Chapter Two: Moneytalks

"If you're good at something, never do it for free.

Gunsmoke the bounty hunter had an exceptionally good memory.

The bulky, rugged looking brown unicorn stood, studying the scene in front of him as he remembered.

He remembered growing up in the wasteland and how difficult it had been. He thought about his father. Who had been a hunter, taking him across the wastes and teaching him all the skills he needed to survive.

He remembered how his father had been killed by a group of raiders during one of their hunting expeditions.

He remembered how he had hunted down those raiders and killed them one by one. He remembered how he had killed the first one - by shooting him from a distance with his father’s hunting rifle.

That event earned him his cutie mark: a smoking gun barrel.

He remembered discovering how much he enjoyed hunting other ponies down. He remembered how he had gained a reputation as one of the best bounty hunters in Equestria.

He remembered how he had received a strange letter one day, offering up what was easily the highest paying job he had ever received. He remembered assembling a large crew consisting of the finest hunters he had ever known.

Together they traveled to Stable Twenty-eight. He remembered encountering very little resistance. He remembered acquiring their target. He remembered leaving his group at an abandoned house right outside of Misery.

He had decided to go ahead of his group to Forb Mountain alone to discuss the job face to face. He wanted to know why this seemingly random stable pony was so incredibly valuable.

He remembered the incredibly strange meeting that ensued. Once he was convinced of the legitimacy of the deal, he headed back to the house.

Now he stood and surveyed the surrounding area, wondering if something had happened to his exceptionally good memory.

The hill that overlooked the house was right where it should have been. The crashed sky carriage, sitting a few meters away, was right where is should have been. The dead trees, adjacent to the house, were standing right where they should have been.

However, the fifteen bounty hunters who had aided him in the stable raid, his incredibly valuable target, and the house itself were all missing.

So, he stood there and stared at the space that he had remembered the house standing, wondering if he perhaps he had made a mistake had come to the wrong location. That moment of wondering passed very quickly.

Gunsmoke the bounty hunter never made mistakes.

Gunsmoke walked towards the area where the house should have been. In its place sat a still smoking pile of burnt rubble, making it evident that the house had been burned down. He picked through the debris for clues regarding details of what may have happened. After a moment of searching, he discovered a charred skeleton amongst the ruins. He continued his search and discovered several more charred pony remains.

One after another, he wound up finding fifteen bodies total. He studied the corpses and came to the conclusion that they had been dead before the fire had consumed the building.

Gunsmoke stood there amongst the remains of his comrades for a while, remembering the names and faces of each and every one of them.

He said a silent prayer to the Goddesses, asking them to watch over the souls of the fallen hunters whom he had once called his friends.

After his silent prayer, Gunsmoke turned and made his way over to his three current companions. Two of his companions were griffon mercenaries who he had hired to pull the sky carriage that took him across the wastes to Forb Mountain. He had worked with each of them in the past. They were highly skilled and incredibly reliable, and Gunsmoke trusted both of them with his life.

His other companion was a different story, however. The bounty hunter had only recently met this other companion, and what a strange companion it was.

He walked over towards the machine that had accompanied them on the return journey from Forb Mountain. Sprite bots littered the wasteland. They floated around, spewing mindless propaganda from some revolutionary located in Fillydelphia. They spoke about how he would change the wastes and Equestria would rise once again.

This sprite bot was different though. It floated in the air silently, watching Gunsmoke. Not many things made Gunsmoke feel uneasy, but he remembered what was watching him through the machine. He remembered meeting the terrible entity that was his current employer.

For the first time in his adult life, Gunsmoke wished that he could forget.

The machine floated there for a while, silently and lifelessly. Then a mechanical voice called out from the robot.

"Where is she, Gunsmoke? I'm tired of waiting."

Gunsmoke stared coolly at the machine. He did his best not to display how nervous he actually was at the moment.

"We have a problem. Someone hit the place while I was away. She's gone."

There was no response from the machine at first. It simply bobbed in the air, completely silent.

"Who else knew about her?" Gunsmoke asked

The sprite bot spoke again. "Only a select few. Soon, however, the news of the reward will get out to every corner of the wasteland."

"I don't get it. Why send out a bounty notice at all? Why didn't you just hire one group to get it done? It would have been a hell of a lot easier."

"It was not my decision. It was the decision of my master. Their will is never to be questioned." The mechanical voice held a deadly serious tone.

"Well, this is a problem." Gunsmoke replied.

