Adventures of Midnight Eclipse, a caravan guard trying to survive in the Equestrian wasteland
Every pony in a wasteland has its own goals to follow. Some ponies kill and torture others for their own pleasure. Some trying to save as much ponies as possible and bring justice to this world. And some, just trying to survive and settle somewhere in the hopes of a calm and peaceful life. While Midnight Eclipse always belonged to the latter category, she'll soon learn, that sometimes, wasteland has its own plans. Cover art by fantastic and talented Anticular Make sure to follow him for more gorgeous paintings.
The bar was surprisingly empty for this time of day. It has been a few hours since I came here, but the usually crowded with ponies place was rather quiet tonight. Which was fine with me, since I never liked large crowds. The few ponies, that were here looked, like they were doing it mostly out of habit, rather than actually wanting to be here. Did something happen to this place, while I was away? Well, if it did, it certainly wasn’t noticeable from the first look. Did they do something with the drinks? I looked at the almost empty glass in front of me. Well, if they did, then their whiskey, fortunately, manage to avoid such fate. It was the best way to relax and ease your mind after a long and grueling trip with a caravan. You just need to find a line where to stop. For me, it was the moment I was able to stop noticing the terrible drawings, the owner of this place hung up a couple of years back. I never… understood how he bought that “Pre-war work of art” nonsense, even raiders could probably come up with something that has more artistic value. Still, that was the only place to listen to DJ PON-3, and drink, so I’m not complaining. And neither did the others, this place could definitely use some competition, there was a reason why it was called "Junkyard". Maybe when I have enough money I can try to do something about it. But first I need to get myself prepared for the next trip. If Roache’s information is to be believed our route was taking us close to an old military base. While most stories I’ve heard about it were most likely just silly fairy tales townsfolk made up to scare foals I’d rather not risk it if I was going to go near it. My thoughts were interrupted by an entering pegasus. I would recognize that mix of a grey coat and a deep blue mane anywhere. He looked around also surprised by the unusual emptiness of this place. His eyes widened as they meet mine. I smiled at him, while he approached and offered him a seat with a small nod.
“Midnight? I didn’t know you’re in town! How did you get here?”
Well, if I were to see a familiar face today, I’m glad it was him, and not somepony from the local merchants guild. Not, that they often visited this place, still I’d rather eat a bloatsprite than listen to another lecture about trading routes becoming more dangerous. Like I didn’t know that, I’m a fucking caravan guard, dammit!
“We came through the northern guard post due to some changes in our route. Slavers have become more active lately. But I’m glad to see this place is still intact, mind absence of customers.” I said while pouring him some whiskey. “What you’ve been up to lately?”
“Well, mostly… ” he was interrupted by a loud screeching noise somewhere in the back. “Wait, did you hear it?”
I Swiftly turned my head, trying to locate the source.
“Yeah, maybe some radroaches? Would explain why nopony seems interested in this place tonight.”
He took a slow sip of whiskey. “Yeah, seems like it, I guess we just missed the memo, that they trying to deal with them today.”
I brushed a lock of black mane away from my eyes, as I turned back to him.
“Anyway would you care for a walk? I feel like I could use some fresh air.”
“Yeah, nothing refreshes your mind, like a good old radioactive dust” He chuckled “But I’d love to give you some company”
It was already dark when we walked out of bar. A passing pony jumped back after I looked at him. I guess my green eyes can be a bit… spooky in the bio-luminescent light of the signboard. Especially when the “J” and “Y” in Junkyard were constantly flashing and “R” faded out entirely. I shook my head and started moving towards my house. The streets were mostly empty, and dim light of the sparsely placed lanterns gave the town somewhat of an ethereal look. Honestly? I like it more this way. No ponies shouting on the streets, trying to sell you something or screaming at each other, because of some petty bullshit I never bother to get into. At night this place almost looked calm, and peaceful. Which was totally fine by me.
“So what are your plans for tomorrow?” He asked a bit shyly.
“Visit some friends, buy gear for the next trip, buck Grifter in the face for his «easy side job», then lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling for the rest of the day.”
“I thought, we can visit the «Grace and Glory», I saw a dress, that…”
“Yeah, sure just leave it at my door with a price tag, and I pay you back then I get my share.”
“That’s a gift…”
“Thanks, Crone! But you don’t have to…”
“But I think that it fits your coat…”
“Well it’s almost the same colour as your mane and I don’t remember you having poor taste in hats, so I trust you on that” I hastily replied.
“I don’t understand how this is supp…”
“Look it was a long day and I’m a bit tired, let’s discuss this tomorrow, ok?” I said with a yawn. Yeah, I’m not visiting this place even if I get paid for it! Maybe for that rifle Striker got his hooves on recently. Speaking of, I probably should visit his shop first thing tomorrow, if there is a pony who misses me except that wannabe fashionista it’s him.
“I… uhm… well… ok, have a nice sleep.” Said Crone, his eyes looking at the ground, as I was opening the door.
“Uhum” I nodded, mostly to my own thoughts, then to him, closing the door behind me. I took my leather armor off and lay on the bed it the right corner. For some reason, I saw the image of myself in a silver and gold dress, as I closed my eyes. «Huh, that’s odd,» I thought to myself, as I drifted off to sleep.
The loud shouting outside of my window suddenly ended. It wasn’t the worst way I had to start my morning. Or was it noon? It was hard to tell with this stupid clouds always covering the sky. And as much, as I’d love to just lay here for the rest of the day, there is some business, I have to attend in town. I walked to a mirror, to assess the damage done by the week-long trip and yesterday’s events. Dear Celestia I’m a mess. My mane looked, like I was just hit by a balefire bomb and I could barely make out which colour my coat was under all that dirt and dust.. It took me almost fifty minutes, to make myself look, like a normal pony, most of it was me trying to hide that damned white stripe in my mane. After I finished cleaning myself, I quickly finished my breakfast from a box of Sugar Apple Bombs and a Sparkle-cola and went outside. The thick grey cloud layer was as welcoming as always, and ponies occasionally passing by weren’t much better. And in that atmosphere of friendship and happiness, I have to begin my business. Well, it’s not, like I wasn’t used to it. First on my to do list was Striker. Well, technically it was his shop, not the guy hi… Why the fuck am I thinking about that?! Anyway It was a long time since I saw the old bastard, and we have a lot of catching up to do, but it will have to wait until evening. After a rather long walk across the town I finally saw the sign that read “Striker’s Doom & Gloom Death Emporium”. I opened the surprisingly nice and clean looking door and found myself in what could be described as an insane caleidoscop of chaos and colours. Or at least that’s what sompony who didn't know anything about Striker would say. Completely random at first glance there was more to his design choices, than just madness. The shop was divided into two parts, one was painted bright orange and the other deep blue, every stand with weapons had its own colour as well. Magical energy weapons were in the white stand, firearms in the dark green one, and they were put on the blue side of the shop, while grenades and melee weapons were put in bright pink and yellow respectively and appeared to be on the orange side. In the middle of this mess stayed the huge earth pony with a black coat and matching mane.
“Midnight! Come in! Come in! It’s been awhile. I thought you were going to return next week.”
“We took the route through the canyon. While the raider’s activity is a bit higher there, the chief took on a special delivery so we decided to take the risk. I’m glad you’re still alive and kicking, though.” I smiled at him and looked around noticing a few large crates with what I assume are containing new weapon shipments he's supposed to get from The Special Source. If my guess about its content is correct, than I could use something like that in my next job. Usually he likes to keep the information about his deals rather close, so I need to be careful. “By the way, how’s business?”
“Same as usual. And don’t even think about it, this is not for sale… yet.” He replied with a smirk. Oh, come on! Was I that obvious?
“What? I never…”
“Yes you did. Don’t you think you can fool me. I know you for way to long.”
“But… ugh, alright, when can I give it a look?” I replied evenly.
“I don’t know. I’m still waiting on the word from my supplier about a more... delicate part of the shipment” Now that is just cruel. That is definitely going to keep me up at night now. But if he decided to keep it a secret for now, there is no power in the whole wasteland that can convince him to tell it.
“Anyway, here’s what I need for my next trip” I gave him list of supplies, I prepared on my way back. “I have a few days before the next caravan will departure, will you manage?”
“Sure, no problem, come tomorrow noon, and all should be set,” He said, with his usual smile. “So would you tell me how everything went?”
“I have few more places I need to be, so why don’t we meet at the bar later this evening and discuss everything there?” I suggested, while thinking where to go next. He frowned a little and growled.
“Ugh… alright I guess, but I can’t stand those damn paintings! They’re so tacky and tasteless.” Yeah, you the one to talk. “Well at least they serve pretty good beer.”
“I’ll meet you there then!” I said as I exited the shop.
“Sure! Just try not to involve yourself into something dangerous!” He shouted as I closed the door.
After a short walk down the street I decided to go to Sparky’s place. He reserved a large storage space in the most South-West part of the town, far away from the usual town noises and shenanigans. The guy might be a bit eccentric, but…
“Hi, Midnight!” I froze in place as the small colt appeared in front of me. “Here, this is for you.” He gave me very fancy looking envelope. I stared at it with my eyes wide open. I was so surprised, that I almost forgot to breath, trying to parse this situation in my head.
“Who gave it to you?” I asked once I regained my ability to coherently speak.
“I don’t know. I just was told to give this envelope to…” he pulled a small note from his saddlebag. “Deep Blue mare, with a Black mane who goes by the name of Midnight. And it just appeared to be you!” He made a quick move with his hoof and the note suddenly disappeared. And before I could process what the fuck just happened, he decided to follow the note’s example with a quick “Goodbye!” and ran away. After a few seconds I finally manage to turn my gaze from the envelope and looked around to see where he went. But there was no trace of him. Ultimately deciding, that standing in the middle of the street with a weird envelope isn’t the best decision, I went straight to Sparky's place. When I entered what he called “Office” and navigated through the piles of electronic junk lying on the floor to the backdoor, I knocked three times and shout. “Sparky! Come out it’s…” I sighed “Delivery service” I muttered. While for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why he did make those stupid labels for the ponies who come to visit him, but I know better, than arguing with it. After a minute of silence I've heard movement behind that door, and the sound of something big falling on the floor. Finally the door opened and a familiar head with electric blue mane that looked like it just had a small balefire explosion inside of it, reared itself.
“Midnight! I’m so, so happy to see you! How have you been? Are you alright? Have you been followed?” His shrill tenor combined with rapidfire manner of speech never ceased to give me a headache, but everypony who knew him, was aware which question Sparky cares about the most.
“No. No I haven’t been followed. And it’s nice to see you too,” He finally showed himself full, his blue coat even more pale, than I remember. “I see you’ve been busy.”
“I was, I was! So much fixing needs to be done, it’s insane! I was able to work on your armor, though in my spare time. Say, you look kind of puzzled today, did something happen?” Considering his paranoia I think it would be better, to leave the envelope incident behind.
“No, no I’m fine. Just hadn’t woke up fully yet. Do you even have a spare time, though?”
“Of course I have! How else would I have enough time to finish your order? Wait a minute.” With that he disappeared in his… well whatever it was behind that door. Usually ponies weren't allowed past this point, so what was actually happening behind it was known only to him. Something fell off again with a loud ringing sound and clicking noise. After a few more minutes, he appeared again with a small crate in his hooves. “Finest set of armor on this side of the wasteland! Made by the famous Jade Spark himself! Well technically I just reinforced it and changed the material they used for leg parts, so you could move a bit more freely. But considering the state it was in when I got it you can say, that I as well made a new one.” He beamed at me with a huge grin on his face, and opened the crate.
“Indeed. It looks pretty good,” It was basic caravan guard’s armor you'd been given by their recruitment center once you have accepted the job, except this one was pure black as opposed to usual brown and if Sparky is to be believed (and I don’t have any reason to think otherwise) should offer much better protection.
“Pretty good? It looks amazing! I doubt you can find anything even remotely like that at this stupid store of theirs,” He blurted out with the indignant look on his face.
“Of course it does. Pristine Protection has nothing on you,” I said reassuringly going behind one of the counters and changing into my new outfit. It fit extremely well, much better than any other armor I wore before. I have no idea how Sparky always managed to make high quality barding out of complete junk, I wonder why he choose to make his living by fixing and making electronic and radio accessories. He could’ve made a lot of caps by selling his stuff to some mercenaries, or even guards. Doesn’t seems like he minds it though, so who am I to Judge? “Thank you so much!” I said after walking back and forth for a bit to get more comfortable. “It feels great! Can I leave my old barding here, for now? There is some unfinished business I have left, and I’d rather not wander around the town with it.”
“Sure! Just try not to get involved with anything dangerous,” he nodded and turned around to go back into his lair.
