> Fallout Equestria: Northbound
>  by Nazhan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fallout Equestria: Pyrr Prenons
By: Nazhaz

Prologue
Los Pegasus is a large and expansive city ruins on the west coast of the Wasteland. Once upon a time it was an industrial center of a country known as Equestria. Unlike the many other powerful cities of the Equestria, Los Pegasus built out instead of up. The city was in many cases, all of Equestria in miniature. Factories able to rival the industrial powerhouse of Fillydelphia, economic pull that turned the heads of the nobility, its defensive measures enough to impress the urban engineers of Hoofington, and most importantly the naval heart of Equestria.

Warships of hardened, Equestria steel that warded against the Zebra invaders approaching the land on every coast. Machines capable of weathering any storm and tide fighting day in and day out. Ground-to-air guns that turned the skies into a death sentence for anyone foolish enough to strike from above. Los Pegasus was the heart, mind, and soul of each and everyone one of these. Hundreds of ships were constructed throughout the war, their capsized wrecks off the coasts to stand as a testament.

Today the naval legacy of the City is a shadow of its former self. Many of the ships still in port, failing and falling apart day by day, year by year. The few of them still in commision are now controlled by raiders, pirates, and the Shipyarders (No better than pirates if you were to ask me). The rest out at sea and thousands of feet below.

The rest of the City also followed suit with its boats. The center of the City is now ground zero of a megaspell, its radiation and taint reaching as far as the urban outskirts. Certain days, if the weather proved shitty enough, the winds would blow through the rest of the suburban areas and out into the countryside. These storms could last any from a few minutes to a week. Because of this, anyone who calls this City home knows to keep moving. Getting attached to one location for too long meant certain death if a rad storm came in for any extended period of time. Those who do settle down and don’t get purged by a storm typically have a way to repel or treat radiation and taint.

If the urban area wasn’t bad enough the suburbs have just as many dangers to contend with. Raiders populate just about every other street. Some neighborhoods are large enough to boast an entire clan of raiders. In more civilized parts of town, gangers have the run of the land (unless the Shipyarders, Steel Rangers, or a town control the region). This doesn’t even begin to cover the numerous relics of the old world still around. Ghouls, malfunctioning robots, and other bulltshit that made your already shitty life worse.

Aside from that, there are two other factions that have a large presence in the City. The first being... well, Trotters like me aren’t exactly united in a cause, purpose, or ideology. Trotters is just a term ponies of the region use to refer to those living a nomadic lifestyle. We travel around scavenging what we can, typically because we can’t afford to live in a settlement or were pushed out of one by one of the bigger factions. That’s all we are, a bunch of destitute ponies with nowhere else to go. Most of us turn to raider activity within a week.

The second faction. Slavers. Oh yes sure, some towns around the City practice slavery and some groups have you under a contract so severe you might as well be a slave. But those don’t come close to The Slavers. Operating primarily out of the inland industrial sector, The Slavers round up hundreds of ponies each year. They send their hunters and slave wagons out and about the City to capture anypony unfortunate enough to cross paths with them. Didn’t matter who you were, raider, Trotter, a lone Ranger, if they could overwhelm you, you were fucked.

Now what did they do with such a large slave workforce? They had them make weapons, armor, machines, anything right down to the kitchen sink. It’s made them the most powerful region in the area as more and more people join them, either as slaves or slavers. A couple years ago they were just a small settlement known as Ironshod, named after the factory they holed up in. Now of course they were the most powerful military force in all of Los Pegasus. In fact, the only thing preventing them from taking the whole City for themselves was their own slave population. Most of their resources are spent keeping them in line and productive. Personally I never understood the point in keeping their factories running  since they had enough weapons to take every faction here on twice over. Pride?

What matters is that they’re a Trotter’s worst nightmare. Because which type of ponies were the least armed, vulnerable, and alone? Us of course! I wouldn’t be alone in the preference of a run through a rad storm over trying to sneak around one of their caravans. They’re cruel and vicious to all of their victims. They put their newly captured slaves through as much pain and misery as took to satisfy their sadism (or another faction came near). Rape, blunt force trauma, psychological torture, so long as their victims could still pull a cart and work afterwords, they did it. In some sick twisted way I suppose it was a way to instill obedience into their slaves. One particular slave hunter was especially ruthless.

 His name was Collar.

And I got to learn just how vile he was first hoof… 
> Chapter 1: Stoke the Flames
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Chapter 1: Stoke the Flames




We moved through the night in tense silence. Even though we were in a part of the City that shouldn’t be receiving any activity from the major factions, we dared not make a sound. We began scouting around for an intact (or at the very least a building with three of its four walls erect) to seek refuge for the night. We got lucky and managed to find, not just four walls and a roof, but a building hidden amongst rubble.

I approached the building, it was two stories high with a window on the second floor. The rest of the walls were obscured by rubble. I pushed the front door open slowly. Inside, there were a few desks. Each desk had a destroyed husk of a terminal atop it, save one. The rest of the room was decorated with typical office furnishings. The first was safe at the very least.

 When I had assessed the building was completely safe, I beckoned Lotus over. Lotus, my loving wife, briskly trotted over from behind a pile of debris with our saddlebags. Her pink coat and mane were ragged and dirty from the rubble. Most tragic of the grime was the amount of dirt that had accumulated on her cute white fetlocks. We exchanged a look and double checked our surroundings before she went in to investigate the building herself. As she crept through the door, I couldn’t help but admire her very very shapely, flanks. What? I was her special somepony, I could eye her up whenever I felt like it, ok!

“Prim,” I whispered back towards the rubble, “It’s safe, come on.”

Out stepped my little filly. Her coat, a would-be white sheen if not for the hours on end spent crawling through rubble, bristled as she slinked around the rebar of a collapsed house. Her maroon mane folded at the the tips into little curls, one of which curled around her small horn. Once she was free she had trotted over to me with much less care than her mother (oh childhood innocence, how I missed it). Primrose was still quiet out of habit, but she never worried about watching every crevice a potential raider or Slaver could be hiding like her mother did.

“Daddy? How long ‘til we get to Preg?”

“Soon, we’re not too far now. Just a few more days of walking and we’ll be safe,” I held her red tinted fetlocks reassuringly, “Now get inside before someone or something spots us, little Primy.”

We were on our way to Preg, a small settlement built on a pre-war pier. Its original name was Pier 39, but the letters “i” and “e” had long since rusted off. Really the town should be called “Pr39”. I think one of their founders had flipped the “3” around to make it look like an “E”. The “9” probably sagged on its own due to time. Who knows, maybe it had fallen off by now. It had been years since I been in Preg, let alone this far west in Los Pegasus.

The pier once upon a time had been a popular tourist location in Los Pegasus, probably second only to Las Pegas (Why they named the two cities so similarly is beyond me). Now, Pier 39’s tourist amenities have been repurposed into bars, brothels, chem shacks, and home to all of the other many vices of the Wastes. It also happened to be one of the safest places to be in all of Los Pegasus. Protected by the Shipyarders, not no one would dare raid Preg unless they wanted a 40mm round up their ass. Actually make that several 40mm rounds; that poor buck had never stood a chance.

We began to explore the building. One room and a restroom on the first floor, two rooms and another restroom on the second floor. The building had long since been looted by some other Trotter. I gave myself a once over in one of the restroom mirrors. My black coat was also covered in soot and debris. I began to use my magic to pluck the largest pieces of concrete off of me. My horn bathed the room in a cold red glow, the same as my eyes. I decided to turn my attention back towards my head. My mane was particularly more dirty than the rest of me, but not because I neglected to wash or anything. The soot and filth collected over several days gave my mane a near black appearance. That combined with my coat’s collar left me nearly invisible at night or in dark corners. It was itchy as tartarus, but the extra security was worth it. If I did decide to keep my hair clean, my pure white mane would show. I might as well be telling any raider that happened by “ Hey! Shoot me right in the head!” Today, a few strands of hair from the blue stripe that ran through my mane were showing. I quickly smothered them with the nearby ash on the rest of mane.

