Fallout Equestria: The Ranger of Seamane

Chapter 15 – Hearths Warming Eve

“They're just a couple licking each others wounds.” -Kamille Bidan Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

I woke up to being alone on the sofa. I was a little surprised by this after the hours upon hours Rose and I had spent together once I had returned to her. But, I considered it fair for her to leave me for a while of her own wishes after I had been gone for so long. Hay, I had been away from her for roughly thirty two days. Or was it thirty one days, either way, an entire bucking month had gone by. I had no right to complain about her leaving me for minutes or even hours at a time by now. Then again my leaving her hadn't been intended. Goddesses it had been a entire month since we killed a hydra, since we last held each other. Bucking hell I had a lot to make up to her for. Then I remembered the rings, hopefully she would take it a gift and not a proposal. I opened my eyes and saw that the fire was still going as I had thought from the warmth I felt on the side of me I remembered me last facing the fireplace.

I brought up my Eyes Forward Sparkle and checked the time, it was about noon. Eight hours or so of sleep? Not bad really considering how little restful sleep I got over the past month. Hay, this was the second time being someplace civilized I hadn't woken up crying. Speaking of crying I was really glad other than tears of joy I hadn't cried last night. That was good, my emotional strength seemed to be growing. That or maybe I was just going to have it happen later, knowing the past month I would bet a third of my caps on the latter. I looked at the table that sat before the sofa, the thing was hand carved and I would assume had been handed down from owner to owner for over two hundred years. I looked at the bowl of berries sitting on the table I focused my magic and-

The pain was beyond belief as I felt like something inside my horn snapped. I couldn't even voice the pain I just gave a silent gasp as I spasmed on the sofa. I started to cry at the immense pain. Part of my mind duly noted this was what it felt like to experience magical burn out. I tried to do anything but my body wasn't listening. The pain that wracked my body coming from my horn overwrote any command I was sending out to control me. So instead I lay there making quiet gasps of pain with my eyes closed tight as tears dripped onto the cushion of the sofa. I hated feeling like a foal, unable to control my own body, being trapped within it. After a while the spasms finally died down and I was left sore and tired. I opened my eyes and wiped the tears from them. My horn still pulsed with pain, but, it was livable for now.

I listened closely and noticed the only sounds I could hear was distant talking and the crackling of the fireplace. I pushed myself up and got off the sofa so I could sit at the table that was in front of it. I unabashedly stuffed my muzzle into the bowl of berries, I wasn't going to risk using magic again today. Which was going to be a problem as I had gotten too used to using it again.

“Oh you are finally awake Moonlight, oh dear what happened to your horn?” I heard, hay, felt Rose say. Goddesses how was such a big unicorn so quiet. And now she was licking my horn, which felt good against the pain in it. One hell of a remedy, better than Med-X.

“What do you mean what happened to my horn?” I asked before taking another couple of berries into my mouth, if I had to guess they were close to being overripe. She moved to nibbling on my ear.

“Well it is curved and it is also black.” She said around a the tip of my ear in a quiet sultry voice.

“Uh... black? As in charred or as in it is properly black?” I asked, I really hoped it was just charred, I already knew it had warped from my abuse of it.

I felt another lick to my horn, this one more forceful and produced a spasm as it felt like the bone at the base of it moved independent of my skull. I practically screamed as I went limp in Rose's grasp. She held me tight to keep me from hitting anything besides herself. Thankfully she was a tough pony, and thankfully she was a she, I would have felt sorry for any buck who had just tried to hold onto me. As it was she was gasping for air anyways as I fought back more tears.

“Oh Moonlight...” is all she said as she held me stroking my mane, I just let myself go limp in her grasp.

My appetite had left me now, my leg had smacked into the stone hard wooden table and was starting to swell.

‘Walk in like a hero, fall apart when nopony but those who love you are watching. Really glamorous the life of a hero isn't it?’ I thought at myself. ‘Yeah amazing dodging bullets, fighting spirits of nature, mutated life forms, psychotic ponies, slaying alicorns, nearly getting eaten by living goo made of pony remains...’

 I let out a sigh as I stopped crying.

“Some assembly required; fragile, handle with care; dangerous under pressure; explosive under pressure; flammable; may cause serious injury or even death.” I recited, thinking of all the terms of wares that my parents had taught me. Terms that described me right now. Terms that a merchant would understand and know to stay well away from unless it was exactly what they were looking for. I just felt Rose hug me tighter.

“Irreplaceable.” She whispered into my ear and I felt my heart melt.

I leaned back into her being careful to not let my horn touch anything.

“Priceless.” I said up to her as I rested my head against her neck looking up as best as I could at her. I received a nuzzle. I just lay against her as she held me, I knew today would end up being a long day no matter what we did together, the pain in my horn would constantly give me a reminder of the passage of time with the swell in pain with each heartbeat. But, I would do what I could with Rose, today was meant for enjoying time with friends and family.

After five minutes of us sitting on the wooden floor Rose lifted me in her magic and set me on the sofa, before she joined me she walked off. I figured she wanted to get something to drink or eat which was fair enough. As it was I felt a bit thirsty too, maybe a sparkle cola would help. When Rose returned she had two bottles of water, both held in her magic. She lay down next to me as I raised my head. I returned my head to resting on her flank as she chose not to have me lay against her side this time. She floated a bottle of water to me and kept it hovering in front of my muzzle even after I had grabbed it with my hooves to drink. I think she didn't quite trust me not to make a horrible mess. I drank the whole bottle before letting go of it. It was not that I was that thirsty, but, once again a habit formed from not knowing when the next engagement would be.

“You that thirsty Moonlight?” She asked me, her face ripe with concern.

I returned to resting my head on her toned flank.

“No, just habit to drink the whole bottle.” I answered flatly. She eyed me and set the now empty bottle on the table by us before turning her attention to her own bottle.

When I had woken up I had felt a fair bit of energy in me, but, now thanks to the pain I was exhausted. I looked at Rose some more, I now could see her in better illumination than last night. While last night I had gotten to feel her more than see her thanks to the poor illumination in the house I now knew she was much cleaner than she had been. Her mane had grown out a bit, though it was simplistically cut still. Her tail that was laying over me had grown too and had not been cut. Her coat was almost immaculate and far softer than I felt any ponies deserved to be while in the wasteland. I forced my chin under her coat and looked up at Rose with a smile on my face as she looked at me with a eyebrow raised. It was silly, I knew it was, but, it felt nice. Right now anything that made me feel better was top priority to do.

“You are certainly all over the place with how you are acting today.” She said with a smile on her face as I figured she divined why I was doing what I was doing.

“You make my heart melt and make me feel better whenever we do anything. I have prescribed myself a weeks time of rest time doing nothing, but, being with you.” I said with a joking tone of authority.

I started to giggle, it felt nice to be in relaxed company again. To be in company I wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. Company that I was going to take with me and fight to keep. I blinked as I remembered my stuff, I had things to give her. Oh I know make her choose which I gave her first.

“Hey, Rose?” I asked up at her, she was smiling still, her own bottle of water resting on the table.

“Yes, Moonlight?” She said with her voice having returned to its silvery self.

“I have two gifts for you, but, I want you to choose which one you get now and which one you get later tonight.” I said, “and I won't tell you what the other one is once you pick.”

