I have had awhile to think.

And after that awhile, I came to the conclusion that in and of itself, is the worst part.

It is not like I can hardly function. I can still shoot when need be, and laugh when its required. I still can hit my target, and I still find things amusing. But it is because I function, that I am alright. With one hoof in front of the other I can continue with my regrets and sorrow, because that is the only time I am not left alone to my thoughts, and I forget.

Its those moments I have nothing to do, or when I am on watch, or even when I am attempting to go to sleep, that are the worst. When the colored pictures of my mind begin to fade out and decay amongst my morale judgement. When I begin to naturally question just about anything, those pictures instead turn into you.

Oh, its not like you actually talk back, then I think I actually would be crazy. Then again though, its not like you spoke a lot most of the time anyways, it wasn't like you really needed to. As much as I miss the sound of your voice, I miss the times you simply sat there and listened to my every word. It was then that I really learned to appreciate the attention. In my thoughts, I'll speak to you. I even find myself pausing as if you would respond somehow.

And with all of our silence, I can honestly only wish for three words, just one more time.

They aren't even the three words I think most ponies would ask for.

'Everything is alright.'

A tumble of weeds drifted by, and somehow that seemed cliche to me.

Even as Psych stood in front of me with the confused expression, the others simply looked back and forth between one another as if figuratively drawing straws as to whom would end the awkward silence. I noticed Psych had backed his ears against his skull and had lifted a hoof to scratch at his chin, looking at the ground and letting his eyes wander back and forth as if he was attempting to read an invisible book. This whole situation was just becoming more uncomfortable for me.

"Wait a sec," Maybe it took a little longer than a few minutes before his ears darted up and his head twisted over to where Karma laid near Stan. Her eyes grew bigger as he pointed a hoof in her direction with a newly narrow-eyed view. "Is this what you were referring to yesterday?"

"Eh..." She had attempted to look serious, but quickly that was drowned out by a small shrug and a nervous snicker.

"Oh to hell with this," Psych threw his hoof up in a curve with an over-exaggerated sigh. "I am not that desperate!"

It was easily noticeable the sudden muffled giggle behind him, though I wasn't sure whom it came from.

"ALRIGHT WHO WAS THAT?!" He snarled as he twisted his body away from me to confront the group of ponies behind him. As a group they all individually pointed to somepony that wasn't them, they all randomly getting pointed out by some other. Soon after they all again, as a group, switched their hoof-pointing to point at Static.

"Hey, I did no such thing..." He whined with his ears drawn back pitifully.

Psych simply glared at the group as a whole, ignoring Static's defense. Letting his gaze wash over the lot before he turned back to me with a quick twist and gave me the same highly annoyed expression. Though I was partially saved by Light stepping around from behind Psych and moving to stand next to him, giving me a long look before turning his attention over towards Karma and Stan.

"And you knew about this, and didn't say anything?" He accused Stan with a troubled look. Stan simply looked back at his leader for a moment before lifting a hoof up to his hat and lowering it down over his eyes without bothering to answer, causing Light to sigh.

"Oh like you really expect him to tell us anything..." Muttered Psych as he sat down next to Light, continuing to grumble under his breath. But his half-rant was interrupted by Karma clearing her throat.

"Since you all have your tails in a twist, why not just ask him what happened if your so concerned." She drew her gaze back at the others who had stayed quiet at this point as if she was asking them rather then the two stallions in front of me.

One by one the other ponies looked between one another. Rainy, who still was peeking out from inside the wagon simply nodded her head to agree with her friend. Mist noticed her agreement and gave a short nod of his own, though his expression seemed more worried than anything else as if his actual opinion was far different. Tech and Cleave looked between one another, Cleave shrugging a shoulder in silent reply before Tech looked back over to Light and gave his own nod. Pyro on the other hoof, lowered his head and glared in my direction, though with suddenly noticing Stan watching him from where he lay next to Karma he finally gave a sigh and used a hoof to motion 'go ahead'. Static simply sat to the side, watching, and hadn't expressed any real opinion on his side in the matter.

"Alright then..." Muttered Light as he turned back to me, Psych having gone silent as he kept his eyes on me. "Exactly what are you doing here and why?"

