Escape

Chapter 2: Escape

“This is my decision, and I'm gonna make it on my own, and I certainly can't think straight with all this noise.”

There is one facet of the Enclave I neglected to mention before. I did not think it
was applicable at the time, so I did not bring it up. But, considering recent events, I feel full disclosure is necessary. The matter of which I'm speaking if is the issue of Dashite's.

Loyalty is one of the major driving factors of the Enclave. It was what held our entire civilization together in the beginning, and continues to do so in our struggle for survival. It was necessary for political figures to raise to power. For soldiers to trust each other. For business and laws to be established.

For a pegasus to breach loyalty was to commit one of the greatest sins he or she could commit. Even though there were no laws that enforced the upkeep of loyalty, it was part of the basic social contract that every pegasus abided by.

Once in a rare occurrence, a pegasus would breach the social contract. They would commit an egregious action that broke their loyalty. Typically, this would result in the Pegasus being socially shunned. Still permitted to live in their home, but under the constant suspicions of their neighbors and former friends.

In most cases like this, the perpetrator would either suffer a lonely lifestyle, make up for his or her mistake, or simply move away. Usually they could make up for it. It wasn't so challenging as to prove impossible, but it would take time. Imagine if you would, you and your good friend had an argument. Afterwards, the two of you would probably be at odds and not want to speak to each other. But eventually, the two of you would recover. This is very similar to what would happen to a pegasus whose loyalty was in question.

Often enough though, they would move. It wasn't so hard to escape from one Enclave city and move to a new one. In a new town or city, no pegasus would know you. Establishing a new life would be as easy as starting a new job, and getting to know the new coworkers. Or meeting new ponies in the area.

All of these options I've mentioned are recoverable situations. All it would take would be a bit of work and time. But eventually, everything would go back to normal. In most cases.

However, there were some circumstances that would lead to total excommunication. Actions that were so heinous to the pegasi that only an act of Celestia could ever hope to begin to redeem the one who committed the crime. I am speaking about Dashite's.

Dashite's were very rare. There were only a hooffull in the history of the Enclave. These were members of the Enclave that had committed an act that was viewed as inspiring anarchy, high treason against the pegasus race, and any other suitable crime. They typically had done something that threatened the peace and stability of the Enclave as a whole. They were comparable to terrorists. No, they WERE terrorists.

Talk about zero to a hundred real quick.

The first Dashite had been influenced by the actions of a mare from the very beginning of the Enclave. And that mare had been one of the most powerful and influential mares in Princess Luna's government. She had created the Shadowbolts, overseeing their operations and creating new objectives for them. She had led the Armies of Princess Luna in nearly every major engagement during the war. She was the Ministry head over arguably the most useless and useful of the six ministries. I am speaking of course about Ministry Mare Rainbow Dash.

She was considered one of the most loyal Pegasus to have ever been alive. She flew into danger to save the lives of countless soldiers. Usually fending off scores more of the Zebra aggressors, Griffin mercenaries, and renegade dragons. She had been one of the most capable combat leaders during the entire war.

She had been one of the bearers of an Element of harmony, the element of loyalty. And as a bearer, she had been charged with creating and leading her own ministry, which she eventually named the Ministry of Awesome, the MOA for short. The MOA was never on record for officially doing anything other than creating the Special Pegasus Project and a few other little projects. Unofficially though, her ministry conducted innumerable special operations missions that helped to cripple the Zebra operations far into the enemies lines.

After the bombs dropped and the pegasi closed off the sky, the Enclave began to exact its authority over the clouds. And there was nothing on their priority list that indicated any humanitarian missions to the surface would be forthcoming. This didn't sit well with Rainbow Dash, who in a bold maneuver, challenged the Enclave to do something. Then, before the council could formulate a response, she went to the surface to do what she could. Expecting the full might of the pegasi to follow her... only, they didn't.

She went to the surface alone. Where she is believed to have died in a mere amount of days. But her actions influenced another pegasus to eventually follow her, the first Dashite: Scootaloo. A pegasus mare who had been the president of Red Racer, a company that had been quite powerful during the war.

