Fallout Equestria: Old Equestria Blues

Chapters

Introduction
Chapter 1: No Second Chances
Chapter 2: Dust in the Wind
Chapter 3: No Good Deeds
Chapter 4: Dreams and Dark Reflections

Introduction

...When the dark balefire consumed Equestria those who survived did so in great underground shelters known as Stables. When they opened, their inhabitants set out all over the Wasteland to build new societies, forming tribes and villages. Two hundred and seventy years of time passed and what had once been the shattered remains of the old world united with the new to form the New Canterlot Republic, following the traditional Virtues of Harmony combined with the new rule of Law. And As the Republic grew so did its needs. Scouts traveled far west, into the dry basin region of Buffalo Territory known to them simply as The Mustang Desert. It was there they discovered a society of pegasi, separatist of the once grand Enclave, that had seceded from the rest decades ago. Renegades who had built their city in the clouds around a large transmitter tower on the surface where all sorts of griffins, ponies, and other creatures lived in relative peace. New Pegasus. And it was there in the large desert basin that the NCR stumbled upon an untapped source of magical gemstones deep within the mountain borders, enough to provide them with the resources they desperately needed back home...

...However, as the NCR worked with the natives of the Mustang Desert for trade and resources, something else stirred far beneath the desert in a long forgotten underground crystal complex. There a group of dangerous mutated fanatics with an army of stolen slaves gather strength, waiting for the right time to strike at the surface world. A cult that simply refers to itself as The Legion...

...But this is the story of a young stallion named Blue Rhapsody, a wandering musician struggling to escape from his past, that will soon find that the past refuses to be forgotten as a new darkness emerges from the ashes of the old world and threatens to consume him and everypony else in its wake...

...Finally the darkness that had consumed me slowly began to fade from my vision as I regained consciousness. I could feel my ears twitch as I heard the sound of a radio playing somewhere in the background. It was a sweet song that I could recall had once be sung by a gentle mare with the voice of a nightingale. I groaned from the dull pain that was rapidly spreading through my head, yet all that managed to come out was muffled noise. Aware that I was gagged now, I tried to focus my vision, blinking away the blurriness slowly as I tried to get a good understanding of how I had arrived in this situation. Within moments I discovered by trying to turn my head, that I also was completely bound tightly by rope like I was some sort of recently captured slave or prisoner of war. Despite the my inability to move, I was able to see where I was, kinda. Apparently, I was at the top of what appeared to be a cliff face that overlooked the vast desert wasteland. In the distance I could see the familiar Las Pegasus Tower and the community beneath it glinting off the pale moon light.

It wasn’t long before when I finally realized there were other ponies who had been standing right in front of me the whole time watching as I regained consciousness! I cursed to myself, forgetting that all I was going to do was make ineffectual muffled noises thanks to the gag that had been forced into my mouth. Before me there were five ponies, four of which appeared to be in some sort of raider gang by the looks of their ‘uniform’. But the one in the middle of them was a pony I was all too familiar with. He was, of course, a rather well dressed stallion, a pegasus with a fine ivory coat and a slicked back mane of silky black hair and a fine pressed pre-war suit to match. It was Silver Tongue, my estranged brother. Slowly and carefully he trotted up to me as though he was sizing me up as though I was a danger to him, which elicited another muffled response from myself as I found myself trying to plead with him to not do what he was doing. I gave up when it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. He looked down at me with a pair sad eyes that I could see held no real hint of any remorse, he didn’t really care, I bet some part of him was even enjoying this.

He shook his head, almost as though he was telling me anything I could try was futile. Seconds later he leaned forward and carefully grasped the silver chain from around my neck with his teeth, pulling up and away from me before he tossed it up in the air and caught on the tip of well groomed wing with a flourish. He studied it carefully almost transfixed by the blue sapphire attached at the end as it reflected in the silvery moon light. Finally, as though whatever spell it had cast on him been broken he turned his attention back to me, speaking in his irritatingly cool and composed manner.

“I know it must be hard little brother, trying to understand just what is going on right now. It’s not something you really need to concern yourself with though. For the moment let’s just focus on this moment between you and me. After all, we haven’t spoken to one another since Mom died and now here I am, out of the the cool blue, taking the only thing she left behind from you, my brother of all ponies. I just want you to know despite our unresolved differences, that there is nothing personal about this and I simply hope that you trust me when I say that.” he stopped speaking, almost as if he was waiting to make sure his words had sunk in and then resumed speaking. “It’s kinda funny though if you think about it long enough. You and I have never been anything more than little colts unaware that we’ve been playing in a game started a long time ago by our elders. Of course you’ve been trying your best to play the poor hoof you’ve been dealt and I hate to say it little brother, but everybody but you has been cheating since the start,” he said turning to look at the pendant once more in the moonlight before stuffing it into his suit.

“Oh for the love of...would you just shoot the little bu...” one of the others, a grizzly looking Earth pony with a bloody bandana wrapped over his left eye, started to say before Silver Tongue lifted up his wing suddenly for silence.

“Hey! Watch what you say, he’s still my little brother. We do this my way or you don’t get paid. At All. So I don’t care how you filthy raiders do things, but when I waste a pony, especially a family member, I don’t do it without being honest,” That was when his attention turned back to me back to me as he lowered his head to withdraw his favorite pistol from the holster underneath his other wing, resuming his speech with feigned indifference.

“Look Blue, I’m sorry you had to be dragged into all this mess, but If you knew what I did and knew what was about to go down as a result, then I’m certain you’d understand why I have to do this and that I wouldn’t want to be in the position you are in now if the tables were turned. So, no hard feelings right?”

I gave a muffled nicker in anger and struggled against my bindings futilely, yet I found myself unable to turn my eyes away as I watched my brother lift his head up with the lovingly detailed pistol his his mouth, I could’ve sworn I heard a small whisper, a trick of the wind perhaps, falling on my ears as he aimed and fired... “I dO So LovE theSe GaMes..”

Fallout: Equestria

Old Equestria Blues

Chapter 1: No Second Chances

Chapter One: No Second Chances

A few days later the darkness began to recede from my vision, only this time to be greeted seconds later by the painful light coming to life directly in front of my eyes.

Immediately I groaned in pain, it was a dull throbbing ache in my skull that seemed to match the speed of my heart. I tried to move my left foreleg in an effort to shield my eyes, finding that my whole body was stiff and sore, which was only adding to the pain. Before I could block the tortuous glowing fluorescent light, I was stopped by the sound of a soft raspy female voice coming from somewhere nearby.

“Whoa now...You might want to be...a tad careful with how fast you move...” she said slowly, almost as though it took much of her energy to form the words. I was just about to try and locate said voice when a monster’s head jumped straight into my view, causing me to incoherently mumble out an incoherent expletive in shock.

No...it wasn’t a monster. My vision had begun to clear faster as soon as her head blocked the light. She was a ghoul pony. She looked like she may have even once been a alicorn, except that her horn looked to have been broken off at the base, her wings were all but gone except for the bones that jutted out from her sides and her faded pink coat was mottled with painful crimson splotches where the fur had fallen out, while her faded pink and white mane appeared to be tattered and cut up horribly. Her eyes were a complete milky white, which made me assume she was partially blind if not completely. The worst part of her condition was that the flesh along the lower part of her jaw was gone, revealing part of the bone in her rotten jaw and the many decayed teeth.

“You were...quite the mess when I was...given care of you. It’s a surprise that...you are even alive.” she said, the wind of her words escaping through the hole in the bottom of her mouth slowly. My mind raced as I tried to comprehend her words, only to be rewarded with another painful throb of agony in my skull. As I groaned she pulled away from my face, causing me to wince from the sudden light washing over me once more, giving me slow and careful directions as I tried to get up again.

“It’s okay, take your time...You don’t want to move too fast.” Taking her words to heart, I turned to face the direction she had gone and slowly sat up on, feeling what I soon discovered was a dirty decayed mattress. Part of me sincerely hoped this wasn’t her bed. I didn’t vocalize that though, only groaned once more as my body reminded me that it was extremely sore.

“It was touch and go...I will admit. You nearly died twice...while I tried to remove the bullet...in your skull.” she said in her raspy way of vocalizing. I snapped my head in her direction, regretting such behavior immediately as my skull throbbed viciously as a result. Was that why my head hurt so much, I had been shot in the head? If that was the case, I should’ve been dead. My skull responded angrily as that gave way to many more questions flooding my mind, none of which I could even answer. I couldn’t remember anything that had happened!

I felt myself started to panic, breathing harder as I tried hard to piece together what was missing from my memory. I lifted my foreleg again to stroke my mane when I saw there was a device wrapped around it almost painfully. It was old and looked to be well worn, yet extremely well made, almost as though a lot of love and dedication had gone into its construction. In golden gilded letters I discovered the initials V.R. and a small indentation where what looked to be a picture was missing. Almost mesmerized by the device I gave it further examination, turning my hoof all over to see. That was when, to my I horror I saw that not only was I wearing it but it was grafted into my flesh. With a sense of dread I lowered my foreleg back down and gazed upon my would be savior, who only nodded slowly up and down.

“In order to make sure...you didn’t expire while I worked...I affixed the PipBuck to...your nervous system. There was a chance...it would’ve made you permanently comatose...but it was what...kept you alive in the long run.”

My eyes floated back to the machine. That was why my leg hurt so badly. This PipBuck was literally attached to my foreleg and permanently affixed in place, with what I assumed could’ve been wonderglue or something else. It didn’t feel natural and I really just wanted to rip it off but the ghoul pony had said it was probably the reason why I was even still alive in the first place, so I resisted. The Ghoul, the one who had worked as hard as she could to save my life and...I didn’t even know her name. I looked back up at her and began to speak, intent on thanking and asking for her name before she interrupted me by talking over my soft words.

“I’ve managed to...do the best as I can...but I’m afraid...there will be permanent scarring.” I could feel myself frown and roll my eyes at the mention of the PipBuck but found myself surprised as she continued to speak, a faint magical glow surrounding her as she shakily levitated a cracked hand mirror to my face. “The bullet...entered right below your ear...near your horn and...shattered as it came in contact with your...skull.”

I stared at myself, speechless at what my reflection before me was. Sure enough, below my left ear was a series of three white scars, each of them running down from the base of my ear to the bottom of my horn like some sort of wasteland creature had clawed at my forehead. That probably meant that the damage had been more severe than I could imagine if this was the end result. I continued to stare into my reflection for a few moments before I pulled away, unwilling to look at the reflection of the unicorn with a navy blue coat and a dark grey mane any longer.

“If they bother you...I’d let your mane grow out a bit to...cover them up.” the ghoul pony said, her raspy words, cold, yet still oddly comforting. I nodded a bit, it would take long time for it to grow out with how short it was now, and even then I could brush it down a bit, but that wasn’t what was bothering me.

“I’d like to run...a few quick tests, ask a few questions...to make sure...you are all right...if that is okay.” she explained almost as though she could sense my twisted emotions, before she floated the mirror back to where she had gotten it.

Taking a deep breath I nodded and tried my best to produce a smile. I cringed, seeing what her face did when she smiled back, and carefully stepped out of the bed. Before I could go anywhere else though she stopped me and looked my body over as if admiring her own handiwork and then brought her attention back to my face. “Can you...tell me what...your name is?” she asked slowly, almost as though she knew the answer.

I could almost feel myself suddenly blank as I struggled to recall my own name. Finally with a flash of insight, I responded. “My name is Blue Rhapsody,” I replied slowly, almost a little afraid that it was unreal, hearing the familiar soft baritone of my voice. She gave me that same...smile, almost surprisingly pleased before she spoke up again.

“That’s a good sign...Though I...probably would’ve called you...something else, but for right now...though, I think it’s best if we...start the tests,” she said and made her way into the more open area of the room, eventually coming to a stop, ten feet away, at what looked to be a complicated medical machine with a harness connected to it. “Go ahead...and carefully make your way over...here and slip into this harness and bite down on the bit...it’ll give me a good idea of just how good...a condition your body..is in after all...that trauma.”

Carefully I followed after her, nodding slowly as I made my way to her machine and slipped into the metal contraption, finally biting down on the bit as I got comfortable as I could. Within moments the machine came to life, various different colored numbers and stats popping up on the screen in front of me. I heard the ghoul pony gasp out in surprise in such a way that it sounded more like she was wheezing from smoke.

“I wouldn’t believe it...but it would seem that bullet...must’ve done something to your nervous system...shouldn’t be that...responsive,” she commented and then helped me out of the harness. I didn’t know what she meant, at that point I don’t think I cared, I was too focused on trying to get out while not being touched by her.

*=========*

If she had sensed my displeasure of being touched by her, she hadn’t let me know, instead, once I was out of the harness she led me out and to her living room, letting me have a seat on her old worn out sofa as she began to ask me all sorts of various psychological questions, telling me that it was important to have a sense of who I was once I told her I didn’t remember how I had been shot.

“It’s called word association...I say something and you tell me...the first thing that comes...into your mind.” she started off with, her magic at work once more as she held a pencil and a pad of paper in a beam of telekinetic power. “First word is...Rain”

“Life,” I said as an image of a river flowed through my mind.

“Next is...Music,”

“Inspiration,” I felt myself frown right then and there as a memory came back to me. I could’ve sworn I once owned a guitar. In fact, I had been a musician before this had all happened.

“Finally, the last word is...Faith,”

“Confession,” I don’t know why, but I found myself growing irritated with all of this. I wanted to ask her what was the point of all of this, but before I could, she spoke up faster than I expected her to be able to. As if she was trying to prevent me from doing exactly that.

“Now, can you tell me...what this looks like?” she asked, her magic having levitated a strange sign covered with various assorted ink splatters.

I felt my cheeks burn bright, my previous irritation quickly forgotten as an embarrassing image came to mind. “It looks like Celestia and Luna embracing each other firmly.” I finally responded after a moment of embarrassed silence. Yet again, she expressed nothing negative, showing only her dedication to her work.

“And this...one?” She asked again, the magical glow of her magic shifting in color slightly. The image suddenly changed into a different set of magic inkblots.

“A series of worn out gears in a clock,” I said as the sign somehow conjured an image of an old antique shop. Maybe I had been there at some point or another.

“Okay, this...is the last picture...” she said, the color of her magic changing once more, shifting the inkblots into another completely different formation.

“That one looks like...a lonely candle in the darkness,” More specifically though it reminded me of myself, alone with a small campfire on a long abandoned railroad.

She put away the inkblot sign and scribbled a few notes into the notepad with her magic, leaving me to my thoughts. Within the moments of silence, my eyes looked around the room. Seeing all sorts of knick knacks and trophies along the walls. There were a series of dusty snow globes on a shelf behind her, a poster of a purple unicorn mare with neat and tidy purple and pink stripped mane that was signed on the wall behind me, there was even a small record player in the corner that looked to be in pristine condition, but what caught my attention the most was the painting on the wall to my left, where there was a door I presume led to the outside. I turned my attention to the ghoul pony who seemed to still be busy writing notes and stood up, making my way to the painting to get a better look at it.

