Calm Before the Storm

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Dark. Everything was dark when I first woke up. I quickly re-established where I was and what was happening. ‘Oh yeah the whole getting captured thing, forgot about that.’

“G’morning sunshine. Sleep well?” The gruff sounding leader nearly screamed, right next to my ear. “Y’see, the boss here wants to talk to you, and you being asleep isn’t helping. So GET UP, and get moving!”

Fumbling over my hooves in an attempt to stand, I notice the freezing cold metal floor. A gasp of shock and several embarrassing attempts at standing later, I am finally situated on my hooves and signal him to lead me where I need to go. He smiles a wide evil smile and turns to walk. I use this silence to take in my surroundings.

The metal floor quickly shifted to carpet on our way into what I assumed was a lobby of sorts. Lines and lines of slot machines and gambling tables fill the large room. The lights are dim, but not very needed, due to the large glowing slot machines. Ponies of all sorts, wearing suits and dresses play their games with either a smile of victory, or a look of hate for losing. Large, red velvet walls with wood panelling at the bottom show a very strange contrast to the dirty orange and yellow carpet, filled with spots of blue or pink. A mare sitting at a blackjack table looks at me with a sultry, enticing smile. One of which I return promptly.

The leader buck takes me up some stairs that are way too shallow for my liking. “Now you act nice like around The Boss, iffin you cause trouble we’ll have to ‘take care of ya’.” I didn’t plan on causing trouble, I always want to be debt free. You never know when someone can turn a favor or debt against you at the worst of times. I made that mistake more than enough times to figure out that I should stop taking loans or bets.

We approach a large set of doors that are a deep red velvet and adorned with gold trim. The Boss’s office I assumed. “Walk on in, I’ll be waitin’ here when you’re done.”

I cautiously walk in the large doors. This room is incredibly well kept unlike the rest of the casino. The wall are a dark shade of blue, eerily similar to the color of my mane, with regal gold trim in designs of pointed shields. I felt bad tracking dirt onto the lush red carpet, that was so soft i could’ve slept on it with ease. In front of me was a large black leather coated chair facing a window big enough to see outside. ‘What a cliché’ was all that i could think of the chair that would surely turn around soon to face me, with a creep of a stallion smiling evilly. Although that isn’t what happened.

I sat waiting for the chair to spin, only to be tapped on the shoulder by a gentle hoof. I turned faster than necessary, to see a gentle looking smile. “Hello.” Said the rather large mare. “Nice to meet you. I’m The Boss around here, but you can call me sherry in private. You are?” I was absolutely dumbfounded, my mouth slightly agape I pulled out my board and wrote.

‘Call me Miss Fortune’

“Why that is a lovely name! Do you mind if I call you Missy?” I shook my head. “Well then, Missy, It seems that you are indebted to me, so I will assign you a job. Quite simple really I need you to take care of one of my competitors.” I responded with an easy grin, she obviously wasn’t expecting. “That simple huh? Well, there is a stallion just outside of town, who has a casino that is exceedingly better than mine.” After saying that she let out a slight scoff. “Chop off the head and watch the body wither, so they say. Take care of him at the ‘Sunrise Casino’ and let me take care of the rest. Think you can pull it off?” I nod at this basic task, infiltrate and assassinate. Piece of cake.

She gave me a location and sent me on my way. Right as I stepped out of the door the stallion was, unsurprisingly, missing. I trot back down to the casino floor to see if I could find him, not that I was overjoyed to be in his presence, I just needed to know the way out.

***

While walking around and watching ponies gamble, I noticed the mare that smiled at me on the way in walking over to me. I stopped and let her approach.

“Well my, my, aren’t you just a piece of eye candy.” A very proper accent rolled off of her tongue, like she was from Tenpony. I don’t know what a pony like that was doing here but I gave a smile through my blush. “I would love to be acquainted with a mare so fine as yourself, have the time, dear?” I shrugged and nodded, leader pony was nowhere to be found so I thought I would kill some time. “Wonderful! Come along now, don’t be shy.” That was a little difficult, seeing as I was extremely shy.

While on our way to a set of large metal doors I took in her appearance. She had a wonderfully light green mane with brown highlights done up in a cute bun. Her coat was a dark purple and was also quite clean and well kept. She had a look that couldn’t be from your average wasteland pony. She was absolutely gorgeous to a point I felt a blush run across my cheeks. Her cutie mark was a small ceramic target shattering into pieces, well I guess the wasteland gets to the pretty ones too. “Staring at my flank, are you? I don’t mind but please, do ask first.” My face was as red as the walls in embarrassment.

“I say, you aren’t so bad looking yourself if not a little too dirty.” My usually orange coat was now a bright red, so bright I think i could’ve used it as a flashlight.

She nudged open the door and held it for me. I thanked her with a nod and she quickly pushed the door closed and followed me into the courtyard. It was later than I thought, The sky was already darker than usual, and my chronometer read 19:00. The dark red and gray mix of the clouds were nothing unusual but felt sad for some reason.

“Don’t talk much do you?” I simply shook my head. “What a shame, I bet you have a wonderful voice.” More blushing. “Ah well I suppose I should let you start the questions then, Miss?”. I took out my board and wrote.

‘Fortune, Miss Fortune. Name?’ She let out a gasp of surprise and smiled.

“Loo k at that! You have a little board, how nice! My name is Vendetta, how unruly I know, but please call me Vetta. My turn I suppose, what do you usually do in your pass time? I am usually either gambling, doing target practice or drinking.” I sigh because this will take a while to write.

‘Usually just help ponies’ I let her read it then erase. ‘Whenever they seem to need’ Again. ‘To turn the tables’ I finish. She gives a quizzical look although she doesn’t speak. ‘Special talent?’ I write and give her a turn to talk.

“Ah, I’m glad you asked. As my cutie mark entails I am very good at hittin my mark, with any weapon, you name it I can shoot it.” She said proudly, puffing out her chest. “I do dislike killing however, It is too red. What could a cloak mean?” She says pointing a hoof to my cutie mark. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to explaining this to her, because even I wasn’t sure. I’ve had this mark on my flank for nearly 10 years, and still had no clue what a cloak meant. My best guess was that I was really good at sneaking if I put my mind to it, so that was the answer I went with. I’ve always used my skill to hide in the shadows to protect those who need it. However, I am NOT a hero. That always just comes back to bite you in the ass. I consider myself a pony with nothing better to use her skills for.

‘Sneaky’ Was the vague answer I gave her. She looked completely unimpressed. I gave her a stern look, and she responded.

“Nothing against you darling, but is that all? That seems rather vague.” I gave a shrug, and pointed a hoof at her, signaling it her turn to ask a question. “Right.” She adorned a sly grin. “Preference?” I hoped she wasn’t talking about what I thought she was talking about. I looked at her with a questioning look, in hopes she would say weapons or something. “Sexually of course” She finished with her grin spreading across her entire face. I blushed madly and fumbled over my hooves to think of a way to respond. She finally said, “If it will make you feel better I could go first.” I quickly nod vigorously. “I lean more to the mares, but any fun is good fun, no?” I carefully nod, and write on my board, shakily mind you.

‘Mares’ I don’t think I had seen anyone smile that much, and I know a lot of drug addicts.

“Maybe, someday you and I?” This was going way too fast for me. I would excuse myself to get some air but we were already outside. I had never been in a relationship, I’ve never even had friends, and she was asking me this? I didn’t know what to do so I forced as much of a smile possible, and wrote…

‘Maybe, but don’t rush me’ She reads, starting with a smile that fades into an understanding look. My crooked smile must have been funny, because when she looked at me she giggled and smiled broadly. A thought crossed my mind about then, I just made a pony smile. They could even be considered a friend, and possibly soon to be marefriend. I couldn’t contain myself and let out a squeak of my own mirth, which quickly turned into me covering my muzzle and popping my eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“Did you just make a sound?! I can't believe this, you have been completely silent and you just squeaked! A very odd squeak, very deep and foreboding, but a squeak nonetheless.” This was really bad. In the 15 odd years in the wasteland, I don’t make a sound, yet I squeak in front of a mare I just met today. I quickly pull out my board and write…

‘Please keep this secret’ I try my most puppydog look, (whatever that is I heard it once from somepony) but she just makes a ‘tsk’ sound repeatedly.

“I don’t know. This is some good blackmail I stumbled across, I’ll hold onto this for a long while.” She must have seen the broken look on my face, one of defeat, because she smiled softly. “Unless.” Why does there always have to be an unless? “You come to dinner sometime.” Did I mention I hated being in debt? Because I really hate being in debt. I nod with a still defeated look, which seems to make her sad for some reason. “It’s not required though, I don’t want to rush you.” She says with a sad look. What? I thought I was in debt why would she change her mind? ‘I don’t want to rush you’ Oh. that’s why. Another thought popped into my head ‘She’s looking forward to going out with me?!’

‘When & where?’ Her spritely mood returns, and she smiles broadly again. ‘What a beautiful smile’ Did I think that? Oh man this gushy stuff is getting to me. I return my focus to her, and she looks like she’s in deep thought.

She hoofs me over a slip of paper that she just wrote. ‘How do earth ponies even do that?’ “Here, meet me at ‘A taste of Dise’ it’s a small restaurant with decent food, and great alcohol, tomorrow at 18:00.” I take the paper and shove it into my bag. I give her a smile and pull out my board again.

‘Gotta go work, bleh’ She smiles and nods gracefully. I think I’m starting to really like her. What didn’t spark in the thick cantaloupe I call my head was that I had just gotten a date, with a pretty mare. Other than being foalnapped and beaten meticulously, today was a good day. She followed me through the heavy metal doors, ‘how did she push this so easily?’ and went left while I went right. I went back to the room where The Boss was, and waited for the leader pony to show up.

***

After about 20 minutes he appeared with a frazzled mane. “Errr, uhh, don’ tell The Boss I was slackin’, kay?” He said rather nervously. It was a strange look for a merc. I nodded, not wanting to ruin his fun. He visibly relaxed and let out a sigh. “Boss has got a room for ya, if you’re ready to hit the hay.” I give a nod and he starts walking toward an elevator. I really hope he doesn’t insist on following me to my room, I don’t want to be confined to a small space with his reek of grime, blood, and other bodily fluids. On my way to the elevator I notice Vendetta trotting my way as well.

“What a happy little accident, what floor are you on?” I shrug and look to the leader pony. I really need a name for him. He displays a paper with a floor and a room number to Vetta. She smiles like a filly and begins to talk again. “We are neighbors! Can you believe that! This day could not get better. Allow me to walk you to your room.” Leader pony shrugs and walks away, it clearly isn’t his problem if I disappear.

The elevator is oddly cramped. It is the same color as the rest of the casino but with buttons and a speaker that just sound awful. I catch a scent of lavender, and wonder if that is Vetta, or the elevator. Most likely the former. Also there is a faint humming noise coming from the area near my left. Vetta is humming, and goddesses is it beautiful. The sound although faint drowns out anything else in the area, the pitch wavering between high and low, the notes long and short. I must’ve had a reaction because she looked toward me and gasped. She quickly stopped and a blush spread across her face.

“Oh. Heh, sorry about that, I didn’t mean for you to hear me.” She said with her muzzle pointed to the floor. I couldn’t imagine why she was sorry, I could’ve listened to her for the rest of my life. After a few moments I pulled her chin up with a hoof and looked into her eyes with a smile. She looked weary, but smiled back in return. “Sorry, I’m usually alone, so it’s a habit. I doubt I’m very good, sorry.

‘Stop apologizing :)’ I put the smile there to make it look like it was friendly, although I was smiling anyway. She looked away, almost seeming to hide another blush. *Ding*

“Oh, well we’re here. Come along now.” I followed behind her, totally not looking at her flank or anything. We walked in silence and came to a set of rooms. “Well this is us. Good night.” I don’t know what it was about it but something about her saying ‘Good night’ confused me slightly. Who in the wasteland has ever had a good night? I smiled anyway, and pulled out my board again.

‘Thank You, night’ I left out the ‘Good’ part because it just felt unnatural. Then she did something completely unexpected. She hugged me. It was the strangest thing I had ever felt. She decided that I was a good enough pony to deserve a hug, which was strange because I had never had any real physical contact with other, aside from my mom. But the weirdest part was, I enjoyed every part of it. Her mane smelled of lavender. I hugged back and just hoped the moment would last. But alas nothing lasts forever and I needed rest for tomorrow's mission.

She was the first to let go, and I quickly followed suit. She smiled and finished with, “If you need anything at all, knock.” and turns to go to her room. I turned to my room as well not really expecting much from the run down looking casino. Upon swinging the door open, I notice the smell. It was strange, like it was clean. I walk over to the bed and take in the rest of the room.

The first thing in my line of sight was the bed, large enough for two ponies, and I have it all to myself. Turning to the left there is a large window that takes up almost the whole side of the room. Curious, I push the rat chewed blinds more out of the way and look at the expanding ruin of the town called Dise. There is an easy view of the sign that once had the words ‘Celestia’s Paradise’ emblazoned on it, the now covered in graffiti billboard had only Dise on it, giving the town it’s name. Almost all of the view is covered in run-down looking buildings that are surprisingly inhabited. Lights and neon lamps cover the city in all the colors of the spectrum. Turning away from the window, I never liked heights very much anyway, I spot the dirty desk with a simple lamp on it. Nothing special really. What I saw next thrilled me to the core. A shower. Immediately walking briskly toward it, I turn the ‘H’ knob. It worked! Water spewed from the showerhead falling down, to the grimy cracks between the white ceramic tiles. I didn’t think it got better than running water, but then steam formed.

I bit my lip to ensure I wasn’t dreaming. I stepped into the hot water, and sighed with relief. The last I took a proper shower was probably five or so years ago, so I relished every drop of water on my body. Eventually I scrubbed off what I could and ran a broken comb I had found through my mane.

When I looked in the mirror, I saw a pony I hadn’t seen in years. I saw Eclipse, I saw me. It was really a strange feeling, seeing my usually unruly and rampant mane laying in a flat line, it really wasn’t my style, I liked it poofy. The true orange of my coat showed, bright and vibrant, It would be wonderful without the scars. I dried off what I could with the towel, that was stained plenty, and shook the rest of the water off. After parting with my pretty reflection I returned to the bed. I shook out the pillows and blankets (only a few insects, fancy!) and lay on the proper bed. I felt like a queen, even if it was only for a day or so, I was going to enjoy tonight’s sleep.

Proper sleep was nice. I hadn’t a proper sleep since I was in the womb, the wasteland doesn’t let anyone rest for long. The nightmares were scary and all, but I was so comfy I just didn’t care all that much. Yeah, yeah I get it brain, terrifying, watching mom die, oooh. It’s getting a little old about now. The only thing that could’ve ruined this was waking u- “RISE AND SHIIINE!, You’ve got to get your job done so we can get to our date!” Of course, I just had to think it huh?

I slowly sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes, my chronometer reads 06:30, way too early to be awake. I’ll just fake it. A hoof continued its barrage on the door, while Vetta yelled words to wake me up. Slowly trotting over to the door, so I don’t trip over myself, I unlock the door to see it swung open. A smiling Vetta awaited in the hall, beautiful as ever. She let out a gasp of astonishment upon seeing me clean.

“Oh, my stars! You are just absolutely gorgeous darling. You really should wash more.” I decided against revealing the fact that I hadn't washed in years, and just smiled. “Well come along then, you’ve much to do, no?” I fell in line behind her and followed her to the elevator. *Ding*Kszzt, flo-o-or*Ding* “Do you need anything for your mission?” Vetta asked. I realized that I was missing all of my gear to make this mission easy. But how did she know I had a mission? I guessed any work from The Boss was a mission. I shook my head anyway, I didn’t want to burden her with my problems. “Well, now I just know you are lying. Everyone always needs something. How about this, I’ll give you 200 caps to get something you need, and by the way i’m not taking no for an answer.” I simply scowled, I didn’t want to have her giving me things, but I couldn’t say no, so I simply nodded as angrily as one can nod. “Good, I will assist you in your purchase, so you don’t have to ‘converse’ with the goons around here they call merchants.”

I was quite unhappy that she felt I was useless, I held my own all this time. I didn’t even think of buying something in the first place. I was going to steal what I needed, as I always did. But I assumed the stakes of getting caught here were higher than those of traveling merchant stands. Not that I have been caught stealing in the past 20 odd years. I’m very skilled in stealth.

We eventually make it to the bottom floor, we didn’t talk, which helped me think of something that would help my mission for under 200 caps. “I’m just going to wait over at the bar, go and do whatever mercs do before a mission.” Vetta said. Again, I scowled at her.

‘Not a merc’ My board read. She looked at it and looked almost confused. I couldn’t quite understand why she thought I was a mercenary, they are all pigs that will break morals to do a job. That just isn’t who I am.

“Of course, sorry. I just assumed. So why are you doing this job then? If you don’t need the caps.” I turned away in embarrassment, why did she have to ask that? I didn’t know what she would think if I told her I was in debt to the casino, probably that I’m a loser and a drunk. Which I am, but I didn’t want her knowing that, but she would eventually figure that out. To hell with it.

‘Debt’ She didn’t change her demeanor at all, which surprised me. I was sure she would be ashamed of me. When did I start caring what others thought? I was getting soft.

“Well, be on your way then. Again I apologize for calling you a mercenary, that was rather brash of me.” She nudged me toward the steps, and I just went with it. I climbed the steps and went over to The Boss’ room. Knocking was always weird for me, why would I make sound on purpose? I tapped the door gently, rather than a full force knock. It almost immediately swung open.

“Hello! Nice to see you Missy, but why are you here? I gave you a job didn’t I? So do your job.” I then noticed what I was doing. Why was I here? I really didn’t have a reason at all. I was going to go get gear and do my job. Naturally, I just stood dumbfounded at my own idiocy.

‘Sorry, be on my way’ I squeezed onto my board. She gave a brisk nod and closed the door. I turned and was still thinking why I was even here. I had a job to do. Shaking my head as if to rid myself of the thoughts, I make my way down to the bar. Only to see a rather drunk already Vetta. I was gone for what, five minutes? Why does she get to have all the fun.

“Oh, hello. Ready t’ go?” She stated with a slur. I nod and she finishes her drink. I look to the bartender who mouths the word ‘five’. I nod to him and turn to Vetta, raising an eyebrow. “Ahm fine, le’s jus’ go.” I couldn't help the smile on my face while I rolled my eyes. “To tha market we go. It’s outside of the strip so follow me.” She turns to a large set of metal doors, and begins to walk. Well, wobble is a better term. I follow behind her and we leave the building.

The most notable thing was the smell. A mix of fresh(ish) air and booze was the easiest way to describe it. Each building towering hundreds of feet above us. The neon signs were mostly all turned off, I assumed to save energy. I’m not sure how energy works really, I assume they have generators to power buildings.The buildings were all made of thick metal, I wondered how pre-war ponies were able to make these monoliths. I made a note to ask some ghouls when I had the chance. The sky was a dark red and grey as usual, no changes there. Something that caught my eye, was the large security bot standing near a huge door made of what looked like roof paneling and random scrap metal. The bot towered about the size of two ponies taller than me, but I’m rather small so about a pony size taller than an average mare. It had large beam emitters in it’s claw like hands, and what looked like rocket holsters in it’s ‘shoulders’. It looked like a trapezoidal vending machine attached to a wheel, with a large screen on the front with a picture of a soldier on it.

We walked toward the large door near the robot, with the word ‘FREESIDE’ in all different fonts and sizes above it. The large metal door squealed and grinded while it was pulled open by the bot. I followed Vetta, who was wobbling less now, through the door and the scenery immediately changed.

The buildings were mostly made of crumbling cobblestone, each was crudely painted in an attempt to make them seem more appealing. The signs were all very bland and homemade, lacking the pizzazz the ones that the casinos had. The streets were dirty, covered in blood stains and other substances the wasteland brings everywhere it touches. The ponies here were all dirty, most malnourished to the point you could see their ribs. Three children were chasing a rat of unusual size, almost big enough to meet my chest. I wondered how this place could work as a market, if everything was in such disrepair.

