Chapter 1: Survive...

Chapter 1: Survive...

Survival is nature. What everypony doesn't know, is how to do it properly...

The sound of humming lights could be heard all through-out the Stable. I had gotten used to it, but being used to it and being able to ignore it are two completely different things. This morning was no different, I heard some shuffling outside my door and I decided to get up. Stable life was the most safe and secure way to live, I knew that much. Although I always had this feeling, it felt like I belonged outside. I had talked it through with some of my friends before but they quickly shut down the idea as soon as it left my muzzle. Speaking of muzzles, why do I taste copper?

Getting up, I looked at my PipBuck, noting that it needed a clean. Stable-Tec built these things to last for an eternity, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't clean it. My E.F.S activated. Most of the time it scared me, this time I just ignored it. I noted the many friendlies appearing at the top of my vision. The one thing that bothered me the most with this device was how it could magically make things appear in your vision. The only way to get rid of the annoying things was to take my PipBuck off, but I was not well enough equipped to do that. Even after the many years of having mine, I still never figured out how to turn the device off. I probably should have listened to my father's instructions more often. I hovered myself with a slight steady flap of my wings. I entered my pass-code on my room's terminal. A list of things came up:

<Open Door

<Close Door (Unable to perform command, door is already closed)

<Emergency Exit (requires Overmare password)

Looking at the last option closely, I realized I have never seen that command on my door or anypony else's before. My curiosity got the better of me and I lightly tapped it with my hoof.

<Error! Please enter Overmare's Password. This will open the Stable’s door.

I was shocked beyond comprehension, this opened the Stable’s one line of defense against whatever was outside (nopony in the Stable knew what was out there). What shocked me more was why I was given the option on my terminal. This had to be some kind of joke; I never had even known the password in the first place. Unless... Memories of a flashback flooded my mind. I was not in control and I felt a pounding headache spread throughout my head.

*** *** ***

"Shadow, baby? Wake up!" My mother poked at my sleeping figure. I was excited that this was the day that I finally could get my cutie mark. Or at least, when most ponies got one. Today was my cuteceañera, well as with other ponies my age. I didn’t want to go to the party though; I wanted to work more on my accuracy.

"Five more minutes..." I said while wiping some drool off the side of my face.

"But, honey, today is your cuteceañera!" I rocketed up into a standing position faster than I thought was possible. Even as a filly I still surprised myself. I felt my wings flutter for a second before drooping to my sides. I was already a very popular pony since I was the only pegasus inside the Stable. To make it even more unnatural, I was born from two unicorns. To be honest, I didn't know how that was possible, but I didn't try to figure it out.

I jumped up and grabbed my mother around the neck and ordered her to carry me. She gave me a full hearted laugh and fully obliged. She led us through the Stable, presumably trying to find dad. My dad had the honor of repairing PipBucks. He had even customized my mother's and mine. My PipBuck had my cutie mark engraved on the outside and was all black. He said it suited me quite well; I practically jumped in joy when I first received it shortly after getting my cutie mark. My mother’s was a nice light pink color that matched her fur. The buttons were all black, quite a contrast to the bright pink.

My father took great pride in his work, and he never complained. Deep down though, he seemed to not fully enjoy it.

My mother had finally gotten to my dad's office. Inside he was cleaning a gold plated PipBuck. Curious, I spoke up.

"Daddy, who owns that one?" I said while pointing a hoof at it. He looked up from his desk and gave me a smile.

"This happens to belong to your mother," He turned his gaze towards my mom. She had a tear rolling down her cheek and smiled. She gently put me down before running over and hugging my dad. I grabbed the PipBuck on the table for a closer look. Looking it over, there was an engraving underneath, it said this: In case of emergency, please type in these numbers, 2573964. Before I was able to look at the rest of it, my dad snatched it out of my grasp.

"Sorry honey, I don't want this broken." I pouted for a second and gave my best sad eyes. He just simply laughed but kept a stern, no.

*** *** ***

The headache fled away as fast as it had come. Looking around, I was still in the same position as before, staring at the error message. The numbers were so clear to me. Even as a small filly I must have understood they meant something. To be honest I'm still a filly, that's probably why they are easy to remember. I just wished that my parents were still with me. Most ponies say my father had died from radiation, along with my mother, but these days I don't know what to believe, due to the many rumors and stories surrounding it. They told me my dad had entered the reactor room to retrieve a tool and got infected. My mother didn’t realize it and they…did some things…and soon they both began to die from it. I still had nightmares about their souls coming back for revenge for not coming with them.

Looking down at the password keypad again, I shook my head. There would be a time this was needed but it wouldn't be today. I hit the "Back" key and promptly pressed the open door button. With stunning silence the door slid open, revealing a brightly lit hallway. The hallway, like the rest of the stable, was a nice shade of gray. It stretched down in both directions, I only chose one and walked in that direction.

*** *** ***

The cafeteria doors slid open once I had slipped my Stable ID through the scanner. Which in fact was extremely hard to do without magic (sometimes I wished I was blessed with magic instead of wings). My mother had tried to teach me to handle objects with my wings, but since she wasn’t a pegasus herself she couldn’t teach me.

Stepping inside the expansive room I was taken aback by the noise. Sure, I knew the Stable doors were sound-proof but this was just plain out hard to believe. The huge room, able to fit at least 200 ponies, was packed full. After gathering myself from the noise, I stealthily made it to the breakfast line. I grabbed a tray with my mouth and slid it on the rail. I walked down several stages of the line, telling each pony what I wanted. However, that really wasn't much. Due to the limited supplied, each of us were only able to have one of each thing, plus an apple and a small bottle of water. That was the same for every meal. The only time that we had something special was when somepony had a birthday. It couldn't be just any pony though, only the special ones get special food, like the Overmare or head of Security. Actually, anypony in the head of security’s family had special privileges.

I took my time and sat down next to my normal group of friends. It was quite easy to make friends. However, it was a strange thing to have something that everyone else did not, I didn't complain though. Due to the confined space that I lived in, training to fly was a very tedious task, now I can do just about anything I want. Deep in my gut though, I always wanted to feel the outside air rushing through my wings. The ability to fly just about anywhere I wanted. Seeing as how that was not allowed, I didn't expect to ever improve my flying skills.

"Shadow, hey, you okay over there?" Rusty Bucket had asked me. I felt bad for the poor guy, he got stuck with the worst name anypony could ask for. One of the many reasons I kept him under my metaphorical wing was because of his name. He was a rust colored unicorn with a sandy blonde mane. His cutie mark was a rusty bucket.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine...sorry just thinking,"

He laughed for a second before asking another question. "So, a cookie for your thoughts?" He tried to keep down his laughter but failed miserably.

"Nah, you guys turned me down last time..." He went from happy to serious in about two seconds.

"Shadow, enough with the outside, you know how dangerous they say it is." He said, his voice increasing in depth for more emphasis. Which actually worked, in the weirdest sense. I turned away from them, going back deep into my thoughts. I hadn't even touched my food yet, I was still thinking of what I should do. I wanted to go outside, I needed to go outside. What was stopping me? Besides guards, my friends, and the Overmare, it should be easy, right? I finally zoned back into reality again and picked up my apple. Using hooves was much harder than a unicorn's magic, but I got used to using my hooves for just about everything. I ate the apple not really caring for the taste. Most of the time it didn't even have any taste, so paying attention to it would be a waste of my time.

Before I realized it, my friends had been staring at me for five minutes. Confused, I glanced up at them and they all laughed. I shrugged and went back to eating. I finished my apple in relatively short time. I looked at the small bottle of water and shrugged, popping off the cap and drinking it all in one big gulp.

Rusty Bucket thought it was funny to criticize every move I made, ignoring him I got up and put my tray on the cleaning conveyor. I walked back to the door of the cafeteria and fiddled with my card for the second time. I finally scanned it and walked out with the door sliding behind me. I didn't even bother saying bye to my friends, I would probably get some remark from Rusty again and today was not the day. Looking down at my PipBuck for the time, I saw it was only ten in the morning. I decided going to my room for the rest of the day would be very boring, so I decided to go to the firing range. I had heard that very few Stables actually offered an indoor firing range, so maybe I was just lucky, not that I would ever have to use a gun except for practice anyway.

I walked passed my room down the hallway in the other direction. I stopped when I found the sign that said 'Indoor Firing Range: Guns Must Stay Inside!' I rolled my eyes at the sign, only somepony that stupid would actually take a gun from the range. The guns had to be checked out with the mare at the counter, once done you had to return the gun, safely. If the gun was removed from the range that would send the alarms blaring. All in all, it was great security measure against foals that would attempt at taking one. Swiping my card for the third time today, I slipped inside. The almost deserted range was perfect. The less ponies, the less interference.

I walked up to the mare at the counter, she gave me a nod and went into the back room. She returned with my favorite rifle, capable of punching through a target at over 50 yards. Though, I have never gotten to test its maximum range, the closed space inside the range only extended out to 50 yards. I grabbed the rifle from her with a smile and walked over to my respected range. I set up the bi-pod and aimed down the sight. The rifle, purely refitted for me by my father, was designed for pegasi to use with their hooves if the bi-pod was deployed. The button on the side connected directly to the firing mechanism and a simple push would fire the rifle. The safety had also been changed to a simple switch so I could just flip it off. The best thing about it was it weighed practically nothing due to some enchantment.

Though I have not heard of all the firearms out in the world right now, I figured this was one of the better ones. Suddenly, everything in the world melted away. I focused on nothing but the target and my breathing. I wiped my purple and black mane out of my eyes with my hoof and focused. I took one deep breath.

One... I cycled the bolt.

Two... I pushed the bolt in with the new bullet.

Three... Line up my shot.

Four... Press the button...

The sound was deafening, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The bullet went through the target leaving behind a hole where it passed through. I remember the first time I shot this rifle, the shot was dead-on the bull’s-eye. My mother and father were cheering, then both gasped. I looked behind myself and noticed I had gotten my cutie mark: a black marksmare cross-hair. I walked around in glee, finally I had gotten it, after my many trials and errors. My once great memory was interrupted by somepony clearing their through directly behind me.

I whipped around to come face to face with Rusty Bucket. I backed up a bit, but ended up hitting my flank against my rifle, knocking it to the ground. He stared intently at me for a couple of seconds then finally spoke up.

"That was a great shot." He noted.

"Uh... Thank you?" Was my reply, he nodded at me.

I just nodded my head in response, which had no real effect anyway. He turned away and went to the counter to grab a rifle. I smiled, I guess he wanted to have another accuracy competition, but when you have a cutie mark like mine, it was hard to lose.