It depicted a rather beautiful ivory castle surrounded by a rose pink magic shield that was built into the side of a cloudy mountain that had a waterfall rushing below to the ground. There was a small plaque on the bottom of the frame that read, “Memories of Home”. After I second realized I recognized what this place was. It was or at least had been Canterlot a long time ago, did that mean my...doctor had been originally from there? I was about to turn and ask when I noticed she had stopped writing and was staring at me with her unnerving eyes. Looks like she wasn’t really blind at all... Feeling quite sheepish, as if I had been caught doing something bad, I returned to my spot on the sofa and waited patiently for her to speak.

“I don’t have much to go on...without anything to compare it to...sadly, but I think it shows you are all there. I guess all I really need...from you now...is any past medical history that...you may remember so...I can keep you on file...” she said and gave me that same, frightening smile. Though I found myself growing a bit used to it every time.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. The pain in my head was beginning to come back, but after a minute I nodded as I found myself able to recall something more.

“Well...I can’t remember much. It hurts a lot to think about. I still can’t recall what had happened but I do remember something, but it’s not medical history and it’s not all there. Do you think what I can remember about my cutie mark counts?”

“Well...Probably not but...talking about it may help...your memory recover faster...” she replied, floating the notebook and pen away safely. “Go ahead and...tell me about your cutie...mark Blue.”

Before I began I took a deep breath and looked at the cutie mark on my flank, a silver crescent moon with three tiny music notes trailing beneath it like shooting stars, then I turned back to face her, the ghoulicorn doctor.

“Well, I remember being music being one of the most important things in my life. I think I even used to have a guitar.” I stopped for a moment as the pain in my forehead began to grow worse, but I pushed on, finding myself able to remember more if I forced it. “I used to feel alone a lot when I was little, so I played the guitar. I think it used to be my only friend.” Another flare up caused me to growl in pain. I could see that she knew I was in pain, but I spoke ahead of her this time, still focusing on my cutie mark. “I remember sitting by the window and looking up at Luna...the moon. I had started to play the guitar and I found myself playing one of the best songs I had ever written, at that point...I remember I started to cry for some reason and turned...” I feel myself visibly shake, pressing a hoof against my forehead to try and mitigate this burning pain. “To see someone else had come into my room crying as well...” I felt myself gasp in horrible pain and realization as I recalled who I saw that night.

I didn’t exactly get to finish telling her my my story though. The pain in my head became so intense in that exact moment that it completely overwhelmed me, causing me to collapse onto the hard floor with a loud thud.

*=========*

When I had finally regained consciousness for the third time in less than a week I found that parts of my broken memory had returned, along with the trauma and the pain with them. My brother had killed me or at least very nearly did, and he had taken something very important from me in the process. So when I told my doctor, that I had to go out and find him, she was shocked, which made the this the first time I had seen what an actual frown on her looked like. It was worse than her smile.

“I don’t...think you should be chasing after him in...your condition. You might make yourself...worse than he already did,” she advised, blocking the exit.

“I need to. He took something important from me, and I mean more than just most of my memory. I have to find him and get it back...and if it comes down to it. Return the favor.” I said, trying to hold back the anger growing inside of me. I wasn’t really mad at her, heck, I still didn’t even know her name at this point. But my brother, Silver Tongue, he had done something horrible. I needed to find out why.

“You...don’t even know where to start...” she said matter of factly, in such a way I felt discouraged, the growing anger cooling down until I finally realized something.

“No... I don’t know where to start...but you do, don’t you? You found me and patched me back together. You know where I could look.” I said, doing my best to tower over her while trying to stare her down. She didn’t move or blink, there was in fact no sign of fear in those pale white eyes, if anything there seemed to be a growing resignation behind them.

“I really...don’t think you should...but...I can’t stop you if that...is what you really want...” she signed and trotted away from the door into another room, “Before you go...let me at least give you a few things...that could help you out...” she called out, returning a few moments later with a small leather saddle bag. Carefully she strapped it to my back and stood off to the side. “It contains...some preserved food and clean water...five doses of a powerful...painkiller called Med-X...please don’t use it...unless any pain you experience... becomes unbearable...finally there is a pistol, should you absolutely need to use it for self...defense.”

I looked at her dumbfounded; why was she giving me all of these things? Was where she found me really such a dangerous place? I was about to ask, just where exactly she had found me when she spoke up again, with that same perfect timing from before. It was almost as though she could read my mind.

“I...didn’t actually find you...one of...my friends found you and brought...me to you. He...was the one who...actually...rescued you.” she said softly in her own way, not quite looking at me as she spoke. “He found you...ten miles...up the road to the west...at the bottom...of a cliff. There is a grave...marker in the shape...of a cross at the top.”

Slowly I nodded, turning to face the door as I started to open it, finding myself stopped as she placed a hoof gently on my neck. “If you see...my friend...please tell him I said Hi...you will recognize him as a spritebot,” she added and slowly walked away.

Frowning, I turned my attention back to the door, pausing for a second as I considered her words one final time before I opened it up and stepped out into the Waste once more.

Level Up.
New Perk: Good as Geld -- +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponyfolk.

Chapter 2: Dust in the Wind

Chapter Two: Dust in the Wind

I gasped in frustration as the rays of sunlight washed over my face, thankfully the irritation didn’t last nearly as long as I scanned the fuzzy scene before me. I was standing at the entrance of the ghoulicorn’s small clinic at the top of a dusty hill that appeared to be overlooking a small isolated community. I counted about eight or nine buildings, the largest two close to the highway I was looking for. Besides that though, there was nothing of particular note.

Slowly I made my way down the road, stopping at the bottom as I suddenly heard the soft sound of static coming from the PipBuck. I lifted my foreleg and looked over the device again. The screen had come to live and was apparently running through a backlog of data as it emitted a constant stream of soft static. I frowned as I began to fiddle will all the various knobs and switches, trying anything to get that annoying static to stop. I had never been one for playing with computers.

I was just about to give up when suddenly the screen cleared itself of data and the static came to a stop. There was new information was on the screen now, this time not unintelligible data.

Stable-Tec PipBuck 3000 User’s Guide
Warning: This device has been modified beyond its original parameters, rendering any previous warranty null and void. Stable-Tec will no longer insure of this device’s functionality. To insure the user’s safety, please dispose of this device.

I smirked at the irony of the top part of the screen’s message. Those modifications were probably what had saved my life in the first place. Shaking my head I continued reading. It didn’t take very long, and it was rather nice. It was basically the instructions on how to use the PipBuck to its fullest. Apparently it could measure my personal health and vital signs with its own brand of magic. It could also help me administer any healing potions or medicines I had with me when I needed them.

I must’ve been standing at the bottom of that hill for quite awhile as I learned as much as I could from the PipBuck. It had already taken a scan of my body, as well as my saddle bag and was showing me how I could sort and organize my inventory without even opening it up. It could even play music! Now I really loved this thing. All I would need to do is find a radio signal for it to pick up. I reached the final part of the user’s guide and raised an eyebrow at the list of all the additional features this thing came with. It could measure magical radiation with the rainbow to the side of the screen, it had a smart compass called Eyes-Forward Sparkle or E.F.S. that would keep track of my location and my destination as well tell me if anyone was friend or foe, and the most surprising function at all, The Stable-Tec Arcane Spell. shortened to S.T.A.T.S. A function that could aid you in a physical conflict with a boost of scientific magic. “A little something extra just incase diplomacy fails,” it read at the end of the description.

I guess the upside about having this thing permanently affixed to my foreleg was that it was extremely helpful in nearly everything I could do. Mostly though I was just happy it could play music. Soon after finishing the guide, I switched to the map to get a better look at where I was. Of course this thing had already scanned the entire surrounding area, labling the small community as Oatfields. The two buildings by the highway were a general store and a saloon named Desperation. Not seeing anything else of note I switched to the E.F.S. and found that it already had my destination marked for me. Maybe this thing wasn’t so nice after all. After all It was kinda creepy how it knew where I already wanted to go.

Not willing to waste anymore time on trying to figure the PipBuck out, I set off toward the highway, using the marker the E.F.S. used as a guide. As I made my way through the community I found there wasn’t really anyone here at all. This place was practically a ghost town. I saw one or two earth ponies stepping out of the general store and then immediately into the saloon, but that was it. There was no one else really. Like everypony had just gotten up and left and those that remained were just living out the rest of their days.

All around me was barren desert, as I traveled further west along the highway. It was kind of familiar for me. As though I had done this kind of thing before I had been shot. A cool breeze blew by and the sun shone a little bright, preventing me from being chilled. It was a long walk, quite a distance from Oatfields. But then again, she had said I had been found ten miles out. Sure enough I could even see the cliff face from here, but judging from the lack of any nearby mountains, it looked more like a bluff.

I stopped after about an hour of walking to take a drink of water. It was cutely labeled Aqua Cura and was was just as refreshing. There had still been no other signs of life though. Rather, It looked as though I was the only one along this long stretch of road. No spritebots, no bloatsprites, or any of the other creatures I remembered that could be wandering about the desert. I checked my E.F.S. once more, discovering that I had just a little over five miles left to go, but as far as it could tell there were still no radio signals for it to pick up.

That was a little strange, I could’ve sworn I remembered a radio signal that broadcasted throughout the entire desert. I hadn’t given it much thought when I had first started walking to this cliff or bluff. Now though, the more I thought about it, the more strange it became. A felt a brief flash of dull pain in my skull and felt compelled to turn my head and look upon the horizon. Now that I had traveled further out away from Oatfields I could see a large city built into the ruins of a large tower that disappeared into the clouds. A Familiar place. I zoomed out of the current map of the area and broadened its scale. There was a whole bunch of information missing, but it had managed to identify that area of civilization I was looking at as New Reino and New Pegasus. Some part of me deep down inside wanted to go there, almost as if it was calling out to me, but I didn’t know why. I had finished with my break though so I reluctantly turned away from the view and continued on my way to the marker indicated on my E.F.S.

The sun was already beginning to set once I arrived at the bluff. I was a bit tired and sore from the constant walk, but just like when I had started this had been relatively peaceful. I looked around for any signs of where I had previously been, finding nothing but dirt and loose dust that blew away as the wind picked up. I knickered and kicked at the ground in frustration. This had been a stupid idea. What did I honestly expect to find? Some sort of obvious clue that would’ve led me where I needed to go to find my brother, of course. Almost as if this was one of those fantasy stories in comic books little colts and fillies read. It wasn’t though. This was real life. I sat on the ground with a hard thud and looked around slowly, my eyes falling back on the horizon and to New Reino. I was about to just give up and head back to Oatfields when my ears managed to pick up on the sound of some sort of faint music playing not too far away. It sounded like string music, enchanting and calming at the same time. I stood up and looked around, trying to locate the source, it appeared to becoming from the top of the bluff, where the grave marker was.

I could still just barely hear the music, growing frustrated when I caught the sight of something reflecting a bit of light from the setting sun. There was no way I’d be able to find the music unless I went around and climbed up the extremely craggy hill, but I felt spurred on, a small hope renewed, even if it wasn’t what I was looking for. I kicked off running along the face hoping to find some sort of path that led up. When I couldn’t I jumped up onto the rocky surface, grunting as I forced my way up the steep incline, determined to find the music, I almost panicked when I thought I couldn’t hear it any more, but the familiar hum of strings told me I was going in the right direction.

Finally I reached the top, with nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises, panting with exhaustion as I caught sight of a floating metal orb in front of the cross. My eyes however opened wide as I caught sight of something laying on the ground at the foot of the grave beneath the floating machine.

A delicately carved acoustic guitar, with a blue finish, with a name embossed in silver at the base. I recognized it immediately. It was my guitar, or more accurately it was my father’s guitar which had been passed down onto me. The PipBuck suddenly let out another soft hiss of static drawing my attention towards it. It had labeled this area, Blue Rhapsody’s Grave, almost as though the thing was mocking me.

Ignoring the PipBuck now, I turned my attention back to the floating mechanical orb in front of me. It was extremely beat up and covered in dust, parts of it were well rusted and it had quite a few bent pieces. Sure enough it was the source of music. I could hear it clearly now, a cello played with perfect care and precision. Almost as if the player loved the instrument truly. it was haunting now, as though it was stirring something within my soul. Was this who had brought the ghoulicorn to me? I frowned at the idea I still hadn’t asked her name before I had left, Once I was back there, I would make sure to ask. However, there was this thing right in front me I had to deal with.

“Excuse me...” I began, uncertain how to talk to a machine that just floated around and played music. “Did you see what happened here?”

The only response was music.

“I was the pony that had been shot here awhile back. The doctor who patched me up said a sprite bot had led her here. Was that you?”

Again, only music. I hate machines. I didn’t think I was going to get anywhere else with this so I stepped closer to it.There was a metal plate welded to its side that looked like it once had a bunch of letters, now only a few remained. I shifted my attention from the spritebot and looked at the guitar on the ground, “Well, if you don’t mind then, I’m gonna take what belongs to me back,” I said and called upon my innate unicorn talent. My horn glowing as a small levitation field enveloped the guitar and floated it to me. Despite being a bit dusty, it looked perfectly fine. Carefully I used my magic to strum a chord, shivering a little in excitement as the familiar tone came out.

Almost immediately the music cut out and I turned my attention back to the bot, wondering just what was going on. Nothing. The music had just stopped suddenly for some reason. I turned my attention back to the guitar, smiling and strumming the strings a few more times. This felt right. My ears twitched and I heard a horrible clicking hissing noise behind me that carried a faint wetness. I turned around just in time to see a huge radscorpion Lifting up its tail, ready to strike at me with his nasty looking stinger.

I wish I could say I had done the right thing, that I jumped out of the way like some sort of badass. I mean I’m sure I had seen plenty of these things before. This time though, I did the dumbest thing anypony who is face to face with a mutated creature would do. I froze in place.

Within seconds I would be dead, so much for second chances right? I guess the PipBuck had been right, this was my grave...Or it would’ve been had it not been for the spirtebot floating above me. Before I could be stabbed to death, it came to life, a small magical glow coming to life as it fire an obnoxious green burst of energy at the creature, causing it to suddenly dissolved into a congealed mess of glowing goo.

I continued to stand there dumbfounded at just what had occurred in front of me but now the spritebot had turned to face me.

“Well, I can see how they nearly managed to kill you last time, you’re not very perceptive are you?” a kind of deep voiced asked from within the bot, almost sounding smug at my lack of awareness.

“It’s nice to know you can actually talk. I thought you might’ve just been a stupid piece of junk.” I replied, not wanting to focus on myself given what had just occurred.

