“Well I got most of it right, anyway. Stuff that mattered.”

Broken.

The life I established for myself in Appleloosa was broken. My friendship with Apple Core was broken. My horn was broken.

I was broken.

Watcher had said that he had hoped finding my virtue would prevent me from “giving in to the Wasteland”. That he didn’t want to see another pony break. He said so before the overly dramatic reveal that I supposed was meant to mortify me.

Presumptuous.

I knew I was broken.

I’ve been broken ever since I was six years old.

~ ~ ~

Wait, what happened? And where was I?

When I opened my eyes I found myself lying on my back and within utter darkness. Turning my head around in search of any light - or just anything barely visible, really - didn’t help.

What happened? I once again thought, rolling to my side so I could get up… and discovered I couldn’t.

There was a wall right beside me.

No.

I turned around, bringing my hooves under me. My throat tightened as I felt my head bump against another wall, but it paled in comparison to the dread that overtook me as my back hit another wall.

“NO!” I yelled, shoving my back violently into it, trying to break free. “Let me out!”

I thrashed, punched and bucked against my prison, throwing my body from left to right with as much momentum as I could muster within this limited space, trying to break free. When nothing seemed to do anything, I once again turned to prop my back against the wall, grinding my teeth as I pushed as hard as I could, putting all of my strength into-

CRACK!

With a yelp, I fell backwards, turning around in the air and landing face first into something very cold and wet. The instant chill shook me to the core, suppressing any happiness I should feel about being finally free.

What is going on? I wondered, rising up on my forelegs and shaking my wet and cold muzzle. Trembling from the cold, I looked at the ground to see what I’d landed on. My eyes widened in surprise. Snow?

It was snowing. And there was snow everywhere. Anywhere I looked I saw snow covering everything.

That being said though, there wasn’t much I could see. It was too dark to make out my surroundings. I could see the snow-covered ground for several yards around me, but aside from that I might as well have been surrounded by a dark void. That snowstorm that seemed to pick up around me wasn’t helping.

A gust of wind picked up, making me feel even colder. Trembling, I sat on my haunches and huddled myself with my forelegs. I looked around, trying to make out anything. Maybe if I could locate the-

Shunk!

Crippling pain exploded in my chest. Abandoning any thoughts I had a split-second ago, I looked down in disbelief…

… at the blade protruding from my heart.

Blood was dripping down my chest, marring the snow beneath me. Every breath sent a surge of suffering through me. I could feel blood in my mouth, spilling past my lips.

Shaken, I turned my head, not understanding what was happening, to see a dark shadow standing behind me, their eyes staring back.

I lost my breath.

My head was grabbed and shoved down, into the pool of my own blood. Within, I saw reflected…

Darkness.

~ ~ ~

I groaned as I became conscious of my surroundings. Not from pain, no, of that I was free. Quite the opposite, I was very comfortable (aside from the unpleasant feeling in my stomach and surprisingly dry throat; how long has it been since I’ve eaten and drank?). The bed was warm and clean, it smelled better than my own in...

Appleloosa!

The events from before I passed out came rushing to my mind and I opened my eyes. Disoriented, I rose up from the bed - realizing while doing so that somepony had removed my clothing, leaving me with only my PipBuck and some kind of loose necklace around my neck - and looked around the room I found myself in. Just like the bed, it was in far better condition than my little home in the slaver town. The wallpaper showed small cracks here and there, but it was clean and the few pieces of furniture inside looked as if they were brand new. It was big enough to have another bed inside, a table, and two doors, one of them open and, from what I could see, leading to a lavatory.

My gaze stopped beside the other bed. Around it were some bags and other stuff that I recognized belonged to Jack and Aite. Relief washed over me. At the very least my allies and fellow conspirators hadn’t abandoned me, even if they were currently away.

Or should I have said ‘former fellow conspirators’? I mused. Idly, my hoof reached to my neck so I could examine whatever was hanging around it. I feel that would be more accurate-

I stopped my train of thought when I realized what was among my companions' things, specifically.

Aite’s Invisibility Cloak.

“About the only time I saw her without that cloak was when we were having sex”, Jack’s words echoed in my head. This was concerning. Why would she leave it here? Assuming they weren’t making love in the bathroom- no, the door was ajar, I would be able to hear them. And my E.F.S. wasn’t showing any bars nearby, anyway. Was she forced to leave it here for some reason? And where was ‘here’, exactly?

The answer to that came quickly when I finally looked at what was around my neck.

It was the same talisman as the one Deliverance had brought to Appleloosa.

I guess this must mean this is Sanctuary… and that we’re currently guests of this tribe. I hope, I amended, with a glance at Aite’s cloak. Any excitement I should have felt at the prospect of being at the same place where the ancestors of every Stable Eight citizen had stayed was obscured by worry. What happened after I lost consciousness? The last thing I can recall was Jack holding me...

I trailed off, frowning. Something didn’t feel right, usually when I would dwell into such musings, by now the other two would have- the statuettes!

Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? I called out, turning my head around, hoping the two apparitions would appear, but they didn’t. I glanced at the night table next to the bed I was in, which had my lab coat folded neatly on top of it and the duffle bag Aite had packed for me beside it (and a bottle of water). So close… if their statuettes are inside, I should be able to hear and see them.

I bit my lip. Aite had flown back to Appleloosa, she was supposed to find the statuettes. Did she… put them in her own bags, or…

Wanting to make sure, I reached with my magic to my bags-

Oh.

The second I tried - and failed - to cast a spell, I remembered what had happened the moment before I passed out. The sight of my own horn lying on the ground beside me, and the splitting headache I had experienced.

At least the pain is gone, I noted, raising my forehoof to the side of my head. Slowly and carefully reaching towards my horn to examine the damage, I thought: Now, how should I go about restoring it? Ugh, the irony that I could heal another unicorn’s horn with little-

I paused, stunned. As my hoof reached the base of my horn, I felt no fractures. In fact, as I moved my hoof up, I seemed as if… my horn wasn’t broken.

That’s… alright, wow, I thought, in my relief uttering a short, happy laugh. I assume this means the tribe must have a skilled unicorn with medical training. No, wait, since this is the Sanctuary-

BANG!

What the- Startled, I looked towards the window, where the sudden sound came from. Frowning, I rose on my forelegs and dropped down from my bed and stumbled. A wave of nausea and weakness washed over me, and the unpleasant feeling in my stomach had reminded me of itself. I must have been lying in that bed for quite a while, possibly a day or two. Shaking myself off as I regained my balance, I ignored the unpleasant sensation and trotted towards the window.

I was met with a great view of the surrounding landscape meeting the cloud cover. Directly in front of me, though, a few stories below, was a big square between two wings of the building I was in. On the left side of the inner yard there was a crescent-shaped hole, while everywhere else the square was marked by stumps of long dead trees. Around it, though, I could see ponies milling about; most of them appeared to be working on patching up and repairing parts of the building surrounding them.

However, I didn’t get a very good look at them, as my attention was quickly drawn to the young colt that was clinging to the window sill.

“Oh my goodness!” I yelled in surprise as I reached with my magic to the window’s lock, and then when nothing happened groaned impatiently and quickly unlocked it with my mouth instead.

Opening the window, I leaned through it and grabbed the colt with my forelegs and pulled him into the room. Or, more specifically, pulled him upwards enough for him to get a better grip and then helped him pull himself into the room.

With my heart pounding loudly in my ears due to my fright, I needed to take a few calming breaths now that the colt was safe before speaking to him. Looking at him, I noticed that he was a young earth pony, his coat light brown and dotted with white spots all over, especially his barrel that appeared to be completely white. I also spotted a cutie mark on his flanks: two horseshoes entwined, forming an outline of a heart, as well as a talisman hanging from his neck, identical to mine.

I also noted that, despite the danger he had been in, he appeared more annoyed than frightened.

“What were you doing out there?” I finally asked the young colt. Taking a quick glance outside, I added “Why were you hanging out of the window on the third floor?”

The colt sighed. “Because my brother is a jerk.”

“Bitch.”

Surprised, I looked back towards the window. Another colt was hanging upside down on the other side, deadpanning at the one inside (despite the talisman hanging down from his neck between his eyes).

I stared at the colt for a moment, too surprised by the bizarre intrusion to address the fact that he was on the other side of the window. “Beg your pardon, sweetie?” I finally asked.

“Oh, not you,” the colt replied, rolling his eyes, “him. Sorry for the confusion.”

Frowning, I was about to retort, but then the colt let go of the window sill and fell down… and immediately turned around his axis mid-air, thanks to the pair of wings sprouting from his back. Surprised, I watched as he floated down to stand beside the other colt, his brother, apparently. Like him, he had a light brown coat dappled with white spots, though unlike him he didn’t have a white colored barrel, but instead the back of his neck, and he had a white blaze on his muzzle. His mane was likewise white, unlike the other whose mane matched the brown half of his coat.

Another difference between the two, aside from one being a pegasus and the other being an earth pony of course, was that despite the former appearing a few years older, he still didn’t have a cutie mark.

“Why are you calling me ‘bitch’?” the younger colt asked with annoyance. “You dropped me!”

“Only because you had that spasm,” the pegasus replied, also annoyed. “Besides, I would have caught you before you hit the ground.”

“Oh, what a relief,” the earth pony snorted in reply. “And it wasn’t a ‘spasm’, jerk, just-”

“Excuse me!” I finally interrupted them, stomping. Having gained their attention, I cleared my throat, or rather tried to. My attempt turned into a fit of coughing. You’d think that as a medical doctor I would know better than to yell a few times when my throat was incredibly dry due to thirst.

“Are you alright?” the pegasus asked, with the earth pony looking at me with concern.

I nodded and waved my hoof reassuringly, then took a step towards the night table beside my bed, grabbed the bottle of water with my forehooves and then awkwardly twisted off the top before taking a few big gulps of the precious liquid.

I should probably get used to drinking and eating in this manner, I mused as I took a pause to breathe before drinking some more. Ugh, the thought of what my old fellow Stable Dwellers would think… they would all call me uncouth!

Finally satisfied and feeling much better, I put the now half-empty bottle back on the night table. “Forgive me, sweeties, I’m afraid I was a little more thirsty than I thought. Now, I have a couple of questions, but first and foremost;” I paused to turn to the pegasus, “did I hear correctly that you lifted your younger brother three floors up into the air?”

The colt’s eyes widened in surprise. “Um,” he began, seemingly taken aback, “yeah, but he would have been fine-”

“Young colt, may I remind you that you dropped him?” I told him sternly.

“Thank you!” the younger brother exclaimed happily.

“That was a very irresponsible thing to do, sweetie. Your brother could have gotten hurt.”

“Again, I would have caught him,” the pegasus colt replied, exasperated. “I didn’t only because he made a noise when he grabbed your window sill, and I hid so you wouldn’t notice that we were spying on you.”

“Spy-” I repeated automatically, stopping mid-word. Frowning, I instead said “I suppose that answers the question I was going to ask next…”

“Smooth,” the younger colt said, deadpanning at his brother.

“Why exactly were you spying on me?” I asked, confused.

The older brother opened his mouth, but the other colt cut in. “Um, our friend-”

“Celerity,” the pegasus cut in.

“Yeah, her, she told us how you freaked out when they put you into the auto-doc and you had to be sedated-”

“I’m sorry, sweetie, hold on a moment,” I interrupted him. “What do you mean by ‘freaked out’?”

“Well, we weren’t there,” the older colt inserted, “we just saw that griffin bring you here all covered in blood. But Celerity was helping out in the clinic and she told us. Apparently you started to thrash about inside the auto-doc and were screaming to be let out.”

“I… I did?” I asked, surprised. “I don’t remember it at all…”

“Celerity said that the auto-doc almost immediately sedated you, something about its safety protocols or whatever,” the younger colt added. Tilting his head, he asked sympathetically. “Are you claustrophobic?”

