutated.  She gains more and more health regeneration as her rad level increases.  Nohta is just too stubborn to share Nadira’s fate.
> Chapter Six: Desert Flora And Their Inherent Alchemical Properties -Part One-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Six:


Desert Flora and Their Inherent Alchemical Properties



“Forecast: Cloudy, with a chance of friendship.”


Mareon.  Your father and I had very different opinions of the settlement, girls.  He saw the ramshackle town as a backwater pitstop, only good for a brief respite from the dull trek through the desert as he gathered gossip from the tavern.  But I… I saw it as a desert bloom rising out of the harsh soil.  By some divine miracle the town managed to escape the radiation that blankets the world, and for that reason alone it is more than a little special.  Mareon is an oasis, for sure, but no place is truly safe within the wasteland.  Should you ever decide to visit the town on your own, take the proper precautions.  Mareon may appear to be a fragile desert bloom, but its spikes and thorns lie in wait for the foolhardy and the reckless.

Within Mareon’s walls you can catch a glimpse of the old world stubbornly refusing to die.  The town owes its resilience to the saloon, as working stills are a rarity within the wastes.  Say what you will about the evils of alcohol, but wasters flock to it like moths to flame.  And where ponies gather, some small semblance of civilization typically follows.  The prominent families that hold power within the town are all tied to the business of booze, and that business has paved the way for many others to take up residence within the relative safety of the town’s walls.

Traders, doctors, adventurers, teachers, tradesmares of all skills, scavengers, mercenaries, guards… even politicians;  you can find each of them within the town’s dilapidated pre-war structures and newly-built shacks and huts.  All of the ponies living there eke out an existence within the desert while dreaming of one day making the trip northeast along the Macintosh Hills to New Appleoosa, or perhaps due north along the river to Manehattan.  Luckily none of them have yet made the latter trip, as they surely would have stumbled upon my secluded safe-house amongst the rubble of Fancy Lick and subsequently destroyed my stock.  Ponies can be… less than practical when it comes to certain alchemical ingredients.

During my own travels to the town I met another zebra.  A young alchemist living in a hut at the edge of town and making a living by selling a potion he called “Battle Brew.”  He was exiled to the very furthest reaches within the town’s barricades, but tolerated for his potions and occasional herbal remedy.  It should come as no surprise that the two of us were fast friends, even if the stallion wasn’t entirely… sane.  Should you ever find yourselves in the company of a “Half-Moon,” give him my warm regards.  Friends are often found in the oddest of places and he was no exception.  

But no matter what, you must remember one thing about Mareon, girls: they are the Stable’s closest neighbor.  It would be unwise to alert them to our presence, and it would be the height of foolishness to anger those who dwell within those sheetmetal and barbed wire walls.  Keep the Stable’s existence secret.  And… keep your heritage to yourself.

Mareon has a vendetta against those of us with stripes, daughters.  At first I was appalled and offended by the blatant racism, but after I learned of the town’s history with zebras…  I find myself completely unable to fault them.  Some acts are unforgivable, even in times of desperation.  

You’ll find my recipe for a stripe-concealing ointment on the following pages.  Be sure to use it if you are at all able.  It is unfortunate that we must hide our true selves, but the wasteland hardly ever allows us such luxuries.  Be careful, daughters.


-Excerpt from the Book of Nadira, pgs 30-31



---------------------------------------------------------------


I was ripped from the blissful, soft caress of Luna’s embrace only to be thrust into a consciousness I had no desire to attain.  I woke to the pounding rhythm of a relentless war-drum between my ears and piercing, incapacitating light stabbing my retinas.  My throat would have screamed for water were it not so parched that it was unable to even moan in pain.  Waves of intense nausea wracked my entire being, threatening to void the contents of my stomach at the slightest provocation.  My hooves pushed and prodded at scratchy fabric and uncomfortable bedding, only to go limp as waves of fresh agony crashed through my body.  Every muscle ached.  Every joint was stiff.  Every single thing about my existence was pure torture.

I’ve never been a fan of mornings, something that Mother and I had shared, but this particular morning was far beyond the realm of simply being unpleasant.  I was in agony.

I had been poisoned.

Perhaps I should back up to give you the proper context.  Forgive me, I do not have much practice in telling a story like this one.  Let’s see… where did we leave off?  Oh, right.  The Steel Rangers, Bright Eyes, the Cheese family, the bridge…

Goddess, the bridge!  It was a truly mesmerizing sight to behold.  Such power!  And I had caused it!  Me!  Ha!  Who would have seen that coming?  The potential for drastic change due to my actions is astounding; more intoxicating than the sweetest of wines!  Any one of us is capable of so much in this world, if only we are given the proper tools with which to work, no?  But forgive me, I was informing you of what happened next.

The truth is…  I…  I think I blacked out.  I’m honestly not entirely sure of what transpired that night.  All I can recall are hazy patches of blurry shapes and a deep sense of failure.  Bright Eyes had somehow blasted me with enough radiation to make me glow in my own right, and after my Pipbuck had registered over 900 rads and climbing…  I thought that I was dead.

I should probably stress that point.  I really, truly, believed that I was going to die.  Are you capable of comprehending what that is like?  To have every concern, burden, hope, and wish violently stripped away from your pathetic attempts to hold onto them?  To understand that before death itself, we are all equally powerless?

Before that night, I would have assumed that a near death experience would have made me overly cautious; afraid to be hurt and even more fearful that my decisions would lead to further harm visited upon myself.  The real truth is far more frightening.  I didn’t feel afraid, I felt liberated.  Concern for my own well-being evaporated like a muddy puddle in the baking desert heat.  I knew that I was going to die; if not immediately, then soon.  My only regrets were that I would be unable to aid those who needed my aid, and that I was too weak to right the wrongs to which my sister and I had been subjected.

My stablemates, if any of them still lived, were helpless against the fate that had befallen them.  Only my sister and I were capable of finding them, and her attitude towards that subject left me convinced that the burden of my stable’s well-being would fall squarely on my shoulders.  And regarding Nohta…  After that night I knew what truly mattered, and I was more than ready to do anything in my power to keep her safe.

You need to know this in order to better understand my motivations for what I have done.  Any lingering desire to see myself safely through my life’s trials has, ever since that night, been an extension of one tiny revelation: I can only help others if I remain alive at the end of each day.  

To needlessly throw my life away when I am capable of helping so many lives would only put those lives in danger when I am no longer there to render what aid I can.  Worse still, it would rob this world of any further good I could bring about. My sister and I’s abandoning Holly and the Steel Rangers had surely saved our lives, and though we ourselves nearly succumbed to the crippling attacks of Bright Eyes, the bomb I had used on the bridge had guaranteed that the Cheese family would live on.  Who can say for sure what Bright Eyes would have done had I not split the desert in twain?

I have heard that sacrifice is a virtue, but I can only believe that if what is gained is greater than what is lost.  I am not here to sacrifice myself.  I am not here to waste this opportunity that lies before us.  And I am not here to barter with something so important as my own life.  I need this, and you need me.  It’s as simple as that.

When I fell next to Nohta’s unconscious body I thought that I would be reunited with Mother to find her brewing sweet smelling potions in the everafter.  I believed that I’d see Father right then instead of waiting until the next time I dreamt of his melancholic smiling face.  I knew that I was going to meet the Goddess herself, and that I was going to enjoy an eternity in Lady Luna’s moonlit paradise as she praised my unwavering faith.  So please, just for a moment, contemplate my immeasurable surprise and confusion when I found myself waking up in an itchy bed as my everything groaned in inescapable agony.

My eyes shot open, darting to and fro in a haphazard and chaotic scramble to take in every sight within the room.  I beheld the fuzzy image of a spinning ceiling fan and, realizing that I was in a pre-war structure and far away from any terrifying ghouls, immediately wanted nothing more than to shut my lids tight and go back to sleep.  I gasped for breath like a drowning mare, as if I had only just come up from the abyss.  My ears pounded relentlessly with the rhythm of my elevated heartbeat, exacerbating the crippling headache and debilitating nausea that gripped me like a vice.  The only thing I could smell was my own sickly body in dire need of a good bath.  I tried to move, but felt too weak to push away the sheets, much less accomplish the daunting task of rising from bed.  I let my eyes close for a moment longer, and desperately tried to remember what was going on.

Wait!  I couldn’t be falling asleep!  Not now!  I had to get up!  I had to find my sister!  She was in danger!  She was-

Something moved against my side, digging hooves into my foreleg and making the cutest little snoring noise.  I opened my eyes to find Nohta fast asleep, sitting on the floor with her head by my Pipbuck.  She was safe.  I breathed a heavy and ragged sigh of relief; praising what must have been The Dark Mother’s intervention with the only action my enfeebled body could muster.  Thank The Goddess…  Thank Luna… Nohta was safe.

Safe and worrying herself sick about me, it appeared.  I tried to lift my Pipbuck to my face, but only managed to slightly rustle the sheets as my wounded shoulder shrieked in protest.  Okay then, I mused, I wasn’t really all that interested in the time anyway…  I closed my eyes once more and, feeling my sister’s warm breath against my hoof, allowed myself to drift back to Lady Luna’s embrace.  

I would have rather stayed awake than experience what came next.

The clarity of my dream was startling; vivid and bold compared to the hazy reality from which I had just escaped.  This was no mere dream.  This was a memory.  A memory that still haunts me to this day.

Father walked before me, opening the door to the Stable’s clinic with a single tap of his light-blue hoof against the small button beside the door.  A gentle whooshing noise accompanied the lifting barrier as we both stepped inside the nearly empty clinic; my freshly laundered and recently designated lab-coat’s sleeve swinging above my right hoof.  My dream-self checked the time on her Pipbuck, blissfully ignorant of what was to come next.

The clinic’s lighting was harsh, sterile and unrelenting in its luminosity.  Fitting lighting for delicate medical procedures where every action calls for extreme precision, but… no one should ever have to see a loved one’s final, agonized moments in such clarity.  

Mother’s pale and weakened form lay upon the bed furthest from the door.  Father and I had both decided to place her away from the majority of traffic in the clinic.  We had been trying to give her some privacy; time away from the more bitter inhabitants of the Stable that might come to antagonize her now that she was incapable of rearranging their teeth in response.  But in doing so, I felt that we had inadvertently sequestered her away like a diseased outsider.

My gaze danced nervously around the room, landing on the intravenous tubes that lead from her fetlocks to wind their way to the plastic drip-bags suspended at the side of her bed.  Various beeping and blinking medical devices monitored her heartbeat, blood pressure, and radiation level.  A barely-touched meal still sat on the bedside table; the food having long since gone cold beside an open-faced brown book and pen being held open by Mother’s heavy malachite amulet.  My dream-self was unaware of what that book was, but I knew it to be Mother’s book of alchemical recipes and life lessons.  Nohta was asleep beside the bed, sitting with her head resting near one of Mother’s hooves as Mother gently stroked her mane.

Father and I walked to the foot of Mother’s bed together.  When she noticed us, Mother’s emerald eyes widened in a weak smile that only managed to wrack my heart with pain and guilt.  My dream-self’s lips were already quivering; the lump in our throat becoming more unbearable with each passing second.  The near silence of the clinic was only broken by the gentle beeps and dull hum of medical equipment, providing a placid atmosphere within the too-bright space.

“Nadira…”  Father’s voice was tired and agonized.  “...The Overmare won’t allow me to leave.  She’s not going to let me search for RadAway or witchweed.”

Mother’s bittersweet and exotic voice came out hoarse and weary, “I feel… it is too late for that now anyway, my love.”

My dream-self walked to the side of the bed opposite my sister while Father checked to make sure nopony was within earshot.  As I sat on my haunches and leaned in to nuzzle Mother’s cheek, Father’s voice hardened.  “I’m going anyway.”

Mother murmured softly as she tried to placate Father’s rising ire.  “Shh… Dream, she-”

Father was shaking his head, causing his mess of a curly-brown mane to dance and sway past his horn.  He was staring at the ground, unable to meet Mother’s eyes as the fury he had loosed in the hallway only moments ago resurfaced.  We were only lucky that he didn’t swear in Fancy again.  “She thinks that she can keep me from leaving… ME!”  Father’s golden eyes finally rose to meet Mother’s, “She’s forgotten who-”

Mother’s voice was desperate as she pleaded with Father.  “Dream Chaser… please.  The children will need you here.”  She placed a heavy emphasis on that word.  “Who will care for Candy and Nohta?”  Nohta’s head stirred at the sound of her name, but she resumed her quiet snores a moment later.  

Mother continued in a soft voice, moving a few errant strands of mane away from Nohta’s closed eyes.  “My time is coming, love.  No one can stop that now.”

Father, Luna bless him, wouldn’t take no for an answer.  His eyes were hard as steel, unrelenting in his determination.  But even steel will buckle under enough pressure.  He walked to the side of the bed to hold Mother’s face tenderly between his hooves, and the tears that were welling in his eyes threatened to spill onto Mother’s face as he held her close.  “I can stop it.  I know I can!  Please, Nadira, you don’t-”

Mother shut her eyes and shook her head back and forth slowly, silencing Father in the gentlest way possible.  Her striped cheeks rubbed against the dampening fur on Father’s face while she whispered softly.  “Shh… Dream, you’ll wake Nohta.”  My sister stirred in her sleep once more, opening a bleary eye and pushing herself from the bed.  Father pulled away from the embrace and wiped his eyes as Mother smiled down at Nohta and whispered, “Too late.”

“Dad?  Candy?   When did you-”  Nohta let out a massive yawn before continuing in her groggy voice, “...when’d you get here?”

Mother raised a feeble hoof to Nohta’s cheek as she looked into my sister’s eyes and spoke to Father.  “Dream Chaser, would you take Nohta back to our quarters?  She needs her sleep, and…”  Mother’s gaze turned to my tear-filled eyes.  “...I need to speak to Candy.”  Her eyes were filled with pained resignation as she added one simple word.  “Alone.”

Father laid a hoof across Mother’s heart and leaned in to brush his muzzle against Mother’s cheek once more, whispering into her ear so quietly that I almost couldn’t hear.  “More than the moon itself…”

Mother swallowed once to still her quivering lip, lifting a hoof to hold Father’s to her chest as she stared into his eyes and replied, “...And all the stars in the sky.”

Father kissed her brow, lingering there as a barely discernible shudder rippled through his chest.  After pulling away he nodded in agreement, and wrapped a hoof around my sister to lead her away from the bed.  Nohta didn’t put up any resistance.  Our mother’s word was law to her, even then.

Just as they were ambling past the adjacent and empty bed, Mother’s hoarse voice called out to them both.  I still can’t help but think that she knew what was coming.  “Dream Chaser, Nohta… I love you both.  With all my heart.”

Nohta’s voice was still thick with sleep, “Love you too, Mom.”

“And I you, Nadira.”  Father led my sister out of the clinic, leaving Mother and I alone.

I finally had the chance to tell her.  I had to!  Had to let her know!  “Mother, I…”  The words hung in my throat, caught amidst the aching lump and the tide of regret and shame.  With every passing second self-recrimination chiseled ever deeper at my heart, leaving me a blubbering mess at the side of her bed.  The welling pools of grief that had been building behind the levees of my eyelids finally burst forth, spilling down my cheeks in a deluge of searing anguish.  My lips quivered, unable to voice the one thing I needed to say.  The shame of that one final tiny failure piled itself upon the mountain of my guilt, and under the crushing weight of my own weakness I buckled and collapsed into the hooves that I had wronged.

I buried my tear-slicked face in her chest, detesting the sickly smell of her bedridden body as my chest heaved.  My tears dampened the fur of Mother’s chest while her hoof slowly rose to embrace me gently.  Mother was strong!  The bravest, strongest warrior the world had ever known!  She shouldn’t have been reduced to this!  This was… This was…

I couldn’t open my eyes.  Instead I held them tight as I choked out my apology in a pathetic attempt to dislodge the guilt suffocating my soul.  “This is my fa-fault!  Mother, I’m so s-sorry!”  Admission at last, but there was no catharsis to greet me.  Only more pain.

Her voice was calm; melancholy mixed with soothing.  “Shh, Candy.”  The hoof atop my head gently brushed against my forehead around my horn, pulling strands of my mane away from my face before they could mat with the tears.  “Shh, dear.  You had nothing to do with this.”  Her hooves caressed my sobbing form, one stroking my mane as the other lifted my chin to face her.  I opened my eyes to find her features set in the stern but loving face of a warning only parents are capable of.  “You can not blame yourself for this, Candy.  It will ruin you.”

“But you told me n-not to practice al… alchemy inside the Stable!  I didn’t listen!”

“Shh…”  Her hoof brushed against my cheek, wiping away the wetness clinging to my stripes.

I clenched my eyelids tight as I shook my head, wringing fresh tears down my muzzle.  “I stayed inside b-because I wanted to show N-Nohta!  I wasn’t paying attention!  And then the t-talisman… The fire…”

“Candy-”

I lifted my eyes to hers, expecting condemnation but only finding pity.  “All the witchweed was burned!  Father-”

“Told me everything, daughter.”  Her voice was still only a calming whisper, hoarse but firm with her resolve.

I couldn’t stand the look in those eyes.  I buried my face in her chest once more to escape her piteous gaze.  Why wasn’t she angry?  I could have accepted my failure so much more easily if she had just chastised me!  “You… you h-hate me…”  

Her hooves gripped me in her enfeebled embrace.  She was so weak, so frail!  She wasn’t supposed to be fragile like glass!  She was Mother; the iron cornerstone of our family!  An unassailable bulwark of strength impervious to all the casual hatred and danger thrown our family’s way.  And I had compromised that pillar.  In foolishness I had toppled the invincible tower that not even all the wastes could bring down.  Goddess, how I despised what I had done to her!  

She held my face in her hooves, forcing me to look into her miserable eyes as she shook her head and whispered.  “Sweetheart, no.  Never.”

“How… how could you not?  I… I…”  I couldn’t hold her gaze.  I couldn’t bear to see what I had wrought in arrogant indiscretion.  Goddess, if only I had been more careful!  Had been more diligent!  Had been smarter; more thorough, better!  “I should have listened to you!  I should have waited for you to come back!  If I had paid closer attention-”

“Candy…”  A gentle but forceful hoof found purchase underneath my chin once more, lifting my eyes to meet my mother’s face.  “This was an accident, daughter.  The last in a long chain.  You can no more blame yourself for this than I can blame myself for leaving my alchemy supplies behind.”  

Before I could splutter out a response, she added, “It was important to me that you be able to practice, dear.  I wanted you to make potions while I was with the Caravan, remember?  But accidents happen, daughter.  We can not prevent that which we can not predict.  Do not blame yourself for this, Candy.”  Her muzzle brushed against my forehead as her lips kissed my brow, “I don’t.”

I clenched her weakened body tightly, sobbing into her shoulder while her hooves embraced me.  The only sounds in the whole of the Clinic were my muffled sobs and the rhythmic beeping of the medical devices.  A light shudder ran through her body, accompanied by a small irregularity detected on the electrocardiogram.  I pried myself away from Mother as my magic wiped the tears out of my eyes, and began checking the various medical devices at the side of her bed.

Her breathing was becoming more labored as I checked the drip-chamber on an IV bag.  She held a hoof to her chest and grimaced in pain as she spoke.  “Candy, have I ever told you the great riddle of my people?”

With Father and Pearl outside of the Clinic, only I was left to check on the equipment at Mother’s side.  I adjusted the tiny clamp on the plastic tubing with my magic, allowing more Hydra and healing potion to diffuse into the saline solution within the drip chamber.  I swallowed the lump in my throat and glanced back at her, “No.  I… I don’t think so.”

“My father posed this question to me when I was your age.”  She coughed into her hoof while I rubbed her back and fluffed her pillow.  

I conjured my spell, bathing the room in a blood-red glow as I made the magical connection to Mother’s body.  A crushing deluge of agony and nausea swept over me as Mother cast her gaze to the side; peering into the distance with a forlorn look of melancholy as she realized what I was doing.  I could barely function like this!  Every movement made me want to vomit, but even worse was the pain screeching at me to lay down.  Goddess, she needed Med-X!  My magic plucked a syringe out of one of the nearby cabinets, only for Mother to gently shove the medicine out of my scarlet bubble.

It landed on the sheets of her bed above her legs as she groaned in pain, “Ugh… No… No, dear.  Pain can muddle thoughts, but… can bring clarity as well.  I need my wits about me.  Need to make sure you understand.”

I didn’t release my spell.  No matter what she said, I knew that I was to blame for this.  I deserved to share her pain.  I deserved a lot more than that… 

I blinked back the newly forming wave of tears, unsure if they were caused by the physical torment or the stark realization of exactly what Mother was going through.  “Mother, please.  You need your medicine.”

She clutched her chest and stared me down, “This… more important.”  I could see my reflection in her emerald eyes.  “Daughter, are zebras white with black stripes, or black with white stripes?”

“I… what?”  I cocked my head to the side, completely lost in her query.  Mother’s words always were good at playing me like a fiddle.

Despite the pain I still felt through my magical bond a small smirk pulled a corner of her mouth upwards.  “Come, dear.  You love puzzles.  You can figure this one out on your own.”

My eyes traveled over her features; searching her stripes for an answer to her riddle.  I saw a face that, even in sickness, was still more beautiful than I could ever hope to be.  There were scars deforming her coat, but never so badly as to detract from her appearance.  Yes, the intimidating muscles underneath her hide were rendered nearly useless by her current state, but they still granted her the graceful and lithe form of a dancer.

I reached a hoof towards her, indicating the obvious with a gesture.  “Well… technically… I’d say that you’re more of a light-grey on dark-grey.  Or perhaps dark-grey on light.”

She snorted in weak laughter, “Don’t worry, daughter.  I did not fully understand this question for decades.”  

My eyes wandered the room as my thoughts raced.  She wanted me to know something.  She wanted me to figure it out on my own.  She’d be disappointed if I couldn’t!  I had to think!

She cleared her throat, “Perhaps… a different route?  One more relevant to one such as yourself.”  My gaze returned to her eyes as she smiled feebly at me, “Candy, are you a zebra with a unicorn’s horn?  Or are you a pony with pink stripes?”

Confusion overtook me.  Mother and Father had already explained this when I was just a filly.  I was a zony;  Half zebra and half pony.  Why was she asking me this?  “Mother… I’m… I’m a little of both?”

She closed her eyes in contemplation as her smirk continued to grow.  “Decades, love.”  Her smirk died as a heavy sigh gushed past her lips, “And I won’t be there to congratulate you when you understand.”

My lip quivered as my hoof reached out to her.  I felt the phantom pressure of the touch on my own shoulder, deathly quiet compared to the ever-present agony coursing through her body.  “Mother… I know the Overmare forbids it, but Father might be able to-”

“No dear, he needs to stay here for you and Nohta.  You still need to finish your training,”  Her lips pressed together as she attempted to suppress her grin, “...and little Nohta’s ability to stir up trouble reminds me of myself at her age.  She’ll need someone to watch over her.”  Her eyes found a measure of strength I had not believed she still possessed, boring into my own like viridian steel.  “I need you to do something for me, Candy.  Promise me.”

I stilled my quivering lip and swallowed the lump in my throat, bolstering myself for her request as I nodded slowly.  “Anything.”

She took a deep breath before continuing.  “You need to be the one to watch over your father and sister, now.  Nohta is… unruly to anyone but myself.  And your father… Neither of them will be the same after my passing, Candy.”  I opened my mouth to object, but she silenced me with a gentle hoof against my lips.  “No, dear.  Let us both speak plainly now.  No more lies to the ones we love.  I am going to die.”

I shook my head slowly, unbelieving of what I was hearing.  The lump in my throat ached as I pleaded with her, “No… please…”  It was as if a great beast had loomed over us in the clinic all along, lurking unseen like shadowed mist as it awaited its prey’s imbecilic advance into its lair.  But only at Mother’s words did the monster finally reveal itself, bludgeoning and slashing my ability to ignore it.  No matter how desperately I had tried to convince myself otherwise, Mother was right.  The tests and retests and re-re-tests had all confirmed it; we were only waiting for her to leave us.  The venomous sting of inescapable fact worked its vile magic, weakening my resolve and robbing me of my ability to fight back.  Like a weakened animal facing its last moments I finally had to accept the truth, and as Mother’s words truly struck home I allowed the beast’s jaws to clench around my neck. 

The tears were rolling over my face again, moistening the stripes upon my cheeks.  Mother wiped them away before she continued in her hoarse and weary voice, “And when I do, your sister will need someone to stay after her about her fighting and about her education.  She skipped class again to come see me today.”  Her eyes were stern at those words.  I knew that keeping Nohta in school would be a hoof-full, but if that was Mother’s wish then I would make it so.  I nodded slowly, sitting at the side of the bed and holding my hoof over hers.

“And you’ll have to be careful with your father, dear.  I… I believe that he may come to resent the Overmare for her refusal to let him search for medicine.  Don’t let him harbor that hatred within his heart.”  I nodded once more as her hoof caressed my own.  

A fresh wave of torture tore through my body.  I doubled over, gasping for breath as my tear filled eyes darted past the pink strands of my mane to behold Mother’s grimacing face.  Something was wrong.

“And one… last thing… daughter.”  Her eyes fluttered feebly, incapable of staying open.  The color started to fade from my world, bathing the clinic in a monochrome, grey filter.  The machines at the side of the bed beeped and chirped furiously, but the sound was already becoming fuzzy and distant.  I jolted up, placing my front hooves beside Mother on the bed as my own eyes stared at her in uncomprehending horror.

Every word that left her mouth was a monumental struggle.  Another wave of torment gripped my chest as I felt her voice upon my own lips.  “Candy…”

My wide eyes fell to the emergency button on her cot.  My hoof slammed into the button as my scream ripped out of my throat, “FATHER!”

Goddess, I wasn’t trained for this yet!  The alarm blared overhead, but nopony was coming.  Why wasn’t anypony else in the Clinic!?  Without sufficient knowledge of proper medical procedure I panicked and fell back on the one tool I had at my disposal; my spell.  I prayed to Luna for assistance, and gave myself entirely over to instinct as I grit my teeth and focused.

Magic poured from my body to hers, deepening the magical bond between us.  I was amplifying every feeble healing spell I had been taught with the one spell I knew by heart, but it just wasn’t enough!  Sweat beaded on my brow as I grunted in exertion, and a layer of overglow obliterated the shadows in the room to bring a touch of color to our greying world.  For one agonizing moment the pain began to ebb and wane, but I couldn’t keep it up.  Goddess, she needed help!  In desperation I sought to mash the emergency call button with my magic again, failing due to the intense focus being given to Mother’s ailing heart.  I pulled my concentration away for a single second, just one second to manually press the button with my hooves, and immediately realized my mistake.  An explosion of pain, a terrible stabbing sensation, crashed through our chests.  My magic faltered for a single moment, and in that hellish span of time her heart fell still.

I screamed and redoubled my efforts, “No!  MOTHER!”  A third layer of magic blanketed my horn even as a sense of terrible distance descended between us.  The bond was beginning to unravel and sputter, offering pockets of terrifying clarity as her pain fled my body.  I was quickly draining myself of magical power, using my telekinesis to compress her heart and force air into her lungs.  My horn ached with the energy being poured through it like a sieve; I was using everything I had to keep her alive, and nothing was working!

I felt her lips move.  I felt the whisper, rather than heard the words.  The last thing she ever said to me was only discernible by the phantom sensation of her lips in place of my own.  “...love you.”

The ephemeral cord that was our magical bond was fraying and weakening with every passing moment.  My hooves beat upon her chest with all my pitiful might, desperately trying to maintain compressions as my magic fizzled and withered.  I had used myself up.  I had nothing left to give.

That sensation of distance strengthened even as other senses faded to obscurity.  Pain surpassing anything I had ever experienced before gripped my body like a vice.  What was going on!?  “MOTHER!  HOLD ON!”  Half of my world disappeared from view.  Half of my body went numb.  Half of my everything collapsed into a bottomless void of non-being.

Crimson sparks leapt from my faltering horn even as the magical connection was severed and my mind slammed back into a single skull like a battering ram.  I reeled in pain, my body finally unable to endure anymore torment.  The uniquely alien and oppressively impotent sensation of magical burnout left my horn feeling fuzzy, dull, and lifeless.  

Mother was laying on the bed before me while an emergency alarm blared above us.  The sound of hooves clanging against metal floor plates echoed throughout the Clinic.  Somepony was coming, but they were too late.

My hoof reached out to her face, “Mo-Mother?”  I tried to fire my spell, but my horn only fizzled and sparked, sending a fresh wave of dull agony through my skull.  My hoof brushed against her cheeks.  There was no response.

My eyes went wide as my jaw slackened.  “N-no…”  My head shook as my other hoof reached out to embrace her face.  “No.”  Cold realization began to sink in even as hot and stinging tears streamed from my eyes.  “No… No.  Luna, NO!”

I fell to my haunches beside her bed, my hooves clinging to Mother’s fetlock while I pressed her limp hoof against my cheek.  “No…”  My tears dampened the sheets of her bed and moistened the fur above her hooves.  “Please… Luna…”  

Soft but firm hooves gripped my shoulders and pried me away from the bed.  In my grief-induced daze, I was foolish enough to allow them to lead me away.

I hadn’t even had the chance to tell her that I loved her.

Reality reasserted itself when my eyes opened; revealing a blurry, brown, spinning circle.  I shut my eyes again, forcing the tears out while I continued to sniffle and gasp for breath.  The cool sensation of dampened fur on my cheeks and the soggy side of my pillow alerted me to the fact that I had been crying in my sleep for quite some time.  My breath was still catching in my throat when I re-opened my eyes to view the lazily spinning ceiling fan in Doctor Flannel’s clinic.

That was when it struck me; I was alive.  Despite all that had transpired, I was still alive.  The visceral realization brought an unnatural intensity to every sensation.  Every pained limb was a gift.  Every cool wave of air washing over my damp cheeks was a treasure.  Every single breath, no matter how taxing to draw or how foul the scent it brought to my nose, was a profound confirmation of the simple fact that my heart still beat within my breast.  That this world hadn’t killed me yet.  That I still had a chance to set things right.

I took a deep breath, willing my body to calm itself.  I rolled my hoof over, expecting to find Nohta at my side.  When my hoof only found the edge of my bed, I found the strength to raise my head and scan the room for my missing sister.  There was nopony within sight.  I was alone.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and whispered to myself in the empty room, my words shaky and irregular due to pain and nausea.  “Just… just a dream, Candy.  Just a… dream.”  Why was Luna tormenting me with so many painful visions?  I had never dreamed this frequently in the Stable, and when I did it certainly wasn’t about the worst moments of my life!  I shook my head lightly and prayed, unsure of what I had done to invoke The Goddess’ ire.  I could only hope that Luna’s nocturnal wrath might be brief. 

My stained and tattered lab-coat was draped over a nightstand beside my bed; my saddlebags and pistol resting at the base of the table.  A bottle of water was weighing down a folded note beside the off-white fabric.  I furrowed my brow in pained concentration, only to remember that my magic had left me.  My aching and clumsy hoof accidentally knocked the bottle off the table to land atop my saddlebags before I clutched the note in my grasp.  I was left panting from the exertion as I brought the letter to my eyes.

Nohta’s sloppy script was scrawled hastily on the yellowed paper, bobbing and weaving as my gushing breath blew the edges of the paper back and forth.  ‘This water’s clean, Sis.  Checked it myself.  Doc ran out of RadAway, so I’m going to see if Margarita can get us some vodka.   I’m fine, by the way.  I feel great.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ll explain what’s happened when I get back.’

My brow furrowed with my confused and worried grimace as my muddled thoughts jumbled together in my skull.  Why would Nohta be after vodka, of all things?  What was she doing?  Why wasn’t she here with me?

My eyes glanced down at the bottom of the note.  ‘P.S.  We owe a lot of ponies a lot of caps.  Be back soon.’

I struggled to rein in my thoughts, but with the haze dominating my mind I was unable to discern what my sister was doing.  My eyes fell on the bottle of water laying on my packs, and the note was left to fall lazily to the side of the bed as thirst took control of my actions.  I strained to reach for the bottle and bring it back to my lips before gulping the liquid as quickly as I could.  It only took a moment for me to realize I had acted in foolish haste.

My nauseous belly cried out in protest, sending slightly diluted stomach acid rushing upwards through my throat.  I convulsed once as the bottle of water fell from my grasp to roll off the bed and spill over the floor, then hurriedly craned my neck over the side of the bed as I threw up.  The first wave of sickness splattered against the wooden floor, as did the second before I noticed the bucket placed at my bedside.  My hoof feebly attempted to pull the metal pail into position while I fought the urge to vomit, but I only succeeded in knocking the vessel on its side before it rolled under my bed.  As the last of my stomach acid burned its way up my throat to splash across the floor I couldn’t help but sob at my helplessness while choking and gagging on my own sickness.

Goddess… I was so weak!  Incapable of even the most simple of tasks!  I lay there for an uncomfortably long time, unable to find the strength to push myself back on top of the mattress.  I wept as my head dangled over the side of the bed, not even being able to wipe the puke from my otherwise dried and cracked lips.  It was only as the dry heaving died down and the tears spilled over my muzzle to mingle with the mess on the floor that I finally realized what my sister had told me in her note.  

I was alone.  For the first time since the Caravan, I was alone.  I grunted in exertion, mustering up every ounce of my strength to slowly drag my head back atop my pillow while that information sank in.  I swallowed back the bile in my throat as I wiped my lips clean with a hoof and prepared myself for what I could already feel coming.  At least I didn’t have to worry about Nohta seeing what was about to happen.

With my recent dream of Mother so fresh in my mind, it didn’t take long for the drying tears to start anew.  The memory of my failure at Mother’s deathbed still stung, but it was only the springboard that allowed my mind to dive into the ever-deepening waters of grief within my life.  The walls that I had erected to keep Nohta from bearing witness to my vulnerable heart began to wither and crumble.  It was only then that I realized how feeble and pointless they had been in the first place.

Powder, the Stable, Grump, my revelation in the moonlight… How many times had I cried in front of her?  The Pyro, The Cheese family, the Steel Rangers, all the times I had snapped in rage or frustration… How many times had I lost control?  Goddess… I couldn’t keep this up.  I needed to let it go before I did something truly horrendous.

I had never been able to hide my feelings from her.  I was foolish to even try.  A feeble hoof rose and smacked at the bed in a futile gesture, “G-Good job Candy!  Another f-failure!  You should start k-keeping a list!”

My sniffling grew to whimpering.  The pain in my chest and throat rose to match the stinging in my eyes and the nausea in my belly.  I rolled onto my side and drew my legs close to my body, curling my tail around myself while I buried my face in my damp pillow.  My thoughts focused on my home.  The memories of strolling the halls, of sharing meals with my close circle of friends, of visiting the Library or praying in the Temple.  

My stable.  Not just the metal walls and failing electrical generators, but the ponies that lived there as well.  The Overmare, Caramel, Pearl Grey, Moonglow, Spin Cycle, Rhubarb, Pipe Sleeves… They had all been… all been… My hooves grasped and kneaded at the pillow underneath my head as my body shook with my growing sobs.  I still had no idea whether most of those ponies were alive or dead, but to even contemplate the latter only served to wrack my heart with an extra wave of grief.

How many ponies in Mareon had died from wounds suffered in the raider attack simply because I wasn’t at my best?  How many had suffered because I had been exhausted and weak?  How many mistakes had I made due to a sluggish mind brought on by hunger and dehydration?  Even one life lost due to my ineptitude was too much to bear!

And then there was the Caravan!  Dust, Seven Card, Spicy Salsa, Cream Puff…  My lips formed the word before my troubled mind could stop them, “Father.”  That was it.  The last blow that my fortress could withstand.  Any pitiful resistance that I had held onto for all this time shattered at the memory of Father.  

Goddess, why!?  Was it not enough that my life was left in shambles?  That any semblance of order or direction had been ripped from my hooves?  That every good and decent thing in this world had been burned to ash?  Why had the only pony I had ever loved been taken from me as well?  The only thing I had left to me was Nohta, and she was off looking for drinks!

I clutched the pillow to my heaving chest as my wailing reached a crescendo, only slightly muffled by the thin foam padding.  Goddess, this wasn’t fair!  I had done nothing to deserve this!  Why was this world so cruel and unforgiving?  Was that… Was that the only way to survive out here?  Had everyone else simply realized and accepted this fact before I had?  Was that what I would have to become?  The price to pay in order to keep my sister and I safe?

Prior obligations, recent revelations, and pained admissions swam through my mind.  What if the only way to ensure Nohta’s safety was to abandon my good nature?  I… I couldn’t do that!  Could I?  No!  My voice cracked as I prayed into my pillow, “I can’t… Luna, please… don’t make me…”  I buried my face further into the pillow, bringing an aching hoof up to cover the one weeping eye still exposed to the air as my thoughts raced.  What was I willing to do to keep Nohta safe?

Ugh… this wasn’t something I had ever dreamt of questioning!  I ground my face into the pillow, the closest approximation of shaking my head I could accomplish.   “Get a g-grip on yourself, C-Candy… You’re only thinking this way be-because…”  My eyes clenched shut, wringing a fresh wave of tears out to soak into my pillow and muzzle.

My weakened body shuddered with every gasping breath.  “Fa-Father…”  I had quickly drained the shallow pool of energy that was left to me in my emotional agony, leaving only a dampened pillow and tangled sheets in the wake of my grief.  Fatigue brought on by radiation poisoning and my cries of anguish took its toll, and I slowly drifted back to sleep.  Lady Luna had finally found it within her mercy to grant me a dreamless rest.


**************


I awoke to a most peculiar scene.  Nohta was sitting at the side of my bed with her back to me, my alchemy set and Mother’s book sprawled out before her on the wooden floor.  Doc Flannel and Margarita were beside her, their expressions puzzled but hopeful.

Nohta poked a hoof at Mother’s book, “Okay… Witchweed, check.  Vodka,”  Her gaze lifted to Margarita, who hoofed over a glass bottle of clear liquid.  “...check.  Cinnamon… yeah, we got that.  Uh, what the fuck is ‘Butterfly Weed?”

Margarita scribbled down a hasty note and hoofed it over to Nohta, who scanned over the message and replied in an exasperated tone.  “No, not really.  Candy’s the one that knows how to do this.  But I’ve seen her make a few potions before.  How hard can following the directions be?”

I rolled my head over to see them better, burying half of my face in a notably fresher and much more fluffy pillow.   Peering out of one half-lidded eye, I croaked, “N-Nohta?”

Her body stiffened, scattering dried herbs in every myriad direction.  “CANDY!”  She turned to lunge at me, wrapping her hooves around my neck and shoulders to pull me into her embrace.

My stomach lurched at the sudden motion, and my shoulder ached dully in protest, but even if I had been well I wouldn’t have possessed the strength or the will to push her away.  “Sis-”

“I have vodka!”  Her hooves held me at leg’s length as she nearly shouted in my face, shaking my still-irradiated body in her jubilation.

“Noh… ta…”  My eyes bulged in their sockets as something began to climb through my throat.

“You can make your potion!  Hurry up and brew it!”  My stomach proved no match for her incessant and frenzied shaking.  I raised a hoof in a feeble attempt to push Nohta away while her hooded face took on a bewildered look of confusion.  “Hey, are you okay?  You look like you’re about to-”

I threw up again, the remaining liquid contents of my stomach spilling all over the front of Mother’s cloak.

Nohta continued to hold me for a moment, blinking in stunned silence.  Then she looked down at her chest and let my weakened form fall back to the pillow.  “EWWW!  Candy!”

Margarita’s lime-green hoof grasped my sister’s shoulder as Margarita shook in silent giggles and nodded toward the direction of the bathroom.  My sister plodded after her as a wet squelching noise accompanied her every step.

A wheezy guffaw accompanied the bright magic of the doctor as he dampened a towel and began to clean up the mess, still limping about on the hastily fastened crutch Margarita had constructed for him.  “Ah heh heh heh!  Girl shoulda known better!”

I stared on in discomfort at the sight of somepony cleaning up after a mess I had caused.  My labored breathing hindered my speech to the point of a dull whisper.  “Doctor…”

His magic wiped the cloth along the floor before wringing the contents into a nearby bucket.  “That little spitfire you run around with was just about worried sick about you.”  He chuckled to himself for a moment before continuing.  “I was starting to wonder myself if’n you were gonna pull out of that fever.”

“She… radiation…”  I propped myself up on a leg, hoping to ease out of bed.

“Whoa now!  Easy, missy!”  His good hoof pushed gently into my chest near my shoulder, providing a stark reminder of my recently acquired wound as he gently forced me to lay back down.  “You best be gettin’ some rest now, ya hear?  You was glowing pretty damned bright when them fellers brought ya in.  Not to mention all the blood.  Can’t be too hasty to get out o’ bed just ‘cause yer not sleeping no more.”  I ceased my attempts to rise from bed, only to be surprised as his hoof pressed more firmly upon my body as he hobbled closer.

He leaned in close to me, his squinting stare hard as steel behind his thick glasses.  “I hope ya don’t mind none, but I had to clean ya up a bit to keep conditions sterile in here.”  His voice dropped low in a deadly whisper, “And no matter how hard I tried, them stripes on yer face just wouldn’t wash off.”

My ears drooped limply against the pillow and my cheeks.  My eyes widened in disbelief and terror.  Oh Luna… Not now… please not-

Doc Flannel glanced toward the front of his clinic before whispering conspiratorially, “Now look.  I’m plum grateful for what ya done, but after ya get yer potion all brewed up, you best be gettin’ on outta here.  I reckon that somepony out there might take offense to someone like you hanging ‘round.”  His hoof released me, and he continued to clean up the mess by my bed.  “You done a good deed last time you was in Mareon, girl.  But if the town finds out yer a stripe, there’s gonna be hell to pay.  I can’t be havin’ that kinda trouble come down on me and mine, y’hear?”

So the Doctor wasn’t going to sell us out.  Instead, he was simply urging us to leave as quickly as possible.  In my desperate state I was in no position to argue, but my mind was still reeling from the sickness and fatigue.  “You… you know…”

“Weren’t none too hard ta figure it out, girl.  ‘Specially since I had to tend to yer sister, too.”  His cloth squeezed over the bucket again as he continued.  “That Cheese feller was ready to hoof over a good deal o’ caps to get me to treat the both of ya.  Said the two of you were together.  M’ah eyes may not be what they used to be, but that don’t mean I can’t put two ‘n two together.”

A cold shiver down my spine added to my list of aches and pains.  What… What were we going to do now?  Ever since we had discovered our stable’s fate, I had hoped to count Mareon as a safe haven.  Doctor Flannel was the only pony I knew well enough within the town to even consider staying with, but now he was practically shoving us out the door!  If we couldn’t stay within the town, where would we go?  We had lost our best chance of escaping this blasted desert when we abandoned the Steel Rangers!

Goddess, I couldn’t help but wonder if we had made a terrible error in judgement.  Perhaps we should have stayed with the Rangers until they reached Manehattan?  Then we could have divested ourselves from the group and… No.  Even as the thought flitted through my mind I realized that the Rangers would not have saved us from Bright Eyes.  I still didn’t fully comprehend exactly what that monstrous mare was, but I had seen with my own eyes just how unstoppable she had been.

I pushed the thoughts to the side, nodding to the doctor in acceptance of the inevitable.  “We’ll… we’ll leave as soon as… we are… able.”

The doctor must have seen something in my pitiful expression, because his wrinkled face contorted in guilt behind his thick glasses.  Doc Flannel sighed, shaking his head.  “Look missy, I don’t mean to be running you off like that.  Maybe…”  His eyes turned towards the bathroom, “Does Margarita know?”

I wasn’t entirely sure if I should divulge the knowledge to the doctor, worrying that I might wind up getting my sister’s new friend into trouble for associating with us.  Goddess… it wasn’t our fault that Mother had been a zebra!  And we didn’t deserve to be treated any differently because of our heritage!  After a moment’s hesitation I realized that the doctor was staring at me, waiting for my answer.  I silently prayed to Luna, hoping that her teachings wouldn’t lead to more trouble.

I nodded, “Yes, she knows.”

“Yep.  I figured as much.”  The doctor turned from me to pour the contents of the bucket down his sink, cleaning his cloth in purified water.  “She’s had a thing fer yer kind ever since that stranger came to town twenty-some odd years ago.”

Despite the fuzzy fog that permeated my thoughts, I couldn’t help but wonder at those words.  Did he mean…  Surely I had misheard.  “Stranger?”

“Yep, ol’ girl came inta town with a… I think he was a unicorn buck, can’t rightly say.  He didn’t garner much attention, but you don’t forget a gal like that.  Not whenever she cleans out the bounty board in one week all by herself.”  The doctor grinned at his memories while my mind raced away with idolatrous possibility.  “She had this look about her.  You could tell she was different.”  He started, chuckling to himself as he limped back to my bed and brought the cleaned rag to my face.  He wiped the spittle and filth from my chin as he continued to speak.  “My eyesight weren’t so bad back then.  I could see it in those green eyes o’ hers.  Girl was in love.”  The cloth dabbed at my slackening chin as he whispered.  “I think I’m starting to piece it together now.”

Mother… Her past actions had set in motion events that were even now saving our lives.  What had she done?  I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, recoiling in displeasure at the acidic taste of bile and vomit still clinging to my tongue while I pondered exactly how much impact any one of us might have upon this world.  All those little details that often go under the radar, all those endless minutia that wind up making the difference between life and death.  A kind word here, a small gesture there… how much of a difference could the tiniest of actions have years down the road?

The doctor continued in his ministration, deftly wiping away the tear that fell down my cheek.  “Now Margarita might not admit it, but she was damn-near enraptured with this gal.  And she was just at that age where younguns start to get idealistic and think they can take on the world, just a hoof-full o’ years after she got her cutie mark.  It was a unique matter o’ timing, but if I had to guess…”  The doctor gazed at me knowingly, “I’d venture to say that Margarita would be happy to help her hero’s daughters out of a jam.”

Even as he was urging us out the door, he had offered the only possible solution to our problem.  I struggled to draw breath, lamenting with each exhaustive inhalation the weight of the invisible cerberus upon my chest.  “Thank you… doctor.”

“Aww shucks, missy.  I don’t reckon either of us got into this business fer the thanks.”  He winked at me, “Never hurts to hear it, though.”  He hobbled away from the bed, “I got me some errands to run.  Should give ya some time to catch up with that little firecracker.”  He chuckled to himself, “Take care now, y’hear?”  The doctor exited the room, and a moment later I heard the sound of the clinic’s door shutting in place.  

From the bathroom, I could hear the muffled sounds of running water and my sister’s frustrated groans.    “Ugh!  It’s everywhere!  Luna damn it!  It got in the pockets!”

I rolled to the side, staring at the wall next to my bed in an attempt to hide my discomfort.  I concentrated on mother’s book and the scattered herbs, hoping to reorganize the mess that Nohta had made earlier, only to be reminded that my magic was still out of commission.  I didn’t want to be a burden, but in my state I wasn’t much good for anything.  Goddess, I couldn’t even manage to rise from the mattress, let alone brew the potion that would rid my body of radiation.  

Listening to my sister’s frustrated ministrations and curt vulgarities from the other room was proving to be a rather dull way to pass the time, and only served to further cement the feelings of helplessness and guilt within my mind.  I needed a distraction.  My shoulder ached in protest as I lifted my Pipbuck to my eyes and clumsily poked at the buttons to navigate the interface.  Finding the audio logs from Lexicon’s terminal in the library, I set the first of them to play and allowed my leg to fall back to the bed.

A small mechanical click and a dull thump preceded the conversation that soon flowed out of my Pipbuck.  The same academic pony I had heard in the recording with the zebras in the archive was now speaking in a relaxed and congenial tone.  “Alright, I’ve set the device to record.  Are you sure that you want to do this?”

A gentle sipping noise played through the speaker, followed by the sound of a mug being set upon a table.  A pleasant baritone spoke in a wonderfully exotic and painfully familiar accent.  “Yes, friend.  Of course.”

The academic pony was excited, ready to begin the conversation in earnest.  “Okay then.  Let’s get started!  What is it about this book that troubles you so much?”

“Well…”  The zebra’s tone was suddenly ominous.  He took a moment to sip from his mug again before finishing his thought.  “I have heard… things, Lexicon.  Unpleasant things.  Terrifying things.”

Lexicon’s voice was eager and frightened.  “Yes?”

“Whispers, friend.  Terrible whispers about shadowy places.  Terrible whispers emanating from seemingly random locations.  I hear them wherever ponies can be found, but they are always uttered by the same voice.”

Lexicon responded in an intrigued yet cautious tone.  “Interesting.”  The gentle tinkle of his magic accompanied the scratching of a quill.

“Indeed.  The whispers tell me that we won’t survive…”  There was just the barest hint of mirth in the zebra’s voice at those words.

“Wait…”  The frenzied scratches of the quill came to an abrupt halt.  “Mizani… “

“Yes friend, that’s right… I’ve been hearing ‘Whispers in the Darkness.”

There was a moment of strained silence before an exasperated sigh from the academic pony played backdrop to the hearty chuckles of the zebra.  “Mizani… you… “

The zebra was laughing merrily as he choked out his next words, “Your radios haunt me with your ghastly Equestrian notions of ‘music.’  They assault my refined aural palate with terribly blunt noises and screeching vocals.  You ponies have lost all sense of subtlety when it comes to the art of music.  Were it not for this pointless conflict, I would petition your Princess to cease and desist your horrifying sonic attacks until our zebra songsmiths have taught you ponies a thing or two about proper-”

“Alright, Mizani, I get it… you don’t care for Equestrian music.  Apparently not even the undeniably good songs.”  A slurpy sipping noise escaped my Pipbuck while Lexicon chuckled.  “Well, so much for this being a serious conversation…”

I could hear the sly smile on Mizani’s face, “A serious conversation this is, friend.  But not even the most dire of circumstances are completely devoid of humor.  One must never take things too seriously, or you will find yourself within the position we now inhabit.”  The zebra took another sip from his mug while Lexicon stayed quiet.  “My people have forgotten how to laugh.  Everything must be serious.  Everything must be measured.  Everything must be known.  No zebra ever laughs or jokes or plays now.  There is no balance, and our souls suffer for it.”

The sound of Lexicon’s hooves tapping together played out of my speaker, “What are your people normally like, then?  Did they spend much time engaged in the pursuit of frivolity and merrymaking before?  I’ve only met a few zebras, and you’re the one I’ve spent the most time with by far.”

Mizani’s voice was quizzical as he answered, “What do you mean, friend?  Zebras are like ponies. Only they are not ponies, they are zebras.”  Another small sipping noise played through my speaker, this one accompanied by the gentle tinkle of magic.  Mizani continued through the nearly inaudible sound, “Zebras and ponies like to think themselves different from each other; separate.  Zebras and ponies are ignorant.  That ignorance is one of many things that bind us all together in commonality.”

It was Lexicon’s turn to smirk, evident by the playful tone of his voice.  “I was hoping that someone would insult my intelligence when I got out of bed this morning…”

Mizani’s guffaw burst through my Pipbuck loudly as he quickly apologized, “I meant no offense, friend.  You simply are not privy to seeing things as I see them.”

Lexicon’s voice was troubled and uncomfortable.  “That’s… an odd word choice, Mizani.”  The scratching sounds of the quill resumed.

“And an honest one, Lexicon.  I may not be able to ‘see’ in the conventional sense, but I am no worse off for my disability.  Truly, I have come to examine in great detail things that I believe most others do not fully appreciate.”

“Such as?”

“Your radio programs are not entirely devoid of merit.  I once heard the sweetest of voices pleading for help for her ministry.  Kindness, it was.”

Lexicon’s voice perked up.  “Fluttershy?  Rarity is a good friend of her’s.  I’ve conversed with Fluttershy on more than one occasion while helping Rarity with business.  Fluttershy certainly lives up to her name.”

Mizani’s voice was contemplative as he regarded the name.  “Hmm… Fluttershy… The name rolls off the tongue.  That mare is one of the most beautiful things in this world, I imagine.”

“Lots of ponies would agree with you on that.  Fluttershy had a brief stint in her younger years as a model.  And she’s on more than a couple Sparkle-Cola billboards out there.”

“Ahh, friend.  That is my point.  I could tell she was beautiful even without sight.  It is evident in the sound of her voice, and in the words she chooses.  Real beauty lies beneath the skin.”

A wry chuckle preceded Lexicon’s response.  “I’ll be sure to tell our philosophers.  They’ll probably be thrilled that they can call off the search for ‘real beauty.”

The two of them chuckled to themselves before Lexicon continued to rib his friend.  “Care to tell us where ‘happiness’ lies?”

“Hmm, happiness…  The eternal goal.  I’m not entirely certain, but my best guess is that it lies somewhere between a mare’s legs.”

Lexicon guffawed loudly as I felt heat in my cheeks, “Mizani, you old dog!”

“Even blind zebra bucks have needs, old friend!”

“Just keep your ‘needs’ away from Star Bright!  I don’t need my number one assistant to go gallivanting off to accompany you on one of your ‘adventures.”

“Mmm… I’ll be sure to restrain myself.  Though I believe she only has eyes for another…”

Lexicon spoke evenly.  “I’m going to ignore that.  So, you wanted to record a conversation detailing how even a blind zebra finds Fluttershy attractive?  Hardly something I would consider worthy of the attention of Image.”

“No.  I wanted to tell you of how I see things.”  The zebra took another sip from his mug before resuming the conversation.  “The only regret that my blindness has given me is that I am no longer able to look into another’s eyes.   I wish that I could peer into Fluttershy’s eyes.  Then I believe my suspicions of her nature would be confirmed.”

“She’d probably try to hide from your scrutiny behind her mane.  What would you be looking for, anyway?”

Mizani’s voice was erudite and calm as he answered.  “The eyes are the windows to the soul, friend.  Every zebra knows that.  To stare into another’s eyes is to discern the nature of their soul.”

“Your people really believe that, don’t they?  The bit about souls?”

“Belief requires faith, old friend.  Zebras know so.”  Mizani sighed, and the notes of mirth left his voice completely.  His tone became somber and dark with his next words.  “That is why I have come to you now.  I’m hoping that you might be able to persuade somepony within your government to take my warning seriously.”

Lexicon’s voice adopted his friend’s serious tone.  “Then we arrive at the heart of the matter.  What warning do you have for us?”

Mizani’s voice carried the traces of fear, along with the tired strength that only comes from resignation.  “There is a potion.  Until recently, this potion was only spoken of in legend and myth.  My people regarded it as an idle pipe dream.  The unobtainable goal of witch-doctors and shamans.  It was supposed to allow one to see the future.  The ingredients were long regarded as impossible to obtain.  But due to this war, I discovered a suitable substitute.”

Lexicon’s voice was apprehensive.  “Mizani?”

“I brewed it.  And drank it.  And… I saw this world end.”

There was a brief pause as Lexicon gathered his thoughts.  Soon, his voice was rattling off possible problems with his friend’s tale.  “A potion to see the future seems farfetched, Mizani.  And if this were a potion you were unfamiliar with, perhaps there was an error in the brewing process?  Perhaps the substitute didn’t work properly, or you were only hallucinating?”

“I cannot discount that possibility.  Many of my brethren believe that I have finally lost my mind, so perhaps I was hallucinating.  But… if I am not insane…”

Mizani’s voice shook with fright.  “Have you ever been so unequivocally certain about something so mind-numbingly horrible that you find your only recourse, the only pitiful bit of resistance you can dredge up against your nightmare, is to defiantly hope against the inevitable?  It is as if I am standing upon the plains near my birth-village during a seasonal storm.  The dry lightning brings fire to sweep through the tall grasses, and yet I can only wait for the flames to wash over me and pray to my ancestors that I be spared.  Even now, I feel my sanity slipping, friend.  But… I find that preferable to the hell that will come to be.”

Lexicon was trying to soothe his friend now.  He adopted a comforting but wary tone.  “I’m not saying that I believe this, but…  Mizani, what did you see?”

The zebra’s voice sounded hollow as he recollected his vision.  “Light.  Blinding light so intense that your eyes are left forever dim in its wake.  And then darkness.  Cities obliterated in the span of a heartbeat.  Islands sinking underneath boiling oceans.  The sun’s fury called down upon the earth.  The clouds rolling in to hide the ruined sky.  A sick world growing sicker over centuries of rot and decay.  And then… light… and darkness.”

There was a pregnant moment of silence from my Pipbuck.  This zebra had known what was to happen to this world?  I found myself wondering if there were others that had been privy to this knowledge, and if they had chosen to act on it or sweep it under the proverbial rug.  
“I understand that nothing I do can change our future.  It is already written within the annals of fate.  It will come to pass.  But how could I not act?”  Mizani was pleading now.  The desperation in his voice a far cry from the lighthearted mirth from earlier.  “I need a favor, Lexicon.  This is the most important thing I will ever ask of anyone.  You’re the only pony- the only soul I would ever trust with this.”

The gentle rustle of hooves rummaging through packs played out of my Pipbuck before two heavy thumps against the table elicited a question from Lexicon.  “Mizani, what are those-”

“Take this book.”  The sound of Mizani pushing the tome toward his friend accompanied the zebra’s pleas.  “Hide it.  Walk to the middle of the desert and bury it deep beneath the earth.  Place it under magical wards so complex that none shall ever know of it.  If you are unable to do that, then lock it away within the most impenetrable safe at your disposal and throw away the key.  And when you’re done, erase the memory from your own mind to safeguard its location.”

Lexicon’s incredulous voice questioned his friend’s caution.  “These books are dangerous enough to merit all of those precautions?”

“They are more dangerous than I hope you will ever know.  These books are two halves of a whole.  I aim to separate that union.  I will carry the other with me as I travel, and hope to find a suitable place to hide it away.  It is the only act I believe will make a difference now.  I only pray that I can complete my task in time.”  The rustling of Mizani’s packs played through my Pipbuck again as he stuffed the other book back into his bags.

Lexicon balked at that.  “Wait, hold up.  If you’re trying to get rid of these, why don’t you just burn them?”

Mizani breathed an exhausted sigh of exasperation.  “Because… I was a fool, old friend.  Fire will not burn them, their pages refuse to tear, and even if I still possessed the power to do what must be done I do not have the will to harm them.”  There was a short pause before he added, “It is very hard to destroy an item bound to your soul, Lexicon.”

The recording ended, leaving me to puzzle out the meaning of what I had just heard.  I had absolutely no idea what all that talk regarding souls was about, and I didn’t recognize any of the names that the two had used during their conversation save for “Image.”  Scribe Holly had used that name several times in the library to refer to a ministry of some sort, but I was still clueless as to what she had meant.  The idea of a potion that could foretell the future was… astounding, to say the least.  Mother had never made mention of anything like that.  If I had been in Lexicon’s position, I’m certain that I would have shared his reaction.

I rolled over in the bed again, a soft moan of pain escaping my lips as my body continued to ache dully.  I couldn’t be bothered with past conspiracies while my body was in such a tragically frail state.  My mind was still hazy and dull from the radiation, and exhaustion gripped me relentlessly.  I needed to brew my own portion of Dragon’s Breath, and quickly.  

It was a monumental struggle to simply pull the covers away and edge towards the side of the bed.  I found myself panting from the exertion, and the hellish nausea still wracked my poor stomach with an excruciating intensity.  I lay still, trying to catch my breath while one of my hind legs dangled over the side of the mattress.

The sound of the bathroom door closing caught my attention.  I looked up to see my sister without her cloak for the first time since we had left the Stable, her stripes and tornado cutie-mark in plain view for all the world to see.  There was a fresh scar along the side of her neck.  Knowing her, she probably thought of it as an enhancement to her appearance.

“You look like hell, Sis.”  Her striped muzzle was grinning, despite the playful insult.

I was still panting as I tried to answer her.  “Feel… like I’ve… been… through…”  I shook my head, anyone with working eyes could plainly see the state I was in, and there was much more important conversation to be had.  “I’m… sorry… Nohta.  About…”  One of my legs slipped, and I felt myself slowly sliding off of the bed.

She ambled towards me, and nonchalantly stopped my descent with a gentle hoof.  I silently thanked the moon and stars that she had remembered not to press against my wounded shoulder.  

She continued to grin as she chided me.  “Careful now.  Doc said you’re supposed to take it easy for a while.”

Fatigue and radiation rendered me nearly unable to look into her beautiful amethyst eyes.  “Sorry about… earlier… sister.”

She rolled her eyes at that.  “Eh, whatever.  I’m just glad that you’re awake.”  She finally lost her grin as her eyes bore into my own.  “We need to hurry up and brew that potion, Sis.  We’ve been soaking in rads for a few days now.  I don’t want…”  Her voice died off she stared anxiously at me.

I nodded my head, rustling my mane against the pillow before her words finally struck home.  My eyes widened as I gasped, “Days!?”

“We were both out for two days after Bright Eyes.  The doctor used up all of his RadAway on the both of us, and I woke up three days ago.  But you...”  Her face twisted in worry and displeasure, accompanied by the barest hint of a quivering lip and nearly inaudible warble in her voice.  “Fuck, Sis… Can we hurry?”

We were worse off than I had thought.  Mother had only lasted weeks before…  I nodded again, wincing and grunting through grit teeth as I forced myself to strain against my wounds and sickness in order to rise from the bed.  I was hardly in a state for the delicate process of brewing, but time was of the essence.  “Nohta… can you… help me?”

She gingerly grasped me around my barrel, easing me out of bed.  “Of course.  You need me to go grab anything else?  I think you’ve got all the stuff you need.”

I was panting again by the time my hooves reached the hard floor.  “No… I mean… with the potion.”

She flinched before guiding me to the alchemy set and scattered ingredients.  “Shit, Sis… you want me to actually make it?”

I swallowed back the rising urge to vomit.  “I can’t… can’t use my magic.  Can’t handle the…too… clumsy.”

She lowered me to the floor as I sat on my haunches in front of the fire talisman.  After making sure that I was stable enough to sit up straight, she tip-hoofed over the scattered roots, berries, leaves, and other miscellaneous items.  “Okay, okay.  I got it.”  Her tone of voice betrayed her worry even as she tried to instill a sense of confidence in herself.  Her eyes scanned the menagerie of beakers, scales, and other paraphernalia before rising to meet my own as she nodded. “Just… just tell me what to do.”

And with that, I began the arduous and frustrating process of slowly guiding my sister through brewing Dragon’s Breath.  Please don’t misunderstand me, I am in no way trying to imply that my sister is a dunce.  Far from it.  The fact that she was able to follow my pained instructions and successfully brew Dragon’s Breath at all should give you some idea of just how clever she can be.

Yes, I helped her.  A lot.  And even after we had thrown out two failed attempts at the potion, and wasted a good deal of ingredients in the process, she only just barely managed to get the precise timing and measurements down.  She persevered through the humiliation of multiple failures without so much as a single sign of weariness or mental fatigue, only offering up a terse swear in show of her frustration before immediately setting about preparing for the next batch.  It is hard for me to put into words just how comforting I found her resolve in the face of adversity.  Especially when I so desperately needed her help.  

My sister is far from the mindless brute that so many believe her to be.  But alchemy is special.  Alchemy is more than a science, it is an art.  It is magic.  And like all magic, it requires more than conscious thought and rigorous study to fully bend it to your will.  The most important aspect of magic is intent.  But… who am I to lecture you about magic?  My apologies.  On with the tale.

The brew had just managed to turn its signature shade of furious crimson when Margarita exited the bathroom with Nohta’s cleaned and mostly dried cloak slung over her back.  I looked up to her curious expression with a newfound sense of respect and admiration for the mare.

Her quizzical features turned to a bemused grin as she walked to Nohta and laid the cloak at my sister’s hooves.  With a sizable measure of embarrassment, I realized I had been staring at her.  I quickly averted my eyes, tapping the side of the talisman to reduce the heat as she snorted and silently giggled at my expense.

Nohta’s hard eyes were glued to the bubbling red liquid in the pot atop the talisman, as if she were a jailer watching an inmate who was about to make a sudden and desperate bid for freedom.  “Hey Marge, thanks for cleaning the cloak.  Can you hoof me that bottle again?”  She waved her hoof at the bottle of vodka that was just out of her reach.

Margarita paused, lowering her face to squint at the bubbling pot as she sniffed the contents.  Sitting back on her haunches, she pointed a lime-green hoof at the pot, then at my sister and I, and then pantomimed the drinking of a beverage.  She then stared at Nohta and arched an eyebrow.

Nohta’s eyes glanced at Margarita for the briefest of moments before darting back to intimidate the potion back into the pot before it could escape.  “Ya, this is the potion I told you about.  Candy already used it on that kid back in Coltsville, but now we gotta drink it too.”

Margarita shrugged and sauntered over to the bottle, accidentally tipping the still-lidded container on its side with a hoof and sending it rolling across the floor.  I raised my eyes to her face again, this time just noticing the subtle tinge of red splayed across her amused face.  Wait… was she drunk?

The bottle rolled underneath the bed adjacent to my own, and the inebriated mare poked her head underneath the cot to retrieve it; her rump bobbing obscenely in the air as if she were dancing to some inaudible tune.  My eyes drifted to her cutie-mark, a squat glass of liquid with a salted rim and a wedge of lime.  That was an alcoholic beverage for a cutie-mark…  How did that even happen?  Who would give alcohol to a filly?

Her backside ceased its bobbing just as I realized I had been staring again.  Her face had resurfaced from the underside of the bed, and she was smirking at me with the most evil grin a pony could possibly manage to portray.  Oh Goddess… she… surely she didn’t think that I had been...

Heat flooded my cheeks just as nausea flooded my gut.  I pointedly stared at the bubbling concoction, ignoring the uncomfortable dearth of conversation in favor of the thick, wet popping noises of the viscous bubbles bursting atop the brew.  Goddess, what an embarrassing-

“Candy!”  Nohta was shouting at me over top of the bubbling mixture, her eyes set hard with annoyance.

I spluttered out the first response my foggy mind could generate.  “Er… wh-what?”

Nohta’s ear flicked as she repeated the missed question.  “I said… are you sure this is enough?  If we divvy it up, is it gonna get all the rads out of both of us?”

My mind was still fuzzy from exhaustion and sickness.  I stammered as my thoughts poured out of my mouth in whatever haphazard manner they pleased.  “Y-yes… The potion uses… radiation powers the... meant to act as… catalyst for… chain reaction.  Cascade of… arcane-”

Nohta facehoofed and sighed, “Candy… can you explain it in ‘Not-super-egghead?”

I rubbed a feeble hoof against a temple, trying to massage some coherence into my mind.  “Uh… Triggers… er… induces…kickstarts...”

Nohta’s eyebrow raised dangerously as she separated the vodka into two clear bottles and added the brew to the alcohol.

I tried one last time.  “We’ll throw up.  It will… continue until… no more… radiation...”

“Okay.  So we have enough for now.  But we’ll make some more later when we get the chance.  Then we won’t have to worry about this shit happening again.”  She shook one bottle vigorously between her hooves before setting it down in front of me and staring into my eyes.  “Agreed?”

“Agreed… sister.”  I took the bottle between my hooves, cradling it against my barrel as I waited for her to finish preparing her own bottle and don her garment.

Nohta’s voice was only slightly muffled by the fabric and concealed armor padding as she wriggled into her cloak.  “Hey Marge, can you go make sure that the coast is clear?  We gotta take this outside.”

My eyes caught Margarita’s as she sauntered off towards the door.  The mischievous wink she sent my way only served to set my cheeks ablaze a second time before she mercifully exited the building.  As if the misunderstanding hadn’t been embarrassing enough!  Now she was silently needling me about it!

Nohta picked her own bottle up as soon as she was fully clothed.  “You ready?”

I nodded as another wave of nausea and dull pain washed over my body.  “Quite.”

The two of us made our way into the streets.  The brisk morning air danced coolly across my naked coat, sending a prickly sensation along my body.  The sun hadn’t yet had time to bake the desert in its sweltering heat, and most of the town’s residents were still asleep in their beds.  Only a few stragglers speckled the road leading to the doctor’s clinic, most of them stumbling in a drunken stupor as they attempted to remember how to find their beds.

Margarita had corralled the majority of the drunks down an alleyway, but a purple mare with a contented grin and a set of combat barding was still supporting the weight of a clearly inebriated yellow stallion as they ambled down the street past us.  Nohta and I sat in the middle of the road, preparing ourselves for what was to come from the potion.  Despite the purple mare’s hurried attempts to get her charge home, the yellow stallion’s ears perked up underneath his heavy combat helmet.  He had recognized us.

His slurred speech came through a thick and dopey grin, “H-Hey, Haze… check it out.  Told you she was a spy.  She’s wearing an asss...assssasssssss.   Hehe… a zebra cape.”

The purple mare rolled her bloodshot eyes and gave us a rather sedate and apologetic grin before speaking slowly and evenly.  “And I told them to ignore you, Cross.  They ain’t spies.  One of ‘em’s a doctor.”  She tugged at her friend’s leg, urging him along.  “Come on… we got places to be.  And I need you to rip my barding off.”

As he was dragged along behind the corner of a building, his voice carried.  “The white one was pretty.  We should ask if… if she wants to join in.  I bet she’d be down to-”  A loud thud resounded from around the corner before the stallion’s voice mumbled a drunken apology.

The streets were finally clear of ponies that might inadvertently get caught up in the blast of our radiological purgation.  Nohta and I shared one final glance before standing side by side and draining the bottles as quickly as we could manage.  The taste was… not at all like the potion’s overbearing cinnamon aroma.  If I were to put it delicately, I would say that it tasted like a rotten apple core that had been wrapped in moldy hay and dipped in dragon perspiration.  

The disgusting flavor that assaulted my tongue with all the subtlety of a screeching raider clad in entrails and polka dots was more than sufficient to tip my nauseous gut over the edge of no return.  My ears drooped limply against the sides of my head while every hair on my body stood on end.  The bottle fell from my grasp to shatter at my hooves, and I could feel the all too familiar sensation of a storm brewing within my belly to rise and place an uncomfortable pressure against the back of my throat.  An unfamiliar though not entirely unpleasant warmth flooded my veins as what I can only describe as a violent maelstrom of motion danced in my stomach.

I inhaled one last cold breath before bracing myself against my outstretched hooves.  Then the purging came.  I would describe the visual effects for you, but my eyes had shut tight from pain and discomfort.  Oddly enough, the fire didn’t burn on the way out.  There was only an enticing and comfortable warmth, and the curious sensation of rapid movement through my lungs and throat; as if my chest had become a fount for some some great arcane power.  With each heaving breath I felt more alive.  With each tear that was forcibly squeezed from my eyes I felt more… clean.  It was as if I had been soaking in murky pools all my life, only to finally find an oasis of crystal clear water to scourge the filth from my soul.

As the effects began to wear off, I found myself able to open my eyes.  My sister was panting heavily at my side, little puffs of smoke and flame preceding the bobbing motes of emerald light that exited her gasping mouth.  In front of me, a great plume of green flame was dissipating to give way to the sight of a swarm of viridian lights dancing in chaotic swirls before winking out one by one.  Further ahead, an ancient stop sign was glowing white hot, the metal pole that supported the sign slowly sagging and bending backward so that the sign’s luminous face now pointed towards the clouded sky.  Somewhere in the distance, a single stallion’s drunken voice called out to the night, “That wash AWESHOME!”

My shoulder still throbbed with a furious ache, exacerbated by my recent activity, and my horn still felt fuzzy and lifeless, but the nausea and weakness had left my body entirely.  I was now easily able to balance myself on my three good legs.  I did so as I smiled at my sister’s still-hooded face.

“Nohta, I think it-”  I burped up a single puff of light green smoke.  A bobbing and weaving mote of light drifted past my eyes before sinking into the ground at my hooves.  I sat on my haunches as I lifted my right foreleg to my embarrassed face.  “Oh, goodness!  Excuse me!”

Nohta snorted and shook her head, chuckling to herself.  “Ya, I’d say so.  You feeling okay?”

I nodded enthusiastically.  “Compared to earlier?  Absolutely wonderful!  I only wish that my magic had returned in the process.”

Nohta’s tone belied the grin that she wore underneath her hood.  “Hehe… can’t… get it all, huh?”

Margarita ambled towards the two of us, eyes wide and jaw slack.  Now it was her turn to stare.

Old habits die hard.  My very next thought was to check on my sister.  “Nohta?  Are you alright, dear?”

She nodded underneath her hood, her voice sounding much more tired than just a moment ago.  “Ya, ya I’m good.  Just kinda…. worn out.  I feel… stronger… but not as healthy, I guess.”

“Probably just a delayed effect of the potion, dear.  You seemed to be having a much easier time of dealing with the radiation than I was.  Perhaps you just need some sleep, I daresay that we could both do with a few nights of decent rest and-”  My stomach chose that time to interrupt me in the most unladylike fashion possible, growling and snarling like a savage beast.  “Ah… and perhaps a few decent meals as well.”  My extremely empty stomach continued to rumble as hunger pangs swept through my torso with an undeniable insistence.

“Heh… you don’t know the half of it yet, Sis.  I’ll tell you later.  Margie, can you show her the kitchen in Doc’s place?  I really need to go pass out for a while.”  Nohta trotted past me before I remembered the doctor’s request.

“Err… actually, Nohta…”  My sister turned to see my sheepish expression.  “Doc Flannel decided that he, um…”  My eyes glanced nervously around us as I searched for how to broach the subject, drawing a complete blank for the best way to do so.  My voice was a tired and embarrassed whisper as I gave up and relayed the doctor’s wishes.  “...he didn’t want us to stay with him any longer.”

Nohta’s expression was unreadable under her hood.  Margarita’s, though, was anything but.  Her head tilted as her eyebrows scrunched together in a menacing scowl.  She hastily extracted a notepad from her packs and scribbled down a single word before practically shoving the misspelled note in my face.  “Explane.”

“Well…”  I began, still uncomfortable with what I was about to admit, “you know about… us.”  I glanced at Nohta, waiting for Margarita’s quick head nod to signify that she understood me.  “The doctor was… uncomfortable with the prospect of being associated with...”  My voice trailed off as I pointed a hoof first to my sister, and then to myself.  I bit my lip as my face twisted in worry.  The doctor was a good pony.  He was only thinking of his family.  It was a worry I could easily relate to.

Nohta’s voice came out from underneath her hood, dripping with indignation.  “You fucking kidding me?  After what we did for him?”

That… was an odd word choice.  I certainly remembered how I had cared for the patients of Mareon when the doctor had been unable to.  But my little sister?  What had she done?  “Nohta, what are you talking about?”

She was hissing under her breath just as her ears twitched underneath her hood.  “Oh, nothing much.  Just the part where I fucking broke into the general store last night in order to steal a shitload of medicine for that greedy bastard.”

My jaw fell at the grim news of recent events.  “Nohta!  You what!?”

She peered down both ends of the street before leaning in close and pulling her hood back far enough that most of her face was uncovered.  I was given a clear view into her eyes as she spoke in a low and dangerous tone.  “Part of that haul was so he could restock his clinic without buying the shit.”  She spoke slowly and forcefully to emphasize her next words.  “And part of that medicine was extra RadAway and Buck.”  Her eyes bore into my own with a cold intensity.  “We needed it to get you to wake up.”

Oh Goddess… She had… for me.  “Nohta…”  My good hoof found my lips, muffling the gasp that escaped them.  “But… Nohta… you’re speaking of stealing from innocent ponies!”

Her hoof grabbed me around the back of my neck, pulling my face closer to hers.  Her amethyst eyes dominated my vision as she nearly growled, “For you, I’d do worse.”  Her hoof released me, and she pulled her cloak back over her face before dropping her voice low in a tone that left me genuinely horrified.  “A lot worse.”

Goddess… she had already crossed the threshold I had been worrying about.  The line I had cried myself to sleep over.  I couldn’t think of anything to say.  The deed had already been done.  I ignored the searing pain in my shoulder as my hooves pulled her into my chest.  “Nohta…”

Her only response was a cold and resolved whisper into my ear as she clutched at my nearly-sobbing form.  “Truth number two.”

Like a phantom called forth with a mystical invocation, a memory of Moonglow’s preaching rose to prominence within my mind.  I shuddered at the recollection of one of my best friends from a happier time, and held my sister more tightly as Moonglow’s voice echoed one of Luna’s great teachings.  “Be faithful to friends and family.  For Loyalty is among the greatest of virtues.”


**************


After collecting our things from Doc Flannel’s clinic, Margarita led Nohta and I across town to a large pre-war brick house bearing a garishly colorful yellow and green sign above its porch that simply read: “MMMMMMM Headquarters” I noted with some curiosity that three of the letters had been slashed diagonally with red paint, leaving me wondering what “MMMM” could possibly stand for.  A smaller wooden sign stuck out of the ground at a crooked angle, reading plainly: “No job too small.  Discount for caravan protection.”

A cool morning breeze sent shivers along my spine and whipped my mane in my face as our hooves thudded dully against the wooden porch.  The cracked and peeling door creaked slightly when Margarita’s hooves pushed it inward, and as we stepped over the pitch-black threshold my nostrils were assaulted with the familiar and alluring odors of paper and ink.  The subtle notes of gun-oil and citrus fruit drifted past my nose as Margarita trotted into the shadows confidently.  The sounds of stray bits of paper being crunched underhoof preceded a loud clanging noise and several streaking purple sparks that zipped through the gloom.

One moment of mechanical sputtering and coughing later the whole house lit up to reveal an absolutely disastrous mess of an otherwise wide and inviting living area.  To my right were several stained and ripped sofas arranged around a coffee table that was piled high with dog-eared magazines.  To my left: a kitchen full of empty liquor bottles and bowls of (real!) fruit and vegetables.  Directly in front of the entrance and only a few pony-lengths away was a large business desk pockmarked with dozens of little gouges that I could only assume were left from the large serrated combat knife that had been plunged into its wooden top.

Behind the desk was a wide floor with weightlifting equipment, bucking bags, and a long table that was littered with disassembled rifles, submachine guns, pistols, shotguns, and even a round wooden basket of grenades that bore an uncanny likeness to a bushel of real apples.   Empty bottles of beer filled the spaces on the table between the weaponry.  Crates and boxes marked with numbers denoting different calibers of ammunition lined the back wall next to a workbench outfitted with an odd contraption of levers and gears.  Just as I was beginning to think that my sister and I had walked into an armory, Doc Flannel’s words came rushing back to me; “Only mercs we got ‘round these parts are Margarita’s company...”

Nohta voice nearly squeaked in excitement, “Holy shit, Marge!  I didn’t think you had this much hardware!”

Margarita’s light-green face was grinning smugly around the heavy wrench in her teeth as she leaned casually on the generator that she had just beaten back to life.  After spitting the tool back on top of the generator, she kicked several depleted spark batteries out of the way and trotted back towards us.  A quick moment of scribbling later, she proffered her note to my sister and sat on her haunches amidst a sea of crumpled up wads of paper.

Nohta read the note aloud as my eyes continued to scan the room in newfound awe.  “This is MMMM Company’s old hangout.  Stay here as long as you want.”

My ears perked up at that, “That is… exceedingly generous of you, Margarita.  We really have no choice but to accept.”

My sister was quick to agree, pulling her hood back to reveal her striped smile.  “Yeah.  Thanks Marge.”

Margarita scrawled another hasty note before hoofing it over to my sister, who allowed the previous message to fall to the cluttered floor before reading the new one aloud.  “Food / clean water in fridge.  Cots in back past hoof-loader.  Bathroom’s back there too.  Don’t soak in the tub too long ‘cause radiation.”

This mare was heaping generosity upon us in our most dire time of need.  I needed to let her know just how thankful we were, and a proper lady always repays her debts promptly.  “Margarita, darling, you’re helping us so much.  There has to be some way that we can return the favor.”

Margarita’s eyes questioned me even as the corner of her mouth turned upwards in a half-smirk.  Why was she looking at me like that?  With a small head shake and amused snort, she took her time writing another note.

Nohta continued to read for me, this time her voice taking on a perplexed tone.  “Oh, don’t worry.  You will.  As much as I’d like to just give you two free room and board, I have a business to try and put back together.  You two are gonna help me with that as soon as I call in a few favors and get things straightened out.  But for now, the both of you need to just take it slow.  Nobody comes away from a fight with Bright Eyes ready to do anything.”

Margarita had already written another note by the time Nohta was done reading.  “...Well, unless you’re a pegasus… I have a friend to get in touch with, distractions to arrange, and guards to bribe.  Help yourselves to the fridge and beds, I’ll be back later.”

Margarita trotted to the aforementioned refrigerator, pried back the off-white door, and extracted one of the dozens of bottles of water before smiling warmly at the two of us and departing into the chilly morning breeze.  The near silence of the house was only offset by the gentle hum of the electrical generator and the rumbling of my empty stomach as I mimicked our suddenly absent host and made a beeline for the food and water.  The crinkle and rustle of dozens of wadded up notes towards the back of the room made my ears stand on end, only just barely succeeded in dragging my attention away from an aptly named “Hungry Mare” pre-packaged dinner.

Nohta yawned mightily and slowly advanced towards the back rooms as the edge of her cloak dragged and rolled the bits of paper along the floor.  “I gotta go hit the hay.”

I reached out a hoof to her, a decision I soon came to regret as my shoulder throbbed with pain.  “Sis- urgh, that hurts…”  I pulled my leg back to my chest and braced myself against the open refrigerator door.  “Wait, Nohta.  We need to talk about this.”

“No, Candy.  We really don’t.  I’ve been up for... “  She rubbed her eyes and groaned.  “... fuck, I don’t even know how long.  I need sleep.”

I should have known better than to start an argument, but my curiosity and concern demanded answers.  “Nohta!  We need to discuss what’s transpired!  Your actions could have devastating consequences on our relationship with the only group of civil ponies we know!”

Her bleary eyes cast an angry glare in my direction as she trudged back towards me through the paper and tin cans littered upon the floor.  “You really want to do this now?”

I nodded, returning the glare even as I anxiously awaited what I was about to hear.  “Yes, sister.  I need to know everything.  Don’t spare any detail, just tell me what has happened.”

“Ugh… fine.”  She snorted, flicking her tail underneath her cloak as she made her way to the table and lazily shoved a half-dozen empty liquor bottles out of the way so that she could prop up a leg on the dirty surface.  “Grab some water and take a seat.  This is gonna take a while.”  I did as she advised, listening intently to her tale.

“Alright…”  She rubbed her eyes and started, “so, Bright Eyes kicked our asses.  I took a bite to the neck and passed out before she got you from across the river, right?”

I sipped from my water, only just barely avoiding spilling it all over myself due to my clumsy hooves.  “Correct.”

Her hoof was tapping at the table, lending emphasis to her words.  “So we’re both pretty fucked.  She’s blasting us with some crazy radiation shit like those glowing ones, right?  Your magic is fucked, I’m bleeding out and unconscious, then you rip your shoulder back open trying to drag me away and pass out too.”

I wrinkled my brow, “How did you know-”

She groaned, as if I were missing the obvious.  “The Cheeses were the only other folks there, Sis.  Who do you think carried us back to Mareon?  They told me what happened after I woke up in the clinic a few days ago.”

Actually, that was a bit obvious.  I stared into my water bottle as I answered, “I see.”

She continued evenly, despite the exhaustion seeping into her voice.  “Cabernet bandaged you up and stopped your bleeding, then they got us into one of their carts and hauled us to town.  Cheddar paid off the doctor to get us fixed up, and now we owe them a lot of caps for that.  She must be pretty good with bandages, because my neck was already healed and scarring over by the time I woke up.  You though…”

Nohta was having trouble meeting my eyes.  Her voice trembled ever so slightly as she continued.  “Doc used all of his RadAway on the both of us.  I came out of it a little sick and dizzy, but you wouldn’t wake up.  Your shoulder wasn’t healing and you kept…  You were having nightmares, Sis.”  Oh Luna, please tell me that I hadn’t been talking in my sleep!

With every word, Nohta’s tone of voice became less anxious and more self-righteous.  As if she were explaining to a foal how she had acted in the only morally justifiable way.  “I’m not… I’m not like you, Candy.  I’m like Mom.  I don’t know shit about medicine.  Every couple hours the doctor would come back to check up on you.  And every couple hours the news was the same.  You were getting worse!  We needed medicine, so when he told me where to get it, I just went ahead and got it.”

She waved her hoof toward the door, “That’s when Margarita saw me coming out of the store.  I didn’t know if she was gonna tell the guards or what, but she just let me explain what was going on and then she nodded like it was no big deal.  Then she offered to help us.”

I held up my good hoof, shaking my head lightly as I pleaded with her.  “But Nohta, why steal the medicine?  Couldn’t Doc Flannel have simply paid for it?”

Her eyes hardened, and her ears flicked as she answered.  “Doc didn’t have the caps to buy it.  After the mayor forced him to keep his clinic open and heal the wounded he ran out of stuff quick.  And we used up all of our caps buying ammo from the Cheese family.”  Those beautiful eyes of hers finally met my own, glaring horribly in my direction.  “Which, by the way, we’re fucking out of now because of your Goddess-damned idea to go check out the library!”

My jaw dropped as I quickly apologized for what I already understood to be a grievous error in judgement.  “I’m sorry, Nohta!  I didn’t think that we would find anypony there!”

Her voice rose as her fury threatened to spill over at any moment.  “Well we did, didn’t we?  And now we’re basically out of everything!  The only fucking plan we had was to sell off some shit and collect the bounties for these raider ears and The Pyro’s mask!  But how the hell was I supposed to collect on the bounties?  If I walked into the sheriff's office then he would’ve wanted to see my face.  You’ve read Mom’s book!  We would both get booted out of town if they find out what we are!”

“Nohta... “  I shook my head, tears welling in my eyes.  “Nohta you stole from an innocent pony that was only trying to run a business.  You’ve become a thief!  You never did anything like that back in the Stable!”

Her glare hardened further as her voice sank low and dangerous.  “You think it was easy to watch you go through what Mom went through?  You think it was easy to just sit there and pray to Luna that you would get better?”  Her hoof slammed into one of the liquor bottles, sending it crashing against the wall to shatter into dozens of tiny shards as I gasped at the sudden outburst.  

Her eyes flashed brilliantly as she finally let loose the rage that had been bubbling beneath the surface.  “You almost fucking DIED!  What the fuck was I supposed to do?  I didn’t have a choice, Candy!”

I bore the full brunt of her emotions; eyes wide and hoof covering my quivering lips as the full realization of our own precarious situation washed over me.  Tears were streaming down my face again, a sensation I had become all too familiar with over the past few weeks.  But my tears weren’t alone this time.

The stripes on Nohta’s face had darkened, glistening even as she rubbed her hoof against her cheeks to brush the wetness away.  “I can’t… I can’t go through…  Not again.  Don’t you fucking make me go through that again…”  She was openly sobbing now, her striped and scarred visage twisted in agony.

I still felt the bitter sting of her enraged shouting, but she was my sister, and family always forgives.  I held my good hoof out to cover her own, whispering softly to comfort her.  “Nohta, I’m so sorry.  But please, you must understand.  If you had gotten caught… If Margarita hadn’t been the pony to see you exiting the store… Think of what would have happened.  You have to be more careful.  You can’t draw attention to yourself like that.”

She withdrew her hoof as her eyes pinned me in place once more, “Oh, yeah.  Because we want all the attention on you!  You’re probably loving the fact that nearly everypony we’ve met has had a thing for you!”

I gasped, taken aback by the absurdity and forthrightness of her accusation.  “Nohta!  That’s not what I meant and you know it!  I’m only thinking of our well being!”  At the time, I had written off her comment as delirium brought on by her sleep deprivation; something my still fever-fuzzy mind could easily store away and forget.  Goddess, I was dense back then.

She stood up suddenly, sending her chair clattering to the floor.  “You could at least say ‘Thank you!”

I couldn’t possibly thank her for wronging somepony.  Instead, my mind wandered back to the only phrase I truly wished to utter.  I blinked away more tears as I looked up at her scowling face.  “I… you know what I really want to say, sister.”

Her fury broke, quickly disappearing underneath her emotional pain.  She averted her eyes, shuffling towards me until she could throw her hoof around my neck and sob into my mane above my aching shoulder.  Her strength compared to my own was intense, and I felt very nearly as if she were attempting to crush me with her embrace.  But rather than whimper in pained protest or attempt to squirm out of the hug, I relished the feeling; burying my own face in her mane as I succumbed to the truth she had told me and wrapped my healthy leg around her.

What she had done, she had done solely for my benefit.  I would have been dead several times over if not for her actions.  At a time like that, words were simply inappropriate to convey what we both felt.

I felt her swallow back her emotions before she whispered into my ear,   “We… we’re fucked aren’t we, Sis?  This shit isn’t working out... ”

I pulled her closer with my good leg, hoping that my words of caution would sink in this time.  “LIfe on the surface isn’t at all what I had imagined.  Forget our vendetta with the raiders, slavers, and mercenaries, we can’t even survive out here by ourselves.  We need help, Nohta.”

She pulled away from me, nodding in agreement.  “...Yeah.  Yeah, you’re right.”  She took a moment to calm herself and laid out the only option we had left to us as she slowly recovered.  “Margarita is basically our only friend out here.  The Cheeses are still hanging out in town for a while, but Margie is the only local that we can count on.  We should do as she says, and then listen to her offer.”

We really didn’t have a choice as to whether or not we could accept or decline her hospitality, but I still wasn’t convinced that I wanted anything to do with somepony engaged in her particular profession.  “Nohta, Margarita is a mercenary.  I’m not entirely sure that I want to be killing for caps.”

Nohta shook her head.  “So she’s a merc, big deal.  How is that different from what Mom used to do?”  I… I hadn’t thought of it like that.  My sister continued, oblivious to my small revelation and far-off expression, “But I don’t think she’s gonna be wanting a couple of rookies that wound up on her doorstep nearly dead, anyway.  For all she knows, we probably aren’t even all that good at fighting.  I think she wants us to do something else.”

My brow rose at that.  “She doesn’t know?  Are you positive that you made no mention of our encounter with The Pyro or our excursion into Coltsville?”

Her eyes went wide.  “I… uh… I may have shown her the mask.”

I sighed, staring at my sister as I felt my face wrinkle in exasperation and worry.

“I was proud of that fight, okay!?  We totally kicked flank!  And… you know…”  She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof as she continued, “You were the one that said we should try to team up with her.”

I shook my head, “Not as fighters under her employ!  I wanted to pay her to assist us in our endeavors!”

Nohta’s gaze traveled across the room as she shrugged apologetically.  “Well…what else can we do, Sis?”

My stomach decided that the conversation had gone on long enough, rumbling loudly even as my mind searched fruitlessly for an answer to Nohta’s query.

She yawned again, her maw stretching wide as she rubbed her now bloodshot eyes.  “I need some sleep.  And I don’t like arguing with you.”  She turned to make her way to the bedroom, only to pause and add one final comment as she looked back to me.  “I’m glad you’re okay.”

The corners of my mouth turned up at the simple remark, “I’m glad too.  Thank you, Nohta.  Go get some rest, sister.”

The scar across her cheek wrinkled as she grinned.  Then she yawned once more and nearly staggered towards the back of the house.  I was, once again, left alone.

After she had disappeared into the back rooms, I returned my focus to the unsuspecting refrigerator and it’s cache of questionable nutritious value.  I won’t lie, I devoured two of those pre-packaged meals and was working on a third before I realized that I hadn’t even bothered to search the kitchen for utensils.  Cold corn and beans may not possess the wonderfully nuanced and balanced flavors of one of Mother’s delicious soups, but hunger has forever been the best spice.  The ravenous and bottomless abyss that was my stomach had thrown all grace and proper decorum to the wayside in favor of satisfying a simple base need.

With my hunger finally abated, I resumed sitting quietly at the table as I sipped more water and picked absentmindedly at the last container of food.  Nohta had only left me a few minutes ago but I was already bored to tears, and without any company to keep my mind occupied I soon found myself lost in thought.  I couldn’t help but worry about the situation we had found ourselves in, and how we would deal with the fresh hardships the future would heap upon us.

It was that thought that reminded me of the cold determination I had found within myself outside my stable.  No matter what troubles this world would bring, I would meet them.  If my sister was willing to go to such extreme lengths for my sake, and had only been forced to do so because I had been incapable of overcoming the obstacles set before us, then the answer to how I could keep her safe was obvious: I’d have to prevent myself from ever being in that situation again.

My hooves shoved bowls of produce and liquor bottles to the other side of the table, sending errant brass bullet casings clattering to the floor as I cleared a space within which I could work comfortably.  I drained the last remnants of water from my bottle over the table and wiped it down with the cleanest rag I could find, then set the empty plastic container to the side.  If my sister had to pick up the slack for my weakness, then I’d have to make myself stronger.  And at that moment, my most glaring weakness was my inability to use magic.

Mother’s book impacted against the table’s surface with a satisfying thud, and my good hoof flipped the pages to the recipe I was looking for.  As I began to work, snippets of Mother’s smooth and exotic voice pierced the focus of my mind.

“...can’t take credit for this one.  My sister taught it to me.  It’s one of the ancient recipes…”

The witchweed’s bitter aroma joined the other scents that lingered within the room as I awkwardly gripped my tools in my hooves and ground the dried fern into a fine powder with my mortar and pestle.  My aching shoulder fought me every step of the way, sending little twinges of pain lancing through my leg and chest to distract me from the task at hoof.  My inexpert hooves slipped a number of times, giving the pestle ample opportunity to make a mad dash for freedom as it rolled across the table before I could reclaim it.  

A full five stalks of the weed were called for to brew a single dosage of this elixir, but I needed to be at my best quickly; and Mother’s notes were replete with fantastical promises of its efficacy.  Whenever my clumsy hooves tipped the mortar over and spilled the herb onto the table’s surface I simply got up, procured one of the less pornographic magazines from the coffee table by the sofas, and used it to scoop up the precious bits of dried plant matter.

“...your father was exceptionally fond of it.  He found it especially useful after lots of taxing teleportation spells…”

After adding several fat purple berries and multiple bottles of water to my small pot I had been forced to tilt my neck at an awkward angle to stir the sweetly spicy potion properly.  Holding the wooden spoon between my teeth wasn’t as difficult to manage as I had been dreading; I only ended up with five little splinters in my lips and a sore neck.  And although my shoulder continued to protest my actions with as much fervor as it could muster, the spoon in my mouth provided a convenient bit against which I could grit my teeth to fight the pain.  My hoof dug into one of the bowls on the table, dragging out a couple of squat and vibrantly colored peppers before I tipped the bowl over and sent an empty tin can clattering to the floor.  The yellow and red fruits bobbed on top of the thin green liquid in my cookpot; my heavy and frustrated exhalations pushing them about before they sank into the brew and dissolved fully.

“...much experimentation, I believe I have improved upon the original…”

All that was left to do was allow the brew to simmer as I occasionally stirred it with the uncomfortable and splintery spoon.  It had taken two excruciatingly slow hours for me to do with my hooves what I could have accomplished in a quarter of the time with my horn.  If all went according to plan, I wouldn’t have that problem for much longer.

“I call it a ‘Mana’ potion.”

The spicy and sweet aroma obliterated the other smells of the room.  After deactivating the fire talisman with a couple of quick hoof taps, I simply had to wait for the potion to cool.  I had just cleaned up the shattered bottle that Nohta had left upon the floor when the door opened with a slight creak.

Margarita’s eyes flew open as she was assaulted with the heady scent of the brew.  Her lime-green face beamed in the direction of the kitchen table as she re-entered her domain, casually kicking the door closed with a hind leg.  The saddlebags that hung from her sides were filled to the brim with oddly shaped purple fruit.

She stared transfixed at the pot atop the table as she ambled forward like a mare possessed, licking her lips free of the drool threatening to pour out of her mouth.  Panicking at the approaching demise of my hard work, I threw my hoof in her path and shouted,”Wait!”

Now, I should probably state that I held no ill will against this mare.  Her aid had gone a long way in preserving my life, and her continuing generosity had given Nohta and I a safe haven within Mareon.  Truly, I was already beginning to think of her as a friend.  But it is exceedingly hard to not be frustrated with anyone when they greedily guzzle hours worth of arduous work within a span of a few terrible seconds.  By The Dark Mother, she hadn’t even used a spoon to ladle it into a bowl!  She had simply taken the entire cookpot between her hooves and chugged the potion down as I was forced to stare on in heartbreaking horror.

She smacked her lips appreciatively as she lowered the pot to the cluttered table, seeming only to recognize my presence after the brew had been drained down her gullet.  She blinked once as she stared at my frustrated pout, and her face twisted in a sheepish grin.  Her hooves tapped together in front of her chest as I dragged my good hoof down my face with an exasperated sigh.

“Margarita, I’m truly grateful for the hospitality, but that wasn’t food.”  How many ponies would I have to convince that not everything in a bubbling pot was soup?  “It was medicine.  I’m trying to regain the use of my magic.”

Her eyes widened in realization as she nodded slowly, her mouth silently forming a single word, “Oh.”  Suddenly she tensed up and pointed at herself, flinging her hooves before her face violently.  She looked to me with expectant and frightened eyes.

Understanding took root in my mind a moment later.  Despite having just watched her render hours of taxing exertion moot, I couldn’t suppress a chuckle at her unnecessary anxiety.  “No.  No, this won’t be anything like the other one.  No breathing fire.  Just a restorative draught to quicken the healing of my horn.”

She laid her saddlebags on the floor as she tilted her head to the side, then shrugged as she accepted my answer.  Taking the seat that Nohta had occupied earlier, she beckoned me to the table and pulled one of the fruits out of her bags.  

I had never seen anything quite like it.  I stared at the bulbous berry the size of my hoof, and raised an eyebrow in question as I slid back into my chair and pulled out my alchemical tools for another attempt at the potion.  “What is that?  And where did you get it?”

She smiled warmly even as her own brow mirrored my perplexed features.  After procuring her notepad and scribbling a note, she slid the paper to me so that I could read her oddly spelled answer.  “Mute Froot.  Diddunt yu see my greenhows?”  I couldn’t help but wonder if the spelling was a playful pun of self-deprecating nature or the genuine name of the produce.

I held back the question, believing that it might insult her.  “Ah… sorry, dear.  I must have missed it.  I’m not terribly familiar with this… fruit.  You grow them?”

A second note was pushed across the table.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her waggling her hooves at me and smiling.  “I gro neerly all my froot.  Sum veggys too.  Urth pone, plus green hoooves.  Try it.”

It would have been terribly rude of me to decline her offer.  I clutched the massive berry between my hooves, and after my questioning gaze was returned by an encouraging smile and head nod from Margarita, bit into the purple and blue flesh.

Even with a full stomach, it was a monumental struggle to not devour the entirety of the berry as quickly as possible.  Truly, the only thing that could have possibly tasted more wonderful was a Sparkle-Cola!  My Pipbuck clicked once, alerting me to the ingestion of a single rad, but my concern was lost amidst the flavors of nearly every fruit I could imagine.

“Oh… Oh my!  Margarita, this is delicious!”

She was grinning from ear to ear as she scribbled another note and pushed it towards me.  “Glad yu like it!  I uze thim to make moonshine.”

My eyes shot wide as I balked at her claim.  “M-moonshine!?  You’d turn these succulent and unoffending fruits into alcohol!?  That’s-”

My tirade was cut short by a playful hoof gently prodding my nose.  Another note slid across the table.  “The rads arr reemoovd by the distillashun prossess.  And pones luv booze.  It sells bettur than froot.  Ezeear to stoar, too.  Thats wut I wunt yu to help me with.”

Realization, followed by relief, washed over me.  “You want Nohta and I to help you brew alcohol?  Well, I believe we can certainly-”  I stopped talking as soon as I noticed Margarita shaking her head.

She hastily scribbled another note and gave me a serious look as she hoofed it across the table.  “Psyker killed my croo and messed with my hed.  Her raydurz shot up my still.  I uzed to be respecktid.  I uzed to leed the best murcs in this dezurt!  I uzed to make booze.  Delishus, delishus booze!  Now I am a laffingstok.  Thanks to Psyker, I am a mursinary that cant evun spell ‘gunn’ rite!”

Her next note was written almost as quickly as the previous one.  I could tell by her hard eyes that were it not for her debilitating silence she would probably be shouting her words.  “I wunt revinge, and thats why my frehnd will help me.  I wunt to be respecktid, and thats why yore sistur will help me.  In the corse of a cupple dayz my life got fukked hard!  Nohta told me wut happund to the to of yu.  I theenk it sownds fuhmillyur.  I theenk thats why we shud werk togethur.”

“Margarita…”  I sighed, shaking my head as I cleared my thoughts.  “I am more than sympathetic to having your life turned upside down in such a short span of time.  But just because we’ve both been through monumental tragedies does not mean that-”

She had anticipated my response, and was already hoofing a new note across the table.  “If yu help me now, yu will nevur wunt for food, watur, ammo, a cleen bed, or sumpone to shair it with evur again.”

I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, surely fusing the only stripes I bore into single bands of pinkish-red underneath my eyes.  She took advantage of my non-responsiveness to smirk and rib me further with a new note.  “Just not me.  Yu are way to proppur and ladeelike for me.  I like my gurlz dangeruz.  I am flatturd, tho.”

What a salacious accusation!  “You… you don’t have to joke about such lewd things!”

Her evil smirk transitioned into a genuine smile, and she proffered one final missive to me across the table.  “Nohta sed that yu to mite be lookeeng for help with the raydurz.  For sumtheeng like that, yu will wunt sumpone reely gud.  I know hoo yu need.  She’s not just gud, she’s the best.  Fukken crazee sumtimes, but the best murc I know.  Help me, and I will put yu in tuch with hur.”

My mind slid off its rails.  Could we have actually stumbled across the means to accomplish one of our goals?  Good fortune of that magnitude was sorely missing from my life.  I read the note twice, double checking to be certain I hadn’t misunderstood, then looked back to Margarita.  “Who?”

She smirked at me once again, then leaned over the table and flipped the paper over.  In an entirely different but still messy style of mouthwriting was a single question and signature.  “You still up for that drink, babe? - Lily Belle.”


**************


Margarita had gone on to assure me that she had already set up a meeting with her friend for later that evening at the local saloon.  She was also more than eager to help with the mundane tasks required to make another batch of Mother’s potion, and the second brewing went much smoother than the first with the aid of her nimble hooves.  

Soon after we were finished she seemed to be overtaken with an intense buzzing energy, and quickly strode to the table in the back to disassemble, clean, and reassemble her weaponry in a flurry of activity.  I made sure to thank her for the help, but she was far too focused on her guns to pay me any heed.  Sensing an opportunity to finally get some actual rest, as opposed to the dreadful nightmare-filled-radiation-coma that I had been in for the past few days, I downed the potion and excused myself to one of the offered beds.  A curious tingling sensation throughout my entire body prevented me from sleeping overly long, but the several hours of dreamless respite did my aching body wonders.

When I awoke I was immediately aware of a dull fuzziness in my horn, and found that I was just able to lift some of the crumpled up wads of paper that littered the floor.  Nohta was still fast asleep, fully garbed on top of the sheets and with one hoof hanging languidly off the side of her bed.  Instead of waking her to share in my giddy excitement I draped my own sheets over her and returned to the large foreroom to test my magic against something more cumbersome; like one of the hefty tin cans or agonizingly ponderous empty beer bottles I had seen earlier.  I hobbled into the foreroom on three legs to find Margarita huddled over her table of disassembled weaponry.

She grinned widely around the tiny spring in her teeth when she noticed me, waving a forehoof excitedly before slipping the coil into a pistol and taking a swig from a brown bottle at her side.  She tapped the top of her head, just above her eyes, and then pointed at me with an inquisitive look upon her face.

I nodded, beaming proudly.  “Why yes, I do believe that the potion and some rest have brought a tiny trace of my magical prowess back to me.”  I lost the grin, furrowing my brow in concentration as I licked my lips and added, “In fact…”

I concentrated for all I was worth on her bottle of beer, enshrouding it in a faint crimson aura as it rose shakily an inch above the table.  She pursed her lips and arched an eyebrow in response before slowly and deliberately plucking the container out of my magical bubble and downing the remaining dregs in one gulp.

I huffed and crossed my forelegs in front of myself, noting with some discomfort the dull ache that remained in my shoulder, and sat down beside her, “Yes, well I was impressed with it.  Honestly I’ve never been able to fathom how you non-unicorns could manage to accomplish anything at all without magic.”

Her chest convulsed in silent giggles before she sat back on her haunches, flexing one of her lime-green forelegs to force the bicep to protrude as she waggled her eyebrows in my direction.

I rolled my eyes even as I grinned, “Well, earth pony strength is all well and good if you’re looking to build a shelter or bash in a door, but what about a delicate surgical operation?  How are you going to avoid contamination if you’ve got to hold a scalpel with your teeth?”

She frowned and scratched at her chin for a moment, apparently deep in thought.  Then she grinned smugly and dug a bottle of golden liquid out of her packs.  I couldn’t help but chuckle as I read the label.

“Tequila?  Alcohol!?”  I held my hoof against my forehead as I shook my head, forcing myself to stretch out my muscles in an attempt to relieve the simple soreness that lingered from my wound.  “Well, I suppose that’s better than nothing.”  I cocked my head to the side as I tried to steer the conversation in a less frivolous direction.  “Speaking of drinks, dear, why are we meeting in the saloon?  Surely she could have just come here instead.”

Margarita’s face fell as she silently sighed.  She bit her lip as she shook her head in morose pain.  I quickly realized that this was a touchy subject.

“Oh, oh I’m sorry!  Um…”  I searched for a way to backtrack past the minefield I had inadvertently stepped into, but only managed to scan the room as an uncomfortable lull in the conversation dragged out between us.  I caved a moment later, pointing a hoof towards the bathroom as I smiled awkwardly.  “I’ll um, I’ll just be taking a quick bath, then…”  She nodded pensively, and resumed her work with the pistol.

I escaped into the tiled room, my gaze instantly drawn to my three disheveled reflections in the cracked mirror above the sink.  Goddess, I was a sight!  The mostly-healed wound in my shoulder was still raw and red, and my mane was nothing more than a disconcerting mess.  Ugly slash marks danced along my back from the broken glass in Coltsville, and an angry little red scar raced along my leg just above my Pipbuck.  And the bloodstains!  It seemed as if my chest, legs, muzzle, and back had been used as foal’s hoof-painting canvas!  Faded pink blobs discolored my white coat with a series of misshapen splotches.  I was sorely in need of a good bath, and eagerly anticipated the simple pleasure of being clean.

I tested my magic again, but was unable to twist the rusty knob far enough to produce any hot water.  Sighing in resignation, I resorted to using my hooves; this time managing to draw a bath and plug up the drain in the clawed tub.  I must admit to having a moment’s trepidation to steeping myself in the irradiated water, but the clicking of my Pipbuck was so slow and irregular that my concerns were soon lost amidst the joyous exultations of my sore body.  I reasoned that a simple hoof-full of rads was an acceptable price to pay to feel the water’s warm caress against my dirty skin, stiff muscles, and bedraggled coat.  I soaked languidly in the still water, my mane and tail floating lazily to the surface as I allowed the aches and pains of the past weeks to wash away with the accumulated dirt, grime, and blood that the doctor had missed.

Just as I was thinking of rising from the bath, Nohta burst into my impromptu sanctum.  “Hey Sis.”  

My eyes shot wide as I hurried to cover myself with my hooves, spilling copious amounts of water upon the cracked porcelain floor.  “Gah!  Nohta!  I’m indecent!”

She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, ignoring my complaints as she strode to the side of the tub.  “I just talked to Margie, something’s got her upset.”  She glanced back at the still open door behind her before locking her eyes with my own in a questioning gaze.  “She said something about you going to the saloon to talk to somepony?”

My eyes pleaded with her past my wet mane.  “Nohta!  Avert your eyes this instant!  And shut the door already!”

She scoffed at my self-consciousness, rolling her eyes dismissively.  “Seriously?  It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before.  I mean come on… this is no big deal.”

My voice rose to an uncomfortable pitch as I shrieked.  “Not while I’m soaking wet and still in the bathtub, you haven’t!  There is a difference!”

She snorted derisively as her voice reached that perfectly antagonizing pitch.  “Pfft.  How are you embarrassed by this?  I mean, you were the Stable’s… uh… what was the term you used?”  Nohta grinned mockingly as she continued to torment me with her exasperating tone.  “Lady-doctor?”

My embarrassment and ire finally bubbled over, lending a bit more power to my horn.  I groaned in frustration, scrunching up my face in concentration while I scooped up one of the fluffy white towels beside the tub in my magic to fling it over my sister’s face.

She gasped underneath her new fluffy veil and pranced in place.  “Hey!  You got your magic back!  Sweet!”  Her voice held its uniquely infuriating tone while she barraged me with rapid-fire questions and her hooves splashed water in every possible direction.  “Can you hold your pistol yet?  What about your spell?  How’s your shoulder?  Did you fix yourself up yet?”  

Much to my embarrassment, Margarita poked her head through the doorway to see what all the commotion was.  I was trying my very best to slide underneath the water and hide while Margarita gingerly gripped the end of Nohta’s tail in her smiling mouth and tugged, sliding my sister’s near-frictionless hooves across the wet tile.

Nohta continued to prattle on as Margarita manoeuvred her through the doorway.  “How’d you do it?  Did you use a potion?  Did it taste bad?  Are you going on a date?  Should I go too?”  Nohta’s hoof clutched at the door in a desperate bid to stall her forced removal from the bathroom, but only succeeded in nearly swinging the door closed as she let out one final pearl of wisdom.  “Remember, Sis!  Don’t let him kiss you until the third date!”

A crimson cloud just barely pushed the door shut and locked it in place.  I huffed indignantly as I clambered out of the tub and wrapped myself in towels.  There was a mechanical clicking at the lock a few seconds later, and Nohta burst back into the room, a huge smug grin plastered across her features.

“Did you really think that would work against me?”  She lost the grin while I was busy pursing my lips and attempting to restrain myself from shoving her out of the bathroom with my hooves.  She cocked her head to the side before asking in an anxious voice, “Seriously though.  Are you going to the saloon?  Do you think you’ll be safe going alone?  I can come too, if you want.  Maybe we can get Margie to go with us.  That might cheer her up a little.”

I let my frustrations out with one final sigh and eye-roll, then thought back to how Margarita had reacted to my suggestion that her friend come to the MMMM Headquarters and shook my head lightly.  “No… I… I think that Margarita might prefer to stay here.”

My sister’s expression was worried and tense.  She glanced back at the door before asking tentatively, “You… you want me to go with you?”

She was worried about her new friend.  She deserved the time to bond with her...   I shook my head and smiled confidently, “It’s only a trip to the saloon, Nohta.  And I’m just going to discuss business.  I’ll be safe on my own for a couple of hours.”  I nodded towards the door, “Stay here with her.  I’ll be fine.”

Nohta chewed that over for a moment, then nodded slowly.  “Alright, but you better take your guns.”

My face contorted with my chagrinned expression. “I’m afraid the shotgun might be beyond my abilities as of yet.  And I’ve only got the barest amount of charge left in my pistol.”

Her eyes lit up in an eager smile.  “I can help with that, gimme a sec.”  She spun out of the room and trotted towards Margarita’s table.  “Hey Margie!”

I finished drying myself off and exited the bathroom while Nohta was busy conversing with our host.  After a quick sojourn back to the bedrooms to rifle through my things, I strapped my little pistol to my right foreleg and tested its weight in my magic.  It was still a struggle to lift the weapon up to eye level, but Mother’s potion was working wonderfully.  My lips formed a small smirk as I squinted and looked down the sights.  Just a few more days, I told myself, and my magic would be back to normal.

I met the two of them in the large foreroom after I had slipped into my saddlebags.  Nohta had convinced Margarita to part with two full cells for my pistol.  I loaded a fresh one into the device, thanked Margarita for her overwhelming hospitality, and was just about to leave when my eyes passed over the wooden bucket on the far end of the table.

I put on my best smile as I tapped my hooves together sheepishly.  “Margarita, darling, could I hope to convince you to part with, oh… two or three of those grenades?”

Margarita’s only response was to cease working on her weapons and arch an eyebrow in my direction; as if I had just committed some horrendous faux-pas.  She clearly didn’t believe that I was fully capable of using one of the tantalizing apple-shaped explosives to wonderfully devastating effect.

I tried again, remembering that sometimes you just have to ask for what you want.  “Nohta can certainly vouch for how beneficial they’ve proven for us in the past.  My being properly armed would most assuredly put her mind at ease, and what better to scare off any potential attackers than… ah… “  I felt my eyes drift to the bushel before I realized that I was no longer speaking.  With a start, I quickly finished my sentence and grinned widely at Margarita.  “Err… explosive weaponry?”

Margarita turned to Nohta, her expression more questioning than doubtful.  My sister simply shrugged, “She’s got a point.  And she’s used ‘em before.  She won’t blow herself up or anything.”

Margarita scrutinized me carefully for a long moment.  I was suddenly beset by flashbacks of begging my parents to allow me just one more book before bedtime.  Honestly, it’s not like any of the tales of Luna’s exploits took very long to read.  Only an hour or two, really…

She stared intensely into my pleading eyes as she reached a lime-colored hoof to the bucket and passed a single grenade across the table.

I grasped the explosive in my magic and gently laid it in my packs while my sister chuckled behind a hoof.  I chose to ignore Nohta’s smug expression.  “Thank you, Margarita.”  One grenade was better than no grenades, and if push really came to shove then at least I wouldn’t be without an ace up my proverbial sleeve.

The night air was still warm when I exited MMMM Headquarters and stepped onto the broken-asphalt and dirt roads of Mareon.  The town had a distinct air of liveliness about it that I had overlooked in my previous excursions.  Wandering through the desert for days on end had granted me an appreciation for just how desolate and barren the wasteland was.  

Ponies of all colors meandered about in the semi-darkness, most of them wearing simple clothing or light leather barding.  Garbed only in my Pipbuck, pistol holster, and saddlebags, I felt naked in comparison.  It wasn’t until I saw several buff earth stallions and white-coated unicorn mares in even less adornment than I standing on the street corner by the saloon that I relaxed.  It was short lived.

“Hey good-lookin’, want some company?  Only fifty caps.”  My eyes widened at the stallion’s ah… offer... before I ducked my head and quickened my pace to the saloon.

In the descending darkness, I noticed for the first time the strings of Hearth’s Warming lights suspended over the streets.  They converged on the saloon and its brightly lit neon sign depicting a duo of cartoonish cacti with smiling, inebriated faces and liquor bottles.  I had arrived at The Prickly Pair Saloon.

I could hear music and voices coming from within the bar as I neared the entrance.  The building was one of the few pre-war structures in the town.  Its roof still had most of its shingles, and the majority of the windows were still in place, even if they were rather dirty and sporting some severe cracking.  Its outer walls were plastered with old and fading recruitment posters from before the war displaying buxom mares with bedroom-eyes and long, flowing manes posing on artillery barrels, their military outfits looking just slightly too small.  The shutter-style doors swung open with ease as I entered a tavern far more lively than I had encountered during my first trip to Mareon.

The sound of clinking glasses and bottles cut through the din of a night of good cheer as I made my way into the establishment and paused at the entrance to take in my surroundings.  The saloon was bathed in the gentle glow of dusty overhead lights whose illumination diffused into a haze of cigarette smoke that hovered over everypony’s heads.  All around me were tables of drunken, laughing ponies being waited on by serving mares balancing trays of drinks on their backs.  In one of the far corners a hoof-full of ponies were huddled over a pile of caps, each of them casting furtive glances at the others as they guarded the playing cards held in their hooves.  A large, mustachioed stallion with a dapper hat and vest was busy pouring drinks behind a large wooden bar, his immediate patrons swaying softly on their stools.

Not all of the patrons were joining in the festivities, however.  A grey stallion with a crossed hammer and screwdriver for a cutie mark was busy fiddling with the dials on the bar’s old-timey jukebox radio.  “Oh for the love of... What the hell is wrong with this thing now?  I just got it working again!”  His hoof slammed ineffectually against the device’s heavy frame, eliciting only a faint crackling of static snow.

An enormous buck encased head-to-tail in heavy metal barding thudded his hoof repeatedly against his helmeted head with a series of resounding clangs.  “Bah, shut up already!  You’ll just have to get drunk without your DJ for one evening you little cuss.”

The grey stallion kept banging on the radio, his voice as perplexed as his face.  “But, but...  DJ-Pon3 was coming in fine up until just a minute ago!”

The armor-clad stallion threw a hoof in the air and called to a serving mare with a long, flowing mane.  “Hey Willow, can I get a double to drown out ‘Mr. Whiney’ over here?”

I stepped further into the saloon, stoically ignoring the looks I was getting from the stallions at the bar, and scanned the sea of reds, blacks, browns, and yellows for my quarry.  A flash of indigo feathers drew my attention to an isolated corner, and I navigated the throng of cheerful inebriates to find the mare sitting alone at a darkened table.  The wild mess that was her silvery-white mane was dangling over a long lever-action rifle with a circled cross of beads strapped to its stock.  She rubbed a cloth along the barrel, completely absorbed in her ministrations and seemingly oblivious to the world around her.  Every so often one of her hooves would leave the rifle to pluck a lit cigarette from an ashtray, bringing the small white cylinder to her muzzle.

I cleared my throat as I approached her, and spoke loudly and clearly above the din of the saloon.  “Ahem.  Lily, I presume?”

Her left ear twitched, making it appear as if the tiny animal bone that was pierced through it were bobbing up and down in agitation.  She spoke to herself with just the slightest hint of irritation.   “Not now, Grumpy, I’m waiting on some-”  She glanced up, and her blood-red eyes rose to meet my own before the black whorls and curves along the left side of her face rippled as her visage twisted into an exceedingly cocky smirk.

“Hey Doc, how ya doin?  Take a seat..."  She didn't wait for my answer, opting instead to kick out a chair in front of me.  "...we got a lot to talk about.”  She took a long drag off of her cigarette, causing the tip to burn brightly as tiny tendrils of smoke snaked lazily away from the lit tobacco.  She lifted her head and exhaled a dissipating plume into the swirling smoke above our heads to collude with the cloudy haze that dominated the interior of the tavern.  Sighing contentedly, she smirked at me, “Nothing like a smoke when you’re half lit, huh?  You want one?”  She proffered the small red and white box to me with a questioning and lazy smile.

“Err, no thank you.”  I sat in the chair opposite her, trying to keep from touching any of the table’s filthy surface as I lay my saddlebags on the floor.  “I don’t smoke.”

“Heh, suit yourself.”  She lightly tossed the small box onto the table in front of her and leaned into her chair, throwing a hoof over its back and gazing at my uncomfortable posture.  “You want a drink through, right?  I still owe you one for that raider.”  Without waiting for my response, she flared a wing to her side and, with a beckoning gesture of indigo feathers, called over one of the serving mares.  “Sequoia!”

An earthy-red mare with a bushy, dark-green mane and tail sauntered over to us, full of smiles.  She winked at me even as she addressed the pegasus by name.  “Hey there, Lily.  You ready for another round?”

The waitress continued to grin in my direction as Lily spoke up, “Actually Sequoia, my friend here would like a drink.  On me.”

“Oh?  Your friend, huh?”  She whipped her bushy green tail behind her playfully while she smiled warmly.  “What’ll it be sweetie?  We got beer and booze aplenty.  Anythin’ to whet your whistle and take the edge off!”

“Oh, er… I um, I don’t really have a taste for alcohol either,”  I admitted with a sheepish grin.  If only Lily had waited for my response, perhaps I could have spared the three of us this awkward feeling.

The pegasus was having none of that.  “Pfft, nonsense!”  Lily waved a hoof in my direction.  “Go nuts, Doc.  Anything you want.  I insist.”

Well… surely just one drink couldn’t hurt, right?  And perhaps if I went ahead and placed an order, the serving mare would stop staring at me like that… My thoughts drifted back to the seedy publication that my sister and I had discovered in the coyote cave.  “Um, in that case, there is one thing I’ve been interested in trying.   Do you have any Sparkle-Cola Frost?”

Lily nearly choked on her own bottle, before regaining control and swallowing the liquid.  She flapped her wings wildly, beating them against the back of her chair as she chuckled, “Oh!  Oh shit… That’s a good one!”

Sequoia forced her pursing lips into a polite grin.  I was left with the distinct feeling that she was attempting to good-naturedly humor my request.  “Sorry dear, we’re out of that.  If you’d like something sweet, though, I can recommend a few ciders, or maybe a margarita.”  She glanced at the tittering form of the pegasus before continuing, “Or I could whip up a Rum and Sparkle, if that’s more your thing.”

I blinked, feeling quite uncomfortable that I had been put on the spot in such a manner.  My confusion and curiosity formed my response before I could rein them in.  “What’s a… cider?”

Lily let out a great guffaw and slammed a hoof against the table.  “That’s the ticket!  Bring her a cider, Sequoia!  Everypony likes cider!  She just doesn’t know it yet!”

Sequoia nodded primly and sashayed away from the table.  Despite her gracious demeanor and the din of conversation from the rest of the saloon’s inhabitants I was just able to hear her mutter under her breath, “Fucking stable-dwellers… I swear…”

I directed my attention to the pegasus opposite me.  As my brow furrowed in discomfort, I couldn’t help but make an admission.  “I must say, I feel a little out of my element in this establishment.”

Her chuckling died off as she gazed across the table with a knowing grin, “Ya.  I figured you might.”  She inhaled from her cigarette again as her eyes stayed locked with my own.  I was just about to turn away from the embarrassment of her scrutiny when she spoke again, “Margie and I had a nice little chat about you, you know.”

What?  She couldn’t mean…  No, surely she didn’t.   My eyes darted to the side as I quickly checked to see if anypony was listening in on our conversation.  A nervous hoof rose to brush my mane aside.  “Oh?  Did you?”  

She nodded slowly, and lightly tapped the black swirls on her cheek.  “Folks tend to treat you a little differently once they see the ink.”  Taking up her rifle in her hooves, she leaned back to stand it against the wall behind her next to a pair of bulging saddlebags.  When she turned back to me, her voice was low and conspiratorial.  “Isn’t that right, miss tribal-pony?”

My lips parted as my eyes shot wide in realization.  Goddess, she knew.  She knew because Margarita had told her.  I had been a fool to trust the mercenary!  I had thought that she was a friend!  Didn’t she know how dangerous that information was?  I didn’t even want to imagine what Mareon would do to Nohta if the town discovered what we were!  I set my jaw and grit my teeth to stare her down, my entire body tensing while I struggled to figure out what to do.

I was mere moments away from abandoning the conversation completely when Lily leaned across the table and glanced in the general direction of the rest of the saloon.  Her scarlet eyes were… Angry?  Hurt?  Regretful?  I couldn’t quite place them.  She whispered evenly in a calm voice.  “They treat me like an outsider too, no matter how much I try to help them.”  Grinding the tip of her cigarette into her ashtray, she continued in a calm whisper, “Don’t worry about it.  I won’t tell anypony.  Where you came from is your business, and I’m not about to cause trouble on account of something I ain't got a problem with in the first place.”

Where I came from?  That wasn’t really the part that worried me.  I had to be sure.  I had to be absolutely positive.  Forcing myself to look into those blood-red eyes, I asked with bated breath, “Exactly how much did Margarita tell you?”

She grinned knowingly as her voice became low and husky.  She continued to whisper across the table as her eyes pierced my own.  “She told me enough to let me figure out exactly why you have those cute little pink stripes on your face, sugar.”

I stammered as my mind froze in fear.  I had to think of something!  “I… She…”

Leaning back, she resumed speaking at a normal volume.  “Don’t worry about it, babe.  Like I said, I ain’t about to go raising a ruckus, or a fracas, or whatever the damned thing is, just to stir up trouble.”  She downed the remnants of her bottle, and gave me a genuinely warm smile.  “I’ve been around.  I know better than to distrust someone just because they ain’t…”  She tilted her empty bottle in my direction, shrugging apologetically.  “...you know.  And besides, you’re a doctor.  You can’t be all that bad if you’re trying to keep folks alive out here.”

My mind was racing, attempting to make sense of just how much of a predicament I was in.  Before I could stop myself I blurted out, “What?  What does my medical skill have to do with anything?”

She closed her eyes and snorted lightly as she chuckled to herself, “Let’s just say that in my line of work you tend to live longer if you buddy up with the folks who know how to pull the bullets out.”

As I was ruminating over the meaning of her words, Sequoia arrived with two bottles balanced on a discolored metal tray upon her back.  With the deftness reserved for those members of the equus genus bereft of magic, the earth pony brought the tray off her back and placed the bottles before Lily and myself.  “Another beer and a cider.  Both on your tab, Lily.”

As Sequoia trotted off to wait on another table, Lily grasped her new beverage and took a swig, flashing what I was quickly beginning to assume was her default, arrogant grin as she set the bottle back on the table.  She glanced at the bottle of cider sitting in front of me.  “You just gonna let it get warm, sweet-cheeks?”

My lips pursed as I fought down the urge to berate her for the verbal slight.  “Please don’t call me that.”

She raised her hooves in the air before her, giggling and shaking her head.  “Right, right, my bad.  You didn’t like that last time, either.”  She reached for the box of cigarettes on the table and extracted one with a wing.  With a quick glance at the still-raw patch of skin on my shoulder, she winced and asked me, “So how’s this shit-hole of a desert been treating you since your last trip to Mareon?”

I opened my mouth to respond, only for the memories of my recent past to flood my mind all at once.  My eyes roamed the table, searching for an anchor before I finally settled on the bottle before me and rested my Pipbuck upon the table beside it.  The sore wound flared with an insistent twinge, causing my voice to shake with my answer, “Terribly.  It’s been… simply awful.”  I fought the tears that were threatening to well in my eyes back and locked my gaze with hers.  Swallowing my pride, I forged forward.  “That’s… that’s part of the reason why I came here.”

She arched an eyebrow inquisitively but said nothing, opting instead to reach a hoof behind her ear and into her mane to procure a small steel box.  In a single fluid motion she struck the contraption against her flank, producing a flickering flame from the lighter.  She lit her cigarette and inhaled deeply before nodding sagely, the smoke billowing out of her nostrils in hazy plumes while her pierced ear twitched.  “Yep… shoulda known.  Mares like you don’t last long out here.”

I probably should have let it slide, but her arrogance was beginning to irk me.  How dare she presume to write me off as some weakling so quickly!  My brow furrowed as my other hoof rose to the table; all the better to brace myself as I very nearly hissed at her.  “And what, precisely, do you mean by that?”

She frowned forlornly, meeting my glare head on.  “Sweetheart, look at yourself.  It takes a special kind of stupid to prance about like you’re doing.”  I balked at that, arching an eyebrow in indignation while she continued, “You’re fucking gorgeous, you obviously just got hurt pretty badly, probably can’t run for shit right now, you don’t have a shred of barding on your body, you just walked through the streets of Mareon alone…  at night…”  Lily set me with a severe stare as she allowed those words to sink in.  “…and your only weapon is a… a…”  She lost her train of thought just as my mind finally caught up to the appalling implication being made.  She, however, was far too busy blinking in surprise at my pistol to notice the mix of horror and revulsion that played across my face.  

Lily stuck a hoof over the table, questioning me as she gawked in adoration.  “Is that a Trottz 1000?  It is, isn’t it?  Holy shit, I haven’t seen one of those in years!  I thought you were just using one of those piece of shit AMP7s or something.”  She smiled at me with a bit more warmth and respect in her voice, “Alright, I take it back.  You’ve at least got a decent weapon.”  I was still recovering from the terrifying images she had placed in my mind.  My only response was to attempt to swallow back my fear as I held my curling tail in my lap.  

She tapped the table with a hoof, drawing my attention back to her as her ear twitched.  “You alright, babe?  You look kinda nervous.”  She glanced at the bottle of cider, smirking once more.  “Now, I know that I do have that effect on ponies, but a drink might calm you down.”

My hooves brushed over my tail nervously as I avoided her gaze.  “I...I’m not so sure if drinking is a good idea right now.  Not after what you just said.”

She snorted, taking a long pull from her beverage followed by an equally long drag from her cigarette.  The smirk plastered across her face radiated confidence as she boldly declared, “Ain’t nothin’ bad gonna happen to you while I’m around, sugar.”  Whenever my anxious expression conveyed my lack of faith in her statement, she leaned across the table and whispered, “Look, Margie sent you to me right?  You trust her, right?  She must have told you what I am.”

I nodded slowly, recalling the last note that Margarita had hoofed to me before I went to sleep.  “She said that you’re a mercenary named Lily Belle.”

She rose quickly from the chair, holding a hoof to her puffed out chest and flaring her wings wide as she emphatically proclaimed, “The one and only!”  Several heads turned at nearby tables before Lily flapped her wings and sat back down to drink more of her beer.  Setting the bottle back upon the table, she winked at me and exclaimed, “I’m the best merc in this Spirits-forsaken town!  Actually, scratch that, I’m the best fucking merc in Equestria!”  Well, she certainly didn’t lack for confidence.  Or bravado, for that matter.

A playfully mocking feminine chuckle behind my back alerted me to the passing presence of our serving mare.  “I bet that Talon company might disagree with you on that, sweetheart.”

Lily rolled her eyes as she grumbled, “Those honorless turkeys think they’re special just because they’ve got equipment and numbers, Sequoia!  No one that guns down unarmed ponies or innocent trading caravans just because it’s written on a piece of paper deserves to call themselves a merc.”  She crossed her hooves in front of herself and directed her hard eyes at me.  “Those griffins are nothing more than raiders with wings loyal to a fucking slaver with loads of caps to pay ‘em off.”

My ears perked up as I stared, dumbfounded, at the blue mare.  It… it had to have been a coincidence.  I threw up a silent prayer to the Goddess, asking her if the pegasus’ word choice was a sign.  “Griffins?  Slavers?  Raiders?”  My good hoof rose to the table’s surface as I stared at her, not even bothering to conceal my excitement.  “You know of them?”

Her face scrunched in displeasure, as if she were smelling something utterly foul.  “Duh.  ‘Course I do.  And right now I got problems with all three.”

My jaw clenched as I shut my eyes and inhaled deeply.  One final preparatory breath to ease my racing heart before I would plunge myself headfirst into the pool at my hooves.  But rather than calming my heart, the pause only gave it time to remember.

The dim coals in my breast flickered and sparked, fanned to life by exuberant optimism and dread desire.  The ever present smell of tobacco smoke in the saloon transformed into the reeking stench of death that had permeated my stable.  The clinking glasses and cheers of drunken frivolity all around me echoed the agonized screams calling for my Father and I by name.  I stared into the scarlet irises gazing across the table in my direction, and I saw the blood of my friends splattered across both rocky soil and metal walls.

But the look in those eyes promised a different fate.  A new outcome.  Her stare didn’t speak of the blood that had been spilt, but of blood that would.  By the moon’s cool glow I had found my mercenary; my scalpel.  All that was left to do was locate the tumor and make my incision.

That familiar flame begged for kindling.  The searing need for justice was to me a comfortably warm blaze in the dead of night.  I needed only to submit to the will of my heart, and in so doing stoke the pyre of my vengeance.

I placed my other hoof on the table, ignoring the paltry pain that flared in my shoulder as my muscles tensed, and leaned forward to speak through grit teeth.  “As do I.”

Her eyes widened at the sheer hatred in my voice, only to narrow a moment later as her trademark smirk slowly overtook her features.  I suddenly realized that her smug grin no longer seemed to trouble me at all.

Lily took her bottle between her hooves as her husky voice cooed maliciously.  “Well now… Looks like we have a lot to talk about, Doc.”

A crimson glow erupted from my horn, encasing my cider in a bubble the same violent shade of red that stared back at me across the table.  I raised the bottle to my lips as I met her hard gaze with my own.  “Yes.  We do.  And you may call me Candy.”
> Chapter Six:  Desert Flora And Their Inherent Alchemical Properties -Part Two-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Six:


Desert Flora and Their Inherent Alchemical Properties



“Forecast: Cloudy, with a chance of friendship.”


Much to my surprise, the cider tasted like apples.

Oh laugh if you must at my discovery.  Lily certainly did, much to my embarrassment.  But I had never imbibed alcohol recreationally before that night.  I was expecting an atrocious flavor akin to the ghastly chemical aroma I associated with the sterilizing wipes I had used in the Stable’s clinic, not the sweet and fruity flavor that washed over my tongue amidst a swarm of fizzy bubbles.

“Ready for another round, you two?”  Sequoia’s bushy mane bobbed up and down as she trotted jauntily to the side of our table, still beaming pleasantly.

Lily smirked as she ground the remaining nub of her cigarette into an ashtray.  “The way she’s hitting that cider, I think you’d better bring her two.”  

I started, lowering the bottle back to the table and dabbing at my lips with a hoof.  “Oh!  E-Excuse me!  I wasn’t expecting…”  My hoof reached up to brush my mane aside as I made a painful admission, “I don’t have any caps.”

Lily’s pierced ear twitched, and her eyebrow rose dangerously.  “You’re trying to hire a merc without any caps?”

My hooves tapped together sheepishly as I looked up at her.  “I… was hoping that we might be able to come to a suitable arrangement.”

Lily’s grin returned, wrinkling the delicate black lines spiralling across her face.  She turned to our waitress, “Bring us both another round and put her drinks for tonight on my tab, Sequoia.  We got business to discuss.”  Sequoia nodded congenially and cantered off before Lily looked back to me and asked, “What you got in mind, babe?”

I sighed, hoping that I wasn’t about to lose this opportunity.  “Well, you’re right.  I can’t afford to pay you upfront.  Not yet.”  A thought occurred to me, something I should have tried to figure out much sooner.  “How many caps do you usually charge for this sort of thing, anyway?”

Her wings lifted beside her as she shrugged, “Depends on the job.  Depends on how hard I have to work to keep you safe.  Depends on how many ponies you want dead.”  Her smirk took on an unsettling and wicked overtone as she locked her eyes with my own.  “Depends on how much fun I have while killing them.”

My jaw slackened at those words.  She was a pony who would kill for fun.  For her own amusement…  She would do worse, as well!  I had seen it in the way she had toyed with the raider outside of Mareon after blowing his horn off!  Goddess, was that what the wasteland had been doing to us?

A wry chuckle escaped her lips before she took another drink of her beer.  Setting it back upon the table, she folded her hooves underneath her chin to lean forward and ask innocently, “You do realize what you’re getting into, right?  I mean, you don’t hire a mercenary to water your begonias.”

“I know.  I…”  I had to wonder if this was really what I desired.  There was no turning back if I accepted this course in life.  I’d be forsaken in the Goddess’ eyes and besmirching the honor of my medical training.  It was one thing to diagnose the sickness of the world, but to actually take up the scalpel in my magic and prepare to cut…  Would Mother and Father have wanted this?  

There was no emotion in her eyes.  No grief or joy or excitement or lust in her voice.  She simply asked for confirmation, as if the matter were no more complicated than deciding on beans or corn for dinner. “So go on.  Say it.”

My lip quivered as my thoughts raced.  This path would be a boon, for both my sister and myself.  What right did I have to not take it?  I couldn’t deny my sister’s wishes any more than I could deny my own.

Even with my pain the tears wouldn’t fall, instead welling in my eyes only enough to blur my vision but never enough to spill over my face.  The shallow pool of my anguish felt a single bubble rise out of its murky depth, and my rage gently boiled through to the surface.  

Mizani had said that eyes were windows to the soul.  What was there to see in the blood-red irises before me?  What did she, in turn, see in mine?  My first words were as a quiet confession; as if in my foolishness and ignorance of this world I believed I had something to apologize for.  It was a simple sentence, and yet capable of lifting such a great burden.  “I want them dead.”  The tiniest of gasps escaped my lips before I tried to swallow it back down.  It was as futile a gesture as any of my failed attempts to reign in my heart’s desire.

Lily nodded, her gaze never leaving my own.  The brutally simple acknowledgement combined with her intense stare provided all the encouragement I needed.  My true feelings had finally found an ear other than my own, and I had finally found the strength to voice them.  I had found in her eyes what I had been searching for: sympathy.

My hooves rose anxiously to the table as I pleaded my case to the judge, jury, and executioner sitting across from me, allowing the raw and pent-up emotion of every tragedy I had faced to provide all the evidence needed for my claim.  My words began slow and soft, but every passing moment lifted more of the burden from my being and prompted me to simply give in to that terrible ecstasy.  “I want them dead.  I want them to hurt and then I want them to die!  Slavers took my people!  Griffins killed my Father!  And raiders desecrated and burned everything that was important in my life!”  Heads were turning to stare across the room, but I paid them no attention.  I needed to admit this; as much to her as to myself.  This was a confession; more cathartic than any admission I had ever made.  And Luna help me, I was making it to a complete stranger.  “All I have left is my… my sister.”  My voice softened momentarily at the thought of Nohta, matching the dying din of the cantina, but the flames within my breast had already taken hold.  My last words were shouted as I broke down before Lily’s piercing stare.  “And neither of us deserved anything like this!  I want everyone that had a part in this to pay for what they’ve done to me!”

The saloon had noticed my shouting, honestly it would have been odd if they hadn’t.  Nopony within the establishment made a sound.  The only movement was a single bottle of beer floating in a cloud of magic, only just visible out of the corner of my eye as my face fell into my hooves.

Lily didn’t condemn.  She didn’t mock me for my display.  She only stared silently, drinking in my emotional outburst in lieu of her forgotten beverage.  Her only discernible responses were the barely noticeable way that the corners of her eyes fell and the outraged way that her voice shouted at the tables next to us, “Go back to your drinks assholes!  This is between me and her!”  The hurried scuffling of chairs barely edged out the returning din of excited voices and clinking glasses.

I felt like I should have been sobbing.  I felt like the tears should have been pouring down my face like babbling streams of grief.  Instead the only displays of discomfort emanating from my body were the twisted grimace that had forced itself upon my face and the small sniffles that never graduated to full on sobs.

Lily’s voice was soothing and comforting; it was the same erudite tone she had used after I had killed Powder to keep her safe. “Hey, hey listen to me.”  I obeyed that simple command and raised my wet eyes to meet her own, hoping against reason that she might be able to shield me from the harsh world one more time.  

But instead of acting as my shield, she chose to give me a sword.  Her hoof pointed across the table as she spoke quickly to reason with me.  “All of what you’re feeling right now?  All of that anger and grief?  That’s good.  That’s noble.  That hate means that you care.  Hold onto that.”  The barest hint of unchecked rage seeped into her voice as she struck her hoof against the table.  “Don’t you dare let that go, Candy.”

“I never wanted this.  I never wanted any of this!”  I buried my face in my hooves once more, trying to will the tears to come.  I still wasn’t crying… I begged the Goddess; pleaded with her to let the tears come.  But no matter how hard I squeezed my lids shut, nothing came.  My body refused to entertain my grief any longer.

Lily was insistent.  Despite this being my personal problem, she was acting as if someone had wronged her.  “Candy, look at me.  This world doesn’t give a damn about us.  The only way to get what you want is to tell this world to go fuck itself; you’re not putting up with its shit any more.  If you go down this road then there’s gonna be a lot more blood on your hooves than that one bitch rotting outside the town gates.”  She let the weight of her words sink in before asking in a gentle but determined voice.  “Are you willing to kill for what you want?  Can you do that?”

“I…”  That was it, I realized.  I’d have to seek my solace in other emotional avenues.  I remembered my sister’s question beside a midnight fire.  I remembered her devotion to simple pragmatism for the sake of survival.  I remembered the way I had felt beside a fire underneath a moon peeking out from beyond the clouds.  But most of all, I remembered the pain of losing Father, the indignant and righteous fury that burned within my breast, and the solemn vow I had made to help as many as I could so long as I still drew breath.  If this was the path that Luna had set for my life, then I would walk it.  The time for pitying myself was over.  It was time to act.

I sighed heavily, and my eyes hardened as I steeled myself for my answer.  My voice was cold and rigid at first, but quickly built in passion as the flame fanned my emotions onward.  “I am.  The ponies and griffins that did this are filth.  They deserve to die!  The world would fare better in their absence!”  I slammed a hoof on the table, resulting in a satisfying thud as one of our empty bottles fell over and rolled while I continued, “I want my revenge!”

Lily’s response was to lean back in her chair and rub a hoof between her eyes as she chuckled.  “Spirits damn it, Margie.  You set this up good.”  The cavalier response took me off guard, irritating me greatly.  I was about to rebuke her when she leaned into the table and jabbed her hoof at me in an accusatory fashion.  “You’re on a revenge quest?  You?  The doctor that saved all those ponies without asking for a single fucking cap in return?  The scared little filly who was nearly brought to tears when she killed a raider just to keep me from getting a little dinged up?”  Gone was the furious serenity that I had seen earlier, replaced with a questioning and judgemental glare.  “Are you really ready for this?”

She dared question my resolve?  After all that I had told her?  After every painfully embarrassing emotion had splayed itself across my features for her to see?  I couldn’t hold back the irate frustration that leapt into my voice, “They destroyed my home, took my people, and killed my Father!  What other motivation do you think-”

She held up a hoof, silencing me.  In a voice of deepest calm, she spoke plainly, and without emotion.  “I’ll do it.”

My lips moved, but I was too shocked to speak.

She continued, taking advantage of my silence to whisper in that eerily calm voice.  “I’ll do it.  I’ll take the job.  No payments.  No caps up front.  Just cut me in on the loot so I can keep myself stocked on ammo.”

I blinked, stunned, and stammered out a confused question.  “W-Why?”

She raised her bottle in a cocky toast, even as the crestfallen corners of her eyes betrayed an inner heartbreak.  “You said the magic word, sweetheart.  I got a soft spot for good folks who’ve been wronged.”  She took a long draft from her bottle, downing most of the beverage before placing it back on the table and nearly whispering, “And the desire for revenge is something I can relate to all too well.”  

She leaned forward in her chair, bracing a hoof against her knee as her wings stretched out behind her.  “But… there’s a catch, Candy.”  I found myself staring intently at her while she reached for the little box of cigarettes on the table.  “See… I don’t work with anyone unless I’m absolutely positive I can trust ‘em.  So we gotta get past that first.”

This was my chance!  I nearly had it!  I couldn’t let it slip through my hooves now!  I could already feel the flames of my anger dying as the winds of curiosity scattered the coals.  “W-What do you want?”

Dragging the box to the edge of the table, she used her hooves to procure one of the smokes and pin it in place behind her ear, speaking as she worked.  “I got a system, see.  Been using it for years now.  The way I see it, there’s really only three good ways to get to know somepony.”  She stopped fiddling with the cigarette and eyed me across the table.  “Now, I think they’re all good fun, but I always let the other pony decide which way we figure each other out.”

A test then.  That made sense, and I was always good at tests.  I nodded quickly, eager to be on with it.  “What do I have to do?”

Lily’s eyes roamed over my body uncomfortably.  Her arrogant grin returned in full force as she spoke, “For your sake, I’m gonna recommend that you not take this one.  Option one is for us to fight each other.  No weapons, just hooves.”

I scoffed as my face wrinkled in disgust.  “Fighting?  Really?  How does that let you know anything at all about somepony?”

She leaned in and whispered to me in a sage tone, “You’d be surprised at how much you can learn by watching how somepony moves in a fight.  They come alive, then.  It’s like they finally realize that nothing else in the world matters.  Everything they are is laid bare.”  She leaned back in her chair and grabbed her drink between her hooves, “You just have to know how to look for it.”

I rolled my eyes, “Hmph.  I’ll pass.”

She took another swig before depositing the nearly empty bottle back on the table and grinning widely.  “Good call.  There’s only one way I want to mess up that mane of yours, and fighting ain’t it.”

Confused, I cocked my head to the side and furrowed my brow.  But before I could puzzle out the meaning of her words she continued with a bit more excitement in her voice, sounding remarkably like a foal unwrapping a birthday present.  “So, that leaves us with the other two options.  Option two is simple.  We get shitfaced together.”  She held her beverage up in a toast in my direction, taking another long drink before setting the empty bottle down and grinning smugly in my direction.  “I tell Sequoia to bring out the good stuff and then drink you under the table.”  

I snorted derisively.  “Alcohol, seriously?”  Surely there was a better way to establish trust than mutual imbibement of socially accepted poison.

She just grinned and shrugged, “The truth comes out when you’re plastered, sweetheart.  Everypony knows that.”

I was almost afraid to ask at that point, but felt the need to soldier on.  “And… option three?”

She grinned wickedly as her wings began to stretch behind her.  She slowly leaned over the table as her crimson eyes bore into my own uncomfortably before tracing down my side.  I shifted warily in my seat and curled my tail a little tighter into my lap, feeling rather like I had inadvertently backed myself into an unfamiliar corner.  

In a sultry murmur, she offered up her last suggestion.  “Oh, this one’s my favorite.  I take you upstairs and fuck your brains out.”

My mind froze.  My jaw dropped.  Heat flooded my face. It was a full five seconds before I managed to stammer out a shocked response. “W-W-What?  You want to fu- THAT!?  Mares don’t do that with each other!”

She blinked in confusion as her lips pursed in mirth, and failed spectacularly to hold back her amused snort at my expense.  An indigo hoof rose to her face before she reared back from the table, laughing hysterically and beating her wings against her chair’s back.  “Bahaha!  You… you think…”  Her other hoof clutched her barrel as her entire body continued to convulse with her bellowing guffaws.  “Ha ha!  Oh… oh shit!  My fucking sides…”

The nearby tables were looking at us again; wondering what the commotion was, no doubt.  I crossed my hooves in front of myself, pointedly staring at the wall while my embarrassment continued to build.  Lily calmed marginally a moment later, wiping a tear from her eye as she chortled and stared at me with an aggravating grin spread across her tattooed face.  “You fuckin’ serious!?  Ha ha!  Oh fuck…”

I huffed as my mind made up for lost time.  “There’s no need to mock me with such ribald depravity!  Your licentious sense of humor isn’t helping anything!”

Her chuckling died off as she leaned over the table once more and continued to tease me in her husky voice, “Candy, I’m not even gonna pretend that I know most of those words, so I’ll focus on the ones I did understand.”  I turned to eye her warily, hopeful that she’d simply apologize and reveal the real third option.  

Instead she batted her lashes and cooed seductively, “I ain’t joking, sugar.  You ever been with a pegasus?  Come upstairs with me and the only words you’ll be able to say will be ‘oh,’ ‘fuck,’ and ‘yes.”

Goddess…  She…  She wasn’t joking at all, I could see it in her eyes.  My mind flailed nervously, desperately clutching at the first straw I could find to dissolve the tension that hung in the air and buy time.  “H-how would we… how would that tell us anything at all?”

She got up from her chair, and slowly circled around the table to close the distance between us.  Her voice was a breathy whisper of purest melted chocolate, “Because whenever I’ve brought you to the edge I’m gonna hold off until you tell me everything I want to know.”  That smirk returned to her features as my breath caught in my throat.  Nopony had ever looked at me like she was doing.  How close was she going to get to me?  She batted her lashes one more time as she closed the gap.  “You don’t need to fight it, sugar.  I’ll take care of you.”  She held a single hoof halfway between us, waiting for me to take it.  “Come on.  Let’s g-”

“Don’t fall for it, sweetie.”  Luna had sent my savior in the form of our waitress.  “Yeah, she’s got a nice flank, but she’ll love you and leave you just like that!”

Lily finally relented, rolling her eyes as she groaned and flapped her wings aggressively, and turned to the red and green mare setting our drinks on the table.  “Sequoia, you are such a plot block!”

I finally had a chance to breathe, gasping to fill my lungs with the smoky air as the two of them squabbled.  Sequoia was setting our next round on the table, rattling off an increasingly long list of names that I didn’t recognize.  With every name Sequoia’s glare grew a little harsher, causing Lily to recoil slightly as she bore the brunt of the verbal assault.

Lily was only becoming more and more exasperated with every added moniker.  She leaned towards our waitress in a conspiratorial manner and spoke in a hushed whisper.  “Sequoia, come on!  I told you that us getting together was gonna be a one time thing!”  She accentuated her words by taking to the air and flapping her wings with gusto,  “I’m not the kind of pony to stay in one place!  You knew what you were getting into!”

The two of them continued to bicker and argue over their scandalous tryst, oblivious to the shocked questions racing through my mind.  This entire town was crazy!  I couldn’t help but wonder how many ponies there were that thought this way.  Did Margarita think…  Oh Goddess, she hadn’t been joking earlier either!  And she had set me up with… 

“Option two!”  I shouted decisively, draining the last remnants of my old cider and taking up the fresh one in my magic.  “I’ll take option two!”

Lily landed to face me, looking extremely disappointed.  Sighing heavily in resignation she turned to Sequoia and muttered, “Two more bottles of beer, two more ciders, one bottle of Stalliongrad, and two glasses for shots.”  Sequoia trotted off to retrieve the order, and Lily shouted at her as she slid back into her chair, “And give us some privacy this time!”

She directed her attention back to me, taking her beer between her hooves and grumbling, “Well that killed the mood.”

This was all so different from what I had expected!  How could they be treating such a salacious act as if it were the height of normalcy!?  In my confusion, I latched onto the only explanation that made sense.  This all had to be some sort of elaborate prank!  Margarita was getting me back for the misunderstood glance in the clinic!  Or…  or maybe I was simply thinking too much.  I didn’t really have enough information to make any sort of judgement at all.

Curiosity got the better of me, forcing the question from my lips even as the blush on my face grew to an uncomfortable level.  “Do mares really… with other mares?”  A wry snicker from another table reminded me to keep my voice down.  I shuffled in my seat, raising my good hoof to cover my face as I slunk into the chair and tried my very best to turn invisible.

Lily pulled her cigarette from behind her ear, lighting it in another fluid motion of hooves and flame.  “You seriously didn’t know that?”  Her eyes studied me as she inhaled slowly.  Her eyes never left mine as she blew a dissipating plume off to the side and raised a single eyebrow.  “Forget the stable, which rock did you crawl out from under?”

But… But the Lunar Mandate wouldn’t allow for… I couldn’t help but stutter as the pegasus before me confidently defied something I knew to be a simple truth.  “Th-that’s not how… There are rules against…”

The smoke curled away from her hoof lazily, disappearing against the background of her wild mane as she snorted derisively at my beliefs.   “Ain’t no rule against having a good time, sugar.  This is the wasteland.  You find love in whatever hooves, wings, or claws will hold you.”

My brow furrowed in confusion.  “Claws?”

She nodded calmly, “Sure.  I hooked up with a griffin a few years back.  He was fun for a while, but he always wanted to be in charge.  Doing the same thing over and over just gets old.”

“I didn’t think that ponies and griffins…”  I groaned and rubbed my temple as I remembered the topic at hoof.  “Ugh… Luna would be mortified at the contents of this conversation.”

For whatever reason, she found sufficient cause to giggle at that.  “Heh, that’s kind of a weird way to look at it.”  She took a swig of her fresh beer before continuing, “But if Luna were still alive then I’m willing to bet she’d be a lot more pissed about some of the other shit going on right now.”

My curiosity was piqued.  “Such as?”

She puffed on her cigarette again before asking, “I’m getting the feeling you don’t really know what’s going on in the wasteland lately, do you?”

Was it really that obvious?  I sighed in frustration, the corners of my mouth falling with my admission.  “My ignorance is being made more apparent with each passing moment, it seems.”

She nodded, rubbing her chin in thought.  “So you need somepony to tell you what’s going on.  You’re not just looking for a merc to fight for you, you’re after somepony to travel with you, teach you a few things, and watch your flank.”  Her head tilted slightly as her eyes drifted downward, a sly grin creeping over her face.  “I can certainly do that.”

Wait… “That was innuendo, wasn’t it?”  My tail curled into my lap again as my voice rose in agitation.  Every indignant breath that left my lips helped push the slowly encroaching smoke back to Lily’s side of the table.  “I… What I don’t need is somepony making lewd comments and bawdy suggestions every few moments!”

A third voice cheered playfully just behind my shoulder, “Atta girl!  Show her who’s boss!”  I started, turning my head to see our barmaid with her discolored tray and an assortment of bottles balanced upon her back.  Sequoia moved past me, and began placing the bottles upon the table as Lily leaned into her chair and threw a foreleg over the back casually.  

Lily was shaking her head and puffing on her cigarette, muttering inaudibly under her breath, but Sequoia ignored her to smile and wink in my direction.  “Girl like you doesn’t have to settle for a tribal, you know.  There’s a perfectly nice gentlecolt over by the bar that-”

“Sequoia!”  Lily slammed a hoof against the table, causing the glasses and bottles to gently clink together.  “Why don’t you go talk to that buck then?  Get lost already!”

Sequoia’s muzzle rose haughtily in the air as she huffed and turned to walk away.  “Hmph.  Be sure to pay your tab before leaving, Lily.”

Lily shook her head and shrugged apologetically in my direction.  “Sorry.  If I had known that mare was gonna be this much trouble I never would have…”  Her crimson eyes drifted to the side, following the waitress as she left.  Her head tilted before she bit her lip and sighed.  “Actually, yeah I still would have.  Dem earth pony hips, y’know?”

I rubbed a hoof against my temple as I scowled.  “Are you always so vulgar?”

Her eyes returned to me before she smiled and continued her teasing.  “Sweetheart, that’s part of the deal with me.  I never turn down an opportunity for a good time.”  She jabbed a hoof in my direction as her grin widened.  “And you can act all indignant if you want to, but I know what I saw in those baby blues.”  She ground her cigarette into the ashtray and winked lasciviously at me.  “You’re not fooling anypony.”

Oh, Goddess… she was starting to flirt again.  This mare was relentless!  There had to be some way to get her to stop!  I stammered, searching for the words while trying to avoid her eyes.  “W-Why do you keep doing that?  You don’t have to-”

Her sultry murmur silenced me, drawing my eyes back to hers like a magnet to steel.  “You are absolutely adorable when you blush, sugar.”

Heat flooded my face as my eyes shot wide.  “C-Can we progress to the- to this trust exercise?”

She chuckled, waving a hoof dismissively in my direction.  “Fine, fine, have it your way.”