And now I had all of their attention again, with all of the added stress that came with. Slowly I sat down and fluttered my wings against my back to get more comfortable, this may take a bit.

"My unit was just supposed to be taking samples..."

"So, what your saying is, this is your first time to the surface, you get attacked by one of your own members, and have absolutely no real idea whats going on?"

Light had since moved back to give Psych room to move back and forth. After I got to the point in my story of ending up here with them, Karma's idea on how for me to get back home, and explaining that as far as I knew the Enclave wanted nothing to do with them, Psych had started to pace while he questioned me.

"And, of all things, fat-ass over there (causing a "HEY!" from Karma in the background.) wants us to completely detour our own trip around the idea of escorting your feathered hide to the pegasi tower just so you can go home, which might not even work if that particular tower is broken. That's it?"

After watching him I gave a slow nod of my head, even though I didn't really enjoy the tone or words he used to describe my situation. But at the same time I figured that causing an argument with the irked stallion wasn't in my best interests.

"It really shouldn't be that much of a big deal," Karma piped up into our conversation as she stood up and stepped over towards the three of us. "We have to stop in town anyways for extra supplies before we hit the mountains. The tower isn't very far off from there, the rest of you can easily stay in town an extra night and I can take him to the tower, get rid of him, and then be on our way."

Psych glared at her, but she easily seemed to ignore the expression before she turned to the others behind them to regard their opinions. "Besides, I don't think anyone would really mind staying an extra night in a town would they?"

Smart mare, offer the ponies something they want. After having heard my story they all nodded at this offer, even Pyro and Static. She grinned, and looked back at Psych with a victorious smirk before turning her attention to Light, while Psych continued to glare at her as if he was mentally oblivious to the others.

Light had his ears backed down in thought, making them disappear in his fluffy yellow mane. Looking between Psych and Karma he let out a quiet sigh before shrugging his shoulders.

"One more night in town wouldn't hurt anypony I suppose." Light finally agreed, Psych tried to open his mouth, but Karma somehow beat him to it.

"Well, that's settled then. Why don't we clear up and clear out then, 'yah?" She twisted around to head back to the wagons, flicking her long tail and somehow making sure it slapped across Psych's face. Giving him a mouthful of tail-hair for a few seconds before she moved away, leaving him sputtering and rubbing a hoof across his mouth while Light did his best not to laugh by biting his lower lip.

I got a side-ways glance of Psych rolled his eyes at his pink friend with a muttered curse, before I paid more attention to making my way to where Karma had headed. Stan and her were attempting to lift Tech's music machine-thing with their front hooves while the green unicorn stood nearby with a hoof at his mouth, nibbling nervously. Horn aglow with that bright yellow he was attempting to hold the machine steady for the two earth ponies as they lifted. Slowly stepping around them I saw Rainy inside the wagon, her own white glow joining Tech's yellow as she helped move the thing inside, gently scooting it onto the floor and as far as I could tell, out of the way.

I turned my attention back to Tech as he let out a small huff of breath he had been holding. Tilting my head towards the tarped vehicle I pointed a hoof as well at it.

"So, you guys keep all your stuff in this to haul around? So whats the other for?" Turning my head to look at Tech as he equally turned to reply.

"Ponies got to eat. The other is the one we throw everything into when we are going in town to sell. That way we can just rip the cloth off and sell everything on it." He gave me a shrug to end his answer before turning to watch Karma and Stan tossing rolled sleeping cloths into the wagon, which Rainy would catch with her magic and toss behind her.

A muffled giggle with a soft electric bark later and Rainy's filly with her pet peeked from between her legs, directly under her chest. Giving me a wave as she noticed me still around. I lifted a wing and flared my feathers to mimic the waving action, which instantly brought a smile to her face before she darted back into the depths of the wagon with a hoof wrapped around Dominic's neck. Rainy gave me a smile after.

"Is everything in there? What about Cleave's kettle?" Karma mentioned up to the dove-hued unicorn. Just as Rainy was about to turn and look, another giggle, and the clanging of metal on metal, followed by a pair of small hooves, was heard. She lowered her ears before turning around and looking back down to the other mare.

"By the sound of 'Appy playing in it, I think we are fine." Rainy replied, only to be interrupted by her daughter shortly after.

