Night Shade was trying to make the best of her situation.

She had lost her armor, her guns and most of her energy. Avoiding those New Appleloosans had taken quite a bit of her stamina from her. And now she was half-traveling with half-held captive by these two ponies.

At least they trusted her. These two were the first to do so. And here in the Wasteland, trust was not optional. They weren't exactly friends (Well, Fizzy was, sort of), but Night was sure they would warm up to her. If they managed to live long enough.

The three of them had one weapon, her own knife, between them. Thankfully, Night was extremely talented with it. They needed guns. The easiest way to obtain them, they decided, was to go poking around in Equestria's ruins.

They were making their way past Old Appleloosa, a slaver's haven, when Night stopped them. "I think we should look around here for supplies," she suggested to the party.

"Supplies? What do we need?" Fizzy asked.

"For starters," Dirt replied, "we've got no food. Not only that, but we need something to defend ourselves besides Miss Shade's rusty blade."

"It's not rusty!" argued Night, who happened to polish her blade daily.

Dirt ignored her. "We also need some healing potions, in case something happens to one of us."

Night nodded. "I know I sure as hell could use one. My wing's sprained." She cracked her neck. "Well, I'll go and fetch what we need. I'm the sneakiest of us three, so they won't find me if I go alone."

"Nope," said Dirt. "If you go alone, you'll probably just take everything for yourself and leave us here."

Night was hurt. "Have a little faith, Mister Dirt." Ha. That'll teach him to use that "Miss Shade" crap. "I swear I'll return."

"I'll go with her!" volunteered Fizzy.

"I don't trust her alone with you," said Dirt.

"Then you come with me," Night said.

"But then Fizzy would be alone right next to a town full of slavers."

Night groaned. "Fine, let's all go! The more the merrier, I always say."

They all seemed to agree with that. They quietly trotted into town, avoiding any areas that seemed inhabited. Sure, the town was crawling with slavers, but there were still a few sections of the ruins that they hadn't touched. With the sun setting behind them, they combed through an area of rubble. Dirt was vigilant in his search, but Fizzy and Night were less-than-skilled at scavenging, having spent only a few days in the Wasteland. They managed to find a couple bobby pins, which Dirt claimed for himself. "You can use these things to pick locks," he told Fizzy. "They're definitely worth hoarding."

As they explored the town further, the trio came upon an ancient, crumbling building. Written in faded white lettering on the front of the building was, "Appleloosa Police Station". Night grinned.

"A police station. That means guns."

Dirt wasn't as sure. "They must have ransacked the place already."

Fizzy shrugged. "Well, what other option do we have? It's worth a shot," she said hopefully.

Night trotted over and tried the door. It opened with a groan, swinging outward toward them. The Pegasus peered inside, but couldn't make anything out. "It's dark in there. Anypony got a light?"

"I do!" Fizzy trotted over and pressed a button on her PipBuck, flooding the interior with sickly-green light.

The main lobby of the station was a wreck. Papers were torn and scattered across the floor and desk. Bloodstains adorned the ground, walls and ceiling (How they had managed that, Night had no idea). In the corner was the skeleton of a police officer, its ragged uniform still clinging to its bones. Beyond that, they couldn't see much.

"First order of business," Dirt said as he entered, "is to turn on the lights." He glanced around, searching for a switch of any sort, but found nothing.

"We'll have to split up," Night Shade told him. "Fizzy, see if there's a generator around here somewhere. Dirt and I will search for anything we can use."

Dirt rolled his eyes. "Who said you were the one giving orders around here?"

Night Shade sighed. "All right. What would you have us do, oh great leader?"

"Well, um..." Dirt was flustered. "I guess your idea was good. Let's do that."

"Okay!" said Fizzy as she trotted away with her PipBuck light, leaving the two in darkness. Thankfully, their eyes adjusted quickly to the lack of light, and they began their search.

