> Dark Lights Shine Bright
>  by PandOracle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Introduction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Introduction


As all of you ponies here know. Everything in this world is either filled with chaos, or just completely deserted of all living things. There were no exceptions. Yes, there are some good ponies, I’ve met them. I even fought side by side with them, but it’s not enough to keep all forms of destruction away and everypony knows it. Still, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t give it one hell of a try. We actually made a dent, nearly succeeded in the impossible.

But I’m not trying to tell all of you ponies how great my life has been in this shitty world. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t be here sitting with you and telling you this. I would still be with those ponies, still be fighting for a better today and tomorrow and recovering what really happened in our past.

As I said though. I’m not here to tell you about that. I’m here to tell you about what happened all together in my life that would make a difference to what has happened now. And to maybe try and convince some of you ponies to help with what I have planned for in the near future.

Before I start though. I need to tell you some quick things about myself and these people called PIPS-Tech

At the start of this journey, I was in a similar position to now. The difference was that I wasn’t smart, I felt like I needed certain ponies to survive when all they did was hurt me. They broke my mind into believing that I couldn’t survive outside, and I nearly didn’t because of that. They gave me everything I needed, just not enough of it. That made me desperate, it made me depend on them. It made me do many things for them in hopes that they would just maybe give me a little bit more next time. That meant that I did not know how to survive alone.

I was also quick to make decisions. I trusted ponies that I shouldn’t have trusted. I doubted the ponies that I shouldn’t have doubted and in turn, I made my few friends my biggest enemies. All because I was submissive at the start, because I let ponies beat me around and do what I wanted and then got cocky when I found my true freedom..

But the decisions that I made...I think you should all know now that I wasn’t proud of them. Well, that goes without speaking. Nopony ever wants to make their friends enemies. But I need to say now that those choices weren’t the only bad ones I have done, and that I severely regret most of them. I can’t tell you what they are right now. No that would ruin the whole story and not really make any sense, but I’m asking that once you hear of them, then you won’t just tie me up and beat me to death or something like that. I’m hoping that you will stick through them to hear me to the end, or fuck off if you can’t do that. 

PIPS-Tech was a company. PIPS stands for Pony Intelligence and Protection Service. They were an amazing organisation. Or at least that’s what ponies though about them at first, and they had no reason not to. PIPS-Tech had been the first to master mass Magilogy creations, easier known as Magic-Technological creations. They created nearly everything used in wasteland and the things that were made in preparation. So this means they created the stables which survived the the nuclear warfare and any possible nano attacks.

Yeah, there was a second piece of the war that goes without mentioning.

But back to my point. The stables survived both of those and some of them are still protecting the ponies inside for all we know, most of them remain unopened and nearly everypony you know came from a pony who came from a pony who came from a pony who came from a blah blah blah who came from a stable. Very few will have no stable blood in them. They also created the canned food and plants that were modified to actually use the radiation in the air to make it survive longer. Some of those unopened cans of food are still edible today, four hundred years later hundred years later, and will be for years to come...I think. If not then we still have the plants and crops. Yes, they are a lot rarer, but they are here and that means they can be regrown in higher quantinumber stuff for anypony who finds them and not just a one time meal.

But one last thing, before I begin. If you see Ember Night, then you bring her to me. I’ve got something I’d like to say to her

So with all of that said, I shall start on my story of how I got here and what I pla-. I already said all of that. I’ll just get on with it.

…

…

And I should probably mention that my name is Parum Lucem,  but everypony calls me dark Light

> Prologue - One day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Lights Shine Bright


Chapter 1 - One Day



Tired. That’s what everything is. That’s what it always is. That’s how I felt now. I had been trekking this place for days now, never finding anything useful, or anything at all for that matter. But I couldn’t really expect much else. In a place so sparse of ponies even before the wasteland came about, there was never bound to be anything still useable now, over three or four hundred years afterward the war, after the infection.

My hooves were going dry, crusting over with dust so that it now hurt for every step. Not in an exhausted way, that had come by a little while ago. Now it just felt like my fur and skin was being ripped from my body every time I lifted a hoof.

I turned my head towards the sky, hoping that the skies would actually be helpful for once, and release its torrent of water down on me. No such luck, there hadn’t been for days. At least not where I was. The clouds just remained blocking the sky from all view and continued to cast their red haze down over the ground. That with the dust that radiated from the ground created a position in which I could not tell where the land stopped and the sky started.

My skin had been agitated badly by my saddlepacks. Having them on for at least 3 weeks straight and maybe 9 hours sleep per week isn’t exactly good for health. But when you are in the middle of nowhere with a limited amount of supplies and an unknown travel time, then you can’t stop moving. If you do stop, there isn’t always the chance that you could start again, and that chance gets smaller every day.

A loud rumbling came from my stomach. It had been a few hours since I had last eaten, but that amount had not been much. And from the looks of it, I didn’t really feel that it was too trustworthy. I had a rule when dealing with food though. Always eat the worst. When I had the option, I would always eat some of the oldest and a little bit of the newest to keep me from throwing up. Wasting food wasn’t really a good habit now, and I would only have to eat it even later if I left it.

It didn’t stop though. It just kept on growling about and flipping about inside me, refusing to let me have some comfort, if that was even possible at this point. In one quick burst, whatever was in my stomach decided to make itself known. I threw my head forward and let the warm and painful substance be ejected from my throat and into a pile at my hooves.

I wasn’t even mad at that though, that was the seventh time this week and the only thing I cared about was how the liquidity of it reduced every time. I was getting seriously dehydrated and needed to find my next source of water quick. The canisters I had were near empty, no matter how much rationing of it I did.

My only remaining weapon, a small pistol that went with the name of Leksin, rattled against my makeshift armour. I laughed, that little pistol had caused this, had caused me to be left out in the middle of no where with little food and no water, no destination and no ammunition.

It’s funny when I think back on it. I had the guts to offer myself up for a patrol, so that I could prove myself and get just a little more food as payment, and I forgot to take the fucking ammo.

Me and the group of ponies I was with. We went out into the wasteland, to try and take out a hive of infected mantids that just kept on reproducing...We fucked up. We had no idea where it was, and stumbled right into its centre, we could have probably made it if I hadn’t left the bullets. Each of the ponies with me, died two hoofs away, eaten by the mantids. If I had brought the Luna damned ammo, I could’ve saved them...but I didn’t. So I couldn’t. It took minutes before there was only me left. So I ran.

The only problem was, once we angered the hive, they didn’t want to calm down...and they are faster than me. I could’ve made it back, had I been able to teleport then I probably would have made it back before. Although, that would be avoiding the fact that I don’t know how to teleport and my magic had been restricted with a tap. Only allowing enough magic to hold a weapon.

My owners weren’t exactly prepared to allow me my full use of magic.

They would have severely regretted that decision. Had they lived long enough to find out about it. The place was up in flames by the time I had gotten back. I guess that maybe a group of the mantids got into the armoury and caused havoc like they did for the rest of the place. All that was left were crumbling ruins and the...chewed up remains of the other slaves and the scraps of metal that had once been somepony’s armour.

It only took one day for everything to change. It took one hour for what happened to become unstoppable. It took one single mistake for me to fuck up the only place I had that even remotely related to a home.

So that led to now. Having lived so long in a cage, mining rocks or fighting in the outskirts of Manehattan to try and clear out some of the buildings. I had little memory of the outside, what it was like to be alone, what it was like to kill and cook my own food, and where the nearest trading route or town was. My collar was still stuck on and agitating my neck every step. A constant reminder of how bad my life was.

The only good thing that had come of the mantid attack was that I had managed to actually get my hooves on the most useful pieces of technology I could use, or so I thought when I grabbed them. A geiger counter. The geiger counter still kind of worked. It still blipped with it’s semi-useful static that showed how much radiation was in the atmosphere around me or in my own body depending on which setting it had been left on. But I didn’t know which setting I had left it on, and everything other than the actual static it released had broken. It become more of a hindrance than an actual help, acting like a dinner bell for anything that wanted to eat me when I approached. That certain geiger counter could now be found under a rock, scraped into a tree, shattered around another rock and one tiny piece still being a dick and stuck in my hoof

I gave a look towards what had recently been the contents of my stomach, then my saddlepacks, then in front of me and into the red mist of dust. I just stared out, not seeing anything other than dust, rocks and pieces of wood scattered around.. I took a deep, wheezy breath as I gathered my thoughts.

“...Fuck it.” I levitated my saddlepacks of my back and failed, not having enough energy, and therefore concentration to do so. The rough material slid over my head as I settled for kneeling down and letting it fall to the ground. That was the perfect sign that I needed food or a drink, fuck, even some soggy soil would probably give me enough energy for a good few hours.

I quickly opened my saddlepacks and emptied their contents onto the floor. That consisted of small pieces of food wrapped up in ragged fabric, and six water canisters that I had managed to scavenge from my old home outside Manehattan. I began tapping and shaking the water canisters, throwing any which gave no result to the side. By the end, I had one half-empty bottle filled with murky brown water, and five metal tins that added heat and weight to a desperate time.