“I won’t” I smiled back. “I will pick it up in the evening, take care”. With that I left his little laboratory of sorts. The last pony I needed to meet today was Grifter. The dread of the idea that I have to talk to him was mixing with the feeling of excitement when I was imagining how I’ll shove this stupid documents down his throat. The problem was I had no idea, where he could be, so I decided to visit the one pony who knew almost everything that was going on in this town. The increased amount of ponies in the streets meant, that it should be around noon by now so I decided to speed up a little bit, before it got too late. Finally I was standing in front of a building, that was almost as remarkable, as the pony living inside. Unlike any other structure in town (sides Striker’s store front), it was the only one that was properly painted, and decorations on windows and nameplate “Moonlight Feather” hanging above the door, almost made it look like the war never happened. I knocked on the door, and almost immediately, I heard shuffling hooves and her cheerful coloratura soprano (the only reason I know the term in the first place is that I used to hanging out with her when I was younger).
“Hold on, I’m coming!” The door opened and I entered the most clean room I've ever seen. Everything was washed, dusted, and accurately put in its place. I felt kind of bad walking in with my dirty hooves, but before I managed to say a word, Moonlight already pulled me in. “Oh, Eclipsa! What a pleasant surprise! Sit over there I’ll fetch us some wine and Snack Cakes” She was one of the few ponies who still called me by that nickname. I watched her, as she trotted to the kitchen. Moonlight looked as stunning, as ever her emerald green mane carefully tailored around her shoulders. The slinky blue dress shoving curvy lines of her toned body, perfectly complementing her athletic hips and round chest. I doubt even pre war ponies were able to move with such grace. Her wings slightly opened from anticipation. Being a pegasus in a world where everybody hates you just because you have wings are tough. Being born a pegasus in a family of the unicorns fixated on purity of their heritage, in that world… I still don’t know how she managed to go through that and not turn out a socio-phobic psycho, but that just gave me more reasons to admire her. Moonlight returned with an old looking bottle and a couple of delicious snacks, and poured red liquid in a couple of glasses standing there before sitting down besides me. “Well, may I ask you the reason of your visit? Or did you just come to have a good old chat with your friend?”
I took a sip from the glass and barely could hold a moan of joy. Damn, where did she gets this stuff? “Well… as much as I’d love to I do have some business, I’d like to get over with. Do you know where I can find Grifter?” Her beautiful muzzle scrunched in contempt at his name.
“Oh that…” she seemingly struggled to find a word that wouldn’t be harsh profanity. “…ruffian? I’ve heard he should have a meeting with somepony at the bar in about twenty minutes. But be careful, last night he was spotted nearby the old armoury in very suspicious company.” I envied her ability to somehow know all the latest gossip. “So try not to get involved into something dangerous, alright?” Why does everypony seemed to be insisting on telling me that today?
“Armoury, you said?” I replied taking a bite out of Snack Cake. “Didn’t I just tell you to not invol-”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m very sorry, but I really need to do, how about I stop here tomorrow and we have that good old chat?” She nodded, with a thin smile.
“I’ll be waiting. Farewell.”
“Bye!” I said as I left from the clean and comfortable room to a dirty and noisy wasteland. Well, knowing what that bastard is up to might proof itself useful, when I found him. I still had a little time before that meeting and knowing him that should take quite a while. So I began to trot towards the armoury to see, what I could find there. Whatever it is, if Grifter was interested in it, it can’t be anything good.
The armoury was a one storey building north of the marketplace. No windows, no vents, nothing. Just one door, that was guarded by a pair of ponies, one look at which makes my mane crawl. I was standing in a small alley in front of them for about fifteen minutes now, and still had no idea how the fuck I should approach it? I was pretty sure I’m going to be shot as soon as I get close enough to start a conversation with the guards, and there were no other possible entrance. I closed my eyes and sighed. Well, maybe I should talk about it with Striker first. Afterall he was on of the few ponies who had the access to it. As I began to walk away I heard a raspy voice mumbling behind the corner.
“…looking? First some assholes busting in like they own the place now this damn unicorn sneaking around, and all they do is sitting in that stupid barrack of theirs and drinking.” Well, maybe my visit wouldn’t be that useless after all. I went to the source of the voice, which appeared to be some grey unicorn lying around a trashcan.
“Hey, what was that about some assholes busting in?” He gave me a look of disdain.
“Oh, fuck off! I don’t know anything about whatever shit you looking for, and don’t want to know! So leave me alone and fuck off.” I honestly don’t know what I was expecting. But fortunately, this type of ponies was rather easy to persuade. “What if I pay you 10 caps?” His eyes widened for a second and then focused on me. I smiled.
“Well, some ponies showed up last night, they had some sort of boxes, with them, then they left without boxes. The end.”
“That’s it?”
“I told you I don't know nothing! Now give me my caps and get out! I swear, all these fuckers will destroy this fucking city.” I counted ten caps, and hoofed them over. Can’t say I was happy with the result, but at least I had some food for thought for later. Now though, I had more pressing matters to deal with. When I finally got to the bar, it was almost evening, though it was rather hard to tell with all those damned clouds, lying above me as a last huge “Fuck you” from the Grand Pegasus Enclave to the rest of the world. Or at least what remained of it.
Unlike yesterday, almost all tables were taken, and the air was filled with the sound of ponies talking. I immediately noticed Grifter, sitting in his favourite corner, talking with some buff-looking unicorn. As much as I’d like to eavesdrop on them, there wasn’t any place from which to do so safely. So instead I trotted over to the bar counter.
"Whiskey?" Barpony looked at me, his grey, deep eyes staring into my soul. No matter how often I came here, I was never able to get used to feeling like he could see through me). Don't think I ever will.
“No, just water for now. I have some business that requires clear mind.”
“Well, maybe you’d like something that will make it clearer?” I shook my head.
“No, thanks I prefer to rely on my own skills, rather than some stupid Mint-als” He put a glass of water in front of me. “I never said, that I’ll give you Mint-als.” I froze for a second trying to think of another drug, that could cause similar effect, but nothing came to mind. I was about to ask what the fuck he meant, but Barpony already was making a cocktail for a unicorn with a messy mane and huge bags under his eyes. I sighed and looked back at the Grifter’s table. He was sitting alone and intently looking at me. Well, I guess there wasn’t any reason to stall, I took my water and walked to him, trying to stay calm.
“Clipsy! Hello! It’s so good to see…”
“If you call me that name one more time I will break, your fucking spine.” I hissed, glaring at him. Grifter flinched his dirty blonde mane falling over his eyes.
“N-no need to be so aggressive. I assume, you’ve met some… obstacles on your way.”
“Obstacles?!” It took me all of my willpower, to not scream in rage. “Ten fucking slavers, and a Robo Pony. We lost Silver Rose! I…” My voice broke, as memories flooded my mind. I summoned all the remaining strength to collect myself, and stop my hooves from trembling. Not now. Not here. Not in front of him. “I… hope you have a damn good explanation, how they have learned about that “Safe and discreet place”.
“I’m sorry to hear, you had so much trouble, I guess, one of my friends…”
“I couldn’t give less of a fuck about your friends, business partners, fuck buddies, or whoever the fuck you decided to blame this time, you said, it will be safe.” The bastard shrunk in the chair, as I leaned over to him.
“I-I… I’m sorry, I fucked up, your reward will be at Striker’s place tomorrow noon and I throw it some extra for the trouble. I’m sorry, but that’s all I can do right now. Do you have the case with you?” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “There wasn’t any case.” His brows went up. “Only this.” I put the pre-war data drive on the table. Grifter looked at it for a solid minute his face expressionless. And while loud voices and banting were common here, some ponies were beginning to look our way.
“Well, that should suffice, thank you.” He stood up and made few steps to the exit. “As much as I would love to spend this evening in your company I’m afraid, I have some other business I have to attend before dawn. I wish you a pleasant evening, and sorry again, for this I promise I will make it up to you one day.” I tried to steady my breath, as Grifter left the Junkyard. I took his place behind the table, and before I could blink Barpony was standing in front of me with a bottle of WIld Pegasus in his hoof. I nodded and counted 30 caps.
“A friend should join me soon, bring us a couple of Snack Cakes, and a bottle of beer. Luna’s Watch, if you have it.” The Barpony retreated to the counter as I poured a glass of ember ambrosia. I sighed and downed the whiskey. deep down I understood that what happened wasn’t Grifter’s fault, and yet if it wouldn’t be for his stupid side job, we would have just taken our usual route and returned home without any problem. I hope this stupid drive was worth it. “Are you alright?” I looked up in surprise, the huge black earth pony was standing over me with a look of concern on his face.
“S-striker?” I asked, as my brain tried to process how in Equestria did I manage to miss a pony of his size, after only one shot of whiskey. “Sorry, I was just… talking to a Grifter and it brought back some… unpleasant memories.”
“Are you still doing business with him? I’m telling you whatever he’s up to, it can only be trouble.” The Barpony appeared behind Striker’s back and put a dark blue and a pair of Snack Cakes on the table.
“I know, but he does pay well, and there wasn’t anything to bad until…” My voice trailed off, as I sighed and scooped up one of the Snack Cakes with my magic and took a bite, “Sorry, it’s just…”
“Don’t worry you can explain it later if you want. Better tell me, what are you planning to do next? I’ve heard that you want to move on from the caravan business.”
“I do, eventually, but for now, take my payment, rest for a day or two and find another caravan to travel with. Speaking of payment, Grifter said, that I should pick it up at your place, so what is it?”
“Ah, yes, I’ve got a case delivered for you today. Didn’t know it was from him, though.” “Why didn’t he just delivered it to me then?”
“I guess a pony with weird case wouldn’t bring as much attention, in the gun shop, as the one sneaking around some random house.” He took a long sip from the bottle and grinned “Ah, my favourite! Glad to see you haven’t forgotten.” “Why would I ever?” I looked around the bar, and suddenly noticed quiet tapping noise. After quick investigation, it appeared to come from my back hoof, tapping on the floor. My eyes focused on the whiskey. “Speaking of sneaking,” I finally said, stopping my hoof in place. “If I remember correctly you have an access to armoury…” The loud thud interrupted me as the bottle connected to the table. I looked up, Striker was looking at me, his brows narrowed. “I just heard that there was some suspicious commotion recently, and wanted to make sure, that everything is alright.” his look softened a bit, but I’m pretty sure he hadn’t believed me.
“I haven’t heard anything about it. And even if something did happen, let the guard handle it.”
“Why are you saying it as if I am planning something?”
“I’ve known you for very long, Midnight.” He said after finishing his Snack Cake.
“Well I don’t. And even if I did plan something, there is not enough time, for me to do anything.” I replied pouring another shot of Wild Pegasus.
“Did you find a new job already?”
“Not yet. Was a bit busy, running errands, and visiting friends, but I’m sure I will find something tomorrow, there is always a caravan or two looking for an extra gun. But enough about me, tell me how you were doing while I was away?” “Oh I was pre…”
“Midnight Eclipse?” The grey coated unicorn in reinforced leather bading appeared behind Striker. “Who’s asking?” I replied evenly.
“I am from Ace’s caravan, we’re currently planning a trip to Safe Harbor, and looking for extra guards. We were told you’re one of the best out there, so I’d like to invite you to talk with our leader tomorrow.” I raised my eyebrow.
“And who told you this exactly? I don’t remember being well known around here. Or anywhere for that matter.”
“The Pegasus from town guard.” Damnit Crone! Well, that explains a lot.
“Let me guess, he was also the one who suggested to look for me here?” I asked, sending the remains of Snack Cake to their inevitable demise.
“Indeed, so what is your answer?” I really didn’t liked it, but I knew Striker wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if I turn it down outright.
“Sure, where can I find them?”
“We will be at the caravan place on the market, most of the day, we hope to hear from you soon. Farewell” I took another shot, as he left the bar.
“Well, looks like you got that problem sorted.” Said Striker with the few notes of relief in his voice before emptying his bottle.
“I’m not sure about that. He seemed odd. I mean who the fuck talks like that! Fucking Crone, who asked him to shove his stupid nose in my business?”
“He’s doing that because he cares, Midnight. I don’t think he really…”
"Well, I can take care of myself, thank you very much," I snapped, taking another shot of Wild Pegasus. "And I've never had problems finding jobs."
“Even that one time you came to me asking to allow you to clean my shop for food, because no pony wanted to take the caravan guard with little experience?”
“Well it was different! And now I have plenty of experience, and…” My head fell on my chest and I sighed. “Sorry, you’re right. I just had a lot on my mind recently and would like to deal with all this stuff at my own pace. I will talk with that caravan leader tomorrow and see what this was all about.”
“That’s my girl!” The huge earth pony smiled and stood up, “I think it’s time for us to go home, you need to get some sleep if you want to be conscious tomorrow.”
