Fallout Equestria: Due North

I awoke to the sound of rain drumming on the exterior of the statue. The cramped, makeshift room was dark, although a faint light crept in under the door. A quick glance around revealed Sunbeam's location; she was curled up on the other bed, asleep.

I reached down to the floor, picking up my pipbuck and dragging the attached armour over. I held it up, squinting to see the time; 6:54. I rolled over, intending to go back to sleep, and dropped the pipbuck. It clattered to the floor; waking up Sunny.

"Hey Cloudy," she yawned, "What time is it?"

"Six to seven," I grumbled, sitting up.

"So, are we gonna leave?" she smiled.

"Ugh, sure," I muttered, stumbling out of bed. In all honesty, I did want to get moving; after what had happened with Deep Strike, I wasn't sure if this town was really safe for her.

We quickly prepared; I slipped back into my armour while she did up her switchblade's holster. A dirty, cracked mirror hung on one wall, badly in need of cleaning. I cleared a patch of it with a hoof, intending to sort my hair out.

A visage very different to what I was expecting stared back: the forlorn shape of a pony in over his head. It was me; same green eyes, same brown mane, same blue coat, yet I was worlds away from the bright young technician who lived in Stratos Lane. Minor cuts and bruises were scattered across my face, while large bags had formed under my eyes. Yellowing bandages enveloped my injured leg, while a slowly-healing wound scarred my wing.

A faint ache in my chest reminded me of the fight with Speed Freak and its results; I'd given everything for Sunbeam. Was it worth it? I'd probably never see Golden Heart again, and Sky Strider was away in the sunless country.

On a whim I reached into one of my saddlebags, lying against the wall nearby. Inside I found it, beneath the scattered microspark cells and equipment; Sky's patch. The familiar letters stitched in white were still there: Neighvarro 3rd Reserve, as was the old watchtower. I felt a tear fall, then another; I'd never see my family again.

As I sat there, crying quietly, I felt a hoof tap my side.

"Hey, Cloudy?" Sunny's voice sliced through my despair. "Y'alright?"

"Yeah kid, I just…" I muttered, "I just miss them, you know?"

"Your family?" she questioned. "No, uh, not really."

I suddenly remembered our conversation the first night, about how her parents had been pushy and unloving, treating her as more of a tool than a daughter. How different our lives had been; my worst worry had been increases in rationing, hers had been the sudden loss of power or water, as the overtaxed Stable systems had fought to keep running. And all the while she'd had to excel at everything.

I shivered slightly, disgusted at my own self-pity. I reached out and pulled her close, hugging her silently for a second. I would protect her, no matter what, but I needed her too.

"Thanks," she muttered under her breath, so quietly I almost missed it.

I stood up, checking my holorifle; I'd originally taken sixteen microspark cells: a full weapon plus three reloads. Right now only one round was left in the weapon, I'd spent the other three during the chase with the bloodwings. Before that I'd emptied the weapon in the resort… and dropped an additional cell while trying to attack Crunch Time.

Two full reloads used; two left. I suddenly wished I'd bought more cells, instead of a room and a smattering of fresh rations. I loaded three extra cells into my rifle, bringing it up to full.

"Hey, open up!" a muffled voice, accompanied by the tapping of a hoof, called from behind the door. I glanced over to Sunny, who didn't seem at all worried. I trotted over and opened the door. Pistol Grip was standing behind it, already wearing new armour, a look of concern on his face.

"Hey Pistol," I said quickly, "What's, uh, up?"

"What happened with Seaworthy?" he demanded, more worried than angry.

"She was with the Steel Rangers," I said quickly, "Inquisitor-Paladin Deep Strike. She wanted to take Sunbeam."

"Oh," the light in his eyes dimmed just a little, "Damn."

"You didn't know?" Sunny was taken aback for a moment.

"I make a point of not working with those MWT bastards," he admitted, "I shouldn't have agreed to help somebody I knew so little about."

"Where is she now?" I questioned.

"Luna knows," he shrugged. "Haven't seen her since we arrived; all I have is a bag of caps and a note saying to keep the caravan."

"Ah," It made sense; given how she'd spilled the beans to somepony she hadn't intended to and blown her cover.

"I've gotta get going," he said suddenly, "New caravan's leaving soon; just wanted to see if you knew anything."