While Dirt looted the other side of the room, Night Shade trotted behind the main desk, peeking inside the drawers. She managed to find some pre-war bits and a roll of duct tape. Into the saddlebag they went. Next, she examined the computer. Miraculously, it was still running. She tried to access it, but apparently it was locked. She would need to either hack it or find the password.

The pegasus figured that hacking it would be easier. Immediately, she set to work on it, clacking away at the keyboard with her hooves. She pressed 'enter' and received a negative beep for her efforts. She cursed.

Dirt looked over at the computer. "That still works? What are you hoping to gain from unlocking it, though?"

Night shrugged. "Anything. Maybe a command that will light this place up." She typed something else in. Another beep. She had two more tries left.

"You're wasting your energy," Dirt scolded her. "Probably nothing but old reports from before the war. We should be spending our time looking for actual loot." He trotted down the lobby, opening a door and moving inside.

Night, with nopony to distract her, tried again. For the third time, she failed. "Celestia damn this! What kind of a password did they put on this thing?" She had to back out of the program and reenter it in order to try again. Desperately, she racked her brain for the password. There had to be some sort of way to figure it out.

After coming up with nothing, Night decided to leave it alone for a while and do some scavving, like Dirt had told her. But there was hardly anything in this stupid place. The slavers must have cleaned it out already.

"Night Shade," called Dirt from the other room. "Come here for a second, will ya?"

She trotted into the room, about to ask him what he wanted, when she saw it. A gun cage, filled to the brim with firearms of all shapes and sizes. How had they not gotten to this yet?!

"It's locked," Dirt told her. "And I can't pick it."

Of course. There was always a catch. "What do you mean, you can't pick it?"

"It's beyond my skill level. There's gotta be a key around here somewhere."

Night laughed. "Well, this makes two things that need unlocking. It would sure be helpful if Fizzy could hurry up with the..." The lights flickered on, bathing the station in glorious white light. "...lights."

With the lights on, it was much easier to see their surroundings now. They could see some of the guns inside the cage - Pistols, rifles, shotguns, and even what appeared to be a missile launcher. Night knew that they absolutely had to get inside.

Fizzy headed over to them, fiddling with her PipBuck. "There was a generator in the basement," she told them. "It was still full of fuel!"

Dirt looked concerned. "Still full? But..."

"I'm gonna go and check that terminal one last time," said Night, walking over to it and booting it up. She thought hard for a moment. "Now I just have to figure out the password."

"Try 'Donuts'," Fizzy said. "We're in a police station, after all."

Night gave her a look. "Hon, I don't think that's it." She decided, though, that she may as well humor her. She typed it in.

"ACCESS GRANTED" appeared across the screen.

"Told you!" Fizzy laughed.

The pegasus was more grateful than surprised. Without delay, she examined the various logs that had been saved. "These aren't pre-war messages," she said aloud as she scrolled past them. "One of these was made yesterday!"

Dirt's eyes widened. "This must be their base of operations. That explains the full generator and the gun cage." He looked at the two. "We've gotta go now, before they come back."

Night Shade noticed a certain command built into the computer. "Not before we grab some guns," she said. The mare typed in the command '/open gun cage'. From the other room, the trio heard the lock slide open.

They scrambled to take as much as they could carry. Dirt grabbed himself a battle saddle and a pair of combat shotguns. Night was more than upset at the lack of energy weapons in the cage, but figured that she may as well take a hunting rifle for herself. In addition, she found a small pistol and hoofed it over to Fizzy. Dirt witnessed this and gave the pegasus a glare.

"She doesn't know how to use a gun," he told her.

"There's a first time for everything," Night said. "Besides, it's for emergencies only."

"When else would you use a gun besides in an emergency?" argued the stallion. "I still think it's a bad idea."

Fizzy looked between them. "Do I get a say in this? I think that I could use one."

Dirt gave up. "Okay. But first thing when we get out of here, I'm teaching you how to shoot."