“Sounds good to me” as I watched the bulky stallion making his way out between the tables, I realized it was too late, to visit the market, so I bought a couple of Snack Cakes and a Bottle of Sparkle-cola before leaving the place. I decided to take a long route to home, to clear my head a bit. It was pleasantly quiet, as most ponies were already either drinking their problems away at the Junkyard, or were getting ready to sleep. In moments like this, Widow’s Wound seemed, like almost a nice place to live.
“I already told you I don’t fucking know anything!” Nevermind, it still was a shithole. I trotted to the small alley, the screaming had come from.
“Please, maybe you saw someone suspicious or unusual, around here today?” That voice sounded very familiar. “Crone?” I called stepping in the alley. And before I could ask him what in Equestria he forgot here so late, my gaze fell upon the body laying on the ground. I froze my eyes widened, there was no mistake it was that grumpy homeless pony from earlier. Except now his leg looked like it was broken in three different places and head was covered in blood. “Well, this one definitely seems odd, so bother her!” I heard sound of hooves moving away, as I was staring at the body. “Eclipsa?” I finally looked up at my friend, Crone looked as surprised as me. “What are you doing here? I thought you were already home.”
“I decided to take a small walk before sleep. What happened here?”
“I don’t know, we got a report on some drunk lying around in the alley, but when I came to deal with him, he was dead. Did you knew him? You looked shocked when you saw the body.” Was that just a coincidence? Or did somepony figured out that he saw something he shouldn’t?
“I bumped into him earlier today, he was rambling something about how ponies like me will destroy the city. Still I haven’t thought I will see him dead just a few hours later. I’m not sure how you can mistake him for being drunk, though.”
“That unicorn you saw earlier swears, that he was alive when he went for us, wait! You live nearby, right? Do you know why he could come here? It’s very far away from their usual quarters.”
“Crone, I just returned here yesterday, your guess is as good as mine. I guess now you have another headache to deal with tomorrow.”
“As if the Captain would allow me to bother ponies because of some random hobo, In the worst case I just will have to dispose of his body somewhere in the wasteland and keep quiet about it.” He looked at the body and sighed. “Well you better go, and I’ll deal with this before more ponies see the body.”
“Good luck! Oh, do you by any chance have some free time tomorrow?” Crone’s eyes widened as he looked at me in surprise.
“I’ll be on patrol until noon, but then I should be free, what’s up?”
“I wanted to talk about something, would it be ok for me to stop by your post?”
“Sure! Come at noon I’ll be waiting for you near the western tower.”
“Alright, got ya. Take care!” I said walking away from the crime scene.
“Good night, see you tomorrow” Crone’s voice came from behind.
Seeing the only one besides me who knew about shady armoury business being killed in the middle of the town, was concerning. I knew Grifter was a bastard, but I doubt he’d kill someone just because they happen to know about one of his machinations, his friends however I was more unsure about. And even if it was just a coincidence, I should be very careful, about discussing this information with others. Anyway for now I should focus on getting myself a new job, the lead Crone gave me might appear more interesting, than I initially thought. But now sleep, tomorrow promises to be, a very busy day.
A series of explosions rattled my door. Who the fuck is throwing grenades? I thought, shaking my head and looking around in confusion. After a few moments the ringing in my ears subsided, and I lifted the glass of pickle juice to my lips, thankful I had prepared it.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The “explosions” turned out to be some pony who really, really wanted to talk to me. Who in their right mind would be up at… I scratched my head as I lifted myself up from where I sat. wait, what time is it? Whatever. I trotted to the door and opened it. In front of me stood Crone, in his guard barding.
“Wow, you look like a carpet from a room at the Bhramin’s bachelor party.” Classy as always, Crone.
“Feels that way too. Come in.” I sat on the couch in the middle of the room, and levitated the remainder of yesterday’s dinner to me. Can’t say he looked much better, messy mane bags under his eyes… Sweet Celestia Crone! What have you been up to? “What brings you here so early?”
“Well, remember that homeless pony from yesterday?” Actually, that was the part that I tried to forget. he trotted to the couch looking around my room like it was full of criminal ready to attaack him. I guess some habits never die. “Our sergeant is interested in finding out what happened. So I was wondering if you remembered anything since last evening?”
“Didn’t you say that they won’t allow you to investigate this?” I raised my eyebrow, finishing my ‘breakfast’.
“Well, not officially, no. But since this is a bit of an unusual case, a few of us decided to look into it off duty.” Of course, you did. I'm pretty sure that the pegasi would open up the skies before you'd drop the case you're working on.
“Which is why you’re wearing that barding right now and questioning me on behalf of some ‘sergeant’ instead of yourself. Right.” Come on, Crone I know that something is up. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. I put my hooves together, and prepared to listen.
“Listen… we don’t have a lot of free time, so we have to occasionally go on patrol and check the city for unwelcome elements. Especially in the wake of recent events.” He smiled and sat next to me. “So what can you tell me about him?”
“Not much.” I shrugged “Bumped in to him near the armoury, he muttered some crap about ‘destroying the town’ and that’s about it.” Crone’s face took a stern expression.
“And what were you doing around the armoury?” Well… fuck. I walked right into that one.
“Moonlight told me I could find something interesting regarding the job I did recently.”
“And?” He gave me an intent look.
“And the only thing I found was that pony, who was killed.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit suspicious?”
I sighed and shook my head. “Kind of. Maybe… I don’t know! There are more pressing matters at hoof that I need to attend to, than some hobo murdered in the backstreets.“ Crone suddenly stood up, his eyes flaring with anger.
“He was an innocent pony who was brutally murdered. I don’t care if he was a hobo or Celestia herself, he deserves justice!” Suddenly I was very happy that looks kill. And deep down, I knew he was right.
“I… I’m sorry. It was a tough week and…” I shuddered as I felt his hoof on my shoulder.
“Maybe it would be easier for me to understand if you actually told me what happened?” Worry and concern radiated from him. Well, it’s been decided then. If any pony deserved to know, it was him.
“Yes, I guess I should.” I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. “Let’s talk later. I have some errands to run, and I want to reflect on what happened. Come here after your evening patrol, and we’ll talk. Alright?” After a few seconds he nodded with a soft smile.
“Alright, if that’s comfortable for you.” He slowly stood up and went to the door, his steps a bit shaky. “Well, I need to get back to my post. Thank you for the information. See you around.” And with that, he was gone.
Fuck, what exactly did I need to do today? I was about to put on my new barding as I noticed an envelope lying on the table. Oh, right! I never bothered to open it, did I? Well, now is as good a time as any.
The envelope looked nice and clean, with neat hoofwriting on the front. Which was very unusual for the wasteland. I opened it, unfolding a neatly folded piece of paper.
Miss Midnight Eclipse,
We, Velvet Caravans, have heard a lot of your skills and professionalism. As such, we would like to offer you a job within our organization as a caravan guard. If interested, please contact our agent at the caravan meeting grounds tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Fountain P.
Personnel Manager, Velvet Caravans.
What? Since when did they start hiring random drifters from the street? I know Nomads did, but Velvets? I swear, if it’s Crone again, I’m going to have some words with him. Anyway, work is work I guess, might as well see what’s it about.
The caravan place, or ‘ The Bhramin’s pit’, as the locals like to call it, was right next to the market. I noticed a couple shops were still closed despite it being almost noon. Odd. Walking past a huge “Lunar Plaza” sign that nobody bothered to remove since pre-war times, I noticed a familiar looking unicorn right next to a pair of traders.
“Ace’s caravan?” I asked, trotting up to them.
The yellow earth pony smiled at me, “Ah, you must be Midnight Eclipse,” I nodded. “Yes, that nice guard told me about you. I’m Ace, and this is my wife Aurora.” Light blue unicorn with turquoise mane, waved her hoof at me. “See, we’re going to make a trip to a Safe Harbor, and the rumor has it that it isn’t as, well… safe recently. So we thought hiring a couple extra guns would be a good idea.”
I thought about it for a second. “Yes, I heard a couple caravans ran into some trouble around those parts recently. What kind of goods are you delivering?”
“A little bit of everything.” The unicorn mare replied with a soft smile. “Food, ammunition, guns, general supplies.” She gestured her hoof at the crates behind them. “Maybe it’s not as fancy as some of the stuff you can find out there, but it gets the job done. And, for a fair price.”
“I see...” I tapped my chin thinking. This was one of the “scrap” caravans that gained popularity recently. Jobs for them rarely paid well, but at the same time raiders tend to target them a lot less often. “How many guards will there be besides me?”
“Ray over there,” She nodded at the grey unicorn, “And that viridian Earth pony…”
“Lily? I didn’t know she was in town.”
“Yes, her. And hopefully, you. We think that should be enough to deal with most of the problems our caravan might encounter.”
“Good. But before I give you the final answer, I need to know how much you pay.” A Sudden crunch from behind caused me to spin around. A few others around me did the same, but the majority seemed completely ignorant of the sound. “Did you hear that?” I asked turning back to my to-be employers.
“Yes.” Ace nodded, shrugging. “Probably some brahmin or a defective cart. With this many ponies around I would be more surprised if there weren’t any weird sounds.”
He sounded pretty reasonable, but the feeling of unease was refusing to leave me.
“Anyway, back to my question…”
“Yes, of course!” He nodded enthusiastically, “We’re paying a thousand caps after reaching our destination. Or, its equivalent in our merchandise. Does this sound fair to you?”
Hm… better than I expected. But still, with only three guards they could do better. “Fifteen hundred. You said that the road is more dangerous than usual, and yet you plan to bring only three guards. So if I’m going to risk my head, I want it to be worth it.”
“Miss Midnight!” Ace’s eyes widened, as his wife gasped covering her mouth with the hoof. “I understand that you need money, and your job is quite risky, but please understand that we also need to make some profit! How about twelve hundred? And if we will be in need of a guard again, we promise to ask for your services again.”
“Deal! When are we moving out?”
“Tomorrow morning. Will you be ready by then?”
“Yes,” I nodded, “I’ll meet you here, first thing in the morning.” I started to trot away, when I remembered, “Do you by any chance know where Lily is right now?”
Aurora shook her head, “Nope, she said that she needs to finish some preparations this morning, and we haven’t seen her since.”
“Alright, see you tomorrow.” Well, all that’s left to do is to get my reward from Striker, and sleep for the rest of the day.
***
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Can’t say that knocking on my door was my favourite way to wake up, but at least it wasn’t as bad as today’s morning. I stood up. The room was even more of a mess than I remember it. Empty boxes and bags were scattered across it, and the room looked more like a junkyard, rather than a place where somepony lives. And I’m not talking about the bar. The only thing that was clean, intact and carefully packaged were my weapons and barding. Well, except the remainder of my dinner, and a very expensive looking, sealed deck of cards that was laying next to the large revolver. Crafter might be a grade A cunt, but he’s reliable when it comes to payment.
I opened the door.
“Midnight?” Wait, Crone? What the… Oh, right. Fuck, I completely forgot about this. I nodded to him and sat on my couch and levitated a bottle of Wild Pegasus from the fridge. “I see it’s still not a good time to…”
“There’s never going to be a good time, Crone.” I sighed as amber liquid filled the glass. “And I really need to talk about it with somepony. It’s just… hard.” I winced, feeling a wing touching my shoulder.
“It’s alright, take your time.” He sat right next to me, and I could almost feel his eyes on me. Well, it’s now or never.
“On the last job, we went on our route as usual, the road was clear. However, Grifter asked me to retrieve a case from some ruins. It seemed simple enough, and he said that the place was abandoned.” I take a shot. A feeling of warmth spreads across my body, as I try to gather my thoughts. “As you can guess, that wasn’t the case. I asked to change the route, so it would go closer to the ruins. Thankfully, we weren’t too far from it. I wanted to go there at night during our stop, and Rose insisted on joining. Somehow she knew something was up, and tried…” A loud sob interrupted my story, apparently I didn’t notice that I had been crying. Fuck, that’s not what I wanted right now. “There were a couple of slavers… who trapped the place up and… well, I returned alone.” I took a long sip straight from the bottle. Argh, I’m going to regret this.
“I see, well, that explains a lot. But do you really think drinking will help you deal with it?”
“Oh, fuck off! I don’t need your fucking… whatever the fuck it is!” The audacity of this fucker!
“Midnight, I’m worried about you! You’ve clearly been through a lot lately, and I think you need help.”
“I want to quit, Crone.”
“Uhh... quit what?”
“This. Everything! Quit putting myself under fire to save another greedy asshole. Quit doing side jobs for backstabbing fuckers. Quit always getting involved in shit that has nothing to do with me! Just quit.” I took another sip. Future me probably hates the present me with a burning passion. But it’s that bitch’s problem. “I just want to settle down, have a nice home, maybe even a family. Just a normal quiet life. But, it seems, it’s too much to ask in this goddesses forsaken world!” The long silence made me wonder if Crone had left during my tirade. Can’t blame him, if that’s the case. I know I would leave too.