So he'd found employment again. I thanked him quickly and he turned to leave.

"Hey Cloudy?" Sunbeam called from behind me. "Can you give me a hoof with this?"

I turned to see her sitting beneath the mirror, fumbling with a long strip of light blue cloth she'd found, probably on the floor. She was tearing the strip up into smaller sections, before she used her hooves to bundle her mane into a pair of pigtails. She held out one in my direction, expecting me to tie it?

"Just there," she said, indicating where she wanted it. I wrapped the strand around and tied it off simply, before doing the other in a similar way.

"Thanks!" she grinned, standing up. All in all, the look suited her, and the coloured cloth vaguely matched her eyes.

I stood up myself and turned once more to the door. Pistol was long gone. Sunny trotted up beside me, ready to go.

We headed out through the marketplace, where I bought us a few more rations with the few caps I still could scrounge from my saddlebags. The weapons vendor had a couple of microspark cells, but that was it. I bought them anyway, and Sunny successfully haggled down the prices to ten caps a pop. The greedy vendor was easily convinced by the small filly.

I pocketed the pair of cells and headed for the exit, letting her climb up onto my back as we reached the drawbridge. Outside on the creaking wood a small group of ponies were working on the wreckage of the caravan, cutting off chunks of twisted metal.

"Oh, hey Cloudburst!" called a familiar voice. I looked up to see Steam Rivet sitting atop the stripped chassis, a blowtorch by his hooves and a welding mask atop his head.

"Hi," I replied, "What's up?"

"We're strippin' this old thing fer parts," he shrugged. "Pistol said we could 'ave it."

I nodded in understanding and set off at a trot, waving goodbye as we went. I checked my Eyes Forward Sparkle; we were heading west. I turned, trotting away from the rusting statue and towards what my pipbuck's compass said was north.

I threw one last glance at Friendship City, wondering if Radar or the doctor would notice I'd left. The pony holding the torch looked sad, forlorn; tear-stains of decay formed by centuries of rain. How could a nation such as Equestria, which had been at war for decades, ever justify the presence of a 'Statue of Friendship'. Now it stood, forever gazing over the results of that war.

I shook the thought out of my head; it was just a statue. I had much more pressing things to think about, like where exactly I was going. My only goal was to reach the Northern Republic, and from there the Crystal Empire. It wasn't anything close to a fully fledged plan, but at least I had direction.

"Uh, Cloudy," Sunny poked my back, peering over my shoulder at my leg, "You've picked up a new radio signal."

I stopped and instinctively reached for my helmet, slung by the strap to my saddlebag. Then I remembered the pipbuck, and brought the green display up to my face. Under the radio setting I was surprised to see a trio of radio frequencies.

The first, labelled DJ PON-3, started playing music at me the moment I switched it on. It was dull; some mare singing slowly about sadness and mistakes. She had a sweet voice, don't get me wrong, it just wasn't my type of music. I switched channels.

A blast of triumphant marching music burst forth, prompting me to jump and Sunny to cover her ears. The station, Fillydelphia Radio, finished playing its song, switching to some kind of announcement, featuring a buck with a soft voice:

"Greetings again, sweet Equestria. It is I, your leader; Red Eye."

I went to turn it off in disgust; I had already heard enough about this particular figure from Pistol. Sunny stopped me, reaching a hoof out to stop me.

"I wanna hear what he has to say."

I rolled my eyes, letting the tinny speakers play out his announcement.

"…often asked; 'How can you justify owning other ponies?' Well, sweet Equestria, I do not own anypony; I simply allow them to serve a higher purpose. What purpose, you ask? Well, dearest Equestria, it is simple; the rebuilding of our once great nation! Together we will fix our ancestors' mistakes-"

I switched channels before he could continue. He'd sounded convincing enough, despite the reality of Fillydelphia, and I found myself wondering how many had arrived at his territory expecting the promised hub of growth, only to be cast into the pits and put to work.

The last channel was simply 101.42 MHz. As I selected it a message began to play.

"…who can hear this; I need help. This is Corporal Crosswind, United-"

The pony broke down into a coughing fit, his raspy voice disappearing for a second amid hacking coughs.

"Ugh, cough up my lungs why don't I," he muttered, "Look, to whoever's out there, it doesn't matter who I am. My mission's failed and I'm running out of food and ammo, ugh-"

He devolved into another coughing fit, before returning.