“No… at least I didn’t think so. Until recently I lived my whole life inside a Stable,” I added thoughtfully, briefly lifting the leg with my PipBuck, “so I would assume I’m not. But then again, there’s a difference between a Stable’s corridors and a very tight space like I imagine an auto-doc must be, and I don’t usually find myself in such places…”

I trailed off, wondering what caused me to have such a reaction… and recalled the beginning of my dream. The fear I felt back when I realized I was imprisoned in a very tight confinement now made me shake. Was I… dreaming that when I was inside the auto-doc? My mind could have conjured that dream based on the stimuli my senses were receiving. Had I started to ‘thrash about’ while still unconscious? I supposed it was possible; I could still recall my dream but not exactly how long it lasted or how long ago it had ended… especially the longer I was awake, the details were already escaping me.

Besides, I still don’t even know how long I was asleep, I mused, turning my attention back to the colts.

The younger one was still looking at me with concern, bless his little heart, and took a step towards me. I smiled reassuringly.

“Oh but nevermind that. I am far more interested in learning what that has to do with you two spying on me,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

As I expected, my question bemused them and caused them to stop worrying about me. “W-well, we wanted to check if you were still sleeping. Sorry Miss, we-”

I giggled. “Relax, sweetie, I was just teasing you,” I said, winking. “I can only imagine the sight of an unknown pony all… how did you phrase it, sweetie, ‘all covered in blood’? I can only imagine how such a sight would have piqued your interest, and I am not yet quite old enough to forget how curious ponies your age can be. In fact, a friend of mine would have done exactly the same thing as you did… well, when he was younger, anyways,” I amended nostalgically. Noticing the younger pony’s frown, I decided to change the topic. “Goodness me! Forgive me, sweeties, it would seem I have completely forgotten my manners. Allow me to correct that and introduce myself properly,” I told the taken aback colts, pressing a hoof to my chest. “I’m Doctor Angel, though you may call me just Angel, sweeties.”

“Um, yeah, Miss Aite told us your name,” the younger colt explained.

“She also told us that you love the sound of your voice,” the older one cut in, snorting with amusement. “Which, wow.”

“Anyway,” the earth pony added with a glance at his brother, “it’s nice to meet you! I’m Steady Pace, and that’s my brother Free Breeze. We’re from the Mustang Tribe.”

… I’m sorry, what?

“The Mu- The pleasure is all mine, Steady Pace and Free Breeze,” I replied a bit hastily, finishing exchanging pleasantries. “Forgive me, sweetie, but did you say ‘Mustang Tribe’? As in, the ancient tribe of earth ponies from Mustangia that had been integrated into Equestria in-”

“Well we’re obviously not the same Mustangs,” Free Breeze exclaimed, rolling his eyes very slowly. “But when our tribe was formed-”

CREAK!

All three of us turned towards the opening door. My lips twisted into a smile as I saw Jack enter, with his talons on the knob, and right behind him Aite-

I shivered.

What in the- I thought as a sudden uneasiness overtook me. I brushed it off, looking at the bat pony again. For a moment, I could have sworn-

My thoughts halted abruptly as I realized that Aite’s wing was bandaged.

“Oh hey, you’re awake!” the bat pony meanwhile greeted me. She passed by Jack - who for whatever reason sighed while looking at the two colts - and trotted towards me. “How do you feel?”

“Brilliant Luna, forget about me darling, what happened to you?” I retorted, immediately leaning to her side and gently touching her wing to examine it.

It wasn’t just bandaged, whoever had treated her had also constricted her wing and tied the bandage around her body so she wouldn’t move it. Just as I had assumed after my physical examination of Ditzy a sling for a wing should look like. Is it broken? I wondered as Aite shivered, despite how lightly I touched her.

“You remember those-” Aite began, but Jack interrupted her.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked, looking at the colts - Free Breeze specifically - sternly.

The young pegasus gave as good as he got. “Funny, last time I checked, this was our home you were staying in.”

Jack groaned and pressed his talons against his eyes. “Yeah, sure. Now beat it.”

“Why, don’t wanna talk in front of us? Keeping some secrets?”

“No, I just don’t like you,” Jack retorted, deadpanning. He then pointed with a talon at me. “And I find her annoying. It’s too early for me to deal with both of you, when I haven’t even eaten yet,” he added, lifting a bag he had brought to the room… which smelled quite delicious. A sharp pain in my stomach reminded me how hungry I was. I hoped I wasn’t drooling. “So I would rather have breakfast in relative peace.”

Free Breeze rolled his eyes. “Geez, drama queen.”

Beside me Aite giggled, then leaned to my ear. “Free Breeze hit Jack from behind when he was about to land in Sanctuary the first time, made him crash into the ground,” she whispered.

“You’re standing right next to me, I can hear you,” Jack said in a flat tone (ignoring Free Breeze, who began to chuckle). “What’s the point of whispering?”

“I wanted to give Cray-cray some context without interrupting your interesting exchange.”

“How considerate,” the griffin retorted, sighing.

Steady Pace nudged his brother as he finished laughing (“Ah, good times.”). “Sorry, Mister Jack, we’ll be leaving.”

“We will?” Free Breeze questioned, raising an eyebrow, but when his brother gave him a stern look he rolled his eyes. “Whatever, we were supposed to have a training session anyway.”

A part of me wanted to object to them leaving, as I had a lot more questions for those two... Mustangs, apparently. And it was rather rude to tell them to leave like that. However, I could tell that there was some reason behind Jack’s request other than just being annoyed by Free Breeze.

Probably.

“I hope we’ll see each other again soon,” I told the two colts. Smiling, I added “Thank you for your visit.”

“Oh, no problem,” Free Breeze replied. “It was fun talking with you. Come on, Pace,” he told his brother, flapping his wings to hover in the air… then turned to Jack. “Remember, I’m watching you.”

Jack sighed. “I’m quivering in fear. Let your father know we’ll go see him sometime after breakfast,” he told the two as they headed for the door.

“We will, Mister Jack,” Steady Pace said, waving, as they left.

I waved back, but a thought occurred to me and I trotted up to the door. “And don’t lift your brother so high up again!” I called after them, as they ran through the long corridor outside (with a very rugged carpet).

“Oh for the love of-” I heard Free Breeze exclaim before Jack closed the door.

“They came in through the window?” he asked, frowning.

I was about to answer his question… until I remembered that he hadn’t even said hello to me.

“Why, hello to you too, sweetie,” I told him in an even voice. “Yes, I feel fine, thank you for asking.”

“By the Egg…” Jack half-groaned, half-growled, and turned around.

Aite giggled again. “Aw, give him a break, Cray-cray,” she said as Jack walked over to the table and placed the bag with food on it. “You should have seen how worried he was after you passed out.”

“Really?” I exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.

Jack let out another groan. “Aite…”

“And how he cradled you to his chest when he flew away towards Sanctuary,” the bat pony continued, grinning at him.

Jack deadpanned at her. “Are you done?” he asked after a few seconds of silence. When Aite shrugged, he turned to me. “I hadn’t asked if you’re okay because the Mustangs put you into an auto-doc and it healed you completely, so by definition you should be okay.”

“To be fair, auto-docs don’t usually leave you in a coma for two days,” Aite argued.

I perked my ears. “Two days?”

“One and a half, actually,” she amended. “It was evening when Jack got you here, you slept through the next day, and now it’s morning.”

“It’s her own fault for freaking out inside the auto-doc, its safety protocols automatically sedate violent patients…”

“Yes, those two colts told me about it,” I interrupted Jack, frowning after hearing again how I ‘freaked out’. “I don’t have any recollection of that…”

I trailed off, thinking back to my dream. Though technically it was a recollection in a way, I saw no reason to mention it.

“It’s no wonder I feel so peckish then,” I said instead, giving the bag on the table a longing glance.

“Luckily for you we took food for three in case you’d woken up today. If you hadn’t we would have had to have their medic hook some IV to you or feed you through a tube… Anyway, eat up, we can talk after breakfast,” Jack said, waving his talons at the table invitingly.

As tempting as that was, I couldn’t just sit down and eat right now. “No, wait a moment sweetie,” I told him, then turned to Aite. “What happened to your wing?”

The bat pony sighed. “After we parted at the tunnel's exit, I got back to you just in time to see you getting attacked by those slavers. I was too far away though when they were about to shoot you again, so I took off my hood and called out to them to distract them. One of those assholes got extremely lucky and shot me right through the bone.”

“Oh my…” I exclaimed, knowing how painful that must have been. “I am so sorry you were wounded so badly because of me.”

Aite waved her hoof nonchalantly, but Jack cut in, “You should be, you were supposed to wait for her inside the tunnel.”

I felt my ears drop as I glanced at the griffin, knowing he was right. If I hadn't left the tunnel, Watcher’s sprite-bot wouldn’t have found me and- Or would it? I recalled thinking how strange it was that Watcher found me after learning that my clinic blew up…

… and about my experiments…

I shook my head, not wanting to think about Watcher right now. I had more immediate problems to deal with.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized to Aite again. “Jack’s right, I-”

“Yeah, you spend as much time as me around him and you will hate it whenever he’s right, trust me,” the bat pony interrupted me, snorting in amusement. Pointing at her bandaged wing, she added “Don’t worry about it, shit happens. That being said, I wouldn’t mind if you’d magic it all better.”

“Uhm, that will be problematic, I’m afraid,” I started, now feeling even worse. I raised my forehoof to my horn and rubbed it gently. “My horn might be healed, but it will take some time for me to be able to cast any spells. It would depend on the extent of damage my nerves have suffered… If I could access the auto-doc’s record of my treatment, I should be... able to... deduce…” I trailed off, realizing that somehow Aite hadn’t used the obvious solution to her problem. “Darling, how come you haven’t used the auto-doc to heal your wing?”

“Oh, you are going to love this one,” Aite snorted. “I went up to it, got inside, had the Mustangs turn on the machine… and it turned out that it didn’t have a ‘bat pony’ setting!”

“What?!” I yelled out in shock. “But… this place was supposed to be for all ponies! How could an auto-doc not be calibrated to treat bat ponies?!”

“My best guess is that my ancestors didn’t get out much,” Aite explained, sighing. “You yourself didn’t know whether bat ponies were real or not, didn’t you?”

I supposed that was true… still, I couldn’t believe that the sanatorium resort built for all ponies could make such a, a… blunder! Maybe those Mustangs who were operating it couldn’t use it properly?

“I hadn’t seen an actual auto-doc outside of Stable Eight textbooks, much less operated one,” I mused slowly, “but perhaps I will be able to do something about it. Maybe if I used its medical scan to record your anatomy…”

“The Mustangs were surprisingly gracious hosts,” Jack spoke up, “but I don’t think they will be very eager to let a stranger fiddle with their only means of magical healing.”

“They don’t have any medically trained unicorns?” I asked, a little surprised.

“No, their medic is an earth pony. Some of their unicorns can possibly do a Healing Spell, but probably nothing beyond first aid stuff,” the griffin explained with a shrug. “Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t try to upset the Mustangs.”

“It’s not my intention, sweetie,” I retorted, a little annoyed. “I would of course ask for their permission before attempting to modify the auto-doc’s programming. Don’t you think Aite should have her wings be healed as soon as possible, especially considering how heroically she came to my and Pinchy’s-”

PINCHY!

“What happened to Pinchy?!” I exclaimed, turning to Aite. How could I forget about Pinchy?! Merciful Celestia, I wake up after almost two days and it’s one thing after another… “Is it somewhere outside?”

When Aite didn’t reply immediately, I closed my eyes and concentrated. I reached out as I did before, assuming that would be the fastest way to make sure the radscorpion was alright. I could still remember how easy it was to “slip into” Pinchy’s mind-

Nothing.

I opened my eyes, confused. There was no response from Pinchy’s mind. Why couldn’t I sense it? Was… was it because I couldn’t use magic now? I didn’t have to use any spell to contact Pinchy, but maybe-

“Um, Angel?” Aite interrupted my train of thought. Turning to her, I realized she was looking at me with concern. “Sorry, but Pinchy’s dead.”

