"I don't think I am a good pony." He told me one night.

I remember tilting my head so I could look at him, but still kept my head on his chest. Even though I had grown comfortable within his presence, this was entirely different. It wasn't just the honesty behind it, I had grown used to the difference between honesty and deceit. This was a different feeling, that I couldn't, and still cant, describe.

"Why do you think that?" I questioned him quietly.

"Ive hurt other ponies," He was watching the ceiling, as if he could see through it. "Ive hurt other ponies, and I didn't feel bad about it, I wasn't even concerned about them."

"We all make mistakes, no pony is perfect," I suddenly smiled at him, poking the side of his ribs with a hoof. "Except you, in my eyes." It had been a joke between us, and I had hoped it would cheer him up out of his dark mood.

"That's the whole point, I'm not perfect." He huffed and completely turned his head away from where I couldnt watch him.

I didn't reply right away. I let him have his moment, whatever it was. But eventually I raised my head and leaned further over him, our chests touching and my mane falling near his face. He blinked, noticing the movement and looked back up at me curiously.

"You don't need to be perfect. You just need to try to be better."

I softly nuzzled my muzzle next to his, and laid back down where I had been before. He never did reply.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

I stood near what was apparently a very angry purple pony. After being dragged to my hooves and equally dragged over to the two wagons, I now found myself in the 'thick of it'. When the unicorn that Karma had called 'Light' quite literally tossed me to the wolves in front of the rest of the other ponies to introduce me, the angry unicorn who seemed very disappointed I wasn't a mare had spoken up, loudly.

"Last I checked, you weren't the leader of this group, Psych." Karma said behind him, I hadn't even noticed her sneaking around him with my face full of angry pony, that and I still had my heavy luggage attached to me. I was sore, my back hurt, I suddenly and sadly had everyone's attention, and now I had been yelled at. I wasn't noticing much else right now.

I think I might have seen the angry pony called 'Psych''s left eye twitch slightly. He very slowly turned around towards Karma, who stood a few paces away from him. He threw on a grin that made me feel that much more uncomfortable.

"Oh, and you are? Its perfectly fine to bring in another when we are already over-burdened as it is, but bringing along a 'PEGASUS' THAT DOESN'T HAVE ANY CLUE, THAT WE HAVE TO FOALSIT OUT HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE?!" By the time he got to the end of his rant he was yelling again and had crossed the distance between him and Karma, their heads nearly touching. Even though she stood her ground, her ears did fold back with a twitch. After a few minutes of silence where the rest of the ponies around us had all nearly stopped breathing, Karma gave him one of her own grins.

"We all know your just angry because you cant join the mile high club," She let out a huff of breath at him, losing the grin and thrusting her head and chest forwards knocking him back slightly, but their heads butting together. "Light says he can stay, then he's staying, get over yourself." Said in a much threatening matter than before.

I saw all the ponies slowly turn their heads to Psych. It was another one of those quiet moments where we all waited for the inevitable reaction. Instead, Psych nearly lunged forwards, causing him and Karma to stumble back a few feet while locking their lips together in a forceful kiss. Everypony's eyes grew wide at once, along with Karma's nearly bugging out of her own head.

Quickly afterwards Psych let out a small muffled screech and yanked his head back away from her, falling onto his rump as Karma sputtered and back peddled away from him while spitting in the dirt. Psych held one hoof over his lips while the other pointed at her dramatically.

"THE BITCH BIT ME!" His head darted back and forth between the ponies around us.

"Yeah and I don't know where your mouth has been!" Karma hissed at him in reply.

"FILLY FOOLING HUSSY!"

"STALLION STUFFING WHORE!"

"ENOUGH!" Came from Light as he hopped between the two of them, glaring back and forth. Instantly both Karma and Psych glared hatefully in his direction in one single motion, making him tense and lift a hoof nervously. "Behave..." he said more calmly after those few tense moments. Psych grumbled quietly under his breath, something about 'sausage-fest' while bringing up a hoof to push back his green mane. Afterwards he raised up and headed behind one of the wagons, though after a second he darted his head back around and stuck his tongue out at Karma.

