Rose slowly backed away, keeping her eyes locked on the pony behind me. I felt him jab the back of my head with his rifle.

“I said, drop the gun.” His voice was calm and had a bit of southern accent.

Slowly I levitated the shotgun and the pistol out of their holsters and set them on the ground. The barrel of the rifle bore into the back of my head as I did.

“You too, lass.” He said swiveling the gun to point at Rose, then back to my head. She hesitated to comply. I gave her a slight nod and she tossed the revolver a few feet from her.

He pushed into my side, forcing me to turn and face Deadbolt. “The knife too.” Deadbolt glared at the pony before drawing his knife and placing it on the ground.

The pressure on my skull eased as he backed up. “Alright, both of you, over there.”

I turned as I moved over to where Deadbolt and Rose stood, turning around to face the pony. His fur was a light orange with a blonde mane that was done back in a tail.His golden eyes stared us down without blinking He wore a long beige coat that covered most of his body and a desperado hat. He was standing on his hind legs holding a very large rifle with his forelegs.

He held the position surprisingly well. He didn’t move at all, the rifle was fixed perfectly at me. “I’m gonna make this perfectly clear; I would really rather not have to shoot anypony.I just want a few answers, Alright? First off, who are you three?”

I hadn’t noticed until now, but the E.F.S. didn’t register him as hostile. Instead there was a single white line in front of me. I think I need a new Pip-Buck, this ones being tracked and is registering ponies that hold guns to my head as friendly. Rose and Deadbolt glanced at me. I guess i’m doing the talking here.

“We’re just travelers. Just passing through.”

He didn’t buy it and readjusted his aim. “Just travelers huh? Then would you like to explain why there’s power armor looking for you?”

I jerked up involuntarily at that. How the hell did he know about that?

“What are you talking about?” Deadbolt asked. If I didn’t just give it away that we knew exactly what he was talking about he may have bought Deadbolt’s act. He managed to keep his cool, even though we could be shot at any moment.

“Don’t play dumb with me.” The stallion said slowly. “ Earlier today, I overheard those raiders outside talking with two ponies in power armor. Said that they were looking for three ponies wearing those leg mounted computers you three got, Two unicorn stallions and an earth pony mare. I would say you three fit that description.”

“Looks like they know we’re in Trottingham.” Deadbolt looked between Rose and I.

“Are you going to answer my question or am I gonna have to shoot somepony?” The stallion with the rifle was starting to get impatient.

“Okay, We’re stable ponies.” I blurted out. “A few weeks ago ponies with power armor and raiders attacked our stable. They’ve been hunting down ever since.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Stable ponies? What did you do to piss off somepony with power armor at their disposal?”

“They were”

“Rivet!” Deadbolt snapped, obviously thinking that I shouldn’t tell him about the chip.

“Lying isn’t going to get us anywhere Deadbolt.” Rose scolded. “They were looking for something in the stable, they think we have it.”

He cocked his eyebrow. “And do you have whatever it is?”

We were silent for a moment. Which may have just been us saying “Yes we do.”

He nodded to himself and lowered the gun. “I’m guessing there’s a bit more to this story, but we don’t have any more time for any more questions. Those two weren’t waiting too far off. They probably heard the fighting. We need to get moving.”

“Wait, what?” Rose asked clearly confused.

He shrugged and his cold expression softened. Suddenly he looked incredibly friendly. “What? I hadn’t actually planned on shootin’ ya. I’ll take you up to the Junction, should be safer to talk there than it is here. Get your things, I’m gonna see if the coast is clear.”

The three of us just stood still for a moment. This pony just had a gun trained on us and now he was going to help us get away from The Organization? I was having a hard time deciding what to think of him.

I retrieved my guns and the pony waved me over. He was leaning against the wall, looking out into the street. “Looks like your friends are here already.”

It was dark and still pouring rain, but I could see somepony moving around where the raiders were laying. I could hear some heavy hoof steps and see a light shimmer off their armor.

“Useless raiders, they didn’t even manage to get one of ‘em.” One of them called to the other after examining a corpse. His voice was deep and echoed in his helmet.

The mysterious stallion pulled out a large magazine and pushing it into the rifle, cocking it. Wait, did he just hold us up with a rifle that wasn’t even loaded? I chose to table that thought, there was more important things to deal with.