Scootaloo had made a very dramatic exit from the Enclave. She had told nearly all the leaders to go to tartarus. That their new policies needed to support Rainbow Dash. She even went as far to call herself a Dashite, coining the term and dubbing herself with the foul label.

She abandoned the Enclave to follow Rainbow Dash. And just like her icon, it is unclear whether she survived more than a few days in the wasteland. Nor if she had survived long enough to even find Rainbow Dash.

Since then, the Enclave has taken reasonable measures to prevent any more incidents concerning Dashite's. They drew up laws banning them inside of Enclave territory. Created propaganda campaigns influencing patriotism and demonizing anything related to dashite ideology. They even went as far as to create doctrine in how to deal with a pegasus in the event of turning dashite; going as far as branding Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, a cloud with a lightning bolt, over the cutie mark of the offender.

A brand that was now seared into my skin.

So this is the part of the story where I'm supposed to tell you it was all a dream. That everything happened in a vision I had while I was comfortably sleeping at home in Fort Laudermare. That I woke up the next morning, and everything was back to normal. That I made it to drill on time on Saturday, and Sunday. That I went back to work on Monday morning and continued on with my research and everything was right in the world.

Sadly, I cannot say that. Everything that had happened was very much so real. I didn't show up to drill on sunday, and I most certainly did not show up to Type 40 on Monday morning. In fact, I had not slept in what felt like days. I was still trying to escape from my pursuers, who had apparently decided to take their sweet time hunting me down. And suddenly I was a dashite. And worst of all, I had no idea why.

There was no time to rest after leaving the Cloud Chaser. Almost immediately after breaking free of the ship, It had begun to slow down. Undoubtedly, the captain was preparing to bring her about to launch volley after volley of laser energy death at me. A small window of opportunity was granted to me to escape from the ships pursuit. Thank Luna that there was a particularly strong wind tonight, it would delay the ship from quickly executing the turn it needed to pursue me.

But that wasn't the only problem. I knew that the ship was loaded with other pegasus. They would be able to hunt me down faster than the Cloud Chaser could turn. And why wouldn't the captain authorize multiple sorties to hunt me down? It seemed like their best option to quickly capture me.

My only defense was that they had no way to track me, at least that's what I thought at the moment. I wasn't wearing my armor. And I didn't think they implanted any tracking devices on or in my body... urgh, why had tha suddenly become one of my fears? Doing my best to forget about the idea of internal tracking devices, I flew hard and fast in the direction of civilization. It would be my best shot for figuring out my next step.

My wings propelled me quickly away from the ship that was quickly disappearing over the horizon. My wings ached deeply from the effort. And I felt every stab of pain throughout my body as I blasted through errant clouds. The only light was the moon and stars twinkling high above me. The moon and stars that I remembered being so wonderful when last I saw them. When is was brought down into the Cloud Chaser.

I couldn't think about that now though. I had to go home and figure out my next step. There I could administer whatever medical care I needed to my injured body, and arm myself for a proper defense. Luckily, it looked and felt as if all my wounds were superficial and would be cured by a few healing potions. Well, all except for the magical brand that still smoked on my sides.

I still hadn't fully taken that in yet, being a dashite. Maybe when I got home I could take a look at it. Maybe it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. With a snort, I pushed myself harder in the direction of home.

Apparently the vertibuck I had flown out on to the Cloud Chaser had been flying in circles for a few hours to simulate a long journey. I figured this because it had taken me a little over two hours of flying to make it all the way back to town. Hardly the journey to the middle of no where as i surmised earlier. It probably would have taken me less time as well if into weren't injured.

I arrived in town very late in the night. It was around two in the morning when my flight into Fort Laudermare was finally over. I had flown towards where my apartment complex was, but something had been nagging at me to not go directly to the to it. So I stopped at a neighboring high rise, about a quarter block away from the apartment. It was here that is checked over my battered body.

My wings ached from the long flight. And bruises covered most of my body. I looked like somepony had tried using me as a punching bag. Apparently I had been stabbed twice as well, but the injuries had clearly been attended to. And my cutie mark...That was a mess.

