Fallout Equestria Meets Mlp FIMby Proud to be MeChaptersWelcome to the WastelandA Quick History LessonWasteland LessonsAlicorn Friends?Welcome to the WastelandThe sun shined brightly overhead, as Ponyville was filled with the sounds of ponies, going about their day. The train station was especially noisy, as ponies began to disembarked, or board the train. The mane six stepped off the train, and look a quickly look around. They all looked exhausted, and worn out. Even Pinkie was exhausted and barely able to stand up. As they headed into town, they saw a familiar wagon parked next to town hall. When they got closer they could hear the sounds of a crowd, and a very familiar ponies making an announcement. “Watch and be amazed, as the Great and Powerful Trixie, will mystify you,” Trixie exclaimed. “Sure hope she is a lot more bearable then last time she was here,” AJ whispered to her friends, as they stood there, for a moment. Trixie began to cast a spell, her horn glowed brightly, as a blue mist began to gather on the stage. Which slowly took on pony-like forms, that became more and more detailed. Soon creating the illusion that several different pony, were on the stage next to Trixie. They looked so real, everyone thought Trixie had just teleport several ponies onto the stage. Trixie then began to walk off the stage, horn still glowing, and let the illusions she created perform. The pony illusions quickly took the forms of leaders of the three pony tribes. They then began to perform the story of Hearts Warming Eve. As the play went on, everyone was really impressed by Trixie’s spell. Even the mane 6 decided to stay and watch the show, despite how tired they were. After the Hearts Warming Eve play, Trixie put on a few more plays. All of them reenacting history that was common knowledge to everyone. Yet, the audience was still mystified by the pony illusions. After the sixth play, Trixie returned to the stage, and bowed along side her pony illusions. The audiences exploded into applause, as the illusions began to disappear. “Ah be the first to admit it, that show was good,” Applejack sighed. “Agreed those plays were amazing, and I really like that she toned down her boasting,” Rarity nodded. “Sorry, but the Great and Powerful Trixie’s show is now complete. Please come back later tonight for an even better show,” Trixie announced. As the crowd began to dissipate, Trixie notice the mane 6, sitting in the back. She smiled widely, quickly jumped from her stage, and ran towards them. “How did you like Trixie’s new show, did Trixie successfully entertain you,” she asked, waving her right foreleg in the air. “Yes, Trixie you did, and I am impressed by your illusion spell,” Twilight said. “Why, thank you, Twilight,” Trixie answered. “So Trixie want to asked you something, can she come over to your castle library tomorrow. Trixie need some more material to create a new amazing show, and most library don’t have what Trixie needs,” she added, nervously. “Sure, I will be glad to help, come by anytime tomorrow, we’re all going to be there for a friendship meetings,” Twilight nodded. “Yeah Twilight is a total egghead, you will certainly find what you need in her library,” Rainbow commented. Twilight just rolled her eyes and headed towards her castle. As the rest of them, when about their business. The rest of the mane 6 went home to get some rest, after their friendship mission. While Trixie returned to her stage to practice her performance for tonight. She picked up some books in her magic and began studying them. After reading through the books, she began practicing the show. Later that night, the mane 6 met up next to Trixie’s stage to watch her show. They were all excited to see what Trixie was going to do. After her introduction, which was the same as everyone of her other show. Starting off by boasting about how great she is and how great the show is going to be. The show was mostly based around historical events, and repeated some of the plays from this afternoon. Despite that the show was still amazing, and everyone was mystified by it. After the final play was over and the curtain fell, fireworks shot up into the air. Exploding in a beautiful display of color against the night sky. Trixie came back on stage, being greeted by an explosion of applause, and took a bow. After the show was over, Trixie and the mane 6 went together to get some dinner. “So Trixie how you been,” Fluttershy asked, as the waitress brought them their food. “Trixie has been great, she has been very popular recently,” Trixie said proudly. “We can see that, your new shows look absolutely stunning,” Rarity said, before a lady-like bite from her food. “Yes Trixie knows, her shows are great, things are looking up since that whole alicorn amulet incidence,” she exclaimed. “Oh by the way congratulations on becoming a princess,” Trixie added, pointing a hoof at Twilight. “Thanks, now what have you been up to lately,” Twilight asked. “Trixie has been all over Equestria, putting on her amazing shows for everyone,” she announced. “But, enough about the amazing Trixie, what have you six been up to,” she added, giving a smile. “Well to start with, earlier today we were called to help fix a friendship problem in Appaloosa,” Applejack said. They all began to talked and discuss about all they recent adventures. They talked till the restaurant closed and it started to get very late. So after finishing up their stories, they all head home for the night. The next morning, Twilight was in her library reading and sorting her books. She floated them to their proper places on the shelves, before long most of her books were in their proper place. As she placed the last book on the shelves, she heard a knock at the door. When she answered it she saw her friends and Trixie standing on the door step. “Hey Twilight, lets get this friendship meeting over with,” Rainbow groaned. Twilight rolled her eyes, then sighed, “Okay come on.” They walked into the throne room, Twilight directed Trixie to the library, before entering the room herself. Trixie soon found herself in a massive library, surrounded by books. She quickly began to look through the shelves. Finding all sorts of books, that were filled with information, but nothing that help give her ideas for a show. As she returned the books to their proper places, she notice a large case sitting at the end of the room. She walked up to it and looked at the contents. Inside was a few badly burned book, nothing to special, but one of them stood out among the rest. The book was in decent conditions and it puzzled her. Why was it locked up, after staring at it for a few minutes, she decided to ignore it and continued to look for other books. Unfortunately in the back of her mind, was a growing sense of curiosity. She found herself looking back at the case repeatedly, as we fought back the urge to look inside the book. Soon she found herself staring at the case, she bit down on one of her forelegs. In an effort to fight off her curiosity, she was suddenly spooked by a vibrating sound. She looked around and saw a small glow coming from a large desk sitting at the far left side of the library. Trixie soon heard the doors of the library open. It was Spike, Trixie watch as he walked over to the desk and pick up a medium size book. It was glowing, vibrating, and had a small sun shape mark on the cover. Exactly like Celestria’s cutie mark, Spike opened it up and began to read it. He seem to be reading aloud quietly to himself. “What is that,” Trixie finally said, after a long period of silence. “Oh, this it just a magical book, that allows Twilight to communicate with pony. In another universe,” Spike explained, as he closed the book. “So it allows Twilight to talk to another pony who is not even in Equestria,” Trixie asked, hoping she heard Spike wrong. “Exactly, now I’m going to deliver this to Twilight, I am sure she will be happy to here how Sunset is doing,” Spike said, walking out the library. Now Trixie’s curiosity was even worst now, a huge host of theories began to flood into her mind. She held off, as long as she could before her will power broke. She quickly ran over to the case and unlocked the magic seal. That held the case closed, lifting the case up, she carefully levitated out the book and began to flip through the pages. Most of the interior was in pretty good condition, all though the writing was pretty faded. Also a few of the pages were so burned, the words were beyond recognition. Trixie turn to the cover and tried to make out the title of the book. Although it was almost illegible she could make out the words. Star Swirl the Bearded's journal, her curiosity only sky rocket from there. Right in front of her was the book of one of the most powerful unicorns of all time. She carefully turned each of the pages and glanced at all the spells. When she reaching the final page, she saw the spell Twilight helped finished several years ago. Trixie was belong excited, she began looked through the book a second time. This time with more detail, soon reaching a page, that was so badly burned much of the words destroyed. In an effort to try and figure out what the words could be she began reading it aloud. Filling in the blanks with words that could fit there. As she reached the last word, she hear a deafening explosion, that threw her off her hooves. “What was that,” the mane 6 shouted, as they ran towards the source. They quickly arrived at the library to find Trixie on the floor, lying next to her was the book. A few feet in front of her was a large array of sparks. “What happened,” Twilight asked. Before Trixie could answer, the sparks blended together creating a huge portal. That began to drag them in, they tried to grab hold of anything solid, but it was too late. They all were dragged into the portal, and disappeared into it’s abyss. As fast as it opened the portal suddenly slammed closed. They all tumbled through the portal, being deposited on the other side. Blacking out for a few seconds, when they awoke, they found that they were laying on top of one another. With Twilight and Trxie on the bottom, as they all looked up, they saw they were on top of a very large building. When they looked around their eyes soon met the eyes of six shocked ponies. Well 5 ponies and a zebra, what was most noticeable was, that some of them carried odd shaped devices. Either hanging from their sides like saddlebags, or levitating in their magic. “What the hell,” one of the ponies said, who had a black duster hat. “You are all seeing this to right,” he whispered. “I see it but I don’t believe it,” another one said, who had an odd device around one of her foreleg. “Who are all of you,” Rainbow groaned, trying to getting up. After a little bit of hesitation, one of them finally spoke up, “Um, my name is Littlepip.” A Quick History Lesson“Okay, guys that was an interesting trip, but now let’s find out where we are,” Twilight asked. “Don’t worry guys I got this,” Rainbow exclaimed, as she shot up into the sky. Rainbow scanned the surrounding area, looking around for any landmarks that could help. She was shocked by what she saw in front of her, despite the dark night. Rainbow could see an endless stretch of Manehatten’s ruins. She hovered there for a long time, unable to take her eyes off of the sight. Her friends were standing on the rooftop below her. They soon notice that she was, just hovering there, and began to get worried. Fluttershy decided to fly up and see what was wrong. When she reach Rainbow she tried to get her attention. With little success, Rainbow just grab Fluttershy’s chin and turn her head towards, the ruins. Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide, as she took in the sight of the city. “Oh my,” she managed to squeak out. Now Fluttershy was frozen up there, unable hear her friends down below, despite them shouting up at her. After a few minutes, Twilight sighed and flew up to see what was wrong. Taking Littlepip and her friends by complete surprise. Up until, this point they didn’t even notice, that she has wings. Twilight flew up nice and smoothy, by now she had gotten very good at flying. When she reached them, she notices the ruins, as well. She looked over the carnage, and was frozen for a few minutes. Fortunately she quickly remember the reason she came up. After a little effort, Twilight managed to get, Rainbow and Fluttershy out of their trance. They all quickly flew back down and point towards the ruins, “Um guys you may want to see this.” Walking towards the building’s edge, then rest of them could see, what cause their two Pegasus friends to be paralyzed. The twisted ruins of the city lay in front of them, from what little light they had. They could tell the city has been, in ruins for a long time. Most of the buildings were blown apart. A few building were still standing, but they were all on the verge of collapse. A few of the city’s billboards were still intact, the ads still clearly visible. While the others have collapsed to the ground below. They were all at a lost for words, as they just stared out at the tangled ruins of the city. What shocked them the most wasn’t the ruins. It was how dead the city was, all they could hear was the sound of the wind. Tears slowly stream down all their faces, as the realization, that hundreds of ponies must have died here. Bowing their heads, they all felt tremendous sadness, as they paid respects to those who perished here. Littlepip's heart dropped, she knew that, they will eventually figure out, what happened. Or worse, they would start asking questions, and if she doesn’t provide answers for them, others will. “What happened here, what could possible have done this,” Rarity asked, turning to them. No one dare to step forward and explained, Xenith looked at her friends, and notice they were apprehensive about talking to the mane 6. So she decided to stepped forward and explained, but was quickly stopped by Littlepip. “What are you doing Xenith,” Littlepip whispered to her. “Why giving them an explanation for why Manehatten is like this, of course,” Xenith explained. “No we can’t tell them, how do you think they are going to feel. When they learn Equestria has been destroyed,” Littlepip explained. “You know we can hear you right,” Applejack said, as they stared at them. Littlepip’s heart fell into the pits of her stomach, “Okay we will explain everything privately inside, but first we have to find something to disguise you all,” Littlepip commanded. “Why do we need to be disguised,” Rainbow asked, crossing her forelegs. “You don’t exactly blend in here,” Littlepip explained. Calamity quickly ran over to a large inclosed carriage, and began digging around inside. Soon coming back out with several pieces of old armor, and prewar clothing. Twilight and her friends were a little skeptical about it, but had no reason to distrust them. The clothes and the armor helped disguised them, but not perfectly. The mane 7 also wore large hoods, to help hide their manes. Littlepip's group made extra sure Twilight's wings were well hidden. Although they never fully explained to her, why she needs to hide her wings. As they entered the building, they all handed over their ammo. Just like last time, but the guards felt the need to search the mane 7. The search made Littlepip’s group nervous, that they will discover who the mane 6 are. After a very nerve-racking search, the guards were satisfied, and let them enter Ten-Pony tower. As they walked through the building, they received many glances from other ponies. Which made Littlepip and her friends even more nervous. Luckily everyone was too busy with their own things to take much notice of them. Homage leaded the way, with the mane 7 following from behind. After walking for a bit, they came upon a large windowless room, with a large table in the middle of it. The mane 7 felt uneasy, but they followed the ponies into the room anyway. Littlepip was the last to enter, closing and locking the door behind her. “Okay now, that we are in private, care to explain,” Twilight asked. “Balefire bombs did this, the war with the Zebra empire cause Equestria to be destroyed,” Littlepip explained. “Wait did you, just say the Zebra empire,” Applejack asked. “Yes, why do you ask,” she replied. Twilight had an idea of where, they were now, but she wanted to test it, “What do you know about the Crystal Empire, the crystal heart, or a large crystal tree at the edge of Ponyville.” They all stared at her in confusion, “What in the hay are you talking about.” “Okay three strikes and your out,” Twilight exclaimed. “This is definitely another world,” Twilight said, turning to her friends. “What do you mean another world,” Littepip asked in confusion. “Oh, we come from another world, separated from yours,” Twilight explained. “So you are not from the past,” Velvet asked. “No, Trixie manage to open a portal to another world, using Star Swirl’s journal. A Journal that was locked up for a reason,” Twilight said, staring at Trixie angrily. “What, Trixie was curious about the book’s contents, didn’t you feel the same way,” Trixie retorted. “She got you there, Twilight,” Applejack said. Twilight sighed, “Okay your right.” “Wait I have to ask,” Rainbow said, quickly flying to Littlepip. Taking her by surprise, “Do you have versions of us in your world.” "It has been over 200 years, since the great war,” Calamity explained. “Our world’s versions of you are long gone.” Suddenly there was a knock at the door, taking all of them by surprise. Homage carefully opened the door, a tiny crack, and peeked out. She saw her fellow members of the Twilight society, standing in the hallway. Looking back at the mane 7, she frowned, she knew why they were here. She reluctantly open the door and let them inside. They stood in the doorway and took a look around. They immediately noticed Twilight and their eyes were quickly fixated on her. They just stood there staring at her, which made them all nervous. After what seem like hours, they finally came in, closing the door behind them. The mane 7 stood up, and they gave each other quickly glances. If this turns south, they were all ready to defend themselves. The ponies stopped right in front of them and they stared at each other. “Do our eyes deceive us,” they, said in unison. “Uh, technically no,” Homage said. “What do you mean by that,” they asked, in confusion. “Well, they claim they’re from another universe, separated from ours,” Homage explained. “So,” they asked, still in confusion. “So, they most likely don’t know anything about the Ministries. Or anything about the technology they created,” Homage whispered. “Um, don’t mean to interrupt, but I am guess these Ministries have something to do with us. Judging by how you treated our arrival here, it safe to assume your world's version of us must have worked in them,” Twilight asked. Littlepip face hoofed and sighed, “No point, or reason to hiding it now, we better just tell them.” The mane 7 sat down and listen to what they had to tell them. They started off with the events, that lead up to the Ministers creation. Then talked about the function of each Ministry, although when they got to Rainbow’s ministry, they were speculating. After that was done, they moved on to the technology each one created. Talking about the armor of the Steel-Rangers, the Steel-Rangers purposes, and their very recent separation into two faction. After they were done with the ministries, they began talking about the Great War. Including the ministry mares’ role in it and what happened the day the bombs fell. They choose not to tell them about any personal faiths, just the general history. The mane 7 felt depressed, and took time to process the information. Littlepip levitated the memory orbs, and the statuettes from her bag. Placing them on the table in front of the mane 7. The mane 6 were amazed at the statuettes, and they seem to send more feelings of sadness through them. “I have yet to find Fluttershy’s, but I know it’s out there,” Littlepip sighed. The mane 6 lowered their heads and sighed, “We don’t know why, but we think this world’s version of us. Might have been drifting apart, as they neared the end.” “So how did ponies survive, it seem like no one can survive the bombs,” the mane 7 asked. “One of two ways, in underground shelters called Stables, or up in the clouds, Me, and Velvet, came from Stable 2, right underneath Sweet Apple Acres. While Calamity came from one of the Pegasus’ cloud cities,” Littlepip explained. “So Cloudsdale was a shelter for the Pegasi,” Rainbow asked. They all turned away, remaining quiet, until Calamity summoned up the courage to said, “It was the first one hit by the Balefire bombs, the city was blown out of the sky. Some did escape, before the bombs hit, but most weren’t so lucky.” Rainbow and Fluttershy were completely horrified, as they collapsed to the ground. Fluttershy cried loudly, while Rainbow tried to hold by tears of her own. The rest of the mane 7 comfort them by hugging, each providing their support for them. Rainbow remained defiant, for a good while, before crying her eyes out, as well. This was painful for Littlepip and her friends to watch. After the crying session was over, they all sat back up and they continued. Rainbow and Fluttershy rubbed tears from their eyes, as they calmed down. “So what happened to Canterlot,” Twilight asked. “Or Ponyville,” Applejack added. “Both places are still standing, but Canterlot is surrounded by a deadly pink cloud. It kills anyone who dares enter the city. While Ponyville is now raider territory, also not a safe place to be,” Calamity explained. “What about the Celestria and Luna, what happened to them,” Twilight asked. “Equestria is no longer the safe place it once was. You have to be armed to have a chance out there,” Homage explained, avoiding Twilight question. “Again, what happened to Celestria and Luna,” Twilight repeated. “Everyone is struggling to survive day to day, that saddens me,” Littlepip sighed, looking at the floor. “Hey, why are you avoiding Twilight question, what happened to the princesses,” Rainbow demanded. “You don’t want to know,” Littlepip and her friends answered. “Try us,” Rainbow shouted angrily. Taking a deep breath, they said in unison, “They were killed, when the bombs fell.” “Wait, let me get this straight, the princesses, our immortal all powerful rulers. Were killed by these, so call Balefire bombs,” Rainbow asked. “Yes, but they did die honorably, saving as many ponies, as they could, till the bitter end,” Calamity said, hoping to lift their sprits. The mane 7 sat on the floor, processing that information. Eventually their all began to cry, with Twilight and Fluttershy crying