What was I doing? These were my last pieces of food and water, there had to be something better than this. I...I just couldn’t think of it.

I swallowed down the remaining pieces of food, nearly forgetting to actually chew it. Then I moved onto the water, or lack of. My throat threatened to reject the lukewarm liquid the second that it sensed an unwelcome lump of whoever knows what inside. But my remaining will power and lack of caring stopped it from doing so.

“If this doesn’t work. Then at least I’ll die unconscious… I hope. If not than this will be very painful and slow.” I laughed awkwardly to myself knowing that the chances of it working were very slim. I also realised how happy I was that the magic taps used on me had only temporary effects.

The last thing I needed was a bit of shade, but the closest thing for shade was a good ten steps away, and I didn’t really and this big rock that I could just lean on looks so tempting in it’s position of about 1 lean to my left. So I made my decision of the spot I was already standing in as my possibly final resting place.

My rear legs gave way, forcing me to sit even though that was my plan in the first place. I gathered all the energy I had left, and attempted to force the food and water to hurry up and make their effect. But I have little to no patience in this matter, so I prepared myself.

My head started pounding as I directed all my concentration towards my horn, and failed. So I tried again...and failed again...and again. All feel of energy had left my body and I fell limply to the ground, but wasn’t giving up just yet. I stayed on the ground but continued trying. My right eye began twitching at a speed faster than light. Then the light enveloped my horn.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to start it off. It is a lot easier to sustain a magical force than it is to begin it, so this was a good sign. I just had to carry on pushing, if that was even possible.

The aura around the tip of my horn grew at an excruciating pace, literally. It felt as though my head had been cut off and was now being spit roasted on a blunt metal pole. Trickles of blood began pouring slowly out my nose and down my muzzle. Streaks of light began pouring out from my horn, not to far, but they grew about 2 metres out and expanded slowly by the second.

I jerked my head to my right the second I heard a noise. My pupils shrank at the sight of it.  An infected stallion galloping towards me, blood dripping from his jaw at every step. I got to my hooves and took one step backwards.

Then my magical aura cut out.

And I fell into unconsciousness.

> Chapter one - Deja Vu
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Lights Shine Bright


Chapter 2 - Deja Vu




Blind. I felt utterly and completely blind, but I could still see. I was looking around, taking in the darkness of this room or whatever I was in, but I never paid attention to anything inside it. I forgot every part near instantly when I look away from them.

It took a few minutes for me to realise that I was sprawled on my back across the ground. I lifted myself up and tried examining the room I was in for the fifth to so far. Behind me was just a large wall. I imagine that there may have once been a few paintings on it or a mirror or just some wallpaper, but now it was just bare and the perfect thing for me to lean against. Directly in front of me was something like a smaller wall, a desk or counter or bar or whatever. Just something that was low, had cupboards on my side of it and was cutting of my view from the rest of the room. To my left was nothing, apart from the wall of course. It the counter in front of me just carried on down to the wall. To my right was.

A pony.

A mare by the looks of it, but it’s hard to tell in dark lighting. She was a...I couldn’t tell what kind of pony she was. The only thing I could tell was that she was alive, had saved me and so was hopefully not a major threat...And she was staring right at me.

I still couldn’t identify what colour her fur and mane were, they were definitely something dark otherwise they would have at least been a little noticeable in this light. But I could tell that at least her mane was short. The most obvious part of her were her golden eyes, just staring at me and slowly blinking, but never moving.

She stood up slowly. A quiet scraping of metal confirmed that she had armour, and most probably some sort of weapon. She took slow and small steps towards me, never once breaking contact until she was so close I could feel her warm breath against me.

I felt scared. I had no idea where I was, no real change there but at least I was in daylight the last time I remember before this. I was terrified, but somehow safe as well. I don’t know why exactly, nothing about the current situation really screamed out safe to me. It was just the fact that she had not yet killed me, and I’m guessing that she had also saved me from the infected pony.

She crouched slightly and moved her head closer to me. I wondered what she was doing until she opened her mouth.

Fangs. This pony had fangs. And I had a pretty good guess on what they were being used on.

She clamped down hard on my neck. I felt the teeth puncture my skin with agonizing pain. I tried screaming, but the words failed to leave my mouth. Once that failed, I began waving my hooves around, but I couldn’t do that completely either. All I could do was kick my hind hooves out in front of me, but as she was coming from the side, that didn’t help much. So I sat there, kicking all I could in pain and fell once again into darkness.


-*-   -*-   -*-


Blind. I felt blind, not being able to concentrate on everything I saw. All I could see was that I was in a dark room in some place.

Behind me was a wall which I was propped up against. In front of me was a counter of sorts. My left, just more wall that joined to the counter. To my right was a...pony. It was too dark to see what they were exactly apart from that they were a mare.

She walked over to me, and slowly lowered her head to my neck when I saw the fangs in her mouth. It was obvious what they were used for. She bit and I tried to scream, but failed. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything as I just slipped into darkness.


-*-   -*-   -*-


Blind. I couldn’t see anything other than I mare to my right, she was laying next to me just curled up in her tail like a cat seeking comfort. She opened her eyes and looked at me, then smiled. Fangs, this pony had fangs.

Before I could carry on the thought, she had stood up and latched her teeth into my neck. I couldn’t do anything as I faded into a deep darkness and lost all sense of anything around me.


-*-   -*-   -*-


I awoke suddenly into darkness. I didn’t know where I was, just that this place was dark and definitely not where I had last been. The last place I was was in the middle of nowhere, about to be eaten by an infected pony. It was definitely not some building in a town.

I took a second to gather my thoughts, the task was made much harder as I felt extremely light headed, like I had been wounded and lost a lot of blood.

My first idea after I had recovered was to look around, get familiar with my surroundings and try to work out what kind of building this was. In front of me was a counter of sorts that stretched to the wall on my left, and stopped a little short to the wall on the right. The gap allowed room for at least one pony, probably two to pass through at the same time.

The walls had not been touched in a long time. There was no metal or wooden bars on the outside of them to help support it, and no bad repairs or paint jobs. Just left in the shitty state that over two hundred years of abandonment had left it in, which wasn’t much.

I didn’t like the bareness of the place. It had no shoddy renovation from any slavers or bandits or anypony. It didn’t even look like it had been searched for supplies. That gave me the feeling that this place was extremely dangerous.

The door of the counter cupboard in front of me had long since gone, probably taken for some barricade or just kicked off. On the upper shelf lay probably the best thing in the world for me. Guns and bullets, but not just any. It was my gun, my Leksin and it had at least 13 bullets scattered around it. I opened the cupboard next to it to reveal a set of frontal body armour, but it had two badly cut out parts of its side.

A gunshot cracked through the silence causing me to jump, and then wither in pain as my head went light headed once again. I took a second to once again gather my thoughts, all while looking around carefully for where the gunshot came from, and anything it may have attracted.

Faint voices entered my hearing as I clambered back to my hooves. I pressed against the counter in front of me in hope of hearing what was being said. I had no such luck. And the best thing to do when you have no luck is to try and push it. I walked around the counter, keeping my hooves light on the ground to avoid making any unneeded noise.

I stepped toward the broken windows, leaning on the wall as I didn’t trust my head to keep myself upright. I was just at the edge of the wall and on the verge of being outside on the street.

I looked around the outside of the building. The sky had changed from it’s day time red haze and was now in it’s purple, grey mist that enveloped everything. Under it lay this small town in which I was no in. No I was even more worried. This was perfect ground for a slaver camp, when you spend enough time listening to the guards talk, you learn a few things.

It seemed as though I was inside a small shop on the corner of the street. Across the piles of rubble that classed as the street lay the small lobby of a little hotel. The side of that building had become home to a rusting sky carriage. I didn’t want to guess what had happened to the ponies that were once inside it.

My attention was brought back to my first mission with a second gunshot, this time it was followed by a restrained shout that sounding as though it came from a mare

I poked my head around the corner to see a pony curled up on the ground a few metres past the a, a small pool of blood forming around them and being supplied from one of their hind legs. I could just make out a set of...wings on there back? Wait, where they wings? They didn’t have any feathers on them. They looked more like a fabric than actual wings but they were definitely wings of some sort.

Out of nowhere came a second pony, a stallion unicorn, covered in raider armour. A large rifle followed him, surrounded in a brown aura. He was wearing raider armour, and a lot of it. This place really isn’t safe if that much was needed. So that pony on the ground mustn't be meant to be here.

“Fuck were you doin’ out here?” The stallion spat with a deep, gravelly voice, confirming my thought. The mare on the ground just laughed.

“Oh, you know. I just fancied a little stroll downtown, see what new things the shops have.” Her voice was empty after the short giggle. Her head stayed on the ground all the time as she spoke, her only movement coming from her lips and her left hoof clutching around her hind leg. He brought the gun closer to her head.