“Well, as a matter of fact, this thing is a piece of junk, I, however, am not. You should be thanking me though, since I just saved your life for a second time,”

My cheeks felt hot at that, I wanted to yell at whoever this was. “Well I would’ve thanked you if you hadn’t been such an ass about it,” That was when it clicked in my mind, “Besides, if you had been around here when you saw me get attacked the first time, why didn’t you help me then? You certainly have the firepower for it.” This time I grinned, whoever this was, he wouldn’t be able continue on his high horse now.

“Okay, I see you fail at basic math too. Sure I could’ve taken one or two of them down, but the rest would have overwhelmed me, and then you would’ve been dead for sure. I just did the smart thing and waited to see if they had actually killed you. Though if you are this ungrateful, they probably should’ve.” he responded cold and matter of factly.

I went silent. Verbally defeated by somepony who hid behind a stupid machine. I didn’t know what to say to that, and it kind of hurt. A minute must have passed before he spoke up again.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I did try my best with what I have to save you and I’m glad you are alive. You can call me Watcher,” he said.

I took a deep breath and nodded, more than willing to just forget the small fight I had had with my savior twice over. “My name is Blue Rhapsody, I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, but these last few hours have been kinda painful. I don’t quite remember who I am.”

“A bullet in your skull and you’ve come out with only a few holes in your memory? That’s pretty lucky. Though I do hope that you get back what you lost, I kinda know the feeling myself.”

I smirked a bit and nodded. “I know you were busy making sure I was saved, but I don’t suppose you can tell me about anything that happened here or where my brother went could you?” I asked, deciding that changing the subject and focusing on my task at hand would be best.

Watcher, the spritebot, gave out a short pop of static and seemed to wobble in the air for a moment before he spoke up, was the machine really in that bad of a condition?

“Well I didn’t see too much actually. I did my best to stay out of sight while the leader seemed to talk to you. After he took what he wanted and shot you though, he said something about heading to Neighvac before he headed home to start looking for the others and that’s about it. If you are going to follow him though, I recommend you use caution, there has been a lot of strange trouble up north and the NCR has been busy trying to keep the peace there, so it’d be wise to follow through to Neighvac, since it’s further away from the trouble areas.”

I smiled, now I had a sense of direction. My PipBuck gave another pop of static, drawing my attention towards it. Like las time,It had automatically updated itself, my E.F.S. now placing a marker somewhere else on my map, in the complete opposite direction of my “grave”. Hopefully it updated because it had been hearing the conversation so far, and not because it was somehow reading my thoughts.

“Thanks for the help Watcher. I appreciate it. But I’m gonna head back to Oatfields and thank my doctor once more. She told me to tell you she said Hi though. Should I tell her anything for you?” I asked, levitating my precious guitar to my saddleback and securing it carefully.

“That’s okay Blue. I don’t need to tell her anything. but I do want to ask you something, if you don’t mind,”

I checked my inventory to make sure everything was there and then drank some more Aqua Cura, nodding to the spritebot, wondering what he could want from me.

“Real quick, can you tell me what kind of pony you are?”

*=====*

I had contemplated Watcher’s question the entire time I walked back to Oatfields. At first I though he had been asking me if I was a unicorn or a pegasus or something else, but he had quickly clarified that he had meant was what kind of pony I was in regards to my personal morality. At first I was angry and I nearly yelled out him for such a question, offended by whatever implications that question carried. I managed to stop myself though as it really took root in my mind. I didn’t really know what kind of pony I had been before I woke up in the clinic. I couldn’t remember. So I told him as such.

All I really knew was that my brother had tried to kill me, and had taken something extremely important in the process. judging from everything I had just experienced today, I also knew that my guitar used to belong to my father, but I didn’t remember anything else about him, and I felt as though I knew something about New Reino. Nothing else.

By the time I arrived back into Oatfields the moon had risen pretty high and it was getting rather dark. I didn’t want to impose on the good doctor again, especially after I had nearly been killed so soon. So, I headed towards the Desperation Saloon.

Stepping inside, I already started to cough, the air inside was filled with a thick smoke from the large group of ponies who were smoking cigars off in their own booth. There were about four of them, all dressed in a similar fashion. Assorted styles of black leather vests, each one with a vicious looking snake emblazoned on it somewhere within sight. I tried to ignore them and instead trotted up to the counter were an elderly looking earth pony stood, cleaning out a glass with a dirty rag. She eyed me for a moment and then gave me a warm smile.

“Well hullo there cutie, what can I getcha?” she asked, setting the glass down on the counter carefully.

I smiled, blushing a little at the idea that I was apparently cute to somepony. “Oh! Well, uh...” I started, already sounding like a foal. “I’m kinda new in town, I don’t really see any taverns or hotels, so I was hoping I could find a room to stay the night.”

She laughed a little and then turned and grabbed a small bottle of a glowing amber liquid. Setting it down before she answered my question.

“Heh, well that’s cus we don’t get very many folk who want to stay in a dirt heap like Oatfields sweetie, but you are in luck cause I just so happen to have two empty rooms that I rent out on occasion. If you like, I kin give you the key to the room for a night for twenty caps.” she offered with a warm smile, opening the bottle and pouring the liquid in the relatively clean glass now.

I felt the blood drain from my face as I realized I didn’t have any money at all. Nervously I smiled to her “Well...uh ma’am...” I began only to be interrupted by her.

“No No No, I ain’t no ma’am. The name’s Miz Sunrise, Tequila Sunrise,” she corrected me and then pushed the glass toward me with a warm smile.

I nodded, still smiling nervously, “Oh...Well miss Sunrise, I don’t actually have any money...”

That damn near made that smile of her turn sour before she perked it right back up. “Oh, you one of them types huh? Well Nothin here is free, so if’n you want a place to stay for the night, I’m gonna need to see some caps or you are gonna have to work for your stay,” she said eyeing me over with that same smile, that was starting to look kinda creepy.

“Seein as you don’t have any caps, that means you are gonna work then an I kin thinka two things you’d be good at. Playin that guitar of yours since the radio don’t work no more or warming my bed, seeing as you look like you a good role in the hay...”

I felt myself instinctively wanting to be sick at the mere idea of warming her bed, no matter if she thought I was sweet or cute. “Oh, well, yeah, I can play the guitar, I’m really good at that!” I said, speaking so hurriedly once she finished her own sentence.

She looked me over and then sighed and shook her head, as if resigned herself to another lonely night. “Oh okay then, that’ll be fine. I didn’t know you were one of THOSE types,” the words were kinda sad and seemed just a bit spiteful. What did she mean, one of those types? Before I could ask though, she seemed to cheer right back up and resumed speaking.

“Okay well, I used to have a radio play some music, but the darn thing ain’t work right since last week, so if you can just play something to give this old place some live, I’d appreciate that. After about an hour or so, you can head on up to bed, deal?”

I smiled, the comment quickly forgotten as I nodded. “Sounds like a deal to me,”

“Good, then drink up and get to playing that fancy thing,” she said and pushed the glass of glowing amber liquid to me further to me. “Don’t worry about payin for the drink hun, since you’re on the clock, it’ll be on the house,”

I smiled, not that I was really thirsty, but more at her generosity, despite the fact I was piss poor and not interested in fooling around with her. So I wrapped a gentle telekinetic field around the glass and brought the strange drink to my lips.

It was warm, smooth, and kinda thick yet it managed to cause a fire like sensation to stir in my belly. I quickly set the glass down and coughed a bit, unused to the sensation of drinking such a strong spirit. Sunrise was watching me with a bemused look and shook her head, picking up another glass and cleaning it with her dirty cloth. A few moments later I managed to finish the glass and set down it on the counter for her. My entire body felt nice and comfortable and I was relaxed. So I headed to a nice isolated place near the counter, unslung my guitar from my saddle bag and held it close.

*=====*

I must’ve been just sitting there looking like quite the ass when I didn’t immediately start playing. Admittedly, I didn’t remember any song I used to play, and I had no idea if I could still play as good as I thought I used to, but once I strummed my hoof across those string, whether it had been the alcohol or the conversation with Watcher, I just began to play.

*=====*

I hardly even realized how intensely I had been playing until I finally finished. The saloon had become completely silent, nothing but a few trails of smoke hanging in the air. Miss Sunrise was looking at me with a smile, not like before though, but rather a much different one. Almost as though she was seeing me in a different light. I looked around and saw the group of ponies from before in their booth, drinking and avoiding looking each other in the eyes, and a few new customers had come in while I was playing to get some drinks and listen to the show. Sheepishly I bowed before everyone, and carefully put my guitar back over my back, then made way back to the counter. With a smile she gave me the key and a pair of directions to where I could sleep.

*=====*

Bang! The sound of a gun going off and a bullet leaving the barrel of a pistol. Slowly it traveled through the air till it came in contact with my skull. I gasped with pain and sat up right in the bed, groaning as I pressed a hoof against my skull where the scars were. It had only been a dream, or so I thought when the sound of a gun went off again and a scream of fear soon followed after it. I could hear someone yelling angrily nearby. In a hurried panic I went to my saddle bag, searching for the pistol my doctor had given me yesterday. After the radscorpion last night, I wasn’t about to be caught off guard again.

It was a small 9mm pistol that looked to be in extremely poor condition, but after checking the magazine, it was fully loaded thankfully. I heard another scream and the sound of glass breaking again, this time I could tell it was coming from the bar. Carefully I wrapped the pistol with my telekinetic field, my horn glowing a bit slightly, and I looked at my Eyes-Forward Sparkle. There were six hostiles, all glowing an angry red on my compass, and one non-hostile who I assume was miss Sunrise. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door to the bedroom and tried my best to quietly step out.

I reached the hallway that lead to the main area of the saloon and head a gruff male voice speaking up loudly, “You’ve been late with your payment for the last three times Miz Sunrise...You know this is the last time the boss was gonna let you get away with this, and you know he ain’t as generous as you seem to be, why do you have to lie about not having the money when apparently you can hire musicians huh?”

I couldn’t hear her reply to him, but apparently my performance last night had done more bad than good in the long run. It had brought down these thugs. Peeking around the corner as best as I could, I could tell none of them could see me from where I was. Most of them were wearing that same jacket snake symbol uniform. More members had shown up, probably this morning. Now they were extorting Sunrise. I did my best to see where each of them were on my E.F.S. there were still only six, but I could only just barely see four of them somewhere further in, and it was too dark inside for me to see if they had any weapons of their own.

“Well then Sunrise, since you refuse to pay up, I’m gotta have to take it outta your ass. You’re fine with that aren’t ye? I heard you been looking for a stallion anyway, since you seem to be throwing yourself at just about anyone. Hold her down boys!” he cried out, followed by her screaming.

There was no way I was going to let this happen. I took a deep breath and stepped out of the hallway and towards the bar counter, pointing the pistol up at the ceiling and firing enough to bring everyone’s attention to me.

It was a horrible scene before that was laid out before me, two of those...’snakes’ had her bent down with her face pressed roughly against the floor, forcing her backside to be presented to the stallion I assumed was the leader. He was ugly, plain and simple. His face was just covered in piercings and he had a crummy looking eye patch covering his left eye, he was staring at me with an angry snarl. Most of his teeth missing already, the rest looking jagged and horrible.

“Let her up,” I said plainly, trying not to lose my cool. Keeping the barrel of my gun trained on him. “If any of you touch her again, I swear on Luna’s fury I will put you down like the dogs you are.”

‘Eyepatch’ knickered and nodded to his minions, both of them getting up and pulling away, leaving sunrise to cower on the floor sobbing quietly to herself.

“That’s him boss...the one with the guitar...” I heard one of them say. I didn’t like how his frown shifted into a cruel smile at the mention of that, as though the game had changed back into his favor.

“Oh is it now huh? He certainly don’t look like much, that’s for sure,” at that, he stepped forward and delivered a hard kick right into Sunrise’s backside causing her to cry out in intense pain and then looked right at me with a wicked smile. “Heh, what was that you said bout touching her again? Put us down like dogs you said?” He moved past her and stepped closer to me, I kept my gun trained on him, feeling my forehead throb with pain in anger. Damn it I was frozen again!

“Still haven’t pulled that trigger colt. I bet you don’t have it in you do you?” he said with a smile. Then turned his head back to his men. “Nevermind about this bucklover boys, get that bitch ready for me, he ain’t gonna do a damn thing. I can see it in his eyes,”

My eyes snapped to the two ponies who pulled and tugged on Sunrise, both of them grunting and Laughing as they forced her back into position. I closed my eyes and lowered my pistol, struggling against this paralyzing sensation that had overcome me.

“eH Eh eH, He’S righT HuH?” I heard just barely in my ear, like a gust of wind against a series of chimes, like someone had tried to whisper a secret in my ear. At that my eyes flew right open and I pointed the barrel right at ‘Eyepatch’s’ left knee and pulled the trigger, the bullet exploding out of the chamber and exploding in his knee cap, causing him to collapse onto the ground in a pool of his own blood, howling in pain, suddenly every one of his goons backed away, seeing their boss incapacitated.

I brought the gun up and slowly waved it in their general direction. “I want every single one of you filthy snakes to go crawling back into the tunnel you dragged yourselves out of, or I will do the exact same to you!” I roared, feeling my blood pumping at the sudden rush of adrenaline. “And take your boss with you,”

They didn’t even nod, within moments they were out the door, the last one coming by to pick his boss up as best as he could and drag him away. After that I didn’t pay any attention to them, instead I rushed forward to Sunrise’s aid, giving her a quick once over to see how badly they may have hurt her. As far as I could tell, the most she had were a few bruises. She looked up at me, tears streaking in her eyes and her lips moved. She was trying to say something but I wasn’t hearing it, instead that same faint whisper took over.

“OoooO THaT was fUn...i WoNdeR though, whAt kInD of poNY doeS thiS makE you now?”

I looked up and around for any sign of who had said that, immediately thinking of Watcher, instead though I saw, just as he near the door to leave, Eyepatch threw himself off his lacky and charged at me with a switchblade screaming bloody murder. With perfect precision I lifted my pistol back up with my magic, locking onto him with S.T.A.T.S and fired at his head.

He didn’t even make it halfway to us before his face just suddenly erupted like a rotten pumpkin, blood and gore spraying all over the place. Needing no further provocation, the last of his minions ran out of town as though they had just seen hell.

I looked down at Sunrise who was looking at me with a mixture of gratitude and horror. I didn’t even want to know what she was seeing on my face right now. As far as I was concerned I had just taken my first life, sure it had been in self-defense, but I still had willingly crossed that line.

“I’m a no second chances kind of pony,” I muttered under my breath, closing my eyes and turning off S.T.A.T.S.

Level Up.
New Perk: Horse Sense -- You are a swift learner. You gain an additional +10% whenever experience points are earned.