 In the end of our scavenging, all we could find were a few pieces of somewhat valuable looking scrap electronics that weren’t too heavy. Every cap was going to count once we got to Preg. Once we finished looting the place we made once last check of our surroundings. Nothing, all quiet. We settled down to sleep for the night. Tomorrow we would hopefully reach one of my old “safehouses”. Ok, it was really more of hole in the ground that was out of the way of any main roads. After that it would just be a couple more days of travel until we reached Preg, and we could start our family properly. We were so close now!







I woke up to the sound of distant conversations and the rustling of… wheels? Whatever it was wasn’t far, their sounds were probably only muffled by the walls of the building. I crept over to the window facing the street, and dared a peek. Fuck! Outside was an entire caravan of slavers making a camp just across from us on the street. Of all the times to take a break they just had to choose here! Crap I need to get us out of here.

Now fully awake, I briskly made my way across the room to Primrose and Lotus. I quickly reran last night’s events through my head trying to work out how we screwed up picking our place to rest. Maybe we were too close to the street? Too close to Slaver territory? No, Slaver territory was at least two days out from here! Bad luck?

“Lotus! Primy! We’ve got company,” I shook them vigorously to get them to wake up.

“What is it Pyrr?” Lotus gave me a worried look, clutching Primrose firmly.

I sighed, “Slavers, a half dozen of them. Well armed. Plus a cart for slaves.” Hopefully they didn’t feel like checking the building for unsuspecting ponies.

Primrose had started to wake up fully, “It’s ok, we can wait for them to leave.”

 She yawned, showing that confidence only a young filly could have their parents to protect them. She was still too young to understand that every crisis we escaped could’ve been the last one for us. That trust was probably the only thing that kept me from giving up in past close calls now that I think about it. At first it was my newfound love for Lotus, but now that we had a filly the desire for safety has never been greater. In fact it was why we were trying to get to Preg in order to settle down in a nice, safe community.

“They’re not just moving past here are they?” Lotus responded as the more hardened adult. I could only shake my head. But, this would be fine. We’ve made out of situations like this dozens of times before, and we were going to do it again, for Primrose. In fact this was exactly like how another group of ponies camped outside our resting location. We had simply trotted out th… FUCK! This building didn’t have a back door!

Lotus seemed to have come to the same conclusion as me, “Well, let’s hope they don’t feel like searching here then?” A nod from me, a sigh from her.

I began to trot back to the window to check what they were doing.

“Mommy, can’t we just go out the back like that one time?”

“Sorry Prim, but the only ways out are through the front. We just have to hope and stay very quiet. Can you do that for me sweetie? Stay very very quiet?”

I reached the window and saw that they had gathered around a hot plate with some sort of stew cooking on it. I now had a chance to get a better look at the four ponies. One was armed with a 10mm pistol, newly made judging by how it seemed to gleam in the rising daylight. Two other bucks had .357 revolvers of the same quality. The last was equipped with a battle saddle with two rifles attached to it, same enviable quality as the others’ weapons. All of them wore worn combat barding. They out-gunned us and I doubted our rusting 9mm pistols would even hope to pierce their barding. Wait! There were six of them, where are the other two? Then I looked down. They were heading towards us and were just a few feet away from the front door!

I whipped my head back to find Lotus checking our pistols.

“Two of them are right outside,” I hissed, panic beginning to rise in my chest. If they checked upstairs- Oh Luna if they checked up here.

She gave me a grim look that I assumed matched mine and passed me one of the 9mm pistols without a word. I caught the gun in my magic.

The front door creaked open and we could hear their conversation now.

“Come on Collar, we’ve got enough damned slaves as it is!” A gruff voice echoed through the building.

 The three of us stood in place, just looking at each other not knowing what to do. Damn it all, they were also just as well armed as the other four goons.

“Oh please, you’re just angry that we got the file AND managed to round up a bunch of slaves,” said another buck who I assumed was named Collar. His voice practically radiated sadism with each word he spoke.

We remained there in tense silence as they rummaged around the desks and junk downstairs. Lotus gently placed her pistol down and whispered across to me,

“I think we’re better off not resisting.”

I began to voice a protest but she cut me off, “Please, think of Prim.”

She was right, if tried to shoot our way out odds are Primrose might be caught in the crossfire. And if one or both of us were killed, how would she react? Primy was still so young. Losing one of us would be too painful. My Lotus was right, we stood a better chance of getting out alive by surrendering.

“Hey there’s nothing here either Collar.” Or maybe they would just leave!

A long silence that felt like forever passed. It was interrupted by a cruel and howling laugh.

“Okay okay! Enough with the charade, come on down my little ponies!” cackled the voice of Collar. Shit, did he know we were up here. Wait no, it could just be a bluff. What else could it be?

Another silence. “Sure it just ain’t radroaches, Collar?” 

BLAM

*Squeak*

Both me and Lotus stared at Primy in alarm. The report of the shotgun shell had elicited a high pitched squeak from my filly. It was either a shotgun or one monstrosity of a rifle. Luna fuck me!

The next few words from Collar chilled my bones with dread of what was to happen.

“I dunno, do radroaches squeak like little fillies?”

I heard hoofsteps climbing up the stairs.

Primy rushed over to me, tears beginning to run down her face.

“I’m sorry Daddy! I’m sorry Mommy! I-I didn’t mean to. I just- I was just surprised,” she curled up against my hoof.

“It’s ok Primy, It’ll be ok,” my voice, I doubted, was convincing to anyone as I tried to comfort my little filly.

The hoofsteps were louder, fuller, closer. They would be in the other room at any moment!

“Primy, run into the restroom. NOW!” I hissed, not daring to break eye contact with the door.

“But Dadd-”

“Just go!” I cut her off.

Primy hesitated a moment before rushing into the restroom, and slowly sealing the door behind her. The hoofsteps were getting louder.

“Collar, what if they actually have a half decent weapon on them,” Cuationed Collar’s… what? Guard?

Time seemed to stop as the handle began to twist open the door. In stepped a unicorn that looked more raider than Slaver. A very well armed raider. The stallion walked into the room wearing high quality combat armor decorated with spiked shoulders. The barding itself was deeply stained red with the blood of who knew how many ponies. Attached to his armor was a plated battle saddle that was equally blood-soaked. On his right, the riot shotgun we had heard from earlier, was attached. On his other side was a pristine rifle of some sort. I had never seen a gun like it before, it kind of reminded me of a hunting rifle only… stronger. Beneath the combat helmet was a gray coated stallion who wore a grin that looked more like he was trying to contain a much bigger grin. His cold steel blue eyes practically shimmered with joy as he looked over each of us.

My gaze froze on his eyes and any last-minute plan I might have been planning escaped me. His presence in the room had a powerful aura that had stalled my mind in terror. Then I noticed I had dropped my pistol from my magical grasp. I finally broke my gaze and saw that Lotus had the same as me. I wasn't planning on picking either gun up while in Collar's presence.

“Aww how cute! Looks like we got ourselves a little Trotter couple, Shell,” Collar chuckled as he began to step closer.