“Fine. If you ain’t gonna wanna do the small talk then you could’ve just said so. I was looking for supplies, food, bullets, anything that would help me or fit in a Leksin. why would anyone come here and this close to you ponies home if they weren’t looking for supplies.” There was the slightest hint of anger in her voice.

It took a few more seconds for me to finally realise it. The wings on her back and the cut out shapes in the armour. The fact that my gun had bullets again and she was looking for supplies, specifically bullets for a Leksin. The fact that she had been on the nearer side to me than the other stallion was.

She was the pony who had saved me. She wanted somepony else. If not, then she was in danger now and I could save her so we could roam the place together and find food and have safety… No, that wasn’t how it worked out here, but I had to at least try it.

She could be my new mistress.

I scanned the area, looking for something that would help me. But other than the sky carriage on the opposing side of the street. All that was in between us was large patches of grass that had broken up through the cracked cobble stone road.

I turned back towards the counters and quickly sneaked around them, being careful not to make any noise that would get me caught. Once there, I levitated out the pistol and armour. It took a while to do it, and I got a little worried that I had maybe exhausted all my magic. I had a plan, not a very good one but a plan none the less and it relied a lot on magic. It finally kicked in when I started to get worried that I was wasting too much time

A small rattling sound was all that was apparent when I loading the bullets into the either bullet cylinder of the pistol. I quickly gave another check through of the gun, the last thing I would need right now is to find out that the barrel hand been damaged in some way.

Next was the armour. Putting it on would give off too much noise, so I began to rip pieces of the fabric that binding it together off. Probably not a good idea and this mare would hate me for it if this was my rescuer, but if I didn’t then. Well, she wouldn’t be able to be angry about anything then. I wrapped the ripped fabric around my hooves with the help of my trusty horn.

I really hoped that this would work. I had no other real option. It was most probably me being just being paranoid, but even as a slave, you don’t really wake up with absolutely no idea where you are. And right now, I was in a place that I had no idea where it was, no idea how long I had been unconscious for and no idea what kind of ponies were here. So yeah, I was taking any chance I could to make new friends, even if it meant possibly getting myself killed for a pony that may have somehow started all of this for all I know.

I gave another quick look around the corner. The ponies were still there. And that worried me even more. Why was she still alive? Why had he not killed yet? I was worried that my fears were coming true, that this place was home to slavers and that he planned on taking her back, or maybe he was planning to rape her. Or maybe even he was just so sick minded that he was going to watch her bleed out on the floor. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem all to nice.

I crouched down low to the ground, practically dragged my stomach and and chin on the floor. I hoped that the grass tall grass paired with the darkness of the night would give me the cover I needed to get over to the sky carriage.

“As cheesy as this sounds, I have to ask this. What do you want with me?” The mare stayed unmoving on the ground, even the anger had left her voice, just leaving the empty monotone voice.

“I just want to know how you managed to get past our patrols and if you are alone or not.” His voice grumbled like before. This caused a small bit of emotion to return to the mare as she released a small giggle in response.

“You called that a patrol. Three ponies with one gun and two near broken bats between them isn’t a patrol. Especially when that with the gun couldn’t shoot a pony if they were laying in front of them dying.” Her head rotated towards the pony. But that was still in the opposite direction to me so I wasn’t able to see her face. “Although, I guess that you can’t either.”

“Nah, you're right. I couldn’t. Why would I shoot them if they were already dying, be a waste of ammo and entertainment,” He pressed the barrel of his rifle into the bullet wound on her rear leg. My first thought when she started screaming was to look around in case it dragged any more unwanted attention. It was my only thought.

The mare began sobbing quietly once he had finished. “Fine... I just snuck past them. They seemed to want to get out of there pretty quickly and skipped more than a little on there search. As for me? No, I’m not alone” The stallion took a step back and quickly looked around nervously. I had just enough warning time to lay down in the grass again. Somehow I had managed to get distracted by their little chit-chat  and had almost sat up to listen.

“Ok... I wasn’t expecting that to come so easily.” He carried on looking around, double and triple checking every location. He prodded the gun into the mares stomach. “Get up” She did nothing. “Get up.” A loud smack echoed through the buildings as he swung the metal barrel hard into her stomach, causing her to start choking after being winded. But she still managed to stand up somehow, this mare must have been made of steel if she could still walk without throwing up after that.

“You are going to show me where these little friends of yours are.” She looked emptily towards the shop and began walking. Blood was still trickling heavily out of her right hind leg, she seemed to keep it elevated off the ground and hopped slowly towards the place that I had awoken in. She had to stop and throw up after only a few short steps. So much for her being made of steel.

I had managed to make it over to the sky carrier by now and was thanking whoever was above that my makeshift hoof softeners worked in keeping me silent. I then awaited for the perfect moment for me to attack, if I wasn’t spotted and shot first that is. But by the angle that the sky carrier was at, and the direction that the raider pony was going in, then I should be able to just simply walk out behind him without being spotted.

“May I just say though. You really are the poster pony of all raiders aren’t you.” I could tell that she was trying to wind him up by her voice, it was very faint. Only a trace showing through her pain but it was there. “With that husky voice of yours and that whole mini conversation thing before my ultimate doom. I must congratulate you on that.” She laughed quietly again, obviously finding her own words a little funny somehow. Now was my perfect time to go for it, they were standing right in front of the sky carrier with their backs to me. I levitated my Leksin up and prepared, I had only one shot. figuratively speaking.

“You know. I don’t really think that the end of a barrel is a place to do something that whoever is holding the gun wouldn’t like.” I pressed the Leksin up to the back of his head, then smiled as his body froze.

“I couldn’t agree more” I smiled, loving the setup of words that had just come into play. “So I think that you should listen carefully.” Oh sweet sunfuck that was the best line ever.

The mare turned around and laughed in what I could only guess was disbelief at the sight of this happening. I couldn’t tell what was going on in her head this time. But I finally got a good look at her face. Her fur seemed to be a dark shade of grey, but the lack of light kept me uncertain as to whether it was just from the sirt or not. Her mane and tail were a slightly spiked and a double shade of purple; moderately bright on the outside, with a lot darker shade in the centre. The biggest suprise to me though was the wings, they were real but different. When I had heard the stories of pegasi, they always had feathery wings. These were just, skin or something that had been stretched out, like a pony that just wanted to be a pegasus. I couldn’t tell whether she thought I was a threat to her or not, but either one wouldn’t seemed to have mattered as she just lay down on her side, seeming exhausted as ever.

“I’m gonna want you to put down that rifle there, otherwise you may find you skull with a little metal friend of mine.” I had heard that line from my main master. It seemed to work when intimidating ponies. Or it at least worked against me.

No. I couldn’t think that anything from them was good. They weren’t good, nothing they said or did was good.

His brown aura slowly brought the rifle to the ground and then quickly dispersed.

“Good. Thanks for co-operating.” I looked around for somepony to tell me what to do, expecting to see one of my masters here with me. But they weren’t.

I was in control.

How did I not realise this sooner? I was actually in control, I was giving the orders now. I was in charge of my actions

...But I didn’t know how to be in control. I couldn’t think of anything, of what to do. There were so many possibilities, but none that I could choose. I didn’t know what to do.

The stallion I was currently holding at gunpoint spoke up. “Please. Either shoot me now and get it down or please let me go.” His voice kept its deep tone, not really helping him sound like he was pleading. But there was enough to show me that he was at least a little scared.

I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t. He was another live pony, I couldn’t kill him. My magic never dispersed from around the Leksin, but my head did sink down into a bow.

“Sorry master. You can go.” My head stayed bowed to the ground, only being able to see his hooves. And from the looks of it, he turned to look at me for a brief second before running off. Both he and his rifle were gone when I looked up with a small, unexplainable tear in my eye.

“Ok, I have no idea who yo-” She was unconscious. Shit I had to move fast. Those rifle shots had to have dragged any other unwanted attention, there was no doubt in my mind that infected or mutants or other raiders would’ve heard it. And she needed some medical attention to stop the bleeding.

I unwrapped the pieces of fabric to my hooves and then held them over the wound on her flank. Good that should at least slow it down. I frowned at my stupidity as I realised that I had nothing to hold it down with, I couldn’t just hold them in place and they were too small to make a bandage or something out of them.

I heard hoof clops from somewhere down the street. I couldn’t tell the difference between it being a trotter, stranger or another raider coming to check up on his or her friend. I levitated the mares body onto my back, feeling the warmth of her blood roll down my side.

I hoped that she could both hear and remember this. “Ok, I’m gonna be taking you somewhere like, now. You gotta promise me that when you wake up, then you are not going to kill me or sell me to somepony.”

Multiple clicks came from further down the street. I could handle some trotters, but this sounded like a group of them, a big group.


-*-   -*-   -*-




I had long since stopped running, knowing that it would only attract even more unwanted attention from whatever inhabited this place. I tried to find anything that would give me a clue. But there was nothing, every sign was either just saying the name of the road we were on, or just wasn’t readable as they had crumbled into a pile of rust. And of course there would be no maps left around, it was two centuries since this started, as if they would still be here.