Chapter 3: No Good Deeds

Chapter 3: No Good Deeds

With a deep breath I finally opened my eyes and looked down at Miss Sunrise who was softly sobbing to herself. When our eyes met, she quickly turned to look somewhere else, as though she couldn’t bear to look at me. I didn’t blame her though, especially after what had just happened. With no idea of what to say to her or what I could do to improve on the situation, my eyes began to wander around the room looking over the bloody scene for some kind of distraction. ‘Eyepatch’’s corpse was about ten feet away from us. Needless to say, his face was just a horrid mess. Most if not all of his piercings were gone, along with the rest of his face. Looking up from his body I could see where exactly he had been when I shot him thanks to the messy blood splatter on the nearby wall.

The scene began to replay itself slowly in my mind the more I stared at the blood on the wall. ‘Eyepatch’ was charging at us with a horrible limp thanks to the hole in his kneecap I had given him moments before. He had an engaged switchblade gripped firmly in his jaw, its gleaming blade ready to sink into my flesh. Then there was me. I reacted with such unnatural speed, suddenly wrapping a telekinetic field around my pistol in the blink of an eye, as though I had done it a million times before, lifting the gun and firing directly into his face with the PipBucks’ magical assistance. The feeling of a natural born killer washed over me afterward.

I was snapped out of it when Sunrise finally spoke up, drawing my attention back to her.

“Thank you for savin my hide darlin...but you really shouldn’ta killed him like that...” she said quietly, sniffling a little still as though she was still thinking about what she was trying to say. “Those ponies, the ones that got away...well they work for a really bad stallion up at New Reino...I owe him a lotta caps and once he learns about what gone down here he is gonna send more ponies down here to get what he is owed,”

I nodded slowly, not quite sure how to respond. Did she want my help protecting her? It didn’t sound like that was where her train of thought was headed though once she resumed speaking.

“They are gonna come back to my saloon that’s for sure, but they ain’t gonna find me. I’m gonna pack all my things and get the heck outta here. You should do the same sweetie.”

“Well you can come with me, I’m heading to Neighvac. I can protect you,” I offered, a feeling of guilt creeping on me, as I realized this was partially my fault. I could’ve just gone back and stayed with the ghoulicorn, but now I had indirectly ruined Tequila Sunrise’s life. I owed it to her to protect her from this bad pony and his thugs.

She gave a soft if forced chuckle at my offer, causing me to blink at her response. “Sorry sugah, It was nice of you and all to stop those ponies from doing what they were gonna do, but they are gonna be looking for you too, especially since you were the one who killed Lance over there,” she said, pointing a hoof at the dead pony I had mentally been calling ‘Eyepatch’ all this time. “You stand out hun and they are gonna be coming with more than just knives and bare hooves a second time around. You ain’t safe to be around. It’d just be better if we went our own ways. Still...thanks for the help, but you should probably leave town as soon as possible so no one else here but me gets hurts as a result.”

I looked at her in shock. I had already been feeling pretty guilty about what had happened, but this really hurt. It was true though. I couldn’t argue it. She had gotten in trouble because of me, and she’d just be in more danger if she came with me, what really made it worse though was they way she had said I was risking everypony else just by being here.

I nodded, my turn being unable to look her in the eyes as I slowly made my way back to the room I had spent the night and gathered the rest of my things. When I returned, she had already left. I hadn’t taken long, but I guess she didn’t have much other than the saloon. Lance was still here and he was still very much dead too. I started to head towards the door when I caught sight of his switchblade under a nearby table. All I had to defend myself with was an old worn out pistol, and I didn’t think I had very many rounds left in it. Despite how useful it probably would’ve been I didn’t want a reminder of what had happened, so I left it where it was and headed out the door.

I felt the hot dusty wind blow against my face as I stepped outside, the highway coming into view with the rest of Oatfields as I looked around. There was still no sign of miss Sunrise. She must’ve taken off running once I had left her sight. I took a deep breath and sighed, beginning to make my way to the highway when I was suddenly greeted with a burst of static emitting from my PipBuck and a radio signal creeping to life. I looked down at it, smiling as it finally managed to pick something up. A radio station registered as 102.7 FM Happy Trail News. This was the first good thing to happen to me all morning. So I quickly checked the map to make sure I was heading in the right direction and continued on my way, switching back to the radio and turning up the volume.

“Heellllooo Colts and Fillies, It’s I, Howling Mad Mustang and I am coming to you live from the New Pegasus Broadcasting Tower high above the clouds overlooking the dry Mustang Desert Waste. First off, I just want to say sorry for the all the radio silence these last few weeks I’ve been having some troubles with the darn equipment. Never fret though, I didn’t forget about you guys. I’ve got some bad news and some good news for all my little ponies.

You see things are getting rather heated for both the New Canterlot Republic and the Sovereign Pegasus Enclave as they seem to be fighting an enemy that has been going around terrorizing the good honest pony folk up north that for some reason can’t be found no matter what. It’s all kinds of really strange and even a bit spooky if you ask me, so with each new incident that occurs the peaceful negotiations between the two groups seem to be getting less friendly and more fierce. Of course it doesn’t help that there are rumors about how either side is playing the other for a bunch of foals in order to strengthen their hold for those precious gemstone resources up in the mountains.

I also happen to be getting reports from New Pegasus’ sister city, New Reino, that gang activity has been on the rise since neither the NCR or the SPE have been able to come to terms over who will get to protect the citizens living there and since many ponies are struggling as it is to find good food or Aqua Cura as it is, it’s only gotten worse now that these gangs are extorting what little they have as it is. It just breaks my heart just to think that things could’ve gotten that bad that fast since those new gem deposits were found.

I’m afraid the bad news doesn’t stop there though. Down south of New Pegasus, it seems as though a few nasty groups of raider ponies have taken up residence somewhere and seem to be raiding any settlement they can for slaves and loot. Unfortunately, they seem just as violent as they were decades ago, so I wouldn’t try any diplomatic solutions with them that didn’t come with a twelve gauge back up plan, if you catch my drift.

But now, it’s time for that good news I promised you huh? It may not be much but you know what they say, sometimes the best things come in small packages. You see, the Followers of the Apocalypse, those kind and generous ponies who selflessly travel all over Equestria teaching ponies and giving them medical attention have finally been able to establish a few permanent bases over the Mustang Desert, including New Reino. So if you are sick and need help or just want to learn, give them a look.

I won’t lie folks, times have been getting tougher for us here in ol Buffalo Territory, even though the heartlands have been getting better. But as DJPon3 says, you can’t give up the hope, no matter how bad things hurt.

Finally before I give the mic over to Little Miss Equestria, I just want to address some of the letters I’ve been getting asking if I’ve heard anything about a brave pony willing to be that one shining ray of hope we seem to desperately need right now. I sadly haven’t heard anything but if any of you ponies who are on their way to New Pegasus manage to find a real bona fide hero, send them my way baby and I’ll be sure to spread the word!

I came to a stop as the DJ who called himself Howling Mad Mustang stopped speaking. Heh, for a moment, I had almost thought that by saving Tequila Sunrise from those, I guess gangsters is what they really were, that I had been a hero of sorts, but she had pretty much shown me otherwise and now here I was pretty much running away. Of Course, I had been planning on leaving anyway, but now I had seen what my action had done.I pretty much didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Slowly I turned around and scanned the horizon with my eyes. This strangely felt a little familiar to me for some reason. As though I had done something similar to this before. My sight stopped at the sight of the Ghoulicorn’s lone clinic on the lonely hilltop that overlooked the small town. I guess I wasn’t going to be able to ask her name and give her proper thanks for all that she had done for me after all huh? She had done more than enough by saving my life, and I certainly wasn’t going to put her into any danger.

I shook my head and turned back around, continuing my lonesome journey to Neighvac. I didn’t want to think about this place or what had happened anymore. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling so much sad about it now, In fact I was getting angry about the injustice of it all. I had saved Miss Sunrise's life and all it had amounted to was a half-hearted apology. The longer I dwelled on it the more that look of fear she had on her face when I had killed Lance finally made sense to me. She hadn’t been scared of me, well maybe a little I had just killed a pony, but rather, what she had been upset about what I had done to her life. It was almost as though from that moment on she resented me just a bit for even having been there.

I stomped on the ground in frustration and walked faster, I had told myself not to think about it and I had done just the opposite. What was wrong with me? I didn’t get to contemplate that question any further when suddenly a soft feminine voice came from the speakers of my PipBuck that seemed to instantly melt away my growing anger. Her voice was delicate yet steadfast, patient but not condescending. Almost as though some sort of angelic and matronly pony with years of wisdom and experience was addressing me directly.

“Hello my little ponies, it’s Little Miss Equestria here and I know it’s been a long time since I’ve broadcasted anything since I usually fill in for Howling Mad when he’s busy doing his homework. I just wanted to take this moment to share with how absolutely special each and everyone of you is to me. Everypony is wonderful in their own way and no matter how dark or hopeless things may seem. I want you to remember that. Surprisingly I’ve been getting some mail of my own recently and I thought do something different this time around and read to you one of the letters I’ve received. Ahem, it reads:

‘Dear Little Miss Equestria, you do so much to keep as all going everyday with your show, just like HMM does with his news broadcast, but what I really wanted to know was if you were seeing each other romantically? If not, would it be too much to ask if there was any special pony you had your eye on?’

Well Howling Mad Mustang and I have known each other for many years now, but despite what he may say about it, there is nothing romantic going on between us. However, you are right on the money when I say there is special pony I’ve had my eye on for quite awhile. And that pony is you, all of you who take the time to listen in. Every single one of you continue to give me the strength to keep on doing this kind of thing. You know, I think this little confession of mine reminds me of a song sung by a group of friends of mine a long time ago, here is A Circle of Friends.”

I looked down at my E.F.S. to make sure I was headed the right way as the music played in the background. According to the map screen all I had to look forward to was a long stretch of broken pavement that snaked its way through a bunch of scorched desert wasteland hills. There were a few small unidentified buildings along the way but the only real major settlement that was anywhere close had already been magically labeled on my map as Dodge City. It wasn’t anywhere as far as where Neighvac was and in fact would only take me about three or four days to reach, which I considered to be lucky since I was sure my supplies would be nearly gone by that then. It’d be perfect time to gather to try and get some caps and some food and clean water and leave as soon as I could.

The song came to an end only for another one to play almost immediately after as I took some more time to further examine the map. Finding myself pleasantly surprised, I discovered that one of the roads that ran through Dodge City was actually an old railroad system that traveled southwest to a small settlement south east on the edge of my map labeled Old Appleloosa as well as heading north west right to New Reino. So once I was done with my business in Neighvac with my brother’s...associates, I could just hop a train or something, if they still ran that is, and get some more answers directly from him.

I switched the PipBuck back to my E.F.S. and headed further along the road, relaxing a little as I listened to the music that continued to play. Almost forgetting what had occurred earlier this morning I summoned up my magic and undid my guitar, levitating it close as I willed the strings to move how I wanted them too, doing my best to play an accompaniment to the new song. As far as I could tell it didn't take me very long to fit right in with the mood and the theme of this song. It was just an instrumental and felt rather sad and lonely, and yet the further along it went the more dramatic and hopeful it became. For some reason it reminded me of the music that had been playing from Watcher’s spritebot. Almost as though it had been some sort of love song dedicated to a special pony long since forgotten.

I was glad that I apparently still knew how to play even if I didn’t remember any of the songs I used too. Though I was more content to let the sounds of my guitar and the radio echo across the landscape, as though it was a long lost companion who was keeping me company once again. I smiled and closed my eyes, feeling the music flow through me, a strange kind of peace overcoming me as I walked in time with the tune I was spontaneously creating. I wasn’t sure if any words could do this song any justice, but I still found myself whistling an additional accompaniment to it, almost as though I was compelled to.

=====

It was evening by the time the radio signal finally vanished and I was once again on my own. I stopped to check the map on my PipBuck and was surprised to find out that I had somehow managed to deviate off course from the highway. I guess should’ve been paying more attention to where I had been going instead of losing myself in the music but there wasn’t much I could do about it now and since I didn’t really feel like doubling back so late and if I kept going through this area I’d eventually meet back with the highway anyway. So I continued on my way.

Trying to travel through the hilly terrain was irritating and it slowed me down more than I would’ve liked. The sun was nearly gone by the time I reached a small rocky overlook of the area. before me was a small shallow valley, a bit of respite. There wasn’t much accept a small burnt out looking house and a windmill. With the orange hue of the sky, everything was actually rather beautiful. I didn’t get much time other than that to further contemplate the matter when I suddenly heard the sound of someone screaming down in the valley. I didn’t really see anything at first but then I caught the sight of a pair of ponies running away from the burnt out building, one of them looking to be fully grown, the other looking to be either a colt or a filly. From what I could see they were running away from another group of ponies, about three or four of them. They looked dirty and nasty and seemed to howling and laughing with madness.

That was when I was reminded of Howling Mad Mustang’s broadcast this morning. Raider Ponies in the south. Thinking quickly, I floated my pistol out of the saddle bag and look a leap off the overlook, hitting the slope with a rough thud and slid the rest of the way down, making sure to keep my pistol firmly wrapped in the kinetic field. As I ran to them, I heard another frightened scream, definitely female. It was a mother and child being chased by blood thirsty monsters. My mind flashed back the point where Miss Sunrise had nearly been violated by Lance and his thugs, my body suddenly slowed down against my will as a result.

Part of me was afraid, just like I had been when I had first tried to protect Sunrise, but there was more to it now. I was afraid of making it worse like I had before by interfering. My eyes went wide and I was snapped out of my slow down when I saw the mother suddenly hit with a spear and collapse to the ground, causing the child to stop with her, crying out in fear. That was it, it didn’t matter if I made things worse at this point. I pushed myself as far as I could running for all I could at the group of raider ponies, pistol raised and aimed at the one who looked like he had thrown the spear.

Before they could reach the colt or filly I let out a blood thirsty scream to draw their attention to me, activated S.T.A.T.S., locked onto the one closest to the kid, and fired two rounds into his chest. He fell to the ground with a sudden thud causing the other three, that meant there had been four of them before I had shown up, to run into his body and collapse into a heap of gibbering crazed mess of ponies.

I didn’t give them much time to get back up as I ran closer and fired another two shots into the pile, frowning as only one hit a raider in the leg since the magical assistance needed to recharge. It didn’t take long for the raiders get untangled from each other and they came at me, one of them limping, which gave me some satisfaction in my own abilities. They must've been faster than I thought because they had me surrounded in moments. One of them had a sword gripped in his teeth, another had a billy club firmly gripped in her own, and the other one, the unicorn I had managed to shot in the leg, had a wicked looking cleaver wrapped in a levitation field.

