Chapter 2 - A Wasteland Oddity

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Chapter 2

A Wasteland Oddity

“Learning to laugh at your flaws is part of the fun, but I don’t laugh at anyone.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Six years later ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Ugh...”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Yeah, I’m awake...” I wrapped it in my magic, pushing the ‘Off’ button.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Yavla faen! I said, I’m awake!” I yelled as I slammed my right foreleg against the wall a couple times, finally causing the alarm to stop. Granted, PipBucks could survive a direct hit from a missile, but I think mine was a little broken. Occasionally, when I shook it, something inside would rattle. The ‘Off’ button for the alarm didn’t always work, either.

“Ah, another glorious day in the brown, dull, wasteland. Today’s forecast: surprisingly cloudy with a twenty percent chance of raiders and radscorpions,” I said to nopony but myself with as much sarcasm as equinely possible. I rolled off the two-hundred-year-old mattress, gave myself slightly dusty shake, and a nice long stretch, cracking my neck and shoulders in the process. The best part about traveling alone is that the only one to bother is yourself, and there’s nopony to bother you. I ran my own shifts. I decided when and where to rest and when to wake up.

When my PipBuck worked, that is.

It was a strange thing. The foreleg-mounted device was noticeably larger and heavier than the Stable-Tec issued PipBucks. The casing was an unpainted, light grey. Rather than amber or green, the text display was grey-white. Buttons and dials were more numerous than on the 3000 model, as were the screens and menus. Health diagnostics, status effects, organized inventory listings, and other useful things made up the fifteen or so ‘pages’, as the magical item called them. Instead of whatever it was that required special tools or a bone saw to remove, the contraption was held on with quick-release clips that I could unbuckle at will. It’s EFS (Eyes Forward Sparkle, a heads-up display and radar) was also unique; it was a brilliant crimson color. Friendly targets show up as blue on the radar part, while hostiles were red. No Stable-Tec logos or insignias were visible on its body. The words ‘Stable-Tec’ weren’t even printed anywhere on it. The only word that appeared out of the ordinary was the word ‘Manticore’, which was emblazoned just above the screen in bright orange. I had found it years ago while scavenging a pre-war tech-depot in the industrial ruins of Maverick. There are many PipBucks in the Wasteland, but this one was mine, and it was one of a kind.

Looking around, I didn’t see any ticks on the EFS. Not a single one. Hoping the local DJ might have something to say, I turned on the radio and tuned it about, scanning for any signals. Nothing. Not even static.

“Ugh, fine. No music... Just a stallion and his thoughts,” I muttered with mild annoyance and turned it off.

The remains of the house I was in weren’t much. I think I was in the bathroom. Of the three still somewhat standing walls, only one of them still had siding. There were no windows or a roof. The only thing that kept last night’s rain off was the rusty piece of sheet metal I had leaned against the wall and dirty floor. I wrapped the nine foot long sheet in my teal aura and easily pushed it aside, along with the mattress. Underneath were a few loose floorboards that I kicked up. The small hidey-hole beneath them was filled with my gear. Once again, I didn’t get mugged. Or worse. I levitated out my out my saddlebags and set them by an old, dilapidated sink. I fished out my leather barding, gave it a good shake to dust it out, and slipped into it. It was only half a size too small, but that made it incredibly uncomfortable to sleep in. It would have to do until I found another suit. Finally, I found my cloak.

The cloak had belonged to my brother, and before him, our father, and his father, and his father’s father, and so on. I was told it made sneaking easier, but I seemed to get caught more often than not. At one time, it did have an invisibility talisman, but it was lost long before my father had it. The material was strange, made of some sort of very short fur. Pony hide? I hoped not. That sounded disgusting. Perhaps it was from a manticore? Who knows. When worn, it kept perfect temperature; cooling in the daytime heat, while warming in the chilly wasteland nights. The cloak never dirtied, either, even when it was literally rubbed in the dirt and mud. There were runes and glyphs on the clasp that allowed it to be repaired with almost any fabric, from leather to linen. It, too, went next to the sink.

I sat there in front of the dirty, cracked, medicine cabinet mirror for a short while, looking the reflection over. My dad told me I had my mom’s rich, amber eyes. I thought so, too. The dusky blue creature in the mirror gazed back, an indifferent frown upon his muzzle. His mane was a little darker blue than his hide with streaks of black. If washed, they would probably be dark grey. The equine’s horn wasn’t below average, or even average. It actually could be considered a tiny bit larger than most unicorns’. I didn’t suffer from horn-envy, not that that really mattered. My coat was broken up by black stripes that covered my entire body.

An accident years ago had somehow changed me. It... it was a painful memory. I didn’t know what I was now. I didn’t just look different, I felt different. Something inside had changed. Something that made me... me. I’d never seen anything like it, like me. What was I? A zebra? A unicorn? Zebricorn?

The cutie-glyph mark on my flank was just as weird. I wasn’t sure if it was a cutie mark or glyph mark. Maybe both? Neither? It depicted a fire bird in flight. A phoenix. While the left half was a black zebra glyph, the right was a fiery red and gold. I had no idea what is was suppose to mean. It didn’t signify my ‘special talent’. I was a jack-of-all-trades. There were no wings on my back, so it wasn’t as if I could actually fly. No talent in singing. It didn’t show anything. I sighed as I continued to stare at myself for another minute before levitating a small, elongated box out of my saddlebags.

I didn’t have much in the ways of magic. I wasn’t sure how my telekinesis stood against other unicorns, but I’ve tossed a Cantervega autocarriage out of my way before. I was strong, but it wasn’t like I could move friggin’ boxcars or anything. Other than that... nope. That was it. I was a one trick pony. I was okay with it, though. I never needed anything else.

I took out the box’s contents and started to brush my teeth. Those few ponies who have seen me do it always gave me weird looks. One of the few clean things you can do in the wasteland is care for your teeth when you have the supplies, and having white, healthy teeth is one way to easily improve business relations.

As if anypony would want to trade with me.

After my morning routine, I decided I really didn’t need my leather barding. The biggest threat here was probably a radhog or the lone raider. I put it in my saddlebag and slipped the much lighter cloak over my head. It was then I realized that I didn’t have my gun. After a minute of rummaging, I finally found my weapon and foreleg holster. It was a zebra-made .44 scoped revolver. Along it’s gleaming, silver barrel, black scope, and shiny frame, were elegant scrollworks and runes of black and gold. It rarely needed repairs and cleaning, thanks to the glyphs that covered it. The heavy revolver had almost no recoil, so it was capable of being mouth fired without breaking a neck or some teeth. Some of the runes were strangely similar to those on the cloak, so I figured they must of had the some of the same enchantments. Self-cleaning, perhaps? I didn’t dwell on the thought for more than a second. I had received the .44 revolver as a gift just before... setting out on my own. You know, the whole ‘a bird has to leave the nest eventually’ kind of thing. That reminds me, it even had a name: Tweety, for its high pitch, suppressed firing sound. It was almost like a chirping noise. Quite a thoughtful gift, if I do say so myself.

===

It was about 9 o’clock when I left my little ruin of a shelter and set off west, toward the nearest pony settlement, New Appleoosa. It was still at least another day’s trot away, but I wasn’t in any hurry. Breakfast was eaten on the go, and consisted of my own super tasty recipe for Sugar Apple Bombs (the secret ingredient is cinnamon, don’t tell anyone) and a can of diced carrots. The SAB’s were very good, but the two-century-old carrots were not, because they were healthy. And old.

A flicker on my EFS brought me out of my brain-dead trot. A little red ‘1’ appeared beside the compass, signifying that there was one hostile in range. There was a blue ‘0’ for friendlies. My PipBuck never ceased to amaze me.

“About time something happened. I was getting bored,” I muttered under my breath. About two-hundred-fifty feet ahead of me, basking in the middle of the road, was my first hostile of the day. It was a large bark scorpion, treating itself to a dead carcass. “Although physically weaker than their much larger cousins, the common radscorpion, bark scorpions are much more venomous. If not countered with an antivenom right away, death is quick. And painful. I’ve seen it before,” I said matter-of-factly to, again, nopony at all.

I continued to trot on my way, keeping an eye on the little arachnid. At about fifty feet away, I gave a sharp, short whistle. The bark scorpion looked up from its meal and started crawling towards me, giving short little clicks and screeches. I whipped out Tweety and dropped into SATS, targeting two shots into its body. The first shot veered slightly to the left and blew off its right claw in a green-yellow, splattery mist. The second bullet hit home and nearly exploded the bug’s body from the sheer force. Maybe a modified .44 was a bit overkill. I threw back my cloak’s hood as I approached my kill.

“Yeah! How’s that for a trick? Little wastelander has a PipBuck and actually knows how to use it!” I bragged to the still oozing corpse.

As you may have noticed, I talk to myself a lot. Most ponies travel in groups, gangs, or caravans. They talk to each other about whatever they please. I talk to myself because there was nopony else.

I cut the poison gland out of the bark scorpion with a combat knife, which shared a spot in Tweety’s holster. The bug was feasting on the body of a dirty looking, mottled green, earth pony mare, her hind quarters eaten away by crows and other scavengers. The smell was what you’d expect from a corpse. Though it reeked, I’d smelled worse things. After a light tap with a forehoof, I found that the body was fairly cold and stiff.

“A couple days old,” I stated.

I found what I assumed to be her saddlebag nearby and checked its contents by dumping them on the road. I was upwind to better avoid the smell of rotting pony.

“Let’s see... garbage... junk... scrap metal... garbage.. forceps? ...more scraps... No wonder she’s dead, she doesn’t have any barding or weapons! Wait, what’s this?” I said as I looked at a piece of ‘garbage’.

“Dear Miss Flintlock,

Thank you for accepting my offer. I knew you would see it our way and I’m glad you pulled the job off. The payment was 1,000 caps upfront to cover resource costs and 3,500 upon confirmed completion. Payment has been paid per your request, which I must add is highly unusual for a mare in your field of work. You can find the key to room 17 under a piece of wood behind the large rock at the entrance to New Appleoosa. Again I must thank you for your precision work. Seriously, shooting a pipe to cause a steam explosion? I was thinking something more along the lines of a drowning or ‘suicide’. But this? This, was much better. The look on her face must have been priceless. When I need another hitmare, as always, you'll be the first to know.

Your most faithful client,
Galvano”

Well, that was... interesting. “New Appleoosa? Good thing I’m headed there anyways,” I said. I didn’t find any caps, so maybe she didn’t make it back to claim her payment. Something didn’t seem right about it though. “She’s a hitmare without any caps, guns or armor? How’d a little bark scorpion get her?” I thought aloud. Something wasn’t sitting right about this. Searching what remained of the mare over, I found what I assumed to be the cause of death.

Stuck in her forehead, sticking out half an inch or so, was a pencil thick spike of metal. Using my magic, I pulled it out, curious as to what it was. I nearly dropped it when it finally came loose. The thing was almost a foot long! Along it’s silvery length were fancy scrollworks and runes. Perhaps it was enchanted. Maybe somepony just decided to decorate it. I wiped off the thick, dark blood on my cloak, watching as the stain disappeared before my eyes. Self cleaning, indeed. The head of the stake was imprinted with a symbol I was only slightly familiar with. Three Interlinked circles with some sort of blade in the middle. I put it in my saddlebag, thinking I’d sell it for scrap or something. Looking back at the note I-

“Magna...” I started chasing the note blowing down the broken highway.

Ten minutes later, I got the note back. It had blown off the road and gotten stuck in a dried-up shrub. I went to put it in my saddlebag as well, but I noticed something on the back. Again, there were three, red rings and what I could now say was a black, serrated dagger.

I made my way back to the road with no trouble. I continued my trek to New Appleoosa, pondering why the note and stake would have the same symbol. Coincidence? No, they were too much alike. Did this ‘Galvano’ hire another assassin to kill Flintlock? Possibly. I’ve heard of it before. A pony promises a load of caps and doesn’t pay up, killing their employee to avoid having to pay them. Maybe the note was planted for somepony like me to find. Why, I have no idea. Perhaps the answers lie in new Appleoosa.

===

A flicker on my EFS showed five non-hostiles up ahead. Well, they were up ahead, around a bend, and in a valley. As I trotted closer, I levitated out a sniper rifle scope. Not the whole rifle, since I didn’t actually have one, just the scope. I couldn’t tell who or what the targets were yet, so I walked a little closer. From this distance, it appeared to be a small caravan. Pulling up my scope again, I took count. Three ponies, two brahmin, each with a cart hitched to their backs. I was still about four or five hundred feet away when a little, burnt orange, brown maned unicorn ran up to the light blue earth pony. Inaudible words were exchanged and a third pony, a light grey... pegasus? came trotting up to them. The little unicorn grabbed what looked like a hunting rifle and dashed behind one of the wagons. I dropped down my scope and looked myself over. A dark mysterious pony armed with only a scoped .44 and a hooded cloak. Was I really that intimidating? I looked through my sniper scope and noticed the blue-maned earth pony was looking back through a pair of binoculars mounted on a tripod. A friendly wave of my hoof seemed to ease them up a bit. I put my scope back in my saddlebag pouch and continued my way up the inclined highway to the narrow valley.

The last thing I wanted to do was fight these harmless trading ponies.

“Well, howdy partner!” the earth pony stallion exclaimed as I neared. “Welcome to Can’t Cover Clips Caravan.”

“Hel-” I coughed, trying to stifle my zebra accent that I accidentally let slip. Although I lived my entire life in and around Equestria, I caught my parents’ zebra accent. Some ponies get creeped out by zebras for some reason. Some even still blame us for the end of the world. That was why I still had my cloak’s hood up, hiding most of my face. The only things that stuck out were my dusky blue horn and black muzzle. Mustering my best Equestrian accent, I tried again. “Hello.”

It was still a little rough, but back east in the Outlands, it was common.

“Sounds like y’all needa drink. Here,” he said as he passed me a Sparkle Cola. “On the house.”

“Nice try with the Outer-lands accent. It was a little rough, zebra,” the pegasus mare said, looking at me like I was some kind of idiot, which I probably was. It was interesting to see a pegasus below the cloud cover. Wasteland pegasi weren’t unheard of, they just weren’t a common sight.

“Don’t harass the customers,” the stallion smacked the mare lightly across the back of the head. “They’re few an’ far b’tween an’ we need all we can get.”

The mare rubbed the back of her head, glaring slightly at the earth pony.

“Sorry, sir. Yall’ll hafta forgive ‘er. She’s a bit thick in the head,” he apologized.

“Don’t worry about it...” I sighed, removing my hood and not forcing an accent. My striped face and horn came to light. She already knew I wasn’t a pony, no reason to hide now. The little blue ‘5’ on my EFS stayed blue. If they were going to turn on me, I knew I’d easily be able to take the three of them.

“Oh! Wow... I, um... uh...” the blue pony stammered. Clearly, he was a surprised at the zebricorn standing in front of him and his pegasus friend’s perception.

“Wanna trade?” the little, burnt orange, unicorn colt piped up. He had a crosshair for a cutie mark. I think I knew why he went to hide.

“Yes,” I kindly replied.

“Coverfire, what’r you doin’ o’er here?” the stallion asked. He didn’t sound too happy about the colt coming out from hiding.

“Well, Clips,” Coverfire said, emphasizing the name. “If this unicorn-zebra-thing was goin to do us any harm, I think he would have done it by the time featherbrains over there blew is cover.”

"You need ta follow the rules, buster!” Clips countered.

The flying pony facehoofed and started trotting off to the side of the little argument. She motioned for me to follow with a sharp jerk of her head.

“Goddesses, those two never stop arguing,” She said. Her accent was a little familiar. Slightly shorter consonants, slightly drawn out vowels. She was an Outlander, too! We looked at the other two, still arguing over something something pointless. “The name’s Canteen. Now, before you ask, no, I do not own this caravan. Clips does. But if he doesn’t pull his head out of his ass, then I’ll be running it. As if I don’t already... He’s a good businesspony, but gets easily distracted.” She blew some of her smooth, bright aqua mane out of her magenta eyes.

“Xero,” I said, tapping a hoof to my chest.

“Zero? Zero what? If you don’t have any caps, you better damn well have decent merchandise.”

“No, Xero’s my name. It’s short for Xerophyte.”

“Oh. You zebras always have the strangest names,” Canteen softly chuckled. “But I don’t suppose you’re here to make small talk, are you?”

“Not really.” Each caravan was different. They all had their own personality of sorts. In the background, I could still here Coverfire and Clips arguing.

“Well, follow me,” she said as she lead me behind one of the wagons. “What are you looking for?”

“Ammo for a .44 revolver.”

“The pegasus jumped into the back of one of the wagons and threw an ammo box off the side with a loud grunt. The heavy box landed on the cracked pavement, sinking one of the corners into the ground half a foot.

“Anything else?”

“What do you have for firearms?” I was a little curious. Maybe I’d find a decent sniper rifle.

“Not much, but here’s what I got...” She half jumped, half flew, half glided into the other wagon and pushed a large wooden box to the back edge, kicking it open when it reached its destination. “Come on up.”

With the grace and silence of my zebra ancestors, I put my forehooves on the back of the wagon, pushed off the ground with my hindlegs and caught the edge of the wagon with my rear hooves just enough to get myself up and onto it.

“Well, somepony’s a sneaky one.”

“Yeah...” I definitely wasn’t blushing. Of course I was sneaky. I had zebra blood in me. “Whoa, where did you get this?” I levitated a peculiar looking hunting rifle. It wasn’t a standard caliber. It fired .308 rounds instead of the usual .32. The metal was a sooty black color, while the wooden parts were stained and varnished a deep red. Burned into the wooden stock was that symbol. Three rings and a dagger.

“Got it off some mare two days ago. Half out of her mind when we found her. She told us to ‘Get out of Equestria while we still could. The Resistance will rise again! And the world will be burned in the ash of a sunflower.’” She shook her head. “Crazy... She gave us all her armor, weapons, and ammo before running off.”

“I’ll take the gun and her armor, if you still have it.” The Resistance? Why did that sound familiar? Ugh... Damn that amnesia. There was something in the back of my mind that was screaming... something, but I couldn’t make it out. The red and black armor and gun, the three rings and trench knife insignia, and some kind of ‘resistance’ were all related somehow. “And a few dozen .308 rounds, too.”

“Alright.” She rummaged around the wagon, digging through more wooden boxes and after a minute or so, brought me the goods. While she was doing that, I was going through my saddlebags and taking out things I planned on selling in New Appleoosa. This was going to put a dent in my caps.

===

In the end, I only spent about two-hundred bottle caps. I informed Canteen about Flintlock’s body and she said that it sounded like her. In return, she told me to keep an eye out for a gang that was harassing travelers along this stretch of highway. The caravan already had a run-in with them. When I asked why they were willing to trade with me, Canteen said that Clips was right. They needed all the traders they passed. We said our goodbyes and Clips and Coverfire started arguing over something unimportant again.

Putting my hood back up, stowing away my black and red hunting rifle and matching leather armor, and putting my new mirrored aviators on , I continued on my way to my destination.

A couple hours, a radscorpion, and a lone raider later, I came across some ponies who had made a blockade out of old wagons, Cantervegas, fencing, and wooden planks. My EFS showed three friendlies, though only one was visible. The roadblock was set up almost like a square hut in the middle of the highway, with a passage going through it. As I came closer, I heard orders being shouted. From inside the makeshift building, emerged two unicorns and an earth pony. They all wore hockey masks with matching symbols. The gang sign looked like a prewar bit with crossbones behind it.

“Well, well, well... What do we have here?” the grey unicorn stallion drawled. “Another humble wastelander just to use our highway?”

“I just want to get to New Appleoosa,” I said simply, not forcing an accent. I didn’t want to fight these ponies.

“Oh, sorry for keeping you then, sir,” he replied. “Go right ahead. It’s that way.” He pointed a hoof behind him, through the roadblock.

I took a single step forward, stopping when a leg was brought in front of me.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you’re going?” the stallion said in a fake, friendly manner. “You still have to pay the toll.”

“Toll?” This must have been the Toll Gang that Canteen had mentioned.

“Yeah, you know, for us letting you use our highway?” the mint green unicorn mare said. She wore some poor condition leather barding and a sledge hammer across her back.

“Why do I have to pay you? I don’t see your name on it.” I looked around, making sure somepony hadn’t decided to actually paint ‘Toll Gang’ anywhere on the road.

“Oh, a wise guy, huh?” the stallion said, looking at his two companions. “Does this guy think we’re playing a game?”

The mare nodded as she pulled her sledge hammer from a loop on her back. The other stallion, a yellow coated earth pony, smiled grimly. The bottom part of his mask was cut off, allowing him to wield a 10mm submachine gun in his mouth.

“Do you think we’re playing a game? Beatdown seems to think so.” The grey unicorn pulled two small axes from his hip holsters.

“Ets uff im ub a bib, Atches,” the earth pony said around his smg.

“Yeah, lets show this fucker not to mess with the Toll Gang, Hatchets,” the mare, Beatdown, agreed as she spun her sledge hammer in the air with her violet magic.

“Please, I don’t want to fight. It will not end well for you,” I replied back. They wouldn’t last more than a few minutes.

“Oh yeah? You think you’re so tough with your lame cape and dinky ass pistol?” Hatchets said, flicking my hood back with his magic. He jumped back and readied his hatchets with a startled yelp.

“What in Celestia’s fuck are you?!” Beatdown cried.

“Kiw hem!” The yellow stallion yelled around his smg

At once, my EFS when from three blue to three red, and the small gang charged. I dropped into SATS and targeted three shots into the earth pony’s head.

Pewtpewtpewt.

Tweety turned his head into a red, pulpy mess all over the the ground.

Coming out of SATS, I put Tweety away and brought out my combat knife. I threw it at Hatchets and hit him in the shoulder, barely missing his neck. He faltered only a moment, but that was all I needed. I reared up and kicked his small axes out of his magical field. Coming back down, my hooves landed over Hatchets head, stunning him.

Beatdown swung her sledge hammer at me, but wasn’t quick enough with it. A quick punch to her forelegs sent them band backwards with a pop and crunch. She let out a painful scream and dropped the sledgehammer.

An excessively sharp, stabbing pain bolted up my right side, causing me to drop to the ground. Something warm began to run under my cloak. Yay, blood. I looked back only to find that Hatchets had grabbed one if his hatches and threw it at me. My head started to swim as he got closer, ready to finish me off. I couldn’t pass out now; I had to keep fighting. I had to survive. I had made a promise to someone a long time ago. I would never give up. I just needed an opening and this would all be over quickly.

“Yeah! What do you think of that, you fucking freak?!” Hatchets yelled as he continued to near. “You’re so going to die for what you did to Beats and Lemons...” He reared up.

My opening.

In the blink of an eye, I leapt up, pivoting on my front hooves and kicking him squarely in the jaw with the resounding crack of a breaking mandible. I whirled around and caught his throat with my left forehoof, collapsing his esophagus and making him choke for air. He stumbled around as I quickly reared up and wrapped my forelegs around his neck and squeezed as hard as I could. A few seconds later, he stopped effortlessly struggling.

I dropped his limp body on the the dusty road. Not many ponies could beat me hoof-to-hoof; it was a skill I didn’t really appreciate until I was on my own, and there was no one around to protect me.

I turned my attention back to Beatdown. She had crawled back into the roadblock. I found her hiding behind an empty wooden box, curled up in a ball, tears streaking down her face. In her broken forelegs was a radio of some kind.

“P...Pl...Please...d...don’t...k...kill....me...” she blubbered, more tears rolling down her cheeks.

Aggh! Why couldn’t I kill a pony that begged me not to? She tried to kill me. I could kill her. Self defence, right? It would be easy. It would be merciful. She had two shattered forelegs. She wouldn’t survive long, maybe ‘til morning if shock didn’t set in before then. She needed medical help that I couldn’t give her. I could give her something, though.

“Here...” I said softly after a minute of thinking. I used my PipBuck’s inventory spell and found a Med-X and one of my last frag grenades. It was shaped like a metal apple. I dropped them before her. I was out of healing potions, not that they would be any good now. Beatdown looked up, after she finally stopped crying and trying to squeeze into the corner she was trapped in, sniffled, and gave me a slight, sad, smile. She wasn’t going to make it, and she knew it.

“You have until the Med-X takes effect to get the hell out of here.” She said, sounding relieved, yet disappointed. She grabbed the chem in her soft green magic and the grenade pin in her mouth. "Now git outta heer..." she grumbled around the metal, letting the grenade dangle from it. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the wooden box was not, in fact, empty, but filled with dried grass, and 'EXPLOSIVES' was painted on the side. A split second later, and my brain registered what the green egg shaped things inside were. Fatpony Mini-nukes... powered by Balefire Eggs.

I sprinted as fast as I could, and snatched up my combat knife (which had broken for some reason), my aviators, and whatever loot the gang had dropped outside. I ran back through the roadblock, and out though the other side. I caught Beatdown raise a foreleg and drop it on the grenade she was holding in her mouth.

Tink.

I had galloped about three seconds before the construction of metal and wood exploded behind me in a blinding white and pink light. I looked back to see the remains of a pink, fiery, miniaturized mushroom cloud. My PipBuck clicked rapidly in protest to the radiation.

===

In hindsight, it would have been easier and cheaper just to kill Beatdown outright. I didn’t know why I couldn’t just pull the trigger. It made me feel better about myself if I let the pony do themselves in. I think they prefered it. Having somepony else put you out of your misery just seemed weak. By at least having the strength to do it yourself, you can die knowing that you weren’t completely helpless, useless, and worthless. You still had strength. Still, she could have just stabbed the chem in my eye and and blew us both up or something. She did not, however.

It was about an hour after the roadblock that it started to get dark. I needed a place to rest for the night. Again, it had started to rain. The wasteland fall was always the wet season. Luckily, my cloak kept me dry. I scanned the area ahead of me. No sign of New Appleoosa yet. I looked to the left, then to the right, and finally back the way I had just came from.

“Ugh, where to get out of the rain...” I said.

A strange tuba-ish music began to crackle over the light hiss of the falling precipitation. Immediately, I knew that is was one of those damned spritebots. I used them as target practice when I got bored. They were strange things. Round, bug-like robots that blared terrible music of tubas and tambourines.

“You could try Stable Twenty-Four,” somepony replied.

I whipped around and pulled out Tweety. As I had thought, there was a curious, little, flying metal orb. I pressed the .44’s barrel against its dark face-plate. It would be more than enough to tear right through it.

“Whoa, there. I’m not going to hurt you. Just here to help a weary pony.” the spritebot said in rough, deep voice.

“Who are you? Spritebots don’t talk, so you must have hacked it somehow.” I thought this thing might still want to harm me, or just annoy me. In either case, I still was going to kill it.

“You can call me Watcher. Yes, I did hack this spritebo-” the deep masculine voice froze. I could imagine this pony contemplating if what he had just told me was a good idea. I knew technology fairly well, but somepony who could remotely hack a spritebot obviously knew much more.

“Watcher?” I asked after a minute. Was he still there?

“Are you using magic?” he asked back.

“Yes...” What did that have to do with anything? I tightened my magical grip around the revolver. If he was abducting unicorns for some sort of messed up experiment, then I would be more than happy to blow this thing’s circuits out through the top of it’s head.

“So you’re a unicorn. You sound a lot like a zebra. Heh, strange?”

“What’s so strange about that?” A gust of wind caught my hood, making it fall to reveal my striped face and mane and my horn, which was enveloped in it’s bright teal magic.

“Whoa! What in Celestia’s mane are you?!” The spritebot shot back a pony’s length. Apparently, Watcher had a ‘questions first, shoot later’ basis. But since most spritebots didn’t have weapons, and this one was one of those, I levitated Tweety back into its holster.

“I don’t know.” A zony? Zebricorn? Mutant? Why did nearly everypony react to me with ‘what the hell?’ or ‘what the fuck are you?!’ I guess I should be use to it by now, but it still hurt a little. It wasn’t like I really had a choice in what I looked like. I suppose I could dye my coat black. That still left my tail, though. It wasn’t like that of a pony. The hair at the end of it was starting to get a little long. I’d have to trim it up sometime in the near future.

“Sorry... I didn’t mean to, you know, freak out,” Watcher replied as I flipped my hood back up. My mane was very wet, now that it was raining harder. “It’s just that zebras don’t normally use unicorn magic.”

“Excellent observation.” Really? I didn’t know that. “You mentioned something about a Stable?”

“Oh, right.” He mumbled something and in the background I could hear terminal keys being tapped at. “There’s an old Stable up ahead, along the cliffside. It was abandoned a couple generations ago, I’m not sure what happened. You should be alright.”

“Thank you, Watcher.” I didn’t like Stables. Not one bit. But it had one thing I was looking for: dryness.

“No problem. Keep on your hooves, though, just in case.” The spritebot fizzled and popped, then continued on its bouncing way, playing it’s terrible tuba-trombone-tambourine music.

“That was... strange.” I said to myself. I looked to the cliffside up ahead. In a flash of lighting, I picked out a cave. That must be the Stable’s entrance.

As I got closer, I stopped. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. There was a river blocking my way. It looked like it was from the rain, and not a permanent waterway. There was no way I was going to even touch the dark, muddy liquid. I’d sink like a rock. Swimming wasn’t in my skillset. If only I could fly. Wait, I could! Sort of.

The river was moving fast. And rising. The remains of a dead tree floated by, it’s gnarled trunk bobbing about in the rushing water. I turned around, trotted about twenty feet from where I was, turned back towards the river, and broke into a full gallop. Just as I returned to the edge of the water, I jumped. At the height of my jump, I caught myself in my telekinesis and let my momentum carry me across. My telekinesis was inequinely strong, especially for one that was not a ‘full blood’ unicorn. Considering I’ve moved auto-carriages, my slightly thin body was nothing.

This little maneuver of mine wasn’t what I would call flying. It was more gliding with style. I couldn’t figure out how to move myself once I was airborne. The direction I was moving when I left the ground was the direction I glided until I let go of myself or my momentum stopped.

I landed on the other side of the river with a muddy splat and immediately slipped face first onto the bank

‘Great... Just great...’ was all I could think. I spat out the mouthful of mud and stared into the dark, rainy sky, letting the rain wash some of the mud off and continued on the mostly-washed-out path to the cave entrance. What I hadn’t noticed before was that the cave was actually downhill slightly from the river, and it was about to flow over. The cave wouldn’t last long for dry cover and would eventually flood.

"Well, then." I turned around, slipped on some more mud, and jumped/levitated/flew across the river again. I let the rain wash me off some more. I was soaked now, but my enchanted cloak still kept me warm. Being warm and dripping wet was, in my opinion, one of most uncomfortable feelings ever.

I was almost certain that New Appleoosa had some sort of tavern or inn or someplace to rest. It was at a major crossroad after all. I trotted my soggy self there. On the way, I could have sworn that I saw something flying through the night, during the light show of lightning. Maybe it was a pegasus, or group of pegasi?. Maybe a dragon. Alicorn? Maybe. They started appearing in the Outlands about ten years ago, but I’ve heard they didn’t start appearing in central Equestria until a year or two ago. I didn't ponder it too much. Equestria was filled with bizarre and unusual things, especially in Hoofington. I was glad I wasn't there or anywhere near there. I've heard stories of monsterponies, whatever an 'ultra-sentinel' was, invisible, life-sucking, energy fields that could liquify a pony if they were not careful, and wars, not just single battles or skirmishes, but full campaigns. Equestria was a strange and dangerous place, but there are places much, much worse.

I kept trudging through the rain. It was absolutely downpouring now. I turned on my PipBuck's light. Another thing mine had... an actual flashlight. It had one light that pointed down, revealing the ground and area directly around me (I call it 'lamp mode') and one that faced outward (that I called 'flashlight mode'). I turned it to lamp mode. Other ponies and creatures could see me easier, but I doubted they would be out in this storm.

===

It was early, early morning by time I made it to New Appleoosa. 3:27 AM to be exact, was when I made it to the front gate.

BANG!

The night guard shot me. Almost, shot me. He fired toward me and hit the ground a few hooves ahead. I wasn't sure if he was firing a warning or just a bad shot.

"Hey! What was that for?!" I yelled through the rain. It wasn't raining nearly as hard, but it was still kind of hard to see. Another gust of wind blew my hood back. "Fuck it. If I have to keep pulling my hood up every five minutes, then it's just going to stay down." I said to myself. I was wet and tired. I didn't bother with any accent. I just wanted to get out of the rain, and sleep for a day.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you was a raider," the guard pony shouted back. "What business do you have in New Appleoosa?"

"A place to rest. And I have some things to trade. And I have courier business," I replied. Did everypony have to answer questions, I thought. Maybe it was because it was 3:30 in the morning.

"Ok, then. Just don't cause any trouble. The mayor doesn't like ponies messing around her town when the majority of it is trying to sleep. Absolutely Everything will be open at eight and if you're not blind, you can see Turnpike Tavern's sign right over th- "

"FOR LUNA'S SAKE, POTSHOT! WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP?! SOME PONIES ACTUALLY SLEEP AT NIGHT!" A buck from inside yelled out, cutting off Potshot. I had decided to trot on closer to the gate so Potshot and I didn't have to yell. It was a bit uncourteous to do while others slept.

"Case in point..." Potshot said, clearly annoyed. "Ok, open the gate!"

"POTSHOT! SHUT! UP!" the same buck shouted.

"Ugh... I don't get paid enough for this..." Potshot mumbled as I trotted into New Appleoosa. I may have laughed a little.

As soon as I was in, I galloped toward the glowing yellow sign that marked Turnpike Tavern. Once again, I slipped on the mud.

"I am definitely the offspring of the most graceful zebras in the wastes" I said to myself, sarcastically. Zebras were infamously renowned for their hoof-to-hoof combat, stealth, and agility. I had all of them, just not in the rain. I hated the rain, with a burning passion.

After letting the rain wash me off for a third time, I (carefully) trotted to the door of Turnpike Tavern. I grabbed the handle in my teal magic, gave it a twist, and pushed on the door. It didn't open. I rattled the door and handle in my magic.

"It sticks from the rain sometimes," a mare's voice from within called out. "Just give it a good shove."

With the handle still unlatched in my magic, I gave the door 'a good shove' with my shoulder. It still didn't move.

"Wait, wait. It looks like somepony locked it again... give me second." the mare said. She also mumbled something I couldn't hear
over the patter of the rain. Something about late night customers and damned locks...

The door unlatched from inside and flew open. In a flash of lightning, I saw the biggest pony I've ever seen. He was so big, that he managed to startle me, which in turn, caused me to slip on the mud. Again!

"Welcome to the Turnpike Tavern, comrade!" the big brown coated earth pony called out, in the most bizarre sounding voice. He came out and picked me up by the collar of my cloak and put me back on my hooves. "Now, come inside and out of the rain, silly pony. You might catch cold! Ha!" The stallion turned around and went back inside. All I could do was stand there like an oaf. Somepony just picked me up like it was nothing, with his mouth, mind you, cracked a joke, then laughed. All at almost four o'clock in the morning. In the rain. Somepony was apparently in a good mood. I turned off my PipBuck's lamp spells and trotted out of the rain.

When I got inside, I was a little astonished to see that some ponies were already up at the bar. Or perhaps they were still at the bar. I couldn’t tell. I didn’t care.
“What’ll it be, stranger?” a mare asked as I trotted up to the counter, sounding quite bored. It was the same pony who told me the door was locked. She was a tanish earth pony with a brown mane. In front of her was an old dress magazine.

“Just a room...” I said quietly. Did I mention I was dripping wet, tired, and really didn't care what other ponies' reaction to me was anymore? So no forced accent. At all.

She sighed. "Okay, that'll be fort-" She looked up from her magazine, probably expecting a zebra. What she saw was a dusky blue and black striped-unicorn-thing.

I gave her my biggest most friendliest smile, showing my ever so white teeth.

"Uh... alrighty... then. Forty-five caps. And don't cause any trouble, or I'll have Shots over there throw you out." She pointed a hoof over to the big earth pony that picked me up outside. In the light of the tavern, I could see that he was a slightly strange looking pony. His jet black mane hung in his eyes and his coat was a little bit longer and shaggier. I looked back to the barpony and brought out a small bag filled with forty-five caps. She took the bag, smiled, and turned to get a key off the nail board

"And here's your key." The barpony said, grabbing the key, with a tag on it, with her mouth. Room number 16. I remembered the hitmare’s note and silver stake in my saddlebag. Should be right next to Flintlock's room. I looked at the nail board, and confirmed the empty spot where the room 17 key should have been.

"Thank you," I replied, giving my head a light nod, and grabbing the key in my magic and putting it in my saddlebag. I looked back at Shots.

He was in the middle of hoof-wrestling another pony, who was using both forehooves and still not making Shots foreleg move. They were sitting on chairs with a few more ponies of various races and colors around them, making bets and passing caps. There were three small glasses full of some sort of clear liquid in front of Shots and his opponent, an only slightly larger than average unicorn buck. I doubted they were taking shots of purified water. With his foreleg still locked in place, he bent his head down, picked up the shot glass with his mouth, flung it back, drank the shot, slammed it on the table, and continued on down the line. Three seconds after the first shot, the last one was slammed back down on the table. He gave his opponent a cocky grin and a soft chuckle. The unicorn's face had the look of something along the lines of 'oh, horse apples', but his lips didn't move. In one fell swoop, Shots’ foreleg came down with such force that the unicorn flew out of his chair, and onto the floor. A few of the shot glasses rolled off the table and shattered against the hard, wooden floor.

"Celestia dammit!" the barpony shouted. "Vodka Shots, if you can't keep it down before eight o'clock, I'm taking away your drinking privileges! Again! Or maybe I'll have to finally fire my best bouncer. I don't want to have to do that."

"Aw, c’mon, Butterscotch," Shots drawled. "You know I don't mean nopony harm."

Shots gave a big smile, got up from his chair, picked the unicorn up by the scruff of his neck, and back to his feet. The two shook hooves and went their separate ways. The rest of the bar was doing whatever they were before. Talking at one table, cards and drinks at another, a shady deal going on in the corner. Shots turned and walked up to me.

"Well, what do we have here? You're the silly pony I picked up outside, no?" He said, lumbering above me. Seriously, he was a full head and a half taller than me. He was big. Massive, really. And intimidating. Very intimidating.

"I, um... uh... Yes?" I looked back and forth, trying to focus on something other than the behemoth in front of me. Nopony had ever just trotted up and talked to me for the heck of it. They always wanted something. And if Shots wanted something, he could take it, whether I wanted him to or not.

"Ha! You really are a silly pony, or... zebra? What are you?" he asked, looking me over. How anypony managed to see with that much mane in their eyes was beyond me. I couldn't even tell his eye color, or even if he had eyes, though I assumed he did.

"Um... Both?" I guessed. I didn't know whether to call myself a pony or zebra. I never really thought about it. I guess it didn't matter. I was myself, whatever that may be, and nopony could change that. Well, except for maybe the Goddess, but I wasn't on good terms with her. Something about telling her to stick her 'Unity' where the sun never shines and that she was fucked up for only allowing 'true unicorns' into her secret little club. And killing one of her alicorns. Or four. That may have had something to do with it, too. Perhaps a story for another time; it's quite entertaining.

"Well... It looks like we got ourselves a 'zebricorn'. Your kind isn't common 'round these parts, nor my parts." Shots said with another chuckle. How could anypony be this happy? Drugs? Alcohol? It just added to the intimidation. And with a name like 'Vodka Shots'...

"Your... parts...?" I said sheepishly.

"Ah, the Motherland! Stalliongrad!" he exclaimed, quickly stepping up beside me and putting his forehoof around my shoulder. "Oh, yes, the freshly laden, virgin snow, the strong mares, the ursas on unicycles, and the vodka! STALLIONGRAD!" There was a harmonious 'Yah!' throughout the bar following his speech. Stalliongrad: home of big ponies, bears, and vodka. Yay... I forced a grin. He was funny, but I was wiped.

"Well, I've been trotting since early yesterday morning, I think I'm going to hit the hay..." I said, lifting Shots' hoof off my shoulders with my magic. Damn, even just his foreleg was heavy.

"Aw, silly zebra-pony tired?"

"Yes. Very." I said with a sigh.

"Very well..." he said, sounding almost disappointed. He trotted back to the center of the bar. "Who's up for round two?!" he asked nopony in particular. Nearly the whole bar broke into cheers. I looked back to see the barpony, Butterscotch, facehoof. I just chuckled and went to my room. The Equestrian wasteland seemed like a good place.

I wandered around the tavern for a few minutes before I realized that I had no idea where my room was. I made my way back to Butterscotch, who said it was the second floor, at the end of the hall. I found it, unlocked the door, and went it.

I turned on the light and almost gasped.

I was pleased to find the room in much better repair than what I expected. The bed was clean and made, complete with pillows and blankets. There were a few bullet holes in the walls, but that didn't bother me... much. They were small arms fire, probably .32's or 10mm, judging from their size. The floor and walls were made of tightly packed, light tan, wooden planks. The headboard of the bed was centered in the middle of the wall to my left. On the far side of it was a small side table, on which sat the lamp that was lighting the room. On the far wall was a small round table and two chairs on opposite sides. The wall to my right was dominated by a dresser, a writing desk, and a vanity mirror.

Right to my... right... was some sort of wooden-stand rack-thing, with four arms about two hoofs long, and four shorter arms, one below each of the longer ones, about one hoof long. I didn't know what to make of it, so I did the first thing that came to mind. I took off my soggy saddlebags and tossed them over to the bedside. I then took off my still very wet cloak and put it on one of the arm-hook things. Maybe it would be dry by tomorrow. I stared at my cloak for a bit. Truly a thing of wonder. It wasn't dirty or soiled, even after slipping in the mud half a dozen times. I looked at the hoof-long slice in the side, where Hatchets had got me. I would fix that tomorrow. I looked at my side were the hatchet had cut. It was a pinkish-purple scar now. In a week or so, you wouldn't be able to tell it was there.

I slowly trotted over towards the bed. I jumped, caught myself in my magic, and when I was over the bed, let myself go and free fell onto the mattress.

"Oh...my..." It was the softest mattress I've ever slept on. I closed and locked the door with my magic, turned off the light, and in less than a minute, I was sleeping... on the most comfortable mattress in the wasteland.

===

I couldn't breath. When I tried to inhale, I sucked in water. Was it water? It felt slicker, and tasted much more bitter and like chemicals. It burned when I opened my eyes. It burned my hide. Everything burned.A sharp pain in my left rear leg. I flailed my legs wildly, attempting to swim. I couldn’t swim. My leg was stuck under some rubble. I was beginning to slip away. Not physically. Consciously. I heard a muffled splash. Everything was growing dark.

Something moved at my trapped leg. The pain in my leg lessened a bit. I felt a tug on my mane. I was free, moving towards the surface of this... stuff. It burned my whole body, inside and out. Almost like being dipped in acid. And being set on fire at the same time.

I was brought to the edge of the pool of liquid and pulled out. Everything was going darker, much quicker now.
I looked about. I was in the ruins of some prewar building. There was a very large, gaping hole from the rooftop all the way down to our floor. Five... six levels? I couldn't tell for sure. What happened? My vision was almost completely faded. I could make out smears of color and vague shapes.

"Please... please... don't die Xero..." I turned my head toward the zebra. He was bleeding from his muzzle. And his ears. Part of his face was a mangled mess where his eye was. He still had it, but would most likely be blind. His other eye was streaked with pinkish tears. His face, his stripes, so familiar, yet almost alien to me. "Here... drink this..." he said, breathing very heavily and sobbing. The liquid was poured down my throat. I tried to drink, but coughed most of it back up. It tasted like a healing potion mixed with oranges. Everything faded to black. I was so tired...

"Xerophyte? Xero? No. Nonono. NO!" the zebra sobbed. "Don't you die on me! I won't let you die!" I heard something rustle around and paper being quickly turned, a few being torn. Was there a book? Something was being dragged across the ground. There was a sudden, sharp pain all over my burning body, like a thousand needles being stabbed into my hide. I felt... something... then, nothing. Just an unimaginable coldness.

===

I awoke from the nightmare as I have many times before. I found myself holding my breath, with my eyes clenched shut, and tucked in a ball. I was covered, practically dripping, with sweat. Slowly, I opened my eyes. Where was I? Bed. Walls... Tavern. Good, I was still in the Turnpike. I let out what little air I had in my lungs and slowly drew in a shaky breath. I hadn't had that dream in almost three months. I never wanted to relive that dream. Ever. Living through the nightmare once was enough; it was worse each time.

I rolled onto my side, facing the wall with the door. I reached down to the floor with my magic and felt around. I brought up my canteen and took a drink from it. It tasted ever-so-slightly metallic. And ever-so-slightly irradiated. It wasn't purified water, but it definitely wasn't dirty. Rainwater. I had filled up four of my canteens with it a few days ago and now I was on my last one. My PipBuck clicked twice, indicating two rads. A peek at the device told me it was 5:49 a.m. Later in the morning, I would go to Absolutely Everything and get some more purified water along with some other supplies.

I put the cap back on the canteen and dropped it back next to my saddlebags. Rolling back over away from the door, I took another shaky breath. I felt a warm tear roll down my face.

"I miss you, too... big brother..." I whispered to myself. I closed my eyes, sniffled once, and fell back asleep.

===

Beep. Beep. Beep...

I wrapped my magic around my PipBuck and pressed the alarm off button.

Click.

And for once, it turned off without me having to throw it to the moon, or sun, since I used it to wake up in the morning. I looked at the time. 10:30.

I was feeling well rested, despite the dream. I packed everything up, equipped what I needed, and headed out.

I dropped my key off at the bar. Butterscotch wasn't there. Instead, it was some pale blue earth pony with a purple mane. He looked at me with an uneasy grin. I smiled, thanked him for the room, and continued out the door.

"Stop by again, silly zebra-pony!" I heard a familiar Stalliongrad-pony shout out. I shook my head and gave myself a smile after leaving the Turnpike Tavern. I had a feeling it was going to be a good day.

The town was fairly busy with ponies of all colors and kinds trotting about and doing their business. No zebras, though. I expected that.

I managed to find Absolutely Everything rather quickly; It was one of the tallest buildings in town. It was a 'tanker' car on top a box car on top of a passenger car. They were welded together to form a single, towering, building.

The locals in the streets were on their way to do business or others conversing with each other on the porches of their train car homes. For some reason, nearly everypony I passed gave me a wide berth. "Who is that?" I heard some whisper. "What is he?" muttered others. I nearly tripped on a colt that decided to sit right in front of me. I stopped and looked down at him. He looked up at me, with big round eyes.

"Um... Hello?" I said to the grey earth pony. His eyes managed to widen a bit more.

"Uh... Hi..." the colt said sheepishly, clearly intimidated.

"Railright! Get back over here," a mare with a sunhat called out. She was in the porch of one of the train cars a few homes down the dirt road, looking down at something.

"I'm just looking at the freaky striped unicorn, mom!" the colt yelled back.

"Striped unicorns? Really, Railright?" she said. I got the feeling she was slightly annoyed with this colt. She looked up from the book she was reading, and stared at me, with a hint of worry on her face.

"Railright, I said get back here. You don't know if that thing's dangerous," she yelled back in slight alarm.

Thing? I was just... a thing? Yeah, ponies freaked out when they saw me, but they at least asked 'what are you?' afterwards. Why did they freak out? I was most definitely a pony, er... zebra, not a 'thing'.

"I can assure you, ma'am, that if I was dangerous, I would have probably done something by now, without you knowing," I said back at the mare.

Railright was still sitting there in front of me, with big eyes and mouth agape. Was he frozen in fear, or just that curious about me?

"Well, see you around, kid" I told the little colt with a white smile.

"Uh...Yeah, okay," he sounded shaky. In an instant, he was off and running towards the mare with the sunhat. I could faintly hear “Mom! Mom! Mom! Did you see that?” and And then gibberish.

I turned to the Absolutely Everything and went inside. I did not expect to see what I saw.

Absolutely Everything had absolutely everything! And then some! I made my way to the counter. Nopony was there. There was, however, a little silvery dome thing with a button on top. I looked around. There was nopony inside at all. Using my magic, I tapped the little button, more forcefully than I had anticipated.

Ding!

I jumped a little, then smiled. It was a startling, but cheery, kind of sound.

"Are you okay back there?" I asked when a crash erupted from the back room.

A grey ghoul pegasus jumped into the doorway from inside the back room, with a box on her head, and a rear hoof in a bucket. She tried to shake the box off while trying to back out of it, but tripped over the bucket. It was a little surprising to see yet another pegasus in the wasteland. Especially a ghoulish one.

"Here, let me help you with that." She froze. I wrapped my magic around the box and pulled it off. She zipped up to the counter, grabbed a pencil and a block of note paper and wrote something.

'Thank you so much for the help. Welcome to Absolutely Everything! We have absolutely everything.. and more!'

She gave me a curious look as I read it. Perhaps she'd never seen a zebricorn before? Probably, I was one and even I hadn't seen another. Reading the note, I guessed that she couldn't talk.

"You're welcome. You've got quite the store here." I said, looking about. It really was impressive. I looked back to the proud looking ghoul pegasus. Ditzy Doo. I’d heard of the ghoul before. She was famous for her barding upgrades, the Wasteland Survival Guide (which I had memorized), and of course, the Absolutely Everything. One of her eyes started to move up and away. Huh. "You're Ditzy Doo, right?" She smiled and nodded fervently. What she lacked in mane, tail, coat, and... feathers... she made up for in enthusiasm. She wrote something else on her not block.

'The one and only! What can I get for you?' She looked back at me with a smile.

"Actually, I have some stuff to sell." I said, levitating my saddlebags off and onto the counter. I took out most of what was in them. Two 10mm pistols in average quality, a .32 revolver in great quality, a 10mm submachine gun, two hatchets, some miscellaneous odds-and-ends that I didn't sell to Clip's caravan, 3 suits of raider barding with only moderate damage, one belt of 5mm ammo, and nine pre-war bits.

Ditzy stared at the pile of weapons and armor on her countertop. She bent her head down and wrote something else on her note block.

'Will there be anything else?'

"Now that you mention it, I've heard that you're the best at barding modifications on this side of the wasteland. Think you can work some of your magic on this?" I asked as I pulled out my leather barding. It was in very fine condition, but lacked a bit in the 'can protect you from small arms fire' category. I had heard of Ditzy's reinforcing skill a while back from an 'adventurer'. He claimed to have some of the best barding in the wasteland, saying that he had fought a dragon while wearing it. I doubted that it could protect against a dragon, but I did need something stronger.

Ditzy, again, happily nodded and took my barding in her mouth and took it to the back room. A couple seconds later she came out with a shopping cart and pointed a hoof at me, then my clutter on the table, then the cart. I wrapped what I wanted to sell in my magic and placed it in the cart. There was a faint chime on my PipBuck, which received a weird look from Ditzy (okay, more weird than what might have been usual). I brought it up and looked at it. On the black and white screen, it said I had dropped 983 caps of equipment.

"Does... 983 caps sound good?" I asked. I loved my partly broken PipBuck.
Ditzy looked at me, then the pile of equipment, than back at me, smiled, but shook her head. She zipped back over to her noteblock.

'How about 183 caps, after the barding reinforcement?'

“Eight-hundred caps for a barding upgrade? You're that good?" That was steep price for some simple barding reinforcements.

Ditzy nodded again. She flew up to the top of one book case and pushed a pony mannequin in some barding, off of it. She flew back down and put the mannequin back upright.

"What are you doing?" I hadn't the foggiest idea. She gave me a look that said 'Give me a second'.

She ducked under the counter and brought up a pistol. It was one I recognized. She took to her noteblock again.

'Demonstration. This is a modified 10mm pistol with a silencer. The clip is alternated with HP and standard rounds. Observe.'

Ditzy didn’t look any more fierce with one of the wasteland’s most popular firearms in her mouth. She fired four rounds in quick succession. Surprisingly, the armor didn’t buckle under the strain of the bullets hitting the same spot. Instead, they all bounced off the chest plate, with the first three landing on the ground in front of the mannequin, and the fourth one flying out the window. The large pane of glass shattered in a flurry of tiny, broken shards. A second later, somepony burst through the door.

"Ditzy? Are you alright?" cried the lilac unicorn. Her mane was a peachy color.

Ditzy looked at her, the still smoking pistol in her mouth. She dropped it on the floor, smiled and quickly nodded her head.

"Another one of you 'demonstrations'?" the unicorn asked. Ditzy was still nodding her head.

"You NEED to get bullet proof glass if you keep shooting out your own windows." Ditzy just smiled and shrugged. The unnamed mare shook her head and sighed, then left.

"Who was that?" I asked.

'Lily, the town's appointed mayor.' she wrote down.

"So, how does a hundred, eighty-three caps sound?" She really was that good.

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Zebricorn's Glare - Being a zebricorn has its pros and cons. You are more intimidating to lesser foes, but some ponies just don't like you, and will fight or flee for no apparent reason. You also gain special speech options when talking to other ponies and zebras of both sexes. Who knows, maybe this will come in handy.

Bonus Perk: Derpy's Mindset - Haters gonna hate. Given to you when you take Zebricorn's Glare, this extra perk makes you not give two horse apples about what others think of you. If they don't like you, so what? There are certainly others that do, and that's what counts.

Race note: You're not quite a unicorn, but you're not quite a zebra either. You have access to some skills and perks from both races and some that are unique to you, and only you (such as Zebricorn's Glare). You are unable to gain access to some perks from either race, too, such as Memory Orb Master and Striped Sprint

Skill Notes:
S - Strength........... 5
P - Perception...... 6
E - Endurance...... 5
C - Charisma........ 6
I - Intelligence...... 7
A - Agility............. 8
L - Luck................ 4

Chapter 3 - Haunting Pasts

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Chapter 3

Haunting Pasts

Some ponies will say that dreams don’t last long.

Ditzy Doo had told me, well, written, that my reinforced leather barding should be done by noon tomorrow, possibly earlier. I was 183 caps richer, and had one hell of a suit of barding waiting for me. I still needed to finish what I came here to do and-

Gggrrrrrrrrp...

And apparently my stomach was telling me to eat. It was nearly noon and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast the day before. So yes, I was hungry.

After wandering around the town for half an hour, I finally found what I was looking for: a place to eat. The eatery was conveniently named ‘The Diner’.

“Welcome to The Diner, the best, cheapest, and only diner in New Appleoosa,” said a pale green earth pony mare as I entered. It was a little surprising that there was no hesitation in her greeting. Since I’d decided to leave my cloak’s hood down, ponies didn’t seem to be so uneasy. Maybe I’d been wrong to hide away from the world. Maybe I wasn’t as much of a ‘freak’ as I thought myself to be.

Inside, The Diner was surprisingly roomy, even with the eight or so ponies already in their seats. It was welded together from a ‘kitchen’ car and two dining cars, side by side. The kitchen car was in the back and the other two were in front with their connecting wall torn out, making The Diner feel like one of it’s pre-war counterparts. Above the counter was a menu consisting of daisy sandwiches, vegetable stew, a dozen different kinds of salads, and many other edibles.

“Radigator meat, bacon, and brahmin steak?” I read off the menu. I thought ponies were vegetarians.

“I’m going to guess you’re not ordering those... We sometimes get Griffon mercs in here who like extra protein in their diet,” the green pony said. “I would suggest our Wastelander’s Salad. It’s on special today.”

"I’ll have that, then," I told her. On special? I wasn’t completely sure what that meant, but I didn’t really care. I was hungry.

"Dontchya knock off bacon or hot dogs 'til ya tried 'em. They're tastier than ya think" a stone grey colored pegasus with a brown duster said as he passed by. He was already out the door when I looked back to say something. I turned back to the yellow mare, a curious look on my face.

“Slate is weird. Some ponies, like him, enjoy the taste of meat,” she said, shaking her head. “I personally have never tried it. It’s just... not right. It’s meat. We’re meat. But if you want bacon or whatever on your salad, it’s an extra three caps."

