Fallout Equestria: Towards the Future

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

War. War never changes. As Equestria was swallowed up by powerful and terrible magic the Pegasi did everything we could to help the land below. The damage was so severe and the magical radiation from augmented spells was so intense that we had to close up the sky to keep it at bay. We have made many attempts to go back down to see if there are survivors, and try to help them.

Yeah, I read the same line millions of times when I was still a foal going through school. Even now wing deep in my Enclave training they still tried to force feed the same dragon dung down your throat.

I sighed as I propped my head up with a hoof glancing down at the book with a burning hatred for classes that said the smarter you are the better off you will be.

“SPLITSTREAM!” the forest green Pegasus stallion shouted at me.

I looked up at him lazily, “Yes, sir?” what was that look in his eyes? Oh yeah hatred.

Everypony I have ever met has either tried to pick a fight with me or just outright tried to make my life a living hell. I had a white coat and a black to dark blue spiked mane; most ponies tell me that I have the most beautiful Emerald green eyes. For a stallion I have had mare walk up to me swinging their hips hoping to get a chance at the handsome stallion, which I would have been more than happy to try and accompany anyplace as long as we were alone, but the fantasy lasts about as long as it take them to glance at my cutie mark.

“SO HELP ME CELESTIA YOU WILL NOT FALL ASLEEP IN MY LECTURE!” the Pegasus continued to shout at me.

I glanced around quickly and noticed that every pony in the room was staring at me snickering and talking about me, “I’m sorry sir, it won’t happen again,” I said evenly.

His voice calmed, but his glare still tried to burn holes through me, “Damn right you won’t,” he turned around and I heard him say under his breath, “sending a Dashite to me and hoping he will become a soldier.” he shook his head disappointedly.

“Sir!” he glanced back at me as I stood there glaring at him, “I said it won’t happen again because I won’t be here for it to happen again,” every pony around me stood transfixed on me for a few seconds before glancing at the instructor.

He gave a smirk, “Well then, there is the door, don’t let it hit you on the way out,” he pointed at the door.

I gave a slight nod as I walked over to the door and stopped in front of it. I looked at the door for a few moments when somepony behind me laughed, “What, did the Dashite forget how to open the door?” that caused everyone in the room to burst out laughing.

I turned around and gave a smile, “I think I did, but I can fix that,” I brought my back legs up and bucked the door off its hinges sending it across the hall with a loud CRASH. I grinned back at the instructor, “Look I got the door open and I don’t have to worry about it hitting me,” I smiled as I turned around because the look on their faces was priceless.

A Dashite is a Pegasus that has turned their back on the rest of the Pegasi. They have forsaken everything the Pegasi stand for and turn it away for their own gain or just because they didn’t see eye to eye with what the Enclave has done. I never questioned my loyalty to the Enclave or Pegasi in general, but when you are marked as a Dashite no pony cares. A Dashite has their cutie mark taken away and then they are branded with a lightning bolt coming out of a cloud.

The mark of a traitor is the same mark that a Pegasus named Rainbow Dash had. She was the first Dashite—I bet you can’t figure out where they got the name from—and the way my cutie mark turned out makes it look like I was branded a Dashite. A white lightning bolt coming out of a white cloud outlined in dark blue. A white Pegasus, with a white cutie mark, with a blue outline; goddesses must have a real good sense of humor to make me look like a traitor.

As I walked I quickly realized that I wasn’t sure where I planned on going until a voiced called out, “Hey Dashite, you should be in classes,” I glared up to see an elderly orange Pegasus with a green mane that swirled with gray smiling softly.

When I realized who it is I smiled myself, a little embarrassed for being angry, “Hey Citrus,”

He gave me a calculating look before his smile spread, “Let me guess, somepony got under your skin again?”

I rolled my eyes, “More like under my cutie mark.”

He cocked his head to the side before turning around and glancing back at me, “Follow me Splitstream.”

I looked around and then followed him. He led me to a very tiny office that had a large desk in it. He trotted behind the desk, sat down in a chair, propped his back legs up on the desk, reached into a file cabinet, and pulled out a bottle of some dark caramel colored liquid. He then reached into a desk drawer, pulled out 2 glasses, and poured a little bit into it.

I glanced at the glasses as he took one and brought it to his lips, “Well? You going to take a drink?”

I looked at the glass then to him, “But I’m on…”

“What? Duty?” he gave a small chuckle, “You still have to get through your training first.” He took another sip or his drink.

I picked the glass up and brought it to my lips. The smoky flavor slid down my throat and I have to admit that it burned so good, “So why did you bring me here?” I asked as I let the burn die down a little.

“To have a drink.” he said with a smile that a father would give his son after he got his cutie mark would look like, or at least that is how I imagined it would look since I never knew my father.

I took another sip to allow myself a second to think of a response, “Couldn’t you get into trouble for this?” loving every minutes that the liquid slid down.

“What are they going to do to an old buck like me? Brand me a Dashite and send me below the clouds?” His smile said he was being sarcastic, but his eyes said he was wondering how I would take what he said.

I just took another sip, forcing it down, as it was just a little more than I intended. I coughed a little feeling a bit embarrassed, “Wow… a little too much and it can burn like acid,” I said as I glanced up at him with a crooked smile.

He just grinned at me, “You should see what you can do with it a rag and a small flame.”

I raised an eyebrow, but he wouldn’t elaborate, so we just chatted about my training while I finished my drink. After I was finished he walked me back to my barracks. I turned around to face the old buck smiling, “Thanks old timer, I really needed somepony with a level head to talk to.”

He placed a hoof on my shoulder, “I may be old, but my hearing is still sharp. If you need somepony to talk to you know where to find me,” he turned around and walked away. Why did I just notice his cutie mark was four gold stars in a line?

I shrugged as I turned around and walked inside… right into everypony that was in my class, and did I mention that no pony liked me?

“Well look what wind just kicked into the barracks…” said a red colored buck with a bright yellow mane, whose cutie mark was a star with a ring of fire around it, “I thought I told you the shit that we tracked in was to be swept outside,” he said to a small blue buck with a purple mane and tail; his cutie mark was three jagged icicles.

He gave the red buck a smirk, “Sorry Flash Fire, won’t happen again.” And everyone started to laugh.

I felt a pony in the back of my mind yell ‘buck him in the face’, but the pony made of scotch just smiled and said ‘be you’. So I smiled at him and rammed my head into his nose, and with a small pop blood started to gush from it. The blue stallion tried to jump at me, but one thing I am really good at is hoof to hoof combat, or in this case very strong wing to face combat as I crack him hard across the eyes with a bony part of my wing.

The blue stallion dropped hard to the cloud floor, Flash Fire staggered back glaring at me a hoof up to his nose and blood dripping from it. I just smiled at him, “Careful what you let in…” my smile slid into a smirk—a very dirty ‘go ahead and see what I can really do smirk’, “I hear some shit can really fuck you up.”

Flash Fire gave me a look that told me it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to fall asleep tonight.

I looked around at the rest of the stallions who all looked like they should just try and dog pile me and get it over with. I rolled my eyes and walked back out the door.

Flash Fire yelled at me, “YEAH GO AHEAD WALK AWAY DASHITE! YOU AIN’T GOT THE GUTS TO …” all I hear was muffled screaming as I closed the door and walked away.

I have to admit that I didn’t know what I was going to do at this point. Getting into fights could get you turned away from the Enclave, and knowing my luck they would get a swift slap with a wing, and I would become… well a Dashite.

I grinned to myself, “well at least they wouldn’t half to go through the trouble of branding me,” then my smile grew even wider, “I’d bet my wings that Flash Fire and Cold Front would probably get off if they got punished by a slap with a wing if they got it at the same time.”

I stopped realizing I just about ran headlong into a door. I shook my head trying to get my head out of what might happen just long enough to figure out where I was, “Citrus’s office?” I said as I looked up at the name plate. I shrugged as I opened the door smiling, “Hey Citrus how about another…” my voice caught in my throat as I looked at Citrus leaning back in his chair. A smoking hole between his eyes and a scorch mark on the wall behind him, I stumbled back in shock, and into somepony.

I looked up into the dangerous eyes of the head officer in charge of this training camp. He gave me a wicked smile, “Thank you.” he said.

I swallowed hard, “For what?” Really did I ask the most stupid question I could think of at this point? I spun around connection my right wing hard against the side of his head. He stumbled but didn’t go down; of course he didn’t go down.

He smiled, “and when I tried to stop you… you hit me before I could do anything.” He took a step forward, “But to protect my future trainees I was able to shrug off the pain and stop you at the cost of your life.”

He jumped at me and wow was he fast, but I was faster. Wait I was faster? I looked back and sure enough I was pulling away from him. The clouds underneath me sparked and cracked as the speed I was picking up caused friction in the clouds below me and sent small bolts of electricity through them. Oh yeah I can pull off speeds that send lightning through the clouds hence the lightning bolt on my flank.

A bolt of red energy shot by me by inches, oh being chased by… Enclave soldiers. He called for backup—of course he called for backup—and now I am being shot at by Enclave soldiers, “Do I get some kind of break here?” and well, well you know what they say; ‘careful what you wish for’.

A beam of energy struck my right wing right in the joint. I curled my wing up and dropped onto the clouds. I knew if they got close to me I was screwed so I glanced around as quickly as I could. I sighed a bit when I saw the break in the clouds not far from where I was laying. I got to my hooves and ran for all I was worth. I was just about there and the clouds dropped out from below me.

I looked down at the… I swallowed hard, “ok that’s a long ways down,” I spread my wings, only to curl it back up in pain. I was falling and falling fast, I needed to slow myself down. I clenched my teeth hard as I brought my wings back out. I started to glide; the pain in my wing caused my vision to blur with tears. Out of all of the places they could have hit me they went for the most sensitive spot to hit a Pegasus.

I tried to glide as low as I could until something in my wing popped sending a pain like I never felt in my life.

I clenched my wing and teeth in agony looking around before I hit the ground hoping that I was close to a city or a town that could help me… right in the middle of a swamp, “Fuck me Celestia…” I hit something hard enough to shatter it but that is all I was able to gather before I blacked out.

Chapter 3

A beautiful emerald green mare was walking up to me—me of all ponies! —giving me that smile that said if I played my card right I was going to be one very happy buck tonight. I smiled as she moved up close so close to me that our muzzles where almost touching.

Her light blue mane hung low covering one of her brilliant slivery eyes as she blinked slowly at me, “hi…”

I swallowed hard feeling some heat rise into my face, “h… hi”

She gave an extremely cute giggle, “Are you nervous?” she looked up at me from under her long flowing mane, “That’s cute.”

My heart did a backwards somersault, “Thanks…” I swallowed again, “What is your name?” I asked feeling a bit more confident.

“Emerald Shine,” she said with a tone in her voice that made me want to melt. She looked up into my eyes, “what about you?”

“Spli…. Splitstream,” I said feeling like something was finally going my way… until she looked around to my flank and her face dropped.

She looked at me in disgust, “Why are you here Dashite?”

My heart dropped, along with my attitude, “I am not a Dashite…” I said evenly.

She turned her nose up, “To think I was interested in a worthless excuse for a Pegasus such as yourself.”

She turned and started to walk away as I glared at her as she walked over to another buck and started to do the whole act on him, “Yeah keep smiling buddy….” I turned around soured, “don’t forget to get to take some Rad-away after you're done play with her,” I said coldly causing her to glare at me while her face flushed red.

*****

I sat up as quickly as my body would allow as Silver burst into the room looking around frantically, “What is going on and what was that?” I asked feeling a little left out.

Silver looked at me for a few seconds then gave me a smile that I didn’t quite like for some reason as he walked over to me, “Splitstream, I have a very big favor to ask of you.”

I heard a voice call into the house from outside, “LISTEN HERE ZOMBIE, YOU HAVE A COUPLE CHOICES HERE. EITHER BRING ME THE CAPS YOU STOLE, HAND OVER THE BRAT, OR JUST BE WIPED OFF THE FACE OF EQUESTRIA. YOUR CALL AND YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES TO ANSWER OR WE’LL TEAR THE HOUSE APART AND DO WHAT WE PLEASE.”

Silver looked towards the window, his expression filled with fear. Bubble Gum runs over to him and buries her face into him, “I’m scared,” she said with a shake in her voice that was hard to hide.

I looked at her then up to him, “what is this favor?” I asked with a hint of urgency.

He stroked Bubble Gums main slowly then looked at me sadly, “I need you to take bubble Gum and get away from here as quickly as possible.”

The filly looked up at him in a sad surprise, “What? No, I don’t want to leave you…”

He leaned down and kissed her head, “Bubble Gum, you know I want to keep you safe and right now the only way for me to that is for Splitstream to get you away from here…”

She was shouting now as tears ran down her face, “NO, you told me you wouldn’t leave me alone.”

He spoke softly to her holding her tightly, “I told you I would protect you… and the best way for me to do that is to let Splitstream protect you now.”

Bubble Gum just cries into him doing her best to try and wrap her hooves around the ghoul. I looked at Silver who looked back at me with hopeful, sad eyes. I put my head down for a second before I looked back at him with a confident smile, “Yeah, I won’t let anything happen to her.”

I swear it looked like a small mountain was lifted off his shoulders, “Thank you Split.”

I waved a hoof at him, “It will be easier for you to get away by yourself, right?” I already had a bad feeling I knew what was going to happen but I wanted to do something… anything to help Bubble Gum even if it mean lying to her to get her to go with me, “Uh just one problem doc…”

He looked at me for a brief second with a raised eyebrow. Then he smiled with a slight sigh, “sorry things are kind of…” he levitated out a pill bottle and a small syringe.

“Hectic,” I finished for him as he stuck the syringe into my shoulder and pulled out one of the pills for me to eat. After a few seconds I felt the fever subside a little bit and an incredible burst of strength, “Whoa, now that is the kick I’m talking about.” I said as I stood up and trotted in place.

Silver packed a small saddle bag with all of Bubble Gums things and a couple of drinks and some canned food. He then packed a large saddle bag with the last remaining healing potion and a couple of different drugs that I didn’t quite catch. He set it on my back, “Take Bubble Gum out of the hole you fell through, they won’t be expecting anypony to fly away…”

I hovered in the air as he levitated Bubble Gum into my front hooves. She looked at Silver sadly then reached out for him, “NO, I want to stay please don’t go…”

Silver did his best to hold back the tears for her, “don’t worry Bubble Gum. We will see each other again.” he kissed her head once more then nodded up at me.

I nodded before spinning around and shooting down the hall way. I found the hole I made in the ceiling which I had to admit was very impressive. I heard a voice from down the hall, “Times up doctor.”

I looked up and shot towards the sky. Rain was falling rather hard as I climbed into the sky and by the time I was clear of the house I was soaked and so was Bubble Gum. She looked down right miserable as I tried to smile down at her, “It will be alright Bubb…” A loud BANG from inside the house stopped me as it felt like somepony just dropped an ice cube down my throat.

Bubble Gum turned and tried to scream but I put a hoof over her mouth holding her tightly as I could. I looked back into the house before I took off away from there as fast as I could.

Bubble Gum continued to cry into my chest as we flew. I felt so bad to have somepony so important to you just taken away in the blink of an eye. She looked up into my eyes sadly, “Are you going to drop me off someplace too…?”

I gave her a weak grin as the drugs started to wear off, “No, Bubble Gum, I will not just trust you to somepony else,” I looked up as my face started to burn again, “I said I would keep you safe and I plan on doing just that.”

She smiled a little and nuzzled into me; she stopped and put a hoof up to the side of my head, “Splitstream, you’re burning up again.”

I shook my head feeling the world swim around me, “I’m fine, we can go a little further still,” as I felt my telling me no you can’t.

“Please Split….” She begged.

I looked down at her and noticed the concern in her eyes. My mind pony kicked the back of my head telling me to remember that she just lost somepony close to her. I let out a sigh and smiled at her, “Ok, I will look for a place to set down so I can get some rest. Ok?”

Bubble Gum smiled and nodded, “Thank you Split.”

I gave her an apologetic look before I started to glance around. I grinned as I noticed a large building that was very close by that was still somewhat intact. I glided down to the building and my mood continued to improve as I noticed an open window close to the top floor.

“It’s about time,” I chimed as I flew in through the window. I touch down with my back hooves and set Bubble Gum down gently. I then decided to see how well gravity worked and I collapsed next to her.

She looks at me her face swimming with concern, water still dripping from her mane, “Split? Are you ok?”

I was definitely not ok. Tell her you are not ok, “I’m fine Bubble Gum,” great going tough guy.

Bubble Gum was going to say something when something coming from the hall caught my attention. I lifted my head to hear better and I found out, to my overwhelming joy, that they were voices. I looked at Bubble Gum, as one of the words I caught was Enclave, and gave her a go hide quickly look. She nodded as her pupils shrank in fear. She looked around and ran over to a small cupboard where she opens it and climbs inside.

Climbing shakily to my hooves I snap my wings out extending the bladed on my wings as two Enclave soldiers walk around the corner and stop when they see me.

The one on the right, who I assumed was a buck as he was bigger than me, looked at his partner, “I know that stallion,” he takes a battle stance, “He killed retired general Citrus. The only pony besides Commander Livewire who had access to the Super Pegasi Project.”

The other soldier looked at her partner, “How did he…”

The male glared at me from behind his visor, “Look at him Sparkler… He’s already been branded a Dashite.

She gave me an up down, which I wasn’t sure if it was the fever or the discomfort but I know I had to be turning red at that point.

I took a battle stance ready to do whatever I needed to in hopes that my body would allow me to do it when another Pegasus poked her head around the corner. I had to admit she was very cute with her dark orange coat with brown mane with red and purple stripes through it made her red and green tinted eyes stand out.

The female turned around, “Who’s there? Show yourself.”

The mare walked out looking like she was going to be sick as the female took a small step back, “Sir, she is the one who ran off when we were sent to apprehend her.”

He looked over at her and spoke softly, “Sir, we have the Dashite who killed general Citrus and the runaway Nova Flare. What are your orders?”

Why the hell was everyone calling the maintenance pony general…. Wait… General Citrus? The General Citrus?

The buck nods, “Yes sir, understood.” He looks up at the mare who I assume is Nova Flare and stands in front of her, “Nova Flare I have order to take you in with us or to take you down so please do the sensible thing and.”

A red earth pony mare with dark eyes smiles next to him with a shotgun pointed in the open part of his helmet, “surprise,” she said with such a cold tone that it sent a shiver down my spine, but the feeling lasted long enough for her to splatter his brains all over the other Enclave soldier.

She backed up locking her energy weapons on as she screamed, “SIR THEY STARTED TO ATTACK THEY KILLED…”

I cut her off as I drop the tip of my wing blade deep into her eye socket. She gave a small jerk and dropped to the ground lifeless. I turned around figuring that if they intended to kill me that sneaky one would do it anyhow. I made it past the door looking at the cupboard as my vision started to swim.

I used everything I had to call out to Bubble Gum but I wasn’t sure if I said anything as I became familiarized with the floor again.

I saw the cupboard door open a bit and saw Bubble Gum step out and scream, “SPLIT!” as she ran to my side, “Split please be ok…”

I tried to say something to her but all I could do was breathe and that was hard in itself.

Bubble Gum reached into my saddle bag and pulled out the healing potion, “Hold on Split I’ll take care of you…” she bit down on the cap and held the bottle in her hooves and started to pull. The cap comes off with a pop that causes Bubble Gum to drop the potion to the floor spilling all over the ground, “NO!” she screams as she tries to grab at the liquid with her hooves as tears start to fall from her eyes.

I wanted to hold her and tell her it was alright but I was rolled onto my back and a bottle forced into my mouth. My head started to feel a little better as the magical liquid did its work. I felt myself being lifted off the floor and set onto something soft. I started to feel my body tell me it’s time to rest as I slowly started to slip into unconsciousness. ‘Mark my words, I will be able to get some decent sleep without worrying somepony about my health’ was all I could think of before darkness overcame me.

Chapter 4

I stood in the doorway scared and hurt. ‘Why did my mommy have to leave me?’ was all a colt that didn’t even have his cutie mark could ask himself. For a long time I would cry myself to sleep asking that very question never understanding that she didn’t mean to leave me, but that she had a very weak heart that didn’t have the ability to support her anymore.

I woke up one morning pulling myself out of the ragged blankets. I left my teddiursa sitting on my bed to go down and get some breakfast. As I walked a purple filly ran up next to me smiling, “Hey Split, good morning,” she said with a bright smile on her face.

I looked at her with a sad frown before looking away nervously, “Oh… hi Setting Sun.”

She lowered her head to try and look at my face better, “What’s wrong Split?”

I turned my head so that I was looking more the wall that what was in front of me, “Nothing… I just…”

I ran into something big and unmoving, “Hey, watch where you’re going Spit… Stream,” the larger gray Pegasus said with a glare.

I looked at the floor, “Sorry Thunder Blitz,” I said feeling every bit as pathetic as I was.

The Pegasus pulled his head back and smirked, “If you aren’t careful, you will be shrimp,” he gave a short sharp laugh which his two lackeys stupidly followed suit as they walked away.

Setting Sun walked over to me, “Splitstream? Are you ok?”

I stood up and started to walk away keeping my head to the floor. I wish she would have just left me alone.

She ran up in front of me causing me to stop but I didn’t look at her, “Split we can go talk to Miss. Lilly, she will tell Thunder to leave you alone and…”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” I shouted as I glared at her. She took a step back as she lowered herself cowering away from me, “I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP SO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE,” She looked at me like she was about to cry before turning around and running away from me.

I sat down hard looking down at my hooves, ‘I had a pony who wanted to be my friend and help me but I scared her away’ I thought to myself. I lie down in the middle of the hall and put my hooves over my head, “Why am I such a bad pony?” I asked myself as got up and ran back to my room jumping into my bed and pulled my blankets over my head, “I’m never coming out again,” I said as I curled up into a ball and slowly started to drift back into a dreamless sleep.

******

I slowly opened my eyes feeling a bit stiff but a lot better. I lifted my head up and looked around the room lazily before realizing that something was next to me. I looked down to see Bubble Gum curled up in a tight ball using my wing as a blanket. I gave a slight grin but the little pony in the back of my head was running around yelling, ‘AWW, SO CUTE.’

I lifted my wing off her thinking it might be a better idea to find her a blanket than letting her use my wings that still had the bladed armor on them. I pulled the must ragged blanket off me and tucked it under her smiling.

“I guess I was wrong, you are a big softy…” came a voice from behind me.

I jumped into the air and took a battle stance allowing my wings to snap open which caused the hidden blades to pop out. I glared at the gray Pegasus buck with a short black mane and tail put his front hooves up with a goofy smile, “Who are you…” was all I needed to ask.

He continued to smile, “I was just passing by and…”

I flicked my wings a little and made one of the rolling chairs near me a stool as I cut the metal spine on it holding the back of the chair up, Last chance…” I growled.

His smile twitched, “I came with another pegasus that had to get something to help a foal. After I saw that you were in no condition to keep an eye on your little one, I decided to stay and keep her safe until you were strong enough to...”

I lowered my wings making the hidden blade retract before folding them back up, “Why didn’t you just say that the first time?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He waved a wing out to an old musty looking sofa that was next to a larger looking one. I walked over to it jumped up onto it and made myself comfortable. He then dug in a saddle bag and pulled out two Sparkle Colas. I licked my lips realizing how thirsty I really was just then. He popped the tops off in his mouth and spit them into his saddle bag. As he turned around to head back to the sofa I got a look at his cutie mark that was a hammer and sickle. My mind had so many questions at that moment but I decided to wait.

He handed one of the Cola’s to me which I was more that welcome to accept. He jumped up onto the other sofa leaned back and took a sip, “Well to be honest… I had to make sure that you wouldn’t just kill me before I could say anything.”

I rubbed my head with a hoof and sighed, “Do you have a name?”

“Cool Coat,” he said smiling, “you?”

I took a sip of my Sparkle Cola letting the flat somewhat cool liquid wet my dried throat, “Splitstream…”

I turned as something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I smiled as Bubble Gum sat up and started to look around still half asleep, “Morning sleepy,” she looked over at me for a second before getting up and adjusting the blanket over her shoulders. She bit the corners of the blanket to keep it on her and starts to walk towards me. The pony in my head jumped around like an idiot when she stumbled a bit as she stepped on the corner of the blanket. When she reached me she climbed up on to the couch making me lie down and she curled up onto my front hooves and fell back to sleep.

Cool Coat smiled at me with a warm smile, “Isn’t that cute?”

The pony in my head was dying of cuteness overload as I tucked the blanket around her, “Yes, yes she is.”