“Shell” was the dirty tan earth pony buck who trotted in behind him. His combat armor was a little bit more worn than Collar’s (and less bloodsoaked), but it still looked like nothing short of an anti-material rifle would puncture it. He also had a battle saddle with two pristine riot shotguns attached. It didn’t take a genius to connect the dots as to why his name “Shell”. He also seemed a lot less demented than the other Slaver in the room.

 We slowly backed away from the two. We did so out of  instinct, like that of a wild predator being backed into a corner. Only difference was we didn’t have the proverbial fangs to fight them. Collar was… intimidating; his eyes promising that any resistance would be met with horrible violence.

I heard the click of his battle saddle, shit I needed to negotiate something fast. I forced my mouth to move, but my voice caught in my throat. I cleared it quickly and began to, well, beg for our lives.

“P-please, don’t shoot us.” Oh real fucking smooth Pyrr! “We surrender, look we’re unarmed,” I amended.

“Oh, and why shouldn’t I eh. Seems like a lot of fun to just off you all,” Collar retorted.

Great, well that confirmed my working theory of murderous psychopath. We’re doomed… and I’m cracking jokes in my inner dialogue, yay!

I gave Lotus a few nervous glances as sweat began to drip down my face. She was just as terrified as I was. She was doing a better job of hiding it, but her eyes were betraying her. What would a this fucking lunatic accept as a good reason.

“Uhh, waste of ammo?” I responded lamely. Fucking. Dead.

To my chagrin he seemed to humor (probably for his own entertainment knowing his type), “Hmmm, good point little pony. A very good point. Maybe we should beat you two to death.

Ok, beaten to death was a start. I- I had to come to terms with reality. If we were getting out of this alive, it would have to be through slavery. A-at the very least, we would have each other.

“Hey, you’re slavers right?” I began, “We’ll come quietly and without any struggle!” 

If we were lucky we might be able to make a run for it once they were distracted.

“I do love rounding up more slaves. Hmm, Shell? How much room is left in the slave wagon?”

Well done, Pyrr, you silver-tongued Trotter you!

Shell sighed, “I told you already sir, wagon’s full.”

Yes! That means they would have to transport us on hoof. The second the guards they would have keeping watch over us were distracted, we slip away, I add the whole situation to the growing list of close calls, we reach Preg and begin our happy and safe lives as a proper family. Luna please don’t let them have bomb collars!

“Welp,” Collar gave an almost comical shrug, “Guess I’ll just shoot you two then!”

My blood ran ice cold as time seemed to slow. The world appeared to have recognized that my time was up and decided to expand these last precious seconds into minutes. Their battle saddles clicked again. Lotus collapsed into my side, whimpering. FUCK! It wasn’t fair! I- We were this close to becoming a proper family! I met Lotus a couple years back. We had Primy a year later. We were just a few days away from Preg for Luna’s fucking sake! It wasn’t fucking fair!

Collar shifted the barrel of his rifle over to me and took aim. I stared down the dark void of the hole, ignoring whatever little quip he wanted to say before executing me. I wanted to stare it down. To die in one final act of defiance by denying him the pleasure of getting to see me cower away from the gun. But I couldn’t. I turned my head away, eyes closed and teeth clenched.

“Pyrr, dear, I-I love you,” Lotus whispered into my ear.

BANG

The sound wasn’t from the rifle.

I looked towards the source of the sound and… no… nonono no! Primy what are you doing? Primrose had slammed the door of the restroom wide open. She was visibly shivering- no shaking.

“P-please don’t kill Mommy and Da-addy!” Her voice was weak and terrified, “T-Take me instead! I’m small, I-I could probably squeeze in-into the cart, r-r-right?”

“Celestia, FUCK NO!” I shouted and lunged for Collar as he began to approach my little Primy. I was promptly slammed down and against the wall by Shell.

“Daddy!”

“Oh don’t worry little filly, we won’t kill your ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’,” Collar’s voice oozed with sadism, “We’ll just… rough them up a bit.”

As if I was going to just let them take my fucking daughter! I tried to pry free of Shell’s hold, but his grip was too firm. 

“Keep away from my Primy!” I shouted at Collar.

He trotted over to me, a shivering Primrose held in his left front hoof. He stopped short just as his muzzle was a few inches from mine.

“Primy eh? What a sickeningly cute name!” He grinned ear to ear, seeming to enjoy my agony. I was going to fucking end this ass hat! Despite being beaten down and horribly under equipped to win a fight, a raging fire had begun to burn deep in my soul.

“Shell? I presume you can handle watching these two while I throw her in with the others,” Collar began to make his exit, just like that! The fucker. The fire began to blaze and form into one final question.

“WHY? Why spare us you fucking whore!”

He came to stop under the doorframe and turned his head to me. He grinned.

“Because only a loving and caring couple would send their child to hide instead of trying to offer them up for their own safety,” he stated simply.

I-I… He had known? But how? Then I noticed it. The foreleg holding Primy wasn’t just concealed by combat armor. Meshed into the plating was a device of the old-world. The unmistakable green tinted screened device capable of sorting your saddlebags, keeping files, tuning into radios, and most importantly… spotting enemies before you could see them; the Eyes Forward Sparkle function. Collar had a Pip-buck. And that meant he knew the whole time. He knew exactly that we were here the whole time. Everything before hand was just a fucking charade! He-he-he was deliberately giving us false hope after false hope only to crush them. But why!?

Collar continued as my mind was still reeling, “And I know killing you and that mare isn’t enough. No, two dead parents and mentally scarred filly? No no no, I can do better. I can still get to scar the filly while leaving the parents beaten near death as they grieve the loss of their child! Now that’s the way!

I felt my heart skip a beat as I understood just what kind of pony Collar was. He wasn’t just a sadist. No he was fucking monster, the kind of fucked up abomination that turns pain and torture into a fucking science. This was a fucking art to him! All I could was glare him down as Shell kept me pinned. I saw Primy’s eyes disappear around the corner of the door. Then Collar was gone too. A great sadness overcame me, that horrible depression that forms deep in your heart as you come to realize you may never see a loved one ever again. This was the Wasteland, I wasn’t going to see my little Primy ever again. Tears began to roll out of my eyes. I shifted my head searching for Lotus. She had slumped into a small heap in the corner of the room, eyes dejected and staring off without purpose. There were no tears from her, she was too defeated, too hurt.

But I hadn’t given up. While the hole in my heart had tempered the wildfire raging inside me, it still burned angrily. I tore away at me, fueling a revenge greater and greater. A revenge that told me the only way to put out this fire in my soul was with blood.

The beatings started a short while later. They didn’t strike us anywhere vital, just tender places. Places that would only hurt, because that’s what Collar desired for us to feel the most, pain. Pain so great death would seem like a gift.

Each strike of a baton that fire flared. Each slam of the butt of a rifle, the fire stoked itself on the hardened wood. Each hoof crunching down, the fire grew.

Then they began to humiliate me. I was apparently a more suitable toilet than the restroom a few steps over. That blaze inside me just flared as if I had been doused in gasoline. They did more… things to me. Things I didn’t care about at the time.

They had dragged Lotus into the other room. A-and the screams, the grunts, the… noises I heard. The raging inferno began to consume my soul entirely. My vision blurred as my anger took full control of my sanity.







It was hours until they had left.

I came to, only to find myself covered in filth and fluids. My body had been badly bruised. I didn't need to see that to know, I felt it. I had violated repeatedly and my body ached. The evening started to set judging by the dimming light of sun coming through the window. I trotted- ok, limped over to the door of the other room. I reached my hoof out and froze. Lotus was on the other side, but… did I want to see all of that. To see all of what was done to my beautiful Lotus? I could just wait until morning. Deal with it later…

No, Lotus needed me now. She was hurting badly, and as her husband I needed to be by her side. After all, what was one more bit of torture?

