Fallout Equestria: The Ranger of Seamane

Chapter 16 – Round Trip

“I'm so sorry...”

When I had woken up Rose filled me in on the plan. It was simple. So simple because really all we were doing was taking my path backwards, well minus the trip through Canterlot. Foresight looked shocked at the fact I had gone through it. A diversion from the normal track was added, we were going a fair bit out of our way to avoid Shattered Hoof since it was now occupied by some force. Rose had asked what Canterlot was like, and I had filled her in on the abominations that filled the streets, the death spewing speakers, and of course the damn Alicorns that infested the place too. I also mentioned the pink cloud and the nasty effects of it. I was happy that I wasn't fused with my equipment, I shudder to think how nasty it would be to do maintenance on a pipbuck that was fused with ones leg.

“Hey Moonlight, you alright you seem a bit out of it. Well more out of it than usual.” Rose asked, the hint of concern in her voice more obvious than I had expected masked within her silvery voice.

“Well, I don't know, I think I am just still exhausted from Ruby's 'training' yesterday.” I said with a grimace.

Honestly Ruby had put me through the ringer with making certain I was a reliable pack mule for the trip. I looked at Rose to see it hadn't convinced her, and now I wasn't convinced of my own answer.

“Hmm... Well maybe I should help you with that 'training' knot tying is crucial as well as endurance. Learning how to get out of being tied up might help a bit too.” A dark grin formed on my lovers face, one that should have made me panic, would have made probably any other pony run off, I was enticed.

“Sounds like a good way to spend the rest of the week.” I simply replied, we had four more days until we were to head out to Tenpony tower, and I had promised to spend a week as Rose's play thing. So really everything was going just as planned.

*                *                *

To say I was refreshed, relaxed, and over all in a much healthier state of being after the last four days would be an understatement. As it was, it probably was still a understatement. My horn still hurt like hell when I tried to do magic, I still couldn't do magic. However, I was chipper, I felt amazing and a lot less stiff than I had in ages. I also felt like I was not as skinny as I had been. Probably was thanks to being forced to eat and drink regularly instead of only when my body demanded it while I walked. As it was I was practically skipping even with the several hundred pounds of cargo I was carrying. Rose was smiling as we walked out of town with Ruby, Topaz, and Foresight.

The three of them initially faced hoofed at me and Rose as we did skip around. Eventually they accepted the fact that we were both bundles of energy and rather happy. Hay, we probably were happier than any sane pony in the wasteland had the right to be.

We made good time headed back towards Old Appleloosa, as we did I saw a few remains of my former battle. Most notably the crater I hadn't realized I created when I unleashed the fire spell that had ultimately cost me the use of my horn and left it warped. I was awed at what I saw, anything that was metal was warped to a degree that showed extreme heat, the ground hadn't just been frozen over, but, the dirt below the ice had also turned into glass. I didn't mention any of this as we passed the shattered remains of the ice ponies as well. I also saw the frozen remains of the Alicorns that had fought as well. The pass was a mess, but, it was a mess that by the end of summer would be long forgotten and washed away by the rains.

With little more of note we passed through the rest of the badlands and into Old Appleloosa. When we got into town I kept myself fully covered as I saw a few posters with Red Eye's bounty for me on them. Since the train was shut down during the winter we would be spending the night in town, Ruby was well known here so it wasn't much issue to keep the slavers off of our backs. Part of me was annoyed at the fact that I had become accustom to being around slavers and doing nothing about them. But, then again I also saw how reckless actions could plunge this town into chaos and leave it with nothing to support itself with. Every town was practically a faction unto itself. Though it generally had the eyes of a greater community on it. Slaver towns had the eyes of Red Eye on it, so any action within them would inform his group and if you did things like I did or wanted to do would make it hard to be accepted within said towns. There were also places like Dune City and Saint Clover where it was the general community of the region that would be affected. I knew the ponies of the Mage's were a bit more open than I had thought them to be thanks to what Ruby and Topaz had told me about them. While yes they were a gang it was so they could hold a area of influence without somepony else bossing them around.

So as things stood it was going well, nopony here recognized me, nopony here would know what my marefriend looked like so Rose wasn't a dead give away. Ruby and her crew wouldn't be a give away either. She regularly passed through the town. Foresight just looked like a well armed hired gun, which actually might be the truth since ponies kept asking when he would be available for hire. I had actually received a few offers myself for work, but, I had turned them down, and found the modulation of my voice thanks to the speakers and microphone built into the helmet rather helpful. I didn't look like myself, I didn't sound like myself, and I didn't look to be in the company who knew myself. Though once it was found out I was a mare I started getting other requests. I turned them all down as well.

“Excuse me miss, I think I know you.” A stallion said as he walked up to me at the table I sat at with Rose. She was drunk, I was overheated and thirsty as I had no way to drink with the helmet on.

“Oh really now? Who do you think I am.” I said, listening to my metallic and more feminine voice answer out from my helmet.

“You're that bitch I was tried to capture last week.” He said in a drunken slur.

“Right, and how would you know that, I am in full armor, nopony here even knows if I am the gender I am claiming to be.” I answered flatly, and stupidly, too many prattling questions on rates of services had left me with a short fuse, and I could feel fire starting to lick it.

“Because who the fuck else would be wearing Seamane Ranger armor than the Ranger of Seamane.” He said pointing an accusatory hoof at the table. I blinked inside my helmet, I had just got made by a drunk pony, that is actually rather sad.

“I don't know, anypony who wants to keep their hide safe and warm during this damnable winter.” I answered as flatly as I could hoping any edge in my voice was erased by the helmets modulation.