"Shit! I ain't gonna last much longer out here. The rest of my crew; they're all dead. Anyone willing to help a father in need; I'm in the, ugh, sewers. Can't go anywhere; one of those fucking zombie horse things took a chunk out of my leg. To anybody who can hear this; I nee-"

I switched the radio off; anybody? What was that supposed to mean? Maybe he wasn't a pony? A marker had already appeared on my pipbuck's map, as well as my EFS compass. Did I follow it through?

"Should we?" I turned to Sunny.

"He said he was a father," she reasoned, "He deserves our help." I was about to tell her that it was probably more complex than that, when she caught on to my expression and spoke up again.

"Okay, so that's a little simplistic," she admitted, shrugging, "I'm trying to be optimistic here." Again, the filly's maturity amazed me.

"We'll follow up on it," I decided, setting off at a trot towards where the pipbuck had marked out our goal; the nearest ponyhole.

The cover was long gone, leaving just a rusted metal ring set above a narrow shaft. After a moment of deliberation I switched on my pipbuck light and peered into the hole. Sunny climbed down off my back to look as well.

Endless disjointed rungs jutted out from the cracked concrete wall, threatening to break free at any moment. I shifted as gently as I could into the hole, testing the first rung with my hind legs. It held. I let out a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding.

I began the agonising descent, with nothing but the dim, flickering glow of my pipbuck and the tiny circle of light overhead. I heard the first rung creak slightly as Sunny eased onto it, and my heart stopped for a moment, yet still it held.

The terrifying descent was mercifully short; it only took a minute to reach the sewer. Still, each second seemed to stretch on for an eternity as a million different ways this could go wrong flashed across my conscience. When I finally cleared the shaft and scrambled down the sewer wall I decided that there was no way we were ever going back out that way.

Sunny clambered down easily after me, shivering slightly as she did so. I doubted it was due to the temperature. I turned to her as she reached the bottom.

"Never doing that again," I laughed nervously. She just nodded in agreement.

"Well who's a'come down the bóithrín green today?" A cheery, accented voice made me jump. I rapidly spun round and brought the holorifle to bear. The pony, who had leapt into view from around a corner, was unfazed.

He was a lanky, mangy earth pony wearing a hole-ridden flat cap. His coat was a dirty green, and his mane was brown, short and messy, with the first wisps of a beard forming on his unshaven chin. On his front right hoof he wore a power hoof; not a regular pneumatic or magical model, but rather the detached hoof from a suit of T-series power armour with most of the plating stripped away, leaving a mess of pipes running up his foreleg. Around his neck hung a chain, with an unusual shard of some kind of metal slung from it. It was a shimmering pale blue colour unfamiliar to me. Strapped to his other foreleg was some kind of short, fat pistol weapon painted bright pink.

"Oh, top o' the mornin' to ya!" he cried as his eyes settled on me. "I 'aven't introduced meself 'ave I? I'm Septic Tank, nice t'meet ya!"

I took a step back; he smelled like a septic tank. He held out his armoured hoof in greeting, and I reluctantly shook it. He grinned, baring a line of rotten teeth.

"So, what brings ya an' yer fair cailín down here?" he asked suddenly. I glanced around for a second, unsure of what to tell him.

"We're following a distress signal," I explained.

"A distress signal?" he raised a bushy eyebrow. "I can nae say I've seen anypony in distress, but I'd be willin' to help ya look."

"Sure," I shrugged. How bad could he be: he seemed friendly enough, if a little overwhelming.

My pipbuck had already highlighted the location of Crosswind's beacon, and I quickly checked my EFS; Septic Tank and Sunny both showed up green, but at least three red ticks hovered in the dim distance. I shivered slightly; given the state of the tunnel around me, anything living down here was going to be pretty resilient.

I knelt down and felt Sunny scramble up onto my back. She smiled at me, and I forced a smile back. This place gave me the creeps; black bricks, smooth and slippery with ancient water, lined the curved walls. Along the centre of the sewer ran an ankle-deep pool of stagnant water. Had it really sat there for two centuries undisturbed?

A sudden hiss drew my attention. I spun around to see a mutated, reptilian creature come barrelling out of a pipe set into the wall. I bit the holorifle's trigger and wildly fired. I missed, but the flash of the weapon scared the creature and sent it screeching away down the sewer. I watched it go into the darkness, racing away.