"Momma! The inside of this thing smells funny." Echoed behind her from the filly. Dominic barked to end the sentence.

Rainy gave another one of those parenthood-sighs and turned to deal with her offspring. Leaving Stan and Karma standing there side by side before they turned so Karma could address Tech beside me.

"Mind attaching us since Momma-Rainy is busy?"

Inside the wagon a squeal of giggles was heard while Tech nodded his head and sunlight yellow wrapped around the front harnesses to pull them over the two earth ponies. Lifting padded collars out of the dirt and positioning them in front so both ponies could slip their heads through. A few more belt pulls and straps positioned and they seemed good. Karma nodded her head to Tech while Stan simply pawed at the dirt with a front hoof and shifted his shoulder muscles to adjust the collar around his neck.

"I'll go tell Light we're good back here, Mist and Static should already be hitched up, hopefully." With that said, Tech turned about and walked towards the front, stepping to the side of the first wagon and moving out of my sight behind it. Turning my attention back around I noticed both earth ponies regarding me.

"So...um...the ponies without horns get to pull? That doesn't seem very fair." I was pretty bad at trying to make small talk.

"If the horn-heads were pulling, we'd never get anywhere." Karma replied while Stan rolled his eyes at me, and turned his attention back forwards to simply stare at the back of the first wagon. The sound of ruffled cloth and a thump against the ground later allowed Rainy to walk up from behind, playfully narrowing her eyes at Karma.

"I heard that, hornless." Both mares giggled at the pretend insults towards one another, even Stan cracked a small smile.

"So...I guess I'll just stick back here with you three then." Tilting my head in thought as I caught their attention again. Karma and Rainy nodded as one.

"Your welcome to flutter around if you want, I just wouldn't fly very high. Having an extra pair of eyes higher up couldn't be a bad thing though." Karma answered my own silent question and my wings couldn't help but shift across my back. I was getting real tired of having to walk everywhere.

Just as I was looking to the sky above me after Karma's statement, Light's voice echoed from the front of the equally covered wagon in front of our group.

"Everyone ready to head out?!"

What followed next was a single stomp of a front hoof from all the other ponies present in acknowledgement.

"Alright, off we go!"

Both Karma and Stan leaned forwards to get their wagon rolling behind them, just the same with Mist and Static I supposed as it also inched forwards. With the momentum they were able to begin stepping forwards while lengthening their stride to allow the wagons to move slightly faster till they were at a comfortable movement pace.

With a burst of my wings I bought myself airborne and hovered above the last wagon that Karma and Stan carried. Looking ahead I could see the other Unicorns simply walking along as they followed. Light was leading the way in front with Psych slightly behind, Cleave was currently being harassed by Tech as he held a one-sided conversation with the other stallion out of my ear-reach. Pyro slowed till he was walking along beside Stan below, and Rainy took a place beside Karma.

A small white and red blur jumped from the wagon and used both Stan and Karma's backsides as stepping stones till she had hopped onto her mother's back. Tossing her hooves around Rainy's neck in a hug that made the mother-mare smile back at her daughter before looking forwards again. A soft electric whine from inside the wagon must have meant that Dominic was watching from inside as his friend hopped over.

We were still headed north from what I could tell, even if the pace seemed slow. Raising myself just slightly higher to allow my wings to fan out and glide back down before beating them again to raise back up. I wondered to myself how they seemed content at such a pace without wings, a team of pegasi could go twice as fast as these ponies could.

Before long I found myself drifting down to the top of the wagon, using the canvas as a make-shift hammock while laying down and looking at the sky. Listening to the group of ponies below me chatting softly between themselves, I gave a small yawn. I was still tired from the night before, and the rocking motion from the moving wagon was quickly making me drowsy. It wasn't quite as nice as a cloud, but I could live with it.

I must have drifted off at some point.

"You could be better than that." I told the older colt.

He looked back at me with a troubled gaze, and it was much like looking in a mirror.

"Better? Why for?"

"Because, don't you want to be a better pony?"

"Yeah...I suppose I do."

Something was tapping me again. I was getting real tired of waking up in this fashion.