"Ready for some friendly competition?" He said with a smirk. Friendly wasn't really a good word for it, he actually got quite angry when I beat him, which was all the time. I was hoping he would learn to stop challenging me. He smiled as he went to the booth beside mine. "Alright birdy, this is how it's going to go down." I rolled my eyes at the nickname he had come up for me. I didn't take offense to it, but he used it enough for it to be annoying. He walked back over with his rifle floating next to him. His rust colored magic field enveloped the rifle.

"So, rules are as follows, whoever hits closer to the bulls-eye wins, good?" I nodded my head and sighed, this was how all of his competitions went.

"I'll take the first shot," He lined up his rifle with his magic and telekinetically pressed the button. The bullet was close, but not close enough. I smirked at him, but he kept his convincing confident smile. I walked up to my rifle, letting the world melt away again. Time slowed down to a crawl and I could hear each individual breath I took. Taking a deep breath, I lined up the shot. I pressed the button in slow motion, and I swear I could see the bullet slowly crawl towards the target and go right through the bulls-eye, much closer than Rusty's shot. His smile dropped to a frown, probably more sad than angry he lost, again.

"Sorry Rusty, better luck next time," I said with a sympathetic smile, I wasn't one to gloat, hurting ponies feelings wasn't my forte. He grumbled something under his breath and walked out of the firing range. He left his rifle sitting at the spot and I figured I would have to take it back for him. Grabbing my rifle first with my teeth, I hauled both rifles back to the counter, after giving the mare a smile I soon found myself back in the hallway, walking towards my room. Fumbling with my ID, I finally got inside and shut the door.

*** *** ***

My room was as normal as Stable's considered normal. Bare, with nothing except a bed and a dresser. A dull gray color wrapped all around the room. I tried to make it more eye catching, however some things are not meant to be changed. Paint was not available in the Stable to normal ponies. The paint was used for more important things like the cafeteria or the adult bars.

I flew over to my bed and laid down on my back, staring at the ceiling and thinking about what should come next in my life. I hovered over to my dresser, looking through its contents, which only held our Stable uniforms. Not exactly that exciting. I shuffled them around to look at the bare bottom of the drawer, except it wasn't bare. I shuffled around the items in the drawer, mostly consisted of my dead parents' items. I scrambled everything up in the drawer but nothing seemed to interest me. I picked up my dad's old PipBuck and noticed a piece of paper fall out from the inside. I quickly caught it with my teeth, unfortunately dropping the item along with it. I put the note on my bed and began to read it.

Dear Shadow Wind,
Your mother and I are very proud of you. We are deathly sick and we will not last forever. Just remember all of the happy memories we shared. There is also one more thing, this isn't a very good thing, but it's still there. A long time ago, when you were still very small. I was told you were destined to save ponies in Equestria. Of course, I knew that that wasn't true. But seeing you grow up, and your soul longs to help people, something I haven't seen before. I see that I may be wrong, you could be destined for more than this Stable, even though I still do not know what is out there. I have never been to the outside world, but elders have told me that it is not safe, even they have no idea what goes on out there. But, over all of those hardships, I believe deep in my heart that you can change. I will not force you to do anything, but I really hope you consider leaving, but you have to do so silently, without anypony catching you. If they catch you, only Celestia knows what will happen. You are destined for greatness, my little birdy, so make us proud and be careful honey.
With love, Your mother and father

I almost collapsed from shock. No, this couldn’t be real. What could I possibly do except stay in here? Yet, my parents thought I should go outside? I shuddered at the thought of what might be out there. An expansive black hole, hell, nothing? All those thoughts flew into my mind at once, each consecutive one being worse than the one before. I was now visibly shaking, and anypony who were to see me right now might think I'd seen a ghost.

Regaining myself, I relooked over the note to see if I had missed anything. No, they still wanted me to sneak out. I wanted to check something before I went any further with this thought. Walking over to my terminal, I slipped my ID through, giving me the same three options as before, so I still was able to access to stable door from my room. The best thing about my room was it was quite close to the entrance but wouldn't the door opening bring every single guard to that spot? Going over scenarios in my head, only one worked. That would mean I would have to put my flying skills to the test. Not that that would be a bad thing, on the contrary. A smile began to form on my confident face.

*** *** ***

I was now more nervous than I had ever been in my entire life. I was still in my room, but I had packed a few things I needed in my small saddlebags. A few bottles of water and a couple apples wouldn't hold me over for that long but I wasn't risking stealing more from the cafeteria. I also grabbed all of my bobby pins (pinning my long mane back so it wouldn’t get in the way while flying) and a couple stray tools my father had left behind. I felt bad for disturbing his possessions but he wanted me to do this, so I needed to be prepared. The tools ranged from a screwdriver to pliers. Not the greatest tool set, but it would have to do. I was hardly weighed down, which was good, I needed as much speed as I could get, because in the next few hours I needed to mentally prepare myself.

*** *** ***

Hours had passed, which seemed more like an eternity. I waited until precisely midnight to put my plan into action, hoping that most ponies would be asleep. I got up from my bed, not rested at all from my restless nap. I couldn't will myself to go to sleep, no matter how hard I tried. I silently walked over to my terminal, opening the door first. I thanked Luna and Celestia for the silent doors. Then came the hard part, I hit the "Back" key and tapped the Stable door option. I slowly typed in 2573964. Surely as true as the command was, I heard a deafeningly loud screeching noise. I winced, realizing I had just woken up the whole Stable, the alarms not helping me at all.

I spread my wings and took flight, dodging between ponies coming out of their rooms. When I came to the main foyer where the stable door was, I noticed it was fully ajar but that I couldn't see anything past the darkness on the other side. I thanked both Goddesses for my wings, so this could be easy, but it soon went south. The Overmare was standing directly below me while the guards frantically worked to get the door closed.

"Please, my little one, please don't do this." The Overmare obviously wasn't handling losing one of her own well. Her tone almost made me fly back into my room and forget this ever happened.

"If you go out there, I am strictly forbidden to let you back in." She said in a sad tone over the sound of guards yelling at each other. I just wanted to break down crying, I couldn't take this. I could totally understand why I wouldn't be allowed back in though, who knows what kind of disease and radiation awaited me (assuming the balefire bomb's radiation is still there). The sound of the Stable door closing slowly broke me out of my stupor. I took one last look at everything around me, but I was willing to do what my parents thought I could. With a brave face, I flew as fast as I could out the door. As it snapped shut, I thought I heard somepony yelling for me to stop. I dropped down to the ground (at least the blackness that stopped me).

I turned my head around and watched the door's massive locks slide into place. That was the only light in this dark tunnel that could be seen, after the door's locks had locked I was in complete darkness. Except for the casual blink of my PipBuck. I turned back around and saw at the end of the tunnel was dim light. So I began my trek through the tunnel. I stole the rare glance at the walls of the cave, it was all black. As I started to get nearer to the light, I began to make out details in the cave, I wish I hadn't. Nailed to the rocky walls were many different types of animal skeletons, which was what I was smelling. I had to cover my muzzle with a hoof to try and block out the stench, but to no avail.

I had finally reached the end of the tunnel and peered outside, and I almost threw up. The expansiveness was endless, I could see no end in any direction. When my eyes finally adjusted to the dark (and the small light emanating from my PipBuck) I began to make out more shapes. I at first had thought the wasteland was an infinite blackness. I couldn't imagine myself standing in an endless black hole. Well, actually I could, but that was a scary thought. I looked around more and saw something far out in the distance. Mountains, like huge sentinels, rose over the land, breaking through the never ending clouds. The clouds, like darkness itself, had no light to offer me.

I almost jumped out of my fur, a steady *click click* noise reaching my ears. I saw on my vision I had a new indicator. Radiation indicator, so I had been right about Balefire radiation still being around. The arrow was jerking slightly in the green touching the yellow. I was afraid I was going to die right there of radiation poisoning but when I didn't strike down dead instantly, I took one last look at the tunnel concealing the Stable and walked away.

*** *** ***

I was wandering aimlessly with no one direction in mind. All I knew was I had a little food, water, and bags. Nothing else, besides the few things I had grabbed from my room. I had to rest my wings because I had been flying in a constantly enlarging circle for an hour, and to my dismay I had spotted absolutely nothing. The only thing I accomplished was hurting my wing from strain. I did in fact recognize that my PipBuck had already drawn out maps for the surrounding area, so I guess I was heading in one direction. I was heading to a small town that my PipBuck recognizes as "Sunshineville." That is probably the most inappropriate name given to anything in this wasteland. I had not seen even a speck of light, granted I have only been out here for an hour.

I began to pass dilapidated houses. Most of them were crumbled and offered no protection at all. I figured that a pony wouldn't be living there either, so I passed them up without a second thought. That wasn't the best idea, but me being the blunt person I am, thought I could wing it. The houses were becoming more and more frequent, and I noticed that I was nearing the outskirts of "Sunshineville". I needed a plan, wait who needs a plan?

*** *** ***

Well... My definition of perfect has dropped exponentially. I waltz into the walls of the town like noponies business and what do you know? I'm chained up with well... chains. Then they preceded to tie my wings to my sides with ropes. Ugh, this just keeps getting better and better. To be honest, I'm still confused on how fast I was tied up. It was in twenty seconds! I walked in, say hi to the first buck I see, and he turns around and points this strange looking firearm at me. Which I could only presume was a gun. Maybe a pistol? The Stable had a few of those but the security ponies were the only ones who used them. The only time I ever had any experience with guns was when I shot them, or that one book in the Stable we had about them. Which only had pages about rifles, I have never seen these smaller versions.

Being chained up is terrible, I seriously thought about crying. I came out here... Hoping, that I could find something to help me... Now, I'm just tied up and helpless. The thoughts brought tears to my eyes... I just wanted to make a difference, now I don't even know where I'm going… The chains that were leading me and the other slave were clanking loudly at certain intervals.

"How's the slave holding up?" One of the four bucks asked. He was the one who I had say hi to, since he was a unicorn, his smaller firearm was floating beside him as we walked.

"Which one? The filly or the buck?" One of the others asked instead of giving an answer. He was an earth pony with what I think is armor, I'm still not completely sure. As far as I could see, he had no weapon.

"I don't care about the buck, I care about the filly." The buck with the small firearm said with a chuckle. His voice was so... dark... It brought chills to my spine. My tears, now soaking my eyes, started falling to the ground with a silent splat.

"I'm worried, I haven't seen a pegasus in forever." One of them said, obviously paranoid. I perked up for a second at the mention of my race.