It was enough, that’s what. Enough, that the only way I could be by her side was to shield all of my emotions and lock them away. I had to lock away my heart for as long as it took to remove any evidence of what was done to her, today. I couldn’t bear to comprehend just what exactly had been done to her, not right now, Luna please… not right now.

I had to keep my mind focused, preoccupied with a single thought. That was the easiest part of the night.

“Collar is one dead motherfucking pony...”







Footnote:
Name your character:
Pyrr Prenons

Traits:
Fast Shot - You’ve got quite the itchy trigger hoof! All guns you fire shoot 20% faster, but are 20% less accurate.

Built to Destroy - The flamer that burns twice as bright burns half as long. All weapons have +3% chance to Critical Hit, but equipment condition decays 15% faster.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L
S - 4
P - 3
E - 8
C - 3
I - 5
A - 6
L - 10

QUEST PERK Added
L'envie de battre quelqu'un - Ever since the night you lost Primrose to the Slavers, you’ve never been quite the same. A deep and nigh insatiable rage burns within you. +10 to all weapon skills and +5% critical strike chance when in the presence of the scum and evil ponies of the Wasteland.
> Chapter 2: The Flame Ignited
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Chapter 2: The Flame Ignited



Cold. Cold and sore. The trauma we had endured left me in a cesspool of emotions. On one hoof, I wanted to gallop after that stallion and strangle him. On the other, I simply wanted to lay down and die. I began to pace around the room and tried to manage our supplies. I checked one of our pistols again, rusted and barely functional. A second time, a third, a fifth, a tenth. Every time rusted and barely functional. I was lost; couldn’t focus my mind and heart toward the same goal. What was that saying again? I think it went something like, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Frustrated with wrestling my own emotions, I sat hard and sighed. Now that I stopped fighting my emotions, the grief and pain of yesterday began to rush in. The tears I had been holding back all morning finally came. Damn it, I needed to get off my ass and start searching for Primy, not bawling on the floor. The raging fire within me from yesterday now just flickered.

I heard the door of the bathroom open, the same one Primy hid in… I turned my head over to see Lotus looking at my pathetic display. Her coat was damp from the impromptu bath I had given her. Really it was more of me just scrubbing her down with a wet rag. I managed to rub out most of the… mess left on her. Any of the demeaning and belittling writing they had marked on her underbelly had been reduced to black smudges. Fuck, I could still remember what each of those smudges had said. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I enunciated each word in my head with banging my hooves against my head, hard.

Now looking concerned, Lotus trotted over to me.

“Honey?” She placed a hoof on my shoulder.

I decided to stop trying to manually eject the memories of how I found Lotus this morning from my mind. For now at least. I laid motionless and despondent now. I needed a time for my brain to process the events of yesterday before I could be ready to move again. Despair finally began to set in. My mind drifted longingly to memories of my little Primy. A tiny white filly with cute little red hooves. A young filly gleefully hopping around her first bit of salvage. The soft feel of fur. An adorable little meowing pur.

“She’s gone, Lotus, she’s… she’s gone,” I voice began to fail and crack. I felt something wet begin to fall on my shoulders. 

“I know, I know,” Lotus sniffed and lay down with me. We held each other, enduring our pain together. Just for a while, until we could move past our tragedy. The tragedy that seems to plague the ponies of the Wasteland every single Goddesses damned day. In a sick and twisted way, it only made sense we had lost Primy. We had lived relatively happy for how long? Nearing on six years now, or at least we were.  Regardless, too long for anypony let alone a small family unit to live without some sort of tragic loss. 

It was the horrible and cruel reality of the Wasteland. Nopony was allowed to be happy for long. There was always hardship around the corner, a group of raiders, a shortage of supplies, a… a group of  Slavers… I hated it. But I couldn’t do anything to change it. I was just some random Trotter, a fleeting speck of life scraping by. All I could do was just cry into my Lotus’s shoulder.







A spark. We had spent an hour, maybe two, wallowing in our misery. Lotus had fallen silent. My tears had long since dried up as well. Now that my tears no longer burdened my mind, that fire began to spark my heart back into action. Now was the time to get moving! I trotted back to our saddlebags and took a proper inventory of our supplies. My mind now clear of misery I counted two rusting 9mm pistols, around seven hundred of our original thousand caps (I suppose I should be thankful the Slavers hadn’t made off with all of our money), several tins of Cram and other pre-war foods, and ten bottles of water. Ok, so still enough supplies to get around Los Pegasus for about five days. Then I noticed they had taken all of our 9mm rounds, Fuck. I quickly scrambled to check the magazines of each pistol. I let out a sigh of relief as I found both of them still full. Well, a total of twenty six shots was better than nothing.

Packing everything back into our saddlebags except our pistols, which I levitated by my side, I turned back to Lotus. She was still on the cold, tiled floor staring off into the distance. I snatched the saddlebags up by the straps and walked over to Lotus. We needed to get moving, it was never good to stay put for long in this city. I gently lowered the bags onto her back. Her soft pink eye darted up to me in shock.

“What are you doing?” She was… questioning me?

“We need to get moving again.”

It baffled me as Lotus looked as if I had just betrayed her. We needed to get moving if we were ever going to rescue Primrose. What was her problem? Lotus hung her head.

“Why bother? The whole reason we came all the way out here was to find a safe place for Primrose,” she said in monotone, “And now she’s gone.”

There was a certain finality to her voice that slowly began to infuriate me. I could feel rage quietly creeping up my spine. It was as if she had just given up!

“What do you mean ‘Why bother!’” I snapped, “What happened yesterday doesn’t change the fact we need to get to Preg!”

“But what’s the point!” It was strange, Lotus and I had never shouted at one another like this before. Sure we had disagreements and a few arguments, but we had never just yelled at each other. “Primrose gone! Gone, Pyrr, gone! How are we supposed to just start our little family without her!”

On any other day I would’ve been more tactful, but I was simply too angry now, “Primy isn’t gone forever, Lotus! She’s gone now, but we’ll get her back! We’ll find that ‘Collar’ bitch and… and…”

And what? Shoot him with dingy little pistols? I felt my temper level.

“And… we’ll think of something,” I finished lamely; honestly, but lamely.

I looked my Lotus in her eyes. She was still grieving and hurting. I… I could understand why she wasn’t as convicted in pursuing after Primrose. It wasn’t in her nature, after all she was… had been… well. I couldn’t bring myself to say the word directly so my mind settled on a euphemism. Lotus, once upon a time, had been in servitude. It was almost a decade since I had met her in a small settlement back in the east side of Los Pegasus.

My conviction was still unfazed, but if I was going to have Lotus’s help I would need to be a little more patient. Even if she didn’t want to go hunting for Primy, I had to at least get her to Preg. There she could be safe as I went after our daughter. I knew it wouldn’t be easy for her, but I needed to get us moving now.

“Lotus, dear, let’s just get to Preg first and then make a decision?” I suggested.

She looked at me and then slowly nodded her head in begrudging agreement. Then she shifted our saddlebags into their proper places. I gave her a small smile. I knew this was hard for her. It had been a long time since she had lived under her old slavers. To come so close to being trapped in that life again must be hurting her more than I could know. I embraced her reassuringly.

“Thank you,” it was all I could say as we were about to get moving again.

“I’m sorry, I-I just don't know how we’re supposed to continue moving forward anymore,” She admitted, “But, you seem to always know the way forward, Pyrr.”

“Oh come on, you know I only how to move forward because of you.”