“Hey, I got something over there!” the armored pony closest to us called. They were close enough for my E.F.S to pick them up now. They both started moving in toward us.

I moved back farther into the building. “We need to get out of here.”

The stallion nodded. “Theres a way out in the back. We’ll take that then drop into the subway. That’ll lead us straight to The Junction.” He pushed off the wall and slung his rifle around his back.

There was a short hallway that lead to an emergency exit. The door had been broken off and laid outside. It lead out to a small alleyway. The buildings were cramped together, leaving little room between them. It was a bit claustrophobic, even when compared to the small corridors of the stable. The main difference being that I could still see the sky, which didn’t make it any better.

We moved quickly. The red lights behind us kept up, obstructed by the buildings and rubble, but they were still close. On the other side of the alley was a long street it was mostly clear. A few of the strange,metal wagons were broken down but not enough to use as cover to run between.

We took off running as soon as we cleared the alley. I have to say, thinking about the situation, I felt incredibly dumb following the pony who had tried to hold us up. With an empty gun no less. Now we were following him through the city, hopping he was actually leading us in the right direction.

“There they are!” I glanced back to see one of the ponies in robot armor coming from the alley. I could hear the sound of his massive machine guns starting to spin, quickly followed by the roar of them firing. Bullets flew around us, one passed through my saddlebag.

The coat clad pony spun around, throwing his rifle around into his hooves. His momentum carried him and he rolled slightly to land on his back as he aimed down the scope.

*BOOM!* a single large bullet case flew from the side of the rifle. Before it even hit the ground he fired a second shot. *BOOM!*

The first shot hit the pony in the chest and knocked the air out of him. The second hit him square in the head. Which caused him to reel back, temporarily dazed. Neither shot pierced the armor, but both put rather large dents in the thick plates.

In one motion he swung the rifle onto his back and rolled to his hooves again to keep running.

The other power armor came running out of the alley. He quickly caught sight of us, ignoring his partner he stood firm, legs spread to brace himself.

*FOOM!* Two large shells came flying from the guns on his sides. The first rocket flew by hitting one of the wagons causing it to explode. Pieces of shrapnel shot in all direction a small bit catching me on the cheek. The second one missed completely, flying far off past us until it hit a building at the end of the street, blowing out a chunk of the outside wall.

Deadbolt was the one to act this time. He spun around and flung a grenade at the pair. Before he could see the results he was back to running.

The grenade flew a little short, but still close enough to stun them both. The one that took the rifle shots fell over from the blast. The other one staggered back trying to stay upright.

The orange stallion skid to a stop over a metal plate in the ground. “Quick get this cover off.” I quickly flipped it open with my magic. He motioned for us to go down as he brought his rifle back around.

*BOOM! BOOM!* The pony with the rocket launchers took a shot in the leg , the force causing to him trip. The other shot hitting the machine gunner in the shoulder to little effect other than making him grunt in pain for a moment.

Rose was the first down the hole, quickly followed by Deadbolt.

“You go first, I’ll close it behind us.” I said and the stallion descended without arguing. I grabbed the cover as I slid down, closing it behind me.

I dropped from the ladder and quickly turned to our new friend. “Okay, where do we go from here?”

He looked up at the cover. “Well, I reckon getting that cover off with take ‘em some time. I didn’t see any horns on either of them.” He looked down the tunnel we found ourselves in.

Train tracks stretched down the center of a concrete tunnel, there was a walkway on either side of the tracks, probably for maintenance workers. A surprising amount of lights were still working, the tunnel for the most part wall well lit. The tracks were torn up and some were coming up off the ground.

“If we follow the tunnel down that way we should come up right at Junction 26.” He explained.

“Well lets not waste any time then.” Rose said and we started down the path.

Even down here I could hear the rain as it poured down on the streets above us. I have to say, I kind of liked down there. I may have gotten more used to seeing the sky but having a ceiling was still a very welcome sight.

“I don’t believe you ever told us your name.” Rose pointed out.

He pursed his lips. “No, I don’t suppose I did. Sorry about that. The names Noble Heart. Most ponies just call me Noble. Always thought Noble Heart sounded a bit pretentious personally. What about yourselves?”

“I’m Rose.” She answered “That one’s Rivet and tall ,dark and angry is Deadbolt.”

Deadbolt of course reacted by throwing her an angry stare, which made me chuckle.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you decide to help us out?” She continued.