“Come along, the best place for what you will need is right this way.” Vetta says. As I look at the ponies here they look at us with absolute disgust. Probably because we were clean and our bones weren't visible. I put on my best poker face to hopefully discern them from staring. “Here we are.” I look up at the large sign in gold and black letters with shattered bulbs on the trim. ‘The Big Iron’ read the sign, a strange name for a store, but I assumed they found the sign in the best condition they could and put it up. There is a goon standing at the door, looking rather well fed, and well rested. He had a thick black under armor that was covered in metal plates and ballistic fibre. He had a heavy battle saddle with two carbine rifles on either side of him, they looked powerful.

“Mornin’ ladies, hoping to come in?” He says. His voice is rather young and soft, which was strange to me, most guards were tough sounding and firm. I nodded and he spoke up again. “Well, I’m going to have to take any weapons currently on you. If you will allow me, we can make this quick and easy.” He looks through each of our saddle bags and then opens the heavy door.

Walking in, I notice the satisfying smell of gun metal and lubricant. There is a large chain link fence separating us from the main weapon stand. We walk around and into the open area to the awaiting vendor.

“Well, boy howdy isn’t it just my lucky day when two lovely mares walk into my shop! What can I do ya’ for?” He had a strange accent it was posh, but very country at the same time.

“Thank you. Fortune?” I give a nod and pull out my board.

‘Silent but deadly’ Is written on my board. He looks it over, and the corners of his mouth lift. He goes under his desk and begins to dig. I am sneaky, but I need tools to kill. I can’t really do much with my sad excuse for strength, and I only know levitation and sneak spells.

“Aha!” He yells still under the table. When his head lifts up he has a worn 10 mil in his mouth. Upon the end is a small suppressor, but big enough to make the weapon quiet. It is in rather poor condition, but I will only need it for today, longevity isn’t a concern. “Ehh, 250 for it” He finally says breaking my thought.

“Seeing as it’s rather worn, I don’t Imagine 250 being a fair price. 100.” Vetta says, completely losing her slur from earlier. I had never had to barter so this back and forth meant very little to me. All I know is they eventually settled on 190 for the weapon and about 30 bullets. This seemed to please Vetta and she showed her gratitude with a nod. “Goodday to you sir.” He waves from behind the desk and shouts a goodbye.

After exiting, I pull out my board and write on it. ‘I’m gonna go’ I wait for her to read it, and erase. ‘Wish me luck’ She gives a curt nod and smiles, almost like she is trying to hide sadness.

“Of course. You’d better come back unhurt, we still have a date you know. I’d hate to have to miss it if you are bleeding all over the place.” I give her a small smile and turn away to walk. I heard soft words along the lines of ‘goddesses protect her’ but acted like I didn’t hear anything. She was putting out a prayer, for me. These two days with this mare had already been more exciting than my entire life. I wanted more days like this.

To the matter of work, I thought on how I was going to go about this. The only thing I knew was that I was taking out a leader. I had no clue what he looked like, his name, the layout of the building, I had nothing. But that’s never stopped me before. This would be difficult, because I had never killed for the sake of killing. I always did it to protect someone or stop them from doing bad things. This was just murder, unjustified absolute murder. All I had to do was put a bullet in his head, that’s always been easy for me, so why was it so hard to justify.

***

After about an hour of trotting and planning, I decided I was finally ready to do this. I got a vague idea of the layout due to large windows. The boss seemed to be a stallion with a large purple coat, that would make it easier to spot him in a crowd if need-be. He liked his mares an awful lot. I could use that to my advantage. Get him to bed pop him and rid of the body. Easy.

So I walked in. I was noticed by an awful lot of stallions, I guessed a clean good-looking mare was fairly uncommon in these parts. I tried my best to put on a sultry smile and sway my hips. The boss seemed to notice me and looked me down. I met his eyes and walked over to him. He waved a hoof and his guards move out of my way.

“Damn, girl you is fine. What brings you here?” I pulled out my board with my mouth so he would be able to see me flip my mane away from my cloud grey eyes. He seemed to watch carefully with a smile.

‘Looking for fun’ I wrote with a wink. He read it and raised an eyebrow. This was working better than I thought I might not even need to sneak.

“Well, I could show you a good time up in my room, if you’re interested?” I give a slow nod with an enticing smile. “Well, I’ll meet you there, here's the key. Go and ‘get ready’.” He finishes with a wink. I turn, to give him a look at my flank, and sway my hips as I walk to the elevators. There was no problems with security, I assumed he did this a lot.

At the room, the door clicked unlocked with the key. I had to use momentum to push the door open, why are all of the doors so heavy? The room, like the rest of the casino, was very nice. There was a small bar on the right, which was quickly relieved of a lot of it’s better alcohol. There were nice green leather couches, as most leather items, that were placed around a fireplace. A few pictures were hung on the walls, mostly just landscape photos. I open the door just across the room into the bedroom.

The large king size bed, was covered in white sheets. The nightstand had a lamp and a photo on it, nothing unusual. There were a couple dressers filled with clothes and 9mm bullets. Great. More ways to die.

After my inspection I decide to wait outside. When he and his goons arrive the lead goon, wearing a rather dashing fedora, turn to me and says “We will wait here until you come out with the boss.” Shit. Well that makes this only slightly more difficult, it’s a good thing this hallway is lit by connected lights, all I have to do is cut the wire in the service room behind the presidential suite, and they all go out. The backup lights will allow for enough of a shadow to hide in and get out. If that doesn’t work i’ll use my cheating unicorn powers. I nod to the fedora wearing pony.

Boss pony opens the door and waves me in. “Grab a drink.” He says, and I hold back a snicker. I grab a glass and fill it with scotch, or bourbon, I don’t remember. He waves me toward the bedroom and turns down the lights for ambience. Terrible mistake. The windowless room is perfectly dark enough to hide in plain sight, I finish my drink and walk closer to him. My horn glows a grey that is just the right shade to hide in any light, similar to my eye color, while I pull out the pistol. He leans his head toward me puckering his lips. I hold the barrel to his mouth instead and pull the trigger. *pfft* *thud*. Well that was easy. Almost boring really.

I shove his body in the bed and cover him with the sheets. I walk into the service room, and pull out a green wire. The lights shut off, but dim red ones come on, just as anticipated. My horn glows and I am wrapped in a shadow, it wavers just so you would imagine you saw something but just shrug it off as your imagination. I slip silently to the front door while the guard ponies rush in to see what happened. In the deep black of the shadows I slip the fedora off of the lead goon, and slide into the hall. After each of them is inside I take the elevator downstairs, and turn off the spell. I ruffle up my mane to make it seem like something happened between the two of us.

I feign a worried look as alarms go off, and slip with the crowd as they force us outside do to an infiltrator, upstairs. Where everything is locked down. This mission was pretty boring, no real security, and an easy escape? Lame. If I came back, I would be recognized so I figured getting away as soon as possible was the best action.

The chronometer on my Pip-Buck read 15:46, so I had time to do other stuff before my date. The first thing on my agenda was letting Sherry know, her job was done. I walk back over to the huge metal doors to the main strip, and see something gruesome. A young looking buck runs at the gate in an attempt to get to the decent part of town. When the 4 robot guards turn, and open fire on him. “Unauthorized Entry, Fire” Each bullet tears into him with gruesome detail. I saw every single high calibre round pierce through his slacks and come out the other side. Blood sprayed everywhere, his form fell limp and he collapsed to the ground bleeding all over the dirt. I had a hunch that his name was Mischief.

I slowly walked past the bleeding corpse and was stunned to see that there wasn’t an attempt to clean it up. “Move Along” Bellowed the robot. I’d seen death, but this made me sick. I couldn’t change anything so I walked through the gate with a tear in my eye. I cantered to the tall casino run by The Boss, and walked in. I couldn't get the gate killing out of my head, so I put on a poker face and wiped the tear out of my eye.

At The Boss’ room, I wrote ‘Got the job done’ Wait. Erase. ‘Debt free?’ I waited for her to nod her head, but she spoke up instead.

“Of course, you are no longer indebted to me, but you may keep the room free of charge. I don’t use that floor very often, unless someone has helped me, or I’m especially packed. Although if you ever need a job, I always need a worker.” I nod, and turn around to walk out. I shut the door behind me, and walk to my room. I have nothing else to do for the next 2 hours, so I figure a nap is in order. I do enjoy naps.

Standing in front of my door, my eyes drift to the left where Vetta’s room is. I finally decide against sleep and instead, to see if Vetta wanted to hang out before we go out to eat. *Tap tap* “Just a minute!” I hear Vetta call from deep in the room. I hear the slide of a lock, and the door opens. “I knew it could only be you that would knock so softly. Glad you are back and not covered in blo- wounds.” I didn't notice until she pointed it out but I had quite a bit of blood soaking into my coat. “You really must wash before we go out. If not willingly, forcefully.” She said the last part with a grin. “Why, are you here though? We still have almost an hour and a half until our outing.” I had a proper answer to a question for the first time in a few days.

‘Hang out?’ She looked at the board with a raise of her eyebrows. Then proceeded to shrug.

“Why not? Let me grab some things, and i’ll be right out.” I smile, and back away from the door. Soon enough, she comes out wearing saddlebags and a smile. “What did you have in mind?” She asked. To be honest, I didn’t think I would get this far so I didn’t have much of a plan. Like I said earlier, I never even had friends so I was clueless when it came to picking activities.

‘Go for a walk?’ I scribble. She nods. The ride down on the elevator, was boring and silent. As was the walk through the lobby. When we finally came outside was when she finally spoke up.

“So…” She starts. “How was your mission?” I nod and she seems to understand. “That’s good I guess. Want to know how my day was?” Intrigued I nod again and let her continue. “Well while you were off doing whatever you did, I spent my day in my hotel reading.” This surprised me. Ponies still had proper untoasted books? I loved reading, but have only been able to read two or three books(thanks apocalypse). She noticed my wide eyed look of surprise and continued. “Yes, I know weird right?” I shook my head vigorously. “Really? Well that’s a first. Do you read?”

‘Whenever possible’ She seemed surprised. I hoped someday she would lend me her books.

“How odd. That wasn’t an insult mind you, ponies these days just don’t enjoy a good book. Well maybe one day I will lend you some of my personal collection.” I must have looked as giddy as I felt because she giggled at me. “You should smile more, It looks good on you.” I blushed deeply. Whenever someone complimented me I couldn’t help it, in my lonely travels I always stuck to the shadows. And the shadows stuck to me, we were like best buds. I hated being alone.

“Are you okay? You look like you are trying to forget something.” I shook out of my stupor and tried to smile, but I could tell it looked cracked because of how she reacted. “If you ever need to talk… err… write? Feel free to ask me, I may not look it, but I’ve had hard times too.” For some reason, her saying that made me feel calm, and closer to her. I moved closer to her, this time with an honest smile. We were in front of a large fountain, the water wasn’t running however because it’s such a scarce material to come by.

“Why must the wasteland destroy all that once was beautiful? Imagine, this beautiful fountain spraying water while ponies made wishes under the sun lit sky. It must have been so wonderful.” I hated thinking of the past, all it brought was sadness. So many lost their lives to a fight that wasn’t their fault. A solution to just end it all to end a pitiful rivalry. One could imagine ponies going about their day, and all of a sudden sirens go off and fires spread across the land like a grease fire. Their world ended so quickly, and that was mercy. There are those who had to live through the pain, ghouls they still suffer today because of what should have been an end two hundred years ago. “Fortune?” Vetta spoke up. “Did I say something wrong?”

I shook my head and responded. ‘Thinking, sorry’ It was the easiest answer to not raise suspicion. I don’t think it worked.

“Okay.” Vetta said wearily, almost sadly. “Have any family?” She asked trying to change the subject to something less touchy. It didn’t work. I shook my head and she frowned. “Oh, i’m sorry to hear that. Want to hear of my family?” I shrug and nod. “Well, it’s my brother his name is Valiant Heart, my father who I don’t know, but I know he is alive. Mother, her name is Indigo Seas, and myself. It’s a small family, but we love each other, I left when I was 23 and have been wandering ever since. Do you mind telling me your family, or is that a touchy subject?” She didn’t see me wipe away the tear from my eye.

‘Only knew mom’ Wait. Erase. ‘Name was Fanfare’ She read it and giggled a little before covering her mouth.

“She was loud?” I nod my head. “Sorry to intrude, but what happened?” I couldn’t possibly tell her. I thought I had gotten over it, but I just couldn’t bear to say anything. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks and turned away, hoping she didn’t see. “Sorry.” I couldn’t help but smile, she needed to stop being sorry.

‘It’s okay.’ I write and levitate the board her way without turning to look at her.

“Hmmph. You act so thick, but I’m going to crack your shell someday.” That wasn’t the response I anticipated. “I’ve rarely seen emotion out of you, anything but a neutral, or a lost smile.” So she didn’t see me cry. “Doesn’t the wasteland hurt? Everything hurts and you keep it pent up?” I decided it was time to turn to her, so I did. “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t me-” She was cut off by me pushing her gently with a hoof.

‘Stop apologizing’ Wait. Erase. ‘It’s annoying’ I hoped she didn’t take this too bad.

“I’m so-. Okay.” She wipes away my tears. “It’s okay to cry, you know.” I shake my head. I didn’t think so. I thought it showed one was weak, that they couldn’t hold back their emotions to stop from burdening others. I was weak. Me being weak caused others so much pain. So much death. “Would you look at the time, it’s almost 17:30, shall we be on our way then?” I nod simply.

The walk there was quiet. We both had things to think on, and I spent my time thinking about what I was going to do tomorrow. I was probably going to leave urban Dise and hang around the outskirts like usual. I was going to find my gear, I couldn't wait to be reunited with my clothes, I rather disliked being naked, I hated having to see my scars. I could finally return to my life of being a somepony. The bringer of justice, the masked protector. A thought crossed my mind. ‘I’ll be alone again’ With nothing but my bullets and shadows to accompany me, the mare behind the curtains.

“This is it.” Vetta finally said, I didn’t even notice how far we had walked. “It doesn’t look like much, but I think it’ll do.” It was a small ‘restaurant’ if it could be called that. It looked like it was once a small two story bar of sorts. The outer walls were covered in graffiti but looked like they were nice once. The windows had neon ‘open’ signs in them. ‘Where do they find all of these signs?’ I thought to myself. You could only see faint lights in the windows, and the occasional shadow of movement from inside.

“After you.” Vetta opened the door and waved me in. I gave a courteous nod and walked in. There were small lights hanging from the ceiling from rubber coated wires. Tables spread about 3 deep and 4 wide to the left, and a well dressed pony sat at a desk in front of us. You could see a far off kitchen through an opening in the wall with a metal trim.

“Good evening madams, my name is Switchblade, how may I help you?” The pony at the desk spoke up.

“Table for two please.” Vetta said primly. This was strange. Everything in this city was all proper and it was getting on my nerves.

“Of course, this way if you will.” Switchblade spoke grabbing a couple papers and leading us to a table with two seats across from each other separated by a wooden table. I pulled out the chair for Vetta, let her sit and pushed it in. I took the seat across from her. Two ‘menus’ were placed in front of us. “I’ll be back in a bit” Switchblade said and walked away.

I looked through the ‘menu’ that was just a piece of paper with food Items scribbled on both sides with a brief description underneath. Most of the items were just fancied up wasteland food, although that wasn’t surprising. I didn’t have any caps so I looked for the cheapest item and decided on ordering that. I left my menu open so I could just point at what I was getting.

“Well, I know what I want, are you ready as well?” I nod at Vetta’s question, and pretend to look around. I already took in the layout of this place so I was really just avoiding awkwardness. “So, do you like music?” Vetta asked pulling my attention to look at her. I nod with a smile. I loved music. “It’s so difficult to figure you out. You are mute, you have a quiet style to you and yet you enjoy music which is noise. You truly are strange.” I nod with a smile, and cock my head questioningly. “Oh, I like music from time to time. I enjoy faster paced loud music.” I give a playful sour look and pull out my board.

‘Classical’ I write. She reads it and gives a ‘hmph’ of understanding. (if that makes sense) ‘Weapon preference?’ I scribble. Leave it to me to bring the wasteland to our (romantic?) night out. At this she smiles.

“I prefer ranged weapons. If I have to kill, I don’t want to have to see their blood. There is just something about their power that lures me to them. I know you prefer quiet small arms. How about your past? Have any old friends or marefriends?” She asked slyly. I tried to keep smiling, but I hated remembering the dark loneliness of my past. I still had a smile but I could tell it was sad by how heavy it felt.

‘None of either’ She read it over and looked at my face. Her smile turned into a frown again.

“That is so sad. You’ve never had a friend?” I shook my head. “That means I’m your first friend!” She said her smile returning.

Switchblade was back at the table with a couple glasses of water, which he set in front of each of us. “Ready to order madams?” He says and we both nod. She says her order and I point at mine. He writes them down nods and walks back toward the kitchen.

“I’ve had friends, but all of them are either dead, or stoned in an alley. They never last long in the wasteland. Please don’t end up like them.” She said the last quietly, and sadly. I nodded. She smiled again but it was slightly weaker. “Well, what do you plan on doing tomorrow? I don’t imagine you have plans to stay on the main strip for long.” Oh. I wasn’t expecting this one.

‘Leave town get gear’ Wait. Erase. ‘Continue helping ponies’ Wait. Erase. ‘You?’ She smiled hopefully.

“I had hoped to follow you, if that's alright. I’m not helping anypony here, and I figured maybe I could make a difference with you.” Huh? That escalated quickly. I didn’t know if I was comfortable taking her with me into danger. She was offering, but was I strong enough to refuse? She could handle herself, I knew that much, and two was better than one. We could really change things together. I hoped I was doing the right thing.

‘If you are willing’ Wait. Erase. ‘To take the risk’ Wait. Erase. ‘Be my guest’ She immediately smiled brightly.

“Of course! Ahem. I would be happy to accompany you.” She recomposed herself at the end of her statement. I had one very strong rule she had to know.

‘IF’ I wrote with as much firmness as possible. ‘You don’t die’ I wrote. She seemed confused but smiled nonetheless. I hoped she could make that promise.

“I will try my hardest.” She said with a much more serious tone. “Thank you. For allowing me to travel with you. I don’t like being alone.” Me and you both.

Soon our food arrived, and it was nothing extraordinary. It was the canned food of the outside, but on a plate with ‘garnish’. It tasted fine, well fine as it got. I gave Vetta a questioning nod toward her food, hoping she would take the hint. “My food is quite alright, if that is what you are asking.” She answers, and I nod. “It’s nice that we have a bit more understanding between us. It makes it easier to not have to switch back and forth between [*cough paragraphs cough*] board and gestures.”

***

Soon enough we were done dining, and we paid Switchblade the proper amount and left. “So, umm have you given us a thought yet? Please know that i’m not trying to rush you I am just curious.” I had given it thought, but I didn’t want to reveal the answer here. It felt too impersonal. I give a nod. “So?” Vetta asks, a little impatiently.

‘Have to wait’ Wait. Erase. ‘ ’Till we’re ‘home’ ‘. She seems annoyed by this, which is really quite funny, so I smile at her. Then I do something dumb. I booped her nose. Not knowing why I did it, I turned away to hide my blush.

“Hmph, not fair.” She says almost to herself. We walked in silence until we made it to the casino. “Does this count as ‘home’ yet?” I shook my head cockily. “How dare you make a lady wait.” She said playfully. When we finally made it to our rooms, she turned to me. “There, we are here, now please tell me.” She said exasperated. Then I did the stupidest thing I could do in this moment.

I kissed her. It was just a peck on the lips, but enough to give her an answer. At this she blushed madly and fumbled backwards. “Oh my. That was not where I thought this was going.” She was smiling now. “Well I’m glad it worked this way.” She leaned toward me and pulled me into a warm hug. “Thank you. Now we don’t have to be alone.” She whispered softly into my ear. “Now I just can’t wait for tomorrow. I have something to look forward to in the morning. Ooh and I have time to think of a cute nickname for you! You’d better think of one for me.”

And with that we both went off to bed.

***

The night was as it always was, Nightmare filled and traumatizing. I was pretty numb to it by now. Not fifteen minutes after waking up, a knock sounds from the door.

“Morning! The sun is up, so you should be as well.” Vetta yelled into the door. I roll my eyes and walk to the door to unlock it. A split second later she opens it with a smile. ‘How is she already this awake?’ “Wow, you look terrible.” I frown at her and she continues smiling.

‘Nice 2 C U 2’ I write to save space. She didn’t mean it as a true insult so I took it lightly. ‘Gonna shower’ Hopefully so I don’t ‘look terrible’.