Then we exchanged a kiss. It wasn’t for long but in that moment, all of yesterday’s events, Collar and his twisted brutality, the arduous pilgrimage from east to west, the void left in our hearts from Primy’s absence, all gone. For just that brief moment, all the horrors of the Equestrian Wasteland didn’t exist, just us; me and Lotus and the love between us.







If there was one defining quality of Los Pegasus, it had to be… Gray. Gray was the color that covered the street I trotted over. Gray was the clouds above me. Gray was the walls of each and every building, only interrupted by the browns and oranges of rust. Gray was the tired and drained soul of the land. Gray was the distant skyscrapers of the city’s heart. Gray was the fleeting morality left in ponykind. Oh, and gray was going to be color of Collar’s fucking stomach as I fill it with powder and lead!

Lotus and I were briskly trotting along the gray street to the west. We kept to the right sidewalk, not wanting to be exposed out in the open. To be fair I still felt exposed. Normally, we Trotters clambered among the alleys and spaces between buildings to avoid being found. To even be near the main roads was asking for trouble. Sure travelling the road was much faster than climbing through debris and rubble, it also drew the attention of less friendly individuals (Like fucking Collar). For once in my lifetime I prefered speed over safety. In turn, Lotus and I were keeping an even more watchful vigil of our surroundings. She had been and still was incredibly uncomfortable with taking the road, but chose to put her trust and faith in my judgement.

“Don’t worry dear, at the first sight of trouble we turn tail and hide among the buildings,” I reassured once more since we left as I noticed her head dart behind us.

“I know, I know, I just don’t like being on the road is all,” She responded, “It’s just too risky.” 

I smiled a little bit. I had warned of the exact same thing all those years ago. The good ole days, when she still complained and winced at getting covered in rubble and dust. The decade had turned into a proper Trotter through and through. There was a bit of pride in knowing everything I taught her to survive the Trotter life she had taken to heart over all these years.

We kept travelling well into the morning. One gray suburban tenement after another after another twenty. Los Pegasus really sucked for scenery. Then I saw a glorious beacon of pink. The lot we had come across broke away from the sidewalk and was indented inward by an old parking lot. In the middle of the open space was a tall sign featuring a faded pink circle. Written under the circle in long dead neon tubing was “Pony Joe’s.” In the back of the lot was the old doughnut chainstore.

I slowly crept around the corner into the lot. A sudden tug at my tail stopped me. I allowed myself to be dragged back around the corner by Lotus.

“What is it?” I asked. The building looked too abandoned to be hiding an ambush on ponies crossing the main road. Any possible ambush would be waiting inside. I was expecting traps at best. It was worth investigating, after all we needed supplies.

“Look!” Lotus tersely pointed at the ground.

I followed her hoof and saw… well nothing really. Just gray concrete separated by gray fractures, and hold on! My eye caught the speck of red on the ground. It was the spent shell of buckshot on the ground. Then, as if by magic, noticed another then another then another! The entire lot was littered in bullet shells of all kinds. A battle had taken place here.

“Woah,” I breathed. The monochromatic vista of Los Pegasus must’ve been getting to me.

“Geez, Pyrr, it’s a wonder how you survived all these years without my eyes watching over you.”

I blushed. It was true, Lotus was incredibly perceptive. I had personally gotten by through my experience and less my observations. Within those first couple weeks, Lotus had really become the better Trotter between the two of us. She was out scavenging me, spotting dangers before I suspected anything, and found the best shelters to hide in. It was the reason why we were able to accumulate so many caps. Before her I barely made just enough to scrape by. 

“Think we should give the place a wide berth then?” I asked, “The ponies holed up in there might still be alive.”

“No, I think we're fine,” she gave me the answer I wasn’t expecting, “Look at the bullets again.”

I gave her a questioning look and turned to observe the shell casings scattered around the parking lot. And that was it, just casings.

“What am I looking at?” I wasn’t sure what Lotus saw, but I felt I was going to facehoof when I learned the answer.

“Ugh, I have to spell everything out to you don’t I,” She rolled her eyes, “What do you see, dear?

“Ummm, casings?” I gave a sheepish smile knowing my answer was lame.

“Exactly! Casings, just casings everywhere,” Where was she going with this? “Casings are all over the battlefield, but not a single drop of blood is on the ground.”

OH! My brain finally caught up with her keen eyes.

“So whoever arrived here must’ve won the fight,” I finished.

“Ughh finally,” Lotus gave me a playful groan, clearly enjoying my ineptitude.

Lotus continued, “They most likely didn’t stick around considering how much firepower they were already packing, so we should be safe to scavenge.”

Then she ‘eep’d’ as I pulled her into a nice, long kiss. I watched her eyes dart to me in surprise, then to our surroundings. For a second I could pretend she was embarrassed somepony might be watching us, but I knew she was just making sure we weren’t about to be shot from the shadows. That was my careful little Lotus. My careful, smart, and sexy Lotus.

“W-what was that for?” She stuttered and blushed furiously.

“What? Ever just want to kiss a pony for being smart and sexy?” I smiled dumbly at her.

She gave me a sly little smile, “Yeah actually, shame there isn’t a pony like that around.”

I chuckled, “Alright let’s go check out that doughnut shop!” I began to trot towards the Pony Joe’s.

“Wait!” I turned back to find my pistol being flung at me. I caught in my magic just before it smacked my muzzle. I levitated over to my side and looked at Lotus, “Just in case, you never know.”

We approached the building carefully. It was once a very welcoming, happy, and open establishment, I imagined. Every inch of the shop was visible through its windows that stretched from one end of the building to the other. Any windows that may have still been standing after the war were shattered by the recent gunfight. The shop itself had been torn up. What little intact furniture that wasn’t bolted down had been propped against a few windows as makeshift cover. The bar at the back of the shop was mostly untouched. The metal coating on the rounded counter had rusted along with its sinks and old drink dispensers. The dilapidated maroon high seats also remained.

With a little imagination, one could picture ponies coming in, buying a few baked goods and enjoying the rest of the afternoon lazily. Then they might order something else to take home from the now faded menu hanging on the wall. The menu… which now had “Sex - 50 caps” Torn into it with a knife. Well, there goes any pre-war fantasy I was forming.

While I was observing the shop Lotus pushed the door open. Before going inside, she crept around the entrance to double check for anypony who might’ve been hiding right around the corner. She froze in place suddenly.

“Dear, I think I found the ponies they were shooting at,” she said. Although it sounded much more like: “der ihink ifron eh onies ey er hooing a” with the gun in her mouth.

I looked around the corner of the door. There lay a dead dark-greenish buck. His blood that had pooled beneath him was already beginning to dry up. His lifeless eye stared up into mine. Yes eye, singular, the other had imploded when a bullet had lodged itself deep into his skull. The scene was gruesome, but it was nothing new to the Wasteland.

There were three other corpses huddled against the wall of the store. Looking around, I saw only a mare to the far right of the building had a gun. The rest had knives and other melee weapons. They didn’t seem like raiders, not enough gorey decorations. Besides their own blood that is. Maybe they were Trotters. If they were then they must’ve been new to the lifestyle. No Trotter would have ever picked such conspicuous location to hide in, let alone one with windows that made the entire interior visible.  Well, all except…

Right, the counter, now.

I crept towards the counter and clicked the safety of my pistol off. I slowly began to ascend onto the counter using one of the old maroon stools. I carefully rolled my forehooves onto the counter to make as little sound as possible. I halted just before I would be seen from anypony hiding behind the counter. I shifted my hindlegs until I found enough purchase on the stool, and prepared to investigate the counter. I took a deep breath.

Propelling myself into the air using my hindlegs, I twisted mid-air to face anything that was hiding behind the countertop. There was a pony hiding there with a machete clenched in their muzzle. I fired two potshots and landed on the far side of the counter with well practiced ease. I leveled my pistol with my eye in order to land a better shot and… and the pony was already dead. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in.