Grumbling I pushed my hooves to my eyes and rubbed away the sleep, only to blink the blurry away to notice a plastic water-filled bottle hovering next to me while wrapped in white magic. Confusion kept me occupied enough till finally the bottle tilted back and forth in a 'come-on' motion before lowering onto my front hooves with the white glow going out with a silent poof.

Holding the bottle to my chest I leaned over the edge of the wagon to see Rainy looking up at me as she continued to walk beside Karma. Her horn remained alight and I noticed she was holding another one of the bottles for Karma to drink from while she continued to pull with Stan. Happy Day was gone from her mother's back at this point.

Needless to say I figured with the others drinking it, it would be fine, but I couldn't help but hear the voice of one of my teachers in my head preaching to never drink anything from the surface. Scooting the bottle up to my chest so I could hold it with one hoof, I used the other to unscrew the cap by pushing the side till it turned and fell off. Leaning over it I took a small sniff at the clear liquid inside and found that it actually smelled rather pleasant, like rainwater.

Grabbing the top of the bottle in my teeth and lifted the bottle, letting the liquid fall into my mouth where I began to guzzle it down. After having lived mostly off of purified rainwater, the water in this little surface bottle tasted divine, only thing I could have asked for was for it to be chilled. But warm or not, it was great, and I felt my mind begin to clear from my half-asleep state.

Sadly the bottle was empty long before I actually felt sated. Letting it drop to my hooves I tried my best to get the cap back on, twisting it just enough where it clung on. Afterwards I leaned back over the side once more and nudged the bottle to tip over, and just as I had thought, before it could hit the ground it was enveloped in that white glow again before being magically tossed back into the wagon's front entrance. I gave Rainy a small smile of gratitude as she looked back up at me again after.

"Thank you. It tasted wonderful. I didn't know surface-water could taste so good."

At my comment she laughed, shaking her head to cause her bangs to whip in front of her face.

"You don't want to go drinking any water you find around here randomly....the water I gave you was purified."

"But, Ive had purified water. That wasn't purified water." I raised a brow at her statement, curious.

"It wasn't purified by a machine, or even taken from a water talisman, I cleaned that water myself." A soft bump to her back hooves caused her back-half to bounce slightly, drawing my attention to that area to notice the three water drops on her flank, and then it became clear.

"Your talent. You can purify water." I barely replied in a whisper of awe. Having a talent like that in the wasteland must have been priceless for any pony to have.

I noticed Karma having turned her head to regard her friend with a slightly wary eye before she attempted to look back at me from its corner, but Rainy decided to continue the conversation anyways.

"It is not so amazing really, I can only do it in small doses here and there. A couple of bottles a day. The more contaminated, the harder it is for me to clean it."

Sadly, it made sense in my head and I gave her a nod. Still, it was an impressive talent to have in my opinion.

"By the way..." To change the subject, since it seemed Karma was looking a little uncomfortable. "...You have a very Pegasus-related name."

"My mother told me that my family line is originally from Los Pegasus, and has been a family tradition for weather-related names. My mother's name is Sunny Day. Something they've just given daughter to daughter, I suppose."

"Yeah, if the world hadn't went to hell, I bet Momma-Rainy here would have made quite the movie star." Snickered Karma, interrupting.

Rainy simply rolled her eyes in an over-exaggerated movement that allowed her head to roll along with the movement. Causing Karma to grin, and even getting a small muffled chuckle from Stan from under his hat, Pyro turned his head at the noise to look at the other three. Laying my head down on the edge I unfolded my wings to stretch them from side to side as I got comfortable again while staying where I could see them.

"How much further?" I decided to inquire.

"Don't make me turn this wagon around and go home." Karma instantly replied.

"Why would you do that?"

"Great, feather-head with no sense of humor either..."

"What is supposed to be so funny about that?"

Karma simply grumbled under her breath as she continued walking in time with Stan, though I could see both Rainy and Pyro grinning. After a few quiet moments I heard a faint movement under me from inside the wagon, and next thing I knew another water bottle was being thrown out the front over Stan and Karma's backs, only to be caught in Rainy's magic.

"Thank you, dear." Rainy responded to the filly that was out of my sight.

"Your welcome, momma!" Came her higher pitched and happy sounding reply.

Another bottle was then thrown out suddenly, only to hit Pyro in the back of the head. He yelped and scrambled his hooves up under him for a few seconds before catching his balance, and pulling the bottle from the ground with a fiery glow.