I ducked just in time to avoid having that cleaver buried into my neck, but I didn’t see the club swinging underneath me until it smashed into my ribs. I fell to the ground with a grunt of pain and lifted my pistol, pointing it straight at the raider who was about to stab me with his sword and plugged a round into his stomach. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the unicorn raise his cleaver and rolled to the side just seconds before the sharp edge came in contact with the rocky ground.

Quickly lifting myself off the ground and doing my best to jump a foot or so away from them, I saw my luck had improved. My PipBuck’s S.T.A.T.S. was fully charge. So with a smile I locked onto the female raider with the club and pulled the trigger. Click. Click. Click. The one sound I didn’t want to hear. I was out of ammo. Both of them each gave me a wicked knowing smile and charged forward. I gritted my teeth and cursed myself for not grabbing Lance’s switchblade when I could’ve. Luckily these goons were not as intelligent as they were vicious.

I dropped my pistol on the ground and charged toward them, dropping to the ground as they came in to close and sliding past their swinging weapons. Seeing the sword that used to belong to raider pony I had just put down, I wrapped a field of magic around it and turned around, bringing the weapon forward. The pony with the billy club brought it down on me, causing me to bring the sword up to defend myself. It wasn’t much of a defense when I felt the cleaver that belonged to the unicorn suddenly bury itself into the flesh of my right foreleg, causing me to scream out in pain.

I forcefully pulled away from the pony with the cleaver crying out in pain as the blade was yanked from my leg and then I spun around, keeping a firm grip on the sword as I did so and brought it down into the female raider’s neck with a spin. The blade slammed so hard that it went straight through neck entirely, her head rolling clean off and hitting the ground with a wet squishy thud. I just barely managed to hear the raider with the cleaver cry out in triumph behind me and managed to quickly pull the blade back and stab behind me with as much remaining power I could, gritting my teeth with grim satisfaction as I felt the weapon sink into his flesh. I took a deep breath, grunting in pain as I did so, and pulled the blade back. Afterwards I limped my way back to my gun, picked it up and slipped it back into my bag after I tried my best to secure the sword next to my guitar. I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

I looked down at the wound in my leg and grimaced at the sight, I have never wanted to cry and scream so badly in my life, but I couldn’t, not yet. Slowly I hobbled my way to the kid, who I could see was a young colt. He had a creamy white coat and a short chocolate colored mane and a dark brown patch of fur around his left eye. I couldn’t see a cutie mark on his flank either. He was crying and nuzzling the body of his mother and suddenly cried out in fear once he noticed how close I had gotten. The sight alone was tearing me apart and I could already feel the adrenaline from the battle leaving me, so I did something stupid and said the first thing that came to my mind.

“I’m sorry that it went down like it did kid...if I could’ve saved her I would’ve...I just...wasn’t fast enough...” Those words didn’t sound right at all. But they were the best I could come up with at the moment. I turned away and looked at the burnt out house and then down at the gash in my leg again. It showed no sign of stopping and I had already lost a lot of blood by now given how it was seeping out quite copiously. There was no way I was going to be able to make it there to see if I could find anything to help. That was when I remembered one of the things the Ghoulicorn doctor had given me. Med-X, a super powerful painkiller. It would probably do the trick just long enough for me to risk searching for supplies. I brought up my PipBuck and loaded up the inventory sorter, selecting the pain killer and following the instructions of how to administer it.

Within seconds I felt like I was on top of the world, any pain I had been feeling had completely melted away once the entire syringe had been administered. After that I did the best as I could to make my way to the ruins as fast as my leg would let me. After about five minutes and a quick search later, I learned there wasn’t too much to find at all since most of the building was a collapsed mess. I did, however, manage to find a small yellow metal box with three pink butterflies on it in one of the remaining fixtures of the building, the bathroom. The universal symbol for medical supplies. I opened it up and breathed a sigh of relief. A small healing potion and a few magical bandages.

Acting quickly, I followed the PipBuck’s advice on how to use the bandages, wrapping them around my leg firmly, and then drank the potion as fast as I could. I looked around as I clumsily stumbled about, finding my vision becoming extremely blurry with every second before I finally slumped to the ground with a hard thud. I yawned loudly and tried to resist the sensation that coming over me, but I was too weak now and soon that familiar darkness consumed me. The last thing I remember hearing before passing out was the sobbing of the colt a few yards away.

I awoke with a yawn, groaning as my head throbbed in pain. Just what I didn’t need. A headache. The one good side to this was that the gash in my leg having been completely healed thanks to the potion and the bandages. I did a quick check of my belongings and re-secured everything, making sure that the gun was packed away till I could find ammunition for it and the sword would be easy to pull out in case I needed it again. Afterwards I checked my map to see how far away I was to the highway and how far away Dodge City was. The highway was the only direct path to the city, which would add at least a half of days travel if I doubled back, but I soon discovered by zooming in that I could actually make that time back by making my way through some extremely craggy terrain that eventually met back up with the highway a little further south.

Feeling like there was no time like the present, I left the burnt out building and slowly made my way forward, seeing the corpses of the raiders I had luckily managed to kill last night. Learning from my past mistake I searched over their bodies, finding about twenty caps and a bottle of murky dirty water. Once finished, I looked up and noticed the little colt starting at me from his mother’s dead body. I shouldn’t have snapped at him, but I did. Part of it was the headache I’m sure, but I’m sure it was the guilt I was feeling for not acting quickly enough to save her.

“What are you looking at?!”

He flinched and looked away within seconds of my outburst and I felt even more like crap. I sighed and began to continue on my way, not even making five feet before I suddenly heard the colt finally make a sound. Literally.

“Ooowaaaaaaaaoooo!”

I stopped dead in my tracks. Was I really going to just leave him here alone? I couldn’t just take him with me could I? Especially since the events of yesterday morning were still fresh in my mind. Gangsters were going to be coming after me and right now I was heading further into dangerous territory with even more insane raiders. I gritted my teeth and groaned under my breath, the pain in my head wasn’t making this any easier. Finally, with a deep breath, I made a decision.

“Look, I’m sorry about not being able to save your mom, but don’t follow me Kid. You’d be better off turning around and going the other way.” I began, keeping my back to the colt so I wouldn’t have to look him in the face. “There is a nice lady doctor in a little town in that direction who took care of me, who I’m sure would take care of you too.” After that I closed my eyes and willed myself to continue onward, heading further into the unbelievably rocky area ahead. Hoping my conscience wouldn’t make my head hurt any worse.

=====

About three hours later I found myself walking through a particularly gravelly hollow. A fierce wind blew through, stirring up thick clouds of dust in the wind that threatened to choke me. The colt I had left behind was still on my mind. I had done the right thing. It wasn’t safe to be near me. At least, that was what I thought was the right thing to do. I didn’t get to much longer to dwell on it when I suddenly heard the little colt’s voice, echo through the small shallow valley, behind me.

“Ooowaaaooo!”

I stopped dead in my tracks once again, grimacing a bit. He had done the exact opposite. I refused to turn around, if I didn’t see him, then he couldn’t be real. He had gone to Oatfields like I recommended and was in the capable hooves of the creepy but kind hearted ghoulicorn. I was just about to take a step forward and continue onward when I heard those little hoofsteps come a little closer.

“Are you following me?” I asked, growing frustrated and ever more consumed with guilt. “I thought I told you to go the other way. You shouldn’t be following me,” I said and craned my head back to look how far away he was. The little guy was about a good thirty feet away I thought, standing there looking cold and frightened, yet oddly determined. I wasn’t going to risk putting him in danger by following me. I had to find someway to get him to turn around and go away.

Suddenly a wicked idea came to mind. I drew the sword carefully, levitating it behind me, and then I thrusted it into the ground, and dragged it firmly against the rocky ground till a deep line was formed behind me. then I carefully put the blade back and resumed speaking.

“You see that line? If you cross it, I will summon a horrible Night Mare that loves to eat blank flanks like you with my special brand of magical music.” I did my best to give an evil smile and began to walk away, only stopping once more to turn around so the colt could get a good look at my face. “The last foal that crossed that line got gobbled up by the Night Mare so quickly that she was still hungry, so she attacked me after she was done, but I managed to fight her off. It’s how I got this scar on my forehead...” Seeing the colt look at me in shock, I felt satisfied I had scared him enough to turn around and go to the only safe place I knew for certain.

“Rumor has it kid, she still travels all over Equestria... waiting for me to summon her back up with my guitar so I can feed her another blank flank again,” I stomped a hoof so hard that it managed to clack loudly against the gravel. I don’t know why I added that last part, but I did. For some reason this had become kind of fun. Feeling like I had made my point I started to walk away even faster, slowing down only for a second when I thought I heard him running after me only to suddenly stop in his tracks. It had worked.

I continued through the hollow reaching the end after another hour when I heard the soft sounds of a colt panting and grunting with exhaustion. I quickly whipped around and saw the little guy had still decided to follow me, only this time he was covered in a bunch of dirt and dust, like he had spent a good part the time digging.

I couldn’t shake the little bastard! Though, I think part of me knew, that after having seen me fight off three raiders with nothing but a sword, the colt was apparently willing to take his chances. I was beaten momentarily, but I wasn’t going to lose. Once I made it to Dodge City, I was going to make sure the colt was with a nice good foster home.

“The wasteland is no place for little colts or fillies,” I grumbled angrily at him. Frowning, I turned around and continued to head on my way, stopping only to check to make sure I was following my E.F.S. correctly and to see if I could spot any trouble headed our way.

Level Up.
New Perk: Extra Special! (Strength) - Your strength has permanently increased +1

Chapter 4: Dreams and Dark Reflections

Chapter 4: Dreams and Dark Reflections

Within seconds a loud horrible explosion shook the dark cloudy skies like somepony smashed a mallet into a gong with all of their might. It was soon followed by another and another before the entire skyline was obscured with oppressive rainclouds. Without warning rain fell to the ground, instantly extinguishing all of the sun’s accumulated heat. Needless to say, I was soaked in moments. A quick glance behind me showed that the little colt who was following behind me was just as wet and if not soggier than I was thanks in part to his longer mane.

I sighed and shook my head. While rain in the desert was relatively rare, when it rained in the Mustang Desert, it poured. All the same it always made me wish having an umbrella. Still I pressed onward in my journey to reach Dodge City. According to the PipBuck, I assumed I was making good time. I had about a day and a half left. My supplies were low, especially since I had an unwelcome tag along I felt obligated to take care of. I had spaced out what food I could and gave the most to him since he was young, as well as the purified water, leaving me with the dirty water I had picked from the raiders that had killed his mother.

Why was he even following me? It was something I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around. I had saved his life, sure, but I was also a complete stranger that had threatened to feed him to an imaginary monster I recalled being told about from my mother. Admittedly, I hadn’t been very nice to the colt since he started following me and yet still he persisted. I was distracted from my thoughts by the sound of him suddenly sneezing. I glanced back at him again and saw that he had fallen a bit behind, as well as see his teeth chattering from the cold rain. With another sigh, I slowed down to the point the Kid was walking beside me, letting my body do it’s best to shield him from the torrent of falling water.

I could tell he was looking up at me now with those big green innocent eyes of his now as a result, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of looking back at him again for a third time. Not that he’d be able to say anything about that anyway, since I quickly learned that he literally couldn’t say anything other than that irritating howling whinny of his. A smirk crossed my my mind as I contemplated what his cutie mark would be once he discovered what his special talent was. It probably would be a broken record or something like that.

I thought about my own cutie mark shortly after I had considered what his would be. A crescent moon with three tiny music note like shooting stars trailing underneath it, all of which was in front of a dark cloud that covered a good portion of my flank. I still couldn’t exactly remember everything about it, but I did remember that there was a sad memory attached to it that involved my brother. I was sure I had been playing the very guitar that had been given to me by my father, the one that was secured to my saddlebag now. Though the more I thought about that, the more my head began to hurt. Something about that memory didn’t feel right, but I didn’t want to think about it anymore since it seemed to be giving me a headache. The rain wasn’t going to be helping me recall my past anyway.

The Kid gave another sneeze and continued to chatter his teeth from the cold rain. I was feeling a bit cold myself and as much as I didn’t want to stop again, it looked like we had no choice since getting sick wouldn’t do either of us any good. I stopped and checked the map on the PipBuck for anything nearby, blinking my eyes in frustration as the screen had become extremely blurry thanks to the rain. I turned the knobs and adjusted the dials, zooming both in and out, shaking my hoof and leg a bit,but found it didn’t do much good either way. My eyes must’ve been too tired and the device had told me once it rebooted that it was liable to malfunction. Most machines did nowadays anyway. The only exception was this time was that if this one stopped working all together, I was sure I would die moments later since it was connected to my nervous system somehow.

“Ooowaaaaaaaaoooo!”

My attention immediately shifted from my PipBuck to the Kid who had slipped past my notice and was a few feet ahead of me, pointing with his hoof someplace I couldn’t quite make out. I quickly made my way to him and squinted my eyes at where he was pointing, trying to see what he saw. A few moments later I finally managed to catch sight of a small ramshackle building all by itself, though it was hard to make out all the details since the rain had become heavier. I looked down at the little colt and gave a small smile.

“Alright Kid, let’s go check it out. Maybe they’ll have some warm food and a few beds to wait out the storm with.” I said and began to make my way toward the building.

A few minutes later and both of us had made it to the front door. Up close the place looked rather sturdy and much larger than I first assumed. I gave a quick but heavy knock on the door making sure I’d be heard over any sudden booms of thunder in the sky. Nothing occurred after a minute, so I tried again, this time harder. Again we were left standing by ourselves in the rain. I looked down at the colt and shrugged my shoulders. “I guess no one lives here anymore Kid, let’s make ourselves at home.” I said, reaching for the doorknob when suddenly the entire door swung wide open.

Standing before us was a purple female earth pony. She had a frizzy golden mane that seemed to cling all the way down her neck. Her eyes were an intense red and she was wearing what appeared be an extremely worn out leather barding armor. A quick glance to her flank revealed what appeared to be a simple pot of honey with a small buzzing bug of some kind around it. Almost upon seeing the two of us, her eyes dilated to pin points and she gave an extremely disjointed smile. I was just about to speak when she spoke over me.

“Ohhh my gawd! I can’t believe it’s you! How the hell have you been Songbird?” she cried out, sounding too enthusiastic for my taste. Her attention suddenly shifted to the colt and she squealed with a most terrifying glee. “And you brought your son with you this time I see! Oh Creamsickle, your daddy has told me so much about you over the phone. You look so handsome and tasty I bet all the little fillies are gonna want a piece of you when you grow up huh?” she said and reached over to give his face a rub, causing the colt to immediately jump back in fright and hide himself behind me, which in turn brought the attention back to me.

“Well Songbird what can I do you for?” she asked and tilted her head a bit sideways, almost as though she was trying to get a good look at the colt behind me.