"For you, perhaps. For me and my master, it brings no issue. Whoever is responsible for taking the girl undoubtedly intends to bring her to me. My goal shall be met regardless."

"Except now you can no longer guarantee her safety. You don't know who took her. She could be in the hooves of total psychos for all you know." Gunsmoke snorted and looked back towards the smoldering remains. "From the looks of it, that seems to be the case."

"This could have been avoided if you had simply brought her to me immediately."

He turned his attention back to the sprite bot.

"I had to be sure. The amount of caps you're offering is insane. It sounded like a joke. I didn't think there was anyone in the wasteland who had that kind of money. Especially to just throw away on some random Stable dweller."

"How do you feel about your decision now, Gunsmoke? The situation has changed. You may never see those caps."

"I stand by my decision." Gunsmoke declared proudly. "It seemed too good to be true. In a way, it still does."

The sprite bot replied with a mechanical sounding laugh. "I knew you'd say that."

"This isn't just about the caps anymore either. It's much bigger than that. This could change everything..."

"I didn't think you cared that much, Gunsmoke. If my master’s plan comes to fruition, you may very well have to give up your current lifestyle.”

Gunsmoke remembered the face of his father as he lay dying on the ground.

"I think I'd be okay with that." He looked at the sprite bot with the most serious of expressions.

"I'm gonna get her back. This job is too important to leave up to some random mercenaries. You need somepony you can trust. That pony is me."

"I agree with you, Gunsmoke. However, now that word of the bounty has been spread, it's going to be far more dangerous than before. You're going to need help. I can provide it..."

"I know what you have in mind. The answer is no. I don't need that kind of help." A small chill ran up Gunsmoke’s spine and it took all of his conscious effort to suppress the shutter.

The robot laughed again. "I knew you'd say that. What's your plan of action then?"

Gunsmoke thought for a second. He remembered his past jobs and who had accompanied him.

"I'm gonna round up some more hunters. The best ones I know. We're going to go after the ponies who took her and we're going to get her back. I'll be sure to be more careful this time, now that I know just what's at stake."

"Move quickly, Gunsmoke. Time is of the essence. The fate of Equestria lies in the balance."

"I know. Give my regards to your master. When this is all over, perhaps I'll get the chance to meet them in person." Gunsmoke smiled.

He remembered that the last time he had smiled had been with his father. He missed the feeling.

"I'm sure they would like that." There was a bright flash and the strange machine disappeared.

Gunsmoke turned to the two griffons. "We'll head over to back to your base. hire a few more Talons. Then we’ll head back to Misery to round up some old friends of mine."

He got inside the sky carriage and the griffons took off.

As they flew, Gunsmoke remembered his meeting at Forb Mountain. He remembered the feelings he experienced as he laid eyes on the strangest pony he had ever encountered. He remembered her eyes. There was something about those eyes.

Something...strange.

Something...crazy.

He remembered the sensation.

For the first time in his life, Gunsmoke had experienced true fear.

The feeling of fear was overshadowed by her words, though.

As she spoke, he remembered feeling an expectation or desire for a certain thing to happen.

Something he had never felt before.

He wanted to hold onto that sentiment forever.

He thought back to the encounter. He remembered what he could only imagine the feeling of….

... hope.

~O.o~

Miles away from the destroyed remains of the house, four mares made their way across the vast and desolate expanse of the Equestrian Wasteland. Since capturing their target, the gang had not stopped moving.

After they had acquired their target, they took what supplies they needed from the bodies of the dead bounty hunters. They then headed east, back towards Misery.

Before that, however, a certain crazy filly had decided to have a bit of fun with her favorite toy.

"You're a little maniac!"

Scar had been reprimanding the filly since they left.

"And a pyro! You're a little pyromaniac!"

"You've said that like a hundred times now, Scar." Sugar replied. "I told you, I wanted a chance to use the flamethrower."

"You could have at least waited until we were outside!"

"Yeah, coulda, shoulda, woulda, Scar. You sound like DJPon3. You just keep repeating the same stupid shit over and over and just like the actual DJPon3, I don't care about anything you have to say. Besides, everyone made it out just fine."

Scar glared at the filly then turned her head around and looked at her own tail, the tip of which had been singed black.

"Mostly fine." Sugar let out a giant yawn.

"I'm gettin' tired. Let's take a break and discuss things with our new companion."

They made their way over to an old orchard and sat down beneath some dead trees. A young unicorn was tied up and slung over the back of the large grey earth pony mare. Her new captors at least had the courtesy to remove the bag from her head.