"Why are you worried? Can you imagine the price she will fetch? She is also a filly for fuck's sake, if it were a colt I wouldn't give two shits about him." The one who I presumed was the leader, replied. He was unarmed, for the most part. I could see a larger gun sticking out of his bags, not the rifle I had, but definitely weird. I winced, never had I heard such language. The fourth one seemed to stay silent, which I could understand, since he was holding something in his mouth. I looked between them all, very gross... The sickly stench wafting off of them was enough to make me want throw up on the spot, which I was trying hard not to do. I tried to loosen the ropes around my wings, but these ponies weren't stupid, they tied them up really good.

We had been walking through Sunshineville, which shouldn't be named that at all. It was the complete opposite of anything happy. There were walls all around the town and guards with large looking guns were on guard. We made a bunch of turns through different areas. I had thought at first they didn't want me to memorize my way in, but these ponies were just that stupid. Well not totally stupid, they had some smarts, but common sense seems to have evacuated their presences (probably from the way they smelled).

"How could you forget where the house is!?" The leader had been yelling at his companions.

"They all look the same!" I realized that these ponies were not from this town, otherwise they would have known were it was, even for them it was highly unlikely they just "forgot". Thinking was helping me get my mind off the clanking chains of the cuffs my fellow slave and I wore. I hadn't really paid much attention to my enslaved companion, mostly because one of the bucks was walking in between us. We were almost at the end of another spot between houses, and our slavers stopped.

"Hey, filly, get up here!" The leader yelled, assuming he was talking to me, I just shrunk my head back, ignoring him. But as much as I wanted that to last, I was roughly shoved by one of the other slavers. Looking back at the other slavers, they all gave me evil looks. I shuddered and turned back to the tall buck in front of me.

"Hmm, you know, you have a beautiful mane. It would be a shame if somepony ruined it." He grinned mischievously, I didn't need to be told the message twice. Something bad was going to happen. He wiped some of my purple and black mane out of my eyes and stared into them. His eyes were a very strange black color, which only added to the creepy effect. I felt his hoof behind me followed by a sharp sting of pain. I shrieked and jumped a few feet in the air, surprised by the sudden feeling. I looked at my flank and the area around my left cutie mark was red. He had spanked me, like adults would do to fillies. That was the most degrading moment today, so far. Besides the fact I basically walked in and got myself tied up.

"Whoever buys you is going to have a hell of a time in bed." I shuddered at the thought of what he was implying. I couldn't imagine myself being... violated... like that... The leader turned tail (literally) and continued in the other direction, motioning for all of us to follow him. I fell back to my original position, but the pony in between me and the other prisoner was ahead. So I got a good look of the other pony. He was much older than me, compared to my original thought. He actually looked more... Built... than these slavers, so that brought another thought to my head. "How had he gotten caught?" Plus to even further confuse me, he was a unicorn! He could just have got himself out of these chains. Oh nevermind, I'm sure he has his reasons. Throwing it into the back of my mind, I thought of other escape options. Which wasn't much. The only things that I had brought were all in my saddlebags, which the slavers had taken. Of course, I was seriously considering screaming, "What did I do to you wasteland!?" That probably wasn't the best idea.

*** *** ***

The slavers had finally found the house that they were searching for, which didn't bring much consolation. The house, like the rest, was a dilapidated shack made entirely out of old wood and sheet metal. What I had thought was a gross smell coming from the slavers was doubled on the inside of the house. It was like walking into a gas wall of smell. This time, unfortunately, I couldn't keep my lunch down. I hoisted myself out the side of one of the windows that was right next to me and lost it. The slavers, however, held me there so I didn't escape, which I was hoping they didn't. For obvious reasons. After coming back from the window I got a good look of the interior, which almost made me lose my lunch again. The walls were covered in what looked (and smelled) like blood. It was a smell worse than death itself. It made my eyes water to see such a wretched thing done to somepony.

"Welcome to your temporary home!" The leader manically declared.

My mind was temporarily adverted to the radio in the other room, somepony was talking through the speaker.

"Hellooooo Wastelanders! Dj Starry Night here! Time for some survival tips! Now listen up colts and fillies, time to put your listening ears on. There are 4 main things you need in the wasteland, everything else is a gift. Number one! A gun would do you some good, any in fact. If you get your little hooves on some of them guns that are enchanted, then thank Luna and Celestia for that one. Number two! Armor, pretty basic right? Basic, but effective. That will protect you from most things, but it will break so make sure your try to repair it regularly! Number three! Food and water, yes everypony I just said the most obvious of them all. But yet you will still find ponies out there surviving on only one and two. Last but certainly not least, good ol' number four. This, in my opinion is very, very important. You need to have some friends! And I don't mean those backstabbers, I mean true friends that will follow you and risk their lives for you, but if you find some of them, be ready to return the favor. Well that's it everypony! Now for some music, shall we?"

The sound of a calming but nice song started playing but instantly the pony listening to it shut it off. I whimpered, not intentionally, but I needed something to calm me down. The slaver who was sitting in the room with me finally spoke up. “Don’t want your pretty little head filled with ideas. You’re not getting away,” He said with a sickening smile.

"Ready to meet your cage?" The pony that I still presumed was the leader said evilly. I whimpered and said nothing. He came over and slammed his forehoof into my side. I fell down, not expecting the blow, gasping for breath. He had definitely knocked the wind out of me, hopefully not worse. I felt my ribs, in case he had broken some, which thankfully he hadn't. I got up and silently followed my captor to the only other room in the small house. The other slave had already been locked up in a cage. The slaver opened up a cage for me and pushed me in. He then shut it with a *bang* and locked it. I took note of the simple lock, something that I could try to pick. A unicorn could easily pick it, but without magic it was a strenuous task to complete. The last slaver had left out the front door and left me and the other prisoner alone.

He, surprisingly was the first to speak up. His voice was deep and gravelly. "What brings you to the outside?" He sounded like he didn't really care, but was trying to get his thoughts away from what was happening. I wasn't worried about that as much as how he knew I wasn't from the outside.

"How did you know I'm not from around here?" I tried to keep as many details as secretive as possible.

"Don't give me that. You're obviously from a Stable, or you're just that stupid." He sounded distressed, but mad at the same time. I hung my head in defeat and started to explain.

"Yeah, you got me. I'm from a Stable, and this," I said while motioning my hoof everywhere, "was not what I was expecting."

He snorted and laughed.

"Well what did you expect missy? You could just walk in here and expect a free ride everywhere? No, let me give you some advice. These ponies will rape you, and then sell you to just get a quick cap. To them, you are useless except for money. Your life means nothing to them. This is not paradise, at all. If I were you, I would've stayed in my cozy ol' stable and lived my life in there. This is nothing close to paradise, this is hell." With that he left me alone with my newly acquired information. I started crying once more, everything was out to kill me, and I had no control over it.

I noticed something odd on his flanks through my tears. His cutie mark had been burned off. I had a strong urge to ask what it was from but that could be a potentially bad idea. I sat back on my haunches, contemplating my next move. I couldn't think straight though, I felt like a fog had covered my mind, and was blocking any ideas from coming out. Then I remembered my parents note, which was why I had even stepped foot out here. Finally my mind began to think clearer, and I worked something out.

I ruffled my wings a little bit to try and stretch them, which actually worked perfectly, just not what I had in mind. My wings jutted out straight and the roped loosened. I ruffled my wings further, even further loosening my bonds. With an excited whinny I shook the ropes off, then realized I had to keep it down, lest I get caught. With renewed stealthily silence, I moved myself to the other side of the cage. I looked over the lock to confirm my suspicions, it was just a simple key hole lock. I noticed something to the side of the room, it shocked me. My saddlebags were just sitting there, but how do I get to them? I looked over at the other prisoner, he was staring blankly at the floor. I looked to his forehead and decided to put his unicorn powers to the test.

"Hey," He straightened up a bit at the sound of my voice, then cocked his head in my direction. "Can you float my saddlebags over to me?" He nodded his head and shortly afterward his horn glowed a sickly green color. Illuminating everything in the room with that color increased the creepy effect ten-fold. Once the saddlebags were close I asked him to drop them right in front of my cage, which he complied.

I tried to reach through the cage with my left forehoof, it barely fit, but because of my small frame, I barely got it to fit. Looking through the bag, I grabbed what I wanted. A small bobby bin and my dad's screwdriver, score! So packing these had been a good idea after all. Then I realized... I had no idea what I was doing... Celestia buck me to the moon... I tried my best though with what I could. Balancing the bobby pin with both hooves I inserted it into the lock. I tried jamming the screwdriver into a bunch of different areas, with no luck. After what seemed like an eternity, I inserted it into the right spot. Then quickly twisted the two items, without knowing what would happen. My face went from determination to horror, my bobby pin had broken. I heard the unicorn sigh, which actually angered me.

"Why don't you do it yourself?" I hissed at him.

"Because my magic is terrible, I only know how to make stuff float, I can't really hold more than one thing." A unicorn that could hardly use magic? He was totally useless. Well not totally, but pretty close. I dug through my bag again, desperately trying to find another bobby pin, thank Celestia, I still had about six left. This time, with extreme care, I inserted both objects into the lock, and this time, I turned the two very, very slowly. Keeping both straight, and almost breaking the bobby pin, I finally unlocked it, with a satisfying *click*. Trying to manipulate small objects with hooves was hard enough, doing it while in an awkward side position, almost impossible.

"Hey, when you return from Cloudsdale, mind giving me a hoof?" The unicorn said.

I returned to reality and thought about my current predicament.

"What's Cloudsdale?" I asked sheepishly, he gave me a glare and said nothing.

Should I risk the slavers coming back and catch me unlocking the buck? Or should I do it anyway? I went with the latter, hoping that the wasteland would return the kind favor. That was a stretch but maybe, just maybe, this buck will help me through the wasteland.

I grabbed both of my unfavorable tools and went to work.

*** *** ***

The wasteland just plain hated me, it probably hated me, but now this was getting ridiculous. The buck who I had saved, ran off somewhere. I watched in shock, and to think I even wasted a bobby pin on him. I kicked the ground with my hoof and instantly regretted it. I was trying to stay stealthy after I had left the house, I wasn't risking getting caught by another slaver. I had been silently weaving in between broken shacks, hoping I could somehow make my way out, without getting caught. I couldn't use my wings, (for obvious reasons) but the continual *click click* of my PipBuck might give me away. The radiation levels here were much higher than the stable tunnel. The indicator showed me it was in the yellow, just great. I heard that during the war most ponies didn't die from the bombs, but the radiation that covered the land, and after all these years it's still around to do as it wishes.