Her hooves reached out to the large bottle, tilting it with practiced precision to pour a measure of the clear liquid into the small glasses.  “Okay,” She began, a tinge of excitement entering her voice, “to do this the right way, you can’t use magic.  You gotta take the shot glass in your lips and throw your head back!  And since we pissed Sequoia off, she brought us a warm bottle.  So you’re gonna wanna drink this shit quick.  Warm vodka sucks.”

I shook my head, pleading with the dirty ceiling in a low whisper.  “Luna help me…”

“Haha!  No amount of praying is gonna get you out of this one.  You ready?  On three.”  She lowered her head to her own glass, grinning maniacally as she waited for me to do the same.  Resigning myself to my fate, I took the small glass between my teeth; though not without feeling rather awkward and sheepish.

Lily tapped her hoof against the table’s surface thrice in quick succession, and on the third tap I lifted my head to allow the horrid taste of charcoal filtered alcohol to wash over my tongue.  I nearly gagged as the foul liquid reached the back of my throat, and only just managed to swallow it down before my face contorted in displeasure.  The vodka burned a wretched trail down my esophagus as my body shuddered in reaction, and as I extracted the glass from my lips in a scarlet bubble I couldn’t help but gasp for air.  The fading taste of alcohol evaporated from my exposed tongue while Lily giggled at my discomfort.

She waved a hoof at one of the bottles sitting in front of me.  “Ha ha ha!  Drink some cider, quick!  It’ll wash the taste out!”

My magic found the suggested bottle in front of me, and without thinking I upended the beverage.  Cool, delicious, apple-flavored relief drowned out the vehemently putrid flavor of the vodka, and I was finally able to speak once more.  “That was utterly foul!  Why would you ever drink that!?”

Lily cackled in glee, clutching her barrel with both hooves and flapping her wings wildly against the back of her chair.  “To get drunk!  Duh!”   Her hooves grabbed the bottle of horrendous liquid and began pouring out two more shots.  “Don’t worry.  The first one always goes down hard.  After five or six more you won’t even care about the taste!”

“Five or six?”  My eyes widened in apprehension, and through a dusty window I caught a glimpse of light in the sky.  The moon was peeking out from beyond the clouds again.  As I took the shot glass between my lips once more, I couldn’t suppress the thought that The Goddess was having a bit of mischievous fun at my expense.


**************


My scientific foray into the cumulative effects of imbibed alcohol on my mind and body had yielded startling results.  Not only did the vodka’s flavor become less abhorrent with every successive drink just as Lily had predicted, but the little beeps and boops from my Pipbuck were absolutely hilarious.  Bereft of any music and feeling the desire to listen to something upbeat, I had taken to flipping through the tabs and fiddling with the settings of my Pipbuck; giggling at my own melodic ingenuity.  The corners of my blurring vision turned the most delightful shades of blue, green, amber, and white as I played my little fetlock-mounted instrument.  Unfortunately, the tiny letters and numbers in the interface were becoming difficult to read unless I concentrated really hard on them, but the adorable little unicorn mare on my screen looked to be very happy.  Especially with the animated bubbles popping over her head and the dopey grin plastered across her face.  

I’m not entirely sure if I imagined that last bit or not.  My memory of that night is somewhat fuzzy.

I wasn’t the only one amazed by my musical brilliance.  Lily was giggling softly as she complimented my prowess; her speech still as articulate as when I had first entered the bar.  “Ha!  You are absolutely plastered!  Are you sure you got all of that?”

Having just finished playing a particularly satisfying set in the electronic tones of my Pipbuck, I turned back to one of the two indigo pegasi sitting across the table and nodded emphatically.  “Of coursh!  I am fully capable of carrying a convershation while conversating.  Red Eye runsh Fillydelphia!”

Both of the pegasi answered me, each mimicking the movements of the other as they lit up a pair of cigarettes and grinned in perfect unison.  “Yep.  He employs one of the Talon merc companies as enforcers to keep all the slaves in line.”

I continued eagerly, feeling rather like I was a filly in Ms. Happilee’s classroom again.  “And the Shteel *hic* ‘angers-”

“Mostly just care about collecting tech.”  Both of the Lily’s puffed on their cigarettes and nodded as they leaned back into their chairs.  “I’m surprised you turned down their offer.”

It took some concentration on my part, but both of the blue mares soon fused into one pegasus before me.  I smiled at the confirmation of what I was about to say, even as my brow wrinkled in confusion.  “Why zat?”  I leaned forward into the table, supporting my heavy head with a hoof against my cheek.

She gestured towards me with a hoof before shrugging with her wings.  “Eggheads like you usually love that sort of shit.  Why didn’t you take the offer?”

My eyes closed as I shook my head and tried to steady myself against the table.  Of course, with the table moving from side to side that was rather hard, but I bravely persevered for the sake of scientific advancement.  “Ugh… no.  That’s… I couldn’t do that to Nohta.  She deserves more than *hic* more than that.  And besides...  Bright Eyesh didn’t give us a choice.  We’re lucky to be alive.”

She chuckled, even though I wasn’t trying to be funny.  It was nice of her to try and make me feel better.  “Ya, I can’t believe you got away.  You should be dead.”

The frankness of her assessment took me by surprise.  I leaned back into my chair and held a hoof to my mouth to stifle my giggles.  “Haha!  Yeah… We need a lot of help!”  Reining in my amusement, I sought an opportunity to better prepare myself for the future.  “Anything else I should be ‘ware of?”

Lily shook her head and spoke in a dismissive tone.  “Nah, not really.  Most folks avoid this desert like the plague.  There’s not really that much out here to draw anypony in.”  She puffed on her cigarette again before adding, “Besides, with as smashed as you are I’ll be surprised if you remember any of this anyway.”

Despite my drunken stupor, I recognized that something didn’t add up.  I reached a hoof out to gesture at her, managing to only knock over two empty cider bottles as I pointed.  “So whabout you?  Why’d you come ‘ere?”

Her face fell in an odd mixture of emotions I couldn’t quite make out.  “I’m… looking for somepony.”  She downed the last remnants of her final bottle of beer and fixed me with a surprisingly intense stare.  “Hey, how about we get out of here?  You look like you could use some fresh air and we still have a job to do for Margie.”

Oh Goddess, I had completely forgotten about that!  I pushed myself into the back of my chair and blinked several times as the room spun around me.  “Wharwedoin?”  I held a hoof to my head, trying to steady the room as Lily slid out of her chair and donned her saddlebags.

Sliding her revolver into a holster slung low across her shoulder and slinging her rifle into position along her back, she turned back to see me still swaying in my chair.  Chuckling again, she hooked a hoof around my own and pulled me out of the chair; steadying me so that I didn’t fall over.  Her voice playfully chastised me as she coaxed me to my hooves.  “Come on, lightweight.  This way.  And grab the vodka!  The night’s not over until the booze is gone!”

Lily tossed a small bag of caps on the table amidst the bottles and lifted my saddlebags onto my back as I wobbled and levitated the vodka from the table in my shaky magic.  She nodded her head towards the door and explained our task.  “We’re gonna send a message.  Remind this town of what’s going on and who’s got their back while we clean house at the same time.”  I followed closely behind her, gracefully bumping into three or four of the chairs and tables that jumped into my path.

I inspected the nearly empty cantina as I stumbled behind her.  Only a hoof-full of patrons remained; every one of them sitting alone as they nursed their drinks.  Sequoia, Willow, and another serving mare were busy wiping down tables as the bartender cleaned a glass.  Lily flared a wing in his direction, and he tipped his hat in response.  At the movement of her wing, I was presented with an unobstructed view of the single white flower adorning her flank.  Remembering the recent fiasco brought about by inspecting another mare’s cutie-mark, I quickly focused my attention on the floating bottle of vodka and asked, “Clean housh?”

She stopped at the swinging doors, holding one open for me as she nodded in the direction we were headed.  “Kill a few raiders.  Beat some info out of the last one alive.  Use that info to help you out.”

My ears perked up as I stepped onto the crumbled asphalt of the main road through town.  The night air was cool enough to shock some clarity into my fuzzy mind and send a slight shiver through my underdressed body as I gasped and questioned her.  “Raidersh?  We… we’ll be *hic* fighting?”

She was laughing again as she trotted up on my right and slowed to match my shaky gait.  “Haha, no!  You won’t be fighting.  Just me.  You just sit there and look pretty, okay?”

I couldn’t help but grin at the compliment, even if I knew she was wrong.  “You- you don’t have to…  You really think I’m pretty?”

The broken road crunched under our hooves as she winked at me.  “Hell yeah.  You’ve got a serious ‘sexy nurse’ thing going on.  And the way you healed those folks after the attack was pretty cool.  Doctors are hot.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that.  Rather than answering I opted to focus my gaze on the crooked yellow lines painted on the crumbled road, using them to guide my path through the moonlit town.  A cool breeze blew my mane to the side, washing over my coat and coaxing another shiver from my chilled body.

Before I knew what was going on a blanket of feathers and steel had draped itself over my side, pulling me into the warm pony walking alongside me.

I gasped at the sensation of cold blades along my barrel, and shoved Lily away with a hoof.  “What are you doing?”

Her wings fluttered as the black whorls on her face twisted with her perplexed gaze.  “Keeping you warm.”  She shrugged as if her intent should have been obvious.  “I don’t want to wait around any more, I’m ready for some action.”

My eyes widened in shock.  She couldn’t be serious!  “Wh-What!?”

Lily stared at me as her brow raised and her head cocked to the side in confusion.  After a moment she broke down in a fit of laughter, stomping a hoof against the road as she cackled at the sky.  Calming herself, she wiped a tear from her eye and raised her hooves defensively in front of her.  “Ha!  Uh, ya…  Shit, that came out wrong.  Let me try again.”  

She raised a hoof to her chest and spoke earnestly, “I’m your bodyguard now, right?  If you catch a cold then I’m gonna be guarding a sick mare in bed, and that’s just gonna be boring.  I don’t want to have to wait until you’re better to get started on this job.”  

She sat on her haunches and adjusted the rifle slung across her back with a wing.  “Look, as much as I’d like to, I’m not gonna make a move on you right now.  You’re drunk as all fucking tartarus.  And sexing up a mare, no matter how cute she is, while she can’t think straight just isn’t honorable.  No Thunderhooves is gonna do that.  You don’t need to worry.”  Seemingly as an afterthought, she added with a cocky grin, “Besides, you’d probably just pass out as soon as I got you in bed anyway.”

I pursed my lips as I tried to understand her words.  Curiosity won out over my other emotions.  “Thunder- *hic* -hooves?”

Lily nodded.  “That’s my tribe’s name.  I’m a Thunderhooves pegasus.”  She continued in a tone that was half-comforting and half-chastising, “Hey, I’m supposed to keep you safe, right?  Then let me do my job.  You don’t want to get sick, do you?”

My mane fell in my eyes as I examined the road and contemplated her offer.  I reached a hoof up to brush the pink strands out of the way as I tried to think of a suitable answer.  

She stepped closer to me, adjusting the rifle on her back once more but making no overt signs of intended physical contact.  “Trust goes both ways, Candy.  You gotta trust me if we’re gonna be putting our lives in each other’s hooves.”

She did have a point.  I had already lain useless for several days on end, and certainly didn’t relish the thought of being bedridden again so quickly.  I nodded slowly, “O-Okay.”

She smiled and turned to the side, lifting up a wing and waiting for me to join her.  Another shiver galloped through my body, providing ample encouragement as I stepped under the improvised blanket that wrapped itself around my barrel.  The feathers and steel were still cool to the touch, but the pony they were connected to was warm and soft like a blanket.

She continued our advance through the town, guiding my wobbly gait as she pulled me alongside her and spoke in a calming tone.  “See?  No big deal.  I’m just keeping you from getting sick.  We’ll get you some barding tomorrow morning so I don’t have to literally take you under my wing.”

I grinned sheepishly as she pulled me closer to her.  The embrace wasn’t exactly a hug per se, but it did feel nice.  And it had been a long long time since anyone besides my sister had hugged me.  I cleared my throat and whispered apologetically.  “Thank you.  I shouldn’t *hic* snapped.”

I felt the ripple of laughter echo through her body as she snorted in amusement and dismissed my apology.  “Don’t sweat it.  I have sorta been making passes at you all night.  It’s understandable.”

My eyes fell on her exposed chest and neck, “Aren’t you cold, too?”

She shook her head lightly as we walked together.  “Nah, I’m a pegasus.  We don’t get cold as easy as you earthers and unicorns.  We used to build cities in the sky, after all.”

Her words drew my attention to the wing draped over my side, and the glinting blades that stretched out along her feathers.  With the moon’s light catching them, I was able to discern just how many pieces of razor sharp metal lay directly along my exposed body.  Every primary and secondary feather had its own blade covering its leading edge, and the foremost portion of her entire wing was encased in an articulated cutting surface that ended in a hard stabbing point jutting out from her first feather.  I found the weapon oddly beautiful in the way it combined form and functionality, even if I was mildly confused as to how she could fly with the device.  And more than mildly uncomfortable with its proximity to my naked flesh.  

A sliver of my anxiety creeped into my voice as I questioned the wisdom of our precarious position.  “That ish a lot of blades.  You’re not going to slip and cut me, are you?”

She chuckled at my question, raising her head in a cocky expression.  “I’ve been training with Love and Tolerance since just after I got my cutie-mark, sweetheart.  I only cut what I’m trying to cut.”

A tiny ray of moonlight passed over us as we turned down a smaller road that had fared no better than the main highway.  “Are you going to *hic* cut the raidersh?”

Lily nodded before glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.  “Cut, shoot, maybe bash in a head or two.  It’ll be fun.  You just lay low and let me handle it, okay?”

We were walking straight into a fight, and for the first time since the Caravan I wouldn’t have Nohta at my side as I did so.  “If we’re gonna be fighting, I’d feel better if my sister were with us.  She’ll be crossh with me when she learns what we’ve done without her.”

Lily’s face twisted in a smirk as her wing gave me a little squeeze, “Your sister, huh?  Is she as cute as you?”

What!?  “No!”  I jabbed a hoof into Lily’s shoulder, prompting her to lift her wing and release me from her grasp while my slurred words echoed off the ancient structures all around us.  “No!  Absholutely not!  Direct your lasshivvv… your lasssivivvy… your lewd suggestions my way if you musht!  But Nohta *hic*  off limits!  I’ll not have you pestring her with-”

Lily held her hooves before her and snickered at my reaction.  “Wait.  Hold up… That is what sets you off?  I can embarrass the shit out of you all night if I want to, but I just barely hint at doing something with your sister and you finally grow some balls?”

I stomped a hoof on an intact bit of road, nearly falling over as I no longer had a warm body to lean into.  My thoughts did a marvelous job of jumbling themselves together in a confused heap, producing a rather embarrassing exclamation before my inebriated mind could sort them out.  “She… You… I don’t have balls!”  Heat flooded my cheeks as I realized the words that had left my mouth.  “Oh Luna…”  My face flushed crimson as my hoof covered my lips.

Lily fell onto her haunches, flapping her wings to maintain balance as one of her forelegs covered her laughing face.  “Haha!  Oh… oh shit!”

“It’s not funny!”  My tail swished angrily as I glowered at her.

Her giggling fit died down as she rose to her hooves and pointed a single hoof in my direction.  “You’re cute when you’re mad.”

I ground my hoof into the rubble of the road, furrowing my brow in frustration as I pleaded with her.  “You just… No flirting with Nohta, okay?”

She closed her eyes and raised her hooves in a pose of purely angelic innocence.  I could nearly imagine the halo glowing above her pierced ear and wild mane as she nodded.  “No hitting on the little sister, I got it.”

I took the opportunity to drive home my point.  “Promish me.”

She remained seated on her haunches while her forehooves performed a series of gestures I wasn’t familiar with.  “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

I cocked my head to the side, unsure of what I had just witnessed.  “What?”  Couldn’t she already fly?  And who in their right mind would waste a perfectly good cupcake?

She pulled her hoof away from her eye and winked at me, “It’s an old swear, sugar.  I promise.  Now gimme that vodka, we’re almost there and I’m dangerously sober.”

I eyed her warily as I floated the bottle over to her in a shaky bubble of magic.  She snatched the bottle out of the air and upended it in her hooves.  My eyes widened as I watched her drain the contents until only a few drinks were left.

Lily lowered the bottle and wiped her muzzle with a hoof as her wings flapped excitedly behind her.  “Ahh!  Good shit!”  She held the bottle out to me, shaking it lightly as she grinned.  “Here, kill it off if you want.  We’re almost there.”

Well, I reasoned, there wasn’t any sense in letting it go to waste…  I lifted the bottle from her hooves and brought it to my lips, taking a healthy swig before the wretched taste caught up to me.  I swallowed down the vile substance and floated the rest of the bottle back to her as my hoof dabbed at the coolly evaporating moisture on my lips; an interesting contrast to the warmth spreading through my belly.  “Ugh… I can’t get the taste off my tongue.”

Wordlessly, she took the bottle in her hooves and downed the last remaining dregs.  Nodding appreciatively, she packed the bottle into her saddlebags where it clinked against more empty glass.  She trotted back over to me and threw her wing over my shoulder.  Lily thumped her hoof against her chest, and in a voice that I was certain would carry into the homes surrounding us she boldly declared, “There!  Now we’re sisters of the bottle!  Truly, a bond that cannot be undone!”

I snorted before I could stop myself, and at her playful wink, devolved into a fit of giggles.  “You… You’re ridiculoush!”  

Lily only smiled and continued guiding me down the road.  “You ain’t seen nothing yet, babe.”

We rounded another corner, finding a row of pre-war houses with peeling paint and windows full of spider-web cracks.  Nearly every house had a wooden sign propped up in the front yard; each one depicting a different colorful picture.  One was a poorly painted bottle of pills.  Another: a fairly good rendition of a revolver.  Yet another sign showed a delicious looking and brightly colored donut, complete with sprinkles and a cup of coffee on the side.

Lily’s tone turned serious as she glanced at me out of one blood-red eye.  “So… What’s the deal with your little sis?”

I sighed and shook my head, “Ponies aren’t typically very fond of her.  I’ve been trying to keep her out of harm’s way ash much as possbull.  But… ”

Lily’s gaze returned to the row of houses before she answered casually.  “Well, maybe you should rethink that.”

I huffed, positively perplexed at the suggestion.  “What?  Why would I ever do that?”

Lily flapped her free wing as her blood-red eyes questioned me.  “She’s a grown mare, right?  Able to make her own decisions?  She helped you kill The Pyro and get away from Bright Eyes, sounds to me like she can take care of herself.  Give her a little freedom, see how she handles it.”

“She… I…”  Had I been babying my sister?  She had certainly proved herself capable of acting on her own when she, ah… acquired the medicine for my treatment.  And as loathe as I was to admit it, I had needed her to do that.  She had found the only acceptable route; the lesser of two evils, as it were.  Perhaps it really was time for me to start treating her as an equal.

Lily shrugged her shoulder, staring at the next house down the road.  “Just something to think about.”  The two of us stopped in front of a small house with a wooden porch and candles burning in a large window.  The sign propped up next to the door was a stylised heart containing a series of joined distaff and spear symbols in every possible combination.

My eye’s widened as I realized where I had been led.  “Is this… Did we come to a...”

Lily nodded, “Yep.  It’s gonna be a real shame to shoot up the best brothel in Mareon, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.”

I saw an opportunity to finally gain the upper hoof on my companion.  I nudged her in the ribs with a knee as I smirked.  “Ahem… best?”

An excited grin spread across her features, “Oh yeah, totally the best.  This is where I learned how to do the Trottingham Tickler and the Fillydelphia Fiddler in the same night!  This place is great!”  I shook my head and rolled my eyes as it quickly became apparent that my little plan had backfired spectacularly.

I raised a hoof to my head to rub my temple.  “You…  I was…  Dear Luna, do I even want *hic* know?”

She pulled her wing away from my side and leaned her rifle up against the wooden sign, adjusting her revolver’s holster as she winked at me playfully.  “Well, if you had taken option three you already would.” 

Heat blossomed in my cheeks once more as I covered my face with a hoof.  Lily chuckled to herself, then flapped her wings excitedly as she looked at the house and rubbed her chin.  “Alright, so here’s the plan.  This place is a haven for members of The Bard’s gang.  This should be pretty simple; that whole gang is soft.  Most of them are completely worthless in a fight.  We’re gonna take ‘em down and beat some answers out of the last one breathing.”

My vision was becoming unfocused as I stood in the chilly night air.  A subdued flow was overtaking the world again, causing everything to drift slightly to the left before snapping back into its proper place.  “Are you shure ‘bout this bein’ the right place?”

Lily nodded emphatically, and for the first time that night I detected a slight slur to her speech.  “Totally.  Margie did her research.  She even paid off Crossfire to change his patrol route through town for us.  No guards to make things messy.  This is gonna be a cakewalk.”

I sat down, noting how amusing the numbness in my lips was.  I fought through the ensuing giggles to ask a pressing question.  “But how c’n you be shure this is *hic* right place?  What if Margarita was wrong?”

She scoffed at my question, stretching out her wings and popping her neck.  “Margarita?  Wrong?  I’ve only ever known her judgement to be wrong once.  She’ll be right about this, don’t worry.”

Memories of a hastily gulped potion floated to prominence in my mind.  “Are we… we talkin’ ‘bout *hic* shame pony?”

She grinned; a terribly patronizing expression that I instantly loathed.  Her voice was smooth and calming as she spoke.  “You don’t have to go in with me if you don’t want to.  But I owe Margie a favor, and I can’t leave town until I do this.”

My pistol jostled in its holster as I stomped my hoof and stood up on wobbly legs, “No!  No, I… I owe her, too.  I’ll help.  I’m just retishent to be fighting.  ‘Specially without Nohta here.”

“Well, don’t worry.  You won’t be.”  I frowned as she jabbed a hoof in my direction.  “You’re a lightweight; drunk as hell.  You probably couldn’t hit a barn door as much as you’re swaying.”

The world was spinning in an almost pleasant manner, and a comfortable warmth had spread through my belly.  My shoulder didn’t hurt in the slightest, and even my magic was returning; if slowly.  Truly, the only problem in the world was just how casually my winged companion had dismissed my combat prowess.  I vowed then and there to show her just how capable I was!

The infuriating pegasus in front of me was sitting calmly and waiting for my response with a lackadaisical grin plastered all over her smug face.  But unbeknownst to her, I had worked up an elegant response that was as scathing as it was subtle.  “I… I could too!  I could *hic* so many barn doors!  You don’t even…  After we do thish, can we get shomething to eat?”

Her features softened as a genuinely warm smile replaced her standard smug grin; and then she surprised me.  A gentle chuckle bubbled out of her throat.  Not a snide, snarky, or smug cackle carrying the sharp edge of cockiness.  Not a rough guffaw poking fun at my ineptitude or embarrassment.  Just the comfortable and light-hearted sound of real mirth that one would share freely with close friends.  “Haha!  Yeah, food sounds great!  Relax, sugar, all I need you to do is keep one of ‘em alive long ‘nuff for me to get some info.”

She stepped closer to me, and asked in a voice of earnest curiosity.  “If I shoot one of ‘em in the leg, can you keep ‘em from bleeding out?”

My mind was torn between the realization that she wanted me to heal a raider, of all ponies, and the comprehension that she was attempting to develop an actual understanding of my capabilities.  I quickly realized what was more important, and responded accordingly.  “I… You wound me!  I’m the best docotorr in this town!  Of course I can do… What are we doing?”

She winked and stepped closer to me.  “Just follow my lead, okay?”  The world suddenly tilted off kilter, but an indigo hoof against my shoulder held me steady long enough for the spinning to stop.  Lily cocked her head to the side and asked, “How’s your acting?  I have an idea.”

I sensed an excellent opportunity to prove just how capable I could be.  I threw my head back, glued my eyes to the sky, and held a hoof to my heart as I expounded on my exceptional dramatic résumé.  “My...acting skills *hic* phenommmnamel!  One time... even got the role of a tree in my classh play!”

She flapped her wings excitedly, no doubt revelling in the good fortune of being accompanied by a star such as myself.  She removed her hoof from my shoulder to resume scratching her chin while her pierced ear twitched.  “Well, I need you to look excited but embarrassed.  Can you do that?”

The world spun vehemently as I nodded my head and tried to respond, “I...”  But now that I was free from the vice-like grip of her comforting hoof, I soon found an appreciation for just how hard the ground was when it came into contact with my posterior.  Looking about myself, I came to a profound understanding and voiced my discovery with no small measure of wonderment.  “I fell down!  Haha!”

Lily shook her head as we laughed together.  She offered me an indigo leg, which quickly found purchase around my white fetlock, and pulled me back up to my hooves.  As the world finally stayed still at the zenith of my ascent I realized that her questioning eyes dominated my field of vision, and that her muzzle was inches from my own.  I quickly extracted my hoof from her own to cover the blush that flooded my cheeks as I turned my head and snickered at the realization that I was completely and hopelessly inebriated.

Lily was ecstatic, flapping her wings and cheering as she pointed at my face.  “There!  That!  Do that!”

I found that if I studied the ground at my hooves, it was much less likely to spin out of control.  “D-Do what?”

Lily was grinning from ear to ear, “Be cute!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I was forced to make an admission.  “I… I don’t know how to do that!”

She draped her wing over my back once more, pulling us together side by side and guiding me straight up to the house’s door.  “I’ve got an idea.  Let’s go.  And whatever you do, don’t say anything.”  I nodded in agreement as I was all but forced to lean into her body to keep my balance, and tried to rein in the tittering fit that ensued from my amusement at the absurdity of the evening.

She rifled through her packs and pulled out a small plastic bottle.  Unscrewing the cap, she tossed two yellow-orange tablets onto her tongue and chewed quickly.  At my questioning gaze, she smirked and answered plainly.  “Buck.  Never fight fair if you don’t have to.”

Lily reached up to the door with a hoof and rapped on it loudly.  I could hear movement on the other side as somepony undid the numerous latches and locks securing the portal from the outside world.  Before they were done Lily craned her neck around to place her lips an inch from my ear, and whispered in a sultry murmur, “How about a kiss for good luck?”

My hoof found my face again, desperately trying to hide the intense reddening of my cheeks as I turned away from her and snorted at her forwardness.  At precisely that moment the door opened, revealing a devastatingly handsome ivory unicorn stallion with piercing emerald eyes set in a welcoming but questioning gaze.

Lily wasted no time making her move, though her words were slurred quite a bit more than earlier and she seemed to be having some sudden trouble keeping her head aloft.  “Hey there stud!  My marefriend and I are in need of a shtallion!  She’s got an itch needsh scratching and my tongue can’t reach it!  Care to help a couple ‘o desperate maresh out?”  She finished her spiel with a firm squeeze of her wing, eliciting a tiny squeak from my lips as I as gasped in surprise.  Dear Goddess, she was so salacious!  It was all I could do to stifle my nervous laughter behind a hoof.

A corner of the stallion’s mouth turned upward as he stepped to the side and gestured for us to enter.  “Sure thing, girl.  You want some ‘help’ too?”  Luna forgive me, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the way his corded muscles rippled underneath his coat.  His eyes caught my own, and for the briefest of moments I honestly believed that my face was going to catch flame.  A muffled trill of amusement chimed through my throat as I turned away and brushed my mane out of my face.

Lily and I stepped over the threshold together, and my hooves found cool tile underneath of them.  Despite the gentle motion of the spinning house, I was able to discern the general layout of the building’s interior with a cursory glance.  Directly to my left was a large wooden dining table and kitchen, but the rest of the living space was decorated with only the finest in slightly ruined upholstered furniture, classy wooden and glass dinnerware cabinets, a single glass coffee table adorned with bottles of booze and cocktail glasses, and a not-so-shaggy brown carpet that looked as if it had lain down in defeat about a century ago.

Lily nodded her head and spoke in a voice that was perhaps slightly too loud for being indoors.  “Oh, I need lotsh of help!  Lots and lots!  She’s good with *hic* magic bu’ shometimes that just can’t cut it, y’know?”

A purple eighth note floated away from the stallion’s horn before bursting with a pleasant sounding ring.  “That’s what we’re here for, ladies.”  Two more stark-white unicorns, one male and one female, slinked into the room wearing nothing more than confident smiles and bedroom eyes. 

An ivory earth mare, this one wearing striped pink and black form fitting socks, followed a moment later to nibble at the first mare’s neck and murmur seductively, “Mmmm, I love repeat customers.”  Even with the copious amounts of alcohol, that was too much for me to handle.  I pointedly stared at the table and tried to remember why in Equestria I had willingly walked into a bordello, of all places.

Lily stuck her bottom lip out and pouted.  “Oh, is that... *hic* ish that everypony?  You don’t have any more stallions?  More mares would be nice too, for that *hic* for that matter.”  Her hoof dug into her saddlebags, procuring a bulging sack that jingled and jangled with the universal siren call of bottle caps.  She nudged at my side with a hoof as she cooed next to my ear, “I’m willing to pay extra if you show her a really good time!”  Goddess, she was trying to embarrass me to death!

The first stallion walked into my field of vision and shrugged, never taking his eyes off of me even as he answered Lily’s query.  “Sorry doll, this is the whole shebang.  The rest of us are out of town.”  His horn lit up, gripping my saddlebags in a dark purple glow.  “Why don’t you let me take that for you?”  My tail curled around my flank at the sudden magical touch, but without any acknowledgement on my part he slid my bags underneath Lily’s bladed feathers and set them by the door.  

“Oh… Thish is it?”  Lily snorted once in wry amusement, and every pretense of her drunken charade evaporated just like vodka from my lips.  “Well, this is gonna be quicker than I thought.”

Lily’s wing lifted from my body, and at the abrupt cessation of physical contact I looked to see her staring hungrily at the ponies in front of us, a wicked grin quickly spreading across her face.  Without taking her eyes off the quartet of, ah… ladies and gentlecolts of the evening, Lily spoke in a husky whisper, “Sorry about this, Candy.”  

Without any further warning her forehoof found my shoulder and shoved hard, flinging me across the room and behind the wooden table, where I landed on my side with an inelegant grunt, “Oof!”  My head was still dizzy, and the room was spinning like a top, but the cool tile felt surprisingly good against my wounded shoulder.  It also felt good against my cheeks, washing a comfortable chill over the remaining blush covering my face.  Lily was supposed to be the best, right?  She knew what she was doing.  I decided that laying still for a moment to let the world calm down wasn’t an altogether terrible idea.

The first stallion cried out in alarm.  “Whoa! What’d you do-”  *Blam*  Lily’s revolver roared, blasting a wretched hole into the stallion’s leg.  He fell over, shrieking and clutching his knee in agony, “Oh FUCK!”  I had a nearly clear view of him through the forest of wooden table and chair legs as he writhed and squirmed on the floor, smearing his blood over the carpet as he struggled to keep his wound elevated.

The other two mares and remaining stallion gasped, their eyes wide in shock as Lily launched herself in their direction.  All I could make out from my angle were the bright colors and fuzzy shapes that flashed through the kitchen’s furniture; rearing white legs, fluttering blue wings, and arcs of splashing crimson.  Somepony was laughing hysterically, as if she had just heard the funniest joke in all the world.  Somepony else was screaming.  It didn’t take long for me to change my mind about lying still.

I pushed myself to my hooves, listening to the sounds of breaking furniture and shattering glass.  Blood was already splattered across the floor, pouring freely from the many cuts slashed through the earth mare’s shoulder, neck, and face.  From the look of things she had thrown herself into a hutch, smashing through glass and wood in her attempt to avoid Lily’s blades.  Her jaw was set in a mix of rage and shock as her hooves slid futilely over the splintered door of the hutch.  The blood dripping down her muzzle had soaked into her socks, and all she was managing to do was smear scarlet all over the wooden door.  Her companions were even worse off than she.

The standing stallion reared back in surprise, and the double-buck Lily had intended for his face caught him squarely in the ribs.  He flew into the glass coffee table with a pained grunt, scattering liquor bottles and shattering the table with an uproarious clatter.  The shards of glass from the table and broken bottles clinked and crunched against each other as they ground together underneath his body.  For the moment he was incapable of doing anything more than howling and cursing in agony as the shards bit into his skin.

The unicorn mare had thrown herself to the floor, covering her face and horn with her hooves and screaming like a frightened filly.  Lily seemed content to ignore her completely, and instead focused her attention on the second stallion.  Even as he was struggling to rise from his bed of broken glass Lily’s revolver roared in the confined space, punching two gargantuan holes through his torso to splatter the wall behind him in a thick film of crimson.

The earth mare finally gave up on her attempt to pry the door open and simply smashed through the thin wooden barrier with a single hoof, dragging out a blocky pistol with a long magazine.  She shouted a frightened plea to her companion.  “Serenade!  You have to run!”  As Lily and the terrified unicorn glanced back to the earth mare, she slammed the ammunition into the weapon, knocking the gun askew in her mouth.  The blood that flowed from her forehead and into one of her eyes would surely hinder her aim, but at that distance…

“Lily!”  I screamed, bracing myself against the table and trying to focus my magic on my pistol.  In my inebriated state, I found that simple task much harder than it should have been.  Out of time, I threw myself to the floor behind the table and hoped that the many table and chair legs would be enough to protect me from the incoming gunfire.

Lily noticed the pistol just in time to duck low as the earth mare’s weapon blared repeatedly, sending a flurry of shots careening into the walls and furniture in a haphazard barrage of lead.  The gun’s reports reverberated off the walls in a series of thunderous roars and accompanying flashes as the mare’s head jerked back from the excessive recoil.  Flaking paint from the walls, splinters of wood and porcelain from the cabinets and my table, and little tufts of stuffing from the sofa jumped into the chaotic fray like drunken revelers at an overly enthusiastic Full Moon party.  I could only thank Luna that I was left unscathed, even if I felt guilty for doing so when I noticed the fresh bullet wounds in Lily’s legs and shoulders.

The very instant that the mare had run out of ammunition Lily took to the air, shoving herself off of the floor with her newly bleeding legs to launch herself at the socked pony.  Covering the distance with quick and powerful beats of her wings, she hurled herself into the earth mare and sent the two of them toppling one over the other on the floor as Lily resumed her maniacal laughing.  The empty pistol dropped to the ruined carpet, seemingly forgotten by all as Lily discovered the only capable fighter in the bunch.  When the pair rolled into the ruined hutch, their tumbling stopped.  The earth mare was on top.

Her wounds were still bleeding profusely over her enraged face and off-white body, scattering little droplets of crimson all over the carpet and leaving messy streaks of red to mingle with the blood already in Lily’s fur and feathers.  She held Lily’s throat against the floor in her weakening grip as the blood from her shoulder poured down her socked leg to moisten Lily’s chin, and reared up to raise a hoof above Lily’s smirking face.

Even as the hoof crashed ineffectually into Lily’s smug grin, the pegasus never ceased laughing.  “Ha!  C’mon Ballad!  I know you like it rougher than that!”  Lily twisted underneath the mare, and a blue blur of feathers flashed upward to plunge into the earth mare’s stomach.  Ballad’s eyes shot wide as a deluge of ruby flowed down Lily’s wing.  With the tiniest of movements of her wing, each of them wringing its own pained grimace from the gasping mare’s face, Lily slowly rose from the floor.  The earth pony hobbled sideways in an attempt to escape the pain, futilely grasping at the bladed feathers sunk into her abdomen as Lily maintained the distance between them.

Lily took a moment to survey the carnage around her, ignoring the subdued choking sobs coming from the pony she had impaled.  I stood up and joined her in a quick inspection of the room from my vantage point at the table, noting the sobbing Serenade that was still crying into her hooves on the floor.  The remaining stallion still couldn’t do much more than grunt and curse Lily under his breath.  For a moment, the violence had died down.  I took the opportunity to wrestle my pistol from its holster, holding it in my teeth the way Father had showed me so long ago.

Lily brought her lips close to the earth mare’s ear and whispered, “I’m just here for answers.  You don’t have to die for The Bard, you know.”  Lily nodded in my direction as she added, “My girl can fix you up.”  A wound of that severity would certainly tax my abilities to their… Wait… What did she say?  When did I become anyone’s girl!?

Ballad’s answer was strained as she hissed through grit teeth, “Fuck you, Lily…  I always knew you were sick in the- GAH!”  Ballad was cut short as Lily twisted her blades around in the mare’s gut like a corkscrew.  

Lily continued to whisper in a voice that was far too calm.  “Does Serenade know where The Bard is?”

A quiver ran through Ballad’s lips, and a pair of tears mingled with the blood on her face.  Her hoof dug and prodded at the blades fruitlessly while her ragged breath blew little flecks of blood away from her lips.  Lily only moved her wings with miniscule adjustments in response, keeping the earth mare in a constant state of agony.  With every minor twitch Lily leaned a little closer to the mare, tilting her head as if to examine the emotions playing across Ballad’s face.  I couldn’t help but imagine that she was savoring the pain she was causing this pony.

After several excruciating moments Ballad craned her neck back to the paralyzed unicorn mare and whispered, “I’m sorry, baby.”  Serenade’s jaw fell as she stared at Ballad in horror.

Lily’s response, however, was not at all what I had imagined it would be.  She extracted her wing from Ballad’s stomach with a sick squelch, allowing a scarlet waterfall to pour out of the ivory mare, and gripped Ballad’s bloodstained cheeks between her blue hooves to shout in her face.  “Are you fucking serious!?  Are you that much of a coward!?”

Ballad’s vitality was quickly waning, evidenced by the gasping words that left her throat.  “Don’t… wanna… die…”

Lily’s answer was as quick as it was vicious.  She jerked the mare’s head towards her own face, clenching her teeth over Ballad’s left ear and savagely ripping the appendage away from Ballad’s skull.  The ivory mare found enough strength to shriek in agony once more as Lily spat the flap of fur and skin on the floor at her hooves.

Lily snarled in disgust at the mare.  “Too fucking late.”  Her hooves left Ballad’s face as she spun in place to face Serenade, her wing sweeping cleanly through Ballad’s unprotected neck.  The lifeless head of the earth mare thudded against the carpet as blood spurted over Lily’s back and wings, but Lily’s reaction was nonchalant to the point of callousness.  She disregarded the body slumping against her own completely, as if it were beneath her to heed such a small inconvenience.

Serenade gasped as her friend’s body fell at Lily’s hooves, and she finally found the resolve to act.  Her horn flared with a brilliant emerald light, illuminating her enraged features as a corresponding cloud of magic floated the pistol off the floor.  Another emerald bubble quickly retrieved a fresh magazine from the hutch and reloaded the weapon.  

Lily was too far away from her!  She couldn’t react in time!  I slipped into S.A.T.S. and prayed to Luna to guide my aim for my companion’s sake once more.

The first lance of pink energy flew harmlessly above Serenade’s head to singe the wall.  The second melted the carpet at her hooves.  Just as she gasped and turned her weapon in my direction my third blast impacted with her shoulder, burning a deep hole into her alabaster coat and filling the room with the awful stench of charred flesh.  Her pistol faltered in her magical grasp, the barrel dipping low as her eyes shut tight in an agonized grimace, and Lily used the opportunity to make her move.

Lily bolted past the mare, digging her hooves into the carpet to stop her burst of motion as I cut off my assault.  She raked her wing against Serenade’s unprotected barrel, neck, and face, rending deep gashes along her ivory body that weeped blood like rivers of liquid ruby.  The pistol fired uselessly into a nearby couch and thumped against the carpeted floor as the pony fell to her knees, wide eyed and gasping throatily in pain like a fish out of water.  Coincidentally, I couldn’t help but note how her new wounds bore a striking resemblance to blood-soaked gills.

Lily slowly turned away from the mare, allowing Serenade just a few more pained moments in life before she bucked out with her hind legs.  Lily’s back hooves connected with the kneeling mare’s ribs with the resounding crack of breaking bones as Serenade was thrown into a nearby dinnerware cabinet, shattering the wood and glass as it rained down on her ravaged body.  She lay still as her life’s blood seeped out to soak into the already horrendously stained carpet.

Lily turned to smile at me over her shoulder.  “Thanks babe.  Looks like I owe you another drink.”

I reholstered my pistol, thanking Luna for blessing me with my Pipbuck and all of its amazing features, and grumbled, “If every night of drinking with you ends *hic* bloodshed, I think I’ll have to passh.”

“Sparkle-Cola and makeouts then?”  Her blood-splattered grin was as insufferable as the playful way she swished her tail behind her like an excited puppy. 

I rolled my eyes as I groaned, “Lily…”

She winked in my direction as she smirked.  “We’ll see how it goes.”  I shook my head in response, and turned my attention to the scene that lay before me.

My mouth hung open as I surveyed the carnage wrought by my new companion.  The blood of her victims was everywhere; splashed against the walls, dripping from her feathers, and pooling on the floor.  Broken shards of glass, splinters of wood, and little tufts of stuffing from the couch littered the room like debris left from an explosion.  In a matter of moments, she had killed three ponies and left one completely incapacitated and whimpering in agony; and she wasn’t even out of breath.  But the most disconcerting thing of all was her nonchalant reaction to the violence; a simple and contented nod of her smirking face as she assessed the remains of her savage assault.

My shaky legs carried me to the table, allowing me to brace myself against the wooden surface as I tried to keep the devastated room from spinning.  The incapacitated stallion was still whimpering and moaning on the floor, uttering foul obscenities as he cursed Lily through clenched teeth.  I rubbed my temple, noting how much more comfortable it was to only watch the world spin through one eye instead of two.

Lily took the opportunity of the relatively calm moment to light up another cigarette and nod in my direction.  “There ya go, Candy.  Lesson one: if you know you gotta fight, then be brutal, be quick, and be relentless.  Fuck their shit so hard they can’t even remember how to fight back.”

My mind had sobered considerably in the wake of the slaughter.  I gulped air as my racing heart approached something resembling a normal beat, and nodded back to her.  “D-Duly noted.”

Lily crouched over the bodies of the fallen ponies, flicking her wings over their heads and snipping off their left ears for the raider bounty.  She snatched up the pistol from the floor, stuffing it into her packs before sauntering over to the wounded buck as the shards of broken glass crunched underneath her hooves.  She grasped his shoulders in her hooves, taunting him in her arrogant voice with a simple statement as she blew smoke in his face.  “You’re bleeding.”

The stallion was less than amused with her summation.  “No fucking shit I’m bleeding!  You shot me in the fucking leg, you bitch!”

She shrugged and spoke without even the barest hint of sympathy in her voice.  “Yep.  It’s your own fault though.  You’d have never gotten shot if you didn’t work for The Bard.”

Still clutching his leg, the unicorn groaned in response.  “Ughhrr… What!?  The fuck are you talking about!?”

Lily ignored the buck to stare into my eyes.  “Hey Candy, you can keep him alive, right?  I don’t want him passing out from blood loss before we get some answers.”

I bolstered myself to use my magic and nodded.  “I-”  A purple burst of magic gripped my pistol, yanking on the strap that held it in my holster.

Lily slammed her hoof into the stallion’s horn, interrupting his spell and causing him to cry out in fresh agony as she ground the hard edge of her hoof into the sensitive magical appendage.  Scowling ferociously, she lowered her head to shout directly into his ear as her cigarette fell to sizzle in a pool of blood.  “Try it again, asshole!  Please try it again!  Give me a reason to break your fucking horn off!”

The buck’s only response was to groan and whimper as he grit his teeth against the pain.  Lily seized the opportunity to grip his shoulders in her hooves.  Before he could react she had pulled him upright and slammed him onto the table’s surface in front of me.  She had positioned his horn over the edge of the table, and had reared up to her hind hooves as she lazily flapped her wings and pressed her weight down on his precariously placed appendage.  She half growled, half yelled into his face.  “Is that what you want?  Is that what it’s gonna take to make you talk?”  I could only stare and marvel at her behavior, trying to recall what she had said about somepony’s true nature shining through in a fight.

The stallion was squirming on the table, his wounded knee all but forgotten in favor of his futile attempts to pry Lily’s bloodied hoof from his horn.  “Oh, fuck!  What do you want from me!?”

Lily ignored him, glancing back to me and speaking in a startlingly calm and collected voice.  “How’s he doing, doc?  Think he’s gonna live?”

The unicorn’s eyes latched onto me, wide in terror as he shouted.  “She’s a fucking doctor?  She can’t even stand up straight!  What the fuck is wrong with-”

Lily mashed her free hoof into the stallion’s muzzle, bloodying his snout and effectively silencing him.  Contempt mingled with indifference in her voice as she continued to taunt the pony under her hooves.  “You talk way too much about shit I don’t care about.”  Looking back to me, she added, “You’re up, Candy.”

My eyes traveled over the red and blue legs holding the stallion down, and I winced in sympathetic pain.  “Sh-shouldn’t I heal you *hic* first?”

Lily smirked condescendingly, only just barely failing to conceal the pained wince that was creeping onto her face.  “Me?  Pfft… I’m fine.  This hardly hurts at all!”  After seeing my incredulous stare, Lily continued in a bewilderingly flippant tone, “Trust me babe, when you’ve been through as much shit as I have, this is nothing.”  I could only blink in response, watching the blood drip over her fetlocks.  She chuckled at my silence, and added quickly, “Plus, you know… Vodka helps. A lot.  Just heal me up later, okay?”  I had to massage a temple at her behavior, but did as she asked and turned my attention to the stallion on the table.

In spite of my own apprehension regarding what we were doing, I understood that a life would be lost should I delay any longer.  I nodded, allowing my spell to sputter and fizzle twice before the magic took hold and poured into and over his body.  The pressure on my horn and face was painful enough to pierce the veil of my inebriation, bringing a tiny measure of clarity to my thoughts, but they were nothing compared to the searing agony exuding from my leg.  I cleared my throat and offered up my diagnosis.  “He… No artrees hit…  The radiush is mossly okay.  Carpus *hic* messed up.  Metacarpalsh too.  I think his-”

Lily furrowed her brow and snorted in amusement.  “Uh… Candy?  I was asking about his leg.”

I cocked my head to the side in confusion.  “That’s what I’m talking…”  Understanding struck home a moment later.  “Oh!  I… I need to dig out the bullet.  And his knee is messed up.”

Lily’s eyes shot wide with giddy excitement as she lowered her muzzle to taunt the stallion.  “You hear that big guy?  You got shot!  This doctor says your knee is messed up!”

One of his hooves managed to shove Lily’s hoof away from his muzzle, allowing him to scream an infuriated response.  “No fucking shit!  You shot me in the goddess-mmph!”  Lily’s hoof slammed back into place again, silencing him once more.

She giggled into his ear, still applying an uncomfortable amount of pressure on his horn.  “Looks like your adventuring days are over, huh?”  Lily’s face suddenly scrunched up while she shook her mane and shoulders, as if she were shivering from the cold.  “Heh, I felt that one.”  Lily chortled to herself before looking back to me.  “So can you keep him alive?”

I pursed my lips and furrowed my brow, nodding even as I made a small concession, “I can probly shtop bleeding.  But… magic’s not recovered enough *hic* keep him from re-opening the wound.  And I’m not shtrong ‘nuff to fuse and reposition the bones and carrtlage.  He’ll need a potion or bandage or-”  My tongue seemed to be staging a coup in my mouth, adamantly refusing to form words properly.  I was overcome with the urge to apologize for my incoherence.  “Oh Luna, I shimply cannot speak at all!”

Lily shrugged nonchalantly, winking at me as she tapped her hoof against his horn painfully.  “Don’t worry about it, babe, we don’t want him running off on us anyway.  Just keep him from bleeding out.”

I placed my hooves on the table next to the buck’s squirming legs, looking him in the eye and pleading, “You… you have to shtay shtill, *hic* ‘kay?  I gotta… gotta get the bullet…”  The stallion's wide and frightened eyes flitted about the room as if he were looking for any viable alternative, but finally landed on my own.  I was able to witness the precise moment when his eyes turned from a near-feral panic to hopeful resignation.   He shut his eyes tight and lay motionless save for a tiny nod of his head.

I laid a gentle hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder, trying to calm him just as I braced myself for the coming agony.  I concentrated as well as I could, using my spell to find the tiny fragments of metal that hadn’t passed completely through the stallion’s leg.  Tiny telekinetic fields lifted those flattened shards and jagged flakes of lead past raw flesh and sinew as the unicorn grunted in pain.  I felt every shard leaving his leg, as surely as if I were extracting them from my own shattered knee.  Finally, a weak healing spell mended the veins that I had scratched and fused the flesh together before I severed the magical connection and nodded to Lily.  The unicorn would need a proper medical examination soon, and a leg cast at the very least, but he would live provided he sought aid quickly.

I stared into his eyes, feeling more than a little guilty for what had transpired that evening.  “You need a healing potion.  Are there any around here?”  His head, still being pressed firmly against the table by Lily’s hoof, nodded pointedly at the cabinets underneath the kitchen sink.  

I swayed gently to the side as I made my way over to the indicated storage space, and managed to open the door after fumbling with the handle for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time.  “Ahh, here they are.”  Retrieving the two standard healing potions within, I turned around to float the bottles to the table.

Lily removed her hoof from the stallion’s face just long enough for me to administer him far too small a dose.  He drank greedily of the healing potion before Lily tilted the bottle away from him and stated coldly, “That’s enough.  No need to waste good potion on bad ponies.”  He was left gasping for breath as the blood from her hooves dripped over his face to push the potion away.  I frowned at the interference of my medical duties, but couldn’t think of how to argue on the unicorn’s behalf.

Instead my eyes drifted over Lily’s indigo fur, stopping at each of the bleeding holes in her body.  “I shtill need to tend to *hic* your wounds.”

She waved me off cooly.  “Later.”  Lily leaned in close to the stallion’s face, speaking softly.  “Alright asshole.  I know who you work for.  What I want to know is where he’s at.”

“Fuck you!  I don’t know what-”  Lily’s hoof slammed into the wounded pony’s gut, silencing him and causing his eyes to bulge in pain.

Lily pulled her hoof back to inspect it nonchalantly before berating him further.  “Please, by all means.  Keep lying to me.  I’ll keep hurting you, and the good doctor here will keep patchin’ you up.  And you and I can do our little dance all fucking night.”  In a voice that was cold with indifference, she asked again, “Where’s The Bard?”

The buck spluttered, spitting out his words quickly in a trembling voice.  “F-Fancy Lick!”

I covered my mouth with a hoof; every bit of trepidation I felt at how this stallion was being treated vanished like smoke dissipating into clean air.  He really was a raider.  I glanced to Lily, noting how the bone in her ear bobbed up and down almost as if it had a mind of its own.  She had been correct.  Or rather, Margarita had been correct and Lily had simply trusted her judgement.  And now that trust had just exposed a serious problem within Mareon’s walls.  The town suddenly felt even less like the safe haven I had once believed it to be. 

Lily let out a dissatisfied huff, ruffling her feathers while she griped, “You… Damn it!  I know that’s a lie, you jackass!”

My brow furrowed in confusion.  “What?”

The unicorn was squirming and whimpering under the pressure of Lily’s hoof on his horn, but she ignored him to complain to me.  “That was total brahmin shit!  I didn’t even get to cut on him!”  Her crestfallen pout was incredibly pitiful as she whined further.  “I was gonna get me an ear, too…”  Lily shuddered lightly as she winced in disappointment.

The terrified sobs of the buck on the table caught my attention once more.  I lifted my hoof to plead with my winged companion.  “Lily… I think that maybe he’s telling-”

“No, no I got it.”  She casually waved me off with a wing before lightly dragging her feathers across his bruised ribs; allowing him to feel the sharp steel scratching at his hide.  “Alright, I’m only gonna ask one last time before this gets messy… Where is The Bard?”

The stallion squirmed and stammered.  “I-I just told you!” 

Lily chuckled to herself, shaking her head as she chided him.  “I was kinda hoping you’d say that.”  The wicked grin from earlier returned to her face as Lily winked in my direction.  “Heads up, Candy.”

“What!?”  I scarcely had time to gasp and step to the side before Lily dug her hooves underneath the stallion’s forelegs and beat her wings powerfully.  She drug his flailing body off the table, knocking the wooden chairs to the floor, and used her leverage to fling him through the brothel’s front window.  Fresh blood and shattered glass flew through the air as the unicorn shrieked in terror and agony, landing with a crashing thud against the house’s wooden porch.

His moans and grunts mingled with the tinkling and crunching of broken glass as Lily nonchalantly took the opportunity to peruse the raider’s unguarded refrigerator.  I sat, stunned once more at the sudden and casual violence, while she dug through the ancient appliance and pocketed bottles of booze.  After a moment, she extracted her head and tossed a plastic bottle of water in my direction.

The bottle impacted against my exposed chest, and my hooves fumbled to catch it while Lily chuckled softly and lifted a hoof to her face and tilted her head back to pantomime the drinking of a beverage.  “Here, babe.  You’re a fun drunk, but you’re gonna have a wild hangover tomorrow.”

She sauntered over to my saddlebags, lifting them off of the floor and offering them to me with a hoof.  “Come on, he’s almost ready to crack.  I just gotta work on him a little bit more and we’ll have a lead on your raider problem.”

“I…”  Luna was testing my resolve, I was sure of it.  How could I set right all these wrongs if a little spilled blood, and raider blood at that, made me uneasy?  This pony had made his choice, and now he was reaping the fruits of his labor.  “... okay.  But not before you let me treat you.”  

“Yeah, okay.  He’s not going anywhere.”  She sat primly in front of me, cocking her head to the side in an impish grin while the raider outside moaned in agony.  I tried my best to ignore his pained vocalizations as I moved closer to Lily, raising my hooves to her wounded shoulder and slipping into my spell once more.

Oddly subdued pain bloomed across my legs and shoulders, causing me to wince as my hooves ran through her fur, but none of the wounds held my attention nearly so well as the entirely alien sensations coming from the phantom wings sprouting from my body.  Before, when I had checked on a sleeping Lily at the behest of Doc Flannel, I hadn’t felt anything like this.  The difference between her wings when asleep and when awake was as clear a contrast as night from day.  I could feel every new muscle aching to be let loose, every unfamiliar joint screaming to stretch itself free, and every sensitive feather follicle twitching at the tiniest of hitherto unnoticed air currents.  With a start, I realized that the flowing air was the breath leaving my gaping mouth.

“Your hooves are soft.”  Lily’s smooth voice broke me from the reverie of discovery.

I stammered, taken aback by the bemused look in her eyes.  “I-I’m sorry, I um… I’ve never *hic* never treated a pegasus before.”

The corner of her mouth lifted upward as her face broke out in a smug smirk.  “Take your time, babe.  Enjoy the sights.  Not like I’m bleeding out here or anything.”

A hint of blush creeped over my cheeks as I remembered what I was doing.  “R-Right…”  I focused on the bullet-wounds, extracting the flattened bits of lead that had bitten into her hide with my magic.  Four pieces of metal fell to the floor with sharp rings against the tile, each accompanied by a bravely stoic refusal from Lily to acknowledge the pain we both felt with their removal.  Soon enough her blood was mottling my hooves with splotches of scarlet.  As I moved from wound to wound, I saw the sheer number of bullet, knife, and other indiscernible scars lying just underneath her fur.  I failed to stifle a gasp as I imagined what her life must have been like.

Lily didn’t put up any resistance when I instructed her to drink both the whole potion and the remainder of the one we had given the buck.  After her wounds had closed she smiled encouragingly, thanking me with a simple head nod before stepping through the door to resume chasing her quarry.  I cleaned myself off with the sink and donned my packs to follow her outside.

Ponies were beginning to filter into the street, nearly all of them armed with at least a pistol or knife.  A few of them were floating assault rifles in vibrantly colored bubbles of magic, painting the crumbled roads and houses in a rainbow of vivid light.  Several ponies wearing scratched and dinged sets of combat barding were trying to settle the frightened herd down, but were mostly ignored as the throng craned their necks around the guards to inspect the bleeding stallion slowly dragging himself into the road.

Lily reclaimed her rifle and glided over to the raider, giving the peacekeepers ample cause to turn their backs on the gathered crowd and face her.  A familiar lavender mare rushed over to Lily and the unicorn, skidding to a halt as Lily pinned the stallion’s tail to the road with a hoof.  I managed to mostly keep my balance as I stumbled towards them and sipped on the liberated water.

The mare with the little pink and yellow boxes hanging from the sides of her barding was floating a small submachine gun in her forest-green magic as her eyes darted to and fro.  “Lily!  What the fuck is going on?  We heard gunshots and-  Oh shit!  What happened to him?”  I couldn’t help but think that she looked quite a bit different without bloodshot eyes.

Lily smiled and waved jovially with her free hoof, “Hi Purple Haze!  Gimme one second, I’m doing your job again!”  As soon as she was done talking Lily slammed her hoof into the unicorn’s withers, eliciting a terse grunt of pain as his bloodied chest was pressed against the asphalt.

Purple’s pale-blue mane was whipping back and forth past her eyes as her attention was dragged from the stallion on the ground to the pegasus flipping him onto his back.  “Lily!  What the fuck are you-” 

“WHERE’S THE FUCKING BARD!?”  Lily smashed both her hooves into the stallion’s face, screaming in a voice laced with unchecked hatred.

The buck finally snapped, his words bubbling past the blood in his mouth as he whimpered.  “S-Spursburg!  He’s in… in Spursburg!  Don’t k-k-kill me!  I... I’m sorry!”

I wobbled with as much grace and poise as I was capable of while downing the rest of the water, ambling up to the trio just as the stallion made his confession.  Purple Haze was staring dumbfounded at what had just transpired.  Lily only shook the stallion’s head against the road and continued yelling in his face.  “WHAT ELSE?  WHAT’S HE DOING!?”

“I DON’T KNOW!”  His blood splattered against her hooves and muzzle with every terrified syllable.

“ANSWER ME BEFORE I SLIT YOUR-”

“I DON’T… don’t know….don’t... ”  The stallion’s voice devolved into sniveling whimpers as he lay underneath Lily’s snarling face.  

Lily glowered at Purple Haze as she stepped away from the stallion, giving him one final kick in the ribs for good measure.  “You got spies in your town, Haze.  Take care of it, or I will.”

The buck continued to whimper at our hooves.  “Mercy… please… forgive-”

“Forgiveness?”  Lily cut him off, her voice absolutely dripping with contempt, “You think you deserve it after you sold this town out and got all those ponies killed?”

Snot and tears were mixing with the blood on the buck’s face as he whimpered.  “Please… please…  I won’t do it again, I swear!”

Lily lifted her voice, calling out to the crowd that had gathered in the street.  “Can anypony here really take that chance?  Does Mareon want to have this bastard open the gates and let his crew waltz back in here again?”

Angry shouts and confused murmurs mingled together in the throng of voices that rose in response.  Being as close as I was to her, I could finally see Lily swaying gently on her hooves and flapping her wings to maintain balance.  Her inebriated state was lost on the crowd, who only fed off her energetic display to feed their growing outrage.  I stood still; torn between compassion for a wounded pony and resentment for an individual that had most certainly played an integral part in the attack on the town.  

Lying at my hooves was a fiend responsible for the violence visited upon the town.  He was indirectly responsible for a portion of my own guilt and grief, and directly responsible for the dozens of fresh graves in the town’s cemetery.  His hoof reached out to me as he begged for healing, but instead of aiding him I retracted my hooves and backed away; disgust wrinkling the features of my face.

Purple Haze turned back to the crowd, trying to pacify the angry mob as best she could.  “Everypony calm down!  We’re not just letting him go!  He’ll sit in a cell until Sheriff Dry Wells figures out what to do with him!”

Lily’s voice was a breathy whisper spoken through grit teeth as she pinned the stallion’s legs underneath her hooves once more. “But he wants forgiveness.”

Purple caught Lily’s utterance, and turned back to her with a fearful recognition that I didn’t comprehend.  “Lily…  Don’t…”

Lily held a wing to my chest, gently easing me backwards and away from the buck.  Her eyes flashed with that malicious grin one more time as she spoke directly to me.  “He asked for forgiveness.  I’m gonna give it to him.”

Purple shouted as Lily bit down on the revolver in her holster.  “Lily wait!”

*BLAM*

My ears rang from the proximity of the gunshot.  ‘Forgiveness’ might not have been as loud as The Worm, but it proved no less effective at turning the raider’s head into crimson jelly.  A hushed silence hung over the crowd as everypony registered what had just transpired.  The only movement was that of errant moonbeams gently brushing across stunned faces.  I couldn’t help but feel that The Dark Mother was teaching her children a harsh lesson; one I intended to take to heart.  The tranquil moment finally broke when an elderly mare stomped her hooves on the road in applause.  Some members of the crowd followed suit and began cheering for the blood that had been spilt, others simply spat on the ground and turned to walk away from the scene.

Purple was yelling again, “Damn it, Lily!  You shot him in the head!”

Lily breathed deeply as she retracted her wing, using the blade on her first feather to etch a tiny notch into the bit of her weapon.  She holstered her gun and finally turned to acknowledge Purple Haze, shrugging unapologetically.  “Just a little.”

Purple clopped a hoof angrily on the asphalt, swishing her short blue tail behind her.  “How are we gonna interrogate that son of a bitch if he’s dead?”

Lily snorted once, her tone completely casual.  “Go ask Half-Moon if you really want to.”  She lifted a hoof to her muzzle and called out to the dispersing throng of ponies.  “Or better yet, just sit on your haunches and let MMMM take care of shit like it always has!”

Hushed whispers and excited utterances rippled through the herd of ponies behind the guards.  “MMMM?  Did she just say...”

Lily’s wings flapped excitedly, flicking little droplets of blood all over the road as she shouted and swayed over the ivory corpse at her hooves.  “Mmhmm!  That’s right bitches!  Margarita’s Mercenaries, Munitions, and Moonshine is back!  Nothing can stop the booze!”

Purple smacked her face just underneath her horn, groaning in agitation.  “You’re drunk, Lily.”

Lily laughed off the accusation, throwing her hoof around my shoulders.  The two of us nearly toppled over before she corrected and dragged us both upright.  “Ha!  Little bit.  I had to get to know my new friend here before we set off together.”  I couldn’t help but grin at her word choice, trying to stand a little straighter as I took strength from the statement.

“New friend?”  The guard’s eyes looked me up and down before recognition set in.  Purple jabbed a hoof in my direction, still speaking in an agitated tone of voice that made me rather uncomfortable.  “You’re the doctor from a while back.  Did she drag you along for this?”

I furrowed my brow, taken aback by the insinuation that I was some foal to be led by the hoof.  “I… I *hic* of my own-”

“That’s right.  It was all my idea.”  Lily cut me off, tapping her hoof against my shoulder as she leaned against me.  “I got drunk and dragged her along for one last job, but she didn’t have any part of it.  I was working on behalf of MMMM to expose a raider threat to Mareon.  Now I’m under her employ to go kill even more raiders.  The law can’t touch me.”  Lily stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at Purple.  I couldn’t suppress an unladylike snort at her foalish antics.

Purple Haze sat on her haunches and rubbed her temples between her hooves.  “Fucking…  Ugh!”  She jabbed her hoof at me again, her glare clearly betraying her frustration with the situation.  “Your name is Candy, right?  Someone was looking for you earlier.”

I cocked my head to the side, “Shome… who?”

Purple rose to her hooves, picking her steps around the body that was oozing blood into the street, and closed the distance to stand a pony’s length away from me.  “Big guy.  Flew in from the north earlier today.  Said he was looking for a prissy unicorn doctor with a pink mane and a short bitchy mare wearing a black cloak.”

My jaw dropped.  Surely I had misheard her.  I shook my head, trying to bring some clarity to my thoughts.  “E-Excuse me… you shaid that he flew in?”

Purple nodded, “Griffin merc by the name of Bram.  Had plumage darker than his armor.”  

No… No no no, Luna please no.  My hoof found my lips as my eyes scanned the road at my hooves.  The griffins… they were coming to finish the job!

Lily’s hoof pulled me a little closer as she asked incredulously, “You let a Talon just fly into Mareon?”

Purple sighed and glowered at Lily for a moment before deigning to speak.  “Well with the new raider laws that you just love love love so much, I can’t really do anything to a mercenary willing to help out, now can I?  I swear, it’s like you think that binding my horn is a good thing…”

I shook my head again, I needed information and didn’t have the time to sit idly by while these two ponies quarreled with each other.  My voice rose as I pleaded with Purple.  “Where is he!?”

She pursed her lavender lips and shrugged, “I didn’t like the look of him, and I remembered how you helped all those folks.  I told him you went west.”

My face fell as I breathed a ragged sigh of relief.  “You… thank you.”

She snorted and jabbed her hoof at me again, “Just don’t make me regret lying to a Talon, okay?  I’m in no hurry to get eviscerated.”

A drawn out groan sounded beside me as Lily threw her head back to the sky and grumbled.  “Shiiiiit…  Purple, I’m sorry.”  Lily removed her hoof from my shoulders and poked at my saddlebags.  “Candy, show her what you showed me earlier.”

I furrowed my brow in puzzlement, “What?”

Lily nodded, but sighed wearily.  “When we were talking about your home.  And who you found there.  Go ahead, Purple should be the first pony to see this.”

Confused, I flipped open the top of my packs and dug through the contents with my hooves.  Did she mean the grenade Margarita had gifted me?  The garnet Nohta gathered from my stable’s library?  I hadn’t even told her of the mysterious orb from Luna’s statue…  Oh!  Of course!  Shiny black leather draped itself across my hoof as I produced The Pyro’s gas mask, holding it up for the guard’s inspection.  Purple’s reaction was immediate and intense.  Her eyes bulged in their sockets as her jaw fell.  Magic erupted from her horn, and she ripped the mask from my grasp.

Startled, I called out to her, “H-Hey!  Wait a sec-”  Only to fall silent as I felt Lily’s hoof on my shoulder again.  Her tattooed face shook gently before she nodded to Purple, and I turned to watch the mix of emotions playing out over the guard’s visage.

Her submachine gun had been holstered while she floated The Pyro’s mask inches from her hard eyes.  Purple’s breathing quickened as a look of pure hatred overtook her features.  Her teeth were grinding together almost as hard as her hooves ground into the broken road beneath her.  For a moment I thought she was going to rip the mask to shreds, but then the snarling rage turned to shaking anguish.  Her grit teeth parted, allowing her lip to quiver underneath eyes that were quickly welling with tears, and her face finally fell into her shaking hooves as Purple’s entire body shook with unabashed heartache.

I had no idea what to say, or if I should even speak at all.  Instead, Lily was the one to slowly walk over to Purple and embrace her, allowing the mare’s grief to spill over her shoulder and mingle with the blood coating her wings.  

I floated the forgotten mask back into my packs as Lily comforted the sobbing guard, rubbing her indigo hoof through Purple’s short blue mane.  Lily’s voice was soothing as she spoke to the mare.  “I know you have a soft spot for Sheriff Dry Wells, but sometimes even his law has limits that just hold justice back.  You know that better than anypony, Haze.”  Lily held the sniffling mare’s soaked face between her blue hooves and stared intently into her wet eyes.  “This is what MMMM company can do for Mareon, Haze.  Go talk to Margarita.  You don’t have to fight against what you know is right; okay?  Mareon needs you to mare up and do the right thing.”

Purple nodded, wiping her face with her hooves as she pulled away from Lily.  Her eyes fixed on me before she asked in a trembling voice, “Who’d she take from you?”

I couldn't bear to meet her gaze, instead opting to focus on my Pipbuck in an attempt to hide the wetness welling in my eyes.  My right hoof brushed against the screen as I responded in as truthful a whisper as I dared, “Everypony that was left.”

Lily joined me again, speaking forcefully mere inches from my face.  “We need to not be here.  Soon.  We can’t leave yet.  But as soon as we can tomorrow, okay?”  I nodded.  I had no intention of staying still whilst homicidal griffins scoured the town for clues as to my whereabouts.  

Lily looked back to Purple over her shoulder.  “Can you come up with another lie if the griffin shows up?”

Still brushing the tears out of her eyes, Purple took a deep breath and steadied her voice, “Yeah.  Yeah, I can do that.”

Lily tilted her head down the road and began walking, “C’mon Candy, let’s get you back to Margie’s place so I can go clean my gear and think of a plan.” 

The crowd had already dispersed, leaving Lily and I to turn our backs on the few armored guards and dead raider still in the road.  We walked in silence for a moment before Lily reached into her packs and procured a small bottle of clear liquid adorned with a red label.   Unscrewing the cap, she took a small sip and offered it to me, “That went way better than I could have hoped for.”

My magic lifted the bottle from her hoof, bringing it just a few inches from my lips.  “Better?  That poor mare was reduced to tears.  And you… You killed that raider when he couldn’t possibly fight back.  Lily, that wasn’t fighting.  That was murder.”

She nodded her head, eyeing me out of the corner of her vision as we continued down the street.  “Yep.  Sure was.  You got a problem with me killing bad guys?”

The moon’s light was reflected off of the container hovering inches from my eyes, reminding me of the vow I had taken underneath its cool glow.  “I…  I suppose not.  I’m not sure if what you did was right, but I can’t help but feel that it was what needed to have occurred.”  

Lily grinned beside me, lighting another cigarette and inhaling deeply.  “You and I are gonna get along just fine.”

I mulled that over for a moment in silence, hoping that she was right.  I sipped from the bottle absentmindedly, enjoying a refreshing minty-sweet flavor that rolled over my tongue.  “Oh goodness!  What is this?”

She took the bottle back and sipped again before hoofing it back to my magic and explaining, “Peppermint Schnapps.  Go easy on it, it’s hard to come by.  And it’s stronger than you might think.”

I raised an eyebrow in question.  “Oh?  So it’s special?  What’s the occasion?”  

She blew a plume of smoke out to the side and spoke around the cigarette dangling from her lips.  “Thought you could use another drink.  You were shaking when Haze mentioned the griffin.”

“I… I was?”  I offered the bottle back to her after taking as ladylike a sip as one can manage while drinking straight from a bottle of liquor.

Lily shook her head, taking another sip from the bottle and whispering soothingly.  “Don’t worry.  Talons are big and scary, but they’re in it for the money; they’ve got no heart.  No one fights as hard as someone with a purpose.  Even if that purpose is just to survive.”  Her eyes locked with mine in a sincere stare as she hoofed the bottle back to me.  “We’ll get your revenge.  I promise.”

“Thank you.  I... “  I scanned the road at my hooves, pondering what to say.  How exactly do you thank somepony for promising to help you end lives?  “Thank you,” I finished lamely.  I took another small sip of the heavenly beverage and floated it back to her.  “You said that all of that went ‘better’ than it could have?  How so?”

She puffed on her cigarette, exhaling a plume above our heads as we rounded a corner.  “Well, I got to slice up some of the last raiders in town and we made a big ol’ scene in front of a crowd and let ‘em know that Margie’s back in business.  We just fed two birds with one scone.”

I blinked in confusion and opened my mouth to correct her, but she continued before I could speak.  “And thanks to you and that gas mask we just might have gotten the best guard Mareon has to consider joining Margie’s crew.  If Margie starts off by recruiting a combat medic like Purple Haze, she’s gonna get loads of fighters looking to sign up.  I’d say that whatever debt you had with Margarita should be paid in full if Haze walks in and asks her for a job.”

I thought about her words as MMMM Company’s headquarters came into view.  Lily spat the nub of her cigarette out and ground it into the road with a hoof as we stood outside the building.  “Alright, I’ll be back in the morning.”

I turned to her, “Don’t you want *hic* meet Nohta?”

An uncomfortable grimace twisted the elegantly curving lines on her face.  “It’s late and I uh… I don’t want to drip blood all over Margie’s place.  Plus I’d rather save that conversation for the morning anyway.  I’m not looking forward to seeing Margie again so soon after what happened.”

I cocked my head to the side, unsure of her meaning.  I only wobbled a little bit before I regained my balance.  “Pardon?”

She rubbed the back of her mane as she grinned sheepishly.  “Let’s just say that I’ll be acting a little differently when the sun’s up, okay?  Go drink some water and pass out.  We’ve got a big day ahead of us and the whole town is gonna go nuts as soon as you turn in the bounty for The Pyro.”

She turned to leave, glancing over her shoulder as she flared her wings.  “I’m looking forward to this job.  Should be a lot of fun.  And if you really do want to go after everyone that’s done you wrong then I’ll be glad to call you my friend.”  She chuckled as she turned away and took to the sky, “Shit… I need to get out of here.  Damned schnapps is making me sappy.”  Without another word she flew off on shaky wings, leaving me smiling at her word choice.

I lingered outside for a moment, gently swaying in front of the door and staring at the moon as it peeked through the cloud cover.  The world was starting to sway again; courtesy of the schnapps no doubt.  The pleasant feeling of inebriation coursed through my body as I suddenly realized it was far too cold outside to stand around like a fool, and with a final glance to the moon I opened the door to Margarita’s abode and stepped over the threshold.

I entered the house and promptly stumbled to the side, knocking over a hat rack.  I turned around to find an amused yet surprised looking Margarita sitting at the kitchen table and drinking from a squat little glass of light-yellow liquid with lime wedges garnishing the rim.  I quickly voiced a slurred apology and made to fix the mess I had created while she silently giggled and stared at me.  After I had readjusted the hat rack I turned around to find Nohta standing mere inches away from me and silently staring.  

I gasped, “Gah! Nohta... You shcared me!  You really shouldn’t sneak *hic* on people!”

She scowled back at me.  “Damn it, Sis!  Where were you?  We heard gunshots!  What happened?”

I waved her off with a hoof, trying to assuage her worries with calm confidence.  “Oh, I was with *hic* new traveling companion.  She’s rather odd, but I think you’ll like her.”

Nohta continued, cocking her head to the side as one of her ears twitched, “Are you alright?  You were gone for a long time.”

I nodded emphatically as the world began to slowly spin to the left once more.  “Mhmm, great!  Feel great!  Made a new friend, had a few drinksh, got into a fight, drank shome more.  Feel great!”  I realized that I was speaking perhaps a bit too loudly, and lowered my voice, “Think I know what we should- *hic* -what we should do now, too.”

Her eyebrows furrowed together as she questioned me.  “Huh?  What is it?”

I raised a hoof in an explanatory fashion, all the better to lecture my little sister more effectively, and proceeded to teeter precariously on my still-healing leg’s compromised balance as I let loose with one of the most profound things to ever come out of an equine’s mouth.  “I think we should get something to eat.”  

My marvelous wisdom was not lost on my sister, who raised a hoof to her face, probably concealing her unabashed pride in having so wise and elegant a sibling as I, and followed up my suggestion with endless praise. Or perhaps it was sarcasm, I couldn’t really tell.   “Oh yes, that’s a great idea, Sis.  What exactly should we eat?”

My eyes fell on the refrigerator behind Margarita as the green mare convulsed in soundless giggles.  “Something fried... or sweet.”  In my enlightened state, I suddenly had a great revelation.  “Wait… Why not both?  Are there any of those pre-war fancy toast packsh around here?”

Nohta’s adoration went straight through the roof at my timely suggestion.  So astounded was she with my ability to discern the most practical way to solve the worst of problems that she began to openly worry for my well being.  Despite my drunken stum- er… graceful navigation in the direction of the refrigerator, she was trying to usher me towards the sofas; attempting to corral me like an overbearing but doting mother looking out for her foal.  “Ugh!  I should have known you’d come back drunk when you said you were going to the saloon.  I guess I just expected you to hate the taste and come straight back.  Didn’t think you’d be completely smashed.”

She was perhaps being a bit over-protective.  I’d have to let her down gently with a small fib.  It was sweet of her to worry, but honestly, I’m a grown mare!  “Nohta!   I am not drun... ebriated!  How dare you accuse your elder sister of such lowly, degenate“ *hic* “-havior!”

“Okay Sis, I was wrong.  You’re not drunk.  You can hold your liquor with the best of ‘em.”  Her contrite eye roll showed me just how sorry she was, and like the bigger mare that I was, I instantly forgave her.

I stumbled towards the refrigerator on wobbly legs as Margarita continued to grin and follow me with her amused eyes.  I nodded proudly, “Indeed!  My friend showed me how to- *hic* -how to do it!”

Nohta followed closely behind me, readjusting the chairs that had the audacity to leap into my path before I knocked them over.  “Who is this ‘friend?”

I was able to steady myself by leaning against the refrigerator and peering inside at the treasure trove of edible foodstuffs as I answered Nohta’s query.  “You’ll meet her tomorrow.  She’s nice.  Dangeroush.  Flirty.  Nice.  Why is the room spinning?  Room’s don’t do that.  Or maybe they do on the surface... things are sho weird up here.  They keep doing things they’re not supposed to.”  Margarita was slapping her hoof against the table, her entire body convulsing in muted laughter.

Nohta raised an eyebrow at my astute powers of observation, but she was all smiles when she spoke next.  “Oh wow, I’m tired!  Aren’t you tired, Sis?  Bet that nice soft warm bed in the other room sounds really good right now huh?”

I huffed, closing the refrigerator and ambling towards the table.  “I know what you’re doing, Nohta.  Won’t work.  I’m  -mune to reverse *hic* -chology.  I’m going to bed, and there’s nothing you can do to shtop me!”

No doubt terrified of the prospect of not getting to spend every waking moment with her elder sister, Nohta began to plead for me to stay with her.  “That wasn’t... uh, I mean.  Oh no!  I had so many things I needed to talk to you about!  Like, uh, things... and stuff.”

I did feel a little guilty about placing my own selfish desires above the needs of my sister, but surely any problems she had could be dealt with at a later time.  “Things and stuff *hic* -ery important, but they will just have to wait for *hic* -morrow morning, Nohta.  Good night, sister.”

I stumbled around Nohta and passed Margarita at the table, stopping when I remembered Margarita’s beverage and realized what a lovely opportunity I was about to pass up.  A wicked grin overtook my features as a deliciously vengeful idea popped into my head.  Something bumped into my tail as I performed an elegant pirouette to face my green host, and I think I heard Nohta drop something on the floor behind me, but whatever my sister had managed to break was inconsequential; my eyes were on the prize.  

I slowly slid Margarita’s glass across the table in my magic, and spoke in as intimidating a voice as I could muster, “And as for you, oh ‘Drinker of Other People’s Potions!’  This is what you get!  I’m *hic* going to drink your lemonade!”

Margarita’s eyes went wide as she scrambled to reclaim her beverage, but I had downed the entirety of the sweet drink before she could rise from her chair.  She sat still as her jaw fell, blinking as she resigned herself to an inglorious defeat at my hoof.

I sat the glass back down on the table, noting an uncomfortable twisting sensation in my stomach.  “That… that lemonade had a bit of *hic* twang to it.”  I smacked my lips, detecting a hint of burn in my throat as Nohta facehoofed and groaned.  Looking to Margarita, I asked, “That… tashted like regret ‘n shame.”  Remembering the name of the pony to whom I was speaking, I had a startling and altogether much too slow revelation.  “Margaritash have tequila in them, right?”

Margarita nodded, pursing her lips as she stared at me.  

“Tha’sh right,” I poked a hoof at her to accentuate my point, “...tequila goes in the Margarita…  Not the Candy.”  The rumbling in my belly grew to a crescendo as I whispered behind my hoof, “Oh goodnessh…”  I’ll spare you the details of what came next, but suffice it to say that vodka, cider, schnapps, and tequila taste even worse coming up than they do going down.


**************


Ahh, there we are.  All caught up and past the worst of the embarrassing details.  Now where was I?  Oh, right…

I was ripped from the blissful, soft caress of Luna’s embrace only to be-  Oh who am I kidding?  You remember all of this.  I just told it to you!  Let’s see if we can’t speed this up a bit.  Shall we?  That morning I was the lucky recipient of an excruciating headache, a direly parched throat, intense nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, a thirst I couldn’t possibly imagine ever being able to quench, and for reasons that escaped my immediate powers of deduction a complete set of stiff and sore muscles and joints.  Honestly, I felt as if I had gorged myself on rotten fruit and proceeded to run twenty miles through the baking desert only to slam myself headfirst into a steel wall.

Let me make this very clear for you: mornings are awful, vile things.  Any true Selenist will look upon that unholy time of day with enough rancorous disdain to mirror the savage sun’s terrible countenance as it bounds over the horizon to begin its vicious rampage across the heavens.  Mornings are the time before the brain has the capacity for thought, the desire to satisfy anything other than base needs, or the wherewithal to even keep one’s eyes from fluttering awkwardly as you try to force them open.  And don’t even get me started on finding the resolve to drag yourself out of bed to face another day when you know full and well just how comfortable and inviting the warm bedsheets feel clinging to your body like disappointed lovers begging you to not leave them.

I’ll admit it.  There are more than a few things in this world that I actively despise.  Mornings are one of them.  Mother was of the same opinion, and on more than one occasion when I was little and she was home the two of us would share silence at the kitchen table over freshly brewed mugs of tea in the early hours of the day.  Those mornings were…  Well actually those mornings weren’t so awful, I suppose.

But that morning!  Goddess!  That particular morning was far beyond the realm of simply being unpleasant.  That morning I was truly in pain, truly in agony.

I had been poisoned.

With alcohol, of course.  Did you think I meant the radiation?  Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you.  Though now that I think of it, the list of symptoms is rather simil-  Oh nevermind.  On with the tale.

Truly, having my body ravaged by radiation was awful, but it at least didn’t come packaged with the unfortunate understanding that I had willingly subjected myself to such torture.  Radiation poisoning made me question how close I had come to death, but that hangover… Goddess, that hangover almost made me wish that I had died.

My parched lips parted as I croaked out in a raspy hiss, “Water… For the love all things shrouded in your beautiful night, Luna, point me in the direction of water!”

Despite the pounding in my skull that was doing a marvelous job of muddling my thoughts, I still possessed the presence of mind to vaguely understand that it was morning.  That simple fact was bad enough, but it was only made worse by the insurmountable agony and crippling nausea that gripped me like the very claws of death.  My eyelids fluttered feebly as I tried to close them shut; a pathetic attempt to block out the terribly blinding light raging through the uneven slits of dirty window blinds to skewer my retinas.

I rolled over in the bedsheets, allowing my body to play out its savage civil war struggling for control of my actions.  My head argued to stay put and pray to Luna to take me back into her care in an attempt to sleep off my discomfort.  My cracked and aching throat and riotous stomach pleaded for succor in the form of liquid relief.  As I dragged a hoof across my eyes and down my cheeks I only knew that whomever would win this titanic battle, I had surely already lost.

“By The Dark Mother… I’m never drinking again…”  Ahh… The promises we make in times of distress; so easily forgotten as soon as we no longer find ourselves under duress.

The need for water won out over my need for sleep.  I dragged myself from the bed to stand on aching hooves while trying to navigate the overly-bright room with my squinting eyes.  I was uncomfortably aware of the fact that I couldn’t remember going to bed the night before.  Or even taking off my saddlebags and pistol holster, for that matter.  There were only vague recollections of emotions, like wisps of smoke wafting through my mind in a gentle breeze.  I felt certain that the previous night had involved quite a lot of embarrassment, and was dreading the reminder I was sure to get from whomever had been present for my antics.

I groaned in pain and resignation as I shoved open the door to the rest of the house and was immediately assaulted with a deluge of horrid illumination.  In the moment before I shut my eyes against the pain I recognized Nohta sitting at the kitchen table.  Every audible hoofstep against the floor felt like an admission of guilt and shame as I allowed the base need for water to guide me in her direction.  

I had just made it to the table when Nohta’s exasperating voice screeched by way of greeting.  “Twice!  You threw up on me twice in two days, Candy!”  Well that explained some of the embarrassment, at least.

My hoof pulled open the refrigerator and extracted a bottle of water as I moaned in a mix of agony, nausea, and humiliation.  “Ughhh… ‘M sorry…”

“You should be, Sis.  I had to clean us both off after that and apologize to Margie for you.  You couldn’t even talk after you threw up.”

I covered my face with a hoof, both to hide my shame and to protect my eyes from the savage light.  “I…  I don’t even remember…  I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever.  I tried to tell Margie that you don’t ever drink, but I think she was just upset that you gulped down her booze; not that you barfed.”  Nohta cast a glance towards the stained sofas and racy magazines before whispering conspiratorially, “I get the feeling that some of her old crew used to drink pretty hard around here anyway.  She’s probably used to it.”

Shaking my head, which proved to be a terrible mistake, I slowly pulled a chair out at the table.  I winced in pain as the legs scratched at the floor.  “Doesn’t matter.  That sort of uncouth behavior is completely unacceptable.”   I rubbed my temples as I sat at the table and whimpered.  “I should apologize to her myself.  Where is she?”

Nohta looked up from her colorful bowl of Apple Sugar Bombs and mutated fruit and nodded in my direction as an uncomfortable tinny rattling noise sounded next to my ear.  I shut one eye against the throbbing in my skull and swiveled my head see Margarita’s lime-green face set in an amused grin.  She was gripping a small metal tin can with a scratched painting of a smiling zebra on the cover between her teeth while she raised an eyebrow playfully in my direction.

I had no idea what she was trying to convey.  Truthfully, I thought that she was simply having some fun with me by way of her infernal improvised maraca.  I gripped my pounding head between my hooves as I groaned and turned away from the noise, but she tossed the tin on the table in front of me and prodded my shoulder with a demanding hoof.  

I winced as the metal impacted against the wood.  “Margarita, I’m terribly sorry about… whatever it was that I did last night.  But please… not so loud.”

Her hoof shook me in my chair, prompting me to open my eyes and see her pointing at the tin and then at myself.  I re-examined the tin, but was still perplexed as to her meaning.

“Mintals?  What?”  Either my breath was atrocious, which was a distinct possibility that I couldn’t disregard, or she was telling me that I was being incredibly obtuse.  Or perhaps both.

Margarita rolled her eyes, flipping open the tin with a single hoof to reveal the pink tablets that lay within.  My nose wrinkled in disgust at the sight of them; they looked chalky and unappealing.

Nohta voiced her concern through a mouthful of cereal and fruit.  “Wait, you want Candy to take a chem?  For a hangover?  Seriously?”

Margarita nodded to my sister before popping one of the tablets into her own mouth and chewing.  She jotted down a quick note and slid the paper in front of me.  “Just eet wun.  You will feel bettur.”

Despite my misgivings about the mixing of chemicals, the pain I was in provided ample encouragement to take any avenue towards relief.  And who else would know how to cope with a hangover better than a pony with an alcoholic beverage on her flank?  I eyed my sister apologetically as my horn sparked to life.  My magic was flowing freely and unobstructed thanks to Mother’s potion and some rest, but the concentration required for the simple spell did exacerbate my headache in an awful manner.  Hoping that Margarita was right, I floated one of the tablets to my mouth.  I was right about the texture, but the taste was sufficiently saccharine to appease my taste buds.

I couldn’t meet Nohta’s irritated eyes.  I held my head in my hooves and stared downward at the table beneath my front legs while my body shivered.  The effects of the drug were as intense as they were immediate; the throbbing between my ears dulled, the nausea subsided, the desire to go back to bed faded, even the agitated sounds of my sister’s cantankerous mastication became mildly pleasant.

I was suddenly blissfully aware of just how good I felt.  The silken strands of my mane cascading down my neck and spilling over my hooves tickled against my coat with an electric tingle.  The dark grain of the wooden table-top popped in my vision, starkly contrasted against the light-brown background as the colors in my vision bloomed.  My ears perked upright, twitching towards every tiny noise in the house as the world sang an opera to which only I was privy.  The smells of gun oil and citrus fruit assaulted my nostrils with renewed vigor, melding together in a wonderfully fragrant and unique bouquet.  It was, to put it simply, amazing.

I lifted my head, blinking my eyes while I witnessed the world as if for the first time.  Margarita’s complacent grin was the first thing my eyes fell upon, followed shortly by Nohta’s aggravated scowl.  My horn flared to life, snapping the tin shut with a satisfying metallic ring.  The magic coursing through my horn felt like a warm shower of water flowing over the appendage.

I opened my mouth to speak, but paused as I ran my tongue over my dried lips to wet them.  Abandoning the desire for communication, I instead grasped my water with magic and drained the bottle down my throat.  I couldn’t help but feel as if I were swallowing a cool mountain river as the clean liquid rushed over my tongue.  I pulled the bottle away from my lips, noting how my gasping lungs felt like a set of great bellows stoking a forge.  

I stared at Margarita, wondering how I had never noticed the subtle hints of crow’s feet creeping onto her face or the way the house’s lighting seemed to dance playfully in her eyes.  Shaking my head to rid myself of distractions, I spoke as earnestly as I could manage with the overwhelming sensations of the world assaulting my body.  “Please, never give me one of those ever again.”  Both Margarita and my sister balked at that, and I took the opportunity to elucidate.  “It is entirely too easy to comprehend how someone could become completely and hopelessly addicted to these.  I appreciate your desire to help me overcome the hangover, Margarita, but I’d rather suffer through the consequences of my own poor decisions than be stripped of my powers of volition.”

After shooting me a small look of guarded incredulity Margarita smiled and nodded in acceptance, but Nohta’s scowl had only twisted with added confusion.  “Sis, you’re acting weird.”

My gaze turned to my sister’s beautiful, scarred face.  “The sudden juxtaposition of agony and bliss is most startling, but other than my regret for letting you down I feel completely fine.”

The scowl fell from Nohta’s face to be replaced with worry.  “I… what?”

I leaned into the table, piercing her with my stare as I spoke, “I shouldn’t have taken the chem.  I apologize for my bout of weakness.  Please take the opportunity to learn from my mistake.”

Before my sister could respond, there was a knock at the door.  Nohta threw her hood over her face as Margarita got up to answer.  

A wan smile overtook my face as I whispered to Nohta’s shadowed features.  “I care for you deeply, sister.  You’ll be just as good a fighter as Mother one day, but you’ll never reach her level if you have to rely on chemical enhancements.”  I wasn’t entirely sure how or why I had chosen to say that, but at the time it just seemed to fit the moment.  Nohta’s hooded face stared at me underneath the black cowl, but other than a slackened jaw I was unable to interpret her reaction.

Margarita opened the door, allowing a gust of wind to gush through the doorway.  An indigo pegasus was sitting outside the door, rubbing the back of her silvery-white mane as her tattooed face twisted into a cross between a pained wince and an apologetic grin.  Margarita pursed her lips and tapped her hoof as she waited for Lily to speak.

“H-Hey Margie.”  Lily’s voice was cautious as she tapped her hooves together in front of her chest, but gained steam as she spewed forth her words in a hurried deluge.  “I uh… I did the job for you last night.  And… and I’m really super duper sorry about what happened a couple weeks ago.  I shouldn’t have just run off at the first hint of something like that and I know that you’re probably still crazy upset because I wasn’t there when you needed me and I’ll try to make it up to you and I can totally wait outside if you want me to and-”

Margarita rolled her eyes and threw her hooves around the startled pegasus’ neck, pulling her into an embrace over the threshold of the house.  Lily’s apologetic exclamation was cut short as her surprised eyes bulged in her sockets.  Her blue hooves slowly rose to wrap around Margarita’s green frame, and the two of them held the hug for a few moments; completely unconcerned with their two observers still sitting expectantly at the table.  Margarita eventually pulled away, nodding towards the kitchen table and clearing a path for Lily to enter.  

Lily bounded inside the house, her grin widening with every step, and gasped when she saw my curious face.  “Candy!”  Her wings fluttered with her excited gait as she rushed to the table, adjusting the rifle slung across her back and grinning widely.  “How’s the hangover, babe?”

“Lessened considerably, thanks to Margarita.”  My hoof waved between the pegasus and my sister.  “Nohta, Lilly.  Lily, Nohta.”

“Oooh, hey there short-stack!  You must be the little sister!  I love to make new friends!  Especially cute ones!”  Lily became a blur of blue motion as she rushed towards Nohta and nearly tackled her out of the chair.  Nohta was held helpless in Lily’s iron grip as the excited indigo menace squeezed her mercilessly, knocking Nohta’s hood away with a tattooed cheek to expose her striped face.  Lily’s eyes widened a second later, matching Nohta’s startled expression, but her voice remained upbeat and cheery as her tattooed cheek continued to rub happily against Nohta’s scar.  “Oh wait… no option three for you, Candy’s orders.  And you don’t look like an option two kinda gal;  zebra’s can’t hold their liquor.  They just get all blushy and stumble around a lot.  I’ll give you option one later, but we need to mosey.”

“Ahh!  Get off me you crazy bitch!”  Despite my sister’s raucous protests and wriggling struggles, even her gargantuan strength proved insufficient to divest herself of the vice-like hooves of our new companion.  She settled for a stuttering and confused query.  “I-I’m not short!  What are you-”  Nohta’s hooves slithered  between Lily and herself, and she managed to pry the pegasus a couple of inches away from her, “-talking about?”

Lily grinned manically as she released Nohta and waved a hoof dismissively in the air.  “I’ll explain later, squirt.  Hurry up and eat so we can do some shopping!”  Lily’s eyes widened as she noticed the tin on the table, and her ears perked up as she turned to Margarita and exclaimed, “Margie!  You’re busting out the good stuff!  Did you show Candy my trick?”  Margarita nodded as she sat back down at the table and smiled.

Lily continued speaking to Margarita far too quickly, bouncing in place as her flapping wings nearly lifted her from the floor.  “Aww!  I was gonna show her that!  My tribe basically invented the PTM hangover cure!”  Margarita’s only response was to roll her eyes and shake her head, but Lily continued as if the lime-green mare hadn’t just disagreed with her.  “Yeah, I was gonna take one myself like I normally do in the mornings, but I figured they got a right to know what they’re getting into.”  Nohta gave me an incredulous and irritated look, which I could only answer with a barely suppressed giggle, before she pulled her hood back over her eyes and began straightening out her cloak.

I turned from my sister; curiosity piqued at the mention of medicine.  “Lily, you have a medical condition?  You didn’t say anything about that last night.”

Lily beamed elatedly as she cocked her head and blinked innocently.  “Yeah I did, you silly filly!  It was right after our sixth round of shots and just before you got distracted by those two hot bucks making out at the table next to ours!”

“I- I what!?”  I can assure you that I have absolutely no recollection of that.  To this day I’m still of the opinion that she was embellishing her tale.

A retching sound preceded my sister’s exclamation.  “Oh, gross!”

Lily jabbed a hoof in my direction as she continued to smile widely and flap her wings excitedly.  “Ooh ooh, yeah!  That’s it!  Your face looked just like that!”  At Lily’s words my hooves rose to feel the heat emanating from my face.

Lily’s blue hoof dabbed at her chin as she continued to improvise her surely fabricated story.  “Actually, that sort of explains why you wouldn’t remember.  They were pretty cute together.”  Lily sat on her haunches, flaring her wings behind her and holding a hoof to her chest, “Well then, I’ll just have to tell you again!  Prepare to be edumacated!”   

I just barely caught the subtle ear twitch underneath Nohta’s hood, but I could practically feel the questioning glance she shot my way.  I shrugged and shook my head at her before returning my gaze to Lily’s theatrics, concealing my burning face with a hoof and praying to The Dark Mother that Lily wouldn’t embarrass me further in front of my sister.  Margarita was holding a hoof to her face as her body shook with her amusement.

Lily began to elucidate with gusto, her eyes peering far behind us as she dramatically exclaimed, “Far and wide across Equestria I have traveled, seeking many things!  Ponies, answers, good fights, better booze, a really kick-ass hat…”  Her lips pursed in a little pout as she glanced above herself, but she continued a moment later, “...but one of the few things I knew before I left my tribe was that I, Lily Belle, am a hero!  And a hero is not a hero without her trials!  I have faced-”

“Just get on with it already!”  Nohta’s abrasive interruption cut the pegasus off, and I shot a timid grin towards my sister for encouraging a timely end to Lily’s shenanigans.

Lily’s wings fell back to her body as she calmed down and rolled her eyes.  “Sheesh!  Fine, fine… I haven’t really figured out what most folks call it.  Some folks say that I’m ‘Touched by Luna,’ others say that the proper term is ‘Kissed by Luna.’  I prefer the second one, ‘cause it doesn’t make it seem like I got molested by a dead goddess.”  Her face scrunched up in disgust as she wiggled her hooves in front of herself.  “Ugh…  That would just be creepy.”

My eyes widened and my ears stood on end.  She had held my curiosity before, but now she truly had my attention.  I had never known of any medical conditions named after Lady Luna, and the Stable’s medical training had been downright encyclopedic in how it covered all ailments, both magical and mundane.  I had even been forced to attend a brief seminar detailing all the symptoms of the Feather Flu, for Luna’s sake!

My voice rose to match my climbing eyebrows as I scratched my chin and stared at Lily in bafflement, utterly perplexed as to this new illness.  “Kissed by Luna?  What do you mean?  Is it contagious?”

Lily’s blue hooves rose defensively in front of her barrel.  “Okay, so hear me out.  No, you can’t catch it.  It just kinda came at that super special time when I started noticing colts and fillies and my wings started feeling all prickly and standing on their own and then sometimes I’d have to go find a special magazine and-”  Her eyes shot open as she paused, “Uhh… right… rambly bambly, sorry.  Basically, I’m fine at night.  No worries.  I’ve got control of everything and know what to do.  But during the day I can get to acting a little weird.  I’m just hoping that I don’t burst into song, haha!”  Lily chortled to herself while I glanced questioningly at Margarita, but our hostess only grinned while twirling a hoof next to her head.

Right… Margarita had said Lily was a little unstable in our earlier conversation.  But then, she had also recommended her to help Nohta and I out with our various problems.  My eyes returned to Lily as I asked, “So, you have a neurochemical imbalance that you’re attempting to self-treat with a highly addictive mental stimulant?”

Lily grinned widely, “I have no idea!  But Mintals kinda level me out during the day.”  She blinked, staring at me for a moment before she continued in a light and jaunty voice.  “Being this happy may look like it’s fun, but it’s not!”  I had no idea what to say to something so preposterous.

Lily cocked her head to the side, lifting a hind leg to scratch at the outrageous mess of hair that passed as her mane.  She was oddly pensive as she noted, “Actually, now that I think about it, it feels kinda like I’m two ponies living in one pony’s body.”

Nohta jabbed a hoof in Lily’s direction as she questioned me.  “This is who you hired to protect us?  She’s fucking nuts!  We don’t need somepony like her to watch our flanks out-”  Nohta was silenced by the small paper plane that flew into her chest from across the table.  Reading the note, she pulled her hood back to furrow her eyebrows in Margarita’s direction.  “Seriously?  The best merc in the desert?  You’re kidding, right?”

Margarita shook her head without a trace of sarcasm or mirth on her face.  Nohta swallowed and licked her lips, “And you trust her, Margie?”  Margarita’s response was a somber nod of her head while she held Nohta’s questioning gaze with steadfast eyes.  Nohta inspected the last remnants of her breakfast before turning back to me.  “And do you trust her, Candy?”

I gazed at Lily, who was positively beaming from her recent praise and adulations from Margarita.  “She… seems genuine, Nohta.  And you know as well as I do how capable she can be in a fight.”  I looked back to Nohta, “Furthermore, she has a level of familiarity with the local area that neither of us possess and is more than willing to help us with our problems.  All of our problems, sister.”

Nohta’s brow furrowed.  “Even the other mercs?  Isn’t there like, a code or something against that?”

Lily’s demeanor changed from an overt show of joy to sorrowful commiseration as she spoke directly to Nohta.  “Candy told me about the griffins.  I’m super sorry about that, bee tee dubs.  I know what it’s like to lose folks you care about like that.”  She rose to her hooves and spat in a hoof, holding the leg out to my sister.  “But I’ve got no problems with going on a turkey shoot.  When we catch up to them, I’ll let you kill the one that got your dad.  I promise.”

I blinked in disgust at the gesture, but Nohta stared at the hoof with fresh anger in her eyes.  She finally got out of her chair, spat onto her own hoof, and slammed her leg into Lily’s, speaking in a low and determined voice.  “No, Candy was closer to Dad than I was.  She gets that kill.  I want the one that got Dust.”  I was more than a little impressed with the resolve in her voice, and how quickly she had given the opportunity for her revenge to me.  But I couldn’t deny that I was happy with the arrangement.

Lily finally took to the air, hovering just a few inches from the floor on quick wing beats that blew Margarita’s crumpled up and forgotten notes in every direction as she cheered.  “Yes!  Now we’ve got a proper adventuring party!  Fighter, mage, and thief!  This is gonna be awesome!”

Lily jabbed a hoof in my direction as her eyes widened, “You do your science-y and magic-y and doctor-y things,” that same hoof tapped Nohta on the shoulder, “...you do your sneaky and beat-y and loot-y things,” she returned her hoof to her chest, “...and I’ll do my stabby and shooty and fly… uh… fly-y things!  We’ll be unstoppable!  Unless we get stopped.  That would suck, but I’m sure we’ll be okay!”

I shook my head and grinned in a mix of exasperation and amusement, “Lily, loathe as I am to suggest you continue your regimen of questionable self-treatment, perhaps you should take one of your pills now.”

Lily waved my suggestion off with a hoof and confident grin.  “Nah, that boat already set sail.  But don’t worry, she’s coming back into port first thing tomorrow!  And even if you don’t like her then there are plenty of other ships in the sea!”

Baffled by the enormous non-sequitur, garbled logic, and fouled up idiom, my mind settled on attempting to rectify the lesser of the many problems facing it.  The barest hint of a sly grin crept across my face as I took the opportunity to correct her.  “I believe the proper version of that expression is ‘fish in the sea,’ darling.”

Genuine puzzlement overtook Lily’s features as her jaw slackened.  Her wings quickly folded at her sides, making it look as if she had somehow deflated.  She cocked her head to question me in a foal-like manner,  “What’s a… fish?”  I felt one of my eyes twitch as I smiled blankly in response.

Nohta scoffed at our new companion.  “Seriously?  You know about boats but not fish?”

I ignored my sister, stirred to action by the almost comically pitiful pout that leapt across Lily’s face in response to Nohta’s derision.  My brow furrowed as I struggled to come up with a suitable explanation.  “It’s like a… bird that… flies through the water.”

And just like that the pegasus was all smiles again.  “Oh, well that’s silly!  You don’t want to get in the water!  It’s totally irradiated and everything!”  She waggled her eyebrows as she grinned maliciously in my direction, “Besides, whenever my feathers get wet I just get horny ‘cause I know I’m gonna have to preen ‘em.”  Wait…  Was she doing that on purpose?

It was my mouth’s turn to drop in confusion.  I shook my head and groaned as I buried my face in my hooves.  “Lily… There is indeed such a thing as too much information.  Weren’t we discussing your medicine?”

Her eyes shot wide open.  “Oh, right!  I’ll tough it out for the rest of the day and get back on schedule tomorrow.  No more willy nilly silly filly Lily after today.  I just need to stock up on more chems.”  Lily gasped loudly, holding her hooves to her startled face.  “Shopping!  We need to buy stuff!”  Her startled face turned to glare at Nohta, “Why haven’t you gotten Candy any armor yet!?  She’s a walking target!”

Nohta stammered, “I… I was gonna-”

Lily landed and threw a hoof around Nohta’s neck to pull her into a sisterly embrace, “No worries, short-stack.  Your old auntie Lily Belle is on the case!”  Nohta groaned as Lily continued, gazing into the distance and speaking determinedly, “We just gotta turn in that bounty for The Pyro and use the caps to grab some barding!  I’ve got it all worked out!  Just leave the thinking to me!”

As Nohta grumbled and resigned herself to the unsolicited hug, Margarita slid a note in front of me.  I turned to see her smiling face before reading the missive.  “I gave yu sum moar ammo and too moar grenaids.  Thanks for deeling with the raidurz.  Yu arr welcum bak heer any time.  Lily noes wut she is talkeeng abowt, but don’t let her do all the thinkeeng.  She can be dum as hell, sumtimes.”

I made sure to thank Margarita for her hospitality, as did Nohta while she finished eating.  After a flurry of packing and hurried goodbyes to Margarita the three of us left MMMM headquarters and made our way to the center of town.  Lily lead the way, prancing through the streets with noticeably more skip in her step than the previous night and waving cheerfully at nearly every passing pony she saw.  Most of them grumbled and rolled their eyes at her greeting, but her enthusiasm was unwavering.  Only a hoof-full of ponies seemed happy to see her, but even they made quick apologies before hastily returning to their tasks.  Nohta and I walked in silence behind her, allowing Lily to dominate the conversations and guide our advance through the town.

The Sheriff and Mayor’s office was a large pre-war house set just across the street from the saloon.  The bounty board in its yard was filled with various requests for mundane tasks such as collecting pelts or fruit from the desert, but was still dominated by the four pictures of the prominent raider leaders; Psyker, The Outcast, The Bard, and The Pyro.  We stepped past the board and walked directly up the small path leading to the house before Lily barged directly through the front door without even breaking her stride.

Her jaunty voice called out to the house as Nohta and I followed in her wake.  “Meriff!  I got bounties to collect on!”

A gruff and rumbly voice answered from deeper inside the well cared for abode.  “Lily!?  I told you to stop calling me that!  My name is Dry Wells!”

Lily followed the voice as she taunted Dry Wells in a voice oddly reminiscent of Nohta’s practiced antagonistic tones, “And that’s just the best name for the mayor of a town in the desert, isn’t it?  You’re not fooling me, Meriff!  Pay up!”

I followed after Lily as she shoved a creaky door open and strode inside the office.  A rugged looking dark-brown earth stallion wearing an enormous ten-gallon hat and a dusty leather coat sat behind a desk that was covered in paperwork, twirling the magnificent mustache that clung to his upper lip like an overgrown squirrel.  He had very obviously cared for his facial hair with all the devotion one would normally give to a newborn foal.  Little beard-combs and tins of mustache pomade adorned the shelves and bookcases in the office next to dog-eared books, reminding me of the disastrous attempt Father had made at growing facial hair for that one memorable week.

The tiniest of forlorn smiles curled the corners of my mouth upward at the memory of scraggly hair on Father’s lip that evoked so many eyerolls and frustrated sighs from Mother.  That smile widened infinitesimally as I recalled my then baby sister, unable to recognize Father’s face behind the thick whiskers, bursting into tears at the sight of him.  I could still remember the scent of shaving cream from all those years ago when I sat perched on his shoulders and watched his reflection in the bathroom mirror shear the offending bristles away.  He had asked if that was better.  My chin had dug into his mane when I nodded in response.

It was much more pleasing to think back on my old memories of Father than it was to dwell on what had happened to him.  The pain of having him ripped away from me was still fresh and raw, greater even than the agony I felt when my flesh had been literally torn from my body and swallowed by an undead abomination.  But it was healing, if slowly.  And besides, I was already doing everything in my power to honor his memory.

The monstrous mustache bobbed up and down with each word that Dry Wells spoke as he rose from his chair and greeted us, setting his hat on the table.  “Well now, I didn’t expect you to be coming with company, Lily.  G’mornin’ ladies.  I’m Dry Wells, mayor of Mareon. Sheriff too, when the need arises.”

I smiled as I returned the greeting.  “My name is Candy, and this is my sister Nohta.  It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dry Wells.”  Given the nature of who I was speaking to, and the cloaked figure at my side, I chose to omit my last name lest I betray our true nature.

Lily had apparently opted for expedience, choosing to upend one of her saddlebags onto the mayor’s desk.  Dozens of clipped ears spilled out of her bag to stain the paperwork with little droplets of mostly congealed blood.  I wrinkled my nose at the untidy mess my companion had just created while she tapped her hoof against the bag to coax a few more ears that had stuck to the bottom onto the heap on the desk.  The barest glint of metal shone out from inside the pile, but before I could get a better look Lily snatched it away to stuff the object back into her packs.

Dry Wells pursed his lips in consternation as he dug his hat out from the pile, “It’s easier to count them if you just do it one at a time, Lily.”

Lily flapped her wings and pouted, “But this way I get to make a big dramatic showing of how awesome I am!”

The stallion held a hoof against his face and shook his head, sighing, “You certainly like to make a showy mess of things, I’ll give you that.”  He gestured towards a couple of chairs with a hoof while he donned his hat, “Make yourselves comfortable, ladies.  This will take a while.”  He started separating the ears from each other, counting them as he made another pile on the other side of his desk.

“Actually, my sister and I have a number of ears to exchange as well.  And…”  I floated The Pyro’s gas mask into the air, hovering it over the large pile of Lily’s trophies, “...this.”

The stallion fell back into his chair, staring at the mask as his hooves reached out to grasp the mask from my magic.  He turned it over in his hooves, inspecting every inch of the leather before he turned back to me with recognition dawning on his face.  “Well I’ll be… You’re the doctor from a while back, right?  And now you’re here with this?”

I eased myself into the offered chair, noting how uncomfortable it was.  “Yes, I am.  And I have.”  A small smirk crept over my lips as I took in the incredulous look on the mayor’s face.  I nodded at Lily as I continued, “My companion here wanted me to throw it in your face and shout for money, but a lady must always act with grace.  Even if she is… ah… accepting payment for taking a life.”  Nohta poked at one of the chairs before deciding to sit on the carpet instead.

Dry Wells twirled his mustache with a hoof, “I see.  Well, thank you for that.  I’ve had enough things thrown at me this morning already.”  He turned to glower at Lily again, “Like resignation letters from Mareon’s finest.”

Lily shrugged, flaring her wings and speaking with mock innocence.  “Hey, it’s not my fault if Haze saw what a joke your little goon squad is.  She and you both lost somepony to The Pyro and you wouldn’t do anything about it!”  She jabbed a hoof at Dry Wells and sneered, “This one’s on you, Meriff!”

The bushy mustache on his lips twitched in agitation, “My name is Dry Wells.  And what was I supposed to do, Lily?  Send Mareon’s guards outside of our walls?  It’s a police force, not a militia.”

“And that’s why MMMM is better, pbbbt!”  Lily crossed her hooves in front of herself and blew a raspberry at the mayor.  Once again, I couldn’t help but giggle at her foalishness.

Dry Wells resumed twirling his mustache while he spoke, “Yes, Purple informed me that MMMM is up and running again.  I assume that her decision to abandon the law in favor of rampant vigilantism had something to do with The Pyro’s death?”  He threw the mask on the pile of ears in disgust.  “She also informed me of another little problem within our gated community.”  He shook his head before continuing.  “The Bard?  Really?  As if we didn’t have enough problems, now we have spies inside the town?”

Lily folded her wings, giving me the impression that she had calmed down quite a bit.  “Every member of The Bard’s gang has one thing in common.  You know what you have to do, Meriff.  Make it happen.”

He glared at her, a sliver of anger finally entering his voice as he refused her advice.  “I am not going to lock up every pony inside Mareon that happens to have a white coat.  That’s blatant discrimination, and as mayor I will not allow that within my town.”

“Right, right… ‘cause you’re absolutely chummy with Half-Moon, aren’t you?”  Lily’s wings twitched on her back, causing the nearly invisible blades to clink against each other.  Her voice was dull and flat as she looked Dry Wells in the eye and made her case.  “The Mayor has to look out for the good of the town, right?  Sometimes that means stepping down and letting The Sheriff protect ponies.  Word’s already out about The Bard’s spies.  Folks are gonna get restless around anypony they start to suspect.  If nothing else, you need to lock those white-coated ponies up for their protection.”  She placed a hoof on his desk as her voice dropped to a low whisper.  “The Mayor can’t do that.  But the Sheriff can.”

Dry Wells leaned across his desk, resting his chin on folded hooves.  “Am I to take that as a threat from MMMM against more of Mareon’s citizenry?”

Lily sat on her haunches, grinning smugly.  “I don’t know, you’d have to talk to Margie about that one.  I’m on a private contract now.”

The Mayor sighed, laying his hat on the desk next to the pile of ears and reaching into a drawer.  He pulled out a large silver star and pinned it to his coat.  The Sheriff growled as he retrieved a revolver from his desk and slung the holster over his shoulder, “You’re a real bitch, you know that?”

Lily shrugged and smirked, “Not everypony loves me.  What’s a mare to do, right?”

The Sheriff moved one last severed ear from the original pile to the second, and threw a large bag of caps as well as two smaller ones at Lily’s smug face.  “Take your fucking caps and get out of my damned office.  And don’t let the door hit your tribal ass on the way out.”

Lily stuffed the jingling bags into her packs and chuckled.  “Haha!  There’s the cheery son of a bitch I was hoping to talk to!”  Lily glanced at me as she pointed a hoof at Dry Wells’ face, “Isn’t it cute how his mustache wobbles from side to side when he yells?”

Dry Wells slammed his hoof against his desk.  “Get out!  Or I’ll do as you’re asking and lock your companion in one of my cells.”  He glanced in my direction, “You know, for your own protection.”

Nohta was on her hooves before he finished his sentence.  She slammed one of Mother’s horseshoes into the rim of the desk, shaking it on its legs while she snarled, “Not gonna happen.”

The room came alive with the sound of mechanical whirring noises from each corner.  Automated turrets sprung from the ceiling as four targeting lasers trained themselves on Nohta’s hood.  The Sheriff’s eyebrows furrowed in a questioning gaze as he stared at my sister’s shrouded face, “What was that, girl?”

Lily’s white mane was a blur as she drew her pistol and took aim at The Sheriff.  Two of the targeting lasers danced over her face in response.  Everyone within the room was deathly still.  I certainly hadn’t anticipated this!

I slowly rose from my chair, laughing nervously, “Nohta, please darling.  There’s no need to stir up unnecessary trouble.  This stallion is only acting in Mareon’s best interests, after all.”  I walked to the desk, placing a hoof on my sister’s shoulder to gently ease her back into a sitting position on the floor.  “And Lily,” I turned to the blood-red eyes of my new companion, “certainly he’s not going to take me into custody.  I was with you when you exposed the entire threat to the town.  Not to mention that I’ve hired you to help me kill The Bard!  If I were one of his gang members then I’d be doing an astoundingly awful job!”

I wasn’t even sure how or why, but my little speech was having an effect.  At the time I was speaking as quickly as my mouth would move, letting the ideas form as I made them up.  It is quite the odd sensation when ponies listen to you when your words typically go ignored, isn’t it?  Something we can all relate to, I suppose.

I rounded on the Sheriff, speaking calmly, “And as for you, I’m afraid that all I can offer is more troubling news for Mareon.  When my sister and I were dealing with The Pyro, she made mention that the raiders have made a pact with slavers.  Another group with whom I am on, ah… bad terms, as it were.  I believe that Mareon is in danger, but my interests lie entwined with the continued safety of the town.”

I continued, watching the realization take root within Dry Wells’ eyes as I improvised.  “MMMM company is not up to full strength yet, Sheriff, and you said yourself that Mareon’s guards can’t venture outside of the walls.  Who else is available to take care of this troubling alliance of morally depraved degenerates?”  A simple movement of my head flipped the curls of my mane over my shoulder, even if I wasn’t sure what had prompted me to do so.  That same unexplained intuition called to me again, and I felt a curious expression that I wasn’t familiar with force itself onto my face.  The Sheriff's eyes widened in response.

I curled a corner of my mouth upward as I realized that, whatever I was doing, it was working.  “You need me to deal with your problems as much as I need the freedom to seek my revenge.  Would you really keep me from doing what we both know needs to be done?”  Call it blind luck, intuition, simple chemical enhancement, or whatever you like, something was telling me what to do in order to get what I wanted, and I was more than eager to allow that inner voice to guide my actions.  I tilted my head at what I understood to be just the right angle, pushing my bottom lip out and furrowing my brow in just the right way…  The effects were as immediate as they were devastating.

The Sheriff’s eyes were glued to my own pouting face.  To my side I heard the sound of metal sliding into leather, and Lily’s voice whispered behind my back.  “Oh yeah, she’s totes on the mints.”  Nohta groaned in response.

Dry Wells slid a hoof under his desk, and a moment later the turrets slid back into concealment.  His eyes stayed fixed with mine as he resumed twirling his mustache and leaned back into his chair.  “The Bard has been known to work with slavers.  The Outcast, though… his gang kills them on sight.  I hate to admit it, but Outcasts are one of the major reasons Red Eye hasn’t been able to push into the San Palomino.”

“Now go ahead and tell her how you know that!”  Lily’s voice was giddy with excitement.

The Sheriff spared her a quick and reproachful glance before turning to me and admitting.  “As Sheriff, I authorized for a few select members of The Outcasts’ gang to trade freely with Mareon for ammunition, medical supplies, and foodstuffs.”  

My eyebrows raised at that, prompting him to quickly continue, “This was all before the attack.  Everypony knew that The Pyro was scum.  Thank you for killing her, by the way.”  He nodded his head in appreciation before speaking further.  “But the bounties for The Outcast and The Bard were more for official show than to actually encourage anypony to kill them.  Just the law putting on a brave face so ponies didn’t forget it existed.”

The Sheriff scratched his chin absentmindedly as he continued, “Before the attack, The Bard never bothered us besides flooding our streets with chems and pussy.”  He cringed slightly as I pursed my lips, but soldiered on.  “Ah, pardon my Fancy, comes with the badge. The Outcast, though… He was the only raider I’d ever call a boon to the town.  Adamant’s not a half-bad pony, and that buck has a chip on his shoulder for slavers.  He’d never work with them.”

Lily chimed in behind me, “Some of us might have even called him ‘honorable.”

“Before the attack,” Dry Wells shifted in his seat uncomfortably as he answered her, “...I would have agreed with you.  Now I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing.”

I turned back to Nohta, “Did we mishear The Pyro?  Do you remember her words?”

Nohta rubbed her chin with one of Mother’s horseshoes, “No, I remember.  She said that Psyker dealt with the slavers.  I’m pretty sure that was somewhere around the time she started talking about how she was gonna eat us.”

“Fuck!”  I turned back to see the Sheriff sighing heavily into a hoof.  “I fucking knew it…  Psyker’s playing her hoof; playing her gangs against each other.  I’ve got no choice but to lock up the town now.  Nopony in or out.  We can’t take chances.”  Dry Wells looked me up and down from behind his desk, “If you’re honestly planning on doing something useful out there, then you’ve got my full support.  Your best option is to go after The Bard first.  MMMM company fucked up by going straight for Psyker.”  He cast a stern glance in Lily’s direction before looking back to me and tapping his hoof against his desk.  “You need to tear Psyker’s infrastructure apart before you take her down.  If you can kill Elegy, then his gang will fall apart on its own, and you might learn something about whatever slavers you’ve got a problem with.”  The Sheriff snorted once in derision before adding, “His gang would be the easiest to take down in a fight anyway.”

Lily chuckled behind me, “True that!  Most of ‘em don’t even wear barding!  Hint, hint!”

“Ahh yes, we really should be moving on, shouldn't we?”  I grinned behind a hoof before nodding at Dry Wells and apologizing, “Sorry for all the trouble earlier.  I do hope that your plan can keep the town safe.”

The Sheriff pulled up a small wooden chest from underneath his desk and shrugged as he opened it, “So long as Bright Eyes or Psyker don’t personally come a knockin’ on our gates, we’ll be fine.”  

Digging through the chest, he pulled out a pad of official looking papers and scribbled a quick signature before tearing one away and speaking directly to Lily.  “You and I don’t get along at the best of times, girl.  You’re reckless, unpredictable, and you have no appreciation for well-groomed facial hair.”  I found that last bit to be a rather odd way to assess somepony’s quality of character, but I chose to stay quiet while the Sheriff continued.  “But I know I can count on you for one thing.”  He shut the chest and stared at my companion.  “On your tribe’s honor, are you taking the fight to the raiders?”

Lily flapped her wings once, rattling the blades against each other noisily.  “Duh.  We just need supplies before we head out.”

He held the note out to her, “Then consider this a down payment so you don’t pour ears all over my desk again.  Take this to the buck at the general store.  I’d advise you to get the lady here some barding so she’s not traipsing through the desert in her skivvies.”

Lily smiled as she took the paper, “That’s the plan.  Keep a seat at the bar warm for me, this’ll be over before you know it.”

She donned her packs and strode out of the room quickly with Nohta close behind and grumbling underneath her hood.  I turned to follow them, but the Sheriff called out to Nohta just as my sister had stepped past the door.  “Your voice… What’s underneath the hood, girl?”

Nohta froze in her tracks and turned to face him, but kept silent.  Dry Wells rose from his chair and stepped around his desk as I stood in the doorway between him and my sister.  He spoke again, slowly, “That’s a zebra cloak.  I can detain a filthy stripe just as easily as I can a pony.  Lift your hood, girl.”

I felt that same pull to act and braced my right hoof against the door frame, peering into the Sheriff’s eyes just as my sister’s chest brushed against my knee.  The tiniest of smirks curled a corner of my mouth upward as my horn flared and unholstered my pistol.  I whispered softly as the red light of my magic cast dancing shadows across the room while I gently shook my head.  “To quote my sister, Sheriff, ‘Not gonna happen.”

His teeth ground together as his eyes fixed mine with an icy stare.  “Get out of my town.  Kill the raiders and I might consider letting you trade with us.  We’ve got enough fucking stripes here already.”

Lily was by my sister’s side as soon as she noticed we had been delayed, “What’s up?  We got a problem?”

Nohta’s voice was rigid with barely checked anger as she whispered menacingly underneath her hood.  “One of these nights, you’re gonna wake up noticing a chill in the air and a flutter in the shadows.  You’ll feel cold, but you won’t know why.  You’ll feel like you’re not alone, even though you locked all your doors.  It won’t be until you get up to piss that you’ll know how close my blade was to your throat.”  The Sheriff’s eyebrows furrowed together as he cocked his head to the side in silence.  Nohta craned her head across my knee as she pointed a hoof at Dry Wells’ face.  “I’m taking that mustache.”

By The Goddess, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Lily laugh as heartily as she did that day.

Once all of that unpleasantness was past us (and once I was able to convince Lily to stop rolling around on the floor as she cackled at the sheer terror on Dry Wells face), the three of us walked a short ways down the main road to the general store; another pre-war house that had been repurposed into a place of business.  Nohta opted to stay outside to both vent her anger by grinding loose chunks of asphalt against the road and out of fear that the shopkeeper might recognize her from the last visit she had made to the store.  I argued for Lily to stay outside to watch over her, but Lily insisted that she be present while I haggled with the trader.  She was only slightly too quick to assure me that it wasn’t just an excuse to watch me try on barding.  Luckily for my sanity, that last little tidbit was whispered while Nohta was well out of earshot.

The store was stocked with metal shelves containing a menagerie of items both useful and frivolous, but lacked any discernible strategy for organization whatsoever.  Entirely different calibers and types of ammunition were heaped together inside wooden barrels.  Pre-war packets of oatmeal were stuffed inside an ancient quad of roller skates.  A broken toaster lay defeated on its side before an invading horde of pink lawn flamingos.  But at the very back of the store, just behind the counter and the stallion waving furiously for our attention, were sets of barding and weapons hanging from hooks in the walls.

Lily was still convulsing with barely suppressed giggles as we stepped inside the store.  “Okay, I had my doubts at first since she’s kinda like, all quiet and came off as super serious.  But I’m starting to see why you love your little sis so much.”

Her laughter was quickly proving infectious.  I had to purse my lips and bite my tongue to not fall into my own giggling fit before I replied.  “She certainly has a way of honing in on exactly what most bothers somepony, and it can occasionally be fun to observe her practicing her craft.”

Lily and I proceeded past the shelves and walked up to the stallion.  Just as I was about to greet him, Lily slapped the piece of paper we had just received on the counter and exclaimed in a terribly faked accent, “I’ll buy it at a high price!”

The stallion blinked in confusion as he read the Sheriff’s note of store credit.  “Uh… buy what?”

Lily hoofed over another note, “All of the ammo in these calibers you have, a week’s worth of food and clean water, one sleeping bag, any Dash, Med-X, Buck, PTMs, Rage, Stampede, and Pink Sand you’ve got, all the health potions you can spare, two bottles of whiskey, a carton of smokes, and that.”  Lily pointed a hoof at a set of simple brown leather barding above the buck’s head.  “Also, I’d like to try on your hats.”

The stallion’s ear twitched as he raised an eyebrow, “Oh… so basically everything.  You gonna need a bag for that?”

Lily’s wings fluttered beside her as she grinned pleasantly, “Can you gift wrap it too, smartass?  I like pink bows!”

“Give me a minute to put all this shit together.”  He turned to leave, grumbling as he walked into the back-room of the store.

The front door opened behind us, and I turned to see a pair of familiar faces walk into the store.  The unicorn stood by the metal shelves and greeted me, his bright yellow face breaking into a wide grin as he spoke.  “Candy!  You made it!  Glad to see you up and about, girl!”

“Ah, Cheddar!  What a pleasant surprise!”  My own feature’s brightened with recognition.  “I was hoping to see you before I left.  I wanted to thank you for what you did for Nohta and I.”

Cabernet followed closely behind her husband, a genial but decidedly neutral expression covering her burgundy face.  “Hello, Candy.  Who’s your friend?”

Lily stepped forward just enough to place a hoof on the ground between Cabernet and myself, ruffling the bladed feathers on her back so that the metal tinkled like tiny bells.  “Sup.  Name’s Lily.”  From my angle, I was just able to see the guarded smirk on her indigo face.

Cabernet’s eyes flitted from Lily’s to my own, and then her face lifted as if in realization.  “Oh…  oh!”  Lily’s grin widened as she snorted once, her wings twitching against her sides.  Cabernet continued a moment later, nodding her head lightly.  “I see…  Well, I’m just here to see if the shopkeeper would like to buy any of my books.  Cheddar’s senses are telling him we’ll be here for a while longer and we could use the caps.”

The expressions on their faces were most curious.  Lily was suddenly acting as I had imagined a bodyguard would act, but why was she doing so around an unarmed and friendly Cabernet?  She had been nothing but kind, courteous, helpful, willing to lend a sympathetic ear and… and…  Oh Goddess…

I lifted a hoof to Lily’s shoulder, “Ahh… Lily?  Could I speak to them alone for a minute?”

Lily turned to me and flared a wing in front of us, concealing our faces from the ponies as she whispered, “You sure?  You tensed up when they walked in.”

“What?”  My brow furrowed with my confusion, “No I didn’t.”

She nodded knowingly, giving me a cocky little grin.  “I’m a damned good bodyguard, sweetie.  I pick up on that stuff.”

My face fell as I scanned the floor, “I just… I need to apologize to her.”

Lily’s eyebrows rose as if in appreciation while she cooed.  “Huh…  Really?  Now that I didn’t see coming.”

I shoved a hoof into her chest, “Whatever it is that you’re thinking… No.  It’s not like that.  I just need a minute.”

Lily withdrew her wing, “I’m here if you need me, sugar.  I’ll handle the haggling, but you’re not leaving here until we get you some barding, and you gotta try it on to make sure it fits right.  Got it?”

I nodded, “That’s fine.  I won’t take long.”

I walked to the stallion and mare, putting on the most gracious smile I could muster.  “I really am thankful for what you did for us, Cheddar.  My sister informed me of what happened after I blacked out.  We owe you our lives.  How is little String?”

“String’s good.  Probably driving Merlot and Brie nuts right about now, actually.”  Cheddar chuckled nervously, then rubbed the back of his mane uncomfortably.  “But uh… about that night… I didn’t really give your sister all the details.”

Puzzled, I raised an eyebrow in question.  “Oh?”

Cheddar glanced at Cabernet, who gave him an encouraging head nod.  He swallowed and looked me dead in the eyes as he spoke.  “Look Candy, we didn’t tell your sister this when we let her know what happened.  She comes off as a bit angry and unstable, but you seem a might bit more understanding than she is.”  He licked his lips and furrowed his brow before continuing, “After you fell down trying to drag her away, that glowing mare was about to hit you with more of that light she was flinging around.  We… I figured that it musta been some nasty stuff to knock you out, and since you were already down…”

He shook his head, cursing under his breath before his eyes pleaded with me.  “Look, I’m grateful as all get out for what you did with String, but I can’t go rushing in to get myself hurt over a couple of corpses.”

“I… see.”  I mulled that over for a moment, but couldn’t fault him.  He needed to look out for his son, after all.  I nodded my head, whispering soothingly.  “It’s okay.  I understand.  But if that’s the case, then what actually happened?”

His ears gave a feeble flop atop his head before he took a deep breath and explained.  “That mare was just about to finish the both of you off when something happened out west.  A damn pillar of white light in the middle of the desert, like the moon just plum fell outta the sky.  Looked like it came from out past Coltsville.  Darndest thing I ever did see.”  My head cocked to the side as my jaw slackened.  That had to have been the Rangers.  At least some of them had survived the ghoul horde.  But what had they done?  What hornet’s nest had my sister and I truly stumbled into?

He nodded solemnly, continuing to whisper.  “Just as soon as it happened, that glowing mare stopped attacking you and booked it for that light.  And I don’t mean she was walking around all hoity-toity like she was before.  She fucking hauled ass; took every ghoul that could still move with her and galloped like her life depended on it.  Whatever that light was… it was important to her.  And I reckon the timing saved your lives.”  He shrugged as his ears twitched,  “I figured you oughta know the whole truth.  You got any clue what it was?”

I shook my head, “Thank you for telling me the whole story, but I’m not sure.  The Steel Rangers had some powerful armaments at their disposal.  Maybe it was a weapon of some sort?  Or magic?  Both?  I don’t know.”

Cabernet’s smooth voice chimed in, “Steel Rangers?  I thought your sister said they all died?”

I frowned apologetically, “That… was a bit of an assumption on my sister’s part.  Based off of what Bright Eyes was doing, I must admit that it did seem somewhat plausible at the time.  Nohta and I didn’t stay to watch what we both assumed was going to be a slaughter.”

Cheddar sighed as his eyebrows wriggled above his eyes.  “Well, I reckon that whatever nastiness got cooked up that night, it’s all on the other side of the river.  That bomb might as well have split this desert in two, girl.  My family don’t have a choice but to go north to Manehattan now, but we’re stuck in Mareon until all this raider business blows over.”

An idea popped into my mind, and I grinned at Cheddar.  “You know, if you need to trade for weapons or food, I know a mare who grows her own fruit and has a veritable armory in her possession.  She um… she can’t talk, but as long as you can look past her horrendous spelling Margarita is a rather pleasant pony to be around.”  My grin morphed into a slight grimace as I turned to Cabernet, “And uh… I think that she might be a bit more, ah… receptive to certain things than I was.”

I couldn’t quite place the expression that graced Cabernet’s visage.  It was an odd mix of surprise, disappointment, and appreciation.  Cheddar’s face, though, was only mildly frustrated as he glanced between his wife and I.  “Damn it, Cabby!  You know I don’t mind, but you gotta tell me when you get with a mare!  That’s the deal!”

Cabernet rolled her eyes and pursed her lips at Cheddar, “Cheddar, nothing happened!  Little miss ‘well-read’ here was more oblivious than you were before we started dating.”

Cheddar blinked blankly before he grinned and chuckled, “O-oh…  Heh.  That bad, huh?”

I rubbed a hoof above my foreleg uncomfortably, “It seems I was painfully unaware of what’s proper and decent out here.  Each new revelation regarding social mores is coupled with ever increasing heights of embarrassment as I continue to make a mule of myself.”  My mane fell in my eyes as I winced at the deep-red face in front of me, “I’m sorry Cabernet, I know what it feels like to be ignored when you…  Well, when you’re trying not to be.”

Cabernet regarded me for a moment before she smiled warmly and flipped open one of the bags at her sides.  Pulling out a hard backed purple book with dog-eared pages and a flimsy spine, she asked, “Do you like spell books?  I was gonna sell this one, but you should have it.”

My jaw slackened at her reaction, and I waved a hoof before myself to decline her offer.  “I...  I can’t.  I already owe you both so much and-”

She laid the book on the floor between us.  “Just take it, Candy.  And thanks for the tip.”  Her grin grew as she whispered to her husband, “Come on Big Cheese, let’s go talk to this Margarita.”

He rolled his eyes playfully as he allowed himself to be led towards the door.  “Ugh… Citrus and cheese do not go together, Cabby.”

Cabernet shrugged as the two of them slinked through the door, “Well maybe we can find you a taco or two instead.”

A trickle of heat crept into my cheeks as I held a hoof to my face and groaned.  I absolutely had to get out of Mareon!  There had to be something in the air to pervert ponies minds so severely!  I sat there, waiting for the blush to fade and hoping that whatever commotion I had just sent Margarita’s way wouldn’t make her upset with me.

“You have fun friends.”

“Gah!”  I shrieked and turned to find a tattooed face grinning mischievously at me from underneath a black stetson.  “Lily, you nearly gave me a heart attack!  You’re as bad as my sister!”

She nodded her head towards the back of the store.  “Come on, we got this stuff settled.  Just need to get you into some armor and then we can go.”  Without another word she turned to head towards the counter and the tan earth buck on the step ladder pulling down sets of armored barding.

I held a hoof to my chest as my heart settled down.  “Right… Okay.”  I pursed my lips as a troubling thought occurred to me, “Lily, you had better not be using this as an excuse to ogle my posterior.”

She froze in her tracks and looked back to me over her shoulder.  A sly grin wrinkled the black whorls on her face as she replied, “Well… if I wasn’t before, I’m definitely going to now, silly!”  She turned back to yell at the buck, stomping a hoof against the floor for emphasis.  “Hey now!  Don’t bother with that metal stuff!  That’s too heavy for her!  We need leather so she can move fast and show off those curves!”

I whimpered into a hoof, “Goddess save me.”  My eyes fell on the aged purple tome on the floor, and I scooped up the book Cabernet had left behind to read the cover in a low whisper.  “Teleportation:  A Comprehensive Guide To Apparition, Blinking, Folding Space-Time, And Other Means Of Instantaneous Travel Over Distances Both Long And Short.”  I flipped the book over in my hooves, scanning the pages that fell open underneath my muzzle.

Father had promised to teach me how to teleport.  We had even made plans for practice sessions once we were outside of the Stable.  I had the opportunity to learn how to use the spell now, but I’d have to teach myself…  I held the tome to my breast, hugging it close.  Cabernet had given me a far more treasured gift than she had known.  When Lily called from across the store to ask what was taking me so long, I wiped the wetness from my eyes and hurried to join her.

Sliding into so many different sets of leather barding proved to be an arduous task; especially with Lily’s counsel.  She decided that two of the sets I tried on were the wrong color, spouting some nonsense about shades of brown and accents.  The tan buck could only glower incredulously when she inquired as to whether he had any outfits in a, and I quote, “Nice, soothing pink.”  Even I had to raise my eyebrow at that.  Pink armor sounded like an astoundingly terrible idea in a firefight.  Her ensuing giggles left little doubt as to the lack of sincerity in her request, however.

After I surmised that the fifth set of barding was probably intended for a mare with a, ah… more petite figure (and don’t you dare make a comment about that), I found Lily’s gaze glued to my flank.  Nearly a full day’s worth of potion-aided recovery had given me back a substantial amount of arcane strength, and I’m quite sure that the cans of pickled beets and creamed corn that collided with her head and proceeded to chase her around the store got my point across; even if she was cackling wildly as she made her retreat.

She finally stopped galloping through the aisles, much to the shopkeeper’s relief, and threw herself at my  hooves as she exclaimed, “Wait!  It’s not what you think!”

I raised an eyebrow, halting the descent of preserved justice just before it could smite her upon her new accessory, and asked, “Really?  How so?”

Her blood-red eyes pleaded with me from the floor as she pouted.  “Your cutie-mark!  I’ve seen it before!  Only, it wasn’t pink like yours.”

The memories of the night before were more than a little hazy, but I could distinctly remember confiding to her that I had a glyph-mark.  I surmised she was still trying to protect my heritage from the prying ears of the harried shopkeeper.  I cocked my head to the side as I questioned her, “Where?”

She dusted herself off as she climbed to her hooves.  “Couple places.  One of ‘em is pretty close.  Stop hitting me and I’ll show you!”

I stuffed the cans into my packs, throwing her a warning glare.  “No more staring at my flank.”

She pursed her lips in a pout, “But it’s such a nice-”

“Lily!?”  One of the cans was back in my magical grip, floating over her head.

“Okay, okay!  Sheesh!”  She waved a hoof at one of the crumpled piles of armor on the counter.  “Just go with that tan set, it’s a good one.  Not too heavy for you, and the added layers will help deflect blades and absorb some of the force from bullets.  It’s more important that you try to keep from getting hurt than it is for you to wade into the thick of it.  Leave that to me and your sister.”

We finished up the dangling ends of our transaction and left the tan stallion to clean up his store as best he could manage.  My barding was a little snug, but not uncomfortably so, and the extra layers along my shoulders, chest, and barrel did seem to provide a sense of protection I had been without for far too long.  Manticore leather was a surprisingly supple and comfortable form of wasteland armor.  I only wished that I had been capable of slipping into the armor without having to ask Lily to cut the left sleeve short to accommodate my Pipbuck.

We stepped outside to find my sister poking her hoof at the driveway by the side of the store, leaning up against the grill of a motorwagon.  She turned around when she noticed us, and trotted up in front of me to tilt her head and inspect my armor.  

She raised a hoof, and jabbed out quickly at my padded chest.  The dull impact rocked me back on my hooves, and I cried out in alarm.  “Gah!  Nohta!  What was that for?”  I rubbed my chest with a hoof as I glared at her.

Her voice was calm and level underneath her hood.  “Did it hurt?”

“I…”  Well now that she mentioned it… “No… No it didn’t.  I’m more surprised than anything.”

“Good.”  She nodded in appreciation.  “I like it.  It’s simple.  Practical.  It’ll work fine.”  She turned to find Lily sitting in front of the motorwagon and scratching her chin with a hoof.  “Are we ready to go, feather-brain?  I’d like to get out of this shit-hole town and back on the road.”

“Almost, kid.  I just want to check up on Half-Moon before we leave.  I think you’ll like him.”  She cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow in a curious expression, gesturing towards the beaten down motorwagon with a hoof.  “What do you think of the old Workhorse?”

Nohta snorted underneath her hood, “Somepony actually named that rustbucket pile of trash?”

Lily’s ear twitched as she ambled over to the vehicle.  “Yeah, check it out!  A little TLC and she’d probably be back up and running in no time.”

Nohta’s tail swished derisively, “TLC as in ‘Totally Lost Cause?”

“Bah!  You’re hopeless!”  Lily took to the air, turning quickly in the air with a powerful flap of her wings and poking at a dirty headlight with a hoof.  “Candy, what do you think?”

I walked past my sister to better inspect the old freight hauler, noting the cracked windows, flat wheels, and bent frame of the hole filled trailer.  “Well… I’m certainly no expert on pre-war automobiles, but the word ‘jalopy’ comes to mind.  The idea that it might work is certainly… interesting, but I can’t imagine that it will when it’s in such an obvious state of disrepair.  I’m sorry, Lily, but why did you want to know?”

She continued prodding at the headlight as she grinned, prompting the lens to come loose and throw itself to the ground like a rat deserting a sinking ship.  Lily either didn’t notice or chose to ignore that, and continued to smile widely as she explained, “I always kinda liked the idea of fixing her up and taking her out for a spin.  I asked the shopkeeper what he wants for the old girl, but he’s asking way too much.  Like, five thousand caps.”

Nohta shook her head.  “You want to buy this scrapheap?  Are you serious?”

Lily landed on the hood and patted the rusty metal underneath her hooves lovingly, “Aww, don’t talk about the old girl like that!  Sure she’s no Flamborghini or Super-Speedy 9001, but who wants a flashy two-seater that’s gonna run out of juice before you even make it to the next town when you could have a sweet loot hauler with enough strength to get you there and back again ten times over?  And yeah she may be a tad old, but look at her.  She’s as feisty and full of spark as ever!”  Lily’s hoof smacked on the hood, causing the remaining headlight to fall onto the ground with an uninspiring thud.  “If I had the caps I’d buy her just to have something to tinker with in my downtime.”

I raised my eyebrows in appreciation as I inquired, “You know how to fix motorwagons?”

Lily shrugged, her wings rising above her shoulders to accentuate the gesture.  “Eh… not really.  I can take care of my guns just fine, though.  How much difference could there be between one machine and another?”  Her eyes lit up in a maniacal grin, “And think of just how cool it would be to bolt a fifty-cal on top of the trailer and ride into a raider camp guns blazing!”

Nohta slapped her face with a hoof and groaned.  I chuckled as I shook my head, “Lily… that sounds like a very good way to wind up dead.”

She flared her wings and lowered her head, pawing at the hood as if she were ready to pounce on somepony.  “But it would be a great way to go, right?”

I rolled my eyes as I grinned.  “Who was this ‘Half-Moon’ that you wanted to meet?  That name sounds oddly familiar...”  My eyes scanned the ground as my thoughts began to wander off on their own.

Lily’s eyes widened, “Oh shit!  That’s right.  Follow me.”

The walk through town that followed was a long one, and full of little discoveries for my wandering eyes.  The further from the center of Mareon we got, the more dilapidated and pitiful the houses became.  Eventually the pre-war structures gave way to ancient mobile homes, then vaguely house-shaped shelters comprised of sheet metal plates, and finally railcars pulled in from Goddess knows where.  By the time that we had reached the scrap metal shelters the crumbled road had given way to a dirt path being trampled by groups of colts and fillies playing foalish games.  Everywhere around us was litter and discarded salvage; though some of it did serve a purpose.  Metal barrels had been sliced down the middle to be laid on their sides and converted into simple grills for cooking.  Cracked mirrors and flattened aluminum cans surrounded tiny gardens to reflect the feeble sunlight towards scrawny vegetable crops.  These ponies may have been impoverished, but they were nothing if not ingenious and resourceful with what little they had at their disposal.

The ponies that lived on the outskirts of town were also, to put it mildly, filthy.  Earth ponies covered in dust and grime tended the gardens and worked in teams to raise new shelters.  Unicorns covered in grease and motor oil sifted through the engines of ancient motorwagons and electrical generators, looking for useful parts.  A small mare that I at first mistook for a filly was walking amongst the workers and hoofing out food and drinks.  She wasn’t accepting any payment in return.

Lily’s voice was wistful as she explained to Nohta and I, “This is my second favorite part of town.  The ponies here are extra super friendly, once they know you can be trusted.”  She spoke directly to me as she added, “And since they’re too poor to pay any of the Mayor’s taxes, the Sheriff ‘forgets’ to route the guard’s patrols through here.  They have to look out for themselves.  Like a big family.”

I rubbed a hoof against a temple as I winced.  The world had taken on a slightly fuzzy and dull quality while my body’s niggling aches and pains returned to pester me with every hoofstep.  The mostly healed wound in my shoulder disagreed with my recent activity, but for the large part even it’s seemingly incessant and painful reminders were dying down.  

I pulled a bottle of water out of my packs and sipped gingerly.  “That’s noble of them.”

Lily smiled as she led the way through the hubbub of racing foals and busy mares and stallions, occasionally flaring a wing or brushing a hoof along the black brim of her headwear at one of the passersby.  “It reminds me of home.”

“Are they racist pricks here, too?”  Nohta’s voice was a low growl underneath her hood.  I rubbed my good shoulder against her as we continued to walk side by side.

Lily shook her head.  “Don’t think so.  They never gave me any problems for being a tribal, anyway.  I’d keep the hood on though, just in case.”

I took another drink before asking, “So, if this is your second favorite part of Mareon, where would you rather be?”

Lily snorted, her body convulsing with little giggles.  “The Prickly Pair.  Definitely.”

I pursed my lips and wrinkled my brow, “Are you really such a fan of alcohol that you’d rather be drunk than surrounded by ponies whose company you enjoy?”

Lily closed her eyes and blew a raspberry over her shoulder in my direction, “Pbbt… Did I say that?  No.  I like these folks.  A lot.  But no matter how much they remind me of my tribe, it’s just not the same as getting whiskey drunk and headbutting a buffalo.”  I couldn’t hide the bewilderment from my features as she laughed and continued, “Especially when he’s just gonna laugh at you and get you a beer when you wake up.”

I shook my head, completely flabbergasted.  “What in Equestria would possess you to bash your skull against a buffalo’s?”

She waved me off and shook her head as she chuckled, “Just one of the weird customs of The Thunderhooves.  I’ll explain later, but we’re almost at Half-Moon’s hut.”

Half-Moon’s “hut” turned out to be a layered structure of aluminum sheets resembling a large tepee.  A small garden of herbs and vegetables grew in tilled soil at its side, accompanied by a large covered plot of blue flowers growing in the shade.  White and black paint that looked like it had been dabbed onto the aluminum with a hoof formed strange runes and patterns I wasn’t familiar with.  And one of them…

“Sis…”  Nohta was staring at the cross and spiral just above the entrance to the structure as she whispered in my ear.  “That’s your glyph.”

My lip quivered as I stood underneath the mark.  I glanced at Lily, who smiled and nodded her head towards the beads hanging on strings in the entrance.  She poked her head through the beads, holding the black stetson atop her head in place with a hoof as she did so, and cheered to the inside.  “Moony!  How’s my favorite zebra doing?”

A deep voice shouted from inside the hut in an exotic accent that I couldn’t place.  “Lily!  Come in, girl!  It be bad juju standin’ in doorways.  Yuh gotta choose one way or anudda.”

Lily pulled her head back out of the beads and winked at me, “Come on.  Let’s get your fortune read.”

“Bah!  Girl, yuh know I don’ be doin’ dat no more!  Dem ponies don’ be buyin’ me exotic magic act, just me brew!  Who yuh be bringin’ to me ‘ouse?”

The three of us stepped cautiously through the hanging beads, and my nostrils were assaulted with a deluge of alien aromas both pleasant and foul.  The heady scents clouded my mind and dulled my senses, lending a sense of powerlessness that I didn’t appreciate to being inside the overly warm hut.  A massive cauldron sat prominently in the center of the open space, bubbling with a faintly glowing green mixture as tendrils of fragrant steam snaked over the roiling liquid.  Colorful wooden masks and bulging leather pouches hung from the walls next to a wooden desk with beakers, flasks, and pipettes on its surface.  A simple hammock was hung between two wooden support beams in the back, surrounded by piles of leather-bound books and a small wooden chest.  And off to the side, sitting cross-legged on a small cushion with a welcoming but inquisitive expression, was a zebra.

He looked… nothing at all like Mother.  His eyes were a piercing and deep blue, and his body was covered in dark fur that was only occasionally broken by the solid white stripes that covered his ribs, legs, and face.  His ivory mane was cropped short in a fuzzy and disheveled line darting between his ears and down the back of his neck to his withers.  An eclectic assortment of wood and gold trinkets hung around his neck, clinking against each other with every movement the buck made.  As he stood to greet us, I noticed the glyph along his uncovered flank; crooked white lines radiating out from a solid white circle like teeth on a sawblade.

He smiled and bowed his head, raising his hoof to his heart as his rumbly bass voice reverberated off the walls, “Ponies be callin’ me ‘Alf-Moon ‘cause dey can’t be pronouncin’ me real name.  ‘Ow can da last shaman of da Loa Tribe be ‘elpin’ da four o’ yuh now?”  I wasn’t sure if he was speaking so slowly for our benefit, or to give him time to remember how to speak Equestrian.  Either way, the slow pace and deep tone of his voice made me think of boulders sliding down mountainsides.

Lily trotted over to the cauldron and took a whiff of the fumes, flapping her wings appreciatively.  “Grumpy and I figured that you guys oughta have a thing or two to talk about since you’re all stripey and everything!  We’re about to set out on a job and it would be super awesomazing if you could talk to my friend here about her mark!”  Lily turned and sat close to the low fire underneath the cauldron.  “Her name is-”

“Yuh know beddah dan to be skippin’ yuh medicine, Lily.”  Half-Moon cut her off with a chuckle, nodding his head towards my sister and I.  “Dis be Candy Stripes.  And dat one be little Nohta.”

My jaw fell as my eyes widened, and I felt Nohta tense at my side.  She planted a hoof on the dirt floor and nearly shouted, “How do you know our names!?”

He chuckled to himself, closing his eyes as he raised a hoof in a placating gesture.  “Yuh be ‘avin’ yer mudda’s fight in yuh, girl.  An’ yuh be wearin’ her cloak on yuh body.”  He opened his eyes as he stared at my sister.  “But I be wonderin’ if Nadira spoke true.  Do yuh have her face, as well?”

Nohta was silent and still for a full five seconds, her expression unreadable underneath her hood.  Finally, she sat on her haunches and pulled the cowl back from her face, exposing a look of guarded curiosity splayed across her features.  She swallowed back her spit before stating, “I don’t know.  You tell me.”

Half-Moon slowly closed the distance between Nohta and himself, his eyes never leaving my sister’s.  Neither of them even blinked as he pulled one of her hooves away from her hood and grinned, “Been a long time since I be seein’ someone so beautiful in me ‘ouse, girl.  Welcome.”  His bowed his head again, brushing his lips against her hoof before pulling back to grin at her surprised face.

I stood frozen, indecision robbing me of my ability to act.  This didn’t sit well with me at all; I was far too uncomfortable with the look in that buck’s eyes.  But returning memories of Lily’s suggestion were staying my hoof and holding my tongue in place.  I eventually resigned myself to letting Nohta take care of this on her own.

She was holding her breath, and stayed silent as her eyes flitted between Half-Moon’s.  He nodded slowly, releasing her hoof from his grip and speaking in a low whisper as he examined her face, “Yuh look just like ‘er.  ‘Cept da eyes.  Yuh be ‘avin’ more ‘ate in yuh soul den she ever did.  Temper dat anger wit love, girl, or it might be all yuh ever know.”  He turned up a corner of his mouth and added in a barely audible whisper, “Let me know if yuh be wantin’ some ‘elp wit dat.”

Nohta’s eyes scanned the floor as she let out the breath she was holding.  I couldn’t be completely certain in the darkened interior of the hut, but I thought that I could just detect the faint hint of blush on her cheeks between her stripes.  I was suddenly intensely aware of the fact that no one had ever even hinted at what this stallion had just suggested to my sister.  I didn’t have much more experience in dealing with that sort of thing than she did, but the urge to intervene was growing quickly.  Luckily, I didn’t give in to my rising desire to place my hoof in the buck’s face.

Lily chimed in from the cauldron with an elated and cheery voice, “Pfft!  Short-Stack’s plenty of fun already, Moony!  She doesn’t need to listen to some crazy alchemist, she just needs to get out there and wreck some shit, right Squirt?”  Nohta was uncharacteristically silent, nodding her head absentmindedly as she sat on her haunches and pulled her hood back over her eyes.  I could just see how Lily’s face twisted into an evil smirk at Nohta’s subdued reaction.

Half-Moon smiled at Lily’s playful jabs and turned from my sister to peer into my eyes.  I grit my teeth together and tried to not glare at him, but given his recent salacious proposition to my sister it was rather difficult to keep my protective instincts at bay.  His own eyes returned my hard gaze, and he nodded once before whispering while staring me down.

“Yuh be walkin’ a fickle path, girl.”  He raised a hoof to point at my chest.  “Yuh got da fire in yuh ‘eart, but yuh be needin’ da ice in yuh veins ‘fore yuh use it.”  He pulled back as I blinked in confusion, trying to make sense of his words.  Walking slowly to his desk, he opened a drawer and spoke to Lily while shuffling his hoof through tiny glass bottles.  “Lily… Lily… Yuh be bringin’ a bokor to me ‘ouse, girl.  She be gettin’ it bad, too.  From all da angles at once, look like.”

Lily was as clueless as I was, shrugging her wings and grinning expectantly, “Uh… That’s a good thing, I hope?”

He pulled a few small vials, each filled with a different vibrantly colored liquid, from his drawer and started mixing them together in his beakers and flasks.  “Be just what we need.”  Setting his little concoction over a fire talisman almost identical to the one Mother had kept, he opened another drawer and pulled out a few dried blue leaves, crumpling them together between his hooves before tossing them into a small stone bowl.  Using the heated spiral glowing on the talisman’s surface, he lit another leaf and tossed it into the bowl as well.  He waved a hoof through the resulting wispy blue tendril of smoke, coaxing it towards his face as he inhaled deeply.

Lily smiled and cocked her head before asking, “So what about her mark?”

“Patience, girl.  I be gettin’ to dat.”  He turned and smiled at Nohta and I before sitting beside Lily and his cauldron.  “Nadira tol’ me ‘er eldest be ‘avin’ a glyph-mark.  But I be wonderin’ which glyph it be?”

I stepped forward, “A pink cross, with a spiral in the middle.  Like the rune directly above your door.”

Half-Moon nodded, holding his hooves together in front of his muzzle.  “An’ yuh be wantin’ to know what dat mean?”

I shook my head, confident that I already understood.  “Mother told me that it was the sign for healers.”

He nodded his head again as he walked over to a small chest by his hammock.  “Mmm… It be da sign for shaman, medicine mares, witch doctors, and...”  He flipped open the chest, and my eyes widened as his hoof held up a polished skull, “...necromancers.  All o’ dem be ‘ealers, in dere own way.”

My brow furrowed in disgust, and my mouth fell at the suggestion of a magic so foul.  This zebra… he couldn’t be serious!  Mother hadn’t said anything at all about… that!  I glanced at my sister, hoping to find some hint in her body language that would mirror my levels of revulsion and incredulity.  Instead all I saw from Nohta was an inquisitively cocked head as she stared at the skull in silence.  Failing to find any degree of like-mindedness on the matter from Nohta, I instead turned to Lily.

My new companion’s expression was even worse than my sister’s accepting silence.  Lily was raising her eyebrows in appreciation as she smiled at the zebra, nodding contentedly as if she had just found the book she had spent hours searching for in the library.  I was suddenly keenly aware that I was the only one in the hut who had any notion at all of just how wrong the zebra’s assertion was.

I redirected my gaze to Half-Moon, hoping that I could find a way to redirect a conversation that I was completely unprepared for.  His eyes pierced mine over the bone as he asked, “Did Nadira teach you da ways?”

The hazy smog within the hut was muddling my thoughts.  I took a deep breath and stared disgustedly at the skull as I explained.  “Goodness, no!  Not… that!”  The small chemistry set on the desk caught my eye, and I took the opportunity to latch onto it as a lifeline.  “But I do know a bit about the rest.  I inherited her alchemy set.”