"Thank you 'Appy..." He mimicked Karma's earlier grumbling.

"Your welcome!" Came the same reply, just as pleased with herself as before.

Watching the bottle mid-air in Pyro's magic I noticed the plastic material begin to deform and melt. It only took a stream of the water suddenly falling on Pyro's head from the warped bottle for him to notice his mistake and quickly try to open his mouth and catch what he could while walking. He only got a small bit before flattening his ears back against his skull and tossing the now useless bottle to the side.

"Pony-feathers." He stated.

"Are we there yet?" I tried asking again, after.

"No." Both Karma and Stan replied in unison.

With a groan I rolled over onto my back to stare at the cloud filled sky. So bored...

After many hours, two breaks for the earth ponies, and another bottle filled with water later, Karma needed my assistance.

"Cloud, could you hover up and see how close we are?" She inquired while tilting her head up to attempt to look at me perched behind her atop the wagon. I gave her a small nod and opened my wings in a stretch before doing as she asked and swooping upwards into the air. Heeding her warning from before I only brought myself up enough to see what lay before us.

The mountains had got a lot closer than before, and it was obvious we were heading straight for them. Before that though, was obviously a town, or had been a town, of some sort before the war. A number of squished together buildings with frames overlapping was the only reason I guessed the buildings had remained stable enough for ponies to continue to dwell in. Beyond that, I couldn't see.

We were just coming up to another street sign that hadn't been tore down, but looked like it had been re-placed back up, despite having parts of the sign deteriorated. Squinting, I could just barely make out the readable portions.

---

Welcome to: Palisade ~~Pr ci~~p ~~c~~e
--------- > Pebble ~~Pi~~ Farm

< ------ ~~O~~v ~~rca~~s~~t Co~~nt ~~ol Tow r~~

"Almost there, to Palisade, according to the sign." I mentioned down to Karma while I held my position. Looking to my right I could barely make out a road heading to where I guess the 'Farm' had been located. To my left, where I was hoping to see a tower, was nothing, not even a road. But to think about it, I suppose my earlier pegasi brethren would have just flown back and forth from the location. The town ahead of us that was slowly inching itself closer seemed rather desolate.

"I don't see anypony." I told her before floating back down to my original perch, with her nodding her head at me after. Sitting on the edge of the top portion of the wagon I let my hooves grip me into place while I rocked back and forth with the motion of moving forwards. For some reason, those last few moments of actually reaching the town took far longer than the rest of the trip combined.

As we got closer, an odd feeling crept up my spine, causing both my ears to twitch and feathers to fluff up for the brief moment. I shook my head to chase it off before looking back forwards again, we were coming up to a small building right on the outskirts, and it appeared to be where we decided to stop. The front wagon slowly pulled from the road with Karma and Stan's following, we came to a creaky halt, and both earth ponies below me lifted hooves to stretch their legs.

While Rainy moved forwards and began using her magic to unhitch them, Light popped out from in front of the front wagon, curls bouncing slightly from the jerky movement as he looked us over, then waved a hoof.

"We better go make ourselves known so nopony gets the wrong idea of us." He mentioned, and we all nodded in agreement.

Light slipped out of my sight again to check on the rest of the group, and Rainy finally got Stan and Karma released from their wagon. Karma was reaching around to rub at her neck, and Stan simply rolled his head slowly in a circle to follow up with soft crackling pops. Karma then decided to turn and look up at me.

"Might be a good idea if you walk in with us. Some ponies tend to get a little uneasy otherwise..." She let the last comment slowly die out, and even though I wanted to reply back with something more along the lines of a smart-ass, I simply allowed my body to fall forwards, unfurling my wings just enough to lift into a curve before fluttering to the ground next to her. Karma raised a brow at me. "Show off."

Couldn't help the grin at her opinion, and she rolled her eyes while letting out a quiet laugh under her breath. Looking to Stan, with Rainy and Pyro standing together, she then stepped forwards and out from behind the back of the front wagon. Lifting her head into the air and taking a deep breath, though quickly afterwards giving herself a full-over shake.

Stan followed suit to stand next to her, looking towards the town intently, just as silent as always. While I stepped to Karma's other side I noticed her watching him, before nudging her shoulder against his.