My mind wandered back to the bullet that I sent through the raiders head. It worried me, a lot. I had just recently been a slave, a piece of property, something that could be beaten down and just cast away, something with no control over their life. That stallion had no control over his own when I held the gun to his head, how could I have just done it so easily, let alone feel a thrill after it.

I was ashamed of myself, and I really hoped that it was just the lack of food that had made me think and do that. Speaking of food, I was getting incredibly hungry. And I imagine that recovering lost blood isn’t exactly something to do on an empty stomach, that is if she survives that long.

I looked back onto her, her mane slowly lifting in the wind. Her breathes had gotten slower and she felt heavier. Those can’t be good signs. I need to find her something to stop the bleeding, then I could think about the food. Fuck, the bullet. I had to get the bullet out first. That was easy, just simple levitation magic but it was going to be disgusting and probably extremely painful.

I scanned the streets for someplace that would have something. Maybe I could go back to that raider stallion, rip of parts of his armour as well. Looking back down the road, that thought was immediately declined. I had no idea where that was now. If I had my saddle bags then I could’ve used them, but I left those along with her armour back there.

My eyes wandered over to the bushes that had been growing out of control a few hundred metres away off the side of this town. Seriously, how did I not think of that earlier, There were some huge, over one hundred year old mutated leaves out there. Those with the small pieces of fabric I had would be perfect for tying a knot and making a bandage of sorts. It would most likely be a shitty bandage but it would be something to at least postpone it. As for the bullet? I was gonna have to do that myself and pray to Luna that she would be ok and still unconscious when it happened.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I trotted carefully into the first open building that we came across and walked inside. I stopped just inside and waited to hear a noise, something that would show me that this building wasn’t safe. None came, so I stepped further in. and set the unconscious pony down around the first corner that I found, just out of view of the entrance. I prayed that I would find it again and not be left alone for a second time.

I ran outside. She couldn’t have had much time left before it became too late, and I hoped that it hadn’t already become too late.


-*-   -*-   -*-


I clambered back into the building, a few scratches and about five bullets less than what I left with, but I was back none the less, and with a fuck load of leaves big enough to hang somepony. The bushes and trees along the edge were no where near big enough, and I was about to lose hope until I found what I had been looking for. In my rush to get to them, i hadn’t seen the large insect like creatures that were eating the remains of a nearby deceased pony

The damn overgrown insects nearly got me, but there insect like form leaves them very brittle against being beaten again and again and again and again with a big ass log. I only realised that once one managed to grab a hold of my Leksin and kept in its grasp. Luckily for me though, they didn’t exactly know what it was and had the brain of grab hold and don’t let go.

Ignoring the cuts on my body, I began work on the other mare. What are a few simple scratches compared to a bullet wound with a lot of bleeding. Her skin glowed slightly as I began enveloping what I hoped was the bullet inside her leg. Then I pulled gently. She groaned painfully in her state.

“Look. You should trust me, I have absolutely no experience in this area and am completely in control of your life right now. Plus I am a complete stranger that you just saw shoot a pony in the back of there head, what could go wrong?” She cried louder. “Yeah? Well fuck you too then.” The bullet was yanked hard from her body. She shouted and grabbed me with her hooves, staring directly at me. “I-I-I-I-I’m so sorry. I-I-I-I didn’t mean to do that.” She let go and fell back into her unconscious state again. Of course that was just a reflex.

I looked at what I had grabbed in my magic. Thankfully, it was the actual bullet and not some clump of muscle and veins. Next thing to do was wrap her up. I just had to wrap the leaves around her. I just had to stop staring at the now very ugly bullet hole in her flank and just wrap them around her. Come on, anytime now.

My mind jumped back into reality a few seconds later. How could I have hesitated with that, this pony is dying right in front of me and has done nothing wrong to me. If it was somepony that had been shooting at me...then I would have waited for commands.

 I wrapped the leaves around her leg repeatedly, making a nice thick cover over her flank. and then And I had a lot of ‘bandages’ left over to replace them. All I had to do now was wait and rest.

The small amount of relaxation that I got showed me how tired I was. My eyes felt heavier than the whole building that we were in, and my mind couldn’t keep a straight thought even if I tried. I just kept on thinking about that pony that I had so mercilessly shot. He had dropped his weapon, he couldn’t have hurt me.

No, I convinced myself that it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t just about me then. He was a bad pony, he was holding another pony at gunpoint for no reason. I was doing it to protect another pony. I did the right thing.

I looked around for something warm for us, anything. But there was nothing. The room had been stripped bare and I couldn’t blame the ponies that did it. In the wasteland, everything is useful in one way or another, so nothing is left behind unless it is just too heavy and not enough time.

The corner of the room seemed to hold the most heat, no matter how little it was, so that was were I made myself comfortable. My saddlepack remained on to give just a little bit of covering on my back and sides, and I kept my Leksin close. I wasn’t able to trust this pony just yet. I wasn’t able to trust anyone


-*-   -*-   -*-   -*-   -*-




The next day arrived with a cold breeze under my coat. It was cold, annoying. Yet very refreshing. It wasn’t like the cold I had been experiencing these last few days, at least I think it was these last few days. It could have been a month since I was out in the middle of nowhere, and I would have no idea. This was gentle, and wrapped around my whole body, keeping everything equal and not annoyingly. Well, unequal.

My saddlebags.

I could feel it under my saddlepacks, as if they weren’t there.

I jumped up and out of the corner. They were gone. The saddlepack. The gun. The pony. They had gone, she had abandoned me. After I, had saved her.

How could she have done that. I had saved her, I had killed that other pony to save her, I had nearly died by a bunch of weird over-grown insects for her, I had even tried to bandage her bullet wound the best I could. How could she have done that.

I...I couldn’t blame her. I probably wouldn’t have done any different. If I was in her situation, shot and probably very hungry. Then I would have taken the gun as well, and what good would it do to bring around an extra mouth to feed when food was already an issue.

After a few minutes of nearly shouting in anger, I began to walk outside, there was no point in me staying here any longer than I had too. Like the other pony was probably doing, I had to find food. I began trotting out the door when something caught my eye in the room to me left. My saddlepacks? She didn’t take them. Why wouldn’t she have taken them. Why just move them.

I took another step outside further towards the door, I wondered what was happening. And more importantly, where was the other pony. She either had left, but just thought that it was too harsh. That situation was very unlikely in this world.

Or she hadn’t left, and she had stayed with me. It wasn’t exactly a big chance of that happening, but weirder and crazier things have happened to me in the wasteland. If that was the case, then I had to ask myself, where was she now?

The answer presented itself to me, plus a dead rabbit in the answers mouth.

She had stayed. Not only had she stayed, but she had actually gone out with a bullet wound and found food for us.

We just looked at each other. It seemed as though neither of us had expected that the other would be here to meet the other. Or at least not in this situation with us standing face to face. Although, I didn’t really see how it could have happened any other way.

With no other apparent option, I spoke. “......Hey”

A small ray of light bounced into my eye and alerted me to the piece of metal poking out from under her wing. My Leksin. She seemed to notice me looking at it and quickly repositioned her wing to cover it completely. It seemed that she didn’t trust me just yet either.

“...Hea” She tried to speak through the rabbit in her mouth. It came through slightly muffled, but I didn’t exactly have to be an expert to understand the simple greeting.

I didn’t know what I was meant to do in this situation. For my whole life, I had been taught to kill anypony that I didn’t know if I saw them. Now I was free from that life, but that meant that I had no idea what to do. I had no experience.

“You...You stayed?” I continued to question why she had stayed. There seemed to be no logical reason for her to stay, I had been asleep when she woke up. She could’ve just left and I wouldn’t have been able to stop her doing so or taking my things as she did it.

The mare lowered her head and dropped the rabbit onto the ground. She turned to the side a little and showed her leg still wrapped with now bloody leaves. It seemed as though she had kept it off the ground the whole time, which made her feat with the food a lot more impressive.

“Yeah.” Her voice was nice, to say the least. It had a little rough like texture, but no where near anything even slightly masculine. I liked it, at least in comparison to the pained state it had been yesterday. And I could have just been happy to have heard another mares voice that didn’t intend to kill or order me around. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not exactly in much of a position to be going out alone.” I waved a hoof towards the rabbit that was in between us. “...At least not far out.”

“...So, erm. What-What’s your name?” This moment couldn’t have gotten any more awkward then if my previous owner had found me clopping, which I’m pretty sure that they probably did at some point. Privacy was very low on their priorities.

Her response came quicker than a bullet. “Yours?” Ok, so she was a little edgy on giving out info on her. I couldn’t say that I would be much different in her situation.

“.Parum Lucem. Or Dark Light as some ponies call me.”

“How’d they make that connection?” A question I had been asked so many times by now. Although, it felt different coming from this mare. But I let that down to the fact that she didn’t seem to want to kill me again.

“It’s some ancient language for Little Light. But ponies use my fur colour and so came up with Dark Light.”

Another silence followed as we stood. I began to slowly examine her, determine what kind of pony she was with those wings. Whereas she seemed to look everywhere but at me.