more then the others. Even Applejack was crying, or what passed for crying for her. They all hugged each other, as they mourned the death of their rulers. Littlepip, her friends, and the other ponies looked away. They knew there was nothing, any of them could say to help. Pools of tears collected on the old wooden floor, as they all cried. Even if these wasn’t their version of the princesses, it still hurt knowing that a version of them are dead. After a length crying session, the mane 7 dried their eyes, and tried to continue with their conversation. “So what were our faiths,” Trixie sniffled. “We don’t know,” Littlepip lied. “Come now, surely you know what happened to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Did she make it into one of those Stables you mention,” Trixie asked. “We don’t know, we do not know what happened to any of you,” Littlepip lied. “It doesn’t matter that much anyway, we need to get home,” Twilight sighed. “Agreed,” they all said in unison. “So how are we going to do it,” they asked. “Star Swirl journal had the spell that brought us here. Maybe it can help us get back, the only problem is did it come with us,” Twilight wondered. “Yes it did, the Great and Powerful Trixie landed on it, when we came in,” Trixie said. “Wonderful where is it,” Twilight asked, looking around the room. “Trixie believes it still on the roof,” she said, pointing up. “Great let’s go get it,” Twilight said, walking towards the door. “Your not going anywhere,” the society said, blocking the door. “Why not, we can’t possibly be any use to you,” Twilight respond. “That’s where you are wrong, your knowledge is valuable to us, Twilight,” they said. “Who are these ponies,” Rainbow questioned. “Oh, I like you all to meet the Twilight society, Tenpony tower’s secret society. They influence what happens here, their mission is to preserve the knowledge of history and magic,” Homage explained. “So you want, Twilight to share her knowledge of magic,” Pinkie asked, hoping up and down. “Correct, Twilight can help us with her knowledge of magic. If she agrees, then we will allow you to leave. We will also help you out in anyway we can,” the society respond. “Okay deal, once we get the book, I will help you out,” Twilight said, as they shook on it. On the roof, the mane 6 began to panic, as they searched every inch of the roof, but didn’t find the book. Trixie said, it came with them, but why couldn’t they find it. “Where is it,” Twilight said, beginning to panic. “Calm down, Twilight I am sure it’s around her somewhere,” Fluttershy said. “What are you looking for,” one of the guards said, who came up for his nightly watch. “A book, it’s pretty old, and is slightly burnt,” Twilight asked. “Was it sitting up here on the roof,” the guard asked. “Yes, did you see it,” Rainbow asked. “Oh yeah I turned it in at the old bookstore, got a pretty decent number of caps for it,” the guard explained. “Good we know where it is, unfortunately there probably closed by now. Luckily we can go get it tomorrow morning when they open,” Homage explained. “That’s great, and what does he mean by caps,” Twilight asked. “Oh, yeah, bottle caps are our currency now, the bit lost its value, after the end of the world,” Calamity said. The mane 7 headed back downstairs, while trying to understand why these so called bottle caps. Replaced the bit, after all there made of pure gold, they shouldn't lose value. When they got downstairs, Twilight followed the society to their headquarters to help them out, as promised. While her friends were free to explored the tower, but were warned not to speak to anyone. While Littlepip and her friends went to take care of their own personal business. Wasteland LessonsThe mane 7 and Littlepip’s friends sat around a table, in a small restaurant. The mane 7 were still fully disguise, their heads and bodies were completely covered. The waiter soon came by and placed several bowls of oatmeal, on the table. After collecting his caps, he went to serve the other customers. The oatmeal looked like mush, and wasn’t very appetizing. Rainbow poked at it, with her spoon and looked at it, like it might come to life. Twilight took a small spoonful of it and place it in her mouth. The taste nearly made her vomit, and she had to choke it down. The rest of the mane 7 had similar experiences, while Littlepip and her friends eat it with no problems. “How can you eat this stuff,” Applejack asked. “Not much choice, the only food around is either 200 years old, or animal meat,” Velvet explained. “Unlike Littlepip here, I rather not eat meat, even if my life depended on it." "You eat meat,” the mane 7 bellowed, looking at Littlepip, in horror. “Well we can, and it does have a better taste, then 200 year old food,” Littlepip said, trying to defend herself. The mane 7 had no argument for that, the oatmeal did taste nasty. Making them wonder how was it was still editable. On top of that, they wondered how safe it was to eat 200 year old food. No way could any food last over 200 years and yet the prove was sitting in front of them. After a very unpleasant breakfast, they all went down to the book store, the guard mentioned. As they walked, they saw many ponies going about their day. Most of them acted like high horses, reminding the mane 7 of the ponies of Canterlot. When they reached the book store, they saw a single white earth pony stallion, with a dark blue mane stood behind the counter. Behind him was a large display case of old books. Most of them had their covers, either burned or ripped up. His store was filled with old shelves each filled with books, most of them in poor condition. “Hello and welcome to the Phoenix’s book store, my name is, Golden Horseshoes, how can I help you,” Golden asked. “Yes were looking for an book, it says Star Swirl the Bearded’s Journal on the cover. It was turn in by a guard last night,” Twilight said. "Oh yeah, I remembered that book, it looked real interesting, but I already sold it,” Golden responded. “Who bought it and where are they now, it’s imperative, that we get that book back,” Twilight asked. “I am sorry, but he wanted to keep his purchase secret,” Golden said. “Can you please tell us where he is, that book is ours,” Fluttershy said, meekly. “Well, it’s your lost, now buy something or get out,” Golden said, sternly. Rarity stepped up to the counter, “Oh, that’s so professional of you, I can’t imagine how hard your job must be sometimes. Having to deal with angry customers, that do not understand these books are over 200 years old. They must take precautions, when handling them,” Rarity said. “Thank, finally someone who can understand that simple concept. These books are prewar, I can’t be responsible for any damages, because their not being careful,” he exclaimed. “Oh, and I don’t want hurt your reputation, as an honest businessman, but if you can just tell us the customers name and where he went. That would be wonderful,” Rarity sighed. “Maybe I can “accidentally” tell you where he went,” Golden whispered. “I can see where you got your bartering skills from,” Calamity whispered to Velvet. “Okay here’s the deal, I will tell you who he is and where he said, he was going. If you get me a discount at the Fruit Orchard restaurant. The owner, Banana Tart promised me a discount, if I help organize his belonging. That guy is a huge pack rat, he has a small room, but a ton of stuff. Anyway, I held up my end of the deal, but he hasn't held up his,” Golden explained. Twilight just rolled her eyes, “Okay, we will get you your discount, but you better keep your end of the deal.” When they arrived at the restaurant, they found it was completely empty. While the surrounding restaurants were filled with ponies. Inside it was dead quiet, worn menus sat on the tables waiting for customers. A large banner hung above the counter, the original letters were so worn, they were no longer visible. So they were painted over, and replaced by a crud painting a fruit orchard. Rarity looked closely at one of the table to finding it covered in scratches. Most of them made recently, looking over to one of the walls she saw multiply old bullet holes. The wallpaper and paint were peeling off, revealing the reinforce concrete underneath. The restaurant was very well maintain, and extraordinary clean. It was puzzling why their were no customers, this restaurant looked a whole lot better, then the surrounding ones. As they walked up to the counter, they were surprised by a tall dark green unicorn. “Welcome to the Fruit Orchard restaurant, have a seat while we take your order,” he said, pushing them all to a large table. “Actually we ate already, we here looking for a pony named Banana Tart,” Twilight commented. “That’s me,” he said cheerfully. “Oh, that’s great, Golden Horseshoes sent us over to discuss a discount for him,” Twilight exclaimed. Banana Tart sighed, “I can’t afford to give it to him, were not making much caps here.” “Why not this restaurant looks like it is in pretty good shape,” Calamity asked. “The restaurant yes, but not our food supply,” Banana sighed, walking back to the counter. “This siege and the competition of the other restaurant is hurting our food supply.” “How so,” Littlepip asked. “You know all our food comes scavengers who search the Manehatten ruins right,” Banana asked. Littlepip nodded her head, “Well the other restaurants are buying up all the good stuff from them. I have my own personal scavenging team, but they can’t find much out there,” Banana explained. “That’s sound rough, is there anything we can do to help,” Calamity asked. “Well there is one thing, I heard an old rumor of a grocery store, that has been untouched since the war. Maybe it’s complete horse apples, but I want you to check it out. If the rumors are true bring back as much food, as possible. Then I will fix Golden up with a discount,” Banana explained. “What if the rumors are horse apples,” Calamity asked. “Then I will think of something else, but I am sure the rumors are true. A lot of scavengers talk about it, they can’t all be wrong right,” Banana asked. The mane 7 looked at each other in doubt, while Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet thought it over. The mane 7 weren’t ones for believing rumors, after all the rumors about Zecora. Made the whole town live in fear of her, before they even got to know her. While Littlepip’s friends did partly believe in them. They did do things that could be considered rumors. The way Homage/DJ Pon3, describe Littlepip and her actions. Ponies who do not know her, would assume she isn’t real. Just a mere pony’s tale used to comfort small fillies. “Okay, where is this store,” Littlepip asked. “Here I will mark the location on your Pipbuck,” Banana said, taking a hold of Littlepip’s Pipbuck and proceed to tap at it. Once done Littlepip took her forehoof, and checked her Pipbuck. Now seeing a marker on a building, that was quite a bit north of the tower. She also checked if they was anything new or odd with her Pipbuck. After running through all the functions and files, she found nothing out of place. Everything was exactly the same, as it was before, the only change was the marker. “That’s a nice model, much better, then the older models,” Banana said, impressed by her Pipbuck. “You know about Pipbucks,” Littlepip said in surprise. “Oh, yeah it just a little hobby of mine, I like to learning about prewar technology. I can’t fix them by any means, or fully understand how they work,” Banana explained. “Okay we are going to see if rumor is correct, when we come back you better have that discount ready for him,” Calamity sighed. “Hey I got a question, I notice a lack of Pegasus in the tower. Why is that,” Rainbow asked. “There somewhere else,” Calamity said bluntly. “Is it because the ponies here are so rude, they don’t want to live here,” Rainbow asked. “Sure why not,” Calamity said, hoping to end the conversation. Up on the roof, Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet got ready to find the store. Littlepip and Calamity loaded their weapons, while Velvet made sure she had plenty of medical supplies. To heal her friends, who are most likely going to get themselves hurt. Xenith decided to stay behind at the tower to continue looking for her daughter. Littlepip didn’t think this would take too long, it was a simple supply run. Also Xenith had more important things to do, then to follow Littlepip everywhere. As they were preparing to leave, they saw the mane 7 come onto the rooftop. “What are you doing here,” Calamity asked, hitching himself up to the sky bandit. “We want to help you,” Rarity said. “We don’t need any help, it just gathering food,” Calamity said. “Hey, the more ponies you have to help the faster you can get back. Who ever bought the book is getting farther away, with every minute,” Twilight explained. “The building is under siege, it is unlikely they can leave the tower,” Littlepip countered. “How do you know, he could be a Pegasus, he could be a unicorn and teleported away, or he could have a similar carriage, that you have. Clearly it can fly, why else will it be up here,” Twilight countered, pointing to the sky bandit. Littlepip's group thought it over, “You got a good point, but it dangerous out there, we can’t let you put yourself in danger like that,” they countered. “How bad can it be, we face changelings, Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, Tirek, and a ton of creatures from the EverFree forest. We can handle ourselves,” Rainbow exclaimed. Littlepip’s friends looked at each other and sighed, “Your not going to take no for an answer are you.” “Nope,” Pinkie said, jumping into the sky bandit. “Okay fine, just keep low and stay close to us. This world isn’t as safe, as the one you know,” Calamity sighed. The mane 7 boarded the sky bandit, expect Rainbow, and Fluttershy. With them being able to fly, sitting in the sky bandit would be redundant. Plus with the sky bandit looking heavy enough on its own. They didn’t want to put too much strain on Calamity. Twilight had to ride inside the Bandit, due to the fact her wings were restricted by her clothes. Taking to the air, the mane 7 really got a view of the blasted remains of Manehatten. Below was the still burning campfires of Red eyes’ forces, that were camped outside the tower. Littlepip looked at her Pipbuck’s map and directed Calamity towards the marker. As they flew they saw, that most of the city’s destroyed building were self contained. Usually rusty iron skeletons, or building that collapses in on themselves. Leaving the spaces between buildings, mostly cleared of rubble. That was true for most of the city, but as they approached their destination. They saw a mass of tangled metal. Most of the tall buildings here had collapsed into one other, and melted together. Creating a tangled mess of metal, that formed a cage-like structure between the buildings. Littlepip quickly noticed that they were directly on the marker now. All around them was a mess of tangled, and twisted metal. They flew around the area, but couldn’t find a good place to set the sky bandit down. Every building was either a mess of twisted metal, or inaccessible, thanks to the buildings around it. “Hell, we have to set it down somewhere else make the trip on hoof,” Calamity grumbled, pulling the sky bandit back the way they came. They were soon out, that part of the city and into the more “cleaner” part. Calamity scan the area for a safe place to put the sky bandit, quickly found a nice rooftop of an old apartment building. Drop off his friends and the mane 7 on the ground, he flew it up to the rooftop and parked it. He quickly unhitching himself from the wagon, and went into the back to get some saddlebags, for the mane 7. He then spotted an old wooden door, that stood a few feet away. Finding it unlocked, he slowly pushed it open, the door instantly snapped off its hinges and fell. It quickly tumbled down, what was once the building’s stairway. Which had collapsed long ago, now leaving a vertical shaft, that went all the way to the ground floor. Calamity watched, as the door fell, impacting every floor on the way down. The door quickly reached the end of its journey, slamming into the ground with a loud crash. Obliterating itself on impacted, and sending splitters everywhere. Calamity smiled widely and trotted over to the building’s edge. Flying down to his friends, who were waiting in the street below. Littlepip floated out Little Macintosh, and loaded it. Velvet checked her medical boxes, and saw she had plenty of medical supplies. Velvet shook her head a little, she knew her friends are most likely going to get themselves seriously injured. Which means, her current medical supplies will not last very long. “Okay lets get going, remember stay close to us,” Calamity explained to the mane 7. “Why don’t you give them a gun or something,” Velvet whispered to Calamity. “They never fired a gun before, hell they don’t know what it is. Plus I doubt they have any real combat experience,” Calamity explained. Velvet had to agree with Calamity, it seem unwise for the mane 7 to be carrying weapons. Once they were all prepared, they began walking towards the marker on Littlepip’s map. The tangled metal frame of the building around them loomed overhead. The wind blew gently through the buildings, and the quiet sound of creaking metal filled the air. There were several old posters were hanging on the walls of some of the buildings. Most of them were advertising some product, like Sparkle Cola or some new toy for the foals. A few however were ministry posters, most notably was the “Pinkie Pie Is Watching You Forever” poster. It made the mane 7 uneasy, even Pinkie found it creepy. As they walked along the empty streets, the city was dead quiet, which made Littlepip and Calamity suspicious. Littlepip drew out Little Macintosh, and pulled up her Eyes Forward Sparkle. She began scanning the areas for hostiles, sure enough there were multiple red markers on her E.F.S. “We got hostiles around,” Littlepip announced. “What do you think they are,” Velvet asked. No sooner had she said that, a bullet impacted the ground in front of Calamity. It was immediately followed by the report of a rifle. Several raiders popped up from their hiding spots and began filling the air with projectiles. Littlepip and Calamity scanned the street for something to take cover behind. Unfortunately the street was totally empty, making them all sitting ducks. While the raiders had great cover and had the element of surprise. As bullets began to whiz pass them, Littlepip felt a horrible pain in her left rear leg. Glancing back at it, she saw a stream of blood coming from a small bullet wound, just below the knee. A bullet had torn through her leg, and exited on the other side. Barely missing the bone, the loud sounds of gun fire had caused Twilight to instinctively throw up her shield spell. It enveloped all of them, in a protective bubble, but came a few seconds too late for Littlepip. Velvet hurried over to check Littlepip’s leg, it didn’t look too bad, and Velvet could easily fix it. Bullets bounced off the shield, as the raiders continued to fire on them. Calamity knew the raiders were not going to stop their attack. He scanned the street looking for the sources of the attack. It was coming from the right side of the street, right in front of them. He spotted about six raiders, in one of the more intact buildings. There were four on ground floor and two in the second floor windows. Calamity armed his battle saddle and asked “Can we fire out of this shield.” “That’s probably not a good idea,” Velvet commented, as she wrapped up Littlepip’s leg. “Can we move in and out of this shield,” Calamity asked. “Yeah, but I don’t see why you would want too. Can’t we just talk to them,” Twilight respond, focusing her attention on the shield. Calamity shook his head and ran out of the shield, much to everyone’s surprise. He let out a quick burst from his battle saddle and duck back into the shield. His attack didn’t manage to hit anyone, but made the raiders take cover. He waited a few seconds, before jumping out again and repeating his attack. Following his example, Littlepip jumped out of the shield and fired off three shots, from Little Macintosh. At the raiders on the second floor, then she quickly jumped back inside. Two of her shots missed, impacting the window frame. The third shot hit home slamming into one of the raiders' heads. Their head exploded like an overinflated ballon, painting the pony next to them with blood. Their lifeless body, then fell from the window and slammed into the ground below. The sight of the pony’s head exploding made the mane 7 feel ill. Calamity fired off six shots, at the ponies on the ground floor. Two of the rounds slammed into one of the raiders’ foreleg, and chest. Blowing apart their foreleg in a mess of bone fragments, muscle tissue, and blood. The third round slammed into another raider’s gut, taking them out of the fight. The final two rounds missed their target and impacted the wall behind the two remaining raiders. Littlepip was just about ready to start her attack, when she saw a grenade coming towards them. She quickly focused on it and caught it in her magic, stopping it in midair. Immediately she threw it back towards the building, where it landed next to one of the dead raiders. The grenade immediately exploded and filled the room with shrapnel. It also obliterated the raider’s body, adding bone fragments and blood to the mix. One raider was unlucky enough to be standing up, out from cover, when the grenade detonated. Receiving a face full of metal shrapnel, and bone fragments. Their face was covered in blood and some blood was spilling out of their eye sockets. Jumping out of the shield Littlepip emptied Little Macintosh into the last raider upstairs. The rounds tore through their body, they quickly fell forward and hung from the window. Seeing this, the final raider went into a fit of rage and charged at them with a sword. They were greeted with a blast from Calamity’s battle saddle. Their head was taken clean off, and their body flew back a bit. Twilight let her shield fall, as she and her friends looked over the body in front of them. “Damn raiders,” Calamity sighed, walking up to the dead raider. “Hey, it is what it is right,” Littlepip asked, reloading Little Mac and walking up to the building. “Well, lets see if they have any good stuff on them,” Calamity said, searching the body. “What are you doing,” Twilight and her friends shouted. “Collecting what we earned,” Calamity said, picking up the sword. “You just killed like six ponies and that’s all you have to say,” Rainbow shouted. “Yeah, what’s your