“Of course, I did that already. Do you mind If I wait here?” It was a strange question. What did I care what she did? I shook my head anyway and turned to the bathroom. I was actually pretty excited to take another shower, believe it or not, I enjoyed being clean. It wouldn’t last long, but it was still nice.

The shower wasn’t as amazing as the previous time, but it was still wonderful. I finished as soon as I was clean enough, and stepped out to dry off. I didn’t have a towel so I just shook myself off and turned to the mirror. My usually poofy mane was still damp and sagging, so I shook it out a little more and went through it with the comb from yesterday. It still felt weird looking at me clean, and smiling. I didn’t notice it until I looked in the mirror but I was smiling broadly. I soon stepped out of the bathroom and felt the freezing air soak into my coat. I shivered and turned to see Vetta muzzle deep in a book.

“Ah you’re finished. Ready to go then?” She spoke setting the book down. I Give an affirmative nod and grab the 10mm she gifted me earlier. She dons her saddlebags and I, mine. Together we walk out the door and make our way out of the casino. Nothing important was exchanged, just her making small talk and me listening. Eventually we make it out of the town(?) called Freeside. We stand in the wasteland. And damn, it felt good to be back.

“Where to, Squishy? That’s what I am calling you from now on.” I closed my eyes and shook my head at her. ‘I’m never going to live this down’ I point west-ish with a hoof. My PipBuck says Pony Joe’s is that way so that was where we were headed. It was then that I noticed Vetta didn't have a weapon with her.

‘Weapon?’ I inquire. She shakes her head, and her demeanor changes.

“I hoped I wouldn’t need one, so I just left them at home. We will have to head to Tenpony Tower after you get your things, if that is okay with you.” I nod. It’s not like I have anything better to do. “Then it’s settled. I know it is pretty far, but that shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

***

There is a shout in the distance, and my ears immediately perk up to find a direction. It isn’t too far off our current path, so of course I plan on finding out what was happening. Just over an hour in the wasteland and we already have something to do.

I point toward where the shout came from, and Vetta nods. Upon approach, we find a group of five or so raiders, standing in front of a group of three hog-tied caravaneers. The caravaneers were beaten and bleeding from several spots. There was the corpse of another pony laying splayed and stripped of most of his insides. Said insides were being roasted on a spit over a small fire not far away from the caravan. When a raider smacked one of the younger mares she cried out in pain, that was when I decided to move.

The first to drop was the raider by the fire. He was the easiest because he was alone. I dragged his body off into a bush, so he wouldn’t be found. Two raiders were behind the caravan wagon talking. I couldn’t pull this off without raising alarm, so I tossed a rock to my right. The raider on the right perked up his ears and turned to the sound. The left raided followed him, that made this easier now they weren’t looking at each other. I crept slowly behind them and shot the one in front of me. His body fell and I caught it in my hooves and set him down gently. The other raider turned and started talking.

“Hey, Malick, what do you think about that small ma-” He stopped when he saw me instead of his buddy. I reacted too slowly and he got a shot off before he fell. Shit.
“Yo! What's goin’ on over there?” Another raider said, and I could hear hoofsteps approaching. I moved as quickly as I dared to get around the side of the wagon. “Shit! We got bodies. Malick and Lemon Squeeze are dead.” Shouted the raider from a few seconds ago. Both raiders pulled out their guns. The earth pony had a revolver, a small 32. but enough to punch through my armorless hide. While the unicorn had a larger assault carbine held in his magic. Being a unicorn had it’s perks, like being able to use a mag eject and pull a chamber slide, or set a safety. I pressed the safety on the unicorn’s weapon and dropped the mag while pulling back the slide. Now that he was unarmed I put a bullet in his head.

The bullet wound from the third kill stung like a bitch, but I didn’t need my leg all that much anyway.

When I turned to the other side of the wagon the last raider was looking my direction, he saw me and shot a bullet in my general direction. It hit the wagon and sent splinters into my shoulder. He had me pinned but I had magic. I held the hammer on his revolver so I would have time to aim, and peeked out. My first shot missed and I lost control on his weapon, holding two things at once was hard. Two more rounds whizzed by me, only one grazed my cheek. It hurt immensely but I couldn’t lose my focus, this would have gone smoother at night.

I popped out from behind the wagon and hit him in the chest with a bullet. He stumbled which gave me enough time to put another in his head. Just like that I took out five raiders with only a scratch and a hole in my leg. Not my worst rescue mission. I unbound each pony and they thanked me, not knowing who I was without my mask or recon suit on. After watching them head off, I looted the bodies of their ammo. I wouldn’t take their armor because it was blood soaked.

Vetta showed up, which surprised me, I had forgotten she was with me. I was so used to doing this without others it was engraved in my brain. “Wow. I mean, you got shot, but still. You took out five raiders with nothing but a breaking 10 millimeter pistol, and saved three helpless ponies.” I didn’t think anything of it. This actually went worse than most rescues, but I let her have her moment.

“Now, let's see what we can do about those wounds.”

____________________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! (2)

Special Somepony: Congrats, you have a Companion now! You gain +15 to DT when travelling with companions (does not stack) And -100 loneliness

Boredom

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Having a hole in your leg fucking sucked. Vetta had given me a small bandage to cover the wound, but in 10 minutes it was soaked through. Right about then, was when I realized how unprepared we were. We had no healing supplies left other than half of a healing potion that we decided was for an emergency only, one pistol with 24 bullets left, and we were unarmored. We weren’t going to get anywhere if we didn’t get proper gear.

We were walking on the side of the road toward a light we hoped was a trading post. There was a part of the road where ‘Fuck NCR’ was written is some ponies blood and intestines. I guessed the victim was the shredded pony pinned to the ground by rail spikes.

The NCR were the ones trying to make a difference in the wastes. They had camps set up all over, anywhere you went you could most likely find a base nearby. They had a goal to try and establish government to ponies. They would enforce things they thought should be enforced. They didn’t really have the best approach all of the time however. Often if you didn’t comply, you would be shot. They had prisons, but detaining an armed pony isn’t always easy, and every pony is packing heat. Pretty much none of the other factions liked the NCR.

You had the Steel Rangers, who were disgusting. They wanted all of the wasteland’s pre-war technology, and they wanted to have it but not use it. Fucking monsters wear pre-war suits of heavy power armor, that in itself makes enough noise to alarm someone from miles away. They have enough firepower to punch a hole through equestria, if they put their mind to it, giant fucking anti-materiel rifles, rocket launchers, miniguns, name a heavy weapon and they’ve got it, they have rail guns for luna’s sake! I’ve seen the way they treat their gear, they shouldn't even be trusted with a service pistol, let alone all of pre-war technology.

The Caesar’s legion are the NCR’s main rival. I don’t know much about them, but I know they are bad news to come by.

Then you have the Khans, weird bunch of bastards if you ask me. They live in the mountains, that’s really all I know. They don’t seem to like anyone all too much though. They seem more reliant on melee weapons, which I admire. If you can take out a pony wearing armor with a switchblade, or a bat, I would want you on my side of the fight.

Then there’s The Raiders. I don’t really know where they stand on the scale of factions. I do know, they are ravenous. They don’t care who you are, they just want to see your insides become your outsides. Weapons for them don’t seem to be an issue, they always seem to have a gun or some sadistic homemade melee weapon on them. if they don’t they will come at you with bare hooves and teeth, just running straight into your bullets. You never want to find yourself near a group of ten or more raiders, the suicidal savages have poor technique, but if you have to keep shooting at them you have to reload, if you reload you give them the opportunity to swarm you. Then it’s over.

Basically, the NCR is vilified by all the factions that have any ties with Dise, mainly because they have a huge farm, right near the walls. They use it to feed their troops, and when troops are promised food they get waves of ponies lost and down on their luck to join their army. I don’t really care too much for them, I’m not going to go shooting them for no reason but I don’t care that they are usually in the way of anything fun. There are too many innocent ponies corrupt by the toll of the wastes.

My whole life I have just stolen what I needed. For a lot of ponies that is difficult. They don’t have the caps to pay for food, safety, or medicine, so they turn to groups like the NCR. They end up sacrificing their lives so they could live, the irony is so thick you could cut it. It could be worse, they could be being raider food by now, but could that be mercy? What is the worth of a life of fighting on someone else's behalf? To be a slave, just so you could live. Then of course there's the actual slaves.

Most of them come from Fillydelphia, but they are here too. Every time I see a slave, I can’t but cry for them, after murdering their slavers of course. They were ripped from what life they had to be forced to live a malnourished life of working to survive. They get whipped even when they are starved to the bone, worn of all their energy, just because they didn’t work hard enough. If they would get caught doing something considered breaking the rules, they got starved even more, and beaten more. Then there’s the born slaves, born into a life not knowing freedom, only knowing that they are supposed to work for their master, not knowing a life other than a daily grind of hard labor and bare minimums of food.

I always feel bad when I can’t take more care of ponies. I save them, but do I really? I protect them from their imminent danger, but what about in the future? They probably die of starvation, raiders, or whatever shit-storm the wasteland wants to throw at them. I am not making a difference at all, I have been prolonging their suffering. I push those I help to live on, to suffer through whatever, just to live a little longer. Am I doing the right thing?

“Are you okay darling? You look forlorn.” Vetta said breaking my line of thought. I nod, but was anyone okay? Okay was a prayer you would tell yourself, over and over, until you truly believed it. But that didn’t make it true.

“I think you are lying. There are tears in your eyes you know?” I didn’t. I wiped them away as swiftly as I could, in hopes it would make her forget they were there. “I wish you would talk to me, tell me you’re okay.” I did a half shrug, hoping it wasn’t too rude.

‘Better than I was’ Erase. ‘Now I have you’ Erase. ‘To keep me’ Erase ‘Smiling’ The wasteland wasn’t easy on anyone. Even the griffons had some code they stuck to for life, I thought it was too similar to slavery but apparently it's some sort of honor thing. The pegasi however, don't have the toll of the wasteland to be burdened with.

The pegasi live in the clouds above the broken world below. They don’t have to worry about raiders, or starving, or knowing that you are probably going to have a new scar every day. They even have the Grand Pegasus Enclave. It's apparently some kind of military. Since they are the only ones up there, I don’t know why they need near impenetrable armor and high-powered rifles. No pony likes the pegasi, the fucking chickens wouldn’t last a day on the ground. There is the rare ground born pegasus too, they are born into a life they didn’t ask for, constantly attacked just due to the wings on their sides. I don’t know why they don’t fly up and live in the clouds with their kind, but I still feel for them.

“Aww. That’s nice, but I can still see the pain in your eyes. The years of hurt, your eyes tell thousands of word about you, the pain and suffering, loss. You have scars that go far deeper than just physical. At least think it over for me?” Vetta lectured. I nodded to her question, I wasn’t going to think it over though, I had no reason to talk to her. I was fine.

I was not fine.

***

We had been walking for about four hours, when I saw the Pony Joe’s in the distance. This PipBuck sure was helpful, without it I doubt I would have known where my drunken escapades a couple nights ago had brought me. I was nearly hopping in anticipation of being reunited with my wonderful equipment.

When we got closer to the café there were several pony shaped figures, about ten or so, lurking around it. They were clearly ghouls, because in the five minutes we watched them they weren’t doing much but shuffling around. Ghouls were hard to handle because they would notice if one of their group was hurt, I had no clue how they knew but it frenzied all of the ones in proximity to it. Our best chance was to hope there were no more inside and take them out from farther away.

I wasn’t the greatest shot from a distance, so I handed Vetta the pistol. “At least it’s only ghouls. This is like a mercy to them right?” She asked almost pleadingly. I give her a knowing nod, it was hard to kill helpless beasts.

I watched Vetta as she held the weapon in her mouth and aimed with deft movements I couldn’t hope to match. She pulled the trigger with her tongue, and the bullet flew right into the head of one of the closer ghouls. Unsurprisingly the ghouls turned to their fallen comrade, and looked around to find a culprit to eat.

Ghouls were tricky in the sense that, if you didn’t handle them with a headshot or mutilation, they would come back more angry. The ghouls started running toward us, they were a good 50 feet away, but I needed to keep them off Vetta so she could focus. I did the most sensible thing and ran to the left to lure their attention away. It worked well for a little bit, then I remembered my leg wound.

Once I thought about it, every step hurt. I couldn’t just stop, but I couldn’t keep going very well either. A couple more ghouls collapsed to the ground, from Vetta’s impressive accuracy. I suppose, it wouldn’t be all that difficult to hit ghouls moving at a shambling speed at about 100 feet off, but it was still impressive for a breaking pistol. By now there were about four or five left, and they were dropping fast. I wasn’t paying attention to my steps, and I tripped over a metal peice of rebar.

Of course I tripped, why wouldn’t I pay attention to the task at hoof? The ghoul that was in front fumbled closer to me within hoof reach. It started to lean toward me. It’s breath was a mix of rotting corpse, and fresh corpse smelling not really something I was proud of knowing. It’s jaw opened to show off it’s impressively healthy teeth. They were still piss yellow, but for a ghoul that was pretty impressive. ‘I’m about to be eaten and I’m commenting on a ghouls hygiene’ I thought to my idiot self.

It’s head exploded in my face, and it fell slack on me. I was disgusted. Now I was covered in ghoul ‘blood’ and being drooled on. I shoved him off as well as I could and got to my hooves to turn and run. Except there was nothing to run from. Unless you count the rancid smell of rotting corpses that should have rotted a long time ago. There was a line of bodies leading to where I was from the café. I wiped off as much of the slobber and blood as I could, which wasn’t much because my legs were coated as well. ‘I just took a shower this morning dammit, why can’t I stay clean?’ My leg was in even more pain after I fell, it doesn’t help that ghoul spit and blood probably were soaking through the thin wrap I called a bandage.

I walked back to Vetta who was sitting and just staring at the trail of corpses. “I did this, huh?” She said somberly. “Such devastation, they never even stood a chance.” I thought I saw a tear run down her face but didn’t want to point it out. “Oh, look at you. You got all covered in, well, the usual. Could we rest in the café, we haven’t stopped walking in hours?” I nod, still looking at her with sad eyes. I was going to help her through this, it was my fault she was in this situation.

We just leave the bodies to rot outside, and trot into the Pony Joe’s. It was just as I left it. I kicked the wall a few times to see if any ghouls were inside. Since I didn’t hear any snarls I guessed it was vacant. I moved over to the loose tile in the floor almost at a canter.

I moved the tile away and saw my possessions, just where I left them nothing but a few grains of cobblestone to tell they had been stored. On top was my sleek black recon suit. I slide it on and it fits like a missing puzzle piece. The sleeve go all the way to my hooves, and the neck all the way to the base of my skull. It was so snug I felt like a bug in a rug. My saddlebags were next, they were a dark black as well, crudely painted by yours truly. The strap over my back was thick leather, so It wouldn’t snap, and the dye I used wouldn’t stick to the dark brown strip. Next was my most prized possession.

‘The Cure’ My 9mm, all black suppressed pistol, sat in the hole, almost looking like it missed me. I held it delicately in my hooves and just envied it’s look of beauty for a few moments before sliding it in the sewn in holster on my left foreleg. It fit so perfectly, like it was meant to be. I still had the wound so I had to be careful when I drew my beauty. The last thing in the hole was the mask I usually wore when I was out and about.

It was a leather cap that had studs embedded in the front in a tiara shape. It had 10 plumes sticking out from the top in an arch, the one in front was larger than the others. I wore a red bandana under my eyes as well. No need for ponies to remember my face. I had found it near a burned down village, I assumed it was tribal but I liked the shiny gems on the front so I took it. I noticed Vetta was watching me go through my things, like a foal who got their first gun.

“You just don’t stop finding ways to make you more confusing. I hoped to at least know something about you after 2 days, and here you are giving me more mysteries to solve.” Vetta said. I just shrug, it was probably better that way. It would take me a day to explain all of my problems back to back starting at dawn. “If I tell you something will you tell me something? I don’t see our relationship going anywhere, if we don’t know each other.” I give it a couple of moments of thought, and nod. I would just give her something basic.

She seemed to perk up at my response. “I don’t think I will ever fully get you, you are so solid and all of a sudden you agree to tell me something?” Again I just shrug, I do that a lot. “Again with the shrugging. You do that too often.” See? “Well. Once when we were traveling back to Tenpony from a trip to Dise, we were attacked by ghouls. They bit my brother and I was traumatized. Can you imagine watching a loved one just writhe in pain?” Thankfully not, that would suck. “Your turn now.” She said almost happily.

‘Killed someone’ ‘Didn’t mean to’ ‘Got in bullet path’ ‘Bullet to the head’ ‘Was a foal’ ‘Traumatizing’ I finished. That was one of the things I could say. It was simple not too exposing of the monster I am.

Vetta stared in shock at me. I had an indifferent look on my face, I had come to terms with this for the most part. I had a lot of time to cry when I was alone. “That must be terrible. I'm so sorry.” She said breaking out in tears. Again with the hugging, It didn’t feel so foreign with her though. As she finished crying and muttering sorries into my suit, I sat and hugged her back. She pulled out of the hug and looked at me. “We should probably get going, If we want to make ground before sunset.” She said and I nodded stoically.

Now that I was kitted out, minus the mask I only wore that for helping ponies, we walked down the road. I was happy as could be, I had my stuff and I really wanted to shoot some bad guys. I promised myself only to kill the bad guys, aside from the foal accident, I kept to my promise pretty well. Vetta however, didn’t look so good. She looked a shade lighter than her usual deep purple. I poked her with a hoof, and gave a concerned look.

“I’m fine, so-. I just feel so bad for that poor foal.” She was still whining about that? I guess, it took me two years and a lot of killing to get over that one. I gave her a reassuring smile. She perked up a little. “Thanks.” She said simply, and we continued walking.

***

“FUCKING SNIPER! GET THE FUCK DOWN!” Yelled the stallion named Shaved Steel. There was a feud going on between two small gangs of this part of what was a town. The Bandoliers and The Dusters. The Bandoliers were ballistic weapon lovers, with hunting rifles and assault carbines as their front line, they were a pretty fine group of ponies that never caused much trouble. They scratched my back, I would scratch theirs. We were even at the time, but I loved having ponies indebted to me, so I was going to help them.

The Dusters were tech freaks. They built their own laser weapons from scrap parts of others. Which made them unstable, but deadly. They were dicks. They often would rob caravans and poke their heads where they don’t belong. I would sometimes find them shooting merchants and looting their brahmin, so I had them high up on the bad guy scale.

The Bandoliers gave me and Vetta ammo so we could help fight off the bastard Dusters who fired on the Bandoliers for no good reason. The sniper had us pinned to a concrete barricade, on the side of the road. The Dusters were held up in the building across from our current held position. A bolt hit the rock near my head and melted the section of the barrier it hit.

By this point I had my mask on, mainly as a show of status but also because it felt right. It was closer to night by now, so I had the right light to get behind them and help get rid of the heavy firepower. But I couldn’t do anything from being behind a wall. I carefully slid as far down I could to the end of the barricade, so I could get to a spot they wouldn’t see me right away If I moved.

I focused on pulling the darkness around my brightly colored mask, and practically disappeared from sight into the cold pull of the shadows. In the middle of a fight, you wouldn’t be paying attention to the tiny details, you would want to shoot what was in front of you. Which makes this all that much easier.

I glide out from cover and away from the muzzle flashes, they could possibly give away my figure. It always felt a little strange to look at your enemy with a clear line of sight with them, and them not being able to see you. I slid closer to the building they were in.

It was a run down (even for the apocalypse) looking apartment building, that was about three stories high. The color it once portrayed, was lost to time and heavy rad-storms. Sniper flashes could be seen from two different spots on the third floor, the green bolts sounded quiet for the amount of damage they did. They would be my first target, it would make it easier to get extra firepower on our side of the fight. So I headed for the front doors.

I had no clue how many gangers were inside, and I knew there were gangers inside. They used the visible protection to resupply whatever ammo those energy rifles fired, it could also be used as a strategy center but I don’t think they understand the word strategy. They hit hard and fast, but their techniques are too different. With the right plan in mind, these guys could probably take over Dise. They practically moved in swarms in the building. It still wasn’t hard to sneak by them because they didn’t expecta an infiltrator with all that firepower in the front line.