“...And you name is?” Her head darted straight back to me.

“My name is something that doesn’t concern you.” Great, It seems as though she couldn’t even trust me with something so small as a name. This was going to be wonderful.

She decided that this was the time for her to step back into the room instead of just standing outside. After picking up the rabbit in her mouth again, she pushed roughly past me and into the room that I had awoke in.

I walked back into the room after her. I really wanted to take back my Leksin, to just wrap around it with my magic and pull it back. But given how she acted when I asked for her name, that seemed like it would’ve been a bad idea.

It took a few more soundless minutes for me to build up the courage, and ask the main question that had been clouding my head.

“So...What are you?” The urge to ask was too much for me to handle, and I caved

“You need to get some sticks; pieces of wood.” She ignored my question completely, although this time I was kind of thankful that she didn’t spit out some harmful response for asking that.

"Why do we need wood."

"Do you want to eat this raw." she  gave a quick tap against the rabbit. I shook my head, thinking about how bad that would taste and any diseases it would come with. "Then we are going to have to cook this. Unless you have some fancy ass magic that will cook it." I shook my head. That was another useful spell that I didn't know, if it was even possible to do. "I thought not. Now go, i think i speak for both us when I say I'm hungry."


-*-   -*-   -*-   -*-   -*-


The clouds had grown dark by the time I had returned, but they continued to cast down their slightly purple and green shadow over the lands. I was thankful that I had gotten back when I did, having had more than a few little scares on my way. I didnt want to spend much more time outside then I had to.

Wing had once again taken its place in the time which I could only guess was night. It was no longer a soft, endearing breeze that I had woken up too, but had now turned into a rush in every direction at once, causing my mane and tail to fly up and everywhere.

A small glow was being emitted from the building in which the other mare was held. I questioned what was going on and pushed back the thought of somepony found it and was burning her alive. I slowed my pace, not wanting to possibly alert the ponies who were inside.

I slowly creeped around the entrance, now regretting that I had given into the other mare and not taken my Leksin. A faint crackling reached my ears, which didn’t help what I was already picturing.

Then it came into my view. A fire, but not the kind I was expecting. It was small, controlled and had the mare sitting next to it with the now skinned rabbit over it.

She looked up at me. “You were taking to long. Those leaves you had were dry enough so I started a small fire while I went out and got some more wood.” I didn’t know what to think. I could have possibly died to get these things and she was going to do it anyway. Or maybe she just wanted me out of here so that she wouldn’t have to share the food.

“I wasn’t going to eat it all and leave nothing for you if that’s what you were thinking.” It was as if she could read my mind with that.

I slowly walked further into the room, still wary about what this mare’s plan was. The food smelled horrible when I got close to it, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with it. Especially when my stomach decided to make itself heard again.

“You can eat you know. It’s done cooking, just keepin’ it warm now.” I quickly took my share of the meat. I didn’t trust this mare enough to let it just sit there for a while in front of her.

The food was terrible. It had gone extremely dry and been robbed of near all its taste. But I didn’t complain. I didn’t want to sound like some picky bitch. We continued to eat in silence, nothing making a sound other than a few creatures outside and the light crackling of the dying fire.

The flames had turned to near embers when she spoke up. “Midnight Ember” She was leaning back against the wall and staring to the right into nothingness, just slowly blinking and breathing heavily. Her voice still seemed strained, probably form the fact that she was sitting back on her bullet wound. But she didn’t move.

“...What?” I questioned.

“My name. You asked my name and what I was.” So she had heard me before, just purposely ignored me. I could understand why. “It’s Ember Night, and I’m a bat pony.”

“Oh...” I guessed that it was a good thing that she had told me that, a sign of trust I hoped and not some weird play to make me feel safe before she killed me. “A bat pony?” I felt dumb for asking, but I’d rather have found out now rather than later.

Ember unravelled her right leathery wing, then opened her mouth and ran her tongue along her teeth. She specifically targeted the two which had a little extra length and sharpness. “It’s the reason for the wings and fangs.” A weird feeling came over me when I saw her fangs, like I had seen them before but I couldn’t remember when

“So...You can...You can fly?” Her face sank when I asked it. That wasn’t a good sign.

“No. Well, I can but...But not for very long.” Embers’ head slower rolled to face me. She seemed empty inside, either not caring about anything or she lost the ability to care about anything. I decided to not push any further because of that.

“So, who are you?” She sighed deeply when I asked. “I don’t mean you name. Just like...who are you?”

“Look. All you need to know is that I’m the pony that dragged you out of the middle of nowhere and saved you from the trotter. Then when you woke up, you saved me.” She seemed fairly angry for such a small question. I worried that I may have destroyed the small piece of trust that she had given me for asking. But I still had one question that I had to ask.

“How long was I out for?”

Her head fell back against the wall and voice returned to normal. At least what I thought was normal for it. “I don’t know. A week maybe. You woke up twice every day though. I had to feed you like a little filly.”

“...Why’d you do it?”

“We should rest. I don’t know about you but I’m getting out of here tomorrow.”

I agreed with her. It had been two days and I had almost been killed three times. But where was I to go?

If I went off alone, than I would be in a very dangerous place with no weapon and just my saddlepacks. But I could also be safer. I didn’t know this mare and she didn’t know me. I’d have no way of knowing what she would do behind my back and there would be less of us to be spotted by other ponies or creatures.

On the other hoof, if I followed her, then I would have somepony to watch my back. She would also most likely be better at sneaking around then me anyway. But I still couldn’t trust her, I wouldn’t decide where we go and she would have the only weapon. She would be in control of my life. But that had already happened, I had already been in trouble and she cared for me without knowing if I would wake up.

My mind seemed to have made itself. When Light came, I would see if I could go with her. And then if I could have my Leksin back.

I lay down next to me saddlepacks. The fire had died down into glowing ashes by now. No more heat or light would come from them, and I was afraid to add the sticks that I had in case it drew attention while we slept.

My eye found it’s way to Midnight Ember, who was drawing her hoof around in circles on the ground. I questioned again whether I could trust her or not, was she really the type of pony that I wanted to stick around with. 

reminded myself for the second time in a short period about how she cared for me, and convinced myself to trust her.

I had to trust her.


-*-   -*-   -*-   -*-   -*-


The darkness in my eyes slowly faded when something began pressing against me. It felt soft and I instinctively curled up against it in my half asleep state.

“Get. Off. Me” I opened my eyes to see Ember standing over me. I looked further down and saw my hooves wrapped around one of her forelegs. This was not the way I planned on the morning going. This one felt nicer than what I planned, up until the point that she had called me up on it. But… “I said. Get. Off. Me”

I slowly brought my hooves back from her and stood up. “...sorry.” She was staring down at me again.

“I’ve had worse things done to me for waking up a pony. But don’t even think of doing that again. Open your eyes before you open your hooves.” She looked down at me with that empty expression of hers, then turned her head towards the door. I followed her gaze to see that it was still dark outside, with a small hint of light pressing through the cloud layer.

“Come on. We should go now, while we still have some darkness to get out of this town.” She picked up my saddlepacks with her wing and held them out to me. “You may want to put these on.”

My head lost all of it’s senses when I attempted to pick it up with my magic. the next thing I knew was that the saddlepacks were on my back and i didn’t remember how they got there. It took a few more seconds for my ears to finally accept in Ember’s voice again.

“You ok?” Her tone sounded worried but her face showed none of it. “You seem a little...out of it.”

“Yeah. Just...Gimme a minute, I went a little lightheaded or something.” I answered honestly.

She wrapped her wing around me and hooked it under my stomach, I leaned into her again. I couldn’t believe how soft she felt right now, I could have fell asleep right there. That was until she pulled me up to my hooves a lot faster then I would have liked.

“We don’t have a minute. Where we are going is a long way from here and we don’t want to be in this town when it gets light.” My dazed state left me with enough sense to agree with her. This didn’t seem like a place I wanted to be in in the first place, and now there was a second pony who also thought that.

“I think you need some more sleep. Get that head of yours back onto the ground where it belongs.” I thought for a second that she was going to make me go back to sleep. She stopped me when I began to lay down again

“I said “think”. I’ve got no idea if I’m right or how it would be making you like this. But this is more of a reason for us to get out of here.”

“Us?” She kept on saying us. Like she had already decided to follow me or that I was going with her. Of course, I was planning to ask her if we could stick together, but I was at least going to ask instead of just saying that would happen.

“Look at us. I’ve got a bullet wound in my leg, so I can’t exactly move as fast as I would like. And your head is kinda fucked right now, than there is also the fact that you weren’t in too good of a position when I first found you either.” I couldn’t deny that Ember had a point.

“Okay, good point. But why do we have you go where you are going, what about where I was planning to go.” Another thing that she just seemed to assumed I would go along with her.

She raised her eyebrows at me. “Do you have another plan to go somewhere?” I looked towards the ground and shook my head. “Than don’t complain and get moving. We don’t have too much time left until it gets light.” Her voice had taken on a commanding tone.