Karma was rubbing a hoof over her mouth and had been attempting to ignore Psych's leave, but she did notice him darting back around the wagon, and she just as quickly stuck her own tongue out at him before stepping back over towards me. Muttering under her own breath in quiet retaliation, while attempting to pretend to be oblivious to the other ponies as she undid the straps holding my bag to my back.

"...What the hell just happened?" I turned my head towards Karma as she worked the bag off for me, and then moved to unclasp my weapons. She rolled her eyes and didn't answer me, but I am fairly sure I distinctly heard the snickering of other ponies within our vicinity. The other tall female unicorn named Rainy Day stepped to my side and swept out a hoof in the others general direction.

"Well, you've met Psych Ward." She said while attempting to hold back a smirk, behind the wagon I could clearly hear a "Its Psychadous!", which Rainy clearly ignored. This made Karma giggle, quickly coming out of her funk as she stepped around me once I was free of my luggage. Using the straps of the bag she was able to carry both the armor and the guns over to the opposite wagon, unclasping the guns to lean them up and then tossing the bag with her head into the wagon with a loud clank as it hit.

Instantly, out jumped a small metal looking creature. It landed with a roll into the dirt and came up with a robotic yipping noise, which it then began to run circles between Karma's legs happily. While me and Rainy watched, she smiled down at the thing, patting it on its head with a hoof which caused its eyes to flash green. She then pointed a hoof behind us which caused the little robot to circle around in a jump, wagging its tail with a clanking sound as it looked behind us where she had pointed.

Both me and Rainy turned our heads to see Stan sulking under his hat, giving an almost pitiful look to the robot creature. Hearing a serious of yipping caused him to shuffle to his hooves and take off in the opposite direction, the little robot darting around us as it took after him. A series of "No!, No!, Bad dog!" followed their chase, while Karma, Rainy, and a few other ponies that Stan had caught attention of laughed.

Things kept getting stranger and stranger, but as I sat around a bunch of laughing ponies I couldn't help finding it contagious. Letting off a quiet snicker as I turned my attention back around to Karma, who was suddenly attacked by a white unicorn foal jumping out of the wagon, a foal that was almost as tall as Karma was, landing on her back which caused Karma to nearly stumble, then hopping down. Shaking her bright red mane back and forth before looking at the older mare with a grin before noticing Rainy sitting next to me.

"MOMMA!" was let out at a high pitched squeal that caused Karma's body to twitch in pain with her closer proximity to what was obviously a filly, that took off at a run towards Rainy, who seemed immune to the squeal's pitch. The other ponies around us winced a bit even though they were no where near her, and I even had to rub a hoof over an ear.

Rainy stepped around me to scoop up the filly with a single hoof and hugged her tight with a smile, causing the filly to continue to grin ear-to-ear as she was placed back down. It was after this did she notice me, blinking bright pink eyes and darting around what was obviously her mother. Rainy chuckled quietly.

"'Appy, say hello to the nice colt," She spoke while looking behind her, the little filly looking at me from behind her mother. Rainy turned her attention back to me afterwards. "Cloud, this is Happy Day, my daughter."

At the mention of her name, the little filly seemed to brighten a bit at being introduced. I leaned to the side and peeked behind Rainy and gave the foal a smile in hopes that would bring her out further. Lucky enough she stepped out and picked up a hoof to wave it in my direction. I had to admit, even though her color combination resemble nothing of her mother, except maybe the height of her frame, the white, pink, and red was very cute. I noticed her eyes drift over my back, and they got even wider at seeing my wings.

I noticed Karma stepping to my side where she huffed and sat down, lifting her upper body so she could rub at her back, though she showed no ill will to the blank-flanked filly. She looked at me, rolling her eyes playfully, before drawing her attention to Happy.

"I think Stan might need some help, Appy..." Karma mentioned, drawing her sentence out as she lifted her muzzle to indicate behind her. All three of us looked in the direction to see Stan having given up the good fight, leaning against one of the wagons as the robot dog from before apparently had decided that one of Stan's back hooves was mating material.