His eyes squinted in disbelief before he placed the skull back in the chest and locked it.  His voice was calm as he asked, “Den why am I da one who be makin’ Nohta’s mask?”

I shook my head, “What?”

He walked back over to the desk, removed his brew from the flame, and sprinkled what was left of the leaves into the mixture.  The liquid bubbled quickly, and let off a puff of sparkling green vapor before turning a uniform luminescent ivory.  He poured the viscous goop into an old pickle jar and screwed a lid on top of it before hoofing the jar to my sister.  His tone was solemn as he explained, “Bess be walkin’ careful in dis town, girls.  Da moon and da sun be revealin’ more ‘ere dan anywhere else.”  Lily grinned sleepily at his cryptic words, nodding her head with an erudite expression on her face while I rubbed my temple and sighed. 

Nohta took the mixture and carefully placed it into one of her many pockets, then nodded her head and questioned the zebra.  “What do I do with this?”

“Rub it on yuh face when da weight of dat cowl be too ‘eavy to carry.”  Half-Moon turned to me, smirking, “Yuh best be usin’ it sometime, too.  Be a good idea to let dem ponies see you wit a clean face.”  He chuckled to himself before adding, “Tribals… Dream be one of da smartest unicorn’s I ever met.  But I ‘eard beddah ideas come out da back o’ brahmin.”  The mention of Father caused my eyebrows to furrow with regret and pain, but Half-Moon only perked up and craned his neck to peer through the swaying beads in his doorway.  “Where is Dream Chaser?  I ain’ be seein’ dat buck in too many moons.”

Nohta’s head dipped underneath her hood just as my face twisted into a grimace.  I shook my head, fighting back my rising emotional distress.  “He… He’s not…”

Realization dawned on Half-Moon’s face.  He glanced at Lily, who nodded as she grit her teeth and glared at the ground.  Turning back to us, the zebra sighed and whispered, “Den I hope him moon be guidin’ him way.  Don’ be gettin’ yourselves ‘urt tryin’ to avenge him.  Dat only be upsettin’ him spirit.”

Nohta pawed at the dirt floor, whispering from underneath her hood.  “Dad wasn’t a member of your tribe.  Or even a zebra.  How do you know what his spirit wants?”

Half-Moon shook his head and closed his eyes, speaking with a somber voice.  “Don’ madda what tribe him belong to.  We all da same.  Your soul came from da same place as mine.  Same place as Dream.  It be goin’ back dere, too, ‘fore comin’ back to da world.”

All this talk of Father was getting to me.  And the smoky haze that dominated the interior of the hut wasn’t helping.  I rubbed my hoof against my face and sighed.  I could feel the wetness building in my eyes, but through my blurry vision Lily’s face caught my attention.  She had been watching me out of the corner of her eye.

She quickly rearranged her melancholy expression into a playful smirk, taunting Half-Moon with a flippant verbal jab.  “Come on Moony, you still spouting that reincarnation junk?  You know as well as I do that it’s a load.”

Half-Moon snorted, turning to the pegasus and grinning.  “Lily…  Even you ain’ seen da spirits like I ‘ave.”  He raised an eyebrow as he questioned her.  “Dem ghosts still walkin wit yuh, girl?  Gotta let dat go.  It be eatin’ yuh up ‘fore yuh know it.”  I took the opportunity of Half-Moon’s distraction to wipe the welling tears from my eyes.

Lily rocked her head back and forth in an impish display of insolence while her smirk widened to a full-on grin.  “I’ve only got the one, and he’s doin’ just fine, thanks.”

The zebra nodded at Lily before asking, “How yuh stay, Grumpy?”

She removed her hat and scratched at the bone pierced through her ear, and held the hoof in front of her.  “He’s still grumpin it up pretty hard.  I guess being dead puts a bit of a damper on your mood, but we’re hangin’ in there.”

Half-Moon’s eyes gazed at the air just above her hoof, “Glad to ‘ear.  Yuh bess be takin’ care of our fren, boy.”

Nohta and I shared a confused glance, both of us utterly oblivious as to what Half-Moon and Lily were discussing.  I had ascertained so far that Lily was a bit… odd.  But now both she and the zebra were talking of ghosts and reincarnation and… I shook my head, remembering Mother’s warning that the zebra wasn’t entirely sane.

Lily ran her hoof through her silvery-white mane before securing her chapeau in place and rising to her hooves.  “Well, it’s pretty cool that you folks know each other and all, but we’re running out of time if we want to get out of here before word gets out about The Pyro…”  She cocked her head and grinned at the zebra, digging through her packs to produce the empty vodka bottle from the previous night and a small bag of caps.  “Hey Moony, can I get some ‘B Brew’ before leaving?”

Half-Moon tossed the bag of caps on top of his desk and submerged the empty bottle in the cauldron with a pair of tongs.  When he pulled the bottle out, the mixture inside glowed a brilliant shade of emerald.  He wiped the container clean with a dirty rag and gave it back to Lily.  “Walk careful wit dese two, Lily.  They be all dat me ‘ave left o’ me fren.”  He smirked as he added, “An’ stop mixin’ dat brew wit vodka, girl, it ain’ a cocktail!”

“Hah!  Says you!  This goes great with booze!”  Lily stuffed the brew into her packs and trotted through the hanging beads.  Nohta nodded her head once in Half-Moon’s direction and followed Lily outside without another word.

I turned to leave, but paused at the exit and looked back to Mother’s friend.  Regardless of his actions or intent towards my sister, the zebra standing before me was a link to my past.  What could he teach me about Mother or her people that I had never known?  I pawed at the dirt floor as I swallowed my pride.  “It was… nice making your acquaintance, Half-Moon.  I’d like to continue our conversation when we return to Mareon.”

A genuinely warm smile covered his face as he responded.  “We and I be at yuh beck an’ call, girl.  Still owe yuh mudda more dan me can give.”  Half-Moon bowed his head and held a hoof to his heart once more as I turned to follow Lily and my sister.

The desert air was immensely refreshing after being cooped up in the fragrant smog inside the hut.  The three of us walked in silence towards the northern gate, which gave me ample time to clear my head and contemplate Half-Moon’s words.

He had known Mother; that much was certain.  But why was he so different from her?  Mother had never talked about a tribe, only that her grandparents had come from Stable Three.  If they had come from the same place, then why was his accent completely different?  What were the herbs in his garden and why had I never seen them before?  There were only two explanations that made sense: either his ancestors had come from a different stable than Mother’s, or they hadn’t come from a stable at all.  I wasn’t sure what to think of that, but his heritage didn’t hold my attention nearly so well as what he had to say about my glyph.

Shamans, medicine mares, and witch doctors I could understand.  All of them healed the sick or provided guidance to their people.  But necromancers?  Goddess, it didn’t make sense!  Dread curiosity mingled with self-disgust in my gut, twisting my innards into knots as I pondered what my mark truly meant.  But neither the apprehension nor the revulsion matched the creeping fear that climbed my heart like choking vines as I realized that whatever the truth was, Mother and Father had kept it from me.

I wracked my memory in an effort to dredge up every lesson about alchemy, every casual conversation regarding Mother’s people or the ancestral homeland, and every painfully blissful memory of Mother and Father gazing into each other’s eyes while calling each other by their pet-names for one another.  Nothing held the answers I sought.  And now that both of them were gone…

My magic pulled Mother’s book out of my bags, floating it before my face as I walked behind Nohta and Lily.  The Overmare had forbade Father from allowing me to read it while in the Stable, but why?  Hadn’t I proven myself a capable and kind doctor through years of arduous study and faithful practice?  

Mother’s book was my best link to her, and if there was any truth at all to what Half-Moon had said, then surely Mother had left some hint or note within its pages.  I knew in my heart that my parents had loved me far too much to keep something that important from me.  I just had to remember Luna’s first truth, and peer into the darkness until I came across something honest.  

Before I could even re-read the foreword, I was interrupted and given a stark reminder of Luna’s third truth.  Lily’s lighthearted and cheerful laughter was soaring over the heads of the nearby ponies as she floated backwards in front of Nohta on easy wing beats. “Come on!  I promise that she’ll have fun-a-fun-fun!”

And to complete the absurd cosmic coincidence with Luna’s second truth, Nohta provided a great example of loyalty to me.  “Ugh!  What the hell, Lily?  You’re so fucking gross!  I’m not gonna help you get under my sister’s saddle, that’s just fucked up!”  It was a good thing that I still had the book in front of myself; it provided a very convenient cover for my embarrassed face.  Neither Lily nor my sister seemed to hear the desperate pleas sent through my clenched teeth for the both of them to quiet down.

Lily landed in front of Nohta, throwing her head back and opening her mouth wide to suck in a huge breath before prancing in place and speaking far too quickly with her absurd amount of enthusiasm.  “But we’re going out on a really important quest and we have no idea what’s gonna happen!  She should live it up while she has the chance!  What if a big ol’ rock falls out of the sky and squishes her?  You don’t think it happens but I’ve seen it!”  She gesticulated her hooves wildly to better illustrate the more colorful parts of her story.  ”Smush!  Splat!  Kapow!  And then everything explodes!  And all of a sudden everything is… and I… I…”  Lily had managed to squeeze out all of her insanity with one deep breath’s worth of air, but now she was left staring past Nohta’s face at nothing in particular as her mouth worked silently.

“I…”  She blinked and stared into the distance blankly; a sudden mix of revulsion and panic sweeping through her features before she groaned and dragged a hoof across her face.  She took a deep breath and sat on her haunches, reaching underneath her hat to pull out her cigarettes and lighter.

She winced at me as she lit up.  “I didn’t sing, did I?”

“Huh?”  Nohta’s voice sounded as confused as I felt.

Lily rubbed the back of her mane with her free hoof and exhaled a plume of smoke, turning to my sister, “Oh, hey there Short-Stack.  You must be the little sister.  I’m Lily.”

I furrowed my brow and placed the book back in my packs.  “Lily?  Are you alright?  We’ve been through the introductions already.  We were just about to leave Mareon.”

Lily’s pierced ear twitched as she sighed.  “Shit… of course we have.”  She shook her head and moaned into her hoof.  “Gimme a second.  The transition hits harder when I don’t take my meds.”  Looking back to my sister, she jabbed a hoof in the air and stated simply.  “Nohta.  That’s right.”

Nohta’s ear twitched under her hood.  “You forgot my name?  How fucked up are you?”

Lily’s eyes lit up with a childlike glee as she grinned and puffed on her cigarette.  “Not so fucked up that I won’t be able to beat your ass later tonight.  You up for a sparring match?”

Nohta cocked her head to the side as she raised a hoof in front of herself in a wary gesture.  “Wait, what? You really want to fight me?  Why?”

Lily inhaled of her cigarette once more, and her chuckles jettisoned short and lively puffs of smoke out of her nostrils while she nodded.  “Hell yeah I do.  Your sister’s the medic so she gets a free ride here,”  Lily shot a quick wink in my direction at those words before turning back to Nohta.  “...but I need to know just how hard my back is gonna hurt after I have to carry your dead weight across the desert.”  Lily glanced back at me and added in a husky voice, “Of course, I won’t turn down a massage from a pretty mare to make me feel all better…”

Nohta snorted once, regaining Lily’s attention, and stomped a hoof on the ground as her tail swished underneath her cloak.  She sounded absolutely delighted as she spoke in an excited whisper, “Oh, it is on.  I am gonna love kicking your ass.”

Lily’s wings flared behind her as she grinned broadly at Nohta.  “Good!  Been too damn long since I’ve had a real fight!  But save it for later tonight, we gotta get out of town while we can.”  Turning back in my direction, Lily looked me up and down before inquiring in a jocular voice, “What?  You couldn’t have picked out anything skimpier?”

I rolled my eyes at the suggestion.  “I’ll remind you that you recommended this ensemble.”

Lily’s face twisted into her signature smirk as she winked at me.  “C’mon, let’s get moving.”  She turned and strolled casually through the gate, making faces at the guards she passed.  Once again I couldn’t help but snicker at her foalish behavior, covering my grin with a hoof as Nohta and I followed our new companion.

As we moved past the few armored guards at the northern gate to set hoof once more in the wide expanse of desert surrounding Mareon, I couldn’t help but think that Mother and Father would have been proud.  For better or worse, Nohta and I finally had a path set before us and a clear goal in mind.  And for better or worse, I had made a friend.


******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!  
Welcome to Level 7!  
New Perk!

Tough Hide (Rank 1 of 2):  The brutal experiences of the Equestrian Wasteland have hardened you.  You gain +3 Damage Threshold for each rank of this perk you take.

New Spell!  

Teleportation: You have gained the ability to instantly travel short distances in the blink of an eye at the expense of magical power.  More power can be used to teleport further, so long as you don’t burn yourself out before reaching your destination.  You are capable of bringing along a single pony (or zony) for the magical ride, so long as you have the arcane energy to compensate.  Try not to appear halfway through any walls, Doctor!

Bookworm Bonus: Efficient Teleportation: When teleporting alone you only require half the power normally needed to do so.  This bonus is only active when wearing light or no armor.
 
Skills Note: Magical Energy Weapons 25
Skills Note: Survival 75

Nohta gains a Perk:

Iron Hoof (Rank 2 of 3): Nohta’s getting better at recognizing when to throw a kick, and when not to.  That intense focus shines through in battle, giving her unarmed attacks a further +5 damage per strike.

Footnote: Lily Belle has joined The Party!  “Where am I?  Is someone talking?  Did someone put something in my drink again?”

Lily Belle: “Hey, that’s my name!”

S	6
P	6
E	5
C	4
I	4
A	9  
L	6

Wild Wasteland: Lily has seen some things, man!  Lily is a little... off, compared to the normal wastelander.  Her encounters are sometimes more random or silly than normal.  Luckily she is not faint of heart, or serious of temperament.  “It’s a good thing, too.  I mean, are you seeing what I’m seeing?  What the hell have I gotten into?”

Kissed by Luna: As a nighttime pony, Lily is more alive when the sun goes down. Her Intelligence and Perception gain +1 (5 and 7) during that darker half of the day, but suffer -1 (3 and 5) penalties when the sun is up.  “Oh come on…  I was totally hung over and without my meds!  You can’t judge me for acting like myself!  Right?”

Tagged Skills: Firearms, Melee, Repair

Lily’s Perks: 

Accumulated Tolerance (Endurance):  Lily’s bold lifestyle has hardened her against the dangers of the wastes.  She gains a permanent +1 bonus to her Endurance for a total of 6.

Power Hour:  Lily’s learned how to fire quickly and reload on the fly!  She reloads all weapons 25% faster.

Wisdom of the Spirits:  Lily trained long and hard during her time with her tribe.  That training honed her mind as well as her body.  Lily gains +3 skill points at each Level Up.

Clever Prancer:  Through agility and reflexes, Lily has become deft at striking where it hurts while preventing her enemies from doing the same.  She gains an additional 5% chance to score a critical hit while her enemies suffer a 25% penalty to their chance to critically hit her.  This perk is only effective when she is wearing light or no armor. 

Gallop ‘n Gun:  Lily’s high-speed style of combat has honed her accuracy while on the move.  She only suffers 50% of the normal bullet spread with mouth-fired ranged weapons while walking, running, or flying.

Lily gains a perk:

Lead Barrel:  Lily’s gotten used to life in the wastes and the necessity of scrounging up food and water when she can.  Luckily her stomach can take the abuse she heaps on it.  All radiation that she would normally receive from irradiated food and drink is reduced by 50%.
> Chapter Seven: Perspective
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Seven:


Perspective



“Believing in something can help you do amazing things, but if that belief is based on a lie, eventually it’s going to lead to real trouble.”


Daughters, please do not think poorly of your father and I for what I am about to share with you.  Know that the two of us fought, argued, and wept over this decision.  Keeping quiet was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do.  I spent years hiding the truth from you, believing it was the best path for me to walk.  But now that my end is so close at hoof I find the desire to retrace my steps and choose a different direction unbearable.  By both the Goddess and my ancestors, I can only pray that you will forgive me.

It was such a burden to keep this knowledge from you, but the two of you were already ostracized by your peers.  Your father and I feared that, should you repeat these things without comprehending the weight of your words, you would certainly never have the opportunity to make friends.  Nopony in the Stable would trust you.  It is my hope that given some time to mature and learn the value of discretion the two of you may be ready for these teachings.  This truth is simply too dangerous for you to know right now.  It will be up to your father to choose when the time is right to teach you, even if my heart yearns to let you know now.

I never intended for this to be a secret I would carry to my grave.  I wanted to tell you.  Fooled myself into thinking that I was waiting for the appropriate time.  Knew that I would share the truth with both of you as soon as I was able… but... now I never will.  I am so sorry, daughters.  Please forgive me.  And learn from my mistake.  Secrets are like poison, girls; more vile and insidious than any venom.  Do not carry them in your hearts.  

I have already risked much with what I have written, and I don’t dare make this message any clearer.  Even now should I write the entire truth out for you, I know that this book would never find you.  That you might never read any of the words passed from my heart to yours.  I fear that not even your father’s pull in the Stable would be able to keep this book in safe keeping.  So instead of leading you directly to the truth I shall simply point you in its direction, and remain confident that your own inquisitive natures shall help you decipher fact from fiction.

I have a task for the both of you.  It is a simple task, but an important one: question everything.  Do not be content to take words at face value, for you shall never know their worth unless they have been tested.  Leave no truth unturned and no belief untested.  Who knows?  You may already carry the clues you need and the experiences required to notice them.  Peer into the darkness, daughters, and you will find the way.

Seven years is what your father and I agreed upon in our last discussion of this topic.  Everything would be revealed to you both when you joined your father and I for The Caravan.  Life, of course, had other plans for our family.  Even so, Dream will find a way to pass this on to you, I’m sure of it.  Nopony has ever been able to stop him once he puts his mind to something.  I believe I alone was capable of that.  So please girls, promise me this one thing.  Make sure that when your father speaks, you listen.

I know what he will have to say will be hard to hear, and even harder for you to believe.  Sometimes the truth has a way of blindsiding us.

And sometimes it isn’t an altogether pleasant experience to learn it at all, but not everything in life is.

Life can be cruel and unpredictable at times.  It can toy with us in the most excruciating of ways.  Eventually though, I promise you this pain too will pass.

Forgive your mother, she’s rambling again.  I simply want to impart one simple truth about this world: do not trust easily.  Many will seek to lie to you, and they often cloak their secrets in shadow, but you already know where you can find Honest things.  

Of course, even as I write this, I know some words must be taken at face value.  At some point, you will simply have to trust someone.

When that time comes, trust yourselves.  And trust those whom you love.  But do not trust anything that is simply understood as undeniable truth.

And lastly, trust that your father and I love you.  We always have, and we always will.


-Excerpt from The Book of Nadira, pgs. 36-37



---------------------------------------------------------------


Nohta, Lily, and I had left Mareon behind us as a barely discernible blur on the horizon, venturing north into the San Palomino in much the same direction as my stable’s caravan had taken weeks ago.  The sun was just slipping underneath the imposing mountain on the other side of the river to our left, painting the wide open canvas of clouded sky and barren desert before us in a series of warm crepuscular shades.  The scene promised a lovely evening for the beginning of our travels, and I was eagerly awaiting the hour of true nightfall that would bring the possibility of seeing a glimpse of Luna’s holy orb once more.  The night’s impending victory over the day was almost beautiful enough to wrest my attention from Mother’s book, but the memory of Half-Moon’s words had kept me incredibly focused thus far.

I allowed the heavy and determined hoof-falls of my winged companion and the softer patter of my sister’s slinking gait to guide me along the crumbled highway while I kept my muzzle buried in the tome.  Reading a book by the light of the magic that held it aloft was comfortably reminiscent of trips from my stable’s library after new books from the surface had been cleaned.  And though the broken path which we now tread offered a few more potholes than the smooth surfaces of my old home, the threat of a sprained ankle wasn’t enough to divest my attention from the text.  I had to understand what my parents had deemed necessary to keep from my sister and I.  The curiosity was already beginning to eat at my memories and twist them into foul mirages of their former selves, tainted first by suspicion and then by guilt.

I didn’t want to believe that either of my parents would hold something so intrinsic to who I was from me.  The mark gracing a pony’s body is personal and intimate; considered by some to be a glimpse of a pony’s true self.  Mother had said the same was largely true for zebras, even if the glyphs appeared foreign and exotic in comparison to the typical pictures adorning a pony’s flank.  She had said I was a healer, and that my mark meant I would make others whole.  Half-Moon had said something else.

Shamans, witch doctors, medicine mares… and necromancers?  What?  It didn’t make sense!  Mother had only ever referred to herself as an alchemist, an assassin, or a warrior.  She had only made mention of necromancy when telling me of the vile poison the zebras had concocted in order to slay The Goddess.  The same pink poison, I quickly realized, that she had always carried vials of within her cloak…

I shook my head, turning another page in the book as I skimmed past a simple recipe for an adhesive Mother had dubbed “Grammy’s Gummin’ Goop,” and tried to stifle the anger I could already feel towards this mysterious zebra that had twisted my mind so.  The very idea that Mother might have been a practitioner of anything even remotely related to The Goddess’ demise was sickening!  She had prayed before the statue just as I had!  Just as Father had!  Mother was…  She wouldn’t have...

I sighed, and rubbed my tired eyes while I walked.  I wasn’t making any headway with Mother’s book.  Despite poring over the tome in agonizing scrutiny, and coming back to the same passage about secrets many times, I couldn’t quite piece together what Mother had been hinting at.  And now that Father was gone as well and whatever plans my parents had worked out had been dashed, I wasn’t sure whether my only route to the truth lay with the infuriating defiler of memories named Half-Moon or with my stablemates that were currently located in the approximate vicinity of… somewhere.  The curiosity to know more itched, but I was woefully incapable of scratching it.



Back then, I wasn’t ready for any of the things my parents had hidden from me.  I would have shied away from so much of what Mother could have taught me, and been disgusted with what Father would have tried to convince me was necessary.  I was still comfortably ignorant in my assertion that the height of moral ambiguity I would ever face was as simple as pulling a trigger or stealing supplies for survival.  I hadn’t yet learned the capacity for cruelty the wasteland is capable of.



I opened my eyes, readying myself to read through the confusing opening of Mother’s book once more, but paused when I heard Lily and Nohta laughing.  It was only the playful insults and boisterous guffaws ahead of me that finally provided the distraction from my troubled thoughts I so desperately needed.  



Nohta’s hood was lowered over her face, but her abrasive tones carried easily on the gentle desert wind.  “So what’s with all that shit on your face?”

Lily snorted underneath her cowpony hat, “That’s rich.  The girl that looks exactly like a zebra is making fun of my tribal markings…”

On the one hoof I was glad Nohta had found somepony she could be comfortable around, easily trading lighthearted insults and playful verbal jabs as a prelude to the physical blows planned to come later that night.  On the other hoof I still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of our new companion.  Lily was most assuredly odd, and depending on the time of day and whether she had remembered her “medicine” one could even say that she was nearly insane.  But there was something about being in the presence of an able-bodied fighter that put my mind at ease, especially when she seemed so driven to act in my favor.  We needed her knowledge of the surrounding terrain as well.  And though I was loathe to admit it, she was already proving much more knowledgeable in certain topics than myself.

Nohta, however, seemed mostly interested in determining how best to get underneath Lily’s skin.  “You know I’m gonna kick your ass, right?  Especially after what you said about Candy.”

Lily adjusted the brim of her hat with a wing.  “What?  That she’s got a flank that won’t quit?”  Nohta made a retching noise underneath her hood, and I rolled my eyes behind Mother’s book.  Lily continued a moment later, her evil smirk plainly audible in her voice.  “Or that she puts a little more sway in her hips when she knows I’m looking?”

“Ugh!”  Nohta groaned, “I hate that!  But she does that shit all the time, it’s not like you’re special!”

The book dipped a few inches, allowing me to peer over the pages as I stammered to defend myself.  “I-I do not!”

Lily adjusted the black stetson sitting atop the wild mess of her silvery-white mane, and grinned back at me.  “Sweetie, you’re giving out all the signals.  You even made eyes at Dry Wells, and his face looks like it got hit by a balefire bomb!  Seriously, when was the last time you got laid?”

The book snapped closed as my muzzle rose in the air.  “I am not having this conversation!  Ladies do not discuss such things!  Hmmph!”

“if you say so…”  Lily’s wings flapped once at her sides while she shrugged.  She directed her gaze to the mountain in the distance, and continued speaking in an even voice.  “We’re losing daylight anyway, we should get off the road soon and find a place to set up camp.  We don’t want to be in the open desert at night.”  Lily paused, allowing me to catch up to her and my sister, and nodded her head in the direction of a small valley between two hills on our right.  “Let’s go this way.  There’s a hidden cave over there that we can sleep in.”

The sound of Nohta’s voice made her smirk clearly evident.  “It was your idea to leave town just before night, feather-brain.  What’s the matter?  Afraid of the dark?”

“Me?  Scared?  Pfft…  I ain’t scared of shit out here.  This desert’s like… the least dangerous place I’ve ever been.”  Lily’s wings flapped quickly at her sides while she hooked a hoof in their direction.  “But you two don’t have wings.  We run into a pack of ghouls and they’re gonna surround us in minutes.  I’m pretty fucking good, but I can’t stop that many ferals all at the same time.”

“G-ghouls?”  Try as I might, I was unable to keep a slight warble out of my voice.

Lily turned, leading our advance down the valley.  “Yeah, I’ve never really understood why but this desert’s lousy with ‘em.  You usually only find ghouls around really badly irradiated places, like bombed out cities or whatever.  But this place is practically rad free and…”  Lily shook her head before continuing with a gruff shout,  “fuck, they’re everywhere!”  Her profanity echoed off the surrounding hills before she added, “Some real nasty ones around the big towns, too.”

Nohta’s voice lacked its usual aplomb as she walked closely beside me.  “Like banshees?”  Lily paused long enough to turn her head, arching an eyebrow at my sister.  Nohta corrected herself a second later, “Or uh… screamers?”

Lily’s wings flapped rapidly as she stomped a hoof on the ground.  “Oh, fuck those things!  They hurt my head with all that screeching!”  She turned back around and continued walking, shaking her head as we took a turn past a few short mesquite trees.  “I’ve only seen those out by Coltsville though, so we don’t need to worry about them.  The ramblers are the worst ones, but out in the desert you only gotta watch for the big packs of normal ferals.”  Almost as an afterthought one would make when stating the obvious, she shrugged and added, “And Bright Eyes, of course.  She goes wherever the fuck she wants.”

Nohta asked the question for me.  “What’s a rambler?”

Lily adjusted her hat and just barely quickened her pace as she elucidated for the two of us.  “Alright… so, imagine the biggest and muscliest pony you’ve ever seen.  The kind that looks like he could actually snap somepony else in half.  But he’s a ghoul, so he’s looking all zombified and shit.”  Her wings were beginning to flare out slightly as she trotted, as if the mere thought of these abominations was toying with her fight or flight instincts.  “Seriously, these things have muscles so big that their skin is actually ripping and peeling away from their bulky biceps.  It’s fucking gross, but that’s why they’re so hard to kill.”

She slid her rifle off of her back and cradled it in her hooves, taking to the air while her wings caused the few scattered stalks of desert flowers and shrubs of hardy grass surrounding us to sway in her wake.  Peering past the sparse foliage and immense boulders in our path, she continued, “They’re fucking fast, stupid strong, and hard as hell to put down.  Your best bet is to shoot ‘em in the head, and that’s a really fucking small target to hit when they’re charging at you like an angry freight train and knocking motorwagons out of their way like toys.”

My brow furrowed as I quickened my pace to a small bush and grasped dozens of tiny red berries in my magic.  “I-I thought you said this desert wasn’t dangerous?  That sounds terrifying!”

Lily shrugged at my statement.  “Well they’re not really too bad unless you piss ‘em off.  Most of the time they just walk around with this big dumb expression on their face; like they forgot how to get to the gym or something.  It’s only when they see you fighting other ghouls that they get violent, then they’re hard to stop.”

I could feel my ears folding against the sides of my head as I questioned her.  “Is there no other way to deal with them than a well placed shot?”  I suddenly felt even more hopeless as I realized this was an enemy I was dangerously ill-equipped to face.

She turned in the air, still scanning our environs with squinted eyes as she admitted, “Well, I guess you could blow ‘em up or something.  How many grenades we got?”

I didn’t have to check my Pipbuck or my packs to know the answer.  “Three.”

Lily grimaced in the air before landing in front of us.  “Fuck…  And we’re heading right for Spursburg, too.”

An idea occurred to me, almost a call to action rather than a passing thought.  Still, I wasn’t entirely sure of how my sister or our new companion would take it.  I looked away from the bush and nearly whispered, “Actually, if the two of you wouldn’t mind a small delay in our schedule, I’d like to find what remains of...“  My eyes found the ground in front of my hooves as I voiced my request, “of The Caravan.”

Both of them stopped in their tracks and turned to stare at me.  Lily’s expression was inquisitive, and Nohta’s was unreadable in the gloom.  I stood still, bearing their scrutiny as my hoof toyed with the new leather armor above my Pipbuck.

Nohta’s response was quiet in the darkness, barely discernible over the low wind.  “Yeah, we should at least try to…”  She stopped herself, and started over while nodding her head, “Yeah.  Let’s do that.”

Lily sat on her haunches, her gaze wandering towards a mass of reddish-brown rock.  “We’ve got a good lead on one of the raider leaders.  If we get sidetracked for a day or two then we might miss our opportunity to take him down.  You sure?”

I nodded solemnly, doing my very best to keep the pain out of my halting voice.  “I’d like to pay my respects to the ponies that I”—that I had left to die—“wasn’t able…  And I’d like… to give Father a proper goodbye.”  In spite of my attempts to quell their rise, tears welled in my eyes as I explained.  “I can’t bear the thought of him being left to… to…”  Nohta’s hood brushed against my neck as she wrapped a hoof around me.  I leaned into her, taking comfort in her strength once again.

Lily shrugged, the blades on her wings catching the moonlight as they rose behind her.  “You’re the boss, sugar.  I’m following you.”

Nohta pulled away, but remained silent.  I wiped my eyes and glanced at our companion.  “Thank you, Lily.  It would mean a lot to the both of us.”

A sly grin stretched the dark lines on Lily’s face, “No need to thank me, babe.  I’m here because I want to be here.  Besides,”  She added as the grin turned into a full on smirk, “following you means the scenery is always gonna be good.”

My brow wrinkled as I looked all around us, “Well, I suppose that if you’re a fan of rocks and desert flora the surroundings should certainly suit your taste.”

Nohta slapped her forehead with a hoof, knocking her hood behind her as she groaned at Lily.  “I am going to hurt you.  A lot.”

Perplexed by the sudden turn in conversation and the impish grin spreading across my indigo friend’s features, I mentally replayed our conversation as we resumed walking before stark realization drilled its way into my brain.  I gasped, taken aback at the lewdness and flippancy with which the blue monster in front of me had spoken, and stomped a hoof against the ground to produce a satisfying thud.  “Lily!  Really!?”

She held her hooves up in a devilish mockery of an apologetic shrug, all the while continuing to smirk in my direction.  “Would you rather feel sad or angry?  At least if you’re angry you might try to shut me up.”  She winked, flapping her wings playfully at her sides.  “Preferably by mashing our lips together.”

My horn flared, bathing the three of us in a crimson glow as I tested my magic.  Feeling satisfied with the effects Mother’s potion had produced I lifted my muzzle in the air and made a request of my sibling.  “Nohta darling, I think my horn is almost entirely healed.  Will you do me a favor and beat her senseless during your little sparring match?  Don’t worry about breaking anything.  I’ll attend to that as I see fit.  Thank you, sister.”  Nohta grinned in response and ground her front hooves together in a menacing display, eager to carry out my wishes.

Lily continued to grin, but otherwise recoiled as if I had wronged her.  “Ooooh, ouch!  I thought we were friends, Candy!”

I pursed my lips in a vain attempt to conceal the grin on my face and waggled a hoof dismissively in her direction, “Oh we are, Lily, by a certain definition.  But now you have to make friends with my sister!”  I couldn’t suppress the satisfied smirk that leapt across my features as I taunted her in my best impersonation of Nohta’s antagonizing sing-song tune.  “Good luck!”


**************


The “cave” turned out to be nothing more than a convenient recess in a tall outcropping of rock, deep enough to provide cover from the winds yet shallow enough that one never quite lost sight of the sky.  The stratum jutted from the soil like a stalwart fortress far too proud to be hidden away in its little corner of desert.  Judging by the ash pile and smattering of opened tin cans upon the thick stone slab and coarse soil that would serve as our sleeping space, this was a well known camping spot.

I had laid out my new bedroll in what I believed to be the prime sleeping location, absentmindedly stirring a bubbling brew at my side and flipping through the first few pages of the gifted teleportation tome that lay in front of me.  The basics of the spell seemed easy enough to grasp; focus magic, concentrate on being somewhere else, release magic… Truly, I was already feeling confident enough to test it out despite Father’s many assurances that the spell was beyond complicated.  But the pained grunts, gasping breaths, and occasional wet smack from bloody globs of spit hitting the ground just a few pony-lengths away were enough to convince me that I should save my strength.  I’d have quite a lot of healing to do at any moment, just as soon as my violent companions came to their senses and abandoned their barbaric contest.

Nohta had shed her cloak, draping it over her saddlebags with her various weapons laid out on top of the fabric.  Lily had likewise removed her blades and hat, laying them in a neat little pile alongside her revolver and rifle against the rock wall.  I found myself rather intrigued by the way the blades had lost their indigo hue and assumed the bland color of grey steel as soon as they were no longer adorning her wings.  Clearly there was more to the weapon than I had initially suspected.  However, my eyes were quickly drawn to a clearing beyond our shelter as the sounds of fighting vied against the potion and spell book for my attention.

Nohta and Lily were, ah… in the zone as it were.  I knew my sister loved fighting, and I had seen firsthoof how Lily had reveled in bloodshed, but I hadn’t imagined their little duel would drag on for the better part of an hour.  Honestly I was surprised neither of them had simply fallen over due to exhaustion.  The dust that had been stirred up by their scuffling hooves had matted and caked against their sweaty coats, leaving the both of them absolutely filthy.  They were also both sporting angry bruises and welts from blows that hadn’t been dodged or blocked properly.

I suppose I should have just been thankful the two of them hadn’t actually been fighting, because I was quite sure I wouldn’t be able to pry them away from one another should their sparring match devolve into something more serious.  As it was, I simply had to accept the fact that they were going to ignore my repeated pleas for them to stop before either of them got anything worse than a bloody lip.

The temperature had dropped a staggering amount with nightfall, allowing tiny wisps of steam to snake away from their manes and little puffs of breath to be illuminated in the moonlight.  I scooted a little closer to my warm cookpot and sighed.  Rolling my eyes, I called out to them once more, “Are the two of you going to be finished anytime soon?  It is getting rather chilly, and I would appreciate a proper campfire!”

Nohta wiped a trickle of blood away from her grinning muzzle, never taking her eyes off of Lily.  “Just a little bit longer, Sis.  This is the tie-breaker!”

The dust was still settling as Lily licked her lips, no doubt getting a good taste of blood and dirt, and spat into the desert before grinning back at Nohta.  “You’re not too bad.  This is actually a lot of fun, kid.”

“I’m not a kid!”

“Oh, my bad.  You’re just really short, got ya.”

“Alright, that’s it!”

“That’s what you said the last seven times, squirt!”

I shivered next to my potion, raising my voice in an attempt to hurry them along.  “Hello!  Cold!”  

Nohta snorted and reared back on her hind legs, extending her forehooves in front of herself in one of the poses Mother had assumed so often during her daily training exercises.  “Candy’s right.  Quit stalling, feather-brain!”

Lily snickered behind a hoof, running her eyes up and down Nohta’s striped body.  “You look ridiculous!  What are you doing?”

Nohta scowled at her.  “I… This is a zebra stance!”

Lily was still chortling under her breath as she mocked my sister with a dismissive wave of her blue hoof.  “Right… Right… So why are you trying to fight like a zebra?”

“Uh…”  Nohta raised an eyebrow as she stared at Lily, and pointed at herself with a hoof, “Duh.”

Lily’s wings rose above her as she cocked her head to the side and smirked.  “Well there’s your problem, Short-Stack!  You should stop trying to fight me like a zebra, and fight like a zony instead.” 

“The fuck are you talking about, now?”

“Look… Zebras have a certain way of fighting.”  Lily’s hoof gestured in all of our directions as she continued, “Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi have different ways of fighting, too.  But that cutie mark means you’re not a zebra, so why are you trying to limit yourself to fighting like one?”  Nohta could only cock her head to the side in response.

Lily’s wings fluttered beside herself, blowing tiny clouds of dust away from her hooves.  “You sure as shit don’t have a horn or wings, so that means you’ve got a little earth pony in you, right?  Earth ponies are tough.  They’re usually not all that fast, compared to me,”  Lily’s grin grew as she complimented herself. “But they’re strong.”  The black lines splayed across the left side of her face evened out as she set Nohta with a stern look.  “You should be a lot stronger than this, kid.  You’re holding back, like you think this is a fucking game or something.”

Lily took a step forward as every trace of mirth fled from her features.  “People die out here every fucking day.  All it takes is one bullet in the right place or a blade that’s just a little too quick for you to dodge.”  Lily tapped the side of her face and gave Nohta a knowing look.  “Guess you were too slow for that one, huh?  You can’t ever go easy in a fight, because you only need to fuck up once.”

Nohta growled in response, “This is just a sparring match, dumb ass.  You want to get hurt?”

Lily snorted before extending a wing in my direction, “Look at your sister.  You think she can take care of herself out here?  Fuck, I already know she can’t shoot for shit!  How the hell is she gonna defend herself if we get killed?”

I wanted to say something about how beneficial S.A.T.S. had proven, or how I was sure my aim had improved since I left the Stable, but it would have just been an attempt to save face.  At the time, I was nearly worthless with my pistol and only just attaining a real desire for proficiency with the device.  Up until The Caravan I hadn’t imagined ever needing it for more than show.  But now I was walking directly into harm’s way, and doing so willingly at that.  I was still weak, but I had no intention of staying that way forever.

I had found a relative safety only by shielding myself with fighters more capable than I, all the while trying to drown out the insistent voice in the back of my mind nagging at me to do more.  It was easy enough to allow myself to be delegated to the role of “healer,” but to be honest I couldn’t help but look forward to the next opportunity I’d have to, shall we say… fix a problem personally.  Whether that urge came from a desire to prove myself to Lily, my wishes to give Nohta the revenge we both craved, or something deeper and darker within myself, I wasn’t sure.  At any rate, the scrutiny of Nohta’s gaze stilled my tongue, and I allowed Lily to continue her uncomfortable reasoning.    

“What if I was a raider, huh?  Or one of those griffins?  What if all I had to do to get to her was go through you?”  Lily’s voice dipped low as she whispered, “There’s nopony around for miles out here.  No one’s gonna come running no matter how much she screams.”

Nohta’s troubled eyes returned to Lily as the pegasus flared her wings and cocked her head, “Come at me like you mean it this time, Short-Stack.  ‘Cause maybe I’m not just fucking around here.  Maybe this is what I wanted.”  Her eyes flashed a quick predatory glance in my direction, causing an icy chill to run down my back as my tail curled around my flank.  My hoof found my lips as my thoughts raced.  Wait…  No, she wouldn’t…  Would she?  

A malicious grin crept over Lily’s face as she continued, “Maybe I was just trying to get the two of you away from town so I could—”

Nohta closed the distance between the two of them before I could even register she had moved, throwing a straight jab at Lily’s face that was neatly deflected with a sweeping motion of Lily’s foreleg.  Nohta had thrown too much weight into the attack, leaving her off balance as Lily pivoted on a hind leg and turned to control Nohta’s motion.

Flaring her wings to maintain balance as she rose to her hind legs, Lily kicked out with her free foreleg and sharply smacked Nohta in the back of her head.  My sister went face first into the ground, scrambling to her hooves in the rocky soil while Lily casually fluttered away on relaxed wing beats.  

As Nohta turned back to the hovering Lily, I caught a glimpse of her face.  She bore the same blazing hatred in her eyes I had witnessed just before she had slain the griffin.

Lily smirked and landed a good distance from her.  “That’s bett—”

She didn’t get a chance to finish.  Nohta was a blur of motion once again, the stripes on her coat seeming to blend together with the movements of her limbs.  She galloped straight for Lily, kicking up little puffs of dust as she charged ahead with alarming alacrity.  Lily reared back, as if she were going to meet Nohta’s charge head on, but a single flap of her wings sent Lily flying backward and swept a gigantic cloud of dust before her.  The gust of cloying filth flew into my sister’s surprised face, and she was left coughing and clawing at her eyes in a desperate bid to see.  Lily didn’t give her that opportunity.

She dove into the quickly dissipating cloud, her outstretched hoof connecting squarely with Nohta’s scarred cheek.  My sister was knocked to the ground once more, scrabbling at the crud in her eyes as she coughed and grunted.  Lily zipped upwards through the moonlight unbelievably fast, tucking her wings into her sides and rolling over in the air in a graceful arc.  At the apex of her ascent she flipped head over hooves and plummeted out of the sky, dashing at my sister’s prone form while I stared on in wide-eyed trepidation.

Nohta twisted her body on the ground, staring through one glaring eye as her limbs struck out like lightning.  In one smooth motion her fetlocks grappled with Lily’s legs and jerked hard on the pegasus’ limbs.  Lily was caught in the trap before she could react, her own momentum used against her as Nohta’s quick actions slammed the pegasus into the ground beside her.  The breath exploded out of Lily’s lungs as she landed on her back, her powerful wings looking incredibly delicate now that they were left flapping ineffectually in the dirt.  Nohta had all the time she needed to scramble on top of her and pin Lily’s wings underneath her striped legs.

Memories of coming across Nohta’s scuffles in the hallways of the Stable flooded my mind as Nohta’s attacks devolved from elegant and practiced zebra styles to brutally powerful brawling.  The first blow was quick, meant more to disorient than hurt.  Lily’s head snapped back sharply against the soil as Nohta’s left hoof collided with her face.  The stripes lining my sister’s body twisted as she retracted her hoof and raised her Pipbuck high above her head.  Lily sucked in air, her dazed eyes regaining their focus, and barely succeeded in raising her own hooves to block the Pipbuck from hammering into her muzzle.

I had seen Nohta use this feint before!  I was already rising from my bedroll, the words just on the tip of my tongue, but I was too slow.  While Lily was thoroughly distracted by the Pipbuck grinding her hooves into her face, Nohta pressed her advantage and threw all of her considerable strength into a blow that caught Lily squarely in the ribs.

Lily yelped in pain as her body tensed underneath my sister.  “Gah!  Fuck!  I give!”

“What?”  Nohta paused, her hoof already lifted for a follow-up attack.  

Lily’s hind legs kneaded at the loose soil as she tried to twist around.  “I give!  You win!  Fuck, I think you broke my rib!”

I was on my hooves and trotting towards the both of them, carrying one of our few healing potions in my magical grasp.  “Okay, that’s enough!  Will the two of you please stop fighting now?”

Nohta leaned over the grunting pegasus, placing her lips just beside Lily’s bone-pierced ear and whispering quietly enough that I couldn’t hear her words.  She pulled her hoof away from Lily’s face and stared coldly down at her.

Lily winced as she answered, shutting one eye tight in an agonized grimace, “Yeah… Yeah that’s cool.  Won’t happen again, I promise.”

I finally reached the pair as Nohta clambered off of Lily’s prone form.  My sister walked away without a word, making her way up one of the hills while I sat beside Lily and reached out with my spell.

Lily clutched her side as she watched my sister leave.  Between shallow breaths she nodded at Nohta and spoke.  “She’s stronger than she looks.”

I glanced in Nohta’s direction while I sat the potion on the ground.  “She always has been.  She takes after Mother much more than I do.”  Little aches and pains had already bloomed across my body, their cries nothing more than dull background noise in comparison to a single excruciating note.  I turned back to see the pained and pensive expression on Lily’s face that matched her labored breathing.  

My brow furrowed as I regarded my new companion, “You wouldn’t really have done anything like what you were talking about, would you?”

She opened her eye in a shocked expression, momentarily forgetting her precarious condition as she tried to sit up.  “What?  No!  Fuck no!  Argh—”  We both winced as her rib shrieked in protest, and my hoof quickly darted out to find her shoulder.  I forced her to lay still while she continued to explain herself.  “I just…  ow… I needed to piss her off to see what she could do.  She seemed really fucking protective of you, so…”

My tail curled around my haunch as I avoided Lily’s eyes, casting my gaze to the top of the hill where Nohta was staring at the relatively bright patch of clouds separating us from the moon.  Lily’s voice adopted a soothing tone as she clutched her barrel and whispered.  “I’d never… fuck, that smarts…  I’m trying to be one of the good guys here!”

I gave her pleading eyes a sidelong glance before closing my own and concentrating on her ribcage.  “It’s a small fracture, but nothing too serious.”  I gingerly laid my hooves on her torso to keep her still, and tried to reassure her.  “Try not to move, but don’t worry.  I’ll have you back on your hooves shortly.”

“How do you—”  Lily’s pierced ear flopped around erratically for a moment before she asked,  “Are you sure it’s not broken?”

I arched an eyebrow and huffed, “Trust your doctor, Lily.  I know what I’m doing.”

“Right, sorry, doctor knows best.  It’s just,”  Lily’s ear bobbed up and down as she winced.  “Can you give me some Med-X or something?  This hurts like a bitch.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Oh suck it up you big baby!  What happened to all that boasting about not feeling pain from last night?”

“I was drunk!  You can’t count that!  Besides,”  her pained grimace broke into a mischievous grin as she looked up at me.  “You try getting your shit rocked in front of a girl you’re trying to impress.  See how you like it.”

She was nothing if not persistent, I had to give her that.  “You… are unbelievable.  I could apply just a couple pounds of pressure to your rib and you’d be shrieking in agony!  And what’s worse, I’m not entirely sure if that wouldn’t be warranted given what you just put Nohta through!”

The pointed tresses of her silvery-white mane splayed out on the ground as she rested her head and gazed up at the sky.  With a small smile, she sighed, “No pain, no game.”  I lifted a hoof to my temple as I shook my head at her words.  Her absurdity was giving me a migraine.  

“Besides,”  she said, pushing out her bottom lip in a comical pout, “you wouldn’t really do anything like that, would you?”  

The corner of my mouth curled upwards at how quickly she had reversed my words.  “Keep testing me and you might find that the answer isn’t to your liking.”

Her face broke out in a wide grin as she chuckled, “Heh heh, oh—”  But her mirth was abruptly interrupted by a stabbing pain that shot through her torso.  “Oh shit, ow.  Ow ow ow.”

I shook my head, and returned my hoof to her rib as I tried to wipe the smile from my face.  “Try to stay still, Lily.  This will only take a moment.”

Her head flopped back to the ground as I focused my magic, and her next words left her mouth as a breathy whisper.  “Shit, I remember you said she could kick some ass,”  she tilted her face to look me in the eye and continued, “but I didn’t think it’d be my ass that got kicked.”

My dying smile was reborn as a smirk as I pounced on the opportunity she had given me.  “Your rib I can deal with, Lily.  But I’m sorry, I don’t know how to heal your wounded pride.”  The sharp echo of pain from her laughter was completely worth the little jab.

The look she gave me was… curious.  Like a little mix of curious amusement and weary optimism.  I could tell she wanted to speak, but for whatever reason she held her tongue.  I raised an eyebrow at the expression, but quickly chastised myself for squandering time at a patient’s side.

The spell I was utilizing demanded my full attention.  One slip up and she’d be left with a malformed bone in her side.  I shut my eyes and spoke over the awkward silence, hoping she’d revert back to her normal behavior with a little ego boost.  “My sister and I are in need of your counsel as much as we require your protection.  The two of us haven’t even been outside our home for a month, and already we’ve nearly died several times; mainly on account of our ignorance of the local dangers.”  I paused in my ministrations long enough to look her in the eye.  “We need your help, Lily.”

“You need my help, babe.”  I pursed my lips at the comment as her face resumed its default smirk.  She nodded in my sister’s direction a moment later, “Nohta just needs to get in a few good scrapes and she should be fine.  She’s got the basics already, but I think she’s just too worried about you getting hurt.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Well hopefully you’ll be able to allay her concerns rather than antagonizing her further?”

She snorted, “Yeah, I could probably try that.  I am pretty awesome, huh?”  I simply rolled my eyes and continued working the spell.

Furrowing her brow, she glanced between my horn and her side.  “That feels really weird, by the way.  How are you doing this without tools or potions or whatever?”

I wrinkled my nose as I shot her a quick glance.  “Are you referring to Hydra?  As if I would resort to such desperate measures for this little accident!  I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly capable of healing a simple hairline fracture with my magic, thank you very much!”  I sighed as memories of my training rushed back to me.  “A procedure such as this was fairly commonplace in the Stable, after all.”

“Did you guys have like, pit fights or something down there?”

“As much as my sister would have absolutely loved that… no.”  Magic poured through my horn as I explained.  “The other doctors and I simply had to contend with an overabundance of patients due to our stable’s propensity for doling out injuries at every possible moment of inconvenience.  The many faulty systems left us with no lack of opportunity to practice dealing with broken bones, burns, contusions, lacerations, the occasional case of mild chemical poisoning-”

She cut me off by shaking her head and grinning unapologetically.  “You’re losing me, sugar.”

I took a deep breath, licked my lips, and steeled my nerves as I tried to explain.  “Our stable was falling apart.  Despite our maintenance team’s skill and incredibly taxing work schedule, they barely managed to keep it functionally habitable.  We often had to resort to, er…”  I scrunched up my nose as I remembered the lofty term one flustered repair pony had used years ago, “creative use of non-optimal materials’ to keep many of the systems running.”  

The fracture had been reduced to a seam.  I evened it out while I continued to elucidate.  “And since two-century old pipes are not meant to be held together with duct tape, glued on scrap metal, and baling wire… And since I was one of only three doctors trying to keep hundreds of ponies healthy… I’ve been healing various forms of traumatic injuries since just a couple years after I got my glyph mark.  Which,”  I added, completely incapable of keeping the smug grin from my face, “I was first in my class to earn.”

I was expecting her to grin and brag about herself some more, possibly with some absurd story about how she had gotten her cutie mark earlier than first.  Instead, she turned her head to stare off into the distance with a morose expression as she whispered.  “You got your mark early too, huh?”

I removed my hooves from her side as I severed the magical bond, opening my mouth to apologize for inadvertently upsetting her.  She kept speaking before I could get the words out.  “Fuck, Candy…  That,”  She patted her hoof against her barrel experimentally, “...Huh, that doesn’t hurt at all.”

I nodded and gripped the unused healing potion in my levitation, stepping back to give her room to stand up.  “The rib is still slightly weaker than before, so you’ll need to take care not to stress it too much.  But it shouldn’t hinder your ability to walk.”

She rose to her hooves, stretching her wings wide at her sides.  Her eyes shot open to match her wings as she quickly asked, “Can I fly?  I can’t use my rifle if I can’t fly.”

I raised an eyebrow, “That… seems like a design flaw.”

She was quick to laugh off my incredulity, grinning wide like an excited school-filly as she talked about her weapon.  “it’s an old zebra-model lever-action rifle.  Got it from one of my tribe’s shaman after she went on and on about how she had blessed it or something.  It’s a great weapon, way more powerful than my six-gun, but I gotta use two hooves to hold it, and I gotta fly to do that.”  She shook her head as she added, “I don’t have your sister’s balance.”

“Well,” I began, “I wouldn’t recommend that you fly at all tonight.  You can see how you feel tomorrow, but don’t strain yourself tonight.”

She cocked her head to the side and gave me a mischievous wink.  “So… Take two Med-X and call you in the morning?”

“Two!?  Goodness no!  That would surely lead to an-”  I caught myself when I noticed the cocky look on her face.  “That was a joke, wasn’t it?”

She nodded, and gave her wing a slow experimental flap before she voiced her approval.  “You’re really good at this doctor stuff, huh?”  I brushed my mane out of my eyes as I simpered at the compliment.  Her grin broadened as she gestured at me with a hoof.  “Hey, there we go.  You should smile more often.  It’s pretty.”

I cleared my throat and hurried to conceal the blush on my face, my eyes landing on Nohta as I turned my head.  “I believe that you should probably be quick about apologizing to my sister.  You don’t want to allow her to stew over something for very long.  Trust me.”

“Eh, I don’t know.”  Lily rubbed her rib with a hoof as she glanced at my sister’s back.  “She was pretty pissed.  Letting her cool off for a couple more minutes couldn’t hurt.”

I nodded in acceptance.  There was something else I wanted to ask her anyway.  “You mentioned a shaman?  Your tribe has zebras as well?”

“Oh totally!  We got all kinds of folks.  Mostly buffalo and pegasi, but we have a few dozen zebras, some earth ponies, couple of unicorns…  There’s even Old Lady Palm Fronds.  She’s practically a fossil of a minotaur, but she makes like, the best cinnamon rolls.”

Part of me was curious about how somepony that had no understanding of fish could grasp the concept of a fossil, but I held my tongue in favor of a much more relevant curiosity.  “Are there… Is there anyone in your tribe like…”  My hoof rose shakily to my chest as I gazed curiously at her.

She smirked and batted her lashes.  “I got my first kiss from a colt with stripes on his wings.”

Ugh!  Did she have to be so… persistent?  I quickly averted my gaze and changed the subject.  “What did my sister say to you?”

“Uh…  Heh.  I don’t think you wanna know.”

I turned back to see her face twisted in worry and doubt.  “Lily?”

A pained grimace was curling the black swirls on the left side of her face as she tried to avoid the topic.  “I’d… rather not say.”  She continued to dawdle pointlessly, scratching at the loose soil with a hoof while I pursed my lips and stared her down.

When she finally relented, her voice was anxious, like a filly that was frightened to fess up for stealing from the cookie jar.  She rubbed her leg and winced as she whispered, “Threaten Candy again and I’ll kill you.”

My hoof met my temple as I sighed.  “Oh for the love of…”  Pointing to the top of the hill, I continued, “Go.  Apologize to her now before she has a chance to work herself up over this.  I don’t want the two of you to be at each other’s throats for this entire trip.”

“Right.”  Lily turned to solemnly trudge up the hill, yelling ahead of herself.  “Hey, Short-Sta—”  She paused, shook her head, and corrected herself.  “Er… Hey Nohta!”

I shook my head at their antics, lamenting that I was destined to be the voice of maturity once again, and turned back to our little campsite.  The brew in my pot had spoiled from overcooking, and was giving off a burnt odor.  

Disappointed that I had just wasted several precious herbs and a fair bit of time, I sighed and emptied the cookpot on the ground near some desert greenery.  The runny goop was quickly soaked up by the thirsty soil, seeping down into the earth to make contact with the root structure of a nearby saguaro cactus.  The poor plant was immediately stricken with an awful cough, hacked most of its spines off,  shook its arms at me in outrage, and fell over in a sudden and pitiful death.

No, I didn’t make that up.  It really happened!

I was understandably confused by the vehement outburst, but the damage had already been done.  I eyed what was left of my newly discovered cactus-killing-concoction with a weary expression, giving it a tentative sniff as I wondered what hellish brew I had inadvertently crafted.  Some potions are harder to make than others, and if you aren’t careful the ingredients just don’t mix properly.


**************


The dried shrubs and twigs that Nohta and Lily gathered in the moonlight were soon fueling a healthy flame.  I had managed to sneak away and shrug off my leather barding while my two companions were otherwise occupied, and was now simply enjoying how the heat of the fire washed over my body.  The low howls of wildlife and the occasional report of distant gunfire joined the crackling and popping of the wood, but a full belly and a comfortable sleeping bag did wonders to allay my concerns.  

For once I didn’t feel like reading, and was content to simply lay in the soft fabric by the fire and allow my mind to drift.  Nohta and Lily had joined me beside the flame, though Lily’s occasional wince and Nohta’s guarded squinting in her direction left me curious as to how much rest either of them would actually get that night.

After Lily lit the brush she had pulled out a cigarette and reclined against the rock wall, allowing the tobacco smoke to lazily climb up the side of her face and roll past the brim of her hat while she sipped from a bottle of whiskey.  She hadn’t yet replaced her blades, instead opting to cautiously stretch her wing and leg in order to test her injury.  Every so often a puff of smoke would billow through her nostrils as she shook her head and tittered quietly to herself.

The siren call of turning pages called my attention back to my sister.  Nohta had purloined Mother’s book while I wasn’t looking, and was reading quietly in her bedroll.  Despite my concern for her well being, she repeatedly groaned and told me to stop fussing about how the low level of light would ruin her eyes.  Rather than the liquor favored by our indigo companion, my sister was drinking water; a decision I was quite grateful for when she finally got fed up with my insistent pleas and threw the empty bottle at my head.  The lightweight plastic bounced off my horn and rolled along the stone slab while Lily laughed boisterously at the two of us.

My sister was as stubborn as a mule!  I rolled my eyes and gave up after saving the plastic bottle from the open flame. Lightly prodding the stuffing in my pillow, I lay on my stomach in my new bedroll beside the fire and resigned myself to trying to catch some shut-eye while the opportunity presented itself.  Lily, of course, had other plans.

The bottle of whiskey thunked against the rock as she wiped her muzzle and grinned.  “So that’s a hell of a kick you’ve got.”

My tail swished over the bedroll as I shot her a warning glance.  “Lily, be nice.”

She pulled the brim of her hat back, openly displaying her tribal markings in the firelight as she grinned in my direction.  “This is me being nice!  I’m just trying to figure out how such a short gal from a stable got such a mean left hook.”  I raised an eyebrow at that, and she raised her hooves in front of herself before continuing.  “It’s a compliment!  Really!  She’s good!”

Nohta’s voice was reserved as she glanced over the pages of Mother’s book.  “You really want to know?”  

Lily snatched up her bottle of whiskey and raised a toast in my sister’s direction, beaming all the while.  “Campfires are made for stories.  Let’s hear it.”

I groaned into my pillow.  “Oh please, don’t get her started.”

Nohta gently folded the book closed and smirked maliciously over the flames, speaking slowly in an attempt to give her words impact.  “Two black eyes, three missing teeth, one dislocated shoulder, one broken jaw, a broken nose, and a chipped horn.”  I rolled my eyes.  Of course she would have the details memorized...

“Uh… but you don’t have a horn.”  Lily pointed out the obvious before taking another pull from her whiskey.

Nohta shook her head once before continuing, “Those were the other five guys.  I got a bloody lip, a few good bruises, an epic black eye... and my cutie mark.”  My sister’s hoof swept over her flank, putting her tornado on display.

Lily craned her neck to see past the fire, and nodded appreciatively.  “Five on one?  Nice.”

“Please don’t encourage her, Lily,”  I huffed.

Lily scrunched up her face as she inhaled.  A plume of smoke wafted towards the flames as she replied, “What?  Fighting might not be all proper or decent or whatever underground, but up here that’s cool.  And with odds like that?  Kick ass, kid!”

My head rose from the pillow as I gave her a stern look.  “Flying off the handle because of one foalish insult isn’t proper, decent, or… ugh, cool.  It’s immature.”  I lifted my hoof and thumped it against the fabric of the bedroll, only to be disappointed in the fairly anemic sound produced by the gesture.  “Those little heathens were trying to upset her and she gave in to it!”

“Oh stop acting all indignant, Sis.”  I turned to find Nohta rolling her eyes at me.  “You looked like you were ready to do the same thing after I told you what they said.”  She did have a fair point.  I lowered my head back to my pillow, using the soft foam padding to muffle my grumbles.

Lily took another sip of whiskey before setting the bottle down.  “So what’d they say?”  She grinned awkwardly and patted her barrel at Nohta’s dangerously raised eyebrow.  “You know, just in case I ever feel like I need another busted rib.”

Reaching towards her packs, Nohta procured one of Mother’s horseshoes.  She held it between her hooves, spinning it around to inspect the metal while she explained.  “Mom had just come back sick from The Caravan.  They called her a ‘filthy stripe.’  Said she deserved what she got.”

“Note to self…”  Another plume of smoke drifted out of Lily’s grinning mouth as she continued.  “Seriously though, I’d have done the same thing.  Someone insults my folks and they get what’s coming to ‘em.  Good on you.” 

I fiddled with my Pipbuck, unable to look Lily in the eyes as I muttered, “You wouldn’t be saying that if you were the one that had to heal all of those injuries…”

“Aww boo hoo.  So you had a little more work to do.”  Coarse soil scratched at the whiskey bottle as Lily lifted it once again.  “What’s the big deal?”

I pursed my lips.  If she honestly didn’t understand then I’d tell her!  “The ‘big deal’ is that—”

“Candy felt all of it too.”  Nohta’s hard voice cut me off.

Lily paused halfway through raising her bottle to her lips.  “What?”

Nohta fitted the brass shoe onto one of her hooves absentmindedly while she spoke.  “That’s how her magic works.  She feels how you hurt just like she got hurt the same way.  Then she knows how to fix you.”

Lily’s eyes darted to my own, and I felt myself shriveling under her scrutiny.  Her face twisted in an apologetic and confused grimace as she whispered, “You didn’t tell me that.”  

My hooves hugged the pillow closer to my face as I avoided her eyes.  “I didn’t think it was important.”

“The Overmare decided that the best course of ‘corrective action’ was to make me watch Candy heal the other colts and fillies,” Nohta continued a moment later.  I was grateful that Lily’s attention wasn’t on me anymore, but I couldn’t help but wish the subject were more cheerful.  “Dad or Pearl could have done it just fine, but that bitch insisted on Candy doing it.”  Nohta ground her shod hoof into the stone, obliterating tiny rocks into nothing more than chalky powder as she spoke.  “Dad and I had to watch her suffer for what I had done.”

The last thing I wanted that night was a sulking little sister.  I raised my head to steer the conversation down a less volatile path.  “I never was able to convince Father to translate what he said to her after that.  It must have been truly awful.”

“He was always doing that.  He’d never cuss in Equestrian; only in Fancy.”  Nohta snorted as a wry smile contorted her scar, and put her brass weapon back in her packs.  “It was like he was trying to protect our oh-so-sensitive ears or something.”

“Yeah.”  A weak smile graced my lips as memories of Father flitted through my mind.  “He was always trying to protect us.”  By teaching us, by arming us, by telling us to run…

Nohta’s agonized grimace matched her voice as she continued, “I still feel bad about that, Sis.  I got my mark and you had to pay for it.”

“Oh… I’ve been through worse, darling,” I shrugged, hoping to put her at ease.  I reached out a hoof to her and put on the best smile I could muster.  “If nothing else, it was worth it to see the look on your face when Father stole the recording from security later that day.”

“Oh yeah!  When he rigged up that terminal and we watched the fight again with Mom in the clinic?  And then she started giving me pointers?”  She was smiling.  By The Goddess, she was smiling!  How long had it been since I had seen her happy?

A completely undignified noise of pure bliss reminded my sister and I that we weren’t alone.  “D’awww.  You two are so adorable!  When I heard I was gonna be working with a couple of sisters I thought I’d get to see a lot more sibling fights, but you two are just so cute!”

Nohta recoiled from my hoof, glaring daggers over the flames at our gently swaying companion.  I, too, shot a stern look at our newest comrade, but quickly rearranged my features to give her a mocking grin.  “Oh, we certainly have our disagreements, Lily.  But we’re much too smart to fall for bait like that.”  Nohta and I shared one more quick glance before we both nodded primly in agreement.  Lily clutched her liquor and chuckled in resigned defeat, and that was good enough for me.

Nohta though, she always liked to push her advantage.  My sister dredged up a tiny fraction of her powers, letting loose with her exasperating tone.  “Alright feather-brain, you got my cutie mark story so let’s hear yours.  What’s the deal with your pansy-ass flower?”

The bottle of whiskey stopped just before the glass brushed against Lily’s lips.  Giving a weak smile, she stared down the neck of the bottle and whispered, “Thunderhooves put them on the graves of our dead.”

An awkward silence descended over our camp before Lily addressed my sister and I.  “You’re good at fighting.  And you’re good at healing.”  She took a healthy swig from her bottle, sighing quietly before whispering, “I earned my mark by putting ponies in the ground.”

Revulsion and concern twisted together in my gut like a knife.  “Lily… that’s...”

Lily shook her head and chuckled, staring me down.  “I’ve got a reputation as the best merc in this desert for a reason, babe.”  Holding her bottle in front of her, she gazed into the flames and explained.  “When you need somepony really fucking dead, you go to Lily Belle.  Just as long as they deserve it, she’ll take the job.”  A quick snort of wry laughter matched the forlorn smile on her face.  “Fuck… sometimes she doesn’t even charge you.”  She took another drink before cradling the bottle between her hooves and barrel.  “Maybe I’ll give you two the whole story some other time.  That’s not something I like to talk about with just anyone.”

Nohta’s voice was tinged with annoyance.  “We can pay you.  For the job, I mean.  It’s not like we’re a charity case.”

Lily chuckled in response, “No you can’t.  Some of the bullets I use cost about ten caps each.  And Candy already let slip that you guys were broke.”  She shook her head again, her hoof gently brushing against the wing-blades lying on her saddlebags.  “Don’t worry about it.  I’m not here for money.  I’m here for blood.”

My brow furrowed as I contemplated her words.  I couldn’t comprehend how she could be so cheerful.  I had devoted my entire life thus far to saving lives, and I was a near-constant wreck of emotional distress.  Yet she…  She laughed so easily!  I had only seen her take a hoof-full of topics seriously, and nearly every one of them had involved killing; an act I had once thought completely taboo.  Had I not remembered a few acts of kindness, or how eager she had been to assist me, I would have thought her completely callous—a husk of a mare broken by the hardships of living with the wasteland and taking pleasure through the suffering of others.

But there was something more to her than all that.  I suppose there is in each of us, really.  If ponies were to judge you or I based solely off of our actions, I imagine the accusations would be harsh indeed.  Without the proper context, one can never truly understand the motivations of another.  And with that context, even the most callous or self-serving of actions can be seen as an act of overwhelming kindness and generosity.  Or at least, that’s how I’m hoping you’ll see all of this.

An unexpected yawn reminded me of the lateness of the evening.  “Well, on that cheery note…”  I trailed off, peeking first at the clouded sky and then at the digital clock in my Pipbuck.  I sighed when I saw the little white numbers.  “It is getting rather late.  We’ll need our rest for the long walk ahead of us tomorrow.”

“True that.  We’ve got a ways to go.”  Lily screwed the cap back on her whiskey and placed it inside her packs.  Taking one final puff from her cigarette, she threw what was left of it into the flames and slid into her own sleeping bag.  She smirked at me as she zipped herself in, “I really hope you guys don’t snore.”

“I don’t, but Candy does.”  Nohta had rolled on her side, facing away from me, but I was sure that I could hear the evil smirk on her face.

My jaw dropped.  “Nohta!  No I don’t!”

Lily rolled onto her stomach and pulled her hat over her eyes.  “Oh great… and it’s too late to go back to Mareon for ear plugs…”

“Lily!”  I was clearly the easy target here.  Something that didn’t bode well for how the next few days would play out.  

I made sure I had placed all my things back in my packs and snuggled into my bedroll, wondering for the first time whether it was a good idea to be in the company of a pony whose special talent was killing.  What was there to separate a mare like that from a raider?  Her cutie-mark was a flower, a far more visually pleasing symbol than some of the other marks I had seen in the wasteland for sure, but still… if it represented the same thing…  Who exactly was I sharing a campfire with?

I nestled my cheek against the pillow, as close an approximation to shaking my head as I could muster, and tried to remember the happier times in my life.  The times in the Stable when Nohta and I were still little.  When Mother and Father were still with us.  When the worst thing I had to worry about was an off comment spoken in a hushed voice, or news about Nohta’s latest scuffle with underaged ruffians.

What came next was rather disorienting.  Dreams often can be, but for reasons I didn’t comprehend this one felt… forced.  It is natural to slip into the comforting waters of slumber peacefully, or even eagerly.  It is not natural to feel as if one has thrown you over the side of the boat and left you to drown in memory.  I believe I should communicate this moment to you exactly as it occurred, as it is rather important to the both of us.  You’ll understand shortly, I’m sure.


**************   


I’m in the Stable again, but the walls are taller than I remember.  My world is hazy, and the edges of my vision ripple like oily smoke.  The ceiling lights are far enough away that I can’t feel their heat upon my mane.  I’m… naked.  Why am I naked?  I should be wearing my labcoat.  Where is my Pipbuck?  Wait…  Who’s laughing?

I turn to see a small beige face locked in a furious glare… Caramel, my closest friend, is between me and a miniature gang of miscreants.  She’s telling them to leave me alone.  She’s trying to stand up for me.  She’s so tiny…  Why am I being simultaneously accosted and defended by foals?  Why does my height match theirs?

A rough smack sends her to the floor.  Spicy is older than her, and his hooves are hard.  A trickle of blood dribbles down her muzzle.  She cries out, telling me to run.  Run…  The simplest of commands…  The one we always regret…  But they’ll leave her alone if they’re chasing me.

I am a filly locked inside a dream, and I am running.  I don’t dare to imagine the fate waiting for me should I stop.  My hooves beat upon the cold steel floors; four little panicked beats that perfectly match the rhythm of my racing heart.  I’m scared.  The small herd jeers behind me.  Cruel names and crueler promises shouted by excited colts.  I glance over my shoulder to see Spicy Salsa leading the pack.  Memory begins to replace confusion.  

I’m seeing…  Goddess, of course I was seeing that day.  Lily and Nohta were just discussing it…

They called themselves “The Cave Eels.”  A long-standing nuisance within the Stable’s walls, with newer and younger members constantly replacing those ponies who had outgrown their pitiful little gang.  Despite their vehement claims to the opposite, they most certainly did not “rule.”  

Their taunts and jests have turned violent.  They are no longer content to simply hurl insults and amuse themselves with my tears.  They mean to hurt me.  

Running.  The lights flash past.  Why are there no adults!?  There is always an adult!  Seeking refuge, I turn down a hallway and open the door.  

The door.  Not the giant, fallen cog that was Stable 76’s Stable Door.  No.  This one was much more important.  This was the door to the cafeteria.

Oh, hush.  I didn’t mean it like that.

That door changed my life when I was a filly, running from a foalish coalition of thugs and bullies.  That same door saved my life when I was a mare, buying my sister and I precious seconds to collect our wits as we ran from The Pyro’s gang.  It was only then, as I was still slipping into the cloudy haze of sleeping memory, that I realized how much of an impact a single and incredibly mundane object has had on my life.  I couldn’t help but dwell on that slab of steel as I accepted where the dream was leading me.  I soon felt the last vestiges of consciousness fade away as I slipped fully into Luna’s chosen realm.

I hurry through the door, panting and out of breath.  There are ponies in the cafeteria; mares and stallions.  They can help me!  They turn their heads at my entrance, and I feel a glimmer of hope.  My troubles are gone!  I’m safe!  The ponies resume stuffing their faces and droning on about their boring days, heedless of my cries for assistance.  I stomp my hooves and yell, vying for their attention.  Their faces scrunch up in the placating expression of adults far too familiar with the tiresome antics of the little. 

Tiny hooves beat against the floor just behind me.  The click of a button precedes a whooshing noise.  An electric crackle and pop mingles horribly with the clinking of utensils on plates.

A single face, blurred by memory, yells through a mouthful of noodles, “Get away from the door!”

Mechanical malfunction…  A common occurrence in 76.  Even as a filly, I knew the meaning of those words.  It meant somepony was about to get hurt.

I hear the thick steel plate crash down a second later, ancient gears and rusted safety locks snapping like dry twigs under multiple tons of hydraulic pressure.  The deafening screech of metal biting into metal like a nightmarish beast’s maw clamping down just behind me.  And then… silence.  

I hear an agonized scream coming from a familiar voice.  Not an amused taunt or a contemptuous joke, but a truly horrendous screech of agony  The rest of the expressions in front of me transition from bored to shocked as forks and spoons clatter to the floor.  I turn to see Spicy being crushed; his eyes bulging in terror and anguish.  

I blink once, processing this turn of events.  Something tugs at both my hooves and my heart, and I run back to the door.  I don’t think because I already know.  I don’t wait because there is no time.  I feel because that’s the only thing that makes sense.  Something surges in my chest, bubbling up from my core to rise behind my eyes and leap into my horn.  I seize hold of that sensation, my reaction coming as easily as breathing, and I cast a spell.

My horn flares scarlet, working a magic I’ve never known before.  It doesn’t trickle.  It doesn’t pour.  It gushes.  There is a rampaging river of energy cascading through my horn.  For one moment I feel as if all the magic in all the world is being channeled through my being.  I… can’t control it.  It controls me.  

Blood-red light floods my vision, painting the world in a thick blanket of crimson effulgence.  Where is all this coming from!?  What am I doing!?  I slam my tiny hooves into the emergency latch, heaving my panicked body against unfeeling steel in a vain bid to set Spicy free.  I scream as I hopelessly exert myself.  The spell connects, and for the very first time, I truly know another.  My spell makes the unthinkable happen.  I become we.

The tingle of magic floods our body as we lie prone on the floor.  Magic rushes through our horn as we stand upright and wrestle with the latch.  Our back is being crushed!  It hurts so much!  Tears run down our face.  We can’t feel our hooves!  Our other’s hooves keep pushing and shoving.  We keep fighting against the door.  Our mouth fills with warm, wet copper.  Desperation fills us.  We use all our strength; more than we knew we had.  The door’s emergency latch activates.  The door relents and rises with a reluctant hiss as the beast is denied its meal.

Pain!  It hurts!  Oh Goddess, please make it stop!  The red fades to grey.  No!  Luna wait!  Sounds become distant.  Not like this!  One of our heartbeats slows and grows weaker.  We begin to stretch apart.  The threads fray.  The rope clings by a single strand.  We sink into the abyss, and the gentle leviathan of death stirs in the deep.

No!  We’re not ready!  Not like this!  Not so soon!  We dive into the void, trying to reach our other.  We will not let this happen!  We can stop this!  We… We have to!  We struggle against the tide, tumbling helplessly in the undertow, but we find our other in the dark.  We cling to ourselves.  We don’t know what we’re doing.  We fight to hold on.  We embrace our other as the deep crushes us both  And then…  we remember warmth, and forsake the cold.  One candle lights another.  We choose to live.

My consciousness slams back into a single skull as my brain tries its very best to leak out of my ears.  My magic sputters and dies.  I recast the spell, but I can’t muster the raw strength of my first attempt.  I don’t know what I’m doing.  I’ve never heard of a spell like this!  Spicy’s heart beats again in my chest, and I feel his blood trickle over my lips.  He moans in agony, and I feel his wet voice reverberate through my throat.  I sweep my mind over his body.  His bones are broken.  His insides are crushed.  He’s bleeding on the inside, he can’t feel his back hooves, his lungs are collapsed and filled with blood… How do I know these things?  This doesn’t make sense!

I feel it all.  It hurts… SO much!  I have to make it better!  Have to make it right!  I have to fix this!  The spell helps me.  I don’t know what I’m doing.  I shouldn’t be able to do these things!  No one should be able to do these things!

I mend the bones, stop the bleeding, reconnect and fuse the nerves, heal the organs…  But how?  I’m just a filly… How am I doing all of… Why am I so tired?

I slump over on the cold floor, collapsing from exertion as my face lands in a shallow pool of still-warm blood.  Only now do I hear the excited yelling; the panicked screaming.  Only now do I see the colorful ponies running and shouting, unsure of what to do.  Only now do I notice the oily shadows rippling through the world…

Through the encroaching darkness I see Spicy lying beside me, his eyes open and blood still in his mouth.  His eyes turn to me, close enough and wide enough that I can see my reflection in his pupils.  Spicy isn’t confused like I am.  He isn’t grateful or ecstatic or even mesmerized.

He is afraid.

The inky black consumes my vision and permeates my mind.  “Candy…”  A voice in the dark calls my name.  “Candy?  Sweetheart, can you hear me?”  My eyes flutter, but do not open.  I feel… small.  And weak.  It is all I can manage to listen to the familiar voice.  I reach for the sound, but my hooves might as well be clutching smoke and vapor.

“F-Father…”  I try to shake the confusion from my…  from my…  What’s the word?  I’m so tired…  “D-Daddy?”

“Can—”  The voice fades in and out like a wave, too quiet for me to hear all the words.  “—right here.  Everything will be…”  I can’t hear anymore.  It’s too quiet.  

I want to wake up.

I open my eyes.  The clock on the wall tells me that hours have passed.  I know because it’s past my bedtime.  I’m in Daddy’s clinic, lying on my side in one of the beds.  Everything is… fuzzy.  I’m really tired, but I don’t know why.

There are ponies arguing and shouting.  I recognize the red one as Spicy’s dad.  But Daddy is here, too.  He’ll help!  He’ll make it better!  Daddy can fix anything!

He’s standing in front of me, blocking my view of the other ponies.  Why is he doing that?  I want to see!  Daddy staggers backwards, bumping into my bed.  He looks back at me quickly, and I see the blood on his lips.  It’s dripping to the floor and staining the bedsheets.  Spicy’s father just… hit him?  Why are they fighting?  Daddy’s horn glows, sending a bright blue light across the white walls.  His laser gun jumps out of his holster as he turns back to Spicy’s dad.  Daddy looks angry.

The Overmare and two stallions in funny looking black armor walk into the clinic.  There’s more shouting and more yelling.  One of the security ponies raises his club.  The door opens, and then everypony gets really quiet.

Mommy steps into the room.  She looks angry too.  She’s wearing her cloak.  She speaks to the room, but I think she’s only talking to Daddy.  “Who is threatening my daughter?  What is going on?”

Daddy answers her in that funny way he talks sometimes, but doesn’t take his gun away from the red stallion’s neck.  “Je suis dans la merde, mon chère.”

Mommy moves into the room.  The ponies back away from her, but they look angry.  The clink of Mommy’s horseshoes echoes off the walls.  She walks over to me, smiles, and whispers into my ear, “Be still little one.  You have made your father and I very proud of you.”  I giggle when her breath tickles my ear.

One of the stallions is angry, “That little abomination nearly killed a foal!”

Mommy’s face gets sad.  She kisses my forehead and turns around, tapping the small pistol sticking out of one of her pockets.  “You speak in ignorance, yet you should watch your tongue.  Or should I add to my notches, another one?”  Uh oh… Mommy only rhymes when she’s upset…

The Overmare doesn’t look happy, “Enough!  I’m having enough trouble trying to eke out the details of what happened without several of my little ponies… and my little zebra… trying to tear each other’s throats out!  Dream Chaser!  Lower your weapon and release Cayenne at once!”

Daddy’s pistol is still under Spicy’s father’s jaw.  Daddy glances to Mommy.

“Your little zebra?’  Do my ears deceive?”  Mommy talks to the Overmare,  “If not, then tell these fools they need to leave.”

The same angry security stallion glares at Mommy underneath his funny looking helmet.  “You’re interfering with official security business, stripe.  You don’t get to decide what happens here.  I ought to teach you a lesson in authority right now.”

“If you believe you are made of sterner stuff…”  Mommy’s head tilts towards the security pony, and a glint of metal shows by her hoof when she stomps her leg on the floor.  “But by now, I believe I have had enough.”  Something sharp on Mommy’s leg is scratching against the tile as she narrows her eyes and speaks.  “I will not keep you from testing your luck.  Truly, at this point I don’t give a—”

“Nadira,”  Daddy cuts her off, “Candy’s right here.”  That’s not fair!  If I ever interrupt Mommy she just gets upset!

The room is really scary right now!  I know Mommy told me to stay still but I just want to hide.  The Overmare looks almost as scared as I am, but everypony calms down a little when Mommy looks back to me and nods at Daddy.

Mommy takes a deep breath before she talks again.  “Then please forgive my alarm and my threatening anger,” she shakes her head slowly as she continues, “But I’ll stay until my daughter is not in danger.”

Cayenne still isn’t happy. He’s yelling again, “Your little bitch nearly killed my son!”

“Ferme ta putain de gueule.”  Daddy doesn’t yell, but his voice is more scary because he seems so quiet.  “Do you have any idea what a Trottz 1000 can do to exposed flesh at this range?  Insult my daughter one more time and you’ll have to be swept up with a broom.”

The Overmare’s mouth drops, “Dream Chaser!  You can’t be serious!”

Daddy’s blood is dripping off of his blue muzzle, but he doesn’t wipe it away.  “My family is the most precious thing in this entire stable.  I’ll not stand idly by while this… this… pièce ingrate de merde threatens my firstborn!”

The Overmare’s eyes move between Mommy, Daddy, and Cayenne really fast.  “Cayenne, back away slowly.  Dream Chaser has the right to protect his daughter.”

Cayenne’s eyes meet my own.  He looks angry.  And not angry like when Mommy caught me drinking Sparkle-Cola after my bedtime angry.  Cayenne looks… scary.  His teeth are grinding together as he growls at me.  “His daughter is the one that hurt my son!”

The Overmare stomps a green hoof on the ground and yells, “And what would you do if that were the case?  Hmm?  Harm a child?”  Cayenne’s mouth opens a little bit while his ears droop, and his eyes wander around the room.  He decides to glare at Daddy instead of me.  I don’t think he’s having a good day.

The Overmare waits for a second.  Everypony gets really quiet, and she keeps talking.  “That’s not what the initial reports are telling me, anyway.  I need more time to figure out exactly what happened, and as long as this situation is still inflamed you’re keeping me from doing exactly that.”

She turns back to Daddy, “And right now I don’t think I can trust you to help little Spicy.”

Daddy is surprised enough to let his weird little gun dip a little bit before he catches it.  “What!?  I’d never hurt a foal!  That’s just barbaric!”

The Overmare shakes her head and swishes her pretty white tail, “This is not up for discussion!  You can look after your own daughter, but Dr. Patches or Dr. Grey will be healing Spicy Salsa.”  The Overmare looks around the room, just like Daddy does when he can’t find his favorite book.  “Where is Dr. Grey?”

Mommy answers, speaking slowly.  “Pearl is busy watching little Nohta.  I couldn’t leave her alone while I was busy… defusing this situation.”

Cayenne snorts and and sneers at Mommy.  “Defuse the situation?  The striped bitch?  Right… you’ll try to defuse it… when Luna bows to the sun.”

Daddy is getting angry again.  I can tell because he’s speaking very softly.  “Get out of my clinic.  I won’t say it again.”

Cayenne looks really really angry, but turns to leave.  Daddy puts his gun back in its place on his leg and turns to me, “It’s okay, Candy.  Everything is going to be okay.”

Cayenne turns around.  He’s breathing really heavy, but I don’t know why.  He charges at Daddy, but Daddy doesn’t see him because he’s sitting next to my bed.  Oh no!

A black blur moves in front of Cayenne.  Mommy stopped him.  Mommy is fast!

Cayenne’s hoof is pinned against the cabinets by Mommy’s hoof.  There are little cracks in the wood behind his leg that look like spiderwebs.  I hate spiders because they’re icky.  Mommy’s other hoof is by his neck.  Something sharp-looking is attached to her Pipbuck, with a glowing pink goop dripping off of it.  Cayenne looks scared.  Everypony is staring at her and Cayenne, and the security ponies are trying to grab their weapons, but Mommy and Cayenne are being really still.

Mommy’s voice is so quiet I have trouble hearing her.  “Thirty-six minutes.  Each one a lifetime of pain.  Nothing could save you.”  What’s Mommy talking about?  I’ve never seen her get this mad!

Cayenne is yelling again, “You bitch!  You broke my hoof!”

Mommy’s eyes are scary as she talks again, just a little louder.  “I’ve killed better ponies for less than this.  Do not mistake my mercy for weakness.”

The Overmare’s eyes are wide as she shouts.  “Nadira!  Let him go this instant!”

Mommy grinds her hoof against Cayenne’s leg.  “You might live through my blade slitting your throat.  But Pink Kiss has only one antidote.”

“NADIRA!”  The Overmare is screaming now!  I cover my eyes with my hooves, but I peek just in case I need to watch.

Mommy shoves Cayenne away.  Cayenne stumbles backwards, sniffling and holding his leg.  One of the other stallions holds him up as he limps towards the door, but the Overmare isn’t happy with him.

She’s yelling at him, and she sounds really angry!  “Cayenne, you foal!  We only have so many doctors in this stable!  What do you hope to gain by assaulting one of them?”

Daddy looks back to me and wipes the blood off of his chin.  Daddy’s already been attacked.  

I sit up and brush a hoof against his face.  “Daddy?  You’re hurt.”

The room is quiet again.  I think everyone is looking at me, but I’m only paying attention to Daddy’s face.  My horn lights up.  This magic is so easy!  I can feel Daddy’s lip like it’s my own.  It’s split.  I don’t have to do much.  I just mend the cut, and Daddy’s all better.

Daddy’s eyes are wide.  It looks like he’s about to start crying.  “Candy… By The Goddess… “  His clean hoof pulls me into a hug.  Daddy hugs are the best!

The Overmare is glaring at Daddy, but she talks to the other ponies instead.  “Leave us.  All of you.  I need to speak with them alone.”  She keeps looking at Daddy as she adds, “And close the door behind you.”  

“Ma’am?”  A security stallion gets a really mean look from the Overmare and mumbles quickly while he and the other guard pony help Cayenne out of the room.  “Er, yes Ma’am.”  The door whooshes shut behind them.

The Overmare sounds frustrated, “Dream Chaser, Nadira… Work with me here, will you?  I’m trying my best to keep the peace.  I am.  But these incidents have got to stop!”

Mommy turns to her.  Mommy’s lips are just a thin line on her pretty face, but she doesn’t sound too angry anymore.  “If the ponies of this stable would simply let go of their hatred, they might find that I can be quite amicable.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” The Overmare speaks softly to Mommy, “Dust has informed me of how generous and capable you have proven yourself in The Caravan, and most of the regular members of the expeditions have vouched for you as well.”  The Overmare’s voice gets rougher as she continues, “But The Caravan is only one part of life in Stable 76!  I can’t keep trying to bend the rules for you two!  You’re going to have to let go of some of your pride.”  The Overmare shakes her head and keeps talking.  “Nadira… you can’t be threatening everypony, or worse, every time one of them makes an off comment.”

Mommy opens her mouth to say something, but the Overmare keeps going.  She talks a lot!
“I’m not saying that what they’re doing is okay.  I’ll try to speak to them about it.”  She takes a step towards Mommy.  Not many ponies will do that after Mommy gets angry!  “But Nadira, surely you must realize… You’re scaring us with how you react to insults.”

Mommy finally gets a chance to speak, and she doesn’t sound happy when she does.  “Insults?  Insults!?  You call threatening the life of my eldest daughter an insult?  It is a fair bit more than that!”  I don’t like it when Mommy yells, but I’m sure she’s right because she’s Mommy.

The Overmare shakes her head, “What Cayenne did was unquestionably wrong, Nadira!  You’ll find no argument from me on that matter.  But the reason he was driven to that point was because of how the Stable feels about you.  I’m sorry, but… you’re proving to be a rather heavy burden to accommodate.”

Daddy turns away from me.  “What are you saying, Wintergreen?”

The Overmare says a lot of words very quickly.  “I’m not saying anything other than trying to remind and warn you of the likely continued and ever increasing repercussions of your attitude towards, and treatment of, the rest of the Stable’s population.”  She sighs and turns towards the door.  “I have a Stable to calm down and gossip to quell.  Tend to your family Dream.  We’ll speak in The Temple later.”  The door to the clinic opens and closes behind her.  It’s just Mommy, Daddy, and me now.

Mommy turns back to Daddy, “I am not as accustomed to the social mores of this stable as you are.  Did she just threaten me?”

Daddy looks confused and scared.  He starts talking to himself while shaking his head.  “I… I don’t know.  Possibly?  Would she do that?  We’re both in the… She knows about… “

Mommy holds a hoof to Daddy’s lips, “Calm down, Dream.  We can sort this out.  It is the height of stupidity to openly threaten an assassin.  Surely the comment was meant to be taken at face value.”

Mommy keeps talking after she lowers her hoof.  “But just in case it was not, perhaps we should seek temporary refuge in Mareon?  We can stay there for some time while Candy and Nohta gain the years necessary for travel on the road.  Afterwards we could seek out my family?”

Daddy shakes his head, “I’d be just as distrusted there as you are here, love.  And there’s no telling how they might feel about Candy and Nohta.”

“Then we shall stay in Mareon permanently?”

“Mareon?  That junkyard?  There are a few decent ponies there, but… I don’t think they’d be very welcoming of you either.  Not with their history.”  Daddy glances back to me before he continues.  “And I’d be worried about the girls if we stayed there for too long.  They wouldn’t get an education in anything other than fighting the other foals in the town.”

Mommy frowns, “Then we are forced to stay here.  Where I am reviled by most and feared by nearly all.”

Daddy’s ears lie flat against his head.  I don’t like it when he looks like that.  He looks sad and angry all at the same time.  “You don’t deserve this treatment, Nadira.  And neither do Candy or Nohta.”  Daddy looks angry as he stares towards the clinic’s door, and speaks in that funny way again.  “Avec la lune comme mon témoin…  I will bathe you in light…”  Daddy talks really funny, but he sounds really angry when he does it.  I’m not sure what to think about that.

Mommy kisses Daddy, and he stops making his angry face.  I giggle because he always looks surprised when she does that.  She speaks softly, “You’re letting your emotions get the better of you again, my love.  We should stop spending this day with worry in our hearts.  It is a good day.”

Mommy steps closer to me, and rests her hoof against my back leg.

I giggle again.  “Mommy!  That tickles!”

“The People know this symbol well.  It decorates the huts of medicine mares, witch doctor’s, shamans, and… ”  She stops talking, but looks at Daddy.  His eyes get wide again.  I wonder how they talk to each other without saying anything.  

She turns back to me, smiling as Daddy puts his leg around her shoulder, “Our daughter is a healer, Dream.  She bears the mark of one who will make others whole.”

Mommy and Daddy are both smiling at me.  And I’m up way past my bedtime!  It’s a really good day!


**************


I woke with a start.  Goddess, why was I dreaming of such things!?  Mother and Father had nearly killed somepony right in front of me!  I hardly remembered anything from that far back; let alone with such clarity.  Time had muddled my memory of the day I had aquired my mark, so why was my dream so much clearer than my own recollection?  Father had said…  Goddess, what an awful thing to say!  I shook my head, trying to clear my mind and calm my heart.

“Can’t sleep?”  The dark and unfamiliar voice caught me off guard and left me feeling like a cornered animal trapped by a hungry predator.

My eyes darted towards the sound, finding a lumpy object in the dim glow of the dying coals.  The “predator” in this case turned out to be an alert and hopeful pegasus mare trapped within the restrictive confines of her sleeping bag.  I had to blink the sleep from my eyes to be sure I hadn’t seen that incorrectly.

Lily was lying on her back with an uncomfortable grimace twisting her features as she struggled with the fabric wrapped around her.  “Uh… Can you help me out here?”  She rolled a little from side to side like a sausage on a hot griddle, completely incapable of extricating herself from her rather novel form of captivity.

She was pouting as she stared at me with wet and pleading eyes.  “Sleeping bags are hard.”

Fear died and was replaced by a fleeting moment of concern, which abruptly transformed into amusement.  “You…  How did you manage to...”  I had to cover my muzzle with a hoof to hide the very unladylike snort that escaped my nose.

She hissed at me in a hushed whisper, “Hey!  Whoever designed this damn thing didn’t think about what wings do at night, okay?  The inner lining came loose and got all tangled up in my feathers and—”  I was convulsing in barely suppressed giggles, trying with all my might not to wake Nohta from her undisturbed slumber.  And of course, as anyone who has tried to keep their laughter quiet will attest, that only made it worse.

Lily only grew more agitated, and coincidentally, more comical.  “Oh sure!  Let’s laugh at the pegasus who zipped up her sleeping bag and got stuck!  She’s a fucking riot!  What a joker that Lily is!”  In her hushed rage, she managed to gently roll onto her side.

I shook my head and held a hoof to my mouth, trying to whisper so that only Lily would hear.  “But if you knew what was going to happen, why did you zip it up to begin with?”

She flopped over onto her stomach and smiled brightly.  “Hi, my name’s Lily.  I don’t usually make the best decisions when I’m drinking.  And I drink a lot.”  She was positively beaming as she added, “It’s nice to meet you.”  I didn’t need the years of experience dealing with Nohta to spot the blatant sarcasm, but it certainly helped.

Well if she was going to be that way then I was perfectly within my rights to needle her a little further.  “And what, pray tell, do wings do at night that would cause you such distress?”

She huffed, blowing a lock of her disheveled mane out of her eyes.  “Oh come on… You’re a doctor.  Do I really have to explain the concept of a wing-boner to you?”  I blinked innocently, even if the amused smirk on my lips was anything but, and waited for her to continue.  She rolled her eyes and sighed, “Okay… so whenever a pegasus gets all hot and bother—”

“Oh, no!  That’s fine!”  I shook my head and waved her off with a hoof before she could keep going.  “I’m rather acutely aware of basic equine physiology, thank you very much!”

She stared pointedly in my direction.  “Then I’m guessing you have an idea of how much this sucks?”

I stuck my nose primly in the air, and tried my best not to giggle too much at her expense.  “Well if you were having one of those dreams, then perhaps your predicament is your own fault!”

Her eyes narrowed as she glared at me.  “Ohhh, just you wait!  I’m gonna waddle over there and bite the shit out of you!”  Sure enough, she began rocking herself back and forth, gaining an inch or so with every furious wiggle and frenzied bounce.

The sight of her advancing towards me like an irate and possibly inebriated caterpillar was too much to handle.  I was blinking back tears of mirth, completely sure—despite my medical knowledge proving me wrong—that I was going to break a rib by suppressing my laughter.  “Stop!  Haha!  Please stop!”

She had closed perhaps half the distance between us when her sideways momentum carried her a little too far, and she found herself lying on her back once more.  I couldn’t hold it any more, I had to bury my face in my pillow to keep from waking my sister.

She allowed me to get it out of my system before pleading in a sincere whisper.  “Uh… please?  This is actually really uncomfortable.  I hate being tied up.”

The corner of my mouth curled upwards as I twisted the proverbial knife just a teensy bit further.  “Based off of many of your previous comments, I find that rather hard to believe.”

“Yeah, yeah.  You’re hilarious and witty and I’m completely at your mercy.”  She scoffed at my accusation, and huffed as she added, “Will you please help me out now?  I can’t reach the zipper.”

I wouldn’t have seen the zipper in the gloom had her bobbing left ear not drawn attention to the small bit of metal beside her mane.  A quick bit of magic and she was was set free.

She rose to her hooves, and immediately stretched her wings as far as they could reach while sighing throatily.  “Oh geez, that feels so much better.  Thanks.”

I shook my head and whispered softly as the last spasms of laughter ebbed away.  “I should be the one thanking you.  I needed that.”

“Bad dreams?”  She took to the air, blowing a gentle breeze across the coals as she added the last few bits of our kindling and dried brush to the fire.

I rested my chin against my pillow as I nodded.  “Memories of my parents that I would have rather forgotten.”

Lily poked and prodded at the sticks and blew gently against the coals until a small flame took hold, then turned back to me with a quizzical expression.  “Why would you want to forget anything about your folks?”

Nohta rolled over in her sleep to avoid the growing light of the small fire, mumbling incoherent gibberish in her sleep.  “S’every life.  I-some.  For?”

Using my magic to pull Nohta’s covers back up over her shoulders, I rubbed my eyes with a hoof and yawned.  “It’s… complicated.”  Nohta quieted a moment later, and resumed her quiet snores.

Lily was nearly silent as she flew back to her sleeping bag.  She laid back down on the fabric and gave me a sympathetic grin.  “Complicated sucks.  I prefer simple.”

I just couldn’t help myself.  I raised a taunting eyebrow as I replied, “You must love yourself, then.”

She pursed her lips and glared in response.  “Are you always this snarky when you’ve just woken up?”

“Er, my apologies.  I’m not terribly fond of mornings.”  I sighed deeply as I rubbed a temple with a hoof.

“Heh, I hear ya on that one.”  She scratched at her mane and reached over to her saddlebags.  “Hey uh, I did have something I needed to ask you.  Think you can show me whereabouts we’re headed?”  Pulling out a crudely rendered map of the local area, she moved to lay down beside me and pointed at a couple of brightly colored islands in a sea of tan.  “This is Mareon… and this is where we’re at right now.  Where are we going?”

I furrowed my brow and wrinkled my nose as I examined the wax-covered paper.  “Did you color this with crayons?”

“Shut up!  This map is the shit!”  She shrugged off my insinuation, sticking her tongue out and blowing a raspberry in my direction, and nudged the map a little closer to me.  “I know you said it was north of here, but there’s a lot of ‘north of here.’  Maybe tell me how fast you guys were going or something?  Any landmarks you passed up?”

“The wagons and carts slowed us down quite a bit, but I don’t remember much in the way of any noteworthy places of interest.”  I studied the map closely, attempting to spot something I would remember, but only wound up shaking my head in defeat.  In the end I had to guess, and simply hoped that I had made a decent approximation of our destination.  

“Assuming your skills as a cartographer are as superlative as you believe them to be, I’d venture to say…  Here.  Somewhere just past this green smudge.”  Lily pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow at my word choice, and I raised a hoof to hide my sheepish grin.  “I’ll stop.”

“That green smudge is our next stop then.  It’s an old apple orchard.  There’s probably nothing left worth scavving, but we can at least use the barn for shelter.”

A tiny vibration from my Pipbuck drew my attention to my hoof.  The small screen had just registered a new point of interest: Brother Belmont’s Big Fruit Farm.  I shook my head in confusion, “How did we miss that?  The Caravan walked right past it and I never saw a single tree.”

“All the trees are dead, but you still should have seen them.  Were you following the road?”  Lily rolled the map back up in her hooves as I nodded my head.

“Mostly.  Occasionally we veered away from the highway at the behest of the Caravan Leader, though.  I don’t remember the reason why.”

“It’s a pretty well known spot.  Sometimes raiders or bandits like to hole up in the place for a couple days before moving on.  Maybe… uh, what was his name again?”  

I frowned and glanced over at my sister.  “Dust.  He and Nohta appeared to be getting along fairly well, until the ambush.  He seemed fairly knowledgeable about the wasteland, as well.”

Lily cocked her head to the side quizzically, “What’d he look like?”

I was too tired to wonder why she had asked.  My eyes drifted across the cave absentmindedly while I recalled Dust’s features.  “Err… Earth stallion.  Tan coat. He had a little grey creeping into his mane.  Why?”

Lily shook her head and ruffled her feathers.  “Nevermind.  He was probably just trying to avoid as much traffic through the desert as possible.  You guys were trying to keep your stable secret, right?”  I nodded, and Lily stuffed her map back into her packs.  “We’ve still got a couple hours.  Get some more sleep if you can.  We’ve got a long walk tomorrow.”

I yawned as I nodded, and laid my head against my pillow.  I was just about to drift off when the sound of a pen scratching against paper caught my attention.  Lily was huddled over a worn book, taking notes by the light of the fire.  It actually made me feel better, knowing that she could at least take one thing seriously.  I shut my eyes again, content in the knowledge that my new companion was doing her best to assist my sister and I in our endeavor, and allowed myself to fall asleep once more.

The morning came abruptly and much too soon for my liking.  The sky outside our cave had lightened from a lovely black to a depressing grey, and the air was too cold without the fire to stave off the chill.  Nohta, curse her, was already making an abominable racket by stuffing our belongings into our packs.  Breakfast was simple; a can of corn that was still sweet and satiating despite being centuries past its expiration date.  Lily smoked one last cigarette before taking her “medicine,” and the three of us left the cave behind to travel north.

After the dream I couldn’t help but notice how much better the cloak concealed Nohta’s body than it had Mother’s.  My little sister might have been an adult by the standards of the Stable, but it was easy to see why some would consider her younger than her years with her small stature.  A few more months and she wouldn’t even be a teenager anymore.  I made a mental note to begin looking for a suitable birthday present.  We might have been out of the Stable, but there were many traditions I had no desire to leave behind.

For the first hour or so the trek was boring, and I was grateful for it.  It gave me time to identify and collect a few herbs and wild peppers growing by the side of the road.  I assumed that both Nohta and Lily were as tired as I was, and were therefore content to let the morning pass in blessed silence save for the muffled plodding of hooves on dirt and rocks.  But of course, that couldn’t last forever.  Lily eventually took to trotting jauntily ahead of my sister and I and then hovering in the air while waiting for us to catch up.  After the third or fourth time this occurred, Lily decided it was the opportune moment to shatter the silence.

“Arrgh!  Don’t you two ever listen to music?  Turn on your Pipbuck radio!”

“Lily, the only signal I ever received on my Pipbuck was the Stable’s broadcast.  And that only ever worked sporadically at best.  There is no music in this desert!”  My answer might have been a bit more testy than was called for, but in my defense I was still quite groggy.

“Oh come on!  I know that DJ Pon-3 comes in out here!”  She dragged her hooves down her face in an impressive display of her exasperation.  “There’s nopony around for miles and I’m bored!  I need some tunes!”

Nohta’s ear twitched underneath her hood.  “Would you shut up already?  You’re gonna give our position away!”

Lily flapped one of her wings a little faster than the other and rolled over in mid air.  I couldn’t help but wonder exactly how she was capable of hovering upside down as she blew a raspberry at my sister.  Or exactly how her stetson was capable of defying gravity by staying atop her head.

“Pfft…  The only thing we have to worry about right now is dying of boredom!”  With a quick mid-air twist and a rapid descent, she landed on her haunches on the road and raised a fetlock to her brow in a melodramatic display.  “Here lies Lily Belle; a trusted friend, a good fighter, and a connoisseur of fine headwear.  Done in by two sourpusses that didn’t like music.”  Holding her hat in front of her chest and closing her eyes, she wiped away an imaginary tear before continuing.  “Bury me with my guns and give me two caps for the boatmare.”

I rolled my eyes, sensing where this conversation was headed.  “Stable 76 typically cremated the deceased in order to save space.  I’m sorry Lily, but if you continue to be dead then it looks like we’ll just have to incinerate you.”

Lily’s ear bobbed up and down as her brow shot upward.  “Well that’s weird.  The zebras in my tribe always bury bodies so the spirit can ‘return to the earth’ or some crap.”

We still had a long walk ahead of us…  I opened my packs and pulled out a bit of reading material to help pass the time, hoping that Lily would take the hint.  “Yes, well… As much fun as it is to listen to you deride Mother’s people for their customs, perhaps you should take more mintals and listen to Nohta’s advice.”  The book opened before me, and I followed the sound of hooves to guide my steps.

A gust of air blew my mane from side to side as Lily hovered behind me and peered over my shoulder.  “Whatcha reading?  Is it a cookbook?  Sometimes I like to read cookbooks and wonder what fresh apples must have tasted like.”

I floated the book to the side and buried my muzzle a little further in its pages.  “I imagine they tasted very similar to the preserved variety, Lily.”

Another gust of wind preceded the indigo hoof that poked at the paper in front of my eyes.  Lily was now slowly flying backwards in front of me and giggling.  “This book has a lot of funny words and none of them are ‘corn.’  I don’t think it’s a cookbook.”

I sighed as I stared at her excited red eyes.  Reading was obviously not an option with Lily around.  “No, it isn’t.  It is the teleportation tome that Cabernet gave me yesterday.”

Nohta was now leading our little herd.  She looked back over her shoulder when I mentioned the mare’s name.  “She gave you a spellbook?”

The memory of that chain of events twisted my gut in uncomfortable ways, and with Lily still holding the book hostage I was forced to hide my blush behind my mane.  “I… think it was something of a peace offering.  She gifted it to me after I apologized for… well, for how I acted when we were in Coltsville.”

Lily finally released the book, which came dangerously close to smacking me in the face before I caught it in my red bubble.  “For someone that’s supposed to be super smart, that was really dumb.  How’s come you didn’t realize she had the hots for you?”  She chuckled into her hoof as I glared at her.  

Nohta’s exasperated groan was audible underneath her hood.  “Fuck… I’m actually agreeing with the idiot.”  Nohta stopped in the road and turned towards me.  “I told you, Sis.  Your ideas about the ‘proper’ way to do things don’t mean shit out here.”  Pointing at Lily, she added, “Surfacers are fucking weird.”

I pursed my lips and huffed.  “Well I can hardly be faulted if I only just found out about… er, relations between… ugh… Can we please change the subject?”

“Yeah.  Let’s do that.  That shit weirds me out.”  Nohta turned around, walking past one of the old road’s many mile-markers.  She glanced over her shoulder and past the sign to ask, “Do you think you can teleport yet?”

“Ooh!  Do it now!  Teleport!”  Lily pumped her hooves in the air excitedly, flying a little higher above the road.

My ears dropped to the sides of my head as I rubbed a hoof against my leg.  “It’s not exactly as if this is a simple levitation spell…”

Nohta shrugged under her cloak.  “It could be pretty helpful if you knew how to pop behind a corner in a fight though.  Have you tried it out?  Might as well get some practice in while there’s no one else around.”

Lily began chanting like an excited mare encouraging her friend to imbibe a dangerous amount of alcohol.  “Do it!  Do it!”

I had wanted to see if I could manage the spell, but I hadn’t imagined that I’d be cursed with an audience for my first cast.  “Well… Alright.  I’ll see what I can do.”  The cloud around the book faded away as it rested in my hoof.  Staring at the rusted sign just a few paces away, I squinted my eyes and focused as I gathered energy in my horn.

Teleportation is… odd.  Traveling instantaneously from one place to another defies most every law of the natural world in existence.  To be able to do so flawlessly is a skill that requires either quite a lot of practice, or a special knack for magic of that specific subset.  From what I have been able to gather, it takes most unicorns an exorbitant amount of time to master the spell, and an even greater number of aspiring mages simply give up after a few disastrously failed attempts.  I was determined not to be one of those unicorns.  I knew that I could teleport.  I knew that I understood the concepts of the spell.  And I knew that Father had placed enough trust in my ability to promise to teach me such advanced magic.  I closed my eyes, and focused for all I was worth.

The magic gripped my body tightly, and I felt both a shove ushering me forward as well as a tug pulling me in the same direction.  It was quite a lot like falling, to be honest.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I was swirling down a drain?  The experience was rather disorienting, but whatever the case the spell did work.  Technically speaking.

I was rewarded with my efforts by a small pop, a bright flash, an electric tingle that raced through my body, and a drastically changed perspective of the world.  The road sign was still directly in front of me, close enough that I could easily make out all of the little bullet holes that pockmarked its rusted face, and the rocky hills and valleys that surrounded the road were off to my sides just as they had been before.  But Nohta and Lily were now directly in front of me; their eyes shocked and amused, respectively.  I was given the most fleeting of moments to ponder exactly why Lily was flying upside down again, and why the road seemed to be above me, before gravity decided it had endured my shenanigans long enough.

“Oof!”  I landed hard on my back with my legs wobbling uselessly in the air above me.  A sharp pang bit into the back of my skull as the book fell on my face and I heard my packs open up to spill my belongings over the road.  My only saving grace was that the world couldn’t see the mix of pain and embarrassment that crept over my face as I groaned into the pages.

Raucous laughter mingled with hurried hoofbeats as I rolled onto my side and flung the book away disgustedly, not caring where it landed.  Nohta was already at my side, bless her, though she seemed completely unsure of what to do.  Lily landed on the road beside her a moment later, not even bothering to cover her mouth as she guffawed at my mishap.

“Sis, you alright?”  Underneath her hood Nohta’s eyes were darting back and forth hurriedly, checking me for signs of injury.

I winced as I brought a hoof to my mane.  Luckily it came away white instead of red, though the oddly familiar scent of singed mane came with it.  “I think I’ll be fine, sister.”  Lily was still in the middle of a tittering fit, but she did at least have the decency to look away after I shot a stern look in her direction.  I spoke to Nohta while she helped me up.  “Be a dear and help me gather up my things, would you?  The next time I try this spell, I think I’ll need a mattress, or a pile of pillows at the very least.”

“Or a really big tub of jelly,”  Lily pointed out helpfully before snatching up one of my scattered shotgun shells and dusting it off on her chest like an apple.  For the life of me, I couldn’t detect a trace of sarcasm in her voice.

I blinked blankly in response.  “I… What?”  Nohta audibly sighed as she shook her head, but Lily just stared at me with filly-like innocence.  I rubbed my temple with a hoof as I sighed, and went to retrieve the book I had cast off.

I would have missed it, had I used my magic.  In that sense, I suppose I was lucky my headache had dissuaded me from the use of my horn.  The meagre amount of light pulsing underneath the canopy of paper was almost too dim to see in the daytime.

As I gathered up the spellbook with a hoof, the tiny garnet Nohta had retrieved from the restoration laboratory in our stable’s library rolled out from underneath the pages.  The barest hint of magical glow emanated from its depths and reminded me of its purpose.  Had it been cleaning the book?

Simple curiosity drove me to raise the tome to my eyes but, much to my puzzlement, the pages were still worn and faded.  Little spots and old coffee stains still ran through the paper.  The binding was still loose and the pages were still dogeared.  In fact, the only noticeable change at all nearly escaped me completely.  I had to double check the text to reassure myself that nothing was amiss. 

Nohta had dutifully gathered the rest of my things whilst I was busy and, no doubt curious as to why I had left her the task of cleaning up my mess, asked in a voice that was just a bit peeved.  “What’s wrong?”

I offered the book up to her in my hooves, “I could have sworn this passage was phrased differently.”  Nohta’s shoulders slumped as her ear twitched underneath her hood.  

I shook my head and stuffed the book and the gem back inside my saddlebags, realizing how foolish I must have sounded.  The likely possibility that I had inadvertently made such a monumentally foalish error as to invert the arcane power flux was too embarrassing an admission to make.  Father would have simply shaken his head and groaned at such a simple mistake.  Instead I simply proffered a much more relatable excuse to my non-magical sister.  “Nevermind, I must have hit my head a little harder than I thought.”  She snorted irritably at that, but left me to my own devices as I double-checked to make sure my things were in order.  Due to the sheer amount of tiny objects in my packs, I was left blessing Luna’s name for the auto-sorting spell installed in my Pipbuck.

We continued walking shortly afterwards, with only the occasional short break for food or drink.  Much to my relief the sight of the abandoned orchard came into view on the horizon just as the sun was beginning to dip behind the mountain to the west.  Sitting prominently in the center of the fields was a barn with horribly faded paint and an equally miserable looking squat farmhouse.  

The lands were enclosed in a long stretch of wooden timbers cobbled together into a crude fence.  Even before we had reached the front gate I could tell the fence was simply for show; either a designation of the borders of the property or simply decorative in purpose.  It was a relic of an earlier time; those lost halcyon years when fences and walls didn’t need to keep bandits and thugs from trespassing on one’s property so much as they were meant to provide excited visitors a clear spot to line up when awaiting the fruits of the latest harvest.  It caused me to wonder about the behavior of ponies before the war, but what stood upright in the fields left me unnerved with an oddly primal fear.

Every tree was dead and dry, with greyish brown gnarled branches that reached upwards to beg the sky for liquid sustenance.  It was as if we had stumbled upon a long-forgotten holy site to witness an entire congregation of faithful practitioners preserved in that horrible moment they were left disappointed by their false goddess.  The same wind that tugged at my mane galloped through the trees with a low and otherworldly howl, as if the boughs and trunks were cursing the sky and earth in some ancient language incomprehensible to mortal ears.  I was exceptionally grateful when Nohta broke the lull in the conversation.

Her cloak fluttered in the wind as she braced her front legs on the fence to stand at her full height.  “You said this was an orchard?  Who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to grow apple trees in the desert?”

“Earth ponies.”  Lily shook her head dismissively and held her hat in front of her face to block the breeze while she lit a cigarette.  “Probably some poor bastard trying to stake a claim in the new farmland opened up by the tower.”

Nohta climbed off of the fence to face Lily, “The what?”  

Lily turned to the west, and raised a hoof at the lonely mountain dominating the horizon on the other side of the river.  “See that smooth white bit on top of all that jagged rock?  That’s one of the towers the pegasi built before the war to help Equestria farm crops.  Margie told me the damn thing almost got taken out by a bomb in the war.  Hasn’t worked right since.”  The smoke she exhaled existed for only a fraction of a moment before the wind stole it away from her lips.  “That’s why the clouds out here are all fucked up.  They don’t stack right.  Everywhere else in the wasteland the clouds are nice and smooth, but out here they clump together and you end up with patches of sky still visible.”

“S.P.P. Tower 52,”  I nodded.  At the inquisitive looks from Lily and Nohta, I hastily added, “The archives in Coltsville had an article pertaining to the tower.”  They both seemed content with that explanation, and Lily ruffled her feathers before trudging up the dirt path towards the farmhouse.  Neither of them heard me as I scratched my chin and whispered, “And all this time I thought it I was simply lucky to see Luna’s moon.”

“Hurry up, Sis!”  Nohta and Lily were already well on their way up the path.

“Oh!  Coming!”


**************


>We’ve only been here a year and we’re already having a heck of a time with the vampire fruit bats!  I’ve tried darn near everything to get them out of the south field, but they’re stuck in there like a hair in a biscuit.  I’m at my wit’s end, and Sweet Potato sure ain’t helping with all her nagging.  It’s like a hungry stallion can’t even take a peek at what’s in the oven without getting smacked in the head with a ladle anymore!  I’ll try paying the ministry types up in Spursburg a visit tomorrow.  I ain’t so sure about the rumors I been hearing about the labs up there, but I reckon if it might save my apples then it oughta be worth a shot.

The lovely green glow of the terminal washed over the darkening interior of the farmhouse as the sun slunk behind the mountain.  Nohta was busy going through drawers and cabinets, occasionally pausing to pocket small items or look behind paintings for hidden safes.  Lily had opted to lean back against a wall beside a large window, cradling her rifle in her hooves and calmly observing the dirt path outside through a wary sideways glance.

Making sure the abode was safe had been a quick endeavour.  Our Pipbucks’ ability to detect potential threats through walls had all but guaranteed we were alone, and the solitary radroach that had occupied the kitchen was now nothing more than an unpleasant stain on the tiled floor.  We were all taking the opportunity to catch our breath while trying to ignore the scattered bones of the Belmont family strewn about the house.

The terminal I had spotted immediately upon entering the domicile had only possessed the barest notion of security.  Obviously Mr. Belmont hadn’t ever seriously believed anyone would want to peruse his journal if the best password he could come up with was “apple.”  Nohta wasn’t sure why I cared about the long-dead pony whose home we were invading, and Lily seemed completely indifferent to the matter with her eyes inches away from the window pane, but I wanted to know more about the old world.  And if the only way to learn was by invading this stallion’s business logs and personal musings then I would simply have to hope that he and Luna would forgive me.

>Had a couple of strange types poking around the farm today.  Twitchy as all get out at first, but they calmed down a might bit when Sweet Potato whipped up a batch of her lemonade.  Said they worked for Stable-Tec.  Wanted to do some tests or land surveys or some darn thing.  Now, I was all set to try and be polite about catching these two snooping around my barn.  Bruising your fruit don’t make for good pie, momma always said.  But there was something off about these fellers.  They didn’t blink enough, as far as I could tell.  And they talked funny.  Not funny like most city-folk, neither.  I mean they talked like… well, like they weren’t from Equestria, I guess.  I would have taken them for some of them crystal fellers up north, but I didn’t see any sparkles.  Don’t they all sparkle?  Isn’t that a thing?  Why am I asking my terminal questions?  Anywho, I told them they oughta check with the government folks out in Coltsville.  If I gotta pay all these taxes on my trees then I reckon I shouldn’t have to deal with these two shady fellers in my mane.

“There was a roll of bandages and a bottle of something underneath the bathroom sink.”  Nohta placed her findings on the desk beside the terminal.  “All I found in the kitchen was one dented can of asparagus and a half-empty bottle of ketchup.  This place has been picked clean.”

I unscrewed the bottle’s cap and wafted its aroma toward my nose.  “Rubbing alcohol.  Thank you, Nohta.”

Lily leaned forward and stretched, drawing a series of sharp cracks and pops out of several of her joints.  “Told you we wouldn’t find shit in here.  I’ve gone through this house plenty of times myself.”  She adjusted her wings and nodded towards the window, “We should head for the barn.  If we get any company in the night then they’re gonna check the house first.”

I waved her off with a hoof as I selected the next entry.  “Just a couple more minutes.  I’m nearly done reading.”

>Went to Spursburg today.  Asked them folks up at the agricultural labs if they knew a good way to get rid of my infestation.  Now, I figured I’d be a lucky son of a goat if anypony at all would offer so much as some friendly advice, but I sure as all Tartarus didn’t expect what I got!

>There’s armed security ponies crawling all over my fields!  Protection for that ministry mare.  I forget her name, the yellow one.  Buttershy?  Shutterfly?  Something like that.  But that ain’t the worst of it!  The rumors about Spursburg were true!  There’s zebras on my farm!  Dozens of them!  The stripes are poking at my trees and pouring some kinda crazy potions over the roots!  One of them even strung up some sorta evil-looking doohickeys between a bunch of my branches!  Sweet Potato ain’t never gonna let me hear the end of this one.  I thought Luna promised that this sorta thing wasn’t gonna happen!?

Lily sniffed as she gave me a blasé look.  “Can we go already?  The only thing out there right now is a dumb bloatsprite that keeps flying into the same tree branch over and over.  If we go now we can set up in the barn while we still have time to see what we’re doing.”

Nohta snorted behind me, “We’d be better off in the house.  We’ve got windows with good views of the road and doors with working locks.”

Lily nudged the brim of her hat with a hoof, raising an eyebrow in a questioning gaze.  “Sure, you say that now.  But what about when some raider decides he’ll just burn the house to kill us?”

“So you’re worried about fire, but you want to bed down in a giant tinderbox?”  Nohta moved beside the window, pointing her hoof out the window.  “What about the storm shelter?”

Lily shook her head.  “We don’t want to stay in the storm shelter.”

“Why not?  We can probably hide the entrance with some brush.  Chances are good that no one’ll even notice we’re there.”

Obviously Nohta and Lily were going to butt heads about every little thing they possibly could.  I would have been perfectly content with staying in the house, but neither of them seemed the least bit curious as to my opinion.  I rolled my eyes and selected the last entry while the two of them continued to bicker.  

>I gotta say.  Humble pie don’t taste near as good as Sweet Potato’s baking.  Turns out them zebras got rid of my bats overnight, all cause Fluttershy asked them to.  Now I’m still a patriot, and I still think The Empire’s gotta go, but I reckon maybe they ain’t all bad folk.  Fluttershy explained what all that mess earlier was about, some sorta fancy mumbo jumbo about alchemy tests, nonlethal repellents, and better healing potions for the troops, but I couldn’t concentrate on much of what she was saying.  Her little demon of a rabbit was giving me the stink-eye during the whole conversation.  I swear, I never thought I’d say I was afraid of a bunny.  I’m just glad cider season’s right around the corner.  After all this excitement I need a drink.

I tapped my lips with a hoof as I pondered what I had just read.  “There was an agricultural research station in Spursburg?  I wonder if that was what Holly was referring to?”  My questions fell on deaf ears, however, as both Nohta and Lily were too engrossed in their little debate to pay my queries any heed.

Lily flared her wings at her side as she scowled.  “Look, you’re doing everyone a favor if you just go ahead and kill them.”

Nohta shrugged, “Why risk getting hurt?  We’re after the leaders, not the whole damn gang.”

“Says the girl that wanted to go to Coltsville.”  Lily nodded her head in my direction as she continued to glare at Nohta.  “Yeah, Candy already told me about that, squirt.”

Nohta pulled her hood back and shook her head, “That was different.  We were about to starve, for fuck’s sake!  But this… this feels more like business.  Like what Mom used to do.”

Lily raised a hoof in front of herself defensively, “Hey, I never said you made the wrong choice going to Coltsville.  I’m just saying you’re wrong now.  Every raider we kill is one less asshole that Mareon’s gotta deal with later, and more caps in our pockets.”

“Ahem!”  I cleared my throat loudly, “Are you two really going to argu-”

Nohta’s enraged shout cut me off.  “Well who gives a fuck about Mareon?  They don’t give a shit about us, so why should we care about them?”

Lily rested the barrel of her rifle against her shoulder as she sat on her haunches.  “Don’t forget that Margie lives there too, Short-Stack.  And Half-Moon.  And Purple Haze.  And—”

Nohta threw her hooves in the air, “Fuck!  Fine! Whatever!  Let’s have Candy decide.”  Two sets of eyes were suddenly staring in my direction, awaiting a response.

I pursed my lips and arched an eyebrow, “Oh, so now you’ll pay attention to me?”

“Tell your sister that there’s no reason to hole up in a small confined space with only one exit when there’s a perfectly good barn with lots of open space and plenty of elevated firing positions.”  Lily cast a sideways glance at Nohta as she grumbled, “Who’s been doing this shit longer?  Huh?”

Nohta’s voice rose into that perfectly impertinent pitch as she scratched her chin in mock confusion.  “You mean convincing Candy to do what she needs to do?  Gee, I wonder…”

I chose my words carefully, hoping that the two of them would take the hint.  “Well, wouldn’t we be better off avoiding confrontations for as long as possible?”  Garnering nothing more than blank stares, I sighed and explained.  “Perhaps just a quick peek into the shelter is warranted?  There could still be something of value in there.”  I may have, ah… neglected to mention that I was still hunting for information.  “We shouldn’t waste an opportunity when one presents itself.”

“Told you she’d side with me.”  Nohta’s smug grin was absolutely insufferable.  Lily’s only response was to groan into her hoof and light another cigarette.

Between the farmhouse and the barn was a flat wooden door set into a slightly raised mound of dirt.  Nohta cleared away the thick layer of dust that had settled on the entrance before gripping the handle with both of her hooves and heaving, causing the rusted hinges to protest for all they were worth.  Ancient oxidized metal and partially rotted wood proved no match for her brute force, and soon after the old latches had snapped we were staring at a set of stone steps leading into pitch black darkness.

“This is fucking retarded.”  The smoke puffed out of Lily’s mouth with every word; almost as thickly as the disgust.

I smiled innocently at the pegasus.  “Why the sudden aversion to taking advantage of such a seemingly innocuous and potentially fortuitous discovery, Lily?”

She glowered in response, and blew a plume of smoke out of the side of her mouth.  “You use too many big words, Candy.”

Mother’s horseshoes clanged against the stone steps as Nohta boldly strolled into the darkness.  I spared Lily a quick glance, noting the uncomfortable cringe on her face and the odd posture of her slumped wings, and followed my sister into the gloom.  

“There’s food down here!”

“Nohta, how can you tell?  It is entirely too dark to see!”

Nohta snorted, “There’s probably something wrong with your eyes, Sis.”  I faced the direction of her voice and activated my Pipbuck’s lamp.  She was already huddled over a hooflocker, pulling out her screwdriver and bobby pins.

The shelter was not very spacious, but somepony had clearly put their heart into creating a homey atmosphere between the concrete walls.  A small table with a checkered linen tablecloth sat next to wooden shelves holding canned food and dozens of jars of apple preserves.  Books and magazines shared the limited space on the shelves with faded photographs.  There was a large, sealed barrel of water beside a pair of thin looking bunk beds.  A record player sat in the near corner, with a collection of old albums still in their sleeves just beside it.

The far wall was dominated by a work desk covered in oil and grease stains as well as tools and a simple, albeit non-functional, radio.  Several empty magazines for calibers of ammunition I wasn’t familiar with were stacked neatly under the workstation.  Above the desk an obnoxious wartime poster declared, “Better wiped than striped.”  Having read his terminal entries, I couldn’t help but wonder if Mr. Belmont had truly despised Mother’s people or simply lacked the time to redecorate this little sanctum.  Although given that the storm shelter had been outfitted like a survival bunker in preparation for the war I could understand the sentiment; even if I was perturbed by the villainous depiction of zebras in the propaganda.

Lily warily crept down the stairs at the entrance to the shelter after me; her wings flared wide enough for her blades to etch short lines in the walls nearly every other step.  With each scritch and scratch she recoiled slightly and re-aligned herself to the center of the stairs.  I arched an eyebrow in question, but Lily was too busy biting her lip and casting nervous glances at the ceiling to notice my puzzlement.

I had trusted Lily so far, and something was clearly putting her off about the shelter.  Seeing the normally confident pegasus in such a state of unease was forcing me to question the wisdom of my earlier assumption.  I grimaced at the poster while I whispered to Nohta, “Are you positive that you want to spend the night down here, sister?”

She pulled away from the locked box to set me with an exasperated glare.  “If you want to trust that feather-brain then it’s your call.  But there’s a locked chest right here and-”  Nohta finally caught my expression, and turned to the poster above the workstation.

She got up without another word and walked calmly to the poster before digging the edge of her hoof underneath the poster.  The sound of ripping paper grated against my ears as she tore a strip out of the propaganda.  Crumpling the section she had torn away in her hooves, she tossed it nonchalantly in my direction before declaring, “There, now we have something to start a fire with.”  When she returned to the hooflocker I noticed that the poster now only read ‘Better- -striped.’

Lily flapped her wings once, nearly toppling a photograph from its perch on a shelf as she gestured over her shoulder.  “Hey, uh… the barn is over there!”   Nohta grumbled through the screwdriver in her teeth and rolled her eyes.

Lily took a cautious step forward and bumped into a shelf, knocking a precariously placed vinyl record to the floor.  “I mean, come on!  This is underground!  It doesn’t even have any windows!”

“Now that you mention it, it does have a certain familiarity to it…”  My left hoof rose to my chin, and my Pipbuck’s lamp caused Nohta’s shadow to race across the walls.

Lily extended her wings once more, causing her blades to punch a hole clean through one of the shelves.  Cans of food scattered and rolled across the floor as she groaned, “Fuck!  I can’t even stretch my wings down here!  You stable-dwellers are crazy!  Let’s just go to the barn!”

I pursed my lips and glared at her.  “And what exactly do you mean by that?”

“You stay cooped up in one of those places for too long and you start getting weird ideas!”  Lily trotted up the stairs, yelling back down at us, “You probably think it’s normal to want to live underground!”

A soft metallic click preceded Nohta’s cocky whisper behind me, “Twenty caps says she’s afraid of the dark.”

I rolled my eyes and glanced back at her, “You know better than to ask me to gamble, sister.  And besides, we share all of our money.  I’d be winning what’s already mine.”

“Whatever,” Nohta rummaged through the contents of the chest, carelessly throwing bundles of pictures and tiny wooden figurines over her back.  “Looks like this was a bust.  I’m gonna grab some of those cans of food and go mess with your friend some more.”

I rubbed a temple as I groaned, “Please don’t antagonise her, Nohta.”

“Just because she’s helping us doesn’t mean she’s a good pony, Sis.  You heard what she said last night.”

My tail swished behind me.  “Yes, and I also know what you said to her.”

“And I meant it, too.”  She didn’t even bother to look me in the eye as she said it.  Grasping the least-rusted cans from the shelves, she read the labels and grimaced.  “Ugh… I’m fucking tired of beans and corn.  Why didn’t anyone ever stock some oranges or something?”

Nohta gathered as much food as she could stuff into her packs and trotted up the stairs, leaving me alone in the cool darkness.  Picking my way past the scattered cans left by Lily’s outburst I peered into the hooflocker and levitated a ringed binder up to my muzzle.  Photographs of a… well, I’d never call a lady “overweight,” but faded photos of a mare with ample proportions standing next to a slender red stallion with a bushy beard and straw hat decorated nearly every page.  It appeared that Sweet Potato had been quite the scrapbooker.

I took a seat at the table and hoofed through ancient history one page at a time.  Sweet Potato and Mr. Belmont grew older with each picture, and the filly and colt at their sides grew taller with each photograph.  I smiled as I noted the dates, and realized how quickly the younger mare in the photo was maturing; she must have been going through a late growth spurt just like my sister.  As I flipped through the years of a seemingly happy family of farmers, something curious happened.  An audio recorder fell from the book to land on the tablecloth.

Hoping that I might hear this stallion’s voice, I turned the device on without a moment’s hesitation.  But instead of the playful and agreeable tenor my imagination had conjured up to fit the terminal entries, a familiar and tired mare’s voice met my ears and sent a chill down my spine.

“Took me a year.  A whole… fucking… year…  But I found him.  Dredged out of the wisps of dreams and hallucinations to be thrust head first into my path on a moonlit night.  I found him running for his life.  I found him giving up.”

“I saved him.”

I knew that voice.  I had heard it utter Nohta and I’s names in Coltsville.  Memory and instinct bade me to check over my shoulder and peer into the shadows of the room.  I whipped my Pipbuck’s lamp around frantically, searching for somepony that had evaded detection.  But I was still alone.  The only blips on my E.F.S. were those of Lily and Nohta outside the shelter.

I calmed an infinitesimal amount, and the voice croaked on.  “I was so excited to have finally gotten to that point that I didn’t even bother to waste the time checking if he was the right pony.  I just cast the spell.”

“He followed, but… I’m not sure if it was because of what I did.”

“His name is Elegy.  He must have had some truly fucked parents to get that name.”  I heard the mare spit out her disgust.  “The wasteland makes me sick.”

This was just like earlier.  She was describing something.  But… why?

“Some of Trail Bla— The Pyro must have rubbed off on me.  The group of traders had what I needed, but I didn’t even think to barter or ask for it first.  I just took it.  And their lives with it.”

“Then I found out why my new friend is so deadly.  He compelled me.  I can’t use my rifle anymore.  Just holding it makes me want to puke.  Fucking hell…  He can turn magic back in on itself.  Reverse a spell after it’s been cast.  I’d love to see what he could do in a fight with that.  Maybe against a shield spell?  How messy would that even be?”

Wait…  The first time I had found one of these, this mare had described The Pyro.  Was she doing that again?  My heart leapt into my throat as I recalled where I had heard the name before.  Dry Wells had said that The Bard’s name was Elegy…

I heard her sigh through the recorder.  “Now that he’s with me, the inky blots in the sight are gone.  I don’t have to deal with those fucking annoying-ass tar-covered dancing bloatsprite… things.  He… helps me see.  The vision is clear, except when I look past that day.  It’s like looking into a cracked mirror that’s reflecting more cracked mirrors.  Fractures.  Shards.  Slivers.  Nothing is whole, it’s just… broken.  That makes sense, I guess.  Everything gets decided when that bitch makes her choice.”

“Anyway, I’m glad to have finally collected my second-in-command.  He’ll take care of the more delicate operations that I can’t attend to myself.  Handsome fucker can turn ponies to his way of thinking as easily as he can turn a phrase.  Not sure what he sees in me, but it’s not like I can do anything about it.  I want to, but… She won’t let me.”

“Fuck… The pull again?  It’s just like last—”  The low tinkle of magic played through the recorder as I gathered my thoughts.  First she had described The Pyro… But now she was speaking of a pony that could convince others to do his bidding?  And he was her ‘second-in-command?’  Was The Bard actually that dangerous?

Just like before, the mare’s voice took on a straightforward directness.  The introspective monologuing that dominated the earlier portion of the recording had vanished, replaced by a conspiratorial tone that begged for my attention as surely as it sent fresh shivers throughout my body.  “Good…  You’re alone.  I don’t want the other two to hear this.  Neither of them is smart enough, or calm enough, to do what we need right now.  I aided you in Coltsville because I need you alive, girl.  I don’t often do that.  Don’t expect me to be so nice in the future.  That would just make you softer than you already fucking are.”

I winced at the remark.  Whoever this was had provided me with the bomb that had saved my life, but that didn’t mean I felt like being berated for my own shortcomings.

The voice didn’t seem to care.  She spoke quickly, “Nohta’s about to check up on you.  Tell her you’re fine.”

Nohta’s voice, perfectly on cue, echoed off the concrete walls.  “Hey, Sis!  You alright?  Get out here already!”

It was absolutely surreal.  I nearly took too long to reply.  “Ah, yes Nohta, I’m fine.  I’ll be out in a moment.”

She called down from the entrance once more.  “Don’t take too long!  You’ll miss Lily being a wuss!”

The mare continued as soon as Nohta was out of earshot.  “Good.  Trust is a two way street, after all.  I’m also trusting that you’ll keep quiet about this.”

I shook my head, “How are you-”

“Don’t you know who I am yet?”  The recording had just interrupted me!.  Or rather, the mare in the recording had interrupted me.  At the time it was all very confusing and quite rude.  “Whatever.  It doesn’t matter.  You’ll figure it out soon enough if you haven’t already, but I need you to do something.”

My mouth worked silently, my mind unable to fathom the proper words to match the absurdity of the situation.  I knit my brows together in befuddlement, but the mare’s voice persisted in spite of my lack of comprehension.  “When you come face-to-face with The Bard, listen to what he has to say.  His tongue is like pure silver, and he lies as easily as he breathes, but hear him out.  This one time he will speak nothing but truth.  And you desperately need to find the truth, even if you can’t understand or appreciate it.”  The mare’s voice took on a wicked quality that unnerved me greatly.  “And speaking of ‘truth,’ I’ve already got a spot picked out for the show.  Tonight, this desert listens to you, girl.”

My jaw was threatening to unhinge itself.  “Wait… What?”

The voice relished her next words, “We are going to save a lot of lives, and I’m going to get exactly what I want in the process.  My plan hinges on you.  But I already know you won’t disappoint me, Candy Stripes.”

My hooves shook as the recording went silent, and my racing heartbeat thudded heavily in my ears.  Given how the mare had spoken, I had to double-check to make sure I was holding a recording instead of a transmitter.  The intimate yet callous nature with which she had used my name left the leather barding covering my body suddenly feeling so very thin and useless.  How did she know I would dig through the hooflocker?  When did she put the audio log in the photo album?  What in The Goddess’ name was going on!?

Nohta’s voice called down the steps once more.  “Candy!  Hurry up!  You’ve been slow as hell all damn day!”

“I…”  The mare in the recorder had asked for my secrecy.  Should I honor that?  She did save my life with the bomb…  But she was also speaking as if she were associated with The Pyro and The Bard…  I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and shouted up the stairs.  “Yes, of course.  I’ll be right out!”  Whatever was going on, I simply didn’t have enough information to make a decision.

I buried the recording underneath the rest of the contents of my packs and took a deep breath before ascending the steps.  Nohta and Lily were squabbling over whether or not to light a fire to stave off the night’s chill, but fell quiet as I rose from the shelter.  My brow wrinkled above my wide eyes when they both turned their heads to stare in my direction.

“Nevermind, just light the damn thing,” Nohta grumbled.  “If she’s that fucking cold we’re gonna need a fire.”  Only at my sister’s words did I realize I was still shaking.

Lily smirked and purred in a husky voice, “I can think of another way we could all keep warm.”

“Don’t fucking test me, Lily.  Just do it.”  Nohta turned with a swish of her tail and stormed off, stomping inside the weather-beaten barn without another word.

Lily’s smirk died as she pursed her lips and waited for me to catch up to her.  Hooking a hoof behind her in Nohta’s direction, she asked, “What’s up with her?”

I winced apologetically and rubbed my leg with a hoof, using the convenient lie Nohta had provided me to hide my shock.  “We found some old propaganda in the shelter.  ‘Better wiped than striped?’  

“Oh.  Ouch.”  Lily frowned, glancing back at Nohta.  “Well at least I know you aren’t gonna go off the steep end like her.”

I held a hoof to my temple and sighed, “Lily, that’s not… Nevermind.”

“I’m just saying.  She’s kinda hard to get close to, y’know?”  

“I would take it as a personal favor if you tried.”  I looked past Lily to see Nohta breaking a feeding trough apart with her hooves.  This was quickly becoming a problem, but I was too exhausted and frazzled to deduce how to fix it.  “Let’s just settle down for the night, hmm?”

It wasn’t long afterwards that the three of us were seated around a small flame.  Nohta and Lily had managed to come to a silent arrangement to not pester each other whilst they cleared any flammable material away from our fire, and I was immensely grateful for their lack of bickering.  Even if the silence was a bit awkward, it was immeasurably more preferable to dousing another flare up of emotion.  Both Nohta and I had disrobed in preparation for bed, and Lily was busy fiddling with the clasps holding her blades on her wings.  

Nohta had borrowed Mother’s book once more, flipping between pages as she lay on her sleeping bag beside the flame.  She bore a focused look; re-reading the same pages several times over in silence.  If the intensity with which she were studying Mother’s journal was any indication, she was probably trying to glean details and tips from one of the more action-oriented stories Mother had left us.  Personally, I was always partial to the philosophical musings and potion recipes, but Nohta was far too engrossed in the tome for me to pester her with recommendations in reading material.

Lily finally managed to undo the fastenings holding her blades in place on her wings.  She held the weapon before her with what I could only perceive as a spiritual reverence, closing her eyes and whispering under her breath as she allowed the thin chain links holding the cutting edges together to dangle freely below her outstretched hooves.  I watched in fascination as the deep blue that matched her feathers perfectly bled from the blades and was replaced by the neutral grey of polished knives, but the indigo sheen in the metal ringlets never dulled.  As she finished her quiet recitation she opened her eyes to catch my enamored stare.

She smirked as I averted my gaze, and propped her wing-blades up against a nearby wall.  Leaning against one of the barn’s thick wooden support beams, she sipped from a bottle of amber liquid and lit a cigarette.  I had lost track of how many she had gone through that day, but made a mental note to gently suggest she ease up a bit.  At any rate, curiosity regarding another matter would not allow my tongue to rest easy.

I laid my pistol and its holster beside my pillow and curled into the fabric of my bedroll.  Stretching out upon my bed, I raised a hoof to gesture at her weapon and inquire, “Those blades are actually very pretty.  May I ask how you acquired them?”

Lily nodded and cast a wistful gaze at Love and Tolerance.  “Sure.  I inherited them from my mom.”  So Nohta and I weren’t the only ones with precious heirlooms, then.  My own eyes darted to my little laser pistol lying beside my pillow, before I glanced back to Mother’s alchemy set.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Nohta doing the same thing with her cloak and horseshoes.

Lily, oblivious to the feelings she had just stirred in my sister and I, continued, “They’ve been passed down in my family for a long-ass time.  All the way back before the war, even.  They’ve even got a few enchantments on them.”  She smirked again as she looked back to us.  “Heh.  Only the best weapons for Celestia’s royal guard, right?”

I shook my head, smiling blissfully in ignorance.  “Beg pardon?”

“Huh?  You don’t know about The Royal Guard?  Well I guess it was a pre-war thing.”  Lily sniffed and elucidated, “I think the guard was more for show than anything else.  I mean, I imagine the princess could probably take care of herself, but who would want to hurt Celestia in the first place?  Still, those soldiers got some pretty kickass gear.  And now it’s mine!”  Lily beamed proudly, taking up her beverage to drink once more.

Nohta and I shared a confused glance before I looked back to Lily and shook my head.  “No, not the guard.  Who was Celestia?”

Lily’s eyes shot wide.  She nearly spat out her whiskey before swallowing it down and convulsing in a fit of laughter.  “Oh!  Oh shit!  Haha!”  Nohta and I shared another glance, my sister rolling her eyes and groaning before returning to Mother’s book.

Lily finally came down from her giggling fit, and wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes as she chuckled.  “Oh shit… I’ve gotta watch out for your sense of humor!  First it was ‘Mares don’t do that with each other!’  Now it’s ‘Who was Celestia?”  Lily took a quick puff on her cigarette before pointing her hoof in my direction.  “You’re a laugh, Candy Stripes!”  

Was that a compliment?  I smiled awkwardly, unsure how to receive her words.  “Er… I’m being serious.  I’ve never heard the name before.  Why did you call her a princess?”

Lily finished off her cigarette, tossing the butt into the fire before exhaling a plume of smoke and raising an eyebrow.  “Okay, okay.  You got me the first time but the joke’s getting stale.”  Her smile faded as she added, “Props on the delivery, but you’re dragging it out now.”

“Just let it go, Sis.  She’s being stupid again.”  Nohta flipped back a page in Mother’s book, trailing her hoof over the written words as she spoke.  “Dad said some of the surfacers were weird, right?  She’s probably just messing with us.”

“I suppose…” I speculated, scratching my chin, “but that’s hardly a joking matter.”

Lily pursed her lips and adjusted her hat before admonishing me for my supposed frivolity.  “Okay, seriously.  You can stop.  You’re starting to freak me out.”  Lily groaned at my apologetic shrug, and gesticulated her hooves wildly as she spoke in an excited rush.  “Princess Celestia!  Basically an immortal alicorn goddess?  Ruler of Equestria for… fuck, I don’t know, like, forever?”

Sweet, blessed realization washed over me like warm bath water.  “Oh!  I understand now!  You mean—”

“That’s the weirdest way I’ve ever heard somepony pronounce ‘Luna,”  Nohta chimed in, correcting Lily before I had the chance to do the same.  “How dumb do you have to be to screw that up?”

Lily’s face contorted as her jaw dropped and her brow furrowed.  “What?  No, Luna was her sister!  Celestia was—”

“Luna didn’t have any siblings, or biological family at all for that matter.  Only The Children!”  I tried so very hard to keep the mirth out of my voice, I really did.  But I will admit to covering my mouth with a hoof to conceal my grin.  “And even then, that was just an organization from the days of myth and legend!  No history scholars could agree on who they were, but none would argue that Luna had any family beyond those she adopted!”

“Just give it up, dumbass.”  Nohta flipped a page in Mother’s book as she added, “Nobody knows more about Selenism than Candy.”  

Lily raised her front hooves in front of herself as she sat on her haunches.  “Alright, hold on.  What in the actual fuck are you talking about?”

I couldn’t help it any more.  I knew Lily liked to laugh and joke, but this was too rich!  “Princess Luna, of course!  I’m not sure why you’re calling her by a different name, but I suppose a little mix-up like that might have happened over the course of the last few hundred years.  She did have more than one name, after all.”  Lily only stared at me, seemingly unable to comprehend how to continue her little charade.  Eager to see what she would do next, I gave her a little more time to think by explaining what I was sure she already knew.  My hoof rolled over in the air, ticking off a few of Her Preeminent Majesty’s most popular names and titles.  “Lady Luna, The Dark Mother, Princess Luna, The Goddess…  I’m sure that I don’t really need to go on, you must have heard at least one of those.”

Nohta added one final moniker in a surly grumble.  “The Alicorn.”  Holding her place in Mother’s book with one hoof, Nohta rolled her eyes and waved her other hoof impudently in the air.  “I don’t know who the fuck Cholesterol was, but she definitely wasn’t an alicorn.  Luna was the only one that ever existed, feather-brain.”

I couldn’t help but giggle uncontrollably at Nohta’s derisiveness.  Despite the sacrosanct subject matter there was just something so delightfully hilarious about our little exchange in that aged structure.  I could only hope Lady Luna would forgive me for indulging in a bit of harmless laughter, even if she was indirectly the subject of the joke.  Truth number three, after all.

It was only as my laughter died down that I realized the rest of the barn was silent save for the popping and snapping of the campfire.  Nohta had resumed quietly poring over Mother’s journal, but Lily was staring at me as if I were a madmare.  The mix of incredulity, pity, revulsion, and shock she wore on her face seemed completely alien, but it was her silence that most moved me.  For the first time since I had met her, she was completely lost for words.

Embarrassment warmed my cheeks as I tried to alleviate the tension in as lady-like a manner as possible.  “Ahem.  Lily?  Are you alright?”

Her scarlet eyes scanned the dirty floor between us as she moved her mouth silently.  Seemingly remembering how to speak a moment later, she slowly mumbled out, “I, uh… Fuck… I don’t even know where to…”  

She shook her head sharply, placing a hoof forward to exclaim, “Princess Luna wasn’t the only alicorn!  And she wasn’t the only princess!”  Her wings shot out at her sides to stretch wide, proving an intimidating display when she was so close to me.  “You’ve got this all wrong!”

Nohta flippantly refuted Lily’s claim, not even bothering to dislodge her eyes from Mother’s book as her bored voice dubiously proclaimed, “Right, right.  ‘Cause that makes total sense.  How many were there then?”

Lily’s wings folded slightly, giving her an appearance similar to a young filly who had just been scolded.  “There were three.”

Being privy to the hurt look on Lily’s face, I tried to let her down easy with some sound logic.  “Three Princesses?  How would that even work?  I’m sorry Lily, but everybody knows that Luna was the only one.”

An indigo hoof covered a tattooed face as Lily groaned in exasperation.  “Shit, seriously?  If you two don’t believe me then you’re gonna wind up…”  Lily’s face brightened quickly as her eyes shot wide.  “Wait!  I can show you!”  

She hurried to her packs and started pulling out all manner of objects.  Soon her section of the barn was littered with Dash inhalers, boxes of ammunition, half-empty bottles of Buck, tins of Mintals, partially eaten and probably very stale Fancy Buck cakes, a trio of bottles of Sparkle-Cola—that most certainly didn’t tempt me in the slightest, how dare you insinuate that—various vaguely familiar magazines of, ah… questionable content, gun oil and brushes, empty liquor bottles, a pre-war military MRE that looked as if it had probably been inedible before the war… and several small spheres I assumed were made of glass.  The tumult of her searching had succeeded in divesting Nohta’s interest from Mother’s book, and the two of us shared an uncomfortable glance as we recognized the magazines we had scavenged from the coyote cave and sold off later.  Nohta sniggered into her hoof while I hid my embarrassment behind my own.

With a triumphant shout, Lily surfaced from her excursion into the seemingly bottomless pit of her saddlebags holding a small metallic circlet in her hooves.  “Found you!”

In the hopes that I might afford Lily an attempt to retrieve her shameful publications if we advanced through this nonsense quickly, I pointed at the circlet and asked, “That’s what you snatched away from the ear pile in the sheriff's office, isn’t it?”

Lily shook her head, flew directly to my bedroll, and yanked the lone orb held by the circlet from its setting.  “That doesn’t matter right now.  Just watch this.”  She thrust the tiny bauble towards me, not bothering to wait for my response.

I backed up to give the intruding pegasus some space, furrowing my brow as I took the ball in my hooves.  “Er, and what am I watching it for?”

She was completely sincere as she said, “It’ll prove I’m right.”  The conviction in her face and voice was immediately recognizable.  It was also enough to worry me greatly.  I knew Margarita had considered Lily unstable, but I hadn’t thought to see such a clear example so quickly.

She bore the same desperate assuredness one might have seen in those members of The Caravan Father and Pearl had diagnosed with “Surface Shock.”  Those poor souls that had to be heavily sedated lest their anxiety spread to the Stable’s other population.  The only treatment that ever seemed to work for them had been a strict chemical regimen and lots of prayer with Moonglow.  I had never been allowed to see them before they were cured, an argument Father had made for my safety due to their volatile behavior, but I still remember praying for them on my own.

I knew that this would be a delicate matter, but I was unsure of what to do.  I stared at the diminutive bauble in my hooves, a small and hopefully comforting grin curling the corners of my mouth upwards, and humored her request.  Staring at the tiny orb, I offered up my opinions regarding its behavior.  “Well… It is, um, pretty, I suppose.  I don’t see much else, however.”  Nohta was rising from her bedroll, evidently stirred to cautious action by Lily’s antics.

Lily smacked her face with a hoof and groaned.  “No… Ugh!  You’re a unicorn!  Use your magic on it!”

I nodded, mentally adding ‘self-injurious behavior’ to my checklist, and attempted to placate her.  “And what, pray tell, will that accomplish?”  Nohta had gotten close enough to peer over my shoulder, furrowing her brow as she stared at the sphere in my hooves.

“You’ve never seen a memory orb?”  Lily’s features fell, and she scrambled to explain herself to me.  “It’ll kinda put you to sleep for a little while, and you’ll see what somepony from the past saw.”   Lily added one final plea in a distraught voice as she backed away from me over her combined supplies and refuse.  “Just trust me.  Please.  You need to know.”

She was desperate to tell me something and, Luna help me, I did want to know what she was going on about.  My horn flickered to life as I peered into the depths of the bauble.  “Oh, well that does sound rather intere—”  I never finished the sentence.  Instead my magic connected with something completely alien, and the world dissolved and swirled away from me like water down a drain.  All I saw was black.  All I heard was silence.  And all I felt was terror.


oooOOOooo


The world reformed around me one sense at a time, each milestone of elementary perception taking an uncomfortable amount of time to fully realize.  Hearing came first; a hideously incongruent cacophony of repetitive trills, screeches, chirps, clicks, and pops that scratched painfully at my ears before finding a harmony as abruptly as it had found existence.  The discordant noise abated as each sound discovered its proper place and rhythm, giving way to the muffled plodding of hooves on a carpet of grass accompanied by the midnight cries of woodland creatures.  Though not a tune I was entirely familiar with it did strike a natural chord I could comprehend, and I latched onto it with all my might in the hopes that my disorientation was coming to a close.

Smell came next; a wonderfully floral aroma that thrummed with the energy of life.  It was damp but crisp, colorful and smooth, and absolutely exhilarating compared to the bleakness of a world without scent.  I sought to inhale deeply of my second perceptual anchor, but to my horror I discovered that my lungs obeyed another’s call.  I could no more control my breathing than I could command dominance over the passage of time.

My body, so alien to me now, moved of its own accord as I remembered Lily’s explanation.  Reason struggled with panic in my mind as I gave in to the experience and tried to focus my mind solely on this pony’s existence.  A stiff and uncomfortable uniform was wrapped tightly around this body’s sturdy frame, the coarse fibers brushing against tightly corded muscles completely unlike my own.  The pony whose memory I was experiencing gently strode forward on soft ground, each diligent step bending verdant stalks of grass underhoof as the dew of night kissed our fetlocks and clung to our fur.  The wetness was brisk and playful, a stark contrast to the enveloping warmth of the still air that threatened to intoxicate my already confused senses as my, ah… host… advanced through a churning and recessing fog of darkened hue.

Goddess...  What a relief it was to finally attain sight from blindness!  Colors bloomed and danced like ink swirling in water, gradually coalescing into hundreds of red and white petals, tufts of hanging moss, and slender tree branches, all of which were bathed in soft shadow.  I, er… perhaps it should be we?  We were in a garden on a summer’s night, slowly walking along a low hedgerow filled with stunningly beautiful flowers.  

I only recognized the flora from the few horticultural textbooks Mother had kept alongside Father’s much more impressive collection of medical essays and clichéd science-fiction stories.  While the disappointingly low quantity of faded pictures within Mother’s books had never seemed to be a serious problem before, now that I was seeing these petals for myself I couldn’t help but feel... robbed.  It was only then that I truly understood how the sundering of the world had subtracted some ineffable and pure joy that can now only be witnessed through torturous glimpses into the past via hijacking some long-forgotten soul’s experiences.  

Many of us wear armor over our hearts.  Some of us choose resolve.  Others utilize hope.  But my protection, my armor, was ignorance.  It wasn’t barding I had chosen to wear, but it was there all the same.  And as the saying goes, I was in relative bliss, unknowing of the beauty of a world I had never lived in.  That is, until the night I saw roses and moonflowers in a magnificent pre-war garden.  The sight of delicate scarlet and ivory petals struck my heart like a lance, leaving me with a chink in my armor and a bruise upon my heart.  Had I been in control of my eyes I would have wept, for my birthright had been stolen away long before I ever drew breath.

But all of this simple majesty, so different from what I had experienced in the wasteland of the desert or in the confines of my stable, paled in comparison to the epic splendor just above us.  Our eyes lifted upward past the dew-laden boughs, and soon we were staring at the moon in a cloudless sky.  I must confess that I have borne witness to very few things which matched the beauty of that magnificent orb hanging within the heavens.  It was surrounded by a thousand, thousand twinkling lights; a glittering ceiling of celestial magnificence enshrouding the world in the perfect balance of light and dark.  It was romantic and mysterious, holy and mesmerizing.  The armor cracked and fell away completely, washed away with an excruciating level of joy and reverence.

“Do you like the moon tonight?”  A playful yet dignified voice brushed our ears with the sweet caress of an honest and simple query.

We breathed out, our words coming as a curt whisper, “It is breathtaking, your majesty.  There are no words to give it justice.”  My voice was a completely unfamiliar tenor; the voice of a stallion.  Being in a stallion’s body was… well not exactly unpleasant, per se, but very distracting to say the least.  

My magic had given me quite a lot of experience in sharing the sensations of another’s body, and not all of my patients had been mares.  The only real difference between this memory orb and my spell was the complete lack of connection with my own body.  I was familiar with greeting another’s feelings.  I was not familiar with leaving my own behind.

I tried to keep telling myself that I had gotten used to this sort of thing, hoping that my medical training would take over.  But to be honest, in the back of my mind I knew this wasn’t a patient of mine.  That simple realization was, at the time, enough to suppress my ability to share this body’s sensations with a clinical mindset.  And that was more than awkward enough to distract me from how my host had just addressed the mare before us.

The sweetly playful voice turned sour with melancholy.  “I have always enjoyed the little craters that pockmark its surface.  They remind me that even imperfect things can be beautiful.”  

Our gaze dropped quickly as a frown fell upon our features, but our tongue lay still in our mouth.  We were standing near a long stretch of blooming flowers that was broken only by a delicately filigreed arch of ebony leading over a path through the surrounding garden.  Hanging moss and flower-bearing vines stretched from the boughs of the trees; just enough moisture clinging to their surface to cause them to glisten in the dimmed light like strands of emerald-laden silk.

I couldn’t help but find it odd that my host wasn’t completely entranced by the sheer amount of floral majesty surrounding him.  Surely even before the war had ravaged the world in destructive light, decadence of this magnitude must have been seen as extravagant.  But despite the rapturous beauty that lay before me, something else called to my heart more than mere petals and leaves.  I desperately wanted to return my gaze to the moon, but no matter how I tried to force it this stallion wouldn’t lift his head to look in its direction.  Memory orbs, I soon realized, could be quite frustrating at times.