I looked outside again, it didn’t seem to have changed much from before. But it hadn’t been too long ago since I had last seen it and the difference during that time seemed fast.

“So, where exactly are you planning on going?”

“I’m going home. ”

“Any specific location.”

“I have no idea.” That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“But it’s your home, how could you not know wher-”

“I just don’t ok. My map got left back with that stallion. It was tucked into my armour.”

We walked outside. I was careful to check our surroundings constantly, so that should another enemy of sorts come into view, then we would be ready. Or at least I would. “All I can remember form it is that it is on the opposite side of this town.”

This was going to be great. I was walking out into the wasteland with a pony I had only met a few days ago. Both of us injured with only one weapon, seven bullets between us and no exact location other than the fact we had to go through the middle of raider camp. That wasn’t very reassuring.

“I managed to gather up a few supplies though a bit further into the city. I know I said that we should get out of here as soon as possible, but I don’t know how long it would be until we could get water if we left now.”

So our three options were; we can leave now with the food and drink we have now (which equaled to nothing) and have no idea until we could refill said supplies. While doing all of that with about 6 bullets. We could go back into the city with at least a group of raider ponies and possibly some infected ponies or other creatures of sorts. Or we could die. I was starting to prefer my time alone with only limited supplies, at least then it wasn’t my choice to possibly go and die.

“How long will it take for us to find the things?”

Please, whoever is above, don’t let it be long.

“I don’t know”

I’m gonna kill you when I die and finally see you, then I’ll kill you again.

“But it will take even longer the more we wait so for about the tenth time now. We have to move, now.”

> Chapter Two - New beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dark Lights Shine Bright


Chapter 2 - New Beginnings


The sky had become it’s near full brightness when we had finally arrived at Midnight’s small stash of supplies, but the light wasn’t much anyway due to the time of year. It had taken a lot longer than either of us had wanted, I knew that after the fourth time we had been attacked by something. Twice it had been some raiders, which we decided to run away instead of attempting to fight them off with our one weapon. The others where groups of infected, which we also ran from.

The wind had surprisingly picked up during the day. I took that as both a good and a bad sign. Every time it happened, a storm of some sorts usually followed. That meant rain and refreshment on our cracking skin and dirty fur. But it usually meant lots of rain, like serious amounts, and that meant very cold and wind in the time in which we were going to be leaving this place, the place that provided the best shelter and chance for warmth.

And then there was Midnight Ember. She kept her ground in front of me with our only weapon, and never went five steps without looking back on me. I knew she didn’t trust me, not in any way, but the fact that she kept on checking what I was doing felt more than a little offensive.

I felt the same question that I had already asked many times before rise to my lips. “Are we near it yet?”

“Yes.” Was the only word that I got in response.

She turned down into a small alley that was littered with broken glass, loose cobblestone and lots of rubbish. But it was out of the way, and unless somepony was purposely trying to avoid anything and everything else, then it didn’t seem like anypony would come down into it. Which meant that everypony would come down it.

Somehow, I managed to lose myself in those hollow thoughts long enough to not realise that Ember had stopped walking. It took me walking into her flank to bring me back, along with even more fear of if she would be mad. But she didn’t move.

“Why have we sto-” My voice trailed off when I saw the small pile of three ponies in raider armour on the ground in front of us. One of which had their head facing in a direction that its neck shouldn’t have allowed.

“We’re here.” She took less than a second before dragging one of the other ponies to the side. I couldn’t help but notice the large trail of blood that his body left behind, like he was some sort of paintbrush. Ember pulled off his main armour piece and passed it to me.

“Don’t bother complaining about it’s state. We aren’t gonna get anything better unless you want to go further into the middle of this place.” I shook my head and took it in my magical grasp. I was okay by now with wearing armour that had dried blood on it. But these had fresh blood, as in it was still dripping slowly from the bottom. My eyes turned to the two canisters that were strapped to the side of the chest piece. I gave them both a light shake. The sound of water splashing was like music to my ears, literally liquid gold.

I thanked her for it and began to slowly pull it on, piece by piece. While she did the same, just with a lot less hesitation.

“Where did you get these things?”

“I did say that I killed a patrol of three ponies.” She moved that last body to reveal three saddlepacks in a mess underneath him.

“No. No you didn’t. You said that you snuck past them” She smiled again. Her smile every now and then was the only piece of good emotion that I could get from her. I would’ve liked to say it was nice, but the conditions in which I saw it meant otherwise.

“oops.”

“Anyway, you also said that they had at least one gun.” She picked up one of the saddlepacks with her wing, then dropped it to pick up a second one. I didn’t know why, but she seemed satisfied with this one.

Ember extended her wing holding the saddlepacks towards me “Take this” She ordered. There was no hesitation when I heard her tone.

The saddlepack had no lock or knot of any form to keep it closed, just the flap of fabric that folded over it. That meant there was nothing stopping me from opening it up and seeing a second Leksin inside it.

I was thanking every living thing that I finally had a weapon again. Even if I had only been parted from one for a few hours, I felt naked without one. A weapon is a ponies life, you lose it, then you don’t have much of a life left to barter with.

It wasn’t unusual to find multiple of the same weapon. After the wasteland had came about, development of new weapons had stopped and more focus was put into producing more of those that already existed. It was a lot easier for things like ammunition.

I strapped the weapon into my left shoulder holster. That was how I knew that this was armour made for an earth pony, even though the previous wearer was a Unicorn. The holster for a Unicorn made armour was on the hind legs and flank, for a little extra concealment or something and we could simply use our magic to pull it out. That wasn’t an option for an earth pony, they needed easy access to the weapon with their teeth. So their holsters were placed on the shoulders so all they needed was to turn their head.

I looked back over to Ember. She seemed to be having more trouble with getting her armour on.

“You need any-”

“NO” She lowered her head and sighed. “Just….Just make sure nothing finds us.” She threw the armour back to the ground. Her wing crawled inside on of the saddlepacks and returned with a knife.

“What are you doing?” She stabbed the blade into the side of the armour and began cutting a line into its side.

“modifying it.” She expected me to believe that shoving a knife into some armour was modifying it. I wasn’t going to believe that. She seemed to have guessed what I was thinking and continued talking. “What do I have that is different to most other ponies?”

Oh

“Wings.” I answered.

“Exactly. But ponies don’t really make any armour that works for wings. So I have to do things like this, create a cut in the armour in which i can push them through. If I didn’t, then it would be very uncomfortable and my wings aren’t exactly much used when they are pushed down against my body. I’d be just like an earth pony if they were.”

She continued to drag the knife through the fabric that held the armour together. The stare that she gave me practically forced me to turn away and watch the two ends of the alley in case of anything coming in.

I laughed to myself when I heard more groans of frustration coming from behind me. Every now and then, I risked taking another look back at Ember, usually to see that she was pulling the armour piece in every direction in an effort to get her second wing through it. I had volunteered to help multiple times, I wasn’t really enthusiastic with staying in this type of place. But every time I did ask, she just stared at me and told me to go back and stand guard.

It was several minutes until she pushed past me with her protection and saddlepacks on. She didn’t seem to want to show it, but I know that I saw her dark cheeks go a little red with embarrassment.

“So we have six water canisters between us, about seventeen bullets each” She lied to me. I had counted them. We should’ve had at least twenty each, minimum. “And the amount of food depends on how well we can hunt it.”

“So are we going now?”

“You got any reason to stay here?”

Why could she never just give me a straight answer.

“No.”

“Then yes, we are leaving.” Those words were like music to me. “But, when we get out of here. You don’t do a single thing without telling me about it. I control our supplies, that means when we stop to gather things, what we take and when we eat or drink. Okay?”

I just looked at her. She cut in again before I could speak. “I know. I know you saved me before, but the way you did it was bad. You were sloppy when sneaking up on him, not to mention you wasted a bullet when you could have just snapped his neck. You also spoke before hand and gave him time to possibly shout or even knock the gun out of the way.” She stared at me. Her voice was that of one not to be denied. “You then also proceeded to run off and leave the armour and map which could’ve saved us a lot more time in this journey.” She continued to scold me.

I sat back on my haunches and looked at the ground. She was right. I had acted kind of stupidly, thinking only about getting another pony instead of saving supplies and possibly risking getting found by something else.

“So you do what, I say when I say it, and nothing else. Okay?” I was about to say no. To say that I had still saved her and that we had supplies now. Then also bring up the fact that she had saved me and probably wasn’t in a stable situation with supplies either. She noticed me thinking. “Okay!”

I surrendered, not wanting to possibly anger her. “Okay.”

Ember beckoned me to follow her out of the alley. She slowly poked her head around the corner.

She sighed. “Shit.”. She turned back towards me. “Looks like we’re gonna have to see how good you really are. We got at least five raider ponies coming up. Probably lookin’ for our three friends here.” I raise my eyebrows and trotted to look around the corner myself but she pushed me back with her wing and a more than angry expression.

“What?” I whispered.