“Why won’t you do that then?” Oh! Still here. Good. Probably...
“Money. I have a decent amount, but how long will that last? Just buying an apartment would cost a fortune. And before you ask, no. I won’t stay in this shithole. Here there are way too many smug asshoes who will stab you in the back for a bottle of vodka.” I finally managed to look directly at him. “I just want some peace and quiet. That’s all.” I closed my eyes, and felt like something soft and fuzzy touch my head. I think Crone was saying something. I muttered something in response. The last thing I remember is laying my head on something warm. Then came the darkness.
I hate everything. The huge pain in my head was a sign that I was still alive so at least I had that going for me. I froze, trying to clear my head and concentrate.
It was the second hangover in two days, I really should be more careful, to not make it a habit. Well, at least I’m about to move again soon, and there’s no time for drinking on the job. Speaking of, I should probably finish all my plans before moving out. Who knows when I’ll be back next time?
Once I felt good enough to move again I made an attempt to get off the bed. The headache that I got in response told me that I made a grave mistake. I slowly opened my eyes and carefully turned my head to look around. The jar with what remained of my pickle juice supply had been placed on the table right next to my bed. Thanking Crone in my mind, I levitated it to me and took a long sip. A cold liquid helped me concentrate and made moving my head much less painful. Then the events of the yesterday’s evening hit me like a balefire bomb. What was I thinking? I definitely needed to see Crone before heading out and at least apologize. He didn’t deserve to have me shoving my problems on him like this.
Finally I stood up and walked to a window. Judging by the amount of ponies on the street it was early morning. Which meant I had more than enough time to get ready before the meeting. After spending fifteen minutes trying to hide that stupid white stripe in my mane I gave up and went to check up on supplies. Usually caravans provide some food and healing potions but relying on that is not a good idea.
I was about to head out when I noticed a deck of cards lying on the table. After pondering if I should take it with me or put it with the rest of my collection I levitated it to myself and put it in the pocket. Having some cards with you could be much more beneficial than it seems at first glance.
Not losing any more time, I head out straight to Crone’s place, hoping to get there before he leaves. While it's supposed to be his day off, knowing what happened yesterday he probably will be running all over this dumpsterfire of a town looking for evidence.
“Ohh, Clipsy! Long time no see!” Oh, sweet Celestia, why now? I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. The viridian earth pony was approaching me with a friendly smile.
“Lily?! Sorry, I didn’t see you, but I really ne…”
“So I’ve heard we’ll be working together? That’s so exciting! We didn’t get a chance to properly get to know each other before.” She giggled, playing with her swirly mane. I hated when I couldn’t understand if ponies were sarcastic or not.
“Yes, I remember Ace mentioning that… uh, sorry I’m in a bit of a hurry right now, how about we’ll meet at the The Bhramin’s pit at noon?” I blurted out trying my best to sound friendly.
“Of course, no worries! I apologize for delaying you. Good luck with your business.” I’ve been around her long enough to know that it was mostly a facade. Lily was not the pony you could take lightly and I hoped to talk more with the real her before we head out. But for now I had more pressing matters to attend.
Finally reaching Crone’s place I heaved a sigh of relief, when I noticed the opened window.
“Hey, Crone!” I called. “Do you have a moment?” After a moment of silence the door opened and my friend rushed to me looking worried.
“Midnight? What happened? Are you alright?” He was scanning the area around, his muscles tense, and wings half opened.
I smiled and carefully put my hoof on his back. “Nothing happened, I just wanted to talk. Do you want to do it here, or should we come inside?” Crone relaxed, the expression of worry on his face changed to the one of confusion.
“Of course! Sorry, it’s very unusual to see you coming here. Especially just to talk.” He noticeably relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. “Usually I’m the one who's coming to you.” He chuckled, before offering me a soft smile and gesturing towards the door. “I need to be going soon, but I can spare some time for you.”
I entered the small but very tidy room, with a couch near the window. Suddenly I felt a slight pinch of shame remembering my own apartment.
“Wow, it’s pretty nice.” I managed, and sat on a couch. “So, about yesterday…” Crone sat next to me and I felt a hoof gently touching my shoulder.
“Well, for a start you can look at me instead of those lockers.” Damn you crone, why do you always have to make it harder. I sighed and slowly turned my head to him taking a deep breath.
“Right. I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dumped all of it on you like this, it just was bottling up for a while, and I know you have a lot of your own problems already, so…”
“It’s alright.”
“What?”
“You’re going through some rough shit, and need someone to listen. And I am more than happy to do it.” He hugged me with one hoof pulling me slightly closer. “Listen, I know you used to try and look calm and collected, like you have everything under control on your job. But life isn’t your job, you’re allowed to feel upset, and show emotions. Don’t worry about yesterday, it’s alright. I promise. He was looking me in the eyes, smiling. I gently put my hoof on his shoulder and smiled back. The notion of casually sharing feelings with others felt weird to me, but it was worth a shot. Even if it’ll take me a while, to get used to.
“Right, sorry, it’s just a lot that has happened recently, and I… yeah. Thank you for listening to me. It means a lot and I’ll try to be more open in the future.”
“I guess ‘try’ is the key word here.” He chuckled before nodding. “I get you, thanks for coming here today, it was quite a surprise. Sorry if it’s a little messy usually I don’t expect any guests here.” He looked around the room, stopping his gaze at the small envelope laying on the table. Suddenly he stood up and darted to one of the lockers. “However I really need to go, I’m sorry I can’t give you more time, but I can’t be late!”
“Oh, uh… actually I need to go too, we’re moving out today. Thank you for listening, I’ll let you know when I’ll be stopping here next time.” I stood up from the couch and walked to the door.
“Yeah, sure, no worries.” Crone blurted trying to pack his saddlebag. Not wanting to distract him any further I went out of his apartment, and headed straight to The Bhramin’s pit.
***
The place was as crowded as always, today we had Velvet’s coming with a water caravan, which could easily be found by a long line of ponies waiting for their queue and sounds of fighting for the better spot. I looked around, trying to find Lily, noticing her standing slightly left to the entrance talking with somepony. I perked my ears and slowly walked towards them.
“…you again, I am not looking for hire.”
“Come on, I’ll pay a lot of caps, probably more than you can make standing in this dump.” The raspy voice of the short earth pony was giving a rather unsettling feeling.
“For the last time I won’t work as your personal bodyguard, and as I told you I’m already hired.” Hearing the irritation in Lily’s voice I picked up a pace making my way through a dusty street.
“Hi! Need any help?” The stallion almost jumped and quickly turned to me, his muscle tense.
“Hey, go mind your own business.” It was saying something about how noisy this place was, that no pony batted an eye at the shouting stallion.
“We’re working together, so right now I am her business, now please leave us.” The cheerful facade from earlier disappeared completely, as I noticed familiar spark in her eyes.
He gave Lily a long look before growling, “Fine”. And retreated to whatever hole he crawled out of.
“Thanks Midnight, some ponies just can’t take no for an answer.” She sighed then looked at me, smiling. “Anyway now when this is out of the way, I’m happy to work together again.” I returned her smile, with a short nod.
“Same here, and sorry for earlier, I was in a hurry.” She chuckled.
“I figured as much, no worries, I understand. Now what do you think of this job?” Huh? That’s an odd question. I blinked at her a couple times before answering.
“Seems pretty standard to me, we’re keeping them safe on the road to safe harbor, then getting paid on arrival. Why do you ask?” She began slowly walking across the Pit, motioning for me to follow her.
“It does seem to be rather straightforward, doesn’t it. But there is some tension in them. The closer the departure the more it grows.” I looked at her in confusion.
“Isn’t it normal to be worried before getting on the route? Even most experienced caravaneers are nervous when going into the wasteland.” She nodded, navigating through the crowd, before turning to me.
“True, but there’s something different about them compared to your usual road anxiety. Hadn’t you noticed?” I shrugged. She was always much more perceptive about noticing other ponies feelings. Sometimes scarily so. “Well if I had to guess I’d say there’s somepony targeting them specifically and they know about it.”
“Why would anyone target such a small caravan?” Somehow after her explanation I was even more confused than before.
“No idea, and I doubt they’d tell us. Anyway I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter, are you ready to move?” I nodded and we moved towards the eastern guard post where Ace with his wife were waiting for us.
Couple minutes later we saw Ace arguing with the captain about something, while his wife and Ray, standing near by the former, looked worried. I shared looks with Lily. Grimm. Just our luck that today we’ll face the crankiest asshat as our departure officer. We rushed to them, but before we can interfere the red earth pony turned to us and barked.
“What the fuck are you doing here? This is the guard's business.”
“Well they are our guards.” Ace was noticeably relieved by our arrival. He looked at us, pleadingly. “Please, those guards refuse to let us out!” Lily arched her brow turning to Grim.
“And would you do that, mister guard captain?” It was scary how quickly she could switch between her usual self and that sugary, bubbly mask. “What those sweet ponies would have possibly done to be denied the right to pass through here?” Even Grimm looked slightly unnerved.
“They refuse to tell us their destination.” He glared at Ace. “And I don’t give a fuck how many…”
“And why would you need to know their destination?” Lily offered, her ears perking up. “And even more so,” She made a step forward. “Why would their refusal being enough of a reason to not let them pass?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking for the past fifteen minutes!” Ace seemed to be very happy to finally have someone on his side. “We just wanted to know why suddenly it is the required information. It never used to be before.”
“We are going to analyze that data, see how we can improve to improve our services for caravans like yours.” He recited in almost mechanical tone. I wonder how long it took to rehearse.
“Well, I would love to hear an explanation how this information will help you to improve anything. As well as what are those ‘services’ that you allegedly provide.” I made a few steps forward, stopping right in front of the Grimm.
“It’s confidential, now tell us your destination or fuck off, and stop wasting our time.” He growled at me.
“So, let me get this straight. You are doing a campaign to help the caravans, but you refuse to tell how to the very caravans you’re claiming to help.” I replied in the most even tone I could muster. “How about this, if you won’t let us pass, then we’ll go away… right to the Bhramin’s pit and tell all the Caravans about this new rule of yours and see if they’ll be happy to hear that they have to disclose their route to a random assholes from the guard.”
“And,” Lily stepped right next to me. “how pleased the citizens will be when they learn that all caravans stopped trading in the protest.” Somehow her sugary tone felt more threatening than Grimms loud barking.
“As if they’d do that.” He spat turning to her.
“You want to test? If there is one thing that unites all the caravans, is that they don’t like being told what to do, so once the news breaks it won’t be hard to convince them, they do have all the leverage after all.”
Grimm’s features tensed even more, as he thought about the possible consequences, clearly not expecting such a resistance to his demands. Finally he replied.
“Fine. It’s your loss, but don’t blame us if it turn out that the roads aren’t as safe anymore.” He turned away and motioned to his squad to let us through.
“Oh thank you!” Ace galloped to us, beaming with excitement. “I thought we would be stuck here for good.”
Me and Lily gave a short nod. “Well, let’s move until they changed their mind.” I said, taking my position at the tail end of the caravan. When everypony was ready we went through the open gates into the wasteland. And while it was always a bit sad leaving safe walls of the city, it felt really good to be moving again.
We have been on the road for several hours, semi-urbanistic ruins of Golden Horseshoe changed to the vast emptiness of the desert. Despite being on route for so short I’ve already felt how melancholy and apathy that haunted me in Horseshoe, completely went away, giving a way to familiar sense of tension and awareness.
“Hey, Midnight!” Blue unicorn slowed down, letting me catch up to her.
“Aurora,” I nodded.
“How long have you been doing this?” She asked with a soft smile.
“Three years.”
“That’s quite a lot.” She raised her brows, and gave me a long, thoughtful look.
“You probably have a lot of stories to tell.”
“A few.”
“Care to tell any?” She cocked her head, blinking.
“Later.”
“Oh.” Her ears drooped, “Well, I am looking forward to hearing them then!” After walking in silence for a minute she sped up again, returning to her position.
The road itself was surprisingly quiet. Too quiet even, even bloatsprites usually roaming around in this area disappeared somewhere. Not that I was complaining, but the whole thing gave me an uneasy feeling in my chest. Judging by Lily’s posture she was bothered by something too. I wondered if she noticed it as well. Another ruined city showed up on the Horizon. Suddenly Lily motioned us to stop.
Smoke.
That was a very bad sign. Chester usually was very quiet, and used as a camping place for traders. Although I have to admit it was an easy spot for an ambush too. So I guess it was only a matter of time before some shit will go down.
“We need to go around.” Lily’s firm tone was rather refreshing. “There’s a nice abandoned village south-west from here, if we hurry we can use it as a cover for the night.”
“I think we should check what happened.” Aurora pursed her lips, looking at the smoke in the distance.
Oh for the love of… “We can’t. Too easy to get in trouble, Lily is right.” Ace turned to me, his ear twitching.
