Ace had been traveling with Lilly, Dusty, Long Shot, and Tinkerton for about a month now, and Lilly had started to lose hope in finding her parents at all. Dusty had grown a bit since he started traveling with them, no longer a small skinny colt, he was a nice strong teenager, almost a full grown stallion. Long Shot kept his rule, no second chances, and everytime the group ran into somepony who had wronged him in the past, he'd shoot them with no mercy. Tinkerton had kept her usual talk about how the group should take better care of their weapons, even if she got annoying from time to time, that wasn't enough to have them kick her out.

When night had fallen they set up camp and got settled in, Lilly was cooking some food, Dusty was sitting still for once, Long Shot was on watch, Tinkerton was messing with one of Ace's guns, and Ace was sitting and looking into the fire. Ace saw things as he stared into the flames, ponies being burnt alive, a soul being snuffed out, and a gun being pointed at his face. To himself Ace had become a killer, he didn't like it, since his travels with the others, he's killed at least thirty ponies.

Dusty was also staring into the flames, but for him, he saw light, a ray of hope that the world would go back to normal someday. He didn't let it keep him down, about how the world had gone to hell, he just kept looking for the good in the situation. Learning that from Tinkerton Dusty took it to heart, and never wanted to give up hope that everypony could be friends.

"Dinners ready." Lilly said as she started handing out small bowls full of soup. "I hope you like it, cause that's the last of our food."

"Thank you Lilly." Ace said as he took his bowl. "This means a lot."

"Yeah, thanks." Tinkerton spoke while still messing around with King, Ace's 10.mm.

"It's not much, but it'll have to do." Long Shot said in a neutral tone.

"Thank you for the food Lilly, you'v done so much for us." Dusty had a bright smile on his face, like Tinkerton if she had found a pile of scrap.

Silently eating their food and not speaking the tension in the air was thick enough to cut through. Everypony had their own thoughts, Ace was afraid of who he had become, Lilly didn't want to be alive anymore, Dusty was scared for the others, Long Shot thought of a plan for if Ace got killed, And Tinkerton's mind was a mystery.

'Look at us, i've got the eyes of a killer, Dusty and Tinker's too naive to understand the situation, Lilly just wants to find her parents, and Long Shot, well he's being as edgy as usual.' Ace had thought to himself, shivering at his own thought, "the eyes of a killer" it terrified him to even think that.

In the shadows a figure moved silently stalking Ace and his crew, a mare, but also not a mare, she was a foxen, half pony, half fox. She was able to see Ace and his gang easily from the shadows, slowly she crept up and then pounced at Ace tossing him into a nearby rock.

"Ace!" Lilly called and reached for him.

"No Lilly, stay back, keep Dusty away from this thing, Long Shot, and Tinker too, all of you get back." Ace stood up and grabbed a stick that was by his side. "I've got this." The foxen mare just scoffed at him and bore her claws making them shine in the moonlight.

"Die." Was all she said before she swiped at Ace with immeasurable speed, she was too fast for him to react. She ended up slashing him across his chest making him take a few steps back. Ace wincing in pain smirked at her and then swung the stick, it wasn't much of a weapon but Ace didn't mind, so long as it protected him from danger it was good enough.

The mare dodged easily and then ran to his side, slashing him again, this time hitting his side and sending him a few yards away. Ace stood up and placed his hoof where is recent injury was looking at his own blood made him think of the first time he was forced to kill, he started to become queasy, and it was visible. Swaying from side to side about to vomit Ace's attacker took this chance to slash at him again, Ace collapsed to the ground below and was bleeding heavily from his injuries, this was the first time he had face somepony as fast as this mare, and again he found himself at his attacker's mercy.

Just as the foxen was about to finish him off Dusty yelled. "No, not my big bro!" He ran in front of the foxen and was ready to take the blow.

Lilly soon followed his lead and stood next to him saying. "If you want to kill him, you're going to have to go through us." The foxen was taken aback about how these two wanted to protect Ace so much as to risk their lives for him, she looked down and saw Ace looking up at her and ready to fight again if she had chosen to strike them down in front of him, this was an odd predicament for her to be in, but she soon took a step back and sat down.

Lilly and Dusty helped Ace up, and Long Shot was about ready to shoot the mare when Ace said. "You gave me quite a beat down, firce, and not caring, I like it, listen, i've got an offer for you." The mare looked at him with interest. "Since you're so good at fighting, and I could get better, what's say you join us?"

"What?" Dusty said in confusion.

"You can't be serious, she almost killed you." Lilly added.