I felt Sunbeam shiver, clinging tightly to my back. The thing had spooked her.

"Well ain't that jus' fine n' dandy!" Septic Tank exclaimed, his voice laden with irritation.

"What?" I demanded. "It ran away."

"That there, lad, was a tunneller," he hissed, "If one o' 'em gets away, 'e'll go n' get all 'is friends n' swarm ya." I shrugged in apology; he just scowled.

Fearing an ambush, we set off again at a much slower pace; since I had the only map and light I took point. Septic covered our rear, having drawn his weapon. Up ahead the same trio of red blips sat, joined by the fourth; the tunneller I'd scared off.

The sewer opened out into a large circular cistern with a large pool of rancid water in the centre, led into by multiple tunnels. At first I thought it was empty, until I saw the glimmer of white, glassy eyes in the darkness. Three creatures, three hostile blips. They didn't seem to have noticed us, at least until Septic Tank backed up right past me and into the dim light. I went to switch off my light, but it was too late; they'd seen him.

The things which rushed us were haunting shadows of ponies, shambling corpses animated by dark magic, little more than scraps of flesh clinging to a failing skeleton: feral ghouls. They broke out into a drunken, lurching gallop as they crossed the flagstones towards us.

The chamber was suddenly illuminated. One of the ghouls burst into flames, a nucleus of light and heat, a flare, had become embedded in its flank. It screeched and ran, crashing into another and igniting them both. A pair of bullets from Septic Tank silenced their screaming. The third blindsided me. I raised a wing to protect Sunny and swung the holorifle, breaking its jaw. I rammed the barrel into its open mouth and fired. Its head exploded, showing the walls with rotten flesh.

I wiped off the scraps of ghoul flesh and checked myself; I'd lost a couple of feathers and sustained a few scratches, no more. I turned my head to glance at Sunny, who was shaking.

"Y'alright? They're gone now."

"Uh, yeah," she muttered quickly. I turned to Septic, who was fumbling with his pistol.

It was the first time I got a proper look at the weapon. It was bizarre; a break-action flare gun, with which he'd shot the ghoul, with a ten millimetre pistol attached to the underside. It accepted regular ten millimetre stick magazines, loaded parallel to the barrel with the bottom away from the trigger. The smaller gun barrel and magazine housing were a light blue colour, while the rest of the weapon was a faded light pink. Around both barrels ran curly white decoration, and the words Party Favour had been painstakingly painted onto the flare barrel on both sides. He noticed me staring at it, and held it up so I could see.

"I see ya've noticed ol' Party Favour," his anger evaporated, replaced by a smug pride, 'Got 'im off a merchant out in Fetlock; genuine Ministry o' Morale tech," he said proudly.

His smugness was cut short by the slapping of a hundred webbed feet of the flagstones. To my horror, a large section of my EFS had turned solid red. The horde was upon us.

I fired at the first creature to come out of the darkness. The tunneller dissolved instantly, scattering hot ash across the floor. Around two dozen more swarmed forth, clamouring for our flesh. Septic Tank put a flare into their midst and the group scattered. They were suddenly everywhere, scratching and clawing at my legs. Without thinking I threw a buck at the horde. My hooves hit one square in the face, splintering its skull. It went down, shrieking unintelligibly. Three more sprung up to replace it, and I was down to my last shot. Terror rose within me; we were overwhelmed, outnumbered massively. We had to move. I checked my compass: go left. I took off, not waiting for Septic Tank. The clamour of the cistern was suddenly left far behind.

Sunny gripped my neck tightly as I gave my wings another beat. The darkened bricks became a blur as we sped. The distant clatter of Septic Tank's power hoof on the sewer floor faded behind me. The claustrophobic, dark tunnels seemed to stretch on for miles. I swung left, then right, then left again. My heart pounded, its beating reaching fever pitch.

The tiny blip marking Crosswind's location grew with every passing second. I pushed my body for all it was worth, though my lungs were on fire and my injured leg threatened to give out. I suddenly saw it, a few scraps of white-yellow bone reflecting the dim light of my pipbuck.

I skidded to a halt, my hooves slipping on the damp flagstones. I overshot, and as I stood there panting Sunbeam scrambled down to go and have a look at the remains.