I traversed the noisy halls until I found a staircase. The steps up were pretty uneventful, other than the occasional shout of someone getting hit. The stairs ended at the third floor, and there was a ladder to the roof. Through the thick white plastic door the hallways were the same as the first floor, in a different layout. I had my spell off, because this level sounded quiet, other than the occasional ‘kzzt’ of an energy rifle. I moved over to where I had thought the sniper was, and pushed open the door.

The room was empty, except for a bed with two skeletons in it. They were huddled together, probably out of fear due to balefire alarms going off. Their life was ending, but at least they got to spend their final moment in each other's grasp. I mourned them for a second, before going to the room next door. I knew the marksman was in here, because I heard him through the wall. I pulled out The Cure and carefully nudged the door open with a hoof. I strode over behind him and held the barrel inches from the back of his head.

Right as his shot went off, I fired mine. I needed a time frame to get to the other rifleman, if they noticed he stopped shooting for too long they might check on him. I took his weapon and ammo and shoved them in my bags, I figured Vetta would want a longer range weapon.
 

His weapon was strange, I wasn’t used to energy stuff so I had no idea how it worked internally. All I could decipher was the scope for aiming, the barrel where the energy came out, and the stock. I had no clue how the jumble of electronics, I assumed was the receiver of sorts, worked. Vetta said she would know, but I didn’t know how, there were so many delicate wires.

I made my way to the other sniper and sneaked in through the door. This one was different, she was a rather large mare with a red and pink mane. She had a blue coat, but that was mostly covered in dirt or barding. The thing that made me think twice was, she was young. I didn’t know if I could kill her. She was probably only about 14, but you wouldn’t have known it from her precision shooting. She was getting her rounds closer to our guys, but I couldn’t kill her, she was probably just trying to survive. Right? So I did the next best thing. I maimed her.

I used my spell to hide me, so if she turned to hit me, she would be at a loss for an enemy. Cure’s bullet tore through her right shoulder, the one she was holding the rifle against, and she cried out in pain. “Aaah! Fuck! I’m hit. Fuck!” She yelled. I wrote on my board and slid it toward her from the shadows.

‘Don’t die for this’ She looked petrified when she finished reading it. She looked around terrified, she knew something was there watching from the dark but she couldn’t pick it out.

“Alright, I’m gone. You’ll never have to see me again. If you catch me doing some shit like this, don’t think twice before putting a bullet in my head.” She shouted in the wrong direction and left through the door. She left her rifle against the window, I picked it up and aimed at one of the Dusters. I hoped I could fire this thing properly and pulled the trigger. There was close to no kick and the energy bolt melted his head. Damn, this was nice.

Shaved Steel shouted orders. “We’ve got their snipers down, focus on the main front!” I wanted to get rid of some of the backup inside, so I headed back down the stairs.

They didn’t seem to have changed much knowing their main force keeping the Bandoliers pinned was flushed out. They were just passing out what looked like battery packs, to anyone who wanted one. In the building, there were probably nine or so Drifters. I stayed under my spell, and shot from the dark. The noise outside, covered up any noise I made so they were confused. There were stammers of ‘what the fuck’ all around until I shot another from a different spot.

That was when they realized something was wrong and took to their weapons. I kept moving and shooting until there was only two left. One of them dropped his weapon and ran out the back door. I was grateful I didn’t have to add another young pony to my body count. The other however stuck to his guns and shouted at the dark, It was pretty funny to me.

“I’m not scared of you. I’ll take all of you on if I have to!” He shouted from the wall he was pushing himself against. I was in the mood to fuck with him.

‘Just me here’ I dangled my board from above him, in front of his face. His fear, made me grin. ‘Not so tough are you’ I thought to myself. After studying his weapon from over his shoulder, I found the battery eject. He was a unicorn, but he was scared, he wouldn’t be thinking straight.

I popped the power supply out and pulled the trigger to empty what was left of the reserves. He was trembling in fear now. “W-What-e-ever, I’ll j-just take you on with my h-h-hooves.” I decided I would humor him and stepped out of the shadows. “OH SHIT! Fuck me, it’s you! Fuck this, I’m outta here!” He shouted throwing his weapon at the floor. I barely stifled a giggle, before picking up his weapon and storing it. I would let him live for now, he wasn’t doing anything wrong that I knew of, so he got to live. Courageous, I’ll give him that.

I remembered that there was a fight happening outside, and went to the front door. I peeked out to see corpses. Body after body heaped up in the street. There were a couple Bandoliers pouring fuel over the heap, I wouldn’t want to be around when the started the fire. I turned to see Steel and Vetta walking towards me.
  “Is the building clear?” Steel asks me, I nod “How many?” I pull out my board. It was getting awfully worn, and I was running out of chalk.

‘14’ I wrote. I miscalculated the number that were on the bottom floor, 12 not 9.

“Fourteen?! I knew you were good, but damn, fourteen Dusters by yourself? Glad you’re on our side.” They should be. They were way out in the open, a couple of distractions and it would take all of five minutes to take all 20 or so of them. “Thanks by the way, now their HQ is down, we should be able to wipe the Dusters off of this part of the world. We owe you one” I had a small recorder on my PipBuck record the last part. Wait. HQ? I thought The Duster shot first. I shot him a skeptical look. What happened, happened and I couldn't change my actions so I let it slide.

“We’ll be on our way then.” Vetta said. “If you’re ready, Squishy?” She said with a malice filled grin. I face-hoofed to cover my shame.

“Squishy? That’s comedy gold.” Steel said between laughs. I blushed and tried to give Vetta a cold look. She just smiled at me. I nod as annoyed as one can nod, and we return to the road. It was getting late though.

“We should probably find a place to sleep, it’s getting late.” I nod. We find a building that is collapsed, but has enough cover for the night and set up camp. “Goodnight, dear.” Vetta says curled up not far away from me. I nod to her and she lays her head down on her hooves.

We drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~

“Eclipse, come downstairs.” Mom shouted to me up in my room. I hop down the steps two at a time with practiced ease, to meet my mother at the bottom. She had her neon red mane on one side in a ponytail. She was fairly dirty, but so was I, so her usually orange coat was nearly brown. She looked at me firmly with her silver eyes and smiled sadly.

“Now, I’ve got to go on a supply run. Promise me you won’t get into any trouble.” I nod. “Promise me.” Ugh, I hated when she did that.

“I Promise” I mutter softly, I always hated talking, nopony wanted to listen to my weird voice anyway.
“Good. If bad ponies come by, you know where momma’s pistol is right?” Again I nod. She sighs softly. “You take so much after your father.” She nearly whispers. I smile and give her a hug, she hugs back, but eventually I pull away. “Well I’m off then, momma loves you.” I kiss her cheek, and she accepts it and walks out of the door of our shack.

We had a small home, it was two stories but only had one room on either floor. Mom slept on the bottom floor, and I got the top. We were happy this way. Mom scraped by doing her job at the weapons market. She liked the big and loud ones, especially GL40’s, those were her favorite. She often had to go on supply runs, once every week or so. But we scraped by. She would teach me at home, because the fillies in the school house teased me.

Life was good.

~~~~~

I was woken to snoring. I was confused at first, until I saw Vetta, mouth slightly agape. It was weird to not have a nightmare, especially after a night of me slaughtering 11 ponies in a building, that didn’t stand a chance in the dark.

I nudged Vetta with a hoof to wake her up. “Eh, couple more minutes.” She mumbled, a little too quickly to have been asleep. I didn’t care, she was doing whatever, thinking was my best guess. I got up and stretched my body out to get blood flowing properly. I even walked around the building a couple times, before coming to rest in front of Vetta.

“Mmmf” Sleeping beauty was finally awake. I poked her again. “That isn’t a good way to wake someone up you know” She said still waking up. While she got out of bed I poked at my wounds. Which doesn’t make them heal faster, I’ve found. They were sore, but otherwise they were healing well.

Vetta stood up and slung the laser rifle over her back. “Let’s go then” I nod. We head out through the wall, and into the humid morning-ish. “How’d you sleep? I had a wonderful dream of weaponry, such beautiful weaponry.” I give a shrug, and she pouts. “Must you be so vague?” I pretend to think about it and nod with a cocky smile. “Oh, you were grumbling in your sleep by the way. It was weird hearing you make noise, it was so soft I barely heard it.” I nearly jumped out of my hide. That was bad, I couldn’t go ruining my reputation, yet at least.

“I won’t tell anypony but I thought you should know.” I gave her an appreciative nod and kept walking. I had to think for a bit.

I couldn’t keep doing the whole ‘Miss Fortune’ thing. It was great to help ponies, but I didn’t have the caps to keep up with survival, and the constant use of ammo wasn’t helpful. I planned to stop stealing so much, I felt that it was against me trying to help ponies. So eventually I would kick it, maybe make a cooler alias. Maybe even just use my name, I would destroy that bridge when it came to it.

If I stopped to think about my mistakes I would just sit and cry for days, since I couldn’t do that I decided to plan out my life. Maybe one of these days I would talk more. Not a lot, I would only really answer questions directed at me, but it would be a start. My train of thought hit a break in the tracks when Vetta spoke up.

“You like me, right? Romantically.” She specified. Did I? She had been the one to pull me out of the pit of loneliness, the one to be my friend. But Romantically? I wasn’t 100% sure, but I knew that I hoped to eventually like her. She was pretty, kind, and hurt. We were similar, aside from me being a mute, for now. I wrote the only answer I could think of.

‘You’re growing on me’ She smiled at the text. With a nod she turned back to the road, doing her own thinking I guessed. She was growing on me, I enjoyed seeing her smile, she always was smiling. Her mask had been cracked though, she smiled so much it started being a weaker, sad smile. The way she constantly fixed her hair made me internally giggle. She used her wits to get through a situation I would just cheat my way through. She was cute too, so that was a thing. I was smaller than her, but I was smaller than most everypony. I’ve seen foals bigger than me, which is just sad.

I don’t mind being petite, it helps in quite a few situations. Of course, I can fit in small spaces, but that is really not that helpful. I’ve never needed to squeeze through something to save my life. What was helpful, is that enemies tend to underestimate me. It’s pretty terrifying seeing a pony twice your size grinning at you, but it lets me be a little unexpected.

We had been walking for about half an hour when a few bugs showed up. They were good target practice at best. We walked for another 3 hours, until a real fight showed. A couple bandits showed up. Bandits were different than Raiders. Bandits were well armed savages, but they were meticulous. Some were con artists, and some just used weapons to solve their issues, all the same their strategies worked pretty well on the average trader.

“Excuse me ladies, but we’re lost. Could you help us get to the Rusty Spitoon?” Said the unicorn. So they were con artists. In all of Dise there wasn’t an area called Rusty Spitoon.

“I’m sorry I don’t know where that is.” Vetta said knowingly. She knew they were no good.

“Well, thank you for your trouble. Since you tried to help a lost feller, how about I sell you this brush gun for 360 caps. It may seem like a lot, but I assure you, you don’t find many in this good condition.” He was lying through his teeth. A brush gun in that condition would be worth about 110. His partner had his weapon drawn. It was a well built cowpony repeater in good condition, it would punch straight through me or even a half inch plate of steel at this range.

“I think we’ll pass, we have decent enough weapons” My lovely companion spoke. She drew her weapon and I pulled mine to show itself from the holster.

“Well of course, we don’t want any trouble. We’ll be on our way.” They would wait until we stopped watching them and shoot us. I’d seen enough of these guys to know that much. I couldn’t do much in this situation, they already had their weapons drawn, If they saw us making a move they would end it right there. I decided to turn around and start walking, but look over my shoulder as I went. They turned as well but they didn’t holster their weapons.

The brush gun pony turned and fired a round right next to my injured leg. We both turned quickly to exchange bullets. Neither group had anything to hide behind, but they had makeshift armor that would slow the impact of our bullets. I heard Vetta yelp as a bullet hit her in the chest. It had to have been from the brush gun because she wasn’t missing 4 inches of flesh. I was pissed. I aimed at the pony with the repeater, If we got hit by that it would be the end of this fight.

My bullet flew true and struck him in the leg, making him collapse from his shattered knee. I tried to hit the unicorn, but he kept moving, I needed Vetta. By now she was in a heap, same as the earth pony on the other side. It was unicorn on unicorn, magic vs magic, I could win this. I hoped.

I holstered my pistol, so I wouldn’t have to focus on two things, and tried my shadow walking spell. It was probably one of the brighter points of the day, so it wouldn’t work great but his shots were still going wide. I shifted to the side, and got as close as I could to him. He was shooting way farther left than I was so I tried to move as quick as possible and draw my pistol. My spell turned off, and Cure made a *pfft* of weapon parts sliding. The Bandit fell, but I realized I was close to the other one as well as a crack of a rifle sounded.

He had recovered enough to shoot me, but collapsed again right after. My fucking wounded leg had an even larger hole in it. It was just healing too! I fell to my side, and just bled for a minute. Then Vetta showed up in my blurry vision.

“You look like hell.” She joked, why was she making fun of me? I was kinda bleeding out here. “I used up that healing potion, sorry. I’ll check the Bandits for anything medicinal.” She walked over to the one with a shattered knee. I saw her laser rifle flash and her spit on him, I didn’t think she had it in her, before searching him. She took a couple of things, but I couldn’t see with my vision fading at the edges, stupid blood loss.

After she searched the other she was back over at my side. “They had two healing potions, but no bandages. I’ll give you one of the potions, but try to keep your leg away from dirt and other ponies blood.” She poured the magical fluid into my mouth, and I swallowed it’s refreshing goodness. I could feel my wounds closing up some, but none of them entirely.

Something I was really mad about, was my suit being ripped open now. It was stretchy, so the opening seemed rather small, but I knew once I took it off it would be horrendous. I nearly shed a tear seeing my poor pistol lying scratched up in the dirt. Why did my gear have to be so beat up? I tried my hardest to keep it in good condition. Just earlier I had killed 11, better fitted ponies and I get my gear dinged up from 2 Bandits? I was going to need to be more careful.

“Well, that's my fit of fun for the day. Can you walk?” I nod at her question, although I wasn’t sure that I could. “Well, let’s go then.” I nod again and let her lean against my side for support. “That was an awful lot of blood, are you sure you’re okay?” I give a less confident nod than before and she picks up on it. “If you need to rest, make sure you let me know.” I nod more assertively than before and we start to walk again.

I wouldn’t be able to truly fight for a while. I had a hole in my leg, and about 2 pints less blood than I did. That probably wasn’t good in the long run. We were still about a day’s trot to Tenpony Tower, I supposed I would just power through it. We still had about, 6 or 7 hours of walking for today, If we walked all day without stopping tomorrow, we would probably get there before my condition got too bad. Hopefully.

***

We walked for about four hours, before I couldn’t stand walking anymore. (No pun intended) Vetta carried me for about an hour, which was weird, before we decided to make camp for a little bit.

We were sitting behind a broken wall that was once part of a building, but there were only two partial walls to be found. There were slight gusts of wind against the wall from the other side, kicking up small rocks and dust. Some dust blew up in my nose and I felt a sneeze coming, oh this wasn’t happening right now. Oh it was, and it did.

I let out a sneeze, and covered my muzzle with both forelegs. Vetta had a huge smile plastered on her face. “That was the strangest sneeze I have heard in, well, ever. Oh it was so adorable, do it again!” I would never do that again. I fumbled over my board before she pushed it with a hoof. “I won’t tell anypony, but just so you know, that was a hilarious sneeze.” I wouldn’t have guessed by the way she was smiling and giggling through her words.

We sat there for a while, about half an hour, just holding each other. Her more than me, due to my bloody leg. ‘We should’ ‘Probably get moving’ I held in front of her face. She seemed to resent the idea.

“But i’m so comfortable. You are actually pretty squishy, you know?” I blushed, but didn’t know why. Perhaps I was just uncomfortable being called Squishy. “If we must,” She continued “then I suppose we should walk for about two hours before taking shelter for the night.” I nodded from in her hold and pushed out of it. I felt cold without her by me. “Promise me, there shall be more cuddling in the future.” I nodded. “Promise.” She repeated more firmly.

‘I Promise’ I wrote on my board, I shed a tear at how she made me promise but brushed it away quickly. She seemed content until she saw me wipe my face.

“Are you okay?” She asked suddenly looking concerned. I could only think to write the true answer.

‘I don’t know’ I scribbled with the last of my chalk. She looked sad, but saw that I was out of chalk as well. I really needed to get more, but usually it was easiest to find in schools. Schools were the saddest, darkest places in the wastes. So many bones of foals, strewn about haphazardly. So much youth in one place, so much wasted time.

“If you need to talk, I’m here for you.” she said pushing closer to my side. I nodded in appreciation, It was good to have friends. Or at least to have Vetta, she would be there for me, always. ‘That's what you thought about mom’ Shut the fuck up brain! I swore at myself, what an idiot.

***

We walked for another 2 and a half hours. It was about 20:00 when I checked last. I realized, while looking at my PipBuck, I didn’t have a tag for Tenpony. I was just blindly following Vetta. I shrugged it off, I trusted she knew where to go.

“Is this good enough?” It was a small metal shack on the side of the road, It had a roof and only one skeleton in it. It was perfect. I nod and levitate the skeleton out the door and lean it against the side of the shack. I walk back through the door and flop down on the bed like a filly, with my face stuffed into the mattress. Probably not the most hygienic course of action.

“Scootch, there is only one bed and you don't get all of it.” She said as she nudged me out of the way. I oblige, and move for her to get in as well. Not that I was taking up much space anyway. “Much better.” She said as she tucked herself around my petite body, holding me in her forelegs. “G’night Squishy.” She kissed the back of my head, and crooked her head into my neck. This needed to happen every night, it was peaceful. An oddity in the wasteland.

~~~~~

As I sat in my bed, reading a book, I waited for mom to get home. The pages were fuzzy, but I still felt like there were words. Downstairs I heard the door creak open and hoofsteps in the house. It was way too early for mom to be back, her errands would take an hour at least. I peeked down the steps and saw the shadows of two ponies.

I stepped as softly as I could to get a better view of the culprits. One was a blue coated unicorn stallion with a yellow mane. His cutie mark was a long curved blade, a sword of sorts. The other was a pink coated unicorn mare with a dark red mane. She had a large bullet with a flat tip on her flank. They seemed to be looking for something.

“OI’ll go and check upstairs, yew keep lookin’ round down here.” She said in a smooth fancy accent. She started walking toward the steps when she saw me. “Oi! There’s a foal up here!” She shouted, I simply stood in shock. I didn’t know these ponies, what were they doing in my home? I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what.

“Wha’s yer name, hon?” The mare said calmly “This your house?” I nod, but it’s more similar to a tremble. “Yer name?” I pull out my board that mom had gotten me from one of her runs.

‘Fortune’ Was scribbled in childish writing. It was a lie, but they weren’t supposed to be in my home, so I figured it was okay.

“She must be Shade’s filly. Why else would she live with his ex-wife?” The Stallion said, his voice was raspy and deep. I didn’t understand who they were talking about, and I wasn't about to ask questions. I was scared, they both had weapons on their sides, small pistols but enough to hurt or kill me. Weapons! I could get the pistol under the mattress, that was in mom’s room. Right, so that option was cut.

“Wares yer mum, kid?” The mare asked gently, she was nice. It would be better if she hadn’t broken into my house. I didn’t know where mom was she could’ve been anywhere, really. I knew she was doing errands, and that was it.

‘Errands’ I tried to make it as legible as possible. They looked at it and groaned. I didn’t know why, they seemed patient enough.

“Thank’s kid” The Stallion said with a sigh. He ruffled up my mane and left. The mare followed after him and I was just left, scared and confused. What did they want with mom? Why did they have guns? So many questions without answers.