The right side had been fully branded away. Leaving nothing but a burned on cloud and lightning bolt, that covered the blue circle and white spade of my cutie mark entirely. The left side however, wasn't nearly so bad. Apparently the handler who used the brand didn't know what he was doing. Because he had done a poor job of scalding away the flesh. A white spade could still be clearly seen and a haze of blue surrounded it. It was in the blue where the charred flesh started to form a cloud and lighting shape around the remains of the mark. It was... Disturbing, to say in the least.

What the hell had I done? My mind was swimming in flashes of colors and sounds that made no sense to me. By the internal chronometer of my pipbuck, I had been aboard the Cloud Chaser for nine days. And I couldn't remember jack shit as to what led to me becoming a dashite. I did have a few memories though. They were very blurry and confusing.

One was of a gorgeous mare sitting across from me at a table In what appeared to be the ships cafeteria. We were eating a meal and talking about something. I couldn't tell if this had been lunch, dinner, or some other random meal. Nor could I remember her name. Or anything of what was said at the table for that matter. But I did remember liking her, and her laugh.

Another memory, this one falling under the painful category, was of a large white pegasus who had clearly taken a liking to me. I could remember his roided out muscles as his hooves struck me repeatedly for what seemed hours. And I think he was the one who stabbed me as well.

In the back of this memory, I kept seeing an older mare asking me questions. Interrogating me. When I gave her an answer she didn't like the brute would appear and beat me into near unconsciousness. Then, the old mare would continue to ask more questions as if she hadn't noticed that I was getting the stuffing kicked out of me. Of course, I couldn't remember a single question she asked me. Just that she had asked, that I had answered, and that he beat me.

What the fuck was going on here?

I couldn't think of it anymore, I had bigger problems right now. I had to figure out my next step. And right now, that step involved getting something to eat and apartment bed to sleep in.

I made my way along the rooftop of what I assumed was a parking garage for sky busses. I came up to the edge and peered over in the direction of my apartment. It was challenging to see through the dark, there were very few streetlights and the moon had been obscured by high level clouds. But that didn't stop me from seeing the mess below.

Home was now out of the question, that much was clear. I saw the tell tail remains of police ransacking the apartment. Much of my livelihood had been ripped from the apartment and strewn across an area that was cordoned off from the rest of street below. Items were organized into piles and were carefully segregated so others combing through the items could search for evidence. Clearly searching for any clues, or whatever it was that police ponies search for.

My couch had also been pulled out as well. It appeared to have become a gathering point for the the police ponies to relax while they performed their search. While sitting there, they would comb through any files or papers they found in the house. Clearly they still had not looked under the cushions though, because there was a treasure trove of evidence there. The past three months of my Wing Boner magazine collection were hidden there. If they were looking for anything incriminating, than those magazines would probably be the most they could find.

This was too risky, I had to move. I needed to find somewhere that nopony would go to anytime soon. Where I could lay low for maybe a few days and take account of all my gear. I still needed to administer aid to my battered body. And most importantly a place where I could figure out my next real step.

Then a location came to mind. My eyes sparked with excitement as I realized I had known of a place that would work out perfectly. I checked my saddle bags to make sure I still had the key. I did. With a smile, I leapt silently into the air and started flying south. I had already flown so far, but I could at least fly two more miles to my new safe haven.

Never in my life had I ever dreamed I would be using the armory as a safe haven. A building that was designed for the explicit purpose of training warriors to combat enemies of the state had become my safest destination. Something seemed poetically ironic about that, but I'd take what I would get.

The Armory was deserted this time of the week. After all, it was a monday nearing three in the morning. No pony would come here until following month for the next mandated drill. In addition to the lack of pony traffic through the building, I did not expect any police to come either. The local police needed a military judge's approval to step hoof onto the premises to investigate the area. Unless if there were a clear reason for police intervention, such as a robbery or murder. The unlikelihood of either made me feel all the more comfortable. Unless all hell broke loose, I would be safe. At least, relatively safe for the time being.

I silently stalked through the area around the armory. looking over my shoulder every few minutes to make sure no pony had followed me or was watching me. It was clear that no pony was wondering about the shops across the street or the grounds along the armory. And all the lights in the tall office buildings bordering the armory were off.