I popped my head out into the nearest street, in the darkness I could possibly make it to the next section of shacks, but should I risk it? I hit myself over the head with my hoof to snap out of it. I was beginning to hyperventilate, apparently my body can't take all of this new stuff happening. It was a true shame, not that I enjoyed this, at all, but it sure was different. I looked both ways to make sure nopony would be there to catch me. I thought about using my wings, again, maybe I could lift myself onto the roof of these small houses. I gave my wings a silent test flap, I almost screamed in pain if it hadn't been for my hoof. I pulled my wing out of place, just great.

I looked around the next row of houses and saw I was close to the walls, once there I could easily creep my way out, if I don't run face first into somepony. I heard two ponies coming in my direction, I silently slid back into the dark alley.

"Did you hear about the pegasus some of the guys picked up?"

"Yeah, some interesting shit. The boss said he wanted to see her in a few hours."

"Really? The boss never wants to see anyone unless they are special."

"Dipshit, she is special! She's a pegasus for fuck's sake. We could make a fortune off of her."

"You mean the boss is going to make a fortune, we don't make shit."

"I should buck you so hard..." The voices of the passing ponies drowned out as they passed me and turned a corner. So, I was special now? I'm a little curious on how exactly I am special. Dismissing it, I was running low on time, at any time my captors will be back to see the cage op-

"The pegasus is gone!" A speaker in the middle of the town blared. "All guards, find her!"

I was hoping to get away before that happened. I slithered through the street to the other side, as quietly as I could. The steady clop of my hooves, however, didn't help me. Flying was much stealthier, but I was afraid to put any more strain on my wing. I peered my head around another row of houses and cursed my long hair, after brushing it out of the way, I quickly pulled my head back, as I was about to get hit by an oncoming guard running past my position. Luckily he didn't see me, so I ran across the street. I was at the last row of houses, basically on the walls. I heard screaming and yelling all over the town as guards and older bucks alike searched every single house. I had to let myself snicker a bit as a unicorn mare almost beat a buck over the head with a broken wooden broom. A buck from the inside grabbed her and pulled her back in, I winced when I heard her screaming.

The moment of laughter died away and I galloped down the wall, hopefully towards the gates. My idea cut was cut short as I had to run into a house due to the guards appearing at the end of the street. Except, it wasn't a house. Lined on the walls were different types of guns in different states of disrepair, some missing the barrels, others missing an entire half of them. I knew how to shoot a gun, but these were not built for a pegasus, most likely a unicorn. None of them could be handled with teeth nor held with hooves while flying. Since I had still not been spotted, my curiosity got the better of me. I searched around for anything that I might be able to use.

A "not-so-secret" safe was on the floor, seemingly covered up at one point, but the slavers hadn't kept whatever was covering it there. Actually, they had left nothing in this wanna-be armory. Besides ajar gun cabinets with broken guns and a safe; this room didn't hold very much treasures. I looked back at the safe, apparently somepony had broken into it once already, I took notice of the broken pieces of metal surrounding it. I shrugged, my curiosity getting the better of me, so I tried to open the safe, even if I was more pressed for time than what was possible. My skills, however, were no match for this safe. Actually I couldn't even call them skills, I had just somehow unlocked my cage. This lock, however, was made a much higher quality, seems as somepony wanted something hidden. With renewed vigor, I worked my magic (relatively speaking as somepony who doesn't have magic).

*** *** ***

After an almost intense rage outburst at an inanimate object, I finally got it open. To my amazement, it held a pistol and a few bullets, which after deducting could probably be used for the pistol also inside. Nothing special about them, just good old bullets. It also held an audio recorder, like the one the Overmare used back in the stable. I connected my PipBuck to the device to see if anything was left salvageable for me to use. I lit up in happiness when a few items downloaded to my PipBucks massive storage space. How huge? Well, let's just say I could hold audio recordings even if I downloaded all the recordings from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna combined if they made one for every day they were alive.

I pulled out my newly acquired items and saw, happily, that my PipBuck also kept track of my items as well. I held the gun in front of me and inspected it closer. Weird, the gun was painted different colors and had a strange symbol on the side. It looked like pegasus wings, but it was too worn out to even be able to tell. After I had studied the gun, I heard the clopping of hooves outside.

"Nails, check the repair shop." Somepony said from outside, close to the area I was. My body froze, they were about to search in here.

"I doubt she wandered in here, I'll check though, you go check that house down there." I heard hoofsteps outside, then rounding up to the door. I scrambled beside one of the cabinets, hidden partially from the door. If he came in fully he would surely find me.

I heard the door burst open and my breathing stopped. I waited... and waited... When he didn't come to where I was concealed, I poked my head around the corner a little. I gasped in surprise.

Laying in a pile of blood, the buck who had come into the house to search for me was dead. It was a sickening sight, I was more worried on how it happened though, I searched around for a little bit and couldn't find anypony. The radio DJ's tips radiated in my mind.

Guns, food and water, armor, and friends.

I mentally checked the gun off my list and looked down at the slaver’s crude barding, similar to my stable barding, but armored. I wanted to do anything but put it on. Covered in his blood and possibly other ponies’ blood, I wasn't going to go near it. Most of all, the smell of it was enough to make me lose my lunch again. I threw up inside the open safe, filling it up with my vomit. I started to wonder how many more times I could throw up. Turning back to the dead slaver, I looked at his barding in a new light. I was against scavenging dead bodies, it just felt wrong, but this also could determine my survival.

After stumbling over a piece of a gun in the dim interior, I bent down to pick up the barding with my teeth. The moment I touched the grossly bloody armor I tasted things that should never be tasted. I wanted to throw up again, but I had nothing to throw up. I gently put the barding on loosely, it stained my white fur. I shivered and almost screamed when the blood started oozing all over my white fur. Then I realized a big problem, there was no holes for wings. I grabbed the terrible tasting barding again and dropped it in front of me. I looked back and winced, I was covered in blood that wasn't mine. Picking up a sharp shard of a gun, I cut two tiny holes on the back, hopefully where my wings would be.

I dropped it on my back again and wiggled my one wing into it, perfect fit! Now another problem, my hurt wing. Gently I raised my wing with deathly slowness, sudden movements would only make the pain come back. Wiggling it, I got it in its mark. A small victory, for now. Another challenge still posed a problem, how was I to get out? Maybe wearing slaver barding would help me get past. I then promptly facehoofed.

My wings hadn’t been exposed, but because I was a stupid pony and cut holes for them, now they were clearly visible.

"Hey Nails, you ok in there?" The slavers partner who had sent "Nails" in here before was outside once again. I felt bad that because of his friend’s poor decision, his life had to suffer for it. Nopony can be truly as bad as these ponies act, can they? I let myself believe that to shield myself from the true horrors I have seen, and I haven't even been here a whole day yet!

"Nails, if you're in there raping the pegasus without me, I'm not going to be happy." I heard him chuckle outside. I felt myself jolt to attention, as anger washed over me. Why. Would. They. Do. That. To. Me! I knew why, that was forgotten as I practically rammed the door down with my gun in my mouth. From my crazy expression and his friends bloody barding, I wasn't surprised the buck jumped out of fright. A jump was all he got before I pulled the trigger, hitting him in the leg, not intending for the kill. I tried to will my body to turn rational, but my body wouldn't respond. Instead I felt myself pull the trigger again, and again. Until the gun clicked telling me it was out.

Lying in a pool of blood was a unicorn, riddled with bullet holes. My anger left me, and I broke down crying. What had I just done? I killed somepony! No, this can't be happening. I can't do that, I'm unwilling to accept I had just killed somepony. But had I truly killed? What had these slavers done except rape and sell slaves? No, even their horrific actions will never let me be true to myself. No, my anger should not have gotten the better of me. My time for grieving over killing somepony was cut short as I heard shouts of slavers.

"I heard a shot!"

"I did too!"

"Everypony, follow me!"

I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me, tears were still flowing freely as I had just added to my nightmare fuel. As far as I was concerned I had just killed a part of myself, how could I live like this? My thoughts drifted back to my parents, why hadn't they told me about this? Even if they didn't know, they had to have known something like this would happen. My tears continued to fall with silent splashes as I raced down the street towards where I thought the gate was. Thanking the Goddesses, I left my eyes to fall onto the gate looming undisturbed in front of me. Standing ajar, I made a break for it.

Pain lanced through my shoulder as I heard a gunshot ring out. It didn't penetrate the thin barding, but it left a bruise in its wake. I left behind the town of Sunshineville, hoping never to return to that Goddesses forsaken place. I was far away some distance away from the town when another gunshot rang out, except much less loud. I felt blood flow freely from my rump and massive amounts of pain as everything went black.

Footnote: Level up!

Locksmith: You have now been exposed to lock picking! You can now crack safes that are 25% harder, even without magic!

Exposure (Status): Your slight exposure to radiation will cause health problems, keep RadAway stocked!

***(Well, here it is folks. Time for some major thanks to be passed along. So first, I would like to thank Kkat for making this wonderful universe for me to play around in, even if at times I may not do it the best. I still have fun doing it, so that deserves my thanks. Now on to my amazing pre-reader PoisonClaw. He made sure that the story made sense when I failed to do so. I'd like to thank my editor G-man64 for working with me tirelessly on G-Docs to help perfect this work. Lastly but surely not least, I'd like to thank my proofreaders: Grammar_Nazi and spongebob1000 who corrected many of my errors I am prone to make. With their help and hopefully some comments of improvement from you guys, I hope to give you another great Fallout: Equestria fic that is able to be picked out of a crowd.)***

Chapter 2: Into Darkness

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Chapter 2: Into Darkness

Darkness can be both a wonderful thing, and a terrible thing. Just remember my ponies, it doesn't choose sides.

Pain.

I never felt true pain quite like today. Back in the stable I had the occasional scratch or bruise, mostly from flying accidents. Today however, was different.

*** *** ***

I awoke to silence, utterly terrifying silence. I hadn't opened my eyes to see where I was, the pain was unbearably annoying. It felt like a burning metal rod had been shoved up my plothole. My left shoulder's pain was dulled down to a little bit above a noticeable feeling. A sensation that had been shoved out of my senses way began to appear, I wasn't laying on dirt anymore. It felt somewhat soft with some firmness to it. A little like my bed at the stable, such warm blankets. I just wanted to curl up and never wake up again. I soft groaning noise escaped my mouth as I felt something ruffle my tail, I slowly opened one eye up and peered where the touch came from.