I went back to my room and continued to read.

~~~~~

I was being strangled when I woke up. Vetta was squeezing my barrel so hard, I think she cut off circulation. I tried to pull her legs off, but she had a good grip. Eventually I gave up and poked her in the face, that usually seemed to work pretty well.

“Mph, ow.” She groaned awake. “You should stop doing that.” I pointed at her legs that were currently clamped on my belly. “Oh, i’m so sorry. I had a terrible dream, I didn’t realize it affected my physical state as well.” She said somberly.

‘You okay?’ I wrote in the dim light from the rusted holes in the shack. She still had a sad expression on her face, but brightened slightly at the question.

“I don’t know,” Was she mocking me? “I will be though.” Maybe not. I gave her a peck on the cheek and slid out of bed to stretch. She just sat up watching me, which was really weird. She shook her head and stretched her forelegs. I hoped she was okay, I couldn’t have her emotionally collapse on me, I had no clue what to do if she did.

We made good ground the day before, and we would have to walk maybe 10 hours today to get to our destination, or so I was told. I had never actually been to Tenpony, so I didn't have a clue what to expect. Probably just a bunch of posh ponies, who lived in luxury all their life. We all had our pains though, so I shouldn't judge too much.

I nod toward the door in a questioning manner. “Of course. I’m coming. Never have been one for mornings.” I wasn’t usually either, but the mind bending pain in my leg made me want to get to a doctor as soon as possible. Wait. Did Tenpony even have a doctor?

‘Tenpony, Doctor?’ I hoped that she understood the question. It wasn’t the best way to phrase it, but it was the easiest.

“Oh. Yes, there are a couple doctors, but they aren't exactly cheap.” She said, the last part in a thinking tone, “I’m sure you could sell some of the junk you carry for enough to pay for a visit. Probably.” She finished. I had enough stuff for about 400 caps, according to my PipBuck at least. I would never quite know how that worked, it just knew the value of things 200 years after it was made? And in caps nonetheless, how did it know the currency? It was truly a strange device.

There were gunshots in the distance, but when wasn’t there? Although these sounded like they were from much larger than average weapons. They roared as the sound bounced off of rocks and rang far out in the distance. Whoever it was, was serious which meant they had to be important. As we got closer I could hear the one sound that I absolutely despised.

The clank and grind of power armor.

Of course It was the fucking Steel cunts, why wouldn’t they show up to ruin my day? Well morning I guess, semantics aside, I was curious what these metal fucks were doing here. From where we were now standing we could see them. They had about 5 or so troops, but that was more than enough to rip a town to shreds. Each one had different weapons.
The one in front had a large rocket launcher on one side and a light machine gun on the other. Behind them, It was impossible to tell gender through the armor, was a ranger with a grenade launcher and a VERY heavy rifle. It looked like it could punch through a mountain. In line next was a ranger with a minigun on either side, if you needed to literally rip something to shreds, that was one way to do it. Next was a huge set of armor, obviously the brawn here, who had two huge cannons that put the rifle from earlier to shame. They were nearly as big as Vetta, probably bigger. Last in line was a normal sized pony with two light machine guns.

There was no way in hell I would be able to help whoever was getting shot at, I would get shredded to pieces. Literally. I figured I would at least get to know what was going on.

I watched as each of the mechanized suits of armor shifted and moved mechanically in formation. The thick suits were strong enough to repel 5.56 mm rounds off like they were flies. My small pistol wouldn’t do shit, unless I got it through the gaskets that were at the joints. Even then, their suits were equipped with medical systems to keep them alive if the armor got dinged up. They were nearly invincible to any small weapon in those suits. Fucking cheaters.

They had been in a fight a few moments ago, although a slaughter is a better way to put it. Their armor wasn't scratched and there were over 15 dead ponies laying around a cave. What did they want with a cave, there wasn’t any tec-. I had heard rumours of things called stables, supposedly, they were huge vaults that kept ponies away from the wasteland underground and safe. They must have been filled with things to keep ponies alive from radiation, raiders screwing with the door and anything outside to be kept away from inside.

If there were ponies in there, they would be slaughtered. Rangers didn't care that they were in the way, they would pummel them to the dirt, just to get to what they wanted. There was nothing I could do. I had to let them die.

“What can we do?” Vetta asked from my side. I went through every situation, and was still at a loss for an Idea. We couldn’t do anything to help them live.

‘Nothing’ I wrote sadly. I felt a tear crawl down my face. I devoted my life to helping ponies, and I was hopeless. Without that to keep me going, I was nothing. I had no reason to keep going if I had no purpose.

“You can’t save them all, you know?” I did know, but I had to try. If I did something here I would die and so would Vetta, so would an entire vault of ponies. I felt absolutely terrible when I turned away and started walking. What else could I do? I wanted to survive as much as anyone, but maybe they deserved it more than me.

Vetta was at my side again, supporting me so I didn’t fall. “I’m sorry, but there was nothing we could have done. When we get my weapons hopefully we will be able to take charge of those situations.” I realized I had no Idea what type of weapons she had.

‘What do you have?’ The anticipation was killing me, if she had weapons to pierce armor like that I might have to kiss her.

“It’s a surprise,” She said evilly “but you will learn eventually, so don't give me that look.” She was right, I stopped scowling at her, that was a mean thing to do though. No kisses for her, she didn’t deserve them right now.

We walked in silence again. The destination got closer, as the trail behind got longer. A couple of bloat sprites bothered us. I shot them, because if Vetta did we would have nothing to eat for later. It was a boring 4 or so hours, until we could see the tower far in the distance.   “There it is.” Vetta said blatantly. Neither of us had been talking for the walk, so it surprised me slightly. I nodded, and she turned fully to talk to me. “When we get there, you want to meet my family?” It was a weird question, but I understood the nature of it. She didn’t want to force me to do anything. I nodded firmly in response. She smiled. “Good. No time to waste then.” So we walked some more.

I was bored. I wanted to fight something, but with my bum leg I wasn't really sure that was a good idea. Still there had barely been any action this whole trip. I mean sure, we stopped a blood feud over territory, and killed some bandits, but that was about it. I need something to entertain me.

“I’m bored.” Vetta breaks the silence. I hoped she had an idea, because I was fresh out. We were getting pretty close to Tenpony, about 2 hours away. “You wanna play a game?” I wasn’t very good at road games, the only one I could easily participate in was charades and that wasn’t easy while walking. “I suppose that isn't all that easy for you. We have to do something." I agree.

We walked more. There wasn't much to alleviate the boredom shadowing us, so we walked, and walked, and walked. Until we stumbled upon a case of grenades stuffed under a broken wall. We probably should have kept to sell them, but I had a better idea. I hold one in my magic and shove it into her hoof.

'Throwing contest' I wrote. This probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I don't have good ideas often anyway. Vetta looks at me wearily but eventually, bounces the grenade in her grip a few times. I smirk and pull out the pin.

I chucked it a good 10 yards, and was impressed by myself. when the grenade blew up Vetta smirked. That wasn't good. She lobbed the grenade nearly 200 feet, and smiled at me. "I win."

With that we walked. I was still stunned by her ability to throw so far. About an hour later we stood at a goliath of a wall. One that would make the strip's wall look like an anthill. We were here.

We stood at the gates of Tenpony Tower.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Skill Note: Level Up! (3)

Wasteland Worn: You've had your share of the wastes thrown at you. Gain +1 endurance indefinately

Tenpony

View Online

The wall was much larger than I imagined. It was made of a mix of several metals, concrete and whatever else they could use to build a huge wall and rose nearly 20 feet tall. Much too big than necessary doors sat at the front,menacingly looking down on me. There was a small technological device near the left side of the doors. It had a small camera on the face of it and several small holes for a speaker and microphone. The tower was hardly visible this close to the wall that wrapped around the menacing monolith. Each visible crack was large, probably enough to compromise its integrity if you knew what you were doing. If you were planning to attack Tenpony Tower, you knew what you were doing.

Vetta pulled away from my side to move toward the small intercom box at the side of the door. When she left, my side got rather cold. She pressed what appeared to be a small button at the bottom and waited. “Better not be you got-damn ghouls again, I told the sentries they could shoot ya if you came back y’know.” A small crease broke Vetta’s lips from their indifferent expression.

“No, I was unaware. I’ll make sure to tell Hickory when I get the chance.” She spoke clearly. This meant nothing to me but maybe I could learn a few names as they bickered.

“H-hey Vendetta, you’re back already? Really, Hickory don’t need to know ‘bout this here encounter she’d have my arse. How’s about I let ya in free of charge? No big deal at all, nothing happened and we’re square. Right?” He sounded flustered and spoke quickly.

“That seems fair to me, but remember, I’ve got other blackmail on you. I always do.” I assumed these two were well associated.

“‘Course.” He sounded rather defeated. The loud screech of the gates pulling open drew my attention from the dirt. The heavy doors shifted slowly inward pulling dirt with them inside the large walls.

The place was huge. You wouldn’t think it from the walls, but inside was very clean. The ponies walking through the courtyard from shop to shop were mostly engaged in small talk. Everything was clean and tidy, then there was me. I felt bad bleeding all over the place and spreading dirt to the cleaner fractions of ceramic left.

The tower was so much larger up close. Just looking to the top gave me a sense of vertigo. I couldn’t imagine having to look out of the windows up at the top, I would probably pass out. The guard from earlier interrupted my thoughts.

“Alright you know the deal,” I didn’t. “hand over yer bullets and you can be on yer way.” The place seemed safe enough, everypony was proper and swanky so I figured they wouldn’t carry around weapons I couldn’t handle. It took me about 2 minutes to deposit my small armoury of bullets into two buckets, with each different case the guard gave me an incredulous look.

Vetta carried only two cases of 10 mm bullets, so she was much quicker to rid of her ammunition. It confused me why they took bullets and not weapons, perhaps there was a repair vendor? It would be much quicker to take weapons probably safer too. Aristocrat logic.

“We should probably get to a doctor soon, so give me your junk to sell. No offense but you don’t seem very… charismatic.” I gave her an angry look that was mostly feigned and handed over nearly 30 pounds of odds and ends. “You should look around a bit, get situated. We probably won’t be here long but we may come back eventually. I like to check in on my family every now and again.” I nod and we both turn to walk our separate ways.

I was still wobbling quite a bit, it wasn’t easy maneuvering with a faulty leg that has been overexerted for the past day or so. But I got a better look around the place, mostly from leaning against ice cold walls.

There were a few small shops from where I sat against the wall. There was a repair shop but it didn’t look very equipped for weapon maintenance, more like it was for watches or gearbox run objects. There was a cheese shop, which was weird, who had access to cheese nowadays? To the peculiar store’s left sat a clothing store loaded with beautiful tuxes and dresses for your average aristocrat. The prices in the windows were off the chain expensive, so I assumed these ponies had the most out of the wasteland to be able to blow 140 caps on clothing that wouldn’t protect you from a splinter.

There was a small eatery, which seemed to just have fancified wasteland food for 4 times the price you would find at a trading post. Most of the ponies wore simple dresses or neat suits, you could see the occasional wastelander selling things or picking on the residents. They wore metal armor or leather jackets to show off their gang insignia.

I sat on a rather comfortable bench and waited for Vetta to find me. I’m fairly sure I took a small nap because when Vetta showed up she was poking me. “Not so fun, is it?” She taunted. I smiled and rolled my eyes at her. “Well, I got about 700 caps for everything you had on you. Hopefully that is more than enough but I haven’t been here in awhile so I don’t know for sure.”

When I was poked awake it was fairly late in the afternoon and the sky was a darker red than usual. That meant it was probably going to rain soon, and the rain seems to never stop after it starts. Vetta broke my upward looking trance by nudging me in the side. “Ready to go then?” I stood on my hooves and stretched giving her a nod.

The courtyard was nearly barren now. Each pony returned to their beds resting the day away, a luxury not many were capable of enjoying in the harsh outside world. They would sit and complain that their hooves hurt while slaves were still working, only allowed 4 hours of sleep if they did their daily workload. While each pony sits in bed wondering if tonight is the night they get murdered in their sleep. All those suffer while they rest their eyes peacefully.

“What do you think of Tenpony?” I sigh, knowing that I would have to use the last piece of chalk to write a response for her.

‘Tolerable’ I use as little chalk as possible by pressing lightly.

“Well I suppose you haven’t had a field day what with your wounded leg being in the way. We’ll have fun tomorrow, promise.” I would hold her to that.

The ‘Hospital’ approached and we stepped inside the light(for once) doors. Immediately the smell of rotting flesh and medicine hit us on the way in. The walls were once stark white but now a faded greyish color. A rather petite mare approached and asked a simple question.

“Injury?” I felt that the bandages covering my leg wouldn’t help with letting her know what was wrong.

“She has a rather large bullet wound on her left foreleg, it has gone untreated for nearly a day and has had no changes in the bandages.” Vetta replied for me. I would thank her later for that.

“Why isn’t she answering?” The nurse spoke and I decided the floor was more interesting than the conversation.

“She’s mute. Is that an issue?” Vetta sounded slightly nervous with her question.

“Nah, just makes it easier. This’ll run ya about 500 depending on the severity of the wound, that work for ya?” We both nodded and she pointed to a room down the hall. As we walked Vetta’s hooves clacked loudly while mine would be heard only by trained ears. The room was bland and had a patient table sitting alone in the middle of it. The table was held up by slim bars of metal, ascending toward a metal support for a mattress.

I took off my recon suit and shoved it in my bags. We simply stood for a few minutes before a stallion walked in. “Hello ladies, what seems to be the issue?” His voice was tender and well practiced. His voice matched his rather young and educated appearance. A wild-fire orange spread across his hide similar to.. Well, a fire. The scraggly mess upon his head and rump was dark brown. He looked similar to a forest set ablaze.

“Squishy here has a crater in her leg.” She was smiling any time she got to mess with me, I wasn’t smiling however.

“Well, I’m Forest Fire but please call me Forest. I plan to help with your predicament as well as my abilities will allow.” I guess his name made sense. “I’ll have you step out if you will Vendetta. This may take a while so go get some rest.” My companion seemed rather well known here, said companion nodded and stepped out.

“Let’s get a look, shall we?” I hoped he wouldn’t talk to himself the whole time.

He pulled away the bandages with his magic, and tsked at the state of the wound. “You know this isn’t healthy right? Annoyed at his obvious statement, I nod. “You should take better care of yourself out there, a wound like this could be fatal if you don't treat it in time. How long have you had it?”

‘Walked on it’ ‘for about a day’ ‘overall’ He cringed slightly at how poorly I treated my wounds.

“That really isn’t good for it. It could get infected or spread and then you’d die.” I rolled my eyes, I knew this already I was trying to get healed not lectured. “All right I’ll see what I can do”

He poked it. Why the fuck did he poke it? After prodding me several times, he pulled a small washcloth out of a nearby drawer and got it wet. He dabbed the wound carefully, and pulled a small jar with pink fluid in it out of his coat pocket. He poured the fluid onto the crater directly and watched it seal up slightly. After all this he pulled out a bandage and wrapped it around my leg twice.

“Try not to rely on it too much, and don’t mess with it very often, it needs time to heal. Otherwise you should be good to go.” I nod to him in thanks and walk out after donning my recon suit, I felt weird not having it on.

Vetta was sitting in the waiting room with her muzzle in a book. She was pretty cute like that. As I walked the clean bandage chafed against my leg, it was annoying but I would live. She looked up when she heard the slight ‘whoosh’ of the door closing. When she saw me she smiled widely.

“Better?” As if you were instantly better after getting medical attention. I nod anyway. “Good. Nothing better than a little rest to help your wounds, right? So let’s get some rest.” She wasn’t actually asking me so I followed her as she made her way to the nurse. They bickered over price and settled on 430, which was really steep for a simple healing potion and wrapping.

We made our way out of the building slowly. I probably didn’t need to lean on Vetta so much, but it was nice. It was colder outside than I remembered earlier. There were slight pats all around us before they erupted into a constant stream of rain hitting the ground. Rain sucked.

Rain was warm and unpleasant. It hit hard and stung slightly, this happening several times a second added up to quite the painful experience. I was fairly used to it by now, but it still hurt. Mom told me, rain was Celestia crying for her causing so much pain to ponies but I never really believed it. How would Celestia still be alive if her whole world was engulfed in fires of hatred? Luna however, was clever. The Goddess of Shadows would know that things were wrong and hide. That was my belief, however most ponies seemed to think it was Luna’s fault for the fighting.

“Not scared of heights are you? My room is on the twelfth floor, so I hope not.” I shook my head, although I hadn’t ever been high up to truly know if I was or not. “Good. You can meet my family tomorrow, after we’ve had baths. Does that sound okay?” I still couldn’t understand why she was asking my opinion, I always just agree with her anyway. One nod later we continue our walk to the tall tower.

We push open the doors and step inside. The lobby was rather nice, even after nearly 200 years of apocalypse. White granite walls reach to the ceiling, marking the start of another floor. The floor consisted of cracked light orange tiles, some of them were just replaced by stone or metal. It was a large room, with lounging chairs that were chewed on by whatever small critter could get to, placed methodically around. One probably wouldn’t even know it was in the wasteland without context. A relic of the old world preserved in time.

We moved over to a large elevator, It was torn apart to make repair easy and you could see the simple counterweight and pulley system through the open ceiling panel. When one elevated the other descended. We went up, while the speaker in the corner crackled broken notes that was once music. As we approached the floor, I could hear Vetta humming again. She either didn’t care or did it out of habit, but it was as beautiful as the first day I heard it. The elegant rise and fall of notes, matched perfectly like a puzzle piece to the tempo.

The elevator stopped and so did she. I was a little sda that she had stopped, I would listen to her until the end of time. If I could protect one thing, it would be her. “I just thought that didn’t I?”

The floors were originally the same as the lobby, but had a red rug placed over the tile. Each door had a gold tag on it that read ‘241’, ‘242’ and so on. We stopped at 253 and Vetta rummaged through her bags for a key. She eventually unlocked the door and waved me in.

“Home sweet home, I guess. Make yourself comfortable, I get the shower first since it’s my room.” I nod and she enters the bathroom. The room was nearly Identical to the room at the other casino, other than the furniture being moved around in a different pattern.

I didn’t want to get her room too dirty, so I just lay on the floor patiently. After about 2 minutes Vetta shouts to me.

“Squishy, could you grab me a towel! They are in the closet!” I moved over to the closet and pulled open the shutters. There wasn’t just towels in the closet but the most beautiful rifle I had ever seen.

It leaned against the wall longingly, waiting for it’s owner to care for it. It was a large hunting rifle with several enchantment gems along the barrel. It had an engraving in the stock of the word “Petite” surrounded by curvy waves of gold trim. The receiver was painted solid gold, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to make it out of gold, it would break after two shots. It had a 6 round mag sticking out of the rifle. I was slightly aroused. Vetta was going to pay for not telling me of this beauty.

Speak of the draconequus, Vetta stepped out of the bathroom with a towel on her head to see me ogling at her rifle. “So you’ve met Petite, huh? What do you think?” I sat with my mouth agape just staring at it.

‘Beautiful’ Was the simple answer.

“The gems on the barrel make the bullets go faster and hit harder,” I looked carefully at the barrel and saw at the end was a threaded piece of metal for a suppressor to screw on. The rifling on the inside of the barrel was hard to make out in the dark, but it was obviously threaded to maximize the velocity of each bullet. It was beautiful, aesthetically and technologically. “I have a suppressor around here somewhere as well, but I’m not sure where. Well the shower is yours, you can have some alone time with my rifle later. I wish you would look at me like you do Petite.” She said poutily, I felt a little bad but went on anyway to the shower.

***

I stepped out of the bathroom, and stepped over to Vetta who was on the bed holding her rifle in her lap. “My weapon has a name, does yours? You seem way too attached not to give it a name.” I felt a little awkward sitting so close to Vetta without my recon suit on.

‘The Cure’ I answered simply, letting her figure it out.

“Cure for what exactly? I don’t unde- Ohhh. I see. Well picked I suppose, rather dark don’t you think? The end all is just a bullet?” I supposed she was right.

‘I like dark things’ She gave a strange sound, somewhere between understanding and confusion.

“I suppose you’re right,” She sounded slightly sad for some reason. “We should be getting off to bed, My family will be expecting us in the morning. They have eyes everywhere, so I know they know I’m in town.” She turned more chipper and let a smile crack her sad expression. “There is only one bed, I guess we have to cuddle!” There was enough room to fit a couple of brahmin in the bed, but I figured I would humor her. She set Petite down with a caring gesture, leaning it against the dresser.

“G’night Squishy,” She said squeezing me tightly. “Hey, you never gave me a nickname!” Her sudden outburst surprised me and I stumbled to find my board in my magic, it was on the floor so I couldn’t see it at first. I got it and wrote something on it.

‘G’night... Hon?’ I hoped this would suffice. Although I usually called her Hon mentally, that was just an easy replacement for her name.

“Not good enough.” She sounded nearly angry.

‘StarShine’ I decided. I liked it, it matched my personality and her place in my life. She was the dim light that I needed to hold on to, the light in my darkness. Although that is pretty counterproductive of stealth, without light you wouldn’t be able to see. Also it’s funny because the sun is a star, so it’s like sunshine but, y’know starshine.

She pondered it a moment before nodding. “Perfect. Now, let the cuddling commence!”

***

I didn’t have a dream, and it was weird. Just peaceful darkness. So comforting and warm, oh wait that was the lovely mare holding me, throughout the night.

Vetta woke up on her own for once and poked me awake, this was going to become a ritual, wasn’t it? “Morning Squishy!” She pulled me away from the comfortable warm blanket and to the cold floor. I shivered from the sudden change of temperature and Vetta giggled at me.

“You’re so cute when you show your soft side.” I blushed and she teased me more. “There you go again!” I rolled my eyes and composed myself.

“I had the weirdest dream, wanna hear about it?” I nodded. “Well It was me you and my family, and someone asked you a question and you spoke in return. Isn’t that strange?”

“Weird.” I said, quickly and high pitched. The setup was just too perfect not to fuck with her. She took a second and reacted.

“Wh- hu- did you say something?” She stuttered, I responded my raising my eyebrows and looking at her like she was crazy. “I think I need more sleep. Anywho, my parent’s room is just down the hall. Ready?” I nodded and heard her mumble something along the lines of ‘I could’ve sworn’

We stepped out and she locked the door behind us. We moved down the hall to a room not far away. Right as Vetta knocked the door swung open and a thin mare wearing a beautiful white lounging gown hugged Vetta. “Oh, Vendetta how Nice to see you! Who is this with you?” She had an elegant accent practically the same as Vetta. Her coat was indigo, while her mane was the same light green as Vetta’s. Her cutie mark seemed to be a wave of sorts.

“This is Miss Fortune, but I call her Squishy.” I could see a bigger stallion approach the door so I withheld my blush, but nodded curtly.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Fortune I’m Indigo Seas, but call me Indigo. This here is Valiant Heart,” she said pointing to the pony behind her. I hold out my hoof, but she pulls me into a hug. It wasn’t weird with my recon suit on but it still was slightly awkward. Valiant holds out his hoof which is literally twice the size of mine and shakes it.

“Pleasure” He states gruffly, his voice sounded like sandpaper felt. He was dark red and had a brown mane. A heart with a sword crossing it sat on his flank.

“Come in, come in, we simply must catch up.” They moved out of the way to make a path for us to go through. Other than a few extra bits and bobs their room was identical to ours. Indigo Pointed at the sofa like chair and sat on the bed.

“How’ve you been darling?” She asked looking at Vetta.

“The usual, nothing new other than Squishy here,” She scoot closer to me on the small couch. “We are ‘together’ but taking it slow.” She seemed to add on the last part to make her mom satisfied. Her mom was smiling regardless.

“So tell me about yourself. If you plan to court my daughter I would like to know everything I can about you.” I nudged Vetta and she chuckled nervously.

“She, uhh. She’s mute. All I know is that she has a heart set for the good of others, and she is terrifying in the dark. Even the light for that matter she always seems to be just out of sight.” Her mom looked quite annoyed.

“You barely know her and you are in a relationship? Vetta sweetie, and no offense to you Miss Fortune, but you don’t know her she could be insane for all you know. Again no offense intended.” I nod, It wasn’t like I cared. I liked Valiant Heart, he was quiet but got his point across. He simply glared,