“Sure. I’ll try some bacon.” I’d never tasted it before; I was feeling adventurous.

“Really?! I mean... uh, okay. What would you like to drink with that? We have Sparkle Cola and clean water.”

“Water, please.” The carroty taste of Sparkle Cola was a little disgusting. I wasn’t a big fan of carrots in general, either.

“Alright. That’ll be 28 caps. It should be ready in just a few minutes,” the waitress said with a smile.

I gave her the caps and the mare stowed them away in an old cash register. After writing something down on a piece of paper, she trotted off to the kitchen in the back. One of the cloudy windows near the front of The Diner looked as good of a place as any to sit. A few uneventful minutes later, my salad and water appeared.

“Enjoy.” A different mare than before said happily. She gently set the plate and water bottle down in front of me with her magic and trotted away. I looked down at my salad... with bacon slices. One of the wavy reddish brown pieces of meat floated before me as I examined it, unsure what to think of it. I'd actually never even seen bacon before. I popped it in my mouth and chewed. Hm, crunchy.

Then it hit me like a falling boxcar.

The taste was AMAZING! It was indescribable. How could you put it in words? You couldn’t. It’s flavor was that of ‘bacon’, and anything short of pure deliciousness was blasphemy. Bacon was now on my list of things to find anywhere and everywhere, right after healing potions, but just above mutfruit.

===

I ate the rest of my salad between the moments of bacon-induced ecstasy. After stowing my unopened water bottle, I realized I hadn't filled my canteens when I was at Absolutely Everything.

The dirt roads around New Appleoosa were a little busier than before. Everypony was still giving me plenty of room, though. It was kind of nice, since nopony was constantly bumping into me.

Ditzy’s shop was much easier to find than before. Just as I stepped up to the door, an orange earth pony stallion in a prewar business suit came flying out, spinning through the air once and face-planting on the dirt road. He did not look happy as he got up and dusted himself off. A second later, an empty box flew out and hit him in the back of the head. He took the box in his mouth and trotted off, grumbling something under his breath. The whole street seemed to be watching. The stallion turned the corner at the end and everypony continued on with their daily business.

I entered Absolutely Everything and, again, did not expect to see what I did: an extremely pissed off looking Ditzy Doo. She was standing behind the counter, breathing heavily, and looking out of sorts.

“Should I come back later?” I asked. She didn't look like she was in a good mood as she picked up a pencil and wrote on her note-block again.

‘Oh, no. It's okay. Just a bad business proposition. That pony's been trying to buy me out for years. But I've ran only two businesses in the past two centuries, this one being nearly 70 years.’ She tore off another piece of paper. ‘AE is one of the only things I have. Other than more caps than I can shake a stick at.’

Wow, two centuries. But that would mean...

“You’re from before the war?” I asked, a bit astonished. She nodded happily as a flood of questions filled my mind, mostly about what it was like before everything went to shit. They would have to wait, though; I was here for something specific.

‘So, what can I get for you? Your barding isn't done yet, but I'm sure you knew that.’

I chuckled. Of course it wasn’t. “I need water. About 12 bottles.” She nodded once and ran to the back room. There was some rummaging, another crash, and a couple seconds later, she emerged with a small wooden crate with rope handle, in her mouth.

‘20 caps/bottle. 240 caps, please.’

I fished out the caps in a small bag. It was a fair and average price for clean water.

“Pardon me, Ditzy, but would you happen to know where I could find Lily? I have a package for her." It was the main reason I came all the way out here.

‘You could look around town. She doesn't usually stay in one place very long. Or you could drop it off at the town hall. Daffodil will make sure it gets to her by this evening.’

“Thanks.” I took the bottles and left for the town hall.

The town hall was, along with most of the important or popular buildings, quite easy to find. It was built up from train cars like the rest of the buildings and homes, but was also largely constructed out of wood and metal siding. I couldn't really explain what it looked like, because I had no idea 'what' it looked like. It had a more house-ish architecture. Not like the popular pony houses I’d seen in books and Starward, which were usually built into trees for some reason, but more squarish, with four definitive walls and a roof. A large wooden sign hanging off the front was the only indicator of its purpose.

I entered the building expecting to be amazed by it's interior, but I wasn’t. The room was smaller than I expected. Wooden planks made up the floor and walls. Along the back wall were a simple desk and a wooden door. A couple of benches lined the left side of the relatively square room. On the right side there was small square table with a floor cushion on either side. The table was a strange thing. It was just over half a hoof thick, with little drawers on either side. Alternating black and white squares made up the top surface, with little stone statuettes littering the aged piece. They were either completely black or completely white. I stared at it awhile, wondering what it could be.

“It's a chess table,” a familiar mare's voice said beside me.

“A what?” I asked, turning and raising a brow. What was ‘chess’? The pony talking was Lily, the one that was in Ditzy’s shop earlier.

“A chess table. It's an old game from long before the war. Not many ponies now how to play these days.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. It seemed like a confusing game.

“You're that... customer... that Ditzy was giving a demonstration for, right?” She asked, looking me up and down.

“Yes, I am. My name's Xero. You must be Lily.” Of course she was Lily; Ditzy had told me.

“Yep. Mayor and hold-togetherer of New Appleoosa. We don't get many of your kind around here. In fact, I don't think we ever have. What are you, exactly?” Lily asked, seeming more curious than anything else.

"What does it look like?" I coyly answered her question with another.

"Well, you have stripes like a zebra. But you’re blue. And you have a horn like a unicorn. So, really, I have no idea," she said with tilt of her head as she looked me over.

“You and me both... ” That was another thing I tried not to think. There was a second of awkward silence before I spoke again. “I have a package for you.”

“Oh, you're the courier?” Lily asked in surprise.

“When the time calls for it,” I replied, fishing a slightly larger than hoof size box out of my saddlebag. It was wrapped in brown paper and twine, standard for this line of work.

“Thank you.” She gave me a bag of caps as she took the package. My Pipbuck chimed and in the top left corner of my vision, a little note appeared.

>>1200 bottle caps added.

That was 200 more caps than the agreed payment. Awesome.

“No prob-” I was cut off by an explosion from outside.

“Dammit,” Lily growled under her breath.

“What?”

“Raiders...”

===

New Appleoosa was under raider attack. Lily told me that they were having raider problems from their 'nest' in Ponyville. She had hired a group of mercenaries (not griffon mercs, just hired guns) to clear them out. Apparently, they were not as good as they said they were.

Lily asked if I could help guard the South entrance, seeing as I could handle myself out in the wastes. In return, any injuries would be healed for free and ammo used would be reimbursed. I would also receive a discount at The Diner and Absolutely Everything, if the shops’ owners were willing.

I was on my way there when I noticed I had ran by Absolutely Everything. I stepped inside and tapped the little silver bell thing repeatedly. Ditzy came of the back room holding her 10mm pistol in her mouth, only this time it had an extended clip with an orange stripe on it. Before I could say anything, she smiled and shook her head. Great... I was going to do this without ANY barding. At least I still had my cloak. It was better than nothing, I guess.

Continuing toward the south gate, I could hear orders being shouted, both inside the town's walls and from beyond. Some of the guards were up on the boxcars that made up the wall around the town, while others were on the ground, huddled in small groups and talking about completely unrelated things... “The oatmeal this morning was pretty good.” “I heard Ditzy Doo kicked out that sales pony again. Ha, will he ever learn?” “Did you hear of that freaky unicorn with the stripes? He came in sometime in the night.” “I’ve never seen this many raiders before. Think they're the same ones from Ponyville?” Yeah, they were talking about fairly mundane topics, although, that last one sounded interesting. We were under a raider attack. Weren't they suppose to be defending the town or killing these raiders or something?

I peeked around the edge of the gate to see what we were dealing with. The raiders were outside my PipBuck's EFS range, so I counted them manually. Only six? I peeked out a little further. Oh, nope. There they were. There had to be at least twenty. That was quite a bit, considering they were raiders.

“Who's in charge here?” I asked a mare who I knew was standing behind me. I didn't think New Appleoosa had a chance against this many raiders, as many of them had battle saddles and heavy weapons and a few even had rocket launchers. I couldn’t think of where they would have gotten those, and who was dumb enough to give such weapons to them.

“That would be Six Star, our other sheriff,” the mare said, putting a strange emphasis on the word. Her voice was strong and firm with authority.

“Where could I find him?” I asked. We needed a plan. The raiders were moving closer.

“Her. And if you would turn around, you’d see.” I turned around to face the reddish brown unicorn mare.

She was covered head to hoof in black combat barding. On the side of her armored flank and on the front of her helmet was a sheriff's badge. She had a large, 12.7mm pistol on a hip holster, a combat knife on her foreleg, and an assault carbine strung across her back. In her mouth, an almost finished cigarette burned idly. The familiar smell of the smoke instantly reminded me of my father, and I wondered what he would think if he ever saw me like this.

“You're Sheriff Six Star, aren’t you?” I said with forced, nervous grin. She glared at me with the intensity of a hundred balefire eggs.

“Yes I am. And civilians, locals or not, are to stay indoors until I give the okay.” Six Star gave a slight scowl. Looking around, I noticed that the streets were completely empty, and all buildings had their doors and windows shut tightly.

“Lily asked me to assist at the south gate. So I'm here.” If she didn't want me here, she was going to have to force me to leave. There were twenty-some raiders and a few even had friggin' rocket launchers! They needed all the help they could get.

“Very well, then,” she said with an aggravated sigh. She looked me over as she took a long drag off the little grey-white stick, starting at my horn, then my head and stripes, then my hooves, since they were the only other thing sticking out from my cloak. Ever since I’d decided to not wear my cloak's hood, everypony that didn't run in terror seemed to be checking me out. Seriously, I wasn't all that good looking. I wasn’t even ‘average looking’. Ugly? No, but definitely nothing to gawk at. “What are you, anyways?”

And there it was, that one small question. Damn ponies and their curiosity. Now was not the time for small talk! We had a mini raider army on our hooves.

“I’m a secret zebra experiment from the past here to steal your mares and foals. What does it look like I am‽” I may have overreacted to the question, but it'd been asked at least a dozen times since the morning before. I was getting tired of it.

“A pile of worthless crap that's going to get shot and is better off to be used as a meat shield than a gun, you little shit” she replied with smirk, letting the cigarette smoke curl out of her nostrils. “Now, if we're done swapping stories, we can sort this whole thing out without losing anypony.”

“Alright,” I said, unsure of what we were going to do. “There looks to be about twenty of them-”

"Twenty-three." Six Star corrected me.

"Fine. Twenty-three. They are either expert barterers or really good raiders, because some of them have rockets and battle saddles. The others look like they just have small arms. Hunting rifles, SMG’s, pistols...” Except for the rockets, the others were fairly short range weapons.

“What are you suggesting? I have my little ponies run and jump out there, guns blazing? ‘Cause that's not going to happen. Those rocket launchers will blow us to pieces. No pun intended." The sheriff said as she spat the butt of the cigarette out and squashed it under hoof.

“How many rocket launchers are there?” Maybe if there weren't too many...

“Sparkles, how many RL's we got out there?” She shouted at one of the guards on the wall.

“I told you not to call me that,” a pink stallion called out. “It’s Flash.”

“Whatever, Sir Pinksalot. How many?” Six Star asked again.

Flash groaned. “Five, ma'am, and their getting closer.” Only five? This might work after all.

“How many snipers do you have?” The range on those was greater than that of the rockets. “That will hit their target,” I added.

“Are you suggesting we take out those rocket launchers first with our snipers?” She knew where this was going.

“Yeah, then you have the others gun down the rest with everything you have.” That was my master plan. It wasn’t anything amazing, but it seemed pretty obvious that the rocketeers should be taken out before they got closer. The others could be dealt with easily enough.

“In theory, that would be flawless. Unfortunately, we only have four snipers that might be able to do that. So, somepony's going to have to draw the short straw and be the last sniper,” the sheriff replied.

“I’ll be the last sniper.” If this was going to work, we’d need another pony, erm... zebra... thing. Not only that, and I don’t mean to brag, but I was pretty good shot.

“Do you even have a sniper rifle?” Six Star asked, shifting around in her combat armor. She facehoofed when I pulled out Tweety with my magic.

“No, but I have this zebra revolver.” The large revolver spun around idly in my magic .

“Is this a game to you?” She asked in annoyance. Nopony knew Tweety like I did.

I levitated out a mahogany box from my saddlebag. It was a bit larger than Tweety. I opened it to reveal a red velvet lined gun box... Tweety's original home. Inside were six rounds of each ammo type: copper hollow points, black for armor piercing, blue for shock rounds, green for anti-magic, orange for incendiary, red for explosive, and finally, twelve black and white striped shells, which were Special Zebra Long-Range assassin bullets. Each of the enchanted rounds had a tiny zebra glyph on the shell, which gave them their special attributes. Also inside was a much, much longer barrel and a metal framed stock.

I took out two assassin rounds, the barrel mod, and the stock with my magic. I closed and locked the case and put it back in my saddlebags. While screwing the barrel mod together, I reloaded Tweety with the special rounds and made sure they were the next to fire. Once reloaded, I took the stock and snapped it to the back of the heavy revolver. By now the barrel mod was screwed together and I started attaching it onto Tweety's barrel. There was a click and the black and gold glyphs crawled to the barrel extension and stock in a yellow-gold aura, seamlessly fusing the mods to the revolver.

Tweety was now a .44 caliber sniper rifle.

I had managed to attract tiny crowd of about four ponies. They stared at me with mouths agape, except for Six Star, who just nodded in amusement.

“No, I do not think this is a game.” A small smile crept onto my muzzle.

===

The raiders stopped about a hundred and fifty yards outside of New Appleoosa. The leader of the raiding party was a large, purple, earth pony mare, with a passionate, yet powerful voice.

“We are your only salvation! The wasteland takes, and takes. But does it give? Nay, it does not. It only seeks to destroy! With our help, you can create! With us, you have protection from the gangs and ‘raiders’ of the wastes. Without us, you are lost to the wilds and heathens that surround you. Join us, children, or you shall fall like so many before,” the mare preached. There was a minute of silence as she let her speech sink in. “Some may call us raiders, but we are not. Raiders are unorganized thugs, scum of the wastes, pathetic sub-equines that feed off the weak. We can offer so much more than you can achieve by yourselves. I ask again: join us, or suffer the might of the Wasteland Contingency!”

She knew this was New Appleoosa, right? One of the most well established towns I’d ever seen? It was stupid to think that this place needed to be under the protection of somepony like her.

“Yeah. That's not going to happen.” Six Star countered loudly, another cigarette in her mouth. Whether the raiders heard her or not, I didn’t know.

“Then you shall fall!” Okay, I guess they could. The ponies with the rocket launchers stepped forward.

“Sparkles, Cross Hair, Potshot, Xero... Ready?” Six Star pulled the bolt back on her rifle, letting it slide back with a clack.

“It’s Flash, ma’am.” Flash replied.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Everypony knows the plan, right? We peek over the wall’s cover, line up our shots with the raiders corresponding to our position. I get the one furthest to the left, while Xero get the one furthest right. I'm sure you other three can figure out which targets are yours." The four of us nodded. "Okay, on three... and... three!"

The five of us shot up from behind the wall's walkway cover, some holding sniper rifles in their magic, others with battle saddles.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The first four rocket raiders were dead, with one missing his head completely.

I was holding Tweety with my forehooves and standing on my rear hooves. I looked through the scope and slipped into SATS. A little-known trick for ponies with PipBucks is to look through the scope of a weapon and then enter the aim-assist spell; it greatly increases the spell’s effective range. Scanning across the many targets to choose from, I found the pony I was looking for and queued up a single shot into the blue stallion’s head. He just so happened to have twin rocket launchers.

The hit percentage was 83%. Not great, but still okay. I scanned over toward their leader's head. 79%. I just hoped for the best.

I activated the spell and went along for the slow-motion ride as the weapon fired twice.

Pewt. Pewt.

The leader's head exploded in an eyeball-strewn splatter. The rocket raider, on the other hoof, was hit in the neck and collapsed on one knee. His head hit the battle saddle's bit, causing it to fire. The rocket on the side he went down on hit the ground right in front of him, killing him and the ponies directly next to him. Yay!

The other rocket blasted straight for us. Well, me, anyways. The others had immediately jumped off the wall when they confirmed their target’s death, which was pretty easy, since they were all hit in the head. The rocket blasted into the wall right below me, sending me flying off the wall in a fiery explosion and covering me in shrapnel and debris.

Landing on my back knocked the wind out of me and put me in a world-spinning daze. The deafening ringing in my ears wasn’t helping any, either. Something hit my right eye, and I couldn’t see out of it. What I could see with my left eye was obscured by a dirty dust cloud. An agonizing pain jumped all across my chest as tried to move. I clumsily looked down to investigate.

Well, fuck...

Sticking out of the left side of my chest was a rod of rusty, blood soaked, iron rebar. The coldness that began to set in as I went into shock contradicted the warmth of the red puddle that was quickly spreading out beneath me.

“A little... help... here!” I rasped with a wet, almost watery, feeling in my throat. I was losing blood fast. I had already lost a bit when I fought the Toll Gang, and hadn't regained it all back yet. My head swam even more as I heard a slightly familiar voice.

“Ah, shit... Um... ah- ah’ll go get ya some help. Just hang in there,” The last thing I remember seeing was a grey pegasus hovering over me.

Breathing hurt. There was a gurgle with every breath. There wasn’t much time.

"Hurry... punctured... lung..." I gurgled each word. With that, Slate flew off. The coppery flavor of blood flooded my mouth. I felt short of breath and my raspy breathing quickened, becoming more shaky as my vision faded to black.

===

I remember short frames of consciousness: being carried on a stretcher, a red doctor pony asking “what the hell is this,” a fuzzy memory of an operating room. Somepony was yelling at some other pony to “Get that lung ready!” and then “Redheart, give him more Med-X, he's waking up... again!” Again? I had woken up before? I guess I was tough to put out.

I remember a rhythmic beeping suddenly becoming a single, long tone and a bunch of ponies rushing in.

I remember, again, being in an operating room, and seeing myself splayed open. So that's what I looked like inside. “Celestia dammit! This guy just won't stay knocked out! Red, more Med-X,” the doctor from before, I think, yelled. A mare spoke up. “Doctor, wouldn't it be better to use the gas?” “We don't have the time, every second we wait, HE gets more conscious!” The doctor pointed a hoof at me, then looked. Our eyes met. “Oh, for fucks sake... Give me that, Redheart!” I passed out again, which was good, because that was getting scary, seeing myself cut open and seeing my organs.

I came back once again, only this time I couldn't see. A medical bandage had been wrapped around my head and eyes. I felt... better. Not great, but I could tell that I was no longer cut open and had organs strewn about. I could hear voices nearby. They were strange; they were right next to me, yet they felt distant. Fuzzy. Incoherent. I blacked out again, with no idea how long I had been out or what had really happened.

===

I finally awoke from my surgery sometime later, wondering why my head hurt so much. I was on my left side, which was felt weird; I always slept on my stomach (which I guess is weird for anypony, but I was an exception). I tried to roll over, only to find that my hooves were bound by leather straps. Huh. Was I dangerous? Oh, no... I hoped nothing happened during one of my 'awake' moments in surgery. Another ‘incident’ would completely wreck me.

I tried to unbuckle the straps with my magic. Before I could even muster my teal aura, my horn made a fizzling sound, like one of those party sparklers. I tried again. Fizzle. Once again, I tried, only this time I worked through and past the barrier. There was another fizzle, and another, and another, each one becoming harder to work through and louder. There was another fizzle, and another, and...

Bang!

"Ow! Dammit..." I hissed, wishing I could rub my throbbing noggin. Something small exploded from around my horn. It sounded like a very small caliber pistol firing, like BB gun small.

"Oh, looks like Sleeping Beauty's finally awake," somepony said. I couldn't see her since she was behind me. As much I tried to twist my head toward the voice, I couldn’t see past my blind spot.

"Who's there?" I could feel my heart rate increase. Very few things freak me out more than doctors or being tied up. And here I was with an angry sounding mare, in a clinic, and bound. What made the whole thing worse was that her voice sounded familiar. I couldn’t place my hoof on it; I knew I’d heard that voice before, but whose was it?

"Turn your head and look," she demanded. That voice... it was driving me crazy. Why couldn't I figure out who it was?!

"I... can't... see you," I replied, trying to turn my head further without detaching it from my shoulders. "Could you unbuckle me?" They were still in my blind spot. Damn it, getting use to this was going to suck...

"I could, but I won't. Try using your magic. You already broke the magic restraint, you should be able to use telekinesis."

Magic restraint... what? I tried to get my magic working again. There was no fizzle, no bang, no pop. Nothing. I wrapped my aura around the leather restraints and unbuckled them all simultaneously.

"Don't get out of bed. You'll hurt yourself." The mysterious mare said. I thought... maybe? No. That would be one in a million. It wasn't her. Who was I kidding? She couldn't be her. "I have some questions for you. And you're going to answer them."

Somepony's going to make me do what they want? That never really worked out for them. Remember the Toll Gang and The Wasteland Contingency? I rolled over, and finally looked at the... zebra?! She sounded like a pony! Like... an Equestrian! What?! I quickly looked her up and down. Her face was full of rage and some other feeling I couldn't put my hoof on. I glanced at her glyph mark and my blood turned to ice. A zebra sun glyph. It could NOT be her. It just couldn't. COULDN'T!

"L- Lumens?" I whispered. I felt tears welling up in my left eye. I felt anxiety flood over me and the uncomfortable hotness that came with it.

"How... how do you know my name?" she took a step back. Her look changed a little. The unknown feeling was gone. It was replaced with curiosity, more rage, and possibly even a little fear.

I rolled onto my back and let the emotions flood over me. I couldn't hold them back. My left eye was now a tiny stream of tears of joy. My right eye... not so much. I didn't care. It was her. Lumens. My colthood friend. My best friend.

===

"Who are you?" Lumens asked again.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" Of course she didn't. I was an idiot. And blue.

"No. Now answer my question. WHO. ARE. YOU?"

“It's been awhile, hasn’t it?" I said quietly, counting the years it had been since I left. I hadn't seen her since before 'that' night, the night everything changed. I rolled off the bed and-

CRACK! Thud.

I had gotten one hoof on the floor before she roundhouse kicked me against the wall, cracking it and leaving a gaping hole. Whoa...Okay. Why were there little pegasi flying around my head? This was going to be harder than I expected, not that I had ever, in a million years, expected to see her again.

The doctor from my surgery, the other pony that was with him, and a smart looking, black unicorn, all came to the doorway a second later.

"YOU!" the doctor yelled, pointing hoof at me. Me? He was practically seething with rage. What happened during my surgery that everypony (and zebra) was mad at me? Lumens gave them a look that absolutely horrified me. Without another word, the three ponies closed the door and left.

"I want answers," she said, dropping down to all fours, "and you're going to give them to me." She trotted to where I was laying dazed, put one forehoof on my shoulder and the other on my horn, and slowly began to shift her weight onto it.

With tears (still from joy, some from pain) in my eyes, I looked up at her. She stared back with her stone cold, blue eyes. Lumens bent her head down and narrowed her eyes. "Why do you have that cloak and gun? Where did you get them?" She increased the pressure on my horn. Oh, fuck... it was going to snap off.

CRK.

Please, feel free to insert as many, rude, disgusting, and vulgar obscenities as possible here; you might come close to what I thought.

Tears of pain and blood started to roll down my face and forehead. My horn didn't break off, but there was definitely a fracture somewhere.

"Lumens!" I cried out. "Please!" I tried to get up, but she shifted her weight just right and sent me back to the ground. Her small body didn't weigh much, but she knew how to keep a pony-zebra down.

Lumens bent down again and whispered in my ear "Who. Are. You?" Her words were full of anger and malice. She was going to kill me if she didn't get what she wanted. Before I could answer, she got up and stepped harder harder.

CRKT.

My horn cracked a little more and chipped one of the ceramic floor tiles.

"Stop! please!" by this point, I was bawling. Getting stabbed, shot, and having a spike impale you was nothing compared to having your horn broken off... slowly.

CREE...

My horn sounded like a tree branch beginning to crack apart.

Ohfuckohfuckohfuck! This hurt. A LOT. This was it... I could feel my horn start to bend. Good bye horn, it was nice knowing you while it lasted.

I closed my teary eye. "It's me... Xero..." I managed to whisper through the pain, preparing for the inevitable snap! The pressure suddenly stopped. It was still on my horn, just not increasing. A couple moments later and I felt something hit my face, something tiny and wet. Then another. And another. I opened my eye. Lumens was looking at me, mouth trembling, and absolute horror spread across her body. She, too, was crying.

"Hi, Lumens. Long time no see." I said quietly, forcing a smile. "Can you get off my horn now? I think it might be broken. It... kinda hurts." I was still crying, only a little though...

===

"I was scared; I didn't know what else to do, so I ran. I couldn't bear what had happened. To me. To my brother. We were so close to each other. We watched each other's backs and he was always there for me. He was all I had left, and in an instant, he was gone..." A single tear ran down my face. I missed him so damned much. Time heals wounds, but bittersweet memories tore them right back open.

"We might have been able to help you. And even if we couldn't..." Lumens sighed, "Why didn't you come back? We were all worried. Maze sent others out to look for the two of you. They brought back your brother, but you were nowhere to be found."

She was laying on her back at the foot of the old hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. I was sitting on the bed too, with my back against its pillow and headboard. The past hour had been spent telling her about what happened that night my brother and I didn't come back. It was the night that forever changed my life.

The zebra mare was probably in her late twenties, early thirties. Still, she was just as cute as the day I first saw her. Her coat was quite ‘polar’, as my brother had put it: pristine white with almost pitch black stripes. Her eyes were a cold, slate blue that could freeze even the hottest of fires. Yet, there was a warmth in them that would melt the heart of a manticore. She still kept her long mane braided off to the side, the end held in the little, green beaded scrunchie I’d given her years ago. Only,now there were little zebra runes and glyphs etched into them.

"I wouldn't have been accepted back..." I said in a quiet, sad tone.

"What? Why?" Lumens rolled over and looked at me. I didn't think she would understand.

"The magic my brother used to save me. It's shunned greatly among all zebra tribes, except one."

"What kind of magic? I thought thought we were kind of like earth ponies. We don't really have any ‘magic,’" she said. Lumens' curiosity was her what made her special. It was also a bit of a downfall.

"Starkerrei magic." I looked down at my hooves. "Necromancy..." I whispered under my breath. Her look changed to more concern and intrigue. "Zebras don't have any inherent magic, such as unicorn magic or a pegasus' ability to walk on clouds and fly. We do, however, know of ways to tap into the natural magics; alchemy, potions... runes and glyphs, that sort of thing. It's why my pistol is the way it is, and why so many zebra made items have markings, glyphs, and runes on them. We can also use... darker... magics; necromancy, soul tampering, and 'star magic'. These dark magics are considered unjust, immoral... evil..." I was at a loss for words. They were more than that. "They're more than 'evil'. There are zebra legends that tell of these dark magics destroying entire civilizations. There's even one that tells of the destruction of the Starkerrei tribe's capital city... by calling down a star. Some legends say that the use of these dark magics hurt the world. All zebra tribes know of the 'star touched' tribes and their magic. My brother secretly knew of these darker magics, though he only used them for good. Most don’t or can’t see the good they can do."

"Oh. I had no idea. I... I'm sorry." Lumens said, rolling back onto her back, eyes fixated on the ceiling again.

"It's okay. You couldn't have known. You were mostly raised by ponies, after all. The elders were hesitant of letting you stay when Gibs found you, so they didn't tell you the stories of the so called 'star touched' tribes. They thought that hiding them from you would be for the better. I don't know why." I let out a sigh. The elders wouldn't have anything to do with anyone, zebra or pony, that was touched with Starkerrei magic. "If they knew of my brother's magic, they would have killed him. I too, would be killed if they found out about me and what had happened. I still would be."

"That... that's messed up." Lumens said as she shook her head. "But that doesn't really tell me why you have a horn. And are blue. I mean, even your glyph mark is different." She waved a hoof at my phoenix. Half glyph mark, half cutie mark. I still had no idea what it was suppose to mean, even after all these years.

"I don't know. I fell into that rainbow tinted water, my brother sacrificed himself to save me, and when I woke up..." I motioned my forehooves over my body. Was the strange water to blame? Was it my brother? We both sat there for what seemed like an eternity, in silence, taking in what had happened.

"You know, you look a lot younger than you should be," she said, breaking the silence. “That’s part of the reason I didn’t recognize you.”

She had a point. For being almost thirty, I did look really young. Much younger than I should.

"Strange magic, indeed," she agreed. There was another long pause.

"Why are you here, anyways?" Lumens and I said at nearly the same time, ending it with a short laugh. It was silly. We were like little kids again.

"You first," Lumens suggested.

"I was here to give the mayor a package. I accepted a courier job in Gem Hollow back home. The pay was good, and I hadn't been here yet, so I thought, 'Why not?' After giving Lily her package, some raiders attacked. I got some metal through my chest and lost my eye. The doctors here fixed me up and I awoke to find myself bound to the bed, and you know the rest." I looked cross-eyed up at my still fractured horn. I fluffed my pillow, not looking at it. My horn hurt a little bit. I was happy I could still use magic. I didn't know how much my magic was impaired, but that constant throbbing pain and that burn when I used it couldn't have been good.

"I'm sorry for that." Lumens said, rolling onto her side, away from me.

"And I said that it's okay. You've apologized a hundred times already. There was no way you could have known it was me. Honestly,” I said for probably the tenth time. “At least you didn't break it off.”

"I was surprised that it didn't break right away," Lumens said matter-of-factly. She showed me the bottom of her forehooves.

“What are those?" I asked. Drawn on the sole of her hoof was a type of rune or glyph or something.

"Force glyphs. I can't kick that hard." She said it so... simply. As if it wasn’t a big deal.

"Like hell, you can't. You kicked me into a wall and broke it!" I exclaimed, shaking a hoof at the hole in the wall from earlier.

"That," she pointed at the same wall, "was the force rune. It makes certain kicks much, much, stronger. That's why I gave you a healing potion after I picked you back up. I might have broken a few of your ribs and tore your lung a little. The potion should have taken care of that though, seeing as you're not coughing up blood or passed out." Lumens licked the bottom of her forehoof. "Blech..." and rubbed it on the bed's age-stained sheet.

"Luckily it's not permanent. Hoofshakes would be a little difficult. See?" She raised her hoof, free of any markings

"Huh..." Interesting. I was going to have to learn that. It seemed useful. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I work here," Lumens said as she rolled off the bed's end and landed on her hooves.

"You... work here?” I asked in slight disbelief. She was the only zebra I've seen in the town, so she must have done something to let the town keep her here. “What do you do?"

"As you know, us zebras can't use magic the same way ponies can, so I worked on devising non-magic and non-spark battery powered equipment, whether that be special ammo rounds or auto-reloading battle saddles or augmentations and prosthetics,” she said, smiling proudly.

"And I suppose this is why you're here, correct?" I asked as I pointed to my bandaged eye... socket. I would have just said 'eye', but from what I could tell and feel, it had been completely removed.

"Yes. I have designed... a runed powered eye." She gave me the smuggest and proudest smile I have ever seen. "The first of its kind. That I know of, anyway. It's taken years of research and testing. Most of the time, it doesn't work. Actually, I've never gotten it to work." Her smugness disappeared. "But I'm fairly certain this one will!”

"Really? Let's see it, then." I wasn't sure about it. It sounded, um, far fetched.

"Sure thing! One second," Lumens said excitedly. She quickly trotted over to the small table in the corner of the room.

My Pipbuck, saddlebags, and Tweety, still in rifle form, were sitting on the old metal table. Also on it were my leather barding from Ditzy, folded up nice and neatly, and bound together with twine, and my cloak. It’s brown material was in very poor condition, having been torn to shreds by the rocket and what Hatchets had done days before.

Lumens rummaged around in her saddle bag. It wasn't made out of canvas, but rather one of those yellow medical boxes, with the pink butterflies. From inside, she pulled out a black box, its small handle gripped firmly her mouth. It was about six inches in height and width, and just short of two hooves long. She brought it up to me and dropped it on my lap. The box wasn't at all heavy, but it looked like it weighed a ton.

"Open it." She smiled, showing her pearly white teeth. I could see pride and even joy in her cold, blue eyes.

It hurt my horn far more to open the box than I anticipated, the throbbing, burning, headache making it difficult to form even the simplest of auras. Hopefully it would heal quickly, but I didn't know how fast a broken horn healed, if ever. The aura that did form around the small, wooden box wasn’t my own. The normally teal magic was an illustrious... dull... sickly, blue-grey. By the time I did get it open, I could have just used my hoof to flick the little latch over and pop the lid up.

I only half expected what was inside. Sure, Lumens had told me it was an artificial eye, but what she didn’t tell me was how real it looked. If I didn’t know it was fake, I would have thrown it aside. The ocular implant was, like most eyes, round and ball shaped. A white glass-like material made up most of it’s sclera. At first, I thought it’d been cracked or dropped. A closer inspection revealed that the fine lines in it were actually the markings and matrices of runes and glyphs. The pupil was was a strange black color. It seemed empty. Hollow, even. It too, was round. The iris, however, was not. It was in the form of an eight pointed star that took away from the realness of the prosthetic. Swirling glyphs and runes broke up the amber star with their metallic coppery color.

At the back of the eye were four, silvery, spikes about the thickness of a pencil. Three of them were about two inches long and were evenly spaced around the fourth, longer one. Dark, scrolling symbols curled around the slightly blued metal like archaic vines.

"It’s going to hurt putting it in, isn’t it?" I asked. It was. I could just tell it was.

"Yeah, a lot," Lumens said with a sigh. "The sharp projections on the back of the eye have ‘fusion runes’. They fuse to the end of the optic nerve, which we left in during surgery for this procedure. It’ll feel like we lit your head on fire."

"Ow," I stated, staring down at the spikes. I didn’t like the sound of that. I’d been lit on fire once before, and it was one of the most painful experiences of my life.

"I'll get Dr. Neuro. He wants to meet with you, anyways; he's curious of your... condition. He might be able to fix your horn, too." Lumens said as she looked for the right words. She left the room and I was alone.

The clinic room was very basic, only containing the bare minimums of a bed, some old medical equipment, a couple of chairs and a table in the far corner, and a small side table. I got up from my bed slowly, and made my way to the sink and mirror that were also in the room, nearly falling flat on my face due to my weak and wobbly legs. How long had I been out? Eventually though, I made it to my destination. One hoof in front of the other.

Wow...

My head and right eye were heavily wrapped in healing bandages. There was a large blood spot where my eye would have been. 'That’s why your eye hurts,' I thought to myself. A large chunk of my left ear had been blown off. Nearly a third of it was missing from the top. My chest had a deep purplish-blue colored scar in the shape of a 'Y', where I had been cut open. Off to the side was a scar about the size of a bottle cap. I turned around and looked at my back. There was another scar the same size, where I’d been skewered with a piece of rebar. These scars weren't going away anytime soon, if ever. They were much larger and deeper than the one from Hatchets, which was almost invisible if you didn't know where to look.

I looked at my horn. It was cracked and splintered, with a missing chip at the tip. Perhaps there was something that the doctor could do to help heal it. I hoped so... I kind of liked being able to use magic. It made things more convenient. I signed and dropped my head a little.

I was a mess.

There was an unexpected knock at the door. Why would anypony knock on the door of a hospital room?

"Um, come in?" I said, not really knowing what else to say.

Lumens, the doctor from my surgery-nightmare, his assistant (Redheart, I believe her name was), and a doctor unicorn I didn't recognize, all trotted into the room. How the five of us managed to fit in the room and still have room to move around was beyond me.

The doctor from my surgery looked curious, confused and a little angry. He was a bright red pegasus with a short, orangey mane and a syringe and scalpel cutie mark. He had on a stained doctor's coat, through which his wings stuck out.

Redheart, or at least a mare that looked exactly like the Redheart from my surgery, was wearing yellow nurse's attire with pink stripes. She was a white earth pony with a pink mane; she was actually kind of pretty.

The last was an older black unicorn with an almost metallic silver mane. His cutie mark, I noticed, was a brain inside of a series of oblong rings that seemed to encircle it. He looked at me with pure intrigue and wonder through his large, black, framed glasses.

"Introductions," Lumens started. "Xero, this is Dr. Cutter." She pointed to the pegasus, who gave a nod, but did not shake his angry look. "His assistant, Redheart." The earth pony smiled and waved a hoof. "And finally, Dr. Neuro, our head doctor and healer in New Appleoosa." The unicorn gave a small nod. "Everypony, this is Xerophyte. Most just call him Xero."

"Um, hello." I smiled weakly. What else was I say?

"First things first, what the hell are you?" Dr. Cutter was not happy. "You're not a zebra, and you're not a unicorn. Your internal anatomy is different from either. Do you have any idea how much Med-X and resources this hospital put into saving your sorry ass? We had to do everything from scratch. We even had to cut corners on your blood transfusion. How are you even alive right now?!”

Oh, that's why he was angry. He didn't know what I was and I had used up a large amount of the hospital's resources, which probably meant chems and healing potions. He was a pony of science and medicine, and I wasn't anything he was familiar with, so I guess he had reason to be mad. That still didn’t make it right, though.

I sighed. I really hated that question. "I don't know. I woke up one morning and this is what I was." It was the truth. After my brother saved me and I passed out, I woke up blue and had a horn.

Dr. Cutter's look softened a bit. "Well, whatever you are, you were one hell of a patient to work on. Truly a test of medical knowledge and skill." He smiled, but it quickly disappeared. "Still, though, you used way more blood packs and chems than most ponies use in half a lifetime."

"Sorry about that." I said, scratching the back of my neck with a forehoof. Awkward.

"Don't worry about it. I've spoken with Lily already and she said that the procedure was covered. She mentioned something about an agreement," Lumens spoke up. "Now, about putting that eye in... Dr. Neuro?"

"Ah, yes." Dr. Neuro turned toward Redheart. "Ms. Heart, we're going to need two vials of Med-X, a healing potion, a pair of forceps, and a bottle of your apple schnapps." He spoke with such sophistication that he seemed almost... snooty. Yet, the way he spoke made him seem very content. It seemed he knew a lot, and he knew that others knew it, but he didn't let it all go to his head. He appeared to want to genuinely help others, no matter how unfortunate they were.

"Yes, sir," Redheart said as she dropped her medkits-turned-saddle-bags and started to dig through them.

"Xerophyte," Dr. Neuro started. "I want you to know, that if this procedure does work, then you will be the first to receive a functioning non-magic-powered prosthetic in the wasteland. Possibly the first ever, in recorded history."

I didn’t know how to feel about that. Honored? Terrified? Because I felt a little of both.

"Alright," Redheart said as she closed one of the boxes. The other box had four vials of Med-X, one healing potion and forceps, two unmarked bottles of amber colored liquid, and five shot glasses on top of it.

"Red, what are the shot glasses for?" Dr. Cutter asked with a sigh.

"For celebrating. Why else would Dr. Neuro need my special apple schnapps?" Redheart replied. Dr. Cutter facehoofed while Dr. Neuro just shook his head.

"It's for Xerophyte. He's going to need it after this." Dr. Neuro explained to Redheart. He stared at me for a second, then back at Redheart. "And probably during."

"So, where are we going to do this?" the red pegasus asked, giving his wings a short flutter and resting them along his sides.

"We can do it here, actually. There shouldn't be that much blood." Lumens said as she trotted over to the medical bed. "Xero, you're going to want to be strapped down. For your own safety and ours. We've had some... unexpected reactions to some of the tests."

"Um, okay..." I said uneasily. Visions of horrible, cliche, mad scientist laboratories filled my mind at 'unexpected reactions'. I didn’t want to go through with it. Every hair on my body was telling me to jump out the window and run. Again, if there was one thing I feared, it was doctors and hospitals.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. They weren’t here to hurt me; they were good ponies. Lumens was even with them, and she’d never let anything bad happen to me. I got up onto the bed and laid on my back... Such an uncomfortable position. As soon as Neuro and Cutter strapped the leather bindings back on, I could feel my heart rate jump.

“You’re alright. You’re in good hooves,” I kept telling myself.

"Xerophyte, I need you to look up for me." I did as Dr. Neuro told me. "Okay, now look left... now down... and... right.”

I tried to look right, but it felt weird, like something other than my eye was missing.

"Hmm, interesting." He paused. "I'm going to give you two shots of Med-X: one in th-"

"Better make it three. I woke up seven times during surgery." I told the unicorn. I wanted to feel as little as possible, especially if it felt like being lit on fire.

"Seven?" Dr. Neuro asked, a little shocked. "I guess three it is. But, if anything happens, it's not my fault."

A moment later I felt two small pricks in my neck. Their effects made themselves known as the world around me started to sway. The third one was dripped into my eye socket and a strange tingling sensation spread over my body.

"I theel thunny. Ith that thuppothe ta happen?" I slurred, my tongue catching on every word.

"That's the effect of Med-X directly to the brain, numbskull." Dr. Cutter informed me, laughing. I glanced over toward him.

"No, Xerophyte, I need you to looked straight up at the ceiling." Dr. Neuro told me. He said it in a way that seemed to also say 'If you don't hold still and do as I say, you're going to get hurt', so quickly I did as he told, which made the room seem like it was going to topple over. "Lumens, I have his optic nerve. Do you have the eye ready?"

"Yes, here." She dropped the box with the eye on the edge of the bed.

"Thank you." Dr. Neuro grabbed the eye in his yellow magic. "Okay, I'm not going to lie. This is going to hurt. A lot." Even with so much Med-X in me that the room was spinning? Dr. Neuro brought the eye near my eye socket. "Everypony and zebra ready?"

"Yeth?" I slurred around my tongue.

"Wait! Xero, here." Lumens stuck a rolled cloth in my mouth.

There was another tugging at my socket. This was suppose to hurt? I didn't feel anyth-

Oh, there it was. There was a small burning sensation that started around my eye. And then it began to spread. I tried to scream out in pain, but I had something in my mouth. I tried to bring up my forehooves to rip the eye out, to take the cloth bit out, to kick the doctor, to... something... anything! But my legs were securely strapped down. I just had to endure. The room was spinning more and more. The pain was excruciating. My vision eventually just became a blur, and then dark. The pain faded, the screaming stopped, and I drifted off into a comfortable unconsciousness.

===

I leaned farther over the edge, looking at the swirling rainbow-pink water.

"What is that?" I said to myself. I leaned a out a little further, investigating something that appeared to be swimming around in the toxic slurry.

CRRCCKK.

The floor below me cracked and shuddered, dropping a couple inches.

Uh-oh.

"Xero?" My brother called to me, in slight alarm.

I turned to run towards the door. I took two steps and...

CRCKBL.

"Xero!" My brother shot out of the storage room and lunged toward me, jumping over the tables and landing a pony's length away.

The floor had given out. Luckily, the floor below had caught me. My leg had gotten caught under some rubble, and I think I had some broken ribs.

"Star Gazer! I'm-" I tired to move out from under the rubble. "I'm stuck," I cried out. This was not the way our looting runs usually went. They were usually pretty boring. But right now, I was regretting this idea. This placed sucked; there was nothing but the usual garbage and almost useless scraps.

From above the floor above, I could hear my brother. The dust that had been kicked up blocked most everything nearby from view.

"Just wait, I'll be there in moment, I just have to find a way to get down th-" My brother was cut off.

"FREEZE ZEBRA SCUM! PREPARE TO BE INCINERATED!" A deep, metallic voice declared. I turned toward the voice. A bright orange light shone through the dust, along with a large, dark shadow. It had a large barrel on one side and a multi-barreled tube on the other. It was a Heavy Protectipony. There was a click, and the minigun whirred to life.

"Yavla Faen!" my brother yelled.

WHOOOOSH.

The telltale flare of rocket exhaust glowed in the darkness of the dimly lit room. I was helpless to escape; there was nothing I could do as it exploded only a few feet in front of me, sending me flying over the edge in a fireball.

I fell in slow motion. Everything seemed to move at a crawling pace. I could hear the Heavy Protectipony fire its minigun at my brother.

Tat...tat...tat...tat...

My brother returned fire, using Dad’s old revolver.

Pewt. Pewt. Pewt.

I hit the rainbow-tainted water, with more rubble landing on top of me. It burned. Everything burned...

===

When I woke up again, I couldn't tell where I was. The smell was familiar. The bed I was laying on was also familiar. My senses told me this was the medical room. The only thing not familiar was the fact that I couldn't see. I tried to bring up my forehoof, only to find myself strapped down. Why couldn't I see? If the glyph-eye didn't work, then I should be able to at least still see out of my good eye.

Right?

What if the glyph-eye caused my other eye to be blind too? I couldn’t survive in the wasteland being blind! I was a wastelander, practically a drifter. I had no 'home' to speak of, no place I could settle down and make a steady, safe-er-ish living. I didn't want to either. I liked the unpredictable and dangerous wastes. I was my own stallion, free to do what he please.

After a minute of quietly freaking out, I heard a voice, a voice I remembered distinctly.

"Hey, you're awake," Lumens said quietly. "Calm down, I know you’re probably scared right now. But-"

"I'M BLIND! Of course I'm scared!" I yelled back. I couldn't be blind. I just... couldn't! Nopony survived long in the wastes by being blind.

"Okay, first of all, you're not blind." She said simply.

"What." I didn't ask as much of just said it.

"It's 10:37 at night, according to your Pipbuck, and your head is wrapped in healing bandages," Lumens said, sounding annoyed. She elaborated a little more: "Dr. Neuro did some magic healing stuff on your horn and it needs to be bound in healing bandages for a day."

"Oh," I replied, dropping my head down. "Sorry." My heart was still racing and my breathing only slowed slightly.

Lumens sighed, tiredly. "It's okay. We don't know if the eye was a success or not, but at least you're not comatose like some of the other volunteers." She said it such that I could feel the anxiety leave quickly. "And don't worry, your good eye won't be affected by the rune-eye. Now, get some sleep. We'll run tests in the morning."

"Okay..." That was a little scary.

"Yep." She yawned. Apparently, it had been a busy day. "Good night, Xero." Lumens closed the door to the room.

"Good night, Lumens." I said quietly to myself. I still couldn't believe we had found each other. After nearly seventeen years on my own, I found my best and only friend.

There was nothing to do but wait until morning. I knew it would come quicker if I slept, except I didn't want to sleep. I wasn't tired. I closed my eyes under the healing bandage. At least, I think I did. I wasn't sure. It felt like I did, but for some reason I just couldn't tell. Sleep eventually took over, because I quickly lost all sense of time.

===

I didn't dream when I fell back asleep. I don't know why I was having dreams of that one fateful day and night. It didn't make any sense. I would occasionally have those... nightmares, but having them nearly every time I slept was unnerving, to say the least.

I awoke to find myself still blindfolded, only this time I could see a faint glow though the healing bandage. In my good eye, anyways.

"He's awake," Redheart's voice called out. "At least, I think he is."

"Yeah. I'm awake." I grumbled. I kind of enjoyed a day's length of rest. Sleep felt good.

"How are you feeling?" Lumens asked.

"Like I've slept for the better part of a week and got applebucked in the head." I assumed it was from all the trauma it'd been through the past few days, from the rocket to losing an eye.

"That’s better than we’ve had before." Dr. Neuro spoke. A faint yellow glow surrounded the bandage as it was unwound.

"Hmm... The fractures closed up nicely, and the chip off the top came back uniformly..." Dr. Neuro paused, probably examining my horn some more. "Well, Xerophyte, it looks like your horn will make a full recovery. You're lucky Lumens here didn't break it off completely. Healing a fractured horn in much easier and less painful than attaching one that has been broken off. Or, worse yet, having to regrow a whole new one. The magical therapy you would need to go though for that would be quite extensive."

"It's possible to regrow a horn?" I thought aloud.

"Yes, quite so. Most of the time you need an Auto-Doc or a healing chamber, but I’ve heard of unicorns in Tenpony Tower that can do it with magic. They might not be as good, but they work in a pinch." Dr. Neuro said as he finished pulling the healing bandages off. "Can you see all right?"

I squinted at the bright light, feeling the uncomfortable sting of my eye readjusting. I saw Lumens turn the blinds down a bit, causing the room to darken slightly.

Much better.

"Fine, all things considered." I said as I raised my left foreleg and rubbed my eye. Wait, was I actually untied? I lifted my other legs. Nope. Just my left foreleg was unbound.

"Careful. You don't want to touch your other eye." Lumens said quickly. I gently brought my forehoof down from my eye. "This is going to feel extremely weird, but please, just bear with us and don't freak out."

"Why? What's going on?" Nopony or zebra told me not to freak out. It made me more anxious whenever someone did that.

There was a soft click from somewhere to my right, near where my right eye should have been.

"Just hold still." Dr. Cutter said in an annoyed tone. Was he ever a happy pony? He always seemed agitated by something, probably me.

I felt a sense of complete and utter wrongness in my right socket. It felt as if something was being pulled out of it. It didn't hurt, but it left a throbbing, squirming feeling.

"Okay, now that this is out, we can activate your eye." Dr. Neuro informed me.

"What was that?" I asked in a rush, turning toward him. In his magic was a strange piece of medical equipment I had never seen before. It was a black, round, concave disk, with a long, needle-thin, spike in the center of it. It was attached to a thin tube that was in turn attached to some sort of pump mechanism with a dark, sickly green slime in it.

"What is that?" I asked in disgust. I was a little freaked out by this. What the hell did they do to me?!

"Just hold still and we'll answer your questions in a minute." Dr. Neuro said as he grabbed some sort of black needle-like spike that looked almost like the one he removed, only this one didn’t have a disk or hose attached. "This might sting a little. Don't move your eyes."

He used his magic and jammed the spike into my right eye. There was a split second of unimaginable pain, much like the pain from the initial eye being put in, only shorter. I let out a short “Ah!” in pain.

"Oh, quit being such a foal," Dr. Cutter snorted at me.

"Xerophyte, when you look at the ceiling, can you see me without turning your head?" Dr. Neuro asked. I looked straight up at the ceiling and turned my eyes over to him.

"Um, no." I answered. Something twisted in my socket, clicking quietly. I winced a little at the short, powerful burn.

"How about now?" he asked.

"No." There was another twist, this one slightly longer and more painful, causing me to actually hiss in pain.

"Now?" Dr. Neuro now sounded almost hopeful.

"No..." I said with a sigh. I wasn't going see out of this eye again. Just then, I saw a slight flicker in the darkness on that side of my vision. "Wait..." I told him, as he was about to turn the spike again. The flickering increased. "It's... flickering?" There was a faint twist and a single click. "The flickering stopped..."

In less than half a second, my vision exploded into various colors. At first, everything was cloudy and fuzzy. Then, shapes began to form from the haze, becoming sharper and more defined.

The surrounding world abruptly snapped to a sharp focus. Everything was so clear, even more so than before I lost my eye. I could make out the small details and imperfections in the ceiling tiles, the frayed stitching on my saddlebags, and even the tiny print on the clipboard near the door. It was as if I’d just eaten an entire tin of Party Time Mint-Als, except I could see even the tiniest of details.

"Hey, Neuro?" I asked.

"Yes?" He turned to me with a slightly sad gaze.

Without turning to look at him, I asked, "Why is my name spelled with a 'Z' on the clipboard by the door? It's spelled with an 'X'."

His frown disappeared, and was replaced with a satisfactory smile.

"So, I take it the eye operates correctly?" Dr. Neuro asked, still holding his smile.

"You could say that." I looked around the room, in unbelievable clarity. I was astonished at how many small details I was missing. There were tiny, hairline fractures all along the walls. You wouldn't be able to see them, or at least notice, unless you were staring right at them with your muzzle pressed up against the wall. A faint water stain that nearly engulfed the entire ceiling. I could almost make out the tiny, individual fibers in the sheet on the bed. My hooves contained near invisible cracks from injuries and fights. I never noticed how hard I’d been on them before.

"This calls for a celebratory drink," Redheart called out, dropping her saddlebags and fishing around in them. In just a couple moments, she had five shot glasses filled with an amber liquid set on the small bedside table.

"Sure, why not..." Dr. Cutter drawled with a half smile.

I unbuckled myself from the bed with my once-again-teal magic. It still ached as it always had, but not as badly.

"Cheers," Lumens said, clearly questioning the origins of the malted drink. Everypony drank at once.

The red pegasus scrunched his muzzle, closed his eyes tight and shook his head. "Damn, Redheart. You make your schnapps strong." The pretty nurse just giggled.

Dr. Neuro looked like he was about to spit it back up, and Lumens looked at her empty shot and rubbed her tongue on the roof of her mouth. I didn't think she knew what to think of the taste.

"Definitely not my choice of drink." Dr. Neuro said, giving his head a small shake. "I think I'll stick to my Sparkle Cola and water."

"Yeah, same here," the zebra mare finally spoke up.

"I didn't mind it." It wasn't that bad. It had a strong cinnamony taste that burned going down. The aftertaste wasn't too terrible, either: a kind of green apple flavor.

I decided that being in bed for so long probably wasn't healthy, so I got up and to my hooves. My legs wobbled beneath me as I almost fell on face.

"Careful there," Dr. Cutter said, flying to my side. "You've been off your hooves for nearly three days."

"I was out for three days?" I asked, finally managing to take a step without stumbling.

"Today would make it three," he replied. "You should regain your strength over the next few days."

"That reminds me," Dr. Neuro said as he pushed up his glasses. "Your horn... it's not as strong as it used to be, magically speaking, and might never. It will take a few weeks, possibly a month or two, for it to be back to its former strength. It is, however, stronger physically, so it'll take more than a hoof stomp to break it off. Just take it easy for the next few of days."

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try." It was all I could say while trying to walk to the mirror.

Standing in front of the mirror, I looked at my horn. There were still some very tiny fractures in it and was slightly discolored at the end where it had chipped. Then, I looked at my new eye.

"What was that thing that you stuck in it?" I asked. The question wasn't directed at anypony in particular. I turned and tilted my head, examining myself. My mane was starting to grow a little longer than I liked it, but it wasn’t too much of a concern at the moment.

"That was part of its design," Lumens answered. "The piece of equipment that Neuro pulled out is used to make sure the eye isn't rejected and helps prevent postoperative infections. Come to think of it...” She tapped her chin in thought. “...I forgot to mention the eye would have an increased infection resistance. It has a rune that helps fight disease so that the socket is much less likely to get infected, since it isn't made of natural tissue. It should actually help with most illnesses, though. But if you do get sick, I'm sure it'll be pretty bad." She paused for a moment. "I would like run the tests now, though. The sooner, the better. We don't want the eye to work now and then in ten minutes have it break, seeing as we now have one that actually works."

"Right. I'll open the blinds." Dr. Neuro said as he trotted over to the window and pulled the draw strings.

The room brightened to its previous level. I looked in the mirror again, just in time to see the iris spin clockwise about a quarter of the way around and the pupil shrink. It moved almost as fast as my other pupil. What struck me as odd was that it was just the iris and pupil that turned. They appeared to have turned under the eyeball itself, like there was a clear shell around it.

"I don't know what to say." I was happy that I wasn't blind, but it was one more thing that wasn’t truly me.

I was happy that I had found Lumens. None of this would have been possible without her. I was also thankful that Dr. Neuro and Dr. Cutter were able to heal me, obviously.

The past week had been unbelievably eventful, especially the last few days. I nearly died... twice! I may have saved a town from being overrun by raiders, I got some super-reinforced barding, lost my eye and then got a new one that was actually kind of cool looking, and best of all, I found my best friend.

"Well, you could say 'thank you'. That's always a good place to start," Dr. Cutter said, interrupting my thoughts.

I just gave an honest smile. "Thank you, everyone. For everything."

"Well, don't thank us yet." Dr. Neuro said from next to the blinds, his creepy white smile standing out against his black coat. "We still have other tests to run."