“How about you take that helmet off and show your face then, that will prove if you are or aren't who I think you are.” He retorted and then took another swig of alcohol. I gave a sigh and closed my eyes as I took the helmet off shaking my mane free as I set it on the table beside me. I opened my eyes to see the drunk had passed out on the floor, and everypony was looking at him, not me. I simply face hoofed at the fact that if I had just waited a few moments more my identity would still be a mystery. As it was I could feel the eyes of the rest of the bar move from him to me. Then unexpectedly things went back to normal and somepony dragged off the drunkard.

“Well that went better than I expected.” I said looking at Rose who was plastered at the moment, she also saw that my helmet was off and my mouth open. I have to say, being kissed by your lover can really change your mood in a heartbeat. It also can change your heart rate and priorities equally as fast. I heard some whooping from the drunk crowd that was still paying attention to me at the moment. As I broke the kiss I figured now was as good of time as any for a drink or two. So I decided I would get a round for us and a fair bit of water for Rose. I really did not want to see how bad hangovers hit her, more so with the trip through the mountains between here and New Appleloosa.

“Bottle of Wild Pegasus and a fair bit of water if you don't mind.” I said as I sat down on a bar stool at the bar itself as the barpony came to see what I wanted.

“Seventy caps.” He said and I pulled out the allotted caps as he fished out my drinks. I stood and set the drink on my back and walked back to the table with Rose who was not wearing my helmet and quoting bad science fiction novels. I set down the drinks and took back my seat.

“Mistress, these ponies don't know the glory of the Imperium of Equis. Should I cleanse these heretics?” Rose asked me as I had a mouth full of Wild Pegasus. I did my best to not lose any of the drink, I managed despite my respiratory systems best efforts. When the hay had she read those novels, I thought I left them back in Dune City?! Oh wait right probably when I was off getting thrown through the clouds and then nearly turned into a gray and blue pony pancake. I fought to get the rest of my drink down as Rose hugged me and laughed as she set the helmet down on the table. “Sorry Moony, I didn't mean to make you choke.”

“It is alright,” I coughed out, smelling and tasting alcohol still.

“I heard you could chug Wild Pegasus, may I see you do it?” Rose attempted to purr through her drunkenness. I shrugged and took a drink of water first.

“Sure, not like it would hurt me that much.” I said and then proceeded to chug down the whiskey. When I finished Rose was looking at me with stunned eyes as I reached for a bottle of water. Drinking in all reality was more of a battle between a poison that dehydrated you and yourself. I didn't want to lose. I also ignored the annoying clicking of my Pipbuck informing me that everything I was drinking had traces of radiation in it. I knew from even the read out in my Eyes Forward Sparkle I was no where near having a dangerous amount of radiation exposure. Hay, I had learned that it didn't hurt to be some what radioactive in the wasteland. Otherwise one would be wasting a lot of Rad-X and RadAway to keep constantly at zero. Plus it seemed as though I had become resistant to radiation after being in the radioactive hell hole that was Fillydelphia.

“Hey, Moony?” Asked Rose in my ear, a bit too close to it as I swear she started licking it afterwards.

“Uh, yes Rose?” I asked forcing myself to not flinch from the sudden intrusion of my personal space and thoughts.

“How about we head up for the night?” She asked me before I felt her weight against me. I nodded as I finished another bottle of surprisingly heavily irradiated water.

“Just drink a few bottles of water so you don't have a headache when the alcohol goes out of your system.” I said pointing two three bottles I had left out for her and began on another bottle myself. “Trust me, you don't want to experience a hangover while walking.”

Without further persuasion she drank the water and I finished mine off. The others weren't as tired as Rose or myself so they were going to stay down here for a while longer. I couldn't blame them, the place as nice once you got past the whole slaving thing. That kind of seemed like a theme I was noticing. Ignore this one rather bad thing about this place and it is rather nice. Except I didn't know what I could say that too with regards to Saint Clover. That kind of bugged me, it wasn't paradise, or Dise either. Dise... Been a while since I thought about that place to the south. I remember Mom and Dad talking about it from time to time, explaining that is where Mom had been born and grew up, then when Dad and Grandpa had been in town she left with them. Beyond the bits about the main attractions of the casinos I knew little of the place other than that it wasn't worth my time. I was inclined to agree, the place was based around exploiting everypony they could without slavery. Which was only a step up from slavery itself with what I heard they would do when it came to getting sex workers, get them hooked on something then threaten to cut them off if they don't work for them. Then again things could and probably had changed in the twenty plus years since Mom and Dad had been there.

I was snapped back to reality with realizing I had been on autopilot while taking Rose to our room, while she was taller, and heavier, than me I was strong enough to keep her upright until we made it to bed. Rose always seemed to take pleasure in unexpected teasing and advances. Which, you know what as a couple I couldn't argue with them, and they were generally fun as long as we weren't in public. Once we were out of the public I think the term perverts, deviants, or kinky would describe us to most. Then again considering raiders existed maybe some would cut us some slack and just call us kinky. Though not part of being kinky was the stallion who walked in during the middle with a riot shotgun.

“Finish your show, least I could do for two pretty unicorns that will get me quite a few caps.” He said with a grin as he held the shotgun in the air with his magic. I didn't look lower on his form, but, I could imagine how he was reacting to the scene. My mood was out the window, but, unfortunately that didn't matter, and no matter how much I willed it I knew help wasn't coming as the stallion closed the door behind him. He wasn't the drunk from earlier, but, I figured he had decided to take the gambit of trying to catch me. He saw Rose as a bonus, and the situation he came in on a second bonus. If my magic had been back I would have-

“Fuck you.” Rose said and the stallion's head exploded without a sound. I blinked in absolute confusion as his body in Rose's magic quietly slumped to the ground and the blood was forced back into the body and the wound cauterized. My mood was thoroughly gone, through Rose's seemed to have gone into overdrive as she pressed into me. I filed this new side of Rose as something to be feared, never piss off Drunk Horny Rose, unless you wished to die. I decided that satisfying my drunk and horny lover while keeping her from reciprocating would be best for my physical and probably mental health. I also needed to find out how the hay she managed to blow his head off without a sound.