"True, but imagine being in her spot, you see a group of random ponies with guns, likely chance they're raiders, so it was a misunderstanding." Ace extended his hoof to the mare. "My name's Ace of Spades, this is Lilly, Dusty, Long Shot, and Tinkerton, though I just call her Tinker for short, like you can call me Ace for short." Ace pointed to his group members as he said their names.

"er, I'm Shadow Moon." The mare replied as she looked at Ace extending his hoof at her. "Now get your damn hoof out of my face!" She demanded it in a fierce tone Ace quickly took his hoof back terrified by this mare. "Now leave me alone so I can sleep." She barked orders at them and rolled over to sleep.

"That's actually my sleeping ba-" Ace stopped mid scentence when he noticed Shadow glaring at him. "Never mind i'll just sleep on a rock." He shuttered. 'I can tell she'll be a fun addition to the team.' He thought to himself.

"Ace if you want, you can share my bag." Tinkerton offered and Lilly looked a bit sad though Ace didn't notice.

"Oh, sure, thanks Tinker." Ace smiled at her as she climbed into her bag and motioned for him to climb in.

"Night everypony."Lilly said with a scoff as she climbed into her bag.

"um, okay, goodnight." Ace said as he climbed into Tinkerton's bag with her.

Later that night Ace was awake thinking about everything that happened in the past months. First he woke up with no memory about who he was, next he killed three ponies with skill, after that he traveled and found Lilly and Dusty's town, then he fought Long Shot to the death, though no pony died, then the next morning found Tinkerton asleep on the side of the road, and now this night fought Shadow Moon to the death, and no one died again.

"What a life i'm living." Ace said silently to himself.

"You're living a nice life." Tinkerton spoke to him, Ace jumped a little wondering how long she had been awake.

"Oh, um, well thanks Tinker." He said a bit relieved that she tried to comfort him.

"Yes times have been tough, but you can't lose hope, Lilly and Dusty needs you." She looked into Ace's eyes, Ace blushed at the sudden change in Tinkerton's attitude. "And, well, I need you too."

"Tinker, I-" Ace started but was interrupted by a sudden kiss he blushed intensely and after a bit the kiss was broken and Ace stared into her eyes. managing only. "wow, that was amazing."

"Make sure that no matter what, you don't lose hope." Ace was about to open his mouth to say something but then heard Tinkerton snoring soundly.

"Was that all in her sleep?" He asked himself trying to brush off what had just happened, and fell asleep.

The next day Ace and his friends, and Shadow where walking down a path towards a town to get more supplies for the next few months. Shadow had insisted on being the one leading the group to the town, and Ace didn't object because he was terrified of her, instead he walked next to Tinkerton.

"Um Hey Tinker, do you remember last night?" Ace asked wondering if she had done that on purpose.

"Nope, what happened last night, other than Shadow almost killing you." Tinkerton asked and she sounded genuine about her confusion.

"Never mind, forget it." Ace replied and took a step away from her. 'So she doesn't remember, that's good I guess.' He thought to himself, a bit sad about her not remembering.

"Move your asses, we're almost there!" Shadow ordered with her usual terrifying tone.

"Right away miss!" Ace replied and hurried his pace.

The group all caught up and saw the town, it was nice, all the buildings where intact, ponies where walking the streets not afraid of anything. It was the most peaceful town that Ace had run into since he awoke months ago. There was a sign saying "welcome to Peaceville" the sign was small but nice the group walked into town and instantly the ponies there walked up to them.

"Welcome to Peaceville, the only safe haven from the wastes, please stay as long as you'd like." A pony spoke to them. "And if you need a place to stay, there's a nice building for you to set up home in, we'll be glad to help you all settle in if you'd like."

"This place is nice, it wouldn't hurt to stay here a while so that we could prepare for our next adventure in the wastes." Ace said with a tone of confidence.

"Hey, i'll be the one to decide if we stay or not!" Shadow said, but then quickly changed her tone. "I have decided, we stay here."

"Good plan Shadow." Long Shot said sarcastically.

"Alright, we're staying here." Ace told the pony who had talked to them.

"Excellent." they replied and then slapped something onto Ace's front fore left leg. "It's called a pipbick, it'll help you sort things out, and even keep track of your vitals."

"Well, thanks, shouldn't my friends, and Shadow, get one too?" Ace asked.

"We only had the one left, but if we find anymore before you leave, then we'll give them to your friends, absolutely free."

"Well that sounds like a good deal." Ace said with a smile.

"I would love to take one apart." Tinkerton said as she got a grin on her face. "Ace."

No way, you're not taking this apart, I just got it!" He replied moving away from Tinkerton a bit.