A tall cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows cast by the moonlight, walking towards us with an air of grace and dignity.  Her ebony hood cast a nearly complete shadow over her face.  “Do you hate me, Ruby Valor?”

“No.”  The answer was instant, as if my host had been expecting the question.  There was conviction in his voice, even if his tense muscles told a different tale.  “My brothers and sisters fight for Equestria.”

“Do not lie, Captain.  Not to me.”  She was getting close to us now, close enough for me to see the slender horn and dark-blue muzzle underneath the hood.  “It was my decision to make, and not everypony is pleased with my judgement.  Do you truly harbor no resentment for me?”

Ruby was silent for a long moment as he stared into the shadow underneath the ebony fabric.  When he finally answered, it was only after I felt him loosen his clenched jaw.  “Yes, I do.”  Our gaze fell, and I caught the barest glimpse of polished metal on the other pony’s hooves.  

We ground our teeth together for a moment before continuing.  “Princess Cadance did nothing to deserve that.”  Wait… Who?  Princess Cadance?  That must have been a mistake.  Possibly a nickname?  Ruby raised his eyes to glare at the pony before us as he spoke.  “She is the rightful ruler of The Crystal Empire, not you.”  Had my host been stricken with madness?  None of this was making sense!  Vexation set in once more as I vainly willed my lips to cease spouting gibberish.

The cloaked figure raised a foreleg aloofly in the air, allowing the polished silver adorning her hoof to glint in the moonlight.  Her voice was measured, calm, and coldly apathetic to my host’s rising ire.  “I have done far worse things in the name of protecting my little ponies than dethroning a spoiled child from her seat of power.”  H-Her little ponies?  No.  It couldn’t be…  My ardent heart raced away on the wings of a fleeting possibility, leaving me stunned on the ground as I struggled to reason with zealous hope.

I suddenly felt so very caged; my inability to whisper even one reverent question exacerbating my frustration to staggering new heights.  Evidently my host did not share my opinions or my concerns.  Stalks of grass ground together underneath our irate hooves as we practically snarled.  “The 7th and 8th legions were at our doorstep!  You could have sent aid!”

The mare’s laconic answer held no emotion whatsoever.  “I did.”

“After the zebras had laid siege to the palace!”  We were shouting at her now.  How I despised this impudent stallion!  Even worse was how I was being dragged along for his foalish behavior!

The cloaked figure before us continued to explain in a calm and collected voice.  Perhaps a voice fit for royalty?  “Cadance refused my support but could not defend her own borders.  It was appropriate for me to act.”  Was that flutter of the fabric at her sides the movement of wings?  Please be wings, please be wings, please be wings…

We raised a hoof before us, only to stamp it on the wet grass as we yelled.  “She was trying to negotiate peace!  You used the enemy’s attack to further your own aims!”

Again, her voice was serene and detached.  “Yes, I did.”

Ruby balked at that, and was stunned into silence as his brow furrowed and his jaw dropped ever so slightly.  It was an expression I was becoming increasingly familiar with; shocked confusion, with just a hint of revulsion.  None of this mattered though, when a dark blue hoof shod in silver reached up to gently peel the ebony fabric away from perfection herself.

It was her.  The Goddess-Princess.  The Dark Mother.  The Lady of the Night.  She who subdued the sun.  She who brought order from chaos.  She who broke the nightmare.  She who was both mortal and divine.

Luna.  

To gaze upon her visage was to witness beauty in its truest sense.  Not a single imperfection marred her dark blue fur.  Her flawless coiffure, speckled with the all the sublimely subdued radiance of the night sky, and trapped by the jet black cloak wrapped around her elegant frame, escaped its bonds to unfurl and billow in a tranquil nonexistent wind.  A tiara of purest black onyx was perched gracefully behind the slender and regal horn that held dominance over the heavens themselves.  Power radiated from her body, seeming to fill the dead void of the still night with the excited and lively presence of incomprehensible arcane energy.  But it was her eyes, those translucent cyan windows to a soul that dwarfed all others in existence, that nearly crushed me under the intensity of her gaze and held my attention like a vice.

I was as a moth gazing helplessly transfixed at the moon.  No… less than that.  I was the dust clinging to the moth’s delicate wings; undeniably ignorant and altogether unworthy of being in the presence of one so magnificent, yet completely incapable of pulling my attention away from her.  I was filthy, unclean, unfit to steal away a precious glimpse of anything so pure.  My shame was only matched by my reverence.  

I would have cried out in both exaltation and misery.  I would have thrown myself prostrate upon the ground to honor she who saved all of equinity from the unrelenting sun.  I would have done many things, had I been in control of my actions.  Instead I was cruelly forced to endure this foolhardy stallion and his blasphemous ways as he arrogantly refused to bow his head in subservience.

The Goddess held her head high, speaking complacently in a wonderfully rich voice befitting her position in this world.  “Ruby, I am the princess of the night.  Are you truly surprised I work in shadow?”  Curiosity as to why she would entertain this fool’s impertinence tugged at the back of my mind, but I quickly ignored it and berated myself for questioning her wisdom.

Ruby collected himself, and stared coldly at the supreme being who allowed him to live in her world.  “I wish I could say that I am.  But you have a history of stabbing ponies in the back, don’t you?”  I… I felt the words leave my mouth, but I couldn’t believe them.  I wanted nothing more than to smack this pony!  Such arrogance and blasphemy!

The Goddess’ eyes flashed briefly, hinting at the untold power at her beckoning, and the distant rumble of thunder played backdrop to an otherwise composed voice.  “You speak of things you do not understand.”  Part of me wished to suffer the pain of being smote by her wrath, both as penance for my own transgressions and in order to see just punishment brought down upon this fool stallion.  But The Dark Mother’s kindness and mercy were legendary.  Princess Luna endured this flare of emotion, as the darkness is wont to do.  “Cadance endangered more than herself when she allowed zebras to march unchallenged through her lands.  I will always do what must be done.  Those who stand in my way will be dealt with.”

Ruby finally averted his gaze, providing me with a sense of relief from The Princess’ penetrating eyes.  I felt him shake his head as he whispered to the grass at our hooves.  “My princess only understands love, and the prince is destined to protect ponies.  Neither of them is cold-hearted enough to win a war.”  Wait… what?  There was a prince now?  That didn’t make any sense!  There was never, in all of recorded history, a prince!  There were dukes and duchesses.  There were counts and countesses.  There were lords and ladies.  There were mayors, governors, generals, admirals, and eventually overmares.  But true royalty had always been a station reserved for her grace!

Ruby lifted his head to glare at divinity once more, and I felt myself dreading what he was about to say.  “Neither of them are as cold-hearted as you.”

The Goddess was quick to reply, elegantly shaking her head in order to reassure and console this impetuous idiot.  “It was not an act I took pleasure in, Ruby.”  Lady Luna tilted her head gracefully, inquiring in her calm tone.  “Are you perhaps concerned that I aim to consolidate power solely under myself?  I assure you, that will not happen.  I have already borne witness to the aftereffects of such a tremendous error in judgement.”  Beautiful cyan eyes bore into Ruby’s, and I felt a pang of jealousy ripple through my heart.  Her lovely voice continued a moment later, “No.  I will not sit the throne forever, Ruby.  There are ponies far better suited to rule this nation in times of peace than I.”

Ruby fell silent, furrowing his brow as he contemplated Princess Luna’s words.  I too was perplexed.  How could The Goddess not be the perfect ruler of this world?  Delegating regional responsibilities I could understand.  After all, even the moon could only look upon half the world at any one time.  But to speak of stepping down from her rightful position of supreme power?  What in her name was I witnessing?

Ruby continued to stand silently.  Princess Luna however, had much more to say.  She breathed deeply of the night air, and I was horrified to admit to myself that the action looked suspiciously similar to a sigh of exhaustion.  “Thank you for being honest, Ruby Valor.  It is refreshing to be in the presence of one who does not hide things on account of my station.  Especially when so many still fear me.”  Ruby’s expression grew darker and more vexed as he pointedly stared at one of the roses adorning the hedgerow beside us.  I took the opportunity to wonder exactly who would fear The Goddess, but couldn’t think of any people that should have beyond the ancient zebra empire.  

The Dark Mother’s voice was as soft as shadow when she spoke again.  “You stood between my niece and I on that day, Ruby.  But now I need to know,” she took a single step forward, and tilted her head as she inquired, “to whom does your loyalty belong?”

Niece?  The Goddess had no family beyond the…  Wait, perhaps it was an adoptive moniker?  A title given to those ponies whom she had chosen to elevate above their kin and grant governing powers over the rest of us?  And perhaps those ponies had come to falsely believe that their regional hero had been lifted to Goddess-hood?  That would mean the history books from my stable’s library were woefully incomplete.  But… perhaps this was a relatively recent change in governmental titles.  If the texts had not had time to be written and published, then that would account for why this inconsistency was missing from the records!  Of course!  I was witnessing, possibly for the first time amongst all those who had dwelt in my stable, a forgotten moment in the pre-war history of both Equestria and The Goddess’ personal life!  This memory orb was a veritable treasure trove of historical information!

Ruby licked his lips and shook his head.  It took him a great deal of time to find his words, but when he spoke it was with absolute assurance.  “The zebras will kill us all if they’re given the chance.  The Crystal Palace cannot be allowed to fall into their hooves.  Allowing them to take the city would have given them a clear staging area against all of Equestria.”  He stared into those perfect cyan eyes once more, but his hard expression softened a little more with every word that left his lips.  “Deposing Princess Cadance from the throne and garrisoning Equestrian soldiers in The Crystal Empire was wrong.  But it needed to happen.”

The Goddess inclined her head, staring directly into our eyes, and asked one simple question.  “If you found yourself in my position, would you be able to do the same?”

I knew the answer I would give.  I knew the answer I was hoping Ruby would give.  After an uncomfortable moment of deep contemplation wherein Ruby furrowed his brows and ground his teeth, he finally indulged my wishes with one word.  

”Yes.”  His answer burst out of him like a repentant sinner’s whispered admission, causing him to clench his eyes shut from the sight of the glorious alicorn before him.  I had absolutely no idea why it took him so long to say that, or why it seemed to pain him so greatly.

Princess Luna pulled away from us, standing regally in the moonlight as she asked.  “Would you like to know the real reason I ousted Cadance?”  I felt my head nod up and down ever so slightly while Ruby’s chest heaved with emotional exertion.  The Goddess acknowledged this with a simple nod of her own, and made an offer to this stallion.  “Then let us work together.”  

Ruby’s bewildered eyes questioned Princess Luna, giving her ample opportunity to step closer to him.  Beautiful blue wings flared past the length of the ebony cloak, adding a magnificent sense of presence to an already imposing and majestic figure.  What happened next was nothing short of rapturous.  Through Ruby’s memory, I felt The Goddess’ hoof brush against my chest.  She stared into his eyes, but I dared to entertain the notion that she spoke directly to me.  “You will be an instrument of my will when I cannot act.  You will be my scythe now that I no longer wield it in battle.  You will strike fear into hearts I am unable to reach.”

Princess Luna retracted her hoof and her wings, allowing the dark fabric to fall back into place at her sides as she spoke softly in the stillness of the night.  “You were brave to stand against me, Ruby Valor.  I need that bravery now.  Equestria needs it.”

I would have leapt at this opportunity.  I would have given nearly anything to have been in this pony’s horseshoes.  But he had one final question, voiced with all the implicit trust a foal would place in his mother.  “Will this end the war?”

The Goddess’ eyes closed as she nodded solemnly.  “It will.  My victory will be so complete that ponies will never war again.”

I knew differently of course.  To bear witness to the sole moment in all of Equestrian history that The Goddess had been wrong was… unnerving.  But to see the conviction in her eyes, to hear the confidence in her voice, to know that she believed…  If I hadn’t been taught that the world had been destroyed long ago, and seen the evidence with my own eyes, I could have accepted her promise as undeniable truth.

Ruby sighed heavily, and gazed into her eyes to make his vow.  “Then my life is yours.”  The corners of Lady Luna’s mouth turned upwards at that.  It was a smile that warmed my very soul.  But it was far too brief.

The Goddess inched forward, whispering in an almost conspiratorial manner, “What if I told you I would require more than just your life?”

Ruby’s brows furrowed in confusion once more, “Princes-”

“Luna?”  A third voice entered the memory.  A warm, motherly voice, full of concern and surprise.

The Goddess and Ruby both turned their heads sharply.  I remember the blurred images of trees rushing through my vision.  I remember the scent of the flowers and the dew-laden grass wafting past my nose.  I remember the sound of an owl calling to the darkness.  I remember the warmth and stillness of the night.  I don’t think I could ever forget the crystalline clarity of that one final moment of blissful ignorance.

There in a clearing between the trees stood a pony.  Where she stood, shadows and hope died.  Her coat was nearly a pure alabaster white, somehow even paler than my own.  Her hair was colored with all the pastel hues of the unholy morning sky and undulating in an obscene and blasphemous mockery of Lady Luna’s own resplendent mane.  Even the moon seemed to retreat at her presence, giving her all the more impact as she stood as a lone beacon of light amidst a sea of shadow.  She…  She was beautiful in the same way as a flame; terrifying, hypnotic, and deadly. 

My jaw would have dropped at the sight of her, had I been in command of it.  Instead I was forced to watch helplessly as my world came crashing down.  It was if I were a passenger on a runaway train; I could see the disaster coming, but could do nothing to prevent it.

A long and elegant horn, glowing faintly with a golden yellow light that forced the shadows to recede away from her, jutted out of her forehead like a spear.  Enormous wings were folded primly against her sides, giving her an air of terrible regality despite the exhaustion spread across her features.  It was only as my stunned brain caught up to what lay before us that I realized a second alicorn stood in the same garden as The Goddess.  It… It didn’t make any sense!  How could there be two!?  I was still processing that dread realization when my attention was drawn to the mare’s cutie mark.  What I saw there was both incomprehensible and terrifying.  It was the sun.

Anypony with any decency at all would have covered themselves in order to hide their ill fortune had they been cursed with such a symbol.  Anypony with any love for the moon would have begged The Goddess every night to cleanse them of that wicked stain.  I could think of no worse fate than to be forever branded with a picture of the sun upon my body, yet this mare bore her mark without the faintest notion of shame.

Emblazoned for all the world to see upon her flank was the accursed bringer of light and heat.  The relentless and unforgiving orb that had nearly doomed all of equinity before The Goddess had intervened and brought the blessed night.  It was the unholy symbol of everything Luna stood guard against, and that she shaded us mortals from.

No…  No no no… this couldn’t be!  The stallion in the memory orb refused to move, despite how I struggled to shake my head and back away.  This didn’t make any sense!  The horror and revulsion I felt never found my face.  Instead I only looked on in plain and subservient silence as the image of divine perfection conversed with the unclean vision of heresy.

The Goddess’ sweet voice sounded nearly as surprised as I.  “Sister!?  What are you doing up at this hour?  You should be resting.”  Wait…   No… What did Luna call her!?

The other one cocked her head slightly, and spoke in a manner more befitting a good pony than a bringer of death and hatred.  “You were late for the dream.  I grew worried.”

Our lips finally parted, and to my horror Ruby and I bowed to the other mare.  “Princess Celestia.  An honor.”  P-Princess?  But…

This… None of this was making sense.  There was only one alicorn!  And there was only one princess!  There could only be one Goddess!  The teachings were undeniable!  I knew that to be true!  The memory felt more like a prison with each passing second.  I desperately wanted out, but no matter how I struggled the shackles fettering my mind would not release.  I was trapped inside a cage with blasphemous affronts and heretical evidence.  There was no way out but forward, and my battered sanity had already taken all it could stand.

Celestia smiled warmly, taking notice of us as if for the first time.  To see her eyes meet my own was… horrifying.  “Oh, Ruby Valor?  You served in Princess Cadance’s royal guard, did you not?  A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

I was too stunned to fully comprehend what was being revealed to me.  I felt my lips move, and I felt the breath leave my body, but I could only just barely hear the words.  “I did.  And the pleasure is all mine.”

She grinned at us, the corner of her mouth turning upwards in the barest hint of a smirk.  “Meeting my little sister in her private garden during her favorite time of night?  Is this what it looks like?” L-Little sister?  Luna was the younger sibling?  But…

Every fiber of my being rebelled against what I was hearing, but my body was not my own.  All the turmoil I experienced was kept bottled inside while this stallion commanded my actions.  I wanted to scream out in protest.  I wanted to thrash in revolt.  I just wanted to move in accordance with my own will once again…  

I couldn’t take this anymore… I needed out.  

Lady Luna was stirred to speech.  “Sister!  Surely you jest!”

We spoke again, the reverence on our tongue juxtaposed against the phantom revulsion that should have twisted my gut.  “I am here at Princess Luna’s request, your majesty.  I am not entirely sure why, as of yet.”

“Oh really?”  The white one smirked playfully at that, and finally turned to leave.  “I’ll leave you to it,” a wicked grin flashed across her muzzle, “but I’ll expect some details in the morning, Lulu.”

The Goddess sighed, lifting a beautiful hoof to her face.  “Go to bed, Tia.  I will meet you in the dream.”

Our brow furrowed as we offered a halting apology.  “A- a thousand pardons, if I have offended.”

Celestia calmly smiled back at us, “You have caused no offense, Ruby Valor.  Do not worry.”  Turning to The Goddess, she continued, “Good night, Luna.  I’ll see you shortly?”

To my uncomprehending horror, Luna bowed her head to the false goddess.  It wasn’t a gesture of subservience, but one of love.  At that point, I honestly wasn’t sure which was worse.  “I will make certain you rest well, Sister.”  

Celestia gave us one final tired grin, and retreated behind the stone wall.  The shadows regained their strength as she turned the corner, and the moon shown all the more brightly in her absence.  Darkness had once again won out over the light, but I couldn’t help but feel this was a pyrrhic victory at best.

I silently pleaded with The Dark Mother to grant me reprieve from this hell.  But no matter how I begged and prayed, I remained locked inside my mental prison.  The futile struggle was infuriating, and only served to further incense my outrage at the nonsensical visions I was being subjected to as well as exacerbate my panic.

The Goddess watched the white alicorn leave, making a hushed admission that only just barely reached our ears.  “Living in her shadow is a constant exercise in humility.”

Our head nodded, “Elder siblings will do that to you.”

Luna gave us a sideways glance out of one eye, turning the corner of her mouth upwards in a nearly imperceptible grin.  “We will continue this conversation later.”  Turning to face us head on, she continued in an icily serious tone.  “From this moment forth you will take orders only from me.  You answer only to me.”  Inclining her head, she resumed whispering to us in a conspiratorial hush.  “More hinges on my plans than you can imagine, Ruby.  I require your discretion in this matter.”  

“I understand.”  We swallowed, nodding our head in acceptance.  The motion felt hollow and devoid of meaning.  Luna, please, just let this end!

“We will gather your new brothers and sisters tonight when you sleep, firstborn.”  There was something odd about the way she emphasized that last word, but in my emotional distress I failed to make the connection.

“Princess, why me?”  Our brow furrowed as this stallion asked one final question.  “Surely there are better soldiers at your command.”  I was ready to scream from frustration and confusion.  Instead my host calmly stared at The Goddess in a simple and inquisitive manner.

She smiled again, her visage both beautiful and completely at odds with how I felt.  “Let us simply say that I came to it… in a dream.”


oooOOOooo


“—uck did you do to her!?  Answer me or I'll blow your fucking head off!”  Nohta’s enraged shouting was immediately followed by the smooth mechanical sound of one of the immense rounds used by The Worm sliding into position within its chamber.

“I fucking told—”  Lily was cut off abruptly, grunting in sync with the sound of something heavy thudding into one of the barn’s wooden beams.  “It’s a memory orb!  She’s just asleep!”

I snapped my head upright as I found myself lying on the sleeping bag, nauseous and gasping for breath.  My wide eyes scanned the barn, finding Nohta holding an incredibly flustered Lily at gunpoint.  Lily’s hooves were raised beside her in a gesture of compliance as Nohta stood them both upright against a support beam and held the barrel of her pistol inches from Lily’s chin.  They both turned their heads in my direction as I shrieked and jumped to my hooves.  The little orb rolled away from my bedroll to join several more just like it.

I couldn’t get the words out fast enough.  They spilled over my tongue in a jumbled heap of confusion and panic.  “That… She… What was… That wasn’t…”

Nohta was still staring wide-eyed in my direction, too distracted by my startled waking and incoherent babbling to notice the blue hoof careening towards her jaw.  Lily’s attack landed with a heavy smack, knocking The Worm from Nohta’s mouth and sending the pristine weapon thudding against the dirt floor.  Blood flew from Nohta’s lips as she staggered backwards, and Lily flung herself into my sister before she could recover.

“Luna… G-Goddess…”  I couldn’t focus.  I raised a hoof to my racing heart as I tried desperately to regain my bearings and comprehend the scene that was playing out before me.

Lily’s weight and speed sent the two of them rolling over each other in the dirt before Lily flared her wings and righted herself on top of Nohta.  “Calm down!  She’s okay!”  Indigo hooves held my sister firmly in place, but made no move to attack.  A detail I overlooked in my panicked state.

Hushed and frantic whispers spilled out of my mouth as I shook uncontrollably.  “The m-moon… The sun… T-Two alicorns…”  I backed into one of the wooden support beams and yelped in surprise.

Lily locked her bewildered eyes with mine as Nohta grunted and struggled underneath her, “Candy?  Are you—”

Blood-red light flooded the barn as I gripped my pistol and whipped it in Lily’s direction.  “No!  Stay back!  Stay away from me!”  Shock washed over her face as the shaking gun dipped and swung wildly in my faltering magic.

There could only be one… Only one…  How were there two!?

Nohta freed one of her hooves, kicking out at Lily’s exposed stomach as she screamed in outrage.  “What the fuck did you do to her!?”  The sound of an already weakened rib breaking within Lily’s chest was almost lost amidst the shouting.

Lily grunted, clutching her barrel and flapping her wings rapidly.  She managed to half-lift herself away from Nohta, but only staggered a few steps backwards before crashing into and breaking an old ladder propped against the barn’s loft.  The rotted wooden rungs crashed all around her as she covered her head and shouted, “It’s just a memory orb!  Just like I told you!  I didn’t—”  

I don’t think I meant to do it, but in all honesty, I’m not sure.  A lance of crimson energy punched a smoking crater out of one of the barn’s thick wooden support beams, blowing charred little splinters out of the wood just inches from Lily’s face.  Her stunned eyes met mine even before all of the splinters had landed.

I realized what I had done a moment later.  My pistol thudded to the ground as I held my hooves in front of my mouth and gasped at my actions.  

Two voices called out in unison.  “Candy?”

That was all I heard.  I turned tail and bolted from the barn, too scared to look back and too confused to concentrate on… whatever it was that had just happened.  It was too much for me!  I needed help!  I needed guidance!

I needed Luna.

The cold night air bit through my naked coat as my tail flowed behind me.  The pounding of my hooves reverberated off the tree trunks that rushed through my blurred vision.  It was so similar, but so opposite… Just like…

NO!  Why would Luna do this?  She wouldn’t be this cruel!  Not to one as faithful as myself!  The irony was so thick as to be nearly palpable.  To first be given a vision of life and beauty in a perfect and uncorrupted world, only to realize that world held… that THING... and now to return to my own wasted hell of death and repugnance where Luna had…  She was...

The clouds danced playfully across the heavens to lance the ground with beams of racing moonlight, like cruel tricksters offering enticing lifelines to those of us in need before teasing them out of our flailing grasp.  From tree to tree I chased the moon; tripping over roots, scrabbling through the dirt, stumbling every panic-stricken step of the way and dirtying my sweat-slicked coat with the soil, no longer caring if I was running to or from.  Wetness streamed down my cheeks, yet I ignored the twin stings of cool air and hot tears as I held my eyes wide and sought the holy glow of The Dark Mother.  

I knew in my heart there was only one thing that could save me, and in my desperation I sought it out like a mare singularly possessed of a one track mind.  That is… until the clouds finally ceased in their sadistic ruse and parted fully to allow a flood of moonlight to cascade over the desert.  Only in the memory orb had I ever been privy to such an unobstructed view of Luna’s holy orb, but with the thoughts clouding my mind I was no longer sure if that boded well or ill.

I halted to stare anxiously at the sky, panting for breath in the middle of the ancient orchard.  All around me the dead trees hailed and begged the moon for succor and relief, and bereft of any option or notion otherwise I followed their suit.  But of course, none of our prayers were to be answered that night.

I craned my neck, lifting my voice to the heavens, “LUNA!”  It was at once both a terrified scream and choked sob.  My salvation depended on this!  I couldn’t hold back!

I believed my wail would pierce the sky, reaching The Goddess in a way all the branches of all the trees around me never could.  Those decrepit trunks simply lacked true conviction!  My faith was greater; my need more substantial!  I was more deserving of her aid then than any!  I knew it to be true!

“Luna, please!”  The shriek bounced off the trees.  A low wind chilled my dampened cheeks and muzzle.  The night was silent, save for my voice.  My shaky legs gave way as I slumped weakly against the nearest trunk, latching onto the nearest physical anchor I could find as I drifted through a sea of emotional strife.  The dried bark scratched at my chest and neck, but still I clung to it with all the desperation of an abused filly in a broken home.

This was all so wrong!  That orb couldn’t have held the truth!  My free hoof ground the dry soil beside the dead roots, mixing dust with the liquid falling from my shaking muzzle and chin.  “Goddess… please…”

I babbled desperately, reaching out for an explanation.  “It was a test, wasn’t it!?  A sun goddess is heresy!  She wasn’t real!  She wasn’t…”  My voice cracked and faltered, threatening to give out at any moment.  I ignored it.  The truth was more important.  “Luna, tell me that vision was false!  Give me something!  Anything!”  

The moon stared down at me, placid and unfeeling, and for the first time in my life…  I could not feel her presence.

Every avalanche begins with a single falling stone; every flood with a single drop of water.  The smallest of sparks can birth hell if given enough time and tinder.  But those disasters… they are all impermanent, ephemeral, weak…  Faith is a bulwark far, far greater than any cataclysm or calamity; able to weather any storm that should batter against it.  Yet all it took to utterly break mine was that single moment of doubt.

“Luna?”  My whisper quivered as it left my lips.  “Goddess?  Please…  I need you…”  

Goddess…  I had uttered that word so many times and for so many reasons, absolutely certain that she always heard my prayers.  Certain that she helped carry the burden of my sorrows.  Certain that she reveled in my joys.  Now her silent response echoed off the hollow cavity that had been rent through my heart, each reverberation the same fretful tune as my impending and horrible realization.

Doubt urged my mind to rationalize; to bring understanding.  But as the pieces finally came together, so too did they crumble apart.  The more I stitched the threads in place, the more everything I understood unraveled at the seams.  In a span of minutes all those things which I held in highest regard had been smashed to pieces before my eyes.

“No…”  I squeezed my eyelids shut, trying to wring the tears from my face that I might see the moon a little clearer.

All the knowledge I had accrued over the course of my life was rendered useless by doubt and untruths.  The garnet had changed the words…  What good was a library if all the books had been altered to perpetuate a lie?  The history I knew was suspect.  The truth… unknowable.  I had dared to flippantly suggest that I was “ignorant” in the ways of the world, as if anything I didn’t already know was inconsequential.  Only at that moment did I finally understand the meaning of the word “ignorance.”  Only then did I understand that I truly knew nothing.

I choked on my own voice, begging the wind to carry my words.  “…please…”

I had raised one pony above all others my entire life because that was how I had been taught, and it was the only thing that made any sense at all.  Luna was the one placed upon that altar, but now I was questioning the wisdom of venerating her, and struggling to comprehend just what I had sacrificed to elevate her so.  I had witnessed undeniable proof that the teachings were false.  Selenism, the bedrock of my life, was left broken and shattered.  The “truth” of the wasteland was now seeping into the cracks in the stone, filling the fissures little by little with the painful mortar of understanding.

“Goddess, no…”  I reached out towards the moon with my free hoof, still not daring to let go of my tree.  Tears had splattered across my Pipbuck, distorting the colors of the display and pooling in the corners of the screen.  They caught the moonlight as they fell to the ground, like little stars racing towards the earth.  Like everything I loved being dashed to the ground...

I felt my faith slipping like sand over my hoof.  Every irritating grain was a memory of prayer, or of singing a hymn, or of reading the texts.  Every one now filled with horror and regret.  Every one as pointless as the last…

I shouted once more, indignation tinting my voice with harsh tones, “Luna!  Help me, please!  I was your most faithful!  I followed you even when Father didn’t!”  My hoof stamped on the tree’s exposed roots.  Why was she being so quiet?  She had answered my pleas before!  Why wouldn’t she now when I needed her guidance more than ever!?

It was infuriating!  Why would she choose silence when the last of her faithful begged on bended knees?  All I needed was a whisper!  All I wanted was a sign!  I screamed again, curling my tail around my hooves.  “Why won’t you help me!?”

With every passing moment of her silence my ire rose a little further.  I was not content to simply allow this change to take place, not after her refusal to give even the simplest of signs.  I wanted more than that.  So much more.

Every ounce of incredulity, disappointment, and frustration finally burst forth.  I glared furiously at the moon as I committed unspeakable heresy, screaming for all I was worth.  “Was it all a lie?  Was it all a fucking lie!?  ANSWER ME!”  My voice was as a gunshot in the night; violent, sudden, and terrifying.  My profanity echoed off the forsaken trees, coming back to my ears a hundred times over in a slowly fading chorus of indignant fury.  As I scorned the divine amidst all those dead trunks, I could imagine that I had finally given them a voice.  Hearing my own sentiments repeated back to me so many times only served to lend credence to my outrage and cement the resolve in my voice.  I was no longer pleading.  I was not begging as a subservient and faithful child.  I demanded.

The mere thought that anyone should disrespect The Goddess as I was doing would have raised my hackles an hour prior.  But as I stood amidst the dead trees and shrieked at the moon, it only seemed natural that I deserved the truth; that I was owed for a lifetime of falsehoods.  Peering into the darkness, the only honest things I discovered were that my ardor had been betrayed, my zealotry had been meaningless, and my rising ire was completely vindicated.

Uncomfortably sharp bits of bark dug into my coat as I gripped the tree at my side and scowled at the holy orb.  “You were supposed to be the only one!  Her existence is BLASPHEMY!”  My throat ached with the force of my screeching.  “You called her SISTER!”  A throbbing ache spread through my neck as my vocal chords finally gave out.

The other mare, the alicorn with the sun for a cutie mark, had acted nothing like the sun of the stories.  How much of what I had been taught was a blatant falsehood?  Was the sun even something to be feared and reviled?  Father had once claimed…

NO!  He was wrong when he said those things!  Luna was testing him!  Just as she was testing me now!  Even Mother had converted to the faith once she had been shown the wisdom and compassion of The Dark Mother!  

I gasped for breath, hyperventilating as my mind raced.  I clung to what remained of my beliefs, doing my best to rationalize and explain the existence of the other one…  But no matter how I struggled to reconcile the dissonance between my heart and mind, I simply could not find harmony.  My desires, hopes, and emotions were all stacked on a scale, weighed and compared against cold and unrelenting facts that grew more numerous with each passing second.

The tenets were clear and absolute.  Luna was the only alicorn.  She was the greatest pony to have ever lived!  None were her equal!  She was a living goddess, walking amongst mortals to provide them guidance and protection out of the goodness of her heart!  

But… that wasn’t true.  There was another; I had seen it through a stallion’s eyes.  Could there have been more?  Lily had claimed… three?  Three princesses!?  My jaw dropped as I remembered the conversation in the memory.  It backed Lily’s assertion; Luna, Celestia, and… Cadance, was it?  And Father…  The hateful things he had said after Mother’s passing…  Queer notions that the sun was not horrible and terrifying…

The list compiled itself in my mind as I stared blankly ahead, too stunned to bother trying to still my quivering lips.  Father’s hurtful ramblings in our family’s time of grief, and how they mirrored the few troublesome snippets I had caught from the mares and stallions with “Surface Shock.”  My stable’s preacher, Moonglow, overseeing the delivery of books from the surface to our library before anyone could even glance at their covers.  The talisman Nohta had taken from that same library, and its effects on my teleportation tome.  The personal debriefings from the Overmare to all those who served in The Caravan.  The reaction of the Steel Rangers to my word choice.  Lily and her memory orb.  Mother’s people’s beliefs standing in direct conflict with Selenism...  All of the evidence was damning, but none more so than the alien feeling of loneliness I experienced under the moon’s cool glow.

The scales tipped.  My balance shifted.  I leaned against the tree, dumbstruck.  The dissonance had died.  The evidence stacked against my faith was too much.  I had finally found the truth, and I hated it with all my heart.  

The hollow cave in my chest iced over as a single abhorrent realization rose to prominence in my mind.  If the teachings were false… and everyone that had ventured outside with The Caravan was privy to that information… then that meant…

My free hoof found my lips as I stared forward in dumbfounded silence.  The revelation rippled through me, inexorable, sweeping every other thought from the forefront of my mind.  Trapped between the rock and the hard place, there was nothing I could do to avoid being crushed by epiphany.

They had lied.  Mother and Father had lied to me.  Selenism was false… and my parents had known all along.  They had lied to me my entire life.  They hadn’t even trusted their own daughter with the truth, and now they were gone; leaving me clueless, frightened, confused, and above all… alone.

They were dead, and there was no moonlit paradise where they waited for me to join them.  My heart skipped a beat as I processed that.  It skipped another when I remembered all the times Nohta and I had just barely slipped from the jaws of death.  We could have perished so many times…  and then there would have been…  nothing.  

Nothing at all…

With my throat as good as useless, and with lightheadedness threatening to render me unconscious, I clutched the tree tightly as I tried to steady myself.  I gripped it harder as the final levee broke, and my heart was wracked with wave after wave of anguish.  My horn scratched against the wood as I buried my face in the tree trunk and clawed at the bark.  

Little by little, inch by inch, my heaving sobs robbed me of the last of my strength.  I fell to my haunches and leaned against the tree as the grief flowed over me.  My shoulder slipped on the tear-slicked bark soon afterward, and I landed on my side in the dirt, only able to make pathetic little mewling whimpers as I cried and shook.  

I… I don’t know how long I lay there on an uncomfortable tree root; alone, without a single article of clothing or item on my person.  I had lost track of everything else, why should time have been of any further concern?  I only know that I lay there long enough for the dirt to mat my mane and the fur upon my cheeks.  I wanted nothing more than to curl up and cry at the futility and hopelessness of my entire life, and so that’s what I did.

I lay there—hollowed out and used up—and stared vacantly at the dry soil that had greedily soaked up my tears.  The truth was cold and ruthless, and like a wave crashing down on a once blazing inferno it had extinguished every notion I previously held of goodness and decency.  My fire had withered and died, and in my grief I was ready to follow its example.

But despite all odds, there was still an ember smoldering within my heart…  It was not pure.  Nor was it good.  No…  It carried the memory of a different flame.  And in the freezing catacomb of my soul it was now the only heat left to be found.  It warmed my bones just enough to stave off the freezing despair.  It gave me strength when I forgot the meaning of the word.  And it burned hotter with every passing second of my growing contempt.

No…  No, I wouldn’t let this be the end of it.  I was better than this.  I deserved more than the lies I had been given!  I had tools at my disposal and a mind to use them!

Pushing myself to a single hoof, I lay on my flank and leaned against my tree.  Brushing the wetness from my eyes and scowling at the moon, I activated my spell to heal my exhausted and irritated throat.  I nearly threw up from the ensuing vertigo and nausea, but steeled myself by staring sternly at Luna’s so-called holy orb.  It was as if my defiance and anger safeguarded me from displays of weakness, though I had to wonder at exactly what my wrath was directed toward.

I was still grasping at snippets of thought, my mind flailing in every possible avenue for an explanation.  As my magic faded and the nausea died, the physical discomfort caught my attention.  I was abruptly wondering why my spell always made me feel sick when I used it on myself.

I had thought Mother and Father honest.  I had believed that their word was truth.  A zebra living in a shack in a shanty-town had called that faith into question.  Now realizing that they had been untruthful about much more serious matters, I couldn’t help but wonder what else had been kept from me.

I turned my head from the tree, and examined my glyph-mark.  Mother had only ever said I would make others whole, but this mark meant something to the zebras.  Was the buck from Mareon telling me more truth than Mother?

Half-Moon had been the one to explain the meaning of my mark, rather than either of my parents.  They had lied about that as well.  Shamans, medicine mares, witch doctors, and… necromancers.  I swallowed the lump in my throat as I acknowledged what my mark truly described.  

Necromancy: Death Magic.  There was no blissful afterlife.  There never had been.  The zebras knew far more of death than any pony.  And with all the empty lies I had been forced to swallow, I craved answers now more than ever.  My return visit to Half-Moon’s hovel could not come quickly enough.

I relit my horn, and focused the bubble of my magic into a tiny ball above my upturned hoof.  The cloud of energy sparkled and pulsated brightly, bathing the immediate area in my familiar scarlet hue.  Mother and Father had kept so many truths to themselves, but why?  Why from me?

The question Mother had asked me on her deathbed came back to haunt me.  “Candy, are you a zebra with a unicorn’s horn?  Or are you a pony with pink stripes?”

The magic winked out of existence as I lowered my hoof to the ground and asked the tree in a tired voice, “What in Luna’s name am I?”  The name felt strange on my lips.  It lacked the compassion and security I normally associated with The Goddess.  Now it only itched and burned with the sting of betrayal.

My ears lay flat against my head as I stared numbly at the moon, the sight of the orb reinvigorating the chill around my heart.  In my desperation I sought my goddess one last time; a hopeless shot in the dark carried by an exhausted whisper.  “Why are you doing this?  Why test me now?  Did I not pray enough?”  My eyes scanned the tree branches as I searched for an answer.  “Is it because of Mother and Father?  Would you blame me for their actions?”  

I shook my head, feeling my teardrops splatter as they fell next to my hooves.  Through choking sobs, I asked the most painful question of all.  “Have you for-forsaken m-me?”  

No.  No, I knew the truth.  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I found enough strength to raise my head one last time and glower at the divine.  “Or were you ever there at all?”

For all my efforts I received naught but silence.  The moon hovered in the night sky, slowly being covered by rolling clouds, and for the first time in my life I neither cared nor regretted that my time with her was waning.

My entire life had been a lie.  But why?  Who would go through all that trouble?  I couldn’t comprehend how it served any purpose or benefit to anypony.  Why take all the steps to ensure the secret remained safe from all of the Stable?  What was the point of it all?

An excellent question, I realized.  What was the point of anything anymore?

My shoulders slumped.  Lies.  My ears drooped as my breath hitched in my throat.  All lies.  I slouched against the tree, uncaring of how the bark scratched and dirtied my coat as I convulsed with my grief.  How?  Why?  My hooves slipped on the loose soil, and I fell hard on the dirt.  Dear Luna…  Dust from the trunk matted on my stripes and lips, carrying a bitter taste to my tongue with every shaking breath.

Loyalty, Honesty, and Laughter.  Her revered Three Truths.  I had done my best to live by those tenets whenever possible, seeing them as virtues to be upheld and honored.  But in the end I was betrayed by hundreds, taught to believe lies, and all I had gained was this endless heartache.  Even the Three Truths, a concept as nebulous and open to interpretation as I could possibly imagine, held no wisdom for me.

My lips quivered as I clenched my eyes shut to wring out the wetness still blurring my vision.  As my gaze rose from the earth, a haunting glow between the trees caught my attention; like a moonbeam dispersed through the silken strands of an ivory mane.  The pony kept her distance, staring haughtily through the orchard as her ghastly-pale magic washed over the dead wood like a thick rime of frost.  Her horn painted everything around her alabaster, such that I was unable to even discern her basic colors.  She wore no barding, and held no weapon, yet she radiated confidence just like the dazzling light that surrounded her.  She had come, just like the recording had foretold.  My mysterious benefactor was a unicorn; apparently possessed of a penchant for watching me suffer.

Her mouth twisted in an arrogant smirk as she lifted a hoof to her side and exposed the Pipbuck on her leg, turning to leave as her pristine tail flowed behind her like a pennant.  I had just enough time to recognize her cutie mark, a single open eye, before the intense light wrapped around her body.  She grinned condescendingly as the brilliant pearlescent light of her horn encapsulated her body in a thick cocoon of white, and vanished in a flash of magic as I stared on in uncomprehending and detached silence.  

How long had she been there?  Why had she come in the first place?  Was my anguish nothing more than entertainment for her!?

“Candy!?”  Nohta’s voice cleaved through the silence of the night, echoing off of the trees and startling me from my daze.

I saw her gallop into the receding moonlight, heading my way.  In an emotionless dead voice, I asked, “Sister?  What are you doing out here?”

Her eyes cast nervous glances around us as she inched closer.  “You just took off, and then you never came back.  Then I heard the yelling and… Shit, Sis, you don’t ever cuss…  You had me worried.”

My jaw quivered as the heartache returned.  Why hadn’t I thought of my sister earlier?  Nohta didn’t know.  Mother and Father had lied to her as well.  I’d have to be the one to tell her…

Lily fluttered to a halt, barely managing to kick up a small dust cloud as she gently touched down near my tree.  Still clutching her barrel and favoring one of her wings, she spat out her question in a pained whisper, “Nohta?  Fuck, I’m sorry!  Is she gonna be okay?”

“Shut up, Lily.”  Nohta only spared her an irritated glance, hissing through her teeth.  “You’re the one that started this whole thing.”

Lily grimaced as she accepted the rebuke.  “I… kinda did, didn’t I?  Look… this isn’t what I wanted.”

Nohta turned to glare at her fully, “What are you even doing out here?”

“Nohta…” I shook my head, allowing the remaining wetness to roll freely down my face.  “You don’t need to be angry at her.  It’s not her fault.”

Lily glanced between us quickly, her face contorted in an awful wince.  “Look… You needed to know.  I just didn’t think you’d take it this hard.”

“Whatever.”  Nohta cast one last threatening scowl in Lily’s direction before cautiously stepping towards me.  “Alright, Sis, If you say so.  But,” she paused, licking her lips nervously, “How about you tell me what’s going on?”

I finally released my hold on my long-dead deciduous anchor and staggered away from the tree, rocking from side to side on unsteady legs until I was inches from Nohta’s beautiful amethyst eyes.  My bedraggled and filthy mane swung freely before my face as I tried to summon up the words to tell her what I had learned.  She tensed as I threw my forehooves around her, never relaxing even as I pulled her into a desperate embrace.

I nearly choked on the words as they left me.  “I love you, Nohta.”

She started to protest, struggling against my grip.  “Sis—”

“No!  Listen to me!”  I shook my head, muddy rivulets streaming down my cheeks, and held her face between my hooves.  I forced her bewildered and frightened eyes to stare at my own as I explained, “No matter what you think of anything else, you need to know that.  I need you to know that.”  The tears poured over her shoulder as I sobbed into her mane, holding her stunned form tightly to my chest.  “It’s the only thing that I’m certain of anymore, sister.”


******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!  
Welcome to Level 8!  
New Perk!

Living Anatomy: Your years spent studying equine physiology have given you great understanding in just what makes living creatures tick.  Through your Pipbuck’s interface you are now able to discern the Health and Damage Threshold of any target, and gain a +5% damage bonus against all ponies and non-feral ghouls.  Try to keep it together, Doctor!

Nohta gains a Perk:

Strong Back: There are certain words you don’t want to use around Nohta.  Like “packmule.”  With this perk Nohta gains a considerable amount of carry weight.  How many pockets does that cloak have, anyway?

Lily gains a perk:  “You better give me a good one after putting me through all that shit, asshole!”

Flower Filly: Lily is no stranger to addictive substances.  She has half the normal chance to get addicted and only suffers half the normal withdrawal penalties when she does.  “Oh fuck yes… I could really use some Med-X right now.”


> Chapter Eight: More Than One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Eight:


More Than One



“When all the truth does is make your heart ache, sometimes a lie is easier to take.”


Pipbucks are… strange.  On the one hoof, they can make our lives so much easier.  They can organize our belongings.  They can remind us of important dates and information.  They can allow us to see when we otherwise could not.  And, most important in my own line of work, they can help us focus on what matters.

And how to kill it.

On the other hoof, Pipbucks are cumbersome to those of us not used to them.  They take time to learn how to use properly.  They knock things over unless you remember you’re wearing a big steel tube on one hoof.  They serve as a constant reminder of The Stable, like a shackle to obligation.  If you’re not careful, the added weight on your leg will harm you more than any foe ever could.

When I was first assigned my own Pipbuck, it nearly threw my balance several times before I learned to compensate.  It seemed like an easy enough thing to fix by wearing my knife and its sheathe on my other leg in order to equal out the weight.  But the closer to perfect balance I thought I was, the more I found I had needlessly bloated my kit.

Your grandmother taught me long ago that for millennia The People believed balance to be the most sublime of all states.  That it must permeate all things, and be known in all ways.  I was horrible at that lesson.  Even years after I mastered the balancing pole I never fully grasped what she had taught me.  How could I?  I was “Nadira,” after all.  Even as my parents gave me a name they sealed my fate.  I am, quite possibly, the worst zebra that has ever lived.

I don’t blame them.  They wanted great things for their daughters.  I simply had the misfortunes of being born second and being far too proud to accept my fate.  When my sister invented recipes I improved them.  When she beat me in a sparring match I pushed myself to be stronger and faster, and made sure she never won again.  But no matter my skills, she was always better than me.  She never made as grave an error as I did.

A tree cannot grow without its roots, but I abandoned my old family to begin my own.  I lost my balance when I did that, and lived up to my name in the process.  Girls… you should have learned your grandmother’s wisdom, and heard her riddles.  You should have hunted with your grandfather as he stalked manticores for venom.  You should have been exposed to so many things I could never teach you.  So many things I could never say while living away from the open sky.

And, as much as it may hurt to hear, neither of you have balance either.  You can blame your father and I for that, thought it was mostly my fault.  Despite your father’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge, no pony can truly know the ways of The People.  But neither do zebras fully understand ponies.  There is wisdom to be gained from each, something I hope the two of you remember when you look upon each other.

As far as my Pipbuck was concerned…  I found the perfect setup when your father helped me solder a blade to the casing and thicken the armor in the opposite leg of my cloak.  A little more deadly, and a little more protected.  Balance, girls.  We must find it everywhere.  Even when we look upon ourselves.


-Excerpt from The Book of Nadira, pg. 42



---------------------------------------------------------------


“She fucking cried herself to sleep…”  Nohta’s shadow danced like a playful marionette along the barn’s wall in front of me as the open flame popped and snapped angrily.  Beside it, Lily’s taller shadow showed my winged companion drinking from a bottle and gently unfurling a wing.  As I lay on my side in my bedroll and stared blankly at the wall, I could scarcely feel the warmth of the fire on my back.  It, like everything else, seemed miles away.

One shadow offered something to the other, and the sound of liquid splashing in a glass bottle preceded my sister’s voice.  “Ugh, fuck.  How do you drink that shit?”

“You get used to it.”  The wild-maned shadow that belonged to the pegasus flailed a limb, and I heard Lily’s lighter snap shut after a weary exhalation.  “I really didn’t think she’d react like that.”

They thought I was asleep, I realized.  In a way I suppose I was sleeping, drifting on a turbulent sea of thought while the world passed me by like a stormy sky.  Reality was like a dream, unbelievable in subject matter and vivid in intensity, but I could not summon the strength to rouse myself from my “slumber.”  The waking world had become my nightmare, but far worse was the idea of drifting off to the world of my false goddess.  

The mere thought of the hell waiting for me in Luna’s hooves was enough to keep my eyes wide and my mind racing.  Yet every torturous second I spent awake was plagued by that singularly horrible realization: Mother and Father lied to me…

What do you value most about yourself?  What is your greatest strength?  If I were to hazard an approximation, I would posit the notion that you believe it is your loyalty to those whom you seek to protect.  Even now, you seek to shelter them away from me due to your misplaced fear.  You would strive to move the heavens themselves if it meant that no others came to harm, would you not?  I can respect that, even if we both already know how this must end.

For my own part, I was a mare who valued her intelligence as her greatest asset, and that night all of my vaunted knowledge was cast in doubt.  But even worse was the bitter betrayal from those whom I loved.  Loyalty is among the greatest of virtues, and betrayal amongst the greatest of sins.  Something I understand far too well…

All I could know for certain was the present moment and my immediate surroundings.  With such thoughts plaguing my mind, I was in no hurry to trade the demons of the waking world for the ones in the world of dreams.

And I was in no rush to meet Luna in her sacred realm so soon after cursing her name.

Nohta’s shadow shook its head slowly,  “She didn’t even cry like that when Dad died.”  The fire popped as I stared ahead blankly, not caring to raise my head from my tear-soaked pillow.  Nohta continued a moment later with a heavy sigh.  “Everything must be hitting her all at once.  I haven’t seen her this bad since Mom.”

Lily’s shadow made a shrugging gesture along the wall.  “Not everyone reacts the same way to losing someone they care about.”

“You think I don’t know that?”  Nohta’s voice was hard in the gloom, but softened considerably as she continued, “Shit, she’s been…  She’s been unstable lately.  Acting really weird and quiet around me.  Around me!  We don’t have secrets.  Not from each other.”  My brow furrowed as I recognized the pain in my sister’s voice, and my gut twisted as I recalled all the little things I was keeping from her.  

“It’s like she hasn’t been herself lately,” Nohta continued.  “I figured she was just stressed out after leaving The Stable, but after what just happened…”  Nohta’s shadow shook its head.  “This is bad.  Real bad.”

“What I don’t get is why you’re not acting the same way.”  Lily’s shadow scratched at its mane.  “You lived down there too.  And after seeing her reaction I didn’t even want to show you that orb.  Why are you taking it so much better than her?”

Nohta snorted in disgust, “You don’t understand.  I mean, this is totally fucked.  I believed in Luna just as much as anyone else, and all this is…  I don’t get it.”  Nohta’s shadow slumped, and her next words were muffled by the hoof she dragged across her face.  “But Candy?  She lived for that shit.”  Nohta’s shadow stilled as she whispered, “She wanted to be the next Priestess.”

I gasped quietly at the sound of the word, clutching my pillow a little tighter to my chest as the shadows broadcast how my two companions turned to gaze in my direction.  I paid them no heed, staring forward as the echoes of memory whispered in my mind.  

“Be a good girl,” Moonglow had told me.  “Don’t make waves.  Your path will be decided according to Luna’s will.”  Every single word he had given me had been false…  It was all a lie…  How is a lady supposed to react to a revelation of that severity?

I resumed staring numbly at the wall as my thoughts raced down dark caverns.  Nohta knew the truth now.  That was good enough for me.  I was far too emotionally spent to intuit how I should feel anymore.  I had no precedent for this.  How could I?  I was simply making it up as I went.  And once again, when faced with every option in the world, I was stalling—dumbfounded by an infinite number of forks in my road.  I knew that I would have to make a choice soon, but the inevitability of that coming moment was as a storm on the horizon: both terrifying to behold and awe-inspiring to realize for what it was.  

I must admit that part of me wanted to simply be swept away by the wind preceding that storm.  I wanted to have the choice taken from my hooves.  I did not yet know what I was capable of weathering.

Lily and Nohta’s shadows shuffled as they turned their attention back to the fire, apparently satisfied in their assumption that I was asleep.  It was just as well, really.  I was in no condition for speaking.

Lily’s shadow shook its head.  “Uh… What’s a Priestess?  Anything like a shaman?”

Nohta’s shadow shrugged as she whispered over the fire’s pops and snaps.  “I never knew a Priestess in The Stable.  We had Moonglow, but he was more like a temporary fill-in.  We hadn’t had a proper Priest or Priestess of The Moon since before I was born.”  The smaller shadow grew in height as my sister rose from the ground and paced alongside the fire.  “The Priestess was like…  the most powerful pony in 76.  Not even The Overmare could overrule her.  Not when each Priestess was supposed to be able to talk directly to Luna.”

Lily snorted, “I’ve heard of some fucked up stable experiments before, but never something like this.  I mean, seriously?  Luna’s dead.”

Nohta’s shadow stood still even as her voice rose.  “If you’re expecting me to defend that brahminshit after I just found out the whole thing was a Goddess-damned lie then you’re pretty fucking stupid!”  My breath hitched in my throat as I recognized in my sister’s voice all of the ugly hatred within my own heart.  The shadows on the wall moved again as their owners glanced in my direction once more.  I continued to lay still, and a few moments later Nohta’s voice fell to a disgusted whisper.  “Doesn’t matter anyway.  Nopony down there was gonna let a half-breed tell ‘em what to do.”

My thoughts bounced erratically in my skull just like the shadows that danced along the wall.  Had I been strung along on purpose?  Had my faith and aspirations been used against me?  No… No, I reassured myself.  In my grief and confusion I was simply rushing to place blame upon convenient targets.  Moonglow had never been anything but kind, patient, and understanding.  He had been a good pony.  He had been a mentor to me, and a protector to Nohta.  But his teachings had also warped our conceptions of the world.

One of my happiest memories was of the first time I was fortunate enough to attend midnight mass in the temple.  It was a sacred time of night when all of The Stable’s lights were dimmed.  The low hum of the choral hymns echoed through the halls—plainly audible in every room of The Stable when most of our aging electrical generators had been powered down—and lead the faithful to The Dark Mother’s statue.  The dim glow of the candles lent a majestic and ethereal charm to Lady Luna’s stone likeness.  The glow caught her outstretched wings, bounced off her polished surface, and made her appear as the moon itself—a lone holdout of guiding illumination surrounded by her faithful children.  From that first reverent moment I was absolutely enthralled, and I treated my faith with all the zealous devotion that I would soon after employ with my medical training.

I devoured the texts of Selenism given to me by Moonglow, meditated nightly on the Three Truths at Luna’s hooves, and sought to live, always, by the creed of our faith.  I found beneath her shadow acceptance, tolerance, and love.  I had hoped to enkindle those feelings in my stablemates.  But Moonglow…  His advice was always the same.  “Wait and see.”  

Having learned the truth, I wanted so badly to place his memory firmly in the crosshairs of my wrath.  Had Moonglow crushed my dreams quickly it would have been far less cruel than allowing me to fervently chase the impossible.  But then… he hadn’t ever actually left The Stable, not with The Caravan.  I would have found it so easy to despise Moonglow if not for one simple question for which I held no answer: was he ever even aware that he preached lies?  

Had he read the books from the outside or just blindly fed them to the talisman within The Library’s  restoration laboratory?  Was he a willing conspirator or just a blind adherent following orders passed down to him from his predecessor?  And the most important question of all: did his intentions or possible innocence even matter when his actions helped to orchestrate such anguish?

Lily’s next words brought me back to the conversation taking place between my two companions.  “At least you’re not caught up in that fucking cult going around lately.  Those folks creep me out.”

“What?”

“They call it ‘Unity.’ ”  Lily’s shadow scratched at its wild mane before continuing, “Bunch of weird assholes preaching about togetherness and some sort of goddess.”  The shadow raised its wings and bent its primary feathers as Lily quoted from memory.  “A sisterhood of perfection that will bring an end to suffering through equality and harmony.”  Lily spat her contempt on the ground before taking another drink.  “As if something like that can exist in the wasteland.”

My brow furrowed against the pillow.  The ponies of the wasteland had another goddess?  Was that why the Steel Ranger had asked that odd question?  The Star-Paladin had inquired, “Which goddess?”  At the time I thought Sandalwood a fool.  After realizing who the real fool was, I was left wondering how many immortals inhabited the world’s pantheon.

“Look Nohta, I’m sorry.  I mean that.  I really didn’t know what I was stirring up with all this, just that you two needed to know the truth.”  Lily’s shadow laid its hat against the ground as she rubbed her eyes.  “Fuck…  You think she’s gonna be okay?”  The drawn out sigh from my winged companion abated as an uncomfortable silence descended upon the room.  Only the popping and cracking of the fire answered Lily’s query.

The silence ran on long enough to become awkward.  Lily’s shadow shuffled before she asked again, “Nohta?”

“I don’t know.”  My sister’s response was at once both curt and stern.  And unnerving.

The thud of a nearly empty bottle against the soil resounded throughout the barn.  “Damn it…  She’s in no condition for bounty hunting.  We should just play this safe and get you two back to Mareon.  I can do this on my—”

“And Candy and I should do what?  Sit on our asses, broke, in a town that hates us?  No thanks.”  Nohta’s shadow shook its head.  “We’re close to The Caravan now, so we can at least take care of that.  I don’t give a shit about most of the ponies that died there, but Dad…”

Father.  Goddess, I hadn’t the faintest notion of how to feel regarding Father.  Thinking of him was like trying to untie a knot without magic, except the knot was made of lead and strung around my heart.

Every quiet moment we had shared in study, in prayer, during meals…  Why hadn’t he ever mentioned this?  How hard could it have possibly been to simply take me aside and tell me the truth?  Why had he kept it from me!?  

Did he not trust me?  Did he not think me capable of comprehending the truth?  Surely he must have known that the more my faith grew the more painful the coming revelation would be.  Had I disappointed him somehow?  Had I failed some kind of test?  Hadn’t he loved me enough to— 

No!  No!  I knew Father.  He was the only pony I knew whom I could safely say was smarter than myself.  I refused to believe there wasn’t a perfectly logical reason why he chose to keep me ignorant of our home’s secret.  Some lesson for me to learn on my own or even some stipulation of his station within The Stable.  I would not trade an entire fillyhood of tender memories for one distorted interpretation of the best teacher I would ever have.

But… what good was a teacher if his lessons broke his student’s heart?

Lily’s voice cut through the silence.  “You two are going through some heavy shit right now.  You think Candy can handle that?”  I clenched my eyes and my jaw tight as I squeezed the pillow even closer.

“Can’t fucking hurt.  Not after everything else.”  Nohta’s voice was exhausted and irritable.  “And I don’t know what else we can do right now anyway.”

Liquid sloshed in a glass bottle before Lily asked, “And after?  What then?”

I opened my eyes, focusing on the smaller shadow as I listened to my sister’s answer.  “Stick with the plan and go for The Bard.  We need caps, and those assholes tried to kill Margarita.”  Nohta’s shadow displayed her profile as she turned back to gaze in my direction.  “I’ll talk to Candy.  She’ll listen to me.”

The smell of cigarette smoke wafted past my muzzle as Lily exhaled heavily.  “You sure that’s smart?  Forcing her to keep going like that?”

“Yeah.”  Nohta’s shadow thinned as she turned back to the flickering flame.  “I think it is.”

“I hope you’re right.  I’m not so sure.”

Nohta’s voice was low as she whispered, “You haven’t seen the look she gets when she kills someone.”

“Uh…  Yeah, I have.  Outside Mareon.  She was scared to death.”

Nohta’s shadow shook its head.  “I saw her fight through our stable after the raiders got there.  I saw her eyes when she pulled the trigger and killed The Pyro.  And I remember what she told me that night about ‘curing a sickness.’ ”  Nohta sighed as she added, “You’re right.  She is afraid.  But not of what you’re thinking.”

“I don’t follow.”

Nohta spat out her next words.  “That’s because you don’t know shit about Candy.”

“I know she’s a friend, short-stack,” Lily insisted.  “I’m trying to help her, but it’s like you’re fighting me every step of the way.”

Nohta scoffed.  “Just because you got her drunk doesn’t mean you two are friends.”  

Lily’s only response was to sigh and take another swig of her drink.  The silence spanned minutes before Nohta asked a single question.  “Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you think you two are friends?”

Lily snorted as her shadow flicked a wing out to the side.  “Same reasons I think you and I could be if you’d just get off my flank for two seconds.”  After a long exhalation, Lily chided my sister.  “What’s your problem with me anyway?  Candy told me that she thought we’d get along.”

“I don’t get what Candy and Margie think is so great about you.  You’re not as good a fighter as you think you are.”  

“Don’t let our little sparring match go to your head, kid.  When I fight for real I don’t fight fair.”

“Whatever.”  Nohta’s shadow flipped a hoof through the air.  “You’re just another fuckin’ weirdo trying to sleep with my sister.”

“Wait… Seriously?  That’s it?”  Lily’s shadow jabbed an accusatory hoof in the air as she snickered.  “Ha!  You’re trying to protect her from me!”

“No shit, feather-brain.  What’s so funny about that?”

Lily’s wings fluttered at her sides, blowing warm air from the fire across my mane.  “Why the fuck do you think I took this job, Nohta?”

“I thought you wanted to help Margarita.  You said you were here for blood.”

“Yeah, sure, and we’re gonna spill plenty of it before this is over.  But you think that’s the only reason?”  Lily’s whiskey bottle thunked against the ground before she continued, her shadow swaying much more than could be accounted for by the flickering flame alone.  “Your sister…  She’s good people.  But she doesn’t know shit about how things work out here.  And for that matter, neither do you.”  

Lily’s shadow stretched a wing out at its side, bending one of her primary feathers down to start a list.  “Raiders?  Okay cool.  We can kill a few raiders, no problem.  But Psyker?  Fuck, kid, she took out Margie’s whole crew by herself.”  Lily’s hoof thudded against the ground as she braced herself against the alcohol.  “Those weren’t a bunch of greenhorns, fledglings, and tenderhooves either.  They were some of the best ponies I’ve ever known.  Unless we get some serious back-up we are well and truly fucked.”

A second feather bent as Lily inhaled and exhaled more smoke.  “Slavers?  Shit…  You better hope like hell that doesn’t mean who I think it means, because if he’s involved in all this then you two might as well give up right now.  The only way you’re getting into Fillydelphia is in chains.”  

A final feather fell when Lily continued a moment later, “And the griffin mercs?  Griffins aren’t pushovers, Nohta.  They’ve got no fucking honor at all, but they know how to fight.  You two are fighting off way more than you can shoe.”

“I… what?”

“You two are like a couple little kitties trying to scratch and hiss at a pack of timberwolves.  I’m here to make sure you don’t get torn to shreds.”  Lily snorted, and her shadow shook its head as it folded its wing.  “A doctor and her little sister on a fucking revenge quest against half the spirits-damned wasteland…  Y’all are fucking crazy.”

“So… what?”  Nohta’s shadow shrugged and shook its head.  “You’re saying this is hopeless?  If you don’t think we can do it then why are you here?”

“I guess I just like crazy.”  Lily chuckled as her shadow leaned closer to Nohta.  Her next words were a barely audible whisper, but carried the weight and conviction only a drunkard could achieve.  “Revenge is something worth living for.  Sometimes it’s even worth dying for.  But it’s sure as hell worth killing for.  

“That is wasteland justice, Nohta.  That’s honor.  Somepony did you wrong?  Fine, it’s their choice.  But you gotta make ‘em pay in blood.”  Lily’s shadow straightened up before she finished off her cigarette and spat the nub into the flames.  “Thunderhooves know a thing or two about what it’s like to crave revenge, and I know more than most Thunderhooves.”

Lily’s shadow inclined its head towards Nohta’s shadow.  “You want to find the turkeys that killed your dad and your friend?  Good.  You should want that.  And I can help you.  Just make sure you’re damn good and ready to pay your own price after you collect your debt.”

Silence crept over the barn’s interior, broken only by the fitful snapping and crackling of the fire.  In the wake of Lily’s whiskey-fueled vehemence, the quiet was like a comforting and protective blanket.  It settled over the three of us, and I imagined that each of us was lost in our own thoughts.  I, for one, couldn’t help but dwell on what Lily had said.

I had once considered revenge a “fringe benefit” to be acquired when solving a greater problem, but that was when I still judged the world with the moral compass of a Selenist.  Without my faith to guide me, I held no barometer for what was right or decent anymore.  Who was to say that any of the values I used to hold were worth keeping?  Would I be forced to reevaluate every one of my beliefs?  Should I simply forget the world and live solely for my sister and myself?

No.  No, a purely logical existence driven by simple pragmatism was just too… heartless.  That was not who I was.  That was not who I would become.  I was still a good mare!  But…  What if the world forced my hoof in another direction, as it had Nohta’s?  

I still had desires and hopes.  But those wants were in such a chaotic state of flux that I couldn’t even tell what I wished for anymore.  Revenge?  My stable had fed me nothing but lies!  Why should I desire to avenge those who had perpetrated such a sham?  Yet… not all of them were guilty of that betrayal…

I was weak and ignorant.  Arrogant and hypocritical.  I saw myself that night as if for the first time, in an entirely new light.  As terrible as the imagery of that phrase was, it was also comforting.  Change was coming, if only I could find the strength to make it so.  

Ignorance can be confronted just like any other foe.  It can be defeated, if only we seek the means to do so.  By realizing my staggering weaknesses, I also discovered my greatest strength.  I could change.  I could adapt.  I would learn the truth, no matter what horrors it held.  Regardless of the cost, I would forge my own path in this world.  I did not need Luna’s so-called holy orb to guide me through the darkness.  The light of my horn would do just fine.

“Look…”  Lily’s voice called my attention back to the shadows on the wall.  “I didn’t mean to get all riled up, so I’ll tell you what.  If it really bothers you that much then I’ll cool it with the flirting for a little while, okay?”

“You mean it?”

The winged shadow nodded.  “Swear to Stormwalker.”

I shared my sister’s confusion as Nohta’s shadow shook its head.  “Who?” 

“She was my tribe’s…  Ugh, nevermind.  Yes, I promise.”  Lily’s shadow up-ended a bottle as she made her vow, but her voice regained some of its assuredness as she continued speaking.  “Candy’s too fucked in the head right now for anything like that anyway.  And besides, when she’s ready, she’ll come onto me.”

“Are you asking for me to bash your head in?”  If I hadn’t already been awake, Nohta’s outburst would have surely roused me from my slumber.  “Candy’s not… Ugh!  Fuck off, Lily!”

“Maybe you don’t know your sister like I do.”  I didn’t need to see the smirk on Lily’s face.  It was evident in her tone of voice.

“I swear to Luna if you—”  Nohta’s outrage was cut short as she realized her own words.  “Fuck… Can I even say that anymore?” 

“Drink.”  One shadow extended the bottle to the other.

“What?”

“Just drink.”  The liquid splashed as Lily shoved the liquor into Nohta’s hooves.  “I can’t say that I get what you guys are going through, but I am on your side here.  You gotta start trusting me or else this job is gonna wind up with one or all of us dead.”

“We’ll see.”  Nohta sipped the liquid as the fire began to die down, her detached voice the only sound in the encroaching dark.

Lily spoke again several minutes later.  “So, what did they preach down there anyway?”

“Candy could explain it better than me.”  Nohta’s vague shadow hoofed the bottle back before she sighed and shook her head.

Lily snorted, “Right, because I really want to ask your sister to explain something that drove her to try and blow my head off and then shout herself hoarse by screaming at the moon.”  Lily lit another cigarette and inhaled before exclaiming, “Fuck, Nohta, I’m lucky enough that she healed my rib again after you broke it the second time.  I don’t need to piss her off any more.”

“Just…  get it from Candy”  Exhaustion was seeping further into my sister’s voice.  “Maybe it will help if you can tell her what’s really going on.”

“Don’t you want to know too?”

Nohta’s shadow waved Lily’s off with a hoof.  “I’d rather just forget about all of it.  We’ve got bigger problems than whether there used to be one princess or two.”

“Three.”  Lily insisted.

“Whatever.”

Silence crept over the barn again.  By the dying light of the fire I could make out Lily’s shadow extending and retracting one of its wings.  After a few minutes of this, Lily spoke again in a strained whisper.  “I don’t think she healed it all the way this time.”

“I’m pretty sure we’ve got some Med-X around here,” Nohta offered as her shadow rose to its hooves.

“Nah, you don’t wanna mix opiates and booze.”  Lily’s shadow shook its head before she chuckled lightly.  “I’ll be fine Short-Stack, just don’t beat me up for a few days, okay?  We should probably try to get some sleep anyway.”

“No way ah c’n fleep righ’ now.”  Nohta’s voice was muffled by something being carried in her mouth.  A moment later, the flames resurged and cast renewed light against the interior of the structure.  “How the hell am I supposed to sleep without a dream from Luna?”  

“Looks like your sister managed just fine.”  Lily’s shadow flared her good wing as she pointed in my direction.  Nohta only snorted and sat beside the fire once more.

After the silence grew awkward once again, Lily’s shadow stretched its hooves while she yawned.  “Well this pony needs her shut-eye.  Wake me up when you get tired and I’ll take the next watch.”

Minutes passed by in near-silence as I lay on my side, watching my sister’s shadow waver against the wall while Lily’s breathing developed into snoring.  I shut my eyes, wondering if it were possible to actually sleep after learning such an unspeakable truth.  It wasn’t long before the sound of hooves shuffling through my packs caused my eyes to open.

“Candy,”  Nohta’s voice was a quiet whisper.  “I know you’re awake, Sis.”  I flinched and swallowed the lump in my throat.  It wouldn’t do to try and maintain the ruse any longer.

Taking a deep breath, I rolled over in my sleeping bag to find Nohta staring at a tiny bauble in her hooves: the little orb we had discovered in Luna’s statue.  Firelight danced along the sphere’s edge, distorted and rippling as Nohta held it before the flames.  From my perspective the little ball was silhouetted against the heart of the fire, and seemed to swallow the light around it.  Its center was as black as jet.  At least where the orb was concerned darkness was conquering the light, just like in the stories of my youth.

My head still lay against the pillow as I looked up to my sister’s face.  Shadows and firelight danced over her features as the flames flickered.  Her anxious expression mirrored my own, and it was exactly what I needed to see.  In that moment, she and I were completely the same.  We were at once both equal and opposite.  Two halves of a whole.

Nothing in this world mattered more than her.  For that one fleeting moment I understood how far I was willing to go, what I was willing to do, and all I was willing to give.  Lily had been right when she told me, “This world doesn’t give a damn about us.”  If the world didn’t care for us, why should we care for it?

I saw the world at large as callous, twisted, and repugnant.  Yet throughout the bleak and uncaring void were sprinkled tiny islands of decency and warmth like stars in the night sky.  I had not yet met many of them, and some were certainly more caring than others, but I knew there were individuals in this world worth fighting for.  

The disease that has taken hold of Equestria has not yet infected all of her children.  You and I would do well to remember that.

Nohta.  Lily.  Margarita.  The Cheese Family.  A portion of the Steel Ranger squad we had met in Coltsville.  Doc Flannel.  Half-Moon.  Caramel, Pearl Grey, Spin Cycle, Pipe Sleeves… So many members of my stable whom I was certain were never exposed to the truth…  Equestria may have been hidden from the night sky, but Luna’s glittering ceiling didn’t have a monopoly on beauty.

It felt fitting that—knowing the teachings were false—I now hoped to rip whatever wisdom I could from the body of Selenism.  My stars were my friends.  My night sky was the cold and unyielding world.  As for the moon…  

Looking back to that night in Mr. Belmont’s barn it’s easy to imagine that some might think Nohta and I callous for not inquiring about the other’s well being.  But I believe that she and I both knew exactly how the other was holding up after having the proverbial anvil dropped on our heads.  Nohta was never one to mince or waste words, and I did not begrudge her for failing to ask a pointless question.

Instead, she posited another of her impossibly difficult and deceptively simple queries.  “Sis,” her lip quivered as her jaw fruitlessly labored to produce the words.  Shaking her head, she swallowed the lump in her throat before asking, “What are we gonna do?”

I slowly reached a hoof towards her, beckoning for the tiny orb between her hooves.  She placed it in my grasp without a word, but not without a questioning expression.  The little ball looked so similar to one of Lily’s memory orbs…

I rolled onto my back, holding the little sphere above my eyes with my hooves, and answered Nohta with her own words.  “We live ‘in a world of freedom and possibility,’ remember?”  I had found my moon.  I would follow its light as long as it pleased me.  “We will do whatever we want.”

“Sis?”  Worry filled her voice, “What’s that mean?”

Crimson flooded my vision as I lit my horn, bathing my hooves in the color of blood.  “I want to bury my father.”  It was only as I was about to reach out with my magic to grasp the orb that I realized there was something more important demanding my attention.  Or rather, someone.  

I lowered my hooves, resting the bauble against my chest as I turned my head to look Nohta in the eyes.  A weary sigh left my lips as I made a painful admission.  “But my judgement has been atrocious as of late.  What do you want, sister?”

Her eyes hardened, but I knew better than to imagine I was the subject of her wrath.  “You already know what I want, Candy.”

Perhaps my coming choice would be delayed after all.  “Are you sure, Nohta?  Knowing what we know now?”

“Yeah.”  She nodded once, setting me with her determined gaze.  “I’m sure.”


**************


It didn’t take long for my sister to fall asleep.  She would never admit it, stubborn as she was, but the night’s events had taken their toll on her as well.  She refused to leave me alone at first, but a warm fire and a few sips of liquor are a powerful combination.  I only needed to bide my time in silence, and soon enough her eyes closed on their own.  My magic tucked her in as I strapped my pistol to my leg and stepped outside the barn.  

I sat down outside the door and stared eastward, waiting.  Now that the clouds were thick in the sky the moon’s glow could not reach me.  The night was dark, and the wind was cool.  I was alone, and grateful for it.  I needed the solitude.  I needed the time to think.

There was something I needed to see for myself, lying just underneath the horizon.  I needed to know.  I needed to feel the warmth on my own face.  Father had spoken of it before, but I quickly learned that pressing him for more information on the matter was a futile endeavour.  Few Selenists ever spoke of the sunrise.  Fewer still were those members of The Caravan whom had ever seen it.  And to my knowledge, only one of us has ever prayed for it.

I closed my eyes as the breeze swept my mane back, and offered a whisper to the wind.  “Celestia,” I murmured, barely feeling the breath leave my lips. The name felt… wrong.  But not half as wrong as what I saw in the memory orb.

If the teachings were all lies, then I’d be forced to look in all directions for the truth.  When I was still wrapped in a veil of ignorance, I considered myself lucky to gaze upon the moon.  Now that my eyes were open, I wanted to see what Father had in the light.  It might have been blasphemy.  It might have been arrogance or spite…  But I didn’t care.  I needed to look upon the sun.

Unfortunately, my Pipbuck was telling me that the sunrise was still half an hour away.  The little orb from Luna’s statue rolled back and forth in my hooves as I sat there, wondering how much worse the night could possibly become.  As my horn lit up, I found an answer to that question.

When I used the memory orb in the barn, the connection was instant and unexpected.  All that I needed to do was brush my magic against its surface, and I was whisked away.  But now, even though I was focusing all of my magic on the bauble in my hooves, nothing was happening.

My brow furrowed with my concentration.  Was the orb defective?  I pursed my lips and tried again.  Was I doing something wrong?  I stared at the tiny ball, noticing how its core remained jet-black despite the scarlet aura enveloping it.  Nothing that I tried worked.  My failed attempts were as frustrating as they were futile.

I cut my magic off, huffing in disgust and disappointment.  The orb fell to the soil at my hooves with a dull thud as my eyes returned to the east.  Blue-grey light was seeping into the sky, tainting the night with…  No.  No, I’d have to stop thinking that way.  But how?  How would I ever shake off ideas that had been instilled in me since my fillyhood?

And, perhaps more importantly, should I even try to completely forget Selenism?  Surely there was something to be gleaned from the teachings.  Even if they were fundamentally flawed, they had inspired goodness of a sort…

And Selenism was more than just a faith.  It was my very culture!  My world-view!  The foundation of my life!  To alter my perception of the world would take years!  Had the moon lost its beauty simply because I no longer associated it with The Dark Mother?  Would the shadows that I had learned to love no longer bring more comfort than the harsh and abrasive light of morning?  Had the ideals of Loyalty, Honesty, and Laughter lost all of their intrinsic value because a faith based upon them was false?  Of course not.

I had left my stable behind, but its memory would walk beside me wherever I went.  The shadow of my faith would follow me until the end of my nights.  I was raised as a Selenist.  One does not simply forget their upbringing.

Goddess, I tried to change that part of myself, but…  Well, there you go.  That was a perfect example.  The very manner in which I speak has been forever tainted by a lie.  It doesn’t matter how many deities there are or have been; I don’t think I’ll ever stop using that word.  Goddess…  The truth is that some habits are simply too hard to break.  

I shook my head and sighed heavily.  My world may have been shattered by Lily, but it was up to me to put the pieces back together.  If I knew nothing, then I would have to learn.  I only hoped that I would be up to the task.

Lies…  I needed to discover exactly where they ended and truth began.  There was one place I had found that specialized in lies.  Perhaps their wisdom would prove useful.  My magic twisted and prodded the dials, knobs, and buttons of my Pipbuck as I selected the next file in my little list.  

It wasn’t long before a zebra’s voice spoke in a hushed, conspiratorial tone.  “I saw Luna in my dreams not long ago.”

Goddess, would I never be free of the twisting knife that came with her name?

A teacup clinked against a saucer, and a pony responded.  “Oh?  Is that right, Mizani?”

“Yes.  Only, she wasn’t quite… right.”  The zebra’s voice was troubled.  I could almost see him rubbing his chin as he contemplated his next words.  “She was more smoke and mist than physical equine.  Almost as if she were passing through my dream to move on to something far more interesting.  A bit of midnight window shopping, if you will.”

The pony murmured his assent.  “Hmm.  That would have been the perfect opportunity to communicate your concerns to her directly.”

“Oh, yes.  And believe me, Lexicon, I tried.  But it was almost as if there were some… interference with the dream.  As if she were incapable of peering fully into my mind, no matter how badly I wished to let her in.”  A discontented sigh sounded through my Pipbuck before Mizani admitted, “I’m afraid that my message, if indeed I was able to convey anything at all, was quite garbled.”

Lexicon’s tone was skeptical.  “I can’t imagine Princess Luna having any difficulty at all with a dream.  That’s one of her areas of expertise, after all.  Are you sure that you weren’t subconsciously trying to keep her out of your head?”

“I’d like nothing more than to sit down with her face-to-face.  No… I don’t believe that was it, but I do have a theory.”  Mizani paused, and then spoke slowly, as if the subject he wished to broach were an uncomfortable one.  “Perhaps… pony minds don’t work quite like zebra minds do?  Maybe she doesn’t know how to delve into our dreams as well as she can yours?”

“Careful old friend, you’re beginning to sound a little racist.”  Lexicon’s warning would have been harsh were it not for the mirth in his voice.

Mizani gave a quick bark of laughter, and was quick to apologize.  “Hah!  A thousand pardons!  It was not my intent to offend you.”  Mizani exhaled harshly before forging on.  “But something about that dream certainly wasn’t right, and the reason for which is a baffling mystery to me.”

The two shared a moment of silence, sipping their tea as I watched the clouds on the eastern horizon grow thin and wispy above the mountains.  Minutes passed before Lexicon asked, “Why would you assume a difference between pony and zebra minds?”

I could imagine Mizani shaking his head and scowling as he spoke.  “Hmm… It was just a hunch, and I don’t really have any evidence to back it up, but… It feels right.  Sometimes you just have to trust your intuition.”

This zebra might have been able to trust his intuition, but what had mine accomplished?  I was mere minutes away from committing heresy, and I hadn’t the faintest notion of why I was doing so.  The sunrise had better be worth it, I mused.

“I can certainly agree with that,” Lexicon snickered.  “In fact, I gave my nephew that exact bit of advice just three days ago.”

Both Lexicon and Mizani seemed eager to change the subject to something more cheerful.  Mizani latched onto the opportunity with gusto.  “Oh?  And how is Midnight faring in his new place of employment?  Or is that classified?”

“Highly classified, I’m afraid.  Even as he sought my advice he was being exceptionally vague.  Though if I had to venture a guess…”  Lexicon chuckled knowingly, “I’d say he is having filly problems.”

“Ha!  The last time I saw little Midnight Oil he was barely taller than my knees and warning me of the dangers of ‘cooties!’ ”  The two friends shared a moment of genuine laughter before Mizani spoke up.  “They grow up quickly, don’t they?”

My lips pursed as I was dragged along for their pointless drivel.  I was beginning to lose interest in their conversation, and the sky was becoming brighter every second.  I didn’t want to waste my opportunity to follow in Father’s hoofsteps.  He must have had a reason for lying to us!  He must have had a reason for lying to me!  My hoof was only inches away from cutting off the audio before Lexicon spoke again.

“That they do,”  he agreed.  “I can only hope that Twilight lets him down easy.  She’s one of most important ponies alive, the greatest mage this world has seen since Starswirl the Bearded, and far too busy with her ministry to concern herself with such matters.”

My hoof stopped still as my jaw dropped.  That was a name I was familiar with!  A name I nearly idolized.  Luna’s greatest arcane student: Starswirl the Bearded.  Who was this Twilight, and what had she done to merit mentioning her name in the same sentence as Starswirl?  Swiveling my ears towards my Pipbuck, I resigned myself to listening to the rest of the audio log.

I could hear the playful smirk on Mizani’s face as he chided his friend.  “ ‘Greatest mage since Starswirl?’  Forgive my striped pride, friend, but I know a few Bokors that could still teach her a thing or two.”  

Bokor…  Half-Moon had used that word before.  Ugh!  Why couldn’t these two fools have skipped the pleasantries and simply dispensed with the facts!  The sun was about to rise and I needed answers, not gossip!

“You’ve spoken of these individuals previously,” Lexicon questioned.  “What does that word mean, exactly?”  I squirmed uncomfortably, rolling my hoof through the air in a futile gesture to encourage the conversation along.  

“Translation is difficult; Equestrian is a brutish language that lacks finesse, just like your music.”  I ran out of time while the zebra took the opportunity to verbally jab at his friend.  I lifted my face to the east, and the wind parted my mane.  I’d have to listen while watching for the sun.  Mizani finally gave an answer, just in time for the clouds to part fully.  “The closest I can approximate would be ‘She who walks both paths.’ ”  

Light raked the sky as the sun clawed its way above the mountains.  The illumination pierced and obliterated what little darkness remained, forcing its clarity upon the desert.  My heart and mind raced as I stared forward in stark terror, and realized that lucidity had been inflicted upon me as well.

“Walk both paths…”  I whispered through quivering lips.  Was that what I would have to do?  Was that why I had been drawn outside to witness the sunrise?  I had no reason to distrust the wisdom of zebras, which was more than I could say for Selenism.  But… both the moon and the sun?

The unholy orb reached for the heavens, and my wide eyes drank in its image.  I tried to fight through it, but… the sun was too bright.  Tears rolled down my face before I was forced to shut my eyes from the pain, and a terrifying moment of uncertainty passed as the profane image of the sun remained in my vision.  But as I held my lids tight and the afterimage slowly faded, I finally felt what I came for.

The light was warm upon my face.  It was not harsh, nor burning, nor evil.  It simply was.  I knew in my heart that sometime, long ago, Father had done this as well.  What had he learned by facing the sun?

Still, I couldn’t shake my fear.  Despite all the evidence staring me in the face, a lifetime of conditioning left me convinced that the sun was an abominable horror.  Surely this wasn’t what I was meant to do… 

“Twilight has the right name for a Bokor,” Mizani continued.  “And I cannot deny her talent.  But I doubt she has the right temperament.”

“For my nephew or for your brand of magic?” Lexicon questioned.

A wry chuckle escaped the zebra before he answered, “Neither.”

Lexicon’s voice was oddly defensive.  “Well it doesn’t matter; she’s too old for him.”

“There’s nothing wrong with having high hopes, Lexicon.  Or for seeking a lover with… shall we say, experience?”  I continued to take in the zebra’s words as the sun climbed fully over the mountains, but his wisdom was mixed with a healthy dose of mischievousness.  “And from what I hear that mare could use a little stress relief.”

“Knowing those two, I’d say that would entail nothing more than reading by the light of my nephew’s namesake,” Lexicon countered.

Mizani breathed in, and announced in a clear voice, “How we choose to enjoy ourselves is not as important a detail as the fact that we do cherish our time in this world.”

The warmth of the light mingled pleasantly with the cool wind tugging gently at my mane.  Reddish-brown desert stretched out before me underneath an unending blanket of crimson-gold cloud.  Dry grasses, stubborn little bushes, proud cacti, and thin trees dotted the landscape.  Massive winged beasts circled above the mountains, looking no larger than gnats due to my distance from them.  The world was waking up, and were it not for my recent revelation, I might have found it beautiful.

A hoof tapped against a wooden table, breaking me from my reverie.  “More philosophical zebra-isms?”

“I prefer to think of it as common sense.”  The zebra sighed, and the conversation abruptly took a more somber tone.  “And speaking of such… Did you do as I asked?”

Lexicon cleared his throat.  “I did.  My own personal arcane safe.  I’m sorry, but I couldn’t take the time to venture out into the desert.”

“And you’re certain that no one will find it?” Mizani asked.

“The only other soul that I have told of its existence is my assistant.”

“Can Star Bright be trusted, Lexicon?”

“I trust her with matters of the utmost importance every day,” Lexicon insisted.  “And even then, only I know the passcode.”

Mizani sighed heavily.  “I know it’s not enough, but I appreciate that you tried, old friend.”

“Mizani?”  I could just detect a hint of hurt in the pony’s voice as he tried to assure his friend.  “I assure you that no one will ever lay their hooves on that tome.”

“It’s okay, Lexicon.  If I truly believed that we could change the future so easily then I would be doing much more to alter our fate.”  Now it was Mizani’s turn to reassure his friend.  “Still, I am deeply appreciative that you tried.  It means much to me that I still have loyal friends in this life.”

A chair creaked through my Pipbuck, and the zebra’s voice grew weary and pensive.  “Free will is an illusion, my friend.  Everything that happens now is out of our hooves.  We are but one tiny piece in a far, far larger puzzle.  And seeing those pieces fall into place is more than I can bear.”  The recording ended, leaving me alone with the sun as I contemplated the words of a buck who died centuries before I was born.

It really was out of our hooves, I realized.  All of those things that had happened to Nohta and I in the last few weeks were done to us.  We weren’t to blame for The Caravan, or The Stable, or Mareon, or Bright Eyes, or… or anything.  We hadn’t done anything!

Perhaps that was the problem then.  We were only reacting to what the world was doing.  Maybe it was time for us to stop trying to put fires out, and instead light one of our own.

Spursburg was nothing more than a blur on the horizon, and within it dwelt The Bard.  According to the mare in the other recordings, he was supposed to tell me something.  According to Mareon, he was responsible for the deaths of many.  And according to Lily, his gang was comprised of ponies that could barely fight back.

I knew what I needed to do.  I think…  I think that I knew all along.  Nohta was right and Lily, for all her faults, seemed to understand as well.  I was fighting myself over my own decisions, never committing to one path for fear of losing the other.  But perhaps I could walk them both.  If that was what it took to understand the world, to understand the divine, to understand myself…  Then that was what I would do.

I cast my gaze to the sun as it crept up towards the sky, and became a heretic.  “Celestia,” I whispered, “Give me what Luna will not.”  I swallowed the lump in my throat before I continued.  “Make me strong.  Strong enough to walk in your light.”  My little pistol floated before my eyes as I asked for unspeakable horror.  “Let me bring that light to all who have wronged me, and I will do my best to understand your teachings as well as I know your sister’s.”

I lowered my horn, floating the pistol back to my holster, and raised my eyes to the sun.  “Give me the knowledge that my father kept from me.  Even if you can only burn me with the truth, know that I will still seek it.”

I craned my neck back to the barn, spotting Nohta stirring underneath her covers.  “I, too, am the eldest sister.  I would do anything for Nohta, but I will not remain ignorant.”  Looking back to the sun, I made sure my intentions were clear.  “I am no longer content to hide in shadow.”  My eyes narrowed as the sky brightened, but not because of the light.

My ears lay flat against my mane as my voice shook.  My last bit of prayer sounded bitter, but the words tasted sweet on my lips.  “And if neither you nor Luna can hear me, then the both of you can continue to do nothing.”  The clouds drifted back into place, blocking off the sun as I spat out a promise.  “I’m not asking anymore.  I’m going to take what this world owes me.”


**************


I shambled forward like a zombie, one listless hoof at a time.  The world was dull and distant, save for the blurred shapes directly to our north.  They held my attention, at least.  They had meaning.  Even if that meaning was only a vague hope born of desperation.  

Each tiny fissure in the dry earth, lonely tumbleweed rolling in the breeze, or wind-worn rock upon the soil was ignored.  I gave them no more attention than the distant cracks of small-arms fire coming from the east.  Spursburg was still leagues away, barely more than a greyish-green blob on the horizon, but the sounds of battle emanating from the city were easily heard above the wind.

Nohta’s ears swiveled with each distant report, but Lily seemed to be paying the distant fighting as little attention as I was.  These things were to be expected in the wasteland, and much like how my nose had become accustomed to and summarily forgotten the scent of parched earth and soft wind, so too did my other senses become inundated to the world around me.  Only my thoughts remained, haunted as they were.

Occasionally, far away explosions would rumble like thunder, bringing a second or two of silence to the desert.  Those short-lived moments were as quiet islands in a sea of turmoil, but rather than providing serene paradise they only gave me time to anxiously ruminate over what lay ahead.  Never for too long though.  No attack would go unanswered that day, and the distant reports of rifles were becoming as normal and easy to disregard as the monotone droning of just another early morning stable broadcast.

The Stable’s broadcasts however, humdrum as they were, usually involved less of a lightshow.  During one particularly heated session of gunfire a single spear of thinning pink energy lanced above and across our path and ascended towards the sky to my west.  The magic dispersed as it struck the cloud layer, diffusing into a pink bloom of magical light above our heads.  Whatever trouble was brewing in Spursburg was getting worse by the hour, but my attention was locked on the outlines of wagons and carts on the horizon.  

My goal lay directly ahead, plainly visible on the flat expanse of soil, and it was easy to follow my sister’s lead.  Nohta walked alongside me, her hooded eyes never leaving the ambush site before us.  Neither she nor I said a word, pressing on in determined and anxious silence.

Lily, for her part, was being uncharacteristically quiet.  It was as if the immense gravitas of the occasion had mercifully subdued her frivolity.  She walked ahead of us, her ear bobbing and her head swiveling as she constantly scanned the desert.  Every so often her eyes would briefly meet my own, but she would always grimace and turn away immediately afterward, chewing another Mintal as she did so.  The only time I heard her speak she was too quiet for me to discern whether it was a hushed apology or a harried conversation with “Grumpy.”  I was beginning to believe she had spent too much time in the heat—or perhaps more likely, too much time under the influence of certain substances—and managed to develop an imaginary friend. 

That day’s breakfast passed in silence.  Nohta and Lily consumed their meals with gusto, but I could only bring myself to stare at the brightening sky.  I had no appetite, not even for the snack cakes and Sparkle-Cola at my hooves.  Nohta’s hoof upon my shoulder and the anxious look in Lily’s eyes were the only things communicated between the three of us that morning.

I could have told Lily that she needn’t worry, that I didn’t hold her accountable for my pain.  I could have told her that some small part of me was actually grateful that she had shown me the orb.  I could have—and should have—apologized for how I acted the night before, but my lack of sleep combined with my emotional and mental exhaustion rendered me completely useless.  After all that had taken place the night before I was lucky enough to still be trudging forward, never mind holding any sort of meaningful conversation.  

Every time Lily swallowed another chem I wondered if it was her way of avoiding conversation or if she was attempting to give me time to digest all she had shown me.  At any rate, she had vastly increased her consumption compared to the days prior.  She had taken nearly an entire tin of the little pills before we reached what remained of The Caravan.  What we saw there was not what I had believed we would find.

I had expected the charred and blackened remains of our wagons and carts.  My imagination had conjured horrifyingly grotesque imagery of bodies left to rot for weeks in the desert heat.  I feared that carrion fowl and other scavengers would be picking the skeletons of my stablemates clean, leaving nothing but ashes, bones, bullet casings, and dried blood.  Instead, what lay before me only raised more questions.

The wagons and carts were mostly intact.  Many of them still stood upright, their goods safely stored away just as they were weeks ago.  Several of the tarps and cloth coverings had been ripped, true, but other than some minor wear and tear and a few bullet holes the majority of the carriages were still very much salvageable.  Unfortunately, it appeared that all of the wheels had been smashed to pieces.  Not even the best maintenance ponies from my stable could have fixed that.

The wagons that had fared the worst either lay on their sides or in loosely gathered chunks of debris.  The food cart had been ripped apart by the explosive weaponry of the griffins, lying in a ruined heap of ripped cloth, splintered wood, and twisted metal.  Unopened bottles of water and cans of food lay scattered about the ambush site, collecting dust that had blown in from the desert winds.

The only noises we heard were those of cloth flapping in the breeze and the incessant gunfire to the east.  Lily finally broke the near-silence when she stopped and stretched out her good wing to block my path.  “Hold up… I don’t like this.”  Nohta and I both regarded the bladed feathers extended protectively in front of my chest before I lifted my gaze to Lily’s eyes.  She whispered back to me as the swirls on her face twisted in a grimace, “Wait here, okay?  Let me check this out first.”

She lowered her head to the ground, almost like a dog sniffing for the scent of its prey, and flicked her ear before standing and extending her wings.  With a deep breath and a quiet grunt, Lily kicked off to fly above the abandoned wagons.  She cradled her rifle in her hooves as she surveyed the area, the trigger-bit never more than a few inches from her mouth.

“Sis,”  Nohta’s incredulous voice caught me off guard.  “Where are all the bodies?”

My eyes widened as I realized what she had said.  She was right.  Not even the bodies of the ponies I had witnessed die were left.  My jaw worked in silent confusion as I failed spectacularly to comprehend what I was seeing.  There should have been dozens of corpses!  What had the griffins done to my stablemates?

Lily touched down in front of us, favoring her right wing as she landed.  “Looks clear, but there’s something you should see over there.”  Lily turned to point a hoof behind her, gesturing at a single cart separated from its fellows.  With the same hoof she adjusted her hat, and furrowed her brow as she winced.  “You, uh…  You might want to brace yourself.  It’s bad.”  A million horrifying possibilities raced through my mind at those words, each one more terrible than the last.

I swallowed, nodded, and began plodding forward.  As the three of us crept toward the abandoned caravan, our hooves tread over the scattered splinters blown from the wagons.  The gunfire to our east rose in intensity, conjuring up the memory of the attack.  The present faded as the past resurfaced in my mind.

“Candy?  Where are you going?”  I ignored Lily’s confused question.

“Sis?”  Nohta’s query fell on disinterested ears.

Memory guided my steps, and before I knew where they were leading me I stood before a familiar tarp sporting an ugly reddish-brown smear.  There was no mistaking it.  All that was missing was the blood.  My hooves found the grooves they had dug into the earth weeks ago as I reflected on how those weeks now felt like years.

I stared numbly at where he had stood, my lips moving before I could stop them.  “This is where Spicy Salsa died.”  I didn’t know to whom I spoke, or for what purpose.  I only understood that I needed to lend these thoughts my voice.  Perhaps it was folly or pointless, but I didn’t care.  For whatever reason I believed it important.  Perhaps all I could manage was to simply reaffirm the truth to myself.  

My voice shared qualities with the fighting to our east, being uneven in both pace and volume.  “It was only one shot.  Then his blood splashed across my face.  He was dead before his body slumped against the wagon.”  I could almost see him before me, wearing a handsome grin set underneath a pair of apologetic eyes and a lightly tousled mane.

I turned, meeting Nohta’s curious gaze with my own dead stare.  “He was apologizing to me, sister.”  She needed to know that opinions could change.  Even long-held ones.  “He meant every word.  I know it.”

Lily stepped forward, furrowing her brow and shrugging her wings.  “Candy?  You okay?  You haven’t said a word all day.”

My lip quivered, and my breath quickened.  “He was trying to tell me that…  That he…”  The sharp crack of a rifle echoed off the landscape, bringing me back to that dreadful moment.  Goddess, the memory was so clear…  I saw how Spicy’s posture kept shifting from side to side as he addressed me, how his eyes never seemed to stay on mine for more than a fleeting moment, how he constantly struggled to keep his lips from leaping into a bashful smile between every word he spoke. 

But in those moments I could tell he was not the cocky schoolcolt I once knew, but somepony who'd grown immeasurably and learned some hard truths.  Maybe it was how I saved his life, or maybe it was from the derision he faced from his peers in the aftermath of that day.  I didn’t know what influenced him so, but something had given him a new perspective.  Something drove him to volunteer for The Caravan.  I’d have never believed him capable of such courage or altruism if I hadn’t seen his signature on the sign-up sheet in the cafeteria.  It had been just under my name… 

Why had he done that?  It was all so much to consider.  Moon and stars, what was he about to say!?  Did he feel he owed a debt in my favor?  Was he just sorry for the abrasive behavior of his youth?  Another distant gunshot.  Another flash and I saw his eyes, green like the peppers on his flank.  Could he have…

Did he love me?

Coming with us, and trying to speak with me, had been the worst decision he ever made, but it was an innocent mistake on his part.  When he bared his heart he made himself vulnerable.  But the wasteland didn’t care.  It only saw an easy target.

Spicy had been awful to me, but he hadn’t deserved his fate.  To have his life cut short just as he finally mustered the courage to repent was cruel beyond imagining.  At the very least he deserved to hear my response, even if I still didn’t know what I would have told him.

My gaze fell, and my eyes caught the channels carved through the earth.  Placing one hoof in front of the others, I retraced my steps through The Caravan, heedless of the scattered items kicked aside by my passing.  “The shooting started after he died.  I didn’t know what to do, or where to go.  I found Dust, and then Nohta joined us.”

Nohta took her place at my side, pulling her hood back to reveal squinting eyes.  She looked over my back to Lily, and offered her own take of events.  “I heard that first shot, and then I heard Dust yelling.  We had only just gotten the wagons close together when I spotted Candy and ran over.”  She pursed her lips and scowled as she added, “Dad and Dust had both told me how loud gunfire would be, but they never said anything about the way the bullets hiss when they fly past your head.”

“Adrenaline’s a hell of a rush, huh?”  Lily trotted past us, flaring her wings as she inquired, “What happened next?”

Nohta continued speaking as I walked in silence.  “Dust passed out the rifles and ammunition before—”

“Wait,”  Lily interjected.  “You guys didn’t carry your own weapons?”

Nohta shook her head, “Most of us had a pistol or something.  A couple ponies had those saddles that hooked up to their guns, but we were hauling a lot of shit and we weren’t looking for a fight, so we kept the rest of the guns on the weapons cart.”

Lily’s eyes squinted as she scratched at her chin with a hoof.  “Okay.  Go on.”

My hooves carried me to the point where Seven Card slipped away from me.  A caravan regular, he had been a notorious gambler perpetually seeking ever-increasing payouts by venturing outside his home.  He never even kept his winnings, they all went to The Caravan.  Seven just liked the thrill of the game.

In fact, he enjoyed thrill-seeking so much that he had volunteered for every caravan trip for as long as I could remember.  He had spent more nights outside The Stable than some of the colts and fillies in 76 had been alive.  That meant that he must have known the truth, yet he kept the secret quiet.  Not even when we were outside of The Stable had anypony said anything about Selenism…  But why not?  Did they fear The Overmare’s punishment?  Divine retribution?  Did they believe they were protecting The Stable?  Or perhaps some greater ideal?  What had they known that stilled their tongues so perfectly?

I knelt down where the spark of life left his body, swallowing back the memory of the pain we both suffered with his passing.  I couldn’t help but wonder what he might have told me, had he lived.  Would one more pony have been enough to stave off the griffin attack?

Nohta continued to explain what had transpired, “Candy was running around healing ponies.  I was trying to help, but one of the griffins came after us.”  

Lily shook her head, holding up a hoof.  “Wait, one of the griffins ‘came after’ you?  Like, with her claws?”

“She had a shotgun.  And a pair of knives.  That’s where this scar came from.”  Nohta held her hoof to her face.  “I killed her.  After that, the griffins started using rockets, and Dad told us to run.”

Lily nodded.  “I see…”  Reaching underneath her hat, she removed another tin of Mintals and popped one of the tablets into her mouth.  After chewing, she looked around herself and asked, “You sure you killed her?”

Nohta stomped a hoof on the ground and snarled.  “Of course I did!”  I stood, walked to Nohta’s side, and placed a hoof on her shoulder.  Her eyes flashed viciously in my direction before widening in surprise.  She quickly averted her gaze and made an effort to calm her breathing.

With my hoof still resting on my sister’s shoulder, I turned to our winged companion and sighed helplessly.  “Lily, you’re a mercenary.  What can you tell us about what happened here?”

She regarded me for a moment before grimacing and tilting her head to the side.  “This way.  You two need to see this.”

We picked our way past the scattered supplies as the soiled fabric draped over the carts fluttered in the breeze.  Lily was guiding us towards one lonely cart partially propped up on a single intact wheel, sitting far to the side of the rest of The Caravan.  When I recognized the pink and yellow cases hanging from its frame, my hooves took over again.  Lily only just barely managed to get out of my way as I abruptly galloped past her.

My eyes darted over mounds of medicine as I slid to a stop in front of the medical supplies cart.  How was it still intact!?  A shaking hoof undid the latch on the nearest case, revealing thousands of caps worth of medicine and equipment that should have been nothing more than ash.

My jaw dropped before I stammered, “I…  I saw the smoke.  I saw it as Nohta and I fled!”  That shade of green had stuck out like a sore hoof amidst all this reddish brown!  I shook my head, refusing to believe what was right before my eyes.  “All of the medical supplies were destroyed in the fire set by the griffins!  There’s no other explanation for why the smoke took on that color!”  But no matter how I protested the truth, it didn’t change.  The supplies were safe and sound in the heavy case, intact and abandoned for whoever might find and claim them.

Healing potions, Hydra, Med-X, Buck, antiseptics, antibacterials, anaesthetics, Rad-X, RadAway, forceps, blood packs, scalpels, I.V. bags of saline solution…  Everything Father, Pearl, and I had packed in preparation for the trip was there.  With the exception of everything having drifted to the lowest side of the tilted wagon, nothing was even out of place.  It was just as I had left it that morning.

Nohta took a seat beside me, her perplexed eyes wandering over the cart.  She and I shared a bewildered glance before she breathed out, “Sis…”  She never finished the question.  Silence overtook us both as we sat side-by-side, shaking our heads in consternation.

Lily walked behind us, moving past the cart as she removed her hat and held it to her chest.  “This is what you need to see.”

The warm air blew little puffs of dust from the earth past us, tugging at my mane gently to beckon my attention past Lily.  As I raised my head to gaze beyond her, the wind carried a disgusting fetor past my muzzle.  It was an odor much too familiar for my liking.  Curiosity urged me onward, but when I reached Lily’s side my hooves froze in their tracks.  

Lily lifted her nose and sniffed at the air, extending her wings as she stepped forward.  “You smell that?  Flamer fuel.”  My hoof rose to my mouth as my hind legs gave out.  My breath hitched in my throat as I sat on the earth, horror-stricken.  The sight before me robbed me of what little strength I had left.

A blackened mound of ash lay just beyond the medical cart, growing smaller by the minute as gusts of wind stole away what remained of the ponies of The Caravan.  Some of the bodies hadn’t been completely consumed by the flames, and were being exposed by the wind as the layer of ash receded.  Their charred limbs had wrapped around each other, as if they had died in each other’s hooves.

Lily whispered so quietly that I almost didn’t hear her over the wind.  “I’m sorry.”

I had known, of course, what to expect when coming back to The Caravan.  I had tried to prepare myself as best I could for the inevitable.  But it wasn’t until I actually saw the ash pile that I accepted the truth.  And even worse, it was only then that I realized how desperate I had been to fool myself into rejecting what I already knew to be true.  Somewhere in what was left of that crude pyre lay the last mortal remains of Father.

I felt Nohta’s hoof clutch my shoulder, but couldn’t bring myself to look away from the ashes.  I reached over to grasp her hoof as my chest heaved, allowing the tears to build in my eyes.  Nohta’s other hoof wrapped around my back, and she pulled me tightly into her chest.

“Goddess-damn it, Dad…”  Her words were a whisper hissed through grit teeth, and her voice wavered as she shook.  

We had failed utterly.  Neither The Stable nor The Caravan had been spared.  Nohta and I were the sole survivors of Stable 76.  My hooves wrapped around my sister as I sobbed into her cloak.  “I’m s-sorry, Father.”

My past had either been stolen or burned to ash.  My future was impossible to see through all my tears.  All that was left was the present.  Nothing else mattered.  Certainly not to me, anyway.  I held Nohta close as the sun began its descent behind the mountain to our west.  A new night was coming, and it was time for answers.

I wiped my eyes with a hoof, and steeled myself as I pulled away from my sister.  My voice was icy as I turned to Lily.  “Is there anything you can tell us about the griffins?”

“Yeah, but it’s nothing you want to hear.”  She sat down to light a cigarette, inhaling deeply before looking all around us and sighing.  “You sure you want to hear this?”  I could only nod in response, remembering my promise to the sun.

“This,” Lily licked her lips and swallowed, “is sloppy.  The supplies are still here and the wagons are intact.”  Shaking her head, she sneered and grumbled sullenly.  “We’re dealing with a bunch of fuckin’ amateurs.”  

Nohta raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

Lily indicated the evidence she saw with a wing, explaining her reasoning to Nohta and me between puffs of her cigarette.  “Bandits would have stolen the supplies along with the wagons, but they’d leave the bodies.  Raiders would have taken what they wanted and burned everything else to the ground for fun.  A pack of ghouls wouldn’t have set anything on fire, but you’d see body parts and blood all over the place.  So it had to be griffins, just like you guys said.”  

She put her hat back on as she continued, brushing locks of her mane underneath the stetson with a hoof.  “Now, proper Talons would have burned the wagons in order to frame the raiders and cover their tracks.  But these assholes must have been in a hurry.  That’s gotta be the only reason you two are still breathing.”  My eyes narrowed at the slight, but I stilled my tongue in favor of hearing her explanation.  

She took a long drag from her smoke before staring me in the eye, “Talons are never in a hurry.  They’re too cold and professional for that.  So we’re dealing with amateur griffin mercs.”  She waggled a wing in the air and shook her head lightly, muttering to herself as much as to us.  “Private company, most likely.  Maybe a splinter group, but definitely small-time.  Might even be one of the crews from up north that I know.”  

“You know who did this?”  Nohta’s ear twitched as she stood up.

Lily shrugged noncommittally.  “Maybe.  I’ve flown with a lot of crews.  I prefer the solo gig, but having backup is useful every now and then.  Still, griffins are all about caps.  Always have been, from what I hear.  That’s not my thing.”  

She nodded her head in the direction of the ashes, “Based off what I’ve seen so far, this looks like Garrotte’s crew to me.  Slideshow is too focused on her pissing match with Vapor right now, and Sweetpea knows better than to edge in on Margie’s turf.  Could have been Nitro or Cobbler, but… fuck, I thought they were out of the game.”  She had to know that neither of us would recognize any of the names, but I wasn’t about to stop her from speaking her thoughts out loud.

Lily scratched at her chin as the ember at the end of her smoke glowed brightly.  “I don’t think Gawd would pull shit like this, and this is really out of the way for her, but if the caps were good enough…”  She shook her head abruptly, recanting her previous statement.  “No… nevermind.  This isn’t her style.  And she’s too busy with that cushy security gig anyway.  This wasn’t her.”

Nohta took a step toward Lily, furrowing her brow.  “So… Garrotte?  Who is—”

“Hold on.”  Lily held one hoof up to tell Nohta to wait, and positioned the other close to the ground with the pad of her hoof turned upward.  Nohta and I exchanged a confused and irritated glance while Lily brought her hoof next to the bone pierced through her ear.  Lily’s eyes scanned the ground before her eyebrows rose in comprehension.  “Grumpy found something.”

Nohta shook her head, swishing her tail behind her.  “What?  Grumpy?  Who are—”

“Over here.”  Lily cantered back to the medical cart, forcing Nohta and I to hurry to catch up.  Nohta’s grumbling was loud enough that I was surprised Lily didn’t respond.

“Shit.  Shit, shit, shit…”  Fanning her wings at the ground underneath the cart, Lily blew away weeks of wind-blown sand and dust before stepping aside and gesturing with a hoof.  “Guys… look.”

The gusts from Lily’s flapping exposed a single olive-drab canister—just a little larger than my hoof—that rolled out from beneath the cart.  Faded white letters on its side read, “Marking Signal-Smoke: Green.”  I massaged my temple with a hoof, unsure of what this foretold or why Lily believed it so important.

“I’m gonna take a shot in the park here, but I’m guessing the smoke was green?”  When I nodded in response, Lily cursed and revealed what I never would have guessed.  “Fuck.  This was an inside job.”  Lily clenched her jaw, meeting my shocked expression with her own look of righteous animosity.  “Somepony in your caravan sold you guys out.  They must have signalled the griffins with that.” 

“What?”  Nohta’s tail swished past my own as she balked at Lily’s accusation.  “No, it… That doesn’t make sense!”

“Shit… look.  I didn’t want to say anything, but…  None of this ever made sense to me.”  Lily breathed in the last of her cigarette, spitting the nub to the ground before grimacing at my sister.  “I couldn’t figure it out.  Griffins don’t just let their targets escape, Nohta.  No one gets away from a griffin merc squad once they’ve got you in their sights.”  Jabbing an indigo hoof in our direction, Lily repeated her earlier sentiment.  “You should both be dead right now.”

“Well we got away,” Nohta insisted, stomping a hoof on the dry earth.  “So you’re obviously wrong!”

Lily inclined her head, speaking to my sister in a placating tone.  “Nohta, think about it.  Two mares, just days out of a stable, survive an ambush by fucking griffins?”  Shaking her head, she continued, “Amateurs or no, these are trained killers we’re talking about: with long-ass rifles, enough wingpower to outmaneuver all but the fastest pegasi, and scopes accurate enough to take the wings off a bloatsprite half a mile away.  They do a job, and then they get paid.  Nothing else matters to griffins.”  Lily emphasized her words by stamping her hoof on the snub of her cigarette.  “You can’t chalk this up to luck, Nohta!  The only reason you two survived the attack is because whoever made the deal wanted you to escape.”

My eyes narrowed as I gawked at her.  How could she make such an outrageous accusation!?  “You’re making an awful lot of assumptions, Lily.”

“I’m a hunter.  You asked me to track your prey, so I’m doing it,” She retorted, shrugging her wings.  “I’m not gonna question you when it comes to medicine, Candy.  So don’t second-guess me when I talk about killing for caps.  You had a traitor in your group.”  I might have responded to Lily’s stubbornness, had my sister’s reaction not stolen my focus away.

Nohta’s hoof was grinding noisily into the rocky soil as her eyes widened.  Her gaze darted aimlessly over the cracked earth at her hooves to match her hastening breath.  ”But…  But then…”  Little ripples played along her cloak, belying her shaking form as her voice quaked.  “That means Dad’s only dead because somepony…”  Her quivering lips—a sight wholly unexpected from my typically stalwart little sister—peeled back in a vicious snarl.

We had reached a turning point.  I saw what was coming, and knew the reaction to expect, yet…  I had no desire to stop her.  Nohta believed Lily’s explanation, and unlike my own paltry displays of indignant anger, she had no qualms about unleashing all of her emotion upon the object nearest her.  Lily and I were only lucky that Nohta’s wrath fell upon the medical cart.

Nohta threw her hooves forward, bracing against the ground as her profanity left her mouth in a sharp, guttural scream.  “Fuck!”  The gritty dust and rocks underneath her hooves crunched as she twisted her body and bucked out against the exposed underside of the wagon, screaming.  I gasped and backed away as the wooden cart jumped sideways, causing the medical cargo to shift and send the cart toppling over onto its side with a thunderous clatter.  Potions, chems, and tools scattered over the loose soil as Nohta stood, shaking with her rage.

“They betrayed us, Candy!”  Her burning amethyst eyes locked with mine.  In that moment, more so than any other time, I could understand why a storm graced her flank.  “Somepony in The Caravan sold out Dad!”  Her voice oozed venom.  It was saturated with such vitriolic hatred that I couldn’t help but shy away from her.  Goddess, it felt merciful when she finally lowered her gaze to the soil at her hooves.

Lily gently tread closer, examining Nohta’s anguished expression.  “Betraying kin is the worst thing anypony can possibly do.  But I imagine that your Luna cult probably taught you that.”  I bristled at the offensive c-word and the offhoof way in which she uttered The Goddess’ name, but Lily continued before I could even clear my throat to speak.  Her voice simmered with barely suppressed fury, like a boiling pot only just removed from the heat.  “You have one hell of a debt to collect, Nohta.”

“I’ll kill them…”  Nohta uttered in a hushed breath, her eyes locked in rigid focus.  “I’ll kill everyone that took part in this…”  The harshness of her tone was disconcerting, as was the slight tremble in her lips and in her stance.  What moved me most of all, however, were the tears sliding down her striped cheeks.  Eyes are the windows to the soul, and Nohta’s were finally spilling over with the grief she had tried to keep hidden.

She couldn’t do this alone, and neither could I.  We needed each other, and as much as I had relied upon her in the past few weeks I would have been remiss had I not returned the favor when she needed me most.

I edged closer, slowly, and slipped a hoof over her shoulders.  She recoiled from the touch at first, but allowed herself to lean into the embrace when she realized I wasn’t letting go.  She was already wiping her eyes and turning away from Lily when I whispered in her ear.

”Together, Nohta,” I promised.  “We will do this together.”  Her only response was to nod against my neck.

In nearly the same spot that my life had changed before, I once more found it altered.  Where I had previously resolved myself to flee in order to keep my sister safe, I realized that I would henceforth be doing exactly the opposite.  I had once gazed up at the moon and made a promise to both my sister and Luna.  If I had any desire at all to right the wrongs committed upon good people, then how better to start than combating the injustice suffered by Nohta and myself? 

Selenism insisted on Luna being the only goddess, but Selenism also taught that loyalty to family was of paramount importance.  Those teachings were supposed to be the holy words of Luna herself.  I couldn’t help but wonder if Celestia felt the same way.  I couldn’t help but wonder… which sister had most often found herself protecting the other?

In the middle of the desert, with Nohta sobbing in my hooves and innumerable unanswered questions on my mind, I could only grasp one simple truth: I needed answers.  So when Lily asked another question, I paid her very close attention.  

“Just gotta figure one more thing out.”  Her wings flared, pointing both at the wagons and at us.  “Who would have wanted your caravan dead, and you alive?”  

Lily’s wings returned to her sides as she furrowed her brow.  “Was there anypony in the group that you didn’t trust?”  Her eyes darted between wagons before returning to me.  “Maybe somepony that had a grudge or could have been bought off?”

“Why would we have sheltered anypony like that?  Selenism preached loyalty!  It was the greatest of virtues!  We were all—”  My words died in my throat, swallowed up by a painful realization.  “Oh Goddess,” The name left my lips before I could reel in the old habit, and I grimaced as I caught Nohta’s troubled expression.  My hoof rose to my temple as I relayed my epiphany.  “Somepony that knew the truth about Selenism might have had no love for the teachings.”

Nohta’s eyes narrowed as she nodded, still sniffling in my hooves.  “It had to be one of The Caravan regulars.”

“We’re getting closer.”  Lily’s ear bobbed up and down as she scratched her chin.  “How many ponies are we talking about?”

“The regulars?”  I searched my memory.  “A few dozen, at least.  The Caravan was eagerly anticipated by many in The Stable.”

“Did they all buy into your religious thing?  Any of them that might not have followed your shamans?”  At my puzzled and irritated expression, Lily shook her head and tried again.  “Or your preacher?  Priest?  Whatever you had?”

“Of course not!  We were all born into Selenism.  We were all loyal to—”  My lips stilled mid-sentence as I understood the fallaciousness of my words.  

Another memory dredged up all the proof I needed.  “Yep, he was born and raised outside.  Learned to fend for himself…  …if anypony knows what they’re doing out here…” 

“All of us were born in The Stable…”  My hoof covered my mouth as I gasped and stared at my sister.  “All of us except for Dust.”

“What!?  No!  Candy!?”  She pushed me away, her cloak whirling out behind her to catch the wind as she stomped a hoof on the ground.  “Why would Dust spend so much time teaching me how to fight if he was gonna turn around and kill the whole Caravan?”

I swallowed and averted my gaze from Nohta’s shocked face, incapable of looking her in the eye.  “Who else could it have been, sister?”

“Fucking anypony else!  He wouldn’t have done that!  He was trying to organize the defense during the ambush!”  Her shouting was loud enough to drown out the sounds of battle to our east.

I raised my hoof, opting to stare at my Pipbuck rather than face her.  “But Nohta, everypony else was devoted to The Caravan and The Stable!”

“And he wasn’t!?  He was teaching me how to fight just because Dad asked him to!  He was the Goddess-damned Caravan Leader, Sis!”

Lily stepped beside us, tilting her head and arching an eyebrow.  ”Then why would he choose this route through the desert?  Taking you guys in this direction makes no sense.  In order to go north you need to follow the river, and if you were going east then you would have gone past Spursburg.”  Lily shook her head as her wings flared upwards.  “He put you in the middle of a wide open deathtrap!  Flat terrain with no natural cover that’s almost equal distance from Mareon, Spursburg, and Fancy Lick?  It’s the perfect spot for an airborne attack!”

Nohta raised a hoof to her chest, scowling.  “Then why let us live?  Why would he care about us if he was gonna kill the rest of The Caravan?”

“Nohta…”  I shook my head, trying to reason with her even as I dared to hope.  “Maybe he didn’t kill all of The Caravan.  We were spared.  Perhaps others were as well?”  I reached out to her, placing a hoof on her shoulder as I swallowed the lump in my throat.  “Slavers attacked our stable.  What if the griffins were simply the prelude to another band of slavers?  What if…  What if Father is still alive?”

“Sis…”  Nohta sighed, shaking her head.  “We still don’t know that Dust did anything!  And we both know that Dad is de—”

“Don’t tell me you’re just going to give up!”  I shook her with my hoof, silencing her with a shout.  “And don’t you dare suggest that I’m letting my emotions cloud my judgement, either!  If there is any chance at all that Father is still alive then we must pursue it!”

Lily removed her tin of mints and chewed another one before speaking quickly.  “The only way to do that is to keep going forward.  Whoever sold you guys out didn’t do it alone.  Everypony looking for mercs in this desert gets directed to Margie.  No exceptions.  She worked her flank off pushing the competition out of Mareon, and there’s no way she’d just let someone else waltz in on her turf, especially not the kind of mercs that’d attack trading caravans.   

“If your guy was looking for mercs to do his dirty work then he needed a line of communication that Mareon wouldn’t know about.  That means The Bard’s spy network.  And that means Psyker is involved.”  Lily removed her hat, scratching at the back of her mane as she furrowed her brow and scrunched up her face in thought.  “But if Psyker is in on this…  No, that doesn’t work either.  There’s no reason for her to let you guys live.  She’d just take whatever it was that your traitor promised as payment and tell the griffins to go fuck themselves.  Why would she want you alive?”

“Oh Goddess…”  A dread possibility entered my mind.  My eyes found my sister’s once more as I whispered, “Nohta… the recording we found in Coltsville.”  Nohta’s eyes widened in realization before narrowing in contemplation.  I turned to our new companion as I prodded at the dials and knobs on my Pipbuck.  “Lily, perhaps you should hear this.”

“Seventeen days.  Seventeen fucking days…”  Lily’s eyes locked onto my hoof as the recording played, her features lighting up in recognition as the croaking voice droned on in its tired, blasé tone.  I skipped through the quiet sections of scavenging, and turned the volume of my Pipbuck up when I reached the pertinent portions.

“...Even if I have to drag your broken body halfway across Equestria, you will give me what I want.”  I cut the recording off, not wishing to listen to that mare’s arrogant voice any longer than was necessary.  Turning to Lily, I waited for her response.

She scratched at her chin in silence, staring anxiously at the ground while her ear bobbed up and down.  Furrowing her brow, she sighed and dug through her packs, uttering a single dismayed word.  “Shit…”  Reluctantly plucking a small device from her bags, she sat the recorder on the dirt and hoofed the play button.

Hurried hoofsteps thumped over a howling wind, and a lone voice began a frightened monologue.  “They had to die.  All of them.  There wasn’t any way around it.  They would have tried to stop me, but I’m the only one with vision!  Why can’t anypony else see!?”  It was the same voice as from my recording, only… vibrant.  It lacked the exhaustion and the weathered huskiness, instead being possessed of a youthful and panicked vivacity.  The mare—if indeed she even was a fully grown mare in the recording—rushed through her words quickly, as if the message she conveyed would lose its meaning had she bothered to pause too often for breath.  

“I have to do everything myself now.  It’s fucking pathetic!  Whatever, I knew this was coming.  Can’t fight it.  Can’t ever fight it.  But why did I have to…  Why her?”

The voice snorted contemptuously.  “It’s her own Goddess-damned fault for not opening her eyes.”

The wind in the recording picked up as the voice hurried along.  “All that matters is ahead of me.  I can’t let anything slow us down.  Not even her.  We’re running out of time, and if she’s too fucking slow then everything falls apart.  I need a way to speed her up.  Something to force her to keep going.  Some...one?”

The hoofsteps slowed and then stopped as the mare in the recording stood still.  “Can I do this at will?  Is there a trick to it?  Do I just—”

The tinkling sound of magic obliterated the howl of the wind playing through the audio log, continuing for a good minute as Nohta and I glanced at each other.  Lily adjusted her hat and lit another cigarette, staring at nothing in particular as the voice abruptly continued in an abrasive and haughty tone.

“You… You’re new.  Lily Belle…  That isn’t a Thunderhooves name.  Whatever, you’ll play your part just like everypony else.”

The mare’s voice was cruel and blunt, as if pleasantness was a completely alien concept to her mind.  “Before I change your life, let’s get one thing straight.  You are beneath me.  The very idea that anything this important depends on a hedonistic, narcissistic, ignorant savage like you makes me sick.  You are a tool, something to be used as we see fit and then discarded when you eventually break.”

A quick bark of wry laughter preceded her declaration.  “So let’s put you to use.”  The mare in the recording resumed walking, her hoofsteps falling heavily upon dry earth as the howls of the wind died away.

“I know how you can find the stallion you’re looking for.”  Lily’s wings flapped once at her sides before she spat on the ground.  The voice continued, amused and arrogant.  “Didn’t expect that, did you girl?  Maybe if you had remembered your tribe’s roots then you would have asked a raider for help as soon as you came into my desert.  I was much more agreeable when I recorded this.”  The mare was toying with Lily, just like she was toying with me.  How many ponies in this desert had been contacted by her?

Before I could ask, the voice continued.  “You have a choice to make.  You can come after me with your friend and the rest of her pathetic little crew, or you can find the prey you’ve been chasing all your life.  If you want to live long enough to track down your quarry, then fly east when the travelers from the south come to Mareon.  Your path to vengeance begins in the hills.”

I looked up to Lily, taking note of her rigid posture and clenching teeth.  She was barely able to suppress her rage.  I chose to stay quiet, and listened intently to the message she was playing for us.

“And just in case you’d rather join Margarita’s little self-righteous lynch mob than take my offer, know this: everypony that attacks me will die.  I will make certain of that.”  The mare’s hooves rang against hollow metal as she continued.  “My eyes are open.  I’m watching you now, Lily Belle.  You’d do well to remember that.”  I could hear the mare’s smirk through the recording.  “I am always watching.”

A resounding metal clang played through the recorder as the voice reverted to its earlier neutral tones. “Okay, that’s good enough.  Now how the hell do I get into this damn tow—” 

The recording stopped with an audible click, and Lily affirmed what I had already begun to suspect.  “That’s Psyker.  She knew just what to say to get me to…”  Lily paused, licking her lips, and snorted with a scowl, “Fuck… It doesn’t matter anyway.  She lied.  Margie’s still alive and I didn’t find shit.”

“That’s why you left so quickly,” I mused.  When Lily’s brow arched upwards I was quick to elucidate.  “Doctor Flannel’s Clinic.  A few days before the attack on Mareon.  You were sleeping in one of the beds when I helped him with his patients.”  A small blush crept into my cheeks as I realized it was the same bed I had slept in days later.  Was that why the pillow had carried the faint scent of flowers?

I shook my head to ward off such groundless ponderings, and continued to explain.  “Doctor Flannel seemed to believe that Psyker was likely to be behind this, but I didn’t understand her motivations.”

“The Pyro was talking about her too,” Nohta chimed in.  “Just before the fire in the laundry room.  That’s how we found out she negotiated with the slavers.”

“Psyker.  Everything in this desert is coming back to Psyker!”  Lily exhaled sharply, blowing a plume of smoke above our heads before turning away and pacing.  “She sets up the ambush with some griffin crew through The Bard.  She sends me off on a wild moose chase just when Margie’s crew goes after her.  Then she works out a deal with slavers.”  Stopping to look me in the eye, her ears perked straight up as she jabbed a hoof in my direction.  “There’s the payoff.  That many slaves, and their Pipbucks, would be worth a shit-load of caps.”

Money.  All of this was about money?  Then… why were Nohta and I spared?  No… no, that didn’t make sense.  And now that Nohta had reminded me of them, The Pyro’s final words didn’t sit well on my mind either.  This was something greater.  Something more sinister.

Or was it?  Lily’s recording continued a theme I had noticed in Psyker’s audio logs.  She first spoke to me of saving lives.  Then she seemed, for her at least, regretful for having killed somepony else in Lily’s recording.  All of the evidence was pointing towards her being something more than a simple psychopath.  The notion that Nohta and I stood opposed to a practiced killer with detailed plans for myself, a singularly cunning mind with which to employ them, and terrifyingly accurate prophetic visions made my skin crawl.  Even more disconcerting, however, was how very self-assured—not only of her capability, but also in the righteousness and necessity of her cause—Psyker was.  What were her plans?  And why had she asked for my secrecy?  Shivers ran down my back as Lily continued to pace back and forth, ruminating on the subject aloud.

“She does all that, and afterwards she sics The Pyro on what’s left of your stable because…  Fuck, I don’t know.  Kill off the survivors so they don’t go after her?”  Lily paused to shrug her wings before craning her neck back to question us over her shoulder.  “How many of that crew did you kill, anyway?”

I chewed gently on my bottom lip as I tried to remember.  “I believe there were around thirty of them at The Stable.  We found a few more of them already dispatched when we arrived at their headquarters in Coltsville.”

“That’s… “  Lily rubbed her hooves against her temples.  I could almost hear the wheels turning underneath her chaotic mane.  “Shit, that sounds right.  Some of The Pyro’s crew goes for your stable, and the rest of them attack Mareon with support from the other gangs.”  Her eyes searched the ground as she continued to brainstorm ideas.  “The hell is Psyker doing?  Trying to kill the whole fucking desert?”

I made up my mind.  Even if they didn’t know the whole story, I’d be a fool not to tell Nohta and Lily at least a little of what had transpired the previous night.  Taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, I offered up a portion of the truth.  “Psyker was in the orchard last night.”

“What!?”  Lily’s wings and eyebrows rocketed upwards as the remainder of her cigarette plummeted, forgotten, from her lips.  “What’d she do!?”

“Nothing!”  I shook my head, unprepared for the vehement outburst.  “She just… watched.”

“Why didn’t you say anything, Sis!?”  Both Nohta and Lily were staring slack-jawed at me, as if neither of them could comprehend that more dire problems were weighing on my mind at the time!

My face contorted in a hurt scowl as I tried to defend myself.  “I didn’t know who she was!”

“How the fuck could you not!?  Her face is plastered all over Mareon’s bounty board!  Five-fucking-thousand caps!”  Lily’s wings were flapping so rapidly that she nearly achieved lift-off.  “Do you have any idea how dangerous she is?  She killed Margie’s entire crew—”

“All by herself,” Nohta nodded.  “We know, Lily.”  

I had to make them understand!  “I didn’t know what she looked like!  I had only ever heard her voice through recordings!  And she never offered her name!”  

I wasn't sure Lily had even heard me.  Her eyes were wild as she barked another battery of questions my way, "Have you seen her at all before or since then?  Fuck!  Is she following us right now!?"  She snapped her wings downward and took to the air with enough force to blow the dust against the wind.  Her rifle was out just as quickly, making a slow rotation all around us but taking particular care to examine our route since that morning.  Then she made another revolution.  Her caution—veering so close to the realm of panic—was more alarming, by far, than all of her shouting.

I looked over to Nohta, but she was following Lily’s lead, checking under and around the derelict wagons with her knife in her teeth.  Lily landed behind me and clicked the safety back on her rifle.  She did not breathe a sigh of relief, but had calmed enough to glare at me.

At least they weren’t yelling anymore, I mused.

Despite how disgusted they were with me, I couldn’t let it die.  I needed their opinions.  Lifting a hoof to my heart, I poked at the sleeping yao guai.  “Psyker’s notes said that she wanted to speak with me.”

Lily stared sideways through one stern eye.  “You do understand that, if you’re dumb enough to actually do it, trying to talk to her will probably be the last mistake you’ll ever make, right?”

I nodded.  “I…  Yes.  But…”  Scanning the scene all around us, with the ashes of friends and coworkers drifting by on the breeze and the livelihood of an extinct people left abandoned in the heat, I knew for certain that I would never understand the wasteland.

How wrong I was… 

Warmth flooded my cheeks as a familiar strength came back to me.  I found that I could in fact meet Lily’s glare head on, so long as I held my little ember of rage close to my heart.  My brow wrinkled as I shook my head, “Why would Psyker do all of this?  Why are Nohta and I still alive?  Did anyone else make it?  She has all the answers and I have none!”  I shook my head unapologetically.  I had already decided my fate.  I finally had a name and a face—a target—for my wrath.  “Lily, I have to know.”

What would happen afterwards was never in question.  Like Lily had said, we had a debt to collect, and I fully intended to be reimbursed one way or another.  But before that I simply wanted to hear the why directly from her lips.  And then I wanted to hear that arrogant voice beg for my mercy.  

But more pressing than that, was an old promise.  “Regardless of what they did or didn’t do, or even my feelings towards them, I swore to Father that I would warn The Stable.”  My eyes met Nohta’s as I finished.  “It’s too late for that now, but I can’t run away from an obligation that great.  Not when I know it gets us both what we want, sister.”

Nohta nodded, “I say we go ask her, then.  When we find Psyker, we find whoever betrayed us.”

“Well,”  Lily smirked, lighting another cigarette.  “At least I’m not the only crazy one here.”


**************


“Geez, Candy,” Lily chuckled, poking at one of the bulbous bags hanging from my side.  “You think you packed enough junk?”

Brandishing a tiny plastic device in my magic, I quickened my step to avoid the prodding.  “Oh, well we’ll see who gets the last laugh when you’re absolutely desperate to perform an emergency cricothyroidotomy, but you realize you didn’t bring a tracheostomy tube!”  That ought to show her!  My muzzle rose primly in the air as I trotted past her with a final, “Hmph!”

“Uh…”  Lily, no doubt stunned by a few words with more than three syllables, could only stare slack-jawed as I took point.

“Do I really have to carry all of this shit myself?”  The sounds of clinking metal and glass emanated from Nohta’s bulging packs as she lagged behind Lily and I.  “You two could help, you know!”

Lily shook the confusion from her thick skull a moment later.  “Hey, I don’t steal from angry spirits,” She replied, looking back over her shoulder.  “And the spirits back there were pretty pissed off.”

“The fuck are you talking about now?” Nohta snapped.

“Some places have good spirits, and some places have bad spirits.  Back there we had innocent and angry spirits.”  Lily faced forward again with a look of great concentration, raising a hoof to forage underneath her hat while her tongue protruded from her lips.  “You two can scavenge from those wagons all you want, it’s rightfully yours anyway, but I’m not touching it.”

“There’s no reason to let all this shit go to waste,” Nohta decried.  “Candy?  Little help here?”

“Nohta, we were already in possession of more than enough food for the duration of our journey, there was no need for you to grab any more.”  Being prepared was all well and good, but honestly, we needed to focus on other things at the moment.  I rolled my eyes as I continued plodding forward.  “And I am already carrying as many healing potions as I can,” I retorted, adjusting the straps biting into my coat.  “Not to mention a full repertoire of accoutrements for more involved medical procedures.”

“I meant with her,” Nohta objected. “Our crazy-spirit-lady.”

“I only have one spirit!”  Lily claimed the prize hidden within the depths of her mane and took a quick pull off of the small bottle of whiskey.  I pursed my lips at the reckless behavior.  She was quick to roll her eyes and groan.  “Okay, maybe two.  Three I guess if you count my own, but that’s it!”

Nohta’s snide comment couldn’t have matched my own thoughts any more perfectly.  “Sounds like you have stupid spirits.”  Lily smirked and blew a raspberry back at my sister before stuffing the bottle back underneath her hat.

What little remained of our trail—because calling such an irredeemably devastated stretch of concrete and asphalt a road was laughable—lead northeast.  Nohta and I had once again set hoof further from The Stable than either of us had ever been, and I was glad for it.  It felt much better to be chasing a goal, however lofty it might be, than to backtrack and retrace every one of our steps over again.

The Macintosh Hills to our immediate east and southeast were quickly fading from view as the night closed in around us.  The memories of hiding from griffins and tumbling down sinkholes disappeared along with the scenery as the darkness fully enveloped us.  It was only due to Lily’s map, my Pipbuck, and Nohta’s eyes that we had any clue of where we were or in which direction we were going.

It wasn’t long before we came upon a set of grooves in the dirt.  Four marks scratched into the soil were leading us directly to the dilapidated heap of an old motorwagon.  That first wrecked vehicle leapt out of the darkness like an exhausted, lumbering beast as my Pipbuck’s light washed over it.  The broken headlights and malformed grill resembled a tired, anguished face.  Even more so if one could imagine the many horizontal cracks splayed across its windshield to be worry lines on a forehead.  Liver spots of rust decorated the motorwagon’s teal hood, and the tires had several slashes in their white sidewalls.  Somepony had crudely graffitied a perplexing message across its doors in silver spray paint, “We do not trust wheels!”

The desiccated body of the driver was still seated behind the steering wheel, his jaw set in an eternally shocked rictus stare.  His dead glare told a tale all its own—one of nightmares made real.  Perhaps whatever he saw in those final moments was the reason why he pulled his vehicle over to the side of the road.  Perhaps he was trying to make peace with the inevitable in the only way he could comprehend.  Perhaps he simply understood there was no chance of escape, and wished for one last quiet moment in his life.  It was impossible to tell, but I suspected that watching a crushing wall of green flame roll across the desert like a tidal wave of death might drive a pony to any number of odd behaviors.  Feeling helpless in the face of inescapable calamity was certainly something I could sympathize with.

We found similar wrecks with increasing regularity as we continued our trek.  Many of the vehicles lay heaped against each other, their bumpers, doors, and windows left bent, crunched, and shattered from that moment when the multitude of frightened drivers panicked all at once.  I could only imagine the chaos that must have rippled away from the brilliant flash upon the mountain as ponies realized the end had come.

Nohta and Lily were unfazed by the scene, even stopping occasionally to pilfer some small trinket or useful item from dashboards and consoles.  I could understand Nohta’s reasoning for scavenging a box of pistol ammunition, but I could only roll my eyes at Lily’s positively gleeful expression as she extracted her own prize: a small, bobbing statuette of a pretty dancing mare wearing a grass skirt and lei.  It seemed to me that, once again, I was the only one present with any respect whatsoever for the dead.

Many of the ponies had undoubtedly died in the ensuing hysteria of the bomb’s blast, crushed as other more selfish drivers fled from reason and mashed their accelerators to the floor.  Those panicking ponies had been heedless of those whom they might harm in their attempts to flee, and their victims’ bones lay scattered underneath wheels and splayed over engine hoods.  Those that died quickly were surely the lucky ones.  But the unlucky ones… 

A tiny filly’s cracked hooves were scratching at the window separating her from the rest of the carnage.  Just like patches of her mane and skin, her lips and eyelids had long-since rotted away, exposing yellowed teeth and eyes set in a monstrous, twisted visage.  Lacking the strength needed to break out of her vehicular prison, or the mental faculties required to disengage the foal-safety locks, the small ghoul had been trapped—doomed to spend the entirety of her undeath rampaging ineffectually against seat cushions and what remained of her parents.  I held a hoof against the glass, aligning it with the tiny limb scratching and pounding at the other side.  My own heartbroken expression was reflected back at me, superimposed over the ghoul’s snarling and gnashing face.

“This is what Mother’s people wrought upon the world.”  The words came freely, hampered only by a quivering lip and aching throat.  “Why did we do this to each other?”

A tiny light flared in the corner of the glass, and the smell of tobacco preceded Lily as she joined me at the window.  “The zebras hated Luna about as much as anyone could.  They thought she was still Nightmare Moon.”

That got my attention.  I turned my head towards Lily as I considered her words.  “Who?”

“You’re killing me, Candy…”  She rubbed her hoof over the dark lines on the left side of her face and groaned, blowing the smell of tobacco smoke across my muzzle.  “That’s one of the most important events in Equestrian history.”

“There’s so much that I’m still ignorant of…”  My chin dipped toward my chest, but not before I caught Nohta’s encouraging gesture out of the corner of my eye.

Lily’s eyes darted away from my sister when she caught my confused look.  “Well…”  She stepped forward, placing her own hoof against the window.  “Let me, uh… Let me take care of the ghoul and I’ll tell you what I know.”

“Wait!  I…”  The filly’s eyes were wild and hateful without their lids.  But there was something else there.  I was sure of it.  “I need a moment, Lily.”

“What for?”  Her feathers bristled as she squinted.

“I need to think,” I said.

Lily was insistent.  “About what?”

I nodded at the filly.  “Her.”  The ghoul answered by bashing her face against the window and growling.  The small body lacked the strength to even crack the glass.

“That thing is a ghoul, Candy,” Lily admonished me as she rapped on the glass.  “There’s nothing you need to think about!”

“But she’s just a filly!  She shouldn’t have been made to…”  My hoof shoved Lily’s away from the glass as I leaned against the vehicle, staring at the little ghoul.

The ghoul’s yellowed eyes and snapping teeth made my skin crawl, and I felt my shoulder tense reflexively as she snarled.  “She’s been in there since The Last Day,” I pondered aloud.  “No food.  No water…  If ghouls don’t need to eat or drink, then what sustains them?”

A gust of wind blew my mane and tail to the side before Lily landed on top of the motorwagon, staring down at me as the rusty metal groaned underneath her weight.  Shrugging, she chided me, “It never seemed important to ask.  I’m usually too busy trying to kill them before they, y’know, tear my throat out or something.”

I ignored the flippancy of her response.  “How do they live so long?”

Lily snorted, “Usually by not running into me.”  I raised my gaze, and an eyebrow, to see Lily standing over me with pursed lips and hard eyes.  “What?”  She snorted, spreading her wings at her sides.  “If you really want to know this shit then go talk to Half-Moon.”

“Why Half-Moon?”  Nohta asked as she sidled up beside me, her hood pulled back to expose her purple eyes.  In the gloom, her irises almost seemed to…  No.  It was surely just sleep deprivation.  I shook my head and refocused on the ghoul.

“He’s a zebra,” Lily stated matter-of-factly.

Nohta’s hoof darted out as she yelled, “What’s that supposed to mean!?”  Her kick dented the side of the motorwagon, rocking the vehicle back and forth.  The ghoul toppled into the floorboard behind the driver’s seat.

“You think Equestria had ghouls before we got bombed all to hell?”  Lily leapt into the air and hovered, holding her cigarette with a hoof so she could poke her tongue out at my sister.  “Zebra magic did this, squirt.  Your best bet is to ask the zebra shaman.”

“Zebra magic,”  I whispered, ignoring the sounds of Lily and Nohta’s bickering.  “Just like…”  My eyes glanced back to my armored flank.

Inspiration and curiosity were cruel bedfellows that night, but I needed to know.  My horn flickered to life, and a bubble of scarlet wrapped around the ghoul.  She was too small to even fight against that, flailing her limbs in a bid to flee before I dragged her closer to the window.

Was this a pony or a monster?  Was she the same as the nightmare that ripped a mouthful of flesh from my body?  I dragged her closer, watching her eyes underneath the reflection of my inquisitive expression.  “The eyes are the windows to the soul,” Mizani had claimed.  “Shaman, medicine mares, witch doctors, and necromancers.”  Half-Moon had advised.  I saw something in the filly’s eyes, but I needed to be certain.  Zebra magic had done this.  It didn’t take a genius to realize which branch of magic was responsible.

And…  If what Half-Moon said was true…  Then I… 

My magic shifted.  I closed my eyes, partly to focus, and partly to wall myself off from the world.  The telekinesis died as the bubble sank into her body, and I braced myself for what was to come.  

There was no pain.  I felt the phantom movements of the ghoul’s snarling mouth in my jaw.  I felt the hideous moaning that climbed through my throat.  I felt the lesion on my fetlock, the absence of lids over my eyes, the cracked shin bone, the still heart, the empty belly, but…  There was no pain.  I should have been shrieking in agony, yet the only discomfort I felt was mental.

The body was deceased… mostly.  The brain functioned, but I couldn’t fathom how.  I peered through the glass.  “Can you understand me?”  The ghoul backed away, hissing and arching her back.  “Please say something, if you can.”

“Candy…”  Indigo hooves pawed at my shoulders, but I shrugged them off.  “Candy, it’s a feral ghoul.  They’re less than animals.”

“Can you hear me, little one?”  I could see something in her eyes.  I knew it to be true!  It wasn’t just an illusion or some trick of the light!  She still wasn’t responding.  

The scarlet bubble gripped her neck this time.  I clenched my teeth.  Why wasn’t there any reaction!?

“Are you truly dead?” I asked the ghoul, my magic dragging her back to the window as she growled and thrashed.  “Why haven’t you decomposed by now?”  My head tilted as I squinted my eyes.  “You don’t eat, but… do you breathe?”  I felt another hoof on my shoulder, but I brushed it aside.  “No, no… your blood has already congealed.  There’d be no point.”  I shook my head.  I was a doctor for Luna’s sake!  There had to be an explanation for this abomination’s existence!  Dead bodies do not simply… Ugh!

My eyes darted across the glass, caught my reflection, and stared back at me.  If I couldn’t explain this, then who could!?  “This doesn’t make sense.”  I tapped the glass, “You don’t make sense.”  The ghoul squirmed in my magic, refusing to respond in any other way.

“Candy,” Lily’s hoof found my chin, turning my face to her eyes.  “It’s a zombie.”  She stated plainly, raising her eyebrow and nodding as if she were communicating a basic concept to a simpleton.  “You don’t need any explanation other than magic.”  Her brow furrowed in a look of genuine concern.  “Look, it’s getting late.  We’re almost to the spark station.  Let’s just kill the ghoul and get a move on.”

I shook my head, thinking aloud, “Tests.  Sensory tests.”  My ears perked up as I brushed my hoof across my lips.

My hoof tilted, waving the light of my Pipbuck lamp over the ghoul’s eyes.  “Your pupils still dilate and contract,” I told her, making note of how her eyes followed my own as I spoke.

I looked to my side, spotting Lily’s bewildered and anxious face behind a lit cigarette.  My magic plucked the nub of burning tobacco from her lips.  

“Hey!  I was smoking that!”

I ignored her.  I was on the cusp of scientific discovery, and that was more important than her silly habit.

“Sis…”

I spied the window’s mechanism through the glass, and depressed it.  Nothing.  Of course it was dead…  Why wouldn’t it be?  “Nohta?  Can you break this glass for me?”

“Sis…  What the fuck are you doing?”  No help from my sister then.  She was probably bored.  But she didn’t have such a pivotal question resting on this tiny ghoul in the backseat of a motorwagon.  She wasn’t panicking at the connection between Half-Moon’s words, the end of the world, and her cutie-mark.  No no no…  She didn’t understand.

My shotgun levitated out of my packs and, heedless of all the alarmed shouts, smashed through the glass.  The little filly screeched and flung herself toward freedom, only to fall short and eviscerate herself on the broken shards stuck in the window.  As the ghoul clambered over the glass, grey and red intestines spilled out of her gut, stretching out behind the ghoul to tangle in her legs.  In her haste she tripped over her own organs, leaving her kidneys and liver behind when they were ripped from her body.  The smell of death and decay was…  pungent.

There was no pain.  I kept my spell active the whole time, waiting for the agony.  I felt nothing.

My magic yanked on the ghoul’s neck and mane, pinning her to the ground.  Little blobs of congealed blood trailed behind her as I dragged her along the asphalt and levitated the cigarette underneath her muzzle.  The tiny limbs thrashed wildly to escape the new odor assaulting my nostrils.  “You can still smell things,” I explained, shaking my head. 

“Subject responds to auditory, visual, and olfactory stimuli, but fails to show any response to somatosensory stimulus.  Despite suffering wounds that are assuredly fatal, subject lacks any and all response to pain.”  There was an answer here somewhere.  There had to be!  “Blood has thoroughly congealed, yet subject is still capable of locomotion despite lack of cellular respiration…”

“Candy…”  A voice to my left, as close to me as it was inconsequential.

“Even for all of my medical expertise, you are a mystery to me,” I told the abomination under my hooves.  “You’re not entirely dead, but neither are you alive.  You shouldn’t exist…” 

A hoof on my shoulder.  “Candy…  You need to stop.”  No…  No, if I wanted to understand then I just needed to look in a different direction…

“Necrotic-Meta-Equines,” My voice shook as I recited a lesson Father taught me during one of our target-practice sessions.  “Colloquially referred to as ‘ghouls,’ are a direct result of the unholy light that ravaged the earth on The Last Day.

“Distrustful of Luna’s divine will, and jealous of those sheltered by her wings, the zebras chose to forever abandon the moon.  Using foul, forbidden magics, they loosed the wrath of the sun upon the world.  Their hatred killed many, and their avarice corrupted more.

“When the light fell upon the earth, it twisted the bodies and minds of those who did not die.  Some of them were more susceptible than others.  They sought out the light, rather than the shade.

“That is why ghouls are forsaken in Luna’s eyes.

“So,” I continued, standing over what was left of the tiny body.  “If radiation turned you into what you are, and you’ve been trapped here ever since, then where is your light now?  Why isn’t my Pipbuck clicking for exposure to it?”  The ghoul clawed at the bubble of magic tightening around its neck.

“No answer?  I know you have one in there somewhere.”  A scalpel slid out of my packs, hovering over the ghoul’s yellowed eye.  “Maybe,” I told her, “maybe I just need to keep cutting until I find it…”

A blue blur hurled itself into my side.  She rammed me against the motorwagon as my breath exploded from my lungs and my magic imploded on itself.  Lily’s fetlock snaked behind my head and kept it from slamming against the metal, but that only brought her enraged face closer to my own.  Her shouts were deafening.

“Nohta, get the ghoul!”  She turned to me, shrieking inches from my face.  “What the fuck are you doing!?”

“Get off of me!”  My hooves beat at her chest and neck as ineffectually as the ghoul’s savage thrashing of the window.  She pinned my hooves to the motorwagon as I continued to yell, “Stop!  I need to know!”  

“The hell, Candy?  What’s gotten into you?  Snap out of it!”

I struggled fruitlessly against her strength.  “I’ll kill it!  I don’t believe him!  That’s not what I’m supposed to…”  That abomination was not what my mark stood for!  It wasn’t!  “I am a doctor!  Father wouldn’t have…  Mother wouldn’t…” 

Lily’s wings stretched forward, closing off the rest of the world.  It wasn’t Luna’s shade, but it was shade nonetheless.  Her scarlet eyes dominated my vision before I hung my head in shame.  It didn’t matter what she saw in my eyes, I only knew that I hated the worry I saw in hers.

She released me, and I cradled my head in my hooves.   “I c-can’t…  don’t want t-to be a…”  The sickening sounds of Nohta caving the ghoul’s skull in reverberated off the motorwagons, each calm and somber blow like another nail hammered into a coffin.

My shouting weakened to frail and sputtering protests.  “I’m a doctor, not a… N-Not that!  I didn’t make…”

Lily’s head rose out of the little dome of feathers and turned to the side before she asked, “You still think we should keep going?”

The silence from Nohta was louder and more clear than any response.  My heart broke when I comprehended what that really meant, and how she must have felt about her older sister.  The sad truth was that my companions were aware of what was happening before even I was.  They knew, and yet none of us were capable of saying it aloud.

I was slipping.  And none of us understood just how far I would fall.

“Goddess…”  I cried beneath Lily’s wings.  “Lies…   All lies…”


**************


“She’s losing it.”

“She’ll be fine.”

“You didn’t think so earlier.”

“Whatever.  We need to keep going.”

They were talking about me again.  Of course they were talking about me…  They probably thought me insane.

“You sister is seven different kinds of fucked in the head, and you want to keep going?”  

Well, at least one of them did…

“You’re one to talk, Lily.”

A short burst of distant assault rifle fire perforated the otherwise silent night.  Lily continued, unperturbed.  “Yeah, but I’m cool with my crazy.  Candy can’t even function like this.”  

I had been sitting next to an empty bits register for the last hour, staring out the wide, cracked windows of the “Sunrise Spark Station and Soda Stop.”  Shadows and firelight danced along the walls as Nohta and Lily huddled over an open flame they had built inside the store.  But its warmth never reached me.  I had laid my bedroll out behind the counter to avoid their worried and judgemental eyes.

“We’re going back, Nohta.  We can’t take a chance with her acting like this.”

“We’ll be fine—”

“No.  We won’t.  Candy is gonna go off on another one of her little episodes in the middle of a firefight and get someone killed.”  I heard Lily’s lighter snap shut as she exhaled.  “We’re going back to Mareon before that happens.  End of discussion.”

Nohta’s voice was cold and low.  “If you actually think you can boss me around then you’re dumber than you look.”

Two small explosions preceded one much louder detonation.  I recognized the third’s sound as a motorwagon’s spark cells erupting in a voluminous plume of rainbow-light.  The promise of such a fantastic sight was almost enough to uproot me from my perch, but I couldn’t muster the energy to drag myself closer to the window and peer outside.  Instead, I remained at my limited vantage point by the counter, staring over the low windowsill at the area covered by the spark station’s wide service canopy.  Soft lavender light brushed against the jagged glass with a soft ethereal glow, and cast deep shadows across the underside of the canopy.

A gentle breeze was drifting through the broken windows.  It swayed the curls of my mane back and forth, doing the same to the dead pony outside.  She swung limply underneath the station’s canopy, suspended by the dangling electrical wires that had been fashioned into an improvised noose around her neck.

Strapped to her hooves was a tattered cardboard sign splashed with the same red that pooled beneath her bruised body.  The sign bore a simple ultimatum.  “Pyros and Bards: fuck off or die.”  Her body had been left as a macabre warning to the undesirables of The San Palomino.

“Nohta, Candy isn’t giving us any choice here.  First thing tomorrow, we’re heading back to Mareon.”

“No way!  This is the first time I’ve had any good info on what happened to The Caravan!  I’m not giving up on that!”

I had still been shaking when I first saw the dead raider, and I was too distraught to ponder why the sight of her armor was more unnerving than the sight of her broken body.  The familiar motif of traffic signs and cookware being used as patchwork barding conjured up images of bloody hallways and the smell of charred flesh.  That line of thinking led to remembering the heft of a knife in my magic, and the slick feeling of fresh blood streaming down my face.  

I caught myself wetting my lips, and wondered just what I was developing a taste for.  More gunfire sounded from Coltsville: assault rifles and SMGs.  I couldn’t remember when I learned how to tell the difference.

“Kid, look, I’m—”

“Fuck off, Lily!” Nohta spat.  “I’m not a kid!  Don’t treat me like a foal.”

“—doing this to keep your sister safe!” Lily pleaded.  “It’s more important that you two not get hurt than it is to kill The Bard!”

“She just…”  Nohta paused, sighing heavily.  “She just needs time, is all.”

Time…  I shook my head and swallowed.  If only they had heard the message Psyker had left for me in the storm shelter.  It was quickly becoming evident that any time I possessed had already been doled out by the hooves of a madmare.  I was living off of her scraps…  And growing increasingly sick to my stomach.

Psyker held all the answers, of that much I was certain.  But I didn’t believe she was as all-powerful as others made her out to be.  If she was, then why would she allow her underlings to kill each other?

The message in the dead raider’s hooves coupled with the savage wounds torn through her hide made it perfectly clear who had executed her.  She had been killed by The Outcasts.  Even amongst raiders, it seemed, those that didn’t fit in didn’t last long.  I shut my eyes as I pondered what that said about the lives my sister and I could have expected in The Stable had our home not been ransacked by cannibals.

Nothing good, I reasoned.

“Can’t you hear the fighting out there?  We’re just a couple hours away from Spursburg.  There isn’t any time left.”

“I’m doing my best, okay?”

“I…  What?”  Lily wasn’t the only one surprised by Nohta’s admission.  My ears perked upward, swiveling to better catch Nohta’s words as she continued.

What her voice lacked in confidence, it made up for in earnestness.  “I don’t…  I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, alright?  Candy’s the one that always dealt with this stuff.  I don’t know how to make her feel any less like shit.”  I heard the faint sound of paper rustling as Nohta turned a page in Mother’s book.  “If I see a problem, I just fix it.  But I can’t fix her.  Not by myself.”

“Nohta,” Lily tried to seize her opportunity, “that’s why we need to go back to Mareon.”

Nohta’s voice wavered.  “No…  I can’t help her.  But… Fuck, I can’t believe I’m actually asking you for help.”  I edged closer to the end of the counter to better hear my sister’s request.

“You’ve gotten between her and some crazy shit twice now.  You calmed her down when she was about to lose it.”  I heard Mother’s book snap shut as Nohta sighed.  “I can push her buttons.  I can piss her off.  I can get her up and force her to keep going.  But I can’t make her feel like she’s safe.”  My hoof rose to my lips as I realized what my sister was saying.  

“You can do that,” she revealed, “and I can’t, because she sees you as an equal.  I’m just her little sister.  To her, I’m the one that needs protecting.”

My gaze drifted over the miscellaneous items behind the counter as I pondered her words.  She was right, of course.  Simply being the younger sibling didn’t preclude Nohta from bouts of wisdom or perceptiveness.  After all, hadn’t Luna been the younger sister?

“So what are you saying?”  Lily’s voice was cautiously optimistic.