In the morning I looked over the corpse of our would be attacker and checked the ammo he had. He had a Ironshod Firearms IF-9 Combat Shotgun full of explosive ammo.

“Why the hay would you try to capture somepony with explosive rounds?! Ugh, stupid pony... Well you got what you deserved.” I said quietly to myself as I looted his corpse. A few minutes later I felt the familiar warm embrace of Rose upon me. Again she had managed to sneak up on me without a sound and the only indication she was on me was her letting her weight lay against me. I swear she probably could choke someone to death without them realizing her hooves were around their throat.

“Care to explain how you made his head go pop without a sound?” I asked Rose as I turned my head up to nuzzle her neck.

“Simple, he was focused on you, I grabbed a round from his shotgun while having a silencing spell on him then set the round off with a bit of heat.” She said as it it was the easiest thing in the world. I stared up at her beautiful face and her long horn. Maybe length of horn was a measure of magical power, oh the envy that must have caused ponies back in the day around Celestia and Luna. I blinked looking up at my tall slender lover. She really was a big pony for having been enslaved from an early age. On the other hoof I was small, in fact Silver Shores was taller than me when I left and he had yet to get out of the years in which stallions grew. It hit me just like that, I was the smallest pony I knew, though I knew one other pony who had a shorter horn than I.

Coming back to reality I felt something warm and wet on my horn.

“Rose... really now is not the time, we are sitting in front of the headless corpse of a pony who tried to enslave us, failing that kill us, and force us to have sex in front of him. Which we did end up having sex in front of after he was headless...” I trailed off as Rose had no intention of stopping with playing with me, as I felt her take me back to bed, we still had two hours until sunrise, but, I think she figured out that I had kept her from getting me off last night due to the awkwardness of the dead pony in the room. She also wasn't giving me a choice in the matter now, I gave a frustrated moan as my body betrayed me. Celestia please understand, the pleasure of flesh is hard to escape.

An hour later once Rose was satisfied that she had returned the favor from last night with interest, as well as leaving me sore and exhausted I had managed to lay down the rules of no sex while there is a corpse in the room. No matter who old or fresh said corpse was. She agreed once she realized how off putting it was to me. I figured that after her time around raiders not many things influenced her about time and place for sex anymore. It was a miracle that she didn't try to do it in public. Oh goddesses protect me when I introduced her to my family. Though I had to admit I was envious of her flexibility, and that envy was getting paid back with her making me more flexible. Though it still disturbed me what she described having done in the past, there were things that made me cringe at the thought of doing or having done to me. Seriously there was only so much punishment the pony body could take before it should be injured and what she told me was beyond what I thought possible. Of course she also made mention that she needed to get some 'toys' if we found a special 'shop' anywhere in our travels.

Thankfully before she could describe anything beyond a strap-on Ruby came to fetch us, and noticed the corpse, she thankfully just sighed when she saw it and told us to leave it there. Apparently midnight foalnapping was a common problem for those who weren't known that well. Which made it sound like either you had to get in with a few of the locals who would make certain nopony would go after you, or, you had to leave a few corpses around of those who failed to get you. The decapitated body of a pony sounded like a good indicator of being too hard to get to be worth while. I traded the Riot Shotgun for my Lever Action Shotgun which I gave to Rose. The semi-automatic drum fed shotgun would be easier to use than the lever action.

As we walked out of town and towards the pass I started to wonder about why certain guns existed. There wasn't a huge variety of guns out there, most were magazine fed semi-automatic weapons. However you did have some bolt action guns like hunting rifles, which weren't that bad to deal with as an earth pony or pegasi could just have a battle saddle work the mechanism for them. But, then there were the revolvers, why the hay were they popular? Why did they even exist? Beyond using a speed loader, which was not easy to do for anypony without magic, you had to load one bullet at a time and hold it in your mouth or hooves to do so. I could understand things like rocket launchers which were meant to be used with battle saddles or magic only, but, a sidearm shouldn't be a revolver for anypony beyond a magic user. I thought back to This Gun, and it's twin that my Pipbuck had hilariously decided to name That Gun. Both took rifle rounds, something that would pack a large kick in a rifle, into short barreled revolvers. I had found This Gun with an earth pony. It seemed silly, neigh, ridiculous that anypony would have a gun like that. It would be like having a pistol that shot fifty caliber machine gun rounds. The kick would be insane, it would just be pointless. Yet, I knew for a fact there were revolves that used forty four magnum rounds, only a step down from the fifty caliber. At least I had yet to see any indication some pony had made a pistol that shot shotgun shells from it. That would be overkill.

It was about two in the afternoon when we finally got to the top of the pass and could barely make out the ghostly ruins of Canterlot, I noticed the faint pink of the cloud still around the ruins. I was the only one to stop to stare at it, this was my first time properly seeing the city from a distance. Rose didn't even know that it was there, hay, I wasn't certain what she knew any more. I shook my head out of the clouds of thought, we were now in the heartland of Equestria. I started to walk again before anypony noticed my distracted state. Unfortunately somepony had, and they were shooting at us now. I pulled out This Gun in my mouth and started to look around for where the shots were coming from. I also kept moving as the ponies around me opened up, at the sky. Crap, we had fliers after us.

I turned and looked at the sky to see a wing of gryphons on approach and armed to the teeth. Then I heard the sound of several machine guns firing off as one of the attacking gryphons lost its wings and fell out of the air. I hit S.A.T.S. and set three rounds into the nearest gryphon and let the spell do it's magic. Two rounds missed, the third hit and did little damage to the gryphon. As time slide back to its normal pace the machine gun fire continued roaring out from behind me chewing through another heavily armored gryphon. I fired the last two rounds that were loaded scoring me a wounded gryphon falling back. A few moments later the rest followed suit after losing two of their wing. For now the battle was over and we had repelled the ambush.