point,” Calamity asked. “Our point is you are desecrating their bodies, and you killed them,” Twilight exclaimed. “Couldn’t we negotiate with them first.” “Negotiate with raiders, you must be joking, out here its kill or be killed. If you don’t kill them first, they will kill you,” Calamity explained, before returning to the body. After finding nothing else of value on the body, Calamity went to check out the building. Littlepip was already busy, trying to open a locked ammo box. Velvet and the mane 7 follow Calamity inside. He wasted no time and began looking through all the containers, he could find. When Littlepip got the ammo box open, she was surprise to find a lot of useful ammo in it. She found plenty for Little Mac, and a decent amount for many of their guns. “Now your robbing their home, I am starting to think maybe you guys are the bad guys here,” Applejack commented. “It’s what we have to do out here, supplies are hard to come by. So you have to collect what you can. That was one of the first lesson I learned when I left the stable,” Littlepip sighed. “Besides, they are not going to need it now, so why let these supplies go to waste,” Calamity added, opening up an old locker. “I don’t like it either, but this keep ponies alive. Life is hard out here, so we do what we must to stay alive,” Velvet sighed. “So you all actively go after ponies for their supplies,” Trixie asked. “NO, of course not, we aren’t like these raiders. We want to help others and do what is right, even if that’s is rare thing out here,” Calamity explained, sounding very offended by their question. “I don’t know, I am still not very comfortable with what you are doing,” Applejack sighed. “Trixie agrees, this seem like what robbers will do,” Trixie exclaimed. “We do what we must,” Littlepip shrugged. After finding little in the main room, Calamity headed to one of the adjoining room. Where he noticed several cooking pots, stoves, and an old refrigerator. He also noticed a tripwire strung along the bottom of the doorway. Following it, he saw it lead to a shotgun mounted to the counter. If someone had triggered the wire, they would have received a shotgun blast to their flank. Calamity quickly disarmed the trap, and headed into the room. He found several cans of vegetables, and a three box of instant rice, in the cabinets. He also found several bottles of whiskey in the fridge. After collecting everything of value, they continued on to the marker. They hadn’t walked very far, before a rain storm picked up and started drenching them to the bone. With the mane 7 getting the worst of it, their clothes quickly growing heavy, as they soaked up the rain. “Hey can we stop for a little bit to dry off, if you don’t mind, that is,” Fluttershy asked. “Sure, I guess those clothes weren’t the best choice,” Calamity said, looking around for a nice building to take shelter in. He soon found a large building, that was nice and dry inside. The mane 7 immediately ran in and threw off their soaking wet clothes. When they all entered, Littlepip scanned the area for any hostiles, with her E.F.S. Luckily she came up with nothing, there was nothing inside the building. Or at least not close enough to be picked up by her E.F.S. After confirming the building’s safety, they began to dry themselves off. Inside the building it was pitch dark, and it was hard to see anything. After taking a brief looking around, they discovered a small fountain. Littlepip turned on her Pipbuck’s flashlight and began looking around the building. The building was huge and had several large balconies, that surrounded the central area. Each one was connected by walkways, but a few of them had collapsed. Calamity’s eyes grew wide, as he saw that lining the sides of the building were stores. “Thank you, Celestia,” he whispered to himself. “I know what you are thinking and you can forget about it. I doubt there’s anything left in here anyway,” Velvet warned. “Come on, just a quickly scavenge,” Calamity begged. “What do you expect to find in here, mostly everything have to be gone by now,” Applejack asked. “You’ll be surprised, by what you can find in abandoned buildings,” Calamity explained. Velvet sighed, “We’re stuck in here, until the storm passes. Might as well do something to pass the time.” “When is this storm going to end anyway,” Rainbow asked, Calamity. “Don’t know, storms are unpredictable,” Calamity said, without thinking. As feared, the mane 7 all asked, “Why, don’t the weather Pegasi, tell the ponies the weather schedule.” “Umm, you see the weather Pegasi, they have a hard time spreading information now. I never stay in the same place very long, so I never get the news,” Calamity, stammered. “Okay, I’ll just go up and ask them,” Rainbow said, heading out the door. “NO,” Calamity said, running up and blocking the doorway. The mane 7 stared at him like he was crazy, Calamity quickly added. “I mean, if they see you, they might rightfully assume you are the leader of the ministry of Awesome. It has been over 200 years, it would look pretty weird to see a long dead pony in front of them.” “So why don’t you go ask them,” Rainbow asked. “Umm, we have machines to do the weather for us now, it was “your” idea. So less Pegasi are needed for weather control, so more can help with the war. Also don’t remember seeing cloud cities in this area, so I may have to search for a while to find one. Frankly I think it just a waste of time,” Calamity quickly explained. Rainbow looked at him with suspicion, but was satisfied, with the explanation. She slowly walked away from the entrance and back towards her friends. Much to the relieve of Calamity, as he wiped sweat from his brow, he didn’t know he had. They all walked into the old mall, and looked around at the stores. Most of them didn’t look all that interesting, being filled with rubble or garbage. Looking at the stores, Calamity suspected, that this part of the mall had to be picked clean by now. Up ahead, there was a stairway, that lead down into pitch blackness. They all stared into the darkness, unable to see more, then few feet down. This quickly caught Calamity’s interest, as he began to head down. “What are you doing,” Velvet shouted, in protest. “Going down to see, what goodies we can find,” Calamity said, pointing down into the darkness. “I don’t want to go down there,” Fluttershy whispered, barely being audible. “You don’t have too, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, in a gentle comforting tone. “Yeah, if you want to go down there, we won’t. We will stay up here, with you” Rainbow said, trying to comfort her. “We will all stay up here, right girls,” Twilight asked. They all gave a quick nod in agreement. “Plus I don’t want to know, what’s down there waiting for us. You can go down, if you want.” “Are you sure,” he asked. The mane 7 nodded, “Oh yeah, you go ahead.” “Okay, I’m only going to be gone for few minutes,” Calamity said, starting his journey down. Littlepip groaned and followed him down to help light his way. She turned up the brightness on her Pipbuck’s flashlight. Revealing a sub level of the mall, that was also filled with shops. Velvet threw her head back in annoyance, and quickly went after them. “I better make sure they don’t get themselves killed,” Velvet whined. “Are sure your going to be okay up here.” she said, turning to the mane 7. “We can handle our selves, if we run into anything dangerous we make them regret messing with us,” Rainbow said, punching at the air. Velvet was a little nervous about leaving them alone and unarmed. Then again, they looked very capable of being able to handle themselves. She gave a long sigh and quickly head down, to catch up with her friends. Once she was gone, the mane 7 looked down the stairway to make sure. Once the coast was cleared, they began talking about Littlepip’s group. “I don’t trust them, I feel they are hiding something from us,” Rainbow whispered. “I agree, they seem to be keeping, as much as they can from us,” Applejack sighed. “Plus, why do they want us to be disguise. According to them it has been over 200 years, I don’t think many ponies out here would even know who the ministry mares are,” Rarity complained. “Also they are kill ponies, and then rob their homes,” Fluttershy said, meekly. “Worst of all, they eat 200 year old food, I still can’t get the taste of breakfast off my tongue,” Pinkie said, while repeatedly wiping her tongue, with a fore hoof. “Trixie, thinks these ponies may be pose a danger to us,” Trixie whispered. “I know these ponies are do things, that we do not support, but what choice do we have. They are the only ones who are offering to help us. We need them, they know how to survive here, we don’t. Besides they seem friendly enough, and we have to trust their judgement,” Twilight sighed. “Okay, but can we all agree to keep an eye on them,” Rainbow asked. “Agreed,” they all answered. Sighing, Rarity walked over to their wet pile of clothes, “Might, as well dry these out, while were waiting,” she said, begin to wring out the clothes, with her magic. After drying the clothes out, she began to flatten out the winkles, the best she could. After a bit of work, she made them look a little more presettable. Despite this, it was still not enough for her and she disliked how she couldn’t do more. Rarity began to folded it neatly up, when they held a low gargling sound. Looking around, they saw about three ponies wandering around the entrance. Their coats were gone, their flesh was covered in red splotches. The rain seem to be washing away their skin. As trails of blood ran down their bodies, mixing themselves, with the rain. They were wandering in circles, and were make gargling sounds. “Hello, there are you okay,” Applejack asked. The three ponies quickly turned their heads towards the mane 7, “Were not hostile, we just want help, you look like you need medical attention,” Twilight shouted. The ponies quickly charged towards them, at high speed. Knocking, Trixie, Rarity, and Fluttershy onto their backs. Now they could be the inside of their mouths, which were filled with rotten yellow teeth. The ponies tried to bite them, flaying around trying to get to any piece of flesh. The rest of the mane 7 tried to pull them off. While, Trixie, Rarity, and Fluttershy held them off with their fore hoofs. After pulling them off, didn’t work, Applejack turn around and bucked one of the ponies across the face, with her hind legs. Sending them flying around the room, landing with a loud thud. Rainbow sent a flying kick into the second one’s side, causing them to be knocked back, a few feet. Twilight fired a magical blast, at the final one, knocking them off. The first pony didn’t move, while the other two quickly got back up. They charged again, Rainbow gave one of them a powerful uppercut to the face. While Twilight fired a more powerful magical blast, to the second one. This time, they didn’t get back up, as they lay there motionless. Once they were sure, the threat was over, they help their friends back up. Just then, Littlepip and her friends returned, when they saw Calamity, he had a disappointing look on his face. “What’s wrong,” Rainbow asked. “We couldn’t find a lot of good supplies down there,” Calamity sighed, in disappointment. “At least we got some good trading material. We could get at least 200 caps for all of it,” Velvet said. “I know, but I was hoping for something,” Calamity said, stopping mid sentence, when he saw the ponies. “Whoa, what happened here.” “Oh, just some crazy ponies attacked us, no big deal,” Rainbow said, proudly. “Those aren’t crazy ponies, those are ghouls, they look feral,” Calamity told the mane 7. Calamity froze in his tracks, when he saw on one the ghouls get up. He quickly gave it a blast from his battle saddle, blowing their head apart and painting the floor with blood. Suddenly a realization dawn on him, he bolted over to the entrance. Went outside into the rain, and took to the skies. He soon returned, drenched in rain, and had a relieved look on his face. “Thank Celestria, there was no other feral ghouls nearby,” Calamity sighed, in relieve. The other two ghouls, regained conciseness and began to get up, Littlepip quickly place two rounds into their heads. Taking them clean off, much to the surprise and horror of the mane 7. Pus and blood now gathered on the floor, creating an unpleasant smell. “Why did you do that,” the mane 7 protested. “There feral ghouls, it had to be done,” Littlepip sighed. “What is a feral ghoul,” Applejack asked, feeling a little angry. “I tell you, and inform you about the other monsters, we have now,” Calamity sighed. Alicorn Friends?The rain was still pouring down, as Calamity finished his lesson on the creatures that now live in the Equestrian wasteland. Littlepip was using her magic to rip out any exposed wooden planks from the stores. She was also pulling out any exposed planks, from the rubble piles, she found. Once she felt, she had a good amount, she returned to the group. Where they were being used to fuel a small fire. A large pot filled with instant rice, and vegetables hung above the it. Sitting at the edges of the fire were several cans of vegetables. Calamity was pouring them into the pot and mixing them in with the rice. “Wow, this world is a lot more dangerous, then ours,” Applejack said, staring at the pot of rice. “Calamity, I notice you didn’t tell them, about another certain creature we now have,” Velvet said, noticing he didn’t mention the alicorns. “What creature would, that be,” Rainbow asked. “Nothing important,” Calamity said. “Calamity you either tell them or I will. They need to know the dangers out there,” Velvet said, in a stern voice. “Fine, the last monster is alicorns,” Calamity admitted. “WHAT,” the mane 7 shouted. “Let me explain, what we know so far, is that these alicorns are artificial. Connected telepathy to one another, kill one the rest will know about it. They come from a faculty called Matipony, created by someone who calls themselves, The Goddess. She wants us to meet her, we were planning to after a few day. What makes these things so dangerous is they are powerful and can put up shields to protect themselves, much like the spell you cast earlier. ” Calamity explained, pointing to Twilight. “That’s the reason why you must hided your wings. Ponies may just assume you’re one of them, and try and kill you,” Velvet said. “So why didn’t you try,” Twilight asked, looking at her wings. “You looked like the ministry mare of magic, and we didn’t notice your wings, until you started flying. Also you weren’t being hostile, so killing would have been murder,” Littlepip explained. After a very unpleasant and near vomit inducing rice and vegetable lunch. The rain stopped, the mane 7 put back on their disguise, and they continued on their way. Along the way the mane 7 felt sick, that meal did not agree with them. (The stomachs felt like they were doing summersaults,) suddenly they heard music floating through the silent city. Littlepip knew what that meant, as a lone sprite-bot floated up to them. The music cut out and the bot, just floated there. Making the mane 7 nervous, that this floating device seem to be staring at them. It was dead quietly for several minutes, as the bot floated there. Littlepip knew why watcher was silence and wanted to give him a little help. “Hi, Spike,” Littlepip said, breaking the silence. “Spike,” the mane 7 asked. After a moment of silences, he finally spoke up, “Hi guys, I can’t believe it, your standing here,” “Spike survived the great war, and has been watching over Equestria ever since,” Littlepip explained. “I know I must be dreaming because this just can’t be possible,” Spike said. “That statement is only half true, you are not dreaming, but these aren’t the ponies you knew. There from another universe, one were the war, hasn’t happened or will never happened. I am hoping on the latter,” Littlepip explained. “That explains it, Twilight also did talk about the changes of multiple worlds,” Spike sighed. “It great to see you guys again, even if you aren’t the same ones I knew.” “How did you managed to live this long,” Applejack asked. “Dragons happen to have a very long life span. In this universe anyway, I’m not sure about yours though. So how did you get here, one of Twilight spells went wrong again,” he asked. “No, Trixie accidentally cast one of StarSwirl’s spells. We’re out here running an errand for someone, so we can find out the location of the book, the spell is in. So we can cast it and get back to our own world,” Applejack explained. Spike let out a slight chuckle, “No matter what the universe, Twilight is always a fan Star Swirl.” After a brief pause, he continued, “I hope, maybe you guys can help me out, with a project.” Littlepip knew immediately, what Spike was asking, “I don’t think, that would work. Don’t you need this world’s bearers, not another worlds.” Spike took a moment to consider this, “Your right, I doubt it would worked anyway. So tell me are you six, still very good friends.” he asked. “Yes, why did something happened to this world’s version of us,” Fluttershy asked. Spike was silent, before saying, “The war, and many other factors began to drive you guys apart. In fact, I had my fears, that the war might end your friendship.” After long pause, he sighed, “I am glad, I got to see all of you again, but I have a project I have been working on for 200 years, that I has to finished.” Sprite-bot beeped and began to float away, playing it’s music in an endless loop. Littlepip felt some pride, in helping a 200 plus year dragon, see his friends again. After a bit of a walk, they soon reached the marker, Banana Tart set. Now they could see it was a massive supermarket, and it was in decent condition. Although the glass doors were covered in grime, it was still clean enough for them to see inside. Littlepip floated out Little Mac, and peered through its scope. What she saw confused her and excited her, at the same time. “Littlepip what is it,” Calamity asked, seeing the look on her face. Littlepip floated Little Mac over to him, and he took a look through the scope. He couldn’t believe his eyes, a huge smile quickly spread across his face. The inside of the store seem untouched, and it was still filled with supplies. It remained untouched, since the day the bombs dropped. The smile quickly faded, as he wondered, why hasn’t anyone looted the store yet. He soon got his answer, as a large Bloodwing flew overhead. Littlepip’s group quickly pushed the mane 7 into one of the buildings, to hide. The Bloodwing circled a bit, before hanging itself, on the intertwine metal beams. Calamity and Littlepip took a look around and saw in horror that, there were multiple Bloodwings sleeping all around them. There had to be at least 20 of them, roosting above them. “No wonder, no one looted the store, they wouldn’t survive to tell the tale,” Calamity whispered. “The wasteland, just can’t cut ponies breaks can it,” Littlepip complained. “Why could ponies get the supplies, when they weren’t here,” Rainbow asked. “The radiation levels would have kill them. Two Balefire bomb had to have hit nearby to be able to do that,” Littlepip said, pointing to the twisted metal above them. “Once the radiation subsided, these thing would have moved right in.” “All in favor of leaving, say aye,” Calamity asked. “You’re abandoning all those supplies, that doesn’t sound at all like you,” Velvet joked, a little. “I may be reckless, but I am not stupid. I rather not mess with a huge pack of Bloodwings. No amount of supplies is worth this,” Calamity said, with great fear in his voice. As, they all began to leave, the wasteland decided to throw another obstacle, their way. A loud explosion of thunder echoed through the air, as it began to rain again. The Bloodwings quickly woke up, and stretched out their huge leathery wings. Without missing a beat, Littlepip, her friends, and the mane 7 ran back into the building. The Bloodwings quickly began to gathered around it and soon had it surrounded. The mane 7, Littlepip, and her friends backed away from the door. As a Bloodwing, stuck their huge head in, and tried to get them. Their horrible breath, filling up the room, and their teeth putting fear into the mane 7. The walls soon began to crack, as other Bloodwings pounded on the building’s walls. Each attack made the mane 7, backed up further, until they literately hit a wall. Each impact shook the whole building, causing plaster to fall from the celling. The doorframe began to bend and break, as the Bloodwing, tried harder to get in. Littlepip, and her friends, loaded their weapons, and got ready to defend themselves. The building continued to shake, and the walls started to fall apart. Allowing them to have a few glimpse of the Bloodwings waiting outside. With one final impact, the walls in front of them collapsed, reveling at least 20 hungry Bloodwings. Littlepip and her friends raised their weapons to begin firing. When the mane 6 got a good look at the Bloodwings, they noticed they slightly resembled the vampire fruit bats. “WAIT,” Fluttershy shouted, flying up to the Bloodwings. “What are you doing,” Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet shouted. “Can’t you see these creatures are not bad. They are just doing what they have to to get food,” Fluttershy explained. She then turned her attention to the Bloodwings, “Now I know you’re hungry, but that is no excuse for destroying a building.” “What are you doing you can’t reason with these monsters,” Calamity shouted in protest. Several Bloodwings snapped at her, but all missed, “Hey, I know you are hungry and we are in your home, but that does not mean you can eat who ever you want." All the Bloodwings shrieked at her, but she stayed firm, “You’re picking on things smaller, then you. What would your parents say,” Fluttershy lectured, giving them the Stare. She continued to lecture them, until they were terrified of her. “I know finding food is hard, but attacking small ponies, how does that help you fill up your bellies. Now, don’t you know of bigger creatures you could get blood from. If so, please go find it and leave us alone,” Fluttershy commanded. All the Bloodwings quickly flew off to find other sources of blood. Leaving Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet in complete shock and amazement. They tried to speak, but were unable to form real words. While Fluttershy calmly walked back to her friends. Who were congratulated her, even Trixie was singing her praises. Which made Fluttershy feel good and embarrassed, at the same time. Once they believed, the Bloodwings were all gone, the mane 7 began to headed out of the building. Then, they notice their companions, weren’t