===

I didn't think that 'other tests' meant that they would be sticking things in my eye and turning them, which caused my vision to flicker on and off, change brightness, and switch between blue, green, and red color saturations, spraying it with irradiated water and seeing if radaway worked on it, and observing how it reacted to being poked with other objects, namely rocks and sticks. Dr. Neuro was having fun with flashing a light in my eye until I smacked it out of his magic with a hoof; it was starting to give me a headache.

The leg braces I was given weren’t comfortable. At all. Without them, I was tripping every three steps and falling on my face. The only way they’d get better was by walking around. I’d just have to wear them for a couple of days, then I’d be free from their clickity-clackity grasps of doom and awkwardness. They didn’t bend correctly at my own leg joints like they should have, making them bend at odd angles. “Just a couple days,” I told myself.

It was late afternoon when we finally finished the tests. The rest of the day was spent at a patio table at The Diner with Lumens, Neuro, Cutter, and Candi. I hadn't eaten in four days, but they claimed that they were able to keep me alive with an I.V. drip, whatever that was. I got a few weird looks from everyone, except Dr. Cutter, when I ordered a wasteland salad with bacon and water. Dr. Cutter had tried bacon before and was used to the flavor. He did warn me that eating too much meat, though, was not healthy. I didn't bother asking why.

It was an interesting evening. Everyone swapped all sorts of stories; why we're here in New Appleoosa, where we got our training, whether it be medical, combat, or... whatever Lumens did. Science? Alchemy, perhaps? We talked about what we did when we were young, except me, of course. I wasn't too keen on telling everypony I came across about myself. I possibly had enemies, after all.

An interesting conversation was of our name origins. Cutter was born in a linen factory, near the machine that cut fabric to size. Dr. Neuro changed his name from Bookworm when he got his cutie mark. Lumens couldn’t remember where her name came from, unfortunately. Mine was a shrub. Yay. And finally, Redheart... who was named after her many-times-great grandmother who was a nurse and semi-famous clopstar. We also talked about adventures we've been on. Mine and Lumens' grabbed the other three's attention the most. We had a good time. We laughed, some might have cried, and just for the moment, the fears of the wastes were forgotten.

"Closing time, everypony," the yellow pony from my first Diner visit called out. "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. If you need a place to stay, Turnpike Tavern's got some rooms to rent for a decent price." We were outside, so we were able to stay, though there were no more servers.

"Well, I should head home then." Cutter said, as he stretched. We said our goodbyes and he flew off towards the center of the town.

"Yes. I think it is about time to hit the hay." Dr. Neuro said. He trotted off towards the makeshift hospital, where he had his own private room connected with his office.

"I'm off to bed too, I guess. Little Candi’s probably wondering where her mommy is..." Redheart got up and happily trotted off toward the north gate of the town.

That left just me and Lumens. I figured I would go stay the night at Turnpike, but Lumens had other plans...

"Do you have a place to stay?" She asked me.

"Yeah. I'll just get a room at Turnpike Tavern." I told her as I waved a hoof in the general direction of the establishment. I looked at my Pipbuck. 2035 caps. Yeah, I was good on money.

"Oh, you don't have to do that. Why not come to my place for the night? It's actually just a few cars down from here." She said with a smile.

"Um... Okay..." I guess. It would save me from Vodka Shots challenging me to a drinking contest or something.

We got up and headed toward one of the nearby double stacked boxcars. After unlocking the door, she turned on the lights. They were the most bizarre lights I had ever seen. As Lumens tapped a blue gemstone on the table near the door, four overhead crystals began to glow a soft white.

"It's not much, but it's home." Lumens said with a smile. "How about the grand tour? Pretty much everything is self-explanatory."

"Sure." Her home was not what I was expecting. It was... much more.

The walls were rusted metal along the long walls, while the opposite short walls were covered with horizontal wooden planks. To the far right, was a workbench of sorts. It had a blowtorch, anvil, vise-grip, many assorted small tools, and a variety of different kinds of wires.

"That's where I research the glyphs and runes for the eye and other limbs," the zebra said as I looked at the workbench and the wall behind it. We passed through what was obviously the kitchen on our way over to the workbench, Lumens leading the way.

Pinned to the wall above the workbench were pictures. Many, many, pictures and drawings. Some of glyphs and runes. Others were drawings of wasteland flowers. There were even a few photographs. The photographs mostly consisted of ponies I'd seen before. Ditzy was in one. Flash, Sheriff Six Star, and a few other security ponies in another. One of a zebra filly, smiling ear to ear, with a sun glyph mark sitting on top of a zebra colt... without a glyph mark.

"Remember that day?" Lumens asked me, staring at the picture with a smile

"How could I forget it," I let out a small chuckle. "It was the day you got your glyph mark." I was the one being sat on. She was so happy that day, it gave her unnatural strength. She was also a year older than me.

I looked at the others. There were a few others of zebras. One had the tribe's elders, all five of them. Another had a couple of others from our tribe.

Then I saw one. One that made my body shiver with an uneasy coldness and a heart wrenching, warm, fuzziness. I could never forget the two zebras in that picture. The zebra with a ten-pointed shooting star glyph mark, and a much younger colt marked with a strange bird. Star Gazer and me. My big brother. He was smiling. I smiled back at it, trying to blink away a tear. Even after all these years, she kept a picture of me and my brother.

"Are you okay?" Lumens asked, sounding a little concerned.

"Yeah," I was fine, just... happy. I wanted to go on with the tour. "What's with the terminal?" To our right, was a desk with a terminal on it.

"Oh, That old thing? Nothing. It was here when I bought this place." She said matter-of-factly. "I've never been able to get it to work."

Opposite of the terminal and door, were two book cases. They were completely filled with texts on zebra glyphs and runes and medical books. I could easily guess what they were for. There were other books, too. But I didn't catch what any were about.

At the far end of the train car was a staircase that lead up the second floor. There was an 'L' shaped couch that hugged the corner made by the staircase and wall, with a small coffee table in the center.

"There really isn't all that much here. The upstairs has my bedroom and a small study that I don't use much." Lumens asked as I looked around the ground floor room. I gave her a curious look. "I usually sleep at the clinic. If anypony needs me, it’s easier and quicker to be found there than here."

There was a short chime and Lumens looked at a clock that was hung on the wall near the bookcases.

"Eleven o'clock already?" she said with a yawn. "Well, I guess that means bedtime." We were both tired from the past few days.

She trotted over to the couch and pressed a lever on the side. The front popped outward and swung up, while the back slid down and backward, with an almost whooshing sound. It kind of looked like a bed. "This is where I usually sleep if I'm home." Well, alrighty then. "The other end of the couch does the same thing. But, seeing as how you sleep in weird positions, I think you'll be more comfortable sleeping on the couch the way it is. I'll be back in a sec; gonna to get some blankets and pillows from upstairs." Lumens said as she disappeared up the stairs.

My leg braces came off with a noisy clatter. Everything else came off and I set my small bundle of gear on the coffee table. I thought about taking my PipBuck off, but I felt a little naked without it.

I laid down on the couch. It was nearly as comfortable as the bed in Turnpike Tavern. I must have fallen asleep, because I didn't remember Lumens coming back down with blankets and pillows. It was probably the most pleasant sleep I've had in a very, very, long time.

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Omnivore - AndBaconStrips;AndBaconStrips;AndBaconStrips; You can eat foods with higher protein levels (meat) along with the usual vegetarian dishes that most ponies eat. You also gain a 20% bonus to health restored and hunger reduction from eating meat. Just don't eat too much...

Quest Perk: Eagle Eye - Your ruined eye has become a 'runed eye'. Your unfortunate accident has given you one of the wasteland's strangest pieces of technology: the rune powered cybereye. Though you can't see in pitch blackness or shoot lasers out of it, you can see farther and clearer than almost anypony else. You gain a +2 super bonus to Perception, a bonus to your SATS maximum accuracy, and a 50% resistance to disease, infection, and other illnesses, but not to poisons, toxins, or manufactured substances (alcohol, chems, tranquilizers, etc.).

Chapter 4 - Old Threats Arise

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Chapter 4

Old Threats Arise

“Oh, no...”

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" the young zebra stallion replied, looking up from his book. He was clearly annoyed by my question... He usually was.

"I don't know! That's why I asked." Now I was annoyed at my question. “Why would I ask if I already knew?”

"Reading," he said with his nose back in his book. That's exactly what it looked like, actually. What was I thinking? Of course he was reading. He never did much else in his free time.

"Reading what?" He always read that book. What it was about, he never told me.

"If you really must know,” the zebra started with a sigh, “I'm reading a book on some very ancient zebra magic. It's really quite interesting.”

I had seen him read the mysterious book many times before, though always alone. I was the only one who ever saw him read it. When any other zebra came up, he would stash it in his saddlebag, or hide it away under a cushion or something. “Never tell anyone about it,” he said. I never told anypony, of course. Or in this case, any zebra.

"Come on, Star. It can't be that interesting. I can't even read it!" I whined.

"Sucks to be you, then," my brother replied with a small smile, not looking up from his book.

The book was thick. Really thick. The thing had to have been over three inches from cover to cover. It was bound in dark red leather that reminded me of... pony hide. I hoped it wasn't, but it was ancient, and made by zebras, so who knows.

The pages were yellow with age, and some had burn marks at their edges. The cover was branded with a strange symbol. It looked like a star-burst, except the points were wavy, each point never touching the ones next to it. At the top of the cover was some kind of half-sun-half-semi-circle symbol. A blocky arc took up the open spot near the bottom. I liked the idea that it was some kind of mysterious gateway to another dimension.

Ha, that was unlikely.

I had opened it before... once. The book felt like nothing I'd touched before. It felt... cold. Not the usual cold, like when touching a piece of metal or ice. It was bone-chillingly cold, like the book was feeding off my very life force. It was kind of scary. When I opened it, all I saw were blank pages. I had flipped through it quickly, cover to cover. All pages were blank. Some felt colder than others, and others nearly burned my hoof they were so hot. Star Gazer had caught me looking at it and promptly snatched it away. He told me to never look at it. Ever. I told him that all I saw was blank pages. 'That's because I know how to read it.’ I remember his words so clearly, like he had just spoken them to me.

"I'm going to go outside and play with Lumens. You make it boring in here." Being bored sucked.

"She's that filly you have a crush on, right?"

"Shut up!" I flushed. "I do not...”

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Xero," he laughed at me. "Just be careful, and be back before dark."

"Yeah, yeah..." I said dismissively. And with that, I was out the door.

===

I awoke feeling better than I had in the past week, with the exception of a headache that was creeping in. I wasn't sleeping on some two hundred year old weathered mattress that'd probably been used for more than sleeping on. I didn't have to worry about waking up with a gun against my head. I didn't have to guess if it was going to rain or if I could find shelter. I didn't wake up to find out I was blind in one eye. I wasn’t cut open, organs tossed about like bits of garbage. For the lack of a better word, I woke up... safe.

Safe wasn't a word you get often in the wasteland. There is never anywhere 'safe', only 'safer'. Here, in Lumens train-car-home, was the exception. I was safe, with none of the horrors from the wastes waiting to eat me alive or trying shoot me dead. This was a rare occasion, and I was thankful for it. Given my current state, I doubted I could defend myself from anything more than a troublesome radroach.

Looking around the room, I saw that Lumens was over at her workbench with a stack of books. The blanket slipped off as I got to my wobbly hooves, causing Lumens to turn around.

“Good morning, Xero,” she said, looking up from her book with a bright smile. “Sleep well?”

“Better than I have in a while,” I replied.

Seeing her felt good. The past few days seemed like a dream; I was glad to see that they weren’t. So many years of loneliness and wandering, and I found my best friend. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her, though. She’d lived the past fifteen years thinking I was dead, and then I suddenly appear out of nowhere, blue and horn-headed. It must have been rough.

“That’s good.” She put the book down on the stack on the workbench. “What do you want to do? I’m off from the clinic today, so if you want to do something other than watch me read books, let me know. I suggest you stay around town, though; your legs need to regain their strength.”

“What is there around here? This is the first time I’ve been to New Appleoosa,” I said as I buckled on my leg braces with my magic. “Or this far west, actually.” Hopefully my legs would be back to normal-ish by tomorrow. It bothered me to be in one place for too long.

“Really? Where have you been around here?” Lumens curiously asked.

“Let’s see...” I tapped a hoof to my chin. “I’ve been to Ditzy Doo’s store and the Turnpike... the town hall...” Where else had I gone? “Oh, and I’ve also been to The Diner and the Clinic, obviously. I’m sure I haven’t seen all there is to see.”

“No, that’s pretty much it. Unless you want to watch Highrise and his son, Crane, work,” the zebra mare said with a dismissive wave./

Ggrrrrrp...

“Breakfast?” she asked. She already knew the answer.

“Sounds like it,” I said, slipping my saddlebags over my back.

“I think we can go to The Diner.” She smiled and looked at the clock on the wall. 8:57. “It should be open soon.”

A quick peek at my time-perfect PipBuck told me it was 9:09. Surprisingly, the leg brace fit over the bulky thing.

“Sure,” I returned with a smile.

I seemed to be smiling a lot, lately. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t have to worry about getting shot (getting shot a lot, that is). Or maybe it was that I had found my best and only friend in the wasteland, against all odds. What were the chances?

===

Breakfast was an adventure on its own; I ate eggs for the first time. The Wasteland Omelet had eggs, that tasty stuff called bacon, peppers, and something I was unfamiliar with: dark green and leafy stuff called spinach. Little did I know, eggs weren’t usually part of anypony’s diet. It tasted good, though.

Lumens had a daisy sandwich. Where The Diner got daisies was beyond me.

Once breakfast was finished, the two of us trotted around town. We didn’t go anywhere in particular, just... around. I did, however, make sure to stop at Absolutely Everything.

When Lumens and I got there, Ditzy was once again nowhere to be found. I rang the bell on the counter, and with a crash, upstairs this time, Ditzy appeared in a greyish flash. She gave me an unexpected and rather squishy hug, and wrote something down on her noteblock.

‘It’s great to see that you survived. I was worried that you wouldn’t get a chance to try out your barding. I think it’s my best work yet!’

“Thanks,” I said, “I just wanted to stop by and thank you for it. Still haven’t gotten a chance to try it out, but I thought it was the best craftsponyship I’ve ever seen.”

‘You’re welcome! The reinforced heavy leather barding should protect against most small caliber rounds. I think you’ll be very pleased with it.’

“That’s actually really good,” said Lumens. I gave her a disbelieving look. She knew about weapons and barding? Back home, she couldn’t even squish a dying radroach. “What? You don’t survive out here without knowing a little about protecting yourself. Not long, anyways.”

Wait... that reminded me of something.

“Ditzy, I have a question for you...” I started. She gave a small tilt of her head and a curious look. One of her milky, yellow eyes started to go all weird again. With a blink, it was back to, erm, normal. “Do you recognize anything about this?”

I searched around my saddlebags, quickly found the red and black .308 hunting rifle I had bought off of Clips’ caravan nearly a week ago, and put it on the counter. Had it really been almost a week? It didn’t feel like it. I had been unconscious for a majority of it.

Ditzy looked the rifle over for a nearly two minutes. Her eyes went wide as she did so. She turned the gun this way and that, a worried and slightly confused expression on her face the whole time.

‘They appear to be Zebra Resistance gear.’

‘Zebra Resistance?’ I thought to myself, pondering the strange and vague familiarity with the phrase. I was almost positive I’d heard of it before, but when and where escaped me.

“I’m pretty sure I have a book on them somewhere at my place,” Lumens said as she read the note. “And that’s not a good thing.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“They were a group of zebras that were completely against the fight with Equestria. They interrogated or killed those who were involved in the war. If somepony or zebra didn’t want to fight the other, they could join ‘the resistance’,” she explained, putting air quotes around the the last bit.

“What’s so bad about that?” Other than the fact that they tortured and murdered others.

“Well, it wasn’t. It didn’t matter who your allegiance was with; if you were connected with the war in some way, they would kill you, or at the very least, you’d ‘disappear’. It didn’t matter if you were a pony, zebra, griffin, or even a dragon,” the zebra mare continued. Ditzy wandered away to look in a nearby foot locker for something. “But that was before the bombs fell.”

“What happened after?”

“About eighty years ago, I think, stories of something called the New Zebra Resistance and Alliance started coming from out east, from the Outlands,” the zebra said. The Outlands... the part of Equestria where I lived practically all my life. “The stories were weird. Confusing. Some were even a little disturbing.”

“How so?” Disturbing? There were some zebra magics and legends that fit that description. I’d also heard of some freaky things coming out of Canterlot.

“There were stories of entire villages being razed and burned overnight. Then, this symbol would appear around them.” She pointed to the three rings and dagger on the rifle’s stock. “There were also tales of these ponies and zebras helping settlements grow, in exchange for them pledging allegiance to the NZRA.”

“So...” I said, trailing off. “I still don’t quite see what was so bad about them.” So they pillaged a village or two. Raiders did the same thing to Coltstead and Raidersburg.

“I’m getting to that.” Lumens said firmly. “Sixty years ago, the NZRA’s tyranny was put to an end. Some stable pony and her marefriend got a band together and managed to destroy them.”

The little bell on the countertop rang out. Ditzy had a couple pieces of paper in front of her, with a pencil in her mouth, and was quickly writing.

‘Most of the ponies that fought the NZRA’s leader died during their final stand. Of the five that I know survived, one died while protecting his Dashite friend from the Enclave, and one committed suicide after she lost her filly in a raider attack, or so I’ve heard.’

Now, I’d heard of the Enclave before; they were responsible for the cloud cover, after all. No idea what a Dashite was, though.

‘The last two, the group’s leader and her marefriend, just disappeared. Some say they went back to their Stable. Others say they continued their fight against evil, and the wasteland took them. There are even conspiracies about them taking over the NZRA. For any of these ponies to be alive today, they’d have to had used a stasis chamber or become a ghoul, like me.’

“Yeah, pretty much.” Lumens said. “Any questions?”

Yes, many, but not all of them found their way to my mouth.

“Just two.” I took a breath. “What was it that made this NZRA so bad? They just sound like another raider gang, albeit a very successful one. And why haven’t I heard of them before? I’ve lived in the Outlands all my life! Did everypony just forget or something?”

“That’s technically three,” the Lumens replied. “They weren’t very kind if you didn’t want to join the Allegiance. They would slowly wear towns down, laying siege to helpless and innocent ponies. Thousands died in their conquest for absolute power. The ponies they captured were used for...” she paused, seeming at loss for words. “They were just evil, Xero. But it was evil hidden under the guise of good intentions.”

Ditzy tapped her hoof on the countertop, snagging our attention.

‘If they ever made it here, what’s left of Equestria would stand little chance. They managed to wipe out the Steel Rangers in the Outlands. The Outland Rangers were one of the largest groups to ever be founded. If the NZRA returned, they’ll be stronger, and we won’t stand a chance. I’ve seen what they’re capable of.’

That couldn’t be very good. They captured towns and completely wiped out a group of Steel Rangers. To me, they still sounded like a group of raiders. Trained, well armed raiders...

But there was still something about them seemed vaguely familiar. I couldn’t put my hoof on it. Some sort of zebra alliance or the like rang throughout the still empty holes in my memories. They didn’t echo back, unfortunately, and the name was lost in that damned, foggy void. Six years later, and I still had no idea what had happened back in the streets of Maverick. It used to scare the hell out of me, being unsure about my past. Now it was just annoying and tended piss me off.

After scooping the rifle and sunglasses up and stowing them away in my saddlebag, I noticed that I was still carrying my broken knife handle. I needed a new one, along with some more ammo for Tweety; the heavy revolver seemed to blow through ammo faster than anything else I used.

“Ditzy, Is there anywhere around here that sells weapons?” I asked.

She smiled and thumped a hoof to her chest.

“I think I might need something a little stronger, no offence.” She practically had ‘absolutely everything’, but somepony that specialized in firearms and weapons was almost always a better option. They generally kept better care of their wares.

'There's the Saturday-Night Special. Tell PK I sent you. I have other work to attend to, so I have to go. But thanks for stopping by!'

She dropped the pencil in a coffee cup filled with about a hundred other pencils, gave me a smile, and managed to fly off back to the upper floor. How could she do that? She barely had any feathers!

"Okay...” I said in a drawn out tone, still baffled by Ditzy’s abilities. “To the Saturday-Night Special it is, then."

Lumens and I left Absolutely Everything. Both of us were a little shaken, I think. There was a group of ponies, and probably zebras, possibly griffins, and maybe a few dragons, all of which wanted to eradicate all who opposed them. They kind of sounded like the raider group that attacked a few days ago. But, they said they were the Wasteland Contingency, and they didn’t have any sort of insignia that matched the NZRA.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Lumens asked once we were outside. The sky was its usual grey, and it felt like it was going to rain soon.

"Not a clue," I said, looking around. I was looking for a sign. Literally. One that said 'Saturday-Night Special'.

Lumens sighed. "Follow me..."

===

There were only a few buildings not made of train cars. Some, like the Turnpike Tavern and town hall, were built with wood and metal siding.

The Saturday-Night Special was not one of them. It wasn’t built out of a train car, either. Not completely, at least. The backside was formed up against the protective wall that surrounded the town on the west side. Three large metal letters had been welded to the top of the box car that made up the entrance. S... N... S...

The SNS had heavy armor plating covering the entirety of the outer walls. On top were two, huge, metallic beasts of tank turrets. Easily as tall as a pony, they aimed their massive cannons out into the wastes.

“Where did those come from?” I asked, unsure about their origins. They had the standard ‘Equestrian Sun’ emblem on them, but what were they doing here in the middle of some old train station?

“Those?” Lumens replied, nodding toward the things in question. “Equestrian Railway Guard tank turrets.”

“Do they still work?” My curiosity got the better of me as we approached.

“From what I hear, kinda,” she said. “Supposedly they work, but there’s no shells to fire.”

“Oh,” I said as we entered the SNS. It was a little interesting, the tank turrets mounted to the roof of a gun store.

The inside of the SNS was dark. Well lit, but the onyx walls made it seem dark. Besides the light grey shelves and wooden barrels, the room was filled with guns.

Lots... and lots... of guns...

Everything from small 10mm pistols and assault rifles to rocket launchers and anti-machine rifles. There were even quite a few Magic Energy Weapons; beam pistols and the like. I spotted some weapons I didn’t recognize, too. They looked like they could only be mounted on power armor, given their large size. One of these mounted weapons was so unreasonably huge, that there was no way a pony could use it. I doubted even Vodka Shots could lift the damned thing.

“Welcome to the Saturday-Night Special; the second largest gun supplier in Equestria...” a grey earth pony said as we trotted up to the counter, our hooves clip-clopping along the metal-plated floor. The scarred stallion was a dark grey color, with an even darker grey mane that was cut short in a crew-styled fashion. He wore a black eyepatch over his right eye. While being tall, he was also rather bulky. Not really muscular, but not cubby. Just... big boned.

“What did I tell you?” he yelled angrily the moment he looked up at us. “I don’t sell to zebras!”

“Luckily, I’m not a zebra,” I lied, tapping my horn as my leg brace clattered.

“You have stripes... you sound like a zebra... you are a zebra.” The stallion glared at Lumens and I. “Now. Get. Out...”

Tunk. Tunk.

A metallic knocking at the door caused the three of us to turn. We all looked back to see a pony standing in the doorway. A pony wearing black combat armor and a helmet with a star on it.

“Is there a problem here?” Sheriff Six Star asked, still firm and authoritative.

“No... there isn’t,” the pony at the counter huffed.

“Good. You know you can’t shoo customers out just because they have stripes,” she said, turning to me. “Oh, if it isn’t the one hit wonder with nine lives.” What? “It’s good to see you survived that rocket.” She paused for a second, looking me over. “Your eye is... different.”

“Yeah, the clinic patched me up,” I replied. “And Lumens created an artificial eye.”

“No loitering!” the middle aged stallion said loudly.

“Fine... I’ll get what I need and leave.” The Sheriff started to walk around the racks and bins, barrels, buckets, and boxes overflowing with ammunition.

“Now... what do you want?” the grey pony grumbled.

“You see, I have this rare gun...” I pulled out the hunting rifle, “and I need it repaired and modded.”

“Wow,” he said, actually surprised. “That is a rare gun. I’t a .308 hunting rifle, complete with recoil dampeners and a custom loader.”

He grabbed the rifle in his fetlock and set it on a stand that took up half the wooden countertop. The stand was attached to a turntable that allowed the weapon to be inspected more easily for non-magic users, such as... this pony.

“My name’s Powder Keg, by the way,” he said, inspecting the spinning gun. It seemed to lighten his attitude a little. Perhaps we had found some common ground. I had a rare gun, he was a gun dealer. Or maybe he just decided that I was here to do business, whether he liked it or not.

“Xero,” I replied. “Ditzy Doo sent me here. She said you could help.”

“Oh, Ditzy sent you?” he mumbled. “I guess any customer of her is a customer of mine. If she sent you, then you really are looking for something specific.”

Powder Keg ducked behind the counter for a second before coming back up with a hard hat with a light and magnifying glass attached to an arm.

“Oh, and I’m just chopped liver, aren’t I?” Lumens finally spoke.

“Yes. Deal with it,” Powder said flatly. “What kind of mods are you looking for? I can put a scope on it and a couple extended magazines. There might be a custom, light-weight stock for it too, but don’t get your hopes up.”

He busied himself with sliding the bolt handle back and forth, making sure everything was in working order. I didn’t know much about rifles, which was why I was letting him repair and modify it.

“Mags and a scope sounds good.” I used magic most of the time, and I was pretty good with telekinesis, so a lighter weapon didn’t matter too much.

“Six-hundred-fifty caps. That covers cleaning, repair, and both mods.” The gunsmith looked up from my rifle, his eye magnified nearly double its normal size. Lumens coughed into her hoof, trying to stifle a laugh. Powder Keg promptly knocked the magnifying glass out of his face. “As I was saying, six-hundred-fifty caps.”

I pressed some buttons on my PipBuck, which collected a small bag of caps, and gave it to him.

“This will take a little while. Ten... maybe twenty minutes?” he said, taking the caps and giving a them a slight jingle. “If you’d like, I suppose you could look around. Just don’t touch anything.”

He seemed a little protective of his stock. Maybe it was the giant power armor mounted cannons, or the expensive MEWs. The fact that many of the weapons could kill multiple ponies at once might have had something to do with it, too.

As we wandered the store, Lumens and I met up with Six Star. She was sitting near the back of the store, staring at a large display case. Inside was a large, multi-barreled gun mounted on a battle saddle. It looked much like a minigun, only it had three barrels instead of six and they had a much larger bore. On one side was a large box for holding ammo with a feed leading to the weapon on the other side. The whole thing, including the battle saddle, was a matte black and detailed with glossy black and chrome accents. The blaze orange tag hanging from one of the barrels caught my eye.

‘16,000 caps. Final Price.’

“What is it?” I asked Six Star. She let out a surprised “eep!” that also startled me.

“Sorry,” she replied, looking back at the large gun. “That is a security pony’s dream gun. Actually, calling it a gun doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s an Omega-Prime 20 gauge Gatling Hydra. A pressure sensitive bit allows the user to fire just a single round or up to twelve-hundred rounds a minute. It comes with an auto adjusting harness, advanced kick dampeners, and easy change ammo-box, and an integrated ammo enchanting matrix. Only ten of these were ever finished. Truly a work of art.” She gave a short pause before adding under her breath, “I’d give my soul for this beauty...”

I was a little weirded out by that last bit, but one thing did catch my attention. “What’s an ammo enchanting matrix?” I’d never heard of that before.

“An ammo enchanting matrix is a reversed engineered zebra spell. The MAS got their hooves on a few zebra ‘fire spew’ rifles, figured out how they worked, gave them to the MWT, who then put them into a few weapons like these,” she explained as she motioned a hoof a the gatling shotgun. “They take standard shells and enchant the projectile. This particular one has the only multi-enchanter of any Gatling Hydra. It enchants each round differently; shock, incendiary, anti-magic, corrosive, and explosive. It repeats that pattern over and over.

“The ponies who created this weapon thought that it was so powerful, that they never mass produced it out of fear of the zebras getting ahold of some.” She reached out and slowly slid a hoof down the glass case. “Too bad it’s meant for somepony richer. I’ll see you around, Xero.”

She picked up a sack of old guns and a couple of ammo boxes with her magic and trotted toward the counter to pay for her goods. Some words were exchanged about a competition and she left without incident.

“She really wants this, doesn’t she?” I said to Lumens.

“Yeah, she does,” the zebra mare replied back.

“She comes in here every weekend to buy her security team ammo and replacement weapons. And every time she sits there and stares at if for nearly twenty minutes.” Powder Keg called back from behind the counter. He had several different kinds of scopes on the counter, trying to get one to fit. “I’d be willing to sell it to her for considerably less, but the said that the price was final. She’s been a very valuable customer for the past eight years. If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be out of business.”

As the gunpowder grey stallion went back to trying to get one of the scopes to fit, Lumens and I browsed the store bit more. The giant power armor cannon was meant for griffon power armor, as I had found out from the instructional booklet. The ‘Griffon Chaser’ fired something called flak shells, which apparently were like anti-air grenades. Really big ones. The thing was so large, I could put my off down inside the barrel. Was it really necessary to have something this huge?

One corner of the shop was dedicated to pistols. There were so many that they filled up the racks they were on and started to fill boxes. Everything from 9mm pistols to .32 revolvers and 12.7mm sidearms and .44 revolvers. The latter two were much fewer in numbers though, and didn’t have any boxes dedicated to them.

The largest area was populated by automatic firearms; assault rifles of varying models and manufacturers. Lots of submachine guns...

The area with the gatling shotgun had other shotguns, too. There weren’t very many shotguns to choose from, but they were all in decent quality. The mostly consisted of combat, hunting, double barrel, and riot shotguns, with a few sawed-offs here and there.

The next area was designated for single shot and semiautomatic rifles. It was about as big as the automatic firearms’ area, but had a much larger variety. AM rifles, hunting rifles, sniper and varmint rifles, and many, many more.

Powder Keg came trotting up and took one of the poorer quality sniper rifles off the rack. Back at the counter, he took the scope off of it, passed a single glance at the rest of the sniper rifle, and threw it in a large bin of weapon parts. ‘Discount! 50% off!’ was painted on the side. In small letters at the bottom, I could read ‘All sales final, prices non-negotiable’. Even from near the back of the store, my new eye was able to pick up the tiny lettering.

We had made it nearly all the way around the store, stopping at the little corner for explosives and MEWs. There were a few rocket launchers attached to battle saddles, a couple gatling lasers, half a dozen or so laser rifles and pistols, a strange looking plasma pistol, and one huge behemoth of a ‘plasma castor’. One of the battle saddles I noticed happened to have twin rocket launchers; it wasn’t in the greatest of conditions and appeared a bit scorched.

My chest burned with the thought that this was probably the same saddle that had nearly killed me just days before.

Grenades and mines were all held in heavily armored transport crates, all neatly organized by their colored bands that indicated their effects. The green and blue ones were my favorite, from the few times I had to use them.

“Almost done,” Powder Keg called out to the two of us.

As we wandered the store, we came across one last place we hadn’t been yet: melee weapons. Most consisted of blunt objects; security batons, sledge hammers, pool cues. A couple Super Sledges sat on a table, too. Of course, there were other weapons. Past the power hooves and displacer shoes were the blades.

One blade in particular caught my attention. It was short, about as long as my leg, and only about a third of a hoof wide. There was no curve to the shiny, silvery-blue saber. Strangely, the tip wasn’t tapered to a point, but rather ended flatly in a sharpened, squared-off edge. A deep emerald, flame-like filigree danced up its length from the small guard, accented by shallow etchings in the metal. The green gemstones that had been pressed into the black cross-guard were filled with the markings of unknown enchantments. The black leather grip showed signs of being mouth-held, and was accented with green threads that seemed to weave in and out of existence.

Picking the weapon up in my magic, I was surprised by many things, the first being that it was incredibly light. Like, almost weightless. The second thing was the dull throb and quiet hum it generated. When I asked Lumens about the sound, she told me she didn’t hear anything. Curious as to how it felt while in motion, I gave it a few swings.

Shwing-shing... Shwing... Shwing-shwing-foof!

“Whoa!” Lumens shouted, jumping aside and brushing the end of her now slightly shorter mane. “Careful with that thing.”

“Heh, oops,” I said.

The zebra mare gave me a clearly disapproving look. It wasn’t like I tried to cut her mane.

The price tag read ‘250 caps. No refunds!’. After the incident with the Toll Gang, I needed a new close quarters weapon. Granted, hooves were quicker and more accurate, but at the very least I still needed a new bladed tool. I asked what the markings on the blade and handle were, but Lumens just shrugged.

After replacing the sword to its scabbard, Powder Keg called out that he had finished his work with my rifle.

“Looks like you found a sword. Not too many ponies know how to use them,” he said as I put the weapon on the countertop. My rifle was also there, a new large scope on the top and two banana shaped magazines beside it.

The grey earth pony took one look at the price tag before starring me dead in the eye.

“I’ll sell it for half price if you promise not to bring it back. I’ve sold that sword more times than I care to count,” he started. “It always manages to find its way back here. Some say it’s cursed, other’s believe it’s trying to get somewhere. I just want to get rid of the Celetia-damned thing once and for all.”

“Uh... sure...” I didn’t believe in curses; there were no such things. It was something I learned from my brother, who challenged practically everything about zebra superstitions just to prove them wrong.

And he was always right.

I hoofed over the caps, put the newly modified rifle in my saddlebag, and buckled the sword’s scabbard across my back. After a quick belt adjustment, it fit quite comfortably. My PipBuck chimed softly, adding a small crimson note to the top left of my vision.

‘Zek’s Combat Execution Sword added.’

There was no pop-up for my rifle; I assumed it was because I had already been in possession of it and it wasn’t new.

I thanked Powder keg, much to his surprise, and left the SNS. I felt a drop of rain land behind my ear and pulled out my cloak. I frowned looking at it; I had yet to repair it.

“Where would I be able to get some cloth and wonderglue?” I asked Lumens. She turned to me with confused, raised brow. “I still need to repair my cloak.”

“I’m pretty sure we can get that stuff at Ditzy’s,” she replied. “You really need to learn to get everything you need in one stop. I swear, you’ve been to Absolutely Everything half a dozen times since you got here.”

“Yeah?” I said back, trotting down the slightly dusty road. “Well, I’ve been comatose for three days. I still need to get my bearings straightened out.” New Appleoosa had been good to me in all ways, except I kept forgetting to repair my cloak or got distracted.

“You’ve been walking around for the past two. If you still haven’t ‘gotten your bearings straightened out’, that’s your loss.” The zebra mare brought up her pace to keep up with me.

“I guess I’m just going to have to deal with it then,” I said with a smile. Everything was just in fun, of course.

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

I thought for a minute. How had I dealt with my amnesia? It wasn’t anything I was really concerned with, though I probably should have been. In the blink of an eye, years of my life had been erased. The memories... just... poof! Gone. I never gotten them back, and whatever I’d done had vanished with them.

I guess I would just have to make do like I had back then and just move on with my life.

“Hey, you alright?” Lumens asked, snapping me back to reality.

“Yeah,” I lied, “I’ll figure it out eventually.”

Usually... it doesn’t bother me.

The Saturday-Night Special wasn’t very far from Absolutely Everything, just down the road a couple blocks, around a corner, and down another short, makeshift road.

As we turned the corner, I noticed while some ponies still gave me strange glances, most just ignored the two striped quadrupeds trotting down the street.

A small grey blur zipped in front of me, which I tripped over and caused me to face plant into the ground.

Yum... dirt.

“Hello, Railright,” I groaned as I picked myself off the dirt-paved road. The sprinkling rain had started turning it into a slick mud.

“Hi,” the little colt replied, his eyes going wide... again. “You aren’t that scary, ya know?”

“Well, thanks. Just watch where you’re running next time.” My neck cracked and popped as I turned it about.

“Yeah, right.” He nodded quickly.

“Railright! Come inside!” a mare with a sunhat called from her train-car-house. “It’s starting to rain!”

“Gotta go!” And in a flash, he was gone.

“That was a little weird,” Lumens said as we continued towards Absolutely Everything.

“We met the first day I was here. His mother doesn’t like me very much.” I had no idea why and really, I didn’t care.

“Who couldn’t like you? You’re nice, considerate, smart, caring, funny...” She paused for a second. “Maybe a little boneheaded at times, but you’re a good pony. Zebra. Person.” She flushed as she corrected herself. “How could anypony not like you?”

“Uh, Lumens?” I pointed a hoof at my horn and then along my side. “I’m a zebra... a blue zebra, with a horn. I’m the only one I’ve ever seen, and I doubt anyone has, too. But that’s alright. Everyone’s different, some more than others. And sometimes, there are those that can’t accept that.”

Lumens gave a small smile of approval as we entered Ditzy’s shop.

The ghoulish pegasus was, as usual, nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t very long before I finally found what I needed: a bottle of Wonderglue and a few strips of cloth. The cloth was actually heavy leather; I couldn’t find any lightweight cloth.

Back at the counter, there was still no Ditzy, so I rung the bell with my magic. And cue in three-two-one...

Crash! Thud.

The grey pegasus poked her head from the back room, a mess of wires hanging from what was left of her dirty blonde mane.

‘You’re still here? I thought you would have left down by now,’ she wrote on a noteblock.

“I probably would have. But as it turns out, I need to repair my cloak. Forgot to get the supplies when I was last here.” I scratched the back of my mane awkwardly. It was rather difficult with the leg braces.

‘Ha ha. That’s okay. Your total comes to 17 caps. Will there be anything else?’

“Do you have a workbench I can use?”

Ditzy nodded happily and pointed a hoof to the back wall, where a workbench and even a reloading station sat.

“Thanks,” I said, hoofing over the caps and taking my items.

“How do you plan on fixing that thing with leather and glue?” Lumens asked as I pulled out my more-than-not torn cloak and set it on the hard wooden surface of the bench.

“Magic,” I whispered with a smile. Zebra magic, of course.

A pair of heavy shears, manipulated by my teal aura, quickly snipped the leather strips to size. It was more difficult than I last remembered. ‘Probably just the injury to my horn,’ I thought to myself.

“Really? Magic?” she snickered. She practically scoffed at the idea, as if it couldn’t be.

I just nodded and applied glue to the leather strips.

“And what kind of magic can repair something like this?” She waved a hoof to the destroyed cloak. “A repair talisman might be able to, but your cloak clearly doesn’t have one of those.”

“Arcane zebra magic.”

“Wonderglue is not ‘arcane zebra magic’. Or any kind of magic at all. It’s... glue!” Lumens said in disbelief.

Ignoring her protests, I slipped the tattered cloak over my head and examined the tears, cuts, and holes. The area over my back was torn so badly that each side hung off and touched the ground. Using my magic, I pulled the edges together. I then grabbed one of the longer strips of gluey leather and pressed it against the seam. I fixed the rest of the holes in a similar manner, being careful not to glue it to my hide. I’d only glued myself to something once. On accident.

When the repairs were finished, I had my cloak again. Only this time it had a very shoddy patch job.

“See? All better,” I said with a smile. Lumens facehoofed with a groan of frustration.

I gave the silver clasp a light nip, listening carefully for the enchantment to start working. It gave a soft click and started to make a sizzling sound like a drop of water hitting a hot pan. The heavy strips of leather along my back and sides sunk into the cloak’s shorty, furry fabric, leaving no trace of it every being ripped and torn.

“Wait. How? Did you just? What?” she stammered. I found her reaction predictable, but still funny. My brother took very good care of the old cloak when he owned it, so almost no one ever saw it being repaired.

“Arcane. Zebra. Magic.” I paused between each word to let them sink in. “I don’t know how, but I think it has something to do with the runes in the clasp and the markings on the cloak. And as you just saw, it can easily be repaired with glue and cloth. It also never gets dirty; the dirt just brushes off.”

“That’s interesting,” the zebra said as she dug in her small saddlebag and took out a notebook and pencil. At first they had no apparent face value, but when she opened it, I noticed the pages were packed with drawings, annotations, and notes. Hundreds... no, probably thousands, of notes. They all appeared to pertain to glyphs and runes, both of pony and zebra origins. Most of it was clearly legible, though there were symbols and markings that I couldn’t make out. They were too clean to be accidental, but I had no idea what they meant.

She dropped the book on the workbench and used her mouth to scribble something on one of the blank pages.

“Would you mind if I studied it a little? I think the magic could be useful in easy-repair limb prosthetics,” she said, dropping the notebook back into her saddle bag.

“I, uh...” I hesitated. I never separated from my cloak; it was one of only four things I never went anywhere without, and three of those things I were all I had left of my past. If anything were to happen to them, I’d... I didn’t know what I’d do, but it wouldn’t be good. Then I remembered who I was talking to; she’d never let anything happen. “Sure.”

“Don’t worry, Xero,” Lumens said. She delicately folded the cloak up and gently put it in her bag, too. “I know it means a lot to you. I’ll be careful with it.”

I nodded and turned to leave Absolutely Everything. Outside, the sky was getting darker with impending storm clouds, which occasionally lit up brightly with flashes of lightning.

A second later, there was a long, low rumbling. Then it started to rain.

“Looks like we’re going to get wet.”

“Aw, it’s not that bad; it could be worse.”

As if on cue, there was a thunderous crash and it downpoured.

“You just had to that, didn’t you?” I said with a shake of my head.

Ditzy quickly flew around the inside of the shop, placing empty buckets under the few small roof leaks.

We decided to suck it up and sprint to Lumens’ house. However, on the way there, Lumens slipped on the slick mud. In a panic, she grabbed at the nearest thing: me.

We slide and went down in a tangle of muddy legs and saddle bags.

“Eugh... blech...” I groaned, spitting out a mouthful of the brown mud. There was this cutest damned giggle behind me, and I knew exactly who it was. “Oh, think this is funny?” I smiled, showing off my dirty teeth.

“Come on, you gotta admit,” she started. “It was kinda fu-”

She didn’t get a chance to finish as I half-slapped half-swatted the surface of the giant puddle beneath us, showering her pristine white coat with the brown muck.

“Ugh!” Spit. “My mouth-” Spit. “Was open-” Spit. “And everything!” Spit.

Now I was the one laughing, but only for a moment. Something very wet and very messy landed on my head with an audible splat! I felt the cold sludge slowly roll down around my ears and horn, between my eyes, and off my muzzle and neck.

“There! How do you like them apples?” Lumens said, flicking the residual mud off her hooves.

“Return fire!” I yelled. I jumped as high as I could, lifting myself slightly higher in a teal aura before landing in the deeper part of the puddle. The miniature tidal wave completely covered both myself and my enemy in a good coating of foalish mud.

“Ah! Really?!” Lumens shook the mud off to no avail. She gave up her futile attempt to stay somewhat clean and charged, tackling and successfully pinning me to the ground.

===

Something stirred next to me, bringing the world around back from a cloudy haze. We were in Lumens’ house, laying on the couch, a nice, warm blanket wrapped around the two of us.

We had horsed around in the muddy streets, for no other reason than “because we could”. After Lumens threw her second hoof full of mud, a few kids joined in. It was colts versus fillies, with the advantage of numbers belonging to us. Railright was the first one to get completely covered, head to hoof, in mud. His fun didn’t last very long, unfortunately; his mother had a few words to say.

Even with the numbers tied, the girls still beat us. What baffled me most was the little dark red-coated filly on Lumens’ team. The little shield spell she was constantly using not only kept her clean from the constant barrage of mud balls, but actually kept her dry. Everything the earth pony colt on my team and I threw at her simply went splat against the shield like it was a wall and ran off as the rain washed around it. She would then use her telekinesis to form small globs of fodder and launch them at us while still keeping the shield up.

Cheater...

Eventually, the two younger ponies left. Lumens and I stayed out in the heavy rain for a few minutes longer to wash the mud off before heading indoors, too. From there, one thing just sort of lead to another... and... yeah, life was good.

I was laying on my back in the corner of the couch where the arm and backrest met. Lumens had cuddled up beside me and fallen asleep after our little... endeavour. To be honest, being as a it was my first, it was awkward. But after awhile, the two of us had a good rhythm. How she felt about it, I didn’t know. Though, from the faint hints of a smile on her muzzle, I was pretty sure I could guess.

Lumens subtle breathing was peaceful and feeling her warm breath gently roll across my chest. Not wanting to move, in fear of waking the sleeping mare, I simply dropped my head back. The ceiling was nothing of note, not even the bullet hole surrounded by a green stain.

“You awake?” my partner tiredly asked.

“I guess you could say that,” I replied, nuzzling her neck and blowing a zerbert.

“Ah!” she squealed with a laugh, trying to push me away. “Stop that!”

“When you stop laughing and smiling and being so damned cute,” I said.

“Like that will ever happen.” She pulled herself up a little closer to my level and snuggled herself against my side.

There was a peaceful silence before either of us spoke.

Actually, neither of us spoke; my stomach growled.

“I think almost dinner time.” I looked down toward my belly, mentally telling it to shut up because it was ruining the moment.

“Aww, I don’t want you to get up...” Lumens whined. Her voice was muffled by my chest fur that she had buried her face in. “You’re nice and warm...”

Despite her protests, I got up anyway and left her to flop on the couch.

“You know what sounds good?” she asked. “Vegetable stew.”

“That does sound good,” I agreed; it’d been awhile since I’d had a decent meal.

I strapped on my leg braces again while Lumens prepared the stew.

“If you’d like, there’s books on the shelf you can read.” She said as she pulled a pan out from under one of the cupboards. “Or maybe there’s something you can do about that paperweight on the desk...”

Looking to the desk near the ‘kitchen’ area, all I could see was the terminal.

“I could get that terminal working,” I said.

“If you manage to get it working, I could spare a few caps for you.” She took a knife and began cutting some fresh looking vegetables from the refrigerator.

“Nah, that won’t be necessary.” I pressed the orange power button on the terminal. The startup sequence played, but stopped halfway through. The screen became pixellated and broken up, shuttering about before finally stopping on a screen asking me to contact administration.

With a quiet groan of frustration, I levitated my saddlebags to the side of the desk, wrapped my magic around the terminal, turned it around, took a torx driver from one of the bags’ pockets, and started taking the back off.

The inside, despite being powered with magic gems, perpetually-recharging spark batteries, and talismans, was very conventional: non-magic electronics and computer chips. After some cutting, stripping, and splicing of wires, shattering one of the talismans, and repeatedly shocking myself, I finally got the terminal working again. It was a lot easier than I last remember; my new eye made it easier to see the fine wires clearer and quicker. My eyesight wasn’t terrible before, but it definitely wasn’t as good as it should have been.

“Stew’s just about ready,” Lumens said after putting a mixing spoon on the countertop.

I nodded and turned the terminal another 180 degrees so the screen was facing me. I pressed turned it on again, resulting in a soft, static-y crackle and the screen buzzed to life.

“I think I got the terminal working.” I couldn’t believe it. It worked!

“Really?” she asked in disbelief, too.

>TERMINAL HARDWARE MISSING OR DAMAGED
>CONTACT ADMINISTRATOR FOR REPAIR INSTRUCTIONS OR CONTACT A TERMINAL REPAIR SERVICE DIRECTLY

>FILE CORRUPTED
>FILE COMPRESSED: DECOMPRESSION IN PROGRESS, PASSWORD NEEDED
>FILE CORRUPTED
>FILE FRAGMENTED: SUGGEST DEFRAG
>FILE CORRUPTED
>AUDIO FILE
>OCEAN MIST’S DIARY: DAY 203
>OCEAN MIST’S DIARY: DAY 193
>AUDIO FILE
>OCEAN MIST’S DIARY: DAY 159
>FILE CORRUPTED
>MULTIPLE FILES DELETED
>OCEAN MIST & FIRESTORM: DAY 1

“Why are so many files corrupted?” Lumens asked as she motioned a hoof at the screen.

“Not sure. Might have something to do with rewiring the inside, I may have shorted out those disk drives.” I brought up my PipBuck and pressed some buttons. Within a couple seconds, I had downloaded the few readable files.

“Any idea why the second one is compressed?” she asked.

“Nope.” I clicked down to it and tried to open the audio file.

>PASSWORD REQUIRED
>PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD
>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>ATTEMPTS REMAINING: 1

“Wow,” I said, not so much surprised as I was annoyed that there was only one attempt before the terminal locked us out. We stared at the terminal for at least a minute, maybe two, trying to figure out what the password could be.

“I’ve got nothing,” I said in frustration, throwing my hooves into the air.

“Try... ‘marefriends’...” The zebra mare seem unsure, but confident.

“Are you sure? This is the last attempt before the terminal locks us out, and I won’t be able to to get back into it.”

“Yes. Besides, you already downloaded the files that can be read, so there’s not much more we can do with it.”

“Alright, then.” I typed the word with my magic.

>M A R E F R I E N D S

I tapped the ‘Enter’ key with the tip of my hoof. I may have been spoiled with my magic, but I didn’t use it for everything.

>PROCESSING...
>PASSWORD ACCEPTED
>VIEW FILE?

“How did you know?” I asked. That was luck. There was no other way to explain it.

She grabbed the top drawer left of the terminal and pulled it open.

“Just a lucky guess.” she answered, smiling proudly.

I looked into the drawer. Other than the usual refuse found in a old drawers: a few caps, a pencil, a coffee cup, ... the words ‘OM&FS MAREFRIENDS FOREVER’ were carved into the wooden bottom. The word MAREFRIENDS was circled with a line coming out and pointing to another word: PASSWORD.

Huh... interesting.

“Should we view the file now, or wait until after supper?” I asked.

“Supper?”

“Supper... Dinner... same difference.”

“Let’s wait. The stew’s ready, and I’m hungry...”

===

After finishing our stew, which was absolutely delicious, Lumens and I started to go through the files I’d managed to recover. Chronological order seemed like the best approach.

“Ready?” I asked Lumens, who was sitting on a floor cushion of her own beside me.

“Probably as ready as you are,” she replied.

I went to the oldest file and pressed Enter.

>OCEAN MIST & FIRESTORM: DAY 1

>I can’t believe it. We got out... without anypony knowing. They probably know by now, though, since neither of us reported to our stations this morning. Call me reckless, call me selfish, call me whatever you want, but Storm and I have finally made it out of that damned place. I wasn’t accepted, shunned and hated simply because I don’t have a horn. I was picked on all throughout school and even after. Looked down upon... Our love was a crime against nature. Why shouldn’t we have left? Even our parents were disappointed in us. Dad hasn’t spoken to me in almost a year and Firestorm’s mother tried to kick her out of her own living quarters.

>“You want to love a filthy dirt scrubber? Then go live with them!”

>Those were her words. That didn’t sit too well with the overmare, of course, even though she didn’t approve of our relationship either.

>But we’re out now. The world is not what we expected. Firestorm expected it to be lush, green, and full of life. I expected it to be a great big nothingness, just an unending void where we could be together, without anypony to judge us. We were both completely right and neither of us could have been more wrong. The world is an unending painting of... dead. A... wasteland, almost void of life. Yet, where what little life remains and takes hold, it flourishes. We just got this... house... earlier this morning. It’s a strange thing, apparently made out of something called train cars! The ground floor is very basic, with only a small food prep area and a lounge. Storm has plans to put a workbench along one of the walls, since she knows how much I like to tinker with things. Upstairs, there’s a bedroom for two (squee! yay!) and an outdoor area. I think it’s called a ‘deck’ or ‘patio’. She also has plans for that, perhaps a library or a study for my need of literature.

>The mayor, what was her name again? Mayor May? I believe that was her name. Mayor May said we could use this place if we each got jobs. It was a generous offer. Storm and I work, we get a free place to live. I was a bit hesitant about her off. I still am. Firestorm just told me not to worry about it. I just think the deal was too good to be true, which means it probably is. But alas, I trust her. She’s may not be the smartest pony in Equestria, but she has great intuition and she’s never done me wrong.

>I start my work at the local watering hole, keeping the water purifier running, after a few days’ rest; I injured my leg and shoulder during our escape. Firestorm starts her job in Security the day after tomorrow. It’s funny. We both come from Stable 59, me working in ‘the dirt slums’, aka maintenance, and Storm working in Stable Security. We come to the ‘outside’ with the choice to do whatever we please, and we go back to the jobs we had before we left.

>It’s getting late, so I think I’ll call it a night. Besides, Stormy keeps saying she has something ‘special’ to show me...

>END OF FILE
>AWAITING COMMAND

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Lumens said.

I just smiled an agreement before going to the next one.

>OCEAN MIST’S DIARY: DAY 159

>I just don’t see why?! Why would somepony do that? HOW could somepony... No. Not somepony... something. Anything! Do... THAT!

>Apparently, there’s some hotshot gang that’s been trying to unite the towns in the East. That sounds good and all, but those who refuse get killed! Helpless, innocent ponies just... slaughtered. Those that do join are forced into their army or slavery. Or worse! Not even zebras deserve that. Firestorm is absolutely furious and wants to charge in with a dozen others and just kill them. Such a brash decision. I’ll have to talk to her about it later. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow...

>I hope she doesn’t do anything foalish. Again.

>END OF FILE
>AWAITING COMMAND

“Hm, that sounds familiar,” Lumens said after read the entry.

“No kidding.” I had a feeling I knew who it was. Well, not who, but what gang they were talking about.

The next file was an audio file. There was a static-laced crackle and a mare’s voice flowed out of the terminal’s hidden speakers. Her voice was sweet and friendly, and had this pleasant ring to it.

“Check? Okay, the little light is on, so I’m going to guess it’s working. I hate using this microphone. I burned my hoof today at work, and my other one is still sore from that mysterious cut. It got infected do to my own stupidity, and I had to go the clinic for some antibiotics. The doctor that fixed it up only charged twenty-five caps, which was very generous of him. Anyways, I’ve been talking to-”

“Hey! Misty! Are you on that damned computer thingy again?” a different mare’s voice interrupted. Her’s was a bit rougher and less formal sounding. She sounded quite distant, too, like she was in another room.

There was a sigh from the mare on the terminal, who I assumed could only be Ocean Mist.

“-Firestorm,” she finished.

“Hey! I can hear you, ya know?”

“Yes, Storm, I’m on the terminal. I’m just doing a short entry.”

“Well, hurry up and make it quick. You HAVE to come see this! It’s AMAZING!” Firestorm shouted excitedly.

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Ocean Mist called back. “Where was I? Oh, right. I’ve been talking to Storm lately about the gang that’s been harassing towns in the East. She still thinks we can take them. But even though she’s more than just my friend, I keep telling her it’s a bad idea. We can’t just... ‘go in and clear them out,’ as she puts it. Not without getting somepony killed, and it’ll probably be one of us. I couldn’t bear losing her. I hope I can talk some sense into her soon, though. Otherwise...” She let out a long sigh. “...I don’t know. End of entry, day... one-hundred-seventy-two.”

The recording ended with a click and backed out to the file listings.

“Huh...” Lumens said, looking around the single, ground floor room.

“Something wrong?” I asked, also looking around.

“No, it’s just that this use to be their home,” she said. “It feels strange.”

“Do you want to continue?”

“Yes.”

>OCEAN MIST’S DIARY: DAY 193

>Celestia damn it. That’s not a very good way to start off an entry, but that’s the only way to describe this. Where do I start? Firestorm and I have- No. A couple weeks ago? Yeah, that’s a little better.

>A couple weeks ago Storm seemed like she was ready to snap and run off on her own. I managed to do nothing but delay what happened today. Starting tomorrow and during the next couple weeks, she and I will begin our training regiment. Yes, we will be leaving to take care of that gang in the east, which has grown considerably. I made a deal with her. She knows I can’t go back on a deal. I never have and never will; it’s just who I am. She was going to leave when I told her that “I’ll go with you if, and ONLY IF, there’s another attack this week. Until then, I beg you, please, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE!” I don’t remember what else I said, but I do remember crying like a little foal. She means so much to me. I don’t know what I’d do without her.