After a few minutes Bubble Gum sat up again with a long yawn rubbing her eyes with a hoof. She looked up at me with a raised eyebrow, “Did you get something to drink?”

I smiled at her, “Yes, Cool Coat gave me a Sparkle Cola.”

She rubbed her eyes again, “Good, idiot…”

I leaned my face close to hers, “Are you crying?” I asked slyly.

She turned away, “No… I just… you almost died and,” she started to shake a little bit.

I smiled as I pulled her close to me, “Yes, but if not for you I would have,” she tries to push me away but gives up after a few feeble attempts.

“It’s because of me that you almost died,” she said as I let her go and slid off the sofa.

I turned to her with a grin, “No, it’s because I got shot remember? Or did you shoot me?” I gave her a smirk.

She folds her front legs, “I don’t need to, everypony else will do that for me anyhow.”

I poked her in the side causing her to squirm and let out a small squeak, “You would miss me.”

She tried to cover her sides from me, “No, I just don’t want you to leave me alone here.”

Cool Coat grabs his side as he couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore. Bubble Gum glares at him, “What are you laughing at?”

Cool Coat wipes a tear away, “Are you sure that he isn’t your father?”

Bubble gum and I look at each other then turn back to him pointing at each other, “Me? Related to that?”

His confident smile and raised eyebrow caused me to put a hoof up to my mouth to try and keep down a laugh. She stood up on the sofa and walked over to him glaring, “Why would you think I was related to that?”

Cool Coat took a small sip of his cola before answering, “Because, no matter what I said or did you never left his side.”

She flushed, “I… I didn’t want him to die and…”

Cool Coat waved a hoof, “You don’t need to explain it to me, but maybe you should explain it to him,” he said with a nod to me.

I looked at her and she glanced at me quickly and looked down at her hooves, “Split… I don’t want to be alone again, and… I’m happy you are alright.”

I placed a hoof on her head, “Was that so hard?” I teased.

She smiled a little, “You have no idea.”

Cool Coat slid off his sofa, “Well should we be underway then?”

“Did I miss something? When did you join us?” I asked as I glanced from him to Bubble Gum who just shrugged.

Cool Coat pulled on his saddle bag and picked up a gun that I have never seen… now that I thought about it I have never seen any kind of firearms except energy guns, so I walked over to him looking at the gun with curiosity.

Cool Coat glanced up at me then to his gun, “Nice huh?” he grinned widely.

“I have only ever seen energy weapons, I mean the Enclave has other weapons available to them but…” goddesses I felt like an idiot.

Cool Coat held out the weapon to let me get a better look at it. I didn’t want to touch it in fear of breaking it somehow. I wanted to try and use it when something ran into the room. I turned around and tried to get at Bubble Gum when the… thing leaped onto the sofa and landed on her making her scream.

“BUBBLE GUM!!!” I felt a horrible feeling in my gut as I tried to move to her. I stopped instantly when she started to giggle and laugh, “Bubble Gum?” I asked a little more confused now.

I wanted to hit Cool Coat as he started laughing when the small gray and white dog looked up at me with an expression that told me I was next. I glared at Cool Coat causing him to swallow hard with his smile fading a bit and call the dog over to his side.

Bubble Gum sat up and wiped her face with the blanket still giggling. I turned to Cool Coat pointing one of my bladed wings at the dog, “What is this?”

Cool Coat patted the dog’s head, “This is Jack, he’s my best friend and he has a soft spot for foals,” he scratched the dog behind the ear with a hoof, “He isn’t much in combat but he is a great watch dog, or at least a great alarm.”

I facehoofed hard enough to see stars, “Is there anything else I should know about before I try to kill something else that’s friendly?”

Cool Coat put a hoof to his chin as he thought, No… no I think that covers everything,” his eyes lit up, “Oh yeah!”

I rolled my eye’s, of course there was something else, “Let me guess, The Enclave knows where I am and they plan on destroying the building in a few minutes? Or I was contracted with an incurable disease that is slowly going to eat the flesh off my face destroying my good looks? Or….”

Cool Coat gave a sharp laugh, “There’s a safe up one floor that I couldn’t get into and was wondering if you might know a way?”

I felt a little stupid that I decided to jump to the craziest problems first, “Yeah well that was my next guess,” I glanced at Bubble Gum and noticed that she was staring at me with a hoof over her mouth trying not to laugh, ‘what’s so funny?’ the pony in my head asked a bit annoyed.

Cool Coat slung the rifle over his back, “Well do you want to go and take a look at it?”

Honestly what was the worst…, “Yeah sure, why not?” I was about to ask myself the one question that was bound to get me into trouble. I walked over to the saddle bag that Silver gave me and slipped it on. I looked at it for a second before glancing up at Bubble Gum who was slipping her saddle bag on.

She looked over at me and frowned, “What?” sounding more like an annoyed friend than a filly who just curled up next to me to fall back to sleep.

I walked over to her and crouched down, “How are you doing?”… Smooth Split real smooth, why not ask her how the weather is while I’m at it?

She frowned and looked at my hooves, “Why are you being so nice to me? You don’t even know me yet?”

I lifted her chin to make her look into my eyes, “So I can’t care about somepony just because I don’t know them very well?” she looked around for a minute like she was trying to find the answer to the question someplace. I just placed my hoof on her head, “I promised I would look after you, and I intend to keep it…”

She looked up at me as her eyes started to become wet with tears, “But you almost didn’t keep your promise…”

I poked her on the tip of her nose, “That’s why you’re still here… to make sure I keep it,” I grinned from ear to ear.

She walked forward and pushed her face into my chest which made my smile fade a bit. I could barely hear her as she said, “Please don’t leave me alone again,” in a shaky voice that really pulled at my heart.

I wrapped my hooves around her, “Not while I am alive and kicking, you will never be alone.”

She gave a wet sniff as she smiled up at me with a couple of tears falling down her cheeks, “Then I will make sure you stay that way.”

I put my face close to hers and smiled back, “Good because I’m not great with the whole making myself better thing,” I thought for a moment, “Would you mind dumbing down the whole idiot thing?”

She gave me an evil smirk, “Now you’re pushing it,” she turned around and walked over to Jack and was bowled over while the dog tried to lick her face off.

I watched in stunned amazement before getting to my hooves and walking by her looking straight ahead, “Ready?”

Cool Coat glanced at me then to Bubble Gum who was still trying to save her face from the slobber machine then back to me, “Did you two just have a family moment?”

Bubble Gum yelled out, “Save me!” between the dogs attempts at trying to get her face completely soaked.

I shrugged, “Sorry, an Idiot like me might get hurt tying.”

She shrieks with laughter, “Then I will fix you, just stop him.”

I gave a small chuckle, “Sorry can’t take that chance.”

Jack gave her a huge wet lick right up the middle of her face before backing off and walking over to Cool Coat who was once again trying not to fall to the floor laughing. She stood up and gave me a glare that told me I was going to be in big trouble but with the front of her mane sticking up because of the drool it just made her look adorable.

I put a hoof up to my mouth, “Ain’t that cute?”

She rubbed her face with the back of her hoof, “Idiot…” was all she could say.

I gave Cool Coat a nod which he returned before we walked out the door into the hall. I looked down at the blood stains on the floor and wall where the two Enclave soldiers were, “What happened to the bodies?” I asked as I gave Cool Coat a sideways glance.

He rubbed the back of his head, “I took them outside… didn’t feel right leaving them there with Bubble Gum right on the other side of the door to see them.”

Bubble Gum walked up between us and looked at the spots, “I’ve seen plenty of ponies die so why should this bother me?”

I felt a little bit of worry build up inside of my gut at how cold her tone was. Was she really already that broken inside that death didn’t bother her? Cool Coat must be a mind reader because he managed to get the question out, “Doesn’t it bother you a little to see somepony die or dead?”

Bubble Gum looked up at him sadly, “Uncle Silver tried to do surgery on plenty of ponies but he lacked the required materials and sometimes they wouldn’t survive the operation.” She looked back down at the blood stains.

This little filly has experienced so much death that it kind of made me worry for her, but on the other hoof she hasn’t experience a pony being killed or killing another because they were ordered to or for fun or even survival. I also allowed myself to fully believe that she still hasn’t experienced taking a life yet herself as just looking at the blood stains seemed to still make her uncomfortable. I placed a hoof on her head causing her to look up at me, “Come on Bubble Gum, we don’t need to stay here any longer.”

She looked back down at the stains and nodded. I let Cool Coat take the lead Bubble Gum next and I took up the rear. We walked for a few moments before we came to a flight of stairs. Cool Coat looked back at me, “I haven’t fully explored this area but I didn’t see anything that required us to take extreme caution, but we should be cautious just in case.”

I felt like this was going to be very bad as we climbed the stairs, and the only thing I hate more than being right is about something like this is…, “DUCK!” I yelled as I scooped up Bubble Gum and jumped back around the corner of the hallway we turned down. The turret on the ceiling sprayed the wall at the end with enough bullets I wondered how we didn’t get hit, But then I realized as I glanced across the hall that just because Bubble Gum and I were fine, that Cool Coat wasn’t so great. He gritted his teeth as he held a hoof over a bullet hole in his shoulder.

He pulled a bandage out of his saddlebag and started to try and wrap the wound, “Didn’t I just mention that just because I didn’t see anything doesn’t mean that nothing was here?” Jack looked at his owner and darted across the hall to him. Luckily the little dog was faster and more agile that the sluggish machine. He grabbed the dog with a smile, “You dumb dog...” he said as he rubbed the dog’s head.

I peeked around the corner trying to get a layout of the hall. It was wide with doors on either side and… I pulled my head back as the turret tore apart the corner where my head was, “THIS IS HOPELESS!” I yelled as I glanced back at Cool Coat. He needed Bubble Gum to get over to him and help with the bandages. I continued to stare at the dog as the gears in my head started to turn.

I turned to Bubble Gum who was watching Cool Coat with a mixture of worry and sadness, “Bubble Gum when I make my move I need you to run over to Cool Coat got it?”

She focused on me immediately, “What? Wait… what are you doing? Where are you going?”

The worry in her tone felt like I was just kicked in the heart. I placed my hooves on her cheeks smiling at her, “I’m going to take out that turret,” her eyes dilated into pinpricks, but before she could say anything I grinned widely, “If that mutt can make it I should be just fine,” no if only my brain believed me…

Bubble Gum couldn’t argue as she glanced at Cool Coat who was watching us like what I was planning was the stupidest thing I could possibly think of… and to be honest it probably was. She finally looked back at me and nodded, “Be careful Split,”

I hugged her and kissed her on the forehead, “Like I said, I’m not going any place.”

She turned from me and got ready to sprint across when the turret started to shoot at me. I took a deep breath and jumped into the hall. The turret started to swing slowly to me, and I grinned as I started to run towards it careful as to let Bubble Gum get across without being a target. I gave my wings a small flap and jumped onto the wall. I continued to run along the wall, using my wings to keep me glued to it as I ran. The turret tried to follow me but I was keeping myself just in front of the part that I didn’t like, and with another quick flap I was running on the ceiling right at the turret. I imagined the turret having a face and it looking at me in horror as I closed the rest of the gap in a few seconds and made a leap for the turret.

My wing cut the gun in half diagonally as I turned in midair and landed without a sound back onto the dirty tiled floor. I looked up at the turret and gave a confident smile as it sparked a few time then powered down.

From the other end of the hall I heard, “Yeah… well I could have done that…” as Cool Coat came limping around the corner with Bubble Gum looking pleased with herself.

I rolled my eyes as the pony in my head was dancing around yelling, ‘awe yeah I am so awesome,’ I just gave him a cocky smile, “Sure you could tough guy,” I spun around took two steps and my back legs slipped out from under me as I stepped on the turrets barrel.

Bubble Gum fell over laughing as Cool Coat just grinned at me. He reached to the floor with his hoof and held it out to me, “I think you dropped this?”

Not quite sure what was going I looked at his empty hoof then back to his face, “What?” I asked genuinely confused.

He snickered, “Your pride…” Bubble Gum howled louder as she kicked her back legs.

I felt my face burn, “Yeah…well… you got shot…” I stuttered.

He had to sit down as he tried not to join Bubble Gum, “I was shot by an active turret… you were dropped to you flank by broken piece of a turret.”

I stood up and turned away from them walking into a large office. The pony in my head pouted in a dark corner, ‘I still was awesome,’ I nodded to myself, “Yes I was awesome.”

Bubble Gum walked in a few seconds later rubbing a few tears out of her eyes and a huge grin still on her face. Cool Coat walked in right after and pointed to the corner of the office, “That’s the safe.”

I was already poking at a terminal that was nearby. The terminal was locked and just as he pointed out the safe I cracked the password… Juicy… right.

I found a way to open the safe from the terminal which I was more than happy to do. I pulled away from the terminal when the safe made a mechanical CLICK. I trotted over to the safe, pulled it open, and glanced inside; with Cool Coat looking over my shoulder and Bubble Gum poking her head between my front legs to get a better look.

Inside was a small black box that was barely longer than my leg from knee to hoof, a few bits, some sort of computer thingy and some kind of statue. The statue was on a base the was smaller than my hoof but had a white unicorn on it that was wearing a nurses hat and had a large syringe in her mouth. The bottom said, “Be Healthy,” I looked at it and shrugged.

Bubble Gum was staring at it intensely so I scooped the figure up and handed it to her. She looked at the statue then to me, “But…”

I smiled, “Why would I want it? You’re the one who wants everyone to stay healthy so you take it. You can use it as a goal or something.”

Her eyes lit up and she jumped up wrapping her hooves around my neck, “Thank You Split!” she cried.

She let go and took the figure and walked away to look at her new idol in detail. I smiled as she walked away then looked at Cool Coat who was smiling at me warmly. I glared at him, “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten that pride comment yet,” his smile shrank a bit.

I turned back to the safe and pulled out the computer thingy. Cool Coat glanced at it, “If I think that is what I think it is… Then this is a pipbuck.”

I looked at him in confusion, “You mean like the ones ponies got while living inside a Stable?” he nodded. I looked back at it, “But this is… I don’t know… different?”

He took it from me, “I agree, I have never seen this before either it looks like it might be a new model that never got out in time.”

I shrugged again, “Well let’s keep it for now I’m sure somepony will pay good money for something like this,” and I scooped the bits into my saddle bag. I paused as I looked at the black box then reached in and pulled it out. I hit a small button on the front of it and the lid popped open.

I heard Cool Coat let out a whistle at the three slightly glowing orbs, “Mmory orbs…”

I gave him a look that made him roll his eyes, “They are memories of ponies that are either something important or…”

I closed the lid, “Don’t care!” Cool Coat looked at me like I crazy or something. I just slid the box into my saddle bag and gave a confident smile, “Why would I care about some dead ponies for?”

I walked over to Bubble Gum who slid her figure into her saddle bag, “Ready to go kiddo?”

She nodded to me, “Are you?”

I shrugged. “Not really sure where we’re going from here but…”

“There is a small settlement not far from here. We can get some supplies and a nice place to crash… well safe anyhow,” he said as he put a hoof to his chin.

Bubble Gum looked at him, “And maybe some better medical supplies to get you fixed up better,”

He looked at her and smiled, “If this doesn’t do the trick. I never knew you were so good with things like this.”

She flushed and I ruffled her mane with my hoof, “Well let’s get underway,” as I stood up and headed to the door with Bubble Gum and Cool Coat right behind me and Jack running circles between the three of us.

Chapter 5

Miss Lilly decided to let all of us stretch our wings a little today. I wasn’t going to complain because it was the only time I got to be completely free from everything. The purple Pegasus with a light blue mane with streaks of gray swirling through it put her wings up, “On my mark!” all of us crouched down low, “get set!” we opened our wings, “GO!” she dropped her wings as she shouted.

I don’t know what everypony else was doing but I shot like a blue and white missile into the air. I closed my eyes letting the wind flatten my mane against my head. I climbed higher and higher until I couldn’t hear anypony so I set down on a nearby cloud and looked down. I grinned as everypony looked like little black dots buzzing around below me.

I flopped back against the cloud smiling. I was just starting to doze when something caught my attention, “What the..?” I looked over the cloud and noticed that the weather team was moving a storm system in quickly. I also noticed that Gentle Breeze, a new filly that was brought to the orphanage a couple of days ago, was flying right into the storm clouds.

I looked down and shouted, “MISS LILLY THE NEW FILLY IS…” a loud clap of thunder drowned out my call. I looked up and noticed the Gentle was trying to fix her course but she was not a very good flier and was still heading straight for the clouds.

I swallowed hard and jumped off the cloud and speed down to try and intercept her. I shot down faster and faster coming alongside the wall of white clouds being pushed by the storm. I gritted my teeth as I saw the terror on Gentles face as she finally managed to turn around but the speed of the storm was moving too fast for the novice flier to get away.

I pushed myself hard knowing that the storm could seriously hurt the filly. I felt a slight tingle in my wings and a small crackling sound. I looked under me and noticed small bolts of electricity bouncing back and forth between my wings and the clouds.

The fillies scream caused me to look up again and notice the filly disappear into the white clouds. I dove in through the clouds pushing myself as hard as I could when the filly came into view. I wasn’t a whole lot bigger than she was but I grabbed her and kicked out trying to get out of the clouds when a loud Crack told me the storm was almost over us. The tingling in my wings was driving me batty as it kind of tickled but I had to get the filly out. I saw a break in the white clouds and shot towards it.

I broke through the clouds with a loud CRACK-BOOM following me. I looked back to see a long white lightning bolt trailing behind me from my wings and bits of cloud. I also noticed that I was now sporting my new white lighting cutie mark. I was excited and overjoyed. If only I knew how much that cutie mark would make my life a living hell.

******

I popped the cap off of my Sparkle Cola and spit it to the ground where Cool Coat scooped it up and put it into his saddle bag. I leaned against the Sparkle Cola transport cart where I found the drink, “What are you doing?” I asked after taking a sip.

Cool Coat popped a cap of his drink and spit the cap into his saddlebag, “Oh… caps are considered currency in the wastelands.”

My brain stopped working for a second as I looked back into the cart at Bubble Gum who was scooping up about twelve colas into her saddle bags and trying to pull the cap off of one with her teeth. I reached in and took the bottle and popped it off and handed it back, “Really? Caps? Why caps?” I scooped up a couple of them with a wing.

Bubble Gum shrugged while she took a long sip, and I guess Cool did the same thing since I didn’t hear him say anything. I felt Cool put a hoof on my shoulder and spin me around holding a hoof up his mouth with a look that told me we were not alone. He looked at the Mini Schnauzer and gave him a small sharp whistle the dog looked up and backed up close to him.

The dog was crouched down low and growling at the edge of the road we were on. I leaned over to Bubble Gum who was trying to climb out, “No Bubble Gum stay put for now until we know what we are dealing with,” I said in a low voice.

She nodded and crouched low in the cart. I started walking to the edge of the road and looked down the hill to see what I could. Cool Coat tried to yell and whisper at me, “Split! What are you doing?”

I shook my head, ‘was it not obvious?’ I thought, “I’m going to see who or what it is. Stay close to Bubble Gum and keep an ear out for me just in case things go south,” I glanced back to see him shaking his head with a hoof over his face. I turned around smiling, ‘You can’t just expect everypony to be trying to kill you,” I said to the pony in my head. He just rolled his eyes.

I looked over and saw four earth ponies walking along talking. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about but I decided to go down and greet them. I lifted off the ground and glided silently to them. I landed down in front of them smiling, “Hello…”

The four of them stopped and looked at each other then smiled at each other. One of them stepped forward and pulled a shovel out that… was… very sharp… and serrated. I swallowed, ‘maybe this wasn’t such a great idea huh,” the pony in my head asked, “maybe… maybe they are just polite and…” The pony in my head faced hoofed, ‘DO THEY LOOK FRIENDLY?’ he yelled.

I had to admit… not many ponies looked like they got in a fight with a broken window and decided to wear what looked more like junk that clothes. I think what sealed the deal was the pony walking up to me with the shovel saying, “Play time…” with a crazy giggle.

I raised my hooves up in defense, “Um please sir can’t we just…” He swung the shovel around in a wide arch. I ducked the first blow and snapped my wing open to stop it from coming back and taking my face off.

He gave a sharp laugh as he pulled the shovel back and stabbed out at me like a spear, “I’m going to wear your wings like a cape.”

I was just about fed up with this nut. I dodged to the side and snapped the spade off the shovel and gave him a cocky smile, “Now let’s try this again I…” I was sorry mistaken when I thought he was defenseless as he swings the shovel handle into the side of my head. I stumbled to the side as the world spun around. He swung again but I was able to duck in time. Now I was pissed I dodged another that was a little high by dropping low. He tried to smile but I snapped a wing open cut the shovel handle in half… and his muzzle… and his face.

He dropped to the ground with a ghost of a smile still on his face as blood flowed freely from just under his mane in a line to his jugular. I stood up and glared at the other three and spit to the ground tasting copper in my mouth, “Now, for the last time… I do not want to fight. I want to…” a blue colored unicorn mare pulled out a small pistol, A brown earth pony mare pulled out a gun that had two large barrels, and the other orange earth pony buck had… a pipe.

The pony in my head started screaming, ‘REALLY? A PIPE? WHY NOT TRY AND COME AT ME WITH A MANE BRUSH,’ apparently he was telepathic because he put the pipe away and pulled out a small metallic apple. I swallowed hard, “Now let’s not do anything we might regret,” they all started laughing and I was starting to feel a little sick. I glanced around trying to figure out something to get out of this without getting my flank blown up.

I looked down at the shovels metal spade then to the laughing pony and grinned. I had to do this right and quickly, so I flicked a wing out and tossed the spade into the air and caught it in my mouth. I spun and sent the spade flying at the pony with the apple like a sharp deadly Frisbee. The buck didn’t take the distraction as well as I thought he would as he dodged if just enough to let it go by harmlessly and then dodge my bladed wing from slicing him in half.

He looked at his chest then to me, “Need some glasses little bird?” he smiled. I just looked at him and smiled myself as I brought the tip of my wing up between us showing him the little ring dangling off it. The color in his face drained instantly before the explosion tore him in half. I wasn’t going to complain as the unicorn mare was close enough to the buck that her face was ripped away and her pistol was planted deep into her skull from the force of the explosion.

I definitely didn’t think that grenade has that much punch as the shock wave knocked me to the ground, ‘that was smooth,’ the in my head said.

I climbed to my hooves, “I’m alive at least,” I put a hoof up to my head as it felt like I was standing on water. I looked up to see the brown earth pony mare already on her hooves and smiling wickedly, “Why can’t you just die for me?” I asked as she brought the double barreled gun up. Her eyes told me I was toast so I tried to move but my head wasn’t having it as I stumbled over. I braced for the pain clenching my eyes tightly.

BANG, BANG, BANG

I opened my eyes in confusion, “Three gunshots and no pain?” I looked up at the mare as she swayed for a few moments bleeding from two new holes in her head and one in her neck. The gun dropped to the ground and she fell to the side.

I looked at her still very puzzled when I heard Cool Coat yell, “HEY, SPLIT, YOU OK?”

I looked up the hill towards the road to see Cool Coat gliding down with Bubble Gum wrapped in his front legs. I didn’t want to move so I just smiled up at them, “Yeah… for the most part,”

When he landed he let go of Bubble Gum who immediately ran to my worry written all over her face, “Split? Are you hurt?”

I closed my eyes as my smile reached up to my ears, “No, not really that… OW!” I opened my eyes, tears building up in them, as a sharp pain shot up through my nose as she whacked me.

I looked at the filly through my blurred vision, and she wasn’t happy. She brought another hoof down onto my nose as she yelled at me, “YOU IDIOT! YOU SCARED ME!” she hit me again and again. She sat down and looked at the ground sadly.

I reached a hoof out to her the other still on my tender nose, “Bubble Gum, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she scooted back out of my reach, ‘great Split now you messed up big time,’ I pulled my hoof back and wiped my eyes, “Bubble Gum, I’m sorry,” she looked up at me with the eyes that hurt me. I put on the best begging face I could, “Pease forgive me this time… just this once.”

She rolled her eyes and reached in her saddle bag pulling out a healing potion. I reached out for it and she pulled it out of my reach, “Promise me that you will at least think before you go trying to make friends with everypony.”

I sighed, “Bubble Gum, I promise… I value my nose too much not to.”

She handed me the potion to me, “Next time I’ll rip it off…”

I drank the potion and sat up slowly as the healing took effect. I rubbed my nose at the pain started to subside, “Can you do that?” She gave me a crooked smile and turned around and walked away. I just watched her, “No seriously can you do that?”