I heard her gasp, and rapidly joined her. There, lying face up in the stagnant water, was the strangest skeleton I'd ever seen. It was bipedal, with absurdly long and thin hind legs. Its… arms, like those of an ape, were long and spindly, ending in five-fingered claws. The scale of it amazed me; at full height an average stallion's ears would have brushed its chin. Had this thing killed Crosswind? The last scraps of some advanced combat armour clung to the bones, while on its left foreleg, sorry, arm sat a now-dead device resembling a pipbuck, only far more advanced.

It took me a second, but I located a port on the side of the device. To my sheer amazement, it was the same universal port used in Equestria. I gently unrolled my pipbuck's data transfer cable and connected the two, kneeling down as I did so. A long list of files appeared, twenty five in all. Every single one was a sound recording.

Out of all of these, the first was highlighted with an asterisk, as was one in the middle; Day #17. I downloaded these two as well as the final recording, hoping it would hold some clue as to what this thing was. With nopony else in sight, I set the first one playing.

"Hello, hello hello? Is this thing on? Okay. This is Corporal Crosswind-"

My jaw dropped; this monster, this alien hadn't killed him, it was him. I suddenly caught sight of what had once been bandages around one skeletal leg.

"-Operation Zeta expedition navigator. Me and my crew aboard the recovery vessel UCS Crystal Heart have been dispatched to- ah screw it."

His voice was monotone, tired. He clearly didn't want to be doing this.

"The only reason anyone'll listening to this crap is if I'm dead and they've found the remains; not like anybody back at the centre gives a shit about my log. Look, it's been a month since my daughter disappeared. Now this is gonna sound batshit insane, but according to the eggheads at Canterlot Research Centre there was some kind of space-time anomaly on the night she disappeared. It's a stretch, but they think she could've gotten sucked into this dimension. I signed on immediately."

Some kind of alternate Canterlot where these… things roamed around didn't sound particularly inviting.

"So now we're here; the first manned expedition to whatever this hellhole's called; me, Sergeant Bronze Bolt, and the twins who built this damned thing. It's not the first time we've sent stuff over, at least they aren't that stupid. Firelance probes've gone over before, but at least two never made it back.

"Other problem is that interdimensional travel's kinda finnicky; we've ended up several days south of where they say the anomaly came from-

"Ah shit. What is it this time? Yes ma'am… Gotta run; this is Corporal Crosswind, UCS Crystal Heart, signing off."

I looked down at Sunbeam, who was trying to free something from under Crosswind's half-submerged body. Septic Tank still hadn't caught up with us, and so I played the second entry.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

Sunny cringed at the profanity. The audio quality had dropped significantly, and Crosswind sounded panicked and out of breath.

"The Crystal Heart's shot to hell, everyone else is dead, and I've no way outta this shithole. When the probes turned up claiming the dominant species here was equines, there was no mention of fucking flying horses in power armour!"

Apparently his expedition had encountered the Enclave, with bloody results.

"The bastards jumped us as we were heading over some ruined suburbs, maybe a dozen of 'em opening up with lasers. Of course, it's like hitting a brick wall with pebbles, but we weren't taking any chances. Bolt had us gun the engines to max and try to break, but those bastards are fast as all hell.

"Then this one asshole flies over, and guess what? He had the mounted blaster off a Firelance bolted to his back like a fucking turret. Went through our shields like fucking tissue paper. Of course, me and Bolt were packing sidearms powerful enough to fry the fucker, but we were inside, and with the way those things were moving around there wasn't a hope in hell we could've brought our nose-mounted Ex-Bs to bear.

"Without shielding their damn flashlights were enough to burn through the hull. The reactor went up in smoke pretty quick and blew the whole fucking thing to oblivion. Bolt was shredded in the explosion, an' so were the twins. I think I've fractured my arm, but the rest's fine enough. Grav-chute did its job.

"A pair of scavengers were under us when we went up, one is a fucking unicorn, with magic and everything, no joke. Didn't let them see me. They found Bolt's blaster and a few cells; I've grabbed as many as I can carry. At least my gun arm's still good. I'm gonna try and reach Songbird on foot."

Who was Songbird? His daughter? I switched over to Day #25.

"Nobody… responding…"

He panted, clearly on his last legs. He sounded bad, worse even than in his distress call.