Noble shrugged. “I couldn’t let you get killed by those power armor bastards. In my experience, if you have power armor after you; you're either good ponies or very bad ponies.”

I wiped a small drip of blood from my cheek. “We’ll I’m glad you did. Don’t know what we would have done without you back there. That was some impressive shooting.”

“So, do you hold up everyone you plan to help?” Rose asked giving Noble a wry expression.

Noble scratched his mane. “Hehehe, yeah, sorry about that whole mess. I knew those goons might show up and I had a few questions I wanted answered before I risked my life for some strangers. Ponies are usually quicker to talk if you put a gun in their face.”

“I suppose so.” She muttered quietly.

The tunnel opened up to a large room. Above us was a platform that stretched across the two sets of tracks that passed through the room. A staircase on both sides of the room led up to the platform. A derailed train had smashed into the far side of the room along the other set of tracks. on the other side of the room the tunnels continued. Above the one directly across from us somepony had painted “Junction 26.”

“Looks like we’re heading the right way.” Deadbolt said as he saw the sign.

Noble turned to head to me. “You said those ponies attacked your stable?”

“Yeah, a few ponies in power armor tricked the Overmare into letting them in. They came in with a band of raiders. We were the only ones that got out. There was also a pegasus leading them.” I explained.

He shook his head slowly. “Sorry to hear that. What were they looking for?”

I was a little hesitant to tell him about the chip. But if was going to shoot us or turn us over he would have done it by now. “There was a computer chip hidden in the stable.”

“They slaughtered an entire stable for a tiny computer thing? What's it do that they were willing to do that?” He asked.

I sighed. “I wish I knew. Thats why we’re in Trottingham. We were hoping to find that out.”

“The plan was to check the stable tech building thats in the city.” Rose cut in. “We’re going to pass right by it if we go straight to junction 26.”

“Worst part of it, they can track us. If they’re already in Trottingham, we’re going to have a hard time moving around.” Deadbolt said.

Noble sighed. “Sounds like you folks have had it pretty hard. But it could be worse.”

*RRraaahhh* A gargled scream echoed out from the tunnel.

“What the hell was that?” I said stopping and stared down the tunnel.

“Shit, sounds like some ghouls got into the tunnels.” Noble answered

“Ghouls?”

He nodded. “As long as there aren’t too many of them, they shouldn’t be much of problem. Just keep your gun ready.” He reached back and pulled out a pistol. It was a larger caliber than the one I carried and looked like a box with a handle.

I readied my shotgun, making sure that it was loaded. It may only have two shots but in close quarters it would do just fine. Rose and Deadbolt followed suit and equipped their revolver and combat knife respectively. We started down the tunnel again.

This section of the tunnel was in worse condition than the rest of it. Most of the lights were out, making the tunnel nearly black. I had to use my Pip-Buck’s light to see at all. A large section of the wall that divided the adjacent tunnel had been destroyed.

We were silent as we walked. Noble lead us, his eyes were scanning the darkness for any signs of movement. He had to have great vision to be able to see anything in this darkness, without my Pip’s light I wouldn’t be able to see my hoof in front of my face.

The stench of rotting flesh slowly became more noticeable the farther we went. A piece of the train tracks stuck up from the ground. I didn’t see it and tripped. What I landed on was… Squishy and smelled horribly. It was also breathing. I jumped off of it as fast as I could. *RRraaahhh!* A ghastly scream came from the creature.

It spun around to face me. It looked like a pony,except it was hairless and had decaying yellow skin. Its teeth were black and pieces of flesh hung between them. Its eyes were yellow and looked like they could come out of the socket if it wasn’t careful. My mind went back to the corpse of Ratchet.

The zombie pony lunged for me, swiping its hooves and biting at me. It knocked me over and wrestled on top on me. Its snapping jaw was inches from my face. The ghoul’s hooves swung wildly, making it hard to keep him off me.

Noble put his gun to the beast’s head and pulled the trigger. *BANG!*

I pushed the corpse off of me and scuffled to my hooves. “What the hell is that thing?”

“That is a ghoul.” Noble said giving it a light kick.

“It looks like a pony.” Rose said as she covered her nose. The smell of of decay coming off of it was overpowering.