...

“W-what?” I stammered, staring at her. “N-no, that’s…”

“I’m sorry, that slaver that shot you killed it,” Aite explained gently. “I couldn’t help it, after I got shot two of those assholes piled up on me.”

I listened to her explanation, trying to wrap my head around it. Pinchy was dead. I… I could still remember how it felt when I was in its body, how alive it felt. And I also could recall what I sensed from its mind, the stress of its situation, the pain, the fear for its life. How, after I freed Pinchy, it agreed to help me once it understood that I wasn’t a threat. Despite how different the radscorpion was from a pony, it was a living being capable of experiencing emotions, however basic they might have been, and determined to continue living.

And now it was dead, because of me.

Behind me I heard Jack sigh. “If you are done with that stupid exchange-”

Turning around, I charged my horn to blast the griffin with Lightning Strike Spell… only for nothing to happen, not even a single spark appearing. No pressure built up in my horn.

Still, my glare was enough for the mercenary to stop talking.

“You are fortunate that I am unable to cast any spells right now, sweetie,” I told him coldly. “Otherwise I would have fried you just now.”

“She’d do it, I’ve seen her,” I heard Aite add from behind me.

Jack glanced at her briefly before turning his attention back to me. “You do realize you’re talking about a radscorpion that tried to kill both of us before you mind controlled it, right?”

“That ‘radscorpion’ was a living being!” I snarled. “And I wasn’t controlling it, Pinchy helped me out of its own free will! And it tried to save me!”

Finally, Jack raised his forelegs in a gesture of capitulation. “Alright, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I said. And I’m sorry it- Pinchy is dead. However, we do have important matters to discuss, so if you could sit down to listen I would really appreciate it.”

While that was not nearly good enough of an apology considering what he had said, the fact that Jack had surrendered the argument and apologised in the first place was enough to calm me down. Or, well, calm me down enough to want to listen to what he had to say.

After I asked Aite one more thing.

“In a moment, sweetie,” I told him, turning once again to the bat pony. “There is one more thing I have to ask of you, darling. What happened to my statuettes?”

“Ah crap, I was hoping you’d ask about that later,” Aite muttered, much to my terror. “I mean seriously, you wake up after two days and the first thing you do is go through your stuff?”

“Aite…” I began but couldn’t finish the question, dreading the answer.

But I got it anyway.

“I couldn’t find them,” Aite said, her forehooves raised defensively. “They weren’t where they dropped, one of those assholes must have picked them up. I was about to look for them but I overheard the slavers talking about a patrol looking for Khan. I was afraid they might stumble upon you - and I was right - so I hurried back. Then I got shot and was grounded, so I couldn’t sneak back to Appleloosa.”

I sat down, overwhelmed. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were still in Appleloosa… I promised them I would get them back. Luna cast me down, if only I hadn’t wasted time to hit Whip Crack with a Lightning Strike Spell…

“Hey, cheer up,” I heard Aite say before she put a hoof on my shoulder. When I looked at her she had paused to give a silencing stare to Jack; I could only imagine what kind of face he was making behind me. “Once my wing is better I’ll fly over there and find them for you, okay Cray-cray?”

When I looked at her I was pleasantly surprised to see that she seemed genuine. Relieved, I nodded slowly. What other choice did I have, though, than to rely on Aite’s help? If I went back myself, I would be found out almost immediately. Aite could go in and out of Appleloosa without anypony noticing.

“Thank you,” I told her, squeezing the hoof on my shoulder and smiling. “Though it means that I will be even more insistent that those Mustangs allow me to reprogram their auto-doc.”

“I pity the Mustangs who would need to be convinced by you,” Aite said with a laugh, then patted my shoulder. “Now come on, let's sit down before Jack has an aneurysm.”

While I knew that the probability of suffering an aneurysm out of sheer annoyance was very unlikely, I did find the joke amusing. Jack not so much, judging by the expression his face bore when I turned to him. His head was propped on his forepaw and he was banging the table with the talons of his other paw while he stared silently at us. Trotting over to him, I noticed Aite poked her tongue at him as we sat down.

Sighing, the griffin began, “Now-”

Grumble!

I blushed in embarrassment at the noise my stomach had made (and winced at the unpleasant cramp). Jack once again sighed and covered his eyes with his talons.

“Eat first after all, then,” he said, picking up the bag he’d brought and reaching into it. “We can fill you in after breakfast.”

Well I would have been lying if I’d said I wasn’t in dire need of sustenance. Although the scents coming from the bag had already told me that whatever they had brought would be delicious, I would have gladly eaten whatever food it was right now. I needed to get my strength back in order to… do whatever it was we were going to do now that I’d lost my laboratory, home, and source of income, and our primary lead to finding out about the organization Scope belonged to.

Actually, I wouldn’t have minded learning what we were going to do now before eating- I began to think, only to stop when I saw what was in Jack’s talons.

“Are those carrots?” I asked, bewildered.

They had to be, as unbelievable as it seemed. Long orange roots with green stems and leaves. But what was even more shocking was that they seemed fresh.

“Yeah, apparently this sanatorium wanted to serve their guests food as fresh as possible, so they built a magical hydroponic - or whatever - farm underground,” Jack explained, pulling out more carrots and a salad next. “Enough of that still works for the Mustangs to be self-sustaining.”

Color me impressed… normal food, no pre-war cans or meat of mutated… animals…

A wave of guilt washed over me as this train of thought made me think of Pinchy. What happened to its body? I somehow doubted that Jack or even Aite would have entertained the idea of burying it. Was it eaten by some other Wasteland critter by now? Or had the slavers found it and eaten it? What would I have fed the radscorpion if it was with us?

That question was answered rather quickly when I saw what Jack pulled next.

“The Mustangs captured a lot of radhogs after they moved in here and are trying to domesticate them,” he explained, noticing my curious gaze, as he placed the bacon before himself. “Had to pay them extra to get some bacon but considering everything has gone to shit recently I decided to treat myself before I start thinking about shooting myself.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Aite sighed, pulling her food closer and starting to eat.

“Between the two of you almost dying and our best lead escaping I think ‘gone to shit’ is an apt description,” Jack retorted, snorting, as he bit into his breakfast.

I followed their example, although being reminded of Pinchy soured my appetite. I was still hungry, obviously, as I hadn’t eaten in two days, but I couldn’t enjoy the food knowing the poor creature was dead because of me. I never even got a chance to learn how it got into this part of the Wasteland, maybe I would have been able to experience its memories? But now it was gone…

The absence of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie also hurt. I had gotten so used to their presence, to hearing their voices in my head, seeing their apparitions… even when they wouldn’t speak to me directly or even show themselves to me, I knew they were with me, always within reach if I wished to talk. Thanks to them… I wasn’t alone with my thoughts. I didn’t have to constantly think of new experiments, spells, projects, plans, possibilities to distract myself from-

“So,” I spoke up, noticing that Jack had just swallowed a piece of bacon, “what is it that you wanted to talk about, sweetie?”

The griffin took a gulp from a water bottle before answering, “We wanted to fill you in on what you’ve missed out on, then discuss what we’ll do next.”

“What I’ve ‘missed’?” I repeated. “I have already been informed about a lot of things by both of you and those two colts.”

“Perhaps, but probably not about everything, so to avoid your future annoying questions, I would like to go over everything from the beginning.” Ignoring the stare I shot at him, he pulled out another piece of bacon and ate it quickly, then wiped his talons with a napkin. “So, two days ago, after that weird morning, I flew towards Supernatural Mountain, hoping that thanks to the talisman the Proditor had brought I would be able to find Sanctuary and the tribe that hid there. Obviously, it worked. I saw a huge pre-war complex on top of a flat mountain top.”

“I believe it’s called a ‘mesa’, sweetie,” I couldn’t help but chime in.

Jack sighed and covered his face in his talons. “Yeah, I know,” he said after a second, removing the talons. “Anyway, I started to fly in circles above them, slowly descending, so they’d know that I wasn’t going to attack them. But as Aite had so kindly informed you, that kid snuck up on me and made me crash.”

The bat pony chuckled again. “Damn I wish I could have seen that! Remind me again, how did a colt manage to snuck up on a seasoned mercenary?” she asked in a mocking tone.

Jack glared at her before growling in reply, “I didn’t expect that they would have a pegasus among them, let alone two, so I wasn’t looking up. After I was forced to land,” he continued as he turned to me, pointedly ignoring the giggling bat pony, “I found myself surrounded by ponies pointing guns at me. Naturally, they had seen me flying around the area and heading to and from the direction of Appleloosa, so as you can imagine they weren’t pleased that I found them. I can’t help but wonder if their surprise that I was able to do so is what saved me from being outright killed…

“Anyway, we talked, and I was able to convince them that while I was employed by the slavers to find them, I only took the job to get some information out of their leader. I also mentioned that I was working with a pony who hoped to destroy the slaver’s operations, which got their interest. They allowed me to leave and get in contact with you two so we could try that if that was still possible, and if not they would still benefit from Black Widow being removed. The Mustangs also gave me two more talismans so I could bring you here afterwards… or in case things went south.”

“And so he flew back,” Aite cut in, “just in time to see things go south.”

“More like riding on a train south,” Jack added, causing Aite to roll her eyes. “Noticing the smoke after the explosion of your clinic when I was still far away I headed to the tunnel exit first, and got close enough just in time to see you being attacked by those slavers.”

It was easy to figure out what happened next. Smiling, I said “So then you came heroically to our rescue, for which I have yet to thank you.”

“Nope,” Aite chimed in, much to my confusion. Jack, appearing slightly annoyed, didn’t interrupt her. “I mean, he probably would have, but Deliverance beat him to it by about half a minute.”

“Deliverance?!” I repeated, stunned. “Wha- he was there?!”

“Yep. That red zebra snuck up on the slavers when they were busy holding us down and killed them all. After Jack arrived we decided that he would fly you to Sanctuary while Deliverance helped me patch up my wing as best as it was possible, we hid the bodies in the tunnel, and then we both hurried after you.”

Now that was surprising. Due to everything happening so fast after we’d been knocked out by Khan, I hadn’t given much thought about Deliverance. Apparently he had left Appleloosa sometime after the other zebra’s rampage, and then had come to our rescue. I wondered briefly why he had left - was it just fear of what the already morally corrupt ponies would think of a zebra after another zebra had brutally killed so many of them? Or had he followed after Khan, or Black Widow… or me, maybe - but I was far more surprised about him defeating six slavers by himself. In a matter of seconds, apparently, too.

“How did he do that?” I asked Aite, curious.

To my surprise - and disappointment - the bat pony shrugged. “Dunno, one of those assholes was practically sitting on my head, I couldn’t see anything. Plus I got punched in the head earlier, so my ears were ringing too. I also don’t know where exactly he came from, I’m sure I would have noticed a red effeminate zebra prowling around when I raced to help you. Deliverance has been a real cryptic asshole about both matters. All I know is that the slavers holding me suddenly dropped dead, and when I got up I saw that all the others were dead too, and that the red zebra was standing among them.”

“I don’t suppose you remember anything?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

My brow furrowed as I thought back… then stopped and shook my head as the events from before I lost my consciousness flashed before my eyes. “I’m afraid I don’t recall much, let alone regarding what happened to those slavers. After my horn was broken, I was in shock and my mind kept, shall we say, switching between my own body and Pinchy’s, which caused my memories to be further disoriented.”

Jack scowled a little at that brief description, but he shook his head and sighed. “Don’t worry about it, I didn’t expect you to know anything anyway.”

Despite his words, he still seemed displeased. At first I thought he was just disappointed that I couldn’t offer any new information, but after a few seconds, when he looked away towards the window and scratched his beak, I realized he was… concerned.

“Why did you ask?”