“Look, there might be some scrap we can find to sell, come on, I’ll pay you extra.” I huffed, trying my best to hide the irritation.
“Look, it is a bad idea. Especially when wasteland is suspiciously empty.”
“So you’ve noticed.” Lily muttered quietly.
“I’m paying two hundred caps each.” Me and Lily exchanged glances. The pay was good. The danger was greater.
“We also get to keep some of the stuff we find, if any.” Ace frowned for a moment, but eventually nodded.
“Alright, let’s move until somepony else notices the smoke and get there.” Lily let out a sigh and looked at me. Well, at least the pay was good. I nodded, readying my carbine, Ace and Aurora already were at their positions, so we quickly took ours.
I have no idea what was waiting for us, but definitely nothing good.
***
Three ponies were looking through bodies, scattered around the sight of the crash of what remained from what seemed like another caravan or convoy. Knives and steel pipes seem like we’re lucky. Probably just wondered here to investigate just like us. Ace and Aurora closed their distance. Please don’t do anything stupid I put the barrel of my carbine on the window frame. Note to buy a scope for the damn thing later. Ace said something to them, but it was hard to read his face from this distance. I took the scavengers in my sights feeling like every muscle of my body tensed. One of them unsheathed his knife. A shot ranged through the ruins. Before the buck managed to fall on the ground Lily jumped from behind the wagon and unloaded her double-barrel shotgun into the dark brown stallion standing in the back. Before the third scavenger could understand what was happening she was stroked by the energy beam, and fell on the ground, joining her comrades. I had to admit, Aurora was a pretty good shot.
I walked down the stairs of the pre-war store, to join the rest of the crew. Places that are easy to ambush always were a double edged sword for scavengers.Which also meant that we should be quick if we don’t want to repeat their fate.
“What happened here?” Aurora was looking at the remains of a wagon in shock.
“Same as what happened just now, but on the bigger scale.” I approached her and got a better look at the wagon myself. Looks pretty expensive, even after it was burned down to a crisp. no wonder somepony wanted to target it. “We don’t have much time before others might arrive, do your scavenging and let’s go.” With the silent nods from Aurora and Ace I decided to walk around a little myself and look for something valuable.
It was hard to say which bodies belonged to attackers and which to the guards, in this mess. I wonder what happened here? Most of the dead ponies had nothing useful on them, whoever did this was pretty thorough. But I was happy to at least get some ammo and a pretty nice looking pistol, not exactly my style, I couldn’t complain all things considered.
“Hey, I think she’s alive!” I Jolted up at Aurora’s call, aiming my carbine in her general direction. “Come here.”
After a short hesitation I finally walked up to her, and Lily who was much quicker to act. Aurora was tending to the white unicorn, who at first glance didn’t seem any different from countless other ponies laying around, but upon closer inspection it was clear she’s still breathing.
“So what do you want to do?” Part of me wanted to help that poor soul as well, but we couldn’t afford to stay here for much longer.
“First we should be getting her to our brahmin, then I shall see if I can help her.”
“Are you sure?” Lily’s skepticism was so thick I could almost feel it in the air, “She might be the one who instigated this mess for all we know.” Aurora stood up. With her brows furrowed and lips pursed like that she almost looked like a Ministry Mare, prepared to scold her subordinate. I never would have thought, she can look so intimidating.
“I’m willing to take the risk.” Aurora said matter of factly. “Now please let’s hurry up, the longer we stay here the more chances more raiders will come. This time with something more serious than a bunch of pipes.”
Me and Lily nodded, and helped her carefully pick up the unicorn with our magic. Leaving Ray with the brahmin behind so we won’t get found out, seemed like a much better idea when we didn’t had to carry an unconscious pony all the way back.
“Of course, now she thinks about security.” Lily muttered so only I could hear her.
“Well, better late than never.” I liked this as much as she did, but now was not the time to argue.
***
“So is now a good time for stories?” We were camping a few miles away from Chester. As much as I would love to stay in the town itself it was way too dangerous after what we have seen today. The pony we saved was still unconscious, so Aurora decided that the next best thing she can do after tending to her wounds would be to continue our morning discussion.
“Yeah, now would be the perfect time.” I took a small sip of water from my flask, “Well, What would you like to hear?” Ray and Ace were already in their beds (if you can call those dusty, ragged mattresses that) and Lily was keeping her watch on the opposite side of our improvised camp. “There’s always a lot of stories in our line of work.”
“Well, maybe you can tell me about your last route?” She smiled slightly cocking her head, ears perking up. I froze, Out of all things to ask, you just had to choose that one. Expression on the unicorn’s face changed to the one of concern. “Everything alright? I’m sorry, if…”
“It’s fine, just… the last route didn’t go so well.” I closed my eyes, memories flooding my brain again. Damn, I hoped being on the road again would help me to get over it, not bring it back.
“But you’re alive, so it couldn’t have been that bad.” No amount of concern in her voice could push those memories back into my head.
“Well yeah, I’m alive.” I took a deep breath. “I’ve been asked to do a little side job for an… acquaintance of mine.” Lump of pain and anxiety came to my throat, as I struggled to keep my composure. “Long story short, we got ambushed by slavers, and my friend died in the fight.” I felt a hoof gently touching my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I know it has to be very hard for you, let’s…”
“Aurora.” The unicorn frowned at Lily.
“Yes? Did something happen?” She was doing a pretty good job at hiding her irritation. Lily Nodded towards the white unicorn.
“I told you I can’t remember.” The ruins of the office building that we used for setting up the camp gave us enough cover to keep the bonfire lit for a little longer without attracting more trouble. The fire was reflecting in our guest’s eyes making her look like a ghost. Which, I guess, in a weird sense she was.
“We hadn’t noticed any damage that could have caused this.” Lily was squinting her eyes, as she leaned in closer to the white mare.
“We also aren’t medical ponies, Lily.” Aurora let out a tired sigh and closed her eyes.
“Let’s continue this tomorrow.” I stood up, and trotted to Lily. She looked at me frowning.
“Listen, it won’t help anypony if we will be dead tired tomorrow.” She looked at me for a moment, then her ears drooped.
“Yeah you right, Midnight let’s rest, I’ll change you in three hours.” Lily slowly walked to her sleeping bag, shooting one last glance at the mare.
“Alright, miss… Scarlett Skies was it? We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, please try to remember something.” Ace’s soothing tone and encouraging smile seemed to calm Scarlett a little.
“Just Scarlett, please.” She offered a soft smile. “I’m sorry for causing trouble.”
“It’s alright.” Aurora patted her on the back. “Just get some rest, who knows maybe good sleep will help you to get some of those memories back.” Scarlett silently nodded and looked around, stopping her glance at Lily and myself.
Nervous. I noted, no wonder after what she’s been through. Tomorrow will be a very long day for her. For all of us.
I put out the fire and took my position near the exit, listening in on the sounds of the wasteland. The unnatural silence of the morning remained. I felt a shiver running down my spine. Well, at least it’ll be easy to spot anyone who’ll try to sneak in, even bloatsprite flying by would sound like a squad of drunk Steel Rangers in full armor.
I leaned back against the wall and glanced over the room. The dark silhouettes became more and more apparent as my eyes got used to the darkness. My hoof reached out to my saddlebag and pulled out a deck of cards. It was a nice hobby if a little expensive. My mind went back to the Serpent’s Valley. I shook my head and realised that I was subconsciously shuffling the deck. I thought if the sound would give away our hideout for a moment, but my mind was too happy to have something breaking the silence to linger on the thought for too long.
I took a deep breath, despite staying up late to keep a watch I felt much better than I can remember myself being recently. Suddenly it dawned on me that this was the time in a past week where I could slow down and take everything in. The previous route, armory investigation, death of that homeless pony, Scarlett… I was always busy, I was always moving, I was… very tired.
I closed my eyes for a moment. Still silent. Only the faint sound of cards being shuffled over and over again was breaking it. The past three days had been in a haze. I’ve been running. It’s hard to say what for or from, but I was getting tired of it.
I noticed Lily walking to me.
“You have a couple more hours.” I noted in a dull voice. She sat next to me, and leaned on the wall.
“I know.”I put my cards back and looked at the sky in the window. Or rather at a bunch of clouds covering it. Fucking Enclave. “Hey, Midnight,” She said finally. “Is everything alright?”
“No. Not really.”
We sat in silence for a few more minutes.
“I’ll take it from here, go get some rest.”
I stood up and started towards my sleeping bag.
“Hey!” I looked back, slightly cocking my head. “When we’re in Safe Harbor, let’s get some drinks together.” I smiled and nodded to her.
My sleeping bag felt much cozier than I remember or maybe I was just too tired. Suddenly a faint buzz outside the window filled the air. Bloastsprites. My body tensed, as a magical grip tightened around the carabin handle. The buzzing has become quieter, thanks Celestia they were flying in the opposite direction. Then another sound came in, the one I haven’t heard in months. First droplets of rain fell on the ground, thunder roaring in the distance. I closed my eyes, relaxing. And while I didn’t know what tomorrow would hold for us, I was sure that we would pull through.
***
Waking up to the sounds of arguing was not how I preferred to do it. Still better than gunshots though.
I stiffed out a sigh, and tried to listen into the voices.
“…idea?”
“It’ll be fine, trust me. You have been working for us since the very beginning, tell me, have we ever taken unnecessary risks?”
“Well, no, but why…”
First voice was raspy with a weird inflection, as if the owner hadn’t been used to talking a lot, the second was a lot smoother and with some commanding notes in it.
“Let’s say it’s my business sense, Ray.”
I opened my eyes and slowly rose to my hooves. Ace and Ray were standing just outside the entrance and argued about… Scarlett? Well, that seemed like the only reasonable choice at the moment. I quietly reached out to my saddlebags for some food, trying not to disturb the argument.
“Miss Midnight!” Well, there goes that plan… “I hope we didn’t wake you up with our loud voices.” Ace’s smile was radiating with energy and thankfully it was not the nuclear kind.
“No it’s fine, is everything alright?” I tried my best to hide concern in my voice.
“Yes, we just had a small disagreement about our current situation, but everything was resolved.” Judging by his expression I failed. “I see our other companions are waking up as well, how about we discuss our plans after breakfast?”
I nodded and opened my can of dry wheat and bacon. There are little things in this world that taste worse than canned bacon, but when you are on the road you can’t be very picky.
“What about her?” Lily asked, pointing her hoof at Scarlett.
“We’ll give her some oatmeal that we salvaged yesterday.” Ace’s energetic tone was surprising, especially after everything that went down in the last couple days, but it seemed that I am not the only one who got their head cleared after some rest.
The breakfast went pretty uneventful, in a complete and a bit awkward silence.
“Well let’s recap.” Ace was first one to break it. “You’ve been traveling to a Golden Horseshoe with a caravan, then heard someone shooting, and then you’ve blacked out.”
“I think so?” Scarlett’s voice was a lot more stable after proper rest and breakfast. “As I’ve said the last thing I remember is a loud sound from behind, and then the next thing I saw is this camp and the rest you already know.”
“And why did you want to go to the Horseshoe?” I asked, arching my brow. “There is not much to do unless you have stuff to trade.”
She looked at her hooves, tapping at the ground. “I… need to find somepony. I’ve been told that they can help me.”
“Oh, I think Midnight might help you with this, she’s a local.” Aurora looked at me, with a small apologetic smile.
“Sure,” I nodded. “Who are you looking for?”
“I don’t know his name.” The blush on white unicorn’s coat was almost as bright as her hair. “I was just told that they are an earth pony, with a brown coat, and dirty blonde mane. I should have been able to find them in the bar. Oh and that I should ask barpony for directions if I can’t find them on my own.” I frowned. There was only one pony I knew who fit the description.
Grifter.
Either she was one of his ‘friends’ or somepony thought that Grifter can get some profit out of her. Either way I didn’t like it. “So who told you to meet him?” Judging by her expression I said it a bit harsher than intended.
“I-is something wrong?” Her ears drooped, and eyes started darting between myself and Aurora.
“I do know a pony who matches your description.” I slowly put my front hooves together, intently looking at the white unicorn. Could it be possible Grifter has something to do with that attack then? “Although I would not recommend you, or anypony for that matter, asking him for help. Even if it seems like a good idea at the moment, eventually, you’ll learn that his help never comes without a catch.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” You have no fucking idea. I gave her a short nod. “And to answer your question, I’ve met a traveling mercenary back in Upper Haven. I figured that somepony with his profession should have a lot more knowledge about the world than I do.” She offered me a sheepish smile, slowly picking at the ground with her hoof. “And he said to go to the Golden Horseshoe and seek that pony. And he should be able to help me.”
Aurora, leaned closer, her ears perked up. “And what exactly are you seeking help for?” She asked in a hushed voice.