following. “Hey, are you coming,” Rainbow asked. “She just scared off, one of the most terrifying monsters of the wasteland,” Calamity managed to say. “Yeah, and,” Rainbow asked, nonchalantly. “And, how is this not amazing to you,” Littlepip shouted, in both confusion and anger. “Fluttershy, done this kind of stuff before,” Twilight said, bluntly. “Yeah, she stared down a dragon, vampire fruit bats, a Cockatrice,” Rainbow counted off, before getting interrupted. “Whoa, wait a minute now, your friend Fluttershy stared down a Cockatrice and won,” Calamity asked, in amazement. “Yeah, she is great with all animals. She dealt with a Manticore, an Orthros, and calmed Cerberus down,” Rainbow counted off again. “Remind me never to make your Fluttershy mad, and if I do. Please have the decency to kill me,” Calamity joked. “So, are we going to leave or loot the store,” Velvet asked, Calamity. “Loot of course, we came all this way, and the Bloodwings are gone. So let’s get all we can carry,” Calamity said, walking up to the store’s entrance. Velvet rolled her eyes, and followed Calamity, as he worked to pray open the doors. The doors screech open, and inside was a ton of shelves. Filled with canned goods, Calamity began to cry at the magnificent sight. There was more food here, then anyone could ever eat in one lifetime. Calamity rushed over and began packing his bags to the brim, with canned goods. The rest of them quickly, joined him in collecting the food. Even the mane 7 were helping, although they were a bit reluctant, to do so. After they couldn’t fit anymore more into their bags. They began to head back to the Sky Bandit, but they found the bags were really heavy. The rain just made carrying all the food, even more unbearable, for the mane 7. Eventually they made it back to the apartment building, where the Shy Bandit was parked. Despite the weight of his bags, Calamity managed to fly back up onto the roof. After loading his bags into the back, he hitched himself up and flew down to his friends. “I don’t understand, why you couldn’t leave the Sky Bandit on the ground. It would have been much easier for you,” Velvet said, boarding the Sky Bandit. “What and let it be taken or destroyed by raiders, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk back to Tenpony Tower. Carrying heavy bags of food, we would be a target for every raider for miles,” Calamity explained. “Fair enough,” Velvet admitted. The flight back was not pleasant, they were all soaking wet, from the rain. Which made the wind chill, feel a lot colder, than it really was. When they landed on the roof of Tenpony Tower, the rain began to ease up a little. The roof was covered in puddles of all different sizes. After handing over all their ammo and the mane 7 pat down. They all headed downstairs, which was a very nerve-racking experience. The weight of their bags, were constantly threatening to pulled them over. Their backs feel like they were going to break, as they pushed open the door to Banana Tart’s restaurant. He quickly ran up, as they dropped their bags on the floor, with a low thud. He quickly opened the bags, and saw the huge amount of food inside. His workers wasted no time in putting the food into the pantries. Banana, then walked over to the counter and took out two pieces of paper, from a drawer. “So, are their any dangers near the store,” he asked, having a pencil, at the ready. “I got some bad news, the store is in the middle of Bloodwing territory,” Calamity sighed. “Not a problem, we can deal with them,” Banana said, jotting down Bloodwings on one of the papers. “Is there anything else, we need to worry about.” “You might run into some raiders, and some feral ghouls. Other then that, we saw nothing else, that could be a danger,” Calamity informed, Banana Tart. “Okay, that’s not too bad, we can deal with them easily,” Banana said, writing down Raiders and Feral Ghouls on the same paper. “Now, as promised, here is Golden Horseshoe’s discount,” he said, pushing the other piece of paper, which turned out to be a certificate, over to them. “Thank you kindly,” Calamity said, as they began to leave. When they got to Golden Horseshoe’s shop, he was excited to see them. Littlepip placed the certificate on the counter, and pushed it over to him. He gave it a quick read through, and placed it under the counter. “I am a stallion of my word, the customer was a Pegasus. He didn’t give me his name, he was about mid-sizes about the same height as you,” he said, pointing to Calamity. “His coat was light green, and his mane seem to been burned off. He said, he wanted the book for his mare-friend, and I think I heard him say he was heading for Fetlock. That’s about all I know, hopes it helps.” “Thank you, it helps a lot,” Twilight exclaimed. “Okay, let’s get moving, he probably there by now, ” Calamity said. “I hope we are not being an inconvenience,” Fluttershy asked. “No, of course not, we are not doing anything really important, and we like helping others,” Velvet explained. After a quickly stop at the shops to buy some supplies. Also to sell off, what they found in the old mall, and the raiders’ building. After picking up Xenith, they boarded the Sky Bandit, and headed off. On the way to Fetlock, the rain final stopped for good. When that happened, the mane 7, expected the clouds to start moving away and let the sun shine through. After watching the sky for several minutes, they saw the clouds didn’t budge one bit. They looked at each other in confusion, while Littlepip and her friends felt nervous. They were half way to Fetlock, when they heard gunfire from below. Looking down, they saw the Pegasus, Golden had described, fighting off some raiders. Calamity immediately pulled the Sky Bandit closer to the ground and began to help. Blasting his battle saddles at any raider, who pokes their head out from behind cover. Littlepip fired her Zebra rifle, out the windows to help pick off some the raiders. Rainbow wanted to get into the fight, but with no weapon, and with the air filled with bullets. She decided this was one fight, she would stay out of. It wasn’t long before the last of the raiders was dealt with. When Calamity landed the Sky Bandit, the burned mane Pegasus walked up. “You all are life savers, I though I was done for,” he said, in relief. When he walked up, they could see blood was gushing from his right wing, “Hey, your wing there looks pretty bad, do you need any medical attention,” Calamity asked. “No, it’s fine,” he respond. “No it’s not, you are losing lot of blood, and the wound could get infected,” Velvet shouted in protest. “It’s fine, and I don’t want to you to spend your valuable medic supplies,” he explained, not wanting to impose. “No, that wouldn’t do, that wing needs to be looked at,” Velvet said, grabbing her medical boxes. “This can’t be real, you ponies are something else,” he said, happily. “Let’s do this inside, I don’t want to be out here anymore, than is really necessary. My names Cloud Seeder, by the way,” he said, looking back at them. Cloud Seeder lead them to an old shack, that was a few yards behind him. Littlepip checked her map, and saw this shack was maybe five to ten miles north of Steelhooves’ shack. He opened the door, and laid down on an old matt, in the middle of the room. Next to it was an old blanket and pillow. It was clear, he was using the mat for his bed. Velvet went quickly to work mending his wing. The shack was a very decent size, there was a second floor, and two separated rooms. There was a locker in the far end of the shack, and a large shelf to the right of it. A large table and a set of chairs, sat in one of the other rooms. Sitting nearby was a small cooking stove, a small cabinet, and a fridge. The final room seem to be a bathroom, with an old rusty bathtub and a toilet. Up stairs was a single bedroom, and a small workroom. As Velvet worked, there came a loud and repetitive coughing, from upstairs. “Who was that,” Rarity asked. “My mare friend, Helen, she has been sick the last few days. I been doing all I can to help her, and she seems to be on the road to recovery,” Cloud Seeder sighed. “So what brings you out here.” “Actual, were out here looking for you,” Twilight said. “Me, why,” Cloud asked. “You bought a book from Tenpony Tower earlier today, and that book belongs to us,” Twilight explained. “So if you don’t mind can we have it back please.” Cloud sighed, “I am sorry, but I sold it to a caravan about two hours ago. I bought that book in hopes to cheer up Helen. She didn’t really liked it, so I sold it, to buy some more medicine for her.” The mane 7 moaned, “Okay do you know, where they were headed.” “They said they were going to Shattered Hoof,” Cloud explained, then he looked upstairs. “I don’t want to impose, but if you wouldn’t mind. Could you help me out with Helen’s illness. Like I said, I doing the best I can, but I would like a more professional opinion." “What do you think, Shattered hoof is pretty far trot from here. Do you want to go after the book, or stay and help them,” Calamity asked, the mane 7. “Well I guess we can spare a little bit of time. If they are walking they shouldn’t reached the town anytime soon, right,” Twilight asked. “Yeah, that trip takes a few days, at least. If it’s a large caravan, that trip might take them a week,” Calamity explained. “Okay than, were staying to help them,” Applejack said. Velvet shot Cloud up with some painkillers, before carefully picking out all the foreign bodies from his damaged wing. The wing was badly damaged and the wound was filled with pus. There was a ton of metal fragments, imbedded into the flesh. Picking them out was a slow and delicate process, with Cloud passing out from time to time. His blood also refused to clotted for very long. Making Velvet’s job harder and a lot more frustrating. She constantly had to work hard to, stop the bleeding. Only to have the wound bleed again a few minutes later. While she was doing that, Rainbow noticed something weird on Cloud’s flanks. A large brand in the shape of her own cutie mark, over where his should be. She stared at it in fascination, throwing theories around in her head for possible explanations for it. Her friends soon notice her staring at his flank and walked over. When they saw it, they were totally confused and horrified. They also began to think off possible explanations for the mark. “Hey, why are you looking at his flanks,” Calamity asked. “There’s this weird mark over his cutie mark, we are trying to figure out, what caused it,” Pinkie exclaimed. Calamity’s blood ran cold, as the realization of who Cloud might be hit him. Calamity walked over, hoping that the mark, they were talking about was an injury. He prayed, that Cloud was born down here in the wasteland and was not from above the cloud cover. When he saw it, his fears were confirmed, as he stared down at the mark of a Dashite. “What is this,” Rainbow asked. Cloud lifted his head and explained, “It’s a Dashite mark, given to Pegasus ponies who decide to live below the cloud cover,” he then, passed out. The mane 7 turned to Calamity, and Rainbow asked, “Dashite huh, mind explaining.” Calamity sighed and began tell them what a Dashite is. Including telling them about who he was before, he came down here. When Calamity finished, Rainbow was ready to rip someone’s head off, with her bare hooves. She resisted the urge to punch Calamity in the face, for being a part of the Enclave. Fortunately her friends managed to calm her down, but she was still steaming. Then Calamity showed them his mark, which help redirected Rainbow’s hate away from him. Cloud suddenly regained conscience, as Velvet began to bandage his wing up. “Oh, a fellow Dashite, it nice to see you,” Cloud said, when he saw the mark.” “Nice to see you too, so why did the Enclave call you a traitor,” Calamity asked. “Well, as my name suggest, I am a cloud seeder. One day about three years ago, I was doing my job like I always do. When I noticed a break in the clouds. Curiosity got the better of me and I came down. I witness with my own eyes, how much the ponies down here struggle. When I confronted the council about it. They said I was contaminated and they banished me,” Cloud explained. “I am sorry to hear that,” Calamity said. “Don’t be, good riddance to them, and it wasn’t all bad. I met my mare friend a few months later, and we been together, ever since,” Cloud said. “Oh, that reminds me can you help her,” Cloud asked Velvet. “Sure,” Velvet said, following Cloud up the stairs. The bedroom was bigger, than expected and was starkly furnished. A dresser stood next to the doorway, and a rack of guns lay on the far left side of the room. An old rug lay on the floor, tattered by age. At the far side of the room, Velvelt could see a mare lay on an old mattress. She had a brown coat and a yellow mane, similar to Applejacks. She was half asleep, and was coughing relentlessly. When Velvet approached, she could see Helen’s bed was actually two beds pushed together. Empty medicine bottles lay scattered all over the room. Velvet quickly took out her medical supplies and began to examine her. After about an hour, Velvet came back downstairs, with Cloud, who had a huge smile on his face. “So, what happened,” Calamity asked. “She is going to be fine, I have to commend Cloud Seeder for his excellent job,” Velvet exclaimed. “Thank you, I tried,” Cloud said, turning red from embarrassment. “Thanks again for the help with those raiders,” Cloud said, as they began to leave. Calamity was flying low to the ground, as the mane 7, and his friends scanned the ground for any sign of the caravan. While scanning the ground Pinkie’s tail began to twitched. The rest of the mane 6, quickly noticed this and prepared themselves for anything. Rainbow and Fluttershy scanned the skies, while the rest of them grabbed hold of the Sky Bandit. Littlepip, her friends, and Trixie was confused by this. Until Calamity felt a horrible pain surge through his right wing, he looks over to find blood dripping from it. Sharp stabs of pain race through him, as he began to fall out of the sky, dragging the Bandit along with him. Rainbow quickly went into action and try to help him land safely. To her surprise the Bandit was a lot lighter, then she expected. The landing wasn’t the smoothest, but it was a safe landing. Once on the ground, bullets began to impacted the Sky Bandit. Calamity quickly unhitched himself and ducked inside. Littlepip and Calamity, then began to shoot out the windows, at their attackers. A large band of raiders were approaching them, Littlepip and Calamity fought back the best they could. Xenith provided potions, for them to dip their rounds in to make them deadlier. With the constant machine gun fire, Xenith did not dare step out of the protection of the Sky Bandit. They soon spotted a raider with a mini gun, who began to unload on Bandit. Littlepip and Calamity had no choice, but to duck into the Bandit. Twilight threw up her shield to help protect them, but it could only so much. The sounds of machine gun fire continued, then it suddenly halted. When it didn’t continue, they were confused, and carefully poked their heads up. Looking through the windows to see, what happened. The raiders were frozen in fear, at what stood in front of them. Five alicorns stared at them, their shields already up, and murder in their eyes. The raiders soon shook off their fears and began firing on them. Bullets bounced off the shields and the alicorns made short work of the raiders. While three alicorns maintain the shield, the other two used their telekinesis. To either make the raiders turn their weapons on themselves. Or used their telekinesis to literary rip them apart. They pulled some of the raiders’ limbs off, with them screaming all the while. Soon the ground beneath them ran red with blood. The dismembered limbs of the raiders and their weapons laid all over the ground. The alicorns were about to leave, when they felt a familiar presence, nearby. The alicorns turned and began following it, which lead them to the Sky Bandit. They scrapped their horns along the sides of the Bandit and asked, “Can our seven friends come out now.” “Why,” Velvet asked, quietly. “We were not speaking to you, we were talking to the seven accompanying you,” they bellowed. “Now can they please come out,” they said in a very calm and gentle tone. The mane 7 were terrified, but didn’t want to angry them. They sighed, “Okay we are coming out.” Once out of the Sky Bandit, the mane 7 sense, there was something was familiar about these alicorns. They didn’t appear to be hostile towards them and seem very friendly. If the mane 7 didn’t see, what they did to the raiders. They would assume the alicorns were totally harmless. The mane 7 slowly walked towards them, with Twilight leading the way. She was ready with her own spells, if they turn hostile. Fluttershy was so scared, if it wasn’t for her friends, and their support. She would have either fainted or flew away. The mane 7 stood nervously in front of the alicorns, who then turned their attention towards Littlepip and her friends. “Okay, the rest of you come out now, and leave your puny weapons behind,” they commanded, as one of them shook the Bandit. Not having much choice, Littlepip and her friends compiled, “What is this about,” Calamity asked. “Silence, the Goddess wants you to come meet her now!” one of the alicorns commanded. “C-C-Can we get a book, t-t-that belongs to us first,” Trixie stuttered. “Of course, friends, then we can go, see the goddess,” one of the alicorns said, sweetly. “Wait, why are you treating us so nicely, and them so badly,” Twilight asked. “Why, because you are our friends, our sisters,” the alicorns explained, to the mane 7. “We don’t even know you, and we aren’t related,” Rainbow said, feeling a lot more confident. The alicorns suddenly began to laugh, “Ha, Ha, Ha, oh, that’s a good one, Rainbow.” “How you know my name,” Rainbow asked. “Why wouldn’t we, your our friend aren’t you,” they said. Twilight sighed and whispered to her friends, “Let’s just go with it.” “So where is the your book,” one of the alicorns asked. “It’s with a,” Littlepip tried to say, before getting cut off. “We were not speaking to you,” the alicorn boomed. “Um, can you please be a nicer, to them,” Fluttershy said, meekly. “Okay, if that is your wish,” they respond. “Okay, Cloud Cover said it’s with a caravan, that is heading towards a town called Shattered Hoof. Have you seen any caravans recently,” Twilight asked. “We did see one, shall we go and attack it,” the alicorns asked. “No,” the mane 7 blurted out. “Just show us where it is,” they asked. They all sailed through the sky, Rainbow was pulling the Sky Bandit, while Calamity was in the back, getting his wing fixed by Velvet. It took a little practice, but she eventually managed to get the Bandit flying smoothly. The mane 7 now felt a lot more comfortable around the alicorns, that surrounded the Sky Bandit. While Littlepip’s friends still felt uneasy, but were relieved they weren’t being attacked. Soon they spotted the caravan, and Rainbow pulled the Bandit in for a landing. It was a rough and violent landing, but it was a landing. They all stepped up out of the Sky Bandit, and carefully headed towards the caravan. “Can you five alicorns stay here,” Velvet requested. “Don’t be telling us, what to do,” the alicorns shouted in anger. “Can you please stay here, Trixie and her friends don’t want any trouble,” Trixie asked. “Of course, we will wait here for your return,” the alicorns said. “Greetings my fellow travelers, what can I do for you today. I have wide selection of fine goods for sale, ammo, food, and armor. What every it is you will find it here,” the trader said, as he saw the 10 ponies and one zebra walked up. The workers of the caravan took out several foldable table out and placed several items on them. These items were mostly guns, boxes of ammo, medicine, armor, and a few old books. The mane 7 could see their book was among the items and their got really excited. The traders seem to be very shifty and suspicious looking. Just by how they looked, Littlepip and her friends knew, what kind of business ponies, they were. “Let us handle this,” they whispered, to the mane 7. “I see a lot of interesting stuff,” Calamity said, faking interest. “This book looks great, how much is it,” Velvet said, picking up an old children’s anatomy book, that lay next to Star Swirl’s. “If that book is important to you, I say,” the trader said, pausing to think of a number. “About, 210 caps, it’s in great shape and filled with useful information. This is a very good bargain.” Velvet place the book back down and said, “That sounds good, but I will have to decline.” Calamity, looked around at the table for a bit. Before picked up Star Swirl’s book and saying, “This book looks old, but might make a nice door stop. Then might be a waste of caps,” he said, acting like he didn’t really want it. “That book, I will sell it to you for 55 caps,” the trader said. Velvet jumped in and said, “That’s a little pricey for a piece of trash, isn’t it.” “That’s business for you,” the trader shrugged. “Business, more like price gouging,” Calamity mumbled, as Velvet began bartering. The five alicorns surrounded the Sky Bandit, as they flew towards Maripony. Twilight and Trixie was sitting in the back, trying to reconstructed the spell. Calamity was once again pulling the Sky Bandit, with Rainbow and Fluttershy flying next to him. The looming shape of the Maripony facility quickly appeared on the horizon. When they landed, they saw that alicorns were everywhere. Some were flying above them, circling the facility, while others were guarding the main entrance. “GREETINGS MY FRIENDS,” a power telepathic voice said. “WELCOME TO MY HOME,” it said again, nearly causing the mane 7 to black out. “Who ever is doing that, could you tone it down,” Trixie asked, covering her ears, in hopes of blocking out the voice. “Of course, the Goddess did not mean to cause any of you pain,” the voice said, in a much more quiet and relax tone. “Now the Goddess, needs to have a meeting with you comrades. Could you seven wait out here?” The mane 7 walked back to the Sky Bandit, and waited next to it. They took this opportunity to get out of their disguises, for a bit, and stretch out. Especially, Twilight who had her wings restrained for the pass few hours. The alicorns laying nearby, noticed her wings, but didn’t seem to show any reaction to them. Unknown to them, an Enclave scouting party was flying over head. Taking some aerial photographs of the wasteland, when they approached, they spotted the mane 7 down below and they especially noticed Rainbow Dash. After taking a few quickly photographs of her, they quickly reported back to base.