“Because I have no clue what exactly he did,” Jack retorted. “The wounds on those slavers… looked weird. I was too concerned about you two to-”

“You were concerned about me?” I interrupted him, pleasantly surprised.

Jack let out a groan, causing Aite to giggle. “Please focus Doctor,” the griffin replied. Ignoring my question, he continued, “I didn’t examine them thoroughly, but their wounds… they weren’t bullet wounds. No burned flesh and no disintegration, so no magical energy weapons. All were open so it was unlikely he had used his bare hooves. My best guess is that he used a melee weapon of some kind, but the wounds seemed too irregular for a blade and a blunt weapon would have to hit them really hard to leave such marks, and he doesn’t look like he would have enough strength for that. And that’s besides the fact that he doesn’t seem to be carrying any weapons in the first place, or that he must have taken out all six of the slavers in a very short time for Aite to not see what was happening.”

That piqued my interest. “How curious… I don’t suppose you could bring me to their remains?”

While the thought of returning to the general area of Appleloosa was loathsome to me, and that specific place in particular made me uncomfortable, after hearing Jack’s explanation I grew even more curious about Deliverance. I was positive that between my knowledge of a pony’s body and Jack’s… knowledge of killing methods we would be able to deduce how he had killed those slavers.

And more importantly, I thought, I could maybe convince Jack to search for the statuettes. We would be so close to the town… maybe Aite could lend him her cloak?

“There’s no point,” Jack replied, killing my hopes and plans in their infancy. Stunned and confused, I continued to listen. “After Aite and the Proditor arrived and I made sure you two would be safe in this room, I flew back to examine the bodies and hide them better, or preferably destroy them. The whole point of blowing up your clinic was to make the slavers think you were dead, and even the idiots left in that town would become suspicious if they found those corpses and your pet radscorpion.”

“So what did you find?” I asked, not understanding why he still didn’t know how Deliverance had killed them if he had gone back to check the bodies more thoroughly.

“Nothing, they were gone.”

… Well, that explained why, I supposed…

“What do you mean ‘gone’?” I asked, my mind buzzing with questions and speculations. One thought came to the forefront and I voiced it, “Did the slavers find them and drag them back to Appleloosa?”

“No, there weren’t any tracks leading towards the town,” Jack replied, shrugging. “Dragging all those bodies would leave very visible marks, even in the dark. But to make sure I snuck into the town and spied on the slavers. I overheard a few wondering what happened to that party, so they had no idea what became of their buddies.”

“What happened then?” I looked from Jack to Aite and back. “Some wild animal ate them?”

“That’s my best guest,” the bat pony said, leaning her head on her forehoof. “But the soldier boy over there isn’t convinced.”

“Do you know how many wild animals I have seen since we came to this part of the Wasteland?” Jack retorted. “I could probably count them with my talons alone. The Mustangs hunted a lot of them down before they settled in Sanctuary, and the rest had run away. Regardless, this animal - or animals - would have to eat six adult ponies and a radscorpion within, what, three hours? Ponies that we have no idea of how they died, if I may remind you.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, I was with the guy the whole time, there’s no way he could have somehow moved all those bodies,” Aite countered, sounding annoyed; I had the feeling that this wasn’t the first time they were having this argument.

“If you had lived in Zebrinica and seen half the shit the zebras there can do, you would have a much wider imagination.”

“Bitch please, in Hoofington we eat weird shit for breakfast.”

“More like snort it.”

“Excuse me!” I raised my voice as Aite was about to retort. Both turned to look at me, frowning at the interruption. “While this exchange is… quite charming, the disappearance of those remains is more dire than you might have realized.” Turning to address Jack, who had raised his eyebrow invitingly for the explanation, I said “Within Pinchy’s cephalothorax was the Mind Control Talisman that Black Widow had used to control Khan.”

But Jack waved his paw, sighing. “Yeah, I know, Aite told me. I was going to retrieve it when I set out, as obviously I didn’t want something like that to fall into the wrong hooves, but there was nothing left of your… Pinchy. The talisman is gone.”

I had to bite my lip to stop myself from uttering a swear. That talisman was a true wonder of pre-war Equestria’s arcane science! It yielded amazing results after transplanting it within the brain of a radscorpion, allowing me to befriend it. The things I could have done by placing it within a pony’s head…

“You were magically linked to it or something, right?” Jack’s question pulled me out of my musing. “Do you think you could… somehow… track it down?”

Well that was an interesting concept. “I’m not quite sure…” I said, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. “I was capable of feeling exactly what Pinchy was feeling regardless of the distance and even moved my consciousness into its body. However, I hadn’t had the opportunity to test the maximum range in which the Mind Control Talisman would still respond to me. I also don’t know if it is still possible to locate the talisman when it isn’t within a host already. Lastly, I believe the Mind Control Talisman works by registering the magical signature of the unicorn that uses it to control somepony, meaning if it’s in possession of another unicorn, it might already respond to a new owner.”

“So no, then,” Jack asserted, rolling his eyes.

“It would appear so, yes. I could try to use the same spell I cast to activate the talisman inside of Pinchy and see if I feel any response, but that would have to wait until my ability to use magic returns.”

“It seems unlikely the talisman would have, hm, ‘registered the magic of another unicorn’,” the griffin pointed out, apparently still musing over my earlier disquisition. “Unless of course those corpses were indeed moved by some intent, and they knew about the Mind Control Talisman…”

“Which after the show Cray-cray put on encompasses that entire shithole of a town,” Aite cut in, having finished eating. “Despite that Whip Crack playing dumb everypony must have figured out that the Mind Control Talisman she spoke about must have been real.”

“True, but they don’t know about the corpses,” Jack reminded her, then frowned. “Any chance the Proditor was still in Appleloosa when our good Doctor made that scene?”

Pouting at the expression ‘made that scene’, I looked at Aite, who shrugged. “I didn’t see him anywhere, but I also didn’t spot him when I flew to help her. Maybe he has a Stealth Cloak too?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me, but then that whole plan of coming to slavers to help get into Sanctuary would seem kind of redundant.”

“You mean more than it already was, seeing how he is now in Sanctuary,” Aite snorted in amusement, then more seriously added, “Anyway, what good would that talisman do for him? You heard Cray-cray, it only works for unicorns.”

“I wouldn’t put it past the zebras to be able to reverse engineer it,” Jack retorted, shrugging. “After all, the talismans were originally their invention.”

As I began to feel a little ignored, I decided to interject and diverge the conversation. “There was one more person who knew about the Mind Control Talisman,” I pointed out, gaining the attention of both of them. “Black Widow. Is it possible that she took it? Do you know what has become of her?”

The griffin sighed and leaned back. “We don't know shit,” he said, raising a paw to rub his temple. “She disappeared without a trace after Aite saw her teleporting away. And yeah, I can see how you’d think she might have something to do with those corpses being gone without any explanation. A unicorn capable of teleportation would certainly be capable of that. However, even assuming Black Widow had somehow found out that you put the Mind Control Talisman inside the radscorpion and wanted to get it back, it makes no sense for her to take the entire body away, not to mention all the other corpses. Unless she was planning to do some unspeakable experiments on them, but that sounds more like your thing.”

I nodded absentmindedly, too busy thinking about Black Widow and the corpses being gone to ponder whether I should take offense to the remark or not (it was correct after all).

“Besides,” I heard Jack continue, “teleporting all of them, even one by one, would take a lot out of a single unicorn-”

“And what about Scope’s organisation?” I interrupted him. “The stallion that delivered the holotape about Black Widow to Scope could have reached - especially considering the manner in which he disappeared from that caravan - them. What if there was information not only about her but also about the Mind Control Talisman on that holotape? If they had sent somepony after Black Widow and they were near Appleloosa when those slavers attacked me and Pinchy , they could have decided to steal the talisman when they got the chance.”

Jack rubbed the side of his beak. “I’m impressed you even thought of that,” he said, his words causing a surprising warm wave to briefly wash over me. “I considered it too. However, I saw no suspicious characters snooping around all those days I’ve been searching for the tribe. Two days ago was no different. And even if we were to assume they possessed means to stay invisible or something along those lines… that would be an incredibly brief window for them to learn about the events that transpired that day and to steal the talisman. Also, taking all those corpses would only be logical for them to do in order to hide the fact they took the Mind Control Talisman specifically. Which is understandable, except,” he added, grimacing, “rather than making all those dead bodies disappear, they would wait in ambush to kill me, since they would know I was their buddy’s last assignment. So no, I don’t think they’d be involved.”

I had to agree, Jack had made some valid points. Even if that mysterious organization had the means to hide the bodies, it certainly seemed more logical for them to kill Jack. Would they have figured out he would come back for them though? Hm, well, both this organization and Jack seemed to know a lot more than me about how all of this… “covert operations” worked, so it wasn’t a stretch to imagine one could anticipate how the other would act, I supposed…

“And what of Deliverance, then?” I asked, deciding that dwelling on the subject of Scope’s organization wouldn’t do us any good right now. Turning to Aite, I asked, “You mentioned that he was in Sanctuary, darling?”

“Yes, the Mustangs gave him a single room on the floor below.”

“But he tried to help the slavers find them,” I said, confused. “Did you not tell them about that?”

“Of course I did,” Jack replied, shrugging. “After we got here, the Mustangs’ leader asked him about it. The Proditor admitted to it, apologized, and gave him the same explanation he gave Black Widow, about not knowing anything about the tribe and being used to ponies being racists and such. And between that and the fact that in the end those plans he made with the slavers didn’t come to fruition, it was apparently enough for Mustangs. They let him stay in Sanctuary, and even allowed him to search for what he wanted. Their only condition was that one of the Mustangs accompany him while he goes through this place, but only because they would like to know more about the ponies who used to live here. At first I thought they just said that to keep up the appearance of trusting him, but after a day of talking to them I think they were being honest,” Jack remarked, eyes turning to the side in mild annoyance. “Anyway, since I myself was technically working for slavers and you were their medic, it’s not like we can really judge him for being an opportunist. I did warn the Mustangs that I have no idea how he killed those slavers, but that doesn’t really have to mean anything.”

I would have argued that the situations were different for both myself and Jack from Deliverance’s, but I had to admit that he did have a point. In any case, the mysterious zebra had saved both my and Aite’s lives, so as far as I was concerned he was more than welcome to stay in Sanctuary. (If the circumstances were different, I would have probably prepared some sort of a welcoming gift.) And if the Mustangs were fine with him…

“Speaking of those ‘Mustangs’, sweetie…” I began, but Jack raised his paw, stopping me.

“They’re not the same Mustangs as the ones you mentioned when we talked in New Appleloosa; I specifically asked them about this--” he said, impressing me. I hadn’t expected him to recall that brief part of our conversation, let alone inquire about it on his own. “so you wouldn’t offend them in some way.”

And just like that I once again found myself annoyed with the griffin. “Me? Sweetie, may I remind you that I am a very diplomatic pony?”

“When we first met you jumped around me and groped almost every part of my body.”

Aite’s snort of amusement distracted me, making it difficult to focus on thinking of a good reply to Jack’s argument in time.

“Anyway,” he resumed, not waiting for me to counter his words; pouting, I decided to let that go for now, “the founder of the tribe picked the name - as well as some of the original Mustangs’ customs - from a history book he found before their tribe was formed.”

Aite, who had finally stopped laughing, chimed in, “I wonder if they wrote down historical names and threw darts at them to pick this one.”

“I didn’t ask that specifically, obviously,” Jack retorted, before turning back to me. “But yeah, like them they are nomads, usually not staying in one place for more than a month or two, their leader is called ‘Khan’ - a bit ironic, considering what happened to you two - and I’m sure there are a bunch more similarities that you’d know more about than I do.”

“Their Khan is actually the father of those two from earlier,” Aite spoke up, surprising me with her revelation. Winking at me, she added, “He’s also quite a hunk.”

Jack deadpanned at her. “He’s married and has two kids, with a third one on the way.”