>So, yeah. Tomorrow I’m quitting my job at The Diner and Firestorm will be training me how to fight. She says she’s just going to teach me the basics of firearms: shooting, reloading, cleaning and maintenance. She’s been in the Security scene almost all her life, so she definitely knows what she’s doing.

>Why am I doing this... why are WE doing this? It seems so asinine! Storm thinks we can handle it, though. There are a couple others coming with us. If we need more, she says we can just pick some up along the way. She said it like it was as easy as flipping a switch, which I guess is easier for a unicorn than an earth pony.

>I think it’s going to be dangerous. No, I KNOW it’s going to be dangerous and she does, too. She said I could stay here, where it was safe. I could, if I wanted to. I can’t, though. She’s my entire life! As I filly, I didn’t fit in anywhere. I thought of things that no filly should think about doing to herself. I was at an end. Then, out of nowhere, Storm showed up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: she just means so much to me. And out here, in this ‘wasteland’ as everypony calls it, she needs me. More than that, I need her.

>More than she knows, I think.

>END OF FILE
>AWAITING COMMAND

“They really loved each other, didn’t they?” Lumens seemed to ask nopony in particular. But since I was the only other one in the room, I responded.

“Yeah. Do you think they’re the same two that Ditzy mentioned? The ones that mysteriously disappeared?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” she said, looking around the room again. “It’s kinda sad, though.”

“Let’s finish the files before we both break into tears,” I said. It was a little sad; they were most likely dead now. “There’s only a few left.”

>OCEAN MIST’S DIARY: DAY 208
>SUBTEXT: LAST ENTRY

>Today’s the day. We spent almost two weeks training and these last two days resting and gathering supplies. I suspect this will probably be my last entry for a while, if not... ever. Firestorm says we’ll be back soon enough, maybe a few weeks at most. I hope she’s right.

>Our ‘party’, as she likes to keep calling it, currently consists of us two, obviously, a local pegasus, and strangely enough, a griffon. Storm had told me yester she had made a contract with the her, whatever that was suppose to mean. I told her that we would need more than just the four of us, but she keeps insisting that we can just grab some along the way.

>I’m scared. Absolutely terrified. There. I said it. I don’t want to go. I think it’s a death sentence. I don’t know how I’m managing to fool Storm by pretending to be strong. I’m scared of what we might fight against, scared that I’ll get hurt, scared of dying. Scared of HER dying...

>There’s nothing that can be done now. The four of us are leaving in a couple hours. I better finishing packing, not that I have much to pack anyways...

>END OF FILE
>AWAITING COMMAND

There was nothing to be said after that entry, so I pressed Enter again on the next file.

“Hey.”

It definitely was not Ocean Mist this time. The sad mare on the recording sound much more like the interrupting mare in the previous ones.

“It’s me, Firestorm. Although, you probably figured that out already; you’re such a smart pony...

“I know you don’t like other ponies going through your personal stuff, but I feel like this is the only place I can tell you.” She gave a long pause. So long, that I thought the recording was corrupted.

“I’m sorry...” Another minute and a half of silence.

“I love you, with all my heart. Nopony anywhere... can love another... as much as I love you.” The mare sniffled.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t do anything back in 59 to show them how fucked up they are. I should have made them understand. I should have. I’m sorry I came up with the idea of escaping and that they didn’t deserve us...

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this... stupid... fucking... quest. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” Firestorm said as she broke into a quiet sob.

“You’re truly better than me. You deserve somepony better. You’re the most wonderful, talented, prettiest mare I’ve ever seen. I don’t see what you see in me. I hope I can... eventually. I also hope that I never do, because... what is love? We strive to figure it out and when we do, it’s not what it appears to be. Love is ever changing, and the more we try to figure it out, the more it changes, for better or worse.” The mare cried a little, but it sounded happy. In the background, faint voices were drawing in close, like they were just outside.

“I’m leaving this here for two reasons. One: I want to leave a little something for future ponies. And two: if the worse happens, whatever that may be, I want something you can remember me by...

“Ocean Mist... My caring, loving, Misty... I... love... you...” Firestorm sighed then whispered quietly under her breath, “more than you know...”

The static-y audio ended with a click after some more silence. Lumens looked like she was on the verge of tears. I was feeling a little sick. Remorse? Compunction? Some sort of immense sadness? Maybe it was anxiety.

“Do you want to access the last one?” I asked.

“Uh, sure.” She bit her lip in anticipation. If it was going to be sad, I had a feeling that she would probably cry. I might, too.

>FILE COMPRESSED: DECOMPRESSION IN PROGRESS

>...

>FILE COMPRESSED: DECOMPRESSION IN PROGRESS

>...

>FILE DECOMPRESSION: SUCCESSFUL

>PLAY AUDIO FILE?

I hit Enter for the final time.

“Hey, long time no see. I’m surprised I still know the password.” The pony in question was definitely Ocean Mist, but she sounded so... different. Hardened. Inured, a word I’d heard before but never really used. I knew what had happened. It happens to many wastelanders, weather they be ponies, zebras, griffons, hellhounds and sand dogs.

She had grown accustomed to killing.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this. Just to get some things off my chest, I guess. Wow... I never thought I’d be doing this again.” Ocean mist waited silently, tapping away at the keyboard, with her hooves, no doubt. “I also didn’t think I’d be going to TenPony, Hoofington, and even Caledonia. I never would have thought...” She stopped, leaving us hanging in suspense.

“Six... Six long years, we’ve been fighting. And it’s finally done. Just a week ago, I put an end to the New Zebra Resistance and Alliance. I put an AM round right through Cinder’s head. Point blank. And then I shot her body. Again... and again... and again... and again... Reload. Repeat Again. And again. And again... I really hope she’s dead.”

The mare didn’t sound like she was happy. She almost sounded regretful. Something inside her, something important, something... fundamental, had been smashed. It just seemed... off.

“Hey, Ocean Mist.” Firestorm also sounded different, like she’d taken a broken Sparkle-Cola bottle to the throat and eaten a brillo pad; it was all scratchy. There was little emotion in her voice, like the place she was in was just another blip on her map. Everything about the file sounded wrong. They weren’t the same ponies from before. “I’ve been searching for you. Look, I know you wanted to make a stop here for some reason, but Alpine’s Death Squads are after us. We can’t stay here for more than an hour.”

“Yeah, I know...” Ocean Mist sighed. “I’ll be out in a minute. Why don’t you wait outside? Don’t go too far, though.” She was as calm as ever, but clearly sad about something.

“Uh, sure,” Firestorm paused for a second. “Is something wrong? You seem sad.”

“No, nothing’s wrong. Just tired. So, so tired. Please, wait outside. I’ll be there in a minute. Whatever you hear, please... don’t come in.” Ocean Mist was still just as calm.

“Alright...” Firestorm replied uneasily. “This place gives me the creeps, anyways, like I’ve been here before. But that’s silly, I’ve never been here before.”

I wanted to rewind the audio to make sure I heard that right, but a terminal can only do so much.

“Of course,” Ocean Mist said. There was the sound of heavy metal hoofsteps and the door closing. A second later, Ocean Mist burst into tears.

“I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG! I FUCKING FUCKED UP EVERYTHING! EVERY! FUCKING! THING!” she bawled some more.

“Everything was going great until two years ago. We had all the caps we could ever need, friends and companions who wanted nothing more than to help. W-we.. I... St-Stormy... F-F-FUCK!” The audio was filled with sorrowful crying and a single, loud crash of breaking glass.

It was at least a minute before she spoke again, and the file wasn’t even a third of the way done. No wonder it was compressed.

Ocean Mist sniffled, making a sound like she’d wiped her runny nose with a foreleg.

“Everything was going good. I figured Firestorm would lead our group and she did, for four years. But just over a year ago, there was an accident. And Stormy... she... she doesn’t remember anything. She doesn’t remember starting this quest. She doesn’t remember our friends. She doesn’t remember this place, the Stable. She doesn’t even remember me! US! Together!”

The microphone picked up dull thud and the clatter of a bunch of keys being pressed at once, along with the inevitable error bleep that followed such a thing. There was a muffled scream of frustration that ended in even more crying and sobbing.

Eventually, though, there came a small, weak voice.

“I thought that bringing her back home might jog some memories. But... nothing. She says there are things that seem strangely familiar, like deja-voo, but nothing solid.

“I don’t know why I try anymore. I’m so ungoddessly tired. Tired of running. Tired of the sleepless nights. I’m tired of all the killing. Being alone. I just want it all to end...” She trailed off. There was the click of a revolver hammer being pulled back.

BANG!

Thud.

The gun hit the floor along with something else. Lumens and I both jumped and looked at each other, horrified.

“Did she just...” Lumens asked.

“Fucking ‘roaches,” Ocean Mist said quietly. “After the accident, I assumed leader position. Everypony agreed that I was the best candidate. Everypony, except two: myself and Alpine. After I was put in charge, he left. He was our best engineer. Our only engineer, actually. He hated me and Stormy. Ever since I became our ‘fearless leader’, ponies started dying. Dying... from my mistakes. Slowly, one by one, we started dwindling. Fourteen one day, thirteen the next. A month later, twelve. Then nine... and now four...”

There was a deafening silence that filled the speakers, keeping us on edge.

“Firestorm and I are running from Alpine’s Death Squad. He left us, and joined Cinder and her Alliance. With her, he created one of the strongest Special Ops forces in the wasteland. He finished off the Steel Rangers... he destroyed the last of the Resistance Resistors, a group of ponies that decided to follow our hoofsteps. He killed off all of us. All of us except Blackwater, Berry and Sound Breaker, Stormy, and myself. Berry and and Sound Breaker both flew off a couple days ago. The Enclave are after them, and therefore us, so they got their attention and got them off our tails.” She sighed again.

“I don’t know why I’m telling anypony this. For all I know, there’ll be nopony to read these files in the future. And in a hundred years, why would anypony care?

“So, I’m telling you goodbye. Probably forever. It’s been a hell of trip, Diary. I hope that maybe, just maybe, we meet again someday.”

After some more silence and key tapping, Ocean Mist spoke for a final time.

“I love you, too... Firestorm...”

We just sat there for a few minutes, just thinking about what we had just heard.

“Wow... just- wow,” Lumens said quietly. She turned to me and smile. It was a weak smile but a smile all the same. I could only return with another, equally weak smile.

The clock on the back wall started to ding. 11:00. Lumens looked at it almost instantly

“I’ll go get a couple pillows and blankets.” With that, she got up from her floor cushion and trotted up the stairs.

I stared in awe at the dark terminal. Two mares and probably more than a dozen other ponies tired to do what I was thinking about doing. Only, I was thinking of doing it alone, since I was always by myself. On one hoof, there was no record of Ocean Mist and Firestorm being successful. On the other hoof, there were no proof that they failed.

There was one thing nagging at my mind, screaming to get out. Why did it all seem familiar? I could have sworn that I’d heard of someone named Cinder, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember where.

The name Alpine was terrifying and dreadful in itself. It was a rare name and not one that was easily forgotten. I’d heard of something called Alpine’s Pony and Zebra Allegiance from my time in the Outlands. They were a militant faction that were occasionally mentioned on the radio by New Wave, a popular Outlands DJ. I didn’t listen in on the broadcasts very much, so what I knew about them was limited. I sensed a connection between the NZRA and ‘Azapa’.

Then, there was the letter. The letter with the knife and three rings symbol on it. The letter from Galvano to Flintlock. Flintlock’s letter. It couldn’t have all been a coincidence.

I trotted over to the door, where I had tossed my saddlebags after fixing the terminal, and took out the mysterious paper. It was a little wrinkled and had a mud splatter on it, but still legible.

Dear Ms. Flintlock,

Yadda, yadda, yadda...

Your most faithful client,
Galvano.

Even after rereading it multiple times, I didn’t find anything. I still needed to look for a key, which was supposedly under a piece of wood near one of the entrances. If it was still there, maybe I could get a clue or lead on what I was doing, whatever that may be.

My thoughts were interrupted when Lumens came back with a some pillows and blankets.

“Since it’s getting late, I’m going to go to sleep,” she said with a yawn as she place a pillow and blanket on her end of the L-shaped couch.

“Yeah, I’m thinking that myself.” I fought the urge to yawn. Why was it contagious?

The zebra mare walked over to the the small blue crystal that activated the lights above and gave it a small tap, the overhead lights slowly dimming. She crawled onto the recliner and covered herself with the blanket.

I sat by the door for a moment, lost in my own blank thoughts.

Was I really going to do this? Tomorrow?

“You headed to bed?” Lumens asked, snapping me back to reality.

“Hm? Yeah, sure...” I took my leg braces off, unbuckling them all at once with my magic. My weak knees now just felt stiff. I was at the coffee table when I realized I still had Tweety attached to my foreleg. After taking that off, I hopped onto the couch where I had slept the night before. With my head on the soft pillow and the blanket pulled over me, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

At least, that was the plan. I laid there for a few minutes in the near pitch-blackness. Now that I was ready to sleep though, I felt a second wind. I just laid there, listening to the soft tapping of the rain against the box car. There was a small shifting and I felt Lumens crawl up next to me. I wasn’t the only zebra having trouble sleeping, apparently. She had wiggled herself under my blanket, under my foreleg and stopped with her head on my pillow, being silent the whole time.

“Hey, Xero?” she asked, barely over a whisper.

“Hm?” I responded.

“Are you planning on leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes. I... still have to finish my courier contract.” It was a lie. I’d been paid in advanced. I didn’t want Lumens worrying about what I was really going to do. In reality, I wasn’t planning on doing it by myself. I still needed to confirm if there was an old threat on the rise, and if so, gather enough supplies and bodies to help, and then try to figure out a way to stop them. But first, what I really needed was knowledge of what I was going up against.

“Oh, okay...” I was pretty sure she saw through my lie. I wasn’t very charismatic. Or a good liar.

“I’ll be careful,” I said, trying to comfort her with a soft hug.

“Please do.”

“I will.” I didn’t want her to worry more than she already was, which was a lot, considering she wasn’t asleep yet.

“I want to come with you,” she said a little while later.

“What?” Did I hear that correctly?

“But I have an obligation to fulfill here,” she said.

“Hm,” I murmured, for no real reason.

“Xero?”

“Yes, Lumens?” I was trying to sleep.

“Good night.”

“Good night...”

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Master Administrator - Nerd. If you're locked out of a terminal, with no way to re-hack it, and you don't have the administrator's password, you can physically hack the terminal's hardware. This takes time (1 hour), the proper tools (1 screwdriver, 1 pair of pliers, 1 wire cutter, and 1 soldering iron and solder), and 1 unit of scrap electronics. The solder and scrap electronics are used up during the rewiring. This perk does not work on 'Hard' or 'Very Hard' terminals.

Chapter 5 (pt 1) - Wasteland Friendships

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Chapter 5

Wasteland Friendships

“...And learn to make some friends, Twilight.”

Some zebra shook me awake.

“Xero! Celeriter, expergiscere!” she hissed at me. Looking out my window, I found that it was still dark out.

“Ego nolo...” I moaned, curling up in my blanket. Why was Mom trying to get me out of bed? It was too early.

“Nunc!” she yelled.

I quickly leapt out of my bed. Mom never yelled! Something was wrong, I just knew it. Her pretty amber eyes were red and slightly puffy and she looked really scared.

“Quid iniuriam?” I asked. Why was she scared?

The sound of gunfire echoed out through the village. Automatic weapons? Did a rad-eel make it into town again?

The window lit up a pinkish red color. I knew it was a special type of flare because Star Gazer had used one before.

“Nunc non,” she said quickly, picking my up the scruff of my neck.

“Ow!” I yelped.

“Mammam’s paenitet...” she said, tossing me onto her back.

Star Gazer came out of his room, tiredly rubbing his eye.

“Quid magnum fac?” he yawned. “Quidam similis ad somnum.”

He was soon answered after a burst of gunshots rang out through the dark village again. His eyes widened as he sprinted down the hallway.

“Exspecta!” Mom called out, chasing after him. I held tightly to her neck, so I wouldn’t fall off.

He was in the main room when we caught up to him. Dad’s old revolver was clenched tightly in his mouth, an angry look in his eyes.

Without another word Mom set me down by the closet door and slapped the gun out of his muzzle. I don’t know what she said to him over the banging on the main door.

“Open up or we’ll use force!” someone called from behind it. Her voice was deep and scary.

“Velox! Abscondere in hic!” Mom hissed in a panic. She threw the closet door open, moved the coats and other stuff around, and moved a box aside, creating a little spot for my brother and I.

“Maneas hic, Stella Custos. Custodi fratrem tuum salvum. quicquid audieris, Non egrediuntur. Capis?” she said. Mom... she never used Star Gazer’s real name, either!

She closed the door, and I heard it latch shut.

“Xero,” he said, “Imus ad ludum ludere.”

A game? Yay! Fun!

“Quid venatus?” I asked.

“Abscondere et quaerere,” he said, looking about. “Si tibi vincere, ego voluntas do vos omnes mea candy.”

Candy? If there was candy involved I would definitely win! I nodded my agreement.

The front door blew open, sending a shower of wooden splinters across the room.

“Where the fuck are they!?” the angry scary voice yelled.

“There is no pony at here,” Mom replied, crying. “What are you want?” She may not have spoke Equestrian the greatest, but she knew enough to get the point across.

“You know exactly why we’re here, you stupid stripe!” Through the slats in the door, I could see what looked like a bird with the backside of a lion. She stood on her hind legs and swung the back end of her rifle at Mom, sending her to the ground.

“Mam-” I was cut off by my brother wrapping his forelegs around my eyes and mouth, making my muffled cries silent.

“Vos postulo ut taceret!” Star Gazer begged into my ear.

“Get up!” The... thing yelled. “Get up now, or I’ll bash your fucking skull in!”

“You want caps?” asked Mom. I couldn’t see what was going on, but I could hear just fine. “Food? Guns? I have them! Take anything you want!”

“Eh, I know what I want...” a stallion called out with a laugh. He was really close to our hiding spot. “She’s not half bad looking, even for a stripe.”

“You’re one sick bastard, you know that, Candlestick?” the thing said. “See if you can... ‘persuade’ her to speak. I know they’re here somewhere..”

The stallion snickered again as the thing left, one of the four ponies leaving with her

“Turtle Race, guard the door with Flak Jacket,” He commanded. “I’m gonna teach this striped bitch lesson.”

“No... please, no!” Mom cried. “I can give to you anything!”

I couldn’t tell what happened next, because Star Gazer had told me to cover my eyes. I did, and he covered my ears. He didn’t do that good of a job, though. I could still sort of hear what was going on.

I don’t know what they were doing to her, but Mom cried out for them to stop. She yelled for help, but no one came. They... they were hurting her! I couldn’t let them do that! Dad asked me to keep Mommy safe while he was gone... and... he- he never came back! I needed to help Mom!

I struggled against my brother’s legs.

“Xero!” he whispered, “Prohibere quod!”

I licked his leg. Normally, he hated that and would instantly let go, but not today. So instead, I bit down as hard as I could, earning a yelp from him and my freedom.

“Vos esse delicatus ad eam!” I screamed at them as I charged out of the closet.

“Where the fuck did you come from?!” a green unicorn yelled in surprise. He was the one doing... things... to Mom. A dirty yellow magic surrounded his horn and the small pistol held against Mom’s head.

“Xero!” She cried out, looking at me with horrified, amber eyes.

BANG!

Time seemed to slow down as I stopped dead in my tracks. He... he shot... Mom... There was nothing I could do as her blood sprayed out the front of her head and onto me. I was covered head to hoof in a red mess.

Hollowed gunfire broke out around me as I just stared at her slowly falling body.

“Mammam...”

Star Gazer shoved me to ground, picking Dad’s revolver up and finishing off the three with successful headshots.

He used the speed loader and put six more rounds in before stepping up to the door, taking guard in it.

I sprang into action and grabbed a medical kit off the wall. My foreleg burned with each step, a trail of red following it. I didn’t know why I was hurting so bad; Mom was the one who was hurt!

I opened it up and didn’t so much as search through it as much as just dump everything out and kick away what I didn’t need. and pulled out a healing potion.

“Mammam...” I said, breaking off the top of the purple bottle and bringing it to her mouth. In the background, Star Gazer fired Dad’s gun. “Biberet.”

She was bleeding out a hole in the back of her head and the front. I needed to stop the bleeding. I quickly found what I was looking for and applied it to the two bleeding spots.

“Stella!” I cried out. Literally, tears and everything. I watched as the band-aids did nothing. “Sanguinem non prohibere!”

I hugged her neck tightly, begging for her to wake up. The puddle of red spread out from under us, mixing with my own that was running down from my shoulder.

“Placere...” I pleaded. Everything was so cold, and I felt so tired. “Stella...”

“Xero!” Star Gazer cried out. He turned away from the door for just a second.

That was all the pony hiding around the corner needed to send my brother flying across the living room with a powerful buck. Everything started to fade out as the pony entered the room. She was an earth pony with a very blue hide and a white mane. She had on a suit of strong combat barding.

It was black.

On the shoulder, there was a knife with three rings.

===

Pewtpewtpewtpewtpewtpewtclickclickclickclick! click! click. click. click... click...

Tweety’s hammer fell on spent chambers, it’s enchanted barrel glowing red-orange from the incredible heat it generated. Slowly, the fine finished walls turned to heavy wooden boards and the hard polished floor planks weathered and warped. A pale light ate away the darkness, turning the grimy male unicorn into a figure more familiar.

The zebra mare looked at me with wide, terrified eyes. A small hole at the top of her right ear made itself known, along with the graze on her left cheek, by dripping a small amount of blood onto the floor.

The lower half of her braided mane was no more, having been cleanly dissected from the rest by one of the magnum rounds. A clatter from Tweety echoed out as the blazing magic around it collapsed.

“Shitshitshitshitshit!” I cried out, dashing over to my saddlebags to recover a healing potion.

When I pressed the purple potion to her lips, she finally broke out of her dazed trance, gingerly drinking the small vial.

“Oh, fuck... I’m so sorry,” I said, tossing Tweety onto my saddlebag. “I- I- I don’t know what happened!”

Shit! I just about killed her!

“It... it’s fine,” Lumens said, rubbing her cheek as the magic liquid stitched the flesh back together. The hole in her ear also closed up, but left a very crude scar in it’s place.

“I-”

“You were having a night terror,” she interrupted. “A horrible one, at that.”

She scooped up the foot-or-so-long clump of braided mane that had been shot off.

“I... I’m so, so sorry,” Please don’t be mad?

“Hey. No harm, no foul, right?” she said with a feigned smile and a half-hearted laugh, tossing the braid in a trashcan.

I shook my head. The remnants of the nightmare stuck like fly-paper. My hide was drenched with an ice cold sweat, making everything I touched very uncomfortable.

“Do... do you want to talk about it?” Lumens asked. She had a small towelette in her hoof and was now wiping some of the blood off the side of her face. It stained her paper-white hide a slight pinkish color.

“No.” Not that. I just wanted to forget that ever happened. It was my fault she had died and nothing could change that.

“Are you-”

“No. I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, a little more angrily than I wanted. I crawled back onto the couch, facing away from her and fighting to hold the tears back. With a sigh, she hopped onto the far end, reclining back on the chair, and falling asleep.

If there was one thing, one single thing, I wanted to completely forget, it was that night. I didn’t care how it happened, whether it be more head trauma or the use of powerful mind spells, I just wanted that single memory gone. It would come back in bits and pieces here and there, but never in such vividness. Even as I laid on the couch, an hour later, I could still feel the stickiness of the blood on my face and hooves and smell the acrid cordite in the air. Even the phantom pain in my shoulder flared up again, urging me to take an unneeded Med-X. I felt... unclean, to say the least.

As luck would have it, sleep was on my side, and two hours after I nearly blew Lumens’ head off, I drifted away.

===

When I woke back up, I found myself on the floor; I’d rolled off the couch at some point. After a quick investigation, everything was where, and how, it should have been. A drink from my canteen started off my morning routine of teeth brushing, using the sink in the kitchen to do so.

It struck me as odd that a train car had both a working bathroom and kitchen, along with appliances. The thought didn’t last long as I noticed that something was missing.

Or rather, somezebra.

“Lumens?” I called out, hoping she didn’t ditch me after my little incident.

Nothing.

“She must be out and about somewhere,” I said to myself. Whenever I was alone, I talked to myself. I did it often enough that it usually never occurred to me that I was, in fact, all by my lonesome.

The canteen when back into one of the many saddlebag pockets. Lumens still had my cloak, so I just slipped my bags over my back, strapped Tweety to my left foreleg, and swung my new sword across my back.

‘Went walking around. Be back shortly. -Xero’, I wrote on a piece of wrinkled paper.

The note went on the coffee table, and I left the train car, searching for answers.

New Appleoosa and the rest of the wasteland still looked as they always had. The town had scores of ponies going about their daily business, the wasteland sky had it’s dingy, grimy-grey overcast, and the ground was dull and brown, like it always had been.

As I stepped through the doorway, I paused for a moment, letting my eyes adjust to the light. A small mechanical whir buzzed in my head as the iris of the glyph-eye turned and focused. I thought about putting my leg braces on, but I left them by the door, taking note that I wasn’t falling on my face. My knees were still sore, but that would come to pass.

“Ya leavin’?” one of the guards asked as I arrived at the city entrance. It was Potshot, the one who almost shot me the first night I was here.

“No, just checking on something,” I informed him, looking out to the wilds.

“Oh? Well... alright. Be careful,” he mentioned, going back to his post. He seemed hesitant to let me wander along the wall.

I trotted around the area on outside the entrance. There was only one ‘large rock’, as the note said. Nearby, I found a large log, about eight feet long and almost up to my stomach. Nothing around it seemed like something I was looking for.

I was going to have to lift it, or at the very least, roll it aside.

Wrapping a teal aura around the heavy log, I willed it to move. That was all it took to using telekinesis: simply wanting something to move badly enough. The more you thought, the more said object moved.

Usually.

“Come on... Move!” I demanded, gritting my teeth. A pressed shoulder helped the log slowly shift out of the shallow divot it had sunk in.

Underneath was a small metal lock box, no bigger than my hoof, with rust patches forming along the faces and seams. A little shake next to my ear revealed it to contain something tiny and metal. My magic strained against the latch as I tried to force it open. Stomping didn’t work either.

I set the box down on the log and brought out my screwdriver and a single bobby pin. The bobby pin wiggled its way around the keyhole, searching for the ‘sweet spot’ that would release the internal tumblers. As I nudged the bobby pin around the lock, I slowly turned the screwdriver. Whenever I felt resistance, on the pin or diver, I would quickly turn them back and try again elsewhere.

Two minutes later, I finally hacked the lock. It’s treasure: the key to Room 17 in the Turnpike Tavern. It was simple, just a key on a ring with a blue tag.

I put everything, minus the lock-box, in my saddlebag. The bobby pin was damaged beyond another use, so it too was left.

Turnpike Tavern was just as it had been the first time I’d been there. A few ponies were drinking their sorrows and frustrations away at the bar. Some more were sitting at the tables that were scattered about the floor, doing who knew what. There were even a trio of ponies, one of each race, at the pool table near the back.

None paid any attention to the figure that had just trotted in. Back at the bar, the earth pony from my first visit stood, idly flicking through a magazine.

“Ahem,” I cleared my throat quietly after a minute.

The light tan mare jumped. “Welcome to the Turnpike! How can I-” She stopped when she looked at me, her eyes growing wide.

“Hello,” I said with a smile.

Butterscotch leaned in close. “What are you doing here? I thought you were crippled or died or something,” she whispered.

“I was. I’m better now.” I took out the key to room 17 and slowly rotated it in my magic. “I found this...”

“Oh!” she exclaimed in slight surprise. “That room’s been paid for in advance. About a month ago, somepony came here and rented it out for the entire month.”

“Really?” Interesting...

“Yeah. In a few days, I was going to have Shots bust the door down and change the locks.”

“Do you remember what this pony looked like?”

“I recall that he was a greyish ghoul... a unicorn...” She thought a moment. “He was rich, definitely rich. Our thirty day special is one thousand caps, which he paid for up-front, in full.”

I made a mental note of the newfound information, my Pipbuck giving off a soft chime. “Anything else you can tell me about this ghoul? A name or anything?”

“Uh, let’s see... He did have an odd coat.”

“An odd coat...” I repeated.

“Yeah, the coat he had on was a heavy, brown, winter coat, with a fuzzy white liner.” The mare ducked behind bar, and began to rummage around underneath.

“What’s so strange about that?” I asked, looking over to where she had disappeared.

“The coat itself wasn’t what was strange, it was the symbol embroidered on the back.” The bartender jumped back up with a piece of paper and a pencil in her mouth.

Using that strange earth-pony talent of mouth-writing, she scribbled on the sheet. By time she had finished drawing the three rings and the blade, I knew what she was drawing. The NZRA insignia.

“Done,” she said, spitting out the pencil.

“Hm.” I picked up the drawing. For being done by mouth, it was actually really good.

Somepony from the NZRA had been here and rented out a room for an entire month for a dead hitmare. Since I had found the key, and it hadn’t been used by Flintlock yet, it was safe to say that she hadn’t made it to New Appleoosa. Whatever ‘Galvano’ had left for her was probably still in there, if he had actually left anything at all. I needed a few more clues about where to go next, though.

“Do you know where he went, by any chance?”

“Sorry... No, I don’t,” Butterscotch said with a shake of her head.

Crap. “Well, thanks for your help.”

“Wait,” she said as I was headed up the stairs to Flintlock’s room. “He had a strange accent, too. Sounded like he came from far out east, past the mountains.”

“Thanks,” I said again. That was a little better. The wasteland was a big place, and now it was shrunk down to a specific area. I sighed as I trotted up the stairs, realizing that where I would have to go was a huge place. Calling it a small corner of the wasteland was an understatement; it probably made up a whole corner. Luck must have been with me, as I would have gone there anyway.

With the key wrapped in my magic, I unlocked the door to Room 17. Slowly, I pressed the lever-style door handle with a black hoof. As soon as it was unlatched, I brought out tweety, unsure of what might await me inside. The door squeakily swung open and-

Nothing. The room was completely empty, other than what was in my room. The bed, table, dresser, desk, and everything were all in the same place. The only thing different was what was on the bed.

There, sitting on the gaudy floral-print comforter, was a small cloth sack tied shut with a rope. Next to it was an audio tape with a note on it saying ‘Play me’.

“Do I play the recording, or check the bag first?” I thought to myself aloud. I wrapped my magic around the bag, but let it go without picking it off the bed. “Let’s see what’s on the recording.”

“Miss Flintlock,” the recording began. The voice was that of a ghoulish male: deep and gravelly. “Thank you for your cooperation. As I’m sure you already know, we are very pleased with your work, as we have been time and time again. However, the seasons change, and Alpine is no longer in need of of you. Goodbye, Miss Flintlock.”

The scratchy recording ended with a clicking once, then, strangely, again.

The bag started to hum.

And then beep quickly.

“AH!” I yelled.

By the fifth beep, I had the bag in my magic and flying out the window. Through the window, actually.

A second later, it exploded. Bits of shredded shutters and shards of glass blasted into the room in a flurry of pain.

“Maybe I should have checked the bag first...” I groaned, rubbing my sore, magic-strained brain. Ducking behind the edge of the bed was a better idea than I had anticipated, as it had taken most of the shrapnel that didn’t end up imbedded into the walls or my body.

Shuffling over the debris of the explosion, I took a peek out of the destroyed window, noting the crack running the entire height of the room.

“That can’t be good,” I said to myself.

Much of the siding of the Turnpike had been damaged around the window, along with the window below and ones off to either side. Above, the yellow, magic-neon sign sparked and zapped angrily, missing large chunks of it’s lettering. It was now the JRNPI VERI.

“WHAT IN THE BUCKING HELL HAPPENED!?” a mare’s voice yelled out.

It was Butterscotch.

“Uh... Hi Butterscotch,” I said with a weak smile.

“Don’t you ‘hi Butterscotch’ me,” she spat.

“I can explain.” I hoped I could, anyways.

“Oh, yeah?” she practically shouted.

“There was a bomb...”

===

“-and then I threw the bomb out the window. That’s what happened.” I tried to explain.

“Right, as you have said before...” Lily said. “But since we have no proof of the alleged bomb, we cannot, unfortunately, neither prove nor disprove your claims.”

Butterscotch, Vodka Shots, Lily, Lumens, and I were all in the Mayor’s office, doing our best to sort the mess out civilly. It was irritating, to say the least. We had been going around in circles about who was to blame and who was going to fix the damage.

“Why not check the recording again?” I asked. Surely there was something that could prove my innocence. Apparently, there was suspicion that I had fired an explosive weapon within the town, which was ‘illegal’.

“We can’t. We already tried. The audio was set for a one time playthrough,” she said.

There was a tense moment of silence.

“How much are the damages going to cost to rebuild, Butterscotch?” the lilac unicorn sighed, brushing a hoof through her peachy mane.

“The damage to the infrastructure is greater than it seems. We have to rebuild the entire middle of the western wall, replace all the windows we lost, and we need to remake the sign,” Butterscotch replied.

“Okay, but how much is it going to cost?” Lily asked again.

“Four-thousand, five-hundred caps,” she said flatly. “That’s not including the caps I’ll lose with the rooms being closed. I’m trying to run a business here.”

My head fell to the desk.

“I don’t have that much,” I muttered. I’d never that much. The most I’d ever had was about fifteen-hundred; just enough to get me out of a jam if I needed it.

“You could cut your losses and sell your gear,” Lily offered. “That revolver of yours should fetch quite a few caps.”

“No.” Not Tweety, and not my cloak, which were all I really had. “Even then, I wouldn’t have enough.”

The tension in the air was so thick, you could almost cut it.

“Eugh...” the mayor groaned. “I’m feeling generous today.”

Everypony’s and everyzebra’s attention was caught.

“Butterscotch, I can credit the caps from the town’s excess money banks to you,” she said. “As for you, Xerophyte...”

“What?” I replied. Would I have to work it off or something?

“Get the hell out of my town.” She didn’t say it meanly or angrily, just seriously.

“What!? Why?” Lumens interjected. The only reason she was here was because she was the Butterscotch, Lily, Vodka Shots, and I walking toward the town hall. She was also the only one I really knew in New Appleoosa.

“Butterscotch wants her tavern fixed. I don’t want ponies knowing that I chipped into their emergency funding. And with Xerophyte here, chances of that increase,” Lily explained. “If he leaves soon, the townsponies will think that he paid for the damages and left. Simple as that.”

“I agree,” I stated. It would be insane to turn down a generous offer like that.

“I’ll have Six Star escort you out when it’s time,” she said. She got up and opened the door out of her office. “I’ll get those caps for you, Butterscotch.”

===

“I guess this is ‘goodbye’, then,” I said, standing at the gate I had entered when I arrived.

Potshot was on guard duty nearby, slowly scanning the horizon for anything that moved. Sheriff Six Star was there, too, even though she knew I wasn’t stupid enough to do anything.

“I guess so...” Lumens replied. It broke her heart that I had to leave, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.” I’d made it this far in life, right?

“Here,” she said. She reached into her saddlebag and brought out flat, rectangular package that was wrapped in brown paper and twine, which I took in my magic. “Don’t open it yet. Do it later.”

“Thanks.” I slipped the odd gift into one of my own saddlebags. I was unsure of why she wanted me to wait, but I obeyed her wishes.

“Do you have everything, Xero?” asked Six Star.

“I believe so,” I said, taking inventory of everything I had. “Cloak, gun, saddlebags, sword, caps, Pipbuck... Yes, that’s everything.”

Something hit me hard in the chest, sending me to the ground and onto my back with an “oof!”

“I don’t want you go!” Lumens sniffled into my chest and neck as she held me. I had a feeling this would happen.

“Hey, hey...” I tried to comfort her, stroking her striped mane. I wasn’t very good at it, but at least I could try. “It’s alright, I’ll be fine”

“No you won’t!” she cried. “You said that last time and- and- you practically died! You did die...”

I let her sob it out, but it was another minute before she got off of me.

“Better?” I asked, moving part of her disheveled mane out of her eyes. She shook her head, making the end of the remaining braid I had shot off the night before swing back and forth.

“I don’t want to lose you again,” she whispered sadly.

“Xero,” Six Star said, using her firm, authoritative voice.

“Yes, I know,” I called back before turning to Lumens again. “Listen, I’ll be back. There’s things I have to take care of... things... that won’t take care of themselves. But I promise you, I will be back.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

She wrapped her forelegs around me in a tight hug.

“Just so you know, I don’t really think of you as my big-little-brother,” she whispered into my ear. I could feel myself turning red as a memory from years ago surfaced. She snapped me out of it with a kiss. “Bye, Xero...”

===

I trotted out east, toward... wherever it was that I thought I should go, which was just east. I thought I could get a lead in New Appleoosa, but all I managed to do was get myself kicked out. The only real information I got was from Butterscotch: a grey ghoul with a heavy winter jacket. The voice on the audio tape sounded like a ghoul, but who's to say that it wasn’t a unicorn with a voice changing spell. The only thing I could do to get a better heading on was to actually got to one of the settlements in the east and find out more there. My first stop would have to be Starward, a town slightly bigger than New Appleoosa just on western side of the Royal Mountains of Canterlot, and a ways to the south of the once majestic ruins of the capital. It wouldn’t be a long journey back home; four or five days at most. I could travel around the mountains, but that would easily add a week, along with seven days of provisions and ammo that I didn’t have.

Actually, I did have the ammunition for the weapons I had, which were just Tweety and the Zebra Resistance rifle. I knew I wouldn’t encounter anything that would require more than them. That is, if I stayed on the road and didn’t pick a fight with a Steel Ranger squad or an Alicorn. I also wanted to stop in Starward to refill what I would use up over the next few days as I traveled, since it was the last place I could before actually crossing the mountains.

When it started to get dark, I decided that I had better find a place for the night. Looking around, I found nothing that could be used for a camp. No nearby buildings to crash in, no half-destroyed houses, no St-

To my left was a vaguely familiar cliff face. My map told me that Stable 24 was nearby.

I was only just past the giant cog-shaped door, in the atrium, when I started to hear strange noises. Down one of the dark halls, I saw multiple pairs of glowing red eyes. My EFS counted 12 hostiles, 0 friendlies. At that, I galloped out of the Stable, jump-levitated across the small river that was more of a creek now, and continued searching for a safer place to rest.

The still slightly irradiated remains of the Toll Gang’s makeshift fort came and went, the Pipbuck on my leg clicking as I neared. It was only two rads per second, but that still added up. I took a detour around. Irradiating a large part of the highway was not what I had intended to to when I gave that mare a grenade. I noticed that none of the bodies were still here, either having been taken away by scavenging animals or completely vaporised by the arcano-nuclear blast.

I continued on into the darkness of night. Far to the west, miles past New Appleoosa, a thunderstorm brewed. I couldn’t hear the thunder, but the show the lightning was putting on was almost entrancing. I thought of trotting backwards for a while, but was quickly denied when I had to shoot a radscorpion off the road.

“Keep your eyes on the road at all times...” I said quietly to myself. I hadn’t even noticed my EFS counter change I was so tired. I was going to have to rough it pretty soon if I didn’t find a place to rest. It was another half mile to the canyon where I’d met Canteen, Clips, and Coverfire, but other than that, there wasn’t anything around.

“There. That seems like a good spot,” I grumbled.

There was a very, very, large tree off the main road a ways. It’s trunk was easily three feet across, and had to be as tall as a three story house. Most of the leaves had fallen off, and the ones that remained were either dead or dying. An experimental buck found the trunk very solid. I picked one of the shriveled leaves off a branch and examined it.

My Pipbuck gave a short chirp, heralding a note that appeared in the top corner of my vision.

>New location discovered!
>Old Minotaur-Oak Tree

I looked back to the tree. It’s bark wasn’t rough and deeply ridged like most oak trees, but instead was very smooth and had an almost stone-like texture. It was definitely a hard wood. A very hard wood. But nonetheless, it would do.

I jump-levitated myself onto one of the larger branches, then again up to the next one. I stopped on a branch about twenty feet off the ground, far from any predators looking for a midnight snack. My zebra instincts kicked in and I balanced on the the branch on my rear legs. I took a couple steps and managed to get back to all fours. Carefully, I laid down, using my right foreleg as a pillow while the other three hung toward the ground. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was safer than sleeping on the ground... in the open.

I dozed off to sleep fairly quick, even if it was light. Very light.

===

There was a scream. It was loud, but also very distant. At first, I thought I was having another dream. I was still unsure about why I kept having those... dreams. To call them that was wrong, however. The terror I felt reliving each one was... unnatural.

The scream sounded as if it were in great agony. The first thing did was check my EFS. When it came up with nothing, I guessed whoever or whatever it was had died or were outside of my EFS’s range. I waited a few more minutes, hoping whatever it was would make itself known so I could either avoid or take care of it.

Nothing made a sound, nothing game into range. Ten minutes had passed and I decided to go back to sleep. It was 3:47; I’d be leaving my tree in a few hours. With my eyes closed, I drifted off into another light sleep.

===

I woke up feeling not so refreshed. I groaned and rolled out of bed. About three-fourths of the way around, I realized something.

I wasn’t in a bed.

I fell from my perch, grabbing myself in my magic and pulling up as hard as I could. I had managed to slow my fall enough that when I landed, it wasn’t much different than if I had just hopped off the ground.

“Yuk,” I said as I sat down, tasting the sour gunk inside my mouth. Even after falling out of a tree, I still wasn’t awake enough to stand. A stretch loosened my stiff muscles, causing my neck, back, and knees to pop. As usual, brushing my teeth followed shortly after.

I proceeded my journey to Starward and ate breakfast on the go. When the canyon came up, I had to stop. Not because of a raider or a wild animal, but because of how odd the canyon itself was.

Towering above me were sharp cliffs. They didn’t go far in either direction, but they were tall. The highway I was traveling on wiggled between the two plateaus like a snake trying to get through a maze. The large masses of brown rock didn’t seem to have any purpose to be her other than to just exist. To the northwest side of the northern plateau was an earthen ramp, and the only way up. It looked more like a washout of dirt and rock, but something about it seemed oddly pony-made. I would have liked to explore it, but I didn’t have the supplies. Not only that, it would be a great place for raiders to hide out.

They truly didn’t have any reason being here. The surrounding area was mostly flat, except for the mountains further to the north and east. They were still another day’s trot away. I could probably reach them by tomorrow afternoon.

I was getting thirsty, so I began looking for one of my canteens. While searching, I found something interesting.

The package Lumens had given me.

“It’s definitely ‘later’,” I said at I took off the brown paper. “Whoa...”

It was a book. Just a simple black book with a gold band running across the top and bottom. It didn’t have any sort of markings on the cover.

However, on the inside of the cover, were two pictures. The bottom one was of Lumens. She looked like herself, the picture having been taken within the last year or two. The other one... was the one of my brother before the two of us had left that one fateful day.

I don’t know how long I sat there in the middle of the highway looking at the two photos, but a flicker on my EFS brought me out of my trance.

One friendly. And it was in the canyon.

Fortunately, I didn’t see anypony or anything in that direction, so I flipped to the first page of the book.

Xero,

Through my research, I have found many practical uses for different glyphs and runes of both zebra and pony origins. I have put the simpler ones in this book, along with a few more difficult ones. I hope that this book comes in handy. You may want to read through it a few times first, though. A mistake could change something as useful as a healing ward into something dangerous, like a remote detonator. Be careful, some of the things in this book are experimental, and are marked as such.

~Lumens

P.S. Thanks for letting me do some quick studies of your cloak. I think it will be quite useful in the development of easy repair limbs.

Flipping quickly through the large tome, I found that the entire thing was filled with notes and how-to’s on the alternate arcane arts. There were pages on healing wards and how to construct them, practical and impractical uses for light producing runes, including artificial sunlight. Even the possibility of teleportation rings was a topic of interest. The last few pages were dedicated to modifications, like turning an explosive matrix to a frost burst matrix, or adding a speed enhancer to a repair rune to increase its fixing rate.

I put the book back in my saddlebag after skimming a couple pages; I had things to do and places to be. The trot through the canyon was slow, as I was being cautious. I could have sworn that the scream from the previous night came from somewhere in this direction, and I didn’t want to join whatever it was.

About two hundred feet into the canyon, my EFS flickered again. There were still no hostiles, but the one friendly marker bounced between ‘1’ and ‘0’. Whatever or whoever it might have been wasn’t going to be alive much longer.

As I walked, I managed to find about where the blue target was by trotting back and forth to either side of the highway, watching the little blue blip on my EFS shift back and forth, as well.

“Hello?” I called out. No reply.

“Hello...?” I called out again, more questionably.

I moved toward the target, nearly to the point of being on top of it. There was nothing around me at ground level, which must have meant they were somewhere above or below. Looking up, I saw a very bright, electric blue hoof hanging over the edge of a small outcropping that would have been just big enough for a single pony. The top edge of the cliff was about four stories off the ground, with the outcropping about halfway in the middle.

“Hey!” The hoof didn’t move so much as a hair as I circled around it. The blue tick mark seemed to line up perfectly with whoever it was.

I picked up a small stone in my magic, about the size of a prewar bit, and tossed it up at the pony. There was a groan and the hoof receded back onto the outcropping. Another stone found it’s way up and this time, there was a response.

“Ugh... hello?” a mare groaned back dryly. “Is somepony down there?”

Some shuffling sounded out from the overhang and the mysterious pony finally revealed herself. Well, her head anyways. I assumed she was an earth pony, due to the lack of a horn on her head, but didn’t rule out that she could have been a pegasus.

The right side of her face was dominated by a white paint-splotch. Her messy mane was a much lighter blue, almost white and hung loosely in her metallic grey eyes. She was actually kinda cute.

“Hey, there,” she said with a tired, raspy chuckle. “I thought I’d be stuck up here forever.” She coughed into her her forehoof and wiped it on whatever she must have been wearing. “I’m, uh... in a bit of a bad way. Up here. Think you can, you know, get me down, uh... there?” she pointed a blood smeared hoof to a random direction that was mostly downward.

“Uh, sure...” I said. She must have been pretty hurt if she was coughing up blood. My horn started to glow it’s sparkly teal color, and I wrapped my aura around a vaguely equine shape object, noting that it didn’t have wings.

“Owowowowowow!” she cried out as I began to lift her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I think I broke my leg,” the mysterious mare called back down in a pained tone.

“Which one?”

“Right foreleg. It doesn’t look right...”

“Okay.” I reached up again with my magic, forming it around her and being as careful as I could to not turn or rotate any part of her. She hissed in pain, but didn’t protest.

Now that I could finally get a good look at her, I noticed she was covered with white markings. They way they looked like they were just splattered on kind of made her look.... well, kind of like a blue cow. She was wearing the grey-blue suit of what I recognized was Stable barding. For a wasteland pony, she was also quite clean. The saddlebags that hung at her sides were crushed, shredded, and stained with fresh blood and... purple... stuff. A standard Pipbuck clung to one of her forelegs, the one that was clearly broken.

Wait.

Every seasoned wastelander knew not to wear Stable barding. It offers almost no protection and was like saying: “Hey, everypony, look over here! I’m an easy target!” There was no doubt about it. She was definitely a stable pony.

She was also bruised, battered, and had a chunk of flesh missing off her shoulder. The flesh looked like it had been torn or possibly bitten off. It was a miracle that she hadn't bled out. Blood caked the barding, and mixed with the dusty earth, turning it a red-brown. She was right in thinking that her right foreleg was broken. The entire thing was one large, deep purple bruise, and was much more swollen than seemingly possible. Right above her PipBuck, where she had another white paint-splotch, the bone seemed to be trying to break through the skin. It looked like she had an extra knee.

“Thanks...” she groaned, laying in the middle of the highway.

“No problem,” I replied, taking out one of my canteens and offering it to her. She grabbed it with her white teeth, tilted her head back, and chugged away.

“Hey, slow down a little. You’re going to choke on it.” I said just as she dropped it. She let out a deep, throaty cough, tiny red specks coming out with it. “Oh, that can’t be good...”

“I guess this is it, then...” she sighed, closing her eyes. “Goodbye, cruel world...”

The counter on my EFS bounced between ‘1’ and ‘0’ again, staying on ‘0’ a little longer than before.

“Hang in there.” I flipped through the dozens of menus on my Pipbuck, looking for something that could help her.

“Nah, I’m not... worth... it...” the blue earth pony said, trailing off. She wasn’t, honestly. I didn’t know her, she didn’t know me. We didn’t owe each other anything. What would it be for the wasteland to claim one more? A Stable pony, nonetheless. I could easily have left her behind, or shot her in the head to put her out of her misery.

I would have, too, but something, somewhere in my mind, told me to save her. To do better, be better. I didn’t know what it was, but it was there, practically screaming at me. Maybe it was my conscience. Or perhaps I was finally going crazy. Either way, I was going to try my best to save her.

Finally finding what I was looking for, my Pipbuck pulled up the things I needed: Med-X and my only syringe of Hydra.

“This might hurt a little,” I said as I injected the Med-X. It wouldn’t completely dull the hydra, but that little bit helped. Tossing the vial aside, the hydra followed the painkiller. Slowly, I pushed the plunger down on the end of the red canister, the chemicals within mixing to form the regenerative elixir.

At first, nothing happened. I thought that it might have been a dud, but a sudden twitch from the unconscious pony made me think otherwise. She cried out in pain as the bones in her leg snapped back into place with audible pops. Something in her chest also popped back into place, earning yet another scream. I cringed, flattening my ears in attempt to block out the cries. I knew what it felt like, and I knew that it hurt more than getting the bones broken in the first place. She eventually fell silent, having passed out from the intense pain. Again, my EFS bounced from ‘1’ to ‘0’ and then back to ‘1’, before staying there.

It was a few more minutes before I did anything else. I contemplated leaving. She would be able to handle herself, right?

I dropped my head and sighed.

“I can’t just leave you here...” I picked her up in my magic and hefted her across my back, minding my sword. She was a little smaller than an average sized pony, about a head shorter than myself. With what remained in her saddlebags and what was currently in mine, plus her weight, I was practically over-encumbered. The walk until she woke up would be slow.

To be continued....

Chapter 5 (pt 2) - Wasteland Friendships

View Online

The rest of the walk through the canyon was uneventful and without incident. It was well into the night when I found a place to rest, which just so happened to be the destroyed house I’d slept in all those night ago.

The nameless mare was sleeping on the mattress; she hadn’t woken up at all during the journey. Her saddlebags sat beside her on the ground. I hadn’t gone through them for the simple fact that they weren’t mine to go through.

I was curious as to what life in a Stable was like. What did they eat? How many ponies were there? What did they do to pass the time? Why was she out here? Why was she alone? I had to assume she was from Stable 59, due to that number being printed on her back in bold yellow.

I probably wouldn’t have sleep much, if at all. I was tired, but someone needed to keep watch... and that fell to me. To pass the time, I took out the book Lumens had given me and began to read it. What little light my aura gave off was enough for to see.

Part One

What are Glyphs and Runes?

What is a glyph? What is a rune? They appear to be the same, and that’s because, in a sense, they are! Both have strong, magical properties. They are both drawn, engraved, or inset onto the objects that one wishes to enchant.

They are different though, too. Usually, glyphs work by themselves and do not need to be activated. A fine example of such is the Glyph-Powered Cyber Eye. It’s always working. Always running. Always doing... what it’s suppose to do.

Runes, on the other hoof, need to be activated. ‘Activated’ means that they work much like a terminal; they remain dormant until something turns them on, usually by the act of a hoof stomp or something similar. A smoke producing rune, also called a Smoke Screen Rune, works this way. It doesn’t activate until the user wants it to. Others, like the Remote Detonator, are activated remotely. There will be more information on remote activation later in this book.

===

I must have fallen asleep while reading, because I when I opened my eyes, the sky wasn’t it’s usual, dreary grey, but instead was a brilliant reddish-pink. The sun wasn’t visible through the everlasting cloud cover, but the morning sky did add some wonderful color to the brown and dull.

In the corner of the remains of the bathroom, the nameless mare still slept on the old mattress, occasionally wheezing and entering a coughing fit. Even though she managed to get herself sorted out without waking up, I still moved around silently.

Somepony had been here between the first time I had and now. A random pile of scrap metal gathered dust in one of the cabinets in what looked to be the kitchen, along with a mutfruit in the doorless refrigerator. In another room, I found one of those damned indestructible, pristine white coffee cups. The brand name, Unbreakableware, was an understatement. Whatever ponies used to make the thing, should have been used in armor. Legend has it that they can even stop an anti-machine rifle bullet cold, but wasting one of the precious .50 caliber shells on something like that was careless. An experimental whack with the edge of my sharp sword proved that the cup was indeed, still unbreakable.

“Who would leave this kind of stuff laying around?” I asked nothing in particular.

The blue pony coughed again, adding more red specks to the mattress, but remaining asleep. Leaving her to rest, I trotted to the highway and looked to the east. As the sun rose, it shifted the cloud color from red to pink to orange to yellow and then back to it’s grey color.

It took about fifteen minutes for the sky to turn colors. In that time, I fished around in my saddlebags for some breakfast: a package of cherry filled Fancy Buck snack cakes and a can of mixed vegetables. The cakes were delicious, even after two-hundred years. The vegetables, however, were just ‘meh’ in comparison.

Something rustled behind me, and I turned around just in time to see the mare roll off the mattress. She got up, shook herself a little, and began to look around. As soon as her eyes landed on me, she froze.

I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off with a scared “Eep!”

“Uh... Hi?” I said, trying to be friendly.

“Ah! It talks!” she cried out in a started tone.

And just like that, she bolted through the window frame of the only standing wall, stumbling about after she hit the ground.

“Wait!” I yelled after her, galloping to the window. She was already gone, far into the distance. Her saddlebags still sat beside the bed. “You forgot your stuff...”

===

It was almost half an hour before the blue mare returned. She was an odd pony, to say the least. Her attempts to sneak were laughable at best, bad-enough-to-facehoof at worst. I spotted her a half mile away; a bright, electric blue blob sticking out like sore hoof against the brown wasteland. She ducked and dove under dead shrubs and tippy-hoofed from boulder to boulder in a comedic fashion. It seemed like forever, but eventually she made it within earshot.

“About time you showed back up,” I started, knowing that she was behind the remains of a long since burnt-up wagon beside the house. “Since I know you can hear me, let me just say that I’m not going to hurt you.” Something rustled behind the cart. “You can come out. I promise I won’t do anything.” No response. I levitated her saddlebags to the side of the cart. “See? I’m even giving your stuff back.” Again, nothing.

I let an out exasperated sigh. Quietly, I put my own sneaking to the test, leaving the front of the house and circling around wagon in a large arc, so I could come up behind it. As I did, I saw the mare stick her head out from behind the charred remains more than once, looking for her supposed attacker and eyeing her saddlebags. Never once did I let her see me.

Silently, I sat down, waiting for her to realize that I was behind her. From where I was, I got a good look at her cutie mark. Just like the mare, it too was odd. I had no idea what a grey orb with a blue lightning bolt thing surrounded by six smaller grey orbs that attached to the larger one with some kind of dark bands was suppose to mean, but I guessed something to do with electronics or something energy related.

About five minutes later, I decided my fun was up. It was kind of boring after awhile. Somehow, she didn’t know where I was, even with a Pipbuck of her own.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” I said.

The mare stop mid-breath and slowly turned around. Nearly all the color had drained from her face, one that screamed pure horror. Even her lip was trembling.

“Look. I’m not... going... to hurt... you.” I paused between each word, punctuating it. There was a pause. Neither of us said anything. She just sat there, staring at me wide-eyed. “Do you want something to eat?” I looked down to my Pipbuck and found another Fancy Buck cake and a can of carrots.

