Stitch gave a stern look at Nightlight. He had recommended I have an examination to make sure the Wasteland hadn't managed to do much damage on a biological scale. This invoked a full physical. It was really basic stuff, checking my nerves, eyesight, heartbeat and then came the part I hated. My wing examination. The two bits of extra flesh and feathers everypony called wings. Stitch thankfully knew this and was careful with his words.
"Now Slashwing, this is important with your wings."
I looked down. I could hear the lectures on how I should take better care of them.
"Has being in the Wasteland stimulated them in anyway?" Well this isn't what I expected to hear.
"No. Why? Is something wrong?"
His answer was a quick unexpected jab of my wing, "Your wing muscles have strangely, rapidly developed while outside Stable 54. I would put this down to age, but being only one of four ponies born a Pegasi, the records are slim."
He leaned close for the next part, "While I'm not going to buck you off a cliff, do find out won't you?"
Turning to face Nightlight again, "As for you, Miss Highlight was it?"
"Nightlight."
Stitch just nodded and pulled up a chart sheet.
"To start, you have obtained several hazardous addictions. Weak legs, inability to stand and weakened skin are all signs of Buck withdrawal. Bloodshot eyes and a slow response time are only part of early Mentols addiction and your headaches I believe are linked to Dash addiction. With time, you will recover but for the Buck withdrawal, it may kill you to simply stop using it until your body naturally builds back up. So, until then take increasing smaller doses of Buck to equal out the effects."
Watching Stitch work was incredible but hearing that she was addicted to stuff like Buck was horrifying. I had even given her some not knowing it was addicting. At that moment, a very familiar voice came into our attention.
"Doc, I need patching up. Oh wow I am losing blood. And some blood transfusions."
Boom walked in. On one side of her was Torchlight and the other was another Trottinghame ranger. Looking at her, she had her metal armor on with the exception of a large chunk blown out of the right side where two knives protruded from her flesh. Her face hadn't fared well either. I could see a massive cut above her right eye causing blood to fill her goggles and to top it all off, looking at her Pipbuck image, she had a broken foreleg.
"Oh hey Stable. I scored us 3000 caps taking out some of those slavers up in the Royals territory but then the contractor turned round and tried to fuck us over by killing us so next stop is Castle Highridge ok..."
Boom then proceeded to roll her eyes into her head and pass out.

It had been a few hours and Stitch's coat was now as red, or more than, mine but Boom was going to pull though barely. I decided to wait by her bed for Boom to wake up. It seemed only right after all she did it for me. Nightlight came in after about half an hour to bring me some food. It lacked the taste of what I had cooked or stable food but then it was probably over 150 years old.
Since boom was showing no sings of waking up soon, Stitch arranged for a mattress for me to sleep on. I stayed up as long as my body let me before I half fell onto the makeshift bed. Nightlight took this opportunity to hit the hay too. This time, she just lay down next to me. Thinking back to everypony's comments on us, I took a chance and moved closer. And for the first time in forever, used one of my wings to wrap around her. The response was her moving a little closer and rubbing up against me. Who knows? This might be the start of something.

Voices. Why do I have to wake up to voices?

"So, is Stable in charge?" The first voice clearly belonged to Nightlight. So, she's already up and about.

"No, I think he likes it that way. Less responsibility on top of this stable mission." Boom! That's Boom's voice. She's ok! That's good to know.

"Besides Stable is a pretty poor wastelander. Can't shoot for shit.." Well thanks Boom. "But that's because I feel he ain't using the right type of gun. Once he finds it, he'll improve. What about your weapon of choice?"

I could hear Nightlight scrap her hoof on the ground.

"I don't really use a weapon. I just hide." A quick pause was then followed with some good news, "But with the right equipment, I can pick locks! Not advanced ones but most basic ones."

After that, I went back to sleep for a bit.

Now was possibly a good time for an inventory check. I had collected a small gathering of items I needed to sort though. First out of the saddle bag was my two books, both of them had uses especially the cookbook. Next were my magazines, Future Pony Today still looked really good and I would have to give it a flick through one of these days. The next set of things was my small weapons arsenal Stability, Boom's pistol, my 10mm, the strange rod that ran off gems and my battle saddle. Looking at this, Boom was right. I used a range of weapons and didn't focus on one type. I would need to change that. The only things left in my bag were assorted ammo types and bottle caps.

"Where are your magical healing potions?" I jumped. Stitch had walked out of an operating room with his medical saddlebags on.

"It's important to have at least seven magical healing potions on you at all available times." He floated out seven potions, adding them to my inventory. I just hung my head.

"Yes Stitch, I understand."

"You better. I didn't train you in wasteland survival but I did have you apprentice under me for basic medicine." Carefully putting my items back, I hurried to catch up with Stitch. He was almost marching full pace down Trottinghame muttering to himself.

"Three days rest. She needed three goddess damned days rest."

We eventually arrived back at the same place we stayed a few days ago. Inside, I could hear the familiar voice of a radio pony. Oh how I love music. Thankfully Trottinghame ponies had learned their lesson, because the moment I walked in, a pony shut it straight off. Boom had found herself a table. What's more, Torchlight and the Trottinghame Ranger from the hospital were with her. Sitting down, Nightlight shuffled over next to me. It conveniently put me between her and the Rangers. Boom raised an eyebrow but Torchlight pulled out a contract and placed it on the table.

"So as you all know, the Royals decided to not pay up on their 9000 cap contract. Not that I wouldn't say it's uncommon for the big heads up there to not pay past their down payment, which we did collect prior to completing the contract. But it's not the Royal's style to dispose of hired muscles when it comes to contracts. So, here's the plan. We go to their whatever it is they turned the local ministry building into, knock on the front door, and get our pay. And if that doesn't work..." He took a moment to smile, "We put DJ Pon3 on the radio and throw it in there."

Author's Note

wow this one took a while for me to do hopefully you all like it like always thanks for reading and thanks to my awesome editor