I didn’t get an answer from Bubble Gum so I walked over to Cool Coat who was looking at what the ponies had. I glanced at the small pile of goodies that were not destroyed by the grenade. A combat knife, the double barreled gun, a grenade that has a diamond set in the center, which to my knowledge meant it has shocking properties. I snickered at the joke as I continued to take in the inventory, a healing potion, some ammo and, “Wait, wasn’t there a pistol here someplace?”

Cool Coat nodded, “yeah, when the explosion went off the pistol the unicorn had was blasted into her head which for some reason kept it in one piece,” he looked around at the items, “I know it was here…” he looked up and his eyes went wide as he pointed a hoof.

I followed his point to see Bubble Gum holding the pistol in her hooves looking it over. I felt something in my gut clench as I jumped over to her and took it from her. She looked up at me in surprise, “Split! I need to learn how to…”

“NO!” I snapped at her causing her to flinch, “You will learn how to use one but you’re still too young,” She started to pout while trying to use the I’m an adorable filly eyes. I wanted to hand it back to her but I took a breath, “I said no and that‘s final!”

I tossed the pistol to Cool with a quick twist of my head. He caught it easily with a hoof and gave me a look that said he was going to bring up a good point. He set the gun down, “Split, she is going to have to learn how to defend herself, and the sooner she does the better.”

She smiled at Cool then gave me a satisfying smirk. I gave both of them a glare, “I still said no…”

Bubble Gum looked like she wanted to cry. I took a breath, “I said no because I got to know she is going to take using one responsibly.”

She sniffed, “How do I do that if you won’t give me the chance?”

I Looked down at her then over to the pile of goodies and gave a small smile as I spotted the combat knife. I walked over and took the knife in my mouth, which was not the best idea I had as I had to do everything to keep my stomach from getting rid of everything inside. I walked back over to her as she looked at me curiously.

I bent down and started strapping it to her side so she could turn her head to the side and pull it out without any problem. She just fidgeted around, “What are you doing you idi…”

I stood up and took a step back to admire my handy work, “I am going to let you prove to me that you deserve to use a firearm by showing me first that you can be trusted with a weapon in general.”

She frowned at the knife handle, “I think this is a stupid idea and you should…”

I turned around but glanced at her out of the corner of my eye with a grin, “Of course I could just let you use the pipe that the other stallion was using.”

I had to stop myself from laughing as her eyes went wide for a second then turned into a smile, “Thank you Split for giving me a chance to prove myself.”

I looked at Cool Coat who gave a shrug but had to put a wing over his face to hind the snicker.

WE both felt it was a good idea for Bubble Gum to take the potion. I didn’t have a lot of experience with shock grenades but I still had more than Cool so I took it. Cool took the pistol and the ammo.

He reached for the double barrel gun as I looked at it still unsure what it exactly was. I cleared my throat, “What kind of gun is that?” Asking that made me feel a little bit like an…

“Idiot…” Bubble Gum finished my thought for me. I gave her a keep pushing it and see what kind of weapon you get next look. She gave a small smile and backed behind me.

Cool Coat broke the gun open and pulled out the shells to check and see if they were still in good condition, “It’s called a double-barreled shotgun… or it used to be anyhow,” he lowered the barrel to the ground, “It’s been cut to shorten its length and drop the weight..”

I nodded as I tried not to imagine what the gun would have done to me. I shot a look at Bubble Gum who was looking at the gun as well. I smiled, “You are still a long time from being able to use that one,” her eyes never left the gun but she gave me a nod.

Cool Coat slipped the shells back into the gun and slung it over his back, “I wanted to ask you a question ever since the turret incident but I wasn’t sure how to ask it,” he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

I sat down pulling out another Sparkle Cola and popping the cap off and dropping it into Bubble Gum’s saddle bag to her delight, “just ask then,” I took a long swig.

He took a deep breath, “Alright… When were you branded?”

I took the bottle from my mouth and slowly lowered it to the ground, “I was never branded…” I said trying to keep my temper in check. He wasn’t calling me a Dashite outright, and he really didn’t know my story so I couldn’t get angry with him.

He looked down at my cutie mark, “but… your cutie mark is…”

“I SAID I WASN’T BRANDED!” he took a step back and Bubble Gum ran behind him. I felt a little guilty, why was I so angry? He didn’t know anything yet, “I was labeled…” I sat down hard and tried to glare a hole through a rock on the ground, “This is not a brand, it’s my cutie mark…”

His eyes widened, “Your cutie mark is the mark of a dashite?”

I shook my head, “When I got my cutie I produced a lightning bolt. It was white but I produced it from being close to white clouds. So if you put a white lightning bolt with white clouds on a white pony you get… this” I said with a glance at my flank.

Bubble Gum walked and stood in front of me with a curiosity, “What’s a Dashite?”

Cool Coat sat down, “They are labeled traitors of the pegasi… or so they say. Personally I think they are the smart ones.”

Bubble Gum hugged my front leg, “Well he isn’t a traitor and she stops for a second and looked up at me, “What is a traitor?”

‘Don’t stop being adorable,’ the pony in my head said grinning.

I set a hoof on her head, “A pegasus who chooses to no longer be fed the lies that they try to fill your head with are considered traitors. I just got luck in that I was marked before I was forced to leave.”

She lowered her head, “But you can’t be a traitor because you never left me alone when you had the chance.”

I bent down close to her, “Well first I was unconscious for most of it. Second I could never leave a filly as cute as you alone.”

She glared at me, “I’m not cute…”

I smiled, “You're right, I would say adorable would be a better…”

I fell back allowing the light weight to tackle me over smiling as she screamed at me, “I’m not adorable you… idiot.”

The moment was stolen when an explosion from off in the distance caught my attention. It was far enough off that it sounded more like a close gunshot but I was well aware how explosions sounded. I slid Bubble Gum off me as we both looked in the direction of the explosion.

Cool Coat was still looking in that direction as he calmly took a couple steps back, “That is our signal to get the hell out of…”

He was just about turned around when I stood, “We need to check it out.”

Cool Coat dropped his head, “I should have guess that is what you were going to say that.”

Bubble Gum looked at him, “How could you guess what he was going to say?”

He sighed, “Because my luck isn’t good enough to think he would just say ‘yeah let’s go’.”

Bubble Gum walked over to my side still looking at Cool, “Well nopony said you had to stick with us.”

I looked at her in complete surprise, “Bubble Gum!”

She lowered her head to me and looked up at me with those big eyes, “But it’s true…” in such a sad voice that took all my willpower to not tell Cool to kick rocks.

Cool Coat gave a small laugh, “Be that as it may, we really should get going.”

I tore my eyes away from Bubble Gum, “Oh yeah,” I crouched down and let Bubble Gum climb onto my back, “Let’s go.”

I spread my wings and Bubble Gum wrapped her front legs around my neck, “Slow please?” she squeaked.

I rose off the ground a little and started flying in the direction of the explosion. She buried her face in my mane and said something that sounded more like a squeak. I turned my head a bit to try and see her, “But you were so good the first time I took you flying.”

“First, it was raining so I couldn’t see well. Second, I had a little more on my mind. Third, can we land now?” I tried not to smile.

At first I thought that everypony was dead already as I noticed that two carts were turned over and one was still on fire. There were also bodies in the road and it was quiet… too quiet. BANG

I dove down feeling another bullet pass through my tail. I had to get Bubble Gum out of the air quick despite how she felt about the sudden dive.

I looked for a place to take cover when I heard a mare voice call out, “Hey stupid! Over here!” I looked back to see a red mare with purple eyes waving at me. I didn’t wait long as I ran towards her using my wings for so added boost.

As I ducked around behind an overturned cart I was glad to see the Cool Coat was following my lead the whole time with Jack in his front legs. Bubble Gum slid off my back and started kissing the ground, “Oh sweet ground,” kisses it again, “I will never leave you again!”

I smiled, “Aw come on, it wasn’t that bad.” The glare I got could have turned me to stone.

“What the hay are you doing here in raider territory, with a filly to boot?” I looked up the mare that was talking to me was… gorgeous. Her long white mane curled slightly at the end and her tail was braided and tied of making the tip of her tail look like a paint brush. Her head was covered with a brown well beaten Stetson. She continued to glare at me for a second before getting real close to me, “Well?”

I jerked back, “I was making sure that everypony was all right,” that came out a little bit weaker than I intended.

She stomped a hoof, “Well congratulations because not only are we in over our heads in raiders, but now so are you…”

I gave Cool Coat a questioning look and he leaned back up against the cart, “The same ponies you just killed.”

I frowned, “Hey don’t talk to me in that tone of voice,” either I was crazy or maybe I was just getting excited.

Bubble Gum ran up to him, “Yeah, I bet Split already has a plan don’t you Split?” she looked back at me and I nodded smiling like an idiot. She brightened and gave Cool a cocky smile.

Cool looked at her for a moment then to me, “does this plan of yours involve you getting shot at by multiple ponies?”

I nodded and smiled like an idiot again. Bubble Gum glared at me, “What?”

The mare behind her looked at me like I was crazy, “I agree with her, what?”

I stood up still smiling, “Well they won’t be expecting a pony to run into melee right now, and I know I’m fast enough to get to them before I become an overused zeroing target,” like my zeroing targets I wanted to say.

Cool Coat shook his head holding a hoof up his eyes, “Not many ponies know what zeroing is Split…”

I perked up, “Great not properly having a zeroed weapon will make their chances of hitting me…”

Cool looked up at me, “They don’t need to with these weapons Split, most weapons down here are fixed Iron sights, which means line up the front to the back put it on its target and fire.”

I felt a little less confident but I stayed my course, “They still won’t expect somepony to charge into melee as fast as me.”

Cool sighed, “That’s… true…”

The mare looked between us in surprise then turning to Cool, “You can’t possibly think this idiot…”

Bubble Gum shot her a glare, “Hey, only I call him that…”

The mare cleared her throat, “This… psycho?” she looked at Bubble Gum for approval which I was starting to feel a little annoyed about. Bubble Gum shrugged before the mare continued,

“You can’t possibly think this is a good idea?”

Cool Coat sighed at her, “Got a better idea?”

The mare looked at all of the dead ponies and the few that were still alive that were helping the injured and dyeing. She hung her head, “No… I guess not.”

I jumped in the air a little and spun around landing crouched ready to take off. Cool looked over the cart getting a quick count before a bullet next to his head brought him back, “Ready Split?”

The mare walked up next to me, “Why are you doing this?”

I grinned, “Always had a weakness for the cute ones…” I put a hoof up to my mouth and I felt my face burn as her face turned red and she looked at me in surprise. I guess I needed a new brain to mouth filter. I cocked my head to the side, “Well I guess no use in denying it now.”

This made her flush brighter as Cool pulled up his rifle and put his mouth on the mouthpiece getting ready to pop up and take a few out.

I looked at Bubble Gum and gave her a confident smile, “On your mark.”

She brightened a bit, “Okay, ready… set…” I snapped my wings open allowing the hidden blades to pop open. I felt a little giddy as I heard the mare take in a breath of amazement. Bubble Gum was standing on her hind legs and she dropped to the ground hard, “GO!”

I took off into the air and as soon as I was clear of the cart I was fighting to not be shot. I climbed high before turning in the air and diving back down. I noticed that Cool was able to take out three before they realized he was there and ducked back down. They didn’t realize that I was coming back as I landed between two of them.

One gross looking green Stallion with a gun that had a huge clip but fired way to fast to be accurate was staring at me dumbfounded. The other stallion was light blue and he was using some kind of revolver turned to me yelling something but was cut short as I opened his throat with my wing. The other stallion started to shoot at me and I bucked the gun into his mouth. With a loud crack and blood the gun fell to the ground with some of the stallions teeth.

I felt a burning sensation in my back left leg but ignored it as I took the stallions side and split it open from the shoulder to his cutie mark. The insides rolled out onto the ground and I took off to find my next target. I found a yellow stallion with his back to me taking pot shots at the cart to keep Cool from poking his head out. I trotted up next to him with a smile and easily cut the already poor conditioned rifle in half.

I cocked my head to the side, “Its ok to run if you want to,” the raider jumped back tossed the butt of the rifle into the air and caught it with the other end in his mouth. I rolled my eyes, “How did I know that was going to be your answer?”

He charged at me bringing his head around trying to club me with the gun. I bent the front part of my wing down to expose the armor and stopped the gung from hitting me. I chuckled a bit as the gun dropped and he grabbed his jaw in pain. Apparently hitting your face into something hard… hurts.

I crouched down and dove at him. He looked up and caught the blade of my wing in his mouth. I looked at him, “Ready to give…” was he trying to bite my wing off? I looked at him in utter amazement, “re you crazy? I could kill you right now if I wanted,” he bit down hard and started to draw blood from inside his mouth.

“HEY KICKER? WHY HAVE YOU STOPPED FIRING?”

I cursed under my breath, what was I supposed to do? I wasn’t going to murder a helpless pony… no matter how messed up they are, but if I didn’t do something I was going to be stuck in a place I didn’t want to be.

The mare came around the corner and I shook my head and finished the stallion quickly and spun around to face the mare. I drooped my wing a little in shock, despite the look of pure crazy and the raider barding she was kind of cute. She looked at me gave a twisted smile and brought out a shotgun.

I didn’t know what to do, jump? No I would get my flank blasted off. Block? No that gun would do some serious damage at that range. Attack? I looked into her eyes and saw my death but I couldn’t bring myself to strike her down. I stood up tall, “Sorry Bubble Gum… I hope this doesn’t hurt that badly,” I closed my eyes ready for something that involved a lot of pain.

I heard someone yell and then I heard something hit the ground. I opened an eye and saw the red mare I was saving squaring off against the raider mare. The raider mare jumped at the red mare and all the red mare did was pulled out a revolver and blasted a hole through the raider’s chest.

She turned back to me slid the pistol in her holster, “You are and idiot you know that?”

I blinked at her, “When… wha… why?”

She walked up to me, “Well I have a weakness for the cute ones as well,” she looked up at me innocently.

I felt my face burn as she drew closer, “But… I…” my brain was cooking at this point. I never had a mare look at me like that without wanting something in return, “Is there… do you need something?” I felt all kinds of nervous as she drew closer to me.

I looked over her shoulder and noticed the other mare was still alive. In fact she had had her gun and was pointing it at the two of us. I took the mare in my front hooves she blushed red and closed her eyes for a second. I spun her around when the gun fired I covered the mare with my armored wings and took a spray of metal pellets to the side.

I dropped to the side and the raider mare dropped as well. The red mare turned back to me frantically, “Split? It’s Split right? Hold on I have a healing potion just wait, “she dug in a small saddle bag and pulled out a healing potion. She picked my head up and using her mouth brought it to mine.

I drank the potion and started to feel the pain in my side start to fade away. I smiled at her,

“Thanks…” I stood up, “and it’s Splitstream by the way.”

She smiled, “Peppermint,” she looked away as she blushed a bit, “or you can call me Pepper everypony else does.”

I sat down and tried to rub the blood off of my side to only smear it, “Great… Bubble Gum is going too…” I felt something warm on my cheek and looked to see Pepper pulling her head back smiling with her cheeks bright red, “What was that for? Saving your life?”

She shook her head, “No that was because it felt like the right thing to do,” she grabbed my face and pulled me into a deep kiss. I was startled but quickly felt myself melt as she kissed me. She pulled back, “That was for saving my life…,” she pushed me over onto my back and stood over me, “this is for… saving your life…”

She was leaning down close to me when I heard Cool Coat, “SPLIT! YOU OK?”

Bubble Gum’s voce came soon after, “SPLIT IF YOU'RE DEAD LET ME KNOW SO I CAN KILL YOU!”

Pepper giggled and I wanted her to stay there and giggle like that again, but she took a step off me and yelled, “HE’S FINE.”

I sat up in time for Bubble Gum to come running around a large rock. She stopped short looking at me in horror, probably because of the blood along my side. She ran over to me to get a closer look and sat down hard with a sigh when she saw that I wasn’t hurt.

She pointed at my side, “What happened?” her tone was flat.

As Cool came around the corner Pepper giggled again, “He was shot saving my life…” she cleared her throat upon seeing Bubble Gum glare at her, “but I was able to give him a healing potion to help.

Cool Coat cocked a brow at me, “We heard two gunshots… How was she in trouble that she needed to have her life saved?”

I thought for a moment, I didn’t think the moment we shared was his business so I thought of a good lie, “eh flabble moom…” ok brain and mouth were apparently not on speaking terms yet.

Pepper gave a cute laugh that made my face burn as I rubbed the back of my head with a sheepish grin.

Cool Coat looked at me with a confident smile, “Say no more Playbuck…” he turned around after giving me a wink.

Bubble Gum rolled her eyes and got up and walked away. I caught her say, “Idiot...” under her breath.

Pepper shot me a sideways glance with a smirk, “Come on, I have to check the damage,” I got up and followed her were Cool was getting ready to help another stallion pull the cart that was least damaged back onto its wheels. We walked by Bubble Gum helping a white mare wrap some bandages around the leg of a colt who couldn’t be much older than she was.

Pepper smiled at me, “Your little girl is some kind of pony,” we were heading over to the other overturned cart that was far too damaged to even bother wasting energy on flipping.

I shook my head, ok brain time to work properly, “She’s not mine…”

She waved a hoof at me, “I know, but you are her guardian right now right? So she’s yours now,”

She stopped next to the cart and looked up at it.

I poked myself in the head. It was true I was in charge of her so I guess I could say she was mine in a way. I stopped and turned my head slightly to the side, “How did you know she wasn’t mine?”

She gave that giggle again, “I have never seen a buck get so tongue tied after a simple kiss like that.”

She turned around and crouched down low on her front legs leaving her… flank… in… the… I felt my face just about catch fire as more than a few mental images danced around in my head. I brought my right hoof out and brought it hard against my right cheek. The hit made my eyes water and the images to subside… a bit.

Pepper pulled out some sort of black box with a satisfying sigh. She put the box in her saddle bag and walked up to me, “So are you going to escort me to a place where I can rest up?”

I put a hoof to my chin, “Well Bubble Gum could use a safe place to rest up so yeah I guess we can travel with ya for a bit.”

She pushed me down from behind and brought her muzzle close to my ear. The hat air on my ear send a shiver down my spine as she spoke softly, “Plus I think we have unfinished business.”

She let me up and ran her tail across my face with a seductive smile. I moved my head trying to keep in contact with that beautiful tail… right up until I fell on my face. The pony in my head just shook his head, ‘nice.’

Luckily there was a town that was close by, the welcoming town of, “Megaspell? Please tell me they just ran out of ironic names.” I said with a hoof up to my eyes.

Pepper nudged me with her hip, “Come on, it’s not active at least if it is it has one hell of a delay.”

I frowned at her, “I don’t think I like the thought of sleeping so close to one that’s all.”

Her eyes narrowed seductively as she mover close to my head again, “You act like I plan on letting you sleep…”

I swallowed my heart back down with some great difficulty. I thought I played it out cool but Bubble Gum cocked her head looking at me with a curious stare, “Why are you all red? Did your fever come back?”

I shook my head a little more fiercely than I intended and almost fell over. Pepper giggled and walked up to the gates. I steadied myself the best I could, “Damn me and my weakness…”

Cool Coat walked by me with a grin, “What weakness? The one where you become a colt in heat when you see a mare that might be a little on the cute side?”

I glared at him, it wasn’t that bad was it? Bubble Gum sat down next to me and watched Pepper as she talked to a Stallion who came out from inside the gate, “I don’t like her. Something doesn’t feel right about her.”

I poked her in the side causing her to squeak, “Are you sure you are not jealous that another pony is paying attention to me?”

Bubble Gum glared at me and took an angry stance, “Wha… you idiot. I don’t care about what you do. It’s just…” she shook her head and turned around and ran past Pepper who was walking back.

Cool Coat gave me a slight grin, “I’ll go find her and talk to her for you.”

I returned the grin even if I didn’t have any feeling in it, “Thanks Cool,” he gave a quick nod and walked past Pepper giving her a nod that didn’t have the same smile as he gave me.

She stopped and watched him walk by, “They don’t like me…”

I walked up next to her, “Cool, I don’t think he can outright hate anypony. Bubble Gum on the other hoof… I just don’t think she is used to having a mare around that’s all.”

She frowned and said something under her breath. I leaned close raising an eyebrow and she gave me a sideways smirk and kissed my cheek, “Are you prying mister?”

I sat back and put my hooves up now feeling a little guilty, “I was just trying to see if I could help or something.”

Her expression dropped a bit, “Why?”

I stopped and put my hooves down and gave her an even look, “Because it is the right thing to do…”

Her expression didn’t change but she cocked her head to the side a bit, “Even if you don’t get anything in return?”

I smiled, “I never expect anything when I do something, too much paperwork involved.”

She gawked at me then put a hoof up to her mouth giving a slight giggle that turned into a laugh. It took her a few moments to calm down before she walked up to me and grabbed my head pulling me into another deep kiss, “Go check on Bubble Gum, make sure she is alright, “she turned around and walked back towards the gate and looked over her shoulder, “I have a room at the Foaming Mug. Just ask for me when you walk in and they will show you the way,” and without another word she walked away.

I sat there for a few moments as the rest of her friends all started unloading their gear and started to head inside. I got to my hooves and followed them inside. My first impression was this place is a dump, but I had to beat that thought out of my head with a spiked baseball bat. I didn’t need my time in the sky to cloud my judgment on how ponies lived down here.

I made my way towards the center of town when I realized, “How am I going to find them?” I looked around and to my relief Cool and Bubble Gum were sitting at an open restaurant. It was small but the food smelled heavenly so I walked over and sat next to Bubble Gum.

She was poking at a sandwich with her hoof while holding her head up with the other. I felt a little bad now so I cleared my throat. She didn’t stop what she was doing but grumbled, “What?”

I sighed, “Bubble Gum, I didn’t mean to make you upset by what I said.”

She pushed her plate away and set her head on her front legs that she crossed on the counter in front of her, “Yeah? Well you did.”

I leaned close to her, “Please tell me why you are so upset about a mare spending time with me?”

She looked up at me with a frown, “It’s not that I mind you being with her it’s just that… I don’t think she is a good pony.”

I thought for a moment, “I don’t think she is going to try anything, I mean we did save her life twice.”

Cool took a sip of something in a glass, “But she saved yours once so she only owes you once.”

I sighed and slid the saddle bags off and set them on the counter and slid them to Cool, “Well I’m going to go talk to her, keep an eye on these for me.”

Cool pulled my saddle bags to him. He pointed at my wings, “What about those?”

I looked at them and gave a smile, “if Bubble Gum doesn’t trust her I’m not going in unarmed.”

This made Bubble Gum smile. She reached over and hugged me, “Be careful idiot.”

I hugged her back, “I will cutie.”

She glared at me but then smiled. I guess since she took to calling me idiot cutie wasn’t so bad. I stood up and walked off it didn’t take long for me to find the Foaming Mug. I walked in and a yellow mare walked up to me wearing some lacy skirt with some leggings. She put a hoof up to my cheek, “Hey handsome want me to come and keep your bed warm with you?”

I felt a shiver go through me. She wasn’t bad looking in fact she was kinda cute but something told me it was not a good idea. I just looked at her, “I’m looking for Peppermint.”

She pouted, “Lucky bitch…” her attitude did a one-eighty, “Go up the stairs last door on your left.” She turned around and whipped my cheek with her tail.

I walked up the stairs rubbing my cheek, “What’s her problem?” I said as I came to the door I was told about. I lifted a hoof up and knocked.

A voice from inside called, “Come in Split.”

I opened the door and walked in. I looked around but she was not in the room, “Pepper?”

I heard water sloshing around, “I’m coming give me a minute.” I walked around the room looking at all of the different things in her room when a door on the other side opened and she walked in. She smiled up at me with a wet mane and tail and I felt my heart melt. She walked over to a desk where her she pulled out the small black box she had earlier and tossed it to me.

I caught it and looked at it, “What is it?”

She took a towel and started drying her mane, “It’s a memory orb. I haven’t had the ability to see it yet but I figure it would be a good payment for…” I set it back on the desk, “What are you doing?”

I gave her a cocky smirk, “I don’t want to take something from you that you haven’t been able to see yourself.” She stood there dumbfounded for a second. I turned towards her not letting my smirk drop, “Plus I don’t really care about what has happened in the past…”

She sat down and hung her head, “What if the pony did something horrible?” Her voice sounded hurtful and her mane was covering her face so I couldn’t see her face.