“Well…” She pursed her lips and slowly looked over us before letting out a sigh. “I am looking for a book. Or a pony. For a long time I’ve had some inner struggles and want to find something that can guide me through them. I’ve heard there’s an old buffalo book about it somewhere, so I thought if I can get my hooves on it I can deal with my problem.”
“So your journey is spiritual?” Aurora asked, her eyes widened.
“I… guess you can say that?” Scarlett shrugged and looked at her hooves. “To some degree at least.”
“It is pretty rare to see nowaday. Although for a good reason.”
“This idle chatting is nice and all, but we need to move out if we want to reach Safe Harbor before dawn.” Lily stood near the entrance ready to go.
“Yeah, you're right.” Ace nodded, and stood up himself. “Alright, everypony, finish up your breakfast and we’re moving out in five minutes.” He gave brahmin a signal, and the massive two-headed cow slowly walked to him. “Miss Scarlett, you can reach Golden Horseshoe in about a daywalk from here. Or you can follow us and try your luck at Safe Harbor, the choice is up to you.” Scarlett closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“I think,” She opened them and looked directly into Ace's eyes. “I’ll go with you.” She glanced at me, smiling. “If Horseshoe was a false thread I might as well try this Safe Harbor you mentioned.”
Ten minutes later we were already trying to cover the distance between us and Safe Harbor as fast as we could. By the evening we were at the last stretch before we could finally relax, and I got my pay. The desert slowly changed to a more urbanistic landscape, as we approached the city. Scarlett stayed very quiet for the whole trip, She also seemed more and more nervous as we approached our destination, and tried to stay close to Aurora.
“We’re almost at the front gate, hopefully they still…” Lily’s voice cut out as she stopped in her tracks.
“What the fuck?” I muttered, stepping closer to get a better view.
Across the square was a tall steel wall, with reinforced gates. In front of it lie at least a couple dozens of dead bodies in the mangled rusty armor. Although it was hard to distinguish rust from blood, covering them. Right above the gates hand the large neon sign, covered in bullet holes.
Welcome to Safe Harbor, the small oasis in the wasteland.
“Be on your guard,” I whispered, glancing out of the window. I saw shattered concrete and glass blackened with age, but no movement. I took in a big lungful of the chilly, polluted air and instantly regretted it. The stench of the dead raiders piled nearby was overpowering, and it took all the willpower in the world not to gag and give my position away.
We took cover in one of the buildings on our side of the square. I thought we had as good a position as anypony could hope for, even if the smell clung to everything. Considering the circumstances, I was happy to take it.
While I looked out the windows, Lily kept her watch at the door. I pulled back from the window to lean on the wall, my ears perked forwards to listen to any sign of life outside.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
Lily pursed her lips tightly in thought before she answered me. “Going all together at once is a death wish,” she remarked. Lily glanced over everypony in the room, as if to reassure herself that everypony was still there before continuing. “I’ll go to the gates and check if the town is safe.” She gestured in turn to the members of our group. “Midnight, cover me from this window. Ray and the rest of you, keep an eye on Scarlett. And as for you - ” she turned briskly to the shivering white unicorn in the corner. “You sit here and pray that the town is still alive.” She looked over the room again. “Any objections?”
That was pretty good for something she made up on the spot. I made a mental note to ask her how she came up with this stuff.
Before I could speak, my ears perked up as I heard a skittering noise from outside. Immediately I sprung up to the window with my carbine, ready to shoot at whatever raider was out there.
There weren't any raiders. A quick scan of the area showed me that the noise was coming from a lone radroach scurrying across the rubble. I caught Lily’s eye, seeing relief pass over her face when I shook my head.
“Just a bug,” I murmured. I definitely needed to work on my stress. Mistaking a radroach for a pony just wasn’t a mistake I could afford to make, especially not in a place like this.
Ace spoke up from his spot. “No objections here.” His voice was a little shaky, but I couldn’t blame him. Our route coming here had been pretty rough.“I’m sure you both know what you’re doing.”
Aurora and Ray just nodded silently.
With a curt nod, Lily checked her shotgun one last time before putting her hoof to the door and slowly opening it. As she stepped outside, I put my carbine on the low part of the window frame and took the area in front of the gate in my sights.
I watched Lily slowly approach the gate. She fussed around the intercom a little before giving up and knocking on the gate. I tensed the magical grip on the trigger, feeling as if every muscle in my body were turning to stone.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally saw her giving a sign to move out.
“Alright,” she called to us. “Looks like the coast is clear.” She gestured to our positions with a forehoof as her voice rang out towards us. “Ray, you go first. Aurora, Ace, you both take the brahmin and follow Ray once he reaches the broken bench in the middle. Scarlett, follow them after they reach the same bench. I’ll join you after you all are at the gates. Move!”
To my surprise, I heard no arguing. Caravaneers were usually pretty insistent on getting things done their way. Can’t say that surprise was unwelcome, though. The door behind me screeched as Ray went outside and began to slowly follow Lily’s hoofsteps. Soon the rest of our group joined him.
So far things had been suspiciously quiet. My eyes continued scanning the area in search of movement as Scarlett finally united with the rest at the gate. Now it was my turn.
I went outside and started crossing the square myself. The smell coming from the raiders intensified, almost making me squint my eyes. Finally, after passing the small fence I reached my companions and looked at Lily.
Lily addressed Ace in a firm voice. “The town just survived a raider attack, although you probably already figured that out. We can proceed after you confirm your status as a caravan owner.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?”
The gate opened with a loud metallic noise. “You’ll have to come with me and answer some questions.” A large pony in a full suit of combat armor approached us with a squad of guards. “It’s a new measure implemented in the light of this attack, but if you’re clean you have nothing to worry about.”
Ace frowned slightly. “And the others?”
“They can wait here. Don’t worry it shouldn’t take longer than a couple minutes.” Ace sighed and motioned for us to wait, as he followed the armored pony.
When Ace disappeared behind the gates, Aurora turned to me with a frown. “Don’t you find it odd?” she asked. “First an attack on a caravan in Chester, now another attack in Safe Harbor. I could understand if this were Manehattan or Hoofington, but you don’t expect that kind of thing in these parts.” She paused for a brief moment before looking over us in turn. “After all, that’s why we chose to go here over anyplace else.”
My mind raced back to the dead homeless pony and the armory. So much for trying to forget. I sighed, putting a hoof to my forehead and rubbing.. “Well,” I said, “something strange was happening in the Horseshoe as well.”
Aurora’s ears folded back against her head at the memory. “Oh, right.” Her tail whisked up with concern as she shifted her gaze away, gently pawing at the ground with a hoof. “I wonder if we chose the right time to travel here.”
To our side, Lily snorted. “Of course you did.” She gave her mane a brisk shake. “After this attack, locals will buy out your entire stock. Honestly, we lucked out.”
“I know, I know, you're right, it’s just…” the light blue unicorn sighed, “Maybe I’m getting too comfortable. This place is usually so calm.”
The gates opened again, revealing a familiar yellow silhouette.
“We may come in.” Ace said, waving us over.
I rarely had been to Safe Harbor, but it always surprised me how clean it was compared to other places. If not for the fact that they used freight containers for most of their buildings, you could almost imagine it was a pre-war city. We went to a hotel, conveniently placed near the town gates.
“Well, I think it’s time for you to pay us our share.” Lily said as we stopped in front of the long three storey building.
“Of course!” Ace went to the brahmin and opened one of the bags. “We agreed upon twelve hundred, if I remember correctly?”
“Don’t forget the bonus for the detour.”
“Oh, right. Fourteen hundred then.” He gave us the promised amount and turned to Scarlett. “ I hope you can find what you were looking for here, miss. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to set up our shop.” After saying their goodbyes the caravan departed, leaving us three in silence.
I was the first one to break it. “So, we’re kind of stuck here, huh?”
Lily exchanged glances with me before answering.“Yeah. Want to continue at the bar? Thankfully it’s not far away from here.”
I nodded. “Sure, just let me grab a room in the hotel. We all should, who knows when they’ll be closing.”
Lily smirked, “I’m staying at a friend’s place.” Her smirk broadened into a mirthful smile. “It's been awhile since I saw him.”
I couldn’t help but smile back, waving a hoof in dismissal. “Well, don’t let me keep you, I’ll go dump my stuff in the room and join you in about ten minutes.”
“Deal.” We shared a hoofbump and Lily started towards the bar.
I felt a hoof tapping at my shoulder. “Hey… uh… Midnight, right?”
Right. I almost forgot about her. I sighed and slowly turned to Scarlett. “Yes, what do you need?” My voice sounded much harsher than I intended, and Scarlett shrank back a little
“W-well, I…” She pinned her ears back. “I don’t really know what to do now.”
Ah, I should’ve guessed.
“Right.” I cleared my throat and began. “So, to start I suggest visiting the local guard post and ask if they’ll pay you to clean up the bodies in the square. It’s not the most exciting job, but I think they’d offer quite a few caps if it means less chance of an ambush.”
The white unicorn folded her ears, before nodding sheepishly. “I see, I… I guess I’ll go ask them about it. Thank you.” She replied in a meek voice and slowly trotted away.
After watching her disappear through the barack’s door I turned away and hastily went to a hotel. Lily was not a patient pony.
***
Dark Lantern was a small bar on the outskirts of the city. It was fairly quiet, frequented mostly by town visitors staying at the hotel next door. Inside were a few small wooden tables chaotically placed around the floor, with a counter on the far side with a lonely broken fan on top of it. A tiny flickering lamp provided barely enough light to fill the room.
It was quaint, but I honestly liked it better than Bonds in Manehattan, or our own gaudy Junkyard. Sure, it wasn’t as fancy, but at least you could relax here without needing to zone out your surroundings.
I immediately spotted Lily in the far corner, and went straight to her, passing by the only two other customers in this place. The earth pony shot me a curious glance as I was approaching the table. Well, that’s something I’ll have to keep in mind for later. I took my seat right across Lily’s and took a glass of wine she bought while waiting for me. The wine was surprisingly good. Miles above stuff I usually saw in the wasteland, and more so much better than I expected from this place.
“So, how’re you feeling?” Lily asked, looking at me intently.
“Pretty good, although the prospect of being stuck here isn’t exactly thrilling.” I said with a dry chuckle before taking another sip.
“Quick thinking back at the square,” I smiled looking at her. “How are you doing that?” She smirked right back at me. “Well, I was always good at improvising. And our line of work trains you to always consider every possibility.”
I silently nodded before taking another sip. “What are your plans, though? I doubt you’d be just sitting here waiting until caravans will feel safe enough to travel here.”
Lily shook her head, smirking. “You are right.I think I will go into the Lost Haven.” She leaned to me, putting her hooves on the table. “Want to come with me? Not like you have anything better to do in the near future anyway.”
The idea was pretty enticing, although it did have one downside. “It will take us at least a week to get there. Even after getting paid we can’t afford that many supplies.” I replied, looking into her eyes. “I’m not sure I want to spend my week in constant scavenging.”
Lily gave me a thoughtful look before nodding. “That is fair. but You like the idea of sitting here for weeks as much as me. So what are your plans next then?”
That was a very good question. What were my plans? So far I just went with the flow, just so I can keep my mind off of things, but clearly, it couldn’t last for too long. “Take a rest and see if any locals have a job that could occupy me for the time being. Then if caravans won’t show up by the time I'm done, return to Horseshoe.” I said with a sigh
Lily raised her brow, “But I thought you hated that place?”
I took a deep breath. “I still do, but that’s where most of my friend’s live, so sadly I don’t have much choice. At least for now. I do plan to visit Lost Haven one day and see if I can get something going, but I’m not quite prepared for that yet.”
“I see,” Lily leaned on the back of her seat, relaxing. “Now, could you tell me what happened? You seemed really off, back then.”
I sighed as the images of an ambush flashed in my head. “Long story short, Me and SIlver Rose went on another route from Shiva to Horseshoe. I’ve agreed to recover a flash drive in Serpentine Valley for a… friend, since we had to make a stop there regardless. There were slavers. You can piece together the rest.” I refilled my glass with more wine and downed it in one go. Only partially because I had a hoarse throat.
We sat quiet for a while, after I finished with only quiet murmurs from the table behind us breaking the silence. “I’m sorry, Midnight.” Lily said eventually, with a distinct notes of pity in her voice. “I know you both were very close. Why did you jump into another job so fast though?”
Because I was afraid to stay alone with my thoughts for too long?. “Sadly wasteland doesn’t give us time to dwell on things, you need to keep moving otherwise you’ll quickly find yourself broke and abandoned.”
Lily looked thoughtful for a moment. “I guess it is true for quite a lot of ponies, but don’t you out of all of them have the luxury to take a break?”