“The fuck is wrong with you? Did I tell you to go and get your own head blown off by looking around the wall?”

“But you jus-”

“I know I did. And I was lucky that they didn’t see me. When I tell you that ponies are coming our way, you believe me. You don’t attempt to push our luck a second time by looking yourself. Now get fucking moving and out the other end of this alley.” There was no time to waste. i didn’t really feel like sticking around with five ponies who would try and kill us, and one mare that wasn’t in much of a good mood.

I was halfway to the other end when I realised Ember wasn’t next to me. She was still back at the three dead ponies, looking through the last one that we had left out. What was she doing? She knew that there were ponies just along the street and then told me leave.

She looked up from the body and directly at me, waving her hoof to try and make me leave. I didn’t need to be told a third time by her, I was already looking bad enough for not listening.

The oversized armour dug into my legs when I ran, causing me to stumble out of the alley and into the cracked cobblestone road. I turned around to see Ember run around the corner after me. Her first action afterwards was falling to her side and massaging her leg.

The side that we had come out into was not to different from the other. Rubble filling the streets with planks boarding up doors and carriages crumbling to pieces. The only real difference were the pieces of wood and metal that ran from windows in each of the buildings to another.

“What were you do-”

“You don’t ask questions.” She bluntly interrupted me. “You do what i say, I don’t do what you say.” Ember stood up, wincing with pain. “I was checking to see if he had a radio or something that could help us find our way through.” That actually made sense. It was bad enough being in a raider or slaver town, but we had no way of knowing our way aroun-wait.

She was expecting us to go through this.

“You can’t be serious. Through?”

“Well I don’t know what cage you’ve been living in all your life.” Ouch. “But this place is pretty fucking big. I would take probably about three times as long to go around then it would to go through.”

I wanted to point out that it would be about twenty times safer, but I didn’t seem to have many good points with this mare.

“Plus. if we go through this. Than we can get more supplies. Food, water, bullets, a map, a PonyPip. Just something.”

A bullet to our heads should’ve been on that list as well.

A quiet ponies voice stopped me before I could use that against her.

“Yous two are wanna be movin’ pretty soon.” Me and Ember immediately drew our guns, but we didn’t know where to point them.

“Where are you?”

“Theys comin’ down behind you. Rifles too.” I looked over at Ember, waiting for her to tell me what to do and remaining silent until then.

“Why should we trust you?” She asked, still looking around the street.

“Cos’ I gots supplies ‘nd yous want supplies. I jus’ heard yous talking it.”
        
I could hear the raider ponies talking between each other. They still didn’t know that we were anywhere near. But they were getting closer. I looked over at Ember again. She seemed to be in deep thought.

“Fuck.” Her lower jaw locked and she stared at me. “Fine. Where do we go?”

“Down street to the left and on the other side. Down second building gaps, be remains of metal steps. Yous’ll have to climb up a dumpster and jump for it. I’m on the roofs”

We both began running towards. What we didn’t realise was that we had ran in front of the alley we had just left, and across the view of the raider ponies. Two gunshots buried themselves into the brick wall just a few hoofs away from us. Somepony shouted ‘I’ve found them’. I guessed that he was the one who had shot.

I stumbled as Ember pushed my flank forwards in an attempt to speed me up, shouting ‘Go’ while doing it. It worked until a minute correction turn in my path caused my right fore hoof to buckle and graze my knee.

Ember didn’t stop running though. Instead she just hooked her wing around my fallen leg and continued to drag me. I was more than a little impressed that she could do this with her leg, but then her face came through and showed that there was a lot of pain going on.

She was going through a serious amount of pain just to help me. Well, I knew it was to stop her from dying as well but she was going through extra pain to help me even when it already hurt her. It made me wonder why she had saved me again in the first place, and why she had asked for us to go together. She could obviously still handle herself.

The dumpster and fire escape that we had been told about was where the pony said it was. That was good, that meant that we could trust him and that he wasn’t trying to kill us...kind of

I clambered up onto the dumpster. Ember followed me quickly, her wings batting at the wind every now and then, but she never left the ground. My first instinct took over and I knelt down slightly, in front of the fire escape. Ember gave one seconds thought before I felt her hooves dig into my back as she used me as a sort of step to hop onto the metal frame above us.

The height of the frame only appeared to me when I stood back. It was at least two and a half full grown stallions high, whereas I was about a horn shorter than the average mare. There was no way I could jump that myself without some help. Two more gunshots whipped past my tail.

I didn’t really have a choice as to whether I could jump it or not. Jumping was my only option.

So I backed up to jump. I flung my gun up onto  the metal structure and next to Ember, who was looking down at the entrance to the alley with her pistol wrapped in her wing. I needed all of my concentration and strength for this.

My stomach was touching the dumpster when I sprang up, using my forelegs to set the direction and start it off, then gave all the power with my hind legs for the height.

It still wasn’t enough.

I had managed to get my hooves onto it, but my flank was still dangling underneath and there wasn’t much to get a grip onto. My hooves slowly started sliding back and I felt my body falling lower and lower. That was far from what I wanted to say the least.

Two more gunshots powered through the air, both of them coming from Embers’ pistol. My only guess was that a pony had dared to run around the corner, and had either taken the warning and hid, or was now withering in pain, or dead. I really wished it was the second one, slavers and raiders had already done enough to me.

My chin was about the slide off the edge, no matter how much my hooves slide around for something to grab onto. There was nothing.

Until Ember bit onto my fore leg and pulled.

I don’t know how I didn’t see her turn to help me. But I didn’t really care for that either. My mind was nearly all focused on pulling myself up with her, with a tiny fraction of my brain wondering how her fangs weren’t piercing my skin.

Ember gave two powerful pumps of her wings to give the extra power needed to pull me up. But my safety (kind of) came at the price of my stomach being grinded against the metal edge, and also the fact that I had no chance to rest before Ember dragged me up the shoddy, creaking stairs.

But my Leksin was let down where we had just been. Nothing was ever simple for me.

I broke free of Ember’s grasp and quickly jumped back to our previous location. I Mentally cursed myself for momentarily forgetting my ability to use magic. But that thought came back only seconds later and I surrounded the dumpster in my aura and pushed it away.

“TRY AND FOLLOW US NOW YOU FUCKERS!” I let all of my anger out on them and fired three bullets into the first pony that poked there head around the corner. His body fell to the ground.

...Fuck.

Silence fell, all apart from the light hooves of Ember trotting down next to me again.

I just killed a pony.

The first worry that came to my head was to prepare for an incoming punishment from my masters, a punishment that never came. Then it was the sense of failure. I had gone years of being ordered around, always managing to keep hold of my will to never kill another pony. Whenever I was sent on a patrol against other ponies, I just shot without aiming at the pony, always somewhere around them or ran. At least that’s what I tried to do, there was always going to be at least a few times of me killing another pony of me taking someponies life when they were just trying to survive. But it had never been done from my own choice, from my own free will. 

Don’t get me wrong. I had killed ponies before, but they were always when my masters were making me. When they had beatings waiting for me, or no food for days, or a bullet for my skull. They had always made me kill them. This was the first time I had done it on my own. With my own choice and no punishment waiting for me afterwards.

I. Murdered. Him.

My eyes began to slowly release my emotion, the tears dampening my fur as the rest of my body lost all movement. An uneasy feeling crept into my stomach and I wanted to throw up every single bone of my body. As if that would let me forgive myself for taking a ponies life.

A small groan caught my ears from the centre of the street just outside the alley. An unarmoured, white mare was withering on the floor slowly as blood stained her underbelly. She looked as good as dead at first. The only signs of life were the  random twitches of his hind legs and raspy breaths.

I had just killed a pony. And I would rather impale myself on an Alicorns horn before I let another pony die

The metal railings buckled a little when I climbed over them and jumped to the ground. Ember attempted to grasp my tail but failed. I wouldn’t have let her stop me anyway.

I gave one look towards Ember when I landed, half expecting her to be following me. She wasn’t, and it was stupid of me to think so. She just snorted at me and continued up the steps.

With nothing more stopping me, I carried on over to the bleeding earth mare, letting my, cracked breaths cries drown out her whimpering.

‘Click’

My hooves rooted themselves into the ground.

A stallions voice came from behind me. “You.” He let out a shaky breath. “Ya need to stand real f-f-fucking still if ya wanna live.”

I dared a quick glance to see my captor. An orange furred Unicorn, with a rifle I couldn’t identify pointed at my head. Yet somehow, that wasn’t what drew my eyes. His mane stole that, or rather, his lack of mane. His head was just covered in more fur, with a myriad of crusted, red cuts. Like a foal had played naughts and crosses on him, and then decided to try and murder him with a sharp and jagged stone.

One glance with my quivering eyes (undecided whether they were from sadness or fear) seemed to make him throw out any thought that he had before. Any look of hesitance left his body.

My horn sparked into life and lifted a wall of dust into his eyes. Not a second too late either. I had just managed to see what portion of his rifle that was still poking through the dense dust barrier lift up before it fired, most likely from reflex of the irritating particles invading his eyes..