They heard hoofsteps quickly approaching the building. They had waited too long to make their escape, it seemed. They dove behind the lobby's desk, weapons at the ready. Fizzy levitated hers at her side, still getting a feel for it. The doors burst open and eight slavers came pouring in.

Dirt and Night stood up, letting loose a hail of bullets. The stallion's shotguns managed to rip apart two of the enemies, but the others were prepared. A bullet found its home in his chest, making him flinch. He let go of the saddle's mouthgrip for a moment and ducked back under. Night fired off a round with her rifle that buried itself in another slaver's eye. Three down, five to go.

The slavers realized their tactical disadvantage and fell back behind the doors of the police station. For a moment, all gunfire stopped. Then, a small metal apple sailed over the trio's heads and landed right behind them.

"Grenade!" yelled Dirt, shoving Fizzy out of harm's way. He and Night barely had time to flee before the apple detonated, sending them flying across opposite sides of the lobby.

Fizzy had sustained the least injuries, only slightly bruised. Night was struggling to regain her footing and ignore the painful shrapnel. Dirt was completely unconscious, his face covered in fresh blood.

The slavers calmly trotted in, surveying the scene. One of them, a brownish-green unicorn, paid special attention to Fizzy. "Put the filly in the cages with the rest of them," he ordered. "As for the other two, turn 'em into glue for all I care. We don't tolerate ponies coming into our camp and taking our guns."

Night stood up, trying to calculate whether she could fight them all herself. But three of the slavers approached and tackled her before she could do anything.

While the pegasus was struggling against her assailants, Fizzy was sobbing quietly. The unicorn slaver looked at her, slightly irritated. "Aw, shut the fuck up. We'll find you a new home with Red Eye or some other asshole." The fellow clearly had little tolerance for crying. "You'll forget all about your little friends here."

Fizzy's crying quickly stopped, replaced with angry, guttural sounds. "N-no! Don't hurt them!" Her horn sparked slightly.

The slaver approached her, levitating her own pistol from the ground and pressing it against her temple. "Ha! And what're you gonna do about it?"

Fizzy grit her teeth and unleashed an unusually feral cry. Her horn glowed with purple magic, growing in intensity until it was overpoweringly bright. The slaver took a step back and dropped the gun in shock. Then, Fizzy's horn erupted in a shower of purple light, launching forth a magic beam that pierced through the slaver's throat and punched a hole in the police station's roof. The slaver collapsed to the floor, twitching and bleeding. Within a moment, he was dead.

The other slavers stared in awe. Night kicked them off of her, diving for the gun that had been dropped just moments ago. Then, the pegasus whirled around and fired recklessly, managing to kill the remaining four slavers.

The gun was still smoking when Night released her grip on it, letting it clatter to the floor as she turned her attention to the wounded Dirt. He was still unconscious, and one of his eyes was bleeding heavily. "Fizzy, search these guys for a healing potion. Dirt's not doing too well."

Fizzy, still shocked by what she had done, somehow managed to come to her senses and look through the corpses' saddlebags. She managed to find exactly one of the potions, which she quickly hoofed over to Night. The pegasus poured it down Dirt's throat, praying to whatever god there was that he would recover. "Dirt?" Night called. "Are you okay?"

After a few tense moments of no response, the stallion's uninjured eye opened. He let out a moan. "Ow." He lifted a hoof to touch his bloodied left eye. As soon as he did, he winced. "I think I need a doctor."

"You think you do? I just gave you the only healing potion," Night told him. "C'mon, get up. There might be more of them."

The earth pony complied. He noticed the giant hole in the slaver's throat and cocked his head. "What happened here?"

"I'll explain it later," Night said, leading him and Fizzy out into the Wasteland.

Author's Note

Super-duper-alley-ooper-long chapter, guys. At least, compared to the last few. Once again, feedback is appreciated.
-Endless Madness

Edit: Changed words and such.