Unfortunately, the tape over her mouth remained and her legs were still tied. At least Sortilege had stopped crying since being taken from the awful, foul smelling house. She was still terrified but at the same time a portion of her misery had been replaced by curiosity.

This was the first time she had ever laid eyes on the wasteland. As terrible as it was, Sortilege found it incredibly intriguing.

The first thing she had noticed upon leaving was the sky. She had seen pictures of the sky in books she had read as a filly, but she had never seen the real sky before. She had always thought it'd look blue, like in the books, with few clouds scattered here and there.

This wasn't the case at all.

The sky was grey and completely covered in clouds.

She knew that shortly before the bombs fell, the Pegasi had abandoned Equestria and closed off the sky, but she never imagined exactly what that entailed. She was only able to look at the sky for so long.

Eventually the vast and seemingly endless space began to make her feel ill so she began studying the landscape. She found the sea of damaged colors surrounding her to be fascinating.

Growing up in a stable, the only color she was used to seeing regularly was grey. It never bothered her much. She liked grey. But the wasteland offered her a whole new variety of colors.

Greens were small pools of radioactive goop. Reds, blues and yellows from all the crashed sky carriages and debris that littered the place. And browns.. there were a whole lot of browns. She thought it was kind of pretty. Pretty in a scary, dirty way.

Most intriguing of all were her new captors. She found them as interesting as she did terrifying.

The first one she had laid her eyes on, the large grey mare, hardly said a word. Despite the fact that she had singled-hoofedly and viciously slaughtered five of her captors right in front of her, the mare seemed.. friendly? Nice. She never involved herself in her two companions constant bickering and she seemed almost completely oblivious to everything going on around her.

Sortilege had never met a pony like her before. She found herself constantly wondering what was going on inside the strange mare’s mind.

Sortilege was particularly captivated by the crimson Pegasus. She had never seen a Pegasus before. She couldn't help but marvel at the pony’s wings. They might have been the most beautiful feature she had ever seen on another pony.

As a matter of fact, the Pegasus pony was possibly one of the prettiest mares she'd ever seen in general. Sortilege wondered why anypony as pretty as her would resort to the sort of life she seemed to have chosen.

Then the stable mare noticed the scars.

Two large scars marred either side of the mare’s face. The smaller of them was located above left her eye, on the ridge of her eyebrow. The larger one was on her right cheek, starting at the corner of her eye and ending at the bottom of her chin.

Sortilege fought to understand why anypony would wish to harm such an angelic looking creature. She was also fascinated by the mare’s cutie mark: A cloud with a lightning bolt shooting out of it, encompassed by a circle. The entirety of it was black, and the most intriguing part was that it didn't really look like a cutie mark at all. It looked like a brand.

The little filly scared Sortilege the most out of the three.

Throughout her entire adult life, Sortilege had loved children. When she was younger, she would frequently foalsit and always enjoyed doing so. She had never been afraid of a child before. But seeing a young filly with a pitch black coat and a stylized white skull painted on her face was a sight Sortilege had never imagined she would see.

Hearing the foul, venomous language spew from the filly’s mouth caused her to cringe. Little fillies shouldn't talk like that! Then seeing the little one pick up a weapon twice her size with her magic and begin to delightfully set fire to the house they still occupied had made her even more fascinated and horrified. Sortilege had always been quite adept at anything magic related but even she didn't possess that kind of telekinetic strength at that age. The only spot on the filly that wasn't painted was her flank, right where her cutie mark was. Sortilege looked at the mark, a pony skull wearing a pink bow, and shuddered. She didn't even want to know what kind of talent that was supposed to represent.

What must have happened to the child to make her into such a monster?

Skitz dumped Sortilege on the ground. The three looked over the mare. She was fairly young. Younger than Skitz and Scar, but not nearly as young as Sugar. She had a dark blue coat and a bubblegum pink mane. Her cutie mark was a large white star, surrounded by three smaller ones. The mare looked up to them, curious and terrified.

Sugar walked over and used her magic to remove the tape from her mouth. Sortilege started to speak, but was cut off by the filly.

"Don't say nuthin'. No begging. No pleading for us to let you go. Just shut up and listen. We have some questions for you." Sugar sat down and and looked Sortilege right in the eyes.

"First off: Why the fuck do you have a one hundred thousand bottlecap bounty on your head?"

Sortilege looked back at the filly. Her curiosity was dying down, being completely consumed by her fear.

"I...I...I don't...I...I.."