A few bullets got very close to being lucky though, and I knew that all I had managed to do was stun him for a few short seconds. Without another thought, I dived back behind the alley of which I had came from.

Silence fell again, all apart from the light clicks that came from the reloading and recocking of his weapon.

I debated my options; pleading with him was a definite no now, the exact same it had been a few hours ago before I had even met him. I could continue with my defence of using the dust wall, but there was no chance that it would take more than a few seconds for him to just push through it or step back. And I couldn’t see him from behind around the wall, so there was no way of knowing if he had already done that.

The final, but most probable, option came to mind. But it was the one I wanted to avoid the most. I would have to fight back, and kill him. I attempted dividing my concentration between my defences and grabbing my Leksin.

...Where the fuck is my Leksin? I searched around my entire body with  my aura, waiting for it to come across the pistol but it never did. That drew my full concentration. I abandoned the dust wall and looked around, sweeping my hooves across the floor around me, but I hit nothing but dirt, rubble, glass and anything else that ponies had no use for since the wasteland.

there was a single gunshot, followed by a slightly warm liquid being blasted across my back, and hitting my fur where the light armour had been ripped. I whimpered down into the ground when the silence fell, everything just faded into the back of my mind.

I couldn’t handle this. I wasn’t meant for this. I was supposed to be back home, with my masters and the other slaves being told what to do and punished when we didn’t do them. They were right. We were worthless ponies that needed them to survive, that needed them beating us until we knew not to do something. We needed them feeding us and protecting us. I cried lightly into the ground.

I continued to cry quietly into the cracked cobblestone and dirt. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry-I didn’t mean to get you all killed-I’m sorry. Please come back-I need you. Please, come back to me!”

“What are you doing?” A mare’s voice called. It was familiar, but I failed to place it. And I didn’t really care. I leapt up at the voice, front hooves open until I hit it, and then instantly wrapped myself around them. I buried my face into their fur and cried.

“I’m sorry mistress. I-I-I didn’t mean to leave you. Please take me back. Please I-I-I-I’ll do anything just please bring me back.” I continued attempting to plead to my mistress, but every word came out slurred with tears. 

“Stop!”

“You were right mistress.” I recovered myself into a barely speakable state.

“Stop!

“I can’t survive out here. I need you.”

“LITTLE LIGHT. STOP!”

...That voice didn’t belong to my last master.

I opened my eyes to see the familiar two-tone purple hair, the darker shade on the inside.

Ember Night. I wasn’t calling to her, but she was the one that came.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Her face was contorted with anger and confusion, which was far better from what I expected. Until I looked down to see that I had buried my face into her tail and pressed her down onto her stomach. I stood up from her flank.

“Sorry. I-I-I… There was a mare and-and-and this stallion, I,,, I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t handle it. please, don’t leave me gain.”

I didn’t know what I expected for her to do, Comfort me? Say its okay? No. I would’ve been stupid to expect that, and so I was stupid that it even came across my mind.

“What did I tell you?” I stayed in my state of sobbing. “I said you do what I do and say! We were leaving! we would have been fine! But you had to go and fucking ignore me and jump down with you big fucking warm heart and nearly kill yourself for a mare that’s already fucking dead! Leaving me to come back and save your fucking worthless ass from yet another death.”

She was already dead…

“Next time we come across something like this, you listen or I snap your neck myself and save everypony else the trouble. Got it?” My head sunk a little before very minutely nodding. “Good.” Her voice softened a little, emphasis on little. “Now come on, we’ve got a long way to climb and there is at least one able bodied pony still around here and I don’t wanna be jumped again or have them get some friends.”

I took a look up the building that we were about to climb. It was smaller than those around us, and looked stable, but that didn’t make it any less intimidating. Ember trotted - limped, over to the fire escape again.

Great! This was gonna be exhausting.


	-*-     -*-     -*-     -*-     -*-


        The pair of us slumped over what remained of the stone lip of the building. I fell onto my stomach, but Ember pressed on. How did she always have the energy to keep on moving? She could run, carry me, climb up all these stairs all while having basically a fairly open hole in her leg.

My eyes had long since gotten used to the dark, it was nearly impossible for them not to in the light that enveloped Alequia. Ember stood against the night sky in my vision, her fur blended in nicely to the clouds and grey walls of the buildings.

“Get up.”

I abided, taking a few seconds to blink the dust from my eyes. I was exhausted, and hungry, and thirsty. The supplies that me and Ember had grabbed before were so tempting, but she had made it abundantly clear that we should not risk wasting them until we had more.

Ember just stood next to me, looking around for any trouble I guessed.  I was so tired, but the way that she was always alert, always standing straight without shaking legs, it was like she never needed to sleep.

“I said get up. I don’t know if you have noticed, but the ponies around here aren’t exactly looking for some new playdates. Which means that we need to kinda get up and out a soon as we can.” She exhaled deeply and looked down towards the ground. “Which means we gotta find this colt quickly.”

My legs felt worse than they did in the desert a week or so, and I could at least eat my own food when I wanted to then instead of having to pass it by miss ration bitch here. But I stood up, because that’s exactly what she was being right now. A bitch. And I didn’t want to piss her off in case that what I had seen of here was the good side.

She didn’t wait for me before she started to walk off in some seemingly random direction of the roof.

“Where are you going?”

“To the local store to buy some fresh fruit and medicine!” She turned her head half back to me. “Where the fuck do you think. I’m going over to the lights” Her hoof raised towards a small, flickering light a little way away from us. “We haven’t been able to talk to that colt since he told us to come up here, so we gotta find the rest ourselves. I’m bettin’ he’ll be over in his nice and cosy warm bed with some nice food and spices waiting for us!”

“I was just asking-”

“-And I told you that you don’t ask. You listen and do.” My head sunk and I nodded. This was freedom? Freedom didn’t seem much different from captivity. The only difference was that I had to work more for less now.

“As the pony that has saved your life repeatedly, I think you could at least listen to what I’m saying.”

I exhaled deep. I don’t understand how she made me feel like that, like I was just empty and all to blame. It felt worse than when my masters got angry, and they did more than just talk to me. I had enough cuts still healing to prove that.

But she did none of that. She didn’t hurt me - or even shout at me. She was teaching me how to live without beating me into perfection. I didn’t understand how that was possible, but it worked.

She would be a amazing mistress. She already was.

I continued the silence as a way of agreeing with her. The outside of me looked like I was on the edge of tears. Inside however, I was smiling bigger than I ever had before. I had a nice mistress, after the years of tormenting owners before her.

Ember looked back to me, then back to the flickering light and sighed. “Sorry I’m….I’m just tired and...pissed off at being shot at again already.  I’ve been shot many times before but it’s not exactly something that you get used to.” She looked almost sad, and some other emotion that I couldn’t make out. “You can get used to the sound, change it to make you better in a fight. But the pain of a bullet - especially into one of your legs when you continue to put pressure on it - is something that’ll always be there.”

She was sorry…

Ember was sorry…

My owner, my mistress was sorry?

“Why are you sorry. I’m the one that is disobeying you.” I hoped that she didn’t notice the question inside that, but kind of did so that I could get an answer.

She looked over at me with something not unlike confusion. “Yeah, you weren’t...’disobeying’ me. I was getting all pissy over shit that didn’t matter.” She shuffled around on her hooves. “You own me just as much as I own you.”

“What?” I instantly replied, I couldn’t have heard that right.

“I said I owe you just as much as you owe me.” My mistress didn’t want me?

No! She wasn’t my mistress. I caught myself before falling further into that net again. We were-. We are equals.

...So why does this feel wrong? Because you’ve already proven to her and yourself to be nothing, a worthless waste of food and nearly got her killed.

But I could learn. I’m new-ish out here. Everything I’ve done and been taught before has been on familiar ground with somepony telli-...beating, and ordering, me to do something. She can help me get used to doing this.

Or you could just get her and you killed before we get out of this place.

 “We gotta know that I can’t order you around, but you defin-” She bit back the word. “…You can’t order me around as well.” One corner of her lip etched into a small, hopeful smile. “I can tell that we are probably gonna be around each other for a while so...Can we like...eugh. Can we just start over again...or something.”

She was offering me freedom?

she’s trying to get away from you.

She’s trying to help me.

By getting you killed? You don’t know what to do out here. You’ll die in seconds and she knows it. She doesn’t want you here, she just wants you to distract the raiders so she can save her own flank.

I wanted to continue to go against the small part of me that wanted to leave alone, but I couldn’t find the reason behind why I should’ve ignored. There was no real sense as to why I was still with her unless it was for a distraction. Yesterday, she had promised that she wouldn’t because she was injured and so was I and we couldn’t do this alone.

But now what? We had near enough found another pony, one who would be able bodied, probably had more weapons and knew this place a lot better than we did put together. But then I doubted that she even needed another pony anyway. She can handle herself fine, even after being shot.

Me?

I was useless.

“...Yeah. I’d like that, a new start.” A new beginning. A new chance to start again. Only this time, I would be a lot better.