This mare was missing a few horseshoes, that was for sure and she was probably addicted to some sort of chem, probably Dash, which was pretty bad, but not all that dangerous. I coughed to clear my throat a bit and tried my best to smile pleasantly, despite the fact that this mare was creeping me out in everyway and finally spoke.

“Oh Hi, Ummm, I was hoping you’d let us stay in your place while it rained,” I said, a sudden bolt of lightning striking the ground nearby, causing all three of us to flinch in fear, as if to remind her that it was indeed raining.

Her eyes suddenly widened back out and she nodded her head furiously, “Oh what am I thinking! Honeypot you are such a derpy pony sometimes.” she responding, sounding like she was speaking more to herself than us. “Of course of course, what kind of pony would I be if I didn’t shelter my neighbors from the storm. Come in, Come in!” she replied, turning around and trotting into her home rather happily.

I turned to look at the colt who was shivering even more now. Whether or not it was because of the weather or this mare I couldn’t tell, but I’m didn’t blame him either way. Both were extremely unpleasant to deal with. I nodded to him and then made my own way inside, closing the door behind the colt after he shyly crossed over the threshold.

It was warm and cozy inside the home. There was a small fireplace that illuminated the den and gave off a relaxing heat. However everything else was just a plain mess. There were blankets and various clothes scattered all over the place, a torn apart sofa in the corner and all sorts of various toys scattered to and fro. The mare, whom I assumed had called herself Honeypot, had walked into one of the two rooms in the back for some reason or another, so I focused my attention to the colt, a sudden idea popping in my head.

“Say Kid...I know she’s a little burnt out on goof balls, but look at all these nice things she has. She could be your new mommy,” I said with the best smile I could muster, hoping the colt would take the bait and agree with me. It had the exact opposite effect I was hoping for. He looked at me with his mouth agape in horror, as though I had just told him I was gonna feed him to a monster, and then immediately began to cringe and whimper, almost as if he was about to start crying.

It didn’t get any further than that though, since Honeypot came back holding a dirty smudged up silver tray with three broken ceramic cups on it in her mouth. She made her way to the center of the room, humming some sort of crazy tune and set the tray. Inside each of the three cups was a brown watery drink that I assumed was tea. Afterwards she brought looked over both of us and gave that same disjointed smile from before. “I’m afraid I don’t have any food, fortunately though all my boys are out looking for some and should be coming home soon but I’ve got plenty of tea to share in the meantime so feel free to drink up.”

Admittedly, I was thirsty and my bottle of dirty water was less appealing than whatever tea she had concocted. She may have drugged it to, but if she really was addicted to Dash like I thought she might be, it wasn’t something you could slip into a drink, and besides being extremely energetic and full of energy, I couldn’t remember Dash making anypony violent. I nodded to the colt and then lifted one of the cups with my magic and slowly, carefully took a sip. It tasted like dirt in water...with maybe some sort of chocolate in it or something. So it was pretty much just some sweet flavored dirty water. I waited for a few seconds to see if my paranoia was justified and then shrugged when I didn’t immediately collapse.

Seeing me drink Honeypot’s tea, the colt moved up and began to drink from his broken cup as carefully as possible. Seeing this, the mare squealed in delight again and pranced in place as though she had won the lottery or something. She was certainly...enthusiastic, maybe she wasn’t an addict after all, just an extremely lonely pony who had lost some of her sanity along the way. Thinking on it more, the colt would probably make for some great company seeing as she talked a lot and he didn’t talk at all. A perfect balance. Though Maybe she wasn’t lonely and just addled in the head. She had mentioned she had boys. Children of her own then perhaps. Which made it unlikely she would take on another.

I smiled and watched as gave the Kid all sorts of compliments. Saying how soft and tender he looked, and how she was jealous that he wasn’t old enough for her. I sipped from the sweet mucky water and relaxed even further. The sound of the rain hitting the building was kinda soothing now that I wasn’t outside in that weather. I chuckled a bit as I saw the colt recoil from getting a big sloppy kiss on the cheek, Honeypot giggling and saying he was just so adorable she could just eat him up. The little guy was kind of cute, especially since he wasn’t whining at me now. a few more minutes flew by and I finished the drink setting the cup back down on the try before I stood up and stretched my legs.

“Well, I don’t mean to be pushy miss Honeypot, but do you have a bed I can take a nap on?” I asked, feeling myself yawn a bit. She looked me up and down a bit as though she didn’t recognize me for a minute and then nodded happily.

“Oh yes yes. There are quite a few beds in the back they all belong to my boys, but they won’t mind you just taking a nap Songbird. They’ve always looked up to you anyway Songbird, you are almost a surrogate father to them after all,” she said and pointed somewhere absentmindedly to the back as she continued to tease and play with the unhappy colt.

I nodded and ignored her crazy babbling, instead opting to head into the back myself, trying to stifle another yawn. As I made my way back I looked around for any sign of anything funny once more, just in case she was an absolute loon. No signs of crazy blood spots or sharp dangerous weapons anywhere that I could see. I turned around once more catching a small bit of her one sided conversation with the Kid.

“Oh my boys are going to be soo happy to see you Creamsickle, they haven’t had anyone to play with in a long time. It’s soo good that you and your daddy came by to visit...”

I shook my head and sighed. I couldn’t leave the little guy here despite what I had been hoping for. I didn’t want to outright say it, but she was obviously delusional. She thought we were some other ponies entirely. Something really horrible must’ve happened to her in the past, and she was likely just reliving what moments her mind would let her. I turned back and headed onward, stopping at a pair of doors. One of the left and one on the right. I didn’t remember seeing which room she had come out from with the drinks, so either one of them could’ve been a bedroom for all I knew. Since she was busy and seeing as how I really didn’t want to interact with her anymore that I wanted to, I shrugged my shoulders and headed to the door on the right.

The door shut softly behind me as I looked in downright horror what I was seeing. I hadn’t stepped into the bedroom. Instead, I had stumbled into Honeypot’s kitchen. It was a gruesome scene laid out before me. In the far back there was what I assumed to be a small pile of dead rotting pony carcases. They didn’t look all that old, but most of their flesh had been stripped from their bodies, which I assume was what had prevented me from smelling them earlier. Along the walls there looked to be jars of pickled eyeballs and hooves, some of them thankfully were empty. Across from the jars was a set of rusty blood soaked tools; Cleavers, hoofsaws, and various mallets. I felt myself began to hyperventilate with a mixture of revulsion and anger as I willed myself to further examine what was before me.

I kept trying to tell myself to keep calm as I did. This mare was obviously too brain damaged to have realized I had walked into the wrong room and I didn’t need for her to learn I had discovered her crime just yet. I stopped as I finally came to the refrigerator which was in the back next to the pile of dead ponies. I knew what was inside. I didn’t want to confirm it, but I knew what it was going to be. Holding my breath I opened the door and slammed it shut a second later. Almost regretting that action instantly as it made a loud noise. For the next few seconds I waited anxiously for her to rush in screaming like a rabid pony. To my surprise it was still relatively peaceful. I guess she was still too busy...with the Colt! I withdrew my sword as fast as I could from my saddle bag, finding my fears confirmed when all of a sudden I heard the Kid let out his trademark noise, only to suddenly be quieted in mid whine.

I gritted my teeth and charged out of the room back into the tiny den, just in time to see her drag the colt outside back into the storm. With no time to lose I followed after her, my sword wrapped firmly with my simple levitation spell.

“Helllo Darlings! Guess what your mommy has been up to today!” I heard her yell to a group of ponies that were running in our direction. “Mister Songbird and his son came over for a visit again! Isn’t that nice of them? Looks like we get to have them over for dinner, again!” she cackled madly to the group, keeping a firm grip over the Kid’s mouth with one of her hooves and lifting him up as if to show them her latest trophy.

I don’t think she had noticed me following her though, since her back was completely turned to me. Which meant for her I at least had the element of surprise. I made my way to her as fast as I possibly could, glad that the rain was masking my steps. I raised my sword up high and brought it down between her skull as hard as I could, stopping once I heard the satisfying crunching noise of the metal blade splitting her skull apart. Instantly she let go of the Kid and collapsed with a wet plop against the now extremely muddy ground.

There was no time to rest however, as the moment she fell down, the group of ponies who were galloping our way suddenly let out a chorus of blood thirsty inaudible angry screams. I threw a look at the Kid and tossed my head back, in the direction to Dodge City. “Let’s get the buck out of here little guy. I have a feeling we aren’t welcome here anymore,” I said, trying to be heard over the pouring rain. The little guy nodded with an almost visible sigh of relief, despite the fact part of him had some of Honeypot’s blood splashed along his back. I didn’t blame him in the least.

Both of us turned and ran like our lives depended on it. We hauled our butts as far and fast as we could against the muddy rocky ground. Behind us the large group of ponies still followed after us, howling and screaming out for not only vengeance but what I assume was an unnatural hunger. These were Honeypot’s “children”, a large group of cannibalistic raider ponies and I certainly didn’t think I could take them all on, protect the colt, and expect both of us to survive.

We ran for as far as our tired hooves could take us. Sadly the little guy grew tired than I did and began to slow down. A quick look behind us revealed that the, well, pack of ponies, was gaining on us faster than we could out run them. I looked around our surroundings for anything we could use to our advantage and spat a curse underneath my breathed when nothing revealed itself. Time was running out fast. I needed to do something but I didn’t know the area at all. “Damn it!” I screamed and came to a sudden halt, sliding a little bit and near slipping on my ass as a result.

The Kid came to a stop and looked at me in panic and confusion, not sure of what I was doing. I didn’t really either, but it was the only thing I could think of doing. I pulled up my PipBuck and switched the map back on, praying under my breath that either Luna or Celestia were listening. It was still blurry as hell but I could read it better than last time. In our current flight from the savage ponies, we had deviated off course again and were heading back south into some of the more mountainous region of the Mustang Desert.I looked up and saw that they were gaining even faster, as if they somehow had sensed my hesitation. I zoomed in and scanned the closest nearby mountain area for anything, a isolated pocket that I could maybe fight them off one by one? Nothing. A bridge over a canyon to lure them to their collective doom? Na-da.

I bit my bottom lip, hearing the little colt cry out in fear as the monsters drew closer to us. I couldn’t find anything! I spun the knob in frustration and strengthened the levitation spell on my sword. That was when I suddenly saw an unmarked location on the map that was at the foot of a small nearby mountain. Which meant it had to be a mine or something.

I cried out in triumph and then looked back up, seeing as the carnivorous ponies were now a hundred yards and closing. Inhaling as deep as I could I yelled to the colt and took off running, “Follow me Kid, I found a way to escape!”

We arrived there at the entrance to an extremely old and dirty looking mining complex. The wooden beams that were supporting the entrance to the cave looked they had been rotted through by termites or some other wasteland nasty. The rain still continued to pour and the pack of ponies were still hot on our hooves. We didn’t have much time. Quickly, we headed to the open door that lead into the cave system, when I suddenly stopped between the doorway when another wicked idea came over me.

“Okay Kid, we can’t keep running away from these guys and they don’t seem to be getting tired from chasing after us anyway. We made it here, wherever here is, and now we got to stop them from following us. What I need you to do...” I began to say looking around until I found what I was searching for. It was a big heavy support beam that was attached from the ground directly to the mining entrance. “is buck this support beam as hard as you can, so that it crashes into the doorway and collapses the entrance.” I finished and then with all of my might that I could afford, swung my blade deep into the beam, splintering it a good bit at its base.

“The wood isn’t as strong as it used to be, I think this place is really old, but it will still probably take you a few kicks before it breaks. While you are doing that, I’m gonna do my best to fight them off so you can crush them with a bunch of wood and stone. Got it Kid?”

He nodded and made his way to the support beam, whining a little with anxiety, but otherwise prepared himself. Satisfied with that, I yanked my blade out from the wood, feeling it suddenly groan a bit and then turned around facing the oncoming storm outside with grim determination.

I got a few minutes to catch my breath and relax but soon the pack was here. Following a particularly loud burst of thunder and lightning they suddenly appeared before the mine entrance a good twenty feet away. There was an excessively large amount of them, it looked like there could be seven or ten of them. It was really hard for me to tell between their pawing over each other and the constant heavy raining. It made me wish I really had some more bullets for my pistol.

I closed my eyes and took in another deep breath, trying to calm myself for what was about to happen. It had to be timed perfectly. I kept my eyes closed and listened to hear the raider ponies coming. It was hard thanks to the rain, but once I was sure they were as close as I was comfortable I opened my eyes widely and brought my sword to bear in front of me. Just in time, seeing as they were a good five feet away. Pretty much liked I had hoped, they were extremely dumb. In their frenzied charged they had all converged on the entrance, three of them suddenly jamming themselves into the doorframe as one just barely managed to slip through, while the others tried to force their way past.

He had a crude spear of some sort gripped between his teeth and he tried his best to swing at me, but I quickly ducked underneath it and brought my sword across his chest with a vicious slash. . He collapsed with a angry growl and I began to do my best to slash and cut up the ponies in the doorway. When another one went down, it caused another two to climb above their “siblings” and get stuck higher up in the doorway. I quickly turned my head around and yelled as loud as I could at the colt. “Now, buck it now!”

With as much power as he had in his body he reared back his hind legs and slammed them full force into the old weakened support beam. It splintered even more from where I cut it and shuddered under its own weight, but refused to budge. I cried out in pain suddenly when one of the raider ponies managed to reach far enough and smack the back of my head with a baseball bat gripped firmly in her teeth. I turned back around and snorted angrily, bringing my sword up, I brought it back down and cut across her eyes, causing her to rear back and get further stuck between her comrades.

I focused on the doorway to make sure they stayed where they were and the Kid grunted and threw another hard buck into the beam, causing it to crack loudly over all of their howling and yelling. He cried out for my attention, letting me know that the pillar was coming down hard and fast. Thinking on my hooves I turned around and jumped out of the way just in time for that old rotten beam to come crashing down on the entranceway. Single minded and blood thirsty to the very last, the pack of raider ponies screamed out in anger as the support beam ripped from the weak ceiling supports that had been holding it back and smashed into the doorway on top of them, crushing them all into a very messy pile of blood and guts.

Suddenly all the rocks in the ceiling that had been once held in place came crashing down all around us. I hadn’t thought beyond when that beam would come crashing down and killing the raider ponies, destroying the other support beams around the entrance in the process. With what little time I had to spare I bolted further into the mine, screaming above the sound of the cave in at the colt ahead of me to run as fast as his short legs could carry him. My heart pounded faster and faster as I ran just seconds ahead of the collapse seeing all sorts of rocks chaotically smashing into the ground all around us. I focused my attention back onto the kid and saw the colt had managed to make his way into what looked to be a storage room. I let out a sigh of relief and relaxed a bit, glad to know he had made it to safety. I was nearly there myself when all of a suddenly a large stone crashed down in front of me, causing me to dodge awkwardly out of the way as the force from the boulder knocked me to the side. I grunted as my body began to slow down from the pain. All I need was just a few more seconds and I would be there myself. I had managed placed my hoof on the old metal door when suddenly a burst of intense pain exploded in the back of my skull and I collapsed onto the ground instantly. Somehow, I still managed to hear the little guy give a panicked scream before the darkness I was growing so acquainted with swallowed me into oblivion once again.