“That is why I will travel with her and get to know her. She has been helping ponies for no reason at all, and I want to get to know the mare behind the mask.” I got bored and started playing with my spell, flickering the light around me to hide my true figure. “Oh, stop that it’s rude.” I stopped and sat with a pout. Vetta just had to go and ruin my fun huh?

“Well all that aside, and we aren't done talking about this just not with company, what took you so long to come back? Usually you are gone for a month or so, but a year?” Indigo sounded hurt.

“I didn't need to come back for any reason, until I needed Petite,” Valiant chuckled at Vetta. “to help Fortune with her quest.” Huh? What quest?

“I don’t know why you named that gun of yours Petite. It can cause some real pain.” I really liked Valiant. He knew when to talk, what to talk about and how. We would be good friends.

“I like naming things fun names, it makes them seem… fun.”

“What about us, don’t you like to visit? I know we allowed you to go out into the world, but what if you got hurt? We would never know.” Indigo said breaking up the fun.

“Indigo you let me leave, and so I decided to leave. You never said I had to return, but I figured you would get worried and bicker about it until I came back.” This was getting emotional, and I didn’t really want to be a part of it. I excused myself and Vetta agreed that it was probably better this way. I went back to the room and just sat around for a while.

I got bored and clicked on the radio.

“Morning my little ponies, now your pal DJ-Pon3 has been playing the same damn songs on a loop for years. Thanks to a special somepony, we have some new music! Can you believe it? I hardly can, so we’re just going to get right into it. Good luck out there, and stay safe.” A slow and sad tune started to roll out of the speaker. Long elegant notes were matched by the hum of a pony with nothing left to believe in, no solace to hold onto. They poured it all out into their music to make awe inspiring sound resonate to their listeners, to make them feel their hurt. It was beautiful.

All good things come to an end, as did the song. A song I had already heard started, but I just clicked off the radio. I didn’t want to listen to the old world crying out to find hope. It hurt.

The door clicked open and Vetta looked through it before seeing me sprawled out on the bed in an awkward position. It was comfortable but it sure didn’t look like it. She shook her head and smiled. “Why are you lying like that, It doesn’t look relatively comfortable.” I half shrugged and she just shook her head at me again. “I would like to leave soon, if that’s okay with you. My family and I need a break from each other.”

I just nodded again. She seemed to accept this as a valid answer and lay next to me. “We could leave after we eat, does that work?” I nodded again. “It’s settled then.”

While I was waiting for Vetta I stitched up my suit with a piece of rubber from something I didn’t know what did. My leg didn’t hurt anymore unless I poked it, which I did fairly often to see if it still hurt. I sucked at following doctor’s orders.

Vetta had her sexy rifle on her back. She didn’t need a battle saddle, she fired it by resting it on a ledge and sitting it against the inside of her shoulder. It swayed slightly from side to side as she strode forward.

We had food at a little store and left for our trip in the wastes again. The rain had let up but it was still sprinkling. When we got to the gate we were handed our ammo. Vetta only had the large .308’s in her bucket, and I took my sweet time organizing mine. After roughly 4 minutes I had my whole ammo supply organized.

The gates creaked open and we left the safety of Tenpony Tower behind.

The wastes never seemed different no matter where we were. Dirt and sand, the occasional destroyed building, traders. It was always the same, and I liked it that way. Change was terrifying. You get so used to something and you get the routine down, then the pattern changes and you get stuck trying to catch up again. I let go of the thought, I didn’t want to get lost again.

“You like to think, don’t you? You always have that same expression, like you are lost in thought.” Vetta seemed concerned. I was on my last piece of chalk now, so I just nodded. There were ponies out there doing so much to help, I heard stories on the radio of them working to stop the bad ones. There would always be an enemy to fight, there always had been and always will be.

“Tell me something about you, anything at all.” Vetta disturbed my thoughts again.

‘Favorite color’ ‘is purple’ She did say anything.

“Mine is gold. How about something else?” I figured, why not? I didn’t need chalk too much anyway. Other than to communicate, but you know that is pointless.

‘Watched my mom’ ‘get her head’ ‘blown off by’ ‘a sniper’ It felt important enough.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. That must’ve been terrible.” I didn't care anymore, I never really knew why it happened but I knew I couldn’t change the events, so why cry over something set in stone. “Erm, well. Uh… something else, perhaps less life alteringly horrible?” I appreciated her not wanting to force me to talk more about it. I would end up crying, I couldn’t change what happened but I still loved my mom. She was really nice, kinda like Vetta…

I held up the tiny sliver of chalk left and shook my head. She seemed to understand and turned back to the road. That was when we heard a shout from nearby. Several shouts actually.

We had been outside for nearly 20 minutes and already there was people to rescue. I shoved on my mask and headed toward the shout with Vetta in tow.

We were looking at a small ruined building with several raiders camped out inside. Their Gorey decorations gave the obvious hint that they were raiders. Heads on pikes and splayed ponies on the wall, nearly made me spill my insides as well. The pony I assumed the shout came from was sitting tied to the wall. They had several large gashes all over their body. A mottled dark green mane was coated in blood from head trauma, their once bright pink coat was covered in scars and lines of blood. He had the most wonderful jade eyes that you could just see the pain in, the years of torment.

The most notable thing however, was his wings. Sitting still at his side were wings with broken feathers and several cuts all over them. I turned to Vetta and she gave a nod. She lay oddly on the ground for a good handling position of her rifle, with her legs back and her head leaning against the stock.

I moved between shadows, without even giving them a hint I was there.

I didn’t care what happened, I just really wanted to save this pegasus. I had some questions that Vetta could ask. But I was almost out of chalk. Shit.

The first raider dropped with a thud. Another farther over to their left also took a shot to the head. I already had the main threat reduced, but raiders didn’t care about odds, they cared about what they would do to whoever was hunting them. It was a shame they had silent predators.

I noticed a raiders head explode bloodily from a large caliber round. Ohhh it was so beautiful, the rifle’s ability to explode a head from so far away made me quiver a little. Vetta was getting all the kisses later.

Refocusing on the task, I slid away from an approaching raider, another behind me swished his knife in his magic. Usually I would be screwed but I trusted my support. I shot the one in front of me and heard the one behind me explode. We danced with how perfectly we worked together, I would just know who to shoot when and so did Vetta.

Without a single scratch, we cleared out a small raider base of 8 and rescued a distraught pegasus. One who was obviously not from the clouds.

I moved quietly over to him and turned off my shadow spell. He looked surprised to see me appear out of nowhere but just shivered. “W-What do you want with m-me? You look professional who d-do you w-work for?” He was nervous and looked like he was wriggling out of his chains. Vetta was at my side panting softly.

“Hello, sorry for Squishy here she can be rather imposing. I’m Vendetta and this is Miss Fortune, we’re your saviours!” She sounded really prepared while saying that.

“So you’re the afamed ‘Miss Fortune’ then huh? Never thought I would see the day to be rescued by a ghost.” I was pretty well known.

“Well, here we are! I’m her new little entourage but still helpful. She worked alone for her title, but I’m her voice.”

“She doesn’t talk?” I shook my head. “That’s weird, I heard stories of you with catchphrases, like a true hero.” I nearly pinned him to the wall but Vetta held a hoof in front of me.

“Don’t call her a hero, she doesn’t like that.” Damn straight.

“Would you mind freeing me? Chains aren’t the most comfortable thing you know.” I went behind him and shot the chain. “You really are like a ghost, all silent and popping out of nowhere, this is so cool!” Apparently I had fans.

“Well that’s her schtick, best be on your way now before she accidently pins you to the wall.” He turned a little downcast.

“I- uh, don’t really have a place to stay. No-one wants a pegasus in their town, we’re bad luck.” They were sought after by all groups of ponies. Anyone wanted a threat from above on their side, or just a nice well cooked chicken dinner. I feared what I knew Vetta would say.

“You can come with us if you want!” I scowled at her. “Oh shush you, you need more friends.”

“I’m not so sure about this, she looks rabid. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your ragtag gang of ninjas.”

“Nonsense, I’ll keep her in line. Please?” She wouldn’t keep me in line, if I really wanted to I could kill her 30 different ways right now. But I loved her, so I guess that wouldn’t work too well huh?

“Alright, I’m Lightning Strike. Nice to meet you.” I knew that name from somewhere but I couldn’t quite place it.

And with our new companion with us, we walked. As we always did.

“So Strike, got any family?”

_______________________________________________________________
Level Up: (4)

Ghost: While under your shadow spell, you have a 20% higher chance of a successful Pickpocket.

Just Getting Started

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“The only family I have are cloudwalkers, and I really don’t like ‘em.” Lightning Strike said with venom in his voice.

“You obviously don’t live in the sky, what happened between you and your family?” At least Vetta had somepony else to ask questions, I was getting tired of finding new ways to point things out.

“When I was young I lived in the clouds, I thought that's just how it was and that was it, I had no clue about the wasteland below. Once I learned what those birdbrains had been doing I abandoned them to make a life here, I can never go back and, honestly, I don’t want to. Is all that we talk about gonna be pegasus stuff? I really don’t want to remember any of this.” Vetta pulled her head back slightly in surprise of his sudden outburst, she had a look of concern but carried on regardless.

“No. Sorry, I’m just curious is all,” He muttered something like ‘who isn’t’ but didn’t interrupt her. “You have a special somepony you have to get to? Oh I guess that was silly, you wouldn’t come with us if you did. Have any good stories?” He rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Why would I have good stories? Do I look like the type of pony to go around saving people? Well, I guess Fortune doesn’t really either, but do you see my point? The answer is no.” Strike spoke with the discipline of a soldier. He looked like one too, or he would if he wasn’t malnourished. If he had a little more meat on him he would look fairly big for a pegasus, with how bony he was he just looked tall.

“Hmph, why do I have to get the boring ponies?” She grumbled with an over exaggerated sigh. It wasn’t our choice, she picked us.

“Maybe you should pick better companions, you seem to be the brains of the group and Fortune is the skill. I don’t see why you wanted me to follow you. I can barely shoot straight, give me a blade however, and I could do some real damage.” I sifted through my bags with magic and pulled out a small rusted machete I had picked up some time ago.

I tossed it to him and the handle wobbled as he caught it in his mouth. “Dis tha bes you got?” I nodded and he just swiped the air a few times with it. It wouldn’t last long, but enough that he could find a better weapon.

I thought it was strange a pegasus would be good with close range, you would think they would need distance since they have a lighter bone structure so they could fly. That would make them weaker right? They had some kind of pegasus magic or something I didn’t care too much about to listen when my mom taught me. I had faith in him though, after all I had no real reason not to trust him.

“Yuh got a sheaf for dis?” I shook my head and he spit it into the dirt. “Then you carry it, until I need it. I’m not holding that filthy thing in my mouth for however long we’ll be walking.” I shrugged and levitated it into my bags with ease.

“You use melee rather than ranged weapons? Why? Wouldn’t it be safer to use distance to your advantage? It only makes sense.” He adopted a cocky look and just grinned evilly.

“Guess you’ll have to see then huh?” Ass.

Without a destination in mind, we walked. We were good at that, just moving our hooves in a pattern of one after the other. A skill that you know when you’re born, it’s strange to say, that is the thing we were good at. I had one Idea of where to go, and that was anywhere that had supplies we might need. With this basic goal in mind, I turned toward a jumble of buildings not far away. Hopefully we would find some bullets, or a fight.

As we fell into our cardiac like rhythm of walking, I focused on how Strike was fairly big for a pegasus. Most of them were just about a pony size taller than me, but he was nearly two and a half. It was really starting to get to me, just how tall others were. Why did I have to be cursed with this tiny body. I’ve met foals my size before!

I nudged him in the side, as he turned to me I raised a hoof up and down from his hoof to his head. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?” Vetta turned as well, hopefully to translate.

“I believe she is asking about your size?” I moved my head in the usual up and down motion. “I was curious as well, why are you so… large? From what I’ve seen, which isn’t much, you are rather large for a pegasus.”

“Here we go again with pegasus talk. My dad is a unicorn, if you must know. I get my height from him. Happy?”

Vetta averted her eyes toward me, I gave a nod and she turned back toward Strike. “Yes, we are content. Since you are annoyed by our questions, are there things you want to ask us? Walking is so boring, especially just with Fortune.”

I scowled at her, but understood the nature of it, I was a quiet pony, I had nothing important to say, and it probably got annoying to talk to someone that doesn’t respond.

“Yeah, you know, What’s up with Fortune? As far as the stories go, I’ve only heard of her traveling alone. Why all of a sudden is she taking in outcasts?” Strike knew he made a mistake when Vetta turned sharply, stopping in her tracks to kick him in the chest.

“What makes you think I’m an outcast?! I left of my own volition, like a… renegade. I’ll have you know,” The anger in her words stung even my ears, and it wasn’t my fault this time. She was absolutely fuming, the smoke puffing out of her ears was almost visible. Her eyes were filled with a red rage that I hoped I wouldn’t be on the other end of any time soon.

“Sorry! Geez, touchy subject. You get where I’m coming from though, right? She’s a legend and all of a sudden she needs help?” His cool words seemed to wither her boiling upset down to moderate annoyance.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. Truly, I don’t know. She’s not all that talkative, you know? I assume she just got lonely.” That was the gist of it. And I let them know. “We will never really know, unless she decides to talk.” Fuck. That. Not anytime soon at least.

“What do you think her voice is like? I think it’s like really high pitched and squeaky. Wouldn’t that be funny? She’s so small, if she was squeaky, she would be like a chew toy. With blades, and bullets, and y’know the whole murder you in your sleep thing.” They shared a good laugh while I just listened to them make fun of me.

“I feel like it would be feminine, but still tough. I shouldn’t assume but, what’s she going to do? Hurt us for talking?” Oh you’re getting pretty fucking close. “Don’t give me that look, you know i’m just teasing you.” She kissed my cheek and stood back up, fucking tall ponies. Strike had the most joyous smile I had seen him have when he saw the shared affections.

“Oh, this is too good! The scourge of raiders. The ghost of the shadows, is gay! Ohh, I am having the best time of my-” He was interrupted by a kick in the side, just hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He leaned over still smiling. I was going to beat that grin off his smug face.

I stepped over him and grabbed his neck. With a shift of force, and a little magic, he was over me and spiraling to the ground. I saw Vetta not two feet away, shouting, but I was already started. He sat in a heap his legs sprawled out in odd directions. He was on his stomach, so I grabbed his head and mashed it into the dirt. That would teach him.

As the dust settled, he got up to his hooves. “Yep, probably deserved that.” He was still grinning like an idiot. I kicked him again. “Oh, that’s just a little much.” Vetta was the only barrier between me and his severed head.

“Easy, Strike. She has been nice to you, don’t start a fight.” Thank you, Vetta.

“Oh, I’m sure she has some mean words to exchange. Oh Wait! She’s mute!” I would make him mute if it weren’t for Vetta nearby. She wouldn’t want to see the blood gorge from his tongue.

“You really should stop.” At least Vetta was the side of reason. If he felt the need to insult me one more time, he would be put in his place. That place just so happens to be with his head two feet in the dirt, using his mouth to shovel it.

“Or what? She gonna hit me again?” He was no better than a raider. So he would be treated like one.

I moved my hoof to strike him in the side again, but he pushed it and wrapped his leg around mine, flipping me with ease. He pinned a hoof into the base of my shoulder, preventing it to move. Another hoof was on hy head to stop me from getting momentum. I was not new to being pinned. I grabbed a clump of dust in my magic and crushed it, throwing it into his eyes to stun him. “Fucker!” He shouted in high distaste of my not so fair magic. I grabbed a club from within my saddlebags and hit him in the back of his legs, making him buckle and trip. With one hard swing he was on the ground holding his face. Another hard swing to his jaw made him concede. He was a writhing pile of shit, and now he looked like one.

I stuffed the club in my bag and moved back over to Vetta. “You didn’t have to be so rough you know...” Oh that wasn’t even close to rough. He had a whole 20 more freight cars on that pain train.

The fucker was standing up and moving over to us. “Well, come along we have a schedule to keep.”

“Could you at leasht give me a sheck? I’m kinda mortally wounded here.” That struck a nerve and Vetta surely showed it.

“And who’s fault is that?! I warned you twice, you knew you were wrong! And you kept pestering her! She is at least, ten times more powerful than you will ever be. So shut your wounded trap, and fall in line!” It was the weirdest thing seeing her angry. Her usual posh and proper accent was obliterated, and she was showing her wasteland side. Pure impotent rage.

His response was actually quite concerning. He did what he was told, just falling behind us and dragging along. It probably wasn’t the best idea to beat my companion to a limping piece of scrap. I wouldn’t dare go for his wings, even I knew that was too far. I hated pegasi as much as anypony, but it would be the worst thing I could think to ever do. To wound someone just enough to hurt them constantly, but never kill them.

Each of us needed the silence to cool off, and hopefully think on our actions. I really shouldn’t have beaten him, I mean, he hardly stood a chance without a weapon of some sort. I was used to surviving without a weapon, the wasteland often took away opportunities, but not without opening more. To be honest with myself, I’m a badass on the outside, but on the inside… without stumbling upon Vetta I would probably just be another corpse of the wasteland.

The ruined and scorched building loomed ominously above us, as did everything else in the wastes. This place was in fairly good condition for the grueling depths of hell we live in. It had three and a half walls, a partial roof, and intact floors. It’s color was indecipherable from the blackened char that coated it. There was a sign that was posted up on the front wall that read ‘Diner’. Or it did, the N and the R had either fallen off, or were torn from the crumbling façade. Most likely the latter, although I doubt that sign would stay attached to the crusty building if a fly landed on it. It wasn’t ideal to look in for supplies, but places that were usually had locks or tough security. My projected best case scenario was, we would find a self defense pistol and food.

Nothing. After nearly an hour, we found nothing of value. It was frustrating to not find anything and waste an hour of daylight. The only thing that I took from the place was a pair of black tinted aviators. Occasional far off gunfire was heard all the time, but when it sounded in range, there was definitely a thing to go after. We could even loot the bodies, perfect. The others heard as well and followed me as I moved toward the entrance/exit. Strike was staying quiet, which I really enjoyed.

The fire had come from somewhere east-ish, and so that’s where we headed. It got louder and louder until we came upon the culprits.

A slave trade. Ooh, they were going to get it. There was an awful lot of firepower at this trade, a lot more than usual. Most every slaver had a carbine, or some heavy pistol. Our little ragtag group of psycho’s could attack with the most effective brutality, if Strike was telling the truth. Which he better have been, because this was happening.

I gave a signal to Vetta and she just nod and went off toward higher ground. I passed Strike the machete, and it wobbled in his loose grip. I really shouldn’t have hurt his face so bad. He realigned it and gave me a confident nod.

“Scho am ai tha dishtracshun or wha?” I gave him a half shrug and nearly pulled out my board, before realizing I was out of chalk. Him being a distraction wasn’t necessary but it would work if that’s how it had to be.

I nod and he puts on the grin of a madpony, smiling from ear to ear with a bloodstained blade in his mouth. If someone saw that coming at them from the sky at a high speed without pissing themself, I would be scared of them.

He zipped off into the air with an elegance that was meant for ladies, but his size and malice filled smile alone would shame you from making fun of him.

Oh shit, Vetta didn’t know the plan. I hoped she would figure it out, before Strike got a torso filled with lead. I could easily tell she figured it out by the ear ripping scream of the enchanted hunting rifle. Petite really did make a beautiful sound. I moved as fast as I could, delving into the concentrated slow of decisive bullet planting.

Round after round pierced around me, hitting the dirt and spraying it in my face, the sunglasses I found earlier stopped nearly all of the dirt. It wasn’t hard to notice the panic in the slavers. Some fired at Strike, to no avail, practically just giving bullets to the pegasi above the clouds. Some exploded in a gory mess of beauty from Vetta’s rifle. The one’s I shot simply fell limp with little trace that they were killed, other than the small piles of blood on the ground near their body, I wouldn't aim for the head in a time sensitive situation, that would just be idiotic.

I stopped for a moment to find my next target, not focusing on anyything around me but him. He stood there with the utmost calm, like nothing was wrong. He was most definitely the leader, with his cocky posture, leaning against a cart with no care in his eyes whatsoever that his workers were being slaughtered. That was one way you could tell they weren’t Fillydelphia slavers, because they even cared about losing ‘stock’. I could swear I saw him smiling.

As I maneuvered my way carefully toward him, to not get attention because he was obviously powerful, I saw Strike swoop down from the sky. It was hard not to, he flew with such elegance avoiding every bullet as if in slow motion. He drew up his blade and pierced it into the nape of a unicorn pony and pulled it up to rip the spine and sever the head, it was so quick and perfectly routined it was like watching an angel of death descend upon them. That was going to be his nickname, The Angel Of Death. I’ve officially decided our group should have nicknames. Squishy doesn’t count.

Back in reality to the task at hand I moved ever closer to the leader. I think he got bored, because he grabbed a weapon off one of the decapitated slavers. He took aim, miraculously, at me and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Another hole tore into my recon suit and pierced my leg. It’s always the leg isn’t it? But as I winced in pain, I immediately recognised the bullet that ripped into me. It was a fucking hollow point.

I groaned loudly in pain and anger, I could feel the shrapnel dig further away from the impact, with every step the flares moved deeper into my flesh and farther away from their friends. The entry was small, but the pain on the inside was intense. The Stallion was laughing at me, sitting on the ground in pain, and defeat.

“You really fucking thought you could take a slave trade out? Who do you think you are, that Lightbringer prick? No, now that I have you here why don’t you take off that fucking mask? You don’t want to ruin your saviour image, do you?” This Dick was going to get it, if only my friends were here to help.

He was standing over me, his stark black coat shining in the sun. He had a scarlet red mane that flowed in the wind, but his combat armor covered his cutie mark.

“I don’t need this set, these are the sick ones that were going to Red-Eye. That prick takes care of his stock, I clearly could care less what happened tp them. It is good caps though,” Ponies were dying all around us, several slaves screamed for help, and here he was. Talking to me on the ground at his hooves. “Now, Red-Eye’s men will be here soon, and I really doubt you want to deal with those pricks. They have four times better gear, and twice the numbers. You could come with me, or go with them. Either way, you’re going to be a slave” His last word bounced around in my head, and my face shifted to one of absolute terror. I couldn’t be a slave, not again.

He was heavy, and most of the weight was muscle. He chuckled horribly at my squirming, laughing as he knew I was already beaten. I just hoped Vetta and The Angel had the common sense to get out and leave me. Even as I thrashed with all of my being he didn’t budge at all. This was one of those weaknesses of being small.

The gunfire was quieter now, I hoped my companions weren't hurt. The Leader turned his head away from me for a moment before looking back with a weaker, but still threatening, glare.

“I see your gang isn’t so weak, I will handle them,” His will to destroy was clear on his face, absolute malice filled every muscle in his body. He chucked me hard into the wagon behind him, knowing that I was unable to move with a hole in my leg and probably a few fractured ribs.

There were so many bodies, a lot of them were dead slaves killed by slavers wo finally got their fun. Several dozen were slavers, lain without body parts or missing chunks of flesh. So much blood spattered across the field of battle. A few raiders wandered by and rolled joyfully in the puddles of red delight.

I sat against the wagon, not chancing movement, and just watched as my ‘gang’ worked together to kill as many fuckers as possible. I caught a glimpse of Strike floating elegantly on practiced wings, ripping apart slavers spraying blood everywhere. He had a new weapon, some sort of sword, and he used it to it’s fullest. He was coated head to tail in a thick slew of blood and dirt. If it weren’t for his elegance, he might’ve been mistaken for a raider. One thing was clearly apparent. His grin of mirth, turning ponies’ inside to outsides just brought him some sort of sick joy a raider would be proud of.

As my vision blurred in and out of blackness, I looked for a glimmer on Vetta’s scope. It was really hard to see when you were losing surprising amounts of blood. But it was there, far in the distance, just peeking out of a window, was a shimmer of light. Followed by another, then a bullet tore into a slaver, followed by the crack of a rifle. Over and over again, the same rhythm. The last thing I saw before I blacked out. Shimmer, flash, pierce, crack.