The fire popped in the quiet room as Nohta gathered her thoughts.  “If you really want to help her, then you and I need to push her forward.”  

The stink of cigarette smoke followed a long exhalation from Lily.  Warily, she inquired, “So you’re finally trusting me, now?”

“Fuck no,” Nohta snapped.  “But Candy does.  I’ll die before I let her drown in this, even if it means asking you for help.”  Goddess, she was that worried about me?  What was I doing?

I was forced to lean closer to the corner as Nohta’s voice died down to a soft whisper.  “Spursburg will force her to move on.  She needs something to focus on now.  That’s the only thing that worked for her when Mom died.”

“What do you mean?”

“You never thought she was a little young to be a doctor?  Fuck, Lily…”  Nohta grumbled as she explained.  “It usually takes years and years to learn all that shit.  She hardly did anything but study medicine after Mom died.  The only real breaks she took were to pray in The Temple.”

“So… what, like… no coltfriends or…”  Lily trailed off. 

“Seriously?”  Nohta’s voiced oozed with incredulity.

“That… would explain a few things,” Lily admitted.

“No shit.”  Nohta scoffed.  “She’s about as naive as a Goddess-damned puppy.”

Just beyond the hanged mare lay the twin spark chargers that once supplied thousands of motorwagons with magical energy.  Their glittering talisman arrays and charging coils were ensconced behind protective domes of lavender light, safeguarding them away from the harsh wasteland.  Hundreds of years had still failed to exhaust the energy of their security barriers.  They were safe and sound…  And sheltered.

I could sympathize.

“So,” Lily continued.  “She just threw herself into one thing and shut the world out?  That’s not dealing with your problem.  That’s just running from it.”

A hoof clanged against the tile.  “I swear to Luna, if you say that to her I will rip out your tongue!”

Lily’s voice cried out in surprise, “Whoa, whoa… what?”

“She’s already got it in her head that we’ve been running from shit since we got out here!  I don’t want her thinking that she’s a coward, okay?  We ran because we were ordered to, and then because we had no other choice.  There’s nothing wrong with that!”  I wasn’t sure if Nohta was trying to convince Lily or herself.  

“Didn’t you want me to push her?”  Lily countered.

My sister’s voice quieted, dying down to a soft grumble.  “Just… don’t say that to her.  It would only upset her.”

“I think she needs to hear it.  It’ll save her a lot of regret later on.”  My ears perked at Lily’s words.  She continued a moment later when my sister failed to respond.  “Nohta, she’s hardly talking, and when she does it’s mostly to herself.  She’s not dealing with this.  She’s running.”

“That’s how you see it.”  Nohta insisted.  “I see it differently.”

A hint of annoyance crept into Lily’s voice as she asked, “And how do you think she sees it?”

Goddess, was that what I was doing?  Was that how they saw me?  Running…  always running and never doing.

Scarlet light flooded the shelves and ceiling panels as I opened my packs.  Several thick books paraded past my eyes as I sorted them.  “The Big Book of Arcane Sciences” and “Bean’s Electronics” quickly made up a very small pile of untainted text, while the rest of my collection made a much larger stack beside it.  How much time had I wasted studying lies?

“Wait,”  Lily cautioned.  “Is she…  Candy?”

“Sis?”

I rose, stacking my beloved copies of “Starswirl The Bearded: The Lady’s First Protégé,” “The Equestrian War of Tribal Unification,” “The Rock Farmer’s Almanac (complete with Lunar turning charts!),” and finally, “Wane and Wax: Equestrian Science and Culture Before and After Moonrise” in a pile on my back.  The teleportation tome and the garnet from The Stable’s library followed me around the counter in a bubble of magic soon after.  I’d need them for my little test.

Lily was gawking at me, the half-smoked cigarette just barely clinging to her bottom lip.  Nohta could only stare at Mother’s journal in her hooves, a hint of red between the stripes on her cheeks.  I gave them both a cursory glance before seating myself by the fire and floating the teleportation book between my eyes and the flame.

The pages of the opened book stood stiffly upward before the garnet weighed them down.  All eyes were focused on the little gem as it activated, floating above the paper and glowing.  Lines of text leapt away from the quickly turning pages to fly into the red stone, only to be spat back upon the same pages with tiny modifications.  Leftover ink was expelled to the sides, splattering across the tile like evidence at a murder scene.

When the talisman finished with the book, it deactivated, setting itself gently upon the back cover.  When I re-opened the book and placed the gem back on the pages, nothing happened.  I had enough evidence to form a hypothesis.  All that was left to do was test them.

I spoke to Nohta as I sat the spell book at my hooves.  “When we were in Coltsville’s library, Holly said that the three-diamond symbol on the doors had something to do with propaganda.”  She glanced at me, hugging Mother’s book to her chest.

“I never would have imagined that our library would have been involved with censorship.  But before last night I couldn’t have imagined a lot of things…”  My magic focused, and Nohta’s knife slid out of its sheath.

She reached for the bit, but was too slow to grasp it.  “Whoa!  Candy—”

The blade dipped into the ink on the floor, gathering a drop on the tip.  The spell book flipped back open, and I scratched an ugly and splotchy word in one of the margins: Celestia.

The ink was swallowed up by the gem before it sank fully into the paper, and half of it was once again vomited to the side as a much more elegant script replaced my own.  The bloated splatter that I had barely been able to inscribe was transformed into an entirely different name: Luna.  

It was at that point that I caught myself grinding my teeth and gripping the knife a little too tightly.  

“Candy, can I have my knife back?”  Nohta didn’t so much ask as she demanded.

My voice left my lips, cold and numb.  “We are going to Spursburg.”

“W-What?”  Lily coughed out a cloud of smoke.

I floated the blade back to my sister as I closed the spellbook and set it aside.  “You were right.  I can’t run from my problems anymore.”  Nohta paused halfway through sheathing her knife to fix Lily with an icy glare, but said nothing.  My eyes drifted to the four books my parents had given me years ago.

Starswirl’s biography was the first to meet the little garnet, which had no effect.  It had already been altered.  To what degree I wasn’t sure, but it couldn’t be trusted.  It was time to stop running.  I had to act.

Nohta and Lily stared in silence as I laid the book on the fire.  “I can’t afford to cling to lies anymore.”  The historical account of how Luna brought the three pony tribes together met a similar fate after the gem failed to budge from atop the paper.  The book’s pages curled in the flame, baring their text one final time before being consumed.  “These are only weighing me down.”  I didn’t even test the last two books with the garnet before throwing them atop the fire.  Why should I have even bothered?  “The most we can hope for is that these keep us warm for the night.”

Lifting my eyes over the brightening flames, I spied Mother’s journal in Nohta’s hooves.  She caught my gaze, and scooted away from the fire with the book clutched tightly to her chest.  Shaking her head, she scrunched up her brow and covered the book with her cloak.  “No, Sis.  Not this one.”

“They lied to us, Nohta.”  I heard the exhaustion in my own voice as I tried to reason with her.  “There’s no point in me carrying that book around with—”

“Then I’ll keep it,”  She insisted.

“Nohta, the sooner we rid ourselves of those false ideas the sooner we can move on,” I pleaded.

Nohta’s chest was heaving erratically as she stared me down over the flames.  Little bits of charred paper flew upwards from the fire, their edges still bright orange.  It felt like hours passed before she whispered, “No.  I’m keeping this one.”

“Nohta…  We should just burn it and be done with—”

Her eyes narrowed.  “Fuck off, Sis.”

My jaw dropped.  She…  She hadn’t ever spoken to me like that!  She might as well have slapped me!

We scowled at each other over the flames, neither of us speaking.  Only after Lily had made an uncomfortable coughing noise did I remember we were not alone.  “Fine,” I conceded.  “Be that way.”

I pursed my lips as I rose, sidestepped the discarded blobs of ink, and walked over to Lily to ask, “Can I speak with you?”  I glared at Nohta out of one eye as my tail swished behind me.  “Outside?”  Nohta turned her back to me, still clutching the book in her grasp.

“Err… yeah,”  Lily snuffed out her cigarette and nodded.  “Sure.”

Crimson light nearly tore the flimsy front door from its hinges as I strode outside, fuming.  The canopy, hanged mare, and spark chargers passed through my vision as I walked to the edge of the purple light’s reach.  There, on the rim of the darkness, I seethed in silence.

How could she have said that!?  I was only trying to do what she wanted!  I was only trying to act when it was appropriate!  What was so wrong with that!?  My hooves ground against gravel as I hung my head and waited for Lily.  

Minutes passed as I studied my shadow and tried to calm my breathing.  No matter how infuriating or nonsensical Nohta was being, I did not need to transfer my anger onto Lily.  More time passed as I tried to figure out what I would tell her.

In the end, what calmed me the most was just how exhausted I felt.  Two days of continuous walking, emotional outbursts, and thorough introspection had robbed me of every iota of strength I held.  The only course I saw before me was honesty.

By the time I heard the door’s hinges creak open and soft hoofsteps crunching the gravel behind me, I had worked up a little speech.  I saw Lily’s wild-maned shadow approach my own, and I heard her sit down behind me.  She didn’t say anything.  I took that as an invitation to speak my piece.

I took a deep breath, and stared out over the darkened desert as I spoke softly.  “When I was a filly, I used to be afraid of the dark.”  My gaze lowered, bringing the lavender light into view as I offered a weak chuckle.  “That’s about the silliest thing a Selenist can be afraid of.  But Father said I shouldn’t worry.”  I could still see his face as he brushed my mane from my eyes…

“ ‘It is only dark because you are in the shade of Luna’s wings,’ he told me.”  I shook my head, sighing.  “I believed that.  Every day I found comfort in that.  I could face the darkness or the light so long as I thought she was with me.”  Goddess, it’d be a miracle if I made it through this without tears… 

“With The Goddess watching over me, how could I possibly feel unsafe?”  I swallowed the rising lump in my throat, and turned to see Lily’s quizzical expression.  A single hoof weakly accused her as my ears lay back against my mane, “You stole that from me, Lily.”  She raised her eyebrows as I continued.  “I could have died happily having never known just how wrong I was.  Now I don’t believe that I’ll ever feel safe again.  With a single name you toppled my entire worldview,” I shut my eyes, unable to meet hers, and tried my best to say what I truly needed to convey.  “And I reacted in the worst possible way.

“I…  I’m afraid, Lily.  Of so many things.  Ever since Nohta and I joined Father in The Caravan, everything has been new and exciting.  But…”  I opened my eyes.  I needed to meet her gaze as I said this.  Blood red eyes stared at me as I confessed, “After meeting you… ‘new’ has become ‘unimaginable,’ and ‘exciting’ has become ‘terrifying.’ ”

I continued before she could respond, worried that I wouldn’t be able to force the words out if I didn’t keep going.  “It wasn’t enough for you to introduce me to Half-Moon and what he knew of my glyph-mark.  You had to show me that accursed little bauble…”  I wrinkled my nose as I spoke the name, “Celestia.  Even knowing the truth, the word stings and burns my throat.”

My hoof pointed at her again, more forcefully this time.  “You stole that from me, Lily.”  My lip quivered as I made the painful admission.  “All I have left is fear.  I’m that little filly that’s scared of the dark all over again.  And now there are much worse things lurking in the shadows.”

She rose to her hooves, standing a full head taller than me.  “Are you afraid of me?”  It was a simple question, but one I didn’t want to answer.

“I…”  My ears drooped as I recoiled at the query.

“Good.”  She stepped closer, forcing me to look up to meet her fierce gaze.  “Because I’m the baddest motherfucker out here.”  My head dipped as I failed to maintain eye contact, but her hoof caught the underside of my chin, stopping the motion as quickly as it started.  Rather than force my face all the way back up, she instead lowered her own to meet me halfway, raising her eyebrows in an expression of purest sincerity.  “But I’m not here to hurt you.”  

She let go of me, standing at her full height again and whispering softly, “Don’t shoot at me again.”  The implied threat hung in the air as I sat back on my haunches.

“I’m sorry!”  Shaking my head, I desperately searched for the right words.  What spilled out of my mouth was more than I wanted to admit.  “I dragged you into all of this!  I didn’t really care about your reasons for joining us, only that you would help.  And then when you did try to help me…  Lily, I almost killed you.”  Wetness was welling in my eyes as I stared at the ground.  “I can’t believe that I…  I’m so sorry!”

Why wasn’t she speaking?  Did she want me to keep talking?  Did she just want to stare at me?  I had to say something.  Lifting my eyes, I begged, “Is…  Is there any way you can forgive me?”

Her face contorted in that salacious smirk of hers.  “Asking me for Forgiveness is a dangerous move, sugar.”

Ice fell into the pit of my stomach.  “I-I didn’t—”

“And I’ve killed ponies for a lot less than what you did back in the barn.”  She flared her wings behind her, losing the smirk in the process.  A jolt of fear ran down my spine at those words.  Staring into her eyes, I was as a sheep beside a hungry timberwolf.

“But I’m still here, aren’t I?” She shrugged and folded her wings, and a broad smile engulfed her face as she let out a single bark of laughter.  “Heh.  It’s not the first time I’ve been shot at, babe.  Wasn’t even the first time a friend pulled a piece on me.”

I caught my breath, wondering when I had lost it, and shook my head.  “How can you call me ‘friend?’ ”

The smile turned into a smirk.  “What?  You want to be more than just friends?”  She held a hoof to her big dumb forehead as she gasped in mock surprise.  “Candy!  You’re so forward!”

“You…  Ugh!”  I stamped on the ground, wondering if I’d be within my rights to smack her.  “I’m trying to have a serious conversation, Lily!  I’m trying to apologize!”

“That’s why,” she spoke through her grin, poking a hoof towards my face.

“W-What?”  My head cocked as I furrowed my brow.

“Remember a few nights ago?  In the saloon?  What you said to me?”  Honestly, my memory of that night was riddled with more holes than the raider swinging from the canopy.  I had to wait for her next words for proper context.  “The last time I saw blue eyes burn like that…”  A wistful smile crept over her face as I realized what she was talking about: revenge.

“Sorry.  Times change.”  Lifting her hoof to her mane, she produced a small bottle of clear liquid and took a sip before whispering, “Sometimes ponies can too.

“You didn’t call me out here just to apologize, sugar.  And I’m guessing you probably heard what Short-Stack had to say.”  She offered the bottle to me and sighed.  “Why don’t you tell me why Luna having a sister is such a big deal.”

I briefly considered divulging the entire backstory to her for context.  But to be perfectly honest, there wasn’t enough time left in the night to go into that much detail.  I’d have to be concise.

I waved off the liquor, much to Lily’s disappointment, and took a deep breath.  “To make a long story very very short,” I began, “Selenists believe that Luna is the very best pony that has ever lived.  The moon, her sacred orb and the seat of her power, is venerated as holy.  The sun, being in direct opposition to the moon, is reviled as evil incarnate.”  Lily raised a skeptical eyebrow, but I was determined to continue.

Despite knowing the truth, I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride as I described The Goddess.  “Lady Luna was the physical manifestation of the moon’s essence, a being of such grace, beauty, wisdom, and power that only heathens, fools, and villains would dare stand against her.  She was the only alicorn: born of the moon’s sympathy for all the creatures of Equestria subjected to the ravaging light of the sun.  But the sun was incapable of such mercy, and kept her form whole rather than walk amongst the ponies.  That’s why the moon’s light is more dim than the sun’s.”

I gestured with my hooves for emphasis.  “Where the moon’s light brings us guidance when we cannot see the path, the sun’s light can only blind and burn.  Every foal in The Stable was taught that, were it not for the clouds blanketing the land, nopony leaving The Stable would have been able to see due to the sunlight causing extreme eye damage.”

A small measure of strength filled my breast as I continued.  This was what I knew better than any.  None were my equal in this regard.

“Aeons ago when the earth and the sea were washed in light and heat, it was Princess Luna that ended the tyranny of the sun, and brought respite to those of us who dwelt below.  The Goddess brought the holy Eclipse, and scattered the might of the sun amongst the heavens.  The stars are pieces of the sun, purified by the Lady’s wrath so that they might shine at night.”

Condensing my entire religion into so few words left me with a terribly sick feeling in my stomach, as if it were imperative that I divulged the whole story, rather than just the cliff notes.  “There are…  so many details that I’m glossing over.  But suffice to say that to see another princess, another alicorn, another goddess…”  I shook my head, still trying to wrap my head around the truth.  “And to see that her cutie-mark was the sun, of all things, was world-shattering.  

“To witness my goddess bow her head to that pony was unthinkable heresy.  To hear The Dark Mother call Celestia ‘sister’ was atrocious.  And to actually see and hear the love in her eyes and in her voice as she addressed her elder sibling was…”  I trailed off, utterly incapable of fully conveying the tragedy of the memory I had witnessed.

Luckily, Lily had a suggestion.  “Bad?” She offered.

My hoof found my temple as I shook my head.  “Unbelievably so.”

“So you came out here and found that things aren’t exactly lining up with how you thought they would.”  She shrugged her wings, taking another drink before asking, “That is what caused your little breakdown?  Life sucks sometimes, Candy.  You just gotta deal with it.”

“Disregarding the fact that any expectations I once had stemmed from an entire lifetime of pious service in the name of The Dark Mother,” I parried, feeling my brow furrow even as I tried to keep my cool.  “That’s not the whole story.”

I stared her down, letting all the pain of that awful realization seep into my voice.  “Lily…  This is something that anyone who had been to the surface would have known.  My stable has been open for decades.  We traded with the outside world regularly via The Caravan.  But not all of The Caravan crew were regulars.  The ponies that left The Stable changed every year.”  My eyes drifted out to the dark once more as I recounted all the betrayals, each one more infuriating than the last.  “The Overmare knew.  Half of my teachers probably knew.  Certainly all of the scribes in The Library knew!”  My hoof found my face as I shook my head again, my ire bubbling up to the surface.  “Friends, neighbors, coworkers…  Lily, they all lied to me!”

I couldn’t help it any more.  Rising to my hooves, I yelled into the night.  “Mother and Father lied to Nohta and me our entire lives!”

Glaring at the spark station, I shouted at the top of my lungs, hoping my sister was listening.  “For all I know, Nohta and I might have been the only ones in The Stable that didn’t know the truth!  And for what!?”  I raised a hoof, accusing the darkened land all around us as my tail whipped behind me.  “What possible reason could any of that have served!?”  Rounding on Lily, I felt my ears lay against my mane as I stomped toward her.  “Imagine, just for a moment, the lengths you would have to go to in order to keep such a colossal secret safe from any number of The Stable’s inhabitants!”

“Candy…”  Lily’s wings had flared during my tirade.  As I advanced on her, she lowered her body and pawed at the ground.  I recognised the stance as her ‘takeoff’ pose.  Something certainly had her spooked, but I couldn’t tell what the matter was.

I halted, grinding my teeth as I felt a familiar pressure building behind my eyes.  “And how many ponies would that even be?” I shouted, disregarding the crimson light pulsing all around us.  “Two?  Twenty?  Two hundred?  Two thousand!?”  My chest heaved as my breath quickened.  “Let’s not forget… This has been going on for decades!  Possibly centuries!  Maybe even millennia!”  My hoof lifted a little higher with each estimation before finally slamming down as I grit my teeth and glared at the sky.

“Calm down, Candy.”  She raised her head and a hoof in a placating gesture, but kept her voice low and even.

“The fact is I don’t have a clue about anything because the only person from The Stable I can trust has been lied to all her life as well!”  An incessant ache was spreading through my horn due to the magic building within it.  “And now Nohta wants to protect those… Those…”  I stamped a hoof, throwing my head back to yell even as I felt the magical pressure release.  “UGH!”  My world disappeared entirely in a flash of bright scarlet, and reappeared with Lily’s surprised face inches from my own.

“GAH! FUCK!”

A blurry, blue, and exceptionally hard object slammed into my jaw, snapping my head to the side as stars exploded through my vision.  I lost my balance, and landed on my side on the hard ground.  The rocks bit into my coat as I blinked back tears and rubbed my throbbing cheek, dumbfounded.

“Shit!  Shit shit shit…”  Gravel crunched underneath Lily’s hooves as she rushed over.  “Candy!  You scared the shit out of me!”

I pulled my hoof away from my face, seeing a spot of red.  “Buh… whazzappened?”

“Fuck, I’m sorry!”  Hooves wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me up.  “But a little warning would be nice next time!”

“Yuh…   You hit me,” I mumbled through my groggy haze.

Lily stood in front of me, producing a rag from her bushy mane and soaking it with her bottle of liquor.  “Well you kinda teleported right in my face.  And with the way you were acting…”

“I…  I did?”  My lips cracked in a small smile before the sting of a busted lip reminded me to keep my expression neutral.  My hoof returned to my lip.  “I did.”  That had been easy.  I hadn’t even been concentrating.  Why couldn’t I have done that earlier?

“Here.  Hold on a sec.”  She held the rag close to my face and sighed.  “You really don’t want an infection out here, babe.”  Raising an eyebrow in question, she waited for me to pull my hoof away from my lip.

A barely familiar scent met my nose as she dabbed the cloth to my face.  I winced as the liquor-soaked cloth met my lip.  Her left ear was bobbing up and down at an absurd rate as she cringed at me.  “Fucking hell…  Papa Thunderhooves would string me up by my primaries if he found out about this.”

Her inexpert ministrations were endearing, true, but also frustrating.  I sat down and raised an eyebrow as I mumbled through the cloth, “Tequila, Lily?  Really?  You understand that I can do this better myself, right?”  

Her look was absolutely pitiful as she pulled the rag away.  “Err, right.”

“It’s only a split lip.  I’ve been dealing with worse since I was a filly.”  Her face was bathed in red light as my face tingled.  “Though,” I offered dejectedly, “I suppose I owed you that one, didn’t I?”

Offering up the little bottle, she grinned apologetically, “Who says violence never solves anything?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but memories stilled my tongue.  “Heh…”  Taking the bottle in my magic, I raised it to my lips, enjoying the oddly satisfying sound of the last few swallows of liquor sloshing in the bottle.  I sighed as I answered, “I used to.”  I only sipped the liquid, having no desire for a repeat of my last encounter with alcohol.  It burned on the way down, like a fire in my belly.  

My shoulders slumped as I asked, “Have you ever believed in something so fully that the very idea you might be wrong never entered your thoughts?  I feel as if I might next discover that gravity is just a ruse.”

Her answer caught me completely off guard.  “I thought I loved a girl once,” she said before downing the rest of her bottle.  “Does that count?”

I contemplated her question, but without any context I wasn’t sure.  “What did you do?”

She pursed her lips and held her fetlocks against her barrel indignantly.  “Why do you assume that I did anything wrong?”

I recoiled at the rebuke, “Err, my apologies.  Poor word choice.”  Clearing my throat, I amended my question, “I meant, afterward.  What did you do after, ah… she did something?”  That particular idea was going to take some getting used to…

Lily paused as she inspected the ground at our hooves, only answering after mulling her thoughts over for an exorbitant amount of time:  “Screamed.”  

The blunt nature of the confession left little doubt as to the veracity of her statement, but it turned out she was more than willing to indulge my curiosity even further.  “I stripped off everything but my blades, Forgiveness, two inhalers of Dash, and a belt of ammo.  Then I flew straight into the closest raider camp I knew about and killed everypony I saw.”

I felt my lips slipping open, and had to remind myself to keep my mouth shut.  She had been more than willing to hear me out.  What kind of friend would that make me if I didn’t return the favor?

I could tell by her tense posture and scowling expression that she was fighting back a more physical display of her frustration.  Her eyes were hard as she recounted the experience.  “I just wanted… to break things.  To get some kinda release, y’know?”  She looked up to me, as if she were seeking understanding in my eyes, but I could only offer a sympathetic ear.  

Her wings gave a single irritated flap as she continued.  “Smashing empty liquor bottles against the buildings in Manehattan wasn’t cutting it anymore.”  Her ears lay flat against her wild mane as her voice grew thick with emotion.  “I couldn’t forget her face.  I still can’t.  I didn’t want to hurt her, but I needed to hurt something.  I needed…”  Shaking her head, she threw her hooves up in defeat.  “Fuck, I guess I just needed to do something.”  It was the first time I had seen those blood-red eyes mist over.  Goddess, if only it had been the last…

“Came out of that one pretty dinged up,” she confessed, a melancholy smile distorting the lines on her face.  “I couldn’t even tell whether the blood was mine or not, and one of my wings was so fucked up that I could barely hover.”  Her wings each stretched out behind her in turn as she grinned at them.  “Yep, ol’ Flappy McGillicutty and Beats McCleave got a workout that night.”

I stared in exasperation, unsure of what to say or even if she was being serious at all anymore.

“I woulda bought the rock farm right then and there if I hadn’t run into a traveling cheese trader with all my fresh loot to trade for a potion.”  She grinned and shook her head.  “And trust me, I know what you’re thinking…”

I scowled, calling her out on her nonsense.  “That naming your wings is completely ridicul—” 

“Who the hell sells cheese in the wasteland!?”  She cut me off, flaring her wings for effect.  “Am I right?  Of course I am.”  She nodded with a smug grin.  “Monterey-fucking-Jack, that’s who!”  Cocking her head to the side, she tapped her chin pensively, “Dumb son-of-a-bitch almost shot me, too.  Life is weird, sometimes.”

I gave up, and tried my best to at least appear sincere.  “Knowing now what transpired,” I asked, “would you have done anything differently?”

She shook her head slowly, smirking.  “Not one damn thing.”

My eyes peered into hers.  “Then would you deny me the same thing?”

“Huh?”  That certainly wiped the smirk off her face!

I began slowly, picking my words carefully.  “I’ve loved three mares in my life, The Goddess, Mother, and Nohta.  I lost Mother a long time ago, and I just discovered that The Goddess wasn’t at all what I believed.  But Nohta is right.  Up until now we haven’t heard so much as a whisper regarding what happened to The Caravan.  We can’t back away from the only lead we have.”  Every word that came was easier than the last.  My argument made too much sense.  She had to see that!

“Now,” I continued, gaining steam, “despite a lifetime of pious devotion, most of what I have been taught is meaningless.  All I truly know for certain is what I can see in front of me.  I can trust my sister.  I can trust my medical knowledge.  I can, and should, have trusted you… 

“I need to act, Lily!  I need to go to Spursburg, instead of running back to Mareon with my tail between my legs!”  Sometimes, we just have to ask for what we want.  Perhaps I would no longer beg anything of Luna or Celestia, but that didn’t mean I could forsake my friend.  In the end, every bit of my speech came down to a simple and genuine request.  “Don’t take that from me.  Please.”

Even then, with Spursburg so close at hoof, I don’t really think I fully understood what I was asking of her.  But then, I wasn’t really asking for anything save for an opportunity to do good works, was I?  After all, what sort of doctor would let a sickness go untreated?

Raising an eyebrow, she poked at my chest with a hoof.  “You think killing raiders will help you sort yourself out?”

“After last night, I’m not entirely sure if anything ever will.”  My own hoof found the tuft of fur Lily had ruffled and proceeded to smooth it out.  “Honestly, I keep hoping that The Goddess is simply testing me.  That she’ll send me a sign any moment now.  Or that she only wishes for me to realize some deeper truth to our faith.”  Looking back to Lily’s blood-colored eyes, I narrowed my own.  “But after I’ve had the opportunity to turn some despicable fiend to pink ash I’ll let you know whether it was for Luna, or for myself.”

“Heh.”  She let out a single bark of mirth as she regarded me, and then nodded her head in agreement.

Lifting her hooves to my shoulders, she held me at leg’s length and stared into my eyes.  “Alright.  You really want to keep going?  Fine.  Both of you are against me on this one.”  That smirk of hers twisted her features as she admitted, “And I’m not gonna lie, I’m rarin’ for a good fight at this point.”

She inclined her head as she asked me, “I can’t exactly force you to see reason, but if we’re gonna do this then I’ve got some conditions, you dig?”  She raised her eyebrows in question, and I was quick to agree.  

Each ultimatum came with a little shake, courtesy of her hooves on my shoulders.  “If I tell you to get down, you duck.”  Shake.  “If I tell you to get behind cover, you find the nearest wall and stay put.”  Shake shake.  “And if I tell you to run…  I don’t give a shit what you think about it.  You fucking do it.”  Her hooves convulsed so violently that I wasn’t entirely sure if my eyes were literally rolling in their sockets or if she had simply made me dizzy.  With both Lilys swimming through my vision, it was rather difficult to tell.

Sighing, she released me, and stuck a cigarette between her lips.  “I’ve buried too many friends that thought they could handle themselves in a fight.  Prove to me you’re smarter than them and follow my orders when the shit starts to hit the pan.”

“I…”  The flubbed idiom and dizziness caused me to falter for a moment.  But all was well when I realized that my friend was still with me.  “Okay,” I agreed, feeling a smile creep across my face.

She smiled as well, and lit her cigarette.  “You want some free advice?”

I nodded.

“You said it yourself: Luna’s not what you thought, and your mom is gone, but you still have your sister.  The other day you told me not to let her stew over something for too long.”  She inhaled deeply, blowing a plume of smoke to our sides.  “Keep your mom’s book.  One day you’ll look back at when you tried to burn it and hate yourself for even thinking about it.”  

Smiling warmly, she whispered softly as we turned to walk back inside.  “When your folks are gone, they’re gone, babe.  You gotta hold onto whoever you care about for as long as you can.”


**************


Sleep finally found me that night, but my dreams were far from comforting.  My hooves carried me quickly through darkened halls, turning down whatever passage I found most interesting.  Ancient spellbooks, historical scrolls, and portraits of friends and family sat on shelves along the walls.  They called out to me, their voices like peals of laughter echoing through The Stable’s halls.  I reached for them without thinking, remembering cherished memories as I drifted peacefully through the dark.  

A wave of light rippled through my hallway, blinding in intensity, and laid bare all that I had accomplished.

Without fail, everything I touched was left stained with blood, despite my pristinely white hooves.  Disgust twisted my gut as I turned and ran, unwilling to witness what I left in my wake.  But no matter how far I traveled, I could not see my end destination.  The light pulsed ahead of me again, beckoning with a taboo yet alluring mystery.  But I was not yet ready to gallop toward it.  There had to be another way.

I turned back to glimpse from where I had come and saw a pony-shaped shadow.  It was… familiar, somehow.  Opening the mist that passed for his mouth, he spoke… 

“Scream, and you die.”

My eyes shot open as soon as I felt the cold steel upon my neck, just above the carotid artery.  A stallion’s face was mere inches from my own, dominating my vision with his ugly red snout and bloodshot, yellowed eyes.  His horn glowed with a faint ice-blue aura, holding the machete parallel to my jawline.  

“No magic,” he growled.

I was still too groggy to fully grasp what was happening, but some—surely more primal—part of my mind understood.  My chest rose quickly with a sharp inhalation, and my nose wrinkled at the reeking body odor of the pony standing over me.  The blade pressed a little more firmly against my neck, forcing me to lay my cheek back against my pillow.

My capacity for higher thought was finally spurred to action as I realized the dire circumstances I had woken up to.  A strangely dressed, hostile, and filthy stallion was holding a blade to my throat, his every stinking breath causing the pink strands of my mane to flutter beside my eyes.  His heavy barding encased his torso in thick black plates that bore several scratches and scuff-marks, as well as a small scarlet emblem: a single red eye.

I kept my head down, but scanned the room as best I could.  Past my captor’s scruffy fetlock, I watched several more ponies pile into the spark station, each of them wearing armor identical to the stallion above me.  They fanned out quickly, not bothering to be quiet as they swarmed the short aisles and took up firing positions by the windows.

A taller earth-stallion, this one a deep chocolate-brown, was speaking into a hoof-held radio as he walked into the middle of the room.  “Copy that.  We got two.  A pegasus for the pits, and one…”   His eyes met mine, narrowing as he paused to appraise my face.  “And a unicorn for Unity,” he finished.

Two?  They had found Lily?  As if The Goddesses had conspired to deliver some cruel joke, I heard a whinny and a loud snore behind me.  I turned my head as much as the blade at my throat would allow, and found that Lily had slept right through our entrapment.  A chill ran down my spine as I pursed my lips and tried to think.  Nohta must have eluded them, but why hadn’t she woken us up?

The brown stallion strode closer, staring down at my face as I glared in his direction.  When he was so close that I could only see his hooves, he finally spoke.  “Congratulations, young miss, today is your lucky day.  You have the opportunity to leave your worthless life behind and become a cog in a much greater machine, living for a much greater purpose…”  

I could hear the smirk on his face as he finished, “Making me a lot of money.”  His hooves moved out of my field of vision as he walked around my pillow.  “Now keep being a good girl, and I’ll go easy on you and your friend.”

I wasn’t thinking, and spoke too quickly.  “What do you want?”

Pain exploded through my ribs as a hoof slammed into my side.  I curled up on my sleeping bag, gasping for air.  Pulling his leg away from my coat, the red unicorn growled, “Speak when spoken to, bitch.”  His reeking breath wasn’t making it any easier to breathe…

The chocolate stallion’s voice drawled behind me.  “Wake her up.”

I heard a sharp cracking sound behind me before a mare’s voice sneered.  “Get up, you fucking turkey!”

“Owww!”  Lily’s pained outcry preceded the wild flapping of her wings as she finally woke up.  “What the…  Uh…”  The rustling, scraping, and grunting behind me left little doubt as to what had happened to my friend, but another quick glance—this one forcing the blade to draw a trickle of blood out of my neck—confirmed that Lily was now being held upright by two ponies at her sides.  I could understand her not being in top form so early in the morning, but that didn’t make our situation any better.  

She groaned, finishing her question lamely.  “Uh…  Fuck?”

The stallion, whom I was assuming was the leader of this little band, scoffed at Lily’s words.  “As eloquent a response as could be expected from Thunderhooves filth.”

Lily gave an amused murmur that almost passed for a bark of laughter.  “Heh… that’s funny.”  Her voice was thick and groggy, but was growing into her usual self-assuredness.  “ ‘Filth?’  You’re talking to a pegasus, dipshit.  Not some mudpony bitch.”

Another sharp crack preceded the unseen mare’s voice.  In a smug tone, she gave Lily a warning.  “Watch your tongue.”

I heard Lily spit.  Something thick and wet smacked against the tile.  “Oh, baby…  What is this, foreplay?”  Ahh…  There she was.  My friend was awake now.  “Can you ruffle my feathers for me too?”

The stallion didn’t bother to keep the smug contempt out of his voice.  “We’ll see if you’re in such a jovial mood when you’re wearing a bomb collar.”

Lily erupted in raucous laughter.  “HAHAHA!”  I could hear her wings flapping excitedly as she mocked him.  “You’re about the stupidest son of a bitch I’ve ever met!  Do you have any idea whose territory you’re in?  Or what The Outcasts do to slavers?”

Slavers?  My brow raised as all sorts of imaginary horrors dashed through my mind.  Unfortunately, none of them were as awful as what was revealed by the stallion’s next words.  

“Whatever pathetic excuse for a leader that pretends to rule this land is irrelevant.”  The slaver’s voice was tired and practiced as he orated, droning on as if he had done this a hundred times before.  “Mareon will submit and give tribute.  This is Red Eye’s territory now.”  

Lily chuckled derisively, “Red Eye’s land?  Pfft…  Sure it is, cupcake.  Why don’t you sip your juice-box and let me talk to daddy, okay?”  A dull thud sounded behind me before Lily snickered.  “Fuck, kid, my pet squirrel hits harder than you.  And he’s dead!”

The mare couldn’t keep the outrage out of her voice.  “Do you want to join him!?”

“It’d be more fun than hanging around this horned bitch all day.”  Wait… did Lily mean me?  My jaw dropped.  So much for her considering me a friend…

Lily continued, “I mean, seriously.  Day in and day out it’s all the same.  ‘Oh!  I’m a big smart doctor!  I’m more important than anypony!  I know all sorts of sciency things!  Protect me from the big bad meanies, won’t you, mercenary?”  My eyes narrowed as I listened to her ranting.  “Pfft…  I thought this job was gonna be fun.  But she’s the only company I’ve had for five days and I can hardly stand the needy bitch.”  What?  That wasn’t right…  What about Nohta?

“A doctor?”  The stallion snorted.  “Let her up.”

The blade floated away from my throat, but only by a few inches.  The tip rose and fell above my eyes as the stinking unicorn above me snarled.  “Up.”  

I stood slowly, measuring each movement carefully so that the blade wouldn’t slice my face open.  Rising to my hooves, I finally had the opportunity to get a good look at my surroundings.  No less than fifteen mares and stallions wearing identical black armor, most of them earth ponies, were scattered about the room.  Five weapons were trained on my head, and most of the remainder were pointed towards the wide windows of the spark station.  The brown stallion stood in the middle of the room, with a bright-yellow unicorn mare close at his side.  Nohta was nowhere to be seen, but Lily…

I gasped when I caught sight of her.  Two earth ponies flanked her, each one holding one of her forelegs captive in order to keep her still.  Lily’s right eye was already swollen shut.  Blood from her muzzle flowed freely down her face, collecting underneath her chin to slowly drip against her chest.  Goddess, I couldn’t believe it, but despite it all she was still wearing that irredeemably smug grin.  Her left eye darted toward me for just a moment before she winked.  

I shook my head in bewilderment.  Was she out of her little pony mind!?

“Is that true?” The chocolate stallion asked me.  “Are you a doctor?”

I swallowed, staring down the barrel of one of the pistols aimed at my head.  It was close enough that I could just make out the spiraled rifling on the inside of the metal tube.  “I am.”

“Good.  You’ll sell for more,” he smirked.  Cocking his head, he asked, “But before I can market that, I need to be sure you really are a doctor.  So why don’t you show us what you can do?”

Goddess, I never should have asked…  “Err… how?”

Gesturing with a hoof towards Lily, he grinned.  “By healing your friend, of course.”  

Before I even had time to fully register the stallion’s words, the mare at his side drew her pistol and fired. The round tore through Lily’s lower abdomen, spattering blood against the shelves as she gasped and beat her wings furiously against the earth ponies at her side.  

Her eyes bulged just as the ponies released her.  She fell forward, clutching her stomach and wincing.  “Fuck!  My liver!  I think I need that!”

“Lily!” I screamed and started forward, only for the machete to block my path.  

The red stallion’s hoof snaked around my shoulders as he leaned closer to gloat into my ear.  “So you two do care about each other, huh?”  The slavers laughed as I fought to free myself from the disgusting red pony, but no matter how I struggled, his grip was too strong.  It was only when the brown stallion nodded that my captor released me.

The blade left my throat as I dashed over to Lily’s thoroughly blood-soaked form.  I had to fight against her beating wing and push her hooves out of the way in order to see the wound.  Blood was already pooling on the floor underneath her flank by the time I activated my spell.  Pain ripped through my body as I felt the aftermath of the unicorn mare’s shot.

As she squirmed beneath me, I felt Lily’s words leave my throat.  “Candy!  They shot me in the liver!  It’s the hardest working liver in the wasteland, and now it has a hole in it!”  I felt an intense rush of cold wash over my body as she shivered and spasmed.  When the sensation passed she was left kneading her hooves against the tile, going cross-eyed as she groaned, “Oh, I shouldn’t have said that.  Fucking waves always come at the worst time…”

“Lily, stay quiet!  I need to concentrate!”  The bullet had passed through her body, tearing a bloody swath through several organs in the process.  The pain—along with the unholy reek of a punctured intestine—was nearly enough to turn my stomach as I knelt over her.  Scarlet tendrils dug into her body as I desperately knit flesh back together while fighting back the urge to gag.

I had mended the internal wounds quickly but she had lost too much blood, and she would go septic if I couldn’t clean the wound in time.  I had no way of undoing that damage.  In my panic, I turned to the brown stallion and screamed.  “I-I need a potion!”

The slaver leader only mocked us, “Don’t you have one, girl?”  His soldiers stomped their hooves on the tile as they laughed raucously.

My lip quivered as I stared, dumbfounded, into his merciless eyes.  How… How dare he!?  A layer of overglow coated the room scarlet as my magic gripped the medical supplies by my bedroll.  Well over fifty pounds of medical equipment spilled out of my packs, skidding across the floor in a blanket of red energy.

Luna—or more likely, luck—was on my side.  Several potions slid right up to my hooves, just in time.  I didn’t feel the awful stretching sensation just yet, but Lily’s vision was already going grey by the time I rolled her over onto her back and held her head in my hooves.  Lily’s eyelids were heavy and closing by the time the Hydra hit her tongue.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt the sensation of life slowly flow back into her failing body.

*Click*

In my panic, I hadn’t noticed the magical aura just under my chin.  Reaching a hoof upward, I probed at the tight metal band that had found its way around my neck.  Something beeped just underneath my ear… 

Lily’s leg darted upward, yanking my hoof away from the collar constricting my airflow.  Her eye stared into mine as she whispered, “Don’t.  Bomb.”  Those two words were all she had the strength to say before her right cheek fell against the tile.

The slavers laughed again as their leader addressed me, waving a small electronic contraption in his hooves.  “You’ll want to listen to your friend.  Be a good dog and wear your leash.”  I bristled at the comment.  He brushed off my glare, and gestured to the medical equipment I had revealed.  “Oh, and thank you for the supplies.”

Lily’s pierced ear bobbed up and down as she lie at my hooves, but a discordant thumping rhythm throbbed in our right ears.  I couldn’t tell what it was, it certainly didn’t match her heartbeat…

The unicorn mare held an open band of metal, electronics, and explosives in front of me.  “Put this on her.”

I stared at the bomb collar, my jaw going slack.  She…  She couldn’t be serious…  “What?  No, p-please…”

The unicorn’s magic lifted her pistol to my eyes, pulling the hammer back until it clicked.  Her eyes narrowed as a thin smile crept over her lips.  “I’m not asking.”  Goddess, the slavers were enjoying this…  I had never felt so powerless.  Or so… used.

My hoof trembled as I took the collar from her, and my chest heaved as I lowered it to Lily’s throat.  And then I hesitated.  The pistol jutted up against my temple, causing me to yelp and shut my eyes.  The tears that had welled up in my eyes spilled over onto Lily’s cheek.  I felt her open her eyes, and I felt her clumsily mouth the words.  “Do… it.  S’okay.”

I was a blubbering mess by the time I managed to fit the collar around her throat, but Lily didn’t mind.  In fact, she was grinning.  The thumping I felt in our right ears grew stronger when I laid her head back on the cool tile, but for the life of me I could not detect any other problems with her health.  Hydra was well named; it felt like a monster in her veins.  But the rampaging beast crashing through her heart was not what was causing the rumble in her ear.

“Good girl.”  The unicorn smirked at me, wearing that same infuriating look The Pyro had given me just before I blew her head off.  I was only lucky Lily’s wing extended against my chest, holding me back.  I was beginning to think that killing was about to get easy again.

And it certainly wasn’t going to be for Luna’s sake.

The stallion grinned, twisting a knob on the side of the little device in his hooves.  “I imagine that Red Eye might like to keep a Thunderhooves pegasus for his pit.”  Lily’s own smile widened as the slaver mocked us.  I had no idea what she thought was so comedic about our situation.  Snorting in derision, the slaver twisted the proverbial knife a little further.  “Raider filth like you aren’t good for anything else.”

My ears drooped against the sides of my head as I eyed Lily’s maniacal grinning.  Had he just said…  Thunderhooves were raiders!?  Goddess, how could I have trusted her!?  She… She was…  No wonder she was so unhinged!

No, wait…  Lily wasn’t one of those ponies!  She was…  She was a little odd but surely she wasn’t…

But it made sense, didn’t it?  The wild hedonism, the bloodlust, the insanity…  How hadn’t I seen it before!?  Goddess, how oblivious was I?

The chocolate stallion was taking every opportunity to relish his little victory.  His eyes gleamed as he raised a brow in question, “Finally run of out of jokes, tribal?”

Lily’s words came slow and quiet.  “Red Eye?  Heh, red eyes, blue eyes, green eyes, Bright Eyes…  They all close in the end.”  Wait… what?  Did she just say…  Oh Goddess, the thumping in her ear was—

Lily lifted her head from the floor, grinning wickedly, “I hope you fuckers brought enough bullets…”

A mare by the windows shouted, “Sir!  Movement on the road!”  All eyes turned to her as she leveled her rifles towards the outside.  “Feral ghouls coming in quick!”  

A shiver ran down my spine, even before I heard the hissing and growling.  How many ghouls did it take to make that Goddess-awful rumble!?

The brown stallion shouted as he pointed at us, “Tie these two up!  Now!  And make sure the unicorn doesn’t cast any fucking magic!”

I was thrown to the floor by rough hooves, and held against Lily’s wings.  The yellow unicorn mare lit her horn, and golden-yellow chains of light lashed around our bodies, tying Lily’s back against my own.  Another chain wrapped itself around my horn, floating just above the spiral fluting before it locked itself in place.  And then it started to burn…

My eyes went wide.  Hot…  Fear gripped my heart.  Hotter…  The world around me became a little more vague and a little less important with every second.  I couldn’t help but relinquish control as the pain forced me to mentally retreat inward, and before long I succumbed to the panic engulfing my mind.  The last thing I remember clearly before being consumed by the fire was the very foremost of Luna’s teachings: light can only blind…  And burn. 

Then I screamed.  A lot.

The light seared against my mind, blazing a hole through my brain and obliterating my capacity for thought.  I could feel, faintly, Lily squirming against my back.  But as my legs kicked and my teeth gnashed and my eyes bulged and every vulgar, blasphemous, insane promise of retribution poured out of my mouth I could only see one thing: the vicious grin of a bright yellow mare as she stared down at me.

I felt a head bang against my own, and heard Lily’s voice through the deluge of light and heat.  “Candy! Try to stay calm.  We’ll get through this!”  Her words were little comfort against the blazing agony inches from my forehead.

The brown buck pointed at the windows as he yelled at his underlings, “You idiots want to get paid, don’t you!?  Hold them off!”

The slavers that were still by the shelves joined their comrades at the walls, firing through the windows as quickly as they could.  Glass windows shattered left and right, barely audible over the deafening blanket of gunfire.  The unicorns in the group collected the glass as it fell from the windows, flinging it outside the building while the earth ponies cut down ghoul after ghoul with their rifles and shotguns.  Dozens of zombies shrieked in rage as their limbs were blown apart as if they were made of wet cardboard.  Their bodies fell to the earth to be trampled by the snarling herd, but for every zombie that was ripped apart, three more took its place. 

It was all too familiar.  In Coltsville, Holly explained that these monsters could resurrect themselves, but these slavers were most likely ignorant of The San Palomino’s ghouls.  My gut twisted with fear even as the inferno in my horn commanded my attention.  I could only pray that Bright Eyes wasn’t with this particular herd.  If she was close, then we were already dead.  I had seen well enough what happened to the Steel Rangers that opposed her, and these slavers were as children with B.B. guns compared to those brutes!  But with the scalding heat holding my magic at bay, I couldn’t even muster the resolve to shout a warning to my captors.  Held in those chains, I was as helpless as a foal.

I grew desperate.  Gripped as I was in the unholy fury of the light, I lifted my eyes to the ceiling, prepared to pray for the assistance of any divine being that would listen—even if it was Celestia.  But instead of the aid of an elder sibling, I was rescued by a younger one.

In all the chaos, no one else noticed the ceiling panel lift and disappear to the side.  No one else saw the black-cloaked figure bite down on the inhaler of Dash.  No one else saw the pair of burning amethyst eyes glowing like hellfire in the shadows.

Nohta pounced on the brown slaver.  Mother’s cloak billowed behind my sister as she landed on the stallion’s back, breaking his grip on the device.  His body crumpled underneath Nohta’s weight as her hoof flashed downward against his fetlock.  Even through the gunfire, I could hear his joint breaking.

He lost his grip on the little box, crying out as it sailed through the air.  Why was my sister so preoccupied with that tiny—

“NOHTA!”  Lily screamed behind me, “GRAB THE DETONATOR!”

My eyes shot wide as I realized what was tumbling end-over-end in a wide arc between the aisles.  If it landed on the button…

Nohta abandoned the slaver and dove for the trigger, catching it face up in her hooves as she slid across the tile.  She twisted her body to protect the little box, slamming her shoulder into the flimsy shelf and making it teeter on its side.  Ancient cans of dog food and packages of dehydrated fruit fell to the floor, giving one of the slavers a second to yell in surprise before the entire shelf came crashing down on top of him.  The glass in the window frame sliced right through his barding, and a pair of ghouls snapped at his limp body like hungry dogs scrabbling for table scraps.

In all the commotion, even I lost track of my sister.  The yellow mare pointed her pistol at my head and screamed.  “Shit!  The prisoners are—”  

Nohta slammed her Pipbuck into the mare’s throat just as Lily kicked out against a shelf.  She and I were sent flying forward, our shoulders cracking the glass display case of the station’s service counter while the unicorn’s weapon discharged a mere pony’s length away from my face.  The bullet’s wake blew over my body in a wave of pressure while the gunshot deafened my right ear.  I was already gritting my teeth against the scalding heat in my horn, but just as my hearing was reduced to a sharp ring the pain disappeared completely.

I lifted my head to see the mare stumbling to the side, blood and spittle flying from her grimacing face as Nohta landed back on all fours.  The slaver had lost her concentration, and the magical aura around her horn had faded along with the bindings tying Lily and I together.  Lily’s wings unfurled against my back just as my little ember of rage blazed white-hot.  

Blood-red light bathed the inside of the station.  Hatred mixed with indignance in my gut, pushing me further than I ever would have gone without.  I put everything I had into my spell, seizing the mare by the throat and slamming her body against a nearby shelf.  She was still choking and scrabbling at the magical leash with her forehooves when Nohta’s blade slashed her neck all the way to the vertebrae.  Goddess, the arterial spray was glorious!

I noticed another inhaler of Dash skid across the tile as I turned my now blood-soaked face to Lily.  She had already latched her blades in place on her wings and slung her revolver over her shoulder, but it wasn’t until I saw her hover over the shelves and raise her rifle to her shoulder that I really saw her.  In that moment, with a zebra-model lever-action rifle in her hooves and with pure fire in her eyes, she was in her prime.

In the tiny space of the spark station’s interior, Lily’s rifle might as well have been a cannon.  It roared like thunder, exploding a unicorn mare’s neck so violently that her horn rocketed upward to embed itself in the ceiling.  Lily’s hoof then darted forward, moving the lever to eject the cartridge as her wings twitched to adjust her aim.  Lead and flame flew forth again and again.  Slavers didn’t even have time to scream before their brains coated the ghouls closing the distance in front of them.  I counted eight shots, and caught sight of five dead ponies and three silenced zombies.  That was when I understood why Lily came so highly recommended by Margarita.

Lily landed beside me, shoving my pistol into my chest before she scrambled to reload her rifle.  “That’s a fuckload of ghouls out there!  We can’t stick around for long!”

Strapping my pistol to my leg, I chanced a quick glance at the remaining slavers firing into a wall of snapping jaws, crazed eyes, and flailing limbs.  Deja vu came quickly as I realized the slavers were attempting to stand against the tide of ghouls, but this time I wasn’t burdened by sympathy.

The horde moved as one, sacrificing dozens on the outside in order to protect their center, which bulged and advanced towards the wide windows.  When they were close enough the ghouls split away, and a single abomination rushed the building.  I stared in awe as a hideously distorted face covered with an abundance of matted pink fur and pockmarked with jiggling pustules reached the outer walls.  The bloater gasped excitedly as it lunged towards the windows and wrapped its fluffy hooves around a stallion’s neck.  His eyes went wide as the ghoul scrunched up its muzzle and stuck its tongue out of its mouth.  For a moment, all was silent, save for the whimpering stallion.  Then the ghoul’s eyes narrowed.  I’ll never forget the sound it made as its grotesque tongue waggled between its teeth.

“Pbbt.”

Pink Cloud erupted from the ghoul’s body, tearing through its skin as easily as it tore through the line of slavers.  Three stallions and two mares were instantly swallowed up by the plume of gas.  Their skin melted from their bodies to fall like sludge against the tile as they clawed at their eyes and fell over screaming and twitching.  I watched in horror as one mare’s pained shrieking caused her eroded skin to bubble up and pop away from her throat before she lay still.

The blast had reached us as well, toppling shelves like dominoes and batting my mane aside as I covered my eyes.  The shelves lurched to the side, falling on top of the three of us and bruising my side with their steel racks.  Pink death was slowly seeping over the tile as Nohta was knocked on her side, dropping the detonator for our bomb collars.  It skidded back towards the brown earth pony, who clawed at the tile to grab it.  I lit my horn, and raised the shelf a few precious inches before a blue blur jetted past my side to slam into the downed buck.  Lily wrestled with the slaver, keeping him away from the killswitch as Nohta helped me lift the shelf.  But we weren’t fast enough.

I scanned the room, and found the detonator for our collars.  The pink mist rolled over the tile, reaching my back hoof before I could stand.  Agony unlike anything I had ever felt—like my very essence was being stripped from my body—rippled through my leg.  I groaned helplessly against the pain before Nohta mustered the strength to throw the shelf off of us.  

Scrambling to my hooves, I scooped up the detonator in my magic and threw myself over the counter, knocking the bits register to the floor before I landed beside my bedroll.  The brown slaver landed with a grunt beside me, sporting a deep gouge across his muzzle.

Before I had time to question his presence, Lily landed beside me with her rifle cradled in her hooves.  “Candy!  It’s time to go!”  Pointing to the detonator, she yelled over the screaming and gunfire, “Keep that thing close!  If we get too far away from it our collars will blow!”  The rifle went limp in her shoulder-sling as she pulled her pistol from its holster and fired over the counter.  I wasn’t sure if she was aiming at slavers or ghouls.  At that point, it didn’t matter.

Nohta dove behind the counter as bullets ripped through the little cardboard displays above our heads.  Covering her head with her hooves, she screamed, “We need to grab the stuff from The Caravan!”

Lily ducked down, shoving my saddlebags into my chest and yelling, “Fuck that shit, there’s no time!  Just get your packs and run!”

My packs…  Scarlet light flooded our little corner of the spark station as my magic dug through my saddlebags.  A tiny object, just the size of an apple, floated to my eyes.  I felt my lips curl back in a grin as I pulled the pin…

The grenade soared over the counter just as Lily’s expression went from bewildered to panicked.  She tackled me to the floor, shielding my face with her wings and shrieking at the top of her lungs.  “GET DOW—”

*BOOM*

The explosion drowned her out as shockwaves rippled throughout the station.  What glass was left shattered into slivers and shards that rained down around us like tiny knives.  The counter warped inward, reaching for my side as it succumbed to the force of the blast.  The back of my head ached from where it hit the floor.  Little cuts on my legs and ribs stung like bees.  And through it all I felt Lily’s breath on my chin.

Glittering splinters fell from her feathers as she pulled her wings away from my face, giving me a clear view of her blood-red eyes.  I stared up at her, feeling her heart thundering against my belly, and felt my lips curl back in a grin before I whispered, “That felt good.”

Her brow furrowed as she winced.  “Heh.  For you, maybe.”

The brown slaver whimpered and moaned beside us, a thousand tiny lacerations decorating every inch of his body that hadn’t been covered by his black barding.  There was no way that he would escape the ghouls, not with that many wounds and one eye shut from the beatings Lily and Nohta had given him.  I was content to leave him to his fate, but Lily had other plans.

“Drink this, asshole.” She shoved a potion into the stallion’s hooves.  “And get ready to run.”

“What!?” I spat out.  “Why in Luna’s name would we give him—”

“No questions!” Lily yelled.  “There’s no time to argue!”  As it turned out, she was right.

Hooves crunched on broken glass before a decayed face jutted over the bent counter and bellowed overtop of us.  Little flecks of reeking spittle rained down on my face, causing me to close an eye and raise a hoof against the stench.  Lily rolled to the side, biting down on the bit of her revolver as the ghoul scrabbled over glass and metal.  A single shot blew half of its throat against the ceiling, sending the zombie toppling backward as quickly as it had appeared.

A grip far stronger than my own pulled me to my hooves just before Nohta thrust my barding in my face and screamed.  “We’re cutting this close!”  I nodded, and slid into the leather as quickly as I could.

Lily stood up beside us, flapping her wings to rid them of all the flecks of glass as she looked over the counter.  Her hooves found the buck’s neck as she shoved him against what remained of the outside wall—the frame of one of the wide glass panes.  The lack of crunching glass or hoofbeats allowed me to hope that we were alone again, but the wild look in Lily’s eyes told me otherwise.  Not to mention the chorus of growls and hisses just outside the station as ghouls clambered through the windows.

Lily stared at the slaver’s glaring face, but spoke to Nohta and I.  “Looks like arguing was pointless,” she admitted.  “There’s only one way to go now.”  Stretching her neck and wincing, she added, “This guy’s gotta have some codes or keys or something on him.  If not, then...”  She shrugged, furrowing her brow.  “Well… I’ve got some friends that owe me a favor or two.”

She pulled him away from the window frame before slamming him back against it and shouting into his face, garnering his full attention.  “Listen here, motherfucker!  If you don’t do exactly as I say, then I swear by Stormwalker herself that I will crack your ribs open and tear your lungs out of your back with my teeth!  And then…   And… ”  The sun broke the horizon just as a maniacally gleeful grin broke across Lily’s face.  Her voice rose several octaves as all sense left her.  “And since you kept me from taking my medicine today, you big old meanie-pants-makes-us-dance, you get to show us your moves too!”  I nearly spat out the health potion I had hurriedly procured from my packs.

She dug through his packs, produced another bomb collar with a flourish, spun it around her hoof like an over-sized bracelet, and slapped it around his neck in one fluid motion.  The stallion’s eyes bulged as Lily chortled and whinnied, “Ha ha!  Now you’re all dressed up for the ball!  Don’t worry if you don’t know all the dances, us ladies are gonna lead from now on!”  Hooking a hoof around his neck, she threw him through the window like a sack of potatoes.

She turned around and slapped me on the flank—and believe you me, words cannot adequately describe my incredulity or my indignation—and fluttered over to the groaning stallion.  Giggling like a madmare, she turned back to our stunned faces and wiggled her hips, “C’mon Candy!  Move what yo momma gave ya!  It’s time to shake that hoove thang!” 


**************


As it turned out, “shaking my hoove thang” consisted largely of tripping over myself as I scurried to both don my barding and escape out the same window that Lily traipsed through earlier.  Then it consisted of running.  Lots of running.    

Nohta lead our advance alongside the crumbled road, occasionally leaping on the hoods of motorwagons to fire her pistol over our heads.  Lily mimicked my sister, though instead of running and leaping she chose to lazily fly backwards just above me, giggling uncontrollably every time her rifle picked off a ghoul that came too close to our group.  The chocolate-brown slaver, burdened as he was by his thick barding, was panting for breath just behind me, barely able to maintain my brisk pace.

I could have slowed down for him, but frankly I couldn’t care less if the fiend was devoured by the hungry zombies at our back.  After turning the tables on somepony that had so severely wronged us, I was… less than sympathetic for the stallion.  When I did slow my pace it was only so that I could cast a quick glimpse behind us.  That was why I knew that luck was still on our side.  There was no hint of the glow that Bright Eyes or any of her undead zebras cast.  We still had a chance.

The uneven terrain forced us on to the main road as we took an overpass over a small gorge.  The motorwagons were smashed up against each other horribly, creating a cramped series of sharp, rusty obstacles that scratched at my barding and saddlebags as I tried to squeeze through.  Luckily the tetanus-laden maze was hampering the ghouls as much as it was a hazard to us. Glancing over my shoulder, I witnessed a ghoul’s flopping lip catch on a jagged motorowagon door.  I couldn’t help but cringe in pain as half of the zombie’s face was ripped away, stripping its flesh straight down to the bone.  I gagged, turning forward just in time to see a rusty city limits sign sitting on a wide metal pole.  It welcomed us to Spursburg, which, according to the sign, was “Where we put the ‘Spurs’ to progress!”

Lily flew past the sign, guiding my advance as she cackled with glee.  “Two steps to the left!  Now spin around and jump to the right!”  I rolled my eyes, but was too winded to complain about her “dance lessons.”

The devastated road was littered with broken glass, gravel, and bullet casings.  As I tried to pivot and turn, I lost my footing and slammed my shoulder into the driver-side door of a motorwagon.  The vehicle rocked on its wheels as I gasped and chanced another look behind us.  The ghouls were gaining.

A pair of hooves wrapped around my saddlebags, pushing me forward as gusts of wind played with my mane.  A sing-song voice giggled just behind my ears.  “Looks like someone needs a dance partner!”

Lily managed to shove me out of the way just before the slaver slid over the same stretch of road and dented the vehicle’s door with his forehead.  He stumbled away from the impact on wobbly hooves, blinking stupidly as a trickle of blood dribbled down his muzzle.  

Ghouls clambered over the tops of the motorwagons behind us, their hooves clanging against rusted metal as they snarled and hissed.  Hungry eyes rolled in their sockets as they spotted the dazed slaver, and the zombies closest to him hissed and lunged forward.  Lily’s hooves left my saddlebags as she twisted in the air and kicked off of the nearest vehicle, launching herself through the air.  Over the ghouls’ growling I heard her excited voice cry out in delight as she dove into the fray, “Hey Nohta!  It’s a mosh pit!”

Lily splayed her wings wide as she tackled the leading ghoul, raking her bladed feathers across another zombie’s face while she forced the first up against the shoulder-high concrete barrier on the side of the road.  The second ghoul shrieked as it reared back, blinded when Lily’s blades sliced through its yellowed eyes.  I heard bones breaking as Lily slammed the first ghoul into the embankment.  It went limp underneath her cackling body as she turned to stick out her tongue and make a googly-eyed face at a third.

The other ghouls were beginning to catch up with us.  They ignored Lily and the slaver, instead turning their undead stares in my direction.  An excessively loud gunshot rang over my head, smearing bits of brain and shards of skull against a windshield.  Nohta leapt in front of me just as the small herd scrambled over a vehicle.  We couldn't run anymore.  It was much too late for that.

My little pistol floated in front of my eyes as I activated S.A.T.S. and took aim.  Nohta’s back hooves were in the process of caving in an undead chest as my beams of light speared one ghoul’s eye and burned a smoking crater through another’s hindquarters.  

My aim was still atrocious though.  S.A.T.S. did its best to compensate for a third target I had queued, but instead the rest of my barrage flew past a zombie’s face and impacted with the city limits sign.  Centuries of neglect had rendered the metal clips holding it in place into little more than bands of rust, and they stood little chance against my accidental assault.  They snapped like overly-stressed rubber bands from the heat of my blasts, and the sign groaned as it came crashing down atop a motorwagon.

Metal screeched against metal as I shielded my eyes with my Pipbuck.  The roof of the vehicle caved in, spewing glass in every direction to pepper us all with tiny shards.  I looked up past my hoof to find Nohta covered in dozens of little cuts and shaking like a dog to rid herself of the glass.

Lily was wrestling with another ghoul, holding it in a headlock and grinding her hoof into its mane.  She laughed hysterically as it struggled in her hooves, “Heehee!  Noogie noogie!”

My jaw dropped as I stared at her.  “LILY!”  Honestly!  What was she doing!?

She looked up, her pierced ear bobbing frantically, and grinned an apology.  “Oops!”  A twisting jerk of her hooves snapped the ghoul’s neck, and her wings shrugged as she dropped its limp body at her hooves.  “My bad!”

Beside her was the slaver, finally making himself useful.  Four ghouls had surrounded him, biting down on his thick barding, but they might as well have been biting the concrete.  He shoved one of them away into a motorwagon, breaking one of the taillights as he rammed the zombie up against the vehicle’s trunk.  Bringing a single hoof down on the poll of its head, he squashed its skull like an overly-ripe melon.  Goddess, he was strong!

Lily and Nohta converged on the slaver, each of them prying a zombie away from him as he finally fell to his knees, exhausted.  The final ghoul had already sunk its teeth into one of his hind legs, but he couldn’t shake it off.  I contemplated leaving him to that fate, but Lily had already risked herself to save his life.  If she had some reason for keeping him alive, then he must have been worth something.  

That didn’t stop me from taking my sweet time pulling my shotgun from my packs.  A single slug tore through the ghoul’s ribs, painting the road and the stallion with rotting viscera.  He shoved the weakened zombie to the ground, rolling on top of it and stamping a forehoof through its face.

I took a moment to examine the carnage.  The road reeked of decaying flesh, and was littered with decomposed bodies.  Lily and Nohta were sporting a few dozen cuts each, and the slaver looked like he’d be lucky to stand, let alone run.  But there was one thing that struck me as good fortune: the only sounds that graced my ears were those of the gunfire from the city.  The fastest ghouls in the herd were all dead.  

Or rather, they were dead for now.  I failed to suppress a shudder as I remembered all those lifeless corpses in Coltsville stirring to motion.  Hopefully Bright Eyes could only do that with the ghouls in her immediate vicinity...

Nohta sat on her haunches, chugging a bottle of water as she glared at the slaver.  I slid my shotgun back into my packs, trading it for a bottle of disinfectant and cotton balls, and tended to Nohta’s cuts.  It was only as she finished off the bottle that I noticed the faint clicking sound coming from her leg.

My lips pursed in a frown as I pointed at the bottle with a hoof.  “Err, Nohta… that was irradiated water.”  

She lifted her Pipbuck to her eyes, checking the increase in rads.  “Oh,” she stated in a humdrum voice.  “Fuck.”  

I couldn’t comprehend how she could be so nonchalant about something so terrible, but after our recent spat I was in no hurry to agitate her further.  Instead, I simply I groaned into a hoof as I admitted, “I need to make more Dragon’s Breath anyway…”

“I think we’re more in need of health potions, Sis.”  Nohta waved off my concern with a hoof, nodding behind me.  “Especially if we’re heading into that.”  I sealed up the last of her little lacerations and peered over my shoulder.  I hadn’t really payed attention to the sight of the city before, not with the rolling hills obscuring my view and the snarling herd of undead demanding my attention.  Now it was impossible not to notice how close we were to the city.

Spursburg loomed over us like a gargantuan decomposing corpse left to rot in the sun.  A hoof-full of exceedingly tall buildings nestled in its center stood defiantly against age and decay like the ribcage of some massive beast.  Thick vines and cables hung between the structures, covered in clumps of sickly moss and resembling decomposing tendons that hadn’t yet lost their putrid meat.

My jaw dropped at the sight.  “Those buildings are… tall.”

Lily giggled, pronking neatly over the panting slaver and pointing her wing at the city skyline.  “Pfft!  That’s nothing!  Those buildings aren’t even twenty-five stories, ya big goof!”  My brow crinkled as I stared at her, but she only snickered into a hoof and grinned.  “You should see Manehattan sometime!  Now those buildings are tall!”

I shook my head at the ludicrous thought of somepony purposely building structures taller than what stood before us.  Even at its deepest point, The Stable only went down three levels!  Surely space in Equestria wasn’t at such a premium that ponies had been forced to build halfway to the moon…

The stallion limped towards us, breaking me from my reverie and reminding me of the task at hoof.  My muzzle lifted primly in the air as I made a point of mending Lily’s trivial wounds before acknowledging his presence.  I looked him up and down, noticing the dozens of bite-marks and bits of glass still embedded in his coat.

Leaving him as he was, I flicked my tail and turned back to Lily, “Now that things have settled down somewhat, would you mind explaining exactly why we didn’t let the ghouls eat this buffoon?”

“We uh… We kinda need him, Candy,” Lily pleaded, tapping her hooves in front of herself timidly.

“By the stars and moon, why!?”  I demanded.

The stallion grunted, “Do any of you idiots know how to unlock slave collars?”  I bristled at the question, opening my mouth to reply just as Nohta’s hoof collided with the stallion’s jaw.  He fell over, making a terribly disgusting squishing noise as he landed on top of a ghoul’s sliced torso.  

The slaver didn’t even have time to nurse his face before Nohta was standing over top of him and snarling.  “Speak when spoken to, bitch.”

Lily’s wings flapped excitedly as she chortled, “I think I like it when Nohta gets angry at somepony other than me!”  Stilling her wings, she continued, “But he does kinda have a point.  I can’t brain well enough to take one of these things off on my own.”

“So… we’re relying on him to take these off for us?”  I blinked incredulously at Lily’s innocent smile, but she didn’t seem to grasp my meaning.  I asked my next question in as calm a voice as I could muster, which amounted to something just below a scream.  “Lily, are you insane!?  He’s a slaver!  He wants us dead!  Or worse!”

“I didn’t want you dead,” the slaver groaned.

I had to grasp Nohta’s hoof in my magic to keep her from pummeling him.  Her eyes caught mine as she looked back, flashing with an unbridled rage before she tore her hoof out of my grip.  Her tail whipped through the air as she stomped off, Mother’s horseshoes clinking against the pavement with every step.

I inched closer to the stallion, not bothering to conceal my own displeasure with his presence.  “Oh?  You just wanted to sell us, is that it?  To whom?”

Despite his face looking like it had been used as a cutting board, the stallion grinned.  “Who the fuck do you think?”  His eyes roamed over my body uncomfortably before he continued, “Of course, it’d be a shame to send a flank like yours to Unity or the factories.  What Red Eye doesn’t know won’t hurt him.  Maybe I should keep you for myself…”  Goddess, I must confess that I very nearly shoved my pistol through his teeth and pulled the trigger.  Honestly, I might have, if Nohta hadn’t been in my way.

I didn’t bother to stop her this time.  She stood over top of him, holding his face between her hooves to slam the back of his head into the pavement.  Just when I thought that she was going to split his skull open, she instead held her hoof back and slugged him across the jaw.

She got up from the slaver, and walked back to my side while staring at me through hard eyes.  “Go ahead,” she challenged me.  “Tell me you didn’t want to do that yourself.”  My mouth hung open as I glared at my hooves, unable to come up with a proper response.  My little sister knew me far too well.  I huffed, and directed my attention back to the slaver.

My voice shook as I tried to keep my rage in check.  “Your next words are going to decide whether you live or die.”

“Brahminshit.”  His lips worked lazily as he spat out a glob of blood and saliva at my hooves.  “You need me a hell of a lot more than I need you.”

My pistol floated up to the underside of his jaw, raising his eyes to mine as I stood over him.  “Have you been to Stable 76?”

A wicked grin spread across his face before he answered.  “Your overmare cried like a little bitch when I let my boys have her.”

I stood still, feeling a burning pressure welling up within my chest.  It invaded my temples as my eyes narrowed and I clenched my teeth.  Lily landed at my side, placing a hoof on my shoulder and giggling.

My ears lay flat against my mane as I rounded on her.  “Lily!  I’ve had enough of—”

Her hoof shifted from my shoulder to prod my muzzle, silencing my outburst as Lily smiled and winked at me.  I blinked in confusion, but Lily only smiled and turned towards the slaver.  Lowering her face to his, she batted her lashes innocently and asked a question.  “I bet you watched, didn’t you?”

I gasped, retracting my pistol.  “Lily!”

The brown stallion snorted, “Funniest shit I’ve seen since I got here.”

“Yup!  I could tell!” Lily announced proudly, poking his armored chest with a hoof.  “You look like somepony that likes to laugh!”  She nodded knowingly before holding a hoof to her chest and beaming a winning smile at the slaver.  “I like to laugh too!  I also like caps!  Teeth or wings?”

The slaver furrowed his brow before answering in a flat tone.  “What?”

“Teeth or wings?” Lily repeated, her grin growing a little more manic.

The slaver shook his head.  “What do you—”

“Teeth it is!” Lily yelled and clopped her hooves together like an ecstatic little filly being given a present on her birthday.  Without any further warning, she slammed a hoof against the stallion’s face, pinning his head against the road.  Before any of us could react, she bent her neck down to clench his left ear in her jaws.

The slaver squirmed underneath her as panic gripped his features.  Nohta and I stared, wide-eyed, as Lily gave one last psychopathic chuckle in a happy-go-lucky voice.  “Fhud haf pick wnngs!”  The stallion’s eyes bulged in fear.  I couldn’t blame him.  

In a jerking, twisting motion Lily wrenched her head back.  The slaver thrashed frantically as I saw the skin on the side of his face stretch and tear.  When Lily pulled away, she was still holding his ear in her wild-eyed, manic grin.  Blood dripped from her chin as she giggled and flapped her wings.

The slaver tried to scream, but his cursing came out muffled under Lily’s hoof.  She tucked her muzzle into her saddlebags, depositing the ear before making a disgusted face and scraping off her tongue with her free hoof.  “Peh!  When was the last time you took a bath?  Ballad tasted a lot better than you!”

Goddess, I couldn’t believe it.  She was still cracking jokes… 

Lily paused, wagging her tail like a puppy waiting for a treat.  When she got nothing more than mumbled swears and groans of pain, she drew a deep breath and tried again.  “I saaaaaaid, Ballad tasted a lot—”  Her eyes shot wide as she grinned sheepishly.  “Oh!  Oops!”  

Using her hoof to turn his head over on the road, she spoke into his other ear.  “I said that Ballad—”

“I FUCKING HEARD YOU THE FIRST GODDESSES-DAMNED TIME!”  The slaver thrashed with all that was left of his spent strength, but was unable to shove Lily away. 

“Holy fuck, Lily…”  Nohta stepped forward, wearing an expression of revulsion tinged with amusement.  “You bit his ear off.”

Realizing my jaw had slackened considerably, I closed my mouth and cleared my throat.  “She, ahh… she does that.”

Lily cocked her head to the side, smiling slyly.  “You could say I’ve taken…” she paused, snorting as she laughed at a joke I wasn’t privy to, “ ‘More Than One’ that way!”  Blood dribbled down her chin as she giggled and poked me in the ribs with her knee.  “Ha!  Did you notice how I worked that in there?  I’m so smart!”  Rising to the air with a triumphant hoof-pump, she shouted, “A-boo-yah!”  The slaver took the opportunity to lift his head from the asphalt and glare through one enraged eye.

Nohta raised an accusatory hoof in Lily’s direction and stated simply,  “You really are fucking crazy.”

Lily threw her forelegs wide, bursting into song while she hovered.  “Crazy, she calls me…  Sure I’m craaazy…  Crazy in love—”  She stopped as abruptly as she began, and stared down the road behind us with a worried expression.

She licked her lips and swallowed before muttering, “We, uh… we need to keep running.”

My brow furrowed as I questioned her, “Lily?  What is it?”

“Ghouls,” she said, panic working its way into her features.  She slowly grew more and more animated, waving her hooves through the air as she pointed behind us.  “More ghouls.  Lots and lots of ghouls.  I can’t count that high.”

I resisted the urge to ask if that meant we had three ghouls coming our way, and instead raised my forelegs atop the hood of the crushed motorwagon.  Peering over the sign, I felt a jolt of fear race down my spine.

Lily whimpered behind me.  “Umm… Grumpy says it looks like 156, but he isn’t sure.”  I turned back to see her gasp and raise her hooves to her cheeks, as if a great realization had just washed over her.  “That’s a dozen baker’s dozens!  There are literally dozens of dozens of them!”

She momentarily calmed herself to tap her hooves together and state, “Grumpy also says we should run.”

My voice shook as I nodded my head.  “I’m inclined to agree with Grumpy.”

“Candy!”  Lily yelled, holding her hooves in front of her face, “That many ghouls is like… a whole lot!  It’s like two and two and two and two and—”

I ignored her, instead turning to the slaver as I contemplated whether to heal him or let him die.  In the end, I settled on a compromise.  Smirking, I told him plainly.  “You should start running.”

“…two and two and two—”

He only looked up at me expectantly.  “Are you fucking insane?”

“…two and two and two and—”

“According to her?” I glanced up at Lily.  “Very.”

The slaver grunted and winced as he hissed, “Don’t you want that collar off?”

“…two and two and two—”

Vibrations rippled underneath my hooves, knocking dust from the motorwagons.  My horn flared as I inspected him, and I spent the minimal amount of effort to get him up and moving.  “You should be able to run now, but whether you live or die is up to you.”  If Luna and Celestia were unwilling to do me any favors, then why should I help this fool?  The light of my horn died as I glared coolly into his eyes.  “I’m willing to take my chances either way.”  I didn’t wait for his response, I simply turned and ran.

“…two and two and two—”

Lily was already wearing my nerves thin, and she had only just started.  I screamed towards the sky as Nohta and I raced past another rusted motorwagon.  “Lily!  Count later!  We need to go!”

She floated just above me, keeping pace but refusing to shut up.  “Two and I and two and can’t and two and stop!”

I mistook that as one of her commands, and paused in the middle of the road to question her.  Her gaze was locked behind us as she continued her mantra.  Following her eyes, I saw the slaver hobbling towards us as quickly as he was able.  But behind him…  

An immense dust cloud followed behind the herd as they raced directly toward us.  The sharp sounds of their hooves denting metal and breaking glass pierced through the low rumble as motorwagons were either climbed over or shoved aside.  My shoulder gave a little twinge as I remembered Coltsville.  That was all the encouragement I needed.

The slaver had nearly caught up to us when I reared back and bolted in the opposite direction.  I could hear his hoofbeats growing more steady—and more rapid—behind us, but the sound was being overtaken by the hissing and snarling at our backs.  Eventually his steps were lost amidst all the others.  But his screaming…  That lasted right up until the reverse proximity fuse on his bomb collar triggered.

I had done my part.  His death was his own fault.  The bomb collar was more mercy than he deserved.

“…two and two and two—”

Spursburg opened up all around us as we weaved our way through the vehicles.  Squat little houses, every one of them indistinguishable from the others, raced past us as we followed Lily toward the inner city.  Based off of the noise, she was leading us straight into the heart of a warzone!

Smaller buildings—warehouses, shops, restaurants, clinics, and apartment complexes—lay against each other in a crumbled heap of debris and broken concrete that splayed itself around the larger buildings like mulch in a garden.  Ponies darted to and fro amidst the wreckage, occasionally pausing long enough to pop off a few bursts of rifle-fire towards other ponies.  Explosions rippled through the debris, tossing pulverized stone and mortar to the air like confetti at a party.  The constant staccato rhythm of gunfire echoed off the buildings and reverberated through the street, growing louder with every hurried step we took.

“…and two and two—”

My eyes darted in every direction as I followed Lily’s counting.  In a third-story window of a blasted brick building, I spotted a bright-green mare wearing a leather cap and thick goggles.  Our eyes locked for a single moment as she raised her rifle in my direction, but then she noticed what I was running from.  I only had time to see her turn her head and shout into the building before Lily lead us around a cafe sitting on the street corner.  A moment later the hellish cacophony of dozens of automatic rifles echoed through the streets behind us, followed shortly by the roar of enraged ghouls.  The green mare might not have been my friend, but we at least shared a mutual foe.

“…two and two and two—”

I had no earthly idea where we were headed or what we were running into.  The vines that hung between the buildings were getting thicker, and so was the air.  Strangely enough, the air was humid—nothing at all like the dry heat of the desert.  The scent of gunpowder hung heavily on the wind, but I also caught a distinct whiff of rotting plant matter mixed with ozone.  The cloying air stuck to every exposed part of my body, coating my fur in the reeking funk of decaying filth.  It was certainly no place for a lady; I could feel my mane getting frizzier by the second!

We finally came to a wide open parking lot in front of a large factory.  The building itself was shorter than some of the surrounding structures, being only six stories tall, but it was still impressive by my standards.  The parking lot veered off to the side, leading to several loading ramps for larger motorwagons.  An imposing statue of a rearing pegasus with flared wings and a fierce expression stood proudly outside the terraced steps leading up to the main building.  Moss hung from the statue’s wings and clung to its barrel, but did little to diminish its intimidating appearance.  Bolted to the marble base underneath the statue, a brass placard declared that we had found “Ministry of Awesome Production Facility #24.”

 “…two and two and two and—”

Lily and Nohta were the first to reach the wide doors atop the steps, throwing them open and bounding inside.  Gunfire flashed through the doorway as they made short work of the building’s previous inhabitants, and as I stepped through the threshold I noticed several headless ghouls lying in twitching heaps on the floor.  All around us were heavy-looking trophy cases, displaying countless golden statues and blue ribbons in front of pictures of a smirking cyan mare.  I couldn’t help but notice a resemblance between her expression and the one Lily always wore.  After running full-out for so long I was too winded to do anything but point and grunt at the ghouls climbing the steps behind us.

Nohta and Lily slammed the doors shut, bracing their backs against the thin metal moments before the herd rammed the doors head on.  Nohta—Luna bless her strength—held her ground, but Lily slid inward from the impact, opening up a small crack wide enough for one of the zombies to squirm half-way through.

“Two and two and two!”  Lily finally finished counting, swinging her wing upward in a wide arc to eviscerate the ghoul with a single stroke.  Its guts spilled over the floor as I pulled our only option out of my packs.

The little grenade floated over the ghoul’s growling head before I pulled the pin.  “Shut…  the…”  I tried to scream my warning, but I was too out of breath.  I stumbled forward, standing overtop of Lily as I lent what little strength I could.

A deafening boom warped the metal doors inward.  It left a tinny ringing in my ears even as it thinned the herd outside, buying us a few precious seconds.  A dozen little holes were ripped through the doors as tiny fragments blasted through the metal.  The force of the blast blew the gutted zombie fully through the door, exposing its ravaged hindquarters and shredded back hooves.  It wobbled on its front legs for a moment before falling over with a final snarl, hitting the floor with a wet smack.

Nohta was the first to recover, locking the doors in place and grunting, “These won’t hold for long.  We need to keep going.”

“We should head for the roof,” Lily asserted.  “Then we can fly away to…”  She trailed off, taking note of what wasn’t on the side of my body.  “Err… oops?”

“LILY!”  I groaned, “Ugh!  Where are we supposed to go now!?”

Hooves smashed frantically against the doors, widening the little holes my grenade had rent through the metal.  Our barrier was looking more and more like a clumsily opened can of vegetables with every second.  An altogether terrifying realization to come across when you suddenly understand that you are the corn.

My sister was the one who acted first, grabbing me by the hoof and dashing further inside.  She screamed as we ran.  “Fuck this shit!  There’s no Goddess-damn time!”


**************


The doors really didn’t last long at all.  We had only just passed the rusted front desk in the lobby and reached the factory’s floor when the ghouls crashed through the flimsy barrier.  They spilled into the lobby behind us, clambering over each other as the zombies in the lead tripped and were promptly trampled by those in the back.  The zombies too close to the doorframe ripped and tore their hides as they struggled to reach the front of the pack, heedless of their own injuries.  There was something manic in the way the ghouls chased us.  We were more than just food to them.  It was as if they were addicts chasing a drug.  

My ponderings ceased abruptly when Nohta shoved me from behind, ushering me along the faded lines painted on the polished concrete floor.  She really needn’t have bothered.  Just hearing the guttural growls and shrill hissing behind us was more than enough to move my legs.  Not to mention the looks in all those cold, dead eyes...

Rows and rows of tall racks holding neatly stacked wooden crates flew past us as we zoomed across the factory floor.  Near the top of the shelves vines as thick as ponies weaved between the steel beams, covered in broad dark green leaves and brightly colored lichens.  I had absolutely no idea how the flora could survive in such dark conditions, let alone create such a lush canopy of vegetation.  Only a few yellowed windows dotted the factory’s walls and roof, allowing just the barest hint of diffused light to penetrate the cavernous interior of the building.  Only slightly less surprising, given the oppressive humidity, were the mushrooms that lay strewn about the floor—though even they were the size of sofa chairs.

I grew up in a stable in the desert.  In my early educational expeditions into the canyon outside our home, I grew used to short shrubs, hardy grasses, and the occasional cactus.  But this alien landscape made me feel as if I’d stepped into a fairy tale.  Or one of Father’s cheesy sci-fi stories.  With the snarling herd of undead nipping at our hocks, either was equally believable.

As if that wasn’t enough, my Pipbuck was vibrating so violently that I was sure I was going to slip and tumble to the floor.  A dozen warning messages were flashing through my vision, each of them vying for my attention more urgently than the last.  Fleeting glimpses of intriguing phrases such as “multiple contacts,” “pack predator,” and “biological anomaly” rushed through my vision, but I was far too focused on the slick patches of algae and slime mold that dotted my immediate path to pay my Pipbuck much attention.

Just one misplaced hoof could send me careening off course into a wall or steel rack, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what the ghouls would do after that!  I blinked hard and shook my head as I tried to keep pace with Lily, peering past line after line of techno-babble that obscured my sight.  It was the last message, however, that heralded the chaos that was to come.

[Preparing Countermeasures]

There were eyes in the canopy of vines.  And wings.  Large wings.  

My mouth opened to scream, “What!?  You’ve got to be kidd—”  

My little sonic deterrent, resting so peacefully in the slot of my Pipbuck mere moments ago, came to life with a hellish shriek that echoed off the walls and floor of the building.  The unseen beasts in the shadows stirred to life as well, bellowing in pain and rage.  The creatures thrashed against the vines and the steel racks, knocking the wooden crates from the shelves.

Storage boxes rained down all around us, exploding into hundreds of wooden splinters and scattering all manner of gems, metal plates, and electrical equipment in every direction.  A shadow in the rafters moved out of my vision, and a moment later something massive thudded against the ground behind us.  Lily flew ahead of us, motioning for Nohta and me to follow her before she pulled a ninety degree turn down one of the aisles between the steel racks.  

I had no idea what she was thinking, but she was already pushing the range of the reverse-proximity trigger held in my packs.  Lily left me with no choice other than to trust her, or else her bomb collar would explode as soon as I lagged behind.  It was all I could do to try and shove the numerous distractions from my head and focus on keeping up with her.  I should have paid my surroundings a bit more attention.

Nohta ran ahead of me, grabbing one of the steel corner beams and slinging herself in a graceful arc down the aisle without skipping a beat.  I, however, slid along the slick concrete before I slammed into a massive support pillar.  Lightning flashed down my side as I felt a rib crack, but my cry was drowned out by the screeching device on my hoof.  I scrambled on the floor, getting my hooves back underneath me just as a trio of ghouls crashed into the same pillar.  I cast one quick glance behind me, and saw why my Pipbuck was making such a racket.

The beast towered over me.  Its head was nearly as big as I was, and its shoulders were nearly as wide as the aisle.  Dagger-like claws, slick and shiny with blood, jutted out of the end of gargantuan paws.  Leathery wings rose from its back, intimidating in their own right, but they were nothing compared to the scorpion tail…  

The manticore’s eyes met mine for one horrible moment as it raised a paw high above its head.  I wasn’t sure if I was about to be crushed into jelly or sliced into ribbons.  My hooves flailed uselessly underneath my body, failing to find purchase on the damp ground.  In my desperation I poured magic into my horn, unsure if I’d be able to teleport or not.

Blood burst upwards like a fountain, gushing through the air as I felt the wake of a bullet streak past my ears.  The manticore fell backwards, clutching its right eye and thrashing wildly.  Ghouls piled on top of the beast like a swarm of ants, biting and pummeling every piece of the manticore they could reach.  Half a dozen of them were crushed when the beast rolled over, sweeping its tail and paws in wide arcs to rid itself of the tiny biting nuisances.  Bellowing in rage, it turned its face in my direction, exposing the bloody crater sitting beside another enraged eye.

That was more than enough for me.  I turned and ran—still slipping and sliding as awkwardly as a newborn—just in time to see Lily eject the cartridge from her rifle, hovering a few feet above the floor as she took aim once more.  A zombie bounded down the aisle, its wide-open maw close enough that I could smell its reeking breath.  Lily’s rifle kicked, and the ghoul’s head was reduced to a thick red paste that coated my shoulder and stuck in my mane.  I felt one of its gore-coated teeth bounce off my cheek just as I finally found mostly dry floor underneath my hooves.

I galloped flat-out after that.  My rib was protesting like a knife in my side, but I couldn’t stop!  I followed Lily as she swooped down another aisle, and saw Nohta up ahead.  She was frantically unwrapping a length of chain from a cleat in the wall.  My eyes followed the chain upward, seeing the massive steel shutter it was connected to.  What was she doing!?  

Eeking out every last bit of willpower I possessed, I urged my legs onwards toward the door.  Nohta’s eyes darted between Lily and me, and then to the metal above her before she undid the final loop.  The barrier unfurled, racing for the floor like a thunderous guillotine.  Lily grabbed my shoulders, pulling me forward, and then threw us both to the ground as the heavy sheet metal came crashing down.  At the last moment, Lily cursed loudly in my ear and reached back behind us just in time to snatch her hat from under the crushing metal barrier.  The door slammed home inches from my mane as we continued to slide across the floor into the next section of the factory.

My Pipbuck finally, mercifully, quieted itself as we lay panting on the cool factory floor.  The sounds of the manticores and ghouls tearing each other to shreds just beyond the shutter door was the only thing that reached my ears.  I pushed myself to my hooves, winced when my fetlock tested my injured barrel a little too forcefully, and activated my spell.  We weren’t out of this yet.

“Woo!  That was fun!  Let’s go again!”  Lily bounded by my side, beaming.  How in Luna’s name she had any energy left to her at all, I had no idea.

“For… you… maybe,” I coughed.  In case you were unaware, nausea, shortness of breath, and chest pain make a rather unpleasant combination.

My sister didn’t exactly share Lily’s enthusiasm.  Nohta was still fighting for breath as she wobbled towards us.  “Holy fuck… Goddess-damn…  Son of a bitch…”

One last stab of pain bit into my torso as I reset my rib.  Watching Nohta grimace as the bone popped loudly back into its proper place, I grunted out as much of a response as I could between gulps of air.  “Quite…”

Lily flapped her wings, speckling the floor with blood.  For the life of me, I honestly couldn’t recall when she had used her blades.  In a sing-song voice, she gently chided us.  “Tsk tsk.  We don’t have time for a nap, you guys.  As soon as that party winds down the guests are gonna start looking for something else to do.”

My knees buckled underneath me.  It was a monumental effort just to speak.  “R-Right…  Just…  One mo—”

“Nopey dopey!  Time to go!”  Lily’s hoof was a blur as she shoved something small and chalky in my mouth.  I was so surprised by the action that I didn’t even have time to protest.  The tablet was already dissolving on my tongue when she started massaging my throat like an animal in a veterinary clinic.  “Swallow it, Candy!  Ladies never spit!”  

That was when I learned that exhaustion does not preclude one from blushing.

Energy flooded my body, washing away my fatigue like dirt down a shower drain.  It was warm, and soothing.  I felt… alive.  Rising to my hooves, I couldn’t help but ask, “Lily!  What was that!?”

She giggled as she waltzed over to Nohta.  “It was a party-favor, silly!  You looked like you could use a good Buck!”

“I...”  My jaw dropped as my blush deepened.  “WHAT!?”

Lily offered another of the chems to Nohta, who promptly bit down on the tablet and swallowed.  Of her own volition, I might add.  Tossing the empty bottle nonchalantly in my direction, Lily beamed as she watched my reaction.

I turned the bottle over in my magic, scrunching up my muzzle as I read the label.  “You forced me to take a chem?” I asked, incredulous.  For whatever indiscernible reason, the absurdity of that fact had a certain… humorous quality to it.  Before I could reign it in, a single feminine giggle bubbled up through my lips.

“Now’s the time for it, Sis.”  Nohta rose as easily as I did, hooking a hoof behind her towards the door.  “We need to get the fuck out of here!”

Having that chem—and all of the testosterone that came with it—coursing through my system couldn’t have possibly been a good idea.  Long ago after one of my usual weekend-long study sessions, Pearl had tried to discreetly suggest that I might benefit from a very low dosage of the steroid, but before I could ask why Father became absolutely furious.  That was one of the most glorious arguments to ever take place in The Clinic, and for the life of me I had absolutely no idea what prompted the debacle in the first place.  Buck certainly had its uses; we had given it to Mother when she fell ill.  And several of the aging stallions in The Stable had been able to go about their days with a bit more pep after being prescribed the drug.

But I most certainly didn’t have any of those ailments.  And beyond the rush of energy and general feelings of well-being that the caravan regulars swore by, the only other possible use that came to mind was…  Well, it was nothing that I needed to concern myself with.  I was far too busy for that sort of nonsense.

Months later when Pearl made his follow-up suggestion that I spend my 21st birthday at The Stable’s bar instead of working with him at The Clinic, I had to be the one to put my hoof down.  Pearl may have outranked me, but with Father having finally resumed his Caravan duties I was the lady of my household.  And ladies do not act that way.

On the one hoof, I knew the risks of dependency that came with ingesting entire tablets of the chem all at once.  I didn’t need for tomorrow to come only for me to feel weaker than I usually did.  I was only hoping that, much like Nohta’s previous experimentation, one dose would do no lasting harm.

On the other hoof…  Dear Princess Luna I felt good!  Forget the risks!  This was worth it!

I shook my head, trying to settle the raging dissonance in my mind and fight back the giddy urge to smile.  “Ahem,” I cleared my throat, hiding my growing grin with a hoof. “So, ah… Where to next?”  No, tail!  Stop swishing like that!

“Someone’s having fun!”  Lily snorted into her hoof before trotting off past a complicated looking system of machinery and conveyor belts.  “Follow me!”

I fell in line, eager to see where the day would lead us.  I was almost too pre-occupied with the utterly fascinating machinery to notice Nohta cantering up beside me and tapping my shoulder.

“Are you okay?  You’re acting kinda weird.”  In spite of the furrowed eyebrow and ghastly scar across her cheek, my sister was a rather pretty young mare.  I paused to stand in place, pawing at her face with my hoof.  I couldn’t help but giggle at her reaction.

The stripes on her face wavered, blurring together as the air rippled all around us.  My goodness, the light filtering through her lilting mohawk was beautiful!  Why hadn’t I ever noticed that before?

“Uh…  Sis?”  The poor thing seemed genuinely worried now.  So sweet of her.  My hoof broke contact with her cheek as she turned to shout.  “Lily?  The hell is going on with her?”

The bouncing bundle of blue up ahead stopped and tilted its head.  “What’s the deal- OH PONYFEATHERS!”  Lily dashed right up in front of my face, her lovely red eyes as wide as dinner plates.  The way her pierced ear was bobbing up and down was absolutely ridiculous!  I snorted into a hoof, wondering when everything had become so absurd.

My sister’s tail swished as she yelled.  “WHAT’D YOU GIVE HER!?”

“Err… Buck…”  Lily tapped her forehooves together, clearly reticent to completely spill the beans.  As my sister raised an eyebrow, Lily finally conceded, “...laced with just a pinch of Pink Sand.”  

I was suddenly stricken with the ludicrous notion that Nohta’s eyebrow might actually flutter away from her face and float away to the tune of polka music.  It and everything else in sight was certainly wriggling enough to do so.  I couldn’t help but wonder if I was wiggling like the world around me.

Lifting a hoof in front of my face, I stared in awe as the white and red left a trail across my vision, which then rippled like disturbed water before catching up to where I knew my leg was.  I couldn’t help it.  I burst out laughing, clutching my barrel to keep my ribs from launching into orbit.

Nohta wasn’t nearly as amused as I was.  “What the fuck is Pink Sand!?”

Despite the tears of mirth in my eyes that were making the already warped and distorted world even more blurry, I realized that Lily looked positively uncomfortable.  “Err…  It’s a mild hallucinogen mixed with some… other stuff.  It’ll wear off in a couple hours!  She didn’t get much of a dose!”  I was convulsing with giggles as Lily lifted my forehoof and placed it over her shoulder, urging Nohta to do the same.  “We just need to get her moving!”  

Nohta growled and rolled her eyes, but obliged.  “The moment she starts talking about righteous vibes or some other brahmin-shit, you’re getting a black eye.”

“But Nohta,” I gasped, needing to share my great revelation.  “We are vibrating!”   When my sister’s only response was to grumble and stare forward, I felt the need to explain further.  “We’re all vibrating together!”  I could feel Lily at my side, trying to suppress her laughter.  Well, at least Lily understood.

The two of them did their best to guide my tittering form up the metal stairs that lead to a series of catwalks above the factory floor.  I was having far too much fun to argue with their notion that I required aid in locomotion.  My grin only widened when I realized that the colossal machines below us looked like big soda bottles.  They probably held enough Sparkle-Cola to swim in!

Of course, being in such close proximity to two sweaty mares who hadn’t bathed in days brought a rather pungent scent wafting across my muzzle.  With a start, I realized that a good portion of the funk was coming from me.  With both my hooves preoccupied, I had nothing behind which to hide my snickering.  “Hee… hee hee… We stink.”  Oh my goodness!  Did I just say that?  “Ha!  I’m sorry!”

I felt Nohta’s groan rumble out of her throat, sending tiny vibrations through my shoulder.  “Fucking hell, Lily.  This is worse than when you got her drunk.”

Lily grinned sheepishly at my side, adjusting her wing to drape it across my back.  “At least she’s not, err…”

“At least she’s not what?” Nohta demanded.

“Uhh…  You know.”  Lily cleared her throat before elucidating, “Feeling the other effects?”

The rippling visual distortions were beginning to fade away, leaving me with nothing more than an empowered sense of vitality, a warm feeling of contentedness, and an oddly daring desire to exercise my newfound strength at the nearest opportunity.  I was almost wishing that a few ghouls would make it past the manticores and find us.  Unfortunately, the noise from the other section of the facility had died down considerably.

The two warm bodies helping me along were moving incredibly fast over the metal catwalks.  The knowledge that I had the both of them by my side to help me, even when I was quite sure that I would have been fine on my own, was most reassuring.  And even better, their toned and lithe muscles tickled as they brushed against me.  A broad smile worked its way across my face as I realized that a girl could get used to that sort of thing.  

“This is fun,” I purred.  “You two are really soft.”  Realizing that Nohta had left her cheek completely undefended I craned my neck down to nuzzle against it, feeling a lovely electric tingle race across my face as I did so.  Why did everything feel so good!?  I giggled as Nohta recoiled from my innocent display of affection.

Lily’s jaw dipped as she stared dead-ahead.  “Uhh…”

“OH FUCKING HELL, LILY!”  Nohta’s shout echoed off the factory walls.

The combined body heat of all three of us was becoming rather oppressive.  There had to be a way to cool down!  “This barding is really tight.  Can I take it off?”  If we could stop for just a moment, I was sure that I could concentrate enough to undo these straps...

Nohta ignored me, glaring at the anxious pegasus on my other side.  “I am going to beat the everloving shit out of you!  And then I’m gonna force feed you a potion and do it again!”

“Nohta!”  I giggled as I chided her.  “Why didn’t you tell me this was so much fun!?”  Seriously!  I felt like I could tell her anything!  Why hadn’t she confided this in me?  Oh well, it was no matter.  I could forgive her.

She huffed, staring straight forward at a small white door.  “You’re not having fun, Candy.  You just think you are.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes, noticing—as if for the first time—the sensation my eyelashes left on my cheeks.  “Hmph… My sister’s a worrywort.  She doesn’t like fun.”  Turning to Lily, I giggled and purred, “But you know how to have fun, don’t you?”  Lily’s muzzle scrunched up as her face went rigid.  For some reason, I could no longer feel her wing on my back.

I don’t really remember where the conversation went after that.  To be honest I don’t recall much of anything save for waking up several hours later in a smallish office with a wooden desk and an inoperable terminal.  Luckily, the rest had done my aching muscles wonders.  Beside my bedroll were several empty bottles of water, a used inhaler of some sort, and an empty box of snack cakes labeled “Twinkie Pinkies.”  

I was rather dismayed at the idea of having used another chem, though I suppose the lack of withdrawal effects I felt was worth it.  To be honest, I was more put off that I had no recollection of eating the pastries.  After all, they were strawberry flavored.  And apparently fully endorsed by “The M.O.M.” whatever that meant.

Tall windows gave me a wonderful view of the city outside.  Judging by the columns of windows adorning the surrounding structures, I was five stories up.  As the sun dipped ever closer to the horizon, it illuminated nearly everything taking place below me, casting long shadows across the cityscape.  Unfortunately, the rampant flora that clung to the buildings was the only thing not being swallowed up by every kind of death I could imagine.

Spursburg was in utter chaos.  The thick glass in front of me slightly muffled the gunfire, but muzzle flashes, explosions, lasers, and even the occasional horn-flare of a spellcast were plainly visible amongst the bombed out buildings and rubble scattered through the streets.  Intermittent volleys of missiles and rockets pummeled the sides of buildings and reduced roads to rubble.  Every so often, another motorwagon would erupt in a glorious mushroom cloud of rainbow light.  Ghouls were running in packs through the city streets, attacking en masse to overwhelm small squads of soldiers wearing thick barding made of welded metal and hard rubber.  Wisps of Pink Cloud could be seen wafting out of cracked windows in the buildings and seeping over the ruined roads.  And above it all, manticores circled overhead like oversized vultures waiting for easy meals.

Alone amidst a city’s worth of carnage, however, one sight caught my attention.  An eerily beautiful explosion that put all the others to shame obliterated an entire intersection, tearing through the base of a shorter building so viciously that the structure fell in on itself in a heap of rubble.  The flames that toppled the building didn’t bear the rainbow coloration I had come to expect from the erupting spark batteries in the motorwagons.  That explosion had been green, and it lingered in the air like a pleased demon surveying its hellish work.  Even as the floor underneath my hooves shook and centuries-old dust fell from the ceiling over my head, I had to remind myself to close my slackened jaw.

The initial blast had been bright enough to hurt my eyes, but the emerald flames that licked the devastated earth in its slowly dissipating wake were dark as night.  They expanded rapidly, devouring everything in their path, and the entire city block went black as the fires managed to consume even the light itself.  I only knew of one thing that could do that.  Some wonderful fool in the city was either brave or insane enough to bring the ultimate weapon to the battle of Spursburg.

They were using Balefire.

I stilled my racing heart and reluctantly turned away from the window.  Stifling my grin, I strolled past the desk and cracked open the door of my room to peer into a much larger office space.  Rows of small, spartan workspaces dominated the interior of the room.  Nohta and Lily were huddled over a plain wooden desk, arguing in hushed voices as they poked their hooves at a crudely crayoned map of the city.

They both looked up as I approached, relief washing over their faces in equal measure.  I did not take that as a good sign.  My brow furrowed in worry as I pondered the blank space in my memory, “Err…  Could someone explain to me what just happened?”

Lily winced as she pulled out a cigarette.  “I uh… I kinda accidentally drugged you.”  My jaw dropped as I stared at her.  She lit the cigarette, inhaling sharply before apologizing.  “I didn’t mean to!  I was gonna take that myself sometime!”

Rubbing my temple, I braced myself and asked, “What did I do?”

Nohta cringed, wrinkling up her features as if she were pain.  “You got a little… touchy-feely, Sis.”

Lily smirked before explaining a little more enthusiastically than I cared for.  “As my firearms instructor back home used to say, ‘You were feistier than a two-cap snake wrangler in a pit full of rattlers.”

“Oh for the love of Luna…”  I shook my head, rounding on my feathered friend.  “Lily, I am trying to be lenient with your… oddities.  But I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t drag me along for your bouts of chemically induced thrill-seeking.”  I stomped a hoof on the floor as I added, “And we will never speak of this again.  Understood?”

“Heh… right.  Sorry.”  Exhaling a plume of smoke, Lily scratched at her mane and whispered, “It’s not like anything actually happened.  After Nohta forced me to take a Mintal—which hurts like hell if I take it halfway through my crazy, bee tee dub—I snapped out of it and gave you my last inhaler of Nixer.”  Leaning back in her chair, she tipped the brim of her hat upwards and winked in my direction.  “So don’t worry, that shit oughta get the good stuff out of your system pretty quick.  I keep it around for bad trips.”  I could only sigh and rub my temple in response.

Nohta furrowed her brow as she turned to Lily.  “How many chems are you on, anyway?”

Lily’s eyes lit up as she boasted of her exploits.  “Hah!  Pretty much all of ‘em!”  As if she were emphasizing her point, Lily took a drag off her smoke before adding, “Med-X, Buck, Rage, Stampede, Mintals…  They’re all a good time.  You just gotta know how to use ‘em.”  Digging through her packs, she tossed a small inhaler on the table as she beamed.  “None of them are as great as Dash though.  Dash is totally best chem.”

Worryingly, I noticed Nohta’s eyes linger on the inhaler for longer than I liked.  Clearing my throat, I kept my eyes locked on Lily as I set her with a stern glare.  “Aren’t you worried about what you’re putting in your body?  Or getting addicted to any of this nonsense?”  Nohta took the hint, bowing her head to stare at her hooves.

Lily chuckled dismissively as she rolled her eyes.  “Shit babe, aren’t you worried about getting shot?  We all gotta go sometime.  Might as well have fun while we’re here.”  Winking slyly in my direction, Lily continued, “Besides, I already eat Mintals like they’re Candy.”  With her head bowed, Nohta missed both the pun and the blush spreading through my cheeks.

Scrambling for a change in subject, I blurted out, “I-I’m going to assume that we at least lost the ghoul herd?”  Lily nodded as her smirk broadened.  “Okay,” I looked around, examining the office space.  “Then what’s the plan?”

“Nohta and I were trying to figure out where The Bard would be holed up.  But before we do anything about him we really need to get these fucking collars off our necks, cause this shit is really cramping my style.”  Lily gave her bomb collar an experimental tap, which was answered by an angry warning beep.  Leaning forward in her chair to rest her hooves against the table, she wrinkled her brow and nodded in my direction.  “No offense or anything, but I’m not the kind of pony that likes being tied down.  I can’t do shit if I’m not mobile.  Having to stay within fifty feet of that detonator you’re carrying is killing me.”  

Shrugging, she suggested, “I say we try to find some of my friends in The Outcasts and ask them for help.”

I raised an eyebrow in Lily’s direction.  “The Outcasts?  Really?  One of the raider gangs that assaulted Mareon?  Why in the whole of Equestria would they lend us aid?”

“Because if there is anything that Outcasts absolutely fucking despise, it’s slavers.  If we run into a group of them wearing these ugly-ass necklaces they’re gonna do whatever they can to get ‘em off of us.”  Lily gave me a small, sad smile before nodding at the window in the office behind me.  “All that fighting out there is mostly between Red Eye’s forces and Outcasts.  No one else has that kinda firepower in this desert.”

Nohta finally lifted her head, asking in a calm voice, “If they’re so opposed to taking slaves, then why was that one outside Mareon okay with putting Margarita in chains?”

Lily took a long drag off her cigarette, shaking her head.  “Yeah, that’s been eating at me.  I don’t fucking get it.  I mean, some of those mares and stallions are my friends.  They’re good folks.  Shit, I almost joined Adamant’s crew myself a couple years back.”

Her words brought back a troubling memory, and an even more worrisome complication.  “Lily,” I started, “back at the spark station that stallion said you were…”  I swallowed, fearing the answers she would give.  “He said that your tribe were raiders.  And now you’re saying that one of the gangs that we are trying to wipe out are your friends.”  

Lily took one final puff from her cigarette, snubbed it out on the table, and laid her hat next to the crayoned map of the city.  Dragging a hoof across her face, she spoke in a tired voice as she stared at the map.  “Sometimes life doesn’t give you much in the way of options.”

She ran her tongue across her lips before continuing.  “Folks like to call Thunderhooves ‘raiders’ because they don’t understand why we did what we did.  That’s why I don’t want to kill The Outcasts until I figure out what made them change.”  Her eyes hardened as she stared at me.  “But right now?  They’re not giving me a fucking choice.  Friend or not, if I don’t like Adamant’s answer then I’m putting a bullet between his eyes.”

Nohta was staring at Lily, revulsion twisting her features into a severe scowl.  “You’d kill a friend?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Lily whispered.

I took a step closer to my sister’s side, placing the desk between Lily and myself.  “You’re not exactly proving to be a font of trustworthiness at the moment, Lily.”

She cocked her head to the side, giving me a nonplussed look.  “This coming from the girl that’s getting more unhinged by the day and has a serious fetish for blowing shit up?  And her little thieving sister that gives me dirty looks every chance she gets?”

My jaw dropped, but Nohta was the one to slam her hooves on the desk and shout, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?”

“It means that no one’s perfect.  Not me, not you, not The Thunderhooves or The Outcasts…  No one.”  The glare that Lily wore softened as she closed her eyes and shook her head.  “Look…  You two don’t have to worry about me.  We haven’t even been on the road a week and you guys have both already saved my life.”  She gestured across the desk to both Nohta and me with a hoof before pointing her leg at herself.  “As far as I can figure we’re all good here.  And we’ve got bigger problems to deal with than diving into personal brahminshit.”  

Nohta was seething at my side, but despite the sting that accompanied our companion’s words, some part of me knew Lily was right.  Laying a hoof on my sister’s shoulder, I spoke to them both in what I hoped would pass for a soothing tone.  “Let’s…  Let’s just get back to the task at hoof then.”  Nohta didn’t budge.  I sighed and added, “The last thing I need to do is waste energy healing the two of you because your tempers got the best of you.”

Nohta finally backed down, sitting on the floor and crossing her hooves in front of herself while grumbling under her breath.  In the relatively peaceful moment I had bought, I set Lily with a worried gaze and spoke quietly.  “But I will need a more thorough explanation later.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.  But I got some questions for the both of you, too.”  Lily leaned back in her chair, lighting another cigarette.  “Like why Nohta didn’t wake us up before the slavers got there.  And why we didn’t do more to keep that guy alive.”

“Hey, I tried to!  Neither of you would wake up when I shook you and the slavers were almost on top of us by the time I was able to hide!”

Lily tapped the ashes off of her smoke, letting them fall on the dirty carpet as she reprimanded my sister.  “Well try harder next time, squirt.”

“Ahem,” I cleared my throat.  “I’m sure that we’ll have time for all of this later.”  Nohta huffed as her ears twitched, and Lily took a drag of her cigarette while pursing her lips.

My intuition told me that it was probably not the best time to continue the conversation, and besides that, I had another pressing concern rearing its ugly head.  I cleared my throat and inquired, “Would anyone be so kind as to point me to the, ah… facilities?”  Lily’s confusion was made apparent by the furrowed eyebrows above her red eyes, but Nohta understood.

“Bathroom’s back that way, Sis,” She said, waving a hoof behind her.

I thanked her, and traveled the short distance to the restroom.  I almost turned around and walked out when I saw a pony’s skeleton huddled in the corner, surrounded by empty syringes of Med-X.  Even worse than that, though, was the blood-covered face I saw in the mirror.  There simply was not enough soap to scourge the dried gore from my coat and mane.  At least the plumbing still worked…  

I left the bathroom, carrying a new roll of bandages I had procured from the first aid kit on the wall, and caught the tail end of Lily’s sentence.

“-idn’t mean to piss you guys off.  I just don’t like being judged, y’know?”

I would have expected my sister to respond harshly.  After all, Lily was more than willing to pass out judgement on others.  Hypocrisy was an easy target for Nohta, and she hardly ever passed up an opportunity for a snide remark.  But as I approached over the flattened carpet my sister remained silent, rubbing the side of her neck with an absentminded hoof.

Clearing my throat again to announce my return, I asked, “So then.  Where were we?”

Lily blew out a plume of smoke before responding.  “I say we look for The Outcasts first.  It won’t take us long to find them, we just gotta look where the fighting is thickest.”  Just then, another massive detonation outside sent reverberations through the floor.  

Lily grinned, as if the explosion proved her point, and tapped the map as she spoke, “I know they’re on our shit list right now, but something big had to have changed to make them attack Mareon the way they did, and I at least want to know why they did that.”  She leaned against the table as she explained.  “Could be that something even worse is about to go down out here.  We need to figure that shit out if we’re gonna have any chance of stopping it.”

I turned to my sister, floating the bandages to the table.  “Nohta?  Your thoughts?”

Nohta stopped rubbing her neck and glanced at the map before shrugging.  “The gangs hate each other, right?  Maybe The Outcasts would be willing to help us out if they knew we were planning on taking out The Bard.”  Pursing her lips, she jabbed a hoof in my direction.  “If nothing else, you two are basically chained to each other until you get those things off your necks.  We need to do something.”  She sighed heavily, shaking her head.  “I don’t really like it, but it’s the only plan we’ve got.”

I nodded.  “Well then.  I’ll leave you two to… whatever plan you’re concocting.”  I scanned the room for my belongings, asking, “I’d like to make some potions while we have a peaceful moment.  How much time do we have before we leave?”

Lily gave a short bark of laughter, “With all the fighting out there, I figure The Bard’s cowering in one of his safehouses, waiting until all this shit blows over.  He’s probably pissing himself right now.”  Her wings gave a single quick flap as she admitted, “I would be, too, if I had them after me.”

My brow furrowed.  “Who?  The Outcasts?”

She shook her head.  “No.  The Bard’s gang has been outmaneuvering The Outcasts for years now, they know how to move through this city better than anyone.”  Lily’s eyes narrowed, and her voice grew harsh.  “The real problem is that Red Eye’s army brought back-up.  Back-up that doesn’t give a shit about any peace agreements between Ol’ Red’s forces and the locals.”  The look she gave me was wary, as if she weren’t sure how much she could say.  “There are…  Well…  Don’t freak out, okay?”

Oh no.  “Lily?”

“Just…”  She winced, glancing at Nohta, but my sister only cocked her head to the side, clearly as confused as I was.  Lily snubbed her cigarette out against the desk’s surface, her ear bobbing wildly before she finally forced the words out.  “Okay, look.  Maybe it’d be better if you just saw them.  Take a look outside.  You’ll see one before too long.”

Giving her a final questioning glance for good measure, I trotted back to the window, unsure of what to expect.  The battle for the city was still raging.  Tracer rounds were beginning to visibly pop out against the dark structures and foliage as the sun’s light retreated from the world.  It took me a moment to realize that all the thousands of bullets racing for the sky were following shadows zipping below the clouds.

Directly across the street below me, I caught motion atop the roof of a shorter structure.  A dozen ponies were piling out of an access hatch, scrambling to take up firing positions as they set up a machine gun and aimed their assault rifles at the road.  Every one of them was wearing a unique set of barding, though they all shared the common motif of soldered metal.  I stared on in curiosity for a moment, watching as the ponies on the roof slunk down to hide behind the short wall along the roof’s edge.   

More motion, this time further down the road.  A larger group with matching red and black armor, probably thirty ponies at the very least, was making quick progress through the streets.  Goddess… they weren’t even using the motorwagons for cover…

The ensuing fight was more akin to a slaughter.  The smaller group’s attack began with such unexpected ferocity that I had to wonder if they were actually Steel Rangers.  Rockets, grenades, and unfortunately placed motorwagons detonated in unison, the cascade of explosions sending rippling shockwaves through our building and throwing rubble and dust through the street.  The machine gun and assault rifles rained bullets upon the few scattered survivors, painting the blasted roadway bright crimson.  The immense amount of pooled blood reflected the light of a unicorn’s spell as she sent a mote of light bursting through the air.

She and the rest of her platoon were cut down a moment later, but the flare she had cast was still pulsing overhead.  I took a chance, and opened the window for a better view.  Lily and Nohta joined me to watch the carnage unfolding underneath us.  But… that was when I saw what Lily had spoken of.  And it wasn’t below us.  It was above us.

Tower 52 was up to its usual antics, peeling back the cloud layer in a devilishly wicked way I was sure was meant as a personal affront.  The moon, already high in the sky, was in full view.  And silhouetted against it so perfectly that I knew it could not have been a mere coincidence, was the most awe-inspiring sight I had ever seen.

A living embodiment of grace, power, and beauty surveyed the land beneath her, held aloft by the gorgeous wings beating at her sides.  Her elegant body was as black as night, save for the building light emanating from the tip of her slender horn.  And…  she wasn’t alone.  In fact, there were a dozen of her.  Each one nearly identical in appearance, with dark bodies and not a cutie mark to be found.  But it didn’t matter that there were many of her, or that she lacked the moon upon her flank, or that her mane wasn’t an exact match to what I had seen in the memory orb, because she alone was special.  She alone was perfect.  She was the only alicorn who flew before the moon.

My lip quivered.  My breath hitched in my throat.  I swallowed, but couldn’t look away.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  After all the doubt, and the blaspheming, and the cursing, and the heresy…  She had come.  She was here.  That could only mean one thing…

Luna had come for me.

In a single blissful moment, every ounce of doubt disappeared in a puff of wispy smoke, replaced by all the unending hope and faith that rose from a lifetime of devotion.  Ice fell into the pit of my stomach even as my heart soared into my throat.  This was my test.  This was my sign!  I had prayed for this!  I had begged The Goddess for this!  She hadn’t forsaken me!  She still remembered her most faithful!

But… why would she come here now instead of when I was begging in the orchard?  What had changed?  My situation wasn’t different in the slightest!  The world hadn’t changed one iota!  That could only mean…

I had been the one to change.

Selenism had preached three truths.  Had I been wavering from them?  In my quest for answers I had learned a great deal of honest things.  The true fate of The Caravan and the feeling of sunlight upon my face among them.  And I had been honest as well:  I knew how poisonous secrets were to the heart, especially when you kept them from your friends.

Loyalty really was one of the highest of virtues.  It had driven me to apologize to Lily for how I had treated her.  It gave me the strength and conviction to make a promise to Nohta that we would set things right.  And it had given me the resolve to not give up on Father, even if the chances of his survival were slim to none.  

But… Laughter?  What had I learned of Laughter?  What meager amount of frivolity I had indulged in these last few days had been paltry and hollow.  Was she simply trying to tell me that I still had much to learn?  Perhaps that was the real message then.  The Dark Mother and my own mother were on the same page then…  I needed to achieve balance in Luna’s favored attributes.

I was broken from my meditations by the shriek of a rocket as it raced for the heavens.  It caught The Goddess full on, detonating in a massive plume of smoke and fire.  I braced my hooves on the windowsill as I stared, wide eyed, at the dissipating cloud left over from the explosion.  

She was completely unharmed.  Twin currents of air from her magnificent wings blew the smoke aside, causing it to furl underneath her majestic form.  The shimmer of a magical shell she had raised around herself caught the moon’s light as she gazed upon those fools that had dared to strike her.  I almost felt sorry for her attackers.  Almost.

Three of her copies—each one varying only by slight differences in their dark coloration—dove downward toward the group on the roof.  The blue Luna faded from view halfway down, and the purple one disappeared completely in a violent flash of magenta magic, but the green Luna only raised her shield as she plummeted like a meteorite out of the sky.

“ALICORNS!” The unicorn with the rocket launcher shouted a moment too late.  His comrades looked up just as a vision of unblemished beauty and pure power descended on the group like a viridian hammer of righteous fury.  She crashed into the makeshift fortification with all the force of a wrecking ball, scattering ponies and blocks of rubble as if they were toys.  

The buck at the machine gun was crushed under the shimmering dome of magic that surrounded the pseudo-goddess, his plumed helmet spinning wildly as it flew down into the street.  The rest of the squad turned, their rifles barking in unison as they focused their fire on the imminent threat within their midst.  But no matter the firepower brought to bear upon the imitation of The Dark Mother, her shield would not break.

I was so entranced with the imposing presence of the green alicorn that, if Nohta hadn’t pointed a hoof across my vision, I would have missed what was coming next.  My sister’s voice betrayed a hint of fear as she nearly yelled in my ear.  “What’s that!?  Behind them!  It’s like the air is alive!”  I followed Nohta’s hoof with my eyes and stared, awestruck, at the massacre unraveling below us.

The emerald beauty’s assault proved to be no more than a distraction.  With their attention placed solely on the green alicorn directly in front of them, none of the ponies noticed the subtle ripples in the air at their backs.  Fountains of blood sprayed into the air as throats were slit and heads were twisted or ripped off of their necks in magical bubbles.  The invisible assassin was quick and efficient in its slaughter, and only as the last unicorn ran out of ammunition and yelled for covering fire did he understand that he was alone.

The purple alicorn flashed into existence just above him.  Her coat was so dark that I at first mistook her to be ebony.  Her immense and gorgeous wings kept her aloft as she effortlessly lifted the stallion into the air to face her.  From my vantage point, I saw the recognition and acceptance of his fate wash over his face.  The magic faded from his horn, and his empty weapon clattered to the concrete.  His only show of resistance was to spit on her perfect muzzle.  A bright flash of magic later, and they both disappeared.

The other alicorns scattered, diving for different parts of the city.  Some of them flashed brightly and disappeared in puffs of purple magic, while some of them dissolved into nothing as they dove for the ground.  Most of them simply glided on their powerful wings as they slowly vanished from sight.  I looked upward again, but to my disappointment, The Goddess was no longer there.

Nohta looked to Lily, her eyes wide and her voice frantic.  “What was that!?  What just happened?” 

Lily sighed bitterly, “Alicorns happened.  And now Hard Line, Switch Hit, and Puggins are dead.”

“Alicorns?” Nohta repeated.  “How many fucking goddesses are there!?”

“They’re… They’re not really like Luna or Celestia, Nohta.”  Lily scratched her mane, searching for the words.  “I’ve only seen them a few times myself, but when they show up they fucking wreck everything.  And for whatever reason, they always choose one unicorn to teleport away.”  She shook her head and flicked her tail.  “I’m really glad I’m not Hard Line right now.”

What had she said?  I cleared my throat and asked, “They ‘choose’ unicorns?  For what purpose?”  Luna was looking for me!  I knew it!

Lily shrugged, and jabbed my shoulder with a stern hoof.  “I don’t know.  And stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking, Candy.  It would be a very bad idea to go asking them.”  She must have noticed my excitement, because she grasped my cheek with a hoof to force me to gaze into her eyes.  “These aren’t whatever fucking moon-goddess you think you grew up with, Candy.”  Her next words came slowly and harshly as she emphasized her point.  “They.  Will.  Kill.  You.”

My jaw worked, and my eyes roamed over her face as I tried to think of what to say.  I knew she was wrong, but how could I convince her?

She released my cheek, and closed the window before continuing.  “The alicorns are gonna be the biggest threat here.  If we get the jump on them, then we might stand a chance, but it looks like they’re all on high alert.”

Nohta’s cloak whipped against my side as she bolted behind us.  “We need to move.  This place isn’t safe anymore.”


**************


We gathered our things quickly, and followed signs on the walls to the building’s closest exit: a loading bay for finished product.  The area had been thoroughly looted, with only a few bits of scrap metal remaining on the heavy steel racks that took up the majority of the space.  We were still running along the second-level catwalk when Nohta held out a hoof, stopping me in my tracks.  There was movement outside.

A smallish group, no larger than ten or twelve white-coated ponies, was dashing through the street below us, running from a much larger pack of ghouls.  From my vantage point I witnessed one of the ponies turn and emit a gout of searing flame from his horn.  Images of my encounter with The Pyro flashed through my mind as several of the chasing ghouls were bathed in magical fire, burnt to charred masses of shrieking flesh between the scattered vehicles.  The remaining ghouls clambered over the motorwagons, leaping into the group before the ponies could escape.  

Pistols and shotguns blared into the night, blowing chunks of rotten brain and viscera across windshields and rusted doors.  Another unicorn in the group was pinned beneath one of the charging ghouls, but a quick flash of her horn rendered her attacker rigid and pale before it toppled to the ground.  When a third unicorn swung her massive scrap-metal cudgel into the beast’s head it shattered like glass, flinging little shards of frozen ghoul across the street.

A larger unicorn with a jet-black mane helped his comrade to her hooves before turning back to the rest of the group and passing out healing potions.  The white ponies had handled the ghouls largely without injury, though I did notice a couple of them had streaks of red running along their hides.  I was sure that they were going to escape, just as long as they got out of the road quickly.  But of course, the wasteland had other ideas.

A  jagged arc of crackling ebony energy leapt from an alleyway and split the group down the middle.  Two ponies were reduced to smouldering, twitching heaps, their death throes fueled by the electrical arcs still dancing between their limbs.  A third was blown into nothing more than smoking chunks of meat and bone that splattered across his nearest companions.  The third pony’s entrails hung in the air just behind a white earth mare, only for them to slide off of nothing as an invisible assassin slit the mare’s neck.  A staccato rhythm of gunfire from the remaining ponies sent sparks flying off of motorwagons before a midnight-blue alicorn materialized within their midst, an enormous bubble of energy already protecting her from the barrage of lead.

As the group was focused on the blue alicorn just in front of them, a purple imitation of The Dark Mother stepped out of the alleyway and lowered her head.  Obsidian lightning flew from her horn and burned a wretched hole through a hapless stallion’s neck.  Judging by the look on her face, the alicorn believed this callous slaughter to be nothing more interesting than squishing a common radroach.  But the large unicorn with the black mane had turned to notice her.  The alicorn and I were both in for a surprise.  

As her horn glowed a third time with eldritch energy, so too did the unicorn’s.  His teeth grit together with concentration, and a cloud of jade magic surrounded the white ponies at his side just as lightning darted in their direction.  The bolt struck a mare in the chest, but only caused her to gasp in surprise before bouncing back to the alicorn’s horn.  The entirety of the violet alicorn’s head was blown apart in a fountain of gore, shredding her neck into limp flaps of bloody flesh all the way down to her withers.  Her body was left standing upright for one surreal moment as her wings flared and her foreleg made a futile motion to back away.  What was left of her toppled into a set of trash cans in the alleyway as her smoking horn clattered against the broken asphalt.

The blue alicorn turned in the unicorn’s direction, but his magic had already coalesced around her shield.  Tendrils of emerald energy oozed over the sapphire bubble, kicking little sparks back and forth between the two magical fields as both ponies wrestled for control.  The alicorn flared her wings inside her bubble, but it was no use; the white unicorn was too strong.  His magic fully enveloped her bubble, and the barest hint of a grin flashed across his face.

Iridescent shafts of light raced along the shield’s perimeter as the barrier slowly began to shrink.  The entire sphere brightened, illuminating the expression on the alicorn’s face as it turned from haughty annoyance to genuine panic.  She braced her hooves against her own shield as it collapsed inward, gritting her teeth and shoving with all her might, but she might as well have been a foal struggling against a trash compactor.

Slowly, agonizingly, the shield imploded in on itself, shrinking in size even as the light pouring off its surface grew brighter.  The bones in the alicorn’s wings broke first, followed by her legs, and then her neck.  By the time that the shield had collapsed down to the size of my hoof, it was glowing like a tiny star in the street.  Only as the unicorn’s jade cloud left the shield did the alicorn’s magic die out, allowing the compressed scarlet goop that used to share Luna’s likeness to explode outward over the asphalt with a disgustingly thick, wet splash.

I was nearly sick from the sight of what had just transpired, and to be fair, more than a little impressed.  The unicorn fell to his knees from magical exertion, panting as the rest of his party helped him to his hooves and urged him to keep running.  Through their worried shouts, I caught his name just before they disappeared around the corner.

“Elegy!  We have to go!”

Dry Wells had spoken that name, as had Psyker.  Her tired voice echoed through my mind, “He can turn magic back in on itself.  Reverse a spell after it’s been cast.  I’d love to see what he could do in a fight with that.  Maybe against a shield spell?  How messy would that even be?”

Now I knew.  And it was horrifying.  The Bard was not the weakling that Lily believed him to be.

My sister also recognized the name.  She poked at my shoulder, hissing.  “That’s The Bard!  We’ve got him!”  She bounded down the steps, with Lily and me in hot pursuit.  But as soon as we reached the floor, Spursburg sent us a stark reminder as to exactly why we couldn’t be reckless in the city.  

It was such an unexpected sight that I didn’t quite trust my eyes.  Through a shattered window, I saw a little red filly running for her life across the paved lot outside the loading bay.  She looked… familiar, somehow.  But my attempts at getting a better look at her were short lived, completely forgotten as soon as I noticed what she was fleeing from.  Just behind her was the biggest ghoul I had ever seen.

Much like the plant growth infesting the city, the zombie was ridiculously huge.  The beast was easily twice my height, with gargantuan muscles bulging underneath its stretched and splitting skin.  Hundreds of bullet holes, burns, and slash marks decorated its huge frame, testament to exactly how much abuse this creature could withstand.  It bore down on the little filly with great, lumbering strides that shook the earth, plowing through motorwagons as easily as I might have shoved aside empty tin cans.

Lily hissed a warning, “Fuck!  Rambler!  Stay dow—”

I didn’t think.  There wasn’t any time.  The beams flew from the muzzle of my pistol as quickly as I could pull the trigger.  The shots that managed to impact against the colossal beast’s thick hide singed and charred its flesh, leaving tiny craters in its shoulder and barrel that left its ribs exposed to the night air.  The filly scrambled down the alleyway as the monster turned—completely uninterested in her—and stared directly into my eyes.

I was suddenly very glad that I had visited the little filly’s room earlier.

The rambler was impossibly fast.  Each of its thundering hoofsteps carried it further and faster than five of my own.  It didn’t even bother to go around the motorwagons in its way, it simply plowed through them and charged directly at the wall I was taking cover behind.  I gasped as I realized what it was going to do.

I threw myself to the side a moment too late.  The rambler burst through the wall of the building, flinging bricks and mortar in a wide cone as it exploded through the wall.  The impact launched me past Lily and Nohta’s wide eyed faces, sending me tumbling through the air like a filly’s ragdoll.  I slid and rolled across the floor before coming to a stop near a wall.  The adrenaline coursing through my system kept me oblivious of the state I was in, but that changed when I tried to stand and lightning raced up my hind leg.  Hissing in agony, I fell back to the floor and grasped my leg with a hoof as Nohta raced to my side.

The rambler smashed through the racks in the room, kicking up a deafening cacophony of steel clanging against steel.  It stumbled and tripped over the sheer mass of horrendously twisted and jagged metal caught between its scarred and misshapen hooves.  The monster thrashed wildly as it tried to stand up, tossing heavy bars of bent steel about the room in every myriad direction.

Lily hovered just off the floor, shouldering her rifle as she lined up a shot.  Her weapon roared in the loading bay, ripping a massive hole through the rambler’s face.  Half of its jaw was torn away, flinging spittle, rotten teeth, and congealed blood against the far wall as the beast’s head snapped back.  The gargantuan ghoul was knocked off balance, toppling into the jagged metal once more as its girth sent empty crates flying.  Lily squinted her eyes as her hooves worked the lever on her gun, kicking the spent round from the chamber and taking aim once more.  Unfortunately, that was when the other ghouls joined the fray.

The second shot was just as deafening as the first, but missed low as a glowing one slammed into Lily’s side and threw her off balance.  The bullet smashed into the rambler’s barrel, shattering one of the exposed ribs and shredding through its internal organs.  Even with the mind numbing pain I was in, I couldn’t help but wonder just how the ghoul could function with one of its lungs dangling limply through the hole in its side.

Lily was forced to the ground by the undead zebra, holding it at bay with the rifle in her hooves as she growled, “Nohta!  Get her out of here!”

Nohta’s wide eyes met my own before I winced and shouted.  “I’m fine!  I’m fine!  Go help her!”  My sister hesitated for just a moment, looking back and forth between Lily and me before swearing and charging to help with the ghouls.  I concentrated my magic, and began healing my broken femur as quickly as I could.

Five of the common undead had rushed through the hole produced by the rambler’s entry, as well as the glowing striped corpse that was currently wrestling with Lily.  She managed to kick away from the monster, gaining enough room to slam the butt of her rifle into its jaw and knock it to the ground.  Continuing with her momentum, she spun around and fired at a second zombie, splitting its head like a melon before a third feral knocked the weapon from her hooves.

Nohta reached Lily just in time to keep that ghoul from tearing through the pegasus’ neck with its jagged yellow teeth, smashing her shodden hoof into the undead’s jaw to produce a sickening crunch.  The light coming off the glowing one was partially blocked by her flowing cloak, casting a long shadow along the interior walls as the ghoul’s radiant stripes reflected off the jagged bits of metal next to the rambler like a sea of fireflies.  Nohta’s forehoof collided with the zombie’s face hard enough to snap its head backwards before she tackled it to the floor.

Lily took the momentary reprieve from the melee to dig a hoof underneath her hat and extract a small inhaler of Dash.  She bit down on the mouthpiece just before another ghoul lunged for her, and smiled wickedly around the inhaler as she ducked underneath its cracked hooves to rake her wings along its exposed belly.  The ghoul stumbled from the counterattack as its hind legs got tangled in its dangling intestines, and tripped over itself to smash headfirst into a workbench.  Lily spat the Dash into her hoof as she darted past another ghoul, decapitating its head cleanly with one sweeping strike.

In all the confusion, no one noticed the fifth ghoul split from the pack to charge in my direction.  Words cannot adequately express the excruciating agony of leaving my broken bone half healed to unholster my pistol and activate S.A.T.S.  Five crimson bolts of energy later, the ghoul slid to a stop at my side, still smoking and twitching from the three shots that had connected.  And though it wasn’t entirely necessary, the two extra point-blank shots I placed into its obliterated skull did make me feel a little more at ease.

Nohta forced her first target to the floor, savagely beating its face over and over until decayed bones cracked underneath the weight of her blows.  Only when its brains were smeared across the floor did she look up to notice the glowing one inhaling deeply as its stripes’ luminosity doubled.  Neither she nor Lily, who had zipped over to retrieve her rifle, were fast enough to stop the creature from blasting the room with a cone of light and radiation.  Lily was far enough away to escape the blast, and I was even further away than she, but Nohta…

Nohta caught the brunt of the cone, her cloak fluttering behind her as the magic surged towards the rambler.  She doubled over as she coughed and hacked, robbed of her strength even as the gigantic ghoul regained its own.  It trudged through the scrap metal as its flesh stretched and regrew over the hole in its side.

“Nohta!”  Lily and I both shouted at the same time, but Lily’s voice was louder and carried better through the wrecked building.  Nohta turned just in time to catch the inhaler of Dash flying towards her through the air.  Lily’s voice called out to her again as Nohta stared at the tiny canister.  “You ready to fuck some shit up!?”

Lily’s rifle blasted a massive hole through the glowing one’s shoulder, followed by another through its barrel and a third through its neck.  If I hadn’t seen her make the shots with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed anypony could fire that weapon so quickly.  The ghoul fell to the ground, shrieking and writhing, its wounds already sealing up.  But it wasn’t the only one with healing magic.

Nohta’s anxious eyes met my own as she held the inhaler to her mouth.  I nodded as I clambered to my hooves, cutting off the stream of crimson energy flooding into my thigh.  The pain still throbbed throughout my leg, but it was a mere phantom of the agony I was in earlier.  My nauseous belly threatened to empty its contents at any moment, but I had seen just how devastating these undead zebras could be when given the opportunity.  I didn’t intend to let that happen.  I had to act now.

My shotgun slipped out of my saddlebag as I walked past my sister.  “Can you distract the rambler?”  I asked, sliding a slug into the magazine.

Nohta bit down on the inhaler and sucked in, tossing it aside a moment later.  The cocky grin that came over her features was as unnerving as it was inspiring.  “Fuck yes, I can!”

“Good.  It didn’t regrow its rib.  Open up the wound if you can, I have an idea.”  Five shells of buckshot followed the slug into the magazine before I racked a round into the chamber.  By The Goddess that sound is satisfying…

“Got it, Sis!”

Lily sent another trio of rounds smashing through the glowing one’s body, tearing massive holes through the striped and scarred coat.  “Reloading!”

The glowing one fell to the floor, bracing itself against the wall with a hoof and trying to stand as I walked forward.  The lambency in its eyes grew to a raging luminosity as it snarled in my direction.  I was a mere pony-length away when I opened fire with S.A.T.S. aiding my aim, but at that distance even I would have been hard pressed to miss without the aid of the spell.  

The first round shredded through its eyes, reducing the twin nightmarish lights glaring in my direction to little more than vibrant green jelly.  The second round blew its leg apart at the fetlock, splattering viscous greenish-white sludge against the wall.  It fell, shrieking, to its haunches and leaned against the wall as I yanked on the trigger again and again.  Buckshot tore into the glowing stripes lining the zebra’s neck, opening its throat like a gore-soaked flower in full bloom.

Five shots down…  I grit my teeth and rammed the barrel of my shotgun into the ruined crater I had blown through its neck, jamming the metal up against the ghoul’s yellowed spinal column before pulling the trigger.  Brain matter, tufts of mane, congealed phosphorescent blood, and shards of skull and vertebrae splashed against the wall, painting the dull grey surface with a dripping mural.  It was the perfect abstract representation of violence.

Lily shouted as she landed beside me.  “Candy!  Fuck!  Don’t you know what those things do to unicorns?”

“Of course.  That’s why I killed it.”  Honestly, I didn’t know what her problem was.  Did she expect me to sit back and let her and Nohta do all my fighting for me?

There was only one ghoul left in the room.  As luck would have it, it was the big one.  Nohta was pestering it with The Worm, using her pistol to blow hoof-sized chunks of rotten flesh from the ghoul’s side and shoulders.  The rambler was fast, but with the Dash in her system my sister was able to keep her distance as she led it around support columns and steel racks.

Of course, our luck wouldn’t last forever.  The colossal ghoul eventually changed its tactics, and rather than chase her around the various obstacles, it simply chose to use its insane strength to plow through them.  Metal screeched in protest as the ghoul crashed through the racks, knocking them aside as easily as a pony might topple a stalk of corn.  

My sister dove out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by the tumbling metal, but couldn’t avoid the rambler’s swiping blow.  She let out a cry of pain as the ghoul’s gigantic hoof smashed into her side, flinging her like an insect across the floor.  My jaw dropped as I saw her slam into the wall, her body going limp before she passed out.

I…  I knew that the rambler was just a beast.  My earlier experiments on the filly-ghoul had all but proven they were mindless creatures driven by some unknown instinct.  That didn’t stop the fire in my breast from spreading.  My empty shotgun clanged against the floor as I pulled out my pistol and my last grenade, keeping the latter in my hoof.

A layer of over glow from my horn bathed the loading bay in crimson light.  The blood-red color saturated the room so thoroughly that I could hardly see the lasers fly from my pistol.  The beast turned in my direction, the only indication that my wild fusillade was connecting, and lady luck decided to play one last card.  One of my shots obliterated the creature’s eye, charring the inside of its ocular cavity as the eyeball fell to the floor in two smoking chunks of flesh.

As the beast covered its ruined face with an enormous hoof and roared in outrage, I let my drained pistol clatter to the ground just before my world disappeared in a flash of light.  I reappeared right next to the gaping wound in the ghoul’s side, plucking the pin from the grenade with my teeth and ramming the explosive right next to a half-decayed heart with my hoof.  I have to admit, the tactile sensation of performing both actions was… oddly satisfying.

Unfortunately, the ghoul did take notice of being penetrated through a hole in its ribs.  The gargantuan hoof shielding its ruined eye swung backwards, and despite my concentration, I was too slow to teleport away.  The ghoul’s limb slammed into my side like a battering ram, flinging me across the floor and against the back wall next to my sister.  My hooves gave out underneath me, but in spite of the little balefire bomb of pain that just exploded in my chest, a wicked grin slithered over my lips as I pulled my head up from the floor.

*BOOM*

Goddess, it was like I was at a filly’s birthday party, only someone had loaded the pinata with explosives and meat!  The entire rambler was blown apart in a glorious eruption of body parts, coating the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the steel racks, even me in blood and guts!  I wasn’t even distressed by the awful stench or the sick, slimy mess sticking to my mane.  I could only revel in the fact that I had done that!

“Heh… Nohta…”  I looked to my sister through the one eye I had that wasn’t covered in congealed goo.  “We did it.”

She half-whispered and half-groaned beside me.  “Yay…”

Flapping wings flung little droplets of blood over my face as Lily landed next to us.  “You two are seriously fucking crazy.”

I grinned as the pain hindered my ability to breathe.  “Coming from you…  I’ll take that as… compliment.  Heh…”  

My world was starting to fade from view as Lily dug through my packs, but the vile tasting regular health potion Lily forced down my throat gave me the strength to sit up.  She gave one to Nohta after making sure that I was alright, and I took the opportunity to survey the destruction all around us.  I must say, after wreaking so much havoc upon those abominations, I couldn’t help but feel proud of our accomplishments.

Lily was helping my sister to her hooves, flaring her wings as she made a timely suggestion.  “All that noise is sure to bring some attention this way.  We need to heal up and get the fuck out.”  I nodded, concentrating my magic to aid the process along.  

Lily hoofed over my pistol and shotgun, an indiscernible expression on her face.  Was that… admiration?  Annoyance?  I honestly couldn’t tell.  She cleared her throat loudly as she loaded her revolver and rifle.  “Try not to lose your weapons, Candy.”

I was giddy with excitement, riding a high not completely unlike the one from my recent chem adventure, and opened my mouth to respond with a superbly witty comment.  Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity.  Nohta had endured quite enough of my antics, and promptly grasped my hoof to tug me towards the loading bay doors.  

I was still giggling like an idiot when we stepped outside, but my laughter died in my throat as dozens and dozens of ferals bounded into view all around us.  The horde was spilling into the street from every direction, racing towards us as quickly as their rotten hooves would carry them.  By The Goddess, would they ever let up?

“FUCK!”  Nohta screamed.  I’m not usually one for cursing, but in this case her assessment and reaction were rather spot on.

Lily, Nohta, and I bolted down the road in the direction the ghouls’ numbers were thinnest, our weapons carving a path through the undead that lead to a tall stone building.  I had no idea what we were going to do.  Without any grenades, we had no way to fight off a horde that size!  My high from killing the huge rambler ghoul was consumed by a rapidly escalating panic as reality began to sink in.  I only just kept from screaming as I reloaded my own guns and followed in my companions’ wake.

Lily spared three bullets for the large glass doors in the front of the building.  The glass shattered and clinked to the ground just before we leapt directly through the frame.  Nohta darted to the side, making for a stairwell just inside the lobby.  Lily and I followed her lead as I prayed to every goddess I could that Nohta’s judgement would prove beneficial once more.  It was only around the ninth story that my aching legs began to seriously question whether The Goddesses were indeed assisting me or only prolonging my suffering.

The walls of the stairwell were fuzzy with moss, but of more pressing importance was the fresh blood and entrails coating the steps.  Lily was able to bypass such an obstacle by simply flying above the steps, and Nohta was nimble and surehoofed enough to bound upwards with ease.  I, however, was neither blessed with wings nor my sister’s deftness of hoof.  Not that such a trifling concern mattered.  A quick glimpse through the clear space in the middle of the stairs at the teeming mass of undead bodies surging up the steps was enough to get my hooves moving quite effectively.

I clambered up the slick steps, my hooves sliding over the greasy guts hanging down the stairwell.  Some poor fool’s gallbladder snuck its way underneath my hoof, robbing me of my balance and sending me flopping belly-first onto the sloped carpet of gore.  The ghouls bounded up the steps behind me, reaching the landing just below me as I rolled over and tore my shotgun from my packs.

The first zombie’s brains splattered against the wall behind it.  The second lost its left foreleg and collapsed inches from my back hooves.  A third was simply perforated by the shot, staggering backwards before it was trampled by its more enthusiastic peers.  The gunshots were deafening in the confined space where their noise was free to echo off the walls.  I knew I couldn’t keep this up, but the horde was advancing so quickly that they’d catch me if I stopped firing!

Another shot blew a ghoul off balance, forcing it to latch onto the railing, but the rusted bolts that secured the barrier to the stairs were too far gone.  The metal groaned underneath the ghoul’s weight before it snapped, sending the abomination plummeting downward.  Judging by the repeated thuds and clangs, the zombie was crashing into every hoof-rail it passed on its stories-long descent.

As soon as my shotgun was empty I switched to my pistol, activating S.A.T.S. and aiming for as many heads as I could queue.  Three more undead ponies fell, their bodies either charred to the bone or singed to ash.  But when S.A.T.S. was exhausted, my frantic barrage did little to quell the tide of gnashing teeth and flailing limbs.  I panicked and screamed, clutching a rotted leg in my magic and dragging both it and the ghoul it belonged to over the edge in a desperate bid to stall for time.

A streak of blue feathers hurtled itself overtop of me, crashing into the snarling herd and flaring its wings wide.  Fountains of sticky, semi-congealed blood spilled out of shredded necks and the still wriggling stumps that had once been limbs.  The crimson liquid pooled and flowed over the edge as Lily thrashed wildly, cutting everything to her sides and kicking out at everything else within reach.  I was more than a little impressed with her ferocity and vigor, but she was still only one pony fighting back a herd of ghouls.  The math just didn’t add up in our favor.

Lily groaned and grit her teeth as a zombie’s mouth clamped around her foreleg, biting into her flesh just before she wrenched the leg towards her torso and flared her right wing.  Her blades scalped the zombie, cleanly slicing right through its eyes and everything behind them.  As the ghoul’s limp jaws fell from her fetlock, Lily shrieked in my direction.  “Candy!  Fucking run already!”

Goddess, what I was doing!?  I scrambled to get my hooves back underneath me, only to witness my sister fling herself past my head, tackling a ghoul just before it could lunge at Lily.  I heard bones crunch and tendons pop as Nohta rammed the beast into the wall.  She rose up to her bipedal stance, lifting the ghoul upwards with her Pipbuck underneath its jaw before before pulling her free hoof back to cave its skull in.

Another ghoul shot past Lily, wrapping its forehooves around my sister’s shoulders and dragging her to the floor as its teeth chomped down on the hood of her cloak.  The fabric fell away from Nohta’s face as she  slammed the back of her head into the zombie’s snout, twisting her body in its grip and unsheathing her knife.  When the ghoul tried to bite her, the only thing it swallowed was Nohta’s blade.  

She was back on her hooves in an instant, shouting at my gawking face.  “Go, Sis!”  She barely had time to get even those words out before fending off another attacker, this time parrying a clumsy and feral blow to redirect the ghoul’s lunging momentum directly into the path of Lily’s wing.  Nohta shouted at me through the gore that splashed against her face.  “Get to the roof!”  It felt prudent to obey her command.

I slipped over more blood and guts as I hurried upwards, firing off S.A.T.S. guided lasers at every opportunity.  My lightshow was far less effective than Lily’s practiced brutality or Nohta’s agile dance, but it did slow me down enough that I noticed the real threat thundering up the stairs.  My eyes widened as I saw the colossal beast flinging its smaller kin out of its way with reckless abandon.  

I opened my mouth, and screamed out a warning, “Rambler!”  Lily and Nohta shared a wide-eyed look as they heard me.

Lady Luck was obviously not playing favorites that evening.  The massive ghoul was obliterating the rest of the herd as it rushed up the stairs, crushing ghouls underneath its wide hooves and smearing the walls with their bodies as it plowed through their numbers.  Countless zombies were shoved out of its way, toppling down the central opening of the stairwell to split their skulls and land in a growing pile at the building’s ground floor.  The beast’s single-mindedness and brute strength were doing a far better job of thinning the horde’s numbers than Nohta, Lily, and myself, but we stood absolutely no chance if it reached us.

Nohta spun on her hooves, bucking out at a ghoul’s chest to knock it into several more ferals.  Lily took the opportunity to duck under her assailant’s lunging attack, flaring a wing as she rolled to the side and off the edge.  Nohta bounded over the now headless body as she forced me up the steps, but Lily remained hovering in the central opening.  As Nohta and I scrambled up the slick steps, Lily shouldered her rifle and took aim.  The zebra-rifle roared underneath us, each thunderous gunshot answered by a far more guttural cry of rage further below.

“Fuck!”  Lily ascended along side us, cursing after each round failed to bring the beast down.  “Son of a bitch!”  Her hoof flashed forward as she ejected another cartridge.  “By Thunder, just die already!”  There was one more loud report from her rifle above us, but still the ground continued to shudder underneath my hooves.  My eyes caught the graceful spin of the smoking casing as it plummeted downward, but before it could reach the corpse-laden floor I looked up to see Lily shrugging apologetically in midair.

Her ammunition spent, she shouldered her weapon and swallowed,   “Well, the good news is that I don’t see any of the other fuckers down there…”

My eyes widened in disbelief.  That rifle had nearly felled a manticore with one shot!  It had staggered the first rambler just as easily!  How could this beast still be pursuing us!?  I raised a gore-slicked hoof to the rusted railing, shouting at the top of my lungs, “Lily!  What do we do!?”

She raised a hoof above her, pointing to the top floor.  “Keep running!”  Clenching her teeth around her pistol, she emptied her second gun in a barrage of bullets.  I couldn’t help but notice that the angle at which she was firing was much closer than before.  The ghoul was gaining on us!

Nohta was the first to reach the door to the roof, slamming a hoof into the rusted metal hard enough to dent the thin steel.  “Fuck!  It’s locked!  I need to pic—”

“No time!”  Lily cut my sister off, flying over Nohta’s head and ramming her shoulder against the metal.  Even that hadn’t worked!  And the ghoul was only a floor below us!

“Together!” I shouted.  “We need to do this together!”  Lily and Nohta nodded at each other as I reared back on my hind legs, throwing my weight forward just as the two of them bucked at the door with all their strength.

The door exploded open, hanging limply in its frame as moonlight poured into my eyes.  I followed my companions onto the roof, but nearly bowled Nohta over when she dug her hooves into the gravel and slid to a stop.

My vision was dominated by the black cloak that had risen in front of my face.  “Gah!  Nohta?  Why did you…”  My sister’s hoof stretched out across my chest as her hooves scrabbled in the loose rocks.  “Why did…” I repeated, dumbstruck.  My eyes stared forward, but just like before, I couldn’t believe them.

Nine imposing and regal figures had already claimed the roof as their own, standing in a wide half-circle around the door.  I was so close to them that I could clearly make out the distinct colorations that graced their forms.  Three of them were purple, three of them were blue, and three of them were green.  I felt the collective gaze of nine sets of eyes zero in on my forehead just as an impossibly strong magic encased my body.

My lips quivered as I was gently coaxed forward, “G-Goddess?”  The particular alicorn I was gawking at, the violet-black one in the middle, smirked as I addressed her.  Her slender legs carried her in front of her fellows as she slowly walked toward me.

I felt hooves clawing at my shoulder and wings beating at my side, and I heard distant voices calling my name.  They didn’t matter.  I had found her!  After all this time and all the pain, I had finally found her!

In that moment, my beleaguered faith came flooding back.  My zealotry was renewed and I knew the truth.

These last few days had been just a test!  I knew it!  That realization washed over me, warm and comforting.  In the back of my mind I had always known!  I had never faltered!  I was only being tested!  

I stared, transfixed, at the magnificent teal eyes before me, unable and unwilling to look away.  The alicorns I had seen earlier didn’t matter!  This was Luna!  And she was going to solve everything!  Nothing would stand against her!

I inched forward, shrugging off the hooves on my shoulder as I walked ever closer to the divine.  The magic that had gripped my body fell away like a loosely draped blanket sinking to the floor.  Tears filled my eyes as I stood in her shadow.  I had finally attained my dream.

The alicorn’s beautiful wings flared wide at her sides as I approached her.  Her glorious mane billowed like lavender plasma behind her, quite unlike the silken strands that adorned the heads of her fellows.  I was momentarily curious as to how her mane had lost its stars, but in the grand scheme of things I knew that such a paltry detail hardly mattered.  She was so beautiful!  So elegant!  So…  Perfect.  It took all of my willpower to respectfully avert my gaze from the holy pony before me.

The tip of my horn scraped against the gravel as I knelt before her on trembling legs.  Pride swelled in my breast, giving me the strength to choke out the words I had always wished to say.  “I am yours, Luna.”

I heard her voice from every direction at once, as if her words suffused my very being with the divine essence of her thought.  But unfortunately, for reasons I could not discern, her amused message came out garbled and incomplete.  “Why d-  -ou -all Us Luna?”

What?  Why couldn’t I understand her!?  The tears in my eyes dripped down my muzzle as my chest heaved.  “For-Forgive me, Goddess!  I swear I will learn to understa—”

The gravel shook underneath my hooves as I ran out of time.  The rambler crashed through the exit to the roof, smashing through the frame and flinging the flimsy metal door past my body.  I raised my head in alarm, just in time to see the flying metal slam directly into the face of one of the regal figures to my left.  The dark-blue beauty reared back a moment too late, her skull crushed and her spine broken.

No…  No!  How could that beast have—  No, Candy, the others are only a mirage…  Right?  The sight of the pseudo-goddess lying dead rent a hole through my heart.  Was… Was this another test?

The blue alicorn’s body crumpled in a pitiful heap of feathers as her two nearest replicas evaporated into rippling air.  The Goddess strolled past me, and I heard her proud voice in my mind once more.  “We ha- endur-  -ese -ames long -nough!”  Her lips!  They hadn’t even moved!  The texts had never spoken of that!  But, it didn’t matter, I could almost understand her!  I just needed to concentrate!

Nohta slid beside me, hooking a hoof underneath my foreleg as she screamed in my face.  “SNAP OUT OF IT!”

I wriggled out of her clutches, shaking my head.  What Lily had said couldn’t be true, my sister had to see that!  “Nohta!  The alicorns bear her likeness!  We have to protect them!”

The rambler dashed past us towards the green pseudo-goddesses to my right, its thundering hooves kicking pulverized gravel through the air as it closed the distance.  The green alicorns lit their horns in unison, and the one closest to the beast encapsulated herself in a shimmering bubble of energy just before the huge ghoul slammed into her.  The sound of cracking glass shot through the night as the not-Luna grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes.  I stared, confused, as one of her green neighbors fell to her knees, panting for breath.

Rearing back, the ghoul hammered its hooves against the magical barrier again and again, driving the protective sphere into the roof like a stake in the ground.  A gust of wind swatted my mane to the side as my ears swiveled backward and my hackles stiffened.  A moment later, a crackling bolt of ebony lightning blasted into the rambler’s oversized knee.  The limb ruptured, exploding like a pus-filled sac to scatter blood and bone over the roof as the ghoul roared in rage.  It’s howl was so shrill and loud that I was forced to cover my ears with my hooves to keep from going deaf.

I looked up, trying to spot where the lightning originated, and saw The Dark Mother silhouetted against the moon.  Lily joined my sister, shouting as she tried to corral me away from the fight, but I was too entranced by the battle of titanic figures to flee.  I needed to witness this.

The Goddess hovered overhead as orbs of light and shadow materialized before her enraged face, converging into a ball of darkened sapphire at the tip of her horn.  My jaw dropped in awe as she aimed her horn downward, unleashing all of the pent up magic at her disposal in a torrent of divine retribution.  A high-pitched shrieking scream filled the air as the magic raced for the the colossal ghoul.  It collided with the beast’s back, detonating in an ear-splitting blast of blinding light.  