"Mommy! Mommy! She's awake!" Came the voice of a small colt, I presumed was the one who had touched my tail. I almost jumped in the air at the sudden yelling. A pounding headache began to surface. I shut my eyes to try and block out the pain.

"What did I tell you about yelling with guests around?" Came the sound of an older mare. She scolded the young colt for his actions. I giggled a little bit at the scene. What? That doesn't make me a bad pony, does it?

"Sorry about Flash, he can be a handful at times." I got a good eyeful of the mare in front of me. She was fairly pretty with a yellow coat and a long red mane and tail. Don't judge me, I like to pay attention to detail, most of the time.

"That's ok," I giggled, there was a burning question in my mind though, "how did I get here?"

"My friend runs the caravans around here, he saw you lying on the side of the road unconscious so he brought you here right away. Luckily he figured you were not a raider, considering your barding." She pointed a hoof at my bloody barding I had scavenged from Nails. I gave her a half meaningful smile, nodding my thanks.

"I had an extra healing potion as well, as soon as that is finished healing your bullet wounds, I had to take them out, so if anything feels wrong feel free to come out. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you... Er... What's your name?"

"Sunny Shores, I run the towns clinic. If you will excuse me, I have some other patients. Oh yes, welcome to 'The Canyon' yes it is quite literal. We are in between Ponyville and Fillydalphia if you wanted to know." I nodded and said my thanks, she walked out and left. I caught sight of her cutie mark. It looked a lot like clear water. Just her cutie mark, I didn't look at anything else, I promise. I also reminded myself to ask her about those places she mentioned.

Once she left I finally got a good look at the room I was in. The bed I was currently in was in the corner of the room, with a small table next to it. On that said table, was some water, and an apple. Across from me was a small poster on the wall that was mostly faded. I could make out some of the bottom text:

of Morale will help y

Judging by the age, it was safe to assume it was either pre-war or during the war. The rest of the room was a dark grey color with some lights hanging from the ceiling. Most were broken and the rest were off. The doorway was leaking light though, it hurt my eyes to look in that direction. I sat up to get a better look at the floor and noticed an empty bottle. I guess it was that healing potion she was talking about. It was working its magic on my rump... Well magically... The pain was dulling, but it was weird to literally feel my skin etching itself back together. What was more weird was feeling like somepony was groping my rump... Wait, what? Did I really just think that?

"Do you need anything? No other patients need me right now, so I came to check on you." Sunny Shores was standing in the doorway while I was staring off into space.

"Uh, no thank you, it's a little lonely in here though, do you know when the healing potion should be done?" It was quite lonely, and a little depressing as well, I would’ve prefer that she stayed, but anypony would be fine right now.

"Well, I can't stay," Well, there goes that, "but my colts might be able to, if you are up for it. Oh yes, the healing potion should just be done right now, give it another minute."

"Ok, I'm great with colts." I lied straight through the fake smile I gave her, I was terrible with colts. Fillies, I was able to handle, but colts, no.

"Well that's good, they have been bothering me all day, I'll send them in." I gave her another fake smile before she left.

"Oh yeah, one more thing, you might want to close your legs, your mare parts are clearly visible." She popped her head in and quickly withdrew again. I was blushing so hard I thought my face was going to melt. I quickly did what I was told then snuggled back into the pillow. A strange stench assaulted my muzzle as I laid back down. I craned my head around and looked at the pillow. I was now grossly aware that the pillow still had stains on it, hopefully not blood stains.

"Hello!" I almost jumped as two little unicorn colts came skipping into the room, wait, skipping? I observed closer then realized, yes they were clearly skipping.

"Hi, um, what are your names?" Way to make it awkward, the pony in my head snickered.

"I'm Black Dirt." That was a strange name, considering he was a unicorn. However is black coat and blue hair sort of went with it. I almost laughed, I did my best to hold it back though, I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"I'm Flash." The white colored colt replied. His mane was a vibrant green. I snickered a bit at that name, I could understand Black Dirt -nope, not really- but Flash? That's pushing way too much. Though, they just sat there staring at me, not even phased I had just laughed at one of them.

"Well, it's nice to meet you two. Make sure you tell your mom my thanks." Haha, way to be awkward Shadow.

"Oh, she's not really our mom, we just call her that. His parents," Flash pointed at Dirt, "were killed when he got captured by raiders, the raiders sold him to slavers, who sold them to the town, now he is here." I stared at Black Dirt wide eyed, I saw his lip quiver a bit but he kept his straight face.

"So, what happened to you?" I pointed my hoof at Flash. He looked at me sheepishly then rubbed the back of his mane.

"Well, you see... My parents just dropped me off here, so not much of a great story there." He grinned a little. I let myself laugh a little, at least he hadn't been through Tartarus to get here. It also explained why Dirt wasn't the talkative type. I wonder what else has happened to him...

"Uh, ma'am, hello?" I snapped out of whatever stupor I was led into.

"Sorry, I zoned out for a second." He gave me a grin, and sat there. They both decided staring at me would be the greatest idea. I shifted uncomfortably for second then decided to get up. They were at the foot of the bed, so it might be a little bit difficult.

"Can you back up a little, I need to try to get up." They both nodded and shuffled back a couple of hoofsteps. I swung my hind legs around and sat on the side of the bed for a second. My headache decided now would be a good time to resurface. I clutched the side of my head with my forehoof for a second, and slammed my eyes shut. I opened one eye for a second to see what the two colts were doing. They were staring intently at something, but I was in too much pain to care. I shut my eyes again and waited for it to fade a bit. Thankfully, after a minute it did. I opened my eyes again and dropped to the floor, my wings jutted out straight after being held in one spot for Celestia knows how long. I looked at the two again and they still had their eyes trained on something.

"What are you two looking at?" I cocked my head to the side.

They both grinned at me sheepishly then looked away. I gave them a look, and started to walk around in circles. My legs felt numb and wobbly, but they should be fine after a while. My wings also felt better after giving them a test flap.

"Ma'am you never told us your name." Flash asked me after I had completed my fifth circle. I felt slightly better about the injury to my rump and the sprained wing.

"My name is Shadow Wind, born from a stable, came out here and got shot." I casually said, meeting their gazes.

"You were from the stable!? That is so cool!" Flash was now jumping up and down faster than I thought possible, and Dirt... Well he was being himself, I guess.

"Yeah, it's not as fun as you may think."

"Why not? You’re safe from Slavers, Raiders, and all that fun stuff!" Fun isn't exactly the word I would use, but I couldn't argue with that. Wait, what’s a raider?

"What's a raider?" I voiced my question.

"Wow, you really are from a stable, aren't you? As far as I know, a Raider forms tribes of ponies, and they torture and kill and expand their power. Nopony wants to ever trade with them. Not even the traders that are just in it for caps.”

"Mighty bad ponies if you ask me." Sounds like it.

"What are caps?" I must sound like a complete idiot right now, these are all probably common among the survivors out here.

"You know, like bottle caps, out here we use them as currency, to buy anything you want." Wow, that is the most stupid thing I've heard, so far. Caps for money, now I have truly seen it all.

"That's certainly different. I guess you can tell I have none."

"Well then momma is going to make you do some work for her if you can't pay in caps." I saw that coming; I figured nothing was free.

"Lucky you were picked up by Black Shield, if Raiders or Slavers had found you, you probably wouldn't be alive or free right now." Yes, I have experience with Slavers.

"Black Shield?" How does this child know so much? He knows more than I do for Celestia's sake!

"He runs the trade caravans around here, you will probably meet him soon." Good to know, more ponies that I have to meet, as if wasn't awkward enough.

"Great..." I mumbled under my breath. Before they could ask what I said, "Hey, could you show me where your mom is?" Flash nodded his head eagerly and Dirt just nodded. He was certainly a strange colt, not very talkative at all. The two led me out of my room into a brightly lit hallway, drowned in the same light I was trying to avoid earlier. Once my eyes adjusted, I took in the details of the building. Lined down the hallway, were 6 doorways, I peered inside each one and took note. They were exact replicas of my room. The hallway itself was sterile white, reflecting the bright light even more.

After reaching the end of the hallway, we reached the waiting room, if that's what you could call it. Broken chairs were strewn about, papers littered the floor, all the walls had strange stains on them. This was quite a contrast to the sterile white halls inside the clinic. The room was completely empty, save for me and the two colts. The room was quite expansive, it could probably hold 20 ponies easily. The two led me up to a window and inside was a crude remake of an office, with Sunny sitting on a chair shifting through papers with her magic. She looked up and opened the window separating us.

"Hey, how is my patient doing?" Before I could open my mouth, Flash responded for me.

"She is doing great mommy! She’s from the stable, did you know that? Oh and her cutie mark is a Marksmare symbol. She must be great with rifles!" The words flew so fast out of his tiny mouth, my jaw dropped to the floor. Sunny gave a slight chuckle at my reaction.

"Well hon, you might want to get used to it, Flash does that a lot." I didn't even respond, my head was still trying to wrap itself around what just happened.

"So, you're from the stable?" I nodded my head. "And your cutie mark is a Marksmare symbol?" I nodded again. "Well that sure as hell doesn't make sense at all, now does it?" I shook my head dumbly. "How does a stable-dweller have a cutie mark that deals with guns?"

"Well you see ma'am, my stable was one of the few that had a firing range, I practiced a lot and got my cutie mark. I have exceptional accuracy." I blushed a little, I hated giving myself more credit than needed. She put her hoof under her chin for a moment thinking.

"Well is it safe to assume you have no caps?" I nodded my head. "Hmm, well I have some jobs that need done, so you can do those as payment." Well, at least I didn't have to pay. Note to self: Get Caps.

"What kind of jobs?" I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Just some small wildlife problems, nothing a sniper like you can't handle, right?" I gulped but nodded.

"Well that settles it, let me show you around town, then you can get started."

*** *** ***

The walk around the small town was quite short. The town itself sat on the edge of a canyon, so Raiders -I think that's what they are called- and other ponies had less means of attack. Inside the crudely built walls, was a crudely built town (yes, crudely, everything was basically falling apart). A general store and casino dominated most of the town. Then the clinic was the second biggest building. Each sat on opposite sides with houses in the center. The houses ranged from actual houses to small wooden shacks. Dirty, weary ponies looked at me with sadness in their eyes, it was a depressing sight.

"From what I've seen so far, why have you been nice to me? I was captured by slavers then proceeded to get shot by them." I broke the silence of walking around.

"Well hon', I try to help as many ponies as I can. Out here is dangerous and terrible. So I try to shine my own little light onto the darkness of the outside." I guess that made sense, not really, but my brain wasn't working at full capacity, anyway.

