Fallout Equestria: The Ranger of Seamane

Chapter 13 – Winter Storms

“Trust is something you earn by your actions, not through caps.”

“Yep, that is a blizzard and I need to move my tail now.” I said out loud before galloping towards the station.

Unfortunately the blizzard was faster than my hooves could carry me over the icy path. By the time I arrived I was caked from horn to hoof with snow and it felt like there was a few new inches of snow on the ground. I approached the doors that lead into the building to be greeted with a spotlight. Which in these conditions I could understand as I could barely see the door in front of me.

“What is your business here?” I heard someone say over an intercom.

“Getting out of the weather, trading some of my scavenged goods, and looking for my friend Ruby!” I shouted over the howl of the wind. I hadn't seen her carriage, which made me worried she wasn't here. But it might be parked somewhere else.

“Five hundred caps and all your ammo right here miss.” I heard something slide out as I began to fumble around and found a slot. I grumbled and tossed in the caps first then went to dumping the ammo into it. “Damn lady this is a ton of ammo, how do you carry all of it?!”

“I don't know! Name's Moonlight, and would you mind letting me in before I get frostbite!” I yelled back.

The response I got was the door opening which I rushed through. As I entered I had to tear off my clothing for both keeping myself from getting hypothermia as well as from throwing up on it. The sudden temperature change did not sit well with my body and I felt sick and dizzy. I thankfully found a trash bin and let go of trying to keep my stomach in check. When I was done I found the nearest bathroom and cleaned out the bin and washed out my mouth.

As I returned to the station I was awed at its beauty. I felt my face flush that the first thing I would remember about it was throwing up. I put my saddlebags back on as well as everything that had been under my coat except my armor. Both parts of my barding were soaked and would take time to dry. I sighed and realized that wouldn't be of use to me here and lay my barding across my back. I shook my wet mane trying to dry it off a bit more to no avail.

I moved further into Tenpony tower marveling at how well preserved it was. I followed the signs until I found where the traders were. I smiled as I heard the sound of many ponies talking, trading, exchanging caps. It felt good to be in the company of ponies who didn't want me dead or worse.

‘Ponies are not solitary creatures.’ I thought to myself. ‘We have been away for far too long.’ I looked around and found the pony who sold jewelry, my luck was with me as it didn't take long to find a local shop who specialized in it. ‘Time to do Dad proud and make a mint!’

The ponies here in Tenpony were hard to barter with, however, they also bought comparatively high and sold for far higher. I sold all of my jewelry except two gold rings. One was set with a diamond with sapphires, the other was set with emeralds and sapphires. I planned on giving one of them to Rose when I saw her next. Let her choose which one she wanted. For my trouble I now had a fortune of caps. Which anywhere else meant I could buy whatever I wanted. Here, well, here everything was much more expensive than it should be. So I stuck with buying the few small things I needed for making repairs. I made a few inquires around as to where to buy food and medical supplies. I was saving my money for those. That and after I remembered Homage's mention of a spa. That sounded absolutely lovely to me at the moment.

“Buck it, I am going to that spa and I am getting clean and relaxed.” I said aloud, getting a few stares for my language.

I started up a flight of stairs when my body decided to remind me of the fact that I was very messed up and getting pampered would not heal broken bones. I turned around and hunted down the towers clinic. It was run by a stallion named Helping Hoof.

“How are you even still walking?!” He cried after I had gotten out of my barding and removed the medical brace. “How did you manage to even bring in all that stuff with a leg in this shape!”

You know what, I couldn't do much better than this for a first impression. Awe at talent was a good start.

“I don't know, but, I also have gotten exposed to a very unhealthy dose of radiation, enervation, and goddesses knows what else in the past five days since getting to Manehattan.” I said wincing as he directed me to take a deep breath. “And being sick from nearly drowning.”

“Well, I am glad you knew to come get some proper medical care, you look like you have probably had every inch of coat cut open at some point and almost every bone broken. And what in Celestia’s good graces is this stuck in your coat?” He asked as he scraped off some of the remainder of Stable Twenty Three’s residents.

“Liquified pony remains, careful it might still be alive and try to kill you.” I said then had a shiver go down my spine remembering it lifting the stable door as I escaped.

He just looked at me trying to see if I was joking.

“Check my lungs when you open me up, there might still be more of it in there.” I said as he gave me a shot to knock me out while he did the hard work of fixing my broken and scarred body.

I woke up a few hours later, there was a fair bit of blood in the room I was in. For some reason I felt cold in my stomach and couldn't feel anything. I then felt something move in there and stopped moving. Oh I did not enjoy the feeling of this, or the fact that I was awake while cut open. I guessed my open eyes caught the attention of whoever had been working on me and they gave me another shot that mercifully put me under again.

When I awoke again I felt the familiar feeling of a clinic bed. Everything here smelled disinfected. Something I didn't mind after everything. I looked down at my stomach having to turn on my pipbucks lamp to see my stomach. There were a number of stitches and the edge of where I had been opened up, my coat was back to its normal color. I guess whatever they had cleaned the site of the incision with was enough to clean my coat. I laid back down as exhaustion hit me. I just wanted to sleep forever it felt like. I indulged in my bodies desire for sleep. Here I was safe, here I was getting help. Here there were ponies who didn't know me or care who I was. I was anonymous and safe. I smiled, safe, funny how long tell that stops being true?

‘Bah worry later, sleep now, Moonlight too tired to care now. So politely kiss my flank and let me rest worrying thoughts of mine.’ I thought to myself and closed my eyes.

*                *                *

I awoke in the morning feeling stiff, but, rested. I turned on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. I had turned it off as it was keeping me awake last night. Checking the time I found that it was actually afternoon and just that dark outside. I had slept for an entire day too. I looked around and saw a IV tube that had been keeping me feed as well as had a mix of a healing potion in it. Food plus that good feeling of magically being healed? Why hadn't someone made healing potion pudding yet? Right apocalypse kind of ruins innovation in culinary arts. Then again it kind of ruined all innovation as things had to be rediscovered or figure out how the hay to manufacture your custom or exceedingly rare parts.

“Ah you are finally awake. How did you sleep?” Doctor Helping Hoof asked as he approached me.

“I...” I thought about how I was feeling. “Like I need a bath very badly, maybe get pampered.”

“Ah, a full recovery is in the works then. Tell me are you going to go running off into the wasteland when I let you leave?” He asked me.

“Nope, food, water, visit a friend, see if some other friends are in town, and hit the spa. In roughly that order.” I said and stretched my right fore leg.