I walked to the corpse of one of the two fallen gryphons and began to pick him over. That is when I noticed the letter on him. The letter itself was from Helgrim, a bounty on my head on top of the one from Red Eye's group. I was now worth ten thousand caps alive, five thousand dead. I scowled as I reloaded This Gun with the ammo I scavenged off of the gryphons, lucky for me they had been using battle saddles for assault carbines. I took those as well and put them on under the Kevlar coat of the Riot Armor. Now I had some serious firepower that I didn't have to manually reload. I stored the rest of my weapons beyond That Gun and This Gun in my saddlebags as they would just get in the way for now.

It was evening when we got to New Appleloosa, as we had planned. Getting in this time was easier as a guard spotted us and had Crane operate the crane to let us in. I had to admit it was impressive to see telekinesis that strong. A thought came to mind that I should talk to him as he probably would have some knowledge about magic compared to anypony else in this town. Ruby set us up with a place to stay. I tagged the place on my pipbuck so I could find it properly, then I explained I was going to find this Crane and see what information he had on my situation.

“Mind if I come along with you, Moonlight?” Asked Rose, I just gave a smile to her as we left. It wasn't hard to find where he lived thanks to the ponies of New Appleloosa being more friendly this time now that they knew who I was. It probably helped that I had waited for somepony to let me into the town this time instead of jumping the wall. Rose had commented on she thought the wall would be taller, I just giggled and shook my head.

Finding Crane's residence I knocked on the metal door and heard the sounds of movement from within. As we waited for him to answer I saw a familiar rust colored pegasus down the street going from Ditzy Doo's store to the Apple Whiskey's. He was walking the other way so he didn't see us, though seeing him gave me a idea of talking to him about my newly acquired battle saddle seeing as he had a custom built one. He also had mentioned making five point five six pistols in the past, so if anypony knew how to instruct me on the delicate mechanical workings of a battle saddle it would be him. That or ask Foresight, who I didn't feel quite ready to ask a favor from. The door opened and I saw the stallion named Crane.

“Crane I presume?” I queried, my helmet probably making my voice and myself more intimidating than intended.

“Yes, how can I help?” Crane answered after a moment.

“They say you are the most powerful telekinetic in all of Equestria, I would like a bit of help.” I said, “do you mind?”

“Come on in, and take that helmet off.” He said stepping back allowing Rose and I to enter his home. Once inside I removed my helmet with my hooves and set it on the ground next to me.

“Sorry, forget that the helmet covers my whole head.” I said apologetically to Crane.

“Well I figured if you were looking for trouble you would have had a silenced gun.” He responded with a smile crawling across his muzzle.

“Ah, true. Anyways, name is Moonlight, and as you can see I am a unicorn. I have a problem, I over did some fire magic to the point it warped my horn and well I can't seem to do magic. Figure right now you are probably the foremost expert in the field beyond those in Tenpony.” I said as Rose joined me on the thin mat that sat in the home.

“Oh? Well now that you mention it your horn does look rather badly damaged, to the point it looks like something out of one of those story books or comics for a villain.” He mused while he took me in. I looked up at my warped horn, over the past week bits of it had eventually flaked off revealing its now more sinister form. It started out the normal rounded horn of a unicorn until a little above the base the spiral faded away and the horn bent back towards me forming a wicked bladed like horn. To a degree it reminded me of how a changelings horn looked, but, a lot sharper.

“Yeah, I pumped a fair bit of power into a fire spell, it worked, but, it did leave me drained to say the least and afterwards my horn was glowing red and, well it bent to the curve you see now.” I said giving it a gentle touch, thankfully over the past week it had gotten a lot less tender. “What I want to know is anything you can think of for restoring my magic, as well as what you know about magical burn out and treating magical burn out.”

“Simple enough, now let me get to work on examining our horn. It is alright if I touch it? I know burnout leaves one's horn rather tender.” He said with a hint of sympathy for me.

“Gently it is still rather sensitive, not as bad as it was where I would be left spasming for minutes.” I said and closed my eyes.

He then set to checking it over with what he knew and filling me in about everything he knew about magic and unicorn biology relating to it. Which sadly was not much new information beyond his cure for burnout. Which was located in various ingredients found only in the Everfree Forest. Which had of course gotten worse over the years. None the less I took notes of both the preparation for the alchemy as well as detailed descriptions of the various plants that made up the potion.

“If you have time winter is generally the best time to go into the Everfree to search for these plants. If you happen to go there please bring what you can to me, think of it as an optional payment for the information.” Crane said to us as we left, Rose had found the session of learning more informative than I had. However, after all the time I put into researching magic and unicorn biology it wasn't much new information to me.

Still, the potion for treating magical burnout was priceless and I made a small note to our itinerary that I wanted to swing by the Everfree Forest before passing through New Appleloosa again. I was also planning on if I could taking entire plants with us and soil from the Everfree so I could hopefully grow some if not all of the plants required for the potion back in Seamane. It would be an invaluable resource.

When we left I took us up to Apple Whiskey's place, hopeful that Calamity would still be there. Entering the building I was greeted with the familiar smell of apples and alcohol. I saw Calamity was still here and was indeed partaking in some of the local flavor. I noticed that Ruby and Topaz were here as well, I gave them a small nod and walked up to Calamity, clearing my throat once I was close enough that he should hear me.

“Calamity?” I asked, he turned to look at me and blinked a second in confusion, probably trying to place who I was and how I knew his name before a smile came to his face.

“Why if it ain't the Ranger of Seamane herself!” He said before putting a foreleg around me. “Ah am surprised to see ya again so soon.”

I smiled, “got to go to Tenpony tower to get my horn fixed.”

He eyed my horn, “how the hay did ya do that?”