Welcome to the WastelandThe sun shined brightly overhead, as Ponyville was filled with the sounds of ponies, going about their day. The train station was especially noisy, as ponies began to disembarked, or board the train. The mane six stepped off the train, and look a quickly look around. They all looked exhausted, and worn out. Even Pinkie was exhausted and barely able to stand up. As they headed into town, they saw a familiar wagon parked next to town hall. When they got closer they could hear the sounds of a crowd, and a very familiar ponies making an announcement. “Watch and be amazed, as the Great and Powerful Trixie, will mystify you,” Trixie exclaimed. “Sure hope she is a lot more bearable then last time she was here,” AJ whispered to her friends, as they stood there, for a moment. Trixie began to cast a spell, her horn glowed brightly, as a blue mist began to gather on the stage. Which slowly took on pony-like forms, that became more and more detailed. Soon creating the illusion that several different pony, were on the stage next to Trixie. They looked so real, everyone thought Trixie had just teleport several ponies onto the stage. Trixie then began to walk off the stage, horn still glowing, and let the illusions she created perform. The pony illusions quickly took the forms of leaders of the three pony tribes. They then began to perform the story of Hearts Warming Eve. As the play went on, everyone was really impressed by Trixie’s spell. Even the mane 6 decided to stay and watch the show, despite how tired they were. After the Hearts Warming Eve play, Trixie put on a few more plays. All of them reenacting history that was common knowledge to everyone. Yet, the audience was still mystified by the pony illusions. After the sixth play, Trixie returned to the stage, and bowed along side her pony illusions. The audiences exploded into applause, as the illusions began to disappear. “Ah be the first to admit it, that show was good,” Applejack sighed. “Agreed those plays were amazing, and I really like that she toned down her boasting,” Rarity nodded. “Sorry, but the Great and Powerful Trixie’s show is now complete. Please come back later tonight for an even better show,” Trixie announced. As the crowd began to dissipate, Trixie notice the mane 6, sitting in the back. She smiled widely, quickly jumped from her stage, and ran towards them. “How did you like Trixie’s new show, did Trixie successfully entertain you,” she asked, waving her right foreleg in the air. “Yes, Trixie you did, and I am impressed by your illusion spell,” Twilight said. “Why, thank you, Twilight,” Trixie answered. “So Trixie want to asked you something, can she come over to your castle library tomorrow. Trixie need some more material to create a new amazing show, and most library don’t have what Trixie needs,” she added, nervously. “Sure, I will be glad to help, come by anytime tomorrow, we’re all going to be there for a friendship meetings,” Twilight nodded. “Yeah Twilight is a total egghead, you will certainly find what you need in her library,” Rainbow commented. Twilight just rolled her eyes and headed towards her castle. As the rest of them, when about their business. The rest of the mane 6 went home to get some rest, after their friendship mission. While Trixie returned to her stage to practice her performance for tonight. She picked up some books in her magic and began studying them. After reading through the books, she began practicing the show. Later that night, the mane 6 met up next to Trixie’s stage to watch her show. They were all excited to see what Trixie was going to do. After her introduction, which was the same as everyone of her other show. Starting off by boasting about how great she is and how great the show is going to be. The show was mostly based around historical events, and repeated some of the plays from this afternoon. Despite that the show was still amazing, and everyone was mystified by it. After the final play was over and the curtain fell, fireworks shot up into the air. Exploding in a beautiful display of color against the night sky. Trixie came back on stage, being greeted by an explosion of applause, and took a bow. After the show was over, Trixie and the mane 6 went together to get some dinner. “So Trixie how you been,” Fluttershy asked, as the waitress brought them their food. “Trixie has been great, she has been very popular recently,” Trixie said proudly. “We can see that, your new shows look absolutely stunning,” Rarity said, before a lady-like bite from her food. “Yes Trixie knows, her shows are great, things are looking up since that whole alicorn amulet incidence,” she exclaimed. “Oh by the way congratulations on becoming a princess,” Trixie added, pointing a hoof at Twilight. “Thanks, now what have you been up to lately,” Twilight asked. “Trixie has been all over Equestria, putting on her amazing shows for everyone,” she announced. “But, enough about the amazing Trixie, what have you six been up to,” she added, giving a smile. “Well to start with, earlier today we were called to help fix a friendship problem in Appaloosa,” Applejack said. They all began to talked and discuss about all they recent adventures. They talked till the restaurant closed and it started to get very late. So after finishing up their stories, they all head home for the night. The next morning, Twilight was in her library reading and sorting her books. She floated them to their proper places on the shelves, before long most of her books were in their proper place. As she placed the last book on the shelves, she heard a knock at the door. When she answered it she saw her friends and Trixie standing on the door step. “Hey Twilight, lets get this friendship meeting over with,” Rainbow groaned. Twilight rolled her eyes, then sighed, “Okay come on.” They walked into the throne room, Twilight directed Trixie to the library, before entering the room herself. Trixie soon found herself in a massive library, surrounded by books. She quickly began to look through the shelves. Finding all sorts of books, that were filled with information, but nothing that help give her ideas for a show. As she returned the books to their proper places, she notice a large case sitting at the end of the room. She walked up to it and looked at the contents. Inside was a few badly burned book, nothing to special, but one of them stood out among the rest. The book was in decent conditions and it puzzled her. Why was it locked up, after staring at it for a few minutes, she decided to ignore it and continued to look for other books. Unfortunately in the back of her mind, was a growing sense of curiosity. She found herself looking back at the case repeatedly, as we fought back the urge to look inside the book. Soon she found herself staring at the case, she bit down on one of her forelegs. In an effort to fight off her curiosity, she was suddenly spooked by a vibrating sound. She looked around and saw a small glow coming from a large desk sitting at the far left side of the library. Trixie soon heard the doors of the library open. It was Spike, Trixie watch as he walked over to the desk and pick up a medium size book. It was glowing, vibrating, and had a small sun shape mark on the cover. Exactly like Celestria’s cutie mark, Spike opened it up and began to read it. He seem to be reading aloud quietly to himself. “What is that,” Trixie finally said, after a long period of silence. “Oh, this it just a magical book, that allows Twilight to communicate with pony. In another universe,” Spike explained, as he closed the book. “So it allows Twilight to talk to another pony who is not even in Equestria,” Trixie asked, hoping she heard Spike wrong. “Exactly, now I’m going to deliver this to Twilight, I am sure she will be happy to here how Sunset is doing,” Spike said, walking out the library. Now Trixie’s curiosity was even worst now, a huge host of theories began to flood into her mind. She held off, as long as she could before her will power broke. She quickly ran over to the case and unlocked the magic seal. That held the case closed, lifting the case up, she carefully levitated out the book and began to flip through the pages. Most of the interior was in pretty good condition, all though the writing was pretty faded. Also a few of the pages were so burned, the words were beyond recognition. Trixie turn to the cover and tried to make out the title of the book. Although it was almost illegible she could make out the words. Star Swirl the Bearded's journal, her curiosity only sky rocket from there. Right in front of her was the book of one of the most powerful unicorns of all time. She carefully turned each of the pages and glanced at all the spells. When she reaching the final page, she saw the spell Twilight helped finished several years ago. Trixie was belong excited, she began looked through the book a second time. This time with more detail, soon reaching a page, that was so badly burned much of the words destroyed. In an effort to try and figure out what the words could be she began reading it aloud. Filling in the blanks with words that could fit there. As she reached the last word, she hear a deafening explosion, that threw her off her hooves. “What was that,” the mane 6 shouted, as they ran towards the source. They quickly arrived at the library to find Trixie on the floor, lying next to her was the book. A few feet in front of her was a large array of sparks. “What happened,” Twilight asked. Before Trixie could answer, the sparks blended together creating a huge portal. That began to drag them in, they tried to grab hold of anything solid, but it was too late. They all were dragged into the portal, and disappeared into it’s abyss. As fast as it opened the portal suddenly slammed closed. They all tumbled through the portal, being deposited on the other side. Blacking out for a few seconds, when they awoke, they found that they were laying on top of one another. With Twilight and Trxie on the bottom, as they all looked up, they saw they were on top of a very large building. When they looked around their eyes soon met the eyes of six shocked ponies. Well 5 ponies and a zebra, what was most noticeable was, that some of them carried odd shaped devices. Either hanging from their sides like saddlebags, or levitating in their magic. “What the hell,” one of the ponies said, who had a black duster hat. “You are all seeing this to right,” he whispered. “I see it but I don’t believe it,” another one said, who had an odd device around one of her foreleg. “Who are all of you,” Rainbow groaned, trying to getting up. After a little bit of hesitation, one of them finally spoke up, “Um, my name is Littlepip.”
A Quick History Lesson“Okay, guys that was an interesting trip, but now let’s find out where we are,” Twilight asked. “Don’t worry guys I got this,” Rainbow exclaimed, as she shot up into the sky. Rainbow scanned the surrounding area, looking around for any landmarks that could help. She was shocked by what she saw in front of her, despite the dark night. Rainbow could see an endless stretch of Manehatten’s ruins. She hovered there for a long time, unable to take her eyes off of the sight. Her friends were standing on the rooftop below her. They soon notice that she was, just hovering there, and began to get worried. Fluttershy decided to fly up and see what was wrong. When she reach Rainbow she tried to get her attention. With little success, Rainbow just grab Fluttershy’s chin and turn her head towards, the ruins. Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide, as she took in the sight of the city. “Oh my,” she managed to squeak out. Now Fluttershy was frozen up there, unable hear her friends down below, despite them shouting up at her. After a few minutes, Twilight sighed and flew up to see what was wrong. Taking Littlepip and her friends by complete surprise. Up until, this point they didn’t even notice, that she has wings. Twilight flew up nice and smoothy, by now she had gotten very good at flying. When she reached them, she notices the ruins, as well. She looked over the carnage, and was frozen for a few minutes. Fortunately she quickly remember the reason she came up. After a little effort, Twilight managed to get, Rainbow and Fluttershy out of their trance. They all quickly flew back down and point towards the ruins, “Um guys you may want to see this.” Walking towards the building’s edge, then rest of them could see, what cause their two Pegasus friends to be paralyzed. The twisted ruins of the city lay in front of them, from what little light they had. They could tell the city has been, in ruins for a long time. Most of the buildings were blown apart. A few building were still standing, but they were all on the verge of collapse. A few of the city’s billboards were still intact, the ads still clearly visible. While the others have collapsed to the ground below. They were all at a lost for words, as they just stared out at the tangled ruins of the city. What shocked them the most wasn’t the ruins. It was how dead the city was, all they could hear was the sound of the wind. Tears slowly stream down all their faces, as the realization, that hundreds of ponies must have died here. Bowing their heads, they all felt tremendous sadness, as they paid respects to those who perished here. Littlepip's heart dropped, she knew that, they will eventually figure out, what happened. Or worse, they would start asking questions, and if she doesn’t provide answers for them, others will. “What happened here, what could possible have done this,” Rarity asked, turning to them. No one dare to step forward and explained, Xenith looked at her friends, and notice they were apprehensive about talking to the mane 6. So she decided to stepped forward and explained, but was quickly stopped by Littlepip. “What are you doing Xenith,” Littlepip whispered to her. “Why giving them an explanation for why Manehatten is like this, of course,” Xenith explained. “No we can’t tell them, how do you think they are going to feel. When they learn Equestria has been destroyed,” Littlepip explained. “You know we can hear you right,” Applejack said, as they stared at them. Littlepip’s heart fell into the pits of her stomach, “Okay we will explain everything privately inside, but first we have to find something to disguise you all,” Littlepip commanded. “Why do we need to be disguised,” Rainbow asked, crossing her forelegs. “You don’t exactly blend in here,” Littlepip explained. Calamity quickly ran over to a large inclosed carriage, and began digging around inside. Soon coming back out with several pieces of old armor, and prewar clothing. Twilight and her friends were a little skeptical about it, but had no reason to distrust them. The clothes and the armor helped disguised them, but not perfectly. The mane 7 also wore large hoods, to help hide their manes. Littlepip's group made extra sure Twilight's wings were well hidden. Although they never fully explained to her, why she needs to hide her wings. As they entered the building, they all handed over their ammo. Just like last time, but the guards felt the need to search the mane 7. The search made Littlepip’s group nervous, that they will discover who the mane 6 are. After a very nerve-racking search, the guards were satisfied, and let them enter Ten-Pony tower. As they walked through the building, they received many glances from other ponies. Which made Littlepip and her friends even more nervous. Luckily everyone was too busy with their own things to take much notice of them. Homage leaded the way, with the mane 7 following from behind. After walking for a bit, they came upon a large windowless room, with a large table in the middle of it. The mane 7 felt uneasy, but they followed the ponies into the room anyway. Littlepip was the last to enter, closing and locking the door behind her. “Okay now, that we are in private, care to explain,” Twilight asked. “Balefire bombs did this, the war with the Zebra empire cause Equestria to be destroyed,” Littlepip explained. “Wait did you, just say the Zebra empire,” Applejack asked. “Yes, why do you ask,” she replied. Twilight had an idea of where, they were now, but she wanted to test it, “What do you know about the Crystal Empire, the crystal heart, or a large crystal tree at the edge of Ponyville.” They all stared at her in confusion, “What in the hay are you talking about.” “Okay three strikes and your out,” Twilight exclaimed. “This is definitely another world,” Twilight said, turning to her friends. “What do you mean another world,” Littepip asked in confusion. “Oh, we come from another world, separated from yours,” Twilight explained. “So you are not from the past,” Velvet asked. “No, Trixie manage to open a portal to another world, using Star Swirl’s journal. A Journal that was locked up for a reason,” Twilight said, staring at Trixie angrily. “What, Trixie was curious about the book’s contents, didn’t you feel the same way,” Trixie retorted. “She got you there, Twilight,” Applejack said. Twilight sighed, “Okay your right.” “Wait I have to ask,” Rainbow said, quickly flying to Littlepip. Taking her by surprise, “Do you have versions of us in your world.” "It has been over 200 years, since the great war,” Calamity explained. “Our world’s versions of you are long gone.” Suddenly there was a knock at the door, taking all of them by surprise. Homage carefully opened the door, a tiny crack, and peeked out. She saw her fellow members of the Twilight society, standing in the hallway. Looking back at the mane 7, she frowned, she knew why they were here. She reluctantly open the door and let them inside. They stood in the doorway and took a look around. They immediately noticed Twilight and their eyes were quickly fixated on her. They just stood there staring at her, which made them all nervous. After what seem like hours, they finally came in, closing the door behind them. The mane 7 stood up, and they gave each other quickly glances. If this turns south, they were all ready to defend themselves. The ponies stopped right in front of them and they stared at each other. “Do our eyes deceive us,” they, said in unison. “Uh, technically no,” Homage said. “What do you mean by that,” they asked, in confusion. “Well, they claim they’re from another universe, separated from ours,” Homage explained. “So,” they asked, still in confusion. “So, they most likely don’t know anything about the Ministries. Or anything about the technology they created,” Homage whispered. “Um, don’t mean to interrupt, but I am guess these Ministries have something to do with us. Judging by how you treated our arrival here, it safe to assume your world's version of us must have worked in them,” Twilight asked. Littlepip face hoofed and sighed, “No point, or reason to hiding it now, we better just tell them.” The mane 7 sat down and listen to what they had to tell them. They started off with the events, that lead up to the Ministers creation. Then talked about the function of each Ministry, although when they got to Rainbow’s ministry, they were speculating. After that was done, they moved on to the technology each one created. Talking about the armor of the Steel-Rangers, the Steel-Rangers purposes, and their very recent separation into two faction. After they were done with the ministries, they began talking about the Great War. Including the ministry mares’ role in it and what happened the day the bombs fell. They choose not to tell them about any personal faiths, just the general history. The mane 7 felt depressed, and took time to process the information. Littlepip levitated the memory orbs, and the statuettes from her bag. Placing them on the table in front of the mane 7. The mane 6 were amazed at the statuettes, and they seem to send more feelings of sadness through them. “I have yet to find Fluttershy’s, but I know it’s out there,” Littlepip sighed. The mane 6 lowered their heads and sighed, “We don’t know why, but we think this world’s version of us. Might have been drifting apart, as they neared the end.” “So how did ponies survive, it seem like no one can survive the bombs,” the mane 7 asked. “One of two ways, in underground shelters called Stables, or up in the clouds, Me, and Velvet, came from Stable 2, right underneath Sweet Apple Acres. While Calamity came from one of the Pegasus’ cloud cities,” Littlepip explained. “So Cloudsdale was a shelter for the Pegasi,” Rainbow asked. They all turned away, remaining quiet, until Calamity summoned up the courage to said, “It was the first one hit by the Balefire bombs, the city was blown out of the sky. Some did escape, before the bombs hit, but most weren’t so lucky.” Rainbow and Fluttershy were completely horrified, as they collapsed to the ground. Fluttershy cried loudly, while Rainbow tried to hold by tears of her own. The rest of the mane 7 comfort them by hugging, each providing their support for them. Rainbow remained defiant, for a good while, before crying her eyes out, as well. This was painful for Littlepip and her friends to watch. After the crying session was over, they all sat back up and they continued. Rainbow and Fluttershy rubbed tears from their eyes, as they calmed down. “So what happened to Canterlot,” Twilight asked. “Or Ponyville,” Applejack added. “Both places are still standing, but Canterlot is surrounded by a deadly pink cloud. It kills anyone who dares enter the city. While Ponyville is now raider territory, also not a safe place to be,” Calamity explained. “What about the Celestria and Luna, what happened to them,” Twilight asked. “Equestria is no longer the safe place it once was. You have to be armed to have a chance out there,” Homage explained, avoiding Twilight question. “Again, what happened to Celestria and Luna,” Twilight repeated. “Everyone is struggling to survive day to day, that saddens me,” Littlepip sighed, looking at the floor. “Hey, why are you avoiding Twilight question, what happened to the princesses,” Rainbow demanded. “You don’t want to know,” Littlepip and her friends answered. “Try us,” Rainbow shouted angrily. Taking a deep breath, they said in unison, “They were killed, when the bombs fell.” “Wait, let me get this straight, the princesses, our immortal all powerful rulers. Were killed by these, so call Balefire bombs,” Rainbow asked. “Yes, but they did die honorably, saving as many ponies, as they could, till the bitter end,” Calamity said, hoping to lift their sprits. The mane 7 sat on the floor, processing that information. Eventually their all began to cry, with Twilight and Fluttershy crying more then the others. Even Applejack was crying, or what