She blinked and then raised a hoof to her chin thinking.

“Give me the bigger of the two then.” She said, no purred, uh, now I was thinking I may have given her expectations of something else. Well, oh well she will enjoy the ring hopefully a lot more this evening.

“Can you levitate my saddlebags over here then?” I asked her, it shouldn't be too much of an issue it was in... oh right I have three sets of saddlebags. Which one was it in? Second one right, the one with the nonessentials. “The one in the middle.” I amended before she asked.

“You certainly are strong for carrying all of this stuff so far for being so small.” Rose teased, “I mean Moony, you kind of have a small frame, where did you fit all of these bags on you?”

I blushed at the pet name, and it was a good question, one with a simple answer, stacking.

“Stacking.” I said with a smile on my face as she gently set down the saddlebags I had asked for at the space between the sofa and the table. I could smell from here the faint scent of my own blood and burnt pony hair as well as burnt leather. The smell of the wasteland. I lifted the flap of the saddlebag and then used the auto sorter of the pipbuck to draw out what I wanted. The pipbuck technicians tools and the pipbuck I had kept with me. I heard a small gasp from Rose as she saw the pipbuck emerge from my saddlebags.

“I got one for you while in Fillydelphia, the ponies I got it from weren't using them and hadn't for a long time. Surplus of Stable-Tec.” I beamed at her, completely true what I said, and I set it on the space between us and the edge of the sofa as I got out the tools and began prepping it and Rose's left leg for equipping it.

“These are almost priceless, Moonlight.” She said as she floated it up to her eyes to inspect it. “Thank you, I just wish-”

I cut her off by getting up faster than I should have and kissing her.

“You are giving me everything I could want right now Rose.” I said before forcing myself to lay back down before I fell over.

I instructed her to slide the pipbuck onto her foreleg and once she did I began the process of securing it. Having gotten practice on myself as well as those in Black Wood this was simple to do. I powered it on and stifled a laugh as she was spooked by the Eyes Forward Sparkle coming up in her vision, which I noted that I could not see at all. One of the nice things about the system, it was invisible to anypony else which let you target who you wanted without anyone knowing you had targeted something.

“White Rose” Rose said as she vocally entered her name and then began going through the tutorials of the pipbuck itself.

I sat there and just marveled as she took to it like a fish to water. I moved off of her so she could get used to it. I took the time to take a nap that my body was asking that I take. It was a good nap, a restful one, no frightening dreams, no strangeness, just simple sleep with pleasant dreams of a world far better than the one we lived in.

I woke up to Rose digging through my saddlebags making quite comments on how she didn't understand why I had practically an entire library stuffed in them. Or a whole pantry, armory, arsenal, and repair shop. I laughed at her then noticed the box that held the rings sitting on the table in front of me. Oh shit she found them…

“I was just going through to see if there was anything you didn't have. Also the pipbuck sorter function asked me to.” She said unabashedly. My brain fought trying to figure out which one of us was in control of this relationship.

“I have found you do have everything except another lover. Which I am glad to see. Though if you did I would rather you tell me before you decided to go with them, I might want to watch or join.” She said with that purr of hers.

“No I don't have a lover beyond you. Not for the lack of Homage trying...” I said my face getting a slight frown on it thinking about all the teasing I suffered through while in Homage's company.

“Oh? Well then, somepony needs a reward.” She purred again as she packed my stuff away. She knew I was going nowhere fast and wanted to make up for going through my things. That or she didn't like the small mess she had made while I was asleep.

“Just be careful, no touching the horn unless you want me to be unable to move under my own control.” I said as I sat up on my haunches.

I felt stiff, but, the aches in my body had receded. I looked at my right hind leg where I had smashed it against the petrified wood table. The swelling had gone down and I gingerly touched it with my right fore hoof. I winced as it was still tender, but, it wasn't anything beyond that.

“Hey, when you are done repacking bring over some of the medical bandages, I think I have some left.”

I did, and I had a idea, one that would either leave me bawling again or would help the pain go away. My magic maybe dead for now, but, at least I could stop the pain in my horn. She set the medical bandages on the sofa next to me. I reached for them then realized how much harder it was going to be to use them. Rose smiled at me as she sat down on the sofa with me once more and I looked up at her.

“I need help.” I said looking up into her beautiful purple eyes.

“What do you, oh right no magic.” She said and took the bandages and the pair of scissors that she had levitated over as well in her magic.

“First, my leg that I smashed.” I said as I lay on my left side being careful not to bump my horn on the cushions. Rose gently wrapped my leg in the bandages and cut off the excess. She had apparently while I had been away put some time into learning how to treat wounds as well. If she was trying to impress me, or flatter me with copying it was working. I held out a hoof to stop Rose before we tried bandaging my horn.

“Gag and tie me up first so if it does hurt I don't flail about and hurt anything.” I said to her, she raised an eyebrow then lowered her eyelids into a sultry gaze.

“Oh I thought I never would get to do this to somepony else.” She purred as she pulled out some rope and some leather.

She tied me up in a way I hadn't been expecting, half of it was as far as I could tell decorative, the rest did exactly what I had hoped it would do, keep me from moving. Though I don't know why it went between my rear. I tested my restraints a little and realized exactly why she was excited to get to do this and why it went over my rear. Sweet Celestia have mercy on my innocent soul I hadn't known you could do this sort of stuff. I twitched as I felt the ever so gentle sensation of the bandages being put in place around my horn. The idea was that a slow and light application of them would be enough to get past the hypersensitivity. Failing that we were going to either knock me out, make me suffer through putting them on, or give me a Med-X. As she began to slowly tighten the bandages I felt the soothing effects of them countering the pain. Well not completely, I wasn't spasming out of pain this time, but, I was starting to tear up a bit. In the end we just put on a light layer of bandages and let them sit on my horn. Rose removed the leather from my mouth so we could talk at very least.

Talking wasn't what she had in mind she laid onto her back then floated me to lay on top of her and she began kissing me furiously. I didn't even try to struggle, I enjoyed it, and if I did struggle the Rope would make things go from a make out session into something far kinkier than I had planned or at least far quicker than I had planned. Somehow the constant pain from the bandages on my horn made the kissing better. When we finally stopped I had finally realized something odd. The entire time we had been here nopony else had shown up.

“Hey, Rose?” I asked her as I lay atop of her.

“Yes, Moony?” She responded with her sultry tone again, I was blushing at the damn nickname.

“Do we have this place to ourselves?” It had started to bug me seriously that I had not seen or heard anypony else.

“Sort of, see this is one of several... suites? I think that is what Ruby called them, in a common house. Basically one big house, each suite is completely separate, but, they share a roof.” Rose said, I think she was trying to still find better words for the setup, but, I got what she meant.

“How thick are the walls?” I asked as a blush came over my cheeks.

“Thick enough, Ruby had them reinforced with some sound reducing spells for us.” She purred and licked my cheek.

“Good, because unless there is something we need to be doing or someplace we need to go I am yours for the day.” I said nuzzling her cheek and feeling the rope grind into me. “More than I usually am.” I finished with a wince at the unexpected sensation.

“I see you noticed how the rope works, as well as you are nothing, but, a horned Earth pony for now.” Her grin went from seductive to predatory, which sent a shiver of excitement through me, which worried me.