"Oh goddesses. I think she might be retarded, guys." Sugar said to her companions. She turned back to Sortilege. "Speak, bitch!"

Sortilege swallowed. "I...I don't know. I've never even been outside of my stable before."

"Well, that answers nothing." Scar said.

"Okay fine. Next question." Sugar thought for a moment, bringing her hoof to her mouth and biting on it. "Actually.. that's really the only question I had. Skitz, Scar, either of you have anything to add?"

Both mares shook their heads.

"Okay. Next order of business. Scar?"

The crimson Pegasus drew the sawed-off shotgun from her leg. Sugar grabbed it with her magic and pointed it towards Sortilege.

"Out here we refer to this thing as a kneecapper. If you try and run away from us, we're going to demonstrate how it acquired that name. Do you understand?"

The trembling Unicorn’s eyes widened in panic as she nodded feverishly.

"Good! Glad that's out of the way." The filly stood. "My name is Sugar and these are my friends, Skitz and Scarlet. We're gonna be your escort across the wasteland! If you play nice with us, we'll play nice with you."

By this time, fear had completely overcome Sortilege. She tried to respond but she couldn't seem think of anything to say. Finally, words made their way to the forefront of her mind and came tumbling out her mouth.

"I.. I'm Sortilege.. Sortilege H-H-Harmony."

"Well, I didn't ask and I don't care but it's nice to meet you, Sortilege H-H-Harmony. I'm just sure we're gonna be the bestest of best friends!" The filly replied sarcastically. "Now, I’ve had my mouth taped shut for hours on end before and I know how much it sucks so here's the deal. Don't annoy us and we keep the tape off of your mouth. Got it?"

Ever since Sortilege had been ripped from her stable, she had been silently praying that it was all some sort of terrible nightmare. The realization that her situation wasn't something she would ever wake up from finally struck her. The fear and sadness she felt overwhelmed her at that moment and she broke down crying once again.

She spoke aloud, the single thought that consumed her mind, "I want to go home."

"You don't have a home, sister." The filly replied cooly. "Stable twenty eight was wiped out."

Sortilege stared at the filly with a shocked expression, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open, "Wh-what?"

"Everypony you ever knew is dead."

With that, Sortilege broke down completely. She was no longer just crying. Now she was bawling her eyes out. The trio stared at her, expressionless, as she laid on the ground and wailed.

After a few moments, Scar finally spoke.

"Geez, Sugar. You didn't have to be such a bitch about it."

"The truth hurts Scar. I'm not gonna coddle her like a filly. My entire family was killed and you don't see me crying over it." The filly replied remorselessly. "Ponies die. No reason to be a pussy about it."

"You could have...eased her into it or something."

"Coulda, woulda, shoulda, Scar. Nothing we can do about it now. We need to get going though." She leaned down towards the wailing mare. "Hey Sorts. You gonna be much longer? We kinda got things to do."

At that moment, Skitz’s ears perked up. She turned her attention away from the group and stared out into the distance. The oblivious smile she typically wore had completely disappeared from her face. Now she was totally alert.

"What is it, Skitz?" Scar asked her.

"Someone's headed this way." The mare responded. She lifted her nose up and sniffed the air. "Ghouls. Coming in fast."

"Easy peasy, one, two, threesie." Sugar replied. "Just a couple of zombies. We could use them as target practice. Hell, you could probably just take care of them by yourself, Skitz."

Skitz shook her head. She closed her eyes and sniffed the air again.

"Gunpowder. They're armed."

Her ears moved as she listened for more clues.

"They're flying."

"What the fuck?" Sugar replied again. "Flying, armed ghouls? That sounds like the Rot Brigade. What the fuck do they want?"

"I'll go ask 'em." Scar said before taking off into the air in the direction.

Gunfire sounded seconds later and Scar flew back to her comrades.

"Apparently they want to shoot us."

"What the fuck? Why?"

"I didn't get a chance to ask."

At that very moment, the ghoul Pegasus gang known as the Rot Brigade touched down in front the group. The ghoul’s leader stepped forward to address them. He had formerly been a green coated pegasus. Now, most of his coat had fallen off. Patches of rotten, copper colored skin covered his body. His teeth had almost completely rotted away and only a few hairs on his short blonde mane remained. He wore a battle saddle sporting two assault rifles and his eyes were covered with a pair of sunglasses. He opened his mouth to speak.

Then Sortilege started screaming.

She had never seen a ghoul before and the sight finally sent her over the edge.