I went to one of the side doors and unlocked it. Quietly, I stepped inside and made sure to lock the doors behind me. I combed through the armory, checking every corner of the six thousand square foot building.

The building was centered on one large four thousand square foot room. This was the drill floor, and it was where all company level training would take place. From there, the remaining two thousand feet of building was divided into a horseshoe shaped hallway that ran around the south side of the building. This is where smaller classrooms, kitchens, offices and other rooms were held. The officers hallway was also down here. This hall connected to the main entrance of the building, which also led into the drill floor.

It was creepy. The building was huge and empty. All equipment and gear was stowed away in the supply room or in locked closets throughout the armory. It gave the building an abandoned feeling. And I didn't like it.

I turned down the officers hallway and made my way to my office. Stopping to flip the light switch on in the hallway. I tried my best to walk quietly. Tip-toeing down the length of the hallway. I made it to my office, the last door in the hall. I pulled my key out and unlocked the door. And without another thought, stepped inside and bolted it shut.

Snapping on the lights in the office I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Evading capture had been a lot simpler then I thought, but it certainly had been stressful and perilous. Just standing in my office felt like I had achieved quite a lot over the past few hours. Now I was free to finally look over my injuries and treat them.

I reached into the top left drawer of the desk and pulled out a first aid kit. A little yellow box with three pink butterflies on it. Not a regulation Enclave medical box, which were safety orange with a sky blue cross on the front. No, this first aid kit was a bit of a family heirloom from before the end of the war. It had belonged to a distant relative who had fought with the Shadow Bolts at the height of the war. And it had never been used.

There was a soft hiss as the top popped opened for the first time in nearly two centuries. I upended the side, allowing the contents to be spilled on the desk and left them open for me to examin. First thing I saw was a healing potion, it's contents having faded from a deep purple to a medium lavender. Did that means it was bad?

I pulled it out and drank deeply from it. Which may not have been a good idea seeing as it was over two hundred years old. Regardless of age, it still helped out a might bit. I felt my body begin to feel better. Small abrasions on my sides magically disappeared and the soreness in the muscles around my wings was alleviated somewhat.

I still felt like shit, but comparatively not as shitty. And with solving the physical issues, I had time to think in the relative safety of my office. Safety that I knew would not last long. Sooner or later the investigators would come looking here, and I would have to flee under pursuit. That was something I positively did not want to have happen. Images of me fleeing from two ponies wearing black suits and wearing dark sunglasses came to mind. And a thought of some dramatic downtown escape on hoof danced around in my imagination..

No, it was much better to leave sooner. But where would I go? Every pony I knew would almost definitely turn their back on me. I had no real friends to speak of. Not even from school. Even if I did the likelihood of them welcoming me into their home was low, especially with the mark of the Dashite on my hind quarters.

I'm an outlaw now, and I wasn't safe in Fort Laudermare. A fugitive hiding on an Enclave Military base, searching for another safe house … super.

But where was safe? That became the question of the hour. And the more i mulled it over, the less feasible it became to stay in Enclave territory. I didn't know what they wanted me for, but I couldn't promise myself they wouldn't kill me. I had seen a hooful of ponies go dashite in my time. And all of them who stayed made a brief stint on the run before being captured and never being seen again.

There was always griffon territory. The half eagle half lion creatures had been known to take in runaways. Or at least take them in long enough for a sizable contract to be placed on said runaway. And besides, I had made somewhat of a name for myself in griffon controlled airspace.

Sometime about two years ago there was an incident on the Enclave's border with the griffins. Something about the danger of a border state having relatively unpoliced interactions with the surface. The Enclave had not liked that, and mobilized soldiers for a show of force.

At the time I had been a platoon leader. And my company had been assigned to spearhead the operation. Long story short, we had seen some action and lost the previous company commander. Leaving me to fill the role. Ultimately, I continued the mission and received some award for my actions that the griffins had not agreed with. But, that story is neither here nor now. My current problem remained, and I concluded that Griffin territory would not be safe for me

Maybe I could go to the surface? I had heard rumors of a civilization down there. But if the rumors were to be believed, than that civilization was violent and warlike. Disease ran rampant. Ponies murdered each other for the most trivial of details. And monsters created from the magical radiation dominated the food chain. I couldn't survive down there long. Or could I?