"Ammo… gone…"

He broke down into a violent coughing fit, but it didn't finish him off.

"Leg… infected… ugh… Songbird…"

He suddenly became panicked, frenzied even. The volume skyrocketed, presumably from him pulling the microphone close. I turned it down.

"Songbird! Sweetie… if you can hear this… daddy... daddy loves you-"

He broke down one last time, crying even as he started coughing again. The recording ended suddenly, with a splash and the fizzle of electronics frying. I wasn't sure what to say; he'd died trying to save his daughter. Only… the recording was dated to four years ago. There was a pretty high chance she was dead. I sighed, and downloaded the coordinates of his destination. If I couldn't save Songbird, I'd at least bury her; he deserved it.

As I went to unplug the device, I managed to dislodge one of the pouches which had been a part of his ruined gear. A small piece of some kind of plastic fell out and into the dirty water with a faint splash. I snatched it up.

It was a photograph of some description; not one of the grainy, desaturated images that Golden Heart's camera had taken, but something in full colour and incredible definition. There even seemed to be a slight three dimensional effect to the image on the layered plastic. The smiling faces of two... whatever Crosswind was stared back at me.

"Is that him?" Sunbeam's voice made me jump; she had moved next to me to get a look.

The two creatures were probably father and daughter; one was significantly larger and definitely male, with dark green skin, grey eyes and nearly black hair. He sported a thick yet short beard, and wore some kind of military fatigues. The other was much smaller, possibly a child; it certainly looked younger.

It appeared female, with light pink skin and short, creamy blonde hair. She was wearing what appeared to be sports kit, with blue and white vertical stripes. A series of meaningless logos were placed across her clothing, on sleeves and such. Her face was, like her assumed father, giddy with excitement, and she held a trophy.

Was this Songbird? It made sense for Crosswind to carry a picture of him and his daughter, given how much he cared about her. Either way, he looked a lot less menacing in the flesh. Maybe it was because I could actually see his face, rather than just a hollow skull.

"Oh, lookie 'ere!" Septic Tank's jolly voice made me jump, again. I leapt to my hooves; he'd caught up. "What's this yar wee cailín's found?"

The item Sunbeam had pulled away from the corpse was a pistol of some unknown make. The body of the weapon was egg shaped, cracked, and would have once been pale silvery colour. A long barrel with multiple neon blue rings around it projected forth, while an unusual 'fin' rose from the rear of the weapon. The trigger was unusual, resembling that of griffon weaponry, obviously made so that Crosswind's species could use it.

"Ya know what that is, lad?" there was a menace in his voice, one that made me back away slightly.

It was definitely familiar, but why? Suddenly it clicked; it was of the same manufacture as a similar Enclave-owned weapon which was mounted on a turret on somepony's back. There was only one gun I knew of like that; Colonel Autumn's legendary Star Blaster, a gun I had seen demonstrated only once back on base.

It was a Star Blaster; the kind of weapon that could disintegrate an alicorn in one shot. He took a step towards me, raising his power hoof.

"Ya recognise this lil' beauty?" he lifted up the metal slung around his neck, cradling it with uncharacteristic care. "This 'ere metal's only found on asteroids n' the like; outer space basically. It's why they call it Starmetal."

Starmetal; great. The stuff that sent zebras into a frenzy and was prized by anypony who could get their hooves on it. Of course Star Blasters would contain it; it was in the name. He seemed to know it too, and now he wanted Crosswind's, badly.

"Found this lil' scrap in a drained pow'r cell, worthless really, but that," he continued to monologue, pointing to the weapon, "Ya think ponies can make that kinda tech?"

I shook my head; in all honesty, I was ready to let him have it. There was no ammunition for it, it was probably broken, and a fight wasn't what I needed.

"Alright, so y'understand," he readied his power hoof, and I stepped back again. "Now yar gonna gimme that there blaster, and I won't give yar little sister a new face."

Something inside me clicked; nopony threatened Sunny. I rushed him, forgetting my minor aches and pains. His eyes went wide with shock as I managed to send him sprawling. I was lucky he'd been light, probably from not eating if his visible ribs were anything to go by. If he hadn't been severely underweight I would have been the one on the floor.

Before he could recover the wide barrel of my Holorifle was pressed up against his temple. There was a crazed look in his eyes, and he began to sweat profusely.