She was done.

She wanted out.

Somepony needed to wake her up from this nightmare.

She wanted to be home.

In her bed.

Cuddling with her teddy bear.

The ghoul said something but it was unintelligible over Sortilege’s shrieking. They waited patiently for Sortilege to calm down.

Finally she stopped, took in a deep breath..

...and started screaming again.

After a while, Sugar decided she'd had enough.

"Skitz, shut her up!"

The massive earth pony lightly bucked Sortilege in the head. Even a light buck from Skitz was enough to knock her out cold. She hadn't had a good night sleep since she was taken from the stable. She finally got the much needed rest she'd been praying for.

The leader of the pack of ghouls surrounding the mares cleared his throat. Then he smiled and spoke in a low, raspy voice.

"Sugar, Skitz, Scar! How's it goin' gals?"

Sugar was first to respond.

"Rotten Feathers. What the fuck do you think you're doing? Takin' pot shots at Scar.. I oughta put a bullet through your skull right fuckin' now!"

"Sugar! Baby! Calm down there toots. Maybe we got a little excited there for a moment but we're talking now so it's all good."

Sugar snorted. "Don't call me baby and don't tell me it's all good, you talking corpse! Answer my question! What the fuck are you doing here?"

The ghoul looked over to his ghoul colleagues and smiled. "Well Sugar, we're bounty hunters, so I guess we'd be collecting a bounty."

"No fucking way!" The filly shouted back at him.

"Yeah, Rotten. She's our prize." Scar added. "We got to her first!"

"No we didn't." Skitz said with a confused look on her face.

"Shut the fuck up, Skitz." Sugar retorted. "You can't have her Rotten. I suggest you beat it right now, before you really start to piss me off." The filly gave the ghoul the deadliest glare she could.

"No can do, Sugar. The bounty on that one there is too damn high to pass up. Now give her up, nice and easy like."

"A hundred thousand caps is chump change to you guys! We fuckin' need this! I'm only gonna tell you one last time to get the fuck out of here!" The enraged filly looked about ready to charge.

The ghouls all started laughing for some reason.

"A hundred thousand caps? Is that what you think she's worth? Well shit. Ain't that the funniest damned thing. Look at the facts, Sugar. You're outnumbered, you're outgunned and figuring on how we can fly and all, chances aren't looking too good for the three of ya. Now, I like you girls and all. But you ain't standing between me and the biggest payday of my life. Last chance. Give her up."

"Come and get her, you ugly fuck."

With that, Sugar drew her pink pistol and opened fire.

~O.o~

The town of Misery was in an uproar.

Word had gotten out about the fantastically large bounty on the stable dweller known as Sortilege Harmony. Every bounty hunter in Misery was racing to every shop, trying to acquire the best equipment they could before anypony else.

Ponies who had never taken a bounty hunting job in their lives were gearing up as well. The job was simply too good to pass up.

The town’s leader, Miserable May, was considering changing her name. The influx of bottlecaps into her town’s economy had been incredibly good for her.

That, coupled with the fact that the three ponies she hated most were undoubtedly deceased by now. It was almost enough to put a smile to her face. Almost.

There were only two ponies in Misery who weren't preparing to charge after the prize of a lifetime. Sandy and Rock sat at the bar of the Miserable Tavern. The two ghouls had lived in Misery for sometime now, and they did the same thing everyday.

Every morning they would wake up, come to the Miserable Tavern and drink.

All day long.

Every single day.

For two centuries the duo had traveled the wasteland together and had experienced the horrors of the great war up close and personal. They had been there. They saw the effects the war had had on their friends and families. They had thought that the bombs would be the end of it.

They were wrong.

The radioactive fallout brought on by the megaspells had returned them to life - if one could call it a life. After two hundred years, the ghouls had experienced just about everything the wasteland had to offer. They had experienced the diverse pleasures of the great city of Dise and had been up close and personal with the horrors of Hoofington.

After roaming the wasteland for centuries, the two ghouls had worked every sort of job imaginable and after two hundred years, they were exhausted.

So, the ghoul duo had decided to settle down in place most appropriately named for them. They had plenty of caps from their travels and liquor was cheap. Everypony else was heading off for the adventure of the century. The pair of ghouls simply sat and drank.

Sandy and Rock had known each other since before the end. They had been coworkers at the Ministry of Morale. Back then, Sandy had been the cheeriest pony you'd ever met. The only pony in Equestria to rival him in that regard was the leader of the Ministry herself.