I walked over to her and lifted her face to make her look into my face, “Not if they gave whatever they did up.”

She looked sadly at me for a second then leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. This kiss was different than the last two I received. It had more feeling in it, more power. She pushed forward and made me stand up on my hind legs but our lips never parted and then I pushed back and we fell back onto her bed.

As I said before I never got the chance for a relationship, and I didn’t know if this was one. But the way she made me feel that night would never be forgotten.

Chapter 6

I was walking back to my room in a bad mood. Ever since I got my cutie mark I have become even more of an outcast that I was turning into. Now that I was old enough to understand things a little more, I understood why every pony hated me… well most ponies hated me.

“Split? Are you ok?”

I looked up to see Setting Sun looking at me with concern. The Pegasus mare was definitely very cute, her straight scarlet mane and tail stood out against her orange coat. A stripe that matched her deep amethyst eyes ran along her mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a sun behind a purple cloud.

I smiled warmly at her, “I am now…”

She turned her head to the side and smiled affectionately at me. The smile faded and she looked down at the floor, “It was Blitz again huh?”

I sat down in the middle of the hall. The younger orphans running down the hall to go and play outside leaving the two of us alone in the hall, “Yeah,” I took a deep breath, “I’m trying to play the

more mature pony here but…” I looked at my cutie mark with a deep loathing.

She walked over and kissed my cheek gently, “You’re doing it again…” she said quietly.

I looked into her eyes, I know I’m still a bit young but she was a very pretty mare and she didn’t outright hate me because of a stupid picture on my flank. I smiled and hung my head, “Sorry.”

She stroked the side of my face gently with a wing, “Everypony will soon realize that it isn’t the mark of a pony but the heart of one,” she kissed my cheek again, “I have to help Miss Lilly with the younger foals who still are having trouble flying,” she walked past me and glanced over her shoulder, “Try and get some rest Split.”

I watched he go for a few moments and smiled, ‘how did I end up lucky enough to get somepony like her to like me?’ I thought to myself.

I gave a slight shrug and walked into my room and flopped onto my bed for a few hours of rest.

I sat up and stretched trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes with a hoof. I opened my eyes and frowned, “Its dark outside already?” I hopped off my bed and gave another long stretch.

“So… Finally awake Spit Stream?”

I grinded my teeth together, “What do you want Blitz?” I turned to see the cocky Pegasus colt smiling at me. His mare friend hanging over him like a drunk giving me an equally cocky smile, “Oh and I see you brought your body guard as well.”

His smile faded a bit, “You better watch your tone Dashite or you will end up like your little mare friend”

My heart dropped then a small fire started to build as I glared at him, “What did you do?”

The cocky smile on his mare friends vanished instantly and she took a couple of steps back from me. He stood up ready to defend himself, “I did what I had to in order to get through to her that you were nothing but…”

I cut him off as I slammed him hard into the wall at the opposite end of the hall. My hoof was at his throat and the other one was raised ready to strike. My eyes narrowed at him and the venom coming off my words burned my mouth, “Where… is… she?”

His eyes dilate to the point of pin pricks, “She… she’s by the shed! By the shed! I’m sorry …I didn’t,”

I didn’t stick around to hear the rest of his babbling because I had more important things to do… like find Setting Sun. Not to mention the smell that he was giving off just then wasn’t very pleasant.

I didn’t even use the stairs I jumped out the window and shot straight to the shed. When I landed I looked around quickly until a small sob caught my attention, “Setting Sun?” I walked around the corner of the shed and saw her sitting there with her back to me hunched over sobbing quietly.

I reached out a hoof carefully, “Setting Sun is everything…” when she turned around my heart dropped. One of her eyes was swollen shut and she had blood coming from both her mouth and nose. She had parts of her mane ripped out and a few of her feather were scattered around her, but what made me sick to my stomach is the crudely hoof painted dashtie symbol over her cutie mark.

I reached out to her and she leaned back away from me, “Stay away from me dashite…” I could tell from the look in her eyes that it hurt her to say that much more than those wounds did, but the very fact that because of all of this is why she said it felt like my heart dropped through the cloud cover. She stood up with some effort, “I’m sorry Splitstream. It’s not worth getting treated like this by everypony just to be with you…”

She walked by me hanging her head and with a final goodbye she ran off into the house. I stood there looking at the blood still fresh on the cloud and the broken feathers around me. I lowered my head just like my friendship counter and let a tear fall to the cloud.

The tears stopped instantly as I looked up at the Enclave poster hanging on the shed wall. It promised to help make the future a better place for everypony while protecting the ones you love. I gave the poster one last glare and turned back to the house. My mind was made up now, and let somepony try and stop me, “Please let somepony try to stop me…”

******

I was just starting to feel myself waking up and I was feeling great… right up until a Pink ball dropped down onto my stomach. I sat up rolled over pushing Bubble Gum off me, “uh... wouldn’t a simple good morning have sufficed?” I said as I looked at her while holding my gut while my face and the pillow got better acquainted.

I heard the door close and then a soft click as Cool came into my view, “Sorry Split but it looks like your new mare friend has some interesting friends of her own.”

I sat up and rubbing my stomach, “huh” I then looked down at the bed next to me and realized that I was alone. I felt a tiny hoof on me and I looked down into Bubble Gums concerned eyes… well sort of alone.

Cool Coat slammed a hoof down making both Bubble Gum and I jump, “Split, Peppermint is a slaver! She tricked us and had slavers on their way since we arrived here last night.”

I was having trouble wrapping but something stood out, “What do you mean…Had?”

Cool Coat gave me a stare that answered my question. I put a hoof up to my face, again I had my hopes being shot down like I was not even a few days ago. I gritted my teeth as something inside me must have snapped.

I looked down at Bubble Gum feeling something building up inside of me, “Bubble Gum I want you to go into the bathroom close the door and don’t come out until I call you.”

Her eyes shrank, “What? but Split I…”

I stood up and slipped the armor for my wings again. I didn’t look at her, “Bubble Gum I meant now…”

I heard her jump off the bed and trot to the door but I as I finished fastening the armor down and was knocked back as something came hard across my face. I looked up to see Cool Coat glaring at me, “What In Tartarus Was That For!”

I held my cheek feeling the sting as I glared back, “I would advise you explain why you…”

He jabbed a hoof out pointing towards the door where Bubble Gum went to hide, “She’s scared you idiot.”

I looked back to him with an even stare, “She is fine Cool and I…”

THUMP THUMP THUMP

I swear I will get to a point where I can finish my sentences without interruption. I glared at the door, “Yes, Who is it?”

Cool turns his head to me with a slight glare and nods. He slung his rifle over his back, took the shotgun in his mouth, and flew over the door: propping himself up between the wall and a metal beam in the ceiling. There is a slight commotion behind the door and then it is knocked off its hinges to the floor.

A large brown stallion walks in smiling, “Well you are quite a looker ain’t ya?”

I didn’t answer him instead I simply was a little hungry. I walked over to the desk that was in the room and pulled off a pear and bit into it. I was quite surprised how fresh it was and crisp too.

One of the other stallions behind the brown one yelled, “Come on Kicker, let’s just take him out so we can get back and get paid.”

I chewed the last bite and swallowed, “I would like to know where your camp is. Would you be so kind as to tell me how to get there?”

The brown stallion grinned, “Oh I am going to give you a first class ticket…”

He stopped as I turned and gave him a glare the caused the three of them to take a step back, “I want a location… now”

He reached back and pulled out a large revolver with a scope on it, “We don’t need you… We can still take the other Pegasus and the br…”

I jumped at him and split the gun down the middle until my wing blade was now between his teeth, “I think I need clarify myself a little more huh?” I could feel his teeth chattering against the armor on my wing.

I felt my jaw tighten then I brought my wing forward faster than I was anticipating and felt it slice through the tissue, the teeth, the bone and finally out of the back of his head.

I looked at the stallion as his teeth clattered against my armor, ‘what was that?’ whatever it was I tried to shake it out of my head and looked at the brown stallion, “Now before I have to… take a little off the top… The location of the camp where I can find Peppermint…”

He swallowed hard, “It’’s… It’s just outside Manehatten… are you going to kill me?”

I looked him in the eye and saw utter terror in his eyes, and to be honest I felt a little bad. I mean he is just doing his job… be that it was a horrible job, “No I will not kill you this time.” I saw him relax a bit, “But it might be a good idea to look for a new line of work because if I catch you again…” I flicked my wing and ripped it out of his mouth along with a couple of teeth.

He yelled and fell to the floor holding his mouth as blood spotted the floor. The other two ran to his side and pulled him up, “You’re crazy if you think you can just walk in and talk to someone,” he said with a hoof over his mouth.

I glared at him, “Let me worry about my crazy, and you worry about how fast you can get out of my sight,” the three of them gave me a final glare then turned and ran off down the hall. I heard some shouting then a door slam shut.

Cool dropped down from the ceiling setting the shotgun in a makeshift holster, “Split I’m not sure letting them go was the best idea you have ever had but…” he stopped short as he looked over my shoulder and frowned.

I looked over to see a red tail disappear behind the door just before it closes with a snap. I turned and looked at the door, “Bubble Gum you can come out now,” no response.

I looked at Cool and he just gave me a hard stare. I walked over to the door and pulled the door open slowly. The first thing I noticed was it was dark; she never turned on a light. The second thing was I didn’t see her anyplace. I took a couple steps in, “Bubble Gum?” I called out.

I got a response of a little sob from under the porcelain bathtub. I knelt down and looked under the tube and I felt my heart drop. Bubble Gum was curled up on the other side between the wall and the tub and she was crying. She looked up at me her blue eyes swimming with tears, and whatever hatred I was holding towards Peppermint died when I saw those eyes.

I looked at her for a second then pulled myself up and sat up against the tub. Bubble Gum hated me and I knew why, I was an idiot. I closed my eyes, “Bubble Gum… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to do that to you again…” I heard her sniff so I continued on, “I let my anger take over too much, and as a result I ended up hurting you… just like you were hurt before.”

I heard something shuffling and after a few moments I felt her place a hoof on my leg. I looked down at her, right into those blue eyes as she looked up me. I reached over and picked her up and hugged her closely, “I’m an idiot… but I am very sorry Bubble Gum.”

She nuzzled her face into my chest and I felt something in my heart give of a warm sensation. She gave a sniff and said in a quiet shaky voice, “I thought you were going to be taken and I was going to be left alone again…”

I felt her tense up and let out a slight sob, and in return I squeezed her tightly, “Bubble Gum… I promised I would never leave you alone,” I felt my eyes start to sting, “I’m sorry Bubble Gum… can you forgive me this once?”

She didn’t say anything but gave a slight nod. Cool Coat opened the door and looked in and gave a slight smile, “See why I hit you now?”

I started to stroke her mane as I held her, “Yeah but that hurt less…”

Cool turned around, “Well keep that tucked away in your mind next time you do something stupid again,” he took a few steps away, “Now if you excuse me I have a few things to take care of.”

I felt Bubble Gum stir around a bit before she lifted her head and rubbed her eyes. She looked up at me and gave an innocent smile, “Just this once… idiot.” I did my best to smile but after what I just did to her I felt like I did when I saved her from slavers the first time. She hopped down off me and walked to the door stopping only to wipe her face a little more, “I have to go make sure Cool Coat doesn’t go spending our caps on anything he shouldn’t. You coming?” she asked with a backwards glance.

I stood up and gave myself a little shake, “I think I need to clean myself up first… go on ahead and I’ll be right out,” she nodded and took off after Cool. I sat down hard and put my hooves up to my head, “I guess having a good time with a good looking mare comes with one hellava price,” and then I thought of the mare who greeted me when I first walked into the building and shuddered.

I looked back to the tub and sighed. I then reached over and turned the faucet and to my surprise and delight the water started to fill the tub with hot water. I looked up sadly at the nonexistent shower head and let the tub fill.

After I got out of the tub and managed to drag myself down stairs Cool and Bubble Gum were sitting at the bar. Bubble Gum was sipping a light pink drink glaring at Cool Coat, and Cool was taking sips from a glass trying his best to avoid her glare. I walked over and sat next to Bubble Gum, “What’s wrong?”

Bubble Gum picked her head up and looked at me, her straw still hanging out of her mouth. She pointed a hoof at Cool, “I grounded him from buying anything ever again…”

I looked at Cool then back to her, “Why?” I had to admit this was starting to become entertaining.

She set her straw back in her drink and then shot him a sideways glance, “Why don’t you ask him... or better yet, her,” I saw Bubble Gums tail flick out and I looked over at the mare who greeted me now hanging over some young stupid buck.

I gave Cool a cocky smirk, and now he was trying to avoid my eyes while his face glowed red. I smiled back to Bubble Gum who went back to her drink, “What are you drinking?”

She smiled, “He had some strawberries and milk so he made me a shake,” she was pointing to a kind looking ghoul earth pony.

He looked up and walked over to me and asked me in that scratchy voice, “Would you like something to eat or drink?”

I felt my stomach growl my response. Apart from the pear I had earlier I was kind of hungry, “Yeah surprise me… I’m starving,” then I glanced at Bubble Gum who was watching me, “Got any more of that?” I pointed at her drink.

He gave a smile that I had to admit he probably should do less of because of the little amount of skin on his face. He turned around and walked through a door and a few minutes later walked back with a tray with a bowl of what looked like just he emptied a can of vegetables into it and warmed it up.

I had to admit though the warmed can of vegetables was far more satisfying than I thought the two hundred year old can would have tasted. I finished my bowl as he set my drink on the counter. As he took my empty bowl to a back room, he flicked what was left of his tail onto a radio dial and the room was bathed in a music of a mare that if she sang for me to kill myself I would swallow a live apple grenade.

I felt a sadness fill my heart as the song drew to a close and then a stallions voice started talking, “Hello Equestrian wasteland this is DJ Pon3, your voice in the darkness or at least the radiation. Time for the News, I have received reports of a group of over sea ponies near the old Ponyville ruins that were attacked and brutally slaughtered by the raiders that have taken up refuge there. Moneys on they thought that they could take on…”

The rest of broadcast became background noise as I noticed Cool’s face was screwed up in terror. I lifted my head setting my drink down as, which Bubble Gum decided to confiscate, I leaned over to him feeling a little concerned, “Cool?.... you ok?”

Cool’s hoof was shaking, “that… that group on ponies…”

My eyes widened, “We are leaving… Now!”

Cool’s eyes snapped onto me with a surprised stare, “Split… you mean…”

I slid down off of my stool and smiled, “Cool… you are my friend. So what kind of friend would I be if I just left you hanging like that?”

Cool slid down off his stool, “Split… this means… I mean…”

I gave him a half hearted wave with my hoof, “Cool don’t thank me until we make sure that these are your friends…”

Cool gave a relieved smile and nodded. I grabbed Bubble Gum off of her stool causing her to jump and try grabbing her drink with little success. We quickly made our way out of the bar and to the gates of the town where we stopped and checked our supplies before setting out.

Bubble Gum opened her saddlebag showing about six healing potions, “Will these be enough?”

I gave a hesitant nod, there were enough potions for us to have two each but with my track record they were probably for me. Cool doubled checked his ammo with a concentrated frown as Jack sat down next to his master looking up at his as if waiting for something. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried for him.

Bubble Gum wiggled back into her saddlebag and looked up to me, “Are we ready to go?”

I gave Cool a quick glance and then smiled at her, “Yeah lets go.”

She gave a little smile and turned around and started to walk. I quickly followed into step behind her as she started humming a catchy tune, in fact I found myself humming with her a few minutes later.

Our walk was interrupted when a loud thunderclap told us that we had only a few minutes before we were all going to get very wet. I scooped Bubble Gum up onto my back and started running with Cool right behind me. We continued to run to try and find some shelter but a raindrop that hit me right between the eyes told me time was up. I slid Bubble Gum off me and held my wing out over her as a wall of rain closed in and drenched us. I kept my wing over her when Cool pointed out a large old overturned sky cart.

I nodded to him and motioned for Bubble Gum to walk. as we drew close to the cart I noticed it was a cart that was used to transport some kind of merchandise. Cool ran to the back and I lead Bubble Gum to the back as Cool took aim at a lock on the door of the cart. I poked him in the side with a hoof feeling a little annoyed. Cool looked at me and I flicked out my other wing and popped the old lock of without much resistance. Cool pulled the door open and I couldn’t help but smile as the whole back end was filled with large boxes that, according to the labels, were filled with pillows.

we pulled out a couple boxes to make room and then got inside as Cool propped the door open. Bubble Gum ran to one of the old boxes kicking it open and being covered in a small avalanche of pillows and some feathers. She popped out giggling and I couldn't help but smile at her.

We set up some of the old musty pillows to make some beds for the night, since it didn’t look like the rain was going to let us continue on. I tucked the blanket that Bubble Gum found in the robot store around her as she quickly fell asleep on a mound of pillows. I walked back over to were cool was and notice that he had a glass in his hooves, and was drinking some sort of clear liquid which at first I thought was water.

“Got any more?” I asked as I flopped down a large pillow sending all kinds of dust and what ever else into my face. I coughed and sneezed for like twenty minutes and when I was done I looked down to see a glass with the clear liquid sitting in front of me.

I picked it up and brought it to my lips and, “Whoa!” The amount of alcohol that slid down my throat could have made me spit fire if I had a light. I looked at Cool through watery eyes, “What is this?”

He gave a small chuckle, “Well… let’s call it liquid spirit,” as he took another sip of the strong alcohol.

I took a small sip and set the glass down and glanced outside, “So… who are these friends of yours?”

I gave him a sideways glance and he was looking into his glass sadly, “I… I was sent here from overseas from my home country to see if we could either find whoever was in charge of Equestria and talk peace term with them or…”

I felt my gut tighten, “or…” I said almost dreading the answer.

He let out a sigh, “Or send word that Equestria was without a ruler and that it was time for us to make our move…”

I adjusted my wings uncomfortably and glanced at the filly sleeping close by, “Oh… um… That is… um… interesting…” I knew I was giving away a little more than I wanted but I was surprised that he was smiling at me.

“Don’t worry Split… I gave up on my family and my homeland long ago,” his face said happy but his eyes and said that there was a pain there that wasn’t going away for a while.

I relaxed a bit, “Why? What happened?” I felt my head feel a little swimmy as he poured more of the drink into my glass.

He looked out into the rain, “Well, to put it bluntly and without going into a super depressing backstory, my father is a very important pony and he was very power hungry and thought the only way we could achieve anything was by force.”

I looked outside and smiled stupidly… I think it was stupidly, “Well… let me tell you what I think about your father… at least you knew him right?”

Cool glanced at me over his glass with a your turn to explain glint in his eye, and I knew I was starting to feel a little bit tipsy but I was feeling great.

“When… When I was born my mother told me,” I put a hoof up to my mouth to keep a hiccup down, “she told me that my ‘daddy’ wasn't worth the air he was breathing in. She said that the only thing he ever cared about was himself…” I stood up with a uneasy sway, “Well guess what will happen when I see that asshole?” I spun around and…. darkness...

Chapter 7

The first time since I got my cutie mark no pony was giving me a second glance. To be fair I had a educated guess that the other pegasi that were conducting the physical exams on the other recruits really didn’t care about a stupid picture on someponies flank. Their job was to make sure that everypony who was about to go into training to become part of the Enclave is healthy enough to survive the training.

I managed to get by long enough with a saddlebag that I placed lower on my flank to cover my cutie mark. The pony who is conducting my physical pushed his glasses up onto his nose, “please drop the saddle bags,” he looked down at my chart as I lifted the saddlebag off and set it on the floor with the tip of my wing.

I closed my eyes as he turned around and looked at me his eyes going wide, “yeah go ahead and get it out.”

“Are you a strong flier?”

I looked at the doctor dumbfounded. He didn’t ask me the obvious question or make snide remarks about the obvious, “um… yeah, I got this because I am a good flier.”

“Interesting,” was all he could say through a pen in his teeth as he jotted something down on my chart, “now what happened exactly when you got your cutie mark?”

I couldn’t believe that he didn’t care, “are you going too…” I hinted at my cutie mark with a wing.

He looked up and with a bored expression he flatly said, “I’m married and I don’t swing that way.”

I shook my head, “No, I mean aren’t you going to call me on my cutie mark?”

He set the chart down and gave me a hard stare, “first, do you think I am that stupid that I would think that some young buck with a different cutie mark that looks like it might be a dashite brand, would be stupid enough to sign up to become a soldier and possibly more in the Enclave?”

I took a step back stunned, “I didn’t mean…”

He picked the chart back up, “clearly, but I am not as black and white as most of the ponies who fly around up here. I noticed that your what your cutie mark looked like and I also knew that it was a unique mark not a brand.”

I sat down and hung my head, “sorry, I’m just used to ponies taking one look at my cutie mark and instantly jumping down my throat.”

He looked up from the chart and looked directly into my eyes, “don’t get me wrong though, with that cutie mark you are in for a tough time, but don’t let that drag you down. Keep your head held high and prove to everypony that you are anything but what they think you are.”

I felt my mouth curl into a smile, “hasn’t stopped me this far.”

He returned my smirk, “now let’s talk about how you got that cutie mark.”

******

I started to feel the myself wake up and when I tried to roll over my head told me that it wasn’t a good idea to move right now. I put my hooves up to my temples and tried to close my eyes more when I felt a movement next to me. I waited for a second when I heard a small but deep breath being drawn in.

“you would be surprised how short life is already before trying something like this,” I opened my eye and looked up at Bubble Gum who was now holding her breath with wide shocked eyes. I reached out and poked her and she let out the breath she was holding along with a giggle.

“no fair,” she said with a slight glare up at me as she rubbed her side.

I sat up slowly feeling a few sonic rainbooms going off in my head, “what happened to me last night?”

“Well we were having a good heart to heart talk, mostly about what happened to me and my past, when we got on the topic of father’s. that is when you decided to show me what you would do to your father if you seen him again straight up till you spun around tripped and slammed the side of your head into the side of the skycart hard enough to wake up poor Bubble Gum.”

I turned my head slowly to see Cool Coat smiling at me as he walked back into the skycart. I put a hoof up to my lips, “shhh, lower the volume please. My head feels like I was at the wrong place during a sonic rainboom.”

Bubble Gum held up a healing potion, “I don’t know if it will help but here,” I took the potion from her and drank it down when she looked up at me with cocking her head a little to the side, “what’s a sonic rainboom?”

The potion did start to make my head feel a little better, the part that I hurt due to slamming my head against something harder than it was and not the alcohol. I gave her a smile, “well some pegasi can fly really fast. Fast enough to create a wave of color that spread off in all directions.”

Cool’s face became hard, “don’t forget the devastation they can cause.”

I looked at him then to Bubble Gum who was now looking away with stars in her eyes. I glance back Cool, “I don’t think she needs to know that much about it.”

He gave a shrug, “your call boss.”

I was just about comment on that when I heard someone talking. I put a hoof up to my lips and signaled for Cool to close the skycart doors. He hurried over and with a little effort managed to get them closed with little to no sound. I shot a prayer to Celestia for making this a pillow transport skycart as I silently moved over to the side and looked out a rusted hole. I also decided to curse Celestia in my head as about ten raiders started to walk by.

“Wait… You were beaten by some little mare armed with a bookcase?” I looked to see a large black stallion dragging by a chain. The other made a choking noise and the other’s laughed, “yeah thats what I thought you said.”

He gave the chain a strong jerk and a popping sound that could have been mistaken for a gunshot came from the smaller stallion and he instantly went limp. The other raiders howled with laughter and I heard a small whimper behind me. I looked back to see Bubble Gum looking like she was ready to cry. I moved over to her and pulled her close to my hugging her face into me as she tried her hardest to not cry. I stroked her mane as I tried to look out the hole to see what they were doing.

That was answered with a wet meaty sound as somepony started to hack at the body with something. Every hit made Bubble Gum flinch and whimper, I tried to do everything in my power to comfort her as they mutilated the body just outside the skycart.

“What was that?” the large buck said evenly.

Bubble Gum started shaking into me as she couldn’t hold it back any longer. I leaned down and wrapped my head over her and did the only thing i could think of. I started to hum a soft quiet tune. She started to calm down a little but didn’t try to move away.

The buck out side said again, “what was that?”

A wicked mare laughed, “I… I… had a bookshelf dropped on me so I had to run… she would have killed me if I stayed.”

The buck let out a loud wicked laugh, “running like a little filly can get you killed too,” he stopped laughing, “now let’s go see if we can find out who this bookshelf killer is and giver her a proper greeting,” they all started to cheer happily as they moved away.