“Already dead,” I announced as I noticed Lotus was staring at me in alarm.

She arched a brow at me before returning to scavenging the bodies, “How’d you notice that and not the carpet of bullets outside.”

“Because this is something I would do,” I turned back to the corpse in front of me. The dead buck was crumpled against the counter. His brown mane and coat were coated in his blood and gore. My two shots had landed home, one in the chest and one in shoulder. Not enough to kill. If he were alive, the ensuing fight might’ve gotten a bit messy. The machete in his mouth was loosely balanced on his lower jaw. Then I found the wound that had actually killed him. Through the center of his hips was a gaping, and still bleeding, bullet hole. I noticed the counter also had a hole through it around the same height. I knelt down and scrunched my nose a little as the smell of blood became very apparent. I saw the hole went straight through to the other end. On the other side was a perfect view of the door. Ok, that was impressive for two reasons. One, what kind of bullet tears a hole through straight past three feet of hard wood and pony like they were paper. Two, Whoever fired knew to check the counter right away as they entered the building. Or maybe they were just trigger happy and got lucky.
Speaking of which, where was the bullet? I backed up and followed the trajectory of the bullet should have landed. A few feet away I found the bullet embedded into the floor about half an inch. I grabbed with my magic and pulled. Damn it was wedged tight! After some twisting and patience the bullet came out. 

My suspicions were confirmed as I examined the bullet. In the center of the dented jacket was a silvery metal rod. Armor piercing round, .308 judging by the size. Even with an armor piercing round, what kind of rifle could puncture such a deep hole? Furthermore, why use AP rounds on such poorly equipped ponies? Something didn’t add up.

Whatever it was could wait. I decided to keep the machete as I trotted over to Lotus. She was sifting through the supplies she scavenged. It was a motley assortment of pre war food, scrap, and a variety of nearly broken weapons from the other dead ponies.

“Hmm, all of these weapons look like they’ll shatter at any second. Should probably just keep the food and scrap, but we have plenty of both already. Just the food? The scrap? Maybe the- oh!” Lotus snapped out of her muttering as she noticed me. Then she looked towards my new machete and gave a little pout, “No fair, you found a decent weapon!”

I shrugged, “It’s not like you’re any good with a melee weapon anyways.” I distinctly recalled the first time I tried to teach her how to swing a bat, I was nursing a bleeding nose for the rest of that day.

She sighed, “Fair enough. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have something else in case the pistol jams.”

I nodded and appraised the sorry excuses for bludgeoning tools before me. A baseball bat, splittering. Nope! Nail board, the sole nail in it wiggled as I prodded it. Nope! I quickly ruled out the rest of the wooden weapons. Well that left the tire iron. I dinged it against the wall with my magic. The metal dented slightly, but it would still be a functional weapon even if it did deform.

“Here! This’ll do,” I passed it over to her, “Let’s just grab a few tins of Cram and go.”

I looked outside, the sky was starting to dim from the typical gray light of day to the slightly darker gray light of evening. We maybe had a few hours left of daylight before we had to stop for the day. Besides, something was still very off about this place and I didn’t want to stay much longer.

We packed our things and headed back out into the Wasteland. I turned around as we were crossing the bullet covered lot. Something was definitely odd about this, but why? It was just your run of the mill shoot out, nothing strange there. One side was vastly out gunned so they got slaughtered, end of story. Right? 

“Pyrr? What’s up?”

“Nothing, it’s just… don’t you find something odd about this whole thing?” I waved my hoof in a wide arc. 

“Umm, those ponies were holed up in a really dumb place to hide in.”

“No, not that,” I said before adding, “But yes that was also strange.”

Lotus shrugged and declared, “Eh, guess it’s just one of the many mysteries of the Wasteland. Come on, let’s go before somepony spots us, being out in the open for this long bothers me.”

I was about to comply with my love when I caught the red glint of a shotgun shell. The bullets! That was it, something about the bullets. But what? Whatever it was began to really tick me off. Think, Pyrr, think! What’s so special about a shotgun shell. I looked around at the various bullet casings littering the lot. 10mm casings, .357mm casings, 5.56mm casings, 12 gauges, a few more .308s like the one I found inside. Yeah, okay smart pony, just a bunch of casings. So why did I get progressively angrier as I identified each type of bullet here?

Then it clicked. Not just any casings… specifically these casings…

10mm, a pony with a gleaming pistol. .357mm, two bucks with revolvers. 5.56mm, A pony with a battle saddle equipped with two rifles. 12 gauge shells and .308mm casings, two ponies wielding riot shotguns on their battle saddles, one of which had a high caliber rifle. Collar and Shell… Then another pony alongside them. The image of Primy scared and shivering filled my thoughts.

“Come on, we’re leaving,” My voice dropped to a low growl as I began to trot away from the store and back towards the street.

Lotus seemed stunned by my sudden change in tone before scrambling to my side, “Wait, hold on! What was it? What was weird? Dear?

I kept my eyes locked onto our path with a newly reborn purpose, “They were here.”

“They? Who?” She asked, still not getting it.

“ ‘THEY’ were here, Lotus!” I whirled around on her, “Collar and his little fuckers were here! Those were THEIR bullets. If we hurry we can catch up to them and get Primy back!”

She recoiled at my sudden outburst, “I… I wha-, wait- huh?”

Luna, damn we didn’t have time for Lotus to figure this out, “Come on, we can catch them if we hurry.” I began to gallop down the street towards Primy, towards Collar.

“WAIT!” I skidded to a stop as Lotus shouted. I turned around to find Lotus, with an angry look on her face, trotting up to me. Then she paused and put hoof to her mouth once she realized how loud she just was then rushed towards me. Before I knew it, she shoved me into an alleyway.

“Fucking hell Pyrr, have you gone crazy?” She… scolded me? “You and I both know full well running after Primy is going to get us killed! We don’t have barding, half decent weapons, hell we don’t even have healing potions!”

I… I knew she was right, but… I still wanted to run after them and rescue Primy. I knew we couldn’t do it but… but… we could think of something else that didn’t involve shooting right?

“We don’t have to fight them to save Primy, Lotus,” I said, although with much less conviction then I had a second ago. My anger was beginning to mellow out.

“Pyrr, I know you want to get Primy back, I do too, but we can’t right now,” She began to run a hoof through my mane, “Just take a second to think like you’ve always done to protect me all these years. Do you even know where they are?”

“Of course I do! They were here!” My voice had lost the energy from just a few moments ago.

“Exactly dear, they were here. Past tense, now they’re somewhere else. Galloping off in some random direction isn’t going to magically lead to them.”

Fuck, she was right. What the fuck was I doing? I typically planned my way around problems not rush blindly towards a goal. I was careful, cautious, and definitely not whatever I just pulled out in the street just now.

“I’m sorry, Lotus, I-I’m just… so angry that it’s hard to think straight sometimes,” I allowed myself to fall into her as she continued to comfort me.

“It’s okay, dear, just because you can’t save our little filly right now doesn’t mean I don’t believe you can. We can get to Preg and think up the greatest plan you’ve ever thought up. I believe in you Pyrr, your plans have never failed me before,” she continued to stroke her hoof back and forth through my mane. It was… nice.

“You mean besides this one.”

She sighed, “You said we were going to get to Preg a month ago didn’t you? Well, we’re still going to get there aren’t we?”

“We, Lotus, we. We; as in me, you, and Primy,” I corrected.

“And that’s we’re going to save her. And once we do, we’ll bring her to Preg and you’ll have fulfilled your promise!” And then my snout was promptly booped.