In those days, he had existed to bring smiles and laughter to the face of everypony he encountered. He was always ready with a joke or a song - anything to make somepony’s day better. He joined the Ministry in order to bring smiles back to the inhabitants of Equestria. Smiles that had been destroyed by the war.

Something happened, though. Slowly and surely, everypony’s smiles went away.

He remained strong for as long as he could. Eventually, even his own smile faded.

The last time he had smiled had been right before the bombs fell. He had been sitting at his office overlooking Manehatten on that day. His good friend and coworker had just told him the funniest joke he had ever heard. It was the first joke he'd ever heard her tell. The strange mare had smiled less than anypony he knew. Even before the war, she rarely smiled.

When she told him that joke, he had laughed harder and smiled brighter than he ever had in his life.

Then there was a bright green flash and his smile was wiped away with the rest of the world.

The two ghouls sat at the bar. Normally at this time of day, the bar was packed to the brim with depressed ponies attempting to drown out their sorrows or mercenaries celebrating a job well done.

Today, however, there were only two patrons.

Even the bartender was gone.

They didn't mind much. They never talked to anypony else and nopony else ever talked to them. They helped themselves to the bars contents, drinking in complete silence. After two centuries, the pair had nothing left to say to each other.

They simply drank.

Then, somepony entered the bar. The ghouls didn't bother to check and see who it was. They didn't care. As the pony approached however, the two ghouls felt a familiar presence. The pony approaching them had a particular scent. They didn't have to turn around and look to identify him. They knew who it was.

They'd recognize that smell anywhere. It was the smell of gunsmoke.

Gunsmoke walked up to pair of ghouls and spoke, "Sandy. Rock. Long time no see."

Sandy was the first to respond. "Hiya Gunsmoke. Suppose it has been a while."

The pair never looked up from their drinks. They had been drinking for some time now but they were barely tipsy. It took a lot to get a ghoul drunk.

"I assume you've heard the news."

Gunsmoke propped himself up on the stool next to the ghoul duo.

"What news? The news about how Red Eye's going to rebuild Equestria?" Sandy rasped. "Or are you talking about DJPon3's latest broadcast about the caravans getting attacked by Pegacorns?"

"You know what news I'm talking about, Sandy."

"I suppose I do. What of it, Smoke? If you're asking for our help, forget it. We're done."

Sandy’s companion nodded before downing the rest of her glass.

"You might change your mind after hearing what I have to tell ya."

Gunsmoke recounted the meeting he had with the strange pony at Forb Mountain. As he spoke, the ghouls ceased their drinking. He had their full attention. The news he was bringing them was simply unbelievable.

Sandy knew it was true though. He could feel it in his tired old bones. He had always possessed a sort of extra sense, and right about now, that extra sense was going extra nuts.

His partner, however, was slightly more skeptical.

"That's impossible, Gunsmoke. Nopony is capable of pulling something like that off."

"You didn't see her, Rock. It was incredible. It was like meeting one of the Goddesses herself. If you saw what I did, you'd believe. Trust me."

The ghoul looked to her partner.

"Sandy? What do you think?"

For the first time since he could remember, Sandy started to feel something.

He couldn't quite place his hoof on what that feeling was, though.

Hope, maybe?

Excitement?

He had spent so much time attempting to drown any sort of feeling he had, that he'd forgotten what it was like to feel anything at all. Whatever the feeling was, he liked it.

"I think it sounds too good to be true, Rock. But something inside this old rotting body of mine tells me it is. And if I'm being honest, I'm a little tired of sitting here doing nothing but drink all day."

Rock nodded.

She had never been one to argue. She simply went along with whatever Sandy said. He was her friend and his sense had never steered them wrong.

"So what do we have to work with, Smoke?" Sandy inquired.

"I picked up a group of Talons from Shattered Hoof. I've worked with them all before. They're good. Reliable. But I've already had this job go wrong on me once. I need ponies I can trust. I need the best. I need the two of you."

Sandy and Rock looked at each other. What Gunsmoke had just told them was huge.

This could change the wasteland forever.

They sat there for a moment, trying to get a hold on the feelings they hadn't experienced in nearly two hundred years.

Finally, the ghouls nodded to each other. Sandy spoke, "You can count us in, Smoke."

"Good." Gunsmoke smiled. "I've missed you guys, ya know."

"We missed you too Smoke, By the way..."

Sandy reached around his back and produced a small plastic cylinder from seemingly nowhere.