Some of the classes at Sky Point had been dedicated to surviving in the field. Albeit, most of those classes had been focused on how to make the conditions on a ferrel cloud bearable. But a few had been how to avoid common threats on the surface such as radiation, taint, and if one had the misfortune of being in Hoofington, enervation.

I cringed at the thought of the photos the administration had shown the cadets of ponies who had been caught in the enervation fields. Little remained of them, their bodies liquified by magical energies that the Enclave still had no counter to. Thankfully, enervation was only found in the Hoof, and even then it was still rare in that region.

Getting to the surface wouldn't be much of a problem. I still had access to my work files on my pipbuck. And it just so happened that the Enclave defense system that kept ponies from traveling through the cloud cover, the Lightning Rods, were designed to function with the talismans that I had made. Finding gaps in the system wouldn't be to difficult.

But what about equipment? I needed supplies to survive. And there would be no chance for a resupply down there. I needed to bring enough supplies to sustain me. I began to take an account of everything in my office and saddlebags.

The pipbuck skyrocketed the top of the 'to bring list'. The device was designed to create maps of everything within a few hundred meters. In addition to that, I could check my vitals, detect radiation, tune into radio broadcasts, and even store any datafile I might come across. And I had to face it, the quality of being nigh indestructible, made it the perfect tool to be used in the wasteland.

Other items that made the list were a few yards of rope, a couple of meals ready to eat (MRE's), my aviator glasses, and a tool kit. Inside the tool kit was a pipbuck key, a small ball peen hammer, an assortment of screwdrivers, and a crescent wrench. Clearly not much. Certainly not enough to survive for long.

I could take my power armor. It was locked up in the Armory basement. But the device would be a dead giveaway. Not only could ponies easily identify me from a distance, but the Enclave could track the suit. I could disable the safeties around the tracking device, but that would take to long. Tack on the massive amounts of power it would consume. No, it would absolutely be best not to take the armor.

Just then, the unmistakable sound of the Armory's front door opening sounded through the quiet building. Alarmed, I shoved all of the items into my saddlebags. I might have to bug out quick if I didn't want to be found.

Before leaving the office, I opened a small safe under my desk and pulled out the last thing I ever thought I would need. An old .357 revolver. I slid the outdated firearm into a holster and strapped it on just under my left wing. The pistol had been father’s, and his father’s before him. A family heirloom that looked as if it had seen better days. I had no idea if it would still fire properly. But the pistol would definitely help to at least look dangerous if I got caught in a hard place. And if it did fire, there was a box of fifty rounds next to it. And the weapon was fully loaded.

Quietly, I made my way to the door and listened for sounds on the other side. Nothing. I glanced at the Eyes Forward Sparkle. A pipbuck function, the EFS would alert me to any pony, friend or foe, within a 20 meter radius. Right now it showed three targets, marked red, towards the main room of the armory. Shit. This might go south quickly.

Carefully, I opened the door to the office and silently stalked down the corridor. Careful not to make a sound. I came up on the double doors dividing the officers hall from the main room.

"Hurry up Dasher. I don't like being here!" A mares voice could be heard clearly from the other side.

"Oh calm down Raindrop. There's no one here," I heard Star Dasher respond, "Merryweather is fine being here!"

"Of course she is, this is her armory now! She runs this place, what with the Captain turning Dashite," Raindrop said.

I winced at that. I'd been wondering if my soldiers had heard about my current predicament. It was dumb of me to hope they hadn't. If it's anything I could rely on, it was my soldiers spreading rumors. Well, I guess in this case it had been more of a current event so much as a rumor, but regardless, still spreading gossip.

"Wonder where the sour fuck is. Definitely not at his crappy apartment, cops got it ransacked. Took his couch out and everything!" Star Dasher said, chuckling at the thought, "You know he slept on that couch right? Fucking moron. You'd think he'd have slept on that giant ass bed they tore up yesterday,"

They tore up my bed... Those... Do they know what they've done? I haven't touched it in ages. Not since she left for-No. I won't think about that now. It doesn't matter anyway. Bad memories. Bad... Bad memories. I blinked and saw her silver feather pass through my vision... Bad memories.