“No, that’s…” is actually very accurate. I’ve had quite a few good friends who’d be more than happy to help me sort myself out. But I didn’t want to burden them with my problems more than I already did. “I guess you're right.” I said after a short pause. “It’s just…”
“I understand.” Lily nodded, “I think it’s time for us to get some well-deserved rest.” She stood up, smiling. “If you change your mind, meet me tomorrow at the front gates at noon. Otherwise it was a pleasure to work with you, Midnight.”
“Same.” I gave her a short nod, watching as she slowly went out of the building.
I relaxed in my seat, looking at the remaining wine in the bottle. Well, I guess it’s better than letting it go to waste. I poured it into my glass and prepared to drink it, as a bright silhouette entered my view. The earth pony from before. I sighed looking at her. “Yes? How can I help you?”
She took the same seat as Lily, and looked me in the eyes. “Looking for a job?” Huh, her voice was much younger than I was expecting.
“Right now I am looking for a bed.” I replied firmly, downing the whole glass before standing up.
She seized me with her glance, a wide grin appearing on her face. “Impressive. Well, I can arrange that too.”
I couldn’t tell what I hated more: her tone, that wink or everything. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I will pass, thank you.”
“Well, if you need some extra caps, swing by the book store and tell the shopkeeper that you’re looking for snake oil.”
I blinked at her a few times before turning around and quietly walking away. I can think about this with a sober head tomorrow. Thankfully the hotel was right next to a bar so it didn’t take much effort to stumble in my room, and fall on the bed, letting the sweet darkness consume me.
There aren’t many things I dislike more than waking up with the feeling of somepony watching me. Okay, maybe there were quite a few things, but it was up there.
I cracked my eyes open, just enough to see a white unicorn staring at me with her red eyes. Can't say I was entirely surprised. I closed my eyes back and sighed, “You know it’s impolite to stare at other mares while they sleep?”
Judging by the loud ‘eep’ and following thud, I assumed that she jumped and hit the corner of the table. With another sigh, I fully opened my eyes. Well, I wasn’t that far off.
“I’m sorry… I…”
I motioned for her to stop, and rolled off the bed onto my hooves. “What do you want?”
“I, well… sorry it’s, well…”
“Calm. Down.” I fixed her with a stare. That seemed to work: Scarlett stopped and now was just awkwardly standing in the corner, trying not to look at me.
I pulled out a can of marinated bacon and wheat out of my saddlebags and opened it. Not the best combination, but in the wasteland you don’t get to complain. “Let’s start from the beginning. What were you doing in my room so early in the morning and more importantly, how did you get here?”
Her ears drooped as she offered me a nervous smile. “I, well,” she started blushing. “I was returning from that job you suggested me and thought I wanted to get some rest, but I was very tired and mixed up the doors and the key somehow fit. And then I realized that I wanted to talk with you, but you were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you up. And then I thought what if you would notice that someone was here, then…”
“That’s enough.” She recoiled slightly, but quickly regained her composure. Sweet Celestia, for someone so shy, she sure loves talking a mile a minute. “Now,” I took another bite from the bacon. “Since you’re already here and I am awake, why won’t you tell me what you wanted to talk to me about?”
She seemed thoughtful for a moment, then looked at me with a surprising determination in her eyes. “I want to help you!” She took a small step back, her smile turning a little sheepish. “If you don’t mind, of course.”
I gave her a confused look. “Help me with what?”
“You know, guarding caravans. And other stuff too.”
I sat on the couch, covering my face with my hooves. I really should have seen that coming. “Sorry,” I started, trying to pick my words carefully. “I’m not looking for a partner right now.” Noticing her blush, I rushed to clarify. “Work-partner. That’s what I want.” Well, I couldn’t make it any more awkward even if I tried. “Look, I don’t even know when I’ll next be back on the road. As you’ve heard, caravans aren’t likely to show up here.”
“Well, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to have somepony to help you out?” She slightly cocked her head, ears perking up.
The worst part of it was that she wasn’t wrong. But committing to having a full-on teammate was a bit more responsibility than I was comfortable with. “Why do you want to help me, anyway?”
“Well…” Her blush returned again. “To be honest, I don’t really know what to do, I haven’t found the ponies I was seeking here and at this point, I doubt they exist at all.” Scarlett’s ears drooped, as she continued. “You seem like a nice pony, and you travel a lot, so maybe if I can tag along I can find my answers eventually.”
I frowned. “I still don’t know what you’re looking for.” I stood up and approached her. “I’m not going to travel with a pony I don’t know anything about.”
Her smile faded, as leaned on the wall, thinking. “How about I join you for a day. Then, if you want me to stay by your side at the end of it, we can talk about this and I’ll try to explain everything as much as I can. If not, I’ll just be on my way.”
I pursed my lips. It did not sound unreasonable, and so far, she hasn’t given me a reason not to trust her. But at the same time, Scarlett definitely had something to hide, something pretty serious. At least to her.
“Fine.” I sighed and looked out of the window. “Although I don’t have anything planned for today…” Well, actually. “…or maybe I do.” I snickered at the confused look at Scarlett’s face. “I got an invitation yesterday, seems pretty fishy. But with two of us, I would feel much safer to accept. You in?”
“Uhh, what kind of invitation?”
I grinned even wider, “That’s for us to find out.”
“I… well, I did say that I’ll help you.” I knew this expression all too well. This is the look of a pony who made an internal decision and plans to stick with it no matter what. Everything I knew, along with my intuition, was telling me that I should trust Scarlett. And at the same time, this feeling was the reason I really didn’t want to.
***
The book store was a small building, located at the edge of a marketplace. The street was unusually quiet for this time of day, due to the attack. But the occasional ponies, going back and forth, looking for supplies, were a sign that life was slowly coming back to normal.
“First of all, you need a gun, since you…” The words stopped in my mouth, when I saw Scarlett pulling a small and very dirty pistol out of her saddlebags. “Where did you get that?”
“I was allowed to take half of the weapons from the, uh, ‘cleaning’ job yesterday.” She offered a sheepish smile, and looked at the gun. “I also have some armor back in my apartment, but I thought locals wouldn’t be very happy seeing a pony wearing something like that, after what happened.”
“I can’t say if this pistol is more likely to kill your target, or yourself, but it should do for now. Do you at least have some ammo for it?” After she energetically nodded, I continued. “Good, have it ready, but try not to flash it without reason. We don’t want to seem too aggressive. When inside, be on alert, but don’t act unless you have to.” Seeing Scarlett’s ears perking up, as she attentively nodded to my instructions, made me feel like a teacher. “If things go well, we’ll just have a small chat and possibly find a way to make some money, which should make us one step closer to leaving this place. Any questions?”
“No, I’m ready.” She straightened up, her muscles becoming noticeably tense and her expression hardened. It seemed like I underestimated my new companion. While I am yet to determine her skills, this mare definitely wasn’t lacking in determination.
I silently nodded and opened the door. Inside, there was a small dusty room, with empty shelves and a broken mirror. In the far corner stood an ancient-looking earth pony, cleaning what seemed to be like the only shelf that had any books on it. “Hi.” I said calmly, slowly making my way across the room. “Do you know where I can get some snake oil around here?” The pony turned around, and silently nodded towards the back door.
“Maybe we should look at his books while we are here?” Scarlett whispered from behind. “It’s pretty rare to find a good book out here.”
“You can look at books as much as you want after we’re done with our business.” I deadpanned, walking through the door. In front of me was a wooden staircase leading to the basement. “Speaking of, I have no idea what’s waiting for us there, so be ready.” With that, I started down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible.
Eventually, I ended up in a shabby, but surprisingly tidy looking office. Even more surprising was the stallion in an official-looking suit behind the small table, writing something down in a thick notebook. By each side of him stood an armed pony, in pretty expensive combat armor. I recognized one of them as a mare from yesterday. The earth pony put down his pen and looked at us. “Ah, I’ve been informed you may come, miss…”
“Midnight.” I nodded, trying to keep my voice as even as I could. “I’ve been invited here.”
“I know, I don’t remember anything about the other one though.” His deep monotone voice reminded me of a time my father bought an old recording, thinking there was some cool pre-war show on it but it ended up being a recording from a court. I didn’t exactly know what a lawyer was, but I definitely knew that I hated it.
“She’s helping me, we come together with the Caravan.” I wasn’t that good with all that ‘speak just enough truth’ thing, but thankfully the answer seemed to satisfy him.
“I’ve heard as much.” He looked us over, and stood up. “I am Dry Ink, I work for the Stellar Collective, and we could use someone like you.”
I raised my eyebrow. “What are the Stellars doing so far South?”
He visibly cringed at my use of the shortened name, which caused his guards to share an amused look. “Same thing as everywhere else: giving drugs to ponies who need them.”
“Selling drugs you mean.” I deadpanned, shaking my head. “I’m surprised the guards haven't found out about you yet. Not the most discreet place exactly.”
He nodded, smiling. “Oh, they know. This…” Dry Ink motioned towards the bookstore part of the building, “is mostly to not disturb the locals. Ponies usually tend to be very upset, learning that there’s a drug cartel base in their city. We supply the local clinic and guards with chems and healing potions, and in return, they provide us with a small office for our base of operations.”
“You seem to have everything figured out, why do you need me?” I asked, slightly cocking my head.
“Because you aren’t from here.” Ink began pacing back and forth. “You see, one of our shipments was stolen, and we can’t really ask the guards to look into it or do it ourselves, without drawing the attention of the general public. You, however,” he stopped and pointed at me with his hoof, “are an unknown quantity. I’d like you to ask around and try to figure out who did that. Not for free, of course.”
I looked at Scarlett, the poor girl was noticeably nervous and confused. Noticing my glance, she turned to me and shrugged. I took a deep breath and turned back to Dry Ink. “So, let me get this straight. If we bring you your drugs…”
“Oh, no no no!” He quickly shook his head. “We only need the name of the responsible party. We’ll deal with them ourselves.”
That wasn’t too bad of a deal, and the town probably needs the meds more than ever. Assuming Ink tells the truth. “What’s in it for us?”
The earth pony returned to his table. “Money, of course. And the eternal gratitude of the injured guards you’ll save.” He offered a coy smile, before looking in his notebook. “I think three hundred caps is more than fair for a single name.”
I shook my head. “Make it four hundred. Looking into people who steal from drug cartels, isn’t exactly the safest thing to do.”
Glanced over me, as if evaluating. “Fine.” He eventually replied. “Four hundred it is, but this is a pressing matter and I expect some results in the next three days. Otherwise, we’ll have to look for other avenues to solve this issue.”
I nodded. “It’s a deal then, I’ll see what I can find out then I'll let you know. And I hope to see my money ready by then.”
“Of course, the details will be provided by our contact at the warehouses. His name is Shiv, I’ll let him know you’re coming. And now, if you excuse me.” Ink picked up his pen and started quickly writing something in his notebook.
I nodded and went upstairs, motioning Scarlett to follow me.
“Uhh… Midnight, what are we going to do now?” She asked once we exited the book store.
“First we need to go back to the hotel and fix that pistol of yours. And then we discuss our situation.”
***
“Why did you agree to work for them?” We were in the process of sorting through all the weapons that Scarlett salvaged from the battlefield, trying to find working spare parts for the ones that looked semi-decent. Well, I was. Scarlett sat on the couch and intently watched me disassemble all of this trash.
“As far as job opportunities go, Stellars are the best we can hope for right now.” I threw away another rusty rifle, setting aside its receiver. “They’re the only gang trying to do legitimate business. That’s not to say they aren’t a bunch of ruthless thugs and psychos. Sadly, a lot of doctors in this part of the wasteland depend on them, not that there’s many alternatives.”
“I see. Do you think we can find this pony?”
“Why not? We’ll see what Shiv has to say. I don’t think there’s a lot of ponies who know about Stellars being here, so there shouldn’t be too many suspects.” I stood up, giving Scarlett the result of my work. “Here, I managed to scrap something that resembles a pistol and submachine gun. They aren’t the greatest, but they won't break into pieces either.”
The white unicorn carefully took the weapons and looked over them. “Thank you so much! I promise to be careful with them.” She beamed at me.
“Now just find a proper holster for it and meet me at the entrance to the warehouse.” I started towards the door, then looked back at her. “I’ll go and scout the area.” I closed the door and quickly made my way to the warehouse district. This was going to be a long day.
At first glance, the warehouse district was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the city: a lot of containers. Although the ones here were used closer to their intended purpose. The main differences were a couple of still-intact, pre-war buildings and the increased number of guards patrolling the area. Whoever stole the chems probably had a friend among the guards… or they were just really good. It was hard to say which was worse for us.
I was waiting for Scarlett in front of one of the pre-war buildings, drawing glances from the nearby guards. Thankfully, my newfound companion didn’t make herself wait.
“Are you ready?” I asked her with a nod, as she approached me.
“Yes. Uhm, at least I think I am.” She offered a sheepish smile and nervously looked around.