“Thats because it is, er...was.” Noble said as he took a step away from the body. “Ghouls are ponies who were exposed to large amounts of radiation and didn’t have the good fortune to die. They don’t all go flesh hungry, but most do. We call those ones ferals.”

Deadbolt was looking ahead into the darkness of the tunnel. “Do you think there’s more of them?”

Noble shrugged. “I don’t know, probably. Ferals usually travel in packs. If there are more they probably heard that. We need to be careful.” He gave me a slight glance as he said the last sentence.

“Can we please just get going. This thing smells awful.” Rose looked like she was going to vomit just from the stench. Wouldn’t have blamed her if she did.

“Lets see how good you smell when all your skin is rotting off.” Noble said has he started back down the tunnel. It was hard for me to take my eyes off the ghoul until we were pretty far past it and the darkness swallowed it again.

The tunnels were not small. I feel like even somepony who was claustrophobic wouldn’t really mind it too much. It was the darkness that made them so oppressive. We couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of us at any time. That was with the Pip-Buck lights on.

“Any idea how much farther Junction 26 is?” I asked as I scanned around, hoping not to run into any more ghouls.

Noble gestured down the tunnel. “It’s not much further. We should be coming up to the exit of the tunnel pretty soon. Junction 26 is about a block away from where we should come up.”

Soon enough we could see light at the end of the tunnel. It opened up into another station area. It had the same bridge above the tracks, but was missing the wrecked train.

Noble’s ears perked up, then he dropped low to the ground. I was going to ask what he was doing but he quickly waved for us to get down and be quiet. It took a second for me to hear what he had. It sounded like very loud chewing and I was pretty sure what was making it.

We slowly made our way to the stairs leading up to the bridge. I peered over the rail to see at least four ghouls huddled over something. A corpse of some unlucky stallion was being torn apart.

“I guess we know why they didn’t all come running for us earlier. They must have seen that poor guy first.” Noble whispered.

I watched in horror as the ghouls slowly devoured the pony. They tore the corpse apart, each one taking large chunks of meat out of it with each bite. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a pony being eaten, but I don’t think I was going to get used to seeing it. I gave a silent thanks to Celestia that it wasn’t any of us down there instead, then focused on not making any noise. I really didn’t want a repeat of the cave.

Once we reached the top of the bridge we started moving a bit quicker. The ghouls didn’t seem to take notice. I watched my EFS as they went out of range. We came to a metal gate that lead to the surface.

“Deadbolt, help me get this open.” Noble said. “You two watch and make sure nothing comes this way.” The two grabbed onto the side of the gate and pulled. It made a loud clang as it jerked and moved slightly. “Shit, they probably heard that.”

They gave it another hard tug and the gate gave another inch. I faintly heard another one of the ghouls gargled cries. “Um, you may want to hurry with that.” I said readying my shotgun.

“We’re trying.” Deadbolt grunted.

The ghouls knew we were here now. I could hear them rushing toward us. One cleared the corner in a sprint.

*Bang* It fell back as my shotgun tore through it. “Seriously, we need to get out of here.”

Another rounded the corner. *Bang, Bang* Rose hit it in the leg, tripping it. It crawled at us as more sprang out behind it.

The gate finally gave and opened with a screech. “Come on!” Noble yelled to Rose and I. We turned and ran for it. Deadbolt and Noble waited on the other side ready to close it as we got out.

One of them grabbed me as I got to the gate. It bit into my hind leg and pulled me down. “Fuck!”

*Bang* Noble put a bullet into its head. Deadbolt dragged me out of the gate and the two, along with Rose slammed it shut. The ghouls hit the gate, reaching through with their hooves to swipe at us.

“That was a little close. Will that hold them?” Rose asked as she caught her breath.

“Yeah, I doubt they can open it. You okay?” Noble asked as he helped me up. I just nodded as I stared at the ghouls who desperately wanted to eat us. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

We emerged from the subway. The rain had settled since we went underground. It was still dark but a large glowing sign for Junction 26 eased any worries I had at the time. A wall of metal sheets and wood separated off a city block. Two guards sat at a gateless entrance to town. One was a unicorn that held a strange rifle with a green spiral at the end of barrel and electronics covering the stock. The other was an earth pony with a battle-saddle equipped with a pair of shotguns. We were stopped as we approached.

“Hold up.” The earth pony said and took a few steps toward us. “Is this your first time at Junction 26?”

I gave him a slow nod. “Yeah, first time here.”