"You're being awfully quiet Merryweather. Something on your mind?" Star Dasher asked. Then, in a more flirtatious voice, she added, "All this talk about beds must be gettin’ you hot."

"Actually, it's not," Merryweather said, finally breaking her silence. "You foals are so distracted with gossip that you haven't noticed anything, have you?"

There was a moment of scilence where i could just invision two of the mares looking at each other confused, then back to Merryweather, shaking their heads.

"The lights down the officers hall are on."

What?... Oh celestia, you have got to be kidding me right now! My eyes practically exploded from my skull as they went wide. How could I be so dumb to turn the lights on! I heard Merry's hoof steps coming closer to the door. It was time to act. In seconds they would be on me.

"I wonder who's been poking around my new building," Merryweather said, her tone adopting an ever so playful air.

There was a moment's hesitation. I strained my ears to try and hear what was going on across the other side of the double doors. I could only hear my soft and rapid breathing.

The doors burst open. Merryweather and I stared at each other, almost muzzle to muzzle.a smile crossed her lips.

"Girls!" She exclaimed, "I think we'd better start working on our new promotion paperwork,"

Quick as anything I'd seen, Merryweather grabbed my forehoof with her mouth and threw me into the room with astounding strength. I was airborne for a few moments before slamming hard into the wall on the opposite side. Stars exploded before my eyes, and pain wrecked through my already battered body.

"Wow Merry, you're gettin’ pretty strong!" Dasher said, a wicked grin on her face, "Have you been working out when I wasn't looking?"

"Took a buck before we came here," Merry sneered, "Figured the fucker would be snooping around his old office. Silly colt, he should have learned by now that the fillies run this place now,"

"Buck is quite illegal," I coughed and sputtered on the ground. Little flecks of blood dotting my lips. "Sure its something a pony of your new position should be using?"

"Like your one to talk, fucken village burner.," Raindrop said through gritted teeth, "You'll burn for what you've done. Dropping that bomb on the village. You fucking sick son of a bitch!"

Village burner? What in Celestia's name were they going on about?

"What are you talking about? The only bombs I ever set off were during training exercises at the academy!" I snarled back, desperately trying to figure a way to gain control of the situation.

"Don't deny it, coward. It's all over the news!" Star Dasher said, "The guard officer turned traitor, Stand Bold, who set off bombs in Seabiscuiton. I had a friend living there. And now she's dead. Along with all the other villagers who lived there!"

Seabiscuiton was a small village about three miles north of Laudermare. It was relatively new, a town that was supposed to be one of the safest in the entire Enclave. I knew, I'd designed the Lightning Rod defense system the town was built over.

"I don't know what you're talking about. In fact, I don't know anything between releasing you all from drill last week and up until three hours ago," I told them truthfully.

"It doesn't matter. Were bringing you in. Well, that is if you survive that long," Merryweather declared finally. And with that she, Raindrop and Star Dasher all charged simultaneously and began striking blows across my body.

Pain exploded through me. I could feel my body buckle as I braced against Merryweather's drug filled rage. The flurry of blows tore through me like a wrecking ball. Every buck from her felt like it shot through me from nose to tail. Rattling my teeth and shaking my very core.

What her blows couldn't reach, Raindrop and Star Dasher did. They lacked the drug fueled power that Merryweather possessed. But they certainly made up for it in ferocity and speed. Quickly hammering me up and down my sides. I folded under the pressure, doing my best to curl into a fetal position and try and weather the storm of their blows.

There was no time to think. I had to act. Maybe I could get a warning shot off with my pistol? It seemed like my only option. I didn't think I could take much more of their attack.

Under the hail of hooves pounding my body, I bit down on my sidearm. Yanking the hammer back while simultaneously pulling it from the holster. Without even thinking and my eyes tightly shut, I pulled the trigger.

Silence fell upon the room. I opened my eyes in time to see Raindrop and Star Dasher jumping back. Apparently no pony had the sense to notice the weapon on my side and had been equally surprised as I was when it had actually gone off.