“He’s still hot, asshole,” the bat pony countered, sticking her tongue at him playfully.

Ignoring Aite’s remark, I recalled Jack’s parting words to the two young ponies. “You told them we would go see their father,” I reminded him, turning to the griffin.

“Yes, Khan told us he’d like to officially greet you in Sanctuary when you wake up,” Jack told me. Shrugging, he added, “Probably wants to get a good measure of you since you're staying with his tribe. All of the Mustangs were awfully curious about us, actually.”

“Can’t really blame them,” Aite pointed out, “since between the three of us - four if we count Deliverance - the griffin mercenary is the most common thing in the Wasteland. These Mustangs are quite a friendly bunch,” she added, turning to me. “At least as far as the Wasteland goes. Not only did they heal you and do what they could for my wing, both for free, they also let us stay with them at least until we recover.”

“That’s very generous of them,” I remarked, pleasantly surprised at the help we’d received from the Mustangs while I was unconscious. “I really must thank the Khan personally for their hospitality.”

“You will get your chance,” Jack assured me, his voice suddenly becoming stern, “but not before we set up some ground rules.”

“Ground rules?” I repeated, confused.

“One of the things these Mustangs apparently have in common with their historical namesake is their love of freedom. They love roaming the Wasteland, not tied to any place or anypony but themselves, and despise slavery. So,” Jack added, pointing a talon at me, “you can imagine what they’d think of you and those experiments of yours.”

Oh, that was just… “Honestly,” I snorted, shaking my head. “How can you compare my experiments to the horrible practices of slavers? May I remind you that while they would enslave everypony and everybody, I only kidnap ponies who had committed acts heinous enough to strip them of their right to be considered sentient beings?”

Jack uttered a sigh and raised his forepaw to the side of his head. “You do remember how this whole mess started right?” he asked, rubbing the side of his temple. “The slavers found out about this tribe because one of their patrols was attacked and killed?”

“Why, yes, of course,” I replied, confused at the sudden change of subject.

“Well, they were transporting back slaves they captured to Appleloosa. The Mustangs freed them and brought them here, offering to let them stay if they wanted to and an escort outside of the immediate slaver territory if not.” Jack dropped his forepaw to the table and looked me straight in the eyes. “One of them was a raider, and they are letting him stay here.”

...

It took me a moment to realize that I was staring at him with my mouth open. I shook my head to recover from the shock and looked at the griffin once again, analyzing his face to see if it betrayed in any way that this was some sort of a jest.

“They didn’t let him have any weapons, obviously,” Jack resumed, his expression remaining the same; this wasn’t some bizarre joke. “And literally every Mustang has been taught how to defend themself, apparently, so if he did try some shit, they would be able to deal with that. But other than that they treat him normally; if somepony hadn’t told me that he was a raider I would have thought that he was just a Mustang who’s an asshole.”

I continued to stare at the griffin in disbelief, and when he finished I finally found my voice: “They just let him walk around here? Are those Mustangs crazy?! He should be locked up at least or-”

“Mustangs don’t do prisons, apparently,” Aite interrupted me. “I got to admit, as stupid as that sounds, gotta admire that they’re not being hypocrites with their love of freedom.”

“Obviously, we also think it’s idiotic to just let a raider walk around freely,” Jack said, staring at me intentily. “But we’re the Mustangs’ guests and if they believe people should have second chances we’re going to respect that. Anyway, the reason why I brought it up, is that your whole argument about only imprisoning and experimenting on ‘evil ponies’ and so on won’t matter to them. So for the love of everything that’s sacred, do not under any circumstances bring up what you did in your basement and why you were kicked out of your Stable.”

While it baffled me that these Mustangs could consider a raider to be a better pony than me, I could clearly see wisdom in Jack’s advice. “You don’t have to worry, sweetie, I do not make a habit of telling ponies about my experiments. In fact, I haven’t revealed that to anypony yet. Willingly,” I amended, glancing at the bat pony.

“I love being invisible,” Aite sighed.

“I don’t think I have to add this,” Jack continued, “but even more importantly you can’t resume your experiments here.”

I actually gasped. “Sweetie, you wound me,” I told him, offended. “I wouldn’t experiment on ponies who took us in and-”

“You literally did just that in Appleloosa.”

I paused to glare at the griffin. “-and healed my horn,” I told him after a few seconds had passed. I could have explained to him why those two cases were different, but honestly, if he wasn’t just trying my patience and really did not understand it then it was his own fault and I had better things to do than educate him. Shrugging and calming down, I added, “And that’s beside the fact that I would first need to establish a new laboratory. You don’t have to worry about the Mustangs, sweetie, you have my word that no harm will come to them from me. Though I do think that should have been obvious.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “And that raider.”

“I-”

There was no way for me to conduct my experiments without a safe laboratory. And it was very unlikely I would establish one within Sanctuary, especially with Jack breathing down my neck. As for capturing a test subject, something that was already difficult to do in a manner that didn’t arouse any suspicion, the lack of magic would make it virtually impossible. Attempting to do so under those circumstances, even if it was a raider, posed too much danger to myself. I should have no problem agreeing to Jack’s request.

However…

My memories of raiders chasing me down into Stable Eleven, their leader holding me and beating me, and Thorny Locust’s repeated attacks, her insistence that she liked to kill and hurt ponies, all of that came back to me. This place, this wasn’t a settlement of slavers. There were foals here. Could I really allow a raider to remain within this society? Should I not attempt to repay the Mustangs’ help by fixing their mistakes?

I couldn’t tell what was the correct thing to do… what I could tell, though, was that without my magic and with Jack insisting on me dropping this matter, there was almost nothing I could do.

“You have my word that the raider has nothing to fear from me during our stay here,” I finally told Jack.

But when we leave…

The mercenary narrowed his eyes at me, but after a brief moment he nodded, seemingly satisfied.

“And speaking of ‘our stay’,” I said, glad for the opportunity to leave the subject behind, “may I ask how long that would be? And what exactly are we going to do next, sweetie?”

“That’s a bit complicated,” Jack replied, scowling. “Aite can’t exactly move around with her wing broken, so at the very least she will be staying until either you are able to use your magic again or reprogram the auto-doc. As for me… I would like to go and chase after Black Widow, as soon as possible.”

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. “You mean you’d leave us behind?”

Beside me, Aite gasped. “Ah, dragged from my new home to the middle of the Wasteland and left behind…” she wailed, her forehoof pressed to her forehead, in an overdramatic fashion - even for me.

It was even more so for Jack’s tastes. “Right, I leave you behind in a pre-war luxurious resort, I’m a monster,” he retorted in a flat tone, prompting the bat pony to giggle in amusement. Sighing, he turned back to me. “I don’t think I have to remind you that Black Widow was our only lead to Scope’s organization. Or… what did you say she said his real name was?”

“Foxtrot,” Aite replied.

“Thanks. Or rather, Foxtrot’s organisation,” the griffin resumed. “If there is anything good that came out of that mess two days ago, it was that you confirmed that she indeed knows about that bastard and whoever ordered him to spy on me. I appreciate that you tried to learn more from her, Doctor, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. So our only option left is to track her down and ask her again under different circumstances. That is,” he added with a strange tone in his voice, “assuming you still plan on helping me find this organization.”

I blinked in surprise. “Of course I do, sweetie. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because your life situation has drastically changed,” Jack pointed out. “I know you said that you truly want to help bring this organization to justice for murdering Blast and Burst - which, forgive me, is something I still find a bit hard to believe considering how briefly you knew them - but that was before your house went almost literally up in flames. And that’s beside how you were grievously injured; usually near-death experiences make people rethink their life choices. So,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “we’ve been wondering if you wouldn’t start having second thoughts about this.”

“You know Cray-cray,” Aite spoke up, smirking in Jack’s direction,” if I didn’t know better, I would have said that he’s trying to talk you out of helping him take down a murderous secret organization, to settle down at some peaceful settlement as their medic.” She gasped. “Could it be that the sight of your broken and bloodied body made him realize how much he cares about you and doesn’t want you hurt again?!”

Surprised, I turned to Jack. Did it?

The griffin was staring at Aite with an impassive expression. “You done?”

“You’re no fun,” the bat pony retorted, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. She then rose from the table and turned around. “Little fillies room,” she said as she trotted away.

“Thanks for sharing that information,” Jack told her, then shook his head as she did a weird gesture with her good wing before disappearing into the bathroom. “Anyway, Doctor, the chase after this organization would without a doubt be dangerous, and life in the Wasteland is dangerous enough as it is. So I’m not going to blame you if, after coming so close to death, you might have changed your mind. After all, you have options to make a decent living for yourself. Plenty of settlements would be glad to have a new medic come to live among them. Once you and Aite get better we could even get you to them, if you’d like. I figure I owe you that much at least.”

That was a surprisingly generous and thoughtful offer from Jack. Even if Aite’s earlier mocking remark was completely off-point, it was nice to know he was thinking of my well-being. And he was probably right, I could make a good life for myself as a doctor...

A soft giggle escaped my lips. “Honestly, sweetie,” I told Jack, smiling. “Have you forgotten who I am? I am Angel, doctor of medicine, the future Princess of Equestria, and the mare who will discover the Truth of this world, the secrets of life and death and bring about the Everlasting Paradise. Did you think that little scuffle would scare me, make me change my plans?” I uttered a laugh. “What a silly notion! I assure you, sweetie, my resolve is as strong as before.”

“Glad to see that concussion and blood loss haven’t made you lose your mind,” Jack remarked sarcastically, interrupting me. “You could still go about your plans - if you really must - in those other settlements and not help me.”

“Perhaps,” I agreed, “but there are several reasons why I should help you. The first being that I genuinely want to make the ponies responsible for Scope killing Burst and Blast be brought to justice. The second reason is that I had already told you that I will help you, and as the future Princess of Equestria my word is my bond.” I pretended to not notice that Jack rolled his eyes. “Third reason is that as future Princess I have to protect my future subjects from threats, including this organization, so I might as well deal with it now. Fourth reason is that, the further I accomplish my goals, the more attention I will draw to myself, which no doubt would cause this organization to take interest in me. I would rather face them on my own terms rather than wait for their spies to try and assassinate me.”

“Huh, that's a good point, actually,” Jack admitted, scratching his beak.

“And lastly,” I added, measuring the griffin with my eyes and smiling, “despite our… differences, I have grown quite fond of your company, as well as Aite's. I told you in Appleloosa that I would like us to be friends, and I still do. Choking attempts and other vulgar disagreements notwithstanding.” He groaned and raised his talons to his temples. “And friends are supposed to help each other.”

“Well that's… lovely, thanks,” Jack finally offered, clearly straining for an answer. He shook his head and said “Okay then, now that we know that you are still fully on board with this, here’s what Aite and I planned so far. For now, we all stay here. You will go through all the data you downloaded from the terminal. I doubt you’ll find a folder titled ‘My Escape Plan’, but maybe there will be something that could point us in the right direction. When you find some clue, I will fly ahead to confirm if Black Widow went there. If by that time you manage to fix Aite’s wing, we will all go, even though you would slow us down but we will worry about that later. Of course,” he added, “if it takes too long to find anything in that data or you go through everything and we still don’t have any clues, I will just try to track down Black Widow the old fashioned way.”

I frowned, spotting a flow in his plan. “Sweetie, by ‘old fashioned’, you mean-”

“Look for hoofprints or other marks and follow the trail,” Jack replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Forgive me then, but, how exactly do you plan to look for the hoofprints of somepony who teleported away?”

“I don’t, I plan to follow the trail of hoofprints Khan left behind,” Jack said, much to my surprise. He then flicked his paw and amended, “The mute one-eyed zebra you freed from mind control, not the Mustang leader.”

“Yes, I got that sweetie,” I quickly replied, nodding.