“Could I convince you to rest here tonight, and don't go to the spa until tomorrow. Take the elevators when you can as well. Key thing for today at least is to not strain yourself.” He said, he then raised an eyebrow, “and I don't think you want your guts to spill out all over the place from stretching your stomach either.”

I stopped right before I was about to do that. Yeah no, internal organs stay internal. That is a rule. Today I had a lot of rules being put down on me by somepony else, I didn't mind because I understood them all. If I was half the medical pony I had been teaching myself to be it would be rude to not follow his directions.

“As a fellow practitioner of medicine I agree with that, internal organs are just that internal.” I said with a smile on my face, it got me a chuckle.

“Very true Miss Moonlight, and I am happy to say you have no addictions that I can see. Also thanks to that chip you had with you I was able to do a lot more than I had thought I would be able to.” I raised an eyebrow at this, chip? Oh right the dog tag.

“Did you update the information on there? Patches would appreciate it if you have when I see him next time.” I asked, remembering the doctor from Saint Clover for the first time in ages.

“Oh yes, benefit of operating out of a old ministry hub we have all the gadgets.” He said, with a smile again.

“Alright how much do I owe you?” Time to see how big of a bill I have gotten.

“We’ll, lets go over that tomorrow, though from the size of your bag of caps I don't think it will be a issue, or be a dent in it.” He said with a grin, “I could make a mint off of you, but, I think getting charged with banditry would not be so good for the health of Tenpony.”

“Alright, what about my stuff?” I asked him.

“Take it with you, just because I won't take it doesn't mean others won't.” He said and then went to his office.

I rolled my eyes, new priority find friends and dump my stuff with theirs. I headed out and went to the various hotels for non citizens of Tenpony tower to stay at. None of them held Ruby or Rose. They weren't here... which meant one of two things. One they had never gotten here, which I hoped, or they had already left. Which would mean playing catch up, and I was losing time to them.

‘Shut up brain, we won't do any good worrying about that, lets find Homage instead she lives here after all.’ I commanded to myself.

 With that I began to look around the public areas of Tenpony. Then it struck me, she would be at the highest point of the building because of the MAS Emergency Broadcast System, I face hoofed then found a elevator and went to the top floor.

The top floor was amazing, it held a few doors and then a fountain that was host to a alicorn statue who had a gem on it spewing forth water. They had a Goddesses damned water talisman and were using it like this!

“Snobbish ponies...” I cursed under my breath. “Okay pipbuck where is her door, I got this far you tell me the rest of the way.” A marker just light up on a door and I went to it. “Thank you.”

I knocked a few times waited five minutes then turned on the DJ to see if he was doing the news. He was, it was about me and Steelhooves taking on the alicorns, as well as my silly run through half the town singing. He praised me for it, apparently he found the taunting of magical monstrosities funny. To be fair, it was really fun. When he was done I waited a few more minutes then knocked again. I heard noise of somepony moving to the door and took a few steps back.

“Who is it?” she stopped as her eyes fell on and realization plus recognizance hit her. “Moonlight?!”

“Hello, Homage.” I simply said with a smile.

“I can't believe it, you’re here!” She gave me a hug and I felt my neck and shoulders strain a bit. “I am glad you made it here alive, that storm was getting really bad, I can't see anything with the cameras since it rolled in.”

“So... can I come in?” I asked Homage.

“Oh! Yes you can, sorry, just was taking a break since the DJ doesn't need me until the storm clears.” She bayed me to enter with a hoof as she withdrew into her home.

I followed her closing her door behind me, locking it as I remembered hearing her unlocking it to answer the door a few minutes ago.

“No worries, though I have to ask a favor of you, can I dump my stuff on you while I stay another night at Helping Hoof's?” I asked as I walked up to the table in the apartment.

“No it is quite alright Moonlight, it is nice to be able to help somepony who helps others so freely.” She gave me a tired smile as she pulled out a few light snacks.

I ate greedily as I sat down at her table. She ignored it and instead started making tea. By the time I had finished eating a cup of steaming tea sat in front of me. I drank it and enjoyed the warm beverage wishing I had this after my little swim a few days ago.

“So, since you are here now mind telling me about your trip? It has been a bit hard to keep track of you. Still you gave me a shock when you turned on that last tower in that raider camp. I turned it on to see you give me a salute and jump off.” She said with a smile on her face as she took a sip of the tea.

With another blush I realized two things, one I had drank my entire cup of tea in one gulp, and two I had right after fixing a tower for her apparently threw myself off a tower to kill myself.

“Well, you remember how I have a thing for falling with style. And I figure you know what happened after I jumped.” I chuckled, realizing how absurd it was that I could fly with just my magic.

She nodded, “but, that isn't what I was asking about, what happened in that town that you flew over. Not the raider camp at the foot of the tower, the one with the dead hydra in it.”

“Ah, Oakmare. Yeah Me and Rose rolled into town the day before with the caravan we were with. We had been planning a two day stay, but, well first day ended with the raiders attacking and Red Eye's gryphons swooping in to 'save the day'.” I said wondering how much to fill her in on about Red Eye's ploy.

“Red Eye? That far South? He is really expanding his sphere of influence as fast as he can.” Homage said, a obvious disdain for him in her voice.

“Yeah, and he has plans of Seamane, since he doesn't have Steel Ranger to deal with out there as well as a Raider Lord in his pocket things are going to get bad soon.” I said with a sigh, hopefully winter was slowing everypony down and I would have the ability to make up for some lost time.

“Not that soon, looks like thanks to Oakmare not falling to the Raiders there is a bit of hitch in Red Eye's plans. Seen some firefights between the two.” Homage said before taking a sip of her own drink.

“That is good news, though I doubt it will last. He has a gryphon, Helgrim, who is working closely with Slate, the Raider Lord out there. It might just be a way for Slate and Redeye to get rid of some folks they don't want around. I saw Red Eye's operation in Fillydelphia, Bryn told me a little about him, and I overheard a few things too. Red Eye is anything, but, straightforward, or lacking in resolve. Helgrim is also all for deception.” I sighed again, more problems to worry about.

They could be playing for time to make the threat of either seem less making others underestimate them. Or maybe it was a ploy to make Red Eye's side look like they were trying to help.

I ruffled my mane in frustration. “This is giving me a headache, I am just running in circles in my head over it.”