We stopped outside of the clinic again and she began talking to a stallion that I didn't see throughout the town. He was tall, at least a full head above me. He had dark grey fur that was dirty and stuck together in some places. His mane, longer than any stallion should have, was black and blue. His tail, being the same colors, almost touched the ground. Even though my mane and tail were longer, he was certainly close to my length.

"Black Shield, how was the trip?" That was an odd name.

"It was fine, ran into a few problems, but that was quickly resolved." His voice was scratchy but deep. I then stared wide eyed at the assortment of items he was carrying in his saddlebags. All different types of guns were poking out and in different directions. Butts of rifles and tips of all kinds of different weapons. I think I saw a tip of a rocket in there.

"Who's your friend?" He broke me out of my stupor and I stood at attention.

"She's the one you brought back, remember?" He looked at me, seemingly studying me for a few seconds. At least, I think, his black sunglasses were not exactly easy to see through.

"Oh yes, I remember, the one who I saved from being shot while down." Wait... What.

"What do you mean?"

"My caravan wanted to shoot you, we do not deal with Raiders, ever." He gave me a hard stare that I looked away from. Even though I couldn't see his eyes, it felt like he was staring into my soul.

"Quit scaring her, she is from the stable." Sunny Shores said in a soothing voice. I feel like "from the stable" is an insult.

"Oh really? That cutie mark doesn't seem to be from a stable born pony." I tried not to, but I facehoofed. Just because I'm from the stable doesn't mean I don't know what a gun is.

"So you're from stable 7?" How did he know that.

"Yeah, how did you know?" He facehoofed, I was strangely unsure of why.

"You realize you have your stable barding on, right?" No, actually I didn't. I wear it all the time and it just became a second skin.

"Yeah, I knew, don't worry." I lied straight through my teeth, nice job Shadow. Way to make a first impression. He chuckled and went back to Sunny.

"So, I brought back as many things as I could get, I managed to get some Med-X, some health potions, and a super restoration potion for a fairly cheap price." I swear, it's like they wanted me to blank out, how am I supposed to know about this stuff? All I know is healing potions... Heal you. And Med-X is pain relief or something. Super restoration potion, that's new. I guess it's super restorative? That sounds... Smart...

"Well that sounds good, do you mind taking the medicine into the clinic? Flash and Black Dirt should know where to put them." Black Shield nodded his head and went inside, leaving Sunny and I alone. To my relief she spoke first.

"So, hon', I think I know how ya can earn your caps." Great. "You will help guard Black Shield's caravans from wildlife and someponies that get a little too close. I'll pay you of course, but those health potions are not cheap, so if you go on two trips, that should be enough to pay your debt." No, I do not want to get shot again! Ugh, I have no other choice. I swear I heard the pony in my head laughing.

"I guess that's fair," even though I don't know what a fair trade would even be, "but I don't have a gun, or anything really." Good ol' nothing, except that small gun, but I wanted a rifle like my old one, if I could get my hooves on one of those, I'd feel just at home.

"Hon, did you hear me?" Huh?

"No, sorry, thinking." She chuckled, and repeated herself.

"Well I'm sure that since ya will be workin' then Broken Chains will give ya a gun." She acts like I'm supposed to know these ponies. She smirked when she saw the blank stare I gave her, so I guess that was a good enough of a hint.

"Broken Chains supplies our caravans with weaponry in exchange with 10 percent of the items they acquire." See, that's where I need to learn about fair trades.

Fair trades and you; haha. I'd like to see that happen.

Shut up brain.

"Hon' do you need to make a revisit to the clinic? You look a little pale." I waved her off with my hoof, making sure to tell her it is nothing. Now that I think about it, I zoned out a lot back in the stable as well, hmm, never thought of it that much. Oh Celestia no flashbacks, my foalhood was haunting. With a shake of my head, I realized that Sunny was trotting away motioning for me to follow her.

We walked for a few minutes, which counts for an eternity for me, I'm the most impatient mare you will ever meet and I don't intend to change that. Okay! Psychological analysis aside! We walked into the town store that dominated the backside of the town. Inside, well, words can hardly describe it. Half of the building (which I'm surprised I didn't notice before) was missing. Like fell off the canyon missing. It was poorly reconstructed out of scraps of sheet metal, that had many holes with gray light pouring through.

The store itself matched the terrifying poor design of the building. Shelves toppled over, and left to sit for centuries, were thrown about the better half of the building, the other half was in a, somewhat, better shape. Some of the shelves had been poorly rebuilt and repurposed as holders for food, an assortment of guns, medicine, (I think, it resembled the stables clinic's medicine) and an assortment of tools and other survivalist looking thingies.

All was going quite well until I saw the pony. Well, I'm not even sure you can call that a pony. The thing behind the counter was staring at us with lifeless orbs that represented eyes. Fur was hardly still existent on the walking corpse. When it spoke I screamed and ran behind the shelves for cover.

"What's got her tits in a bunch?" The zombie-like form ponyish thing said.

"Well this here is a keeper, straight from the stable." The thing gave me a blank impassive stare and caused me to look away.

"Well how does that help us? She's from a stable, no gun training, remember. I've been living for over 200 years for Celestia's sake! Stables were built for ponies to survive in, not for training an army!" Seriously, how many times today am I going to have to explain myself.

"Well she's a real keeper then, just look at her cutie mark." Sunny Shores replied in her silky smooth voice, until I realized what she was implying. Buck that, I ain't moving. She motioned me to get up, so I very unhappily obliged.

"Woo-Wee, damn straight! That there is a marksmare symbol, hell, haven't seen a pony come by here in years with something like that!" As I moved closer I gagged, the stench coming off of the thing was unbearable, not including the sight of him. Which I'm totally assuming it's a him. This could get awkward. He leaned over the short counter with little difficulty to get a better look at me.

"Damn, you know you're pretty. Haven't seen a mare like you in years, no offense." He said while turning to Sunny. I don't know which I should be feeling. Happy, or disgusted. I'm going with the latter.

"Anyway, you didn't just come here to let me compliment you, right? Sunny, what's this all about?"

"She needs to do work for me to pay off her health potion. I told her she can accompany Black Shield on his caravan trips. Two trips should suffice enough."

"All I'm hearing is that she needs a gun." I smirked, he can read minds woo-hoo.

"Yes, she will need one, give her one that doesn't cost a lot and won't break the instant it shoots." Sunny seemed to laugh at what she said, but from what I've seen, I'm sure he sells the guns I saw broken on the floor.

"Ah, I see, well missy, would you mind accompanying me to the back?" Yes, I would mind.

"S-sure..." I stuttered, like I always do in front of new things… Not as much ponies but… I don’t even know what this is. Dear Celestia, I'm so awkward. I had some points on my side though, I'm not sure you can even call this thing a pony.

I followed him around the counter while trying to suppress my gagging reflex. He smelled absolutely horrid. I have smelled some revolting things so far, but this tips the scale on a whole new level.

We left the main room behind and went into a storage room. It was small, but big enough to hold guns on all shelves. Shelves, shelves, and more shelves. The entire room was covered in shelves that were covered by guns. Speaking of guns, I didn't even know what half the guns in the room did! I did however, see some really, really big rifles. I almost tripped on a few broken pieces lying on the floor while Broken took me to the back wall. Once there he gestured in front of him with his hooves.

"Well, I've got these four guns here that are not to expensive, nor in bad repair." I looked at the four guns sitting in front of him. One, very small, just like the one I had acquired from the slavers was on the far left of my options. The one next to it was slightly bigger and held a large clip. On the side with faint letters it read: Equestrian forces, standard issue: SMG.I'm not sure what an 'SMG' stands for, but it didn't look like something I would want. Next to that was a bigger gun. It looked like a rifle without the long barrel and scope. Attached was a fairly sized magazine for bullets. The rest was what looked like stock parts, nothing special, besides the metal rusty frame. That is until I turned it over with my hooves.

Equestrian Special Forces: Airborne units: Designed for pegasi only. I could literally feel my face light up.

"Yeah, that is a good choice if you pick that, we don't get very much pegasi around here. Them being up in the clouds and all, it's hard to sell these kinds of weapons. Besides, this is one of the few rifles that shoots bullets instead of charged lasers." Lasers? What? Whatever, I'll ask him later.

I literally almost dropped the gun in my hooves when I saw the last gun. I recovered and set down the short rifle and looked at the rifle. I felt my heart skip a beat when I looked at it. It was almost an exact replica of the rifle I shot back in the stable. Except cooler. The rifle had a strange dark purple glow emanating from the inside of the gun, so subtle, that I had to be close to see it. It had a special faint engraving on the side as well as the last two guns before it.

Pegasi snipers only: Marksmares only. If a Marksbuck please see an armory officer to get

one fitted for you. Enchantments are as follows: Lightning Bullets: Fire Bullets: Poison Bullets. Can be switched between settings on the dial.

That... Sounded... So... COOL! I was literally jumping up and down with the aid of my wings to make me shoot even higher.

"Whoa there missy, I see you're excited but this isn't like the others." Broken 'broke' me out of my gun induced lust. I looked over at him to continue. He sighed and gave me a small frown.

"Well, I understand you are the only pony who has come through who can actually use this, however, it won't be that cheap." Nothing is ever that cheap is it?

Nope.

Shut up brain, I didn't ask you.

"If you want the rifle I expect to hear good reports from Black Shield, AND I want more rare guns in exchange for this beauty." He jabbed a hoof at the amazingly awesome, brilliantly crafted, rifle. No, I'm not falling in love with a gun, not yet that is. I looked at the rifle then back to him, thinking if that was fair or not. I decided that I really had no other choice on the matter anyway.

"Ok, I will bring more guns." He smiled and showed his rotting, falling apart, yellowed teeth. I looked away and found something to look at that was more interesting. I heard a shuffle behind me so I turned back around to see Broken picking the rifle up in his hooves.

"Here, I'll let you use it for now, but if you don't do what I asked, I will kill you." Ouch, that stings. I thought he liked me, whatever.

"Ok, thank you, I won't let you down!" I gave a small half salute which he heartily laughed to. He led me back out of the room that Sunny was in. She was rummaging through some guns lazily with her hoof. When my hoof clanked against a piece of metal jutting out of the ground she turned around.

"So how was gun hunting?" She smirked, not sure why, but she did. Wow, I'm really stupid.

"She picked out one of the most rare pegasi bullet weapons I have. Granted, I don't have any laser weapons anyway."