“Sh- shtay b- back!” the mare said. She sounded like she had something in her mouth. Looking back up from my Pipbuck, I saw that she had grabbed some sort of energy weapon from... somewhere.

The gun in her mouth would probably have been terrifying if I knew what it was. It looked like someone had taken seven different models of laser pistols and slapped them together to form this... thing. The body of the gun looked to be slightly longer than a laser pistol, keeping its very boxy shape. Various glowing wires, copper tubes, capacitors, hoses, and other techy parts covered it in a smattering of science. The end pointed at me had a blackened char around it, either due to lack of cleaning or because it had an excessive amount of power behind it.

I took a step back, not wanting to tempt her into accidentally shooting me.

“Alright, alright...” I said calmly. Down inside the weapon, an unnatural, rainbow glow churned. Thinking quickly, I flicked what looked like a magic spark battery out from its housing at the back of the gun using my magic. It was a small movement, and didn’t even make a sound. And luckily, to my advantage, the mare hadn’t noticed. I stowed it away under a small, hoof-size rock behind her. “Can’t we talk about this, Miss...?”

“‘Ames arnt importernt,” she spat around the mouth-grip of the weapon. “‘Ow ged ong de goun’ an’ tehw meh wha’ I ‘eed to noh!”

“Ask away, stable pony.” I said, knowing that she couldn’t shoot me with her gun’s equivalent of being unloaded. Nevertheless, I did as she demanded. Even with my hooves behind my head, I was comfortable knowing that I had a horn and she didn’t. I was also wearing Ditzy’s super reinforced leather barding. Not only that, but she didn’t look like she could throw a punch to save her life.

“Wom: wer’ de hehw am I? An’ tehw: wha’ de hehw ish a ‘shtable pomy’?” she yelled.

“We’re just west of the Royal Mountains. The town of Starward is east of here about a day’s trot.” I pointed a hoof towards my eventual destination. “You know, it would be easier to understand you without that thing in your mouth; it sounds like you’re trying to eat a bag of marbles. Oh, and you are a stable pony.”

“And just what is that suppose to mean?” she said, spitting the energy pistol into her hoof.

“Just that, you’re a stable pony. Your stable barding... your Pipbuck... your... cleanliness. You are obviously from a stable; Stable 59, if I’m not mistaken.” I said pointing to the little yellow ‘59’ emblazoned on her chest pocket. And her back. And her collar. “You look like you haven’t been out here for more than a couple days. Your hooves aren’t even dirty! Honestly, I don’t think you’ll last more than a week out here.”

“Get back down!” she yelled around clenched teeth as I began to stand up.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. This was silly; I had other places to be and things to do, but I couldn’t leave her by herself. She knew practically nothing about this world, and whatever she did know probably wouldn’t help very much. It wasn’t my responsibility to take care of her. She was a full grown mare, after all. However, I didn’t want anyone, pony or otherwise, to take advantage of this clueless newbie.

“Listen, there are worse things than death out here, and there’s already a lot of that,” I said. “You have no idea how absolutely unprepared you are. Take a look at your gun...”

“What about-” she froze as she took notice of the missing spark battery. “Ohshitohshitohshitohshit!”

She frantically shuffled around the ground, looking for her ammunition, going as far as to snatch one of her saddlebags and dig around in that.

Click.

I pulled Tweety’s hammer back, and pointed the enchanted revolver at the mare, who again, froze on the spot.

“Bang. You’re dead,” I said simply. Maybe it was a cruel, but it got my point across. I had to guess that she also got my point because she broke down into a crying, blubbering mess.

“Please don’t kill me!” she cried into her forehooves. “I- I- I have no idea what the fuck I’m even doing out here!”

With a sigh, I uncocked the gun and placed it back in my foreleg holster, snapping it into place. She let out a small wail, crying out her anxiety. Not knowing what to do, I let her continue a few more minutes until she got the idea that I wasn’t the bad pony, erm... zebra... thing.

“Hey, it’s alright.” I patted her on the shoulder. In response, she threw a leg at me, barely missing my head, and instantly pulled away. “Listen, I have stuff I have to do. I suppose if you want, you can tag along.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked through her sniffles.

“What do you mean?” Nice? What I did was almost mean. If there had been any other ponies around, it’d probably be humiliating.

“Like, you don’t even know me. How do you know I’m not some kind of... thief or something?” She wiped her runny nose with her fetlock.

“A thief?” I had to laugh at that. “Multiple things. First...” I lifted the rock with my magic and pulled out her spark battery. I slipped it back into her gun, much to her surprise. “I’m kinda good at sneaking things off of ponies myself, and you don’t strike me as a pickpocket. I saw you coming from a mile away. Second: you’re friendly, according to my EFS and Pipbuck.” I showed off my oversized foreleg terminal to her. “And finally, you’re pretty clueless about how the world works out here. Now, I haven’t seen you eat anything since I found you yesterday morning.” I levitated out the Fancy Buck cake and canned carrots. “Hungry?”

The mare sniffled once more and nodded.

“Thanks...” she said carefully reaching out a hoof and then quickly snatching them out of my magic.

“So... you got a name, or am I just going to have to keep calling you ‘that blue mare’?” I asked as she stuffed one of the snack cakes in her mouth.

“Sheshla Amfeer,” she replied with a mouthful of cake. “Mmm, deez ahr rirry ghud.”

“Say what now?” That didn’t sound like any name I’d heard before.

“Shorry,” she swallowed. “Tesla Ampere. You can just call me Tes.”

“Hello, Tes. My name is Xerophyte. You can call me Xero,” I said with a light bow. It’s a zebra thing.

“What kind of name is that?” she asked, raising a brow.

“It’s a zebra name. It’s a kind of plant that liv-”

“You’re a zebra!?” Tes exclaimed.

“Yes. Sort of? I’m not even sure, anymore.” I looked up at my horn. “Taint does strange stuff to those who fall into it.”

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I guess I should have figured that out from the stripes and the funny accent.” she stuffed the remaining cake into her mouth. “What’s ‘taint’?”

“Its... this stuff. Dangerous, causes mutations, usually deadly,” I explained to the best of my abilities. I doubted anyone in this age knew what it was. “You’ll know it when you see it; it’s usually a rainbow colored liquid.” Tes nodded while munching down the last cake. “Once you’re finished up, we should probably get going. You don’t want to be out in the open at night.”

“Why not?” she asked, dumping out her torn saddlebag. Broken Med-X vials, shattered healing potion flasks, rolls of soiled magic-healing gauze that had been stained purple, burnt out magic spark batteries, and numerous other destroyed knick-knacks, including a flattened steel canteen with a bullet hole punched through it, littered the dead earth. She took a minute to sift through the useless material to get anything out that might be of use, mainly the used spark batteries.

“It’s dangerous. There’s raiders, ghouls, wild mutant animals, killer robots...” I thought for a moment, thinking of what else there was. “Actually, I think that’s it. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but there are.”

I picked up her mutilated canteen and gave it a shake. Inside, something rattled. I took the lid off and shook out the offending object into my hoof.

“Is that what I think it is?” a slightly alarmed Tes asked.

“Maybe.” I tossed the small chunk of lead in my hoof a few times. “Judging from the weight, I’d say it’s a 5.56mm round, or probably a .223 since it didn’t go all the way through the canteen.” The small, mushroomed bullet fell from my hoof. She was going to need another canteen. Luckily, I had a few extras and parting with one wasn’t going to be the end of the world. “Here, you’ll need new one.”

“Are- are you sure?” she asked uneasily.

“Yeah, I got a few other ones,” I replied, shaking my saddlebags around and listening for the telltale sloshing of water. Yup, there they were.

The blue mare hesitantly grabbed the extra canteen from my magic, much like she had grabbed the snack cakes.

“All ready?” I asked as she picked everything up and up them in her remaining saddlebag.

“Almost. Gotta do one last thing.” She took the remains of her ruined saddlebag and tore off a long strip which she then tied to her oversized energy pistol to make a sling. She then slung the sling around her head and neck and then around her shoulder, making the pistol within easy mouth-grabbing distance. “Alright, now I’m ready.”

And with that, we were on our way to Starward.

“Any ideas what we might, erm... encounter?” she asked as we trotted away from the husk of a house.

“Probably just raiders, maybe a radscorpion or two,” I answered, keeping my eyes on the horizon and looking out for anything that might want to kill us.

“Probably? What else could we come across?”

“Well, there’s always the random alicorn encounter.”

“An ali-what?”

===

“You just had to ask, didn’t you Tesla!?” I yelled.

“How was I suppose to know!?” she yelled, skidding to a stop and turning around to take aim at the creature. The end of the mouth-held gun began to glow a brilliant crimson. A moment later, a spinning, rainbow-colored laser blasted out. She could only hold her ground for a second, letting the laser tear through the monster’s shield.

PFVVVVMMPFT!

The magic energy weapon let out a loud hiss as it vented excess heat through the glowing, smoking barrel and cooling vents.

The first time she used it on a lonesome raider, I nearly crapped myself. The first blast completely severed all four of the raider’s legs as she swept it across the broken road. The second blast turned him into a glittery pile of pink ash. Nothing... I meant nothing... should have been that powerful and yet so tiny.

“From that distance, she looked like one of the Goddesses!” she yelled, running past me as I turned around and slipped into SATS. Six rounds into the alicorn’s head used up the entire spell’s charge.

Pewtpewtpewtpewtpewpewt!

Coming out of SATS, Tesla continued her angry rant. “And when you YOU going to tell ME you pissed this thing’s mother off or whatever!? Did THAT ever occur to you? DID IT!?”

“Sorry!” I yelled back. “That doesn’t matter right now! Keep running!”

The green beast was still chasing us, even after unloading my revolver into its head twice and Tes had burned it’s shield down a few times. Blood dripped from holes in it’s massive wings and chest. A hefty chunk of flesh was missing from it’s brow where Tweety’s hollow points had chewed away at the abomination. Still, it didn’t show signs of being gravely injured, despite the slivers of skull showing through the gore that covered it’s head.

“THE GODDESS WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY A MORTAL... VERMIN... SUCH AS YOURSELF, XEROPHYTE!!” she bellowed. A crack like the sound of thunder echoed through the ruins and a bolt of magic shot overhead, barely missing my ears.

Without looking back, Tes and I ran along the broken street, passing the numerous small buildings of pre-war Starward. Post-apocalyptic Starward was on the other side town. The outskirts we were currently galloping through were mostly used for scavenging, or so I’d heard.

“In here,” I said to Tesla as we passed one of the ruined buildings that wasn’t boarded up. As Tes ran by, I caught her tail in my magic and pulled her through the door.

The main entry room was mostly scavenged, with very little obstructions to hide behind. The back corner held a secretary’s desk and there were a couple of old rotting seats littering the yellowed tiled floors that matched the wallpaper. Despite the missing window that lead out to the street, the interior smelled noticeably mustier than the thick scent of approaching rain from outside.

“This way,” I said quietly. The darkness from the lack of lighting almost made me want to turn on my Pipbuck’s flashlight spell, but that would give away our position.

We quickly headed through a pair of double doors and ended up in a short hallway. One of the overhead fluorescent lights flickered on and off periodically, buzzing with each flash like a staticy lightning storm. Flanked on either wall were three doors, all the same brown wood with foggy, cracked windows. I quickly dashed to the right-middle one, Tes on my tail. I was looking for a supply closet to hide in and just by chance, this one did. The slatted door along the right wall opened faster than I thought it would and hit the wall, bouncing off with a loud bang.

“Shh...” I said, closing the door as quietly as I could behind us. Just in case, I loaded Tweety up with three explosive rounds, leaving only a couple left before I was completely out of the enchanted bullets.

There was a loud series of bangs and thuds as the alicorn ripped doors off, searching for her prey.

Tesla began to cough quietly and tried her best to stifle the noise. A canteen appeared in her hooves.

No! I took the canteen in my magic before and pulled it away before she had a chance to open it. No sounds. Not a peep. I shook my head, my bristly mane quivering side to side a little.

“No noise,” I mouthed.

She stared at me with concerned eyes, biting her lip tightly and bearing her mini-laser cannon. At that point, I decided that this particular earth pony was nowhere near silent.

Another door was magically ripped down, the heavy oak panel flying across the room. Through the thin slats in the storage room door, I saw the cracked window explode like a small grenade. Shortly after, the green alicorn stepped in, still dripping blood along the floor. She casually scanned the room and smiled, pleased with the destruction she had created. It didn’t last long as she realized we weren’t inside and turned to leave. I passed a glance at Tes as the alicorn’s cutie mark-less flanks disappeared behind the warped door frame. We were going to make it!

Tes was staring at the door, laser pistol held tightly in her mouth and cheeks puffed out. Her eyes were starting to water and I couldn’t tell if she was holding her breath or-

She entered another coughing fit, and a second later...

HHACKSPLSH!

Blood splattered the gun’s casing, the floor in front of her, and the front of her stable barding. She stared at the puddle in what would be easiest to describe as horror; horror at what she had just coughed up, and horror that the alicorn had heard her. She sat down hard, still staring at the slightly chunky pool of crimson that was slowly growing.

The alicorn promptly turned around, her long, elegant horn tearing out a small section of the remaining door frame. Each step she took left cracked hoof-prints as she stomped over to our hiding spot. The door, her horn, and her draconic eyes all glowed an ethereal white. Quickly, I snatched up the laser pistol and began to charge it. With the tell tale crack of splintering wood, the door was removed from it’s ancient hinges. The green alicorn stood there, blocking our escape. Instinctively, I crouched and slipped into SATS. Her shield hadn’t fully formed yet, thankfully. She looked really... pissed off, to put it lightly. I targeted the shield with the unique gun, surprised when a single shot used up the entire targeting spell’s charge. Luckily, due to the short distance and my glyph-eye’s perception, the accuracy was maxed at 98%. There was no way I could miss.

The laser beam shot out of the gun’s barrel in it’s flashy, rainbow colored light. The beam hit the the shield, slowly eating away at it like acid. Even after SATS wore off, I held the trigger, keeping the monster’s defenses down. The intense heat radiating off the weapon began to show its effects as the barrel changed from black to red hot.

It took all of the alicorn’s concentration to keep the laser’s beam from turning her into a smouldering pile of ash, and she was doing a good job of it, too. Something pulled at my foreleg, and I peeked over at Tesla, who had Tweety in her mouth. She fired all six bullets into the alicorn’s head, the explosive rounds doing exactly what they were intended to do. The head exploded in a red and green chunky splatter.

Our attacker stumbled back, the rest of the body not knowing what to do without a conscience. The monster fell to the floor by the desk when its twitching wing caught the edge of the broken door.

The creature was dead. Finally.

“And that’s why you don’t go running up to an alicorn,” I told my companion. She was shaking head to hoof, looking like she was about to pass out. A small trickle of blood hung at the corners of her mouth.

“Healing... potion...” she rasped, eyes watering.

I levitated one of our last healing potions to her, which she greedily took, bit the top off, and guzzled down in seconds.

“You should get that checked out when we get to Starward,” I suggested. “I think there’s something wrong that healing potions aren’t fixing.” What, I had no idea. Healing potions were an almost perfect cure for most injuries that weren’t fatal. But with her, they seemed to be weakened drastically, or at least to whatever her internal injuries were.

“I know...” she rasped softy.

“I’m serious,” I said, returning her laser pistol. “Not even Hydra fixed it, and that stuff can regrow a lost leg.”

“Just... gimme... a moment... to rest,” she huffed between heavy breaths. She curled up in a small ball in the back corner of the small broom closet, way from the sticky red puddle, and closed her eyes. “I’ll... be fine.”

“Alright.” I doubted that she’d be fine after something like this. It looked like she literally coughed up part of her lung. “I’m going spelunking for a minute or two. I’ll check back on you when I’m done.”

“Mhm...”

I wasn’t sure how long I’d be gone, or where I would end up, so I left an apple flavored Fancy Buck cake on the low shelf beside her, along with her laser pistol. I picked Tweety out of the middle of the puddle, wrinkling my nose at the messy red saliva that covered the mouth grip. With a single, forceful shake, the blood slipped right off, thanks to the self cleaning glyphs. I reloaded my revolver and left the relative safety of the closet. Tes was snoring before I even got to the doorway.

I investigated the remains of the alicorn. The neck, where the head was once attached, was still smoking. The smell of burning meat and hair wafted up with it. The alicorn herself though, was thoroughly naked: no saddlebags, no armor, or even simple barding. She wasn’t even armed. But given that she shot at us with bolts of pure magic, it was obvious that she didn’t need a weapon other than her horn, which was in dozens of shattered and bloody pieces along with the rest of her head.

Looking about the room, I spotted the desk. Nothing special, just another mass-produced piece of office furniture. After brushing the clutter and door chips off the top, I took a peek inside. Half a dozen 9mm rounds along with the rusty pistol they went to was the highlight of the scavenge. There was also a memory orb, which I couldn’t see into due to the fact that I was a zebra. A blue zebra with a horn, yes, but a zebra nonetheless. There was also a lot of junk, too: an ash tray, an empty Sparkle Cola bottle, a few sales clipboards.

I was on my way out when I caught sight of a wall safe. There was still a bobby pin jammed into it.

“What the...” It hadn’t been picked yet, so I took out my screwdriver, slipped it into the keyhole, and gave it a slow twist.

Snap!

The bobby pin broke almost instantly. So did the next three. Whatever was inside had to be worth it.

By the fifth one, the safe popped open. Inside were more 9mm ammo, making a total of twenty-three rounds in this room alone, another 9mm pistol in much better condition than the previous one, seventeen pre-war bits, and an audio tape.

I instantly downloaded the tape. If there was the possibility of more run-once audios, then I was going to have back-ups made, just in case. I hit play on the old recording, and a very professional voice of a business mare started to play through the integrated speaker.

“I have the radio advertisement that you requested, Skyfeather. I think you’ll be very pleased with the results. It was a little difficult to get the sound just right, but I believe it worked out well.”

There was a short pause and a click. The next voice was that of a stallion.

"With all the talk of balefire bombs and “armageddon” spoken in hushed tones, one has to wonder if it might be worth a visit to Stable-Tec. Their trademark Stables allow the preservation of Equestria's ponies in the worst of catastrophic events. Brought to you by the same Stable-Tec that has brought you many other fine products, such as the nigh indestructable Stable-Tec PipBucks, Stable-Tec brings their expertise to self sustained living environments... underground! With comfortable living quarters, freshwater and air talismans, and a plethora of other amenities, you and your family can continue the greatness of Equestrian society! Sign up at your nearest Stable-Tec Registration Office today!"

The recording ending with its usual click.

I stared dumbly at the stupid grey block that was the audio tape. I wasted three of my bobby pins... for this? With a sigh, I closed the safe back up, not wasting my time to lock it.

“That wasn’t as useful as I thought it’d be,” I said to myself.

I left the room feeling slightly disappointed, but dismissed it quickly. In the room across the hall, there was a hostile. If it was another alicorn, it would have made itself known as soon as it’s ‘sister’ was dead, or ran away. Carefully, I grabbed the door’s handle in my magic and found that it was lock. Rather than waste a few bobby pins, which I was running low on due to previous locks, I took my screwdriver and stabbed it as hard as I could against the glass. Luckily, it wasn’t safety glass, and all I had to do was reach in with my magic and unlock the door from inside.

As soon as the door swung open, I dropped into SATS. The first and only thing it locked onto was a single radroach chewing on a decaying book. I queued up a single shot from Tweety and let the spell do the rest. The bug exploded and few across the room, hitting the back wall with a squishy and crunchy splat. The book that was still clamped in it’s mandible quickly followed it. In hindsight, a SATS assisted attack on a radroach with a .44 magnum revolver was a little overkill, but it got the job done.

The room was exactly like the one I had just come from, except mirrored. There was no wall safe either. The desk contained more useless clutter, as did the filing cabinet next to it. After taking another one of my bobby pins, the storage closet revealed to be more bountiful. An earth pony skeleton curled over an assault rifle with an extra mag sitting beside it. The rifle was in moderately good condition, with only a few spots of rust. A good oiling and it would work just fine. The skeleton didn’t look like a two-hundred-year-old pile of bones, either. They looked like they were a couple decades old.

I carefully moved them aside with my magic and dropped my new rifle and extra mag into my saddlebag. The storage shelves were mostly empty, except for the occasional pile of scrap metal. There was a tool box hidden away in the corner, too. I managed to find a probably useless hammer, another screwdriver, and an extra pair of pliers. The rest of the room was empty.

It’d been awhile since I had left Tesla back in the other closet. I began to wonder if she was awake, so I trotted back across the hall and to the room. She was still lying on the floor, breathing heavily.

“Hey,” I said softly, being careful about waking her up. The last thing I wanted was for her to freak out again.

“Hm?” she groaned tiredly. She looked up at me with her silvery-grey eyes and rubbed the dried, crusty tears from one.

“We should probably get going. It’ll be dark in a few hours and it would be best to get to Starward before then,” I said.

“I supposed you’re right,” Tes groaned again as she stretched. “Find anything?”

“Not really.” I thought back to the waste of an audio tape. “Nothing worth investigating.”

“Oh, well...” She pulled her laser pistol’s sling over her head and across her shoulder, noticing the snack cake. I nodded once, and she swiftly snatched it up and dropped it in her saddlebag.

We were all packed up and just passed the fallen pseudo-goddess when Tes spoke up again.

“What do we do with her?” She pointed to the headless alicorn.

“What do you mean?”

“We can’t just leave her here,” she said. “It’s disrespectful.”

“What do you want to do with her, then?” I asked. I knew where this was going, having been in a similar position many years ago.

“Uh... bury her?” she said, as if it were the obvious answer.

“Do you have a shovel?”

“No...” Tes dropped her head, looking back to the green behemoth.

“Okay, look...” I said with a sigh. “I know everything is different out here than it was in your Stable. Out here, most ponies don’t bury the dead unless they absolutely need to. Most bodies lay where they fall. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do for her.”

She looked at the alicorn for a short while. “Okay... let’s go then.” She trotted past me and out the door.

As we left the office, I could hear the soft pitter-patter of rain against the side of the building.

“Are you coming?” I asked as I started to trot down the street. Tes was still inside the entrance, cautiously looking at the sky. With a fearful glare, she shook her head.

“Why not?” I looked up, shielding my eyes with a foreleg. No sign of thunder or lightning. “It’s just rain.”

“This... is rain?” She motioned around with her hoof. “Is it safe?” she squeaked.

I forgot... Stable pony...

“Yes. It’s just water. It’s not even radioactive this time.” There were the occasional ‘radioactive showers’, but they were one in a million. “It’s a lot like...” I tried to think of something she might understand. “...a shower.” Stables had showers, right? She should understand that.

With much more caution than she should have, Tes slowly crept out from under the tattered awning of the doorway. As soon as a single drop landed on her muzzle, she ran back under the protection of the building.

“It’s cold!” she yelled out.

The fall rain was a bit chillier than it usually was, but I wouldn’t have said that it was cold. I sighed and trotted back to the building, where Tes was still in the doorway. A small puddle was forming in the sagging awning.

“It’s not that bad,” I said. “It’s just a little cool water. There’s nothing to worry about. But I really don’t want to have to camp outside if I have to, so let’s get going to Starward. I know of a place we can stay the night there.”

She groaned and gave the sky another questioning look before gaining the courage to venture back into the world.

“See? I told you it’s not that bad,” I said again, turning around.

The growing puddle in the awning proved too much for the two-hundred year old fabric and ripped wide open, dumping it’s contents all over the already scared mare. She let out a surprised gasp. Looking back, I was met with a priceless scene.

Tes was completely soaked to the bone. Her mane was slicked straight down, covering her eyes. Her tail tail didn’t fair much better, having been caught in the splash radius, too.

“C-c-cold...” she quietly muttered.

“Here,” I said, trying not to laugh at the chattering mare. I brought out my cloak. “This should keep you warm.”

“Thanks,” she said, pulling it over her head and letting it hang off her sides. “What’s with all the swirly patterns and squiggly lines?”

“Enchantments,” I replied. “Trust me, it’ll keep you warm.”

She simply nodded her response.

We continued through the ruins of downtown Starward, trudging through the drizzly rain. Most of the buildings had been destroyed by time or forgotten battles and either sat in piles of concrete, steel, and wooden rubble, or were missing their upper floors and therefore unstable. Combined with the constant overcast and the rain, Starward had a very glooming effect on the mind. It was no longer a thriving city. There were no more ponies trotting around conducting business, attending appointments, or doing whatever it was that ponies did in pre-war times.

My EFS flashed and I noticed something I didn’t like. I slowed my trot down a little to let Tes catch up beside me.

“We’re being followed,” I said quietly, looking behind us and to the sides. There was a little red ‘7’ next to my EFS, along with a blue ‘1’.

“By who?” she asked as she looked back, too.

“Not sure. Something hostile, though. Let’s keep moving.””

“Couldn’t we just fight them?”

“Do you really want to?” I didn’t. Not if I didn’t have to. I sped up to my previous pace.

“Good point.” Tes quickened her speed as well. “I don’t see anypony, though.”

“They’re staying behind the buildings and stalking us.” I levitated Tweety out out of my holster and checked the cylinder. I filled the empty chambers with standard .44 magnum rounds and spun in it close. The magic revolver floated next to me, ready to attack. If we were going to have to fight whoever or whatever was following us, then I wanted to be prepared. “How are you on ammo?”

“I think I’m still good. Not sure exactly how many charges my gun has after that alicorn, but I’m pretty sure I’m alright.”

“You’re wearing a Pipbuck, right?”

“Yeah... why?”

We turned a corner and continued on northward, just in time to see a yellow tail disappear behind one of the buildings.

“You should be able to tell how many shots you can fire.”

“Really? How?” she asked. There was an amused tone in her voice at this newfound information.

“It should tell you in the bottom corner of your vision.” At least, it did in mine.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense.” She stopped for a second and looked at her pipbuck.

“You do have a dot in the center of your vision, right?” I asked, taking a detailed look around. There was a dead end further up the road, but luckily, there was a street leading to the right before that. “Like a reticule?”

“No, what’s that suppose to mean?” she asked.

I sighed. “It means you don’t have the combat-system-thingies turned on.”

“I’m sorry...” she said quietly. “Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No. It’s just that you can’t use SATS,” I replied. “Why would you think you did something wrong?”

“N-nothing...”

“Right...” I drawled, spying a can rolling along the sidewalk as we turned right onto the street going East. The seven hostiles had moved to either side of the road, still out of sight. “Stay sharp. I they’re trying to flank us.

“Uh, what?” Tes asked.

“They are trying to ambush us from the sides. Then, they’ll probably cut us off from behind and in front, cutting off our escape routes.” I snuck a peek back and saw two, dark equine figures dart across the broken road through the increasing rain. My EFS confirmed my sight. The second one almost looked like a unicorn, but I couldn’t be sure. They disappeared behind one of the many concrete and brick buildings and off the edge of my EFS range.

“Come on. Let’s go.” I returned to my trot, but kept a lookout behind. ‘What was that?’ I wondered to myself. More importantly, who. If it was who I thought it was, then we were in much more trouble than we were prepared for.

“Uh, Xero?”

“What?” I asked, turning my head to face forward again. “Well, fuck.”

We were surrounded, or at least we couldn’t move any farther forward. A quick glance back and two more appeared.

They didn’t look like raiders, but instead wore ill-repaired leather armor and wasteland garbs... all five of them, except for the one in power armor. He... or she... had painted the suit an unusual combination of pink with rainbows and flowers all over it. At the armored pony’s side was a minigun that shared the pink and rainbow motif.

“You’re surrounded,” a white-ish unicorn mare said as she stepped forward. Her mane was a pale, dirty blonde color that contrasted with her dark red eyes. “Hoof over your shit nicely and we might let you go alive.” She levitated out a combat shotgun and cocked it.

We were grossly outnumbered, something I was fairly used to. I quickly slipped into SATS. The first thing that the spell locked onto was the unicorn’s torso, with a 98% hit chance. I didn’t queue any shot, I just needed time to think.

Okay, one shot to the leader’s head. Dead. Fire the second round into the power armored pony’s visor. If that didn’t work, shoot until dead. Shoot the earth pony with the SMG. Dead. Reload if necessary. Move to the other earth pony with the sledge hammer. Headshot. Dead. Unarmed unicorn next, followed by the two behind us. Loot remains.

I backed out of SATS, not wasting anymore time nor spell charge, and aimed Tweety at the leader’s head.

“Don’t do it!” the raider yelled.

I took a deep breath, predicting the movements I’d have to make. I’d have to roll to the right as soon as I fired, lest I be peppered by the minigun.

“I don’t think so,” I said, pulling out Flintlock’s hunting rifle and my sword. The blade made a slow and intimidating shing as it left its scabbard.

My magic tightened around Tweety’s mouth-trigger. Beside me, Tes’ pistol let out a high pitched whine that would set even a dog’s teeth on edge.

“I’m warning you! Don’t do it!” the mare said threateningly. She cocked her shotgun.

Wait, what? Was it even loaded?

Upon closer inspection of the group, I noticed some other odd things. The power armor pony didn’t have an ammo belt fed into the minigun, which was in such poor condition, it would be a miracle if it fired at all. The earth pony had an SMG that was missing part of the receiver... and also a magazine. Sledge Hammer was holding the weapon by the head. The last three were completely unarmed, except for the unicorn levitating a broken and dull looking knife.

“Wait, Tes...” I sighed. The charging tone of the weapon died out and the blue Stable pony gave me a curious look.

“GET BACK!” the leader yelled defensively as I stepped forward.

“No.” I put my sword and rifle away, but kept Tweety out just in case. “You are the worst bunch of misfit, clumsy, raiders I have ever seen. And I mean the worst. First, you cocked your shotgun twice and no shells came out.” I wrenched the rusty weapon out of her telekinetic grip. “It’s not loaded.” I cocked it and pulled the trigger a few times to prove my point before tossing it to the ground. “Second, where is her magazine?” I pointed to the earth pony mare with the SMG and then to Sledge Hammer. “He’s holding that thing wrong.” I turned to the big power armored pony. “Why don’t you have an ammo belt? And finally, everypony else is unarmed.”

I kicked the rusty shotgun to the unicorn’s hooves, who flinched and fell to her rump in the wet street.

“Come on. I think we’re done here,” I said to my companion. The raider party moved aside willingly as I passed through. We were just past the last pony when a thought struck me. “What were you ponies thinking, anyways? You could be killed out here posing as raiders!”

The leader turned to us, but kept her eyes downcast. “We were desperate,” she began solemnly. “Raiders attacked our home. We were left with nothing.” She looked up at me with tears starting in her eyes. Or maybe it was the rain... “We barely made it out ourselves! We’re... actors... entertainers! We know nothing about fighting...” she sniffled.

“Well, this must be kinda awkward,” Tes said.

Instantly, my EFS flashed and I had a blue ‘8’ and a red ‘0’. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I decided to just trot onward. There was nothing else for us to do. We didn’t speak until we were well out of the mock raiders’ earshot, which happened to be about two blocks.

“So what was it like?” I asked, breaking the rainy silence.

“Hm?” Tes responded.

“Your Stable, what was it like?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, dropping her head back down.

“Come on, it couldn’t be any worse than out here.” I looked around the ruins. Nothing special, just offices, storage buildings, places of business, including a couple stores. “Seriously, we almost got robbed by Haykespeare and her casting crew.” I earned a small laugh from her. “So, what was it like living under a rock?”

“Xero,” she stopped, looking me in the eyes. Their normally bright, almost shiny, silver was nowhere to be found. Now, they were just a cold, hard, grey filled with pain. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Uh, okay...?” I left it at that. Something was getting at her, but I wasn’t going to push it. Some things were better left buried.

We didn’t talk much after that. It was starting to get dark, both from more incoming rain and because it was getting late. Starward was still another three miles away, and while we probably could have made it, I didn’t want to travel through the dilapidated city at night. Who knew what hid in the shadows of these skeletal husks. Besides, we needed rest; Tesla looked particularly beat.

We found an old house to stay the night in. It looked like it had been built into a tree. Or maybe the tree had been magically grown around it to give the same effect. Either way, the tree-house had just the thing we were looking for: dryness.

The place had been thoroughly looted. There was almost no furniture, except for a musty mattress in the kitchen, an overturned couch, and a desk that had been broken in half. Luckily, there were no skeletons. After looking around some, I found that there was no worthwhile junk that we could possibly sell. I did, however, find yet another 9mm pistol and some more ammo for it. Tesla didn’t want the well maintained gun, on the account that her laser pistol was much, much, more powerful. Honestly, her gun had more kick than any other magical energy weapon I’d ever seen, including some of the ones I’ve seen the Outland Rangers use.

I broke apart the remains of the desk and used the wood to build a very small fire, more to keep the wild animals away than for warmth. Tes fell asleep on the nearby mattress almost instantly. I stayed up most of the night to play watch guard.

Out one of the windows, I kept thinking I was something moving in the shadows, stalking us. Nothing was showing up on my EFS, so I dismissed it as my eyes playing tricks on me.

I laid down on the mattress next to Tes. She had taken my cloak off but left her Stable barding on. The big ‘59’ on her back had been stitched together many times and was more patchwork than barding. I’d have to ask her if she knew anything about Ocean Mist and Firestorm, the two mares from Lumens’ terminal. I recalled them coming from the same Stable, and a quick look at my Pipbuck told me the same thing.

The mare beside me shivered as a cool breeze blew through the open window, letting a small spray of rain in, too. I draped my cloak over Tes, now that it had dried off substantially.

“Thanks...” she mumbled in her sleep before resuming her soft snoring. It was kind of cute, in a slightly annoying sort of way.

I laid my head down across my forelegs and closed my eyes. ‘I’ll just rest for a minute,’ I thought.

I must have rested for many minutes, because the next thing I knew, it was morning.

Onward to Starward.

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Spark of Friendship (Friendship Lvl 1) - Congratulations, you've decided that being a 'lone wanderer' may not be the best of things, especially in a world where everything wants to kill you. You care better for others and aren't afraid to open up a little. When you travel with one or more companions, you gain a 10% bonus to damage resistance. You also gain unique conversation options with other ponies (including current and past companions). As a bonus, when Tesla is in your party, you gain +10 to both your energy weapons and science skills. With every level of this perk, you gain +1 to your maximum companion limit.

Chapter 5 Alt. - Catalyst

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Catalyst

“The current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points.”

Nineteen. Nineteen fucking hours I’d been recalibrating this piece of technology. It was older than anypony else here, but so much more advanced than any of us could comprehend. Completely state-of-the-art. Top of the line. One of a kind.

The Arcane Revolutionary Centrifuge Reactor, or ARC Reactor, was a sight to behold. The behemoth of a machine sat in the middle of an open, round column that was just shy of a hundred feet across, with the top of the structure disappearing into the ceiling of conduit and piping two decks above. Below, the device anchored itself to the bottom via a network of similarly pony-sized pipes and cables the size of dinner plates. They made up more of the floor than the steel grating at the base that were occasionally used to access the dangerous inner workings of the beast.

On the level above and below the large observation window before me, an eight-foot thick torus encircled each of the two magic plasma regulators, suspended in mid air by powerful rare-equus magnets and magic. Brilliant, energetic bolts of soft blue and violet magic raced through the enchanted glass at lightning fast speeds. There were very few lights in the reactor chamber, due to the luminescence of the machine alone, though it was still a little dark. Despite the size of the five story column of science and magic, it was unbelievably quiet; the soft, harmonic hum of the plasma containment fields were only interrupted by a computerized beep from the monitoring and adjusting equipment.

In front of me, in my little office space, were five terminals, four of them sputtering out lines of numbers and letters. To the average pony, they would have been complete jibberish, a foreign language. To myself, however, they were beautiful verses of a forgotten song. And to everypony else in Energy Production, they were just readouts of a temperamental machine; efficiency ratings, energy consumption, stocked mana, power drains... that sort of thing.

On the last terminal however...

>Program completed, compiled, and stored_

>Run program? Y/N_

My hoof hovered over the ‘Y’ key. All the shit I put up with... All the pain everypony in this hell hole caused... The bigotry... The... plain... inequine treatment...

My hoof shook like mad, as if I’d drank four pots of coffee, even though I only had one pot. Sweat beaded up on my hornless forehead and neck, eventually rolling down and causing streaks of coolness. It wasn’t hot in the stable, by far. It was always kept at a constant sixty eight degrees. But never mind that.

Was I really going to do this? I needed to get out of hear. Was there another way? I didn’t want everypony to pay for my actions. In the same breath, those responsible needed to atone for their sins. Certainly, there’d be unfortunate collateral. That was the worst of it...the fact that it didn’t have to be like this... but I couldn’t think of another way with the time I had left. Silver lining: they had plenty of time. I could only pray to Celestia that they took it seriously.

>Program executed.

>Goodbye.

I logged of of my terminals and work station for the last time. There was no turning back now. The first domino had been tipped and now it was time for me to leave.

Casually, I got up and headed back to my quarters. It wasn’t very far, thankfully. Around to the other side of the Observation and Control Deck, through the door, down the linking corridor, up the stairs, around the corner, and the first door on the left; that was all the further I needed to walk every day to get to my post.

It would be another three hours and fifteen minutes before First Light, when the graveyard shifts ended and the morning shifts started. When that happened, they’d know. I was supposed to go back at First Light to continue my daily job of keeping the ARC Reactor in check and optimising outputs, but that wasn’t going to happen. By 7:00 AM, I was going to be long gone, out of this fucking place once and for all.

When I reached the door to my miniature apartment, I felt incredibly tired. It wasn’t just the last nineteen hours I spent working on a self sustaining program for the ARC Reactor... no, it was the fact that I’d been up the last sixty eight hours without sleep, getting everything together. I was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, but I needed just a couple more hours to get away.

A quick flash of my key card and the door whooshed open.

“It’s okay. You can do this. You didn’t do it for nothing. It’s already started and you have to keep going,” I told myself. My hooves were shaking like mad still as I fished out a bottle from my lab coat’s deep pocket. The orange bottle contained only about a dozen, bright green tablets. They were unmarked, but I knew they were an extremely carefully measured amount of methylphenidate, a large amount of caffeine, and other medicinal magics. I could stay awake for days with them and still think clearly enough to get shit done.

Two of the tablets found their way into my mouth and the effects were immediately noticeable. At that point, I’d taken over what would have been considered ‘safe’. One pill could keep you up for an extra eight hours, but I needed more than that. With so much to do and so little time, I would have taken the whole bottle if it didn’t kill me.

Feeling the sudden, jarring jolt of of clarity and alertness, I worked furiously to finish what I’d started. I ended up dropping the pill bottle, scattering the pills across the floor, but thought nothing of it; they weren’t going to help now. I only had a couple hours before it wore off and I crashed harder than an overloaded Maneframe server.

I dashed to my in-house workshop, something no other residential quarter had. Being the only pony capable of soloing the Reactor, I had some special privileges. The Manufacturing department was good at what they did, but sometimes it was just easier to make whatever I needed myself. It used to be a second bedroom before, but as I lived by myself, there was no reason in keeping it that way.

The workshop was a cluttered disaster. Half finished projects piled themselves up on top of blueprint sheets, schematics, theoretical notes and prototypes. I would have to leave them all behind, except one, and it sat atop a mostly cleared workbench.

The large tabletop held two laser rifles from the security stock on the neutral deck, the guts of a laser pistol from the same place, a High Intensity Magic Fission Cutter from the Manufacturing’s storeroom, and a slew of other components from around the stable. If I’d been caught with any one of them, I would no doubt get dragged off to Corrections. The mere thought of that was enough to cement my mind in my actions.

I grabbed the single device in the middle, and slapped a magic power cell into the port along the side. The tubes and lights flickered to life as the weapon hummed with an unnatural power. It was only the size of a laser pistol, but according to my calculations, so, so much more effective.

The lab coat came off and was thrown to the cot in the room. I wouldn’t need it, either. Beside where it landed was a simple journal I used to keep track of thoughts. Without a doubt, by time First Light came around, they’d come looking for me, and if I wanted to give them an iota of a chance for redemption, I would have to give them a small hint of guidance.

I scooped up the diary and tossed it on the workbench, scribbling out a quick note to whoever found it and throwing back on the cot. Also on the cot was a pair of average size saddlebags, which I tossed over my back. Inside were just some basic things I would need to get to my destination: extra power cells, some healing potions just in case, a few other medical chems, some basic repair tools, a canteen of water in case what the scans of the surface were true, and a few others things. My mental checklist noted that I was missing and important thing though. Food. There was no time to run down to the cafeteria, not that it would do me any good anyways, since it was closed. I cursed myself for not thinking of it. Whatever, onto other things.

I left my quarters not five minutes after returning from my post.

“Return to your quarters on the Earth Pony Deck,” a synthetic female’s voice said with a charming attitude.

“Oh, you again...” I groaned in frustration.

I turned around to face the voice. I pulled my new tool out a holster-like pocket on my saddlebag.

“This is your final warning. Please return to your quarters on the Earth Pony Deck or I will be authorized to use force,” the blue-grey sentry bot stated. For emphasis, the weapon on her left arm began to spark.

I wasn’t afraid this time. All through my life, I’d been terrified of this.. thing. Lancer was a sentry bot on the Security force used for patrolling the lower levels of the Unicorn Deck to prevent earth ponies like myself from entering into the upper decks. However, the issue with that was that I lived on the Unicorn Deck, since both my parents were unicorns. I wasn’t allowed to live on the earth pony decks because I was ‘too valuable’ to the stable. The EPDs were a little more violent than these UD’s, and since I was the head a department that was normally held by a unicorn, that made me a target in the lower levels.

Lancer began to wheel forward, “Response time expired,” was all she said before the weapon in my mouth burst to life.

PFVVVVMMPFT!

I jumped at the sudden release of energy. The dimly lit corridor flashed in a rainbow of colors as the polychromatic beam assaulted the sentry bot. The scream of metal rending apart echoed throughout the halls of the Unicorn Deck, followed by a cacophony of steel-on-steel clattering.

“Security Alert! Security Alert!” Lancer called out from her position on the ground. One of her legs had been completely severed and now sparked blue and yellow jolts from the stump. “Weapon detected at UD-2-01. Use of live ammunition granted.”

BOOM!

An ear-splitting explosion erupted from the downed robot’s other arm and instantly a panel from the ceiling crashed down in front of me, just barely clipping the end of my muzzle and causing a sudden stinging across my nose.

I didn’t have time to do anything about it before the door at the end of the hall opened up and out came two security ponies, both unicorns, of course. I didn’t stand and wait another second before running down a side-corridor just a couple units down. I was almost surprised that other ponies hadn’t come out, but then I remember that every residential unit was sound-proofed.

“Hey, you! Stop!” a green security stallion shouted. There was another loud bang and ‘ting’, along with a spark at my hooves just as I skidded around the corner. They were shooting at me! With bullets!

“You idiot! That was Tesla!” a mare yelled at her partner. “The fuck is wrong with you? Use-”

I couldn’t hear what else she had to say as I rounded another corner. Just a little farther and I would be at the elevator.

A sharp pain stabbed at my chest, in my lungs.

“Oh, not... now...” I huffed as I galloped through the empty halls. I just needed ten minutes, tops.

The door to the elevator was coming up, I could see it. My hoof slammed down on the button. With a heavy thunk and a low groan, the elevator started its slow climb up to UD-2, the lower Unicorn Deck.

“There she is!” the stallion from before called to his partner. I reacted almost on instinct and cast a rainbow beam down where I had came from just seconds before.

“Holy shit!” the stallion shouted in surprise, his hooves slid out from under him and he fell over before bolting around the corner. “She’s got a... laser... thingy!”

Something hovered from around the corner in a sparkly green aura. At first glance, I had no idea what it was, but as soon as it-

Bang!

The gun flashed and hit me square in the shoulder. I was sent to the ground with a pained cry as my entire shoulder flared up in a heated pain. It couldn’t have been a real bullet, as there was no blood. Probably just a rubber pellet, but it still hurt like hell.

“I think I got her!” the stallion said hopefully.

“Yeah, yeah, good job, Blue,” the mare said. “Don’t let it all go to your head. Now lets go get and and drag her back to Corrections.”

As soon as they rounded the corner, I picked up my laser weapon again and sent another beam down the hall. This time though, it collided with the stallion’s foreleg.

“Shit!” the mare yelled, jumping away from her comrade.

Blue fell to the ground as I did, except he wasn’t getting back up anytime soon.

“W-wh-what? WHAT?! Uh-AHHH!” he panicked at the sight of his severed leg. He began to scream as the ashy, charred stump began to spread up to the rest of his leg. His primal cries ended as the ash neared his torso, burning away his Security armor and even his Pipbuck.

The mare didn’t say anything as she watched her partner dissolve into a pile of glittering blue ash. She ran away before he was even done.

I... I couldn’t believe it. I actually killed somepony. I didn’t know his name or anything. One second he was there and the next he was just... gone. It was... easier than I thought.

“Well, looky what we got here,” an almost familiar voice drawled from behind. I quickly leapt to my hooves, gun in mouth.

“Oh, and look honey, she’s got herself a little toy,” the mare next to him said.

These two. I hated these two with a passion. They were an aging couple, both about in their mid-to-late 40’s, but acting like they were 12. The stallion was a tan-ish color with a dark, chocolate brown mane and tail. The mare was green-grey, with lighter green-blue locks. Unlike most of the security force in the stable, these two ponies were earth ponies. While most security ponies were unicorns, there were a few hooffuls of earth ponies. Most of them did work on the EPDs and the Neutral Level, but these two must have heard of a disturbance up here and came to investigate.

“Aw, she’s shaking. What’s the matter? Scared?” the stallion said. He was wearing a suit of security barding along with his wife beside him. Shock Stock was stitched into the name badge on the front, while the mare’s said Barrel Blast.

“Get out. Now,” I demanded in a low tone. I clenched my teeth around the metal trigger of my weapon. I wouldn’t feel sorry about these two, but I didn’t want another pony’s blood on my hooves.

“Or what? You’ll bore us to death with your techy-egg-head speak?” Barrel said with a roll of her eyes. “Goddesses, what did our pathetic daughter see in you? You’re just about as worthless as she was.”

“Leave Sparkle Shine out of this,” I growled, tightening my grip around the weapon’s bit. Sparky... oh how I missed her. It pained me to even think of what she’d say about this.

“Ooo, did I strike a nerve? Pathetic. You are as useless as she was. Sure, she did her job well enough, I suppose. And then she found you. Of all the other ponies she could have been with, she chose you... a dirt scrubber born from a proud family of horn heads. How’s it feel to be a disappointment to your entire family? I’ve always wondered that. Both of you were disappointments but at least nopony batted an eye when Sparkle Shine was... eliminated,” Barrel smiled smugly.

“W-what?” I asked. Sparky had been shot five times with a security side arm, but no one stepped forward to take the blame.

“You think she fell on those bullets herself? We did it! Turned her in oursel-” she stopped mid-sentence to take a look down at the center of her chest. “Th-the f-f-fuck?”

She gingerly brushed the white ashy hole before falling to the ground. Unlike the stallion before, she didn’t burst into a pile of ashes.

“Y-you monster!” Shock Stock shouted, clearly surprised. “I’m going to kill you for that, you fucking bitch!”

He reached around and pulled out a shock baton from his belt. The weapon crackled as he gave it a test swing.

Click.

“Oh shit,” I mouthed around the handle. I couldn’t be out of ammo already! I’d only fired it a few times!

The baton hit me in the shoulder opposite the one I got shot in. I couldn’t even scream as everything locked up and I felt like I weighed as much as three ponies and fell to the floor, hitting my head on the edge of the elevator door as I fell. My vision shuttered and blurred as the electricity discharged through my body, leaving me partially blinded for a moment.

“See what happens when you fuck with the wrong pony?” Stock said as he kicked me in the side. He didn’t let up for a second, kicking again and again

“Stop! Please!” I choked out after the fourth kick. All it earned me was a kick to the back of the head that sent the world spinning.

“The fuck you think I’m gonna do? Let you crawl back to Mommy? The Overmare won’t know what the fuck happened to her pathetic bitch daughter, she wont care either! I’ll just toss you into the recycler myself!” Stock laughed cruelly. “Come on! I thought you were smarter than this!”

He kicked me hard enough send me tumbling over his dead wife.

“S-stop!” I blubbered around a busted lip. I could barely see and everything hurt so fucking much. I tried to get up but a single-hoof buck prevented that. My entire chest exploded with pain as I felt something crack, earning another cry of pain. I tried to back away, but my hoof caught something on Barrels’ belt.

“Oh! Yes, that’s right. Beg for mercy!” he called out. “Beg for me to stop and le-”

Bang!

“Oh, hey... that’s... not nice...” Stock said in shock as he took a step back.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I emptied Barrel Blast’s 10mm pistol into Shock’s chest. I felt nothing killing these two. They had cause enough pain, and now they wouldn’t cause any more. I pushed the two of them out the elevator and left them there

I only had to go up a couple floors and then I’d be out. The doors took forever to close, but they eventually locked shut and the elevator began to rise to the stable’s uppermost deck. I took what time I had to slap a new power cell in my weapon and look myself over. Every breath burned and stung like hell. There was no doubt in my mind I had a broken rib, more than one, probably. There wasn’t as much blood as I expected, except where my face had caught the sharp edge of the door, leaving a three inch gash along my jawline that followed up to my ear, and where Shock Stock managed a decent hit with his baton and horse shoes. Before I drank a healing potion though, I had to make sure my ribs were still all in place, or I’d be worse off than before. I could do that later, though. There were much more important things going on at the moment. Other than the bruises already forming and the welt on my shoulder, I was... alright. Physically, anyways; I hadn’t taken a real bullet yet.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. The Top Deck was mostly empty, as usual, thank the Goddesses. With only the security lights running, the halls almost looked abandoned. Barely anypony ever came up here anymore, not since the incident about 80 years ago. Now only security ponies were the only ones who regularly came up here. Occasionally a couple of love birds would sneak away to a supply room or empty office from a closed department (Sparky and I were only one couple), or maybe to set up a bootleg chem deal, but other than that, none of the three thousand, two hundred fifty ponies living in this underground city had any reason to be up here.

The quiet, off-gait, clip-clop of my hooves echoed slightly off the hard floor and walls. Most of the side halls only had half their security lights on, mostly just to prevent the eerie creepiness the guards would get sometimes. In reality, it was excessively creepy up here. Down about a dozen feet of ductworks, cables, and stone, there were a few hundred unicorns just going about their daily lives. But up here, one would never guess at the true size of the Stable.

I limped around the corner cautiously, preparing to jumped at any moment. However, there was nopony in sight.

“She’s just around the corner,” a stallion said calmly as I neared the second corner before the Entrance room. “Let’s try to talk to her first.”

“Damn it,” I cursed to myself. I pulled my gun out of my saddle’s holster-pocket again and rounded the corner.

Standing at the entrance to the cog room were three entities; two unicorns, and another sentry bot. This bot, however, wasn’t armed with a beanbag-gun and an arc taser. On one arm hung a multi barreled beast of a weapon, while the other held something that resembled the arc taser on Lancer, only much heavier.

“Tesla, why don’t you put the gun down and we can talk this through,” A light teal unicorn said as I limped halfway up the hall. I was going to get out. One way or another.

He resituated his security cap with his blood red magic. “We can work this out together. Come peacefully, and I can make your punishment a whole lot less severe.”

I didn’t acknowledge him or his partner. The other unicorn with him, a young, light blue-purple mare with golden yellow locks styled into curls quickly pulled out her side arm and aimed it at me.

“We don’t need more bloodshed, Lace,” Snapshot said, putting his hoof on her gun and bringing it down. I knew him pretty well. He was nicer than most of the ponies in Security, second only to Torus, the department Head. He turned back to me. “I know you don’t want to hurt anypony else, Tesla.”

“Move,” I demanded around my mouth piece. He was right. I didn’t want to hurt anypony else. I never wanted to hurt anypony else, let alone kill. “Move and you won’t get hurt.”

“Stay there,” Silk Lace growled. Her blue magic flared up around her horn and I suddenly felt glued to the floor. A quick glance found that my hooves were firmly stuck to the floor in a blue aura.

“Let me go!” I shouted around my weapon. I kept a death grip on the bit trigger. I didn’t want to drop it again. My hooves felt like they weighed a ton and a half. Try as I might, though, they just wouldn’t budge. It reminded me too much of the times I’d been Corrections... the ‘sessions’ I had with the Head of the department... my father. “LET ME GO!” I screamed at her. I couldn’t stand there any longer. “Please let me go!” I begged

“Sshh, it’ll be all right soon enough,” Lace calmly said as her horn started glowing. There was a small sparkly orb forming at the tip.

I knew what it was. It was a pacification spell. On hit, and the target would be as controllable and easy to deal with as a foal. I couldn’t let that happen. I worked too hard to just give up now. The weeks of preparing, gathering the necessary parts, finding out which security guards would be on duty and where they were stationed. The hall monitors never kept a steady pace and I expected to stumble across a few, but at least I knew I could take them on if needed. What I hadn’t expected was Silk Lace to be on duty here. Her specialty was subduing ponies.

“Let go!” I begged again. I didn’t want to go back to Corrections, I knew I would come out of it somewhat alright, but the last time it took me two weeks to pull myself back together and go back to work. I felt shattered, scattered across an empty, desolate plain of yellowed, dried grass.

The orb grew in size. I needed to act or face the consequences.

PFVVVVMMPFT!

“TESLA!” Snapshot cried out.

The beam hit Silk Lace in the throat, scorching her pretty periwinkle coat and flesh into a bloodied, blacken, charred mess. The orb flew high, just missing my head, as the aura and weight lifted from my hooves. I bit twice more on the bit, hitting the sentry bot in the leg and head, rendering him scrap.

I didn’t waste any time charging towards the giant cog. It was so close.

Bang!

Another rubber slug nicked my flank, causing it to spasm and me to trip.

“Ah!” I cried out. It couldn’t end like this!

“Enough, Tes,” Snapshot said sternly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Why are you doing this,” I said between sobs. Everything hurt so fucking bad. “I just want to get out of here...”

“You know I can’t let you do that. As much as I would like to just let you on out, I just can’t,” he said sympathetically as he got near. I could hear a shock baton come out and charge up, cracking lightly.“I know you’ve had it rough here. Believe me, a lot of us have, but you know the rules. Nopony leaves unless exiled by the overmare. I’m sorry, but murder isn’t going to get you exiled. I’m going to have to take you to corrections. Series will have to take care of you there.”

There was an obvious hint of sadness in his pained voice. He didn’t want to take me to my father; he knew what would happen. He couldn’t just let me go, either. He was just doing his job.

“Come on, up you go,” he grunted as he pushed me up with his magic. I didn’t resist. Everything hurt too much to resist. He even put my weapon back in my saddlebag. “Follow me. We’ll get you cleaned up and then I’ll take you to Correction.”

He tugged on my stable barding’s collar, leading me back to the elevator. I got closer this time than I had with Sparky. We only got to the neutral deck by elevator, but we never actually hurt anypony, and she wanted to get out as badly as I did.

When Sparky and I got to Corrections, I was told it was the last time I would try to escape, that once was enough. Sparky was never the same, always scared of the consequences of every little thing she did. Two weeks later, she was gone. I hadn’t heard or seen her for three days and snuck down to the bottom levels to pay her a visit. When I found her place, I knew what had happened, just by the ‘DO NOT CROSS’ tape across the door.

“I’m sorry...” I whispered meekly. I didn’t want to to what I was about to do, but I had to go on. I had to do it for Sparky.

“It’s alright Tesla, we’ll get this sorted out. Maybe your... thing... malfunctioned as Silk Lace was messing with it.” Snapshot said with a shake of his mane as he neared the elevator. “I’ll try to get your punishment lessened, but I can’t ignore it altogether.”