passed for crying for her. They all hugged each other, as they mourned the death of their rulers. Littlepip, her friends, and the other ponies looked away. They knew there was nothing, any of them could say to help. Pools of tears collected on the old wooden floor, as they all cried. Even if these wasn’t their version of the princesses, it still hurt knowing that a version of them are dead. After a length crying session, the mane 7 dried their eyes, and tried to continue with their conversation. “So what were our faiths,” Trixie sniffled. “We don’t know,” Littlepip lied. “Come now, surely you know what happened to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Did she make it into one of those Stables you mention,” Trixie asked. “We don’t know, we do not know what happened to any of you,” Littlepip lied. “It doesn’t matter that much anyway, we need to get home,” Twilight sighed. “Agreed,” they all said in unison. “So how are we going to do it,” they asked. “Star Swirl journal had the spell that brought us here. Maybe it can help us get back, the only problem is did it come with us,” Twilight wondered. “Yes it did, the Great and Powerful Trixie landed on it, when we came in,” Trixie said. “Wonderful where is it,” Twilight asked, looking around the room. “Trixie believes it still on the roof,” she said, pointing up. “Great let’s go get it,” Twilight said, walking towards the door. “Your not going anywhere,” the society said, blocking the door. “Why not, we can’t possibly be any use to you,” Twilight respond. “That’s where you are wrong, your knowledge is valuable to us, Twilight,” they said. “Who are these ponies,” Rainbow questioned. “Oh, I like you all to meet the Twilight society, Tenpony tower’s secret society. They influence what happens here, their mission is to preserve the knowledge of history and magic,” Homage explained. “So you want, Twilight to share her knowledge of magic,” Pinkie asked, hoping up and down. “Correct, Twilight can help us with her knowledge of magic. If she agrees, then we will allow you to leave. We will also help you out in anyway we can,” the society respond. “Okay deal, once we get the book, I will help you out,” Twilight said, as they shook on it. On the roof, the mane 6 began to panic, as they searched every inch of the roof, but didn’t find the book. Trixie said, it came with them, but why couldn’t they find it. “Where is it,” Twilight said, beginning to panic. “Calm down, Twilight I am sure it’s around her somewhere,” Fluttershy said. “What are you looking for,” one of the guards said, who came up for his nightly watch. “A book, it’s pretty old, and is slightly burnt,” Twilight asked. “Was it sitting up here on the roof,” the guard asked. “Yes, did you see it,” Rainbow asked. “Oh yeah I turned it in at the old bookstore, got a pretty decent number of caps for it,” the guard explained. “Good we know where it is, unfortunately there probably closed by now. Luckily we can go get it tomorrow morning when they open,” Homage explained. “That’s great, and what does he mean by caps,” Twilight asked. “Oh, yeah, bottle caps are our currency now, the bit lost its value, after the end of the world,” Calamity said. The mane 7 headed back downstairs, while trying to understand why these so called bottle caps. Replaced the bit, after all there made of pure gold, they shouldn't lose value. When they got downstairs, Twilight followed the society to their headquarters to help them out, as promised. While her friends were free to explored the tower, but were warned not to speak to anyone. While Littlepip and her friends went to take care of their own personal business.
Wasteland LessonsThe mane 7 and Littlepip’s friends sat around a table, in a small restaurant. The mane 7 were still fully disguise, their heads and bodies were completely covered. The waiter soon came by and placed several bowls of oatmeal, on the table. After collecting his caps, he went to serve the other customers. The oatmeal looked like mush, and wasn’t very appetizing. Rainbow poked at it, with her spoon and looked at it, like it might come to life. Twilight took a small spoonful of it and place it in her mouth. The taste nearly made her vomit, and she had to choke it down. The rest of the mane 7 had similar experiences, while Littlepip and her friends eat it with no problems. “How can you eat this stuff,” Applejack asked. “Not much choice, the only food around is either 200 years old, or animal meat,” Velvet explained. “Unlike Littlepip here, I rather not eat meat, even if my life depended on it." "You eat meat,” the mane 7 bellowed, looking at Littlepip, in horror. “Well we can, and it does have a better taste, then 200 year old food,” Littlepip said, trying to defend herself. The mane 7 had no argument for that, the oatmeal did taste nasty. Making them wonder how was it was still editable. On top of that, they wondered how safe it was to eat 200 year old food. No way could any food last over 200 years and yet the prove was sitting in front of them. After a very unpleasant breakfast, they all went down to the book store, the guard mentioned. As they walked, they saw many ponies going about their day. Most of them acted like high horses, reminding the mane 7 of the ponies of Canterlot. When they reached the book store, they saw a single white earth pony stallion, with a dark blue mane stood behind the counter. Behind him was a large display case of old books. Most of them had their covers, either burned or ripped up. His store was filled with old shelves each filled with books, most of them in poor condition. “Hello and welcome to the Phoenix’s book store, my name is, Golden Horseshoes, how can I help you,” Golden asked. “Yes were looking for an book, it says Star Swirl the Bearded’s Journal on the cover. It was turn in by a guard last night,” Twilight said. "Oh yeah, I remembered that book, it looked real interesting, but I already sold it,” Golden responded. “Who bought it and where are they now, it’s imperative, that we get that book back,” Twilight asked. “I am sorry, but he wanted to keep his purchase secret,” Golden said. “Can you please tell us where he is, that book is ours,” Fluttershy said, meekly. “Well, it’s your lost, now buy something or get out,” Golden said, sternly. Rarity stepped up to the counter, “Oh, that’s so professional of you, I can’t imagine how hard your job must be sometimes. Having to deal with angry customers, that do not understand these books are over 200 years old. They must take precautions, when handling them,” Rarity said. “Thank, finally someone who can understand that simple concept. These books are prewar, I can’t be responsible for any damages, because their not being careful,” he exclaimed. “Oh, and I don’t want hurt your reputation, as an honest businessman, but if you can just tell us the customers name and where he went. That would be wonderful,” Rarity sighed. “Maybe I can “accidentally” tell you where he went,” Golden whispered. “I can see where you got your bartering skills from,” Calamity whispered to Velvet. “Okay here’s the deal, I will tell you who he is and where he said, he was going. If you get me a discount at the Fruit Orchard restaurant. The owner, Banana Tart promised me a discount, if I help organize his belonging. That guy is a huge pack rat, he has a small room, but a ton of stuff. Anyway, I held up my end of the deal, but he hasn't held up his,” Golden explained. Twilight just rolled her eyes, “Okay, we will get you your discount, but you better keep your end of the deal.” When they arrived at the restaurant, they found it was completely empty. While the surrounding restaurants were filled with ponies. Inside it was dead quiet, worn menus sat on the tables waiting for customers. A large banner hung above the counter, the original letters were so worn, they were no longer visible. So they were painted over, and replaced by a crud painting a fruit orchard. Rarity looked closely at one of the table to finding it covered in scratches. Most of them made recently, looking over to one of the walls she saw multiply old bullet holes. The wallpaper and paint were peeling off, revealing the reinforce concrete underneath. The restaurant was very well maintain, and extraordinary clean. It was puzzling why their were no customers, this restaurant looked a whole lot better, then the surrounding ones. As they walked up to the counter, they were surprised by a tall dark green unicorn. “Welcome to the Fruit Orchard restaurant, have a seat while we take your order,” he said, pushing them all to a large table. “Actually we ate already, we here looking for a pony named Banana Tart,” Twilight commented. “That’s me,” he said cheerfully. “Oh, that’s great, Golden Horseshoes sent us over to discuss a discount for him,” Twilight exclaimed. Banana Tart sighed, “I can’t afford to give it to him, were not making much caps here.” “Why not this restaurant looks like it is in pretty good shape,” Calamity asked. “The restaurant yes, but not our food supply,” Banana sighed, walking back to the counter. “This siege and the competition of the other restaurant is hurting our food supply.” “How so,” Littlepip asked. “You know all our food comes scavengers who search the Manehatten ruins right,” Banana asked. Littlepip nodded her head, “Well the other restaurants are buying up all the good stuff from them. I have my own personal scavenging team, but they can’t find much out there,” Banana explained. “That’s sound rough, is there anything we can do to help,” Calamity asked. “Well there is one thing, I heard an old rumor of a grocery store, that has been untouched since the war. Maybe it’s complete horse apples, but I want you to check it out. If the rumors are true bring back as much food, as possible. Then I will fix Golden up with a discount,” Banana explained. “What if the rumors are horse apples,” Calamity asked. “Then I will think of something else, but I am sure the rumors are true. A lot of scavengers talk about it, they can’t all be wrong right,” Banana asked. The mane 7 looked at each other in doubt, while Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet thought it over. The mane 7 weren’t ones for believing rumors, after all the rumors about Zecora. Made the whole town live in fear of her, before they even got to know her. While Littlepip’s friends did partly believe in them. They did do things that could be considered rumors. The way Homage/DJ Pon3, describe Littlepip and her actions. Ponies who do not know her, would assume she isn’t real. Just a mere pony’s tale used to comfort small fillies. “Okay, where is this store,” Littlepip asked. “Here I will mark the location on your Pipbuck,” Banana said, taking a hold of Littlepip’s Pipbuck and proceed to tap at it. Once done Littlepip took her forehoof, and checked her Pipbuck. Now seeing a marker on a building, that was quite a bit north of the tower. She also checked if they was anything new or odd with her Pipbuck. After running through all the functions and files, she found nothing out of place. Everything was exactly the same, as it was before, the only change was the marker. “That’s a nice model, much better, then the older models,” Banana said, impressed by her Pipbuck. “You know about Pipbucks,” Littlepip said in surprise. “Oh, yeah it just a little hobby of mine, I like to learning about prewar technology. I can’t fix them by any means, or fully understand how they work,” Banana explained. “Okay we are going to see if rumor is correct, when we come back you better have that discount ready for him,” Calamity sighed. “Hey I got a question, I notice a lack of Pegasus in the tower. Why is that,” Rainbow asked. “There somewhere else,” Calamity said bluntly. “Is it because the ponies here are so rude, they don’t want to live here,” Rainbow asked. “Sure why not,” Calamity said, hoping to end the conversation. Up on the roof, Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet got ready to find the store. Littlepip and Calamity loaded their weapons, while Velvet made sure she had plenty of medical supplies. To heal her friends, who are most likely going to get themselves hurt. Xenith decided to stay behind at the tower to continue looking for her daughter. Littlepip didn’t think this would take too long, it was a simple supply run. Also Xenith had more important things to do, then to follow Littlepip everywhere. As they were preparing to leave, they saw the mane 7 come onto the rooftop. “What are you doing here,” Calamity asked, hitching himself up to the sky bandit. “We want to help you,” Rarity said. “We don’t need any help, it just gathering food,” Calamity said. “Hey, the more ponies you have to help the faster you can get back. Who ever bought the book is getting farther away, with every minute,” Twilight explained. “The building is under siege, it is unlikely they can leave the tower,” Littlepip countered. “How do you know, he could be a Pegasus, he could be a unicorn and teleported away, or he could have a similar carriage, that you have. Clearly it can fly, why else will it be up here,” Twilight countered, pointing to the sky bandit. Littlepip's group thought it over, “You got a good point, but it dangerous out there, we can’t let you put yourself in danger like that,” they countered. “How bad can it be, we face changelings, Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, Tirek, and a ton of creatures from the EverFree forest. We can handle ourselves,” Rainbow exclaimed. Littlepip’s friends looked at each other and sighed, “Your not going to take no for an answer are you.” “Nope,” Pinkie said, jumping into the sky bandit. “Okay fine, just keep low and stay close to us. This world isn’t as safe, as the one you know,” Calamity sighed. The mane 7 boarded the sky bandit, expect Rainbow, and Fluttershy. With them being able to fly, sitting in the sky bandit would be redundant. Plus with the sky bandit looking heavy enough on its own. They didn’t want to put too much strain on Calamity. Twilight had to ride inside the Bandit, due to the fact her wings were restricted by her clothes. Taking to the air, the mane 7 really got a view of the blasted remains of Manehatten. Below was the still burning campfires of Red eyes’ forces, that were camped outside the tower. Littlepip looked at her Pipbuck’s map and directed Calamity towards the marker. As they flew they saw, that most of the city’s destroyed building were self contained. Usually rusty iron skeletons, or building that collapses in on themselves. Leaving the spaces between buildings, mostly cleared of rubble. That was true for most of the city, but as they approached their destination. They saw a mass of tangled metal. Most of the tall buildings here had collapsed into one other, and melted together. Creating a tangled mess of metal, that formed a cage-like structure between the buildings. Littlepip quickly noticed that they were directly on the marker now. All around them was a mess of tangled, and twisted metal. They flew around the area, but couldn’t find a good place to set the sky bandit down. Every building was either a mess of twisted metal, or inaccessible, thanks to the buildings around it. “Hell, we have to set it down somewhere else make the trip on hoof,” Calamity grumbled, pulling the sky bandit back the way they came. They were soon out, that part of the city and into the more “cleaner” part. Calamity scan the area for a safe place to put the sky bandit, quickly found a nice rooftop of an old apartment building. Drop off his friends and the mane 7 on the ground, he flew it up to the rooftop and parked it. He quickly unhitching himself from the wagon, and went into the back to get some saddlebags, for the mane 7. He then spotted an old wooden door, that stood a few feet away. Finding it unlocked, he slowly pushed it open, the door instantly snapped off its hinges and fell. It quickly tumbled down, what was once the building’s stairway. Which had collapsed long ago, now leaving a vertical shaft, that went all the way to the ground floor. Calamity watched, as the door fell, impacting every floor on the way down. The door quickly reached the end of its journey, slamming into the ground with a loud crash. Obliterating itself on impacted, and sending splitters everywhere. Calamity smiled widely and trotted over to the building’s edge. Flying down to his friends, who were waiting in the street below. Littlepip floated out Little Macintosh, and loaded it. Velvet checked her medical boxes, and saw she had plenty of medical supplies. Velvet shook her head a little, she knew her friends are most likely going to get themselves seriously injured. Which means, her current medical supplies will not last very long. “Okay lets get going, remember stay close to us,” Calamity explained to the mane 7. “Why don’t you give them a gun or something,” Velvet whispered to Calamity. “They never fired a gun before, hell they don’t know what it is. Plus I doubt they have any real combat experience,” Calamity explained. Velvet had to agree with Calamity, it seem unwise for the mane 7 to be carrying weapons. Once they were all prepared, they began walking towards the marker on Littlepip’s map. The tangled metal frame of the building around them loomed overhead. The wind blew gently through the buildings, and the quiet sound of creaking metal filled the air. There were several old posters were hanging on the walls of some of the buildings. Most of them were advertising some product, like Sparkle Cola or some new toy for the foals. A few however were ministry posters, most notably was the “Pinkie Pie Is Watching You Forever” poster. It made the mane 7 uneasy, even Pinkie found it creepy. As they walked along the empty streets, the city was dead quiet, which made Littlepip and Calamity suspicious. Littlepip drew out Little Macintosh, and pulled up her Eyes Forward Sparkle. She began scanning the areas for hostiles, sure enough there were multiple red markers on her E.F.S. “We got hostiles around,” Littlepip announced. “What do you think they are,” Velvet asked. No sooner had she said that, a bullet impacted the ground in front of Calamity. It was immediately followed by the report of a rifle. Several raiders popped up from their hiding spots and began filling the air with projectiles. Littlepip and Calamity scanned the street for something to take cover behind. Unfortunately the street was totally empty, making them all sitting ducks. While the raiders had great cover and had the element of surprise. As bullets began to whiz pass them, Littlepip felt a horrible pain in her left rear leg. Glancing back at it, she saw a stream of blood coming from a small bullet wound, just below the knee. A bullet had torn through her leg, and exited on the other side. Barely missing the bone, the loud sounds of gun fire had caused Twilight to instinctively throw up her shield spell. It enveloped all of them, in a protective bubble, but came a few seconds too late for Littlepip. Velvet hurried over to check Littlepip’s leg, it didn’t look too bad, and Velvet could easily fix it. Bullets bounced off the shield, as the raiders continued to fire on them. Calamity knew the raiders were not going to stop their attack. He scanned the street looking for the sources of the attack. It was coming from the right side of the street, right in front of them. He spotted about six raiders, in one of the more intact buildings. There were four on ground floor and two in the second floor windows. Calamity armed his battle saddle and asked “Can we fire out of this shield.” “That’s probably not a good idea,” Velvet commented, as she wrapped up Littlepip’s leg. “Can we move in and out of this shield,” Calamity asked. “Yeah, but I don’t see why you would want too. Can’t we just talk to them,” Twilight respond, focusing her attention on the shield. Calamity shook his head and ran out of the shield, much to everyone’s surprise. He let out a quick burst from his battle saddle and duck back into the shield. His attack didn’t manage to hit anyone, but made the raiders take cover. He waited a few seconds, before jumping out again and repeating his attack. Following his example, Littlepip jumped out of the shield and fired off three shots, from Little Macintosh. At the raiders on the second floor, then she quickly jumped back inside. Two of her shots missed, impacting the window frame. The third shot hit home slamming into one of the raiders' heads. Their head exploded like an overinflated ballon, painting the pony next to them with blood. Their lifeless body, then fell from the window and slammed into the ground below. The sight of the pony’s head exploding made the mane 7 feel ill. Calamity fired off six shots, at the ponies on the ground floor. Two of the rounds slammed into one of the raiders’ foreleg, and chest. Blowing apart their foreleg in a mess of bone fragments, muscle tissue, and blood. The third round slammed into another raider’s gut, taking them out of the fight. The final two rounds missed their target and impacted the wall behind the two remaining raiders. Littlepip was just about ready to start her attack, when she saw a grenade coming towards them. She quickly focused on it and caught it in her magic, stopping it in midair. Immediately she threw it back towards the building, where it landed next to one of the dead raiders. The grenade immediately exploded and filled the room with shrapnel. It also obliterated the raider’s body, adding bone fragments and blood to the mix. One raider was unlucky enough to be standing up, out from cover, when the grenade detonated. Receiving a face full of metal shrapnel, and bone fragments. Their face was covered in blood and some blood was spilling out of their eye sockets. Jumping out of the shield Littlepip emptied Little Macintosh into the last raider upstairs. The rounds tore through their body, they quickly fell forward and hung from the window. Seeing this, the final raider went into a fit of rage and charged at them with a sword. They were greeted with a blast from Calamity’s battle saddle. Their head was taken clean off, and their body flew back a bit. Twilight let her shield fall, as she and her friends looked over the body in front of them. “Damn raiders,” Calamity sighed, walking up to the dead raider. “Hey, it is what it is right,” Littlepip asked, reloading Little Mac and walking up to the building. “Well, lets see if they have any good stuff on them,” Calamity said, searching the body. “What are you doing,” Twilight and her friends shouted. “Collecting what we earned,” Calamity said, picking up the sword. “You just killed like six ponies and that’s all you have to say,” Rainbow shouted. “Yeah, what’s your point,” Calamity asked. “Our point is you are desecrating