“Then don't think about it until you get to Colt. Maybe just don't worry about it until you get the rest of the towers up. Do that and maybe somepony could keep an eye on them for when Red Eye and Slate make their move.” Homage said and I felt a hoof on my shoulder.

I smiled, “thanks Homage, that's , that is a good idea.” I leaned back in the chair. “I guess next thing I really should be worried about is finding Rose. Hopefully she put two and two together and knows I am your Ranger and is staying put knowing I will come to her soon.”

“Rose? You mentioned her a few times now, who is she?” Homage asked, pulling away a bit.

“Uh... she is my marefriend? I think at least...” I started thinking about Rose again. I knew I liked her for being pretty and found her more attractive for the fact that she seemed able to handle herself quite well. She called me her marefriend, but, I had felt the same romantic love that I had experienced before in a memory orb. So it must be true for me at least.

I turned to Homage who seemed to be waiting for me to say more, “I don't know, she is the first person I felt love for and she liked me too so we just sort of got together.”

She smiled, “guess Lonely Ranger isn't right then. You aren't that lonely, in fact from what I have seen you are very much not Lonely. You seem to be making a number of odd friends around the wasteland.”

“For every friend I make I make an entire faction want my hide.” I said flatly. It was just about to that point now wasn't it?

“Well, you are fighting for other ponies, fighting the fight that must be fought. You know fighting the good fight. You are bound to make somepony want you dead, it is the wasteland. No good deed goes unpunished.” She said with a odd grin, she knew I had a marefriend why was I getting a vibe that she didn't care.

“I guess, and it won't really stop me. First though I need to keep Seamane safe since that seems to be where Red Eye's gaze has fallen for now. Then I can worry about the rest of the world.” Yeah take on the whole world on my own, well not so much my own. I had at least one pony who I thought would go to Tartarus and back with me.

“So you want to save the world?” She said with an amused smile on her face.

“Aim for the moon, if you miss you are among the stars.” I said off hoof without thinking about it, then smiled.

“Well I will be rooting for you the whole time. Just don't forget about us ponies stuck on the ground while you walk on the moon.” We both broke out laughing, this is what I needed wasn't it. I needed a friend who I could talk to unconditionally.

“Homage, another favor to ask, can you find Rose? I want to know where she is so I can start heading for her.” I knew she had those cameras wherever a tower was, so it shouldn't be too hard.

“She is in Colt with Ruby and her group. They helped move a bunch of stuff up from Oakmare after the battle. Then winter hit.” She said.

Well, simple enough, just need to get to Colt. Which was over a mountain range, to the south, past Fillydelphia, Canterlot, Old Appleloosa, and the badlands…

“Well once Helping Hoof says I am free to go I know where I am going, headed down to New Appleloosa then south to Colt. Even if the train isn't running I can follow the tracks.” I saw a marker appear to the south on my E.F.S.

“You really willing to cross the mountains during winter for her?” Homage asked, “well I don't think you have anything to worry about then. You two are a good match, don't worry about why she loves you, just accept it. It is nice to be loved.”

I felt a note of sorrow hang in the air, I moved off my chair and hugged Homage. “It is also nice to have friends you can rely on.” I whispered into her ear.

She pushed me back a smile on her face again, “thank you Moonlight. Honestly I didn't expect you to be a smooth talker as well. Then again the times we have talked things have been a little more serious.”

“Yeah, and you don't mind if I stop in the towers from time to time to chat right? I will keep an ear open before pressing the transmit to studio button.”

“Just don't hit transmit all and mention DJ Pon3 is a mare, I don't want to have to explain that.”

I blinked, uh excuse me what?

“Excuse me, what?”

She began laughing as I sat there confused.

“Oh sorry, I forgot to mention that to you. I am DJ Pon3, the title is just passed down over time.” I looked at her and tilted my head, how did she pull off that deep of a voice? Magic, obviously she was a unicorn. If it was passed down then some equipment in the broadcasting room I guessed. “Enchanted Microphone.” Is all she said to explain it.

“Of course, still though surprising. Well then DJ, have you been recording this for my interview?” I asked, she laughed.

“No, so you are going to have to go record that with me in a bit. And we still have time to do so before it is a reasonable hour for you to return to Helping Hoof. Now then, I need to figure out a new title for you, my not so lonely ranger.” I started running ideas through my own head as Homage said her own.

A few hours and a few more cups of tea later as well as some muffins we had figured out a name.

“The Ranger of Seamane.” Homage said with a smile on her face.

“I like it, though that might just be my ego enjoying being stroked.” I said with a smile.

“Nothing wrong with getting stroked.” Homage said, I blushed hard as she did. She smiled back.

“No fair! I have a marefriend, stop teasing me! That is it I am calling you on owing me a trip to the spa tomorrow after I get my stitches out!” I said then stuck my tongue out.

This only accomplished Homage laughing more. This was insufferable and we had yet to do the interview.

“Fine, come on lets do your interview.” She said and then began to guide me to her studio, then I noticed what she was doing with her walking.

“Not bucking fair Homage!” I shouted and began to chase her the rest of the way as she giggled madly.

After I caught her, seriously she was agile for a pony who spent all her time cooped up in a tower, we did my interview. It went a bit more formally than earlier.

“And I do believe you have one last thing to say our intrepid Range of Seamane before we go.” Homage said with DJ Pon3's voice.

“Yes I do, White Rose, I am on my way to Colt. Sit tight, stay safe, I will be back in time for Hearths Warming Eve I promise this to you.” I said, I really couldn't wait to be in Rose's warm embrace again.

“And that was Moonlight, the Ranger of Seamane. So to all you folks listening between here and Colt keep an eye out for her, she is going to need a warm place to bunker down for the nights.”

Homage then set some music to playing and I let out a sigh. The interview had taken an hour and was a lot of talking. We retreated to Homage's home and had dinner. Once it was done she headed back up to the broadcast center leaving me alone. I cleaned up the dishes. It was the least I could do for her after all. I don't think she knew how much I now appreciated her for giving me something to listen to and for a voice in the wasteland during my admittedly lonely trip to the Equestrian Heartland. She also had promised if she ever found a song maker to have them make one about me no matter how things ended for me.

When she returned I thanked her again for letting me hang out with her for today and letting me dump my stuff on her. She shrugged it off and told me it was nice to get to meet one of the ponies out there fighting the good fight. She also thanked me for doing the dishes.

“Now if only I could get my toaster working. You don't happen to know any certified toaster repair ponies do you?” She said with a smile.

“Sadly that isn’t a skill I have. Honestly I never touched a toaster in my life. No bread to toast, no need for toasters.” I said with a shrug.