"Something up?" She asked, trying to peek under his hat from her shorter height.

"Hm?" The questioning drawing him out of his thoughts as he looked to her, and then myself, followed up with Rainy and Pyro who were currently moving to meet up with the rest of the group nearer to the front. He watched them go, before he turned back to address the situation. "I was thinking, that we would see somepony by now..."

"I was a little curious as well." I slipped into the conversation, causing both other ponies to look at me carefully. Finally Karma nodded her head and looked towards the main group.

"Something don't feel right. Come on, their about to leave."

With that said, the three of us walked to the rest of the group. Light was currently in a conversation with Rainy, the mare nodding her head. Pyro sat near by and was simply waiting with Tech, Static, and Mist. Cleave on the other hand had taken a few paces towards the town and was staring into it. Psych was not far off, tapping a hoof, impatiently.

"We ready to go?" Karma raised her voice slightly to get Light's attention as she stopped near the group. Light darted his head in her direction and gave a nod before looking back to Rainy, who gave him a small smile and moved to her hooves to step nearer to our three-pony group.

"I'll be staying back as usual, got to make sure 'Appy and the cargo stay safe." She mentioned while looking to Karma.

"Yeah, take care okay? We shouldn't be long. Just gotta rouse the locals." Karma replied to her, giving the other mare a small hoof-bump. Rainy once again nodded and walked past us to go back to the last wagon, moving out of my sight.

Finally we were on the move, with Karma and Stan taking up the rear along with myself, Light and Psych took the front. The others simply wandered with us while we stepped onto the main road and made our way into the town itself.

Stepping around some of the larger cracks in the road we passed, the first building looking to be a hotel of sorts, which Tech and Cleave moved closer to and checked inside by peeking through the one door that had fallen off its hinges and made its escape years ago. Psych's attention was brought to a glassy-windowed joint near-by with a long-dead "Open" electric sign hanging askew inside, a bar more than likely, Pyro followed behind him. Mist was...well, not with us, no clue where he'd gone to. We each kept going forwards till something caught our eye, Light and Static stopping before a larger stone building with pillars holding up its roof, a town hall perhaps.

"Where the hell is everypony?" Light turned to look at us after, the three of us stopping and glancing around the empty area. Static lowered his head and was looking around nervously.

"I know there are ponies here. Ive been here before..." Karma quietly added, though Stan remained silent, except for a small hoof-stomp given to the road in possible silent frustration. The action caused Light to raise an eyebrow at the other stallion before looking back the way we had came. Turning my head I saw our other members heading back towards us.

"Find anypony? Anything?" Light questioned them, and Tech and Cleave as one shook their heads negatively.

"Its obvious they didn't leave in a hurry. There are still personal belongings in all the rooms, with food and water." Tech told his leader.

"And the bar is empty of everything except alcohol. Just left it there." Psych chimed in, with a disgusted tone. Pyro nodded in agreement.

"Something is wrong here." Stan suddenly said. Causing the entire group including myself to look at him. Which caused the earth pony to back up slightly at the sudden attention. But, after a moment he lifted his head and took another one of those deep breaths. "It smells..."

"Bad." Static ended his sentence, and we all re-turned our attention to the light blue pony, his head even lower to the ground with a pitiful expression. "It smells bad here."

"Smells bad? Wha--?" Karma was about to ask, before we all suddenly startled at the gasping sound of breath to the right of us. Turning to look, there was Mist, leaning against the side of the mostly stone building and had a hoof brought to his muzzle, gasping for breath and looking like he was trying not to be sick. We all quickly moved towards him, causing the stallion to shift back and away from us into the alley, looking at us with wide eyes.

"Its, bad...really bad." He said, swallowing after.

"What? Did you find somepony?" Psych narrowed in on him, leaning past the group as he crowded Mist.

Mist raised a hoof and pressed it against Psych's chest, lengthening the distance between himself and us at the same time. Catching his breath he raised himself up and looked down the alleyway behind him. Slowly he turned and stepped down it, motioning us to follow with a tail-flick.

I felt my ears back against my skull as we all looked between one another, even more worried than before. But we all made a single file line and followed the quiet pony in front of us. Mist had refused to say anything else, and he paused where the buildings ended, just a few seconds, before slipping fully behind the stone building to our left.