“Channeled too much magic into a fire spell, dangerous to do for several reasons, didn't have a choice though. After all I was fighting the spirit of winter itself.” I said with pride.

“So there was something up in Canterlot causin' all the snow?” He asked with that odd accent of his.

“Yeah, a Wendigo in fact.” I said, feeling a slight shiver go through me at the memory of the bitter cold and the ice ponies it had used.

“Dang girl that is a impressive kill, but, Ah take it you ain't here to brag.” He said as I noticed Rose giving us a odd look, not in anger about some strange Stallion having his arm around me.

“I remembered your custom battle saddle as well as you mentioned making two special pistols. I figured you would be the best pony to chat with for learning how to work with custom hardware.” I simply said, from the joy that lit his face I knew I had hit what I wanted, his pride in his work.

“Well what are we waiting for girl, let me teach ya a few things about battle saddles and wasteland engineering!” He said and dragged me out of Apple Whiskey's, as he did I caught Rose's expression torn between laughter and frustration as she watched me get taken away.

I also realized I had failed to introduce her to Calamity so as far as she knew wasteland engineering was a euphemism. So either I was going to have hell to pay or she was going to be teasing me endlessly.

It wasn't long before we stopped, again at Ditzy Doo's store, apparently the two pegasi had a good relationship. Good enough that she allowed Calamity to use her store as a impromptu school for teaching me how to properly maintain and use battle saddles beyond just shooting things with them. As it was I swapped out one assault carbine for the riot shotgun and repaired the remaining assault carbine to prime condition. I turned to thank Calamity only to see Rose sitting in the room with us.

“Uh... how long have you been there?” I asked her, Calamity turning to see who I was addressing.

“You know, I honestly thought it was going to be more exciting.” She said feigning disinterest.

“Calamity, this is my marefriend, White Rose.” I said extending a hoof towards Rose who gave a slight bow of her head. “Rose, this is a acquaintance of mine, Calamity.” He tipped his hat to her.

“Nice to meet ya ma'am.” Calamity said with that perpetual smile on his face.

“Nice to meet you as well, Calamity.” Rose responded a smile now on her face. “I thought there would be more kissing.” She said, making me blush and look away from both of them.

“Well now, Ah ain't the sort of buck who would do that sort of thing with somepony already taken.” Calamity responded, then laughed realizing the humor. “Heh, not used to somepony else having a sense of humor like that.”

“I was wrong, laughter isn't a dead virtue...” I muttered to myself trying to force my blush to go away.

“I didn't quite catch that, Moony.” Said Rose stifling a giggle.

“Moony?” Calamity said before breaking into laughter himself.

I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh as I shook my head. It was pointless to try to stop them, it was all in good fun and not trying to make fun of me. The jokes weren't for degrading me, they were just jests at me. I forced a smile on to my face and looked at them both.

“Right, you two better watch yourselves once my magic is back or it is off to the moon with you!” I said then stuck my tongue out at them as we all laughed. We laugh together not at each other, such a fine line between harmony and disharmony.

After a while more of making jokes and in general enjoying each others company with Ditzy Doo and Calamity, Rose and I left to where we were staying for the evening. It was not as nice as Colt or even Old Appleloosa, but, it would do.

When I woke up it was to the chewing of my ear between snores. I tapped the button to bring up my Eyes Forward Sparkle and check the time. I was up an hour before I needed to be, and with the rather rough treatment of my ear I doubted I could get back to sleep. So I resigned myself to thinking. Only problem was I had nothing really to think about thanks to all the free time walking. I honestly had nothing further to think about at the moment.

I frowned then had a idea, I was going to see how far I could get Rose along before she woke up. After all most of the time she liked to be in charge, now was my chance for the second time in our relationship to have a bit of fun at my own pace and under my own volition.

An hour later and Rose was waking up confused and feeling rather pleasant from my hoof work. I had avoided what I knew to be the most sensitive parts opting for the less sensitive parts. Such attention brought about the inevitable at a much slower pace. The look on Rose's face when she realized what I had been doing was priceless, the blush was amazing.

“Morning, love.” I said with the sultry voice that I had been practicing, the blush began to make her fur smoke. “You alright?” I said as I laid myself against her, causing her to look away and cover her face with a hoof. I started to giggle quietly as we lay there.

“You are terrible, you know that Moonlight?” Rose finally said before wrapping a leg around my shoulders.

“After last night I felt it was the least I could do.” I said nuzzling into her neck. She didn't say anything for a few minutes.

“Can you in the future not do that?” She said quietly, the usual silver of her voice gone. I realized I had probably brought back a bad memory. I felt my ears flatten as my joyous mood was blown out like a candle in a Wendigo’s roar.

“Alright, sorry.” I said as I got up and started getting my barding on.

The rest of the day I kept my helmet on and didn't say anything. It went slowly as I quietly moped and followed behind Rose as we headed further towards the Manehattan ruins and skirted around the area of Shattered Hoof. Beyond a couple of raider fights we had a quiet trip, quieter since until we reached the Manehattan ruins I had nothing to contribute to the conversations. Now that we were here I was going to have to give out the information I had on the area since of those of us here I had most recently been through the place.

“Okay, so for the most part the roads are the same as always, just now instead of manticores, raiders, steel rangers, and gryphons to look out for you now also have wings of alicorns. They generally will plant themselves like a turret, toss up a shield and unleash hell with their magic. As for a measure of how powerful said magic is, it is that of a high power magical energy weapon.” I said, getting a impressed whistle from Foresight. “As such, if they attempt to engage, run. Short of grenade machine guns, rocket launchers, and high power energy weapons you can't hurt them. They also learn quickly through an interconnected intelligence. Think of it as there is a puppet master controlling each body and they can't be overwhelmed with how many puppets at once they are operating.”

“So if we see them hide, if they see us run?” Ruby said, her voice betraying her dislike for the plan.