“Well darn, maybe some day...” Homage sighed.

With that I gave her a final hug and headed back to Helping Hoof's clinic. When I got there I found Helping Hoof and he gave me a physical.

“Well you didn't strain yourself too much today, I am glad to see you mostly listened to my advice.” He said as he grabbed me a blanket.

“Sorry, would have remembered if it hadn't been for Homage antagonizing me. But, if nothing is worse off for it I am glad to hear it.” I said as I pulled the scratchy, but, warm blanket over myself.

“Just take it easy tomorrow as well. We will see how you are after that as to when you can start your journey.”

“So you heard my interview then?” He nodded, “yeah, she means a lot to me, and every day I am away from Seamane I worry about it all falling apart.”

“Just focus on resting up, sooner you are all healed up the sooner you can get home.” He said, I gave him a nod as I lay my head against the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

*                *                *

‘Okay, brain, dreams are not meant for terrifying the ever living hay out of me.’ I chided at whatever part of me had decided to give me nightmares.

 I kept dreaming of arriving at Colt to find the place burned to the ground and Rose's skin pulled into the shape of her cutie mark. Or of getting to Saint Clover to find it washed with blood and decorated with impaled corpses. That or dreaming of freezing to death on the pass to Old Appleloosa.

‘Brain I get I am scared of what happens if I don't get there in time, or if the time it takes is too long. I know I am scared of failing my friends and family. Stop rubbing it in my face! Or at least don't do it when I am trying to rest, make me think about it while on the trail. When it matters. Not when I am laying in a clinic trying not to move too much when I wake up that the stitches come out and my guts go everywhere!’ I mentally shouted, berating the rogue part of my mind.

That seemed to calm my mind as I tried to go back to sleep. Then that deep itch began again. You torment me so body. What did I ever do to you to deserve this? I then swiftly remembered every stupid decision I had. Culminating in the venture into stable twenty three. Something about that place still stuck with me, beyond the stains in my coat that was the remains of its residents. The place had every right to stick in my mind, the place was something out of a nightmare. Hay, even now it felt like a dream thinking back to it. The place had been too surreal, too strange, even with the fact that there is a alicorn goddess hunting my hide. I flicked on my E.F.S. to check the time. There was still another four hours until I expected Helping Hoof to come check on me in the morning. I tried to get some more sleep. I ended up just laying there pushing every thought that came to mind trying to mimic sleep as much as I could.

A few hours later, like I predicted, Helping Hoof returned.

“How did you sleep?” He asked when he saw I was awake.

“Troubled, brain decided it was time to remind me of what could happen if I can't stop Red Eye or Slate.” I said still just laying there as he began my physical.

“So you worry about something that is logical to worry about, what of it?” He said as he tested to see how my ribs had healed.

“When I about something, it gets worse until it gets resolved. This has been building for weeks. It is just I haven't had any down time to let my mind wander that much. Or maybe not wander this much.”

“Well, besides a case of chronic heroics you are mentally healthy from what I have seen and heard.” He then ran something cold along my stomach which made me shiver. “If you ever wanted to we could talk about it.”

“So you are a doctor for mind and body?” I asked as he had me turn away and stay still.

“Somepony around here needs to keep the ponies around here healthy and sane. The caps don't hurt either.” He confessed.

I felt something loosen up on my stomach and I fought from throwing up at feeling.

“There you go, your body has healed up quite nicely. I would suggest taking the rest of the day in the spa like you planned. I think it will do you wonders emotionally.” He said as he handed me a slip of paper that was my receipt. I could cover it easily, just didn't like that it had so many digits. I paid him and went to the spa.

Maybe I would leave the day after tomorrow just to make certain I was completely healed up. Extra rest never hurt anypony right?

Homage spent most of the day with me. We both got a laugh when the spa ponies started arguing over what would be the best way to clean my coat. One wanted to just shave me completely, the other wanted to use an industrial solvent. I eventually broke it up and told them what Helping Hoof had used to clean my coat. It took them two hours of scrubbing that left me feeling raw. Homage had gotten off easy. Once they had cleaned me up they had then taken to the usual spa treatment. By the end I felt cleaner than I had in my life. I even got my mane and tail cut. No longer was it an unruly mess of long hair held together with bobby pins and kept out of my eyes by sheer willpower.

As we left Homage footed the bill, she refused to even let me see how much it costed. She insisted that she had plenty of caps to cover it. We left to go get lunch.

“Okay, that was the right idea. That really helped.” I said looking in a mirror that was at the entrance of the restaurant we were going to. It had been so long since I had seen myself. Before entering the spa I had decided to look at myself in a mirror again. My mane and tail had been tangled and clumped. There were patches of my coat that had grown back in their normal color instead of the black that everything else had been. Now, now I looked like another Tenpony Pony. I felt like somepony who belonged in prewar Canterlot.

“I am glad it helped, Moonlight.” Homage said, almost purring at me. Of course, now that I was clean and had a clean bill of health she would begin antagonizing me again.

“Stop that before I show you what a powerful telekinetic can do.” I said giving her a dangerous look.

Which was kind of defeated by the dress I was wearing. Or maybe it made it more intimidating. I had a hard time telling with the fancy clothing. It never made sense to me.

“Right this way, fillies.” Said the server pony who had come up while I had been looking myself over in the mirror.

We followed him and were given a nice little booth that looked out to the south though one of the massive intact windows that Tenpony supported. Though that was a bit of a moot point thanks to the heavy snow.

He left us with our menus.I stared at it and didn't have a clue really to order. Though I knew I was going to try the wine. It may not be as strong as Wild Pegasus, I felt that drinking a whole bottle of whiskey would get me some looks that I rather not have today. Today was supposed to be a break. Today was a day where I wouldn't have to worry about anything beyond looks.

After lunch we went back to Homage's home and she went back to work. I went to a bank of monitors and began to work the controls checking through the two towers I had managed to get online as well as around the rest of the network. Winter had settled on the wasteland, Seamane was no exception to this. Though I saw towards Dune City it was not as bad as it was around Oakmare and to the north of what I could see Colt. Eventually it had gotten late and we decided to eat in. There wasn't much to talk about, she asked me a few questions on small things about living in Dune City and Saint Clover. I asked her about her earlier life. She mentioned having in the past been working for the previous DJ Pon3 doing what I started doing, fixing a few towers, but, three decades ago a lot of them had been fixed by a group of six friends. I asked about them and got the story of Hoofington.