Gunsmoke stared at it for the longest time with a bewildered expression on his face. Then Sandy bit down on the end and pulled.

There was a small pop and the cylinder sprayed confetti all over his face.

"Happy birthday."

Gunsmoke chuckled. "How the fuck did you know? And where'd you get a party popper?"

"I never forget a pony’s birthday, Smoke. And I always carry them with me. In case of party popper emergency."

Gunsmoke chuckled again before turning around and heading towards the tavern’s exit. The two ghouls followed him. As they walked, Sandy felt something strange begin to happen to his mouth. His companion turned and stared at him.

"Whats wrong?" She asked.

"I don't know. My mouth feels strange. I think..." The ghouls stepped outside. Sandy looked up towards the sky and spotted a small section of the cloud layer parting, allowing a single ray of sun to shine through.

"I think I'm smiling."

~O.o~

Sortilege woke up with the worst headache she had ever had in her life. She felt as if somepony had bucked her right in the head. It was bad enough that she thought about going to see the stable doctor. She'd always liked the stable’s doctor. He was so incredibly kind. She remembered once when she was filly, she had faked being sick just to trick him into giving her a lollipop. He saw right through her, but he didn't mind. He'd even played along. Despite the massive pain ringing through her skull, she took solace in the fact that that she'd get to visit the nice doctor. A lollipop sounded really nice right now.

Then Sortilege opened her eyes.

It all came rushing back to her. She wasn't in her stable. She was in a horrible place. Worse than any nightmare she had ever experienced. She remembered the ponies from before. Sortilege didn't have much experience with dead ponies. She had only seen a few in her life. Her parents had passed away when she was still young, and she remembered seeing their bodies. She recalled how still they were. They had looked so peaceful. Sortilege didn't see a dead pony again until she was taken from her stable. She had been horrified at the sight of her former captor’s mutilated corpses. She had almost passed out from the scene. She never knew a pony’s body held so much blood.

The next time she saw a dead pony was when she was traveling with her new captors. As she was surveying the wasteland, she saw a few skeletal remains. She distracted herself from her terrible situation by imagining the lives the ponies of the old world must have lead. She remembered seeing more dead ponies after that.

These were different, though. The bodies she had all seen in the past were all different but they shared one thing in common - they didn't move.

These dead ponies moved. They spoke. It was unnatural. She remembered seeing their rotted flesh. She remembered the utter horror she felt. She had never been so horrified in her life. She was unable to do anything to suppress her scream. The last thing she remembered was seeing a large hoof rapidly approaching her face.

That explained why she felt as if she had been bucked in the head.

She surveyed the surrounding area. It was littered with corpses. The dead ponies she remembered from before were now properly dead. Several of them had been set on fire and the smell of their burnt flesh lingered in the air. Others laid on the ground, discolored blood leaking from their bullet wounds. The remainder of them appeared to have been eviscerated. Only one remained alive.

He had been tied up and gagged and was lying on the ground over by the three mares who had taken her hostage.

They paid no attention to him.

Scar was pacing nervously back and forth. She had a cigarette in her mouth and a worried look in her eyes.

Skitz was lying on the ground, staring into the distance looking as oblivious as ever.

Sugar was seated on the ground directly beside the ghoul. She had donned a pair of broken reading glasses and was holding a piece of parchment in her front hooves.

She paid no attention to it. Instead, she looked straight ahead with a look of utter shock plastered on her face.

"One million caps..." The little filly said to no one in particular.

"This is bad, sir. This job is totally fucked." Scar said. She seemed incredibly upset.

"One million caps..." The filly repeated.

"We should get rid of her, sir. Abandon the mission. This is fucked. May screwed us over! Screwed us over big time, sir!"

"One million caps..." The filly said for the third time.

"Sir!" The pegasus mare rushed over to the filly, grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. "Are you listening to me?! We are in some serious trouble! We need to get out of here, right the fuck now!"

The filly didn't notice her partner at all. "One. Million. Caps..."

"Sir!" By now Scar was shouting at the top of her lungs. "We are not prepared to handle this situation! We need to abort this mission immediately, sir!"

The filly shook her head, snapping out of her daze. She finally acknowledged her distraught companion. She smiled widely.

"One million caps, Scar! We're gonna be fuckin' rich!"

"We're gonna be fuckin' dead! Every single bounty hunter in the wasteland is going to be coming for her! There's no way we can take them all on!"

The filly looked back at Scar. "One. Million. Caps." She smiled again.

"Stop saying that!" Scar cried out.