Nohta and Lily wrapped their hooves around my shoulders as they fought to protect me from the beautiful and righteous carnage.  We were flung aside by the shockwave, callously tossed through the air as easily as all the gravel that was thrown from the explosion’s center.  We came to a sudden stop as we slammed against something unrelentingly hard and spherical.  My companions groaned at my side, flopping over on their backs as they finally released me.  I scrambled to my hooves, coughing up dust and blood as I lifted my gaze once more to where the behemoth had stood moments before.

A gargantuan hole had been carved through the roof, its outer rim decorated by twisted and slagged steel girders.  Through the opening I could see the devastated remains of the floor below us, an office space filled with shattered desks, obliterated terminals, and wrecked printers.  Sheets of copier paper drifted to the floor, their ends singed and curling inward.

The dust settled as the rambler bellowed meekly like a wounded beast, dragging the half of its body that remained along the gravel with the only limb it had left.  Dear Goddess, how was it still moving!?  My pistol leapt from its holster as I made my own paltry contribution to downing the beast, peppering its thick hide with lasers that paled in comparison to The Lady’s terrifying might.

I expended an entire charge before my weapon was wrested from my grip by a magic far stronger than any I’d ever felt.  My eyes flashed backwards as I saw one of the deeply purple almost-Lunas holding my weapon above my head and furrowing her brow in confusion.  Did… Did she just want me to watch?  

I turned toward the ghoul just in time to see its body lifted into the air by two cooperating clouds of midnight-blue magic.  It shrieked as its neck was stretched and separated from its shoulders, wrenched away by the two alicorns that phased into existence at its side.  Viscera piled on the rooftop as the ghoul was ripped apart, lending the scent of gore to the overpowering aromas of pulverized gravel and ozone.

I scanned the destruction all around me.  One of the green alicorns hadn’t survived the blast, but the other two were wobbling on shaky legs, supporting each other as they ambled towards the ghoul’s corpse.  They were joined by the third purple alicorn and the two blues as they all inspected the torn body from different angles.

A voice, deep and powerful, echoed through my mind in that same disjointed speech that came from everywhere at once.  “Why di- -ou help Us?”  I turned back to the the purple beauty holding my pistol, my puzzled expression mirrored by hers.

I stammered, wondering if my brash actions had jeopardized my test.  “I-I just thought that—”

An excited and airy gasp sounded from the twisted crater that had once been the doorway.  I knew that sound!  Terror pulled my eyes wide as I turned to scream a warning, but I was too late.

A bloated ghoul covered in glistening pink pustules dove towards the group, flinging its hooves around the neck of a blue alicorn and poking its tongue out between its teeth.  The bloater exploded in a rapidly expanding cloud of pink gas, shearing the blue alicorn’s flesh from her bones.  I was forced to watch in horror as the magic of Mother’s people killed my goddess all over again.

Only one of the green alicorns reacted quickly enough, throwing her partner from the blast before being completely enveloped by the caustic mist.  She and the second blue took to the air, crashing moments later when their wings oozed off of their bodies.  The purple alicorn tried to raise a shield, but only succeeded in trapping the gas in with herself.  By the time her magic dissipated, only her bones remained—stained an obnoxious pink hue and sitting in a neat little pile where she had stood.

The lone green alicorn that had been saved by the sacrifice of her kin didn’t escape unscathed.  She rolled limply in the gravel, faint trails of the gas clinging to her horn and face before dissipating in the wind.  Her hooves covered her face as she screamed in agony.  The sight of her in pain was more than I could bear.

The Pink Cloud was still expanding, billowing upward and outward from the blast zone and rolling over the gravel at an alarming pace.  The Goddess descended, flapping her wings furiously to keep the fumes away from her downed comrade, and was soon joined by the remaining purple that still held my pistol.

Lily and Nohta gingerly rose to their hooves behind me, hissing and cursing the alicorns under their raspy breath.  I absentmindedly floated a pair of health potions in their direction, unable to redirect my attention.  My chest heaved as I sat there, helpless and useless, while our divine saviors blew the cloud of poison off the roof.  As the mist finally died and began to evaporate, all I could focus on was the trembling green goddess at my hooves.  Her beautiful face had been cruelly marred by the foul magics unleashed by the ghoul’s attack, but that was far less unsettling than what was flashing across her flank.

Cutie-marks appeared and disappeared one after the other, each one a different symbol I had never seen before.  Luna’s mark was the moon itself, but I didn’t recognize any of these images from the Selenist’s texts!  What were these pictures?

A magical wand, a starburst pattern, intertwining streams of sparks…  Dozens of cutie-marks popped into existence and were replaced so quickly that I couldn’t even take in all their details.  The image on her flank finally settled on one mark—a golden-yellow flower—and to my unending horror, she cried out in a frail and panicked voice.  “Sisters…  I…  I can’t hear you…”  

My hoof rose to my mouth, not because I had any clue whatsoever what she was speaking of, but rather because of the pure agony in her aching voice.  I…  I had to do something.  Damn my test!  I couldn’t bear to see her suffer!

I rushed to her side, gently placing my hooves on her body and whispering as soothingly as I could.  “Goddess, I’m here.  It’s me, your priestess.”  I may have been taking some liberties by presuming to have acquired such a station, but who else was more faithful than I?  The green alicorn recoiled at my touch, whimpering in pain while I tried to calm her.  “Luna, let me help you.  Nothing would bring me greater honor.”

Scarlet light bloomed from my horn, and a single tendril of magic snaked towards the green alicorn’s heart as she winced and gasped, “Why do you keep calling Us—”

PAIN!

Indescribable agony flooded every shred of my existence, crushing my mind under the glacial weight of far more than one body’s anguish.  I felt thousands of Lunas, each of them shrieking to reject my spell as they recoiled from our magical connection.  And somewhere far away in that unending sea of tormented perfection, I felt a leviathan stir in the deep…

A hoof as hard as stone slammed into my chest, mercifully severing my spell as it knocked me over.  My breath exploded out of my lungs as tears streamed down my cheeks, and a booming voice assaulted my ears with all the force of a bomb.

With each enraged shout, The Goddess ground her hoof a little harder into my chest.  “WHAT.”  I opened my eyes, catching the furious visage of The Dark Mother silhouetted against the night sky.  “WAS.”  She bellowed each word, her muzzle inches from mine.  “THAT!?”

The pressure of her hoof made it impossibly hard to speak.  “Goddess…  please…  I was—”

“Who are you to assault The Great and Powerful Goddess!?”  Her horn flared to life, the fluting spiralling up its side lighting up bright white as the two of us were encased inside a magical bubble.

“Was…”  My eyes bulged in their sockets as my body fought for air.  “Trying to… help,”  I squeaked.

I heard Lily and Nohta scream my name before bullets slammed ineffectually against the arcane barrier.  The Goddess stood over me, ignoring the attacks as her eyes flashed with arrogance and disdain.  “Help?  How could you help Us?”  The gunfire was abruptly silenced as I heard Lily and Nohta forced to the gravel, their every other word a crude profanity hissed through grit teeth.

My eyes glanced at the squirming green alicorn to my side.  I couldn’t use my magic to save her from the pain.  But…  What if I didn’t use my magic?

My impudent hooves dared to clutch the elegant foreleg that was crushing my chest.  “Anti… dote…”  The pressure lessened slightly, allowing air to rush into my burning lungs.  I fought against the urge to catch my breath as I struggled to explain myself.  “Antidote for Pink Cloud…  Mother’s book…  I can brew it if I can find a few more ingredients!”

“You lie.”  Her hoof moved upward, hovering just above my windpipe.

My eyes went wide as panic filled my voice.  “NO!  No!  Goddess, please!  Honesty is the first of your Three Truths!”

Her brow furrowed quizzically.  I could tell that she didn’t believe me, that much was certain, but I wasn’t the one that convinced her.

The green alicorn whispered a single word.  “Sister…”  Judging by the frailty of her voice, I was sure that the green pony didn’t have the strength to utter much more.

The Goddess glanced back at her green look-alike, indecision tainting her formerly calm regality.  She raised her hoof from my throat, but kept the severe expression as she glared at me.  “If you fail in this, you will beg Us for death.”  I made to get up, but was shoved hard against the gravel as her hoof returned to my chest.  

“And We will not grant that wish.”  She finally released me, lowering the barrier and stepping towards the green alicorn.  I swallowed back the lump in my throat, and nodded.  

Rising to my hooves, I glanced back at Lily and Nohta, finding them held against the rooftop by the second purple alicorn with their own weapons pointed at their heads.  My ears drooped as I realized the hopelessness of our situation.  They couldn’t save me.  I had to do this myself.

Luna stood over her downed green comrade, beckoning with a hoof.  “Come.”  That single word was a more effective leash, by far, than the collar around my neck.

My horn sprung to life, pulling Mother’s book from the recesses of Nohta’s packs.  Nohta’s eyes met mine as we shared a look of supreme uncertainty.  Goddess, please let this work…

Lady Luna’s horn glowed brightly as I approached her, casting a blinding light across her face as she declared, “We are leaving.  Now.”

She was going to teleport…  Oh Goddess, she was going to teleport!  “Wait!” I cried, pointing at my neck.  “Our bomb collars!  If my friend leaves my side she’ll die!”

The Goddess glanced at Lily, and in a voice laced with indifference, asked, “And why would We care if your friend dies?”

My lip quivered.  “But…  Loyalty is amongst the greatest of virtues…”  My words fell on callous ears.  The almost-Luna’s apathy was all the proof I needed.  She was not Luna after all.  I shook my head, fear and outrage tainting my voice as I yelled at her gorgeous face, “I’m trying to help you!  I need her help to do it!”  It was a convenient lie.  And even if it was an outright bluff, it was the only card I had left to play.

A flicker of magic stripped Lily of her packs, pistol, and rifle just before she was yanked through the air and shoved into my hooves.  We both grunted from the impact before the certainly-not-Luna’s horn began to gather energy again.  She looked over to her purple companion, speaking aloud in a plain voice, “The M.A.S. and M.O.P. facility.”

Her companion nodded once, still holding my struggling sister against the gravel.  I gestured to Nohta with my one free hoof, “Wait!  My sist—”

Magic engulfed my body in a grip like iron as a haughty voice boomed into my ear.  “She does not wear a collar.”

My sister’s eyes flared in panic as we both realized what was about to happen.  “CANDY!”

The pseudo-goddess at my side spoke two last words.  “We go.”

I reached out to my sister, my heart icing over as I wondered if I’d ever see her again.  “NOH—”  I didn’t even have the time to finish screaming her name before my world exploded in a violent flash of magenta.


******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!  
Welcome to Level 9!  
New Perk!

Bomber Mare (Rank 1 of 3): The bigger the boom, the better!  Your explosive weapons now do 25% more damage!  Careful with those grenades, Doctor!

Skills Note: Medicine 100
Skills Note: Explosives 50

Lily gains a perk:  “I know I wanted some alone-time with Candyflanks over here, but this damn alicorn is plot-blocking me super hard right now.”

Moving Target:  They can’t hurt what they can’t hit!  So long as Lily is sprinting or flying, she gains added Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold.

Nohta has left the party.

> Chapter Nine: Star-Crossed -Part One-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Nine:


Star-Crossed



“How could you ever know what it’s like to be totally obsessed with a pony, only to find out they’re obsessed with somepony else?”


Candy, when your father expressed his wishes to teach you how to use his laser pistol, I must admit that I had misgivings.  Learning how to fight is one of the most valuable skills any of us can ever acquire in this world, but I worried that the laser pistol was not correct for you.  You were neither clumsy nor slow, and I wished to teach you in all the martial styles that my mother and father taught me.  I wanted to teach you that strength is overvalued in combat.  After all, it takes very little pressure to puncture the skin with a sharpened blade.  And with your knack for brewing, you would only need to nick your attacker before your poison crippled them.

But you were so insistent on learning how to fight like your father!  At least, you were when you were younger.  Do you remember the conversation we had when you were little?  You called my methods “barbaric!”  Ha!  Your father scolded you terribly for that, but I must admit that I admired you for your strength of conviction.  In the end, I admit that you and your father were right.  You would have been a terrible assassin.  I mean no offense, daughter, but how many times were you successful when attempting to sneak cookies from the jar in our kitchen?

Your father knew what was best for you in that regard.  With how similar you are to him, I should have deferred to his judgement much earlier.  He and I placed our lives in each other’s hooves times beyond counting, both on the battlefield and off, and every single time we emerged victorious.  Fighting alongside your love in the wasteland is possibly the greatest joy you can have.

Dancing with him is a close second.  Or rather, a different kind of “dancing” that you would be very uncomfortable reading about.

Nohta, your father was kind enough to trust me when I insisted on teaching you my ways.  Overall I was not able to impart much before my illness, but what little I could pass on brought me great joy.  Truly some of my happiest memories are of those simple, quiet times we shared together.

Teaching you how to move silently brought an entirely different set of problems to our life in this stable.  Really, did you have to make it a point to attempt to sneak up on your father and me at every opportunity?  Unfortunate as your midnight expeditions were, for a number of reasons, your growing skill was apparent.  Stealth can be one of your greatest allies should you choose to develop your ability as much as you can.  Trust in your ability to evade and deceive, move swiftly through the sacred shadows, and remember that noise can kill as surely as a misplaced hoof, and you will one day surpass even me.

Trouble will follow you every step of the way, and ponies who are already distrustful will point hooves of blame in your direction at every opportunity.  Have faith, dear.  Eventually you will find your way through the shadows, and when you do you will know the freedom that I always wanted for you.

Of course, the trouble for your father and me didn’t really start until the two of you learned to work together.  Vexation and admiration mixed with equal measure on that day.  Every single cookie!  Removed from the jar with not even a crumb left!  Moreover, you both concealed your tracks!  And you came up with a fairly convincing tale to place blame on your father!  Really, I must admit that sprinkling the crumbs near his side of the bed was brilliant.  Even I nearly fell for your ruse.

Remember that, girls.  No matter what obstacle you may face, be it a brutish thug, a collapsing building, or a simple cookie jar, you are stronger together than you are apart.


-Excerpt from The Book of Nadira, pgs. 48-49



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“—ta!”  The last portion of my sister’s name left my throat in a desperate scream just as the alicorn’s teleportation spell ended in a spectacular display of purple magic.  My hoof, still outstretched and reaching for Nohta, now pointed to nothing more than darkness.  Gone were the clouds and moon above me, and gone was the expansive cityscape underneath and all around me.  Instead, all I could see in the gloom beyond the alicorn’s purple magic was a uniform blanket of green.  Broad fern leaves as long as my tail, hanging vines as thick as my legs, and a thick carpet of spongy clovers, mosses, and assorted grasses dominated my vision.  The air was thick, humid, and hot, as if I had stepped into the showers of The Stable just at the end of a maintenance shift change.  As the magic waned, my nose was assaulted with the musky scent of unchecked plant and fungal growth.  It was such a complete reversal in scenery that it took me a moment to realize the lack of solid ground underneath my hooves.

I exited the spell with a tad too much elevation, falling in an awkward heap on my side and grunting as the air was knocked from my lungs.  Soft blades of grass cushioned the blow as I fell to the earth, but they weren’t the blades I needed to worry about.  Lily collapsed on top of me with her own grunt, and one of her wings sliced straight through the leather barding protecting my barrel.  By the time she was able to react to her disorientation and pull away, her leading feather’s cutting edge had carved completely through the armor and sunk a quarter of an inch into my skin.

Lily was still apologizing—and I was still screaming in pain—when a colossal wave of energy rolled over us, expanding in every direction to create a growing ring of purple lightning that arced off of every moss-covered object in our immediate vicinity.  Four dark-violet hooves thumped heavily into the moss by my head, and the alicorn’s magic fizzled with an electric tingle in the air as the teleportation spell dissipated fully.  The show of arcane force by the alicorn left one thing absolutely clear: she was not to be trifled with.

I hissed through my teeth at the white-hot pain in my side, adding a red hue to the overwhelming purple glow the not-Luna was bathing our surroundings in.  Swallowing back nausea as I stitched my side back together, I watched the alicorn carry her whimpering green look-alike to a nearby table covered in beakers, pipettes, flasks, heating talismans, and of course, moss.  I shook my head at the confusing sight of a table in the middle of what I had assumed was a jungle or forest, and continued mending the flesh overtop my ribs.  With the barest of movements from her horn, a second cloud of purple magic swept the table clean, carelessly scattering the scientific equipment and scouring the overgrowth from the steel surface.  With a much gentler magical touch the purple alicorn lay her green comrade atop the table, and turned to face me with an expectant and arrogant look in her eyes.

Lily helped me to my hooves, her eyes darting all around us.  “I uh…  I hope that whatever you’ve got planned works, Candy.”

Staring at the cold teal eyes glaring in our direction, I gulped and nodded.  “Me too.”

Still holding my laser pistol in her magic, the alicorn stated, “We have arrived.  We expect you to keep your word.”  The alicorn’s mane rippled in a nonexistent breeze as she enunciated her words clearly and slowly.  Judging by the stilted manner in which she spoke, it was almost as if she believed I was hard of hearing, or perhaps didn’t speak Equestrian.  Of course, the bluntness of her words made our situation perfectly clear.  “Aid Our sister or We will kill you.”

I had so many questions.  But the one that came to mind first was more important than any others.  I returned the hard stare as best I could, summoning up my courage to ask, “And what of my sister?”

The alicorn was silent for so long that I began to wonder if she would answer.  Eventually, she only gave me the barest hint of hope.  “If you do not keep your word, then she will die first.”

Terror mixed with relief in my gut.  Nohta was still alive.  The alicorn was holding her as leverage over me.  I nodded, holding up a hoof in a pleading gesture.  “O—”

“We will tear her limb from limb before your eyes.”  The alicorn cut me off with a cold, emotionless glare.  “You will hear her screams.  You will know she died because of you.”

“Okay!  I’ll help!”  Goddess, surely she knew that such a threat was unnecessary!  “Just don’t hurt her, please!”

In a display of confidence I would have found foolish coming from anypony else, the alicorn floated my pistol back to me.  After her threats against Nohta’s life, however, I was in no state to entertain the notion of attacking her.  I fumbled to stuff the weapon back into its holster as quickly as I could while she continued.

“You have more to gain from this encounter than you have to fear.”  The alicorn’s words left me immensely puzzled, but before I could inquire as to her meaning she flared a broad wing over her green sister and inclined her head in the other alicorn’s direction.  “She is in pain.”

“R-Right…”  My lips trembled as I tried to calm my racing heart.  Cautiously inching toward the table, I nodded again.  “Let’s not waste any time then.”

The green mare on the table lay on her side, shivering, her every breath ragged, strained, and raspy.  The Pink Cloud had marred what had once been a beautiful face, eating through the green coat and deteriorating the skin and muscle fibers around the pseudo-goddess’ right eye.  I could only imagine the pain she must have been in; the flesh around her temple had softened almost to the point of sloughing off of her face.

Her purple counterpart stared at me as I lay my hooves on the table, examining the green mare.  I knew better than to attempt using my spell again; I didn’t have an inkling what had gone wrong, but I certainly didn’t want to repeat it.  And with the intense stare coming at me from over the table, I didn’t believe I’d have the luxury of a second chance should I repeat the mistake again.

It was perhaps one of the oddest moments of my entire life.  I was being silently judged by an alicorn that was almost the spitting image of The Goddess, while simultaneously attempting to treat another alicorn for wounds sustained from the ancient and all-consuming poison that Mother’s people had specifically engineered to kill the real Luna.  And I was doing so in some great underground cavern that, despite the abysmal lack of natural light, was somehow absolutely overrun with vegetative growth.

So perhaps that will help you appreciate exactly how strange I felt when I had to ask a question I had never once uttered in my entire life.  Placing a hoof on the table, I furrowed my brow and grimaced.  “Err, could you tell me where it hurts?”

Adding to the surrealism, it was not the green alicorn that answered.  It was the purple one.  “The poison has affected her horn, head, throat, and lungs.”  When I raised my eyes to question the almost-Luna, she added in a matter-of-fact tone, “It has also affected her wings and forehooves to a lesser degree.  That is cause for concern.  But more pressing is her silence.”

In complete opposition to the purple’s statement, the green alicorn meekly lifted a single hoof toward the purple, and managed to croak out a meager whisper, “S-Sister…  I can’t…  can’t hear…  Don’t leave me.”

The almost-Luna took the green’s hoof in her own, and laid her wing over the green’s flank.  “This one would rather die, sister.”  I couldn’t make up my mind whether the purple alicorn was callous or compassionate.  I gave up on trying to comprehend her, or how she could possibly know what the other alicorn was feeling, and instead focused on the task at hoof.

I had never treated anypony for exposure to Pink Cloud before, but standard procedure essentially boiled down to two steps: administer health potions and pray.  I opened my packs, floating out every chem, potion, and surgical instrument I still had.  After setting my scalpel, gauze, and sterilizing alcohol on the table, I floated Mother’s journal to Lily.

“Lily,” I asked, “I need you to turn to the back of the book and look for a section titled ‘Pink Kiss.’  You’ll recognize it by the little warning doodles that Mother drew.”  I had to poke her with the corner of the book to wrest her anxious gaze away from the purple alicorn.

Lily fumbled with the book, flipping through the pages as she asked, “The hell is Pink Kiss?”

“One of my mother’s concoctions.  A poison she derived from Pink Cloud.  I…”  I briefly pondered exactly how crazy I might seem to Lily if I mentioned that I only recalled the poison because of a troubling dream from a few night’s prior.  Clearing my throat, I opted to gloss over a detail or two.  “I believe there is only one antidote, and that antidote is our best chance at reversing any serious damage done to…”  My gaze returned to the alicorn as I trailed off.

Neither of them were looking at me.  The purple alicorn with the rippling mane was staring intently at her green counterpart, and the green was too busy coughing, grimacing, and writhing to notice much of anything.  Her jade wings kept extending and retracting as her hooves scraped at the table’s surface.

When it was clear that Lily wasn’t going to ask me to finish my sentence, I cupped my hoof underneath the green alicorn’s mane and gently lifted her head to the potion I floated to her lips.  The purple alicorn was silent and still, but the weight of her focused gaze was crushing and predatory.  I felt like the proverbial mouse removing the thorn from the manticore’s paw.

I would have said nearly anything to alleviate the awkward silence.  I glanced at the purple, unable to maintain eye contact for more than a moment at a time.  “For what it’s worth,” I began, my ears drooping to the sides of my head, “We were just trying to escape. We didn’t know that we were leading the ghouls to you.”  The purple alicorn remained silent.  It was almost as if I were speaking to Luna’s statue in The Stable again, only without any of the comfort and peace I would have normally received.

Halfway through the bottle, the green alicorn convulsed, coughing up drops of blood along with most of the potion.  She winced, uttering a single word as I held her head in my hooves.  “Hurts…”

I reached into my packs, finding frayed cloth under my hoof.  I ripped a shred of the fabric away to use as a rag, and brought it up to the injured alicorn’s muzzle to wipe away the mess.  Just before I wiped her bloodstained muzzle, I caught the hard eyes of her comrade staring me down.  My eyes fluttered between the green and the purple, desperately seeking a sign that I might continue.  A single nod was all I got, and I wasted no time cleaning the blood off the alicorn’s lips.

Even the tender ministrations of my hooves caused the alicorn to wince and pull away.  She needed Med-X, that much was certain.  My magic lifted a syringe of the painkiller to the green’s neck as the almost-Luna watched me like a hawk.

I pulled the cloth away, finally catching the pink patch sewn into the fabric.  I had embroidered that symbol into the lab coat myself.  It was my glyph, now burnt, frayed, and bloodied.  I swallowed and wet my lips as I placed the patch of cloth on the table, whispering to Lily, “How is the search coming?”

Lily’s pierced ear was bobbing up and down frantically.  “I don’t know.  I think I’m close?  Grumpy keeps going nuts.”  The sound of pages quickly flipping back and forth accompanied her confused voice.  “Something about a code or—”

“Lily!  Focus!”  Neither of us was in a position to entertain her insane ramblings!  I half-turned to face her, narrowing my eyes and raising my voice.  “Time is of the essen—”

“Found it!”  She shoved the opened book in my face, and my magic snatched it out of her grasp as I read.

“Dear Goddess…”  I skimmed over the recipe, my mind racing.  “This is more complicated than I remember.  I need...”  I turned to the almost-Luna, my lip quivering.  “I need you to trust me.”

Her face was like carved onyx as she stared over her green companion.  “No.”

“It’s not a request!  Lily is chained to me by these collars, and I need to attend to her,” I yelled, gesturing to the wounded alicorn.  “I need ingredients that I don’t have, or else your sister is going to die!”

The violet alicorn squinted her eyes, silent for an uncomfortable amount of time.  I could only return her questioning glare with my own, drawing strength from my own personal conviction.  I was right, and she knew it.

“What do you require?”

My eyes widened, and I took a breath to steady my nerves before reading from the journal.  “Manticore venom.  Lots of it.  At least three cups.”  Keep reading, Candy!  Keep going!  “Hagwort: four bunches.  Sunflower seeds: two ounces.  Queensfoil: one leaf.  Ghost peppers: two of them.  Horsenettle: two roots.  Blastcap Mushrooms: at least four.  Inkvine: one foot.  Heart’s Desire: three petals.  Nirnroot: three oun—”

“Candy, you’re k-killing me over h-here.”  Lily’s voice, little more than a strained whimper forced through the chattering of her teeth, cut me off.  I turned to find her squirming on the floor, her eyes shut tight as she winced and shivered.  “Fucking… c-cold…  Too m-many waves.”

I had neither the time nor the inclination to entertain whatever insane notion was going through my friend’s head.  So instead of worrying about Lily’s head I shook my own and turned back to the book.  “I also need Ice Iris, and-”

“Stop.”  The alicorn held up a hoof, silencing me halfway through the list.  “You did not mention how many ingredients you required.  This task requires more than this one is capable of.”

My jaw dropped.  “You…  You’re just going to give up?”

The alicorn remained silent.  Instead of answering me, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  A moment later her wings slowly unfurled at her sides as she lifted her horn upwards.  The spiralled fluting on her horn lit up bright white as she sat, breathing heavily beside her comrade.  With a final gasp she opened her eyes, and a ring of expanding light shot away from her horn to fly through the darkness.

Light exploded all around us as the room burst into activity.  Another purple alicorn teleported behind her, followed by another, and another, and another…  Alicorns popped into existence and crowded all around us, their teleportation spells throwing light this way and that like so many of those wild parties in The Stable I had been too busy to attend.  Not all of them came alone; occasionally a blue or green would accompany the appearance of one of the many purples.  I was beginning to wonder why I wasn’t seeing any other colors amongst their numbers.

Through the pulsing illumination I finally realized that we were not, in fact, in a magical cave of some sort.  We were in a building that was completely overgrown with plant growth.  I couldn’t actually see the walls, but I did recognize the vague shapes of ventilation shafts, water pipes, observation platforms, and rows and rows of bowl-shaped objects and tables through the fuzzy green carpet that lay overtop every surface.

By the time the twentieth alicorn managed to squeeze into the growing herd all around us, my vision was too limited to see anything else.  Everywhere I looked I saw Luna’s face.  And from all directions at once came that same disjointed speech from earlier, as if the alicorns were snipping random parts from their words.

“We -ave come, sis-er.”

I was so distracted that I barely noticed when Lily pressed herself up against me, her muzzle brushing against my ear as she whispered.  “I really wish you had taken option three.”

“W-What?”  She was thinking of that now!?

I turned to gawk at her, catching the wide eyed look of terror splayed across her face as she stared at the not-so-divine herd.  She swallowed before she whispered again.  “We are so fucked.”

One alicorn stood out amongst her peers.  Her coat was indistinguishable from jet in the returning gloom, and just like the dark-purple alicorn that ripped me from my sister, her mane billowed like plasma behind her.  She stepped forward, barely a pony-length away from the almost-Luna, and spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact tone.   “You are silent, sister.”  Her icy gaze turned to me, sending a chill down my spine.  “Speaking aloud is… uncomfortable.”

“We believed you lost.”  A dark-green mare spoke next, her voice carrying a bit more compassion than the previous alicorn.  “Has the Pink Cloud harmed you, sister?”

“Yes.”  The almost-Luna nodded, visibly winded from her last spellcast.  “Canterlot will be dangerous, Nightseer.  Be careful.”

The plasma-maned beauty nickered, dismissing the warning.  “We do not fear, sister.  We overcome.”  Her eyes locked onto my horn, and she cocked her head as she asked.  “Your message was incomplete.  This one wishes to aid Us?”

Despite the frozen butterflies fluttering through my gut, I nodded, and whispered as much of a response as I could.  “Y-Yes.”

The almost-Luna panted, bracing herself against the table as she stared her plasma-maned sister down.  “She… She has a book.  She requires ingredients.”  Her wing extended in my direction, indicating Mother’s journal for all to see.  “She has promised an antidote.  A potion.”

“A potion?” The pseudo-goddess named Nightseer turned to me again.  Goddess, her gaze was chilling!  “You are part zebra.”

I wasn’t sure if it was an accusation or a simple statement of fact.  I gulped as I nodded again.  “I… I am.”

A long moment of silence passed, in which every eye in the herd stared directly at me.  I could feel the weight of their scrutiny crushing me as I imagined all the terrible spells that were about to be cast in my direction.  It was only when Nightseer narrowed her eyes and spoke that I realized I was holding my breath.

“We will allow you to prove yourself useful.”  Nightseer’s wings gave a single flap, a movement carrying all the finality of a judge slamming her gavel.  “Honor whatever deal you have struck with this one, sister.  Return to Maripony when you are done.  Your silence unnerves Us.”

Her eyes squinted as she scrutinized me further.  “Leave this one behind.  Zebras have no place in Unity.”  I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that, but I possessed a distinct lack of time to figure out my situation.

I rubbed my temple with a hoof, trying to wrap my head around what was going on.  Before I could ask anypony to explain, Nightseer gave me even more to think about.  “But she may prove beneficial to Us after We return from Canterlot.”

They…  They wanted more of my help?  With what?  I suppose I should have just been happy that they weren’t planning on killing us, but beyond potion-making they couldn’t have known anything about me!

Two purple alicorns stepped forward to flank Nightseer, and the trio disappeared in a violent flash of lavender light.  She was gone as quickly as she had arrived.  Before I could even ask what Nightseer had meant with her cryptic words, a sparkling jade cloud picked Mother’s journal up from the table and levitated it in front of another green alicorn.

She scanned the text before looking over the leather backing in my direction.  “You need these items to save Our sister?”

I nodded, and she stated plainly, “We will gather them.  Wait here.”

I expected her to teleport away or, at the very least, turn around and walk off.  Instead she stayed by my side, placid and immobile, as every other alicorn in the room burst into a flurry of activity.  Three quarters of them immediately evaporated as teleportation spells fired in unison, and the few that were left calmly walked behind me to flood the tenebrous building with a deluge of light.

I gasped as a wave of bright magic washed over the foliage in the room, scouring plant matter from the surfaces as easily as I might have wiped a dirty dish clean of grease.  The smell of burning flora was overpowering as the team of almost-divine gardeners set about pruning the overgrowth.  What was revealed underneath all the vegetation, however, was even more magnificent.

Arcane flames swept over every surface in the building, scouring vegetation and filling the room with light.  It was massive in a way I had never seen.  The entire Stable could have fit inside the cavernous space two—or perhaps even three—times easily.  Long metal walkways passed by rows and rows of enormous glass domes, each one as large as my stable’s cafeteria and housing a cornucopia of thriving plant growth.

As more of the great green carpet was burned away, additional details became clear.  Each dome had a tall metal post with a broadened top standing in its center, supporting a system of lights and—  Were those weather systems!?  My jaw dropped as I recognized rainclouds in one of the domes.  Another had a fine blanket of mist.  Further down the rows, I saw a number of domes that had snow in them.

You must understand that I grew up in a region where the weather never changed.  It was always dry, hot, and dusty.  I hadn’t ever dreamed that I might see something as exotic as snow.  The only reason I didn’t run right up to the dome, smush my face against the glass, and gawk at all the beauty inside was the alicorn patient lying upon the table next to me.

Still, just a momentary distraction to sate my curiosity couldn’t hurt.  I took a step toward the domes, squinting my eyes to read the rusted plates underneath the glass.  One snowy enclosure with an abundance of twinkling berries and fierce winds read, “Crystal Empire - Pre-Return.”  Another dome, showcasing muddy brown water, lily pads, and cattails was labeled, “Froggy Bottom Bog.”  Names like “The Badlands,” “Yak-Yakistan,” “Griffonstone,” “Rambling Rock Ridge,” and “Ghastly Gorge” eluded me completely, but the darkened, gnarled branches and thick vines of “Everfree Forest” brought to memory all those stories Mother used to tell long ago.

The alicorns moving through the building had split into two teams.  Most of them continued forward, burning through the aggressive vegetation in a manner both organized and meticulous.  The few that remained behind busied themselves with activating buttons on the consoles and terminals connected to the domes.  At their touch, magical fields activated within the bio-domes with a muted thrum. In a bright flash the fruits, nuts, flowers, roots, seeds, leaves, bark, lengths of vine, mushroom caps, algae scrapes, cacti needles, and even sap from the trees were harvested and stored in labeled jars and wax-paper packages.  Those domes which had been pilfered of produce pulsed with a bright white light, and before my unbelieving eyes the plants replenished their stores almost instantly.  I even saw completely new growth sprout and grow to maturity within a matter of moments.

I was, in a word, flabbergasted.  To make it two words, giddy.  If we’re going for four, in heaven.  I could practice alchemy here for weeks, years on end…  The very thought nearly had me dancing on my hooftips!  Especially after I had been subjected to all the atrocities zebra magic could wreak upon the world.  Here was something none could find fault with!  Who in their right mind would gaze upon a restorative draught as something to be abhorred?  Who cared about necromancy?  I had all the zebra magic I could ever want right here!

Ugh…  It makes me sick to think of how ignorant and stubborn I used to be.  My hypocrisy and prejudice nearly cost us everything.  Luckily I have been blessed with no dearth of excellent teachers, even if their methods were somewhat unorthodox.  I’m still not sure how many of them I would consider “friends,” but respect and likability are not prerequisites for each other.  You don’t need to look any further than the two of us to know that.

It must be odd for you, being locked in here with me.  Both of us seem to have the manticore by the tail, so to speak, and neither of us is completely sure of what to do next.  I must admit that I’m flattered that you respect me so much as to be driven to this fearful stalemate.  I don’t believe I can ever forgive you for what you’ve done to me, but you should know that I do respect you.  And, of course, neither of us is going anywhere until we learn to work together.  I can understand your caution, given my actions in the past, but I can assure you that we do share a common goal.

Still not convinced?  I didn’t think it would be that easy.  In fact I was specifically instructed that it wouldn’t be.  Ah, well…  Can you blame a girl for trying?  On with the tale.

By the time I managed to break myself from my awe-induced stupor, I realized that the almost-Luna alicorn that teleported us to this place was swaying gently by the table.  Whatever she had done cost her most of her considerable strength.  No matter how callous these alicorns were toward us, they certainly weren’t giving up on their green sister.

Actually, that brought up a point I was curious about.  Bringing the health potion back to the green alicorn’s lips, I whispered to the almost-Luna, “You must have a large family, to call so many ‘sister’ and be called so in turn.“

Her fatigued and guarded expression met my curious and hopeful gaze.  We stared at each other in silence until I had to turn my attention back to the wounded green alicorn, encouraging her to drink what amount of potion she could manage.  I had all but given up on any sort of conversation with the almost-Luna, but to my surprise, she finally spoke to me.

“We are the children of The Goddess.”  My ears perked up as I wiped a bit of dribbled potion away from the green’s muzzle, and a moment later the purple held my undivided attention.  She spoke slowly, as if she were reluctant to divulge too much information, but what she told me was astounding.  “We are many.  And We are one.”

“You certainly aren’t lacking for compassion toward your own kind,” I said, my hoof gently massaging the green’s shoulder to reassure her.  With a start, I finally realized what the almost-Luna had told me.  “Wait…”  I blinked, realizing that I was about to repeat a question I had once been asked.  “You said, ‘Goddess.’  Which Goddess?”

“The Great and Powerful.”  Coming from the alicorn’s lips, that almost seemed to be more a title than a description.  “The Goddess grants us life.  The Goddess is the current of thought that flows through a sea of minds.”

I furrowed my brow.  “That doesn’t exactly sound like what I know of Luna.”  Quickly realizing my error, I added, “Or Celestia.”

“The Goddess is more than Celestia or Luna ever were.  The royal sisters were powerful.  The Goddess is powerfuller.”

“That’s not—”  I caught myself before I could lapse back into my old zealous ways.  Stopping myself before I corrected her, ah…  exotic use of Equestrian was much easier.  Taking a deep breath, I tried another tactic.  “What do you mean when you say she is the ‘current of thought?’ ”

“We are many.  And We are one through The Goddess.”  Powerful though she may have been, this almost-Luna did not seem to have a way with words.  “The Goddess is one who speaks to many.  She speaks through many.  She is with Us always.”

It was a bit of a leap of logic, I’ll admit, but with what I had witnessed so far and with the way she was speaking…  I almost dismissed the thought as foolish, the sort of thing that I might have found in any number of Father’s fanciful sci-fi stories.  But still, I couldn’t stifle my curiosity.  I absentmindedly scratched my chin with a hoof and asked, “Do you mean that all of you share your thoughts with each other?  Like… Like a hivemind?”

“Yes.  That word will suffice.  We are many.  And We are one.”  Her mantra was becoming rather stale, but I was a little reticent to correct a pony that could blast me to tartarus and back with a wave of her horn.  I listened intently as she continued.  “The Goddess is Us.  We are Unity.  Unity serves The Goddess.”  Though somewhat circular, and almost egocentric, what she was telling me was incredible.  If not for her severe demeanor and flat tone of voice, I would have taken it as a joke.  Of course the fact that I was also conversing with an alicorn did lend some sincerity to the discussion…

“That’s why you refer to yourself in plural…”  And if they had no need for verbal communication, perhaps they communicated through raw ideas rather than through words?  I caught myself before I could dive further down the mental rabbit hole.  Obviously sneaking a few of Father’s cheesy sci-fi books between studies had planted no shortage of queer notions in my head.  I cleared my throat, and resumed the conversation.  “So, how many of, err… you am I speaking with?”

“You only speak to this one and what remains of her small herd now.  This one and her sister have been wounded.  The Pink Cloud has damaged the connection to Unity.”  The almost-Luna reached out to hold her sister’s hoof before looking back up to me.  “This one does not like being so few in mind.  But her sister suffers more.  She is silent and alone.”

“I see.”  In all honesty, the only thing that I truly understood was that this certainly-not-Luna was willing to go to some rather extravagant lengths to save her green look-alike.  She reminded me of someone else I knew…  Someone I had never been separated from by more than a few hundred feet at a time.

Nohta had always appreciated honesty.  I took a deep breath, and explained to the almost-Luna, “I don’t know if Mother’s antidote will help with that.  But it should help alleviate the worst of the physical damage.”

“This one understands.”  Her head inclined slightly in one of her exceedingly rare displays of emotion, and she pleaded.  “Do what you can.”

Violet light exploded all around us as the majority of the alicorns returned.  Dozens and dozens of long segmented tails with wicked barbs floated beside them, bobbing up and down in powerful levitation fields.  The alicorns approached the table as a group, unceremoniously dumping the gathered supply of manticore tails next to the table.  I should take a moment to add that these tails were very freshly harvested…  My imagination ran wild as I contemplated the deadly speed and efficiency of the concentrated efforts of an alicorn hunting party working toward a singular goal.

Of course, my terrified, wandering thoughts quickly returned to reality when I realized the opportunity that had just been placed at my hooves.  I had only requested a few cups of venom, and the glands I had been supplied with probably held three or four times that much.  With this stock, I could continue brewing all manner of exotic elixirs!

“We have acquired your items,” a dark sapphire alicorn approached behind me.  She and her sisters floated their equally excessive piles of alchemical ingredients in a semi-circle all around me, stepping back and gathering together.  In a brilliant flash of lavender magic, nearly every alicorn vanished from the room.  The only ones left were the wounded green on the table, the almost-Luna that brought us here in the first place, the green alicorn holding my mother’s book, a single purple alicorn that stood stock-still as she stared at me, and a blue alicorn that paced back and forth across the metal grate.

The green holding Mother’s journal floated the book back into my hooves.  Turning to the almost-Luna, she stated, “We are leaving three sisters here.  We will protect and observe.”  Gesturing to the heavy cauldron at my side, the green looked at me.  “You may begin.”

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves.  Not since the Dragon’s Breath had I made a potion so complex and demanding.  And not since Mother’s lessons had my brewing been so intensely scrutinized by such an intimidating audience.  With five alicorns all around me, I knew that a single mistake meant certain death.  I skimmed over the recipe one more time, and then laid the book out on the table as I got to work.

The cauldron was massive, I could have easily fit myself in it!  Possibly even one of the alicorns if they scrunched and twisted themselves up.  A quick peek inside the heavy cast-iron bowl revealed a menagerie of arcane runes of every color along the lip.  On the outside, matching glyphs decorated the surface.  I could only guess as to the meaning of most of them, but one stood out from the others: the orange spiral that matched Mother’s fire talisman perfectly.

“Okay, so there’s the heat…”  Even my voice lacked confidence.  I had found one of the runes I needed, but heat alone wasn’t enough with all these dry ingredients.

The alicorns and Lily were staring at me.  I shook my head and furrowed my brow, “I…  I need to know which of these is wat—”  A deep blue rune caught my attention.  It was nothing more than a few wavy lines, but it almost seemed to…  No.  Surely I was imagining things.  Without any other options, I raised a hoof and gently prodded the blue lines.

The corresponding glyph on the inside of the cauldron shone brightly and emitted a babbling stream of crystal clear water.  I let out the breath I had been holding, and turned to the green alicorn.  “Can you extract the venom from the glands?  The more attention I can devote to this cauldron, the better.  And the sooner I can heal your sister.”  Again, she stayed silent and immobile, but the lone blue stepped forward and lit her horn.  An ethereal blade materialized in mid-air, and began slashing through the tails with a level of precision and speed that would have left any surgeon impressed.

I looked back to the green again.  “I also need measuring tools.  The pipettes and flasks that I have are too small for these quantities.”  The healthy purple alicorn gripped an entire nearby table and its store of tools in her magic, wrenching it from the floor and setting it beside me before scouring the plant growth from its surface.

“Is there anything else you require?” The green asked.  I looked around.  The venom glands were already being squeezed over a beaker to collect the precious liquid within them.  The mounds of other ingredients were well within reach.  The cauldron almost had enough water within its belly.  Lily was staring at the alicorns like a nervous dove surrounded by hungry cats…  Everything seemed to be in order.

“No.  That will do.  Just…”  I looked to the green on the table, swallowing the lump in my throat.  “Just try to get your sister to drink more health potions.  The antidote will take some time, and health potions are her best chance until it is prepared.”

Everything was arranged in a manner so that I could keep an eye on the wounded green while I worked.  As I began adding ingredients one at a time, following Mother’s instructions as diligently as I could, I realized that she was still writhing and whimpering in pain.  She needed something to take her mind off of the poison.

I was shaking Heart’s Desire into the cauldron when I asked, “Um, what are your names?”

Neither the healthy alicorns nor the almost-Luna responded.  The silence hung in the air before the wounded green looked into my eyes and coughed out, “Mari… gold.   My name… was Marigold.”  The almost-Luna placed a hoof on her green sister’s shoulder, whispering for her to conserve her strength.

I frowned sympathetically, gesturing to myself and Lily with a hoof.  “I’m Candy.  That’s Lily.”  Lily gave a polite—if frightened—little wave, showing far too much teeth in her smile.  I looked to the almost-Luna, asking again, “What’s your name?”

Her mane rippled as she turned her head in my direction, but she only spoke after an uncomfortably long silence.  “Only the eldest and the very young have use for names.  This one does not remember what she was called before.”

“Before?”  I asked, soaking the chopped inkvine in manticore venom.  The potion was turning a sickly yellow hue, but according to Mother’s book that was exactly what I wanted.  I drew a sample into a small beaker, holding it up to my eyes to inspect how well the ingredients had dissolved into the solution thus far.

All thought of speaking to Marigold vanished with the next words from the almost-Luna’s lips.  “Before The War.”

My eyes bulged in their sockets, and my magic winked out like a wispy cloud in a stiff breeze.  The sample beaker raced to the grated floor and shattered, just like my concentration.  As the liquid trickled down the drain at my hooves, I slowly turned my head to stare incredulously at the alicorn that had just blown my mind.

Lily was likewise stunned.  “Wait…  You remember The War?”  She flapped her wings, flying to my side as her jaw threatened to scrape the floor.  “The War?”

The almost-Luna continued to speak plainly, as if the juicy little morsel of information she had just revealed was no more extraordinary than yesterday’s leftover oatmeal.  “This one served The Goddess before The War.  This one still serves The Goddess.”

As much as I wanted to dive into pre-war history, my curiosity was nagging me for answers to another question.  Through trembling lips I asked, “Who was The Goddess before The War?”

“Many,” she said.

As if I couldn’t have surmised that on my own!  I stirred the cauldron’s steaming contents before inquiring, “How many?”

The almost-Luna glanced at her healthy green companion, who gave a single nod.  Turning back to us, she announced, “She was four who became one.  We joined Her soon after.  Now We are one in Unity.”

“Four?  I… I suppose I expected more.”  I muttered, catching the glare of the healthy green as I sprinkled a few mushrooms into the brew.  “Err, I meant no offense.”

The green’s eyes flashed, literally, as if they were backlit by two blue strobe lights.  Her mane transformed before my eyes into an emerald copy of the plasma-like cloud shared by the almost-Luna and Nightseer.  She opened her mouth, and her voice sliced through the darkness like an icy gale, freezing my blood even as it cut straight to the bone.  “The Great and Powerful Goddess is comprised of the greatest and powerfullest minds of all time!  None are Our equal!  Who are you to be so bold and ignorant as to question Us?”

Was…  Was that her?  Was she speaking through the green?  Was I always speaking to her?  Did she only speak when necessary?  Ugh!  Alicorns are so odd!  I winced and stammered, “I-I…  Begging your pardon.  I only seek to understand.”

The green’s nose rose primly in the air as her wings shrugged at her sides.  “Hmph.  Of course you seek to understand Us.  Lesser beings are right in their desire to understand their betters.”

In the back of my mind, I realized that it was probably a very good thing that Nohta wasn’t by my side.  Any hint of racism was usually enough to set her off, and that comment had sounded very racist.  It also held far more emotion than I was getting from any of the other alicorns.  Perhaps I really was speaking to their leader?  Or whatever she was supposed to be called.  I was still quite confused.

Her eyes narrowed.  “We are perfect.  What hope can you have to understand Us?”  Okay…  I had just struck a nerve with a being whose nature was completely alien to me.  Not to mention the veritable army at her beck and call.  This didn’t bode well.  “At your very best, We may help you ascend to more than your lowly forms, and at your worst you are little more than beasts scurrying about for basic necessities.”

Lily, bless her, stepped between the green alicorn and myself.  Given her fearful expression earlier, I had no idea how she summoned up the courage to do so.  Her blue wings flared at her sides as she stared up at the gorgeous green.  “Easy now.  Let’s not forget who’s doing who a favor here.”

“This is no favor.  This is a bargain: your lives for the life of Our child.”  The green’s mane waved behind her as she glanced at the wounded alicorn.  When her gaze returned to us, it felt acidic enough to eat away the iron in the cauldron.  “Were it not for that, We would crush the life out of both of you for your transgressions against Us.”

“T-Transgressions?” I stammered.

“Your mind is unfit for Unity, yet you trespassed upon Us.”  What was she— My spell!  She was talking about my spell!  Goddess, they all felt that?

I shook my head, pleading with her.  “I’m sorry!  I didn’t know that was going to happen!”

To my immense surprise, the almost-Luna spoke to the green in that matter-of-fact, emotionless voice of hers.  “This one believes her.  This one felt her pain.”

“As did The Great and Powerful Goddess.”  The green flapped her wings, staring me down.  “Yet We reserve judgement.”  Turning, she addressed the almost-Luna.  “Returning to this place displeases Us, and We have grown bored with this conversation!  Carry it on in Our stead, child.  You still have free rein in this land.”  The green’s eyes dulled, and her gorgeous mane fell at her side in a cascade of silken strands.  She blinked, looked around for a moment, and then sat by the side of the table as if nothing had happened.

A thick cloud of green fog was rising off the top of the potion.  I could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Mother to gather up the fog into separate containers without the use of unicorn magic.  Especially when I followed her next step and steeped the ghost peppers in the bottled green mist.  The capsaicin in the little fruits interacted with the cloud and set off a thermal reaction that would have made the bottles much too hot to hold in my hooves.  Not to mention the fact that she would have needed to add the peppers with her mouth…  I didn’t want to know how painful that must have been.

I was so distracted with the brewing that I almost didn’t hear when Lily started asking her own questions of the alicorns.  “So that was The Goddess, huh?”  Lily let out a low whistle, sending me an encouraging grin.  “Kinda weird that she’d show up just for us.”

The almost-Luna glanced at me before answering Lily.  “This one believes that The Goddess has taken an interest in the spell used by the unicorn.  And in her promise of aid through the use of a potion.”

“Her name is Candy,” Lily pointed out.  “So why’d she take off in such a hurry and leave you in charge?”

“Our focus is drawn elsewhere.”  As she returned her gaze to her poisoned sister, the barest hint of sorrow flashed across her face.  “The Goddess has granted this one influence over her sisters.  This one eases the burden on The Goddess’ attentions.”

The liquid in the cauldron let off a glittering cloud of fragrant, orange smoke when I added the infused peppers, and soon after developed a delightful shade of sapphire.  Four sprigs of chopped Witchweed immediately followed, causing the sapphire shade to be replaced by ruby.  Thick, goopy bubbles formed on the surface, chasing each other round and round as I stirred the mixture with my magic.  I couldn’t help but wonder about the alicorn’s words, but the fumes coming off the liquid were making it hard to concentrate.  Luckily, Lily wasn’t done with her just yet.

“So, what, you’re like an officer or something?”  Lily was prying for as much information as she could get her hooves on.  I wasn’t about to complain; after adding all the ingredients and lowering the temperature, all I had left to do was stir the simmering goop until it thickened up and turned color one last time.

The almost-Luna nodded.  “Yes.  This one is an elder sister.  She holds sway with the younger sisters.”

I chanced a glance over at the almost-Luna, fighting off the haze in my mind enough to ask, “So… Nightseer, was it?  Is she an elder?  You both have similar manes.”

The almost-Luna massaged her sister’s shoulder.  “She was the third to join Unity after the rebirth of The Goddess.”

“And you?” I asked, watching the bubbles in my brew clump together.  Were they supposed to each be a different color?

“This one was the seventh,”  The elder alicorn proclaimed.  There was no joy or sorrow in her voice.  No celebration or honor in proclaiming her station.  Like nearly everything else she said, it came as a mere statement of fact.

Lily snorted, flapping her wings excitedly.  “Does that mean she outranks you?”

The purple alicorn didn’t show any emotion when she looked at Lily, but Lily’s wings slumped back to her shoulders as if she had just been threatened.  The almost-Luna spoke plainly as her mane continued to flow behind her.  “Yes.  But The Goddess granted this one additional strength so that this one might lead her sisters in this desert.”  The elder alicorn returned her gaze to her wounded sister, “This one is responsible for many.  This one has failed many.”

I almost didn’t notice the subtle tightening of her jaw as she whispered, “This one will not fail again.”

“You seem to be doing a good job to me,” I offered.  It wasn’t until her eyes met mine that I saw how wrong I was.  Regardless of the placidity of her face, I could see a roiling sea of emotion in her eyes.  The waves were… choppy, to say the least.

“Many sisters have gone silent in this desert.  This land is not worth Our time.”  The elder shook her head, sending long ripples through her gorgeous mane.  “The Glow is absent from this place.  But the little sisters in this land are not frail.  They are stronger than this one expected.”  She swallowed before continuing.  “And they are violent.  Little sisters should not quarrel with Us.  It is confusing.”  I was surprised; she had actually managed to furrow her brow instead of maintaining her composure.

Confused, I asked.  “Wait, ‘little sisters?’  Do you mean younger alicorns?”  The antidote had finally shifted to a bright pink hue, so I rubbed my hoof along the temperature rune to kill the heat.  Cocking my head to the side, I inquired further, “Why would they fight you?”

The almost-Luna shook her head.  “You know them as ‘ghouls.’  Little sisters rarely fight Us elsewhere.  They can be good companions in The Glow.”  She looked directly at me as she said, “The glowing zebras make excellent little sisters.”

It was going to get very confusing if she kept using different terms to describe every little thing.  Fortunately, there was only one possible thing she could have meant by “The Glow.”  Every wastelander, stable dweller, and anyone else in Equestria would have been hard pressed to mistake a term like that for anything but radiation.

Still, the look in her eyes worried me.  Not only for my sake, but for Nohta’s as well.  What were these alicorns planning?  Remembering how the glowing one in Coltsville had rendered me nearly useless, I cautioned her against overconfidence.  “I would have thought that you’d be worried about them nullifying your magic.”

The almost-Luna’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if I had made a minor faux-pas.  “We have never experienced this.”

“Y’know… now that I think about, I’ve never heard of the glowing ones doing that anywhere but here,” Lily offered.  “They’re kinda rare everywhere else, though.  Wouldn’t surprise me if there were just too few survivors in the rest of Equestria to spread the word.”

The elder alicorn paused to rub her sister’s shoulder again, and then asked, “Are you nearly finished?”

“Almost done,” I nodded.  “This antidote is meant to be applied topically as well as ingested.  It just needs to cool for a moment.”  The poisoned green fluttered her eyelids and opened her mouth, but no sound escaped her lips.  We were cutting it close.

I took up a syringe of Med-X and my scalpel in my magic, approaching the wounded green as I sterilized the blade.  Before I could even explain myself, the scalpel was yanked out of my grip and leveled just in front of my eyes.

“What are you doing!?” The almost-Luna shouted, her voice crushing my ears against my head.

I backpedalled, feeling the scalpel’s tip brush against my eyelashes.  I barely managed to stammer out a response.  “I-I need to debride the affected tissue, or else she won’t heal properly!  She’ll be scarred for life if I don—”

The blade twisted in front of my eye as the alicorn stated, “Our sister will bear her scars.”

My eyes flitted between the scalpel and the elder alicorn.  “But—”

“She will bear her scars.”  The elder repeated.  “They will remind Us to be cautious.”

If I had been in control of the scalpel, I would have had a wonderful opportunity to see if I could use it to cut the tension in the air.  As it was, however, I simply squeaked out, “O-Okay.”  The almost-Luna turned her attention back to her sister, and the scalpel dropped to ping off the metal grate at my hooves.

My heart was still racing when I took my largest empty bottle from my packs and dunked it into the cauldron.  My magic scooped up a measure of the gleaming pink gunk and slathered it across every affected bit of alicorn I saw.  Marigold winced at first, but quickly relaxed as the antidote worked its magic.  The potion that met her face was absorbed immediately, seeping into the softened flesh and letting off little curls of wispy green smoke.  I coated her horn in the mixture as well, hoping that it would alleviate the worst of the Pink Cloud’s effects.  When I had emptied my little pickle jar, I stepped back to the cauldron to refill it.

I turned back around to find Marigold stirring as the antidote kicked in.  Raising herself up on one hoof, she coughed and panted, and stretched her wings experimentally.  Her eyes found mine, and in a frail voice she mouthed more than said, “Thank you.”

That moment made it all worth it.  She was going to be okay.  I couldn’t help but smile at her when I offered the almost-Luna my refilled bottle.

“She needs to drink this.”  Despite my odd patient and odder surroundings, it was easy to slip back into my practiced ways.  “All of it.  You can dilute it with water to make it go down easier, but the more of this antidote you can get inside of her, the better.  It’s the only way to reverse the damage done to her lungs.”  I helped Marigold step off the table as the other alicorns watched us.  Turning back to the lone elder, I continued, “Administer it slowly at first, as you can expect some vomiting.  Not to mention quite a few trips to the little filly’s room.”  My tail swished as I built up steam.  “And she’ll need to eat.  Lots of bedrest.  No strenuous activity.  Plenty of clear liquids—”

“We are not foals,” She cut me off.  “We know how to—”

“Well I’m very glad that you’re not, but I am a doctor!”  Hmph!  Honestly, who goes to a doctor just to ignore their advice?  “Now hush up and listen to your doctor’s orders!”  The almost-Luna blinked incredulously, shrugging her wings.  And that was when I remembered I was speaking to an alicorn that had decimated a rambler ghoul—and a good portion of the roof upon which it stood—in a single blast of magic.

“Er… please,” I grinned apologetically, offering them another health potion and even more of the antidote for the road.

The elder cocked her head, declining the health potion as she took her sister under one of her beautiful wings.  “This one appreciates your concern.  But We have the situation under control.”

Marigold’s eyes fluttered as she glanced at the elder.  “Sister…  Is that… I can hear you?”

The almost-Luna squeezed the green with her wing.  “We will be one again soon, sister.”  I sat on my haunches as the alicorns crowded around each other.  The elder stretched her wings out toward the healthy green and the lesser purple.  They in turn did the same, forming a perimeter of gorgeous feathers around Marigold and the blue.

The elder sister spoke clearly to her group, lighting her horn in a brilliant display of magic. “We are taking Our sister to Whitetail Wood.  We will regain Our strength there.  Then We will proceed to Maripony.”

The healthy green nodded, lighting up her horn.  Twin beams of emerald shot from her horn to join with the lights of the almost-Luna and the lesser purple alicorn, and the trio began to summon up an immense amount of energy.  Amethyst and jade coalesced into a wide bubble around all five of the alicorns as they built up their magic.

Lily sidled up next to me, cocking her head as she asked the elder, “So uh, just to be sure…  We’re cool, right?”

The elder answered, “This one does not speak for The Great and Powerful Goddess.”

“But, you’re cool with us, right?” Lily prodded, gesturing between the two of us with a hoof.

The almost-Luna contemplated Lily’s question for a moment before answering.  “This one is grateful for your assistance.”  Light spiralled up the fluting in the elder’s horn as she gathered strength.  “She has no quarrel with you.”

I was still letting out a sigh of relief when the alicorn’s next words shattered my calm.  “You have gained the attention of The Great and Powerful Goddess.  We will undoubtedly see each other once again.”  I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted that attention, but the almost-Luna’s next words allayed the worst of my fears.  “This one will carry the memory of your kindness to Unity.”

Well in that case, there was something rather important that we needed to work out.  “What should we call you?”

She shook her head.  “This one has no use for a name.”

Lily’s hoof rose in the air as she piped up, “Uh…  I may have a suggestion.”  Every alicorn shifted their gaze to Lily, who shrank back before nervously offering, “What about Allie? ‘Allie Corn?’ “  I tilted my head, and raised an incredulous eyebrow at Lily.  She grinned apologetically and shrugged.  “It’s simple.  And it’s not like she cares what we call her, right?”

The elder’s eyes searched the room as she mulled that over, lighting first on her sisters, and eventually landing back on us.  “ ‘Allie Corn’ will suffice,” she nodded.  “She has directed another of her herd to guide your sister.  Be well, Candy and…”  Allie raised an eyebrow as she regarded Lily, “skittish pegasus.”  And with that, the room exploded in a burst of lavender light as the entire quintuplet of alicorns vanished in an instant.

I had to shield my eyes from the intensity of the spellcast.  When the last of the arcane energy had fizzled and sparked away, Lily and I were left alone in the dimly-lit building amidst an army of cauldrons and bio-domes filled with flora.  I took a deep breath to steady my nerves while Lily sighed next to me.

“What am I gonna do with you?” she asked.  I turned to find her expression equal parts exhausted and exasperated.  “For a smart girl, you sure pull some dumb shit sometimes.”

“Well, um…”  I half-winced and half-grinned, curling my tail around my hooves.  “We’re still alive, right?”

Lily rolled her eyes and reached into her hat for a cigarette as she groaned.


**************


The silence after the alicorns’ departure was nearly absolute.  Irregular intervals of muffled gunfire and explosions served as the only reminder that we were still somewhere in or near Spursburg, but our proximity to the city’s center was still a mystery.  All I knew for certain was that the vegetation reclaiming the cracked city streets and hanging between its crumbling buildings paled in comparison to my immediate surroundings.  Given that, I could only hope that we weren’t very far from the building where Nohta and I had been separated.

“Alright.  One thing at a time.”  Having finally calmed down now that she wasn’t surrounded by alicorns, Lily had decided to take the opportunity to assess our current predicament.  “I’ve still got a few chems under my hat, my blades, and…  Actually that’s it.”  Her hoof pawed at her empty holster as she sighed.  “Fuck, I feel naked without a gun.”

I was busy bottling up the last few doses of the antidote in spare jars.  Leaning my forehooves against the lip of the cauldron, I pointed out, “You are naked, save for the hat and bomb-collar.”

“Hey, you’re right!” she giggled, wiggling her rump.  “Maybe I can seduce our way out of trouble!”

I rolled my eyes.  “I still have my pistol and shotgun.  We’re not totally defenseless.”

“No offense, babe, but I’ve seen you shoot.”  She didn’t even have the decency to cover her smirk with a hoof.  “I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be the one taking care of any scraps we get into.”  I pursed my lips, sealing the last bottle with as disapproving a *clink* as I could muster.  “Actually,” she continued, “lemme see that shotgun.  I might be able to use it ‘til short-stack gives me back Forgiveness and The Medicine Stick.”

Slipping the bottled antidote into my packs, I furrowed my eyebrow and groaned, “Medicine Stick?  You named your rifle, I take it?”

She nodded, grinning from ear to ear.  “Okay, I didn’t actually give it that name.  A shaman in my tribe did.  I got it blessed and everything!”  She waved her legs in front of herself, making odd little noises as she waggled her eyebrows, “OOOoooOOOooo!  It makes bad spirits go away!  OOOoooOOOooo!”

“And now you believe in ghosts…”  I could feel the headache coming on.  Lily’s response certainly didn’t help.

“Well, duh.  Don’t you?”  Her pierced ear bobbed up and down furiously as she cocked her head to the side.

“Of course not!  Don’t be ridiculous!” I huffed.  Reasoning that I should give her something to focus on before she went completely crazy—or drove me completely crazy—I forked over my weapon.  “Here… just take the shotgun for now.  I’ll keep my pistol.”

Lily immediately checked the chamber, found it empty, and let out a low whistle.  “Holy shit, Candy…”  Her expression went straight from silly and amused to mortified.  “When was the last time you cleaned this thing?”

My ears drooped.  “Err…  What?”

“You’re so lucky I’m around,” she rubbed her eyes, wincing.  “Babe, you gotta clean your weapons.  This shotgun is in bad shape.”

She offered the weapon back, raising her eyebrows as she stared at me.  “Nevermind, I think I’d be better off with my blades.  You need to give this thing a thorough cleaning or you’re just asking for it to jam on you.”  I stuffed the weapon back into the groove it had worked into my packs as she continued to grumble, “We’ll just add that to the list of shit we need to do.  Right after taking care of us.”  Her stomach let off a glorious rumble, not unlike the growls of the manticores earlier that day.  “You got anything to eat?  I’m fucking starving.”

“Oh Goddess…”  It was my turn to sigh.  “You and Nohta were carrying all the food.”

“And shorty’s probably not gonna be here for…  fuck, Allie never said how far away Nohta was.”  Looking around the room, Lily shrugged her wings and rubbed her chin.  “Well shit.  Looks like I’m gonna have to whip up some food.”

“You…  can cook?”  Surely I had misheard her.  Confused, I pointed at her with a hoof.  “You?”

Her hoof stamped the ground as she defended her ludicrous claim.  “What?  I cook!  I cook all the time!”

“No you don’t!”  I shook my head, blinking back my incredulity.

She straightened up and puffed out her chest.  “Do too!”

“No you—”  I caught myself, throwing up an absentminded prayer to Luna-knows who.  “Goddess, are we really doing this?”

She chuckled as she raised a hoof to her chest.  “You think I got this body by living off of snack-cakes?”  She flared her wings and did a slow turn, showing herself off as I rolled my eyes.  But she did have a point, come to think of it.  Hadn’t half of my own diet since leaving The Stable been comprised of junk food?  Beans and corn were one thing, but an equine body required more than the occasional decent meal for proper nutrition.

Lily wiggled her rump as she looked back at me, winking underneath the brim of her hat.  “You don’t get this good-looking unless you take care of yourself, babe.”

“This coming from you?”  I jabbed my hoof in her direction again.  “Half your calories come from whiskey!”

“Ugh…”  She visibly deflated, her bladed wingtips scratching at the floor before she turned around and groaned.  “I like having a good time!  What’s wrong with that?”

“With all the alcohol and chems, I’m surprised you even have a body,” I countered.  “Let alone a still functioning one.”

“Geez Candy, if you’re gonna ride my flank this hard then you could at least pull on my mane while you’re at it.”  My accusatory hoof beat a hasty retreat to cover my lips.  Lily was back on the offensive.  “Ha!” She giggled and pointed at me.  “Even with blood all over your face, that cute little blush still comes through.”

My tail curled around my flank as I whispered, “You promised my sister that you would stop doing that.”

“I said I’d ease up a bit, sure.  But I ain’t stopping until you tell me to, sugar.”  She grinned at me a moment longer, then cleared her throat and ruffled her wings, clicking the blades against each other as she ticked off the items in our little to-do list.  “Alright.  We need to clean ourselves up, find food, teach you how to take care of that fucking shotgun…”  She trailed off, raising her eyebrow as I shrunk back from her.  She didn’t quite manage to stifle a yawn before she finished, “And after all that we’re probably gonna need sleep.”

Oh no…  “Err, Lily?  We only have the one bedroll.”

“We’ll frost that fridge when we get to it, sweetheart.  I’m too worn out to brain on anything but the basics right now.”  Trotting back up to the nearly empty cauldron, she braced against the lip with her hooves and stuck her head inside the brim.  Her voice echoed off the metal as she asked, “You think we can make some soup in one of these things?”

“I don’t see why not.”  My hoof rubbed my temple as I tried to stifle my exasperated grin.  “We might be able to find something to tide us over for the time being.”

Her head popped up, peering at the gigantic glass domes behind us.  “Yeah, I recognize some of those plants well enough to know they’re edible.”  Her gaze traveled over my body as she winced.  Her sickened expression only worsened when she prodded a hoof at the built up gunk on her wings.  Looking back to me, she declared, “We’ll figure something out.  First we need to clean ourselves off or we’re gonna smear all this gore on the food.  I really don’t want to gorge on greasy ghoul gut goulash again.”

My muzzle scrunched up in a mixture of horror and disgust.  “Again?”

“Funny story; I was camping with a girl a little too close to the Manehattan ruins, and we got jumped by ghouls in the middle of dinner.  During all the fighting, some pieces of ghoul wound up in the soup pot.”  Lily scratched at her mane, wincing at the memory.  “We didn’t have any other food, and we were really hungry.”

“Despite how disgusting that sounds,” I shook my head, trying not to imagine what that must have tasted like, “it actually reminds me of something.”  My magic plucked a jar from my packs, setting it down on the table next to Mother’s journal.  “I might be able to brew something special with these excess ingredients.”

Lily squinted at the jar before erupting in a fit of giggles, “Oh gross!  Are those eyeballs!?  Haha!”  Taking the jar between her hooves, she shook it up and down, cackling with glee.  “They look squishy!”

A crimson cloud yanked the jar out of her grasp as I huffed, “Lily, it’s not nearly early enough for you to be acting like this.”

She turned back to me and stuck out her tongue.  “Pbbt.  How do you expect somepony to act whenever you pull out an old pickle jar full of eyes?”  Sitting on her haunches, she scratched her fetlock against her chin and regarded me with an almost bored nod of her head.  “Oh, hmm… yes.  Quite the extraordinary set of peepers you have there, madame.  Exquisite specimens indeed.  Tell me, have they been properly seasoned with cumin and paprika, or were you planning on letting them steep in their natural juices before having them with some nice crisps?”

The jar dipped in the air as I failed to stifle a single snort of laughter.  “Was that supposed to sound sophisticated?”

She shrugged nonchalantly before grinning and pointing a hoof at my chest.  “Yeah, I need to work on my ‘classy’ voice.  Still got a giggle out of you though.”  Tapping the rim of the cauldron with her hoof, she insisted, “Let’s get a move on.  I’m fucking hungry.  H, to the U, to the N,R,G,Y.”

“Lily, you spelled it…”  I stopped myself when I noticed the impish grin spreading across her features again.  She was doing that on purpose, she simply had to be.  I returned her knowing grin with my own and rolled my eyes.  “Nevermind.  Let’s get started.”  Scanning the cavernous room, I spotted a few doors and observation windows ahead of us in the opposite direction of the ingredient domes.  Gesturing toward the doors, I asked, “Do you imagine that this facility might have a washroom of some sort?”

Lily shrugged before tapping the cauldron with one of her back hooves.  “Here’s hoping.  Otherwise we’re gonna have to take a bath in one of these things.”

The prospect of bathing out in the open where anyone could see was not exactly my idea of a good time.  Still, if Lily wanted to make soup then at the very least we needed a clean cookpot.  I activated the water and heating talismans in the cauldron before we turned to walk toward the doors, hoping that a thorough rinse would do the job by the time we returned.

The alicorns hadn’t bothered to cleanse the entire building of plant life.  In fact, judging by the overabundance of flora before us, they only scourged a tiny pocket of vegetation from the facility.  Moss, thick and spongy, bulged and swept over the nearing wall—rolling up the surface in a beautifully pastoral set of vertical hills and valleys.  Clover and ferns rustled gently as we marched forward, caressing our hooves and knees as we plodded through the lush growth.  Fat, white mushrooms huddled together in the corners like packs of great lazy beasts, their caps brushing up against each other with an almost familial affection.  Creeping vines stretched over doorways and wrapped around light fixtures jutting from the walls, their blooming flowers painting vivid streaks of color across the green canvas.

The serenity of the moment was a refreshing change from the intensity of the rest of the day.  I had drunk my fill of fighting—or running—for my life at every turn.  But still, no matter how sweet this well-deserved calm was, a bitter aftertaste lingered on.

“Lily,” my voice wavered with worry.  “Do you think Nohta will be okay?”

“I’m betting short-stack is probably annoying the piss out of whichever alicorn got saddled with bringing her here.”  Lily chuckled to herself before noticing my anxious features.  She quickly rearranged her expression to amend her previous statement.  “I mean… I’m sure she’ll be fine, Candy.  She’s traveling under the protection of one of the most dangerous creatures in the wasteland.”  I remained unsure of how to respond, which prompted Lily to try and reassure me once more.  “Babe, I only know of two groups in the whole Wasteland that are crazy enough to fight alicorns: Steel Rangers and Hellhounds.  I don’t remember ever seeing either of those in this desert, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

I had no idea what in the world a “Hellhound” was supposed to be but I knew for a fact that Lily was wrong about The Steel Rangers.  They possessed very, very big guns, and I couldn’t rule out the possibility that the balefire explosion I had witnessed a few hours prior might have come from them.  If they survived their encounter with Bright Eyes, of course…

We stopped in front of the wall, just next to the one of the metal doors I had spotted earlier.  My gaze drifted to two of the mushrooms, huddled together against the onslaught of greenery.  “I’d have felt better if they had simply teleported her here.”  Rubbing my leg, I asked, “What if the alicorn she’s with is too weak to protect her?”

Lily’s hoof found my shoulder, pressing gently against the pad of barding.  “Even if something out there wants to tangle with an alicorn, Nohta’s pretty good at sneaking.  And it’s nighttime.  I doubt anything in this city could find her if she didn’t want to be seen.”

I shied away from her touch, shaking my head.  “I just…  I feel so useless right now.”  Before Lily could retort, I headed her off.  “I know she’s capable of handling herself, Lily, but I still feel like I need to be there for her.”

“Hey.  It’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone as determined as your little sis.  She’s tough and ornery as all hell.  I’m more worried about us right now.”  Her answer didn’t really satisfy me, but I didn’t know how to delve further into the subject without repeating myself.  I nodded and took a calming breath, and we turned our collective attention back to the task at hoof.

Lily scratched away at the blanket of green and nudged a button on the wall, causing the door to slide into its recess and scrape a layer of moss off of its surface.  The hallway on the other side of the door was pitch-black.  Lily and I stepped through the portal into the darkened corridor as I activated my PipBuck lamp, shining it this way and that in search of doors or navigation signs.

The sultry air in the hall carried a musty scent past my muzzle.  I wrinkled my nose as I stepped over another cluster of the fat, white mushrooms, brushing vines and moss off the walls in my search for direction.  It wasn’t long before I found exactly what I had been looking for: a map plotting out the floor plans of the facility.  What I wasn’t expecting was for that map to be written both in Equestrian and Zebra runic.

“This building must be enormous,” I mused, running my hoof over the map.  Each brush of my hoof wiped away years worth of crud to reveal more and more of the facility.  “There are directions to a residential wing.  A whole wing!  And administrative offices, a robotics department, medical research labs, recreational rooms…”  My eyes read the word, but I honestly couldn’t believe it.  “Lily, there was a school here!”

“Back on the rooftop Allie said this place was M.A.S. and M.O.P.”  Lily held up a wing and raised a single feather for each item on her list.  “There’s a huge area perfect for making potions.  Zebra runes on the signs.  Enough lodging for hundreds…”  She raised an inquisitive eyebrow as she glanced at me.  “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

My hoof pawed at the map.  “There were families staying here.  Zebra families, living and working alongside ponies.”

She nodded.  “Might have been a whole tribe.  Refugees from the war, most likely.  Or maybe turncoats helping Equestria instead of The Empire.  Whatever happened, there were a lot of them here.”

Curiosity was beginning to take over again.  I turned back to her, asking, “What were the M.A.S. and M.O.P.?”

“Shit, sorry.  I’m still forgetting that you don’t know this stuff.”  Digging underneath her hat, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit up.  “When Celestia hoofed the throne over to her sister, Luna made some big changes to the government.  She set up a system of six ministries to help her run things, and M.A.S. and M.O.P. are two of those six.”

My brow furrowed.  “Celestia was in power before Luna?”

“Yeah, for basically, like… forever.”  After a long inhale and exhale, she added, “At least a thousand years while Luna was trapped in the moon, if you believe the old stories.”

My jaw dropped.  “A thousand…”  Luna was trapped?  And for a thousand years?  I had been taught…  No, no matter.  Trailing off, I closed my eyes and tried to clear my thoughts.  There’d be time for ancient history later.  I needed to know about our current predicament.  “What do the acronyms stand for?”

“Ministry of Arcane Sciences and Ministry of Peace.  From what I’ve heard, they were both pretty focused on tech development, but Peace was all about medical stuff while Arcane Sciences was more generalized.”  Pointing at me with a wing, she continued, “Actually, I’m surprised you didn’t know at least a little bit about Peace.  Didn’t you ever get curious about why you always find medicine in all those pink and yellow butterfly boxes?”

I’d been overlooking details, some subtle and others plainly obvious, all my life.  And I had never even realized it until somepony simply told me face-to-face.  My hoof rubbed my temple as I groaned in exasperation.  “Dear Luna…”

Having made abnormally quick work of her smoke, Lily snuffed the last little bit of her cigarette out and nodded her head toward the next door.  “Well whatever was going on in the past, it doesn’t matter anymore; this place is empty now.  Let’s keep moving.”

Lily was forced to hack and slash at the vines covering the next door before we could force it open.  Even with my magic and her blades, the going was slow and frustrating.  We were both panting from exertion after shoving the steel far enough into its recess that we could squeeze through the gap.

Little tendrils of vegetation had wormed their way through the tiniest of cracks in the facility’s walls, fouling up electrical connections and bulging the steel outward.  The walls were quite literally closing in around us, and though the absurd plant growth was quite alien, I otherwise felt right at home in the dark passages.  I was silently reminiscing about making my way to midnight mass in my stable when a booming explosion caused the building to groan all around us.

Lily’s feathers rustled just like the leaves on the plants.  “Fuck!”  Her eyes darted to the ceiling and walls before she caught my worried stare.

“Lily?” I stepped closer to her, crunching stiff plant stems under my hooves, but she waved me off before I could ask what was wrong.

“I’m good.  I’m good.”  She took a deep breath, folding her wings.  “Just the fighting outside.  Let’s go.”

For the life of me, I couldn’t discern why the explosion would have bothered her.  She certainly didn’t have that reaction to the grenades I had used or to the missiles and rockets The Outcasts had employed earlier.  I followed behind her as she led the way deeper into the structure, noting her slinking posture and twitchy movements.

The moss-covered halls gave way to a wide-open chamber filled with wispy fog.  The mist was thin enough that I could just make out the walls to our sides, but too dense for my lamp to penetrate all the way to the back of the room.  A flimsy railing enclosed a shallow depression set a couple of steps down into the center of the room, allowing us to peer over the workspace.  Large workstations filled with barely functional testing equipment dotted the sunken space, occasionally offering a tiny beep to the overbearing silence.

Lily and I followed the rails along the perimeter of the room, warily eyeing a trio of bulbous plants that I didn’t recognize.  Each pod was at least the size of a brahmin and dominated the space between the workstations’ flickering screens near the railing.  Their protuberances jutted straight up from the broad ferns at their bases so that their tops were at eye-level with us.  I couldn’t suppress the thought that they looked rather like gigantic eggs nestled in thick, green nests.  As curious as the pods were, neither Lily nor I wished to spend our time gawking at giant mutated cabbages.  We found the next door and continued on our way.

The winding path that lead to the living quarters had fared no better than the rest of the facility.  By the time we found a communal shower, we were both stomping down vines and broad leaves every few steps.  Eventually the vegetation became so thick that I had to resort to holding stems and vines stiff in my magic in order to make it easier for Lily to chop through the growth.  Our progress was as tiring as it was agitating, but mostly it was slow.  And the hard-earned reward for our efforts was bittersweet.

The shower room was carpeted in a network of vines and more of the squat mushrooms that had burst through the tiled floor up to our knees, but at least the ceilings were high above us.  As soon as she realized there was room enough to fly Lily burst into the air and made a beeline for a row of lockers in the middle of the room.  I was left to follow through the fungi, and no matter how carefully I advanced, I couldn’t help but squash caps and bend stalks with every step toward the shower spigots on the far wall.  And, as luck would have it, none of them worked.

My frustrated lip quivered as I turned each of the shower handles, only to be rewarded with the groan of empty pipes and short-lived gushes of foul smelling water.  “I was so looking forward to a warm shower,” I whispered in defeat.

“We have shampoo!”  Lily cried in elation behind me.  Without any further warning, she bucked out at the lockers, creating a colossal racket that strained my ears.

Puzzled, I walked back to her and inquired, “Err, where?  I don’t see any.”

“Right,” Grinning, she launched one more double buck right at the locking mechanism, “here!”  Sure enough the flimsy metal buckled under her attack, and after she pried the door open with one of her blades, a bottle of Mane and Tail and Body tumbled from the locker—only slightly worse for wear.

“Okay,” I pursed my lips, gesturing to her with a hoof.  “How did you know you’d find shampoo in that particular locker?”

“Grumpy told me!”  Lily beamed as her pierced ear twitched and flopped.

I should have let it go.  Finding shampoo in a bathroom wasn’t an altogether unlikely coincidence.  Still, I needed to set the record straight once and for all.  “Lily, who in Luna’s name is Grumpy?”

“My pet squirrel,” she stated matter of factly.

“You don’t have a pet squirrel,” I countered.

“Sure I do!  You just can’t see him because he’s a ghost.”  Goddess help me, her smug grin made me want to smack her.

“And I’m meant to take your word that your…”  I searched for the right words to convey my incredulity.  Waving a hoof in the air, I continued, “Your imaginary pet ”—I paused just long enough to roll my eyes—“somehow communicates to you?”  Frowning, I added, “And can see through solid objects?”

“He can’t do that.”  She chuckled to herself, scooping up the bottle and holding it out to me.  “He walked through the door.”

I stomped a hoof, squashing a poor mushroom with my agitation.  “Lily!  Ghosts are not real!”

“Y’know…  If you keep saying that, you’re gonna piss off all these spirits,” Lily’s eyes scanned the room all around us as I resisted the foalish urge to look behind me, though I must admit that my ears swiveled around despite myself.  Raising her eyebrows in surprise, she blurted out, “And even worse, you’re gonna hurt Grumpy’s feelings!  Right after he did something nice for you, too!”

I groaned into a hoof, “I give up.  You really are crazy.”  I plucked the bottle out of her hoof, wedging it into my packs.

She shrugged noncommittally.  “It’s okay, babe.  I’d be surprised if you could see him.”  Nodding toward the dead shower spigots, she asked, “How’s the water?”

“Non-existent.”  I raised an eyebrow, wondering if she’d catch my double-meaning.  When she didn’t respond, I continued.  “It looks like we’ll have to use one of the cauldrons to bathe.”

An enormous, impish grin spread across her face.  “I’m looking forward to that.”

“And I’m going to ignore that comment,” I rolled my eyes once more, “out of my desire to be done with this place and its musty odor.”

Another colossal boom shook the dust from the ceiling and rattled the floor underneath our hooves.  In an instant, Lily’s grin was replaced by a wide-eyed look of fear.  Her wings remained flared at her sides, but her ears folded flat against her mane as she winced at the walls and ceiling.

Catching my look of concern she straightened up, cleared her throat, and nodded.  “No argument there.  Let’s go.”

Something obviously had her spooked, but for the life of me I couldn’t tell what was wrong.  Unsure of what else I could do, I turned around and exited the shower room.  As an extra precaution, I undid the clasp on my pistol holster.  Nothing seemed wrong to me but if Lily was worried, then obviously I needed to be as well.

We had just returned to the larger room with the pods when she called out behind me.  “Alright,” Lily plopped herself down on the moss and thick vines running along the floor.  “Hold up, I need a smoke.”

I sat beside her, waiting patiently for her to pull her pack from her mane and light up.  After her first exhale, I asked, “Another?  Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

I chose my words carefully.  “You seem… nervous.”

She smiled sheepishly, unable to maintain eye contact.  “I… uh…”   She paused before blurting out her excuse as quickly as possible.  “I haven’t had a smoke in a while!  Yeah!”

It didn’t take years of listening to nervous fillies and colts trying to weasel their way out of going to class to realize she was lying.  It had hardly even been an hour since her last cigarette!  Not even Corncob, our stable’s resident tobacco aficionado, had smoked as frequently as her.

As the doctor in me came out, I felt the need to say something.  I held a hoof in her direction as I sternly asked, “You do realize the damage you’re doing to your lungs with—”

“For fuck’s sake, Candy!  Yes!  I know!”  Her eyes blazed with a short-lived fury before she caught herself.  “Err, sorry.”

I took a step back and a deep breath to keep my calm.  Lily might have been prone to bouts of irrational behavior, true, but I couldn’t remember seeing her snap and then apologize so quickly.  There was obviously a larger problem here, and it needed to be addressed.  Nodding encouragingly, I replied, “Take your time.”

“This place…  It’s not natural.  It’s too…”  She trailed off, glancing all around us.  Shaking her head, she took another deep inhale and blew the smoke out beside us.  “The spirits here are super pissed.”

Ugh!  Again with her talk of spirits!  Why would she cling to something so ridiculous?

I was in the middle of rolling my eyes when the pieces fell together.  The moment that I saw the moss-ridden ceiling looming over our heads was when it finally clicked.  My bottom lip fell slightly as I realized why she was so on edge.

I lowered my gaze to her anxious eyes.  “Are you…”  Goddess, it felt like such an absurd notion that it was hard to put to words.  The mere thought that my friend—confident to a fault as she was—could be afraid of something so silly was ludicrous.  I swallowed, wrinkling my brow in as sympathetic a gesture as I could manage.  “Are you claustrophobic?”

“N-No!” she snapped, flaring her wings at her sides, only to recoil in panic when her bladed feathers brushed up against the wall beside us.

Her vehement denial was all the proof I needed.  I was only lucky that my astonishment outweighed my amusement, and that my mouth opened in shock rather than curl into a grin.  “Oh my stars, Lily!  I’m so sorry!  I didn’t know!  Let’s hurry back.”

She swallowed, letting her eyes dart back and forth between the walls and ceiling before she nodded.  “O-Okay.”  She flipped her cigarette carelessly to the side.  My eyes followed the little blazing cherry as it sailed through the misty darkness, and I watched as it bounced off the closest of the enormous pods in the room.

The vines at our hooves moved, curling upwards past our surprised faces to clutch hold of the pod Lily had disturbed.  Vertical seams split the bulb in quarters just before the vines ripped a section of the plant’s husk away like a banana peel, revealing a quivering fleshy membrane protecting something inside the bulb.  A musty, fungal odor flooded the room as the membrane stretched away, and a single hoof stretched out to land on the rim of ferns at the plant’s base.

My jaw dropped as a hideously grotesque thing stepped out of the pod, covered in reeking yellow sludge that oozed off its vaguely equine form.  As the gunk dripped away from the creature’s back and shoulders, it exposed a coat of broad, glistening leaves that rustled with the monster’s every shambling movement.  Wriggling, purple polyps and orange mushrooms jutted out of its left jaw, sitting just beside the stiff vines that had replaced its mane.  One of its eyes had warped obscenely, bulging partly out of its ocular cavity and jiggling as orange liquid sloshed against the thin membrane that used to be its cornea.  The beast’s other eye glowed like molten sapphire, rolling lazily in its socket to set me with a penetrating stare.

Despite the tropical heat in the facility, that frigid glare washed over me like ice water.  I shivered as the beast stepped forward, but couldn’t back away.  There was an alien animosity in that gaze: an incomprehensible horror that contained neither logic nor the barest shred of compassion.  The creature’s stare held me like a vice, sending my heart plummeting into the pit of my stomach as I stood, transfixed, beside Lily.

Lily’s voice was piercing in the silence.  “What in Tartarus is that!?”  The monster turned toward her, exposing the bark that grew in uneven patches on the right side of its fleshy neck.  I was finally able to pull my eyes away from the horrid pod creature and yank my pistol from its holster.   I spared Lily a glance, seeing in her features all the pain and terror that had flooded my mind mere seconds prior.

The beast opened the asymmetrical gash that passed for its mouth, splitting what little remained of its cheeks into bloody ribbons as a writhing mass of slimy vines burst out of its toothless maw.  It was a good thing that Lily and I hadn’t eaten; between the disgusting sight before me and the oppressive stench in the air I was struggling not to retch all over the mossy floor.

The vines in its mouth whipped forward with a sharp crack, wrapping around the control console and hoof-rails just beside Lily, and tensed as the pod creature dragged itself forward in an agonizingly slow, plodding gait.  With every lumbering hoofstep seeds and spores were shed from the monster’s body, quickly sprouting into colorful blue flowers and red mushrooms at the creature’s hooves.

Save for her wildly bobbing ear and trembling lips, Lily still hadn’t moved.  The beast was nearly on top of her before I took aim and let loose a blistering barrage of lasers.  Leaves burst into flame, fungal pods popped like balloons, and flesh sizzled as I expended an entire battery in my panic-fueled fusillade.  The beast turned its attention in my direction as the cold flame in its eye flared.  In an instant, I felt my limbs go rigid with fear and saw my pistol thud against the undergrowth.

Lily stirred to action as soon as the creature looked in my direction.  She blitzed past the beast, raking her blades along its side to prune the blanket of leaves growing there.  Landing in the middle of the room, she flung her hat to the side and shook her mane furiously, spilling a dozen little inhalers and bottles against the floor.

I couldn’t look away.  The creature inched forward one lumbering step at a time, but I could neither move nor concentrate.  The chill in its eye had frozen my hooves in place and snuffed the spark of my magic.

Lily was busy scooping up inhalers and pill bottles as she shrieked, “CANDY!  Don’t look at it!  It’s got a Stare!”

“I-I…  I already…”  My trembling lips couldn’t muster the courage to form any more words.  The pod creature’s mouth split open again, wide enough and close enough for me to see down its gullet.  I didn’t know quite what I thought I was going to see, given the verdant tentacles reaching in my direction, but I know I wasn’t expecting the single blue flower that had replaced the beast’s tongue.

And I certainly wasn’t expecting to recognize that flower from Mother’s book.

I knew how incredibly dangerous that flower was, but I just couldn’t shout a warning to Lily.  Instead I wracked my panic-stricken mind, dredging up every little memory I could of my past conversations to find the one poorly chosen word that would mean my doom.  I was locked in place as I drowned in a sea of hasty comments and self-doubting asides, and found myself cursing just how careless I had been with my words in the past.

The vines brushed up against my cheek, curled around my neck and forelegs, coiled around my horn, and tangled themselves in my mane.  The slack in the vines quickly disappeared, and I was dragged toward the monster even as it shambled ever closer.  The constriction of the vines was bad enough, choking my throat and pulling strands from my mane, but the thorns in the vines were worse.  A thousand tiny needles ripped, bit, and sawed their way into my flesh, leaving copious amounts of burning toxin in my veins as my blood ran in tiny rivulets down my face and neck.  Goddess, it was one of most painful experiences of my life, and I couldn’t even scream!

“Grumpy!  I need eyes!”  Lily zoomed between the pod creature and me, her wings leaving whorls through the mist as she sliced through the vines.  The cords that had wrapped around my body fell limply all around me as the creature’s head snapped backwards from the released tension, and I lost eye contact with that terrifying blue glow.

I stumbled to the side as my paralyzed muscles relaxed, and gasped for breath through clenched teeth as I fought to pluck all the vicious little thorns from my skin.  The venom burned, itched, and stung maddeningly!  It was as if a hundred angry little insects were burrowing through my flesh one bite at a time!  With my concentration in shambles from the agony of the poison, it was a miracle that I even heard the consequences of Lily’s actions.

A moss-covered window to my side shattered as Lily rammed straight into the glass and plowed noisily into the lab equipment in the next room over.  I heard wooden tables snap, glass flasks crack, and metal equipment ring before Lily’s pained groan seeped through the window.  I had seen enough to know that Lily was my only chance at escaping this monster, but I wasn’t sure if she realized the danger of the flower in its maw.

I forced one eye open to see the monster’s mouth close as it puffed out its chest.  Screaming, I reached out to the window, “Lily, be careful!  In it’s mouth!  Killing—”

A great wet blob splattered against my left foreleg, turning my warning into a scream of agony.  A scorching itch crawled over my leg like a swarm of fire ants.  A sharp, caustic odor assaulted my nostrils as my coat and skin around my PipBuck were singed by the green gunk.  Reflex retracted my hoof to my chest as I tried to heed Lily’s warning and focus only on the creature’s legs.

Through my peripheral vision I saw the pod beast spit another glob of green that slammed into my PipBuck’s screen.  The room went black as my lamp was covered in acidic goop.  The only light was the glow of that terrible blue eye, and like a moth to flame my gaze went right to it.  In an instant, my body went rigid as I froze in terror.
The sound of glass grinding underneath hooves preceded Lily’s harsh voice.  “Grumpy!  Eyes!  NOW!”  A rush of air blew past my side as Lily launched herself through the darkness.  I heard her slam into the pod creature, knocking the blue flame several inches to the side from the force of the blow.

As the beast broke eye contact, I fell hard on my side.  My bomb collar bit into the side of my neck as it absorbed the impact, and through the rush of dizziness I heard it beep angrily.  I forced my eyes shut and wiped my hoof against the ferns around me, desperately trying to rid myself of the stinging liquid burning my leg.

Lily shrieked next to the monster, “Candy!  We need light!”

Eyes still shut, I screamed back.  “M-My lamp won’t work!”

“Use your horn!” she yelled.

My eyes shot open, and a sea of red flooded the room.  But no matter how much magic I used to scrape at the gunk on my PipBuck’s screen, it wouldn’t come off.  I looked back to Lily, catching sight of her kicking and slicing at the creature, and shouted, “It’s not working!”

Her face turned to me, and I saw that her eyes were squeezed shut.  “What are you—” Lily’s ear flapped frantically before she ducked underneath a kick from one of the beast’s forelegs.  Her ear continued its frantic motion as she shook her head and screamed back.  “Your horn’s good enough!  Get your- DUCK!”

I fell to the floor just as another acidic blob of goop raced over my horn, and I saw a glint of metal in the ferns.  I scooped up my pistol just as Lily shouted again, “Get back!”  My body obeyed before I could question her, and as I stepped backward another clump of the reeking gunk flew past my face—exactly where my horn had been.

The monster was targeting the only light source in the room: me.  If it managed to connect then we…  No.  No, I wouldn’t let it!  I was going to see my sister again!  This...thing was not going to be my end!

I shook my head, grit my teeth around my pistol, and did the first sensible thing that had sprung to my mind in a long while.  A layer of overglow strained my magic as I built up charge, and just as Lily yelled for me to get down my world exploded in a bright flash of crimson.

I reappeared behind the pod pony, but lightheadedness, acidic goo, and stinging venom had played havoc with my planned teleportation.  I popped into existence at an oblique angle, and felt a sharp pain in my right hind hoof as I sprained my ankle on an inconveniently placed vine.  As my legs crumpled underneath of me, I slipped into S.A.T.S. and queued as many shots as I could at the creature’s head.

The world slowed to a crawl as S.A.T.S. took over.  I must admit to feeling some smug satisfaction as the pod pony turned directly into the laser blasts peppering its face.  Every shot hit spectacularly, burning vegetation, charring flesh, and turning fungus to little more than shriveled lumps of ash.  And, as luck would have it, I managed to land a shot directly in the beast’s eye.

There was only one problem: I hit the wrong eye.  The bulbous sac burst in a great, gelatinous fountain of orange goop, spraying Lily and the ground around her in a torrent of liquid so putrid and sickening that I didn’t even want to imagine its composition.  The pod pony reared back, shutting its other eye and howling in pain as its mouth-vines wiggled obscenely in the air.  Thinking about the alien sound that came from its throat still makes me shiver.

One of the creature’s whipping vines caught Lily by the hoof, throwing her off balance in the middle of an attack.  She hit the floor with a grunt, and before she could do so much as scream, the rest of the thorny vines had wrapped around her body, pinning her wings against her sides and slicing hundreds of tiny channels through her skin.  She was lifted in the air, struggling against the tightly wound cords with all her strength.

She managed to free a single hoof, bracing it against the creature’s muzzle as she shrieked, “CANDY!  KEEP SHOOTING!”  I obeyed as best I could, but none of my shots hit anything vital.  Leaves and bark charred, and flesh singed, but the beast would not turn in my direction.  It was focused solely on Lily, slowly dragging her toward its open mouth.  Her eyes widened as she gazed inside its maw, recognizing what lay within.

The only attack that had wounded this beast was a shot to the eye, but I couldn’t aim at that!  If it looked at me then we were both done for!  I reloaded as quickly as I could, and floated my pistol beside Lily as I shrieked, “I can’t aim like this!”

She screamed, her face inches from the creature’s bloody jaws, “JUST FUCKING SHOOT!”

I fired blindly in desperation, draining the charge far too quickly.  Laser blasts flew wildly past the creature’s face, flying past my own mane and pelting the nearby wall with little smoking craters as my terrible aim came back in full force.

Lily was shrieking out orders, trying to guide my aim.  “CANDY!  AIM UP!  NO, UP!  TOO FAR UP, GO DOWN!  FURTHER DOWN!”  Lily’s head was nearly inside the creature’s mouth as she continued shouting directions.  “NOW LEFT!  MORE TO THE RIGHT!  A LITTLE LEFT WHILE STAYING RIGHTLY!”

“LILY!  MAKE UP YOUR—”  With only three shots remaining in the cell, I finally struck home.  Blood, sap, and more of the curious orange sludge fountained out of the creature’s face and splattered in every direction.  The pod-pony roared, reaching its leg up to cover its ruined blue eye and allowing Lily to finally wriggle free of the vines.

As the beast released her, Lily fell to her hooves, extending her wings and slashing them along the creature’s bark-covered neck.  One of her blades managed to slice through the grain of the wood, rending a horrific gash down the monster’s neck and causing a thin, orange liquid to gush from the wound.  She leapt back before its swiping hoof could catch her, yelling, “Candy!  It bleeds!  If it bleeds we can kill it!”

Even as I took inspiration from her revelation, Lily wobbled on her hooves, shaking her head and groaning.  “Fucking waves!”  The beast took the opportunity to turn, bucking out at Lily with surprising speed.  One of its bark-covered hooves caught her directly in the chest, sending her flying through the air.  She crashed into the nearby catwalk, bending a section of rusted steel as easily as I might have bent a bobby-pin.  The rusted metal shrieked in protest as ancient screws were stripped out of their places, and both Lily and the deformed section of railing crashed noisily to the mossy floor.

“LIly!”  I ducked underneath the railing and into the shallow portion of the room, hobbling past the beast’s enraged thrashing as I made my way to where Lily fell.  When I reached her she was coughing up blood and clutching her barrel.

I kept my eyes locked on the beast as I dragged Lily behind a bank of computer terminals.  I cradled her head in my hooves and started healing her as quickly as possible, focusing on the internal bleeding and collapsed lung.  “Lily, forget fighting it, we need to run!”  I felt her eyelids flutter open as I watched the pod-pony buck its hooves against walls and windows.  Now was our chance!  “It can’t see us!  We can escape!”

Lily feebly lifted a hoof to cover her mouth, and painted her blue fur a deep crimson as she coughed the rest of the blood out of her throat.  As she pulled her hoof away to stare at the flecks of red covering it, I felt her nose wrinkle in disgust.  But when her head rolled in my direction and her eyes caught mine, her expression turned to shock and pity.  Her other forehoof lifted to cup my cheek as she whispered a single word.  “No.”

I was still attempting to formulate an appropriate rebuttal to her illogical response when her upper lip curled into an enraged snarl.  “Fuck that!” she spat, and pulled her now bloodsoaked hoof away from my cheek.  It was only when I noticed her glaring at my blood on her hoof that I remembered I hadn’t yet healed my own wounds.  I was still piecing two and two together when she acted before I could stop her.

She left a scarlet streak in her hair as she pulled a small syringe from her mane and plunged the needle into her foreleg.  A blood red tint seeped into the edges of my vision as she growled, “This thing is fucking dead.”

I could feel heat and pressure welling up in her chest, neck, and face as her lips peeled back in a feral rage.  She pushed me away, crawled back onto the ledge and grunted a simple warning, “Stay back.”  Strength flooded her limbs as I did my best to heal her.  I had just managed to undo the worst of her injuries when she ran her tongue along her teeth and swallowed the blood that had pooled in her mouth.

Even more so than the blood loss, the chem was making it impossible for me to concentrate.  I severed the magical bond while Lily pawed at the floor like a bull and glared daggers at our assailant.  Blood was still dripping from her muzzle when she rushed forward, slamming shoulder first into the monster’s chest.  The force of her initial charge nearly bowled the creature over, raising it up on its hind legs as the sound of crunching bark reached my ears.

I loaded another cell into my pistol absentmindedly, completely distracted by the sight of my companion giving in to her fury.  Lily was a blur of twirling feathers and flashing hooves—more animal than pony.  What her wings could not slice off, her hooves pummeled and crushed.  Where her pounding blows cracked bark and bruised the flesh underneath, she slashed and stabbed at the weakening body.  When her mouth wasn’t busy biting the creature’s chest and neck, she was screaming gibberish insane enough to curdle my blood.

My jaw dropped as I stepped away from the fight and crunched her syringe under my hoof.  A quick glance downward revealed a terrifying picture on the ruined tube: a small red outline of a rabbit.  Lily had just taken Stampede.  There would be no reasoning with her now.

The creature lashed out at her with its thick forelegs, catching Lily’s shoulder hard enough to send her tumbling backward.  She rolled with the momentum of the blow and flared her wings to right herself, scraping moss off the floor as she dug her hooves in and slid backwards.  The gust of her wings blew my mane aside as she launched herself back into the fight, slicing deeply into the underside of the monster’s jaw.  It staggered to the side as orange liquid gushed from the wound, splashing over the floor and causing a multitude of colorful flowers to sprout and bloom at its hooves.

I had been appalled and intimidated by her savagery in the brothel, and I had been impressed by her skill at the spark station, but I had never seen her fight quite like this.  There was purity in her ferocity.  And after seeing how she had reacted to seeing my bleeding face, I quickly realized that she was doing this to protect us.  To protect me…

Without the threat of the creature’s petrifying gaze, Lily was free to use her own eyes freely.  She nimbly dodged most of the beast’s crushing attacks.  But when it’s vicious kicks—so vaguely similar to some of the strikes I had seen Mother and Nohta employ—did connect, they had terrifying consequences.

A woody hoof smashed into Lily’s shoulder, dislocating her foreleg and sending her crashing into the sill of the window she had broken earlier.  Her head smacked against the sill, and blood gushed from a cut above her right eye.  She paid it little mind, however, and pushed herself up to her three working hooves before she blitzed past the pod pony’s face.  Her blades raked across its muzzle and shaved off the orange mushrooms growing there.  A cloud of fluorescent orange spores burst into the air as the beast roared and struck upward with its leg, catching the underside of Lily’s left wing.  Her momentum carried her forward, but she landed hard on her side.  Ignoring her limp wing and foreleg, Lily righted herself and stabbed forward quickly with her right wing, catching a very sensitive area between the pod creature’s back legs.  The room filled with the sound of the monster’s agonized shriek as it lifted its hind legs in response.

Miraculously, Lily ducked underneath the double-buck that followed.  She rushed underneath the beast and slashed a diagonal channel through its exposed underside, and narrowly dodged the mixture of viscera, fungus, and roots that spilled out of its belly.  However, she failed to dodge the frantic, sweeping blow that caught her back right leg and snapped her metatarsal like a toothpick.  Her leg trailed behind her at an unnatural angle while she continued her attack.

I watched in horror as Lily and the monster traded blow after brutal blow.  I knew the only thing keeping Lily on her two good hooves was the Stampede.  She was ignoring strikes that should have taken anypony out of any fight, yet her attacks were relentless.  She never slowed or showed any recognition of the pain.  She was rage incarnate, and her berserk bloodlust was insatiable.

Meanwhile, the pod creature’s strength was flagging.  Its attacks grew sluggish and desperate, easily dodged by Lily even with her limited mobility.  Countless slashes through its hide weeped orange fluid, speckling the ground with a rainbow of flowers.

The beast had just opened its mouth to lash out with its vines when Lily’s good forehoof smashed into the underside of its jaw.  While the pod pony was still stunned from the blow, Lily carried through with the momentum of the attack to slice through the creature’s exposed throat.  When the monster clutched its slit trachea, Lily ducked to its side and speared her primary feathers deep into the pit of its foreleg.  A horrific gurgling noise bubbled out of the creature’s neck as it let out a death rattle and crashed stiffly against the ground like a felled tree.

I stared at Lily as she stood over the pod-pony, stabbing, stomping, and biting every bit of its dead body she could reach.  Minutes passed as Lily’s unceasing brutality spread the orange goop in every direction, and before long a bed of brilliantly colored flowers had spread around the dead beast.  In death, the monster looked almost… peaceful.

I clambered underneath the hoof-rails and scraped the gunk off my PipBuck’s screen.  Lily slowly hobbled away from the corpse, leaving twin trails of blooms as the orange liquid dripped off her wings, and collapsed to her haunches as she braced herself against a section of railing.  She was gasping for breath, bloody, bruised, and shivering.

I swallowed as I felt the adrenaline ebb away, and rushed forward to aid her.  “Lily—”

Without warning, her good wing swung forward and bit loudly into the railing beside my face.  Sparks flew from the metal as her blade sunk into the rusted steel inches from my eyes.  I froze in place and gasped as my jaw dropped.  She glared up at me, wriggling her wing in a futile effort to pull her primary feather’s blade back from the railing,.  Her face twitched, shifting between exhaustion, pain, and fury, and a single hate-filled word escaped her lips.  “Wait.”

I glanced anxiously at the wing struggling to free itself from the railing next to my face, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off her pitiful form.  The atrocious state of Lily’s wounds demanded immediate attention.  Slowly, and feeling incredibly foolish, I stepped closer.  Sitting in front of her I charged my horn and prepared my spell.  “Lily,” I pleaded, “please, let me take care of you.”

She stared at the floor at our hooves, shaking her head so that drops of her blood speckled the moss underneath us.  Her words came out slowly between her deep and pained breaths.  “Ugh…  Overdid it.  Don’t.  Everything… still red.”

What?  “But…  Why wouldn’t I—”

“Get… away!” she panted, raising her head to meet my gaze.  The unbridled fury I saw in her eyes sent a jolt down my spine.  The muscles of her jaw clenched and tightened, and her wingblade squeaked as it slipped a fraction of an inch out of the railing.

I didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t just sit by and allow her to suffer!  Especially after what she had done for me!

My hoof snaked underneath her good foreleg, wrapping around her back and catching her by surprise.  “Candy!” she gasped.  “No!”

I pulled her exhausted body against my own, and whispered into her ear.  “Shh… I trust you.”  My other hoof wrapped around her shoulder as our bomb collars clinked against each other.  Even before I activated my spell, I felt her heart racing a hundred miles an hour.  It thudded against my chest like a wardrum.

As my magic washed over her my vision was tinted deep red, darker by far than my magic, and I felt my blood boil.  She was right; the chem was doing awful things to my temperament.  Unlike Nohta’s little experiment with Dash, this was no mere echo of the drug’s effects.  I could feel a blinding hatred welling up inside of me, just waiting to be directed at the nearest victim I could find and urging me to unleash my wrath toward everyone and everything in sight.  I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind and returned my attention to my wounded bodyguard, grateful that I wasn’t under the full force of Stampede’s awful effects.

The gash above her eye was my first priority, and I stitched it together as quickly as my magic would allow.  The rest of her injuries, however, would take some time.  The rib that Nohta had kicked days ago was now completely broken, wracking us both with pain every time Lily drew breath.  The delicate bones of her left wing had been pulverized into dozens of uneven shards.  Her right hind leg had suffered a mostly clean break, but the bone had moved far too much forward, and was slicing into soft tissue.  Her left shoulder had been dislodged from its socket, and there was minor fracture to her humerus.  Add in a couple dozen contusions of varying severity and all the little lacerations from the thorny vines, and I certainly had my work cut out for me.

She really should have been lying down for what I was about to do, but with her good wing itching to slice my throat open, I really didn’t have the luxury of proper patient positioning.  My right hoof and my telekinesis clutched Lily’s left foreleg, and in a gentle twisting motion, I popped her shoulder back into place.  Save for her upright position, it was a textbook Hinnypin Maneuver.

She let out a brief sigh of relief as the limb took its proper place.  A second later, both of her forelegs wrapped around my body in a crushing hug.  The pressure made it difficult for me to breathe.  I honestly couldn’t tell if she was trying to squeeze me to death or just show her gratitude.  I hugged her tightly against my chest and buried my face in her mane.  “Thank you,” I whispered into her ear.  “You saved my life.”

Her rage broke, and with its passing mine faded as well.  Instead, all I could feel from her was the pain of a broken and bruised body coupled with the exhaustion of severely overtaxed muscles.  Even if she was silent, her body was screaming in agony.

She allowed me to continue holding her as I set about mending her wounds.  I spared no energy healing her.  Oftentimes I could get away with dealing with only the most severe afflictions a pony might have accrued, thereby saving my own energy, but Lily had gone all out for my sake.  It simply wouldn’t do to take shortcuts; I owed her much more than that.

By the time I finished dealing with her injuries and prying her blade from the railing, she was resting all of her weight against me and breathing softly against my left ear.  When I finally pulled away from her she was on the verge of sleep, brushing her cheek against my own before staring at me through half-lidded eyes.  I had never noticed how full her eyelashes were before.

Her gaze was every bit as paralyzing as that of the pod-creature’s.  It robbed me of breath as surely as it stripped me of my ability to turn away.  But unlike the monster we had just fought, Lily’s stare didn’t chill me to to bone; instead it set my cheeks ablaze.

Her hoof found my cheek as a corner of her mouth turned up in that familiar smirk.  Her breath tickled the hairs on my muzzle as she whispered, “You’re pretty.”  Her flagging strength gave out completely, and the both of us nearly toppled to the floor as she slumped to the side.  I only just succeeded in keeping us upright by clinging to the hoof-rail with all my might, and after a bit of maneuvering I managed to place her back against the nearby wall.

Sighing in relief that my friend was going to be okay, I lightheartedly admonished her foolishness.  “Darling, you need to rest.”

A weak chuckle bubbled out of her throat as she shook her head.  “Heh…  Too tired to even kiss the girl…”  Grinning up at me, she asked, “Wait, did you just call me ‘darling?’ “

“Err…  yes,” I confessed, realizing a bit too late just what had tumbled out of my mouth.  “I suppose I did.”  I swallowed back my discomfort, searching the ground in vain for a suitable distraction.

Lily beat me to the punch, resting her head against the wall and fishing a pack of cigarettes from her mane.  “ ‘Darling…’  Heh.  I like it.”

I watched her exhausted hooves fumble with the pack for a moment before I pursed my lips and took the box in my magic.  “Here.  Let me help.”  The shrink wrap crinkled as I opened the pack and floated a cigarette to her lips.

“Thanks, sugar.”  She smiled as I held her lighter for her.  Nodding sleepily, she exhaled and whispered,  “I need a minute.  I’m dead on my hooves right now.”

I nodded.  “Of course.  Take as much time as you need, Lily.”  I pointed to the downed monster and its rapidly growing bed of flowers.  “I’m going to see if I can recover the Killing Joke.  Just let me know if you need anything.”

She shut her eyes and managed to both groan and smile around her cigarette, “I wouldn’t turn down a massage.  Or a beer.”

“Yes, well I’ll be sure to let you know if I happen to find any.”  With a small grin of my own, I rolled my eyes and turned toward the pod pony’s corpse.

A closely interwoven mycelium and root system had wormed its way into and over the creature’s body, covering what I had assumed to be a pony in a rudimentary but effective natural armor.  It was only by peering closer at the downed animal-fungus-plant tribrid that I realized it was not originally a pony.  At least, not if the black and red combat barding underneath the plant and fungal growth were to be trusted.

As I forced his mouth open with my magic, a glint of gold near the pod zebra’s breast caught my eye.  Next to three chevrons and a rocker was a single name: Mganga.  It sounded familiar, but in all honestly, I was more worried about collecting my prize and getting Lily back to a room with windows and a high ceiling.  My magic plucked the precious blue flower from Mganga’s throat and deposited it safely inside an unbroken jar from my bags.  After a moment’s thought, I pursed my lips and shut what was left of the old soldier’s eyelids.  Say what you will about me, but know that I do have respect for the deceased.


**************


Taking Lily back to the cauldron room was a bit of a tricky process.  In addition to the wounds her body had sustained from the pod-creature, Lily’s chemically-induced rage had blown out most of her muscles and severely overstressed her leg and wing joints.  Adding insult to injury, the chem was impeding the healing process and making it impossible for me to do any more than I already had!  Lily had pulled an ace out of her sleeve in order to go all in, but now she needed to sit a hoof out.

Due to her pitiful state she was about as useful and mobile as several hundred pounds of sweaty gym socks, which is what it felt—and smelled—like was on my back as I coaxed, consoled, cajoled, and ultimately carried her back toward the cauldrons.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  Lily had done her part admirably.  It was up to me to see us out of our predicament.

Moving through the one door we had previously pried open required a bit of creative contortionism, however.  And lots of magical tugging.  Lily was no help, of course.  For the majority of the trip back she was only capable of either chuckling weakly at her own helplessness or groaning in pain.  I had just managed to drag her through the door when she quieted down and asked me for another smoke break.

Lying sprawled out on her back, Lily groaned around the cigarette stuck in her lips, “I feel like somepony mixed three cups of awful with two cups of tired, and then beat the dough like it owed them caps.”

I caught the ash from her smoke in my magic before it could fall on her face, and smiled encouragingly.  “Yes, you do.  But we’re almost back, dear.”  My magic scooped up one of her forelegs just before I draped her across my back again.  “Come along.  You’ll feel better once we get out of these corridors.”

“First it was ‘darling.’  Now it’s ‘dear.’ “  I could hear the smirk on her lips, but chose to ignore it.  I situated her across my saddlebags and floated her hat back on top of her head as she giggled, “You getting sweet on me, sugar?”

I rolled my eyes, adjusting her weight as I plodded along.  “Isn’t sugar always sweet?”

“Not always,” she pointed out.  “Sometimes it’s labeled wrong.  Then it tastes salty.”

I couldn’t help it.  The image of Lily tossing out her stetson in favor of a chef’s hat, covered in batter, and panicking over a disastrous tray of muffins just would not leave my mind.  I tried to lift my PipBuck to my lips in order to conceal the snort, but it was a lost cause.  “Re—”  I had to bark out my words between peals of laughter.  “Remind me to never eat anything you bake!”

“Oh… oh, stop!”  Lily’s giggles nearly dislodged her from her perch across my back.  “It tickles when you laugh!”

I craned my neck to my right, utterly failing to wipe the smile from my face as I warned her, “And you’re about to fall off if you keep wriggling!”  She grinned back up at me as I continued, “You may be lighter than you look, Lily, but I can only just barely hold you up!”

I didn’t realize or appreciate it at the time, but Lily was—in her own odd way—helping me along just as much as I was assisting her.  The seemingly pointless conversation was doing a wonderful job of taking my mind off of recent events.  For one small pocket of time, I was neither worried about Nohta nor obsessed with Selenism.  I was simply Candy Stripes: doctor.  And I was exceptionally lucky that my patient was such a goofball.

She made a great show of wiggling her eyebrows as she smirked.  “We could switch positions sometime.  I like it when the other girl is on top.”

Still grinning, I rolled my eyes and lumbered forward again.  “Hush up and enjoy the free ride.”

“Ha!  That’s the spirit!” she cheered.  One of her forelegs feebly jabbed at the air before plummeting back to my side.  “Onward, trusty steed!  Adventure and glory await us!”

“You are very lucky that I’m so grateful for your reckless actions.”  I tried to sound stern, but it didn’t work.  Lily could feel my chuckling.  Before she could jump in with another retort, I continued, “Actually, I plan on thanking you properly as soon as I have access to those cauldrons.  Killing Joke was the last ingredient I needed for one of Mother’s most impressive potions.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked.  “What goodies are we talking about?”

My ears perked up with my anticipation.  “It harnesses the magical energy of the Killing Joke and redirects it through use of the other ingredients in order to induce a controlled state of advanced muscular hypertrophy.  The effects should be nearly instantaneous and permanent.  It’s really quite exciting!”

A moment of silence passed before Lily questioned, “Do you think you can brew up a potion that explains what you just said?”

A corner of my mouth turned upward as I fought to subdue my amusement.  Normally it wouldn’t be so satisfying to revel quite so overtly in being smarter than someone, but lording my intelligence over somepony as cocky as Lily was never going to get old.  It’s what she deserved for being so smug.

Yes, yes I’m perfectly aware of the idiom regarding what the butter called the corn cob.  They’re both yellow.  You don’t have to remind me.

My smirk softened to a comfortable and genuine smile as I looked back to explain, “I’m going to make you stronger than you already are, darling.”

Her eyebrows shot up.  “Wait, seriously?”

“Yes,” I nodded.  “Seriously.”

A filly-like grin spread across her face.  “Cool.”

“My thoughts as well.”  Turning my attention forward once more, I amended my previous statement.  “Ah, more or less.”

Lily’s tail swished along my left side as she perked up.  “Just as long as it doesn’t ruin my girlish figure.  This flank may not be as nice as yours, but besides my winning personality, crazy-awesome fighting skills, cool weapons, connections to important ponies, worldly ways, and ability to drink everyone I know under the table, it’s basically all I’ve got!”

She was doing it again.  The corner of my lip curled upward as I recognized the invitation to another verbal sparring match.  Somehow she was managing to be absurd in just the right way, and I couldn’t help but take the bait.

“You forgot about your superb ability to boast,” I corrected her.  “Or your prowess in the art of exaggeration.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty fuckin’ great, huh?”  She chuckled and spit out what was left of her cigarette before finishing with, “You’re cool too.  But don’t let it go to your head.”

Still grinning, I rolled my eyes.  “I’m sure it will be quite the struggle, but I’ll endeavor to stay humble.”  The door to the cauldron room was in sight.  I could practically feel the warm bathwater already.

I could hear the smirk on her lips as she kept playing our little game.  “I’m not sure if that big brain of yours leaves any room for anything else.”

My brow furrowed as I considered her statement.  “I… guess I can take that as a compliment.”

Not intimidated in the slightest by my weak retort, she resorted to a tried-and-true tactic.  Her injured wing fluttered weakly against my withers as she declared, “And that brain is connected to the cutest body in the San Palomino desert.”

A quick chuckle escaped my lips as I parried.  “If you believe that, then you really have turned exaggeration into an artform.”

She paused for just a moment.  I scarcely had time to recognize her previous statement for the feint that it was.  I was still relishing the feeling of having backed my opponent into the proverbial corner when Lily’s real blow deftly slipped past my defenses and struck home.
The jovial mirth left her voice, replaced by a heartfelt and vulnerable whisper, “And you’re really nice.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and blinked back my confusion.  That…  That hadn’t sounded like Lily’s typical frivolity.  She was supposed to say something silly, and then I was supposed to either dismiss or retort, like a tennis match played with words and wit instead of rackets and balls.  That was how the game worked.  But what she had just said seemed… genuine.

“L-Lily?”  My right ear swiveled back, but I didn’t turn around.  I couldn’t.  Some part of me was too afraid of what I might have seen in her eyes.

“Fun to hang out with.  Kinder than you should be.  Strong when it matters.  A little crazy, sure, but in a good way.”  Her string of compliments was getting rather long, but I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t enjoy hearing them.

Still, I had just made a promise to try and remain humble.  I gave a weak little chuckle, trying to conceal how confused I was.  “You’re um…  You’re starting to embarrass me.”

“Are you blushing yet?” she teased.  “You’re adorable when you blush.”

“Oh!  Look at that!  We’re almost back!” I exclaimed, shuffling toward the doorway and my only escape route.  “Just through here!”

I had expected Lily to continue her assault, or maybe to smugly bask in the warm glow of victory as I beat a hasty retreat.  Instead, she sighed heavily and hung her head against my saddlebag in silence.  I couldn’t quite discern why she was acting so defeated; she was typically relentless when it came to this sort of thing.

It wasn’t as if the time-out was unwanted, but… the silence was a bit uncomfortable.  I had just begun to turn my head and ask her what the matter was when a faint trickle of light caught my attention.  Nestled behind a wall of vines and leaves was a door.  Or rather, what remained of one.  The placard on the door was melted, disfigured, and tarnished almost to the point of illegibility.  But there was no mistaking the title and name before me: Office of Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight.  That time held significance to Selenism.  It belied a certain neutrality, coming twice a day, but it always signified a moment of great change.  And when coupled with the fact that I heard Mizani and Lexicon discuss this mare before, I could hardly contain my curiosity.

“Wait,” I said, as if I weren’t the only one of us moving at the moment.  “There’s a terminal in there.”  Lily’s only response was to huff loudly.  I looked back just in time to catch her rolling her eyes.  “Lily?”

“Fine.  Go do your thing.”  She half-wriggled, half-flopped off of my back, landing with a soft thud on the leafy floor.  I turned back in alarm, but she was already dragging herself to a sitting position against the wall by the time I could have helped her.  She panted from the exertion of propping herself up against the wall, and glanced coolly in my direction as she gave a dismissive flap of her wing.  “What?  Go.”

Goddess, I was such a fool!  I lifted a hoof to my temple, shaking my head and wincing.  “Lily, I’m sorry!  I wasn’t thinking!  Here.”  I turned back around and opened the door to the larger room with the cauldrons.  Propping it open, I returned to the office door and began peeling vines away with my magic.  “We’re almost out of these halls, dear.  I promise I’ll only be a moment.”

Lily reached up and pulled her hat down over her eyes before sighing again.  “Just go.”

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I had somehow offended her, but in the end curiosity won out.  I stripped the last of the vines away and stepped over the warped metal, taking care to not slice my belly or rip my damaged barding on the jagged remnants of the door.

The inside of the office was, much like everything else, covered in patches of plant growth.  What I was able to make out looked rather plain and simple, and with only a few exceptions consisted of all the normal accoutrements one might expect to find in a private office.  Bookshelves lined the walls, and a squat little arcane safe sat in one corner.  Sitting prominently in the middle of the room was a wooden desk adorned by only three items: the terminal that had caught my eye in the first place, a small writing lamp with a purple flower growing where its lightbulb should have been, and a quirky little bonsai tree bearing miniature apples.  I had to pick one of the apples and smell it just to be sure it was real.

I shook my head at such an ostensibly odd feat of agriculture and rounded the corner of the desk.  In the glow of the terminal, I spied a book set in a glass case hanging from the mossy wall.  I wasn’t entirely sure why anypony would want to set apart their copy of “Super Naturals” in a decorative case, or why they would believe such a common publication worthy of such praise.  Regardless, it was an untarnished tome from outside The Stable, and that was enough for me to want it for my own.  Unfortunately, the glass case was locked tighter than my constrictive barding, which was probably the only reason the book had escaped the ravages of the humid air and plant growth in the first place.

A quick search of the desk’s drawers provided no keys to speak of, although I did find a few bobby-pins.  My thoughts immediately returned to my sister as I tried my best to imitate the poking, prodding, and wiggling motions I had witnessed her perform to open a lock.  I had seen her do this sort of thing plenty of times.  It couldn’t be that hard…

My lips pursed in annoyance after I snapped the first bobby-pin in two, and I was huffing and muttering under my breath by the time the fifth-and-final pin broke off in the lock.  My newfound admiration for the difficulty of Nohta’s most clandestine skill was buried under my frustration as I hefted the lamp from the desk and smacked it squarely against the glass.  I may not be the strongest mare in the world, but even I can break a thin sheet of glass with a blunt object!

I wrested the book free from the case with my magic and opened it, finding a small slip of paper written in immaculate script.  It read simply, “Remember to always take a second look.”  Finding no other oddities, I added my hard-won prize to my small collection of literature.

Finally turning my attention to the terminal itself, I was puzzled to find that a series of characters had already been typed into the password box of the login screen.  After giving it a moment’s consideration, I shrugged and tapped the keypad.  I had just accessed the personal terminal of one Ms. Twilight Sparkle.

So, as I’m sure you can imagine, it made absolutely perfect sense that the first entry I saw bore my name.

>Candy Stripes!  Read this first!

“Oh, Goddess…”  I groaned and shook my head, as if that would magically erase the entry.  Before reading further I grumbled into a hoof.  “You simply must be joking!”  I tapped the keys again, selecting the entry and accessing the file.  It opened up with a rather bizarre first line, but one that wasn’t altogether unexpected.

>No!  I’m not!  Now shut the fuck up and read this!  I’ve got one of those pod-zebras melting down the door!  The longer you bitch and moan, the longer it will take me to see you!

There was only one pony this message could be from.  Glaring at the black and green screen, I asked aloud, “How are you doing this?  Can you really see the future?  How long ago did you type this?”  Waiting for a few seconds, I noticed no change in the entry.  Remembering that I was communicating via a text program, I pursed my lips and tapped the keyboard to access the next screen.

>Finally figured that out, did you?  Two years ago.  Now stop being such a pain in my ass!  Things are finally on track, but if you get the timing wrong in the next few days then everything goes to shit!  Do exactly as I say, exactly when I say it!

I snorted dismissively before tapping the key again.  “First of all, how are you doing that?  Secondly, why do you keep contacting me?  And thirdly, why should I trust you, Psyker?”  I had hoped to cut to the chase and actually learn something, but her reply halted my march of progress before it could begin.

>I swear to The Goddess that if you don’t shut up right fucking now, then I will let Nohta die.

Words.  They were only green words on a black screen.  But one little line had just dropped my jaw.

A hundred questions raced through my mind all at once.  Nohta was in danger?  Was she hurt?  Did I have time to reach her?  Where was she?  My mouth moved, but no sound escaped.  I shut my eyes, closed my jaw, and nodded in silence.

I had so many more questions…  Was I helping anyone at all by trusting Psyker?  Did I have any real choice in the matter?  What did she want from me?  Why was she going through so much trouble to maintain contact with me?

But the one question that stuck out like a sore hoof was much more alarming.  Had she just said, “The Goddess?” instead of “Goddesses?”

But no matter my confusion, Psyker had just pushed the one button that could command my obedience.  I had no choice but to obey.  I swallowed my pride and fear, and read the next line.

>Stop worrying about your sister and focus on your own shit.

“O-Okay,” I nodded, though the agreement was hollow.  Psyker had to realize I could never stop worrying about Nohta as she had asked.  I clicked through the rest of the screens one at a time, not bothering to respond verbally.

>Good job with the alicorns.  They’ll prove useful in a few days.  You’ll know what I mean soon enough.

She had just congratulated me?  Encouragement wasn’t her style.  I wasn’t even sure if I wanted her approval.

>Take this opportunity to brew as many potions as you can.  Especially Sweet Water, Mana Potions, and Dragon’s Breath.  We’re about to need them.

>The code for the arcane safe is A-1-B-C-3.  Drink the elixir you find inside it tomorrow morning.  No sooner.  NO FUCKING SOONER.

>You won’t have time to watch the memory orb until a few days from now, but make sure you download Twilight’s journal entries from this terminal and read them while you’re brewing potions.  If you really want the truth then you’ll get it.  But it won’t come from Celestia.   I’ll be the one to spoon feed it to you one dose at a time.  Try not to choke on it.

Ahh, there she was.  I was starting to worry that she wouldn’t always be a spiteful thorn in my side.

>When Elegy finds you, listen to what he has to say.  He’s the only pony in this desert that can stop us.

>His misguided sense of what is right and wrong could fuck everything up.  We can’t take that chance.  Kill The Bard.

My jaw dropped, again, as I read Psyker’s words.  She really was instigating a war between her underlings.  And now she wanted me to do her dirty work for her!

>The pod bitch is almost through the door, I have tontha asdg

Psyker had run out of time.  She hadn’t even finished her message, which cast all sorts of doubt on just how well she could predict the future if she couldn’t even tell when her own life was in danger, but at that exact moment I wasn’t precisely in the right frame of mind to wonder about that.  She had given me more than enough to consider with her word choice alone.

As I sat there, dumbfounded, there was one question that wouldn’t leave my mind: why would Psyker refer to The Goddesses in the singular?  She had done that twice now, but it didn’t make any sense!  Everyone on the surface knew the truth, including me!  Psyker had even gone so far as to taunt me in her last recording, hinting at how I would learn of Celestia and alluding to how she’d be there to watch “the show,” as she put it.  So there wasn’t any doubt that she knew the truth…

Was she simply toying with me?  Or had she chosen her words carefully, knowing that I would ponder this exact mystery?  My hoof rose to my forehead and covered my eyes while I sat still and thought.

Of all the ponies I had met, only a few of them were directly linked to Psyker in any fashion whatsoever.  The one who bore the closest connection had been the twisted, sadistic cannibal that had raided and desecrated my home.  It might have been the fear that had consumed me when I saw her, or perhaps all the foul odors wafting through the room, or possibly even my own actions that followed that moment, but I knew that my encounter with The Pyro was one I could never forget.

The memory of roiling, angry flames burned through my mind as I remembered the reek of death mingling with the stench of burnt flesh and the sharp odor of cleaning chemicals.  The sound of insane, callous laughter echoed off the walls of my stable’s laundry room, and only quieted when The Pyro burnt her own skin.  “By The Goddess,” she had said, practically salivating as the stench reached her own nostrils.  The leader of one of the three raider gangs, one of Psyker’s direct underlings, had spoken like a Selenist rather than a surface pony.  As memory served, she wasn’t alone.

Another memory, and another fight for my life.  Bright Eyes’ relentless advance as her sea of ghouls washed over the Steel Rangers.  Just before all of that horror, Star-Paladin Sandalwood had, upon hearing me refer to Luna, asked a very confusing question, “Which Goddess?”  At the time, I still hadn’t realized the truth.  After hearing my flummoxed and nervous response, Sandalwood had inquired further.

She had asked if we were sisters.

I shook my head as I realized this was neither the time nor the place to be contemplating such matters.  Nohta was still out there somewhere, and Lily was waiting on—

A grunt by the door caught my attention and announced Lily’s presence.  I looked up to see her hobbling into the room on shaking legs before teetering to the side and clutching at a nearby bookshelf for support.  Her hoof slipped, and she thumped the shelf with her shoulder, jostling the books and making the ancient wood creak under her weight.  She winced at the impact, and propped herself up against the shelves as she sat on her haunches.

I took a step toward her.  “Lily!  You shouldn’t be—”

“I’m fine,” she hissed.  One of her eyes was shut in a half-scowl as she demanded, “Who are you talking to?”

“Err…”  I grimaced, fearing her response.  “Psyker left a note in this terminal.”

“Fuck!”  She jolted upright, sucking in a pained breath as her wings flared wide.  “We need to get the fuck out of—”

“Lily!  Lily, she’s not here!”  I had to calm her down.  “Psyker said that she wrote this note two years ago.”

Seemingly convinced, or perhaps just that desperate for a bit of rest, Lily slumped against the floor and stared straight ahead.  “Two years?  Shit…”  I walked to her side, and was just about to help her sit up when she asked, “Well?  What’d the bitch say?”

The way she was glaring at me made me hesitate, but I shrugged it off.  Surely she was just upset about hearing that Psyker was sending us more messages.  I reached out to her, tugging at her shoulders to place her in a more stable position, and reiterated the note.  “Nohta’s okay.  Other than that, she had a list of directions for us.”

“So now we’re taking orders from the raider warlord we’re supposed to kill?”  Lily fished another cigarette out from under her askew hat and shakily held her lighter up to the tip.

I chewed on my lip, wondering exactly how crazy I was about to sound.  “Possibly?  She wants us to kill The Bard.”

Lily stared down her muzzle, shocked into silence.  The flame from her lighter leapt to the cigarette, consuming half of the tobacco in seconds.  “Son of a bitch!” Lily yelped, shaken back to her senses.  With a disgruntled grimace, she blew out the flame and tried to smoke what was left.

Scrunching up her face in confusion, she exclaimed, “What?  You’re messing with me.”  When I shook my head, she insisted, “He’s her number two.  That doesn’t make any sense.”

I had little to go off of, and all I could imagine amounted to little more than conjecture.  “Perhaps he’s no longer loyal to her?  Why else would Psyker order The Outcasts to kill The Bards?”

Lily took a deep breath before fishing a Mintal out from underneath her hat and chewing on it thoughtfully.  “Elegy’s gang deals in sex, chems, slaves, and information.”  Her eyes lit up as she continued, “He knows something, and she doesn’t want it getting out.”

“Lily...”  I knew this was going to be a hard sell, so I chose my next words carefully.  “You said yourself that the pony that betrayed my caravan had to go through The Bard.  If Psyker wants him dead, then we might be better off letting him live.”

Even as I said the words, I wasn’t sure if I believed them.  I craved answers, and the head of a spy network seemed a fitting pony from whom to take them, but my head was swimming with too much guesswork, too much emotion, and too little calm and rational thought.  Whatever my choice, I’d have to proceed carefully.

“Wait, hold up.”  Lily took a long drag off her cigarette.  The smoke plumed and dissipated above our heads when she blew it out.  “She’s tricked me like this before.  She said just the right thing to get me to fly off to the mountains while she was killing the rest of Margie’s crew.”

Lily’s brow furrowed as she spoke her concerns aloud.  “Maybe she’s hoping that if we think she wants The Bard dead, we’ll let him go.”  She pursed her lips as the obvious counter-argument reared its head.  “But then…  Why send Adamant’s crew after him in the first place?”  She finished her cigarette and spat the nub across the room, not even bothering to stamp it out. Gingerly rubbing her eyes with a hoof, Lily groaned, “Ugh!  Fuck Psyker and her spirits-damned mind games!”

My ears drooped as a troubling thought occurred to me.  “If she has that much of a grasp on the situation, then she likely already knows what we’re going to do.”

“Fuck that,” Lily spat.  “There’s no such thing as fate.”

“Hmph.”  I raised an eyebrow and pursed my lips.  “Before I agree with you, I’d just like to point out the absurdity of a pony who believes in ghosts disparaging some other tidbit of supernatural nonsense.”

She stared at me underneath the brim of her hat, and raised a questioning eyebrow.  I gave her a nonplussed look, feeling rather like I was explaining myself to a yearling.  “Lily, I am a doctor.  My entire profession revolves around saving lives, so if this—” I rolled my eyes and waggled a dismissive hoof in the air as I huffed, “—fate were to be a real concept, then I’ve devoted my entire life to changing it.

“Selenism taught us to—”  I caught myself a moment too late, and grimaced as the rest of my breath left my lips in a weary sigh.  I was already regretting that I had brought up my faith—and all the jumbled-up emotions that came along with it—but Lily’s questioning gaze was practically begging for an explanation.  I owed her that much, I was sure.

A moment of silence passed between us before I clenched my jaw and gently shook my head.  “It taught us that we will struggle, and that sometimes we must seek guidance, but if we are not happy with our lot in life then it is up to us to change it.”

Slowly, the corner of her mouth turned upward into a sly grin.   “Like looking for a doctor when you’ve been hurt?”

An encouraging smile graced my lips as I replied, “Or a mercenary.”

Much to my surprise, Lily gave a single bark of laughter before she was overtaken by a coughing fit.  She toppled over, clutching her barrel and clenching her eyes shut as she flopped onto a bed of moss.  Still smiling despite the obvious physical duress, Lily nodded appreciatively and looked up at me through one blood-red eye.  “Shit, babe.  That’s dark.”

Oh Goddess, had I just said that?  “I, err…  I just meant that—”

“Nope.  Nope, you don’t get to take it back.  What’s said is said.”  It was as if her dour mood had never been there in the first place.  She grinned up at me from the mossy floor, “You get everything you want out of here, yet?  I’d really like to get out from underneath these low ceilings.”


**************

> Chapter Nine: Star-Crossed -Part Two-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Nine:


Star-Crossed



“How could you ever know what it’s like to be totally obsessed with a pony, only to find out they’re obsessed with somepony else?”


“Isn’t it weird that nopony ever came along and grabbed all these water talismans?”

Lily had graciously offered me the first bath, and even though she took the opportunity to relentlessly tease me regarding whether or not she would be observing my struggles to shed my armor, she did turn around and cover her face with her stetson like I had asked.  I wasn’t entirely satisfied that she wouldn’t peek anyway until she had recreated her odd little promise ritual—something about wishing to fly and having pastries stuffed into her eyes—but after that, I snuck behind the cauldron and wriggled free of the tight leather barding.  It was an… arduous process.

Having finally freed myself of my constrictive trappings, I slinked around the side of the cauldron to find Lily in exactly the same position I had left her.  My hoof roamed over the spiral rune on the side of the cauldron and tingled as the energy in the talisman was stirred to life by my touch.  The bottom of the bowl lit up, glowing a dim orange while I turned back to Lily.  “Honestly, I’d be more surprised if anypony were brave enough to come claim them in the first place.  Between the ghouls, the raging battle outside, the manticores, and the insane pod-monsters, I’d think that this facility has more than enough to deter even the most determined of scavengers.”

Lily’s wings gave a single, weak flap as she shrugged.  “Dungeon Diving 101, babe.  The scarier the traps, the better the treasure.  That’s what makes it worth it to scout out the really fucked up places.”

Water flowed over the cauldron’s brim and fell through the grate, splashing noisily in the darkness beneath our hooves.  “I’ll have to take your word for that one,” I conceded.  “Scavenging has returned to me a net loss, as far as I can tell.”  I waved my PipBuck over the massive black cauldron and examined the statistical readout that popped up on my screen.  “Potion contamination and radiation are both down to zero point zero zero zero…   Ugh…  I’m tired.  It’s pure.”

“So we can drink it now?”  Lily turned around, biting her lip with the same endearing anticipation I had seen on the faces of little ones eager to have their doctor tell them they were well enough to go play again.

A small smile formed over my face as I nodded.  “Our cauldron doth runneth over.”

Lily eagerly flung her hat to the side and hobbled over to the caudron.  She raised herself up on two shaky legs and braced her trembling hooves against the rim of the giant kettle as she exclaimed, “Thank the fucking spirits!  I’m so thirsty I could drink piss out of a skinned snake!”  Before I could stop her—or even react to her disgusting words—she plunged the entirety of her face underneath the water’s surface, noisily gulping as if she’d gone days without a drink.

At first I simply rolled my eyes at the uncouth behavior, but when it continued for longer than ten seconds I grew worried.  I gripped the back of her mane in my magic and yanked her gasping and dripping face out of the water.  Floating an empty bottle up to her eyes, I suggested, “Dear, we do have spare containers.  At least try to act civilized, won’t you?”

“Pfft,” she grinned playfully.  Struggling to catch her breath, she added  “Where’s the… fun in… that?”

Water was still streaming over the cauldron’s brim to splash through the grate at our hooves.  Underneath the metal I could see a large drainage trough traveling deeper underneath the facility, and realized how fortunate it was that the system was unblocked.  If it had been clogged we might have been up to our fetlocks in water.  Or, given our findings in the facility thus far, something far worse.

I stopped the miniature deluge with a couple hoof taps to the wave rune, grateful that it behaved as I expected.  “Yes, well, some of us do…   Do have...”  I trailed off as I noticed the running black liquid dripping down Lily’s cheek and off her chin.  “...standards… “

“What?” she asked.  “You’re looking at me like I’m melting.”  Lily’s face was the very image of perplexion.  I simply pointed my hoof at her cheek, unsure of how to address the issue.

Setting her bottle down on the mossy floor, she dabbed at her face with a hoof, and wound up pulling away a good portion of jet-black goop.  “Oh, shit.  It is about that time, isn’t it?”

“Is your…” My words hung in the air just like my wavering hoof pointing at Lily’s face.

“Yeah.  My face paint is running.  I guess I am melting.”  She rubbed her cheek vigorously, staining the entire side of her face in a deep black splotch.  As I continued to stare incredulously, she offered up an explanation.  “Thunderhooves pegasi paint our faces when we go to war.  Something we picked up from the buffalo.”  Her brow twisted and contorted as she grimaced bashfully at me.  “I’m… not the best at remembering when I need to replace mine.”

“I… honestly thought that was a tattoo,” I said, trying to conceal my puzzlement as best I could.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to look like one.”  Lily wiped her hoof off on her chest before asking, “If I gave you the recipe, could you brew some more for me?  I’m awful at alchemy.”

“Alchemy?”  I was, to put it mildly, skeptical.  “You need magic for face paint?”

“Sort of.  Zebra magic makes it last a little longer.”  She shrugged.  “I have been getting Half-Moon to do this for me since I can’t brew for shit, but the last time I saw him I was off my meds.  I’m lucky enough that I remembered to ask him for Battle Brew.”

“So if I understand this correctly, you have an ancient tradition passed down from buffalo, which requires zebra alchemy for the main component, to be used on a pegasus pony?”  I had to shake my head at that.  “I must confess that when it comes to your tribe, my imagination is running wild.”

She chuckled, and nodded encouragingly, “We’re a crazy bunch.  No argument there.  Will you do it?”

I didn’t want to waste any time in reuniting with my sister, but one more little task to accomplish before we set out wouldn’t kill us.  “Of course.”  I glanced at the slowly heating cauldron.  “But can it wait until after we’ve cleaned ourselves up?”

“Sure.”  She nodded and sighed in relief.  “Thanks.  I owe you another one.”

“Hmm, so just that I’m certain,” I began, a sly grin spreading across my lips.  I raised a hoof and cocked my head toward it, “In order to curry your favor I should either put myself in dangerous situations where I would inevitably be forced to save your life through either violence or medical knowhow.”  I repeated the gesture, this time with the other hoof.  “Or I could simply make a jar of paint?”

“You…”  Lily’s eyes shifted from side to side as a blank look of surprise overtook her face.  “You could also buy me a hat.”  In a hopeful voice she added, “I like hats.”

I giggled and shook my head before taking another look at the indigo mare in front of me, pursing my lips in concentration.  “You are… rather odd.  You know that, right?”

She shrugged.  “Eh, most of my friends usually have a hard time understanding me.”  Raising her inky hoof and scratching at her chin, she continued with an altogether understandable admission, “Actually, sometimes I have a hard time understanding me.”

I inclined my head as I asked, “Perhaps it would help if I knew something more of The Thunderhooves as a whole?”

Her ears flopped to the sides of her head as she sighed.  “Yeah, I kinda figured it was pointless to try and dodge that conversation for too long.  What do you want to know?”

“Well, for starters, the slaver did use the word ‘raiders’ when he referred to your tribe,“ I stated matter-of-factly.  Lily licked her lips and nodded thoughtfully, then took the opportunity to fish a box of cigarettes out of her mane.  To this day, I’m still not sure how it managed to stay dry.  I swallowed before asking, “What did he mean by that?”

“The short answer, the easy answer,” she paused to light her cigarette and inhale, “is that we’re raiders.”  Just as I recoiled from her admission she blew a plume of smoke to the side, meeting my shocked gaze with one melancholy eye.

She must have seen the barrage of questions I was about to pelt her with, because she raised a hoof and preempted my verbal assault with her own.  “Look, Candy, no one has a good definition for that word anymore.  To some folks we’re savages that take everything we want before we burn villages to the ground.  To other folks, we’re more like a small nation keeping our territory free and clear of all the real assholes out there.”

Her voice rose steadily as she continued.  “We’re the sorry bitches that get to deal with folks like Red Eye and his huge fucking slaver-army grabbing up every town on our borders.  We get to deal with the Steel Rangers whenever they think that maybe we shouldn’t get to keep our ancestral power armor.  We have to fight off all the other tribes that have been edging in on us ever since…”  She trailed off, hesitating as her jaw worked silently.

It wasn’t terribly difficult to deduce that there was something she didn’t wish to share just yet, and given the frankness of her admission, I could only assume the worst.  Still, I have to admit that I was curious—and optimistic—enough to not pass too much judgement on her.  Lily certainly hadn’t acted as foul as the fiends I had encountered when Nohta and I returned to our stable, and she did seem to genuinely adhere to her own peculiar sense of honor and proper conduct.  I couldn’t possibly imagine her being devious enough to plot and scheme against anyone.  Or smart enough to plot and scheme, for that matter...

After fear, rage, and frustration had played across her face, she grit her teeth, took a deep drag from her smoke, and sighed heavily to steady herself.  She started again, a bit calmer than before.  “Bottom line is: we do what needs to be done to protect ourselves and help as many as we can.  If we have to crack a few skulls or ‘acquire’ some supplies from folks that don’t deserve what they’ve got in the process, then so be it.”

My brow furrowed as I shuffled my hooves.  “Could you elaborate on that?”

“You ever hear of a town called Appleloosa?”  I shook my head, prompting Lily to explain.  “Before The War, it was one of the places where the buffalo first learned to compromise and make deals with ponies.  The old apple orchard there used to be part of the original Thunderhooves tribe’s traditional stampeding-grounds; a holy place.”  She swished her tail and ground her teeth together.  “But now?  Now it’s a fucking slaver-town, full of nothing but filth that treat ponies like property!”

Lily glared at me, her ruby eyes colder than ice.  “Where buffalo used to run free, now ponies live in chains.”  She spat on the ground and flared her wings,  “Fuck that!  If we want to send war bands up north to fuck up their shit and take whatever we can haul back, then it’s our right.  And we’ll be doing the whole wasteland a fucking favor while we’re at it!”

“That… is something worth mulling over,” I conceded.  A moment of silence passed between us, with me pondering what she had said as she flipped ashes off the end of her cigarette.  My tail curled around my hooves as I asked, “Do you free the slaves?”

Lily calmed down after hearing the hope in my voice, and allowed her wings to fold at her sides.  She grinned and nodded, “Freed slaves make up a good chunk of our earth ponies and unicorns.  Not that there’s a whole lot of ‘em ever since Red Eye started sending the town protection, but we do what we can.”  She let out a soft chuckle before adding, “And shit, we’re probably gearing up for a big raid on the town right now.  I heard over the radio that somepony damn near wiped the slavers out and escaped with all the slaves by train.”  Her grin grew a little wider as she added, “If that pony went in alone like I heard, then they probably needed the train just to haul around their massive testicles.”

“Lily…”  I shook my head, but couldn’t hide how the corner of my mouth turned upward in my own grin.  Even if it was just a glimpse of her cheerful side, it still felt good to see her smile again.  “Well, I don’t suppose I can find any fault with harassing a group of miscreants such as slavers.”

Lily’s ears perked up as she smirked, and her voice took on all the annoying qualities of somepony trying desperately to convince you to buy whatever dreck they happen to be peddling.  “Then congratulations!  You have the qualifications of a raider, and you’re a decent person!  At your soonest convenience, you can redeem twenty pony-scalps with Papa Thunderhooves to apply for citizenship at your local Thunderhooves camp, located in the the lovely Dumb Rock Canyon in The Badlands!”

I cocked my head to the side, feeling my grin spreading.  “Twenty scalps?  That seems a bit steep, don’t you think?  Besides, I prefer to do my cutting with surgical equipment on ponies that need my help.”

“Twenty scalps is the discount rate, sugar, on account of me being your sponsor.”  She shrugged, lifting her blackened hoof to her chest as she smiled innocently.  “Sorry babe, kickin’ ass and takin’ manes is a requirement for being this awesome.”

Part of me really wanted to just let that be the end of it; to end the conversation on a good note while we were both cheerfully exchanging awful jokes and lame puns.  I gave her a moment to smoke the last little bit of her cigarette and drop the remaining nub through the grate at our hooves.  That was all the time I could spare before the desire for the whole truth won out.

My expression darkened as I asked the question that was gnawing at my insides.  “Do you only raid slaver towns?”

“If we can help it, but sometimes we have to go after softer targets.”  She scowled as she continued, “That entire desert has been carved up into teensy little pieces by all the rival tribes in the region.  If the other tribes start to think that we’re weak, then they start thinking about war.  We keep the peace by being in charge.  Sometimes you have to burn down a village or two to make sure everyone knows you're still on top.”

My hoof found my lips as I stared at her in shock.  “Entire villages?  Isn’t that a little extreme?”

Her eyes conveyed a startling lack of emotion as she explained, “The Badlands is a war-zone, Candy.  And it looks like the San Palomino is turning into one too.  If you declare allegiance with the wrong group, you gotta face the consequences.”  The nonchalant way in which she was speaking did little to ease my mind.  It was almost as if she believed that razing homesteads was akin to pulling weeds in a garden, or that uprooting lives merited just as little concern.

“Look,” she sighed and rubbed her neck, “it’d be nice if we could all be best friends forever and dance and sing songs and hold hooves and talk about boys,” she paused to roll her eyes.  “But the fact is sometimes you have to mare-the-fuck-up and kill somepony if they’re a threat.”  Her wings flared at her back again, matching the way her ears stood at attention and how her voice rose. “And as much as I’d like for life to be simple, more often than not it’s a confusing, complicated, clusterfuck.  But we keep doing this shit because it keeps us alive.  So don’t expect me or any other Thunderhooves to apologize for any of the hard decisions we’ve had to make!”  By the time she finished, her voice was bouncing off the darkened walls in the distance, allowing me to imagine many more members of her tribe echoing her exact sentiments.

I winced, holding up a hoof in a pleading gesture.  “I…  I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Lily sighed and drooped her wings before shaking her head.  After a moment she slowly turned around to stare at the massive glass domes in the cavernous room.  Her words were a soft whisper when she said,  “Sometimes the way you act makes me think that you’re one of the few folks out here that actually gets it, y’know?”  My ears perked at what I could only assume was a compliment, but that didn’t keep me from cocking my head and furrowing my brow with confusion.

Luckily she was quick to elucidate, lifting a hoof to her side as she continued.  “Helping the wounded at Mareon for no charge?  Wanting to avenge a family member?  Saving that little filly from the ghoul a couple hours ago?”  She turned around to let me see the melancholy grin on her face.  “That’s the sort of stuff that Thunderhooves expect out of our members.  That’s the kind of shit that this world needs right now.”  She emphasized her explanation by lifting her hoof and stamping it on the grate, as if she were trying to physically drive her point home.

I couldn’t suppress my grin, knowing that in at least one pony’s eyes I wasn’t making a complete mess of things.  Unfortunately a mess is still a mess and I had a rather large one on my hooves.  My smile faded as I saw Lily’s expression turn sour, and I steeled myself for what was coming.  She grunted and winced from the exertion, inching closer like an irate wrecking ball in slow-motion

“But when you start asking about things like this,” she started, “about how far you have to go in order to do the right thing…”  She paused to shake her head and scowl, clearly frustrated, “I just don’t know where your head’s at, Candy.  It’s like there’s a divide between what you know and what you’re willing to accept.  Or that you’re not really sure if you’re committed to going down that path.”

“I guess,” I began, speaking slowly and cautiously in an attempt to keep her calm.  “I guess I’m just trying to figure out where you draw the line between yourself and the ponies that you’re killing.”

Her pierced ear flicked as she pursed her lips and stared at me.  “There is no line, Candy.  Everyone we ever kill is just the same as us.”  She shrugged and added, “At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to see tomorrow.”

“Then how do you make such a complicated decision look so easy?” I pleaded.

“Because it’s not complicated.”  She stated bluntly.  “It’s the easiest fucking thing in the world to understand.”

I recoiled from her harsh tone of voice.  “But-”

She stared at me, and asked in a flat tone, “If you knew someone was going to hurt you, would you just let them?”

Puzzled, I shook my head.  “Of course not.”

She scooted a little closer and winced as she asked.  “What if they were trying to hurt someone you cared about?”

A memory flashed through my mind.  I recalled the feeling of warm blood spurting across my face, and the heft of a knife in my magic.  I remembered how my desperation had mingled with a sick satisfaction as I sank the blade into flesh over and over again.  I could still hear the raider begging me to stop, his rapidly weakening voice bouncing off the walls of The Goddess’ temple as he foolishly prayed for my mercy.

He should have known better.  He had just hurt my sister.

My lips quivered as I returned Lily’s stare.  “Never,” I whispered.

“Then you’ve got this shit figured out already,“ she insisted.  “Stop worrying about it and just do what you gotta do!”

I swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat before asking, “But, is that the only option?  What if there is a better way?”

Tilting her head to the side and speaking softly, Lily asked, “Why’d you kill that slaver?”

Her response caught me completely off guard.  I faltered, blurting out my answer as my eyes widened in shock.  “I…  I didn’t kill him!  He chose his own fate!”  Lily pursed her lips while staring directly at me, the exact expression Nohta wore when she was trying to ferret out whatever secret I was guarding.

Even without being such a sensitive subject, it was enough to place me firmly on the defensive.  I recoiled at the indigo and black face before me, scoffing as I attempted to reason with her.  “You really expect me to defend one of the ponies that forced me to place these collars around our necks?”  Without thinking, I nudged the side of the uncomfortable device clasped over my throat, and was startled by the angry beeping that leapt into my ears.

Lily’s hoof shot out to grasp my own, pulling it away from the irritated bomb collar as she edged even closer.  “Maybe,” she whispered as she sat on her haunches right in front of me.  “I’m not as hard to figure out as you want me to be.  Maybe that’s because you know that, deep down, you feel the same way I do.”

My lips parted and my jaw worked up and down, but no sound escaped my throat.  Despite all the gears in my head turning at once, no rebuttal to her statement ever came to mind.  I was left feeling small and impotent against her simple and damning insinuation.

“Candy,” her hoof released mine as she encouraged me onward.  “Think about this before you give me an answer.”  She paused, allowing her words to sink in before she repeated her question.  “Why did you kill that guy?”

“I…  I didn’t—”

“For the report,” she cut me off, gazing knowingly in my direction.  “You’re terrible at lying.  Your ears start twitching, you get tense and fidgety, you blink too much, and your eyes start looking around the room like you’re gonna find a convenient answer written on a sign just off to the side.”  She straightened up and flexed her wings experimentally before staring at me like a hawk.  “If you want to lie to me, then that’s fine.  But don’t lie to yourself.

“Trust me,” she cautioned, “that’s a road you don’t want to walk.”

She was right.  It was no use hiding it any longer.  Still, I couldn’t meet her gaze.  Instead I stared at the ruffled tuft of fur sticking out of her chest as I confessed, “He…  He hurt us.”  I had to swallow the lump forming in my throat as I whispered, “He hurt me.”

“And that made you feel…” she trailed off, fishing for the answer like a pony trying to land the big one.

I slumped my shoulders and groaned petulantly.  “Since when did you become my therapist?”

The barest note of annoyance tainted the soothing tone of her voice.  “Ever since I realized you’re going down the same fucking path that I already have.”  A bit more confrontationally, she asked again, “That made you feel…”

“Angry,” I huffed, first at Lily and her goading query, and then at the memory of the slavers stripping my dignity away in such an appalling manner.  “Outraged.”  Once again, my anger lent me strength.  Even if it was only enough for me to glare at the blood red eyes so close to my own.  My face twisted into a scowl as I stamped a hoof on the grate.  “Furious!”

Lily nodded her head up and down slowly.  It wasn’t a contemplative nod, nor was it judgemental in the slightest.  It was sympathetic.  Her voice was even and gentle, but it still managed to tip me over the edge.  “And so you killed him because…”

“I wanted to!”  My shout echoed through the dark, reaffirming the truth in my own voice a second and third time like recorded evidence at a trial.