Six friends spent years trying to clean the place up only to make it worse. Eventually they had broken up and formed the various factions that now ruled it. The nastiest of the spats were between the Reapers and the Rangers. Then there was the Society and the Collegiate, of the two no love was lost on the Society, but, the Collegiate I did want to visit some day. A bunch of smart ponies working on doing things for the betterment of ponykind, even if not at a fast pace or directly through confrontations, it was something I wanted to see.

I bid Homage good night and took up residence on the sofa in her main room. I didn't have much to do tomorrow, a bit of bartering, mostly it was figuring out when I could head south without getting buried in snow. I would have to look at the cameras again tomorrow once I had all my supplies and figure out roughly the timing between storms. So far this winter was worse than any I remembered back in Saint Clover. Then again most of the snow would drop in the Badlands and around Colt instead of Seamane itself thanks to altitude. This winter though, everywhere seemed to be getting hit hard. I sighed as I slipped into unconsciousness.

They were not pleasant dreams. I woke to Homage shaking me awake.

“Moonlight! Finally you're awake!” Homage huffed out.

I uncurled myself and letting go of my tail from my mouth.

“Sorry, Homage.” I said in a rasp, “bad dreams, go back to sleep, I'll be fine.”

Worry showed clearly on her face as I lay there on the sofa.

“This isn't the first time it has happened to you, is it?” She said in her luscious voice.

“No, but, don't worry, I have things to read.” I replied in a quiet voice. She sat down next to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. She didn't say anything as the time slowly slipped by. I hated letting others see me being an emotional mess. I didn't like others worrying about me in that way.

Eventually the world gave way to a dreamless sleep.

I woke up feeling a weight on top of me. Homage had fallen asleep on top of me. She was heavenly. I looked around the room and saw it was still how it was when I fell asleep. No invisible ponies out to shoot me, not slime to eat me, no gryphons to mutilate me. My dreams had echoed the events that had hurt me the most. It wasn't out of terror the event though, it was out of fear of what happened if I had screwed up. I was glad I hadn't encountered a memory of any of the ponies right as they liquified in stable twenty three.

I started shaking thinking about it again. Thinking about that stable, thinking about how I had almost drown, how I almost died to radiation poisoning, how I almost got eaten several times by that slime, by just how close came to experiencing death by enervation, to being vaporized with the whole damned stable. I closed my eyes as my vision blurred and pushed my muzzle into the threadbare cushion of the sofa. My muffled sobbing and gasps for breath went unnoticed. I was glad that they did. I just needed to hold myself together long enough to get back on the road, back to the heroics. As sane as it would be to stay here and get help from Helping Hoof I had lives that counted on me whether they knew it or not. Or at least I believed their lives counted on me and that was all I needed. I needed something to need me so I had a point.

I felt Homage stir as I continued to wrestle for control of my own body from my emotions.

'Damn it Moonlight, you are a grown mare stop acting like a little filly! You have fought alicorns, slew swarms of zombie ponies, you have been above the clouds, and saw Celestia's sun TWICE! You are not weak, you are not helpless now pull yourself together!' My mental yelling myself down didn't do anything, but, make me cry harder.

Somehow the fact that I had survived this long made it even worse the thought of screwing up and dying, of failing those who I so selfishly felt relied on me.

'Come on get over yourself, the wasteland is tough on everypony. We just need to be tough enough to survive. That level of tough allowed for falling apart when you were safe, when the fighting was done for the day.'

My mental argument went on as Homage awoke and said nothing, just stroked my mane in a soothing manner. It helped more than I think she knew, slowly I pushed out the last of my feelings. Bottling them up hadn't done me any good, they just came back stronger. With a final sob I got the courage to open my eyes and look up at Homage. She was just smiling, she was a good mare, a good friend. She knew better to say anything. Or maybe she had just seen the wasteland break so many ponies that she felt this was all she could do. Maybe she knew how it felt to have something deep and dark eating at you. Nopony was without loss in these dark days of our world. I shuddered again as I pushed myself up and wiped my muzzle clean of tears and snot.

“Sorry for making a mess.” I said in a hoarse voice.

I received more strokes of my mane. I should have felt angry or frustrated at being treated like a filly, but, right now, it was what I needed. I don't know how long we just sat there, but, eventually she had to go put on a show for the rest of the wasteland. Life has to continue, it cannot stagnate, I had to move on too. Even if I couldn't move past what haunted me I had to continue to press on. I waited for Homage to return before I went to the cameras in the broadcast station. I was going to figure out what I could about the weather for the next few days.

Weather is really bucking confusing okay, I spent three hours trying to figure it out. All I knew from it was that in all likelihood I had three good days of travel time starting tomorrow before another wave of storms passed on through the wasteland. That or I had half a day. Again not certain, but, it is better than nothing. Homage hadn't bothered me while I worked. I left the station and returned to her apartment thing. Honestly I wasn't certain if I should call it apartment or home. I guess prewar it would be considered an apartment as it was a living space within a building that held more living spaces. Okay so apartment it was.

Returning I saw that she wasn't there. I frowned then shrugged it off. I noticed she had a good stock of food. My stomach growled letting me know why I had picked up on that. I had kind of skipped breakfast and it was a number of hours until lunch traditionally took place. I took the food that looked closest to spoiling and ate it. It probably was closer to actually being spoiled by the taste of it. I ate it anyways. Honestly if my stomach could handle meat and two century old preserved foodstuffs it should handle this. Once I was done I left a note for Homage and went out with my main saddlebags and started shopping. Top of the list was a chest plate to replace the destroyed one for my combat armor, then next on the list was food.

I was reminded again with how Tenpony was all about buying high and selling even higher. Even so I was able to knock off a few caps here and there. But, hay these ponies were stingier than anypony else I had ever had the pleasure of bartering with!

I got replacement parts for all of my guns though buying some rather low quality matching weapons, I got a bit of combat armor that was pretty much just the torso, the rest had been lost after 'one use'. The food front was also good, lots of preserved food that was light and easy to store. I also swung by Helping Hoof who I had check up on me and then purchased a fair bit of medical supplies. Mostly healing potions and Med-X to keep me going until I could properly heal myself. I also took a risk and bought a rocket launcher and some rockets for it. I also broke down my assault carbine for storage in my saddlebags. Buying rockets also had been tricky, I had to deal with security in order to buy any ammo.