‘When and how had I become this naughty of a filly, I didn't know I enjoyed this?!’ I cried out in my mind.

“We do have dinner plans with Ruby and her friends later, much, much later.” She purred in my ear as her magic pulled on the rope in a few places making me involuntarily move at her will. I really was going to be her plaything today.

In the end I had blacked out, it was fun, but, my body had been strained enough for so long that it said no more and thrust me into the darkness of dreamless sleep. When I came to I was alone, I also was untied, my coat felt washed, and my mane was brushed and back to being the way it was in Tenpony, my tail had been braided, which some how worked well. I also noticed much to my relief that my horn was hurting much less, it was just a dull throbbing now. I did still feel worn out, which probably was because I had been worn out pretty heavily. My mind drifted back to that first night between me and Rose. She had offered herself to me as a reward for saving everypony that I had, and had said it was her way of rewarding me since “some ponies only have a specific skill set”. Well she had grown since then, she was decently competent at first aid, she knew how to use a gun, and the fact she was here, alive, and in such good shape and spirits meant she had gone a lot further than anypony would have thought.

I wonder if she had been doing it to prove it to herself or somepony else. Motivations, what were hers, what were Ruby's. Hay, what was anyponies beyond my own? No it was their business not mine as to what kept them going. Or at least it was unless I had to help them get going again. Still, best not to pry into others lives unless I needed to. Least of all Rose's, she had already had a hard life, why should I make her possibly think I doubted her reasons for being here, or being with me. After what she had done for me it would be wrong to do so. I breathed in deep through my nose getting a faint smell of Rose off of the cushions. Even her smell warmed me in that odd way. I let the breath out and sat up on my haunches and looked around the room absentmindedly touching the button on my Pipbuck for my Eyes Forward Sparkle.

I took a better look at our suite. We had two decent sized windows that faced out to the street and a nice sturdy door. There was a small kitchen with oven, sink, refrigerator, and a table for two, though it looked like it could be pulled out and made to seat four. I noticed that we also didn't have chairs we just had sitting pillows. I looked around some more and saw what looked like the door to a bathroom and next to it the bedroom. Neither held a blue bar. A third door seemed to lead out of the suite into what I guessed to be a adjoining building. I found in the bedroom the dress I had gotten at Tenpony Tower. Well I guess I knew what I was supposed to do. I slipped into it and saw the box that held the second gift of mine to Rose laying there. I smiled, she was at very least a clever pony.

I went back to the door leading out of our suite. She had me sleeping and laying on the sofa the entire time instead of taking me back to the bedroom. Was it because of the fireplace? Or maybe she wanted to establish a place for me to be and a place for her to be. The bedroom was her place and the sofa mine? That brought all sorts of questions to mind about possible underlying dominance and submission messages that this brought up. I sighed as my mane started to itch with that deep unholy itch again, oddly as it did I noticed my horn hurting less. Strange, guess my brain cared to tell me only so much of what was going on in my body. It mattered little tonight, I doubted I would need to use my magic or worry about whatever was going on with me.

I opened the door to find myself facing a party in full swing, a loud one at that. Well would you look at that, they really had reinforced the soundproofing of the suite. I frowned before putting on a determined face to greet the crowd who had yet to notice me. I slide the box into a hidden pocket in the long skirt of my dress. I looked up to see that I still had the bandages on my horn, it probably would be best to leave those on so I didn't get questions about the shape of my horn. Everypony knew I had recently had a hard fight, it wouldn't surprise any of them if I had a few wounds bandaged up. Plus, hay, it wasn't a bunch of Tenpony snobs, it was friends of Ruby's as well as her employees. To my surprise even though it was just as I had though, Ruby and those who knew her everypony here was a bit dressed up and my high society dress didn't stand out. One other thing I was happy to see was nopony paid me any mind. I felt almost like a ghost walking through the party.

The party itself was being held within the storefront of Ruby's Caravan. The area seemed like it had been the original town hall before a more modern one had been erected outside of old town. I continued making my way through the crowd hoping to see somepony I knew. Frustratingly I didn't and resigned myself to the buffet table. I didn't stay long, just long enough to grab something to eat and then I walked off carrying the plate in my mouth. I spotted an unoccupied table off to the side, I took it. Again I was happy nopony saw me having to carry anything with my mouth instead of with my magic. I would have used a leg if I hadn't already been being careful with my still bruised hind leg. I continued to watch the party in full swing as music played, ponies danced, ponies chatted and much merriment was had. I had a grimace on my face as my horn hurt again, I didn't mind the party, but, to anypony who looked at me right now they probably saw a nice looking mare who rather be somewhere else. That assessment was half true, I wouldn't mind being back in my suite sleeping off the pain in my horn. On the other hoof I didn't want to disappoint Rose and Ruby with not showing up. So I would have to find them at very least to let them know I had shown up before leaving.

Finishing my food I took care to dispose of the plate and began mingling. It was a party, my head hurt, and I was tired, but, I was forcing myself to be a bit social. I really hadn't been to many parties before. Hearths Warming Eve back home was a family event not a community one. There had been a few parties I went to of ponies who I knew when they got their cutie marks. Those had stopped when once I hit a certain age. For a rather particular reason, or two. It is hard to go to parties of colts and fillies who are getting their cutie mark when you don't know them, as well as when you are twice their age and still don't have one yourself. Here though nopony pointed out my bandaged leg or horn, we talked about recent events, how the snow was worse than usual this year. There were questions about if they had enough wood to last the winter. I asked them where they got said wood and apparently they harvested it from the dead woods to the north. They also told me of how further north some of the forest was still alive and the green was spreading. My jaw practically hit the floor, nature finds a way.

I asked about the so called 'unbound north' which was where I was planning on going soon, not that I told anypony here about that. Apparently it too had survived much of the scaring of the apocalypse. Fields of grass naturally growing, amazing... Then my longing to see it with my own eyes was replaced with sheer terror of the fact that Cazadors and other horrifically mutated things could be hiding in said grass. Yeah not going there unless it is winter. At very least I wanted any giant insects or cold blooded creatures hidden away and not after my hide.

Still with having no luck finding Rose or Ruby I continued chatting up people. Which was nice actually, while Tenpony everypony had been stuck up, here, everypony here was very polite and nice. It was kind of invigorating.

It was also nice to get some information on the ground, while Homage gave good information via the radio this was less condescend and had a different spin. A spin I knew how to filter out and get to the heart of the information being fed to me. I also learned where Aegis had set up shop, which was good as I needed to speak with him at some point. One because I had a ton of crap that I could sell off to him, two because I needed to talk to him about what had been injected into me in that portable artillery. Then it struck me, I could talk to him here and now, while I wouldn't be getting caps for selling stuff off I would hopefully get to know what that stuff was. Then another thought struck me, that stuff was to prevent burnout in a unicorn, could it possibly be used to end my current bit of burnout. That would be worth a fair bit of caps, and part of me really wanted it.

I gave a bow to the stallion I had been talking to and walked back to the table full of drinks. I grabbed a glass and filled it, a task much harder to do by mouth and hoof than I had expected. Still though I managed it after taking far longer than I had thought it would. Drinking I noted a taste of alcohol which was not unwelcome. I wandered back into the crowd after finishing my drink, thankfully my body had gotten a bit more accustomed to dealing with alcohol so the light amount that was in that drink left me pleasantly buzzed. With that I turned to find Aegis, knowing the little I did between him and Ruby I suspected he also would know where she would be. Then, probably could go back, had been here for now a hour and a half. Lost in thought I nearly walked into somepony, I managed to stop myself only to have them hop into my face.