After a while the gathering of the ponies subsided and Ace's group go settled in a new temporary home, it was big enough for all of them, and any extra ponies they decide to add to the group. Everypony had their own room, Tinkerton got a workshop, Shadow got a training room, Ace got a thinking room, Long Shot got a sniper's post, and Dusty and Lilly got a kitchen.

"This place is fantastic, we've got a base." Ace said as he walked around.

"I think I could get used to this, it'll be nice, and if we don't find my parents, i'll be just fine, because i've got all of my friends." Lilly said sound very happy.

"But remember, I won't stop looking for them for you." Ace said knowing they'd never be found.

"I don't care as much now, I know they might be dead, but I still have you, Dusty, Long Shot, and Tinker." Lilly smiled happily.

"Right, you've still got us." Ace sighed and walked to his room flopping down on the bed, he heard lots of commotion coming from outside and looked out a window and saw a party going on in the town, there was a sign saying new years eve. Ace didn't know what that was so he decided to go outside and ask about it.

"Here take some." A mare said to Ace as soon as he stepped outside, she was offering some snacks to Ace.

"Um, thanks." Ace replied as he took one. "Hey, what's new years eve?"

"Just the party where we celebrate a year's end and the new year coming into fruition." the mare replied.

Ace ate his snack and then understood what was going on. "I think I get it now."

"Oh, and every year once midnight hits, then a stallion gets a kiss from the mare next to him, so make sure the mare next to you is one you like." She said as she gave him a wink and trotted off.

The party kept going on, Ace tried to calm down but he couldn't, so he went back outside, and tried asking around about how to relax, one mare suggested drinking, but Ace had no idea as to what she was talking about until she handed him some bottles.

"Drink these and you'll be really relaxed." She smiled at Ace.

"Okay." Ace replied and then went back into his room in the base. "Wonder what these are." He said to himself before taking a sip of one bottle, it had a sweet, sour, and bitter taste, it burnt his throat on it's way down, but it did make him relaxed, so he then downed the rest of the bottle. "Wow, this stuff's great."

After a few hours Ace drank ten bottles of his drink and was completely out of it, his steps where spastic, and his vision blurry. Shadow had been walking past his room when she heard him talking to himself about random things, being a protector of ponies she liked she decided to check on him by walking into his room to find him drunk.

"Okay dumb ass, what did you drink?" Shadow asked clearly pissed at him.

"Oh, hey Shadow, Shadow, Shadow, Shadow, what a funny name." He laughed before picking up a bottle and showing it to her. "I was drinking thish." Ace's speech was slurred.

"Idiot, you're drunk." She said with an annoyed sigh. "Good think I don't care about you." She started to leave his room before Ace grabbed her and pined her to his bed, since she wasn't expecting it she couldn't escape. "What the hell do you think you're doing, let me go before I kill you!"

"Blah, blah, blah, shut up." Ace replied with a smirk.

"So this was your plan all along, trap me, and then kill me!"

"What, no, i'm just telling you that I found out something cool about new years."

"Really? yeah, and what's that?" Shadow was still pissed at Ace, but curious about what he had to say.

"Once midnight hits, then a stallion kisses a mare next to him." Ace then looked at his newly acquired pipbuck and smiled."It's midnight now."

"Oh no, don't you fucking dare!" Shadow shouted at Ace.

"Too late." Ace leaned down and kissed Shadow, she squirmed and then kicked him off of her, getting launched into the wall Ace managed to say. "Dammit."

"You're a sick bastard you know that!" Shadow ran out of Ace's room leaving him there lying unconscious on the floor.

"Command, Seven Three Two reporting in." The masked pony said.

"We read you Seven Three Two." The command pony said.

"Subject Delta Five Oh has settled in Peaceville."

"I see, anything out of the ordinary?"

"The subject has added a foxen to it's group."

"A foxen, really?"

"Affirmative."

"Well, come back to base ASAP."

"Will do." The masked pony started walking away from a hill that he was standing on.

"Seven Three Two."

"Yes command?"

"Happy new years."

"Happy new years to you too Command, happy new years to you too." The masked pony then walked away into the shadows of the night, leaving Ace and his friends to stay in Peaceville for a while longer

Author's Note

I just wanted to say thank you to all of my readers for supporting my stories (even if I haven't wrote in a while) but it really means a lot to me that none of you have given up on me and my stories, this took especially long to write because I had some other things I needed to take care of, but this is amazing, so many people have favorited my stories, many have up voted it, some down voted, but that doesn't matter, i'm just so happy that you love my stories, if you do at all, and I also wanted to say

HAPPY NEW YEARS!