“Okay, theres a few rules you need to know. First off, keep your weapons holstered. If we catch you with your weapon drawn we won’t hesitate to fire. Secondly, don’t cause any trouble. If you start making disturbances you will be forcefully ejected from the town. That clear?”

“Don’t worry fellas, we don’t plan on causing any trouble. We’re just looking for a place to rest for a bit.” Noble said stepping up with a friendly smile.

The guard’s expression didn’t lighten. Instead he stepped to the side. “Alright then. Enjoy your stay.” He waved us in and went back to his position at the entrance.

Noble stopped him. “Heads up, there are ghouls in the tunnels. Also a large section of the lights are out. It’s impossible to see down there.”

The guard nodded. “Thanks for the warning. We’ll have to send someone to fix that and clear them out. Enjoy your stay.”

Looking up I immediately saw the glowing sign again. It sat on top of a two story building with large windows. Outside of the building was a small lot. A sign at the edge of the lot showed one of those metal wagons we had seen coming into town. Something was written above the picture but someone had sprayed it out and written “clinic inside” on it.

Tents and stands for various merchants sat scattered around the lot. Ponies sat around fires, most looked like they were having a good time either playing cards, drinking or telling stories.

The wall surrounded more than just the lot and the one small building. A few nearby buildings were also within it. One of them was a reddish-brown building that stood out from the rest of the grey boxes around it. A small sign someone had posted outside of it said “Hotel.” On the far side of the fence was a large bridge that went over a river that crossed through the middle of the city.

“You're gonna need something for that bite, ghoul bites can be deadly if you don’t treat ‘em. Go to the clinic, get that taken care of. I’ll get us a couple of rooms. Meet me in that building when you're done.” Noble pointing at the hotel. Deadbolt left with him. Rose decided to join me at the clinic.

Inside the small building was mostly comprised of two large rooms. One on both floors. With a few small offices in the back. The main rooms were sectioned off by curtains. A few doctors were busy helping some injured ponies.

We were greeted by a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane. He wore a lab coat and levitated a clipboard to his side. “Hello.” He said in a friendly voice. “You need help with something?”

I turned my leg to show him the bite mark. “I was bitten by a ghoul on my way here. I was hoping you could help me with that.”

He leaned down and gave it a look. “Yep, not a problem. Just follow me and we’ll get ya’ fixed up.” He turned and trotted over to one of the sectioned off curtains. As he walked there was a metal *ting*. I looked down, under his lab coat I could see his legs. One of them was made of metal. We followed him and I hopped onto the side of the bed.

He slid his lab coat off and tossed it over a chair. His leg was missing from just under his cutie mark, which was a book with a feather mark sticking out of it. It had been replaced with a robotic one. I did my best not to stare at it.

He pulled out a needle and a few bandages from the desk nearby. “This will just take a minute. By the way, I’m Hermes.”

“Rivet, this is Rose.” I answered.

“If you don’t mind me asking.” Rose started

“About the leg?” Hermes smiled.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“It’s alright. Lost it about six years ago. I was scavenging for some supplies and stepped on a mine. Thankfully I had some friends nearby. A potion stopped the bleeding but made it impossible to reattach the old leg. Was in Manehatten when it happened. Eventually, I met the Remedium Company, they gave me a new leg. I was so grateful to them. It’s actually the reason I became a doctor.”

He filled the needle with an antibiotic and injected it just above the bite. He then put some disinfectant onto a cloth and cleaned the wound.

“How’s it been since then?” I asked trying not to wince as he dabbed at the bitemark.

He wrapped some bandages and around my leg and stood back up. “It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made. Now, that should take care of it but if it gets worse come back and see me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he does.” Rose said as she looked at me.

I slowly got off the bed. “How much will that be?”

Hermes shook his head. “No charge here. Remedium Company doctors work for free.”

“How do you make any money then?” Rose asked.

“The Remedium Company just wants to help those who need it. We mostly are sustained by donations. You’d be surprised how many ponies are willing to help keep doctors around. So I do need to ask you donate something, but you don’t have to.” He explained

I shook my head. “No, I want to help out. You helped me, It’s only fair.” I slid my saddle bag off. and took out twenty caps. “Here you go. It’s not a lot but it’s about all we have.”

“Thank you. We also take medical supplies and are willing to trade for them.” Hermes said as he levitated the caps into a box across the room.