“I’m... so... sorry...” I said again as I raised my foreleg.

And hit him as hard as I could in the back of the head with my Pipbuck.

He fell to the ground with a grunt, his baton rolling away as he flared his magic around his empty holster. I’d grabbed his gun as soon as he hit the ground.

Bang! Bang!

Snapshot fell limp, where the blood had started to pool almost instantly. I couldn’t believe what I had done. I didn’t want to believe what I had done.

The gun fell from my mouth and into the puddle that had slowly found its way to my hooves. I murdered him. Killed him in cold blood. The first stallion had been in self-defense, Shock Stock and Barrel Blast were in anger and they had it coming to them. But Snapshot? He didn’t deserve this. He was better than the others, better than most ponies, even. And now he was gone

I cried right then and there. Nothing was going to plan. Nopony was supposed to get hurt. Nopony was supposed to get killed. They all had lives, families, hopes and dreams... And I took all that away from them. Things were going from bad to worse and I could tell they weren’t done yet. The faster I got out of this forsaken hell hole, the better off everypony would be.

I’d made my way back to the main entrance, bloody hoofprints following from Snapshot’s final resting place, when my Pipbuck’s broadcaster kicked on with a staticy pop.

“Listen, young lady,” a middle-aged, feminine voice called out. She sounded as if she’d just been woken up, and she was pissed. “Get back to your quarters, and don’t come out until Torus and your father get there. You’ve got a lot to answer for, missy. We’ll deal with you then.”

“N-no,” I managed to squeak out. I hadn’t stopped sniffling from Snapshot’s untimely demise. There were only two voices that could paralyse me in fear, and this was one of them

“Excuse me?” she replied. “Are you defying your Overmare? You know that’s punishable by cor-”

“I don’t care, Mom!” I yelled at my Pipbuck. “I don’t fucking care! I’m leaving and there’s nothing you can do to stop me! Why... why do you treat me like you do? I know I’m not perfect, nopony is, but why can’t you love me just the way I am?”

“Because,” my mother started quietly, “... I could never bring myself to love a lowly dirt scrubber like yourself...”

That was it, my decision was cemented in place. She didn’t love me. She never had. And now there was absolutely nothing here for me.

There was a staticy crackle over head as the Stable’s hall PA system kicked on. “Attention all UD Security; we have an issue at the entrance.” It was my mother. “Please report to the stable’s entrance and secure the earth pony mare named Tesla Ampere. She is the head of Energy Production and is to be taken alive. Once you have her, take her to Corrections. That is all.”

I limped as fast as I could to the control panel in the entrance room, passing Silk Lace’s ash pile on the way. The other sentry bot laid in a heap beside her. I needed to get out. Murder was the worst crime in the stable, and I had just done it on multiple accounts.

“Alpha, Epsilon, Gamma, Iota, Sigma!” I shouted at the interface’s microphone.

After what seemed like an eternity, there was a confirmation buzz from the console. The klaxons in the room pulsed red and blared their song as the machine groaned to life.

Overhead, the massive, bolt-like lock mechanism shifted forward, squealing like a worn-out fan.

“She’s up ahead” a voice yelled from further down the hall. The sounds of multiple ponies’ hoofsteps followed, thundering down the corridor. They were running, trying to secure their target before she left. Forever.

The mechanism slid into the door with a grinding-groan, before ripping the it from the doorway with a horrid scream. Sparks shot from the device and the floor, where metal ground against metal. I didn’t wait for the door to open all the way before slipping through the endless black void beyond.

I didn’t care if the shadows swallowed me up whole, as long as I was away from that goddess forsaken pit from the darkest reaches of Tartarus. The outside control panel was easy to find, and I smacked my hoof down on the lock-out button. The door immediately reversed direction and slammed back into place.

I was out. I was free! Free from the abuse and torture.... everything! Despite all that had just happened, I laughed. I was finally out. And there was noth-

SSCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

The door shifted as it was being pulled back out of it’s socket. Hitting the lock-out button did nothing as it slowly pulled itself backward. I wasn’t going back, not even dead, I was not going back.

I turned tail and ran down the dank, musty corridor. The floor and walls changed from smooth concrete to rough.... dirt? I didn’t know what it was, but I ran as fast as I could on three hooves, as my hind leg began to cramp up, more than likely from Shock Stock’s excessive use of force.

A wooden plank door just barely came into view, but I didn’t bother stopping. The rotten wood snapped and splintered like nothing as I barreled through. The sharp, rusty nails scraped at my sides, but I still didn’t stop.

Even the wide, barren landscape didn’t hinder me. The flat, coarse, sandstone ground stretched everywhere as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t far in these early hours of the morning. The sky was so much more immense than I could have ever imagined, threatening to lift and swallow every last thing under it. I didn’t have time to dwell on it as something shifted in the darkness to my side. And then another on my otherside. And another. And another. There were at least a dozen of them; vaguely equine shapes, but they moved... wrong.

“Somepony there?” a gravely stallion’s voice shouted somewhere in the distance. “C’mon, I think I heard somethin’.”

Another pain exploded in my shoulder as one of the shadows leapt at me. I screamed and kicked at the monster, but putrefied hide squished out from my weak blows. I wasn’t a strong pony, everyone knew that, but even as hard as I was beating my assailant, it didn’t even flinch. In fact, its grip around my shoulder increased, breaking the skin and peeling part of it off the meat. I continued to cry and scream as I managed to beat it off.

“Th-there! There’s somefuck’s runnin’!” another gravely voice yelled. I didn’t like the sound of their voices. They didn’t sound friendly at all.

Before I knew it, the sound of suppressed gunfire filled the air, and bolts of yellow streaked towards me. One even ripped through my saddlebag and clipped my Pipbuck with a loud ping!

I scampered to my hooves and bolted away from the bullets and the... thing. I looked back to see that it was eating my flesh! What kind of thing would do that?! Who was shooting at me?! Was there anywhere in Equestria that didn’t want me dead?

I realized it then, what I’d been feeling the last few days as I prepared. I was scared. I’d always been scared, but this time was different. Before, it was just doing something wrong and getting a slap on the hoof or a stern scolding. It was mostly harmless, except when Lancer decided to get a little more forceful or when I had to go to corrections for ‘processing’. This time however, I was simply, truly, scared. I’d taken everything I had ever known and thrown them all to the wind. I was scared at what I’d find. I was scared at what I wouldn’t find. I didn’t know how I would be treated out in the ‘real’ world, this... wasteland. I didn’t know how to treat other ponies.

I was scared that I didn’t know what I was doing. I picked a direction and hobbled as quickly as I could. In the dim atmosphere, I could barely see the ground at my hooves, or the crevice that dropped nearly forty feet before it was too late. My hooves skidded across the loose rocks on the hard ground.

Time slowed as I slipped off the edge head first. As I fell, I couldn’t decide if I regretted everything, or nothing.

Below was the remains of a small, dead, pathetic looking tree barely bigger around than my hoof. I crashed through the blackened, curled-bark trunk, splintering it like nothing before coming to a stop some distance below.

There was a loud snap and my entire body was introduced to a whole new definition of pain. I’d luckily landed on my leg, but it had, quite literally, broken my fall. I let out scream like never before as my body finally registered the pain of a broken leg. The bone was threatening to break through the skin, just above my Pipbuck. Another sharp pain was stabbing at my chest and I coughed up what I thought was a loogie, but loogies weren’t bloody. My mind had decided to take a vacation as my vision started to get dark and hazy. Little tool notes flashed up as my Pipbuck’s screen lit up as well, telling me how fucked up I’d gotten.

“H-help...” I squeaked out through a choked cough. I could barely breath, and each breath felt like I was trying to breath through a wet washcloth. “Somepony... help.”

No one was coming. I was alone out here. Completely and utterly alone.

Everything felt cold as the darkness crept up around me, and swallowed me whole.

↯ ↯ ↯

“I... I’m sorry!” I sobbed. “I- I- I was just curious! I promise I won’t do it again, I promise!”

“You know the rules, Tesla,” the stallion said. He looks a lot like me, and I hated it. Same coat color, very similar mane color, our eyes were different, though; his were a dark purple while mine were chromey grey. “You broke into the ARC Reactor control room, and meddled with the system. You know only a unicorn is authorized to operate such a delicate piece of equipment. And you also know that only an Energy Production certified technician is allowed in the control room.”

His horn glowed a citrusy orange with magic, just barely though. I could feel him inside me. He dug through my mind casually, as if he were just idly rummaging through a warehouse full of filing cabinets. He didn’t need to exert himself very much to get access recent events. He knew his way around my cluttered head like the back of his hoof. Worst yet, it pained me to see him do this; he’d just pick up a folder, open it, look at its content, and toss it over his shoulder. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just... digging around and making a mess.

“S-stop it! It hurts!” I cried, burying my head into my forelegs. I was laying on a cot in the Corrections office, against my will.

The stallion rolled his eyes with a sigh as he tipped over the mental filing cabinet, sending memories and thoughts across the floor. I scurried to pick them up, but some were kicked under larger, heavier cabinets and some just disappeared altogether, forever lost.

I cried out again. It felt like there was a vicegrip around my head that was slowly getting tighter and tighter. I didn’t know how much more I could take, I’d already lost so much. It would take me days to get everything back together the way it was, but the stallion didn’t care. He smirked at my dismay, enjoying the torment he caused to somepony who couldn’t fight back. Unicorns had stronger magic in their mind than earth ponies and could fight back against a mind probe, but earth ponies were stuck without it. We had to bend to their will, and the less we resisted, the less it would hurt.

Though it hurt every time, even if I didn’t resist.

“I’m sorry. Did you need that?” the stallion said as he reached up and tipped over another cabinet. More thoughts were scattered. They weren’t important ones, but they were mine nonetheless. “Alright. Enough. Lets get this over with,” he said boredly.

He walked through the aisles of drawers, desks, and boxes. He knew what he was looking for now, and exactly where to find it. More than once, I tried to hide it from him, but he always knew where it was, exactly where it was.

“No, no, nonono!” I begged. I ran in front of him, trying to hinder his progression, but he just cast me aside like I was a simple door.

He stopped in front of a simple looking cabinet with three drawers and opened up the middle one.

“Hm. This looks interesting,” he said as he opened up the folder, skimming it a few times before closing it back up. “Let this be another lesson for you, Tes. You got your cutie mark, good for you. But you still broke the rules trying to get it.”

He showed me the folder. All that was printed on it was ‘SCHEMATIC’. I didn’t know what schematic it was; he was the one in charge of that particular memory. I even leapt at it, but he held it just out of my reach. With it in his magic, he slowly pulled it apart, tearing it down the middle.

I screamed out in pain. It was like somepony had driven an ice cold pickaxe down the front of my head. He wasn’t done though. The two halves were stacked atop each other and he tore them in half as well, sending another shooting pain through my head. Each time he did, it got worse and worse, until he was almost straining to tear them apart. At that point, he just let them flutter to the ground. The thought had been torn into pieces smaller than a prewar bit and there was nothing i could do to put it back together. It was lost. Destroyed by the simple will of a mean old stallion.

I opened my eyes to find myself sobbing quietly on the cot in the Corrections office. The stallion in my head was standing before me, a bored look on his face as he turned to the smaller male next to him. The smaller one was the same age as myself, had the same coat and mane color as myself, even shared my eye color and similar spots.

“Son,” the older stallion started.

“Yessir?” a colt said after a quick shake of his head. He’d been watching the entire time. He was learning the ropes, but it was obvious in his eyes that he didn’t want to be here. There was fear in them.

“Take your sister back home. I’ll see the both of you when I get done,” the stallion said. He didn’t say anything else as he went back to his desk and back to his log book.

“C’mon, Tessy,” the colt said caringly. An orange aura formed around my mid-section as he picked me up and set me back to my trembling hooves. For a moment, I’d almost forgotten how to stand. “Let’s get you home...”

I sniffled again and nodded. It’d been a pretty shitty day for me already...

↯ ↯ ↯

I didn’t know how long I’d been on that little outcropping. I hadn’t fallen to my death, like I had thought, but instead landed on a small rock that was jutting out of the side of the cliff face. I faded in and out of consciousness, not knowing if it’d been a few minutes, or an hour. Eventually, it had begun to brighten. The sun was nothing like I had anticipated. The bright orb of light was hidden behind a thick layer of grey clouds. I didn’t know how far up they were, but the sheer distance made me feel nauseous and sick to my stomach. I closed my eyes and waited. Eventually something would happen. Maybe I’d finally kick the bucket from dehydration, or I’d just fall asleep and never wake up.

~Some time later~

“Hello?” a voice called out.

My eyelids felt like they were a hundred pounds as I peeled them open. One was swollen half shut and it hurt to move as well, but at least it still could see. My head was more clouded than the bathroom showers when somepony left them all running on boiling hot. I had to be imagining it; I’d been on this rock for hours and not one pony had passed by. I knew the stable was built into a plateau from some logs I’d managed to take a peek at, and it was next to a fairly well traveled road, but not a single pony or otherwise had made their way down the road below.

“Hello...?” the strange voice asked again, this time more questionably.

His accent was rather bizarre. It was... hard to make sense of, especially with a minor concussion. It had to be a hallucination or something, but I couldn’t move to see; everything hurt to much to move.

“Hey!” he shouted. I had discerned that the voice was male. Not terribly deep, but it was definitely a stallion talking.

I closed my eyes again, hoping the hallucination would pass. There was nopony coming for me. I was going to die here, and I was alright with that. The pain would soon be lifted and all the things I’d been guilty of would come to judgement. I would pay for what I’d done to Silk Lace, Sparky’s parents, that Blue fellow, and of course, Snapshot. I’d get judged for however many ponies decided not to leave the Stable when it locked down. I’d lied to my parents’ faces to get out of trouble, blamed other ponies for my mistakes. I was probably going to burn, along with every other pony in 59.

Something hit my side, making me groan in pain as it ran through my ribcage as if I’d been stabbed by one of Manufacturing’s thermic cutting lances. I painfully moved my good leg to brush the rock off my barding.

Another small pebble found its way up to my little hideout. This one was a little smaller than a prewar bit-coin.

“Hello?” I asked. My dry voice cracked from the lack of water. I hadn’t had a single thing to eat or drink since the pot of coffee I’d drank the day and a half before, not including the medication I was taking to stay awake that borderlined ‘illegal substance’, which had me sweating like I’d ran a mile and a half. “Is- is somepony down there?”

I needed to check. There was no way I was going to just lay up here and let the vultures circling above pick me clean. I managed to work through the pain and crawl to the ledge of my rock. Once there, my body couldn’t handle the strain anymore and it simply collapsed.

Below, a dusky blue pony stood, clad in some kind of... cloak? A cloak would have been nice, i didn’t think a dry, dusty plateau was going to be so cold. Maybe it was just me, maybe I was finally slipping into shock.

“Hey there,” I laugh. I was so tired. “Thought I’d be stuck up here forever.”

The use of a punctured lung to talk sent me into a coughing fit. Another bloody mess found its way onto my hoof and barding.

“I’m uh... in a bit of a bad way... up here,” I rasped as I wiped the blood off on my barding. I was surprised my condition hadn’t acted up sooner. “Think you can, you know, get me down, uh... there?” I dropped my good leg over the edge of the rock.

“Uh, sure...” he said uneasily.

I was surprised to find a pretty, sparkly, aura envelop my hoof and works its way up and around the rest of my form. He was a unicorn! Instantly I felt a streak of fear that he might try something horrible on me.

“Owowowowowow!” I cried out as he began to lift me around my barrel. Everything exploded in pain, my broken leg more as it began to dangle.

Quickly, but softly, I was set back on the rock. I hadn’t even made it a couple inches up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I think I broke my leg,” I said. My leg had swollen to the point where the barding was starting to become tight around it.

“Which one?”

“Right foreleg. It... doesn’t look right.” The damned thing had an extra bend in it!

“Okay,” he said as he began to wrap his magic around me. I could feel parts of it lock in place and prevented some parts of my body from moving, like a telekinetic gurney. Whoever this guy was, he was pretty skilled.

As he began to lift me up again, I still felt parts inside shift around, earning a pained hiss. I didn’t say anything though, The sooner I was on the ground, the better.

It didn’t take more than a few agonizingly long seconds before I was set back down on the road below. It was just as cold as the rock, but at least I didn’t have to worry about falling off.

“Thanks,” I groaned. Everything felt so cold and hazy. I was having trouble seeing the stallion. He was a tall dusky blue stallion with a mane that almost matched and stood on itself, kind of like a mohawk, but more... messy? If it was a mohawk, it needed more gel to upright it.

“No problem,” he said caringly.

Something cold, metal and wet touch my dry, chapped lips. Water! I bit it with my teeth and greedily chugged it down. It was so... different. it had flavor, almost. Maybe a little dust or dirt, but it didn’t taste so chemically sterile like the Stable’s water.
“Hey, slow down a little. You’re going to choke on it,” he said.

And just like he said, I felt water go down the wrong tube, which sent me into a coughing fit. I dropped the canteen and sent whatever water I had in my mouth across the bone dry blacktop. A rib slipped and more bloody specks came out as well.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” he said as he sat down and fiddled with something on his foreleg. Oddly enough, he was using his hoof to do so.

“I guess this is it then...” I could feel myself slipping. Feeling was leaving my hooves and legs and the cold kept on creeping in. “Goodbye, cruel world...” Those were great last words.

“Hang in there,” he said with is face in the device on his leg.

“Nah, I’m not... worth... it...” I sighed as I closed my eyes. I was relieved that the pain had begun to subside. I was in so much pain all the time, and for the first time in a long time, I felt better. I was going to pay for what I’d done, but at least I didn’t have to endure this... whatever it was... any longer.

He said something else but I couldn’t hear the muffled words. Something pricked my arm and i felt even better, warm even.

Suddenly, my whole world came crashing back. I couldn’t explain the feeling. Something inside me was ripping the broken bones back into place like a crazed doctor. I thought falling off the ledge was painful? This was so much worse. The bones in my leg snapped back into place like a rubber band. My skull popped and my hearing returned to an unrecognizable scream that was my own. Misplaced ribs crack back to their respective places, and the cuts and other wounds stitched themselves back together. The excruciating, agonizing, torture was more than I could bear. I blacked out at about that time.

↯ ↯ ↯

Something dragged me from my slumber. I didn’t know what, but something had stirred enough to wake me from my sleep. The first thing I noticed was that it was much, much cooler than the stable, and I shivered as a result. If somepony had meddled with the temperature again, heads were going to roll.

I didn’t want to wake up yet. It felt like I’d been sleeping for an entire day, but that was impossible; my alarm would have gone off...

Alarms. I had turned off my Pipbuck’s alarms when I was working and preparing... and then I had left the stable... and then I fell.

Before I even attempted to move around, I did a quick test. Luckily, I could still wiggle all my hooves, meaning I wasn’t paralyzed. They were stiff and sore, but I didn’t feel mortally wounded. It took some effort, but I managed to crack my eyes open to find myself facing a dilapidated plaster wall. Beneath me was a rather uncomfortable mattress that was rank with mildew and decades old stains.

Where was I? The last place I remembering was... on a rock? I thought it was a rock. I was running... then falling. Then... somepony...

I rolled over, falling off the mattress much sooner than I had anticipated. I wasn’t sure where I was at all. It looked to be the remains of a burned house, or from what I could gather from the pictures I’d seen in some of the stable’s books.

The landscape was incredibly bleak and dreary. Everything look dead or dying, even the dull, sickly shrubs. The overcast sky filtered minimal light down to the earth, making everything seem even worse. On the bright side though, it was probably hiding a more than anypony wanted to see.

Just outside the two still-standing walls was a busted and burned wagon. It looked like somepony had tried to pack it up and leave, as there were still some suitcases on the ground beside it. Just beyond it was a road that stretched in either direction. I couldn’t see the plateau that concealed the upper level of the my Stable, but I did see a dusky blue, cloaked figure looking over his shoulder at me. He opened his mouth to say something but I must have cut him off.

It wasn’t the piercing amber eyes, or pearly white teeth, or the black and blue striped mane, the weird looking eye, or even the horn on his head. No, it was onyx black muzzle and asymmetrical stripes that covered his face and forelegs, and probably the rest of him, that made me let out a squeaky gasp.

He was a zebra. A ZEBRA! The reason why a lot of us Equestrians were in those stupid bunkers! The reason why everypony was at war and everything went to shit!

“Uh... hi?” he said with a raised brow.

I couldn’t be here, not with him. Who knew what he was capable of!

Before he could say anything else or put some kind of... curse or whatever on me, I turned tail and ran right out the missing window and into the world. And I kept running; around boulders, through the thick, desert brush, over fallen trees. I kept running until the house was no longer in sight and my lungs burned.

I fell to the ground and rolled to my back, heart thundering in my ears. My chest felt like a hundred pins and needles were stabbing at it.

“FUCK YOOUU!” I screamed at the clouded sky as I clutched my burning chest. “I fucking left and you’re still fucking with me!? What do you want!?”

I rolled to my side and let out a few deep, throaty coughs. It hurt like hell as I hacked up a few more bloody specks. It would never end. It’d only get worse and worse until it finally killed me. Maybe something out here could counter it, or even fix it completely. I could only hope.

I coughed a few more times, tearing at my lungs even more. A sip from a healing potion would somewhat patch it back together. It was then that I realized I had left my gear back at the house. Groaning in frustration, I got back to my hooves and began to make my way back to that husk of civilization. With any luck, that... zebra... was gone. I’d heard they were masters of infiltration and hoof-fighting. I wasn’t good at either, meaning he had all the advantages.

↯ ↯ ↯

I peeked around a giant, brown rock. It took about twenty minutes to walk back to the house, but something told me the zebra was still there.

I quickly dashed across to a boulder opposite of me, then to a large, thorny bush ahead, and then behind a dead, blackened tree. Eventually I made it up the hill behind the house, and to the far side of the wagon. I just needed some time to think how I could get my packs without him noticing. That is, unless he already went through them and tossed everything about.

“About time you showed back up,” he said.

I jumped at the sudden voice and looked around quickly. He wasn’t anywhere that I could see, and it sounded like he was still in the ruined home.

“Since I know you can hear me, let me just say that I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

I didn’t believe him for one second. At my hooves was a decent sized rock. If he got close, it was better than nothing. With a little bit of effort, I managed to pull the dirty stone from the ground.

He didn’t exactly sound like a zebra. Or at least what I expected a zebra to sound like. He didn’t speak in cryptic rhymes, or have some outlandish, exotic accent. He didn’t sound like anypony from the stable, and he did have a slight accent, but it wasn’t terribly different from an Equestrian’s. His vowels were a little longer and softer, making it sound rather silly.

“You can come out. I promise I won’t do anything.” Like hell.

My saddlebags appeared before me, just out of hoof’s reach, in a sparkly teal cloud of magic. They were so close, yet so far. It had to be a trap.

“See? I’m even giving your stuff back,” he continued. He did sound genuinely friendly. If zebras were as fearsome as I’d been lead to believe, then he would have no problem getting rid of me.

I couldn’t risk it. I was going to make something of myself out here, and I couldn’t do that if some stupid zebra thought I was going to fall for his stupid tricks. I was just going to have to wait until he left.

After a couple minutes, it got really quiet. I mean really quiet. Cautiously, I peeked under the wagon and to the house. I didn’t see him anywhere, and that was almost as frightening. I looked around the edge of the wagon, searching for the striped stallion.

He had disappeared completely. Not a trace anywhere to be seen. He had to be lurking elsewhere nearby.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” a voice said from behind.

I froze solid. This was it, I was going to die. At the very least though, I wanted to know what my killer’s face looked like, so I slowly turned around.

“Look. I’m not... going... to hurt... you,” he said slowly. His amber eyes stared deep, as if peering into my very soul. One of them was really weird looking. It resembled an eight pointed star, except each point was curved towards the next. Inside each one was some kind of coppery arcane symbol. Maybe it was artificial? Cybernetic, perhaps?

He was decently tall, at least a head taller than myself. And rather lean. Not thin though, he was certainly athletic, but not noticeably muscular. Did he really carry me all the way from where I’d fallen?

“Do you want something to eat?” He asked out of the blue.

I hadn’t eaten in over thirty six hours, and I really wanted food, but not his food.. Before I could answer, he looked down at a device on his foreleg. It looked like a Pipbuck, but a bit bulkier, with more buttons, external ports, and instead of a dark grey casing, it had a lighter, smoother grey casing. A glint of silver on his other leg caught my eye as he used it to scroll through whatever menus he was going through. Strapped into a kind of foreleg holster was an incredibly ornate revolver. The thing was in immaculate condition, from the silver body to the gold and obsidian-black flourishes that wrapped around the entire gun.

I couldn’t waste another second. While he was distracted with his Pipbuck I quickly reached over to my saddlebags. Luck was with me as I instantly pulled out my laser pistol and took its grip in my mouth.

“S-stay b-back!” I yelled around the bit.

His eyes flicked up and looked at me. He didn’t seem particularly scared until I tightened my grip on the trigger a little and the weapon charged up partially. He took a step back, finally showing some form of fear.

“Alright, alright...” he said calmly. “Can’t we talk about this, Miss...”

“Names aren’t important!” I yelled. I wasn’t going let this zebra get the upper hoof. “Now get on the ground and tell me what I need to know!”

“Ask away, stable pony,” he said casually as he lowered himself to the ground. He was so... confident with himself, like he knew something I didn’t. His horn wasn’t glowing, so it wasn’t like he was levitating something behind me.

I had a feeling I had already lost the upper hoof.

“One: Where the hell am I?” I started. I was going to get what I wanted before that, though.. “And two: What the hell is a stable pony?”

“We’re just west of the Royal Mountains. The town of Starward is east of here about a day’s trot.” He pointed a hoof towards the rising sun. I needed to go the city-state Mareverick, which was much much farther east than the small town of Starward. I’d studied old maps in the stable; Mareverick was where Sparky and I were going to go if we ever got out of there. “You know, it would be easier to understand you without that thing in your mouth; it sounds like you’re trying to eat a bag of marbles. Oh, and you are a stable pony,” he said, putting emphasis on ‘you’.

He had a point. I was surprised he could understand anything at all.

“And just what is that suppose to mean?” I asked after dropping the pistol into my hoof. I could have it ready to fire before he could even get up.

“Just that, you’re a stable pony. Your stable barding, your Pipbuck, your.... cleanliness. You are obviously from a stable. Stable 59, if I’m not mistaken,” he said, pointing out the yellow numbers on my barding. I was far from clean. Dirt and blood soiled parts of my barding and there were already a couple frayed ends. But compared to his cloak and armor underneath, he was far dirtier. “You look like you haven’t been out here for more than a couple days. Your hooves aren’t even dirty! Honestly, I don’t think you’ll last more than a week out here.”

He was right. My hooves were dirty, but unlike his, they weren’t starting to cake with dust and dirt.

“Get back down!” I yelled through clenched teeth as he started to get back up. I was going to show him he was wrong. I wasn’t just going to bend to other ponies’ anymore, especially a zebra’s.

“Listen, there are worse things than death out here, and there’s already a lot of that,” he said as he took a step forward. “You have no idea how absolutely unprepared you are. Take a look at your gun.”

“What about-” I started to say as I looked it over. He was really starting to frustrate me. Then I noticed the missing power cell. Uh-oh. “Ohshitohshitohshitohshit!”

It was there just a moment ago! Did it fall out? Did I just imagine it? No, I was charging up the weapon before, so there was a power cell before that. That’s why he was so confident. He knew my gun was unloaded! I quickly searched around, rummaging through the dust for the small battery. I was mentally cursing myself. It wasn’t anywhere! I needed to grab another one, but it was in my saddle bag. I snatched it up and opened the top flap-

Click.

I instantly stopped what I was doing. I’d visited the Security Training Center enough times to know the sound of a gun being cocked.

“Bang. You’re dead,” he said without emotion.

I lost it again. I’d hit the bottom and was done.

“Please don’t kill me!” I cried into my forehooves. I felt pathetic. I was pathetic. I couldn’t even hold a zebra up to save my own ass. I hated this world and everything in it now, including myself. “I- I- I have no idea what the fuck I’m even doing out here!”

“Hey, it’s alright,” he said with a comforting tone. Something touched my shoulder and I instantly tensed up. “Listen, I have stuff I have to do. I suppose if you want, you can tag along.”

Oh, great. Now he was feeling sorry for me. There was no doubt that he was the one who helped me back at the ravine. Rather than just leave me there for whatever wild animal to pick my bones clean, he brought me along and watched over me. He hadn’t asked for anything in return yet, offered me food and even protection. But above all that, even after having a gun in his face, he was willing to be friendly to a pony he knew nothing about.

And my reaction was to try to shoot him. I felt terrible about it. This wasn’t me, I wasn’t some ‘hard-core’ thug that threatened to kill ponies if they didn’t give me what I wanted. All I wanted was to get to Mareverick.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked through my sniffles. Goddesses, I was a wreck. Tired, hungry, and dealing with a drug and coffee hangover was not a great combination, on top of my insides physically hurting.

“What do you mean?” he asked honestly.

“Like, you don’t even know me.” I didn’t know him either. “How do you know I’m not some kind of...” I didn’t know what to call them, but there was one word that did come to mine. “...thief or something?” I sniffled again. There were no tissues out here, but an already dirty sleeve worked just as well.

“A thief?” he laughed. His laugh was the funniest thing I’d heard in recent weeks. It was a little deeper than his speaking voice, but way more... chipper. “Ah.... Multiple things. First...”

His horn sparkled and a rock moved from under my hoof, revealing my missing power cell. He simply clipped it into place on my gun. So THAT'S how he knew my gun was empty! “I’m kinda good as sneaking things off ponies myself, and you don’t strike me as a pickpocket. I saw you coming from a mile away.”

That also explained how he knew where I was, even though I never saw him

“Second, you’re friendly, according to my EFS,” he said, showing off his oversized Pipbuck. I really wanted to take a closer look at it. It wasn’t any model I was familiar with. Not the standard 3000, or the outdated 2000, nor was it an experimental Delta, Alpha, or Beta, or Zulu. Whatever a Manticore model was, I wanted to know. “And finally, you’re pretty clueless about how the world works out here. Now... I haven’t seen you eat anything since I found you yesterday morning.”

A can of carrots and a Fancy Buck brand snack cake floated out in front of him in his teal aura. “Hungry?”

I nodded weakly. This was so... strange. I wasn’t used to ponies actually helping me. The food was just levitating in between us in his magic, waiting to be taken. I took the opportunity and grabbed them. With almost no effort, I managed to open the pack of snack cakes first and shoved one of the dark, chocolatey cakes into my mouth. It was stale, but at least it didn’t taste like it was going to kill me. It tasted absolutely delicious, given the circumstance.

“So, you got a name, or am I just going to have to keep calling you ‘that blue mare’?” he asked as I nom’d away at the cake.

I answered, but with a whole cake in my mouth, it didn’t sound like a name.

“Say what now?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Sorry,” I replied, swallowing the mouthful of cake. Just the flavor of the cake alone was starting to put me in a better mood. Barely, but it was slowly lifting. “Tesla Ampere. You can just just call me Tes.”

“Hello, Tes. My name is Xerophyte. You can call me Xero,” he said with a bow. Not even most ponies in 59 had manners like this gentlecolt. Xerophyte...

“What kind of name is that?” I asked. It certainly wasn’t very pony-like.

“It’s a zebra name,” he said nonchalantly. “Its a kind of plant that liv-”

“You are a zebra?” I half- blurted out in disbelief, half- asked. Some part of me wanted to believe that he wasn't, for some reason.

“Yes. Sort of? I’m not even sure anymore,” Xerophyte looked up at his horn, as if asking himself ‘how did you get up there?’ “Taint does strange stuff to those who fall into it.”

“Sorry,” I said quietly. It was stupid of me to even ask that. “I guess I should have figured that out from the stripes and the funny accent.” I stuffed the last cake into my mouth. Not only were they chocolate, but they were filled with this sweet, white, fluffy... cream? I wasn’t a baker, I didn’t know what it was. Or ‘taint’. “What’s taint?”

“Its... this stuff,” he thought for a moment, tapping his chin. “Dangerous, causes mutations, usually deadly.” He thought some more. “You’ll know it when you see it; it’s usually a rainbow colored liquid.”

It wasn’t like anything I’d ever heard of, except maybe when motor oil smears across a puddle. He said I’d know it if I saw it, so it seemed to be easily avoidable. I wondered what else there was out here. Clearly, the world hadn’t fixed itself in the 180 or so years after stables closed. Xerophyte was practically armed to the teeth, with his revolver, body armor, and a couple long-barreled guns just barely peeking out of his thick leather saddlebags. There was even a sword strung across his back.

“Once you’re finished up, we should probably get going,” he stated, looking over his shoulder at the desolate wastes. His ears twitched and swiveled about, as if searching for a sound. “You don’t want to be out in the open at night.”

“Why not?” I asked as soon as I had finished swallowing the last bit of cake. If we were to be going soon, then I had to sort out what was left of my saddlebags.

“It’s dangerous. There’s raiders, ghouls, wild mutant animals, killer robots...” He tapped his chin in thought again. “Actually, I think that’s it. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but there are.”

I dumped out both saddlebags. The cheap, mass produced material didn’t last long out here at all. One was almost falling apart at the seams, while the other was literally shredded. It must have gotten caught on a rock or something when I fell. I feared the worse for the contents in it, as the bag was stained purple.

Shattered glass bottles, vials, and syringes greeted me, along with the rolls of fdirty, soiled magic-healing gauze and a few burnt out magic spark batteries. Everything was stained purple from the destroyed healing potions. There were no more Med-X vials or syringes for them. The magic gauze had absorbed a lot of the healing potions, but they were wet and muddied from laying on the dirt.

I’d crushed all the medical supplies I’d taken with me when I fell. It almost made me want to weep for their loss.

‘Xero’ picked up my steel canteen and gave it a shake and making it rattle. It too was flatten and crushed, but the water didn’t escape because of that. No, it had drained out through the small, perfectly round hole in the side.

Popping the top off, he shook out a small, mushroom shaped, grey lump.

“Is that was I think it is?” I asked. Somepony shot at me with actual bullets out here? When!?

“Maybe,” he said casually as he lofted it into the air a few times before catching it in his hoof again. “Judging from the weight, I’d say it’s a 5.56mm, or probably .223 since it didn’t go all the way through the canteen.”

He tossed it over his shoulder like it was refuse. “Here, you’ll need a new one.”

“Are- are you sure?” I didn’t need a new one. I would be alright for another day or so without water. Plus, he needed water as much as I did.

“Yeah, I got a few other ones,” he replied with a shake of his own saddlebags. There was a faint sloshing of water in one of them, as if he had more than just one or two. Which he did when he opened the top flap and pulled one of the four out.

There was something fishy going on here. No pony was EVER this polite and kind in the stable. I’d have to keep my guard up until I could trust him, if I ever could.

I grabbed the canteen from his magic. It... felt weird. Usually ponies just dropped whatever they wanted me to do on my desk without saying a word before leaving. But Xero? He was actually being... friendly.

“All ready?” he inquired as I put it, along with everything else of use, into the good saddlebag. I still needed something for my pistol. there was no holster or holder on the good bag, but there was a lot of extra scrap cloth from the other bag.

“Almost. Gotta do one last thing,” I answered as I tore of a long strip of fabric and tied each end to my weapon’s shell. I then looped the strap around my shoulder, neck and head. When I stood up, it was within easy mouth grabbing distance. “Alright, now I’m ready.”

With that, we left the depressing remains of the house and into the equally depressing wasteland.

“Any ideas what we might, erm...” What was the word? “...encounter?”

“Probably just raiders, maybe a scorpion or two,” he answered. I didn’t know what a raider was, but scorpions? They couldn’t be that much different after 200 years. They’re little arachnids that could be squished with a solid hoof stomp.

“Probably? What else could we come across?”

“Well, there’s alway the random alicorn encounter,” he said as he scanned the horizon. His ears were constantly twitching slightly and turning about. I doubt he even did it consciously, or even knew he did it at all. Maybe he was just extremely alert.

“An ali-wat?”

↯ ↯ ↯

Xero spent some time explaining what an alicorn was. Essentially, they were mock versions of the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. They were big ponies with big horns and big wings to match.

According to him, the green ones could read minds and create near-impenetrable shields, as well as work together to to amplify their powers. I had to wonder if they were capable of exerting that force on others, bending them to their will. The thought sent a shiver up my spine.

The blue ones could cloak themselves and become invisible. It wasn’t unbelievable, as there was a unicorn back in the stable who could almost turn invisible and change her coat color as she pleased. Crystal Glass had adopted the nickname Chameleon because of that little party trick.

There was one other alicorn, and they were purple. Their ability was to teleport instantly. I asked if that was the only thing they could do, but Xero said that they were the ones to be afraid of the most as they seemed to be more powerful with their magic as individuals.

Moreover, he mentioned that they were part of a hive mind. What one saw, heard, and knew, they all did. They learned extremely quick, rarely falling for the same trap twice.

I asked how he knew all this, and apparently Xero had been confronted with one before that wasn’t in the mood to fight, but proposed to him that he join their “Unity”. He almost made it sound like a game as he laughed when trying to tell his story. I couldn’t find the humor in it, though. He’d told them to shove the proposal up her tailhole and to tell her ‘Goddess’ that she was a ‘pompous mule’. They took great offense to that.

If we came across one, however, we wouldn’t try to fight or reason with it, just back away slowly before running like hell.

Which is what we were doing.

Because I didn’t back away slowly.

“THE GODDESS WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY A MORTAL...” the green alicorn paused her thunderous speech for only a second, searching for the right word. “VERMIN... SUCH AS YOURSELF, XEROPHYTE!!”

The air exploded with the sound of crackling lightning just as a white-hot bolt of magic flew over our heads and collided with a building ahead, blowing out a section of the decaying brick.

If it wasn’t for the anger management issues and the ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude, she could have possibly been a good pony to be around. And except for the red, glowing, dragon-slit eyes, she was actually kind of pretty, until Xero’s gun blew a quarter of her head and face away and perforated her wings, and my laser pistol didn’t scorch, blister, and char her flesh and feathers.

Unlike Xero, she was completely unarmed and unarmored; she was even more naked than I was. I at least was still wearing my stable barding, though I didn’t know how much longer that would last based on everything that had happened so far.

I looked back at the alicorn. She was gaining on us as we galloped through the city streets. Starward was a cozy little community before the war, but now only remained as ‘scavenging grounds’ for a pony looking to make some caps, which I had found out was the currency out here.

When I looked back ahead, Xero was nowhere to be seen. There was a sharp pain in my rump that made me yelp and I was yanked into a dark doorway. Xero was inside, quickly looking around. All through the ruined city and even in the more deserted lands, he keep his keen senses at work. His ears barely ever stopped turning and he never kept his eyes on one thing for very long. It almost made him look... paranoid, but he didn’t share any of the other signs. Maybe he was just an extremely alert pony, erm... zebra.

There wasn’t much inside the destroyed building; a desk, some seats, peeling wallpaper, and yellowed tiles that had come unglued, just to name a few. It was musty smelling, like old rotting wood and mildew behind the walls.

“This way,” he said quickly, but quietly.

I followed him through a pair of double doors and into a hallway with three doors on either side. He made a beeline for the middle-door on the right side. I followed closely. He knew what he was doing a lot more than I did, and for that I was thankful.

“In here,” he muttered. There was a supply closet in the bare office which would hopefully work great as a hiding spot. It was larger than it appeared, as we both were able to stand side-by-side and still have a little bit of wiggle room.

“Shh...” he quietly shushed. A dark mahogany box levitated in front of him from his saddlebag. Inside were many bullets and parts of what looked to be a weapons stock and barrels. The gun was missing, but from the markings on the barrel and stock, I guessed that it was from his revolver. He took out three specific shells and loaded them into the gun before putting the box away.

Just as he closed the cylinder, there was a mess of noises coming from within the building. Doors were being ripped from their very frames and thrown about. It had to be the alicorn, nopony else was after us.

We waited in silence. Xero stood perfectly still. For once, his ears and eyes didn’t wander everywhere. He was as stiff as stone, eyes and ears glued to the closet door ahead of us.

My chest burned from all the running, and the pins-and-needles feeling came back with a vengeance.

I needed to take a quick sip of something before I gave our position away. I was just about to pop the top off the canteen he’d given me, but it was pulled away before I had the chance.

‘No noise.’ His lips moved, but he didn’t say anything aloud. He was right though; any noise would mean the end for us.

I could hold out for a couple more minutes. I had to, there was nothing else that could be done. I took my pistol in my mouth and aimed it at the door, ready to fire if need.

The seconds passed, though they felt like hours. Every breath burned like hell and only worsened the pain in my chest. I did the only thing I could and held my breath. It helped at first, but as soon as the alicorn ripped out the door to our office, it began to feel like something was choking me. I just needed to hold on a few moments longer.

A strange sensation hit me. It was hot, and started at the base of my chest before launching upward. I reflexively inhaled and choked on whatever had been filling my lungs. With a wet, soppy, cough, my gun and an incredulous amount of red, mucusy, fluid splattered across the ground in front of me and my barding.

Fuck.

It wasn’t done yet. I tried to breath, but all I did was cough and gag on the thick, bloody, mucus.

The door to our closet was ripped off the hinges almost instantly. At some point, Xero had picked up my gun and was now using it against the alicorn, filling the small closet space with a bright series of polychromatic flashes. The beam wasn’t quite strong enough to break the creature’s powerful shield spell, but it was enough to weaken it so something else could slip through.

I snatched my companion’s revolver from his foreleg holster and pointed it at the alicorn’s head and bit down on the trigger as fast as I could. There was barely any kick to it as the bullets flew out and turned her head into a green and red pulpy mess.

I killed her, another life taken without so much as a thought. Another sinful deed and more blood on my hooves. I hated it. Every part of me felt dirtied and impure. In just the last few short days, more ponies had fallen by my hooves than I’d ever thought possible. And eventually, I’d pay for my sins. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually... I’d be judged. I prayed the goddesses could forgive me, but I didn’t know how they could.

Until then, I had to stay strong. I had to do better. I had to try to make up for them. Whatever it took, however long, I would try to make up for even a tenth of a single life I took.

I coughed again, hacking up more lung-crap. I couldn’t do anything if I died from internal injuries, though.

“Healing... potion...” I rasped out, my eyes watering from the pain.

With surprising swiftness, Xerophyte had a small purple bottle floating in front of my eyes.. I wasted no time swigging it down, savoring the warm fuzzy feeling of it patching up my dessicated lungs.

“You should get that checked out when we get to Starward,” he said in his silly little accent. “I think there’s something wrong that healing potions aren’t fixing.”

“I know...” I panted. I knew exactly what was wrong, but I doubted he’d believe me. No pony would believe it.

“I’m serious,” he said as he set my weapon beside me. “not even Hydra fixed it, and that stuff can regrow a lost leg.”

‘Yeah, I KNOW,’ I mentally yelled at him. I just felt like shit.

“Just... gimme... a moment... to rest,” I huffed, trying to catch my breath. I stepped to the side of the closet and found a spot that wasn’t covered in bloody slime, where I curled up and rested my aching body. Everything hurt and I was exhausted. “I’ll... be fine.”

“Alright...,” he said uneasily. “I’m... going spelunking for a minute or two. I’ll check back when I’m done.”

“Mhm,” I murmurred. I closed my eyes and let my mind wander off on its own, paying it no real attention as I dozed off into a light sleep.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Companionship - Congrats! You’ve become one of the most powerful assets of another wastelander. Perhaps it will evolve into a friendship, or maybe you’ll come back two seasons later as the final boss. Who knows!

Programmer’s Note: WELCOME TO THE WASTELAND, BABY! There will be cookies and punch for those that stay still the end, as well as a small raffle for some fabulous prizes!

Chapter 6 - Weekend at Starward's

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Chapter 6

Weekend at Starward’s

It’s not over yet.

It’d been a fairly boring morning for the two of us. I had convinced the stable pony that some sort of armor was better than none, and she managed to slip into the suit of red and black leather armor I’d bought off Can’t Cover Clips’ caravan. It was a size and a half too big--even with the straps adjusted all the way--clattering noisily whenever she moved about. After sharing some breakfast, we were on our way toward the small trade town of Starward. It wasn’t very far, but Tes had decided to use what free-time we had to ask about everything there was to know.

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?” I replied. There was an odd feeling of somepony following us, though my Pipbuck said otherwise. The streets were utterly abandoned.

“That, over there,” she stopped to point. I turned to see what had grabbed her attention. She was pointing far to the north, to the horizon at the edge of the mountains.

“Oh, that?” Nestled along one of the tallest mountain faces was the remains of a city... a majestic city that seemed to be carved out of the very stone. “That’s Canterlot.”

Cracked and dilapidated towers leaned at precarious angles against each other. The city’s once-gold spires were now a mustard brown, having been decayed by foul magic over the centuries. Toxic, pink waterfalls cascaded down from their perch higher up in the mountains, dissolving in an ever-present mist that hung over the great capitol like a cloak of choking, pink death.

“...at least, it used to be,” I added.

“That’s Canterlot?” she asked in disbelief. “What happened to it?”

“Let’s walk and talk. I think some... thing... is stalking us.” The feeling of something following us hadn’t faded since the night before, keeping only myself on edge. I concentrated on listening for hoofsteps, other than Tes’. Or anything, really. But there was nothing. Only the sound of a very distant firefight to the east, ahead of us.

“So, what happened to Canterlot?” Tes asked again.

“Pink Cloud happened,” I replied simply.

“What’s 'Pink Cloud'?”

“It’s... hard to explain. It’s like a poisonous fog. I’m not sure how it’s made, but prewar zebras used it against the city when everything went to hell. Whatever it touches usually rots away or dies. Although, longer exposure can sometimes melt and fuse its victims into whatever they’re touching.” I said. I couldn’t remember ever going there, but the stories were enough to deter any sort of expedition.

“It melts ponies?” Tes asked, shocked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her whip her head toward me.

“Sometimes. It can fuse things like clothing, armor, and Pipbucks to flesh or even stick them to the ground.” There was a distant rumble like thunder. I knew it to be an explosive, though, and the quieting of the firefight confirmed that thought. “Or, even worse, to other ponies.”

“That’s... kinda disturbing,” she said in disgust.

“That’s not all. It’s necromantic, too.”

“It’s neckowhatic?” Some rubble in a building we were passing shifted, causing the blue mare to take a few quick sidesteps.

“Necromantic,” I said a little slower. “Necromancy. With enough radiation, it can turn ponies into ghouls. A Canterlot ghoul is the worse kind of ghoul.”

I looked around in search of anything that might have been following. But again, there was only Tes, myself, and another firefight to the southeast. We continued down the street quietly. The gunfire was quickly approaching on our left, one block over. My EFS started to climb, adding an additional friendly marker and a few hostiles to the mix.

“Shouldn’t we help them?” Tesla asked in concern as the counter jumped to six hostiles and four friendlies.

“Do you?” I answered. There wasn’t much ‘help’ to be offered. “We don’t even know who they are yet. Or if they’re hostile towards us.” The counter changed to three blues and then to four, as the red tick marks peaked at 9.

“We can’t just leave them,” she countered. I looked back to see her tapping her hoof against the broken sidewalk.

“Let’s go, then,” I sighed. I didn’t really want to, but... whatever. They were kind of in our path to Starward, anyways. We would've came across whoever was left and it’d be better if they were friendly.

We quickly trotted across several yards that were in our way; going down the street and then cutting across would have taken too long and left us far too exposed. We turned at one of the tree-houses toward the firefight when we were shot at, causing both us to duck back behind the house.

“What was that?!” Tes exclaimed.

“Sniper.” I searched my saddlebag and quickly found Tweety’s gun case, along with a small shard that had broken off mirror. “And he is right...” I tilted the tiny mirror about in my magic, looking around the corner of the house for our assailant. The only thing that stood out was a sea-foam green, unicorn mare holding a sniper rifle. “Sorry, she... is... on the right side of the street, three houses down, sec-”

The shard exploded as another high caliber round whizzed by and tore through it.

“Aaallright, then...” I jumped back a little, startled by the sniper’s accuracy. “Stay close, stay behind me, and stay low.”

I opened Tweety’s case and assembled the contents together with my magic. I double checked the revolver’s cylinder and emptied the spent shells, refilling the chambers with standard .44 rounds. The filled cylinder snapped close with a buzz. Finally, I picked up the biggest of the remaining mirror shards and spotted the sniper. She fired again, but missed this time, hitting the tree-house near my muzzle instead. Who ever she was, she had quite the aim.

I brushed the wooden splinters off my face and looked back into the mirror. Just as she was slamming a new magazine in, I stepped out from behind my cover, Tweety in my forehooves. Time slowed to a standstill as I activated SATS. With one round targeting her head and another on her rifle, the arcane targeting spell still had half a charge. Two more rounds were queued up on her head and the spell was spent.

The first shot, even with an 87% hit chance, just managed to graze her cheek. She re-armed herself quickly and managed to fire before I could get my next shot off. The high velocity, .308 round passed through the soft leather under-armor of my leg-pit and into the tissue itself. Though I couldn’t feel it, I knew what kind of pain it would bring when the sequence ended.

The next round hit home and sent the sniper rifle flying back and out of her magical grip. A third round exploded part of the window sill and sprayed the decaying wood in her face, much like the side of the tree-house had done to me just a few moments before. The last round hit just below her horn, exploding her brain matter across wall and ceiling.

A stinging, burning, agonizing pain erupted from my shoulder as I fell to the ground.

“Holy shit!” Tes yelped as I tried to gasp for air. “Uh- uh... H-hold still!”

The blue mare dropped her single saddlebag and began to dig through it, bringing out a purple healing potion and some kind of surgical tongs and setting them beside me

“I- I’m fine,” I lied. “Just give me a minute...”

My teal aura wrapped itself around the bullet wound in attempts to slow the bleeding. I grabbed at one of my own saddlebags for some sort of healing item.

“No, stop moving!” she demanded. As she moved the armored plates around, pain lanced through my leg and shoulder. “There’s no exit wound. Keep moving and you’ll cause more damage.”

She grabbed the fine-pointed tongs in her mouth and quickly stepped to my side. “Desh iz gonna hurd a widdew...”

I’d been shot before, with everything ranging from a toy BB gun to the rocket launcher back in New Appleoosa. Armor usually stopped the smaller rounds, which only left bruises or welts. The few bullets that did find their way in usually passed on through. Those wounds were quickly alleviated with healing potions or bandages. Cuts and scrapes were cleaned up a little and then covered with a non-magic bandage if needed, or were otherwise left alone. Those were just mild inconveniences and annoying, but could be ignored.

However, having somepony dig around inside your shoulder to pull out a bullet out... that pain could not be ignored.

I bit down on my cloak’s collar as she wiggled the pointed tongs around, trying my best to avoiding yelling out.

“Gahd id,” she said after an agonizing four seconds. There was one final, painful tug and the bullet came out with a wet squelching noise. My operator poured the cold healing potion into the wound, which began to close up immediately as the flesh knit itself back together. It hurt like hell, still.

“Thanks...” I groaned as I rolled nauseously to my hooves. Blood soaked the ground, my cloak and armor, and myself.

“No problem,” she replied, tossing the tongs back into her saddlebag.

“Where did you learn that from?” I asked. I limped over to where Tweety had fallen and started taking the rifle-revolver apart, stowing the parts in its case.

“Just one of the things I learned in back in the Stable,” she said once she finished tightening her pack.

Why she had learned to dress a bullet wound in a Stable raised more than one question, but they were quickly tossed away by an alert on my EFS.. A gunshot from a couple houses down the street echoed out at the same time the enemy counter dropped to zero. The silence was broken up by distant voices and hoof steps.

“Hey! We got ourselves a couple of live ones!” a younger stallion called out.

Tes gasp and brought her laser pistol to arms... er, mouth.

“It’s okay.” I winced as I tried to step. The burning had subsided, but now my entire shoulder throbbed and ached with each step. “I’m sure they’re friendly.”

A moment later, two unicorns appeared from around the house’s corner. One was a slate grey mare a cropped, black mane. The other was a dark red stallion with a darker red, buzz-cut mane.

“Uh, what happened to you?” he asked, looking from me to the red smear on the ground and back again.

“I got shot,” I answered. I found my sword nearby and magically placed it back in it’s sheath.

“Looks like you took quite the hit there,” he said “If you need medical attention, our medic might be able to help.”

“I think I’ll be fine.” I flexed my leg, trying my best not to wince. Looking back at the two, I noticed they wore the same exact kind of armor: dark, reinforced leather with blue trimmings along some of the edges.

“You’re not with Azapa, are you?” the mare asked, her voice having that same, authoritative tone as Six Star. She also seemed kind of... mean.

“Who?” Tes answered.

“You know, Alpine’s Zebra and Pony Allegiance?” the stallion explained. “A- Z- A- P- A-? What, have you been living under a rock your entire life?” He chuckled, looking at Tes’ Stable barding under the baggy black and red armor. “Anyways, over the last few weeks, there have been these ponies and such that’ve banded together and started saying that they willfully act under Alpine’s command. It’s all a bunch of hooey if you ask me, but nonetheless, we do what we can to keep them in check.”

“Whose ‘we’?” I asked, curious as to why they were wearing the same armor as each other.

“We are the Remnants of the Resistance Resisters; destroyers of any and all oppressive and repressive organizations, agencies, allegiances, and regimes!” he exclaimed proudly. “I’m Splatter Spree, and this is my sister, Killjoy.”

“Resistance Resisters?” I repeated.

“Yes. We are the descendants of those who followed Firestorm and Ocean Mist all those years ago,” Splatter Spree said.

Tes choked on the mouthful of water she was drinking and ended up going into a coughing fit.

“Who!?” she yelled in surprise between coughs.

“Firestorm and Ocean Mist?” Spree responded nervously.

As shock spread across her face, Tes fell to her rump on the dead grass.

“You alright, Tes?” I asked.

“Yeah... It’s just that... they were from my Stable,” she said shaking her mane from her eyes. “Everypony was certain the wasteland ate them up. They’re the reason 59 is open...”

“They’re the reason the Outlands are still free,” Spree said. “Defeated Cinder and put an end to her tyranny. Before they came, it was chaos here; the cities and towns fought each other, ponies couldn’t go more than a few days without being harassed into Cinder’s regime. It was very noble of th-”

“No!” Tes shouted, causing the three of us to give her an odd look. “Once they opened the door, they compromised everything! Do you have any idea how many problems they caused and what their actions did to us? The Overmare cracked down hard; strict curfews and work shifts, zero tolerance policies, and even fucking interrogations! No, they weren’t noble. They ruined 59.”

“Hey, watch your mouth!” Spree with a poke to her chest. “That’s my idol and best pony you’re talking about!”

“Whoa, hey! Knock it off, you two!” Killjoy demanded as she stepped between the them. “No use getting hot-headed over a couple of dead Stable mares. Neither of you have any right or excuse to fight over Firestorm and Ocean Mist. Besides, everypony knows Applejack was best pony.”

Tesla and Splatter Spree stared each other down a few seconds before easing off, the latter turning to sit by the edge of the tree-house.

“Anyways...” I said after a minute. “Who’s this Azapa pony?”

“Azapa isn’t a pony, it’s the group. Somepony named Alpine supposedly runs it, but he’d be over a hundred years old if he was the same one Ocean Mist and Firestorm had run into. I think it’s somepony else posing as him, to sound more intimidating,” explained Killjoy. “Really though, nopony knows who he is.Ponies wearing red-trimmed, black armor have only been showing up here and there in the last couple years and they don’t talk much or cause much trouble. And it’s only now in the last couple of weeks that they’ve actually been truly showing themselves. We’ve tried to get ponies farther east, but we never hear back from them..”