Returning to Homage's apartment I found a small space on the floor and began working on maintaining all of my equipment. It felt therapeutic the simple order of taking apart the weapons running repair assist program. I spent a few hours doing it as well as stitching in patches for my barding. Honestly I doubted my leather armor would have gotten me this far with how much punishment I had been going through. Manehattan as well as Fillydelphia had been different beasts from the open plains that I had been used to. Urban combat was nasty, short, and frightening.

During my time out Homage had returned and I hadn't seen much of her beyond the grabbing of a snack and a few sideways glances as I had my face buried in the electronics of my laser rifle. We both had work to do, she had her duty as DJ Pon3 and I had my duty as a would be hero. We didn't bother each other until I had finished my repairs. It was then that I saw she had laid a plate of food down next to me. I checked the time, it was already past three in the morning. My horn and hooves were sore. I ate the now cold meal and hopped onto the sofa once I finished packing. Tomorrow I was headed out for New Appleloosa.

I slept well that night, no horrible dreams, no dreams I could remember. I woke up refreshed. I didn't put much stock in that it would last and just enjoyed that I had gotten the work I wanted done, done, and I had gotten a decent nights sleep. I woke up before Homage once again, this time I made a meal for us. By the time I finished a blurry eyed Homage walked into the dining room.

“Morning Homage, figured making you breakfast would be at least a bit of payback for letting me crash here. As well as falling apart in your hooves, sorry about that.” I said setting down the plates and mugs of tea for us.

“I, uh, thanks.” She said as she rubbed her eyes to clean out sleep in them.

We ate in quiet, though I could read from Homage she enjoyed the meal. It wasn't anything complex, it was just a few things that I had learned from Dad that tasted good together. Honestly cooking wasn't my thing, now grilling, that I knew how to do thanks to Sunset and Violet. I finished and washed my dishes then began to suit up.

“So you're going then?” Homage asked as she noticed the sound of my heavy saddlebags clanking against one another.

“Yes, the sooner the better. I want to at least make it out of Manehattan before the next wave of snow comes.” I said tightening the straps on the saddlebags.

“Well alright then, stay safe out there. I will keep an eye out for you. And be careful where you and Rose decide to do anything.” She said with a knowing look, I blushed furiously.

“I will burn this place down if you ever say anything about what happens between her and I on the radio.” I said pulling as much threat into my voice as I could, Homage just laughed. Seriously could I never be intimidating when I really wanted to?

I gave Homage a hug and I headed off. The elevator ride was quiet, the trip through security short, and the boxes upon boxes of ammo stored back onto my person. Watch out wasteland, the Ranger was back and more heavily armed and armored. With a smile on my face I walked out and followed the Celestia line to the first station then headed out on the path to New Appleloosa. Nothing peaked its head out or even took a pot shot at me as I headed out of the city.

The not getting shot at thing lasted for another five minutes as I walked past the suburbs of Manehattan. Some raiders decided I was a good target. I tested out my repaired weapons on them. Judging by the healthy sounds my guns made and the large amount of missing blood I figured I had done a good job maintaining my guns. I looted their bodies to find a few more grenades on them.

The next few hours passed without further event, I tuned into Homage, or rather DJ Pon3's station and listened to the music. He made an announcement that I had left Tenpony Tower and was headed back to Seamane. As well as he mentioned me obliteration of a raider nest along the way. My wiping them out was sold as a vested interest to even while on a tight schedule I would go out of my way to take care of threats to others. She didn't mention the fact that it had been right next to the road. Maybe it would give somepony the idea of not to shoot at the nice pony walking through knee deep snow to New Appleloosa.

The first night came and I was not anywhere near a habitable structure. I made do with my tent and sleeping bag. Several times in the night I was woken up, but, I never could tell what had woken me up. One thing I also learned was that sleeping in combat armor was not comfortable and lead to kinks in your neck. In the morning I unzipped the tent and saw a few more inches of snow on the ground. I used my magic to clear a path out and then broke down my tent and headed out. I had taken the time while in Tenpony to get tutored in a few useful spells. Right now the one I was most fond of was a modified candle lighting spell. This produced fire enough to heat the water in my bottles and canteen so it was no longer ice and drinkable. The spell however was hard to control and a few times I had to let go of it as to not let it literally explode in my face.

I heard the howl of wind as snow picked up and slapped against my new goggles. I had put my respirator back on as well. The bit of warmth that had been over the wasteland for the past few days had gone. Now it was beginning to snow again. Though it wasn't threatening to become a blizzard for now. I continued walking working on my shield spell as I did. I was getting better at making a bubble shield around myself, but, it was still very hard. I would manage to make it then a gust would cause it to fall apart. Apparently a bubble shield was just beyond what I could do, directional shields though I could do. I experimented with how wide I could make a direction shield. It wasn't much bigger than the length of myself. I decided to for now give my horn a work out and use the shield as a plow in the snow.

Another day had passed and night was falling. Once again I had to use my tent for shelter. My sleep was again broken up by something waking me up at night. I really didn't like that. But, it seemed my dreams were being more peaceful for now. One thing stops another thing starts it seemed like to me. I broke down my camp after spending a few minutes inside heating myself up for the day. A few times while walking I saw red bars and decided that I would just sneak by. It was for the best when I saw the camp that I had accidentally bumped into. My pipbuck usefully popped up with “Shattered Hoof Correctional Facility. I pulled up my map and saw I was a bit off course and east of where I wanted to be. Looking west I saw lights of another camp along where the road and tracks would be. With a sigh I skirted around the hills that surrounded Shattered Hoof.

The trip around Shattered Hoof took a long time. I lost two hours doing it, but, it was worth it not to have to deal with all the raiders. Twice I almost got spotted by a few patrolling raiders. My knife came in handy here. Quiet and deadly with my swift and equally silent movement took care of them before I had to worry. I buried them under the snow. If it had not been for my Eyes Forward Sparkle I probably would have blundered into them like they almost did with me.

To the north of Shattered Hoof I started back to the road while going south west. The snow had gotten deeper and I had to rely on my magic to clear a path for me. The wind was getting worse and the snow heavier as well as wetter. I stopped my walk earlier than I would have liked and set up my tent. The wet snow melted and ran down inside my barding against me sapping heat like made. Once inside the tent I pulled off off the chest plate and used the heat of the candle lighting spell to dry myself off. The warmth was nice against my chest. I heard the click of guns. Of course…

The tent flap opened and I saw a flamer poke into my tent. That was not a good thing. I tossed the candle lighting spell out the flap towards where the tanks of the flamer should be as I reattached my chest plate. I heard screaming as my spell had hit somepony instead of the fuel tanks. I grabbed my two pistols and with what I could see through the flap threw the snow outside in every direction as I charged out. I felt a few bullets bite into my flank as I did. They had begun shooting into my tent. I fired where the muzzle flashes were. I heard another cry of pain and turned to see a shadow form running up to me with some sort of spear. I fired more shots into them. They fell half buried in the snow. I felt something slide between the plates of my barding and into my stomach. I sickening feeling of my guts spilling out flashed into my mind as I fell from the blow as the attacker rolled me over.