"Look, lad, I-"

"If you so much as lay a hoof on her," I snarled, forgetting myself, "I'll personally ensure you pay for it."

"Alright, Celestia!" he yelled nervously. I removed the holorifle, and he bolted, cursing the whole way and limping on his armoured leg. I trotted quickly back over to Sunny, who, though a little afraid, had watched him run away intently.

"His right foreleg was fractured," she said matter-of-factly.

"The one in the power hoof?" I asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yup," she forced a smile, feigning proudness at her ability to surprise me. Yet there was something in her eyes that gave it away; something was worrying her all of a sudden.

"Look, Sunbeam," I knelt down once more, "If there's something-"

"He thought I was your sister," she said quickly.

"So?" I shrugged. "That doesn't mean anything. He was just assuming stuff." It wasn't the answer she was hoping for.

"So how do you see me then?" she suddenly demanded. "How would you describe our relationship?"

Honestly; I hadn't thought about it. I'd simply explained the situation to Deep Strike's caravan. In fact, I wasn't sure I could say "she's my…" to describe Sunbeam at all.

I looked at her and shrugged, unsure of what to say. She looked away disappointed, and stood up, picking up the broken Star Blaster. Then it hit me. I wanted to curse my own stupidity; why hadn't I thought of this before. It was obvious why she'd asked me.

"Would you like it if we were siblings?" I asked. The blaster clattered to the floor; I'd taken her by surprise. She turned to look at me with those great blue eyes of hers. The dim light of my pipbuck twinkled off the water pooling under her eyes; she was on the verge of tears.

"Well I, uh, yeah," she stammered, trying not to mess up, "I guess, I just want a real family, uh, you know?"

Again, I felt a pang of sympathy. Her parents had been so… detached, distant from her, that she no longer considered them real family. Then again, given what I'd been told, I doubted they were still alive following Stable 58.

"Kid," I said seriously, "We are family. It doesn't matter what we call it; if you want us to be siblings then that's fine by me."

I pulled an undersized wing around her. She smiled up at me with that same hope I'd seen in her when I'd released her.

"Thanks," she muttered.

I stood up slowly, packing the Star Blaster into my saddlebag. Sunny scrambled up onto my back, getting comfortable. She curled up with her head resting against my neck, her two pigtails drooped over the side of my saddlebag.

I set off at a slow trot down the dark tunnel. I had a little sister now, not that it changed much. It just made explaining things a bit easier and made her happy, so I didn't mind.

======

I scrambled quickly up the bare steel staircase, hooves clattering on the steps, trying not to dislodge the sleeping filly on my back. All around me the empty husks of centuries-old machines sat, locked in place with rust or looted for scrap metal. The place had one been a treatment plant for sewer water; the sewer had ended at a twisted and broken grate behind which sat a mostly empty concrete tank.

The narrow staircase led out of this, rising up to an observation deck. I reached it quickly, and was unpleasantly surprised; the yellowing bones of a dead mare hung limply over the controls for the tank, wearing a cracked hard hat and a rotting high-vis. The entire thing was illuminated by the sunlight filtering in through shattered windows. The sickly pale glow that penetrated the cloud layer was brighter than the sewers, but nothing like the sun in Neighvarro. The dark tunnels had made me miss that sunlight, hidden beyond the cloud barrier

I moved slowly through the building, with nothing but the sound of my breathing and Sunbeam's to keep me company. It was a sorry sight; sections of the floor above had collapsed, terminals sat dead on dusk-caked desks, discarded clipboards and paperweights were strewn about. The place had been abandoned in a hurry, presumably after Manehattan had been hit.

The front door of the building was somehow still intact; a worn, blue door. The lock was long destroyed, its housing rusted and useless. I pushed it open.

Sunbeam stirred, waking from her little nap. She yawned and scrambled up to that she was balanced precariously on my back, peering past my head.

I strode slowly outside onto the suburban street. The treatment plant sat at one end of an otherwise residential road. The ruined shells of detached houses lined the cracked street, and the abandoned shells of vehicles littered the sidewalk.

I pulled up my pipbuck and checked the map; Songbird's location was highlighted on the outskirts of Hoofington, a few miles to the north. I scrolled out, getting a full view of the northern wasteland. Beyond Hoofington, a long mountain range marked the wastes' northern border. Among the foothills of these were scattered numerous small towns and villages; the Northern Republic?