“It is that or have the 'Goddess' do who knows what to you. Fairly certain make you into a mindless puppet for her.” I said flatly, I was making certain to keep all identifying markings of myself hidden until we entered Tenpony Tower for the sake of not having anypony go out of their way to stomp us.

“Then we best get moving, we have little daylight left and if she is correct there are a number of ponies looking for her head.” Foresight said looking at me, I was grateful that he seemed to get that even mentioning my name was a hazard at this point. Hay, standing on the edge of the Manehattan ruins I felt like I was about to take a plunge like when walking into Fillydelphia, walking into my enemies territory.

“One more thing, from what I have seen the three types of alicorns have specific magics they are best at. Blue can go invisible like a zebra invisibility cloak, purple can teleport, and green can read minds, not just speak in them.” I said as I fidgeted in place, I wanted to get going, the shadows in the broken windows felt like they had innumerable eyes staring at me, through me.

“Well, that makes them a pain, alright lets just focus on getting to Tenpony tower then. Don't let your thoughts wander for the sake of our safety.” Foresight said before taking point, I was to take back with Rose just ahead of me.

Since New Appleloosa I hadn't said anything to her, I figured when she was feeling ready to talk she would say it. Still though it hadn't changed much, we still slept together, but, I felt less like her lover and more of... no less of a pony and more of a thing. I guess I felt like I had stepped on a landmine and it went off, now I was just deeply hurt and melancholic for the time being.

Last night I had also swapped out the assault carbine for the metal blaster as my seemingly sentient pipbuck decided to call it. If we fought any alicorns I would need it as well as the explosive rounds of the riot shotgun to even hope to deal with them while we attempted to escape. I had no doubts that any attempt of escape would more than likely be cut off and require significant firepower to deal with.

The first hour of the walk was thankfully uneventful. As soon as that hour ended I noticed a change in Rose's demeanor and began to scan around us for the cause. I spotted it, a green alicorn in a window five stories up. I raised myself up on my rear hooves and hit S.A.T.S. even from here I had a ludicrously high chance of hitting the alicorn. Her shield wasn't even up yet. So I was left with a question. If I shot her then more alicorns would show up to find where we had gone. If I didn't shoot it was likely that this alicorn would divine who I was through Rose and we would have a wing on our tail anyways. Damn it, either way we were in trouble and I was the center of it. I triggered the spell and watched as the alicorn turned to dust and everypony stopped to see what had caused the flash of light.

“Run! More will be here any second!” I shouted as I spun checking for any dots in the sky or unaccounted for bars on my E.F.S.

So far there were none, I knew that wouldn't last, hay, I was surprised no purple ones had teleported in already. I turned to look where the alicorn had been as the others were racing off already. I was right, there was one standing there staring at me. I turned and followed the rest deciding against trying to lure the alicorns away. They knew my potential, they had no reason to mess around with directly attacking me. The rest were unknowns, hay, if the green one hadn't gotten the information out of Rose yet or the others on who I was they didn't know who I was, yet.

We had made it two blocks before we got hit. Not by who I was expecting, but, by a wing of gryphons, or more accurately three gryphons who made up the wing that had attacked us near New Appleloosa. I slide around the corner as they strafed the street that the rest had turned down, the gryphons had no idea I was there and I had a clean shot on them as they flew at me. I hit S.A.T.S. and fired one explosive shell at each of them then used the last of the spells charge to plant a blast from Metal Blaster into a car ahead of them. I released the spell and watched as the shell landed where I wanted them to and did more than anticipated in knocking the wind out the the gryphons causing them to crash next to the car that I then watched glow red for a second then blind me an a fury of unleashed hell. I fell back on my haunches as I blinked away the after images and the lenses of my helmet tried to shield my eyes from the harsh light of the atomic fire.

When my eyes had adjusted I saw three burning bodies with wings, a good sign. I got to my hooves and ran to the rest, they had kept going as soon as the strafing run had passed and I was now a block behind them. Who knew what was behind me. Actually I should check if there was a raving mass of raiders after my tail, because that would be important to know. I looked behind me to see no a single soul giving chase. It almost felt wrong that I was getting away this easy. Though I had the issue of I was playing catch up, and was all alone at the moment. I knew the rest were only a few blocks ahead of me, but, still it was unsettling to be alone once again in these ruins. I shook off the tendrils of fear before they got a good grip on my mind. This was no time to let fear get the best of me.

'No it isn't.' Said the annoyingly familiar voice of the Goddess in my head.

'Told you that you are not welcome in my mind. Get out before I find a way to force you out again.' I replied as I took another corner following the pipbuck tag for Rose.

'Now, now, you should introduce your friends to us.' Came the voice of the Goddess again.

'Oh I did already, they know all about you. You also were digging around in my marefriend's mind. I don't take kindly to that sort of thing you know?' I saw them five blocks ahead, we had about five more minutes at this pace to get to the station for accessing Tenpony tower. Still plenty of time for somepony to ambush us.

'Oh I agree, plenty of time for somepony to ambush your friends. Not you though, we know how foolish it is to strike at you directly.' Came the Goddess again in a far too calm voice that sent chills through me as I watched my friends running towards what could easily be a trap.

'No...' was all I could say as images of them galloping into a trap ran through my head.

'Yes'

'You are a monster.'

'We are not a monster, we only wish to uplift all so they may thrive in the wasteland as we do. You are the monster for fighting against the best hope for ponykind to survive past this chapter of history.'

'Shut up before I find a balefire bomb to end you with.' I retorted as I poured on the speed running over and leaping from carriage to carriage that were in my way.

'Come to Maripony if you want to try.' I heard in my head again, I ignored it and pulled all of my focus onto catching up and protecting my friends.