He was a stallion, his coat was patchy where the skin was exposed there were boils of radiation exposure, elsewhere I saw blackened flesh. I fired both pistols below his jaw making his head explode into a shower of brains. I kicked him off and pulled out the knife with my teeth. Then a gout of flame washed over me. I screamed as I rolled in the snow trying to put it out. I felt a kick to my neck making my body spasm. They kicked again laughing. I flung snow up at them as I tried to scurry away. His response was another wave of fire, though, thankfully the snow managed to make it mostly steam which just seared me instead of burning. I hit S.A.T.S. and used my telekinesis to lash out at him. The earth pony fell as lines of red suddenly covered him and he bleed out.

I stood there for a moment looking around with E.F.S. for any more threats. There were none. I left their cooling bodies where they lay, I only took the flamer fuel. I returned to my tent to see it was in tatters and now useless to the elements. I grabbed my saddlebags and found two of my bottles had been shattered and noticed a few more bullet holes in the leather bags. I would inspect the extent of the damage to the rest of my belongings later, right now I got moving again towards New Appleloosa.

I didn't stop, I kept heating myself back up with the candle spell. I after nearly freezing to death I remembered ceramics like that of combat armor took a lot to heat up as well as cool down and started to heat the plates of it. It took a lot of focus so I focused on doing it on my chest. I knew I had probably heated it up too much with how badly I was sweating under it. It couldn't be helped though I needed to keep warm.

As I moved forward something ate at the back of my mind. Something about this direction seemed wrong. I kept moving for another few hours before settling down in a rather large tunnel. I guessed a train had a lot less issue with the trip than I did on hoof. Then again there was far more snow up here on the mountains than I had thought there would be. I had moved deeper in the tunnel and found a worker station. Picking through it I found that it had originally been both a station for dealing with any trouble in the tunnel and a guard post. I read through the papers finding evacuation plans, makeshift fallout shelter locations, supply caches.

I also read a report of the fall of Canterlot. A great shield had been erected after Manehattan had been hit. For the next few days the shield held and filled with a pink mist. Eventually the shield itself had fallen which meant that Luna and Celestia had died within the city. I felt myself slump reading the soldiers words. My entire life I had believed them dead, but, to read it, to read this stallions raw emotions off of this paper. It was hard to take in. I heard a creek behind me and I drew my pistols and rolled over to look at where I heard the sound come from. The door was a bit wider open than it had been. E.F.S. showed clear but I heard that roar again. I fired three rounds from each revolver into the opening of the door then slammed it shut as I reloaded the revolvers.

The silence just stretched on and I didn't hear the roar again. I turned back to the report. He had stayed put for a long time. When the shield itself broke a blast of pink cloud had broken out. The stuff was highly toxic. A friend of his had been liquefied and fused with where he had stood. The stallion who had written this had returned here to stand guard to let others know the dangers of Canterlot. That was until a group had come on in during the radioactive snow to attempt get supplies and rescue who they could from Canterlot. By the lack of notes they had passed while at the border of Canterlot. I moved the desks and filing cabinets against the door and lay down on the threadbare mattress that was still in the room. I was getting used to sleeping in combat armor.

When I awoke I felt off, looking around the room I saw ice particles floating in the air. I knew what was making me feel off, this cold. In the corners of the room I saw bits of ice having grown. I grabbed what loose paper and ruined books were in the room and pushed them into a trash barrel and set fire to it. I pumped my magic into it banishing the cold from the room. I let out a warm breath as my core warmed up. I warmed some of my water until it practically steamed and drank it. That warmed me up faster than the fire itself. I ate what could managed before I turned my attention to the barrier I had erected. I tore it down and opened it I slowly eyed the hall leading back to the tunnel. No blood, no corpses. I looked where my bullets had landed seeing they had shattered against the metal wall. I guessed nopony had been here and it was just my paranoia.

I gave a sigh and saw my breath freeze in the air and pulled my scarf and respirator on and began the journey back up the tracks. Slowly I saw a form grow ahead of me stretching out from the mountain side I drew closer until I could properly see it. I didn't make a noise as I stopped staring at the former capital of Equestria. The city had a pink fog close to the ground that got thicker towards the castle. I had taken the wrong set of tracks and ended up in Canterlot.

Now I stood looking at the ghost of the past. It had been protected from the balefire bombs that had destroyed almost every other city in equestria. Instead it was a ghost of the past, a lingering reminder of what was once the glory of a long dead nation. Also the city was a death trap. The cloud was horrific to one's health. I pulled up my pipbuck and checked my map. There was a train station that I could make my way to that had a line to Old Appleloosa, which if I remembered correctly would lead me past Ponyville and on to New Appleloosa. In order to get there I would have to cut through the city proper. Thankfully I wouldn't need to go near the palace itself.

Unfortunately I was now walking through the upper class residences and businesses. I didn't like the familiar images of skeletons resting around the place in positions mocking life. Every time I saw one I had a reminder of stable twenty three. The quiet of the capital did little to ease my nerves.

It took half an hour to encounter another living entity in the former capital. They were young dragons. I crept away from them before they noticed me. Anything that could live here was a serious threat to my life. I also didn't want my magic giving away my position. Before entering I had reread the entry on the ruins and had started using my shield to keep the pink cloud away from myself. It seemed water worked against the stuff so with this storm not much was left. Then I encountered something I had really hoped I was done with dealing with, alicorns.

They hadn't yet seen me as I started going down a different road to give them a wide birth. I heard whispers of their conversation. Something about a book, about Rarity, and unity. Unfortunately my attempts to avoid the alicorns bit me in the flank. This time I mean it as in it actually bit me in the flank. A mutated baby dragon had actually bitten me in the flank. I bit my tongue as I fired my revolvers into its head. The pink cloud had apparently weakened their scales, or maybe baby dragon scales weren't all that great at protecting. The twin gunshots from my revolvers drew attention to me as I bandaged the bleeding wound.