“Still, we better get his real name or this shit will get confusing in the long run. Anyway… so, after I realized there was no trace of your radscorpion or those slavers and that the rest of them knew nothing, I spent most of yesterday looking for his tracks. It turns out that after leaving Appleloosa Khan went in a single direction, not taking any turns or seemingly stopping to get his bearings.” Jack shrugged. “Seems to me like he knows where he’s going. I’d imagine that, having been at Black Widow’s side for so many years, he knows where she’d run to, or at least he has a good idea where that would be. And naturally after all those years he would be pretty pissed off; Aite told me that the slavers said he had first barged into her house, so this checks out.”

“I see…” I mused, mentally chastising myself for not thinking of that myself. “Yes, I believe your analysis would be correct. However, may I ask why you haven’t tried to track him down already? Since you're capable of travelling at a much faster pace, I believe you’d have been able to find him by today if he had only about a day's worth of a head start.”

My ears perked up, hearing a sound I had never expected to hear in the Wasteland coming from the bathroom: a toilet flushing!

Jack ignored it, probably having gotten used to it already. “Gee, I don’t know, maybe because that zebra hadn’t exactly shown himself to be willing to cooperate?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Considering what he had done to the both of you I doubted he would help me, especially since we need Black Widow alive while he probably wants to brutally murder her. Which means I’d have to resort to following him until he leads me to Black Widow and have to work fast so that he won’t kill her and she won’t escape. Or, I could capture and interrogate him, which might be difficult even if we’d assume that now since you pulled that talisman out of his head he actually can speak. I would prefer to do neither and deal with just Black Widow, so it would be best if you could figure out where she ran to with the help of all that data you pulled out of her terminal. Alternatively, in case you can’t and the zebra ends up being our only hope of finding her, I would feel better if I had Aite backing me up. So that's why I’m still here.”

Once again Jack had impressed me with his ability to analyze possible outcomes and prepare a strategy to deal with them. Truly, it was a relief to cooperate with somebody like him.

Even if he could be a bit nicer…

“But aren’t you worried that he’ll find Black Widow while you wait here?”

“I am,” Jack confessed, shrugging. “It all depends on how far away Black Widow managed to run… I don’t think she plans to return to Appleloosa, seeing how she took all her caps with her, which would mean she probably ran very far away. Junction R-7 and Shattered Hoof are out then, it's too close, plus I can’t imagine Black Widow hiding there or Gawd or those raiders letting her in…”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” I interrupted him, confused. Shattered Hoof Ridge was ‘too close’?! “Did you just say-”

“It’s an old prison, not the place zebras tried to kill your princess,” Jack swiftly replied, brushing off my interjection without so much as looking at me. Resuming his musing - I had a feeling he had been going over this in his head for a while now - he said, “Manehattan’s ruins also lie in the direction Khan seems to be walking, so maybe that’s where she fled to… That being said, she couldn’t be heading for Tenpony Tower, she’s known enough around the Wasteland that she could be recognized there, Steel Rangers wouldn’t take her back… I know there’s a boat that sometimes docks at what remains of the harbor, transporting merchants and other travellers, so that seems like the most logical destination… but still, it’s not enough to just head there with no additional information.”

“In that case,” I said, taking advantage when he seemingly stopped, “it would be best if I got to work right away.”

Raising my PipBuck, I lifted my other hoof to scroll down towards where I had kept the data, but before I could do that I realized that Jack had raised his paw.

“An hour more or an hour less won’t make that much of a difference,” he told me, then nodded at the food on the table; at some point during this debacle I’d stopped eating. “Finish your breakfast, then we’ll go see the Mustangs’ Khan, ask permission to check out the auto-doc, and see if you can use it to fix Aite. You can start going through Black Widow’s stuff after all that. I figure I can wait about two more days; I should still be able to easily catch up with the zebra Khan if you can’t find anything.”

“Oh, I see,” I replied, nodding with understanding. I reached for another delicious vegetable and pulled it closer, then paused. “I’m afraid we will have to add one more activity to that schedule.”

Jack sighed. “Which is?”

“I need to… make myself more presentable,” I told him diplomatically.

The griffin clenched his beak, then lifted an eyebrow. “That better mean you want to take a shower, because if you’re going to put makeup on, I swear-”

“Please, sweetie,” I scoffed, “I have been blessed with celestial beauty, I do not need to put on makeup. I-”

A tap on my back made me jerk. Pausing, I turned back- “BDAH?!”

“Wow, easy there!” Aite exclaimed, surprised, as she raised her forehooves while I tried to get my breathing under control. “Didn’t mean to scare you. Jumpy much?”

“I-I…” I stammered, swallowing. I needed to explain, say anything… “I’m… sorry, s-sweetie, but, you know, I got shot recently,” I offered meekly, pointing at my horn and smiling nervously.

Fortunately, she seemed satisfied. “Ah yeah, that was the first time you were shot, wasn’t it?” Aite said, smiling. Keeping her distance so I could calm down - for which I was grateful for the moment - she walked back over to the table. “Remind me later, we need to celebrate you losing your bullet virginity.”

I giggled nervously, calming down somewhat. Fortunately, Jack also seemed to disregard my reaction, for which I was grateful. I really didn’t want to explain it right now.

Now I realized why earlier when they came back I was afraid at the sight of Aite. When I saw her standing behind me, I remembered.

In my dream, after I was stabbed, when I looked back…

… I could see Aite’s eyes in the darkness.

*** *** ***

This is absurd! I thought for about the twentieth time, glancing at the bat pony beside me. Why would my subconscious think she would kill me?

We were trotting through the corridor outside of our room. After I had hastily finished eating I took a quick shower. Aite and one of the Mustang mares had washed me while I was unconscious (my clothes were similarly washed and even repaired, so now I could proudly display Stable Eight’s barding and lab coat), so I hadn’t had to spend too long in the bathroom.

Unfortunate, really. I would have liked to take a long, relaxing bath, to help calm my nerves.

Fortunately, after that earlier fright, my fear had ebbed away, no doubt thanks to my very rational mind. I knew Aite didn’t want to kill me, not after saving me so many times in Appleloosa. She even promised to look for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie’s statuettes when her wing was healed! To her, those were just useless pre-war trinkets, and yet she would look for them because I was upset. Honestly, aside from Ditzy, she was by far the kindest pony I’d met in the Wasteland. Merciful Luna, that dream would have made so much more sense if Jack had been the one to kill me!

So no, I wasn’t afraid. I was… disturbed. Annoyed with myself. And as I looked at Aite, nervous and ashamed.

Why would I dream about her stabbing me? Right after everything we had gone through together in Appleloosa no less… Was it just because she had threatened to stab me that one time? Or because she’s an assassin? Had my mind combined the trauma of my last conscious hours with an image of the deadliest person I knew?

Or was it about her being a bat pony? They were believed to be Nightmare Moon’s soldiers, with some of Stable Eight’s history books even having depictions of shadowy thestrals with gleaming yellow eyes fighting other ponies, so maybe my mind used Aite’s likeness as a stand-in for a threat-

Merciful Goddesses, was my subconscious racist?!

I tried to ignore all those unpleasant thoughts - the last one in particular! I was anything but racist! If anything, I would be the opposite of a racist! - and focus on Sanctuary and Aite’s voice. The bat pony was continuing her explanation of how the Mustangs, after they had settled in, discovered that while the sanatorium was remarkably well preserved considering it was abandoned for two hundred years, it was in far from perfect condition.

Most of the water talismans, for example, had corroded, and the pipes were in even worse shape. There were leaks and destroyed walls spread throughout the complex, and the majority of the sanatorium’s other wing had collapsed, probably as a result. The reason why we had to have a room specifically assigned was because there were only a hoofful of rooms with plumbing and heating undamaged by time (for the most part, at least), or that didn’t have any other issues, like holes in the floor or broken windows.

Even as we trotted through the corridor towards the staircase I noticed cracked wallpaper, broken doors, and other marks time had left… not to mention that the carpet we were walking on was full of holes and dirt.

According to my companions, the lower floors were in better condition, and the Mustangs were hard at work repairing Sanctuary (and the additional green bars on my E.F.S. that began to appear when we got closer to the stairs seemed to confirm it). Which would have explained why it seemed like we were the only occupants of this level. We could have stayed on one of the lower floors, but Jack had insisted we all share a room and ours was the only non-single room left.

It’s fortunate that at least the route towards the staircase is undamaged, I mused as we reached it, glancing at the big hole further down the corridor. Well, for me at least, I suppose- I stopped mid-thought, glancing at Aite’s bandaged wing. I felt heat on my cheeks as I realized that I had gotten so used to my companions being able to fly that I briefly forgot how one of them was now also grounded. And all because she tried to help me… I really don’t understand why I would dream about her stabbing me!

…

Are you two going to finally-

I stopped.

Another thing I had gotten used to.

No.

Taken it for granted.

With Jack and Aite glancing back up the stairs at me I couldn’t afford the luxury of burying myself in guilt and regret. I shook my head and resumed walking down. Hopefully they wouldn’t think too much about this, I really did not want to explain myself right now.

Quickly catching up to them, I let them lead on again. As we reached the second floor, I spotted a yellow earth pony mare, standing on a ladder before the stairs leading below. She had a paintbrush in her mouth that must have obscured her vision while she put fresh paint on the wall, as she didn’t even turn towards us. As we were about to pass her on our way to the stairs, I pondered if I should greet her, as it would be a polite thing to do and I didn’t expect either of my companions to-

“You better catch her,” Aite remarked with disinterest suddenly.

Surprised, I glanced at her, and so did Jack and the Mustang mare-

CRACK!

Jumping in fright, I realized that the ladder on which the mare stood had broken. Fortunately Jack recovered almost immediately and dashed towards her, catching her in the air with his forelegs. I sighed in relief.

“You okay?” I heard the griffin ask her as he slowly descended.

The earth pony nodded, clearly in a momentary shock. “Y-yes, I think so-”

SPLUSH!

Aite erupted with laughter almost immediately after the strange sound. Frowning at her in confusion, I looked behind her at the source-

Oh!

Well, it is a bit humorous, I remarked, holding back my own laughter as I stared at Jack’s hindpaw stuck in the can of brown paint the mare had been using.

“Oh for the love of…” Jack cursed angrily, staring at his paw. He then turned his gaze towards me and Aite; I quickly averted my eyes, not wanting to give in to the amusement at the misfortune he experienced while rescuing the mare. Aite had no such qualms, as she continued to laugh, even falling to the floor which resulted in a pained squeak when her wounded wing brushed the floor. “Hope that hurt,” Jack remarked coldly, setting the mare down.

“Augh, it was worth it!” the bat pony responded, shifting on the floor so her wing wasn’t touching the floor.

Shaking my head, I leaned over her to make sure she didn’t damage herself. The wing sling looked alright...

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” I heard the rescued mare exclaim, looking at Jack’s hindleg with sorrow and embarrassment. She looked around her workspace and picked up a piece of cloth. “Here, let me-”

“Thanks, I’d rather do it myself,” Jack interrupted her, though politely (with visible effort). The mare passed him the cloth and he pulled out his paw, now covered in brown paint, and began to clean it. “And no need to apologize, it’s not your fault.”

“Y-yes, well, again, thank you…” the mare said, abashed.

As I assured myself that Aite hadn’t hurt her healing wing, I decided to help the Mustang and draw her attention away from this weird chain of events.

“Are you-” I began with a smile as the mare turned to me-

“BWAH!” the mare suddenly exclaimed, backing away. I looked at her in surprise as the very next second she stopped and shook her head. “S-sorry, I… y-you surprised me. I didn’t know you’d woken up, and I guess I’m a little jumpy,” she explained nervously.

“Oh it’s alright, you had quite a bit of a fright there after all,” I told her with a smile. “Are you alright? Do you need medical attention?”

“Um, no, I think I’m fine. Thank you,” the mare replied, calming down somehow. “I-”

“Son of a-”

Jack’s cursing got our attention. The griffin mercenary was staring at his hindpaw. Despite him trying to clean it with the piece of cloth the mare procured, the blue-gray fur on it now appeared brown.