The silence finally broke when Merryweather slumped to the ground. Her eyes were crossed and she had a confused look on her face. Worst of all, a hole in the back of her head leaked blood and bits of grey matter that had peppered the ceiling and floor behind her. For all the drugs in the world, there were none she could have taken to prevent that grievous and fatal blow.

Star Dasher and Raindrop just stood there, expressions of fear and shock crossing their faces as a pool of blood began to form around our hooves. I said nothing. I simply held the pistol towards them in a pose that I hope looked intimidating. If any doubts had existed that I wasn't a killer, I had just blasted them apart with 125 grains of gunpowder at 1,600 feet per second.

Slowly, I backed my way to the door. Still aiming the sights of the smoking firearm at the two ponies. I kicked the door open with a my hind hoof, and continued to back away out of the entrance of the Armory.

"You are beyond fucked," Star Dasher whispered. Shaking from muzzle to hoof with rage, "We'll find you, and we'll kill you."

I said nothing, I wouldn't risk losing the grip on my pistol. Silently I backed away until the door shut in front of me. Thats when I turned tail and ran as fast as I could.

"Your fucking dead Bold, FUCKING DEAD!" Star Dasher shouted.

When the main doors to the armory clanged shut I took off for the sky. Flying as fast as my wings would carry me, I made for the city limits. I would no longer be safe in the Armory. I wouldn't be safe in Fort Laudermare. I had to get out of the Enclave, and fast. Now my only option was to flee to the surface. It was safer to hide below than to be hunted down in the clouds.

As soon as I had put enough distance between myself and the city, I headed west for the Manehatten ruins. With luck I could make it through the cloud cover and into the Wasteland unnoticed during the Manehatten Lightning Rods' maintenance.

And there I was. Alone in the night sky once again. It was another star filled night above me. The little twinkling lights above grew brighter and more numerous the further I fled from the city. The moon sat perfectly before me as I continued on my trajectory. I couldn't help but pause as I viewed the beauty before me. And that pause was all it took for my actions to reassert themselves to the forefront of my mind.

Thats when it hit me. I killed her. Put a bullet straight through her head. Not a grazing hit. Not a flesh wound. But an honest to Celestia bullet wound directly into the brain. There was no coming back from a head injury like that. The best hope for her would be the life of a vegetable. And that was a slow death compared to the quick death of being shot.

The image of her confused face came surging back to me. Bits of blood pooling around my hooves. The shocked faces of Star Dasher and Raindrop. The thickness of the air around me... it all made me feel sick, absolutely sick.

Than, I heard her voice in the back of my mind. Not Merryweather or the other two mares who witnessed her murder. It was the voice of that mare who had long ago abandoned me.

"Dusty... look at you. You've fallen again. And this time you can't get back up." She said. I could mentally see her flip her mane in disdain towards me. "It was cute once, seeing you down there. Its why i came to pick you up. To dust you off. But it's not cute anymore, is it? Stand Bold."

The last words she said to me echoed through my mind. The last time anypony had called me by my nickname. The nickname she had given to me.

I couldn't take it anymore. I felt absolutely sick to my stomach. Fitting to, because It was at that moment that everything in my stomach violently disgorged itself. Filth rained down to the clouds below me. Mostly clear fluid.

Thick tears began to well up in my eyes. The thought of her had made this unbearable situation take the plunge it needed to become a nightmare. Streams of tears cut angry swaths down the sides of my face.

And there I was. Alone. Flying through the beautiful night sky. Tears streaking down my face. Vomit crusting around my mouth. I'd never killed anypony before. Goddesses, I'd never killed anything before! I'd seen bodies, but I never took the life force from them. Was this how I would spend the rest of my life; fleeing from authority and killing whoever was chasing after me?

The pony she had known would never have killed anypony. The pony she had loved wouldn't have found himself with a dashite brand on his flanks and government figures chasing him. I had been that pony; until she had taken that name from me.

It was right then when I started to realize how much I hated my name even more. As Stand Bold, I had led a life that left me wanting so much more. A life devoid of friends. A life that had become so very desperate for the lost love of another. A life that had become that of a Dashite, who killed others with wanton disregard...