I continued to hold Bubble Gum humming softly to her until Cool peaked out, “I think they're gone now,” he pushed the door open and looked around, “yeah all clear.”

I held Bubble Gum out and looked at her as she tried to wipe her eyes dry, “are you ok?”

She gave a small nod, “I… I’m sorry.”

I pushed her hooves down so she looked into my eyes and smiled warmly at her, “you were scared sweet heart. In fact I would be a lot more worried for you if you didn’t act like that when they did what they did.”

She wiped her eyes again then smiled up at me, “thank you Split.”

I gave her my warmest smile, “just don’t get any older yet, ok?”

She gave me an enthusiastic nod, “yup”

Cool looked up at me as he slipped his saddlebags back on, “where did you get the idea to hum to her like that?”

I stopped for a brief second as I was about to pull my saddlebags on, “my mother…” I looked down to see Bubble Gum placing a hoof on my fore leg slightly looking up at me with big innocent eyes and i gave her a smile which she returned. She walked over to her saddlebags and began to stuff her blanket back into it. I looked up at Cool who was giving me a look of both curiosity and sadness and I let out a sigh, “I was very young when she died and it was one of the few things I remember her doing for me.”

Cool lifted his rifle up and slung it over his back, “Split from buck to buck I want to be honest with you,” I looked at him and he turned and gave me a hard but even stare, “I don’t think its a good idea to be taking her along… I know how you feel about and for her, what you did just now really puts that into picture but I’m afraid of what could happen to her.”

I finished slipping my saddlebags on, “I’m not just going to dump her on somepony else or trust her to anypony who isn’t willing to risk their life to keep her safe,” I shot him a hard glare.

He put his hooves up in defence, “I would willingly jump into anything to save that filly but what will happen to you if something happened to her? or worse yet what would happen to her if something happened to you?”

I started to slip my pieces of wing armor back on and gave my wing a quick snap making the blade extend, “well I better make sure nothing happens to her then.”

Cool gave a long sigh, “don’t think you will have to do that on your own,” he shot me a cocky smirk and I returned it when Bubble Gum walked up next to me.

when we climbed out of the skycart Bubble Gum’s eyes locked onto what was left of the mutilated corpse of the pony that was killed. She took a step back and gave another whimper, I jumped in front of her and bent down making her look at me instead of the mutilated corpse, “Bubble Gum look at me.” she focused on me still a little scared that what happened to that stallion was only about a yard away from her, “listen, you remember what I did for you?” she nodded, “I want you to hum something to yourself but I also want to close your eyes and put you hooves over your ears, ok?”

She gave a slight nod, “when will I know when to do it?”

I nudged her to start walking away from the mess behind me and kept myself between her and the gruesome scene, “when I want you to do that I will say…” I put a hoof up to my chin thinking then it hit me and with a smile I turned to her, “ear muffs…”

She cocked an eyebrow at me, “really?”

I frowned, “got one better?”

She gave me a wide smile, “we can call it Bubble Gum time.”

“Gum time, I want to keep it short so you can do it quick.” I felt the name was a little lacking but if it made her happy I was willing to go with it.

I could see the gears turning in her head, “I guess that could work,” she finally said after a couple minutes.

I rolled my eyes but gave her a smile when Cool stopped suddenly causing both me and Bubble Gum to run into him, “nice…” I gave small smirk to Bubble Gum who was rubbing her nose after running into the back of his leg. I looked over his shoulder, “so what has you…” I felt my insides drop. I knew that we were late in saving Cool Coat’s friends but this, this was a slaughter, “Bubble Gum… Gum time.”

She cocked her head to the side then her eyes went wide. She closed her eyes tightly covered her ears and started humming a upbeat tune. I lifted her up a set her lightly on my back and walked up next to Cool who was looking at the scene, “Cool?”

He started towards the cranage. There were pony parts hanging from a tree that was near where the group had set up a camp. One pony was tied to the trunk of the tree both his front and back legs broken around it. One mare was nailed to the ground and from my guess her dying was the best thing that happened to her.

Cool walked quietly up to a older but strong looking buck who looks like he died either from the multiple gunshots or the giant gash in side of his neck. Whatever the case was he didn’t go down quietly judging by all of the dead raiders around him. I opened my wings to make sure Bubble Gum didn’t see any of this. Cool Coat gave a wet sniff but started to pull at the corpses of his fallen friends, “Cool? are you ok?”

Cool pulled on a green hoodie and slipped a black fur hat with a star on it that matched his cutie mark pulled up a large looking rifle with a scope to match. He popped out the magazine and cursed under his breath, “no ammo.”

“Cool?”

“Ok maybe we can head to New Appleloosa and we can trade for some.”

“COOL!” I was starting to really worry for my friend.

“I don’t know if they would have rounds of that would fit this…”

I took a step back, “COOL COAT!” I looked back to see Bubble Gum looking up at me. She closed her eyes tightly and pressed down on her ears and almost started singing.

Cool lowered the gun down, “what the fuck am I supposed to do now?” he turned to me and glared at me, “What The Fuck Am I Supposed To Do huh?” the tears rolling down his face soaked the side of his face.

I stomped the ground and he took a step back but I wasn't backing down my best friend was hurting and I was pissed, “Cool… we are going to the raider nest right now. You can take out whatever you are holding inside out on them.”

He closed his eyes, “Split… They took something from me that…”

“Tell me after we take care of them,” the force from that statement surprised me when it came from my mouth, but I wasn’t going to take it back. Not when I promised to help him out.

I took Bubble Gum away from the area and slid her off my back. She looked up at me curiously, “What happened?”

I sat down keeping myself between her and Cool while he took time to properly bury his friends. “Cool found out that his friends where killed, and from what we can tell, they were killed by raiders.” Bubble Gum put her hooves up to her mouth.

She sat there for a couple seconds before she put her hooves back down, “Was it bad?”

I nodded slowly and she moved like she wanted to see but stopped herself and sat there putting her head down. I placed my hoof on her head, “you can talk to Cool when he is done, ok?”

She gave a tiny nod then looked up, “why is he doing it alone?”

I turned to look back at Cool, “I’m giving him a few minutes alone, but I needed to make sure you stay in where I can see you.”

She put her front hooves on me and gave a small push, “go help Cool you idiot. All you had to do is tell me to to keep out of sight until you were done.”

I had to admit she had a point, so I smiled and walked back to Cool who was using a makeshift pick to hit at the ground. I sat down hard I knew this was a losing battle so I walked over to a cart full of bits of scrap and crates full of junk. I pulled out out a found a couple lead pipes and using bits of scrap metal and other bits of scrap to make a really crappy shovel or at least something I could use to scoop out dirt.

I walked back to Cool and dug the shovel into the ground and started to clear out the loose dirt. He stopped and looked at me for a second but gave a weak smile behind the pick and continued to loosen the dirt for me. After a few hours we managed to get through the wet ground and made four small graves.

I Started to walk over to the ponies with him but he turned in front of me, “Split, please let me do this alone… I… I want to use this time to say my goodbye’s.”

“Cool, are you sure? I want to help you…” I didn’t feel quite right about just leaving him to do this alone.

He gave a small laugh, “Thank you Split, really but I you should go to Bubble Gum and make sure she is ok,” he gave one last half-hearted grin before turning around, “I’ll be fine split I just need a minute.”

He walked slowly back to the camp and I walked back to Bubble Gum who was waiting for me with a open Sparkle Cola next to her. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I saw that bottle. She nudged the bottle to me and I lifted it to my lips savoring the carroty flavor. She looked at me as if waiting for something and I was starting to feel a little guilty and I didn’t know why.

I sighed and set the bottle down, “ok, what is it?”

She frowned, “why are you over where again and not helping Cool?” she crossed her hooves over her chest.

I drank the rest of the Sparkle Cola down in a large swig and set the down, “he told me he wanted a minute to put his friends into the graves and say his goodbyes,” she cocked an eyebrow, “I wouldn’t leave him hanging like that Bubble Gum, but do you have another one of those Sparkle Colas?”

She smiled and pulled one out and rolled it to me. I scooped it up and trotted back to Cool who was placing the mare gently into her grave. He looked back his eyes and cheeks still wet. he turned back and rubbed his face as I approached, “she… she always told me that I would have a chance with her even if i knew I never did,” I set the bottle down and sat next to him as he continued on, “her name was Raspberry Parfait and she was a real sweet heart unless you made her angry then she would rip your head off,” he gave me a soft nudge, “she would have like you.”

I was starting to feel a little bad and I didn’t even know who she was, “she sounds like a real winner in my book,” it was kinda weak but I didn’t have anything else. I never had any friends that I could miss like this.

He gave a couple snotty sniffs and pointed to the stallion who was ties to the tree, “this was Edge, he was a quick witten bastard, but everypony loved him,” he closed his eyes and smiled, “I remember a time when me and him got into a bar fight and he stopped in the middle of the fight to get a drink then took the glass and smashed it over another bucks head.”

I placed a hoof on Cools shoulder, “I bet you two were a terrible duo in a drunken brawl.”

Cool nodded and pointed to the other body with was almost unrecognisable as a pony, “that was Tank, he was the strong quiet type but he knew his way around explosives. I think Raspberry and him had a thing going and she just kept telling me I had a chance just so not to hurt my feelings,” he was starting to shake, “I would have been happy for the two of them if they had just told me.”

I slid my hoof over to his other shoulder and he pointed a shaky hoof at the last stallion, “Silver Bullet, he was my mentor, more like a father that I never had. He taught me how to shoot, to control my breathing and lead my target and how to pick my targets,” the tears were flowing down his face again, “I always thought he would live forever after my father had him put up for execution and he fought his way out taking out most of my fathers guards. He… he asked me to go with him and he would teach me how to be a real pony not a glammed up little prick,” he turned his head and put his head into my shoulder and sobbed, “I... I never told him thank you for that…”

I comforted my friend until he pushed himself back. I slid my hoof back on to his shoulder, “you ok?”

Cool shook his head, “no, but I will be…” he walked over to the graves and started pushing dirt back into the holes. I didn’t wait for him to tell me to leave or to help I just walked over and started to help him fill in the holes. After a few moments the graves were filled and Bubble Gum walked up with a couple little trinket that looked like ponies made from paper with a bottle cap for a head colored with crayons. She held them up and he looked at her in surprise for a moment then scooped her up into a tight hug, “thank you Bubble Gum,” was all he could say.

She hugged him back not saying a word. She placed a trinket on each of the of the graves and Cool pulled out his alcoholic drink and poured a small amount onto each grave before taking a swig himself. He handed the bottle to me and I took a swig and handed it back. He gave a final silent prayer adjusted his hat and picked up his weapons, “let’s go return the favor.”

I scooped up Bubble Gum and followed behind him giving one last look back at the graves, ‘what would you do if you lost Cool or worst yet Bubble Gum?’ was the question that went through my head, and I felt my stomach tighten at the thought and shook my head to get rid of the thought.

The walk didn’t take us long but by the time we reach a large sign that read “Welcome to Ponyville” it was already getting rather dark. The sign was horribly bloody and had pieces of ponies hanging off it, and I was glad Bubble Gum was sleeping on my back when we got to it. Cool tapped me with a wing and when i looked at him he put a hoof up to his lips and then pointed to a nearby bridge where I could make out two raiders standing a pole up with a freshly decapitated pony head on it. Cool tapped me again then pointed to a nearby building that might have looked rather fancy back in the day. I nodded and took off into the air with Cool right behind me and we found a window close to the top which we entered from.

once inside I frowned at the mess of badly damaged fabric around and pony sized mannequins the looked like ghosts in the room. I walked over to a desk which caught my attention rather quickly at it had another little statue on it. The statue was a dark colored pegasus with yellow eyes. He was wearing a purpley silver armor and he was crouched low and looking like he was ready to pounce onto the cup full of pencils and pens. The bottom read “Be Cautious” and for some reason I liked this one so I picked it up and slipped it into my saddle bag. I felt a weird sensation pass over me like walking into a shadow during a hot day. I shrugged a little and continued to look.

I looked at the clean circular spot on the desk and noticed carved into wood was a number. I shook my head at the number and walked away from the desk.

Cool was on the other side of the room when I heard him call, “hey Split, come here.”

I walked over to him and he walk poking at a safe that was behind a dresser. Who ever was the last pony here forgot to push it back and now the safe was readily exposed, “well open it, not like who ever owned this place is going to need it now,” I felt a little crooked at that but what ever was in it we could probably use.

She shook his head, “no way we are going to get through that lock,” he said with a huff, “maybe if we found the numbers to unlock it we could…” I turned and ran back to the desk and looked back at the numbers then trotted back to the safe and started to turn the dial, six, sixteen, thirteen, twenty, thirteen, and then I turned the handle and the safe popped open. I grinned as I opened it I saw two black boxes in it and a small pouch. I pulled out one of the black boxes and opened it to see three memory orbs in it. I closed the lid and slid it into my saddle bag with a small frown. I grabbed the pouch and looked inside and was surprised to see it filled with bits. I dropped it into my saddle bag and grabbed the last box out. my first thought was, ‘yay more memory orbs,’ but when I picked it my curiosity peaked as it was rather heavy. I looked at it and found a little button which I pressed causing the lid to fling open. My jaw hit the floor as I looked at the most beautiful necklace I had ever seen. It was a large ruby in the shape of a heart it was placed in a very decorative gold choker which i guess made it more of a color than a necklace but I was awestruck. I closed the box and slid into my saddlebag and figuring nothing else remained in the room that was useable we went to the door and found out that it was locked.

“Well I guess that is why no pony has come in here,” I said as i unlocked the door and walked into a small hall. I walked over to a door on the other side and opened it, “or maybe ponies just don’t know what stairs are?” I suggested as the room looked like it was left like that two hundred years ago, I mean the bed was even made still. I walked over to it and laid Bubble Gum on it and covered her with her blanket. Cool was looking at different things in the room and then looks out the window. I walked up next to him, “so how many are we looking at?”

He looked around, “from what i can see… around ten or so, but that is what I can see,” he walks over and pulls an old wooden chair and sets it up next to the window. He pulled out his rifle and starts pull out random things, “why don’t you go down and introduce yourself?”

I turned and started for the door, “keep an eye on Bubble Gum,” my expression hardened this wont take long,”

I made my way down stairs and into the what looked like the sales floor. I looked around for a second but the voices outside snapped my attention at the task at hand. I made my way outside and towards the group of raider ponies. One of them stopped and looked up at me, “oh look fresh meat.”

I continued to walk towards them not blinking as one start to walk towards me, “are you lost because if so we…” I stopped him short by snapping a bladed wing across his throat.

The other raiders laugh gleefully and charge at me as I took up a battle stance. The first one reached me and levitated up a lead pipe but he falls to the ground with a hole in his head. Whatever Cool was doing when I left I was kinda glad that it made his gun silent but the others were still coming after me. I brought one of my wings up and with a metallic THUNK a bat bounced off the armor. I spun and snapped my wing open and drove the hidden blade into the back of the raiders head. He dropped the bat which fell to the ground. Two other raiders dropped due to Cools rifle and a third took a fire axe and swung it in an arch which I used the body of the raider I just killed to take the hit. I pulled out the blade and dropped my wing low and jumped forward driving the edge of my wing through the dead raiders neck through the axe handle and and out the other side of the other raider. I continued running and skidded to a halt as two more raiders dropped dead on either side of me. I looked up at the large black Stallion with an even larger hammer.

He gave a low laugh, “I am going to wear you like a coat,” he took a step towards me but the mare that was left jumped past him holding a energy pistol.

“where did you get…” I had to jump out of the way as she shot a beam of energy at me. Luckily she didn’t know how to shoot that very well but the dodge threw me off as the stallion ran up to me swinging his hammer. I couldn’t dodge and he knew it so I put up a wing and twisted my body just enough so that the swing didn’t do as much damage as I knew it was going to do. The hammer slammed against my armor which made most of the impact slam into my side. The force of the hit from a strong earth pony like him and a light weight pegasus like me meant I saw some air time without opening my wings. I stood up and almost got sick as the pain in my side told me that hit broke a couple of my ribs. The mare ran forward again and I readied myself for what was starting to feel like the same tactic but three holes appeared in the side of her neck dropping her to the ground. The gun slid towards me stopping just in front of me which I picked up holding it in my mouth hoping for at least one more shot.

The stallion walked up next to the mare who reached out to him with a hoof. She tried to say something but the hole in her lungs made only blood come out of her mouth but that quickly became less of a concern as he swung the hammer down hard on her head smashing it like an over ripe piece of fruit.

I glared at him, “she was reaching out for you to help her,” the pain in my ribs was starting to fade as I felt rage build up inside me.

He looked down at the mare then up to me and gave shrug as he gave a smug smile behind the hammer in his mouth. I nodded and took a step forward, he brought the hammer up but I wasn't going to let him get another hit in, mostly because I don’t think I could take another hit like that. I shot forward faster than I thought I could go giving my injuries, but I couldn't feel anything. He took a step back in surprise and tried to swing the hammer. I dropped low and put my wings up allowing the hammer to scrape along the the armor on my back. I put the energy pistol up to his chin and grinded.

He dropped the hammer, “please…”

I felt my smile stretch across my face, “what was that?” his face dropped and I pressed the trigger sending a beam of energy up into his brain which made a sick popping sound followed by burning smell with a bright flash of light and I was standing next to a big pile of ash. I dropped the pistol and started back to the clothing store. Cool was at the bottom of the stairs with a healing potion. I took it from him, “thanks,” and took the potion in one gulp.

Cool walked over to the door that was blown off its hinges, “go get some rest Split. I will lock this place down and get some later.” he started to lift the door up.

I dragged myself up to the room where Bubble Gum was clearly acting like she was asleep. I climbed onto the bed and had to admit that whoever owned this place had good taste in beds. I was starting to drift off when I felt Bubble Gum nuzzle up next to me. I felt my face break into a smile and put a wing over the top of her and let sleep take me over.

Chapter 8

I slowly opened my eyes and stretched, as I sat up I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked around my room at all of the toys I left all over the floor. I gave a final yawn and slid out of my bed dropping to the floor and stretching again. I looked outside and frowned as the black clouds that were being pushed in by the storm ponies told my little mind that I wasn't going to be able to play outside today. I dropped my head to the floor and kicked a ball that was next to my hoof causing it to knock over the small pile of blocks that were made of clouds.

“Oh your awake now huh?” said a soothing voice from my door.

I looked up to see a blue delicate looking mare with the same bright Emerald green eyes that I inherited. Her dark blue white frosted mane was braided and hung to the side of her face. She gave a warm smile which I returned, “morning mommy.”

She walked in and bent down and kissed me on the head, “good morning sweetie, are you hungry?”

I was going to do what every colt my age did and make things difficult but my growing stomach gave me away before I could say anything. I smiled a little, “um… yeah.”

She stood up and walked back to the the door, “well ok then. Why don’t you go get cleaned up and I will have something ready for you when you get downstairs.”

She stopped by the door and stumbled a bit catching herself in the door frame before she fell over. I ran over to her feeling my heart race as this wasn’t the first time I had seen her collapse, “Mommy!”

She gave a weak smile and pushed herself back up, “I’m ok sweetie, I just got a little dizzy thats all, “ I was giving her a worried look and she nuzzled the top of my head and started to hum a small simple tune. I reached up and wrapped my hooves around her neck and smiled into her soft coat. She pulled back after a few seconds still smiling, “better?”

I nodded and trotted past her and into the bathroom. After I was cleaned up I trotted back down stairs stopping short when a loud crash came from the kitchen. I walked to the door and looked in and my heart dropped I ran to my mother's body as she laid on the floor breathing heavily her eyes closed tightly, “MOMMY!”

When I reached next to her she opened one of her eyes and tried to smile at me, “Splitstream…”

I turned around looking at the door that seemed so far away then back to my mother, “mommy I… I… don’t know what to do… I’m scared…” I started to feel tears build up in my eyes.

She reached a hoof up and stroked the side of my face, “honey… I want… you to… go to the neighbors and… tell them… what happened.”

I shook my head, “no mommy I’m not going to leave you,” tears started to roll down my cheeks.

She put a hoof around me and pulled me close to her and whispered softly, “honey… I need you… to be strong for me… okay?”

I shook my head into her, “no… I don’t want to be strong… I want you to get up… I want,” she started to hum again. I felt the vibrations from her voice against my head and she slowly stroked my head. I sat there pushing my head into her as the humming slowly started to become quieter. She took a deep breath and hummed another tune with it. I sat with my face un under her chin waiting for the last of the tune, but no tune came, “mommy? are you going to finish it for me?” she didn’t answer or move. I looked up, “mommy?” she laid there like she was sleeping. I nudged her with my face moving her head slightly starting to feel something building up inside of me, “mommy… you need to get me something to eat…” I felt the tears flowing down my face now. i sniffed loudly as i stood up and pushed her head with my head, “mommy… wake up… please…” She still didn’t move. I put my face against hers, “mommy… mommy…” I laid down without moving my face and started to cry.

I heard a knock at the door and a voice call in, “Summer Rain? are you ready to go?” as a yellow mare with a bright orange and pink mane opened the door. She walked into the kitchen and saw me crying into her, “Splitstream what happened?” her voice was filled with worry.

I looked up at her tears rolling down my face, “she… she won’t wake up.”

******

I jerked awake feeling the wetness on the sides of my face. I sat up and rubbed the tears out of my eyes. I held my hooves over my eyes trying to remember what the dream was about but it was like trying to hold water in my hooves. I looked up to see Bubble Gum playing with my new statue and her statue like dolls. I crouched down and quietly as I could made my way over to her. I put my face next to hers and whispered, “I don’t remember telling you that you could go through my things.”

She jumped sending both statues to the floor as she gave a high pitched shriek. I sat down and wrapped my hooves around my ribs as I started to laugh. She glared at me, “You Idiot” She hopped off the chair and rammed her head into my stomach which caused me to double over, “serves you right, “she snarled.

I smiled, “but you went into my bags and too one of my things without asking.”

She gritted her teeth, “yeah but…” she frowned and looked at the statues, “you should have…” she stopped again and looked up at me as I sat back up and rubbed my stomach with a hoof. She drooped her head, “sorry Split…”

I put a hoof on her head, “just ask Bubble Gum, remember it never hurts to ask.”

She gives a little smile, “so can I go into you saddlebags to get the statue so I can play with it?”

I scooped up my statue and dropped it back into my saddlebag before I slid in back on, “I’ll think about it.”

Her face screwed up as she walked over to me, “but I said I was sorry.”

I put her statue back into her saddlebag and put it onto her and nudged her with a hoof, “and I said I will think about it, if you don’t like that answer then it will be no.”

She dug her hooves into the floor and turned herself around, “but…” I raised my eyebrows at her and she lowered her head, “ok… I’m sorry.”

“Good, now let’s go find Cool and get some breakfast.” she turned around and walked on still hanging her head. I sighed, “and maybe I will let you play with my statue when we find a place to camp out for the night.”

She looked back at me her face bright then twisted in confusion, “we aren’t staying here?”

I nudged her forward, “I don’t plan on it,” as we made our way down stairs I looked out the door and noticed Cool talking to a gray stallion with a dirty white suite on and a black hat. He was a little on the scrawny side but he was smiling as he talked. I held up a hoof, “Bubble Gum wait here.” She crouched down and crept over to a boarded up window and looked through it. I walked out glancing around as saw a few more ponies waiting near the bridge.

As I drew closer to Cool and the other stallion the stallion looked up and smiled widely, “so this is the Buck you told me about,” i stopped and glared at Cool who shrugged. The stallion turned and pulled his hat off and bowed his head. His mane was as greasy as his attitude, “the name is Payout, i’m a bit of a business…”

I shook my head, “I really don’t care who or what you are. Why are you here?” I didn’t care much about what he has to say but with a filly looking through a window only a few yards away was making me nervous. I looked at him with my eyes narrowing, “you do realize that this was swarming with raiders?”

He set his hat back onto his head, “yes I am aware and I have to thank you for cleaning this place up,” He turned around and signaled for the ponies to start walking.

I continued to stare at him, “why thank me?”

As the others started to get closer he glanced at me, “because when ever we come through here we always have to give them some of our product for safe passage.”

“What kind of…” I looked at the ponies walking walking in front of a cart being hauled by two ragged ponies. There were about fourteen ponies chained to the back of the cart. They all wore rags and were different ages. Some even didn’t have their cutie marks yet. I took a step, “you're a slaver?”

He walked over to one of the slaves and started looking at her carefully, “no I said I am a business pony,” he looked up at one on the ponies in the cart and pointed at the cream colored mare, “she should do.”