=~~0~~=

I heard his voice. He was speaking to me. No, He was speaking about me.

“I know it must be hard, trying to understand just what is going on right now...” his voice trailed off, sounding completely cold and sterile. Soon silence consumed any noise only for it for it to be replaced by another. This time it was a gentle melody, the soothing sound of a loving mare close by.

I slowly opened my eyes to see my older brother looking at me angrily, as though I had done something wrong. It was hard to see him though, everything was fuzzy and my eyes hurt really bad. It was like I couldn’t really focus on anything, as though my eyes were severely dilated. There was something more about this whole thing though. My mind shifted somewhere else before I could really figure out what was going on. There another pony in the room beside me, she was soft and bigger than both me and my brother. For some reason or another she cuddled close and seemed to be providing me with a warm gentle comfort. I tried to get a better look but couldn’t make out anything more than mare with the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen.

The voice from before spoke up again, but it wasn’t anywhere near where my brother was standing. It was someone else. His words were like garbled radio static this time, yet for some reason I could still understand what he was saying, even if it was like some sort of nightmarish noise.

“I know it’s hard to understand...but for a colt his age, this isn’t a NormAL occurrence. I don’t even know if I can find him what he needs. There are just simply too many vAriAblEs. It would just be easier for everypony if you simply just let me OpERate on the boy. If I don’t do it as soon as possible, he is just going to go blind as he gets older or maybe even worse if there is something more to it. It’s a DeFeCT that needs to be corrected and I have the ability to do so.”

My left foreleg began to itch painfully. I looked down at it and saw there was nothing there but a strange fuzzy blurriness. I turned back to look at the mysterious mare with the beautiful sapphire eyes, instinctually nuzzling against her, feeling my heart flutter a bit when she returned the affection I strangely craved.

“Don’t pretend to care. You haven’t shown any interest in either Silver or Blue in years...too busy wrapped up in that office of yours with all of your ‘important’ projects... and now when he needs your help, you want to fix him like he’s some sort of machine instead of just getting him what he needs?! We’re living creatures damn it! We are not your test subjects!”

She slammed her hoof down onto the ground and I recoiled in fear, a shock of electricity running through me causing me to scream in fear and agony. It had come from my left foreleg again. I didn’t get long to look at it when I saw movement coming from my brother’s direction.

“Don’t yell at him like that! You don’t know how hard he works! You're too busy with...him anyway! You are just as bad! ” he screamed, stomping on the ground as if to make his point before he spread his wings wide and flew out of the room. This was becoming too much for me to handle. I broke down and began to cry. I was in pain, everyone was yelling and fighting, and it was somehow all my fault...

“Oh dear Celestia, He’s crying again...Look... I’m going to find Silver Tongue and see if he has the same...CONdiTION as Blue does. Don’t worry though, I won’t pRetENd that I care about him either, if that’s how you think I feel...”

I couldn’t stop sobbing, I felt like my body was on fire, the back of my head was hurting like that one time when Silver had hit it with a baseball bat accidentally. Suddenly a warm comfort pressed up against me and nuzzled me gently and softly. The mare’s voice humming softly and delicately as her words wrapped themselves up around me and soothed my pain...

“Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to lay your sleepy head,
Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to go to bed...”

=~~0~~=

I gasped aloud in pain as electricity suddenly surged throughout my entire body. I panted heavily and groaned as my head throbbed from intense pain. Everything felt fuzzy. Like my head was in some sort of fog. I could tell I was in a poorly lit room with stone all around me even though my eyesight was blurry. In a moment everything came back to me in a sudden rush of memories. I had collapsed the entrance to the mine in order to escape from a pack of cannibalistic raider ponies. I gritted my teeth as the electricity slowed down and I managed to locate the source of the pain. It was originating from the PipBuck that was attached to my left foreleg. For some reason it was active. More so than normal than I cared to see. All sorts of numbers and letters were flashing by, which gave me cause to panic when it suddenly slowed down and booted back up to the familiar interface screen that I had grown accustomed to. This time I noticed something was different though. The entire machine looked cleaner than normal and there was even more information available on the screen. The device was now able to somehow tell if I was starving or was suffering from dehydration. Just what had happened to me while I was unconscious? In fact why was I even alive, again. Did I just get another chance?

I moved a hoof to rub at the part of my mane at the back of my head and felt mostly loosely applied bandages. Well, that explained a little bit. Remembering the PipBuck kept information on my vital signs I switched the screen over to my personal information and tried to see if I could find a long about what happened. Apparently, I had suffered from some sort of major concussion and a little bit of temporary brain damage. First a bullet and now what I presumed to have been a large rock... I was either extremely lucky or my head was made of steel or something. I looked over the screen a little longer and saw there was something different about me too.

I already knew this thing was permanently grafted into my flesh and connected to my nerves or whatever in order to keep me among the living, but it was now saying that my nervous system was directly connected into the S.T.A.T.S. spell function through an ‘unofficial’ modification. Somepony had been messing with the PipBuck while I had been out of it!

Never before had I felt my anger boil through me as I scanned the storage room for the culprit who would dare to play with my life so absent mindedly. That when I caught sight of the colt not to far away. He was passed out and covered in all sorts of dirt and grime. All around him were a bunch of scattered tools as well. A small hammer, an assortment of screwdrivers, as well as a few paper clips and wonder glue. It had been him!

For whatever reason or another, I could’ve sworn he began to look like someone else at that point. Someone familiar to me. Hadn’t his coat once been a creamy white with couple of chocolate spots here and there instead it was turning into a kind of pale bluish-green color and his mane was looking darker and longer than normal too. Everything was getting so blurry and I was so mad for some reason. What had given him the idea that he could play with my life like that?! After all, I had saved his life not once but twice! Still not quite sure what I was doing, I quickly looked around the room for my things and thankfully found the saddlebag and guitar in a corner. A quick survey of my belongings showed that I had one broken syringe and another empty one, which meant it probably been used very recently...it also meant that I only had two more doses of the Med-X left. After that all I had left were the two empty bottles. My guitar was a little dirty and dinged up, but seemed to be in great condition still.

The empty pistol was still in the saddlebag as well, but the sword...it was bent and contorted at an extremely weird angle, which made it useless as a weapon.I don’t know why but I still wrapped my levitation spell around the blade and managed to break off a usable edge from the tip. I was partially I amazed I could even have done that, but I guess it had been a piece of shit weapon after all...

With the tip of the broken blade I stood over the strange looking little orphan, barely managing to contain my rage. I had saved his life and he had nearly killed me! For what? Curiosity? Had I just been a plaything to him? A machine for him to experiment on and walk away?!

“hMMM, I WoNdeR...dOEs He lOOk LiKE SOmEpoNY YoU kNoW? I gueSS No gOoD DeEds Go UNpunIsHeD...”

I was panting and snorting in rage while I awkwardly stood there. Part of me didn’t even know what I was really going to do. Thankfully I just barely managed to catch a glimpse of myself in the reflection of the dirty broken blade as I held it aloft. My smudged reflection looked like...a nightmare. My coat looked to be even darker than normal. As though it had shifted from a navy blue to an almost black color. My eyes almost looked as though they were glowing a poisonous acidic green. It didn’t help that the bandages were wrapped haphazardly in such a weird way around my forehead that my eyes looked like they were being pulled back, as though whoever had done it didn’t really know what they had been doing.

What had I been thinking? Where had that anger suddenly come from? I remembered that I had been dreaming about something, I think I had even heard a voice just a few minutes ago. Thoroughly disgusted with myself I threw the blade away to the side as hard as I could and walked back to my saddle bags and focused on resecured my things. After that I layed down and tried to focus on calming down even further. Taking slow and deep breaths trying to focus on what had just happened. Somehow, while I had been out of it, the little guy had managed to save my life. I had never before been so scared and angry in my life...I hadn’t realized it till now. Did this mean I wasn’t really a second chances kind of pony, but rather a scared little colt lashing out in any random direction at the slightest provocation. What kind of pony was I really? I couldn’t really remember past being shot in the head last week, and even then I still didn’t really know who I had once been.

I must’ve lost track of time because before I could realize it, the colt had gotten up and was standing quietly in front of me. He didn’t look strange to me at all this time. He looked just as he first did when I had first encountered him. His coat wasn’t a different color and neither was his mane. Had I been hallucinating? His brown eyes were looking at me curiously, but there was no trace of fear. Just innocent curiosity. The shame of my behavior burned even deeper into my soul and I forced myself to look away from him.

“Ooowaaooo,”

It wasn’t a cry of fear or shock or anything really, just a soft noise now. Though as far as I could tell it was all he ever said anyway. Did it mean he was mute? Had he ever learned how to speak? I drew my attention back to him and nodded a bit. He wasn’t safe to be alone by himself, but now I knew he probably wasn’t safe to be around me either. I had gone off the deep end there, even if it had been just for a moment. It had been too much for me. Maybe...just maybe... that was what Tequila Sunrise had seen in me right before I had killed Lance. I quickly shook my head, not wanting to dwell on this anymore.

“So, last I remember, you had just managed to get in here and then I think I got caught in the collapse. Did you save my life kid?” I asked, hoping maybe conversation would ease my guilty conscience.

He nodded and smiled, and looked over to the doorway, I looked and didn’t see anything right away but I eventually managed to catch what looked like drag marks in the dirt as well as a few loose rocks.

“Well, you are certainly stronger than you look, that’s for sure. I assume then you also tried to take care of any injuries I got huh?”

He nodded and smiled proudly, a faint giggle managing to escape his mouth.

I smirked and finally decided to take the bandages off and tossed them aside, certain whatever healing properties they had were long gone by now. “Well you didn’t do a bad job, Not very good, but I’m obviously alive. So A for effort anyway,” I remarked. “How did you know what to do?”

He frowned a little bit and then pointed at the PipBuck and then turned and pointed to a small footlocker in the back of the room by another door I had been too angry to notice. It was too dark to look that far back without squinting but a minute later I saw the remains of an extremely old model PipBuck that had been taken apart and an old looking book that appeared to be open. It didn’t take long for me to put two and two together after that.

“Wait wait, are you saying you fixed my PipBuck by using old parts from that one?”

He nodded up and down rapidly as I continued to speak.

“That means you had to have fixed mine, in order to figure out how to correctly apply the bandages and stuff,”

Once more he nodded and gave a weak smile, almost as though he was nervous about something.

It wasn’t hard to figure out now that I had the context that he had been afraid to even touch my PipBuck.

“Well you did a good job. I mean, a really good job. Somehow you managed to make it even better somehow...” I said, thinking back to the warning about how it had been modified again. I saw him give a shy nervous smile.

“Well, I’m glad you did it, cause that means you saved my life twice, since I can’t live without this hunk of metal attached to my leg. If it was broken I was probably dying. So thanks again. I guess I owe you one,”

“Oowaaaooo!” he cried out happily, giggling and trotting in place this time. He seemed like some sort of wild pony with how he behaved and spoke, but he was obviously intelligent since he could clearly read. Especially if he had somehow managed to repair my PipBuck and modify it. Even still the shame at my first reaction of waking up hung in the back of my mind like a tormenting specter.

“I can’t help but notice Kid that you haven’t really said anything, now or since you started to follow me. Can you say anything? Do you have a name I can call you?”

He stared at me blankly for a moment and finally looked away. As though he was ashamed about something. Afraid perhaps? I couldn’t tell. Given how I was feeling right now. I understood at least a little bit so I didn’t want to press the question any further.

“Well if you can’t talk, you can’t talk. Simple as that. So I’m just going to keep calling you Kid or whatever till I can find you a nice safe home. You should probably know my name though, since I can’t seem to get rid of you and If you ever decide to speak or whatever, you can get my attention that way rather than whatever it is you do now. So call me Blue or Blue Rhapsody,” I said, finding myself barely managing to smile as he nodded and replied with his own soft smile.

After that one sided exchange, I stood myself up and did my best to dust myself off. Even though it was just me and the colt trapped in an old mining complex, I still remembered that for some reason or another appearances always mattered.

“How about we try and find our way out? I don’t really feel like starving to death or dying of thirst here, and I need to find a new weapon anyway, so let’s go exploring big guy and see if we can’t find out way out,” I said and walked my way to the new door, turning it open and heading further into the complex with the little colt silently following behind me.

For the most part, it looked to be in good condition, though judging by the condition of the wood that kept it from (mostly) collapsing in on itself, it was also very very old. I would’ve guessed it had once been a pre-war mine. Curious, I looked over my PipBuck and switched it over to the map view. Predictably it had automatically been labeled at some point. I had just been too busy dying and losing my mind to have noticed it. Horseshoe Mining Complex. Given the age of the place I assumed this was where they got most of their material for making the weapons and armor that were developed for the war.

Slowly the two of us made our way further deeper into the mine, following an old railway that contained a few empty mine carts. I made sure to turn the lamp function of the PipBuck on so we wouldn’t stumble down a pit or bump into anything painful. There was nothing in this place except for the Kid and myself. It was eerily quiet, the sound of our hoof beats echoing all around us. Had this place been deserted before the war? Or had everything died due to magic radiation? There was no clear sign of either happening.

We continued to travel further into the mine, keeping to the railway so we wouldn’t get lost. I had no idea of knowing for sure, but part of me hoped that eventually we’d find an exit at the end and not just more stone. After what I assumed was about an hours worth of walking we made our way to the very end of the shaft, having ignored all other deviating paths from the railway, and there before us was nothing but a door. Holding my breath I slowly pushed the door open, keeping my eyes closed as I made my way inside. All that was there to greet me was disappointment when I finally opened them again.

It was a simple ten by ten room. There was a few workbenches in the very back complete with quite a few shelving units above them that were cluttered with an assortment of scrap metal and other mining supplies. In another corner there was what looked to be an old surprisingly still functional terminal that was providing a bit of extra light in the room. Beside the terminal there appeared to be some sort of large metal safe. There were also a few empty minecarts in here that I figured were supposed to be just in case one of the others had broken. It was a dead end. Sure we could’ve tried any of the various tunnels that split apart from the main shaft, but I considered that extremely risky and I didn’t want to put the Kid in any more danger than I already had since I had gotten us trapped in here.