"No use crying over spilled milk. What'd you make her do for it?" Then it hit me, maybe she'll convince him to give me the gun for free!

"Just for her to collect some more rare guns for me, oh yes, and to be good for Shield, Celestia only knows how much more stress he can handle." I feel like I shouldn't be listening to this conversation.

"Wow, you went easy on her, it's about time you didn't make somepony literally give a forehoof and a hindleg just for a gun." She then turned to me. "Yes, if you were wondering, he actually made somepony cut off their ligaments and hand them over as payment." I gave Broken a stare that I hoped looked menacing, but he just smiled back showing his ugly rotting teeth. I guess it didn't come with the effect I had hoped it would. He turned away from my contorted face that I was desperately trying to make look menacing. But I'm me, and when has me being me ever go right in the first place? Dear Celestia: I hate being me. While I was destroying my inner self esteem I was blissfully unaware of the engaging conversation I was supposed to be listening to. I hate you brain.

I only have one brain cell, I'm sorry I can't understand your request, please call again.

I hate you brain, go away.

Not like you would be losing much intelligence if I left anyway.

Shut. Up.

"-thing about a gun? I think Shield said that he was taking a small caravan to check it out." Broken was saying. "Hey missy, get over here." I rambled up to him as my anger ridden mind adjusted to the actual world.

"So, Shield needs to know, and I apologize for not knowing my manners before, but what is your name?" Sunny looked at me expectantly as well. To be honest, it got awkward really quick as both of them stared at me with unwavering glances.

"U-uh, my name is Shadow Wind." I seriously sounded like I was scared of my own name, what is wrong with me?

A lot of things.

Oh would you just butt out? While I was yet again facing conflict with my own self, I hadn't realized that the ponies before me were now expecting another answer; judging by their expressions. I gave them my now signature ‘what are you looking at’ face, eliciting a slight chuckle from the both of them.

"Are you ready? Shield leaves in less than an hour, so you better get ready." Sunny smirked, apparently that was what she did every time I dozed into "la la" land.

"Yeah, I think, don't I need ammo?" At that point, Sunny walked around me to see the gun that I had strapped around myself. She gave a silent nod of approval after reading the label. Although, I detected a slight taken back gesture, which I could only assume was from giving such a high powered gun to a stranger.

"Yes, let me go around back and get some. Don't expect much, as I said, I don't carry much for pegasi." I nodded and he gave a slight smile. He turned around and walked back into the same storage room that we had been in before.

"So, what is its name?"

"Huh?"

"The gun, what's its name?" Uh, since when do guns have names?

"I didn't think of one..." Seriously, who names their guns?

"Come on! Everypony names their guns! I'll help you."

"Ok..."

"So... Let's see... It glows purple... Shoots three types of bullets... Sniper... Hmm... Ah hah!" I stared at her curiously waiting for the answer.

"Mareciless!" Wow, not bad. "All I did was take merciless, and you being the mare you are, just combined them! What do you think?" For an older mare she was getting very excited over a name. Then again, it did sound really cool. Mareciless it is.

"I love it actually, thank you Sunny!" No faked happiness needed, it was indeed a good name. I just hope I'll only have to keep it trained on wildlife... not other ponies... Nightmarish thoughts of ending the poor unicorn's life flooded my mind, I couldn't get rid of them. The thought of me killing somepony was unheard of in my mind, but yet here I stand. Nothing can wash the blood of my hooves. I could feel tears welling in my eyes at the thought... I cannot live with myself if I have to do that again...

Hoofsteps could be heard coming from the direction of the storeroom, I made my ninety degree turn to face Broken. As much as it pains me to smell and well... look at him... he did give me a very nice gun and hopefully now some ammo. So he isn't that bad.

"Here you are. Forty rounds was all I had, hopefully it comes to use." Dear Celestia! Why would I need forty rounds?

"Why so much ammo?" I had to ask, I would never have imagined needing that much ammo.

"Many of Shield's guards have died to numerous wildlife attacks over the years, so it couldn't hurt to be prepared right?" Good point, who knows, I may need this later.

"Oh, ok... As long as I stick to shooting just wildlife then that should be no problem." Both Sunny and Broken exchanged worried glances. That couldn't have put me anymore on the edge. There is something that I am not being told, and I want to know. However, questioning their actions could lead to unfortunate circumstances for me... I would rather not be shot my first day being free. Which led me to my last, unfortunate, question.

"When do I start?"

*** *** ***

An hour later I found myself flying overhead of a small caravan. It was consisted of three small wagons, five guards: all of which were unicorns, and three large stallions pulling the caravans. They too were armed, which was smart, except there was no way that they could aim and shoot fast enough if we did indeed get attacked.

I was doing my ten minute patrol of the surrounding area. Black Shield said that I was a new, but good addition to the team. Although, I could feel the distrust emanating from him while he spoke with me about my job. Again, I was confused, I had done nothing noticeably wrong to him.

As much as I hated to say it, I was truly scared. Today was only my second day, although it feels like the first because I was gunned down and put into a knocked out state. Now I am guarding over a caravan for ponies I don't know, mostly, against my will. The only consolation that I had was that this was much better than what the slavers could do to me.

I began to feel the scared feeling creeping back up again, but Mareciless shifting against my back gave me some confidence.

Come on Shadow, you can do this!

Oh look who feels all high and mighty just because of some mediocre gunmareship.

Go. To. Heck.

That made my inner voice shut up. Gladly enjoying the peace in my head, I actually began to do my job.

I squinted to get a better view of my surroundings. We were walking along a once pre-war highway. What had once been a natural wonder, was now a desolate ruined slab of concrete. Holes throughout the road made traversing the road difficult. Especially for those on the ground, which is about everypony, except me. It did seem a little odd that I was the only pegasus around, but then again, Broken had made it very clear on how little he sold pegasi weapons.

*CRACK*

I saw a flash from the right of the caravan from behind a rock. I swallowed and my eyes widened in fear as I realized that somepony was shooting at us, more importantly it was aimed at me. I ducked and flew straight forward, towards the rock, and right on top of the path of the caravan. I landed in the first wagon and saw Black Shield blink in surprise.

"Shield, we have a problem." I said in ragged breaths.

"Calm down, calm down, what is it?"

"Somepony shot at me from behind a rock over there." I pointed my hoof through a torn piece of cloth that made up the coverage of the wagon right at the rock.

"Well then go take care of it, you have to follow my orders, right?" No, I can't kill somepony again!

"B-but... I can't kill another pony..." He looked at me in surprise.

"What do you mean you can't kill another? Do you know where we are! Now go out there and take care of it! That's an order!" I gave a half meaningful salute and flew out. Then it hit me, why aim at me but not the caravan? I shook it out of my head as I made my way to the rock. Whenever I got close, another crack could be heard with a flash. Thankfully no pain followed and I heard a slight gasp. I landed in front of the rock so that whoever was behind it, would stay behind it.

I pulled up Mareciless and gently floated off the ground. I checked the safety to make sure it was off and turned the dial to the "poison" setting. I was about to kill another pony, after I just told myself I wouldn't. What kind of a monster am I?

Then I realized it... This pony tried to kill me first, without any regret I'm sure. Does that make it right to do the same to them? It didn't matter now that I realized I still had this immediate problem to deal with. I brought up my sniper and thought of the best course of action. I smiled at the plan I had come up with, so I put it to action.

I flew straight up, so far that the pony on the other side could easily be seen. He didn't even track me with his weapon, but then I saw where it was pointing. Right at the caravan. I fumbled with Mareciless for a bit as nervousness wracked my body. I steadied her with my PipBuck leg and aimed down the sight, at his now fully exposed back and took a deep breath.

*BANG*

The shot was so loud it made my ears ring. I stood steady though to make sure he was subdued. His body dropped like a sack of apples. I flew down to investigate. Only then it seemed odd to me that the wind was so calm. I wouldn't have been able to make such a shot if the wind was buffeting me. Actually... Come to think of it, all of this was odd. Wouldn't ponies be smart enough to attack in numbers? I midair shrugged before continuing my descent towards the, hopefully, killed pony.

I gently landed against the ground and stretched my tired muscles in a poor attempt to ease the tiredness. I then peeked around the rock to get a better look, and a look and then some is what I got.

Laying behind the rock was a corpse of a pony; melting... His bones were now exposed and his remaining flesh was sagging off of his body. It was enough to make me gag, and don't even get me started on the stench. It smelled like well... rotting flesh... I can't really compare that to anything. Then came the grossest thing I have ever seen.

The ponies eyes were staring at me, then began to melt. So slowly and agonizingly that made it painful to watch. They slowly pooled into a small pool of... Eye... I didn't get to see what happened after that as I flew away as fast as I could, trying to keepback tears and throwing up.

I killed another pony... I'm a terrible pony... I'm so sorry Mom and Dad... I wanted to be a good pony just like you asked, but right now I'm not being a very good one... I promise I'll make it up.

Sometimes I talked to them, no, that's not weird. I had so many beautiful memories as a small filly. Playing with them inside the stable, safe and sound was the best life ever, now... I'm a killer...

*** *** ***

Running away from mistakes had never helped me in the past, nor will it help me now. All I can do is try to forget the two ponies I had murdered for my own personal safety. Even that they would've killed me first cannot ease my mind on the crimes against ponykind that I had committed in two days! Two days! In two days I had killed two ponies and almost died myself... I was thankful for the ponies back at the town for their hospitality but I can't do this, and I can't do this job. I was supposed to be protecting from wildlife, not using my skills to hurt other ponies!

But... How bad could I really be? What crimes have these, selfishly devoted, ponies committed? Does it really matter?

"Equestria to Shadow, hey you there?" I looked at Black Shield and gave him a silent nod, then went back to my self pity. After witnessing eyes melting, I flew as fast as I could back to the caravan to report my progress. The fact that I had actually killed the attacker pleased Shield. He told me he wasn't into the whole "capture" thing. I asked him why but he didn't explain further.

Then again, what do I know? I'm not even a full grown mare... but I do full grown mare stuff... I already figured that out... I wish I could erase what I had done, but Black had told me before: "If you don't put the past behind you, it will only come back to haunt you forever." So, I put my actions into the back of my mind, hoping they would stop trying to be the forefront of my thoughts. Maybe I would eventually forgive myself, but I have to deal with the task at hoof.

Our caravan was about 20 minutes away from our destination, and of course Black Shield reminded me that this is one of their worst trade partners, so I would have to stay behind and snipe from a distance if something went wrong. If Black Shield had purposely used me, this was the pinpoint of it all. The road had been increasingly bumpy, probably because the integrity of the road was beginning to worsen. Through the floorboards, I could see the amount of holes in the road from wear and tear damage. Not only had apparently a Megaspell weakened anything in this area, somehow Black Shield knew that, and the fact that this road wasn't paved recently before the Great War.