I heard gunfire erupt from around me and a explosion caught me in the middle of a jump and sent me into a near by carriage. I pushed myself out the opposite door that I had crashed through. I ducked around the front to see a group of raiders, no slavers with rather nasty looking guns and lack of cobbled together armor. I hit S.A.T.S. and unloaded the riot shotgun rounds into them. The distance and cover made the shots tricky to say the least, but, they landed home and harmed their targets. I charged at them, I needed to kill them so they wouldn't chase after me and after my friends. I unloaded Metal Blaster into them cratering their armor and the ground around them as they started to break off to what cover was around. I rolled as I dodged another explosion from the grenade launcher in the group and hit the reload bar for the shotgun as I skirted around a carriage.

Click.

I froze and looked up to see a fifty caliber pistol held in the jaws of a massive earth pony stallion. He was grinning around the mouth bit.

“Fuck me with my gun.” I spat out.

“That's the plan.” He said around a mouth full of handle. His friends showed up and liberated me of my weapons.

*                *                *

To say they were excited that I was both a unicorn and a mare would be a massive understatement. Even more excited when they found the bounty note for myself on me. I really should have thrown that away. Hindsight... Whatever the case the Goddess was taking delight in my predicament, she even told me that thanks to my 'heroic' sacrifice my friends had made to Tenpony safe and sound. Thankfully I had shown Rose how to use the pipbuck tag system. Hopefully they will remember I was carrying most of what Ruby was wanting to sell as well as we had made the trip to fix my horn. Taking Foresight to Manehattan had just been a secondary thing. Whatever the case now that it was night the slavers had shackled me and put a inhibitor ring on my horn.

Apparently these slavers knew it is smart to not leave a unicorn alone with their magic. They were doubly fortunate in that even without the inhibitor ring my magic was still useless to me. What I would give for even basic telekinesis right now.

As it was I had a cold bare room to myself while the slavers had a room with a fire inside of a barrel. The building they had taken me to was only a few blocks away from where I got caught. Figuring on how the place was laid out and the proximity to Tenpony they preyed off of those going to the tower itself. Made a lot of sense as anypony in or out was likely to have a fair bit of money as well as equipment and food. Failing being able to do simple banditry they always had slaves to catch and sell. They had gotten lucky with me. I didn't even bother with the bobby pins in my hair for attempting to free myself. I didn't have my magic and they had a lot of guns. I was thankful that at least for now they weren't playing with me. As it was I lay as well as I could on the cardboard 'bed' that was in here. I settled down running through my mind the bits and pieces I knew of hoof to hoof combat. It wasn't anything stellar and the big earth pony stallion was going to be a problem. Even if I was some how as strong as him, his mass alone was a hazard to deal with. Be on the wrong end of a buck or charge and I was either out cold or crippled.

I kept an eye on my radiation count as I noticed it was constantly slowly clicking. While I would be fine for a few days at the level of exposure in the room I knew they would more than likely be taking me to goddesses knows where well before then. Hopefully Rose would be able to convince the rest to mount a rescue come morning. Until then I was stuck, and for the first time I actually felt completely helpless. It was not a pleasant feeling. I felt small, weak, scared. I was holding my tail fighting to keep myself from crying. It was scary, oh it was scary to be alone and truly without any power over your situation. I had given up on keeping myself from shivering. A few times one of the slavers had looked in and laughed wondering how such a pathetic mare could have managed to get such a huge bounty. I knew, it was from personally humiliating a member of Red Eye's army and then taunting beings far more powerful than myself. Now I was regretting it.

At some point I had managed to slip into unconsciousness and managed what felt like a few hours of sleep. With my thoughts a bit more collected I realized I was being stored in essentially a overgrown supply closet. I would have preferred a bathroom stall over this. No, on second thought that would be worse. Still though a closet was not an idle place to be. Then again that was exactly why I was in it. I had no place to hide, nothing to use, and I was easily viewable from the half remaining door. Testing my bonds I found I could manage a slow walk with them, but, not much more than some pony hobbling along on three legs. Range of movement was limited thanks to my elbow held the cuff that would have been lower on my leg if not for my pipbuck. I was stiff as always when I was forced to sleep on concrete with little to nothing to lay upon. I heard murmurs from the other room which caused me to freeze up, panic began to set in as I remembered the severity of my situation again. I lay back down curled up again trying to calm myself down.

Loud hoof steps approached the makeshift holding cell. I heard a few laughs and chuckles as somepony commented about how he was going to split me. I heard bets exchanged on how badly I would bleed. I fought back bile, slavers were in fact only slightly different from raiders. Some how I found slavers worse, probably because of how civil they could be if they wanted to compared to raiders, which made it worse when they became this debased. The door opened and the heavy hoof steps entered the room with me. Figuring on the weight behind each step I figured it was the giant green earth stallion who had caught me. The one that could mouth wield a fifty caliber pistol.

“What do you want.” I said, not moving to look at the stallion behind me.

“To talk, so I can decide on what happens to you next.” He responded, his voice much more gentle than it had right to be for a bastard like him, hay it was far more refined than it should be.

“Alright, what do you want to talk about.” I said rolling over awkwardly leaving myself in a position I hadn't been meaning for, to say the least it was a pose I would have liked for Rose to see. It elicited a grin on my captors face.

“I want you to tell me who you are, where you are from. I want to see if you are worth the hassle of contacting Red Eye's guys for the bounty or not.” He said as I took his features in and as I drifted looking at his legs he decided to give me a good view of his genitals. I blushed and focused my sight on his face, his grin had become toothy now.

“Fine, I'll tell you all the great gossip about the Ranger of Seamane from her mouth directly.” I said with a scowl. He just continued to grin as I told him what he wanted to hear. I could tell he was thinking over what I told him, trying to work out the truths of what I told him. I figured it would be best to just say the truth of every situation, if he thought I had lied lying wouldn't matter. Telling the truth in a situation like this was the best option that I could see. Though the doubt that had crept into my mind from the Goddess's talk to me began to bite at what confidence and strength I had left in me. She didn't even need to be around now, my own mind was doing her work for her in beginning to tear myself down.