I blinked, stunned, as the full weight of my admission crashed against my heart.  “I killed him because I wanted to…”  My hooves found my lips, just in time to cover my dropping jaw.  It was suddenly so very stuffy in the dark by the heating cauldron, and the bomb-collar was much too tight.  My lungs fought for air just as my stomach churned and my gaze fell to the floor.  “Oh, Goddess…  What have I—”

Soft but firm hooves snaked around my shoulders, pulling my hyperventilating body against Lily’s.  Her clean cheek brushed against my right ear, and her hoof pressed into my mane to cradle my head against her own.  I could feel her breath, warm and steady against my mane, and I could feel her heart beating slowly against my heaving chest.

I was too shocked to react, but as the warmth of her body bled into my own it chased away my anxiety.  I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath to steady my nerves.  Somehow, amidst all the foul odors of sweat, gore, tobacco, and whatever foul gunk had spread over us from the pod-zebra, I caught a whiff of flowers from her mane; the same scent that had been haunting my memory for days.

My mind wasn’t sure whether to speed up or stop completely, and quite frankly, I had endured more than enough of its indecision.  So, bereft of any sensible ideas regarding how to proceed, I simply let go of my need to remain in control.  When my mind was unfit to pilot my actions, I allowed my heart to take the helm.

The hoof that had previously found my lips cautiously—as if it was even more unsure of what it was doing than I was—maneuvered underneath Lily’s bomb-collar, and relocated itself in the crook between her shoulder and neck.  The tip of my horn brushed against her mane as I pressed myself against her.  My free hoof wrapped itself around Lily’s other shoulder, and I quickly realized I was pulling her into the embrace as well.

I felt the muscles in her back flex and shift, and a moment later hard steel and soft feathers had draped themselves across my back.  I had found myself wrapped tightly in a comforting, protective cocoon of blades, feathers, and fur.  Dear Goddess, I had needed that hug.

As my breathing calmed, Lily whispered into my ear.  “Killing a slaver felt good, didn’t it?”  Positive reinforcement for such an admission was not what I would have expected from anypony else, but it wasn’t terribly surprising coming from the pony I held in my hooves.

I nodded, feeling my mane brush against her cheek.  She pulled away, and I felt the tip of her hoof turn my chin upward.  I opened my eyes to see the concern, conviction, and compassion in hers.  She nodded as she asked,  “But saving the filly felt good too, right?”  It was as rhetorical a question as ever there had been, but it certainly served its purpose.

I swallowed, and nodded in agreement once more.  “Yes.”

“Then maybe,” she placed a heavy emphasis on that word, just like Father had when he was teaching me something important, “it’s time for you to stop worrying about whether what you’re doing is right or wrong, and just do what you want.  I don’t think your good nature is gonna let you do anything you need to worry about.”

I realized, finally, that she wasn’t just trying to rationalize my actions.  She really believed what she was saying.  She really was trying to help me.

I studied Lily’s supportive expression as I allowed everything to sink in, and then nodded in silent contemplation.  Despite the veritable maelstrom of emotions swirling through my mind, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I could weather the storm so long as she was with me.  No matter how calming her presence might have been, however, I couldn’t escape the same peculiar thought that kept buffeting my mind: I was already lamenting the absence of her wings from my body.

A weak grin graced my lips as I whispered, “Thank you, Lily.  I needed to hear that.”

She raised an eyebrow and nodded.  Letting out a single snort of laughter, she lightly chastised me.  “Heh, you need to hear a lot of things.”  Tilting her head, she conceded, “It’s just hard for me to figure out what to tell you.”

“I can hardly argue with that,” I agreed. “But to be honest, I think the most important aspect is that I heard it from you.”

Still smiling, she playfully asked, “Oh yeah?  Why’s that?”

Goddess, I knew that I was playing with fire.  I knew that what I was about to say would only fan the flames.  I knew that at any moment, an inferno might flare up as Lily made some crass joke and I would have to endure the intense heat in my face.  At the time though, I felt that letting her know exactly how much I appreciated her friendship was more than worth the risk.

I reached out and placed a hoof on her shoulder.  “You’ve proven to be a very good friend to me, Lily.  I don’t think I can adequately describe exactly how lucky I am to have found you.”

Her eyes widened slightly before her expression returned to her trademark smug grin.  She remained silent, however, as if she were inviting me to continue.  I retracted my hoof to brush my mane out of my eyes and glanced at the ground as I tried to think of how to explain myself.  Seeing no other viable option, I decided to backtrack and give some context.

“Nohta and I didn’t have many friends before we left Stable 76.  Excluding Mother, Father, and myself, I can count on four hooves the number of residents in The Stable that got along with my sister.”  I closed my eyes and sighed, “I might be able to claim to have had more friends than my sister, but,”  I shook my head, and opened my eyes to see Lily’s questioning gaze.  “None of my friends has ever put their life on the line solely for my sake.”

I reached out with my hoof again, this time gently resting it on Lily’s chest as I looked her directly in the eye and whispered, “None of them, except for you.”  Upon hearing those words, Lily perked up and grinned as if I had given her the best compliment in all the world.

I pulled my hoof back and stood up a little straighter.  With a bit more resolve in my voice, I proclaimed, “I don’t believe that a tribe that produced somepony like you deserves to be likened to raiders.”  I nodded and continued in a matter-of-fact tone, “I for one, am more than willing to give you and the rest of The Thunderhooves the benefit of the doubt in that regard.  You are far too selfless for me to imagine that your tribe isn’t doing what they think is best for everyone.”

Lily tilted her head and fluffed her wings before challenging my claim, “I ain’t selfless, sugar.  I only do something if I want to.”

Realizing that I had finally managed to back her into the proverbial corner, I tilted my head and smirked, “Well, I’ve mostly seen you do good things.  So that must mean you’re a good pony.”

Rendered uncharacteristically speechless, Lily grinned and tried to reach up to scratch at her mane.  She stiffened and grimaced as her pained body protested against the sudden movement, and she was forced to gently lower her hoof back down to the ground.  Her voice was a little thicker and more husky than normal when she replied, “Thanks.  I needed to hear that.”

Something clicked into place for me when she said that.  I recalled how she had previously told me her intentions to be “one of the good guys,” but it was only when I saw her reaction to being labeled as such that it all came together for me.  Her reckless behavior, the few snippets of information I had gleaned of her past, the fact that her tribe was considered to be a group of raiders…  All the evidence pointed to her having been involved with something that she regretted dearly, and now she was trying to atone for whatever that might have been.

It was just a theory of course, but it gave me a whole new perspective on Lily.  She was trying very, very hard to be a force for good in this world, even if that meant that she had to break a few rules to do what she felt was right.  It was a desire that I could both intimately relate to and deeply admire.

It wasn’t long before I realized that we were both staring into each other’s eyes.  I could feel something pass between us at that moment, and even if I didn’t fully understand what it was I knew that it heralded the deeper bond that had been cemented between the two of us.  The slow realization of exactly what she meant to me followed soon after, accompanied by my own assumption of exactly what I meant to her.

I saw before me a wounded pegasus with a world-weary heart and a chip on her shoulder, and I was sure that she saw a naive unicorn full of unrealized dreams stumbling blindly through an alien world.  I saw an opportunity to heal and comfort a lost soul, and knew that she saw an opportunity to protect and guide one.  I think that both of us recognized a chance to make the world a better place through the other, and understood that both of us were willing to fight whatever odds we came across for the other’s sake.

It was quite a powerful realization that I had made a friend for whom I would gladly take a bullet.  Even more so when I understood that elevated Lily to the same level previously inhabited only by my sister.  My thoughts lingered on how I felt about Lily in the same way that my eyes lingered on hers.

For a moment, I was able to forget that I should have averted my gaze long ago.  I didn’t feel a need to question why I was inexplicably capable of basking comfortably in her company, nor did I even desire to know why this short span of time felt so peaceful and warm.  For that one little moment all else was swept to the wayside as I remembered just how nice it felt to have her wings wrap around my body...

That was when the exact nature of my predicament began to sink in.  At the time it was just an oddly powerful feeling; a budding desire to simply be closer to my friend.  Part of me, however, realized it was much more than that and I knew that if I didn’t quell these wayward thoughts quickly then I would soon be walking a path fraught with peril.

Looking back, perhaps that was what made the prospect so exciting!

I finally realized exactly what I was considering, and—after remembering that The Dark Mother had forbidden such things—covered my face with a hoof.  It wasn’t nearly enough to conceal the blush on my face, but it did hide the dying grin on my lips.  Even if the wisdom of Mother’s people proclaimed that I was to “walk both paths,” the doctrines of my faith were absolute.

On the other hoof, I had already committed heresy by praying to the sun.  Would just a tiny bit more deviation away from Selenism really be all that bad?  As far as I knew, there was no earthly reason whether or not Celestia would condemn two mares for being more than just friends…

Or, I wondered as I glanced back to Lily’s waiting face, perhaps I should simply take Lily’s advice and do what I wanted regardless of how much it would clash with my Selenist upbringing.  My thoughts raced as I realized I was actually considering this insane third option.  I certainly didn’t believe that Lily would mind.  I just wasn’t sure if I could balance these new feelings with my old life.

“Candy?”  Lily’s mane fell limply to the side as she tilted her head inquisitively, and I caught myself staring at the silver-white tresses that danced over her shoulder.  I could no longer ignore the fact that I found her lithe figure more than pleasing to the eye.

I recognized that I was staring, and shook my head in a desperate attempt to clear it.  I didn’t answer her.  I couldn’t!  I had absolutely no idea what to say!  How was I supposed to explain this to her of all ponies!?  She hadn’t gone a single day in my company without making a flirtatious comment, or at the very least hinting at some lewd activity!  But just a moment ago she was… different.  And I was…

Confused.  Very, very confused.  Not with Lily; I knew precisely what she wanted from me.  But now I was wondering what in the world I wanted from her.

“Uh, Candy?”  Her wings stretched behind her as she shakily rose to all four legs, and I realized that I was genuinely worrying her.

I had to pull my eyes away from her wings before I could speak.  “I’m sorry, I…”  Goddess, why did she look so different now?  Why was I noticing, only now, how beautiful her coloration was?  Or how her wings seemed both impossibly strong and uniquely delicate?

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath to regain my composure, and did my best to reassume some small semblance of poise.  “Thank you, Lily.”  I spoke as evenly as I could manage, wary of divulging any hint of my feelings, but couldn’t refrain from offering her a compliment.  “You have all the patience of Moonglow.”

A small grin erased the worry from her features.  “Eh, I don’t know about that.  I never met the dude.”  Folding her wings at her side, she added, “And I’m still gonna rip your ass about the alicorns.”

The stark reminder of my previous folly was like a kick in the ribs.  Being reprimanded by Lily was bad enough before, but now it left a chill in my gut.  My ears drooped as I rubbed my leg above my PipBuck and nodded.

“But, I guess I can hold off on that for a while,” Lily reasoned.  “Besides, your sister probably wants to lay into you about that even more than I do.”

Nohta…  Ugh!  Here I was going on about… whatever this was, and meanwhile my sister was out there trudging through Goddess-knows-what horrors just so that the two of us could be reunited!  Priorities, Candy!  Get a grip on yourself!

I nodded again, both to reassure myself of my conviction, and to agree with Lily’s assertion.  “Yes, I can already hear her.  No doubt I’m going to receive several earfulls.”

Lily’s lips pursed as she gave a little shrug and a weak chuckle.  “Yeah…  You kinda have it coming though.”

I scowled, and stamped a hoof on the grate.  “And I understand that!  I just…”  Oh, this was hopeless!  How was I supposed to explain to her, or anyone who was not a Selenist, the cause for my actions?  Nearly all would call me a fool for such reckless behavior.  Still, I had to try.  My shoulders slumped as I pleaded with Lily, “I just wanted so badly for what I had seen in the orb to be false.  I think I was ready to believe anything which would have proved you wrong.  Even if I had to delude myself in order to do so.”

I straightened up, brushed my mane out of my eyes with a hoof, and tried to explain a bit further.  “I understand that many of my preconceptions of the world are erroneous, Lily.  I just wonder why it took you to show me that.”  A blush crept across my face as I realized how aptly my words could have been applied to my refusal to properly acknowledge Lily’s amorous advances.

Luckily, Lily didn’t seem to notice.  She scratched her mane absentmindedly before offering, “Maybe it would help for you to learn about the real Luna?  Instead of the messed up stories you got in your stable?”

Believing that I had just dodged a fairly large bullet, I sighed in relief and smiled.  “Perhaps,” I agreed.  Gesturing to her mane with a hoof, I asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have a biography of The Princess stashed away in that mane of yours, would you?”  Raising an eyebrow, I teased, “Somewhere amidst all the chems and booze?”

“Heh, sorry.  Fresh out.”  As if to prove her point, Lily leaned sideways and tapped her head with a hoof, depositing a small pile of bottles, tins, inhalers, syringes, and cigarettes onto an outstretched wing.  I had seen her pull a few items from underneath her hat before, true, but the sheer amount of drugs contained within her wild mane was still mind-boggling.

She gingerly slid her stash off her wing and into the bowl of her hat, then turned back to me and suggested, “I’ve got some more memory orbs in my bags.  As soon as we hook up with Nohta you can watch ‘em if you want.  Just as long as you don’t go crazy again.”

I huffed, “If they bring about any more world-shattering revelations, then perhaps I should hold off for a while.  It would be a nice change of pace to go a day or two without my world being turned on its head.”

Wrinkling my brow, I pointed a hoof at Lily and asked, “Actually, I’ve never seen technology like that before.  How did you come across it?”

A huge grin spread across her face.  “I inherited my recollector from my dad!  And uh… well…”  Her expression went sheepish before slipping straight into the realm of conspiratorial paranoia.  She beckoned me closer with a hoof, and when I was near enough she wrapped her good wing around my shoulders and dragged my surprised form right next to her, smushing her cheek up against mine.  Surely she had to hear my startled yelp, but how she didn’t feel my blush I’ll never know.

Casting furtive glances about the room, as if we weren’t impossibly—and mercifully— alone at the moment, she raised a hoof in front of our mouths and whispered in a low hush.  “Alright, look.  I’m gonna tell you something, but if you tell anyone else I’m gonna deny it.  I’ve got a reputation to maintain.”  With every turn of her head to check for eavesdroppers in the darkness, my burning cheek rubbed against hers.

Evidently convinced that our only audience was the slowly warming cauldron, she released me from her grasp and giggled into my ear.  “I’ve been collecting those orbs on my own for a while now as a hobby.  I’m kind of a history nut.”

I turned my head to find her grinning nervously and wagging her tail like a puppy.  It was the exact same expression I had seen years earlier when a silly little filly had expected me to praise her “pet” radroach.  Dear Goddess the infestation that followed during the next few moons had been awful…  Nohta may have had fun squishing as many of the pests as she could find, much to the poor filly’s dismay, but I still remember treating all the hundreds and hundreds of bug bites.

And the distinct lack of brownies!  The little abominations had made it into the kitchens and ate all the sugar in The Stable!  Truly, it was a hard time for all of us.

Regardless, Lily was eagerly awaiting my opinion of her pastime.  Try as I might, I couldn’t keep the incredulity out of my voice.  “You?”  Assuming she was merely joking again, I lightly shoved her shoulder with a hoof as I playfully chided her.  “Oh, please…  You’re teasing me again!”

“No, seriously!  At least The Wasteland makes sense most of the time!  The old world was completely fucking crazy!”  She sat on her haunches, spreading her wings and her forelegs wide with her exclamation.

I grinned skeptically, but that only spurred her on to regale me with proof.  Pointing one of her hooves in my direction, she declared, “I could tell you stories about The Ministry Mares that would make your skin crawl, and they were supposed to be the good guys!”  The Ministry Mares?  I wiped the grin from my face and listened intently.

Lily must have decided that, since she now had my attention, she shouldn’t pull any of her kicks.  She came out of her corner bucking like a bronco.  Although given her wild, tribal upbringing, perhaps that was to be expected.

She nodded, and proceeded to explain herself with gusto.  “Like Fluttershy, for example!  The mare you see on all the Sparkle-Cola signs?  All the first aid boxes have her colors: pink and yellow.  She was super nice, extra sweet, kinda sexy for an older gal…”  Lily trailed off just long enough to leave me wondering what the issue was.  Then her voice dropped low in disgust as she condemned the pre-war mare.  “And stupid as all fucking tartarus.”

I shook my head, utterly confused.  “Why would you say that?”

With a completely deadpan stare, Lily stated.  “She gave the zebras the technology that the ponies used to make megaspells.”

My jaw dropped.  “You mean…”

“Yeah, The Ministry of Peace ended up destroying the world.  Maybe a Ministry of War would have been a better idea, huh?”  Lily spat to the side with disgust, bludgeoning a small leaf with her saliva.  Turning back to me, she grimaced and explained.  “That’s part of the reason this place creeps me out so bad.  It’s Ministry of Arcane Sciences and Ministry of Peace.  I don’t know which one of them made that pod monster, but at this point I’m just hoping we don’t find anything worse.”

I needed more time to mull that over, but at the moment Lily was busy casting anxious glances at the shadows.  It wouldn’t do to have my sole protector frightened out of her wits.  In as encouraging a voice as I could manage, I suggested, “Well, perhaps we’re already past the worst of it?  And in that case the ‘treasure,’ as you put it, should be quite interesting.  And close.”

Her grin returned as she latched onto my convenient distraction.  “If we can haul a couple of these cauldrons out of here and dig the talismans out of ‘em, then yeah, the loot’s gonna be great.”  Her ears perked upwards as she stared at the cauldron beside us and gave it a quick tap with her hoof.  “Seriously, there’s a fucking fortune in water talismans here.  We could probably space these things out in the desert, crank ‘em up to full power, and turn this whole region into an oasis.”

I shrugged noncommittally.  “It would probably be more efficient to set up an irrigation and filtration system to make use of the river water.”  Lily turned her gaze in my direction, allowing me to catch the puzzlement etched into her features.  I cleared my throat and elucidated.  “Water talismans work more efficiently if they’re only being used to clean water that already exists, rather than creating freshwater from scratch with magic.”  For all my educational efforts, I received naught but a playful grin from Lily.  Perplexed as to her reaction, I went a step further with my explanation.  “What?  My stable might have had failing mechanical and electrical systems every step of the way, but our arcane systems never failed a single time.”

She chuckled, and stated simply, “You are such a nerd.”

My jaw dropped.  What!?  Why would she say such a thing?  I was merely…  Oh!  The shocked expression on my face gave way to a knowing smile as I prepared to parry her playfully pugnacious parlance.  “Says the mare who studies history for fun!”  I raised my eyebrows and gave a jaunty little head-bob.  Such a well-executed riposte was most deserving of a victory dance, I say!

Despite being thoroughly trounced, Lily continued grinning like a cocky idiot as she chided me.  “Ohhh, did I touch a nerve there, egghead?”  Oh no she did not!  I had years of experience in this area due to my dealings with my sister!  If Lily thought she could out-antagonize me then she had another thing coming!

Summoning forth my most confident smirk, I flipped my mane to the side and stuck my nose in the air, “Hmph!  If that’s the best you can do then feel free to touch my nerves however you like!”

Yes, yes, of course I realize now that I didn’t exactly communicate my thoughts precisely as I intended.  The occasional error is bound to happen from time to time when my words outpace my train of thought in the heat of the moment.  Personally, I like to think that a smart mare will take the extra time and care needed to not make the mistake in the first place.  But it takes a spark of true genius, if I may be so bold, to make a mistake, adapt to it, and utilize it in a way that benefits…

You’re not buying it, are you?  Okay, fine, it was a slip of the tongue!  I swear, trying to sneak anything past you is harder than self-levitation after I’ve just risen from bed.  It simply can’t be done.

I realized my mistake just as soon as I recognized the predatory grin spreading across Lily’s face.  “That,” she purred in a sultry voice, inching closer with every word, “almost sounded like you were flirting with me, sugar.”

I froze.  Every muscle tensed as my jaw opened, shut, opened again, and slammed shut a final time.   I found myself rooted to the spot, almost as if I had become just another part of the pervasive vegetation all around us.  Only my eyes moved, following the slinking gait of the advancing pegasus as she slowly encroached on my personal space.

Her eyes fixed mine as she edged ever closer.  “You keep doing that, and I’ll have to break that promise I made to your sister.”  She tilted her head to the side, undoubtedly catching how my eyes followed her mane as it flowed over her shoulder.  “You wouldn’t want to make a liar out of me…”  Her hoof reached up to cup my cheek, allowing me to feel just how cool her hooves were compared to my face. She turned my head gently, forcing me to gaze into her hungry eyes as she asked, “Or would you?”

“I…”  It was like the pod-zebra all over again.  I was paralyzed, horn to hooves.  Even my mind had gone numb, only able to repeat that single word.  “I…”

“It’s really hard to say this right now, sugar.  But it’s the truth.”  She leaned forward, lightly brushing her muzzle against my left ear.  The touch sent an electric tingle down the back of my neck, forcing my lips open as I gasped for breath.  Her whisper was as smooth as silk.  “I keep my promises.”

She pulled back ever so slightly, still holding my burning cheek in her hoof.  “My hooves are tied, babe.  But you can do whatever you want.”  She paused just long enough to run her eyes up and down my body, and then continued in that same sensual tone, “So if you want this…”  Her eyes smoldered, inches from mine, and promised things I could scarcely imagine.  “All you gotta do is say so.”  And with that final, devastating whisper, she slowly winked one eye and sauntered back to her side of the cauldron.

My eyes followed her until she sat down, and I thanked The Goddess, Thunder, Celestia, the spirits, every other deity whom I hadn’t yet learned of, and my ancestors that she was facing the opposite direction.  Then I remembered to breathe.

My hoof found my chest, and the thundering heart that lay within.  I stood still as a statue, save for my flustered attempts to draw breath.  My frantic eyes finally landed on the back of Lily’s mane, and I finally realized just how precarious my position was.

She knew…  She had known longer than I had.  I was convinced that she had patiently been waiting for an opportunity just like this one—convinced that in this matter I was completely outclassed.  I was a mouse chained to a manticore, and the only reason she hadn’t yet pounced was because she was enjoying the chase…

…and so was I.


**************


My bath passed in silence save for one or two warning beeps from my bomb collar.  The ornery device didn’t seem to mind the water or shampoo, but the slightest nudge from my hoof would see it launch into a veritable conniption fit.  I would have considered its tireless squawking nothing more than an annoyance were it not for the fact that every little beep and boop was a stark reminder of the explosives tightly cinched against my neck.

As I carefully labored to scrub myself clean, I had to wonder if my stablemates were also burdened with these appalling little leashes.  I could only hope that somewhere, Caramel was just as annoyed with her chafing leather straps and scratching bits of metal as I was with mine.  At the very least that would mean she was still alive…

Caramel: the bubbly, beige, and big-hearted baker of Stable 76.  She was most certainly the best friend I ever had in The Stable, and according to Nohta’s ludicrous theory, she was also a mare that had wanted more than just my friendship…

Of course it’s easy to see now why Nohta may have had her suspicions, but during my time in The Stable I was as oblivious as a mare could be.  To be completely honest, Nohta’s idea about Caramel wasn’t really that far-fetched.  Not with the late-night reading sessions, the constant gifts of various confections, and all the in-jokes shared between the two of us.  I had to step outside of my little subterranean bubble in order to understand Nohta’s idea without instantly dismissing it.  Of course, it didn’t hurt that nearly everywhere I looked somepony on the surface was going against the word of Lady Luna.  Father had warned me that there might be a bit of culture-shock, but honestly…   I hadn’t expected anything quite like this.

Before Lily had shown me that orb in the barn, I had assumed that all the oddities of the surface-dwellers could be chalked up to simple ignorance.  I truly believed that they must have acted in their perverse and frivolous ways—particularly in regards to their casual attitude toward, er… relations—because nopony had shown them the right and proper way to act: how Luna wanted us to act.  It was easy to roll my eyes, shrug my shoulders, and shake my head, all the while secure in my belief that one night they would learn.  That perhaps I would even be the one lucky enough to teach them.  It was a grandiose dream for sure, to be the one mare that finally spread Selenism to The Wasteland, but what did Selenism encourage at all if not to dream?

I must seem silly for bringing up my religion and how strange it was for me to not see others following its teachings.  No doubt you are wondering where this is going, or why I bother to stress the point at all.  The problem, you see, wasn’t just that I had learned Selenism to be false.  That revelation was certainly catastrophic, but it is by no means the worst thing to happen to me.  No, the real dilemma was that I had been lied to.  That I had been taught falsehoods.  That I had been led astray by a lie, whilst all around me others were privy to the real truth of the world.

I couldn’t help it; I took it all as a personal affront.  What must have been going through the minds of those that knew the truth as they watched me jump through their sacred hoops?  As I danced to their pious tunes while they pulled my zealous strings?

Even now, merely acknowledging how easily I had been played is infuriating.  But that anger has dulled over time, like a knife that has gone overly long since its last sharpening.  It doesn’t bite into the flesh and cut deeply anymore.  It just bruises and leaves a stubborn, angry welt in its wake.  But you must be intimately aware of my state of mind if you are to understand why I performed the horrendous acts for which I am now known.  You must understand how I felt: underappreciated, used, and betrayed.

I took my mane in my magic and hooves once more, and scrubbed furiously at the pink strands to rid them of the caked-on mess that had accumulated over the last several days.  I wasn’t quite sure how, but the shampoo was able to rid my body of every single bit of congealed ghoul blood and pod-zebra goop.  After a bit of soaking in the warm water even the bloodstains in my coat were coming out.  I only wish that my thoughts had been as unblemished as I was.

The ponies of my stable had never truly recognized my prowess as a doctor.  Instead they had turned a blind eye to a truth they were too prejudiced to see.  As soon as Father was no longer capable of practicing medicine, I would have been the head of The Clinic.  Pearl may have technically been next in line, but both he and I knew which of us was more invested, more capable, and more ambitious.  I would have climbed the ranks in The Stable, one way or another, and everypony’s casual disregard of my dreams only served to strengthen my resolve on the matter.

The Overmare, on the other hoof, did have some appreciation for my healing spells and knowledge.  But that appreciation was certainly overshadowed by my sway with Nohta.  Wintergreen must have seen our family as a simple compromise: two crucial medical staff in exchange for one delinquent.  I couldn’t fault her for the logic.  After all, she was a pony in leadership and was bound to have to make tough decisions on a daily basis.  But still…  To come to the realization that my worth to her boiled down to being able to keep my sister in check…  How could I not take offense with that?  How could I not feel that my talents would forever be squandered by her?  How could I not seek to right that wrong?

And finally, Mother and Father.  Their lies hurt the most.  Never before had there ever been a breach of trust between us.  But now, with Selenism exposed for the lie that it was, and the parallel realization that I was still learning the true meaning of my glyph-mark, I could only wonder why they had lied to us.  At best, I could imagine that it was for our protection from The Stable.  At worst, I could only fathom that they were incapable of trusting their own flesh-and-blood.

Determination, self-righteousness, and resentment are a terrible combination of emotions to have mingle in your heart.  I could feel my world shrinking as I withdrew into my own head and sunk a little deeper into the warm water, and it wasn’t long before I realized that Psyker’s advice meshed rather well with Lily’s: I needed to take care of myself first, because the world at large didn’t care about me one bit.

As I lay soaking in the sudsy water, that realization weighed heavily on my thoughts.  Nopony was ever going to just give me something.  They all wanted something in return.  And the only way to ensure that such a deal was fair, was if I got exactly what I wanted from such a bargain.  But of course, that begged a very simple question.

What did I want?

I rested the back of my head against the rim of the cauldron, and stared at the vine-covered wall in front of me.  My eyes were drawn to a long, winding strip of honeysuckle that couldn’t quite figure out which direction it wanted to grow.  The plant meandered up the side of the wall in a haphazard fashion, but in the end it finally found the window it sought.  The beautiful clusters of yellow and white blooms at the zenith of the vine’s ascent brought a warm smile to my face.

For all its faults, The Wasteland is an excellent teacher.  One of its many lessons is that you either die young or grow up very quickly.  The young will ignore their problems, hoping that they go away on their own.  But an adult will confront her issues head-on and find some way to either fix them outright, or at the very least ameliorate the situation to be more in her favor than before.  There is simply no middle-ground to be had, especially when the decisions we make are oftentimes a choice between life and death.

However, amidst all of the bleak and dreary decisions we must make about who to kill and who to save, sometimes we find a more cheery obstacle in our path.  With the warm water easing the muscles I had worn sore over the past day, I found my thoughts drawn unceasingly to Caramel.  With my mind racing to piece back together the world that Lily had shattered with a memory orb, I had to wonder if Nohta had been right in assuming that Caramel wanted more than a simple friendship with me.

I absentmindedly raised my hooves, and gently nudged two soap bubbles together.  To my amusement, they joined as one, and I was left staring at the colorful, swirling patterns on the bubble’s surface as my PipBuck’s faint light shone upward from under the water.

I could no longer refuse to acknowledge the possibility that my sister may have been right about Caramel.  I had been witness to too many individuals with, ah…  shall we say, deviant tendencies to simply dismiss Nohta’s insinuation without so much as a moment of consideration.  Still, the notion of two mares doing anything like that together was as alien a concept to a Selenist as the idea of there being multiple alicorn goddesses.  But regardless of whether I was ready to accept it or not, I had prayed to the sun herself for the truth.  It would serve no one if I chose to ignore the light and crawl back into my world of shadow.

We had been taught within Stable 76 that such a thing was taboo; The Stable needed to reproduce in order for Selenism to spread its influence like the stars that had spread across the night sky.  Like all the other teachings, I had never questioned this.  The Lunar Mandate was law, plain and simple.  And within The Stable, nopony ever doubted the word of Luna or her priestesses.

As one of my hooves gently scratched at the caked-on goop covering my PipBuck, I found myself contemplating a different life in The Stable.  One that could have been.  What if the mandate had been nothing more than a suggestion?  What if the population of The Stable hadn’t frowned upon straying from Luna’s path?  What if Caramel and I had…

Undoubtedly disturbed by my attempts to clean my PipBuck, the bubble popped.  The little fantasy died as quickly as it formed.  I sighed, and went back to cleaning myself in earnest.

Ugh!  Nohta and her theories didn’t prove anything!  I knew my friend better than my sister did!  And that’s what Caramel was; a friend!  Nothing more!  And now that she was Goddess-knows-where, that’s all that she would ever be.  If any opportunity had ever been there, it had been taken just as surely as the ponies of my stable.

Or killed, like Spicy Salsa and so many other members of my caravan.  Just another opportunity that The Wasteland had destroyed right in front of my eyes.

Perhaps that’s what Lily was really offering me, then.  Another chance at something I had never experienced, but always wanted.  Even if it wasn’t precisely what I had imagined, would it really be so wrong to indulge my curiosity?  Even if just a little?

I sighed again, my breath carving a valley through a hill of bubbles and disturbing the water underneath.  I was about to dismiss my thoughts as errant and rambling when Lily’s words echoed in my memory.  “Stop worrying… and do what you want.”

My hooves fell into the water, splashing my scowling face with fragrant froth.  I let the water drip off my chin as I huffed, wondering what in The Goddess’ name I would do.  It wasn’t as if The Dark Mother held any sway over my decisions anymore.  I was my own soul; free to do as I pleased!

Right?

I glanced back at Lily to find her lying on her belly with her forelegs stretched out in front of her.  Judging by the odd motions of her hooves, she appeared to be rolling an invisible ball back and forth in front of her face, completely oblivious to my curious stare.  I shook my head, wondering how in Equestria my comrade could be so at ease at a time like this.  Or so easily amused.

Why… her?  Why now?  I hadn’t ever felt anything like this for another mare in The Stable!  Only after I had left my home and ventured into The Wasteland had I met with so many ponies treating… that as just another casual fact of life.

I knew love.  Or at least I thought that I did.  I had seen it in Mother and Father’s eyes every time they looked at each other.  I had learned of love when I witnessed their undying devotion to one another, or how even after their very worst arguments they always managed to patch things together and simply forgive one another.  I had witnessed it in their tender caresses, and heard it in their soft words.

This… infatuation, or whatever one might call it, wasn’t love.  It couldn’t be!  There hadn’t been any romance!  There needed to be more long talks, and candlelit dinners, and, and…  Dear Goddess, what did surface ponies even do in the name of courtship?  Did somepony present a dowry of bottlecaps?  Were wedding presents simply bundles of grenades and ammunition?  Was the honeymoon spent hunting raiders and ghouls?

Ugh!  And the timing!  No matter what, I couldn’t escape the timing!  What if my feelings were just born of some vindictive desire to spite The Goddess?  Realistically, I shouldn’t have even felt that way toward Selenism or its deity.  The Luna that I had grown up knowing wasn’t even the real princess!  But still, I just felt so… angry.

Angry with my stable, my religion, my parents…  Angry at myself and who I had become.  Even angry at Lily for putting all of that into motion.  It was enough to drive a mare mad!  I was better than this idle daydreaming full of petty revenge!  I was too smart to fall into such a silly pitfall!

My anger, I found, was just like the bath I was enjoying; inviting, warm, and deceptively easy to slip into.  It felt good to let it wash over me, and the less I fought it, the more comfortable I became.  Just like the water in the cauldron soothed my tired muscles and cleaned the piled-on gore and gunk from my body, so too was my ire warming my heart and scouring doubts from my mind.

It was a calm rage; a quiet resistance against all the iniquity I had thus far experienced.  I was… justified.  Yes.  I was right to feel this way.

I sank a little deeper into the water, and a lone bubble sneaked its way up my nose.  It burst with a soapy sting as I wiped at my muzzle and hurried to sit back up in the cauldron.

Hmph.  It would take a lot more self-convincing than that for me to write a blank check for my emotions.  I stole a quick glance back at Lily, who was still batting her hooves back and forth and giggling to herself.  As strange as she was, I had to admit that she possessed a quality which I deeply admired: confidence.  If she ever doubted herself it never showed.  She knew who she was, and was comfortable with what she was doing.

I wanted that.  I wanted to know what my life would be like if I didn’t feel an overwhelming desire to second-guess myself at every turn.  To just let myself go, and actually live in that world of freedom and possibility that Nohta believed we inhabited.  The world that seemed, at the moment, to only be populated by one carefree pegasus.

I wasn’t exactly sure if I would consider her “honorable,” but Lily certainly did adhere to some sort of code of ethics, odd as it may be.  I hadn’t once seen her bat an eyelash when it came to taking a pony’s life if she deemed that pony a threat, or if she believed that pony guilty of something abhorrent.  Her ability to render simplicity unto any given situation by way of a bullet or blade was a quality that I almost found refreshing.

In that sense, she was correct about her assumption; she and I were similar in that regard.  Plagued as I so frequently was by indecision, I suppose it was only natural that I admired her confidence in dealing with such matters.  Knowing that she and I shared that in common was enough to cement her as a friend, of course, but was it enough for something more?

My horn lit as I scooped up a wobbling orb of water, which I promptly splashed down my mane and face to rinse out the shampoo.  More of the little hoof-sized spheres followed me as I clambered out of the cauldron, and I used them to rinse myself off while standing over the grated floor.  After using my magic to wring the last of the soap and as much of the water as possible from my body, I walked over to let Lily know the bath was open.

“Thanks, babe,” she replied, still lazily swiping her hooves from side to side.

I chose the most comfortable-looking bed of moss I could find, and sat down before asking, “Er, what are you doing?”

“Just playing with Grumpy before I take him out of my ear.”  She said this as if it were the absolute height of normalcy.  As if she could somehow explain the nonsense that had just come out of her mouth, she continued, “Neither of us really likes being separated, but I don’t want to risk messing up the binding-runes on his bone.  So I’m getting in some quality time with him before washing up.”

“Right…”  I wasn’t particularly in the mood to engage in that argument again, and I sorely needed something to help take my mind off of things.

I floated my packs to my side and plucked my equipment from the bags.  “I’ll um, I’ll just be brewing until you’re finished then.”

Alright then, I thought to myself, what potion would I be making?  Sweet Water?  Practical, but relatively boring.  Mana?  Useful, but not exactly challenging.  Dragon’s Breath?  Beyond the occasional glowing one, my encounters with radiation had thus far been rather limited.  It could wait.

I flipped through the pages of Mother’s book one-by-one, looking for something a bit more intriguing than your typical potion-fare.  Grammy’s Gummin’ Goop?  An extra-strength adhesive seemed slightly impractical.  Slickery Solution?  Magical lubrication seemed equally impractical.  Instant Electrical Insulation Elixir?  When would I ever use that?

To my eternal chagrin, the very next page had a recipe that I had completely overlooked and previously written off as near-useless: Super Sudsy Shampoo.  Lily and I had placed ourselves in mortal peril for something I could have brewed in minutes.  I groaned into my hoof, and vowed then and there to take my unexpected and ill-timed lack of literary scrutiny to my grave.

It wasn’t until I flipped randomly to another page that I realized what I would be making.  Already in my possession were all the ingredients required for something a bit more intriguing.  Something I hadn’t ever made before.  Something that would undoubtedly help all of us.

Well, why not, I reasoned.  I was feeling refreshed and invigorated by the bath.  I might as well do something a little more adventurous!

My magic tipped a bottle over, and a dozen lifeless eyes rolled into my mortar before staring back at me in dull bewilderment.  I have to confess that popping them with my pestle was both unnerving and, well, oddly satisfying.  The fetid aroma certainly left something to be desired, however.

I was in the middle of adding manticore venom to the ghoul-eye-slurry when I realized that Lily still hadn’t gotten up.  A quick glance in her direction revealed that she was staring at me, her lips parted and a hint of blush in her cheeks.  I raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is, is something wrong?”

She swallowed to clear her throat, but kept staring.  “I’ve never seen you when your mane was still wet.”

“O-oh.  I, um, I don’t really have a brush for it.”  I admitted, plucking an errant strand out of my eyes with a hoof.  “I’m usually too busy to be bothered with that sort of thing.”  She was still staring, silent.

I focused on the elixir, though not without feeling a bit more self-conscious.  Using a scalpel and my magic, I split the petals of the Killing Joke and set them in boiling water to steep.  The water immediately turned a shocking shade of turquoise before flashing bright pink and fading to a golden-yellow.  So far, so good.

“It’s really pretty like that.”

I looked up to find Lily sitting primly in her spot, head tilted and jaw slack as she continued to stare.  A blush was creeping into my cheeks as I cleared my throat.  “I, er…”

Nearly every ounce of my being screamed in unison; a howling chorus of discomfort that sang the tune of self-doubt as if conducted by fear itself.  It was an opera I knew by heart, one that I had listened to on multiple occasions, but now something was different.

A lone voice, out of tune and out of line, dissented against the choir.  It was weak, flustered, and tired, but no matter how the maestro blustered and signalled it would not be quieted.  It had suffered in silence for far too long.

The more I listened to that voice, the stronger and clearer it became.  Before long it had risen above the rest of its fellows, and planted itself firmly at the forefront of my mind.  A nervous grin graced my lips as I asked Lily, “Do…  Do you like it?”

Her blank stare was replaced by a wide grin.  “Yeah.”

My smile broadened, and I held her gaze for as long as I could before the weight of her stare forced me to turn my head back to my bubbling pots.  The liquids inside each were throwing off quite a lot of heat, possibly more heat than my burning cheeks.

My magic added Witchweed to the Killing Joke tea as I glanced back up at Lily past a puff of emerald steam.  “Lily, you’re um…  You’re starting to embarrass me.”  I brushed my mane back behind my ear at the same time that I caught a delicious whiff of the stewing herbs.  “And weren’t you going to make dinner?”

“Right,” she shook her head and blinked, as if she were coming out of a trance.  “Sorry.  I’ll try to be quick.”

She ambled past me on shaky legs as I returned my attention to my two pots.  Was…  Was I doing this correctly?  I checked Mother’s journal again.  Right, right…  Simmer slowly.  Don’t turn up the heat too quickly, but never let it run cold.  Keep stirring and gently mix the two together…

I held a hoof to my face and massaged my temple in frustrated silence.  How in Equestria the recipe for an elixir, of all things, was beginning to read like a steamy romance novel was completely beyond my comprehension!  Err, not that I have any experience with…  I mean, perhaps on the rarest of occasions…

Oh, hush.  The important thing to note here is that I was rather… Let’s go with “flustered.”  To be completely honest, the only thing I was absolutely sure of was this: it was going to be a very long night.

By the time I heard Lily splash her way out of the cauldron and shake herself off like a dog, the eye and venom mixture had cooked down to a thick, orange goo.  More crushed herbs and diced roots were folded into the mixture, and soon after I was adding the Killing Joke and Witchweed tea.  Only a few drops at a time though; any faster and the pink and yellow sparks shooting out of the pot would have lit my surroundings, or perhaps even me, on fire.

Lily plopped down on the other side of my alchemy set, scrunching up her nose and scowling at the bubbling pot.  “That smells worse than the mess of rotting organs I just scrubbed out of my mane.”

I pursed my lips.  “It does smell rather, err… abnormal doesn’t it?”  As if the elixir had taken insult with my word choice, a large bubble on top of the mixture burst, flinging even more of the sickly-sweet odor of decay into the air.  I wrinkled my nose and pressed on.  “I’m certain that I’ve followed Mother’s recipe exactly.  Perhaps it’s just the humidity?”

Lily covered her muzzle with a hoof before asking, “You ever made this one before?”

“Well, no,” I admitted, “but Mother’s instructions are very detailed.”

Shrugging her drenched—and oddly fluffy—wings, Lily stretched her legs out in front of my pots, and reached for the bone she normally kept in her ear.  She winced slightly as she threaded the little animal bone through the holes in her ear, and offered up some encouragement.  “Always a first time for everything.”

She was right, of course.  There was a first time for everything.  But was this that time?

Biting my lip, I tried to think of an appropriate way to broach the topic that was plaguing my mind.  The silence stretched uncomfortably long while I searched the simmering surface of the elixir for ideas.  In the end I had to acknowledge that whatever I was doing wasn’t working.  With that in mind I had to wonder to myself: what would a brave pony like Lily Belle do?

Actually scratch that.  I had a very good idea of what she would do, and it involved a lot of suggestive looks, sultry whispers, and…

“Geez, babe.  I haven’t even said anything and you’re already blushing?”  Lily’s impish giggle hoisted me out of my lurid daydream and sat me down squarely within her crosshairs.  Smirking, she flipped her soaked mane over her shoulder with a hoof.  “Is it the wet mane?  That always gets me too.”  Well now that she mentioned it, her mane did look much softer than norma-

UGH!  I shook my head, and tried desperately to rub the heat out of my cheeks.  Okay, Lily’s playbook was well out of my league.  But what about my sister’s?  That was doable.  I just needed to borrow a dash of Nohta’s confidence…

Steeling my nerves, I cleared my throat and sat up straight.  Staring Lily right in the eyes, I stated in a no-nonsense voice, “Lily, we need to talk.”

“Well I ain’t going anywhere.”  She chuckled, and pointed a hoof at her bomb-collar.  Her ear bobbed up and down before she added, “Lay it on me.”

“I-I’m serious Lily!”  I stamped a hoof against my bed of moss as my ears stood straight up.  “This conversation is long overdue!”

“Alright then!  Go ahead and start it!” she exclaimed before grinning and stretching her neck so she could reach her right wing.  With an amount of diligence and attention to detail that I had only seen her employ when cleaning her guns, she took the primary feather between her lips and methodically smoothed it out, from base to tip.

With Lily laying prone on the floor while I sat up straight, I towered over her.  Despite the disparity in height, however, she still managed to hold all the power in the room.  It was all I could do to keep my cool as I took in how relaxed she was.

“I would have thought that you would be more inclined to take this conversation a bit more seriously than you are.” I huffed, crossing my legs in front of my chest.

She looked up from her wing and gave me a patronizing smile.  “Trust me, Candy, you have my attention.  But if I don’t get the water out of my feathers then they’re gonna frizz up and make me look like I licked a stormcloud.”  Going back for another feather, she added, “And believe me, cloud-licking isn’t half as fun as it sounds.”

I couldn’t take her flippant attitude any longer.  I rose up to all fours and shouted, “Lily, I need to talk to you about us!”  That last word hung in the humid air.  I stood stock-still, my frustration slowly giving way to embarrassment as the realization of what I had just yelled sank in.

Lily let go of her wing as her ears perked up and gazed, slack jawed, in my direction.  “Uh…”

I sank to my haunches and brought a hoof to my face.  A hurried explanation came tumbling out of mouth before I could even hope to stop it.  “Or, whatever it is that’s going on between us.  I don’t really know what we are.  Or might be.”   Removing my hoof, I lifted my desperate eyes to the darkened ceiling and groaned.  “Goddess, help me.  I have no idea what I’m saying!”

As my gaze fell back to the ground, I caught Lily’s eyes.  She wasn’t wearing her usual cocky grin anymore.  Instead she lay completely still, staring at me with rapt attention.

“Aren’t you going to continue preening your wings?” I groused.

“They can wait,” she whispered, and gently shook her head.  “You’re more important.”

I was more important…  Those were her words.  For a moment, I was left incapable of doing anything beyond wondering why my stomach was doing backflips.

I licked my lips, and brushed my mane out of my face.  “I don’t really know what to think when you say things like that.”

“When it comes to this,” she stated, “what you think is a hell of a lot less important than what you feel.”  My ears drooped when they heard how Lily’s tone had changed.  It was harder than I had expected.  Where before her words might have deftly slipped past my defenses like a knife, now her voice was as blunt and crushing as a hammer.

“And right now,” she continued, “I feel like I need to be honest with you, but I seriously doubt that you’re gonna like what I have to say.”  Her brow furrowed above an intense stare, and she retracted her wings against her body.  “You sure you wanna do this?  The timing is pretty shitty.  Last chance to back out.”

After a moment of mental preparation, I nodded.  “We—”

“Again,” she stated coolly, and snapped her tail like a whip.

Ouch…  I winced at the tone of her voice, and absentmindedly rubbed the scar on my shoulder.  Her single-worded scolding hadn’t quite cut me to the bone, but that didn’t make it any more comfortable to hear.

My ears drooped to the sides of my shaking head as the damp strands of my mane fell in my face.  “No, no I’ve made up my mind.  This isn’t fair to either of us, and I don’t…”  Just as I brushed my mane away with a hoof, I caught Lily’s eyes.  They held the same look of hopeful and defiant desperation that you’d see upon the face of the only soldier holding her ground against impossible odds.  Lily was the last mare standing.  She was the captain going down with her ship.

I still hadn’t really come to a conclusion as to precisely what Lily was to me.  Not yet.  I knew that she was my teacher, in a manner of speaking, as well as my protector.  And perhaps most importantly she was my friend.  Given all that had taken place in my life recently, I wasn’t entirely sure which I needed more.  But one thing was absolutely certain.

My lips trembled, and my throat ached, but I fought through it and held her gaze just long enough to choke out, “I can’t lose you, Lily.”  Her expression softened at that, but I couldn’t bear to look her in the eye any longer.  Staring at the moss at my hooves, I shook my head and spoke quickly before I could lose what little momentum I had.  “Not to some silly miscommunication or foolish error in expectations.  If you and I have a falling-out because of something important, then fine, but—”

“This is important!” she snapped.  “And you know it is, too, or you wouldn’t have brought it up!”

“See!?  This is precisely what I mean!”  I pointed a hoof at Lily over the bubbling pots, and tried to reason with her.  “You’re…  Angry.  And I’m scared out of my wits!”  I took a very deep breath, steeled my nerves, and set out to do what needed to be done.  “We can not keep going on like we have been!  Dancing around the subject isn’t going to help either of us.  So, for both our sakes,” my strong and clear voice had withered away, reduced to little more than a frightened whisper.  “Something has to change.”

Lily mulled that over for a second, and then nodded.  “Alright.  Let’s talk.”  She took a moment to collect herself, folding her legs underneath her body and assuming an almost business-like pose.

And then the yelling began.

“By Thunder, Candy!” she started, and held a hoof to her chest.  “Do you have any idea how frustrating this is for me?”

My jaw dropped.  “Frustrating?  Frustrating!?  Do you have any idea how confusing this is for me?”

Her eyes widened in bafflement before she shook her head.  “What is there to be confused about?  It’s either a yes or a no!”

“Oh please, this is hardly a simple matter!”

“It’s only complicated because you’re making it that way!”  Looking to the side, she spoke in a normal tone to the empty air.  “Hey Candy, I think you’re pretty great.  Wanna go out for dinner?  Maybe get some drinks and gut a rug?”  Looking in the other direction she raised the pitch of her voice in an abysmal attempt to match my own, and complimented the sub-par act with a limp waggle of her hoof while fluttering her eyes.  “Oh, what a marvelous idea, darling!  How darling of you to suggest it!”

I stamped the ground, and pointed at her with my own—very much not limp—hoof.  “I do not sound like that!  And the correct phrase is ‘CUT a rug!’ ”

She shrugged and rolled her eyes.  “Meh.  I think my version makes more sense.”

“And furthermore,” I continued, “don’t even pretend that such a night wouldn’t end up with both of us sharing the same bed!”  My hooves flew to my face, too late to cut off the last word or the damage that would come with it.

She smirked, pouring fuel on the fire that had lit in my cheeks.  “Well, not with that attitude, it won’t!”  I was still fuming while she chuckled and shook her head.  “Gotta be honest, babe.  I don’t see the problem there.”

I needed to change tactics, so I decided to tackle the issue head on.  I scowled as I yelled out, “Why are you so interested in… that anyway?  Are you simply wanting to add another notch to your belt or hat or wherever you keep score?”  I hadn’t meant to pour as much venom into that accusation as I did, but my flaring temper was getting the best of me.  In the heat of the moment, some awful part of me was taking sadistic glee in the hurt that splashed across Lily’s face.  It was that part of me that drove me to continue.  “I heard all of the names that the waitress listed off in The Prickly Pair!  If you’re hoping that I’ll be just another one of your lewd conquests then—”

Lily jumped to her hooves and flared her wings, shocking me into silence.  There was a fury in her eyes, a malice that sent shivers down my spine.  I had already taken a reflexive step backwards by the time she  whispered in a low voice, “Is that really what you think?”

She took a step toward me, and I had to fight the urge to turn tail and flee.  Lifting a hoof to her chest, she yelled over the bubbling elixir.  “I’ve slept with hundreds of ponies, Candy.  Hundreds!”  I gulped and took another step backwards when she advanced over my alchemy set.  She was close enough now that I was able to see something in her eyes that I had never witnessed before: tears.  “And you know what?  Only one of them ever meant a single fucking thing to me.”

Standing directly in front of me, she shook her head and admitted in a broken voice, “I would trade every drunken one-night stand and every night of empty pleasure I’ve ever had for just one moment with someone I care about.”  Her pained expression crushed me under the weight of her sincerity, but not half as much as the forlorn tone of her voice as she whispered, “I guess I was deluding myself, but I honestly thought that someone might have been you.”

This wasn’t just about…  She actually…   Oh Goddess…

It was as if a veil had been lifted.  I finally realized how poorly I had judged her.  How quick I was to assume.  All the times she had spoken earnestly with me made so much more sense.  What was I doing?

“Why…  Why me?” I asked in a voice thick with emotion.

She paused to stare at my pleading expression, and then offered up an explanation.  “Because every time I look in your eyes, I see a mare that has the same problem I’ve been dealing with all my life.”

“And what is that?”

“You still care,” she took a step closer and tilted her head, almost as if she were examining me.  “This world is shitting on you left and right, but you still fucking care.  It’s taken nearly everything from you, but you still haven’t lost the will to be a decent person.”  Reaching out she placed a hoof on my shoulder, just above my scar.  “That alone means you’re more beautiful than this whole damn desert put together.”

My jaw worked in silence as I let her words sink in.  I had no earthly idea how to respond to such a compliment.  In the end, all I managed to do was get lost in her eyes.  There wasn’t a single force in this world or the next that could have ripped my gaze from her.  It was only when I felt something hot and wet run down my cheek that I realized I was in tears.

Lily’s hoof left my shoulder to gently brush the wetness away from my cheek.  I closed my eyes and pinned her hoof in place with my own.  It was such a simple touch, but at that moment it meant the world to me.

“I don’t like watching you cry,” she murmured.

I had to tell her.  She deserved to hear it from my lips.  “Lily, I…”  I opened my eyes, and pulled her hoof from my cheek.  I needed to look her in the eyes for this.  “Some small part of me… No, no that’s not right,” I corrected myself, shaking my head.  “I like the way that you look at me,” I finally admitted.

Judging by her expression, Lily was hardly surprised by this information.  I pressed on, hoping that I might find a way to fix the tremendous mess I had created.  “It makes me feel… wanted,” I explained.  “I was never wanted in The Stable.  Needed, yes, but never wanted.  Not like this.”

“Is that really so bad?” she softly asked.  “Why are you fighting me on this?”

“I…  Lily, I’m having a very difficult time processing the fact that the first pony I’ve ever felt something like this for is…”  Say it.  Just say it for Luna’s sake!  “…a mare.”

Her expression was one of utter bafflement.  Shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head, she asked, “I don’t get it.  What’s the problem?”

I swallowed back the lump in my throat, and cast a glance at the PipBuck on my leg.  “Twenty two years.”

Lily’s brow furrowed.  “What?”

I sat down, and my hoof absentmindedly poked at the various buttons on my PipBuck as I explained.  “Twenty two years is how long I lived in The Stable.  That’s how long I spent drinking in every little iota of Selenist dogma.”  I felt like a filly confessing my sins as I peered up at her confused eyes.  “According to my faith, what you’re asking of me is wrong.  Unnatural.  Selfish.  Immoral.  A sin against The Goddess’ divine will.”

I continued quickly, hoping to avoid the inevitable mention of how Selenism was based on lies.  “Every day and every night those doctrines were reinforced by ponies I admired, friends that I trusted, and the family that I loved.”  Brushing the wetness from my eyes, I shook my head.  “I’ve built up this wall over the span of a lifetime, brick by zealous brick, and yet you’ve managed to topple it over the course of days.”  I curled my tail around my legs and gazed up into her eyes once more.  “I’m standing on the other side of that wall, completely bewildered as to how something that seemed so permanent could fall so quickly, and examining the wreckage of what I perceived to be simple fact.”

I took a deep breath and tried to explain.  “I’m wondering if I should try to rebuild the shattered bulwark so that my life will retain some semblance of familiarity to what I grew up knowing, or…”   I paused to gulp down my anxiety.  “If I should venture beyond the ruins to examine what lies on the other side.”

After a moment of heavy silence Lily sat down in front of me.  “You know, my parents came from a place like that.  A place where they were always telling you who you can or can’t be with.”

My brow furrowed at the abrupt change of subject.  “Your parents?”

Lily’s eyes were locked on the moss at our hooves.  “They were Dashites,” she said in a voice as distant and low as the rumbling explosions in the city.  “After The Enclave told them they couldn’t be together, they threw their comfy lives away and came down to live in this hellhole.  After a while they wound up joining The Thunderhooves, and I came along a couple years later.”  She shrugged her wings, shook her head, and replaced her melancholy expression with a small grin.  “I guess I’m just the girl that shows up when folks decide to start living life for themselves instead of giving a shit about what everyone else wants them to do.”

I licked my lips, and returned her weak smile with my own.  “Your parents sound very brave.”

Lily nodded, and sighed quietly.  “Yeah.  They were.”

“But it also sounds like they had each other before they threw their lives into disarray,” I pointed out.  “What do we have?”

“You mean, besides all the sexual tension?” she asked with a smirk.  For once, I was able to return her stare, if just barely.

“Look, Candy, I know that you aren’t super familiar with my history or anything, but all this craziness?”  She waved her hooves in the air to indicate the predicament we had landed ourselves in.  “Pretty fuckin’ standard for The Wasteland if you ask me.  There’s always someone that wants you dead, and there’s always something you think is worth protecting.  And more often than not, you have no clue what the hell is going on because you’re just trying to see tomorrow.”  Lily smiled and shrugged, “That’s life, babe.  Get used to it.  It’s up to you to find something that makes your life worth it.”

Like a pick through several inches of ice, her words were finally starting to break through.  “And you believe that something is… me?”

“Us,” she corrected me.  Lifting a hoof to my chin she turned my face up to her own, and locked my eyes with hers.  “And honestly?  I don’t have a clue.  But if anything’s worth taking a risk over,” she leaned closer, her voice as soft and dark as her gorgeous eyes, “it’s this.”

It all happened so quickly, but the memory of that moment has been etched into my mind forever.  The world slipped away, becoming no more than a smoky, insignificant haze.  There was only Lily, clear and immediate and intense.  Her pale mane, usually as frenetic and carefree as her personality, now lay limp down her neck and shoulders like strands of silver moonlight.  Her light-indigo face and its deep laugh-lines that ran down to the corners of her full lips took up more and more of my vision as she slowly edged closer.  But more than anything else, it was her smoldering, blood-red eyes that drew me in.  I was powerless to look away as she fixed me with a smoldering, half-lidded expression of ravenous allure.

I lost myself in those eyes, in that gaze.  I was helpless against the current of my desire; guided by instinct like a moth to flame.  I didn’t care if the smoke would stain my coat.  I didn’t care if the rising ashes would blister and scar my skin.  I didn’t care if the fire consumed me horn to hoof…  Goddess, I wanted to burn.  I needed to feel her heat wash over me, just like the sun on my face or the fire in my heart.

I wanted her the same way she wanted me.  All I had to do was give in.  All I had to do was commit one little sin.  I had already prayed to the sun.  I had already murdered in retribution.  What possible harm could come from a kiss?

My heart raced as Lily’s hoof left my chin and glided across my cheek.  With the gentlest pull she gingerly encouraged me closer to her waiting lips.  I lifted my hoof to her chest, feeling her own thundering heart with flesh and bone, rather than magic.

That lone voice that had driven me thus far cried out in anticipation, filled with joyous ecstasy now that its amorous longing was so very close to being sated.  With Lily close enough that I could feel her breath on my muzzle, I slowly shut my eyes and parted my lips, inviting her to close the distance.  Nothing else mattered.  Everything was as it should be.

Until the rest of the choir returned, and in an unforgivably sour note screeched one, awful word…

Luna.

My eyes shot open as I turned away, gasping and wincing as Lily’s lips met the side of my cheek.  The last vestige of the fire withered and died, and even through the heat and humidity of the air all around us, I felt a chill creep in to replace it.  I shivered as I realized the damage I had done.

With agony on my face and in my voice, I whispered, “I’m sorry…  I can’t.  I can’t do this.”

Lily’s warm hoof left my cheek, leaving only the icy sting of regret in its place.   A lifetime of silence stretched out like the frigid waters of a vast, frozen sea.  “Could you,” she asked in a voice as bitter as hoarfrost, “if I were a stallion?”

I rounded on her, “Lily, that’s not fair!”

“Just answer me,” she demanded.

My breath hitched in my throat, and my vision blurred from the tears pooling in my eyes.  For just a moment, I could imagine that the pegasus in my sight was male.  That image didn’t leave any doubt in my mind.

I allowed the tears to spill over my cheeks, revealing the mare I had almost kissed.  “Yes,” I admitted.

The silence that stretched after that word told us both all that we needed to know.  I couldn’t bear it any longer.  I buried my face in my hooves and sobbed like the pathetic little filly I believed myself to be.

“You know what?  Your sister was right,” Lily hissed.  “You are running.  From yourself.”  I looked up to find Lily walking away from me.

“Lily!  Lily wait!”  My legs carried me to her side before I knew I was standing, and my hoof found her shoulder before I knew what I was going to say.  “Don’t go!”

Lily shoved my hoof away, and pointed at her bomb-collar as she yelled.  “It’s not like I can get very far anyway!”   Digging roughly through her hat, she produced her cigarettes and lighter.  “Look Candy, it’s not often that I’m wrong about this shit, but that doesn’t make it feel any better, so just leave me alone for a fucking second!”  She ended her shouting by sitting roughly on her haunches and pulling a cigarette out of her box.

“You’re not wrong!” I pleaded.  “I do feel…”  What?  What could I possibly say at a time like this?  “...something,” I offered, and immediately regretted my word choice.  I winced and rubbed my temple as I tried to explain.  “I don’t know what it is.  But it’s there!”

Lily only spared me an exasperated glance out of one eye before she shook her head and lit up.  “You’re really not helping right now,” she grumbled through the cigarette hanging from her lips.

I didn’t know what else to say…  “Lily, I’m sorry!”

“Yeah, you said that!” she roared before punching her lighter into her hat, where it smacked into a box of Mintals with a sharp metallic clang.  “But what good does it do either of us?”

This was falling apart so quickly!  I had to triage the situation immediately!  In desperation, my panicked mind offered up the first option it found.  “I-I can try to learn!  I’ve always been good at learning new things!”

Lily’s every breath blew roiling billows through the thick smoky haze that had gathered around her.  It was as if she were just beyond my reach; a grand prize locked behind an infuriatingly flimsy, yet impassable barricade.  “This isn’t something you learn how to do, Candy.  You have to feel it,” she admonished.

“And if you don’t feel it strongly enough to get past your hang-ups,” Lily paused to take a long pull from her cigarette, then sighed heavily and shook her head, “then there’s no point in trying anymore.”

I had seen so much in her eyes, but not once had I glimpsed despair.  I was at my wit’s end.  My hoof found my chest, trying in vain to soothe the wringing agony I felt there.  I clenched my eyes and jaw shut, forcing hot tears down my cheeks before I screamed, “Well right now I feel like I just stabbed my best friend in the heart!”

She turned her head up from staring at the moss beneath us, and regarded me with weary, wounded eyes.  But behind all the hurt, the exhaustion, and the anger I could see a faint glimmer of hope.  A spark that no matter how miniscule might rekindle the flame I had callously snuffed out.

“Please,” I begged her, “let me fix this!  I just need some time!”

Lily looked away, and shrugged her wings dismissively.  “Time to do what?”

“Time to…  To sort out this awful mess of a life I have!  Lily, I only learned a few nights ago that Selenism was a lie!  I only came to accept how I feel about you moments ago!”  I wasn’t entirely sure if I was simply making excuses for my actions, or speaking words from the heart.  I didn’t know if I was stalling for the time to come up with a better means of persuasion, or if my emotional rambling would suffice.  I wasn’t really sure about anything other than the fact that I had her attention, and that meant that I needed to keep her listening.

I buried my face in my hooves, shouting through the tears soaking through my cheeks.  “I’m so used to being able to piece things together, but this is different!  I can’t figure this out!”

In a flurry of words, I admitted the greatest conundrum I had thus far faced.  “This all started with the orb that you showed me, Lily!  I can’t figure out who or what I am anymore!”  After a sharp inhale for breath, I kept going.  “And I’m not blaming you for that!  But, Goddess…  What in Tartarus is wrong with me?  I can’t even understand myself…”

I continued to hold my head in my hooves, grimacing as I fought to make sense of it all.  “I can’t make up my mind about anything right now, Lily!  One minute I’m that mare you want me to be, compassionate and helpful, and the next I’m vengeful and cruel!”

She snorted, blowing smoke from her nostrils.  “You really weren’t listening to me, then.”  Before I could respond she spat the cigarette to the ground and spun around, glaring.  “I like that about you, Candy!” she shouted.  “I like that you killed that guy!  No, it wasn’t smart; we would have had these fucking things off our necks by now if you'd kept his worthless ass alive!"  She shook her bomb-collar hard, eliciting an angry staccato of beeps that accompanied her argument.  "But killing him was the right fucking thing to do!”

Of course she would say that.  But how was I to believe it?  “Lily, I’m so confused!  How am I supposed to make a decision about you when I can’t even sort myself out first?”

“You don’t need to sort yourself out, you just need to stop fighting yourself!”  Her eyes locked with mine, and I could feel in my gut that she was trying to lend every bit of weight she could to the advice she had just provided me.  Her voice quieted to a gentle whisper as she placed the capstone on our tumultuous conversation.  “No matter how hard I want to try, I can’t fight this battle for you, Candy.”

My chest heaved as I wiped the tears from my eyes.  “This isn’t fair.  To you.  To me…  None of this is fair.”

“You’re telling me…” she sighed, lighting another cigarette without even bothering to snuff out the still-burning one that lay in the damp moss on the floor.

When it became evident that I had no further words to offer up, Lily turned and sullenly plodded past the all but forgotten elixir.  Seeing her walk away was like watching a chapter close in my life before I even had the chance to skim the pages.

From my vantage I could only see two paths laid out before me.  The path of Selenism would see me letting her go.  I would of course try to maintain a friendship with her, but I couldn’t possibly imagine that we would ever be the same.

The path of the Sun was far more intriguing at the moment, as it would lead to me to running to her side, taking her face in my hooves, and kissing her for all I was worth.  What would come next would be up to her, and I could only pray that she might forgive my indecision.  The problem, as I’m sure you have surmised, is that in order to be with her I would have to sever the very last tie to my faith that I still had.  As much as I wanted Lily, I also didn’t want to have to completely remake myself from scratch.  She liked me for who I was.  Changing too much of myself wouldn’t be fair to either of us.

So what was I to do?  Following either route exclusively would only guide me toward a lackluster compromise at best, and an awful tragedy at worst.  Even if I could possibly maneuver myself to some miracle of a conclusion, there simply wasn’t time for me to figure it out!  Every step Lily took was like another nail in the coffin of our friendship.  If only there was a way to… to…

To walk both paths…

I gasped as an electric tingle ran up my spine.  It gained in power as it passed my heart, and again as it surged forward to arrive behind my eyes.  I could feel it brimming in my horn, like a storm of focus.  I knew exactly what I had to do.

My horn erupted in crimson light as I took a step forward.  I wasn’t going to just let her walk away!  I wanted this too badly!  And I had promised myself to take what I wanted!

The teleportation spell placed me directly in front of Lily, forcing her to stop.  Her eyes widened, first in shock, and then in confusion.  But before she could open her mouth to ask what in Equestria I was doing, I laid out my demand.

“One week,” I insisted.  I no longer needed to emulate my sister’s strength or Lily’s confidence.  My own conviction was just fine.  “Give me one week.”

To her credit, she took my magical light show in stride.  She hardly batted an eyelash before she scoffed, “You want me to just wait while you make up your mind?  How is that fair?”

I shook my head, watching the shadows cast by my scarlet aura dance across her face.  “It’s not, Lily.  At all.  It’s cruel, and selfish, and it will hurt.”  If anything was worth taking a chance over…  “But that’s life in The Wasteland, isn’t it?”

Her lips parted as she stared at me, but she didn’t deign to respond.  Her brow furrowed in confusion, but she asked no question.  She was hanging on my every word, so I knew that I had better make what I was about to say worth her while.

“If you truly believe as I do,” I began, speaking slowly so that every syllable had ample time to sink in, “that you and I have even the faintest chance of scraping together some small measure of happiness within this bleak and rotten hell,”  I lifted my hoof to her chest, placing it gently, but firmly, over her heart.  “Then I will be damned”—my horn flared just a little brighter at that word—“before I let you give up this easily.”  I let the magic in my horn fade away, but kept the determination in my voice as I repeated, “One week.”  After a moment’s consideration, I softened my voice and added one little word.  “Please.“

Lily was silent for quite a while after that.  She removed the nub of her second cigarette from her mouth, and flicked it into another patch of damp foliage.  It seemed that her eyes weren’t exactly sure what to focus on, my white hoof on her chest, or my blue eyes demanding an answer.  Her own hoof lifted to gingerly embrace mine, and in trademark Lily-like fashion, she managed to find the one question I hadn’t anticipated.

“Am I really your best friend?” she asked in her usual, self-assured tone.  It was only the tiny—almost imperceptible—wavering of her voice that gave away the vulnerable heart beneath the bravado.

I, for one, was happy to play along with however she wished to present herself to the world.  I had an inkling of who she really was, and that was all I needed.  Cautious optimism brightened my face and leaked into my voice as I asked, “Would I have made such an impassioned plea to somepony that wasn’t?”  I turned my hoof into hers, holding it in place between us.  “I owe multiple ponies my life, Lily, but you’re the only one that hasn’t asked for anything in return.  Or held anything over my head to get what you want.”

“Sounds like you need better friends.”  And at long last, she was smirking and making jokes again.

“As long as I have you and my sister,” I returned her smile, “I think I’ll be alright.”

Lily shut her eyes, dropped the smirk, and sighed.  “You’re really hard to say no to, you know that?”  Letting go of my hoof, she finally acquiesced.  “One week.”  Despite Lily’s stern tone, I couldn’t keep myself from grinning like a filly.  “I won’t wait forever, Candy,” she warned.  “Life’s too short for that shit.”

I nodded, and beamed at her.  “Thank The Goddess!  Thank you!  That means the world to—”  I was abruptly silenced by a curious stench that was permeating our surroundings.  It almost smelled like my father had gotten into the kitchen again.

I covered my wrinkled nose with a hoof.  “Do you smell that?”  Lily and I turned our heads at the same time, and both of us saw the winding, orange and cerulean smoke emanating from my little pot.  Of course, only I understood the dire consequences that would come with that smoke.  “OH GODDESS!” I shouted, already galloping to my alchemy set.  “The elixir is burning!”

It’s often easy to make a few mistakes when you try an unfamiliar recipe for the first time.  Sometimes there’s too much heat, or not enough.  Sometimes your seemingly tiny improvisations backfire spectacularly.  Sometimes… you simply leave the cookpot unattended for too long.  In all cases, you just have to hope that you learn from your mishaps, and vow to do better the next time.


**************


Despite my best efforts, I was only able to salvage two doses of the elixir.  The third portion was caked to the inside of my little cookpot, dried out, crusty, and utterly ruined.  It took me nearly fifteen minutes just to scrape the gunk out, which left me with plenty of time to ponder who should get the remaining two servings.

Practicality and an acute desire to smooth things over with her as quickly as possible demanded that I give one dose of the elixir to Lily in order to help speed her recovery.  That particular decision was easy.  Much easier than it was to actually convince Lily to imbibe the reeking slurry.  When she finally acquiesced to my begging the poor dear nearly gagged on the thickened goop, and with every swallow her face turned a paler shade.  It took her three bottles of water just to get it all down.

Her mood lightened considerably when the elixir finally began to work its magic, however.  In her words a “tingly-stretchy-warm” sensation had overtaken her entire body.  Furthermore she remarked that she felt, and I quote, “Amazeballs.”  I wasn’t particularly familiar with the term, but judging by the elated look on her face, it possessed approximately the same definition as “good.”  She wasn’t fully recovered just yet, but it seemed that we had managed to counteract the worst of Stampede’s atrocious side-effects.

As grateful as I was for Lily to be on the path to recovery, I was still split on whether I should take the last dose myself or give it to my sister.  It was an elixir to bolster one’s physical strength, after all.  Nohta would undoubtedly find much more use for it overall, but I remembered all too well just how helpless I was after running my magic dry.  If I should face burnout again, then I certainly didn’t want to be as useless as I was in the past.  Quite the conundrum if you ask me.

Despite all of that, however, Lily and I had a much more immediate concern on our minds: food.  Luckily we didn’t have to venture far for our supper.  The first of the enormous glass biospheres we came across was marked “Dodge Junction,” and was a veritable cornucopia of foodstuffs.  If I had been on my own, I would have heeded the plaque’s advice, and dipped past the moss-covered dome solely due to its name.  Fortunately, Lily insisted that it would be worth our while to take a closer look.

After she reared up and slashed away a sizable chunk of the moss, I was able to see the treasure that lay within the dome.  Dodge Junction, as Lily so smugly informed me, was where Pre-War Equestria produced most of its cherries.  It didn’t take long for my mouth to start watering!

Whoever had designed the consoles for the biospheres must have done so with the express intent of making them easy to understand no matter the language a user might be capable of reading.  Labels utilizing the scientific names, common Equestrian names, and even the Zebra runes of a multitude of flora corresponded to a series of buttons.  Buttons that, I should add, were shaped and colored exactly like the ingredients they represented.  It was simple enough for a child to comprehend, and yet detailed enough to satisfy even the most fastidious of scientific minds.

Lily kept herself occupied by tapping buttons for various desert edibles, but I was content to stand by her side and repeatedly poke the cherry-shaped button labeled “Prunus Avium.”  The only thing that could distract me from popping the little morsels in my mouth was the magical regrowth of the fruits.  Well, that and the annoying little pits.  But those all went into another jar in case I could find a use for them later.  Waste not, want not.  You understand.

I was completely at a loss as to what magical process was taking place in the dome.  Was it an age spell?  Revitalization ritual?  Time manipulation!?  It didn’t matter how many times I watched the white burst of energy wash over the branch only for new fruit to develop in place of the old, I simply couldn’t glean any details at all.  After all the absurdity and mystery of the past few days, I must admit that it almost felt good to be stumped by something so simple as a tree.

Er… please excuse the pun.  That one was an accident, I swear.

It wasn’t long before Lily and I found ourselves seated at a table-sized toadstool near a wall, munching on our salads and quietly ruminating on the day’s events.  With the exception of the occasional rumble of a distant explosion, the loudest noise to be heard was the crunching of leaves and the smacking of lips, though none of those noises bothered us.  We were both far too hungry to care much about anything at that point.

My dinner companion finished her meal first, and let out a massive yawn as she reclined against the wall.  Pulling out her box of cigarettes, she smiled sleepily.  “That hit the spot.”

I dabbed at my lips with one of the ferns we were using in lieu of napkins, and nodded appreciatively.  “Thank you.  It seems like ages since I’ve had a decent meal that didn’t come from a can.”

With a sly smile, Lily whispered just loudly enough for me to hear, “Quickest way to a mare’s heart…”

“Well, I’m glad to see that you’re in good spirits after our…”   My grateful grin turned sheepish as I gazed over the toadstool at her.  “ …whatever that was.”

“It’s called a ‘fight,’ babe.”  Lily smirked past her cigarette, and winked at my surprised expression.  “Even best friends have ‘em from time to time.”

“I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me to see you bounce back this quickly.”  I leaned over the table and asked, “How are you feeling?  Physically?”

She lit her cigarette and shrugged.  “Still pretty sore.  I think that elixir is helping though.”

“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that,” I sighed.  “What with that awful expression you had on your face while you were drinking it, I wasn’t sure if you were going to be able to keep it all down.”

“I’ve had my fair share of weird-ass cocktails.”  She licked her lips and winced before adding, “Just never one that used ghoul eyes as a mixer.”

I smirked back at her.  “Oh, well you see, I was hoping that the manticore venom—” I widened my eyes in my best attempt at mimicking a mad scientist’s bug-eyed stare “—would kill the rancid taste of the eyeballs.”

“Hmm, good instincts.”  She chuckled and nodded before blowing a plume of smoke off to the side.  “Manticore venom has a sharp, smoky flavor.   And it’ll numb your mouth so fierce you’ll forget you ever had a tongue.”  She emphasized that ridiculous statement by scrunching up her face and sticking her tongue out at me.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t keep the grin off my face.  “I don’t know how or why, but I actually believe you when you say you’ve tried it before.”

She shook her head and insisted, “Manticore venom casserole is no joke, babe.  Kinda hard to get the ingredients, but good eatin’ all the same.”  After taking a drag off her smoke, she pointed the cigarette at me and suggested, “I’ll make some for you sometime.  Then you’ll get a real taste of Wasteland cuisine.”

“I believe I’d rather stick to a vegetarian diet,” I snapped my tail behind me, but smiled all the same.  “Thank you for the offer, however.”

With a wolfish grin, she asked, “Sure.  You’ll stick to eating veggies unless it comes to magical potions with eyeballs in them, right?”

I wriggled my eyebrows, staring at her incredulously.  “What?  Food and potions are completely different!”

“You eat one.  You drink the other.”  She shrugged her wings, grinning smugly.  “Other than that?”

Raising an eyebrow, I used a hoof to indicate the few leaves remaining on my side of the toadstool.  “One is solely for nutrition.”  I lit my horn and compressed the magic into a tiny sphere just above my other upturned hoof.  “And the other is either for medicinal purposes or various magical effects.”  Letting my magic die out, I pointed that same hoof across the mushroom toward Lily.  “And not all potions are imbibed, mind you.  Some of them are for other purposes.”

“Uh huh…”  She took another long pull from her cigarette before conceding the point.  “If you say so, sweetheart.”  It was plain to see that she was just teasing me again.  As much as I would have liked to continue our little game, there was one other thing that needed to be taken care of.

I cleared my throat, and folded my hooves under my chin.  “We should probably take the opportunity to recuperate while things are relatively peaceful, don’t you think?  Why don’t we stay here for an extra day?”

Lily arched an eyebrow.  “You sure about that?  We’re gonna lose The Bard if we have any more delays.  I think we should head out just after we’re rested.”  Waving a hoof to the smoky air behind her, she added, “Besides, Nohta’s out there somewhere.  Don’t you want to get back to her?”

“Well obviously, but right now you’re… well…”  I tilted my head and grimaced.

Lily lay her chin on the mushroom’s cap, looking up at me from just underneath the brim of her hat.  “Fucked,” she stated plainly.

I nodded, and pushed myself back from the squishy toadstool to give Lily a sincere stare.  “And since it seems that we are being completely honest, I’m rather dependent upon you for my protection.”

Lily pushed herself up with a hoof and blew of plume of smoke to the side.  Pursing her lips, she glared at me across the mushroom.  “One day,” she grumbled.  “But only one day.  You know I hate sitting around.”

“Good.  It’s agreed then.”  My tail swished happily behind me as I donned my packs.  It seemed that I was getting the knack for convincing Lily I was right.  Things always go so much smoother when everypony simply does as you say, don’t you think?

“Now,” I continued, with a confident smile on my face and a jaunty skip in my step, “we only have the one bedroll, so obviously you should be the one to sleep in it.”

Lily held her hooves in front of herself, shaking her head obstinately.  “Whoa, whoa, hold up.  No way am I stealing your sleeping bag.  I’ll sleep on the floor.”

So much for everything going smoothly…

I paused, wrinkling my brow in confusion.  “It’s not stealing, Lily.  I’m giving it to you.”

She ground the little nub of her cigarette out on the mushroom, producing a tiny puff of smoke as a hole was burned into the fungi.  “Nope, doesn’t matter.  You take it.  I’ll be fine.”

“You will not!” I stamped my hoof on the floor.  “We need to ensure that you’re rested before we set out.”

Lily adjusted her hat as she stood up and looked me dead in the eye.  “I’m not gonna force you to sleep on the floor.”

I was flabbergasted.  Where was this coming from?  Meeting her gaze head on, I declared, “Well, I’m going to have to insist.”  Raising my nose primly in the air, I added, “Doctor’s orders.”

Lily rolled her eyes and grunted.  “Fuck that.”

I shook my head incredulously, “Why is this, of all things, a problem?”

“It just is!” she shouted.

“Why?” I asked again.

Lily pursed her lips and folded her hooves across her chest.  “It’s called chivalry.  Bite me.”

“The irony of that statement notwithstanding,” I quibbled, “you know this is the practical way to handle the situation.”

“There’s practical, and then there’s right,” she insisted.

With a smug chuckle, I raised an eyebrow and purred, “I honestly never believed I’d see the night that you refused to sleep in my bed.”

She snorted, and jabbed a hoof in my direction.  “That’s ‘cause you wouldn’t be in it.”

“Of course I wouldn’t,” I replied matter of factly.  “After the incident with those… pleasure pills of yours, I’ve already spent a good portion of the day sleeping!”

“I told you that was an accident!”  Her protest was really more of an annoyed grumble than anything else.

“And due to your accident I am nowhere near tired enough to sleep, while you are liable to succumb to exhaustion at any minute.  You need sleep, Lily.  I do not.”  Surely she couldn’t argue with that logic!  Not with her eyes already beginning to droop.  Honestly I was expecting her first yawn at any second.

Holding a hoof to my chest, I proclaimed my plans for the immediate future in the hopes of cementing the arrangement.  “I’ll be staying up tonight, and I’ll be taking the opportunity to restock while I’m at it.  When we do set out to leave this facility, we will do so with plenty of essential healing items.”

Lily rubbed her hoof across her face and sighed.  “I’m not gonna be able to convince you to just take the damn bed, am I?”  I shook my head, and put my hoof down for good measure.  Lily allowed her hoof to fall back to the floor while she shrugged.  “You’re gonna wind up tired tomorrow,” she warned in a taunting, singsong voice.

Without breaking eye contact I grinned smugly and lit my PipBuck lamp, shining its light through the smoky haze all around us.  “Oh, don’t you worry.  I’m no stranger to burning the midnight oil, as it were.”  Dropping the smug grin, I adopted an earnest smile and implored her for aid.  “I would however, be most appreciative if you were to help me gather a few ingredients.  That is, of course, if you’re not too tired already.”

“Yeah, okay.”  She waved a hoof in the air, as if she were shooing away an annoying gnat, and rubbed her eyes as she nodded.  “Let’s get this over with before I pass the fuck out.”

Walking out onto the floor of the facility between the enormous glass domes, I was struck once again by how enormous the structure was.  Even the smallest of the glass enclosures towered over us, and the biggest ones reached up toward the ceiling many stories above our heads.  Sitting several hundred yards deeper into the facility, the very largest of the domes housed what appeared to be a single colossal flower with a tree-trunk sized stem and petals as large as bedsheets.  Thanks to Mother’s botanical books I had an inkling as to what that flower must have been, but after our ordeal with the pod-zebra I was in no mood to disturb the flower and the enormous worm that possibly lay dormant underneath its roots.

In our haste, Lily and I managed to mistake several conveniently placed terminals for colonies of fungi.  Though that probably had to do with the mushroom caps sprouting from the keyboards and obscuring the view of the monitors.  Once we did slow down long enough for me to catch a glimpse of the black and green screens awaiting search requests, our navigation through the rows of bio-domes became much more efficient.  In fact it was a little too efficient.  Or at least it was according to Lily.

Despite sleep-deprivation being plainly visible upon her features, she insisted that we simply must, and these are her words mind you, “Stop and taste the roses.”

I chuckled at her sudden playfulness and waved her off with a hoof.  “Lily, we just ate.”

“Oh, come on.  There’s always room for petals!”  She offered me her upside-down hat, in which she had gathered a colorful assortment of blooms from every far-flung corner of Equestria.  “Try the tulips!  Oh, and the dandelions!  They’re a little bitter, but they’re good for making wine!”  She was practically bouncing in place, with a wide grin plastered over her face.

The unbridled glee in her smile won me over.  I used my magic to pluck a few petals from the bouquet and pressed them to my nose.  They smelled remarkably like her mane.

Grinning, I nibbled on the petals, and smirked as I pointed out, “I’m rather surprised you didn’t offer me a bouquet of lilies, to be honest.”

“Figured I’d wait a week,” she implied, and then winked at me.  “Hey, did you notice the Ice Irises over there?  Or the Heart’s Desire?”

Shaking my head, I asked, “How exactly does a tribal raider turned mercenary know so much about flowers?”

She shrugged.  “You don’t go through a life-altering event that gives you a girly-looking flower permanently stamped on your ass and not wind up curious about this sorta thing.”

I raised an eyebrow at the same time that a corner of my mouth turned upward.

Lily gave her wings a quick flap and adopted a defensive tone.  “Just because I’ve killed more ponies than you’ve ever met doesn’t mean I can’t like this sorta stuff.”  With a determined—if slightly miffed—head nod, she confirmed something of which I was already entirely sure.  “I’m still a mare, you know.”

I kept smirking at her as I picked a single rose from the bouquet, using my magic to shear the nasty little thorns from the stem.

“What?” she asked, grinning quizzically.

I nibbled on my rose, and smiled coyly as I teased her.  “And here I was just starting to think that there wasn’t anything more to you than wanton violence, lewd thoughts, and terribly silly jokes…”

Lily shook the flowers out of her hat before placing it back on her head, and then winked slyly.  “You mean all the fun stuff that you like about me?”  It was extraordinarily hard to maintain eye contact with her while she was giving me that predatory smirk, but not impossible.

While I was busy grinning like a school-filly talking to her crush, Lily grinned right back and stated simply, “Tick tock, babe.”

I wasn’t entirely sure if she was referring to the week I had bargained for, or just hinting at how tired she was.  Either way, my time was running out.  I cleared my throat, nodded, and tucked the rose stem behind my ear.  “Right, let’s continue.”

After stopping at over a dozen of the glass domes and collecting samples of everything useful within them, we finally arrived at the dusky enclosure marked “Everfree Forest.”  For whatever reason the moss had failed to overtake the glass, and gave a crystal-clear view of the shady copse that lay nestled inside.  Lily rose up to place her front hooves on the dome, and peered inside with a wide-eyed grin.

“Hey, check it out.  Poison—” Lily’s mouth opened wide in a massive yawn—“Joke.”  Rubbing her eyes, she continued.  “I only know of two other places in the whole Wasteland that you can find joke that isn’t trying to kill you.  Err, well… Only one now, I guess.”

My ears perked up as my interest was piqued.  “What do you mean?”

Her bloodshot eyes sank to the floor as she recoiled at the question.  “I uh…  I knew a girl.  It was a long time ago.  Let’s get the rest of your stuff.”

I wasn’t sure if it was my place to prod her for more information.  The hurt in her voice and the expediency with which she dropped the subject told me not to inquire further.  My hoof brushed her shoulder as I nodded, “Okay.”

It wasn’t long before my packs and satchel were bulging with a multitude of leaves, roots, seeds, bark, and all other manner of alchemical ingredients.  Lily had even stuffed a few wax-paper packages of Poison Joke underneath her hat.  It was a boon I hadn’t expected; I finally had everything I needed to make nearly every potion in Mother’s book!

We should have turned back toward the cauldrons at that point, but Lily’s ear chose that moment to begin twitching about uncontrollably.  She was quick to inform me that “Grumpy” had spotted a trio of doors to our south that might be of interest.  I rolled my eyes at that, wondering why she felt the need to hide the fact that she had discovered something behind some silly superstitious nonsense.

As we plodded up to a solid wall of green, I had to admit that her eyes must have been much more keen than mine.  The outlines of the doors were just barely noticeable underneath the thick layer of foliage standing before us.  Of course, they were much more visible once Lily had sliced three rectangles through the overgrowth with her blades.

Peeking through the first door, I spied a workbench and a menagerie of tools along with several heaps of scrap metal and loose wires.  The scent of oil was almost as strong as the earthy smell of mushrooms coming from the metal lockers toward the back of the room.  Two pairs of grease-stained overalls hung on the wall, next to a large dry-erase board filled with notes and reminders about various maintenance requests.  Further back, another door led to a small storage room filled with glowing magical domes.  I couldn’t help but think that magical stasis was a bit overkill for the purpose of keeping fertilizer fresh, but whoever had designed this facility obviously wasn’t in the habit of sparing expense.

The second room was much more interesting.  For starters, it was clean of vegetation save for a pair of entwined vines hanging between the bright ceiling lights and brushing against the black lab-tables.  Secondly, every cabinet was filled to the brim with pristine laboratory equipment.  Flasks, beakers, scales, bunsen burners, centrifuges…  Absolutely everything anypony would need for carrying out delicate chemistry experiments, or in my case brewing several batches of potions all at once.  There was even a clean lab coat and spare set of safety goggles by the door!  Lily may have snorted and giggled at my squee of delight, but I was too enchanted by a clean working space to care in the slightest.

After a few moments of gleeful equipment inspection, I reluctantly allowed Lily to coax me away from the lab and into the third room.  My eyes were immediately drawn to the large writing desk, sofa, and tea table that dominated the space’s interior, but Lily seemed more interested in the pile of purple pillows in the corner.  After removing her wing-blades and hurriedly whispering a few words over them, she dove into the cushions head first, landing spread-eagle on top of the pile.

A moment later, after her weight had split the thin fabric at the seams and jettisoned all of the stuffing in the pillows into the air like confetti, she lay face down on the hard floor and groaned.  “That’s just not fair,” she lamented through a mouthful of empty pillowcase.

I used the auto-sorting spell in my PipBuck to find my sleeping bag amidst all the herbs in my packs, and unrolled it on the floor at her side.  With a gentle smile and a gentler nudge of my hoof, I guided her toward the bedroll, “Here you are, dear.  Sweet dreams.”  She scarcely had time to thank me before she was unconscious.  I grinned and shook my head as I marveled at how quickly she could fall asleep.

With Lily finally getting her well-deserved rest, I decided to take a closer look at our room.  The desk was almost completely barren; its only decoration a faded picture of six colorful young mares in the middle of a group hug.  My heart warmed at how happy they looked, but I quickly moved on in search of something more interesting.

The tea set, on the other hoof, was like a gift from The Goddess herself!  The silver kettle was of little interest, but in one of its companion containers I found a little piece of heaven: tea leaves!  And they were still fresh thanks to the magical packaging!  Luna bless the miracles of science!

I hurried to stuff the tea into my packs, pausing only when something curious caught my eye.  Hanging on the wall was the framed front page of a newspaper.  The glass pane in the frame had cracked, allowing all the humidity of the facility to seep in.  As such, the majority of the article was too blurred by mold to decipher, but I was easily able to read the headline.

“Newly Crowned Zebra Caesar Visits Ponyville, Thanks Discord For His Assistance With Tirek.”

Portions of the article were still somewhat legible.  Squinting my eyes, I was just able to make out a few snippets of information.

“Princess Celestia welcomed the Zebra Caesar to Ponyville today, marking the anniversary of the death of Tirek by The Caesar’s hooves.  The mood was cheerful as—” 

“ —took tea in Fluttershy’s cottage near The Everfree Forest.  The Royal Guards of both nations waited outside, bedecked in splendid golden armor.” 

“—talks of possible trade agreements between Equestria and The Empire.  The phrase ‘Mutually beneficial partnership’ was used by both The Princess and—”

“—concluded with a magic show put on by Twilight Sparkle and Discord.  Fluttershy was unable to watch as her animal friends were—”  

At the tail end of the article, one last line was still intact.

“When asked about her absence from the meeting, Princess Luna refused to comment.”

I knew better than to expect that the truth of the old world would play nicely with the history I had been taught in Stable 76.  Still, I had to wonder if this was the same Discord that The Goddess was said to have defeated over a thousand years ago.  Perhaps not all the information in the holy texts was pure fabrication?  Whatever the case, I had never once heard or read anything at all about this “Tirek” fellow.  And I could scarcely imagine the Discord that I knew of helping anyone other than himself.  But all of that paled in comparison to the strange notion of both ponies and zebras celebrating something together in peace.  Not to mention the oddity of establishing trade relations with each other.  It was a pity that the article was so thoroughly consumed by mold, as I would have gladly pored over the entire thing.

I checked on Lily one last time, then left for the laboratory to get started.  The first order of business was to don the proper attire for the evening.  I placed my bulging packs on the closest tabletop before turning to the lab coat by the doorway.  There was no name to denote the previous owner of the garment, but a vaguely familiar cutie-mark had been sewn onto the breast pocket.  My eyes lingered on the starburst pattern as I wondered where I had seen it before, but no recollection of meeting the pony it belonged to ever crossed my mind.  I shrugged my shoulders and donned the coat before tying my hair back into a ponytail with a spare bit of fabric from my packs.  After fitting the goggles over my eyes, I was ready and eager to proceed with my brewing.

The second order of business was to make sure that all of the equipment in the room still worked.  One by one, switches were flipped, dials were rotated, valves were opened, and talismans were activated; each producing the effect I was hoping for.  By some miracle this laboratory had been spared the ravages of time.  Everything was in working order, including a peculiar little device tucked away in the corner.

Unlike all the other contraptions in the room, I had never seen this particular piece of equipment before.  Four glass panes rose from the edges of a square sterile-white base, creating an open-topped chamber as large as the terminal next to it.  When I tapped the keyboard the machine stirred to life with a low, electric hum, and a tacky title flashed on the terminal’s screen.

>Divid-O-Tron 5000!

My eyes widened.  “Oh, it’s a Divid-O-Tron.”  Tilting my head, I asked the terminal, “What in Luna’s name is a Divid-O-Tron?”  As if to answer my question, the screen flashed black and proceeded through several status reports.

>Prepping Partitioning Program…

>Toggling Talisman Tickler...

>Calculating Controlled Chaos Coefficient...

>Judging Jam Jars…

>Evaluating Elemental Essences…

>Error.  Enclosure Empty.  

>Insert Inanimate Item.

“What?”  My brow furrowed as I looked over my shoulder to make sure I was alone. The last time I had witnessed anything as nonsensical as the screen before me, it had been a blue pegasus flying overhead and giving dance lessons while simultaneously picking off ghouls with her rifle.  I turned back to the terminal, shook my head, and repeated myself.  “I…  What?”  As I’m sure you can imagine, there were several questions running rampant through my mind.  None of them held a candle to the one I asked aloud, however.

I rubbed my temple with a hoof and hissed, “What sort of inane fool would program this device to only communicate through the use of alliterative prompts!?”

If I hadn’t rolled my eyes so hard, I surely would have missed the corner of the piece of paper that was poking out of the drawer beneath the terminal.  I lit my horn, and tugged open the drawer to find a short note skewered by a single nail.  It wasn’t addressed to me, or signed by the pony that had sent it, but it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out who it was from.

I read the note aloud, “Use this nail in the machine.  Then think about the fertilizer in the other room.  You’re welcome.”  Picking the nail up in my magic, I huffed.  “This had better not be a waste of my time, Psyker.”  Without further ado, I placed the nail in the device and turned to the terminal.  It was already flashing wildly, alternating between black and green as it reacted to the metal.  Then it repeated one of the prompts it had already given me.

>Evaluating Elemental Essences…

The monitor flashed several times as the program finished its calculations.  After several clicks, whirs, and beeps, it finally showed a list of items followed by their percentages.  I furrowed my eyebrows as I read down the list of iron, carbon, manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, plus a few other trace elements, and wondered what in the world I had come across or why Psyker would insist that I should spend my time discovering the exact composition of a steel nail.

It was only when I reached the bottom of the list, and saw the command prompt waiting for me, that I started to piece things together.  Er, in a manner of speaking.

>Start Separation Sequence?

With curiosity driving me forward, I poked the Y button with a tendril of my magic.  The device kicked on without a moment’s hesitation, and the hum of magical batteries discharging energy flooded my ears and made my fur stand on end.  I took a reflexive step backward as the monitor flashed solid green, displaying a warning message in bold, black letters.

>Retreat!  Respiring Remnants Remains Risky!

Before I could react a loud bang and bright flash of white light erupted from the divider, and I was left coughing and waving a puff of foul-smelling smoke away from my face.  Covering my muzzle with the lapel of the lab coat, I took a step closer to the glass chamber and peered through the haze.  Inside were several sealed glass jars with markings on their lids.  The first was labeled “Fe.”  The second, “Mn.”  Another bore the letter “S.”  I raised my eyebrows in appreciation, and turned to the monitor again.

>Collect Completed Components.

The history I had concocted in my mind was starting to make sense.  The ponies must have used this room to study the potions that the zebras living here had brewed.  Specifically, this device must have been used to discern the exact composition of those potions.

I returned my attention to Psyker’s note and re-read the message.  Why would she remind me of the fertilizer in the storeroom?  And why would she assume that I would thank her?  Fertilizer was nothing more than…

My jaw dropped, and then I burst into a huge grin as Psyker’s intent was finally made clear.  I made a mad dash for the maintenance room, flinging the door of the laboratory wide in my bid to scavenge everything within sight.  Old nails, broken circuitry, bags of fertilizer, scraps of stained cloth… nothing was spared the enthusiastic grasp of my greedy magic as I scoured the room for materials.

The mere thought of the opportunity at my hooftips brought a manic grin to my face!  The quiet titter that bubbled up through my throat grew in intensity, eventually breaking into a mad cackle before I calmed my racing heart.  I once felt powerless against my many foes, but no longer!  Now I had options!

The rest of my night was spent monitoring simmering potions in the lab and tinkering with the workbench in the maintenance room.  After some initial trial and error I settled into a comfortable pace, and before long I had amassed quite the stockpile of little glass jars on the countertops of the laboratory.  After the fifth batch of Dragon’s Breath sat snugly against its kin, I took a step back to admire the fruits of my labor.  I have to admit; seeing a full rainbow’s worth of colored bottles sitting neatly in a row filled me with no small measure of pride.

Still, repeatedly brewing the same potions over and over again did get rather monotonous, especially without any music to alleviate the tedium.  It was such a shame that the radio in my PipBuck still wasn’t picking up any useful signals.  I would have gladly forked over a whole purse full of caps for just one of Octavia’s serenades.

Rather than start up another batch of Sweet Water or slink away to work on my little side project in the maintenance room, I tossed a sprig of Witchweed and two teabags into a beaker of steaming water and sat down for a well deserved break.  My drink was ready by the time I had rubbed the indentations left by the goggles out of my cheeks.  And even if it was a little bitter for my taste, it was quite refreshing nonetheless.

I poked at the knobs and buttons on my PipBuck, and opened the files I had downloaded earlier.  Psyker had suggested that I read them while brewing, after all.  If nothing else a small change of pace was in order.  I just wasn’t expecting the information held within to be so relevant.

>Fluttershy was right!  In just a few weeks, we’ve discovered more about Zebra magic than pony scholars have been able to document in centuries!  I’ve already written to Princess Luna, informing her of our successes and requesting an expansion to the Canterlot Library.  As practical and efficient as these terminals have proven, I’ll never prefer them over books.  And we’re going to need a lot of room for all these advancements across so many various fields.  Oh, this is so exciting!

I grinned and raised an eyebrow, feeling a level of kinship with a pony that died long before I had ever been born.  Despite Lily’s accusations as to the diminishing level of sanity within Pre-War Equestria, Ms. Sparkle certainly had a good head on her shoulders.  Anypony that would dare to take up Princess Luna’s immeasurably valuable time with a letter simply for the sake of requesting more library space was alright in my book.  Especially if she possessed the necessary clout to accomplish such a worthy goal.

However as interesting as I found the casual mentioning of The Goddess’ name, the juicy tidbit regarding Zebra magic was what had really caught my attention.  It was nice to finally know what this facility had been doing, and I was more than eager to learn what they had actually discovered with their research.  Blowing the steam off the beaker floating next to my face, I sipped my tea and continued reading.

>Fool has already been able to tell us so much.  Most of our research has been focused on potions, of course, but we’ve already begun converting several rooms for the other experiments.  Zebra magic seems to be broken down into two main schools: Black Magic and White Magic.  What I’ve heard of both has been fascinating, and the practical applications of each are too numerous to list in a simple journal entry.  Perhaps even more intriguing is the cultural impact these branches of magic have had on the Zebra tribes.  Who knows how this research might affect relations between Equestria and The Empire?  With a little more understanding we may be able to resolve our differences through communication after all!

Now the notes had my undivided attention.  Fool?  Potions?  Black and White magic?  My curiosity ran wild as I imagined all the secrets of Mother’s people hidden within these halls and chambers.  I licked my lips, staring intently at my PipBuck, and selected the next entry.  If I hadn’t been so focused, I might have missed that it was dated several moons later.

>I have my doubts about bringing Discord in to assist with our research, but Princess Luna is insisting.  I just can’t see him taking any of this seriously, but I can’t exactly refuse The Princess either.  Fluttershy is assuring me every day that he will behave himself.  Only time will tell.

I took another sip of my tea, enjoying the tingling sensation that the Witchweed left on my lips and tongue.  That was the second time in the span of a few hours that I had seen Discord mentioned in Pre-War records.  It couldn’t have been a coincidence.  Not with Psyker pulling the strings.  Licking the tingle off of my lips, I scrolled further down the entry.

>As strange as it might sound, I think I might actually prefer Discord to the ponies that burst through our doors last week.  Nothing disrupts delicate experiments quite like an angry mob of protesters.  Especially when you can’t even make heads or tails of what they want to protest!  I could understand if the herd had been angry about the zebras staying here, but all they did was chant “WE ARE THE SAME!” over and over again.  I’m just lucky that I still have my friends.  Pinkie Pie might have been acting a little strangely, but she still knows how to improve everypony’s mood!

>We haven’t seen the protesters since Pinkie’s party, and now that we’re back to work I’m hoping to make up for lost time.  There is an elixir that I just can’t wait to make!  Fool and Kipaji call it the F. A. E. R. I. E. and it’s supposed to give whoever drinks it Spike, please, that clacking noise is very distracting.  Can’t you just go back to using quill and ink?

I raised an eyebrow.  That last sentence didn’t make any sense at all.

>No!  Don’t delete it!  Yes, keep typing!  It doesn’t matter if we’ve run out of parchment again, I still need you to record everything!  My research notes are imperative!  

>Yes, I’m glad that you finally learned how to spell that word.  Why did you type that?  Ugh!  Just let me do it!

What followed was a wall of text that was so poorly written it appeared as if somepony had literally dragged their face across the keyboard.  I had heard that terminals were a relatively new invention before The War, but it still came as a shock that some ponies were incapable of typing.  Luckily, Ms. Sparkle still had her assistant to take over.

>I, Twilight Sparkle, am bad at typing.  And Spike The Brave and Glorious is the best friend a pony could ask for.  Dictated but not read, Twilight Sparkle, Ministry Mare, Bearer of the Element of Magic, personal student of Princess Celestia, and egghead supreme.

>There, I apologized!  Can we please get back to this now?  Wait, you’re already—

>Oh, forget it.  Rarity and Applejack wanted to see us anyway.  Let’s take the day off and go to Coltsville.

>Yes, we can stop at Cinna-Fillies for coffee and cinnamon rolls on the way back.  If it helps keep you awake, then it’s alright in my book.

>Yes, I remember!  And it’s not funny!  You’re lucky that no one was hurt!  Biting into a fire talisman because you were too sleepy to know it wasn’t a regular ruby is a great way to—

>It doesn’t matter how hilarious the zebras thought it was!  And you can stop typing now!

I was so very confused.  I had absolutely no idea what the title “Bearer of the Element of Magic” meant, but I could only surmise that it must have been a moniker of great significance.  All the same, that little nugget of information was nothing compared to discovering that Princess Celestia was a teacher!  That wasn’t at all what I expected!

Intrigued—and a little bewildered—I flicked a button with a tendril of my magic to read the next entry.

>Bringing Discord in to assist with our research went about as well as I expected.  He did promise not to alter our carefully controlled experiments, but I know a scheming draconequus when I see one.  He’s up to something.  I’m just hoping that Fluttershy can keep him in check.  

>At least our zebra guests were happy to see Discord.  The whole Loa tribe burst into song the moment they saw him!  And of course Discord joined in right away.  As if making all the cauldrons spew their potions like fountains wasn’t bad enough, he turned all of our lab-coats and goggles into pink tutus and sombreros!  And The Loa weren’t behaving any better!  They showered him with bouquets as soon as he flashed onto the production floor.  Then every flower turned into a pig!  Pigs with wings!  It took Fluttershy’s team a whole day to sort things out!

Okay that was definitely the same Discord that I remembered reading about in my stable’s temple.  Goddess, I had always assumed those stories were nothing more than playful fables for the foals!  Something to preach the virtue of order rather than chaos, and of how important it was to follow the rules set down by your superiors.  It was an excellent lesson for several hundred ponies huddled together in a stable with limited resources, but I was still surprised to learn that they might have been based in truth!

Of course, hearing that Discord had survived his confrontation with The Dark Mother didn’t sit right with me.  Nor was I comfortable learning that Princess Luna insisted that he be involved in the projects that took place in this facility.  I shook my head and scrolled further down the entry, idly wondering if the real Princess Luna was more merciful and lenient than I had been lead to believe.

>Unfortunately one of the zebras wasn’t paying attention to which flowers she was throwing, and wound up with her stripes reversed after she came into contact with poison joke.  She couldn’t stop blushing after that, so in order to save her from the teasing—and to get away from all the chaos—I let her stay in my office while I combined the ingredients for her bath.  She was surprised at how well I made the remedy, so I told her the story of how I first met Zecora.  That lead to us talking about some of her own experiences making potions with ponies in the facility.  Oddly enough that lead us to another minor breakthrough!

>For many moons now, no one has been able to understand why pony scientists and mages have been incapable of recreating the same alchemical results as the zebra shamans and medicine mares.  In nearly all cases magical potency of potions brewed by ponies was reduced by at least sixty-four percent when compared to potions made by members of The Loa.  Only ponies that attempted alchemical tasks related to their special talents were capable of producing potions on par with those made by our zebra guests.

My eyes widened at that.  So it was true, then.  Zebras were better at alchemy than ponies.  I took a fleeting moment to survey the colorful liquids I had bottled over the previous hours before I returned to my PipBuck.  I smiled, feeling just a bit closer to Mother as I continued reading.

>Further testing revealed some interesting patterns:  Unicorns and pegasi with medical cutie marks proved remarkably adept at healing potions, but failed miserably when attempting simple gardening brews.  Earth ponies of all scientific fields were more than competent when tasked with making elixirs designed to accelerate plant growth.  Zebras, of course, were capable of brewing just about anything they wanted, regardless of what their glyphs signified as their special talent.  Even the zebra colts and fillies are able to make healing potions better than my science team.

>I would have assumed that zebras were simply better at alchemy because of their magical dependence on potions and trinkets.  That would have easily explained this entire discovery as a disparity of skill due to necessity.  But it turns out there is an exception.  Just one.  Me.  I am the only pony here capable of utilizing alchemy on the same level as the zebras.  I’m still not as good as Fool, but I’m already very close to his level, and the potency of my potions matches his almost perfectly.

>Long ago my dealings with Trixie taught me that it was okay to celebrate my accomplishments, but I still feel bad seeing some of the most brilliant minds in Equestria stumped by what I can manage with minimal effort.  Lots of tea and even more discussion have gone into figuring this out, and I believe we have a good lead on an answer.

>It is my hypothesis that, just like unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi each have their own unique brand of magic, so too do zebras.  Furthermore, I believe that this racial magic allows zebras to bypass what their glyph mark defines as their natural talent for the purpose of brewing potions.  We have plenty of evidence to suggest that this is the case, at least when it comes to alchemy.  Both pony and zebra magic are showcased in the alchemical tests we have run, and this facility is the best place in all of Equestria to get to the heart of the matter.  We’re going to learn exactly what is going on here.  We have to.

>Normally a find like this wouldn’t be so alarming.  But based off of what Fool has told us, alchemy is typically governed by the White school of zebra magic.  Big Macintosh and Rainbow’s stories of alchemically enhanced zebra soldiers are bad enough.  We need to learn the nature of the zebras’ racial abilities before The Empire uses the Black school of magic against us.  One Littlehorn was bad enough.

>There is still a chance at diplomacy.  I just have to find it.

I was stunned.  Finally!  Some answers!

Goddess bless this mare and her note-taking!  She had just given me a plethora of information to consider.  To be completely honest, I could have spent the rest of the night pondering all of the little facets of what I had just read, but the siren call of the next journal entry demanded my attention.

>This will be my final entry from this location.  Spike would probably make a snide comment about me bothering to make this entry, but I didn’t get to where I am by slacking off in my note-taking.  At least I finally learned how to type after all this time.  

>I’m able to brew the F. A. E. R. I. E. on my own now, so I’m leaving the original batch here in Spursburg for further research while I move our main operations to Maripony.  After years of tinkering with the formula, we’re finally ready for pony testing.

>In hindsight, I’m surprised I didn’t think of the answer sooner.  The essence of magic is so intrinsic to the nature of potions; of course a spell would alter a potion’s nature!  Introducing alicorn magic directly to the liquid has altered the potion so severely that I feel it requires a new name.  Spike would have been able to come up with that name if he wasn’t sleeping.  Again.  Midnight Oil is great, but nopony can replace my number one assistant.

I scratched my chin with a hoof.  Alicorn magic?  I had never known that there was an entire branch of magic named after ponies such as Princess Luna.  With a name like that, it must have been incredible to behold.

>There are only four ponies alive that can use alicorn magic.  Of those four, I’m the only one with a special talent for magic itself, and that means that only I can brew and alter the elixir to suit our needs.  As wrong as it feels, I have to do this myself.  Years of work, dozens of ponies, an entire tribe of zebras, and it all comes down to me.  I’m consolidating the brightest minds and the most powerful unicorns from all of my ministry locations at Maripony in order to speed development.  Gestalt and Mosaic are already there and overseeing operations.  Soon, Midnight and many more of my top assistants will join them.  Together we’re going to end this war.  One way or another.

It was starting to make sense now.  I remembered from that accursed memory orb that Princess Luna had mentioned a third princess by the name of Cadance.  And Lily had insisted that three alicorns had lived before The War.  So that made three alicorn princesses, and one incredibly powerful unicorn?  No wonder Ms. Sparkle was the “Bearer of The Element of Magic!”

Impressed even further with this mare, I nodded my head appreciatively and continued reading her entry.

>I just need volunteers for testing, preferably unicorns that are capable of handling the magical strain.  Midnight would jump at the opportunity just to please me, and he certainly has the potential, but there’s somepony else who is better suited.  Somepony else who already has experience with powerful dark magic and should be able to recognize any possible corruption.  I can’t stop thinking that she’d be the perfect candidate.

>I need to go to Manehattan.  It’s time I checked up on a great and powerful friend.

There was only one entry left.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t written by Ms. Sparkle.  It had been written two years ago.

>Drink the F. A. E. R. I. E. now.  You’re going to need the power it gives you.

There was nothing more to the entry.  Just that simple command.  Finishing the rest of my tea in one gulp, I set the beaker down and levitated my packs over.  The elixir I had taken from the arcane safe in Ms. Sparkle’s office sloshed inside its bottle as I plucked it from my bags and floated it in front of my eyes.

I briefly questioned the wisdom of imbibing a centuries-old elixir.  Especially one whose effects I wasn’t even slightly familiar with.  Still, Ms. Sparkle had seemed quite enthusiastic about it.  And Psyker had implied that it would give me a necessary boon of some sort.

In the end, I think it was knowing that the elixir had been brewed by Ms. Sparkle herself that drove me to yank the cork from the bottle.  I didn’t know much about her, but I knew that she certainly had my respect. I think that some part of me wanted to form a lasting bond with this long-dead mare of science.

The pink liquid inside the bottle possessed a sweetly floral aroma, and tasted just as pleasant.  It fizzed slightly as it rolled over my tongue, but it went down smoothly enough that I was able to drink it all at once.  In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.

The elixir hit my stomach like a bucket of ice-water.  I winced and held my chest as freezing tendrils of magic snaked through my body, twisting in my gut and coiling around my bones.  Goddess, it felt like ice crystals were forming in my blood vessels!  By the time the chill had worked its way behind my eyes I was panting for breath, blowing out little puffs of cooled water vapor.  Luckily, the discomfort ceased as quickly as it began, and the soothing sensation of warmth came back to my veins one heartbeat at a time.

I examined myself, prodding my chest and limbs for any signs of change.  Finding nothing, I swished my tail and ran my hooves through my mane.  No changes there, either.  Lighting my horn, I hefted the empty tea beaker.  I didn’t feel any stronger with my magic either…  What in Luna’s name had that elixir actually done!?

Holding the beaker closer to my face, I checked my reflection in the glass.  Nothing was out of the ordinary.  I pursed my lips and groaned.  This wasn’t what I had expected at all!  It was as if the elixir had been made just to give someone a quick chill!

“So much for that,” I groused.

“So much for what?”

“Gah!”  I jumped to my hooves and found Lily standing in the doorway, grinning at my shocked expression.

“Sorry babe, didn’t mean to spook ya.”  While I caught my breath, she trotted over to the collection of potions and let out a low whistle as she checked the labels on the bottles.  “Damn…  You weren’t lying about stocking up.  How long you been at it?”

I checked my PipBuck.  Stars above! Was it already that late in the morning?  Clearing my throat, I replied, “I started almost as soon as you fell asleep.”

“Looks like it.”  She nodded.  “Did you make any healing potions?  I don’t see any over here.”

I shook my head.  “No, I made Sweet Water instead.”  Seeing the confusion on Lily’s face, I explained further.  “It’s a recipe of Mother’s; similar to a healing potion in that they both accelerate and boost the body’s natural healing process, but muchmore potent.”  Grinning, I added.  “It also tastes much better.”

Lily shrugged.  “If you say so.  I kinda like the taste of the regular stuff.”  Moving further down the line of bottles, she finally came across my other little project.  She paused, and turned back to me with an anxious stare.  “Are those what I think they are?”

I finally let my mane down, and tossed my hair to the side as I giggled.  “They most certainly are!”

“Holy shit, Candy…”  Picking up one of the bottles, she turned it over to examine the powder inside the glass.  “I know you like blowing shit up… but now you’re making grenades!?”

I winked at her, “I may need to borrow your lighter from time to time.  I didn’t have enough electrical components to create reliable detonators, so I had to fashion makeshift fuses.”  There was a jaunty skip in my step as I moved beside her to point out the more creative explosives I had thought up.

“See this one?  I used one of Mother’s potions to glue screws and nails to the bottle!  They’ll fly out just like bullets when it goes off!”  Picking up another bottle, I showed it off to Lily.  “Oh, and this one has vials of poison tucked inside the explosive powder!  They should be reduced to an aerosol by the pressure and heat, and create a cloud of noxious fumes!”  I set my little bomb down on the counter and clapped my hooves together, beaming at Lily the whole time.

“And this one!”  I removed the cloth covering a jar of simple black powder, and held it so close to Lily’s face that it was a miracle I didn’t smash her nose.  “This one is actually rather simple!  I just cast a Want It—OH!”  Lily’s eyes were halfway through the transformation when I realized what I was doing.  Luckily I had the presence of mind to grab her eyelids with my magic and slam them shut before the magic could take hold of her.

Her response was not altogether unexpected.  Cursing, she shook her head violently to free herself of my magical hold.  “Ah, fuck, Candy!  What are you doing!?”

By the time she had managed to open her eyes I had replaced the cloth over the simple explosive, blocking it from view.  “Sorry, Lily!  That was a mistake.  You don’t want to see that one.”  Without missing a beat, I proceeded to explain exactly why.  “I cast a Want It, Need It spell on that one.  Whoever sees it will go out of their way to keep it for their own, even after it’s been lit!”

Not waiting for her to congratulate me on how brilliant an idea that was, I placed the cloth-covered bomb on the counter and eagerly gushed about a few of my other wonderful ideas.  “I also have ideas for combining Mother’s adhesive with a flammable solution to create a sticky fire bomb!  And if I can collect a few vials of Pink Cloud then I can—”

“Candy!”  Lily cut me off, shaking me with her hooves.

“Oh.  Um.  Yes?”  I smiled innocently as I looked up at her.

Her bewildered expression turned to one of quiet resignation as she dragged a hoof across her face.  Staring at me with one eye, she slowly shook her head and asked, “Have you tested any of these?”

“Of course not.  You were sleeping.”  I bit my lower lip and giggled again before I added, “But now that you’re awake the testing can begin!”

She winced, then scowled at me.  “I don’t know if this is crazy-stupid or stupid-crazy.”

Sticking my nose in the air, I parried her absurd warning with sound wisdom.  “Well at least we have more weapons at our disposal than just my pistol and shotgun now.”

She shook her head again, chuckling.  “If they work,” she pointed out.  “Have you ever made explosives before?  What was the ratio of all the shit you put together?  What about the humidity in here?  Did it gum up the powder?”

“I…”  I blinked, realizing that Lily might actually know what she was talking about.  “I’m not sure.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” she grinned.  “Gotta admit though, I like where your head’s at with this one.  Just promise me that you won’t blow yourself up, okay?”

“Hah!  As if I would ever do something so foolish!”  Grabbing one of the plain bottles filled with nothing more than simple black powder, I trotted for the door picking up a pair of fuses on my way out.  It was only as I turned to ask Lily for her lighter that I noticed something… odd.  What appeared to be wispy little blue vapors were leaking from underneath Lily’s hat, rolling behind her left ear before they evaporated into nothing.

“Lily?” I asked, furrowing my brow.  “What’s wrong with your hat?”

“My hat?” she asked, tilting her head back to look upward.  When that failed to put her stetson in view, she remembered how hats work and removed it from her head.
My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped.  Nestled in all the insanity of Lily’s silver-white mane was a tiny, partially transparent cerulean rodent with tendrils of blue vapor rolling off its body.  “W-w-w-what is t-t-that!?” I shrieked.

“Huh?”  Lily looked behind herself, flaring her wings and raising her eyebrows.  After failing to notice the ethereal creature that had just crawled on top of her own ear she looked back to me, cocked her head, and shrugged.  “What’s what?”  Completely oblivious to the problem, she nonchalantly placed her hat back on her mane.

I rushed toward her and pointed a hoof at her head, screaming.  “T-THAT!  That thing!  That glowing thing on your ear!”

The little blue squirrel stared me directly in the eye.  After a moment, its short tail stood on end and it chattered furiously in Lily’s bone-pierced ear while bouncing up and down.  Every hop, skip, and jump resulted in Lily’s ear bobbing—just like I had seen it twitch countless times before—as the appendage bowed underneath the apparition’s weight.  The squirrel’s little paws clenched into tiny fists, shook with rage, and finally pointed in my direction before it leaned over and kicked Lily squarely in the head.

Her jaw dropped before a hopeful whisper escaped her lips.  “You can see Grumpy?”

“G-G-Grumpy?” I repeated.

Grumpy crossed his arms and squinted his beady little eyes.  A moment later, his slightly-see-through head gave a curt nod, and he walked straight through Lily’s hat.

Lightheaded and dizzy, I stumbled over my words.  “You… I…  It…  He… You… What!?”

Lily’s face exploded into an ecstatic grin as she cheered, “You can see Grumpy!”  Wasting no time, she dove in my direction, scooped me up in a bearhug, and jumped up and down excitedly.  I was dragged along for the ride as she flapped her wings and hollered, “YES!  You can see him!  You can see ghosts!”

Finally, I realized exactly what the F. A. E. R. I. E. had done to me.  It had obviously deposited me in the same realm of insanity that Lily inhabited, and we were now sharing some sort of group-hallucination.  That was the only logical explanation.  Ghosts do not exist.

Well, actually they do.  I just didn’t want to believe it.


**************

> Chapter Nine: Star-Crossed -Part Three-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallout Equestria: Sisters


by Arowid



Chapter Nine:


Star-Crossed



“How could you ever know what it’s like to be totally obsessed with a pony, only to find out they’re obsessed with somepony else?”


“Lily!  He’s doing it again!”

Lily looked past the single wingblade she was using as an improvised mirror to find me staring at the squirrel sitting on her ear.  Grumpy’s beady little eyes, as black as night and twice as cold, were giving me a stare straight from the depths of Tartarus.  It would have been one thing if my first acquaintance from the spirit-realm had been, say, a friendly ghost.  That I could have managed.  But Grumpy…  Grumpy put even my sister’s abrasiveness to shame.

Lily snorted in mirth and flicked her ear.  Grumpy was flung into the air, tumbling head over paws and shedding little waves of pale-blue vapor in his wake as he scrambled to grab hold of the bone poking through Lily’s ear.  Clutching his old femur like a drowning pony might clasp hold of a life-preserver, he shook his paw and squeaked out a vicious little tirade that made me very glad I didn’t understand Squirrel.

Lily chuckled and shrugged, then resumed carefully applying her black face paint with another stroke of her removed blades.  “Don’t worry, babe.  He does that with everyone.”  Raising an eyebrow, she stared at her odd pet out of one stern, blood-red eye.  “Be nice, Grumps.  I like this one.”  Crossing his little phantasmal arms, Grumpy reluctantly chirped out his acquiescence.  But just as soon as Lily went back to touching up the swooping pattern on her left cheek, Grumpy stared straight at me, raised two tiny fingers to his eyes, and then pointed menacingly in my direction.

I cleared my throat, shook my head, and tried in vain to concentrate on the assortment of herbs sitting on the countertop in front of me.  As I’m sure you can imagine, this was not the easiest task for me to accomplish when I had a little squirrel-demon constantly giving me dirty looks over the top of my workspace.  And my vexation was only exacerbated when I realized that Grumpy had probably been on Lily’s ear all along, judging me and everyone else in a furious, squeaky tongue that only Lily could hear and comprehend.

No doubt Grumpy had thoroughly enjoyed my frustration when Lily and I tested the grenades I assembled from scratch.  The simplest explosives worked without a hitch, detonating in wonderfully satisfactory concussions that rattled my teeth, left a musical ringing in my ears, and completely shattered the glass dome labeled “Whitetail Wood.”  But alas, none of my more interesting creations worked at all!  I had been so enthusiastic about combining alchemy’s more lethal applications with my budding interest in explosives!  Sadly, my poison gas bombs were not meant to be.  It seemed that I would have to be more diligent and precise with my calculations if I wanted to create something so extravagant.

“Thanks again, Candy.”  Lily’s voice caught my attention.  I looked up to find her putting the cap on the rest of the paint.  “It’s Thunderhooves tradition to never go into battle without your rank and role marked on your face.”

“That’s…”  I paused, not wanting to upset her, but not wanting to hide how I felt either.  I decided to go for the middle ground.  “Well, I want to say that’s somewhat odd but…”  I trailed off with a shrug, and hoped my grin would let her know I hadn’t meant any offense.

Luckily she wasn’t offended in the least, and even chuckled as she agreed with me.  “Yeah, it can get kinda silly before a raid when you have a dozen pegasi wondering who’s hogging all the red paint.”  With reverence, Lily gently wiped her blades clean and replaced them on her feathers.  “And believe me,” she continued, “the zebras never make enough of the yellow and pink stuff for the medics.”  Grinning and shaking her head, she reminisced, “I can hear old Wind Shear now.  ‘We don’t need more medicine mares!  You turkeys need to get shot less!’ “  Licking her lips, she pulled out a cigarette and lit up.  “Heh, good times.”

Curious to hear more about her past, I abandoned alphabetising my herbs in lieu of a more interesting option, “So, if you don’t mind my asking, what does your black face paint signify?”

Without missing a beat, she matter-of-factly declared, “Mostly that I’m a badass.”  Flipping her mane behind her shoulders she leaned over the table and winked at me.  At my unimpressed expression, she raised an eyebrow and smiled slyly in my direction.  “Come on, babe, that’s an awfully personal question.”

“Oh!”  I was quick to apologize.  “I-I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Eh, I guess you got a right to know.”  Her cocky grin was enough to let me understand that she was teasing me again, and I felt myself smile in relief as she added, “Just don’t get mad if I don’t share all the gory details, okay?”

“You mean to say there are things you won’t share, even with me?” I asked, flashing my most innocent smile.

“Hate to break it to you, sweetheart,” she lied through her smug teeth, “but I’m kind of a big deal.  This is a position only held by one pony at a time, so I gotta be careful.”  Her eyes never left mine as she blew a plume of smoke off to the side.  “I’ve got the hopes and dreams of a whole tribe resting on my shoulders.  Kinda like you with your stable.  Would you go around blabbing about all of that to just anypony?”

“Well, not just anypony,” I countered, placing a hoof on the table and grinning.  “It would have to be somepony I trust.”

That did the trick.  Lily licked her lips again, sizing me up with that smirk she always wore, and nodded.  A moment later she took one last drag off her cigarette and snuffed it out on the table, then lost the smirk and spoke in a low whisper.  “You remember how I said I got my cutie mark by putting ponies in the ground?”

My eyebrows and my ears shot straight up.  The conversation had just taken an abrupt turn down a road I wasn’t expecting in the least.  Furrowing my brow with worry, I nodded.  “Yes.”

Sighing heavily, Lily leaned against the table and whispered, “Those ponies,” she paused to scowl, “were my parents.”

My jaw dropped.  “You…”

“And about two-thirds of the entire Thunderhooves tribe,” she continued.

That…  was preposterous.  Incredulously, and with revulsion wrinkling my brow, I shook my head, “You killed two thirds of your own tribe?”

Lily recoiled in shock and disgust, as if I had spit in her face.  “What?  No!  Fuck no!  Shit,” she paused, shaking her head between her hooves.  “I really need to work on how I phrase things.”

Huffing, I thought of all her incredibly odd word choices and nodded.  “Yes.  Yes you do!  Very much so.”

Lily licked her lips and tried again.  “A long time ago when I was really little, my tribe—”

Grumpy sprung to life, err… so to speak, and cut Lily off with a series of alarmed chirps.  As his misty little tail shook excitedly against Lily’s mane, Grumpy used whatever ghostly strength he still possessed to yank on Lily’s pierced ear until it perked up in the direction he was staring.  Lily’s mouth was still open when her eyes narrowed in comprehension.

“Fuck, story time’s gonna have to wait.”  Lily’s wings unfurled at her sides as she smoothly dropped to the floor.  “We’re not alone,” she whispered.  “Pack everything up.  Quietly.  We gotta go.”

I nodded and lit my horn, then shed my new lab coat and used it to help dull the sound of clinking glass as I gathered all of my new potions into my packs.  Lily waited patiently for me, guarding the room’s entrance like a cat parked outside a mousehole.  A minute later I was in my leather armor with my packs cinched tightly against my sides and a fresh energy pack in my pistol.

I joined Lily at the doorway and hissed under my breath.  “What’s out there?  Another pod-zebra?”

Lily shook her head, and quietly breathed out one word.  “Voices.”

I winced.  Voices meant ponies.  And ponies probably meant guns.  Lily was certainly able to hold her own in close quarters combat, but if we wound up in a firefight when she didn’t have her rifle or pistol…  I wasn’t so sure how we would fare.

Turning back to me, Lily smirked at my nervous expression.  Lightly flicking my shoulder with her tail, she boasted, “Don’t worry, babe.  You’re with the best of the best here, remember?”  She could say whatever she wanted.  It wasn’t going to keep me from worrying.

It did make me feel a little better, though.

Grumpy let out a few squeaks before ducking underneath Lily’s hat to take refuge in her mane.  I had no idea what he said, but Lily was quick to translate.  “Whoever they are, it sounds like they’re moving further away.”  She popped a mintal before telling me, “Okay, here’s the plan.  We need to stay quick, quiet, and invisible.  Don’t use any magic, and stay glued to my ass.  No talking unless I say something first.  If you need to get my attention, tap me on the shoulder or something, okay?”

I nodded.  “Mhmm.  Lead the way.”

We slipped outside and made a beeline for the nearest dome using the overgrown foliage and computer terminals to conceal our movements.  Lily’s hoofsteps weren’t quite as silent as my sister’s, but neither were they anywhere near as loud as my own.  Luckily, none of the plants in the domes seemed perturbed by our less-than-stealthy passing.

Snaking our way deeper into the facility, we eventually came to the far wall of the cavernous room.  Leaving the cover of the domes, we sprinted to the leaf-covered wall and huddled between two roughly cylindrical objects smothered with moss, vines, and colorful mushrooms.  Lily crouched low and held her ear to the ground, listening for the other group of ponies.  In the meantime, I took the opportunity to catch my breath and examine our surroundings.

I recognized the mushrooms as dangerous, and knew better than to bother them, but the objects they were growing out of were too lumpy to be pipes or other artificial constructs.  Prying aside some of the vines, I was shocked to discover that we were crouching beside the exposed portions of two incredibly massive tree roots.  Goddess, they must have been nearly the same circumference as my stable’s main door!  Chancing a glance over the roots, I realized that there were dozens of them stretching out through the walls of the facility.  Through the brute force of their expansive growth, they had penetrated and warped the walls of the facility before sinking deep into the earth below us.

I had just enough time to ponder what manner of tree could possibly grow to such an enormous size before Lily tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention.  Pointing further down the wall to a rectangular patch made visible by its relative lack of moss and leaves, she whispered, “That’s our door.  Stay sharp.”

I nodded again, feeling all too eager to explore more of the facility.  Despite whatever dangers might await us, I knew that there were also untold wonders waiting around every leafy corner, and perhaps further insights into the magic of Mother’s people.  But it wasn’t until Lily and I gingerly tiptoed around the roots and slinked our way forward that I realized how close we were to discovering something special.

I first felt it near my side, pulsating with a low rhythm in tune to my heartbeat.  With every step toward the door, it grew in intensity and speed, matching my own excitement.  By the time Lily and I found ourselves at the door frame, I had realized that it was coming from my packs.

Lily was poking her head around the corner when I reached into my bags to find the source of all the commotion.  As I flipped open the leather flap to peek inside, the sound of all my potion bottles rattling against each other filled the room, and Lily turned back to find me holding the little black orb that I had taken from my stable.  I now knew for absolute certain that it was not a memory orb.

Rather than the placid sphere of darkness that I was used to, the orb was pulsating with a life all its own.  Its outer edge of glass thrummed with energy, rattling against the rims of my hooves as I held it up to my face.  Its black center swelled up and then fell away before rising to the glass surface again and again, all the while swirling around a focal point in the middle of the sphere.  It was as if I held a tiny, spinning storm system in my very hooves.

I was completely entranced by the mist-like contents of the orb, and could have stared into their spiralling depths for hours.  Lily, however, had the presence of mind to chide me for getting lost in the moment.  “Okay, I’ll admit,” she winked salaciously.  “That’s the coolest looking vibrator I’ve ever seen, but now’s not really the time, babe.”

“This isn’t a—”  I felt heat flood my face as I huffed and gave her a stern look.  “I have no idea what this orb actually is,” I admitted, “but the Pyro’s gang was trying to take it from a statue of Luna in my stable!”  Returning my gaze to the swirling storm in my hooves, I continued, “But it’s never done anything like this before.  It was calm and still until just now.”

Grumpy skittered around the perimeter of Lily’s hat, chittering and barking before flinging himself back in her mane.  Lily nodded.  “Yeah, I think I can guess why, Candy.”  At my puzzled expression, she simply tilted her head in the direction of the door.  “Grumpy says you’re gonna want to take a look in the other room.”

Holding the orb in one hoof, I walked to the doorway and looked inside to find a large, roughly circular room completely reclaimed by nature.  It was so beautiful that I utterly failed to stifle a gasp as I took in the sights.  There were enormous trees inside, with thick trunks covered in lichens and lush branches criss-crossing over each other just underneath the ruined ceiling three floors above my head.  The floor was a solid carpet of green shrubs, ferns, and grasses.  Thorny bushes with plump, dark berries lined the outer rim of the room, and dozens of brightly painted mushrooms grew underneath the protection of their sprawling nettles.  Flowers of every imaginable color grew wherever they could find room to sprout and bloom.  But not even all of the wonderful sights and fragrances could distract me from the most impressive image I had seen thus far.

Directly in the middle of this explosion of life stood a monolithic reddish-brown spire: a single tree with a knobby trunk so wide that the saloon in Mareon could have easily fit inside its base.  It had risen above all of its peers, crashing through the ceiling and every floor above as it raced toward the heavens.  Lifting my eyes skyward I was just able to spot the dark clouds hanging in the sky, just out of reach of the tree’s grasping boughs.  This tree hadn’t been content to wait patiently for sunlight that would never come.  Like a living example of all the tenacity of life itself, it had risen up and made every attempt to claim the light for itself.

Lily sidled up alongside me, pointing a hoof toward the gnarled base of the tree.  “See that?”

Following her hoof with my eyes, I spotted a faint white light shining through all the foliage.  Glancing at each other, we both nodded and made our way into the room.  The closer we came to the light, the more excited the storm in my little sphere became, twisting and convulsing as if it wanted to see the light as badly as I did.

Pushing our way through one last set of broad leaves that looked more at home in the tropics than in the desert, we finally arrived at the source of the light.  Nestled within a wedge formed by the sprawling roots of the gigantic tree was a low, circular stone dais.  The slab of rock was nearly twice the size of my stable’s door, and overrun with vines and electrical cables.  And on top of the dais was a cracked and worn stone altar with a bowl-shaped basin carved into its top.  All along the altar’s surface were dozens and dozens of zebra runes, each of them glowing like pink, green, or purple neon signs.

Thick power cables that still hummed with energy ran from the center of the bowl out to the sides of the altar, connecting to clusters of terminals giving numerical readouts.  The quick glance I spared the terminals told me that they were measuring some sort of energy output, but the numbers being reported were so absurdly high that I wrote them off as malfunctioning.  Besides, the terminals were just computers.  They weren’t anywhere near as enthralling as the soft light beckoning me to peer inside the basin.

I was struggling to hold onto my orb with my left hoof.  It seemed almost magnetized, pulling itself—and me along with it—toward the light, and its vibrations had become so severe that I was beginning to wonder if it would jump straight out of my hoof to fly toward the altar.  However, I could hardly blame it for its eagerness; I too felt an almost instinctual urge to move toward that shimmering light.  It was eerily beautiful, and wanting to move closer to it felt as natural as slipping into bed after an exhausting day.

Lily stood guard close by with Grumpy perched on her ear, and the both of them took turns staring quizzically at me while the other kept a sharp lookout for trouble.  I gave Lily one last look, and at her encouraging nod I swallowed down the last meager shred of my trepidation and stepped up on the dais.  As I placed my hoof down between the natural vines and the pony-made power cables, I felt the fur on my legs stand on end and my heart-rate spike from adrenaline.

At the precise moment that my right hoof made contact with the stone platform, my orb’s frenzy reached its apex, and I felt a blazing stream of heat sear its way down my up-turned left leg to light an inferno in my chest.  At the same time, and in stark contrast, a breath-taking chill raced up my right leg to seize my heart in its icy grip.  I scarcely had time to gasp in surprise before the two sensations coalesced in my breast, consumed one another, and vanished completely.  The only thing they left behind was the familiar electric tingle of magic, hovering in the air like smoke after an explosion.

I turned back to Lily, eyes wide, and gasped, “Did you feel that?”

“I think so?” she replied with a raised eyebrow.  She flapped one of her wings twice before licking her hoof and holding it up to the air.  “Felt like the air pressure just dropped.”  Shaking her head, she pointed at the altar.  “You better do whatever it is you’re gonna do.  I’m starting to feel like we need to get the fuck out of here.  And fast.”

“Right,” I nodded.  Glancing at my black orb, I found its center once more tranquil and its shell as immobile as usual.  With Lily’s worry expediting my actions, I raised myself up on the edge of the altar with my free hoof and examined the contents of the basin.

I wasn’t really sure what I expected to find.  My best guess was something between a stockpile of gems and a super-powered Sparkle reactor.  Neither of those estimations had been anywhere near the mark.

Inside the shallow depression I found a nest-like bed of power cables and circuitry, and lying peacefully inside the nest was a small glass sphere glowing with a soft white light.  The Selenist in me—the filly who had been raised to hate the light and fear the sun—reacted accordingly to such a sight: mild apprehension tinged with an almost begrudging curiosity.  But there was something else, something deep within my core, that pleaded for me to recognize this tiny object for what it truly was: beautiful.

That second look was enough for me to recognize that this orb bore the exact same dimensions as the sphere from my stable.  If not for their contents, they would have been precisely the same.  Their only difference was that one was white, and one was black.  Combined with the strange reaction they had shared earlier—with my own body acting as the conduit for said reaction, no less—I knew there was some connection between them.  And if that was the case, then I had as much claim to this little white trinket as anyone could possibly proclaim.

I had just reached into the basin to retrieve the white orb when Lily’s anxious voice met my ears.  “Candy, can you hurry up already?  I’m starting to get a really bad fee—”

She was abruptly cut off by multiple bright flashes of colored lights and the tell-tale sounds of magic.  Both the lights and the noises danced through the vegetation and bounced off of dozens of tree trunks.  Behind me Grumpy squeaked furiously, belting out a warning that needed no translation.  We were no longer alone.
“I would be ever so appreciative if you left that orb in its proper place.”  That…  That wasn’t Lily.  That voice was male: a soothing baritone graced by the barest hint of a gentle rural drawl, like sweetened tea flavored with just a drop of lemon.  I turned around just in time to see a group of seven white-coated ponies stepping out from behind the trees and fanning out as they trotted forward.

Lily was in front of me in an instant, with her wings spread wide and her stance low.  I quickly shoved the black orb back inside my packs and gripped my pistol on my leg, already dreading what was coming next.  Even I knew that Lily and I were easy targets while we stood completely exposed on the raised and illuminated dais.  To make matters even worse, the colossal tree trunk joined with its massive roots just behind us, effectively creating a dead end with only one practical exit.  An exit which was now being blocked by the approaching ponies.  Our only saving grace was that, at least for the moment, they appeared calm.  I gulped, and decided it was best if I kept my pistol in its holster for the time being.

The first four to break off from the main group made sure to keep their distance from Lily and me, charging magic in their horns even as their faces betrayed their own apprehension.  One of them, a petite mare with a mint-green mane done up in a loose bun, went so far as to cower within the low branches of a pine tree, too afraid to even peek her dark-chocolate eyes out and glance in our direction.  The other three were slightly braver than the small mare shivering against the pine needles, but they still looked like this was the last place in The Wasteland that they wanted to be.  However, the next three ponies in the group strolled forward as if this were any normal Tuesday.

Oddly enough the next mare and stallion wore a hodgepodge assortment of sports equipment in lieu of armor, complete with tattered jerseys from Equestrian sports teams.  The big mare on the right had her short crimson ponytail poking through the back of a batter’s helmet, and wore a set of roller-derby shinguards over her legs.  Her barbed-wire bat made a whooshing noise every time she swung it through the empty air.  She never took her wickedly smirking eyes off of me, not even when she was blowing loud and obnoxious bubbles with the pink gum she was chewing.  She seemed to take a perverse joy every time her bubble-snapping got my attention, and repeatedly used the opportunity to wink or blow kisses in my direction.

The confidence of the sports-mare on the right made me feel like this particular game was stacked in the other group’s favor, but the the stallion on the left was in a different league entirely.  He was the lone earth pony in the whole herd, and he was easily the largest creature in the room.  Wearing a crimson-striped hockey mask over his face and metal-spiked hoofball pads over his broad chest and shoulders, he made the large mare at his side look like a filly in comparison.  Behind his mask were wide, psychotic eyes that never seemed to blink, and every time they glanced in my direction I felt a shiver run down my spine.

I couldn’t imagine that pre-war sports equipment would do anything at all when it came to stopping bullets, but the weapons those two wielded looked more than adequate for a fight.  Both of the sports-fan ponies were armed to the teeth, bearing an assortment of pistols, rifles, and sawed-off shotguns that they had strapped around their powerful bodies.  These two lead the way until they were nearly at the dais, and then stepped to the side to allow one final stallion to casually stroll between them.

This pony wore no armor or clothing to speak of, and bore no weapon save for the disarmingly cavalier grin set across his face.  Of course, none of that mattered; I knew exactly how dangerous he was.  I had already seen him defend his gang from the alicorns in the street, and now that he was this close, there was no mistaking him for anypony else.  This was the pony we had been hunting since we set out from Mareon.  The pony who would have the answers about my caravan.  The pony that Psyker wanted us to kill.  After all the trials and tribulations to get here, I had finally come face to face with The Bard.  And it was only then that I realized what a disastrous mistake it was to talk to him up close.

He was…  gorgeous.

“You see,” he continued in that wonderful voice, “the object before you happens to be a zebra artifact of incredible power and great import.  And it is not to be disturbed until—”  He stopped just short of the dais as his gaze swept past Lily’s wings and locked with mine, and then his wary expression turned to one of quizzical amusement.  “Ah.  My apologies, Ms. Stripes,” he paused to hold a hoof to his heart and bow his head in a perfect imitation of the same gesture I had seen Mother and Half-Moon use.  Glancing at the room all around us, he explained, “As you can plainly see by the mess, I wasn’t expecting to be graced by your presence quite so soon.”

Despite my expectations about what a raider-gang’s leader should look like, The Bard was the single most devastatingly handsome stallion I had ever seen.  He had intense jade eyes, a perfectly coiffed jet-black mane, and a jawline that looked like it had been sculpted from marble.  On his ivory flank were a pair of theatre masks: one frowning in heart-wrenching sorrow, the other wholly consumed with elated laughter.  Every word he spoke came with a flourish of exaggerated passion, as if the sheer force of his charisma simply wouldn’t allow him to be the slightest bit mundane.  I wasn’t sure if he was putting on an act with his cool confidence, but… Oh, Goddess…  He played the part excruciatingly well.

Lily’s wings dipped slightly as she took a step backward, and then they extended to their full length right in front of me.  She let out the breath that she had been holding, managing to make a throaty sound somewhere between a groan, a whisper, and a sigh.  “Oh fuck me, he’s hot.”

The Bard chuckled to himself, raised his hoof in a placating gesture toward Lily, and announced, “All in due time, Ms. Belle.”

Lily finally managed to fold her wings at her sides, giving me a clear view of her reddened face.  I have to admit that seeing Lily blush was a rather novel experience…

I lifted a hoof to Lily’s shoulder, and warily eyed the mare on the right as I whispered, “Lily?  I thought you said The Bards weren’t skilled fighters?”  The sports-mare grinned and blew another bubble.

Lily snorted in response, and pawed the ground with a hoof while staring at the two sports-fan ponies flanking The Bard.  “They’re not, Candy.  These two idiots are just putting on a show.”

The mare in front of us rested her bat against her neck and grinned.  “Oh darlin’ , don’t you wish!”  I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting her to speak with such a noticeable rural twang in her accent.  She swished her bat through the air as easily as I might have swung a pen, and chewed her gum while taunting Lily.  “Ya’ll don’t fret now.  As long as ya’ll play nice I won’t have to whoop up on ya none.”  Inclining her head toward Lily, she lifted her bat beside her face and cooed dangerously, “ ‘Course, if ya’ll try to start something, then I know just where I’ll be putting this.”  Just to drive her point home, she wiggled the bat and smiled viciously.

“Really, Ms. Header,”  The Bard raised a calming hoof to the sports-mare at his side, “I assure you that there is no need for such an aggressive posture.  We are here to have a civil discussion, after all.”  The barest flicker of emerald magic lit at the tip of his horn, like a burning match.  The sports-mare pursed her lips, but nodded in agreement.

Lily glared silently at the mare, but I gulped and took a reflexive step backward.  Not one to miss an opportunity, the sports-mare quickly winked in my direction and giggled around her gum, “Don’t you worry, sugarcube.  I’ll go real gentle on you.”  Anxiety furrowed my brow before she looked to the side and whispered, “But he won’t.”  Following her eyes with my own, I noticed that the hockey-buck was staring at me like a starving pony eyeing a buffet table.

I curled my tail around my armored flank and scooted a little bit closer to Lily’s side.  Feeling my trembling side against her own, Lily stepped forward, blocking my view of the hockey-buck as she addressed the bat-wielding bully.  “Lemme guess.  You’re Switch Hit’s sister?”

Rather than answer Lily, the sports-mare stared at me and purred, “Why don’t you ditch this dying quail so we can go round the bases?”  With a final wink, she added, “I’ll show you why I’m called Double Header.”

The terms she was using might have flown well over my head, but the lascivious grin made it perfectly clear that Double was speaking in innuendo.  Unsure of what else to do, I wrapped a leg around Lily’s hoof and scowled at Double’s smirking face.

With her voice nearly a growl, Lily went straight for the proverbial throat.  “You know Switch Hit is dead, right?”

“Ha!”  Much to my surprise, Double took the news of her brother’s demise with sadistic glee.  She doubled over, smacking the hilt of her bat against the floor as she guffawed.  “Ha ha!  Really?  Did my fool brother finally strike out for good?  That’s what he gets for goin’ to bat for the other team!”  Beside her, The Bard frowned and flared the green magic at the tip of his horn.  But whatever his intent, his magic was having no apparent effect on the appalling pony at his side.

My jaw dropped as I watched the mare giggle.  “How?”  My trembling lips had mouthed the question before I even realized I was speaking.  Those same lips then curled back into a sneer as I asked the question that was burning a hole through my mind.  “How can you say something so cruel?”  I unwrapped my hoof from Lily’s leg and took a step forward, glaring at Double for all I was worth.

“Uh… Candy…”  Lily reached out and tugged at my leg, holding me in place.  Directly into my ear, she whispered a harsh warning. “There are more of them than just Double, babe.”

Double spun her bat through the air like a baton, and grinned wickedly.  “Oh sweetie-pie, you don’t know nothin ‘bout havin’ a low-down, no-good, Outcast for a brother!”  Banging her bat against the floor with a loud thunk, her cocky grin turned to a sour grimace.  “Why don’t you hush up while yer face is still pretty?”

There was an inferno in my chest, and the flames were rising to char the logic and reason in my mind.  A deep-red light washed over the room as I charged magic in my horn.  “I know enough!  I know that he was still your family!”  This was completely unacceptable!  How could she be so callous!?  Taking a step forward, I stomped on the stone dais and yelled, “I would go to the ends of Equestria simply to see my sister smile!  But you… you…  You’re laughing at news of your kin’s death!”  I snapped my tail behind me, and fired off my best volley of insults.  “What kind of rotten, vile, disgusting, soulless, dim-witted, degenerate filth are you!?”

The room was nearly silent after my outburst, save for the gentle tinkle of Lily’s wingblades rising up at her sides.  I spared her a glance just long enough to see the impressed expression on her face as she stared at me, but my fury would not be abated by a simple look of admiration.  I huffed and returned my gaze to Double, and found her calmly blowing and popping a bubble as she glared at me.

Rolling her gum to the other side of her mouth, she turned to the handsome stallion at her side and inquired in a peeved voice, “Master?  May I?”

The Bard’s answer was stern and hard.  “No, Double.  We are here to speak with them, nothing more.”  He glanced in my direction with an apologetic expression, and then turned back to his colleague before reprimanding her further in a lower tone.  “And I believe that you have spoken quite enough.  You and Puck should wait with the others.”

Double’s mouth dropped, and for a split second I believed she would argue, but in the end she obeyed without a fight.  Casting her gaze to the ground at her hooves, she deflated just like her popped bubbles, and nodded solemnly.  “Yes, Master.  As you wish.”  Double turned and made her way back to the rest of the gang, dragging her bat along the floor behind her.  The hockey-buck turned to follow her without a word, and I was extraordinarily grateful for it.

As the two sports-ponies plodded back to the unicorns waiting by the trees, I felt a weight being lifted from my chest.  My anger didn’t just ebb and fade.  It was sucked away, almost as if somepony had activated a vacuum to clean up every little trace of outrage.  The sudden mood-whiplash left me reeling and strangely dizzy, but The Bard’s genteel demeanor and soothing voice gently coaxed me down from my emotional high.

He took a cautious step forward, and humbly bowed.  “My deepest apologies for the less-than-warm welcome from my little ponies.  My troupe and I have all been a bit on-edge as of late due to the presence of alicorns in the city.”  Shaking his head, he shrugged and added,  “No matter how I protest to the opposite, some of them simply insist that I require protection, and they are oftentimes willing to take drastic measures to keep me in good health.”

With every silken word that caressed my ears, I felt a gentle tugging at the corners of my mouth.  I wasn’t sure if it was the kind warmth pouring from his eyes, or the cool confidence exuding from the rest of him, but it was proving very difficult to be angry with The Bard.  Tilting my head to the side, I replied, “You certainly look healthy enough.”  Out of the corner of my vision, I caught Lily raising an eyebrow and staring at me as her wings dropped.

The Bard accepted my compliment with a silent grin and nod.  After a moment, he went on to explain, “I am quite moved by the devotion of my troupe, even if I occasionally wish that they were not so enthusiastic in their attempts to keep me out of harm’s way.”  Lifting a perfectly pedicured hoof in our direction, he asked, “I imagine that you can sympathize, can you not?  Ms. Belle’s protection does not come cheap unless she is wholly devoted to another’s cause.  And word is already spreading of how fiercely protective your sister is with you.”

I nodded, remembering the advice Lily had given me at the Sparkle Station.  “Something that Nohta and I have in common,” I admitted.

Tenting his hooves together in front of himself, The Bard grinned sagely and nodded.  “A wiser stallion than I once said, ‘If you love something, then you must set it free.’ “  When his grin turned melancholy, he added, “A hard lesson, and one that has taken me years to truly comprehend.  This desert is not kind to any of us, is it, Ms. Stripes?”

“Stop wasting time, asshole!  Either say what you’ve got to say or fuck off!”  Lily’s vehement outburst drew a gasp out of me, and an inquisitively raised eyebrow out of The Bard.  It also gave me time to realize that her assessment of the stallion’s actions was uncomfortably close to the truth.

I couldn’t help but wonder if The Bard was stalling for time.  The gang of raiders standing behind him might have been few in number, but what if he had reinforcements coming?  Realizing that I should probably get a move on, I decided to speed things up a bit.

I lifted a calming hoof to Lily’s shoulder as I stepped forward beside her, and then brushed my mane out of my eyes as I addressed the stallion before us.  “You said you were expecting us?”

The Bard’s eyes lit up with excitement.  “But of course!  Years ago, Psyker informed me that—”  The Bard caught himself, grinned bashfully, and shook his head.  “Where are my manners?  Please forgive me.  I have been eagerly awaiting this meeting for so long that I overlooked a crucial detail.”  Taking a step closer, he looked me dead in the eyes and laid on the charm, “You and I still haven’t been properly introduced.”

Why was I blushing?  And why was Lily looking at me like that!?  I didn’t even do anything!  I mean, I may have giggled into my hoof a tiny bit.  And swished my tail to show it off.  And batted my lashes just a teensy amount.  But dear Goddess, who wouldn’t when a stallion like that is…  Er…  Ahem, my apologies.

Clearing my throat and taking a moment to collect myself, I stood a little straighter and made a conscious effort to maintain a more business-like composure.  “You are The Bard, are you not?”  It was a valiant effort on my part, if I do say so myself, but in the end I simply couldn’t help myself.  Grinning ever so slightly, I asked in a more cordial tone, “Your name is Elegy?”

A harsh rap on my leather-clad shoulder shocked me out of the stupor I was in.  Turning to my left, I saw Lily’s scowling face.  “Stop that!” she hissed.  Dangling from her ear, Grumpy agreed with an irate little paw-shake.

Utterly confused, I rubbed my shoulder and asked, “Stop what?”

Lily rolled her eyes and groaned at the same time that Grumpy held a ghostly palm to his face.  Wrapping a hoof around my shoulders, she pulled me in close and lifted a wing to hide our faces from the raider gang.  In a hushed and severe whisper, she explained, “Giving bedroom-eyes to the son of a bitch we may need to kill, that’s what!”

A million thoughts raced through my head all at once, but none of them was more prominent than the fact I had just realised that Lily was jealous.  The most promiscuous mare I had ever met was jealous because I was getting all the attention from…  No.  No, wait.  Lying next to all the creases of anger around her eyes was the slight wrinkling of worry and sorrow.  She wasn’t jealous of the attention I was getting, but rather of the attention I was giving.

As the faint light of the white orb behind us shimmered off the blades on her outstretched wing, something in my head clicked into place with a booming, dull thud, finally making me aware of something that was painfully obvious to everypony else in the room.  I was flirting.  And I was enjoying it.  A lot.

As I’m sure you are already well aware: this was a problem.  Not only did my behavior imply a stunning lack of self-awareness on my part, it also called into question my own perception of nearly every conversation I had been a part of since coming to the surface.  Not to mention how dreadfully embarrassing it was to realize that Nohta and Lily’s assertions about how I behaved around other ponies had been true all along…

Those issues were bad enough, but what really caused every cog in my head to lock up all at once was suddenly remembering the promise I had made to Lily, and then understanding that I was already blushing and batting my lashes at the first stallion I came across.  That simply wouldn’t do!  Even if the stallion in question was absolutely dreamy…

Oh, hush.  One look in his gorgeous jade eyes and you’d be weak in the knees too.

I blinked several times as I came out of the stupor, and then felt my ears droop against my mane as I realized what an utter mule I was being.  With all the sincerity I could muster, I looked up into Lily’s questioning gaze and whispered back.  “I’m sorry.  This is all so new to me.  I’ll stop.”

Lily grimaced and snorted, but lowered her wing all the same.  Turning her glare on The Bard, she barked out, “We already know who you are, asshole.  There’s no need for this shit.”

Elegy flashed his cavalier grin, shrugged his shoulders, and motioned to the ponies behind him.  Two mares—one with a streak of ruby through her sapphire mane and tail, and the other her mirror opposite—sauntered up to his side. “I’m afraid that I really must insist,” Elegy chuckled.  “Despite the havoc that Psyker can wreak on who exactly knows who, and in spite of the abysmally untidy state of our environs, we should at least exercise a modicum of proper decorum for such a momentous occasion as this, don’t you think?”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a giddy little unicorn mare in a lacy negligee was busy checking off a list on a chalkboard.  Good mannered?  Yes.  Well spoken?  Absolutely.  Good looking?  The chalk was snapped in two by her magic as she sighed and bit her bottom lip.  That was a definite yes.

Seconds later another little unicorn mare in a prim, no-nonsense business suit walked up behind the first and whacked her on the head with a ruler.  I rubbed a hoof across my burning cheek before closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.  I had never needed a cold shower so badly in all my life.

When I felt I had regained my senses, I opened my eyes.  Unfortunately, that was when the entire world went mad.  The two mares that had slinked up to Elegy’s side were now staring in my direction with expressions that I hadn’t seen since entering the bordello with Lily.  Only…  Now I found that I didn’t quite mind the way their eyes roamed over my body.

Elegy gently traced his hoof down the spine of the mare on his left, bringing a sultry purring noise out of her throat before she turned to flash a salacious grin in his direction.  Elegy matched and held her gaze while he began to speak, but eventually shifted his eyes to me when he stepped closer to the dais.  “As a stallion who is intimately familiar with all the various,” He paused long enough to gently nudge the other mare’s chin with his hoof, bringing her amorous face within inches of his own, “and lovely forms of vice and ecstasy…” The mare’s longing face was tinged with disappointment when Elegy turned from her to step closer to Lily and me.  Moments later he continued, “Let me assure you that I have a keen understanding of the equine appetite.”

He stopped just short of the dais, and held his hooves wide open, “I am well aware that our desires can come in many forms.”  Landing back on all fours, he tilted his head and explained, “And for most, those desires can be as difficult to satisfy as they are varied in nature.

“But that, my dear guests,” Elegy held a hoof to his chest as he smirked, “is where I excel.”

He stepped up on the stone platform, and confidently strolled right up to both Lily and I.  Lily’s wings had spread wide again, and her posture made it apparent that she was ready to pounce and slice the unicorn to ribbons in an instant, but the expression on her face was troubled, confused, and pained.  I might have inquired as to whether or not she was having a migraine, if I wasn’t so preoccupied with the gorgeous stallion grinning in my direction.