This was the point I out-right laughed, seeing the robot dog hump Stan's hoof like there was no tomorrow was just too much to fight back being nervous any longer. Specially with the disgusted look Stan was throwing in the dog's direction. The adding flashing green of the robot's eyes as it went to town only added to the hilarity of the situation.

Karma's shoulder bumped into mine as her snickers followed up my laughter, even Rainy had raised a hoof to try to cover her giggles. Happy on the other had gave an over-dramatic roll of her eyes with an added sigh to add to the effect while turning around and heading over to Stan.

"Bad puppy, come'er Dominic!" She yelled over to them, not quite as harsh as her squeal from before. The robot 'puppy' stopped its fake love making at the sound of her voice, jumping off of Stan's leg and twisting around to make a be-line towards Happy. She lifted to her back hooves and caught her little friend as it jumped onto her, causing her to giggle and roll around with him. The little robot dog's eyes flashing and emitting ecstatic sounding yips all the while.

"Great, now Ive got to get her clean all over again," grumbled Rainy to my side.

"You know she's just going to find another way to get dirty later," Karma smirked over to Rainy.

At this point we noticed Stan shaking his back leg as if he had something else to dislodge from it, turning his head to glare at Karma as if the situation had been all her fault, which it had. Karma on the other hand gave him the most innocent expression she could, pointing at herself with a hoof and mouthing the words 'Who me?' at him. Stan lifted his own hoof in reply, pointing at his eyes, and then pointing at her with a glower. This only made Karma laugh harder then before.

"You know damn well that its all Tech's fault!" she yelled over at him with the same grin from before. Stan was rolling his eyes about the same time a pale green unicorn stepped nearer to Rainy's side and sat down, quirking up an eyebrow.

"What's my fault?" he questioned, looking at each of us in turn, with a tilt to his head. Rainy also re-sat down and gave a innocent shrug of her shoulders before looking past me at Karma, who also shrugged in the same innocent manner and nudged her head over at Stan. The green pony blinked, giving a offended expression once he had noticed. "I have told you guys time and time again if that stupid canine's wires had been properly color coded instead of all being green then that wouldn't have happened I mean really who puts all grounding wires into a robot in the first place not including the year and model of that thing is already two hundred years old I might add and its not like you guys let me keep any good parts I find because Celestia-be-damned if I'm ever allowed any new toys and..." Rainy nudged the green pony with her shoulder, cutting off his speech right as I was losing interest. He huffed, raising his upper body up and crossing his hooves over his chest with as much of a dignified hurt expression that he could muster.

"Just say hello, Tech Support." Karma said next to me. Causing the green pony to sling his head in her direction and narrow his eyes at her. She quickly brought her hooves up to her chest and dramatically allowed herself to flop over with a choked sound, as if Tech had actually thrown daggers in her direction. This caused both her and Rainy to snicker afterwards as she got back up, while I tried my best to bite back my own amusement to save the stallion from any more antics. Tech held out a hoof at me, and I gently bumped my own against his. He then stood up and gave me a small bow.

"Tech Support, at your service! Unlike some mares and stallions around here I can actually prove sane and informative." He turned, giving me a view of his flank where a computer screen sat, with a cracked screen.

"A broken computer is informative?" I couldn't help but ask. A broken computer actually seemed like the least informative thing a cutie mark could represent. Tech's face fell into a pout, much to the mares amusement as they snickered, again.

"Tech can hack any computer you sit him in front of," Rainy replied to my question, which quickly caused Tech's mood to brighten. "Without him, we'd be struggling to get into anywhere." And the last part made him openly beam while throwing his chest out and his head up at the praise.

"Yeah, and he also broke poor little Dominic." Karma leaned out from next to me and threw a Tech a playful smirk. He on the other hand just narrowed his eyes at her and stomped off in a huff towards what looked to be a fire pit that the other ponies were working on making. A large navy blue earth stallion was just throwing a random piece of salvaged lumber into the pile as he caught my glance into that direction. He stopped with a smile and waved a hoof at me.