~~~~~

Fires ripped through the city. Our once humble little home, was set ablaze with the fires of destruction. Screams were everywhere, I heard ponies I knew yelling to anyone for help. And I sat there. In a small, dark corner, where no pony would (hopefully) find me. The loudest hoofsteps I had heard sounded somewhere nearby. Loud hissing and crunching followed the same thump, as it got closer. Smashing of objects was everywhere and it just got closer. Eventually it met my position.

The door to the closet I was in pulled open, and I saw him. A dragon. Or as close as it got to one. The skeletal skull of a dragon sat upon a pony's head. The pony in question was an absolute goliath, sure I was small. But he stood taller than even the door. Steam blew out of the sides of his mask, and his ‘eyes’ glew red. He was all red with strange writing all over his body.

I sat in the corner, making myself as small as possible and using the spell I learned, by myself, to hide my colors as much as possible. I looked into his eyes, and he surely looked into mine, absolute control was all I could see. He had control over everything that was happening. Control over me. There was nothing I could do but tremble in fear.

He chuckled, and it actually rumbled the floor beneath me. “Aye, Barb ain’t going to believe this…” and he walked off. The most horrifying creature I had ever lay eyes on in my young life, and probably ever would, left me to cower in the closet.

The screams went on and one scream stood out, it was a scream from the one filly who was ever nice to me and it was silenced with a crack of a rifle. Everything I knew was burning and dying, and there was nothing I could do. So I sat and cried.

I cried for what felt like an hour, with no real way to tell the time it was my best guess, and the shouts and yells didn’t stop. I got tired of sitting and doing nothing, even though I was probably going to die, it would be better than sitting and listening to everypony I know die.

I made my way through the destroyed shack until I found mom’s room. I moved her mattress, pushing and using magic until I saw the weapon lain on the boards. Mom said it’s name was ‘The Solution’ which didn’t make sense to me. One, why name a gun? And two, why Solution, when I was told guns were never the answer? I pushed away my worries and held the hefty 44 revolver in my magical grip, and stepped out the door to try and help my town.

I saw our neighbor’s house torn to bits by flame, and the owner sat outside impaled on a pike sticking out of the ground, her face was torn off and nowhere to be seen. I shuddered and turned away, if I just didn’t see it, it wasn’t true.

A pony was running through the town with a long tube connected to a tank of sorts, as he bit a trigger in front of him a long stream of fluid followed by flame erupted from the tube as he laughed in joy. These sick bastards were having fun.

I knew to stay away from the groups, they would easily kill me, then again so would nearly anyone else. I moved toward a group of residents that were bound together in chains, all female. A few looked at me and yelled shouts of, ‘go away’ ‘run’ ‘save yourself’ but that just made me want to help more. A few of the mares at the end of the chain had a stallion, or even two, on them. I had to look away to keep my innocence, or whatever of it was left, also not to puke everywhere.

I moved closer to the mare directly in front of me and pointed the gun at the lock, I may not be accurate but it’d be hard to miss at point blank. The gun roared as I pulled the trigger, sparks flew briefly and the mare wobbled out of her chains. “Thank you so much! I’m not hesitating to leave, save yourself.” And she ran away, but bullets are faster. She fell, and was dead in seconds. I didn’t save her at all…

I moved to the next and hoped she would be smarter, shot the binds and she simply moved behind me, staying in the dark a little ways back. I used the last four bullets, surprisingly without getting caught, and moved over to the group behind me.

“What do we do now?” It was almost funny to see a full grown adult asking a miniscule foal what to do, it would be if my town wasn’t being devoured in flame. I pointed toward a fence that I pried a hole in a while ago, it would be small but easy to rip further. Each mare seemed to jump over to the hole in the fence and pull at it simultaneously.

After each was through, the last waved me through the fence. I stood in place and shook my head, I wouldn’t leave without mom.

“Please, kid. I don’t want you to die, you’ve saved us. Our hero.” I just turned around and started walking, it would be the only way out of this, they wouldn’t let a foal die willingly. When I turned back, they were gone. And I was out of bullets.

~~~~~

So blacking out from blood loss was a weird experience. I could have sworn that dream lasted hours, but here I was sitting in the same place with little change. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since I blacked out, the blood pooling around me was getting exponentially more concerning by the second. My suit did little to hold in blood, but it was better than just letting it spill over.

I didn’t see Strike flying around anymore, but then again I was barely able to see a few feet in front of me. The loud Crack of Vetta’s rifle was gone, but everything was muffled anyway. I really shouldn’t have been alive with this much of my blood sitting around me, but here I sat, awake to an extent, and losing feeling of my body. Just before I passed out again I could see ponies in heavy looking metal armor marching like soldiers with several griffins flying above. Each appeared to have rather large weapons, but then again I was probably just hallucinating.

~~~~~

The first thing I noticed was how little pain I was in. I couldn’t quite place why, but I felt numb. I rolled my shoulders and faced forward with a new resolve. I was going to go find mom.

With an empty revolver and nothing to protect me, I braved walking in between shadows through the ruin that was once my home. I saw several gangers jump with joy as they ran past toward the main central of town. I stayed behind until no more ran past.

I sprint across the street to make my way to the shacks on the other side, they weren’t the best for cover but at least they would hide me some.

The central courtyard was surprisingly flame free, but had several ponies lined up and bound in rope. They didn’t look scared, they looked like they were accepting what was happening. I scanned my eyes across each pony and studied their features briefly.

One was brown coated, and he had an orange mane. Another was silver with a green mane. Each had severely different features, none of them severely appealing except for one. Mom sat near the end, third from it. She had a defeated look I’d never seen her wear. Like she knew there was nothing she could do. But I could do something, er… I could try.

I moved behind the shack again and looked around for something sharp, or something ribbed to get through the ropes. I eventually found a metal comb with pointed edges, it would work well enough. Hopefully.