“We’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Hermes.” Rose said as she shook his hoof.

“You two going to be in town for long?” He asked as he filled out something on his clipboard.

“We don’t know yet.” I answered

He set the clipboard down and shook my hoof one last time. “Well if you are, don’t be afraid to drop by.”

I looked back at the other sectioned off curtains. I could see doctors standing around in some of them. “Are all of the doctors here with the Remedium Company?”

Hermes nodded. “Yep, this is the Trottingham Company. We’ve got divisions all over Equestia: Manehatten, Whinneypeg, Trottingham, and New Pegasus, we also have smaller groups that travel from town to town.”

“That sounds like it can really do some good.” Rose said with a smile.

“We do our best to help anypony that needs it. I need to get back to work. I hope I see you around. Not in here, hopefully.” He quickly added the last sentence

We said goodbye to Hermes and left the clinic to meet back up with Deadbolt and Noble . Rose was right, The Remedium Company sounded like it could do a lot of god for the wasteland. I sure was glad to have them near. I did feel like we should do something to help them out more than a small amount of caps, but we didn’t have much to give.

The inside of the hotel was vastly different than any other building I had seen. It had a soft beige carpet and the red paint on the walls was still completely intact. The lobby had a rows of chairs going along the walls and had a counter on the far side from the entrance. A green earth pony with a mohawk sat with her legs up on the front desk reading some old magazine. When she heard the the door she set it aside to great us. “Hello, you two looking for a room?”

“Actually our friends should already be here.” Rose answered

“Ah, okay, one second.” She said and spun her chair around to look at the wall of keys behind her. “Here we go. third floor, room 305 and 306. The buck in the cowboy hat wanted me to tell you to meet him in 305.” She gave the keys over to Rose and went back to having her hind legs up on the desk.

Rose took the keys and gave her a nod. “Thanks.”

We made our way up to the third floor. Each room had a red door and a small golden plate that numbered them. It didn’t take us long to find 305. As we walked in both Deadbolt and Noble turned their heads to meet us. Deadbolt way sitting on the edge of the bed and Noble was on a chair across the room. The room was actually quite spacious and was equipped with two beds, a large comfy looking chair and a bathroom, though I doubted that the shower in it actually worked. There was also a large window that looked out onto the clinic and the lot below.

“What are you two talking about?” Rose greeted them.

“Deadbolt here was just telling me about your time in the wasteland.” Noble said leaning back in his chair. “Come on in, we got a few things to talk about.” Noble let Rose take his seat and moved to the window. I took a seat on the second bed.

Deadbolt was the first to speak again. “Apparently the pegasi are in the city.”

“Well they did have those armored suits here.” Said Rose.

Noble stared down at the lot from the window. “It’s a little more that just those two suits. I didn’t think of it before but theres a pegasus that occasionally comes to the Junction, I’m willing to bet that he's working with your pegasi. Though today was the first time I’ve seen their power armor.”

Another pegasus? How many of them are there? “So you're saying it’s just a matter of time before they come here looking for us.”

Noble turned back to us shaking his head. “They might, but I doubt they’d come here looking for a fight. Everyone here has some kind of weapon and the guards will take out anyone who starts firing.”

Deadbolt gave out an aggravated sigh. “Noble was telling me about a slave camp the pegasus owns somewhere north of the bridge. If he is part of The Organization that means we’re closer to them than ever. That is going to make getting around harder.”

“A slave camp? He sells slaves?” Rose said, horrified at the thought. “How can ponies let that happen? They actually do business with someone that sells slaves?”

Noble held up a hoof. “Whoa, slow down Rose. Yes, he does sell slaves. He’s tolerated around here because he has caps and valuable supplies that he's willing to trade. This town was founded by merchants and traders. As long as he doesn’t bring any slaves around here they’re gonna turn a blind eye to it.”

“That’s horrible.” She said as she slumped back into her chair.

Noble simply nodded. “Maybe, but business is business to these ponies. Now, tomorrow we’re getting you guys something to defend yourselves with. You seemed capable enough in a fight, but you need something to fight those power suits.” Noble crossed the room, stopping at the door. “For now, we should all get some sleep.”

“Not to sound rude.” I started. “But, um, why are you still helping us? All we’ve done is get you shot at and attacked by ghouls.”