"His name is Mist Blade," Karma said next to me while I waved a hoof back politely, with her and Rainy following suit. "Don't let his looks fool you, Ive seen him cut through a whole slew of raiders just by himself!" Raising her voice and slicing a hoof across her throat while sticking her tongue out afterwards in a dead expression.

The big blue pony was watching Karma, rolling his eyes with the same smile, though as he turned around he accidentally tripped over a section of brush that had been thrown into the pile from before, causing him to fall straight onto his face with a groan. Picking himself up he rubbed a hoof over his now dirt covered muzzle, blinking and looking back over at the three of us having watched his stunt. I didn't know a blush could be seen through dark fur, but he quickly made a exit to go get more wood, I saw a dagger hilt on his flank as he hurried off.

I noticed a even darker pony that was chopping up larger pieces of wood into smaller pieces as Mist stumbled off. I watched as two meat cleavers hung in mid-air by red-colored magic, the black coated male unicorn twisting his head back and forth in time with the cleavers smacking into the salvaged wood. As he caught me staring, he swung his head up which caused his white and dark red striped mane to sling back, blinking at me with bright red eyes.

I couldn't help but tilt back slightly, that was the scariest looking pony yet out of this colorful group. Apparently this amused him as he lowered his head and gave me a maniacal grin with wide eyes. Letting his magic twirl the cleavers in mid air as if he was going to throw them in my direction. As I visibly twitched, he only laughed to himself and went back to cutting.

"Don't let Cleave scare you, he likes to get a rise out of ponies," Rainy mentioned, raising to her hooves and motioning for me and Karma to follow to find a spot next to the wood pile. "Meat Cleaver is our cook, and a very good one at that."

"Oh please tell me we have some radigator left, please!" Karma bounced to her hooves next to me, following while licking her lips and grinning at me. "Its tasty, you've just got to try it."

"Um...sure." I replied, with an attempt at a smile to hide the fact I didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

On the other side of the pile from us, as the three of us settled to sitting down, was another pony. He peeked his head up and looked at us over the wood, teal eyes throwing us an innocent expression.

"Ugh..." Karma quietly groaned next to me and threw a hoof up to her face as the light blue pony with the teal eyes and mane jumped to his hooves and stepped around the pile, giving the three of us a small nervous grin. Rainy simply blinked and didn't say anything, looking to Karma who was narrowing her eyes at the other pony. As her expression refused to crack under his gaze he nervously pawed at the dirt with a hoof.

"Um...hey guys!" He tried with the friendly approach, looking between the three of us in turn. I was just about to open my mouth when...

"What do you want Static." Karma flatly said, refusing to take her eyes off the other pony as if she was waiting for him to give her a reason to strike at him.

"Well, its just um...you know," He stepped around us, tilting his head over to the wagon that Karma had slung my armor bag into, my two nova-rifles leaning against its side. "I sorta saw you come in with those and I was wondering if maybe I could..." As he moved I noticed the white jagged mark slung across both his flanks, it looked like a actual lightning bolt.

"You can play with them if you leave us alone." was Karma's continued flat reply.

The light blue earth pony perked up instantly, throwing a hoof up and giving Karma and over exaggerated salute and running off to the wagon with a gleeful bounce to his hooves. He laid down next to them and grabbed one to start tinkering with it, sticking his tongue out and closing one eye as his hooves moved over the weapon.

"His name is Static Shock, and I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw a manticore." was muttered by Karma as she looked away from the scene with distaste. I tilted my head at her reaction, and I felt Rainy lean closer to me.

"Static is very good with energy weapons." Rainy said quietly before glancing over to Karma as the other mare gave a huff of annoyance.

"Yeah, and he's probably been eyeing those weapons as soon as he noticed you carrying them, not that he actually cared about anything else for a actual introduction." Karma nearly spit out the remark as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"I guess your right..." I said quietly, while looking back over my shoulder at Static who was now holding what looked like a flash light between his teeth, and already one of my rifles looked like it was in a hundred pieces, scattered around him. I did my best not to let out a whimper in sympathy to the weapon's plight.