their bodies, and you killed them,” Twilight exclaimed. “Couldn’t we negotiate with them first.” “Negotiate with raiders, you must be joking, out here its kill or be killed. If you don’t kill them first, they will kill you,” Calamity explained, before returning to the body. After finding nothing else of value on the body, Calamity went to check out the building. Littlepip was already busy, trying to open a locked ammo box. Velvet and the mane 7 follow Calamity inside. He wasted no time and began looking through all the containers, he could find. When Littlepip got the ammo box open, she was surprise to find a lot of useful ammo in it. She found plenty for Little Mac, and a decent amount for many of their guns. “Now your robbing their home, I am starting to think maybe you guys are the bad guys here,” Applejack commented. “It’s what we have to do out here, supplies are hard to come by. So you have to collect what you can. That was one of the first lesson I learned when I left the stable,” Littlepip sighed. “Besides, they are not going to need it now, so why let these supplies go to waste,” Calamity added, opening up an old locker. “I don’t like it either, but this keep ponies alive. Life is hard out here, so we do what we must to stay alive,” Velvet sighed. “So you all actively go after ponies for their supplies,” Trixie asked. “NO, of course not, we aren’t like these raiders. We want to help others and do what is right, even if that’s is rare thing out here,” Calamity explained, sounding very offended by their question. “I don’t know, I am still not very comfortable with what you are doing,” Applejack sighed. “Trixie agrees, this seem like what robbers will do,” Trixie exclaimed. “We do what we must,” Littlepip shrugged. After finding little in the main room, Calamity headed to one of the adjoining room. Where he noticed several cooking pots, stoves, and an old refrigerator. He also noticed a tripwire strung along the bottom of the doorway. Following it, he saw it lead to a shotgun mounted to the counter. If someone had triggered the wire, they would have received a shotgun blast to their flank. Calamity quickly disarmed the trap, and headed into the room. He found several cans of vegetables, and a three box of instant rice, in the cabinets. He also found several bottles of whiskey in the fridge. After collecting everything of value, they continued on to the marker. They hadn’t walked very far, before a rain storm picked up and started drenching them to the bone. With the mane 7 getting the worst of it, their clothes quickly growing heavy, as they soaked up the rain. “Hey can we stop for a little bit to dry off, if you don’t mind, that is,” Fluttershy asked. “Sure, I guess those clothes weren’t the best choice,” Calamity said, looking around for a nice building to take shelter in. He soon found a large building, that was nice and dry inside. The mane 7 immediately ran in and threw off their soaking wet clothes. When they all entered, Littlepip scanned the area for any hostiles, with her E.F.S. Luckily she came up with nothing, there was nothing inside the building. Or at least not close enough to be picked up by her E.F.S. After confirming the building’s safety, they began to dry themselves off. Inside the building it was pitch dark, and it was hard to see anything. After taking a brief looking around, they discovered a small fountain. Littlepip turned on her Pipbuck’s flashlight and began looking around the building. The building was huge and had several large balconies, that surrounded the central area. Each one was connected by walkways, but a few of them had collapsed. Calamity’s eyes grew wide, as he saw that lining the sides of the building were stores. “Thank you, Celestia,” he whispered to himself. “I know what you are thinking and you can forget about it. I doubt there’s anything left in here anyway,” Velvet warned. “Come on, just a quickly scavenge,” Calamity begged. “What do you expect to find in here, mostly everything have to be gone by now,” Applejack asked. “You’ll be surprised, by what you can find in abandoned buildings,” Calamity explained. Velvet sighed, “We’re stuck in here, until the storm passes. Might as well do something to pass the time.” “When is this storm going to end anyway,” Rainbow asked, Calamity. “Don’t know, storms are unpredictable,” Calamity said, without thinking. As feared, the mane 7 all asked, “Why, don’t the weather Pegasi, tell the ponies the weather schedule.” “Umm, you see the weather Pegasi, they have a hard time spreading information now. I never stay in the same place very long, so I never get the news,” Calamity, stammered. “Okay, I’ll just go up and ask them,” Rainbow said, heading out the door. “NO,” Calamity said, running up and blocking the doorway. The mane 7 stared at him like he was crazy, Calamity quickly added. “I mean, if they see you, they might rightfully assume you are the leader of the ministry of Awesome. It has been over 200 years, it would look pretty weird to see a long dead pony in front of them.” “So why don’t you go ask them,” Rainbow asked. “Umm, we have machines to do the weather for us now, it was “your” idea. So less Pegasi are needed for weather control, so more can help with the war. Also don’t remember seeing cloud cities in this area, so I may have to search for a while to find one. Frankly I think it just a waste of time,” Calamity quickly explained. Rainbow looked at him with suspicion, but was satisfied, with the explanation. She slowly walked away from the entrance and back towards her friends. Much to the relieve of Calamity, as he wiped sweat from his brow, he didn’t know he had. They all walked into the old mall, and looked around at the stores. Most of them didn’t look all that interesting, being filled with rubble or garbage. Looking at the stores, Calamity suspected, that this part of the mall had to be picked clean by now. Up ahead, there was a stairway, that lead down into pitch blackness. They all stared into the darkness, unable to see more, then few feet down. This quickly caught Calamity’s interest, as he began to head down. “What are you doing,” Velvet shouted, in protest. “Going down to see, what goodies we can find,” Calamity said, pointing down into the darkness. “I don’t want to go down there,” Fluttershy whispered, barely being audible. “You don’t have too, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, in a gentle comforting tone. “Yeah, if you want to go down there, we won’t. We will stay up here, with you” Rainbow said, trying to comfort her. “We will all stay up here, right girls,” Twilight asked. They all gave a quick nod in agreement. “Plus I don’t want to know, what’s down there waiting for us. You can go down, if you want.” “Are you sure,” he asked. The mane 7 nodded, “Oh yeah, you go ahead.” “Okay, I’m only going to be gone for few minutes,” Calamity said, starting his journey down. Littlepip groaned and followed him down to help light his way. She turned up the brightness on her Pipbuck’s flashlight. Revealing a sub level of the mall, that was also filled with shops. Velvet threw her head back in annoyance, and quickly went after them. “I better make sure they don’t get themselves killed,” Velvet whined. “Are sure your going to be okay up here.” she said, turning to the mane 7. “We can handle our selves, if we run into anything dangerous we make them regret messing with us,” Rainbow said, punching at the air. Velvet was a little nervous about leaving them alone and unarmed. Then again, they looked very capable of being able to handle themselves. She gave a long sigh and quickly head down, to catch up with her friends. Once she was gone, the mane 7 looked down the stairway to make sure. Once the coast was cleared, they began talking about Littlepip’s group. “I don’t trust them, I feel they are hiding something from us,” Rainbow whispered. “I agree, they seem to be keeping, as much as they can from us,” Applejack sighed. “Plus, why do they want us to be disguise. According to them it has been over 200 years, I don’t think many ponies out here would even know who the ministry mares are,” Rarity complained. “Also they are kill ponies, and then rob their homes,” Fluttershy said, meekly. “Worst of all, they eat 200 year old food, I still can’t get the taste of breakfast off my tongue,” Pinkie said, while repeatedly wiping her tongue, with a fore hoof. “Trixie, thinks these ponies may be pose a danger to us,” Trixie whispered. “I know these ponies are do things, that we do not support, but what choice do we have. They are the only ones who are offering to help us. We need them, they know how to survive here, we don’t. Besides they seem friendly enough, and we have to trust their judgement,” Twilight sighed. “Okay, but can we all agree to keep an eye on them,” Rainbow asked. “Agreed,” they all answered. Sighing, Rarity walked over to their wet pile of clothes, “Might, as well dry these out, while were waiting,” she said, begin to wring out the clothes, with her magic. After drying the clothes out, she began to flatten out the winkles, the best she could. After a bit of work, she made them look a little more presettable. Despite this, it was still not enough for her and she disliked how she couldn’t do more. Rarity began to folded it neatly up, when they held a low gargling sound. Looking around, they saw about three ponies wandering around the entrance. Their coats were gone, their flesh was covered in red splotches. The rain seem to be washing away their skin. As trails of blood ran down their bodies, mixing themselves, with the rain. They were wandering in circles, and were make gargling sounds. “Hello, there are you okay,” Applejack asked. The three ponies quickly turned their heads towards the mane 7, “Were not hostile, we just want help, you look like you need medical attention,” Twilight shouted. The ponies quickly charged towards them, at high speed. Knocking, Trixie, Rarity, and Fluttershy onto their backs. Now they could be the inside of their mouths, which were filled with rotten yellow teeth. The ponies tried to bite them, flaying around trying to get to any piece of flesh. The rest of the mane 7 tried to pull them off. While, Trixie, Rarity, and Fluttershy held them off with their fore hoofs. After pulling them off, didn’t work, Applejack turn around and bucked one of the ponies across the face, with her hind legs. Sending them flying around the room, landing with a loud thud. Rainbow sent a flying kick into the second one’s side, causing them to be knocked back, a few feet. Twilight fired a magical blast, at the final one, knocking them off. The first pony didn’t move, while the other two quickly got back up. They charged again, Rainbow gave one of them a powerful uppercut to the face. While Twilight fired a more powerful magical blast, to the second one. This time, they didn’t get back up, as they lay there motionless. Once they were sure, the threat was over, they help their friends back up. Just then, Littlepip and her friends returned, when they saw Calamity, he had a disappointing look on his face. “What’s wrong,” Rainbow asked. “We couldn’t find a lot of good supplies down there,” Calamity sighed, in disappointment. “At least we got some good trading material. We could get at least 200 caps for all of it,” Velvet said. “I know, but I was hoping for something,” Calamity said, stopping mid sentence, when he saw the ponies. “Whoa, what happened here.” “Oh, just some crazy ponies attacked us, no big deal,” Rainbow said, proudly. “Those aren’t crazy ponies, those are ghouls, they look feral,” Calamity told the mane 7. Calamity froze in his tracks, when he saw on one the ghouls get up. He quickly gave it a blast from his battle saddle, blowing their head apart and painting the floor with blood. Suddenly a realization dawn on him, he bolted over to the entrance. Went outside into the rain, and took to the skies. He soon returned, drenched in rain, and had a relieved look on his face. “Thank Celestria, there was no other feral ghouls nearby,” Calamity sighed, in relieve. The other two ghouls, regained conciseness and began to get up, Littlepip quickly place two rounds into their heads. Taking them clean off, much to the surprise and horror of the mane 7. Pus and blood now gathered on the floor, creating an unpleasant smell. “Why did you do that,” the mane 7 protested. “There feral ghouls, it had to be done,” Littlepip sighed. “What is a feral ghoul,” Applejack asked, feeling a little angry. “I tell you, and inform you about the other monsters, we have now,” Calamity sighed.
Alicorn Friends?The rain was still pouring down, as Calamity finished his lesson on the creatures that now live in the Equestrian wasteland. Littlepip was using her magic to rip out any exposed wooden planks from the stores. She was also pulling out any exposed planks, from the rubble piles, she found. Once she felt, she had a good amount, she returned to the group. Where they were being used to fuel a small fire. A large pot filled with instant rice, and vegetables hung above the it. Sitting at the edges of the fire were several cans of vegetables. Calamity was pouring them into the pot and mixing them in with the rice. “Wow, this world is a lot more dangerous, then ours,” Applejack said, staring at the pot of rice. “Calamity, I notice you didn’t tell them, about another certain creature we now have,” Velvet said, noticing he didn’t mention the alicorns. “What creature would, that be,” Rainbow asked. “Nothing important,” Calamity said. “Calamity you either tell them or I will. They need to know the dangers out there,” Velvet said, in a stern voice. “Fine, the last monster is alicorns,” Calamity admitted. “WHAT,” the mane 7 shouted. “Let me explain, what we know so far, is that these alicorns are artificial. Connected telepathy to one another, kill one the rest will know about it. They come from a faculty called Matipony, created by someone who calls themselves, The Goddess. She wants us to meet her, we were planning to after a few day. What makes these things so dangerous is they are powerful and can put up shields to protect themselves, much like the spell you cast earlier. ” Calamity explained, pointing to Twilight. “That’s the reason why you must hided your wings. Ponies may just assume you’re one of them, and try and kill you,” Velvet said. “So why didn’t you try,” Twilight asked, looking at her wings. “You looked like the ministry mare of magic, and we didn’t notice your wings, until you started flying. Also you weren’t being hostile, so killing would have been murder,” Littlepip explained. After a very unpleasant and near vomit inducing rice and vegetable lunch. The rain stopped, the mane 7 put back on their disguise, and they continued on their way. Along the way the mane 7 felt sick, that meal did not agree with them. (The stomachs felt like they were doing summersaults,) suddenly they heard music floating through the silent city. Littlepip knew what that meant, as a lone sprite-bot floated up to them. The music cut out and the bot, just floated there. Making the mane 7 nervous, that this floating device seem to be staring at them. It was dead quietly for several minutes, as the bot floated there. Littlepip knew why watcher was silence and wanted to give him a little help. “Hi, Spike,” Littlepip said, breaking the silence. “Spike,” the mane 7 asked. After a moment of silences, he finally spoke up, “Hi guys, I can’t believe it, your standing here,” “Spike survived the great war, and has been watching over Equestria ever since,” Littlepip explained. “I know I must be dreaming because this just can’t be possible,” Spike said. “That statement is only half true, you are not dreaming, but these aren’t the ponies you knew. There from another universe, one were the war, hasn’t happened or will never happened. I am hoping on the latter,” Littlepip explained. “That explains it, Twilight also did talk about the changes of multiple worlds,” Spike sighed. “It great to see you guys again, even if you aren’t the same ones I knew.” “How did you managed to live this long,” Applejack asked. “Dragons happen to have a very long life span. In this universe anyway, I’m not sure about yours though. So how did you get here, one of Twilight spells went wrong again,” he asked. “No, Trixie accidentally cast one of StarSwirl’s spells. We’re out here running an errand for someone, so we can find out the location of the book, the spell is in. So we can cast it and get back to our own world,” Applejack explained. Spike let out a slight chuckle, “No matter what the universe, Twilight is always a fan Star Swirl.” After a brief pause, he continued, “I hope, maybe you guys can help me out, with a project.” Littlepip knew immediately, what Spike was asking, “I don’t think, that would work. Don’t you need this world’s bearers, not another worlds.” Spike took a moment to consider this, “Your right, I doubt it would worked anyway. So tell me are you six, still very good friends.” he asked. “Yes, why did something happened to this world’s version of us,” Fluttershy asked. Spike was silent, before saying, “The war, and many other factors began to drive you guys apart. In fact, I had my fears, that the war might end your friendship.” After long pause, he sighed, “I am glad, I got to see all of you again, but I have a project I have been working on for 200 years, that I has to finished.” Sprite-bot beeped and began to float away, playing it’s music in an endless loop. Littlepip felt some pride, in helping a 200 plus year dragon, see his friends again. After a bit of a walk, they soon reached the marker, Banana Tart set. Now they could see it was a massive supermarket, and it was in decent condition. Although the glass doors were covered in grime, it was still clean enough for them to see inside. Littlepip floated out Little Mac, and peered through its scope. What she saw confused her and excited her, at the same time. “Littlepip what is it,” Calamity asked, seeing the look on her face. Littlepip floated Little Mac over to him, and he took a look through the scope. He couldn’t believe his eyes, a huge smile quickly spread across his face. The inside of the store seem untouched, and it was still filled with supplies. It remained untouched, since the day the bombs dropped. The smile quickly faded, as he wondered, why hasn’t anyone looted the store yet. He soon got his answer, as a large Bloodwing flew overhead. Littlepip’s group quickly pushed the mane 7 into one of the buildings, to hide. The Bloodwing circled a bit, before hanging itself, on the intertwine metal beams. Calamity and Littlepip took a look around and saw in horror that, there were multiple Bloodwings sleeping all around them. There had to be at least 20 of them, roosting above them. “No wonder, no one looted the store, they wouldn’t survive to tell the tale,” Calamity whispered. “The wasteland, just can’t cut ponies breaks can it,” Littlepip complained. “Why could ponies get the supplies, when they weren’t here,” Rainbow asked. “The radiation levels would have kill them. Two Balefire bomb had to have hit nearby to be able to do that,” Littlepip said, pointing to the twisted metal above them. “Once the radiation subsided, these thing would have moved right in.” “All in favor of leaving, say aye,” Calamity asked. “You’re abandoning all those supplies, that doesn’t sound at all like you,” Velvet joked, a little. “I may be reckless, but I am not stupid. I rather not mess with a huge pack of Bloodwings. No amount of supplies is worth this,” Calamity said, with great fear in his voice. As, they all began to leave, the wasteland decided to throw another obstacle, their way. A loud explosion of thunder echoed through the air, as it began to rain again. The Bloodwings quickly woke up, and stretched out their huge leathery wings. Without missing a beat, Littlepip, her friends, and the mane 7 ran back into the building. The Bloodwings quickly began to gathered around it and soon had it surrounded. The mane 7, Littlepip, and her friends backed away from the door. As a Bloodwing, stuck their huge head in, and tried to get them. Their horrible breath, filling up the room, and their teeth putting fear into the mane 7. The walls soon began to crack, as other Bloodwings pounded on the building’s walls. Each attack made the mane 7, backed up further, until they literately hit a wall. Each impact shook the whole building, causing plaster to fall from the celling. The doorframe began to bend and break, as the Bloodwing, tried harder to get in. Littlepip, and her friends, loaded their weapons, and got ready to defend themselves. The building continued to shake, and the walls started to fall apart. Allowing them to have a few glimpse of the Bloodwings waiting outside. With one final impact, the walls in front of them collapsed, reveling at least 20 hungry Bloodwings. Littlepip and her friends raised their weapons to begin firing. When the mane 6 got a good look at the Bloodwings, they noticed they slightly resembled the vampire fruit bats. “WAIT,” Fluttershy shouted, flying up to the Bloodwings. “What are you doing,” Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet shouted. “Can’t you see these creatures are not bad. They are just doing what they have to to get food,” Fluttershy explained. She then turned her attention to the Bloodwings, “Now I know you’re hungry, but that is no excuse for destroying a building.” “What are you doing you can’t reason with these monsters,” Calamity shouted in protest. Several Bloodwings snapped at her, but all missed, “Hey, I know you are hungry and we are in your home, but that does not mean you can eat who ever you want." All the Bloodwings shrieked at her, but she stayed firm, “You’re picking on things smaller, then you. What would your parents say,” Fluttershy lectured, giving them the Stare. She continued to lecture them, until they were terrified of her. “I know finding food is hard, but attacking small ponies, how does that help you fill up your bellies. Now, don’t you know of bigger creatures you could get blood from. If so, please go find it and leave us alone,” Fluttershy commanded. All the Bloodwings quickly flew off to find other sources of blood. Leaving Littlepip, Calamity, and Velvet in complete shock and amazement. They tried to speak, but were unable to form real words. While Fluttershy calmly walked back to her friends. Who were congratulated her, even Trixie was singing her praises. Which made Fluttershy feel good and embarrassed, at the same time. Once they believed, the Bloodwings were all gone, the mane 7 began to headed out of the building. Then, they notice their companions, weren’t following. “Hey, are you coming,” Rainbow asked. “She just scared off, one