“Well, by helping you I managed to piss off the ponies chasing you. Which may also mean that I pissed off the local pegasus too. As far as I see it, I’m stuck with you guys. At least for a little while. But, there could be worse company. You three seem like decent ponies. Rivet, you and I are sharing the room next door. Rose and Deadbolt have this one. I’ll see you two in the morning.”

I felt bad. I didn’t really mean for somepony else too caught up in our trouble. Though he was the one who stuck us up, then offered to help us. I left the room with him. I was tired and we could talk more in the morning; though there was one question I did want answered.

“What was your plan earlier? If one of us had decided to just shoot you. Your rifle wasn’t even loaded.”

Noble stretched his mane. “Hehehe, yeah, I was kinda taking a bit of risk back there. I figured if you saw that I couldn’t have actually shot you, maybe you would be more likely to trust me after the fact. I am sorry about how that went though. Like I said, I really didn’t want to shoot any of ya.”

“Especially because you couldn’t.” I said frankly. “Thanks for helping us out of that mess. We might not have made it this far without you.”

Noble tossed his hat on the chair and swung his rifle off, setting it next to the chair. “Some ponies are more worth helping than others. You three are still pretty green when it comes to the wasteland. That hasn’t stopped you yet though.” He untied his mane, letting it drop from the tail he wore it in and took off his coat revealing his cutie mark. It was the crosshair of a rifle scope, but frankly, it looked more like a target on his flank.

“That’s an unfortunate cutie mark to have out here.” I joked

“One of the two reasons I wear the coat. It’s amazing how often ponies aim for your ass when it looks like there’s a target painted on it.”

I chuckled at that. “Two reasons? What's the other one?”

He tossed the coat onto the back of the chair. “It makes me look damn good.” He said as he dropped onto his bed.

I rolled my eyes and laid my bags on the ground. My armor was still wet, which made it hard to get off. I quickly curled up in my bed. Today was a long day, sleep sounded amazing right about now. Too bad that sleep and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it, but it hates me. Even on one of the most comfortable beds I had ever laid on, I still couldn’t sleep.

I laid in bed for a few hours, but I wasn’t going to get any sleep. My mind was too busy thinking about everything that had happened in the last two weeks. Eventually I decided to take a walk to clear my head. I was careful not to wake Noble as I left.

The hotel was quiet. All the other residents had gone to bed a while ago. I walked down to the lobby, even the green mare working the front desk was gone. Most of the lights had been turned off, leaving the room half lit. I was going to walk around Junction 26 for a bit but the door was locked for the night. Instead I sat in the lobby. It was peaceful down here. Almost no sound other than the ticking of the clock on the wall.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” Somepony asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts to find my favorite ruby-colored mare. “What are you doing up? I thought I was the only one with insomnia.”

She sat in the chair next to mine. “I couldn’t stop thinking about earlier today. About the fight with the raiders.”

It took me a moment to figure out exactly what she meant. “Rose, that wasn’t your fault.”

“Rivet, I froze. When that raider grabbed me...” She paused. I could see her hooves shaking. “I could only think about what happened in the stable. I thought it was going to happen again.”

I pulled her in and hugged her. Rose’s entire body shook. “Rose, I would never let that happen again.”

It took her awhile to calm down. I sat there hugging her close trying to make her feel a little more safe. I didn’t like to see Rose like this. She was normally strong willed, back in the stable I don’t think I had ever seen her so shaken, she didn’t seem like she could be shaken. It reminded me of her silence after the stable attack. I don’t think I could’ve stood to see her go through that again.

I waited for a few minutes after she stopped shaking to let her go. “Come on, we should really get some sleep.”

I tried to stand but she stopped me. “Can we just sit here for a little while? I don’t think I’m going to be able to get to sleep anytime soon.”

I gave her a warm smile and sat back down. She leaned her head on my shoulder as we sat in a comfortable silence other than the ticking of the clock. I glanced up at it. It was past three in the morning.

I turned back to see Rose had fallen asleep on my shoulder. Daisy had said she looked cute when she was asleep. I couldn’t agree more. It was comfortably quiet in the hotel lobby that night. I didn’t want to wake Rose. I ended up staying there for a while longer. Eventually I ended up falling asleep right there as well.

Author's Note

Huge thanks to the user Snowfall1775 for a ton of help proof reading and editing this chapter.