His jade eyes bore into my soul as he stood right in front of me, and I felt my heart skip a beat when his silky-smooth voice asked me, “Are you possessed of a hunger for knowledge?”  Turning to Lily, he tilted his head and inquired, “Could it be that you long for adventure?”  Allowing his eyes to squint threateningly, he raised a single eyebrow and insinuated, “Or perhaps you have acquired a thirst for blood?”  Lily snorted and pawed at the ground like a bull ready to charge, but otherwise did nothing.

Facing me again, Elegy tilted his head and ran his eyes down the length of my body.  “Or,” he suggested, snapping his eyes from my flank back to my face, “do you simply wish to experience something… new?”

I gulped, unable to take my eyes away from his.  Heat was flooding my body and muddling my thoughts.  I lost myself in his eyes, paralyzed by his smirk and entranced by his words.  I hung on his every syllable, just like I had once listened to Moonglow in the temple of my stable.

Turning around, Elegy began walking back to the two unicorn mares he had left behind.  I had to stop myself from reaching out with a hoof to delay his retreat.  Talking over his shoulder, he stated, “If you have a hunger, I can help you sate it.”  Lifting his hoof in the air dramatically, he declared, “If you are athirst, then I will lead you to water!”  Positioning himself between the two mares, he continued.  “And if you find yourself craving… something more…” he paused as one of the mares nibbled playfully at his neck, but never took his eyes off of me.  With a lascivious grin he continued, “Then rest assured; for in my company you will never find yourself wanting again.

“I am The Bard,” he stated, bowing low.  When the tip of his horn was inches from the floor, he turned his face up to flash a wickedly salacious grin in my direction.  With one final, stunning wink, he finished his performance, “and the pleasure is all mine.”

A gentle heat had welled up in my body, only it wasn’t anything at all like the anger I had felt earlier.  It suffused my entire being, gentle but insistent, and slowly squeezed every last drop of logic or reason out of my mind like juice from a fruit.  In the end all that I had left was pulpy emotion.

Inside my mind, the mare in the negligee was busy melting into a puddle as she swooned.   The business-mare was blushing beet-red, and looked incredibly distracted as she gazed in the same direction.  Her sharp raps with the ruler had devolved into half-hearted and poorly aimed taps as she stared forward, prim and proper but entranced all the same.

Elegy flashed the tip of his horn just a little brighter, allowing the green light to illuminate the gorgeous features of his handsome face.  Dear Goddess, that jawline…  And those eyes…  I gulped and licked my lips as a swarm of bloat sprites buzzed happily in my belly.  I couldn’t keep my gaze from wandering over his body, giggling and blushing as I admired his physique.

An enraged voice abruptly shouted at my side.  “Okay, fuck this!”  Lily stepped forward, planting herself firmly between The Bard and me.  Flaring her wings wide and stomping her hoof on the stone dais, she barked out a warning.  “Stop flirting with her!  She’s mine!”

I wasn’t really prepared for Lily to be so possessive.  That sort of uncultivated behavior is just barbaric!  It is completely uncivilised!  Anypony with any amount of logic, reason, or refinement should be able to refrain from such ill-mannered acts!

Every last shred of decency and sophistication I had in my body told me it was wrong, told me it was demeaning, told me that I should be annoyed or that I should scold her for not letting me handle the situation on my own.  But, I couldn’t ignore how alluring it was to know that my friend had been driven to such impulsive avarice on my account.  Lily was ready to fight, and quite possibly die right here to keep me for her own.

No…  Lily’s behavior wasn’t cultured.  It was…  Primal.  It was wild and savage and full of raw, unrepentant emotion just like Lily herself.  Born of a desire for me…

That ardor, that passion, that lust…  Whatever it was that drove Lily onward, it woke something within me.  As if I were a sleeping beast that had finally risen from years of underground hibernation, and now that I was on the verge of starvation I was all too eager to devour the first prey I came across.  As luck would have it, there was a blue-feathered feast just outside my den.

Lily had used her wings to shade me from the perils of The Wasteland yet again, but now I couldn’t stop staring at her.  In the span of a single heartbeat The Bard’s magnificent jawline and intense eyes faded from memory, overshadowed by the graceful figure standing before me.

I was mesmerized! It was if I had never truly seen Lily at all!  The stunningly gorgeous silver-white mane, the beautiful dark-indigo coat, the taut and lithe athletic figure, the sleek and streamlined tail, and… Dear Goddess…  her wings…   More than anything else, her wings held my attention and robbed me of my senses.  I licked my lips as my eyes lingered on her bladed feathers.  I wanted nothing more than to feel those powerful appendages wrap around me, holding me tight against Lily’s chest as she pressed her lips against—

My eyes widened as I drew in a sharp breath.  Dear Goddess, what was going on!?  This wasn’t me!  The heat spreading through my body kicked up a notch, leaving me panting for breath.  A sound somewhere between a longing moan and a pained grunt escaped my lips.  Shutting my eyes tight, I shook my head between my hooves and tried to make sense of my emotions.

My mouth opened, and I felt a dark and husky whisper leave my throat, “Lily…”

Goddess, I wanted her so badly…

She turned, raising an eyebrow at my tone of voice.  Her magnificent wings followed suit as soon as she saw the state I was in.  When we locked eyes I knew I was done.  She wouldn’t stop staring, and her gaze left my mind in utter disarray.  Goddess, why did her eyes have to be so pretty?  I could have gathered my thoughts if she had looked away for just a moment…

I needed to feel her body against mine…

My breath felt warm as it rushed over my open lips.  I took a slow, tentative step in Lily’s direction, scared to death to approach her, but even more frightened at the prospect of not being beside her.  My heart thundered within my chest, and pulled me in her direction.

Every movement made me ache with desire, and every thought was dull and fuzzy.  My vision narrowed until she was all I could see.  My hoof reached out to hold her cheek, and I stared into her wide, surprised eyes.  I only needed to remove her hat, and then I could finally close the distance between our lips…

When my hoof pulled her stetson down the back of her neck, she whispered worriedly.  “Candy?  Are those…  hearts in your eyes?”  She was understandably confused, of course.  I had been so cold earlier…  But not anymore.  There wasn’t any time to waste when every second was precious.  My gaze lingered on her exposed mane, and I was abruptly stricken with an all-consuming realization…

I…  I really liked her mane.

My eyes shot open.  The epiphany hit me like a bucket of ice water, which was coincidentally exactly what I needed.  I finally understood what was going on, and it sent an icy chill down the back of my neck.

My horn burst to life and enveloped my body in a thick cloud of crimson.  Sure enough, I felt the resistance of another spell’s aura rubbing up against my own, directly where my heart lay.  I forced my gaze back to Elegy, and saw the little spark of magic fade from the tip of his horn, but the other spell still clung to my heart like moss on a stone.  I gasped and shut my eyes tight, too afraid to look at anypony.

“Lily…” I moaned through the amorous haze of my mind, “somepony…  cast a spell on…”  As soon as the words left my lips so too did the spell evaporate from my body.  Once again, it was like a switch had been flipped.  In an instant the fog lifted, the burning heat died down to a simmer, the aching desire numbed itself.  I was left feeling dizzy and lightheaded, and had to rub my temples to keep an oncoming headache at bay.

After a moment filled with Grumpy’s excited chittering, Lily’s enraged voice shouted right next to me.  “Who’s doing that!?  Who the fuck is messing with her head!?”

Behind us a bright, high-pitched voice let out a frightened “Eeep!”  Soon after, I heard hooves scrambling across the wood of the tree roots at our sides.  By the time I opened my eyes, I saw a little mare with green hair and dark-brown eyes fleeing back toward the relative safety of the two sports-ponies behind Elegy.  The tiny mare dove for cover behind the hockey-buck and peeked out with wide, terrified eyes while Double Header grinned and patted her on the head.

The Bard chuckled at all the commotion, and shook his head before gesturing to Lily with an upturned hoof.  “Ms. Belle, you claim that Ms. Stripes is yours, but from my position, it seems much more appropriate to say that you are hers.”  Shrugging, he added, “I must confess that I am positively beside myself with curiosity.  I wonder, which one of you is carrying the detonator for those garish little bomb collars?”

Lily stomped on the stone platform and yelled, “That shit won’t work on me, asshole!  Go fuck yourself!”

Elegy’s lips curled back in a conceited grin.  It was rather alarming to notice how little I cared for his appearance after the spell had been dropped.  With a self-satisfied nod, he replied, “Yes, I assumed that Ms. Stripes would be the one to take possession of such a device.”  My jaw dropped as my eyes shot open.  How had he figured that out!?

The mare on the left of Elegy, the one with the most red in her mane, giggled excitedly.  “Did you see that, Firn?  Master tricked them easily!”

Rolling her eyes, the other mare groaned in a bored voice.  “Why are you always pointing out the obvious, Flare?”

I felt myself step backwards as every unicorn in the room turned their heads to stare at my packs, and bumped up against the altar behind me.  A rainbow of colors danced across all the tree branches and shrubs as The Bards lit their horns in unison.  My heart plummeted as I understood what was about to happen.

I fumbled with the pistol in my holster, hindered by another field of magic blocking my grip.  “Lily!” I shrieked, “We can’t let them cast any magic!  They’re trying to find the detonator!”

Just as Lily’s eyes and wings flared open, the small mare with the green mane approached Elegy and held her hoof out to him.  Before I could wrench my pistol free, and before Lily could dash forward, The Bard asked condescendingly, “Are you referring, by chance, to this detonator?”  His emerald cloud of magic floated the little device up to his eyes, and he mockingly appraised it like a jeweler might assess a gem.

Lily halted mid-lunge, staggering forward and flapping her wings to keep her balance.  Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates as her glance switched between the detonator and my packs.  Confused and desperate for an answer, she bellowed, “What!?  How!?”

“Simple,”  The Bard replied.  “A certain member of my troupe has a staggering aptitude for magic involving the manipulation of emotions.  It is, after all,” he grinned slyly, “how she has kept herself fed all these years.”

The tiny mare that had hoofed over the detonator blushed furiously, unable to look Elegy in the eyes.  “M-Master, please…”

Elegy lifted his hoof to cup the little mare’s cheek and praised her warmly.  “Really Thin Mint, you should revel in your abilities.  You just made certain that our meeting will proceed peacefully.”

Lily was still glancing back and forth between my shocked face and the detonator.  With wide eyes set in disbelief and anger, she sputtered, “I… What!?”  At Lily’s outburst Thin Mint squeaked and dove behind Elegy.

Elegy groaned and rolled his eyes.  “Ms. Belle, there’s really no reason to explain this to you.  I sincerely doubt that you are capable of comprehending the subtle nuances of the spells involved.”

Goddess, the way he was talking down to Lily was infuriating!  I turned to Lily and explained to her what happened, even if I had to do so through lips trembling with fear.  “She cast a Want it, Need it spell on me.”  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I added, “And then The Bard altered it.”

Lily cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.  “He what?  Unicorns can do that?”

I bit my lip and winced.  Pointing to Elegy, I answered, “He can.  Remember the shielded alicorn in the street?”  Lily’s eyes wandered off to the side as she recollected.  When she returned her gaze to me and nodded, I elaborated for her.  “He can manipulate other spells after they’ve been cast.  Instead of everypony in the room, ah…”  I tapped my hooves together timidly,  “…w-wanting me, I-I… um… ”  I trailed off, unable to bring myself to verbally admit that I had been in such a state.

The Bard chuckled before he explained further, “That was perhaps a bit more distraction than was needed for Thin Mint to pickpocket the detonator from Ms. Stripes’ packs.”  He paused for a moment to examine the detonator before grinning at us again.  “But it is certainly better to be safe than sorry when dealing with… volatile matters, wouldn’t you agree?”

My beleaguered knees finally gave out.  I sat, hard, on the stone dais as my jaw trembled and my ears fell to the sides of my head.  Goddess, the weight of our situation hit me like a ton of bricks…  It was all over.  Lily and I were completely at Elegy’s mercy.  I shook my head, feeling the hot sting of tears welling up in my eyes.  How had we allowed ourselves to fall for such a simple ruse!?  Nohta would have kept an eye out!  She would have easily noticed how my emotions weren’t my own!  She would have never allowed this to come to pass!

Oh Goddess…  Nohta… Would I ever see her again?  My breath hitched in my throat as I tried, and failed, to hold back the tears.  All I wanted at that moment, more than anything else in the world, was simply to have my sister at my side.

Mistaking the cause for my despair, Elegy taunted me.  “Come now, Ms. Stripes.  Surely you didn’t walk into the den of the greatest spymaster Equestria has ever known expecting that he wouldn’t know how to, shall we say…”  Elegy’s gaze lifted skyward, and he tapped his chin in fake contemplation before he asked, “…push your buttons?”  Most of The Bards only chuckled at their leader’s little joke, but the raucous guffaws of Flare and Double Header echoed off the tree trunks for an uncomfortably long time.

Their laughter had little effect on me.  I was too busy imagining all the fantastically extravagant ways that Nohta would have dealt with these miscreants long before they had been able to steal the detonating device for my bomb collar.  My tired, tear-filled eyes roamed around the room as I imagined my sister crushing windpipes, breaking jaws, and kicking gun barrels aside before firing her own pistol point-blank into ponies’ barely-protected bodies.  She would have moved amidst these unicorns like a living whirlwind of carnage, but…  What could I do?

I glanced at Lily.  If she had any Dash under her hat then…  No.  She’d still be too slow to stop Elegy from pressing the killswitch.  My eyes returned to Elegy as I lightly bit the inside of my cheek, contemplating my options.  I brushed my magic at the bit of my pistol, but thought better of opening fire.  I wasn’t accurate enough to fell him before he could react.  I briefly considered the explosives in my packs, but realized that the fuses were too long for a surprise attack.  It wasn’t long before I realized that my only hope of ever seeing Nohta again was to acquiesce.

My sister needed me as much as I needed her.  I grit my teeth, allowed the magic in my horn to evaporate, and scowled at Elegy.  Resolve gave me the strength to speak, but only just barely.  I tried to inject as much venom as I could into my words, but my voice came out hollow and broken insead.  “What do you want?”

Elegy grinned, and sauntered slowly in my direction.  Every heavy-hoofed step he took felt like another nail in my coffin.  When he reached Lily, he glanced smugly into her eyes without saying a word.  Lily’s face twisted into a conflicted snarl, and I could only imagine that she was trying to decide whether to attack now or stand aside to let Elegy pass.

I watched, helpless, as my life teetered on a razor’s edge.  Elegy floated the detonator up to his face, allowing it to bob up and down in his magic.  Lily’s muscles tensed, and her eyes twitched with rage.  For just a moment I was absolutely convinced that she was going to dive forward to plunge her blades deep into Elegy’s chest, ignoring the fact that she and I would certainly die in the process.  But then her eyes turned in my direction, and I witnessed her fury ebb and fade.  With a final downtrodden grimace, she lowered her wings and stood down.  I was only able to catch a glimpse of her face before she turned away, but I could feel my heart break at the look of utter defeat she wore.

The Bard strode confidently toward me.  “Ms. Stripes,” He began, holding the detonator in his magic.
As I looked past the tears streaming down my scowling face and up into his gorgeous green eyes, Elegy grinned warmly and held the detonator out for me to take it.  Confused, I furrowed my brow and glanced between the device and his comforting smile.  “I assure you,” he continued, “I only wish to talk.”


**************


Time stood still.  My jaw slowly dipped downwards as I stared, stunned and uncomprehending at Elegy’s encouraging grin.  After I finally regained my senses, I lit my horn and reached out for the detonator.  Elegy’s magic gently yielded to my own as the device traded owners once more.

The Bard had thoroughly beaten us—and without a fight, no less.  For a few terrifying minutes my mind had wandered to the most horrible places it could imagine as I pondered exactly what awful things I would be forced to do as a slave.  But just as quickly as it had been ripped away from me, my freedom had been restored in full.  I couldn’t even begin to form words capable of conveying all that I was feeling.  Instead, my mouth worked silently as I shook my head and clutched the detonator to my chest.

“W-What?”  Lily’s confused stammer broke the silence.  “But…”

Elegy and I looked to Lily’s bewildered expression as she trailed off.  Elegy chuckled and addressed Lily directly.  “Is mercy really such a foreign concept to you, Ms. Belle?”  Shrugging he added, “Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness.”

In a contemplative tone, Elegy asked, “Perhaps you believe that we are enemies?”  Shaking his head and gesturing to both Lily and himself with a hoof, he stated, “Hardly my dear.  Personally, I would see us become the closest of allies.  Although, that decision is entirely up to you.”  Craning his neck back to wink at me, he continued, “We would all be so much happier if we were to make love instead of war, don’t you think?”  I shrank away from his flirtation, rubbing my leg with a hoof and feeling entirely too objectified.

Still grinning, he sat down and held his hooves to his chest before stating.  “But of course, I am only one stallion.  And, forgive me for being so bold, I think that this task requires a mare’s touch.”  One of his expertly pedicured hooves pointed in my direction as he cocked his head and raised his eyebrows. “Specifically, it needs your touch, Ms. Stripes.”

I cleared my throat, but couldn’t think of how to respond to such brazen advances.  It didn’t help that I could feel an unwanted blush creeping back into my cheeks…

Elegy didn’t allow me any time to compose myself.  With a wicked smirk he inquired, “Psyker informed me that you were, shall we say, inexperienced?”  As heat bloomed in my face, I averted my eyes from his salacious grin.  But even with my gaze elsewhere, I could still hear the grin on his lips as he affirmed, “Yes, I can see that is most certainly the case.”  Several of his cohorts snickered into their hooves at that.  I huffed and pursed my lips in distaste, wondering if anypony in the room possessed even an inkling as to how a proper lady was supposed to behave.  Suspecting not, I snapped my tail angrily and tried my best to not focus on my burning face.  I had certainly endured enough of his double entendres and innuendo for one evening.  So much for Elegy being a gentlecolt…

The teasing laughter died down just before Elegy addressed Lily directly.  “Ms. Belle I implore you, do better to keep her safe.”  My brow wrinkled at that, and I looked up to better understand his meaning.  Turning once more to me, Elegy smiled and simply stated, “There are very intricate plans for Ms. Stripes that are already in motion.  Please do not allow her to come to harm.”

My ears perked up at that, but before I could ask what in Equestria he could possibly mean, Elegy sighed in relief and brought his hooves together in front of his chest.  “Ah, finally!” he cheered.  “We have arrived at the heart of the matter!”  Green magic coalesced in the tip of his horn before three bright purple pillows popped into existence at our hooves.  Gesturing to the cushions, Elegy offered, “Please make yourselves comfortable.  I have quite a lot to tell you.”

After a moment’s hesitation, and after I had safely secured the detonator in the bottom of my packs, I sat down and waited for Elegy to continue.  I had no idea what it was that he wished to say, and my curiosity was begging for some answers.  I could only surmise that Lily was nowhere near as intrigued as I was, for as soon as I sat down I witnessed Lily’s pillow zip past Elegy’s head and smack Double Header squarely in the face mid bubble-blow.  Elegy rolled his eyes and sighed as the surprised sports-mare yelled obscenities and tried to scrape her gum out of the fur on her muzzle.  Lily walked to my side, but remained standing and at the ready.  A small grin spread across my face as I looked up at my vengeful protector, and it widened a bit further when I noticed Grumpy jeering at Double Header from the brim of Lily’s hat.

“If we’re all done being silly,” Elegy sighed, “this is really rather important.”  Taking his seat, Elegy held up a hoof and stared directly at me.  I redirected my attention to The Bard as he announced, “First and most importantly, know that the zebra orb resting upon the altar is yours for the taking.”   Holding up his hooves in a supplicating manner, he continued, “But I implore you, do not remove it from its perch until you are ready to leave this place forever.”

He was just going to let me take it?  That was more generous than I had expected.  Wondering about his stipulation, I wrinkled my brow and cocked my head, “Why shouldn’t I claim the orb right now?”

“Look all around us,” he responded.  Flinging his forehooves wide open, he gestured to all the magnificent flora of the room.  “The plants here are flourishing, even without sunlight!”  I have to admit that I was surprised to hear him remark about the exact same enigma that had puzzled me earlier.  Inclining his head in my direction, Elegy inquired, “You know, don’t you?  You know what the ponies here were trying to do?”

I sat up a little straighter.  “They were studying zebra magic.”

He nodded.  “Indeed.  And these plants bear the very literal fruit of their labor.  They grow because of that artifact.  Because of the misunderstood magics of a maligned people.”  Casting a nervous glance at the treetops, Elegy whispered conspiratorially, “To put it rather bluntly, there is simply no telling what might happen once you take the orb from its altar.  I, for one, would rather not be here to find out.”  Several of his gang nodded their heads in agreement.  Lily and I shared a curious glance with each other, but I quickly turned back to Elegy when he resumed speaking.

“But that isn’t to say that you should leave the orb here!” he declared.  “Imagine what could be done in this desert if you were to tap into and harness this magic!  What wonders might you bring to this land if you were to unleash the raw power of life itself!?”  His hooves nearly shook with the passion of his plea, and in his eyes I recognized a zealous optimism I hadn’t seen in far too long.

Trying my best to not be swayed by the faint hope he had already enkindled within me, I asked, “You seem to have plenty of magical aptitude yourself, and that’s not even considering your followers or Psyker.  So why would you need me?”

Elegy smiled and leaned forward on one hoof, completely engrossed in our discussion.  I had the feeling that I had been lead down the exact path of conversation he had hoped I would follow.  “It is a zebra artifact,” he explained, “and only an individual with zebra blood may use it properly.  Regrettably,” he added as he sat up straight on his pillow, “there are only four such individuals left in this desert.”

Elegy glanced to his right as thin beams of light shot out of his horn and projected a silent, moving image of a familiar zebra huddled over a cauldron in a smoke-filled hut.  Elegy waved his hoof at the image, speaking like a young colt giving a presentation in class.  “Half-Moon is, unfortunately, not interested in this idea.”  Half-Moon looked up from his brew and turned in our direction, frowned, and shook his head before Elegy continued.  “No matter the offer I made, whether it was a mountain of caps, a never-ending river of wine and chems, or a veritable herd of pleasurable company… he always refused.  For whatever reason, he believes that he has another purpose in this life.”  Reaching into a dried-gourd at his side, Half-Moon produced a pinch of glittering, green powder.  With a quick breath, he blew the sparkling dust straight at us, and Elegy’s magical image rippled like a disturbed pool of water before splashing to the ground like paint.  Elegy turned in my direction, rubbing his temple as if he had just acquired a headache.  “I have met very few ponies that I could not convince to see things my way, but zebras are another matter entirely.  Half-Moon simply cannot be swayed.”

Another image shot out of Elegy’s horn, this one of a zebra buck who didn’t look much older than me.  The zebra stood alone on a rooftop overlooking the desert.  His body was covered in thick, plated barding, and a dangerous looking striped and scoped rifle rested against his scarred neck.  Elegy huffed and pursed his lips before introducing the unknown zebra.  “Adamant’s zebra, Scas, is…”  The Bard paused to groan before he continued with scorn and disgust in his voice, “He is Adamant’s zebra.”  Scas turned toward us and gave a cocky grin before flexing a bicep and puffing out his chest.  A second later, he pantomimed aiming his rifle in our direction and firing, then fell over on his side laughing soundlessly.  Elegy held a hoof to his face as he grumbled and allowed the image to fade away.  Placing that hoof back on his pillow, Elegy explained, “Scas is fiercely loyal to his captain, and would turn the orb over to him without a moment’s hesitation.”  With no small amount of venom in his voice, Elegy spat out, “I would sooner trust this artifact to a mule than see it fall into The Outcasts’ possession.”

The magical window opened once more, and I nearly jumped out of my seat.  On the other side was Nohta, engaged in a brutal melee with a dozen ghouls in a dimly-lit hallway lined with lockers.  She was already covered in cuts, bruises, and caked-on gore, but a fire burned in her eyes as she lashed out again and again at the small undead herd rushing toward her.

“Your sister, on the other hoof,” Elegy explained, seemingly oblivious to the distress on my face, “is an excellent example of all the martial and physical prowess of your mother’s people, and should you not wish to pursue this path, she should prove a viable alternative.”  Nohta had caved in three ghoul heads with Mother’s horseshoes by the time Elegy had finished his sentence, and was sweeping the legs out from under another by the time he spoke again.  “But ask yourself this, Ms. Stripes: between the two of you, which one possesses the best chance to utilize this orb to its full potential?”  Nohta ducked underneath a lunging tackle from a fifth ghoul before drawing her pistol.  From my perspective she seemed to hesitate, standing still for a fraction of a second before placing four perfectly accurate rounds through four rotten skulls.  Watching my sister use S.A.T.S. in the middle of combat was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.  Elegy tried to reclaim my attention by asking,  “Does Nohta have the raw, unbridled arcane talent that you do?”

Nohta made several more unaided shots with The Worm, blowing huge grey-red chunks out of another of the remaining ghouls.  The final few didn’t last long after that, and all had their brains splattered across the dirty linoleum floor or the rusted mauve lockers.  Nohta was left standing amidst a pile of decomposing bodies, breathing heavily from her exertions.

Lily snorted at my side, chuckling.  “Damn.  Nice moves, kid.”

My sister tried to wipe the gore off her face, but halfway through smearing red across her cheek she paused and turned in our direction.  With a puzzled glance, she walked toward whatever Elegy was using to spy on her, and inspected it.  My hoof reached out toward her, hoping that she might be able to see me as I could see her, but she only snarled and jabbed sharply toward the window.  Elegy’s projected image exploded in a starburst pattern.  I closed my eyes, still holding my hoof out to my sister’s silent image.

It was bittersweet, but it was relief all the same.  Yes, Nohta was injured and probably fighting for her life, but she was still alive.  The indomitable determination in her eyes was enough to convince me that this city wouldn’t stop her.  One way or another, we would be reunited.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and opened my eyes to see Lily nodding encouragingly.  “We’re gonna get her back.”

I responded in kind.  “I know.”

Elegy addressed me directly once more.  “Candy Stripes, you are our best hope.”  Now that I knew Nohta was relatively okay, he had the bulk of my attention again.  With wide sweeping gestures of his hooves, he laid out his plans.  “From a desert, you can create an oasis.  Ponies and zebras and griffins and buffalo and everyone else will flock to this land!  And you will provide for them something that they have never known before.”  With a grin he paused, and with both Lily and I hanging on his every word I couldn’t help but feel he did it solely for dramatic effect.

Spreading his hooves wide, he gestured once more to the abundant plant life all around us.  “Plenty,” he finished.

I had to mentally rewind our conversation for a moment in order to remember what he had said while Nohta was fighting the ghouls.  His plan seemed rather… grand, to say the least.  But was it possible?  And if so, could I actually pull it off?

Elegy called out to me across the expanse of my mental wanderings.  The mirth and excitement in his voice were nearly overwhelming, as if he were an investigator that had finally solved the greatest mystery in all the world.  Beaming, he asked, “Did Psyker not tell you that together, we would save countless lives?”  Furrowing his brow, he shook his head and exclaimed,  “How many ponies die everyday because their bodies are not properly nourished?  How many more ponies grow so hungry that they are driven to murder over a mere mouthful of bread?”

Was…  Was it really that bad out here?  I hadn’t seen any evidence of widespread malnutrition since coming to the surface.  There was my own bout of hunger when my sister and I left for Coltsville, true, but that seemed to be an isolated case brought on by equal parts ignorance and recklessness.

I shook my head, realizing that I didn’t have enough information to make any proper assumptions.  But I knew somepony that did.  If anypony in the room might know about fighting over basic necessities, it would be the raider standing at my side.  Looking to Lily for answers, I caught her staring pensively at her hooves.

The look on her face told me everything I needed to know.  It was like a piece of her puzzle had fallen into place.  “Lily?”  I asked in a shaky voice, “Have you ever…”  I caught myself, and amended my question.  “Do ponies really kill each other for food?”

She clenched her jaw, but wouldn’t meet my eyes when she answered.  “We’ve all done things we regret.”

Hunger is a powerful motivator.  And just as Elegy had claimed, it comes in many forms.  When we really, truly, believe that we need something, we will go to nearly any lengths to claim it.  But then, you and I already know that, don’t we?

“I see…”  I bit my lip.  It was certainly no time to sate my curiosity on such a matter.  With a slight tremble in my voice, I added, “I’m sorry.”

Elegy didn’t give her time to respond.  With a warm and hopeful smile, he pleaded with me.  “Imagine my dear, what it would be like to have your name cheered in the streets.  Imagine the smiles on their faces and the joy in their hearts as ponies from all walks of life bless the ground upon which you walk!  The very ground that you have made fertile and rich with your magic!”  Jabbing a hoof in my direction, he spoke slowly to emphasize his next words.  “You.  Candy Stripes.  The Life Giver.”

My eyes widened.  For one fleeting moment I could actually see them.  An entire town, perhaps even a city, replete with lush greenery and thousands of well-fed and cheery inhabitants.  An oasis in The Wasteland where my sister and I wouldn’t just be tolerated, but loved.  Was this…  Was this actually possible?  Was this really what Psyker had meant when she claimed we would be saving lives?

Elegy continued his persuasive assault with a devastating one-two buck.  “This world is in dire need of heroes, Ms. Stripes.  But you could be one.  And you wouldn’t have to harm a single soul in the process.”

Oh Goddess…  His words were striking every chink in my armor.  I couldn’t help but wonder if this was actually possible!  What if I could do this?  I didn’t know the first thing about agriculture, but…  I certainly knew alchemy!  And if I could just learn a bit more about the magic of Mother’s people then who knew what I could accomplish!?

I blinked, stunned, and shook my head as my thoughts raced.  “This…  This is…”

Lily put her hoof down, striking the stone dais hard.  ”This is too good to be true,” she declared.  “You’re not telling us something, Elegy.”

The Bard shrugged.  “I confess that I know next to nothing about this artifact.  But look around us!  The evidence of its power is plain to see!”  He stared straight at me, lifting his hooves to beg.  “Even if you spent a lifetime studying this orb and only managed to grow a few paltry pear trees, it would be a life well spent in the pursuit of a good and noble cause!  Building upon that knowledge, we could revive the plant life of this entire desert!  In time, maybe even all of Equestria!”  Spreading his hooves wide, he looked around the room and boldly asked, “What do any of us have to offer that could possibly be too much to give in order to turn this bleak and barren wasteland into a beautiful and bountiful Equestria once more?”

Returning his gaze to me, he nodded and tapped the floor in front of him to emphasize his argument.  “This is the turning point.  This is where we change the world for the better, Ms. Stripes.”  Leaning back, he offered an embarrassed smile.  “I hope now that you can forgive my earlier eagerness, and my unsavory methods.  Even a stallion such as myself is hard-pressed to maintain his composure when he knows that he is on the precipice of witnessing history in the making.”

A wide and bewildered grin had spread across my face.  I turned to Lily and placed a hoof on her shoulder as I tried to explain.  “Lily, this is…” I started, unsure of how to make her see.  Shaking my head, I smiled and simply stated, “It makes sense!”

Lily huffed and extended a bladed wing at The Bard.  “Candy, nopony can lie like this motherfucker.  He could be feeding us a load of brahmin-shit and we’d never be able to tell until it was too late!”

It was my turn to plead.  I stood up, and asked her, “But what if he’s telling the truth?”

Lily scowled and raised her voice.  “He has to be lying!  It’s what he does!”  She turned to Elegy and pointed an accusatory hoof in his direction.  “Just look at him!  You see any guns?  Any knives?  No, you don’t!  That’s because words are his fucking weapons!”  With every word she was becoming more and more irate.  Slamming her hoof down again, she yelled, “What do you get out of this, Elegy?  I know you’re playing an angle here, so what is it?”

The Bard dismissed her claim with a casual wave of his hoof.  “This is no ruse, Ms. Belle.  I benefit from this no more or less than anypony else.”

“I’m not buying it,” Lily growled.  “Either tell us the truth or shut the fuck up.”

The Bard raised his eyebrows, but otherwise adopted an almost hopeless, bored expression.  “What can I possibly say to convince you?”

Lily’s wings flared as she stomped her forehooves on the ground and yelled, “I’m not fucking around, Elegy!”

“Of that, I am quite certain,” Elegy nodded, “but my question remains the same.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, and her ears slowly laid flat against her mane as her voice grew low.  “Are you willing to die for this?”

Most of The Bard’s gang flinched at Lily’s words, pulling weapons and lighting magic in their horns.  They were still checking to make sure their guns were loaded when The Bard stood up straight and replied, “As a matter of fact, I am.”   Turning back to his gang, Elegy calmed them down with a wave of his hoof before responding to Lily.  “But I already know that I won’t.  Not here.  Psyker has informed me that my passing will come surrounded by friends, and that her loving embrace will be the last thing I feel before I accept my death.”  With a small grin, he shook his head.  “I cannot imagine a more peaceful and fulfilling way to die.”

He believed her with all his heart; I could hear it in his voice.  He had no idea what Psyker had asked me to do.

Raising a stern eyebrow, Elegy berated Lily a little further.  “So you may make your threats if you wish, Ms. Belle, but you should understand that they ring hollow in my ears.  I am not intimidated in the slightest.”  Lily snorted, and I laid a hoof on her shoulder to try and keep her calm.  She never stopped glaring at Elegy or clenching her jaw, but she did fold her wings.

Before I could speak to her, The Bard addressed me once more.  “But what about you, Ms. Stripes?  Do you believe that I am telling the truth?”

I hesitated when I met his eyes, unsure of how to respond.  Psyker had said that he wouldn’t lie to me, after all.  But still, Lily was right beside me and her eyes were begging for an answer from me even more than Elegy.  I took a deep breath, and a moment later finally gave my response.  “I… I trust Lily.”  Out of the corner of my eye, I could just catch Lily’s face shift into her familiar smirk.  That smile of hers was becoming rather infectious, I couldn’t help but give her a quick glance and a grin of my own.

Elegy chuckled to himself, and shook his head in light-hearted defeat.  “Hmm.  Of course you do.”  Setting me with a look that was all business, he raised a hoof to his chest and explained, “I have information that you desperately desire.  As a gesture of goodwill and as a token of my faith in you, I will volunteer that information freely.”  At my questioning gaze, Elegy asked, “What do you wish to know about the attacks on your caravan and stable?”

My jaw dropped, and I stood up from the pillow, too engaged in the sudden turn of conversation to allow myself to sit.  I craved answers, and this stallion had just rung the dinner bell.  My voice echoed that voracious hunger when I boldly replied, “Everything.”

Elegy nodded, and turned back to his gang.  “Thin Mint, come here, please.”  The little mare with green hair and brown eyes that had previously stolen my detonator squeaked in surprise, and cautiously walked forward one frightened hoofstep at a time.  She was visibly shaking when she reached The Bard’s side, staring at my eyes as if she expected me to turn into a manticore and rip her throat out.

“A little over a year ago, Thin Mint was contacted by a member of Stable 76,” Elegy revealed as he gestured at Thin with a hoof.  “Go on, dear,” he prompted her.  “Tell them all that you know.”

So Lily’s theory had been correct after all, and this mare had been a crucial link in that chain of events.  I took a step closer, glaring at the tiny pony in front of me.  She gulped, and tried her best to hide behind her mane while she sputtered, “I-I-I don’t really kn-know all that m-m-much.  H-He was t-t-t-tall.  B-b-big.  And he had a r-r-rough v-voice.”

I made no effort to soften my voice as I demanded, “What else?”

She squeaked again, covering her eyes with her hooves.  “I n-never saw his f-f-face!” she admitted.  “He always w-w-wore a hooded c-cloak.”

“What did he want!?”  I only realized that I was yelling after the words had already left my throat.  Thin fell prone on the floor, shutting her eyes tight and holding her hooves over her head as if a bomb was about to go off.  But I had neither the time nor the inclination to care for how this pony felt.  Slamming my hoof against the dais, I shouted again.  “Tell me!”

Elegy reached out to the little mare, and rubbed his hoof against her shoulder.  “It’s okay, Thin.”  With his reassurance, Thin found the strength to open her tear-filled eyes and stand to her hooves.  Elegy nodded encouragingly, and gestured in my direction with a tilt of his head.  “Tell her.”

Thin rubbed the wetness out of her eyes and took a deep breath.  She began speaking slowly, and carefully, but with every word she grew more assured and less afraid.  “He… knew that I was in Master’s troupe.  He asked me to be the courier for a contract with Garrote’s mercenary gang.”

Lily perked up, standing beside me with a look of shock on her face.  “It was Garrote’s crew?” she asked before flaring her wings and snarling.  “Arrgh!  That son of a bitch has gone too far this time!  I’ll tear that bastard’s beak off and shove it up his—”

“No!” Thin mint interjected.  “No, he…  He wanted me to contact Garrote.  But…”  Thin paused, glancing up at Elegy as if she wasn’t sure what to say.  When Elegy calmly nodded Thin turned back to us and disclosed, “Psyker and Master told me to give the contract to somepony else.”  Tapping her hooves together timidly, Thin Mint bowed her head and whispered, “My sister.  Sweet Pea.”

I looked away from Thin for a moment, and asked my friend, “Lily, does that name sound familiar to you?”

Lily clenched her jaw and nodded.  “Yeah, I flew with Sweet Pea’s crew on a few jobs up in Manehattan.  Mostly clearing bloodwings and manticores out of buildings so ponies could live in ‘em.”  Glaring skeptically at Thin Mint, Lily challenged her.  “But Sweet Pea never mentioned that she had a sister.”

Thin Mint’s lips quivered as she admitted, “We…  we didn’t really grow up together.”

Elegy shot Lily an annoyed look, and rubbed Thin’s shoulder again.  “Keep going, dear.”

Thin continued a moment later, emboldened by Elegy’s presence.  “The pony that gave me the contract was very specific about what he wanted done.  Two mares were supposed to be allowed to escape the ambush, and then two stallions were to be left unharmed by the fighting.  But everypony else in the caravan…”  She trailed off, and I found my mind racing.  She had already given me much to consider, but I needed specific details!  Not frustratingly vague descriptions!

Furrowing my brow, I prodded for more information.  “Two stallions?  Who were they?”

When Thin Mint cowered at my question, Elegy took it upon himself to answer.  “I would wager that the mares in question were your sister and yourself, Ms. Stripes.  But as for the identity of the stallions, your guess is every bit as good as mine.”

Lily’s voice, a little gruffer than usual, sounded off at my side.  “How were the griffins supposed to know who to let live?”

Thin Mint grimaced, and pointed a hoof at my PipBuck.  “The cloaked stallion gave me a slip of paper with the instructions on it.  There was something about radio signals?”  She shook her head before continuing.  “I-I didn’t understand all the technical details.  But I know it had something to do with your PipBucks.”

Lily scowled at Thin and demanded more answers.  ”Griffins don’t do anything for free.  What was the payment?”  Lily was proving to be an extraordinarily beneficial font of insight into the nature of mercenaries.

Thin winced and turned her cautious gaze in my direction.  “The location of your stable, to be given after the caravan was dealt with.”

Elegy rubbed his hoof reassuringly across Thin’s shivering back as he elucidated.  ”The slave wagons were already well on their way to your stable when the mercenaries attacked your traveling companions.  By now, they will have traveled beyond Ghastly Gorge and be closing in on their destination.”  With an apologetic frown, he stated, “Your stablemates are being taken to Fillydelphia.”

I recognized the name, but only vaguely.  However, Lily seemed very familiar with it.

“Fuck…” she sighed and shook her head.

I looked to her for answers again.  “Fillydelphia?  But that’s…”

”Red Eye,” she spat.  “The same asshole that has the slaver army tearing shit up out there.  And the alicorns.”

Elegy was quick to provide his own opinion of this mysterious pony.  ”Red Eye is actually quite amicable once you get to know him.  And even if I don’t entirely agree with his methods, or his choice in allies, I do believe that he has Equestria’s best interests at heart.”

Lily’s wings sprung from her sides just as violently as her outraged voice erupted from her throat.  ”He’s a fucking slaver!”

Elegy raised an eyebrow, and pointed a hoof at Lily.  ”And you are a Thunderhooves, Ms. Belle.  Those in glass houses shouldn't cast stones.”

Lily pointed a hoof back at him.  ”Oh, you can fuck right off with that shit!”  Snarling, she added, “The only reason this hasn’t gotten bloody yet is because of the note Psyker left Candy the other day!”

With an amused grin, Elegy raised his eyebrows and gazed in my direction.  ”Oh?  Psyker has left many messages across this desert.  Most of them for you.”  I felt my own eyebrows raise at that.  Latching onto my curiosity, Elegy quickly continued.  “This one in particular must have contained quite the interesting piece of information to stay your companion’s hoof.”

I had to be careful, that much was certain.  If I just came out with the truth then the whole gang was liable to attack us all at once.  Instead, I tried to redirect the conversation down an alternate yet related path.  Furrowing my brow, I asked, “Why would Psyker allow The Outcasts to hunt you?”

The Bard folded his forehooves across his chest, snorting contemptuously.  ”Hmmph.  ‘Allow.’  As if anypony can truly control Adamant.”  Rolling his jade eyes, Elegy added, “I’ll give that fool one thing, he certainly lives up to his name.  Not even mules are as stubborn.”

Lily inclined her head like a bull ready to charge, and hissed through her clenched teeth.  ”Adamant has more honor in his nose hairs than you do in your whole body.”

Sighing, Elegy dismissed Lily’s claim with a wave of his hoof.  ”Adamant’s antiquated notions of justice are, much like the pony himself, relics of a bygone age.”  He took a deep, calming breath before looking back to me.  “His only redeeming quality is that he is unyieldingly loyal to Psyker, and that makes him useful to her.”  Elegy shook his head and shrugged.  “As for why Psyker would not at least discourage this harassment?  I can only assume that she wishes to drive me from this desert by resorting to means which she knows fully well that I despise.”

Something wasn’t adding up.  I cocked my head to the side, and asked, ”Why would she do that?  I was under the impression that you were her top pony?”

”I was, once.” Elegy nodded, pausing with a pensive expression on his face.  His voice just barely a whisper, he added, “A lifetime ago.”  A heavy sigh preceded a slump in his shoulders as a weary look overtook his face.  Pain was etched into his features as he explained all at once, “Now she ignores my counsel, casts me aside in favor of others, strips me of the ponies I once called brothers and sisters, conscripts them into her fighting force, sends them to raid the very town from which I derive my livelihood, and edges ever closer to ushering in the total annihilation of this desert and all of its inhabitants.”

I shook my head, confused.  In a flustered voice, I spat out, “ ‘Total annihilation?’  I thought you said that she wanted to save lives, not end them?  Why would she do that?”

Lily stepped closer to me, and demanded an answer for her own question.  ”And if this isn’t all just a bunch of brahmin-shit and you do actually disagree with what she’s doing, then why the fuck aren’t you taking the fight to her doorstop?”  I pursed my lips and nodded in agreement.  Even if Lily’s word-choice was a bit odd, I knew perfectly well what she meant.

Elegy grinned, but the smile on his lips couldn’t possibly have been any further from an expression of joy.  In a slow even voice he confessed: “Because I love her.”  I…  I hadn’t been expecting that.  I felt my eyes widen as I took in the sight of Elegy, who was now nervously tugging at the edge of his pillow.  Even if it was possible that everything else he had said thus far had been utter rubbish, I knew in my heart that what he had just admitted was true.

With his eyes glancing between Lily and I, he went on, “I know Psyker better than anyone else could ever hope to.  She truly believes that her actions are completely necessary.  And she is willing to do absolutely anything to achieve her goal.”  He closed his eyes and shook his head for a moment in quiet contemplation, and then opened them to the altar at my back.  “But I believe that she is underestimating the power of that orb.  And her actions will usher Mareon into a war that we cannot possibly win.

”I apologize,” he sighed again before continuing.  “What I am about to ask of you is difficult to say.  And you do not yet have the proper context to understand my request.  Allow me to rectify that.”

The Bard glanced back to the bulk of his gang, and in unison they all strode forward to stand at his side.  I took a reflexive step back as Lily placed herself between the gang and me.  For a moment I wasn’t entirely sure what was about to transpire, but when Firn pulled a worn but beautiful acoustic guitar out of her packs and placed it at Elegy’s hooves I reclaimed my spot at Lily’s side, growing more curious by the second.  In the back of my mind, I remembered that this guitar was the item we needed to claim The Bard’s bounty…

What followed was one of those moments that is at once absurd, beautiful, and overwhelming.  For a time, it even succeeded in making me completely forget about the bounty.  With the rest of the room enveloped in an all-encompassing silence The Bard closed his eyes, lifted his face, and began to sing.

“I was fleeing through the desert pale,
From all of the ghouls hot on my trail,
When the clouds parted and I saw the moon.

With my body spent and ammo gone,
I wanted to leave this world a song.
With these six strings I played myself a tune.”

The stallion levitated his guitar to his hooves and began strumming, seemingly lost in his own music.  Lily began tapping her hoof on the floor, and leaned in to whisper in my ear, “This guy may be an asshole, but he’s got a hell of a voice, huh?”  When I nodded in response she continued, “You know, I usually go for metal or dubstep but this country stuff ain’t so bad either.”

My brow furrowed as I whispered back, “What in Equestria is dubstep?”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to get my answer that day.  The Bard, still playing his guitar with practiced and comfortable precision, chose that moment to light his horn and suffuse his song with all the power of his magic.  His impassioned singing became as clear as crystal, and his guitar’s notes rang through the room with an ethereal beauty.  I realized then that what we were hearing was special.  It was his real voice.  His singing voice.

The resultant weakness in my knees left little doubt in my mind as to exactly why he had such a large troupe at his beck and call.  It didn’t matter to me what Elegy was singing about, so long as he kept singing!  By The Goddess, I was forced to hang onto Lily’s hoof for support!  Fortunately she also had a wing to wrap around my shoulders as we listened, rapt, to The Bard’s tale.

“Seeing those ghouls in that soft, white light,
Was enough to give me quite a fright,
And I thought for sure that my time was through!

“But right before my own bloodshot eyes,
Each one of those ghouls was crystallized!
Locked forever inside magenta tombs!

“Now there wasn’t time for me think,
Barely long enough for me to blink,
But I was certain that I had to move,

“When my savior appeared before me,
radiant in all of her glory.
Shining bright, standing bold, and singing true.

“And she sang,

“ ‘Boy!  You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
Don’t you ever, pick up ‘nother gun.
Boy! You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
Now lift up your voice and sing me a tune!’

“She told me that her name was Psyker,
And I already knew I liked her.
My perfect angel, in ivory hue.

“I followed her as long as I could,
I followed her ‘til I understood,
My angel was a devil with a feud.

“Oh my fair lass she was a raider!
And there weren’t none that could escape her!
Those ponies all tried, but none made it through.

“And each time her grisly deeds were done,
She’d laugh and sing, ‘Hah! Now, that was fun!’
But one day I snapped, and sang her a tune.

“And I sang,

“ ‘Girl!  You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
I can’t stand the sight of what you’ve done.
Girl!  You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
Or else all I’ll be singing is the blues.’

“The smell of blood was thick in the air,
when she dropped her gun and turned to stare,
And her eyes, well, they pierced me right on through!

“But here I am, still alive and well.
Our love won out, and kept me from hell.
And then I heard her say, ‘Only for you.’

“Before the clock had struck the hour,
By our passions we were devoured,
Deep in the heart of Tower 52.

“My angel’s love had kept me alive,
But the devil inside had claimed her prize,
When she cried, ‘I can’t be in love with you.’

“And we sang,

“ ‘Oh!  You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
Damn this heart and all it’s put me through.
Oh!  You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
Before somepony lays it down for you.’

“Throughout the years I had come to know,
In spite of the pain her visions showed,
She never spoke words if they were not true.

“So when she asked me for one last thing,
I bit my tongue until it did sting,
And agreed to play my part in her ruse.

“She said, ‘No one can know my true aims,
To unite this land and bring the rains.
They must think me the villain, through and through.

“ ‘But I am sorry, my dearest friend,
It does no good for us to pretend.
I just can not see myself loving you.’

“And so I sing…”

The Bard paused for a moment, savoring the silence in the room before he played his music softer than before.  When he continued, the pain in his voice nearly brought me to tears.

“Oh!  You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
There’s nothing in this world worth fighting for!
Oh! You’ve got to lay down your rifle!
Nothing’s fair in either love or war!”

With a final stroke of the guitar strings the melody softly faded to silence, and Lily and I shared a pained expression.  The last line of The Bard’s song had struck a rather awkward chord between the two of us, and its effects were already resonating through my heart.  I unwrapped my hoof from Lily’s leg and winced as I tried to keep tears from welling in my eyes.  A moment later she removed her wing from my shoulder.

Elegy’s forlorn eyes opened to stare directly at me.  I felt my lips tremble as I realized that I wasn’t the only one trying not to cry.  Allowing the light in his horn to fade, he made an impassioned plea in a nearly broken voice.  “I do not have the will to harm Psyker.  So I must beg you…”  He paused just long enough to wipe his eyes and swallow the lump in his throat before turning back to me.  “Stop her.  Stop her before she kills us all.”  Taking a deep breath, he finally revealed Psyker’s plan.  “Psyker is going to activate S.P.P. Tower 52, and bring rain and sunlight to this desert.  And in so doing, she will call down the wrath of a storm the likes of which The Wasteland has never seen.”

To my side, I heard Grumpy squeak frantically.  A second later, Lily gasped and whispered, ”The Enclave…”

Elegy nodded before placing his guitar back in the care of Firn.  ”Correct, Ms. Belle.  Psyker believes that the coming farmland will need more natural means of sustenance.”

He took one final moment to regain his composure, and then explained.  “Conventional wisdom in this desert is that Tower 52 is malfunctioning.  I confess that I may have had a hoof in spreading that rumor.  It is actually Psyker’s tampering with the inner workings of the tower that causes the clouds to split open in the sky.  She is learning how to control the weather in this desert, even as we speak.”

Gesturing to his eyes, Elegy continued, “Due to her sight, she also understands that her tinkerings are small, easily ignored, and always mistaken by the pegasi for legitimate mechanical malfunctions.  But as soon as Psyker fully enacts her plans, The Enclave will realize what is going on and be forced to action.”  Goddess…  This was all so much more than I had imagined.  My thoughts raced as I tried to piece it all together.

Elegy grimaced and shook his head before saying, “By organizing the raider gangs and then staging attacks on Mareon, she hopes to force Mareon to fortify its defenses in preparation for the real war.  But I have to wonder how anypony can properly prepare for the coming force of hundreds, or possibly thousands, of power-armor clad pegasi.”

Furrowing his brow, he lifted his hooves in an entreating gesture as he asked, ”She may see things beyond our comprehension, but how can a simple coalition of scavengers and traders, fighting side-by-side with raiders they do not trust, possibly hope to stand against the crushing might of this world’s greatest military force?”  Lowering his hooves, Elegy pleaded with us.  “Psker’s actions will end with this desert bathed in a downpour not of rain, but of death.  And I fear that The Enclave will not be content to stop there.”

Shaking his head, Elegy shrugged helplessly.  ”I love her.  I can not bring myself to stop her.  But neither can I stand idly by while she ruins our best chance to save our home.”

In a voice rife with pain, he held a hoof to his heart and finally begged, ”Please.  Help me.  And if you can find it in your heart…”  Elegy paused to take a deep breath just before he made his most difficult request.  “Spare her life,” he asked.  “She is a good mare.  She just needs to be reminded of that.”

Elegy’s gang stood still behind him, as silent as the grave and looking just as mournful.  Their pained expressions perfectly conveyed how familiar they all were with this tragedy.  They had doubtless heard it hundreds of times previously, and were surely prepared to stand with The Bard until the very end.

The silence after his plea stretched for ages.  In that time I traded nervous and confused glances with Lily more than once, unsure of what to do.  I tried to remember all the pertinent details.  I tried to untangle the web of lies and deceit.  I tried to see where I lay in the middle of all this.  But in the end all I could do was latch onto the last falsehood I had been offered.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, and steeled my nerves.  “No,” I objected.  “No, she’s not.”  All eyes in the room turned to me.  “She’s not a good mare.  And neither are you a good pony.”

I set Elegy’s puzzled face with a stern glare.  “By your own admission, the both of you helped organize the murder and enslavement of all the members of my stable, including my father.  I can’t possibly forgive you for that.”

I glanced at Lily, and at my look she licked her lips and dropped low, ready to pounce on my command.  I pursed my lips and shook my head, feeling heat rising into my neck and face as I struggled to contain my emotions.  “But,” I continued, fuming, “I can also recognize which of you is the greater threat.”  Lily craned her neck around to face me, and I caught her confused expression.

I gently laid my hoof on Lily’s shoulder and turned back to Elegy before declaring loudly, “Psyker asked me to kill you.”

Elegy balked at that, allowing his jaw to drop as his expression turned sour.  He was quick to cover up his distress, but that one little moment was the chink in his armor that I needed.  His cadre of ponies were even more alarmed, unholstering guns and charging magic in their horns while they traded nervous glances.  Shaking his head, The Bard tried to laugh it off.  “I’m sure that you misunderstood.  Psyker has never lied to—”

“Psyker said that you were the only pony that could stop us,” I cut him off.  “And that you would attempt to do so if I left you alive.”  Lily had already pulled an inhaler of Dash out of her mane, and was holding it in her clenched teeth.  She and the sports-fan ponies were ready to turn this into a bloodbath!  I had to choose my next words very carefully.

“She also informed me that you would speak nothing but truth during this meeting.”  Lily glanced at me, eyes wide and confused while I divulged another little secret that Psyker had confided in me.  The Bard nodded, and listened intently. “So now, I’m left with a logic problem.  And the only answers I can see are that either you both are lying, or you are both telling the truth.”  I stepped up beside Lily, and tuned out the rest of the ponies in the room as I glared at the gorgeous stallion in front of me.  “With all of the aid she has given me thus far, I have much more reason to trust Psyker than I do you.  But that doesn’t particularly mean that I want to be her lackey.”

You could have heard a pin drop in that room, even if it fell on the grass or leaves.  A rainbow of magical auras pointed weapons in my direction.  Lily pawed at the ground beside me, licking her lips while her wings twitched in anticipation.

“That’s why I’m going to let you leave here alive.”  I placed as much emphasis on that word as I could, emboldened by Psyker’s prediction.  I felt the tension in the room ebb just before it was replaced by a thick cloud of confusion.  Still glaring at Elegy, I declared, “You are going to live, and you are going to do everything in your power to help us stop her.”  Glancing back at Lily’s confused face, I whispered, “The enemy of my enemy…”

While everypony in the room was still stunned into silence, I turned back to the altar and scooped up the little white orb in my hoof.  The moss-covered monitors near the altar flashed warning signs as their readings took a sharp nosedive, and the colorful zebra runes blinked out one by one.  Beneath my hooves, I felt a low rumble.  Assuming it was just another distant explosion from outside, I stuffed the white orb into my packs alongside the black one, and resumed scowling at The Bard.

“But with Luna as my witness, Elegy,” I hissed.  It was finally time to unleash all that hatred that had welled up inside my breast.  “If I ever see you again after that, I will kill you myself.”

“That…”  Elegy frowned, and glanced back to the anxious faces of his gang.  “Will you allow my troupe to leave this desert unscathed?”  I have to give the devil his due, as much as I despised that handsome stallion, he did care for his ponies.

I swished my tail and pursed my lips.  “As long as they leave tonight, then I don’t see why that should be an issue.”  Lily may have grumbled a bit under her breath at that, but even if she wanted revenge for Margarita’s liquor still, she had to realize that we were outnumbered.

Sighing, Elegy turned back to me and nodded.  “Then I accept.”

Emboldened by how easily I had managed to take charge of the situation, I declared, “Good.  Now I have several questions I wish to ask, and I expect honest answers.”  Poking a hoof toward Thin, I added, “And no more of these emotional games!  I’ve had quite enough of that!”  Thin’s eyes widened as she squeaked in terror and darted behind Elegy.

As The Bard gestured for me to continue, I narrowed my eyes and asked, “I understand how the griffins were to be compensated for their part in all this, but what exactly did you get out of it?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Elegy replied in an emotionless, business-like demeanor.

“Brahmin-shit,” Lily piped up.  “You’re not the kind of pony to do anything for free.”

“I didn’t receive any compensation for this other than knowing that Ms. Stripes and her sister would remain within these lands long enough to play their parts in Psyker’s plan,” Elegy countered.  Behind him, Thin was visibly shaking.

After a moment filled with high-pitched squeaks coming from atop Lily’s ear, Lily growled and pointed at the quaking little mare.  “Then what’d she get?”

Elegy winced.  I shot a quick, appreciative glance at Lily for the backup just before Elegy encouraged Thin to step forward again.  The little mare stared at the ground while she explained, “I d-didn’t get a-anything, but Psyker…” she paused, looking up at Elegy with frightened eyes.  Gently placing his hoof on her back again, he nodded silently.  Just like before, Thin took a deep breath and spoke clearly.   “Psyker promised that my sister would never go hungry again.”

A fleeting moment passed where I almost found myself sympathizing with the wretched little creature before me.  Hearing her concern for her sibling’s well-being was like looking through blurry, stained, and cracked glass to see a beautiful statue on the other side.  I wasn’t quite able to look past how much I loathed the pony that had been the linchpin of my life’s upheaval, but I could at least recognize that under different circumstances I might be inclined to do something similar for Nohta.  Come to think of it…  It wasn’t that dissimilar to what Nohta had already done for me.

Of course, the thoughts stirring in my head were largely moot.  My moment of reflection was shattered when Lily challenged Thin’s reasoning.  “Sweet Pea makes more caps in a week than most ponies see their whole lives.  How the fuck is she gonna go hungry?”

Thin recoiled, lifting a hoof up to her chest and taking a quick step backward as if she were about to run.  Her silence allowed Elegy the chance to answer for her.  “Hunger comes in many forms, Ms. Belle.”

Lily snorted, and snapped her tail behind her like a whip. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Thin Mint gasped and stared directly at Elegy, pleading with those wide brown eyes of hers as she violently shook her head back and forth.  “Master, please!”

Elegy turned back to us, his eyes a little harder than before, and stated flatly, “I’m not going to tell you.”

While Thin was busy letting out a titanic sigh of relief, I was busy raising my eyebrow.  “And why not?” I asked.

Elegy straightened up, and looked me directly in the eye.  “Due to the stipulations of our agreement, I am almost completely certain that my life will soon be forfeit.  As such, I no longer have any desire to bargain for my own well being.  But I will not betray the few brothers and sisters that I have left, or the trust they have placed in me.”  Thin wrapped a hoof around Elegy’s leg, brushing her tear-streaked cheek up against his shoulder as she thanked him.

Lily pursed her lips and nodded.  “Well at least you’ve got more backbone than Ballad did.”  Contrary to what I would have expected, Lily’s tone bore a begrudging admiration.  Of course, that was tempered by the cutting remark involving the gang member that had sold out her companion.  I was certain that Lily meant it as a reminder of the members of Elegy’s gang that she had already killed in Mareon.

Elegy’s face was like a stone, but his silence belied the seething hatred that I was sure he felt at that moment.  He maintained that emotionless expression until the ground rumbled insistently underneath of us.  I couldn’t remember hearing the explosion, but I had to surmise that the fighting outside was getting closer.

I cleared my throat to regain The Bard’s attention, and then asked another question.  Remembering Lily’s outbursts whenever Psyker’s name popped up in conversation, I asked, ”Can you give us any information regarding how we might stop Psyker?”

“I can only speculate, Ms. Stripes, and I would very much prefer if you attempted to reason with her,” Elegy shrugged.  “But whatever action you take, I urge you to not engage her in combat.  Psyker is by far the most powerful unicorn I have ever seen.  If my memory serves me correctly, I seem to recall her once attributing her prowess to exposure to I.M.P.”

I furrowed my brow.  “I.M.P. ?  What is that?”

“I am not sure,” Elegy admitted.  “All that I know for certain is that it was a potion created by one Ms. Twilight Sparkle.  Beyond that, I can only speculate.”

My ears perked up as I recognized the name of the mare and remembered the potion she had brewed: the same potion that Psyker had instructed me to imbibe earlier.  Perhaps the I.M.P. and the F.A.E.R.I.E. were related?  There was no way to tell for sure, but given Psyker’s reputation for magical ability and a possible link between the two potions, the possibility that I might have gained more than I realized was tantalizing, to say the least.  And more than a little unsettling.

I had one last question for Elegy after that.  It was more an idle curiosity than anything direly important, but still, I needed to know.  Wrinkling my brow, I asked, “How is it even possible for Psyker to see the future?”

“That, my dear, is for me to know, and for you to find out.”  Elegy gave an apologetic shrug before continuing.  “Psyker explicitly forbade me from answering that query long ago.  Instead, she insisted that I memorize her idea of an appropriate response, just for you.”

Elegy made air quotes with his hooves and recited in a taunting, haughty voice, “ ‘If you want to understand my magic, girl, then first you need to learn yours.’ “

I snapped my tail behind myself in frustration.  Sighing at his non-answer, I tried to reason with Elegy one more time.  “Have you already forgotten what I told you?  Psyker wishes for me to kill you.  Why in the wide world of Equestria would you still do her bidding?”

I never got my answer.  Instead the ground rumbled beneath our hooves once more, and for far longer than any of the other explosions.  As I adjusted my balance, I accidentally stepped on one of the vines lying atop the stone dais.  It was pulverized under the weight of my hoof, crushed into a dry powdery dust as if it had been subjected to centuries of unrelenting heat without the barest drop of moisture to sustain it.

In retrospect, I probably should have taken that as a warning sign…

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation elsewhere?”  The Bard asked, gesturing to a doorway near the back of the room.  “I’d really rather avoid whatever calamity is coming our way.”

Lily stepped closer to me, and whispered into my ear.  “Uh, not to sound like I’m siding with this asshole but I actually kinda agree with him.”

Noting the anxiety in her voice, I turned to face her.  “Lily?”

Wincing, she tapped her forehooves together and glanced toward the ceiling.  “If the ground starts shaking again, I’d really like to not have tons of concrete over my head.”  She did seem to have a fair point on that matter.

Nodding, I turned back to The Bard and hastily restated my demands. “You are free to play your part to counter whatever infernal games Psyker is engaged in right now, but after that you will leave this area.  Forever.”

Elegy clenched his jaw and obstinately stated, “You do understand that under no circumstances will I even entertain the notion of harming Psyker, correct?”

I pursed my lips and stared him down, hoping to find the right thing to say.  Elegy might have been the most persuasive pony in the whole desert, but with just that one look I knew that no amount of words would ever cover up the truth in his eyes.  He really did love Psyker.  He would do anything for her.  Even if he knew that she would never love him back.

He was a desperate creature clinging to the only strand of hope he still possessed.  In the back of my mind, part of me wondered if he and I weren’t so dissimilar in that regard.  After all, it hadn’t been that long since I had screamed myself hoarse in the orchard, begging Luna for a sign.

My hard glare softened, and I let out a breathy sigh as I shook my head.  I don’t know if it was sympathy or pity that moved me to speak more kindly to him.  “If everything that you have told me is true,” I began, “and Psyker really does wish to transform this arid desert into fertile farmland, then please inform her that I am willing to play my part.”  Lily coughed loudly behind me.  I glanced back at her to see a doubtful expression staring back.

I raised a hoof to her shoulder, and gave a gentle nod of my head before turning back to Elegy and laying down my terms.  “Perhaps we can come to some sort of an agreement, if she ceases with her devious schemes and desists from inciting violence amongst the residents of The San Palomino.  But sooner or later, Psyker will have to answer for her crimes.”

By my side, Lily let out a soft chuckle.  “I knew there was a reason I liked you, babe.”

The Bard hung his head for a moment before lifting his hooves in defeat and suggesting, “Then at least I will have time to convince you otherwise.”

”Fuck no, you won’t!”  Lily blurted out with a stomp of her hoof.  “We’re leaving right now!  And you assholes can find your own way outta here!”  I scarcely had time to agree with her before Lily’s hooves were coaxing me off of the dais and toward the aforementioned exit.

The Bard lifted a pleading hoof just as we were trotting past him. ”Wait!  I…  I would like to give you one last thing before we part.”  Despite Lily’s protests, I slowed down and raised an eyebrow as I stood before Elegy.

Glancing behind himself, Elegy called to his gang.  “Carte Blanche?”

The last unknown unicorn in the group stepped forward but remained silent.  He was a rather plain-looking stallion; to be perfectly honest the only remarkable thing about him was the fact that he was wearing a PipBuck on his right leg.

Elegy explained himself as Carte approached.  “My troupe and I have been using the subway tunnels stretching between Fancy Lick and Spursburg to evade Adamant’s ruffians for years now.  I hope that they might keep you safe as well.”  Gesturing to my own PipBuck, he asked, “May I?”

I pursed my lips and raised a doubtful eyebrow, but eventually offered up my hoof.  Elegy’s horn lit bright green, and connected a thin wire between Carte’s PipBuck and my own.  A moment later, the names of a few dozen underground locations had popped up in my field of vision.  When Elegy removed the wire, I silently held my PipBuck to my face and eyed the map he had given me.

“Consider it a parting gift,” Elegy whispered with a pained smile.

Lily snorted, “Right.  Like we even need to worry about Adamant’s gang.  I’ll take the surface route.”

Ignoring Lily, Elegy grimaced and held a hoof to his heart.  “And for what little it is worth, Candy, know that I am sorry for what I have done to you.  I know that it wasn’t right, but neither Psyker nor I knew of any other way to keep you in this desert long enough for you to save it.”

I felt the sincerity in his words, and I couldn’t help but hope they were true.  Part of me wanted to believe that he was sorry, and that he might actually be a good pony if he could just turn his life around.  However, the rest of me couldn’t forget that these past few weeks of hardship in my own life were his fault.  That part of me wanted to draw my weapons and start firing as quickly as I could pull the triggers.

In the end, I didn’t respond to him at all.  I simply glanced back to Lily, nodded, and then the two of us continued past The Bard and his gang without a word.  Drying grass and withering ferns crunched underneath our hooves as we trampled toward the door in the back of the room.

Above us, several of the trees had traded in their lush green leaves for a beautiful mixture of yellows, oranges, reds, and browns.  The oppressive green of the room was slowly receding as the plants shriveled and died before our eyes.  I could only surmise that since I had removed the white orb from the altar, the plants and fungi were no longer receiving whatever magical nourishment had sustained them.  If nothing else, it did mesh rather well with Elegy’s theory that the orb had some sort of power to stimulate plant growth.

When we were just a few hoofsteps from the doorway I paused to take one last look around the room.  Witnessing the results of my actions on all the magnificent flora around me brought a pang of guilt to my heart.  It reminded me of the tragic outcome that had resulted from my misplaced shot in my stable’s library.  I shook my head and turned back toward the door, trying to convince myself that I was not doomed to leave a trail of destruction in my wake.  As it turned out my ponderings were somewhat apt.  That precise moment, as my sister might have put it, is when all hell broke loose.

A thundering crash sounded just behind me, sending shockwaves that rumbled through my very bones as the room was flooded with light.  All the vibrant hues in the room were obliterated in an instant, painted over with a uniform ivory coat.  Before I could glance behind me a surge of magic slammed into my side with all the concussive force of a bomb blast, forming a thick layer of purple crystal all around my body.  I blinked, stunned, and felt my eyelashes scrape against the hard magenta surface just in front of my face.

Lily was faster than I was, and spun around just as the crystal enveloped my body.  Through a purple filter, I watched her blood-red eyes go wide in abject horror before her wings flared at her sides.  Turning back to stare at whatever was taking place behind me, Lily mouthed a single word that aptly summed up the entire situation.  “Fuck!”

Elegy’s alarmed voice was the next to sound off, uttering a single word as the bright white light in the room dimmed to a cool glow.  “Psyker?”

That same tired, throaty voice I had heard in her audio recordings sighed in response.  “Elegy…”

Oh Goddess!  Psyker was here!?  If I had been able to move my jaw would have dropped, but the crystal prison did nothing to keep my heart rate down.  I was straining my eyes to see behind me, but saw nothing more than a pale aura of light.  With dread, I realized it was nothing more than the titanic glow of Psyker’s horn as she powered down her magic.  Elegy hadn’t been lying about her!  I hadn’t even realized a unicorn could hold that much power!

Heavy hoofsteps fell on the ground behind me, coming closer.  Lily gasped, then sneered and dashed past the edge of my vision.  Another cacophonous explosion of sound and light later, and Lily was hurled into the wall in front of me.  She shrieked in anger and surprise, kicking her legs and flapping her wings wildly as she struggled against the ivory cloud snaking around her limbs.  Pysker’s magic dragged Lily several feet above the floor and pinned her in place against the wall before splaying Lily’s wings open like a butterfly in an insect collection.

Lily was still cursing in pain and rage when Psyker growled, “Wait your turn, bitch.”

The hoofsteps resumed, slowly plodding in my direction as I watched the shadows on the walls flee before Pysker’s advance.  When the only shadow left was my own Psyker stopped and stood still, just outside my field of vision.  In a cold, dead voice she whispered, “You disobeyed me.”

Even if I had known what to say I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak!  Psyker continued a second later, speaking so softly that only I could hear her.  “You were supposed to do this yourself, girl.  Now I have to rectify your failure.”

A second set of hoofsteps galloped toward us, and Elegy asked in a panicked voice, “Psyker?  What is all this?  I’ve already convinced them to lend us their aid!”  Behind him, the rest of his gang’s confused cries of shock echoed his concerns.

For a moment all was silent save for Lily’s strained grunts as she tried to escape the magic holding her in place.  Then Elegy’s voice called out again.  “Psyker?”

What I heard next defied every expectation.  Close behind me, just over my shoulder, I could hear quiet sobbing.  In a broken voice Psyker murmured, “It’s the only way.”

There were more hoofsteps behind me, approaching slowly and cautiously over the dried grass.  “Psyker, it’s okay.  I’m here, Love.”

The sobbing continued, growing louder as Elegy tried to reassure her.  “Shh…  It’s okay.  We’ll figure this out.”

A deathly silence fell over the room as Psyker’s weeping ceased.  Lily even stopped struggling against the magic, staring wide-eyed over her shoulder at whatever was taking place behind me.  A fleeting glimmer of hope, like a solitary moonbeam shining down through a pale cloudy sky, danced through my mind.

Psyker whimpered out a heartbroken apology.  “I’m sorry.  It’s the only way.”

I watched in horror as the white cloud over Lily’s left wing condensed and tightened.  I listened as Lily’s agonized scream curdled my blood.  There was nothing either of us could do.  Psyker’s magic ripped a bladed feather from Lily’s wing, snapping the chains and bolts holding it in place as if they were little more than frayed twine and dried twigs.  The blade zipped past my face, whistling through the air before plunging into flesh.

Elegy grunted and coughed, and I heard blood splatter against the floor before he choked out, “P-Psyker?”

A chorus of ponies shouted in unison, “MASTER!”

One tired voice sobbed, “You would have stopped me.”  Psyker’s voice devolved into quiet murmurs as she repeated, “You would have stopped me…  This was the only way.”

Elegy’s voice, wet and thick with what I could only assume was his own blood, whispered, “L-Love?”

“I never wanted to hurt you!” Psyker cried out.  Her voice was manic, desperate.  Every word came out a little louder and more shrill than the last.  “Why didn’t you listen to me?  Why doesn’t anypony ever listen to me!?”

Elegy’s weakening voice, still warm and caring, spoke in a soothing whisper.  “Psyker…  This is—”  Elegy coughed, straining to eke out just a few more raspy words.  “—just the way…  you said…”  He never finished what he was going to say.  The last thing I heard from him was his body slumping to the floor.

The silence was near-absolute, broken only by the anguished sobbing of one immensely powerful unicorn standing just behind me.  In front of me, Lily was staring unblinking and slack-jawed at what had just transpired.  Amidst it all my oxygen-deprived mind was racing, trying to make sense of it all and failing in spectacular fashion.

Before I could piece everything together, one of the remaining gang members shouted in shock and anger, “You killed him!”

Psyker kept sobbing.  “Why doesn’t anypony ever fucking listen to me?”  Shouting at the top of her lungs in my direction, she cried, “This is your fucking fault!  This is all your fucking fault!”

Her shrieking echoed off the walls and the trees, and a blazing light colored everything in the room bright white.  The tipping point had been reached; her sorrow had boiled over into rage.  A booming scream filled with anguish erupted out of Psyker as her magic filled the air.  “I see EVERYTHING!  You want to know what the future holds if you don’t listen to me!?  IT LOOKS LIKE THIS!”

That was all the warning anypony got.  Psyker screamed in suffering and fury, and I felt a colossal amount of energy rip and tear its way through the air.  Not even a second later a titanic shockwave rippled through the ground, jarring my brain and rattling my teeth together as I watched the blowback scatter tree branches, terminals, and bits of rubble into my field of vision.

“She just killed Firn and Flare!” I heard Double Header scream.  “She’s lost it!  Put her down!”

I… I almost don’t want to imagine what took place behind me after that.  The wall in front of me lit up like a theater screen, awash with a dazzling display of prismatic lights as spells and bullets hurtled through the air.  The shadows of unicorns and trees were silhouetted against the wall, offering fleeting glimpses of the carnage playing out behind me.  What I saw, what little I could see, chills me to this day.

I could hear bones and tree branches snapping, ponies shrieking in agony, bullets plinking uselessly off of magical shields, arcane flame, frost, and lightning being flung in every direction, more teleportation spells than I could count, and beams of energy melting through wood, flesh, stone, and metal alike.  Something heavy smacked against a tree trunk with a wet splat, crashing through leafy branches before impacting what I could only imagine was a bank of terminals.  The ground shook as the trees splintered and fell, cracking stone beneath their weight.  And all the while, ponies were screaming in terror and begging for their lives.

Lily, seemingly forgotten by Psyker, tumbled to the floor in a heap.  Still nursing her bloody wing, she darted to the front of my crystal and slammed her hooves into my prison.  “Candy!” she screamed,  “We’ve got to get the fuck out of here!”  Grumpy leapt to and fro along her ear, barking out a warning just before a hail of bullets slammed into the hard crystal behind me.  As Lily ducked behind my purple prison a volley of lead whipped past her hat and impacted the wall next to us.  With a wide-eyed look of terror, she yelled, “Come on!  Help me break this!”

With manic desperation, Lily pounded her hooves into the crystal above my chest over and over again, but never even managed a single crack.  I charged as much magic into my horn as I had at my disposal, but with the corners of my vision already going dark, I barely managed a spark.  Neither Lily nor I were able to make any headway with the crystal at all!  Distracted by my exertions, I never even noticed that the room had fallen silent once more.

A blinding ivory light shone from a source just behind me, and I heard Thin Mint plead in a panicked shriek, “No!  Please!  I did everything you asked!”

Psyker paused long enough to ask, “Who are you loyal to?”  At Thin Mint’s pathetic sobbing, Psyker repeated the question, but louder.  “WHO ARE YOU LOYAL TO!?”

The sobbing stopped, and a brief flash of green light preceded an entirely different voice—one much harsher and more raspy than the timid mare—that yelled proudly, “Long live the Que—”  A sound somewhere between snapping bones and crushing eggshells cut the voice off just before a blue-green liquid I couldn’t identify splashed against the floor at my hooves.

Lily looked up as the liquid nearly splattered across her hooves, and her wings flared wide just as the cloud of white magic returned to coil around her body and slam her against the floor.  She gasped as the wind was knocked out of her, and squirmed futilely against the force crushing her against the ground.  I watched in horror as the magic tightened around her left wing and jerked it upwards, directly in front of my face.

Psyker’s anguished voice spoke right beside me.  “You made me do this…”  She stepped close enough that I could just see the edge of her mane, which was a purple so ghostly-white that I had trouble believing it could exist.  The tip of her horn was real enough though, and the light shining from its edge was more intense than even the magic of the alicorns.  Whispering again, she stated plainly, “I could crush the life out of her with just a thought.  Is that what you want?  Do you think that would be fair?”

My eyes went wide.  I struggled against the crystal, fighting to move, to cast a spell, to scream, but nothing worked.  My limbs were too weak, my magic not potent enough, and my throat only managed a terrified and muffled murmur.

“You made me kill my only friend.”  Psyker was growing manic, with every word coming out a little more unhinged than the last.  “You made me kill the only stallion I…”  Psyker trailed off, her breath hitching in her throat as she fought to control her breathing.

Psyker tightened her magical grip on Lily’s wounded wing, and slowly began bending it in the wrong direction.  Lily screamed in pain as the joint teetered on the breaking point.  Goddess, I couldn’t do anything but watch!  And I couldn’t bear to look!

The tell-tale sound of magic played right beside my ear, and the ivory cloud gripping Lily’s wing abruptly vanished.  Lily folded her wing against her body, rubbing it with a hoof while glaring daggers at Psyker.  In a hushed whisper, Psyker stated, “No.  No, you still need her.  I can see that.  And I can see a much better way to repay you than this.”

A second later, the bloody blade was flung carelessly in Lily’s direction, clanging against the floor and clattering to a stop just in front of her face.  She snatched it up and hugged it to her chest while Pyker maintained the telekinetic grip pinning her against the ground.

Agonizingly slowly, and just when I was sure that I would pass out from asphyxiation, Psyker whispered in a voice that sent shivers down my spine and lined my heart with frost.  “I will never forgive you for this.  There is no revenge you could ever conceive of that will come close to what I will exact upon you one day, Candy Stripes.”

Pulling back from my ear, Psyker released her magical hold on Lily and growled, “See you in 85.”  And with those last cryptic words, the crystal shattered into a thousand tiny shards all around me.  My burning lungs filled with air as I gasped and choked, but before I could speak a single word or even turn to see her face, a torrent of magic flooded the air beside me, and Psyker disappeared in a deafening crash of thunder.

My mane fluttered with the force of her magical exit, and I reflexively shut my eyes tight from the booming magical explosion at my side.  When I opened them and lowered my hoof, I could see the absolute devastation that Psyker had wrought upon the remnants of The Bards.  Broken and bloody bodies, some charred from fire or lightning, some bludgeoned with clubs or hooves, and others ripped apart by pure magic, lay scattered around the room.  Limbs and entrails hung from the burning branches overhead.  Flecks of skull had been pasted to tree trunks, glued in place by the smeared brains they once encased.

I shook my head and gasped at the devastation, turning back to find Lily lying on the floor grimacing.  As the smell of smoke reached my nostrils, memories of burning books resurfaced in my mind, and I knew that we needed to move quickly.  I raced to Lily’s side and helped her get back on her hooves.  “Lily, are you okay!?”

She winced as I held her hoof.  “A little dinged up, but I’ll live.  You?”

I nodded, and rummaged through my packs for a jar of Sweet Water, holding it out to Lily with my magic.  “I’m fine!  Drink this, quickly!  That fire is about to spread!”

As she threw her head back to chug the jar of purple liquid, I turned my attention back to the carnage that had been wrought upon the room.  Deep channels had been melted into the walls; evidence of an exceedingly powerful magic beam.  The tops of most of the trees had been shorn off, and most of the plant life had either been reduced to ash, or was still burning.  Even the monolithic tree in the room’s center had been blackened, with a gigantic, scorched impact crater splintering its bark and exposing the wood underneath to the flames feeding off its neighboring flora.  Not even the stone dais and altar had been spared; both of them were shattered, reduced to a pile of rubble, power cables, and dust.

Just when I thought the devastation couldn’t have possibly been any worse, a colossal cracking noise echoed through the room all around us.  I watched as one of the nearby vines growing up the wall withered and died, turning grey and drying out in the span of seconds.  That…  That was much faster than the previous rate of desiccation I had witnessed…

As Lily finished her potion, I watched a wave of gray-brown death radiate outward from the stone altar as all the last remnants of beautiful green life in the room shriveled up and expired.  The tree branches, roots, and the vines clinging to them gnarled and twisted in on themselves.  Where the largest roots came into contact with the walls and floors, they crumbled and buckled the concrete under the force of their constriction before crumbling into a fine powder and spilling out of the holes they had bored through the structure.  As the horrific realization of what was coming next washed over me, a tiny piece of the ceiling bounced off the dying floor right in front of Lily, and I saw her ears lay flat against the sides of her head.

Lily’s jaw dropped, and the bottle slipped from her grasp to shatter against the floor.  She gazed through the rising smoke and whispered, “Oh, fuck me…”   The creak of several tons of loosening material above our heads answered her, and in response she grabbed me by the hoof and bolted in the direction of the door, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs, “THIS IS WHY I FUCKING HATE OLD RUINS!”  Yanking at my hoof, she darted toward the door as fast as her legs could carry her.

At first, I struggled to keep up with her as she raced through the halls.  But as the facility’s structural integrity deteriorated ever further, and a deep rumbling and crashing sound grew behind us, I found that I could run just a little bit faster.  The plants that would have blocked our passage just minutes ago were now nothing more than brittle husks and stems, and Lily’s blades carved through them like butter as she blazed a trail for me to follow.  Behind us, the caving ceiling crashed to the floor one massive chunk at a time, kicking up dust and debris that flew past my head and obscured my vision.

In her haste, Lily blitzed right past the stairs leading to the subway tunnels.  I came to an abrupt stop and shouted as loud as I could, “Lily!  This way!”

She skidded to a halt, and glanced between me and the stairs.  With frantic motions, she screamed back at me, “The tunnels!?  Are you fucking kidding me!?”

The collapsing ceiling was seconds from overtaking us.  I screamed at my best friend, “We can’t outrun it!  We have to take cover!”  Turning down the steps, I paused one last time and turned to plead with her.  “Hurry!”  I saw the panic in her eyes, that one little moment of hesitation as she weighed my reason against her fear, and then I saw her sprint back in my direction before I leapt down the steps three and four at a time.

Just underneath the shaking ceiling, I could see a rusty metal train that had derailed in the subway channel, leaving a small opening between itself and the tiled platform.  The ground quaked and the walls rattled as I recognized that opening as our only chance of survival.  I heard Lily’s hooves clatter against the steps behind me just before the rumble reached a crescendo and a wave of force exploded in our direction.  The sound was absolutely deafening, like being trapped underneath a steel bell while raiders pelted it with bullets from all angles.  I lost my balance and almost tumbled down the stairs, but a strong set of hooves caught me mid-fall, and Lily was able to keep the both of us aloft just long enough for us to reach the flat platform at the bottom.  She pulled up with all her might at the last second, but only managed to keep us from slamming headfirst into the dirty tile floor.  Instead, we skipped along the tiles like a pair of stones on water, and with a tumultuous crash we slammed into the train and slipped down the opening to land just beside the tracks.

I landed on my back, slamming my head against the ground.  I could already feel lightheadedness overtaking me before Lily landed like a sack of very unconscious potatoes on my chest, knocking whatever was left of my breath out in a pained “Oof!”  A wave of dust, glass shards, and debris blew over the platform and covered the ground all around us.  All was still and quiet save for the low rumble I felt as the ministry building collapsed around us.

Miraculously, the ceiling above us had held.  I sucked in breath, thanking whatever cosmic force had decided to take pity on us.  For one fleeting moment I thought that we had escaped, but the last thing I remember seeing before my eyes closed was the ceiling of the subway splitting open and plummeting toward my screaming face.


**************


I woke to a pounding in my skull and a fire in my lungs, gasping and coughing repeatedly in quick, shallow breaths before dislodging a foul glob of sludge from my throat.  An impossibly heavy weight rested on my chest and stunted my attempts to draw the stale, dusty air into my lungs.  The taste of dirt and rock lingered on my tongue as simple instinct drove me to fight for air, and before I knew it I was twisting and turning against the confining weight bearing down on my body.  But my squirming was futile; my movements were limited to my head and right foreleg.  It was only after I realized that my struggling was useless—and calmed myself just enough to ponder how I might escape my confines—that I also realized my eyes were open.

“Dark” is simply inadequate for describing what I saw.  It was not just dark.  I was bearing witness to the utter absence of light.  The only times I had ever experienced darkness like this had been in The Stable during a total power failure.  So why was it so dark now?  And why did it feel like I was trapped underneath a soft pile of incredibly heavy blankets?

Oh…  Right…

I lay still, breathing in the small, shallow breaths that my pitch-black prison would allow, and slowly regained my grasp of the situation.  The Bard, the orb, Psyker, the dying plants, the collapsing building, the subway tunnel, and then the cave-in…   Right, right…  With my PipBuck pinned against my stomach I instead lifted my right hoof and pawed clumsily at my face, hoping to brush away the pulverized rock that had gathered near my eyes and soothe the pulsating ache underneath my temples.

Wait a second…

Dear Goddess!  The roof had fallen directly on top of me!  I had to get out of—

The “blankets” moved.  Or to be more accurate they convulsed with their own coughing fit.  Lily groaned on top of me as she tried to lift her head away from my chest, but lost consciousness a second later.  Her cheek slumped against my throat as she resumed sleeping, eliciting an annoyed little beep from my bomb collar while Lily’s breath rustled the fur on the underside of my chin.

Oh Goddess, I might have been terrified by these circumstances, but Lily was likely to have a heart attack if she woke up!  I lifted my head, wincing as my horn scraped uncomfortably against a slab of concrete, and forced myself to calm my breathing.  I had to find a way to get us out of this mess, and the sooner the better!

I lit my horn, and grimaced as I saw just how little space we had in this tiny pocket by the train tracks.  Above us, there was only rock and debris.  A huge slab of the tunnel’s roof had fallen on the train, caving in the passenger cars and bridging the gap between the train and the station’s platform to create a roof over the channel we now occupied.  By some miracle, that slab had not split in two.  Judging by the size of the debris inches from my head, that slab was the only thing that had saved our lives.

Even with that stone slab holding back the worst of the collapsed ceiling, we were still buried underneath a sizable pile of rubble.  Chunks of stone as large as my head were heaped on top of Lily, and since she was on top of me, we were both trapped.  Most of the debris was too heavy—or too worryingly unstable—for me to lift away, but I was able to to heft a few pieces of rubble to the side with my magic.  Unfortunately, the only meaningful outcome of that endeavor was that I was finally able to extract my PipBuck from underneath the unconscious pegasus on my chest.  At least she had a little more room to breathe…

A few inches to my left, the station’s platform stood like an impervious bulwark against the collapse of the tunnel.  To my right, the pancaked train’s wheels bit into gravel and earth.  Even if it were possible for me to squeeze through the inches-wide gap underneath the mashed metro, I wasn’t so sure that I would be brave enough to try.  Looking past Lily—which was quite a feat with her flattened wide-brimmed hat in the way, mind you—only revealed an impassable mound of more rubble.  But by laying my head down on the ground and twisting my neck uncomfortably I could see that most of the rubble closest to my head was more akin to gravel and sand.  If nothing else, that direction certainly seemed to be our best option at the time.

I lay still for a moment and examined my options.  I knew that I stood no chance of extricating us from the rubble with my hooves; my magic had always been far stronger than my limbs, and it was quite obviously inadequate for the task at hoof.  I was just pondering the idea of using one of my new potions when my new phantasmal friend reared his angry little head.

Grumpy clumsily staggered out of Lily’s hat, rubbed the sleep out of his tiny see-through head with a paw, and squeaked out his displeasure.  For just a moment I was left to wonder why the light being shed from his body failed to illuminate any of the surroundings, but as soon as Grumpy saw my surprised face he leaned over the brim of Lily’s hat and shook his diminutive fist in my direction.  My idle curiosity withered and died in the face of Grumpy’s intimidating fusillade of furious squeaks and chirps.

I winced at the verbal assault, and tried to calm him down.  “Err, Grum—”  His vicious little tirade continued right through my attempts at reason.  I paused for a moment, letting him continue until I sensed a lull in his chittering.  “Gru—”  Just as I opened my mouth, the little blue monster cut me off again!  Okay, enough was enough!  My eyes hardened as I hissed over his squeaking, “Do I look like I speak Squirrel!?”

Grumpy’s beady little eyes narrowed as he stopped shaking his fist and silenced himself.  I took that as a sign that I at least had an opportunity to speak.  “I understand that for whatever reason you and I don’t exactly see eye to eye,” I paused for breath before continuing a moment later, “but you do care for Lily, do you not?”  He crossed his front paws over his chest and cocked his head.  The expression on his face told me that my question was incredibly obtuse.  “Okay,” I nodded, “then can you and I please set aside whatever quarrel there is between us long enough to get Lily out from underneath all this rubble?”  Grumpy rubbed his whiskery chin with a pale-blue paw before I added, “I’m sorry for offending you.  I need your help.”

Grumpy stared right at me, swishing his wispy whiskers from side to side for a few seconds before letting out an immaterial breath and holding up his paws in a shrugging gesture.  A moment later, he was standing at full attention and twisting his head in every direction to peer all around us.  I assume that his reaction translated into something along the lines of “Okay.”

Realizing that I was now asking for help from a ghost—and the ghost of a rock squirrel, at that—I rubbed my eyes and sighed.  “Dear Goddess, how did my life get so strange?”

A series of short, excited squeaks prompted me to open my eyes again, and I found Grumpy pointing just over my head in the direction of the less-dense rubble.  I nodded as much as I could without banging Lily on the snout with my chin, and asked, “So we should go that way?”

Without warning, the little blue devil leapt from Lily’s hat and landed directly on my nose.  My eyes went wide as his icy, weightless body scampered across my face and raced past the crown of my head.  After a moment spent trying to recover from the shock of his chilling touch, I twisted my neck to see where he was going.

Grumpy had placed himself between two of the larger pieces of jagged concrete, jumping up and down excitedly while he pointed at something just out of my sight.  Taking his enthusiasm as a good omen, I allowed a bit of hopeful optimism to bleed into my voice as I asked, “Do you see a way out?”  Grumpy nodded his affirmation, gestured to whatever he was trying to point out again, and then pantomimed tugging on a lever or bar of some sort.

Furrowing my brow, I asked, “You want me to pull something?”  He answered with another nod of his blueish head.  “Okay…” I replied, trying my best to keep my skepticism out of my voice.  “But I can’t reach that far.  And I can’t see well enough to focus my magic.”  Grumpy slapped his face with the palm of his paw, wafting wispy little trails of vapor behind his head before rolling his other paw over and over in the air.  I was left with the distinct impression that he was telling me to A: stop making stupid observations, and B: hurry up.

With Grumpy’s squeaks for guidance—and a lot of concentration to maintain the telekinetic field on my part—my tendril of magic slowly scooped piles of powdery debris to the side, snaked blindly through the remaining rubble, and wrapped around whatever object he had noticed previously.  At his signal I gently tugged with my magic, but only felt a stubborn resistance as whatever I had grasped refused to budge.  I tried again, this time putting a bit more force into it, and was rewarded by the sound of metal scraping against concrete as the rubble shifted a fraction of an inch.

I nearly lost my focus as I realized that I just might be able to dig myself out of this mess after all!  Closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, I yanked on the hidden metal object with every ounce of my magical strength.  One end of a rusted metal I-beam lurched out of the rubble, crushing concrete as it fell before slamming into the ground a scant few inches from my head.  My ears felt as if they might start bleeding at any moment from the cacophonous shrieking of the metal beam’s reluctant departure from the rubble, but my eyes were ready to cry from joy!

I gasped as I saw dim light trickle down through the rubble, and took in a sweet breath of slightly-less stale air before lavishing the little ghost with my gratitude.  “Oh my goodness, I can see a way out!  The tunnel isn’t completely collapsed!  Thank you, Grumpy!”  Grumpy crossed his forelimbs over his chest and nodded his head, but just as soon as he had dropped back to all fours a violent rumbling shook the ground underneath my back.  I heard tiles, bricks, and steel crack and clang against each other in the dimly-lit subway tunnel, and a thick cloud of dust diffused the light just before a terrifying screech filled the air.

I thought that I was doomed.  I thought that I had inadvertently disturbed a delicate balance of rubble, and that the precariously piled peril perched just above my face would come toppling down at any second.  I thought, for sure, that Lily and I would be entombed forever underneath a mountain of debris.  What I didn’t expect, was for a slimy dark-green tentacle to slither through the tiny opening I had created, wrap itself firmly around my PipBuck, and nearly jerk my leg out of its socket.

I was screaming and kicking well before the second and third tentacle snaked down the hole.  Those screams turned to muffled grunts as the other tentacles coiled tightly around my neck and shoulders.  I was jerked violently forward, slipping out from underneath Lily as my body twisted and contorted to squeeze through the tightly-packed space.  I crashed into jagged bits of rubble the whole way, bruising my body, busting my lower lip wide open, and rending a deep gash just above my left eye.  It was pure, dumb luck that my packs caught on the rubble, but that small blessing stopped my upward movement just as my bloody face burst through the opening.

Warm blood trickled down my face as I stared in unbelieving horror at the giant, pink, fleshy maw reeling me in from across the platform.  Three enormous jaws, each with a line of razor-sharp teeth running down its center, were splayed wide open where the giant creature had burst through the subway walls.  My eyes were bulging from the grip of the tentacle around my neck, but as my blood dripped off my nose and onto the monster’s appendage, it released my neck.  I sucked in dusty air and coughed, helpless to do anything as the disgusting thing slithered over my face like a tongue.  The foul creature licked up as much blood as it could, and then retracted its tentacle back into its gargantuan mouth.

A flood of memories swept through my mind: excerpts from old biology textbooks naming this beast before me, my father remarking that such a creature was actually a distant cousin to medical leeches, and even Mother mentioning a few applications for the petals of the flower this hideous monster guarded so closely.  But through the recollection of all those moments burned the agonizing memory of having a mouth-sized chunk of my shoulder ripped away and swallowed.  Terrified beyond all reason I drew my laser pistol, screamed for Luna’s help at the top of my lungs, and emptied the battery cell’s charge into the tatzlwurm’s gaping maw.

My paltry light show did little to the beast.  I managed to singe a few spots in its mouth, and even blacken one of its teeth, but the giant worm simply roared in anger and redoubled its efforts to reel me in.  I could feel potion bottles in my packs crushing between my body and the rubble, and every time I heard glass break I slipped a little closer to all those teeth.

My pistol fell, empty, to the tiled floor of the station’s platform as I inched upward.  With Lily’s lighter still underneath her hat my grenades were useless.  I whipped my head around to find my shotgun wedged against a bit of rubble, and realized it was one of the only things stalling my ascent.  My hind legs scrambled to find leverage, and I found enough purchase to halt my movement, but when the third tentacle whipped out of the tatzlwurm’s mouth and coiled around my right foreleg I lurched upwards once more.  I knew that I would never be able to teleport with those tentacles wrapped so tightly around my shoulders and limbs.  As my shoulders burst free from the rubble and into the open air of the subway tunnel I knew it was over; I had no options left.  I was powerless against all that strength.

A deep, powerful roar echoed down the tunnel.  The repetitive vibrations of monstrously heavy hooves thundered through the floor and rubble all around me.  I turned my head just in time to see one of the most beautiful sights I have ever witnessed.  He was my cadaverous savior.  My necrotic hero.  My knight in rotting flesh.

An enormous rambler ghoul rammed headfirst into one of the tatzlwurm’s jaws, slamming a row of teeth flat against the rest of the worm’s mouth.  I was snapped forward as the abrupt tension in the tentacles pulled me closer, but all three of the slimy tendrils quickly released me as the monster shrieked and focused its attention on the rambler.

I fell back down the hole in the worst way imaginable: knocking the wind out of my lungs before sliding further down and banging my chin against the edge of the platform as I bit deep into my tongue.  The taste of copper pooled in my mouth while stars exploded through my vision.  My back hooves landed awkwardly on the rubble underneath me, and the tendons in my ankle let off a sound eerily close to popcorn as they stretched and snapped around bone.  I felt warm liquid dribble down my chin as I groaned, coughed, and sucked in dusty air before choking on my own blood, all the while desperately fighting to keep my injured hoof from touching anything.  With tears already welling in my eyes and one of my legs completely out of commission, I clambered up onto the station’s platform and charged my healing magic, but never took my eyes off the battle of titans taking place just in front of me.

As the rambler reared up in preparation to stomp down on the worm’s upper jaw, the tatzlwurm whipped its grasping tentacles around the rambler’s smaller back hooves.  The worm jerked its head to the side, yanking the ghoul off its hooves and sending it crashing to the floor.  The weight of the ghoul’s massive shoulder cracked the tiles of the platform when it landed, and reverberated through the ground to rattle the teeth in my jaw.

Unable to use its massive forelimbs to clobber the worm to a pulp, the rambler instead clenched its jaw down on one of the tentacles wrapped around its hoof.  The tatzlwurm shrieked in agony and pulled all of its tentacles back into its mouth, dragging the rambler along with them.  When the jagged teeth of the ghoul shredded the slithering appendage into ribbons, a spurting fountain of blood sprayed out of the tentacle to coat the dusty floor red.

The worm retreated back through the tunnel it had bored into the subway tunnel, but not before clamping its jaws on the rambler’s right shoulder.  The gargantuan teeth in its maw sliced deep channels of oozing blackish-red through the ghoul’s impressively-large muscles as the tatzlwurm slithered back into its hole, and as those teeth reached the knee-joint I heard a sickening crunch.  A moment later the tatzlwurm had disappeared down its tunnel, the escape sending cascading tremors through the earth.

As I stared in a mixture of awe, terror, confusion, and gratitude, the rambler’s imposing figure hobbled to turn in my direction.  Its right foreleg was missing from the knee down, leaving the jagged remains of the cracked radius bone protruding like a spike from the receding muscle and sinew.  The right side of its face had been reduced to nothing more than smooth white bone and cavity-ridden teeth, but the bloodshot eyeball twitching in its left eye-socket could have almost passed for healthy.  That same scarlet-irised eye kept flitting between me and the ground at my hooves, as if the gargantuan creature didn’t quite know what to think of me.

Favoring my hind leg, I stitched my tongue back together and tried to catch my breath.  As the pain in my mouth faded to memory the debilitating agony in my hoof grew even more intense.  Combine that with the blood in my mouth and the vertigo from using my spell on myself, and I was lucky that I didn’t retch on the floor as I poured magic into my ankle.  I’m positive that the only thing that kept me from doing exactly that was the terror of standing next to a creature that could have ground me into a smear with one hoof.

Under normal circumstances I would have turned tail and fled long ago, but with Lily still underneath the rubble, and with her bomb-collar still cinched around her neck, I didn’t have that luxury.  Not to mention that it would take more than a simple healing spell to properly fix my ankle.  No, there would be no more running.  I would stand my ground.  Even if that meant I had to stand against a creature nearly three times my height and Luna knows how many times my weight in solid muscle.

Praying that slow, deliberate movements wouldn’t provoke a reaction from the gargantuan zombie, I carefully unslung my shotgun…

The ghoul snorted, blowing out a putrid blast of breath that nearly turned my stomach.  Every movement of its decomposing body was jerky and erratic.  The few patches of dirty white fur that still clung to its scarred hide lay matted against strips of peeling, grayed skin.

I could feel my heart thundering in my chest as I delicately loaded a slug into the chamber…

The bulging, veiny muscles in the ghoul’s neck rippled as the rambler turned its devastated face to examine the shard of bone and limp flesh that remained on its right leg.  It slumped to its haunches, grimacing as it prodded the protruding bone with its left hoof.  If I hadn’t been staring directly at it, I would have mistaken the quickened, distressed breathing for more of the beast’s erratic twitching.

Gently, I lifted my shotgun to take aim at that enormous eye…

That eye rolled in its socket, staring directly at me down the length of my gun.  The rambler didn’t move; it stayed perfectly still, waiting for me to pull the trigger.  That was all I had to do.  Just pull the trigger.  Then Lily and I would be safe…

That eye was still staring at me when I lowered the barrel of my shotgun.  I couldn’t do it.  Not like this, and especially not to a creature so pitiful.  I felt gratitude, of course, but I think that the real reason I didn’t kill that ghoul was simple pity.  The rambler snorted again when I brought my hoof to my quivering lips and shook my head.

Stowing my shotgun, I swallowed the lump in my throat and absentmindedly explained to myself.  “You saved my life.”

Catching me completely off-guard, a weak whisper answered.  “Yeah…”

My eyes shot open.  I stared unblinking at the behemoth.  Lifting a hoof I stammered, “Y-You can talk?”

Another whisper.  “Yeah…”

The gears in my head ground to a halt.  “But…  You’re a ghoul, are you not?”

The ghoul’s eye couldn’t focus on me.  It kept bouncing between my face and the tiled floor as the rambler replied, “Yeah…”

“You…  You’re intelligent…”  Even with the evidence staring me in the face, I couldn’t believe it.  This pathetic hulk had a mind.  As I suddenly realized the full extent of my situation I shut my eyes tight and shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts and steel my nerves for what would come next.

With my eyes still wide as dinner plates I cautiously stepped forward, taking care to not place too much weight on my severely sprained hoof.  I still remembered my, er, experimentation with the filly-ghoul, and how I hadn’t felt a single ounce of pain when I had used my spell on her, but…  Something told me this was different.  Completely unsure of how to proceed, I somehow managed to stumble into a passable excuse for conversation.  “You…  Dear Goddess, are…  Are you in pain?”

The rambler’s body convulsed before it drew in a sharp breath and whispered once more.  “Yeah…”

I gingerly hobbled a bit closer.  “Right, ah… I’ll see what I can do.”  Seeing no sign that the ghoul wanted me to stop, I lit my horn and used my spell.

Trying to adequately convey such an immense and varied sensation of pain is an exercise in futility, but for your sake I will try.  The closest approximation I can hope to reach is that my insides felt as if they had been put through a blender, mixed with caustic chemicals and rusty nails, and squeezed back into place until my skin was ready to burst.  Of course, that’s not even mentioning the prickly itching sensation crawling over my bones, the seizing and burning muscles trying to rip themselves free of my skeleton, the heavy weight of the thick black sludge clogging up my veins, the cracked lining of my dessicated throat and shriveled lungs, the aching hunger that somehow managed to pair itself with the overwhelming nausea in my belly, the sensation of thousands of tiny superheated shards of glass piercing every inch of my ripped and tattered skin, or the immense bomb-blast of a headache threatening to split my skull wide open like an overly ripe melon.  To be completely frank, I was actually rather glad that I couldn’t feel anything at all from the creature’s right foreleg.  At least that limb wasn’t bathed in a sea of agony!

Before my reeling mind could break the link between the ghoul and my own body, the relatively bright and vibrant world I inhabited turned bleak, gray, and distant.  By then, I was used to the sensation of sharing another’s pain as they passed from this world.  What I wasn’t expecting was for the gray to be left behind as the world plunged headfirst into pitch black.  And I wasn’t prepared in the slightest when that black reverted back to vibrant color, or when my world cycled through each of these states several times in quick succession, repeating the sickening pattern for as long as I maintained the magical connection.

I gasped and released the magic as I staggered on the slick floor, clutching my belly and trying to keep from throwing up.  With horror splayed across my face I glanced back to the twitching eye of the rambler ghoul, only for him to whisper once more.

“Yeah…”

I had only the wildest hare-brained hypothesis as to what was going on.  And even then, it was hardly something that I could test.  In the meantime, with his body so severely ravaged, I had to accept the painful realization that there was simply nothing I could do for the ghoul that had saved my life.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Yeah…” he replied.

“FUUUUUUUUUUCCKKKKKKK!”  Another voice—this one shouting obscenities at the top of its panicked lungs—emerged from the rubble by the train.  The rambler jerked and seized, locking its massive eye in the direction of Lily’s screaming, but otherwise stayed calm and still.  My own eyes darted nervously between the rubble and rambler, but after seeing its relatively placid demeanor I was confident that it wouldn’t hurt me while my back was turned.  Or well…  Confident enough that I was willing to try my luck, at least.

Tapping my PipBuck’s light on, I hobbled toward the sound of Lily’s voice and shouted down at the pile of debris.  “Lily!  Lily, I’m here!  Hold on!”

“C-Candy!?”  Lily’s voice was shrill from her panic, and raspy from all the dust in the air.  “Help!”

My magic was already rolling small chunks of ceiling out of the way.  “Lily, stay calm!  I’m going to get you out of here!”  A layer of overglow burst to life around my horn, and I just managed to tip over a flat piece of debris a little larger than an office chair.  Unfortunately, that left me panting for breath as I felt my magic waning.  “Li… Lily…  Give me a moment.  This is going to take me some time to—”

“Yeah…”

A  massive decayed hoof gently nudged me to the side.  I looked up to see the rambler taking my place, leaning its ruined shoulder against the passenger car and lowering its remaining forelimb to the pile of debris.  With one smooth motion of its hoof, hundreds of pounds of rubble went sailing through the air to land further down the tunnel in a tremendous crash.

Lily shrieked.  “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?”

Oh Goddess, how in Equestria was I going to explain this?  “Lily, just stay calm!  I, er… I may have made a friend.  He’s helping us!”  Just as I finished shouting back at the pile the rambler scooped out another layer of debris, flinging dozens of chunks of concrete the size of my head as easily as a foal might scatter pebbles.

“FINE, WHATEVER!  JUST GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF—”  Lily never finished that sentence.  As the last layer of debris over the giant slab that had saved our lives was removed, she caught a glimpse of our ghoulish savior.  Her reaction was just about what I expected.

“FUUUUCKKKK!”

I leapt to the platform’s edge, and extended my hoof down to her terrified face.  “LIly!  Don’t panic!  This ghoul is friendly!”

With her red eyes as frantic as her voice, she slapped my hoof away and screamed, “What are you doing!?  Run!  Go!”  As her hoof struck mine, a deep growl rumbled out of the rambler’s throat.  I glanced back to see a look of barely checked rage in its lone eye.

Turning back to Lily, I extended my hoof again and lit my horn to brush away some of the smaller pieces of rubble that still lay on top of her.  “Lily it’s fine!  He saved my life!”  At her incredulous stare I added, “Come on!  I need you to trust me.”

Lily’s ears were laying flat against her head as she stared in wide-eyed horror at the behemoth of undead flesh at my side.  As unnerving as it was to see her completely cowed, I was sure that if I could just get her out of her confining space and up onto the station she would calm down.  Unsure of what else I could do, I knelt down and rolled back into the trench to join her.

As I levitated grapefruit-sized wedges of concrete off her back, I pleaded with the crumpled hat atop her head for assistance.  “Grumpy?  I would be ever-so-grateful for you assistance once more, please!”

A little blue head peaked out from underneath the rim of Lily’s stetson, and then ducked back underneath to emit a long series of chirps and squeaks.  I let Grumpy do the talking while I busied myself with freeing Lily from her prison.  By the time she was able to stretch her wings out the look of utter terror in her eyes had died down to an expression more akin to very healthy—albeit still quite fearful—respect.

The rambler moved aside as we clambered onto the station’s platform.  After we had both dusted ourselves off, I tended to our scrapes and cuts while Lily fished out a broken cigarette and lit up much faster than usual.  Lily was so nervous that she was twitching almost as badly as the ghoul, clinking her wing-blades together while she stared.  I don’t think she even realized that the nub she was smoking lacked a filter.

“So,” Lily started in an anxious and irritable voice.  “This is a first.”  Taking a quick puff of her cigarette, she nodded and added, “Like, the very fucking first.”

I was busy drinking a Mana potion, but took the time to raise an eyebrow and ask, “What do you mean?”

She kept her eyes on the ghoul as she explained, “This is The San Palomino.  There’s no such thing as a non-feral ghoul here.”  Her eyes glanced in my direction, but quickly switched back to the rambler before she added.  “Even Ditzy Doo doesn’t like to stay here for long.  This desert gives her a headache.”

As soon as Lily uttered that name, the ghoul in front of us let out a grunt.  I watched in a mix of disgust and confusion as what little flesh on his face remained pulled back into a half-grin.  After pausing for a moment to wonder if I was actually watching a ghoul smile, and what that could possibly mean, I pursed my lips and lifted a hoof to gesture to our rotting friend.  “Well I don’t know who this ‘Ditzy Doo’ is, and I’m not as knowledgeable about these lands as you are, but this rambler seems to contradict your hypothesis.”

Grumpy launched into a squeaking fit just before Lily’s eyes narrowed in concentration.  A moment later, she pointed a wing at the wretched ghoul and shook her head.  “That’s not a rambler.”

Taken aback by such a ridiculous statement, I swished my tail and pointed out the very obvious.  “Er, Lily?  He’s massive.  And he was strong enough to fight off a tatzlwurm…”

Taking a step forward, Lily shook her head and stated in a much more sympathetic tone, “No.  This dude’s got wings.”  My eyes followed the direction of Lily’s bladed wing to find a pair of stunted, undersized, featherless flaps of flesh and bone poking out of the ghoul’s back.  I wasn’t entirely familiar with the significance of that, but Lily continued her observations before I could ask.  Pointing at the ghoul’s flank, she stated, “And see this?  He’s got a dumbbell for a cutie-mark.  Dude must have been a bodybuilder or something.”

Still twitching his tree-trunk sized limbs, the ghoul hung his ravaged head and whispered.  “Yeah…”

Looking a bit more relaxed, Lily turned back to me.  “Ditzy is the only pegasus ghoul I’ve ever seen in this desert, babe.  The rest are just earth ponies, unicorns, and zebras, and they’re all—”  Lily was cut off as the ghoul convulsed violently and drew several raspy breaths.  Lily’s expression turned dark before she admitted, “Yeah, I know what’s about to happen here.”  At my questioning gaze, she elucidated.  “Candy, I think he’s about to turn.  We need to leave.”

Having finally caught his breath, the ghoul set me with his one bloodshot eye and nodded.  “Yeah…”

My eyes darted between both Lily and the ghoul.  “Wait, what?”

Lily blew one last plume of smoke to the side before spitting her cigarette out on the floor.  Shaking her head, she frowned at the ghoul.  “That twitching?  The fact he can only say one word?  Dude’s about to turn feral.”

Suddenly the alternating sensations I had experienced while attempting to heal the ghoul made much more sense.  Combined with Lily’s knowledge, it added another vital clue to the formation of my budding  realization.  Still, it was hardly a pleasant thing to learn about a complete stranger that had just risked himself to save me.  “I see…”

Lily softened her voice as she addressed the ghoul.  “You know what’s about to happen to you, don’t you, big guy?”

The ghoul nodded slowly.  “Yeah…”

Lily grimaced.  “I feel like a fucking mule for asking this, but…”  She trailed off, frowning at me before she turned back to the ghoul and timidly asking, “Do you want me to…  You know…  End it?”

The ghoul’s breathing sped up as he twitched and grunted, but he never said anything.  Given the circumstances, we took that as a “No.”

Still speaking softly, Lily asked for confirmation.  “You’re gonna fight it ‘til the end, aren’t you?”

Snorting through the one nostril he had left, the ghoul grunted out, “Yeah…”

A small smirk spread over Lily’s face.  “Of course you will,” she asserted, and beat her hoof against her puffed-out chest.  “You’re a pegasus!”

Before I could inquire further, Lily splayed her wings wide and nodded at the ghoul.  “Thanks, big guy.  You’re alright.”  With renewed confidence, Lily walked right up to the ghoul and tapped his massive bicep with her hoof, then stared up at his lone eye and solemnly whispered, “Witnessed.”  Oddly enough, I felt a tingling chill run down my spine as she said that word.  It didn’t last long, however, and had already faded by the time Lily turned to me with a nod.  “Time to leave, Candy.  This guy’s got a date with Stormwalker.”

I was hopelessly lost.  “Er, what?”

“I’ll explain later.  Let’s go.”  Hooking a hoof behind my foreleg to urge me along, Lily guided me further down the tunnel.  I cast one last glance over my shoulder at the massive pegasus that had saved my life, but after nearly falling on my face due to misplacing my injured hoof on scattered bits of debris I decided it was better to watch where I was going.

A quick glance at my PipBuck later, and the maps provided by The Bard let us easily orient ourselves in the general direction of Spursburg.  We picked our way past all the tripping hazards and ducked into a maintenance access tunnel running parallel to the subway proper.  With the exceptions of centuries worth of dust and cobwebs, the narrow tunnel was spared from collapsing.  Of course, the relatively tidy appearance of our immediate environs did little to assuage Lily’s claustrophobia—she had only tightened her grip on my leg since we had entered the passage—but we were at least able to proceed at a fairly rapid pace.

Just as I noticed the smell of oil mingling with the musty scent of mushrooms and mold, Lily spotted an open door at the end of a short hallway to our right.  Tugging at my leg, she tilted her head toward the door.  “C’mon.  This way.”

Lily nudged the door to the side with her good wing, and the both of us stepped into a room filled with metal racks and shelves.  Boxes of railroad spikes, adhesives, and various tools lined the racks while the shelves on the walls bore a small collection of dirty water bottles and boxes of pre-war food.  A pair of skeletons lay in the corner next to a rusted barrel with a metal grate sitting on its top.

Lily shut the door and locked it behind us before immediately turning back to me and stating, “You’re limping.”

I winced, not wanting to slow us down.  “I sprained my ankle in the rubble by the train.”

She stepped forward, wrapped a wing around me, and helped me over to the corner with the rusty barrel.  Pulling my bedroll from my packs and spreading it out by the wall, she asked,  “How’s your horn?  Can you fix this?”

I pulled my packs off and sat down on the bedroll, resting my back against the wall and glancing worriedly at the skeletons next to me.  “Moderately strained, but I drank a Mana potion.  I should be able to heal myself shortly.”

“Alright, but don’t overdo it, okay?  We’ll need your magic later.”  Sitting beside me, she gently reached out and cradled my sprained hoof in her forelegs.  “This one, right?”  I nodded, and she asked, “Do you have any spare cloth?  I can wrap it to keep the swelling down.”

I shook my head, “No, don’t worry about it.  Any swelling will die down once I’ve used my magic.”

With a smirk, she asked, “Want me to kiss it and make it all better?”

I grinned but shook my head.  “Keeping it elevated should suffice, but thank you for the offer.”  Leaning my head against the wall, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to piece everything together.  “I’ve witnessed some fairly strange things since I’ve come to the surface, but what just transpired has me more worried than any of them.”

“I guess Psyker really does want you alive for something,” Lily nodded.  I glanced back to find her staring at the skeletons by the barrel.

“All the evidence points to that conclusion,” I nodded.  “After seeing the aftermath of her wrath I think I understand now why the bounty for her is so much higher than it is for the other raiders.”  I took a deep breath and rubbed my temples, trying to think.  Shrugging, I admitted, “I have no idea what we could possibly do to defeat her.”

Lily raised an eyebrow, and hugged my ankle to her chest a little tighter.  “Do you think The Bard was telling the truth?  About her plans for Mareon?”

I paused, thinking it over.  After a moment I nodded.  “I do.  Some of the things he said were fantastical for sure, and some of his claims were downright absurd, but…  Something big is about to happen, and for better or worse we have a part to play in Psyker’s plans.”

I adjusted my leg to sit a little more comfortably, and tried to change the subject.  “How was that ghoul intelligent?”  Lily cocked her head to the side, prompting me to explain, “The only other ghoul that I’ve ever seen that displayed any semblance of intelligence was Bright Eyes.  I didn’t think that was possible.”

Lily licked her lips and scowled, gazing at the skeletons in the corner.  “Everywhere else, there are lots of ghouls that didn’t turn feral.  You just never see any in this desert.”  Grumpy poked his head out of Lily’s hat and slapped his ghostly paw on her forehead, prompting Lily to add, “And Bright Eyes is…  weird.”

“Have you ever seen her yourself?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded.  “I’ve killed her a whole bunch of times with my rifle, but every time I blow her head off she just glows with magic and grows it back.  Then she glares at me.”  My eyes widened at that statement, belying how impressed I was.  Grinning at my expression, Lily chuckled and admitted, “Hunting ghouls is a lot easier when you can fly a few hundred feet above them, babe.”

A troubling thought occurred to me.  My ears lay flat against my head as I gulped and asked, “How common are pegasus ghouls?”

Seeing the worried expression on my face, Lily shook her head and chuckled reassuringly, “Don’t worry.  The only ones that can fly are the intelligent ones.  So that knocks it down to…”  She furrowed her brow and glanced up at the ceiling, as if she were solving an incredibly difficult mathematical equation.  “...About five, I think.  Really, the only one I see all that often is Ditzy Doo, and she’s a total sweetheart.”

I furrowed my brow.  “Why don’t the feral pegasi fly?”

“Fuck if I know,” she shrugged her wings, and answered my question with one of her own.  “Why don’t the feral unicorns use magic?”

I was about to respond that magic was beyond complicated, and that I didn’t believe for a second that a creature devoid of intelligence could possibly utilize even the most basic of spells, but then I remembered my first real use of magic.  My spell had activated so easily before I earned my glyph, even though I hadn’t received any training in its use whatsoever.  It came to me as naturally as breathing.

Shaking my head, I admitted, “I don’t know.”  Scarlet light filled the room as I focused my magic on my hoof, “But I do know that we’re wasting time.  I don’t want to keep you underground any longer than absolutely necessary, and I very much want to find Nohta.”

Lily smirked and tugged on my hoof, “As much as I’ve enjoyed keeping you all to myself, I have to admit that the fighting was a lot easier when there were three of us.  I kinda miss Short-stack, too.”

With a devilish grin she added, “And if I can convince her to take point, then that means I’ll get to stay in the back and admire your butt.”

“You’ll admire my sister’s hoof in your face if she catches you doing anything of the sort,” I giggled.

“And what if you catch me?” she teased.

I briefly considered reminding Lily of the can of beans with which I had assaulted her in The Mareon General Store, but after the events of the last few days a better idea came to mind.  I slowly lifted my now-healed appendage out of her hooves, stood up, and with my smirking face inches from her own, whispered, “Why don’t you try it and find out?”

Her jaw nearly hit the floor!  Ha!  She certainly hadn’t been expecting that!  I turned away from Lily’s stunned face and floated my packs back in place before walking to the door.  I was lucky that I wasn’t facing her, because despite how bold—and exhilarated—I felt saying that, my face was still beet red.

While I waited for my blush to subside, I unlocked the latch on the door and checked the charge in my pistol.  I turned back to find her still sitting in place exactly where I had left her, and with a small grin I asked, “Are you coming?”

She coughed and nodded, flapping her wings wildly as she hurried to join me at the door.  Just as she was about to step in front of me, I held out a hoof to bar her advance.  Holding up my pistol, I shook my head and grinned at her quizzical face.  “I’ll take point.  You watch the rear.”  I stepped through the door just as her wings rocketed upward.

Goddess, I was on fire!  For the first time in what felt like ages, I was positively brimming with confidence!  I barely suppressed my chuckle as I walked down the hall, reactivated my PipBuck’s lamp, and ventured into the access tunnel, fully prepared to face whatever the future had in store.

Before long we were back in the main tunnel, which luckily had a cement walkway traveling along its side.  The lights built into the walls of the subway were unreliable at best.  After the first mile, we only came across working lights every few hundred feet.  After the second mile, none of them worked at all.  Lily opted to walk at my side as we found ourselves once more in pitch-black darkness and forced to navigate by the light of my PipBuck.

Leaky pipes ran the length of the tunnel above us, occasionally depositing foul-smelling water into shallow pools worn into the concrete one drip at a time.  Colonies of puffy white fungal pods stood at eager attention around the pools, like trigger-happy security guards on the lookout for the slightest provocation to erupt in a cloud of spores.  It might have been a trick of the light but I was certain that one or two of the pods jiggled in excited anticipation as I carefully scooped up some of the smaller specimens into a jar.  Lily may have groaned and grumbled about the extra time it took to gather the pods, but a find like this was simply too good to pass up.  It’s not everyday that you stumble across the main ingredient for an exceedingly potent paralytic poison, after all.

The shadows of our legs moved in jerky patterns as we plodded forward, making it appear as if we were being followed by creatures just outside the reach of the light.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, we were also being subjected to echoes coming down the tunnel.  Echoes that sent a shiver up my spine.

We heard them long before we could see them.  In fact, we could smell them before we could see them.  The fetid reek of rotting flesh oozed slowly through the confines of the tunnel, clawing its way up to invade our nostrils and clench our throats tightly as we gagged from the stench.  Raspy shrieks and guttural growls bounced off the walls to assault our ears from every direction, making it hard to judge just how far away the horrid creatures were.

If there had been any other path I would have gladly taken it rather than deal with the ghouls ahead.  Unfortunately Elegy’s map indicated that there were no other escape route.  Our current section of tunnel was a long, narrow tube with the closest secondary tunnel nearly a mile ahead of us; leading to the outskirts of Spursburg.  Lily and I steeled ourselves for what was to come, and carefully stepped forward.

As we rounded a long bend in the tunnel we came face to face with a small herd of four scarred corpses.  They stood still in the dark, swaying in place over the skeletal remains of a unicorn like drunks too inebriated to do anything but stare at their unconscious friend.  I had already lined up a shot and was just about to open fire when Lily gently placed a hoof on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, “Save your ammo.  I got this.”

I scarcely had time to turn my head before Lily blitzed forward, running along the walkway with her good wing extended.  The ghoul on the left lowered its stance to hiss and growl as she approached, but just as the ghoul’s ruined mouth opened Lily’s blade slipped between its rotten teeth.  I heard the distinctive clinking sound of metal connecting with bone as the ghoul’s head—minus its lower jaw—leapt into the air and landed on the concrete with a thud.  The ghoul’s body stumbled to the side blindly, its tongue waggling obscenely in the air before it tumbled into the rail channel and lay still.

One of the other ghouls immediately turned to engage Lily, throwing itself at her with reckless abandon.  It dove straight at her, wrapping its hooves around her neck and sending them both toppling to the floor.  Steel scraped against concrete as Lily rolled with the tackle, and both she and the ghoul rolled off the walkway and onto the train tracks.  I heard a sickening crunch as the ghoul’s back broke against the rusted metal, and another as Lily took its head between her hooves and slammed it on the rail.

The third ghoul was leaping off the floor after Lily when I finally came to my senses and realized that the final ghoul was heading directly for me.  By the time I activated S.A.T.S. the ghoul was already airborne.  Time slowed to a crawl as I drew a sharp breath and queued my shots, and a moment later a beautiful lance of scarlet light slammed into the back of the ghoul’s gullet.  Chunks of charred bone and sizzling flesh erupted out of the ghoul’s tattered mane, and its entire body split and cracked open as it glowed bright pink.  The ashes that used to be the ghoul washed over me, forming two glittering piles at my sides as I stood wide-eyed and stock-still.

I had gotten lucky.  Even with the stinging hot ashes of the ghoul coating my tongue and face, that particular encounter could have ended up much, much worse.  Of course, at the moment I was too preoccupied with just how gross having burnt ghoul in my mouth and eyes was to focus on much else.

“Ewww!  Eww, eww, eww!” I sputtered, and took a moment to rub my tongue on my armored sleeve before wiping my eyes clean.  Shaking the glittering specks of ghoul out of my mane, I stamped a hoof on the concrete and whinnied, “I did not need to know what incinerated ghoul tastes like!”

Looking up, I saw Lily laughing as she fended off the final ghoul.  She easily sidestepped its lunging attacks, beating her wings to hover just above the metal rails and wooden supports while the ghoul tripped and stumbled with every step.  Lily turned her body in mid-air and kicked out with a hind leg, producing a loud crunching noise as the ghoul’s decayed jaw broke.   It wobbled and fell to the ground, feebly squirming in an attempt to get back up just before Lily smashed her hoof through the back of its skull.

Lily turned back to me, wagging her tail like a puppy as she beamed, “That potion you gave me is fucking awesome!”  She flew up out to the walkway and hovered in front of me, furrowing an eyebrow as she chuckled, “What happened to you?  You’re all sparkly.”

“I’m covered in the remains of the ghoul you left behind!” I huffed.  “You said you were going to take care of them all!”

She rolled her eyes.  “I got three of ‘em.  What more do you want?”  I pursed my lips, which only made her snicker even more.  Barely able to conceal her amusement, she reached over and patted me on the head.  “You look like somepony dumped a truckload of glitter on your mane.  Lemme get that for ya.”

I pursed my lips at her patronizing tone, but allowed her to beat her wings and blow the ashes off my body.  When she landed and smiled smugly at me, I asked, “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

I never got my answer.  Grumpy popped out of Lily’s hat, screeching and shaking his little blue paws in fright.  Lily’s smile faded in an instant.  She leaned to the side to look past me in the direction we had just come from, and a moment later the color drained from her face.

“Lily?”  I turned, and found myself staring at a veritable wall of undead flesh stretching from one side of the tunnel to the other.  My PipBuck’s light washed over twitching, decomposed faces one by one as I tried in vain to count the shuffling bodies slowly advancing through the tunnel in our direction.  I gave up after realizing that there were well over twenty of them in the first few rows.

My mouth dropped, and I took a step backward before I realized the ghouls had all stopped moving.  They stood still in the tunnel, hissing and snarling, but not coming any closer.  I swallowed the lump in my throat, and took another step backward to stand beside my companion.  “Er…  Lily?”

She whispered quietly, as if she were afraid to startle the herd in front of us.  “What the fuck!?”

I was just about to turn and flee when something caught my eye.  The ghouls were parting, making room for another of their ilk to move forward through their lines.  I stood still, captivated and confused as I witnessed a bright green light bloom and advance from the back of the tunnel.

From the back of the horde a solitary glowing zebra slowly ambled forward.  My eyes widened as I realized the zebra wore a cloak nearly identical to Mother’s, save only for the dull silver bar resting upon her breast.  Her eyes blazed green with a piercing light, staring straight at me from underneath the tattered remains of her black hood.  Out of the countless slashes and bullet holes in her red and black cloak poured beams of emerald light that danced across the ghouls with her every movement.

I was stunned; watching her walk forward was like witnessing a nightmare take form.  She looked so much like Mother and Nohta that I very nearly called out to her.  I had to remind myself that these creatures, no matter how peculiar there actions at the moment, were indeed feral abominations.  That notion, however, died the moment the glowing one opened her mouth.

A raspy hiss slithered out of her rotting lips.  “Kutu-”

I gasped as she doubled over, coughing up irradiated phlegm that had probably been stuck in her throat for centuries.  The blazing light in her eyes dimmed, exposing yellowed, bloodshot orbs that paralyzed me with their pleading gaze.  She grit her teeth, groaned in pain, and tried to force the words out once again.  “Kutuweka… huru.”

Lily’s hoof tugged on my shoulder, urging me to leave, but I brushed it away without a second thought.  This ghoul was trying to speak to me, just like the pegasus ghoul!  Desperate for answers, I called out to the glowing zebra.  “I…  I can’t understand you!  What are you saying!?”

The ghouls behind the glowing one twitched and convulsed, snapping their jaws at each other like a pack of ravenous wolves before a tumultuous cacophony of shrieks and howls echoed from further down the tunnel.  The undead zebra grimaced as if in pain, furrowed her brow, and opened her mouth once more, but at that moment the blazing green light returned to her eyes.  Her posture relaxed as a blank emotionless stare overtook her features, and the light shining from her stripes glowed bright enough to cast shadows on the walls.

The herd howled and wailed as it bolted past the glowing one, rushing forward like a river that had just broken its dam.  Lily yanked on my shoulder and screamed in my ear, “RUN!”  Her scream was barely audible over the bloodcurdling shrieking of the dead horde on the cold walls.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever run so quickly in all my life.  The walls of the tunnel flew past my terrified face in a blur of motion.  My hooves thudded against concrete even harder and faster than my heart thudded in my chest.  I didn’t dare look behind myself for fear of losing my balance and stumbling.  Of course, I didn’t need to look back to know how much peril I was in; I could feel the rotten teeth of a ghoul nipping at the end of my tail.

My PipBuck lamp’s light bounced so erratically it was nearly useless, granting me only momentary glimpses of where to place my hooves in order to avoid slick spots and errant bits of debris.  In my desperation and panic, my mind went blank.  All I could do was run.  I was that little filly afraid of the dark all over again.  With terror gripping my heart, I threw caution to the wind and sent up a silent prayer to Celestia for aid as I charged magic in my horn.

Bright white light, so intense as to be nearly blinding in the formerly pitch-black confines of the tunnel, burst forth from my horn.  I could see hundreds of feet ahead of myself.  Hundreds of feet of straight, featureless tunnel, with no escape in sight…

Lily must have seen the look of despair on my face.  She yelled over the noise of the stampeding herd behind us, “Keep running!  There has to be an exit up ahead that we can slip through!”

“As if I needed a reminder!” I screamed in response.  “That was possibly the stupidest—”  I caught myself mid-sentence as Lily’s words gave me an idea.  Still racing at top speed down the tunnel, I opened my packs with my magic and finished my sentence, “—most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard!”

Thank The Goddess for good organization!  The potion was exactly where I expected it to be!  Just as Lily’s confused expression caught my eye, I smashed a pickle-jar full of clear liquid against the ground and leapt over the rapidly spreading puddle it left behind.  I chanced a look over my shoulder and was rewarded by the sight of dozens of ghouls skidding out of control as they slipped and slid wildly over the pool of magical lubricant.  The ghouls shrieked in rage as they tumbled over, fell across the ground, and were subsequently trampled by their fellows.

Like a clot in an artery, the squirming pile of ghouls were stopping up the flow of the herd down the tunnel.  I wasn’t sure if I had managed to put any of the undead down for good, but I had managed to buy myself a few precious seconds while the horde struggled to clamber over itself.  I refocused my efforts on galloping away as quickly as I could, feeling like nothing in all the world could possibly stop me!

Nothing except for my full packs, of course.  The weight of my saddlebags, recently replenished with potions and alchemical reagents, was pushing my legs to the brink of exhaustion.  My muscles burned in agony as the screeching behind us grew louder and louder.  Even though I knew the dead were regaining the ground they had lost, my pace slowed to just above a crawl as numbness spread through my tired limbs.

Lily’s wings had gone from a rapid, frantic beat to nothing more than a flustered flutter as she urged me forward.  “Candy, come on!  We don’t have time to slow down!”  She reached into her hat and pulled out a familiar pill bottle, and roughly shoved a pill between my teeth.  Lily ignored my feeble protest, and instead took to the air so she could gesture forward with her hoof.  “There’s a maintenance tunnel up ahead!  Just a little further!”  Bereft of options, and without the will to argue any more, I bit down on the tablet and swallowed.  Buck mixed with fear and adrenaline in my veins, and I found just enough strength to keep running a bit longer.

With the ghouls mere seconds from overtaking us, I followed Lily through a short concrete archway in the side of the tunnel and kept running forward.  In my haste, I nearly missed the faded green paint on the wall that indicated we were nearing the first subway station within Spursburg.  It was a welcome sight, especially since I wasn’t sure quite how long my exhausted legs could keep running.

Up ahead, a rusted blue door barred our passage, but Lily didn’t stop at all.  With a quick flick of a wing Lily turned herself around in midair and kicked the door at full speed with both of her back hooves.  All of her momentum was transferred directly into the area near the door’s lock, and it burst open with a loud crack as the deadbolt burst through the wooden frame in a small shower of splinters.  The door itself was flung open against the wall with a loud metallic clang as Lily landed on her hooves and rushed inside the room with her blades at the ready.

I hurried inside after her and surveyed our surroundings as I fought to catch my breath.  Strewn about the floor were several bodies in varying states of decomposition.  The stench of death permeating this room was even more overwhelming than the reek that had emanated from the undead herd in the tunnel, and some of the blood splattered across the floor was still wet.  I was still pondering what that meant when Lily slammed the door shut and shoved a heavy metal tool cabinet on its side to barricade the door.

“This isn’t gonna hold ‘em for long!” She explained.  “We need to see if we can lose ‘em in these tunnels!”

I nodded, and did my best to ignore the bodies on the floor as I searched for an exit.  We were in a dusty room filled with rusted shelves and cabinets holding all manner of tools.  Along the far wall were several opened lockers containing grease-stained overalls.  To our side stood a workbench with a vice and some manner of cutting saw.  In the center of the room a large shop-vacuum stood like a long-forgotten sentinel, dutifully guarding the treasures of its maintenance-themed vault.  But it was the last thing I noticed, standing directly opposite us, that was exactly what I had been hoping for: a long hallway with a flickering sign at its end pointing the way to the Spursburg Station.

I had just turned to point out the sign when the ghoul horde slammed into the blocked door, shrieking and hissing in rage as their advance was halted.  The rusty blue barrier bowed with the weight of the snarling horde, and the overturned tool cabinet slid a few inches into the room.  The sound of enraged hooves banging against the rusty metal was deafening within the tiny maintenance room, and it was soon joined by the hideous screech of metal being shoved across concrete as Lily strained to move the workbench across the room.

Just as I thought our barricade would fail, Lily shoved the heavy workbench over so that it fell on top of the tool cabinet.  The slow advance of the undead herd came to a complete stop, and I found myself sighing in relief.  Lily likewise paused to rest and regain her breath, but was soon shouting at the door to taunt the mindless undead.

“Get through that, you fucking freaks!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.  “Try fighting me on the surface, you stupid sons-of-bitches!”

“Lily! This way!  We can—”  My attempt to draw her attention toward our escape was abruptly cut off as I felt a squishy, bloody hoof wrap around my rear left ankle.  I lost my balance as it tugged hard on my leg, and as I fought to keep my hooves underneath me I managed to tumble directly into Lily, sending us both falling to the floor.  Before Lily had the chance to question why I had seemingly tackled her to the floor, she caught sight of what was happening in the room all around us.  The bodies on the floor were moving.

Nine ghouls had been lying dormant amidst the bloody bodies on the floor.  The devious dead had been lying in wait to ambush anyone unlucky enough to enter this room, and as luck would have it, Lily and I had done just that.  I was still scrambling to my hooves and drawing my shotgun when the first one snarled and rushed forward.

Nearly half of my S.A.T.S. charge was eaten up by loading shells into my weapon, but my first shot took the rushing ghoul’s head clean off, and the other two managed to disintegrate the front knees of another ghoul before she could stand up.  The gun’s reports were deafening in the small room, and left a nasty ringing in my ears as S.A.T.S. faded.  The first ghoul’s body slid across the floor, knocking me off balance again as I desperately tried to manually load the weapon.  Shotgun shells scattered across the floor as Lily dove over me and flew headlong into the remaining ghouls.

It was a valiant effort, but one against seven is hardly a fair fight.  Lily’s hoof caved in the skull of one undead, and her right wing decapitated another, but the trio of ghouls that dove on top of her just after was too much even for Lily.  The weight of the ghouls knocked Lily into the shelves, and soon afterward the ghouls, Lily, and the shelves all came toppling down like dominoes.  Tools, tin cans, and boxes of nuts and bolts scattered against the floor with a calamitous noise as the rows of shelves came crashing down, but none of those sounds pierced through the chaos quite as sharply as the pained scream coming from Lily’s mouth.

Lying prone, I couldn’t quite see what was causing Lily so much pain, but I could see one of the ghouls rear up in preparation to slam its hooves down on her.  At the same time, the remaining ghouls were charging—or squirming along the floor in the case of the kneeless undead mare—directly for me.  I had a choice to make: save myself, or save Lily.  Knowing fully well exactly how much my sister would have disapproved of the decision, I spent what meager amount of S.A.T.S. charge I had left to put a slug through the rearing ghoul’s heart.

Congealed blood and slimy viscera erupted out of the rearing ghoul’s torso just before it was knocked over by the blast.  It fell on its side at Lily’s hooves just as the two charging ghouls fell on me, kicking, scratching and biting at my barding.  The memory of losing a chunk of flesh to another ghoul in Coltsville flashed through my mind, and my shotgun dropped to the floor as my concentration broke.  I could feel my armor being torn to shreds as I screamed into the concrete and covered my neck with my hooves.

I was so terrified by the brutal attack that I didn’t even feel the magic charging in my horn.  In a fit of pure, primal fear, I released that magic in a torrent of telekinetic force, shoving one of my assailants into the downed shelves where it landed with a clatter against the steel.  I rolled over in an attempt to escape the other ghoul, but it was already on top of me.  Lying on my back, I scarcely had time to slam my hooves into its chest before it was snapping its rotten teeth mere inches from my exposed throat.  Furious at my stubborn refusal to be eaten, the ghoul responded by slamming its own hoof directly into my muzzle.  Stars exploded in my suddenly blurry vision, and I felt my forelegs weaken as I nearly fell unconscious.

In desperation, my magic gripped my laser pistol’s trigger.  I didn’t even bother to unholster my pistol; I fired directly through the leather holster into the decomposed chest of the ghoul on top of me.  Blistering heat washed over my hooves as the ghoul’s body charred and turned to pink ashes that scattered in every direction as I finished rolling over and scanned the ground for my shotgun.

I had only just managed to grip the shotgun by the stock and drag it back over to myself when the ghoul I had shoved onto the shelves righted itself and dove straight for me.  It was completely airborne by the time S.A.T.S. helped me put a slug directly through its gaping maw.  What was left of the bottom portion of its skull and spinal column exploded outward behind the ghoul even as the rest of its decomposed body impaled itself on my shotgun.  The gun, and the ghoul stuck to the end of it, slammed into my chest, bowling me over a third time as I heard potion bottles in my saddlebags crack and shatter.

With no time to mourn the loss of my potions, I extracted the shotgun and shoved the ghoul off my weapon before casting a glance at Lily.  She was on her hooves again, but very obviously favoring one of her forehooves as she fended off the two ghouls trying to take her down.  She was also shouting something, but over the din of the undead horde banging their hooves on the door behind me, the clattering of steel tools being kicked across the floor, and the hissing and shrieking of the remaining ghouls in the room, I couldn’t understand a word she said.

Closer to me, the kneeless mare was still shoving herself along the floor, snapping her jaws like a rabid dog as she neared my outstretched hind legs.  Hope blossomed in my chest as I realized how close we were to escaping.  All I had to do was take care of this last ghoul at my hooves, help Lily with the other two, and then we could finally leave this place!

I pulled my legs back underneath of me to stand up, feeling the ribbons and flaps of manticore leather that had once been my barding flop and dangle uselessly around my body.  I activated S.A.T.S. just to be sure, and took aim at the dagger-like maw hissing at me from the floor.  In the slow-motion distortion afforded me by my PipBuck’s targeting spell, my eyes caught Lily waving her hooves and shaking her head, but her frantic warning was completely lost on me.  The kneeless ghoul gathered what was left of her front legs under herself and leapt forward, and I calmly waited until my reticule displayed that the chance to hit the abomination’s head had risen to a nice and reliable ninety-five percent before triggering my queued shot.

It happened in an instant.  In slow-motion I watched, confused and horrified, as my shotgun’s barrel swelled and bloated.  I was still in the trance-like state of S.A.T.S. when the barrel split open along the length, releasing the pressure of the expended ammunition in all directions.  A thick chunk of congealed viscera exploded out of the shotgun’s tip, blowing a gaping hole through the crawling ghoul’s face just before I caught the shortest glimpse of something dark and metallic racing for my face.

As S.A.T.S. faded a burning, stinging pain washed over my face.  I fell over screaming and dropped the destroyed shotgun to the floor.  I could feel the scuffling of hooves through the floor, and the undead herd’s discordant pounding on the barricaded door.  I could hear Lily shouting and slicing through dead flesh and brittle bones.  I could smell the reek of the rotting bodies falling amidst the buildup of years worth of dust.  But…  I couldn’t see any of it.

Every time I tried to open my eyes, that burning and stinging redoubled in strength.  I lay writhing in mind-numbing agony on the floor with my hooves pressed tightly over my eyes.  The pain was far too great for me to even wonder what in Luna’s name had happened.   I just knew that I wanted it to end!

Eventually the sounds of fighting died down, and as I writhed and kicked and howled, I felt a lone body kneel beside me.  “Candy!” it shouted.  “Candy!  I’m here!”

“GODDESS!” I shrieked.  “IT HURTS!”

Lily’s frantic voice answered back.  “I know!  I know!  Hold on!”

I couldn’t stop kicking and wailing.  I felt Lily’s weight clamber on top of me as she tried to hold me still, but honestly I couldn’t fathom what she might be doing.  With the red-hot daggers that had been plunged into my eyes, I nearly didn’t notice the needle pricking the base of my neck.
Lily fell on top of me, pinning me in place with her weight and running a hoof through my mane as she cooed softly into my ear.  “Shh…  Shh…  It’ll be okay, Candy!  We can fix this!”  Slowly, the pain faded.  It wasn’t enough for me to feel comfortable by any means, but it was enough for me to think.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that she had dosed me with Med-X, though judging by the remaining discomfort and lack of side-effects, she hadn’t used anywhere near the whole syringe.

I opened my lips and squeaked out, “Still… Still hurts.”

I could hear the sympathy in her voice as her breath brushed against my ear.  “Babe I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to tell me how to fix you.  If I give you too much of this stuff then you won’t be able to think straight.”  Luckily, she did have an alternative. “Which potion did you say was like a healing potion?”

I felt her rummage through my packs as I groaned out, “One of the purple ones.  It’s called Sweet Water.”

A moment later the taste of grapes washed over my tongue, and the agony in my face subsided.  Waves of healing energy ebbed and flowed through my body, each one bringing a little more comfort to my battered face.  I breathed a sigh of relief, and removed my hooves from my eyes.  I could feel Lily’s hooves at my sides as she stood over me, and I rolled over to face her while opening my eyes.  “Th-thank you,” I started, but quieted when I realized we were in the dark once more.  “Oh, I’m sorry.  Let me turn my PipBuck lamp back on.”

“Uh…  Candy?”

I fiddled with my PipBuck, but no matter what I did, the lamp wouldn’t reactivate.  “Oh, don’t tell me this blasted thing is broken!  They never break!” I hissed.  “Fine, I’ll just use my horn.”

Worry was seeping into Lily’s voice.  “Candy?”

“Lily, I’m sorry.  I know how you must feel right now, but I promise that I’m not trying to upset you.”  Energy pooled behind my eyes before bursting forward, but nothing seemed to change.  Puzzled, I furrowed my brow and whispered, “I… I just…  Why is it still dark?”

“Fuck, Candy…”  Lily’s voice was weak, and thick with emotion.

“Lily?”  I reached a hoof straight up, finding Lily’s scarred chest above me.  “Why is it still dark?” I asked, trailing my hoof up to her damp face.

The answer came to me just before Lily stated it outright.  I felt her lips quiver against my hoof as she said, “It’s not, Candy.  The whole room is red.”

“I…  I see.”  Despite my ironic word choice, I did finally realize what the problem was.  Blindly staring upward, I swallowed the rapidly forming lump in my throat and asked, “How… How bad does it look?”

I felt a hoof brush my mane away from my face before Lily shakily reassured me.  “You’re still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

“Well…”  I blinked as the tears started to pour down my cheeks.  “At least there’s that.”

The ghouls outside roared and continued pounding on the door, reminding us that we were still being chased.  Lily pulled me up to a standing position, and I felt a bladed wing wrap over my shoulders before she urged me forward, “We need to go, Candy.”

“R-Right.”  I nodded.  The shock was beginning to wear off.  Now I just had to keep myself from hyperventilating.  “One… One step at a time.”

“I’m getting you out of here,” she promised.  “No matter what.”

“Right,” I agreed.  “Yes.  That would be most appreciated.”

With the ghouls howling behind us as they tried to force themselves through the barricade, Lily lead me through the long flat hallway.  On more than one occasion, she called for caution and slowly guided me around or over a tripping hazard.  It was a rather… cumbersome venture, to say the least, but our slow progress, so blessedly free of any other encounters with the ghoulish residents of the dark subway tunnels, did give my mind time to wander.

I’m sure you can imagine exactly where my thoughts lingered.

“I’m blind.”  I stated matter-of-factly.

Med-X was still flowing through my system, and it helped immensely as I fought to present a cool, level-headed demeanor to Lily.  Inwardly I was more terrified than I had ever been, but I knew that giving in to my desire and wallowing in self-pity and terror would do neither of us any good at that moment.  If either of us was going to make it out of these tunnels alive, then I needed to stay calm.  Or at least appear calm, for Lily’s sake.

I felt Lily take a deep breath beside me before she pleaded, “Can’t you heal yourself with your magic?”

I blinked, and continued staring blankly at the darkness in front of me.  “The equine eye is…  complicated.”  I explained.  “Very very complicated.  I have never even attempted to heal one with my magic before.”  I knew that my calm demeanor might be unsettling to Lily but, Goddess help me, taking refuge in my array of medical knowledge was the only thing keeping me from breaking down into a quivering, pathetic heap at her side.  The life expectancy of a blind mare in The Wasteland is brutally short, after all.

“Without being able to see the state of my own eyes,” I continued, “I can’t hope to get a good assessment of my condition, but…  I have a suspicion that I may have suffered damage to the optic nerves.”  Shrugging, I added, “To be completely honest, the only thing I can honestly say is that I am not a qualified optometrist.  Pearl Gray was our stable’s resident eye and ear specialist, not me.”

I could feel her eyes on me, just like I felt how tense her body was beside mine.  I licked my lips, and admitted, “Perhaps the most troubling aspect of all of this is that I fear I may have rendered this condition permanent by ingesting Sweet Water before extracting any foreign objects, if indeed there were any to begin with.”

Horror-stricken, she asked, “Permanent?”

“Again, without a proper assessment it is hard to say for sure what the nature of my injury is.  But if the optic nerve has been damaged, or if foreign bodies are now permanently lodged within my corneas, then I can think of…  of only one possible treatment.”  I heard my voice crack, just like my calm facade.  Memories of Mother’s sickly body resting in her deathbed flooded my mind.  Nodding, I tried to offer up as unbiased an opinion as I could.  “At best, it might restore a portion of my sight.  Though I highly doubt I’ll ever have 20/20 vision ever again.”

“And at worst?”  Lily sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

I gulped, knowing exactly what sort of consequences my actions might produce.  “I would really rather not think about that.”

We kept walking, though now we did so in silence.  For the longest time, Lily only spoke to inform me of how close we were to the Spursburg.  But when we reached the station and Lily helped me up onto the platform, she finally broke down.

Unable to hold it in any longer, she heaved and sobbed beside me.  “Candy, I…  I’m sorry.”  Retracting her wing, she stood in front of me and confessed her guilt.  “This is my fault!  I shouldn’t have charged in like that!  I should stayed next to you and—”

“Shh.”  I shook my head, and reached out to rub her shoulder with my hoof.  “It’s not your fault, Lily.”

She recoiled from my touch before shouting, “Of course it is!  How the fuck are you so calm about this!?”  I heard her wingblades clinking together as she flared her wings wide.  “Get angry!” She demanded, “Say you’re going to beat the shit out of me or break my neck or—”

She was silenced when I moved my hoof up her neck and pressed it firmly against her lips.  I felt her ragged breath against my hoof as I continued to gently shake my head.  “No, Lily.  It was just an accident.”  I’m sure that if it weren’t for the Med-X coursing through my veins, I would have been even more of a blubbering mess than Lily.

Her lips quivered underneath my hoof before she lowered her head.  I couldn’t see to be sure, but it sounded as if she was kneeling in front of me to beg.  “I fucked up!  Bad!  I’m sorry!”

Lowering myself to the floor so that I could speak on her level, I tilted my head and asked, “Now who is asking who for forgiveness?”

In a strained voice, she whimpered, “Fuck, Candy…”

My hoof pawed at the air until she leaned into it with her damp cheek.  I took a deep breath, and nodded, “If you really feel that way, then I’m going to need you to do me a favor.”

She immediately agreed.  “Yeah, of course.  Anything you want.”

I scowled.  “You’re not going to like it.”

I felt her hoof reach up to grab my own, holding it against her face as she replied, “Doesn’t matter.  I owe you.”

I gathered my hooves underneath me and rose up to my full height.  “Then as soon as we get a dose of Hydra, I’ll let you know what you have to do.”

I heard her leap to her hooves before exclaiming, “Wait…  Hydra?  Isn’t that—”

“SIS!?”

My jaw dropped.  All pretense of keeping my composure vanished in an instant as I cried out to the darkness in desperate optimism.  “N-NOHTA!?”

“CANDY!”

I heard frantic hoofsteps rushing in my direction.  Lily backed away from me just before the galloping hooves reached us.  I held out my own hoof, hoping to probe the darkness in front of me, but before I could feel anything an armored body crashed into my chest.  I almost fell over before I righted myself, and soon after I felt the choking sobs from my sister’s throat against my thudding heart.

My hooves snaked around her shaking body, brushing against the fabric of Mother’s cloak before I squeezed my sister to my chest as tightly as I could.   Through my own aching throat, I cried out, “By The Goddess, I’ve missed you so much!”

In perfect form, Nohta immediately started cursing.  “Fuck!  I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again!”

Our tears soaked into the fur of our necks as we held each other, sobbing like a pair of fillies.  She smelled like blood, and sweat, and like she had recently been sick.  She felt like solid muscle reduced to shaking emotional mush.  She sounded like my sister.

Nohta pulled back from the embrace just long enough to shout in a thick voice, “Never again, you hear me!?  Never a-fucking-gain!”

Still bawling my eyes out, I violently shook my head before pulling her back into the embrace.  “Never!  I promise!”

I had gone through quite a lot recently, but through every hardship the thought of seeing my sister’s face once more had given me the strength to pull through.  Even though I may not have been able to see her, I could still feel her against my chest.  We were together, as we were always meant to be, and I knew in my heart that there wasn’t a force in this world or the next that would ever separate us again.

Making no effort at all to conceal her emotion, Nohta lifted her head from my shoulder and sobbed, “You brought her back to me.”  I didn’t hear Lily respond, but soon Nohta simply said, “Thank you!”

There was no telling what horrors Nohta had faced since we parted.  I remembered seeing in The Bard’s scrying spell that she had been alone, so something must have separated her from the alicorn meant to protect her.  But knowing my sister it was rather likely that she snuck away from it at the earliest opportunity.

The scents of blood and vomit worried me, making me wonder just how much radiation she had picked up in her time alone.  But she was still strong enough to hold me in a crushing, vice-grip hug.  At the moment that was all in the world that I could have possibly wanted.

I barely managed to whisper around the lump in my throat.  “I love you, Nohta.”

Against all expectations, Nohta said the only thing capable of bringing a smile to my face.  “Love you too, Sis.”

So by the day’s end I had lost my most powerful weapon, infuriated a homicidal maniac with the ability to foretell the future, stood by helplessly as I lost the pony that would have likely been my most useful ally against the aforementioned homicidal maniac, had a building collapse on me, was nearly eaten by a tatzlwurm, was nearly ripped apart or crushed into Candy-paste by ghouls, suffered a mild concussion when one of those ghouls slammed my head against a concrete floor, watched several hours of hard work go down the drain when multiple hoof-brewed potions broke open within my packs, suffered the mischievous antics of a group of outlaw ponies who played my emotions like a finely-tuned musical instrument, ruined my only set of manticore-leather armor, endured multiple minor contusions and lacerations when I was dragged headfirst through jagged rubble, sprained my ankle so severely that I very nearly convinced myself that it was broken, experienced an incredibly perplexing moment as a feral glowing zebra spoke to me in a language I didn’t understand, almost pushed myself to the point of magical burnout, started seeing ghosts, and blinded myself.

But on the other hoof, I got my sister back.

Overall I’d say that it was a pretty good day.


******************************************


Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 10!
New Perk!

Mutate!:  Something has changed you, Doctor!  Whether it was the radiation from the wasteland, or just a long-forgotten zebra brew, something has swapped one of your Traits for another!

Mutating Trait….

Good Natured removed! -5 to Barter, Speech, Science, Medicine, and Repair.  +5 to Firearms, Magic Energy, Explosives, Unarmed, Melee, and Battle Saddles.

Gaining new trait...:

Wild Wasteland: The most bizarre and silly elements of post-apocalyptic Equestria are unleashed upon you.  Your encounters are sometimes more random or silly than normal.  Hopefully you are not faint of heart, or serious of temperament.

“Wait…  Where in The Goddess’ name am I?  Why is everything so bright?”

Skills Note: Medicine 100
Skills Note: Survival 100

“I…  What?  Dear Luna, this is all so confusing!”

Nohta gains a Perk:

“Nohta gained a what?”

Super Slam: Nohta has learned how to deliver a blow that catches her opponent off guard.  All of her unarmed attacks have a 15% chance to knock her opponent to the ground.

Nohta gains a Perk:

Tough Hide (Rank 1 of 2):  The brutal experience of facing the Equestrian Wasteland alone has hardened Nohta.  She gains +3 Damage Threshold for each rank of this perk she takes.

Lily gains a perk:

“Candy!  I was wondering when you’d make it to the footnote!”

“Gah!  Lily!?  Where did you come from!?  And the footnote?  What in the blazes are you—”

“Shh!  We’re still going over perks!”

How We Do It Down on the Farm: When Lily hits hard, she really hits hard!  All of her critical strikes, including Sneak Attack criticals, now do extra damage.  This does not increase the likelihood of her causing a critical strike.

“See?  Told you.”

((I’m still confused as to how it took so long to get this out.  It felt like we were right on the brink of publishing this chapter as soon as the last one came out.  All I can really do now is shrug, shake my head, and vow to get the next one out faster.

On that note, I think part of the problem was this chapter’s length.  Moving forward, I’m gonna try to tone the chapters down a lot.  That will mean having more chapters in the story than I originally intended, but it should also mean a more steady release schedule.  Wish me luck on that.  

I’ve said it before, but I really can’t say it enough.  Wr3nch is amazing.  Nearly every day for the last two years, he’s been yelling at me to get my ass in gear so people could continue reading this story.  Encouragement like that is hard to come by, even from friends and family.   Wr3nch, you’re the best, man.  Thanks for everything.

Stevepoppers has been, as always, a great help as well.  When it finally came time to edit this monster, he was just as ready as ever.  Seeing his reactions to the events of the chapter kept me motivated to finally finish it, and on top of that he was able to catch more than a few of my mistakes.

I’m positive that I have the best crew any fanfiction author could ask for.  Thanks for all the covering fire, guys!

Another big thank you to KKat, for giving all of us this amazing sandbox for our imaginations.  And of course, thanks to all the folks who have worked on MLP or Fallout. ))