There was one gap through the mountains; a wide stretch of jumbled shapes on the map. I zoomed in on it; I could clearly make out the remains of roads and buildings, their square outlines set at bizarre angles to each other and contrasting with the rocky, broken outlines that cut across the area; the Divide? Beyond that there was a single line, a narrow road or railway, running up to a… blank circle?

It was plain to see, a blank, perfect circle highlighted in green on the cracked screen. No data appeared to exist for it; was this the Crystal Empire? It stuck out like a sore thumb against the ruins of the Divide and the jagged mountains.

"So that empty circle's the Empire?" Sunny asked. "It must be shielded from whatever they use to generate the maps."

That made sense, although I suddenly realised I had no idea how the pipbuck created its maps. Magic? A satellite? I shrugged, prompting Sunny to shift her position.

I set off once more; we now had a clear goal. A distant tick mark pointed to our destination, and so I oriented myself towards this as we headed off. It seemed things were looking up for us; I just hoped that the same could be said for Songbird.

======

A huge white tower rose out of the cracked earth, rising skywards. The clouds clung to the top, particularly thick and solid; an S.P.P tower. Against the base the rusting chassis of a pegasus-pulled passenger wagon lay, reinforced with sections of corrugated iron and old chain link fence. Streaks of rust ran down the sides, the mark of years of rain.

On the horizon behind us, the ruins of Manehattan loomed. Ahead, Hoofington was visible; a vast, dark metropolis. It was a good half a day's travel away on hoof, and it looked like we'd just found where we were going to sleep tonight, provided it wasn't already occupied.

There was nothing on my EFS; the place was deserted. Why would somepony go to the effort of building this if they were just going to leave? I approached with trepidation, moving as quickly as I dared. Sunbeam gently clambered down, before scampering off to investigate. A rather loud gasp echoed from the wreck before I had a chance to call her back. I was there in a second.

The corpse of a wastelander buck lay on its back in the entranceway. He'd taken a single bullet through the front of the skull at close range, splattering his improvised armour with his own blood. I looked around the rest of the bus; a medical box and an ammunition case were both present. A somewhat dirty mattress and soiled bucket were the only furnishings. It didn't appear to have been looted. Which made the dead owner even more confusing.

Reluctantly, I grabbed the corpse by a hind leg and hauled it out of the way. Sunbeam trotted in warily, heading for the medical box.

"Hey, uh, Cloudy?" she asked. "Can I borrow a screwdriver?"

"Uh, sure." I reached into my saddlebag, finding the tool kit issued to me as squad technician. Inside the all-weather plastic container I found the flathead screwdriver. I tossed it to her.

"Thanks!" she smiled, "Now, just gimme a second and…"

She inserted the screwdriver into the box's lock as well as a bobby pin she'd picked out of a small pile left by the box. The previous owner had clearly been trying to do the same thing Sunny was. I approached, and all of a sudden there was a clunk. The box popped open, revealing a healing potion, some magically-laced healing bandages and a small plastic inhaler.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" I was genuinely surprised.

"Holotapes," she shrugged, "Back in Vanhoover, I, uh, managed to persuade Dandy to look the other way if I borrowed from the stable library. My family never allowed it."

She was talking about Crusader Dandelion, the one who had been sniped by raiders. The way she said "family" though; there was a loathing there, a hatred that was deep-seated.

She'd already moved on to the ammunition box, attempting to tease it open. The pin snapped.

"Crap," she muttered. I looked over at her, and she froze.

I blinked in surprise, confused; she had frozen in place, a wild terror in her eyes. It was pure instinct, possibly due to her time spent in raider captivity? But that had only lasted a week. Then it hit me, like a runaway wagon; the reason why she'd had such resentment towards her family; they'd been more than pushy.

I sat down next to her, gently wrapping a wing around her small frame.

"It's alright," I said as softly as I could, "I'm not going to hurt you, or scream at you or anything. We're siblings now, remember?"

"Yeah, I uh…" she looked up at me, embarrassed that she'd been scared at all.

"Don't worry about it," I smiled, "Little sis."

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk:
Fleet of Hoof (2) - Through use of your wings, your sprint speed is now increased by an additional 25%