A alicorn sailed over me and began engaging the baby dragon ghouls. Two more spread out searching for me. The last two stood on roof tops keeping a look out. I decided that going down the allies would be the best idea as if I encountered anything I could rebound off the walls and over the threat. I felt myself get lifted into the air and then smashed into a wall. I turned my head as I came to rest on the ground to see a blue alicorn become visible. Teleportation, Invisibility, and Mind Reading. Oh how fun. I drew my revolvers and fired at her. Her shield absorbed the impact and I pushed myself to my feet. I shoved my revolvers back into their holsters on my chest and broke into a full gallop headed for the train station. From the sounds behind me the alicorns were caught in a fight against the natural inhabitants of Canterlot. I didn't stick around to watch the fight.

Pink Cloud I found smelled like metal. Which at the same time reminded me of blood. I also had started to feel the unfortunate effects of exposure to the cloud. When I ended up having to go through a thick chunk of it I pulled my magic around me keeping off of myself as best as possible. It helped a little, but, I was feeling lethargic by the end of the sprint down the pink cloud filled back alley. I drank a healing potion and waited as it did its thing. I heard that roar again, more distant than before, but, it did cause a bit of snow to fall from where it had landed on roof tops. With the strength of its roar I started to worry that maybe Canterlot had become home of a dragon. One that was not happy with visitors.

I walked into the train station only to hear a burst of static. At first I thought it was a spritebot that watcher had taken over. Then I felt myself start to die as I hacked and looked around my vision blurring with red. It was just like being in that intense enervation field again. I hacked and saw a speaker system with a green light glowing on it. I attempted to reach out with my magic only to scream in pain. It was like the sound was directly attacking my soul. I grabbed my revolver with my mouth as my gums began to bleed and hit S.A.T.S. I targeted the speaker and fired the remaining four armor piercing shots into it. The speaker popped and the static died out. I fished out a healing potion with my hoof as I wiped the blood out of my eyes as I cleaned my blood coated goggles. Canterlot was hell. Forget the mythological hell of Tartarus, this was fucking hell.

It took two healing potions to get me back on my feet. When I did finally get up I saw the forms of children. I recoiled as I saw them moving about. I pulled out my battle rifle and zoomed in on them. Each had a pink fluffy cloud on their flank. Their cutie marks were the cloud. I hated being here even more. Anything that had survived the end had been killed by the cloud or twisted into abominations. I crawled through the station avoiding where the pink cloud had pooled, in some cases quite literally pooled into a liquid. As such I finally found a map of the station and figured out the platform I needed. It was unfortunately past the cloud ghoul children. I shuddered, I was going to have to kill them. I didn't want to kill children, even if…

‘They aren't children, they are two hundred year old mutants corrupted by this place, Moonlight.’ I told myself as I sighted in the head of the first of the group of children.

 I still couldn't help but see them as innocent children even if I did see one of them kill a radroach by summoning pink cloud with her horn. I let out a breath and pulled the trigger. Her head exploded, the rest of the other unicorn foals screeched and began trying to figure out where the shot came from. I fired again and put a hole through her chest. I shifted to the next target and fired putting a round through her spine. Children were easy to kill, their bodies were frail, and being ghoul children meant it was easier to end their horrible lives. I put down a fifth when I heard a great unholy sound and saw the second foal I had shot rise once more. That was what a ghoul resurrecting looked and sounded like. The hair on my neck stood on end.

I slung the battle rifle back over myself and made a run for it tossing a grenade far to the other side of the station. I made it down the stairs from the office when it exploded. I heard nineteen unholy screams ring out and nineteen forms of foals rush to the sight. Thankfully the cloud had robbed them of their intelligence. I made it halfway across the station and almost onto my platform. I felt something smash into my side sending me skidding across the tile floor. I saw the horn of one of the ghoul foals glowing in pink as I felt my side start to burn. I looked to see where she had fired a bolt of magic made of concentrated pink cloud at me. I wrapped it in my magic and slung it at her.

I pushed myself up as the cloud obscured her from my sight and ran down the stairs to my platform. Here I saw a crashed train with the bodies of its passengers and drivers fused to various parts of it. I guessed it arrived after the shield fell and into the heart of the pink cloud. I rolled as I got to the bottom and broke out into a sprint towards the tunnel to leave out of the blighted capital. I felt another sharp pain and was sent skidding once more across the ground. I looked and saw again another solid bolt of pink cloud resting in my armor. I yanked it out and tossed it far off then I let myself draw upon my anger as I hit S.A.T.S. I focused my anger on the filly who kept shooting me with the bolts of pink cloud. I released S.A.T.S. and watched as she was engulfed in blue flame, she screamed out in terror and pain. A sound that was completely unaltered from her monstrous condition. I heard a filly burn to death in front of me.

Her death drew the others, her charred skeleton burnt into my mind along with her death cry. I ran as fast as I could out of Canterlot along the Canterlot Appleloosa line. I encountered more ghouls and bloodwings in the tunnels leading south east. I just continued running and shooting when I needed a gap. I didn't want to stop. I wanted to get as far away from that nightmare of a city as I could. I wanted to run away from the scream of that filly that I burned to death. I knew she was a monster and I freed her from an eternity of horror. It still didn't help that my mind continued to see her as a innocent filly that I just burned to death. I couldn't rationalize my way through it, all I could do is run from the site. I heard the dragon's roar again, this time closer and I felt the air temperature drop.

A few hours later it was midnight and I couldn't keep running. I stopped and curled up in a small cave by the rails. I hadn't seen a tunnel in hours and couldn't keep myself going forward. It wasn't warm, it wasn't dry, it wasn't comfortable. I slept there anyways. The snow and rocks around me were enough to hide me from anything passing by.

Waking up I felt colder than I had in a while. The only time I remember feeling colder was waking up after having almost drown. I heated my water and drank. It helped a little, but, in the end I had to leave and keep going.

It was two hours later that other parts of my body had woken up, I ate what I could as I walked. I took things a little slower today, things had leveled off considerably and from the marker on my pipbuck I should be nearing New Appleloosa. I kept myself warm with heating myself up from time to time with water and heating the plates of my armor. I was really impressed with how far my magic reserves had grown. I remember reading at one point that magic is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. Still I did have limits and I could feel whatever necromantic effects I was under in Canterlot had sapped a good deal of my strength. Of course the Zebra's would have used something that would both kill you and drain your magic for taking out a city of mainly unicorns as well as the home of Luna and Celestia.

Footnote: 15% to next level.