I felt anger building up inside of me. I looked back at Cool and he nodded at me and started walking back to the boutique. I looked back at the stallion and noticed that a unicorn was unlocking the mare, “what are you doing? what do you mean she will do?”

When the mare was unlocked he walked her over in front of me, “payment for helping us out,” a filly reached a hoof out a let out a small cry but the unicorn kicked the filly back into line. I was getting so angry I felt myself shaking. Payout looked the mare over, “she is one of the best we have and…” he smacks her flank causing her to give a small whinny and close her eyes tightly and making her face flush red, “she is only slightly used.”

He started to laugh but I shot forward and slammed him up against the cart. I held him up off the ground with my hooves, “give me one reason why I shouldn’t see how hi I can get your head to fly after I take it off.”

He gave a slight laugh, “because you are surrounded my friend.”

I felt something cold against the back of my head, “careful, I wouldn’t want to mess up his nice suite would I?”

I gave Payout a glare lifted him higher and let him go. I spun around and in a flash took the face of the stallion who was holding a shotgun with a large round drum under it causing it and the stallion to fall to the ground. I stuck a wing into the cart next to Payout and shot up splitting the unicorn leaning over up the middle. I kicked off the cart and shot toward the last stallion near me but as he brought up an assault rifle the side of his head exploded and he dropped making stop early and look up at the window to see Cool waving a hoof at me. I gave a quick wave and walked back to Payout.

He leaned against the cart holding his left front leg which the sleeve of the suite was a dark red and very wet, “oops, I guess I cut a little closer than I thought,” I sneered as I approached him. I looked back at the cream colored mare, “run inside that building and get the buck who was covering me please,” She nodded and ran off.

I glared at me for a second then his face broke into a hideous smile, “go ahead kill me,” he pointed a hoof at the ponies still chained up, “and you kill them as well.”

I raised an eyebrow, “oh?”

He pulled the collar of his suite down revealing a thick metal collar with a red blinking light, “see this? If I die all of their collars go off and boom… you have a whole lot of headless pony corpses,” he chuckled.

I pounded my hoof into his chest making him wince in pain, “oh, you thought I was going to kill you?” I gave a small dark laugh, “well to be honest I was but now I need you to help me get the collars off of them so they can be free.”

He gave a weak grin, “oh and I will help you right after you lick the sweat off my…”

I put my hoof around to the back of his head and slammed him into the ground face first. I then took my wing and brought the bladed edge across the top of his right ear taking the very tip of it off. He let out a scream that made the filly cower. I leaned over close to the bleeding ear, “I am not a very happy pony right now,” and brought the edge back up to his ear and slowly started to cut a thin layer, just under the last cut, with a small sawing motion. He screamed again but I put a hoof down on his muzzle and looked into his dilated eye, “and if I am not a happy pony, you won’t be a happy pony unless you let these ponies go.”

He nodded frantically and I lifted my hood off of his muzzle, “fine… will you let me live if I release them?”

I took a step back allowing him to stand up, “you have my word.”

He put a small handkerchief up to his bleeding ear, “ok then,” with his other hoof took out a small remote that had only two buttons on it.

Cool walked up next to me, “wow a little overkill on the ear don’t you think?” I turned and looked at him and he swallowed hard, “uh… never mind.”

I looked back at Payout as he went from pony to pony and undid their shackles then their collars. When he finished with the last one he looked up at me, “so… I’m free to go right?”

I got up and walked to him which made him shrink down and flatten his ears back, “I swear to Luna and Celestia both that if I find out you put a hoof into helping slavers again I will personally hunt you down take the rest of the ear off with a little extra,” I had to admit that sounded a little corny.

He gave a small nod, “yes… of course… my hooves will be cleaned as of right now… no more slave trade or anything of the sort.”

I pointed a wing, “get out of my sight,” I watched runoff for a few moments then turned back to all of the ponies.

One pony picked up one of the slavers guns and started to point it at me when a older but strong looking buck slapped him hard in the back of the head causing the gun to fall back to the ground. The younger stallion looked up at him, “are you crazy? he will try to kill us next.”

The buck glared at him making him take a step back, “if he wanted us dead we would be already you fool,” the young stallion hung his head and the older one came up to me with a warm smile, “thank you my friend.”

I sighed and smiled back up at him, “what kind of pony would I be if I let them take you away like that?”

He frowned and he glanced back. I followed his stare and noticed Cool talking to the cream colored mare who was holding the little filly close but smiling at Cool. The buck turned back to me, “you are a rarity my friend. Not many ponies take on slavers to help ponies like us,” he dropped his head, “not many care.”

I put a hoof on his shoulder, “but I did, and I would use that to your advantage.”

He looked up at me, “how?”

I waved my hoof in an arch at all of the old raider decorated buildings, “you could turn this into a small town again. Get some things to block off the bridge and keep guards on it. Send fast runners to nearby towns to establish trade and maybe help build up the population here.”

The buck looked around, “maybe…” he looked at me, “do you really think we can do something like that?”

I felt my face break into a wide smile, “it might take sometime and effort but yes I do.”

He smiled and looked at me with tears in his eyes, “thank you… you not only saved our lives but you gave us hope. That is something that most of us have almost forgotten about.”

I felt something brush against my side and looked down to see Bubble Gum smiling up at me.. I smiled back at her, “maybe a little hope is what this wasteland needs,” she hugged me and I put a hoof around her.

The buck looked at the town, “yeah I think you're right,” he brought a hoof up to his chest, “the name is Buck Brawn, but you can call me Buck.”

I beamed, “the name is Splitstream, but you can call me Split,” I couldn’t believe that I thought my life was so miserable before I came down here. I mean yeah it wasn’t that great but I meet some of the best that I have the pleasure of calling friend and now I have a few more to add to the growing tally.

He gave a small nod, “will you be staying?”

I stood up and stretched and gave a quick shake, “no, in fact we must be on our way, but if you ever need help send word and I will come running.”

He smiled, “I cannot thank you enough for this chance.”

I walked around him, “yeah you can, by not messing it up.”

I was a few yards away when Bubble Gum stopped, “um… I think we forgot somepony.”

I looked at her then face hoofed, “Cool Coat,” I moaned.

Bubble Gum turned around, “I’ll get him,” and she trotted away.

I sat down watching Bubble Gum trot away, “I have to thank you young buck,” I jumped and spun around bringing my wing around stopping just inches away from the metal flying ball, “oh… sorry, I guess I really need to let ponies know I’m coming.”

I sat down putting a hoof on my chest, “give a pony a heart attack why don’t ya,” I was breathing heavily and it felt like my heart was in my throat.

“Again, I am sorry for scaring you. It’s just that I like to speak to as few ponies as possible,” The voice sounded like it was coming from inside of a can.

I took a couple of deep breaths fighting the urge to slice the thing in half, “so… why?” I asked as I gained my composure.

“Why what?” the little robot buzzed back.

“Why the secrecy? Who or what are you anyhow? And why thank me?” I poked the robot with a hoof. It was really well made but at the same time looked so delicate.

The robot hovered out of my reach then back down, “please one question at a time. First, please call me Watcher. Second, I want to thank you for helping those ponies and giving Ponyville another chance. And third, for now let’s say I have a lot riding on somethings I have, so I talk to very few ponies.”

I sat down and frowned at the robot, “so… your secrecy prevented you from stepping in and giving me a hoof?”

“I um, I’m sorry but I can’t let anypony find out where I live or…”

I stood up and took a couple steps forward, “you came out of wherever you're from to talk to me after I did most of the hard work and instead of coming over and maybe helping me take care of the slavers or just helping the slaves you pat me on the back and tell me that you just sit there on the sidelines hoping that things just happen to work out for the best?”

“I… uh…”

I took a threatening step forward, “thanks, but I know what I did was a good thing and I don’t need a flying soccer ball to tell me that and then try to tell me that they wish they could do the same thing,” I turned around and sat down a little harder than I intended and winced as I think I sat on a stick, but I was facing away from the little robot, “now please get away from me and let me know when you actually do something to help somepony other than crossing your wires.”

The little robot sat hovering for a couple seconds before a crackling sound came from it and then music started playing. The robot turned around and bobbed away to the beat. I looked back at the robot and stood up and looked at the ground kicking the stick away as I rubbed my flank with a wing. Bubble Gum came trotting up with Cool fallowing her but walking backwards. When they got close enough I realized the Bubble Gum was leading Cool by his tail which was in her mouth.

“Bubble Gum spit that out, you have no idea where it’s been,” her face told me that wherever it was it wasn’t in a bathtub.

She spat it out and frowned at Cool, “I had to almost drag him away from that mare.”

Cool spun around and looked at her in shock, “that mare?” he walked over to me and wrapped a hoof around me and looked dreamily into my eyes, “her name is Sweet Tart, and she is the most beautiful and most kind hearted mare I have ever laid eyes on.”

I flattened my ears back and felt a little bit scared, “if you kiss me I am going to slug you…”

He looked back at me for a few seconds until a moment of recognition hit him and he realized how close he was to me. He push me back and took a step back, “oh Celestia why did you do that to me? One minute I was in beautiful mare land the next a horrible nightmare.”

I stumbled and rolled my eyes at him, “how do you think I felt? I never wanted to ever get that close to any stallion,” I scooped Bubble Gum up and started walking away. I glanced back to see Cool following but looking back sadly. I stopped and looked at him, “Cool, if you want to go back.”

I could see the gears turning in his head as he continued to look back. Then he shook his head suddenly and grinned at me, “No, I can wait for you too…” he stopped and cocked his head, “What are you trying to do?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I thought about it for a moment, “well first I still want to confront Peppermint,” the moan from Bubble Gum and the facehoof from Cool told me they thought I forgot about her. I pressed on, “but I really want to know why I was chased out of the sky blamed for a murder I didn’t commit.”

Cool looked at me raising an eyebrow, “Why would somepony try to pin a murder on you?” I rolled my eyes and made a gesture to my flank. He put a hoof behind his head and gave a small laugh, “Oh yeah, sorry.”

I let out a sigh, “Not like it matters much right now. I mean it’s not like I can just fly back up there and ask.” I glanced around as something just hit me, “Um, Cool?”

He turned to face me as he started walking backwards, “hmm?”

I looked at Bubble Gum and noticed something else and looked up at him genuinely concerned, “Where is Jack and where is Bubble Gum’s knife?”

Cool gave a wide smile though it was kinda forced, “I sent him back to where I found him,” he looked at me for a second then looked to the ground his smile shifting slightly, “it’s only for a little while. I can go back and get him anytime. I just figured he would get hurt or worse while traveling with us.”

I put a hoof put to my chin, “Fair enough,” I pointed at Bubble Gum, “what about her knife?”

She gave a shake hopped off my back then took a couple of bounds to catch back up, “I… I didn’t want to carry it,” I waited for her to finish before I said anything, “I left the knife back in the bathroom at the Megaspell saloon,”

Her tone was quiet and she was avoiding my gaze. I walked closer to her and she looked at me leg and looked back at the ground, “When I was in the bathroom I pulled the knife out and watched the door then… then the thought of me having to hurt somepony started to scare me more.”

“Oh Bubble Gum,” I stopped and lifted her head making her look at me. The hurt in her eyes made my heart drop a bit, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She shifted her gaze away from mine, “I thought you would get mad at me.”

I ruffled her mane much to her displeasure but I grinned, “I have to admit I am surprised but I’m relieved that I get to keep you as a filly for a little longer.”

She cocked her head, “Huh?”

It felt like a small weight was lifted off me that I wasn't aware was there, “I was just worried that I would lose the innocent little filly that I love.”

She stumbled but looked up at me with hope, “What?” I just smiled at her and she had to stop for a second to rub her eyes. I looked ahead of me and after a couple of seconds heard, “HEY WAIT FOR ME!!”

I heard her gallop next to me and caught her out of the corner of my eye jump up on an overturned garbage can then onto my back wrapping her hooves around my neck. I couldn’t help but grin as she nuzzled into my mane.

We continued on fairly uneventfully only stopping for a few hours to eat some lunch but we continued on soon after. As the sky started to grow dark we kept an eye out for a place to crash for the night. As luck would have it in the distance we could see a large sign lit up brightly that read “The Pot” but as we drew closer I could hear the commotion coming from inside. I sighed but looked at Bubble Gum who looked as drained as I felt.

I glanced up at the building then back to Cool and Bubble Gum, “Okay this is what we are going to do.” I pointed a hoof at Bubble Gum, “You are my daughter,” her eyes went wide but she beamed at me and nodded. I pointed at Cool, “your my bodyguard,” he gave a small nod. I turned back around,”everything else will be off the top of my head.”

When we walked in Bubble Gum moved closer to me as the shouts that could be heard from outside almost drowned out my thoughts. I picked up Bubble Gum just as an incredibly drunk stallion wearing a black leather jacket stumbled from inside. He looked at me then at Bubble Gum and smiled, “Hey… if you're going to sell her I’ll take her off your…”

I slammed him into a wall and brought up my wings along the side of his head stopping short from shaving his coat. I tried to look him in the eye but his eye were so dilated due to fear that it was a little hard, “You will not ever talk about my daughter like that again. Am I being clear?”

The stallion nodded frantically, “Yes sir… very clear.”

I took a step back and let the stallion stumble out the door. Cool leaned close, “Smooth sir.”

I shrugged and continued into the bar. It was filled with smoke and drunk ponies. In the center of the bar was a large circular cage. The blood that caked the floor and some of the barbed wire wrapped on the cage told me that I was glad that no pony was getting killed right now. I made my way to the bar where a orange pony with a mug next to a shamrock was wiping a glass. He held a pipe in his teeth and when he looked up at me his bright blue eyes almost pierced me. I set Bubble Gum in a stool next to me and Cool sat on the other side of her.

He looked at Bubble Gum then at me, “What will ya have lad’s?”

It took me a second to figure out what he said through his thick accent. I looked around, “I’ll take a scotch.”

Cool grumbled keeping his eyes shifting around, “Vodka…”

He nodded and got us our drinks then looked down to Bubble Gum, “What about the wee lass?”

Bubble Gum put a hoof on the bar and smiled at him, “I’ll have a strawberry shake.”

The bartender looked at the filly in amazement then let out a hearty laugh, “Wow she has spunk,” I let out a breath as he fixed her up a drink. When he set it down he looked at me, “So who are ya and what are ya doing here and where did you find such a tough little girl?”

I gaped at the bartender, “How did you…”

“What? How did I know that she wasn’t your daughter?” He looked at her, “There are just some things you can see once you lose it yourself.”

I looked at Bubble Gum and ran a hoof over her head, “I’m sorry…”

He shook his head, “Ah it’s not yours to worry about,” He gave me a smirk, “the names Lucky Brew.”

I returned my smirk, “Splitstream, This is Bubble Gum and my best friend Cool Coat.”

Cool raised his glass to him and gave a slight nod. Lucky nodded back then looked back at me, “So what are two pegasi doing down here amongst the less fortunate?”

I sighed, “Long story pops.”

He picked up a glass and using magic from a horn under the buret he was wearing started wiping the glass, “Well I’m not going…”

He stopped as the room erupted into a loud cheer. I looked back at the cage and noticed a small unicorn walking around smiling. I grinned as he reminded me more of a rat than a pony, but I looked back at Lucky, “What’s going on?”

“It looks like you came at the perfect time, it’s been a while since the Cage King made an appearance,” I noticed that his glare never left the rat pony.

I spun around as the pony in the ring spoke, “WELL, IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A NEW VICTIM… I MEAN CHALLENGER,” the crowd roared with laughter. He pointed a hoof at one side of the cage, “FIRST OUR CHALLENGER. I WOULD TELL YOU HIS NAME BUT LET’S FACE IT EVERYPONY IT WON'T MATTER IN A FEW MINUTES,” another roar from the crowd as a lime green unicorn stallion walked into the ring. behind him was a mare that had a long brown cloak on covering most of her. I could see that she was a emerald green and she wasn’t happy. She whispered something to the stallion and he ignored her.

The rat pony pointed to the other side of the cage, NOW LETS GIVE IT UP FOR THE CAGE KING,” I nearly spit my drink out as a huge stallion covered in scars walked into the cage. He didn’t have a cutie mark anymore as it seemed to have been carved off. He also had a shackle on his left front leg with a long chain that was wrapped around his neck twice. His deep red eyes glared at the stallion then to the mare and he smiled gleefully. The rat pony pushed the mare over to the center of the cage where a smaller cage sat and locked her inside, “YOU ALL KNOW THE RULES WINNER TAKES ALL,” he walked out of the cage and turned around, “FIGHT!”

The unicorn dropped his cloak and pulled out a thin needle like sword. The huge stallion laughed as the unicorn charged. The Cage King used his shackle and deflected the point into the arena floor then he pushed down on the handle of the sword snapping like a twig. The unicorn looked at the weapon in terror. The mare screamed something but the crowd screamed higher. The Cage King used the chain like a whip and wrapped it around the unicorns neck, and with a yank from his massive hooves I could hear the pop of the unicorns neck from over the crowd.

I looked at Bubble Gum who was holding her ears with her eyes closed tightly. I looked back up as the rat pony pulled the mare out of the cage and pushed her towards the King. He said something to her then yelled out loud. I caught a glimpse of the needle swords handle sticking out of the shoulder of the King. He gritted his teeth and sent a massive hoof across the side of her head sending her to the floor a few feet away from the edge of the ring. He walked up behind her and two members of the crowd reached in and grabbed her front hooves.

I could barely see her face as the cloak still covered it and her mane covered half of it, but I could see she was crying and pleading for the other ponies to let her go. I clenched my eyes close but that lasted a few second as I heard her scream as the King grabbed her tail in his teeth and lifted her flank into the air. He placed a hoof on it smiling wickedly.

“I CHALLENGE THE CAGE KING…”

The room went quiet and all looked at me. I stood there dumbfounded at my outburst. The rat pony cocked his head, “Oh? what do you have to offer?”

I reached back and pulled out the black box. He walked over to me and I opened it. He took a deep breath and I closed it, “Do I get the challenge?”

He looked back and the King was holding still and except the soft sobs coming from the mare the room was quiet. He looked at me again, “Give the King a few hours with his new prize then…”

I cut him off, “No, now,” I pointed a hoof at the mare, “I want her as she is or this walks out… if he is as confident as you claim him to be he can wait till after our fight.”

The rat pony thought for a moment then grinned at me, “IT LOOKS LIKE A TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL TONIGHT EVERYPONY.”

The crowd roared and I walked back to the bar. Lucky looked at me like I just lost my mind, “Are you sure lad? He will smash you into the ground.”

I set my saddle bags next to Cool and looked at Bubble Gum. She looked back sternly, “Kick his ass daddy.”

My heart did a backflip, even though it was part of our act to hear her call me that it made me feel warm as I nodded. I walked back to the cage and the rat pony unhooked my wing armors, “sorry no weapons or armor.”

I made to argue but realized that the King wasn't using anything but a shackle. The rat pony took the necklace and walked into the cage and dragged the mare back to the center cage where he locked both thing inside. Once out of my armor I was shoved inside and the King glared at me, ‘I guess he doesn’t like ponies interrupting his fun time,’ I thought to. myself.

I heard the rat pony voice, “YOU ALL KNOW THE RULES WINNER TAKES ALL,” he waited a few moments then shouted, “FIGHT!!”

I didn’t rush him like the unicorn before me, that just screamed stupid. The stallion didn’t seem to care as he whipped the chain at me anyhow. I ducked low letting the chain swish over my head and charged at the stallion. I had to close the distance and make him…

BAM

I felt his huge hoof slam into my ribs cracking and possibly breaking a couple. I also noticed that I slid/flew a few feet away. I gritted my teeth as I stood back up, “Okay I need to figure out a new plan,” I told myself.

The King however was already making things difficult for me as he whipped the chain at me again. Dodging wasn’t an option with my broken ribs, so I tried to block it with my hoof. Big mistake as the chain wrapped around my leg and with a strong yank I heard and felt my shoulder dislocate as I flew through the air again and slammed into the ground breaking my cracked ribs.

The King walked over the top of my and put a hoof on my head as he leaned down next to my head. His voice was cold and heavy, “Is that little filly your’s?” I opened my eyes and noticed Bubble Gum through the crowd holding both of her hooves over her mouth looking at me in horror. The King continued, “She will be a sweet little thing won’t she?” He pressed on the back of my head, “But don’t you worry. I will take care of her, in a couple more years she will be ripe for me to make her into a real mare.” he let out a cold laugh

Something inside of me snapped. I felt all of the pain leave almost instantly as I started to stand. The King stopped laughing as I adjusted myself enough to kick my back legs out and buck him right under the chin. He stumbled back and I jumped at him. When he tried to swing at me I dodged and circled around to his back then back to his front. I smiled at him and continued around as he tried to swing at me again. This time I jumped onto his back and reached around and grabbed the slack of the chain with a hoof and put it into my mouth and yanked. The King didn’t take long to realize what I was doing as he started to choke. He started bucking around trying to get me off his back but I held firm.

I felt him start to slow so I pulled with my injured leg and I tasted copper as I pulled on the chain as hard as I could. The King stopped and stood there for a few seconds then dropped to his knees. After what seemed like forever he fell over but I didn’t let go. This bastard wasn’t going to get up after that comment.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder, “Splitstream, lad he’s done,” I looked up to see Lucky looking down at me. I let the chain go and he helped me free my hoof. When I was standing he helped me out of the cage. I noticed that the whole room was dead silent. Lucky looked at the rat pony, “Bring the necklace and the rat pony up to my room. He will be there waiting,” and without another word he half walked half dragged me up to a large room. He set me on the couch, “Anything you need?”

I laid my head on the arm of the couch, “Bubble Gum…” was all i could muster as the pain started to build up inside of me.

Lucky turned and walked back to the door, “All right, don’t go anyplace till I get back,” I lifted my good hoof and gave a half hearted wave and he was out the door without another word.

I heard some pony talking which I assumed was Lucky then another pony answer. After a few moments the door opened and the mare that I stopped from being violated in front of everypony walked in flanked by two other ponies. I lifted my head and looked at the other ponies, “Kick rocks,”

The one on her right cocked his head, “But we just…”

“Get lost now,” The buck backed out of the room slowly as the other one closed the door leaving, only the mare standing there.

The mare glared at me from under her hood, “Now what?” she asked with venom dripping from every word.

My brain was having a fun time fighting the pain back as I smiled at her, “Could you take the cloak off?”

She flinched back a bit, “I’m not going to just let you do what you want.”

I rolled my eyes, “Just take it off…” I moaned. After i replayed what i said in my mind sighed, “Please…”

She took a breath and then a light purple aura engulfed her brooch releasing the cloak and making it fall to the floor at her hooves. I shot her a glance then looked away but my double take had me staring at her dumbfounded. This mare was nothing short of amazingly beautiful. Her light green coat made her light red mane stand out. She had a deep purple eye that I could see as the other one was hidden behind her long gorgeous mane. She had a rose cutie mark that looked like it was carved out of a ruby. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her but my mind reminded me that she might not be in the greatest moods right now.

She looked away from me, “Got a problem?” she tried to move so that I couldn’t see her but she staggered a bit almost falling to her knees. She pulled up one of her hooves and looked at it sadly.

I looked at it and groaned as I pulled myself into a standing position, “Get on the couch,” I said as I managed to stand up.

She shot me a dirty look, “Why, so you can…,”

“Knock it off and get on the couch,” I snapped. I really wasnt in the mood for games right now.

She flinched in surprise at my order but then slowly limped over to the couch. She avoided my gaze as she pulled herself onto the couch. She hung her head over the arm of the couch and I leaned against the couch and laid on the floor.

She jerked her head around at me raising her eyebrow, “What are you doing?”

I closed my eyes trying to fight for breath and the pain of getting the air into my chest through my broken ribs, “I think I am waiting for my girl to get up here and heal me.”

She sucked a breath through her teeth, “What? She not good enough for you?”

I shook my head and looked up at her, “What?”

She frowned at me, “Or are you going to take advantage of me with her to help?”

My mouth hung open for a couple of seconds, “First she’s like my daughter…” I felt a flutter in my stomach at that, “Second, what the fuck are you talking about?”

She cocked her head to the side, “Aren’t you going to have your way with me?” Her glare returned, “Isn’t that what you brutes do?”

I tried to straighten my injured leg out, “I didn’t save you so I could do what I pleased with you,” though I had to shake the image from my mind at first, “I just didn’t think anypony should go through what he was going to do to you.”

She continued to stare at me and when she opened her mouth to say something before the door burst open and Bubble Gum came bounding in, “Split! That was Awesome!” She ran up and wrapped up her hooves around my neck.