The sky was slowly getting darker now behind its veil of clouds, giving the earth beneath our hooves that orange color from before. Sitting between Rainy and Karma made me feel a bit less uncomfortable with being the stranger in the situation, though I had little idea of what the other ponies around us were planning. The pile of wood in front of us had been made far large than needed for a normal fire. Cleave appeared to have stopped chopping wood to digging through a box he had pulled from a wagon, tossing random things into a kettle that he had placed behind him. Light and Tech looked like they were talking over the remains of an old radio that looked like it had been surgically evolved into a computer. Psych had even came out of his hiding place and was rolling a medium sized barrel towards the fire while carrying another box filled with beakers filled with random liquids with his magic beside him.

I ruffled my feathers slightly, getting more comfortable when Rainy's filly came up behind the three of us. She was tugging on Rainy's tail when we three noticed her, with Dominic behind her wagging his curved pipe-made tail. She was covered in dirt from her rumble with her pet from before.

"Momma, can I stay up for Friday?" Happy blinked innocently at her mother with huge pink eyes as she just barely hinted at a whine in the request, making me and Karma cringe slightly. Rainy rolled her eyes and pushed herself to her hooves while shaking her head. "But Mommmmmm......!!", that last part was well than more enough for both me and Karma to thrust our hooves against our ears. That foal had quite the whine on her, and Rainy seemed all but immune to it, lucky for her.

"You know your not old enough for Fridays yet, 'Appy. Back into the wagon, its almost bed time." The mare said matter-of-factually to her daughter, who at this point still refused to move as she bit her bottom lip and looked up at her mother pitifully. Rainy simply lowered her head and scooted the filly along, while Happy let herself be pushed towards the wagon, leaving a foal-size drag through the dirt as she and her mother made their way over to the wagons. Dominic let out a single bark before turning and walking off to stay with its foal master, eyes blinking every couple of steps.

"So why is Friday so special?" I finally got the chance to ask Karma, while turning my head towards her once we had been left alone. She had been watching Light and Tech continue their talk over the radio looking machine, which had apparently turned into a mini argument with Light having smacked the thing, and Tech looking like he had been the one struck instead.

"Well, I'm sure you can tell, things down here aren't so great with a lot of ponies. So, our group has made it a tradition that whenever we can, we try to have fun one night. Sing, dance, tell stories, drink, that sorta thing." She brought up a hoof and curved it around to indicate the others around us.

"So its a party in other words." I tilted my head at her, it seemed kind of odd for a group of ponies to just be having a party out in the middle of the wasteland.

"Pretty much. Normally, we are just a tiny caravan of scavengers. We go around, fill the wagons with stuff we intend to sell at the next settlement. Keep whatever we can for ourselves. Whenever we are doing decent enough we have one of these little get-together things. Its how I knew Stan was going to meet us, we don't like for anyone to miss it. Since we don't really know when we will be able to do this again."

"Well, it sounds efficient enough." I nodded to her explanation.

"It does a pony good not to worry about things once in awhile. Times are bad, but we weren't made to be like this. Having fun just reminds us to be ponies." Karma turned her head towards me, and I noticed then that it had got even darker in the span of the short conversation. It made it difficult to see her full expression, but she seemed rather serious about the last statement. "That, and there are strengths in numbers."

"Yeah, I understand that." Seemed simple when she put things like that, these ponies stayed together because not only was it smart, but they could do better for themselves as a whole rather than apart, despite their many conflicting differences.

With that being said to myself, We noticed Light heading over to stand near the pile of scrap wood with Mist and Psych at his sides. At the same time, Stan and another new pony came up from the opposite side. The unicorn standing next to Stan had a grin on his face as he looked to Light, even in this nearly faded light he stuck out like a sore thumb with his color combination. Neon blue coat with a equally neon red, maybe even orange, mane that stuck out in random spots.