I felt myself blush a little. I also felt… better. Not good, but definitely not ‘run down the streets of Los Pegasus like a mad pony’.

“Heh, yeah I guess. Come on, let’s get moving.”

We began moving again, keeping to the alleyways and obscured paths for a while in case anything hostile heard our little outburst.







Nights in Los Pegasus were dark. Not just ‘oh, it’s hard to see’ kind of darkness. No, Los Pegasus was void of all light when the faint rays of sunlight finally failed to pierce the clouds above. Once upon a time, the city was illuminated by towering streetlamps. The entire Pegasus Valley would flare as bright as the sun when night came. Not like the bright lights of the other grand cities of Equestria though. Cities like Manehattan and Baltimare shone like beacons because of their towering buildings and bright city centers. Los Pegasus was radiant not because of its grandeur, but because of its size. The city spanned for miles and miles in an ever expanding suburban jungle. With those neighborhoods came roads and streets, with them streetlamps. Thousands upon thousands of small lights joining together to bring the radiance of Celestia’s day to the entire valley.

Today, save a couple dozen here and there, those lights had sputtered out. Any last remnant of the city’s once glorious lights was reduced to faded postcards and pictures and the rare memory orb. The city was now plunged into a black void each night amongst the featureless suburbs. The only way to navigate at night was to use the distant, sickly, green glow of the city center. Aside from  the radioactive landmark of the Los Pegasus skyscrapers, one could use the dim lights of other settlements like Preg if they were on a part of the city that was higher up than others. It was perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the suburbs. The city didn’t so much as expand outwards from the center as it did roll across the lands. Every knoll and hill was preserved as Los Pegasus laid its concrete foundations over them.

Other anomalies existed to guide daring travellers. As previously mentioned, some lampposts still managed to work even after all those years. A few other buildings throughout the city also still had some functioning lighting. I heard that ponies down south could see the glow of some old Pegasus city coming through the clouds. New Pegas, I think they called it. Those fortunate enough to have experienced it and lived told me that radstorms provided a gentle radioactive glow that was just bright enough to keep moving. Other than that, maybe a couple fires still burning from a recent battle that involved some high ordinance.

There’s another reason why light is so rare in Los Pegasus. It’s not because ponies didn’t have working lights or the means to make them. Strange as it is, nopony dared to use lights at night because it was so dark. Even the faintest glow of a candle would stand out for miles, leaving only the void-like silhouettes of the centuries old buildings to obscure your location. And that made you a target. To carry a light with you was to announce your position to every raider, settlement, creature, faction… and Slaver… to your location. It wouldn’t take much effort to snipe out the only pony for miles that shone like sun. It’s why settlements kept their lights indoors and hidden, unless of course they were well protected. Preg was one such settlement. It’s why a Steel Ranger patrols their headquarters only by their armor’s internal compass; leaving the headlamp off. Why even a Slaver caravan travels in darkness in order to get the drop on unsuspecting Trotters. Heck, even wasteland creatures that glowed in the dark had long since migrated or died out.

But raiders? Apparently raiders didn’t give a shit.

Lotus and I had just decided that the location we were to rest in tonight was safe when I noticed that a building on the other end of the street wasn’t getting darker with the rest of the city. The first thought that crossed my mind was, “Who the fuck is dumb enough to actually turn a light on in Los Pegasus?” followed shortly by,”Oh crap, they’re only just a few dozen yards away from us.”

“Lotus! Look over there!” I hissed in alarm.

“Hmm? What is it- oh… well fuck,” Lotus began to squint and observe our surroundings, but it was already too dark to see much of anything, “Well maybe we can still find somewhere else for tonight.

“Lotus, you know we can’t do that. Travelling at night is too dangerous. Remember the last time we tried that?” I reminded her of that time we tried to cover more ground during the night only to be hunted by hungry beasts that didn’t need the light to see us.

“And you know we can’t just sleep this close to whoever is camping there. They could be raiders or Slavers for all we know!” She countered. Speaking of which…

“Well then let’s make sure if they are dangerous first before running off into the night.” Ok, that was probably the dumbest, most brazen idea I ever had. And from what I could make of Lotus’s expression she agreed. Go back a few years, and you’d never catch me saying we should go towards danger. But here I was, compelled to sneak up to a camp potentially filled with raiders or Slavers or Luna knows what. If they were bold enough to turn on lights in a Los Pegasus night then they were also probably well armed and dangerous. Why the heck was I suggesting this again? But I already knew the answer, it was what Lotus had said.

There could be Slavers.

“Are you crazy? No, just no! We need to go, leave and find somewhere else,” Lotus, understandably, protested, “What’s gotten into you?”

“Both plans are just as risky, Lotus. Look, we’ll just take a quick look. If they’re dangerous, we leave. If they’re just a bunch of dumb Trotters then we don’t have to move elsewhere for the night, deal?” I had ignored her last question, but what I said seemed to convince her my plan was acceptable.

“O-okay, but we have to be quick about it. Just don’t do anything stupid like what you did earlier, ok?” She had pressed her face up to mine so that even I could see her in the dark. I stared deep into her concerned and worried eyes.

“I promise,” What I said sounded a lot more sincere aloud than it did in my head.

Lotus began to shift her saddlebags back on as I levitated our weapons around in the bags so that they would be easy to grab in case things turned bad. That got another worried look from her. After we had prepared we began our approach towards the light.

We crossed the open road without issue, although it was eerie to be in such an open space with barely any light to guide us. Were it not for the encampment's bright glow I would be walking blindly around the road. The camp itself was behind the first row of buildings in an alleyway. Now that we were up close I could hear crazed laughter echoing from the area just beyond. I felt a gentle tug at my tail. Lotus gave me a worried look and motioned for us to leave. She most likely came to the same conclusion as I did, this was a camp of raiders. Instead of following her lead I gave her a look and urged her to move forward. I pointed my hoof to the second story of the building in front of us and mouthed the word “window”.

As we crept up the stairs the laughter got louder and louder. Other details became audible as well. I could hear the gentle crackle of a fire going, hoofsteps, and the sound of metal grating on metal. Were they sharpening blades? I paused and scrunched my nose in disgust as I heard the faint sounds of something wet slapping against something. Were they-? No, don’t think about it!

At the top of the stairway was a broken window. I scurried over to quickly and slowly poked my head around. The camp was set up in a surprisingly spacious alley with a burning metal barrel in the center. The orange glow in the center combined with the silhouettes of what I could only assume were gorey decorations cast macabre shadows along the walls. There was one crazed and filthy mare haphazardly flaying a knife with another knife. The result of her ‘craftsmanship’ was a wicked and serrated blade of metal. Another stallion was lying in the corner writhing in a pile of blood and gore. Judging by his distant stare and pin prick pupils he was suffering from some sort of withdrawal. Below were two more ponies below the window and oh sweet LUNA why did I have to look down? My suspicions as to what was making the wet slapping sounds were confirmed. Below the window was a dirt-covered, gruff looking stallion going down on a much, much younger mare. Morbid curiosity compelled me to take note of the strange primal look of ecstasy on the equally filthy raider mare. I took a second to fight back today’s meal from ejecting itself across the floor. Then I noticed their manes were completely identical in color. Welp, that did it. I slid away from the window and vomited the contents of my stomach in the corner of the room. It took all of will power to dwell on the fact those two were related.

After I was done I looked over to Lotus who was now cowering against the wall under the window. I noticed she was shivering slightly, or maybe that was just the flickering light? I trotted over to her. She looked up at me with anxious eyes.