I fought back the pain and tried to smile, “Um Bubble Gum, heal now hugs later…”

She let go quickly, “Oh, right sorry,” she started to fiddle around in her bags and pulled out a healing potion as Cool walked in as well. Bubble Gum huffed, “This is the last one I have…” she looked up at Cool, “and you left both yours and Splits saddlebags at the bar didn’t you?”

Cool sighed, “Sorry,”

Bubble Gum popped the top off, “Oh well,” she held it up to me, “drink up Split.”

I looked at the potion, “Give it to her,” I said with a nod to the mare.

I was kind of surprised at the three simultaneous, “WHAT?!” coming from Cool, Bubble Gum and the mare.

I smiled at Bubble Gum, “Might as well help her heal now, Cool has to help me put my leg back in place before I can take any.”

Bubble Gum looked up at her then to me, “But…” when she saw my smile she sighed and walked the potion over to the mare, “Here…” Bubble Gum said flatly.

The mare looked at her then to me, “Are you sure?” I nodded.

She took the potion in a telekinetic arua and brought it to her lips and drank it. At the same time Cool walked over and after me letting out a scream that could be heard in Ponyville got my leg back in its proper place.

Bubble Gum walked out the door, “I will go get the other saddlebags.”

Cool jumped up, “I’m not going to let you go down there alone!” He yelled as he dashed after her.

There was a long silence between the mare and me when she finally spoke up, “So your name is Split?”

I rested my head on the side of the couch glad to have one problem dealt with, “Splitstream.”

She looked at her healing hoof, “Oh sorry,” she went silent for a second then looked up at me, “my name is Emerald Rose.”

“Nice to meet you,” I moaned.

She bit her lip as I looked up at her and I had to look away quickly as that only made her look incredibly cute. She closed her eyes, “I’m sorry for talking to you like that, but why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you treating me like this? You don’t know me,” She spoke in a small tone that told me she wasn’t used to this.

I sighed, “I… well I have a weakness for the cute ones,” I felt my face get warm but i continued to look away.

I watched her flinch a bit, “I… oh um, well thank you.”

I calmed my emotions and looked back at her, “Plus I figured that once you were healed you could leave when you wanted.”

She looked at her hoof again, “Oh, right…” she went silent for a little while then looked at the wall away from me, “Could I um, ask for a favor?”

“Sure why not.”

She fiddle with her hooves, “Could I ask what your plans are after this?”

I shrugged, “Not sure at the moment,” I put a hoof to my chin, “I had planned to chase down this bitch who almost turned me and my friends into slaves but things seem to change around here often.”

She started to poke at a hole in the couch, “Could I maybe tag along?”

I looked up at her in surprise, “What? Why?”

She gave a little shrug, “Well, I’m not the strongest mare out there and you seem to be able to take care of yourself and a filly so I figured I would have a chance if I traveled along with you,” I thought for a moment and she turned to me, “I can be useful, I know some healing magic and I know some shield spells,” She hopped down off the couch and leaned down next to my chest and her horn light up. Instantly I felt my chest start to feel better. Her healing didn’t fully work on my ribs but I wasn’t struggling for breath and she looked at me beaming, “See? I can be a little helpful,” her face drooped a little bit, “Please…”

I sighed and put a hoof over my face, “Yeah sure,” in truth I was doing everything to hold back my excitement.

She wrapped her hooves around my neck, “Thank you…”

I felt my face start to burn, “Um yeah,” my heart nearly stopped when I heard somepony clear their throat. I looked at the door and saw Cool and Bubble Gum looking at me with flat expressions, “Um… Hi.”

Bubble Gum walked over and sat down in front of me, “Really?”

I sighed, “Look I did save her, would all of this been worth it if I left her to travel on her own?”

Bubble Gum shook her head, “I mean this…” she pulled out the necklace, “how come you never showed this to me?”

I frowned, “I nearly forgot I had it until I needed something to enter the ring,” She huffed and crossed her hooves and I pulled her close to me, “Aw come on, if i remembered do you really think I would keep something like that from you?”

She playfully pushed my face away, “You big idiot,” she dug out a healing potion from inside my saddlebag and I drank it down. She also dug out my statue, “I am going to play with this tonight as payment for you being an idiot.”

I stood up as the healing power started its work, “Fair enough.”

Emerald looked around, “What about sleeping arrangement?”

I looked to the one bedroom, “Well the girls can get the bed and we can camp out here,” I said as I looked back to Cool how nodded.

Bubble Gum whined, “Why do I have to sleep with her? So she is coming with us now but…”

I was going to say something but Emerald smiled down at her, “Come on Bubble Gum, we can have some girl time just me and you.”

Bubble Gum stopped for a second, “Can… can I brush your mane?”

I nearly doubled over, “I... wait... what happened to all of that complaining?”

Emerald Smiled at me, “It’s a girl thing, “sne she picked Bubble Gum up and levitated her onto her back, “Of course you can Bubble Gum,”

I sat down watching then walk into the room and close the door. I sat up straight, “Leave them,” I looked back at Cool as he was about to bite and pull the cushions off the couch, “Nice try…”

Lucky walked in, “Made yourselves right at home didn’t ya?”

I gave him a half smile, “Sorry..”

He waved a hoof, “You helped me get my bar back. This is the least I could do for ya.”

I jumped back onto the couch and Lucky levitated some extra blankets that he had stashed and gave Cool a few more of them to help him get comfortable. I looked up at the room as a massive amount of giggling poured through it and gave a small smile. I had to admit I was glad that she would have somepony to spend some time with other than Cool and me, but at the same time I was kinda hurt that I she was so willing to go with Emerald after just meeting her. I was hoping for her to fight to stay with me but I guess I was being a little selfish. I laid back against the couch and smiled a little, on the bright side Emerald was an incredibly beautiful mare and that was something to look forward to while we traveled the desolate wastelands. I felt the tug of sleep and the fight before hand close around me but before I fell into a deep sleep, I heard the door open and felt something small crawl up onto the couch and curl up next to me. I smiled as I pulled Bubble Gum closer and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 9

I made my way to the cots provided by the Enclave while we waited to ship off to our to our basic training locations, and was just about to close my eyes, a voice shouted “WHAT’S UP!”, right next to my head.

I jumped and fell off the bed, landing on the cloud floor, “Well it appears I’m not, anymore,” I spit out, the words dripping with sarcasm.

The orange colored stallion sat down and covered his stomach laughing, “Oh… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare ya like that,” he beamed at me. His magenta eyes filled with something I can’t quite put my hoof on.

I stood up and gave myself a shake, “Whatever, I just want to be left alone right now…” I looked at him to see his reaction and he was staring at me in shock. I looked back and noticed that my cutie mark was showing clear as day, “Wait I just…” I put my hooves up.

One of the instructors walked up to us, ‘what is going on here?”

The stallion jumped next to me shielding my cutie mark and put a hoof behind his head, “Uh… sorry Sir I fell off my cott and it kinda startled me a bit…” I stared at him dumbfounded.

The instructor rolled his eyes, “Young bucks always getting excited before shipping out…” he continued to mumble to himself as he walked away.

The stallion turned to me with a huge smile, “That was close, huh?”

I don’t remember blinking at him for a few seconds but I managed to get out, “Why?”

He pointed at himself, “No, my name is Solar Ray…” he stops for a second, “Oh? why did I help you out?”

I can’t believe this guy is serious as I nodded slowly, “Why did you help me out?”

He shrugged, “You seemed to be a nice guy so I decided to help you out.”

I shook my head and sat down to cover my cutie mark from anymore wandering eyes, “I don’t recall being nice to you… in fact I was rather rude,” as I said that I felt a little guilty, “sorry about that.”

He waved it off, “well considering how everypony else has treated me, you were quite nice to me,” I remembered some of the more soldier like ponies picking on him because he was way too energetic for this kind of training. He continued to beam at me, “So… what is your name?”

I still couldn’t believe that he would just ignore my cutie mark like that, “uh… Splitstream…”

He grabbed my hoof and shook it vigorously, “Nice to meet you Splitstream. My name is Solar Ray… but you knew that already…”

As he let go of my hoof I pulled it close to me as it felt like it would continue to shake on its own. I looked at my cutie mark then back to him, “Have… have you seen a cutie mark like this before?”

He shook his head, “Nope… did you get hit by a lighting bolt or something?”

I smiled, “No I got it saving a fillies li…” I grabbed my head and shook it from side to side, “Wait a minute. You’re telling me you’ve never seen a dashite brand before?”

He looked at my cutie mark with a confused expression, “That doesn't look anything like a dashite burn,”

It can’t be. I cocked my head fearing the answer but asked anyway, “So… this doesn’t scare you or make you incredibly angry at me?”

He gave a short sharp laugh, “Celestia’s perfect flank, no! I knew that you were not branded a Dashite and I knew that if giving a push you might be a nice guy.”

I looked down at the cloud floor, “you're wrong…” he leaned back and I smiled up at him, “Luna had the perfect flank…”

He sneered, “Oh? Got proof?”

I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. Finally somepony I could talk to without him trying to avoid me like the surface or treating me like I was going to snap and kill everypony at any second. He knew I wasn’t a bad pony and he knew I was being framed by my own cutie mark, and assured me that once I became an Enclave soldier I would be recognized as anything but a traitor. I felt for the first time in a long time that everything was going to be all right.

******

I slowly opened my eyes and as the room came into focus I started to realise that, “Why is the room upside down?” I tried to wiggle a bit, and fell the rest of the way off the couch I was asleep on. I laid on the floor looking at my tail, “Well that could have been worse…” I twisted around and got to my hooves and gave a long stretch.

The rumble of my stomach told me it was time to head down and get some food. I took a quick look around and realized that everypony had already went down stairs, so with a rather large yawn I walked through the door and down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs I looked around the bar room lazily and noticed that without a bunch of bloodthirsty drunk ponies this place was kind of peaceful. Lucky was at the bar, smiling at Bubble Gum who was coloring on a piece of paper; while Emerald and Cool were sitting at one of the tables. Emerald took a rapier in her hooves and was looking it over while Cool cleaned his assault rifle.

Cool looked up at me with a smirk, “Morning, sleeping beauty, we were about to send Emerald up to give you a kiss to wake the sweet prince.”

Emerald went red and her one eye that we could see went wide, “I… What?!” Cool started to laugh and she lit her horn up and Cool’s chair was lifted and turned over toppling him to the ground with a thud.

I put a hoof up to my mouth to try and keep the yawn at bay, “Serves you right,” I said as I rubbed the tears from my eyes with my hoof. I walked over to the bar and sat on a stool next to Bubble Gum who started to focus intensely on her drawing.

Lucky looked up at me with a satisfying grin, “Hungry lad?”

“Yeah… and I’ll have a Sparkle Cola while you're at it,” I rubbed my head, “After I get something to eat I will get some caps for me and her to pay for the meal.”

Lucky chuckled, “No need son. As long as I own this bar you will always be welcome here, and you will never pay for a meal or a drink.”

I looked at him over my hoof that drooped over my muzzle, “Wha…” I shot Bubble Gum a glance and she grinned up at me then turned back to her drawing. I looked back up to Lucky, “Umm… Thanks, I guess.”

Lucky waved his hoof in the air as he started to juggle different object’s in the air with his telekinesis as he started to prepare my meal.

I watched him walk through a door in the back still a little unsure of why I deserve so much praise. I looked to Bubble Gum smiling figuring what ever it was I couldn’t complain, “Morning, Bubble Gum.”

She held her crayon in her mouth just stared at the half colored pony on the paper and gave a “hmm?” in response.

I cocked my head, “Is everything ok?”

She gave me a sideways glance then put her crayon on the bar and turned to me, “Um… Split? Can I ask you a question?”

I smiled softly at her, “Of course sweet heart.”

She fidgeted with her hooves glanced back at Cool and Emerald who started to get into a nice argument about weaponry. She then looked at the door where Lucky walked into then down at her hooves, “I… I was wondering… I wanted to know if I could call you…” She looked up at me then turned back to her drawing, “Nevermind…”

I nearly fell off my stool, “Aww come on Bubble Gum…”

She looked up at the ceiling with her eyes closed, “Nope, nevermind…”

I leaned close to her, I was always a curious one, and poked her in the side gently, “You can’t just leave me hanging like…”

She looked sadly at her drawing, “Please Split… I… I’m not ready to ask yet…”

I stopped pestering her and looked at her face; she looked on the verge of tears or just running out of the room. I ran a hoof over her mane, “It’s fine Bubble Gum. Take your time.”

She gave a small smile at me as Lucky walked back in with a soup made with canned vegetables and a Sparkle Cola and set them down in front of me. I took the bowl and picked it up and brought it to my lips thinking, ‘the quicker I get this down the faster I can down the Cola to get rid of the taste,’ but when the watery soup hit my tongue I was pulled into a whole new meaning of flavor. I set the bowl down for a second and looked at Lucky dumbfounded. He just smiled at me as I tried finding the right words to speak.

Instead of saying anything I just brought the bowl back to my lips and downed the rest of it, letting the flavor rush over me. When I finished I placed the bowl back down and licked my lips. He continued to smile at me, “Good?”

I pulled the Sparkle Cola to me smiling, “oh Sweet Luna yes that was amazing. What is your secret?”

He chuckled again, “I can’t be giving away my secrets now can I?”

I shrugged, “I guess so.”

Bubble Gum reached over to her saddlebag sitting next to her in a empty stool, “Oh Split!” I looked down at her as she pulled out my little statue, “Here… You can have him back now…”

I took it from her, “Thanks, Sweetie…”

Lucky looked at the little statue, “Well I’ll be… can I take a look at that son?” I held it up and he levitated it over to himself and took it in his hooves. He started to turn it over, “I never thought I’d see another one in my lifetime.”

I leaned on the bar, “What’s so special about it pops? Just seems like a paperweight to me.”

He shot me a smirk, “Except have you noticed that it doesn’t weigh anything right?”

“Yeah sure I…” It hit me, “No… I never noticed until you mentioned it.”

He chuckled, “That’s because of the magic in it, but being weightless isn't their only ability,” he looked up at Bubble Gum and me who were both leaning listening to every word, “when you took the statute did you feel anything?”

I sat back a little, “Yeah like walking into a shadow on a hot day is the best way I could describe it.”

Bubble Gum reached in and brought out her statue, “I felt… I don’’t know… odd?” she said as she looked at it.

He looked at the other in shock, “You have two of them?”

I shook my head, “No… I have one and she has one,” I countered as I pointed at Bubble Gum.

Lucky shook his head, “well even so, these are incredibly rare and they enhance certain abilities depending on the magic they used.”

Bubble Gum looked up, “What kind of magic did they use?”

Lucky shrugged, “Some say they were blessed by Luna and Celestia themselves others say that they are similar to the magic used to make the memory orbs.”

“Did I hear you say memory orbs?” Emerald called as she walked over to where we sat. She propped her hooves up on the bar next to me.

I started to look down at her rose cutie mark and looked away quickly as she looked at me. I rubbed my chin acting like I was thinking, “You meant those fancy looking marbles?”

She leaned close to me… really close, “You Have Memory Orbs?!”

I looked into her eye and felt my heart start to flutter a bit but swallowed it back, “Umm… yeah. A couple.”

She leaned even closer to the point where we were almost muzzle to muzzle, “Really? can I see?” she said with a hint of sweetness.

I shrugged, “Take them for all I care…”

Her face glowed, “Really?!” I nodded and she wrapped her hooves around me, “Thank You!”

I felt my face burn as she let go and trotted off and up to the room. I looked back at Lucky who was staring at me with a knowing smile and Bubble Gum was shaking her head slowly, “What?” I asked.

Bubble Gum shot me a glance then picked up her crayon and started coloring, “Noffing” she mumbled.

Lucky gave back my statue and smiled, “A unicorn’s horn is incredibly sensitive.”

I shrugged, “Yeah, so, ain’t a pegasus wings?”

He shook his head, “Just remember what I said… Now about those statues. Are you interested in any more of them?”

I tapped my chin trying to think of what he could be thinking of, but gave up as my attention span stopped at, more statues. I nodded, “Yeah who wouldn’t be?” I asked finally.

Lucky smirked, “Well there’s a building that might have one a few miles from here.”

I had a sneaking suspicion that he hasn't told me everything yet so I kept quiet for a few minutes until I was certain that he had stopped talking. I sighed a long shallow sigh, “What’s the bad part of this?”

He rubbed the back of his head nervously, “Well anypony who has gone there has… well… never came back.”

I rubbed my eyes with my hooves feeling like there must be more to why he is willing to send me to a likely horrible death, “Why are you telling me this?” I asked flatly.

He leaned on his bar and gave me a serious look, “Well… there is a device in that building that would help my place out dramatically,” I waited and he stopped for a few seconds, trying to go for effect I guess. He blinked once, “There’s a purifier in that building that could give weary travelers a nice radiation free drink as well as a place to rest and…”

“And you were wondering if while I was there if I could pick it up for you?” I asked folding my hooves over my chest.

He swallowed hard, “yeah…”

I rolled my eyes and looked down at Bubble Gum who smiled widely and nodded. I gave him a confident smirk, “Sure, I’m game.”

He grinned and Bubble Gum sat up, “Well, I have all of my things and I’m ready to go when you ar…” she stopped short as she looked at my face which was holding a sad concerning look to it, “What?” she asked with a small voice.

I sighed as I reached out and put a hoof on her head, “You're going to stay here, Bubble Gum…”

Her eyes shrank and she leaned forward a bit, “But… we’ve never been separated. You said you would never leave me alone. You told me…” she had tears starting to form in her eyes.

I stopped her, “I also said that I would keep you safe and this is anything but safe and I…”

She shook her head flinging tears all over the place, “NO, YOU DON’T CARE. YOU ARE JUST GOING TO LEAVE ME JUST LIKE EVERYPONY ELSE…” she jumped off the stool and ran up the stairs crying the whole way.

I felt guilt biting at my insides as I watched her run off. Cool stood up as she ran by him and looked back to me, “I’ll stay here with her and talk with her Split. I’ll send Emerald down and she can tag along to help keep you alive.”

I nodded, “Thanks, Cool,” He bowed his head and followed Bubble Gum up the stairs.

I turned back to the bar and put my head in my hooves feeling like the worst pony alive. Lucky placed a hoof on my shoulder, “She will be safe here lad.”

“Still doesn’t mean that I don’t feel bad about doing this now,” I said more to the bar than him.

He chuckled, “That means you care lad, and she will see it in due time.”

I looked up at him, “I hope s…”

SLAM

Something hit the back of my head which caused my head to bounce off the bar, “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?” Emerald shouted at me.

I rubbed the back of my head with one hoof and my nose with my other, “I’m keeping her here while the two of us go into a dangerous building to get something for Lucky’s bar.”

The anger in her eyes lightened up a bit, “Oh… Cool Coat said something about the two of us going out but I was trying to comfort Bubble Gum as she came crying into the room,” she glared at me, “and I want to know why she was crying like that?”

I sighed, “She hasn’t had the best life for a filly her age and she thinks that I am going to leave her here and not come back,” I put my head on the bar and put my hooves over my head as the pain subsided and the guilt came back, “and now I feel like the worst pony alive.”

I felt Emeralds hoof on my back, “Splitstream… I think she is more scared for you that for herself… and you are anything but the worst pony ever.”

I looked at her and she smiled warmly at me which made me smile back. We sat there staring at each other for a few seconds until Lucky cleared his throat, “Should I leave you two alone?”

My face burned and her face grew bright red. She spun around quickly, “I’ll… I’ll go get your saddlebags Split and… Yeah I’ll be right back,” and she hurried back up the stairs.

I watched her stop for a brief second and look back at me before disappearing up the stairs. I looked back to Lucky who had his head in a hoof smiling knowingly at me. I sat up straight, “What?” I asked a little too obviously.

He simply shrugged, “Nothing,” and he walked back to his room and pulled out a saddle bag that was a deep red and set it on the bar in front of me.

I poked at it, “What is this?” I asked curiously.

He nodded at the stairs making me look back as Emerald made her way back to us levitating my saddlebags and my wing blades, “Your new friend doesn't have anything that she can use to carry anything with yet and I don’t need this anymore so…”

Emerald smiled at it, “Thank you, Lucky,” I started to slip my wing blades back on and she looked at me, “Need some help?”

I shook my head, “I don’t want anypony getting too close to the blades while I’m not in control of them.”

She rolled her eyes and her horn lit up and she slid the armor onto my wing effortlessly, “I think I’ll be safe.”

I rubbed the back of my head, “Oops… yeah sorry… not used to having a unicorn on the team yet.”

She smiled, “I forgive you.”

I smiled and looked back to the stairs in time to see something pink duck back behind the walls going up. I frowned, “What do I do?”

Lucky was looking at the stairwell as well and shook his head, “Hurry back and show her you that you never dreamed of leaving her behind.”

I looked at him and felt a snap of the straps on my back as Emerald finished fastening my armor on. She placed a hoof on my shoulder, “Let’s go and let Cool Coat talk with her.”

Cool Coat popped his head around the corner and gave a nod. I nodded back and turned back to the door only glancing back once outside to make sure Emerald was following. She cocked her head at him and Split looked forward, “Come on.”

Emerald trotted up next to Split and bent her head down to look up into his face as he held his head down, “Split… nopony thinks that you are making a bad choice here.”

“I do…” I said as we walked but the thought that she was trying to help me feel better was working a bit.

“I’m not saying that you have made good choices before…” She said as she pulled her head up.

The nice feeling of her trying to comfort me was set on fire, “Excuse me? What do you mean by that?”

She cocked an eyebrow at me, “You taking a filly that young and dragging her through the wasteland like you are is not the best way to ensure her safety.”

The fire from the comfort spread to my anger fuse, “Well as I see it, I managed to keep her safe and even saved a mare who was about to become a plaything for a psycho.”

She stopped and stomped a hoof, “Yeah… well… I’m not a filly who still has her entire life ahead of her still.”

I turned back to her, “Maybe not but I never once wanted to put her in danger like I have, but I’m not just going to leave her alone or with anypony else because she trusts me,” I felt a sharp pain put the fire out building up inside of me causing me to sit down hard, “A trust that I just broke because of the idea of possibly helping out Lucky, a pony I just met and for a stupid statue.”

I kicked a rock feeling horrible as the anger in Emeralds eyes died and she walked up to me and spoke with a softer voice, “Split, Bubble Gum is still just a little filly. She may not understand right away why you did what you did, but she will and she will thank you for it.”

I closed my eyes stood up and turned around and started walking away, “But until then it won't make me feel any better.”

We continued along in silence for a little while until Emerald poked me in the ribs. When I looked at her she pointed up and I saw what appeared to be a building sitting at the bottom of a small crater. The building sat cockeyed as if it was hit by some kind of explosion but it didn’t quite destroy the building.

I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head to the side, “Uh… what is it?”

Emerald took a step forward, “Back during the major part of the war, Pegasi were taken from their weather duties, so farmers had to find a way to keep water to their farms. It was one of the best projects that the Ministry mares worked on together… and one of the last…” she added the last part with a hint of sadness.

I looked at her feeling confused, “Ministry mares?”

She looked back at me, “You know, Fluttershy, Rarity…” she saw the confusion in my face and rolled her eyes, “Really? You don’t even know know the ministry mares?” she shot me a cocky expression, “How about Rainbow Dash?”

I flattened my ears back and gave a glare, “Yeah… her I know.”

She took a step back, “Well, she was head of the ministry of…”

“Awesome…” I finished for her, “and she turned her back on the pegasi to go and help with the war effort.”

Emerald frowned, “Do you believe that?”

I shrugged deflating a bit, “It was something we were force fed our entire lives,” I looked at my cutie mark, “That‘s why I’m here and not up there.”

Emerald sat down, “Look, Rainbow Dash wasn’t about to just drop her friends turn her back on the Princesses just to help the Pegasi.”

I shook my head, “Wait… the Pegasi were telling her to turn her back on everything just to help them? Text books say that she turned her back on the Pegasi…”

Emerald rolled her eyes again and stood up, “Have you even seen the memory orbs you have yet?”

I dug my hoof into the ground feeling like a foal who was caught in a lie, “Well… no… the lives of other ponies who are long since dead don’t interest me.”

Emerald turned around sharply, “Well they could help set the record straight on things.”

I stood up, “Well after this, while I’m on the bed recovering from my injuries I will see about looking into one.”

She looked concerning at me, “Injuries?”

I gave a small laugh, “With how my track record is… well you will see.” I walked by her and started down the slight incline.