“Hey watch it.” Said the stallion I had just had hop into me.

“Maybe you should watch out, you hopped into me.” I said flatly. He did not look amused.

“No I didn't, you walked into me you drunken idiot.” He growled at me, great he was wanting to start something.

“Whatever,” I said then turned and walked off in another direction. Then I fell flat on my face, the tip of my horn tapping the floor hard enough to make a spasm pass through my body. I looked back to see the stallion remove his hoof that he had used to trip me.

“You're drunk, get out of here filly.” He said with a gruffness in his voice. Oh yes play the superiority card why don't you. If my magic was back I would set his stupid strip of beard on his chin alight. Instead I stood and walked off. I noticed he was following, yay couldn't leave well enough alone could you?

I came up with a stupid plan, well every plan was stupid in some way, but, this one counted on me being coordinated enough to beat the snot out of this jerk. So I walked out the front door and headed towards where I had been told Aegis' shop was now located. The snow had been cleared for the most part along the walkways of the street. I still could hear his not so quiet hoof falls behind me. I turned down a darkened alley and felt the snow crunching under my hoofs. I heard hoof steps rush up behind me, I bucked and hit nothing but air. Then I felt my hind legs get grabbed by the stallion. He flipped me over and I saw his eyes.

“So what the hell do you want with me?” I asked him as my horn lay in the cool snow, which I noticed was dripping down into my mane faster than it should be melting.

“I know your face, Moonlight. You have a nice little bounty on your head, and well after hearing what you said about how you left Saint Clover I know where my friends went.” He said, well that would make him a slaver, who was friends with the ones I had killed. Yay for my luck.

“Well if you don't remember as to why I have that bounty, and why your friends are dead would you like me to remind you?” I asked, I needed to buy myself some time and figure out how I was going to beat an earth pony who was larger than me, and I could feel it, fair bit stronger than me. And all I had to fight with was my hoofs. Unfortunately hoof to hoof combat wasn't my specialty, guns, energy and otherwise as well as melee weapons I was good with, my own hoofs? Yeah this was not going to be pretty, even more so if he figured out how bad my horn was. Which he probably had figured out due to my lack of trying anything with it, and it was bandaged.

“Oh no I know what you did to get that bounty, and I am going to collect.” He pulled out some rope from the satchel he had on his side.

“You do know that this is a horrible idea right?” I said as I readied myself to act.

“Shut up before I find something to shove in you to make you quiet.” He growled.

That at least confirmed my suspicion of him having no interest in me beyond money. That was a nice thing too as I didn't feel like gelding somepony right now. He started to tie my hind legs together I responded with quickly using them to grab his head and then flip myself over. He turned with me as he cried out as the snow gave him no traction to resist my sudden response. I kicked off the rope and backed away from him going further down the alley as he rose. He shook off his coat and eyed me with contempt. Then he charged down the alley after me. I jumped and cleared him landing on the snow, then slipped on the ice that had formed were my horn had lay while I was on the ground. I rolled to my legs in time to see him raising above me readying to bring down his fore hooves on my neck. I pushed to my side and reached out to shove him with my magic. That was a massive mistake, I screamed instead as pain lanced through my horn as his hoofs landed on the side of my neck instead of on my throat. My scream was cut short as he pressed a hoof on my throat. I had seconds to fight him before I would lose my strength and pass out. I instead writhed in the snow as my horn continued to scream at me for having tried to use my magic. He tapped my horn with a hoof as I felt the black of unconsciousness creep into my sight.

I woke up to the feeling of blood having pooled in my head. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. I then noticed that not only was I upside down, I was on the back of the stallion bounty hunter. Right, he had found my weakness, I had come up with a stupid plan. I moved my eyes about and noticed he was carrying a pistol in his mouth as we were headed south. My Eyes Forward Sparkle showed him as a red bar. Yeah I agreed with it, he was very much a hostile. He needed to be put down. I looked ahead of us, the direction we were going was south, towards Oakmare. Though the other red bar on my E.F.S. told me it was going to be a much shorter trip for him than I. Slowly I saw the form of a dark green alicorn, much shorter trip. I looked at my legs and saw he had tired my legs altogether, unlike what Rose did this was not allowing me to move to any extent. I looked north back to the heart of the town and saw a few blue bars. I moved my mouth and found that he also had tied that shut. I hated waking up, why didn't my body tell me important facts like this first instead of whether or not I needed the restroom. I then noticed the numbness throughout my body as I tried to move my back. Somehow I was paralyzed, or maybe not paralyzed, but, lethargic to a great degree. I guessed he gave me something after knocking me out so I couldn't fight. I looked forward and saw a faint glow around the alicorn, it didn't look quite right. I resigned myself to wait until the paralysis wore off before figuring out a escape. If I was lucky I had a few days until I was killed or put into whatever unity really was.

“I brought her, where are my caps.” The stallion said after putting away his pistol as we stood before the alicorn. She didn't move or respond in any way. Maybe she was just talking to him via her telepathy.

“You will get no caps, bounty hunter.” Said a voice, it didn't sound familiar, but, it sounded right for a alicorn. The stallion carrying me reared back dumping me horn first onto the ground. Whatever happened next was lost in a sea of pain and lights flashing in my eyes awash in the blur of my tears. I felt myself lose all weight and get turned over, the blood flowing back to my legs and out of my head. The tint of the world was familiar, it was the same as what had been around the alicorn. My eyes were brought to Rose's.

“There you are, always going off and getting in trouble when you drink.” She purred at me. “I think you are going to going to have to give up alcohol at this rate.”

Well then... I think this is not the worst thing that could have happened. I couldn't help but feel that I was used as bait to lure this guy out. Ah buck it, it was still Hearths Warming Eve I didn't want to think anymore, it hurt too much to keep doing it anyways.

“Anything to keep with you Rose.” I tried to say since my mouth was tied shut it came out as a mumble and I started to blush as Rose lay me on her back and walked us back to where we had been staying. I noticed Ruby and a few others of her troupe picking over a few bodies. Apparently there had been a shootout thanks to me. Being a hero had perks you know. But, with ever perk you had a drawback to go with it. Get well known as a good pony those who aren't so good will send people to capture or kill you. A few will try to bribe you instead to turn a blind eye to whatever they were doing. I noticed now Rose was also wearing a dress, it was a very nice dress, very soft. She was warm as well, and I was too tired to fight the dark tendrils of unconsciousness again. I let myself drift off on her back.