“And while the RRR’s main objective is to keep the Outlands and surrounding areas liberated from ponies such as Alpine...” Spree started, “...we mostly just do general peacekeeping in some towns like Rockton and Fortitude. We’re spread really thin, so you don’t see many of us around. Nopony wants to be part of a liberation group if there’s nothing to liberate. Plus the pay isn’t that great, the injury risk is high, and you have to get these dorky-ass manecuts.”

“Spree! We need to get going and report this!” an older buck called out from farther down street.

“We’re coming!” Spree yelled back before turning to Tes and I. “Look, I’m not sure if there’s anything you can do to help, if that’s what you’re looking for, maybe you can find something in Fortitude or possibly... I dunno,” he shrugged. “Just between you and I, we’re fighting a losing battle that nopony really cares about. Half the ponies in the wasteland haven’t even heard of us and the other half see us as a wannabe gang and couldn’t care any less about what happens. Your best bet would be to go to Fortitude and see if anypony there needs some errands done. But until next time...”

He gave a curt nod and left with Killjoy, the two of them disappearing around the corner of the house.

“What was all that about?” Tes asked.

“I’m not really sure,” I replied. Something was going on, but I couldn’t seem to place my hoof on it. It all seemed vaguely familiar, the Resisters and Azapa. “We need to get going, though; we’re burning daylight.”

===

The town was just as I remember it: a walled community built out of a few old office buildings, a large 'Bank of Equestria' that served as the center for security, and a donut shop that still served donuts (200 year old donuts, but they were still donuts). Among the prewar buildings were small shanties, shacks, and stalls, selling everything imaginable. Weapons and ammo, barding and armor, food and drink, sex and chems. If you wanted it, there was probably a vender somewhere selling it. There were ponies, Steel Rangers, griffons, and just about any other being you could find out in the wastes, barring alicorns themselves, of course. I even caught sight of a couple of zebras, but they quickly made themselves scarce and disappeared into to the crowds.

"Wow, it's... um." Tes stumbled on her words as we walked through the entrance. "Busy."

"It's a town built on trade, mostly from the east." I informed her. My EFS was pointless; over 50 friendlies and about 10 or so that didn't have good intentions toward us. As we trotted through the street, the numbers climbed and fell.

"We’re getting a lot of looks, aren’t we?" Tes practically whispered, stepping up close behind me

The ponies and other wastelanders in the street seemed to be giving us quite a few looks. Some were friendly, other weren’t. Most were just curious glances, but we were obviously drawing attention to ourselves, somehow.

“It might have something to do with the fact that I’m a blue zebra with a unicorn horn,” I said quietly back. It was starting to get stressful... so many eyes were looking at us. The urge to run away or hide under my cloak was an ever-present matter I had to fight. “Or maybe it’s clothes you’re wearing.” Anything to distract me from the eyes. There probably weren’t as many as I thought, but they didn’t help any. “Lets find the clinic. They should have a few healing potions we can buy, along with a few bandages and some Med-X. They might be able to look at that cough, too.”

She sighed at my suggestion. “I guess...”

“Then we can get something to eat. I think I’m almost out of canned food and snack cakes,” I added.

“Fine,” the blue mare groaned.

The clinic was easy to find. It was on the ground floor of one of the four small office buildings. The building itself was made of concrete and rose above the city street three stories. The pale yellow paint on it’s surface was old, but newer than the wasteland norm, and clashed badly with the gloomy grey of everything else. Given the location of the Starward Clinic, at the back of the town, it sort of made sense that the color was bright. If anypony needed to find it quickly, just head to the yellow building.

“Welcome to the Starward Clinic,” a dark grey, earth pony buck said as I limped through the doorway, Tes following right behind me. “What’ll-” he paused, giving us a funny look, “-it be... today?”

The room was nothing special. An old, musty scent permeated from within, as with almost all pre-war buildings. Faded and slightly peeling wallpaper clung to plain walls, chipped and stained vinyl tiles covered the floor, some sticking at a skewed angle after coming unglued, other completely missing. It was an average wasteland relic. There was even a missing ceiling panel and a burnt-out light.

Beside the old secretary’s desk, an old sign listed off available treatments...

Radiation Purge.......................75 c

Detox........................................75 c

General Healing.......................100 c

Advanced Healing....................250 c

Amputations.............................150 c Under 1 minute, or 50% off!

Dentistry (tooth pulls).........5 c per tooth.

Cybernetics....................Varies on availability

Autodoc Treatment..................750 c.

Other.......................................Varies

I quickly glanced over my Pipbuck. I felt fine, other than my shoulder aching, and I didn’t feel like I had radiation sickness. The device on my foreleg confirmed my thoughts, giving me a ‘clean’ bill of health. Tes, on the other hoof, was a mystery.

“What’s ‘Other’?” I asked.

“Whatever the Doc wants it to be. It’s usually cheaper, but I’m not suppose to tell you that,” the buck said with a chuckle. "Mostly, it's diagnoses and checkups.”

I looked over at Tes as she entered another deep coughing fit, probably caused by the clinic’s aged interior. She looked up nervously at the two of us as she wiped her foreleg on her Stable barding’s exposed sleeve,

“What does that fall under?” I asked.

“Definitely ‘Other’,” he said back, “One minute.”

He pressed a button on the desk and spoke into a nearby microphone. “Hey, Doc, we got a couple ponies up here who look like they could use some help. One of them needs a chest exam. Could be whooping cough, might be bronchitis or just a bad chest cold. Your guess will probably be better than mine,” he explained casually.

“And some medical supplies,” I added, not wanting to waste their time.

“And the other one wants some stock.”

The was a grunt and the sound of something metal hitting the floor, followed by a painful shout and choice some curse words.

“Iwill be there in just a moment,” odd, gravelly, accented voice chimed happily through the speaker by the microphone.

“He’ll be here in few minutes,” the young stallion said. “If you’d like, you can take a seat over there, in the waiting room.” He pointed off to the side of the main entrance.

Tes and I sat near in the corner of the furnished room. It wasn’t the most spectacular clinic in the wasteland, but it did have a few end tables with some magazines, a dozen-or-so seat cushions, a couple of faded, dusty, fake plants.

In the opposite corner, near a set of double doors, a vivid blue unicorn filly with a darker blue mane waited anxiously. She wasn’t even old enough to have her cutie mark, and every time she looked at us her eyes went wide and she scooted further into the corner.

I didn’t think we were that scary.

After a very short wait, a dark green unicorn stallion with an onyx black mane and tail stepped through the door. A ghoulish zebra in a doctor’s coat followed him. In a little blue blur, the filly was at the stallion’s cybernetic foreleg.

“I was only got for a few minutes, Lapis,” the young stallion said with a chuckle, lifting his foreleg and giving it a shake. The filly, Lapis, hung on for dear life.

“ButIStillMissedYouSoMuchAndYou’reMyBBBFF!” Lapis said almost inaudibly fast.

“Take care of those legs, Augite,” the gravelly voiced zebra said in a familiar, old-world accent. “Theyare a rare model around here.”

“Yup. Will do, Doc,” Augite replied. He raised the leg Lapis was not clamped to and stomped it on the floor, sending an invisible shockwave that I could actually feel as it passed through. Their enamel paint was a green color, similar to his hide, but were chipped, scratched, and scraped down to bare metal in some spots. While battered and abused, they still looked very functional.

The siblings trotted out, leaving the zebra ghoul, Tes, and I alone in the waiting room. The ghoul looked like any other zebra, from the characteristic tail and mohawk-like mane, to the stripes and eyes, except he was a little more... decomposed. Unlike most zebras though, his thinning mane was cropped shorter and the remaining hair on his tail was braided. Dull, lifeless, green eyes replaced ones that were probably once full of life and energy.

“You two must be my next victims,” he said with a light hearted laugh. Tes shrank down behind me, clearly intimidated by the average sized stallion.

“It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about,” I whispered to her as I got to my hooves. “Come on.”

The blue and white earth pony got to her hooves and followed, shying away being me.

“I havenot seen you two here before,” the ghoul stated. Rather than using contractions, he seemed to mash the two words into one. “My name is Zelkoff. Welcome to my clinic.”

“Xerophyte,” I said, before looking over to the blue mare. “This is my friend, Tes.”

“Hello,” he said to Tesla. “I hear you have a cough, no?”

She looked back and forth between the two striped stallions before her, giving a tiny little head shake.

“She has a really bad cough,” I said to Zelkoff. I didn’t want to act like a parent taking their foal to the ‘scary doctor’, but at the same time I didn’t want the small mare to feel so miserable anymore.

“I do not!” Tes wheeze defensively, causing her to enter another coughing fit. She quickly covered her muzzle with her hoof to catch the specks of red, instead forcing it out her nose like a can of Sparkle-Cola “Okay, so maybe I do. But so what?” she said, adding it to the darkening smear on her barding.

“Hmm,” Zelkoff hummed. “Hemoptysis can be very serious.”

“Any idea what it could be?” I asked. I just wanted to help.

“Could be any number of things,” he replied. “Do you know whatis wrong, Tes?”

The blue mare lowered her gaze as she looked away, giving a tiny nod as she did so. Still though, she refused to say what the ailment was.

“See? She won’t even tell me,” I explained. “And for a fresh-out-of-the-Stable pony, we’ve been through a lot already.”

“Youare from a Stable?” Zelkoff asked, to which Tes nodded again. “Iwill make you a deal. If you tell me whatis wrong, let me run some harmless tests, and... if youare right... I willnot charge you for my services.”

She kept quiet before finally giving in. “Alright... let’s go,” she said in a deflated tone.

The two of them disappeared behind the large double doors at the front of the room. There wasn’t much to do besides wait. On one of the side tables had a stack of magazines. Most of the widely distributed magazines I’d already read at one point or another, so I didn’t bother with them. Of the three remaining, I decided on Horn Headed, a short mag centered around magic. ‘Magic Home Decorator’ and ‘General Practice’ were going to have to wait for another day.

I was three-fourths of the way through it by the time Tes and Zelkoff returned. Tes didn’t look well; her normally bright blue coat didn’t have it’s luster, her near-white mane and tail were messier and more... limp than usual and dull, tired eyes replaced the chromey silver ones. On the side opposite of her saddlebag, she had a pale yellow medical kit, the kind with the pink butterflies. Bordering all the edges and seams were hundreds of rivets holding what appeared to be armored plates of some kind.

“Take it easy, Tesla,” Zelkoff said with a light pat on her shoulders.

“Yeah...” she moped. “Where can I get a hard drink?”

“Thereis a casino next door,” the doctor mentioned.

Without another word, Tes walked past me and out the door. After a moment, the ghoulish zebra looked back to me. He didn’t say anything; he just stood there, staring.

“What?” I asked. His expressionless gaze was starting to creep me out.

“Donot take her friendship for granted. You mean more to her than you might think,” Zelkoff said cryptically.

“Uh, right...” I said, scratching my foreleg. Friendship? I felt a small bit of joy. She considered me a friend! It’d been ages since anyone thought of me as a friend.

“Iam serious. Do not. Youwill eventually need help and when you do, she willnot be there.”

“I... I won’t.” I would never take friendship for granted! Especially one like this. We barely knew each other and yet we’ve stayed by each other’s sides, even when we fought the alicorn and almost gave into a mock-raider ambush. Maybe she was scared of being alone, or maybe she actually thought of me as a friend, the same way I thought of her. Perhaps... I was grabbing at straws.

“Good. The last thing the wasteland needs is more broken hearts,” he said. He turned to his own saddlebag and took out a small burlap sack. “Now, here are the supplies you asked for. Three healing potions, five rolls of bandages, three rolls of magic bandages, a hydra, and some disinfectants. Your total comes to four-hundred fifteen caps.”

I nodded and handed over the caps, taking the bag in my magic as I did so.

“So... what’s wrong with her?” I asked. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Doctor-patient confidentiality,” he replied with a shake of his head. “Just donot let her overexert herself. She tires out easily enough.”

Of course. I was going to have to find out whenever Tes decided to tell me.

“Alright, well, I should get going. I have a blue friend that could use a hug.” I put my new goods in my saddlebag and started heading out the door.

“Cavé, salvus erit,” Zelkoff said behind me.

“Lorem ipsum,” I replied with a smile before heading to the casino.

===

The casino, like the clinic, was easy to find; right across the street. Also like the clinic, it too was repurposed from an office building. The red and white lighted sign declared the establishment as Roulette’s Resort. The casino was taller than the clinic, being four stories tall instead of three, and was unpainted, except for the fancy graffiti near the entrance depicting a suit of very large playing cards.

Inside, it was largely devoid of ponies, which was a relief from the crowded streets outside. Tes’ electric blue coat was easy to spot in the dimmed lighting. There were other ponies at the bar, too, but they seemed to keep their distance.

“Hey,” I said in a slightly cheery tone, hoping to bring her spirits up. “You come here often?”

The mare was sitting with her face down on one foreleg and a bottle of Wild Pegasus clutched in the other, a quarter of it already gone.

“Are you feeling alright?” I asked as I sat down on the barstool next to her. The pony near me shot a nasty glare before scooting down a couple more seats, pulling his drink with him.

Tes shook her head, but still didn’t look up.

“It’s unhealthy to drink alone,” I said, tugging at the bottle until she let go. I pulled up a glass and filled it with some of the hard whiskey. “Luckily, you’re not alone.” I quickly slammed the glass back and gulped it down, feeling the burning in my throat.

She pulled her face off her leg and looked over at me, with red, puffy eyes. “Thanks,” she said, cracking the tiniest of smiles as I poured us each another glass.

===

I must have poured many, many, more drinks, because the next thing I remembered was an old private-office-turned-motel-room, with peeling wallpaper, dirty carpets, a flickering ceiling light that made my head want to explode, and a side table with an obviously broken lamp. At first, I thought I was alone, but once the throbbing in my head came down, I could hear a soft snoring.

Slowly, I rolled over to see who was cuddled up against my back.

“AAHH!” What in the hell was she doing in the same bed as me?!

“AAHH!” Tes screamed too after her eyes shot open. “WHATTHEFUCK?!”

She tried to jump as quickly as equinely possible out of the bed, but got her legs tangled in the bedcovers and she ended up landing face first onto the floor.

“AAHH! IDONTKNOW!” I yelled back as I rubbed my face with my hooves. “What happened last night?” Ugh, my head hurt. I hated hangovers.

“Aaahhhggg!” Tes growled into a pillow that fallen off during her escape attempt. “What’s that banging?” she asked, burying her head in the same pillow. “It’s like I can feel my pulse in my ears...”

“It’s called a hangover,” I groaned in response. I rolled over and reached into my- “Where are our saddlebags?”

Tes and I shot up and tore the room apart looking for our packs. Hers were in the bathroom; one was sitting on the back of the toilet (which she vomited into shortly afterwards), and the other was hanging from the shower head for whatever reason.

One of mine were in a closet, and the one with all our caps and medical gear was under the bed. I rummaged through it hoping I had just a couple of the small tablets left. Stuffed at the bottom of the bag, in a beat up, dented tin, was the relief I was looking for. It’d been a long time since I’d used them. They caused nothing but trouble. At the same time, though, I couldn’t bear this damned hangover.

“What are those?” Tes asked as I popped one of the little pink squares into my mouth.

“Mint-als. Party time variety.” I chewed and swallowed the prewar chem. After a second, I felt better. The unruly headache was gone, the foggy haze disappeared and was replaced with more pleasing tones and shades, the nauseous pounding in my ears subsided, even the sluggish state of mind had lifted. All with just a small, minty pill.

“What?” my blue, hungover friend asked in confused annoyance.

“Here,” I replied as I floated a tablet over and stuck it in her mouth. “Chew and swallow.”

“Hm,” she hummed as she pondered the chem. “Kinda minty... a bit chalky, but-” She cut herself off and just stared blanking for a moment with slightly widened eyes.

“Better?” I asked. Now that the pounding in my own head had subsided, I was actually able to think clearly. And so was she, apparently.

“Huh, yeah... I do actually,” she tapped her chin in thought. “I still have no idea what happened last night.” She took out her canteen and took a swig.

“Neither do I.” The night was just a hazy blur of binge drinking and... dancing? I could vaguely remember dancing, or at least trying to. “Lets find out...”

I gathered our remaining junk around the room; my reinforced armor and cloak, nearly two-hundred bottlecaps, Tweety, the rune and glyph book, and some other miscellaneous things, and put them in their place. My Pipbuck took care of organizing things further, putting like ammo together and slipping the caps into their own spot.

After that, the two of us left the room, but not before giving it a quick and thorough once over to ensure we had everything.

Back on the main floor--but not before getting turned around twice--we made our way to the bar. The room was just as I had sort of remembered it: dimly lit, smooth jazz, the thick smell of cigar smoke, and the sound of a one-armed bandit landing on big winnings.

“Mornin’,” the bartender greeted with a smile. The pale green unicorn was wiping out a glass mug with a rag that was, almost surprisingly, clean.

I looked at Tesla. “I got this...”

I did. I could feel it. It may have been the Mint-Als talking, but I didn’t care. Putting on a smug smile, I trotted up to the bar. “Same to you.” I looked around the serving area. The floor and tables were neatly clean and polished nearly to a shine, the bar was clear of all the peanut shells and snack cake wrappers that littered it the night before. To sum it up, the main floor looked to be the cleanest it’d been since the war. And probably even before then.

“By any chance, could you, uh...” I let out a meek, nervous chuckle. The Mint-Als were wearing of quickly. Maybe I didn’t have this. The world started to dim back down to it’s dreary, gloominess. I thought of taking another one, but resisted the urge. Too many well-to-do wastelanders risked everything they had and even the lives of others, just to get a ‘fix’. “Well, my friend and I...”

The words fell from my mind. Stupid Mint-Als... Never lasted as long as they were needed.

“We don’t really remember what happened last night and were wondering if you could be kind enough to fill us in,” Tes said with a smooth smile. My own had faded, the reason being that I felt... sluggish.

“Oh, certainly,” the young mare chimed. “About an hour after your friend came in and started drinking with you, all hell broke loose.”

I knew it... who did I accidentally kill or unintentionally blow up this time?

“Don’t worry, nopony important died or anything,” the bartender said. “Actually, you kind of helped us out...”

“You said ‘nopony important’ died. What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Well, you did shoot somepony, who did die, but nopony liked him. He was kind of a dick, honestly,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. It didn’t give me the right to kill him, though. “Well, that, and he stabbed you with a dinner knife.” She stared at me for a second. “Remarkable, you can’t even tell...”

“Tell what?” Looking myself over, I couldn’t see any wounds, nor did I feel anything.

“You really don’t remember do you?” the bartender laughed. “He stabbed you in the neck with a dinner knife and before anypony had time to do anything, you shot him in head three times, without even looking! Truly, it was quite a show. Nopony was sure you were going to survive, though, with the amount of blood you lost... Your marefriend is quite the wizard with healing potions.”

“Oh, we’re not... together... like that,” I said nervously.

“Not from what I heard last night...” the bartender chimed with a smirk as she continued with her cleaning.

I wished I didn’t know what she meant by that, but I could feel myself turn red. I could feel a pair of silvery eyes drilling into the side of my head.

Tes was still calm and composed, but the look in her eyes told me otherwise, like she was ready to start splitting skulls.

“Xero... I’m going to get you for this,” she said, keeping her calm demeanor. Tes’ thought was cut short, though, her stomach protesting its hunger. “Heh, um... lets get some breakfast first though. I’m starving.”

“I'm messing with ya. I'm surprised you two even made it to a room at all," the bartender laughed again. "You do realize what time it is though, right?”

Simultaneously, Tes and I looked at our Pipbucks

3:24 PM

“Late lunch, then,” the blue mare corrected herself.

“Personally, I prefer Dunky’s Donuts,” the bartender said. “Their prices may be a little steeper, but you won’t be disappointed.”

She left without another word, heading to a back room area with a small box of empty glass bottles.

“Dunky’s Donuts?” Tes asked.

“Dunky’s Donuts.”

===

We left Roulette’s Resort in search for sustenance. Overhead, the mid-afternoon sun filtered its way through the thick blanket of clouds. The scent of rain from the day before had all but vanished, leaving just the smell of crowded, dirty streets. They were busy as they’d been before, with ponies and other creatures peddling wares, bargaining with customers, and conducting business. Over the heads of the multitude of civilians and shacks, laid our assumed destination. A giant wooden cutout of a donut atop a small diner-like building with the letters ‘DD’ in front of the large circle. It couldn’t have been anything other than Dunky’s Donuts.

“Excuse me, Sir,” somepony rasped in a gravelly tone from behind. It was very... exquisite, to put it nicely, classy and well educated.

To put is truthfully, though... snobbish and condescending.

“Huh?” I replied. I had a feeling that it was directed, and turned to see the voice’s body.

A light, golden yellow stallion stood not more than a ten feet away. He was what one would expect from a ‘higher class pony’. What remained of his pale yellow mane was slicked back and neatly combed, and a well-fitted and pressed, blue-grey business suit hung on his cooked and ghoulified flesh. His milky blue eyes had seen many years in the wastes, but still burned with a lively fire.

“Z-z-zombie!” Tes cried out, fumbling with her gear as she tried to grab her laser pistol.

“Excuse me, I take offence to such disgusting terms,” he said in that snobbish way. The worn horn on his forehead sparked to life with a lime aura. Tes’ pistol popped up and the magic spark cell was ejected and tossed to the other side of the street, while the weapon tumbled to her hooves.

“Thanks,” I replied dryly. The cell bounced off the asphalt and bounced down the storm drain, much to Tes’ displeasure and frustration. She had a point through, compared to Zelkoff the day before, this pony was very much passed his prime. There were parts of his flesh that had fallen off or disintegrated down to the deeper meat and even bones. The hole in his cheek revealing his teeth and rotting tongue didn’t help, either.

“Oh no,” the stallion laughed with a creepy sense of joy. “Thank you. You’ve save me the trouble of trotting all over the wastes to find you’re striped coat.”

“Uh, okay?” Something didn’t feel right about this. Nopony, no one, ever came up looking for me.

“Oh, my apologies,” he said, smiling. Surprisingly, his teeth were fairly white. “My name is Golden Bit, entrepreneur and business pony. And I believe you owe me some caps, my striped friend.”

“I think you have me confused with somepony else,” I answered, turning away before this got worse. I wasn’t in debt to anyone, pony or otherwise.

“I highly doubt that,” Golden countered with a hint of anger rising in his voice. “Do you remember anything from about a week ago? You were on your way to central Equestria and you passed through a checkpoint requesting caps as payment for using a cleared and safe road.”

“Oh... that,” I laughed nervously. The Toll Gang. I had almost forgotten about them.

“You completely destroyed my business foothold out there!” he yelled. “Do you have any idea how expensive BEL’s are!? Not to mention how difficult it is to transport them without getting shook down by those Steel Dingbats!? I had that post outfitted with two of them! And you just... blew it up!”

The more Golden Bits yelled, the more ponies started to look our way, some gathering to see what was happening, and others backing away to avoid getting caught up in our disagreement.

“H-how much do I owe you?” I asked. Maybe there was the possibility of paying him off with what little caps I had. I hadn’t wanted to destroy the post, but it wasn’t exactly fair to put a price on road that had been there for well over two-hundred years.

“Not including the loss of my employees, the pony-hours needed for the rebuild and radiation purging?” Golden growled. “18,653 caps. Plus thirty caps for the toll. And stop looking so surprised. I know it was you because Beatdown radioed the attack in before you blew her all to hell. Blue unicorn, black stripes, yellow eyes, wearing a brown cloak with swirls on it. Now, unless you have a twin, there probably isn’t anypony else like you. So pay up, or I’ll make you pay!”

“I don’t have-” I started, but was interrupted with a gun to the face.

“Then I guess you’ll die,” he drawled as he steadied his obscenely large hunting revolver in my face.

“Wait!” Tes yelled as she stepped between the two of us. “Can’t you two deal with this more civilly? We’re all mature ponies around here, lets settle this like adults.”

“Hmm... You’re right,” he said to the blue mare before turning back to me. “I’m sorry, but your friend has a point. And despite the barbaric way you like to handle your business, I believe that you’re well educated enough to understand a... small wager, if you will... settled by gentlecolts’ duel.”

“A duel?” I asked. It was... the most unlikely thing I would have expected.

“A gentlecolts’ duel,” he corrected with that white, smug, smile of his. “It’s simple; we take twelve paces, turn, and have at each other. If you win, you can have my possessions and assets I keep here in Starward.”

“And if you win?” I asked. I still could not believe the ridiculousness of this whole thing.

“What do you mean, ‘if’?” Golden laughed loudly. “I have over two-hundred years of experience on my side. When I win, which I will, well... I’ll have the satisfaction of besting you. And victory is so, so sweet.”

“That’s it?” Tes asked as the ghoul began to circle around us. Ponies had cleared out a ring around us, enough to walk apart and ‘duel’.

“And your marefriend here will work for me, to pay off your debt,” he said as he checked his own revolver for ammunition. “And when she’d done, she’ll be taken off to the market. Stable ponies bring a pretty cap these days.”

The ghoul trotted to the center of the ring of ponies. Granted, this was quite the spectacle, but most of them didn’t know that they could very well get hurt or worse with two ponies shooting at each other in a crowded area.

“What market is he talking about?” my blue friend asked, as if she were afraid of the answer. She should have been, too.

“Slave market,” I answered as I checked my own rounds for Tweety, emptying the standard ones out for some hollow points. “You’ll get sold as a slave and then probably abused, tortured, and raped for the enjoyment of others for the rest of your life. Luckily, though, the lifespan of a slave is generally much shorter than that of a free pony, so you wouldn’t suffer long.”

“Xero,” she gulped nervously. “Please don’t lose...”

“I’ve been around the wastes once or twice, Tes,” I told her, trying to calm her down a little with a smile of my own. “Plus, I have a few things he doesn’t.”

“This is a gentlecolts’ duel,” Golden Bit called from the street center. “No Pipbucks, no barding, pistols only.”

I sighed heavily under my breath. Everything was going so smoothly, too.

The clips on my Pipbuck glowed teal before coming undone and instantly my EFS and HUD flickered out of my vision. Straps and buckles loosened themselves along the heavy leather armor with the magical assistance as well. The exposure made me feel rather naked.

“Twelve paces, turn, fire?” I reiterated.

“Correct,” he grinned maliciously as his hunting revolver levitated beside him.

Without the armor to slow or stop them, the .45-70 rounds would tear right through flesh, and probably hit something vital in the process. Even though the armor was quite well made, it wouldn’t stand up to that much abuse at this close of a range. I made a mental note not to get hit by the heavy slug. And without the aid of SATS, I had to rely on manually aiming my own weapon. It was easier to do by mouth than horn, and I levitated Tweety’s bit to my teeth.

“And... begin!” Golden said aloud.

Him and I started to slowly step in opposite directions. Listening closely to his hoofsteps, I matched his pace. At six steps, a loud clack rang out, and it definitely wasn’t a pistol.

“Xero!” Tes yelled as soon as the plans changed.

Quickly, I whipped around to see Golden Bit holding not only his revolver, but two sawed off shotguns as well. I tried to slip into SATS, but-

BOOOMMBOOOMM!

The shotguns roared to life and echoed through the trade-town like the sound distant thunder mixed with a rockslide. Everything exploded in pain as one heavy slug slammed square into my chest while the other entered and blew through the side of my unarmored neck. Everywhere else was peppered with small, pencil sized holes, at least a hundred of them, from shells loaded with birdshot. The force alone had knocked me off my hooves and to the ground.

“No!” Tes screamed. “Xero!”

Shock began to set in almost instantly and the pain started to fade, replaced by a wave of heavy-lidded tiredness. Blood seeped out onto the asphalt and soaked into the dry, thirsty ground. It took everything I had to stay aware, if only for a few more seconds until help came.

“Oh please... You didn’t think I survived this long by playing fairly by the rules, did you?” Golden said, lowering his weapons and facehoofing. “Dear Celestia... I can’t believe you were stupid enough to-”

He was cut off on the count of gaining a new hole in his forehead, just below his horn. A smoking Tweety fell from my toothed grip.

“You talk too much,” I rasped at the still-standing ghoul. He managed to look up at the whole as it began to drip into his eye.

“Oh...” he managed to wheeze before he too, fell.

“Tes... Get h-”

She was already gone before I had finished. Darkness had started to creep in, slowly engulfing my vision. I felt so tired; a short nap couldn’t hurt, right?

===

The light brown, wooden door slowly swung open, squeaking quietly as it cracked wide enough for myself to slip through. The air outside was nice, not chilly or cool, nor uncomfortably hot, but just right, with a soft breeze rustling a few still-living ironwood trees that were scattered throughout the village.

Even in the darkness of the night, I could see Star Gazer looking through some kind of brassy gold... looking glass? It was similar to the ones Gibs had around his home, but longer and wider, and this one was attached to a set of spindly legs.

Star Gazer looked at over at the sound of the door squeak, letting out a small sigh of relief when he realized it was just me.

“Hey,” he said gently with a smile. He always had great smiles... “What are you still doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep...” I said though a noisy yawn. It was well past my bedtime, but after waking up for some unknown reason, I couldn’t get back to sleep. “What are you doing up?”

The tall zebra smirked and looked back at the clouded over sky.

At least, most of it was covered with clouds. A spot slightly larger than my hoof was completely void of the gloomy overcast, perfectly round in shape. But it wasn’t the cleared sky that made me gasp, or the sight of the full, brilliant white moon. It was the ghostely, bluish white orb next to it.

“Star Gazer” I hissed quietly at my brother as I scampered next to him. “You know you’re not suppose to be doing this!”

Zebra legends told tales of the dreaded power of the stars. It wasn’t something I was really into, and neither were most of the other zebras in our little village. But the last time Star Gazer messed around with his magicky stuff and the clouds, these scary winged ponies came the next morning and were really mean and rude.

Before I could do anything though, he scooped me up and threw me onto his back.

“Hey!” I said, probably louder than I should have. After finally finding my balance, I asked “what was that for?”

“Quiet down. You’ll wake the whole village and then we’ll both get in trouble,” Star Gazer whispered back before turning to his strange red book. “You were wondering what I was doing?”

The pages in the book were as blank as they’d always been, but he ‘hmmed’ as he flipped through them, as if they actually contained words or something. “Look through the telescope, but don’t touch it.”

Telescope... so that was what it was. I did as he said as he continued to look through the tome.

Suddenly, the moon, the stars, and the bluish white orb with a tail were much, much closer. It almost looked as if I could just reach out and touch them; so close, yet they still seemed so far away. The blue light slowly approached the moon and collided with it, or so I thought. It soon reappeared on the other side of the luminescent grey circle.

“What is it?” I asked, curious about the never-before-seen ball of light thing.

“A comet,” he answered. There was another book on the ground next to his blank red one. It was opened up to a page with a picture that looked exactly like the cloudless spot, except the entire sky was clear and starry. “This one is apparently called the ‘Sphinx Hyperbola.’” He took a look at his crappy Pipbuck 1500. “And right on schedule... It only comes once every six hundred, fifty-three years, seventy-two days, fourteen hours and three-and-a-half minutes. What do you think?”

“Kinda scary,” I replied. Somehow, the blue light comet thingy ran into the moon, but they didn’t crash into each other. They did, but they didn’t. I even saw it with my own eyes.

“That's it?” he said with a smirk. I knew anything I said would be between just the two of us. If anything, we’d just put it behind us and forget about it by morning.

By time I looked back into the ‘telescope’, the comet had already vanished, leaving just the moon in all its glory. There was a soft click and the moon got almost a hundred times bigger, or so it seemed. I shot a quick look at my brother, who had his hoof on a small dial on the side of the long, brassy tube. Dismissing his joking chuckle, I looked back into the little eye-piece.

The moon was really something. There weren’t any trees or plants or anything like that. Just... rocks. There were also hills though. And mountains, valleys, cliffs, ravines... deep, round pits. It was odd that there wasn’t anything alive, though, or even buildings or anything. Surely, there’d be something up there.

I could have sworn that I saw a large pile of boulders and rocks arranged in a pattern that said ‘CELESTIA SUX’, but I figured it was just my tiredness returning.

The moon, stars, and comet as a whole though...

“It's...” I thought for a second, trying to come up with the right word. “...pretty...” Close enough, I thought with another yawn. My brother did the same.

“I think it’s bed time,” Star Gazer said as I jumped from his back.

“Yeah...” I agreed.

He took a piece of chalk from a large, low topped, wooden box. Hastily, yet carefully, he drew some kind of confusing picture on the ground. It wasn’t actually the ground, but the second level deck of our house, which used to belong to our parents. The drawing looked like a circled with a seven pointed star inside. There was also an assortment of swirlly symbols and runic letters interconnected by lines and curves. When he was finished, which wasn’t more than fifteen seconds, my brother reared up over the equine-sized circle and slammed both of his forehooves into the center. There was a blue flash along the lines and runes and the sound of rolling thunder, followed by the closing of the sky-hole

“How did you...” I pointed a hoof where the drawing had once been, where where the moon had been, not four seconds before.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Star Gazer told me with that smug grin of his as he walked past me and into the house.

I looked at the sky again, saddened by the clouds that hid the strange comet, the pretty moon, and the dangerously beautiful stars...

===

The first thing to hit my senses was the smell: too clean and practically sterile. I could only guess that Tes had gotten help and I was now in a recovery room in Starward’s clinic. The uncomfortable bed I was laying in confirmed my suspicions.

The urge to vomit was at the base of my stomach, but I could tell that nothing was going to come up, even if I tried. My head ached too, probably from whatever I’d been drugged with. When my eyes finally adjusted to the annoyingly bright light, I noticed that there were three other ponies in the room with me.

The room itself was nothing of note; whitish floor, pale and faded walls, water stained ceiling... the usual. Monitoring equipment sat on a small side table to my left with a machine that was slowly pumping some sort of bright red fluid in, and taking some dark red stuff out. On the other side of the room, towards the door at the foot of the bed was a small table were two of the three ponies sat.

Technically, only one pony was there. The other was a ghoulified zebra that’d seen many years in the wasteland.

“Oh, look whois awake,” Zelkoff mused, looking up from his clipboard.

“Thanks, Tes...” I croaked. My throat was drier than the Dust Flats back home. Tes was sitting across from Zelkoff and reading a magazine on the table, while munching on an apple between her forehooves. “You saved me again.”

“It was nothing, really,” she blushed a little after finishing her mouthful. “But, you’re welcome.”

I rubbed my head with a hoof, trying to nudge the headache away. I wasn’t wearing anything, not even my Pipbuck. “What day is it?”

Tes looked at her Pipbuck. “Don't worry, you’ve only been out for about a day now.”

“I’ve had worse...” I mumbled. Wiggling my rear hooves was good enough for me to note that I didn’t have jelly legs.

“A couple weeks ago I got impaled on some rebar, lost my eye, and had my horn fractured,” I told her. The nameless mare sat in the corner of the room, opposite of Tes and Zelkoff, silently staring at the ground with a blank gaze.

“Ouch,” Tes winced as she ate another piece of apple. “I was wondering how you got that thing.”

“Itis a runic-matrix prosthetic oculus,” Zelkoff chimed in. “There were some pre-war and war-time companies attempting to make such devices, but they were subjected to public outcry and unfair criticism for using ‘zebra tech’ on ponies. If they were put to wartime field tests though, then users wouldhave found that they were not affected by magical and anti-magical fields like standard synthetic eyes.”

“You seem to know a lot on them,” Tes said.

“I know enough to get by,” the ghoulish zebra shrugged. “They also lack mechanical moving parts, and they willnot freeze up or lock in place.”

“That’s... good to know, I guess,” I mentioned. It was a rather interesting thought.

There were a few more moments of silence, only broken by Tes flipping a page in her magazine or Zelkoff looking through some clipboard notes and marking things down in them. My mind told me to get out of bed and get moving about, but my body kept itself firmly anchored to the mattress. It was still quite sore from the shotgun blasts.

Upon closer inspection, I found that my chest and forelegs were covered in tiny, pencil-wide scars, at least a few dozen of them. They could only have been the remains of Golden Bit’s shotgun. Why he’d been using birdshot instead of buckshot or slugs was beyond me, and probably everyone else, too. Buckshot was so much more effective at both short and medium ranges, while birdshot was only good for messing targets up at point blank range and pissing radscorpions off.

“I have a question,” I stated to nopony--or ghoul-zebra--in particular. “Who’s she?” I pointed a hoof at the mare in the corner. Her gaze never once lifted from the floor, and she was so quiet, it was almost like she wasn’t there at all.

“Oh! Right, almost forgot she was here, heh...” Tes exclaimed. She got up and walked over to the mare’s side. “It’s okay, come on,” she whispered quietly to the nameless pony.

She was quite the strange looking mare. Her coat was a rusty, burnt, orange-brown color, with an off-white underbelly that creeped forward and halfway up her chest in a point. Her legs were a dark brownish-black color, which ended just above her knees. For a pony, her ears were fairly pointier, but the oddness didn’t end there. Her main was messier, like it hadn’t been combed in a few days, though it was still more kempt than my bristly mane that stood on its own. It was a darker brown than her coat and ended in off-white tips like her chest. Her tail was similar, only it looked too... fluffy to be that of a pony. When she looked up for the first time and her gaze met mine, she peered back with two deep, crystal clear emeralds.

She also sported an explosive slave collar, tightly bound to her neck.

“You have a slave?” I asked Zelkoff. Why he needed a slave confused me... why anypony would, did.

“What? Why would I have a slave? I am a near immortal doctor,” he said, almost offended. “I have no use for a slave; they usually just get in the way.”

“Um, Xero?” Tes started, “you know when that ghoul dueled you, he said you could have all his stuff? Well...” She looked down at her hoof and slowly twisted it back and forth into the floor awkwardly.

“Yeah...?” I didn’t like where this was going.

“Well, uh... yyeeeaaah...” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Hello, Master Xerophyte,” the nameless earth pony said sadly, her eyes going back down to the floor. “My name is Foxtrot. How can I be of service?”

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: 20% Cooler - You’re not dead yet! When your health drops below 20%, and all hope seems lost, you gain 20% to your accuracy and 20% to your damage resistance. In short, you feel 20% cooler in the face of danger.

Chapter 7 (pt 1) - Over the Hills and Through the Woods

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Chapter 7

Over the Hills and through the Woods...

“You’re kidding... You’re kidding, right?”

“You’re serious!? You’re not just dicking around with me?”

“Yes, I’m serious. I’m seriously serious.”

“‘Cause if you’re not-”

“I am.”

“AAHH!” Foxtrot screamed in glee as she lunged at me faster than equinely possible. Not even pegasi could move that fast.

She knocked me over and pinned me to the ground. I tried to push her off, but after tumbling around again, she had me re-pinned. Before I could do anything, she bent down and gave a wet, sloppy kiss to my face. The mare jumped off and bounced around on the dry grass.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” The fox-colored mare pranced on her tippy-hooves.

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” I muttered as I rolled back to my own hooves. The collar found its way back into my saddle bag. Sell it later? Maybe. It could somehow be useful... maybe.

I figured that a slave would be happy to be released from servitude, but this was... a little unexpected. She was absolutely ecstatic.

“I’m free!” she yelled, bouncing along the sidewalk. “I’m free!”

We were under the awning of an old tree-house, much like the ones we’d passed by in Starward’s outskirts. The house, as it turned out, now belonged to me. It had been Golden Bit’s, but since I inherited all his ‘belongings’, I received his house and his... Foxtrot. There were caps in the deal too, but most of them were spent on medical bills. Extracting birdshot was much more tedious than it sounded.

Golden’s house was near the outside edge of the walled community. There weren’t very many other hospitable homes in the trade town, as most were gutted and torn down to build shacks or used for repairs. I could only imagine that the house had cost a fortune in this day and age.

“I think she’s happy,” Tes smiled.

“Really?” I replied sarcastically. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, yeah,” she said as she pointed to Foxtrot. “I mean, just look at her. She’s been moping around since you, uh, ‘eliminated’ Golden Bit.”

“That was sarcasm, Tes,” I shook my head. Some ponies...

“Oh...” she said as she started to flush. “Still, I’m glad you freed her. Nopony deserves to be a slave.” She looked up with a sincere smile.

“Of course,” I agreed. Nopony, nobody, deserved to live a life locked up against their will.

“Hey, Foxtrot!” I called out. She looked back with the biggest smile on her face I’d ever seen on a grown mare. “I need to speak with you a moment.”

Foxtrot happily bounced her way back to the porch. “‘Sup?” she asked casually.

“I’m curious about something,” I stated. “What are you going to do now?”

“Not sure,” she said as she looked down a little. “Ya know, I never thought I’d be free again, to be honest.”

“Again?” my blue friend asked.

“Yeah... I was kind of kidnapped and sold into slavery,” Foxtrot admitted, though it seemed even that thought didn’t hurt her spirit. “But I’m free now, so no matter what I do, I think I’ll be better off. I can’t thank you two enough.”

“Why not come with us?” Tes asked. As soon as the words left her lips, she had this begging, pouty, puppydog look on her face.

Foxtrot’s eyes sparkled with equal enthusiasm once she heard the question. It was evident that she wanted to get out, to see the world and find her place in it. After being cooped up for so long, who wouldn’t want to leave? Or perhaps she just wanted some structure in her life. Living as a slave, she wouldn’t have had all the freedom she just received.

“Sure, why not?” I answered. In either case, saying ‘no’ would break more than one heart.

“Sweet,” Foxtrot said with a grin. Unlike most ponies’ teeth, which were flat and squarish, hers had a slight point to them, like those of a canine. It was more than just a little strange, but the thought quickly scattered as she continued to speak. “I have a question for you, as well. Where are you going?”

Tes opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. “Yeah, Xero. Where are we going?” she asked as a puzzled look came across her face.

“I suppose you’re wondering that, aren’t you?” I said to my blue friend. I hadn’t really told her, or anyone for that matter, what my plans were.

===

“And that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying to figure out what they’re up to, if they are actually rising up again,” I said, taking another sip of the tea Foxtrot had made. It was good, not too sweet, not too bitter, with just the tiniest hints of lemon and other herbal flavors. “If the NZRA, or ‘Azapa’, I guess it’s called now, has returned, then...”

Then what? What was one zebra going to do against a whole army? I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know if I could even stop them. Or how to get help. Or where to get it. Or who to ask. I didn’t know anything.

“I’ll help,” Foxtrot said. “Sounds like it could be fun, a nice change of pace from how things have been around here.”

She sipped at her tea cup that she held between her forehooves. It was almost funny to see how she managed to do it so effortlessly. Of course, I’d been there myself.

“Are you sure? It’ll be dangerous,” I said. “You don’t need to go if you don’t want to.” I didn’t want to put anyone through a hell they didn’t sign up for. Hurting ponies wasn’t something I wanted to do, despite being good at it.

“Mast-” Foxtrot started to say before cutting herself off and correcting her mistake. “Xero... After what you did to Golden Bit, you gained ownership of everything he owned here, including this house and myself. Even though you freed me, I have nowhere to go and nothing to do.”

“You could stay here,” I pointed out as I looked around the room. It was a kitchen, one that was still operational. Pots and pans hung from small hooks by the stove. A couple of doorless cupboards held plates, saucers, and cups of varying sizes as they aged to a faded off-white. Slabs of midnight-blue granite covered the counter tops and contrasted the white paint that flaked off what remained of the cupboards and walls. The tiled floor also used to be white, but time had attacked it as well, yellowing the white tiles and popping a few of them loose. All in all, while the home was in a state of slight disrepair, it was still much more intact than most of the places I’d been.

“I could, but... I don’t really want to.” The orange mare took another sip of her tea. “I’ve always loved the adventurous life, even as a filly.”

I nodded. It felt good to know someone had my back in this.

“What about you?” I asked Tes.

She just sat there, staring into her own teacup with the tiniest hints of a smile spread across her muzzle. “Teees?” I drawled to the mare lost in her own thoughts. “Tes!”

“Huh? What?” she asked in a quick, startled tone. Her empty cup fell to the floor, but I just barely managed to catch it in my magic before it hit the floor.

“As I was saying... what about you? You said you wanted to go on your own once we got to a town. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, though.”

I really didn’t want her to go. She was... something. ‘Helpful’ was one word to describe it, but she was more than that. There was a doubt in my mind that I couldn’t have taken on that alicorn by myself; the more times I’d encountered them, the stronger and smarter they were. She was a good companion to have, to be honest. She toughed out everything the wasteland had thrown at her so far and had proven that she had what it took to make it.

“Well, I... uh...” Tes stammered. “I would kinda like to see what else there is out there.” She gave a half-smile, however, it still looked like she was unsure of her choice.

“So you’d like to come with, too?”

She gave a reassuring nod, one that was more confident than her words.

“Very well then,” I said as I took a peek at my PipBuck. I’d spent almost three hours talking, explaining why I had been in New Appleoosa, why I was here, and what I was doing.

“It’s starting to get late,” I mentioned to the others. “Where’s everypony sleeping?”

“There’s three bedrooms in this house,” Foxtrot answered. “I have my own and Golden Bit’s master bedroom is upstairs and down the hall. There is a third, but it’s mostly used for storage.”

“Sounds like a plan, then,” I said, leaning back in my chair and causing it to squeak. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“I’ll take the master bedroom, I guess,” Tes said sheepishly.

After saying our goodnights, I trotted into the living room, which was right next to the kitchen. It had the same ‘old but still often used’ feel as the rest of the house did, evident by the cold coals in the fireplace. The weather hadn’t been cold enough to use since the night it rained.

The rest of the room was dominated by furniture that included a couple of bookshelves with various trinkets on them, along with some scrolls and memory orbs. A faded picture of a stallion that looked too similar to Golden Bit sat on a shelf amongst other photographs. A large bay window along the wall opposite of the fireplace overlooked the front yard. Two leather chairs flanked an ugly as sin couch and a coffee table... the usual.

Although the couch was incredibly ugly, with its green and pink plaid pattern, it was far more comfortable than most. I grabbed a throw blanket off one of the chairs and quickly found myself drifting off to sleep.

===

“I’m sorry, Xero,” the young zebra mare said. “It’s just that... you’re like a big brother to me.”

I looked at her. I was such an idiot...

“Well, a younger big brother,” she corrected before putting a foreleg across my shoulder. “We can still be friends though, right?”

“Yeah...” I sighed. How could I be so stupid? “I guess.”

“Oh, stop that. I just don’t like you that way.” She kicked a small stone off the cliff edge with her other forehoof. It took nearly four seconds to hit the bottom, but when it did, there was a loud, inequine snarl. Lumens sighed at the boredom.

“There’s gotta be something more fun than throwing rocks at quarry eels,” she grumbled.

“We could...” What was there to do? ‘Fun’ was almost non-existent in the wasteland. That is, unless you were willing to get into trouble. “I don’t know...”

I was feeling melancholy now. My heart was broken. Just shattered. Confessing that you liked someone was not as easygoing as I had imagined. ‘Hey, I like you a lot, more than just a friend.’ That was it. That was all I had to say. Unfortunately, my thick headedness got in the way of my words again.

“It’s going to start getting dark,” Lumens said as she got to her hooves. “I think I’m going to head home. You should too pretty soon.”

I didn’t look, but I could hear her hoofsteps slowly crunching away on the dried, cracked earth and scrubgrass. I was alone again.

Another rock was kicked off the ledge. The cliff was the tallest one near our village, being taller than almost any building outside of Mareverick. Peeking over the edge revealed its bottom to be a large expanse of dusty flats. Everyone just called it the Dust Flats. It used to be a lakebed, but the water had dried up around the time of the Great War when the Flowtide River was diverted to prevent annual floodings. Or so I’d been told.

Along the cliff face were many large, snake-like creatures. They ranged from larger than a bus to only the length of a pony. Quarry Eels..

They usually didn’t come out of their hidey holes unless there was food nearby. Or someone was throwing rocks at them. After hissing loudly and snapping at each other, the quarry eels retreated back to their homes in the cliff face.

There wasn’t much to look at beyond the immediate ledge and eels. A wrecked skycarriage here, a pile of bones over there. A pony just beyond the reach of the beasts.

“Hey!” I yelled. They must not know about the eels! “Get back!”

I waved a hoof at him... or her, shooing them away from the monsters. The message didn’t translate well, and they waved back, continuing their journey towards the cliff side. “No! Go!”

About halfway down the cliff, a very, very big, yellowish-green, glowing eel smashed out of a hole much too small for it. In its massive jaws was one of the red eels. As the smaller eel shrieked in pain, the glowing one turned its head and burrowed its way through another small hole. The head of the red eel was torn off by the rocks and left on the ground, most likely to be picked clean by the smaller eels.

That was when I remembered not to yell near the eels.

The glowing eel broke through the cliff just below my hooves. The ground gave way and before I could process what was happening, I was falling toward the mouth of a very hungry eel.

===

The ground smacked my face, which my body hit back with a lazy thud. The alarm on my pipbuck was blaring in my ear and took me a moment to turn the damned thing off. Once upright, the first thing that ran through my mind was how badly I relieve myself.

I silently wandered the house in search for the bathroom. With all the doors closed, it wasn’t as easy as just passing by and saying “Oh, there it is.” The first room I came across was on the ground floor. It had to have been the storage room Foxtrot had spoken about. Old furniture covered with equally old sheets, a couple pony mannequins sadly sat in the corner wearing old-world get-up’s that had seen better days. There were some workbenches tucked away on a nearby side wall. They were mostly just cluttered with junk, but a couple fully assembled rifles stuck out, along with what looked to be a rusty suit of power armor, or at least part of one.

Other than a munitions box and grenade box, the room was fairly empty of valuables. The boxes of gun parts may have value to someone around this town, but I’d have to find them first. I left everything behind and moved onto the next door, which was only a broom closet. I also managed to find the basement, the ground floor bathroom, which was missing the toilet and sink, and a second closet.

The rest of the rooms were upstairs. From the looks of it, the first belonged to Foxtrot. It was much smaller than the storage room and lacked any furniture except a simple, meager bed on a frame and an equally impressive dresser. No desk, no pictures, no side table, no... anything, only the two items that were clearly visible from the doorway. The one thing that was considerably out of place was that there was no Foxtrot.

There was no way she had left in the middle of the night; she was too eager and excited to be free to have ditched Tes and I. She was around somewhere, perhaps running morning errands or elsewhere in the tree-house.

The next door across the hall was, without a doubt in my mind, Golden Bit’s. It was much larger than all the others, and in much better condition. The carpet underhoof was plushy and clean, the wallpaper was very neat and fresh looking, no tears or peals. Finely painted pictures hung around the room, from grassy landscapes to a bowl of tasty looking fruit. There was a desk along the far wall with a terminal and some other belongings, as well as a gun case, a wardrobe, and a very large, king-sized bed, spread throughout the room.

This one also held something strange. Two ponies were curled up under the heavy covers, one orange and one blue, the latter snoring softly. Who knew why they were together, but they were. I didn’t judge other ponies’ preferences, but maybe I’d ask about it later. They had known each other for barely a couple days. I didn’t stay long, not wanting to wake them up.

At long last, I finally found the bathroom and my bladder was forever thankful. After doing my business and washing my hooves, I took a look in the mirror. For the first time in almost a week, I was actually able to see myself.

There was a chunk missing out of the side of my ear, that was what I first noticed. Purplish scar tissue capped off where the rest of it would have been, with only the lightest of blue fuzz just starting to grow back. There was nothing I could do about it now.

My face didn’t fair much better. Numerous little pockmarks were scattered about it, at least a couple dozen. They could only have been from Golden Bit’s sawed-off shotgun. I knew I wasn’t the best looking stallion in the Outlands, but now it was definitely confirmed.

I looked like shit.

Part of me was angry, and I wasn’t sure why. That’s what scared scared me the most. Was I angry at Golden? He was the one who shot me, mangled what little of me I still had. He was dead now and there was nothing I could do about that. Being mad at a dead body was pointless.

Tes was there, too. She was the one who suggest we be more ‘civil’. If Golden Bit was going to shoot me, I may have had enough time to turn the tables on him. I would have had only one hole in me instead of a hundred.

Then again... it was my own doing, playing his little game. He played me right into his trap and I let him do it. I could have taken him out the moment he started accusing me and demanding I pay for damages. I should have taken him out then, but I didn’t. I simply didn’t act quick enough to do anything. I did nothing, so the only one I could blame was myself.

I was angry. Not at Tesla... not at Golden. Only myself. There was nothing I could do. What had happened, happened. It was over now and I couldn’t go back and change it. I just had live with it and move on.

I left the bathroom feeling emptier than when I’d found it. Once downstairs, I started looking for breakfast, something out of a saddlebag would suffice.

Foxtrot was sitting at the table. The stove already had a teapot heating over a blue flame, with some tea-making herbs in a small jar next to it on the counter.

“Ugh... what a night...” she groaned. Her mane and fur were dishevelled and suffering from a severe case of ‘bed mane’. The mare buried her face into her hooves, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she woke herself up.

“Uh... oookay?” What did they do last night? They didn’t even know each other. Unless that was why-

“Get your mind out of the gutter...” she said with a yawn. I mentally kicked myself, regretting I went there.

“Tesla was having bad dreams all night. Says she gets them more than a grown mare should, but...” Foxtrot shrugged tiredly. “It’s a scary, dangerous, new world out here. It’ll take time to adjust.”

“I agree. I’m surprised she’s tagged along for as long as she has,” I admitted. Searching through my pack, I found some mixed veggies and a box of ultra-preserved donuts. It was a strange combination, but it would work. “She’s probably been through more in this last week than she has her entire life.”

Foxtrot simply nodded back. “She didn’t want to be alone, so I kept her company. It was too comfortable to leave once she fell asleep.”

The fox-colored mare look up at me as I retrieved my food.

“What kind of breakfast is that?” she smirked as she shook her head. “How about I whip up some pancakes?”

She didn’t wait for an answer before she started pulling out dishes and ingredients from the cupboards. Pancakes sounded good; I hadn’t had them in ages, not since before I struck out on my own.

It wasn’t too long before Tes came stumbling down the stairs. Her mane and tail weren’t any better than Foxtrot’s. Worse, in fact. A few strands and locks of the near-white hair sprung up in messy curls and kinked fly-aways. But despite the bedraggled appearance, she seemed to be well rested.

“Morning,” I said as I waited patiently for the pancakes. The smell of melted butter and baking batter had been filling the air and it was delicious

“Mhm,” she hummed tiredly before sitting down and rubbing the ‘sleep’ from her eyes.. “Smells good.”

“Trust me, they are,” Foxtrot gleamed as she set a stack of tan and cream colored circles on the table. “Oh, one last thing...”

She pulled out a plastic container filled with a dark, thick liquid out of a cupboard. Syrup, and from the label it was definitely maple flavor.

The three of us ate our pancakes greedily, not sparing a single one of the bready disks. The luxury of syrup made them all the better.

“So what’s the plan for today?” Foxtrot asked as she finished washing the dishes. She had also cleared the table. I was more than capable of helping, but she refused, saying it was a force of habit more than anything. She was still stuck in the mindset of taking orders, and this was one thing that was just expected of her on a daily basis.

“I noticed an electronics store on our first day here,” Tes started, sighing. “I’d like to check it out, see if it has anything I can use to repair my laser. After these last few days, the components superheated themselves and caused a short, damaging a lot of the internals. The laser sequencer is tilted, the chromatic multiplex refractor crystal is charred and cracked from being overloaded, the MSB ports are already starting to go, and to top it all off, the micro-crystalline allocator is burnt. Like, literally. It caught on fire and caused everything else to go with it. Going to need to install a cryoclad rotary heatsink or a frigid sapphire field generator.”

What?

“Uh... alrighty, I think?” Foxtrot said, sharing my bafflement. She looked at me quizzically, to which my only answer was a confused shrug. “What about you, Xero?”

I thought of the things needed before leaving. Food was high on the list. I simply didn’t have enough for the three of us, and my supplies were running low anyways from being generous with Tes. Ammo followed food... perhaps sell some things off from the storage room if Foxtrot was alright with it? That would help balance the cost of things, if only a little.