I realized there was a flaw in my plan, the ponies surrounding the group of residents was massive. There was no way I would get through that and get her out alive. I was utterly helpless.

~~~~~

This was a familiar feeling, being dragged behind somepony with a rope around my forehooves. My recon suit was doing little to protect me from dirt getting into the gap in my flesh. Rhythmic thuds of heavy hooves sounded, they were coming from in front of me, the pony pulling me along. There was no bag on my head this time, although I was completely bound.

I was on my side while they pulled me, and I could feel every rock dig into me as i pulled against them. I chanced a look as much as I could in attempt to see the pony pulling me. I could just catch a glimpse, in the uncomfortable position, of their dark green tail.

I moved around a little, hopefully to catch their attention, and they stopped briefly and dropped the rope, circling around to face me. It was Strike, with his beautiful jade eyes shining in the light.

Wait, light?

“Mornin’, sunshine! You sure missed a lot!”

_________________________________________________________

Level up! : (5)

Why’s it always the leg!: Your leg has sure gone through hell. You’re 10% less likely cripple your left foreleg. As for the rest, well they don’t need it as much.

Chapter 5

View Online

Light poured in from the sky, through a small opening in the clouds there was a blue cover and a blinding white light. Was that… the sky? The real sky, not just clouds that covered everything, but the real pegasus damned sky.

It was beautiful.

“Yeah so there's a hole in the sky now! That happened… You lost a looot of blood, so here I am dragging you. You’re too heavy to carry, which is weird because you’re so tiny… I have you tied up because I can’t really trust you not to try and walk it off, you are in a reeeally bad way and I don’t want Vetta to kill me if you die,” he paused for a moment and started looking around away from me, when his eyes finally met mine he continued. “I… uh… I kinda lost Vetta. Don’t kill me!”

He was standing far back from me, so I couldn't hit him, especially while bound. So I just glared with the most intensity I could, I’d like to think I looked scary, but while I was bound and practically curled up in a teeny ball I doubted I looked very vicious.

My only hope was that I would be freed soon so I could pummel Strike and get on my way to getting back Vetta. She was the one thing keeping me alive, her and lots of alcohol, without her what would I do? Creep around in the unknown and give people a slightly longer life? What was the point of that if they were just going to end up dying later?

I practically fumed from my nostrils as I stared into his jade eyes, although he was a cocky bitch he did look a little sorry. I motioned toward the rope hoping he would get the hint and start pulling toward wherever it was we were going. He took a step toward me like he was anticipating a radigator to bite him, and grabbed the rope.

“See thing is, I don’t know where we are going. I want to try and find your marefriend but I also need to get you to a hospital, you’ve been out for a while… So which is it? Tap twice for hospital once for Vetta.”

As much as I wanted to get help, I was also stubborn. And what would be the point without Vetta? Although we weren’t extremely close yet, she was my one light in the darkness. And I’ve learned from my time in the wastes that you can’t always hide in the dark. I would tough this out, right?

I tapped once.

“Uhm are you sure? Like, you lost quite a bit of blood, and I don’t even know if you can walk,” He looked legitimately concerned for a moment, but upon seeing the resolve in my eyes he just shrugged. “Whatever you say. Think you can walk?”

I nodded and he stepped closer to remove the taut rope around my hooves. As he pulled them off I could feel the difference of actually having blood flow through my legs. I put a little pressure on each as I attempted to stand on the weak limbs. As I put pressure and tried to lift myself I felt woozy and like I was swirling.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to a hospital?” He moved over next to me in attempt to help support me. I pushed him back with what excess strength I had. I could do this on my own, I didn’t need any help.

*SMACK* Okay maybe a little help. I spit the dirt out of my mouth and leaned into Strike using him to lift as much weight I could. As I pushed into him I realized just how strong he was.

His tough build resist mine with such ease it was pathetic. He was firm and warm, and every nerve tingled as I pushed into him. Okay I needed a lot of help. I pushed with everything I had to just get onto my hooves, blood loss was never a problem for me before, and experiencing it first hoof wasn’t the ideal way of finding out how bad it was.

“It feels like you’re trying to murder me with a feather, and you’re sure you can walk? I really don’t want you to go passing out on me, that just means more carrying,” he was going to get smacked when I had the energy.

After what felt like an eternity I finally stood on all three hooves, my wounded lifted slightly, and I was still nearly two feet shorter than Strike. I was really small huh? And I was the “leader” of our ragtag trio. Oh right Vetta was gone, duo.

“I found some gear while I was meandering, it’s not much but it’s better than nothing,” he reached behind him into his saddlebags and pulled out a few items. Among them was a shiny dagger, that shimmered elegantly like the sun above and seemed like it was calling to me. There was a tattered drifters outfit that was made of brown leather, and looked worse for wear but good enough to be repaired and stuffed with metal for impromptu armor. And finally he pulled out a stark black gas mask with filters protruding from either side and tinted lenses that made it look like something that lurked beyond the realm of the living.

“I got dibs on the mask, it looks cool and I’m going to make it even cooler wearing it. That’s all I had, sorry, maybe you can get rid of that holey recon suit for the drifter coat, it’d make you look cooler, just saying.”

He should say less. I loved this suit, it moved nicely and felt good to wear. Sure it was getting a little old, but it worked just fine. I gave a light scoff and he just looked puzzled.

“Wait, you make noise? Since when? I thought you were silent…”

I put a hoof to the dirt and spelled out ‘Mute’ and turned back to him with a look that implied he was an idiot. He seemed to get the message so I turned and tried to start walking, not before admiring the sunlight one last time.

It was like nothing I had ever seen, it was the purest form of beauty, and that’s just what ponies lived with in olden times. It was weird that light could be so appealing to me, me who loves the shadows, but I couldn’t not admire the spectacle that would so soon be taken away. How could it last? Nothing beautiful lasted in the wasteland, nothing heroic either. Everything that is good must be stripped of any remnant of joy it brings ponies. That’s just how it has always worked, and it always will.

Strike moved up next to me and tried to force me into leaning into his side (Well, legs really. Being short was dumb) and I just sort of accepted it. I was in poor condition and I was probably making it worse, but at least he just let me be an idiot.

“So, let me catch you up a little on our situation with the slavers. After you blacked out again, believe me I was paying attention to you, a bunch of insurgents showed up with stuff we couldn’t combat. Like, they had well kept service rifles and them 7.62 NATO sure hurt like hell. Anyway, they had air support with snipers, so we were pretty much boned. I tried to make my way to you and get us out but those guys sure knew what they were doing. A griffon pinned me, and I can’t say for sure what happened to Vetta at this point, but a bunch of guys were starting to surround us.

Next thing I know them Steel Rangers showed up and gave them something to chew on, lots and lost of bullets. While they were busy fucking with the ponified tanks of the wastes I snatched you up and started to get the hell out of there. One of them high calibre rifles started to punch the Rangers in the heads and they started to drop. By then we were already on our way and they stopped bothering us, but I doubt our standings with the Fillydelphia Slavers is very good any more.”

That was the most anyone had ever said to me in one go, and it took me a while to process it all. I was used to being alone and not having to listen to others, so having to process nearly 200 words in a short time was hard.

“After they were gone I went and checked out Vetta’s roost, but all that was left was some shell casings. Sorry again.” He was fading away from his monotonous soldier like drawl and more into something resembling a country dialect.

My shambling was slowing us down a lot. We had barely made it 200 feet and nearly half an hour had passed. Our usual rate of nearly a mile in an hour was starting to become a fantasy with how much damage I was starting to get to my leg. The buildings within view were still in view not far behind

All I was doing was slowing him down…

“You good? You seem to be zoning out, you’re not gonna pass out on me are ya’?”

I shook my head and focused purely on walking. That would have been pretty easy, had Strike not continued talking.

“So where are we going to look? I don't really have any ideas where she would be, and if she was trying to hide she would be nearly impossible to find. If I could fly, I would look around from above, but I gotta carry your sorry ass. Other than that I have no Idea where we could look, do you?”

Fuck, I didn't think this through. It would be so much easier if I wasn’t practically dying. We might as well go to a hospital, I can only hope Vetta can handle herself for long enough. Although it was starting to get dark.

The sun was gone and so was the hole on the cloud layer. Everything looked so gloomy without the shining effect of the sun shimmering off of everything, it would have been amazing to see Luna’s night. Although that was just a dream, I would never be so lucky.

I shook my head and Strike scoffed.

“Of course not… Well, can we just get you to a hospital? There is no point in looking for someone without any trace of a hint of where they are. Please?”

What. Did he just say please? That was fuckin’ weird.

I nod slowly and sadly, letting my head fall into the somber motion. Then he looked at me oddly.

“Really? That… was easier than I thought.”

I rolled my eyes although he wasn't really looking I hoped he could just sense my annoyance. He was really a jerk and I wanted to not have to be alone with him anymore.

Then a scream broke through the air, but not a normal scream. It was a child… I really hoped somepony wasn't fucking a kid, because we were gonna have some real issues. I don't care that I’m wounded, they were going to pay, maybe.

I could feel Strike tense at the sound of the scream, he almost started running, (or flying not sure how it works) I could feel it in the way his muscles reacted and shifted. He picked me up and threw me over his back, he didn’t even strain at my weight, running toward the sound of the scream.

“I know this whole saving ponies thing is your schtick, but I wanna try my new mask out!” he said, not even panting in the slightest. He was running with extra weight at amazing speeds and he wasn’t even tiring, there was no way he didn't train or something.

He threw on the gas mask, and turned into a badass. The mask covered his face and made him look expressionless, although his terrifying grin couldn't be seen, you could feel it. I was on his back and I knew he was smiling like he just got a new weapon. It wasn't long before I threw mine on with magic, I might not look as intimidating but I sure as hell had a name to keep.

I couldn’t say how long exactly we ran, but it was a fair while and the screams still didn’t stop. When they were within distance we stopped running and slowed to a crawling pace.

Strike peeked around the corner and brought his head back quickly.

“Here, take the dagger. I’m gonna go around and we’ll ambush ‘em.”

For a moment I wondered why I needed a dagger, then I realized. ”WHERE THE FUCK IS MY GUN!” I mentally swore, this was not okay. Before I could attempt to complain, Strike was gone into the air, silently disappearing behind the building.

I twirled the blade in my magic and let it twist on it’s hilt for a moment, inspecting it. It was wonderfully crafted, the grip was etched with images of ponies in battle and the blade was so perfectly crafted it made me shudder. The grip was black with gold etches and the guard was a standard silver. It couldn’t have been longer than six inches, but that would be good for me because I wasn't use to blades and would likely break it otherwise.

I did mourn for my beautiful and reliable gun, but this blade would be a fair substitute until I got it back. And I was going to get it back. I’m really starting to get a long list of things I’m missing.

I caught a glimpse of The Angel on the other side, his mask hiding him in the shadows, I could see fairly well in the dark so spotting him prowling in the shadows wasn’t very hard. I wasn’t too light headed anymore, mainly thanks to the adrenaline pumping through me at the sounds of screaming, so I tried to cast my spell and it worked. I moved, slowly but surely, closer to the raider standing in front of a cage, the only cage in the small makeshift camp.

As I inspected the soon to be dead, I noticed something a little different about him. He was wearing barding that had words inscribed on the sides reading, “Murphy’s Marauders”. That was pretty corny if I was asked. It didn't matter who’s marauder he was, he was still just watching this kid writhe in the cage.

Wait. No he wasn't. He was trying to get the lock open? What the fuck? I waited until he got the lock open then shot a glance to Strike, after removing my spell. Strike flew out with an impressive speed and pinned him to the dirt. I looked over to the kid still twitching in the cage then turned to the marauder.

“I swears I wasn’t gon’ do nuthin’! I was just gonna rob ‘em thas it, then they was free to go!” He talked in a ganger type of accent that was really annoying. Every letter was practically slurred into the next and it made him hard to understand, like he was talking in cursive.

“Murphy’s Marauders? What do they do, are they trouble?” Strike had his commanding, soldier-esque voice back, and it was intimidating. The stallion practically trembled under him, feeling his eyes bury into him and his raspy breathing through the filters could really terrify somepony if they were in his situation.

“No, we’re just thugs. We don’ go killin’ jus’ for fun or nuthin. We’re civilized to an extent, other than tha occasional brawl, we usually jus steal or well, do marauder things.”

“Why are you trying to rob somepony in a cage? What would they have to give you, other than their life I suppose. Your story doesn’t add up,” The mask made Strikes voice sound a little deeper and it gave it a fuzzy kind of sound that made it all the more petrifying.

“I’m just doing as I was told mister! I was told my Mr. Murphy to come here and handle this kid. That’s all I was told, to come to this camp and get ‘em outta the cage. Murphy teaches us how to pick locks, pickpocket, and even persuade people into a better deal. We was all weak before Mr. Murphy, now in numbers, we’re stronger than we could have ever wished!”

I guess he had a point, I mean at least they weren’t as bad as most raiders. I guess we could let this one sl- *SNAP* Ooor not. I guess he didn’t really need his neck anyway. It barely took Strike even the slightest of a flex to force his hooves and snap the neck of the marauder, leaving his bone exposed through the gooey flesh that was now dripping with red liquid.

I didn’t encourage the killing of (mostly) innocents, but he was dead so what was I going to do? Use magic to bring him back to life? Not this unicorn, thanks. I didn't even have some sort of painkiller spell, my leg was starting to hurt again from the exertion and I needed to rest, but not before having Strike talk to the kid.

This was a strange encounter. Here in a tiny one pony camp, was one cage with one pony in it. A tent sat not far, with a spit roast in front of it with some cooked animal left on it. So why was this guy here, but the original owner wasn’t? Why was this kid here was a better question.

I moved silently toward the now open cage and got a good look at the pony in the cage. Fucking animals! The kid couldn’t have been older than a year, it was still a foal and here it was. Sitting in it’s own feces and blood, crying into it’s stained and beaten coat. They would have been pretty cute if they weren’t in such a poor position.

A greenish turquoise coat was soaked in nearly every bodily fluid one could produce, and their mane was a light blue, almost the color of the sky. They were curled into a ball so tightly that I couldn’t tell much other than that of their main colors. I felt so bad for the kid, they must have been here most of their life, seeing as how young they were they probably didn’t even know their parents.

The rags covering them shifted slightly and I inched closer. Strike was behind me, looking just as somber at the sorry sight of the poor kid. Sure the wasteland was shit, everypony knows that, but why does it have to torment the young? They have done nothing other than be forced to exist and the wasteland just decides, ‘Hey they look like fun, let’s ruin their life’.

“Hey, kid? You’re alright, we’re the good guys,” Strike spoke in a tone that just didn’t fit him right. It sounded… respectful.

The child in the cage gave one last sniffle before turning around with an energy I didn’t imagine being possible. Seeing the face, I could tell it was a girl and she looked… happy?

“Well hiya! The name’s Florentine, y’know like the cookie, but that’s too many syllables. Call me Tiny! So you’re the goodies huh? Here to save the day and rescue me from the horrors of the wasteland? Yeah that’s what the last ones said too, said they would protect me. And lookie here! Locked in a cage and beaten crispy. Well it was nice making your acquaintance but I really must go, I gotta keep runnin’ or they’ll catch me. They already took the other kid that was here, so I doubt they're far."

I just sat, dumbfounded. Staring into her deep blue eyes and waiting for her to start acting sad. But she just stood there, returning the glance and smiling wildly. She was just locked in a cage and curled up, but now she was standing tall (nearly as tall as me, even at such a young age) and sporting a huge smile that was nearly creepy. She was legitimately happy. Even her high pitched screech that would put a bird to shame sounded honestly joyful.

“Uh-huh Florentine huh? Well, we’re looking for my pal’s girlfriend, you seen her? Tallish mare, dark purple coat, you would think it black if you weren’t up close, light green mane? I doubt she would be out here, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Hmmm. No sir, sorry haven’t seen anyone like that around, not that I get a very good view through bars. Maybe I could tag along and help you find her? I’m smarter than I look!” She finished loudly, nearly forcing the phrase into our ears, making absolutely sure we understood.

“I-I don’t know… I already lost one person, I don’t know if it’s all that good of an idea with Fortune all beat up. I’m sorry kid, but I think you should just go on your own. It’s probably better that way.”

Something clicked in my head and I tapped Strike’s shoulder. When he turned to look at me I tried with all of my ability to give him a look that said ‘let’s take her along’. I was not going to let a kid die if I had the ability to help them again. I could give her the opportunity of (relative) safety.

“Wait wait wait. You said Fortune? Like, Miss Fortune, the awesome bandit slaying, protector? I didn’t think she existed, I thought it was just another child’s tale to keep me believing there was some pony who actually cared about others,” She paused for a minute and pursed her lips in thought before finally turning back with an even bigger smile. “Well then, I guess it’s settled. You’re not going to let me go on my own, that would be dangerous. Right?”

I nodded and her hair sort of sprung up and she hopped over towards me, literally hopped. She went from sniffling in a cage to hopping with a smile in two minutes. Then, she hugged me. At first I was freaked out. A pony hugging me is so out of the park that I never expect it, and when it happened I tensed up and pushed her away. She seemed to understand and sort of left it at that, but now I had even more fluids on my clothes.

“Well, where to huh? Like probably a hospital right, we need to fix you up and that’s that. No buts. Kay? Kay. It’s settled, to the hospital! Wait, do you guys have any idea where a hospital would be? Because I’m fresh out of ideas. Oooh, I could tell a story? Would that help? Eh, I’m going to do it anyway. So--”

“Do you have to talk so much, kid? I don’t want to hear your story right now, tell it later,” He drawled like a pony who has been defeated, not even raising his voice.

“Well Duh! Fortune doesn’t talk much, so I have to make up for two ponies, therefore I have to talk as much as I usually do and talk for Fortune. Oh should I do a voice for her? What would that even sound like?”

Where in Luna’s name did she come to the assumption of having to talk for me? She sure asks a lot of questions, maybe that’s why she’s so smart…

“We had the whole argument about her voice, but she sort of just brushed it off. We conflicted over if it would be high pitched or fairly normal. Gee wouldn’t it be funny to see her running after you squeaking? She so small it would be like a mouse trying to kill you.”

“I don’t think that’s very nice… I mean, she doesn’t talk for a reason and if you’re making fun of her for it wouldn’t that make her feel bad? And that’s like… totally uncool,” Her voice dropped an octave as she went over how I would have hurt feelings about being made fun of, weirdo.

“Okay captain buzzkill, it was just a joke and Fortune doesn’t seem to care-” I didn’t “- if I’d have know you were gonna whine about it I wouldn't have done it.”

I noticed something peculiar right around then. We were just walking and talking like usual, but something was wrong. I couldn’t quite place it but something felt… off. The building surrounding us looked down at us like the kings of the city, watching us slowly walk by.

“Hey, Fortune, what’re you doing? Is something wrong? Oooh, do you want to talk about it! I could be your therapist and you could lay on that couch there and we could talk about you and your feelings!”

Couch? There was no… huh. Just moments ago I was looking around for something and not once did I notice the enormous beige couch sitting not far away on the crumbling gravel that was once a road. It just sat there like it was there forever, but it couldn’t have been because it looked brand new and clean. How did I miss that? The city was not my favorite place to be, especially since things like this happened.

As I looked intently at the suspicious couch, I saw a glimpse of movement. Somewhere in the ruins of the buildings we walked through was a small change in the shadows. I knew something was up, there was no chance that big of a shift was just a rodent,and so I moved to inspect it. I threw on my mask with magic and could catch the motion of Strike moving his into position.

“Hey, why don’t I get a mask? I want to look cool too! I guess I’ve only been a part of your little outfit for a little bit, but I should get a mask too!”

“Shut up and let Fortune focus.”

I stood in the ruins, looking, and listening, for any change at all. After about a minute, a rock clattered from somewhere and a figure started moving hastily in the direction of “away”. They ran and turned a corner and I heard the clatter of a door slamming against the frame, well it wasn’t a slam but it seemed like it if they were trying to evade us.

I slowly limped my way to the corner, still listening intently for a direction. The gravel was grinding and making a substantial amount of noise, that would make it easy to detect them if they made their way out. Shambling apart walls were slowly breaking from being shifted even slightly for the first time in what had to have been decades. Everything about the building seemed fragile in the way it looked. Everything was crumbling and shifting uneasily, should a stone building sway that much?

I pushed through the chipped wood door and it creaked with age and rust at the hinges. The wood resonated a thud as I put my hoof to it and pushed it lightly. The building smelled dead, not like dead ponies, but like it was lonely and abandoned. Left without love and set to crumble without being cared for.

Was I feeling sorry for a building? Goddesses I need rest.

Florentine made a ton of noise as she followed us into whatever type of building this was. I contemplated forcing her to wait outside, but that could lead to bad routes. No, it was safer to have her with me than to leave her alone, or at least that’s what I’d like to think. Every step was a crash and every motion a whoosh, she was going to need a lot of work. It was funny, she sort of reminded me of the way mom was. Always making as much noise with the simplest of task.

Shit, now I’m sad…

I refocused on making my way into the building and finding the stalker. They couldn’t hide forever, I was friends with the shadows and they had a way of helping me out in return. It was strange, but in the dark I always felt like I was more perceptive and everything was just a little clearer.

The building was fairly simple, overturned tables and chairs were everywhere, sprawled out like a tornado came in and got trapped for a year. Carpet lay rotting on the floor, the strings clearly frayed and dying. The room was small and it was obvious no one was in this jumble of disaster. One thing that helped was the settled dust, or rather the unsettled dust.

This building was abandoned so long, a centimeter high layer of dust coated everything, everything except where our little friend had been. Dust in broad lines separated the floor, some of it still falling in clumps. What little light that shone through the boarded windows caused long beams of dust to be clearly highlighted as it all fell to rest on the floor again. The path wasn’t perfectly straight however.

The pony had been running and shambling, so the lines were really wide and hard to follow in a perfect line. So much was dragged in as they bolted to wherever, that some of it caused false lines that lead in an incorrect direction. After following what I hoped was the right line (it was the longest so it made sense) we were lead to a window, and that’s where it ended. FUCKING PEGASI!

What a waste of time…

“Well that was fun and all, but I think we should be going now,” Real helpful Florentine, real helpful.

“Oh! Can I tell my story now?”

Both me and Strike let out a groan, but his masked mine and I went unheard. Florentine looked at us and frowned.

“Alright kid, you got one story then, if you fail to entertain me, that’s it. Got it?”

“Yes sir! And please, don’t call me kid… I’m a functioning member of the team! Ready?”

“Look, I’m gonna call you kid whether you like it or not. You’re a kid so you get called kid. That’s that, end of story.”

“Fiine. So---”

~***~***~***~

There once was a valiant soldier who looked death in the eye and stood his ground even in a hurricane. Any who opposed him would be stricken to the depths of hell by his mighty hammer of justice. The hammer was said to have been given to him by a mighty power from beyond our world. All who came unto his path would bow for either having had saved them or because he would soon. He was an unstoppable being that couldn’t be called anything crude.

So, they called him… Fluffy.

Now don’t go and take this like it’s funny. Those of the time feared even mentioning his name, in caution of him coming within earshot and getting mauled to dust by the mighty hammer, known as Hrondir.

The mighty warrior was facing a dragon to protect a small village, this was no challenge and the dragon was quickly defeated with ease. The body lay upon the ground, like a trophy for him to claim. After each enemy he felled, he took something from them to remember their life, for he was not a menace and he cared for those who he killed. From the dragon, a tooth, the largest and sharpest was removed from his jaw and placed among the 20 or so others upon his neck.

After the mighty defeat of the dragon, he was to return to the town and accept the grace of those he protected. He never anticipated a reward, for it was in his mind that the gods had given him the power in hopes he would protect those who needed protection. And he did, very well.

He had it in his mind that the gods were those of war and striking down opposition, and the goddesses were of peace and harmony. The mighty warlords would smile benevolently at the crumble and fall of others while the tranquil goddesses would let them a hoof and give them a second chance to do better.

As he moved into the town the earth quaked beneath him. Each step with enough force to crack concrete pounding into the dirt. The brute would not care if he destroyed the earth beneath him, for it would only come back stronger, that was how defeat without death worked. And he would never get better, he was the best.

When he made it to the small area of land that could barely be called a convocation ground he stood, letting the wind carry his heavy mane and ponies look upon him with glory. He stood with absolute valor, but he would never have expected the one thing that could defeat him to appear.

His mother stood in front him, staring into his eyes with disappointment. He couldn’t but quake under her gaze, she was everything to him and she was upset with him, but he couldn’t say why.

“Oh child, why must you choose the life of harm? Why follow the lead of the gods rather the goddesses? I have taught you better than to use power and force opposed to the calm resolution of peace.”

Here he was, a demigod being scolded by his mother in front of an entire town. How certainly embarrassing! He could not waver, for he thought he was doing the right thing with his power, if he did not fight the beasts they would destroy the towns and harm the residents.

“But what of the harmed, and the destroyed? I like to believe that violence should not be the answer, but sometimes it must be.”

“Oh but that is where you are wrong! You see, there is always a way around something. Even if some lives must be lost, be the better and stop them from being on your conscious.”

“I see mother, how about a wager? I will stop with violence for a year, if things stay relevantly calm I will never lay another to rest. But if things become unsettled, then I will strike down the evil of this world. Does that sound like a fair trade to you?”

“I suppose it does, then let it start!”

And the town celebrated for nearly a whole day, over the safety of the town and the death of the mighty dragon. Everyone was happy and everything was okay.

After a year had passed the world had stayed in relative calm, other than the occasion provocation and accidental death, everything was okay. Although within this time Fluffy’s mother had passed away, he was left crestfallen, the mighty warrior was weak only to his own mind. On the day of her passing monsters and ponies alike joined in mourning, on night of calm and understanding of the loss. Although on was missing from the group, and it was Fluffy.

He stood solemnly, looking into the empty eye sockets of the dragon he had slain a year ago. The corpse missing the majority of it’s flesh stared right back into the warrior's eyes and waited.

This dragon, the last being he would ever end, was sitting lifelessly and it made the warrior upset. It was then he understood why violence was net to be the answer, for the dragon lived once too. It was kind to others once, and it had friends and family, and he ripped it all away from him and so many others.

Since he couldn’t bring them back to life, he could only think of one thing within his ability. To return all of the objects he had taken from those he had slain. That would take a very long time since he had killed tens of thousands and had no idea where to find the bodies.

The warrior stood atop the hill and shed a silent tear, which is said to have put a hole so deep in the ground and filled it enough for it to become a lake. Upon returning the tooth to the dragon it swirled with elegant blue light enrapturing the from and drifting around the body before forming an image of the flesh adorned dragon.

“You are doing the right thing, please follow through with it all. I don’t blame you for my death, I brought it upon myself. Thank you, Fluffy.”

Then he was gone and the warrior stood alone again.

~***~***~***~

“It’s said that he still roams the wastes, giving back to those who died,” Florentine finished her story and smiled from her spot on Strike’s back down at me.

“Damn, that was… actually pretty good,” He smiled lightly and looked back at her on his back, she smiled back and they just sort of did that for a minute.

I realized for a moment that everything was quiet, and I was… happy. It was weird but this little girl managed to calm the apocalypse and bring a smile to my face. The only thing that would make this better would be if Vetta was here, but alas, she wasn’t and I was headed to get pulled apart and put together in a hospital.

Well, at least my joy trip lasted a short while…

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Footnote: Level up! (6)

Friend of the Dark: The Shadows are your friend! While in low light areas you gain +1 to perception and agility

Fallout Equestria: Shadows

by DerpiusHoovicus2

Prologue

Calm Before the Storm

Boredom

Tenpony

Just Getting Started

Chapter 5