I came to resting in the dark on a bed. I blinked a few times as the room resolved itself into a familiar one. It was the bedroom that was in the suite that Ruby had given Rose. Our bed, I thought to myself. I noticed that I was naked, I had been stripped out of my dress and tucked into the bed under its thick warm blankets. I felt stirring next to me as my eyes picked out a shape under the covers. Her green mane was the only thing that stuck out in the darkness, the blue of her coat matching the darkness. I slide quietly out of the bed and went to the bathroom. My brain was still chugging, whatever had been in my system beyond the alcohol was messing with me still. Everything felt fuzzy. Thankfully not thinking about walking and just walking kept me from tripping. I drank from the faucet and heard my pipbuck clicking quietly as my radiation count climbed a bit quicker than I thought it would. I didn't care, the water made me feel better, washing out the odd feeling and taste in my mouth. I walked back out into the central room of our suite and saw the box that held my last gift to Rose sitting on the table next to my dress. I took the box in my mouth and turned to return to the bedroom. My hoof steps silent on the old wood of the house I climbed back into bed and gave a gentle prod with a hoof to Rose's shoulder. She stirred and turned to me blinking the world into shape. I set the box down between us and looked at her.

“I hadn't gotten a chance to give you my other gift. If you don't mind I want you to see it now.” I said, my voice was rough and ragged.

She simply blinked and then opened the box. I had figured she had looked into it before when digging through my stuff, but, the look on her eyes as she saw the two rings told me I had been wrong. She was crying and smiling up at me as I felt her embrace me. She pushed my head into her neck, her muzzle resting near my right ear as she held me. She didn't have to say anything, and I didn't want to break the moment, the tenderness was not lost on me. The sheer innocence of this moment weighed against my past month. Some ponies strove to bring back the old world thinking it was the best possible option for us. I knew the truth in this moment, we ponies could even now push out the wasteland in moments like this. We didn't need to look back at the old world longing for it again today. Instead we could work together, love, tolerate, and create once again making a new world. No, not a new world, restoring our lost world.

Rose kept holding me and petting my mane which I now noticed had been taken out of a braid. So much kept happening when I wasn't looking or wasn't awake. It felt strange. But, I knew it to be true, the world doesn't revolve around me, it doesn't stop when I don't observe it. It was still strange compared to the stillness of Saint Clover, while things happened there on their own it was always smaller. Here it felt like great cogs in some machine was running below my hooves constantly thrumming away. Slate's plans, Red Eye's plans, plans of everypony else in the wasteland kept going while I slept, ate, recovered, or planned. I was coming into this game behind everypony else. I had few cards of my own, most of them were bits of information, a few acquaintances around the wasteland. Nothing major, nothing all that strong. So, I needed to get a stronger hand in this massive game. So, if what my main thing was, was getting information and acquaintances then I should do that. Build a stockpile of these things. I couldn't get the numbers needed for a straight up fight, too many smaller factions in Seamane acting separately to organize against Red Eye or Slate.

A thought hit me, due to the capture of Oakmare things probably had changed drastically in the region. For one yes Red Eye had a heavier presence in the region thanks to his forces actually having a place under their control. But, the other effect of Oakmare changing hands was the brahmin. This made trade harder throughout the region. While Ruby had her carriage I couldn't imagine every merchant did. From what I remember most relied on brahmin to carry their wares and hired ponies to protect them, not to carry. So with the fall of Oakmare and its effective isolation thanks to Slate's army sitting in the south trade would be slowing to a crawl even after winter. Though at the same time there was plenty left in Seamane itself to scavenge there was the issue now of they had to go out of region to procure their brahmin. So now all that was left to do was to focus on hitting caravans to further isolate each community. Red Eye was a damn clever pony. He had set it so either the region slowly bleeds until it gives itself to him, or he conquers it via Slate. But, there was a potential exploit in his plan, one that would be hard to act on any time soon. Breaking Slate's forces would leave Red Eye sitting on his haunches in Oakmare. From the few bits of information I got when in Tenpony the only presence in the region he had was his guards and Helgrim's wings.

Another issue would probably be the prominence of slavers in the region. Dune City and Saint Clover both banned slaving activity within their towns, but, within the ruins of Seamane itself it was open season. While out west around Colt and Oakmare raiders were frequently targeted over caravans and what not in Seamane itself raiders often took slaves themselves to sell off to slavers.

Actually the ruins of Seamane the raiders were considered to be various 'gangs'. There were the Mages who ran out of the area around university, they used a lot of dash and magical energy weapons, though I heard rumors of robots and other advanced technology with them too.

There were the Sea Serpents who ran the bridges and river sides of the ruins. They were a nasty lot, mostly focused on capturing ponies to sell off or use as press gangs. What they used the press gangs for was anyponys guess.

There were the Sand Ponies who as far as I knew just focused on scavenging and killing out in the industrial section of the city west of Saint Clover.

Lastly there were the so called Angels, all I knew was they were tough and pretty much any settlement in the ruins paid their movements mind.

As I yawned I realized that I was on my back and Rose was atop of me fast asleep. She was quietly and might I add adorably snoring away. I also noticed the ring on her horn, it was the one with diamonds and sapphires. I looked to the side and saw the ring with sapphires and emeralds still sitting in the box. Guess Rose had the presence of mind not to try to put it on my horn until it was healed. Last thing we needed was for me to start spamming during a tender moment. Then again I had slipped deep into thought during it... I mentally shook my head at myself and wrapped my legs around Rose as much as I could. My hooves didn't meet each other, but, then again she was bigger than me in every way. I closed my eyes and let sleep take me for once by choice.

My dreams were filled with ice ponies, crab pony hybrids, raiders crushing Dune City as I failed to fight them off. Falling to my own death was a common theme too. I woke up a few times only to realize the pinning weight atop of me wasn't a building or an enemy, but, was simply Rose still sleeping calmly on top of me. Never once thought did I wake in a panic, just in confusion as the details of my dreams faded from my mind. The warmth and weight of Rose atop of me reassuring me I was fine, I was safe, and I also felt after her saving me last night, that she wouldn't let anything bad happen to me if she had the power to stop it. Or maybe I was reading things into others because my brain just wants to analyze everything at random times.

 My Eyes Forward Sparkle was still up and I checked the time, it was still four hours until sunrise, so I forced myself back to sleep. Going back to sleep was easy when your body is tired from getting so beaten up.

Waking up once more I saw it to be noon, I noticed that there was one window in the room, facing out into an alleyway, the window itself was big enough for Rose to easily climb through. I also took note that I could see a light snow falling once again. While it was not the unnatural blizzards of before it still annoyed me that there was more snow to fall. I squished that annoyance though, it served no purpose other than to get me worked up. I didn't want to be worked up, this was a point in time to relax and enjoy myself. Even if enjoying myself was selfish in light of understanding the plight of my fellow ponies in and around Seamane, my home. I frowned looking up at the still sleeping face of Rose, I was feeling guilty none the less. But, today was Hearths Warming Day, I should be here with her, or my family, preferably both. As if sensing my frustration and annoyance that deep itch started up again. It was enough that I started to scratch my back on the bedding, which woke up Rose. As she looked around to see the source of her awakening she moved a hoof to rub her eyes and hit my horn. It wasn't as bad as yesterday, or as bad as last night. It was still bad, what was worse was the fact I had just started to form words in my mouth so my cry of agony came out sounding rather silly.

As I resumed control of my body I found myself on my side with a surprised Rose petting my mane. I felt the heat in my cheeks, I felt embarrassed about the whole situation still. At the moment I was a bit envious of earth ponies as they didn't have to worry about horns or wings getting hurt. But, at the same time I knew I would hate becoming an earth pony after having the privilege of having a horn to do magic with. Though Celestia only knows why our horns are so sensitive to touch, even worse during burnout. As it was, I was glad to not be a pegasus, I couldn't imagine how horrifying it would be to have a broken wing, or worse to lose a wing. To them it probably was worse than losing your horn. They lost something far more than just spells, they lost a whole world. With the sobering thoughts of how bad life would be as a pegasus who lost their wing I pushed the disgusting feeling of envy out of myself.