“At least you got it dry…-ish,” Aite offered, holding back laughter; at some point when I went over to talk to the Mustang mare, the bat pony had gotten herself up from the floor and was now standing beside Jack.

“I’m gonna go back to wash it off, wait for me here,” he snarled back in reply, spreading his wings before jumping into the air.

“Oh, so you can waste time and go wash some paint off,” Aite called out after him, “but Cray-cray can’t put on makeup?”

“Wha- darling, I didn’t want to put makeup on,” I reminded her, confused.

“Not the point,” she told me briskly.

“And more importantly, I don’t need makeup…” I added, but then hesitated. It was the second time one of my companions had brought up makeup. “Or… do I?” I asked uncertainly, looking from Aite to the Mustang mare.

Abashed, the mare raised her forehooves. “No no, you look fine,” she quickly tried to reassure me.

Well, she failed.

“Fine?” I exclaimed. “Sweetie, I look divine. Or at least, I should,” I added, raising my forehoof to my mane and brushing it. I had looked in a mirror after I finished showering of course, but perhaps I was so occupied by thinking about Aite and that stupid dream that I hadn’t paid enough attention to how I looked? Looking back to the mare, I asked, “Where’s the closest mirror?”

“Sweet Goddesses,” I heard Aite exclaim, sounding both amused and exasperated. She trotted over to me, rolling her eyes as she walked. “That’s what she meant. You look like usual. Divine, fabulous, the second coming of Princess Celestia.”

I gasped. “Take that back, that’s blasphemy!” I told her, angry that she implied that I wanted ponies to think that!

I didn't even want to think about how my mother would react if she had heard that.

Aite groaned, then - much to my irritation - turned to the Mustang mare. “You get now why Jack and I call her crazy, right?”

“Sweetie-” I began, ignoring a brief giggle that escaped the mare.

“I did not mean to offend the mighty Goddess!” Aite replied, exasperated. Although I didn’t care much for her tone, I accepted her words. “You look just the regular, non-heretical divine.”

“Thank you darling,” I told her, satisfied.

“Seriously though,” Aite added, deadpanning at me, “you yourself say you have a ‘celestial beauty’ or ‘look divine’; how is that not blasphemous but calling you the ‘second coming of Princess Celestia’ is?”

“There's a big difference between having high self-esteem and claiming to be a Goddess,” I told her plainly.

“And to think Jack called you delusional,” the bat pony remarked, rolling her eyes.

Frowning at her, I glanced at that Mustang mare, hoping she didn’t pay much attention to that comment, but fortunately she was too busy picking up the broken pieces of the ladder.

“Do you need help, sweetie?” I asked her, though privately I hoped she didn’t. Without my magic I would need to use my hooves to help, and I didn’t want to dirty my freshly cleaned lab coat, or, Goddesses forbid, my even more freshly cleaned actual coat.

To my relief, the mare shook her head. “No, thanks, I got it,” she said, putting the remains of the ladder on her back. “I would love to stay and chat, but I need to get a new ladder. I’ll see you around,” she added as she began to carefully go down the stairs.

“See you soon,” I called after her politely, though I was a bit dismayed at how brief our conversation was. She didn’t even introduce herself. “I suppose she has a lot of work left to do,” I mused quietly, looking around; it appeared that only the walls around the staircase had new paint put on them, the rest of the floor still needing to be renovated.

“Yeah, the Mustangs seem determined to make this place hospitable again,” Aite explained, then shrugged. “Dunno why they bother so much, though, it’s already in way better condition than half of settlements in the Wasteland.”

I also found myself questioning the Mustangs’ efforts, although for entirely different reasons. Jack had told me that this tribe led a nomadic lifestyle, never staying in one place for too long. Why then were they putting so much effort into renovation of Sanctuary?

Maybe they just... don’t have much to do? I mused. With the hydroponic farm providing food and the Mind Filter Talisman preventing any threat, they might have had ponies standing idly, so the Khan decided to give them something to do… though he probably didn’t consider possible accidents, I added, glancing at the spot where the ladder had been.

“By the way, darling, how did you know the ladder would break?” I asked Aite. “You warned Jack to catch that mare as if you knew that would happen.”

“Eh, it’s a gift,” the bat pony replied in wry amusement, much to my confusion. “It was bound to happen. I mean, did you even see how old that ladder was?”

“I didn’t get a good look, but you have a point, the ladder would have been over two hundred years old,” I said, frowning. Aite was averting her eyes from me, rubbing her shoulder awkwardly, and her ears were perked up, as if listening for something. “Darling, is everything alright?” I asked, worried.

“Hm? Oh, nothing, just… I can hear more ponies below,” she said, her ears twitching. I nodded, already knowing there must be ponies on the next floor thanks to my E.F.S. “I’m… not exactly good with crowds while, well, being visible. Which sucks, as one of the things on my bucket list is ‘being in an orgy’,” she added briskly. “Not that many ponies have orgies in the Wasteland, mind you, but still…”

I nodded absentmindedly - not really understanding what in the Goddesses’ names a ‘bucket list’ was - before saying, “I was wondering why your Invisibility Cloak was on your bed.”

“The Mustangs’ Khan asked me to not wear it during my stay with his tribe,” she explained. “Said his tribemates would feel uncomfortable with somepony invisibile walking around them. Which, you know, fair enough, and considering how they took us in, healed you up and did what they could for me, I reluctantly agreed to his request. Even if it means that I in turn will feel uncomfortable, I can deal with that… for the time being at least.”

As somepony who had lived with Aite for the past few days, I could understand Khan’s sentiment. Even though I knew she was there to help me and Jack, and usually when we were alone she would show herself, it was still a bit unnerving.

That being said, I hadn’t expected Aite to be uncomfortable with being seen by many ponies. “Oh, I’m sorry for your discomfort, darling. Pardon me, but, does that mean you suffer from agoraphobia?”

“Agora- what?” Aite asked, tilting her head in confusion. “Isn’t that the fear of open spaces or something?”

“Well, no, it’s a more complex condition. A pony with agoraphobia can have a hard time feeling safe in places with crowds of other ponies. Do you feel anxious? Did you have a panic attack or-”

“No, none of that,” Aite waved her hoof dismissively. “I’ve just… gotten used to being invisible most of the time, I guess. Sure, I would turn it off when I'm in a bar or something, but even so I'd usually be in a corner getting drunk. But no, I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”

“I’m relieved to hear that,” I told her, then hesitated. Recalling seeing her cloak on the bed made me wonder about something else. “If I may ask, darling… aside from noticing your Invisible Cloak on the bed, I’ve also happened to notice that you and Jack seem to be sharing that bed.”

Aite groaned. “No, Jack-ass sleeps on the floor,” she snorted and shook her head. “He wanted a room with three beds, but there weren’t any free rooms that didn’t have holes or had running water. I offered to share the bed, of course, but he wiggled his way out of that by saying that I needed to rest comfortably because of my wing. Seriously, at this point I think he’s avoiding sex with me just to annoy me.”

“Well, darling, he does have a point about your wing,” I couldn’t help but point out. “As a doctor, I would have advised you against sharing such a narrow bed while your wing is still broken… let alone having sex, it could be a tad uncomfortable.”

“Meh, we would figure something out,” Aite retorted, winking. “Also, I hoped that if we had fucked last night it would have woken you up; I can be quite noisy if I want to be. Or at the very least, we would have given you some fun dreams.”

The giggle from her earlier comment died in my throat as Aite had unwittingly made me recall my actual dream. Suddenly, I found myself very regretful that those two hadn’t slept together; on the off chance that it would indeed have caused me to have another sex dream, I would have very much preferred that.

“Yes, well…” I hesitated, a little nervous. I cleared my throat and tried to giggle. “That was very thoughtful of you, darling.”

Aite’s eyes narrowed. “Are you… oh, you did dream of something, didn’t you?”

Oh, Luna, why?

“Wha- I… I mean,” I stammered, wanting to deny her question but unwilling to lie to her. “W-well I-”

“Oh come on, you told me about your last one. Was it both me and Jack this time too?” Aite asked insistently, trotting closer to me with a grin on her face… before the grin disappeared and she looked over to my side.

“Forgive me,” a familiar voice sounded from behind me, “have I interrupted anything?”

Turning around, I saw Deliverance, further down the corridor, trotting towards us. Surprised at the sight of the feminine, red-striped zebra, it took me a moment to recall Aite mentioning that he was staying in one of the rooms on this floor.

“Just girl talk,” Aite replied to his question, politely, despite her voice losing some of its warmth.

Deliverance’s eyes shifted from the bat pony to me, and as he approached a smile spread on his muzzle.

“Ah, if it isn’t the lovely Doctor!” he exclaimed. “It’s a relief to see you have finally awakened.”

“That’s very kind of you to say, sweetie,” I replied, smiling. “I’ve been told I have you to thank for saving both of our lives.”

Deliverance, finally stopping beside us, chuckled warmly. “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far. While it is true that I indeed dealt with those slavers, your Bloodtalon friend arrived a mere half a minute after me. I am sure he would have saved you himself if I hadn’t.”

“That may be so,” I retorted, “but I’ve spent enough time in the Wasteland and around slavers especially to imagine what they could have done to us in that half a minute. I am thankful that you spared us such an experience.”

“You are most welcome,” Deliverance replied, smiling sadly. “I only wish I had arrived earlier, to save you two before you were so gravely injured, or in time to save the life of that beautiful creature.”

I felt my eyes widen in surprise as the mysterious zebra mentioned Pinchy. I hadn’t expected him to express regret over the radscorpion’s death - it took an argument and a threat for Jack to do so - or to refer to it as ‘beautiful’.

“Please,” Deliverance continued, pressing a forehoof to his chest, “accept my condolences for its death.”

“Oh, sweetie, you are most kind,” I said, touched. “Thank you. Pinchy was truly a beautiful creature and it did not deserve to die. But please, don’t blame yourself for not being able to save it. If anything, the blame for Pinchy’s death is mine.”

Deliverance opened his mouth, but Aite spoke up before he could, “Or you could blame the slavers, you know, the ones who shot him. Crazy idea, right?” she asked, looking from me to the zebra, her eyebrows raised.

While I frowned at her for interrupting us, Deliverance merely chuckled warmly. “I suppose that’s true.”

“So, how does your scavenger hunt go?” the bat pony questioned. “Did you find where that ex-soldier you were looking for was staying?”

“Yes, and no,” the red zebra sighed. “Yes, I have been able to discover in which room he was staying, and no, because that room happens to be in the collapsed wing of this wondrous sanatorium. I have yet to locate where exactly it is now, and if enough of it remains to offer any clue regarding the location of the Last Caesar’s Lost Vault.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said, disappointed to hear of his misfortune. “I hope you will be able to find something. I would offer my help in return for saving our lives, but alas, my injury left me unable to use magic for some time, and I’m afraid that without my magic I wouldn’t be of much help to you.”

Once again, Deliverance chuckled. “Somehow, I doubt that’s true,” he said with a smile, staring deep into my eyes.

Did it just get warmer here?

“Ugh, great Luna,” I heard Aite snort beside me, “get a room already.”

I turned my head to her and narrowed my eyes, but unfortunately, the bat pony had turned away and trotted towards the stairs, her ears perked, probably listening for Jack’s return.

“I already have a room.”

A jolt went through my spine. I turned back to Deliverance. Did he just… imply what I think he implied?

If he had, his face didn’t show it. He continued to stare into my eyes, smiling warmly. “In any case, I am thankful for your offer,” Deliverance finally said. Suddenly, his forehooves grabbed one of mine and held it up. “If I find myself in need of your help, I will be sure to ask you.”

“Um, that’s great, sweetie,” I managed to say, feeling a little overwhelmed by-

Wait.

What was that? I glanced at my hoof, held by Deliverance. There was something… I could feel it, some small object between our hooves.