As if mocking me there was in fact a pony skeleton just simply laying in the room, as if it were telling me I had doomed us all through my reckless behavior. I inhaled and fell back on my haunches with a loud thud and sighed frustratingly at my luck. As if on cue, the Kid stepped into the room moments later. I assumed he figured it was safe since I hadn’t suggested otherwise and gasped almost immediately at the sight of the remains of the pony in the room. Shrugging I turned to him and sighed again.

“Looks like it’s the end of the road big guy. I was hoping maybe we could find our way out of here through another exit, but I guess I was wrong.” I explained, closing my eyes and doing my best to not lose my cool. It didn’t take long, after a minute or two of silence I began to hear the colt sniffle. Part of me didn’t care, I felt just as bad if not worse, but something else inside of me didn’t want to let him down like that. Maybe it cause I didn’t want to listen to a little kid crying as I died or maybe it was because I wasn’t ready to give up yet. So before he could get any worse I shook my head and stood back up as quickly as possible.

“Naa, don’t do that kid. It won’t solve anything. It may be a dead end, but I said I’d get us out of here and I meant it. So Lets see if maybe this terminal has any information, like maybe a map or something.”

He nodded and wiped his eyes and stood up after me as I made my way to the machine. “See if you can’t find anything on those workbenches that could be useful, who knows, maybe we can just clear the entrance out with dynamite or something if there is any,” I said and looked over the screen.

It had the same style screen as my PipBuck except it was bigger and brighter and it was built just as solidly too given the condition it was in. There was even the Stable-Tec logo on the bottom of the monitor. I guess they really built this kind of stuff to last huh? Just made it worse in my opinion though. I didn’t like machine. They were prone to messing up often were you couldn’t fix them, and yet were just sturdy enough to be damn near unbreakable when it counted. There was also something...creepy about them. I almost wish I had switched task with the colt, since he apparently could figure out machines better than I could. I guess it didn’t matter though because once I activated the terminal I found that it was nearly as intuitive as the device I was connected to was.

I remember having heard that these things were notorious for being locked with all sorts of obscure and random passwords, thankfully though this was not one of them. I looked through what prompts there were and discovered there were two categories to chose from. One of which appeared to be a series of maintenance and repair logs and the other which appeared to be a personal journal of sorts. The maintenance logs might have held some key information, like a map or something, but admittedly, I was more interested in the journals and what personal secrets they held. I found there were a total of five entries and feeling curious I selected the first one and then made my way down the list.

There was a lot of time spaced out between them, as though the writer either didn’t write a lot or didn’t get enough spare time, or maybe even a combination. Each entry seemed to be about two or three months apart and were dated well over two centuries ago. Definitely the personal journal of a pre-war pony. The first two logs detailed the life of somepony whose job was fixing and repairing the mine carts and tools that the others used. The first entry detailed how he wished the company he worked for had more reliable tech like the terminal he was using. Given the amount he complained and begrudgingly did his work he seemed to do it anyway. Since his only motivation appeared to be how his only son was living with his twin sister in Cloudsdale and this was the only way for an old earth pony like himself to make enough money to support him. The second entry was smaller but the old pony commented in it that while they had been building out this storage second room they had accidentally dug too far underground apparently and hit into a natural lake. He described the lake as having a bluish silvery glow to it, like Luna’s beautiful mane or his wife’s silken coat of fur. There was something else about it though, he couldn’t figure it out, but his co-workers wanted to close the shaft and start anew elsewhere.

The other two logs contained more grumpiness but also a sense of intense pride. The pony who was writing the journal described in the third entry about how his son was enlisting into the Grand Pegasus Enclave. Partly because he wanted to do his father proud by protecting Equestria during the war but also so that maybe he could see if he could someday meet his idol, the mare of the ministry of awesome herself, Rainbow Dash. He was even more happy that before they closed the end of the mine up, he had managed to find a huge chunk of ore that apparently had given the lake its color. It strange ore seemed to be as hard as steel yet as malleable as gold. So he had secretly decided to turn it into a graduation gift for his son instead of reporting it to the boss for study. The fourth entry took a more somber tone as the author described how he was afraid he’d lose his son and never get to see him again. He didn’t like the idea of his son dying in battle while he himself was already getting to be too old to work. It apparently gave him nightmares.

I had to stop reading. There was a heavy and dull pain in my chest. I knew how the final log was going to end. I just knew it. Yet, even despite how I knew what was going to happen, it hurt anyway. Something about this journal resonated deep within myself. I couldn’t say I felt a connection to the author, but still I guess he words stilled a feeling inside me I didn’t know how to describe. Not wanting to dwell on it any longer, lest I drive myself crazy, I turned my attention over to the colt for a moment to see what he was up to.

He had gathered a bunch of things from the shelves and seemed to be doing his best to try and make something, anything really, work. He had found an old metal lunchbox, some abraxo cleaner, and a small bottle of what looked to be turpentine I guessed. He was pouring, mixing, shaking, poking and all sorts of things. He almost looked happy. I knew I had to continue reading the terminal for any information that could be useful, so with a deep breath I switched my attention back to the words on the screen and opened the final log.

There’s no point in living anymore. Cloudsdale was destroyed. My sister is most certainly dead. It hurts to know that I’ll never see her again, but that’s not why I’m writing this. My son...my only son, the last little reminder I had of her is gone. He never got to graduate from the Academy. His bright life snuffed out like a candle in the breeze. I...He...there was nothing that could’ve been done. The mega spell had hit without warning and no pony had been ready for it. I lost another part of myself that day. I don’t know how much longer I can bear to live now that both my wife and son have passed on.

Earlier today the Ministry of Awesome Mare herself came by. She looked to be in an extreme hurry but she sought me out specifically and gave me something. A little toy statuette of herself. When she first presented it me, I screamed at her for mocking me and the loss of my son who had once worshiped her. She didn’t stay after I had exploded. She apologized and said she had work to do simply leaving it at that as she flew away to kill some other pony’s child in this horrible war.

After that, the boss closed the mine. No pony knew how much longer we were going to last and they didn’t want to spend their last moments here deep underground. I made sure I was the last one here. No pony is going to come looking for me anyway. I’m too old and they know I have nothing left to live for now. I don’t even know why I’m really bothering to write this anyway. I guess just in case somepony comes back, they can see my last will and testament.

If someone survives this Celestia-forsaken war, the code to the safe next to this terminal is Legacy. What you will find is a custom made suit of leather barding, I was going to give it to my son when he graduated from the Academy, the Rainbow Dash toy I had received from the Ministry Mare herself, five empty doses of Med-X, I will have taken them long after I have finished writing this out, all the money I have saved up working here which amounts to five hundred worthless bits, and the sword I had made for my son to go with his barding.

If somepony has read all of this and all of Equestria has been destroyed like Cloudsdale like I think it has, please just take these things. My son won’t get the chance to use them and I’d rather they at least get used by somepony who needs them since I’m not going to. It’s probably too dangerous to go alone...

“Ooooowaaaaoooooo!”

My attention was suddenly drawn away from the terminal as I damn near instantly turned to locate the sound of the Kid yelling. I found him to be behind me as far away from the workbenches as possible, I was about to ask him what was wrong when he shook his head and pointed at the workbenches, as if to answer my question for me.

Somehow he had managed to locate two more old rusty lunch boxes and set them beside the other one he had been playing with before. The notable difference however was that all three of them were now extremely duct taped shut and were jiggling and shaking violently. I blinked for a moment and then looked back to the colt who was still shaking his head in fear before he suddenly turned and ran out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him. I blinked again and began to hear a faint burning noise and then I bolted out of the room in a blind panic.

The damn Kid had somehow made homemade explosives!

Within seconds there was a huge blast that shook the entire mining complex as rock was blown out from the room.

Both he and I stood outside of the room in the main shaft of the complex panting and waiting to see if they whole place would come crashing down on us. After a good three minutes I took the lead and headed back into the storage and maintenance room. The stone wall that had once had the workbenches against it was just...gone and the air in the room had a strange coppery scent to it. Where the work benches once been was now a huge hole that led even further into the mountain. I heard the kid step into the room coughing a little bit and then giggled at his handiwork. I had to admit...He had pretty much solved our problem.

I looked at him and gave him an approving wink and smiled. “Not bad Kid, but I think you should give me more of a heads up before you do something like that again,”

A quick survey around the room showed that the terminal was completely fried now, having partially exploded itself. The safe however was still in near mint condition. Built to last for sure. The old remains of the pony who had been laying the room however were mostly ash now. Feeling a few tears begin to well up in my eyes I shook my head and wiped them away before the colt could see. I needed to be in control if I was going to get him to a safe home.

“Well, looks like we have a way out that we got to explore, but before we split, let’s open the safe and take the stuff inside with us. I know I could certainly use it.” The Kid nodded and moved to the giant hole in the wall and peered inside as I made my way to the safe and using the pass code Legacy, opened it up. Sure enough, everything that had been in the log was here. A finely tailored suit of black leather barding with silver stitching. It was obviously made for a pegasus but that didn’t stop me from putting it on and doing my best to adjust it. It was a little tight all things considered, but it would be more protection than I had previously.

Carefully I withdrew the sword from the safe. I was surprised to find it didn’t weigh much at all. There was no scabbard for it, instead it was wrapped lovingly in a fine blue blanket. I pulled the sword and admired the craftsmanship. It wasn’t a perfect blade by any means, obviously made by an amateur, but never the less it was made with loving hooves, meant as a gift for a cherished loved one. I smiled and looked it over a moment longer, seeing the colt eye the blade as well with awe before I finally wrapped it back up in the blanket and secured it in my saddlebag along with a small lock box filled with what I assumed were the five hundred Bits. Last but certainly not least, in the very back of the safe was the small statuette of a sky blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. She looked extremely confident and proud. At the base of the toy there read the words “Be Awesome”.

I felt my whole body shiver strangely as I held the toy in front of myself with my magic. It felt like there was a gentle spring breeze flowing through me. A soft tingling sensation washed over me seconds later. I closed my eyes to try and focus and was suddenly greeted by visions of this mare, Rainbow Dash, doing all sorts of amazing tricks and maneuvers. There it was. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life, She had flown so fast through the sky, she had sent a shock wave of rainbow color cascading through the sky. I could hear the words on the base of the statuette as though she was speaking to me right now.

“Be Awesome.”

Having no idea what had come over me, I shook my head to try and calm down since I was apparently panting pretty heavily. It was almost as though I had personally experienced everything I had just seen. With a nice deep calm breath I packed the small toy away into my saddlebag and made sure everything was secure. The Colt was safe and secure, if only curious about what had just happened to me. My guitar was still in good, playable condition, and now I had a weapon that I could use again. With everything all settled I led the way forward, keeping the lamp on my PipBuck on as we headed even deeper into the mountain.

=====

I pressed a hoof against my face and chuckled a little bit as we both stood completely soaked to the bone on the other side of what was a nice moderately sized underground lake. After a good thirty minutes of exploring the natural cave system of the mountain we had come across the lake that had been described in the storage room terminal. Almost immediately I had checked it for any signs of magical radiation with my PipBuck, and once it showed there was no trace of it, we both set about to drinking as much water as we possibly could. We had both been extremely thirsty apparently since I our little encounter with Honey Pot and her cannibalistic ‘family’. So we took another break to make sure we had slaked our thirst and filled up my empty bottle full of the clean water. The lake itself was just as silvery blue as it had been described, but I assumed it had something to do with the rocks all around it, since once it was in the bottles it looked as normal as water did.

Once we were rested up the only problem was trying to find a way across. Since the lake was practically a dead end from where we had been, the only way to continue was to explore for a way out was to cross. The water looked calm, and a quick glance at my PipBuck showed there was nothing hostile in it thanks to the E.F.S.. So we both jumped in and did our best to swim across. It had started to go fine as we had made it halfway there but right as we hit the center suddenly the kid was completely submerged underwater. At first I had thought he had taken a dive to swim a little faster, but when he didn’t resurface I began to panic. Acting on instinct I inhaled deeply and dove under the water myself, doing my best to look for the kid.

It took a few sweeps but I manage to catch sight of the little guy wildly fighting what looked to be a small whirlpool that was feeding even deeper underground. Apparently it had managed to catch his small frame and was just strong enough to barely hold him in place. As fast I could, which wasn’t very fast at all, thank to how much stuff was with me, I swam over to him and pulled him up and away from the whirlpool. Once we broke the surface He started coughing and sputtering but was otherwise okay. However I could tell he was exhausted after that ordeal. Doing the best I could I carried him to the other side of the shore and pulled ourselves out.

Panting from overexertion I suddenly blinked at the realization that I could’ve used my magic to make the whole damn swim easier for the both of us. That was when I gave myself a facehoof and chuckled at my stupidity. A few moments later I shook myself dry and looked on ahead, It was hard to make out the details, but I could’ve sworn I was seeing a small beam of golden light in the very back. I felt a new rush of excitement surge through me and I pointed it out to the Kid. Almost immediately we both took off running, galloping as hard as we could. I was right, there was a soft pale golden light at the end. It was coming from above and was shining directly into the cave up ahead. If those miners had bothered to explore just a bit further they could’ve saved themselves the effort of sealing the wall back up and just built an exit!

We reached the rock wall and both cheered and laughed as we looked directly up and saw a nice sized hole that we could both fit through. Warm sunlight was drifting through it and bathing us both. I know we had only been in the cave for little less than a day, but any exit was better than being trapped and dying of hunger. It looked like it was going to be a difficult climb, but having learned my lesson from the lake, I used my telekinesis to lift the Kid up high enough so he could climb out on his own and then used it on myself so I could make sure I had secured footing. It took me a bit longer since I weighed more, but I eventually managed to pull myself up and out from the mine, panting and smiling as I basked in the sun’s glow.

We took another ten minute break before I checked the map on my PipBuck. According to the screen, My entire trip through the mine and the mountains had actually saved me a bit of time. Dodge City appeared to be a good three hours walk from here.The only tricky part would be climbing down around the mountain so we could reach the road. I motioned to the Kid that we were leaving and we made our way over to the edge so we get a nice good look at the horizon from a rocky overlook.

It was beautiful. The sun was nearly done completely rising and it was a golden orange that bathed the entire region. The highway that ran through the Mustang Desert snaked its way throughout the land and the many dead trees that littered the ground were like little sticks of burning incense. Dodge City was in view too. It looked to be a completely industrious kind of place, all sorts of black smoke was rising into the air and there were all sorts of colors each a variety of red, black, and grey. This scene was breathtaking...Wait a minute. What the fuck had I just said? By squinting my eyes I could see what I thought I was seeing was completely wrong. Dodge City wasn’t industrious looking at all!

By Celestia’s glorious golden ass, Dodge City was in complete fucking ruin!

Level Up.
New Perk: Little Leaguer (1) - While using a mouth-held or levitated melee weapon, you gain a +5 to your melee weapons skill.
Quest Perk: Wired Reflexes - You gain +10% hit chance when using S.T.A.T.S.