of the most terrifying monsters of the wasteland,” Calamity managed to say. “Yeah, and,” Rainbow asked, nonchalantly. “And, how is this not amazing to you,” Littlepip shouted, in both confusion and anger. “Fluttershy, done this kind of stuff before,” Twilight said, bluntly. “Yeah, she stared down a dragon, vampire fruit bats, a Cockatrice,” Rainbow counted off, before getting interrupted. “Whoa, wait a minute now, your friend Fluttershy stared down a Cockatrice and won,” Calamity asked, in amazement. “Yeah, she is great with all animals. She dealt with a Manticore, an Orthros, and calmed Cerberus down,” Rainbow counted off again. “Remind me never to make your Fluttershy mad, and if I do. Please have the decency to kill me,” Calamity joked. “So, are we going to leave or loot the store,” Velvet asked, Calamity. “Loot of course, we came all this way, and the Bloodwings are gone. So let’s get all we can carry,” Calamity said, walking up to the store’s entrance. Velvet rolled her eyes, and followed Calamity, as he worked to pray open the doors. The doors screech open, and inside was a ton of shelves. Filled with canned goods, Calamity began to cry at the magnificent sight. There was more food here, then anyone could ever eat in one lifetime. Calamity rushed over and began packing his bags to the brim, with canned goods. The rest of them quickly, joined him in collecting the food. Even the mane 7 were helping, although they were a bit reluctant, to do so. After they couldn’t fit anymore more into their bags. They began to head back to the Sky Bandit, but they found the bags were really heavy. The rain just made carrying all the food, even more unbearable, for the mane 7. Eventually they made it back to the apartment building, where the Shy Bandit was parked. Despite the weight of his bags, Calamity managed to fly back up onto the roof. After loading his bags into the back, he hitched himself up and flew down to his friends. “I don’t understand, why you couldn’t leave the Sky Bandit on the ground. It would have been much easier for you,” Velvet said, boarding the Sky Bandit. “What and let it be taken or destroyed by raiders, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk back to Tenpony Tower. Carrying heavy bags of food, we would be a target for every raider for miles,” Calamity explained. “Fair enough,” Velvet admitted. The flight back was not pleasant, they were all soaking wet, from the rain. Which made the wind chill, feel a lot colder, than it really was. When they landed on the roof of Tenpony Tower, the rain began to ease up a little. The roof was covered in puddles of all different sizes. After handing over all their ammo and the mane 7 pat down. They all headed downstairs, which was a very nerve-racking experience. The weight of their bags, were constantly threatening to pulled them over. Their backs feel like they were going to break, as they pushed open the door to Banana Tart’s restaurant. He quickly ran up, as they dropped their bags on the floor, with a low thud. He quickly opened the bags, and saw the huge amount of food inside. His workers wasted no time in putting the food into the pantries. Banana, then walked over to the counter and took out two pieces of paper, from a drawer. “So, are their any dangers near the store,” he asked, having a pencil, at the ready. “I got some bad news, the store is in the middle of Bloodwing territory,” Calamity sighed. “Not a problem, we can deal with them,” Banana said, jotting down Bloodwings on one of the papers. “Is there anything else, we need to worry about.” “You might run into some raiders, and some feral ghouls. Other then that, we saw nothing else, that could be a danger,” Calamity informed, Banana Tart. “Okay, that’s not too bad, we can deal with them easily,” Banana said, writing down Raiders and Feral Ghouls on the same paper. “Now, as promised, here is Golden Horseshoe’s discount,” he said, pushing the other piece of paper, which turned out to be a certificate, over to them. “Thank you kindly,” Calamity said, as they began to leave. When they got to Golden Horseshoe’s shop, he was excited to see them. Littlepip placed the certificate on the counter, and pushed it over to him. He gave it a quick read through, and placed it under the counter. “I am a stallion of my word, the customer was a Pegasus. He didn’t give me his name, he was about mid-sizes about the same height as you,” he said, pointing to Calamity. “His coat was light green, and his mane seem to been burned off. He said, he wanted the book for his mare-friend, and I think I heard him say he was heading for Fetlock. That’s about all I know, hopes it helps.” “Thank you, it helps a lot,” Twilight exclaimed. “Okay, let’s get moving, he probably there by now, ” Calamity said. “I hope we are not being an inconvenience,” Fluttershy asked. “No, of course not, we are not doing anything really important, and we like helping others,” Velvet explained. After a quickly stop at the shops to buy some supplies. Also to sell off, what they found in the old mall, and the raiders’ building. After picking up Xenith, they boarded the Sky Bandit, and headed off. On the way to Fetlock, the rain final stopped for good. When that happened, the mane 7, expected the clouds to start moving away and let the sun shine through. After watching the sky for several minutes, they saw the clouds didn’t budge one bit. They looked at each other in confusion, while Littlepip and her friends felt nervous. They were half way to Fetlock, when they heard gunfire from below. Looking down, they saw the Pegasus, Golden had described, fighting off some raiders. Calamity immediately pulled the Sky Bandit closer to the ground and began to help. Blasting his battle saddles at any raider, who pokes their head out from behind cover. Littlepip fired her Zebra rifle, out the windows to help pick off some the raiders. Rainbow wanted to get into the fight, but with no weapon, and with the air filled with bullets. She decided this was one fight, she would stay out of. It wasn’t long before the last of the raiders was dealt with. When Calamity landed the Sky Bandit, the burned mane Pegasus walked up. “You all are life savers, I though I was done for,” he said, in relief. When he walked up, they could see blood was gushing from his right wing, “Hey, your wing there looks pretty bad, do you need any medical attention,” Calamity asked. “No, it’s fine,” he respond. “No it’s not, you are losing lot of blood, and the wound could get infected,” Velvet shouted in protest. “It’s fine, and I don’t want to you to spend your valuable medic supplies,” he explained, not wanting to impose. “No, that wouldn’t do, that wing needs to be looked at,” Velvet said, grabbing her medical boxes. “This can’t be real, you ponies are something else,” he said, happily. “Let’s do this inside, I don’t want to be out here anymore, than is really necessary. My names Cloud Seeder, by the way,” he said, looking back at them. Cloud Seeder lead them to an old shack, that was a few yards behind him. Littlepip checked her map, and saw this shack was maybe five to ten miles north of Steelhooves’ shack. He opened the door, and laid down on an old matt, in the middle of the room. Next to it was an old blanket and pillow. It was clear, he was using the mat for his bed. Velvet went quickly to work mending his wing. The shack was a very decent size, there was a second floor, and two separated rooms. There was a locker in the far end of the shack, and a large shelf to the right of it. A large table and a set of chairs, sat in one of the other rooms. Sitting nearby was a small cooking stove, a small cabinet, and a fridge. The final room seem to be a bathroom, with an old rusty bathtub and a toilet. Up stairs was a single bedroom, and a small workroom. As Velvet worked, there came a loud and repetitive coughing, from upstairs. “Who was that,” Rarity asked. “My mare friend, Helen, she has been sick the last few days. I been doing all I can to help her, and she seems to be on the road to recovery,” Cloud Seeder sighed. “So what brings you out here.” “Actual, were out here looking for you,” Twilight said. “Me, why,” Cloud asked. “You bought a book from Tenpony Tower earlier today, and that book belongs to us,” Twilight explained. “So if you don’t mind can we have it back please.” Cloud sighed, “I am sorry, but I sold it to a caravan about two hours ago. I bought that book in hopes to cheer up Helen. She didn’t really liked it, so I sold it, to buy some more medicine for her.” The mane 7 moaned, “Okay do you know, where they were headed.” “They said they were going to Shattered Hoof,” Cloud explained, then he looked upstairs. “I don’t want to impose, but if you wouldn’t mind. Could you help me out with Helen’s illness. Like I said, I doing the best I can, but I would like a more professional opinion." “What do you think, Shattered hoof is pretty far trot from here. Do you want to go after the book, or stay and help them,” Calamity asked, the mane 7. “Well I guess we can spare a little bit of time. If they are walking they shouldn’t reached the town anytime soon, right,” Twilight asked. “Yeah, that trip takes a few days, at least. If it’s a large caravan, that trip might take them a week,” Calamity explained. “Okay than, were staying to help them,” Applejack said. Velvet shot Cloud up with some painkillers, before carefully picking out all the foreign bodies from his damaged wing. The wing was badly damaged and the wound was filled with pus. There was a ton of metal fragments, imbedded into the flesh. Picking them out was a slow and delicate process, with Cloud passing out from time to time. His blood also refused to clotted for very long. Making Velvet’s job harder and a lot more frustrating. She constantly had to work hard to, stop the bleeding. Only to have the wound bleed again a few minutes later. While she was doing that, Rainbow noticed something weird on Cloud’s flanks. A large brand in the shape of her own cutie mark, over where his should be. She stared at it in fascination, throwing theories around in her head for possible explanations for it. Her friends soon notice her staring at his flank and walked over. When they saw it, they were totally confused and horrified. They also began to think off possible explanations for the mark. “Hey, why are you looking at his flanks,” Calamity asked. “There’s this weird mark over his cutie mark, we are trying to figure out, what caused it,” Pinkie exclaimed. Calamity’s blood ran cold, as the realization of who Cloud might be hit him. Calamity walked over, hoping that the mark, they were talking about was an injury. He prayed, that Cloud was born down here in the wasteland and was not from above the cloud cover. When he saw it, his fears were confirmed, as he stared down at the mark of a Dashite. “What is this,” Rainbow asked. Cloud lifted his head and explained, “It’s a Dashite mark, given to Pegasus ponies who decide to live below the cloud cover,” he then, passed out. The mane 7 turned to Calamity, and Rainbow asked, “Dashite huh, mind explaining.” Calamity sighed and began tell them what a Dashite is. Including telling them about who he was before, he came down here. When Calamity finished, Rainbow was ready to rip someone’s head off, with her bare hooves. She resisted the urge to punch Calamity in the face, for being a part of the Enclave. Fortunately her friends managed to calm her down, but she was still steaming. Then Calamity showed them his mark, which help redirected Rainbow’s hate away from him. Cloud suddenly regained conscience, as Velvet began to bandage his wing up. “Oh, a fellow Dashite, it nice to see you,” Cloud said, when he saw the mark.” “Nice to see you too, so why did the Enclave call you a traitor,” Calamity asked. “Well, as my name suggest, I am a cloud seeder. One day about three years ago, I was doing my job like I always do. When I noticed a break in the clouds. Curiosity got the better of me and I came down. I witness with my own eyes, how much the ponies down here struggle. When I confronted the council about it. They said I was contaminated and they banished me,” Cloud explained. “I am sorry to hear that,” Calamity said. “Don’t be, good riddance to them, and it wasn’t all bad. I met my mare friend a few months later, and we been together, ever since,” Cloud said. “Oh, that reminds me can you help her,” Cloud asked Velvet. “Sure,” Velvet said, following Cloud up the stairs. The bedroom was bigger, than expected and was starkly furnished. A dresser stood next to the doorway, and a rack of guns lay on the far left side of the room. An old rug lay on the floor, tattered by age. At the far side of the room, Velvelt could see a mare lay on an old mattress. She had a brown coat and a yellow mane, similar to Applejacks. She was half asleep, and was coughing relentlessly. When Velvet approached, she could see Helen’s bed was actually two beds pushed together. Empty medicine bottles lay scattered all over the room. Velvet quickly took out her medical supplies and began to examine her. After about an hour, Velvet came back downstairs, with Cloud, who had a huge smile on his face. “So, what happened,” Calamity asked. “She is going to be fine, I have to commend Cloud Seeder for his excellent job,” Velvet exclaimed. “Thank you, I tried,” Cloud said, turning red from embarrassment. “Thanks again for the help with those raiders,” Cloud said, as they began to leave. Calamity was flying low to the ground, as the mane 7, and his friends scanned the ground for any sign of the caravan. While scanning the ground Pinkie’s tail began to twitched. The rest of the mane 6, quickly noticed this and prepared themselves for anything. Rainbow and Fluttershy scanned the skies, while the rest of them grabbed hold of the Sky Bandit. Littlepip, her friends, and Trixie was confused by this. Until Calamity felt a horrible pain surge through his right wing, he looks over to find blood dripping from it. Sharp stabs of pain race through him, as he began to fall out of the sky, dragging the Bandit along with him. Rainbow quickly went into action and try to help him land safely. To her surprise the Bandit was a lot lighter, then she expected. The landing wasn’t the smoothest, but it was a safe landing. Once on the ground, bullets began to impacted the Sky Bandit. Calamity quickly unhitched himself and ducked inside. Littlepip and Calamity, then began to shoot out the windows, at their attackers. A large band of raiders were approaching them, Littlepip and Calamity fought back the best they could. Xenith provided potions, for them to dip their rounds in to make them deadlier. With the constant machine gun fire, Xenith did not dare step out of the protection of the Sky Bandit. They soon spotted a raider with a mini gun, who began to unload on Bandit. Littlepip and Calamity had no choice, but to duck into the Bandit. Twilight threw up her shield to help protect them, but it could only so much. The sounds of machine gun fire continued, then it suddenly halted. When it didn’t continue, they were confused, and carefully poked their heads up. Looking through the windows to see, what happened. The raiders were frozen in fear, at what stood in front of them. Five alicorns stared at them, their shields already up, and murder in their eyes. The raiders soon shook off their fears and began firing on them. Bullets bounced off the shields and the alicorns made short work of the raiders. While three alicorns maintain the shield, the other two used their telekinesis. To either make the raiders turn their weapons on themselves. Or used their telekinesis to literary rip them apart. They pulled some of the raiders’ limbs off, with them screaming all the while. Soon the ground beneath them ran red with blood. The dismembered limbs of the raiders and their weapons laid all over the ground. The alicorns were about to leave, when they felt a familiar presence, nearby. The alicorns turned and began following it, which lead them to the Sky Bandit. They scrapped their horns along the sides of the Bandit and asked, “Can our seven friends come out now.” “Why,” Velvet asked, quietly. “We were not speaking to you, we were talking to the seven accompanying you,” they bellowed. “Now can they please come out,” they said in a very calm and gentle tone. The mane 7 were terrified, but didn’t want to angry them. They sighed, “Okay we are coming out.” Once out of the Sky Bandit, the mane 7 sense, there was something was familiar about these alicorns. They didn’t appear to be hostile towards them and seem very friendly. If the mane 7 didn’t see, what they did to the raiders. They would assume the alicorns were totally harmless. The mane 7 slowly walked towards them, with Twilight leading the way. She was ready with her own spells, if they turn hostile. Fluttershy was so scared, if it wasn’t for her friends, and their support. She would have either fainted or flew away. The mane 7 stood nervously in front of the alicorns, who then turned their attention towards Littlepip and her friends. “Okay, the rest of you come out now, and leave your puny weapons behind,” they commanded, as one of them shook the Bandit. Not having much choice, Littlepip and her friends compiled, “What is this about,” Calamity asked. “Silence, the Goddess wants you to come meet her now!” one of the alicorns commanded. “C-C-Can we get a book, t-t-that belongs to us first,” Trixie stuttered. “Of course, friends, then we can go, see the goddess,” one of the alicorns said, sweetly. “Wait, why are you treating us so nicely, and them so badly,” Twilight asked. “Why, because you are our friends, our sisters,” the alicorns explained, to the mane 7. “We don’t even know you, and we aren’t related,” Rainbow said, feeling a lot more confident. The alicorns suddenly began to laugh, “Ha, Ha, Ha, oh, that’s a good one, Rainbow.” “How you know my name,” Rainbow asked. “Why wouldn’t we, your our friend aren’t you,” they said. Twilight sighed and whispered to her friends, “Let’s just go with it.” “So where is the your book,” one of the alicorns asked. “It’s with a,” Littlepip tried to say, before getting cut off. “We were not speaking to you,” the alicorn boomed. “Um, can you please be a nicer, to them,” Fluttershy said, meekly. “Okay, if that is your wish,” they respond. “Okay, Cloud Cover said it’s with a caravan, that is heading towards a town called Shattered Hoof. Have you seen any caravans recently,” Twilight asked. “We did see one, shall we go and attack it,” the alicorns asked. “No,” the mane 7 blurted out. “Just show us where it is,” they asked. They all sailed through the sky, Rainbow was pulling the Sky Bandit, while Calamity was in the back, getting his wing fixed by Velvet. It took a little practice, but she eventually managed to get the Bandit flying smoothly. The mane 7 now felt a lot more comfortable around the alicorns, that surrounded the Sky Bandit. While Littlepip’s friends still felt uneasy, but were relieved they weren’t being attacked. Soon they spotted the caravan, and Rainbow pulled the Bandit in for a landing. It was a rough and violent landing, but it was a landing. They all stepped up out of the Sky Bandit, and carefully headed towards the caravan. “Can you five alicorns stay here,” Velvet requested. “Don’t be telling us, what to do,” the alicorns shouted in anger. “Can you please stay here, Trixie and her friends don’t want any trouble,” Trixie asked. “Of course, we will wait here for your return,” the alicorns said. “Greetings my fellow travelers, what can I do for you today. I have wide selection of fine goods for sale, ammo, food, and armor. What every it is you will find it here,” the trader said, as he saw the 10 ponies and one zebra walked up. The workers of the caravan took out several foldable table out and placed several items on them. These items were mostly guns, boxes of ammo, medicine, armor, and a few old books. The mane 7 could see their book was among the items and their got really excited. The traders seem to be very shifty and suspicious looking. Just by how they looked, Littlepip and her friends knew, what kind of business ponies, they were. “Let us handle this,” they whispered, to the mane 7. “I see a lot of interesting stuff,” Calamity said, faking interest. “This book looks great, how much is it,” Velvet said, picking up an old children’s anatomy book, that lay next to Star Swirl’s. “If that book is important to you, I say,” the trader said, pausing to think of a number. “About, 210 caps, it’s in great shape and filled with useful information. This is a very good bargain.” Velvet place the book back down and said, “That sounds good, but I will have to decline.” Calamity, looked around at the table for a bit. Before picked up Star Swirl’s book and saying, “This book looks old, but might make a nice door stop. Then might be a waste of caps,” he said, acting like he didn’t really want it. “That book, I will sell it to you for 55 caps,” the trader said. Velvet jumped in and said, “That’s a little pricey for a piece of trash, isn’t it.” “That’s business for you,” the trader shrugged. “Business, more like price gouging,” Calamity mumbled, as Velvet began bartering. The five alicorns surrounded the Sky Bandit, as they flew towards Maripony. Twilight and Trixie was sitting in the back, trying to reconstructed the spell. Calamity was once again pulling the Sky Bandit, with Rainbow and Fluttershy flying next to him. The looming shape of the Maripony facility quickly appeared on the horizon. When they landed, they saw that alicorns were everywhere. Some were flying above them, circling the facility, while others were guarding the main entrance. “GREETINGS MY FRIENDS,” a power telepathic voice said. “WELCOME TO MY HOME,” it said again, nearly causing the mane 7 to black out. “Who ever is doing that, could you tone it down,” Trixie asked, covering her ears, in hopes of blocking out the voice. “Of course, the Goddess did not mean to cause any of you pain,” the voice said, in a much more quiet and relax tone. “Now the Goddess, needs to have a meeting with you comrades. Could you seven wait out here?” The mane 7 walked back to the Sky Bandit, and waited next to it. They took this opportunity to get out of their disguises, for a bit, and stretch out. Especially, Twilight who had her wings restrained for the pass few hours. The alicorns laying nearby, noticed her wings, but didn’t seem to show any reaction to them. Unknown to them, an Enclave scouting party was flying over head. Taking some aerial photographs of the wasteland, when they approached, they spotted the mane 7 down below and they especially noticed Rainbow Dash. After taking a few quickly photographs of her, they quickly reported back to base.