Still though, the pain had caused me to cry, made a mess of things. It was noponies fault that it happened, and I had to make certain Rose wasn't blaming herself for it. Though the look on her face didn't show any guilt, just a look of empathy for me. I gave a long sigh as I resigned myself to just laying about again today. Neither of us had any obligations today so I was going for staying in, though I did ask Rose to look to see if she could find any books about magical burn out. I figured by now she would know any book sellers in the area better than I. However I doubted the likelihood of finding any books surviving about the subject. I did however assume that somepony had the intelligence back in the day to do extensive research into magical burn out as it would be a hamper to Equestria of it's medics or combat unicorns couldn't do magic. Hay, there was a Zebra poison that attacked a ponies magic directly, they would need to be researching countermeasures to it. Then again maybe their countermeasure was keeping unicorns away from combat and keeping earth ponies with battle saddles close to any unicorn of importance. Worse was in all likelihood the places with information on magical burn out to any degree beyond symptoms would be either at a Ministry of Arcane Sciences hub or some sort of research hub like the University.

I gave another sigh as I poured through one of the medical books I had with me for anything of use. Unfortunately it didn't touch on magical burn out, though it did cover treating magical injuries. Would be of use if I ever ran afoul of The Mages. Or if Slate had more magical energy weapons. That actually worried me, The Mages are known as experts in pre war technology, getting it working and selling it off to scavengers. Surprisingly The Mages even with being such heavy users of Dash were some of the most approachable of the gangs. They would take anyponies caps or Dash to pay for repairs or a hit. I grumbled at the idea of going and paying a bunch of trumped up eggheads hooked on Dash for books or even research on magical burn out. However, at the same time it would be worth swinging by their place to avoid the Sea Serpents. The southern bridge of the three that crossed the Arroyo river was always left alone. I guessed somepony in the Sea Serpents figured out if they kept anypony from actually getting across the river nopony would be around for them to fight. Then again some smart ponies had to be leading each of the gangs so they wouldn't fall apart.

I sighed again, which I was doing a lot today, as Rose came in. She set out a few more books for me to read. One of them being Supernaturals. I snickered at it, but, reading material was reading material. Who knows, there were some rather strange and unusual bits of technology and life in the world why not things of the supernatural. I put it on the bottom as it's publishing date predated the more modern books, and I use modern in the most conservative possible way. To be honest I think the most recently published book would be the various Wasteland Survival Guides by Ditzy Doo. Still though it was worth at very least getting a nice firm understanding of magical injuries as well as magic injury.

After the third medical journal on injuries and treatment I turned to the Supernaturals book. Upon closer inspection I realized its title was horribly misleading to the point I wanted to physically harm whoever pinned its name. The book itself was more of something akin to a something for survivalists than in the place for a medical journal. Half of the plants within it were mentioned in warning of their nasty effects, the other half were cures for common ailments. I frowned noticing more of it was based in zebra alchemy. Hay, there was even bits and pieces that probably lead to the creation of the healing potion in here. Unfortunately any possibly useful bits of alchemy in here was without worth as many if not all of these plants were long extinct thanks to the war. I sighed as I closed it, yet another dead end, though was a nice way to pass time. I had more information that was useful in a more general sense of medicine as well as arcane science and survival.

“Find anything useful?” Rose asked from next to me. She had been reading as well, apparently a skill she had learned early in her life before the raiders. Mostly she had been focused on survivalist books, some arcane science, and weapon maintenance. I looked over the arcane science material and realized I probably should be going over it myself as it was more advanced than I knew. Though not focused on computers it was focused on what I messed up on all the time, complex spells. I gave a frown in response to Rose's question.

“I take that as a no.” She said giving me a faint smile. “Here, maybe this will be more helpful, even if it is a little condescending.” She pushed over a very thick book entitled 'A Primer to the Arcane Sciences' it was by Twilight Sparkle herself. I gasped looking at it.

“Where did you get this from?” I asked her as I opened it to its index.

“I got it from Wild Silver when we got to Colt.” She said as she brought over some of food as my stomach growled.

“Who?” I simply asked, I didn't recall being introduced to this pony.

“Oh the unicorn twins we were traveling with. They are daughters of Ruby.” Rose said before digging into some of the food the had brought to us. I blinked, those two were her daughters? But, they were just about as old as me. Which meant, wow Ruby looked young for her age.

“Huh, well alright then.” I said as I turned my attention to the primer.

The first few chapters made sense to me as it was the well trotted area of telekinesis, levitation, and illumination spells. Next came where my experience and education ended. Next came the foundation for more complex spells, to put it simply, my head hurt afterwards. I turned to the part of the book about fire magic and found that I had been doing it wrong. Which was evident by my horn injury. Fire magic required a great deal of control and a few layers of protection spells to prevent injury of its caster. I had used none of those and poured out pure power of the element of fire. There was a chapter on magical burn out and horn injuries. It did not give me much hope or a positive outlook on my recovery. Injuries as extensive as what I received to my horn required either weeks of healing to naturally recover or magical surgery. Given I was living in a post apocalyptic wasteland I doubted there was anypony left who knew how to do the surgery.

“You have a look on your face, Moony. Everything alright?” Rose asked setting down next to me and wrapping a hoof around my neck, resting on my withers. I let out another sigh, I was wondering if I should start keeping track of how much I was sighing today.

“Just bit of frustration at the more advanced magic not clicking. Though that might be due to I can't try it out to see what feels off for me. The other is some news about my horn.” I said looking up at Rose, her face had a hint of worry. “It might be weeks before I can do magic again. Or worse I may have lost it for good unless somepony knows how to do the surgery to fix my horn.”

“Tenpony tower?” Rose offered, I nearly face hoofed having forgotten the fact that they would in all likelihood have the knowledge, ability, and resources to perform it.

“Unfortunately...” Unfortunately what? It was the opposite direction I wanted to go. It would let things here get out of control once more? Am I afraid the combat? I was adept enough with my mouth and I had S.A.T.S. to aid me. Plus I wouldn't be alone, I would have one of the quietest ponies around for back up. “I don't know. It seems a long ways to go, even more so with the weather it would take quite a while... Ugh, I can't even convince myself it is a bad idea.” I said in defeat, I couldn't logically argue against it.

“Why would it be a bad idea, I am certain we could get Ruby and a few of her guards to go with us. After all we do have a pony with quite a strong back.” Rose said holding back a laugh.

“Mind setting it up then as it was your idea? Hopefully by the time we come back it will still be cold enough that the Cazadors out east will still be hiding from the cold.” I said, finally giving into the notion I would be going back to Manehattan, once again far earlier than I had intended.

Though this time I wouldn't be alone which would be nice.

“Actually, before we set our hearts on this, I need to talk to Aegis about a possible solution.” I said, remembering that I had wanted to talk to him today about that drug that had prevented my burn out before. “When in Oakmare that machine gave me something to recharge my magic and prevent burnout. I am curious if he has more because that might fix the burnout itself and from there we would know how bad my horn really is.”