She came sliding down next to me, “You have been hurt a lot?”

She went to take a step but I put my hoof up and stopped her, “Yeah… and you were almost too,” I leaned down and saw the wire across the path. I followed the wire up to a small cluster of grenades and swallowed hard, “That would have hurt… a lot,” I said with a glance up at her. She looked at the bundle of grenades with a look of pure terror. I cut the wire with little trouble and placed a hoof on her shoulder, “Let’s hurry this up.”

she kinda shook her head a bit, “Yes… hurry… of course.”

I started forward into the building. as I walked I made to note every sound and every shadow. Something didn’t feel right and I knew that it was on me to keep Emerald safe. We made our way through what was left of the building. I looked over my shoulder, “I don’t suppose you know where we should look for this purifier?”

Emerald rubbed up against a shelf and a black streak spread across her green coat. She scrunched her face up in disgust, “We need to head down. They would draw the water from underground and run a magical purifier giving or taking things out of the water to help crops grow.”

I gave her a smile, “Nice to know we have a smart pony with us now…”

She flushed a bit but returned the smile which vanished when something growled from further on in the building, “What was that?” She asked fearfully.

I took a couple steps back and stopped next to Emerald, “Stay close to me…” I kept my eyes glued forward. I started walking feeling Emerald move right up next to me as I scanned the building. We found a staircase that lead down and she swallowed hard and I felt my wing start to rise. I looked at her confused as she tried to slip under it. I stopped my wing from drooping over her, “What are you doing?”

She looked at me innocently, “I… I don't have armor so I thought I could put your wing around me to give me a bit of protection,” she gave a little smile.

I shook my head as I took my wing back, “It’s not safe if we do that,” she looked at me disappointedly so I sighed and held my wing up for her to see it better, “If I held my wing over you and you stopped suddenly…”

Her eyes went wide and she nodded, “I… see… then will you…” she cocked her head to the side and smiled.

I had my eyes locked forward as something moved from down the stairs, “Yeah…” I started moving down the stairs slowly.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked as she trotted to catch up to me.

I narrowed my eyes cursing not being able to see in the dark, “Something moved…”

She leaned close to my ear and hissed, “And we’re moving towards it?”

I shook my head feeling a bit off as she spoke into my ear. We continued to move along stopping every time we thought something moved. I stopped and gritted my teeth, “this is hopeless, I can’t see a damn thing.”

“Well,” a glow started to brighten up the corridor, “If you asked I would have done this a while ago,” I looked up at her as a purple glow was coming from her horn, “I assumed that you could see so I kept quiet.”

I gapped at her, “You are a portable light source? I could ki…” I watched as her eyes dilated when the growl came from behind me. I looked back to see a ghoul emerge from a side room. I never told anypony that I met one before but this one seemed…

It locked eyes with mine and charged at me mouth open wide. Emerald screamed but I crouched low and charged it myself. Just as we were about to crash I dodged to the side and extended my wing using both my momentum and his own to let the finely crafted blades slice through the rotting flesh like laser through butter. The ghoul pony fell in two pieces and stopped moving.

I walked by the ghoul and kicked it as I made my way back to Emerald and kicked it, “I guess they die easier than I thought,” I smiled up at Emerald who was crouching on the floor shaking, “Hey you ok?”

She looked up at me, “You… that thing didn’t scare you? It was like a zombie from the old movies.”

I helped her up, “Honestly I met one before, but he didn’t try to eat me. He was taking care of Bubble Gum and helped me out after I was shot in my wing.”

“You mean there are zombies that can talk and who are nice?” she asked sounding a bit unconvinced.

I nodded, “But I think they prefer being called ghouls.”

She moved up closer to me and looked around nervously, “Next time I see one who isn’t trying to eat us I’ll ask him if he prefers zombie or ghoul.”

I tensed up as we moved into a large room. The lights in the room where still working and I could see three more ghouls roaming around. I looked up at Emeralds horn then to her. She shrugged, “What?”

I shook my head, “you can put out the light now,”

She looked up and her horn went out, “Sorry,” she said as we were blanketed in a darkness.

I pushed her head down and looked her in the eye, “stay here…” I caught a glimpse of her other eye but figured this isn't the time as she adjusted her mane, “I am going to go in and take them out before they know we’re here.”

I started to move away and she grabbed my tail. I looked back, “Be careful,” she whispered.

I don’t know if she could see me but I nodded and moved out into the room. I kept low and moved slowly behind the first ghoul. It spun around suddenly and gave a small growl but looked around as if I wasn’t there. I smiled to myself and when he turned back around I drove the hidden blade into the back of his head.

The other two looked up at me instantly and charged. I ran at them cut them both down as I passed between them both. I skidded to a halt and looked around making sure that there was only three. After I felt safe I gave a sharp whistle and waved my hoof in the direction that Emerald was.

She stood up and walked to the center of the room, “I can’t believe that this thing is still intact and…” her eyes went wide, “This… this isn’t a purifier.”

I cursed, “Don’t tell me that,” I moaned. I jerked my head around as something gave a raspy roar.

Emerald picked up the device carefully, “No… I read about these. They used these to create water, not filter it.” I was only half listening as I made my way to a corridor on the other side of the room. I heard her talk to me, “Are you listening?”

Something green moved from at the end of the hall and I took a step back, “Emerald!” The thing roared and charged, “RUN” I yelled as I spun around and ran towards her.

She tucked the water creator in her saddlebag then looked up and her eye became dinner plates, “What. In. Tartarus. Is. That?” She said taking a few steps back.

I jumped next to her and spun her around forcefully, “MOVE IT!” She started running back do the hall. I looked over my shoulder and what I saw I couldn’t believe. It looked like a ghoul except it glowed with a sickly green color and I could see it’s skeleton. It gave another bellow and sped up after me.

I turned and ran after Emerald. I started to feel a little woozy as we continued to run and she stopped at the entrance of the building, “KEEP RUNNING I HAVE AN IDEA,” She yelled.

I saw her horn lite up and then the grenade cluster fall just inside the door. I screamed as I charged out the door and jumped on top of her as she was trying to run away., “Stay down…” I said as I covered her.

BOOM

The explosion made my ears ring but the burning sensation in my back leg told me I didn’t get away from there far enough. I slowly stood up off of Emerald and looked back at my hind leg and felt my stomach lurch as the long piece of metal that was sticking out of my leg dripped with fresh blood.

Emerald stood up and looked at the metal and gasped, “Split! Your leg… I’m sorry I shouldn’t have…”

I shook my hoof at her, “If you didn’t that thing could have caught either me or you… it’s fine,” I looked back at the door and smiled at the door was collapsed there were piece’s of the monster all over the place, “and you managed to kill the bastard too.”

She pushed me over lightly, “Lie back… I… I need to take this out so I can try to heal it.”

I put my head on the ground breathing heavily, “How do you plan on…” I let out a scream that would have made the ghouls in the building cover their ears as she gripped the metal in her teeth and ripped it out spraying her coat with some of my blood.

She spit the bar out and put a hoof on my leg, “Stay still,” and she started to close up my leg. After a couple of seconds she sat down and rubbed the sweat from her face with a hoof, “It will still hurt. I only managed to close the wound, but it should be ok until we get back to Lucky’s”

I groaned as I stood up, “It’s more than enough.. thank you…” I breathed as I steadied myself.

She moved up next to me, “Come on… you can lean on me for some support.”

I felt my pride take over as I took a step, “I will be…”

I stumbled and she caught me with a cocky smile, “Fine?”

I rolled my eyes, “Fine let’s get going so we can get me fixed up.”

She giggled as we set off away from the purifying building. She lowered her head, “Um… Split? what happened that lead you to being with Bubble Gum?”

I found the ground fascinating as the feeling of talking with Bubble Gum when we got back started to creep up on me, “She… I don’t know the details of what happened to her family but a ghoul doctor named Silver found her and was taking care of her, “She kept quiet and listened as I continued, “When I came crashing through the roof of the building they were staying at he fixed me up and just as I was recovering slavery came and wanted him and Bubble Gum. He told me to take her and flee and as far as I know he was killed… Bubble Gum has lived a hard life of ponies either trying to hurt her or leaving her. I promised her that I wasn’t going to do that but I guess I just did…”

She shook her head, “I don’t think she thought you were leaving her. I think she is scared that you are going to get hurt and she isn't going to be there to help you.”

“Yeah… maybe…” I muttered as the bar started to come into view. We moved closer and something started to not feel right. The two ponies standing outside the bar close to the door holding rifles made me curse Celestia under my breath.

Emerald stopped making me stop, “What is going on?”

I stood up on my own, “Nothing good,” I said with a moan.

One of the stallions looked up, “Who’s there?” he said as he leveled his rifle.

Emerald put a hoof on my shoulder, “I got this…” she made her way over to them with a slight limp, “I… I need some help,” She lied.

The pony with a rifle lowered his gun and a wicked grin spread across his face, “Well ain’t you a pretty thing?” he cooed. I felt my insides burn as he walked up to her and lifted her chin with a hoof, “So what do you need help with?”

She cocked a smile, “and he took a step back as he rapier sat neatly under his chin, “First I need you to give me some space…” The other spun on her with his rifle but I could still move fast win flight and cut the stallion across the neck spilling his life blood. She glared at him, “second I want you to tell me what is…” He drew in a breath to yell and she drove the point into his brain, “Damn it,” she spat at him. She looked up at me, “What now?”

I limped towards her, “Let’s get inside and see what is what first,” I whispered as she helped me to the door.

She looked back at the bodies, “I hope that we didn’t kill them for no reason.”

I shook my head, “Name one stallion who would stand outside a bar waiting for something?”

She opened the door and we made our way inside. Four stallions had their back to us as they faced a small group of ponies on the floor. I felt my blood boil as I caught a glimpse of Cool Coat laying on the ground facing away from the group. I then felt panic as I then saw Bubble Gum standing between the group facing away from us and the group Cool was laying with. She was shaking from head to hoof with a look of pure terror on her face as the stallions started laughing.

The unicorn that I knew to be the rat faced fight announcer from the night before sneered, “Look at this boys. She wants to protect them isn’t it cute? now just tell us where the other Pegasus went and we will collect him and be…” Bubble Gum swung the knife at him and the Unicorn took a step back, “Fucking brat,” He kicked Bubble Gum hard in the side of her head sending her skidding under a table.

Everything went silent and the pain in my leg left as I locked onto the group of stallions. I lifted myself off Emerald and made my way silently between the two stallions standing behind the Unicorn and a large earth pony. The only warning they got was the SHINK of my hidden blades as I extended my wings and took their heads off. The Unicorn looked back and ducked in time to keep his head but he lost over half of his horn as I swiped my wing at him.

I pushed forward and pinned the other stallion down and put the blade of my wing to the floor cutting through in the stallions face.

“SPLIT!”

I looked up to see Lucky pointing, “DON”T LET HIM GET AWAY LAD!”

I spun around and saw the tail of the Unicorn disappear out of the door. I saw Emerald sliding under the table after Bubble Gum as I shot after him. I pushed the door open and looked up to see the Unicorn running away. I let out a low growl and charged him and I closed the distance quickly. He turned around and tried to pull a machine gun but I rammed my head into his and I heard teeth break on contact. I then took his head in a headlock and took off into the air.

As I climbed higher he screamed, “HEY LET ME GO I’M SORRY!”

I stopped just under the veil of clouds and brought him to eye level, “No, but you will be…” and I let him go. He screamed loudly as he fell and when I was satisfied with the distance I shot down at him. I hit him hard in the back cracking a few ribs and causing him to let out a howl of pain. He looked over his back at me and I glared at him, “Pray this kills you, because I will gladly kill anypony over and over again that hurts my little girl…” The venom that dripped from my words made his turn white and just as we were about to hit the ground I pulled up and he slammed hard into a metal motorized earth pony cart.

I landed a few yards away and looked at the twisted metal pony and let out a snort. I turned around and started walking away challenging anything to come at me right now.

KABLAM

The cart exploded and I just gave a cocky grin as some hot pieces of metal landed close to me, “I guess he’s dead now,” I rasped. I made my way to the bar and walked inside. Cool was leaning against the wall holding his front leg while Lucky was wrapping the side of another stallion who I had seen before. I looked around, “Where is Bubble Gum?” I asked, not wanting any crap from anyone.

Emerald looked up as she ran a hoof through Bubble Gum’s mane. Then Bubble Gum lifted her head and looked at me; her eyes and cheeks were still damp when she locked eyes with me but after a few seconds her face scrunched up and she started crying again. She hopped out of Emeralds grip and started limping towards me holding out a hoof that was wrapped in a bandage.

I leapt forward and she stopped and put up both hooves as I scooped her up and hugged her close to me. She buried her face into my chest and cried harder. I stroked her mane lightly as she tried to talk through her crying saying, “I… I’m… so… so… sorry… I…”

I nuzzled the side of her face with mine, “Shhh, It’s ok… I’m the one who is sorry. I am never going to leave you alone like this again…” She continued to cry into my chest and I felt my heart crying with her so I lifted her up and looked her in the face as she tried to rub her eyes sobbing every now and then. I gave her a warm smile, “I cannot tell you how proud of you I am sweetheart.”

She gritted her teeth holding her hooves over her eyes as tears fell from her cheeks, “But I… but I… I was so… so scared…” she said between hiccups and sniffs.

Emerald walked up next to us and placed a hoof on her head, “Not nearly as scared as we were,” she cooed softly.

She looked up at Emerald who smiled at her. She then looked at me with the same surprised expression as a few tears fell from her eyes. I nodded to her and she lowered her head onto my chest and sniffed, “I… I didn’t mean… mean anything I said… Split,” she finally said.

I ran a hoof over her mane, “I know sweetie… I understand you were scared…” she nodded.

Emerald gave me a warm smile as she moved back to the group to help them. I stood up holding Bubble Gum close to me with my front leg as I shook off my armor. when I managed to get the armor off I cradled Bubble Gum in my wings as she was starting to fall asleep now and made my way towards the stairs.

Emerald walked up next to me, “Are you ok?” she asked softly.

I nodded, “I will be fine. I am going to take her to bed and get some sleep myself.”

Emerald nodded, “Ok, here,” she levitated a healing potion to me and I drank it down. She leaned up and kissed my cheek lightly, “Night.”

I watched her walk away placing a hoof on my cheek. Bubble Gum gave a small moan and I shook my head, “I need to get some sleep, and figure out what the hell happened tomorrow.” I shot one more quick glance at Emerald then walked up the stairs. I went into the bedroom and laid Bubble Gum on the bed tucking the blanket she had around her. I adjusted some of the pillows and made her comfortable then made myself comfortable. I laid back and started drifting to sleep when Bubble Gum nuzzled up next to me. I smiled and wrapped a wing over and just before I drifted to sleep I moved forward and kissed her head. She smiled a bit and curled into a ball and I felt Luna’s magic bringing me into a deep sleep.

Chapter 2

I looked up at the aerial ballet that was my drill instructor dancing around a young gray mare, as she was supposed to be shooting at the instructor with saddle mounted beam rifles that were loaded with stun gems.

“She’s lasting longer than you did, Flash.” an emerald green mare said to him as he leaned against her while she ran a hoof through his mane.

“Yeah, I told her to keep her guard up and strike when possible,” he said with a confident smile.

I shot him a smirk, “So is that what you did? Because I don’t see her putting her hooves over her head crying and surrendering while getting her flank peppered by the instructor.” I asked as the sarcasm dripped from every word.

He glared at me, “Better than anything you could do Split Dash,” he sat up grinning, “if I recall you barely qualified with the beam rifle, and that is what this training is about… hitting a moving target.” he let out a sharp laugh as he leaned back down.

It was true; I sucked at trying to hit anything with a beam rifle. I preferred to know that if I was fighting for my life that I didn’t have to worry about a weapon jam or the weapon breaking. If I got my hooves on the pony I was supposed to be fighting then I knew if I lost it was my own weakness.

I looked back in time to see the mare fall and land on the clouds that, despite being so soft, knocked the wind out of her.

The Instructor glanced around smiling with glee, “Any other takers?” she asked with such a tone of arrogance that I was sure her ego would suffocate us all.

Flash waved with a big smile, “Drill Instructor!” she looked at him curiously, “Splitstream said he can take you.”

I looked at him with a mixture of anger and amusement. The instructor laughed as she spun to look at me, “Well then Splitstream get up here and prepare for the best flank spank you have ever gotten.”

I raised my eyebrows at that then shrugged, “Might as well get this over with,” I stood up and slowly took to the air.

We turned to face each other; her cocky smile was so wide I thought her head was going to fall back on a hinge. She cocked her head to the side, “So you think you can take me?”

I shrugged, “I guess we're going to find out.”

Her smile faded and her eyes tried to burn my soul out of my head, “I have never lost to a trainee since I became an instructor,” her voice dangerous, “and I would rather kiss a dragon’s ass than let a Dashite want-to-be, beat me.”

I was going to respond by saying something sarcastic but decided that being up here was pushing my luck. The officer standing by the bleachers where everypony else was watching me looked up at us and shouted “READY,” before he blew a whistle.

Before the echo of the whistle died I had the barrel of my beam rifle under her chin. She glared down at me with a mixture of shock and pure rage, but I just smiled at her, “I win…” and her head snapped back as the stun hit her fully under the chin and sent her falling to the clouds below.

*****

I slowly opened my eyes as I started to discover that I was still alive. I tried to sit up but my body wasn’t having any of that as I just flopped back down onto a very old and grimy mattress. I glanced around and noticed that I was in a very old and poorly maintained house.

My scan of the room stopped when I noticed a pink filly with a bright red mane and deep blue eyes staring at me with a yellow crayon hanging out of her mouth. I smiled weakly at her, “Hi,” she didn’t budge, “my name is Splitstream, what’s yours?”

She spoke in softly, “Bubble Gum.”

I continued to smile, “That’s a pretty name,” I coughed a bit as I started to realize I was feeling both hot and cold at the same time… and I was thirsty, “hey Bubble Gum, is it possible to get something to drink?”

She nodded her head. She stood up and put the crayon back into the box where it came from and walked over to a door, “Uncle Silver, he’s awake now,”

A deep very raspy voice called to her, “Oh really? I hadn’t expected him to be awake this soon.”

Bubble Gum walked away from the door and over to a refrigerator and pulled it open. I was watching her hoping she would hurry up as I hear the sound of hooves draw closer to me. I smiled at the filly as she pulled a Sparkle Cola from the fridge and started to pull on the top with her teeth, “Cute filly you have there,” I smiled as I looked up at him and as soon as I made eye contact my heart tried to run off and hide behind my cutie mark for protection.

“Don’t scream… don’t scream…” I said to myself under my breath as the zombie unicorn smiled down at me. I tried to smile back but I couldn’t help think that I looked like I wanted to run away screaming, and if it wasn’t for my body hating my right now I probably would have.

The zombie rolled his eyes, “My guess would be that you are new to the wasteland huh?” I nodded at him, “that would explain why your body is trying to fight a bad infection. You are not used to the atmosphere down here,” he placed a gross flesh rotten leg up to my head, “yeah you're still burning up,”

Bubble Gum walked over with the Sparkle Cola, with its cap on still, sat down and held it up for the unicorn to pop the top off for her. She took the cap and dropped it into a small box next to her as she slowly tipped the soda into my mouth.

A roof temperature, flat, carroty tasting liquid washed over my tongue as I swallowed the contents of the bottle rather quickly, “I never thought that would taste so good flat and warm.” I said trying to say something so the zombie pony wouldn’t eat me. I looked up at him as her ruffled Bubble Gums mane, “Are you going to eat me?”

The zombie looked at me then let out a raspy laugh, “No, Pegasi are far too tough and stringy,” the unicorn laughed. I felt the blood drain from my face, “I prefer fillies, much more tender,” he spun around at Bubble Gum.

I jumped to my hooves… or tied to but just fell over onto the floor, “NO!” I was reaching for him when I started to hear Bubble Gum laughing very loudly. I rolled around till I noticed that he was blowing raspberries into her stomach. I dropped my head to the floor, “You are a very evil zombie, you know that?”

The unicorn looked up at me with a raised eyebrow… or at least I think it was an eyebrow… maybe at one point anyhow, “Zombie? No son, I am what is known as a ghoul, I was exposed to an ungodly amount of radiation and haven’t had the good graces to die… or stay dead anyhow.”

Bubble Gum walked back over to her crayon box and pulled out a new crayon and started coloring. He sat down and looked at me for a few moments before I looked up at him, “What happened to me?”

He let out a long sigh, “I don’t really know. Bubble Gum and I were taking a rest here after a long days travel when you came crashing through three floors almost on top of us,” he fished out a bright red bottle of something. He popped the cap off and floated it over to me, “good thing I was here and that I used to be a doctor, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Now drink up.”

I drank the red liquid down. It was flavorless and for some reason I started to feel better. I started to sit up when my whole body decided to let me know that I was in a lot of pain still. I laid back down and closed my eyes, “Kind of wish that fall finished me off.”

Silver looked at me curiously, “Why is that?”

I looked up at the ceiling and reached out a hoof towards it, “I never had anything while I was up there because of my cutie mark,” I let my hoof drop down next to me, “and now I have even less than that.”

He gave me a weak smile before looking up at Bubble Gum, “That little filly had a nice family until a few raiders decided to take everything away from her as well.” I looked at Bubble Gum who was happily coloring while humming a catchy little tune. I felt a little ashamed now, “She was all but broken when I came across her, I didn’t think she would recover the way she did, but I know that is still bothers her greatly,” he looked down at me with a sad look in his eye, “she almost died sitting under an overturned cart alone and in the dark.”

I have to admit that even if no pony liked me I still wasn’t alone, “I…” what was I supposed to say to something like that. So I just rolled over and watched Bubble Gum happily color.

Silver cleared his throat, “I also decided to try something different in regards to the damage to your wing. I hope you will find it satisfactory.”

“My wing?” I looked at him the looked back at my wings and my jaw hit the floor. Both of my wings had a rare piece of Enclave armor covering them. The extremely light weight metal was still a glossy black. The edge along my wing was a metal that was combined with the edge of a dragon claw. I opened my uninjured wing and nearly jumped as a small blade extended from the tip making the edge about 6 inches longer. I relaxed my wing and the blade snapped back inside.

I just gawked at them, “First question… Why?”

He smiled, “Your right wing was badly damaged but not to the point where I couldn’t do anything about it, but I needed to put it into something stable and I’m severely lacking in proper medical supplies for a Pegasus, so I improvised. They made an excellent brace and held your wing in place while it healed.”

I tucked my wind back against my body, “ok second question… Where did you get these and where is the rest of the armor?” I was looking at him more intently than I intended but it just made him laugh.

“I had a really good friend that wore this and he never liked the full armor. He said it was too big for a Pegasus of his... prowess,” he looked at my wings, “and as for the rest of it, I’m not sure. He gave me those and told me to run as we were being overrun by feral ghouls,” he notice my look and quickly changed topics, “a feral ghoul is a pony who is a lot like me except they lost who they were and are mindless zombies. I was able to get out fine being a ghoul myself but he had no hope, so instead of waiting for him to be torn to pieces in front of me I took these and ran.”

He had a look that said he wished it had been him that was back there and his friend survived, “Why me? You don’t even know me?” I said quietly.

He looked up at Bubble Gum who looked up at us and smiled before turning back to her drawing, “Hasn’t stopped me before,” he stood up with a groan, “you should get some rest. Your body will win this fight but it will fight better if you rest it,” with that he walked over to Bubble Gum spoke to her and she nodded looking at me then got up and followed him out of the room.

I laid there listening to the rain when everything that happened to me started to replay in my mind.

I grabbed my head when I reached the point where I found Citrus dead, “Why didn’t I try and see why he killed him? I mean why kill a janitor as old as the complex itself?” I sat there thinking for a few moments until I pulled the pillow I had over my head, “Uh brain, why is you no work right now?” I whined

“Are you an idiot?” said a small voice next to me.

I looked up at bubble Gum as she looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “What?”

She sighed, “Your body is trying to fight a bad infection which is giving you a high fever, which means that your brain is tired and wants rest.” I just stared at her wide eyed. She took my pillow and put it under my head and pulled a musty smelling blanket over my body, “Now you need to try and get some sleep or I will get my uncle to put you to sleep.”

The look she gave me caused me to swallow hard and nod as I slowly put my head down. I started to feel very tired as my head finally had time to relax, “Meh, I will think of what I should do now after a good night’s sleep.” I stretched slowly closed my eyes.

A loud BANG from outside combined with a scream from Bubble Gum told me sleep was going to be a very overrated thing right now.