The more I thought of it, the more I knew I needed to shed the weight of my name. Not only had it led to all the horrors I was experiencing now, but it would continue to affect me from here out. It would be easy for any pony tracking me to find me by simply asking others if they had heard of me. Stand Bold wasn't exactly a common name after all.

So I changed my name. I would not continue to acknowledge it. It was as dead to me as Merryweather was to the world.

She had called me Dusty. That was her pet name for me. I had hated that to. It had been a nickname she gave me when I didn't like her. But eventually it had grown on me. And I missed being called Dusty...

So I will call myself Dusty. It shall become my name in the wasteland below.

This wasn't right and it scared me. Tears fell down my face in great rivers now. I felt if I cried hard enough that I could erase what had just happened. Just reverse the clock nine days and go back to being just plain Stand Bold. The Stand Bold who hated his job in the military. Back to when Merryweather was alive and no one thought I was a traitor. Back to when she loved me.

But I knew that the pain I felt and the tears that dropped from my eyes couldn't erase that. Merryweather would always be dead now. And I would forever be a dashite. And no amount of my tears would change that. No amount of tears would bring her back either. Somehow, that just made me cry harder.

Morning Grace was had failed and she was quite pissed with herself. Clearly, she had not been taking her task seriously enough and another pony was dead. She had just left the Fort Laudermare police station. Her heart heavy with the recent developments in the Terrorist Stand Bold case.

Captain Merryweather, newly promoted to fill the hole that had come along when
Stand Bold was removed from command, was laying in the coroner's office. A bullet hole in her head.

She was a good pony from what she had heard. Always showed up to drill on time. And ready to help her squadmates prepare for the days activities. She had been killed in the armory she was commanding. The two witnesses present said they had gone to make sure one of them had locked up her gear after being excused from drill. Private Star Dasher was her name. She had been one of Merryweather's troops and long time friend.

The witnesses had told police that Stand Bold came out of the officers hall, brandishing a pistol and threatening to kill them all. Apparently he had said he would do more brutal things to the three as well. That was when Merryweather went to defend her troops. She was so brave. But in the end, it had gotten her killed, and Stand Bold had fled.

She had to find him and end his trail of death. She checked his pipbuck tag again, but it had long gone dark. He must have breached the cloud barrier and gone to the surface. That was the only explanation as to why the tag was no longer showing up.

With a sigh, she leapt into the early morning breeze and started west. The wind pulled at her as she flew towards Manehatten. It had been the general direction Stand Bold's pipbuck tag was traveling in before going dead. She wasn't sure he had gone there, but she was running out of options. And she really needed to find him. With luck, somepony down there may have seen something and could lead her in the right direction. That is of course, if that somepony was not one of the insane murderers who lived down there now.

She really didn't want to go back to the wasteland. She'd been there a few times before, and knew of the harshness of the doomed land. But she had no option. She had to find Stand Bold and avenge all the wrong he had done.

Footnote: Level Up.

Skill Note: Guns (55)

New Perk: Jinxed: Both you, and your enemies suffer double the normal chances for critical hits and failures.

Quest Perk: Memory Loss - still in effect.

Author's Note

As always, I'd like to thank Kkat, for creating Fallout: Equestria, and actually making me interested in My Little Pony. If she had not spiked my interest in My Little Pony, I would never have taken a second glance at the magic of Friendship.

This chapter is supposed to start giving clues about what happened to Stand Bold during his time aboard the Cloud Chaser. Additionally, it serves to give us a bit more background on Stand Bold, and a taste of his past. In the coming chapters, we will go more in-depth to his life experiences.

Updates might be a little spaced out after this one. I've got two weeks of army stuff coming up this Saturday, and a seven hour drive tomorrow-uh, I mean, later today. Hopefully I'll be able to get time to squeeze another chapter out by sometime next week, and a few more in the weeks to follow.

Oh, how the gears of time work slow but surely. It's nearly a year since this chapter was originally posted. I had hope to be so much further along in this story by now, but I'm not. I tribute that to my poor craftsmen ship as a writer. Don't worry, things will get better, at least for those who enjoy the story.