Now I could smell whatever it was, a sickly sweet smell that made you want to brush your teeth. It was disgusting, and now I had a bad idea of exactly what we were going to find.

I had purposely positioned myself behind Stan and Karma, taking up the rear, and just as I was about to turn with the group...

"Celestia be damned..." Karma cursed, while the others remained silent.

I wasn't entirely prepared for what happened to the ponies of Palisade, and with what we were suddenly shown, it took every part of my inner willpower not to be sick at the sight behind what I guessed was their town hall.

Stacked nearly three ponies high, was the residents of the town. One by one, they had been thrown into a group pile behind the building like somepony simply throwing out the trash. They had only been dead for about a day, and the smell behind here was just starting to get bad in the heat of the day. Here and there beyond most of what had started to rot was a hint of blue, pink, yellow, a cutie mark of a wagon wheel, a stone pony statue, a half-torn blue heart where some wasteland scavenger had removed its fellow-half. I couldn't bear to think about how many lie under the outside surface of the grizzly heap.

Most of us had took to breathing with a hoof pressed to our muzzles, all except Cleave, who was looking at the pile in anger. In his specific gaze I noticed exactly what he was angry about.

Dear Celestia, there were children in that pile as well. A filly's now white sunbleached eyes gazed up at the sky, bow still attached in her hair, her mouth fallen slack in a silent cry, I couldn't even tell if she ever had received her cutie mark. That was something that I couldn't take, and I found myself twisting around and looking away from the horrible scene.

Most of the group backed away towards the alley and simply looked in silent stunned expressions, though Psych's was mixed with anger along with Cleave's. Tech was trying hard not to be sick, and Static looked scared out of his mind with wide blown eyes darting back and forth across the pile. Pyro and Light simply stared, not knowing what to say. I couldn't blame them. I drew my wings forwards and rubbed the feathers across my face, trying hard not to breathe too deeply.

"This is..." Karma broke the silence, though her sentence died off as if she was too scared to finish, and Stan stepped closer to her.

"...raiders?" I tried, turning to look at her and her friend, but it was Cleave who snorted at my questioning finish.

"No. This is too...clean. If it had been raiders we've have known about it long before we came into town. With this many bodies this entire place would have been strung up like some sick colt's cute-ceañera. They weren't even tortured, just...outright killed." He stated in his monotone voice.

"Then what?" I brought my attention to him, but he remained silent after that. Looking around at the rest of the group I got similar non-responsiveness, except from Karma, who was staring at the pile still, with a even more troubled expression. She didn't seem to hear me, as she took a few steps forwards near the pile and began walking around it, looking to each long-dead soul mournfully.

We all watched silently as she moved to circle around it, though once she moved to the other side out of sight we heard her stop.

"Please no..." Came a quiet whisper.

Nopony made a move to go see, not even Stan. Light was looking at all of us in turn, till finally my curiosity drug itself through my disgust enough for me to move my hooves, and I attempted to follow Karma around the pile, doing my best not to let any part of my body touch anything.

On the other side, there she sat, staring up towards the top of the pile with a sorrow-filled expression. She wasn't crying, but seemed far more in pain now for whatever she'd found. Slowly I stepped to her side and sat down next to her, before I turned to try to see what it was she was looking at.

My eyes were once again drawn to the individual colors that could be made out, different rot-pocked marks, but it was what was near to the top of the pile that made all of my braincells decide to shut down, simultaneously.

There, near the top, was the body of a colt. It wasn't just any colt though, this particular colt who may have been colored a sun-yellow, now a dirty beige, had himself a pair of wings attached to his back. A pegasus colt.

His lifeless body had been tossed in such a manner that both his wings were strung out and upwards in some sick mimic of flight, giving me a clear view where his cutie mark should have been.

Instead of a cutie mark, or even a blank flank, there was a cloud, with a very distinctive bolt coming from it.

The poor colt had been branded a dashite.

Author's Note

Ugh. My head hurts now. x.x heh. Sorry for the delay in this chapter. There are more than likely still mistakes, but I tried to catch them all. Dyslexia can be a bitch sometimes.

Again, to the very few people taking the time to read this, I love you. <3