The whole time I had been talking to the stallion my doubt had been noting every failure, every stupid choice, and noting how I was just a lustful mare in heat whenever anypony with a desirable physique was around. I continuously pointed out how in fact I had been pining over Snow when I talked about her, the edited version of my time with Homage brought back feelings I had suppressed from then. Then my doubt pointed out even now I was suppressing my desires for this massive stallion in front of me. Then doubt turned mean, taking my doubts about Rose against me. Telling me I should have gone for it each of those times. The fact that Rose even though I had and was surprised at the fact I had not ever done so. I blinked as I felt myself get shoved onto my back and snapped out of my mind.

“I have decided, you might want to close your eyes for this.” He said as I felt something prick me on my stomach and a numbness began to spread quickly. “And to speed up the process of you getting adjusted to this new life of yours you might want to get used to thinking you are with your precious Rose.”

What the hay did he... no he couldn't mean he was. Then I felt it, it was nothing like my times with Rose. It hurt, it was far too large and sudden, I tried to struggle, but, found myself nothing but a limp rag doll in his grip. I couldn't close my eyes either. Whatever it was he had given me had paralyzed me, I blinked, I breathed, my heart beat, but, beyond the basic automatic functions of the body I was paralyzed. Paralyzed and forced to watch as he rutted me over and over. All I could do is cry, I couldn't voice my pain, or unfortunately pleasure. Ponies are just like any animal, you trigger nerves that are meant to elicit pleasure, it gives them pleasure. You hit the nerves to cause pain you cause pain. Emotional distress did play a role in damping the pleasure which helped. I felt less lost than I would have otherwise.

Doubt had decided it had been quiet enough and now was the time to fuck with me some more. The fact that I was feeling pleasure from this was enough to begin the argument within me of how I was just a slut. I just wanted to fuck whomever I came across that caught my eye. I loved to be dominated, to be forced, coerced, lead into bad things, bad situations. I enjoyed the thrill of throwing myself into dangerous situations that could lead to this, to pain. I took pleasure in the thoughts of this happening to me, I enjoyed the feeling of pain. Masking my enjoyment as saying it made me feel alive, to no longer be in that death like state of the void that was my life before leaving Saint Clover. I enjoyed this for the reason that it was part of the world, the world I so enjoyed like a raider or slaver. I looted the graves of long dead ponies. I killed ponies just because they wore raider armor instead of scaring them off. I used them as cannon fodder when fighting the Wendigo. Hay, look at the two colts I nearly killed while in a bad mood because they brandished dull knives at me.

I felt him release, then continue, the stamina and endurance of an earth pony indeed. I wanted to do something more than shed tears. I wanted to cry out, I wanted to plead, I wanted to no be here. I wanted to be anywhere, but, here. I didn't want to watch as he pumped in and out of me with my blood on him. I wanted him to just strangle me, kill me, poison me. Anything but this. But, a twisted part of me was enjoying it. That in itself made me feel sicker than any other part of this. The part of me who upon seeing him had wondered what it would feel like. Part of me had wanted this, my doubt was right. I was just a whore, a slut, I wanted this to happen to me. It was why I didn't take the shot back in the street. I could have moved in an unanticipated way and let the helmet take the brunt of whatever damage was coming my way. Metal Blaster would have burned him to death at that distance. My friends were well away by then, I just had to disengage and I would have been home free for getting to Tenpony. I was a fucked up pony to have wanted this to happen.

'That is why you are a monster, We will come to fetch you once the monsters around you have fallen to the wasteland and left you all alone. We know from your memories the world always fall apart around you and We will give you the bliss of Unity once you are finally broken and safe to claim.' Said the Goddess in my mind, laughing as her voice faded away leaving me to my fate.

'This is it?' Came another voice, unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time.

'What can I do, I am paralyzed, captured, without equipment, and without backup.' I cried out in my mind.

'She wanted this, this is the life she wanted, the risk this could happen. She has accepted it.' Came Doubt again.

'Then why is her voice not yours Doubt?' Said the first voice.

'I am going crazy as I am physically broken in by a stallion. Yeah no even if I didn't want this I think I am bucked in every sense of the term.' Part of me said to them. I just mentally blinked at the three talking. Technically the three of them were me. Well except the new voice. I was the forth in this conversation. Apparently not the rational side of me either.

'Considering you are enjoying the ride and have resigned yourself to it I think my task is done for now.' Doubt said, 'unless that other voice decides to try to prop you up on false hopes and dreams.'

'Then you will be here for a long while. Hope is not lost. Just endure, keep yourself through this, Rose won't abandon you so easily. She owes you for saving her life, for being faithful to her, for putting yourself in danger for her sake.' The familiar voice said.

'She is right, and as bad as it sounds, enjoy what pleasure you can get. There is no point in fighting it, that will just make things go by slower. A watched pot never boils or some brahmin shit like that.' Said Rational.

'Oh this will be fun to watch.' Said Doubt turning towards me. 'See how long you can last, I'll keep score of how many times you orgasm. Maybe he will set a higher score than Rose has managed. In fact, one.'

I was yanked out of the strange mind scape that had formed giving a almost aerial view of the room. Doubt was right, one, and it felt good, and I stopped trying to fight it. Why should I, fighting it wouldn't do me any good besides make me hurt more. I knew I shouldn't enjoy it on principle of the fact that I was being raped, it was forced, I didn't want it. Some how though, I saw Rose in this stallion, it wasn't him rutting me it was her. Somepony I wanted to do it, it was no longer something I hated. If I could have I would have smiled. Instead I continued to be a rag doll and have my sight blurred by tears as I lost myself in a fantasy.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk Added: Shotgun Surgeon: When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you ignore an additional ten points of a target's Damage Threshold.