I looked up at the red zebra questioningly. Deliverance winked, then raised one forehoof to his lips in a silencing gesture before letting go of my hoof.

“If you ladies would excuse me,” he said, trotting towards the stairs, “I have to resume my search. I’m sure we’ll talk again soon,” he added, casting me one last parting glance.

Confused by the strange behaviour, it took me a second to reply. As Aite waved her good wing in goodbye, I said, “See you soon sweetie.”

Smiling again, Deliverance turned and began descending down the stairs. Finally, I glanced at the underside of my hoof.

I almost gasped.

It was the Mind Control Talisman.

Questions buzzed in my head. Deliverance took it? But how? And when? He was with Aite… was it he who hid the bodies? But how did he know about it, where to search for it, and what it was? And why…

… why did he give it to me?

“Are you alright?”

I turned my head sharply to Aite. The bat pony was still beside the stairs, but instead of looking up she was staring down, probably following Deliverance. One of her ears, though, was perked towards me, and she was probably wondering why I had fallen silent.

Opening my mouth to respond, I suddenly found myself remembering the red zebra pressing his hoof to his lips.

“Of course, darling,” I finally said, slipping the talisman into my lab coat’s inner pocket.

*** *** ***

Jack got back after a few more minutes - which Aite filled with teasing me about, quote, “flirting” with Deliverance, unquote - and as we resumed heading downstairs, I still found myself confused as to why I hadn’t told her about the Mind Control Talisman. Sure, Deliverance had silently asked me to keep it secret, but he couldn’t ask that of me. Yes, he had saved my life, but Aite was my friend. At least, I considered her so. I shouldn’t keep secrets from her, nor from Jack, who was far more invested in the mystery of the talisman disappearing along with the corpses.

And yet I did.

I tried to repress my sense of guilt. This was just temporary. I would keep this a secret for the time being, until I had the opportunity to talk with Deliverance one-to-one and ask why he gave me back the Mind Control Talisman and why he didn’t want anybody else to know that. Until then, to gain his trust, I wouldn’t say a word about it.

… No, still feeling a little guilty about this.

Suppressing a sigh, I glanced at Jack, wondering how he would react if he knew, both that Deliverance had been in the possession of the talisman, and that my first instinct wasn’t to tell them. Considering he had already been suspicious of the strange zebra, I doubted this would improve his opinion of him, even though he gave it back freely. And as for me… well, irritation was probably his default emotion towards me by now.

My eyes fell on his hind paw. Despite having thoroughly washed it, its color still didn’t quite match the rest of his body, which had left him in a pretty irritable mood already. Then Aite had mentioned to him that Deliverance had run into us after he had left, and he shot me an annoyed look when she brought up how we “flirted”, despite me denying it. However, the griffin hadn’t dwelled on the subject. He’d just ended the discussion and led us downstairs to meet the Mustangs’ Khan. Just before he’d started the next flight down, though, Jack had shot me this brief glance…

There was disapproval in his eyes.

Anger swelled up inside of me. Did Jack think I was some naive filly that had fallen for some, some… charismatic rogue? Yes, I did find Deliverance quite charming, it was a nice change of pace considering almost everybody I had met since leaving my Stable. But I was not… smitten with him. And even if that had been the case, since when did I need the griffin’s approval for liking somebody?!

Just you wait, sweetie, I thought, staring at Jack. I’ll find out why Deliverance took the Mind Control Talisman, how, and why he gave it back. Maybe then you will see that I am not some helpless filly that needs the approval of an “experienced Wastelander”- wait, when did we get outside?

I looked around, stunned. We had just passed through the large, open doors of Sanctuary. Was I really so lost in thought that I didn’t realize we had walked through the rest of the sanatorium? Glancing behind, I saw a large circular space, filled with benches and blankets and several ponies loitering around, a few of them eating. And some of them were staring at me and my companions, but considering what Aite had said about Jack being the most usual sight in the Wasteland between us…

That was all I managed to register before Aite’s teasing voice drew my attention, “Still daydreaming?”

I cast her what I hoped was a disapproving stare, then followed after her and Jack. “I assume the Mustangs’ Khan is somewhere around here?” I asked, looking around.

There were several ponies here, too, some patching up holes in the walls from the outside, some doing some other work, and others just sitting down and talking, one or two of them carrying weapons. Again, I realized we were being stared at. I smiled at the closest Mustangs and waved, wondering if they had seen my bloodied and unconscious body.

“Yeah, he usually is somewhere outside in the morning,” Jack replied to my question. “Checking the perimeter, estimating the state of repairs…”

Listening to Jack with one ear, I observed each of the Mustangs. I knew their Khan was Steady Pace and Free Breeze’s father, so I should be able to spot a stallion that resembled them in some way… come to think of it, Jack had mentioned that their tribe had two pegasi. If one of them was Free Breeze, could his father be-

“Oh hey, Cray-cray?” Aite spoke up, disrupting my train of thought. I turned to her, hoping she wasn’t about to tease me again; fortunately, she was pointing upwards, back towards the sanatorium. “You’ll probably love this.”

Frowning, I followed her gaze. “Love wha-”

The banner with the flag of Equestria.

I stared, agape, at the stunning symbol of the old world, flapping gently on the breeze. Slowly backing towards Aite to better see it, my eyes followed the depiction of two Goddesses flying in a circle around the Sun and the Moon, with stars surrounding them. Like the rest of the sanatorium, the banner had been touched by time, but the few holes it had were mostly located on the outskirts, leaving the symbol untarnished.

A tear formed in my eye. I wiped it off, fighting off the urge to stand in a salute.

The banner was fastened to the bottom of the third floor’s balcony; below it,hanging from the railing of the balcony underneath, were two smaller banners, each depicting a pegasus pony in gallop. Or maybe in flight? I wondered, noticing the two spreaded wings. I wasn’t familiar with that symbol, but my attention was too focused on the banner with Equestria’s flag to wonder about it.

“Why was it hung there?” I asked my companions, not turning away from the banner. “It doesn’t exactly seem appropriate for a sanatorium to have such a banner displayed…”

“They were getting ready for a royal visit.”

My ears twitched at the unfamiliar voice from above. Looking up, I saw a pegasus pony flying down towards us and then landing beside Jack.

Aite had referred to him as a “hunk”. While I perhaps wasn’t a very good judge of appearances of others - especially since I didn’t really care about their looks - I could understand why she thought so. The Khan possessed handsome features, with a light brown coat with a white blaze on his muzzle, well toned muscles and a broad chest. My experienced eyes managed to spot a few lines on his face, letting me deduce that he was a few years older than Aite, but despite that he moved with grace and displayed charisma a much younger stallion could envy him for.

His gaze, that briefly rested on me, turned back to the banner. “We found in the terminals that Princess Celestia was supposed to stay here for a few days.”

All thoughts regarding the Mustangs’ leader evaporated from my head. “P-princess Celestia?!” I stammered. “The Goddess?”

“The very same. Unfortunately, two days before her visit the Last Day happened,” the Khan said, sighing sadly. “My tribe doesn't hold any special loyalty towards the old world, but we left the banner as it was, out of respect.”

“I am glad that you did,” I said softly, once again glancing at the banner before turning my full attention to the Khan. “May I ask what exactly those two other banners depict?”

“The symbol of the Mustang Tribe, obviously,” he replied with a chuckle. “We also plan to mount a flag with it on the mast, once we get that up,” he added, glancing back towards where I assumed the destroyed-by-time mast was.

As he turned, I spotted the cutie mark on his flank, which was identical to the Mustang symbol, a pegasus pony in the middle of either flying or running. Did it mean that his special talent was… being their leader? Well that was convenient… or did he magically brand himself? Or… how long ago had these Mustangs been founded? I didn’t recall Jack mentioning that. Perhaps this was the founder of their tribe, and they just took his cutie mark as their symbol?

Beside the Khan, Jack cleared his throat, “So, did you want to meet her when she wakes up to discuss banners and flags or…”

The pegasus looked at him with amusement as the griffin trailed off impatiently. “Trust a Talon to stay focused on practical matters. Doctor Angel,” he said, turning to me, “now that you are awake, let me welcome you to Sanctuary, the current home of the Mustang Tribe. Rest assured that as long as you stay with us you and your companions will be treated as part of the tribe. You are safe here.”

“That is most kind of you,” I replied, a little taken aback by the declaration, despite all that I had already heard about Mustangs from Jack and Aite. “Thank you for your tribe’s hospitality, and especially for the care I have already received,” I added, briefly touching my horn, “Khan… um, please forgive me sweetie, but I’m afraid my friends had omitted to tell me your name,” I said, embarrassed for this diplomatic faux-pas.

The Khan chuckled in amusement. “Oh, right, sorry for the confusion. It’s Khan, actually. I gave up on my original name when I became the leader of the Mustangs,” he explained as I blinked in confusion. “It was the custom of the ancient Mustangs that our founder decided to adopt as well. I guess he never liked his own name,” he added with a chuckle.

“Oh, I see,” I said, finally understanding. “I admit I wasn’t aware that the ancient Mustangs had such a custom… though now it certainly explains some inaccuracies in the books I read…” I muttered quietly before shaking my head. “Please forgive my ignorance, Khan.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, Doctor. Especially considering that unfortunate zebra in Appleloosa I had heard about,” he added, glancing at Jack and Aite. “I’d imagine talking about him and me would get a little confusing.”

“A bit,” Jack admitted with a shrug.

“Regardless,” I spoke up again, “I'm thankful for the help we have received from your tribe, Khan. I was beginning to think that such hospitality and empathy to others didn’t exist in the Wasteland.”

“Sadly, it usually doesn’t. But helping ponies and fighting evil is sort of our family business. And speaking of family,” he added, “I’ve heard you have met my sons. I hope they weren’t too much of a bother?”

“Oh, perish the thought sweetie,” I retorted, waving my hoof.

“Didn’t you say they flew into our room through the window?” Jack asked with a deadpan tone. “On, you know, the third floor?”

“Sweetie, Khan had asked if they were a bother, not if they had endangered themselves,” I told him, then turned to the Mustang. “That being said, yes, they did; I hope Free Breeze doesn’t make a habit of dragging his brother so high up?”

Khan sighed. “You would be surprised. Fortunately he always makes sure his brother is safe, but nevermind that. They shouldn’t have been outside of your room’s window. Funny how they forgot to mention that part. I’ll need to have a talk with them.”

“Um, thank you,” I said uncomfortably. I didn’t mean to get the colts in trouble, but it wasn’t my place to advise Khan how to raise his own sons. Eager to change the topic, I thought back to what he had said earlier. “Oh, may I ask, what did you actually mean by ‘family business’?” I asked, curious.

Khan’s eyebrows rose in surprise, then he smiled. “Just what it sounds like. We don’t actively search for ponies to help or raiders or monsters and such to fight, but when we stumble upon somepony who needs help we do what we can. We have done so since my grandfather founded our tribe, hence the ‘family business’.”

I blinked in surprise, but it was Jack who asked, “Your grandfather?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, recalling his remarks about my Stable and our succession system, and hoping he wasn’t about to offend our hosts.

Strangely though, Khan seemed highly amused by his question.

“Yes, my grandfather,” he said after a few seconds, turning to Jack with a strange gleam in his eyes. “Perhaps you have heard of him, Bloodtalon? Before he took the name of Khan, my grandfather was known throughout the Wasteland as the Stable Guardian.”

Footnote: 10% to next level!

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long, I will soon start working on the next chapter

Anyway, thanks to TimePrincess, Zaleros and Sage Probo for their great work on proofreading/editing, and especially to our newest "final proofreader", Reese, who you might all know from the comment section under each chapter with all the grammar mistakes myself and all the others who go through those chapters somehow miss pointed out^^ Hopefully this means you'll finally get a chapter with perfect grammar for a change

As always, special thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria of course, to Somber for Project Horizons and Homelands, and to Heartshine for Speak, which are as canon as the original story here^^