Sugar's excitement died down slightly. She walked over to their ghoul prisoner and removed the gag from his mouth. She shoved the parchment into his face with her magic.

"Where did you get this?"

"It's been sent out to every bounty office across Equestria. Everyone knows about it!"

Rotten Feathers had completely shed the cool demeanor he had previously possessed.

Sugar placed her hoof to her chin. "That might be a small problem..."

"A small problem?!" Scar screamed.

"Cool your tits, Scarlet. We can handle this. All we have to do is head back to Misery, hire a couple of griffons, rent a sky carriage and fly over to Forb Mountain. Easy peasy."

The filly cocked her head sideways as another thought entered her mind.

"We should probably stop by May's office real quick and pop a cap in her too."

"We can't go to Misery! It's the mercenary capital of this region!"

"Oh yeah..." Sugar ran her hoof across her chin in thought, smearing her face paint. "Well, shit. What do we do then?"

Scar pointed her hoof towards where Sortilege was sitting.

"We tie that bitch to a tree and leave her there! We go back to Misery and forget about this whole fuck up of a job."

Sugar’s expression changed from excited to deadly serious. She stared at her partner with a deadly glare.

"One million caps, Scarlet. That will set us up for life. We could move into Tenpony with that kind of money. I don't care who comes after us. I'll kill each and every one of them. Nothing is gonna stand between me and the score of a lifetime. Especially not you."

Scar glared back the filly. For several moments, the scene was silent. The Pegasus saw the determination in the filly’s eyes. Sugar believed every word she had spoke. Nothing short of a megaspell was going to stop her.

Finally, Scar gave in.

"Fine. You're right. We should at least give it a shot.” She sighed. “We need to come up with a plan though. We can't go back to Misery."

Skitz decided to weigh in on the discussion.

"What about Ditzy Doo?"

"Yeah!" Sugar's previous determination was replaced with excitement once again. "New Appleoosa isn't too far from here. That retarded Pegasus ghoul has a sky carriage. We could hire her."

"She might. She hates us, though." Scar replied.

"Everyone hates us, Scar." Sugar tilted her head back proudly. "They're all just jealous."

"I don't hate you." Rotten Feathers spoke.

The Pegasus ghoul struggled against the ropes binding his limbs together.

"Can I go now? These ropes are really uncomfortable."

"Hell no." The filly replied with venom in her voice. "You tried to kill us. You ain't gettin' off that easy."

"But I…-" Rotten began.

Sugar cut him off.

"No buts! This is the wasteland. You know the rules."

"Lets beat him to death!" Scar called out enthusiastically.

"Yeah! With bats!" Skitz chimed in.

She reached into her cloak and pulled out three old baseball bats. She gave one to each of her comrades.

The three approached the defenseless ghoul.

"Wait!" Sortilege called out.

She had thought it had been in her best interest to remain silent during the entire exchange but she could not sit idly by and allow the trio to continue their current course of disturbed action.

"You can't do that! He's unarmed! He's helpless! It's too cruel!"

The three mares stared at her with incomprehension.

Sugar spoke. "So?"

Sortilege stared back in bewilderment. "You can't possibly be that heartless..."

The trio stared back at her, then slowly turned to face the ghoul.

"Lets beat him with bats!" Sugar cried out enthusiastically.

"Woo!" Skitz and Scar called out simultaneously.

"Stop!"

They turned to face Sortilege again.

"What is wrong with the three of you? Where's your sense of compassion? Your sense of pity? Look at him!"

They looked back at the defenseless ghoul. He looked utterly terrified. The once proud leader of the Rot Brigade now laid on the ground trembling, staring at them with pleading eyes.

Sortilege stared at the pathetic looking creature she had previously been so terrified of. Now she felt nothing but pity for the ghoul.

The trio lowered their heads, contemplating. As they thought over their actions, Sortilege wondered if maybe, just maybe, there was some semblance of good still left in them.

"Please." She said. "I know you want to do the right thing.”

After a moment of silence Sugar finally spoke. She raised her bat high in the air with her magic.

"Lets beat him with bats!" She repeated.

"Woo!" Skitz and Scar called out in unison once again.

Sortilege could only watch in helpless horror as the trio viciously beat the ghoul to a bloody pulp.

She watched the scene before her as though it was a train wreck - horrifying but still finding herself compelled to watch for as long as she could endure. Sortilege finally looked away from the crazed ponies taking the life of another right before her eyes.

She began to lose any hope of making it out of this ordeal alive.