The road was becoming more chaotic as I felt the minutes tick by. Fear was rising with every passing moment and I couldn't bear to feel it. Again, I thought back to the time when I was a little filly... When I was bullied for having wings, until I showed what I could do... Back then was what I felt again.

"Shadow... We need to talk." I perked up my ears and lifted my head to look at Black Shield. I reeled back in surprise when he was standing right in front of my muzzle. He had his neutral face on... Which was about all the time. I haven't even seen him give a smile. Or even something different than a straight line plastered against his muzzle.

"Sorry, but you need to go and hide." He led me over to a tear in the side of the wagon. "I'm sorry I didn't realize how traumatizing this must be for you... Sunny Shores gave me a note concerning you, and I didn't decide to open it until now. The only way to get used to killing ponies is to remember they are your enemy just as much as you are to them. They will kill you unless you kill them. Kill or be killed..." I admired his ability to speak in an emotional tone but not even show the slightest of it on his face. He kept the rock solid line and stared straight ahead.

"So, will you forgive my harsh orders?" No, but I felt myself nod anyways. "Good, now will you please go hide behind those rocks with your gu-"

"Mareciless." I corrected him before he could say gun. He waved his hoof at me to show his disapproval of my interruption, but -nonetheless- he continued while pointing at a group of rocks on a cliff.

"Yeah, whatever, it's still a gun. So, you hide behind those rocks and shoot anypony making trouble, ok?" I nodded my head and he did something I never thought I would see from the stallion. He smiled.

*** *** ***

I watched the small towns lights from a distance, passively waiting for my moment to do something. Whether it be guard the caravan on its trip back or shoot another pony. Even with Black's advice, it still felt wrong to shoot another living pony. As much as I hated to do it, this is my life now. Whether I die, or... Yeah there is no "or" there. I know for a fact I won't be let back into the stable. Static started coming through my PipBuck and I investigated the noise.

I guess I should've listened to my dad’s lessons on the PipBucks more often, because half the time I have no idea what it’s doing. I looked at the flashing lights dancing across my screen and frowned, this was like trying to learn a different language.

"Initiating Radio Signal: Please Stand By." I jumped three feet in the air when I heard my PipBuck speak in a smooth robotic stallion voice.

"Shadow, you there?" Wait, what. I looked at my PipBuck closely and noticed it connected to a radio frequency. Black's radio frequency. I fiddled with the new thing he gave me so that I was able to talk back to them.

"Yeah... Uh, I'm here." I heard a large feedback of static on the other end, only to clear up moments after.

"Good, good, at first I was afraid you didn't know how to use the communicator. But no matter, I need you to cover us with your sniper, we are close and I don't want any surprises, you hear?" No surprises, got it.

"Yeah, but I-" Static droned then the connection died. Dangit, I needed to tell him I don't know how to use this thing! I shrugged and got up from my crouching position. Standing on my hindlegs was tough for anypony, but my wings help me sustain balance. Looking down the scope, I watched the caravan slowly crawl towards the town, then I saw something that made me gulp. Perched on a cliff beyond the caravan was another sniper, except he wasn't likely on my side of the deal. If push came to shove, he would die first.

Checking Mareciless for any damage (why there would be damage, I won't know) and I switched the dial to fire. After witnessing the last pony die, I wasn't going to shoot another poison bullet ever again. The pony in the distance why brightly colored, standing out against the reddish gray rocks. His mane, which was very peculiar, was a bright yellow. His body was a bright red. Why he would be chosen as a sniper, that's what confused me.

That doesn't go without saying that my white fur doesn't give me away, but at least it doesn't look like I'm the bucking sun. Wait... did I really just say that...? I need to watch my mouth.

The caravan coming to a stop interrupted my thoughts greatly as I watched Black Shield and two of the guards walk out and greet the opposing party. The wind started to pick up again and that's when I realized I had never grabbed my saddlebags from the clinic. I mentally reminded myself to grab those once I got back. I checked my forehoof opposite to my PipBuck and made sure my extra clip was securely strapped to my hoof. Nodding once, I went back to looking down the scope, I was now fully ready for whatever was about to come.

"Shadow, keep on a lookout, don't let anypony try anything funny. I'll keep my microphone on, if you want to hear the conversation you can." Nothing funny? Now why would somepony try to do something funny? Were they throwing a party? I dismissed as Black Shield's humor. Words started coming through faintly at first, but slowly picked up volume. I winced at how loud it became, I needed to ask Black for a way to minimize noise, but that would be for later.

"Ah, Black Shield. Come back to our beloved town again I see?" Something about this pony’s voice threw me off.

"Yes. We would like to trade some items." Black Shield's voice had drastically changed... To one of friendliness? Shaking my head I focused on the sniper pony in the distance. Thanking Celestia for Mareciless's unnatural range, I was able to make out details of his actions and movements. He was currently lounging back in a position that looked like he didn't care about the current conversation. Moving my rifle away from the lazy pony I looked for Black Shield and whoever he was meeting with. At the front of the towns gates, of course, is where they were conversing. Black had his back to me as he conversed with a very strange stallion. He had a jet black mane and white fur. From the angle I was in I couldn't get a clear view of his cutie mark, not like it matter anyway. The stallion's smile was what threw me off the most. Somehow he was keeping a perfect smile while talking. It was very unnerving.

"Well, what would you like to trade? You know I am a very reasonable stallion." I thought I heard somepony scoff, and what happened next surprised me. The white stallion pulled out a gun so fast, that I was impressed. He pressed it to his guards throat and began yelling.

"How dare you scoff at me! You know I am a very reasonable pony, I gave your family a house, and you a job!" With that said he jumped off his comrades stunned body and walked back in front of Black Shield with the same smile plastered on his face. He put the gun back in his holster on his back and resumed listening to Black. From this angle I couldn't tell if he was surprised or not amused. Either way, it didn't matter, I sensed movement by the other sniper.

Moving Mareciless around using the rock as a makeshift bi-pod I looked in the snipers direction. True enough he was now fully alert and looking down his scope at the ponies below. I kept my gun trained on him as if daring him to do something. Secretly, I hoped he would just stay where he is. I then turned my attention back to the conversation at hoof.

"Sorry about that Shield, sometimes my guards need some discipline. Anyway! I have some items that you may find interesting..." I heard some rummaging around but I was intent on keeping the sniper in my line of sight for as long as possible, so I didn't bother looking at the group below. That is until I heard two gunshots echo through my PipBuck. I swung Mareciless around to face whatever had happened. I gulped at the scene. Black was surrounded by corpses from both sides. Now all that was standing was Black, himself, and the crazy white stallion.

"So this is what it has come to?"

"Seems like it," I heard Black reply.

"You know, I feel truly sorry you never did find yourself a sniper, they truly do come in handy." My face went white... Well... Whiter... I realized what the stallion was getting at. Swinging Mareciless again, I aimed at the sniper. It was now or never. I took a deep breath and waited for my breathing to calm. I aimed at the pony’s body and took the shot. The flash was bright, and the sound was loud, but the bullet kept its intended course, and flew right through the pony's chest. An instant later his body lit up in flames, thankfully I wasn't near enough to smell it. I swung Mareciless back once more to find the strange stallion's smile had been replaced with a frown.

"Well that was certainly unexpected." He trained his eyes at the fallen sniper and saw his frown deepen.

"Fire, why does it always have to be fucking fire." I heard Black laugh, at this point he was really confusing so I just shook my head. Until realization of what I had just done came to mind.

I just killed another pony, without even thinking this time! What kind of a monster am I becoming! I began to cry, cry for my heartlessness, cry for my failure, and most importantly cry for my loss of my old life and everything that went along with it.

"Seems as though I am at a loss. Well, until I summon more guards I would get your sorry ass out of here, and give this to your new sniper. Don't come back." I heard something heavy land on the ground with a plop and heard hoofsteps slowly drowning away. I didn't hear anything but my own pitiful sobs until the hoofsteps had become nothing.

"Well done Shadow, you saved my ass back there." I detected a faint sigh escape him. "But not without consequences, we lost two good guards today... I just don't know how I'll tell their families’." That made me cry even more. Why did I get to live but others didn't? Not wanting to be selfish by listing off reasons of why I should live, I replied.

"Yeah... What did you get for your trouble?" I might have sounded insensitive but when he sees my face he will think otherwise.

"A few guns... some potions... ammo... whoa what is this..." His voice clicked off as the connection was broken. I aimed through the scope again to see what he was doing. He was walking back to the caravan with a small bag in tow. He was holding it in his unicorn magic while looking intently inside the bag. I stifled a laugh when he tripped over a rock. Deeming that the area was clear I flew off toward the waiting wagons to begin the journey back. I looked once more at the bright town beside me. It was a beautiful sight, if only everything wasn't corrupted, that would be a nice place to live. That doesn't mean where I'm currently staying is any better, but at least some of these ponies showed me kindness.

Landing in the front wagon I was greeting by a happy looking Black Shield. Although he wasn't looking at me, he was analyzing something in his vision. I took a glance at it to see if I could determine what it was. To me it looked exactly like the smaller rifle I had held back at Broken Chain's store, except it was pulsing in the center with a strangely cool red energy. It captivated me for a second before I looked away and took a seat. I hadn't realized that the flying and the shooting had taken so much of a toll on my body. Laying down in a normal fashion like any mare would do, I watched as Black Shield was turning the gun around in his magic. The only thing I could remember before falling asleep was to ask him lots of questions when I got up.

If I got up.

Footnote: Level up!

Accuracy Addict: Your accuracy has been increased by 15%! No making silly mistakes!

Broken Mind(status): Your state of mind and your stand against killing ponies is slowly wearing away. Better watch out before you go insane!

***(A/N: Well here we are again folks. I deeply apologize for the extended time, not sure if I said it or not but I wanted to upload monthly, but obviously this isn't monthly. So, from now on I will try and tell life to back off every once and awhile so I can write. On to the helpers! I wanted to thank my editor G-man64 for fixing any of my lore that was misplaced or didn't make sense. I also wanted to tank my proofreader spongebob1000 for making this crazy language I write in make sense for all of you. Thank you for sticking with me so far on this journey, and don't fret! More will come!)***

Fallout: Equestria - Banned

by Grape Crush

Introduction: Into the Shadow

Act i: New Life

Chapter 1: Survive...

Chapter 2: Into Darkness