“Well, it is already late evening if you hadn't noticed.” Rose said, I looked out the front windows and saw it was indeed dark out and my E.F.S. proudly displaying it was after seven at night. “So that will have to wait for tomorrow.”

“In that case I suggest that we take a break from working our minds and instead get some physical strain instead.” I said as I stood and stretched before hopping off the sofa and doing my best to give a sultry look to Rose over my back as I swung my tail to one side. “I wouldn't mind a partner, makes it more fun.”

From the bright red that came over Rose's face I think I had managed to do the trick. Finally I had turned the tables on purpose on a mare who always got me to blush in situations like this. Tonight was going to be my victory not hers.

“Sure, I will get the rope.” She said while regaining her composure and giving me a equally sultry look and playing with her lips with that tongue of hers.

“I hope you know how to tie yourself up like you did to me, because it is boring being always on the receiving end of things.” I said with almost annoyance as I inspected my right hoof. The eep I heard from Rose's direction was priceless. I proceeded to the bedroom as Rose scrambled gathering things. When she came in she was all tied up which made it hard for her to walk and climb onto the bed. She lay beside me fighting the blush on her face as I could smell her excitement.

“Don't worry, I will be gentle and slow.” I purred as I nuzzled her. She simply nodded and gave into me as I had given into her so many times before. At first our relationship had felt very one sided as it felt she knew everything compared to I who knew nothing. Of course our relationship had begun very physically and from there began to grow into a true relationship. We emotionally cared about one another and lowered our guard. The first few times I had tried to take control Rose just stopped and any fun we were having ended. I had grown to accept it to an extent, but, I had made a gambit to see how much things have changed from a month ago. It had paid off. It was clumsy, and probably pretty terrible sex. But, Rose trusted me and I was a quick study. I focused on remembering the few times I had relieved sexual frustration growing up and applied them, as well as what Rose had done to me. There were misses as not ever pony had the same sensitivities. In the end at least Rose seemed happy and relieved.

She slipped into a post orgasm slumber as it hit nine thirty at night and I was left wide awake. Alone with my thoughts again I focused on making a list of things to do, or more of a list of what I wanted to do. First and foremost was recover the use of my magic. Second on the list was activate those last couple of towers. Third was raid a library, or download one. Fourth was more vague, save the Seamane region. Funny how simple those first three where compared to the last. Then again the fourth was really a bunch of goals tied together, stopping Slate, Red Eye, Helgrim... But, that was it.

I just lay there staring at Rose's sleeping form. She was intoxicating to me. My eyes drank in her features, which were extenuated in their beauty with the rope on her. My nose drank in her scent as I nuzzled her softly as to not wake her. I felt her coat on my muzzle as I kissed her neck, the softness of her coat, the color, the scent. All of it was getting to me badly. It probably didn't help that I had gotten nothing out of our fun even though I had started out horny that had faded as I had pleasured Rose. Now that I was done with her and my thoughts were adrift it returned to my own desires that I had foregone. I gave a disgruntled sigh as I let my hoof go to work. It wasn't anything like having Rose pleasure me and felt hollow. No joy in it, just getting rid of built up frustration, it almost felt mechanical and left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. I just buried my face in Rose's neck and drifted off to sleep.

This nights sleep was better, I only had a few nightmares and those seemed more focused on my worry about the future of my magic. Dreams of green eyes with red iris's, deep cold and shadow. The worst part was reliving Stable twenty three. It seemed that failure and Stable twenty three would be long term companions of mine in my sleep. Fear was something that had heavily grown within my psyche if dream analysis was in any way legitimate. Another way to look at it was some part of me was scared of the things I had come across in my time in the wasteland. To be fair, there is a lot to be feared in the wasteland. The real trick is to not let that fear paralyze you into inaction. Not only does that pretty much seal your fate in a horrible life and death, but, it also screws over those around you. Either making you a drain on their resources or mobility. Or making them have to make the hard choice to abandon or kill you to save themselves, or sell you if their moral fiber is crap. In the morning when I woke I felt physically well rested, but, my mind wasn't so well rested. Looking at the time I figured that by now if Aegis was going to be open today he was open now and grabbed my stuff. I left Rose sleeping and a note of where I had gone.

Entering a rather familiar warehouse I noticed Aegis busying himself with either inventory or mindless paperwork. The door closing was enough noise to get a look up at me. He simply gave a nod as I approached the counter. First unloading all of the needless crap, then questions, in case he didn't want to answer. Because at very least caps to cover what was probably going to be a costly procedure in Tenpony would be worth the trip.

I laid out the excess firearms that I had gathered, he mulled over them before looking through the boxes of ammo and my close to ruined reinforced combat armor. Seriously I went through armor like I did bottles of whiskey. I honestly needed some new armor. My helmet was trashed, the central plates of the combat armor were cracked apart from the ice spikes and blunt force I had received. I had to admit, the armor did its job in keeping me alive. Unfortunately armor generally tended to be useless after the amount of punishment I put it through, and rather unsalvageable. Or at least unsalvageable to me, Aegis smiled as he took what I was offering and headed into the back to find me something worth the items I laid out for him. I still kept my two five point five six millimeter pistols, the battle rifle, the modified laser rifle, and my laser cannon. I had broken down the laser cannon so it could sit in my saddlebags.

Aegis returned and set down a set of really nice armor.

“Seamane Police Riot Armor.” Aegis said with a smile on his face. “Considering how much abuse you take it should hold up a fair bit longer than combat armor.”

I picked it off of the table and pulled it on. Not only did it have a very nice amount of padding and armor, but, it had a nice long coat that was made of Kevlar. The helmet was also very nice, it had some vision enhancement enhancements. It reminded me of my varmint rifle with it's night vision scope. I heard a clink of caps on the table to see a bag caps waiting for me. Of course all of the ammo and rather good quality weapons would more than cover the cost of the riot gear.

“Anything else I can do you for?” Aegis asked, in surprisingly a pleasant tone.

“Parts for a lever action shotgun, as well as a battle rifle?” I asked as I pulled the helmet off.

 What surprised me was the built in space for a unicorns horn. My horn thankfully fit in it, must be more of that fitting magic that seemed to be omnipresent in prewar mass produced barding. Even more surprising was the lack of pain it brought with it. I connected the helmet to the holding slot on the back of the neck of the armor so it rested off of my head. Aegis had returned and set down what I had asked for. It didn't take long to reach reasonable prices for the parts and I asked if I could just put them on in his store. He didn't mind. It probably helped that I had to unload each weapon before modifying them. Once I was done, both the rifle and shotgun were in better condition and I was happy with how well they moved.

“So you all set, or is there something else I can help you with?” Aegis asked, and I noticed the sack of caps that had been set out for me was now smaller.

“One last thing, that portable artillery, it injected me with something to prevent burnout. What exactly was it? Because, if you haven't noticed, currently burned out.” I said eyeing him watching as my words registered with him.

“Ah, yes, that.” Aegis simply said, his body language betraying nothing. “Well as you probably know the portable artillery system was a joint operation of the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Arcane Science. It was kept off the book, hence the Office of Interministry Affairs being involved.”