“It’s going to be dangerous crossing the mountains,” I said as I recalled my trip through here when I went to New Appleoosa. It seemed like it was forever ago. “Food and water are a must. Ammo will also be a priority. You’re going to need some kind of protection-”

“Already covered.” Foxtrot pointed to a folded bundle by the door as she dried her hooves. It was some kind of leather armor, similar to my own, but lighter and much less obstructive.

“Good, good...” That was one less stop to make, and we could make it out of here by lunch if we were quick. “So ammo, food, water... we can sell off that unneeded stuff in the back room. We’ll need a few sleeping bags; the mountains get very chilly at night.”

“Finally!” Foxtrot said, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she was finally relieved of some burden. “I’ll be happy to see that junk go. It’s not much use to anypony without experience with loose gun parts. You’re best bet would be to go to the Ammunitions Anonymous vendor. They’ll give you a somewhat fair price for them. As for food, we can clear what we can out of this place. I doubt we’ll be back here anytime soon, so the less stuff to spoil, the better.”

“She has a point, this place does have a few thing we could use,” Tes agreed. “I say we get our things together and head out. Kinda excited to start seeing new places.”

“You too?” the orange mare asked with a smile.

Tes simply nodded as she got up and started for her bags, which were already by the door. I went to the back room to pack it up and search for anything useful, while Foxtrot stayed in the kitchen.

It took almost two hours to get everything sellable in the storage room into a single, worn out saddle bag. There were a couple of assault rifles in somewhat working condition, a rusty 10mm pistol, and an old .32 caliber revolver. Everything else was too disassembled to be useful and were just thrown into the bag, slowly filling it up and weighing it down the more I dug into the storage room.

The power armor I spotted earlier that morning was missing many of its mechanical parts, two legs, the helmet, and part of the back. I was sure it was missing more, but couldn’t tell as I hadn’t actually examined power armor before. It too went in the pack, sans frame.

The only things of any interest were the two sawed-off shotguns. They were heavy and seemingly ready to fall apart from the centuries of abuse and wear. The steel of one was dark crimson in color, matching its old mahogany grip. ‘ANGER’ was crudely scored and burned into the wood at the foregrip. The other sawed-off was a dull blue, even darker than my own coat. Its wooden parts were stained navy blue, except its name was inlaid with mother of pearl in a very elegant, loopy, script instead. ‘Malice’ it read, the pearl reflecting back in a rainbow of pastel colors once the grime was wiped away.

Despite the outward appearance, the guns were in nearly perfect working order. There was nearly no rust inside the barrels, the triggers weren’t ‘floppy’, and the breaches locked tightly, but still came apart with a simple flick of the catch. They’d last for a while before any serious repairs would be needed. As such, they found themselves in my own saddlebag.

After scrounging around for little longer, I decided that everything of any decent value was gone. The grenade box and munitions box were empty, except for some ancient packing straw. The old world dress and tuxedo on the mannequins stayed behind. Not many ponies were looking for ballroom clothing; they weren’t going to be worth much.

Satisfied with my load, I made my way back to the main area of the house. Foxtrot had already slipped into her suit of lightweight leather armor, armed with a silenced 10mm pistol in a foreleg holster and a pair of small saddlebags across her back. She was currently busy helping Tes tighten the red and black armor, but even at its smallest, the large suit was still a couple sizes too big for the small mare. She was wearing her Stable barding underneath, but even that didn’t seem to help.

“All ready?” I asked as Foxtrot pulled back a strap in her teeth as much as she could before letting it snap back harmlessly against the hardened plates.

“I think so,” Foxtrot panted. “It’s not going to get any tighter Tes, not without breaking it. You’ll be fine until you get something more your size.”

“Okay, okay...” Tes sighed. “Just feels weird. It’s too... baggy. Kinda feels like it won’t stop much.”

I held my tongue. To be honest, it wouldn’t. Leather armor wasn’t something that was known to protect against anything bigger than small caliber bullets. She didn’t need to know that, though. The last thing she needed was to be scared.

“It’ll work. Trust me,” Foxtrot reassured her. “It’ll protect against the elements better than your jumpsuit alone and will deflect low-speed impacts.”

“She’s right, the hardened plates work well against things like baseball bats and golf clubs,” I agreed. “Knives have a hard time cutting the leather, too.”

“Alright, I suppose you got a point,” Tes said. It seemed to steel her up enough to be confident that the armor would suffice. “Now... how about we get out of here?”

She wasn’t the only one eager to get back on the road again...

The three of us left the Starward tree-house, with Foxtrot locking the door and keeping the key I’d given her. The lock was magically imbued, impossible to pick. The belongings that were left inside would be safe until she returned.

Starward was no more busy than it had been in previous days, perhaps even less. Ponies trotted around, going about their business, buying wares they needed and selling things they didn’t. We only had three places in mind.

Ammunitions Anonymous was a post-last-day gun and ammo provider spread all across the Outlands, my home. Their westernmost branch was right here in Startward.

The shack wasn’t much, just steel panels bolted to some wooden planks with more metal sheets on top of those. The stallion inside was more than helpful and gave what I considered a fair price for the gun parts and the rusty guns. Along with a few of my own caps, I was able to purchase some 12 gauge shotgun shells, .44 magnum shells, and a few dozen .308 rounds for myself and a few clips of 10mm ammo for Foxtrot.

The next place was the electronics store, which blew me away. It was small, only slightly larger than the kitchen in the tree-house, but was packed floor to ceiling with techy stuff. Most of the names I could barely pronounce, let alone understand their purpose. I could find a spark battery, a magical energy cell, and a laser pistol, but the rest of the whole store was leagues above my realm of knowledge.

Tes seemed right at home, however, as she was practically giddy with excitement. Casually, but confidently, she strode up to the brown earth pony behind a counter. She asked the tall mare for some choice items, to which the mare shook and nodded her head as Tes went down her list of egg-head-named parts. They spoke in hushed tones that were almost too quiet for me to hear. I didn’t catch all of it and what I did hear... I didn’t understand.

“Ugh,” Tes sighed as she turned to Foxtrot and I. “Hey, if you two want to go ahead and get the rest of the stuff, I’ll hang back here and get what I need. There’s a workbench I can use to fix my laser, but they don’t have the exact parts I’m looking for. I’m going to have to search through and see if there’s anything I can Flankenstein together. Might have to use a few terminal heat sinks as an intercooler... or... something. I don’t know.”

“You sure?” I asked. She had never asked to leave her behind before; it was sort of strange.

Tes nodded. “I’ll be alright. She seems friendly enough. Besides, I know you’ll both be bored standing here trying to figure out what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, this whole sciencey thing isn’t really for me,” Foxtrot said with a shake of her own head. “Too many things at once, never could follow along.”

“Okay, so meet back up at the east side of town?” I suggested.

With a nod, Tes left the counter and started browsing the shelves upon shelves of parts. Foxtrot and I didn’t stay, knowing that we had other things to do before the three of us went on our way. The fox-colored mare was kind enough to show me to the local general store.

The short trot was mostly quiet, with only the mundane things spoken. What exactly are you? How’d you get that eye? What’s your favorite color? ...Just to name a few.

The general store was, oddly enough, called the General Store. From the outside, it looked to be the perfect place to pick up some odds and ends before our trip. As the I pushed the doors open, it was like stepping into a time capsule, even if it was showing severe aging. A pony stood at the front, wearing an old blue shirt with the words “General Store” stitched into the collar along with a matching hat on her ponytail styled mane. Near the entrance there was a small collection of, uh, cages with wheels? My brother called them shopping carts, but I remember my father calling them trolleys a few times before.

Foxtrot and I grabbed a cart and started wandering the store, finding ourselves stuck in the camping section.

“So... I take it you and Tes aren’t an item?” she asked. The mare was looking at a pair of sleeping bags, one green, one red, as if contemplating the warmth of each identical sack.

“What?” I asked, surprised by the random question. “No, no, no. She’s... no...”

“Aw, why not? She’s a cutie,” she teased in a sing-song manner with a smirk as she tossed the sleeping bags on top, adding a third, blue one afterwards. “I mean, unless you’re into stallions. That’s cool, too. I don’t judge.”

“What,” I said again. There was nothing in the aisle that we needed, so I moved onto the next. “No, it’s not that. We’ve only known each other for a short while, not even a week. I don’t know a whole lot about her, other than she’s too smart to be wandering the wasteland like she is, and she is a Stable pony.”

There were other reasons as well. Lumens was still in New Appleoosa, and I had made a promise to her.

“Besides, I already have a special somepony,” I added as we entered an aisle dedicated to lighting. Traditional, cliche looking torches, lanterns, flashlights, glow sticks and other such things lined the short shelves. “If you want to go after her, go ahead. You said so yourself, she’s a cutie.”

I had to tease her back; she was a good sport about it.

“I might just have to,” Foxtrot giggled.

We continued scouring the shop for gear. I had almost everything we needed already, but a few things had gotten lost over the last couple weeks. I didn’t bother with a flashlight or lantern; traveling at night was a sure way to get hurt or worse and I now had the tools to easily make a fire.

Water was going to be an issue with an addition body but fewer canteens to go around. I found a pile of them in the back corner of the small store and put three into the cart. Two for Foxtrot and one more for Tes. I ran through the mental list of things we would need if we wanted to get across the mountains in mostly one piece.

“Honestly, I can’t thank you enough,” she said with a heartfelt tone after a while. “I never would’ve thought I’d have this freedom again. Not until I was a wrinkly, useless, old hag. You’ve given me something that I have no idea what I should do with. I... I’m happy... happier than you could possibly imagine, but I don’t know what to do now. I’ve always been given a strict set of orders, and now I can do anything I want. But what? There’s a whole world out there. Where do I fit in it?”

“One of life’s great mysteries,” I answered. It wasn’t an easy question, one that only a few could even guess at. “I couldn’t say. We have to make our own place out here. We’re not assigned a position or rank to hold, or a role or class to play. Only you can decide what you want to strive for.”

“That’s kinda deep. I think” she mused to herself. “Was never good at understanding abstract thoughts.”

“It was something my father told me when I was little,” I replied. All those years ago... “I never really understood it, either. He was strange like that, cryptic sayings you’d only understand long after they were said.”

I smirked at the thought. He was right about many things he said, and he knew he’d be gone before anyone understood them.

“Anyways, I think we have everything we need,” I told my companion. “We should get out of here before I find reasons to buy more stuff.”

“Yeah, the cart’s getting full,” she pointed back at the small shopping cart nearly overflowing with sleeping bags, canteens and other camping accessories. “Shame we couldn’t find some power hooves, though.”

“You fight?” I chuckled as I pushed the car to the pony behind the counter. Foxtrot didn’t seem like a hoofticuffs kind of pony. Though her body did have the build for it, she seemed too laid back.

“You know what I did for Golden Bit?” she started as I levitated the contents of the cart onto the counter. “I was basically his body guard. It’s cheaper to own a pony to fight for you than it is to keep one hired day-in and day-out. Some places wouldn’t allow us to take weapons in, but if things got too hairy then he’d still have somepony to help protect him. He could fight and usually could hold out his own for a bit, but two heads are better than one, you know?”

I nodded my agreement as the mare priced out the items on the counter.

“Eh... I’ll give the lot to ya for three-fifty,” she said boredly before glancing at Foxtrot, which seemed to brighten her mood. “No collar, huh? Take it Goldiboy finally kicked the bucket?”

“Something like that,” Foxtrot shrugged. “Three-fifty sounds a bit high though, Daisy. Think you could work a deal out for a loyal customer after all these years?”

“Hm... alright, but only ‘cause I know ya,” the mare drawled. “Two-seventy-five, and don’t tell anypony, ya hear?”

I didn’t feel like pushing my luck any further and paid for the gear.

“Pleasure doin’ business with ya,” the mare grinned. “Have a good one, Foxtrot.”

With a final farewell, we were back outside. Foxtrot was carrying her half and Tes’ load in her old packs while I held onto my own. Despite the amount I’d just purchased, I was barely weighted down. Foxtrot was comfortable with her own packs as well, as they were nearly empty before we all had left the house.

We weren’t very far from the eastside entrance, only couple of blocks. Our blue friend was sitting patiently on a wrought iron park bench, looking over her laser pistol. It didn’t look too much different, other than some clunky device on the side that resembled a motorwagon’s radiator and a couple extra tubes travelling from it to the inside of the gun.

“Geez, about time you two showed up,” she smirked after spotting us. “Did you get what you needed?”

“I hope so,” I answered. “We got food from the house, ammo from a vendor, and gear from the general store. I don’t think there was anything else.”

“Excellent,” she said as she hopped off the bench. “We’ll be out of this place in no time.”

To be continued...

Chapter 7 (pt 2) - Over the Hills and Through the Woods

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Indeed, only after Tes had packed and secured her belongings were we out of the protection of post-war Starward and in the surrounding ruins.

The residential section of the city gave way to a more commercialized zone. Toppled buildings littered entire blocks while others stood tall and firm. Cracked and up-heaved tarmac disrupted the streets in places, with some spots suddenly dropping into large sinkholes. More than one hole opened up to some kind of subway or sewer system. No mega spells had gone off in the city, evident by the lack of radiation, but who was to say that the destruction wasn’t from some century old battle or even just time itself?

In any case, the ruins were quiet, but still very full of life and danger. Radroaches weren’t uncommon and would scurry away as we approached. A pack of feral dogs had followed us for a couple blocks before gaining interest in a giant rat. There was even a lonely ‘prospector’ scrounging around the blasted remains of a gas station.

“Keep an eye out,” I said to not only break the silence, but to also inform Foxtrot and Tes of the danger my EFS was picking up. Numerous unfriendly red ticks were starting to appear. There were too many to be simple rad-roaches, nor did they jitter about like most pests.

We passed under a walkway connecting two unremarkable buildings. The windows were all gone along the glass corridor, leaving only the skeletal remains of concrete and support beams. Many of the structures ahead were missing windows and doors, leaving open, dark hideaways for anything that could fit within them.

Foxtrot rushed past my lead by a few paces and seemed to... sniff the air?

“Raid-” she started before a maniacal laugh echoed throughout the concrete jungle.

They were everywhere. All around, the marks on my EFS began to scatter as the laugh was joined in by other whoops and hollers. Then they showed their faces.

Raiders. And more than just a few of them.

There were few things more dangerous than a crazed, chem addled pony with weapons. One of those things was a whole herd of said crazy ponies.

There were too many ticks count, but the little red number beside the compass was able to do so. Sixteen of the murderous fiends managed to hide out in the ruins before converging on us at once.

“Well, well, well... looky what we have here, fillies and colts,” one of the raiders said with a jovial flare.

The voice’s owner showed himself as he climbed atop the roof of a half-destroyed carriage. He was a young, spring green stallion with an mangey, orange-yellow mane. Like his other raider comrades, his armor was made of anything and everything someone could have found in the city ruins. From scavenged street signs and scrap metal to pilfered clothing and barding, nothing was safe from their jury-rigging hooves.

“My little ponies, it appears we have some guests,” he said as he turned his red baseball cap back and allowed his horn to stick out of a crudely cut hole. Hardened, yellow eyes stared back from behind a lock of his mane, and was only matched by his toothy snarl. “Now, if you hand over your things, I’ll consider letting you live.”

My magic tightened around my saddlebags’ clips, with the intent to submit. We were outnumbered and outgunned and if there was anything certain about these ponies, it was that they were definitely not traveling actors.

Rather than backing down however, Tes pulled out her laser pistol. Foxtrot seemed to smirk at the situation, dropping into a more aggressive stance.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” the raider stallion said as he quickly pulled out an assault carbine from off his back and chambered a fresh round, as if to prove a point.

I readied myself to make a quick dodge, if needed, behind a crushed Cantervega to my left or a concrete slab that stood on-end to my right.

My companions played smart and backed down, even if it was only a little. It may have been cowardly, but it was better than being dead.

“Better,” he said before turning to his side. “Skippy, get their shit.”

“But... I got them last time...” a ruddy red mare complained. She was small, petite even.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know we were taking turns now. But I’m in charge here and I say do it or it’ll be your turn to be the gang’s fucktoy for a month!” he yelled, pointing the gun at her. “So get the fuck over there and grab their fucking shit before I fucking change my fucking mind!”

Skippy rolled her eyes dismissively as she muttered a slew of curses and slurs under her breath. Lazily, she made her way over to us, passing around the upright concrete slab that had fallen from the nearby architecture.

“C’mon... give ‘em up,” she sighed, clearly bored, but also annoyed at the situation.

“Nah, I kinda like my armor,” Foxtrot said dismissively.

“The fuck you just say, bitch?” Skippy snapped as she stomped over to my newest companion, which wasn’t far seeing as how she was the closest. The raider poked her in chest hard enough to push her around slightly. “I don’t recall asking what you like or don’t like. I told you to cough it up.”

“Poke me again, I dare you...” Foxtrot hissed back with her unfaltering grin and narrowed eyes.

“Uh... maybe you should listen to her, Foxtrot,” Tes interjected.

“I have to agree with her on this one,” I said. Whatever was going through her mind, in a situation like this, it couldn’t have been too keen.

“Yeah, listen to your stupid friends,” the mare said with another hurtful-looking poke.

Foxtrot sighed and shook her head, but kept her smirk.

“Alright, fair enough...” The fox colored pony moved in a blur, her head colliding with the raider’s.

The mare recoiled, slurring another line of curses and holding a hoof to her now-profusely-bleeding nose. Before I could do anything to hold my friend back, she threw herself at the raider. As she collided, Foxtrot hooked her foreleg around Skippy’s raised leg, rolled across her back, and used her momentum to throw the dazed earth pony head first into the slab of concrete. Her head head hit with a wet, sloppy, plop and left a long crimson smear as she fell limp.

I expected the inevitable ring of automatic gunfire... the burning sting of getting peppered with hot lead... anything to signal the end of a journey that hadn’t even begun.

I did not expect to hear the amused laughter of a stallion and from the look of it, neither did Foxtrot and Tes.

“Oh, wow! That was- that was something,” the leader said between his outbursts as he wiped away a tear. “Anypony else see that shit? She was like ‘Waaaaah! Splat!’ Fucking goddesses. Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

Foxtrot opened her mouth, but was cut off.

“Actually, you know what? Nevermind. You can tell me later,” he said as he raised his carbine. “You’ll be mine after I deal with your little friends here.”

It didn’t take another second to know what was going to happen. I gave Tes a forceful push with my magic and sent her tumbling behind a rusty Cantervega autocarriage while I darted the opposite way toward the concrete slab and Foxtrot.

I was barely halfway to relative safety before the gun sang out. Loud pings and pangs echoed off the steel body of the autocarriage and cracked across the concrete and road. Tes was curled into a little ball, fiddling with her laser pistol and jumping at every little shot.

“Kill ‘em, but keep the orange one alive,” the stallion said after he paused from a few short seconds of firing. “She’s mine.”

A symphony of whoops and hollers filled the air as the other raiders began closing in. I wasted no time pulling out Tweety and the old Azapa hunting rifle I barely used. One raider snuck around the back side of the Cantervega behind Tes but quickly found a lucky bullet to the head from the rifle.

Another burst of automatic fire from the leader filled the air. They weren’t a danger to us while we were behind cover, but that was where it kept us. Foxtrot busied herself by fitting some spiked clip-on horse shoes from Skippy and currently had a switchblade clenched between her teeth.

The gunfire abruptly stopped, most likely to reload. I used the pause to my advantage. I wouldn’t have time to aim any particular weapon, and even with SATS, the lag as the spell ended would give him just enough time to fire again. So I had to hit him without having to aim too much. I settled for one of the sawed off shotguns from the Starward house and levitated it out of a side pocket on my saddlebag. A quick check to be sure it was loaded and I was ready. I peeked over the edge of the rubble wall, aimed in his general direction as quickly as I could, and fired.

BOOOOMMM!!

The shotgun thundered off the sides of the the urban wasteland, roaring like an ancient beast waking from a long slumber. It kicked harder than any shotgun I’d used before, nearly flying out of my teal aura.

Though I didn’t look to see if I actually hit the raider, his pained cries were enough tell that he didn’t go unscathed. The other tick marks on my EFS scattered about. They were likely running to hide or getting a better vantage point.

“We can’t stay here,” I told my friends as I put in two fresh buckshot shells. “We need to move or else we’ll be sitting ducks.”

“You’re right,” Foxtrot agreed around the switchblade. “They’ll figure out a way to overu-”

She paused mid sentence, ears twitching as if trying to pick up something silent. A second later, a green, metal apple dropped between us.

A grenade. A grenade.

With reflexes even I was impressed by, she scooped it up in a hoof and lobbed it back to the other side of the concrete wall. The surprised shouts of a few raiders were cut short by a sharp explosion.

My ears were ringing and I couldn’t hear, but Foxtrot obviously yelled the word ‘Now!’ Just before bolting toward a different pile of rubble. Three-quarters of the way there, she was tackled by a raider. He swiftly got underhoof as she relentlessly pummeled him with her spiked shoes. Where she learned to fight like that, I didn’t know. What I did know though, was that she was more than capable of handling herself.

We needed to get past these raiders somehow, either by fighting through them or going around. Tes poked her head out from cover and let off a few short, rainbow blasts from her pistol. Two of the beams hit a raider stallion square in the chest and turned him into a searing pile of ash. Nothing was left, except the half-melted remains of a battlesaddle and rifle, and a few metal buckles from his armor.

I dashed across the gap between Tes’ autocarriage and my concrete slab and was able to steal a glance at the road ahead. There was very little, if any, room to move around the vicious ponies. Fighting through them seemed to be the only, but not the best, option. To top it all off... there were now eleven of them left according to my EFS counter.

I shifted around Tes to the other side of the autocarriage. Everyone seemed to be taking cover, either behind rubble, makeshift barricades, or the destroyed carriages that littered the street.

“Heads up!” Foxtrot yelled as something slammed into my back, forcing me to hit the pavement.

The maniacal laughter of the assailant rang in my ears as she kicked at me with clawed shoes. The thick armor plates along my back and sides were able to repel the attacks, but they wouldn’t last for long.

Instinct took over and I rolled out from under the raider and threw her to the side. She managed to right herself mid air with the help of a pair of bladed wings, landing deftly on her hooves. The pegasus flared her wings open. Razor sharp blades glinted in what light poked through the clouds as she lunged at me. Again, I whipped out my shotgun and pulled the trigger.

I was more prepared for the kick of the mule this time. The red sawed off roared to life again, throwing its hot leaded payload at the fiend. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of tiny holes peppered the raider as she crashed to the ground. Her clawed hooves clutched at her oozing face, barely muffling her cries.

“Gonna!” she screamed as she leapt up and blinding struck out a hoof, widely missing both Tes and I. Her eyes were clenched shut, where only bloodied tears streaked down. Their trails were lost amongst the many others that covered her face and chest.

“FUCKING!” She launched herself forward as she spastically flapped her wings in a flurry of feathers and blades, with hope of connecting with something fleshy. She hit her mark with a sharp, stinging lash across the side of my cheek. I recoiled, leveling Tweety between us.

“KILL!” she sputtered one last time before the .44 magnum buried itself deep in her chest. The pegasus tumbled to the ground as she choked on her own bodily fluids. Whatever wasn’t spilled across the cracked asphalt, she spat up at my hooves, speckling them with drops of red. Shortly afterwards, her tick disappeared from my EFS.

I turned to my laser-toting companion. “Thanks,” I said with a roll of my eyes, the stinging in my cheek only growing as it started to bleed.

“Hey, I didn’t want to accidentally hit you!” she said defensively as she jumped to her hooves and shook her laser pistol at me. “Have you seen what this th-!?”

She was cut off by a loud crack from a little farther down the street and was promptly thrown off her hooves. I, too, dropped down below the cover of the autocarriage, but by reflex.

“Son of a motherfucking, goddess-damned bitch!” she cried out as she clutched her shoulder. More blood ran from her own injury, where it was quickly drunk up by the thirsty ground.

“Foxtrot!” I called out as I magically pulled my blue friend close, behind the safety of the Cantervega. “Tes is down!”

“Got it!” she yelled as she reared up and slammed both forehooves into the head of another raider. It caved in against the yellow curb and he stopped thrashing about. Foxtrot dashed onward up the street, staying behind the cover of rotten wagons, rusty autocarriages, and crumbling concrete rubble.

I turned my attention back to the crying pony in my lap. Another loud rifle round echoed through the street. Unlike the others, this one didn’t ping off the roof or hood, or embed itself into the ground or surrounding rubble. No...

The sharp crack of the high powered rifle was followed by a crunching pop and a bottle-cap-sized hole mere inches from my muzzle. The bullet continued its trajectory and bit into her lower rear leg, earning another pained cry from the mare. It continued through to splatter the broken asphalt with more red gore.

“Hold still!” I urged Tes as I held her in my teal magic. I could no longer hold the hunting rifle, Tweety, the shotgun, and Tes all at once. The guns all clattered to the ground as I concentrated more on my friend’s well-being.

I worked quickly to pull out a roll of bandages, or any that could be used in their place. Stuffed in the bottom of the messy pack were a few, plain, squashed rolls of somewhat-white gauze. They weren’t the magically imbued kind that promoted healing, but they would work.

“FFFUUAAHH!-” the mare started before her curse was lost in a hiss of pain as I wound the bandage around the bloodied limb. As I did, another round punched through the rusty carcass just behind my head. Tes let out a sharp grunt when I jumped and accidentally pulled the bandage too tight.

“Sorry,” I said quickly as I neared the end of the small roll. It was already staining red.

The sniper was searching for us, slowly eating away at our cover. It was only a matter of time before he hit something neither Tes nor I could fix. I hastened my pace and tied off the last of the gauze. Just a flick of a strap and a pull of a buckle later and her crushed shoulder piece came off. The shredded stable barding beneath was turning a dark maroon and I had to tear the shreds off to get a better look. The wound underneath wasn’t pretty, but not as bad as it could have been. It looked like it was just a graze, but the round had torn through the hardened armor plate and ripped chunks of it across the her flesh, resulting in a half dozen smaller lacerations.

“Bright side, we don’t have to dig out the bullet,” I said with a fake chuckle to lighten the mood. Her shoulder flowed like a small faucet, dripping into growing puddle beneath the two of us.

“Just... fix it...” Tes growled with shallow breaths. “...fast.”

I hadn’t wasted another moment and was already on my fourth or fifth wrap around before she finished.

Another round whizzed overhead from the sniper, but was much too high and hit a stop-sign. A couple more shots rang out; one hit a nearby window and shattered it to a million pieces, and another went flying out into the wastes.

I had no idea where she’d gone, but I hoped Foxtrot was alright.

“Can you walk?” I asked Tes. “We need to get out of here.”

We both looked at her hind leg, where the gauze had done little to stop the bleeding and it was now mostly red and wet.

“I’ll try.” She grunted, winced, and then cried out as she barely made it to her hooves, leaning against the Cantervega to support her weight.

I quickly searched through my pack, found a little vial of med-x, and promptly jabbed it into her lower leg before injecting the chem.

“Hey! Owwwooohhh,” she sighed once the chem took effect and her stance softened.

I tossed my pack over my back again and quickly holstered any weapons lying on the ground, including the clawed boots from the pegasus. My EFS still said there were ten enemies hiding out in the ruins. The only explanation was that more had shown up and we were far from getting out. Scanning ahead from the backside of the autocarriage, I tried to pick out where they were hiding.

Instead, I found Foxtrot. She was on top of a damaged ‘City-Trotter’ bus, going hoof-to-hoof with a pony disguised as roof luggage. The orange pony swiftly pivoted on a forehoof and kicked the raider off the roof, where it landed on the edge of another crushed autocarriage with a painful shout. Foxtrot followed close by, landing on the raider’s chest to break both its back and her fall.

“Ready?” I asked Tes as my other companion dropped into the traffic jam.

“I can try,” she grunted again.

The blue mare wobbled before finding a suitable stance that minimized weight on her injured limbs.

“Let’s go,” I said.

I slipped behind the concrete slab where Skippy was lying. Her tick still showed up on my EFS, but she was barely breathing. I thought nothing of it; we’d be out of here before she came to and I wasn’t going to waste a bullet to make sure otherwise. Tes limped right behind me with the occasional wince. The two of us made our way down the street behind as much cover as we could. The less attention we attracted, the better.

In just a couple minutes, we neared the end of the traffic jam, which seemed to be caused by two, tipped over, military trucks.

“Surprise, fuckers!” a raider cackled when he jumped out the back door of the trailer. He floated two rusty SMG’s out and sprayed them into the air as he laughed maniacally.

A burst of rainbow laser shot over my shoulder and hit him square in the chest, where it melted a hole through the remains of a tire and the metal plating beneath.

“Hey!” I shouted as I jumped away from where the laser had flashed by. I could feel the heat radiate off the beam of magical light. Tes... she almost hit me! “Careful!”

The raider screamed out another high pitched laugh, unphased by the attack. In an inequine flash he had the guns leveled at Tes and I. Getting out of the way in time was no problem for myself, but with her injuries, Tes could not.

I shoved her behind a taxi carriage with my magic, putting her out of the line of fire and harm’s way.

His first few round missed as I bolted under a carriage myself, but some were able to catch up and either mushroomed against the armor plates, or sink into my flank. I tumbled as I neared the end of my dive. The impacts of the bullets hurt like a hundred bee stings. I didn’t didn’t have the room to examine the wounds, nor was the carriage a very good place to do so.

There was an odd thumping of what sounded like hoofsteps galloping along a hollow, metal tunnel. Looking back to the raider’s legs, I saw them collapse to the ground along with his guns. Quickly, a set of dark orange hooves appeared from atop the raider, ran past my carriage, and to Tes’ taxi.

“Something’s coming! It’s really big and really heavy!” Foxtrot panted.

Just as she said it, I could hear it. It was a very heavy ‘thud-thunk’, as if a pony made of steel was galloping across the concrete. I wasn’t familiar with the area, but I was sure that this was far outside the area of Steel Rangers, and most certainly too far for an Outland Ranger. Most robots hovered or roved about on wheels, and those that had legs were much slower than the rapidly growing ‘thud-thunks’. After a couple moments, they just stopped.

Then came the scream. It sent an icy chill down my spine, one I would never forget. It was that of a pony, but one that had lost its equinity and all that remained was a cold, unfeeling monster left to roam the wastes.

The raider Foxtrot had tackled turned over and looked up, going from pissed and angry to more afraid than I had ever seen a pony, let alone a raider.

“No... no! Please!” the raider begged. He squirmed about in an attempt to right himself, but panic got the better of him and he just flailed about.

A thunderous crash of steel on steel reverberated through the streets and ground, shaking what remained of the carriage I was hiding under and raining dust, dirt, and flakes of rust onto me. The raider had stopped all together, now just frozen and... was he crying?

He was. The murderous, chem-pumped creature was laying on his back sobbing and babbling some kind of apology.

“Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor...” a heavy voice started. It was being played on some kind of loudspeaker, broken by heavy, labored breathing. “My blade will punish all without distinction.”

The bawling raider picked up his rusty SMG’s and fired them both at something above him. I couldn’t see what, lying where I was. He yelled and shouted and cried until both guns clicked on spent magazines. Upon realizing his guns weren’t firing, he jumped to his hooves and dashed down the street.

He only made it a few short feet before tumbling to the ground, a wicked, homemade knife sticking out his back. The long, black blade glowed with a bright, pink magic that bled off its rusty surface in long and lazy wisps, like a candle that had just been extinguished.

He wasn’t dead, however. The mortally wounded raider stuck a hoof out, trying his damnedest to pull himself along the road as if his tears would help. He looked at me. His eyes begged for something to put an end to the misery and fear... a bullet, maybe med-x... anything.

The screech of bending metal groaned out, followed by an earth shaking thud. The raider’s life came to a quick end once a power-armored hoof found its way through his skull and back. It was unlike any power armor I’d seen before; too many chains, repairs, and other raider-esque accessories. One forehoof ended in a collection of rusty meat hooks, while its counterpart sported sharpened claws. The hind hooves each ended in some kind of power hoof. Whether or not they were functional with all the other repairs made to them was a mystery.

The wearer stepped forward and off of its messy kill, trailing chunky, red gore and grey matter where the hooves released the body. A pink aura formed around the still glowing knife and ripped it free as well. The monster didn’t waste any time searching for its next victim and blasted with the force of a rocket into my carriage-cover.

The pony hit the rotten carriage with enough force to roll the damned thing over, where it crumpled and snapped apart as it landed on its side. Without it obscuring my view, I was able to see who the new arrival was, though I wished I hadn’t...

The beast beneath the armor towered over me like an immovable statue and blocked out most of the faint sun. It wasn’t the size of the alicorn Tes and I had fought before, but it certainly gave her a run for her caps. Nothing hinted at its gender, not even its voice. The creature, even hiding behind the power armor, could only have been made of pure muscle; it acted like it didn’t need to use the strength-augmenting abilities of the power armor.

Raider origins had to be the only answer for the husk of a pony. No normal and sane pony would be covered in so much dry, crusted blood, rusty chains, and sharp spikes and blades. The pony was a unicorn, if the long, orange horn coming through the helmet was any indicator. The helmet was, like the rest of the armor, not of ‘normal’ build. An air filter or canister sat off to one side, with a hose going in one end from the muzzle to the back of the helmet and then to a second canister along the backside of the body armor. Two bull horns had been bolted to the forehead, one of them having been broken about half way down. Steel rebar intertwined with barbed wire to create a makeshift frame around the head and other parts like a foreleg, shoulder, and rear leg. Graffiti littered nearly every surface of the armor, ranging from curses, swears, and obscene body parts, to other odd pieces like a green mushroom cloud and a bumper sticker that said “Make War, Not Love.”

Apart from the usual raider apparel, the unicorn had numerous tools for hacking, stabbing, slicing, chopping, and otherwise dismembering prey on its form. I recognized the moonsteel knife strapped to its chest, but the others looked to be as hoof-made as the rest of the armor. Most prominent of all, however, was the massive, rusted slab of steel strapped to its side. The blade had a lazy curve to it, but it was nearly as long as its user, not including the long handle made from an old pipe. It, too, was covered in graffiti.

Faster than a large pony should be able to, the unicorn kicked at me with a foreleg. I didn’t have enough time to dodge the bloody, rusty meat hooks, but I did manage to push myself away enough that they only hooked into my chest armor rather than my rib cage. That didn’t stop the pony from rearing up, with me still stuck to the hooks, and slamming me against the bottom of the overturned carriage I’d been hiding under.

Something popped in my chest and I was sure I’d broken a rib from the one kick alone. I gasped for air as the wind was knocked out of me and tried to kick back. Even resorting to my brother’s training, the power-armored raider didn’t bother to flinch as it raised me above its head.

It let out another primal scream and brandished its moonsteel blade in a fiery, pink aura. I had nothing to block the ever-sharp blade except the useless sword I’d bought in New Appleoosa all those days ago. It sat on my back, more out of mind than anything. I pulled it out of the sheath with my magic and swung it at the moonsteel knife. Whatever the sword was made out of, be it some kind of unknown, alien metal or an enchanted steel, it collided with the edge of the knife and cut through it like butter.

The raider pulled back and slammed me into the carriage even harder than before, definitely breaking something besides the wooden planks behind me. My sword twanged off the ground as my last breaths squeaked out in painful rasps. I couldn’t go so soon, not like this...

Even as the spots started to appear in my vision, I still had enough in me to levitate Tweety between us. The raider didn’t seem to mind bringing guns to a knife fight. Actually, it didn’t even look like the raider noticed the gun pointing straight at its head. The barrel of the revolver flashed, sending a round straight into the forehead of the helmet, above the left eye.

The two of us stood there for what seemed like eternity. Well, it stood, I just sort of hung with my hooves dangling off the ground and wheezing like an asthmatic athlete. Everything from my neck to my haunches hurt like hell, and I was sure that the only thing keeping me going was adrenaline.

Blood began to drip from the base of the helmet and dribbled onto the rest of the armor and the ground. Though the raider still breathed.

“Not your time,” it leaned in and rasped quietly. “Not yet...”

In one fell swoop, it threw me aside. I hit one of the busted, wooden wheels before finally hitting the ground with a painful thud. Tweety clattered against the broken road somewhere and my sword was out of reach. Everything else I had didn’t pack much more of a punch than my favorite revolver.

None of that mattered though, as the wasteland monster stomped off into the ruin of autocarriages, wagons, and trucks. From where I was lying, I had a clear view of the rest of the pony. Its tail was unarmored, just a dirty blond mess of hair splattered with blood and dirt. The flank of the armor looked to have been scrubbed clean of any kind of graffiti, leaving an oddly empty spot filled only with a large heart that had been stitched together across the middle. Two knives stabbed the heart and crossed over each other in an ‘x’ and dripped blood off the tips.

A cutie mark? Gang sign? I didn’t dwell on the thought too much, or at least I couldn’t.

“Holy shit!” Tes exclaimed as she sprint-limped up to me. “Are you alright?”

The power armor raider had disappeared, crumpling the roof of another Cantervega. Whoever, or whatever, it was, I did not want to meet it again. When was my time? What did it mean? Did it plan on coming back? Hunting me down? Or was it just crazed out of its mind on chems?

A hoof clapped me in the side of the face. Not hard, but enough to get my attention.

“I said: ‘Can you hear me?’” Tes asked. “Can you walk?”

I wiggled my hooves. They all worked, so walking was a possibility.

“Yeah,” I grunted through a wheezing breath. It was quickly returning to normal, and I thanked whatever higher power decided a punctured lung was too much. “Just... give me a second.”

After a few more heavy breaths to get my lungs working again, I rolled to my hooves. The ache in my chest exploded ten-fold and I fell to my haunches. Holding my chest seemed to dull the pain, even if it was awkward.

“Here, take this,” Tes said.

At some point, I had closed my eyes. When I opened them back up, the blue mare was holding a small purple bottle. A healing potion.

“You’re not screaming in agony,” she said simply, “I’m pretty sure you just cracked a few ribs. But we’re not going to get very far if you can’t even stand.”

I nodded my agreement and took the bottle from her hoof.

“What about you?” I asked as I looked down at her leg. The bandage was completely soaked through now, as well as the one on her shoulder. It wouldn’t be long before they got infected, assuming she didn’t bleed out before then. I gave the potion back. Ribs would heal, I just needed a moment to bring myself back together.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I can fix myself up once we get out of here. But we can’t do that if you can’t. So... drink up.”

Tes shoved the potion at me again. It wasn’t a very convincing argument, but she did have a point. If needed, I could carry her. I knew where we needed to go, but they did not. If I was out of commission, then they’d be left to fend for themselves.

Reluctantly, I took the healing potion in my magic and brought it to my mouth. They always smelled like bad cold medicine...

I drank it down quickly, not enjoying the flavor either... like bad grapes. Only good thing about them was the relief they gave. A comforting warmth spread throughout my body as the potion worked its magic. A few moments later and all that remained was a dull throbbing ache.

“Thanks,” I said. There was a twinge of guilt in my gut. Tes was in need of it more than I was, but she wasn’t going to take ‘no’ as an answer. In the end, there was probably some hidden, logical foresight that I just wasn’t seeing. She was, after all, a smarter pony than myself. I had more wasteland experience, but in the short time I’d known her, she more than proved she had the book smarts.

“Good, now let’s get-” Tes started before getting cut off by another bone-chilling war cry.

“Hear me now!” the raider called out. It stood on its rear hooves atop a bus similar to the one where Foxtrot had taken care of the sniper.

It was not alone, however. The hoof with the meat hooks clung to a familiar spring green stallion. The leader from the ambush bawled in agony as the meat hooks dug into the flesh of his shoulder. His horn had been smashed off and his face had already been beaten to a shattered, pulpy mess.

“The Heartbreakers run these streets! I... run these streets!” it bellowed. “Join me... or you will die.”

It threw the beaten pony across a steel trunk strapped to the roof. I couldn’t hear what exactly was being said, but the stallion was clearly begging for his life to be spared.

The one in power armor wasn’t having it though, and brought out the massive slab of steel. The stallion screamed in inequine terror.

It was obvious what was going to happen; I didn’t need to see to know.

“Let’s go,” I said as I picked up my sword, Tweety, and anything else I dropped or deemed worthy of looting.

The others followed suite and trotted close behind me as started to make our way through the downtown streets as quickly as our hooves would let us. I looked back to make sure they were coming and that we weren’t being followed.

On top of the old bus, the power armor raider stepped on the stallion’s chest. A fiery pink field of magic blazed around the handle as it sailed overhead and collided with the bested raider’s neck, abruptly ending his scream and removing his head from his neck in a single, smooth motion.

===

Day was swiftly turning into night by the time we finally arrived at the mountain pass. We all were tired, not just from the short, fast-paced skirmish, but from the miles and miles of walking as well. Our injuries didn’t help, either. Foxtrot had taken a few blows from a baseball bat, suffering a small concussion Tes had diagnosed. The blue earth pony herself had to change her bandages a couple times. Every time I offered to help in some way, she declined, saying she’d ‘be fine’. I really hoped so. Infections were all too common out in the wasteland and it didn’t take long at all before they turned septic or even gangrenous. I told her as much, and she replied simply with ‘I know’.

It was in mutual agreement to make camp in an old shack a short distance off the main trail. From what I could gather from the old books and journals within, it belonged to an old griffon hunter. Luckily, there was no angry griffon, or even a skeleton for that matter.

It wasn’t much, the old shack. It smelled like old wood and decay, but wasn’t unbearable, especially since it was mostly dry and out of the cool mountain air. The kitchen and main room blended together, with a single bedroom off to the side, and a bathroom next to that. Old, petrified pelts from all different kinds of forest critters hung on the walls. The floor was buckled in some places and the ceiling sagged in others. Half the windows were cracked or altogether missing and the other half were too dirty to see out of. There was a broken rocking chair sitting in the corner, and a homemade couch dividing the kitchen and living room. Pictures hung along the walls of the old griffon and his trophies; a big cockatrice in one, a timberwolf in another, what looked to be a small hydra in a third. Back in the day, before the war, it may have been a very strange situation for the griffon, hunting animals as he did. Now though, it looked like a another wastelander trying to survive.

The interior of the shack was slowly warming up, thanks to a fire I’d managed to create. Even by wasteland standards, the cast iron stove-heater was ancient. It still worked though; a pleasant orange glow leaked from the front slats and radiated heat out.

Tes was half asleep and curled up in front of the oven, resting her head on a bundle of straw wrapped in cloth. Stripped of armor, but still wearing her barding, she was patiently waiting for Foxtrot to return from the outside. The orange mare was slinking around in search of certain plants, which Tes planned to use to make some kind of medicine for her own injuries.

I sat silently on the couch, reading the book Lumens had given me. There were a lot of details to remember when using runes and glyphs, as well as certain supplies. Many of them required particular gemstones or even rarer materials to supply power. Some tapped into the power of the land itself. Others fed off the energy of the user or target; such was the case with the ‘magic binding’, which held a target in place and didn’t allow them to use magic past the edges of the glyph.

I took in as much as I could in the dim lighting the little indoor lantern gave off. It was mostly quiet, except for the occasional soft snore that broke through the crackling and popping of the fire. It wasn’t terribly long before Foxtrot showed up. In a moment, Tes was awake.

“So uh... I think I got what ya were looking for...” Foxtrot said uneasily as she brought out a small pouch from her saddlebag. Her hooves were caked in dirt and remains of leaves. “Wasn’t much to go off of, but they’re white, they got five, heart-shaped petals, and they look like they got pointed leaves with serrated edges. Roots and bark were a bit harder to find but I managed to sniff them out.”

Tes looked inside the pouch before dumping it out on the old rug in front of her. A few distorted radish-shaped roots fell out along with some bunches of white flowers and strips of some kind of fresh bark.

“These will work excellently,” she said with a hint of relief before she put all the ingredients into a pot of water she had set on the stove earlier.

“So... what exactly are you making?” Foxtrot asked as she sniffed the boiling stew-like mixture. Even from my spot on the couch I could smell it. It was sharp with a sweetness like maple, and an earthy aroma hidden in the backdrop. The concoction was... odd, to say the least. I watched in silence, more out of curiosity than anything.

“It’s something Medical used to work with back in 59,” Tes answered. She picked up a nearby wooden spoon and mashed the ingredients together. “They would make this stuff all the time to save the hassle of imbuing bandages and manufacturing healing potions. These things grew like weeds in the orchards, so the workers there were more than happy to get rid of them.”

“Injuries were common in your Stable?” Foxtrot asked. “I thought they were suppose to be safe.”

“Well... it is,” Tes said with obvious mixed feelings. “It’s not that it was dangerous, it really wasn’t, but the sheer volume of ponies inside was the issue. Try keeping three and a half thousand ponies accident free. It’s a taxing job to keep everypony on their hooves. This stuff has a pretty long shelf life and a lot of it can be made at once, plus it doesn’t use up any important resources.”

She continued to mix and mash the pot, eventually turning the flower, roots, and bark into a smooth, whitish-grey-green paste.

“Normally, it’d be layered into a pan, cooked until dried out, then crushed into a fine powder,” the blue mare continued, “but that’s just for storage and moderation purposes. Works just as well in paste form. The ponies in Medical call it Healing Powder, or in this case, Healing Paste.”

She took out the spoon, leaving a clump of the stuff cling to its surface. It looked like bad mashed potatoes, but she seemed happy with the result. Taking the spoon’s handle in her mouth, she plopped her bottom down on the ground and stretched out her injured leg. The bandage was mostly white now, with only a little blot of red in the middle. Carefully, she untied and unwound the roll.

The hole in her leg was matted with her blue and white coat and thick chunks of clotted blood. Tes wrinkled her muzzled in disgust at the sight before switching the spoon from her mouth to her hoof, where she grabbed it in her fetlock.

With the care of an expert surgeon and the deftness only a non-unicorn could possess, she smeared the thick goop into the topside of the wound. The mare hissed in pain for a moment before getting used to the substance. She did the same for the exit wound before rolling the last clean bandage around the leg.

Her shoulder was cared for much the same way, except she wrapped it with a long piece of clean, dark blue cloth from her saddlebag. The next place we stopped at, I needed to get more bandages and healing potions.

“There,” Foxtrot said as she finished helping Tes tie off the cloth. “All set.”

“Thanks,” Tes replied with a satisfied grin. “It’ll take some time to work, but it should clean out the wounds and hasten the healing process, while also keeping dirt from getting in it.”

“So lasers and medicine... odd combination,” I said, finally breaking my silence. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Told you I’d fine,” she smirked. “But yeah, I guess I have a bit of a knack for fixing ponies, too.”

“Huh... so what did you do back in your Stable?” Foxtrot asked curiously. “Doctor? Farmer? Toaster repair pony?”

“Eh...” Tes looked around nervously for a moment. “Energy Production and Power Protocols, or just Energy Production. In short, I kept the reactor from melting down and optimized outputs. Every day, I’d walk to my own little desk with five terminals and direct power where it needed to go, either rerouting it back into the machine or sending it throughout the Stable. It was a pretty easy job, but somepony needed to do it and I tested high enough on our schooling assessment to qualify. I could tell you more about it, but I’d bore both of you to death on Arcane Revolutionary Centrifuge mumbojumbo.” She finished with a yawn.

“Arcane what?” Foxtrot asked, sharing my bewilderment.

“Well, you asked...” Tes smirked before taking a deep breath. “The Arcane Revolutionary Centrifugal Reactor, or ARC Reactor, for short, works by inducing type B standard magical aether through Arcanixite quasi-plasma at near light speeds by way of rare Equis arcano-accelerators. The high rotational speeds cause the aether to break down into purer wavelengths and filters out arcane impurities like Manatite and Sparkazine. Sets of inverted versions of the accelerators pick up on the type B prime energy and force it back into its type B standard form. This constant break-apart and reform process pushes and draws sets of rare Equis ‘oscillo-magnets’, which transform the aether phase from arcane-energy to more useful arcano-electrical energy. This energy can be bled off into the grid and used up or fed back into the accelerators to further increase power. Liquid helium is used to cool the whole system. Max machine efficiency is 100.00001% theoretical. The highest achieved I’ve achieved is 99.99989% before the cooling reservoir sprang a leak.”

I stared in utter confusion, lost in the dizzying display of egghead vocabulary. I figured the blue earth pony was smart, but this was a whole different level that I’d never seen or imagined.

“You lost me after ‘boring us to death’,” Foxtrot replied after a few moments.

Tes simply shrugged. “I didn’t even explain the Retrosymbiosis Feedthrough System or Maneheim Capacitor Bank Booster.”

“What?” I finally asked. All I earned for my struggle in understanding was another smirk and a playful ‘never mind’.

Despite the confusion, our chatter was a good, peaceful way to end a rather long and harsh day. Dinner was plain, but something different. Having a decent source to cook from, I took some mixed vegetables, braised carrots and hay, and a can of corn, threw them all together, and made a veggie stew of sorts.

It wasn’t long before the two mares passed out, each in their own sleeping bag. I unrolled my own, laid it on the hard couch, crawled inside, and drifted away to some much needed rest.

===

The morning was cool; the fire from the night before had burned to nothing more than smouldering coals. Outside, light shone through the clouds in the dull blue of dawn. I wanted to get going before it was late in the day. Rockton was the next stop, but we still had to traverse this mountain side, go through a valley, then walk up a second peak before arriving at the little town.

After the events of yesterday though, I decided to let the two earth ponies have a little bit more rest. They earned it. In the meantime, I busied myself with my usual morning routine of a Sugar Apple Bomb breakfast and teeth brushing. Afterwords, I grabbed my saddlebags and quietly dumped them onto the table. I didn’t take much inventory of what I’d grabbed or used up during the raider ambush and needed to figure out what exactly I had left or gained.

A couple nearly broken guns being held together with duct tape, wire, and nails. The 9mm pistol was nearly broken and the slide was jammed halfway open with a bottlecap. The rifle I picked up sometime wasn’t as bad, but had a bayonet made from a bent kitchen knife. It was attached with string and wonderglue. I put them aside, they’d be worth something to someone, if only for scrap.

Luckily I didn’t pick up any of the raiders’ armor. It was too heavy to be carrying around and wasn’t worth its weight unless it was sold in bulk. I was out of bandages and hadn’t picked up any healing potions, unfortunately. Hopefully it wasn’t too rough of a trip to Rockton. I did, however, manage to snag a couple Dash inhalers and a bottle of Buck tablets. They instantly went into my saddlebag for later sale, along with the other two raider guns and a bright red straight razor I had found at some point.

The rest of the stuff on the table was my usual crud; my odd assortment of guns from Tweety to the Azapa hunting rifle, to the red and blue sawed off shotguns. My sword was off to the side, however useful or useless it was. Maybe that was the ‘curse’ that stallion in New Appleoosa was talking about. Buy it, and it’ll never be used.

As for food, we were still good and probably wouldn’t need to buy any until we were past Rockton. The foodstuffs found their way into one of my bags as well, along with my weapons, minus the blade.

There was a rustle behind me as one of the mares woke up. Tes let out a few small coughs, waking up Foxtrot in the process.

I finished packing my things back in my bag. Once my two companions were up, moving around, and eating breakfast, I filled them in on the plan for the day. We gathered up the rest of our things, extinguish the hot coals, looted anything of value in the shack, which only meant a dozen rounds for the my hunting rifle, a few shotgun shells, and some dirty pre-war bits.

Outside, a fog was just starting to lift. It was damp, but not soaking wet. Tes had donned what armor she could. Her strange concoction from the night before had made her wounds tender, but they were closed up and no longer risked bleeding or infections. We had forgotten the shoulder piece back at the streets of downtown Starward, but it was almost beyond repair anyways.

Foxtrot was clad in her lightweight leather armor and wore her new spiked horseshoes. She kept busy by investigating the trail ahead and anything else that made a noise in the half-dead forest. Her silenced pistol remained holstered the entire time. The mare seemed quite content with the spiked shoes and switchblade she had looted from Skippy.

I was in my usual attire, taking point in front of Tes, but behind Foxtrot. I didn’t have any of my weapons out, for the simple fact that there was nothing on my EFS. Only Tes and Foxtrot showed up, with the occasional crow or pest passing by in the barren trees.

It was a very boring trot through the woods compared to the previous days. Boring, but safe. We passed the time by simply talking, or rather Tes passed the time by asking questions.

“So let me get this straight...” the blue mare started. “on the last day, the pegasi closed up the sky. And that’s why it’s always cloudy.”

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“And they did that because they felt they were pulling more than their fair weight of the war,” she continued.

“Or so I’ve heard.” I wasn’t completely sure of my knowledge of Equestrian history, but from the rumors I’d came across of the years, that seemed to be the case.

“And there’s a mountain so ungoddessly tall in these Outlands, that it shoots through this cloud cover,” she said as the three of us rounded a bend in the rocky path.

“Almost,” I corrected. “As far as I know, the only major Enclave city is Cirrostratus, which isn’t even near Mount Ponlympus. They don’t have a very strong presence in the region, and the sun does poke through. There have always been clouds around the mountain peak, but I don’t think they’re Enclave.”

“Alright, so then because of that, a lot of ponies think there’s some kind of treasure or something like that up there?” She didn’t sound very convinced.

“Yeah,” I said. I believed it, though.

“Sounds silly,” she said dismissively. “In almost two-hundred years, nopony has gone up there?”

“You’ll have to see it, there is nothing natural about the way it looks,” I countered. “And they have, but none have ever returned. It’s dangerous. The snow and weather alone make it too treacherous to climb for three quarters of the year. Horrible creatures roam the mountains, and legends speak of Windigos and even more mysterious beasts. Avalanches and rock slides aren’t uncommon, either.”

We rounded back around another bend, ending the S-curve in the path. Ahead was a small, walled complex. Four silos suck out of the middle and the peaks of a half dozen buildings were visible above the surrounding concrete walls. The silos were all interconnected with old conveyor belts and walkways, on which a few ponies sat in chairs with long rifles.

One of them glanced at us and raised her weapon, but didn’t fire as she peered through the scope.

“Speaking of rocks... This is Rockton,” I told my friends. “Stay sharp though, we’re being watched.” I pointed a hoof at the sniper ponies.

“Hm,” Foxtrot let out an impressed huff as we trotted through the gates. “Not a bad place... walls look stable enough.”

Though I caught the sarcasm, she was right. The walls were made from two-foot thick slabs of concrete topped with sharpened bits of metal: barbed wire, sharpened pipes and rebar, or even whole steel beams that had been cut and ground to points. The spikes all pointed outward, away from the town’s innards and out into the wastes.

Inside the metal paneled gate, it wasn’t very busy. Only about a dozen or so other ponies were trotting about the small enclosure. Most of the buildings looked to be post-war and were made from the usual wasteland materials. Some, however, were made purely from the same concrete as the walls.

Bang!

“Tes!” Foxtrot cried out.

I looked back to see the blue mare lying on the ground.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Sneak Thief of Friendship (Friendship Lvl 2) - Congrats again, wastelander. You’ve made another friend, and with it, a new companion! Your max companion limit has increased by 1, for a new maximum of 2 total companions. Additionally, A 10% bonus to Rad resistance has been given, and, as long as you travel with Foxtrot, you gain a +10 bonus to your sneak and melee weapons skills.

Fallout Equestria: A Pony of a Different Color

by Turtledude

Chapter 1 - Another day, Another Cap (Prologue)

Chapter 2 - A Wasteland Oddity

Chapter 3 - Haunting Pasts

Chapter 4 - Old Threats Arise

Chapter 5 (pt 1) - Wasteland Friendships

Chapter 5 (pt 2) - Wasteland Friendships

Chapter 5 Alt. - Catalyst

Chapter 6 - Weekend at Starward's

Chapter 7 (pt 1) - Over the Hills and Through the Woods

Chapter 7 (pt 2) - Over the Hills and Through the Woods