“Pyrr, please. Can we go now?” Her pleading eyes were finally enough to make me admit to myself this was stupid idea, and that we should’ve left as soon as we heard the laughter. I personally had never gotten a good view of raider life before and now I wish I had a gallon of Abronco cleaner to scrub my brain and eyes with.

“Yeah, sorry I dragged you this far,” I said.

 Then I took one last look out the window. I don’t know why I did, but then I saw her. Tied to one of the wooden poles was a young and terrified lime green filly. Her face bore tear streaks and a mouth gag. Her hind legs had been tied and splayed wide giving full view of her lower body which was matted in dark crimson.

My vision filled with red. I was vaguely aware of the two pistols and machete I had levitated to my side. Without thinking, I positioned our two pistols out the window above the the two raiders fucking, and pulled the triggers with rapid succession. Indistinguishable screams then filled the air as all hell broke loose.

I felt my hooves propel me out the window. I used the momentum from the fall to charge the mare with knives as I landed. She had also begun to charge towards me with a gleeful smile clenching down on her serrated weapon. I thrust my machete towards her that disgusting grin as fast as my rage would let me. She deflected it away onto the floor only to have her rib cage torn to shreds as I filled her with the remaining ammo in the two 9mm pistols. She let out a blood curdling scream as she fell dead to the floor. I grabbed my machete in my magic again. With a scream of my own I threw in a wide savage arc that unceremoniously beheaded the dead mare before me.

I took a moment to look down upon here when I felt a sharp stinging sear my left flank. I turned to find the incestual mare was still alive and wielding an automatic pistol in her mouth. She spat the gun out of her mouth and faced me with animalistic fury.

“You killed my daddy!”

I quickly spun the machete in my magic and flung it at her. The impact it made deep into her chest silenced her. I then dragged her gun over to me and trotted over to the writhing stallion and looked him the eye. 

He was flailing his limbs wildly now that I had descended onto the camp, but he was too addled to even stand. I unloaded a burst of bullets into his head that reduced it to be identical to the rest of the gore he lay in. I took a moment to enjoy the cathartic reverberations of my new pistol in magic as well as the crisp and resonant report of the gun. Then I looked around, four dead mangled raiders laid before my wake. I suddenly realized I had done this. Me, a tiny insignificant Trotter had taken out a raider camp by himself. I was… powerful? The idea seemed completely alien to me.

I was brought out of my stupor as a blur of pink rounded the corner and barrelled into me. Lotus slammed her hooves down on my chest and pressed her muzzle to mine. I felt 
Tears roll down onto my face as I stared into my beloved’s eyes.

“Don’t” *smack* “You” *smack* “Ever” *smack* “Do” * smack* “Something like that ever again!” *smack*

Then she collapsed into my chest sobbing furiously. I had broken that little promise from earlier. On top of all the rage and adrenaline I now felt guilty. Here I was, the pony who had advised and trained her to always err on the side of caution. The pony who always stopped us from doing anything risky. And now suddenly I was running after Slavers and jumping out of windows all in the same twenty four hours we had lost our little Primy. I was being cruel wasn’t I? For all she knew she had just lost her husband as well, if I had been killed tonight or if I received a fatal injury just now… I owed her an apology the size of the moon after what I had just pulled.

“I-I I’m sorry, dear. And before you say anything I know what I did was stupid. I know I’ve been acting… weird since Primy was… well you know,” I said as I embraced her, “I promise I’ll explain myself once we get to Preg, a real promise okay? But right now that little filly needs our help.”

Lotus looked at me with pained and conflicted eyes. I could tell she was more scared than she had ever been her whole life. In a way, the life she had built up in the past decade was now crumbling down around her. I needed to be more careful from now, less… as weird as it was to say; impulsive. She then looked over to the abused lime filly and her gaze softened.

“Oh… you poor dear, here let me help you out of those things,” she dashed over to the filly and began to undo the restraints.

We quickly got her out of the bindings once I passed my machete over. Lotus had grimaced when she received the previously gorey instrument. After she wiped it down, it was still a little red but it was for all intents and purposes clean. Then she turned to nursing the bullet wounds in my flank. I received a very angry “Don’t pull this shit ever again” look from my pink doctor throughout the whole procedure of bandaging my ass. All the while, the lime green filly sat there showering us with thanks.

“T-t thanks yous so much f-for saving me,” she squeaked and continously prostrated herself over and over before us. Then she stopped, stepped back, and looked up at us, “Oh, you probablies wants something huh?” Her voice began to quiver in fear and I noticed she pressed her hind legs closer together.

“Don’t worry, you owe us nothing,” I reassured her. Then I asked, noticing her relief, “So, what’s your story?”

The little filly took a few careful steps back towards Lotus, “Err, my name’s Thistle. I’m froms a town called Searchlight over-” She suddenly shoved her hooves to her mouth. “Sorry, daddy told me nots to say wheres it is,” She finished. The cute little way she ended most of her words in an ‘s’ brought a little smile to my face as I remembered how Primy was still learning how to speak.

She squeaked and squirmed as Lotus wrapped her hooves around her.

“Shh shh, calm down it’s just me dear. My name’s Lotus and that’s my husband Pyrr,” she started stroking her hoof through Thistle’s teal mane which managed to call her down. Lotus nuzzled her gently, wearing a kind and empathetic expression that only a mother could have. “I hate to ask this so soon, but where are your parents?”

Thistle froze for a moment then began to cry silently, “Daddy’s back home. I-I… I ran away!” Then she broke out into loud sobbing again.

“Shh shhhh, We’re here for you Thistle. Tell me, dear, why’d you run away?” Lotus brought the now wet mess of filly into an even warmer embrace.

“I-I *sniff* I wanted to finds mommy. She- She vanished one night so I told daddy that I was gonnas find and save her like Daring Doo would! I was stupids, stupids, stupids, stupids!”

We now both understood how this poor little filly had gotten here now. She had run off, naively believing she could be a hero and do anything. I joined Lotus in embracing the crying and hurting filly. For a moment I imagined the mane I was stroking wasn’t teal, but was the maroon-red hue of Primy’s.

*click*

My ears flicked up as I heard the sound of a rifle’s bolt being slammed shut. I brought the auto-pistol up and met the gaze of the young raider mare. She had deliriously leveled a rifle at us. I quickly fired a burst into her skull to finish her for good. Too slow, she managed to get a shot off before her head popped like a balloon. Time seemed to slow as our guns exchanged fire, briefly filling the air with the report of gunfire. Then I heard two screams behind me. One of Lotus in terror. The other a small and squeaky one of pain.

Fuck…

Thistle had thrown her head back in pain. Then she looked over and found the bullet wound in her chest. The hole poured out blood like how pot with a hole loses water. Then she slowly came to the realization of what happened to her as blood began to soak the rest of her fur.

“Ohs, hehe that’s bads…” Then her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed over.

Lotus desperately fumbled with a scavenged pair of tweezers in an attempt to pull the bullet. But Thistle was losing so much blood. When she did remove the bullet another surge of blood burst out of the wound. She began to pile on bandages, practically throwing them on Thistle, as her tears mixed with the blood. But Lotus wasn’t a doctor and the magical bandages weren’t made for gaping wounds like this. In the end, all she could do was cradle the writhing filly wrapped in bright red gauze as more and more parts of her body began to shut down. Then Thistle opened her eyes again, looking lost and dazed.

“Mommy? Mommy, I founds yous!” And then she was gone.

I had just stood there. Simply stood there, watching blood run down a different filly’s white coat and red fetlocks.





Footnote:
Progress to level 2: %50

Quest Added:  Little Thistle

Current Objective: Bring Thistle home

Current Objective: Inform her parents of her passing