I nodded, made sense from the memory that Steelhooves had shown me. The M.O.T. were not big fans of doing things outside of the earth pony way. I would figure that developing powerful weapons to counter the pony portable balefire egg launcher had been a big thing towards the end of the war. Hay, the Zebra Empire had regenerating tanks, dragons, and even golems. Why wouldn't Equestria have jumped into making weapons that could slay a dragon in one shot, melt a tank to slag, or vaporize a entire rank of golems.

“And that was a prototype?” I asked.

“Yes, scavenged from one of the tech firms in downtown Seamane. Lot of companies here while backed by the Ministry of Technology were left to their own devices on development of whatever they wanted. So long as it was for the betterment of Equestria. Thanks to the base just down the road a lot of it was experimental technology. Kind of like a miniature Hoofington.” Aegis informed me, now sitting and spouting knowledge that I happily consumed.

“Alright, so why here and not just dump it all into Hoofington?” I could see the obvious value in decentralization of research and testing, but, Hoofington was better equipped for this sort of stuff.

“Just like I assume you are thinking. Decentralization, while those who rebuild Hoofington were confident that it would never fall again, not everypony was of course. As well as most firms had offices in each city which feed information back and forth. No point in moving all your assets across the country if you could keep them separated and prevent groupthink.”

That made a lot of sense. Groupthink could cause some rather nasty mistakes or oversights of possible alternatives. It was also something very hard to fight against. I stretched a little getting used to the feeling of the armor as it moved around me and with me. I was surprised with how little it restrained me. It was far less than that of combat armor. Hay, it felt like back when I was wearing leather armor.

“So then, that artillery was meant as a way to supplement Equestria's ground forces, so why the use of a Unicorn as, for a lack of a better term, a battery?” I queried, looking over my shoulder at Aegis and noticing just how far up the armor went on my neck. I was surprised by the fact that my mane stuck out along the neck even though the armor there was reinforced by some sort of system of plates.

“Because it needed a source of vast magical energy, and carrying around a magical gemstone big enough to power it was out of the question. Late in the war they had found a way to convert a Unicorns raw magic into energy to power things.” I shivered remembering Fillydelphia, was that why Red Eye paid more for unicorns? He had them hooked up to some device that milked their magic for them to power his operation? Well that would fit in with his M.O. of forcing others to give every single thing they could until they were not, but, a corpse. Even then I felt he probably did something with them.

“Alright, what about the injection it gave me, some sort of miracle cure for burnout?” I asked, finally getting to the heart of what I was interested in.

“Ah, that was a byproduct of some Ministry of Arcane Science project. I don't have all the specifics of that project, but, in short it was to make super soldiers. Enhance unicorns magical abilities, strengthen their bodies, even giving them wings. It was meant to work on any pony who used it.” Aegis turned and pulled something up on his terminal. But, my mind was panicking at the implications.

“Wait WHAT?! Twilight Sparkle had a project to essentially make fucking ALICORNS?!” I ended with shouting as the panic rose within me as well as I started to feel sweat bead on my forehead. “Oh goddesses what the FUCK DID YOU PUT IN ME?!” I was shouting now, full blown panic, I felt justified in it too. I was glad my weapons were either put away or empty.

“Calm down, the byproduct used in that machine was a batch of it that was known to boast magical abilities and at least recharge their magical reserves.” I felt the force of Aegis' voice beating down my anger at him, my panic mixing with fear of him and fear of what might happen to me. “Now then, have you had any side effects other than enhanced magical abilities, Moonlight?”

“I really bad deep itch that I can't reach, Sir.” I said, then blinked in absolute confusion as to why I called Aegis sir and was now standing up almost like a soldier would. Slowly my stance melted away as I watched Aegis mull over data on his terminal for a long while not answering me. It took the better part of an hour before he addressed me again.

“I would suggest you go to Tenpony Tower then.” Aegis said before powering off his terminal. “Get treated for magical burn out and see about your horn. That itch is purely psychological.”

At this point every bit of energy within me had burnt out from panicking and worrying. Now I had a dull ache and a heaviness in my chest of worry. There was nothing I could do to have countered my panic attack as it went into full swing faster than I could have reacted or noticed my own descent into panicking. Still though, it had been over nothing.

“Well... Okay then, Rose and I were planning on going anyways. Rose if she is up by now is probably talking to Ruby about going with us.” I scowled the last of my panic having melted away with Aegis' informed opinion of my state of being. “Volunteered me as the pack mule for it.”

Aegis then laughed a deep hearty laugh and I blinked at him.

“What is so amusing, Aegis.” I was already feeling emotionally drained after my panicking.

“Nothing, though I have somepony who would be willing to go along with you. He is a friend of mine and needs to get to Manehattan alive. Best if he is with some ponies who know their way around than on his own. Not that I doubt his skill, opposite of that, more of. Well you know how nasty Manehattan is.” He said with a smile still plastered on his face.

“Well send him by Ruby's place, we will finish sorting this out in the next few days.” I said as I turned to leave, feeling a better and worse at the same time. “Oh wait, you didn't answer one of my questions. Do you have more of that stuff? I wouldn't mind paying for it if you did.”

“No, I don't. As useful as it would be there isn't another dose I can give you.” Aegis said with a tone of finality and command.

Without another word I left and returned to Rose's place. There was planning to do, Aegis had thrown me a bone with the information as well as another body for the trip. All that was left to do now was like I had said, finish sorting things out. Though personally I wanted us to go as soon as possible. Every day we waited here was another day I wouldn't have for going east upon our return and hopefully avoiding the mutated life in the Unbound.

Upon my return I was drawn into negotiations with Ruby. She forced me to do a test of my strength to show her how good of a pack mule I would be. In the midst of it all the mysterious extra body that Aegis given me had arrived and was watching us. He had armor like myself, though he had the helmet off and I could tell he was an earth pony. What caught me was his red eyes, I hadn't seen any like them before. My attention was pulled away once more as I was put through another round of tests. When I got a free moment I was able to analyze this stallion more. Beyond his stunning red eyes he had a plain brown coat and a naturally gray mane. He had a slight smile as he watched me put through Ruby's tests. Once she was finally placated and Rose got back to planning out the trip I made my way over to him.

“So, you must be Aegis' acquaintance he wished for me to take to Manehattan.” I said, eyeing him, up close his face showed a lifetime of hard work. It reminded me of Meadows from the memory of Morning Sprout's. “If you hadn't been informed I am Moonlight.” I said with a polite bow.

“I am, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Moonlight.” He said standing and returning my bow. “You can call me Foresight.”

I looked at him, it was an odd name, but, maybe he had changed his name to that. Much like how I assumed Aegis at one point had changed his name.

“Well Foresight, might want to let Ruby know you are coming with us and, if you haven't overheard yet, the plan for this trip to Tenpony Tower.” I said as I turned to look back at Rose and Ruby who were pouring over maps. “Try to keep what you ask for Ruby to take with us light, I may have a strong back, but, I don’t have bones of steel.”

“Don't worry, I travel light.” He simply said as he got up and walked to the table Rose and Ruby were using as their planning table. I took his seat after he got to them and let my legs relax. Whatever the exact plan was escaped me as I watched two of my friends and Foresight hammer out our trip. I stayed awake for only another five minutes before I felt myself nod off using the table beside me as support. I don't think anypony realized that I passed out for a long while.

Footnote: Nine Percent to next level up.