"Alright everypony! I'm tired of waiting, so lets get the fire started shall we?!" Every pony turned their attention to Light as he raised his voice, most of them heading over to stand nearer. Rainy had finally got her daughter back to bed and I noticed her coming up behind us in my peripheral vision, though it looked like Static could care less as he was still using the flash light to tear apart one of my guns. "Let'er rip, Pyro!"

The unicorn next to Stan bounced forwards, Karma and the others raised their voices in supporting 'hollar as he dramatically bowed before turning away from us towards the wood, the turning motion gave me a good view of his cutie mark, a multicolored fireball was attached to his flank. Now I knew where both the name, and the source of our fuel was coming from.

The pony called Pyro lifted his head, orange magic covering his horn as above it burst into small flame. He slowly tilted and curved his head around in a circle, cracking his neck, as the flame slowly brightened into a bigger ball. Finally he lifted a hoof and casually dusted himself off as if the effort was nothing for him when the fireball took off from his horn. Suddenly the fire ball was much larger, and landed squarely into the middle of the wood. The fire acted almost like a liquid as it swirled over its food source and crackled into its life supporting being.

"Thank you, thank you everypony!" Pyro instantly turned to the small crowd of ponies with a grin, only to have a section of his tail swish through the fire, lighting the tip of it aflame. At our wide-eyed expressions, Pyro gave a confused blink before slowly turning his head around, where his tail decided to suddenly alight even further with a 'Fwoosh!' at the added attention it got.

"NOT AGAIN." Pyro squealed and zipped over to Stan who was already standing to assist in the stomping of the flame-tail. Pyro was sulking, but the laughter of the ponies around us, including my own, ended up with him being unable to keep the troubled look for long. Eventually he looked over towards me, Karma, and Rainy, shrugging his shoulders with the same grin on his face from before. "It'll grow back, it always does!"

"That would be the last of our crew, his name is Pyro Blast." mentioned Karma next to me as I had raised a hoof to wave to him. I noticed Mist leaving Light's side to head over to us and lay down on the other side of Rainy. Psych on the other hoof stepped near his barrel he had rolled over from before, his magic grabbing the top of it and started to attempt to yank it open. Cleave was dragging his kettle over to the fire with his red-coated magic and Light made his way back to the radio looking contraption where Tech waited, giving the green unicorn a nod that allowed Tech to use his bright yellow magic to turn a few knobs on the front of the machine. At first nothing but static came out, but with another thump of a hoof from Light (and Tech's exaggerated painful look), the machine burst into a electronic sounding music, with a rhythm that made you want to tap a hoof.

Light noticed my attention, I must have looked a little startled to see that these ponies had found a way to even make their own music out here. He just gave me a smirk, his horn glowing in soft blonde magic as a pair of well-worn head-phones pulled onto his neck. A magical turn of one of the knobs located on the headphones made the music alter into a lower pitch, and I could swear I could physically feel it through my coat.

"My name is Light Shield, and today is Friday!" He said while lifting to his hind hooves and throwing his upper ones out to his sides, causing his poofy mane to fall back. The other ponies including Rainy and Karma gave a 'Woop!' of approval at his introduction.

Maybe I should have been concerned I was out here at nighttime, no idea where I was, and with a bunch of random crazy surface dwellers I had just met. But, Karma had been right, it was just about having fun. Who cares about the consequences, right?

Or maybe it was just the madness of the situation rubbing off on me, I still couldn't tell you.

Author's Note

(Fallout Equestria: TQF Wiki Article)

Longest chapter Ive been able to pull off yet, and I still didn't get to tack on the real ending I wanted. All well, party time!

Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this far. I really appreciate it! And I do hope I could make some of you laugh.

And apologies to any miss-spellings, run on sentences, ect. I try my best to catch them! If all else fails, add a comma.

If anyone is needing a more detailed character description, the wiki link should be on the story description. I try my best to keep it updated with the story.

My thoughts on this chapter: Bloody hell. Too many ponies. x.x