“Good, now let’s find this Shiv and see what we are dealing with here.” I barely made a few steps towards the building, when I heard a quiet voice behind me.
“Midnight, I assume?” I turned around to find a tall earth pony, whom I almost mistook for Grifter if it weren’t for his much darker shade of coat.
“Yes, and you are…”
“Shiv, I was waiting for you. Follow me.” He quickly trotted towards the small red container that was placed a little bit separately from the others.
I gave Scarlett a quick nod and went after him. When we approached the container, Shiv leaned on it and looked over at us.
“You know you didn’t have to alert every guard about your arrival,” the earth pony shook his head. “Now we have to act quick.”
“I just looked around, I didn't…”
“Right, after a shipment gets stolen, the new pony in town who’s been seen chatting with the owners of said shipment just casually walks around the warehouses. You don’t need to be a genius to put two and two together.” Shiv closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “Anyway, we can still use this to our advantage.”
“Hold on.” I came closer, lowering my voice. “You think one of the guards did it?”
“I know one of the guards did it.” He looked around, his ears twitching. “Just not sure which one. I narrowed it down to three possible candidates however.”
“But why would guards do something like that?” Scarlett’s shocked voice came from behind.
Shiv sighed, pursing his lips. “Some of the guards aren’t happy with our… partnership with the Stellars, so that’s their way of retaliation. If our hospitals won’t get their chems, the relationships between us will sour. And that’s where we need your help.”
My ears perked as I nodded. “And what do you want us to do exactly?”
Shiv gave me a thoughtful look. “Since they already saw you here, I will pass a few rumors that Stellars are about to make their move, then we’ll follow our suspects and see who will act off. Or, if we get lucky, they might do something stupid and we’ll catch them red-hoofed.”
“Are you suggesting we just follow the guards around, or…”
“I’ll give you information on them and where they live, then we split up and put each of them under surveillance. Then, as soon as one of us learns the identity of our thief, your job is done.” He looked over at myself and Scarlett once again, then nodded. “I need to get back to work, where do I send the info?”
“We’ll be waiting at the hotel.”
“Got it.” He said, starting towards the large containers in the back. “See ya.”
“I nodded in response and turned to Scarlett. “Well… can’t say this was what I expected, but it could’ve gone worse.”
“I don’t like how everyone seems to think they can just order us around.” She pouted, stomping her front hoof on the ground.
“Once we get out and reach some place with caravans to guard, it will get better. For now, we just need to wait and see if those fuckers will decide to attack again.” I nodded and started towards the hotel. “Ideally, we need to find a job that would lead us out of here, so we won’t end up broke in some big city.”
Scarlett’s face slightly lit up, as she looked at me smiling. “We? So you’re accepting my help?”
“About that.” I sighed. “Meet me in my hotel room, I’ll grab us something to drink and we can talk. I’d rather get this over with before we start stalking guards tonight.
***
“Make yourself comfortable, we have a lot to discuss.” We were sitting in my hotel room, with an opened bottle of apple cider on the table. “What exactly are you looking for?”
Scarlett looked at me and took a deep breath. “I have some… problems. The likes that can’t really be solved by conventional means.” She closed her eyes, and took a long sip of cider. “I… don’t know how to properly describe this, but… there are two of me.”
“Huh?” I blinked, in confusion. “You mean you have a twin?”
She pursed her lips, her ears folding. “I… no. Kind of? I guess. See, so far you’ve only talked to me, Scarlett. But, there’s like two ponies who live inside of me. This one is well, me, and the other…” She stopped, noticing the look of sheer confusion on my face. “See, it’s complicated. Basically, in some situations, I black out, and do things that I don’t remember doing, and act like a completely different pony.”
We sat in silence for a minute as I tried to process what she had said. “So, you mean, like battle trance?” I mustered finally.
“No, it’s like, there’s another personality in me. And she has her own mind. And I am scared of her.”
Oh, Goddesses, the last thing I need right now is a crazy pony to babysit. “So what are you looking for exactly?” I asked slowly, “I don’t think there are any working mental asylums at the moment. Ponies are generally too concerned with shooting each other and blowing things up to care about stuff like mental health. Although considering the current living conditions, I think whoever tries to open one would make quite a living.”
“No, that’s not… I think it's a spiritual problem, so I looked for a shaman, or a magic specialist who could examine it.”
“So, you just randomly switch between personalities?” I shook my head. ”I can’t see how this could go well in my line of work. Hell, even tonight’s operation is under a huge risk now.”
“No no no!” She jumped from her seat, flailing. “Not at random. Only when I am under huge stress and in mortal danger, but I’ve been training myself to control that for years. Uhh… The stress, part I mean.”
I stood up and sighed. “Well it’s not like I have a choice tonight, but I need to know more before…” I was interrupted by the sudden knock on the door.
“Miss Midnight? There’s a note for you waiting at the reception.”
“Well, it seems like it’ll have to wait. Prepare yourself and meet me at the entrance, there’s a long night ahead of us.”
“So he won’t be coming.” Scarlett was repeatedly tapping her hoof against the table. “Doesn’t it seem suspicious to you?” She pursed her lips looking at me.
I sighed. “You’re right, although I must admit it does make sense for him not wanting to show up for the job. Afterall, we are going to be (hopefully) out of town in the next couple days, but he will have to live with those guards going forward.” I put my hoof on her shoulder. “We’ll just have to be more careful.”
“So…” Scarlett said, in a more confident voice. “…what is our plan here?” she stopped her tapping and straightened up.
“We know their names, descriptions and where they live, all that’s left is to take surveillance and watch if any of them will try to do something fishy at night.” I stood up and started checking on my guns. “They live pretty close to each other so if anything happens I should be able to help.” I said, putting the magazine back in the carbine and flicking the safety.
“And then we meet back here?”
“No, too risky. Let’s meet behind the clinic, then we can decide what to do next.”
Scarlett sighed, her gentle green eyes meeting mine. “So you’ll be going now and I should move out a few minutes after, right?” She said, starting towards the door to make her own preparations.
I nodded, looking over her. She may be way more helpful than I thought.
“Uh… Midnight?” The white unicorn stopped in the doorway. “Good luck.”
***
It was a lovely evening, or at least as lovely as it gets in this Celestia forsaken wasteland. Quite a stark contrast to the always noisy and dirty streets of Rusty Horseshoe. However I didn’t have much time to enjoy the surroundings. By now Scarlett should have taken her place and all that’s left is to stalk this otherwise unassuming house across the street.
Time went slow, my concentration growing with each passing minute. I felt like my heartbeat slowed down and I became more aware of the world around me: silhouettes of the buildings were getting clearer, the rare sounds of the sleeping city got more pronounced, and I could swear I almost heard Scarlett’s nervous trotting somewhere nearby. It’s hard to tell how long I stood there like this, before I saw a small movement in the corner of my eye. It was Scarlett’s target. The urge to follow them was strong, but I had to keep waiting in case they anticipated an ambush and sent a decoy first.
My patience paid off faster than I anticipated, if somewhat unexpectedly: I heard somepony running down the same alley I was hiding in. I listened closer. Two ponies. It wasn’t an arcane science to put together what was happening. As soon as I saw a hooded pony approaching my position I jumped out of my cover right in front of them, pointing my carbine right at the surprised face.
“Stop right there. Good, now take a step back and show your face.” The earth pony hesitated for a moment, but then slowly did as I said. An old and tired face appeared under the hood. Short, ashen mane with black stripes, scar on the left cheek, and dark olive coat: perfect match for Shiv’s description.
“Go ahead. If you kill me, your Collective will be thrown out for sure, and persecuted, as they should.” His gray eyes were glaring daggers at me.
“We aren’t the Collective, now tell us where you hid the drugs.” I shifted slightly to the right so I could stay closer to Scarlett. I could feel her anxiousness, and there was no doubt our target could too.
“What are you talking about?” His eyes darted between me and Scarlett, breathing fast and uneven.
“Drugs that were meant for the hospital.” I retorted, taking a step forward. “Come on, Smokey, there’s no point in denying that.” Saying the stallion’s name seemed to have had an effect on him.
“How did… “ The look of confusion on his face quickly changed to one of anger. “Whoever you are, you ain’t getting them.” Well, that was all the proof we needed.
“I don’t think you’re in the position to argue.” I deadpanned, my carbine pointed at his chest.
The stallion growled, his ears pinned to the head. “Who said that you are?” He suddenly spat at the ground. “Fucking useless raider cunts. If they could finish their fucking job I wouldn’t have to clean up after them.”
The new information was unexpected, and it took my brain a moment to try and process it. “Wait, what do you…” That moment was enough for the guard to get the jump on me, and knock me off my hooves. Sharp pain struck my flank, and I felt his heavy weight pinning me down. I noticed the knife coming down on me just in time to grab it with my magic and try to push back. I put all my remaining strength into the spell, but only slowed it down. At the moment it felt like nothing else existed except us. Only me and the blade moving towards my head centimeter by centimeter. Suddenly a sharp scream followed by a crash pierced my ears and the knife disappeared along with the weight that’s been holding me down.
Immediately I jump to my hooves, breathing heavily. Scarlett was pinning the stallion to the wall with her magic, looming over him.
“I’ll break you in half and feed you to the dogs, you pathetic sack of shit!” She quickly turned around and slammed both rear hooves into the guard's chest. The bright red grip of her magic flashed brighter as she lifted the struggling stallion up, only to bring him down with a loud crack.
“Scarlett!”
She raised her hoof for another strike before looking at me. I recoiled: a pair of glowing red eyes glared at me. My mind raced back to our conversation. Right.
“You pity him?” The unicorn started moving towards me. “Maybe you wanted him to kill both of us? Maybe I should’ve let him end you then?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” I took a few steps back, the sharp pain piercing my left flank. “Killing him will only cause us more problems instead of solving them.”
“Us?” The closer she got the better I could see her. “I don’t see any problems here.” She still looked like Scarlett, but her facial features were sharper, more predatorial-looking.
“Listen, Scarlett, or… whoever you are, we don’t…”
“Oh, so she told you about that, huh.” She said, giggling. “Ohh, the poor thing must be pretty desperate.”
“Can’t say I blame her. Can’t imagine being stuck with some… thing in my head.” I mumbled, to myself. And instantly regretted it, when a swift strike to my chin sent me flying to the nearest wall.
“Maybe you should.” Her voice almost shifted to hissing, as she closed in, looming over me. “Whatever she might think, I do care about her. Oh, and you may call me Ruby.”
I was panting, trying to manage the pain. “You have… a very strange way of showing it.”
“Oh really?!” She screamed, her horn flashing red. “What do you know, you… uh… what?” Scar… uhm, Ruby stumbled back looking confused.
“What’s wrong?” I didn’t know if I should be relieved or worried about this sudden change. She looked at me, one last time before collapsing on the ground.
I slowly stood up and levitated a healing potion out of my bag. As much as I hated to waste the precious liquid for something as trivial as some bruises, I didn’t know how much more beating I could survive tonight. After downing the bottle, I went towards Ruby. I checked her pulse, and she appeared to be sleeping. I looked around. Judging by Smokey’s rising and falling chest he was alive as well. Well, that’s a relief. But I can’t just let any of them lie around until morning.
With a defeated sigh I concentrated all my remaining magic to lift Scarlett on my back. Thankfully the Collective’s office wasn’t that far away.
After five minutes of stumbling my way through the dirty alleys of Safe Harbor, I finally knocked on the door of the book store. When it opened I was greeted by no other than Dry Ink himself. “Midnight? What happened?” He stepped away, allowing me inside. He was also kind enough to help me put Scarlett in the chair behind the counter.
“We have the information.” I steadied my breath the best I could. “But things didn’t go exactly as I hoped.”
The earth pony attentively looked at me. “Tell me.”
I took a deep breath and leaned against one of the empty shelves. “It was Great Smoke, he noticed that he was being followed and tried to run. I intercepted him, but… well, you can find him back in the alley and see for yourself.”
Ink’s glare hardened. “Did you…”
“He’s alive.” I added hastily. “Just unconscious.”
“Much like your friend over there.”
“I guess so.” The adrenalin began to wash away and I suddenly realized how tired this whole situation made me. “If you excuse me I should go and take care of her.”
“Of course, you’ll be paid tomorrow after we confirm your information.”
I stood up and put Scarlet on my back again. “Oh, and before I forgot. He also may be responsible for the recent raider attack.’
“At least he said something like that. I don’t know if he just tried to throw me off.” And quite successfully. I shrugged, or at least tried to, with the entire unicorn on my shoulders, it was harder than I thought.
Dry Ink seemed to collect himself rather quickly. “We’ll look into that, thank you and farewell.”
Without any more delay, I started towards the apartment.
Next thing I remember was the sweet embrace of my bed. I didn’t know how I got there or where Scarlett was. Nor did I care, as I closed my eyes, waiting to fall into oblivion.
